#havent started writing it but i flesh out bits and pieces when i can

[floorpancakes]

had some thoughts about my semi-oc ideas for the in universe parody of xxxholic (and a few other series) that one of the heart render protagonists will be into and i went back and forth on the hair situation w the doumeki expy (the douwata equivalent r yuri for funsies) and despite being a huge fan of mirroring imagery and giving every character from fictional media or OCs that one bob style i was like nah. yasuho would still have super short hair i can't imagine a super feminine doumeki expy even if the character would be a girl i also considered a himecut ojou type but i just wasn't feeling ANY resemblance at all and the whole point is i can riff and meme on some of that so why would i divert so far and yeah my tired brain was just like no 💛

[kendev]

⋆｡°✩ dev log 03 ✩°｡⋆

updates and general rambling under the cut!-

ok. havent updated in a bit but talking to myself. yeah. im very good at that. reminder that there's no rush to progress and things take time first of all Carly!

but anyways. first!) i've gotten a lot more character designs and motivations fleshed out but i can admit some routes definitely have a bit more poored into them than others atm and thats something im trying to fix. not force. just... add a lil something more yknow. bcuz there ARE many pieces of media like that where you can tell that a creator just had more care for one thing than the other and I dont at any point want to come across that way bcuz i do genuinely love all these characters, and I think they each deserve to be enjoyed and loved by someone that isnt just me! so I want other ppl to feel the love as well through ALL routes! not just a "Oh you can tell these handful of characters are the creators faves" So essentially not favoring certain kids over others like good parents would lol

secondly) I've started properly separating routes in different documents... lol. I'll be honest I had EVERYTHING. and i mean EVERYTHING all stored in one document. Names, notes on things, character bgs, clothing inspo AND the actual routes all on one big document. at some point i was like ok there needs to be some separation here. OBVIOUSLY. so I did that, and now i'll be able to actually say like "Oh Reapers Route is now currently at _thousand words making good progress there :)"

but yeah. theyre separated by:- -a document just for writing tips/advice/things to remember -a document just for character profiles (what they like, family bg, info like that etc etc.) -a document just for route plans. like an outline ig. briefly with notes like ok I want X character to have X arc, and X happens and progresses enough until they get to X -separate routes for each character in a diff document -and then just a main document to fall back on and compare notes or there's a few extra things there. like for example, im still not sure on some names. In this doc there's a section just for me to look at a long list of names i've saved to mull on later. :)

it's kind of still. a lot. but ideally more organize,, for me at least

third) lost contact with that one project manager i'd gotten </3 I still have their info yeah but ig due to the fact that there's not much I've given them info wise theyve left me to my own devices (which makes sense(?). but thats fine. I may reach out again when things are a little more fleshed out i suppose. I definitely do run off of compliments and people expectations unfortunately, so having ppl interested and asking things is what keeps me working. im not as much of a 'do it yourself for yourself satisfaction person anymore, I need outside sources to drive me so that I can feel like I'm actually leaving a proper mark on something

WHICH. I know is not good, but that's been my process while working on the game and most things. -I share a little tidbit (but not too much with friends or mutuals. -They express interest or tell me abt which characters they feel drawn too -I feel good and want to keep working harder! its like that and lastly) concerning things going on with the relationship between creators and other ppls entitlement to their OCs (which i will not name directly), that is something ive talked abt in depth in private but I would like to at least put this down somewhere one day in case anyone finds it. Please do not treat my OCs like they are yours. its much different as a small indie creator to have characters than to claim a character from a big company game or series is your OC. I'd feel so bad if people overlooked what I say and cross boundaries

[pinkykitten]

everything stays

chapter 1 - blood on her hands :: gisela klein [ an aot oc story ] 

note: hey guys i know its been a rlly long time since ive posted anything and u may be rlly let down and underwhelmed that ive chosen to write a aot oc instead of fanfic but its what i want to write and i rlly love my oc and wanna give her some love and some praise and let u a little in how i see her. im sorry i havent posted a lot im going to try to write more and who knows i may or may not finish this but its ok imma try lol but life sometimes is a butthole. i hope you love her as much as i do an tysm for taking time out of ur day to read this story. enjoy!

Even though she knew that this day would have to come and that it was near, it still was a surprise for her. She was taken aback. It didn’t make sense and add up to her; she was trained for this since she was little; preparing mentally and physically for phase one of the plan; and the day appeared through the trees; past the wall; the opportunity was present; the fate of the people were waiting in their hands; and yet she felt a sense of evilness within her heart. Was this right? But there was no time. 

The day was written down in history. The stories were spread around like a disease. Heights, jaws, teeth, feet, stench, the screams. If they survived that nightmare they were seen as a tough soldier; as someone that was applauded because they probably had PTSD and had to see everyday as a reason within themselves or God that they were alive. That maybe just maybe they were saved for a reason; for a purpose. That is what Gisela Klein thought. Maybe there was something greater out there for her to do, to accomplish and that was why she saw another day; breathed another breath. 

But one thing was for sure. Forgiveness would never come her way; she would never expect it. To be a warrior she had to endure the horror; the pain; feelings of worthlessness; and friendships lost. 

This is the story of the 10th finding titan; the Slash Titan.

The pounding of her heart rang through her ears. It had taken everything for her to keep going on this journey; to continue on the path to and through Hell. She felt a loss within her and the light in her eyes died out. The loss of her friend made it hard for her to function. To keep her head in the game and in the plan. 

She sighed as she stared at her hands. Broken and bruised like her heart; scars and scratches scattered on her skin. Her bite mark deeply engraved into her flesh. She heaved a huge sigh. Ready to give death a handshake and make a deal with the devil. Panic was rising in her chest from her stomach, almost ready to throw up. 

As she thought about her family back home she realized there was no other way; she had to do this. In order to be with her family, to save them she had to do the one thing she was trained to do. 

Kill.

A lightning strike shot over the wall. The wall that kept the monsters away and at bay. Something was wrong; the air seemed to change. The lightning strike caused a boom, clap and the ground started to shake. 

Bertholdt drew his leg back and with full force swung his leg forward, knocking a hole into the wall that was impenetrable. Many people flew back from the wind of the blow and some were crushed by the debris of the wall. 

Many were going to die; but it’s what needed to be done. 

The titans were called. 

Finally the titans entered the devils homes and started to rip up their lives. “This is right, this is right.” Gisela had to keep reminding herself. “For my family.” And something snapped within her. The image of her mother, tortured, flashed in her mind. And suddenly everything was worth it. “No regrets.”

Gisela eyed Reiner, an agreement, a sign. She exhaled and in a quick motion placed her hand to her mouth and bit into it. In a spark she transformed into her titan form. Her eyes were much like a cats, sharp. She was made into the slash titan, she was chosen for this program. Her titans fingers were like sharp knives, able to cut any object or person. They hung a little past her knees. 

Reiner then transformed and both stomped past the hole. Many citizens glanced up, horrified. Gisela and Reiner were titans never seen before. 

She nodded to Reiner, bent down and started to pick up debris and pieces of houses to throw over the bigger wall. The chunks started to smash against people. Blood splattering everywhere. Gisela almost wanted to close her eyes from the immense amount of dead bodies piled on top of others, graves upon graves. 

She was hauling boulders as high and fast as she could. Her titan held a high amount of power and strength. Being slim, muscular and as tall as the armored titan and female titan. Reiner took a step back and gained his speed to go onward to destroy the bigger wall. 

“Fire!” Their soldiers cried out. Fear evident on their face. They shot their cannons, not even slowing down Reiner. Gisela continued flinging, wanting to create a path for Reiner. She was faster than before and many of her hits flattened the men in the front lines. Their screams and cries loud. 

