#as a prose snob-- *gets shot*

[bigdvmnhero]

begging u to read this fic

[nanaminokanojo]

ACCIDENTALLY IN LOVE | part 18

-meet cute? a cheesy musical number? forget it! love makes itself known to you through a minor car accident, a broken arm, and a treacherously charming temporary chauffeur

CHARACTERS: sukuna x you/reader | jjk characters

GENRE: full-length smau + prose | bad boy x good girl | college au | a lot of firsts | aged-up characters | strangers to lovers | smut | fluff | angst | ooc depictions - soft sukuna ftw

TW/CW: strong/mature language | adult content so mdni on some parts | mentions of alcohol and/or smoking | mentions of injury, promiscuity and bullying | pet names because they're cute with 2D men | toxic behavior | will add more if something arises

MASTERLIST | CHAPTER INDEX

<<prev part 18 next>>

A/N: This contains prose and panels in between. Same for Part 19. This part is just too long to put on screenshots.

If looks could kill, Haibara Yu will be on the kitchen floor in a pool of his own blood with the way Sukuna was looking at him like he was going to pop a vein on his forehead. It was almost comical since he was holding onto a bottle of strawberry milk and looked like he was about to squeeze it broken with how tight his fists were.

“Man, she seems different from the stories is all I'm saying.”

Sukuna eyed him enquiringly, a menacing hint to it as he breathed out slowly. As far as he was concerned, he never heard any bad rumor about you. “What stories?” He noted the defensive note in his tone, his protective side coming out.

“You heard me.” Yu lifted his shoulders slightly to express uncertainty. “She gets invited to all the parties but she declines all of them and everyone thinks she’s a two-faced snob. And I also heard someone claiming that she said she doesn't mix with commoners.”

It explained why Sukuna has never seen you in any of the parties he has been in. He only knew you from school, and if he did see you at any party, he wouldn’t have passed up the opportunity to approach you at least once. He knew himself, and he appreciated beauty. But maybe that was for the better because then, you probably wouldn’t have liked to be in the same breathing space as him with the way he acts in those gatherings.

His facial muscles suddenly rearranged into a scowl, causing the other male to back away. “Who said that?” he hissed. He couldn’t accept what he was hearing. At the same time, he doesn’t understand where the irritation was coming from. He just can’t take it hearing the slander being thrown at you. You didn’t deserve it at all.

“Do those people even realize how busy she is?”

“Dude, I just heard that.”

“I know, but she’s the real deal. Don’t go listening to what those pricks at school are saying. She’s the kindest person I’ve ever known. She’s so nice to me. Me!”

“Figures,” Yu said slowly, smirking.

“Go talk to her. Get to know her. You’ll get the proof you want,” Sukuna challenged but Yu shook his head. “If she’s being nice to evil little Ryomen, then that’s proof enough.”

"You wanna die?"

"Man, I believe you! Geez!"

Sukuna still shot Yu a dirty look as he walked back to the living room, unable to wrap his head around the fact that there were actually people who disliked you. It made him sick.

TAG LIST: @catobsessedlady @kyo-kyo1 @junehasnotbeenfound @lavender-hvze @guacam011y @eyered @hellomeow12 @its-princessmara @light-yagami-l @domainofmarie @mythoscalliope @noble-17 @pheonix-eclipses @weebbuscuit @sukunasbudussy @lu-c1na @vinnieswife @the-haitani-baton @iaminyourfloors @needtoloveoutloud @r-ryuko09 @somestardeww @swirlingcurses @stayyyyyyyyyyyy21 @bronze-metal @iluv-ace

© ORIGINAL WORK BY nanaminokanojo. CHARACTERS ARE INSPIRED BY GEGE AKUTAMI’S “JUJUTSU KAISEN”. [20240520]

PHOTOS/IMAGES/GIF/FANART/ANY MEDIA CREDITS GO TO THE RESPECTIVE OWNERS.

[incomingalbatross]

So much of Kidnapped is about the culture clash. Davie (audience surrogate) is a teenage boy from a culture that both Stevenson's audience and we recognize as relatively familiar in, you know, the expectations you'd have of a teenage boy, or an average citizen. Alan is the most Jacobite Highlander to ever Highland about things. They're both from the same time, and (technically) from the same country—and yet! So much culture clash in these couple chapters.

Davie looks at this man in a fancy coat with a bunch of gold and is like "rich upper-class kind of guy. snob potential? will like me better if I play up my own upper-class background I just found existed, and consider me an equal?" And where a man from Davie's own society would likely laugh and go "okay sure, ship's boy, I'm sure you're landed gentry," Alan's reaction is not doubt that the child of a landed estate would be alone and in poverty on a merchant ship (...I think they're merchants), but immediate insecurity/defensiveness because he—despite his king's name and his gallantry and everything Davie sees as status markers—does not have any right to a landed estate and thus just the birthright puts Davie on a higher rank than him. Which did not occur to Davie, and is not an insecurity that would make sense to him anyway because, practically speaking, how is an estate he doesn't have a threat to anyone? Davie made the brag, but he himself didn't think it was worth as much as Alan did.

And then Alan admires his honesty in admitting that he can't shoot, because (as I understood it) that would be a deeply embarrassing admission for someone of his or Davie's class in the Highlands. Something that did not occur to Davie when he said it, because he's a kid and a schoolmaster's son, why would he be expected to know how to shoot?? But he gets credit for admitting it anyway because, by Alan's standards, that would take courage.

And then the post-battle bit. It's the best. Alan just moves straight into "I just did a really cool thing and I WON, oh man, that was so cool it deserves a song." He is from a Warrior Culture. Davie is having a breakdown in the corner because he just shot and killed multiple people. That's not something he ever expected to have to do (even in the earlier chapters when he was going up against his uncle and fancying himself a bit of a Boy Adventurer). And when he starts crying and Alan hears it—again, Alan doesn't shame him! Because Alan's been in enough combat to know this is a normal and respectable reaction. He says "You did good and you'll feel better in the morning!" But...again...Alan understands his reaction, but he does not remotely share it. It feels more like he sees it as something to ride out, to get through, because it's normal. The process of Getting Used To Killing Other People is a normal process that you go through when you grow up!

