#copy and pasted from my twitter because I’m lazy

[lunasglow]

HotD presents two individuals who suffer at the hand of the same patriarchal system set to make them suffer when they rebel (Rhaenyra) AND when they're complacent (Alicent). That is the central issue and the tragedy of Alicent's unjust & now hypocritical vitriol towards Rhaenyra.

"Rhaenyra the entitled whore, Alicent the deserving saint" is not only a repulsive mindset and textbook misogyny, it's also so far removed from the point being made by making them parallels in this adaptation. People who buy into it are simply not interacting with the core themes of the story.

[chattegeorgiana]

｡✴ 🎀 𝒯𝒽𝑒 𝓃𝑒𝓌 𝐻𝑒𝒶𝓋𝑒𝓃 & 𝐸𝒶𝓇𝓉𝒽: 𝒜 𝒮𝒶𝓈𝓊𝒦𝒶𝓇𝒾𝓃 𝒶𝓃𝒶𝓁𝓎𝓈𝒾𝓈 🎀 ✴｡

⛓️#SasuKarinMonth2024

⛓️Day 1: Soulmates

I posted this initially on Twitter, but since some people couldn’t access it from my Insta story or they don’t have a Twitter account, I was asked to post it on Tumblr too, so here I am.

Copy paste from Twitter cuz I’m too lazy to write again, lol.

Since the SasuKarin month is upon us (back then we held it in July Sasuke’s birthday month), I thought about writing a short analysis where I talk shortly about the symbolism of SasuKarin.

I wanna turn this into a more full fledged analysis sometime, but I think for now it’ll do this way.

I know on Twitter people usually like to discredit Karin due to her tsundere character & the SasuKarin bond due to it being a direct competition to the SS one.

However given how the dices have been thrown, and the ending was set, I think it does no harm to talk about them & shed some light over the mischaracterisation of the two, because boy people love to do it on all sides and weaponise it in their argumentation, instead of objectively looking at it.

To those of you who badmouth Karin and say you like Sasuke, please note at how Sasuke reacts when Suigetsu badmouths her.

Maybe that should make you think twice about it, just sayin🤷‍♀️

Anyway, let’s move to the analysis.

Why I chose to talk about the symbolism of “Heaven & Earth” on Day 1: Soulmates?

Well, because Kishimoto himself decided to do so himself.

Back when editorial meddling due to biased fandom perception wasn’t a thing & Kishimoto was slowly & surely building the story he wanted, we could be witness of the slow burn symbolic development he was building in the story. And that included SasuKarin, the “new Heaven & Earth” like its mentioned in the last page of chapter 347, as he prepares to introduce Karin in the next chapter.

As we know from part 1, that is the symbolism that is represented by NaruSaku, in the very beginning of the series, and while in the beginning this is only used to reference a shinobi’s qualities or lack thereof, later on in the story, Kishimoto doubles its symbolism & slowly sweeps it into the romantic subplot as well.

Remember this highly charged with romantic subtone scene? Well from a symbolical point of view, this scene happens in a very important place charged with a very specific symbolism.

Let’s take a look, shall we?

The whole action happens at the “Heaven & Earth” bridge. So, as we can see, the symbolism as of now has far surpassed its initial stage of being a reference to just a shinobi’s condition. It’s now meant to symbolise the bond & feelings that entertwine the two ppl of that bond.

So when Kishimoto described Sasuke & Karin as the new Heaven & Earth, he delivered that exposition through and through.

Like I showed earlier, Sasuke is very protective of Karin in his own way & doesn’t like when someone badmouths her (which oftentimes is Suigetsu) and Karin does the same, I don’t think it’s necessary for this thread to show once again what we already know, since it’s a very well established character trait.

So yeah, as you can see, the Heaven & Earth symbolism is very prevalent in the story and it just so happens that it’s so with 3 of his most important bonds, which not only fit the Heaven & Earth (or another way to say Yin & Yang) symbolism & thematic, but also others like “when you have someone important to protect, that’s when you become the strongest”: NaruSasu, NaruSaku & SasuKarin.

Kishimoto not only expressed this via the themes & symbolism but also the visual side, as well, since ya know, we’re talking about a visual medium.

Naruto & Sasuke are a foil of each other, the same way Sakura & Karin are & the way NaruSaku is to SasuKarin. Basically these four are each other’s soulmates (I’d argue actually twin flames, but that’s for another time), but since today we’re referencing SasuKarin, I’ll stick to them.

However, it’s impossible to make a reference to one without the other (like Kishi was saying, himself at some point about the story’s development - he can’t write about Naruto without Sasuke or viceversa), given how deeply ingrained into the structural narrative of the story from a thematical & symbolical pov these 4 are.

Just because SasuKarin had a layer of comedy over it due to Karin’s tsundere Tendencies which were also super exaggerated by SP, it doesn’t make the SasuKarin bond ANY LESS special than the other bonds in the series.

I’d argue that in SK’s context (although usually in literature it is about quantity bc that’s how you build development), it’s a great case of QUALITY over quantity. Because yes, quantitively speaking, it has less amount of screentime compared to others.

However Masashi “I forgot to draw this or that” Kishimoto, made a CONSCIOUS effort as to go back to part 1 & find a spot where he could inject Karin into the story, so much so that it doesn’t ruin the structural narrative & neither retcons the story. It just adds a new layer to it.

That speaks VOLUMES of the importance of that move & the overall authorial intent he had for this story in terms of Karin’s character & SasuKarin’s bond.

Credit for the NaruSaku/SasuKarin edit @tsunadesenjuuchiha

[calithso]

do u have art tips (for like anatomy and face expressions and angles)? I was scrolling though your ACC and when I tell you I’m eating ur art, I’m actually digesting it as we speak, I love it sm 😭😭

TRACE!!!! IDC WHAT ANYONE ELSE SAYS. TRACE ART AND LEARN FROM IT. USING 3D MODELS IS OKAY ‼️‼️ PROFESSIONALS DO IT AND YOU CAN TOO ‼️‼️‼️

but of course, don't post it online or claim it as yours, that's just wrong 🫶

BTW THIS IS JUST WHAT I DO. IF ANYONE ELSE HAS SOME TIPS, DROP THEM IT'LL BE GREATLY APPRECIATED!!

art rules are meant to be broken-💥💥💥

i think i'm the worst person to ask for tips cause i don't follow my own guidelines. i've only recently started to use references but i'm usually too lazy to search for them. which is pretty bad since i can't really visualize stuff in my head (your artist has aphantasia)

when i do half body to full body poses, i just use 3d models and start from there. i usually adjust things to my liking after i copy out the pose. i'm still currently learning anatomy so idk what tips to give about it rn BUT i do have some tips

i think angles helps a lot with what mood you want to convey in a drawing. it may also help with expressions. you can use boxes for drawing different angles of the head. i do this when the angle of the head i'm drawing is hard to draw.

an example on how i used it:

another thing you can try is to learn an artist's anatomy style by drawing guidelines on top of a drawing like this:

see how everything is placed and what bodypart is line with what like: the eyes are in the same height as the tip of the ears, the elbow is line with the dip of the waist, etc.

just adjust stuff to your liking. your work doesn't have to be super anatomically accurate, if it is, there's a possibility that the pose might look stiff so change up some things and exaggerate them. just practice some angles, it'll become muscle memory in time.

if it looks nice, then it's good enough 👍

observe and redraw. it's just copying art styles i like and attempting to incorporate it into my own art. my art style inspos are wildwolf_group and donaldakron (i’m also absolutely in love with their lighting and shading) on twitter because the way they draw hair is so nice.

study art styles 👍 i like looking at their sketches and studying how they do specific things like hair and faces in different angles. pinterest is a huge help if you want art inspo. it's okay to copy poses from artworks but be careful to not copy it entirely if the pose looks complicated or unique, you might get accused of theft 😓 (it's brutal out here)

if you want more art tips, i recommend watching bluebiscuits's videos on youtube. speedpaints have also helped me a lot in the past (we need to bring them back <///33) i also recommend watching art streams. i spend a lot of my time on twitch. it helps understand how an artist draws and may also provide inspo.

some art streamers i frequently watch are: uqi32, yyebuan, meanddeadlines, eo58, mikamuse, Teikki_, hazmatEN, jianrouVT, manda, KandaEm, neg_illustration, AmefuRin, owohiropon, shengtaki, thekansta, pixzli, gravitydusty. I KNOW IT'S A LOT BUT I'M ON TWITCH 24/7 😭

there's also user-cm2co1hw2u (twitter: pdman2) and kuzuvine (twitter: ksk535) on youtube

that's all for now. if some of you have more questions (whether personal or art related) just ask away. i don't bite :)

[gensuta]

GAMES WITH TRANS/NONBINARY REP!!

Happy pride month!! I love playing video games so I thought it'd be neat to share the many many games I've played with nonbinary and trans characters >:3

Sorry in advanced I’m copying and pasting stuff from twitter ;v; Also know that many of these games ARE on consoles, but if you buy them on pc/mac use itch.io if it exists. It gives devs more money!!

VALIDATE!!  There's a demo on Steam and Itch.io that you can play RIGHT NOW and also a patreon you can support and I highly suggest it ^o^ It's a lovely VN with several playable characters and rlly good writing

Extreme Meatpunks forever is so SO good omg. It's a VN/mech brawler where u be gay and fight fascists!!! Trans and nonbiney ppl are out here being badass af. The game has cws/tws built into the game ( which i love sm ) Also there's a ttrpg on Kickstarter RIGHT NOW!! 

Another game with nonbinary characters is an rpg called Ikenfell! It was one of my favorite games to play last year and the music and just everything? Honestly so good I'm def replaying it this year. It also has tons of good accessibility features!

ok but i wanna geek abt ikenfell just a smidge more  U DON'T UNDERSTAND 3 OF THE PLAYABLE CHARACTERS ARE NONBINARY <333 The strongest playable character also uses ze/zir pronouns and I think that's pretty epic

Ok so like literally every game I've played by @analgesicprod I've loved 100% And Anodyne 2? Everyone should go play it and I will keep saying it until everyone does. And yes there's a trans character in it <3 Drem my beloved <3  Go check it out!!

Another game studio I love is @pillowfightio !!! They worked on Later Alligator, We Know the Devil, and Heaven Will Be Mine. I highly recc all of them but esp. Later Alligator cuz like just look at Joanie. They're so cool.  

In the game Everhood gender doesn't exist <3 Literally multiple characters are referred to with they/them pronouns and the gameplay is very enjoyable 

 CW LOTS of flashing lights and I feel like there should maybe be more cws but I'm not sure what else to add :l I guess a warning is that Everhood gets into more serious stuff and I'll be honest when the game first came out I had to put it down for several days b/c I just wasn't ready for a lot of that stuff, but I honestly liked the game a lot!

I was debating on adding this bc while I love this game there's some issues. So Gnosia is like werewolf ( or among us if you will ) but more narrative focused with time loops etc. There's two wonderful nonbinary characters and you can be nonbinary HOWEVER ( minor gnosia spoilers. skip past if you want to avoid it) . . . For some reason finding out the AGAB of one of the characters is mandatory and I fucking hate that. It's so unnecessary esp for the world building that's been done. Also tws for the game: sexual abuse / assault, gore ( in only one scene ) (spoilers end) but yeah I still added it because the characters are so neat and strong for the type of game it is and without that bit I wouldn’t feel so :/ abt recommending it. It’s pretty fun ngl

Wandersong!!! The main character is nonbiney and I love them <33 It's such a lovely little musical adventure with such a nice narrative and!! Some of the devs just released Chicory ( which I haven't gotten to play yet ;v; ) but check that out too!!

