#daydreamingandprocrastination

[thesweetnessofspring]

“Every fiber of *body* and soul thrilling to the sweetness of you” is a very Lusty Mind Montgomery passage isn’t it? 😏

It DEFINITELY is. Just in case there's any more of this ~platonically~ nonsense going on in Valancy's brain, Barney is saying "no you have to understand. I want you carnally."

[catty-words]

Your answer to my last ask has given me so much to think about! I love hearing you talk about narrative!! More thoughts on that to come but I’m still chewing.

This is isn’t particularly relevant to s4 but I’m just getting cranky all over again about Ben’s s3 scene with his dad. They legit just “🎶we’ll never have problems again!”’d it.

I let it slide because we had season 4 but now we’re done and it’s like…wait that’s…that was for serious? What in the actual hallmark fuck was that?

I know the scene meant a lot to people and I hope I’m not bumming anyone out but to me it read as wish fulfillment and trite?

I didn’t realize how pissed I was until now. 😂

happy to be pissed about this with you! i've been pissed the whole time!! in fact, i've been pissed since season two's "last night, i stood up to my parents for the first time in my life. now we're gonna have dinner together once a week."

and look, i think i'm probably a unique ben fan in this case because i never wanted his parental relationship to be resolved. i liked it as a bit of character building, a fact of his life, and i was interested to see how his understanding of his parents was going to morph and change over the seasons but i'd have been more than content to never see or hear from them directly again.

so yeah, the show sweeping all the neglect under a rug like 'it's actually fine now, his emotional needs are being met at home' *jazz hands* was worst case scenario. me @ the nhie writers: you ruined some perfectly good anxiety. look at it, it's got an unearned resolution.

[mollywog]

Time to bust out the “what about my poor nerves” gif again since Mrs Frederick literally said that today!

Just word for word Bennetting it up to the max.

You are so right! What am I doing!

Mrs. Fredrick Stirling telling the Stirling Clan that Vanacy’s gone off to keep house for Roaring Abel

Someone switch out Mr. Bennet -> Uncle Benjamin

[the-paris-of-people]

What is your ideal series arc for Aneesa?

Oooo I absolutely love this question. Okay so I would keep season 2 exactly as it is, then for s3 I would also keep the Fabneesa storyline (minus Fabiola dating Addison), plus add an Aneesa episode narrated by Megan Rapinoe (idk anything about her so if she has any controversies I'll retract this I just saw someone say this) about her strict Indian family, her home life, going to her ED support group perhaps, coming to terms with her queer identity on her own within the context of her life, and add in a healthy dose of her and Devi + the UN bonding. In s4, another POV episode (yes, we were robbed of Aneesa povs if it were up to me NHIE would have 12 episodes/season) of her and Fabiola re-sparking her romance through Aneesa helping Fabiola with the robotics club and her college decisions. Or I saw someone say in the sub Reddit it might be interesting to learn about Aneesa's perspective abstaining from Ramadan because of her ED. I read this article about it, and maybe it could be about Aneesa feeling disconnected with her faith during Ramadan and finding alternative ways of engaging with her faith, through prayers or almsgiving. I am neither highly educated on EDs nor on the Islamic faith, this is part is inspired by that subreddit post, and if I am extremely miseducated on if this would be great representation feel free to correct me!

[basiltonpitch]

You are brilliant and I’m very excited for your Devi/David post.

ahhh thank you so much!!! i'm so excited to start working on it! i had soooo many thoughts of ben's use of devi vs. david this season (as always - it's pretty much the only thing going on in my mind at any given time lmao)

[warriorlid14]

I’ve been thinking about it and I kind of ship Gale Hawthorne with Delly Cartwright. I know you’ve spent much more time thinking about these characters than the week or so that I have though so I’m curious about your thoughts.

I saw a post that was talking about how Gale hasn’t seen killing on an individual level the way Katniss did in the games so it’s sort of more abstract to him. I started thinking about it and realized that Katniss (for much of the series) hasn’t seen firsthand killing on a massive scale like Gale did with the bombing of 12. So in a way she’s also naive. She and Gale have such different damage that by the end of the series they can’t understand each other despite their early shared history, upbringing, and similar personalities.

So my thought is that Delly is to Peeta what Gale is to Katniss—someone who shares his temperament and upbringing and functions as a sibling/best friend. Just as Peeta was by Katniss’s side in the games, Delly shared Gale’s pain throughout the series. She watched her childhood friend get whisked away to die twice & she watched bombs fall on her district as she huddled in the woods.