“Close the gate!” They tried, it was their last hope to save humanity. But it was not enough. Reiner broke the wall and killed those running and they went flying. They reached even higher than Gisela. It astounded her almost, they seemed like helpless birds flying high in the sky; but that thought was quickly wiped clean because the second they flew up in the air they came straight down with much force that many parts of their bodies broke. 

Reiner did what he needed to do, he opened up a way for the titans to get in and they were swarming by the bunches. 

In the distance, the survivors fled in boats across the river to get into the other walls. Gisela put herself in their shoes for a second. They had reason to be scared. Everything they have ever known was gone; their houses, loved ones, food, a place to feel the most comfortable you can feel despite situations; it was all gone. Gisela shook the thought out, not caring about these cruel humans feelings. They had none. No emotions. Gisela had to believe that thought; what she was told, she had to believe it with all her heart, or else what was real?

They waited till they were able to not be seen and Gisela turned human first and then so did Reiner. The four of them hopped on the boat. Talking amongst themselves. The wind howled through the vacant homes. Destruction everywhere. Gisela looked around her setting and saw a little girl had been crushed because a tree fell on her, her doll mere inches away from her grasp. She died with her eyes open; almost looking into Gisela’s soul through the eyes. Gisela’s body trembled and she threw up. 

“Don’t.”

Gisela looked up to see Reiner wiping blood and debris off his clothes. He picked his sleeve and turned Gisela’s head to look away, he wiped her chin and mouth off the puke. He saw the trauma in her eyes and felt guilty. But it’s what needed to be done. He kept telling himself that the more he did this the more he would understand and get used to it. It was still all new to her and he had to be strong for her. He knelt in front of her small frame. “It’s not your fault. They needed to die. We are in this together. You don’t need them. Look at me.”

Gisela looked into his eyes, away from the sadness. His eyes carried the feeling of wanting to be wanted. That was always what Reiner wanted. But they also had fear in his eyes. 

“Stop acting like you’re in control when I know how sick you feel. I know how afraid you are Reiner.”

He paused and took a look at his hands and others surrounding him. “You’re right. But I made a promise to Marcel.”

They joined the other citizens arriving at the food reserves. The master of disguise was needed in this mission. People needed to see four hungry, depressed children that survived the fall of their homes, not mass murderers. 

Annie was only able to fetch two loaves. “Alright, who's the most hungry?”

“You girls should eat, you’re more feeble.” Bertholdt sat on a crate, pointing to Gisela and Annie. 

Annie tsked, moving a bang from her eyes, “who says girls are more feeble? I recall kicking your ass all those times in training.”

“You guys can eat it, I’m not hungry.” Gisela sat on the other crate and saw the chaos of the crowds. A boy caught her interest. He had dark brown hair, tan skin, and light blue green eyes. He was having bread shoved in his mouth and he seemed to have such a strong personality to him. If only Gisela felt so strongly about her motive and her placement in this life. 

“You really should eat, you need your energy after all you did.” Annie broke all the loaves in half and shared it amongst the four of you. “It’s not much but at least it's something.”

Gisela sighed, “you’re right. Thanks.”

After that day there was land given to only a few refugees but there were too many of them. Luckily the four of them had a piece of land that was enough until further inching themselves within society. Through that whole span each day was getting easier and easier living with the lies and day by day Gisela felt more at sure with herself and knowing that she could fulfill this mission. Pills and alcohol helped the pain and ease the thoughts. She taught herself to put a gap between what she came here to do and feelings. She told herself every day that nobody else mattered except her family and Reiner. She trained her brain to not care, to not have strings attached or any love for anything. It was all a play, all a rehearsal for when the curtain would fall. She was readying herself for that fall. Everyday she educated herself more on these scums. What they liked, wanted, needed, craved for, and what they craved more than ever in their life was freedom. 

She trained her body as if it were her last day, barely getting sleep. The face of her mother haunting her every night making her get up at three in the morning to do pushups or sit ups. Not only was her mind getting stronger but also her body. Even Reiner would make jokes noticing the muscles that would appear. The six pack that formed on her stomach. Her thighs growing tight and firm, her arms growing stronger. The sweat growing on her forehead longer. 

With her body growing her relationship with Reiner also changed. They no longer were the tiny children that didn’t understand anatomy or the air between two people. Reiner and Gisela’s relationship was of being flirty, sharing a few kisses here and there, trying to be a couple but then yelling at each other and breaking it up and realizing maybe this isn’t right a million times. Even Bertholdt and Annie were getting tired of their outbursts. But each time they made up to be friends only and then the cycle started where the feelings came in the way and they wanted to be more. They would tease each other, especially Reiner. They were each other's best friends. Gisela was like one of the boys, loud, obnoxious, burping all the time, Reiner would get a look at her and smirk thinking he taught her well. When Reiner looked at her he felt at home and that everything was going to be okay. Her nightmares continued and each time Reiner would come to her room and hold her, let her cry into his arms. She felt he was the only person that knew her pain. 

Gisela understood many things in life and for once she understood her life here, she understood why she was born and chosen. 

It was the following year and in order to get closer to finding the founding titan the four became part of the 104th cadet corps. 

“Are you ready to train more?” Gisela nudged Reiner, eyebrow raised.

“What do you mean train more? This is going to be a new but scary experience honestly.” Reiner spoke as if he was a different person. As if he didn’t have a life outside of the walls. 

“Reiner?” Gisela placed her hand on his shoulder, steadying him. He looked fine on the outside but Gisela knew the issues were inside, his mind. She knew this was becoming disastrous to him, he was starting to have almost two personalities, two lives, two worlds, two people. Gisela tried to tell Annie or Bertholdt, they saw it too but there was nothing they could do. 

All that Gisela could do was smile as they made their way to the first day of training. 

note: again ty y’all sm!!!! If u liked it lmk and this is kinda new for me cuz I usually don’t post my ocs stories here or much at all but I’m rlly excited for y’all to see her and for y’all to know this oc of mine and hopefully accept her ❤️

Taglist: @witchofinterest @chlobenet @eddysocs @fpxloomis @whctsherncme-archive @ocfairygodmother @fandomchick80 @ocappreciationtag

[remnantoforario]

Too Many Cookies: RWBY’s Problem with Excess Part 1

So Volume 8 is over and...it was a rushed mess to say the least. There’s really no other way to describe it. There were some good bits, but they were overshadowed by all the bad things. Which seems to be the formula for RWBY since V5. 

RWBY has never had the strongest writing, I think that’s safe to admit at this point, but after V3 there seemed to be a concentrated effort by CRWBY to improve on that front, which has yielded very mixed results. 

V4 was good (minus the timeline shenanigans), V5 was awful, V6 was divisive to say the least (IMO the first half was good and the second was mostly terrible), and V7 was a mixed bag.

But I’m not here to talk about the plot today (mostly). As the title stated, this post is about RWBY’s problem with excess, more specifically character excess. 

Jellopocalypse mentioned this problem forever ago in their “This is Basically RWBY” video (which is hilarious and you should watch it already if you haven’t) as well as Vexed Viewer around a couple of years ago when he was exploring possibilities for V6. 

As stated in both of those videos (and i’m sure many other videos and posts), RWBY has a problem with introducing a bunch of characters and not doing anything with them. This was mostly forgiven in the first three volumes because of the show’s school setting, but the problem has slowly been growing as of V4.

