#anyways i'm kind of 75% done with part 2

[literallyjusttoa]

My top 7 Apollo exes from Ancient Greece

DISCLAIMER: Though I have done a lot of research of mythology for this, it is based off of the riordanverse version of Apollo. I won't be acknowledging any awful implications in versions of these myths, not because I don't think they're important, but because it simply isn't a part of riordanverse Apollo's characterization in the books. Also I'm not going to mention Copollo. I love Copollo like the rest of you, but sadly that is a Rick Riordan exclusive, and also technically Commodus is an ex from Ancient Rome, not Ancient Greece :3

Ok with that out of the way lets talk obscure and non-obscure Apollo relationships

7. Apollo & Thyia

This one clocks in at number 7 because I love the idea behind it, but it is the most bare bones relationship myth wise. All we really know is Thyia is a priestess of Dionysus and she and Apollo maybe had a kid once. But like, the idea of Apollo dating his brother's priest? Hilarious, A+ stuff. Also, Thyia isn't just one of Dionysus' priests, she is THE priest of Dionysus. She runs his temple in central greece, is thought to have offered the first sacrifice to him, and might have been the first Maenad? Either way this relationship must have been insane. Also she's a nymph so she's definitely still kicking out there, would love for these two to meet again.

6. Apollo & Hyacinthus

Ok ok I know what y'all are thinking. Number 6?? This is like Apollo's number 1 most tragic relationship of all time!!! And yes as an angst lover I do enjoy the pain this relationship brings our boy, but I just feel like there's not many places to go with this relationship besides what we already have. Like Apollo and Hyacinthus were kind of the perfect couple. Which, like, great for them, but it doesn't give me much space to add anything? I guess, great ship, no notes.

5. Apollo & Hypermnestra (& Oikles)

Ok, half the reason this is here is because her name is Hypermnestra. Slay. But also this is a great place to bring up my favorite little headcanon. In a lot of Apollo's relationships, there will be a child, and myths will have different versions with different fathers. Some say it's Apollo, while other's say it's whoever he dated's husband. In this case, myths disagree on whether Amphiaraus was Apollo's son or the son of Hypermnestra's husband, king Oikles (Oikles??? I love these names). The implication here is infidelity, but I disagree. No, I think every time there's confusion over who parentage it's because Apollo was dating both the woman he's said to be with and her husband, and therefore no one knows who ended up, y'know, fathering the child. Anyways Apollo dated both Hypermnestra and Oikles and you can't convince me otherwise.

4. Apollo & Branchus

I like this relationship because in my mind, I always thought it was Apollo's first. In one version of their myth, it is said that Apollo met Branchus after leaving Delos as a dolphin, which I always thought implied this was soon after he established Delphi, which was really early on. Idk something about a young Apollo accidentally revealing his godliness to this boy he really likes is just so sweet to me. And he makes Branchus into a prophet, which is so cool! These two are cutie-patooties is what I'm saying.

3. Apollo & Kyparissos

C'mon, the man died of grief because his deer died. Throughout ToA we learn that deep down Apollo is a mushy ball of emotions and compassion, and that convinced me that these two spent 75% of their relationship crying over baby animals and pretty people. I love the idea of Apollo dating someone who's honestly just as much of a loser as he is. And while it is sad that Kyparissos is another lover Apollo had to turn into a plant, I have to emphasize again that he died of heartbreak, because his pet deer died.

2. Apollo & Cyrene

Listen, these two are boss bitches and you cannot convince me otherwise. In the same way I like Kyparissos bc I feel like he and Apollo are so similar, I like Cyrene bc I feel like, in a lot of ways, these two are very different. Like, don't get me wrong, Apollo can be strong and wild when he wants to be, but Cyrene wrestles lions. I like to think the time these two spent together really helped each of them grow in their own way, which makes for a really fun and interesting relationship. Also, just like Thyia, Cyrene is sometimes referred to as a nymph, so she could still be out there!

1. Apollo & Admetus

The more I think about these two, the more I love them. Admetus meeting Apollo at his lowest and helping him through it. Apollo falling head over heels as a result and doing everything in his power to repay the man. The two of them still holding such strong affection for each other even decades after the time they had together, to the point that Apollo would mess with fate to extend Admetus' life. Apollo's life is full of turmoil, and this period of it was probably the worst, but despite that, his relationship with Admetus seems so steady. The other gods are said to be embarrassed of Apollo's love of Admetus, and I think it's because Apollo loved him in a way that went directly against the values of the gods. Apollo and Admetus' relationship was defined by service and care, filled with selfless intent and genuine love. While many gods give their lovers gifts and special favors, the idea of actually going into servitude for someone you love is as ungodly as you can get. Apollo spent time with Admetus, and he wasn't possessive of him, helping him to find a wife after their time together was through. I think this relationship is a great example of how Apollo, even in his lowest moments, is a genuine and caring person, and how that often separates him from the rest of his family. Also these two are just cute and they both love cows and they're cows in love.

[hollow-lime-green]

hi!! just wondering if you have any stsg fic recs you’d be willing to share? i’m currently gobbling up 2sorcs like a gremlin and looking for something else to read between updates but i only really trust your opinions and characterizations which 🤌🏼🤌🏼🤌🏼 anyways love ur work and hope you’re doing well!!

Ah! First of all, thank you <3 I do have some fics I really like! I shall rec them and give a little anxiety disclaimer at the end.

Fic Recs - Shorties

it would make a whole - by @diggingupgrave 8.8k, T, First Year, Pre-Relationship, Emotional H/C oh i love this fic so very much. this may have been one of the fics that really got me thinking about their characterization in the first place, tbh.

As You Wish - by @haha-funny-valentine 2.5k, T, Post-Star Plasma Arc, Emotional H/C wonderful characterization here and I am just such a sucker for H/C.

The Heart of the Perfection of Wisdom - by @zombieheroine 16.3k, T, Prison Realm Gojo Character Study I took my skin off to check and I am shocked that this fic is not like, Doing Numbers. this fic is SO fucking creative and unique and I just. love. it. Definitely a big inspiration for FIYM. It's like Harrow the Ninth but for Gojo in the Prison Realm and like, oh my god so well done imo.

Longfic Recs with Caveats

and if you take my hand (series) - by @detta-pica 40k (Ongoing), T, Witch AU, Slow Burn Caveat: this is a WIP, and we're in the early part so very much Unresolved Romantic Tension. But I really like the worldbuilding in this and I'm excited to follow it as it keeps going, so big rec here if you like Plot and are down to follow some more ongoing fics. :)

coanda effect - by @bunniehoneys 250k, M, F1 AU, Slow Burn, Eating Disorders, Drugs, Bad Choices I am probably the last person in the world to read this fic so it feels silly to rec, but I'm doing it anyway because I'm a little obsessed. Caveat 1: also technically a WIP for another week or two

Caveat 2: TAGS check the tags. If you are at all sensitive to discussion of EDs, skip this fic, but I think it's done well and adds a lot to the characterization

Caveat 3: I am not caught up on this fic. it's one that I didn't let myself read for a while (see below) but F1 has a special place in my heart (my dad is into it, I used to live in a Gran Prix city, and I have watched WAY too much F1 Lets Play content).

I've been working really shitty hours for the past 48 hours (almost done) due to research that requires specific spans of real earth time. Because I don't have the focus to write right now, I've had the chance to read a little, and I've read about 75% of this gargantuan fic in windowless rooms on my phone, which has to say something about how much I love it lmao.

Disclaimer: I am a bad source of stsg fics because I actually don't read very many. If I read amazing fic then it tends to trigger the "you will never be as good as the old masters" part of the brain, although instead of real art like in the meme, my fic is putting gojo in a minecraft hoodie and making him do the gangnam style dance. Still.

I also get very unhealthy about metrics/numbers, which I mostly manage by using AO3 skins to block stats, but I still have some moments of weakness. So I try to avoid looking at stuff that I know might make me anxious/insecure about my own works and be unable to finish them (this has unfortunately happened to me before in the FE3H fandom, and that continues to weigh on me).

All that to say, there are some really big, nice, and well-loved fics by wonderful authors currently being updated, and I have read almost none of them. So this is absolutely not me saying I don't like their characterizations, I'm just kind of a hermit.

[overlymetaromantic]

do you have any tips for starting a webcomic?

Ooh, I can try! I'm actually genuinely really passionate about webcomics as a genre so sorry if this gets a bit rambly lol:

There's no wrong way to make a comic! Webcomics in particular I feel are basically always passion projects, and you should make it in a way that makes you happy. The only way to do art "wrong" is to create in a way that actively hurts you (i.e. stretch properly, don't pin your emotional stability on strangers online, etc. lolol).

You yourself should be your #1 priority in who you are making your comic for. Your friend of choice should be #2 priority. Write what makes you laugh, put in all your favorite tropes (or your favorite subversions of those tropes), create the kind of ships you enjoy shipping in other media! Have fun! Your joy will shine through, and it's always better to let readers who resonate with your passion find you rather than attempting vice versa, aka trying to write what you think an imaginary audience might be passionate about.

When it comes to the actual process, I'd personally recommend trying to choose a story that you love but that you also feel okay giving like 75% effort to, especially if it's a first time experience. Your love will carry you through a LOT, but it has to be a project you can say, "This is good enough" to if you ever want to get anything done lmao.

Understand your personal workflow, like how long it takes you to finish a panel or a page, what parts of the process you enjoy, what parts you dislike, and what personally satisfies you as a final product. The more you understand how you work, the better you can tailor your comic in a way that supports your preferred workflow.

Webcomics by their nature take a LONG time to complete. Be prepared for that! This is one of the biggest reasons why people recommend starting small, and I'll echo that here.

I honestly don't feel qualified to speak towards how to get your comic seen because I got STUPID lucky in having others share it for me in a way that resulted in it taking off, but similar to above: Being seen takes a LONG time. Patience pays off, and your audience will find you, however big they are!

If nothing else, you being your own biggest fan means that the mere act of creation can satisfy that desire to be seen. Make the comic YOU want to read, and find joy in being able to read it because YOU made it! Like, you did it!! The fact that you made a thing that wouldn't have existed if you didn't make it is incredible!!!

With all that said, there do seem to be some ways to at least increase your chances of gaming the system of being seen. Regular updates, satisfying end points for your pages, readable panels, and an easily pitch-able concept all make you easier for people to engage with. The first comic I made got updated whenever I finished a chapter, which meant there were months in between updates; by some miracle, it still found readers, but odds are I could have snagged a few more if I'd chosen to do more frequent updates at the cost of less complete-feeling chapters. I chose to prioritize the former because I care more about having chapters that have a good plot flow, but part of why my current comic is structured the way it is, is to have more frequent, regularly scheduled updates. It can also be worth studying the platform you want to post on to see what ways they promote comics, or how readers can find new comics on their site or app!

Good luck!! Have fun!!! Webcomics are frequently solo projects, so I'll reiterate again: make what you want, for you, in whatever way that works best for you. It's all you anyway!

[theacecouple]

I didn't see anything from somerton until about a month ago when he popped up in my recs and I ended up binging his content for about 2 days, but something kept being off and I noticed some of the lies/ignorance, and there was something really dismissive and weird about how he talked about aspecs and women in particular... I stopped watching him cause I watched one of you guys' podcast and realized I also just felt like crap after his videos.

I did end up getting his rwrb video in my recs when it came out cause of the binge and I just remember leaving a comment about the way he talked about aces in it. It was especially upsetting seeing people in the comments who were simply happy he mentioned aspecs at all. He replied to me just saying his cowriter was ace. I don't reply to youtube comments but I just remember wanting to point out that same co-writer he was using as a shield said aces don't face discrimination or conversion therapy, and in that video wrote that aces have to have sex to find out they don't like it. Being something doesn't make you instantly know everything about it, as somerton himself demonstrates with his ignorant comments about gay history.

I'm not really one of his victims since I avoided him as soon as I found him, but I feel bad for all the people he tricked and/or guilted into believing him. I hope some other creators make videos exposing the weird way he manipulated the queer community, cause I think a lot of young folks could use a breakdown of it.

Anyways I just wanted to finish by saying I love you guys' work and learning from you. You helped me understand why certain phrases make me upset, and that and watching your podcast back to back with his videos helped me figure out what I didn't like about Somerton, so you helped protect me from him and not convince myself I was just being Weird as I often do when I get Bad Vibes from someone.

Thank you so much for reaching out <3

It's so fascinating that you stopped watching Somerton after finding us. We've tried to keep things as professional as possible these last 2 years by only citing directly harmful things he's done to us and direct members of our community, and even then it was sparingly and as kind as possible.

When we first spoke with him about including Asexual representation in his future Telos endeavors, he assured us that not only was there already an Ace in the writers' room, but that two real, fully-fleshed out Ace characters were already being written. This was encouraging! After all, we had no way of knowing if he was the kind of cis gay man who loathes Aces or doesn't view us as queer. Since this didn't seem to be the case and rep is important, we supported him. We now deeply regret not doing our research on him first.