I love the culture clash. I love that you have all these differences and mismatched expectations at the same time that they're banded together and fighting for each other's lives, and also at the same time you get so much fondness for Alan through Davie's narration. ("I will say that in prose he always did me more than justice.") It's real good.

[trash-side-of-nox]

fic writer interview

tagged by @meikuree, thanks for having me in mind! It’s been a while since I did one of these. 

name: NoxCounterspell

fandoms: Currently writing for Kakegurui and Shingeki no Kyojin.

two-shot: The Beginning and the End (or Knocking on Heaven's door), a Kirasaya (KKG) Fic. This was intended to be a one-shot, however ended up being posted in two chapters because it was too long (insert here cynical laughter when I'm currently posting 14k chapters). The project was conceived by a very creative mind and acquaintance that came to me with a very fucking good outline. Together, we managed to create a very immersing post-canon AU, even if I say so myself. This touched a lot of different subjects, everything revolving around the concepts of family and freedom, right versus wrong, the lack of understanding, psychological projection. One of my favorite parts is the tag Meeting the Parents, and how that can play in how the story is perceived.

most popular multi-chapter: To you, the girls lost in Hell (SnK, Mikannie). An absolute whim of mine, taking Yams story and twisting it and shaping it into a narrative that fits snippets of my own imagination, regarding Annie and Mikasa's relationship (this is basically going to be an enemies, to lovers, to enemies, to friends, to lovers). Really, this is a fic entirely about them, for them and how their basic symbiotic relationship: clashing and attraction impacted everything happening on SnK. This is an excuse to study two characters in canon-verse, getting and providing a humble glimpse of how these characters, in the context they are being written, work. Vomiting a heck ton of my own headcanons, I'm trying to add angst, action, psychology and others to the table, following the overall outline Yams created, but redrawing the entire canvas. Honestly, I'm deeply surprised by how well received the story has been. This will try to keep up the intensity, overall, the outline is designed to play with emotions for the whole ride: we know where we begin and where we are going, but the how it's the sting.

actual worst part of writing: Writer's block. Obsessively researching something to realize it just won't fit the story. Self-doubt. Isolating oneself while writing non-stop. The built-in expectations one may have about their writing that might not be met by the end result.

how you choose your titles: One of my favorite parts of writing it's designing titles. Most of them respond to the question of what does the fic need, how can I guide the reader as to why this has been written? So say, To you, the girls lost in Hell is a direct nod to SnK's first manga chapter and the Light Novel: Lost Girls. This story is for Annie and Mikasa, two girls/women left to their own devices, surviving, searching, trying. A message I hope gets delivered. The Time series (Kirasaya, Meariri, Kakegurui) needs definition. Words are concepts we never really stop to decipher, as much as we ignore human behavior. Defining an entire character study by just one word, the context is easily guided: perhaps Fall is the clearest one, how can a character fall and break without them meaning to? I can rant for days as to what's the process I prefer for title creation, but I can summarize in: how can a whole story be told from the very beginning?

do you outline: Yes. My outlines give me an overall idea of how to get from A to Z, without closing the doors to letters from other alphabets. Pretty much every story I start comes from a dialog that won't leave my mind or a very vivid scene I pictured. Building around it - how the narrative goes and comes, rises and falls - is what outlining comes to do in my case. I outline in two stages: overall skeleton (indents, phrases), then, general paragraphs describing each scene. To this, add specific dialogs and phrases that are non negotiable. If I can’t fit them in, then the scene is not working. I like highlighting bits and pieces of the prose. Phrases that will get stuck with the reader and myself. 

ideas I probably won’t get around to but wouldn’t it be nice: PACIFIC RIM MIKANNIE. There, I said it. This has been running around my mind for a while but I think it's mostly for the lols and for how much of a nerd I am. I don't think I would write it but there are snippets in my head of what that might look like. There is also an ExMilitary!Annie and Cop!Mikasa Modern AU running around in my head, with them getting into a relationship with twists and turns to pertain to what they've lived, boundaries, psychological walls, PTSD... etc.  For Kakegurui: BLADE RUNNER + ALTERED CARBON AU.  Yes, I like SciFi. I have a heck ton of wips, some might see the light, some might not. We'll see.

callouts @ me: I don’t know what a omniscient, general narrator is. For the love of Dio I can’t wrap myself around how to narrate something without siding with a character. I’ve read examples, designed scenes... and still there is always one character I get introspective with or predominates in the scene and everything, then, sides with them. So I’m faulty of jumping from POV to POV by scenes. Or I write an entire fic based in once character’s perspective. In both instances, I always hope it’s not confusing.  Long sentences without breaks or very stuffy wording is another fault of mine. Probably from the fact that I like to write from thoughts and actions in depth than leaving things to the reader’s imagination. I want readers to see what I see, to feel what I feel. I try to write from a place of empathy, channeling the character and their psyche, and the impact that creates is what I want to reflect. So overdetailing is a dear friend of mine. A very talented fellow fic writer told me that I build until people can’t escape what I wrote. I think that’s both good and bad, as I’m taking the freedom people get when picturing their own version.

best writing traits: Based on comments, narrative and characterization. Again, I try to write from a place of empathy, and I undust my psychology classes each time I’m trying to write a character. I like character studies, dissecting something until it’s raw, how can I make or break a persona that’s already been written, that already has a defined mind/soul. That’s why I love angst and currently, thriller/horror.  I’m, also, obsessive with details. Everything has to be accurate and clock work. Does anyone care if the bus I’m describing actually exists? Not really, but I need to have a model in mind. Is it really necessary to open google maps and calculate how long it would take X character to walk from Tokyo’s University to a fictional apartment building? Certainly not. However I need to know in order to sell it. If it makes sense to me, then I’m comfortable enough to write it. It’s not practical, but allows to create tangible actions/places.