Bravery Network Online is super fun!! It's a turn based rpg that feels really good and has two characters that use they/them pronouns ( Fel and Reed ) the character designs are sooo good and the game is currently in early access!

I never thought I'd see a claymation point and click musical featuring a nonbinary detective but Dominique Pamplemousse is just that Need I say more?

A personal fav I think about every now and then is Dad fighter 30XX!! Like who doesn't wanna beat up their friend's shitty dad in the parking lot of a dennys?? Also the win music is my FAV

SPIRIT SWAP!!! By @SoftNotWeak !!!! Super chill and pretty game by lovely people with a demo you can play right NOW!! This game makes me want to become a strong magical thembo

More games I’ve played, but am too lazy to ramble about

ROM:2064 ( game is amazing but i got mixed feelings tho bc the og devs aren't getting paid for it I think :/ )

A Year of Springs

Secret Little Haven 

A normal lost phone

Calico 

Celeste

Hollow Knight

Undertale

Deltarune

Monster Prom / Monster Camp

Hades ( all of supergiants games slap btw )

If Found

Here’s games I haven’t played but have heard about

Bugsnax

Diaries of a spaceport janitor

Hustle Cat

Tell Me Why

Our Life

Last Minute Love

Black Tarot

Apex Legends

World of Warcraft has trans npcs :0

Dragon Age Inquisition

Sky, Children of the Light

TemTem

Battletech

Death and Taxes :0

Flicker :0 ( roblox games do count! It’s always cool to see what ppl make in it )

Assassins Creed Syndicate has a trans npc

Verdant Skies

Wandering Wolf Trick ( I love nomnomnami’s games sm but haven’t played this one. Highly reccommend her stuff )

If you have any games you wanna add to this PLEASE please do and I'll add them!! And while you're here please support the Queer Games Bundle going on itch rn to support tons LGBTQ+ game devs financially (including me ) <3 Last little edit for now: I’d def suggest trying to find cws/tws for these games just in case I haven’t covered everything for the ones I did talk about <3

[aestheticallynotdeerlightful]

“You are challenged by team _____”

I was gonna use a team name but I don’t have a team name so- ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ My personal Pokémon team

(Please do not repost or use my works anywhere without explicit permission from me thank you <3 reblogs are appreciated)

Rambling under the cut

Copy pasted from my Twitter because I’m to lazy to retype it again,

But take my “in universe” Pokémon team, This is more of a “what if I existed in this universe” kind of deal so I just drew normal me rather than my deer sona, which I guess would be a Sawsbuck and or deerling in that universe instead?? I got that idea from a friend, Della I love you

I have 9 Pokémon technically; As Heatmor, Scolipede and Reuniclus are for switching in if I need more balance or type coverage (As you can see my team is heavily grass-type, which isn’t the best for more competitive battles)

I decided to stick to mostly Unovan pokemon, as it’s based on the US (mostly New York but that’s as close as I’m gonna get), but I still included Decidueye and Appletun anyways because I’m very attached. the torchic is a part of the gang because I have a torchic plush RL that chills in my bag sometimes, mostly during cosplay

I plan to make a version of this with my PLA team as well, but I don’t know when I’ll really get to that yet. Probably at some point, depends what my brain wants to focus on at the time (empires s2 literally releases tomorrow, so that’s probably gonna take my focus for a bit)

[transbuckaroo]

WITCHER SEASON 2 SPOILERS

this is a copy and paste of the thread i made on twitter because OH BOY AM I ANGRY

i have a fucking BONE TO PICK with episode two of #TheWitcher  it is FILLED with lazy writing and SPITS on eskel’s character for no reason whatsoever. the absolute DISRESPECT for one of the franchises MOST IMPORTANT CHARACTERS is disgusting. you had infinite source material. fuck.

#TheWitcher  had SO MUCH to work with for him and then INSTANTLY erased who he was and the kind of brother he is. i’ve NEVER been more angry at a piece of media. i couldn’t even start the next episode for nearly 15 minutes because i had to calm down and process the MESS i watched.

what’s even more fucked up is that you know it’s lazy writing and bad story telling from #TheWitcher  because we all CALLED IT the moment we realized basil wasn’t being interviewed and we barely saw eskel in the trailers and teasers. basil could have done so much for eskel. wow.

i was so excited. my darling boy. the big brother. the mentor. the lover. the caretaker. the goat dad. one of the main wolf trio. #TheWitcher  shouldn’t have done this to him. i hope they’re embarrassed about this colossal fuck-up and live in it for years to come. love you basil.

and to add to this,

i have not sat here since season 1 and consumed every fucking kind of material i could about this franchise for nothing. fan work, the books, the games, i watched the other live action things, i deep dove into the lore and the stories, i got a medallion, i bought merch, i made my own bestiary, i have the swords TATTOOED ON MY BODY FOREVER. these writers didn’t know what to do with this amazing character and they fucking killed him. they used him as a plot device and that’s it.

NOT TO MENTION the way they made him lazy in a fight against A LESHY???? eskel is THE SIGNS EXPERT. THAT IS HIS SPECIAL SKILL. HES THE BEST AT THEM. AND HE DIDNT KNOW YOU HAD TO KILL A LESHY WITH FIRE TO THE HEART???? HE FORGOT IGNI????? i’m so mad. because WHAT EVEN IS THAT? eskel had so much potential and basil eidenbenz could have absolutely rocked it. he could have done such amazing things and he didn’t even get a full episode to try and show us that. the writers destroyed eskel for nothing. for absolutely nothing. to move along other characters. it’s bullshit.

i am more angry now than when i watched steve rogers’ character get destroyed in endgame. and i’ve been up marvel’s ass since 2016 and had to watch that movie on my birthday. the witcher took one of the best characters, one of the main trio, and killed him off instantaneously. they made him an asshole and made him swing at geralt and then killed him. it was lazy writing and it is unforgivable. i will die on this hill right next to him if i have to. what the fuck.

[iraprince]

hello! do you have any advice for switching from traditional art to digital? (i recently ran out of supplies so im relegated to my computer lol) i hope youre having a good day!

i sure do!

first off i really recommend clip studio paint, but i also recommend u wait for it to go on sale. it goes 50% off a few times a year, so imo it’s worth waiting, but it also is usually on sale for only a few days so u have to stay on top of it. they usually announce on twitter etc. the tools don’t make the artist and obviously it doesn’t Really matter what program u end up settling on, i’ve just been really pleased with CSP and i wanted to recommend it

second: nothing that u can do with digital art programs/tools is cheating and it took me way too long to really internalize + understand that. copy-pasting stuff instead of redrawing it, using symmetry rulers, using transform/ctrl+T to stretch or squash slightly off anatomy instead of starting over -- when i was first getting into digital i A. didn’t know u could do this stuff and B. felt weirdly guilty doing it once i figured it out, as if i was a worse artist for using the tools that are literally built into the software or that it was lazy or dishonest to do so. that, it turns out, is bullshit. any drawing is just a constant series of decision-making and a lot of digital tools just help u make or retract or edit those decisions faster than traditional does. it’s not better or worse, it’s just different, and it’s worth ur time to figure out which of those differences are the most convenient and useful. this stuff exists for a reason! use it! save ur wrists and ur patience and ur time!

figure out file organization early, because it’s something u don’t have to deal with irt traditional art and so it probably won’t come naturally, but it also makes ur life harder to have a desktop swarming with wip files that are all titled “kjsrhrfgdhgj.psd” or whatever. some ppl sort into folders by date; for me it works better to sort by content (i.e. i have folders for tvrn stuff, patreon stuff, different fandoms, dnd/ttrpg stuff, “misc ocs” for characters i don’t draw much and “misc fandoms” for one-off fanart that doesn’t merit its own folder, etc etc; this is what makes it easiest for me to find stuff, but ur system might end up different.) i admittedly still name my files keysmashes if it’s personal stuff rather than work/commissions, but at least it’s all sorted into a category where i can quickly find it again anyway

also, u can hybridize traditional and digital! i frequently like my traditional pencil lines better than what i can do digitally, so i often scan them in, turn them into lineart, and color digitally (here’s a tutorial on how i prep that). but even if u don’t have a scanner, a carefully taken phone photo with high contrast can still be used the same way. i tend to lay my sketchbook flat on the floor in front of a window, squat down and hold my phone as level as i can while i’m taking the pic, and then i blast it in my phone’s built in gallery editor (highlights/shadows and contrast) before sending it to myself and doing the same thing w tone curve/levels in csp. it’s not perfect, but it’s presentable, and it can be a good way to ease urself in if ur feeling frustrated w the learning curve on digital draftsmanship.

oh, and this tip is really small but it’s ended up being rly helpful for me: resist the urge to zoom in way past 100% scale view just bc u can. if there are times where u absolutely need to, sure, whatever, but there’s no point in regularly tweaking tiny things pixel by pixel at 250% zoom bc nobody who looks at ur art is gonna see that and ur just bloating ur own time spent on things and creating unnecessary stress for urself!! if 100% zoom doesn’t give u the control u want, that may just mean u need to work larger to begin with.

set up a comfortable workspace with a Good chair. look up proper posture and try to stick to it. i know we’re all gay and it sucks to sit in a chair properly but otherwise ur gonna hurt urself. take even more frequent breaks than u do when drawing traditionally! screen bad!

also, if ur tablet has a way to calibrate pressure, try that out. a lot of them are set in a way where you have to press really hard to get full line width and over time it can really seriously strain ur wrist; u can’t manually set pressure in traditional tools (besides like. using softer lead i guess lmfao) but u can with tablet pens and u should try it, bc if u can use a lighter touch overall it really goes a long way towards preventing injury in the long term.

this is all the stuff that came to mind immediately; i’m sure there are tons of basics i haven’t covered, depending on how much of a transition this is for u, but there are a lot of tutorials out there written by ppl more patient and more educationally-oriented than myself so you’d be doing a better service to urself seeking those out than if i were to try to clumsily emulate them lol. good luck + have fun!

