#balloonwhisk

[bethanyactually]

aw, former tumblr user balloonwhisk, I just noticed you deactivated your account and it made me sad. if you’re still out there under another name and you don’t mind, please let me know so I can follow you. otherwise, I hope you’re out there having a good life. I’ll miss your real storecats of istanbul posts. <3

[nebulous-tundra]

If you're still taking asks for the character meme: Damien from The Bright Sessions?

my sweet, tainted, underappreciated man!

favorite thing about them

i said it before but i love tragedy. and Damien rlly embodies this so hard as someone so completely set out to fail- and so he did. we have this young boy with an incredibly powerful ability who 1.) cant get help from his parents 2.) doesn't have the resources to contact any organization who could help him control his abilities 3.) even if he did, chances are he would be taken in an used for experiments until the day he dies with little concern to his wellbeing. literally his only option is being self taught and- considering that his reality is literally distorted his ability, and his only other example to live a moral life is fucking books, it's a wonder he managed to come out as well as he did, and i say that acknowledging that he committed murder when he was 19. now enter: everyone giving him shit for using his ability when it's the one thing in his life he can rely on. now, i personally think Damien can learn to really control his ability, but just seeing him play the loneliest game of poker with the shit hand he's been dealt, it's delightful to see him spiral. muah. chef's kiss.

least favorite thing about them

that Lauren Shippen ended his arc right when it seemed like his character had finally reached a turning point comparable to when his parent's abandoned him. i cannot stress how much Damien and Chloe's final conversation filled my with so much hope. we see Damien do something idk if he's ever done in his life before: tell himself no for the betterment of another. he's so close to giving into his desire to see Mark, literally driving back to the city, yet seeing Chloe -a victim of him alone, not his ability(because it doesn't fucking work on her), him!- shames him and steers him back onto the path to good. it's such a wonderful moment and leads to all these great possibilities for his characters and.....that's it folks? i try not to rag on Shippen too hard but this really boils milk yknow

favorite line

"Alright, look, you want to do this? You want to put it all out there? I’m powerless. I hope it comes back - I really fucking hope it comes back - but I know that it might not. And I shouldn’t have called you the other day but I- I wanted to hear your voice because this is hard. Living life like a normal person is hard. And The AM has been absolutely no help and I don’t know what to do because I have no bank accounts, no license, no identity without my ability. But you’re still here. And you came here today and that means something—"

it just ;-; and knowing what Mark had come to do ;-; and after everything Damien has done (wrong) to have a relationship mean something ;-; i'm not crying you are ;-;

(also btw i set up a twitter account that posts a random Damien line every 30min if anyone is interested lol)

brOTP

Damien & Rose, without a doubt. such a weird relationship but they're both boundary pushing ppl so it makes sense. also adds loads of fun, light hearted moments to Damien we really don't really get to see from him. i could also see Damien & Chloe being a really fun dynamic, especially post TBS, but i prefer Damien completely leaving behind the TBS crew imho, so it'll have to be a nice what-if

OTP

Damien x an actually fulfilling character arc. SHIPPEN RELEASE CHARLIE IAN FROM VOICE ACTING JAIL I'M BEGGIN YOU OTL

nOTP

Damien and everyone we've met so far from the TBS/AND universe. no one feels like they'd truly appreciate Damien. Mark scrapes pretty close but i think it's more narratively satisfying for both their character arcs to stay a maybe-there-was-something,-but-now-there-never-can-be, yknow?

random headcanon

Damien is a huge masochist- and in denial about it. the type who needs copious amount of comfort after lmao

unpopular opinion

that he's a character worthy of joy and redemption. most the fandom doesn't seem to be able to handle bad people repenting for their mistakes and growing to be better in spite of them but i'm built different i guess

song i associate with them

One Way or Another - Until the Ribbon Breaks

<-- good stalking song

Dizzy - MISSIO

<-- good lethargic song

Run Boy Run - Woodkid

<-- good avoidance song

Red Sex - Vessel

<-- general Damien vibes

favorite picture of them

oh goodness i can't actually pick on but here's my top three

i like this one

and this one

and especially this one(although it make me sad : [ )

thank you sm for asking about Damien, i still have so much i wanna say about him(and draw) but it's kinda hard to set aside the time for him when it feels like the conversation is long dead and over : [

[thelaurenshippen]

The atypical genetics question and this bit (“I’ve always been this way. My grandma always said I was touched by God.”) from AND got me wondering: Does Indah also come from an atypical family? Maybe her grandmother at least? And did her ability manifest very early, like Damien's?

Her ability did manifest pretty early! Though I don’t think she really knew what it was until later - she just had a sense about people. I think her grandmother’s mother (so Indah’s great-grandmother) probably had the same sensitivity to Atypicals, but Indah doesn’t know of any Atypicals in her immediate family. 

