#i literally have no idea how other writers on here balance their irl life and all it's responsibilies with the online life cuz yall this

[orchidyoonkook]

heyyyyyyy❤hope ur good ,

sooooooo we are close to receiving a new chapter of To What We Were Before, And All The Things After?

Your writing is spectacular😭❤

This is all so interesting I need to see more of JK being jealous, the idea of ​​him being jealous makes my heart flutter so hard, will we have a strong love triangle??? Please, if so, make sure YN doesn't take stupid actions, for example, instead of talking, she prefers to jump to hasty conclusions.

I remembered your story when I watched Maxton Hall on Amazon Prime Video, it's not the same but it has a vibe, you know? I don't know how to explain it, I just liked everything haha

I am once again asking for forgiveness on late answered asks. however i genuinely thought i'd answered this one cuz it was TW3 related so: SORRY!!

anywhoooooo

I was trying to get the new chapter out before my big trip! But then life did what life does best and screwed me out of that happening, and then I sneezed and now it's July, so I'm trying my best to haul ass to post the next chapter. I've only been home for a week, and I've worked 5 of those days, had a migraine for the other two, and so it sounds like excuses, when in reality, writing creatively when youre a stupid grown up with responsibilities like chores and bullshit like having to cook meals so i can survive takes up a lot of the free time i have after work :(. And just to be clear I am not being sarcastic I'm literally so peeved I just can't write all day. Like who decided we needed to have money to live and survive. I hate this system that is not for creative minds.

ANYWHOOOOOOO

Your writing is spectacular😭❤

I will cry right now. Right this absolute second and I will not stop if you continue on with this. (Thank you so much oh my god i love you forever 😭😭😭😭)

This is all so interesting I need to see more of JK being jealous, the idea of ​​him being jealous makes my heart flutter so hard, will we have a strong love triangle??? Please, if so, make sure YN doesn't take stupid actions, for example, instead of talking, she prefers to jump to hasty conclusions.

More of JK being jealous you say?? Mmmm. Interesting. Interesting.

Y/N is a very well thoughout girly pop. She is strong in her goals and does not stray from them easily and that is literally all I can say about it without spoiling anything.

I remembered your story when I watched Maxton Hall on Amazon Prime Video, it's not the same but it has a vibe, you know? I don't know how to explain it, I just liked everything haha

BRO THE WAY THIS IS SUCH A HUGE COMPLIMENT. LIKE?????????? I loved Maxton Hall dude. like. Thats 👏my 👏shit 👏. E2L. Academic rivals. he falls first. He's pathertic for her. She has the drive of a winning racehorse. LIKE. L I K E. MY GUY. THAT IS MY SHIIIIIIIIIT. i can go on and on but that show hit all my guilty pleasure tropes and i can talk about it for hours.

SO

THE FACT. That you thought of my lil story when you watched it???? I'm gone. I'm dead. I am bewildered and flatered and out of ways to say my mind is freaking blown dude.

I know exactly what you mean, but in a rare moment of me being sassy and cocky: my story came out first (pretend the 2018 book doesnt exist to let me have my moment please cuz i didnt know the book existed until the show XD)

[queencvbra]

okay I'm gonna talk about That Scene (the Tory & Sam fight that ended with her leaving). and I'm gonna be potentially ranty bc I have been thinking about this A Lot over the past few months and idr if I've said anything about it before on the dash. but I have so, so many problems with that scene and the argument the writers are trying to make here.

listen. I love Johnny to death okay? But he was wrong as hell about letting Tory fight, from every angle. I get the writers wanted the approach of "fighting through the pain" but this? This was not that. It was another form of Cobra Kai's whole "channel your anger and make it your power" thing which is just unhealthy. It has a historical basis, too; the whole idea of Cobra Kai since the first Karate Kid movie is that it is a western corruption of the traditional values of karate, and the most direct display of that is the fact that Cobra Kai karate is NOT karate at all, it's Tang Soo Do, and it was just called karate because karate was a marketable term in that time period, no respect given to the actual art other than how it could be turned into profit.

It's all based on an old mindset that largely cropped in the martial arts scene after western militaries (largely the United States) started incorporating various east asian martial arts techniques into their military training. That part of the show where they have Kreese learn Tang Soo Do while stationed in Korea is somewhat accurate (minus the dramatic special ops shit obviously), and my own family has actual experience with this, as this is actually how my uncle's father learned Taekwondo in the first place; he was stationed in Korea during the Vietnam war and taught martial arts. In a lot of cases these "hardass" (sarcastic) military guys would come home and take that "karate" and completely commercialize it, stripping away all of the actual ideology behind it to replace it with western militaristic ideals. Which of course fostered extremely toxic environments when the point of these martial arts was always supposed to be balance and discipline, not just an outlet to beat the shit out of people when you're angry, and that's why that mentality is present and still exists to this day, because it became *that* prevalent. This is literally the basis of Cobra Kai and part of the writers' thesis in this show was supposed to be deconstructing that, yet it seems they keep backpedaling and making it seem "cool" when they need it to be because it appeals to a certain demographic.

And yes, this stuff being in the show and reflected in a positive way DOES affect what people will do in real life, and there is empirical evidence to support that. Seeing martial arts on screen is enough to inspire people. There was a spike in the popularity of martial arts after the original Karate Kid movies. There was a spike in popularity after Bruce Lee became a star in the west. There is currently a spike now because of things like Cobra Kai and the UFC becoming so popular. But not everyone comes in with a healthy, learning mindset, and that happens a lot more when the *unhealthy* mindset is advertised and encouraged on screen instead of challenged. My uncle has kicked students out before because it was easy to tell that all they wanted to do was beat people up and try to mimic their favorite MMA stars. I think Stingray is genuinely the perfect caricature of that phenomenon irl and the writers really cooked when they wrote him, because there really are people who act like that, who want to learn martial arts to feel "cool" and "powerful" for all the wrong reasons.

And I think, from the standpoint of the writing itself, it's a detriment and unfair to Johnny's character that even after all this time, he still hasn't unlearned this mindset and is actively advocating for it when the whole point over the course of this show was supposed to be showing that this is a horrible and unhealthy mindset; it's clear they regressed him to that again just to put him into conflict with Daniel once more and sow more dissent into the group again and give Tory a reason to walk out. In a martial arts setting, you should never take out your anger on another person, and a sensei especially should never allow or advocate for that to happen. I don't care if this is just a show, this is such a stupid argument to make from a writer's perspective and also potentially harmful for any impressionable dumbasses who think they can just go learn martial arts so they can enact their violent fantasies on others as an anger outlet. Mutual trust is such an important thing to have with anyone you spar, and these people join with the intent to purposefully abuse that trust so they can feel like they're a bunch of tough guys. Focus is such an important aspect in martial arts training and discipline, too, and if your head is clouded (especially by that much anger) you are more likely to not only hurt your sparring partner / opponent but also yourself. Allowing that would have been pure negligence and unhealthy for those students in more ways than one.

Because what would have happened if they let Tory fight Sam like that? Nothing good. It wouldn't have helped her. It wouldn't have made her feel better. Her mom fucking died. That much grief and anger and sadness is not something you can just punch away. Sure, if you're angry and you show up to class upset, you can take it to the bag and let out some steam, but that is NOT the same thing as directing that towards another person. She would have hurt Sam. (She was already hurting Sam and they were barely into the match!) Worst case scenario, she could have potentially *killed* Sam. Do you know how easy it is to critically injure or even kill someone by accident? You could put out an eye, break a jaw, give them a concussion, hell you could even get brain damage from something like getting choked out for too long. This is why you train for *safety* first, and everything else is secondary. That's always been my problem with how much shit gets allowed in the show. And I don't mean Johnny's silly OSHA violations. Like, it's goofy, it's funny to see on television, I don't mind *that*, but after so many seasons it's kind of a nuisance to see when it gets taken THIS far, beyond the jokes and funny scenarios and into something serious where the same mindset carries over.

Ultimately, from the standpoint of what actually would have been the right thing to do in that situation, this is not a "different perspectives" thing. There is *no* argument to make here, and the writers trying to pull the same "well they both have a point" bullshit again is wrong, because no they fucking don't, and I'm tired of this being the basis of every single conflict between Johnny and Daniel in the series. Sometimes things ARE just black and white. And also, purely from the perspective of Tory's character development and arc? She doesn't need yet another person telling her to hold on to her anger and center her karate around those emotions. She needs someone to show her that it's okay to let it go.

