#but also let's not kid ourselves

[carmenlire]

I've had this taegyu idea floating around since january but I'll readily admit that it is extremely similar to httbt so like on one hand I am absolutely a reader who often thinks "man I wanna read what I just read but new" plus it's in an entirely different fandom but on the other hand like it's literally rockstar beomgyu and probably math teacher taehyun (or maybe grad student, potentially gym owner?).

(lowkey i ended up like fully plotting out the fic/recapping my twt thread so i'm putting the rest under a cut lol.)

like whereas alec was a top 40 sensation solo pop artist, very much channeling biggest name in the industry, beomgyu would be frontman for an indie/niche band (honestly i'm picturing chase atlantic 100% whereas alec was like a tswift) but his band still sells out its tours and is somewhere on the charts, making a very respectable sum.

Beomgyu is feeling ennui, uninspired, very jaded but in a more. . . angsty way than alec? i imagine this fic to be darker/more emotional than httbt with A Big Conflict towards the end where one of them severely fucks up in classic fic fashion.

of course, i've already thought of the opening scene and it makes me realize how totally predictable i am because it's an extremely late night/early morning run-in where taegyu are obviously at very different points in their lives but they have A Conversation and it's the first time beomgyu has felt interested/intrigued by something in forever and taehyun-- actually here's a difference-- he actually has no idea who beomgyu/his band is. beomgyu, ofc, likes that. taehyun just sees a hot guy who's a little fucked up but aren't we all.

looking at my twt thread, i talk a lot about how during that first meeting, beomgyu talks a lot in half-truths, unsure if he can trust taehyun and taehyun is just blunt as always, very no bullshit. they both walk away feeling amped up-- beomgyu feels a little bit like he got an ass kicking, a breath of fresh air and taehyun is intrigued in his own way about this guy who's full of contradictions.

they keep running into each other at the park at these really intimate hours (beomgyu clearing his head/going out whenever there's less of a chance of him being seen and taehyun on his morning runs). eventually one morning, the sun is shining when they both look up and taehyun recommends a lowkey breakfast spot he knows nearby.

despite there clearly being something between them, beomgyu isn't in a place to be in a relationship and taehyun is up front about what he wants/needs and they both respect the other. of course, that doesn't stop them from growing closer until they're like best friends.

constantly texting, both of them start to depend on the other-- on their phone calls, a few minutes of stolen time, on finding the most out of the way restaurants with the best samgyeopsal.

everyone around them knows Something's going on even if taegyu remain infuriatingly tightlipped, both of them wanting to protect this thing between them. the secret relationship aspect is a lot more illicit in this than it was in httbt-- there might not be tabloids to worry about but beomgyu's had a lot of years in the business to grow jaded even if he wishes he could be as open as taehyun. There are some growing pains even if they are both fully invested/committed, even if beomgyu loves being with taehyun and can't get enough.

i'm picturing a classic fic blow-up thanks to beomgyu's rockstar past (?) clashing with taehyun's firm stance on open communication and no bullshit (the blow-up is nothing out of the usual for fic but bc i tend to really love Healthy Communication, i've never written this kinda conflict before but i do think it'll actually fit this au setup and not merely be an excuse for angst lol).

anyway, they totally break up over That Mess and cue beomgyu losing it a little. he gets drunk, writes songs about taehyun, implicitly dedicates those songs to him on stage. he hooks up with someone and feels fucking awful.

he ends up eventually (let's be real they'll probably only be broken up for like a month bc i can't do too much angst lol) doing some soul searching/reflecting on the past months with taehyun and realizing the error of his ways (and even as he was doing it, he was kicking himself bc he didn't even mean the words, he didn't wanna hurt taehyun but his mouth just started without his brain and heart's input rip).

meanwhile taehyun is totally heartbroken (while he seems fine on social media he's kinda falling apart irl) but he was always up front about what he needed from beomgyu if they were gonna do this and he won't bend his own needs and worth just to be with beomgyu.

obviously happy ending!!!! and you know i'll have to include some serious established relationship fluff to make up for all the pain :')

all of which to say..... like i know the premise is very similar to httbt and i feel like there's even more of a spotlight on it since it is obviously my most prolific work (which did also come from a chase atlantic song lmao) but there are differences too???? so like i should just write what i want right?? like especially because i'm worried about being too close to my own work, like it doesn't even matter? and there are some key differences? idk :( i just know i really like the idea.

