#but i wanted to focus on smaller or underappreciated moments

[stbot]

tanthamore + small touches

(bonus bc kit is totally reaching out for jade’s arm but they cut away 😩)

[btsandvmin]

What are in your opinion the most underrated/underappreciated vmin moments? Or just vmin moments that people seem to forget about? Also i really enjoy reading your posts and thanks for all the work you put in making them. 💜

Oh god this is such a difficult question to me... Because I think so many moments get underrated. I mean, even the way we all go “I miss Vmin” and keep forgetting things even after we get some great moments... People just move on so quickly, waiting for the next thing before we even process what has happened. Like how Vmin literally just provided us with singing Friends together a few weeks ago in Run or Tae shared Jimin pictures on weverese where he has called Jimin cute or perfect. We get too many moments, and are too spoiled. Almost all moments has the potential to be underrated in that sense.

Honestly a lot of moments just seem to dissapear over time... Even big things like their hand holding tweet seem to be unknown to some fans. So basically the amount of moments we get make it so that only a few will stand the test of time and the older they get the more distant they will be in the community discourse.  It’s impossible to keep everything fresh in your mind.

Even big moments just hold so much love in them that I feel people fail to truly see them.  Like did we even stop to appriciate this moment enough?

I could even make an argument that the fact that they have a song where they sing about being soulmates is underrated. But I do think most moments now get a fair amount of attention. So the ones that are underrated will be the smaller ones, the ones that happens in between the big moments and gets lost in the cracks of time, or the ones people don’t really notice to begin with.

I think we have three main factors that lead to something being underrated:

It being normalized or overshadowed by something bigger. For example the way we no longer react much to Vmin holding hands, so it will be more difficult to remember every single time they do it. It needs to stand out, and the more they do something the less impact it will have even though it might not be less cute.

The timing of it and how we tend to forget old things. Again, even if Vmin might have done something similar in both 2014 and 2021 the second might be shared more and just be more recent in mind so while it isn’t underrated now, it might be with time.

Where the moment come from. For example I think official material will often be hyped more than fancams from award shows, airports or fansigns. Especially when it comes to older material as it doesn’t get spread in the same way. I also think in big shows like Bon Voyage we might focus so much on the big moments in an episode the smaller ones, though good, get a bit forgotten.

Honestly I am really struggling with this, and what moments to pick... I think it could be different for everyone. And again, some moments that are big I think deserve even more attention than what they seem to get nowadays. Like the Mandakko videos, they are the sweetest thing ever. 

But at the same time I do know a looooot of Vminies do appriciate and remember a lot of the smaller moments.

So while I do think we moved on way too quickly from Jimin making Tae kiss a ball and then proceeding to kiss the same ball (indirect kissing), I know many will know and appriciate this moment. 

There are many things I feel we should have just stopped and thought about one more time before moving on. How about how Tae seems to want to eat Jimin?

No really...

I swear I am not joking...

So I would say a lot of the old cute Vmin moments get a little forgotten... Even though I am sure a lot of the big ones are still used it seems most fanvids or moments collections will usually focus more on new things. For obvious reasons. But when new fans get into the fandom they might miss a lot of old good things if they don’t actively search for them on their own. So that being said, here are some just very cute moments I personally love, that I think could be gushed about a bit more.

Small moments like this that are just cute. (And honestly, most actually underrated moments will likely not even have a gif or photo.) I am not sure I actually got to answer your question properly, because it’s just too difficult for me. Instead I just threw a bunch of cute Vmin at you. I blame Vmin, their love is too strong for us to remember everything. But I do hope you enjoyed the post at least. <3 

[anghraine]

...okay, still thinking about the Dúnedain adaptation:

- I really want to see Lebennin. The Elves still sing songs about how beautiful it is and it’s sadly underappreciated. Also, Pelargir could be awesome. Also, there’s a substantial population of heroic, short, dark, mainly non-Númenórean,  resilient Gondorians in Lebennin who are completely ignored outside the text and it’d be good to bring them forward IMO. The book just says they’re the descendants of the ‘forgotten’ people who lived there before the Númenóreans came, which itself could be interesting, esp combined with the importance placed on rescuing the coast.

- We’d get some establishing moments for Minas Tirith itself as a sort of character: it’s before the evacuation, so while there’s guarded tension with Mordor looming beyond it and vacant and/or decaying buildings, there’s also a considerable amount of city bustle in marketplaces and the like, and a glamour of size and ancientry. And we get to see how fertile and prosperous the general location is.

- Re: size—Tolkien said that the Dúnedain of Gondor were notable for their love of constructing enormous things, so I’d like a sense of just ... bigness, with the bonus contrast between the actual living people and the looming shadows of these absolutely gigantic statues, mosaics, buildings, etc of the past. The contrast with the young Rohan is stark.

- Re: the city bustle—we see glimpses of people with different occupations, different classes, different backgrounds, different languages, living their daily lives. Despite the weight of legacy and the pressures of war, it should be clear that Gondor’s culture is diverse and vibrant. There might be a contrast with the Northern Dúnedain here as well, as they’re a much smaller and more homogeneous population.

- The Northern Dúnedain would need ... like, a plot or something to bring them in before they’re summoned to help Aragorn. We need a sense of what their deal is, both where it’s connected to Gondor’s on the Dúnadan level and where it’s separate. Maybe this doubles as our introduction to hobbits—we first see them from the perspective of the Dúnedain protecting them. 

- I mentioned this in a reply, but I would (regretfully) lower the register of the Dúnedain characters’ dialogue to a somewhat more accessible level for central characters—not modern casual by any means, but not quite so high-diction as the book.

- It’s dreamland, so I’d get linguists who could not only handle neo-Sindarin, but neo-Sindarin with dialectical differences. Even in “English,” there’d be different accents between, say, the Northern and Southern Dúnedain, even if it’s not very pronounced (and definitely between e.g. Rivendell Elves and Boromir).

- (I am very set on Boromir using Sindarin at least once. I’m pretty sure that I lose a year off my life every time I see people assuming he can’t.)

- I’m really looking forward to the ‘the Sword that was Broken’ dream. I mean. I would be, if this was actually, you know, a thing.

- I have a headcanon that Ivriniel accompanied Finduilas to Minas Tirith way back in the day, studied with the healers, and just ... never left again, until Denethor evacuated her before the battle. My more tentative headcanon is that Lothíriel has been with her for some time, mostly due to escalating Corsair raids, so if I went with that, we could get three whole canon female characters in MT and have some sense of Lothíriel beyond her familial/marital connections.

(Bonus: the expanded headcanon is that Denethor and Ivriniel got on super well, but she was enraged when he sent her off in the evacuation, and they had a bitter fight about it before she left. Of course, she never sees him again.)

- Tolkien remarks in UT that Denethor was not only driven by personal pride but by his love for Gondor and the burden of being selected to lead his people through a desperate time. This should be really clear, esp when it comes to his use of the palantír. (I don’t think that would be a secret to the audience. Probably. If anything, we might even experience some episodes of his use of it with him, culminating in his sanity finally snapping.)

- Gandalf is a major recurring character in both ‘halves’ of the story. Maybe we get his line to Faramir about who he truly is and are eventually given enough information to understand what it means? Not sure how deep into Middle-earth cosmology we want to get, but it’s ... kind of important. At any rate, we would see his affinity with both Aragorn and Faramir, and Denethor’s resentment of Faramir’s affection for Gandalf would have some context.

- In my most perfect world, Gandalf and Denethor would actually be framed in similar ways at points, obviously enough to see them as related, parallel figures per Pippin’s observation. 

- We’d get some glimpses of the Elves, if not more, via the Northern Dúnedain, though the “northern” focus would probably narrow in on Aragorn as the plot closes in on FOTR. At the very least we’d meet Elladan and Elrohir and get an idea of their quasi-eternal bromance with the Northern Dúnedain and undying hatred of orcs.

- It’s a lot, but I’m imagining some of these things as quite brief in terms of actual screen time spent on them (not all, of course). Definitely TV rather than film material, though.

[momentofmemory]

FICTOBER 2020 - day thirty-one

Prompt #31: “I trust you.”

Fandom: Teen Wolf

Characters: Stiles Stilinski, Scott McCall.

Words: 2218

Author’s Note: an underappreciated aspect of chess culture? games played for fun are called Skittles. set post 5B, Scott & Stiles take a break to play a game of chess, and wind up talking about a whole lot more than just a game. Gen fic, Scott & Stiles focus. Stiles POV.

>> j’adoube (i adjust)

Stiles tosses his pen in the air. Watches it flip, twice. Catches it, barely. Toss and repeat.

“Hey, Scott.”

Scott, who’s sitting across from him at the desk, just grunts without looking up. They’ve been going over scholarships together for the past three hours, and it’s the most mind-numbing use of a Saturday Stiles has had in a very long time.

Which, considering most of his Saturdays have been more of the terrifyingly bloody variety, is probably still preferable. But still.

“Scoooooooott.”

Scott flips to the next page. “Mm?”

Stiles throws his pen at him and smacks him squarely across the face.

“Ow, Stiles—what?”

Stiles flips over onto his stomach, triumphant to have finally gotten Scott’s full attention. “You wanna play a game?”

Scott puts his own pen down and leans back in the chair, stretching and popping in a way that suggests being hunched over for that long is unpleasant for even a werewolf. “What kind? Board game?”

Stiles grins.

Board games, to his mind, are sacrosanct.

Not necessarily because he loves them—given a free range of choices, he’d rather do just about anything else—but because it’s so easy for them to suck.

Yahtzee, Monopoly, Shoots and Ladders, Candy Land, Sorry, even Risk—there’s just too much luck involved for his taste. Draw randomized but predetermined cards, roll uncontrollable dice. And that’s not even touching the disaster that’s Life, where the only two choices that ever matter are college or career, kids or no kids.

Absolutely nothing about bite or no bite, or possession or no possession.

Or ‘betrayed by a monster that gets your best friend killed and your crush of five years committed to an asylum,’ but.

Either way, it’s a joke.

There are better board games. Clue or Scrabble, which still rely on the hand that’s dealt, but at least can be salvaged with enough knowledge and strategy.

But he has the best one in mind for today.

“Chess?”

Scott’s eyes light up with a competitive glint Stiles feels like he hasn’t seen in ages, and he knows he’s won.

“I could do a round or two,” Scott says.

“Oh, thank god—”

“But, then we have to get back to work on these.”

“Yep, uh-huh, absolutely,” Stiles says, rolling off the bed and hunting underneath it for his set.

He fully intends to bribe Scott into playing way more than that, but one thing at a time.

His fingers close over the wooden case and he draws it out, blowing a bit of dust off the top. He turns it over in his hands.

