#found this online with some other characters

[bardic-tales]

2024 has been a stressful year for me in terms of writing and my life. It is when I decided to shelve a project that I worked more than a decade on and faced the fact that maybe my data loss of over 2 decades of writing in 2021 deleted some things that I just can't get back.

It's also been a year of rebirth for me. When I shifted my focus towards Fantasy Worlds Collide (FWC), I felt such a renewed passion for writing that I knew that this is what I needed: a change of pace and genre. It did help that my doctor told me a few years ago that I needed to leave publishing my work professionally, as I cannot have any stress in my life. So, I shifted focus from completely original work to this amalgamation of original and fan fiction that you find in FWC.

divider by @strangergraphics

Accomplishments

This year marked a significant shift in my creative focus, as I honed in on the developing Fantasy Worlds Online, delving into Bianca Moore's expansive journey. I embraced the complicated dynamics of her story -- where an eternal cosmic conflict and end of everything prophecy of angels and demons meets Final Fantasy VII. Bianca's tale evolved over time from her original idea of just being a Shinra Scientist in 1997 to the celestial being that she is presented as now. Key milestones include fleshing out pivotal moments, like her harrowing experiences with Sephiroth in the Shinra Manor to braving the fires of the Nibelheim Incident to try to bring him back to her but failing. It also included immense world building for the celestial realm.

Despite struggling with grief and a prolonged creative block that kept me away from seriously writing for over a year, I found my passion again mid-2024, allowing me to immerse myself in FWC once again. Though my other works still remain untouched, I am very proud of the depth and energy I've poured and still am pouring into this universe.

This year also brought an unexpected yet fulfilling new endeavor for me. In honor of a late friend, I started a Tumblr club (@creators-club) to celebrate creators across various mediums. The community's response has been very heartwarming, to say the least. As the holiday approaches, however, the club will take a brief hiatus from Dec 25 - Jan 25, allowing me the opportunity to focus on my family and recharge.

Creative Growth

I decided to embrace a more sensory-driven, character focused style of writing, so I tried to blend rich and vivid descriptions with very deep emotional undertones. I leaned heavily into contrasting imagery -- light versus dark, warmth versus cold, serenity versus chaos. This was supposed to mirror the duality of Bianca and the overarching themes of love, loss, and power.

I also explored new narrative perspectives and techniques, delving into intimate moments between characters. This approach allowed me to experiment with pacing, from slow, atmospheric build-ups to sharp, visceral contrasts, creating what I hope is a very dynamic storytelling.

Challenges and Lessons Learned

Writing Bianca's character was a challenging yet deeply rewarding experience that required me to straddle a delicate balance between crafting original content and integrating her and this original content into the established world of Final Fantasy VII. One of the biggest challenges was ensuring that her journey felt authentic and compelling, especially given that I given her a dual role in FWC as the Harbinger of the End, as well as a character that is tied to Sephiroth's arc.

Balancing her deeply traumatic backstory with her progression into a powerful, self-aware agent of chaos that even a villain like Sephiroth loved and respected required careful thought to avoid overshadowing him or herself.

These challenges helped me grow as a writer by allowing me to sharpen my ability to juggle multiple layers of narrative complexity while staying true to a character's core identity. Developing her arc deepened my understanding of how trauma and loss shapes individuals, including myself, in different ways. Her transition from seeking redemption to fully embracing her darker nature alongside Sephiroth required exploring very nuanced themes of identity, love, and self-destruction.

This evolution not only enriched her story but also expanded my ability to weave original storytelling into an existing world without losing sight of what makes each aspect compelling. It reinforced the importance of taking risks and viewing challenges as opportunities for growth and creativity. Bianca's journey became a reflection of my own as an author: one defined by perseverance, transformation, and the pursuit of something uniquely impactful.

Friends and Mutuals

I just want to take a minute to shout out some friends and mutuals that made my time on Tumblr this year just a little bit brighter. Whether it's through their writing, crafts, or OCs, I enjoyed seeing and reading your work. Even if we do not interact. If I missed you, I still enjoy reading your work.

@abalonetea @the-bar-sinister @rosesonkittens @aalinaaaaaa @whatwedointhecraft

@serenofroses @tolliver-j-mortaelwyver @flowerwiththemachinegun @sapphirothcrescent

@megandaisy9 @writingamongther0ses @watermeezer @cardierreh15

@nightingaleflow @seastarblue @themaradwrites

Thank you everyone for your hard work this year. You all are inspirations. I can't wait to see where 2025 takes each one of you.

Goals for 2025

For the upcoming year, my primary goal is to focus on character development, particularly with Bianca and Sephiroth's complex dynamic. I aim to focus on refining their relationship, exploring the emotional aspects that drive their actions and shape their bond. A key project will be writing and finishing Blood & Stardust, the first fan fiction that will feature the couple. It is set to be 50k words and only 14 chapters. It will start with her falling into Gaia and end with her being captured by Professor Hojo, introducing Diana Ravenscroft: one of the major antagonists of FWC. I hope to explore themes of loss, grief, and destruction, pushing the boundaries of Bianca's emotional and psychological arcs.

This year's experiences have offered invaluable insights into how trauma and complex emotional bonds influence a character's choice and their end goals. By examining Bianca's struggles with identity, loyalty, and devotion, I've gain a better understanding of how those elements impact characters' relationships.

Moving forward, I want to continue to refine my storytelling by including the above themes into my narrative. The growth I've experienced in understanding my character's motivations and vulnerabilities will help me in my future work by providing a foundation to craft more compelling, multi-dimensional characters. I also plan to develop skills in world-building to ensure the settings for FWC feels as engaging and rich as the characters' storylines.

Also, I want to add a note here that I have come to embrace my self-shipping with Sephiroth. I won't go into the personal reasons why I ship myself with Seph and only Seph, but I will say that I can relate to his journey in a very, very personal way. For the first time, I no longer feel like it's 'weird' or 'outside the norm' for self-shipping. I have some followers who do this, too, and my husband is supportive of it. I've learned that this is part of my creative journey, as a way to explore my emotions and provide me comfort.

[embersareout9]

Mav: I dare you to marry me.