[xyilous]

long post ahead, im now sure how cut down the post so you have the option to read it rather than needing to scroll a bunch on mobile :((

art but with lore this time !!

copy and pasting this from my twitter so if it’s sloppy it’s because i’m too lazy to proofread my infodump

lore time but i’m nervous and awkward!! bit of backstory before hand, max (dragon dude) worked at the palace from a young age, up until lucio’s death

since he was an ass he was in the dungeon quite often and julian was more or less his caretaker during those times. part of his punishment for being a hateful was fighting in the coliseum, this specific time he was made to go against muriel and got carried away, ended with a spear through his shoulder (cause of big scar in pic)

the whole ordeal sent him into shock and he wouldn’t let julian heal him (wouldn’t let him close enough and was aware of how bad it’d hurt him) but dummy eventually passed out from blood loss

anyways i’m sure it’d be the dumbest idea to put someone who’s bleeding out in water but,, idk it was a good idea at the time

slightly unrelated, but more background info

during his years of working at the palace he was more or less used as lucio’s trophy to earn pity points. any kind of resistance or “rebellion” was seen as him misbehaving and he’d be sent to the dungeon, he got progressively worse as he got older, esp after atlas’ ( @maxoltoll ‘s oc) died from the plague, and ended up being a suspect for lucio’s murder as well as julian because of his irritability, appearance, and the general idea of him being able to use/cast fire magic (technically true, v ooc tho)

Atlas fits significantly more into the player’s role in the game btw, he worked with julian during the plague but wasn’t around max a ton

the two of them lived with asra, but max worked at the palace under the promise of keeping the shop up without having to pay for it. he knew what he was to lucio and used that to his advantage

forgot to mention this but in the dungeon he had to deal with valdemar a LOT, no unnecessary surgeries or possibly fatal procedures/medicines could be done or used but other than that anything was on the table

ALSO nadia kept lucio in check/from overdoing it but she was busy a lot so she wasn’t there to save the day very often

the event in the drawing specifically was one of those times she didn’t get the chance to step in and not much could be done since it was so fast

last thing for now, i like to think that the memory the mc and julian saw of muriel in the coliseum is max, julian, and atlas in the au and they’re watching the whole spear in shoulder thing happen in real time

id love to make a comic of it but alas, bitchez are fatigued </33

[my-mt-heart]

When Daryl and Carol talked about possibility of Daryl and Connie getting together he said that is not like that but then Carol pushed forward asking why and he couldn't tell her. Don't want to be a Debbie Downer but in past i was thinking scene about caryl but now i think with Leah as part of that maybe it was about donnie? Since it was painful to Daryl he didn't move on Leah but recently he gave Carol that knife and was said he moved on. What if not like that was about him not wanting go romantic with Connie because of his past with Leah and not Daryl's lack of romantic interest to Connie? Someone admitted that he's very alike with Connie as he was with Leah. Flirtatious, has no game(unlike with Carol he brings her flower with dinner which Kang commented as friendship gesture) etc.

I think i was blinded by Norman's acting in that scene in Bonds, how he looked on Carol i decided it was about caryl. Sorry for this ask, im not troll but don't want to fall painfully when season 11 comes. They can do timejump and make donnie offscreen, or make them even onscreen. With throwing Carol into that episode where Daryl compares relationship with her to his with Leah and writer commenting they're completely different relationships was that commentary made to point caryl isn't romantic like Daryl/Leah and/or could adding Carol there and Daryl's comparison and mistrust to Carol eventually being written to set donnie as canon because he's closer to her than to Carol now. What if we don't understand what we watch and it was about donnie all way along? Kang never friendzoned donnie in her interviews as she did with caryl. What if even if caryl is endgame Kang won't pass through possibility of making donnie canon as midship?

Also: did you watch pre-10c interviews where Melissa and Norman talked about Carol wanting to find Connie for Daryl or something? What if they spoiled it for us, Norman was touching his lips during Mel's answers, they laughed so i assumed they're bothered by these where's connie questions. But now I'm concerned they were warning us without saying things out loud. And Melissa didn't promote season 11 like other actors it scared me. She always does, even if she doesn't tweet anything else. But that day she came on twitter to promote Negan's episode but made zero s11 promotion. She doesn't promote only when things are not bright for her character or can get her fans upset. I don't know what to think. Sorry if scared or bothered you by this concerned ask.

Oh, wow. Okay. You’ve raised a lot of concerns here, and I’m sorry I don’t have the mental capacity to touch on all of them at the moment. Here’s what I’ll say though. Using Donnie as a mid ship makes no sense. It doesn’t fit Daryl’s character. I don’t like Daryl/Leah at all, but I could make some arguments for it at least. I can’t do that with Donnie. I don’t know where you look for insight, but I first and foremost look at what’s being shown on screen, followed closely by what the Showrunner aka the decision maker/visionary for the show says, and neither source has done anything to convince me that Daryl and Connie are going to happen. Both have convinced me that Daryl and Carol will. Could I be wrong? Totally, but I do have enough faith in my analytical skills to not be overly concerned. As for the scene in Bonds, I’m just going to copy and paste a couple things I’ve said in previous posts. Again, please forgive my laziness: 

Find Me adds some new context to the scene in Bonds, but overall, I don’t think it changes what we took from it initially. Carol clearly assumes that Daryl is still hung up on Leah, but his behavior throughout S10 shows otherwise. Yes, he feels guilty that Leah is gone, but instead of that guilt hindering him, I think it’s actually motivating him to try not to make the same mistake again.

From Find Me, we learn two very important things: 

1) Daryl has been in a romantic relationship before.

2) Daryl has opened up to Carol about this romantic relationship at some point. My best guess is between their return to Alexandria after The Storm and Carol getting on the boat. 

This means certain theories about why it’s “not like that” with Connie – that Daryl just doesn’t know how or doesn’t want to talk about his love life because it’s new and uncomfortable for him – are no longer valid. 

It could be argued that Daryl is suppressing his feelings for Connie because he’s scared to move on from Leah. At the very least, this is definitely what Carol is calling Daryl out on when she says, “Years pass. You can’t hide out with her dog forever.” But is that actually what’s going through Daryl’s head? I’m inclined to think not because while he certainly still harbors guilt for Leah leaving, all of season 10 and even Find Me have shown us a version of Daryl who is ready to put that behind him, build a future, and finally entertain the possibility of being happy. So it stands to reason that if he was starting to feel that with Connie, he might actually try to chase it, but who do we see him literally chasing instead? Carol. 

Also take into account the significance of the “lucky” double capper, which just so happens to crop up in this scene, as well as the scene in the next episode where Daryl is alone with Dog (the thing that Carol warned him against). I think when he acknowledges those acorns on the table, he acknowledges that he wants to be with Carol. But that of course gets thrown into question, or so we are led to believe, in Find Me with lines like “Has our luck run out?” and “Our luck’s run out, you and me.”

Once again,  I could be wrong, but I still believe Daryl’s line “It’s not like that, not at all,” is sincere.  

Also, when in doubt, spinoff. 

[ilooklikeaburntchickenugget]

Only Mine (Pt. 6)

A/N: We’re using Taylor songs again because we love Queen Taylor. So these are not my works (obviously) but hers. However if you’ve never heard some of these I would highly suggest you check them out because all Taylor songs are absolute bops. Pairing: Gerard Way x F!Pop Star!Reader Word count: 3,541 Warnings: Swearing, implied sex (no smut though), arguing (minor)

You found the release of Fractious to be the most ironic days of your life.

You were in the media everywhere, selling only a few thousands copies less in it’s first week than your previous record. Which you were fine with, that was somewhat of the plan.

But you were no where to be seen. Hiding out in a new house you and Gerard had bought New Jersey for just under three million dollars. But no one knew about that purchase, other than your closest family and friends. Because no one needed to know.

The suspense of it all started extremely high, as you only announced the album 12 hours prior to its drop. And the world went insane, fans jumping to Twitter to go absolutely crazy over this new persona that they had already began to love, and some had already caught onto the ‘good girl gone bad’ idea.

You released the entire tracklist only three hours before the drop, and you were already stalking fan pages who began making theories about what it meant. There were already a lot of ‘THIS ONE’S ABOUTE GERARD’ and theories already popping up about him, which made you lightly smile knowing damn well a lot of it was.

The tracklist read: Blank Space I Knew You Were Trouble Style End Game I Did Something Bad I Know Places Out Of The Woods Dancing With Our Hands Tied Don’t Blame Me Getaway Car Clean

You smiled and lightly laughed once you refreshed your phone on the couch, your face and name at the top of iTunes and various other music providers promoting your new album.

“Congrats babe.” Gerard said from where he sat next to you, giving you a kiss and squeezing your thigh, “I’m proud of you.” “Thanks Gee.” You leaned your head onto his shoulder, “I love you. So much.” “I love you more.” He smiled down.

What made it all the better was how MCR was entering into their punk era, only making your album and new persona more believable. You had to admit, Gerard’s red and shaggy hair was really hot, and you were living for it, as you had told him a million times.

And you knew how much he loved your new era. As much as he genuinely loved the real, bubbly you (which is of course why he married you) he continuously admired your new all black look, managing to wear skin tight jeans and short shorts with more crop tops than usual and leather jackets galore. And you can’t forget how many pairs of Doc Martins you had, plus Louboutin boots all for the red bottoms. You basically looked like a filthy rich home wrecker, AKA the look you were going for.

But at home and in private you were the same old Y/N, always letting your natural hair fall into its regular ways, with little to no makeup and not ashamed to wear whatever you wanted.

What seemed to put the cherry on top to this new era was the newest addition to your family, AKA a black french bulldog named Rocko the two of you got. He was a tornado of chaos who would run around the house with his dozens of toys, taunting you and Gerard with them as if to show some form of superiority that he clearly lacked. You treated him like he was a newborn baby, constantly. You bought him clothes, beds, and toys, letting him sleep with you and Gerard despite your husbands protests about how he “took up too much room”. To you, the little canine could do nothing wrong.

That was until he chewed up your favorite pair of shoes, which just oh so happened to cost multiple hundreds of dollars. Gerard was furious at his actions, complaining that there was no reason for him to do so with the countless amount of toys he already had. You were mad at first too, but after only a few seconds of the pup giving you his eyes of sympathy you forgave him and moved on as if nothing happened. Gerard was still in his state of anger though.

“Oh, look, the designs for the tour outfits came in.” You smiled from where you laid on the couch, checking emails on your laptop, Rocko at your feet sitting between you and Gerard who was reading a book. You opened up the file to be greeted with all dozen outfits, which were beyond perfect. Gerard looked over, interested in the topic. “I like that one.” You pointed to one especially scandalous duo of tiny shorts and an even smaller top that could have been easily mistaken for a bra if it wasn’t for the thicker material on the all black set with black tights. “It makes me look like a whore.” Gerard nearly spat out his coffee.

“But you’re not a whore.” “Yeah, well, my alter ego is.” You smiled. “And you made her that way.” You looked up at him from quickly, “Take that as a compliment.” “How is me turning my wife into a whore a compliment?” He asked, puzzled.

“Just take it as one.” You huffed.

“I do think you’ll look bad ass in it though,” He remarked, returning to his book.

“Awww, thanks babe.” You blushed, “Maybe I’ll ask them to make you a matching outfit.” You lightly laughed. “Haha, very funny.” He rolled his eyes.

“It sucks we’ll be touring at the same time.” You sighed, “I miss being able to see you and the guys more.” “Yeah I miss you too,” He sighed as well, “And Ray does too.” You lightly laughed.

“Ray’s coming to the first show, right?” You asked, looking up at Gerard. He nodded.

“He cleared all of his schedule to go and he’s pumped.” You smiled.

“Good.” You closed your laptop, climbing over to give Gerard a kiss, which he happily accepted and did the same back. “Somedays I wish you kissed me the way as you do Frank.” You lightly smiled, letting go as he chuckled.

“I mean, I could.” He smiled at you, running his hands through your hair, “But that’s more aggressive and in the moment. I prefer to savor the kisses I have with you, let you know how much I love you.” You smiled, lightly rolling your eyes.

“You’re so sappy sometimes, Gee.” You responded, “But I love it.”

That night, as you were going to bed, you stopped in your mirror momentarily to take a look at yourself. You had gained 25-ish pounds since your break from the spotlight, still recovering from your ED. Your doctor said that you were healthy now, but some of the fatrolls that fell on your sides and hip dips as well were starting to bother you. And your stomach still had that bit of blub that you were never very fond of.