If board games are sacrosanct, then chess is the holy grail.

Most people don’t get the attraction, and he respects that. It takes a certain level of concentration to be good at chess, and considering how many strategy books he’s read on the topic—even if he rarely remembers them—he can beat a casual player without too much effort. Plus, most people prefer games that don’t require much thought, perfectly wiling to just roll their dice and move their mice.

Stiles respects that a lot less.

What he likes about chess is that it’s the one game that’s completely and totally winnable every time—with no variation from chance or random dealing. He might be outmatched, but he’s not outnumbered.

Every choice he makes is fully his own.

It’s the best game.

The only marginal difference is that white has a slight advantage, as it gets to go first, so as Stiles tosses the set onto the bed he says, “I can be black this time.”

Scott barely glances up from the scholarship he’s still worrying himself over. “Hm? No, that’s okay, I don’t mind. You can take white.”

Stiles rolls his eyes and flops onto the bed. “You’ve been black the past like, eight times we’ve played. You’re white this time.”

“Stiles, I really don’t care if you want it.”

It’s an innocuous statement, but Stiles’ temper flares because all he can hear is that Scott thinks he needs the advantage—even if it’s one that, statistically, barely even matters. “What, because you don’t think I can beat you otherwise?”

“What? No, Stiles, I—” Scott falls silent, and it’s enough to instantly cool Stiles’ frustration. “I just—never mind. I can be white.”

Stiles hesitates for a few beats, then turns the board and starts setting the pieces up so the white ones are facing Scott.

He pauses. He’s been trying to pay more attention to Scott lately, but it’s hard—Scott tends to fold pretty quickly on smaller issues, and he tends to—

Well.

Not.

“Then again,” he tries, “I guess it doesn’t really matter—”

“You asked me to play white, so I’ll play white.” Scott’s voice is flat. “You were right; we haven’t switched it up in a while, so it’s only fair. Just give me a sec to finish this.”

“…Okay.”

Stiles toys with the edge of the board as he waits for Scott to finish restacking the papers.

One of the reasons Stiles likes chess is because it makes for a surprisingly good Rorschach test, and he’s played it with every member of the pack at some point or another.

Liam’s not much of a challenge, mostly because he’s made it clear he doesn’t care. The one time they played, he’d started strong—aiming to capture more than aiming to secure—but his failure to consider long-term strategy had gotten him into trouble almost immediately. With Malia, she has a good concept of how to control the center of the board, and favors trap-based strategy, but her ability to pay attention to her opponent’s gameplay is usually her downfall. Lydia tends to focus on a bishop and pawn strategy, which works very well for her mostly because it infuriates Stiles—his own strategy relies heavily on a more spontaneous approach to movement, and her method thoroughly demarcates most of the board. That’s probably why he enjoys playing with Kira, whose strategy rotates every time they play—as soon as he’d introduced her to the game, she’d started binging chess tutorials at speeds that put his own research to shame.

He hasn’t had the chance to play with the new pack members, but he has his guesses as to how that will go. Mason will play circles around him, but be super nice about it. Hayden will either trounce him thoroughly if she cares, or lose terribly if she doesn’t, and there will be nothing in between. Corey… Corey will probably favor the knights, which will make him hard to beat on the front end, but almost impossible to lose to in the endgame.

But he can work with that. All of those strategies make sense; make it easier for him to understand and categorize them.

He looks down at the white and black pieces, standing silently in anticipation of the match.

He can’t think of any reason Scott would want to reject the advantage, unless it was just for his benefit, but he hadn’t appeared to be lying.

And now Scott probably won’t tell him because he’d snapped at him instead of just asking.

Stiles winces and rakes his hands through his hair.

It’s just a chess preference. It’s not like it matters.

Except it does, because everything between them feels so fragile after Theo.

Stiles’ thoughts are interrupted when Scott vaults onto the bed, accidentally knocking one of the pawns forward as the board lists to the side.

“Whoops,” Scott says. The tiniest of smirks appears on his face as he moves to fix it. “J’adoube.”

Stiles rolls his eyes. “You don’t have to announce that that’s not your move when I can clearly see what just happened.”

“Can’t be too careful,” Scott says, adjusting the piece. “You’ve definitely called me out for less in the past.”

“You tried to change your mind after wrapping your whole hand around a bishop! How is that less?”

Scott shrugs, and Stiles is relieved he doesn’t seem to be bothered about the pieces anymore. “I’m just saying. Can’t be too careful.”

“A mindset I would normally endorse wholeheartedly, however.”

Scott laughs, then settles in cross-legged and stares down at the board, elbows resting on his knees and face furrowed in contemplation.

Stiles glances at Scott, then at board, then back at Scott again.

Scott doesn’t move.

Suddenly, it’s really bothering Stiles that despite having played with him more than anyone else, despite knowing him better than anyone else, Stiles still doesn’t understand why Scott plays the way he does.

It’s not that Scott’s exceptionally bad, or that Scott’s exceptionally good. It’s that he’s both.

When he plays with Stiles, he matches him step for step, pivoting his goals almost as quickly as Stiles does. But the few times Stiles’ seen Scott play with others, that ability seems to vanish—his level of competence almost directly mapped onto the level of the person he’s playing with, above or below where Stiles would expect it.

It doesn’t make sense, but that’s just Scott. Stiles had long since acknowledged that there were always going to be some things that didn’t make sense about his best friend.

That was before Theo. Before everything that was Scott & Stiles fell apart.

And also, Scott still hasn’t moved.

“Hey Scott?” Stiles waits until he glances up at him, chin still resting in his hands. “You gonna go, bud?”

“Yeah,” Scott says. He blinks down at the board. “There’s just… a lot of options.”

“Okay, right, that’s true,” Stiles says. “But it’s also just the first move.”

“Yeah.”

Scott reaches out and touches the pawn from before. He hovers there for a moment, then retracts his hand—the pawn still unmoved.

Stiles clears his throat.

“Really? You want me to—” Scott sighs. “J’adoube.”

“Technically, you’re supposed to say that before you touch it.”

“And technically, you said I didn’t have to say it earlier, so that one could count for the one I just did.”

“Bro,” Stiles says, because this is getting ridiculous. “Literally just move the pawn. Or a knight. Or any of the other pawns. There are zero other options.”

“I know, I know,” Scott says. “I just… what if I move this piece, and then you move like your knight or something, and it turns out I made the wrong move?”

Stiles squints at him. “It’s your move. Why would my move, which comes afterward, make yours wrong?”

“Because I have to stop your plan.”

“Right, but like.” Stiles tilts his head. “What about your plan?”

“That is my plan.”

Stiles’ brain short circuits, and he spins rapidly through every game he’s ever watched Scott play. “So—so wait. You mean every time you’re playing you’re just… trying to figure out your opponent’s plan? You’re not making one of your own?”

“I mean, kinda?” Scott reaches for the pawn again, then pauses before touching it. “J’adoube.”

“Yeah, whatever, just move the pawn,” Stiles says. “So earlier, it wasn’t about wanting me to have an advantage; you wanted black because… it’s to your advantage?”

Scott spins the pawn around in a slow circle, then lets go of it without moving its position. Again.

“I guess,” he says. “You like playing white better and I like black better, so it just… makes more sense to let us play the ones we actually prefer.”

“Then why didn’t you just say that?”

Scott shrugs. “It just seemed like it was important to you, and I… I didn’t want to argue.” His eyes drop, and so does his voice. “I don’t want to argue with you anymore.”

Something clicks in Stiles’ mind. “J’adoube.”

“Uh,” Scott looks pointedly at the pieces, which are still unmoved, and his hands, which aren’t anywhere near them. “What?”

“‘I adjust,’” Stiles says. “That’s what you’ve been doing. Adjusting your plan to match mine, or—or anyone else.”

Scott picks at the edge of his sleeve. “And that’s bad?”

“Um.” Stiles hasn’t gotten that far. “No? I mean like, you’re clearly very good at it. You’ve definitely beat me enough times doing it.”

“I sense a ‘but.’”

“See, there you go, anticipating me again. You’re a pro.”

“Stiles.”

“Yeah, okay, the point.” Stiles glances down at the chessboard—and then at the pile of scholarships, too. “Look, I’m just saying you gotta just take the shot sometimes. Or move the pawn. Whatever. My point is, it’s okay to make your own plans.”

Scott shifts a bit to look behind him at the paperwork, something both worried and hopeful in his expression.

“And then, y’know,” Stiles continues, “you can always adjust them later if you have to. But you don’t have to start out that way.”

Scott picks up the pawn and turns it about in his fingers. He bites his lip. “And… you trust this to work?”

“Nah, man.” Stiles settles back against the wall and nods towards the board. “It’s the first move; I have no idea how it’ll play out. But… I trust you enough to know that you can handle it if it doesn’t.”

Scott’s eyes get suspiciously bright, but Stiles doesn’t comment. “I trust you, too.”

(And, well.)

(If Stiles’ eyes get a little bright too, no one comments on that either.)

Scott moves the pawn to e4, and lets it go.

[theawkwardterrier]

2019 fic roundup

Buffyverse

The Words Beneath Our Words

MCU

Perfect Targets Beneath the Flap A Light in the Window These Bricks and Beams Carry With Us Though It's Called Dancing (to me it's romancing) things left behind and the things that are ahead

1. Looking back, did you write more fic than you thought you would this year, less, or about what you’d predicted?:

I've had a policy over the past through years of not predicting (I’m so easily prone to getting weighed down by disappointment in myself), but I’ll say it was less than in the past (not an overwhelming number of individual fics, and not a lot of variation in genre) but in some ways a lot more (things left behind).

There is something a little different from other years, though, because in 2018 I had decided to stop writing. It seemed like a perfectly sensible time to do so: it had been just over ten years since I started writing fic regularly, just under ten since I started participating in IWRY marathon, I’d made friends and improved in my writing both through age and through practice, and I’d just finished my World Without Shrimp IWRY series and had no new projects brewing. I was starting to feel sort of old-married to my fandoms, the love still there but the passion somewhat fading. But it was also a move made bitterly, out of anger and sadness and frustration. 

I know there are writers who will write regardless of the feedback they get. I know there are writers who don’t register the hits or kudos they get, those who don’t compare their stats to other writers, who keep themselves focused on themselves and their own work, thinking “I like my story - it’s good and writing it helped me to grow” rather than “I like my story, and more people should have too.” I think that type of writer is admirable. I’m not one of them. I don’t know that I ever can be. And, as I’ve mentioned in the past, I was really torn up that But A Walking Shadow didn’t get much of a reaction.