Ice: No. I'm not falling for that idiot.

Mav: Then I win.

Ice: What? No you don’t. I’ll marry the hell out of you. You’re officially my husband now. You can’t beat me like that.

[silentoathprincess]

ooooh man i had such a great idea for an au where sei joins all the polyamorous dmmd bfs and it like goes through his relationship with each of them and all the similarities in their stories and i am FIGHTING myself not to write it right now

[cescalr]

Oooh, definitely glee for the fandom asks! <3

Always with the hornets' nests with these ones, I see! Though i don't think there's a fandom out there that isn't in some way a hornets' nest once it gets large enough... hm. Alright. I'm just gonna be as honest as i can be about this, and tag accordingly.

Glee:

my favourite female character: augh. argh. ouph. so difficult. so hard. Since I'm working off of half-remembered show and half recently-rewatched show... its a tossup. Mercedes, Santana, Quinn. Probably Mercedes. She did nothing wrong ever in her entire life <3 well okay maybe except that one time she smashed kurt's car windows (but it was a banger song, though). Can't say Santana because of the Biphobia TM and other things like excessive use of bigotry-based insults, and Quinn. Oh god girl. Cheating is not cool! Funnily enough! So I find them really interesting but 'favourite' is hard to say. Mercedes. Mercedes for sure <3

my favourite male character: Blaine sam blaine sam blaine sam yes. I am imitating ripping petals off of flowers and coming to a conclusion based on which is the last name i said. So I guess that means Sam! But really this is a tie.

my favourite book/season/etc: Mannnnn idk. I don't like shows for seasons as-a-whole. Also i could not tell you what happened in any given season if you held a gun to my head. I'm not good at that. The only shows i know 'seasons' of are Buffy and Teen Wolf because i've watched them like 100000000000 times (exaggeration) for various reasons (mostly fanfiction research).

my favourite episode (if its a tv show): I can tell you my LEAST favourite episode (blame it on the alcohol, thank you Kurt king of biphobia! this is a persona foible it's not the worst episode in the show. by far. by far. it's kind of an average one. I'm just angry at it.) BUT er. Favourite? Idk. Genuinely some of the earlier Kurt-centric stuff was really well done (his convo with Burt... <3) and the Quinn giving birth accompanied by bohemian rhapsody was obviously iconic, but if I'll be honest I couldn't name any episodes of this show (other than That One previously stated, anyway). And yeah most of the time they were named after song titles and No i don't remember those song titles either. I'm just so bad at this. My memory is that of a goldfish's being haphazardly bounced around on a sieve.

my favourite cast member: it would be really funny if I said Demi Lovato [she counts!] but the truth is N/A: i don't know these people !!! They are strangers!! (i don't. follow celebrities. at all. I couldn't even name most of them. They're just people doing a job and their lives are irrelevant to me beyond their ability to perform that job well. I do not need to know where they live and what coffee they drink. Stalker shit tbh. I'm kind of a very private person myself, so rpf-adjacent stuff just... creeps me out. I've never watched a single cast interview in my lifetime and I'm not about to start!)

my favourite ship: Difficult to say! Grave and obvious lie. Blam. It's blam. Quintana is a close runner up though Santana really needs to stop dating people who cheat on the regular (I'll accept Quinn has grown enough not to do this by the time a Quintana coupling would be viable - and satisfying in terms of character arcs - narratively speaking).

a character I’d die defending: Blaine Anderson did something wrong for sure but like Kurt did it first so shrugs. Cancels out. Bad for each other! Case closed!

a character I just can’t sympathize with: genuinely don't remember if I had one of those the first time around because I was like 10 and just didn't pay attention if I didn't care, but Terri and her racist self take that 'prize' this time, alongside the obvious predator in the room [original choir teacher. Sandy? I forget his name immediately after hearing it. He doesn't deserve to be remembered]. Also JBI is just.... a yikes character all around. I mean, he's a blatant stereotype for one, in a the people who wrote this person don't like jews kind of way. Unfortunately common stereotype too, for the era, so not only is he that, he's also lazy. Just a one-note pervert who's the butt of various antisemitic 'jokes' you've heard from era-peer shows a million times over, tired and awful and a sour reminder of bigotry that continues to this day. Really regrettable character who's lack of redeeming qualities was probably purposeful. (I know Rachel and tina are also jewish, but this comes up very rarely and mostly only when santana needs to say something kind of fucked up, as is her modus operandi, for 'comic relief'. Tina's jewish-ness wasn't even canon for several seasons, because she didn't have a surname or a family or anything resembling complex character depth for several seasons. The one time I really remember Rachel's religion being important was when she was pressuring Kurt into believing in some kind of god, which??? don't do that. Bad example. Trying to guilt trip a friend into faith sucks. I take back what i said earlier Mercedes did that too. Boo. Girls try again that was a bad showing all around. Though i have no idea why Kurt went the acupuncture route as his 'secular' option but i think that has to do a lot with the writers doing literally no research ever once in their lives (you can tell they don't by the way they write the football segments of the show, which make no sense according to football fans who watch Glee, of which there are numerous because real life isn't like fiction where you can only like music or sports. Most of the kids in my school year were doing the most of everything ever if they were the 'popular' ones - we do that differently; popularity isn't really based on who know know; for some bizzare reason literally everyone knew who I was? Even people I'd never spoken to?? - but more about like... how much you can do, I guess. Overachievers, but I'm not saying that negatively; these people were generally - generally - very nice, and surprisingly chill for people who had no spare time whatsoever. I'm not entirely sure when they slept; A* across the board, at least one sport, at least one instrument, several extracurriculars, parties every weekend, dozens of friends and an s.o. . Eh? Way too much going on. Scary lifestyle! Impressive burnout rate, probably. Er. Tangent! Back to the scheduled programming).) There's uhhhh there's a lot of bad characters on the show, but i'd say Sandy and Terri and her equally but more loudly racist sister are truly completely irredeemable ones. Like they're not interesting or anything, they're just there to be narrative annoyances (which, in the case of Sandy specifically, is insane. Arrest that man!!! He has actively sexually assaulted minors!!!).

