#i edited it to be in second person pov bc it's originally in first person

[sunflower-chai]

Hi!! This is a really dumb question, and you 100% don't have to answer it, but I keep seeing your reblogs of dsmp - what is it? What's it about? How had it taken a hold of your soul and what do you take from it?

oh mouse. you have opened the floodgates.

so basically dsmp (aka dream smp but i don’t call it that anymore bc the content creator dream, who the server is named after, is a terrible person. which is a whole other can of worms i won’t get into) is a survival multiplayer (hence SMP) minecraft server that tells a story via improvised roleplay. it ran from april 2020 - april 2023 and grew from 4 members on the first day to 39 members by the end. it also featured a handful of guests including, i kid you not, michael clifford from 5 seconds of summer and lil nas x. the story was primarily distributed via livestreams on youtube and twitch, though some members and fans created highlight videos on youtube.

how do i explain what dsmp is about? overall, it’s a heavily character-driven story with many different factions, wars, and eras. each member essentially wrote their own story, and fans could pick whose POV they were most interested in and follow along with whatever lore was created. (at one point there was a head writer who, surprise surprise, also turned out to be a terrible person. are you sensing the pattern here?) so honestly the answer to “what is the dsmp about?” is different depending on which members/characters you choose to pay attention to.

i got interested in the server in early 2021 when someone i followed on tumblr for a completely unrelated fandom started posting about it (which is how i get into most new interests these days lol). i looked up some clips on youtube and discovered the content creator tommyinnit via an among us gameplay video. i thought he was really funny and checked out his channel. the first video of his i watched was “the funniest minecraft video ever,” which was edited from one of his dsmp streams where he and two other members created a religion based on twitch prime subscriptions. it’s ridiculous and still makes me laugh to this day. so after that i decided i wanted to know what this minecraft server was all about. i found VODs (archived livestream recordings) of the big events on the server and watched as many as i could. honestly i had to skip around a lot because there was simply too much content to catch up on, and a lot of members didn’t save their VODs. that was another reason i tended to follow tommy’s POV, he uploaded all of his twitch VODs to a separate youtube channel. he also streamed less frequently and for shorter time periods than most of the members so it was a more manageable amount of stuff to watch. after i got decently caught up, i started tuning in for the dsmp streams live. and boy oh boy did i become obsessed. spring of 2021 i was a junior in college and i hardly left my apartment because of covid restrictions. i was incredibly bored and developing depression (which i would not realize until i went to therapy that summer and got referred to a psychiatrist for diagnosis. but i digress). dsmp was genuinely the only thing that got me excited anymore.

spring-summer 2021 was honestly a golden age for dsmp fans because so much lore was happening at such a rapid pace and it was EXHILIRATING. the fandom would churn out analysis, fanfics, art, animatics, and even original songs at the speed of light. everyone would liveblog during big lore events and it was just such a fun community to be a part of, even though i mainly lurked on tumblr back then. the source material was nothing but minecraft blocks and webcams, so i think it really allowed the fans’ creativity to flow. the fans truly carried that server, particularly SAD-ist’s animatics on youtube and derivakat’s fan songs, though my favorite song was beetlebug’s “an ode to l’manburg.”

so you’re probably wondering: what the heck is l’manburg? so this gets into what i think truly made the server worth investing in, which was the storytelling. “l’manburg” was a fictional country created on the dsmp server. it actually started out as a van used to sell “drugs” (aka minecraft potions), created by c!tommy and c!wilbur (c! = character, to differentiate between roleplay and the actual content creators). basically wilbur wanted to roleplay breaking bad lol. a bunch of the other server members cracked down on this “illegal” business, so c!wilbur decided to form his own country on the land surrounding the van (now a hot dog van), declaring independence from the greater SMP so citizens would be free to do what they want. he called it l’manburg because it “sounded european,” and all of the citizens at the time were european while those still loyal to the greater SMP were mostly american. the citizens of l’manburg at the time were c!wilbur, c!tommy, c!tubbo, c!fundy, and c!eret. the greater SMP didn’t take kindly to this new country’s existence, so c!dream issued a declaration of war, and thus began the l’manburg war for independence, which was really an excuse to do hamilton roleplay (yes, it’s all very silly but i love it. it gets much more serious later on). anyway i don’t want to say much more in case you decide to give it a watch, but if you do good luck. i would recommend blueberry tv on youtube, who does a great job condensing the most important moments into 20ish minute episodes. they have a playlist called “dream smp plot playlist” which is a good place to start.

okay now i’m taking this opportunity to gush a little about c!tommy, one of my favorite characters in anything ever. he starts out as a loud, funny, slightly annoying, mean-to-your-face but kind-at-heart sixteen year old kid, and by the end he’s eighteen, he’s literally been to hell and back, he’s a little quieter, a bit jaded, and doesn’t easily trust others or even his own mind. but even after everything he goes through, he still tries to believe the best in people and stubbornly holds onto hope that things will get better. he’s incredibly loyal to his friends. he loves things that most people would overlook and he loves them hard. he communicates his feelings in convoluted metaphors that are accidentally poetic. he constantly listens to music, probably has an unhealthy attachment to it, but he’s willing to give it up if it means freedom and happiness for his friends. he deals with so much unfair treatment and abuse and trauma and he could so easily give into despair or allow those experiences to darken his morals but nothing is ever able to completely dull his spark. it would honestly be easier to give up or become the villain, but it’s just not in his nature. i just love him so much man 😭

[fallenclan]

okay, I have a few songs in mind for that Otterslip pmv! Just to let you know what to expect between all of these :) Give me your thoughts on these songs, I love these all dearly and really want to create something with all of these.

Toba the Tura by Forgiven Durden

Introduction to the Show by ミラクルミュージカル (Miracle Musical)

Alternatively, I use the Hawaii Part II Part II demo for Introduction to the Show because that version goes so hard. 10/10 demos. The piano is so crisp.

Time Machine by ミラクルミュージカル (Miracle Musical)

I will be using either the 1st or 2nd demo if I decide to do this song. The polished version on the official record won't do for Otterslip.

The Rockrose and The Thistle by The Amazing Devil

Worms by Viagra Boys

Poplar St by Glass Animals

I'd have to do this one carefully. Might have to edit my own version of the song for the pmv

I will be watching this post, so if anyone has more ideas.... then please share them in the replies or smth :)

-🎲

YOUR MUSIC TASTE IS SO GOOD. all of these songs are fantastic and they fit Otterslip so well,,, i've listened to almost all of them before but i still had to make myself a little playlist to refresh my memory and listen to them with the context of Otterslip in mind. devastating btw, in the best possible way. putting my thoughts below the cut bc they might get a little long!

Toba the Tura:

SUCH a good song. especially for Otterslip. a few lyrics that really stood out to me.

THE LAST ONE ESPECIALLY. that whole ending monologue just SCREAMS Otterslip. the girl he loved vacating to a new place? his daughter dying and going to the afterlife. a mountainous wall of stone to separate themselves from him??? its. a fucking mountain. they live in a mountain. theirs would be the light, his would be the dark. oughghghghg sobs and wails and cries forever

Introduction to the Snow:

what if i cried. man this song is so fucking SAD. and also not in a way. would work fantastic if one wanted to do a really lonesome depressing take on Otterslip's exile. im picturing an animatic with very few pov changes, just Otterslip maybe watching the stars or traveling through the outside of Fallenclan's territory, up until "you'll live forever tonight" and the piano afterwards, then i'm seeing lots of glimpses of his past life in Fallenclan, and the events leading up to Stormsight's death. ougghh

Time Machine:

GOD THIS WORKS SO WELL WITH HIS EXILE. "you'll have enough time to spend some time alone" HES LITERALLY ALONE. dice anon youre going to turn me into an Otterslip apologist. hes literally leaving today

The Rockrose and the Thistle:

jaw drop. a friend of mine introduced me to this band a while back but HOW HAVE I NOT HEARD THIS ONE. this song fits Otterslip so good its crazy. here's a couple lyrics that stick out to me

i'm definitely seeing some hints of Grassroot in this song. maybe he's singing it to her, maybe she's singing it to him, idk but shes There. ouches

Worms:

i've never heard this song OR this band before and it fucking RULES so first off thanks for pointing me in that direction. second OUGH i can see the Otterslip here. no lyrics in particular stand out to me but the Vibes... man the vibes they fit so well. i can see him singing this to Stormsight, esp since the "the same worms that eat me will one day eat you too" has such a threatening sound to it,,

Poplar St:

MY HEART. god this is so good and it works so well. again no lyrics really stick out to me in particular but MAN. the stress on "free falling love addict" is getting to me. considering Stormsight fell to his death. ouch.

conclusion! these are all fantastic song choices and you are a fucking genius. i'm almost temped to something with Toba the Tura myself, except i know I'd never finish it lmao. and as a side note, if you've never heard the Chonny Jash covers of a lot of Miracle Musical songs i would highly recommend. they aren't for everyone but personally I like them better than some of the originals, even.

and back to the topic of Otterslip: here's all the songs I have on his playlist at the moment (though i will be adding. probably all of the ones youve suggested.) in case you wanted more inspiration or simply some good tunes to listen to.

ty for your wonderful ask!!! you have given me much to think about...

[hoperenae]

WHAT IS LOVE BUT ANGER UNRAVELED?

This is my submission for @tsukina 's 3K collab event!

COLLAB MASTERLIST

THINGS TO KNOW: ⋰⋱ This is part of a much much longer fic I’ve been writing for months. ⋰⋱ You’re a squad leader in the Survey Corps, a couple of years behind Erwin.  ⋰⋱ You spend a lot of time with the newest recruits, the 104th training group, despite them being so much younger. ⋰⋱ You and Levi have a long and complicated history that started when he joined the survey corps a few years after you. ⋰⋱ Long story short, your older brother died as a result of Levi’s actions on his, Isabel, and Furlan’s first expedition beyond the wall. Your brother went after Levi to try and save him and got eaten by a titan. ⋰⋱ Therefore, even though you came to terms with it and forgave him years ago, you still hold anger for Levi, and he holds a tremendous amount of guilt for the death of not only his friends but your brother as well. WORD COUNT: 2.6k

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“I don’t know, my money is on y/n,” said Conny. It was dinner time, and for some reason, everyone was betting on who would win in a fight, you or Commander Erwin.

