#even the comics i'm just like shrug emoji

[thelittlestspider]

idk why people get defensive over other people not liking marvel. they're just some fuckin superhero movies.

[shepscapades]

*rotates dbhc!Xisuma and Doc in my head*

I'm sorry but I absolutely lose my mind over them ( I have literally no one who I could ramble about this to and I need to get it out). I want to analyse stuff, so let me just:

*breathes in*

It's visible that they are good friends and have been since the time when Doc deviated, research partners doing... research? Or whatever researchers do *shrugs*.

But there's one thing to it, X created Doc and most of other androids. He understands what is deviation because Doc explained it to him but his friend is still an android after all. We also know that X always calls Doc "Docm" but in previous comic he calls him "Doc" and it is stated that it's the first time he ever called him that. In which moment he calls him that? In the moment when he realises that Doc is more human than android now, I may be delusional about this all but I just feel like: the moment when he sees Etho overpower Doc, shove him and break him and stuff, Xisuma sees that Doc isn't a fearless machine but a someone, a human, he got overpowered by Etho and suffered consequences, he felt fear like a human not a machine. Also he lost his arm because he was trying to stop Etho from hurting X as we see in the second part of the comic, which only adds to that. So, this is the moment where X fully realises that he means something to Doc, not as a creator, but as a friend, and that's why for the rest of the comic he constantly makes sure if his partner is alright by talking to him, glancing at him. You know stuff. He grew closer and closer to Doc as time passed and I think this was the climax - the moment he called Docm77 "Doc".

While Doc is doing the most stoic stuff ever and trying not to self destruct and stuff, he cares about X too, very much even, he's protective towards him and shows it by jumping into danger he could have avoided [ Etho attacked X because he's an admin and probably knows where's Grian - Etho wants to hunt down this pesky bird for killing Bdubs] just so his partner won't get hurt how sweet <3 RIP arm you will be remembered...

Anyways I feel like they should talk about stuff and maybe cuddle and maybe I don't know LIVE?? NOT DIE??

Yeah, I think that I don't even need to explain for how long they've been spinning in my head.

Also wanted to thank you so much for so many kind words on my fanart !! I'm glad I can make someone happy with my cheap, old drawing tablet and some self taught skills lol sorry for flooding your ask-box again so so sorry but those comics make me go AWOOGA holy shift, and also DOC AND X CONTENT !! They are so underrated that you almost can't find anything good relating to them as a duo! [personally I think they're great, just two dudes that do things together and care for eachother <3]

So, yep. Prepare yourself for things like that after every new part comes out I WILL make memes and I WILL analyse block men.... sorry not sorry :)

[how to get me into an AU- tutorial: Xisumavoid must be in it- the end]

WE ARE ROTATING THEM. WE ARE WATCHING THEM ROTATE!!!!! you freaking GET me

(THERE ARE SOME INTERESTING THOUGHTS HAPPENING HERE!!!! None of which I’ll confirm but Eye Emoji :3 I love love love these theories they make me so happy ehehehehehe)

(ALSO YOU’RE SO WELCOME!!! That art made my day fr LMAO I love and appreciate it so much!!! <3)

[l-ii-zz]

u are correct about the age thing. it depends which source(s) u use. I think the show bible calls him a kid (but iirc it also says Dib's exact age and last name should never be given and yet we have both in Enter the Florpus), but if u go by lost/unmade eps, iirc the Trial shows that irkens are smeets until they are 10 and then they are adults (and they aren't human so saying "but in human years!" is ridic imo. we don't say "but it human years that would be..." except for our domestic animals, and even then not every person does THAT). if u take Word of God, Jhonen has said Zim is an adult so many times idk why ppl think he's STILL just having a laugh. he's said it's bc he thinks it's funny that a grown ass man would count a Literal Child as his nemesis, and cites the Dennis the Menace comic series. but if u take ONLY what is on screen then it's a mystery and up to interpretation. it's just sort of *shrug emoji*.

The show bible (made by JV btw) calls him a kid, yeah. There's one section of an old magazine talking about the series and describing Zim as a kid too.

Honestly there are a bunch of things that have been told about the IZ universe that doesn't even make sense now. Like yeah, Dib's last name and age, another example would be about the Tallest and the cut thumbs and how this was entirely forgotten/discarded for their new design for the movie.

I also agree with you about the possibility that human and irken age concept could be different from one to the other. We're talking about aliens anyway. Alien society with alien customs and alien ideals and alien culture and alien environment etc etc etc. Who knows? maybe planet Irk rotates/revolves faster that Earth's and by that it would mean that an irken year is way shorter than an earthling year. Nothing in the series can confirm that, yeah, but you cannot either deny that it's a possibility. Hell, even irkens can have another extremely different perspective about maturity

Like, the show itself is so ambiguous about these themes that I don't even understand why people are so stubborn to gatekeep one single concept as the entire truth, even if the show is a whole pile of nonsense that doesn't even try to take itself seriously.