a character I grew to love: difficult to say because I tend to just make an opinion and stick to it. Also i don't remember who i liked at first and who i didn't, this show came out when i was eight. I didn't watch it until I was a little older than that, of course, but I frankly have spotty memory until my late teens, so! I'm not sure!! Quinn, probably. Pink-hair-era Quinn helped me understand her more, and seeing the moments of kindness hidden behind practical cruelty, when you understand her family and situation, makes things make a lot more sense. It takes a lot to get me to sympathise with a cheater, but I can see where Quinn was getting all turned around in her head about life because of her upbringing and socialisation, not to mention the profoundly negative impact cheerios had on her mentally and that the school's culture in general was not exactly a breeding ground for empathy and optimism.

my anti otp: can you tell (klaine). I don't dislike Kurt!!! Please let him have a fun chillaxed boyfriend in new york with his vogue friends. But also please stop attempting to control other people's diets thank you!! Thank you!! I'm of mixed feelings. Blaine and Kurt both did at least one bad, relationship-ending thing, and proved over and over again that they just weren't on the same wavelength in regards to life goals and ways of living it. They can't even share the same living space, which is kind of required for a functional marriage. I don't know, it just seems like they settled for their first proper, serious boyfriend even if that's not really the best match, and I... wish they'd just got to see more of life first, you know? They got married at like 20! Or something! I'm 23, I cannot imagine getting married at 20. That's a baby. Let them live first!

(same for Santana and Brittney, imo. I also don't really like them together because Santana and Brittney have very different ideas regarding monogamy, which is just never going to go down well in the long run. If your girl cheats on you like twenty times and tells you to your face its not cheating in her view of things, but you think it is, break up with her because you'll just make each other miserable. Brittney sort of seems incapable of feeling guilt but if she were, this kind of moral pressure would be Not Good, and obviously Santana isn't comfortable with the idea and doesn't have to be!! Just move on!!! Find other people!!!! Don't marry your first girlfriend if you've broken up like ten times this is simple!!!! Please!!!! But Klaine wins out over Brittana because - in my opinion, glee fandom please do not persecute me, I am known for this specific thing - I see... interactions that verge on abusive between Klaine that I don't see in Brittana. So. Oof? Ex; use of public perception to disguise attack; deliberately hurting Blaine in a stage-combat fencing match (you are not meant to make actual contact in these) and thus using Blaine's own dislike of making his difficulties common knowledge against him in order to 'punish' him. This is no good! Don't do this!!.[Also just to err vaguepost about a comment.... that is. not. what i would call passive aggressive. Physically attacking someone with a sword - no matter the type of sword, fencing foils hurt just as much, they're just not stab-you sharp... er, these days - is just straight-up aggressive.]).

Note that negative things stick in the mind better than positive ones; on a rewatch I may well alter my opinion!

But also I'm really, really stubborn. So it's not likely. Klaine.

[libraryleopard]

Young adult contemporary coming-of-age story (releases 4/16, I read an early copy from Netgalley)

Follows two first-year students at Wellesley College who run dueling anonymous advice columns and befriend each other in real life as they bonded over both being aroace, unaware of the other's internet identity

Platonic love story

Explores themes like aroace identity, finding community, being the queer child of immigrants, and trying to find your place in the world as a young adult looking towards the future

Love letter to platonic/familial love and finding community

Aromantic asexual Chinese American protagonist; aromantic asexual gender-questioning/nonbinary (she/they) protagonist; lots of QPOC side characters

[doodlingwren]

It's 2024 can we please stop saying it's normal to trace or copying an entire drawing and pretending it's 100% your work? Just bc you changed the character or added clothes on a base you found on pinterest it doesn't mean you created original art

[insane-weasel]

I think as writers we should hold funerals for our WIPs more often.

Dearly beloved, gather us here today where this fic of some middle-aged man getting rawdogged and this other fanfic about the importance of friendship are laid to rest, because the author got really distracted playing that new video game.

We celebrate what could have been, cut-and-recycle those really good lines or ideas, because I swear I'm going to use them, I swear! And drag this poor document not to the great recycling bin or trash, but to the "graveyard" folder because sometimes I like to commune with the dead.

[blackcatanna]

Started playing Pathologic (Classic HD) last night because I find the near certainty of my failure relaxing (no expectations). Was shocked to find that I survived day one, despite wasting so much time on bullshit such as:

Trying to figure out how THE FUCK to take a weapon out and use it after equipping it (no it's not by pressing the sheathe button, no it's not by pressing the attack button, no it's not by using the inventory, but a secret fourth thing (press tab))

Murdering some guys who were chasing and attacking some woman (every time I killed one, I heard children crying, which I assume is the sound of my reputation suffering due to me murdering people)

Trying to recall which key opens which menu. No, there is not one master menu where I can see the different menus and get to them that way.

Trying for WAY TOO LONG to climb a ladder which is most likely unclimbable.

Deciding to play a platforming game inside Baby Vlad's secret lair for absolutely no reason except curiosity and then to look into the well (also for no reason).

CHASING DOWN and talking to EVERY FUCKING CHILD to see if they've got the LETHAL DRUGS they plan to consume as part of a "GAME" after being told confiscating them is the only way to protect them (according to some kid in a dog mask) only to discover that NONE OF THEM HAD ANY (even though some did before the quest started) and in fact the only way to complete the quest is to give a single sample (found in the house) to the quest giver. This annoyed me a bit, ngl.

Trying painted on doors and being fucking confused when certain characters didn't appear in the house I was told they'd be in, only to discover that I couldn't use the doors INSIDE the houses and instead had to LEAVE and go round looking for more doors OUTSIDE to access other rooms in the house and find other characters.

Trying to fill my empty bottles at a fountain only to start DRINKING THE WATER and watching helplessly as my exhaustion increases.

Climbing up stairways into literal nothingness simply to indulge my curiosity (and hear the sweet sweet sounds of children crying, as usual).

Most fences are marked on the map. Occasionally, they aren't and you will reach a dead end where you can SEE, even TOUCH the house you're looking for but have to search for a way around to reach the door (as your time trickles away and your exhaustion steadily rises).