[mcudarklibrary]

Author Q&A: searchforanotherway

🖤 The MCU Dark Library encourages everyone to reblog and share the wonderful talents of this community, no matter how big or small your following is. Supporting each other is key to ensuring the longevity of this community. 🖤

Please be sure to reblog and share with your followers.

Tell us who you are!

@searchforanotherway​

How long have you been writing fanfics? If the MCU wasn’t your first fandom, what was?

I published my first fanfic on FFN in 2015 for Naruto and RWBY. From there, I discovered a community of Overwatch writers on Tumblr by 2018 and began writing fanfic for Overwatch until I got into the marvel and started writing Avengers fanfic in 2019.

What helps motivate you to write? Where do you find inspiration?

If I am procrastinating and looking for motivation, usually I will go back and re-read some of my works to get the gears in my head thinking about future scenes and plot. I like to think of myself as a maladaptive daydreamer and visualize my story to help organize the plot. I also try to re-read some of my favorites from other writers as good inspiration to remind myself of the type of dark!fic and writing style I'm hoping to achieve. 

If you could give new writers any advice, what would it be?

Read from your favorite fanfic authors and ANALYZE their work. I don't mean to say "be critical", but notice the things they do right! Or in better terms, notice the things you like about their writing. Some writers are talented at exposition or narration, detailed descriptions, setting the tone (especially for dark!fics) in their writing, paragraph formatting and grammar; understand all the writers that inspire you and adopt parts of their writing style that you like from all of them to help improve your own writing and create a unique style that you can appreciate.

The last advice I will give is a classic saying that I think all writers are well familiar with: "show, don't tell". It's something I'm still trying to get better at myself, but I do think that writing descriptively helps! And trying to balance that with some exposition and narration can make the difference in the pacing of your fic. There's a lot of resources online, so I suggest checking it out if your still confused! The internet is always available to help you with writing!

What is your favourite dark trope and/or kink? Why?

As much as I wouldn't mind listing off every trope and kink I love, I think I can sum them all up as any trope or kink that has disturbing intimacy. So breeding kinks and A/B/O's are a yes! Not so much other things like gun/knife kinks. Along that, any type of yandere trope that shows some sort of one-sided affection to the subject of said affections. 

Share a few lines/paragraphs of one of your stories that truly sums up your style. Don’t forget to share a link to the story!

I will leave a lengthy snippet below from my Overwatch story, 'Hime'. It's currently still in progress and available to read on AO3. (https://archiveofourown.org/works/18539803/chapters/43942510)

- - - - -

“Don’t take me away from him! I’m not leaving!”

But no amount of strength you had could help you as Hanzo finally ripped you away from Genji.

“No! Nooo!” You beat your fists over the Shimada lord, but they did nothing while Hanzo quickly lifted you into his arms, carrying you like the bride you were supposed to be, walking the two of you away from the crowd.

You turned over to face them again, yelling louder, “Please! Someone save my husband, please!” You cried even harder watching all the shocked expressions from everyone. They all roamed closer to Genji’s dying body, but none of them made a move to help him.

You reached out for your love, and countless more tears washed down your face, but when the gates to the palace suddenly came into your vision, closing itself from the city, did you turn to Hanzo.

“Brother! W-where are you taking me?” Hanzo didn’t respond but instead continued to walk through the compound and up the stairs that led to the Shimada’s home. You struggled out of his grip, but Hanzo’s grasp was firm and unyielding. You cried out in pain when his hands held your body even tighter to his hot chest. The doors into the home opening as he led both of you inside. You continued to cry until he eventually led you to his room.

Hanzo released you then, placing you down on your feet only for you to try and bolt away from him a few seconds later. Hanzo quickly grabbed you by your forearm before you even reached the door, and pulled you further back into the room.

“Hanzo stop!” You yanked your arm, but he did not let go. “Stop Hanzo! Why are you doing this? Please! Genji is your brother! I am your sist—”

You couldn’t finish when Hanzo turned to you, more furious than you have ever seen a man before. “You are not my sister! You are my wife! And I will consummate this marriage tonight!”

What did he say?

His wife?... Consummate?

You screamed.

Is there a dark trait you like to interweave into your dark characters? Is there something in particular that draws you to this characteristic?

I enjoy dark!characters that have yandere and delusional characteristics, and I like to sum up the reason why as my intense fear and guilt to be in an actual irl relationship to which I use fanfics to create characters that would love the reader and be with her against her consent.

Which story did you struggle to complete? The one that made you drag your feet to finish.

I consider my story, 'Hunger' to be the most struggling to write. I initially wrote that just to let out my sexual frustrations, but a lot of feedback has been about the plot... That I've barely made outside of a few important events. With that, there's been some pressure to speed up the pacing. Also, fun fact: 'Hunger' was originally supposed to be an Overwatch fanfic.

Do you have a mutual who will hold your hand and support you when you’re doubting yourself? Do you have one who will truthfully and honestly help you grow as a writer?

@americasass81​ has been there for me a lot when I've been at my worst doubting myself, and the sweetest part about it was that she reached out to me on her own accord usually after I post a rant. She is incredible and literally carrying this community on her back--we don't deserve her. 

As for who helped me grow as a writer, I definitely confided with @darkdrabblings​ back when I first got into Overwatch fanfiction. We would throw each other headcanon ideas and all that, and she really did support me a lot. Since then, I don't really have a lot of conversations about my writing with other people.

Do you have a story that contains personal or important details from an experience that is your own?

My first story that I wrote on FFN, 'Nothing More, Nothing Less', was written when I was severely depressed, with a female protagonist that reflected me and my life. 'A Thousand Suns' is another one in which the protagonist's background would be similar to my own. 

Check out @searchforanotherway​ masterlist here

🖤Please reblog and help promote and support dark content creators 🖤

[letshaikyuu]

. . .𝚔𝚊𝚝'𝚜 𝚋𝚍𝚊𝚢 𝚠𝚎𝚎𝚔. . .

↷ ⋯ It’s finally here, the official post for my birthday week! This idiot writer of yours is turning 19 next Wednesday and I’d like to give myself and you guys a treat by doing something special for the week following up to the ‘special’ day!

↷ ⋯ It has been almost 10 months since I started my adventure on Tumblr and the first birthday I will be celebrating with you guys (almost 4.5k of you which is amazing omg)! Below will be all the things I’ll (hopefully) be posting the whole week and some of them are a throwback to my first months on Tumblr! 

↷ ⋯ I wish you all the best and I hope we can celebrate this week together <3 and, when requesting, make sure to put this: #katsbday, so that I know it’s part of my bday week and not a normal request!

↷ ⋯ if you wish to request for a specific date (for example: oct. 30th), make sure to send an ask in the day before (so, oct. 29th). This also means that the ask box will be open tomorrow exclusively for Oct. 28th! Requests go here! Have fun ;3

. . . 𝚘𝚌𝚝. 𝟸𝟾𝚝𝚑 . . .

↷ ⋯ SFW alphabet from @darkgirlygamer! Please stick to one character per ask and max. of 5 letters because this alphabet takes the life out of me sometimes (I remember this being my 100 follower milestone event, so let’s bring this back hehe)

↷ ⋯ Mini dating headcanons! - basically, what would be their go-to date aesthetic and the whole pre-date preparation (how they ask you out, what they would wear, how they would act...); this is also for one character only!

. . . 𝚘𝚌𝚝. 𝟸𝟿𝚝𝚑 . . .

↷ ⋯ emoji prompts from @laws-hat-headcanons​! These will be, quite literally, the most random headcanons that I have of the characters and, cause they will be rather simple and short, you can request up to 3 characters per ask and 3 emojis per ask!

↷ ⋯ fake texts! I’ve seen this idea roaming around for a long while (appreciating my babes who started this trend @kyovtani​ and the rest who added on and made amazing content) 

↷ ⋯ e.g. can you do iwaizumi asking his crush out? can you do sexting with terushima? and so on...

. . . 𝚘𝚌𝚝. 𝟹𝟶𝚝𝚑 . . .   

↷ ⋯ NSFW alphabet from @the-coldest-goodbye​! Stick to one character and max. of 5 letters!

↷ ⋯ Thirst asks! Throwback to all our Horny Fridays and answering thirst asks! You can simply thirst or ask for something specific:

↷ ⋯ e.g. which character would have (some kink)? which character would try this and this? some nsfw headcanons for (character’s name)? and so on...

↷ ⋯ this day will be tagged with #thirst asks, so anyone who doesn’t want to read adult content, can easily avoid it!