It’s strange - I love my own fic, but I truly don’t think I’m the most amazing writer or anything. And I certainly get wonderful feedback, including plenty on my other 2018 stories, many of which were very well received. But there was just something about what happened with that one story that really affected me. Maybe it was a sense of hopes dashed after a lot of effort, or, as I mentioned during last year’s roundup, a feeling that I had done everything “right” with it, and it didn’t result in a greater impact. Maybe it was the feeling that Woman Borne was somehow retroactively not as well-received as I thought it had been if people weren’t looking for a follow-up and weren’t as interested when it arrived. I felt as if I had spent a decade trying to become Something and had finally gotten close and it just wasn’t working. (I was also having a pretty hard year in general, and mental-healthwise, wasn’t in the best place.) Regardless of the reason, in the later part of 2018, I started wondering what would happen if I just...stopped?

Like I said, I thought it would be a fairly good time to do it, there were Reasons for it, but I was also having a supervillain moment of “if I’m not appreciated, I just won’t do it anymore, I’ll just tell myself stories and won’t write them or show them to anyone, so there.”  

And then Endgame came out. And I wrote anyway. Obviously.

I’m not much better in my comparisons with others, and in some ways I’m worse, though I’m working on it. I know that it’s not logical or healthy, to have this endlessly gluttonous desire for recognition which might not even be possible to ever fulfill. (Like, realistically, what do I want? For every fic reader to be obsessed with my work? For the world to hail me as the next Shakespeare????) I am trying to manage my expectations and to focus on the positives of my accomplishments and place less stock in the reception. We’ll see how it goes.

Anyway, I don’t predict what I’ll write, or how much. At this point, who knows.

2. What pairing/genre/fandom did you write that you would never have predicted in January?:

As I said, in January, I was certain I would never write fic again, so I suppose it was all unpredictable. That said, everything stayed fairly status quo (Steve/Peggy, Buffy/Angel), though I guess my OCs - the whole cast of them! - were a surprise.

3. What’s your own favorite story of the year? Not the most popular, but the one that makes you happiest?

There’s usually one that jumps out, but from 2019, I was really proud of things left behind in a grand sense (length! characters!) and probably Beneath the Flap in a smaller sense (I’m always really excited when I can translate one universe into another - Attachments’s internet security officer/email monitor becoming a CA:TFA appropriate WWII military mail censor is pretty good).

4. Did you take any writing risks this year? What did you learn from them?

Including so many OCs in things left behind, I think. Even though I did something similar before with Adrift, Ashore, it felt so, so nerve-wracking to include pieces like chapter 22, which is almost entirely Drea with cameos by Steve and Peggy and Tony and the Jarvises. Like, how much would people’s interest extend past the MCU characters they came to read about? (Luckily, apparently a fair amount.) One of the things I started to realize as I’ve written more and more of the story is that I do feel, I guess, ready to try writing new characters and building a world of my own in a way that I didn’t before. 

5. Do you have any fanfic or profic goals for the New Year?

This is not a prediction because I’ve already fulfilled it as of this writing, but: keep posting chapters of things left behind, mostly. I’d love to expand to a new fandom, but I’ve been in a real rut for the past few years; nothing’s really captured my interest in that certain way, and I’m sighing over the lack of a shiny hyperfixation.

As I’ve gained confidence in my own writing independent of an extant media universe (see above), it’s possible that I might try writing something non fanfic at some point in the future, but I don’t actually have an idea and the details of anything surrounding that are so hazy I don’t even think I could list it as a goal. (Also, a maximum of four people are allowed on the page at once, so that will put a damper on things).   

6. From my past year of writing, what was…

Story Most Underappreciated by the Universe:

I think they all mostly got what they were due this time around (or more than their due; see below), though I would never say no to more feedback on new chapters of things left behind. There are people who comment on every chapter and I absolutely can never thank them enough for that, but it is a little dispiriting to watch the hits going up without even a note saying, “hey, this was great!” or “I can’t give kudos again but I liked this chapter.” Like I said, I’m trying to work past this sort of thing and I’m not going to stop writing because of it, but...it would still be nice...

Most Fun:

I think Perfect Targets. There’s a touch of awkwardness to it that I wasn’t really able to smooth out, but I like the tone of it, the seriousness balanced with humor/aggravation.

Most Disappointing:

It has got to be A Light in the Window. I reread my own fic possibly more than anyone else alive, and I can’t bear to even look at this one because I think it’s so clunky and weird. Like, the very very center is an interesting idea, but I can’t believe I wrote it considering the secondhand awkwardness that I experience when thinking about it. The feedback on it has been incredibly generous.

Most Sexy:

The scene in chapter 3 of things left behind where Peggy and Steve start getting hot and heavy at the carnival? Or maybe chapter 3 in general?

Hardest to Write:

I stopped writing chapter 28 of things left behind for around six solid months and I’m still not certain I got it 100% fixed up, so probably that.

Most Unintentionally Telling:

I'd love to be either a Buffy or an Angel in The Words Beneath Our Words, but sometimes I feel like my love language is  ¯\(°_o)/¯. Good luck being in a relationship with me! (Just kidding - who would?! Rosa_Diaz_laughing_at_the_party.gif)

Choice Lines:

Usually I’m obsessed enough with my own work to list fourteen million, but this time the prospect legit exhausts me. Pick your own if you’d like, I guess?

[nctdreamsquad]

NCT OT18 Ranking

      Hello there! For a while now I have been thinking about NCT and its concept as a whole and watching how it has progressed since debut in 2016. While thinking about I noticed a lot of irregularities (heh…) between members and how it has affected how the boys and the entire group is perceived by the public. Of course, that has been done by how SM promotes them and how they individually value each members’ talents. So, I thought it would be interesting to see with the content that we have at hand, how each member ranks in terms of importance to least importance for SM.

      I decided that to have an accurate ranking it would need to be based on different factors. Certain members might have more advantages when it comes to a certain field but disadvantages compared to another member in a specific field. The categories are line distribution (how often they sing/rap on the discography), screen time (how often are they shown in MVs or in the photo album), and benefits (who gets to do solo schedules whether that be MCing/Songs/etc.). I will take the 3 different rankings of each category and then average each boys rank to find their proper place.

     Also, certain members like Jaemin & Jungwoo I projected more of where I thought they will be in the future, seeing as they haven’t been here as long cause of Nana’s injury and Jungwoo only coming in this past year. Of course, this is my opinion and how I think SM views each boy and if we have different thoughts that is completely fine. Whether we agree or not on this subject, I would love to hear other peoples’ thoughts and discuss.

*Little add-on: The boys are ranked from 1-18 but there might be bigger or smaller gaps of how much SM values them between each ranking. (Which I will try to inform you when I believe that happens.)

Most Important

1.    Mark

I don’t think this will come to anyone’s surprise that Mark is the most important member in NCT (in SM’s eyes). It is evident in how he has been in every unit since NCT’s debut in April of 2016. Mark always has had a large number of lines in whatever song he is in (title/non-title + unit). He has been able to have his raps and compositions that he wrote published in every album (except for the Japanese album). He has been able to promote individually on variety shows (music related vs. pure variety). It is very obvious that Mark is one of SM’s favorites in general when it comes to all SM groups but especially in NCT.

2.    Taeyong

Taeyong’s ranking is very similar to Mark’s, in fact, the very small margin that makes up the difference between 1st and 2nd place is that I think SM personally likes Mark more. Taeyong is also privileged in that he gets lots of lines in songs, screen time, multiple SM Station songs, and other solo schedules. However, I get the feeling that SM views Taeyong as a person that they employed and someone who makes a good idol whereas Mark seems to be a little more integrated into part of the “family” aspect.

3.    Doyoung

Doyoung is the first member where the advantages and favoritism gap is slightly wider from him and Taeyong. He still has a lot of benefits compared to the boys lower down the ranking but I do believe SM sees Doyoung as most useful when it comes to MCing and being a spokesperson. An integral part of NCT but not the first name they want you to think about when you think of the group. This might sound a little rude, however, another reason why I think Doyoung is higher up in the rank is that SM likes to have people who will listen to them and won’t rebel and Doyoung fits that very well. For example, if something unfair happens to one of the boys I’m sure that Yuta or Johnny will be more likely to speak out about it than Doyoung would be.  

4.    Jaehyun

Honestly, I think Jaehyun lucked out when it came to getting his position in NCT. I love Jaehyun and his voice is one of my favorites but, although he’s consistent, there is a member who excels more than him in every category. Vocal (Taeil, Haechan, Kun), Rap (Taeyong, Mark, Jaemin), Dance (Ten, Yuta, Jisung), or Variety (Johnny, Haechan, Renjun). However, the fact that his voice sounds very different from other members helped him stand out more. Also, he fits the “boy next door” concept very well and I think that’s another reason why SM likes to give him more focus than other members.

5.    Ten

Now, I know that Ten’s place is NCT is rather open-ended seeing as the only NCT songs he has been in is 7th Sense/BDS. However, I think it’s obvious that SM does like Ten and values his talents so much so that he has gotten 2 solo songs. Not only that, but both songs came out at almost the same time a year apart which usually means that SM planned it to hype people up even more. Also, Ten has had continuous activities in South Korea and Thailand. I do think that his injury may have caused a pushback with him promoting in a unit or doing more NCT related activities. However, I do strongly think that Ten will be in NCT China and will play an important member in their success. Also, with the dancing capability and performance talent that Ten has there’s no way that SM can keep him locked up forever.  

6.    Jisung

You might be a little surprised that I placed Jisung so high up in the ranking and if I had made this post months ago I would also not agree with my decision. However, with the addition of “GO” and especially with the release of the “We Go Up” album I can see the path that SM are putting Jisung on. From the beginning, I could tell that Jisung was going to be important when it came to MVs and playing a main role in them but with the lack of lines that he had, I thought it would be much more “visual” based. I was proven wrong with him getting to go on solo schedules like “Why Not?” and “Dancing High” + the fair amount of lines he is now getting in the recent Dream album. I will say that of the members I have listed so far, Jisung and Ten are the two that I am completely fine with getting more individual shine/recognition and will wholly support as they’re a few of the most talented boys in NCT (not just talking about their dancing). He still is extremely young and has a lot to learn and experience but I can already see that Jisung is going to be a wonderful person and performer in the future.

7.    Haechan

Haechan is the last member that I will place in a more advantageous position before the favoritism gap widens a lot more. I do want to start off by saying that Haechan does have more privileges than others below but mainly when he’s in Dream, otherwise he’s kind of at the lower middle of the group. As you will see how I ranked each member individually in each category below later, Haechan was very much saved by the amount of lines + screen time he gets in Dream. I don’t think SM uses him as well as they could when it comes to 127 and I still don’t understand why he hasn’t been in a NCT U song yet (I WANT THE OG 7TH SENSE WITH HYUCK IN IT). Haechan is another member that I believe to be incredibly talented and I hope that he gets what he deserves and stays amazing.