Katniss and Peeta work well together—opposite temperaments with shared trauma. So I feel like Delly is someone who is perfectly suited to complement Gale as he heals. Thoughts?

Oooh interesting thought!

I love the differences between the killing Katniss saw v the killing Gale saw.

Katniss saw other people kill each other. And while yes, obviously she knows this is the Capitol’s fault, there is also some blame to give to the person who directly did the killing (and also have sympathy for them because she's in their shoes). She also gets to meet and sympathize capitolites.

Gale saw direct capitol weapons (and their supporters) kill his entire district. All the blame is on the capitol (and their supporters). It's why I subscribe to the whole Nut scene being 30% logic, 70% raw emotion ("We saw children die and couldn't do anything about it!")

I also ship Gale and Delly! I also ship Gale with like 378363 other people because he's a shippable dude.

Delly: yes, absolutely! I always kind of forget that she also had a friend in the Games. Delly/Gale to me work best post war. Gale is going through the motions and trying his best to fix a broken nation but is emotionally checked out. And Delly, despite the trauma of losing her family and home (and growing up in Panem) is still somehow optimistic, which is what draws Gale to her. She is his summer the way Peeta is Katniss' spring. (Also wrote a thing about them earlier)

Madge: Gotta say, this one has risen to my number 1 ship. I see them as revolutionary buddies. He's tactical and strategic and she's stealthy and has connections and can charm the rich. I headcanon that they become friends during the first book and are exchanging secret plans in the 2nd one.

Peeta: .... listen, LISTEN. They bond over being hung up on Katniss and fall in love. Just, it writes itself. Also I have this scene seared into my brain where they're training together and Gale has no idea Peeta can wrestle. And gets his ass handed to him. And is mentally like ".... is it wrong that I'm a little turned on?"

Thom: childhood best friends to lovers (Katniss didn't rlly have friends, but I headcanon that Gale had a friend group within his classmates)

Johanna and Cressida are also decent options and both have a "mark me down as scared and horny" vibe and I love that for him.

[lizziethereader]

Those are great questions! I need to get my students to think more like you, haha :D

Weekly Bookish Question #326 (February 26th - March 4th)

Do you feel like every book can and should teach something? Why (not)?

[lemonluvgirl]

WIP Titles Game

thanks for tagging me @absnow

Rules: reveal the titles of the documents in your wip folder and tag as many people as there are documents. Let others ask questions about the ones that interest them and post snippets or explain the contents as you see fit!

Holy heck I actually had to count my WIPs and wow! I've got so many!

The Designation Games

Paper Hearts

Best Laid Plans

Build Me Up From Bones

Small Talk

Hitting The Target

Christmas For 3

Senorita

Drabbles/Oneshots/Misc.

This Rebel Heart

Promise Me, Little Brother

Golden Cages

Do you think I might have too many irons in the fire??? LOL Anyways, I'm tagging 12 people hopefully I won't be the only one with a double digit WIP count!

[thesweetnessofspring]

Any Valarney headcanons you want to share?

Cute domestic ones:

Valancy gets inspired to start writing. She writes fairy tales with messages about being compassionate and following true love. Barney isn't a fan of fiction, but he curls up next to the fireplace to read what she's written and praise her for it. Valancy never bothers with publishing, she does it for her own pleasure. When they have kids, she turns them into bedtime stories for them.

Barney never wears a hat. Not even now that he's "cleaned up."

Valancy and Barney are actually about the same height. Valancy is tall for a woman, Barney's a little shorter than average for a man, as Dr. Redfern is described as short.

In the winter they tap for maple syrup and make it into candy on the snow and bottle it up for flapjacks (c'mon, they are Canadian!)

They're known for taking in all kittens and mama cats other people might otherwise drown. They find them homes once they're grown. Banjo doesn't care for it, but Good Luck is a sweet little daddy cat (though both are the fathers of several of those litters themselves whenever they go to stay with Cousin Georgiana).

Wherever they go in the world, they canoe along the rivers/lakes there. They even go whitewater rafting down the Colorado.

Their kids have an unconventional education. They use travel in the fall for the kids to learn about different cultures and languages, then come winter and spring in Montreal the kids have a tutor, and in the summer they enjoy time as a family in Mistawis.

Valancy loves making sure their daughters have pretty clothes. They have their play clothes for getting rough and muddy in, but she makes sure that they have pretty things, too, and lets them pick out their colors and styles.