"But JV said this" yeah.... and? not everyone support the "Word of God" thingy. If the final product doesn't give you a clear answer then you are on your right to have different interpretations. Not to mention that the creator is not the only one developing the concepts of a show. There's a whole team behind the show, and behind the team there are different perspectives.

I'll give you one example with another fandom: Cuphead! when fans were speculating about the age of the cupbros (and this was looong before the dlc and animated show's announcement) they asked Studio MDHR (the creators) if the bros were kids or adults. They replied saying that they were "kidults" (adults with childish tastes). But then, another person asked the same question to the writer of Cuphead, and he answered that they were teens! So, in this case, is one answer more valid than the other? I don't think so, 'cause both parts worked for the final product. This is one of the reasons why I don't truly take "Word of God" seriously.

Also, and this is just my opinion btw, even if Zim is a straight up adult, he can still be interpreted as a kid. Because well... he dresses up as a kid, he goes to school, he interacts with other kids, his nemesis is another kid, he has robo parents, he's small like a kid, he behaves like a kid, he sounds like a kid... (WITH ALL THIS ONLY REFERRING TO IZ'S UNIVERSE, I'M NOT SAYING THIS ALSO APPEALS THE REAL WORLD)

"Yeah, but visualizing Zim as a kid triggers me" that's valid, but have you ever thought that other people can also feel triggered by visualizing Zim as adult? Because well.. some people can feel uncomfortable with the thought of a straight up adult fighting a kid and pretending to be one, even if it's just comedy.

Can't we all.. stop gatekeeping and let everyone interpret fiction however the heck we want without pointing each other and talking shit to each other? I know it's too much to ask, but wouldn't be nice to respect the fact that no one will think the same way you do? (NOT SPECICALLY TO YOU ANON, ALL QUESTIONS ARE RETORIC, LOL).

It's just so absurd to me, we're talking about fiction. Why are we fighting for the age of a character that doesn't even exist? We're going coconuts.

It's more fun to create headcanons and aus, I prefer doing that instead of fighting nonsense.

As you said, dear anon: *Shrug emoji*

[hedgiwithapen]

Answer the Questions and Tag 5 Fanfic Authors

Tagged by @mosylufanfic

1. How did you get into writing fanfiction?

Daydreamed a LOT. hated writing. Made up stories in my brain, mostly about Digimon. then, was Chronically Unsupervised for a summer and found Fanfiction.net and went oh heck, I could do that? I could just. write one down??? people would maybe like it?? and then I Did That. at this point I had, you see, decided I Liked Writing Now. (active choice, the way I recently decided that I Like Celery.)

2. How many fandoms have you written in?

Uhhhh ok so there's Digimon (technically) and Fablehaven (again, only technically.) Big Hero 6 and then Flash, Young Justice, Supergirl, Stargirl, Avatar, the Librarians, Leverage, Blue Beetle(movie) My Adventures with Superman, Superman and Lois, Legends of Tomorrow, pokemon (game--sapphire) and Agents of Shield. And like. my various RPGs. but a lot of those are like.... just a couple dammit hedgi day ficlets so... shrug?

3. How many years have you been writing fanfiction? the first one I ever posted on the internet was in I want to say 2007. but the first one I guess I ever like. actively came up with was a little booklet about an oddish and a jigglypuff escaping team rocket (they were the only pokemon I could draw) and that was back in like. '99. it had aproximately ten words in it so that's more of a fan comic than fanfiction.

4. Do you read or write more fanfiction?

I write more than I read, I think, but I read more than I finish, excuding the month of september. DHD is an outleir adn should not be counted.

5. What is one way you’ve improved as a writer?

I can do action and fight scenes now!!!! Also I think I'm better at dialog. I used to be real bad at both those things.

6. What’s the weirdest topic you researched for a writing project?

hmmmmmmmmm. I mean. I feel like the deep diving into victorian flower language maybe? or like. How Trial By Combat worked in the Age Of Knights? How many calories a kitten with superspeed would need, perhaps. oh wait you know what, it's absolutely more obscure catholic patron saints, which I hardly even used in the fics i was researching them for, but man. did y'all know that St. Jude is also called Thaddeus and that he and St. Bartholomew are co-patron saints of Armenia? there's some kind of Barth Allen and Thaddeus Thawne Joke in there.

7. What’s your favorite type of comment to receive on your work?

I really like the key smashy "how dare you." ones. also a big fan of the ones where people leave their favorite line and a string of emojis. I love anything that lets me guess how emotional a person got.

8. What’s the most fringe trope/topic you write about?

uhhhhh idk. metakitties?

9. What is the hardest type of story for you to write?

Long fics that drastically diverge from canon or are big AUs... I run out of roadmap and then worry no one's really going to care. also, just. ship fic in general. So I do not. or I do so rarely and in smaller sections.