. . . 𝚘𝚌𝚝. 𝟹𝟷𝚜𝚝 . . .

↷ ⋯ Spooky sentence prompts from @eternalmemes​! I mean, we can’t not celebrate Halloween somehow! So, we shall celebrate it with some short drabbles!

↷ ⋯ characters and how they would celebrate Halloween! Send in some characters and I’ll tell you what costumes they’d wear (including couple outfits) and what they’d do for Halloween!

. . . 𝚗𝚘𝚟. 𝟷𝚜𝚝 . . .  

↷ ⋯ some requests lol! I’ll do some regular requests for this day because we do have a lot still chilling in the ask box, so it’s kind of an extra push to make me write them <3

↷ ⋯ honestly, I’ll be doing those requests which have my favorite characters first (Shirabu, Kageyama, any setter basically lol...) and then, if I have time, do other requests

↷ ⋯ you can request something for today, but I’ll limit the asks by asking for one character per ask and something you’d like me to write about them! 

↷ ⋯ e.g. kageyama + cooking, tsukishima + thunderstorms and so on...

. . . 𝚗𝚘𝚟. 𝟸𝚗𝚍 . . .

↷ ⋯ who in Hq day! I really like doing these kinds of requests and they’re fairly quick to write, so, beside the ones I have in my ask box, I’ll accept some more!

↷ ⋯ headcanons for other anime series! So, I do like and watch other anime beside Haikyuu, so you can request some sfw and nsfw headcanons for characters from the following anime:

↷ ⋯ Naruto, OHSHC, Death Note, Free!, Yu-Gi-Oh!, Given, Fuguo Keiji: Balance: Unlimited

. . . 𝚗𝚘𝚟. 𝟹𝚛𝚍 . . .

↷ ⋯ Matchup Monday, but it’s Tuesday and you’re matching me up with some Haikyuu character! Honestly, I’ve always wanted to know with whom you ship me guys with and with whom you think I would go well

↷ ⋯ with that in mind, I’d like you guys to kind of expand on your decision and tell me the reason why you think we’d go well together!

↷ ⋯ and, let’s just say I’ll try to do some matching up of my own as well ;3

. . . 𝚗𝚘𝚟. 𝟺𝚝𝚑 . . .

↷ ⋯ get to know the birthday girl! I think you all know me quite well, but if you wish to know anything else, just slip into my ask box with some questions I’m offering down below!

↷ ⋯ Haikyuu asks! Numbered asks! Deep questions! Emoji asks!

↷ ⋯ my thoughts on certain characters and if we would click or not! It’s basically me talking about my likes and dislikes about the character(s) you guys send and if we would be friends/enemies/lovers or whatever irl

↷ ⋯ and this shall be the end of my bday week <3 hope you enjoyed our time together!

[keyboard-smashed]

Attachment styles in the sanders sides

This is probably gonna be quite long so sorry xx

I'm learning about attachment styles in psych and it made me think about sanders sides and the relationships between them (platonic or romantic as theorised by us 🖤) so very briefly here's the 3 types

1. Healthy- you trust the people in your life won't abandon you and like if someone doesn't reply to you quickly you come up with a rational explanation why and don't stress too much (like 50% of adults are like this even though I personally think it sounds absurd)

2. Anxious- you can be very clingy and need constant reassurance that they're not gonna leave you

3. Avoidance- they were probably humiliated in a past relationship/from care givers for needing assurance and now they act like they don't care about relationships. They may want contact/ reassurance but don't want to put themselves out there/ pretend like they don't care too much out of fear of rejection or humiliation

Now as soon as I read about avoidance I was like oh hey that's Logan

Then I was thinking about anxious and hey look, Patton?

And since I'm am avid logicality shipper I was curious how people with different attachment styles work in a relationship and it can go two ways SO

1. They balance each other in a nice equilibrium- avoidant may be afraid to ask for reassurance and the other may be more than willing to share their feelings

Orrrrrrr

2. Disaster- the needs of both ppl escalate. Anxious person needs assurance the avoidant can't give & avoidant needs security the anxious can't give

The avoidant may want complete monogamy to a level that's just not realistic. Like they may be happy with just sitting around the house all day but the anxious person needs more people around and can't do that a lot. But those other people could be seen as a threat by the avoidant

And I was thinking about Virgil & Roman too (because prinxiety is ♥️💜♥️💜♥️💜)

Roman needs constant assurance and doesn't always believe they care about him (see: the puzzle song & every episode of sanders sides ever) so he's probably the anxious type

And Virgil I see as avoidant. I know he's the literal embodiment of anxiety so it'd make sense if he had an anxious type of attachment and like he miGht but I think his attachment style is mainly avoidant but he has anxious attachment tendencies due to, well, being anxiety.

At the start when he's first introduced he's a real loner and he pushes them all away by acting scary and pretending he doesn't need their friendship and if that's not an avoidant attachment thing then idk what is

Over time he's opened up more and said his needs which is damn impressive so by some strange twist of events he may be the healthiest of all of them in that respect

Anyway the dynamic works the same way in logicality as prinxiety but Logan seems to be a more extreme version of avoidance than Virgil & Roman a more extreme anxious one than Patton

Since my form of attachment is pretty anxious, I think that's why I prefer prinxiety over logicality but ANYWAY

Now I understand more the appeal of royality or analogical as they seem to cope more similarly which is a nice dynamic that I never really thought much into before

And I also get (oh god what's the ship name for Logan and Roman, uhhhhh) roboprince (im trying ok) and moxiety

Also may explain whey Patton and Virgil get a long so well despite (in my opinion) them having different attachment styles. I think Patton reassures Virgil enough even though Virgil set his boundaries

And it could also explain whey Logan and Roman don't get along too well a lot of the time as they're more extreme versions of each style (which makes sense because they represent the left and right side of the brain so are complete opposites). They are more extreme than Patton and Virgil so it makes sense they fall into the second type of relationship most of the time since everything is heightened (not saying this is always the case irl or with Roman & Logan but I'm just saying it's harder for them to get along because they don't give each other what they need lots of the time)

(also I just noticed I put all the left sided brain ppl as avoidant and vice versa which is kinda interesting)

With the dark sides I'm not entirely sure as we don't see as much relationship building as we do with the original 4 but deceit, as the embodiment of lying, seems to me like an avoidant type and Remus... Frankly I have no idea what's going on with him

Idk if any of this is purposeful or not by Thomas & the gang and idk if it's cooler if it was purposeful or accidental but it's just a cool detail either way

But yeah I just think that's a cool thing for fic writers to think about and this may have all been complete nonsense but I find it interesting sooooo

My info about the attachment styles was all printed and didn't say where it was from but a lot of quotes were from someone called Dr Hunter, and there was also some research done into toddlers attachment styles (children playing alone without parents may seem confident and independent but actually feel very high levels of anxiety) and it's really interesting so if anyone wants more info I can try dig up the article but rn I cba sorry

now you may go back to your regularly scheduled dashboard sorry for the huge post, have a great day 🖤

[jcmorrigan]

Epithet Half-Baked!

I saw through @selfshipimagines that @nougatships is having a Yuletide F/O event...and I know I’m kind of a flighty, shadowy entity in this community, but I do like to write, and thought, what the hey, this’ll be fun. So here I come out of nowhere to contribute a thing.

The F/O? Giovanni Potage from Epithet Erased. The S/I? Rachel Scribere - mundie, writer of much fanfiction, independent contractor supervillainous minion who has also given up on adulting. (Most of those things apply to me IRL!) I decided to go with something a little on-the-nose for the “catering” theme and write about the two of us trying to arrange party food - expect much food talk and many headcanons (e.g. I see Gio as ace, even though that may not end up being Word of God). For optimal results, please listen to the Mariah Carey/MCR mashup “Welcome to the Christmas Parade” while reading this. Not to mention that song will change your life anyway. (Freeman DNI unless you’re going to get the name of the band CORRECT) 

***

I wouldn’t say Christmas was my favorite holiday, because it really wasn’t. Nor would Giovanni ever say Christmas was his favorite holiday, because he wanted to look like a cool guy who didn’t care about Christmas. That said, when our invitation arrived in the mail, neither of us needed to do much cajoling to get the other to agree to attend as a plus-one. Almost immediately, we’d begun work on what we were going to wear to the occasion.