Just standing there WAITING for Georgiy to let me examine the body in the evening, at the time he'd said I could (eleven o'clock). I even had a dialogue choice where I told him I'd get evidence from the body so I assumed I'd need to complete the examination with Rubin that night in order to complete the day's mission (and not die). Eventually, my exhaustion levels got super high and it was past 11 so I just went to bed and it was like, "GOOD JOB!" so I guess I was wrong. Apparently, if you get there at nine and speak to Rubin, that's all that's needed, I GUESS. Okay, this annoyed me a bit.

I also do a lot of very slow walking around looking at things (and trying to activate them) in games but, in spite of all this, I did manage to complete the first day and did not DIE so perhaps this game is more forgiving than I had thought (at least at first). I was fully convinced I was going to die when Katerina told me I had to solve the murder in the next few hours (each hour is FIVE MINUTES) or be DOOMED but it was fine. It gave me the fix I needed and I had a good time.

Will I go back and finish it? Maybe I will play a bit more but if it keeps giving me times and instructions and then completely disregarding them, I might get frustrated.

[mitzirockerextendeduniverse]

me, drafting modern versions of a herd of fantasy ocs in, like, 2015: i'll make this demon character a mentally ill human with magical powers i can't explain who lives on the street and is quirky and occasionally tormented who escaped from a government lab! me, then: oh no, would that be offensive to disabled people? i don't want them to be but it's the only thing i can think of that fits their character... me, now: oh my god they were a self insert

[theonpilled]

made a really weird dream in my post lunch nap

[shioaoi]

Rundown of the more interesting parts from the Necrits live stream with Christian Linke (Creative Director and Co-Creator of Arcane) :

There was a longer version of the Caitvi sex scene but they got bonked by the ratings people, and because it would have raised Leagues rating to mature, it got brought down to what we got.

The entire Caitvi sex scene was directed and animated by Fortiche with zero input by Riot. Christian says, "That was French people being French."

Riot making Arcane canon didn't change where they were taking characters or the story, it just made them more aware of how it would affect other Riot projects.

Christian refused to confirm exactly when the events of Arcane take place in the existing timeline.

The Arcane doesn't originate from Hextech. It is just one - in universe - interpretation of magic.

Christian doesn't view Viktor and Jayce's love as romantic, and that romance wasn't the intention when writing their relationship. However, by the way he talks, it doesn't seem he's against people shipping them romantically - just as a creative team, they were more interested in exploring a close, complex male friendship / brotherhood.

The 250-million dollar show budget number is not accurate as marketing is included in that fund. Fortiche's goal from the beginning was to bring the level of animation found in feature animated films to serialised content. While the show was very expensive for an animated series, it was way cheaper than an animated feature film because they try and work efficiently. As an example, Christian says how often in Hollywood, it's not uncommon for sometimes 40-50% of what is animated to end up on the cutting room floor while with Fortiche they try and keep it around 5%

Ekko's hair was changed from a mohawk to dreads because the artist who worked on him told them that black hair doesn't work like that (in reference to the mohwak), and here's how it would actually work.

Legends of Runterra affected Arcane in terms of giving the team inspiration for how the everyday street life is for people in the regions.

Caitlyn's LOR Tactical design (2021) and Warwicks VGU Voicelines (2017) were made to reflect what was going to happen in Arcane - production of Arcane just took a long amount of time.

They've said from the beginning that the only person who could ever defeat Viktor at the height of his power was Viktor himself. His story is about the glorious evolution, the pursuit of that, and what it actually means to remove these human elements until there is nothing left.

All projects Riot is working on - whether the MMO, Games, Written or Animated projects - are in talks with one another at all times.

Christian comments on how very few games have remain in service as long as League has, and because of its ever growing and evolving story, it's hard to bring everything together cohesively since everything was made at different times, in different era's, by a multitude of different people. So, while many things may be very cool creatively, it makes it impossible to successfully bring it all together more often than not. So for new projects, they are more focused on making something good and successful with the team and talent they have, even if it retcons or replaces content made in the past.

Christian pitched singing Heimerdinger.

Arcane's scripts for S2 were locked in before S1 was released, so they were not impacted by fandoms or online reactions. Christian thinks maybe some animation choices were influenced by things the animators saw online, but not the story.

When watching the premier of the final arcane episodes in LA - the entire 4000 seat theatre cheered when Maddie died.

The butterfly motif shared between Jayce and Viktor specifically was used to represent transformation.

Christian talked about how they don't think about really whether people will like something or not, but whether it's the right consequence for the story (this is in discussion to Caitlyn losing an eye). What makes a character likeable to an audience in his eyes is their decisions in the story; the choices that they make.

Continuing on from this, he comments on how the choices Caitlyn makes now are so different now compared to the beginning of the show. She is now willing to take risks and sacrifice parts of herself for people, for Piltover and for what is right.

When asked about Caitlyn's signature hat, Christian says that the team saw it as somthing that didn't really fit this version of Caitlyn they were writing and the person she becomes and that's why it was never incorporated into her designs.

Back in the beginning, when they were first working on Arcane, Christian would constantly going back to Jinx and Vi's original design artists & Riot August who was their champion designer to make sure they weren't messing anything up with these characters.

Christian goes on to tell an anecdote of when Paul 'Zeronis' Kwon was drawing the first concepts for Vi. This was back when Christian was in music. She didn't have a name at the time, but when Christian looked over Paul's shoulder at the art, he comments "she kinda looks like a Violet to me." They never spoke about it, but months later, when she became a serious character concept internally, she was gifted the name Vi. To this day, Christian doesn't know if his comment resulted in her name or if it was just a coincidence, but Violet became stuck in Christian's brain as Vi's true name. Riot August (who was in chat) then confirms that her name came from her tattoo, which came from one of her key design elements, being that she had the number 6 on her face. So, just a happy coincidence.

Talking about the tattoo. The tattoo was shrunken in size so, from a distance, it would look more like a beauty mark and the brain can more easily disregard it. One of the many things that they had to think about when translating the designs over as, is animation, you would be looking at a characters face a lot more than you do in league where the camera is situated top down.