Gerard walked past you in the bathroom, immediately getting the memo. “Am I too fat?” You turned around and asked him, his face turning to a form of ridicule.

“You’re a fucking goddess.” He said looking you up and down, “So no.”

“Are you sure Gee-” Before you could finish, he grabbed your hand and practically dragged you to bed where he pushed you down with ease beneath him, giving you a searing kiss.

“You’re fucking gorgeous and the most beautiful woman alive. If you say one more thing about you not being perfect I’m going to frame every photo of you in every inch of this damn house so you know just how incredible you are.” “Fine.” You sighed reluctantly. “Now say it with me,” He began, “I, Y/F/N Y/M/N Y/L/N-Way am perfect.” You sighed, choosing to go with it.

“I, Y/F/N Y/M/N Y/L/N-Way am perfect.” “Good girl.” He said with another quick kiss. You lightly laughed, rolling over to your side of the bed to give Gerard his. You took your hand, running your fingers through his messy hair as the two of you stared at each other.

“After these two tours, I think I want to take a break.” You admitted, saying so above a whisper. He lightly nodded. “Maybe we can start a family.” He nodded again. “And settle down.” He gave you a kiss on the nose.

“That sounds perfect.”

-Time skip because I’m lAzY-

You were on stage doing what you do best, simultaneously swaying your hips to the music and going along with some of the choreography, as if the skin tight black and sparkly body suit and above the knee black boots weren’t enough.

As usual, you would look over to your husband where he was in the VIP section and sing to him, a smile plastered on his face. You would occasionally look over to see both the approval of your family, and friends, including Ray who seemed to be having the time of his life dancing and singing the lyrics.

The show was going absolutely perfect, it was bigger than any other that you had ever done, a larger stage, larger screens, larger everything. Even a larger crowd with over 100,000 people for your first show on tour. You could hear the audience echo your lyrics, jumping up and down judging by the movements of their light up wrist bands.

You of course played a few songs off of your previous album, doing a few acoustic with just you and the crowd which were some of your favorite experiences and moments. You also did a quick speech thanking all of your loyal fans who waited for you to come back with new music, despite the long period of time where you were no where to be seen.

After the finale, you ran back with a huge smile still on your face with your team, drinking some water constantly to hydrate yourself. It only took you a few moments in the back hallways of the stadium before you saw your husband at one end, smiling at you. You smiled back, running up to him and clinging your arms around him. He hugged you back, giving you a quick kiss. “You did great.” He whispered with a huge smiled, “I’m so proud.” “Thanks.” You smiled back, giving him another kiss. The two of you walked away, arms around each other as you leaned onto him. You tried to keep PDA to a limit, especially since the documentary was actively being made and was recording everything.

Once you were back in your private dressing room where no one else was, he gave you an even bigger hug, swinging you around and you lightly squealed. “You’re just so good.” He laughed.

“Thanks.” You smiled at him, letting go to go and take off your makeup at the chair. “I just gotta meet a few fans then we can go back to the hotel.” You told him through the mirror and he nodded.

“Y/N?” You heard your assistant knock at the door. “Hey, Betty.” You smiled up at her and she smiled back.

“I assumed you would want Rocky with you.” She said, putting the small black dog and he ran up to your chair.

“Ah yes,” You smiled down at him, picking him up and giving him a bunch of kisses on his little face, “Thank you.” You told her and she nodded, “No problem.” She closed the door back. You held the small dog in your lap, finishing off your face and hair before getting up and putting him down to change into regular clothes from your stage outfit.

“Gee?” You asked and he hummed, looking up from his phone, “Could you unzip me?” You asked and he nodded, getting up to do so. Usually Gerard would pull something after that, making it less PG, but you shot him a quick glare warning him not to do anything, so he didn’t.

You quickly replaced your stage clothes with a pair of jeans and sweatshirt, turning around to see Gerard still staring at you, wide eyes. “Oh please,” you sighed at him, “We’ve been together for over eight years Gee, handle yourself.” “Sorry, it’s just really hard to.” He tried to defend himself, you rolled your eyes.

“I’ll be back soon, babe.” You smiled, giving him a peck on the lips before excusing yourself.

The meet and greet went by as always, taking about half an hour before you said bye to everyone, taking photos, and then went back to Gerard. He was still on his phone on one of the couches in the room, Rocko by his feet. “Ready to go?” He asked, looking up, and you nodded grabbing your phone and backpack.

On the way out you couldn’t stop smiling, hand in hand with Gerard going in one of the large black SUVs, you going in first, then Rocko, then Gerard. “How’re you feeling?” Your husband asked and you just smiled.

“Great,” You admitted, taking a sip from your water, “Everyone loved it.” He gave your thigh a squeeze and looked at you.

“It was definitely pretty bad ass.” He smiled and you lightly laughed.

You had walked into your suite, setting your bag and the dog down, placing him in his bed (in the living room part of the room) while Gerard grabbed him a bowl of water. You gave the dog a quick good night kiss, resorting to your own room where Gerard followed, closing the door behind you.

Almost immediately your lips were clashed together, his hands on your waist as he swiftly put you on the large plush duvet of the bed, moving down to your collarbone and neck.

“Do you want me to stop?” He asked for only a brief moment, as a double check. You shook your head violently.

“No,” You sighed out, “Please no.” He smiled down at you connecting your lips against. “Whatever you want, sugar.”

-Another time skip-

You wouldn’t have ever known if it wasn’t for the insane amount of fatigue and throwing up you were going through, only a month into tour. Initially you could’ve sworn it was just a cold turned to maybe the flu, as many of the symptoms you were having would go away within a few hours, so you were ready for show time.

But here you sat in your hotel room, curled up on the bed with Rocko next to you, your mind completely empty as you stared into the thin air, Betty had run to the nearest pharmacy. What were you going to do on tour? Fans would figure it out easily. But what would you tell Gerard?

Once Betty came back she gave you a somber, almost apologetic smile handing your the small bag. You thanked her, closing the door and going into the bathroom.

You stood over the bathroom sink, your hands gripping the granite edges for dear life as you stared down at the three tests. All positive. It took you a few minutes of staring, rocking back and forth, for everything to sink in.

This was not how you planned it, it was never supposed to go like this. You and Gerard were going to take a break, settle down, have your first child and be together all through your pregnancy. Now you were both on huge tours promoting your new work, away from home for at least the next five months. 

You could feel warm tears stream down your cheeks, a small sniffle coming from your nose as you grabbed your phone. Reluctantly, you pressed on your husband’s name, pressing the small phone icon displayed underneath it. You put your face up to the screen slowly. Only a few rings and he answered.

“Hey Y/N/N,” He said, “What’s up.” It took you a few seconds, but you immediately bursted into sobs. “Baby? What’s wrong?” He spoke up, voice with lots of concern.

“Gee,” You began, sniffing again through the sobs, “I’m um- I’m pregnant.” You said. No one spoke for the next few seconds, complete silence on both ends of the line.

“Sweetie,” He said in a light voice, a small laugh following afterwards, “That’s great!” “No, Gerard, it isn’t.” You snapped, “We had all of this planned out perfectly, no one was going to know unless we wanted them to. But no, in the beginning of a fucking world tour this has to happen.” You raised your voice, “And I get it, this is gonna be a fucking walk in the park for you because you’re not here, and you don’t have to play in front of over 50,000 people every night in body tight suits. And you’re going to be separated from your pregnant wife. Life’s probably fucking perfect for you.” You weren’t sure what had gotten into you, but whatever it was it wasn’t pretty.

“What?” He asked, “You say it like we never wanted this. Sometimes things don’t go to plan Y/N.” He snapped back.

“Well they have to in our world Gerard!” You yelled, taking a deep breath to calm yourself down, “We have our lives set out for the next six months. And this is a big deal, and something we can’t do right now.”

“So are you going to get an abortion? Are you going to put it into the adoption system?” He yelled back. You took a few moments to think.

“No.” You admitted, barely above a whisper, “Gee, I’m sorry.” You began sobbing again, your sad feeling taking over any angry one.

“No, sugar, I am.” He clarified with a sigh, “You’re going through a lot and I should be supporting you, not arguing.” “Well I kinda started it.” “And I shouldn’t have continued it.” He responded. “Honey, we’ll figure this out.” He insisted, “We’ll talk to your tour manager and everyone who needs to know, we’ll figure something out. Some way to hide it.” “Okay.” You said somberly.

“Give me a few minutes,” He said, “I’m going to figure out a way to get to you.” “Gee, you’re booked for the next fews months on tour.” “And so are you, but you’re also carrying our child right now.” He spoke back, “We’re going to figure it out, okay? We’re going to have a kid, and start a family, maybe a little off track from what we intended, but this is what we’ve wanted, right?” You nodded despite him not seeing you.

“Yeah, of course.” You calmed down. “This is what we’ve wanted.”

It took a full week for a plan to be made. A week of unnecessary stress and anxiety for everyone on your team who was high enough on the roster to know about the pregnancy. Not even your families or friends knew, everything right now was business.

Gerard managed to fly in during a three day break the band had, consoling your emotions during the time as you two began to discuss personal plans. There was a lot of crying, both tears of sadness and joy, as you two began to discuss where you would live most of the time, which room the baby would take, how to even handle a child.

You already knew the baby’s name, which could go for either a boy or girl: Shiloh Monet Way. You were still very unsure about planning to have a baby, but since your tour would end when the third trimester began, you would have at least a few months to plan and figure out everything.

Gerard had already talked to the guys and their managers about pushing back some of the dates so there was a month break for him to be home around the baby’s due date. At the very least he wanted to be with you while giving birth, but he also wanted to help both you and the baby recover.

New outfits and plans to completely hide your pregnancy were already in the working with your teams. It was like a completely undercover operation to keep both you and your child’s privacy to a fine tune. And of course. Gerard and the guys promised to not say anything at all, even a hint towards you being pregnant wouldn’t be dropped.

“I say we wait to tell our families and friends,” You admitted to your husband, the two of you on the hotel bed getting ready to go to a sound check. “Just in case anything happens. I mean, we have to tell our teams and the guys and stuff, which we did, but no one else.” He nodded.

“Just not for too long,” He said, “Or at least once we know that baby’s developing fine.” You nodded and sighed.

“I was hoping having our first child together wouldn’t be this stressful.” You admitted, almost shamefully in a way.

“It’s okay, sugar.” He put his hand on your thigh and gave it a light squeeze. “We’re going to make the best of it, okay? You have a little less than five months left on your tour and then I get to take a break. This’ll work out just fine.” You nodded, placing your head on his shoulder as you knew he was right.

“You make everything better, Gee.” You said, playing with his hand as he placed a kiss on the top of your head.

“I’ll do it for you, sweetheart.”

[httpswwwtbhkcom]

Spending Halloween With a Friend Alone

[Oneshot/Imagine]

Pairing: Denki Kaminari x Reader, Katsuki Bakugo x Reader, Shouto Todoroki x Reader, Tenya Iida x Reader (Separately) 

[@httpswwwtbhkcom’s masterlist]

Summary: You were walking at the streets beside him. You both became partners in getting sweets as you and the others separated to get the most sweets in the class.  