8.    Yukhei

Precious Yukhei. I was honestly surprised and am still awed at the amount of media attention SM is letting him have by going on different variety shows. He’s a newer addition but of the time he has spent in NCT so far, I think Xuxi is in a comfortable position. I do think SM will rely more on his personality than his performance abilities to bring in fans, however, he’s the only rapper we have for NCT China at this moment so that bodes well for him. It’s a little early to say but I’m confident that Yukhei will be a prevalent member in the whole of NCT and popular in NCT China.

9.    Jaemin

FINALLY! We finally have NaNa back and it has been so great to see him with the other dreamies. It was obvious from the beginning that Jaemin was supposed to be an important member in Dream (after Markhyuck) but his back injury put him out of the running. I think SM tried to fill the void by splitting what would have been Jaemin’s parts to Renjun/Jeno/Chenle. However, now that he is back we can see that SM is steadily placing him in the center position when it comes to dancing & screen time. The “We Go Up” album has been very gracious towards NaNa & Jisung and I think it will be common to see more and more of them in future comebacks.

10. Taeil

Moon Taeil, a much needed but highly underappreciated voice in NCT 127. I think Taeil benefitted more back in the SMROOKIES days with his solo song and the early beginning of NCT’s timeline. It was during Limitless era that we can see SM pushed Taeil into singing the high bridges notes and flashy rifts during the last chorus. While the more main vocal parts that he used to sing got handed off to Doyoung. Which I find interesting since Doyoung and Taeil have eerily similar voices but (IMO) Taeil has the richer color in his voice while Doyoung can sound a little flat sometimes. Although I would like Taeil to have more singing parts + screen time, I do think he’s lucky in the fact that he is a part of NCT 127 from the beginning. Whereas Jeno, Jaemin, and Jisung are kind of in a weird place where they obviously can’t be put in 127 after they graduated from Dream but SM most likely won’t make another Seoul Unit until they have established other units in separate countries.

11. Jeno

I would say that Jeno is the younger version of Jaehyun for Dream. Jaehyun is definitely more capable and talented (at this point in time) than Jeno. As I stated before, I think Jeno benefitted from Jaemin not being in Dream because what would have been NaNa’s screen time went to Jeno. SM tried to make up for lack of lines with him being able to be a MC on The Show and giving him good amounts of screen time in M/Vs. However, out of Triple J, I am most worried about Jeno’s future and gaining a spot in a new unit. 127 is getting bigger now that there are 10 members and I don’t think SM will be added anymore. So unless there’s a new Korean unit (which wouldn’t really make sense since we already have 3ish units) Jeno should try to learn a new language and hope for a spot in a foreign unit.

12. Jungwoo

I believe that the middle area of being important to NCT + SM started with Haechan and ends with Jungwoo. My summary of Jungwoo is the most theoretical because of how recently he was added to NCT, but I do feel confident in his ranking. It seems that he trained longer and with most of the OG members (Hyungs + Korean Dreamies) but didn’t make the first cut so he had to wait for the next opening. However, I think that SM is leaning towards giving him a fair amount of lines and with him being added to 127 I think that is very telling of what they think of him. I will say that Jungwoo is highly competitive and it’s obvious that he works very hard to be included so I wouldn’t be surprised if SM rewards him for that whereas Kun or Yuta could do the same thing but I don’t think it would work out as well for them.

13. Chenle

I would say that Chenle is similar to Taeil in the sense that they are both incredibly talented when it comes to singing but aren’t used enough for what they can do. Chenle does get a good amount of lines that show off his abilities but the parts are usually repeats of what Haechan has already sung, therefore giving the illusion that Chenle is good but not as great as Haechan. He’s obviously not SM’s golden child in S. Korea but I am certain that with the introduction of NCT China he will be an important member. Chenle had already started off his singing career in China before joining NCT so it would make sense to build off his existing fanbase in his home country.

14. Yuta

Nakamoto Yuta. I always feel so frustrated when I think about Yuta’s position in NCT. He’s proven to be extremely versatile by having the ability to sing, rap, and dance well. His variety and charisma skills are endearing and overall he’s a nice boy. Unfortunately, something happened that ensured Yuta would always be unheard and unseen. I’m not sure if Yuta was a prime candidate for an important position and then a new boy came along that SM liked better or if they have always disliked Yuta. It’s obvious by the lack of lines and screen time that they don’t think he’s necessary to grab in new fans. Which is interesting since he is their ONLY Japanese member (as of right now) that they have and if they want to promote in Japan PROPERLY (not that 127 Japan ish) then they should invest time/attention on him. I worry for Yuta’s future as SM has no plans to debut a Japan unit (that we know of) and he’s just stuck in 127, while other foreign members will likely have more opportunities in their home countries. We don’t really have any say in what SM does and who they promote but please support our takoyaki prince who deserves the world, Nakamoto Yuta.

15. Renjun

I personally didn’t think that Renjun was going to be so low on the list but after going through the separate categories it seems to be that way. He has always had a consistent amount of lines in the Dreamie songs but I have noticed that SM loves to not give him screen time. Ironically, it is very similar to what SM does to Yixing in EXO’s M/Vs + live performances. When Renjun is singing his part, it is very common for the M/V to switch to another member doing something or show a specific object related to the plot, but not showing the member who is singing? It’s the same with live performances when it’s his turn to sing the cameramen will start shooting a wide angle of the whole group or pan to another member and it really ticks me off. Renjun will obviously be put into the China unit but with the probable addition of Xiaojun, Hendery, and Yang Yang it decreases his chance of getting a main position. Which is unfair since he and the other China line members have been working longer in NCT than the new three. I’m not pitting the new and old members against each other but I do think seniority should come into play a little bit.

16. Johnny

No one is surprised that Johnny is almost at the bottom of the list for how important SM thinks they are to NCT. I remember being SO EXCITED when I found out that Johnny was added to 127. He was finally going to have his chance to shine and then I watched the Limitless MV… It’s obvious now that SM added him because of how insistent fans were getting at Johnny not having debut yet. After the Cherry Bomb album came out it was pretty solidified that SM was not going to use Johnny as well as they could for NCT’s sound + image. Honestly, if Johnny wasn’t so outgoing and willing to look like a fool for the camera then we would never have gotten NCT Night Night and all the other silly memes we have of Jonathan. He is very much underappreciated and for his sake, I hope he gets put into a foreign unit because I know he is open-minded and will work hard to succeed.

17. Kun

There’s not a whole lot to say about Kun (not that I wouldn’t love to endlessly chat about this precious bun). He’s hasn’t been on SM’s radar for S.Korea but more like bait for the fans who want a Chinese Unit but have to wait indefinitely for it. Thankfully, it is confirmed that we will have NCT China and I know that Kun is capable of being a leader + main vocal material. Also, I think his personality would work well on Chinese variety + talk shows so if SM isn’t a complete idiot they will promote NCT’s Mama well.

18. WinWin

Last and most certainly least in SM’S eyes is our lovely Dong Sicheng. I honestly don’t know what SM had in mind when they decided to debut WinWin in 127. It’s not that I don’t love him, cause I do, but they literally have never used him for ANYTHING in NCT. The only lines he has ever had are always layered/harmonized with another member’s voice, he is never dancing in the center (even though his position is technically a dancer), and for how pretty they say he is they don’t give him any solo screen time. Touch was literally unbelievable because of how much focus Sicheng got in the MV and the live performance. It still does not make up for how much BS he has to go through with being in a group where he has nothing to do. Going back to why SM debut him if they wanted China Unit bait they could have just used Kun seeing as they would probably let him sing more than Sicheng’s nonexistent lines. The worst part is that even if he gets a decent role in the Chinese Unit, he still has to endure 127 for the rest of his idol life (if they don’t take him out and focus him in other units, which I think would be better for him). I adore his relationships with the other 127 members and in NCT in general but I want something more for Sicheng, somewhere he can really shine.

Least Important

 Here are the categories that I used to make the final ranking.

Line Distribution:

*This is done by units so NCT U, 127, Dream…

Ø Main Vocal/Rappers (Has many lines whether it be Title/Non-Title + what unit they’re in)

-         Mark

-         Taeyong

-         Doyoung

-         Jaehyun

Ø Lead Vocal/Rappers (Fair amount of lines, usually used in bridges of songs)

-         Haechan

-         Taeil

-         Renjun

-         Chenle

-         Jaemin

Ø Sub Vocal/Rappers (Small amount of lines, usually the transition parts or repeats)

-         Ten

-         Jeno

-         Jungwoo

-         Jisung

-         Yuta

-         Yukhei

Ø Vocal/Rappers (Almost no lines whatsoever; usually will be ad-libs or harmonized/layered)

-         Johnny

-         Kun

-         WinWin

Screen Time:

*Mainly based on MVs, but also incorporating solo/duo magazine shoots, photo albums

Ø Face of the Group (Lots of screen time, supposed to be an important member in the group)

-         Taeyong

-         Mark

-         Ten

-         Jisung

-         Jaemin

Ø  (Members who consistently get screen time/solo shots)

-         Doyoung

-         Jaehyun

-         Haechan

-         Jeno

-         Jungwoo

-         Yukhei

Ø Obligatory (Is a member of the group so they need to be shown, usually in more group shots)

-         Chenle

-         Taeil

-         Yuta

-         Renjun

-         Johnny

-         WinWin

-         Kun

Benefits:

*Based on writing/composing for NCT music, Songs outside of NCT, MCing, Variety Shows, general freedom to pursue what they desire

Ø Unlimited (SM picks/asks them first if they want a project, usually is able to try new things)

-         Mark

-         Taeyong

-         Doyoung

-         Yukhei

-         Jisung

Ø Limited (Does the projects that SM gives them, might be able to try out something they like)

-         Ten

-         Jaehyun

-         Johnny

-         Taeil

-         Jeno

-         WinWin

-         Yuta

-         Jungwoo

-         Jaemin

-         Chenle

Ø Restricted (Is not given outside projects, will likely be looked over for projects, only in NCT schedules)

-         Haechan

-         Kun

-         Renjun

     Now as a wrap up to this exceedingly long post, I just want to say I am not trying to pit the members up against each other. I am not trying to put the boys’ fans up against each other either. I just wanted to show (IMO) what each member’s career as an idol has been like so far and whether SM has played a positive or negative role in it. I just want fans of NCT to be aware that you can have your faves in the group but their members (that they care about deeply) might not have the same successes and as easy of a time. Furthermore, support all units AND all members of NCT.