“Oh come on, Conny; don’t be an idiot,” you laughed. “Erwin has way more skill than me. He would easily kick my ass.” “She’s not wrong,” Jean agreed. You shot him a comical glare, which he then returned.

“Okay okay, fine. What about…” Conny thought for a moment. “What about Captain Levi?” You instinctively scoffed. 

“Easy. I win,” you stated, flickering your eyes over to where Levi was sitting. You hoped he heard you.

“I don’t know y/n,” Sasha began, “Captain Levi is really good at hand-to-hand combat. I’m sorry, but I don’t think you’d stand a chance.” She grinned confidently, but you weren’t about to be shot down that easily.

“That little shit–and I do mean little–has nothing on me. I’d pin him to the ground before he took his first swing.”

“Y/n, keep your voice down; I think he heard you.” Sasha motioned toward Levi’s table. Sure enough, he was staring you down with his cold grey eyes. You stared back, unimpressed.

“Why don’t we settle it then,” Levi called, his voice flat and unamused, as if this whole conversation was beneath him. “Right here, right now. Who’s the better fighter?”

“You’re on.” You abruptly stood up and marched to the center of the room where there was some open space. Levi stood up and joined you.

“This is bad,” Jean muttered behind you. “She’s going to get hurt.”

“Nah, I’m betting on y/n,” Conny beamed. Jean rolled his eyes. Everyone else in the room was fixated on the two of you.

“Hand-to-hand combat only,” Levi instructed. “First one to beg for mercy loses.”

“Fine by me.” Adrenaline was pumping through your body. You had never felt more angry and unstable. All of your pent-up frustration toward Levi was about to be unleashed, and you weren’t going to hold back.

You readied yourselves, getting into a fighting position. No one was telling you to go, so you decided to make the first move. You clenched your fist and punched outward, hoping to connect with his nose. Instead, he grabbed your fist and twisted your arm around. You let out a small cry but quickly reacted by punching his side with your other fist. He recoiled enough for you to escape his grip. You went back and forth like this for a few minutes; you honestly couldn’t tell how long you had been going for. You didn’t feel tired, but you definitely felt the bruises forming on your body.

Suddenly, you slipped up. When he lunged for you, you lost your balance. He pushed you to the ground, straddling you and pinning your arms above your head. He dug his nails into your wrists, squeezing so hard you thought they might pop right off. You felt a trickle of blood snake down your hand.

“Give up,” he said through gritted teeth.

“Never,” you growled. You had to find a way out of this, and fast. Otherwise, he would cut off the circulation to your hands. Think, y/n, THINK. Then, you saw it, your opening. 

“Sorry about this,” you muttered. You thrust your knee upward and collided with his crotch. His eyes widened, and he quietly yelped in pain. You took this opportunity to turn the tables. Flipping him onto his back, you pinned one of his arms above his head, pressed your knee into his legs, and wrapped your other hand around his throat. 

He used his free hand to swat at yours, desperately gasping for air. But his eyes weren’t afraid; they were angry, furious. You gripped his throat even harder, and he choked a bit.

“GIVE UP!” you screamed. He was still trying and failing to take a breath.

“Y/n! Stop! You’re killing him!” someone cried from somewhere behind you. But you couldn’t stop, not until you heard him say it.

“It’s over, Levi,” you hissed. “Give up.” Slowly, his eyes changed from anger to blankness. His face was turning purple. If he didn’t cry for mercy soon, he was going to die. You were going to kill him. You wanted to kill him. Your anger had overtaken you.

“You…win,” he breathed, his eyes daring to flicker closed. You held him there for a second longer, and then pulled your hand away from his throat and collapsed next to him. He keeled over onto his side, desperately trying to make up for the lack of air in his lungs. You both sat there for a minute, catching your breath. Every time you tried to move, every inch of your body ached. You glanced down at your wrists, which were covered in trickles of dried blood and dark purple rings from Levi’s grip. Your face stung from where his fists had collided, and your side was on fire from his kick. Adrenaline was amazing. A few minutes ago, you felt none of this pain, and now, everything was rushing at you all at once. 

Levi was lying on his back next to you; his breathing had slowed back to a normal pace. A quick glance showed you that you had done equal damage to him. 

“Happy?” he spat, sitting up with a groan and glaring into your eyes. You said nothing as you felt a pair of arms lift you from behind.

“Come on, idiot.” You recognized the voice as Jean’s. “Let’s get you cleaned up.” You stood next to Jean with an arm wrapped around his shoulder, his arm around your waist. Every part of your body was screaming, trying to tell you to stop moving. But you forced yourself to walk with Jean to the infirmary. Jean gently set you down on the edge of a bed. He went to a chest and grabbed some bandages and a cloth, which he wet at the sink.

“Well that was ridiculous,” he said as he sat in front of you and cleaned the dried blood off your wrists. You winced a few times but tried to stay still. “You almost killed him. The Captain!” Jean shook his head and began to wrap your wrists in white gauze. 

“I’m a squad leader too, remember? Besides, I wasn’t going to kill him,” you stated.

“You could’ve fooled me,” he protested. “What were you trying to prove, anyway? Everyone already knows you’re strong. You both are. Why did you have to go and destroy your body just to prove it?”

“It’s complicated, Jean,” you sighed.

“Whatever. None of my business.” He finished wrapping you up and reached up to touch a cut on your face. You flinched at his touch, even though it was gentle, friendly.

“Thanks,” you muttered, hanging your head, eyes fixed on your boots, which also had drops of blood on them. A wave of exhaustion washed over you, and you suddenly found it impossible to keep your eyes open or to support your own body. You slumped over and nearly fell to the floor, but Jean caught you.

“Okay, time to get you to bed.” He swung your legs over the bed and placed your head on the pillow. Your eyes were barely slits now, but you felt a blanket cover you. Before he left, Jean had one more thing to say.

“If you’re in love with him, beating the shit out of him isn’t the way to tell him,” he said under his breath. As he walked out the door, you closed your eyes and slept for a long time.

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[a few weeks later]

“Look, I know you don’t like me or whatever, but we’re supposed to work together as leaders. You at least have to try to tolerate me, okay?” You crossed your arms across your chest and narrowed your eyes at Captain Levi. The scouts had just finished going over the plan for the upcoming expedition outside the wall. Levi kept giving you dirty looks throughout the entire meeting which certainly hadn’t boosted your mood.

“Sure, whatever.” He rolled his eyes in discontent. 

“You know what, I have something to say to you,” you scoffed.

“Well go on, don’t keep me waiting,” he spat.

“You’re such a hypocrite, out here with your stone-cold eyes and jaded expression like you don’t give a shit about anything. Well, I don’t buy it.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” He jerked his head to move some hair from his eye.

“You’re human, just like everyone else. You have emotions, too. Somewhere in that cold, dead heart of yours is a real human being with real feelings. I don’t buy this bullshit front you put on.”

“You shouldn’t speak of things you know nothing about,” he declared, taking a few steps closer to you. “Besides, what are you gonna do about it? Pry the feelings out of me in a therapy session?” He was trying to intimidate you, but you weren’t about to back down.

“Why do you have to be so difficult?!” you cried. “Why can’t you just admit that you’re a little fucked up?” He took a few more steps toward you, closing the distance so that you were only about a foot away from each other, your back against the wall.

“Unlike some people, I don’t feel the need to put my personal life on display,” he criticized.

“Can’t you just care about something for once?!” You uncrossed your arms and clutched your hands into fists at your side, shaking with anger and frustration.

“I do care about something!” he cried.

“Oh yeah, what is it then?” you challenged.

“You!” he blurted out, slamming his fists into the wall on either side of your head. His face was inches from yours. Your eyes widened and your heart raced. 

In a split second, he leaned in and pressed his lips against yours. It didn’t last long, but in those few seconds, you felt something that was even more intense than your anger. When he pulled away, you grabbed his shirt and yanked him back in. This time, his lips were warm and softer. There was an unexpected gentleness to him. He cupped his hands around your face and pulled you in closer, bodies pressed together and lips not daring to separate for fear of losing this moment. He radiated heat, and you felt your face turning a deep shade of red.

Finally, you unlocked lips, but neither of you backed away. 

“I’m sorry,” he said. “I shouldn’t have done that.” You furrowed your brow.

“Why?” you asked, hand still resting on his chest, his hands still holding your head. He was an inch or two shorter than you, so you were just about eye-to-eye.

“I shouldn’t…I’m not supposed to—”

“To what?” you interrupted. “Feel something?” He lowered his hands and backed away from you, but you stepped forward. “I’ll tell you something, then.” His eyes met yours again.

“I think you have this innate ability to shut out any good feeling that creeps into your mind. Any positive emotion, you push it aside and only allow for cold, calculated decisions. But right here, right now, I see you. I see exactly who you are. You can’t hide anymore. You can’t run away from your feelings forever, Levi.”

“And what if you’re wrong?” he replied. “What if I can just keep running?” 

You sighed. “Then you’re never going to understand what it means to give your heart for something, like Erwin says.”

“But the more you give, the more you have to lose.”

“But having something to lose is what drives us, what keeps us fighting.” 

His eyes were soft and sad, and his usual straight-line mouth was slightly downturned. You could tell he didn’t have anything to say in response, so you reached out and pulled him into a hug. He seemed surprised at first, but after a few seconds, he wrapped his arms around you and sunk his head onto your shoulder. 

It was strange to see him in this state. Levi was always someone you saw as indestructible, even in the peak of your hatred toward him. No matter how desperate a situation became, he always found a way out of it. He was unstoppable on the battlefield. But as it turns out, off the battlefield, he was just as lost and broken as everyone else.

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[bonus Levi pov monologue!]

What the hell was I thinking? A kiss? Why had I done that?

Of course, I knew exactly why I had kissed her.

She infuriated me. So much so that I found it difficult to be around her most of the time. But that wasn’t the only reason I avoided her presence.