spicy tangential opinion: Very snob of me... but mind your text’s visual presentation. If the text is unappealing to the eye, it can be uncomfortable to read. I like fics (and books as well) that are mindful of the aesthetic in lines of words. Having adequate spacing in between paragraphs, balancing length of sentences, using defined styles for dialogs... Gives a very professional feel to it. I’m all for AUs and canon divergence, but fanfiction has a very fragile requirement that is to respect the character. Do with them whatever you like, have them tap dance or bungee jump, alter their canon-verse or send them to Hogwarts, but keep the essence. How and why is a character acting the way they do is key while writing fanfiction. I’ve read great stories that would have worked best as original fiction, because I can’t feel the characters. Again, a very snob thought. 

tagging (no pressure): @ladyjay1616 @askboxangel @blankiebandit and anyone else that may want to join

[coralstories]

Assignment: Supergirl

CW Supergirl x OC Aurelia Castillo, eventual Winn Schott x OC Aurelia Castillo

A/N: Will probably do a part 2 of this. Maybe. Probably. Maybe.

Word count: 1614

Aurelia Castillo sometimes regretted moving to National City. It was fine before Kara Danvers became Supergirl, but after that, it was like the city became a hotspot for weird. And don’t get it wrong, she was pretty weird herself. But usually, her weird didn’t lead to people being admitted to the hospital in droves, like after Supergirl battled a colorful human-hating alien. 

Oh, you caught that? Yes, Aurelia Castillo knew Supergirl’s true identity. No, she wasn’t an alien herself, or some sort of evil mastermind; she worked as a photojournalist under James Olsen at Catco Worldwide Media. Kara Danvers, Jimmy Olsen, and Winn Schott weren’t exactly subtle when they talked about Supergirl. 

“Hey, Aurelia, can you bring these new spreads up to James?” 

“Sure. I’ll head up now.”

Aurelia took the stairs one floor up, then turned the corner onto the busy floor. Phones were always ringing here, Kara Danvers was always running to and fro and people were always coming and going in and out of the elevators. Aurelia personally liked it better downstairs, but she always got a laugh when she saw Kara, Winn, Cat, and James. 

She made her way past the pink lion statue and started towards James’ office. She glanced in Ms. Grant’s office on her way and saw the blonde shark sitting at her desk. 

“Kira!” she called. 

Aurelia quickened her pace towards the art department, pushing the door open to find James talking to Lucy.

“Oh, sorry, am I interrupting?” Aurelia said.

“No, it’s fine,” Lucy said. “I was just saying hi. I see that you’re busy, so I’ll let you get back to work.”

“See you, Luce,” James said. “Did you need something, Lia?”

“Nope. Just dropping off my team’s new layout.” She placed them on his desk with a smile.

“Aren’t you supposed to be on a plane to Japan?”

“Nah, they needed my help, so I postponed that until next week.” She leaned on a cabinet and looked out over the city.

“Well, we always love having you here when you’re not flying around the world,” he said.

Aurelia laughed. She saw a red and blue blur streak by the window. Speaking of flying around the world, she thought.

“Oh, come on, James, you know I love it. Don’t be jealous, honey.” She winked at him.

“Alright, well, in any case, I’m glad you’re on our team,” he said, laughing.

“Me too.”

She closed the door behind her and made her way to Winn’s desk. He was too focused on whatever he was doing on his computer to realize she was coming up behind him. She crossed her arms and shifted her weight to one leg as she waited for him to notice her. She saw that he was looking at radiation signatures for different elements. Finally, he saw her silhouette in the reflection on his screen. He looked up.

“Oh, Lia!” he exclaimed. “You almost gave me a heart attack, I thought for a second you were Ms. Grant.”

“Nope, just me. Took you long enough to notice me, though.” Aurelia laughed.

She took out the packet of French dragees from her back pocket and handed them to Winn. He gasped excitedly and took them with a silent thank you.

“For helping me last month,” Aurelia said. “You saved my trip. Cat would have killed me if I couldn’t bring her those photos before the deadline.”

“Hey, anything for a friend,” Winn said with false modesty.

“Well, there’s more where that came from if you stop by my desk later.”

“Really?”

“Yup. You’ve always helped me out, ever since my first day here. The least I can do is be your drug supplier, right?”

“Mmm, you do know I need my sugar kick to function at my best. Thanks.”

“No problem, Winn.”

She patted his shoulder and made her way back to the stairs. She noticed Kara was still not at her desk. Aurelia figured she’d probably hear what she was doing later on the news. She went back to her desk, which was decidedly superhero-free. 

Her lunch hour was brightened by a meeting with her best friend in all of National City: Ingram Capello. Aurelia and Ingram were basically complete opposites. Whereas Aurelia was tall with light brown hair, dark olive skin, a strong build, and a shapely figure, Ingram was of average height with pale, almost sickly-looking skin and black hair, and she was almost as thin as a stick. Added to that, Aurelia was the outgoing and friendly daughter of an Air Force pilot, while Ingram was the reserved (and often misread as condescending) daughter of two powerhouse business leaders. Aurelia laughed and smiled a lot, while Ingram’s smiles were rare. There was one thing they both had in common though: they both had supernatural abilities. Aurelia had a regenerative healing ability and could heal others at will. Ingram was a witch with the power to alter the fabric of reality itself. Neither of them used their powers often for fear of being exposed and persecuted, but it was becoming harder and harder for them to ignore the sense of responsibility that came with these powers. 

“So how was that wedding in Paris?” Ingram asked as she sipped the last of her drink. 

“It was a wreck,” Aurelia groaned. “I mean, the wedding was great, I got some great shots and everything, so that part was fine. But, oh my Lord, if I never have to see any of those people again it will be too soon.”

“Uh oh. What happened?” 

Aurelia waited to respond until Ingram finished crunching on one of the ice cubes at the bottom of her cup. 

“The women in attendance were all bubbleheads and the men were all gross, entitled snobs.” Aurelia shivered. 

“Did they touch you?” Ingram asked in a dangerously calm voice. 

“Yes, but it’s okay, I handled it.”