10. What is the easiest type?

present tense introspective fics. those just flow.

11. Where do you do your writing? What platform? When?

I mostly use google docs, and I also do a lot of hand writing in a notebook. usually sitting at my little computer desk on my bed, or in the back hall at work, and typically in the afternoon-evening.

12. What is something you’ve been too nervous/intimidated to write, but would love to write one day?

ehhhhhhhh I'm not really like. intimidated by anything that I'm interested in doing? I'm just lazy. lol.

13. What made you choose your username?

Assigned Hedgehog by cubscouts when I was a counselor at a summer camp. It Stuck.

uhhh I tag @windona @pennflinn @wrencatte @thenarator and @parvumautomaton but no pressure but also anyone else who wants to do this.

[mdzs-is-rotting-my-brain]

Three emoji challenge

🕵️👨‍🔬🔬

@reileinaxiu

Wanted detective, forensic scientist and microscope.

Hope this fits with what you had in mind.

"I need your blood if you want to go further."

Lan Wangji standing beside his brother, stared at the child behind the comically large desk.

He was maybe six, wearing swim shorts, a tank top with a colorful dinosaur and swim floaties around each arm, a pair of swim goggles perched on his head.

His tiny hands were wrapped around the base of a microscope.

It wasn't a child's microscope. Or if it was, it was a high quality one Lan Wangji hadn't seen in the children's section of shops when he went shopping for his nephew.

"Excuse…us?" Xiongzhang asked, tipping his head slightly to the side, his eyes darting around to see if there were any adults around.

"I wanna see your platelets." The child extended a hand, his swim float threatened a cup of coffee near the edge of the desk.

"Ah, Yuan-er, Yuan-er." A young man swept in from the door behind the desk. In a motion borne of experience he moved the cup of coffee, and pulled his son into a one armed hug. "Were you asking for blood again?"

He was nearly as tall as Lan Wangji, though he was lean. With a lithe body clothed in a simple loose t-shirt and pants with biker boots that fit neither image of an interrupted beach day, or a caring father.

"Die, I need to see if platelets are as small as Mianmain says!"

"I have some blood you can experiment on Yuan-er but after the summer, okay? You need to spend time having fun. You two here for the Jin file?"

He was looking at them.

Or rather he was looking at Lan Wangji, eyes bright and dancing.

It was a universal fact that no one looked good under fluorescent lights. Yet, here this man was, glowing under them, looking like he had walked off the runway, or at least a photoshoot. Even dressed down as he was, there was a glow to him that no one else in his life possessed.

"We are. You're Wei-daifu?" Xiongzhang asked

He nodded, "I am. You must Zewu-jun and his brother, Hanguang-jun." Never before had he been upset with people addressing him by his title until right now. Wei-daifu extended his hand, his face smiling at both of them.

"Lan Zhan." Lan Wangji didn't blurt it out, it just felt like he did. Wei-daifu's eyes widened slightly, he could feel xiongzhang's eyes on him, "Courtesy is Wangji."

"Old fashioned. I like it." Wei-daifu smiled,his hand was warm against Lan Wangji's, his fingers curling around his palm.

His eyes flicked between Lan Wangji's face and their hands s few times, his smile growing as it became apparent that Lan Wangji wasn't going to let his hand go, he offered his other hand to Xiongzhang.

"Lan Huan, courtesy Xichen. I've heard a great deal about you from Wen-daifu. She said you're the best in your field."

Wei-daifu laughed, boisterous and loud, "Ah, I'm afraid she only had herself to blame. Come back. I've got the file and the body ready for you."

His wink made Lan Wangji drop his hand like he was scalded, images of Wei-daifu's body being 'ready' all too easily assailed his mind.

"Diedie! Blood." The child clamped onto his father's leg, staring at him with a wide-eyed and pouty lip expression. Lan Wangji would have a hard time saying no to a child with that face. Never mind the father-son duo well on their way to obliterating his self-control.

Wei-daifu tugged on his son's lower lip, "Aiyah, what have I said? You keep this out and the rabbits are gonna come and eat it."

Wei Yuan huffed, tiny brows scrunching into a crease, "Last time you said it was snakes."

Wei-daifu shrugged, pinching his son's cheeks, "Why risk it?"

"A-Die!"

"A-Yuan," a woman was standing in the office door holding two different dinosaurs, "Can you tell me which one these are again?"

Wei Yuan looked between his father and…mother? She didn't look like her child, of course neither did Wei-daifu, they both had darker skin, Wei Yuan's skin was lighter with lighter hair and eyes.

Of course, there was also adoption, but neither Wei-daifu nor the woman were wearing wedding rings.

"How about this." Xiongzhang said, "I'll wait here with Wei Yuan, and you go collect our missing file and body."