[maternalcube]

i did an art summary so now im doing a fic summary. i was tagged by @jamthedingus also!! ive never done one of these before!! lets go!!!

Rest (13106)

Keith & Lance's Island Adventure (20631)

Atlantis (10014 words)

The Way to a Man’s Heart (6858 words)

nobody's business (2096 words)

leave, and take (557 words)

dead girl walking (1661 words)

the course of fate (1039 words)

who ya gonna call (465 words)

come here often? (806 words)

til kingdom come (1950 words)

stars in the sky (pt 2) (5404 words)

a song of falling (630 words)

Eyes to the Sky (3683 words)

Feet on the Ground (4050 words)

Divergence (6669 words)

homecoming (1426 words)

Window of Opportunity (11144 words)

along that wilderness of glass (3801 words)

string theory (2327 words)

Katt Week (1062 words)

The Pining-Plant (3860 words)

at the end of many worlds (21684 words)

you're my home (19646 words)

Believe Me (3177 words)

Starchild (3568 words)

Summer Heat (2285 words)

third time's the charm (5349 words)

Blackbird (59546 words)

The Sixth Planet (9444 words)

all the infinite realities (1197 words)

Total Fics: 31! (plus one i posted anonymously lmao) Total Words: 229999! (except parts of string theory and the sixth planet were actually posted last year... but still, what a number)

more under the cut!

Ship/character breakdown: i didnt filter out my prompt collection or abandoned wips here so /shrug Ship breakdown:

klance - 6 sheith - 5 shance - 5 katt - 4 heith - 3 pallura - 2 and one each of plance, kallura, allurance, shatt, shkatt, kidge, kidgance, and shunk. and keiths parents lol. let it never be said i am not a multishipper.

and i know gen isnt a ship but it tied with klance at 6 (plus whatevers in the prompt collection) which was a surprise

Character breakdown: man if theres a way to get ao3 to show me ALL the stats, i dont know it. but.

keith - 25 (shocker) shiro - 23 lance - 21 pidge - 17 hunk - 16 allura - 12 matt - 12 and then coran and sam are at 4, and zarkon ats 3 and presumably many others are at 3 or less

Characters that had the main focus: well ~9 were from keiths pov, and ~5 each from shiro and lances povs. i think i also had ~5 from multiple points of view. its safe to say that keith has my heart tho lol

Specifics:

Best/worst title? Best title: i still like “at the end of many worlds.” i weirdly still like “Blackbird” too even if it has nothing to do with anything... Worst title: “Rest.” :/ also like all of the abandoned wips bc i didnt care. and “Keith & Lance's Island Adventure.″ some of my zine fic titles were also... bad. im bad at titles.

Best/worst first line?

Best: Keith & Lance's Island Adventure. ok the title is bad but this line? this really sets the tone for whole fic. you know what youre getting yourself into here.

When Pidge invited Keith to a fully-funded graduation party aboard the Holt family boat (“the smaller one, anyway,” she’d said), this is not exactly what he'd pictured: three of them standing on a wobbly dock, packed bags at their feet, sky cloudy and gray, while the Holt siblings stand on a little ledge off the back of the boat and deny entry.

Worst: ive got two for this lol

at the end of many worlds: even i have to read this a couple times to figure out what i was trying to say. at least you know youre in for pain...

Keith’s mother shows up to interrupt movie night often enough that, this time, Keith almost doesn’t realize anything’s wrong. Almost, because she’s silhouetted by the movie, but she’s clutching her arm and panting for breath, and in the thin edge of light around her he sees a wet and vibrant red.

Divergence: because all your friends being dead is EXACTLY like losing at dodgeball. yeah, theres a reason i abandoned this one.

Hunk always hated playing dodgeball. Not because he was bad at it--though he was--but because he always ended up the last one standing, and therefore the only target for the entire other team. It was due to a tendency to hang unnoticed in the back, he knew, but that didn't change the sickening, empty feeling of looking around and realizing there's no one left but him, and there's no way he can win. Only wait for the inevitable.

This, Hunk decides, is a lot like that, only, like, a billion times worse.

Best/worst last line?

Best: The Pining-Plant. there are a few others that were cute too but this one is also good out of context so

And then the pod swishes open and he's scrambling to catch Pidge as she stumbles out. She clings to his arms to steady herself and his heart swells.

"Falling for me again, huh?" he asks, and she groans loudly.

"Let me go, I'm getting back in the pod," she says, and he laughs. He doesn't let go, and neither does she.

Worst: if im bad at titles, im worse at endings. most are bad. i suspect the ending to “Rest” is terrible but i cant bring myself to even open that shit again so: Believe Me. if weather were a recurring theme in this fic, itd be fine, but as is its just... a weird note to end the fic on lmao

Hunk rocks back on his heels. "We aren't counting this as our official first date, right?"

"I dunno," Keith says, and now he smiles at the rain instead of frowning. It shows no sign of easing up, but whatever—they're soaked anyway. "This seems pretty good to me."

“...All right.” If nothing else, it’ll make a good story. And, Hunk had to admit—he’s pretty happy with how it’s turned out, rain and all.

But next time, he's double-checking the forecast, just in case.

General questions:

Looking back, did you write more fics than you thought you would this year, less than you thought, or about what you predicted?

more than i expected! considering ive been in grad school all year!! i wrote about the same amount wordcount-wise in 2017 which i spent only half in school so. idk how i managed it.

What pairing/genre/fandom did you write that you would never have predicted last year?

the anonymous fic was a surprise but im not gonna talk about that lol. otherwise... nah, its all been my usual stuff.

What���s your favorite story this year? Not the most popular, but the one that makes you the happiest.

blackbird, probably. i like working on that one. summer heat was also fun, id sort of forgotten about it bc it was a zine fic but coming back to it, i really liked it. likewise with third time’s the charm. and i like t6p a lot even if i kinda hate drawing for it :’)

Okay, NOW your most popular story.

depends on your metric. window of opportunity has the most kudos, keith and lance’s island adventure has the most hits, and t6p has the most comments and subscriptions. 

Story most underappreciated by the universe?

AT THE END OF MANY WORLDS. oh man i killed myself over that fic. it was important to me. but i think the mcd scared everyone off :’)

Story that could have been better?

i realize “all of them” is kind of a cop out answer but like

Sexiest story?

i have written nothing sexy, ever, in my whole life

Saddest story?

i mean, ateomw. considering all the death. blackbird def has its moments too.

Most fun?

i feel like i answered this in the favorite story q lmao. you’re my home also gets a shoutout, that thing was,, super self-indulgent lmao. and id be lying if i said i didnt have fun with parts of ateomw, even if its mostly sad.

Story with single sweetest moment?

man i write a lot of fluff but so much of you’re my home is just tooth-rotting. heres part of the proposal scene lmao

"Lance!" Keith yelps, barely rescuing the ring from falling into the sand with them. Lance pushes himself up on his arms, silhouetted by the sun and glowing with it.

"Really?" he asks breathlessly.

"Yeah," Keith says, and maybe he should've prepared something to say, that's a thing people do, right? Hell, he's winging it. "I know we can't stay here on Earth forever, 'cause we're paladins, and there's still stuff out there we gotta do. And I know you probably want to stay because this is your home—but you're my home, and if we gotta go, at least you'll have me, good or bad." He grins crookedly. "Or rocket science. Whatever happens, I'll be there."

Hardest story to write?

well t6p gets a shoutout, but its not the writing thats the hard part for that. uhhh ive struggled with parts of blackbird. i remember k&l’s island adventure giving me a LOT of trouble, i think i posted late lol

Easiest/most fun story to write?

anything short uhhh for all the infinite realities, i kind of just sat down the other day (actually i was in bed but) and was like “im gonna write this” and then in the morning i just sat down and wrote it in one go. i dunno if id call it fun, but it was easy. t6p is super fun to write but, as mentioned, drawing it sucks.

Did any stories shift your perceptions of the characters?

no... my perceptions probably have shifted but not due to anything i wrote in particular. i did talk myself into liking allurance with a prompt fill, though, but im not sure that was 2018...

Most overdue story?

all the infinite realities lmao. at the end of many worlds needed that happy ending. and another shoutout to t6p, because thats been going on over a year and im still nowhere.

Did you take any writing risks this year? What did you learn from them?

does posting my abandoned wips count? ive still got some of those hanging around... blackbird was a bit of a risk bc my last longfic was written while i was unemployed and out of school, so like i had the time for it, and now i kinda dont. still chugging tho. ateomw b/c of all the death but it turns out i really like writing whump woops. and writing any sort of kissing always feels like a risk bc i suck at it but im getting better lol... i hope...

What are your fic writing goals for next year?

write more! finish things! do more sheith! i really want to work on this sheith longfic i came up with the other day... but i want to get blackbird over with first.

Tagging: eh! do it if you want to!

[imagine-darksiders]

I saw your scenario for the horseman, Karn, and I think Samael getting a shy kiss on the cheek from their human companion, so I was wondering if we could get the same for Azrael, Wicked K, the Crowfather, Uriel, Hunter, and Draven plz - gotta love them underappreciated characters :3 (I was gunna say Abaddon as well, but I can't think of a way that wouldn't be creepy - he scares me...)

Azrael:“Angel of Death. Serve me one last time..”

Azraelopened his mouth to speak, eyes flickering between War and you beforehe shut it slowly and nodded with a solemn frown. The angel raisedhis hand, ready to send War, in a blaze of fire, to meet theDestroyer. But Azrael was interrupted, only momentarily, by a smallhand tugging on his sleeve. He raised an eyebrow, surprised andglanced down to see you standing on the ground with a sad expression.

IgnoringWar’s huff of impatience, you frantically wave Azrael down closerto your height. He smiles amusedly, dropping to the ground andlowering his face so that you don’t have to strain so far. 

Quick as a flash, you bounce up onto your toes and land a short, amiable kiss on his slender cheek. 

Azrael’s jaw goes slack for a comical moment, his eyes bursting wide open simultaneously and he releases a tiny ‘oh’ of astonishment. The angel remains bent low over even as you pull away and move to stand next to the horseman. 

You call out to the stunned angel, “Just wanted to say ‘Thanks!’ For helping War.” The horseman gives you a quizzical look as his eyes flit between you and Azrael, who blinks hard, his lips pulling into an elegant, wonder-filled smile. Coughing gently into his fist, he steps towards you and places a hand almost lovingly on your cheek. 

“I was glad to have been of some assistance,” he murmurs, “it’s the least I could have done, considering what….what I…..” he trails off. You frown at his self-deprecating expression and without too much thought, you place your hand over his and squeeze it against your cheek. 