“But still, you wouldn’t mind giving me the names of a few of these sticky-handed men, would you?” Ingram’s gaze was innocent. 

“Yes, I would. Besides, if you ever read Catco magazine, you would see them there.” Aurelia smiled. 

“Ugh, you’re no fun.”

“Listen, I just don’t want to see you go to jail for killing someone whose only crime was to call me a bitch.”

“It’s a punishable offense.”

“So is murder.”

Ingram crunched an ice cube. They sat quietly for a minute after they finished eating, digesting their meals. 

“How was it seeing everyone again?” Ingram asked. 

“Like I’d never left. What’s the golden girl been up to?” 

“Well, today, I saw her thwart some bank robbers.”

“Oh, is that what she was doing earlier? I thought I saw her zip out of the building.”

“Yes, the bank was across from my dry cleaners. J’onn let me go to lunch early so I stopped there first.”

“How unfortunate for you.”

“She actually kept it pretty contained this time. The only thing that left the building was the criminals.”

Aurelia snorted. 

Aurelia dropped Ingram off at the bus station before returning to Catco. Winn greeted her at the elevator upon her return. 

“Lia!”

“Winn? What’s going on?”

“Ms. Grant was looking for you!”

The color drained from Aurelia’s face. She dragged Winn to the stairway before saying anything further.

“Why is Cat Grant looking for me?” she demanded.

“I don’t-I don’t know, but you should probably go to her office right now. James already told her you were on your lunch break,” Winn said nervously.

Aurelia took a deep breath. She spun away from Winn and marched up the stairs, heading to Cat Grant’s office. She knocked on the glass door before entering. The blond media mogul glanced up. 

“Ah, Miss Castillo,” Cat said. “Come in.”

Aurelia cringed at the way she pronounced her last name. She stood a foot away from Cat’s desk. 

“Did you enjoy your lunch?” Cat asked, still writing. 

“I did, thank you for asking. I just went down to that diner on the corner to meet my friend and catch up. I told her about the assignment I was on.”

“Ah, yes, the super wedding in Paris. It doesn’t seem so super now that we have our own Supergirl, now does it?”

Aurelia chuckled nervously. 

“But I looked at your articles. You had some good prose in there and good points. The pictures were beautifully done.”

“Thank you.”

“You did so well on that, I’m going to have to ground you,” Cat said. 

Aurelia blinked owlishly, stunned. 

“Excuse me?” Was all she could say. 

“From now on, you’re not going to be jetting around the world. I have a special assignment for you here at home,” Cat said. 

She finally stood and walked around the table. Cat smiled victoriously, one hand on her hip as the other supported her weight on the desk. It made Aurelia curious and slightly nervous. 

“What’s the assignment?” Aurelia asked. 

“I want you to photograph and write articles about… Supergirl.”

Aurelia burst into laughter. As Cat’s expression fell and her brows drew together, she quickly recovered. 

“I’m sorry, but… how do you expect me to photograph Supergirl? She flies at the speed of the wind,” Aurelia said reasonably. 

“Not when she’s apprehending criminals or helping babies stuck in cars,” Cat countered.  

Aurelia’s mind was racing. It’s not that she was wholly opposed to the assignment. She had been traveling so much for work lately, staying in one place, and not living out of a suitcase, would be a nice change. However, the problem lied with the fact that she knew Supergirl’s secret identity. She didn’t know if she could write articles about the hero without accidentally revealing something. 

“You start tomorrow,” Cat continued.

[thehoneyedhufflepuff]

May I pls know what trigger warnings I should be aware of regarding The Binding? I’m so intrigued and I want to read it as well!

I will do my best!

So, the prose in this book is incredibly lovely, & I wouldn't call any of the potentionally triggering material graphic. However...

The whole big plot of this story is that this is a world where you can get rid of bad memories, if you choose to. That's what books are in this alternate universe: real memories from real people. A lot of the time those memories are incredibly painful. Things that might be triggering are infant death, rape, general violence, & animal cruelty. Personally animal abuse is the worst for me, but it wasn't terribly graphic & I got through it with mild discomfort.

This is one of those books that just gives you visceral feelings, both good & bad. So I hope you'll give it a shot! If y'all like audiobooks, I highly recommend it. The narration is wonderful. (I consume books almost exclusively via audio these days, & I'm a narrator snob, especially since being introduced to the blessing that is Euan Morton.)

hope that helps!

💜💜💜

[tasteforrot]

Dining Alone At Plaza Azteca

You are always sending me quotes from books that I haven’t read and probably will never read.

We talk about these quotes like conversation because we don’t have anything else to say to each other.

Instead of talking about current events, pop culture, or emailing YouTube video links back and forth, we talk about the past. The unchanging events of fictional characters with lives that are more interesting than ours. Filtering our current stimuli through the lens of some dead white guy.

You like to point out quotes that seem to abstractly apply to our current situation.

I’m currently shitting. If you were still around you would probably have a quote for that.

Through you I’ve read Phillip Roth:

[“This made me laugh,” you said.]

“Just as I am about to unlock the door, imagining I have covered my tracks. My heart lurches at the sight of what is hanging like snot to the toe of my shoe. I am the Roskolnikov of jerking off- the sticky evidence is everywhere!”

[“It has a section titled ‘Cunt Crazy’. The son has a literal Oedipal fixation on his mother. It is written in stream-of-consciousness self-loathing Jewish-American continuous prose. What is with male writers and their cocks? I’ve never felt the urge to write about jacking off. But it is a perennial fixation for Updike and apparently Phillip Roth.”

I said something like, “I think writing is not dissimilar to masturbation.”]

Under the Loving Care of the Fatherly Leader: North Korea and the Kim Dynasty by Bradley K. Martin:

“North Korea called Carter a ‘vicious political mountebank;” his journey, ‘a powder-reeking trip of a hypocrite agitating for aggression and war.’ But a North Korean spokesman in Tokyo said that, in the North Korean lexicon, this was a relatively moderate slur. At least the North had not called Carter an imperialist, its worst insult. “Not an imperialist! Anything but that!”