As they were wrapping up the stream, Christian talks about how there always needs to be a bit of space between what content creators / content consumers do (pointing at Necrit) and what Riot does. He thinks it's good that there is space for criticism and a critical view of the things Riot does. In order to succeed, he believes they need to listen to their audience but also that they need to have their own vision, take risks, and be bold. It's a delicate balance in his eyes, and projects tend to fail when these two sides are too in cahoots.

He iterates that they are not trying to shove anything down anyone's throats. They are just trying to find what makes these characters cool, tell their stories, and be true to the regions they come from. With taking the characters from League to Arcane, it was important that they translate these stories and characters so they can hold up with the best storytelling in the world.

This circles back to the earlier point about retconning things and replacing past stories and content. He comments on how some characters are very outdated or too archetypal, but they still have an essence that people love about them.

Arcane was something Christian worked on for 9 years, and he was getting clearly emotional near the end. He also adds they're just getting started and he wants to make sure they do a good job with this IP and the characters we really love.

To those who are not happy with certain decisions, he's sorry they didn't hit what you personally wanted, but there is simply no way they can please everybody. While they are trying to make as many of the Riot / Arcane audience happy, they as the creators and artists need to follow their own compass, be the shepherds of this IP; that being creative is hard. They will keep doing that even if they sometimes have to ruffle some feathers.

He closes the stream by confirming that they are investing quite a bit in Noxas, Ionia, and Demacia for the next regions they explore.

[omgthatdress]

The Importance of Studying Queerness in Context.

When studying queer history, one always has to keep in mind two seemingly contradictory things: firstly, that queerness and queer people have always existed, but at the same time, that queerness and queer identities have not always existed the way they exist today.

Modern queer terms and identities did not exist to queer people in the past. They would not have thought of themselves as "gay" or "trans" or even "queer." While these modern terms may seem to fit certain historic individuals, these individuals would not have thought of themselves as such, and it would not be a part of their lived experience. To apply the modern identities of queerness to history is to erase the lives and experiences of queer people in history, and care must always be taken to understand queer history within the context of its time.

When looking at queer history online, there is a *lot* of misinformation and misidentification out there simply because people are eager to apply modern queerness to history, often in places where it doesn't belong.

A lot of old photos get misidentified as gay because they show two people of the same sex showing some level of physical affection towards each other. Okay, I'll admit that the open-mouth kissing photobooth pictures are probably actually gay, but an old picture of two men or two women holding hands or with their arms around each other, or even kissing on the cheek, were common shows of platonic affection.

I hate to break everyone's gay little hearts, but without explicit documentation saying so, assuming that these couples are all gay is putting modern queer identity in places where it simply didn't exist. The women in the final picture are sisters. The "not married" boys are bachelors interested in marrying women.

In the silent film Wings, the emotional climax of the film comes in the form of a kiss exchanged between the characters played by Jack Powell and David Armstrong. It often gets attributed as the first gay kiss in cinema history, even on the fucking YouTube clip I found:

Except it isn't gay. The two men spend the whole film fighting over who gets to be Clara Bow's boyfriend. When Richard Arlen's character is fatally wounded, his dear friend rushes to his side and kisses him goodbye, because in the 1920s, that was considered the ultimate show of friendship. The movie ends with Jack Powell falling in love with Clara Bow.

Similarly, a kiss shared between Lillian and Dorothy Gish in the 1921 movie Orphans of the Storm often gets attributed as being queer, but it wasn't.

They were sisters playing sisters. None of this was considered unusual.

Pooh-poohing on all of these images that so many people on the internet breathlessly and joyously laud as proud gay history isn't fun. It makes me feel like I'm fucking Ben Shapiro. But if misinformation is allowed to flourish, it allows people like Ben Shapiro to come in and make the argument that queerness is a modern invention and queer people didn't exist in the past.

Everyone loves to see queerness represented in history, but the fact is that none of the stuff in this post would have been seen as explicitly gay and thus shouldn't be called gay today. If we are to understand queer history in its fullness and richness, it is absolutely crucial that we get it right. We owe it to our queer ancestors to recognize, honor, and not embellish the actual lives they lived.

[dindjarindiaries]

Clueless

character: Din Djarin (The Mandalorian)

prompts: “Are you flirting with me?” “Have been for years, but thanks for noticing.”

main masterlist • prompt masterlist

You tapped around the usual controls you could reach from the chair behind Din's as the cockpit of the Razor Crest groaned to life around you. "How's the hyperdrive looking?"

Din kept moving his gloved hands along the main console as he answered. "It's online." He gave his helmet a quick tilt as he pushed one more button above his head. "For now."

Din exhaled a heavy breath and wrapped his hands around the joysticks, giving them a squeeze before he maneuvered the gunship off the ground. The breath you let out was one of relief; the two of you had certainly been trapped on worse planets before, but you were glad to see the sight of it fading below you.

"Glad you're confident in your work." You failed to hide your growing smile as you relaxed and let Din take care of the rest.

"This isn't a confidence problem." Din spared a look at you over his shoulder before he lifted his hands to grasp the hyperspace levers. "The Crest just manages to surprise me from time to time."

With that, Din pulled back, and the stars stretched out before you. They then burst into the familiar plethora of blue and white swirling lights, beginning yet another long journey through hyperspace.

Hopefully one that you wouldn't get forcefully pulled out of. Again.

But you were still stuck on what Din had said: This isn't a confidence problem. That drew a pleased hum from you, one that you didn't bother to keep hidden from him. It wasn't like he'd get it, anyway. Not if he hadn't the other countless times you'd done it.

"I like that."

Din, now leaning back in his chair, swiveled in his seat to face you. His helmet was tilted in genuine confusion. "Like what?"

You resisted the urge to roll your eyes as you instead gestured to him with your chin. "The confidence."

Din shrugged. "Comes from experience."

You smirked and kept your arms crossed over your chest. "I'd like to see what kind of experience."

Din didn't move, but his tone spelled out all the confusion you likely would have seen on his face if it wasn't covered by his helmet. "Was getting pulled out of hyperspace hours ago not enough experience for you?"