           Well, to be fair, Giovanni was doing most of the work in that department. I’m still trying to figure out how a needle and thread even works for something besides a dangerous impromptu sushi fork. I did play a role in the design of my formal wear, however – a full-skirted red-and-green gown that served the purpose of making me look like the princess of Christmas and thereby able to pass laws banning the repeated playing of “Jingle Bell Rock” more than three times per night. As for Giovanni, he was dead set on creating the World’s Ugliest Christmas Sweater, and boy, did it ever deserve that capitalization. I don’t have the words to you to describe properly the conglomeration of non-coordinating colors and mismatched winter-holiday symbolism that went into that monstrosity. Which basically meant we were going to be the two best-dressed people in attendance.

           However, that still left the important factor: the catering aspect. This was essentially a potluck, and as much as we would have loved to skim off everyone else’s hors d’ouevres and pretend we “dropped” ours on the way there, eventually, our need to show off our cooking skills combined with my compulsion to contribute to community activities won out over the dark side of our consciences.

           My first mistake was going into that kitchen with no idea what Giovanni was planning on making. Me? I was set on a hot-chocolate-and-marshmallow cake. Festive and full of my two favorite flavors! Not to mention I’d baked in the past as a hobby, though it had, admittedly, been a while. I was actually rather looking forward to this.

           “So, Composer,” Giovanni asked as I set up my laptop, “can we expect any musical entertainment?”

           “Damn right,” I said as I clicked through playlists.

           “Just please tell me you’re not gonna stick us with three hours of Christmas music bullshit.”

           “Oh, trust me. We are going to get enough of that at this party.” I set off a rather jaunty emo-pop number with guitars that were just obnoxious enough.

           “Oh, yeah,” Giovanni cried, “this is PERFECT! Totally captures our debonair yet badass essence. THIS is why I let you pick the car music.”

           I gave him a playful bow. “Okay. Let’s do this thing.”

           I began rounding up my ingredients: flour, sugar, cocoa powder, et cetera, et cetera…

           “Done.”

           Wait…”What?”

           I had only just gotten my ingredients lined up on the counter, yet Giovanni was leaning over the other edge of the island, elbows on the countertop and head in his hands to give me a playfully innocent look, as an enormous pot of something steaming, golden, and tantalizingly scented sat before him.

           I peered into the vessel, making note of the contents. “Is this…butternut squash soup?”

           “You know it.”

           “…You made soup.”

           “Is there a…problem with that?”

           “Your Epithet is literally soup.”

           “Aaaaaand…?”

           I marched around to shake my index finger at him on every word: “You. Fucking. CHEATED.”

           He rose, pointing right back at me: “I’m. The. BAD GUY. So I don’t care!”

           I gave my eyes a sufficiently dramatic roll. “You realize this is gonna take me like two hours.”

           “I’ll watch.”

           “You could at least help. You’re good with this stuff, you know.”

           “Hmm…” Giovanni pretended to think it over. “No, don’t think I will.”

           “I hate you.”

           “That’s too bad, because I love you a lot, Composer.”

           I blushed, then muttering “IloveyoutooandIdon’thateyouandIwasjustkidding.” Quickly followed up with “Okay, I’m gonna start doing this shit BY MYSELF, then.”

           Baking an entire cake with your boyfriend just smugly staring at you is…an experience. Not a bad experience. But an experience. Still, I thought I was on a good track so far. Until it came to the electric mixer.

           As a disclaimer, I stated, “It’s been a while. I’m a little rusty.”

           “It’s just an electric mixer.” He shrugged. “Even I couldn’t screw up – I mean even SOME LOSER LIKE SYLVIE couldn’t screw up using it.”

           Well, now the pressure was on. I flicked the appliance to life, dipping it into a pool of eggs suspended in buttermilk, and immediately plunged into chaos. The thing about electric mixers is that they are an extreme balancing act. Too far down into the bowl, and the blades will make a horrible grinding noise against the bowl bottom, making a catastrophizer like me worry about glass shards ending up baked into the dough. However, it is very important that if this happens to you, you do not do what I did and overcompensate by yanking the still-spinning blades out of the bowl, thereby splattering eggs and buttermilk all over yourself.

           As I was attempting to figure out damage control, I became acutely aware of Giovanni trying to hide an absolute fit of giggles. “You know,” I growled, “this wouldn’t HAPPEN if you would HELP me.”

           I absolutely did not want him to help me. See, I have an inferiority complex the size of the sun, and even that feels weird to say, since it’s admitting I actually possess a large quantity of anything. I wanted to make this monster cake my goddamn self, and I wanted him to be fucking impressed. Still, I was pretty sure if I didn’t ask for his help, I would just end up with some kind of inedible toxic waste.

           I wasn’t sure if he was just playing coy or if he knew me all too well when he said “No. Don’t feel like it.”

           “Come on!”

           “Composer, this is YOUR time to shine! I’m not getting in the way of YOUR masterpiece blowing away the competition?”

           “…Gio, it’s not a com – “

           “OF COURSE IT’S A COMPETITION! EVERY POTLUCK IS A COMPETITION! WHY ELSE HAVE EVERYONE BRING DISHES OF VARYING QUALITY IF NOT TO DETERMINE THE SUPREME CHEF AT THE PARTY?”

           Well, if it meant somebody might think of me as supreme chef, I sure wasn’t going to argue. Unhealthy as that might be for my ego.

           So I let Giovanni actively not help me. Even when I tried to crack another egg and it rather exploded from my overuse of momentum. But thankfully, the rest of it seemed to be coming together well. As it baked, I decided to use that time to put together the icing. The recipe, of course, called for cream cheese icing, but that is not real icing (don’t @ me) and I absolutely refuse to sully any of my confections with it, ever. I was making the real stuff – just butter, chocolate, milk, and way too much sugar.

           However, that meant a rematch with my archnemesis: the electric mixer. I gave it a very sour glare as I picked it up again.

           “Ooh, someone’s mad,” Giovanni teased.

           “Damn right I’m mad,” I told him. “This thing fucking hates me.”

           “No…I think you’re just bad with it.”

           “WHAT THE – “

           He was at my side then, using one hand to guide my face upward to meet his gaze: “Because no one and nothing could ever hate you, my beautiful, beautiful Composer. And anyone who does can EAT SOUL-SLUGGER DOOM-BAT.”

           Well. Now I was a flustered mess. I gently leaned forward to rest my forehead temporarily on his collarbone. “No, you,” I teased. “I mean it. People who hate you don’t have souls. End of discourse.”

           “And this is why we GO TOGETHER!”

           “Damn straight.”

           It would have been a beautiful moment if I hadn’t been thwarted, yet again, by the mixer. The grinding of the glass, the startled removal of the blades, a chocolate splatter –

           Except this time, it missed me. No, the stuff made a direct hit on the tall, pink-haired, and handsome card-carrying villain standing next to me.

           I gaped at him momentarily, unsure what to say. Then it all came rushing out: “I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m so sorry – “

           “Sorry?” he repeated, and at first, I thought he actually was angry. “You’re SORRY? Oh, it’s too late to be sorry, Composer.”

           When he picked up the quarter-full bottle of vanilla extract from the counter beside us, I realized his game. “This means war,” he growled in a not-very-growly-at-all way.

           Our eyes locked. His way of asking permission. I gave the slightest of nods; “I guess I deserve it. But you know I’m not going down without a fight.”

           The vanilla sloshed onto me. I smashed an egg onto his shirt. He dumped about a half-gallon of soup down the back of mine.

           Now, what you must understand about a food fight that takes place in the Potage-Scribere kitchen is that anything, and I mean absolutely anything, becomes a weapon. Even things that weren’t part of the dishes we were cooking. The refrigerator was raided, the cupboards stripped bare for the ensuing battle. Whatever we could hit each other with, we did. Smashing tomatoes against each other. Sneaking ice cubes into each other’s clothes to try and get a shriek. Several different flavors of soup flying through the air, of course. Retaliation in the form of grabbing the sprayer from the sink and brandishing it like a Banzai Blaster standard-issue pea-shooter.

           Then my timer let out a “ding” to inform me that the cake was done baking. Giovanni froze, standing perfectly still as I transferred the cake to the fridge to let it cool down.

           Then we picked up right where we left off.

           It came to a head when Giovanni had ended up with two cans of aerosol whipped cream, dual-wielding them at me. I had an ice cream scoop in a tub of whipped cream, ready to lob it like a snowball.

           Wait -            “Gio, why do we have three things of whipped cream?”

           “Well, I picked these up when you texted me our respective assignments for grocery day last weekend.”