Even before his video "The Queer Erasure of Asexuality", we started watching a few of his YouTube videos for the first time and some of the subtext was NOT kind to our community. Subtle things that we'd see get repeated by his fans over and over again, like how queer art is bad these days because all the "artists" and the "exciting queers" who "really lived" died in the AIDS crisis. Or the implication that the Interview with the Vampire reboot was *more queer* because the vampires actually had gay sex on screen, despite this being a complete departure from the source material and neglecting the fact that Anne Rice's vampires have always been undeniably queer *and also* sexless. In fact, we didn't say his name, but we did mention some vague "bad takes" we saw about the series in our podcast episodes 75 & 76 The Triumphs and Failures of AMC’s Interview with the Vampire Part 1 and Part 2...At least some of those came from James.

We did not see his rwrb video, because we had long given up on him by that point, but it is not at all surprising to hear that he had bad takes and also hid behind Nick once again to shield himself from any criticism. It was very much his MO, and yet we're also certain we've heard him chastise straight women for using the "I have a gay friend" defense.

It is so good to hear that our podcast has been helpful to you. There are FAR too many Aces who are willing to let bad behavior or ill-informed takes slide just because someone with a decent following noticed us. We deserve so much better.

[yangxiaolongstan]

Nick Valentine, the magnificent Nicky V. I like Nick. I've done him once before and I don't remember much but I remember liking him. just the idea of this pre war detective brought back to life by the Institute and lost, stuck out of time like you is brilliant. one of the most genuinely creative and interesting concepts of any Fallout companion. but not perfect. so let's fix him.

I'm actually gonna start before Nick becomes a companion. Vault 114 is fun, I like how it establishes Nick as a brave guy who's willing to charge into a vault full of gangsters after a missing person. although I wish we could talk to Skinny Malone and end things peacefully before turning about a hundred men into carefully modeled red goo. I also think Nick, and all the other companions you get to meet before they become available to travel with, could gain affinity before you start traveling together. if you successfully get Darla to go home without violence and talk down Skinny Malone, that should earn you some credit with him. anyway, since I already killed Kellogg with Codsworth we're picking up Nick in his office afterwards. I like the different detective cases he's got, the mysterious stranger one is especially fun. he has nice insights in the case file quests but I wish he wouldn't just handhold you through them.

his affinity goes up pretty quick as long as you're decent. I think his morals are a good fit for his character as an old private eye. although he should like when you pick locks like Piper does.

first conversation works well. gives us a feel for who Nick is and his history. I think it's better for the first conversation to be exposition than the second. I do think it should tie into his position out of time and his disorientation in the post apocalypse more though.

Nick needs a lot more play with Kellogg. maybe have Kellogg's memories and personality help Nick figure out Eddie Winter, he needed that dangerous merc's brain to understand a vicious bastard like Winter. I'll talk more about the quest when we get there, but for now I just think it needs a connection to Kellogg to help tie Nick together a bit more. as is the Kellogg stuff feels kinda out of place

for the second conversation we get a bit more Nick exposition, he's programed with the original Nick Valentine's memories and doesn't know who he is in the post apocalypse. I really like his backstory like I said before. I might make the conversation more about how disoriented he still is rather than about how people helped him and he's trying to return the favor, but it's pretty good all the same.

I like the conversation between Nick and DiMa a lot. Nick being the start of the replacements, where DiMa is the starting point for synths not based on a person like the Coursers. also the idea that Nick was the first escapee.

75% affinity baby! third conversation. starts on a very strong note, with Nick lamenting his disorientation, and even outright saying he's not a real person. it's interesting he doesn't actually think of himself as being Nick, but I think that needed to be set up a bit more in conversations 1 and 2. and his quest starts right after, kinda weird that it's not really part of the same conversation but it happens right after.

I think Eddie should have already been running his gang. it's just bizarre that he's been alive but doing nothing. I think he could be interesting as a kind of mastermind over the different triggerman gangs in the Commonwealth. the idea that the code to get to him is in all the different police holotapes is a bit contrived but it's also super fun. I might change it but it doesn't really need to be. I like the conversation between Nick and Eddie. it fits the wackier quests from other fallout games. the final meeting between an ancient ghoul crimelord and the robot recreation of his prewar detective nemesis sounds more like something from Old World Blues than Fallout 4. Nick desperately needs better pathfinding on the way to the place Jenny died, but I like what he says when he gets there.

the final conversation is good. Nick finally makes peace with who he is and has been and recommits himself to justice. I don't have much to say about it tbh. It's well done and mostly just the culmination of his quest. I'd include a romance option but that's just because I'm a nasty robotfucker.

all in all Nick was great. probably the best written companion so far. so I probably should do the worst next, fucking Strong. then maybe Preston.

Original fixing Fallout 4 companions post

Piper

Codsworth

MacCready

Strong

Preston

[zehecatl]

2024 media thread part FEBRUARY

1st February: Cult of the Lamb

decided to replay COTL, since i haven't played it since i 100% it at launch, and tbh, my feelings on it haven't really changed? as a game it's rather mid, and the main appeal is, hands down, everything surrounding the game aspect. the art, the lore, the setting. it is SO fucking appealing, and interesting, and there is SO MUCH you can do with it, as a fandom. but as a game, COTL is... lacking

the combat is mid. the cult management portion is shallow, if interesting, and there is SO MUCH here that could be fantastic, but just. falls short of it. like, do not get me wrong- i've now officially clocked 75 hours into this fucker, so it's not bad, but it just cannot compete with its contemporaries. its main draw truly is the fandom

also i did 100% it again, which i'm only saying because i feel like it needs repeating. do you know. how fucking ANNOYING. IT WAS TO GET THAT LAST LORE PIECE... CRIME

14th February: TMNT (2007)

rewatched TMNT with the fiance for the like, i think fourth time? and i know people generally don't care about this one, but MAN. it is my favourite iteration, and i will die on that fucking hill

the CGI isn't that good, but i think the Turtles look fantastic, and the fact that it sometimes looks like a PS2 game is like, part of the charm, at least for me

also, i think the story is WAY underappreciated. like, there is some GOOD fucking bones here, with the parallel between the Turtles and Yoatl, and ngl, i DO love the whole. immortal wants to die bit. like that's tasty shut the fuck UP

also, yes. the Raph vs Leo scene is ICONIC. it fucking goes HARD, and i love it so much. Raph's whole deal in this movie is engrained in my head, like that is my sad self-destructive BOY!!

anyway, i just love this movie a lot, and all TMNT fans should watch it. for me <3

14th February: Hazbin Hotel

honestly, Hazbin Hotel is just a fun show. there's stuff to criticize, absolutely, but at the end of the day, it's just such a fun little season to watch. the characters are interesting, the plot is good enough to keep you engaged, and the songs are like- such fucking bangers. like, what the hell. did anyone see that coming??

i do wish the season had more episodes, more time to flesh out the six months the season takes place over, but it's. what it is. the animation can be kind of stilted at times, likely due to puppets use, and the colours is- well it's a choice. but idk, i had a good time with it. it's still in my head, weeks later (because i forgot to write this LOL) and i think that's, if nothing else, a mark of something interesting

i'm very much looking forward to season 2

15th February: The Amazing Digital Circus

so i've seen TADC before, but i wanted to show the fiance, so rewatch, and oh my god. i forgot how good this pilot is???

like the humour! the animation! the CHARACTERS!! everything about this pilot is a fucking hit, like it perfectly nails what it's going for, and i am so looking forward to the full season, like it is going to burrow into my brain

16th February: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem

i might still wish they had picked a different animation style, but MAN. Mutant Mayhem was just such a good movie. it perfectly executed what it set out to do, and it's definitely a very... teenage mutant ninja turtles iteration. and that's good! that's what they set out to do! and i think they nailed it

i feel like i had a lot more to say after watching it, but looking back.. it's just a really good movie? and yeah, the animation style is not my thing, but it's well done, it suits the movie, you get used to it- etc etc. so really what can i say, except i liked it a lot, and i'm looking forward to the spin-off series?

[twisting-roads]

okay coming back to elaborate some more on this because I do have something I really want to say. This post was mostly just a shitty joke to lead into some kind of Actual discussion around RW's design, or at least what I think about it.

Excuse this- it might be a bit of a mess. Though what I say has less to do with this image and more WHY the creature placement is the way that it is

I think the increased number of predators around the world is done really well, in both vanilla and DP. It's RW's main way of challenging the player, alongside trying to navigate and use the terrain to your advantage. I don't think there's an issue with the balance between hostile and neutral creatures.

You get plenty of interactions with creatures like scavengers and squidcadas who are plentiful in some regions of the game. With centipedes and lantern mice and other creatures who are secondary consumers- on your level.

These creatures usually eat batflies, who seem to be the main primary consumers of this world. That and maybe the background insects. And that's it.

IDK when I first played rain world I never thought about the trophic pyramid, I was more focused on trying not to fucking die. But I've been playing this game for a bit now and its been long enough for me to want to pick apart how these things interact with gameplay

With rain world they don't really tell you whether or not the gunk that covers the architecture around you is alive, and if it's even an autotroph. And its not really important for the most part. Who knows what those batflies are eating, but there's enough room for you to shrug it off

The problem here isn't the lack of plants or bugs at the bottom of the food chain, or even in the middle of it. I can imagine a million explanations and headcanons to where all the producers really are

No, the problem is infact the apex predators. The lizards and the giant centipedes and the vultures

In vanilla the creature placement was a lot more thought out, even for Hunter. The red lizards and king vultures and such you see at the "start" of the timeline disappear and seem to have died off. Which makes sense.

Because of this previous point I'm going to exclude Artificer, Spearmaster, and Gourmand from this point because I think they're FINE. The problem of an overuse of predators DOES get somewhat of an explanation as they start to disappear near the end, and are necessary as the slugcats are much more combat focused anyways.

No. This is about Rivulet and Saint (Mostly Saint). This shitpost and all of this is just to lead me into one of my BIGGEST problems with downpour.

Rivulet's campaign is fun. It's a race against the clock between exploring and navigating through 2 new regions (Submerged was always there but now you can actually... EXPLORE it). It's done really WELL. With having to fight the rain timer getting to Pebbles, with a break in the middle, and then having to go through Submerged Superstructure and fight the clock against your own breath timer

But you really only explore half the RW map. Rivulet isn't about the creatures outside of Rotten Maw and Submerged, since you're likely just jumping over and running past them anyways

Because of this restricted campaign pathway, it feels as if all the other regions were neglected, especially in terms of creature placement and what not. Not like you're required to go there, so why bother?

It's not a huge issue here anyways. Hey, I like the addition of centiwings in some of the other regions. There still is some lizard variety around, and the influx of salamanders and eels makes sense with heavy influx of rain. I don't blame the DP devs, it's a hard balance to get

But Saint?

In Saint, there's no green or pink lizards. There's no king vultures.

But there's yellow and caramel lizards.

So. Many. Yellows.

It doesn't make any sense. Yellow lizards come in packs of 2-5 and they're EVERYWHERE. Every previous lizard spawn has a 75% chance of apparently being a yellow lizard now. They're being placed in rooms not DEIGNED with these lizards in mind!

They're so thoughtlessly placed that I often saw yellow lizard colonies mixing in with each other in places like outskirts or industrial, which isn't a forbidden rule but it feels WRONG.

Yellow lizard packs were spaced out enough and placed in a variety of areas where their unique ability could benefit the most from it.

It's like the developers didn't know what to do after designing a tongue ability for Saint, and needed to make their campaign more difficult.

There's no way there's enough food in this frozen hellscape for all of these yellow lizards.

And then in undergrowth- a place intended to be thriving with life- there's 3 lizards. 2 blues and an eel. That's all you get.

It makes a lot of Saint's campaign just feel the same.

I think RW has a fine ecosystem. Infact, I believe the reason it's like that near the start of the timeline is because its an UNSTABLE ecosystem. It's chaotic and messy and still in the process of balancing itself out.

I just don't understand how at the end, it somehow returns to this chaotic feeling with Saint. It's ridiculous.

TL;DR this post was not about the lack of producers (as much as I joked about it), it was about the Saint yellow lizard problem.

this is what rainworld's trophic pyramid looks like

[aurorawest]

Reading update, part 2

Arctic Heat by Annabeth Albert - 3.75/5 stars

High Heat by Annabeth Albert - 3.25/5 stars

Burn Zone by Annabeth Albert - 3.25/5 stars

Proper Scoundrels by Allie Therin - 4/5 stars

I think I would have liked this one better if I'd read the series that it's connected to. This one stands alone, but there are definitely moments where I was like, this might hit harder if I'd read the other series. Which I would like to, but it's only available as an ebook, and I just don't read ebooks. Hopefully they'll get a physical release at some point.

Provoked by Joanna Chambers - 4.5/5 stars

So I only bought the first book in this series, primarily because the summary starts like this: "Tormented by his forbidden desires for other men..." But I ended up really enjoying it and bought the rest of the series.

