#fun fact if you look at the time i spent on this its insane because it's in negative like -4:-19 WHAT HAPPENED!!!

[zakuryoishi]

happy early pride month to them

[munson-blurbs]

PLEASE MAKE MY MEET CUTE DREAMS COME TRUE BUG!!

What IS my personality? Hm... Generally I'm pretty upbeat, fun-loving, and compassionate, but around Eddie?! 🙈 I'd be a lil shy I'm not gonna lie haha

Hobbies include bird watching, thrifting trinkets, and graphic design (oh and writing FILTHY SEXUALLY EXPLICIT STORIES, can't forget that). No need to incorporate all of this, just giving you ✨variety✨

My pronouns are she/her.

And I'll just leave you with some emojis I like 😌

🪻🪺🐀🪿🐞🫐🥨🏕️🪕

As meta as it would be to have Eddie reading the smut you wrote about him, bird watching was what caught my eye. Hope you like this!

CW: mention of drug use/dealing WC: 628 Divider credit to @hellfire--cult

It had stormed in Hawkins for a week straight. Seven days of dodging raindrops and spending your free time cooped up in the house. You were on the verge of going stir-crazy until the sun finally peeked out from behind the clouds this morning. 

Plucking your binoculars from their spot on your shelf, you head out into the woods. Before the storms, a pileated woodpecker had made a nest in one of the trees, and you were anxious to see if it had survived the lousy weather. 

Mud squelched beneath your boots as you trudged towards your favorite picnic bench. There wasn’t anything special about it per se, but it stood out from the others because of the JH+JB carved into the table. Whoever JH and JB were, you hoped their love was still strong. 

You adjusted the focus on your binoculars, aiming your gaze at the tree where you’d seen the nest just over a week ago. A soft sigh of relief slipped through your lips when you saw that it was still intact; in fact, there were now three little eggs inside of it. 

Hours felt like mere minutes as you soaked up each moment outdoors, following the calls of the sparrows that populated the tiny forest. Hawkins wasn’t a bustling city, but it was still nice to have a reprieve from the normal sounds of the suburbs. Out here, there were no car horns honking, no tired parents scolding their mischievous children, no—

“You here to buy or sell?”

The sudden noise startled you; if you didn’t have the strap looped around your wrist, you almost certainly would have dropped your binoculars. That would have been embarrassing. Just like the yelp you let out when the man spoke. 

“Whoa, didn’t mean to scare you.” He gave a sheepish grin and held up his hands in surrender. “Just figured if you wanted to buy, I could offer you a sweet deal. But if you’re selling…well, you’re kinda in my spot, so…”

You collected your thoughts, trying to keep from getting lost in his deep brown eyes. “No. I mean, neither. N-Not buying or selling. Just, uh, birdwatching.”

He cocked a brow. “Birdwatching?”

“Y-Yeah.” You scrambled for more words, unused to being tongue-tied. “Y’know, just…watching birds.”

“I gathered that much.” He sat next to you, placing a tin lunchbox on the table. “So what kind of birds are we watching?”

You explained the whole nest-surviving-the-storm saga, expecting him to roll his eyes or get bored. But he didn’t. Instead, he looked at you with those beautiful doe eyes and gestured to your binoculars. 

“Mind if I take a look?”

You nodded and handed them over, hoping that the time he spent looking through them would afford you the chance to conjure up some actual conversation topics. 

He peered through the binoculars. “I see the nest! Holy shit, there’s about to be some bird babies.” He looked at another tree. “Here we’ve got some sort of brown bird just kinda…doing its thing.” Keeping the binoculars pressed to his eyes, he looked directly at you. “And here we have a really pretty girl who’s gonna let me treat her to ice cream.”

“Sure. Yeah, um, that would be great.” You felt your body tingle with bashfulness. An insanely cute guy was asking you out. “I love ice cream.”

The guy looked surprised, like he couldn’t believe that line worked. “Me, too.” He stood and held out his hand to help you up. 

You accepted it gratefully, but before you stood, you looked at him. “I just realized that I don’t even know your name,” you mused. 

He laughed. “That would be good information, huh?” He shook his head at his own blunder. 

“I’m Eddie Munson. And you are?”

--

[iamnotoriginalphil]

Your writing is so genuine! And so brilliant. And I love that you’ve taken up writing for Kate! I hope you’ll do more! Perhaps like the fake marriage thing, but the reader asks Kate in a rush to be her fake girlfriend at this reunion she’s going to, and like the fake marriage fic, she’s kind of desperate? Because her old classmates thought she’d be nothing?

Thank you! I hope you like this one too!

“Shit.”

“Problem?”

You looked up from your phone, the email on the screen glaring up at you like an omen you hadn’t prepared for. With a look of concern, Kate was looking at you over the top of her computer. You’d paused on your way out when the notification had come up on your phone, juggling with your bag to not drop the phone. Now, you were frozen, looking at her, not wanting to admit to your boss what a loser you were.

“Kind of,” you said, “not really. It’s fine.”

“You don’t sound very sure about that,” she said.

“My school reunion is tonight and I forgot. I’ve been so focused on that project with the lasers that it slipped my mind,” you said, hoping that would end there.

“Do you have time to get there?” she asked.

“I do. Unless you need me to stay late,” you said, seeing a perfectly acceptable way to get out of it.

“No, no, you go have fun.”

She must have seen something in your face because she stood, approaching you with a raised eyebrow. You’d spent enough time with her over the years to know she was seeing more than you wanted her to. Sometimes being friends with your boss had its downsides.

“Unless you don’t want to go,” she said.

“It’s not that,” you said, “it’s just always a bit awkward to go to these things alone. And I can’t talk about my job because.” You gestured at the whole building as the concept of confidentiality, “so it’s not exactly conducive to these sorts of things.”

“But you want to go?” she asked.

You didn’t want to outright lie to her. Which might explain why the most insane thing came out of your mouth next.

“I don’t suppose you want to come with me, do you? Just pretend to be my girlfriend for the night?”

You immediately felt your skin heat and you shook your head. Embarrassment was a heavy drug and you felt the need to just turn around and walk away rather than deal with the consequences of your request. Running away was always an option. 

“Never mind, that’s stupid. Ignore me,” you said, immediately trying to move past the moment. 

“I’m confused why you want me to go with you,” she said, “unless it’s just the fact I’m the only one here.”

You squeezed your eyes closed, not wanting to face her. Your heart was fluttering in your chest and your stomach was roiling with panic. It had all gone wrong so quickly, and you hadn’t even shown up to the reunion yet. 

“Because if I could pull a woman like you then I would have proved them all wrong,” you answered. 

You hadn’t wanted to tell her exactly how the other students had thought of you in school. The absolute derision you’d faced on a daily basis. The way the opinion of your classmates had sunk into you until you’d begun to believe it. 

“Wrong about what?” she asked.

“Let’s just say that the other students didn’t think much of me,” you replied, not willing to go into all the nuances of your time at school.

She considered you a moment, those dark eyes sweeping over your body before settling on your face once again. You shivered, not wanting to admit what it did to your already turbulent heart. 

“Alright then, but we’ll have to stop by the wardrobe department on the way out,” she said.

“What?” You couldn’t quite let yourself believe what she was saying.

“I’ll go with you but I think we could both use an outfit change. No one will be impressed by either of us dressed like this,” she said. 

You trailed her into the lift, still not quite able to believe what was happening. Kate was going as your date to your school reunion. The woman you had spent too much time fantasising about to be professional was going to pretend to be your girlfriend for the night just to get back at your classmates for being mean to you when you were a teenager. 

Pushing into the wardrobe department, set up after one too many undercover operations had ended in disaster due to bad shoes, Kate turned to look over you again. She strode off, expecting you to follow. You did, unable to do anything else.

She handed you a dress from a rack, eyes sweeping over you again. You took it, unsure what you should do. 

“Go on,” she prompted, hands gently nudging you towards one of the changing rooms at the back of the room. 

You did, slipping the silk over your body. Staring in the mirror, your eyes travelled over your body. The dress clung to your curves, highlighting you in a way you were unused to. Just the feeling of the material against your skin felt decadent, more expensive than your usual clothes. 

“Are you dressed?” she asked.

“I’m not sure about this,” you called to her. 

“Just let me look at you,” she said.

You stepped out of the tiny room, staring at your bare feet. You couldn’t meet her eyes, not needing to see the censure in her gaze. 

“I don’t know what you were talking about. It’s beautiful on you.”

You looked up, finding her focused solely on you. Your cheeks heated as you shifted your weight from foot to foot. Abruptly, she nodded, passing over a pair of heels to you. 

“You’ll do very nicely,” she said.

“Aren’t you-” 

Your words cut off as you looked at her properly. Gone were the navy slacks and the military inspired blazer. In their place was black trousers, black jacket, a white button up that was unbuttoned daringly low. Cleary you’d spent more time staring in the mirror in disbelief than you’d thought. And clearly she was trying to kill you. 

“Come on, you can return the clothes on Monday,” she said.

She grasped you around the elbow, offering you stability as you balanced while putting on the heels. Your hand grasped her shoulder, her warmth seeping through the layers of her clothes. If you didn’t look at her, she couldn’t turn your brain to mush. But then her hand came up, unclipping your hair until it fell around your face. 

“Much better,” she said.

She was so close to you, those brown eyes softening as they traced over your features. Your breath left your chest and you were frozen under that gaze. Her fingertips brushed over the apple of your cheek before she stepped away. 

“You look lovely. Now shall we get out of here?” 

“Okay,” you said, trying to ignore the swoop in your stomach. 

Her hand on your lower back led you away, to her car, opening the door for you like a proper gentleman. You slid into the dark interior, doing your best to settle your heart. It had been a stupid idea to ask her to do this for you, a moment of desperation asking for a fantasy you’d never allowed yourself to voice. 

Tonight was going to destroy you in one way or another. 