"You'll let me see blood?" Wei Yuan asked, batting his eyes.

Wei-daifu burst out laughing, long and loud, grappling his son from the floor. Rubbing his nose against Wei Yuan's as he huffed.

"Tell A-Ning to stop giving you bad ideas. Stay here, be good, and we'll go to the beach as soon as I'm done here, okay?"

Wei Yuan considered that for a long moment before he sighed, "Okay. Let me down now."

Wei-daifu kissed his forehead, "I won't be long. I promise."

Wei Yuan toddled off to stand beside the woman.

Shaking his head, Wei-daifu led them down a hallway with faded green paint, a massive cork board advertising local babysitting services, lost pets, requests for plant control, car detailing, bake sales, car washes. There were probably more, but they were buried under the current papers and colorful thumbtacks in the shapes of insects and dinosaurs.

Around the corner, they stopped dead at a large grey steel door that was hermetically sealed to preserve the bodies within.

Wei-daifu did something with the security system out of sight, the light on the wall turned from red to green with the sound of heavy bolts retracting.

"That's a lot of security." Xiongzhang said.

Lan Wangji restrained himself, he did not glare at his brother. But he wanted too.

Could he be any more obvious?

Wei-daifu shrugged, "I couldn't tell you a single thing about it either. My specialties are bodies." dark eyes raked over Lan Wangji as he spoke. He laughed, shrugged again, "'My speciality is bodies', title of my sex tape. Come on, I've got the poor Jin pulled for you."

The interior was as cold as every morgue Lan Wangji had been in. Frosted air pumped from the industrial fans set above the door and across from the small bays where the bodies were stored. The air had the familiar stretch of acrid chemicals, rubber and slightly sweet smell of a body beginning to rot.

Sitting in the center of the room under blazing examination lights, was a body covered in a green sheet.

Wei-daifu handed them green latex gloves, Xiongzhang took them, sliding them on as he crossed over to their missing body.

Wei-daifu held the second pair with a daring smile, "Not into latex?" His eyes danced, bold and bright. The same hunger in his eyes that was in Lan Wangji's stomach.

"Shame."

Lan Wangji forced his hands to stay at his sides.

No one had ever teased him like this before. Laughed so loud in front of him. Been so attractive with their child. He had prided himself on his stoic self control. With each wink, or smile or insinuation, it slipped more and more.

He enjoyed, more than was appropriate, watching Wei-daifu walk across the morgue.

He crossed the room as Wei-daifu was pulling back the sheet.

There was a sick, stick sound that reminding Lan Wangji of pulling gum off his shoe, stringy and wet.

Jin Zixun's chest was a mess of holes, large and small, all connected by a web of red and purple veins that spiderwebbed across his chest and down his sternum and beyond where the sheet still covered him.

There was the typical y-incision across his chest and down his stomach.

"What did you find?" Xiongzhang asked.

"Everything you would expect in a twenty-year old male. High alcohol, low food. Last thing he ate was fried octopus legs with a spice mix served around Lotus Pier. He'd been suffering with this-" he gestured to the holes, "-for a few years. But it's not what killed him. Though it was close."

Xiongzhang's eyes darted to Lan Wangji once, "I have never seen or heard of this before. Do you know what it's called?"

"What killed him?" Lan Wangji asked.

Wei-daifu blinked, he shivered as he stared at Lan Wangji for a long, unprofessional moment, "Uh, oh, right, yes. Yes I do know what it's called. It's a nasty piece of work called the Hundred-holes curse. It works like it sounds, burrowing holes into the cultivators body until it reaches their core causes severe qi-divation and death. As for what killed him, well that would be the monkshood in his bloodstream." He handed over the toxicology report. "Enough to kill ten cultivators, no matter their cultivation level."

Xiongzhang skimmed the report, his face twitched when he read the amount of poison in Jin Zixun's body.

"That's…quite an amount." Xiongzhang said, diplomatically.

Wei-daifu nodded, "I'm not the detective, you two are. But two methods of murder suggest either two different culprits, or one killer with different timelines." He pulled the sheet back over Jin Zixun's body when it was clear they were done with it. "Hundred-holes isn't easy to cast either. And there's usually a backlash against the caster. They won't just have a similar scarring pattern, it will be the exact same."

He worked as he talked, lowering the table, activating the array so Jin Zixun floated an inch about the table. He draped a body bag over the table, in zipped it, folding it open.

"I've got pictures, pattern markers, and hole measurements in the file for you." He lowered Jin Zixun into the body bag, zipping it halfway, pulled out his sheet and zipped it the rest of the way up, then patteed Jin Zixun's body on the head.

"Thank you for visiting." He told the body, charmingly. "Lan Zhan, if you want to come with me, I'll get you the autopsy report."

Lan Wangji didn't know he liked gorgeous fathers to use his birth name, but he always loved discovering new things about himself.