Unfit to Print by KJ Charles - 5/5 stars

Ancient History by AJ Truman - 4/5 stars

History is All You Left Me by Adam Silvera - 5/5 stars

Um????? I went into this with pretty low expectations, actually to the point that I kind of expected to DNF it. It's devastating. "Not more devastating than They Both Die at the End," I can hear you thinking. Wrong! SO MUCH MORE devastating.

Lore & Lust by Karla Nikole - 3.75/5 stars

I almost didn't call How to Bite Your Neighbor... cozy fantasy because this book is way more cozy fantasy. Cozy vampire fiction.

Withered + Sere by TJ Klune - 4.75/5 stars

You guys remember how I was like frothing at the mouth over Klune's Verania series and how much I loathed it? Oh man did I pick up this book (which I bought prior to reading any of the Verania books) with trepidation. Guess what though! It's really good! I'm not actually sure why I knocked a quarter of a star off? Possibly just because there were some turns of phrase that gave me PTSD flashbacks to Verania. Anyway this is a brutal, violent, post-apocalyptic novel with a bunch of Problematic protagonists and it's great.

Over and Over Again by Cole McCade - 3/5 stars

I would have rated this higher if it had been like 200 pages shorter. It just went on too long.

Band Sinister by KJ Charles - 4/5 stars

And I would have rated this one higher without the polyamory/open relationship stuff. It is not my bag, sorry.

A Fractured Infinity by Nathan Tavares - 4.5/5 stars

Hey. Hey MCU fans. Do you want a book that actually does, like, interesting things with the multiverse? Do you want to see a character meet versions of himself, but like, it's much better than anything the MCU has done? How about a guy who makes portals into different universes trying to save the person he loves, because the multiverse needs the love interest to die?

Yeah? Does that sound like some MCU properties that maybe you were less than enamored with? Would you be even more interested if I told you A Fractured Infinity is 1000% more gay than Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness or What if...? And maybe like, 75% more gay than Loki. The point is it's gay, and fun, and I really enjoyed it.

Part 1 (where tumblr cut me off at 30 images)

[closer-stars]

Good Thing - Mingi (1)

Member: Mingi Genre: A lil of drama, tension, fluff, maybe angst depending on how you look at it. Requested: Yes Word count: 8k  Content: Dance team leader y/n. Basketball captain Mingi. Both of them are stubborn. Enemies to Lovers. Mentions of food. Mentions of near fainting. Mentions of tension. Academics. Slowburn.  Notes: after a long creative block, I’m back once again with long fics. Divided this into two? three? parts. This was supposed to be short, what the fuck. Anyways, I hope this fits your expectations, anon! Please I didn’t expect this to be so long, but here we are. I was already itching to post something after so long so here we are. 

[ Mountain ] Capt, the venue’s already taken. :(((

That wasn’t a good sign. You were in class when you received that message from your best friend. It was a good thing your professor allowed gadgets as long as it was used for note taking. In true student fashion, you lower your brightness just a bit as you switch tabs to reply to San. 

[ You ] Look for the next best. I trust your decision. I can’t stay too long, prof might catch me not paying attention.

You close the tab quickly and catch up on what your professor discusses. Fingers fly across your keyboard as you continue to add additional connections and theories that aid in the discussion. Your best friend and your second co-captain, Wooyoung, was slightly struggling with keeping up with the note keeping, you were already sure that he would ask you for help. 

[ Mountain ] Don’t kill me, Please. :c 

That didn’t sound good. 

[ Mountain ] 6-9pm. Court 2. 

That is definitely not good. Before you could reply, the bell rings and a chorus of laptops closing, notebooks closing could be heard in the room. Your professor quickly reminds the class of an exam the following week along with other reminders that just fly through your ears. 

“Did you catch what he said about brand identity?” Wooyoung asks as the two of you leave the classroom with heavy feet. Your coach had thought it was a good idea to have all of you go through house drills for the first half of the training last night. Fast forward to today, you and Wooyoung were struggling with walking. Even with just simple walking, Wooyoung would make pained whines. 

“I got them. I’ll send you my notes when we get a seat somewhere. I want my coffee while I massage your old muscles.” The both of you found a good shady spot where you could discuss what to do in tonight’s training session as your coach had personal issues to deal with. “Can you message the team where our training’s going to be tonight? San said it’s at Court 2, 6 to 9 PM”

“Heh, six to nine and okay.”

“How mature of you. I’ll be back.” You (try to) jog to the vending machine as you get yourself a quick dose of caffeine. By the time you get back, taking small sips of the caffeinated bean water, Wooyoung stares at you as if he had realized something. “What?” You ask as you settle down next to him. 

“Court 2? That’s the only available one left for tomorrow?” He asks. 

You shrug. “It’s either we get free venues or we pay a meal’s worth for studio rentals.” You reason as you send your notes to the male. As a student-dancer, you knew how hard it was to get studios and have it come straight from your own pocket. The competition was three months away and you didn’t want the team’s finances to run dry this early. 

“Can you at least try not to bite off Mingi’s head?” Wooyoung pleads, almost pouting. 

Song Mingi is the team captain for your university’s basketball team. That said, he’s also often the face of the school due to his grades and being captain of the team. He also often got in your nerves whenever you cross roads. You’re also fairly popular in and out of school: captain of the dance team, often competing in outside school competitions, and even being featured in some big time gigs. The gigs paid the most for your bills. 

You pat your lap so that he stretches his legs from the muscle pain. Careful fingers press on his muscles, causing him to yelp in pain. “Breathe, you baby. I’ll try my best.” You snort, clearly entertained by how low his pain tolerance can be outside dancing. “Tell San we’re in the usual spot if he wants to--”

“Ello!!”

Speak of the devil and he will appear. Your co-captain and best friend as well has appeared a few feet away. “Captain!” He calls out, once he could see your face. Him noticing Wooyoung first then you wasn’t a surprise anymore. These two often plot pranks on you during down time since your second year in the team, this was old news to you by now. “Captain, I’m really sorry. Court 2 was the only one available. The other team already got our first choice and-” he goes off, rapidly defending himself. 

“San, it’s okay. I know how annoying that team is. Let’s just do our best tonight so we can take over the studio for finals okay?” You shake your head, understanding the issue. The dance competition had your own team versus other dance teams inside and outside the university. It was a big event that tickets to watch were always sold out. 

“Please. I don’t think I can handle you snarking Mingi off when he tries to drop by.” San mumbles. 

The thing is, Mingi and you had a handful of common friends. The expectation of his course, Business Administration, being more difficult than yours, a Media Arts student. His tendency to be just as stubborn and strict as you are in your respective fields made it hard for both of you to see eye to eye. 

“I don’t think I’m ready to see their bitch face anywhere outside the stage.” Wooyoung mentions lightly. It was an obvious fear though. The amount of auditionees for your team each year was pretty hefty, the reason? Your friends had pretty faces. To put it simply, your resting bitch face is scary even if unintentional but an intentional one had a lot of people staying clear of you. To whom do you give the intentional one? Shallow auditionees and Song Mingi.

By the time you’ve eased the knots on Wooyoung’s leg, you’ve finished your coffee. “Guys, I promise I won’t fight him tonight.” You say with a sigh. 

San just looks at you with a raised eyebrow. 

You pout at him. “I promise! Besides tonight’s cleaning and drills. If I get distracted by that demon, give me the spiderman reps.” Wooyoung places his other leg on your lap, a cheeky grin on his features. A look of empty annoyance shoots from your eyes at him but you still do as he needs. Your two best friends give in with groans. It’s next to impossible to reason with you sometimes. It’s also your stubbornness that brought the team to the current greatness it had. 

“Three sets of spiderman reps. After training.” 

The bell rings, signaling your next class which was quite unfortunately, with the two of them still. San rises from his seat, your bag and laptop already in his hands as he waits for the both of you. 

“Last class for the day.” He states as you take your belongings from him. 

It’s going to be a long day for the three of you. 

“Five minute break” The entire team’s breathless from the drills. Some of them walked off the burn, others drinking water, others opted to lie on the cool tiled floor. You were part of the first group. You bend your back a little to get rid of the soreness that was starting to wear on you. The burn on your arms and shoulders is already a familiar feeling to you but you still hate it. At least it means your body was getting stronger, if the burn only started to set in now. When you reach for your water bottle, you realize that it was already empty. “Fuck..” You groan as you look for a water refilling station. 

The nearest one was near the basketball team’s court. 

Whatever. 

You make your way to the station, making sure that you would go unnoticed by the basketball team as they did their drills. So far, so good. No one paid attention to you as you fill your bottle up with water. That was until Jeong Yunho had noticed you. 

“Hey! Are you training here too?” His warmth made it hard for you to despise him even if he was best friends with Mingi. Why couldn’t he be the captain instead?

Eyes shoot up and you’re greeted by his pink hair. You wave at him quickly then take a sip of water. “Hey Yunho! Yeah, Is the music too loud?” 

He shakes his head, a few strands of hair covering his view. He pushes it back and it was there when you realize just why he had a large following. “Don’t worry about it. The guys appreciate a little music every now and then.” A sigh of relief slips through your lips. At least the volume isn’t too destructive for everyone. Why wasn’t he the captain instead?

“I have to go now. Good luck with your practice!” You bid goodbye quickly, your Mingi radar was going off.

Yes, you had a Mingi radar in your head. 

When you turn on your heel, you are greeted by his stoic features. Even without words, the tension was pretty thick in the air. “Anyways,” you mumble onto your bottle as you try to walk past him. 

“If you’re going to train in here too, being conscious of your noise would be helpful.” Mingi’s voice drips with deep annoyance towards you. You on the other hand, are trying your best not to do spiderman push ups so you just hum in response. 

“When I talk to you, you speak.” He says, rubbing his temple in annoyance. It was moments like this that genuinely make you wonder how he is the face of the school when his attitude was absolute horse shit. 

“Noted with thanks, Song Mingi.” You say simply. Yunho looks at the both of you in mild alarm. He was aware of your less than stellar relationship with his captain but he never saw how bad it was until today. Is it easy to keep your face from shooting lasers at the tall male? No but you were going to do your best. The two of you exchange steely gazes until both of you look away, stalking back to where your team was. 

“What took you so long?” Wooyoung asks as he watches the rest of the team clean the choreography, with San leading at the back. 

“Mingi tried to stall me.” You explain under your breath as you take your spot next to Wooyoung as your eyes keep an eye on their movements. With those who have been accepted, you weren’t as intimidating as you make yourself to be. You wouldn’t admit it openly, you viewed them as your family. You weren’t strict all the time, knowing when to have an iron fist and when to relax. Thoughts were drifting elsewhere that you found yourself gnawing mindlessly on your own water bottle as you watched everyone go through the choreography. Two blinks and you’re focused again. To the untrained eye, it already looked pretty good but to the three of you, you knew it could be better. The team holds the last post for a few counts before doubling over for air. “Catch your breath first then from the top. Seventy five percent energy but I want you guys to focus on your angles and extensions.” You state, much to the relief of some. 

“Does this mean you’re going to have to do spiderman reps?” Wooyoung asks, trying his best to not show his excited smile at seeing you struggle. Little shit. 

“If you’re looking forward to it so much, do it instead.” You shoot back with a smirk. You direct him to join the team in dancing with a quick jerk of your head to their direction. “Join the run. I want to see how you’ve been doing as well.” You stand up. “San! Join the team in the run. I want to see how the two do as well.” 

That’s how the rest of the night goes: repeated countings, claps, and feet stomping to the beat, with the occasional cheering from members to keep the energy up. Before you let everyone go for the day, you asked for one more run of the piece to record. The only issue now is who to ask to hold your phone because all possible places for your phone were either too low or too dangerously high to be on its own. 

You spot Yunho coming out of the basketball court with his bags. His training must have ended. “Jeong Yunho!” Your voice manages to surprise everyone with the volume. Who knew you could bellow at such strength? The tall male’s startled by your voice and walks over to you.

“I didn’t know you could yell that loud. Do you need help with something?” He notes bemused at such a feat. 

“Training can do that. Can you record our run for us, please?” You raise your phone up, hoping he says yes. Everyone’s tired and so are you. His hand is outstretched and it makes you sigh in relief. “You’re the best.” You say. “Start recording when I press play.” The tall male gives you the okay signal as he raises the phone’s angle to make sure everyone’s seen in the screen. Bless his soul. He does as you told him. The run goes without a hitch, by now everyone knows to give their all in the last run to which they do. As your team dances, you notice a familiar brown mop of hair in the peripheral vision. ‘Focus.’ You force yourself to do so as you do your segment, all while cheering for the others who were starting to lose breath. He stands next to Yunho, watching your entire team dance. A small part of you hopes that he’s watching the team as a whole. Once the run was over, a few of the members drop their sore bodies to the floor, relishing the cool feeling of the cement. You dismiss the team, telling them to cool down and stretch on their own as it was late. You walk over to the angel and the demon, both with different emotions displayed on their features. “How was it?”

Yunho hands your phone back and flashes two thumbs up. “That was really cool! You guys really keep with your team’s legacy.” 