Y/n was magnetic. The way she walked with such dignity; the way she spoke with such gentle confidence; the way she trained harder, longer, more intensely than anyone else, not because she wanted to be the best, but because she wanted to be able to protect everyone; her bright green eyes, soft skin, silky dark brown hair: all of these things made it nearly impossible to stay away from her. She was a red-hot fire, and even though I knew I would get burned if I got too close, I couldn’t help myself.

I wasn’t myself when I was around her. No, maybe I was more myself than ever, but I was so used to putting on a front that I felt uncomfortable in my own skin. She made my stomach turn, my head spin, and my heart beat faster. Her smile made me weak in the knees, especially when it was directed at me. Any bit of attention she gave me, I clung to like a moth to a flame. 

I wanted to trust her, but I didn’t want to. It’s so hard to trust anyone anymore. I had lost too many because I had gotten too close to them; I trusted them, and they let me down. They always die, in the end. Then it’s just me, alone.

When she forced me to reveal my feelings, it was like my body had overtaken my brain. I reacted without even thinking. But she reacted in a way I hadn’t expected. The second kiss was…intoxicating. It was equal parts exhilarating and terrifying. I wanted more, but I didn’t want the pain that always accompanied closeness.

So, now what? Where did we go from here? She was right; I couldn’t run away from this. The way I felt around her wasn’t likely to disappear. But if I let her in, if I let her see all of me, she would be in danger. Well, more than usual, anyway. 

No, I had to keep my distance, at least for a little while. There were too many other important things to focus on at the moment, like the upcoming expedition beyond the walls. Out there, I’d have to do everything in my power to keep her safe, even if it meant disobeying orders. The real question was if it came down to it, would I sacrifice the lives of my comrades to keep her safe?

[softlyfallinqq]

Nev's First [Neville Longbottom Smutshot]

In which you and Nev release some sexual tension.

CW includes pining, nervous and awkward Neville?, light swearing!, Dom!Fem!Reader, Sub!Neville (bc i rarely see this and its not fair like shit, he's such a perfect boy, why wouldn't he be perfect for you too?!?) tit sucking, (slight?)nipple play, praise kink!, hickeys / markings, oral (male receiving), hair pulling, degradation (if you squint like really hard)

Second Person POV (you, your, yours)

Word Count: 1.89k [holy shit 😅]

NSFW BELOW THE CUT! 18+, MDNI!

posted originally august 1st of 2022. edited and fixed mistakes december 14th of the same year.

It has been almost a week since you last saw Neville. Studying for the O.W.L.s had you barely speaking to each other. You were surprised to hear a faint knock at your door. Opening it slowly, you mumbled softly: "Lumos." The tip of your wand revealed a very tired and dejected-looking Neville. "Hello flower..." He waved shyly. "Get in here before you catch a cold, Godric only knows where your slippers went." You say, laughing softly.

"Now, care to tell me why you are in my dorm, past lights-out and looking so upset?" You asked him gently. He nodded. "I missed you, it's awful in Potions without you." His words tumbled out, his gaze on the floor. "Nev, you know I missed you too, right?" Your words were enough to pull his heavy lidded eyes from the rug and look at you hopefully. "You did?" He grinned, his cheeks dimpling slightly. He ran his fingers through his messy brown curls to look at you properly.

"Of course!" You pulled him into a hug, breathing in his earthy aroma for the first time in days. Sighing in relief, you smiled at him. You picked your wand up from where you dropped it to embrace him, rubbing away a dirt mark from his Herbology lessons. He smiled lopsidedly, blushing slightly. "I wanted to talk with you about something." His voice cracked, his words urgent. "Which is what, Longbottom?" You asked gently, coaxing him. "Well, erm... it's kind of- about us..." He pauses, inhaling and exhaling heavily.

"I heard the boys talking the other day, about what they would do.. wh-when they were alone with their p-partners... I w-wanted to ask about... uhm, w-well... W-WOULD YOU HAVE SEX WITH ME?!" He blurted, nearly at a normal volume with his anxiety. His face was instantly buried in his hands, a defeated whine emanating from the pile he now was laying in on the floor.

You stood frozen in shock, before dropping to his level. Peeling his hands away from his face slowly, you nodded. "Of course I would, Neville. You know how much you mean to me. I would give anything and everything for you if you asked." You looked at him, intertwining your fingers in his.

"Plain old me? Neville Longbottom, a nobody who's always losing his toad, his Remembrall or anything else. Neville Longbottom, who's parents were- tw-twisted up in the head by Bellatrix Lestrange and lives with his nan? Neville, who's constantly being a shitty student and bullied because he doesn't stand up, because he doesn't speak up, because he doesn't know how anyone could lash out at him, and is afraid of that? You'd share your everything with a coward like me?" "NEVILLE!" You scowled at him, shaking your head. "Don't say things like that.."

"You're smart, you're funny, you're cute, you're cliche, you're everything I could ask for. You bring me flowers, you hold my hand, you write me notes, you bring me presents. Neville, if you were a coward, you'd look a lot like Ron. Can't even drive, can't look at spiders, can't even do Herbology worth a flying fuck. You are amazing to me." You blurted, and crawled into his lap, holding him in a hug. "Don't talk about yourself like that, understand?" He nodded, and murmured into your hair. "You smell so good, love..." You smiled and thanked him, adoring his sleepy distractedness.

He suddenly had a burst of confidence, and swept your hair away from your face and behind your ear. He pressed his lips to your cheek, burning red as he looked away. You were surprised to say the least, he barely could hold hands with you, and he kissed you? You shook your head, and smiled. "You missed." He looked confused. "No I didn't. I was aiming for your—!!" He was cut off when you pulled him to your lips, hands wrapping in his hair. When you pulled away, he looked panicked. "[Name]!" He whisper-shouted.

"I said you missed." You shrugged. He said nothing, holding his fingers to his lips. "What are you doing?" You looked at him, confused. He shook his head, grabbing your chin gently as he gently pulled your mouth to his. Your surprise melted into a smirk, nibbling on his bottom lip. He started slightly, pulling away startled. "What was that for?" He had a very hurt expression, as though you had drop-kicked a potted plant in front of him. "Only messing." You murmured, feeling guilty. "Can I try something?"

"Of cour-" You cut him off once again, with your own quick response. "Just promise me you'll keep quiet." He nodded, and you yanked him to you by his collar, a yelp sounding from him. "Shh!" You grabbed your wand, using a few hexes and silencing spells to make sure no one interrupted you. Slowly, you pulled apart the top buttons of his night-shirt. He grabbed your wrists, in a slight panic. "What.." He trailed off as you opened your mouth. "Your earlier question." You reply flatly, and toss your school robe off, it had been exceptionally cold and you were sure you had a hole in the wall somewhere.

He gawked for a moment, seemingly disciplining himself for staring afterward. You motioned him to join you on your bed, and he could have swore you heard his heart thundering against his chest. Something in him clicked, and his eyes followed you helplessly. He moved slowly, nervous and overwhelmed. Opening your arms to him, you smiled encouragingly. "I don't bite, love. Come here.." He nodded and scrambled onto the bed after a moment. You shifted beside him and turned his face to kiss you. Cupping his cheeks, you sat on your knees and smiled. "You can always tell me to stop. Don't be afraid."

He smiled nervously, copying your motion to cup his face and leaning into your lips. His eyes closed, he was mentally panicking. When your lips moulded together, he relaxed, tasting your vanilla chapstick, mint toothpaste and faintly sweet tongue. He whined softly at the taste of you, face burning as he pulled away. "I- I'm sorry, I didn't mean-" You only smiled, pressing a finger to his lips. "It's okay. You can go lower, if you want. My neck?" You suggested softly, tilting your head and moving your hair.

Nodding eagerly, his eyes glazed with admiration as he leaned into your neck. All he wanted was to please you, make you happy, but he had no idea what he was doing. He pressed soft kisses to the skin, his warm breath fanning over it and making you shiver. Experimentally, he nipped at your pulse point, earning him a quiet whimper. He went to pull away in a panic, but your fingers in his hair stopped him. "Nev, do that again..." You instructed, though it came out as more of a plea.

His face went pink, and he caged your body with his arms as he continued. His confidence boosted, he worked at your skin faster, sucking and nipping gently as he moved down. You groaned softly, fisting at his hair as he sucked at the valley of your breasts. He whimpered lowly, hips jutting up at the sudden pleasure that shot through him.

"[Name]..." You smiled, shifting your tank top straps off and pushing it from your body. His eyes shamelessly raked over your exposed skin, jaw slightly agape in adoration and curiosity. "Y-You.. your..." He stumbles over his words, and you laugh softly. "Tits?" You supply, and beckon him back to you. He clambers into your lap, retracing his steps. His warm breath fanned over your breasts, and he kissed over the soft skin.

He flicked his tongue over your nipple, and you whined softly. "Neville..." He groaned at the sound of his name falling so lewdly from your lips. He gently sucked and kissed over your tits, gauging your reaction as he went. His erection strained against his night pants, and he bucked his hips frantically to try and ease the ache between his legs for you. Grasping at his hair again, you tugged his face up to look at you. He whined at the loss of your tits, but you shush him quietly.

"Do you need something, darling? Use your words." You coaxed, and he huffed. His face was flushed, hair a mess and his lips glistened with his spit. "Y-You.. I need you.." He moaned lowly as you gripped his curls tighter. "More specific. You have me. What do you want from me? You want me to suck you off? You want my tits?" You suggested, and he nodded fervently. "P-please.. I n-need your mouth.." His face burned in embarrassment and shame, but you only smiled.

"Good boy.." You shifted from beneath him, pulling him to the edge of your bed. Toying with his waistband, you pulled his pajama pants off and settled between his legs. His eyes were wide, and he hissed at the cold air hitting his warm cock. He was painfully hard at this point, tip red and leaky. Precum beaded at his slit, and you gently swiped your thumb over it, putting it into your mouth.

He whimpered softly at the touch, his erection desperately needing attention. You looked up at him innocently as you spit on your hand, gently beginning to stroke him. Immediately, his head fell back, and he let out a rather loud and whiny moan. "Shh, easy." He nodded, blushing furiously at the sight before him. You, on your knees, chest and shoulders littered in blossoming purples and blue-blacks.