Sitting in the darkened cab of her car, the air felt too close, the walls pressing in. You were trying not to look at her, staring out the window, but you were so aware of her. In your peripheral vision, you could see her toss her blonde hair out of her eyes, not wanting to stare at her. It would be so easy when she looked that good. 

She parked the car before you had the chance to come to terms with the situation you’d found yourself in. You stared out the windshield. The silence stretched. 

“We could always turn around and get dinner somewhere instead,” she said.

“What?” You turned to look at her.

“You don’t have to go in there,” she said, “nothing is stopping you from leaving now.”

“It’s not that simple,” you said.

“Why not?” she asked.

“Because,” you said, knowing you had to say it so she could understand, even if you hadn’t ever wanted her to know this about you, “I need to prove them wrong.”

Her hand reached out, resting against yours clasped in your lap, fingers twisting together almost painfully. You let them relax under her touch, trying not to do any damage before you’d even got started. 

“I know I shouldn’t care about what a bunch of pricks said when we were teenagers but I can’t let it go. They made my life hell and I want to show them they were all wrong. That I’m something now. That my life is worth something,” you said, your words spilling out your shame into the silence for her to consume. 

“Of course your life is worth something. Anyone who made you feel otherwise is so very wrong,” she said, sounding fierce enough to have you flushing.

“You have to say that. You’re my fake girlfriend,” you said.

She smiled at your weak joke, her pity unwelcome when you were trying to lighten the mood. Her hand squeezed yours, leaving you feeling like you should have kept your mouth shut. 

“Just forget I said anything,” you said, tugging your hands out from under hers. 

“No. Hang on.” Her fingers curled around your arm, keeping you from pulling completely away, “what just happened here?” 

“Nothing. Sorry. I’m all over the place tonight,” you said.

She considered you for a moment. You couldn’t look her in the eye, just needing the night to be over. Then you could slink away and curl up in bed and wallow until your self pity turned you into a disgusting heap of viscera. 

“Come on, let’s go show everyone what an amazing person you’ve grown up to be,” she said.

You slid out of the car, the cool night air enveloping you. Her palm slid along yours, fingers tangling with yours as she fell into step beside you. It was so warm and steady, and yet just that touch was making your knees feel like jelly. 

You had to get a grip on yourself. 

The hall was lit like a dimly lit wine bar, the kind of trendy place you’d never found yourself in. Although, you could easily imagine Kate there, sharing a drink with someone, leaning into them in the intimate atmosphere. You stopped imagining that scenario pretty quickly. 

“Wine?” she asked.

“What?” There was no way she could read your mind, was there?

“There appears to be an open bar,” she said, “red?”

“Well, if there’s an open bar, I might have something a bit stronger,” you said. 

You ignored the people around you, making a beeline for the bar, your hand still firmly in Kate’s. You passed Kate a glass of wine, fingers brushing together. Without thinking about it, you took a drink from your double whiskey, the burn of alcohol going through you. 

“Right, is there anyone you were hoping to talk to?” she asked, turning to look at the room.

You’d mostly ignored everyone in the room as you’d hightailed it to the bar. Turning now, you wished you still could. Just the thought of approaching someone made you want to throw up. 

“Let’s do a lap,” you said.

Her fingers tightened around yours, surprisingly making your heart calm a little. You looked up at her, finding her eyes so kind when they gazed down at you. You found yourself leaning into her, her warmth giving you comfort as you took a turn about the room. 

“Are you okay?” she asked.

“I’ll let you know once I have an answer,” you replied.

Her smile was soft and for the first time you didn’t feel silly for your anxiety. You let out a long breath, turning back to look at the faces around the room. They were familiar, if different. Time had changed everyone, and yet it was like being a teenager again, going to assembly, surrounded by your peers. 

“No way.”

You cringed at the voice, loud and jarring in the space. Turning, you almost flinched back at the blonde woman looking at you, a grin on her face. Perfectly curled hair, makeup that had definitely been applied by a knowledgeable hand, clothes that cost more than your entire wardrobe put together, you knew exactly who was looking at you. 

Elizabeth Hartmore had made your life a living hell. 

Your name sounded venomous on her tongue, the delight she took activating your flight or fight response. Kate’s hand squeezed yours but you had no words for her. You regretted ever coming.

“Diane and I had a bet going about whether you’d show up. She thought you’d never show your face here but I know you better than that,” she said, those knowing eyes practically seeing inside your soul, finding every weakness you had, “looking for a handout? Or are you hoping to use one of us to give you a leg up after failing on your own?” 

“I haven’t,” you tried to say before the words died on your lips. So much for proving them wrong. You couldn’t even get a sentence out.

“What was that?” Diane asked.

“She’s hardly a failure,” Kate said, helping where you couldn’t, “if anything, she’s rather successful.”

“And you are?” Elizabeth asked.

“Kate Stewart, Commander in Chief of the Unified Intelligence Taskforce,” she replied, “and the very lucky woman who gets to call this one mine.” 

She untangled her fingers from yours, holding her hand out to Elizabeth to shake. She did so, her eyes sweeping over Kate, presumably taking in her entire being, the easy confidence which she inhabited her own skin. Kate slipped an arm around your waist rather than return to holding your hand, warm and heavy and so present. Her hand rested on the swell of your hip, almost proprietary. Your heart tripped over itself. Having her so close was doing all kinds of funny things to you. 

This had been such a bad idea.

“I’ve never heard of the Unified Intelligence Taskforce,” Elizabeth said.

“No, I don’t suppose you would have,” she replied.

You had to bite down on your lower lip to keep from smiling. The absolute disdain Kate had managed to infuse in those seven words was a thing of beauty. Her arm tightened around you until you were nestled against her. 

“I hope you know she’s just trying to ride your coattails,” Elizabeth said when she had no other comeback. 

“She stands rather well on her own two feet,” Kate said, still so calm.

Her lips brushed your temple and you startled, not having expected it. Her chuckle was warm, fond, familiar from late nights and shared car rides. 

“Don’t you, darling?” she asked, looking down at you, warm brown eyes sparkling as her lips pulled up into a smile.

“I do alright,” you replied, finding yourself breathless.

“They’d be lost without you,” she said and you knew she was putting how she felt as your boss into words. Your cheeks heated, the praise doing something funny to your stomach. Her lips tipped up into a smirk and you cursed her for being too good at this.

“Kate,” you said, not really sure where you were going with it.

“I’d be lost without you,” she said, her voice low enough to make the conversation feel intimate. It was like she’d forgotten the other two were even listening, but surely she couldn’t have. The whole point of her being there was to prove them wrong about you. It had to be fake. 

But the way she was looking at you felt all too real.

“What do you even do?” Elizabeth asked, breaking the moment. 

“I’m a scientist,” you said, barely thinking of the words, still caught in the way Kate was looking at you. Like you were something precious. Something to be coveted, “a physicist.” 

She scoffed. 

“A rather bloody good one, too,” Kate said.

Your lips curled up into a smile. Her hand squeezed your hip and a shiver went through your body. You watched as her gaze dipped down to your smile, lingering longer than was necessary before making its way back up to your eyes. Your breath caught and you felt her go still, her body pressed against yours from how tight her arm was around you. 

In that moment it stopped mattering if she was pretending to be your girlfriend. It stopped mattering that this was all meant to be making a point. It stopped mattering what those girls thought about you.

You knew who you were and those girls didn’t matter to you at all. But Kate did. Kate mattered a whole lot.

“Come on,” you said, “let’s go.”

She quirked an eyebrow at you, but didn’t argue. You placed your glass down on the closest surface after draining it, sliding your hand back into hers, and leading her back out the door you’d come in. Twenty minutes in there had been enough. You had your answers, and they were that it didn’t matter anymore. You were happy, and you loved your life, and it didn’t matter what a couple of sad women thought about you. 

Besides, Kate thought highly enough of you for all the rest of them not to matter.

“That was rather quick,” she said as you stepped out into the cool night air.

“How about that dinner now?” you asked.

She stopped, forcing you to follow suit lest your hand pull out of hers. The warmth of it was the only thing tethering you right now and you liked the feel of it in yours. The way she was looking at you was full of confusion.

“What has gotten into you?” she asked.

“You were right. I don’t have to be in there and defend my existence to those people. They don’t matter to me, so why should their opinions? I’d rather go have dinner with a beautiful woman who likes my company and cares about me enough to go through this charade,” you answered. 

“You think I’m beautiful?” In the dark, you couldn’t be sure but you thought you saw a flush on her cheeks.

“Of course,” you said, “you’re one of the most beautiful people I know.”

Sometimes stating the truth was more simple than avoiding it. And in that moment you felt fearless. Your earlier epiphany was still buzzing in your veins and you felt invincible. 

“That’s rather flattering,” she said.

“Some facts are fundamental truths of the universe. That’s one of them,” you said.

“Bloody hell,” she laughed, “what are you doing to me?” 

“Sorry, I thought I was being clear. I’m asking you on a date,” you said, “for tonight, somewhere nicer than my school reunion.”

She blinked, as if you’d said something completely out of turn. You tugged her closer, your hand still connected to hers. She went easily, approaching you even as she seemed to not understand what you were saying.

“Kate, I think you’re wonderful. If you don’t want to go on a date with me, that’s fine. But cards on the table, I like you. Quite a lot in fact. And maybe I’m ruining our friendship, but all night I’ve been going out of mind because it turns out I quite like being your fake girlfriend,” you said.

“You do?” she asked, voice faint as if you were overwhelming her with information.

“I like you touching me. I like people thinking I’m yours. I want to be yours,” you said.

“Oh fuck it.”

With her hand in yours she pulled you to her. Her free hand curled around the back of your neck and then she was kissing you with a desperation that had you breathless. You melted against her, submitting. Her teeth nipped at your lower lip, tongue soothing over it before you opened to her, tasting wine and something that was specific to her. You moaned, your hand sliding around her waist, pressing closer. Her fingers tangled in the hair at the nape of your neck, tugging until you were nothing but a puddle of desire. 