[For three days we joked in mock horror about the thought of being called an imperialist. You brought up the joke recently and I groaned in return.]

The Marriage Plot by Jeffery Eugenides:

“He held up the baggie. Leonard stuck his nose into the bag and his depression lifted another notch. It smelled like the Amazonian rain forest, like putting your head between the legs of a native girl that had never heard of Christianity.”

[You called it a ‘paltry piece of fiction’ but you said you wanted to put your head between my legs and I said ‘okay’ even though I had no intention of letting you do that. I remembered the first time you went down on me in the hotel room that you lived in at the time. It was the first time anyone had ever gone down on me. It was the first time someone had done something specifically for me for more than an hour. You kept looking up at me periodically with this apologetic look on your face. I kept looking at your bed sheets, trying to figure out the thread count with a concerned enough look on my face that could have hopefully been misconstrued as a look of pleasure. You had an asthma attack during and after.]

Once, you texted me and said, “I must fuck you.”

I didn’t reply but I took a screen shot of the text. I texted you the screenshot a few days later without context.

It is the only quote I have sent you. I think I sent it in a way that meant, ‘look at all the ridiculous things you say to me.’ But you took it as meaning I wanted to sext.

That was the conversation that you told me I would be good at writing erotica and then made sure to add that you’re too much of a book snob to read erotica. Though, while I was sending you detailed descriptions of how I masturbated (face down, sometimes with lesbian porn) you didn’t seem to mind erotic realism.

Tonight you will text me with something like,

“Intense solitude becomes unbearable only when there’s nothing one wishes to say to another.”

You’ll text me again before I answer and tell me that the quote is from ‘Americana’ by Don DeLillo.

I will look at my Iphone light up then check my Gmail.

While I’m going through my spam inbox, trying to figure out how to get off all of these subscription lists (Macy’s, PETA, Sierra Club, ModCloth, Urban Outfitters) that I thought were a good idea to sign up for at some point, you’ll text me a third time and say something like,

“I just finished a margarita. I am dining at alone at Plaza Azteca”

You have perfectly crafted a scenario within the span of three text messages of a lonely drunk writer, drinking comically tropical drinks in a Mexican restaurant, while contemplating the prose of the ‘American heartland’. In the back of your mind, behind your wire framed glasses, matted, self-conscious beard, and nervously thin lips, you think that this is a romantic vision of a struggling writer that drinks margaritas until drunk or out of cash and eats vegetarian tacos because they are cheaper.

Bukowski in paradise.

You quoted Bukowski too many times to count. It was mostly in reference to how you were so much like him. Or how you thought that drinking at 3 am on a Tuesday while writing self-loathing poetry made you so much like him. I usually waited until about the fifth text in a row to text you back when you got started on your Bukowski rants. I knew that the important part wasn’t that I had anything to say back. The important part was to make you feel like someone else thought you were like Bukowski. I didn’t think that but I also didn’t feel strongly enough against it to start any sort of debate.

I always wanted to tell you that I hate Bukowski.

I hate Bukowski. Maybe you are kind of like him.

In response to the first text in the trilogy I text back,

“I like that quote”

Even though I don’t really like that quote.

I like to sit alone and not talk about how I’m sitting alone. I like to drink to get drunk then go to sleep in my own bed. I don’t mind not having anything to say.

Immediately you respond,

“I knew you would.”

“I want you. Come to me.”

I do not want to drink margaritas with you. I do not want to talk in quotes. I do want to be the kind of person that brings novels to Mexican restaurants.

I do not want to be with the kind of person that thinks bringing a novel to a Mexican restaurant makes them an interesting person.

Some nights I just want to watch Mean Girls and talk about the weather. Some nights I really don’t care what is and isn’t post-modern. Some nights I wish that we were post-conversation.

I wish that we didn’t have to turn everything into a metaphor for itself.

You once told me I was your ‘manic pixie dream girl’ like you had never even spoken to me before. Like I was a caricature of myself or a trope to be employed in one of your short stories. You can never talk to me like I am in the present tense.

If I met you at Plaza Azteca I would order a beer, or I would get you to order a beer for me, and you would start talking about how beer makes your stomach queasy the way I make your stomach queasy. The way you are writing a novella about a girl that makes your stomach queasy. You will use that word ‘queasy’ and I will hate it but I will nod like I am interested in becoming a character. I would spend the evening trying to figure out ways to hide my water cup from the waiter who was determined not to see it empty. I would want to see the cup completely empty. No water, no ice. I would sip my beer and hide my water and you would talk to me about something you read or wanted to read. Something about Gore Vidal or Salman Rushdie. You wouldn’t notice what I was doing with my water. I would think silently about how many water related quotes you had; quotes about being empty.

“K.”

[ohmysaysgeorgetakei]

Review: Columbus (2017 film)

FROM WIKIPEDIA:

The romance is a closely related long prose narrative. Walter Scott defined it as "a fictitious narrative in prose or verse; the interest of which turns upon marvellous and uncommon incidents", whereas in the novel "the events are accommodated to the ordinary train of human events and the modern state of society" 

Don’t worry, I’ll explain the meaning of that quote later. But first, let me start off by saying that I get in an arthouse and indie kick every once in a while, and when I do, I always take a look in the mirror and mouth “you’re a snob now.” Maybe we’re all snobs in different ways. But this feature isn’t snobbish. While not having a perfectly crafted story, it managed to touch me in ways that the kids in School of Rock could never have managed to do to Jack Black. Perhaps he touched them harder? *runs down hallway*

Jokes aside, I’d never heard of Kogonada before. Apparently he was a film critic or analyst or blogger or whatever, affiliated with Criterion Collection in some way. I always liked to pretend that I was a Criterion Collection aficionado when I’d only seen maybe like 5% of their entire catalog. 

Wow guys, get a load of this poser.

Calling himself an expert in film, he eventually started making his own films after having studied the craft so much. I’d be happy to contend that he’s definitely up there on the technical side of things. 