They build onto the Blue Castle as the kids come along, and their island also gains a treehouse and a rope swing.

Barney and Valancy take short trips out to the city to see shows and go out to restaurants, but they never stay too long because they prefer being out in the country.

Lusty Mind Montgomery ones:

When they're first married, Barney starts off being very gentle with Valancy, but as time goes on and he realizes she can handle more and more activity he mostly forgets about it, especially since he loves to have sex with his wife (~platonically~).

But once they know she 's not dying and they're bursting with their newly realized love for one another, they're really able to go at it and they have all kinds of fun exploring a sex life without worries about any serious consequences befalling them. No one sees them a week after they reconcile because they're having a honeymoon all over again with lots and lots of sex.

Valancy knows that turning her head back to look at Barney gets him going and when she's feeling horny will go ahead of him on their walks and then turn back to look at him. If they aren't by their house he will take her up against the nearest tree.

They have sex in the Alhambra. Twice.

They get another bearskin rug for their Montreal house because it's their favorite place to have sex.

[catty-words]

Writing question!

I tried to write a fic and kept slipping into present tense. The source material was in past tense so I was arbitrarily determined to keep it in past but it nearly killed me. I realized all the books I grew up reading were in past tense but that more recent books have been in present (Red, White & Royal Blue for one). I also realized that many of my favorite fics (including yours) are written in present tense.

Currently mulling over lots of questions about this and would love to hear your thoughts if you want to share.

How does tense change the vibe of a story? Does it feel more visceral when you’re in the moment with the character?

Is it a genre thing? A historical author vs modern author thing?

Is it more prevalent in fan fiction? Why?

As we interact more and more with visual media (lots of people prefer video calls, more things seem to be shifting to video), does it make us shift to present? Like we’re living the story and relaying it as we watch it in our heads?

Has anyone ever written a novel in future tense? Will they? It would be so strange if that became the norm! (But I remember being very thrown by that present tense in the Bloody Jack series as a teen, maybe future tense will one day feel the most natural to me.)

Am I rereading this ask as I write it to see what tense comes most naturally to me? (Yes) Am I overthinking the fact that it’s present once again? (Yes again.)

Do most people tell stories to their friends in present or past tense when they’re just chatting casually? Why can’t I remember how anyone speaks anymore? I was just talking to someone five min ago! 😫

this is a strangely topical ask! earlier this week, i watched this jane mulcahy video (haven't read or watched 'red, white & royal blue', just a jane mulcahy enjoyer) where she notes that writing in present tense is a very fanfic thing to do. and i remember her reasoning being similar to yours - i.e. it feels more immediate if the action is happening with the character.

i think i'd even posit that present tense feels especially natural when it comes to fic written about television. most television is present-tense. unless the story is specifically playing with linear time, what you're watching is unfolding as you're watching it.

as an experiment, i just clicked into the harry potter ao3 feed, jumped to page 4,988 and clicked open the first fic (x). there seems to be some wonky tense stuff happening at first before it settles into past tense. The second one on the page (x) uses a lot of past perfect and then past.

anecdotally, this supports my point, as well as validates your instinct to write in the same tense as the source material.

personally, present tense has always felt the most natural to me. i like when words end in '-s' better than '-ed', it satisfies my brain for some unknowable and instinctual reason. so, i don't give tense much thought, i mostly let it happen to me.

that said, now that i am thinking about it, i'm inclined to say present tense gives a story a lot of momentum. it feels more actionable. past tense, on the other hand, lends a more weighty feel. the events of the story are settled and there's no changing them now.

[mollywog]

Thinking about Gilbert Blythe and how he shaped his teen years around “what would Anne approve of?” and now I’m thinking of 5yr old Peeta Mellark and how much Katniss must have shaped him without even knowing.

Thank you thank you thank you @daydreamingandprocrastination!!!

I squealed!!!

I can not stop thinking about it!!!