“I don’t blame you,” you whisper earnestly. His smile grows so wide, you’re sure his face will hurt tomorrow. 

WickedK: Had you not just witnessed K leap to your defence, valiantly guarding you from a pair of ferocious Grappleclaws, you wouldn’t really believe that it had happened at all. 

Time and again, the insane, theatrical wicked had jumped at the chance to connect with someone he considered ‘of a refined taste’. Evidently, he’d taken a liking to you and if you were perfectly honest, his rather charming persona and often overwhelming gentlemanliness had caught you off guard. You found yourself actually liking the weird, old wicked. 

After he’d dispatched the demons, K had scooped you up and, oddly enough, flown you out of the immediate vicinity, sitting on the top of his hat. He set your giggling self down delicately in relative safety outside one of Vulgrim’s caves. 

The wicked bows low over his bent arm, top hat in hand and cane hanging from his elbow. “There we are! Right as rain`,” he declares with a flourish of his hand. Still laughing at the sheer absurdity of your escape, you leap at K. Ignoring the rotting skin and stench of decay, you cup one of his cheeks in your hand and plant a kiss above the split of his jaw. The wicked’s brilliant, red chest flashed brightly for a second, illuminating the dark cave and forcing you to shield your eyes against the glare. When you looked up at him, K was beaming from ear to ear. “Such a marvellous gesture!” he cheers, pressing two fingers to the place you’d kissed, “simply marvellous….” 

You quirk an eyebrow up at him whilst he stares into space with a faraway look in his eyes. 

“Okay, so…I’m going to love you and leave you,” you begin with a clap of your hands, edging backwards towards Vulgrim’s glyph on the ground. K’s eyes snapped back into focus and his eerie, pale gaze landed on you. Despite his friendliness, that white stare always served to unnerve you. The wicked grins widely and throws you a wink. 

“But of course,” he sighs, “The merchant will get you back to your beloved horseman…Speaking of whom. Tell the old fellow, ‘I look forward to when next we meet….” 

TheCrowfather: The old one sat on his crooked throne with a dark scowl on his face. You perch on the arm of it, absentmindedly stroking the feathers on his collar as you ponder on your new friend’s mood. The horseman, your friend Death, had, for lack of a better word, dropped you in the Crowfather’s lap whilst he left to search for an artefact deep below the old one’s realm. Somewhere far too cold for someone like you to survive. 

You couldn’t help but to feel like a bit of an inconvenience, given the Crowfather’s attitude. He hadn’t said a word, the more you thought about it, the more you started to think that perhaps he might have appreciated a ‘Thank you’ every once in a while. After all, God knows that Death would never say it, and the old one was expected to just babysit you for at least a day or so, all without a word of thanks. 

Deciding that you had to rectify the situation, you lean your elbow on the back of the throne. “Crowfather?” The Old one opens his eyes, seemingly roused from a light nap.

“Hmm?” he hums with a tired sigh. 

Hoping that you don’t over step your bounds, you press your lips against the Crowfather’s wrinkled, sunken cheek. “Thank you so much for putting up with me today.”

He almost choked, coughing violently and thumping his chest with a gnarled fist. You blanch and place a gentle hand on his back. “Oh wow, I’m so sorry! Are you alright?” He nods breathlessly, spluttering a moment until he composed himself enough to turn his scrutinising gaze on you.

Uriel: Elatedly, you bound over to the angel as she lands on the precipice of the White Tower, having just returned from a mission with the rest of the Hellguard. She catches you when you all but crash into her and grips your shoulders, steadying you. 

“Y/n!” she exclaims, “Be still, friend! Are you that excited for my return?” You nod up at her enthusiastically, grinning. 

“Are you kidding me? I’ve been stuck with Jamaerah all evening, all he wanted to do was talk ‘systematic filing’. Like, no offence to the guy, but after the first two hours, I wanted to beat my head against a brick wall.” 

Uriel fixes her scolding frown on you, but the way her lips twitch upwards is a clear indication that she was far from disappointed. If she were really angry about your ‘insubordination’, you’d be in for a rather stern lecture. 

“Anyway,” you chirp, flinging your arms around the startled angel’s neck and pressing a quick kiss onto her soft cheek, “glad to have you back. I was worried about you!” Uriel waits for you to release her before straightening up and sending a glare at two of her Hellguard warriors who were finding the whole display highly amusing. Vaguely, you think you can make out the slightest glimpse of a blush begin to form on the cheeks you’d just kissed, but that could simply be the embarrassment of having been seen with a human hanging from her neck. 

Hunter: Perhaps it was the thrill of finding another human, alive, against all odds, in the dead-centre of an apocalypse-torn world. Perhaps it was an overwhelming need to show Hunter that he was still worth something despite having been utterly alone for the past few months. 

Whatever the reason, you realise that it mattered little in the grand scheme of things. It was simply worth the look of total bewilderment on Hunter’s face when you threw your arm over his shoulder, laughing at some old-world reference he’d just made and Death’s complete lack of comprehension. With a smile, you bump the corner of your mouth to Hunter’s rugged cheek and kiss him at an angle. The man freezes, his own chuckle cutting out entirely and you hear him swallow audibly as you lean into his side. After a few seconds of quiet, broken only by the crackling of the small fire that Hunter had built to roast something questionable over, he finally moves. Tentatively, the man turns his head to regard you with something irrevocably sad haunting his dark green eyes. “What was that for?” he breathes. 

“Well,” you start, “I just thought I ought to say thank you. I mean, you saved Death from that Phantom Guard earlier-” The horseman scoffs from the other side of the fire “-and you’re putting us up for the night. Heaven knows I needed some human company, no offence Death.” The Nephilim waves his hand dismissively whilst you throw him a wink. Turning back to the human, “You’re a good man, Hunter,” you finish and lean your head on his shoulder with a yawn. 

From his position opposite, Death watches Hunter’s face morph from one of content, to something more conflicted and unsure. “If you say so….” he mumbles.

Draven: The Blademaster growls as he watches the Chancellor berate you, once again, for your lack of civility in the presence of The Dead King. It was an unfair, uncouth scolding that was also completely unwarranted. Even the King wouldn’t say that you’d done a thing wrong. But the Chancellor seemed to have it in for you. Death seems to believe he envies your ‘alive’ status, but you aren’t so sure. 

Nevertheless, Death isn’t here right now, which meant the Chancellor could swoop in, undeterred, and strive to make your day a miserable one. What he hadn’t counted on, was Draven. With a snarl, he marches off the training circle, up the old, wooden stairs and grabs your arm, tugging you behind himself and staring the Chancellor down. The smaller ghost narrows his eyes and bares his teeth up at Draven, but doesn’t find the gall to say anything further as you’re guided back down into the relative privacy of the Undercroft. 

“You okay?” he asks, slinging an arm over your shoulder and giving you a comforting squeeze. You smile up at him and nod, your arm around his waist as you return the gesture. 

“Yeah, I’m fine. Takes more than a few choice words from that blowhard to upset me,” you reply. Draven laughs whilst you move your hand from his side to his head and pull him down until you can reach his face. 

“Oi, what’re you-” He’s cut off when you place your lips against his cold, dead cheek. You pull away and look down shyly when Draven touches a hand to the spot where you kissed him. “Hell Y/n,” he coughs, smirking, “f’ I had any lips, I might return the favour.” The casual flirting is nothing new, so you giggle and shove at the Blademaster humorously. 

[robbieinterviews]

Tarzan’s Margot Robbie on Why She’s No Damsel in Distress, 2016

When Margot Robbie popped up in The Big Short last year for a 60-second cameo—by definition, playing herself—to explain what “shorting” a bond means while drinking Dom Pérignon in the bathtub of a billionaire’s Malibu condo, I subconsciously shorted her. Here, it seemed, was that girl who invites you to stare and then tells you to fuck off if you stare for too long. The fact that just two years prior she so ferociously inhabited the role of the hottest gold digger in the history of cinema in Martin Scorsese’s The Wolf of Wall Street, permanently lodging herself in the collective male libido, served only to reinforce my concern that she might be some new breed of high-maintenance superpredator. Thankfully, the cameo turned out to be a clever little lie in a movie all about big fat ones. This was Margot Robbie playing her caricature—the retrograde Playboy fantasy in permanent soft-focus.

It comes as a surprise, then—a relief, even—to meet Robbie in April on the Santa Monica Pier and discover that she’s not remotely like the manipulative sex kittens she’s been so eerily good at portraying on the screen. It’s Robbie’s idea that we take a trapeze class together, and so here we are, smack dab in the middle of an amusement park over the water. Robbie, in yoga pants and a white tank top, her hair pulled up into a messy ponytail, goes entirely unrecognized, which has something to do with the fact that, dressed for a workout with no makeup, she looks like every third person you pass in Southern California—but prettier. She is smaller and more compact than I had imagined, and has the athletic mien of someone who played sports in high school, along with the graceful gait and natural poise of a woman who’s used to moving through the world on the balls of her feet like a dancer.

I assumed Robbie had taken up the trapeze for one of the very physically demanding roles she plays in two big studio movies coming out back-to-back this summer—Jane in The Legend of Tarzan, costarring Alexander Skarsgård and directed by David Yates, in July, followed by the cultishly beloved psychopath Harley Quinn in Suicide Squad, based on a task force of characters from DC Comics and directed by David Ayer, which comes out in August and seems bound to turn her into a household name—but I had assumed wrong. When Robbie was growing up in Australia, her mother sent her off to circus school—she received her “trapeze certificate” when she was eight. She hadn’t given it a thought in years, though, until she began having a recurring dream not long ago in which she was flying through the air, high above the net under the big top. “I couldn’t stop thinking about that stupid dream,” she says, and so she found this place and took a few classes. “I feel like I missed my calling.” She chalks her hands and gets ready to climb up to the platform.

One of our instructors, Kenna, a daffy redhead wearing comically large yellow sunglasses, remembers Robbie from her last visit. As Kenna is buckling us into our safety harnesses, she asks Robbie what part of Australia she’s from. “Gold Coast in Queensland,” says Robbie, her accent thickening at the mere mention of her homeland. “I watch a lot of really trashy TV,” says Kenna, “including Australia’s Next Top Model, and the girls from Gold Coast are definitely not respected by girls from Sydney and Melbourne.” Robbie laughs knowingly and says no, but because she has just slipped into full-on Australian-accent mode, it comes out as neeerrroh! “I had no idea I was living in a state that gets laughed at until I moved to Melbourne,” says Robbie, “and then someone was like, ‘Ohrrr, yar from Queensland, eh? You put “Eh?” on the end of your sentences because you’re all a bit slow.’ And I was like, ‘Is this a thing? That Queensland is the dumb state?’ It’s so embarrassing.”