For one, the cinematography is gorgeous. Stationary camera work is heavily utilized not-only in establishing shots, but with shots featuring character movement or characters simply standing still in front of modernist architecture, giving a grandiose feel to the moments of the characters. It’s almost as if it highlights the sense of seriousness in their thoughts, or the complete sense of wonder they feel in a given moment. One of the most creative shots features John Cho and Parker Posey’s characters sitting on a bed in conversation, but we can only see them through the reflection of a small mirror in front of the camera. And another sees John Cho’s character, alone, in an emotional moment thinking about his father, with all of the movement and action in the left side of the framed shot. It’s out of the ordinary, but somehow it works. 

And when it comes to narratives, while not perfect, the film shows remarkable potential and it just sort of works. It’s not brilliant or anything when you separate it from the technicality, but combined with the camerawork, editing, and the music by Hammock (which is how I discovered this film, actually), the emotion comes out of the lenses and punches you in the feels. At the end of it I started to question my own reality and choices. Am I really doing what I want to do or am I holding on to a fantasy? Or is it both? Flashback to the block quote above. In one sense of definition, modern commercial cinema has a “romantic” nature. Over-the-top acting, over-the-top narratives, and so on. Arthouse and Indie cinema is mostly the opposite. In this film, none of the moments feel forced and there are almost no plot contrivances in the narrative. Every moment is simplistic and almost naturalistic, and there’s a beauty in this. It feels like a complete slice of life. When you think about it, we’ve been desensitized feeling wonder and connection in everyday life. Without spoiling too much, Haley Lu Richardson’s character hasn’t lost this capability, and when she meets John Cho, she restores that in him while he restores her sense of agency and her dreams. The connection is genuine. At the same time, in another definition of “romantic”, the film is a collection of unlikely events. Two souls meet and are touched? And then the audience is. 

This is the power of narrative, no matter if it’s simple or complex.

9/10

[epersonae]

28(i want more stuff to read, lol), 37, 7, 13!

Share three of your favorite fic writers and why you like them so much.

This one sort of stumped me initially; I realized that I don’t much follow specific authors (except for smut, weirdly enough), and then lolz, you’re actually one of those few. That said:

I will read pretty much anything Evitcani @evitcani-writes writes, because it’s damn good writing, and they do such interesting things putting TAZ characters in really different situations. (Current movie-monster AU is funny and also has an intriguing overarching plot.) A+ Taakitz content.

When I was scrolling back through recent TAZ fic, I realized I’ve been enjoying hops/@maegnus‘ work quite a bit even before we became shouty-Magcretia-buds. Good characterization; I think we have a tendency to explore similar corners of the canon with interesting overlapping results.

Dareandwriteit writes great Dad!Magnus, and has a fantastic long work exploring Angus’ relationships with basically all of the other characters.

Overall, I care about writing quality, because I’m a fucking snob, and characterization that feel true, which is a really subtle thing, but when someone nails it, I’m SO THERE.

Talk about your current wips.

This has gotten to be such a list!

One-shots:

Magretia/Taagnus Midsummer Festival shenanigans (sort of a response to a prompt from @lesbianlaracrovt -- yes, I’m working on it!)

Character study of Lucretia and Angus, starting from the premise that she didn’t know he was a little kid

Longer fic:

Year 30, which is the parley/Tesseralia Winners/best meal ever year but entirely from Lucretia’s POV. What is she up to on her own? I started it before episode 65 came out, so I was thinking a lot about how she was going to be growing into The Director. I still think there’s a lot more to it than just that hell year, but tbqh I’ve been having a tough time getting back into it.

Fantasy Fast, Fantasy Furious, telling the story of Hurley & Sloane using the first F&F movie as the plot. Because I totally, 100% unironically, love the Fast & the Furious movies, and I’ve shipped Dom/Brian in my head for years, so it’s a really easy transition to Hurley/Sloane. I’ve written the first chapter and then rewatched the movie to write down a list of story beats.

Share a snippet from one of your favorite pieces of prose you’ve written and explain why you’re proud of it.

I’m going to zag and post something that’s not fic, and actually not even fiction. The gal that got me into TAZ founded an online zine about video games, and I wrote a piece about GTA and being from SoCal, and I’m pretty proud of this paragraph:

I’ve probably watched more GTA than anyone alive who hasn’t played it. I know it intimately, but from the outside. The same way that GTA San Andreas knew my youth: as a simulacrum of a thing. And now how GTA5, Los Angeles, and I circle one another. Which one of us is “real”?

I had thought about this subject for a long-ass time; I wrote a big chunk, and then I went on a trip to SoCal and it just kind of blew me back emotionally. I had to work on this a lot; there’s a whole section about music and race I had to cut because it just went way off topic. I don’t think it’s my best writing ever, but it said something that I really needed to say. Plus, technically, it includes my first ever fanfic, because there’s a postscript that’s basically one of my headcanons about a thing in GTA Online.

What’s the best writing advice you’ve ever come across?

Best single piece of advice: read your work aloud when revising. So many awkward constructions become instantly obvious.

Also, the best book I’ve ever read on writing fiction, and which I recommend to literally anyone who wants to write, is Steering the Craft by Ursula K. LeGuin. It’s SO GOOD. Lots of great craftsmanship tips, excellent exercises. I’ve had it for probably 20 years, and I still use stuff about POV and exposition all the time. Plus it has great rules for running a writing group that I think are helpful for any type of creative critique.