Warning: swearing, wrong grammars, 

Genre: Fluff,

Keys:

Y/n- your name, 

Reader: Neutral

☽✧ ✦ ✧☾

Made by:  쓩늉/しゅんにゅん in Twitter! Click here to see the fanart!

☽✧ ✦ ✧☾

Denki Kaminari:

“Hey! Hey Y/n!” Kaminari called, you ignored him, cleaning your clothes which got a bit rusty. “Hey! HEY!” Kaminari shouted, making you look at him annoyed. “What?” 

“Can you be my partner in trick or treating? Come on, it’ll be fun. I’ll make sure we’ll win the game!” You sighed at your friend. You looked at Kaminari, who was looking a demon. 

“You like what you see?” He wiggled his eyebrows playfully, twirling to give you a better look of himself. You rolled your eyes but slightly blushed at his words. He took your hand and dragged you outside to the streets. “We need to go! Hurry! What are you standing here for? They have already got a headstart!!!” You ran with the same pace as his. Making it more easier for you to move. 

You both went to the first house

“Trick or treat!” You both said it the same time-

After the trick or treating, you both went back to the dorms where everyone was waiting. 

“Finally! You both took so long!” Mina groaned as she ate some of her candy. “Mina, don’t eat our sweets! Were going to lose if you eat more!!” Sero scolded her as he sneakily took a candy from her, in which she jerked his hand and hissed. 

After counting the candies, both of you were in fourth place. 

“Damn we lost.. Oh well, atleast we had fun right?!” Kaminari looked at you grinning. “Mhm, it was fun! We should hang out more.” 

“Or maybe we should-” Then you stopped him by slapping his face while you blushed furiously. 

☽✧ ✦ ✧☾

Katsuki Bakugo:

You were somewhere in the crowd beside Bakugo. Kaminari was standing on top of a table. Some worried to get down or he will hurt himself but he brushed it off.

“Anyways! Since were in our costumes, we should do a game to make this more exciting!!” He exclaimed. “So we need a partner to make it more easier. We will go around the streets and do our usual trick or treating but whoever gets the most treats will get..... This!” 

“More... Candies?” You asked dumbfounded. ‘What the fuck are you doing dunce, giving us all cavities or some shit?’ Bakugo grumbled to himself. “Thhaaaaat’s Right! More candies! Isn’t that great!?” 

No one answered nor made a noise. But Kaminari didn’t seem to be bothered since he jumped off the table. “Alright, LET’S START!” Then everyone went to the person they wanted to be partners with. Bakugo groaned and walked away from the crowd, you took noticed and ran towards him. “Hey! Bakugo!” 

He groaned then turned to look at you. “What.” He glared at you. “Can you please be my partner? I want to join but it seemed like everyone has a partner already.!” You whined. 

He stared at you for a while. ‘I can’t believe i’m doing this.’ He sighed. “Fine.” You perked up. “Fine, i’ll help you win.”

You jumped before hugging him “Thank you thankyouthankyouthankyou!” His ears became red as you dragged him out of the dorms and to the streets. 

As both of you walk to trick or treat, you glanced at Bakugo. You noticed he had wolf ears and even a choker. He noticed you staring at him. “Hey, y’know your staring right dumbass?” You blushed then looked away, muttering a sorry.

You went to the nth house of the street. 

“Trick or treat.!” Both of you said in sync.

As both of you went to the dormitory since Bakugo noticed it was time to go back, luckily. You both weren’t the last. 

As all of you counted the sweets all of you had, you noticed everyone had as many stash than both of yours. Or maybe it was nothing. 

You both were in 4th to last place. It wasn’t a problem, you didn’t win the candies and chocolates but Bakugo gave you his candies since he wasn’t the sweet type.

☽✧ ✦ ✧☾

Shoto Todoroki:

You were standing in the middle of the crowd. As Kaminari stood on top of a table, telling everyone the rules (Which is in Bakugo’s part. I was too lazy to copy and paste it) 

Everyone went to the people they’d want to be partners with, while you looked around if you could see someone who didn’t have a partner yet. Since there were 21 of you, there is a chance that you could be alone in trick or treating. And you don’t want to be alone! Especially in the night. 

Todoroki tapped your shoulder for your attention, you jumped at the sudden contact but when you looked at who did it, you couldn’t help but stare. He had a black cape and his hair was perfectly combed. 

“Uhm, i’m sorry if i scared you earlier but, your staring..” That seemed to snap you out of it because you apologized many times. 

“Anyways, do you want to be my partner? Everyone seems to be full.” 

“Uh oh, Sure!” You looked around you to see no more people making you take his hand and drag him. “Let’s go! They already left!” 

“So, do you know how to trick or treat?” You asked him, He shook his head no. “No, this is my first time.” 

“Oh it’s fine! I could help you.” “That would be nice, Thank you Y/n.” You brushed it off and you went to your first house. Telling him the simple instructions.

You rang the doorbell and waited for the owner of the house to open the door. “So, this is it. Do what i say okay?” He nodded. 

“Trick or treat!” 

After going from house to house. You both went back to the dorms. Talking to each other. You saw Mina getting scolded by Iida and Sero to not eat the candies yet (Even tho Sero was eating too)

You smiled at the scene then waited for the others. 

After waiting for the last partner, you all went counting the treats. 

You and Todoroki’s place was first. Which you both were happy for. “Here, have the other half of the candies!” You offered him. He declined, saying that he doesn’t like sweets. But you still gave him some. 

You both kinda cheated by his looks. It made the people in the neighborhood give you both more candies than they gave the others. 

☽✧ ✦ ✧☾

Iida Tenya:

You were infront of the crowd beside Midoriya and Iida, who were telling Kaminari to go down the table. 

After telling the rules of the game, everyone began walking all over the room talking to the others if they could be their partners. 

Iida adjusted his glasses, looking at you. “Hey, can you be my partner?” He asked. You looked at him for a moment, checking his costume. He had screws beside his head. 

“Sure! I have no one to go with anyways.” 

You and Iida didn’t had much of a conversation. So you decided on making a conversation yourself. 

“So, why did you want to join anyways? I mean, i don’t think your this type of person to do trick or treating. No offense.”-

You both were in the 24th? house. 

“Trick or Treat!” Iida and you exclaimed, you gave the owner a smile. When they gave back to you. 

Both of you were the first ones on coming back on the dorms. So you both talked to cut some time. 

After counting, you and Iida were in second place. Both of you used Iida’s quirk into running faster. But some candies left their bags. 

[adhd-wifi]

MDZS Modern AU Fic Tips (Living in China)

So I asked a while back if anyone was interested in some fic tips for writing Chinese modern AUs, and y’all seemed enthusiastic. But…when I tried putting it all in a single post it got…really…really long…

So I split them into a bunch of posts (Yes I copy-pasted this intro on all of them because I’m lazy)! Here are the links:

Names & Stuff

Modern Chinese Cultural Stuff

Superstitions & Beliefs

Festivals 

Living in China (You are here)

Anyways, these are based off my experiences living in Singapore and China, and I hope these posts are helpful. On to it.

Living in China

Disclaimer: I mostly lived in Singapore during my existence, and thus I can’t give you extremely detailed info of what it’s like exactly, but I do visit my Chinese relatives fairly frequently, so these are general tips. Also, please keep in mind that the info here is biased towards life in Dalian & Harbin. I’ve been to Beijing but only twice so I don’t remember a lot. 

The currency in China is RMB, or “yuan”. 100 RMB is about $14 USD, and not considered a lot of money

Side Note: The above tip is also another reason why you shouldn’t ever write A-Yuan’s name as just “Yuan”. It makes him look like the local currency djsasldkj

Coin values are (with comparison to US currency): 

1 yuan (like a dollar) 

5 jiao (Half-yuan - 50 cents)

1 jiao (1/10 yuan - 10 cents)

5 fen (0.05 yuan - 5 cents)

1 fen (0.01 -  basically a penny)

Also related to money, in more urban areas, people don’t really carry cash or even cards around anymore. Practically everything is paid electronically, through WeChat Pay and other cash/bank apps, typically using QR codes on phones. You’ll have a hard time as a foreigner if you don’t have any of those apps in these areas (AKA me when I forget to re-download them before heading to China)

The exceptions to this would be places where tourists and foreigners are very frequent, such as hotels, airports, tourist buildings, universities (though my cousin’s old uni recently went full electronic payment I think???) etc, and more rural areas

Some Chinese social media and stuff:

BaiDu 百度 - Basically Chinese Google. We also use it the way we use “google” as a verb, saying 百度一下 (bǎi dù yī xià) - “Let me BaiDu it”

WeChat - Very similar to Whatsapp in general, also used for money purposes with WeChat Pay

QQ Mail - The most frequently used email platform in China. QQ Mail also has an Instant Messenger last time I checked. Also, I think QQ still uses number-based IDs, so the address would look something like: (12345678@qq.com). Hotmail is fairly common in China too, particularly with those who need have to send international emails

YouKu 优酷 - The most popular video hosting site (most similar to YouTube out of the many video sites)

bilibili 哔哩哔哩 (yes, small caps) - Another video site well-known for animations, games, and comics especially

TaoBao 淘宝 - Cosplayers would probably know this. Something like a Chinese Amazon or Lazada.

WeiBo 微博 - Main Chinese social media platform. Feels like a FaceBook + Twitter fusion

LOFTER - Feels like a Chinese Tumblr

Even in urban areas, it’s easy to find entire streets of literally nothing but restaurants by the main roads (+ maybe a stationary shop, salon, or something in a corner, and you can often drive right up to the front door and park right there (in more populated areas and/or near malls/attractions, there will likely be extra open parking space nearby such restaurant streets)

Some larger restaurants, especially those with seafood specialties, don’t have actual booklet menus. Instead they have a wide selection of fresh ingredients (wrapped up safely in layers saran wrap) such as vegetables, cuts of meat, and tanks of living fish/shellfish/crustaceans near the entrance. They tend to have a list of dishes you can order by the corresponding ingredients, or a server nearby to tell you and take your orders. Apparently this is more common in the North.

You don’t tip in restaurants in China. You COULD slip a particular server or two some cash if you wanted to, but as an overall system tipping does not exist and also it’s not “one server one table”. It’s “whoever’s available to serve you IN THAT MOMENT will serve you” so you’ll likely see at least three different servers throughout your meal. Please. Stop with the “Hi I’ll be your server today” in China-set fics. It’s SOOOOO WEIRD.

I’ve never studied in China, but I checked this guide with my Chinese cousin and it’s pretty accurate about the educational system there

Speaking of schools, you wear uniforms up to Upper Secondary (some to Post-Secondary). As typical gender-conformity strikes again, girls will wear skirts and boys will wear pants. The exception is during the colder months, in which everyone will basically just wear full body tracksuits (school-issued) to school and it’s their uniform for the whole day. This is particularly common in schools with low or no heating systems, especially in more rural areas

Drivers sit on the left side of their vehicle in China. Typically, any foreign cars (such as from Hong Kong - which would have the driver on the right) will need a mainland license plate. (This might be changing in recent times though.) 

I don’t know much about the healthcare systems in China anymore, I was hospitalized once at 3 or 4 and don’t remember much, but in general basic healthcare from public hospitals is low-cost to free (depending on the region) for Chinese citizens with their basic insurance plans (individual and employee provided). You get charged (more) for hospitalization and more serious treatments like surgeries, physical/mental therapy, vaccinations (this is a pro-vax blog btw, just saying), and maybe dental. Most of these can be covered by insurance too though. If you go to a private hospital, it’s considerably more expensive of course. 