His pupils were blown wide, low groans and pleas leaving his lips as you slowed your hand. Looking up at him innocently, you licked a stripe up the side of his dick, following a prominent vein to the underside. His eyes screwed shut and a throaty moan left his lips. "Sh-Shit, [N-Name].." You smiled and took his tip into your mouth, slowly lowering your head. Your nose gently brushed his pubic bone, his happy trail tickling your face slightly. His hips trembled as he resisted the urge to buck into your face.

The second you started moving, he lost it. Whimpering, he was a mess above you. Fingers twisted in the sheets until his knuckles were white, head tossed back, soft moans and pleas leaving his lips. Picking up the pace, you gently flicked your tongue over his slit. His thighs shook, and his breathing was ragged as you pulled away. "N-No, please.." He groaned in frustration. "Hush.. Don't want to be a brat, do you? Ask nicely." You ordered gently, rubbing circles on his inner thighs.

"Pl-Please, let me f-finish, I was s-so close.." He breaks, tears pricking at the corners of his eyes. You smile. "That's it, baby." Taking him into your mouth again, you suppressed the urge to gag as he began bucking his hips frantically to chase his high. "F-Feels so good, please, don't stop.." You hum against him, flicking your tongue over his slit. The knot in his stomach snaps, and his seed shoots down your throat. He pulled away from you, concern flooding his eyes. "I'm so sorry, I didn't-" You shake your head. "It's okay. It wasn't bad, relax. Do you feel better?"

He nods, panting softly as he cards through his hair. "Then that's all that matters. I love you."

*sweats nervously* i didn't exactly know how to end this. please don't come after me, this is my first time writing NSFW content. i hope you like it. @shmeddieshmunson is it okay?

[lassieposting]

Hi i havent read the books post-resurrection so im kinda lost on why you dont like phase 2 val? She was easily one of my favourite characters ever, she was flawed (and the books took time to acknowledge them) and relatable and still really admirable (intelligent, brave, loyal) and i really liked her and really appreciated that she wasn’t perfect unlike every other young adult heroines. What went wrong😢😢😢😢

Okay I'm gonna put this under a cut because I very strongly dislike phase 2 val and I know it bugs people who don't feel the same, so. Dead dove dont eat

Okay so first off, phase 1 val and phase 2 val are completely different people. literally. phase 1 val was based on an ex-friend of lardo's who used to apparently be involved pretty heavily in like, editing the books and "she'd react like this" or "val wouldn't say that", and that val she was one of my favourite fictional characters from when book one came out to the release of resurrection. phase 2 val is based on his whiny little girlfriend who likes to start shit with 14yos on twitter, and you can absolutely tell she is no longer the same person. so the long story short of "what went wrong" is "the original irl val's friendship with dirty laundry ended for whatever reason and he decided to retcon her entire personality to suit his gf"

Phase 2 Val, in my opinion:

Weak, like won't even fight back when she gets jumped bc boo fucking hoo she's so awful, bitch get up already, nobody signed up for ur pity party

Whiny. So fucking whiny. All the time. And she's the POV character so it's inescapable.

"Pacifist" but in a really pathetic virtue-signalling kind of way like "Oh, I've done such terrible thiiiiiiiiiiings I'm so awfulllllllllllll look how good I'm trying to be nowwwwwwww pay attention to meeeeeeee" kind of way, it was both boring and a massive eye roll. It's a book about magic and asskicking. Kick some ass. We're here for escapism not "realistic" whining. Yes, irl she'd be a mess. As an author it's his job to strike a balance between the "realism" he wants to portray and making his readers so depressed and done with his heroine that they quit reading, and in my case, he absolutely failed.

Everything must be about her at all times. Skug is having personal problems? Fuck him, they're about her now. Everything is about how it affects her, and her feelings, and be damned to the person actually having the problem. Fucks phase 2 val cain gives about anyone except herself: 0

Bitter and jaded. Which yeah I get why but it's like jesus christ what do we get out of reading about this? It's not even good bitter and jaded where it makes you empathise or admire her strength in adversity or whatever, she's just become a really nasty person with no redeeming features that I could see. Which? Landy outright said she's based on his gf? If your boyfriend is gonna drag ur entire personality through the dirt like that and write "you" as just a collection of incredibly negative traits...yikes.

Really ungrateful about the awesome life she leads? Which bugs me bc I fucking hate mundanity and knowing that all there is to life is fucking working and bad mental health. I would kill to live her life. All she does is moan about it. Like? Quit then. Fuck off back to being a mortal if it's that bad and live the shitty life you wanted to get away from in the first place. That way we'd get no more books, and quite honestly, thank fuck for that. But anyway, she needs to pick one, stick with it, and stop complaining about whatever she chose.

The girl wallows in self pity. And if someone else isn't indulging her enough, she'll wallow harder and louder and more obviously. Yawn.

Her POV is now so depressing to read that Resurrection literally tanked my mental health. I'm not kidding. I fell off the self-harm wagon, the suicidal thoughts came back, reading her dissociating would make me dissociate, I just did not cope whatsoever. Being in her head was just like being in my head during my worst points, and I hate myself, so naturally, I hate her too. Like I get why some people like phase two val. I get that her depression is "realistic" and that trauma does just make some people completely dislikeable and self-pitying, and if people want to read about that, then...sure. you do you, my dudes. But I live that reality, I am that person whose trauma made her a dysfunctional, isolated bitch, and I hate, passionately, having it infest the media I consume to escape.

Essentially if I wanted to engage with a bitter, spiteful, depressed piece of shit in her 20s who pushes everyone away and sucks at everything, I'd live my gd life. Yall see me tryna engage with my real life? Hell nah I'm on tumblr dot com burying my head up the ass of whatever fandom will force my brain to produce some s e r o t o n i n and that is what I need this series for

Also? The dynamic she had with skug in phase one? "Until the end"? "You save me, I save you, that's how we work"? Forget that, it doesn't exist anymore. I stopped reading after Midnight, because she was written like he was a coworker she could barely tolerate. They went from "Lardo confirms on twitter that they talked on the phone a bunch while she was in america and he'd always ask her to come home" to "she comes home and proceeds to blank him for five months while she sits in her fuckin multimillionaire's mansion feeling sorry for herself". Their friendship completely disintegrated, they were totally separated for most of the book, she's written as not giving a single shit about him. She treated him like dirt, and their dynamic basically felt like it was becoming "Local Man With History Of Gravitating Towards Abusive Women Makes Same Terrible Choices For Fifth Time" and? that was the point of no return to me. he supports her unconditionally, no matter what he's going through at the time, he's walked on broken bones to try and get to her when she was in danger, she can tell him anything and he'd never use it against her. I did not, for one second in phase two, believe she felt the same about him. tbh it felt like she could - and wanted to - drop him at the first opportunity and not even feel bad about it, and that's not the dynamic that made me so emotionally attached to phase one. i signed up for "until the end", not whatever bullshit phase two has going on.

Apparently she's "less depressed" now and their relationship is "better" in the books published since midnight, which! might well be true. but I haven't read them and don't intend to, and she's gone from one of my favourite fictional characters ever (which! was impressive! because i almost never bond with the female lead - i normally get attached exclusively to the character i crush on, which would be skug here. val was the first female lead i actually cared about since xena! so im deeply salty about losing her!) to a character i? honestly prefer to pretend doesn't exist. i live in war era dead men/generals crackship land because that way, i don't have to acknowledge her or the fuckin character assassination phase 2 pulled on her.

so yeah, no hate towards phase one val at all. phase one val was awesome and flawed and gave me something to aspire to despite my shitty mental health and trauma, and if she'd kept her original personality she might still have been those things. but the original "real life" val is no longer involved (and doesn't talk to landy at all anymore, apparently), and the val based on landy's insufferable gf? i cannot get behind her at all ever, four for skug and none for phase two val cain bye

(tldr; you're not missing anything by quitting after spx)

[arizona-trash-bag]

I can totally explain a bit of my thinking behind seeing lwj as autistic and wwx as autistic/adhd!! Before I get into specifics though, let me preface with where I’m coming from. I first saw CQL and then read the EXR translation of the novel. I prefer MDZS to CQL, but also want to acknowledge that because I do not read/speak Mandarin I am inherently experiencing this story second-hand and therefore am probably missing out on a lot of nuances. I am trying to learn Mandarin, but it will be a long time before I am even a little close to fluent lol.

Another preface- obviously not all autistic people present in the same way, and many of the things that I will mention are not solely specific to autistic people either. It’s one of those things where all of it added up together points towards asd, but each one individually would not on its own indicate asd, you know? Also, I will say that many of the things I picked up on for both characters are autistic traits that many autistic people have vs the clinical characteristics (much like most of the case I could make for wwx’s adhd would be adhd traits he has rather than symptoms that would lead to a real-world diagnosis.) Edit: OH! I almost forgot to say, that also all of these traits I’m listing are from a western perspective, and I would LOVE to read more about how autism presents in different cultures and to see conversations between autistc Chinese people specifically, so as to see if these traits are specific to western autistic people or not, but again, I do not speak Mandarin or Cantonese or any other Chinese dialect, so that’s a little inaccessible for me atm.

Ok, SO, for both characters I would list: strong sense of justice, lack of care for society’s opinion (I feel like it could be argued that lwj does to a certain point, but imo he operates more from what he morally considers to be correct and from a place of familial duty vs catering to the opinion of society at large), and then more vaguely, they both seem to be “nerdy” (this doesnt feel like the most accurate term, especially because it's not like being scholarly is specific to their characters, especially in ancient fantasy China- it’s more that their particular hmmm, flavor?? of love of knowledge feels very neurodivergent to me, vs like, being scholarly because it’s the thing that is expected of a Young Master, if that makes any sense at all- like the difference btwn someone getting an engineering degree because it is expected of them vs because they genuinely love engineering), and lastly for both- I would say that they are canonically kinky, and while I can’t cite any statistics, there’s a pretty high correlation between being autistic and being into kink. Obviously, not every person who is not vanilla is autistic, and not every autistic person is into kink…….but there is a high correlation.

For lwj specifically, the things that made me think he might be autistic are his lack of outward emoting combined with his depth and breadth of emotions, how he seems to thrive in and quite enjoy the very structured environment he grew up in, and then the last one off the top of my head (side note, I feel like a week from now I’m going to randomly think of other examples lol) I’m not actually sure IS an example, because I know (thanks to the awesome post from hunxi that you linked to that I had read previously) that his succintness does not equal autism, but I do kind of feel like it is very autistic to Always be so formal and to Always talk in textbook perfect language.