Ignoring his brother's gaze, he nodded, following Wei-daifu across the morgue.

He handed the rolling table over to xiongzhang who would get it secured in the back of their car, Wei-daifu led him over to a desk in the corner.

The area around the desk was surrounded by PVC strip curtains, there was a small heater under the desk, two cardigans in various stages of wear on the back of the chair, and a blanket in the open bottom drawer. This space smelled like the sky before a storm. Acrid and sharp, ion and ozone with a softer, woodsy scent like pine or oak.

Wei-daifu slipped on a pair of wool gloves as he sat at the desk. The desk was far cleaner than any other forensic scientists desk Lan Wangji had seen before, not orderly like Lan Wangji and many other cultivators kept there's, but not scattered in paperwork, autopsy reports, or photos of bodies scattered around like graffiti after a party.

Thick green folders were leaning against the computer monitor, envelopes were clipped together, and under the desk mat were several child drawings, some of them yellowing with age.

Wei-daifu pulled one report out of the pile, took a post it note from the cube of them, he wrote for a moment before he snapped the file shut, and presented it, along with his pen, for Lan Wangji to sign, both the Chain of Custody of on the file and the clipboard under it.

"I'll show you out the back way so you can avoid awkward questions from my vampire-child."

Lan Wangji wanted to protest, he wanted to stay. To spend more time with a father and his son that he seemed to love so easily and effortlessly. He wanted to ask them out to dinner, to get to know the pair of them.

But, xiongzhang was already curious. While Lan Xichen left him alone when he asked for it, he was also disreputable when it came to underhanded tactics to learn what had piqued Lan Wangji's interest.

Wei-daifu led him to another slate grey door hidden between the wall and the row of body refrigerators. The gravel lot beyond was bathed in warm summer sun, the heat a unwelcome feeling after so long in the cold.

"I'd say thank you, but that'd just be weird." Wei-daifu said, smiling, somehow shining brighter than the sun.

"Mn." Lan Wangji said, or hoped he hummed anyway.

He nodded at Wei-daifu and walked out before he did something like push him against the wall.

As soon as the door closed behind him, he opened the folder.

Sitting autopsy report about a man's death, was a pink post-it note, written on it: Wei Ying. Call me! followed by a number.

Lan Wangji tucked the note into his pants, after he logged the number into his phone.

[kyliafanfiction]

Hi there! this is tash from BtVSPolls. It's not often I run into someone who has a positive view of the potentials, and I was just wondering if you would mind expanding on that a little bit. No worries if not though!

I don't have a positive view of them, I just don't have a negative view. I'm aggressively neutral about them. As a whole, they could do some annoying stuff (and who on the show doesn't?), but they brought some interesting perspectives to the story, and they honestly weren't that bad as characters.

I mean, apart from Kennedy (who actually got something that resembles development and depth) and Chao-Ahn (who stands out for dying) and Rona (who stands out for being the only black girl), barely even remember the names of any of the others without prompting. Felicia Day played one and she seems to have done really well with that, and good for her, but...

Like, my view of them is mostly one giant shrug emoji. Even at their worst, such as it is, I wouldn't remotely feel strongly enough about them to want to gnaw my arm off.

Obviously the potentials were part and parcel of their effort to find a spin-off that would work, when their other ideas didn't land, but they also served for an interesting story, exploring how being a potential works, council-raised and otherwise, and of course, the whole 'every potential becomes a Slayer' thing wouldn't have worked without some of them being present on the show for a while, and I absolutely think the mass-slayerification was essential. The other choices are that Buffy and Faith are going to die Slayers, or they never, ever, ever get to retire, even when they're old, or if they end up having kids (granted, I don't see Faith deliberately having kids, though I do think Buffy is generally interested in the idea, though I don't think it's a requirement for her or anything).

That or we have a series of slayers almost dying over and over again to make more Slayers and that feels like tempting fate in it's own way.

But like, the mess the comics made of it aside, more Slayers is good, and that couldn't have happened in the show without there being more potentials in the first place.

So yeah... shrug. They're okay. I feel pretty neutral on them.

[taytei]

i so rarely share my opinion on fandom discourse, but this was starting to seriously get on my nerves when i just want to enjoy some old-timey fighting drama and a brotherly bond

when a character tells you what their gender is, that’s it. no discussion. and finding out they were afab or amab is not “proof” against it.

[ryttu3k]

for that character ask, is it too late to suggest Beckett? :3c

Not at all! :D

Favorite thing about them

He's a feral wolf man with claws and glowing red eyes because he frenzied a few too many times who turns into a big wolf and can severely mess up your day. Also he's a giant nerd. Also he's the Designated Ho of the series. Absolutely impeccable combination.

Least favorite thing about them

Boundaries, man!!