[tootiredtocares-blog]

I'm going to be real no one in masm deserves sun like they either lead him on until they get jealous or don't treat him well like he deserves a vacation from all this drama

[st-just]

So it turns out the secret to making people fight over a sweet potato mash really is just making it 30% dairy fat.

[supportanimy]

People saying they wouldn't want Amy and Rouge to be afterthoughts when they already are

If Amy wasn't an afterthought, she would've debuted before Knuckles and Shadow. And Rouge would debut with Shadow.

Honestly, I think people exaggerate Amy's role in SA2, but her role in the franchise as a whole is much bigger than Shadow's, and I'd argue Knuckles. Even if it was based on popularity over prominence, I feel like she still has a bigger fanbase than Knuckles, especially considering the shipping fandom

With Rouge, she is like actually important to Shadow as a character and also SA2. She's the first one to actually remind Shadow of Maria, a couple of times in fact. Also the one to find out all the secret details about the project, and also the one to find out about Gerald's real plan. And her appearance would probably also help Knuckles have an actual story for himself rather than be relegated to only supporting Sonic for this movie

Just, if Amy isn't in the third movie, it's already pretty bad. If Rouge isn't in it, it's fucking dire.

[thebindingofpillo]

Sometimes I toy with the idea of making stickers/pins with some of my characters, but my only option would be Redbubble and I’ve heard nothing but horrible things about that site lol. As far as I know you (hypothetical you) only have to supply the design and they take care of the rest, which would be ideal for me, but still… you get like 3% of profits lmao

[cringefaecompilation]

nothing funnier to realize that everyone's like: "oh campaign 2 is the caleb campaign! campaign 3 is the imogen campaign!" but they're fighting each other like dogs over a scrap of ham trying to figure out which character is the first campaign's "main character".

[ratatatastic]

or alternatively dweeb meets other dweeb more news at 11

LIGHT. LIGHT IN HIS EYES. LOOK AT EM BIG OLE EYES. LOOK AT HIM TOUCH HIS JERSEY.

GLORY BE TO THE MIKKSY SIGNED JERSEY RAAAAAAAAA

CanesWear Signing | 7.1.24

[orphanbychoice]

bruce wayne is not a girldad 😭 the only time he tells cassandra he’s proud of her is after she pulls some suicidal self destructive insane shit

[weirdbird74]

you are not immune to touch drumless edition string section

[autoresponderdaily]

[squirrelno2]

I saw this in one of your posts “Like. let's traumatise the made-up kids, it's good for the real kids to read as long as you talk about it the right ways. (I'm being blithe and simplistic here but if you want a ramble on what I mean just ask)” and I was intrigued. Maybe you’ve already done a post about this so I apologise if so but this is me asking for that ramble

Oh damn I had to dig for that post, but yeah! So a couple background info things:

One, I was the kind of autistic kid who has the empathy where you cry when others cry or get angry when others are angry, but who also can't understand why people are reacting in ways I wouldnt react/what the emotions im mirroring are. I learned most of what I know about the vast complexities of humanity through stories, because that was my window into mindsets that are not my own, and it's especially good for the people around me that I was such a voracious reader because it gave me a huge variety of "people" to view the internal worlds of, whereas if I read a more limited selection I'd probably have a lot less compassion just because I had fewer models to learn from. So I feel very strongly about the ability of story to teach us how people work, because I experienced it firsthand in a very conscious way. (More on this later)

The other thing is I write a lot of original work, most of which is aimed at the kind of middle grade/young adult age range. Nothing published yet, but I've been thinking about what it means to tell a story to children vs teens vs adults for over half my life now, especially since starting to work as a dance teacher and spending my adult life mostly around kids of various ages. So again, strong feelings about how adults have to teach kids not just what to do but why it matters - kids aren't learning facts alone in school or life, they are learning how to be people. Everything is a lesson, especially when you're particularly young

So the post was talking in that paragraph about how so many books for kids portray the necessity of the child hero, when adults reading will usually go "what the FUCK that kid is TWELVE they're a baby". And that's a good impulse! It's important for adults to want to keep kids from having to take on too much responsibility too early!