[thejgatsbykid]

(under a cut bc i’m so long winded lmao)

Like I know I drag the 95 miniseries a bunch but I did really like it when I watched it! I think it’s a great direct to screen version of the text, but I think it’s also limited bc like I’ve said before it really does go more or less line for line, and so much of the richest parts of Austen are in the narration and that’s really hard to convey onscreen, especially with the kind of shot-reverse-shot filmmaking that comprises a large part of the 95 series. But, like i said, different aims from different adaptations, and the 95 excels at what it is, which is putting the source text onscreen. I always say that if you’re someone who doesn’t like to read or finds Austen’s prose inaccessible, watching the 95 series is the next best thing because it’s so true to the letter of the text. I think the 05 is a film made by filmmakers, in that it uses the medium so well to tell a story that may not be word for word what austen wrote but really really taps into the emotionality of it. Like the only good thing P+P+Z did was making the first confession into a swordfight, because that’s really what it is, is Lizzie and Darcy absolutely tearing into each other, and a visual medium like film can show that in so many innovative ways. I can almost forgive the 05 cutting my favorite running joke about Elizabeth’s fine eyes for how engaging that the rain confession is, the worth-a-thousand-words efficiency of the hand flex as a five second shot that expresses pages and pages of romantic and sexual tension, how triumphantly Wright and Knightley and McFayden display the passion that is (fuck you, charlotte bronte, you illiterate hack) always thrumming just below the surface of Austen’s polite prose. 95 has the time to create that tension over the course of many episodes building it bit by bit, and 05 makes up for its truncation by dialing it up to 11 and breaking off the knob.

Also I just really hate snobs who act like anyone that likes the 05 movie better than the 95 is Unsophisticated and Beneath Them. Like, it’s a good movie, and it’s objectively more accessible to the average person than the 95 miniseries just by virtue of being shorter and geared towards a movie theater audience, and like i said Austen books are fun and complex, and Austen didn’t write the extended vagueblog Northanger Abbey for people to snub their noses at fun books.

I added a Darcy’s-perspective book to my independent study (Mr Darcy’s Diary by Amanda Grange) and when I was discussing it w/ my prof we got into a whole thing about whether Darcy’s perspective is valuable to a reader of P+P or not which led to the most difficult back and forth of my life where i tried to discuss the concept of the headcanon without using the word “headcanon” in the context of arguing that Darcy’s perspective is valuable insofar as the particular Darcy perspective you’re using suits your Darcy headcanons, because let’s be frank with ourselves, he’s a lively character but not a very detailed one and leaves a lot of room for projection and preference and interpretation.

lmao at this point i should start either a podcast or a youtube channel or something, people are always telling me to share my Ideas w/ the world in a more curated format than tumblr wordvomit

I started austenland at one point i think? but it either didn’t hook me or the secondhand embarrassment was too intense for me to watch the whole thing. (Even bridget jones is difficult for me to watch at points bc i get REALLY bad secondhand embarrassment lmao).

ugh and it’s not even just that he injected a few of his own words it’s that he so clearly and fundamentally doesn’t appreciate what Austen is. This post says it better than i ever could: “the person who wrote it did so out of the belief that the original Pride and Prejudice was stuffy and boring,” and as a result Pride and Prejudice and Zombies is predicated on appealing to people who don’t like Pride and Prejudice.

just went through and read all(all) of your posts under your austen blogging tag and gosh please don’t leave this horrible site i couldn’t bear not having you on my dash teaching me more about jane austen and regency culture than any of my english lit professors did

lmao thanks so much, it’s my favorite Weird Passion although I will admit to not being as holistically informed on the history and culture of the time as I’d like to be (most of my knowledge having been acquired in direct relation to whatever research I was doing/point i was proving/rant i was ranting about Austen at the time) but i really really love her novels (even mansfield park, which i didn’t love before, but now appreciate more after having seen the 1999 film adaptation which turned me slightly left into engaging with it as a scathing criticism of class and aristocracy) and i especially love thinking and talking about the ways other people engage with them because they get adapted so much and it just really keeps the conversation alive seeing the different takes people have on the text and all the things we individually find appealing about it

like the thing about austen is that she’s appealing on SO many different levels, bc her stories are engaging in the sense of being exciting and romantic wish-fulfillment plots on the surface level, and if you want to read deeper then underneath that her prose is just bursting with satire, and if you want to read broader then you can get so much just from a better understanding of her context and how it differs from ours (like, the entire plot of Persuasion takes place during the period from 1814-1815 when there was a brief lull in the Napoleonic wars that had been going on for like eleven years before that, which was really interesting to me from the perspective of someone who doesn’t actually know anything at all really about the napoleonic wars but also because that context really changed the way i thought about the Admiral and his wife, and Captain Wentworth and Anne, and I really got started on a whole essay about that just now but it was a digression so i deleted it). And like, all those readings- surface, deep, contextual, feminist, marxist, whatever- are equally valid and interesting in their own ways, and you don’t even actually need to tackle Austen from a literary perspective to enjoy it, which is one of my favorite kinds of literature, because books that are just fun are equally as good as books that are just complex, but books that can be both fun and complex are excellent.

and i won’t lie i dunno if i would’ve gotten this engaged w/ all her works if i hadn’t had such a spectacular 18th c lit prof who had done a lot of austen criticism and really just taught the living hell out of the two Austen novels we read, but you always learn the most from people who are passionate about the topic

[snorlaxlovesme]

every 5th question :O

5. since how long do you write?

well i mean ive been writing since i was old enough to write tbh. like i think the first story i wrote was in like 5th grade when me and my friends had to make a children’s picture book for an assignment and i LOVED IT. in 6th and 7th grade i had a couple creative writing assignments that i super enjoyed so by 8th grade i was writing original stories of my own. most of them were literal self inserts of just me and my friends going on adventures and stuff. it wasnt until 10th grade that i started writing fanfiction for Twilight and then slowly got into fandom for the first time. so yeah, that was a long answer but basically for about 10 years ive been writing so far! and now its my major in undergrad!

10. how do you do your researches?

EXTENSIVE GOOGLING tbh. and lots of youtube videos bc im a visual learner! but if its something for an original story/college assignment i can be persuaded to go to the library and check out a book for research

15. hardest verse to write

as a prose writer i dont deal with verses a lot since i dont write music/poetry

20. favorite character to write

tbh probably may from pokemon, oddly enough. she’s so goofy and fun and light hearted and writing her is always really enjoyable

25. favorite line you’ve ever written

(its 4 sentences but w/e. i love this story)

Later on in life, very very later, perhaps when he was old and grey, maybe even on his deathbed, Soul would probably be able to look back on this instance and laugh. But on that day, and in the moments soon to follow, Soul could not have predicted how acutely he would ever want to die.