Favorite line

The comic timing... Also very fond of a lot of his Bloodlines dialogue, including "Life's a splendid thing to indulge in... pity we're dead", and this exchange, which is what made me go, "This one. This one is my favourite" (until Sascha stole the show, of course!).

And for sincere!Beckett, the entirety of Jyhad Breaker 😭

BrOTP

If I'm not shipping them romantically, then Anatole and Lucita. Like it doesn't matter what form their relationship takes, they love each other!

OTP

As above XD And also Sascha, obviously. Like obviously that line is absolutely iconic, but this was the paragraph that OHKOed me:

NOTP

You know, I'm not sure I have one? Man's just seducing the entirety of the World of Darkness and that's very valid of him. Maybe the fledgling (or at least mine, Sierra, since her reaction was much more along the lines of "oh my god adopt me"), but even that can be done fine.

Random headcanon

Constantly being tempted by the concept of eReaders. Like he pretends to be all, "Absolutely not, they can't compare to real books with real paper!" but. You can put multiple books on it. If he can figure out how to make one work, he might be tempted to have a sneaky secret one and never let anyone know, ever.

Unpopular opinion

Legitimately don't find him attractive. Shrug emoji.

Song I associate with them

Goddammit the first one that popped into my head was Hungry Like The Wolf. No, I'm going to go with... The Riddle (Gigi D'Agostino version). It's got this kind of adventurous, let's go exploring vibe, it has very unusual lyrics that make all sorts of allusions, no one can agree on what the correct interpretation is (the whole... Caine-is-allegorical thing, haha). Also, what is Beckett's raison d'etre if not solving riddles?

Favorite picture of them

I dig this one! IIRC it's from Lore of the Clans? One of the V20 books, anyway.

[sarking]

👀💞✅

From the Fanfic Writer Emoji Asks -- thanks for asking!

💞 Who’s your comfort character?

Mumble, grumble, fine, I guess I will say Elliot Stabler. (Previously, the closest would’ve been Michael Sheen’s character on Prodigal Son. Yes. The serial killer. But he wore a sweater sometimes.) He’s good for comfort because he can give you whatever your Id wants in a given moment: violence, kindness, barely suppressed manpain, mild comic relief, whatever. 

👀 Tell me about an up and coming wip please!

I’m not on speaking terms with either the roommate fic or Rocks and Water at the moment, and I’m on the brink of a falling out with my newest darling, so let’s go with this pre-series fic that’s been living in a metaphorical drawer:

"I broke up with the guy I was seeing." She grabs the straw of her takeout soda, moves it up and down in the lid and lets it fill the sedan with its hollow squeak and rattling ice. It's the good, syrupy Coke from the diner; she wants every last bit. "He said I was flinching every time he touched me. That I never wanted to have sex anymore."

Elliot's hamburger wrapper rustles. "Yeah," he says. "That happens." He looks for a napkin, but wipes his hands on his pants. "I'm sorry."

Olivia shrugs. "It wasn't serious." Her straw slips between the melted cubes and hits the bottom of the cup. She slides it between her lips. "It bugs me that he's right."

I don’t know what this fic is. I do know where it comes from: my inarticulable rage and disappoint about how season one almost had interesting things to say about the SVU detectives’ sex lives (and my inarticulable rage and disappointment that they mostly gave up after that). It’s just like, hey, remember how one episode Elliot is talking to Brian about how there’s a clinical phase where you only see a woman as parts and it affects your sex life, and don’t ask what the next phase is, and then three episode later he’s sleeping with Olivia? 

Anyway, I’ve put this thing aside while I try to figure out what it’s about and not what made me write it. I’m sure it’s a series of loosely connected scenes, but not really what the rest of the scenes are. It feels like having a thousand-piece puzzle, picking out a middle piece to start, and then needing to find the specific pieces that slot into it. Utterly dreadful. I do not recommend writing!

✅ What’s something that appears in your fics over and over and over again, even if you don’t mean to?

Characters not having conversations, or only half having them, or one forcing a conversation while the other tries to avoid it. Like, the next part of the excerpt above is Elliot trying to foist that conversation off on Jeffries. If it’s not banter, my characters would almost always rather light themselves on fire than talk. If they’re going to say something, it’s going to take a battle to get them there. 

Based on that, I should be way more into writing modern SVU fic than I am -- I only have four! -- because there are so many terrible conversations they can have very badly and uncomfortably! But they’re just doing such a great job of it in canon, y’know? 