Those words make you smile through the exhaustion that has set on your features. “Thank you, you probably have to go now since it’s late. Thanks again for helping us!” You wave him goodbye, doing your best to not look at the demon next to him that stares you down. Just as you were about to leave them be, he speaks up. 

“You looked tired the entire time.” Mingi says with a shrug. “Gotta be an example to your members, y’know?” 

Without looking back at the two males, you heave a sigh. You were tired and the stress for your team and academics was setting in. “Song Mingi, I really am in no mood to deal with your lack of a filter. Please just leave already.” Before you could stop yourself, you find yourself looking over the male. “You call yourself the captain when you’re here throwing unneeded comments. Please do reflect first on yourself before trying to fight me.” You say with a roll of your eyes as you take the chance to leave. 

You don’t see Yunho drag Mingi away before he could say anything. You do see Mingi greet some members of your team and your two best friends as if he didn’t just try to rile you up. You also do see Wooyoung and San’s concern for you. “Don’t do the spiderman reps today. Just do it tomorrow.” Wooyoung immediately pipes up. He knows how you get when you’re angry, the last time you tried to do something out of spite, you sprained your wrist.  

“Let’s just go grab some late dinner. I need food.” Your voice comes out breathier than usual. Too exhausted to bother keeping up a front as you wipe your sweat with the collar of your shirt.. 

The three of you were seated in a fast food chain, dietary plans be damned. You needed something filling and if it was going to be through nuggets, a burger and a big cup of iced coffee then so be it. You had your head in your hands. The two had taken cared of your order, both of them returning to your table with trays full of food and drinks. 

“This is just so shitty..” you mumble, staring at your nuggets. “I have to deal with the mess the alumni left the team with. I mean, I don’t mind covering the expenses from the gigs I’ve done but it’s not going to be enough. Not being in a studio is already so..” you couldn’t continue your thoughts so you shove the entire nugget into your mouth. 

“Don’t beat yourself up. You’re doing everything you can for the team.” San reminds you while he eats his burger. How he manages to fit what looked like a double decker in his mouth was still a mystery to you. 

“The team already knows of the issue since day 1 and they know you’re doing everything you can.” Wooyoung adds gently. He hated seeing you be so tough on yourself.  

Both of them were right but it doesn’t stop you from beating yourself up for having to do your best with tied hands. This isn’t a choreography where you could still move as freely even if you had your hands tied. This is real life with no practice. 

“I know you’re still annoyed at Mingi’s comments but come on, he doesn’t dance. So don’t pay attention to him.” San reminds you, already halfway with his burger. Boys with their almost insatiable appetites without gaining that much weight is something. 

You take a deep breath, pushing the strands of hair that cling to your face as you pull yourself together again. If you were going to cry, it wasn’t going to be here. “Fuck it. I’ll enjoy these nuggets. San, where are we training tomorrow?” 

“Studio. Yeosang got us a discount.” 

“Perfect. Also, make sure he stays in the team once I graduate. His strengths could be so good for house segments also that discount trick he has.” 

“Don’t talk about leaving us yet!!” The two of them cry out at the same time, and by chance they harmonize. 

“Don’t leave the dance team for the choir. Both of you are taking over my position.” You shoot back with laughter. 

The next training comes and it’s a lot more peaceful for your head. Your coach was back teaching another segment for the entire time. Whenever your coach was around, you cut back on your jokes and made sure that everyone didn’t go too out of line with their ways to keep the morale up. The training session leaves everyone much more exhausted as compared to yesterday. 

“Good job guys, you guys did a lot better compared to the last time I saw you. Let’s go for gold.” Your coach says as the three of you, along with Yeosang manage the payments. It’s that type of comments that make this entire competition season worth it. Once all the payments were settled, everyone was slowly going on their own separate ways to deal with their own requirements. Wooyoung and San were going to head to a computer shop to play for a game or two, how long that would be was unknown. “I’ll see you guys tomorrow. Don’t be late for our history class… Please.” You stated, knowing just how your professor was strict with attendance and tardiness. 

San whines at you. “We won’t! We promise.” 

Wooyoung interjects, “Call him an hour earlier, you know how he is in the mornings.” 

You shake your head at their antics and wave them off. “Fine, see you guys.” You readjust your bag as you slowly make your back to your dorm. A long shower and a hearty meal were needed before you could focus on your papers. After you freshen up, you pick up your laptop and other essentials as you make your way to your usual coffee shop. 

The staff in the coffee shop already knew you. The amount of late nights you spent here to catch up on your studies to the point where they have to tell you to leave as they were closing was innumerable. They also know your current situation just based on your orders. If your order of coffee is stronger than usual, you were most likely stressed. If you had a meal with your drink, you were going to be forcing yourself to finish your requirements. 

You ordered a macchiato with an extra espresso shot and a sandwich. 

By the time your orders came in, you were taking down notes from the reading on your screen. You thank the staff for bringing your order to you, probably having missed them calling your name from the adrenaline in your body to get all of these finished. It’s only when you look up that you catch sight of two familiar faces that were ordering. An exhale and you reach for your earphones. Once you find them you plug them into your laptop, going back to work. 

An elbow jabs his side, and he pulls out his earphones, looking at Yunho with a miffed expression. “What? Yunho, there’s barely any free table here. Let’s just get our orders and leave.” Mingi grumbles. The spare tables were outside but that also meant being in the company of smokers. Yunho pays no heed to his best friend’s complaints and gestures to the table next to yours. 

“That one’s free.”

“You’re insane.” 

“I’m just pointing it out! Besides, air con.” Yunho also adds with a grin. Since last year, his rivalry with you had become a little blurry. He doesn’t remember what the two of you constantly fought about at this point but he clearly knows he can’t stand your presence. His best friend on the other hand, wanted to change that before all of you go on your own lives. 

The air con point was a strong one to fight against. Instead of fighting against it, he just grumbles and lets Yunho do as he wishes. At least if a fight breaks out between the two of you, he could point it at Yunho. The logical part of his head also reasons that if a fight breaks out, his reputation along with the school’s would be destroyed. He couldn’t win. 

He waits for their orders off to the side, prolonging the inevitable of having to sit near you. Once their orders have arrived, he and Yunho carry them towards where you are. 

A hand appears at your peripherals and you look at the owner. The recognition taking a while to set in. The dazed look in your eyes after being disturbed was a little amusing in his perspective. 

“Hey, sorry for disturbing. Is this table free?” He asks with an apologetic smile.

Your eyes scan the entire coffee shop for possible places for them to stay just so they don’t disturb you. All tables were taken. “Uh yeah sure, go ahead.” With that, the two boys sit next to your table as you go back to your work. 

Thankfully, the boys leave you be as you continue to write and read. When you let own a yawn, you knew you had to give yourself a bit of a break. You pull out your earphones as you start eating again to give your brain a break. You look at your list of things to do and a little bit of relief sets in when you manage to finish a good portion of what can be finished tonight. 

“About time you ate.” 

That was enough to cause you to choke on your coffee. You look at the source of the voice and it was Yunho, who was obviously amused with your reaction. 

“Did I scare you?”

“You’re still here?!” You ask incredulous, when you shift your gaze to your front, you were greeted with the devil. Mingi obviously looks like the reading material isn’t much of an interest, not that you could blame him. A small tinge of sympathy sets in you when you realize his notebook was filled with calculations. Yuck. 

Yunho tilts his head in confusion then nods. “Yeah, we have an exam coming up.” The male peeks over his laptop to see that Mingi was on a different topic. “I thought you were studying for history.” 

“Marketing had more things for me to deal with.” The other states in a flat voice as he continues to spin his pen. 

That’s when you notice that there were some eyes on your table, to be specific, on Mingi. It made you a little thankful that you weren’t as out there in the public as he was. It didn’t change the fact that you feel a little bad for the both of them. “Is this under Professor Hwang?” You ask as you catch sight of a familiar reading on Yunho’s laptop. 

“Yeah! Did you take it already?” This causes both pairs of eyes to land on you. 

“I took it earlier today. Do you guys need help?” 

That was enough to make Mingi lean a little forward, for Yunho to look a little more awake. “Are you sure? You’ve been working hard with your own thing.” Yunho reasons carefully. Your to-do list reaches your view again and you take a moment to gauge how good you can juggle your work and theirs. As much as you despised Mingi, Professor Hwang’s anger was something you’d rather everyone avoids. 

“When’s your exam?” By now, your gaze has shifted to your laptop screen as you try to look at your schedule. 

“Friday..” 

“Give me your schedules.” You say, giving Yunho your contact details. “Both of your schedules. I’m already thinking of how to squeeze you into my schedule.” The two boys look at each other in surprise but they give you their schedules, your tone left no room for any opposition. No wonder you were the captain. No wonder people are intimidated by you. Mingi found it impressive. 

“I’ll message Yunho when and where to meet me. We can’t meet during the day, tell me immediately. If both of you want a study session after our respective trainings that work too. Just keep in contact with me with any update.” It wasn’t a request. It’s an order. 

You didn’t even notice that Mingi had pulled his hoodie down to look at you properly. Your attention was too focused on what Yunho was talking about regarding the coverage. None of you really intended to do so but you eventually were giving them tips on how to study for her exam, and they promise-- well more of Yunho promises to make it up to you after. 

“Excuse me, We’re about to close up for the day.” the staff informs gently as he goes to the next table that still had people poring over their books. 

With that, the three of you pack up your things. You finish the rest of your coffee. 3AM. You have 5 hours of sleep left to last through the day. “I’ll see you both depending on your schedules.” It was a reminder for Yunho to send their schedules and he does immediately. You bid them goodbye, as you leave the coffee shop on your way back to your dorm. 

“So they put away their rivalry with you, Mingi.” Yunho notes with a glance at the male who put his hood up once more. He hums in response. To others, he might as well have ignored his best friend for the comfort of his own thoughts. Yunho knows better. Mingi just wasn’t the type of guy who openly admits his thoughts. 

“If we’re studying with them later, can we choose a spot where no one’s looking at us.” He mumbles. Yunho felt for the guy. He didn’t want the role of captain, wanting to just play basketball with a team. Yet being the captain also meant that he would eventually become the face of the university and potential love calls from potential sponsors. The poor guy could barely focus on his studies without having strangers oogle at him when he was outside university grounds. 

“Will tell them.” Yunho returns as the two make their way to their own apartment. 

You reach your room after freshening up. 3:15AM. You were definitely going to need a strong cup of coffee throughout the day. A reminder to call San when you wake up was prepared. With that, your sleep was swift. 

The cursed wind chime alarm jolts you out of your slumber. 8AM. A curse elongated by a dry groan escapes your lips. As you wash your face, you call San’s phone. “Pick up the phone, you sleepy butt.” You mutter as you prepare for your day. 

He finally answers the phone though with a whine that pleads for more sleep.

“Get up. We can’t be late for class.” 

His whines could’ve been mistaken for cries but you hear the sheets ruffle under his movements. 

“I’ll buy you a donut, San. Just please get up and get ready for class.” The things you do for your friends. 

“I’m up, I’m up. Can you get the birthday cake version please?” 

“I’ll buy it after class, so you better show up.” You hang up just in time for a message to come in. 

[ Yunho ] we’re free at 2-4 pm and 10-2am later! 

[ You ] I can help 2:30-4 meet me by the benches near the chemistry department. 

The class goes by painfully slow but you give San the money for the donut. Before he could complain that he wanted you to buy it for him, you quickly cut to the chase. “I just need to help someone with their studies until 4. See you guys later.” 

You arrive at the benches with a sandwich in your free hand. No sign of the two boys yet, so you choose a bench away from prying eyes but visible enough for the two to see you. With some time to spare still, you take a few bites of your sandwich as you look through the notes as a refresher. The shuffling of feet against the pebbles and grass catch your attention. Did you expect Mingi to come first? Maybe this exam really meant a lot for him. 

“Yunho’s following shortly. He just had to use the restroom.” He explains when he notices your wandering eyes. That shuts you up as you give him a polite nod, letting him settle on the bench opposite you. 

“I think you forgot something.” 

When did he strike conversations with you? He hands you your earphones then rubs the back of his neck. 

“You left before Yunho or I could catch you.” 

Your jaw drops slightly at the sight of your favorite earphones. How could this have slipped your mind? This pair was your favorite and your most used due to your activities. “Oh my god. Thank you for taking care of it.” There was no hint of underlying annoyance in your voice as you kept them in your pocket. 

Just then, Yunho jogs towards where the two of you are, sitting next to you. “Sorry to make you wait!” Mingi lets out an exasperated sigh, as he brings out his notes. 

“It’s fine. Let’s get started now cause I don’t think we’ll have any strength to study later.” 

That’s how the ninety minutes go by. Quizzing the two guys on certain topics while giving them tips on how to do well for the exam. It’s not in you to spoon feed them the answers, and even if you did, the exam was half multiple choice and half essay. With every right answer they gave, you would smile brightly and nod. The smile seems a lot brighter around Yunho, when it came to Mingi your smile was a mix of pride and surprise. Not that you thought Mingi slacks off on his studies, he just seems like the type to not pay attention to things that don’t interest him. 