That time, you really did let yourself roll your eyes as you laughed and stood to your feet. Honestly, the tally of your advances versus Din's own cluelessness was getting difficult to keep track of. "Fair point."

You stepped over to Din and set a hand on his armored shoulder.

"It's been a long day. I'd say it's time for some beauty sleep, but you've already got the first part covered." You gave his pauldron a squeeze and turned around. "And no, rest isn't an option this time."

You could only get a few steps away, however, when you suddenly heard Din stand up behind you. "Wait."

You froze in place and looked at him over your shoulder, lifting your brow as you awaited him to retaliate with some kind of meaningless yet humorous joke.

Instead, you saw him nervously shifting his weight between his feet. Even his gloved hands were pulling tight into fists before he asked a question you never thought you'd hear.

"Are you flirting with me?"

As surprised as you were to hear the words, you didn't miss a beat with your response. "Have been for years, but thanks for noticing." You flashed him a wink and started walking forward again, letting your sudden adrenaline carry you. "See you in a few hours."

You had only just started to cross the cockpit's threshold when Din found his voice again. "What?"

You laughed to yourself but didn't stop your stride as you stepped over the ladder towards the storage space you had claimed as your own private bunk. The door slid open for you, but before it could close, something—or someone—stood in the way.

"Hold on."

Din sounded out of breath, and when you turned around, you saw him leaning against the metal material of the storage room's threshold. His body was still rigid, the same way it looked when he was preparing to leap into battle.

"You can't just... after you..." Din gestured absently behind himself, to the open cockpit.

You sighed and crossed your arms over your chest again as you fully faced him. "I know this incredibly obvious revelation is somehow news to you, but it's not to me, and I'd really like to get some sleep."

Din just shook his helmet in pure disbelief. His modulated voice was lower than usual when he spoke again. "All this time?"

You huffed and looked down at your boots. "What did you think I was doing?"

Din's tone with thick with embarrassment. "Being nice."

You laughed again. You couldn't help it. "Of course you did." You reached forward and tapped your knuckles against his helmet. "Your skull must be as thick as your beskar."

You stood back where you were before and watched Din carefully. His visor was focused on the floor, and his gloved fingertips were fluttering thoughtfully on the hand he had propped up by his head.

You closed your eyes and sighed. His cluelessness was even worse than you thought it was.

"Listen, Din, you clearly need some rest. Just... go to sleep and we can talk about this later. Okay?"

Din's helmet snapped back up to you at that. "No. I'm sorry, let me just..."

He leaned off the threshold but continued to stand in it, keeping the door open for himself. His gloved hand palmed his helmet as his chest rose and fell with a frustrated breath.

"Kriff."

You chuckled and shook your head at him. "Din, it's really not that big of a deal."

Din stared at you before his armored shoulders deflated. "It isn't?"

You let out a softer breath as your chest squeezed. "I didn't mean..." Now you were the one palming your face. "Not like that. I just meant that I'm not offended or anything."

Din tilted his helmet. "Offended by what?"

You shrugged, too overcome by your newfound embarrassment to look at him as your stare returned to your boots. "You not reciprocating."

Din let out a sigh so heavy that you had no choice but to look up at him again. He had changed his position so that his hands were set on his hips as he shook his helmet.

"That's the thing." His visor found your gaze before he nodded. "I've been trying to."

Now, it was really your turn to be shocked. You blinked at him a few times as your heart somersaulted in your chest. All this time, you thought your flirting was just a vain effort to get the attention of a man who would never be open to you or what you had to offer. You were starting to wonder if you had somehow managed to miss something.

You found your voice, but it was only a squeak. "What?"

Din gestured with a gloved hand behind you. "I'm not good with words, so I tried to do things. Like helping you set up this room. And cleaning your weapons." The next part was a mumble you nearly missed. "And making you that blanket."

You whipped around, spotting the blanket—your favorite, by the way—that had just shown up one day on your makeshift bunk. You huffed in disbelief and turned back around to face him. "That was you?"

"Who else?"

It was Din's turn to laugh, though it was only a raspy chuckle for him. He even turned your own question back on you.

"What did you think I was doing?"

And your answer was nothing different. "Being nice."

Din let out the biggest sigh you'd ever heard from him, and you couldn't even blame him.

Oh, the irony of it all. Maybe you were actually the clueless one.

"So..." You clasped your hands behind your back and rocked on your heels. " What now?"

Din shrugged. "Hell if I know." He gestured with his helmet behind him. "I think I just proved I'm not the most qualified in this area."

You spared another glance at the blanket. "Clearly, I'm not much better."

Din looked off to the side the way he always did when he was planning something. After a few heartbeats, he nodded to himself and looked at you again. "I might have an idea."

You lifted your brow. "Yeah?"

Din nodded again. "We should switch."

"Switch what?"

Din shifted his weight and used his finger to gesture between the two of you. "Techniques?" The suggestion came out as a question. "I'll try words, and you try actions."

You hummed in consideration before ultimately nodding. "Okay, yeah. I like that idea." You smirked at him. "You first."

Din, for once in his life, stammered. "What? I—Well, I can't just..."

"You can." You took a step closer to him. "You have something to say to me. I know you do."

It was then that something overcame Din, and you could see it in the way his posture relaxed into something much more familiar and comfortable. His visor gave you a steady once-over as he took a smaller step closer to you.

"I have a lot of things I want to say to you."

You let yourself embrace the flustered feeling even as you let out an impressed whistle. "That was good, Djarin! You're learning." You gave his armored shoulder a pat.

Din gave his helmet a soft tilt. "Your turn."

You grinned, letting your hand fall from his shoulder to instead grasp his arm. You other hand rose to meet it, and gently, you pulled him further into the room, causing the door to slide shut behind him. Din looked back at it in surprise, but when he looked at you again, he didn't seem displeased.

"I'm offering you my bunk." You gestured back towards it. "Because I want you here, but also because I don't want you sleeping on that sorry excuse for a bed down in the hold anymore."

Din chuckled at that, the sound thick with both amusement and admiration as he nodded. "Fair enough."