Just to set the stage, here are the main characters in each volume (essentially those that got the most focus) since the show left Beacon:

V4 - RWBY, JNR, Qrow, Oscar/Ozpin, Salem, Cinder, Tyrian, Sun, Ilia, Ghira, Kali, and the Albains

V5 - RWBY, JNR, Qrow, Oscar/Ozpin, Sun, Ilia, Ghira, Kali, the Albains, Raven, Vernal, Salem, Cinder, Adam

V6 - RWBY, JNR, Qrow, Oscar/Ozpin, Maria, Salem, Cinder, Neo Politan, Adam

V7 - RWBY, JNR, Qrow, Oscar, Maria, Ironwood, Penny, Pietro, Winter, Ace-Ops, Watts, Tyrian, Jacques, Robyn Hill, Cinder, and Neo

V8 - RWBY, JNR, Qrow, Oscar/Ozpin, Ironwood, Penny, Pietro, Maria, Winter, Ace-Ops (Minus Clover), Watts, Neo, Willow, Whitley, The Hound, Salem, Robyn Hill, Happy Huntresses (mostly May), Hazel, Emerald, and Cinder

Now compare these lists to V1-3: RWBY, JNPR, Ozpin, Cinder, Emerald, Mercury, Torchwick, and Penny. Thats it. 

Starting to see a pattern? There are way too many hands in the pot, and all of them are fighting for relevance in the story. Leading to a mess of scenes that take too long on certain characters and push others that should be getting focus to the back.

If we count each person individually with a SHRED of relevance to the plot of V8, we were following a total of 33 characters this volume (If you want to take out Pietro, Maria, Joanna, Fiona, The Hound, Whitley, and Willow, that still leaves 26). 

Now normally in shows with ensemble casts like this (MHA, One Piece, Bleach, Naruto, DB, Black Clover, etc.) this number isn’t really a problem, in fact this number is VERY small considering how big those casts gets (especially OP). 

Why its a problem with RWBY though is that most of these characters have little or nothing to do, or havent done anything since certain volumes. So they are essentially window dressing.

In my opinion, this should have been the main casts for Volumes 7 and 8: 

V7: RWBY, Oscar, Maria, Pietro, Ironwood, Winter, Jacques, Willow, Whitley, Watts, Tyrian, Happy Huntresses, Penny, Ace-Ops, Qrow. 25

V8: RWBY, Oscar, Ozpin, Maria, Pietro, Penny, Ace-Ops (minus Clover), Willow, Whitley, Jacques, Happy Huntresses, Ironwood,  Emerald, Hazel, Winter, Salem, Cinder, Watts, Neo, Qrow. 28

The main thing here is that we took JNR out. Mostly because they haven’t served a purpose since Volume 6. 

Once RWBY got back together JNR lost any real plot importance they had. Jaune takes away scenes that should be given to other characters and Ren and Nora are just here at this point to have meaningless relationship drama that hurts both of their characters.

I know some people reading this will complain about me jettisoning Nora’s character “development” in V7, but in all honesty you could have given all of her non-Ren related scenes with pretty much the exact same dialogue to either Yang or Blake and nothing would have changed. 

Jaune didn’t do anything much of anything in Volume 7 and the one moment he had in Volume 8 was instantly met by hate from fans and non-fans alike. Best to just get him out of here. 

As for Ren, his character was fine throughout the two volumes but the time spent on his “I can see character arcs” semblance evolution could have been better served, you know, ACTUALLY fleshing out those character arcs.  

Honestly, I’d cut out more characters than just them...but that’s for part 2. 

[jujutsu-headcanons]

Yes to Yuji wrecking Mahito! Just so much yes my boy needs to avenge those wrongfully killed!

See I wanted Geto to be on my shit list (as I'm not normally a bad guy lover) but I swear he wore me down reading the manga. Plus he's just so pretty he makes my brain all static noises 😳 Not to mention that backstory between him and Gojo like YES give me all the drama I need buried drama 🤩

Totally agree on the Mai thing. See I wanted to hate Todo too bc of well him beating on Megumi but the moment him and Yuji were just like "Big Dumb Meat Heads" together I threw that out the window! Those two together are *chefs kiss* Absolutely stupendous I never get tired of them 👌👌👌

Mai on the other hand is just crawling more and more under my skin. Like why you gotta be like that gurl? You wanna go in the crusty corner with Mahito? Cuz you gotta crusty attitude that needs fixing like yesterday 😐

Literary brain tells me it wants more drama/character growth between Megumi and Toji. But my useless overly big heart wants to punch Toji and protect Megumi at all costs bc he just showed up on the screen like the kool aid man and burst right into my heart and I shan't forgive Megumi for that but now I will die for him so ¯\_( ツ)_/¯

But I'm not the only one who lowkey fantasizes about self inserty type day dreams??? Like every day all day I got my thoughts flowing into 500 different lil oneshots I'm too chicken to post anywhere bc I havent written anything in a while and I feel I'm rusty. But your idea! YOUR IDEA WOO BOI- I'm not even a Gojo fanatic (like I adore him but my heart dick thudded elsewhere RIP) but that scene you described of straddling him just to rip his blindfold off in the heat of an arguement that's clearly deadly to either party- Just to see him on the brink of tears fighting back every emotion to slate his composure to cocky/uncaring. Only to have it obviously failing, and the metaphorical reality around you both crumbling along with Gojo's emotional state- Oh God I would read that crap outta something like that. It fills me with the angst and I thrive on it daily *heavy breathing* You should think about posting more of your original content too! Self inserty or not bc that sounds down right brilliant on so many levels

💛anon

Bro I can't help but feel had for Gojo. That shit must have hurted. Like he looked so calm and collected when it all happened but was he really? His best friend potential lover went feral and murdered an entire village AND his family then he tried to kill his first years once and now AGAIN what is happening. Did you see the look on Gojo's face when Yaga told him he went rogue? That was a face of hurt and betrayal he couldn't even begin to understand at the young age of... What was it, 17? 18? He was practically a little itty bitty baby compared to now. I haven't read the prequel yet don't laugh at me but I've heard it hurts so much worse having to face Getou back then AND now. Stupid brain worms, stop fucking around.

I wanted to hate Todo too hut before he even turned good I couldn't. I have a thing for big buff boys who have zero brains and too much brawns I'm looking at you Metal Bat, Captain Ōbi I just wanna adopt/marry them because in all reality they're trying their best. I'm really glad Todo exists and has his big brother delusion because honestly I think that's something Yuji needs, especially in the current arc. Yuji needs as much support as he can get.

PFFFT CRUST CORNER I cannot with you omg they do need to sit on the time out chair for s bit and think about what they've done lmaooo

DID YOU CALL TOJI ZENIN- FUSHIGURO THE FUCKING KOOL AID MAN AHAHAHHHSH oh my god i hate this so fucking much or were you calling Megumi the koolaid man bc really each one is absurd n e wayz I dunno bro I rlly can't wait until Megs wakes up post Shibuya arc and actually has time to process what the fuck happened to him back then. I really want to know if he can connect the dots by himself and realize holy shit that was the source of my daddy issues right there in the flesh and how he reacts to him being a curse and all that. There's so many ways that can go too it's scary to think about.

Low key unrelated but I have a theory that Gojo can see everything from his little cube prison and knows what's going on. Its probably because of the six eyes, or because he's just fucking Gojo, or even because Geto seems kinda sadistic and would do something like that. But I can imagine him watching Megs and Toji fight and it absolutely destroying him. For starters, Gojo killed him .... Right? Wtf is he doing back? What? Second don't commit suicide in front of your kid oh my god Toji what (I'm probably just salty because of a past experience, but also, calm down Toji oh my god) and third I can see it hurting Gojo because in a way it feels like he's been trying to protect Megumi. Its obvious Gojo has this attachment to Megumi, and maybe it's because they've known each other so long, but I don't think Gojo is prepared to deal with the aftermath. Does he have to tell him, if Megs doesn't put the pieces together? Will he have to knock some sense into him to actually tell him? Because he DID try to tell Megs once before and he avoided it like the plague. Its also gotta hurt when you feel like someone's dad and you witness them have a bad interaction with their other dad.