Mingi also notices how you seem to open up when things go smoothly. Almost the entire time, your eyes were on Yunho as he carried the conversation with questions and clarifications over the topic. When he hears his question on the connection of the uprising to succeeding events, he pipes up.

“Wait, Yunho. That’s not part of the coverage, also, a totally different event.. You confused it with the other one.” Mingi explains, brows slightly scrunched as he explains the event to the best that he can from memory. 

You look at him with an impressed smirk. He definitely had brain cells that give him the credit that he deserves. You gesture to him as you shift your gaze back to Yunho. “There’s your answer.” 

Just like that, the bell rings, telling all students that the ninety minutes is over. The broody male is the first to pack his things up, thanking you under his breath. The pink haired male on the other hand, thanks you profusely and waves goodbye to you as they head to their last class. 

You don’t realize the breath you were holding until they left, eyes drop to the earphones that Mingi had returned to you. It’s a nice change you suppose, as compared to all the daggers you’ve thrown at each other. 

Today’s training was held in the same place. Court 2. You could hear the basketballs bouncing against the court floor along with the squeaks of rubber shoes against the floor. If you listened carely, you could hear Mingi cheering for the other members as they continued with their drills. You had your own drills too. This drill being new choreography. The team was picking up the new choreography faster as compared to the past. Those who weren’t part of the segment your coach was teaching were off to the side, cleaning what they know. San and you were part of the group that was learning the new segment. Both of you being the centers. The choreography is admittedly trickier. You didn’t think you’d be doing krumping next to San but here you are. Your group goes through it over and over as your coach directs on how and where to execute the movements. Occasionally, your coach would ask some of you to try a stunt or trick. He wants the gold as much as the entire team and it sometimes reaches the point where he forgets he’s leading student-dancers. 

Your group was gasping for breath afterwards that you had to remind your coach to check on the others and teach the other segments that need to be taught. It worked and it gave your group some more time to breath and rehydrate themselves. Only five weeks left. Ideally, after this week would be intensive cleaning and minor editing. Everyone already had the mix but your coach constantly would try to change little things. Were you worried that this would be rushed and cost the team a place in the top three? Definitely. Being an overthinker and having a coach who was just as bad, if not worse wasn’t helpful. You thanked Wooyoung and San for reminding him of the logistics and reality of things. 

The next few hours go quickly and everyone is admittedly, surprised and relieved that they finished the piece. San gives you a quick massage to relax your nerves as your coach asks the team to do the entire piece, cleanliness not really being something he’d look into for now. The entire number goes by with a few road bumps, none of which he seems to mind. At least he had mercy after being reminded, and by the last run, everyone lets themselves crumple to the ground. Training was officially done for the day. Everyone pays their share for the coach for the day then leaves. Wooyoung and San help you gather the payments then leave quickly, both having to cram papers that were due in two hours. 

This leaves you and your coach alone.

“When is the team going to pay? I need the money too.” You knew where he was coming from. His family had some health issues that had to be dealt with, it was why he didn’t come the other day. You’ve been pestering the team the past few days in the chat for their share, some of them always pushing it back. Your body wanted nothing but to eat something then sleep. Even if you had your gigs as a source of income, it was enough to get you by. With how your coach urgently needed the money and how you couldn’t think clearly, you caved. You ask for his bank account details and right there, you transfer the money to his account from yours. You put the phone screen to his eye level to show the proof of transfer. 

“There.” You say, waiting for him to notice the proof before packing up your things. He nods and you try to keep a note to raise your talent fee in order to make ends meet. He thanks you for the payment and as he was about to discuss another matter regarding the team, he gets a call which you assume is from his family. 

“I have to go. Let’s talk tomorrow.” 

You nod, bidding him goodbye before packing up your things. Holy fuck you were hungry and stressed. Studies, dance and now money? Of all times it had to be when it was near hell week? You want to cry. 

“What are you doing here? It’s late.” Mingi asks, his tone clearly not helping you in your current predicament. 

“What, I can’t stay here now? Is this your territory, Song Mingi?” A groan slips from your lips, but at this point it just sounds like a growl. “I can’t let myself catch my breath here?” You spit out. For once, his eyes widen at your venom. 

“I’m asking because it’s already midnight. You know how the streets outside can be a little dangerous at this hour.” He’s exasperated. A small part of him can’t get himself to be his usual self around you after having helped him in his studies. 

You immediately stand up from your spot, about to give him a piece of your hazy mind. Only, when you stand up, you feel the blood suddenly rush and your head spins for a moment. You lose your balance in that moment and the man knows better than to say anything that could make this worse. 

Maybe it was because of his long limbs that you’ve come to be envious of, or his quick reflexes from his basketball history, regardless he manages to hold you up before you crumple to the ground. His finger gently pulls your lower eyelid down to peek at the color of your eyes. Pale pink. You need to eat and drink something fast. 

“You need to eat.” He states, holding your bag with his free hand as he tries to keep you up. 

You knew that you weren’t really fine but you still had some sort of want for self preservation that you let out a weak lie. “I’m fine.”

“No you aren’t.” The chances of you putting up a fight were low so you let him guide you to the nearest food chain. 

It was the same fast food chain you go to with Wooyoung and San every post training. You couldn’t get yourself to look at the menu, the smell of meat, fried strips of potato and grease were overwhelming you. The bright lights made you want to shut your eyes. He notices this and brings you first to a booth far from the noise of people. “Stay here.” He doesn’t know why he said that, you were in no position to go anywhere else as you bury your features in your arms. He crouches down to your hunched level. “Do you want anything in particular?” You shake your head weakly. “I’ll buy you something okay?” You just nod. No strength in you to say that you didn’t want him to pay for you, that you were broke, that you just wanted to go home and sleep. 

The time he was off buying your meal, you were floating in and out of consciousness. You reach for your water bottle, to finish what was left before the food came. All that was left were two mouthfuls of water which you suppose could stave off the hunger pains. As you wait for Mingi, you fish your phone out from your bag as you message the team to remind them of their unpaid dues. Your next gig wasn’t going to be until after this competition. Could you juggle a gig within the next five weeks while dealing with your student duties? Probably not but it is being considered. 

Mingi arrives shortly with a tray full of food for you and him. “I owe you.” You mumble as you straighten up at the sight of food. He shakes his head as he hands you a double burger, orange juice, and ice cream. For him, a burger, nuggets, ice cream and coke. 

“You need this. Call it even, you’re helping me with my exam.” 

You stare at him for a moment then look at the meal. You were hungry and you couldn’t stop yourself from digging in anymore. The size of the burger makes it a little tricky for you to take big bites, forcing you to take small bites slowly. All of which was Mingi’s plan. After seeing how pale and weak you were, having you eat quickly all of a sudden wasn’t going to be good for you. 

“H-hey, is everything okay?” Mingi asks, alarmed as he hands you some tissue to wipe your cheeks with. “You’re crying.” 

The pad of your thumb brushes against your cheek and you could feel the wetness of your thumb. You take the tissue from his hands as you wipe your eyes. “I guess it’s the stress.” You mumble. It still hasn’t set in that you’ve reached your limit and you’re just wiping away the tears as they come. 

“Wanna talk about it?” He offers. For tonight, he puts aside the sour relationship he has with you. 

So you do. Through the tears and food, you share what’s been causing you distress. The internal issues of your team thanks to the alumni’s mishandling of the finances. The financial issues of having to cover some of those issues with your own money. Your academic workload. The pressure of being a captain when you feel like you just became one because there was nobody else willing to take on the role. Along the way, you ended up admitting your jealousy towards Mingi: how the school tends to favor the basketball team as compared to the arts and dance teams, how he’s doing so well as a captain, how finances is the least of his worries for the team. 

That takes him by surprise. The entire time he’s been giving you hell, you’ve been going through your own hell. The idea of internal financial issues never crossed his mind, though that was mostly due to the fact the school covers the expenses for travel and what not. Along with the sponsorships his team receives from sports brands. While he was so caught up in his own jealousy towards you, he didn’t realize that you had your plate just as filled as his, if not heavier. He says nothing, opting to eat his food as you unload everything you’ve kept from everyone. It was obvious from how affected you were, just how passionate you are for this field and to be disregarded, disrespected and be the one to clean up after the mess would clearly take a toll on anyone. He watches you carefully, you’ve stopped crying but your eyes were puffy. It takes a while before you take a deep breath and that was a sign you finished with your tirade. 

“Are you open for my own thoughts or is it better if I just listen?” He finally asks after finishing his burger. 

You let him take the floor this time as you continue eating your burger. 

Here, he admits his wrong doings to you. Just as you were jealous, so was he. Jealous of how you could keep a low profile despite having performed in front of so many people over the years. How he thought you were doing well in juggling your academics with your workload. How you could manage a team as the sole captain, even if Wooyoung and San were your co-captains. He also admits how he thought your team was doing well in terms of finances considering the clothes you have for the performances. Along the way, he apologizes for having added to your hardships. “If you guys need help with financial stuff, just tell me.” Maybe the words passing around of how rich his family was true. 

You stare at the male, your drink halfway to your mouth. That was enough to make him backtrack his words. “I mean, if that’s okay with you.” Instead of saying anything that could worsen the situation, he just opts to eat the rest of his food in silence. 

For the first time that night, you chuckle at his actions. Fingers brush through your hair as you push away the strands that block your vision. “I’ll think about the offer. Thank you though for it.” 

For the first time, he actually shoots you a genuine smile. He walks you back to your dorm, not minding to carry some of your things. It was a quiet walk, not that any of you minded, at least this silence was comfortable as compared to the tensed ones of the past. 

Once you reach your place, you take your bags from him. “Don’t forget tomorrow okay?” 

He stares at you, confused at what prompted you to say such. A few seconds pass and it clicks. “Ah! Yeah, we’ll be there, same place?” 

You nod as you unlock your door. “Get some sleep Mingi. It’s been a long night.” You bid him a good night with another smile before retreating into the safety of your abode. 

The male realized that your smiles seem to make him feel odd emotions. 

The following day goes by quickly. You manage to do alright in your exams and presentations-- though a good portion of your presentation being candid. You go through your usual routine of buying your lunch as you wait for the two in the same spot. 

You didn’t expect Mingi to call your name out, especially in disbelief. Yunho following him shortly. “What’s the occasion?” Yunho asks as he eyes your business formal attire. You look down at yourself and you realize that they are probably more accustomed to your casual wear and training clothes. 

“Oh, presentations. Some of my professors are particular about the attire so…” you trail off with a shrug. “Anyways, let’s get started before you need to go to your next class.” 

You twist your questions a little more this time, testing their memory and understanding of the events. They manage to answer your questions with ease, even going as far as connecting the events to events that happen after. Your heart swells with pride and confidence. If they pass the exam, they were going to do so with flying colors. 

The bell rings and it’s the same old once more. “That concludes our last session. You’ll do great tomorrow.” You say as you give them a standing ovation. Yunho was the first one to react. 

“Whaaat, it’s that fast?” He whines with a pout. With your attention sole on the faded pink male, you don’t catch Mingi’s mixed expression. Just when the two of you were getting along, both of you were going back to your own lives. “We won’t see you anymore?” He asks, almost like a child whose lollipop was taken from them. 

“Boys, you got class. You’re going to be late!” So you shoo them off. Mingi nods and stalks away, Yunho waving to you as he jogs after Mingi. 

“You think we’ll do okay tomorrow?” 

“We’ve been studying for this more than needed. We better, man.” 

You watch them jog towards their next class until San notifies the group chat of their venue for the upcoming days. 

[ Mountain ] Hey everyone! We’re using the studio for the remaining weeks starting today! ^^ 

[ Welsh Corgi ] fries are on us every pre-training so be there early!

[ You ] *only on wooyoung and san :p 

Who knew that today was going to be the last day you’d see Mingi and Yunho?