You helped him get settled into the bunk with you, draping the blanket he had apparently made over both of you as the final touch. Your face was the closest it had ever been to his visor as you laid beside him. Surprisingly, he was the one to break the brief silence.

"This is a good start."

You smiled, humming once more before getting close enough to rest your face against his cowl. "I agree."

The gloved hand you felt on your back was enough evidence of the fact that he was just as comfortable, now, and not as clueless as you had thought him to be.

[davlucies]

fic: you always listen carefully to awkward rhymes (18+)

summary: “Sounds good,” she says, a cute little smile crossing her face. She sets down her bag and basket of berries, and Davenport can’t help but stare at her. Not for the first time, he wishes he could draw her too, if only to capture that smile and the elegant way her fingers run along the handle of the basket before pulling away.

[ilylovelyz]

⍣ ೋ i'm sprung

˚ · . bokuto koutaro x afab!reader

: ̗̀➛ virginity loss, both characters are 18 but in highschool, protected sex, marking, handjob, fingering

ah, fuck-, is all bokuto can think or say.

his mind is swirling with such emotions at the moment, hazy and unclear. he thinks back as to how he had won a big game earlier, and was so happy to see you so proud of him.

the two of you planned to go to your house afterwards, get some pizza to celebrate and watch the clips of his earlier game.

you gave him a sweet "victory" kiss on his cheek, making the boy blush happily. you gave him another victory kiss, although this time on his nose top. and then another, but this time on the corner of his lips.

"just give me my victory kiss already.." bokuto whined. you laughed at his anticipation. his hand came to rest on your nape as he realized that he was going to have to do it himself.

you gasped into the kiss. it wasn't just a sweet little kiss. no, it was much more than that. although slow at first, it quickly turned into something much more. he kissed you with such want and fevour, his hands keeping you from pulling away.

tongue dancing with tongue, salivating down each other's chins. your hands gripped at his shoulder, trying to ground yourself from the dizzying kiss.

a sweet victory kiss turned into much more.

now, your hand is wrapped around his girth, fucking his cock with the soft skin of your palm. his hips buckle and tremble into it, gasps occasionally leaving his mouth when you teasingly poke and prod at his sensitive tip.

his own hand lays underneath your black panties, his fingers exploring your sex. you pull away from your heated kiss, a string of saliva keeping the two of you attached. you can't help but bite your lip when his middle finger slips into your virgin hole, the new sensation burning painfully up your spine.

"ah," you cry, your free hand gripping onto his wrist. "sorry baby," he murmurs, kissing the apple of your cheek. he watches you with low eyes, only closing when your hand tightens around his length.

his middle finger experiments with you, slowly stretching you out. it's only when the pain seems to subside when he adds another into your virgin hole. bokuto grins at the sight of your back arching, soft moans leaving your pouty lips.

he's quick to speed up inside you, his fingers working to find that sweet spot he heard of when scrolling various forms online.

he knows he found it when your head lolls back, cute face scrunching up into a silent moan. "f-feel good baby?" he teases. although you can't really take him seriously when his voice cracks from the way he tries to resist cummimg all over your palm from just watching your face.

"feels good kou.." you cry. "good, t-thats fucking good." he grunts out. just a little more, he has to remind himself. he feels like his cock is about to explode from the way he's resisting the urge to cum. his lady always come first.

with the touch of his finger tip pressing against that sweet spot of yours so tightly it has a wave of pleasure coming over you, your pussy walls clamping tightly around his fingers. bokuto's head dips down with relief when he finally cums over your delicate hand, grunting loudly with pleasure.

"fuck.." he breathes out, looking closely at the fingers you came on, all covered with your cum. he doesn't hold back, he immediately begins to shamelessly drink up your juices despite your embarrassed disapprovals.

"don't be ashamed baby, you taste so good." he smiles, making strong eye contact with you. bokuto has to hold back a smirk when he watches your cheeks go red with his lewd comment. for now, he can only feel his cock twitch at your innocence.

he was about to pull away from you entirely to go look for tissues before your hand grabs at his shirt. he looks back at you with a confused expression, seeing how your flushed. "...are we not gonna do it?" you whisper. bokuto dumly blinks at you in response, his jaw agape slightly.

"y-you wanna do it?" he asks, his face inching closer to yours. "..are you sure?" he asks once more when you nod your head slowly. "well we've been dating for almost a year.. don't you think it's about time?" you point out, feeling more confident in the situation.

bokuto gulps nervously, but at the same time, he can't help but feel 2x more aroused than earlier. "are you sure?" he asks once again, he just has to make sure you're serious. "i'm sure dummy!" you giggle, smiling softly at his check-up.

"do.. we have condoms?" he thinks out loud. "yes, i bought some the other day. i knew you were gonna win the match so.. i just wanted to be prepared." you say nonchalantly, rolling over to the nightstand and pulling out an unopened box of condoms.

he could bust a nut at your preplanning right now. he grabs the condoms from you, but before he opens one he looks at you one more. his eyebrows are furrowed lightly, although he's hornier than ever before and wants to fuck his adorable little girlfriend so bad, your needs and wants still to come first.

seeing your intentness, he finally rips open the condom. his heart is pounding so fast, his trembling hands trying to fish the lubed condom out of the seal. once he finally gets it out, he strokes his cock unconsciouslly a few times before he rolls the condom on.

bokuto shuffles towards you, his hips pressing against your inner thighs. with a final look at you, he pushes the tip in everso slowly.

his head snaps back up to you, his heart breaking at your pained cries. his cock is big, he wishes it wouldn't hurt for you. he inches his cock in little by little, trying to shake off his own body trembling with every inch that slides into your tight walls.

he feels like he's being suffocated, being hugged so tightly from within he thinks he's gonna pass out. he only breathes out when he bottoms out fully, letting out a huge sigh of relief when he feels your pussy contracting and tightening around his full length.

bokuto reaches a hand down to your own, bringing it up to place a gentle kiss on the back of your palm. you bring your hand up to his nape, bringing him down to embrace him into a kiss.

with that, he slowly rocks his hips into yours, inhaling deeply into the passionate kiss he shares with you. bokuto pulls away with a low groan, his forehead resting against yours when he slides himself back into you.

he reaches a hand underneath your bra, fondling the soft flesh with shaky hands. bokuto rests his head in the crook of your neck, suckling and biting onto the delicate flesh, leaving marks that have his cock throbbing within you.

before the two of you can even comprehend, the both of you are humping against each other like dogs in heat. your hands scratch and pull at the skin of bokuto's broad back, feeling every bone and strong muscle underneath your finger tips. "fuck- you feel so good, y/n." he rasps out, pulling away from your embrace to plant his hand beside your head, looking down at you drunkingly.

he can't even think straight, he clenches his eyes closed with every pulse of your pussy does around his cock. his hips slam into yours, desperately chasing his release.

when he opens his eyes, he almost cums at the way you play with your own boobs with one hand, and your clit with another. "you're so-so sexy, s-shit, i'm gonna cum y/n-", he barely chokes out, his free hand comimg to grab and grope at your body.