Throw in his daughter being on the brink of death, his other son being emotionally demolished, his second year kids lost in the void and not even his void, his best friend locked him in a box, his other best friend exploded, etc. I think Gojo I pretty distraught even if he doesn't show it

Bro okay my brain is riddled with ideas like this and 90% of them are always angst. Idk where tf they come from half the time but they exist and I hate it. They're always self inserts too.

So I actually read this ask last night, but due to personal reasons I didn't reply to it now, and I actually started experimenting writing out this scenario. I had to stop when I wrote the line "Approximately one year after the first finger was consumed, Itadori Yūji was formally executed. At three minutes to midnight, Sukuna Ryomen was expelled from his body, destroying the vessel along with it. The executioner was none other than the teenager's teacher and mentor Gojo Satoru. When Y/N awoke to this news, they attacked on sight."

Oh god I made myself so sad with that line

And i do really want to post some of my fics, like I did with Nobara Meeting Sukuna For The First Time. However, I only posted that because it was short and simple lmao it was basically just a meme I didn't even run it though grammarly like I do with the headcanons.

I like sticking to the headcanons as of right now because I feel like grammar didn't exist when I make those. I can spell things wrong and leave off punctuation and word then like I'm a third grader just learning English and no one will laugh lmao. Fanfics kinda stress me out because i want them to be perfect. I also have a hard time with fight scenes and transitioning and it's s mess.

I REALLY want to write out my Guardian Angel! Junpei AU because I think it's so cute. Just the idea that this boy is assigned to fight against fate and the higher ups and keep Yuji alive despite him being an idiot and a target is cute to me. Like I just canon him being the plantonic equivalent of in love with this boy and he feels like he rlly owes it to Yuji for trying to save him it's the LEAST he can do. Plus I need the mental imagine if Junpei annoying reader-chan into finding Yuji because "they play a pivotal role in Yuji's future" just for the "pivotal role" to literally be playing therapist and just being there for him and being a medium between Junpei and Yuji because guardian angels aren't allowed to reveal themselves to the person they're guarding but also/// he might risk his wings being stripped just to talk to Yuji one more time////

Okay I'm going to stop now

But yea, maybe if I have time and create little mini works like Nobara Meeting Sukuna For the First Time I'll def post them! I'll work on casually making them longer and soon I'll be confident to posts longer ones. But until then I hope just the headcanons at alright ;-;

[yogsbog]

hey talk about the warp effects parv gets ;>>>>>

oh boy is warp fun!

the first few warp effects parv gets seem almost Good. its mostly night vision, with the occasional bit of paranoia, but the real more negative effects kick in when hes starting to get heavily warped

effects undercut ft some art! (my own and minnies!)

one of my favorites (and the most common for him) is thaumarrhea which for aesthetics alone i have decided is now face ooze 

flux goo leaks from his eyes, nose, and mouth. the first time he actually dealt with it he tried to hide it from strife, which just lead to him coughing up pools of flux when he REALLY couldnt handle it anymore. it was. terrifying! 

he really struggles to deal w this one the most. some days hed just pretend its fine, this happens, he can deal with anything! other days he gets so weak he can barely get up and just lays there on the floor oozing (which is another awful sight) 

the second one he deals with the most is unnatural hunger. thats the one where your screen goes red and youre starving until youve eaten rotten flesh or zombie brains. 

parv just flat out goes Feral until he gets something to dig into. if they dont even have anything like that he will just maul a zombie himself and eat it fresh he doesnt Care he can barely even think

its. a fun time.

theres other ones i havent drawn (tho this is getting long enough as it is) such as sun scorched and blindness, but the lovely @lalnerd / @weepingalaxy also drew some warp effects and then some!

one of the extra things being that parv has a habit of sleep walking thanks to warp, which leads to him studying thaumcraft in his sleep. just writing down notes in a language he cant mentally comprehend yet, going off the page and onto the walls, or even lining his arms with red “ink” that, quite frankly, terrifies him.

theres a reason he wears those bandages, and its not blood magic anymore!

EDIT: HI I FORGOT TO SHARE WHAT MINNIE DREW. heres them going ham, with some lovely spook pieces w warp.

in order is thaumarrhea, unnatural hunger, and the fun aftermath of him studying in his sleep and writing in his blood. (with some heavy insp from a certain thaumcraft entry)

[kudalyn]

So I just read you're new fic and on top of being hot and steamy and AWESOME, ...I HAVE SO MANY QUESTIONS I MUST hear more! So obviously Yugi is a sorcerer of some kind but what is Atem? Some sort of transforming/transfiguration creature? Also, is Atem an empath? Or is he just keenly attuned to emotions via smell? How did they meet? What is their occupation? How did their bond grow? I MUST HAVE MORE

Thank you for liking it!! I’m glad you enjoyed!

While the AU’s story isn’t super fully developed, I have a good chunk of it worked out. I’ll share some stuff from some chatlog brainstorming for ya, cause it’s all I have time for with this story XDOne day it’d be nice to work out, but I got too many other long-fic writings on the go for me to juggle another unfortunately. 

(First thing’s first: while the smutfic is a part of this AU, I started working on it BEFORE I fleshed out more of the world and storyline, so some parts of the smutfic might not fully line up with events in the storyline. it’s more of a ‘what-if’ almost, but I’m undecided on that. Just a heads up if you’re wondering where it is in the storyline.)

Atem is a conduit, a type of magical human-or-other who more channel elements and energies rather than manipulate them like wizards and other magic users. Conduits are usually very powerful but dangerous cause they can get overwhelmed by the natural magic current and cause destruction to themselves and others.  normally conduits show their magic traits early on in life and are whisked away for strict training, or if need be, magical dampening. Atem never showed any magical inclination or skills, so it was assumed he was a non-magic.

But thru events in the story, turns out he’s not just a conduit, he’s a Demon Conduit, the most dangerous type and usually the type killed on sight instead of trained.

and because he was never trained and is naturally very powerful, he grabs the attention of a very powerful demon called Zorc, who uses his body and takes it over to come through to the physical plane.  but before Zorc was able to fully take control of Atem or get anchored in the physical realm, Atem fights back and all but tears Zorc’s soul from his body, and from Zorc’s power, and casts his soul back into the demonic realm, leaving Atem with massive amounts of demonic power completely untrained.

Atem was about to be killed on the spot because of this (he had passed out right after) but Yugi rushed in, and despite the danger and consequences, blinked the two of them out from danger and now they’re fugitives

Conduits are fairly empathic to feelings but it’s more of a ‘hunch’ than anything direct, but Demon Conduits are much more sensitive since demons feed on human emotions and desires. It becomes almost a scent at that point, but with the extra effect of osmosis-through-touch that can be overwhelming to the untrained.

——

The AU starts out with Yugi and Atem being kiddos and friends in a small village. they’re fast friends, almost to the point that Atem is possessive over Yugi. as they get a bit older, Yugi starts showing magical attributes and promise, and as a result has to leave their village to go to the city for training, because the village doesn’t have any magical teachers. 