Someone in the distance wolf whistled and you were sharply reminded that you were in the parking lot of your old high school, snogging like a teenager with your boss. You drew away, not far from her, still sharing air as you tried to catch your breath. Her eyes were molten, gazing on you, the flush obvious on her cheeks from so close.

She’d managed to kiss the words away from you. Your teeth sunk into your lower lip, uncertainty filling your chest as the silence dragged on. Her eyes slipped down, focusing on your mouth, eyes darkening as the moment stretched. 

“Kate?” you whispered.

“Yes, darling?” she asked, voice deep, almost raspy.

“Is that a yes to dinner?” you asked.

“It’s a yes to all of it,” she said, “it’s a yes to you.”

Your lips brushed hers in another kiss, softer, sweeter, lingering when you knew she wasn’t going to push you away any second. Her warm hand cupped your cheek, holding you close, gentle with you. You let out a long breath once you pulled back, almost a sigh, eyes fluttering open.

“I’m yours,” you whispered.

“Then shall we get out of here?” she asked.

“Please,” you said.

And take you out of there, she did. 

[dadrielle]

So I have this theory about ships.

I've spent the last 15 years or so raging against "The Moonlighting Curse" as my own personal nemesis (also known more in fannish parlance as Shipping Bed Death). I find the idea that a couple being together is by its very nature boring super fucking maddening. I think if you can't write people in love and together in an interesting way, it just means you haven't learned how to do that yet. It's very often the cook, not the ingredients, you know?

There are a lot of stories that get characters together badly, though, that can't be disputed. Getting a couple together does scuttle some narratives. And while I do think some of it has to do with the fact that "will they/won't they" has a lot of tropes that can act as crutches for bad writers, and interesting and functional couples require more skill to write because there isn't enough of a similar scaffold to work from...there's another aspect I been thinking about lately. And that's intensity.

See, the reason "will they/won't they" is so juicy is because of the sexual tension, right? That intensifies all the interactions between the two characters, which gets us way more invested. A lot of our fav shit, like rivals to lovers, starcrossed lovers, etc etc etc, it's about creating circumstances that also amp up the tension and therefore the intensity.

When the sexual tension breaks, the first thing writers often do is look for new ways of adding in tension. A very large percentage of the time, that's by creating rifts between the characters in question, or tearing them apart in some way. The problem with that - beyond making the fans/viewer/reader feel jerked around - is that it's usually not intensifying the right thing. By focusing on the tension for its own sake, you can miss intensifying the actual draw, which is the power of the relationship itself. You can actually break your ship by trying to intensify it too hard with tension, especially by having characters lie and cheat on each other and otherwise treat each other terribly. Like sure, sometimes people like to experience characters destroying each other from the inside out! But that's not the draw of ships for a lot of people. Sometimes it's just sad, and not even in a fun way.

But here's the thing! Tension is not the only intensifier that exists. You can, for instance, intensify a relationship in canon by making them absolutely batshit insane about each other. My theory is that what we need more of is ships that get together and become fucking Morticia and Gomez Addams about it. Just doing the absolute MOST all the time in a way that no people in their right mind would do in real life. Just make them absolutely bonkers.

Crank that fucking dial baybeeeee. They are so, so in love and it would be alarming if it weren't so beautiful.

[rc-writes]

𝐛𝐞𝐧𝐧𝐲 𝐰𝐞𝐢𝐫 𝐡𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐜𝐚𝐧𝐨𝐧𝐬

𝙢𝙖𝙨𝙩𝙚𝙧𝙡𝙞𝙨𝙩𝙨 | 𝙩𝙖𝙜𝙡𝙞𝙨𝙩 𝙛𝙤𝙧𝙢

pairings: benny weir x reader (could be seen as platonic or romantic)

warnings: two curse words??, if you’re reading this as platonic there’s one mention of wearing couples costumes but friends can totally do that to, uhh i think that’s it

a/n: alright i could have probably thought of a million more but it was literally 1am when i wrote this and i was tired lol. also i will admit that was me fulling self projecting on the info dumping about movies part and wanting to text someone at an ungodly hour, but in my defense i do genuinely think benny would do those things as well. also this was requested by an irl friend of mine who mentioned friends to lovers after i finished this so look out for that coming soon! also this is my first writing related thing i’ve posted on this blog in like 2 years!!

will try to learn spells just to impress you

of course there was a few that went wrong

maybe more than a few, but it’s the thought that counts right?

will send every meme or funny video he finds

does not matter if its 3pm or 3am he will send it immediately after he found it

which speaking of 3am i can see him not being able to sleep so he tries texting you

if you answer i can see him texting “hey what’s wrong?? why are u up so late?? everything okay??” and completely ignoring that he too is also awake at this hour

“you are aware you texted me first, why are you up”

“i asked you first”

benny absolutely loves video games and will want to play a few with you even if you don’t like video games

which if you’re with him there a good chance you love them too

but if you don’t you will most likely start liking them even just a bit because he makes them fun

getting to spent time with him and watch him do something he loves makes it special

it also can be really funny

can guarantee at least once he’d say “watch this babe” or “this ones for you” and immediately fail/die

this is also something that definitely happens in the outside world with him trying to throw something away or something

pure of heart, dumb of ass

also i don’t know shit about video games so i cannot go into anymore detail then this lol

is 100% down with spontaneous movie nights whether that be binge watching movies at home or going to the theater

if it’s a movie he’s obsessed with but you’ve never seen he will be trying his hardest not to info dump and potentially spoil the whole thing

but if it’s a movie he knows you have seen he is more than willing to explain every single fact about it he knows

“did you know that while filming this bit they had film it completely in reverse to make it look like that?? insane right!?”

speaking of movies if it’s a horror/scary movie you can bet he will try to act all tough and not scared before it starts

even if you already know how much of a scaredy cat he is he will try to play it off

but the second the first jumpscare happens there will be popcorn flying everywhere

he is no longer allowed to hold the bowl

you’re still finding popcorn in the couch

he will still continue to pretend that he’s not scared despite shaking like a scared chihuahua

you will have to be the one to grab onto him

which then leads to him hiding his face into your neck or behind you

he still refuses to let you turn it off even if you insist it’s okay

there is a part of you that feels bad but also a part that thinks it’s so funny

your contact names in each others phones are han solo and princess leia

the only suggestions i will take on this is that yours is han and his is leia

will take you to every convention within driving distance

if the convention if for some game/show/movie you don’t know be prepared for a whole powerpoint presentation or a weekend of binge watching whatever media it is

“didn’t you just say you hated doing a powerpoint for history??”

“babe this is way more important and interesting than anything school can teach”

you both will be going all out costume wise every convention

i can totally see you guys going in couple costumes or like hero and villain

if the latter you two take turns on who gets to be the villain or hero

if you are with benny there is no way you can be a halloween hater

he can do freaking magic, of course it’s his favorite holiday!!

this also can follow what i said for conventions with the costumes

at some point there is a competition on who can get the most candy

if he loses, he will say that the candy was just too hard to resist, and he had to eat just one piece that turned into him eating many pieces

this is a true fact whether he loses or not

side note if you can go a whole night of trick or treating without eating a single piece of candy while doing so i don’t believe you

[dealingdreams]

The Acolyte s01e06: Teach/Corrupt

Just like all the previous ones of this...i'll be condensing all my quick in the moment thoughts into this one post as i watch the epiosde then at the end ill give some general thoughts.

obvi spoilers

letssss gooo

some quick thoughts:

you guys getting annoyed with me talking about episode titles caues damn...this is perfect

something about him taking the time to clean her wounds, make food, and leave her with easy access to weapons and clothinf is sweet lol

mae not leaving osha with her shoes is like extra rude to me for some reason lol

Im still obsessed with how Amandla changes how she walks for Mae

Sol's crying broke my heart a bit

I get Osha completely cause im also emotionally attached to Pip

Qimir's scar does not look like it healed well

His little smirk when Osha steps out behind the rock to grab his saber

'feels good, doesn't it, to hold one in your hand again' *screaming*

I'll join you.

The way he's toying with her cracks me up 'now you are wondering how i can read your mind *winks* i can't' SIR

Sol looks like he would give good hugs

Osha and Qimir spend a lot of time just following each other around

'Everyone does seem to want you' including youuuuuu

Osha's like damn...offering to let me leave takes the fun out of running away...guess i'll stay

his pause before desire gets me every time

him putting that saber to his chest is insane

i adore this scene so much. osha buries a lot of herself and Qimir just comes along with vulnerability and a shovel...like baby im going to make you face yourself because i get you.

Vern not liking hyperspace is fantastic

I think up until Sol said 'you were very young' Mae wasn't sure if Osha knew about what happened on Brendok or not. Mae looked releaved

him saying the power of two not rule of two is important

the fact that he fights in sensory deprivation is just...he's such a badass

The way Osha like softly caresses the helmet before she puts it on does something to me idk lol

general thoughts:

I spent a lot of this episode a mix between been giddy over oshamir and wanting to hug Sol lol

i do think its imporant the Qimir says 'power of two' as previously shown when the power of two was demonstrated it was when two of the coven memebers linked hands to be stronger together to block a more powerful Mother Aniseya. They were equals. They were sharing strength. The fact that this is the dynamic Qimir says he wants i think really plays into the fact that he's not full darksider...he's not a true sith.

not sure when i'll feel that high of Qimir softly touching Osha's arm while she has his saber to his throat again.

loved this episode

[maccreadysbaby]

A Hundred Days to Become a Wayne

batfamily + oc insert

tw: abuse, ptsd?

wanna start from chapter one or read more? here’s the table of contents!

this chapter was so fun to write but also sad???? anyways have a nice little dad/son hurt/comfort breakthrough moment

part ten

❝ REALITY ❞

MONDAY — 4:28AM

BENTLEY WOKE UP IN THE CLOSET. 

He rubbed his eyes with his fists, blinking rapidly in a poor attempt to grasp his surroundings. He thought he was at Wayne Manor?