[nottonyharrison]

Re: your sorting by kudos post: What would you say are the telltale signs of a juvenile writing style? I'm not asking to start a wank or anything. I worry a lot that my writing is very juvenile but I can't really pinpoint the reasons (and how to fix it). So it'd be helpful to learn what people define it as, if you feel like sharing.

I think the thing to remember is that everyone has different opinions and preferences, particularly when it comes to fanfic. Like a lot of people don’t care about how something is written and just want to read the characters or the trope, and that’s okay! I’m particularly fussy, which probably is because I read a lot of fic in a lot of fandoms, as well as reading published works, so I only give my time to works I appreciate the writing style of. I am not everybody

It also doesn’t really matter what your writing style is like if your main motivation is yourself. If you’re wanting more or better feedback, or to improve overall then I guess the best advice I can give you is get an editorial beta you trust, who has specific preferences for what you’re trying to achieve, and isn’t afraid to provide feedback that might be confronting (the first few times can definitely be a bruise to the ego no matter how tough you are).

I’m happy to share though, but I’m putting it under a cut because I don’t want to just dump stuff without any explanation or context. This list has a lot of crossover with the one I shared yesterday of ‘words/phrases that make me click out of a fic’

Tone

This is so hard to explain, but there’s always a certain tone that some stories have that put me off that specifically make it lack maturity. I think maybe it’s a combination of a lot of what I get into below, as well as word choice and character interpretation and the type of descriptive language. 

Passive voice

This is the number one (specific) thing for me that grinds my gears, and I’m still often guilty of it, and have trying really hard to stamp out my urges for years now. Learn to identify it, and if you’re not sure how then I would recommend Hemingway (this will also help with the next one)

Adverb abuse

Ohhhh adverbs, how I hate you. Use them sparingly. If you find yourself using qualifiers in any way, take another look at the sentence and see if there’s another way you can structure it.

Simple errors like using the wrong their/there/they’re

Then/than and your/you’re, and incorrect phrases like ‘for all intensive purposes’ instead of ‘for all intents and purposes’.

Bad grammar

Kind of obvious for this list, and the best way to know if it’s something you need to address anything ask a good writer you trust for their honest opinion.

POV changes in the middle of a segment

Self explanatory, but you need to identify a point of view change with a break. I use

...

Because it clearly indicates a new scene

Tense issues

Triple check your work to make sure your tense is consistent. Know what tense you’re writing in before you start and stick to it to make this easier. I recently wrote a story in past-tense when I normally write in present and I had to go over it four times before I caught all the fuck ups!

Dialogue tags and the need to describe the tone of voice

I mean things like ‘she murmured’ and ‘he smirked’. Just say ‘said’, or use an action or beat. You don’t need to use dialogue tags at all sometimes, particularly if you’re in a snappy exchange between the only two characters speaking, as your paragraphs will help define who’s turn it is.

I went to thesaurus.com and I found this

Thesaurus.com is very useful, I always have a tab open. But only use it when you know there’s a synonym and it just won’t come to your fingers. Never use words you don’t really know the definition of, and try and use the simplest one rather than something that makes you sound intelligent.

Choosing words that fandom loves

I mean stuff like ‘carded hands through hair’ and ‘ostensibly’. There are a lot of words out there that I have rarely come across in published fiction that seem to pop up half of fanworks often multiple times!

Not understanding how punctuation works

Too many commas, not enough commas, using quotation marks incorrectly, never ending a sentence. Putting apostrophes in the right place. Trying to cram in a semicolon to look smart. Makes a story hard to read.

and while I’m on the subject

Exclamation marks!

IDK why but they really do make a piece lack maturity. Describe the vocal tone instead and boost your wordcount in the process.

Not understanding how formatting works

Paragraph spacing is so important. Make sure your story has a gap below each one otherwise your readers’ eyes never get a break.

Having characters ‘come up for air’ after a kiss and other egregious examples of bad kissing

That’s not how kissing works! If this is how someone kisses they’re a bad kisser! Kisses have plenty of moments where your lips aren’t touching, and even then you have a nose, unless your character only breathes through their mouth then this shouldn’t have to happen.

‘Tongues battling for dominance’ or anything adjacent to that trope, as well. ‘Licking into mouths’ etc. 

Draco in leather pants

And I don’t mean literally, I mean in the trope sense. This is when your canonically villainous character is so cool and sexy it’s silly to the point of cringe. I would say this also applies to any character, regardless of alignment.

A more productive way to put this is let your characters be real rather than one dimensional.

Smut faux pas

I have a lot of things that put me off when reading smut, but when talking about maturity specifically, there are a few things that make me feel like I’m reading something written by a fourteen year old

Precum - IDK if I’m weird, but I have never noticed it. Seems very fandom specific to point it out, but I also don’t read published romance novels so I could be wrong. Regardless, it just seems like a weird thing to point out to me

Floral language for genitals (length, slit, heat etc) - Just say dick or vag. Cunt, penis, cock, pussy if your’e not a hater, say those. Don’t say ‘member’.