[dvarapala]

🔥🔥🔥

flame emoji // @dearestdeaths

🔥 i will never, ever, ever, ever get over the bollywood episode of legends of tomorrow. i respect that there are people who loved it. however, i am not one of those people and thought it was atrocious. for a show that touts itself to be progressive and diverse, it's still making a lot of missteps and it still hasn't righted that particular wrong in my eyes. because instead of taking inspiration from the actual story, they had a “magical fugitive” called sunjay take the mantle of a deity and use the ashes of said deity to induce lust outbreaks. which shouldn’t have been possible because after kamadeva got incinerated by shiva he got resurrected in a bodyless form (hence the nicknames ananga and athanu, which literally means “without a body” or “incorporeal”) and his essence got spread across the cosmos so even though the wikia says he took the ashes, that’s not at all possible! oh my gosh, why can’t these writers fucking google shit? it’s so blatantly obvious that they don’t respect indian culture. or any type of culture that isn’t their own because, yes, i also have issues with ray palmer going to japan and becoming a samurai. and i also hate the storylines that were given to jax and kendra.

🔥 i am both glad and sad that jinx - one of dcs few indian characters (dolphin, jaina hudson, kiran singh, arani desai, roshanna chatterji, aruna shende, chandi gupta, rakshashi) - wasn't used in the arrowverse in general and in sg in season 4 when they had a (nameless?) indian girl playing a villain with diabetes who turned herself in because i'm sure the writers wouldn't have written that character with the grace and finesse and love she deserves to be written.

🔥 did you know that the original white canary was chinese? she's related to the twelve brothers in silk, and she was a villain to dinah lance and i think that she could have been so compelling but alas the white canary was literally white washed and her title was given away. i mean, i would watch a show where og white canary infiltrates the lance family on her dad's orders in order to take out dinah, only to find a true family with the lance's or something cheesy like that. don't know if that'd work given comics canon and everything but at this point i'm just like (shrug emoji) because i think og white canary is cool and she deserves better than to have her name / title stolen.

🔥 i know you only sent three flames but i also need to rant about my boy wade rivers real quick. like, first off: his name is a pun worthy of warren peace from sky high (2005)! wade rivers. wading into rivers. wading through rivers. second of all: i hate the way he’s written in legacies canon and i wish someone would pick him up and give him the love he deserves. but until he is, it’s canon to me that he and udyati are besties and they hang out and research the faerie courts and aliens and watch critical role together while munching on honey sweet (wade) and salty (udyati) snacks.

🔥 more people should either make verses for or just write characters from the masterpiece that is sky high (2005) in my humble opinion and i’m not just saying that because i wrote magenta lewis-queen for the longest time, had a short lived sky high multi muse, and now have freeze girl on a blog out there somewhere! ;)

🔥 i’m still angry about the fact that the creators of avatar: the last airbender took so many concepts and ideas from indian culture and they gave us three indian characters, two of whom were villains, leaving the third one to be a mockery of a guru. also, if i remember correctly, none of them were voiced by indian voice actors. i am hoping beyond hope that the tv show does things better. because we deserve better.

[thefloatingstone]

never thought I'd see you getting into undertale AUs with a bunch of different sanses and papyruses. in the past you've been all about canon! what drew you to the AUs you've been reblogging lately? (tone clarification: this isn't a criticism or intended negatively, I'm honestly curious about the change of heart.)

I’m still not really into AUs at all to be honest. I like my canon, and I feel the AUs are not able to reach the emotional connection I feel towards the canon characters. I cannot hold the same affection for them as I do canon, and I do not go out of my way to search for specific AUs. I don’t have “a favourite” AU for instance. Because none of the interest me on a concept level, if that makes sense. I don’t have much interest in ‘what if Sans and Papyrus were swapped’ or ‘what if the rules for the universe worked a little different’ or ‘what if things were more violent and darker’. None of those questions interest me and I have no desire to alter the canon as it stands. Nor do I feel those alterations that exist and were created by others can eclipse my love for canon and what I feel is the foundation.

Part of this is because I am not a person who has ever dabbled in other fandoms beyond its canon. For instance: not counting the one character I had for Ratchet and Clank when I was 14, I have never been somebody who makes OCs for myself. I made a few kinda sorta for Invader Zim… But usually in a single drawing and then I got bored and drew something else. I outgrew OCs extremely quickly and since age 18 have never felt the need to create any aside as background characters designed to fulfill a function in a fanfic to aid the canon characters I focus on. I just don’t have an interest in creating that much that isn’t canon.

Even when I was hardcore into TMNT, I only liked the 2003 cartoon. And when the 2012 cartoon came out, I could not get into it, simply because its canon was different from the 2003 show that I loved.

So I just am not a person who is predisposed to drastic changes to canon.

This remains true, and is a core part of my personality so I don’t see that changing in that regards.

I have been reblogging some more AU things lately but this is a credit completely and entirely to the artists and writers I reblog from and their handling of the characters. Even with fanart, it’s more about how the artists writes the character than it is the drawing of the character on its own. (Although I will reblog just plain good art if I like it because I feel refusing to do so is just being petty and stubborn.)