Last thing he remembered, he and Damian spent an exorbitant amount of time in the barn with the quartet of pets. They’d spoken about animals the whole time — Damian was really passionate about them, and Bentley knew next to nothing, so it was a win-win. 

He vaguely remembered heading back inside with Bruce, and something about dinner, and going to the den to watch television?

Any spark of hope that was burning in his chest faded when he blinked over and over again, and saw nothing but black. He was definitely still in the closet. He tugged at his shirt — it was sticky. The bloody blue pajamas. His hand was stinging with a newer, fresher pain than it had been at Wayne Manor. He could still feel the bandages on it, and his head was throbbing spectacularly.

Had his father hit him so hard he slipped into a freakishly-realistic dream about a family he hadn’t even met yet?

Dim sunlight streamed through the crack at the bottom of the closet door. What had happened before his insane fever dream?

Right. His father. The crying. The punch. The glass.

He lifted his uninjured hand to the doorknob, twisting with a quiet delicacy. It turned and turned until… click. 

It was unlocked. 

He rose from the hardwood and pushed his red hair off of his forehead, ever-so-gently pressing against the door. It opened without a creak, just enough for him to poke his head out.

Whittaker Estate looked normal. The sun was streaming through the tall windows and illuminating the perfectly pampered hallway furnishings. All of the paintings were hanging in their spots, each priceless trinket was on its table in the hallway, and nothing was out of the ordinary.

So… Bentley hadn’t developed a soft spot for Dick Grayson? And he hadn’t spoken to Damian Wayne about animals for too many minutes to count? And he hadn’t made a gigantic dog roll over and hadn’t met a cat precariously named after a still-living butler?

He guessed that made sense. Who’d name an animal after someone who was still alive, anyway?

With a tense exhale, he shut the closet door and sat back down on the floor. He couldn’t leave the closet until his father let him out — not after he invaded his privacy. 

Luckily, that moment came sooner than expected.

The closet door was ripped open with such fury Bentley thought it was almost torn off it's hinges. He didn’t even have time to peer up at his father before the man had latched onto the boy and thrown him.

Yes, thrown him. Bentley slammed against something with a shrill crash, thudding against a piece of furniture and tumbling to the floor. Sharp pains stabbed into his back where he landed, and he cried out in both shock and agony.

When he finally gathered himself enough to process where he was, he realized he was laying on glass, and a mirror on the wall above an empty table had been shattered. His father had thrown him into the mirror next to the closet. 

“-despicable excuse of a child!” He caught the tail-end of his father’s sentence, but all he could really think about was the fact that something warm and wet was soaking through his shirt and his back hurt a lot. 

When he turned to look at his father, the man was already in his face. Bentley flinched to no avail — only digging mirror shards deeper into his own back — and his father grabbed onto the front of his shirt and started dragging him down the hallway.

“You know, the only reason I kept you was because your mother would resent me if I didn’t,” Bentley couldn’t see his father’s face, but he instead clawed and grabbed at the strong hand that had the front of his shirt twisted up in it.

“Father, please-“

“I guess that doesn’t matter anymore!” Bentley let out a small whine when his head thudded against something — and he realized his father was dragging him up the stairs. He tried to use his father’s hand to pull himself up, but it did no good, as the man just kept ragdolling him against the stairs and rails despite his many attempts at movement.

“It doesn’t matter anymore!” He repeated as they reached the landing at the top of the staircase, near Bentley’s door. He momentarily saw the files sprawled out on his bed where he’d left them.

“Because your mothers dead!”

His father hauled him off the ground and held him up, so they were face to face. Their deep red hair and brown eyes matched too well, almost too perfectly. His father was weeping bitterly.

“Your mothers dead!”

And he threw Bentley down the stairs. 

For a moment, everything was numb, and his ears were ringing and he couldn’t feel anything. He just tumbled and tumbled until he came to a stop on the first floor.

Then the panic wore off, and the pain set in. Everything was burning, on fire, every inch of his body. His head felt like it was going to split, and his ribs were probably broken, and his legs didn’t feel right, and he wasn’t even actually sure if all his extremities were still connected, and he heard his father thudding down the stairs toward him. So he curled up as tight as he could on the hardwood and screwed his eyes shut, hoping and praying he’d still be alive to make it to the Wayne’s house.

And that’s how he woke up, curled in a tightly wound ball, eyes screwed shut, trembling in his bed at Wayne Manor.

He was holding onto the sheets like he’d die if he let go of them. Which one was it, was he at his own home, or the Manor? Which was real? Which was a hyper-realistic nightmare?

The digital clock on the nightstand read 4:28 in the morning, but he was having trouble remembering what he did that day. Why was he struggling so badly to remember what happened? He couldn't remember anything past going to the barn with Damian — was he losing his mind?

He closed his eyes tightly and tried to listen — maybe he’d hear Damian close the bathroom door, or Tim wander into his room, or Titus barking somewhere, but he didn’t. He didn’t hear anything but the house creaking and the air conditioner whirring and his father thudding down the steps toward him-

“Bentley,”

He started crying.

“Hey Bentley — hey buddy, open your eyes. It’s okay,”

That… didn’t sound like his father.

“Can you hear me? It’s okay. I’m right here. You’re okay.”

Where was he?

“Open your eyes, bud,”

When Bentley finally took the strange voice’s advice and peeled his eyelids apart, the bedroom light was on, and Bruce was kneeling beside the bed with a pitiful look on his face.

For a moment, Bentley stared at him.

“It’s alright — you’re awake now. You’re awake,”

His black hair was only slightly messy, and his icy gray eyes were dull with something like deja vu swirling in the back of them. He looked like he knew this all too well.

Bentley pushed himself upright. “B…ruce?”

“Yeah, it’s me. I’m here,” The man replied. Bentley pressed himself against the headboard of the bed, pulling his knees as tightly to his chest as he could get them. 

“You’re… really here?” 

Bruce smiled sorrowfully. “I’m really here.”

Bentley covered his eyes with his forearm out of habit. “And… I’m really here?”

“You’re really here, too. We’re both here. In the Manor,”

Bentley sobbed.

He buried his face in his knees, hoping to at least stifle the pathetic sounding cries a little, but it wasn’t really any use. He was crying like he was dying and there was no way to hide it.

A few quiet moments later, the mattress dipped ever so slightly beside him.

“What can I do to help you?” Was what Bruce asked, and the mattress shifted a little more.

Bentley shook his head where it sat between his knees. “I… don’t know. I don’t know,” He muttered, a few more violent sobs shaking his small body. 

Bruce tried again: “Do you think it would help if we went outside, in the yard?”

“I don’t know,” The child whimpered, wiping his tears against the soft material of his pajama pants. 

“That’s okay,” Bruce exhaled. “I’m not going to leave, alright? I’m right here.”

Surely Bruce was real. Surely this was all real.

“What happened?” Bentley half whispered, a few more cries slipping past his lips without his consent. “…After the barn?”

He heard Bruce take a deep breath. 

“You came inside with Damian and had lunch. Then we spent a while talking to Dick in the den,” The man explained carefully. “After that, Alfred made dinner — soup, because Tim isn’t feeling well. He didn’t come down but Dick took some up.”

Bentley blinked into his knees. 

“Then we went back to the den to watch a documentary Damian was interested in. About wild cats. Tim and Duke joined us, then. And once it went off, you, Duke, and Damian came up to bed,”

A welcomed wave of relief crashed over Bentley when he realized he remembered all of that. He remembered sitting in the den with everybody. He remembered Dick making strange comments about the wildlife on the screen, and Damian correcting him, and Tim telling him to be quiet because his head hurt and he was trying to sleep. He remembered sitting in a chair next to the arm of the couch. Tim's legs were hanging over because he was using Dick as some sort of pillow, and he remembered Tim slapping Dick’s hand away when he tried to stroke his hair, but he eventually gave in, because Dick wasn’t giving up anyways. He remembered all of that.

But for some reason, it only made him cry harder.

What if it wasn’t real? How was he supposed to convince himself it was real? Just because he could see it didn’t mean it was real. Just because he could hear it didn’t mean it was real. Just because he could-

His back didn’t hurt. He couldn’t feel the glass in it — he wasn’t in pain. He hadn’t been thrown down the stairs.

Now that he thought about it, he hadn’t felt much more than pain with his father. He didn’t feel the cool hardwood under him when he was sitting in the closet, or the rough skin on his father’s hand, or the sharp edges of the stairs. He hadn’t felt them, not really. He felt pain, but he didn’t feel them.

Maybe if he could feel it, that meant it was real?

The room went oddly still when Bentley reached out and grabbed the sleeve of Bruce’s shirt.

He could feel the threads between his fingers, and the warmth coming from the man’s arm — he was real. He was real and he was sitting there. 

He lifted his head up ever so slightly, glancing over at him. He was looking back at Bentley with a blank, non-judgemental expression. 

He was real.

Bruce lifted his other arm in a quiet invitation, one that could be easily ignored and avoided if Bentley wanted to.

Did he want to? Every time he’d been touched in the past, it ended with pain. Until he met Nightwing. Not a single Wayne had hurt him yet — not even the dog. Was he naïve enough to trust Bruce so quickly?

A mere moment later, he found himself unraveling from the tiny ball he’d created and scooting across the mattress. And he didn’t stop until he was against Bruce’s side, his head tucked into his shirt because he was there, and he was real. He ever-so-gently closed his arms around the child in a protective embrace and Bentley cried there, for a while, until he was lulled to sleep with the material of Bruce’s shirt balled up in his hands.

In the arms of someone who was real.

—

dedicated to @sassenashsworld💛

—

tag list (if you ask in comments, I’ll add your @!)

@fleur-alise

[zombiifyd]

Can you tell me your analysis of the Albatrio’s relationship? I love hearing the nuances of people’s different takes on their dynamic!

AHAIHSJEH WOULD I?????? absolutely.

this post is gonna be so long its just gonna be a bunch of word vomit i swear. so i am so sorry.

OKAY SO I'M GONNA BE LIKE,,,, breaking down all of their relationships one by one, with like two individual people and then their all in whole because its SO IMPORTANT to look at the details.