For wwx, I also think he likely has CPTSD! I’m not going to list anything for adhd or cptsd since we both agree on those :) As far as being autistic goes, there is, of course, the high prevalence of adhd/asd comorbidity. For specifc traits- while autism can show up as lack of facial expressions/tone, it can also show up as being overly exuberant and overexpressive. Especially for younger autistic children this can show up as being overly friendly/no boundaries w/ strangers (just?? going home with a random man who says he knew wwx’s parents???), making unusual connections that others do not can be both asd and adhd, his disregard for social status (disregard might be a strong word, and also I feel like this might be one of those things that got lost in translation and if I had read the original text I might have a different opinon, but what I mean here is the way that often autistic people learn certain social rules and try their best to follow them, but often do not pick up on specifics related to social hierarchy that are not spelled out for them- I think jyl’s take down of jin zixun is a great example of the /oppossite/ of what I’m talking about, and is a very neurotypical interaction. An example also of what I mean by disregard for social hierarchy, but from my own life, is how I’ve reflected on past convos w/ my boss only to realize that what I thought was just an interesting conversation about our opinons on a particular subject was actually them trying to tell-me-as-my-boss something they wanted me to do. We ended up doing things the way I wanted to do them because I didn’t realize that they were telling me to do something because they didnt explicitly say so, and because I just don’t pick up on when people are saying something from a social hierarchy pov. Idk if this makes sense or not, so I’m happy to try to expand if you would like me to. I feel like wwx could be described as having alexithymia, which is very common in autistic people, but could also be due to his cptsd. And then, I don’t feel like this is a true point because it is kind of based on headcanon? but wwx feels very demisexual to me, which is much more common for autistic people than it is for allistic people. But him being demi is not canon, just my perception of him (I see him as demisexual gay w/ massive comphet, but I know lots of people see him as bi, which also totally makes sense!!)

Tbh, I’m having a harder time than I thought I would listing wwx specifics. I might go through the book sometime this weekend and see if there are specific moments that pop out at me, but tbh w/ him its more that he Feels very adhd/asd to me?? Idk, I was diagnosed w/ adhd when I was 8, and all 4 of my siblings plus my father have offical adhd diagnoses. I’m 29 now and was only diagnosed as autistic earlier this year.  All of my close friends have always been either adhd, asd, or adhd/asd. There have been multiple people I have met that I’ve suspected were neurodivergent who have later told me they started looking into it and are now seeking formal diagnoses. I mention these things, only to give full context when I say that I have spent a lot of time observing the differences between interacting with neurotypicals and neurodivergents. I mean, obviously, it’s possible that I could just be projecting, but to me, Wwx gives off late-diagnosed/heavy masker autism/adhd combo vibes. Again, maybe I am projecting, but I did try to analyze whether I was or not previously, and determined that since in the past with other favorite characters (who I probably share more similarities in personality with) I did not feel like they were neurodivergent, so I figured that probably I wasn’t? That feels like a very convoluted sentence, but what I mean is that I have not thought that about other characters who have been my fav, so I figured that while I do project in certain areas that this particular area probably wasn’t one of them. Or, to say it in yet another way, since i did not project any of my neurodivergencies on past favorite characters, I figured I probably didn’t start doing so now.

I would love to hear more of your perspective on this, particularly because I worry that I do not have the cultural touchstones to realize when something wwx or lwj is doing is not actually a sign of being neurodivergent. I try my best to research things I don’t know about and to listen to fans who actually do have that cultural understanding, but there’s only so much I can look into on my own when I only speak/read english. And also, I love mdzs and I love talking about both adhd and autism, so I’m glad to talk about these subjects with someone else who also likes all of those topics :) Sorry for sending a book of a response and also I hope you are having a great day!!

wow wow wow anon THANK YOU for doing your research and acknowledging your blind spots you seriously made my day. I wanted to get to this as soon as I made that rant while sharing cyan’s post bc this is specifically an example of a well researched proposition based on actual lived experience and critical thinking.

I almost want to ask you to come forward so we can take this convo elsewhere for a more nuanced discussion bc you’ve already hit upon an issue that’s been holding me back from making a big blathering masterpost on the matter - that the ND experience is so unique and individual, and no one person can dictate someone else’s experience. at the end of the day, if you personally relate to these characters and gain more understanding of yourself and your experiences from them, who am I to take that away from you?

in a public space though I have to make the discussion very broad in order to accurately contextualize these issues, bc in typical autistic fashion I feel morally compelled to Do My Best and Get It Right even as the masses show no inclination of returning the favor, so apologies for the boring backstories I have to get out of the way before we can approach anything resembling new ground.

first from a diagnostic standpoint, while I recognize the traits you listed (and appreciate your clearly nuanced understanding of ND expressions) and would find value in exploring them in a personal context, they are not unique to adhd and/or autism and wouldn’t constitute a basis for diagnosis in a clinical setting. I know that's probably beside the point for this anon, but there's enough edgy teens hoarding labels out there without tacit encouragement from scientists (yes I am technically a scientist, even though my ideologies these days range from conventional to... wildly esoteric, shall we say)

from a cultural standpoint, it’s important for me to emphasize that the concept of neurodivergence is a uniquely western notion. for those unfamiliar, the term 'neurodiversity' was only coined in 1998. I was born in 1991. I existed for a whole 7 years as an autistic person before the idea of being neurodivergent was even a thing. this ND acceptance thing is very, very new - people were not making tiktok confessionals about their adhd diagnosis journeys when I was growing up.

china, like most asian countries, is about 20 years or more behind on just about every social issue compared with western countries. to better illustrate, the experience of being ND in china falls much closer to the conventional experience of disability (i.e. being eugenicized out of existence) than the tentative ND acceptance movement that’s been kickstarted in the past 20 years in the anglosphere.

safe to say, there is no ND coding going on in chinese media. characters are either explicitly ND or they're not. there's no basis for a creator subtly inducing ND-like traits in a character, because there's no such thing as ND awareness in the cultural context of where mdzs was written and consumed. any resemblance is purely accidental, as they say.

as to how this resemblance could exist - I could go into the layers and layers of historical, cultural, social and religious context that make up these characters and the xianxia genre as a whole. for this anon in particular i'm happy to, because they've done the work. please please get in touch in some way where we can have a fully fleshed out chat if you're interested in taking this further, I realize i’ve basically addressed none of the finer points you’ve raised but honestly it’s another level of discussion to be had that cannot be summarized in one blog post haha.

as for those who would scream 'but special interests!!' at a character whose sect was founded by a literal monk - what would be the point?

PS. to comprise a starting point for why it's possible to see ND4ND everywhere in media if you looked hard enough - I refer you to the seminal red oni blue oni trope 💁‍♀️

[thirstyforred]

tagged by @stillness138 <333

if i were a month, i’d be: september ･ if i were a flower, i’d be:  hollyhock ･ if i were an album, i’d be: 'Til Death by Aesthetic Perfection ･ if i were a mineral, i’d be: amethyst ･ if i were a sound, i’d be: rain ･ if i were a colour, i’d be: green ･ if i were a drink, i’d be: porto ･ if i were a fruit, i’d be: pear ･ if i were a quote, i’d be: “Men [...] think, “Time is vast”. But the truth is far more disturbing. Time is endless.” - Outsider, unused files from Dishonored (2012) ･ if i were a television series, i’d be: idk Leverage?? ･ if i were a movie, i’d be: Gone Girl ･ if i were a fashion brand, i’d be: Massimo Dutti ･ if i were a mythological creature, i’d be: upir ･ if i were a taste, i’d be: sour ･ if i were a scent, i’d be: red berries ･ if i were a fabric, i’d be: linen ･ if i were a body part, i’d be: ear ･ if i were a song, i’d be: Lana Del Rey - Off to the Races (FrankJavCee Remix) ･ if i were a god(dess), my four attributes would be: spite, dusk, honey, hunt

List the first lines of your last 20 stories (if you have less than 20, just list them all). See if there are any patterns. Choose your favorite opening line.

"The Critiques of the Eternal Fire," the man read in an amused whisper title from the spines of a few books. -Sublime, that's wonky ass line </3

Wenn Keldar fragte, dachte Erland nicht einmal daran, sich zu weigern. -from my attempt at writing small thing in German about Erland and his Suprise Bastard, Brecht. i will finish it. at some point

They are in the garden. -Red and Green, and Green and Red, love when the title is longer than the first sentence, also it's true for my entry in this week's Flash Fic challenge lol

You're in the sewers, deep, deep underneath the city. And it stinks. -Salamandra, i like this one bc everything but this first line is 1st person pov in this fic

"What's on your mind?" asks Nithral, half lying, half sitting by the edge of the small pool. & "Is it getting any better?" asks Namrevlis, and strokes the head of the male elf lying on her lap. - through the open pupil of the skies, two lines here bc I posted the original, polish version, as two works. i wanted them to somewhat mirror each other

Doadrick Leumaerts died. - Slama's self-insert x that nilfgardian spy WIP <3 No worries tho the very next line is "Well, not really"

It's morning, one like many others, or so it seems. -where witchers dwell, I love to add a bit of uncertainty right from the start

It’s yet another party and everyone acts like the war isn’t right behind the corner, and Roderick approaches the side table with all alcohols, for a second considering his options. -Belle Alliance, i feel like whenever I write Roderick narrator just naturally tries to turn into a snappy bitch

At this hour of the night, Jacques doesn’t even open his eyes to check what, or rather who, is sneaking their way into his bedroom. -sweeter than blood, wonder who that could be lol

Roderick de Wett wasn't a happy man. -accidentally competent, he's ok, he just hates the weather :/

I guess l like short openings or long complicated sentences that probably need to be edited to make more sense, but either way, I like to open my fics somewhat in medias res

[bawkrya]

ok so im just gonna pick at fr from a web designer pov because looking at this site on mobile will drive me into madness if they don’t fix it at some point. The rest of this post will go under a read more because it’s both super long and image heavy.

before i hit mobile though, I’m going to point out some things i just don’t personally like in general with the site design (and yes i am conscious that they are slowly updating to a new look)

this will come as a shock to no one, if you’ve seen previous web design related posts by others anyways, but i cant. stand this menu

[ID: A cropped screenshot of Flight Rising’s Main Menu]

fr, understandably, has a shit ton of links. it’s a petsite with lore and all that, whatever. The thing that bothers me specifically is the length of links and where some are placed.