Atem is, of course, incredibly upset and angry about it, to the point he convinces Yugi and him to try and run away together so they wont be separated. they get into trouble in the forest, and Yugi ends up saving the both of them with his magic instinctively. They are found and taken home, and Atem has to confront his possessiveness and the fact he will be losing his best friend for possibly years (its rare for magic academies to let students visit home during their training)

Yugi promises that no matter how long it takes he will come back for Atem. He thinks he’d be gone for at most a few years, but Atem knows that Yugi’s got too much promise for that and it will take a lot longer. They promise to write to each other at least, and Yugi is taken to the city leaving Atem alone (he doesnt have many other friends because he was a little hellion as a kid aka a milder season 0 almost)

Years pass, and Atem grows up without Yugi. It becomes really sour at one point when some of his distant family moves to the village, one of them being Mahad who is an excellent magical teacher. Atem rues that if he had moved there just a few years earlier then Yugi wouldn’t have had to leave, but things happen.

Atem eventually warms up to him, and his cousin Mana (who is far too loud and bubbly for his tastes but he gets used to it)Also Atem is kind of seen as a minor disappointment in his family of magic users, for he shows absolutely no inclination for magic at all, something else he’s bitter about. He tried for years to get magic to work for him, but it never did, so he kind of grows to hate it. He also becomes rather sharp and gets a bit of a gambling addiction (and minor love of alcohol) to the point he’s known in the region for some not so nice things. Nothing that would get him killed or arrested, but he’s not allowed in quite a few taverns for multiple reasons. 

Over the years he stopped returning Yugi’s letters, and eventually stopped opening them even, bitter about the separation and feeling betrayed the longer Yugi never comes back for him. He never got rid of them, buried in the bottom of a chest in his room, but he’s too hurt to open them Also he could never lie to Yugi, and is somewhat ashamed of how he’s turned out, and doesnt want Yugi to see who he’s turned into.

——

One year atem is visited by someone, and at first he’s rather blunt and rude to them, but turns out, it’s Yugi!! who he hardly recognized over the years until he got a good look at him, and oh jeese he’s cute

Yugi is a proficient magic user now, highly skilled and powerful using multiple magics thanks to his rareish open affinity to magic (most of the time it’s skewed to one speciality or another)It took him some time to untangle himself from the academy because they didnt want to let go of such a valuable student, but once he was deemed fully trained and free to research on his own he immediately aimed for his old home.Ends up dragging along a boorish and snobby prodigy called Seto who he somehow managed to befriend in some form of another, partly because the academy ordered Seto to go with Yugi for protection, partly cause Seto wanted to to stay by his friend (mokuba is back home studying himself so he’s safe)Atem’s floored by Yugi, ashamed of himself and is royally pissed towards Seto, kind of avoids Yugi as much as he can at first. Not like he can clean up his reputation even if he wanted to, and he doesn’t have much to his name besides being the best gambler in the region.Yugi sticks to him like a dustbunny attracted by static, you brush it off and it sticks to your hand no matter how much you wave it around

Yugi was a bit hurt by atem not returning his letters, but assumed it was for a good reason. Is more hurt when he learns that Atem stopped replying for multiple reasons, and is determined to help Atem shine again. He made a promise and by gum he will stick to it, he missed atem dearly.Atem’s hopelessly entranced by Yugi but constantly tries to detach himself. Its a very stubborn tug of war of wills until Atem eventually relents in an angry bout of yelling of how much he hates himself and how Yugi’s better off anywhere but with him, and Yugi helps piece Atem together and try to put him on the right path again.

—-

I havent quite decided on the trigger that will be Atem being discovered as a demon conduit, but it’d be pretty big. Possibly him constantly being around such powerful magic users, combined with possibly a trip to the city? Which would be drenched in magic and loosening the locks on his power. Also the emotional draining he’d go through first with Yugi and then being in the city around so many people all so full of themselves and looking down on non-magics (like him) that it’d probably bring back his old desperate wish for magical power, and that would be what Zorc would take advantage of.

The event would be explosive, not like in the middle of town but he’d be with at least Yugi, Seto, and some other characters when it happened.  He’d be [] this close to being lost before hauling himself back from the brink through pure willpower and rage at something taking advantage of him, and would split Zorc asunder and absorb his demonic energy because that is his body, by thunder, gtfo

Atem collapses outright after it happens, his body slowly turning human back from its shifted hulking form that Zorc forced it in to, and Seto steps up absolutely ready to obliterate Atem on the spot. He’s far too dangerous to be allowed to exist, particularly so close to the capital and other sources of magic, and he’s never liked Atem anyways.

Yugi dashes in front of him, up to Atem, trying to get him to wake up. Atem’s out cold and trying to move him is like trying to carry a load of sopping towels. Seto demands Yugi move, or do the dirty work himself, because he knows Yugi knows Atem is dangerous. 

Yugi refuses, and despite knowing the consequences, blinks the both of them away from the spot and out to who knows where before Seto or anyone else can stop themThus begins Yugi and Atem’s life as fugitives, because Atem won’t be allowed to live and Yugi would be imprisoned and have his magic sealed for treachery.

:3

I got a bit more brainstormed out after this, like some more of Atem and Yugi’s bond forming, their life on the run, but you gotta send another ask for those deets~

[fruitpunchninja101]

Perks of Coincidences Characters: Hanji Zoe x Levi Genre: Humor / Romance (AU)

Disclaimer: All characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author of this story. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any previously copyrighted material. No copyright infringement is intended. 

____________________________________________________________________

A gust of frosty air blast trough every window in the city.The night was particularly calm and serene only to be interrupted by a loud explosion which pulled Nanaba out of her dreamless sleep.Swiftly,she put on her robes and rushed towards the laboratory downstairs.Upon opening the door,she found her best friend Hange crouched on the floor rocking back and forth,hands tugging on her scalp while wailing in frustration as droplets of blood and pieces of flesh slid down her face.Apparently,the pig's heart shes been experimenting on exploded while testing its limits.She approached her friend ignoring all the bits and pieces of gore splatterd on the floor and the tiled walls.Carefully,she crouched beside the brunette and placed a firm hand on her back making gentle circles to calm her down.

"You need to take a break" she whispered softly as she observed her friends face.Prominent dark circles formed underneath her eyes and dry cracked lips only meant that shes sleep deprived and dehydrated.No wonder her experiments are failing.

As if not hearing her,Hange fished a recording device from her labcoat pocket "Experiment number 65 failed"She murmured as she pushed herself off the floor.The brunette halted when she felt a quick pull on her sleeve.

"Hange!"The blonde raised her tone to snap her friend back to reality. "Nanaba?How long have you been there?" Nanaba let out and exasperated sigh while running a hand trough her scalp"fiteen minutes"she mentioned with mild reproach as she pushed herself upright.

Its the same cycle all the time.Hange losing track of time,missing meals and then the inevitable happens...something explodes.

Its been two weeks since Nanaba got enggaged,since then shes is in a perpetual worrying limbo for her friend.Hange tends to spend most of her days cooped up on her laboratory tinkering with god knows what,laughing creepily as she writes down notes.The blonde doesnt want her friend to hole up in her laboratory for the rest of her life.Her friend needed a good distraction. A new boyfriend perhaps?She asked herself as she guided the brunette to the sink stationed at the corner of the laboratory turning on the faucet and started helping her wipe the blood off her face.

"Whats up with that look?"The brunette asked her as she cleaned off her glasses.

"I need you to bring a plus 1 on my wedding day."Nanaba mentioned as she turned off the faucet.

"Sure,Ill ask Moblit if hes free."Hange inattentively replied as she pulled out paper towels from the dispenser mounted on the wall.

"No!Not your lab assitant Hange!A real plus 1...like a boyfriend or something."

The brunette simply crossed her arms in front of her chest and gave the blonde a questioning look."What this all of a sudden?"