———

1. chip and jay

these two have so many dynamics. i don't really see them as brother and sister but their fights definitely do remind me of that dynamic. to me, they're more like best friends that have that close of a bond. especially because of how they met, they kind of just instantly clicked. it one of those friendships where two unlikely people have the most chemistry and it never dwindles. obviously it has to do with the fact that they go on all of these adventures together. and they probably spent a couple of days at sea before finding gillion. so they must have gotten close, even if jay was a "spy" at the time, she never really acted like she was. chip found her, and in stead she found herself. and its really touching.

i would say they're definitely the closer two of the bunch even though trust has been broken a couple of times but they always come back stronger. i really love jay and chip.

2. jay and gillion

LET ME TELL YOU SOMETHING. these two mean literally everything to me. (hi navyseal shipper here) i'm sure i made a post about my thoughts about their relationship on my blog once. but might as well rehatch it and apply the new things i've learned with all the new episodes i've listened to. i still think their relationship is so pure and just so UGHHHH /pos. LIKE JUST ALL OF THE TOUCHING MOMENTS THEY HAVE. but even all of the normal moments they have also. i think the whole albatrio is just unlikely people who have found each other and just clicked with insane amounts of chemistry. because even though in the early episodes, gillion was a little strange and trying to figure out this new world. jay found him strange, but fun. and a good guy.

and it shows in future episodes and even going to him for ADVICE before the block and the reveal she was a spy and everything. and even after that gillion STILL trusted her. willing to literally to everything to keep her with them. like IM TEARING UP JUST YHINKUNG ABOUT IT. "just tell me what you wan't and i'll fight for it." HOLD ME BACKCKCKC I WILAHAJWHJE i am so notmal about them. anyway yeah thats jay and gillion

3. fish and chips

hey guys. listen. fish and chips???? yeah. i agree.

anyway, they are so important to me. they have a weird relationship though, to me at least. like in the beginning they were rough and bumpy but they were still close and affectionate. and dude, let me say, that when they we're crying and holding onto each other in the mud and fighting bugs in laffinlot, they had my entire heart. but in more recent terms from where i am listening, where they were about to go to grimms party, their relationship has evolved so much?? but it had barely even changed. if that makes sense???

especially when chip now almost refuses to lie to gillion anymore. if anything, i think the ice dome broke but made their relationship stronger because gillion confronted chip about what he has been doing. and chip now kind of understands where gillion is coming from??? because gillion doesnt share much of what is in the undersea with the two other than the mentions here or there of his laws and his beliefs, and strongly believing them. and i guess chip is still trying to process that gillion is NEW to this world and everything. even now in the episodes i'm in.

they have a really interesting relationship but i cannot put it into words bc if i do i will explode. but i love them.

4. THE TRIO!!!

all in all, they're idiots who found each other and in turn are trying to find themselves in this big vast, and new, world. they are idiots who have insane amounts of chemistry even when they first met. they are idiots who walk straight into navy bases and fuck shit up bc it's what they do as the best pirates ever!!! they consume my heart and mind and they will never leave. they are a package deal and they refuse to leave one another behind because they are friends. they are co-captains. they are family. they are each others persons. and that's it to them.

okay i think i'm done. SORRY AGAIN

[chronicangel]

I actually think it would be really funny if Gotham had a reputation for being like, a really cool and fun place that you want to go.

Like I know the running gag in fandom (and a little bit in comics, too) is that Gotham is a cesspit, famed for its insane vigilantes and impossibly high rates of violent crime, but when I think about real-life cities with very high crime rates and sort of a smoggy aesthetic, they are often places that people want to go.

Like, New Orleans is in the top ten cities in the world for homicide rates according to the data from 2022 (all the other 10 are in Mexico, and I can't speak as much to them because I've never been, but I at least recognize Tijuana, which is #5, as a place other people seem to refer to as a tourist destination for Americans), and yet there is a very real and very large crowd of people fully devoted to going there every year for Mardi Gras. I know multiple people who fantasize about living in the French Quarter, and when my grandparents took me there once as a teenager, I remember driving around with my grandmother to look at all the old, pretty buildings.

People famously think of New York City as a dangerous city with high crime rates (although the last few years have really reflected those crime rates going down), and yet it is also one top 10 of the most popular cities in not only the US but the world for tourism. My Dad lived in upstate New York from 2021 until this year, and just moved to North Jersey (significantly closer to the city), and for a while, he would rent a hotel in Times Square for a weekend every time I visited. If a band or artist is touring the US, it would practically be a crime to skip NYC, and there are the huge drawing forces of tourist destinations like the Statue of Liberty and Broadway. In fact, I lived halfway across the country from NYC and I still knew people who went on high school field trips there with their theatre programs.

I grew up in a college town in Southwest Missouri, and for most of my young adult life, I must have gone to St. Louis at least a half-dozen times a year. We went on a field trip to Six Flags when I was in 8th grade. I took a mini-vacation there in July 2023 where I paid for an Airbnb for a week and went to the zoo three or four days in a row so I could really take my time with it. I went on a day-trip in May of this year with a friend from work where we walked around the city to the tune of 19,000 steps. And all of that despite the fact that I spent my entire life hearing about the gang violence permeating the city, and the fact that St. Louis was ranked as the most dangerous city in the United States for several years in my lifetime.

I just moved to Philadelphia, which is in the top 50 cities in the world for homicide rates (see the link on New Orleans), because I've been coming here since I was a teenager and it's always been a home away from home to me. And when I went on my first walk around the neighborhood after moving here, I proudly bragged to my friends about how I had only been catcalled five times, two of which were by the same dude (some guy on my block who yelled at me at the beginning and the end of my walk) and one of which was by a child, so statistically that was a pretty good walk.

My point with all of this is that there are lots of very dangerous places in the world that people still idolize and want to go to. Within the lore of DC Comics, Gotham is a city that was first established in the early 17th century, with beautiful Gothic architecture and the Delaware Bay framing its edges. It would also be the largest city in New Jersey by a long shot, and I can imagine that with the real-world affectionate rivalry between New York and Jersey, citizens of the state would loudly defend Gotham as the superior city to NYC, cesspit or no (the same way that Missourians will hold Kansas City over Kansas' head until the end of time, or until they give back what's rightfully ours).

I imagine people from all sorts of places and all walks of life would go on two-week trips to Gotham during summer vacation to see whatever iconic landmarks stuck out to them, or maybe even to try to catch a glimpse of Batman and the other famous vigilantes-- I think if I heard that there was a vigilante in one of the big cities only a few hours away from my hometown, I probably would have been drawn to it like a magnet the second I was old enough to decide where to spend my breaks.

Also, just looking at it realistically, most of Gotham's crime happens at night and in very specific parts of the city-- which is also true of big cities in the real world. So it's extremely likely that a tourist could spend weeks or even months in Gotham and still never be directly subject to the sort of crime that Batman and Robin and whoever else might be there at the time are dealing with. I can easily imagine plenty of folks from Metropolis deciding to take a day trip to Gotham, which is just across the bay and would logically only take a couple hours tops to get to (assuming there's an operational ferry, and why wouldn't there be?), walking around the city looking at gargoyles and trying famous restaurants, and then packing on up and going back to Metropolis to say, "Yeah, people talk a big talk, but I've been to Gotham and it really isn't that scary."

You know, the way we all do with real cities.

[kelgorath]

i think the possible existence of a perk combination bug is super compelling and all of the data sets i’ve looked over had significant statistical evidence. i don’t think anyone making those data sets actually thinks bungie is doing it on purpose, i know quite a few of them and they’re all adamant that they don’t believe its intentional at all. their qa team was literally gutted a few months ago! i know several folks who work at bungie at various departments and i believe them when they say that they’re not aware of any problems.

but things slip through the cracks, and one good example of this was the craftening. the actual exploit for crafting was was possible for months before someone discovered it, it happened purely by chance. it’s actually a good example of how good the tiger engine is, even with all the spaghetti code. just the fact that a live-service online multiplayer game could even handle all of that insane shit while everyone was playing with their fun new impossible god powers!!

it’s entirely possible that something like this has existed since at least the launch of tfs, because with the introduction of weapon crafting in witch queen, a lot of the rng chase hasn’t been necessarily as focused on individual perks as much as it has been unlocking red border weapons!

i’m most compelled by the theory that some people have proposed about perk duplication when you focus weapons too quickly. because i myself have literally spent the past 6 months trying to get an igneous hammer with precision instrument and keep away, but i almost exclusively get heal clip/incandescent or rapid hit/precision instrument. sometimes i’ll get a different combo of those very same perks, like rapid hit/incandescent, but i have focused nearly a hundred engrams and never gotten the precision + keep away combo.

why do i bring this up? because i tend to focus engrams really quickly! i approach the rng with an “eh, let’d get it over with so i can go back into trials and farm more engrams because i know this one won’t be it” mentality. and a lot of times, if i quickly focus a bunch of engrams in a row, it’ll give me a few nearly identical igneous rolls! i had just chalked it up to bad luck. but oh my god if this is an actual bug??

[theficcafe]

𝐬𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐰𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞 𝐛𝐥𝐮𝐞 - 06

↳ Genre: Angst, Fluff

↳ Pairing: college!gojo x fem!reader

↳ Warnings: unrequited love

↳ Playlist: (will link here!)

↳ Masterlist: 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10

song for this chapter: question..? - taylor swift

"Good girl, sad boy

Big city, wrong choices."

You didn’t have any history of insomnia. 

In fact, you had a healthy relationship with sleep. Unlike Shoko, whose body clock has been completely altered, you valued having 8 hours (or more) of sleep. You once explained the long term effects of having frequent all-nighters to Shoko using a PowerPoint presentation you created in an hour after seeing how exhausted she looked during the daytime, only for her to wave it off and say “everyone dies one day, anyway.”