Okay that’s all the info I can think of to be potentially useful in fics lol. 

[out-of-jams]

The Start of Something New || myg

The third and final installment to Cheers If You Agree!

Summary: “Are you fucking kidding me?” Maybe you were wrong, maybe you really were being set up. In a long winded prank and there was a camera hidden somewhere to capture your embarassment. Had someone been pretending to be him this whole time? 

Someone better call Nev Schulman because you were being motherfucking catfished.”

Word Count: 1.6k

Warnings/Genre: Idol!Yoongi. Fan!Reader. Some cursing. Fluff. So much fluff omg. Drabble. 

A/N: Writing this made me uwu omg why am I so soft in the club right now.

All of my works are purely fiction. Everything I write is my intellectual property and therefore belongs to me. ©out-of-jams. Do not copy or repost without permission. 

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The lights inside the coffee shop were dim. So much so, that the first thought that popped into your mind was that it was closed. That you’d been set-up.

Or maybe that was just the nerves kicking in and overriding your common sense. Because you knew that you weren’t being set-up to make a fool of yourself. You had the texts and the phone calls and the snapchat’s to prove it.

The second thought to enter your mind was holy fuck you were really about to do this.

Taking a deep breath to fill your lungs with the surprisingly clean air of downtown Seoul, you opened your eyes to look at your reflection in the shop window. Luckily, the blinds were closed so no one could see as your fingers scrambled to smooth down the stray wisps of hair and fix your already perfect sweater collar. Also, you really needed to figure out how to wipe the nervous expression from your face. Because it wouldn’t be good to meet him for the first time looking like an absolute train wreck.

Him.

Min-fucking-Yoongi. World famous rapper. 1/7 of Bangtan Sonyeondan.

The same man you’d been in contact with everyday for the past month. How had it all happened? Well, Twitter DM’s turned into the exchanging of KakaoTalk IDs, which after a week turned into the first phone call of many. And then, well, there you were: standing outside in the warmth of the setting sun like a statue.

Cars passed by behind you and you watched their morphed reflection as you attempted to get ahold of yourself. After a few moments of deep breaths and meditative breathing, you finally reached out to grasp the handle on the front door and--

It was locked.

“Are you fucking kidding me?” Maybe you were wrong, maybe you really were being set up. In a long winded prank and there was a camera hidden somewhere to capture your embarassment. Had someone been pretending to be him this whole time?

Someone better call Nev Schulman because you were being motherfucking catfished.

With lips pursed and eyes narrowed, you started to reach into your purse to pull out your phone to send off a very angrily worded text message when the sound of a door popping open caught your attention. But it wasn’t from the one in front of you, no. It came from the alleyway to your left and your neck twisted at the noise.

A head of dark hair peaked through the small door opening and looked both ways before finally glancing in your direction. You didn’t recognize him, had never seen that man a day in your life. But by the black apron tied around his neck and the shop’s name embezzled across the chest, you figured that he worked in the same coffee shop that you were trying to get into.

The man--boy, perhaps?--looked young. With bangs parted to reveal his forehead and pale pink lips parted as his brown eyes narrowed on you, he stood tall. And you were about ten seconds away from asking why he was staring at you when he leaned even further out of the side door to whisper:

“Are you her?”

Blinking in confusion, your head tilted to the side. “Huh?”

He licked his lips and glanced nervously around him before speaking again, voice hushed. “You know, her. The one.”

Were you about to be propositioned for marriage by a dude you didn’t even know? Oh god, what if he’d been the one to catfish you?

At your uncomprehending stare, he lifted a hand from the void behind the door and gestured inside. “Are you here to meet...’ya know? Him.”

It clicked.

How it had taken so long, you had no idea. But your eyebrows shot into your hair and you really hoped that the two of you were on the same page or else things would get real awkward real fast.

“Yeah.” You nodded slowly, fingers tightening around the straps of your purse in aprehension.

The boy seemed to deflate, tension visibly bleeding from his shoulders as he stepped further outside and held the door open for you. And when you failed to move, he waved you forward. “Come on in. He’s waiting for you.”

How very James Bond.

You walked forward slowly, muscles tense just in case that boy was crazy and tried to pull something. But he didn’t even move until it was to follow you inside, the door banging shut behind both of you. Though you were too busy taking in the interior of the coffee shop to notice. It was beautiful. From the brick wall finish, to the pretty overhead lights and the soft music playing, to the gentle warmth that heated the air from a crackling fireplace.

The calm, quiet atmosphere paried with the scent of freshly brewed coffee and baked goods was almost enough to calm you.

“Through here.” You almost jumped at the voice coming from behind.

The boy--barista--passed you in the short hallway and gestured for you to follow. And you did, the sound of your shoes tap-tap-tapping on the wood floor syncing with your heartbeat pounding a mealody-less beat in your eardrums. With every step that you took, every empty table that you passed until you followed the boy as he turned left, brought on a fresh wave of nerves.

And when he reached a closed door in the back and stepped to the side to let you pass, you were practically a mess. As if sensing your internal dilemma, the barista smiled gently and stepped away to let you have a moment. “Whenever you’re ready. I’ll be back in a few minutes to take your order.”

You could only nod as you watched him disappear back around the corner. And took a deep breath to steel your nerves. This was it. Once you opened that door there was no turning back. No ignoring the flutter in your stomach whenever his name popped up on your phone screen. No pretending like you weren’t falling for a man that you’d never even met.

The door handle was cool beneath your fingers and you twisted it down and pushed it open before you could second guess yourself. Talk yourself out of it. Somehow force yourself to believe that this wouldn’t turn out well. That you were being stupid, an idiot, a--

A pair of dark, wide catlike eyes peered up at you, pinned you down in the doorway. And a beat of silence passed in which the two of you just stared each other down like you were caught in some kind of k-drama. In which the air stilled, humming as if in a dream. But god, if you were, you really didn’t want to wake up.

Because Min Yoongi sat on a comfortable looking bench tucked into a booth in the corner. The room was small, intimate, made for couples who wanted privacy away from prying eyes. Not that you were a couple! Even though you kind-of-not-so-secretly wished that you were. But you weren’t. You were friends.

Yeah, friends.

Though friends didn’t have their heart jump-started by the way their friend looked adorable-yet-so-freaking-handsome in a white long-sleeved sweater and black pants. Nor did someone have a kaleidoscope of butterflies take flight in their stomach due to a soft smile spreading across their friend’s lips. Didn’t wonder what they may feel like pressed against your own.

Whatever thing stopped time, halted reality for a moment, broke as Min Yoongi slowly stood to greet you. He ran a hand through his dark hair, tongue wetting his lips almost nervously. And gummy smile made an appearance, puffing up his soft cheeks.

“You’re here.” Even his voice was more perfect in person. Deep and soothing with a lazy drawl that drew his words together like calligraphy.

“I’m here.” And frozen apparently. Because you couldn’t seem to pry yourself from the doorway.

Shit, what were you supposed to do in situations like these? Hug him? Give him a handshake? A nod of your head? Why was there not a handbook on how to greet someone you’d bared your soul to virtually, but never in person.

The same conflict seemed to occur to Yoongi, if the flickering of emotion in his eyes was anything to go by. But then he seemed to make a decision and lifted his arms slowly, shyly. “It’s nice to see you. Finally.”

You legs unfroze themselves at his silent invitation and you crossed the room in only a few short steps. And as you stepped into his embrace, and his arms wound around your waist and the comforting scent of Yoongi overtook your senses along with his warmth, your nerves dissolved. The worry, anxiety, thoughts of what-if left your mind the second the gentle fragrance of his shampoo caressed your nose and refused to let you go.

The same way he seemed almost reluctant to do so.

But he did, stepped back to flash you another gummy smile and a feeling of something took root deep in your chest.

“It’s nice to see you too.”

Because it was.

And as Yoongi gestured for you to take a seat and the door opened to reveal the barista, you understood just what that something was.

The start of something new.

[corpsentry]

behind the taylor swift gundam was in fact another, smaller gundam: a brief inquiry into the events of june 2020

so back in june this year june and i got together and we made this motherfucker of a story with this motherfucker of a thread to keep track of it all. but you already know that! and i’ve already got one foot and three elbows in my grave, so i’ll spare you the long-winded stuff. you wanna know how i wrote 93,035 words in 4 weeks? i’ll tell you how i wrote 93,035 words in 4 weeks-

-by linking you guys to copies of my planning documents because i feel like those words speak louder than any words i can offer in the present day. these are long documents. but they are also historical artifacts. very interesting. very weird. very, uh, full of cussing. so anyway, here’s

BIG DADDY: THE ORIGINAL PLANNING DOCUMENT

for those, like me, who have no motivation left in life to do anything and rely on summaries from others to acquire new knowledge, it all started with a single line.

prince of a fallen kingdom atsumu tries to kill hinata but falls in love with him instead

june, april something, 2020

with that in mind i tested the concept out with a few paragraphs of text, which you can find at the bottom of the Big Daddy document in the graveyard segment, accidentally sold my soul to the image of hinata with epaulettes, and then worked backwards, structuring an entire plot around two images:

a) hinata getting the shit beat out of him, with snark b) hinata and atsumu dancing in an empty ballroom under the stars

if you want a betrayal, you have to have something worth losing. if you want to fall in love with someone you don’t know, you have to meet them. if you have to meet them, there has to be a reason for that meeting, and so somewhere in between atsumu became a sword instructor and hinata the prince with daddy issues. june and i used this method of glancing anxiously over your shoulder to see what you’d missed to fill out the blanks in the story, after which i tacked up a bunch of post-its, typed out the plot, consulted june, typed out the plot again, and then broke the characters down into a bunch of questions, like ‘what do they want?’ and ‘what do they have?’ and ‘what are they afraid of?’

with the plot more or less ironed out, i decided it was time to start writing, and then i decided that i was actually too scared to start writing after all, so instead i set a couple of timers using classroomtimers.com (15-20 minutes long) and i sat down and i wrote about the world that hinata and atsumu inhabited.

each warm-up was 300-500 words long, and for the first few days, i’d write one before getting into writing the story proper. later these evolved into simply picking a scene from the story and launching straight into it, which became useful for opening those scenes later when i got to them organically.

then i got lazy! so i stopped. but these shitty little exercises were really useful for me because, unfettered by plot, convention, or any kind of tradition hovering over my shoulder, i was able to fuck around loosely enough to realize what i wanted this story to be. it was a very contrived kind of trial-and-error, an exploration of the characters, the story, but most importantly, the tone.

RESEARCH, PLANNING, AND VICTORIAN BOUGIE FASHION

this is a loose map of the castle and Important Locations within it, which i drew up at the start so i could keep track of where everything was and how i could get my characters from point A to point B. i wanted the story to have Some kind of internal logic, you know, even if that logic amounted to ‘a compass would function normally in this world whereas kageyama tobio would not’.