"m-me too kou!" you moan out, your mouth agape with a loud moan as another orgasm washes over you, toes curling tightly as you enter cloud nine. "o-oh f-uck!" he manages to say before he's finally spilling his release inside the condom, his hips pathetically humping and grinding against yours like some dog.

bokuto is left loudly gasping and huffing for air, his orgasm leaving him trembling and weak. he barely as any strength left when he pulls his limp cock out of your sensitive walls, falling over to the side of you.

you hum contently, still out of breath nonetheless. he comes to rest his head against your neck, purring like a cat when your hands come to scratch his broad back.

how amazing.

please leave a like and repost with tags if you enjoyed!!

[st4rymoon]

・𝘝𝘪𝘥𝘦𝘰 𝘎𝘢𝘮𝘦𝘴 ・

- 𝐊𝐢𝐧𝐤𝐭𝐨𝐛𝐞𝐫 𝐝𝐚𝐲 𝟐 ・𝐆𝐚𝐦𝐞𝐫 𝐁𝐟 | 18+ | 𝐊𝐢𝐧𝐤𝐭𝐨𝐛𝐞𝐫 𝐦𝐚𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐫-𝐥𝐢𝐬𝐭

Miguel O’Hara x Fem Reader

Warnings: teasing, p in v, unprotected sex!, semi voyeurism? (Miguel in call with friends), pet names, dom Miguel, bratty reader, brat tamer Miguel, language, semi dubcon? If you squint.

You laid on your tummy as you buried yourself in a book with your legs kicking in the air. Miguel sat at his desk as he yelled into his head set. When he wasn’t busy with being in charge of the spider society, he spent some time online playing his games.

You were surprised when you found out a man so serious could have fun. But after a few months of dating him you soon realized he was quite the nerd. His dozens of shelves full of books kept you entertained as he played with a few other spiders online.

“Peter stop killin- no not you Peter the other pe- FOR FUCK SAKE EVERYONE SHUT UP” he screamed. You chuckled seeing him so frustrated, turning onto your side you faced him.

You watched him with a smile as some of his hair fell to his sides, the head set pinning his front hairs up. He looks so sexy whenever he played video games. You had no clue why but seeing him in some sweats, no shirt and angry always made you wet.

“Mig” you whined, your tone giving away your intentions as you rubbed your thighs onto his sheets “yeah doll?” He muttered turning to you. You gave a pout and spread your legs open slightly.

His eyes averted to you, his smirk growing as he rolled his eyes “not now chula, let me finish this game” he hummed. You groaned in agony as you rubbed your thighs together “please mig.”

He shook his head with a smile and continued to focus on his game. You’ve never teased him while he played but you were getting annoyed by his lack of his attention.

You stood up from the bed, pushing him back slightly so you could straddle him. He huffed as you sat on his lap, squirming and kissing his face. “Get off me before all of them hear me fucking you” Miguel threatened.

You didn’t understand if he really thought that would scare you. You chuckled at his words and started to rub yourself onto his lap “oh yeah?” You mocked.

Miguels hands moved up to your waist, his eyes darkening as he moved his game character behind a building. He didn’t say a word as he pulled your panties down to the side, he pulled his headphones off and placed them on your head.

“You wanna keep acting like a damn brat, never listening to me. You’ll get what you want” he cooed. You tried to yank off the headphones but he pinned your hands onto your stomach “no chula, déjalos escuchar si lo quieres tan mucho.”

Miguel kicked off his sweats, fisting his cock, he aligned himself between your cunt without any prepping. His hand squeezed your cheeks “gonna let them hear your boss fucking you? Mhm?” He moved your face side to side, teasing you with a smile.

Miguel slammed you onto his cock, settling deep in you as he let out a shaky moan. You bit your tongue as you felt his length stretching you, your tight walls squeezing him as he picked up the pace.

You tried to fight his hands off yours to cover your mouth, but with no struggle he kept you still. His hips fucked up into you, his cock sliding in and out as he moaned onto your shoulder. You could hear Miguel’s friends talking on his headset as he bottomed you out.

You were fighting every sound that threatened to spill out of you “let it out doll” he cooed. The second his calloused fingers rubbed your swollen clit you let out a loud moan. Miguel’s name spilling from your lips as the moan knocked the air out of you.

The talking on the head piece went silent. You tried moving your hands again, trying your best to pull them off but yet again, Miguel adjusted the headphones and now pinned your hands behind your back.

“No no, you were begging for this remember?” He shook his head, looking up at you with a smile on his face as your cheeks began to become stained with tears.

“Mi- Miguel please i-“ you cried as he pounded you out, his free hand that wasn’t pinning your hands behind your back on your hips. You slumped onto his chest, your moans spilling into his neck as he hugged you onto him.

He sloppily fucked into you as your slick dripped down your thighs and onto his lap. Miguel’s moans loudened as he felt you squeeze his cock, your moans filling his ears as your orgasm hit.

“Ay- ay mami- fuckkk” Miguel seethed, his fangs slightly piercing your shoulder as he bit onto you. Miguel’s seed spilling into you, his cum leaked out of you as he pulled out softly.

His hands moved up to your head and pulled the head set off “don’t worry doll, I ended the call the second I heard you moan” Miguel winked as he placed a kiss onto your forehead.