It’s funny though - how you’re looking at Shoko now, fast asleep next to you, looking peaceful as ever, at 11PM. And yet here you are; eyes wide open, no trace of grogginess. You were wide awake and you knew it’d be awhile before you can join her in the dream land.

You reached for your phone on the night stand, unlocking it to look at the pictures you had taken earlier. The sunset looked beautiful in Tokyo, and you couldn’t help but take a piece of it with you through photography. You took quite a few selfies for remembrance, and spent the rest of the time thinking of someone  admiring its beauty.

A text notification from Yuuta snapped you back to reality. A small smile made its way to your lips upon seeing his name.

yu: when are youuu coming back home? mei mei’s so unforgiving with the shifts that i am covering for you! she said it’s for when you come back. you’d have all your shifts covered, so that means you still get paid. and i don’t get any?! i’m her brother!

You chuckled. Mei Mei has always been playful with Yuuta, teasing him every chance she gets. It’s always a fun dynamic to watch whenever you would be invited for sleep overs at their house. Though Yuuta sees it as a never ending cruelty imposed by his older sister, you, as the spectator, knows that this is Mei Mei’s way of showing his love for him, despite the age gap.

With them, you never once felt alone.

ramen provider: you get half, i promise!

yu: i better get half. also, i took all your ramen packs yesterday. figured they needed to be eaten by someone before they expire..

ramen provider: that’s the plan buddy

yu: why are u awake btw? you usually sleep early when you don’t have anything to do

You paused. 

You knew the answer; it’s already in the back of your mind. A certain name. 

How could a faceless person knock on the walls of your mind and make it their throne without your permission? How mighty could he be, Gojo Satoru, for him to reach every corner of your mind as his own? 

For you, he was the unexpected guest; one who knocked rapidly on your heart, only to be answered with deadly silence. But despite your eyes reflecting a very angry thunderstorm, he took his shoes off and barged right into your heart.

You diverted your attention back to your conversation with Yuuta.

ramen provider: just losing sleep lately, i guess..

—  or going insane.

“We’re going somewhere nice next week!”

You munched on your toast, eyes fixated on your phone. Mornings with Shoko were always eventful; once upon a sleepover when you both were 18, you woke up to Shoko completely awake, hugging a pillow, just.. looking right at you. It freaked you out to say the least, but you didn’t have time to react or even scream because even in that moment, Shoko is certain what she wants to do for the day.

“Do you want to skip school with me?”

You could even barely blink.

What you loved about your best friend is her skill to be able to specify plans. Whenever you were with her, you were always out. It wasn’t bothersome to you because you thought your dynamic is perfectly balanced, with you being introverted and Shoko being the best of both worlds. She isn’t the most sociable, but she’s way more sociable than you could ever be. She is your walking itinerary - your personal travel document. She’s always going somewhere, and she knows how to get there.

When you say you'd probably be found dead in a ditch somewhere without Shoko, you meant that.

“And where could that be?” You asked, slightly distracted, eyes scanning your SNS feed. You stumbled upon an exchange program advertisement and got curious.

Shoko took a sip of her coffee, eyes twinkling in excitement. “A close friend of mine from med school - who is, by the way, filthy rich - invited me to their staycation. I actually turned him down but he insisted, so I told him I have to bring my bestest friend in the whole world or I am not getting on that boat. He was more than happy to agree.”

You felt as though you got slapped. Glancing up from your phone, you barely managed to register her words before you were up yelling. “What?! I didn’t get to say yes!”

“Were you going to say no?”

“Well - Iei, I don’t know them!”

Shoko pouted, standing up to take her now empty “I Hate Mondays” mug to the sink for a wash. “That’s the whole point - you can get to know them! We won’t be alone with him.”

You almost fainted. “That’s even worse! Iei, You know I am the worst with people.”

Shoko turned around, mug still in hand, but is now covered in dishwashing soap. She sent you a disapproving look. “No you aren’t. You just choose not to mingle with people.”

Feeling defeated, you sat down in despair. You let out a groan, to which Shoko responded with a giggle. She turned to you with a reassuring smile. “C’mon, Y/N. I think this is the perfect opportunity for you to branch out and get out of your little shell. Of course, if you really don’t wanna go, I won’t force you. We can stay here in Tokyo and visit a lot of places. I just figured you’d want to get to know the friends I made here, too.”

You suddenly felt guilty. Taking a good look at Shoko (who’s still busy washing her mug), you realized that though she may look the same as before, for some reason, she looked somewhat… far. Living with Shoko means living with familiarity—like a mug of cocoa on Christmas Day when your parents would actually be home, and they’d prepare a simple dinner before exchanging gifts. Shoko felt exactly like that scenario.

She’s so familiar that somehow, along the way of basking into this familiarity and loneliness, you unconsciously blurred out her life. What did you even know about Shoko after you both went to college?

Of course you tell each other everything (with Shoko being more talkative than you are) but now, actually thinking deep about it, you realized how vague her stories have gotten; it’s almost full of “Here’s how my day went”, “I’m so tired!”, “I hate med school!”

You never dug deeper.

That’s why the last line of her reply struck you the most; because she’s Shoko, your best friend since forever, the one who witnessed you go through the horrifying consequences of transitioning to adulthood, the only person who you can call at 4 am when you’re in the middle of an academic breakdown or when you want to make a long commentary about the show you’re currently watching. Your person - and despite this, you never even bothered to ask if she had company. If she has made good friends.

Today, at 6 o’clock in the morning, with the sound of tap water running in the background and Shoko humming softly to a song, you realized how big the world has gotten.

It was no longer just Shoko and you.

“Yellow looks so good on you.”

You scowled, red hue rushing its way to your cheeks. “No, Shoko.”

You’re not sure how you got yourself in this situation - a happy Shoko swiping her cards left and right, hopping on every store she sees to “better prepare for the trip.”

An hour ago, you told Shoko you were going; but on one condition - you’d never go swimming.

It’s not as if you were the worst swimmer out there, it’s more of the fact that you never packed a swim attire. When you told Shoko, her eyes gleamed so bright you could mistake her for Christmas lights (and you know she’s just going to use your dilemma as an excuse to go shopping and splurge).

You never anticipated yacht parties and big pools and rich medical students on vacation, so hey, who could blame you?

You had agreed to go shopping for essentials; sunscreen, water bottles, blankets, towels..

..and yet you’re in a bikini shop.

“Oh please!” Shoko exclaimed, grabbing your shoulders to give you a playful shove, “I have seen you wear bikinis a thousand times, Y/N. And every time you do, you always rock it.”

You stuck your tongue out playfully, “That was years ago, Ie.” You snatched the clothing from her hand and quickly put it back in the rack. “Everything has changed.”

Shoko sent a playful look, “Oh really? I don’t know - you wanna show me?”

You rolled your eyes playfully and sighed. “You know what. I just wanna get this over with, so alright, I’ll take the yellow one.” You pulled your wallet out of your pocket just in time when Shoko suddenly ran towards the cashier at a fast pace.

“No, this one’s on me!”

"Shoko."

She continued to run, fully aware of the daggers you are shooting her way. You sighed, finally admitting defeat. "Fine, but the food's on me!"

Looking back at your pouting form, Shoko sent a playful wink and gave you a thumbs up, "You got it!"

You didn't know if it was all the shopping, or Shoko literally dragging you everywhere (maybe this was mostly it), but you suddenly felt sick. Not sick-sick, more like the idea of hopping onto a yacht for God knows how long with a bunch of people you completely do not know or have any history with finally sinking in, in the middle of a swimwear store.

Holy shit.

A million thoughts ran through your mind - as a socially-selective person, you honestly did not know how to prepare yourself for this trip. No amount of sunscreen and wine can prepare you for conversations, your number one enemy.

Despite the chaos in your mind, you remained seated, embodying the perfect image of a stone for being so still. Shoko seemed to notice, already crouching down to meet your gaze. She had a worried look on her face, an image you're all too familiar with.

"Hey," She spoke, hand coming up to poke your cheek. Your eyes instantly met hers, mustering a tiny smile to reassure her that you're dying inside okay.

You made a mental note to write cue cards and practice conversing with yourself in the bathroom back at Shoko's apartment.

Standing up, you let out a nervous chuckle to mask the fact that you are one second away from backing out of this rich friend-yacht-party rendezvous. "Alright, enough with shopping, please. You know I have a high metabolism, I think I burned half of my soul from all that walking."

Shoko rolled her eyes, a playful smile making its way to her cherry-red lips. "We literally went to three places, Y/N. One of them was the bathroom."

"That still takes up so much energy."

You both walked out of the swimwear shop (and finally, finally tasted true freedom) when Shoko grabbed your free hand, her playful smile turning to a grin so contagious you found yourself smiling too. "Why are you so smiley?"

You asked, and yet you knew. She shrugged, looking ahead. "This trip means a lot to me, and I know you aren't really built for things like these, so thank you for choosing to come and fighting the urge to finish the world war II documentary I know you've been watching. The urge is strong, I know; because you're a nerd."

You just smiled to yourself silently. She really knows you like the back of her hand; at the same time, you were creeped out - because you only really watched the documentary around 4AM when she was fast asleep on your shared bed.

A thousand walks later, you were finally the first one in line for a famous restaurant Shoko has been blabbering about for the past few days. At this point, you were finally convinced that your soul has finally transcended from all the waiting you'd done on behalf of your angry, frustrated best friend who kept complaining about how unfair the staff has been treating the customers. The truth is, you could have been inside thirty minutes ago if it wasn't for the rich-looking couple who obviously did not reserve a slot and lied about it to get ahead. What's worse is the staff not even sparing a glance, allowing them to walk inside.

Aside from waiting, you had also been suffering from secondhand embarrassment. Shoko, the ever-so-feisty one between the two of you, had been talking to the staff responsible for the reservation list. The more she got upset, the more her voice got louder, and you had to pull her back to remind her that you guys were in public.

"I swear," Shoko huffed, hands on her hips, rolling her eyes at the unbothered staff who clearly knew what he was doing, "I will rate this zero stars."