Part 2

[hexfloog]

Hakuba?

disclaimer: i haven't seen ep.479 yet, it's been a hot minute since i read magic kaito, and i wrote this after a few drinks

(in no particular order below the break)

they got done dirty by fans • despite being basically prototype shinichi (and, appropriately, looking a bit like the end product of using polymerization on him with shiho), he gets relatively little attention. obviously most of this is just due to the fact that he just doesn't appear in anything-- and hasn't for a not-insignificant amount of time-- but that and personality and flaws aside, i think it's kind of a shame because of most everything else on this list, such as...

wasted potential / didn't get enough screen time / they work better as part of a dynamic • his relationship with kaito is so funny. he heckles him """knowing""" that he's KID but has never actually 100% without-a-doubt, irrefutably confirmed it. he gets bamboozled every time but is just so dead set on it that he completely ignores kaito's repeated insistence that he isn't who he thinks he is and just continues to talk to him as if he's talking to KID and that's just hilarious to me. it's kind of like if conan never disclosed his identity as shinichi to heiji but heiji treats him like he does in current canon anyway. of these interactions by far the best one is the volunteering of valuable information to kaito in the middle of the chat noir heist as an under-the-table, backhanded sort of bidding of "good luck." it's a lesser mirroring of the relationship kaito has with conan - but arguably funnier since hakuba """knows""" the truth but conan does not (and likely does not care to, as it would not alter the dynamic). • the above, but now with the added hilarity of him being 1 of 3 members in a group of 4 (one of whom is JUST KAITO HIMSELF sksksk) who know that kaito moonlights as KID at the conclusion of MK1412. i'm a little mad this didn't continue like WHAT were they gonna do LMAO • adjacent to the above: his apparent (former? is he still into her?) infatuation with akako. obviously it's just/mostly a result of him being under her spell but it's so fucking funny that she still sort of notices him regardless. even if he is just a means to an end she calls upon him when kaito is in danger in sun halo, which is... wild?? akako is also member #2 of this KID group which makes this even funnier, deadASS what was the endgame of this group gonna be in practice LOLOL, everyone just uses everyone else as bait for something or other and the end goal of unmasking KID is just completely moot if 75% of them already know

wow! they are a horrible person

• you cAN'T JUST SAY THAT TO HEIJI AND GET AWAY WITH IT

• *wildly gesturing* YOU ALSO CAN'T JUST ACCUSE OTHER PEOPLE OF NEPOTISM (something something people who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones etc. etc.)

• in the MK anime specials canon, hakuba has relatively little interest in capturing KID and instead uses him as bait iirc?? tbf they're all guilty of this in the MK1412 canon, but it rubs differently when spider is the prey they're trying to catch - different if only because he poses a legitimate threat to even kaito. even if he saves him before he's lost to the nightmare that's still something of a MASSIVE gamble, especially if both he and kaito combined are not much of a threat to spider T___T like this is like... how conan tends towards recklessness when the black organization is involved, including the disregard/failure to consider the full consequences of involving or using the people around him, villain or otherwise (pisco and itakura, at least, come to mind).

why do they look like that • he LITERALLY debuts in sherlock cosplay • his eyes are red?? hello???? (why is this so vivid in my memory but now when i try to look up screenies to corroborate they're brown in every single one of them)

whatever. they're red to me. makes things more interesting sksksks

i don't really have much to say about them / i forgot this character existed (am i the biggest lying liar or nah. look at all this text) • despite all of this, that's kind of all i have to say about him. i didn't do my homework and am drawing purely on memory and that's a little hard when he makes so few appearances even in the MK canon(s). MK in general has a lot of wasted potential tho imo and i think that extends to its primary cast too, including hakuba. personally i think he's far too wacky to mesh well into detco canon, in the same way that detco kaito is not quite the same as MK kaito.

all in all i think hakuba, unlike his successor, is really not at all tolerable on his own and works infinitely better with practically anyone else in the ekoda gang (but mostly kaito, bc they are both proprietors of a part of the MK-brand of Shenanigans).

anyway thank you for the character!! nice opportunity to think about the fellas i don't typically yammer about :D

[bleachbleachbleach]

please tell us about your wip!! :)

Part 1: Premise | Part 2: Progress | Part 3: Process

Let me preface this by saying I really want to hear how others approach their writing!

For me, I want the process to be collaborative with the characters. I don't mean it in the sense that like, there are little sprites in my head that I have direct 4th-wall conversations with. But more like--I guess I feel a sense of responsibility? to these characters and whatever it is I'm going to learn about them through writing them. Anything the fic does has to be something the character is willing to do. Not something they necessarily want to do--like "hey, blorbo! How would you like to star in a fic that is about the WORST day of your life??" But something they are willing to do, regardless of whether it is unpleasant or not.

I think it's a POV thing at the end of the day, because I prefer a close third-person most of the time, so the structure of the story is really shaped by who that character is. And inasmuch as you kind of don't have a choice but to be laid bare if the narrative is in your head, from your eyes, I do think there's opportunities for disclosures/lack thereof, both in terms of how a scene goes and also in terms of what makes its way onto the page via the character's focus/apprehension of the scene. Inasmuch as I see most writing as an opportunity to get to know characters, and about those disclosures and intimacies, sometimes I guess I feel like characters deserve to... have things that aren't for anyone's eyes. XP Does that sound bananas?

Like, I don't find Hitsugaya particularly collaborative when it comes to fanfic, for obvious personality reasons. Or maybe I just have strong opinions about how much and what he should have to narrate. But in my current WIP, he started out with a LOT more POV chapters, and in the last year or so has managed to bargain himself down to 1 chapter and change (MAYbe), and then not until literally 75% of the fic has already played out. And not for lack of roles he has to play in this story to that point! He's just going to be doing them mostly without us. King shit, tbh, I respect that.

But something I'm really enjoying right now, is that having done that, I think I'm finally getting to a point (a billion months later) where I actually get to do more with him as a character in this fic, and I feel like he's willing to give more in certain moments, whereas at the beginning a lot of things felt more circumscribed, like, "this fic is getting this one thing out of this guy and this one thing only" in order to still fall within whatever parameters felt legit and respectful/consensual(? LOL) to me.

It's not really a "how far can I push this before it's OOC" thing, though I spent 99% of my writing life having anxiety about that, too, for sure. It's some other character/POV-related thing, where I want the character to be on board with what they're being asked to do. Again, irrespective of whatever traumatic, dastardly thing that ask might be comprised of.

So anyway, writerly friends, mutuals, followers, complete strangers who happened across this post despite the fact that it is certainly not tagged for that!!

I'd love to hear about your process!! Whatever part of it you wanna talk about, not just whatever space oddity I've tried to articulate above.

[sharoncarterappreciation]

Hi do you have a comic reading list/guide for Sharon Carter? I would really like to learn more about her in the comics but I'm not sure where to start

I know someone who’s working on an updated reading list (the last one is this one), but it isn’t ready at the moment (though you can read what she has here). As such, I’ll try to make a very rough one!

Tales of Suspense: 75-76, 85, 92-95, 97-99 Captain America, Vol 1: 100-104, 108, 114-116, 124, 127, 135-137, 140-143, 144-148 (Femme Force!), 153-156 (Steve, Sam, and Sharon team up against other!Cap and other!Bucky!), 161-163 (Peggy), 165-167 (if you’re into relationship drama), 178-182 (Nomad Steve), 202, 204 (Leila!), 206-207, 209-212 (Sharon on a SHIELD mission), 233 (brainwashed Sharon), 237 (apparently dead Sharon), 445-454 (Sharon is alive and not exactly happy about it) Captain America, Vol 3: 1 (i.e., one of the panels that made me fall in love with her more), 3-4 (free agent working with SHIELD to use their resources) Fury/Agent 13: 1-2 (Sharon goes after Nick Fury in more ways than one) Captain America, Vol 3: 9-12 (Her and Steve v Nightmare!), 13 (Steve getting involved in politics), 15-17 (Her and Steve v Skull, pt 1), 19 (v Skull, pt 2), 20 (sets up mission to Savage Land), 25-31 (Her and Steve v Nefaria in the Savage Land/Sharon becomes Director of SHIELD) Sentinel of Liberty: 1 (recons how they found out each other’s identities) Captain America, Vol 3: 34-35/Captain America Annual 2000 (Director Sharon and Steve v Protocide), 37-42 (Them v Hydra/AIM/Batroc/Steve’s current girlfriend), 45 (Nick comes back as SHIELD Director, Sharon demoted), 50 (She turns Steve down but leaves room for the future after he crashes one of her missions) Captain America, Vol 5: 1-4, 6, 8-9, 12-14, 16-7, 19-22, 24-32, 35-42, 49 (Note: All of these are the Winter Soldier arc and the Civil War arc, so Sharon suffers... a lot), 600 (Sharon thinks Steve is alive and is determined to find out for sure) Captain America Reborn: 1-6 (Sharon finds out for sure and is instrumental in bringing Steve back from his timeline) Secret Avengers, Vol 1: 1-21 (18 is PARTICULARLY good; anyway, Brubaker wrote the first batch. When Remender came on, Sharon disappears without another mention) Age of Heroes, Vol 1: 3 (Girls’ Night In - Hill, Hand, and Sharon Carter fight bad guys while bogged down with bureaucracy) Captain America, Vol 5: 615.1-618 (Bucky is in legal trouble, and she and Steve try to help) Captain America and the Secret Avengers, Vol 1: 1 (Sharon and Natasha do a mission together while Steve deals with paperwork) Captain America, Vol 6: 1-19 (Sharon has a LOT of great stuff in this one, and it isn’t as emotionally heavy as V5. Reads almost like Brubaker’s love letter to the Cap title) Captain America, Vol 7: NO. Remender wrote this batch and basically killed Sharon off for Steve to angst over. When she comes back, she’s much, much older because of her time in a pocket universe. Maybe just read the final issue, where Sam gets the shield and Sharon and Steve are stepping back from heroism (he’s old now too) and raising their son together (Ian Zola, whom Steve kind of kidnapped and soon disappears into another universe, where he meets Steve and Sharon’s biological daughter and escapes with her - supposedly back to 616 but he hasn’t been seen since). So maybe just read Issue 25 and be done with it. Captain America: Steve Rogers (1, 3-4, 6-7, 9-12, 15, 19) / Captain America: Sam Wilson (1, 6-7, 14) / Secret Empire (0-1, 3, 7-9): Note: This is the Secret Empire event where a personified Cosmic Cube replaces Steve with a Hydra version who was Hydra all along. The run wasn’t popular with a lot of people, in part because this version of Steve has co-opted by modern-day Nazi variants. So while some characters get... good character stuff, read with caution. Winter Soldier, Vol 1: 1, 3-5 (Sharon helps Bucky run a program to find people second chances so they can start over) Captain America, Vol 9: 1-9, 11-27 (Sharon gets sent into a trap, is shown to be part of a secret spy team, and gets her youth back, along with extra strength, agility, and a powered suit)

[blackestnight]

wait can I come back for round 2 of relationship ask meme but also be a lil selfish and ask for any fun thoughts / details about hanami and nini friendship for any verse

KICKS DOWN DOOR

DO YOU WANT TO GO TO SPACE

WE'RE GOING TO SPACE

or: hi, i'm going to talk about starfinder au. apologies for the sequence of words i am about to put on your screen but i think nini would have a great time as an akashic lorekeeper mystic (but like...intelligence-based. i wish starfinder had more straight spellcasting classes.) imagine her with a MIND PALACE full of BOOKS. and sometimes she can PHYSICALLY WALK INTO HER MIND PALACE. bookshop au but it's magic and in space!!!!!!

with that established, time for shenanigans:

nini's a jack-of-all-trades, good-for-those-random-skill-checks-no-one-took-ranks-in type, probably does a lot of background research/support for SCION (a networking hub for Space Mercenaries who Fight Evil). hanami's more a charge-in-swords-blazing type but whenever she's going on assignment somewhere she's not familiar with she's knocking on nini's door. nini knows everything, and if she doesn't know she can find out.

when nini's not doing research for SCION she's looking for information on the Gap, a weird universe-wide event that spanned multiple millennia during which all memory—living, (un)dead, digital, divine—was erased. no one knows what happened during the gap or even exactly how long it lasted, but somewhere in there an entire planet kind of went missing, so it's a fairly big deal.

nini and hanami go on expeditions together to a moon called Salvation's End, which is (fittingly) actually a man-made moon, run by an AI that maintains multiple simulations of different pre-Gap civilizations that have since either been wiped out or forced to leave their home worlds. they never manage to get into the same sim twice but it's always a good time, in the "oh shit we might die" kind of way, and it's also an anthropologist's wet dream. hanami runs guard duty while nini walks around taking notes and chatting up the locals.

nini's mind palace has blankets and a steaming pot of tea in it so sometimes she calls it up and wanders inside just to have a nap. it's really not big enough to fit a couch built for a seven-foot-tall dragonkin but by god she tries, so hanami can also come in and nap after a long day of getting chased around a moon.

nini, unlike hanami, actually is an Official Starfinder(TM). she hasn't taken on many society missions in the last few years due to society drama (that resulted in, like, 75% of its membership going missing) but it's where she met estinien.

and they were from rival factions (oh my god they were from rival factions). nini's a dataphile, estinien was an exo-guardian (before he left the starfinders for good in the wake of the Oops We Fucked Up And 75% Of Our Members Went Missing incident). "rival" is used loosely here since for the most part the different factions work together fine/don't have any direct conflicts of interest.

i haven't done any organized play adventures for this year but from what i know about the story nini would be all over it, it's all about a series of data and information heists conducted against the starfinder society. anyway.

nini and hanami are both telepaths (hanami comes by it naturally, nini's is magical). nini's specific brand of telepathy can work very similarly to the echo, in that she can voluntarily view scenes from a person or place's past. this means they both join krile in actively harassing him.

estinien, indignant: that's not how that WORKS hanami: not for me. but it does for her nini: :)

(she only rarely actually uses her power for evil)

hanami travels outside of the pact worlds a lot for different jobs and ALWAYS comes back with a new snack or drink for nini to try. their, uh, edibility is usually up for questioning, because alien food, but none of it will outright kill them (probably). it's definitely better than anything that comes out of a culinary synthesizer.

once a year nini and hanami try to schedule a week or two off missions and drag their respective beaus out to arkanen for the yearly lightning festival. it's mostly a draw for technomancers, who study at the local university, but the gang loves it because something about being on a moon rocketing through a lightning storm older than some stars never gets old.