Nanaba looked Hange dead in the eye and held both her shoulders."Hange,you need to meet new people.Once I get married you will be left alone and I worry about you." Hange can see how anxious the blonde was and she admittedly had the right reason to be.Hange knows shes not the most responsible adult especially when it comes to taking care of herself.Who has time to worry about trivial things such as showers and food when she could be saving lives by pressing on with her researches.The brunette took a deep breath.As much as she doesnt like where this conversation is going,she decided to help ease her friends concern by considering her request.

"Okay,how am I supposed to find a plus 1?"Hange replied with a soft smile.

"Oh I have a few Ideas..."

And thus began Hange's Blind date fiasco.

#

Its been three months since the pigs heart disaster.During that time Hange had been through six failed blind dates.Most of the guys she met run for the hills once the brunette starts talking about the morbid parts of her research.In her defense,she was never bothered by the fact that she scares people off by the aberrant details of her work.'Whats the point of spending time with someone who doesnt understand the importance of my contribution to humanity?'she recalled her usual reponse whenever Nanaba asks her to tone down her eccentricity.Shes unapologetically herself which is both her strength and weakness.

It has been three nights since Hange slept.At this point, shes literally sitting in a pile of garbage; dicarded pages from her past researches,bottles of booze,coffee and energy drink cans were disorderly spread across her floor. Suddenly,a loud thud echoed the room when the back of the door hit the wall.

"Hange what happned to you!?"Nanaba stood by the door and gave her friend distraught look.

"Hey Nanaba!"Hange sang out as she peeled her eyes off her laptop screen and gave her bestfriend a gleaming grin reasurring her that shes fine.

"Your assistant called me he said you havent left your office for three days." she mentioned with slight anguish as she desperately tried to shuffle off the mess splayed on the floor.

"Three days already?" Her eyeglasses sat slightly askew resting at the tip of her nose.Gently,Nanaba pushed them into its right place while tsking."Seriously Hange how did you become an adult?"

"Beats me."Hange chuckled as she stood up and streched her limbs for the first time in a couple of hours.She gave a sigh of relief as she heared her joints click into place and felt blood coursing trough her limbs once again.

"I brought lunch."The blonde mentioned as she settled a paper bag on Hange's desk.

"Whats the occasion?"

"Do I need an occasion to bring lunch for my bestfriend?"Nanaba responded as she walked towards the window opening it letting the sunlight slip trough the room. Despite the unquestionable concern the blonde has for her,Hange cant shake off the doubious vibe Nanabas throwing at her.She only uses the term "bestfriend" whenever she needs something. Seeing that Hange has her all figured out, Nanaba decided drop the act."Okay! okay! you caught me.You see,I set you up with Mike's friend at work."

"Not this again"the brunette said as she face palmed herself with the thought.

#

"You seem really hungry.Did you skip breakfast again?You look paler than before.Seriously Hange,You need to take better care of yourself from now on.Especially now that Im not gonna be around you all the time."

"Youre starting to sound like Moblit you know."Hange gulped swallowing the last of her food "Im gonna be fine.You dont need to-"

"I know youre gonna be fine,but youre still not getting out of this date.He's gonna meet you at Sina Cafe 2pm.He says hes gonna wear a black pullover sweater."

"Thats a pretty vauge description.Can't you just show me a photo of the guy?"

"No!That will ruin the surprise!I met with him last week,Hes a real sweetheart and handsome too!You're gonna love him."

"You said the same exact thing about the 6 other guys you've set me up with.None of them worked out.''

"Give this guy a chance...I have a good feeling about him"

" Whatever you say Nanabannana."The brunette tiredly responded.She knows this one is gonna be a disaster just like the other blind dates that shes been before.But shes doing this to ease her friends anxiety so shes going to try her best not to fuck this one up."Oh and by the way,I have a presentation for my research tomorrow so I might go over a few pages while Im there.You have to warn him."Hange added as she typed away from her computer.

"Can't it wait until after your date?"

"Science never waits for anyone!Besides,I'm pretty good at multi tasking."

Nanaba released a sigh of defeat.In the end,nobody can tear Hange Zoe away from her precious work.

#

Its 3:00pm and Hange's late for her date.So much for not fucking it up this time she thought.Clutching her satchel bag to her chest she used her right shoulder to push the cafe door open only to end up slamming against it.It took her a few seconds to realize her mistake,the door clearly says pull.Its as if the heavens are giving her a sign not to push throughthis date.A coffee shop employee opened the door and offered his hand to help her stand up."Thank you uhmm.." she pushed her glasses back to place in order to read the metal name plate pinned on the mans chest."Eren" she continued."No problem maam!"The kid smiled as he held the door open for her.Hange gave an apologetic shy smile as she entered and took in the welcoming aroma of rich coffee the cafe provided.Her eyes roamed around the place.The walls are lined with aged brick and provided fancy leather chesterfield sofas partnered with sturdy mahogany tables.Good thing the whole place practically screamed "This place is for serious adults.No whiny brats allowed".Which meant she doesnt have to deal with too much noise while working on her paper. She scanned the place looking for a guy that matched Nanaba's description.There he is,the only guy sitting alone in the whole shop.Wearing a black pullover sweater and jeans.His legs crossed while his brows were knit together,obiviously enthralled by whatever he's reading.Hange tilted her head to the side to peek on his book."Dark tower...nice"She whispered.She took a deep breath and flashed the biggest smile she can muster as she walked towards the man.

#

"Dad-a-chum? Dum-a-chum? Ded-a-chek? Did-a-chick?"

The raven haired man didnt repond but instead he peeled his eyes off his book and scoweld at the woman who inturrupted him.

"Lobstosities...Dark tower?"She sang out as she pointed on his book.

"I know what lobstosities are.I'm reading the fucking book."he responded matterfactly.

"Geez!You kiss your mother with that mouth captain grumpy pants?"She teased still beaming the most charming smile.

"Didnt your mother tell you thats its rude to interrupt people minding their own business?"

"Its also rude not to ask a lady to sit down...Mind if I join you?" Nonchalantly ignoring his cold response.

"Yes."He replied in a monotonous tone.Apparently,his answer had no use.Shes already pulling up a chair from the table accross them.She dragged it out across the room earning a screeching sound that obviously garnered looks from the other tables.He opened his mouth and closed it.Its not worth it he thought as he returned his gaze on his book. Hange sat infront of of him. She placed an elbow on the table and propped her chin on her palm.She stared at him waiting for him to say something about her tardiness.

"Well?"He mentioned plainly.

"Well what?"The brunette asked.

"Don't stare four eyes.Just do whatever you need to do."

Hange felt relief.It seems Nanaba warned him about her reports.Maybe,he was also forced unto this date.Either way shes glad hes cool with it.

"I wouldnt call it staring per se.Id like to call it observing.Dont be such a grump shorty I'm just analyzing if Im sitting with a nice person."

"Shorty?"He lifted his gaze from his book and stared at her one eye twitching with irritation.

"Just an observation,Averaging your eye level and shoulder height youre probably like...what?5'3?"

The man responded with a glare.Not even his closest friends dare exploit his insecurity in his face like that.

"And a half?"Hange added gingerly.But all she got was an angry stare "I'll take that as a yes!"She gave him a triumphant smile.

The raven haired man did not respond and continued glaring at the eccentric woman as she started setting up her laptop,struggling to detangle knotted cords.How was this woman able to mess up cables like that?Her efforts to straighten them out are only making her problems worse.His hands are aching to yank the cords away from her hands and detangle it himself.'Tch..pathetic'He thought.

"Now look whos staring"she mentioned without looking at him still trying to figure out how to solve her cord problem.He simply scoffed at her and got back to his book.When shes finally done wrestilng with the cords,the brunette bent to plug her laptop on the outlet on the floor and when she sat back up she hit her head under the table almost spilling the cup of tea sitting on top of it earning an exasperated sigh from the man infront of her.