"That's mean." You uttered, pushing her back slightly. "It was just a person - the whole crew doesn't need to suffer from a negative review."

Pushing back, Shoko sent you a firm look (that did not even intimidate you; you think she only looked like an angry cat.)

"My legs are cramping, Y/N! I am wearing heels!" She whispered, pain laced in her voice. You laughed lowly, sending her a teasing smile. "You literally could've just sat on the waiting chairs."

"There were chairs?"

Before you could even let out a funny comeback (that you thought was genius), a deep voice spoke from behind you, the scent of wood sage and sea salt cologne coming off strong, almost making you feel dizzy from how strong it was.

That's when it started.

The loud, clicking sound; follows its own rhythm, getting louder and louder as the scent from behind you becomes stronger, filling your nostrils.

"Shoko?"

You turned around at the familiar tone, one that reminded you of train stations and parks.

You were meant to meet his eyes - the kind man who offered to walk to the park when you got lost. Toji, if you could recall well, was his name.

But you met someone else's gaze instead.

The clicking in your mind disappeared. It had turned eerily quiet, except for the low buzzing in your ears. It seemed as though the clicking faded out, like a countdown reaching its last number.

Somewhere in your mind, you could hear Shoko speaking, mixed with Toji's voice who kept calling your name.

But you were someplace else.

Somewhere blue.

︶꒦꒷♡꒷꒦︶

 𝔀𝓮𝓵𝓬𝓸𝓶𝓮 𝓽𝓸 𝓴𝓪𝓸'𝓼 𝓬𝓸𝓻𝓷𝓮𝓻!

hi everyone, it’s kao!

it has been mONTHS!!! i missed everyone on here so much!

thank you for all the kind words! even when I was away, I had been receiving messages and replies from my lovely readers. i got too busy juggling work and school and had literally zero time for my hobbies. you guys have no idea how much I missed writing!

anyway, i have been [secretly] writing chapters in my drafts just in case I finally found the time to proof-read them and finally publish it for you guys ˃̵ᴗ˂̵ but I had to focus on more important things for me this month, so I left these babies unpublished for the meantime. i wanted to make sure everything was perfect before publishing them!

but fear not my friends, i am [officially] back in business!! ฅ^•ﻌ•^ฅ

as always, feedback/reblogging would me a lot to me! thank you for the small appreciation you guys have shown!  ପ(๑•ᴗ•๑)ଓ ♡

see u guys in chapter 07!

kao, out! ʚ♡ɞ

[fabdante]

For the DMC reboot:

This might work better before they took down Mundus, and of course the twins would have to know one another better for this to actually work, but:

Dante switching places with Vergil for a day or two because Reasons and being shocked and probably more than a little envious of the sheer contrast. Not even just in how much more money Vergil has than him (tho Dante IS jealous of that; Vergil shows Dante how much he makes and how much Vergil has in his bank account and Dante's brain just kinda stops working for a few seconds, trying to process how big the numbers are), but in how people treat Dante-as-Vergil, compared to how they treat Dante-as-himself. Because yeah, some of it is down to the way Dante acts when he's being himself, and Dante knows this (he just doesn't really know how to be anything different/better, or if its even worth the effort- or if he'll even live long enough for it to matter)... but that's not ALL it is.

The money and status Vergil has helps, that's true, but even just. Being able to walk into a fucking room, say what (you're pretending) your name is, and not have demons or demon collaborators drag you into Limbo or have people otherwise hate and fear you as some monster, and/or treat you like they can tell you're "worthless gutter trash" just by looking at you is... Something. It sure is something.

Idk. I just think it'd be a fun concept to play around with. Especially if Vergil made himself look like Dante and spent the day (or week- however long this takes) running around fighting demons and dodging demon collaborators and probably living in shitty hotels or sleeping on the streets (if he really had to), too, just to really sell whatever ruse they're trying to pull here.

Hopefully this would bring the twins closer together, but I could see it causing problems between the two, too. Which hopefully they could work out, but still. Idk, I just think it'd be Neat.

Side note: They'd probably have to switch swords to make it REALLY convincing, so that could be fun too.

I do think the idea of the twins swapping would be interesting and possibly quite silly!! And it'd give them insight to each others lives!

However I don't know how convincing they'd be asdfghjk they are identical twins in the reboot as far but Kat would 100 percent figure this out immediately upon seeing one of them, which in itself is also very funny asdfghjkl like, beyond the fact Vergil in the reboot is just so insanely pale and Dante is not, it'd take so much work for them to get each others mannerisms down and they might be able to fool others at the Order but definitely not Kat. I can see her walking in on Dante pretending to be Vergil and just immediately like 'ok, where is Vergil, what are you two doing?' to which Dante is going to try and salvage this and fail spectacularly because Kat is not buying his Vergil act, especially now that he's talking asdfghjk I love this concept. I tend to imagine they all didn't leave the Order much at the Dante stage of the plan, but they'd definitely be more convincing around strangers then in the Order.

Flip side of this is also I can see Dante suggesting this for funsies and Vergil just absolutely declining, he does not want to live in Dante's life asdfghjk he is not built to be around dirt he will cry.

If he were to take him up on it though and had to live parts of Dante's life, I definitely think he'd be woefully ill prepared for that. Which might bring him a little more understanding as to why Dante is the way he is, but I do think it might further Dante's resentment towards Vergil because he is definitely just very jealous of how easy Vergil's life has been this whole time.

I also propose a funny alternative: which is Dante wandering around the Order pretending to be Vergil while Vergil is unaware as part snooping mission (he's trying to figure out information on the Order and his brother and Kat and if he can trust any of this) and part just for funsies to see what happens. Some of the newer members are buying it, none of the older ones are, he went on a caper to steal Vergil's clothes from his closet and everything, he acquired a wig, eventually Kat and Vergil catch wind of this and it ends with Dante, in full Vergil cosplay, in Vergil's office while Kat and Vergil are just like ???

[jakespov]

San Diego!

SORRY THIS IS SO LATE Okay I'm going to do a quick post about San Diego (<3 I love this city) and I'll post about my summer in Utah soon!

PS: this post contains some iPhone pics, some film pics of mine, and some of Jeff's film pics which are half-exposures which are kinda cool!

SO I arrived in San Diego August 7th and checked into my dinky hostel...

Immediately went to explore the city and had a great night eating pizza. This is when I realized the lack of public spaces here; I got a pizza to go and couldn't eat it anywhere; there were no benches or picknick tables or anything so I ate it on the curb somewhere behind a parking lot lol.

Day 2 I spent cycling around around a rental bike (I cycled 74 km that day!) which was super fun but so tiring because San Diego is one big mountain. I have many pretty pictures but I think this video does the downhill route I took more justice. I was so insanely happy lol I was listening to the Beach Boys and picturing what my life could look like here. (It would look pretty damn cool.)

Cycling back up was, in fact, a bitch and I complained the whole way up but you don't wanna see that. Apple Maps told me it was "moderatlely hilly" and it was a 45 degree incline for half a mile, I almost ended it all right then and there.

The next couple days were spent going out at night and doing fun things during the day, like visiting Gaslamp Quarter (where I spent a lotttt of time), cycling around the city and its surroundings, and visiting Balbao park.

I met up with my friend Jeff to head to a beach where we spent the afternoon and had some fat pizza afterwards. Imagine this view! At the beach! Right at your house! Every day! Why does anyone live in any city that isn't San Diego it's insane I don't get it because WOW THIS PLACE IS GORGEOUS!

Some more going out later we went to a big festival the city was running and I got a semi-impromptu tattoo (I'd wanted it for a while and knew I wanted to get it in San Diego and what better day than the festival day!). The festival was so fun and I got to see some more new parts of the city. We went to a club there and (not pictured) Trinity the Tuck was there? And she performed there? Which was kinda fuckin crazy like what that would never happen in Amsterdam.

Okay almost done: the last major thing I did was I went to my first ever MLB game with Jeff, of course it was the Padres where they beat the hell out of the Pirates because of course they did. It was such a cool unique experience I had so much funnnn ok last pictures coming in nowwwww

I really can't express how much fun I had in this city. I partially wanted to scoop out the area to see if I could see myself living in this city or this state and I think I can pretty confidently say I can, even after only a week and a half there.

[goneahead]

I was tagged by @radiowrites and @stephmcx thank you♥️!!

Hi! I am @goneahead on tumblr. I am also goneahead on A03 and goneahead over on dreamwidth (see links in my pinned post - my internet has gone wonky again)

So, this was definitely not one of my better years. I have three WIPs and while I plodded away at all three, I was never happy enough to post new chapters.

What’s really sad is I finally hit 1 million words posted on dreamwidth—and then I pretty much struck out this year. I’m mostly posting this cuz I think its good for newer writers to realize that yes, even experienced writers have years where things just go all pear-shaped.

My grand total for fanfic was: 1,513😳

I don’t keep track of my poetry word count, but I started the year writing poem #926 and ended the year writing poem #947

Total Number of Fanfics: about 150

Total Number Of Completed Works: this year? 0

Total Number of WIPS worked on this year: 3

How Many WIPs do you still have: 4

Looking back, did you write more than you thought you would this year, less, or about what you’d expected? Much less. In fact, this year was pretty much a bust.

Did you take any writing risks this year? Well considering I spent all year writing three fics and wasnt happy enough to post anything….

Biggest Surprise: I would love to say I was surprised at how little I posted, but I am a disorganized idjit and—yeah. nobody is shocked.

Biggest Disappointment: see above😆

Do you have any writing goals for the new year? Finish Home verse. Let’s see how that goes….

Fanfiction Questions Below! (if you don’t write fanfiction feel free to skip or rework the questions for your original works.)

Fandoms I’ve written in this year? Hawaii Five-0

Your most popular story of the year? sadly, I didn’t post a new story, just a poem and a tiny addition to another verse.