1. i BELIEVE this counts as an accessibility issue where longer links kinda trap shorter links, goes into misclicks to other pages in the site, etc. etc.  2. i don’t think. the search link should be under library personally ? Maybe make it its own category. 

Dev Tracker & Media could go under this category, possibly add separate links to forum, player, and dragon searches with updated formatting

Dressing Room and Scrying Workshop could go under the “Play” category 

Forums can be it’s own category with possible subcategories being: Announcements & News, Help Center, and Flight specific discussion forum, maybe more 

Library category could then just be: Which Waystone, World Map, Game Database, and Encyclopedia.

Support should be it’s own category.

One thing on the shop category, and i hesitate to say this because im not CONFIDENT on this one, but I’m not sure Custom Skins exactly fits? or at least, it should be Purchase Gems -> Marketplace -> Custom Skins, not between crossroads and festive favors

Merch should probably go under purchase gems, and they should maybe uhh..... i guess change the name for it overall? because 1. “merch” alone does NOT look good with its placement, 2. its another actual money purchase thing and I think those should go on the same page

Along with that, in putting merch under that page, they could put previews of the merch with a button to go purchase instead of immediately going to their merch site (which to begin with it should open in a new tab if its going to a separate site?!!)

then this is a mix of both not liking it on laptop OR mobile, 

[ID: A cropped image of Flight Rising’s Clan Home page. The Bestiary link has a bright red box highlighting it]

Obviously these pages are old, but the graphics need to be updated, and there needs to be graphics for every link in the category-- seeing with this category alone there isn’t a graphic for the Bestiary already. On top of this they need to be in link order preferably. if they had a normal dropdown menu for mobile, mobile users wouldn’t be able to access the bestiary unless FR wanted to be STUPID and do further dropdown menus w their 200 links which would be STUPID and CLUTTERED

also in my opinion the Messages link isn’t necessary since we have the button at the top. If they put it there as an excuse for accessibility, they can just. add text to the buttons. like here’s a scuffed mockup but. 

[ID: Screenshot of Flight Rising’s Messages, Friend Requests, and Alerts icons edited to have Messages, Friends, and Alerts written next to the icons]

for the friends tab, they could prolly add friend requests at the top like they do for baldwin alerts, then have an online status thing for friends below with buttons to PM, trade, delete friend, etc. I think you’re already able to disable the online status thing with page visibility? but like, make those options separate if you dont wanna block off your entire page, but dont want to be seen online.

For mobile, they can just make the icons bigger.

then. i THINK. last thing on laptop site. 

[ID: A screenshot of Flight Rising’s Social Media links with old Logos to YouTube, Tumblr, Reddit, Twitter, Facebook, and DeviantArt]

update these fucking icons they are personally killing me, none of these logos are in use anymore (ALSO UPDATE THE TUMBLR THEME JESUS CHRIST)

ok now for mobile. what this post was originally for.

-

as you all know, if you visit this site on mobile, there is literally no form of a mobile version for it. It is just a condensed version of the computer version of the site which is...Very Bad! 

Most of a sites visitors are going to be through mobile, i forget the exact percentage, but like it’s almost a given that people more readily have their phones with them than their laptop or tablet (which. im not going to bother with the tablet version, you can apply both computer and mobile criticisms to the site). in fact a lot of my time on FR is through mobile since I’m not at home 24/7 and I don’t tote my laptop around. Playing this game through it’s mobile site is Not Fun! 

I like, won’t be too pissy or anything bc like. it’s a petsite and I’m making this post for fun. but also like it was made in 2014? 2013? so I’m not going to be u kno. angry. but it nearing the point of ten years with this site and there still isn’t a mobile friendly version. that is lazy. If anything, if they wanted a site update to be the anniversary thing, they should’ve made that update be

Mobile update as primary thing, because designing the site for mobile is a shit ton of work with the amt of pages they have to work through.

Dragon Profile page update (*LOUD SIGH*)

Clan page update

Hoard update (i have thoughts on this too but i wont dive into it this post)

Purchase Gems page update

Dev Tracker update

Forums update

“but that’s a lot to update” well. that wouldve made the anniversary being a website update considerably more worth it, because in my opinion having the dragon profile pages be the ONLY thing to happen during the anniversary was a waste and a bad decision, because other website updates are just. normal whatever updates. it made the anniversary SUPER underwhelming especially bc the past ones (to my knowledge) have only been major game mechanic updates like the eye & ancients update and i believe? the color wheel expansion was an anniversary thing? someone can correct me on that I haven’t played this game as long as most LMAO

as for how i personally would situate the mobile site. shitty graphic time, bc im not putting too much effort into this (warning this will be LONG)

[ID: Image 1. A crudely put together screenshot of the top half of a Mobile View of Flight Rising with comments on either side. It ends with the Latest News segments “Riot of Rot” and “Hoard & Vault Revamp”

Comment 1, Left side: “no banner make it a solid color that matches the burger menu. size the logo correctly etc. Comment 2, Right side: “burger menu w ONLY the categories, goes to the homepages of the categories” Comment 3, Right side: “TWO latest news posts, maybe a button to go see earlier news (which may b something to add to comp too)” Comment 4, Right side: “center dates and comments maybe idfk”

At the bottom of the image there is an added “button” that says “more updates button”]

[ID: Image 2. The bottom half of the mobile view with comments on the left side. There is a put together white box that has the Plague Flight Logo and “plage dom !” written in it. Below it are the Site Status, Random Dragon, and Exalt Bonuses boxes from the site. Underneath that is a red box with “ad space” in the center, with a red footer at the bottom.

The footer contains, “social media! (specifally made icons for site)”, “better formatted links”, and “copyright”.

Comment 1: “idk what they would caption it but the flashy can go here.” Comment 2: “ONE site status update if they keep this format” Comment 3: “probably center these links. i dont know what they use to build the site but im sure you can make icons for social media on just about anything unless this is all handcoded. just. make small icons it takes two seconds and you can copy+paste”]

i dont even want to THINK about how the lair and all that would look on mobile, it was a chore doing the home page alone SOBS

anyways, in ref to these images though--

this is just slapped together and definitely wouldn’t be a final draft, it could use some tweaking

the flashy i refer to is the box that’s above the user box that says what flight is in dom, what festival is going on, etc.

when i mention building the site and “you can make icons for social media on just about anything” im referring to wordpress, wix, whatever is used to format the site. I really only have experience with wordpress thru elementor and divi (so far) so im not CERTAIN about other places but I feel it would be pretty common to have that tool. if not, making icons (or snatching some) is rlly not that hard, probably only costly depending on what their webdesigner(s) charge for icons

I’m not like certain on who does what, how the webdesigner(s) work with/price this site, etc. etc. this is just. going off of my own knowledge. and in general this whole post is my own knowledge abt shit i did no further research to FRs team specifically 

i think this is basically it, i’ll reblog with more if i think of anything, but feel free to add things yourself or in general discuss things. again this post was made for fun so im not taking it seriously or demanding for these changes to be made, just personal annoyances and preferences.

This is also my first time doing picture IDs for a post so if I need to correct anything or the like let me know and I’ll edit it in the post!

[jcmorgenstern]

Have You Ever: Writer’s Edition

@takaraphoenix tagged me in this! thanks fam!

rules: tag the person who tagged you, then bold the things in this list you have done, then tag five to ten other writers!

First Person (god why) Second Person (n o) Third Person Omniscient POV Past Tense Present Tense Future Tense (the fuck yall doin) A complete story A story longer than 1K A story longer than 5K A story longer than 10K A story longer than 50K A story longer than 100K A story longer than 150K (never completed anything this long) A story shorter than 1K (drabbles?? maybe??) A story shorter than 500 words (NO LMAO IM WORDY) Fanfiction Original Fiction Fantasy Science Fiction Historical Fiction (Alexander the Great fanfiction lol) Dystopian A story in the Romance Genre A Story With No Speculative Elements At All Non-fiction A children’s 📓 A story about vampires A story about werewolves A story about robots (im a robot HOE) A story with a non-human protagonist (thrawn fanfiction baybeee) A story with a main character based on yourself (we don’t talk about it) A story with a character based on somebody you know (you don’t know who you are and its gonna stay that way) Male POV Female POV A POV character a different gender from yourself Animal’s POV Multiple Viewpoints POV character under age 15 POV character over age 30 A story told in non-chronological order Story with a happy ending Story with a 😔 ending Death of a minor character Death of a major character Death (offscreen) Death (onscreen) Antagonist death Protagonist death Villain gets redemption arc Kissing scene Sex scene (offscreen) Sex scene (onscreen) Swears (Mild) Swears (Heavy) Violence (PG or under) Violence (PG-13 or over) Fight scene Torture scene A flashback A dream sequence A scene that made you 😭 actual 😢 A scene that made you 😂 at your own joke A prologue An epilogue A story with more than 30 chapters A chapter with fewer than 💯 words A poem A prophecy Story that takes place in the future Story that takes place in the past Story that takes place in a 🌍 that is not 🌍 An anti-hero An anti-villain A parody Description of male character’s scent Description of female character’s boobs (for a second i was like????? have i never described boobs??? ever??? but then i remembered the jon/victor/imogen fic i wrote and iirc i do describe jon’s boobs) Character with eyes of a non-natural color (ok only yes if you mean star wars bc they be aliens, but that’s natural for them!!!)

she’s picky ok!!!!

anyway im really sorry i don’t have the brainpower to tag but pls do it if u want!!!! i be a wreck!

[writingwithflo]

Wasn’t tagged but saw this and wanted to do this. If you see this and want to do it then go for it!