[shijiujun]

Hi! Is it okay to ask you for a small advice? I started reading Thousand Autumns recently (currently on chapters ~85-88) and I'm having a bit of a problem with Yan Wushi's character. I am so turned off by his behavior towards SQ for the whole novel up to this point and I just wonder - is it gonna get better...? I can't stand seeing him openly abusing SQ and treating him like shit, I'm sorry (1)

I know he's evil and it's expected of him to be bad but with future romance prospect I'm really struggling to like the relationship between him and SQ; and if in the first half of the novel I didn't expect big changes, now I keep hoping to see something different from him but I'm not seeing much. He keeps treating SQ horribly. I'm not sure if I can forgive him for what he's done and has no remorse whatsoever - (2)

- abusing SQ and manipulating him, using him as an experiment as if he's a toy to play with; selling him to a r*pist knowing he'll be tortured to death...! And after everything that happend I still barely see anything good in his attitude towards SQ. I can't help but think SQ deserves so much better. I suppose I should try to have some hope for the upcoming chapters to be better? Is it worth it to continue reading or nothing will change? Excuse me for writing so much, Thank you

---

Heya! Oooof okay so you’re totally valid, Yan Wushi isn’t like a character for everyone - so let me break it down with the first part and then the second part where his attitude turns for the better XD

Spoilers under the cut

Before SQ goes to save him:

Yan Wushi does have a goal which is to play mind games with Shen Qiao and (1) throw him into despair (2) try to see if Shen Qiao is a worthy opponent - sure, he’s an asshole with an agenda of his own. YWS doesn’t believe that there is any good in anyone - he thinks Shen Qiao is a hypocrite and that everyone will turn evil given the right circumstances, and so YWS doesn’t trust anyone, or even considers anyone as an equal to him.

He wants to see Shen Qiao become evil basically and does everything he can to direct him towards that but I’d say his actions (with two exceptions) fit his character and the two motives above pretty well and I’m not sure I’d count it as abuse (based on my understanding of abuse, feel free to disagree). I think it’s easy to forget that Shen Qiao is not delusional or naive or ‘innocent’, and he does not paint YWS as some saviour or a friend (at least in the beginning) - he knows who YWS is, knows that he’s insane, not compassionate, totally evil etc. even from the start the moment he realizes that YWS and his disciple lied to him.

1. He lies to Shen Qiao that he’s his shizun, and then sends him to kill someone, but he’s not there to enforce it

2. Throws him out on the streets without his memories, but Shen Qiao is anything but a weak youngling, once again, YWS doesn’t do anything to him

3. YWS turns up at the temple and has Shen Qiao read the scripture - SQ’s not sure what’s going on at first but he more or less figures it out, but also the scripture reading inadvertently helps to heal him (and YWS knows this)

4. YWS flirts with Shen Qiao for a reaction for a while, he’s not genuine of course, but Shen Qiao knows he’s not genuine

5. YWS doesn’t help Shen Qiao out when he’s faced with an opponent while he’s still injured just to see how long Shen Qiao can hold out for - but firstly, Shen Qiao never really expected him to help in the first place, because he has no delusions about the man - and YWS ends up helping anyway, of course not out of the kindness of his heart, but I don’t see why I should hold that against him XD

6. Stands by and watches as Shen Qiao and his shidi Yu Ai have their confrontation - Sure, he’s there to watch the drama, but it’s Shen Qiao who makes the decision to go with him - the lesser of two evils

7. Forces Shen Qiao to fight him while he’s still injured because he wants to see if Shen Qiao’s recovery level has reached a certain point, enough to be an adversary worth dealing with - yes, he’s forcing Shen Qiao to fight when he’s still blind and weak, but throughout the fight you realize that YWS is right - it’s that very battle that basically lets SQ recover his previous abilities by a bit. He’s not hurting SQ for the fun of it (out of sadism or shit) - he purely (or evil-ly) wants to know if SQ is every bit of the skilled warrior he’s heard about 

The exceptions are these: (1) When he plants the demonic seed thing in his heart (2) When he trades SQ to Sang Jing Xing for his sword, knowing full well that SJX has a habit of sexually torturing his prisoners - I feel like YWS was almost warming up to SQ when his habit of distrust and everything kicked in and he reverted back to his cynical self - Not an excuse for what he did though, because yes Shen Qiao especially didn’t want the demonic seed thing firstly (and YWS knows this), and then he despaired at being left to SJX. This is the incident that has SQ basically give up on YWS and allows him to erase any notion of him ever becoming friends with YWS. I’m also rather curious how exactly SQ kind of like got over this - but in the settings of the book, I guess it’s explained away with (1) SQ actually fully recovering as a result of this incident (2) SQ has a big heart, and forgives YWS after - but whether or not that’s convincing, that’s up to every reader.

After SQ goes to save him:

1. So after the SJX incident - where he chose to self-destruct and die, taking SJX along with him but ended up surviving and being able to cultivate properly again from the start (previously he couldn’t because he could only recover to a certain extent as there was some blockage etc., but the blast in this incident clears the blockage) - and after he’s sort of recovered like 50-75%, he hears of an ambush on YWS by the leaders of like 5 other sects, and decides to go forward to save him 

2. Not because he harbours any like delusions on YWS, but to show him that despite all YWS has done to him (especially with SJX), SQ is still SQ, and he still adheres to his own principles, that YWS did not make him change his mind about being good basically

3. YWS’s views of him starts to change because of this - YWS has never found someone with this much grit to stick to his own principles etc., to still be kind and righteous basically despite being betrayed again and again. Of course this does not excuse the fact that YWS did indeed deliberately leave him to a potentially painful death with SJX - and SQ doesn’t forget either. 

4. SQ saves YWS, and then his heart melts because while YWS is recovering from the ambush, he has two other personalities that show up - so YWS when he was much younger, then YWS when he was a teenager, and YWS now. So YWS as a kid and teen are more trusting and open, and SQ likes kid YWS a lot (like as kid brother), and now-YWS wakes up occasionally from the switch in personas, he realizes that SQ likes kid-YWS and starts thinking about why SQ hates him and likes his kid self.

5. Even then, YWS still does try to jump ship once and leave SQ and other evil people behind in a dangerous cave, but thankfully teen/kid-YWS personas fight to turn up in time, and then YWS goes back for SQ

6. SQ knows this - he doesn’t think YWS has had a sudden change of heart or shit, and knows full well that if it was now-YWS, if kid-YWS didn’t turn up, he would probably be left to think about how to leave the cave on his own

7. YWS’s behaviour towards SQ does a 180 - now that he knows he cannot sway SQ, he starts to listen to SQ, and despite all the barbs on the surface, even if he disagrees with SQ’s positive outlook, he makes an effort to contribute and consider SQ’s opinion even if he doesn’t, intrinsically, believe in it. Starts putting himself in front of SQ, and of course SQ doesn’t believe this all the way to the end, where he realizes that he actually, just that tiny little bit, has started liking YWS and doesn’t want him to die.

8. Then they confirm their relationship in the extras, and YWS does do that hot-and-cold thing once so SQ figures out his feelings for him properly - It’s SQ that initiates the confirmation at the end I think

---

I think at some level, YWS cannot stand how naive Shen Qiao is, and some of the things that he’s leading Shen Qiao to think about/discover are valid - And throughout the book it’s proven true - SQ is kind to Chen Jing, but Chen Jing sells him out (not just once but thrice). He’s kind to and has always doted on Yu Ai, but Yu Ai sells him out too. The elders in his sect - some of them obviously turned to Yu Ai over him despite SQ never having given them reason to doubt him. I don’t think YWS is being deliberately cruel (or abusive) - he’s forcing SQ to look at reality, a reality that YWS sees and lives in.

He always asks Shen Qiao why he trusts others so easily, and afterwards, Shen Qiao does admit that YWS is right in this aspect - he won’t give up his ideals and how he gives everyone the benefit of the doubt, but through YWS, he realizes he needs to be able to think ahead to protect himself and the ppl around him.

Doesn’t excuse the SJX thing YWS did, and I’m sure SQ doesn’t conveniently forget about that either, but in terms of how/why they got together, I guess it’s because despite everything they do know each other best, and are soulmates (tho not only in the sugar-spice-and-everything-nice way i.e. SQ does think YWS is handsome and YWS thinks SQ is the cutest thing ever later). SQ has seen the worst of YWS, and YWS has seen the worst of him - and SQ is made to realize that what he was before was not the best path he could go on because of YWS, but he adjusts his attitude slightly and holds on to his ideals sufficiently. 

On the other hand, YWS still does not believe everyone except his Ah Qiao can truly say they’re good and keep to it in every way, still thinks the worst of a lot of people if not all, but he stops to consider SQ’s POV and input now, whose opinions and every action now mean more to him than anything else ever will. Of course he has to prove himself and earn SQ’s trust back, but I guess he also doesn’t expect SQ to reciprocate, even after he developed feelings for SQ, knowing full well that he’s a mofo and SQ has every right to hate him after all he did.

They don’t fix each other, they’re not each other’s salvations, but they fit and come sort of to a truce, despite having differing views and principles.

Manipulation? Sure, but I think we forget that Shen Qiao is not a victim (except the part where he’s given to SJX) and his agency in every situation is apparent - He’s pretty clear-minded, he knows what Yan Wushi is doing, knows what his character is like, knows that he’s doing/saying things all to get a reaction out of him. He doesn’t expect YWS to help him either, because he knows YWS is here for fun and games. He doesn’t go along with YWS just because, either. He just made a wrong call by trusting that YWS reciprocated his feelings of friendship (not that it’s his fault at all), but that is certainly a moment of weakness he probably regrets.

---

In summary, I personally wasn’t all that put off by YWS’s behaviour, altho I agree the SJX incident is pretty much unforgivable. For me I read this more from the SQ perspective, because his strength shines in every moment and interaction with YWS and overshadows YWS by a lot, which is why the end makes sense to me.

In response to your question - yes YWS does get better when he’s finally totally convinced that SQ is not a hypocrite (although yeah it takes him a while to get there). And for me it’s nice to see Shen Qiao figure out himself, and also his feelings for YWS after, but also never once compromising himself for YWS.

But YWS is definitely less palatable than most other characters in danmei, so it’s natural if you dislike him and remain unconvinced! It happens XD If you hate this, I suggest you try Wu Shuang! Set in the same universe and timeline, and actually doesn’t have much angst - full on bantering between the main CP, constant veiled insults etc.

[bobasheebaby]

100 Buffy Prompts

I had a lot of fun compiling this list. I was cracking up more than once and now I want to binge Buffy. If there is a show you want let me know because these seriously help me shut of my brain during this covid hell.

1 “NAME, your mouth is open, sound is coming from it. This is never good.” – Buffy Summers

2 “I just want to be alone and quite in a room with a chair and a fireplace and a tea cozy. I don’t even know what a tea cozy is, but I want one.” – Buffy Summers

3 "They were supposed to be my light at the end of the tunnel. I guess they were a train.” – Buffy Summers

4 “I don’t know what’s coming next. But I do know it’s gonna be just like this – hard, painful. But in the end, it’s gonna be us. If we all do our parts, believe it, we’ll be the one’s left standing.” – Buffy Summers

5 “I don’t handle rejection well. Funny, considering all the practice I’ve had, huh?” – Xander Harris

6 "Just because you’re better than us doesn’t mean you can be all superior.” – Xander Harris

7 “I’m leaning towards blind panic myself.” – Rupert Giles

8 “Since the picture you just painted means that I will never touch food of any kind again, you’ll just have to pick it up yourself.” – Rupert Giles

9 "With all the rubbish people keep sticking in my head, it's a wonder that there's room for my brain." – Spike

10 "Oh, I don't know. Looking in the mirror every day and seeing nothing there...it's an overrated pleasure.” – Angel

11 "Passion. It lies in all of us. Sleeping, waiting, and though unwanted, unbidden, it will stir. Open it's jaws, and howl. It speaks to us, guides us. Passion rules us all, and we obey. What other choice do we have?" – Angel

12 "Anyway, for real now, I'm gonna ask you something, and you gotta promise you'll be honest and not spare my feelings just 'cause I could kill you. You promise?" Faith

13 "You gotta give me something to do. There's no way I'm sleeping. Don't you need anyone dead? Or maimed? I can settle for maimed.” – Faith

14 "You know, I honestly don't think there's a human word fabulous enough for me.”- Glorificus

15 “I’m cookie dough. I’m not done baking. I’m not finished becoming whoever the hell it is I’m gonna turn out to be. I make it through this, and the next thing, and the next thing, and maybe one day, I turn around and realize I’m ready. I’m cookies. And then, you know, if I want someone to eat m — or enjoy warm, delicious, cookie me, then that’s fine. That’ll be then. When I’m done.” — Buffy Summers