Because, as previously stated, Soul was a self-proclaimed music snob, but a shy one who believed privacy to be of the utmost importance during his partnership with Maka. Never in his wildest dreams would he have guessed that Maka would walk through the door while he stood on their coffee table interpretive dancing to the Backstreet Boys, and never in his worst nightmares would he have predicted that he would be windmilling his dick during his performance.

30. hardest part of writing

FINISHING THE STORY gosh i feel like im great at coming up with concepts and cool ideas and writing beginnings and middles but then actually completing the story becomes damn near impossible sometimes

35. single story or multi-part story?

im more of a one-shot gal but its my new years resolution to post (AND COMPLETE) some multi-chapter things to prove to myself that i can do it

40. which one of your stories would you most like to see as a movie/series

Broken Resonance is a universe alteration that takes place after chapter 110 of the SE manga (where Asura stabs Maka through the chest with his hand YIKES) that basically shows how Soul would react if he thought Maka was dead and i would love to see that story animated bc 1. MANGA STUFF ANIMATED and 2. there were a lot of really good angsty moments in that fic where you got to see how Soul, Black Star, and Kid would be if Maka was mortally wounded mid-battle and i’d like to see that characterization on screen yo

45. share the synopsis of a story you work on that you haven’t published yet

my madness AU!! my baby. my child.

When the God of Madness is awakened from his sleep, Death City is plunged into darkness. The first to be affected by the kishin’s insanity are the people who were closest to him when he was revived. Can the DWMA’s best and brightest save the world when they’re the ones slowly losing their grip on reality? Will the Black Blood destroy Soul and Maka’s partnership, or worse, get one of them killed? And why are all the pre-kishins suddenly disappearing?

feat. heavy doses of Medusa, a lot of Lord Death conspiracy theories, Soul and Maka slowly (well, p quickly for Soul actually) losing their minds, and Black Star still managing to make cash bets on Maka’s love life amidst the chaos

[supershylockfandom-blog]

Scotch Whiskey Tasting in Edinburgh

During my free weekend abroad, I decided to go up to Oxenholm in the Lakes District to visit these two rascals

Right to left: fresh faced college boy Nathan, and precocious younger sibling Beck. Longtime friends of my siblings and myself. I stayed with them in Oxenholm for three days, during one of which, we took a two hour train ride up to Edinburgh. We had a few destinations in mind, one of which was the Edinburgh Dungeon, which was good, gruesome fun, and a gateway to new information on Scottish urban legends. I went specifically for their exhibition on Burke and Hare, the infamous Victorian resurrectionists, with whom I have been fascinated since high school. I also discovered a few new British horrors, like the legend of actual cannibal Alexander “Sawney” Beane and the North Berwick Witch Trials and rejuvenated my interest in the history of the Black Death with a layman’s guide to plague academia from the Dungeon’s gift shop. In a less sickening (and less tacky) turn, we also went to a scotch whiskey tasting at a local distillery. It was a surprisingly educational experience, and I learned to appreciate and understand the flavors and textures inherent in a good scotch, rather than lean on my shots-first-ask-questions-later approach to whiskey. 

Beck was too young to participate in the tasting, but they were a good sport and came with us anyway (the whiskey touring guide gave them an IRN BRU, so they were pacified while their older brother and I enjoyed Scotland's finest.)

We samples five scotches in all, each from a distinct region: the Highlands, the Lowlands, Islay, Campbeltown, and Speyside. Nathan and I agreed that the Islay and Campbeltown were our favorites, but we were surprised and delighted to note a coffee-like aftertaste in the Speyside and a salted toffee something-or-other in the sample from the Lowlands. We learned the basic methods that go into the creation of scotch whiskey-- the way the barley is toasted, the kind of wood used to make the barrels (always oak, apparently), they way the wood is charred, and how each variety of scotch gets its flavor (it’s all up to the region in which the oak is grown, apparently-- so it makes sense, for example, that the scotch made in the bays of the Lowland region would have a salty taste, since they’re so close to the shore. For another example, Islay scotch is best known for its smokey flavor, because the barrels used to age the whiskey is nearly blackened by fire before it is put to use.)

We were also taught the basics of assessing whiskey for age, body, aroma, and finish. To give a brief rundown:

1) The color of the scotch indicates its age, so a lighter honey color makes for a younger batch, while a darker bronze tone indicates that it’s been well aged.

2) Twirling whiskey in a whiskey tasting glass has a purpose outside of looking extra posh. Unlike with wine, it doesn’t alter the flavor, but it does allow you to assess the maltiness of the batch you’re sampling. Once the inside of our glasses were well coated, we were instructed to watch as droplets formed and rand down the sides. These are colloquially referred to as “legs;” thicker, slower moving legs indicate a higher sugar content and a maltier scotch (for the record, the IRN BRU obviously had oodles of sugar in it, but its legs were thin and quick. It’s good to know Beck’s soda wasn’t fermented.) 

3) It may take a few tries to get passed the smell of alcohol, but if you give your scotch a hearty sniff, you can start to pinpoint aromatic “notes” in the batch, usually described with adjectives like “floral,” “smokey,” “fruity,” or “spicy.” 

4) Obviously you gotta taste that bad boy. You’re supposed to take a tiny sip, hold it on your tongue, and then swirl it around your mouth to get the full breadth of the flavor.

5) Swallow the whiskey and notice its “finish.” Sometimes the finish is short (or if its especially cheap, it might just burn,) but some leave a tingling sensation or a new flavor that lasts for a few minutes. 

Being barely legal, Nathan and I are both greenhorns in terms of the flavors of liquor, and tend to think more about chasers and mixers than the year of the batch or florid turns of phrase like “an underlying honeycomb maltiness” or “notes of bonfires and sea air,” because they sound absolutely stupid. However, we have found that there is truth in such purple prose, and yes, we could actually taste pleasant hints of citrus fruit and vanilla oak in 12 year old fermented barley water that’s been floating around in a cask in some basement. 

TL;DR: I learned to be a scotch whiskey snob in Scotland, and my friend’s kid sibling got a sodie pop.