           “I told you to get toilet paper. I was gonna get the whipped cream.”

           “No, you said YOU were getting the toilet paper, and I should pick up whipped cream.”

           “DID EITHER OF US GET TOILET PAPER?”

           “…I’m thinking no,” Giovanni mused.

           “Okay, emergency store run after this for toilet paper,” I declared. “Resume.”

           Instead of turning the cans on me, Giovanni spun to kick an apple off the counter so that it would hit me in the sternum. I recoiled, but only slightly. “The fuck was that?”

           “That? Oh, THAT was…well, Composer, have you been keeping track of how many hits I’ve landed on you?”

           My eyes widened. “SON OF A BITCH.”

           “THAT’S RIGHT!” Giovanni crowed. “TWELVE! WHICH MEANS WHEN I LET THESE CANS LOOSE ON YOU, IT’S GONNA BE CRITICAL!”

           I let go of the ice cream scoop; it clanged to the floor. “Okay, okay!” I put up that hand in a gesture of surrender. “I give!”

           “…Seriously? But it’s no fun if you – “

           “I am NOT in the mood to get blasted by critical whipped cream, Gio.”

           Giovanni shrugged, not letting go of either can. “All right. Then it stops here.”

           I pouted. “I really am sorry I started it. Can we just…you know…kiss and make up?”

           “Absolutely.”

           I had counted on this. I let him shut his eyes, pucker his lips slightly, lean forward. I advanced.

           And then, screaming “WORTH IT!”, smashed the tub of whipped cream directly at his face.

           The resulting blast of the aerosol whip was like getting hit with the blast of twenty-six cans of aerosol whip – which, really, isn’t that harmful at all. Just a lot messier and with some added momentum; I ended up skidding across the kitchen floor. “Okay!” I laughed. “I really do give in now! I promise!”

           Giovanni was already scooping the cream off his face and shoveling it into his mouth (and this is the part where I want to remind you that as ripe of a picking as this seems for innuendo, neither of our sex-repulsed minds would have it). He then slumped down onto the tile next to me, leaning onto me.

           “Well played, minion,” he said with a grin. “We’ll make a bona fide villain out of you yet.”

           “Bold of you to assume I’m not already there.”

           We actually did kiss then, tasting all the sweeter for being covered in sugar.

[phandomficfests]

Writer’s Corner: phloridas

Introductions 

First things first, tell us a little about yourself. Hi, I’m Claire! I’m 22 years old, from Illinois, and like most 20-somethings, have no idea what I’m doing with my life. Things have been been pretty turbulent these last few years, as I started college studying Elementary Education but transferred schools a couple years ago to study Creative Writing. I had recently fallen in love with writing all over again and wanted to improve my craft/possibly work with books as a career. That school, however, wasn’t a great fit for me and after months of struggling, I dropped out last October and have been slowly putting myself back together since. I’m now hoping to transfer again to a school closer to home to finish my Elementary Ed degree, as I really do have a passion for teaching and children and thoroughly enjoyed those classes when I was taking them. So fingers crossed things can work out there! :)

How long have you been writing for?  I wrote and posted my first phanfiction in October 2016 but if you’re talking fanfiction in general, my first ever fic was a terrible Glee one that I scribbled in my 9th grade biology notebook in the spring of 2012 and thankfully never posted anywhere. I’ve also been writing original stories and keeping journals on and off since I was 6--which is a really long time, now that I’m thinking about it!

Tell us about your current project. Ok! I’m currently working on a few things: first is my PRB, second is a fic I was commissioned to write for the Phandom Gives charity drive and the third is a much longer thing I’ve been working on for about a year now, where Dan and Phil are telling the story of their lives and releasing it as a book for their 10th anniversary, and dealing with all the emotions that arise from all that—so basically my fever dream for 2019, which feels more possible than ever now in this post-coming out universe.0 unread message

What is your current word count?  245,379 or 259,014 counting my wips! (Damn, I wish I had that much in dollars lmao)

Questions on Writing

Do you try to write daily? Do you have a word count or other goals you try to hit for each writing session? As long as my mental health is decent and I’m not sick or anything, I try to write every day! I haven’t had a word count goal for a while but recently, I’ve started using a word count tracker and it’s been amazing to see my progress through that! My base goal is normally 500 words but if I’m not working that day, I try to go for 1k or to the end of whatever scene I’m working on.

How do you feel about the arguments against real person fic? I totally understand why some people may be uncomfortable reading it--I personally hate talking about it, even with my closest irl friends--but I don’t think anyone should tell someone what they can and can’t write. Does it sometimes feel weird, especially after seeing them at TATINOF and II and meeting them at II? Sure, but it helps that dnp themselves are cool about it. For me, writing is all about getting these stories out of my head, and it just so happens that all my stories feature Dan and Phil. So yeah, I’m gonna write and post them no matter what anyone else says.

What challenges you most in your writing? Myself. Much like Dan, my perfectionism makes me my own harshest critic and so many times, has completely destroyed my productivity. I also have a really bad habit of comparing myself to others, which only got worse after I started taking writing classes and saw just how talented some of my peers were. However, after speed writing most of my last fic in the two weeks before its posting date and seeing the amazing response that’s gotten, I’ve gained a lot more confidence in my writing abilities and don’t overthink as much, which has been really nice!

What's your favorite piece of feedback you've ever gotten? All the comments on my most recent fic, an act of infinite optimism, have been incredible and I’m SO happy it got such a good response! I was a bit hesitant about it, as it’s from Dan’s mum’s point of view and seeing as I’m not a mother myself (and currently have no interest in becoming one), I wasn’t sure how well it would resonate. But I think reading Michelle Obama’s memoir helped a lot, since her story helped me see exactly what being a working mom is like, which gave me so much more empathy for moms everywhere. And people have said this fic resonates well with them, whether or not they’re a mom themselves, which is so amazing to hear!

What do you think makes a good story? I’m quite easy to please so honestly, if the author has put lots of love and hard work into a story, I’m so here for it! But some of my favorite stories are the ones that focus most on character development and that follow the characters through an emotional journey. Basically, if your premise is Dan and Phil talking about their feelings and learning more about themselves in the process, it’s an automatic yes from me. Like I said, I’m not picky :)

How do you balance writing for yourself vs. writing what people want to read? Honestly, it’s not something I think about all that much? If I have an idea I really like, there’s a 95% chance I’ll write it just so I can get it out of my head. And normally what people want to read is the kind of thing I want to write (like my take on the 2017 Lester family Christmas, which was super well received), so it works out quite well! 

What inspired whatever you’re currently working on? For my current wip (the one I’ve been working on since August), I actually was inspired by Rainbow Rowell’s Fangirl and its use of excerpts from Cath’s fics or the Simon Snow books before each chapter. As a dnp tell all book is something I’ve dreamed of for years, it occured to me that I could write that book, or little bits of it anyway, and the story of how that book gets created! And maybe confronting their past selves will allow dnp to move on with the rest of their lives, finally settling down and living their domestic dreams! So beyond the initial idea, the rest is pretty much all the hopes and dreams I had for 2019 before the reality of this year came crashing down on us all :D

What is your ideal writing environment? Literally, in my bed, snuggled under the covers. I don’t have a desk in my room and don’t feel comfortable writing anywhere else so 99% of my it happens here, on my semi-functional laptop. Or hastily typed out on my phone whilst hiding behind a large clothing display at work, but idk if I would call that ideal lmao

Don’t forget that you can check out Claire on tumblr at @phloridas or on AO3 here. If you’d like to be on the list for a Writer’s Corner feature, sign up here!

[haltandcatchfiretothemax]

It's us: Halt and Catch Fire 4x09 and 4x10.

So, it took a few days but I think it's finally sunk in for me that Halt and Catch Fire actually ended the way it did? I truly was not prepared, I'd braced myself for a very specific, very heterosexual and annoying ending, and was ready to resent it forever.

But in the end, Halt finally quit playing and quit punishing its characters. So naturally, I'm instead prepared to talk about it forever! So, pause your Peter Gabriel cd that you've been crying to all week, grab your hackeysack and your bagel bites, sit down a safe distance from the pool, and lets process this finale even MORE! Literally nothing but spoilers for Halt and Catch Fire 4x09 and 4x10 below.

So, let's talk about how and when the show tied up each of our character's stories:

Bos and Diane: While I stand by all of my previous critiques of what the show put both of them through this season, and how mean it was to Diane, how can you not be happy for them?! I'm happy that Bos is in good health, and that Diane seems more than ready to retire from being a miserable business woman and shift to enjoying her life and her family.