But I think when adults have that handwringing moment they forget that kids in real life have absurd and awful responsibilities and experiences every day whether we like it or not. So often I see people talk about that kind of child chosen one story as being some kind of awful bc it teaches kids not to rely on adults and frankly, many of us learned that from real life! I did, even with the wonderful parents that I had, because my school experiences were that fucking awful. We have to tell stories about kids facing down awful, traumatic experiences, both fantastical and realistic, and we have to tell stories about the nasty bits that come after, the grief and trauma and feeling scraped raw and the bad coping mechanisms as well as the good ones and the days you slide back into the person you were when you thought you were past it - because real kids need to know they're not alone and they're not weak or bad or any of a number of things that feeling isolated in your trauma can lead you to believe, especially as a child when everything is so much bigger because its happening for the first time

The story I have lived with the longest, trying to write it for twelve/thirteen year olds since I was twelve myself, is one about a kid with the same trauma I had of being undiagnosed but visibly autistic in ways that her peers hated and a kid with an abusive parent being forced to do really awful things to try and earn that parent's approval. It's also a fantasy story wish fulfillment type thing for baby me with ghosts and junior high theatre classes and magic! And even just letting that story and characters grow and change with me has helped me to heal from a lot of things that really fucked me over in my childhood and adolescence. Not perfectly! I'm in therapy for a goddamn reason! But it gave me hope to tell a story about these people who faced down violence they never should have had to and not only lived, but came out the other end slowly learning to thrive and leave that violence in the past. Kids who've faced trauma, whether like mine or like that character of mine with the abusive parent or like any number of other horrible things that can happen to kids, they deserve to see that they can have power and agency, that they can face awful things and win, and that they can heal and be happy. Not every book for kids does this the ways I personally like but that's why I feel so strongly about children's media having that "kids have to save the day" trope no matter how pearl-clutchy adults get about it, and that's why i dont shy away from putting kids in my stories in dangerous positions. It's not about the characters, bc they're symbols. It's about what I can give as a storyteller to the kids reading, or even the kids inside the adults reading. We all have a little kid in our heads who needs to know it's going to be ok, I think.

[tyrianluda]

if you have a setting that takes place in africa and half of the characters are whiter than the white pharaoh, im just assuming that you arent even trying.

[itsalwaysdark]

bedtime nowww probably ummm today qas not what i wanted it 2 be but its fine. i dont feel negative just a very very very numb day which is almost worse. but only almost 🙏

[eclaire-went-bam]

hiii:33!! friendly reminder that someone can enjoy a character that has done heinous things and not support said heinous things

usually when a character does Bad Things in a narrative (espec if they're not the protagonist) it is Portrayed As Bad so people who enjoy the character Likely Know They Are Bad

& either way harassing people over enjoying a fictional character is just really childish

if you don't like the character, that is perfectly valid. but there's never any reason to characterise everyone who likes said character as Evil, and/or imply they condone the character's negative actions.

also sometimes i look at internet discourse and it's like people want morally grey characters but then turn around when "morally grey" is not always "i have my own rules but i still make all the right choices !!" some of y'all just need to admit you just like good characters that's fine not everyone is into the spice it's ok to like that good protagonist energy

;;;not saying every character i'm referring to fits in that "morally grey" category, some are just evil villains, but even then i'm sorry 90% of ur stories wouldn't exist without them. they drive the plot.

[circusk]

fighting demons !!!! [ the urge to rewrite s2 without doof i have beef with his permanence ]

[chaoxfix]

god i need the algorithm to stop recommending lore olympus to me.

reframing a kidnapping of a woman as romance, and painting her mother as an overbearing shrew rather than rightfully worried and protective, and portraying the kidnapper as sympathetic ... what about my overtly feminist ass makes anyone or any algorithm think i'd enjoy ANY hades/persephone romance retellings.

at this point the only hades and persephone retelling i'm interested in is a retelling that focuses on demeter's love for her daughter. one where persephone's abduction and transition from kore, the maiden, to persephone, goddess of the dead and queen of the underworld, was one where she carries out a revenge fantasy against her abductor... She cannot fully escape the underworld, no; she is death, doomed by the narrative. Underground she will stay for half the year. But she will not subject herself to be trapped with him.

hades dies at dawn; hades dies in the spring light, by persephone's power, and a knife garnished with evergreen thistles. demeter holds him down, and persephone cuts the head. judith slaying holofernes; persephone slaying hades.