BOLD THE THINGS YOU HAVE WRITTEN

First Person Second Person Third Person Omniscient POV Past Tense Present Tense Future Tense A complete story A story longer than 1K A story longer than 5K A story longer than 10K A story longer than 50K A story longer than 100K A story longer than 150K (It was a collab but it ended up being massive.) A story shorter than 1K A story shorter than 500 words Fanfiction Original Fiction Fantasy Science Fiction Historical Fiction Dystopian A story in the Romance Genre A Story With No Speculative Elements At All Non-fiction A children’s book A story about vampires A story about werewolves A story about robots A story with a non-human protagonist A story with a main character based on yourself A story with a character based on somebody you know Male POV Female POV A POV character a different gender from yourself Animal’s POV Multiple Viewpoints POV character under age 15 POV character over age 30 (....I forgot about Legit half the CLAMP characters I write for...) A story told in non-chronological order (I’m italicizing but not bolding bc I’m not sure if Insomniac counts. You don’t see every scene and you find them out later than they happen but I’m not sure if that counts...) Story with a happy ending Story with a sad ending Death of a minor character Death of a major character Death (offscreen) Death (onscreen) Antagonist death Protagonist death Villain gets redemption arc Kissing scene Sex scene (offscreen) Sex scene (onscreen) (I mean it was mostly poetic and I was like...14 so it wasn’t good but yeah. Y’all will never see it though because it’s from a forum that doesn’t exist anymore.) Swears (Mild) Swears (Heavy) Violence (PG or under) Violence (PG-13 or over) Fight scene Torture scene  A flashback A dream sequence A scene that made you cry actual tears A scene that made you laugh at your own joke A prologue An epilogue A story with more than 30 chapters (We haven’t split the 150k+ collab yet but like...its not done and it’s massive so presumably it should be more than 30 chapters.) A chapter with fewer than 100 words A poem A prophecy Story that takes place in the future Story that takes place in the past Story that takes place in a world that is not Earth An anti-hero An anti-villain (I had to bold this in an edit because I forgot about Seishirou...) A parody Description of male character’s scent Description of female character’s boobs Character with eyes of a non-natural color

[lazy-sixteen]

Hiii it's me again, the one who asked about your HDM au, i just wanna ask a few questions. first ever since i read your AU, i immediately fell in love with the concept of DCST characters having Daemons, and was also the sole reason i gave the HBO series a watch (season 1 was great! Season 2 was pretty good) and is now a fan of the show, thanks to you!

Second, because i love the concept so much, I can't help but make my own version of it! But one problem, i have never ever wrote a fic before, im thinking of doing a simple oneshot first, but like i said, i have never wrote a story (at least in English) besides for school work. So where do i start? What should be my priorities? Will people really read this? Does it even HAVE to be a fic? First POV or Character POV? Or third party POV?

I have an idea in mind, where the setting is, the characters that are gonna interact, etc, I'm just really clueless on starting it. Can you help? Like maybe showing the thought process you went through writing the AU? Sorry if I ask to much, first time asking advice on something i normally don't do hehe

Hello again!!

I'm so glad you got into the whole his Dark Materials Universe (i still haven't seen the HBO series bc I promised someone I'd watch with them and we still havent gotten around to it, rip)!!

Second (and I'll preface this by saying, i write as a hobby, I'm def not an authority in the field), I think it's an awesome idea to try writing a fic and/or creating your own au!!

For me, the easiest way to start creating is to focus on what part I like the most. So like for the DCST au, it was thinking about what characters got what daemons and how the universe would change if crossed over with HDM. Or it's a fic with a plot, what scene came to me first. I feel like the hardest part of writing is starting, so it's best to just start with whatever idea is most vivid.

I have a bit of a weird writing process, in that I spend a lot of time just kinda daydreaming about my AUs, then I'll usually write down some very rough notes on them (like for this au, what daemons people had and how the culture would change, or for a fic with an original plot some scenes I want to include), and then I jump straight into writing a rough-draft that's pretty close to the final version.

I know a lot of people like writing kinda of a bullet point list of what scenes and plots they like -> rough draft -> edits -> final version.

Also, I think the priority when creating fan content is just do what makes you happy! Like fandoms have trends, so a fic might get more hits/kudos if it's the fandoms's OTP instead of a rarepair and most people like 3rd person POV best, etc but I always get the most enjoyment from people interacting with the fics that I enjoyed writing the most, even if they aren't as popular (aka all my DCST fics, lol).

So I'd say write whatever type of fic you want! Or don't, and just do some world-building of who has what daemons! Whether your content gets super popular or just a few people read it is kinda just luck of the draw, so don't stress about it.

Also just wanted to add that your English reads as really natural and fluent to me! (sorry I don't have any advice for writing in a second language, I'm a mere monolingual)

Thanks so much for asking, and hope I was able to help some! I for one really look forward to seeing anything you'll create (feel free to drop a link my inbox to whatever you make if you want)!

[black-emporium-exchange]

Pinch Hit #8, endtable_fororphans - CLAIMED

This pinch hit will be due at 9 PM EDT on Friday, September 4th. Please leave a comment on this Dreamwidth post (comments are screened), send a message to one of the mods, or send an email to blackemporiumexchange@gmail.com to claim. Requested relationships:

Zevran Arainai/Male Surana - Fanart, Fanfiction

Revka Amell/Quentin - Fanart, Fanfiction

Female Cousland/Nathaniel Howe - Fanart, Fanfiction

Letter:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1-ppeiyRb7kh7DZp310Zp69zG0waSWYaYcogFyW92Y10/edit

PH 8 - endtable_fororphans

Request #1:

Zevran Arainai/Male Surana

Fanart

Fanfiction

My male Surana (a blood mage) ended up being a lot more fun to play than I was anticipating, namely because it was the first time I'd romanced Zevran. 

I'd love to read something about how Alim doesn't think he's capable of being someone's romantic partner because of his specialization - he's very withdrawn and serious, and comes off as cold most of the time. It was Uldred who taught him how to use blood magic, but to keep its addictive nature in check, Alim has learned to shut down his emotions so he doesn't get carried away and hurt someone. He's very principled that way - he only uses his own blood or that of someone who has given their explicit consent. 

I'd like to see how their relationship could get started during Origins - Alim is aware that he's attracted to Zev, but has no idea how to deal with it, and of course Zev is extremely perceptive and helpful in that regard :D 

Also, random detail that might not matter - my Surana is bald? It's a practicality thing - he shaves his head bc he often uses fire spells and hair is not enchantable. 

As canon-compliant as possible, T or M rating, a little bit of angst is okay so long as it ends happy, and tasteful smut is welcome, but I'd just really love some fluff for these two! See the attached letter for other stuff I like!

DNW's: Dubcon/Noncon Mpreg Omegaverse Abuse of any kind Humiliation Blood/Breath/Knife play Watersports/Scat/Vore/Vomit Lactation kink Statutory Rape Non-canonical Incest First-person POV (unless it’s epistolary) Second-person POV

Request #2:

Revka Amell/Quentin (Dragon Age)

Fanart

Fanfiction

I saw a discussion thread a few months ago about whether the woman Quentin was trying to recreate in All That Remains in DA2 could be Revka Amell, and my brain just exploded. 

Because what if it was Quentin and Revka's affair (not Leandra and Malcolm's) that kickstarted the Amells' downfall? What kind of person could Quentin have been before becoming a murderer? What could have pushed Revka, a noblewoman, towards an apostate? And perhaps most importantly - how could their affair have ended such that nearly two decades later, Quentin becomes obsessed with rebuilding her? 

Bonus: What if Quentin is Warden Amell's father? What if Warden Amell survives the events of Origins, finds their way back to Kirkwall with all that's left of the Amell family, and is with Hawke when they finally confront Quentin, who instantly recognizes them as Revka's child? 

M rating preferred but given the subject matter, E would be alright so long as it doesn't violate the DNW's. Canon compliant or divergent. Suuuper angst fest with big emotion. Everything hurts and everyone is sad (except for Revka and Quentin I guess, but only very briefly, lol). See the attached letter for other things I like! I'd hope this would go without saying, but I just want to be clear in this case - No necrophilia (unless it's of the blink-and-you'll-miss-it variety)

DNW's: Noncon (referencing past noncon is okay) Mpreg Omegaverse Abuse of any kind Humiliation Blood/Breath/Knife play Watersports/Scat/Vore/Vomit Lactation kink Statutory Rape Non-canonical Incest First-person POV (unless it’s epistolary) Second-person POV

Request #3:

Female Cousland/Nathaniel Howe

Fanart

Fanfiction

ugggh sweet maker, this pairing - it hit me like a ton of bricks the first time I'd considered it - the sheer amount of angst potential here is just off the frigging charts.

Things I would love for these two: A past childhood friendship, maybe crushes? Cousland romances Alistair and straight-up refuses Morrigan's ritual, so Alistair dies killing the Archdemon. Crazy tension, poorly-concealed attraction, and a terrible working relationship in Awakening leading to borderline hate sex. Cousland expressing remorse for the way she kills Rendon Howe bc it was vengeance instead of justice. Nathaniel forgives her, and then Cousland catches FEELINGS

M or E rating, canon compliant or divergent, or even an AU! Give me a heaping spoonful of emotion with the smut, and make it angst with a happy ending! See the attached letter for other things I like!

DNW's: Noncon (referencing past noncon is okay) Mpreg Omegaverse Abuse of any kind Humiliation Blood/Breath/Knife play Watersports/Scat/Vore/Vomit Lactation kink Statutory Rape Non-canonical Incest First-person POV (unless it’s epistolary) Second-person POV

[pekorosu]

sticking all my rambly notes about the wu xia bits under the cut.

warning for spoilers and all.

- they spent 3 months filming in tengchong, yunnan province. it's a highland area, about 2000 metres above sea level. kenji initially expressed some doubt at whether they could even pull off action scenes in such a place (bc breathing became quicker than usual).

- the movie was originally titled "同謀者" (the accomplice?)

(※ i think it refers to the conversation between liu jinxi and xu baijiu... "when one man sins, we all share his sin. we are all accomplices"? maybe that would've been too on the nose haha)

- the most consistent keywords in the early stages were [kung fu], [rashomon] and [discovery channel]

- they used shaw brothers movies as reference, with the intention of reviving "kung fu movies" in a way that would suit the 21st century.