Haley and Vanessa: Okay, so, this was a bummer, right? I love how they did it though. I love that they showed us Haley striding into that mildly ridiculous hot dog place of dreams and asking Vanessa out -- I haven't seen a lot of queer teenage girls asking their crushes out in mainstream media and also I myself haven't ever been brave enough to do that IRL so that was kind of awesome of her?! -- and I love that they didn't tell us what exactly happened. The focus stays on Haley's sadness, disappointment, and embarrassment, and the show avoids making wlw crushes look like they're all doomed to misery. (Which, they're not, ICYMI.)

Comet. I was surprised by how hard this hit me. This is a key theme of the show: projects end, sometimes amicably, and sometimes disastrously, partnerships dissolve, it's part of life, and yes, it's especially difficult to accept for traumatized abuse survivor over-achievers. But you have to learn to move on to the next thing, or you're in for a long life, and not in a good way. A competitor, Yahoo, the jokes about which I remember, beats Comet to the punch. It happens! But, just like it happens IRL, this is also the death of Gordon's last venture, and of J*e's last connection to him, and….jesus fvck, it hurts.

Cameron & J*e: The end of Comet ends up meaning the end of Jameron, though not for a lack of trying on both sides. This ship has a huge following despite never having worked or been healthy, and despite Lee Pace's fantastic work this season, the show never sold me on his redemption -- and yes, it was an issue of his redemption, as a former abuser, do not start with or @ me about this. Even if we accept that J*e has changed, he and Cameron want different things. She shouldn't be forced to have a family she doesn't want, and it is not in any way healthy for him to sacrifice something that huge to be with her? (That doesn't even get into how grief and loss alters relationships, sometimes in terrible and painful ways, and J*e's loss is real.) Their break up scene was sad and tough to watch, but, they're both free to find better partners, who actually meet their needs. Can't help but see that as a win.

Joanie: I could say something snarky about the writers sending her off to eat, pray, and love or whatever, but I love Joanie, and while it's a little sad, I'm glad that she got to leave home and start to get some perspective on her family and also her grief. Sometimes, we don't quite fit in at home, and we need to go elsewhere -- isn't that kind of true of our entire main cast? Also, her very last scene, when she's on the phone, is such full of such great, teenage-y, youthful energy and emotion. Ugh, I'll always be a little annoyed that we didn't spend more time with her, but thank you for stealing every scene you were in, gurl!

Donna Emerson, Senior Managing Partner at Symphonic Ventures! Um. This is literally everything Donna deserves, finally? I'm bummed that we had to wait until the last episode for it, and I don't dig how it feels like Gordon had to die for her to really come into her own, but my g-d: seeing Donna's years of hard work pay off feels good! That she pushes her firm in a new direction, literally renames it, and makes it a place that looks like a perfect balance between the AGGEK offices and the Mutiny house (<3!) is just…I can't, let me stop before I weep with joy…Donna finally has the kind of security she always wanted, now she can do whatever she likes! Including founding Lesbians Who Tech! More to the point: she doesn't seem to want a partner. She's finally comfortable standing on her own, even though it can be lonely.

….whatever was going on with Alexa and Cameron? We never got a name for their venture, right? Anyways. I'm sorry that the show didn't do more with Alexa, but I appreciated the reminder that Cameron isn't suited to the business and networking part of working in tech, and that people easily misinterpret that as brattiness (or worse). It was also a nice reminder of how Donna was a good match for Cameron.

Cameron: I guess it's understandable that after Gordon's death, the end of Comet, the end of a major relationship, and two months in Europe, Cameron would feel like she has no real reason to stay in California, or no real place in even Bos, Donna, and Haley's lives. I can't help but feel slightly disappointed by her wanting to run away -- to Florida, of all places -- but I also really empathize with her struggle to see her own patterns clearly enough to do something about them. In the end, it seems like she's not sure what she wants to do, but like she's sure she wants to do better, and like she wants to see if fixing things with her mom will help her. Despite a lot of loss, Cameron hasn't given up yet. She's still lonely and uncertain but she's strong, and getting better at making and owning her decisions, so, that's actually kind of amazing. Well done, my anxious genius bby!

Haley. While it would've been cool to see Haley start dating Vanessa, in the end, we got to see Haley affirm herself, with the help of her dad's tapes (which, brb crying slightly) and her gay moms (let's just be real?), oh and also her bi uncle(!), and that's even better. Haley might have, like many young women before her, experimented with dating boys despite her limited interest in them, but in the end? She dumps her boyfriend. Haley is getting hit with a lot of change, but she knows who she is (and so does her mom, apparently?!): she's Haley Clark, and she likes computers, comedy, and girls. And she's gonna be okay!

Cameron and Donna. Where do I even start? Finally, after approximately a decade, Cam and Donna have come to fully see and appreciate each other. They've put Mutiny behind them, and they've come to respect each other's space, even -- Donna doesn't try to stop Cameron from leaving town, and Cameron doesn't press Donna about working together. They know where they went wrong in the past and now they're friends. ('Friends'. Right!) Cameron is about to leave when Donna gets an idea, and we don't hear what it is, but from the beginning of Cameron's smile and all the hints dropped through out both final episodes, it seems like Cameron is going to stay and work on this idea with Donna, this time as equal partners. Actually, from all the hints dropped, it seems like Cameron and Donna are eventually going to end up in a romantic relationship together, t b h! Either way, Cameron and Donna are ultimately reaffirmed as the real heart of the show, and their relationship is validated in a way I feel like I really haven't ever seen on film before. That might not matter to a lot of people, but as a lesbian who is deeply emotionally invested in all of her relationships with women, including her friendships with straight women, I can't tell you how happy it made me to see these two lonely, brilliant, sensitive, stone fox, take-no-shit geniuses get the happy ending they've always deserved.

And finally, J*e. I'll just say outright that I don't feel bad for J*e. He went to Texas in 1983, destroyed a lot of lives, spent a decade chasing a woman who repeatedly rejected his advances, and then after a many tragic losses over the course of ten years, he stopped. Okay? He stopped, he stopped chasing a woman he didn't belong with, stopped making collateral damage out of Donna, and maybe most importantly, let himself step away from the tech sector, where he did influential work, but lost so many people, including the love of  his life, and yes, I'm talking about Gordon. Sigh. So long as he isn't coming between or antagonizing Cameron and Donna, I hope J*e will really make this fresh start stick. I hope he'll maybe get some grief counseling, meet a hot single dad or teacher or something, and eventually adopt or foster some kids? We don't get to see that, though. All we know is that he's left behind what wasn't working, and he's trying again. I hate to tell you this babies, but: sometimes, out here in the real world, that really is the best you can do.

I stand by my critiques of the season, especially those regarding the handling of the women characters. Honestly, they also could've done better by J*e, our one canonically non-heterosexual main cast member. But I enjoyed this finale far more than I thought possible, and I needed its overall message. I understand that message to be that we can thrive, despite our flaws, if we find people who get us, work that we enjoy, some kind of niche where we're accepted for who we are and what we love. Even if it takes a while, even if we lose those people and those homes, we can keep searching.

It's been a wild, and super emotional ride, yalce! But like Donna, I loved every minute of it. Because even when I didn't love it, I loved writing about the show and talking to some of you about it here. I genuinely hope that you got as much out of this show as I did, and that it made you feel maybe a little more hopeful, and a little less alone, and that it will keep making you feel that way, even though it's ended its run. I hope that it will do that for me, at least.

[agent-85]

Hi sorry, I don't remember everything.^^' It was just after the ep and I was wondering what's left for me in this show? I mean I'm not very interested about Daisy, and I don't care about ward and hydra, these chapters were dead and should have stayed that way. Then they broke the only logical reason why Jemma and Daisy would be fine irl with the backdoor. They have no I.V. and no medical support so they will die of dehydration and before that they will "wet" themselves and worse... (sorry)

(2) They’ve gone way too far with Fitz, a freaking nazi sociopath :/ They tainted his character. Worse! another useless “love” triangle and this one is even more disgusting because merged with theme of non-con/violation/rape theme and if you add the fact that Fitz helped building her which has a father-imagery to it, it’s just urgh!! They don’t learn anything. So my main thing is FS and with Elizabeth quote, we’re going with the same kind of nonsense path than with GR arc…

(3) What’s the point to make Jemma save him if they don’t interact? I only watch to see that interaction. And with Jed quote, they don’t even have the decency to plan an ending… If it’s the last season, such a disappointment and whatever 1min “happy” scene they put at the end it won’t balanced all that nonsense. I’m sorry to tell you all that really, but I feel sad and lonely in my case and I love your blog so… sorry.(end)

Hey there, anon! Thanks for resending the first ask. I want to make sure I understand where you are coming from.