At that, another instructor, CR, appears to teach us the finer points of trapeze. There are moments of weightlessness at the peak of each swing from the bar, which is when you want to change positions, or “throw the trick.” “As long as you make the change at the right time,” he says, “you hardly have to break a sweat. It’s all about timing.”

Robbie (precisely, elegantly) throws one trick after another—the set split, the set straddle, the penny roll—with what looks like little effort. “She’s disgustingly good at it,” says Kenna as we stand on the pier watching her above us, and I cannot help thinking that these exact skills apply to Robbie’s life down here on the ground: She has consistently displayed a knack for making her moves at exactly the right moment, no sweat. At seventeen, with very little acting experience to speak of—a few school plays, some commercials, a low-budget flick she describes as “barely even a student film”—she moved to Melbourne and landed a part on the Australian soap opera Neighbours, the longest-running drama in the country’s history, a gig she had for three years. In 2011—after working very hard with a dialect coach to perfect an American accent—she moved to Los Angeles and immediately got a part on the short-lived TV series Pan Am. A supporting role in Richard Curtis’s coming-of-age rom-com About Time followed, and then she was cast as Naomi—that minx from Bay Ridge—in The Wolf of Wall Street. It was a career-defining performance, one that left people agape: Who’s that?

As Jared Leto, her costar in Suicide Squad, puts it, “She took a role that other people would have had a very difficult time with and elevated it to something spectacular. To be able to stand alongside Leo [DiCaprio], one of the titans of the industry, and be there face-to-face, blow for blow, and not only hold her ground but really shine, was kind of a rare, explosive discovery. It reminded me of Michelle Pfeiffer in Scarface.”

At first, Robbie wasn’t even sure she wanted to play such a shrewd ballbuster. “When I first read it, I thought, I have nothing in common with her. I hate her. It was a really tricky one to get my head around. But her motivation was ‘You guys are doing it—why shouldn’t I? It’s this man’s world, and I’m going to get mine.’ And I understand that.”

The things she was doing herself as far as stunts, you wouldn’t believe. There’s only a handful of actors who do that sort of work

David Ayer

Now, two years later, at 25, she’s the girl of the moment, on the cusp of a very big summer. The Legend of Tarzan, as directed by Yates, who brought us the best of the Harry Potter movies, is an A-movie reboot of a B-movie franchise, one that the filmmakers hope will lift the character up out of the swamp of kitsch and into the twenty-first century. When Warner Bros.—having kept a close eye on the dailies while Robbie was shooting Focus with Will Smith in late 2013—approached her about playing Jane, her first reaction was: Not for me. “There’s no way I was going to play the damsel in distress,” she says. But then she read the script. “It just felt very epic and big and magical in some way. I haven’t done a movie like that. The Harry Potter films could have been really cheesy, but David Yates made them into something dark and cool and real—plus it was shooting in London, and I, on a whim, had just signed a lease on a house there.” For Yates, “an unpretentiousness, a real pragmatism, was evident from the moment I met her. There’s something very true about her, and those qualities were very important for Jane—someone who’s open to experience the beauty of the world.”

Naturally, sooner or later, Tarzan meets Jane. “I met her in L.A. about a year before we shot the movie,” says Skarsgård, “just before The Wolf of Wall Streetcame out. She lived in this tiny studio apartment in Hollywood. We were supposed to just have coffee and talk about the project, but we spent the entire day together. I remember being blown away by how cool and down-to-earth she was. And then Wolf came out, and she went from relative obscurity to being the hottest actress in Hollywood.” When Tarzan finally started shooting in London, “she was living in a house with six other people,” says Skarsgård, “kind of a frat-house vibe, and on weekends she would go to Amsterdam and sleep in bunk beds in a youth hostel with Canadian backpackers, or to some music festival in Northern England and sleep in a tent. She’s not precious at all.”

The story of Suicide Squad, meanwhile, is that all of the bad guys in the superhero world who are locked up in prison are offered a chance to do some good—a suicide mission, if you will—to get their sentences reduced. Harley Quinn is both the shrink and the girlfriend of the Joker, played by Leto. “She doesn’t even have superpowers,” says Robbie. “She’s just a psychopath who runs around gleefully killing people—she finds joy in causing mayhem, which makes her weirdly endearing and fun to watch.”

The role, says Ayer, demands “a lot of heavy lifting for an actor. But she’s a tough girl, and she’s incredibly smart and mature beyond her years. She has ridiculous depth, and she’s never been coddled, so she’s very physically courageous. The things she was doing herself as far as stunts, you wouldn’t believe. There’s only a handful of actors who do that sort of work themselves.”

Robbie was filming the underappreciated Whiskey Tango Foxtrot with Tina Fey in New Mexico just before she went off to Toronto to shoot Suicide Squad. “She had a personal trainer literally following her around the set so she could be ready for Suicide Squad,” says Fey. “She’s very strong. There’s a scene in Whiskey Tango where she punches me and says, ‘We’re going out tonight!’ I had this huge bruise on my arm for days.” Fey is crazy about Robbie. “She doesn’t take herself too seriously,” she says. “And she has that soap-opera background, which I think is great. Those people just make a choice and don’t overthink it. They don’t think that acting cures world hunger in and of itself.”

When our trapeze class comes to an end, we find Robbie’s driver. As we head back to her hotel in West Hollywood, her phone rings. It’s Robbie’s boyfriend of two years, Tom Ackerley, the assistant director she met in 2013 on the set of the World War II drama Suite Française. “Hi, darling,” she says into the phone. “Just mastered a new trick. . . . Yes, I’m very chuffed with myself.” (Later, when I ask about Ackerley—whom she describes as “the best-looking guy in London”—she says, “I was the ultimate single gal. The idea of relationships made me want to vomit. And then this crept up on me. We were friends for so long. I was always in love with him, but I thought, Oh, he would never love me back. Don’t make it weird, Margot. Don’t be stupid and tell him that you like him. And then it happened, and I was like, Of course we’re together. This makes so much sense, the way nothing has ever made sense before.”)

Ackerley is actually calling to talk business: He and Robbie—along with Ackerley’s friend Josey McNamara, who is also an AD, and Robbie’s childhood best friend, Sophia Kerr—started a production company, LuckyChap, a year ago. The four of them all live together in that house in London and are planning to move to Los Angeles later this year. They have already acquired five projects, one of which is the script for I, Tonya, the highly anticipated Tonya Harding biopic that Robbie will star in. (Robbie is a decent skater—she played on an amateur ice-hockey team when she moved to New York City in 2011 to shoot Pan Am.) Their first film, Terminal, a dystopian noir thriller, has just started shooting in Hungary. Robbie plays a waitress whose story line ties all the others together. “We chose the most challenging indie film imaginable—it’s not commercially viable from a financier’s point of view,” says Robbie. “It’s shaving years off my life. It’s really hard work, but so rewarding and much more empowering than just acting. I was starting to feel like a little pawn getting moved around the board: Go here! Do that! Be her!” “This is a very smart thing for her to do,” says Fey, “because otherwise, as a piece of casting, she’s always going to have someone saying, ‘You look amazing—but we’d love for you to weigh less.’ Already at 25 she’s like, You know what? I’m going to opt out of that fuckery and be on my front foot with my career.”

It’s early evening when we finally arrive at Robbie’s hotel. We walk past the bar, and bump into Sandy Powell, the legendary costume designer, who’s having a drink with a friend. As it happens, Powell did the costumes for The Wolf of Wall Street, and Robbie tells me that most of those tight, come-hither getups she wore were Powell’s actual clothes from the nineties. “I would say, ‘Where did you get that?’ and she would say, ‘It’s mine. I used to wear it all the time.’ ”

We pass the swimming pool, and there’s not a person in sight. “I so badly want to go for a swim,” she says. “Do you mind if I jump in the pool?” She runs off to her suite while I make myself at home on a chaise and order a drink. When she reappears, she’s wearing a white one-piece bathing suit with a vaguely suggestive cartoonish illustration of a half-peeled banana emblazoned on the front, and short-short denim cutoffs. She seems blissfully unaware that the suit looks like something that, say, Pamela Anderson would have worn in the nineties. This reminds me of something Cara Delevingne—who plays Enchantress in Suicide Squad—told me about Robbie. “I was having a conversation with her the other night at the MTV Movie Awards,” Delevingne said. “In this world of celebrity and Hollywood, so many people act like they’re being watched all the time—but Margot doesn’t act like that at all. She’s constantly dancing like no one’s watching.”

The whole fake-it-till-you-make-it thing has really worked out for me. You can apply that to anything—you just have to hustle

Margot Robbie

She peels off her Daisy Dukes and knifes into the water. At one point, she submerges herself just to the bottom of her nose. Suddenly, with her hair slicked back, I realize who she reminds me of: Margaux Hemingway, in a famous shoot from the seventies by Douglas Kirkland. Robbie gets out of the pool and lies down on the chaise next to me. I mention the resemblance, and she Googles her. “Wow,” she says. “What a stunner.”

Owing mostly to her surf-tastic teenage years, Robbie seems to prize a kind of athletic comfort above all else (though she does love the red carpet—��I think I enjoy the getting ready part more than the actual event, to be honest”). But her penchant for dressing down is also a tactical measure. Here at the hotel, as at the pier earlier, she goes completely unnoticed. “If I dress like this, people don’t look twice. It’s as soon as I put on makeup and a dress and have my hair done—I can’t get ten meters without being recognized.”

I bring up the various spellings of her name—Margaux, Margo, Margot. “I always said, ‘Mom—there was a really cool way of spelling my name, and you picked the boring way that gets everyone confused. They forget the T or call me Mar-got,’ ” she says, laughing. (Her childhood nickname was Maggot.) “Now everyone’s finally spelling my name right—that’s how I knew I’d made it.”

Robbie was raised with her three siblings by a single mother, Sarie Kessler, a physiotherapist, in a very small house (her parents divorced when she was young). “I adore my mother,” says Robbie. “She’s the most pure-hearted, divine human being.” We get to talking about the similarities in our childhoods: lots of kids, raised in a house with only one bathroom, everyone working to help make ends meet—the kind of setting that can scald one’s heart with ambition. “I went to a school where all of my friends were very well-off,” she says, “and I went to their houses a lot, and so I knew what it looked like to be rich but I didn’t have it, so I was like: OK—I know exactly what I want.” She worked several odd jobs—tending bar, making sandwiches, selling surfboards—which gave her a lot of confidence at a young age. “The whole fake-it-till-you-make-it thing has really worked out for me. The more times you do that, the more you realize that no one really knows what they’re doing; everyone’s kind of figuring it out or pretending they know until they do know. And you can apply that to anything—you just have to hustle.”