Screaming orgasms. Please no. I mean you might have a reason for one of your characters to scream but maybe don’t say ‘scream’? IDK it’s just weird.

No foreplay - Unless the scene has a specific reason, the peen should not go straight inside the crotch region

Character/ship bashing

This is kind of self explanatory, but obvious and over the top character bashing is something we all did as teenagers, and tells me someone is still in that mindset.

Sidenote: never tag ships you’re portraying in a negative light unless this is specifically what the story is about, and even then think really hard about it. Put it in the additional tags section instead. Seeing something with a summary titled ‘jane is the worst but john can’t see it until peter saves him’ as jane/john and peter/john is a dingdingdingding do not click moment for me

Typos and errors in the summary

If you have summary issues, then you’ll get fewer clicks as people will often assume the worst.

[bidonica]

I don't know if this really works for this but for the reverse unpopular opinion meme: You talked about the comic you've been working on in your Patreon. What are your favorite things about it so far? What are you excited about tackling? (If you're okay with talking about it off Patreon that is!)

Ooh nice one! Well I’m the only one who can have an opinion on it so far as it’s still in development and I hit a little roadblock as I’m in this transitional phase in my life that has kind of messed up with my creative projects, but I think about it every day🥺 I’m still at the writing phase but what I’m really looking forward to are some scene that I mean to tackle with a different style than my usual, more stylized and... storybook like? Ideally (ideally!) my main points of reference would be the Marseille tarots and the way old masters of Italian comics like Toppi and Battaglia constructed the page, which is really shooting for the stars, but attempting this storytelling style is the thing that inspires me the most about this project.

[firstelevens]

Hi! For the writer meta asks: 6, 8, and 22?

6. What character do you have the most fun writing?

This was a surprisingly difficult question to answer, but back when I was writing MCU Spider-Man fic, I really enjoyed writing that version of Peter Parker? Also, if my ever-growing pile of almost-fic scraps is anything to go by, I find Jyn Erso a fascinating-if-difficult character to write. She says the sorts of things I would want to say but would definitely chicken out over at the last minute.

Also, in the original piece I’m working on at the moment, there’s a Requisite Precocious Eight Year Old who is the center of the universe for a number of people in her life and she knows it, but in a cute way. She’s super fun to write, too.

8. Is what you like to write the same as what you like to read?

I think I read more widely than what I write? I’m a lot more open genre-wise or stylistically when I’m reading, and while I’ll experiment a bit in my own writing, I’m a lot more quickly dissatisfied there so I don’t really wind up branching out.

22. Do you reread your old works? How do you feel about them?

I reread my old stuff all the time! Especially when writing new things feels interminable, it’s nice to be reminded that I have, in the past, actually had ideas and been able to see them through to some kind of end. I think with the older fics, I can also pick out where my writing has grown since, and I used to be embarrassed about it but now I think it’s kind of nice. It’s like a record of how my skills have grown and developed.

[ghostcat3000]

balloonwhisk replied to your post “balloonwhisk: Sunday Six, 5/3/20 (part one) I just...”

I actually started watching a bunch of times, but alas, my complete inability to tell Scandinavian people apart struck again and I ended up stopping. I will add it to my list again though, because I think this time it might hit that sweet spot of new but still familiar (since I have some idea what's going on) that my brain craves.

I WOULD BE MORE THAN HAPPY TO PROVIDE AN AGATHA CHRISTIE-LIKE GUIDE.

Ahem.

This is Eva. Her hair is long and wavy like a cartoon mermaid’s. She doesn’t know how to put on eye make-up for shit and she could use some more friends.

this is her boyfriend Jonas Vasquez. you’ll know him by his dark hair, INTENSE eyebrows, wokebro attitude, and his baller skateboard skillz:

and this is Isak, Jonas’s BFF. you will know him by the fact that he is blonde, noticeably taller from one episode to the next (puberty is a helluva thing), has got some undercover shit-stirring energy, and is absolutely that one friend that doesn’t get the memo when you need alone time with your dude:

These are the three you need to differentiate and recognize the most for the first two episodes. I’ll return with more intros when you hit episode three.

[derrygirlsgifs]

Hi! I know this is late but I just wanted to say thank you so much for organizing the appreciation week! It was a lot of fun!!

Aww, this is so sweet. Thank you. I’m glad you enjoyed it. It really was fun and I’m so grateful to those who took part and made some wonderful content! 💜

[jadeprincess85]

balloonwhisk replied to your post: While we’re still talking about tattoos, I want to...

so would the holly is a werewolf theory be the fursuit?

if fursuits are red herrings, then yes!