16 “Seize the moment, ’cause tomorrow you might be dead.” — Buffy Summers

17 “The hardest thing in this world is to live in it. Be brave. Live.” — Buffy Summers

18 “No weapons. No friends. No hope. Take all that away and what’s left?” “Me.” — Angelus & Buffy Summers

19 “Don’t you have an elsewhere to be?” – Cordelia Chase

20 “God! What is your childhood trauma?!” – Cordelia Chase

21 “Gee, can you vague that up for me?” – Buffy Summers

22 “I laugh in the face of danger. Then I hide until it goes away.” – Xander Harris

23 “I don’t know what your problem is, what your issues are. But as of this moment I officially don’t care.” – Xander Harris

24 “You’re really campaigning for bitch of the year, aren’t you?” – Cordelia Chase

25 “I mock you with my monkey pants!” – Oz

26 “Funny how preparing looks an awful lot like sitting on your ass.” – Spike

27 “That’s fairly freaksome.” – Oz

28 “Do you have any tact at all?” – Giles

29 “I’ve known you for two minutes and I can’t stand you.” – Spike

30 “Great. Now I’m gonna be stuck with serious thoughts all day.” – Cordelia Chase

31 “You didn’t happen to take a lot of drugs, did you?” – Willow

32 “I’ve seen honest faces…they usually come attached to liars.” – Willow

33 “Can I be blind, too?” – Xander

34 “Gee, I hope I’m not interrupting anything really depressing.” – Riley

35 “And you just accepted that? I only said that because I thought that’s what you wanted to hear.” – Anya

36 “This is the crack team that foils my every plan? I am deeply shamed.” – Spike

37 “We’ve got to face it, we’ve changed. Well, not you—you’re still sadistic and self-centered.” – Giles

38 “Sometimes the most adult thing you can do is ask for help when you need it.” – Giles

39 “Did everybody have their Crazy Flakes today?” – Xander

40 “Do you love me?” “What?” “Do you?” “I love you. I don't know if I trust you.” “Maybe you shouldn't do either.” “Maybe I'm the one who should decide!” — Angel & Buffy

41 “Six a.m.!" NAME cried. "I know that's a number on my clock, but I've never actually been awake to personally witness it!” — Xander

42 “Bored now.” — Vampire Willow

43 “We’ll go be heroes.” — Spike

44 “You have a plan?” “I am the plan.” — Giles & Buffy

45 "Strong is fighting. It's hard and it's painful, and it's every day. It's what we have to do. And we can do it together." — Buffy

46 "I make it through this and the next thing and the next thing, and maybe one day I turn around and realize I'm ready." — Buffy

47 "You have to take care of each other. You have to be strong. NAME, the hardest thing in this world is to live in it. Be brave. Live, for me." — Buffy

48 "Make your choices. Are you ready to be strong?" — Buffy

49 “Weird love’s better than no love.” — Buffy

50 “The who having wha with huh?” — Buffy

51 “Whatever you choose, you’ve got my support. Just think of me as… as your… You know, I’m searching for supportive things and I’m coming up all bras. So, something slightly more manly, think of me as that.” – Xander

52 "A lot of things that seem strong and good and powerful, they can be painful." Angel

53 "To forgive is an act of compassion, NAME. It's-it's... it's not done because people deserve it. It's done because they need it." — Giles

54 "In the end, we all are who we are, no matter how much we may appear to have changed." — Giles

55 "I don't have time for vendettas. The mission is what matters." — Buffy

56 "I don't want to protect you from the world. I want to show it to you." — Buffy

57 "Make your choice. Are you ready to be strong?" — Buffy

58 "Recognizing power in another does not diminish your own." — Joss Whedon

59 “Out. For. A. Walk… Bitch.” — Spike

60 “You can’t see the stars, love. That’s the ceiling. Also, it’s day.” — Spike

61 “Is everyone here very stoned?” — Spike

62 “I feel safe with you.” [Chokes] “TAKE THAT BACK!” — Dawn & Spike

63 “I love you.” “Oh, my god.” “Hey, no. Look at me. I... love you. You're all I bloody think about... dream about. You're in my gut... my throat... I'm drowning in you, NAME. I'm drowning in you.” — Spike & Buffy

64 “Just... give me something. A crumb, the barest smidgen. Tell me maybe, someday there's a chance” “NAME ... the only chance you had with me was when I was unconscious.” “Oh, wha-“ [screams, then shouts]  “What the bleeding hell is wrong with you bloody men/women? What the hell does it take? Why do you bitches torture me?” “Which question do you want me to answer first?” — Spike & Buffy

65 “You can't deny it. There's something between us.” “Loathing. Disgust.” — Spike & Buffy

66 “Could do without the laugh track, NAME.” “But it's so funny. I knew... before you did. I knew you loved the NAME. The pixies in my head whispered it to me.” — Spike & Drusilla

67 “Damn right I’m impure! I’m as impure as the driven yellow snow.” — Spike

68 “I love you.” “No, you don’t. But thanks for saying it.” — Spike & Buffy

69 “This with you, it’s wrong. I know it. I’m not a complete idiot.” — Spike

70 “You always hurt the ones you love, pet.” — Spike

71 "When I say ‘I love you,’ it’s not because I want you or because I can’t have you. It has nothing to do with me. I love what you are, what you do, how you try. I’ve seen your kindness and your strength. I’ve seen the best and worst of you. And I understand with perfect clarity exactly what you are." — Buffy

72 "I’m just gonna go home, lie down, and listen to country music. The music of pain." — Buffy

73 "I have feelings for you. I do. But it's not love. I could never trust you enough for it to be love." — Buffy

74 "Weird love's better than no love." — Buffy

75 “People don’t fall in love with what’s right in front of them. People want the dream — what they can’t have. The more unattainable, the more attractive.” — Buffy

76 "Trust is for old marrieds, NAME. Great love is wild and passionate and dangerous. It burns and consumes." “Until there's nothing left. Love like that doesn't last." — Spike & Buffy

77 "This isn't some fairy tale. When I kiss you...you don't wake up from a deep sleep and live happily ever after" — Angel

78 "I love you. I try not to, but I can't stop" — Angel

79 "If I may suggest, ‘This time it's personal.’ I mean, there's a reason why it's a classic." —Oz

80 "Well, to the casual observer, it would appear that you're trying to make your friend NAME jealous, or even the score, or something. And...that's on the empty side. See, in my fantasy, when I'm kissing you, you're kissing me. It's okay, I can wait." — Oz

81 "NAME’s our friend...except I don't like him/her.” — Xander

82 "What am I gonna do? I think about sex all the time! Sex ... Help! Four times five is thirty ... five times six is thirty-two ... Naked girls. Naked women ... Naked NAME ... Oh, stop me!" — Xander

83 "Man, NAME! My whole life just flashed before my eyes. I gotta' get me a life!" — Xander

84 “NAME. You're really campaigning for bitch-of-the-year, aren't you?” “As defending champion, you nervous?” — Cordelia & Buffy

85 "Tact is just not saying true stuff. I'll pass." — Cordelia

86 “Oh please. Like shame is something to be proud of.” — Cordelia

87 “I’m going to give you some advice: get over it.” — Cordelia

88 “Oh, and you’re welcome.” — Cordelia

89 “I’m not a sniveling little cry-NAME. I’m the nastiest guy/girl in PLACE history. I take crap from no one.” — Cordelia

90 “I think it. I say it. It’s my way.” — Cordelia

91 "I don't like spiders, okay? Their furry bodies, and their sticky webs, and what do they need all those legs for anyway? I'll tell you - for crawling across your face in the middle of the night." — Willow

92 "I don't want danger. Big 'no’ to danger.” — Willow

93 "Let's get this straight. I don't understand it. I don't wanna' understand it. You have gross emotional problems. And things are not okay between us." — Willow

94 "NAME, I got so lost." "I found you. I will always find you." — Tara & Willow

95 "But you like him/her, and when you think about him/her, you get that good down-low tickle, right?" — Faith

96 "You hurt me, I hurt you. I'm just a little more efficient." — Faith

97 "Just relax ... and take off your pants." — Faith

98 "I am, you know." “What?" “Yours." — Tara & Willow

99 "I don't have time for bondage fun." - Buffy

100 “It's fine, I don't need to be snuggled.” — Willow

[e-vasong]

this is the anon who asked for you age? i wanted to know bc i'm 17 and i want to get into fic writing, but i'm under confident in my writing abilities. and while i understand that you can write fic at any age, i also want to write Good Fic and you write so welll. so ig a better question should have been how long have you been writing for? bc bloom is the first fic you've posted on ao3 and your tumblr looks fairly new? but everything you write is stellar. do you have any tips?

age anon continued: what is your writing process? how do you come up with your ideas? how do you plan? do you start with description or dialogue? ooh and on another topic what is your favorite thing to write?

Oh! I see!  Okay, I will say, there isn’t that large of an age gap in between us, so I wouldn’t even worry about that! 

This is going under a cut, because I think it will get long.

So, I wrote some fic when I was in middle school and then kind of got out of it when I lost confidence in my writing.  I stopped for like, four/five years (with the exception of essays for school–lots and lots and lots of essays, which is writing practice, I guess, but a very different type of writing), and just picked it up again this year.  I wrote bits and pieces for a tododeku fic that never really went anywhere back in the fall (though I really would love to pick it up again, I had a lot of fun stuff going on there, and there were aspects of it that I honestly think turned out a lot better-written than BiW) and then in January I started Bloom in Winter!  And now I’m here.

So I mean, I didn’t really have much practice doing creative writing over the past couple years, which sucks, I wish I did, but I did READ a lot.  I read a lot of really, really well-written stuff, both fic and published books.  And I think I developed really distinct tastes as I did?  I figured out exactly what stuff I liked in other peoples’ writing (both in terms of tropes and style, as well as like grammar/structure/etc.)?  I read a lot of stuff with powerful imagery and a lot of stuff that was crazy abstract.  

So for myself, I guess I would say that I got most of my grammar/spelling skills from writing a lot of essays in school, and then any skill I have at making Words Sound Nice I got just from? Reading a lot and thinking about what other people did that worked for me?  Especially if there’s a specific part or passage that really fucking sticks in your mind.  Read that section again and again and figure out what made you like it.  Did it make you feel a certain way?  HOW did they?  It’s more than just words and imagery–sentence structure and length will play a role in it too.

Ah, my writing process varies, I guess?

I came up with the idea for Bloom in Winter because I was thinking about the concept of Villain!Izuku, and I was thinking about how divisive it is in the fandom, and I was thinking to myself about how, exactly, I–as someone who isn’t personally that into villain AUs–would be interested in seeing the trope done.  And it grew from there.  Then, I had a mental image.  Even before I had any of the fic planned, I was thinking about Izuku, in oversized hoodies and a dark green scarf, with a scar twisting its way down his back.  Once I had a basic scenario, I actually just fucking went for it?  The first 75% of chapter two was the first thing I ever wrote for this fic?  And I have personally found that writing actually gives me more ideas?  Like, you  might start an idea not knowing where you want to go, and then find your path?  So after I wrote that 75% of Ch 2, I went back and did Chapter 1.  Vicious was inspired by a book of the same name, written by VE Schwab, for a variety of reasons (the basis for his power for for certain components of his personality come from a couple different characters in the book, and I named him Vicious as a more direct reference), and then once that happened things started to kind of fall into place?  A lot of the pivotal scenes came naturally after that–the situation with Aizawa, the big reveal, how I’m going to handle OFA, and the roughly the note the fic is going to end on.

And that’s about all the outline I have?  I have a general endpoint, as well as certain scenes I want to hit and subplots I want to cover, but I don’t have a chapter-by-chapter outline?  Which might come back to bite me in the ass later, I can’t be sure.  I’ll typically type up a vague outline of what I want to happen in a chapter just before I write that chapter (and I mean. Vague.  My outline for Ch 6 looked like ‘Midoriya and Shinsou scene? Somehow? -> Midoriya has meeting with Hisashi, make as awk. as possible -> Midoriya and Yagi meet again? Midoriya goes to Yagis place somehow.  -> league of villains meeting’).

And then I often find what happens is that while I’m writing earlier scenes, I’ll come up with ideas for later scenes and then can add them to my outline as I go?

My only other tip for coming up for ideas is? Don’t be afraid to look for inspiration in other pieces of media?  My demon AU that I’m working on (which didn’t really kick off until I started writing it, and I got more ideas) draws inspiration–either aesthetic, or story, or lore-building wise from *takes deep breath* Blue Exorcist, Raven from DC, Constantine, Harry Potter, and DnD.  (That sounds like a weird amalgamation, I’m sure.  I swear it’s not.  Technically the AU itself is a Blue Exorcist!/Raven!AU, but the mood/tone of the fic is 100% Constantine inspired, as are parts of Izuku’s characterization.  The society/magic system is a sort of mesh of DnD and HP.)

Anyways….wow, that got long.  I hope it helps, though?