- he talks a bit about the research that went into developing the action. stuff like how it wasn’t possible to half-ass the fight scenes when it comes to Real Kung Fu Movies(tm) unlike modern action flicks. so they drew inspiration from lau kar-leung's "classic, old school" kung fu. they watched his movies, copied the moves + camera angles exactly and studied them to figure out how to capture the right look and all.

- there's a lot of specifics re: martial arts styles that i don't know how to translate, but anyway donnie uses hung ga kuen for this movie.

(※ there are actually some videos on youtube breaking down his moves. it's p cool haha).

- kenji thinks it doesn’t feel right to call the movie "wu xia" bc everything that goes into the action speaks more of a "kung fu movie" as opposed to a "wu xia movie"

- he also jokes that they probably couldn’t name the movie "kung fu" since there's already a "kung fu hustle" out there. 

(※ that movie's actually named "功夫 (kung fu)" in chinese lmao i totally didn't know that)

- [rashomon] refers to how they wanted to infuse a similar concept of "the truth will look different from different POVs" into the action scenes. it was difficult to work out but kenji feels like they’ve achieved something fresh and new from an action perspective.

- [discovery channel] refers to how director peter chan came across a programme, smth like "the science of martial arts" on discovery channel, which led to the idea of showing viewers through CGI what goes on inside the body.

- kenji had been assigned the role of action choreographer** for this movie. he also had a minor acting role. additionally, he had no stunt double so he p much had to do everything by himself. donnie, who knew exactly where kenji’s limits were, would push him to the very edge. kenji mentions that he'd get minor injuries almost every day just trying to meet such high demands. he’d often catch himself thinking (jokingly) "i'm gonna murder this guy" lmao...

(※ here’s a video of him doing the same stunt 13 times.)

**specifically [ 動作指導 ]. donnie’s the action director [ 動作導演 ] and action designer [ 動作設計 ]. tbh they all sound the same to me but i think the choreographer does more... guiding? on a smaller scale? while donnie’s job is more in terms of the bigger picture? IDEK i’m just guessing.

- he also goes "it's difficult to breathe even when we’re just walking! i swear, at this rate, i'll be able to run a full marathon when i get back to japan..."

- kenji thinks kara hui (plays the badass murder lady) is scary bc when he tried giving her some direction, she retorted rather curtly with "i know that!" x_x

- there were plans to cast older, more nostalgic (male) martial arts stars for kara hui's part but someone (probably donnie?) suggested "a woman would be good" and so it ended up being kara. 

- kenji tho. “why did it have to be this scary lady...”

- at some point while they were location scouting by a cliff, kenji slipped and fell about 8 metres into the river! his life was seriously on the line there bc RAPID CURRENTS but luckily he’d managed to grab onto a protruding boulder and climb out somehow.

it was a pretty rocky area so he was grazed all over. literally no one knew where he had disappeared to so when he showed up covered in blood, everyone started freaking out. in the middle of all that, donnie just pulled out his personal phone and took pictures lol.

(※ documented in this bts clip)

- the scenery on the way to the hospital was so beautiful that at one point kenji wondered "what if... i'm actually dead right now??"

- when kaneshiro takeshi got a look at his injury-covered back, for some reason he yelled "unbelieeevaablllee!!" in osaka-ben and asked, "hey hey kenji, can i take a picture? i wanna send it to my mom, scare her a little by making it seem like i was the one who got injured."

- kenji: “i laughed because it was pretty much the same reaction as donnie.”

- he mentions that the staff gathered on set were of various nationalities so you would hear a mix of mandarin, cantonese, english, thai and japanese being spoken.

- because there were multilingual ppl on set (ESP takeshi), kenji couldn't carelessly curse in japanese anymore. usually when he's feeling extremely stressed out he'd be yelling things like "just die everyone!" in jp lmao

- he says takeshi is a rly interesting person. talks about how he went around suggesting eccentric ideas and asking people "hey, wouldn't it be more interesting if i did this?"

- the sichuanese thing was takeshi’s idea. 

- the little finger swipe here was also an ad lib lol 

- those cows in the scene where kara hui's character gets stampeded on? there were stunt people inside the cows moving them manually!

- they didn't want to resort to CGI, thinking there would be a risk of it coming across as fake. like even if just ONE small part looked fake, the audience will start wondering if the rest of the fight scene they'd painstakingly worked on was fake too and they didn't want that.

- "no! cows don't run like that!!" - donnie, taking his job directing stuntmen in extremely realistic cow costumes /very/ seriously.

- meanwhile kenji: “the situation was too surreal. how a cow runs... we never learned that in stunt school!”

- 

"please observe this enthusiastic performance of a cow by a team of two stuntmen!"

- director peter chan never really meddled with the action parts of the movie. when asked for his opinion, he'd just say "i don't know anything about that. i'd be satisfied with the first take itself. after that, i'd just look at everything as a whole." so they were kinda given free rein to film whatever they wanted and edit the scenes however they wanted.

- tsui hark once visited the set. tang wei (plays ayu, jinxi’s wife) who already wasn’t familiar with many of the hong kong cast and crew, had asked innocently "who was that old man?" lol

- the arm-cutting scene wasn’t in the original plans, it was more of a final resort. they actually planned to have jinxi be attacked by those goons when he got "revived" and he'd escape into a small cramped space where they'd do a 1 vs 5 fight scene. but it would've taken them another month to shoot that, so they had to scrap it. after some brainstorming they decided to replace it with "jinxi cuts off his arm!" this was decided like the day before they had to start shooting it (ﾟｰﾟ;;

- they had to decide which arm to "cut off" and thought it would be cool to have it be the same as jimmy wang's one-armed swordsman. so they asked jimmy which arm it was and he told them it was the left arm. so they went with that.

...turned out when they checked the original it was actually the right arm.

(※ truth is, in the original one-armed swordsman series, it'd switch between the two arms and wasn't consistent lmfao)

- kenji really liked the final product, but it didn't do so well in china and hong kong. kenji wonders if it's bc of the discrepancy between what people expected from the title "wu xia" and the actual content of the movie. apparently people were also really disappointed by the ending.

- eventually the movie started getting attention at film festivals and stuff in the west. but director peter chan just said pessimistically, "that's precisely why there's no changing the fact that this movie is a failure, entertainment-wise."

- kenji kinda wishes people would give this movie a second chance.

[uniformbravo]

i rly love my ocs ok im just gonna make this one of those posts where i talk about my life but this is the special OC Edition

idk i’ve just been working with them a lot lately and im so into it , my resolution this year was to work on that big webcomic project & everything and ya i’ll still do that but i’ve been so in love w/ my older ocs i want to fix their old shitty stories and bring them back to life, i’ve even been considering maybe using one as comic practice?? idk which one bc i keep bouncing back and forth between the two stories but ok

i always assume that nobody knows anything abt my ocs since i never really talk about them in depth but Basically i have my two casts from their respective stories: silan/sythra/chris are from may 16th, alex/andy/chrissy are from devil’s peak (edgy title from 9th grade oooo it’s just the name of the town they live in lmao)

this past week i’ve been on a may 16th kick because, well, it was literally may 16th on tuesday lol so i’ve been thinking abt them a lot and, like, i’ve been writing again?? just working on this really fuckin self-indulgent thing i started like a month ago, i picked it back up again this week and i’ve been weirdly in the Mood to write, so

idk it’s really exciting?? it feels super good to get back into writing, especially with this little for-fun no stress project, and also im feeling rly sentimental about writing these specific characters again? because i made them back in 8th grade and they were my very first gay characters and silan in particular has stuck close with me through all these years so he’s like really, really special to me

and i still have everything i wrote that year: i used to write on paper and in notebooks so i have all of those, and a couple of them are falling apart a little but i treasure them; every now & then i go back and reread it all and it’s So Bad but im so in love with it i love this stupid dumb story with these stupid dumb characters doing stupid dumb things and i get rly nostalgic and sentimental about it every time

because i dedicated a year of my life to writing this story! i had it all planned out from start to finish and wrote enough bits and pieces of it that if you read all of them in chronological order you’d be able to follow the plot quite well and that’s just huge to me?? it was gonna be an entire book there were different arcs and conflicts and everything & like im making it sound way better than it actually was through the power of Being Vague but Damn this was a huge project for me and i wrote a lot of it, i poured so much time and passion into creating it aahhh

i did write a couple other things for it here and there after that year, but technically they were non-canon? well actually i mean one was a scene i had previously written but from chris’ pov, but the actual book was from silan’s pov so it didn’t really count- the point is i haven’t actually written anything for them in about 7 years (give or take), so working on this thing i’m doing right now feels really.... significant

and ok i guess technically this scene isn’t actually canon either, it’s more like an exercise with the two of them (and also i just really really wanted to write it), but it could be canon if i could figure out a few things and that’s all that matters right

it’s like.... i’m coming back to them after some big changes? like when you haven’t seen someone in years and then you talk to them again and so much has changed since the last time you saw them but it’s still them, that’s what this feels like

because their characters (as well as their entire story) have gone through so many changes since that first year of writing them; i may not have written any actual story content over the past several years, but i’ve absolutely done a lot of brainstorming and characterization stuff with them so that they’re much more fleshed out with a lot more personality than either of them had originally (this goes for sythra too actually), and now this is the first time i’ve written them since all of those changes and it’s pretty special

i guess for example chris used to be extremely boring tbh? he had no personality other than “The Boyfriend” basically, everything he did just kind of conformed to whatever i needed from him to propel the story forward, and he went through changes that made no sense? like in the beginning he was um an asshole to silan but then the second they got together he did this complete 180 and became super nice and caring out of nowhere and it felt rly out of place, and all of it was to conform to the plot like there was no real reason for him to be acting that way on his side

now i feel like i place a much higher importance on treating characters like people instead of props, so chris has internal conflict that sticks with him and drives him to do the things he does in the story and he feels so much more alive to me now; i’m writing this thing from his pov and it’s so fun to play around with his thoughts and reactions and just like seeing what kind of a person he is as the scene plays out, it’s so good and exciting & im so proud of him hes my son & hes grown up so much im getting emotional bye

god i’ve spent way too long on this don’t let me talk about my ocs ever bc i dont know when to stop i just.... i love them so much lmao ;v;;;;;;;;;