#

Thank God shes done talking.Levi thought to himself.He started feeling relief when silence engulfed them for a while.He can finally get some peace and...nope.Shes done talking and moved on to murmuring accopanied by creepy laughter as she typed on her laptop.Levi rolled his eyes.He wasnt even reading at this point.Hes just staring on his book reading a sentence over and over desperately trying to block out everything shes mumbling.After a while,he gave up and shifted his attention from his book and glanced at her.

"Do you really need to mumble while doing that?"

"Doing what?" "Whatever it is that youre doing?"he said as he gestured to her laptop.

"Oh,this?Sorry!Its just I had this really interesting project.You see,Theres this animal that doesn't secrete feces and we are trying to figure out if it can help us improve bowel programs for paralized people or better yet,build better artificial organs." His head perked up a little.something about what she said piqued his interest and before he can even stop himself words came tumbling out of his mouth. "Theres an animal that doesnt shit?" He immeditely wanted to punch himself in the face when he saw her eyes lit up like christmas lights.'Goddamit Im supposed to shut her up not encourage her!'He internally berated himself. The raven haired man didnt hide his unwillingness to listen as the woman started explaining scientific things which he doesnt have any idea about.Still,he quipped and threw retorts to her statements every now and then. The brunette turned her laptop to him and showed him a photo.

"These babies are called Demodex Mites.They're microscopic animals that dont have anuses.They basically store their wastes inside their body till they die".

"Well thats a shitty way to live."He answered as he placed his hand on the rim of his cup took a sip of his tea.

"Wow,Is that a pun? I'd better write that one down. "she sarcastically replied as she beamed a smile. He ignored her and went back to reading. The brunette let out a small chuckle as she tucked a piece of her hair behind her ear dug trough her remaining paper work.

They fell in a comfortable silence after that,with occasional mumbles from Hange from time to time which at this point Levi got used to and was able to tune her out.Hange tilted her head a little to take in his facial features.Dark raven locks in a neat undercut and pale blue eyes which hid behind his dark circles.Hes definately not the sweetheart Nanaba hinted at,but his snappy comebacks and dry responses amused her.

"You are staring again."

"I just realized that never got your name.Mine's Hange...Hange Zoe." She extended her right arm.

"Levi" He mentioned plainly.Staring at her offered hand."I'm not touching that.You just said youre working with shit animals"

"Well,technically they dont deficate so..."The brunette stopped herself midsentence when Levi gave him a look which she cannot place if its confusion or annoyance.

Hange pulled her arm away chuckling."Fair enough...No last name?"

"Why do you wanna know?"

"Why nice to meet you Levi Why do you wanna know.Thats a pretty uncommon last name"

"Youre the worst."

"So I have been told...You know what,I was very skeptical walking over here a while ago since I was late and all but good thing Nanaba set this up."

"Late with what? and who's Nanaba?"Levi asked her while his eyes were still on his book.

"What do mean late with what? and how come you dont know Nanaba?"

"Four eyes,theres 7 billion people on earth.You cant expect me to know everyone of them.And I couldnt careless with whatever it is you're late for."He shifted his gaze from his book to Hange.

"What?Wait!Aren't you here for the date?"

"We're on a date?"He raised an eyebrow.

A thousand questions ran trough Hange's head. but before she can even open her mouth Levi's phone rang.He held a finger as he answered the call. "I'm on my way."Levi responded to the person on the other line.The man looked a bit disoriented as he looked at her with outmost bewilderment with what she just said. Hange heared a faint click as the call ended.

Levi took a last sip of his tea and stood up."See you around four eyes"

"Yeah,See you around shorty"Hange responded faintly almost sounding like a whisper.Watching the man fish his car keys out of his pockets and leave the cafe.

Hange was left dumbfounded as the realization dawned upon her.She sat with a random stranger on a cafe and assumed he's her date.

_____________________________________________________________________

Hello Everyone!

This is my very first fanfic so it will be a bit rough around the edges.I'm very hesitant to post this since I'm not much for writing but I really want to practice and learn.Hey!Nothing ventured nothing gained right?I had this story idea in my brain for almost a week now and I just have to share this with my fellow LeviHan shippers out there!I wrote this on my phone so theres probably a lot of spelling errors etc.Please bear with me.Ill definitely try to transfer the rest of the chapters on a word document next time. I'll also do my best to update this every week.(I dont promise that but I'll try my best I swear.)

Contructive critisism is very much appreciated!(Please go easy on me.)Also,I'm not a native english speaker so theres that.

Check out chapter 2 on AO3 !

[fourteenacross]

hi its me again. sorry. ive got some oc's for a story that im trying to piece together, but its kinda a mess. turns out i cant write natural dialouge. youre really good at it, and since i havent figured it out by re-reading your stories over and over again, i figured id come to the source, how do you write dialouge that doesnt feel forced or awful? ❤❤-Myah

Don’t worry about it, I love getting messages even if I cam crap at actually responding to them in a timely manner /o\

As for dialogue…gosh, I wish I had an easy answer! Dialogue is my favorite thing to write and it’s the thing that generally comes easiest to me. About half of the stuff I cut when I’m editing is unnecessary dialogue and the reason so many of my things get stretched out to so many words is because I can never make the characters shut up. I like banter, I like jokes, I like people with an easy rapport, which leads to lots of chatting.

The key for me, for fic anyway, is hearing the dialogue in the character’s voice. I don’t know if it’s a skill or a talent or what, but that’s how I know I’ve nailed it. If I can get the character’s voice in my head, hear what I’m writing as if it’s said by the actual actor or in the same cadence as the writer, that’s half the battle. It solves the problem of it sounding realistic and the problem of it sounding like something that particular character would say. 

Getting to that point, though, is a little harder for me to advise because, like I said, it’s either a talent or a skill, but that’s something that I’ve just…always more or less been able to do to some degree. The advice I can give, I guess, is to listen to the way people talk to each other on teevee or movies or whatever. Listen to how you converse with your friends. Do you ever obsess over what you’re going to say to someone in a particular situation and make it up over and over in your head? Break that apart, look at how it’s structured and why you put it that.

The shitheads are easy for me to write because they’re a little younger than me, but they’re here and now. They’re in this time period, living in a place I lived, with a lot of the same references. They’re dumb twenty-two year old boys, and I’ve known a lot of dumb twenty-two year old boys in my time. They’re casual and sarcastic with each other the same way my friends and I are casual and sarcastic with each other. There’s a little bit of code-switching involved–they’re more formal in the classroom and on cases and with the Washingtons, and those are conscious choices that they make, but generally they swear a lot and use slang and pepper their speech with filler words (”um,” “uh,” “ah,” as well as “like,” “I mean,” “basically,” “you know,” etc).

The other big thing that helps, I think, is just knowing your characters inside and out. If you’re in their head and you know their motivation, you start to structure their speech with the background of their intentions, if that makes any sense. Whether they’re cautious or trying to get some information from someone or oblivious to what’s going on or secretly angry at the other person or whatever–that all changes how people say things to each other and that’s a big part of giving life to the language. There are a dozen ways to ask the same question, and some will be perfect and others will sound totally stiff and wrong, even though they’re essentially asking the same thing.

FOR EXAMPLE, let’s look at two things under the cut:

So, here’s a thing based on a conversation in a fic I just posted, a dialogue between two characters:

“Good morning, my dear. I’m shocked that you’re up earlier than usual.”

“I went to the gym.”