So, I love this passage:

If Gilbert had been asked to describe his ideal woman the description would have answered point for point to Anne, even to those seven tiny freckles whose obnoxious presence still continued to vex her soul. Gilbert was as yet little more than a boy; but a boy has his dreams as have others, and in Gilbert's future there was always a girl with big, limpid gray eyes, and a face as fine and delicate as a flower. He had made up his mind, also, that his future must be worthy of its goddess. Even in quiet Avonlea there were temptations to be met and faced. White Sands youth were a rather "fast" set, and Gilbert was popular wherever he went. But he meant to keep himself worthy of Anne's friendship and perhaps some distant day her love; and he watched over word and thought and deed as jealously as if her clear eyes were to pass in judgment on it. She held over him the unconscious influence that every girl, whose ideals are high and pure, wields over her friends; an influence which would endure as long as she was faithful to those ideals and which she would as certainly lose if she were ever false to them. In Gilbert's eyes Anne's greatest charm was the fact that she never stooped to the petty practices of so many of the Avonlea girls--the small jealousies, the little deceits and rivalries, the palpable bids for favor. Anne held herself apart from all this, not consciously or of design, but simply because anything of the sort was utterly foreign to her transparent, impulsive nature, crystal clear in its motives and aspirations.

I’m thinking how little would need to be changed to make this about Peeta and Katniss.

I would also like to point your attention to Gilbert/Peeta parallels by @petruchio - go read it and scream with me!!

The second half of this bit makes me laugh. It also applies to Katniss: She’s so busy assessing risk and surviving, she doesn’t have time for ‘the little deceits and rivalries, the palpable bids for favor’. She’s internally a little petty (which I love) but she doesn’t give any thought to being liked or popular: she just is…

Going further - it harkens back to Katniss’s ‘whole thing’:

“She has no idea. The effect she can have.”

While she’s beating herself up about her reasoning for why she saved Peeta, people everywhere where drawing the strength and courage to rebel. She’s out there, unknowingly, shaping all sorts of lives!

[the-paris-of-people]

Do you think the NHIE trailer is deliberately misleading us on things and if so, what?

Hmmmm the only thing I think they could be misleading us on is Eleanor saying "when did his torso get so clawable" is actually about Ben, not Ethan, because they're wearing the same outfits in episode 1 compared to when they are gawking at Ethan. I think "Things are decent" when Devi is talking to her therapist could be about not getting into Princeton while Fabiola does, rather than conundrums about her love life. Other than that, I was surprised at how straightforward the trailer seemed.

[catty-words]

Loving these song posts and I feel like I need to make a playlist to read the finale chapter. Do you have one set up that you’d feel comfortable sharing the Spotify link for or is it better for us to diy it? (which we definitely have the info to do based on your posts)

Also I got into Marianas Trench bc of you and I love it!

*slams fists* MARIANAS TRENCH way to make me and maitreyi proud!!!! which albums have you listened to? which is your fave? oh my god, i will not be normal about this for the foreseeable future!

to the rest of this ask, i don't actually use spotify or a streaming service. i am the old soul who's still paying for her music. but if you're looking to diy a playlist for the last chapter specifically, here are my big hitters, assembled from a couple different playlists i've made to write the fic:

pretty venom (interlude) - all time low

comeback (feat. bleachers) - carly rae jepsen

church - fall out boy

delirious (feat. fefe dobson) - josh ramsay

12 fractures (feat. chloe moriondo) - pierce the veil

and, for you specifically, i'll mention that 'truth or dare' and 'skin & bones' are the marianas trench songs that live on my more general bitty spark playlist.

[catty-words]

Just wanted to say thank you for explaining Tumblr culture/etiquette to me when I joined last year. You seemed nice so I popped into your ask box randomly like “what’s the difference between rambling in the tags, commenting, and adding to a reblog?” and you were so helpful! Thanks for making me feel welcome here!

aww, it was my pleasure! you have the tumblr spirit, it was my duty to nurture it.

in all seriousness, it's an honor sharing fandom interests with you. you're so thoughtful and enthusiastic and i like liking things with you! 💚

[catty-words]

Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: Never Have I Ever (TV) Rating: Explicit Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Ben Gross/Devi Vishwakumar Characters: Ben Gross, Devi Vishwakumar Additional Tags: Episode: s04e01 ...Lost My Virginity, Crack, Time Loop Summary: “That’s it! I’m looping.”

“Is that slang for drugs?” Devi asks. “Because if it is, you have to give me some of whatever you’re on before we do this.”

“No, not drugs,” Ben says, grabbing her by both shoulders in a silent plea for her to focus. “Time. I’m repeating our first time.”

[catty-words]

I have a note in my phone that was supposed to turn into a longer Tumblr post but for the LIFE of me I cannot remember what my point even was or why I thought it was a good idea. It just says “Ben & Devi both date Des???” 😂

totally unhinged, love it. i’m imagining ben - in retaliation for devi cheating on him - inserting himself into her monogamous relationship