I got hooked on @jolie-in-the-underground’s AU character Q because she reblogged a lot of my comic and art and her tags always mean a lot to me, ao I followed her back as I consider her a friend, and she has this Q character who answers asks. I have a soft spot for chaotic neutral characters (hell I wrote an entire fanfic once literally titled 'chaotic neutral’) so I enjoyed his responses to things. Someone mentioned in the fanfic he was from the latest chapter had some angst and feels. Now of course I’m a sucker for angst and feels so I read it so as not to be out of the loop.

After much prompting and poking from Jolie, I read the previous chapters to so I could get context for events and simply because I like her writing. But her fanfic is a story that is a spin-off for ANOTHER fanfic. And it got to a point where I felt I wanted more context for a new chapter.

So I read some of @tyranttortoise’s fanfic which started the whole thing and was so enamored with her writing and handling if characters that I ended up reading her story from the beginning.

Ty’s fanfic is a reverse harem type story with a reader insert as the main character and literally 5 or 6 different AU versions of the skelebros living in a lodge together. And since her writing and handling of character is so good, of course I ended up developing favourites based on her handling of them. I cannot help that I am drawn to well written characters.

So at the moment I am very much enjoying her story as well as Jolie’s. And as for Grim and @nighttimepixels, considering the 3 of them are all in cahoots with each other (Night is Jolie’s sister and they cross-blog a lot) I ended up following her as well since her art is good and I enjoyed a short angsty piece she wrote recently. Also Night makes games involving the characters and setting of the 2 fanfics.

… @forgivemeimmasin is just a damn good artist and nice person and I am inspired by her art, expressions, designs and how her characters answer asks. *shrug emoji* I feel I can improve my art by looking and studying what it is I enjoy about her’s.

As a result, I like reblogging things from them because I enjoy them as artists and I am someone who likes it when my own work gets reblogged much more than just getting likes. And I do jot like being a hypocrit. So I feel if I enjoy their writing and art I should be reblogging it to, and not let stubbornness stop me from supporting people whose work I enjoy and who I consider online buddies if not full out friends. They deserve support and notes too. Especially writers who often get overshadowed by artists which isn’t fair.

So long story short, the AU reblogs from me are a testament to the artists I reblog from, and not to the AU concept on its own.

I still don’t really like AUs, but my love for good characters written well overrides my dislike. And I find it silly to deny that I like a character out of some sense of pride or “I said this thing this one time so I am never allowed to change my mind about it”. Because in the end I only deny myself enjoyment that way.

I hope that answers your question?

Also I do apologise as I know most of my watchers are not into AUs and some like me lament the fact that the fanbase seems so preoccupied with them that they completely ignore canon. I don’t mean to alienate you or make you regret following me. But I don’t feel comfortable putting up a fake visage of what I like and enjoy for the sake of rep. I hope you don’t decide to leave me over it.

Canon is still my prime focus though, and honestly I do not see myself interested in AUs beyond these writers and artists at all. For instance I have no desire to write these characters myself. Although I might want to draw the versions from the fanfics I enjoy.

I’ll always be canon first though.

[audiovisualrecall]

I started writing stuff for my story , but like. Sort of like a shot list for a film, but more words. Somewhere between that and an outline. Definitely geared towards making a comic of the story rather than writing it in full, bc i... i seem to think in pictures and sounds I guess??? Which does make it hard for me to feel like my dialogue and descriptions sound right, rather than stilted.??

If im just describing all the details for myself to be able to draw it all later, and then throwing dialogue im there...I think itll go better. Bc I could write it but I always struggle with like, that stilted thing, it feels so...idek. like I want to get to the action but over or under express it. Like the dragonet tugs on the back of the character's pant leg and causes them to trip and fall, and they go Whoa! But like. When I read someone else write a scene like that im like yes! They were able to make me see/feel it! But when I read what I write im like, no! Surfer dude? They go WTF?!? I'm trying to express a visual in words and it's not working for me.

But the shotlist type way im doing it..seems to be working really well! And a comic.. I'll be able to Draw that scene! And show character's face! And like I cam do the little flashes of exposition much easier, like show character at age 5, age 10, age 14... and then current, and have it be a few panels or maybe even just one for each. Idk like..Im seeing it like clips of a film in my head, so might as well roll with it?? Idek.

But I wrote the first part of the story already like this, so..! Shrug emoji?? By the end of the chapter, Character has bonded their dragon and their mom is half seriously planning on getting a divorce now that character is out and free from her husband's sexist bullshittery and character and their dragon are sort of making friends, and getting to know each other too. It ends with like a zoom out of the hatching area and then a view of the Den where all riders and dragons live (or at least spend a lot of time if they live elsewhere. It's like dorms or a student union lol). Still have to figure out how I want certain things to look, too. And then next chapter... I gotta figure out that, too. Idk maybe I could just...leave the story there.... hmm. I did want to go into the enby thing and how they're not the only non-woman Rider and some of their society's issues... figuring out how I want to handle it all is the fun part too. Hah