“That’s strange, because usually you have trouble getting out of bed to go to work in the morning, but today is the start of our vacation and you got up earlier than you normally would for work.”

“As I said, I was at the gym. I find that if I’m going to go to the gym, I need to go very early or very late so that it doesn’t throw off my schedule.”

“We’re on vacation, though. Do you have plans today that I don’t know about?”

Which, you know, is a perfectly civil and valid conversation for two people with a more formal style of speaking or a less familiar relationship to have with one another. But even though it says exactly the same thing, meaning wise, as the actual dialogue I used, never in a million years would shithead Alex and John have that conversation at ten am on a Saturday in their kitchen, if they would ever have it at all. So instead, we take the same meaning and we shift it to get what I put in the actual story:

“Good morning, starshine. I can’t fucking believe you’re up this early.”

“I went to the gym.”

“You stumble half-asleep into the lab most days, but your first weekend off and you’re up at the asscrack of dawn.”

“I went to the gym. If I’m going to the gym, I’ve either gotta go first thing or last thing. Any other time and it fucks up the whole day.”

“There’s nothing to fuck up, we’re on vacation.”

“It fucks up my sense of time.”

“Vacation. What could you possibly be planning on doing today?”

Which, you know, sounds much more like something these assholes would say to each other, while conveying the exact same meaning.

The other tip I’ll give you is to give certain characters particular verbal tics that they repeat. If you do this, it really helps flesh out the character in the readers’ minds and adds a certain rhythm and tone to their speech that makes it particular to them. For example, in the ghosthunters, each of the characters have very specific names that they call each other. I actually made a chart to keep track of it. For instance, Lafayette sometimes calls GWash “George,” while everyone else only calls him “Washington” or “GWash.” Herc mostly uses people’s last names. John never calls Alex “Ham,” even though all the other student characters (except Burr) tend to do it. Beyond names, John swears a lot and has a hard time expressing his feelings, so anytime he’s saying something emotional, he draws it out and stutters. Lafayette uses a hodge-podge of formal and informal English and occasionally gets thrown off if a word is the same in French and English. John has terrible pick-up lines that come out when he’s tipsy. Alex has a tendency to go on random tangents questioning the literal meaning of idioms he uses. Alex and John have two exchanges that they frequently repeat (”Hey.”/”Hi.” and “I’m/You’re a _____.” / “But You’re/I’m my/your _____.”) Et cetera.

Oh gosh, I hope this makes any sense whatsoever and is at least a little bit helpful. I feel like I’m just rambling at this point. I have a lot of difficulty explaining HOW I do certain things if I don’t have to put a lot of work into them and, to be honest, dialogue is something I personally don’t have to work hard to nail.

So, tl;dr: 1) Try to hear the words in the characters’ voices; 2) Listen to how people around you, in fiction and RL, speak to each other; 3) Know the characters well and take care in choosing words that you think it makes sense for them to use; 4) Give further character to people’s speech by giving them repeated verbal tics.

I hope this helps!

[broomstickvigilante]

Previously, while leaving Gringotts ~

As I stepped out of the curse breaker office I noticed theo chatting with the pair that had walked past us earlier. One of them was obviously from Beauxbaton, her accent grating on every word, and the other looked familiar somehow. 

“Theres no reason to return it, I’ve got loads.” Said the man, still can’t quite place where I know him from. 

“I really appreciate it, I started to make my own. They’re a little dangerous but wicked fast.” Theo was acting more excited then usual, was something wrong with him? He was fauning over the man like some sort of- Ha. I know who this is.

“Sebastian Prince, I presume?” I casually stroll into the conversation, accepting a handshake.

“Just so mate. You look familiar, have we met?” I got a sudden jolt of suspicion as he gave a keen look.

“Theodore Nott, I ah, I know your sister.” Best to say it now, than later. He grinned widely, charming, I can see why Theo is so star-struck. 

“Ah so you’re Theodore, heard a bit about you. How’s my sis doing these days, havent gotten a letter lately; she hates to write.” I quickly avert my eyes.

“She is, reserved. We haven’t spoken in a while.” I stepped back a pace, unexpectedly affected by my own words. My eyes felt like itchy glass, 

I glanced up and he was looking at me with a strangely angry expression. “You haven’t talked to her? why?”

I looked to the side and Theo and the woman were watching quietly. I felt trapped somehow, cornered. “I- am unsure, we fell out.” The words sounded like a mockery of an excuse, even to me. I felt the open doorway of the lift nearby as if the only place with breathable air, If i could get inside and away my lungs could finally get air. 

His expression changed to something like disappointment, and as he stepped forward i heard the sound of footsteps behind us; the woman calling out to someone. He whispered in what i can only recall as a menacing tone and said “She deserved better friends than you.” He immediately walked past me, brushing into my shoulder with a hidden jab. 

Theo was back to talking with the three of them before I ducked into the nearby lift and hit the button for the lobby with a numb hand. I am not scared, not scared but terrified nonetheless. I tap my foot and scratch at my arm nervously as the lift makes its crawl to the surface; conscious thought pulling back like exposed muscle beneath flesh.

Adeline was safer without me as a friend, 

+ + + + + 

Diagon alley, the pub out front, even city blocks rolled by my eyes with little notice. I found the handle to my car and slipped inside, the clap of the door lock sounding like a coffin lid. With a twist of the key the engine roared into existence, and I felt my veins expand, a little of the screaming in my head died into soft murmuring. The seat shook slightly as the cylinders rolled over and over, heating the engine, a lullaby. I laid my head back and let the attack slowly dissipate. 

It must’ve been some time when Theo knocked on the window. He mouthed something through the glass and I let the window down. “You alright? you just left me back there.”

I unlocked the door and he climbed in. “I- just needed some air.”

“And some heat? Its a furnace in here.” He turned the knob for the AC down to a normal clime. I had turned the heat up without thinking, the car was backing but I felt at ease. After some time he looked over, I kept staring at the busy street outside the windshield. “Can you drop me at the garage?” He asked after another minute.

I nodded, shifting the car out and into traffic. We drove for a quarter of an hour in silence until we arrived at the garage, Theo opening the gate to let the car roll in. He got out without a word, and busied himself making sandwiches from a fridge he had set up in the corner. I stepped out, removing a box of journals from behind the seat. 

“I will be in the back, if you need me.” I said over the sound of dishes. I headed into an office in the back, a pair of couches on two walls and a desk covered in pieces of parchment and diagrams, and dropped my box onto a coffee table in the middle. Theo had screwed a light bulb lamp above one couch and I pulled the chain to light it, grabbed a book out of the box, and proceeded to drown my thoughts in text. I could not get Adeline out of my head, her laugh as she made a joke about my ears, or the sound of her screaming for air below the icy water. I missed her so badly. I knew I was a coward for avoiding her, not telling her what I feared might happen, but i couldn’t bring myself to do anything about it. The curse on my family would end with me, I will complete it soon.

+ + + + 

The stories in the book were filled with such thoughts, strange muggle tales of ghosts inflicting terror and pain on those nearby, or magical creatures unheard of in england hunting them for sustenance. My great grand uncle Algernon had a fascination with the fringe beasts of the world, some called it a sickness, but I found a kinship with him as I read; a familiar sorrowful whimsey I first mistook as bad storytelling. Soon, the tale of the three pigs drove the dark temptations from my mind as I devoured its twisted tale of binding magic gone wrong. The next was of a ghost, there were several ghost stories, that was left to haunt a late model town car and plied its deathless frustration on anyone it found on the roadway. The tales were gruesome at parts, but overall carried that same sad curiosity. At some point Theo set a plate down for me, a sandwich and pickle, I absently took the pickle; they are my favorite.

Back in the Present ~