Okay, first of all, I think it’s a little premature to judge 4C after watching one episode. This was all setup, and we haven’t gotten to the real story yet. My guess is that we won’t really get to it until 4x18, since 4x17 seems to be Setup Part Two, in which we see where the other characters are (including, possibly, Elena and the real world crew). 

I get really annoyed at people who gave up on the show after 1x5 because they were disappointed that no superheroes showed up. That’s not what this show is about, and if they’d taken the time to look at the show for what it is, maybe they would have liked it. 

I am 1000% here for FitzSimmons, and I get by on amazing team dynamics when the FitzSimmons is stupid. So, if you’re not into Hydra or Daisy, may I suggest that we have a great story going on outside of that. Daisy is one player in this, and Hydra is just a weapon. The REAL villain is Aida, and since Aida has stolen Fitz, Jemma will have to fight Aida to get him back. That is something I am DYING to see.

Jemma spent all of season three as a damsel in distress, so to me, it is vital that she has this chance to save the day. It’s not that Jemma doesn’t fight; it’s that she fights in quiet, subtle ways, like she did when she tried to win Fitz’s heart in 3B. Meanwhile, Fitz gets to jump through holes in universes for her. My favorite thing about FitzSimmons is that they are equals—in intelligence, in courage, and in morality. So they should get equal chance to get the meaty, action hero roles, don’t you think? I do! Also, I just love Jemma and I’m so excited for her to get some screen time.

As for being trapped in the Framework: the purpose is to raise the stakes. If Jemma and Daisy can get in and out whenever they want, the story is over in five minutes. They want a bigger story than that, so we’re getting higher stakes. Before, they were trying to find the physical location of their teammates. Now, they have to actually navigate this new world in order to save themselves as well. To me, that’s a more interesting story. How are they going to get themselves out of an impossible situation? What happens AFTER? I’m so excited to find that out. 

Cut for length!!

As for Jemma and Daisy’s physical bodies: they’ll probably be fine. If we can suspend our belief about an evil robot stealing minds, I think we can assume that Elena and Piper are doing a good job looking after them.

As for Fitz: yes, he is technically a Nazi, but he’s not a sociopath. Radcliffe is a sociopath, because he lacks any morality whatsoever. Framework Fitz, on the other hand, is doing what he thinks is right. Part of that is that he is trying to protect Madame Hydra, and I think there’s a bigger part we haven’t seen yet. Radcliffe would never get that angry about protecting someone else.

And here’s an important thing about Fitz: he has been deceived. His memories have been wiped and replaced with new ones, and our responses are often shaped by our experiences. I think of this as abuse rather than rape. He is making his own choices, but he is making them based on the information available to him. He doesn’t know that this information isn’t the truth. The writers like to play with this all the time, making a character make the “wrong” choice because they have bad information. 

Jemma is the best example of this, because she’s usually the writer’s favorite victim. In season two when there was a possibility that then-Skye could be an Inhuman, Jemma talked about it like it was a plague. This scared Skye, and rightly so! But Jemma had a good reason to see it that way, because of the facts that were presented to her. Think about what Jemma saw happen in that temple! Mack was possessed, Trip was turned to rubble, and Raina became a homicidal porcupine. If you see those three things happen to people who go inside the temple, and your friend also went inside that temple, are you going to be worried about your friend? HECK YEAH! Of course, Jemma had no idea about Inhuman DNA or terrigenesis, and that was important information! As soon as she understood what was actually happening, she did a complete 180, because Jemma is a good person who was only trying to help her friends in the first place.

Something similar is happening to Fitz here. He is being lied to. He is being used. Madame Hydra needs his creativity to create this world and do whatever nefarious things she has planned, so she’s keeping him close and playing off his desires. He wants Jemma, so she stands in as Jemma. He wants to protect people, so she puts him in a position where he has to protect her. This is brainwashing, just like Jemma said!

The thing I was most worried about when it came to this arc was that there would be an implication that this is how the characters really are inside. I’m excited about this arc because that’s clearly not the case. Does Coulson, in his heart of hearts, believe that Inhumans are evil and that Hydra should stop them? NO! He has literally fought against those ideas. But he does have a tendency to be a company man, and now he’s been made to believe that Hydra is the company. His weakness has been exploited, just like May and Fitz’s weaknesses have. And they are being exploited in a way that serves Madame Hydra’s goals. The real question is this: when they see what’s true, will they change? Will they do what’s right? I think they will. They didn’t choose this life, and they’re already subconsciously fighting against it. Give them a chance to fight consciously, and we’ll see them tear this place down. That’s the whole point of Jemma’s “You are not your programming” speech. They HAVE been programmed, but they are more than that and they WILL overcome their programming. 

Gonna go out of order here and talk about Fitz and Jemma not interacting: again, this raises the stakes. What we saw with the Ghost Rider arc was FS getting pulled apart (this was one of those times I subsisted on team dynamics), and this is about FS fighting their way back to each other. Fitz will probably fight in a small, quiet way and Jemma will be dramatic and loud for a change. So yes, they won’t be in the same room, but the story will be about their relationship. That was all set up by Daisy’s “you belong together” speech. I want to see them fight for each other! AND, eventually they WILL be together—this is all buildup to that payoff. I want that payoff! We got buildup of Fitz’s feelings in season one with the payoff of, “You’re more than that, Jemma.” We got the buildup of Jemma’s feelings in season two with “Maybe there is.” I know it’s going to be painful for them to be apart, but they will be in each other’s thoughts, and the payoff will hopefully be worth waiting for.

So, I’m not sure which Elizabeth quote you’re talking about, because there are a few. She said Jemma would be worried that she’d never get Fitz back, and we’d have to see if she forgives Fitz. But the thing about Elizabeth and anyone else is that their job is to promote the show. As my friend @aretsuna would say: the enemy is shooting at us. They are trying to stir things up to get you to tune in. If Elizabeth said, “Well, you know, Jemma is worried, but she really shouldn’t be because they find Fitz and everything’s okay,” she’d be doing a bad job. So, you have to take what she says with about a mountain of salt. All you can really get from that is that in 16, Jemma is worried about getting Fitz back. Doesn’t mean she’s not going to get Fitz back. Just means that she hasn’t figured out how to do it yet. 

Honestly, I pay zero attention to anything they say about the future. That’s all a mind game they’re playing. What’s interesting is listening them talk about the past and their reactions to things that have already happened.

I agree that we absolutely need a fifth season. This is why I’ve been trying to encourage people to do things that will help the show get renewed. They said at the beginning that they had a five-season plan, and I don’t want to see 4/5 of that plan. I’d be okay with 6/5 or 7/5 of that plan, if they did it right. 

BUT, there are a lot of factors going on here, and it boils down to basically a gamble. They are betting that the show will be renewed. In a way, that’s smart, because it’s easier to cancel a show when the writers/creators have stopped fighting. They also know that if they leave the story unfinished, WE will demand more. This is how Nashville got picked up by CMT after it was cancelled: they wrapped up every storyline but one, leaving a HUGE cliffhanger. The fans didn’t stand for that, and they ended up getting the rest of that story. That strategy can work for us. The other things that work for us is the fact that Marvel is backing them up, there’s a new Inhumans show to play off of (Arrowverse style), and a lot of the other ABC shows are not doing so great. We have a chance, and the more noise we make, the better the chances are.

That said, my guess is that they’re smart enough to do something that can work as both a series or season finale. The finale of Agent Carter is a good example of this. At the very least, we have the hope that anything that isn’t resolved here is resolved in other MCU series or movies.

Well, anon, I hope that addresses your concerns! That’s the best case I can make! Obviously, these are all my opinions and you have a right to your own, but I hope you don’t feel alone. I hope you can find a little optimism for how 4C will unfold. If it’s terrible, I promise I’ll call them out on it like I have in the past. For now though, I’m looking forward to seeing what they have in store for us. I hope I’ve helped you look forward to that as well.