99% of my planning and organizing within those five weeks took place in this lovely dotted cat journal which my sister gave me for my birthday and i repurposed into a metaphorical Diary of Suffering while working on juno. i used it for everything from keeping track of narrative threads to clothing consistency checks, but the main purpose was this: each day at about 10 pm i’d crack open the cat book to a fresh page, stamp the date and the day of suffering at the top, and then write down a list of things i wanted to write, address, or fix today. then i’d sit at my laptop and write like a madman until about 7 in the morning. with breaks, of course, for sitting in the bathroom and staring at the wall and sitting in the kitchen and staring at the wall, but mostly i was writing. and complaining about writing. you were there, you probably remember that.

anyway, here are some pages from the cat book.

aside from the fact that my handwriting is complete shit, you can see that i made zero effort for any of this to be presentable. it was mainly a way for me to keep track of my thoughts because i have the attention span of an ikea wardrobe and tend to forget things as soon as i think of them. the lack of structure also mirrored the way that i went about writing juno. while i did proceed, for the most part, in chronological order, i had a lot of weird and useless revelations during lunch, which by this point was happening around 2 am, and in the 5 minutes before the exhaustion finally hit and carried me down to hell. i changed A Lot. again, to understand exactly how much the story evolved from day one onwards, please consult the big daddy document.

in the meantime, here’s something else.

once june sent over hinata and atsumu’s character designs i sat down like the fucking fool i am and spent 2 hours poring over a document about victorian and other fashion movements of the past so i could assign a noun, adjective, and verb to each element of their outfits. i don’t know why i did this. i certainly could have not, but i attempted to make sense of their ‘fits from a logistical perspective and that went into the cat book too. everything went into the cat book. the cat book is a relic of the past now, stuffed with artifacts such as the birth of oikawa tooru, and also his demise.

MEDIUM DADDY: EDITING, PROOFREADING, AND CREEPY MURDER CATS

i finished writing on june 26th, 2020, approximately a month after i’d first started planning, somewhere around may 27th or 28th. at that point i had about 90,000 words’ worth of story and no sanity left whatsoever, so i took a day-long break to stare at a wall and listen to taylor swift’s enchanted on loop.

and then i made a new document, which you can look at using the link above, and i laid out everything i had to do. i’d discovered a fuck ton of plot inconsistencies and general errors while writing and lying awake in bed at 9 a.m., sleepless in seattle, and now that i was free of the demon egging me towards the first finish line, it was time to Deal with them. i speed-scrolled through the draft, which was 200+ pages compressed into one google doc, because i like to tempt god’s wrath, and fixed up all the plot issues over the course of a few days. this was the fun part.

the actual, hard editing was the extremely un-fun part. i reread the entire thing, paragraph by paragraph, line by damn line, from start to finish, paying especially close attention to awkward phrasing, incomplete dialogue, and moments which had fallen flat in my haste to get on to the next one. this was really fucking terrible. i spent more time lying facedown on the floor than actually editing anything, but after a long time (about a week), that, too was done.

SMALL DADDY: TITLES, SUMMARIES, AND GOOD FUCKING BYES

i spent a good eighty days thinking about the title, though hilariously enough we ended up with something that was a blend of our names. june + elmo = juno, which is, all things considered, pretty perfect, but the process of picking the title was Hell, and i Did Not Come Up With The Title until about 2 hours before posting. you can take a look at the haphazard clusterfuck of my title-selecting process in small daddy, which is linked above.

so the title was a last-minute choice. so was the summary. and the chapter divisions. and actually all the songs in the playlist for juno. the day we dropped juno onto planet earth like a newborn baby pitched out of the sky, i spent an hour hunched over my laptop, cutting my 213 page google doc into chapters based on nothing more than a Vibe. two days before that, i also attempted to voice-act the entirety of juno, an affair which ended at the 20,000 word mark with a sore throat and the kind of exhaustion one typically wants to sleep in a coffin for 23 years to get rid of. so in all honesty, i did very little editing, which is why there are definitely minor typos and/or mistakes hanging out somewhere on that chunky ao3 webpage. but whatever.

my attitude by july 5th (was it july 5th? or 4th? somewhere around there) was basically whatever. anything so i could get finish this damn thing, chuck it out of the window, and never see another google doc until the next century. i’ve been asked a few times how exactly i wrote at a rate of roughly 2000-3000 words per day for four weeks straight, and my answer has always been this: i died. what died, you ask? my soul. my spirit. my Will To Live. i’m a creature of fixations, and juno was my fixation for june. will i ever be able to do this again? would i recommend this experience to anyone? is god real? the answer to all of the above is probably no. juno was a fever dream, and so is my cat book. and so are all the lattes i had. and so was my 9 am to 4 pm sleep schedule.

but what we made is real. the research, oikawa tooru, the 4 am conversations in which i was like ‘how the fuck do i end this’ and june was like ‘jade proposal’ (the proposal was her idea. all rise for twitter user atsuhinas. she is the mastermind behind all of the Inch Resting moments in this story; i just flapped a korok leaf in her direction and made sure the air circulation was working properly) are real as fuck, and looking back, there’s a lot i’d change, but i’m lazy. and college is starting. and anyway, i did write 93,035 words in just under five weeks, four if you don’t count the week of Editing Hell, so i think that’s pretty cool.

thank you for reading this to the end, and for following us on our journey through the enigmatic taylor swift gundam fic which quite literally consumed my entire twitter account for the five weeks i spent working on it. retrospectively speaking i really was butt-obsessed so i am frankly incredibly impressed with everyone around me for putting up with a Husk of a Man for a month. thank you for doing that. thank you for indulging my vague tweeting, and our butterfly dns, and for reading 93 thousand words of gay fanfiction set in a high fantasy world with epaulettes and galettes. on behalf of june, once again, we are incredibly grateful for all your support.

if you have any questions about specific aspects of the writing process, or anything you’d like to know in general with reference to JUNO, feel free to drop me an ask through my tumblr inbox, or through my curiouscat over here. i’m aware i didn’t cover everything, but there’s frankly too much to put in a tumblr post without passing away somewhere around the 56% mark, so let me know what’s on your mind, and i’ll try to answer that to the best of my abilities. but anyway, before i go, here are some

TAKEAWAYS

one: don’t try to write 93,000 words in five weeks. seriously don’t fucking do it you will end up jittery and sleep-deprived and you will leave all your friends on read for a month. pace yourself. set realistic goals. you wrote 2k this week? that’s fantastic. you wrote 4k in a day? you absolute motherfucker. i hope you’re taking a long fucking break tomorrow. your story will not run away from you, but if you run too fast, you will get tired, and then you will pass away.

two: you don’t have to know everything about your story before you start writing. in fact if you have a single camera shot of two characters holding hands under a rose garden awning, i think that’s fucking wonderful. if you look at big daddy, you’ll realize that my initial plot draft, and all the ones following that, are not perfectly aligned with the final version of juno. i improvised over half of the scenes in this motherfucker, and to be completely honest, some of the improvised scenes were the best. fucking oikawa tooru was improvised out of nowhere. he only got written in way later, around chapter 8 or something, because i realized i needed a plot device and a source of information to keep the playing table from toppling over. i Sat Down one day and was like ‘okay, it’s time to write oikawa into the introduction. because he matters now. he didn’t matter last week but now he does, and soon he’s going to be the fulcrum of the entire story, because it’s like that with oikawa tooru’. it’s okay to change your mind halfway. it’s okay to go back and rewrite entire scenes or segments. it’s okay to highlight 4 pages of fresh, sentimental writing, and hit delete. writing is a fluid process, and you Will make discoveries as you progress through your story alongside your characters. be understanding of that iterative process. be kind to yourself.

three: You Are That Motherfucker. you, me, your dog, your dog’s friend, your dog’s enemy, all of us are that motherfucker. i never thought i’d be able to write anything longer than the great big map, which was a much simpler, linear story in which the other main character did not appear in the current timeline until like the eighth chapter. juno was different. juno was the motherfucker, and i was scared shitless of it, and to cope with that fear joked constantly while writing that it’d never see the light of day.

but it did. it was a rocky process, and i was awake for 48 hours after posting it because of the sheer adrenalin stuck in my skull, but i got through it. and i wouldn’t have been able to do it without june, who stepped in when i flopped over facedown on the floor and dragged me to my feet like the badass friend she is, and without everyone else in my life, who put up with me talking about The Thing that i couldn’t really talk about, but juno’s up there now. forever, or until the internet collapses and civilization goes extinct. and if the nineteen year old clown with the attention span of an ikea armchair and an a level certificate from hell wrote the 93,000 word long thing, so can you. i mean this completely unironically and with every ounce of genuine emotion i can summon from the cracked asshole of my heart.

writing is hard. writing is scary. writing is an investigation of the world around you and therefore, by extension, yourself, and that kind of honesty is freaky. it’s like going skinny-dipping next to the president’s mansion. who’s going to see you? what if they take a photo? what if you lose your spot at university?

but don’t think about that. our world is overrun with stories the way cereal bowls are full of cereal, but it’s those stories that keep us all sane in the disgusting day-to-day muck of reality, so think about your story. what’s haunting you today? what message do you want to leave printed in font size 666 comic sans across the southern hemisphere of the planet? what will you be tomorrow?

a writer. you’re going to be a motherfucking writer.

[mr-entj]

Career 102: Getting a job you have no experience in

Combined with the following asks:

Hey Mr ENTJ. Do you have advice on how to move from academia into industry for someone who has only research experience? Only a CV and not a resume? Thank you!

How do you spin skills from one industry to be applicable to another? I'm a theater and English major (yes, I know) and it's been difficult finding work lately, because I am stuck living in a state where there are little jobs for that. I've worked on films, weddings, as a curator guide at a museum, and have my AA. I've had good interview after good interview, and have been outright told at three different places that I was a perfect fit. And then they went with someone else. Any advice?

Hi Mr. ENTJ I love your blog, is a great source of information for me so thanks for that! I have a question if you don’t mind. What kind of advice would you give to a graduate student who has not worked on their field during college and now is looking for a job? I’m a Business major but I’m currently working as a language teacher at a private institute (it started as a part-time job) My salary’s really good, however I’d like to start working in business but I have no experience on that :( thnks!

Hi there! I've read some of your advice to other askers and find what you say very perceptive and realistic. I'd like to ask your opinion. I have Bachelors and Masters degrees in the life sciences. I worked in academia for 2 years but my field lacked funding so I left. I have no commercial experience.I have problems getting a job because of this and most companies' resistance to hiring nonpractical grads. I want to go into consulting which is more flexible with degrees. What would you advise?

Hi mr entj! This may be a bit of a stupid question but what should I do if I can't find the job in a field(actually sub-field of a field) that I'm aiming for? I'm looking to be a concept artist but I can't seem to find any such jobs that don't require atleast a year of experience and since I'm a fresher I don't have that. In my country, there is also not a tradition of getting small student jobs so I don't have that experience either. Help me with some tips please.

Related answers:

Resume and Cover Letter Guide

Job Hunting 101

Top 3 job hunting mistakes college students make

Tips on transitioning from school to the workplace

Job interview tips

To break into a field that you have no experience in, translate the experiences in your current career into the “language” of your target career. The ultimate goal is this: make it as easy as possible for the hiring manager (and recruiter) to understand your background. People are lazy, they aren’t going to waste their time performing mental gymnastics to figure out how your obscure experience applies to their available job-- if they can’t figure it out-- your resume goes into the rejection pile. Make it easy for them.

To do that, see below.