Robbie’s hustle—her resourcefulness, mixed with ambition and a little naïveté—has defined her career since before it even started. “I was watching TV one day—maybe I was fifteen,” she says. “There was a girl my age doing a scene, and she said her line, and it was just not that good. And I remember thinking, I could have done it better. And then I thought, Well, why is she doing it? Why isn’t it me?”

To a one, every person I spoke to about Robbie pointed out two things: her willingness to try anything and her uncanny ability to be good at everything. A couple of years ago, when there were still eight people living in that house in London, Robbie made a rule: No one can move in unless they get the house tattoo. So they found an artist named Pedro with a shop nearby, and one day, while Pedro was tattooing Ackerley, Robbie begged to have a go at it. “I have a bit of a morbid fascination with needles,” she says. “There’ve been a few instances when I’ve given piercings.” Pedro eventually handed over the gun, Ackerley relented, and, well, she got hooked. As a wrap gift after Tarzan, Sophia—her best friend/housemate/business partner—bought her a tattoo gun on eBay, and soon, between scenes while shooting Suicide Squad, says Robbie, “people would come into my trailer: ‘Hey, Margs—can I get a tattoo?’ ‘Sure—sit on down!’ ” She even gave Delevingne something she dubbed “toemojis”—five emoji faces on the bottoms of her toes. “And then we all decided to get Squad tattoos, David Ayer included,” says Robbie. Now she travels with her tattoo kit everywhere she goes.

We head up to her hotel suite, where Sophia is hard at work on LuckyChap, and before long Robbie has set up her tattoo emporium on the dining-room table. The Rolling Stones are blaring from a laptop, and she’s giving me my very first tattoo. We had discussed it earlier—in theory—and settled on the Roman numeral five (V) because my birthday is May 5 and the V stands for my last name. And, well, why not—anything for a story, no? She sketched out a few ideas in my notebook, and then on my arm, and then, after few false starts, in a matter of minutes, it’s done. I love it, I say. “I’m so happy,” she says. Suddenly, Sophia shouts, “Oh, my God! Look at the moon!” and we both jump up and join her at the sliding glass doors. The three of us stare in silence for a moment at the biggest, brightest, orange-est moon any of us have ever seen. And then Margot Robbie, whose own star is burning awfully bright right now, says, “The moon is glistening. Literally. We’re listening to the Rolling Stones. And I just gave you a tattoo. So perfectly Hollywood!”

[purplelizardman]

GM's Easy Creation Kit (G.E.C.K.) - World Creation Kit (make vivid worlds, quickly)

As a GM, one of the most fun and daunting tasks you can undertake is the creation of worlds.

New gods, myths, legends, artifacts, heroes, villains, history, kingdoms, cultures, religions… there’s infinite room for creativity and no shortage of fun to be had!

The problem is that there’s literally infinite room for creativity. 

Knowing where to start can be tough and when rushing in head-first it’s not uncommon to find that you’ve wrote yourself into a corner. When this happens it’s easy to lose enthusiasm for the world you’re creating.

It’s a problem I’ve encountered many times during my 7+ years of GMing. For each campaign I would create a new world and eventually I developed a set of methods that makes the world creation process fast and fun while producing vivid, consistent, and imaginative worlds.

It all begins with the first step:

Choose the Gameplay

Worlds in RPGs (both tabletop and otherwise) are not stand-alone constructs: they are meant to be played in.

The first step to creating a vivid and interesting world is to decide what type of game you want played in that world. 

Ask yourself the following questions:

What does the typical session look like?

Is it straight combat? Very little combat? A mix of puzzles, riddles, combat, and social encounters?

Are the players classical, good adventurers or are they mercenaries, space pirates, or planar pillagers, etc..?

Where do I see these encounters happening?

In dungeons? In cities? In spaceships? In temples built out of bones of decaying gods?

In locales that span a wide range of heavy metal album covers?

In all of the above?

How do I want to guide story progression?

Is the game entirely player driven or will NPCs and world events drive most of the plot?

Do the players exist within a command structure, fulfilling orders? If not, are they free agents on a mission, mercenaries for hire, or a rag-tag bunch of outcasts that gets into mischief?

Is the progression driven primarily by exploration, social encounters, or pre-determined events?

Choose Central Conflicts and Environments

Once you’ve answered the previous questions you should have an idea of how you see gameplay and plot unfolding in a typical session, in other words: the assumptions of your game. 

Now that you have a clearer idea of the assumptions you’re working with it’s time to build a world around them. 

Worlds are meant to be played in, so start with the environment: create a reason for the environment to be the way you envision. Give the players incentive to explore the environments that you’ve chosen.

This ties in closely with the central conflict or theme of your world: if it is a war time campaign, the environment should be blistered with the signs of battles, cities will be impoverished, nature will marred by weapons of war. If an eternal winter has spread across the continent, everything will be cold and harsh, but nature may yet struggle on.

If the primary method of story progression is exploration, define a few interesting locales with good backstories and a home base, for example:

The material plane has been shattered to thousands of pieces. The players begin on a shrinking shard of the plane (a single kingdom), drifting through a dark sea of stars, gradually breaking into smaller pieces. On their journey they will likely encounter the Volcanic Stronghold of the Fists of Hextor, the Sunken Kingdom of the Drowned God, The Impossible Tower of the Mad Mage, etc…

In 3 short sentences we have defined: a central conflict/theme (the material realm being shattered), provided the players motivation for exploring (their realm is literally falling to pieces), and formed an idea of 3 interesting places for the players to visit.

A second example:

The gods could never agree on how the world should be, so they made two worlds and separated them by a thin veil. Now the veil is weakening and new, bizarre cities, towns, and kingdoms are popping up everywhere along with dangerous monsters in unexpected places. If it’s not stopped the players will lose everything familiar to them and their entire world. The players will probably visit the Crag of the Crab King, the Industrious  Imperium of the Formic Hive, and the Brain Bakery run by Granny and Grandpa M’Flayer.

We’ve outlined a central conflict/theme (two worlds colliding), provided player motivation (anything they know and love could be destroyed or swapped with something at any moment), and 3 interesting places.

Entire articles can (and will be) written on how to flesh out interesting locales and encounters. Once you feel you have enough interesting locales and a strong enough central theme to create new environments throughout the campaign, it’s time for the next step.

Create NPCs and Flesh out the Backstory

The environment implies the backstory of your world as your descriptions of the environment reveal the world illuminated in the light of the central theme. Yet it is the NPCs who will ultimately become the face or even the very personification of your world, it’s backstory, and its central theme. 

When writing NPCs it is important to flesh out the backstory of your world. The central conflict of your world is going to have 3 main facets:

Cause – How did the conflict come to be? i.e. creation myths, political events, a wizard did it, etc…

Resolution – How is the conflict resolved (the ultimate goal)? Gather artifacts, dethrone a mad king, etc…

Factions – Who’s on what side of the conflict and why? Doomsday cultists, angry gods and their followers,  bellicose Kings, devious dragons, the merchant guild, a rogue sect of angels, etc…

Define the factions you’d like to see in the world and the cause for their conflicts, then create the NPCs that will be agents and eventually faces of the faction. 

Most important of all: make your NPCs interesting! Not every shopkeeper needs an important backstory or a quirk, but important NPCs do. Make the backstory related to the central conflict, but keep it personal so that your players will be motivated by it. 

Define a few NPCs for each faction that the players will interact with early on. At a minimum you should define a leader, a high-ranking officer, and one or two low ranking people.

You can get by with a short description of a name, personality/mannerism, and a sentence or two describing them and how they act.

For example:

Iara Tsun, the unusually tall dwarf who owes a life-debt to the King. She is never seen outside of her formal armor and never uses a word when a nod will suffice.

Zorc the Mad, a half-elf mage with a dragon facial tatoo, obsessed with the summoning of demons. He wears a cocky expression to match his attitude and truly believes that summoning a powerful demon may allow him to free his son’s soul from hell. 

Auren the Keeper of the Gate, an immortal former-human who is mostly made of glowing blue stone; his former knightly robes hang off him in tatters. He speaks in a loud booming voice that sounds like it comes from far away; he has guarded this portal for ages and will allow only the worthy to pass and receive the truth contained beyond.

Rog Horf the disgruntled half-orc cultist in charge of new recruits. He keeps his cultist robes pristine and is mindful of prejudice, choosing to annunciate each word carefully, but feels he is woefully underappreciated for his talent and intelligence.

The best part about using the short description method is that NPCs can be inserted into nearly any role we need on the fly: their role in the game is only set in stone once they make an appearance on the stage.

This saves prep time and makes the game flow smoother, giving you a pool of NPCs to work with for when your players do something unexpected.

After you’ve defined the key factions and some interesting NPCs, spend some time fleshing out the myths and lore: this will make your factions and NPCs more believable. 

CAUTION!!!

A lot of GMs fall into a trap at this point and end up developing extensive lore, legends, religion, etc. While this is fun, you should finish out the “party facing” aspects of your world first i.e. develop the starting local, it’s NPCs, factions, and environment. The PCs will definitely see this part of your world, but there’s a chance they will never delve deep enough into the lore to learn the deeper and more obscure parts of your world backstory.

Focus on the parts the players will see first then, if you have time, feel free to circle back around to lore and flesh it out even more.

Finishing Up

At this point, you’ve identified your assumptions about the game, you’ve defined a central conflict, a motivation for players, the environment with several interesting locales, NPCs, and the backstory of your world.

All that’s left is the quests, plot hooks, and encounters. 

By now these should flow very naturally, but if you’re having trouble just look back at your NPCs and factions and ask “How would they get the party to help them? What would they do that would harm/hinder the party?” For example:

Would Zorc the Mad use an alias to post a reward for the retrieval of a magical artifact from a dangerous dungeon?

Would Rog Horf send the PCs out on his personal errands where chance encounters will surely alter their fate?

Would Iara Tsun require the PCs to prove themselves against an encampment of orcs that suddenly appeared in the lower quarter of the city?

Start with at least 3 potential plot hooks and get a feel for which one you think will be most impactful to your group (which one they will like or at least remember best). 

At this point: you’re done!

You’ve made a consistent world built around a central conflict, interesting locales, memorable NPCs, and enough plot hooks to start the adventure. Add more interesting NPCs, locations, plothooks, and factions as needed.

    If you enjoyed this article you may also like Active Player Agency – A Crash Course or A GM’s Guide to Communication

GM’s Easy Creation Kit (G.E.C.K.) – World Creation Kit (make vivid worlds, quickly) was originally published on Friendly Neighborhood Lizard Man