[mercutiglo]

balloonwhisk replied to your post “¦â€¦..how old are the people in this frickin show. like obvi sam is 25,...”

joan is early 30s, green and wadsworth are late 30s, damien and mark are late 20s the exact birthdates are somewhere in the character stats tag of the tbs tumblr

ah, thank you so much

[bethanyactually]

@balloonwhisk tagged ME! ;)

Game rules: Put your entire music library on shuffle and list the first 10 that come up. Then tag 10 others to do the same!

Sunday Candy - Donnie Trumpet and the Social Experiment

Imperfect is the New Perfect - Caitlin Crosby

MMMBop - Hanson

Love is Endless - MoZella

That Thing You Do! - Various artists, That Thing You Do! soundtrack

Spin Around - Josie and the Pussycats

Sowing the Seeds of Love - Tears For Fears

Roar - Katy Perry

Someone New - Hozier

If You Think You Need Some Lovin’ - Pomplamoose Music

If you want to do this, then I tag you! And @fooferah, of course. ♥︎

[punishandenslavesuckers]

Hi! I just wanted to say that your The Bright Sessions gifsets are absolutely AMAZING!! Thank you SO much for making them! Hope you have a great day!

Aww! thank you! I love tbs and its such a little fandom. I had to do something to fill the tags with stuff! I’m glad you’re enjoying my silly fan-casts for a podcast with no canon faces. XDD may march come swiftly with new episodes!

[genebeanz]

Dear Shipsters—

We cordially invite you to our very own Shipwrecked Comedy Discord Server, where we shall discuss anything and everything Shipwrecked Comedy-related, in our leisure. Experience the grand elation of conversing with fellow fans as we talk about topics in the likes of Edgar Allan Poe's Murder Mystery Dinner Party, The Case of The Gilded Lily, and how wonderfully sublime the Shipwrecked team is, etc.,&.&. Please do join us, that would be fun!

If for whatever reason the invite does not work or if you have any further inquiries, do not hesitate to ask us! You can keep the ravens.

Sincerely,

— @balloonwhisk and @sourbetes

[ao3feed-thebrightsessions]

Can gay love pierce through the veil of mind control and save the day?

read it on the AO3 at https://ift.tt/3DZuzOa

by balloonwhisk

Caleb stops at a gas station on the drive back from visiting Adam and bumps into Damien working the graveyard shift.

Words: 3288, Chapters: 1/1, Language: English

Fandoms: The Bright Sessions (Podcast), The College Tapes (Podcast)

Rating: Teen And Up Audiences

Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply

Categories: Gen

Characters: Caleb Michaels, Damien (The Bright Sessions)

Relationships: Damien & Caleb Michaels

Additional Tags: Screenplay/Script Format, Post-The College Tapes, mentions of Caleb/Adam and Damien/Mark

read it on the AO3 at https://ift.tt/3DZuzOa

[ghostcat3000]

balloonwhisk: Sunday Six, 5/3/20 (part one)

I just want to say I haven’t seen Skam (I have seen a remake of it) but I read the snippets of this fic you post every week and I’m super excited to read it when it comes out

YES! Thank you, @balloonwhisk. I discovered yesterday that I’ve been writing this thing for over a year, which is a LOT. Since it’s an aged-up AU in a completely different genre (Nordic noir), I’m aiming for it to be entertaining for readers outside the fandom. That’s my hope anyway. FINGERS CROSSED.

Now... since you haven’t watched SKAM and we are living in crazy quarantine times, let me urge you to give it a try. It’s FREE and zips along so fast (twenty minute episodes! ten episodes a season! only four seasons!). You know I don’t recommend anything that’s not quality, so give it a shot! Here is a link to English-subbed versions of episodes one and two. Season one features refreshingly natural performances and this lovely lady:

Her giant scarf is AWESOME. Many fetching cold weather looks. Let me know what you think!

PS @balloonwhisk​! I just caught that you said you already saw a remake. I need to stress that the remakes offer interesting echoes and perspectives, particularly of their respective countries (I’ve seen all of them at this point) BUT the source material is really where it’s at. It’s not working off of anything but itself and contains so much beautiful simplicity. Particularly in the acting, where you stop feeling like you’re watching performances and are just watching young people live. There’s so much love infused in the thing, pure affection and humor and tenderness, that it’s awkward edges work like poetry anyway. If I were a professor of television, I’d definitely put this show on my curriculum.

[derrygirlsgifs]

I've been lowkey shipping Clare/Michelle since season 1, it would be the most fun mess imaginable! I was ridiculously excited to see the "you look hot!" scene. Do you think things might go somewhere romantic with them?

I can’t help seeing the “you look hot” scene as Michelle meaning that Clare looks physically hot because the party is too hot lol. It would hilarious and fun to watch them end up in a relationship together though. Although I really don’t know if that will ever happen.