Step 1: Collect multiple job descriptions of similar roles 

The goal is to source as many overlapping skills as possible for the same role so that you can update your resume to reflect them. To illustrate this, let’s say you’re currently a school teacher but your goal is to become a Communications Manager for a tech company. What kind of skills are tech companies looking for in Communications Managers? A simple search on LinkedIn for “communications manager” yields 42,000 results:

You don’t need to read all 42,000 job descriptions, but pick 4-5 that interest you from top companies (i.e. Lyft, Twitter, Facebook, Google) of similar nature. Top companies are leaders of the pack; their job descriptions are reliably the ones that other lower tier companies will copy.

Step 2: Identify key themes

All job descriptions that aren’t scams will have sections called “roles/responsibilities” and “minimum qualifications” with detailed bullet points describing what they’re looking for in the ideal candidate. As an example, I’ll use the Lyft “Internal Communications Manager” job description above and a “Communications Manager” job from Twitter to identify the key themes.

Lyft - Internal Communications Manager

Responsibilities

Work closely with and influence key company leadership to develop and disseminate their important messages to team members, including aligning the team on our strategy, goals, and priorities (Key theme: Communication)

Own strategy and results for keeping all relevant team members informed on important org news and updates in a timely and engaging manner.  (Key theme: Stakeholder management)

Provide strategic, direct hands-on support to key senior leaders  (Key theme: Project management)

Proactively identify new opportunities and develop new programs to continually up level our internal communications program  (Key theme: Analysis)

Successfully collaborate with cross-functional partners to execute on a comprehensive plan for seamless communications.  (Key theme: Collaboration)

Maintain the Lyft voice across all communications, written and verbal, and across company leadership (Key theme: Branding)

Keep Lyft fun!  (Key theme: Culture fit)

Twitter - Communications Manager

Roles And Responsibilities

Coordinate with various Twitter teams on product launches, announcements, issues and other news  (Key theme: Project management)

Craft communications materials with a high degree of consistency, conviction, and strong tone of voice (e.g. messaging docs, communications plans, blog posts, statements, Tweets)  (Key theme: Communication)

Drive proactive, creative storytelling around our products and the people who build them across a range of media, both traditional and non-traditional (press, podcasts, speaking engagements, video, etc.)  (Key theme: Communication)

Help the team establish and maintain relationships with reporters nationally and globally.  (Key theme: Stakeholder management)

Manage a high-volume of incoming queries from media covering product matters, and be able to consult and drive towards decision-making on press response during high-pressure scenarios  (Key theme: Project management)

Serve as a company spokesperson in the U.S. and in other markets.  (Key theme: Branding)

Draft, manage through reviews, and upload blog posts and Tweets for announcements and updates  (Key theme: Communication)

Track press coverage for key announcements; identify and correct inaccuracies in stories  (Key theme: Analysis)

Support team to drive proactive stories in global, local and industry-focused publications  (Key theme: Project management)

You’ll notice that the same key themes will emerge for similar roles. Extract these key themes and copy and paste them into your resume. Move to step 3. 

Step 3: Translate your experience and achievements to map to these key themes

From the Lyft and Twitter Communications Manager job descriptions above, we have the following 7 key themes:

Communication: Writing, editing, speaking, etc.

Stakeholder management: How to be organized and manage large groups of people of different levels and backgrounds

Project management: How to be organized and adaptable to support senior leaders with whatever they need done

Analysis: How to be a critical thinker who can spot better ways to do things (AKA performance/process improvement)

Collaboration: How to achieve success with people from different backgrounds

Branding: How to write in the company’s voice or a voice not your own

Culture fit: You need to jive with the company’s organizational culture

As a school teacher, you may not have the exact experience required but you’ve definitely done work that maps to these key themes. Use the verbiage from the job descriptions to write new bullet points for your resume:

(Key theme: Communication): Crafted and distributed weekly internal communications to 500+ students on academic updates, key event announcements, and other news in collaboration with administrative staff

(Key theme: Communication): Managed a high volume of inquiries from parents and administrative staff on the academic performance of 30+ students, provided updates and resolved concerns resulting in strong performance ratings

(Key themes: Stakeholder management + project management): Collaborated closely with senior leadership and a team of parents, educators, and volunteers to fund, launch, and manage the school’s $400,000 music program resulting in new extracurricular opportunities for 40+ students

(Key theme: Analysis): Led strategic initiative to improve academic curriculum and identified new teaching methodologies for 20 ESL (English Second Language) students resulting in an 15% increase in annual graduation rates

It won’t be a perfect fit, you will still get a lot of rejections, but your profile and background are much easier to understand to someone hiring for a communication manager role than it was before. Use your new resume as a script for the job interview to explain your experience as it relates to the role they’re hiring for.

Key Takeaways

Brand yourself for the role you want, not the role you have. Your resume and LinkedIn should contain a description of the role you’re aiming for and what skills/experience you bring to the table. If you’re currently a school teacher who wants to become a Communications Manager, then brand yourself as a “Communications leader with expertise in education, project management, and collaboration with people of various backgrounds.” This also makes it easier for recruiters to find you online because if they’re hiring for a Communications Manager, they will not be searching for a school teacher, they’ll be searching for key words related to that specific role.

Apply everywhere. You’re going to get rejected, a lot, it’s part of the process and you’re an underdog so don’t take it personally. Job hunting is a numbers game, always cast a wide net.

Progress is better than perfection. If your goal is to become a Communications Manager for the United States White House but you’re currently a school teacher, then the odds are you won’t immediately get hired by the White House. The goal here is to first break into the industry and work your way up. Accept the role that you want in a company that may not be your first choice because progress is better than perfection. Once you accumulate achievements in this role, other more reputable companies will be willing to take a chance on you.

Networking is everything. This is why human connections are the most powerful-- resumes can score interviews, but relationships build careers because hiring is about trust. If people don’t know you and your experience doesn’t inspire a ton of confidence or trust, they won’t extend an offer and commit to a legally binding employment agreement. To build that trust, use university career offices, professional networking events, internet job sites, forums, and other venues to engage and meet people. Socialization leads to trust which leads to opportunities.

[meruz]

some asks - sorry some of these are kind of old. I only get around to answering stuff once in a blue moon.

I do not! Nothing against it but I just don’t personally enjoy the process so I don’t use it in my personal work. Too much transforming and filtering.. too little actual drawing. I have however used it for professional work and sometimes I will sketch things individually and collage them together to make it easier for me to work depending on the scale. But yeah, no photobashing normally.

Thank you! (post in reference) I didn’t use any perspective grids for that drawing but occasionally for bigger pieces that require a stronger adherence to perspective I’ll use the Perspective Tools extension by Sergey Kritsky which is ABSOULTELY worth the price here on gumroad if you’re a photoshop-user - makes grids very easy to set up. You can actually see some of the grids in my process work if you’re looking for it lol

I used to be such a square abt it like “bluh perspective is just a bunch of lines i dont need a tool to do it for me like a DUMB BABY. I can just draw the grids myself and itll be good enough!!! :\” dont be like that LOL, I started using perspective tools for work last year and ported it over to my personal work so damn fast its like one of the best artistic decisions ive made. If you can make less work for yourself, PLEASE make less work for yourself.

I don’t remember what post this is but I’m like 90% its these brushes because these are like all the brushes I use LOL

hi yes thank you i LOVE grookey.

Thank you! They’re the best family!! KAROL IS MY FAVE........

you’re SO welcome. I recently watched Last Evolution Kizuna and [spoiler] WILLIS WAS IN ONE (1) SHOT...  [/spoiler] so whoever was in my comments section telling me toei would never bring willis back, I think you owe me like $20

Yep! My Instagram, Twitter... I don’t have a patreon because I’m too lazy to set up tiers but I have a ko-fi if you want to drop a lil tip in my metaphorical buskers hat

You’re probably done by the game by now given how old this ask is but I’m flattered my art got you to play!! And I’m glad you love Akechi though I’m curious to know if your feelings on him have changed since sending this LOL. His latter act character stuff is one of those things that can really turn an opinion one way or another.

Thank you! Though I want to preface this by saying I don’t take requests but you can always contact me for commissions at isellhotdogs@gmail.com.

I will probably draw naruto again because like every 4 years of my life I go through a naruto phase. I have drawn dangan ronpa before many many years ago and I gotta say the only time I will ever draw it again will be if I’m commissioned to lol...Nothing against it personally, it’s just not really my thing. Kiritetsu+Colossus.... I would but honestly I don’t even know what I’d draw, I feel like I covered it with that one drawing. But if you’ve got an idea... you can always commission me!!! And I’d be happy to.

Uhhhh they’re good! I like them! Yusuke’s character arc is maybe like my favorite or second favorite in the game and I love Ryuji first and foremost for max mittlemans voice acting and secondly because he is just so...so much better than P4 Yosuke who I truly could not stand.

I’m not big on Mishima but I think he’s an incredibly well written depiction of like. that dude in class who you didn’t really mean to talk to but ended up talking to and now its a little weird. I really like that event where you run into shinya while hanging out with mishima and shinyas like “whos this your friend” and ren is like “no, king, hes no one” LOL this is mostly because I just really like shinya. 

ships.... I like yusuke/ryuji a lot, just aesthetically and personality wise its an interesting dynamic. I like ryuji/ann bc theyre good friends. I like ann/yusuke if I close my eyes to all the early plot stuff and just pretend theyre like.....fujiko and goemon from lupin III LMAO. ryuji/makoto? kinda woke?? I mean I feel lesbian makoto deep in my bones but also their showtime opened my eyes a lil. I think they could bond over action movies. mishima/protag is kind of fun in like a sad pathetic way.. I’m a little interested in mishima/JOKER actually bc i like identity porn plotlines lol.

YEP GO AHEAD I’ve been getting a lot of messages like this lately so I want to lay it out here and I’ll probably copy paste it into a FAQ later lol.

8Tracks and Spotify Playlists: Go ahead! please credit me either meruz.tumblr.com twitter@automeru or ig@automeruz -  AND SEND ME THE PLAYLIST this is not a requirement really but I would love to listen to it.

Twitter/Tumblr Layouts/Headers: Good by me! but again PLEASE credit me somewhere VISIBLE on the layout. If it’s a twitter header/icon credit my twitter @automeru and if its tumblr credit my tumblr @meruz​

Phone BGs, Desktop Wallpapers: definitely ok!! Any personal and non-commercial use of this nature, I’m cool with. If you ask me, I may even send you a hi-res version of the file but you have to promise to not scam me and sell it lol...

Instagram Reposts: A lot of artists would say no but I’m gonna say go ahead as long as you credit and tag me in the post, again my ig is @automeruz - if you don’t, and I find it, I will bug you about it in the comments and possibly even report you. Nothing personal, its just standard procedure.

Twitter/Tumblr Re-posts: Don’t?? Just RT or RB it from me?? whats wrong with you? I will report this.

Other site re-posts: I’ll probably say yes but again please credit and for this one PLEASE ask me first. It’s nothing personal really, I just want to know where my work shows up.

Video edits/fancams/comic dubs: Yes! Absolutely go ahead! And please send me a link I especially love to see this stuff!!

I also reserve all rights have you take it down if I do not agree with the usage or context, especially association with politics on the webpage/app/etc. 

Thank you!!!!!!!! ;-; These are all so nice.. tucks them into a little pocket near my heart. I love drawing and I will keep trying my best to make art...! Hope you guys can look forward to it...!