The story that was easiest/or most fun to write? Still enjoying my MIB AU. Now if I could actually finish it…

Hardest story to write: Lead Me Through the Fire from 2022 was one of those fics where all the different pieces of the plot had to fit together just so. I spent more time than I’d like to admit second-guessing myself on how I arranged the chapters.

Your sweetest funniest story: I have a soft spot for Hawaii Five-0’s Eric Russo. The character is very funny and often wildly inappropriate. I wrote a scene in one of my WIPs where Eric is just soooo Eric

Your saddest scene: I didn’t write anything sad this year.

The sexiest moment you’ve written this year? again, nada.

Your favorite tag: diplomatic javelining😆

Most unintentionally telling story: hmmm. I can’t think of anything too revealing in my fic? Except a tendency to write too many AUs?

Are any of your fics named after/heavily inspired by music? Yes. A lot of my fics have their own playlists and that music definitely influenced those fics. I don’t usually share these songs—or name my fics after songs—because I listen to a lot of obscure stuff most people have never heard of.

What’s your own favorite story of the year? I continued to get a lot of interesting and thought-provoking comments on Care and Feeding of a Super SEAL this year. There are many amazing fix-it fics for S10xE22 written by insanely talented writers—so its crazy and humbling that people are continuing to read and comment on mine.

Fanfiction risks you took this year? sadly, none.

My favorite part of fandom this year: We had new people join our fandom!

You know, I really don’t get what has happened to fandoms these last few years. It used to be that fans just shrugged and continued to write, create, and have fun—even their fandom didn’t have any new content being made. Am I the only one who thinks its weird that most fans now book it for the nearest exit as soon as a show is canceled or a movie series is over?

letsee, tagging um, @cowandcalf @bennyokelly @itwoodbeprefect @stellagioia @redgoldblue

[jeonghoneyss]

hi honey! i hope the end of the year is treating you well! 4, 5, 23, and 30 for the fic writer's ask game! <3

hi morgan! i've got my exams coming up in early-mid january, so right now i'm just spending a lot of time on maths! i hope to take a brief break afterwards, though. i hope the end of the year is treating you well, too. thanks for the ask! <3

4: What piece of media inspired you the most?

Well! This is a fun question. I'm going to say Disney's Descendants (I don't know if you've watched it?). Completely out of the blue earlier this year, I was struck with an intense bout of love for Descendants that reminded me that I am absolutely obsessed with Descendants, so I then wrote a small fic and rewatched the first move and spent two months being absolutely insane (and also had COVID at the same time). Looking back I think this was brought on by my May-Jun exams, because the same thing is happening now as my Jan exams approach. Such is life, alas.

I'm going to cheat and give you two more answers, too - in the summer, I read Frances Hardinge's Deeplight (an absolutely fantastic book, I definitely recommend it) and then wrote my junhao fic. I also read Garth Nix's Frogkisser! (another brilliant book) and have since been thinking very deeply about my batkisser wip.

5: What fandom(s) did you write for this year?

So! This year I actually wrote for quite a few fandoms! I had to go back and check, but it's actually been quite a good year of writing, and I've managed to post fics for four fandoms in total: I wrote three fics for Stray Kids (one of which Versity and I wrote together), one fic for Miraculous Ladybug, one for Descendants and (finally, as I've been meaning to finish a wip since 2018) one fic for SEVENTEEN.

23: Share the final version of a sentence or paragraph you struggled with. What about it was challenging? Are you happy with how it turned out?

Since I'm in a Descendants mood, I'll share a bit from my Carlos fic - while I was writing this fic, I discovered that all my previous kiss scenes have had a pattern of not saying much about the actual physical kiss itself - it's all stuff like people discovering what other people's smiles feel like against their mouths, which is all well and good, but I wanted to work on that. Originally, this kiss scene was just going to be 'And Carlos discovered that he hadn't read it wrong at all,' which was perfectly serviceable (in fact, I kept it in the fic, in the paragraph right above the following one), but I wanted to write something that wasn't just "and then they maybe kissed." This might be a good time to mention I've never kissed anyone on the lips. Anyway. This paragraph was a bit of a struggle, but I think I did well enough in the end! It was definitely a good start, in any case.

Jay’s fingers find their way into his hair — gently, far more gentle than Carlos thought was possible — and Jay’s tongue is trying to find its way into his mouth, hot and persistent against his lips (it’s a bit much for this kiss, Carlos’ first kiss with asking and explanations and kissing-just-for-kissing, so he keeps his mouth firmly shut until Jay gets the hint, but it’s exhilarating all the same), and Jay’s other hand finds its way from his shoulder to the notch at his waist, and Evil, this might be the best thing to ever happen to him.

30: What's something you want to write in 2024?

Oh, what a question. I'd like to say Every WIP I Have, but I'll start with some of my most recent ones: the junhao batkisser one, the hyunho owls one, the hyunho catboys catfight one, the jeongho mommy issues one, the soonhoon fairies one (and the likely junhao sequel), the junhao where jun keeps leaving and also there's magic and baby seungkwan, the hyunho camera one and, finally, i'd like to iron out the details and actually star my junhao call off your dog one. Gosh. What a long list. Good luck to me. Oh! And the fic I'm writing with Versity, which we have both abandoned for the time being as, unfortunately, we are both very busy.

[witchhatproductions]

Witch Hat News #4 - Lessons from the Archives

by Tata Calthrop

This is an archived version of our microfiction newsletter! You can read along on our tumblr, or subscribe here.

Which archive, you may ask? Well, it's quite simple.

Our own one.

Yes, like many twenty-somethings in the creative field now, I was forged in a rather specific fire – the classic Internet pipeline of Neopets, Deviantart, Tumblr, Twitter, usually interspaced at some point with either a gender crisis or a formal diagnosis of mental illness.

You see, for a young nerdy preteen in 2010, you have two sexy choices made available to you, neither of which you will perceive until it's too late. You will choose either the path of solitude (voraciously consuming and creating content in incredible loneliness and feeling like the only person in the world who does so), or the path of the internet, where you will learn at an incredibly young age how to receive and handle a death threat. I was raised on a raw, unfiltered diet of fandom. (Sonic the Hedgehog. The world has not been kind to me.)

The fans and the hermits have a lot to teach each other. In fact, as easy as it is to make fun of – well – most people on the internet, there is something valuable to be learned from every subculture of creativity, including the horny ones. 

So let me make a confession to you: I'm a fanfiction writer. I have a shameful record of 155,821 words, none of which will ever give me a scrap of credibility with anyone, including other fanfiction writers. (Heavy is the head that wears the dunce hat of Adventure/Comedy.) Hell, I've spent over a year picking away at a fancomic project. For zero dollars and no publication accolades, I have written at least five full completed novellas, which will never be published, be recognised, or prove anything except my big, fat crush on the uncle from Encanto.

My god, was it freeing.

The social pressure to monetize your art is insane. I took my first art commission before I even had my first bank account. It was my teenage dream: to be paid is to obtain credibility. The label will hang over your head like an execution hood: PROFESSIONAL. Of course, the loop never really stops; start making money and suddenly your eyes are open to how many opportunities you're missing, and how little you make compared to others, and how wide the chasm is between you and full-time creation. 

(That's not to say the money and recognition aren't nice! That part I do recommend.)

But making fan content, and making friends who also make fan content, and building up a small audience of people who just want to be there for fun is incredibly liberating when you're not used to it. Get a bunch of friends who create together, join a community that makes its own memes and creates a bubble of mutual feedback and appreciation, and you start to realise: this is how they made the old tales, the oral ones before the printing press.

Here's two lessons from the archives.

Love characters. Fall in love with their vulnerable moments, their jokes, their relationship dynamics, the little unseen parts of them that you can never put in a real story because there's simply no point. Linger on the details. Develop a little crush. Project all your issues and obsess over nothing. Love your own characters, and you'll find suddenly that creating art about them changes from a chore to an act of affection. Learn what makes you fall in love with other stories, and look for the same aspects in your own.

Making art to impress a large audience will disappoint you; making art to impress a social circle of about ten interested people is how life is supposed to be lived. The early humans who painted mammoths on cave walls had no audience except themselves.

Here's a quote I like, from Prof. Henry Jenkins, Provost Professor of Communication, Journalism and Cinematic Arts at University of Southern California: "Contemporary Web culture is the traditional folk process working at lightning speed on a global scale. The difference is that our core myths now belong to corporations, rather than the folk.”

Here's another quote I like, from twitter user @FarfinFarfin: "the fastest way to improve your art is to become some sort of pervert, doesn't really matter what kind, whatever you're comfortable with". 

Reviews

The Northern Caves by @nostalgebraist. The Northern Caves is a cosmic horror story about unwary scholars who delved too deep into the ancient texts, except the scholars are a group of hardcore nerds on an early 2000s fan forum for a mediocre fantasy series, and the ancient texts are fan theories about the author's baffling final novel. I know almost nothing about original fiction on Archive of Our Own, but I recognise a wonderfully online scary story when I see one. Psychological, terrifying, and twistedly fascinating reading for anyone who's ever watched an online community implode.

Songs for Girls in Love by @phemiec. PhemieC was one of my favourite musicians as a teenager, and when I got into my first relationship I rushed into the familiar arms of their love songs. They also were making, at the time, Homestuck fansongs. But when I was 15, this music made more of an impact on me than any classic musician ever could. Songs for Girls In Love has a number of fansongs mixed in, largely for things I've never consumed, but you'd never know it from their lyrical subtlety and I'm still a huge fan. 

Digital Land Grab: Media corporations are stealing our cultural heritage. Can we take it back? By Henry Jenkins. Okay, okay, this one's not exactly micro or fiction of any sort. But it is the article that I quoted earlier, and Prof. Jenkins could be described as the grandfather of fanwork studies in academia. A good read about the history and creative validity of fanwork, and the ways in which corporations suppress it. I highly recommend it, even if you know nothing about fanfiction.

Your project here. Do you make art of any kind - visual, written, performed? Are you starting a project or recruiting co-creators? We want to hear from you! Email us at contact@witchhatproductions.com.

That's it for June. See you next month!