[safrona-shadowsun]

🕸 ⭐️ 💡 🦋 🐲 🎨 📌 💖 🖤 ♨️ ✒️ 💭 🎵 🎇 🌻 🌩 🔑 💎 🏆 🎬

{ Well then. o.o So this will be under a line for sheer length. All obviously ooc. Thanks…for reading if you do? @gwenya }

🕸 1. Who’s the oldest character of yours that you still use? Technically, it would be my Forsaken character @gravekeeper-anna​. I’ve had her for about a decade, and she started off as human, roleplayed through her fall to Undeath. She shares that trophy with Safrona here herself, as both are interconnected in a way. I think of Anna as an original feature movie, and Safrona as the remake of it and taken in a new direction or…maybe the sequel. Something like that.

⭐️ 2. Who’s the oldest character of yours, defunct or not? This is a hard one! Most of the older characters I’ve had I’ve killed off in some fashion as I can’t seem to keep up on alts very well. I believe one of the oldest characters in theory that I have is a Kaldorei rogue by the name of Serynith, which I am thinking about remaking as a Demon Huntress. She was a bit of a scamp, a trickster, a flirty little sneakthief with a good heart. I am not sure how becoming a Demon Huntress would change her, so it’s something I’m still ultimately mulling over. As I said–I’m pretty bad with keeping up on alts.

💡 3. Has creating a character ever made you realize something about yourself? Oh, it’s made me realize plenty about myself. One of the biggest things that creating a character has made me realize is that I can’t carry on with a character if I get no interaction with them. The characters I play are reactive to the people they meet, influenced by them as well as the environment and life they live, and they help to carve out their story. I could write on my own about a character, create a novel and my own world around them…but honestly that would get very boring for me, if not entirely frustrating. It’s the interaction with other writers that I enjoy about creating characters, and why Roleplaying is the theme I enjoy most to write in and learn from.

🦋 4. Any minor characters that have either taken over or branched off into their own stories? I used to have a few that acted as sort of NPC’s to my main character and an Rp partner I had for a while. The one that has probably outlasted the rest is Lady Ravona, who is Safrona’s adopted mother and can be found here on Tumblr @bloodbrew​. I don’t often play her so much these days, as again she gets little interaction and I haven’t really been that interested in writing for except as the occasional voice that pesters Saf when she visits the Baron’s manor in the Ghostlands. But she’s vain, a tempting songstress, easily riled, and probably still a bit crazy, and the Baron keeps her occupied when she gets out of line. Overall, she wants to be a Grandmother and see little baby Bloodbrews carry on a (literally) dead line, but Safrona is less than willing to provide.

🐲 5. Do you prefer to make human, animal, monster, or _____ characters? Why? I definitely try to stick with human-esque characters, though I do enjoy the interaction between a character and their pets, or when a familiar might become a focus and I have to challenge myself to write for them. Coal, @gravekeeper-anna​‘s familiar actually has quite the little backstory behind him, including being one of the few that has known the Gravekeep in the past and experienced her changes. Overall I prefer humanoid characters because in essence they can embody the animalistic, or the monstrous within their eccentricities.

🎨 6. When creating a character, do you come up with the visual concept or the written concept first? I think it’s sort of a balance between, a small starter concept and then a look I have in mind, and then I have a character. I don’t start really sketching characters until I’ve started Rping with them – that’s when they really give me a personality to work with.

📌 7. Do you have characters that you know you’ll never use, but can’t bear to get rid of/recycle? I have a few characters that are just silly ‘fluff’ characters that I find funny, like my Death Knight gnome ‘Deathdoll” that I never really do anything on, but just look and grin at. I don’t even leave the Character Load Screen in the game for these ones, and I doubt I’ll ever be leveling it very far in game.

💖 8. Is there a character that embodies your good traits, or traits you wish you had? Answered here.

🖤 9. Is there a character that embodies your bad traits? Several characters? Which ones and what traits? I….suppose if anything my ‘bad’ traits are my pull toward the macabre and creepy, which probably is embodied  slightly by my liking for the Forsaken in @gravekeeper-anna, but more graphically by my Forsaken Monk @danseindeath, who is a bit of a horror show that I don’t quite have an established RP voice for yet. I suppose it’s the aesthetic I like the most. @lay-sister-rose has some of my socializing problems injected in her personality. Saf is can seem emotionally unavailable like I can, but she is far more on the Aquarian spectrum than myself, especially now since I returned to playing her character for the past couple of years after some…changes.

♨️ 10. Is there a character that explores your interests or fetishes (orrrr is that just all of you characters)? Truthfully, I’m kinda careful about putting my characters into romances too quickly, let alone letting them explore their sexuality with anyone, because I’m probably…just picky about who I write that kind of stuff with. I don’t like that to be the central guiding force of my writing in the end, which is sort of where I’ve been before and eventually lost interest or just remember having very creepy experiences with writing partners. Though I can say that @lay-sister-rose has an artist’s soul and has…probably interesting ideas about her sensuality regarding artistry that she just doesn’t know how to convey yet. If anything, my interests run the scope of darker themes that I probably wouldn’t ever touch irl – it’s just where a character, like Safrona ended up down on her messed up road, and I find it interesting to pry into the psychology of her sensuality and desire.

✒️ 11. If you have characters that embody certain traits of yours—good or bad—has writing them changed how you view those traits? Has it affected you in any way?  Answered here.

💭 12.   Do you fantasize about being any of your characters, or are you more detached? Definitely more detached from my characters. They are creative outlets that I see as creations, and I hurt them, put them through messes, see them evolve. Sometimes I have killed them. I don’t want to be them, but I love them in my own twisted way. They are my art pieces.

🎵 13. Do you create playlists for your characters? Answered here.

🎇 14. When writing for specific characters, is there anything you have to do to get into the right mindset? Sometimes, it takes me putting on a playlist, but more often than not it’s just me reading a previous lengthy post for the character in mind or a previously written Rp post. Sometimes my character just evades me, and there’s nothing I can do to get rid of the block. When yer brain is tired it’s tired.

🌻 15. Which character is your guilty pleasure? Probably right now it’s Saraj, though I don’t play him very much ICly. I suppose I just don’t feel I’m intelligent enough to write him most of the time, but he’s a bit of casual fun when he slips in with the occasional word.

🌩 16. Is there a character of yours who’s a real struggle to write/draw? Why do you think that is? I’ve been wanting to draw up Saraj, and be proud of it, but let’s face it: Ethereal’s are complicated to draw. I also struggle with writing for Quintin @delaurac. For now, I just don’t know what I’m doing with him in writing, and I haven’t drawn him up satisfyingly yet. But I usually have a problem with male characters. One day it will be a hurdle I overcome, if I’m really inspired and really put myself to it.

🔑 17. Which character is the easiest to draw/write? Saf is definitely the easiest to draw/write, as she is the one I write and play for the most. She’s a default blood elf in looks, and having a very clear idea of what she looks like and acts like in my mind really helps writing and drawing overall. It’s probably why I have the most art done of Saf.

💎 18. Is there anything you really wish you could do, character-design-wise, that you feel is outside your current skillset? A concept that you wish you could pull off but are uncertain about? I think overall I need to just practice as far as art goes, and stay cohesive with a character’s design. I want to draw male characters better and work on more action-y poses. As far as writing goes, again just having the chance to write and pop out something decent and interesting is enough for me. I’ll like to write more for other characters perhaps, when my mind is able to handle them, or when I decide I can put Saf up on a little bit of a higher shelf to play with someone else. I want to get the design for my most played characters to a point where I am comfortable and happy with them all…but that takes time and patience and…being focused on art, and I just haven’t been lately.

🏆 19. What’s more important to you: visual design, unique personality, a trendy character aesthetic, etc? If you’re not sure, then what’s the first thing you usually nail down in a character?  For me, a character is not ‘alive’ until I have a little backstory for them and feel I can Rp, or write for them. Getting down a personality or a small base concept for a character is pretty integral for me wanting to play them, even in-game. If I do not have any sort of concept in mind, I lose interest pretty quickly in the character.

🎬 20. Do you ever plan to do anything (comic, animation, etc) with your characters? Or are you just happy to have them? Actually, Safrona /@gravekeeperanna ‘s original concept started off waaay back when I was in high school, a tragic heroine in a short ghost story I wrote that got published to the school newspaper lol. She haunted me a few years later when I discovered WoW, and she became her own character. My first warlock, and my favorite class! I drew her ALOT, and experimented with comic panels and things, and I’ve always been very inspired by comic book art since high school. While I am happy to have the characters and be able to write for them now, I imagine one day I miiiight want to create a comic if I can get motivated to actually finish a project, but only time will really tell.