#i stressed myself out tagging ppl again ;-; help

[daz4i]

i know aging isn't the end of the world and 24 isn't that old and life isn't a race etc etc etc. however,

[thasorns-moved]

9 Fandom Peeps to Get to Know Better

I was tagged by again the lovely vish @puppy-phum and wonderful rae @yakdee. Thank you so much <3

3 Ships You Like: I know ppl has stopped talking about them because the actors had a fall out *cough* but my ult ship probably would be ManType (hate me for it). Aoki and Ida. Tinn and Gun.

First Ship Ever: before I even know what shipping was, I remember that I liked Frankie and Matthew from 'The Sleepover Club'. I even read fanfictions about them. Idk if anyone even remembers this show lol

Last Song You Heard: Sabrina Carpenter - Taste I wanted to bring you through memory lane with a skam song BUT I made this post yesterday and didn't published it so new day new song

Favourite Childhood Book: Zahrah the Windseeker. If you ever come across this book READ IT, I beg you. It's wonderful and I still can remember how I got soaked into the book and could visualize all the things on how the book is written.

Currently Reading: Ellbogen by Fatma Aydemir IF only some of y'all would understand German and read her novel... her previous novel I read is also very relatable but this one... a young girl with migration background tells about her story about how her parens came to Germany, how she tries to find herself and her 'home' between the cultures. I'm still not far in the book but it's CHEF'S KISS. I can't wait to see it visualised on stage

Currently watching: Due to my busy schedule (and being currently on vacation) I can't/don't find the time to watch more dramas (which surprises me though) - 4 Minutes, Cosmetic Playlover, Good Partner, Love Next Door, SunsetxVibes (asked myself three episodes ago why it's still on my watching list), Terror Tuesday: Extreme, The Loyal Pin. I really want to start with First Note of Love, The Frog and The On1y One. There's another kdrama coming out 'The Devil Judge' can't wait for it

Currently consuming: dk the sun lol. Since I balance my working time (uni stuff), help and spend time with my grandparents and watch my dramas it's really balanced out and I'm less stressed. In fact I'm spending a lot of time at the beach and watch the sunset. It's truly a different feeling and different air you breathe a more relaxed one

Currently craving: ramen. yeah there's a specific type here in Türkiye which Germany doesn't have and I bought it two weeks ago but never could find the time to eat it

tagging: @pondsphuwin @jimmysea @milkpansa

[waltwhitmansbeard]

let's talk fic request etiquette!

as someone who has been in the fanfiction game for a hot minute now, i've been having some Thoughts around ask memes for drabblers and fic writers. these ask memes are such a fun and helpful way for writers to exercise their creative chops, and for readers to participate in the creation of the kinds of stuff they like to read. i'm a huge fan of ask memes myself (feel free to send me one!), and i've written a lot of stuff i never would have thought to write without other people's generous prompts in my inbox.

but! i think it can be easy for some expectations to emerge around fic writers and ask memes that can make writing stressful and overwhelming for writers, and that's not great! fic writing should be a source of fun and creativity for writers and readers, and so there are couple things i'd like ppl to keep in mind when they're thinking about asking their favorite writers to fulfill a prompt.

check their blog! a lot of writers have rules or guidelines for the types of requests they'll take and how they'll take them. for example, some writers may close down their askbox after receiving a certain number of asks, while others will happily take as many requests as come their way! writers will also likely have a list of fandoms and/or ships they'll write for, which is good for you to know when it comes to making requests. please do a thorough check of a writer's blog to make sure you're respecting their boundaries before making a request. some writers might have guidelines that fly in the face of some of the other items on this list, and that's okay! these are just general recommendations, and individual writers might feel differently.

make one request at a time. this piece of advice might be directly contradicted by the guidelines on a particular writer's blog, and if a writer says they're down to accept as many prompts in a row from the same person as they can, then great! do that! but it's not uncommon for a writer to be inundated with a lot of requests at once, especially after posting a new ask meme, and so it's considered polite to send one request and then wait for yours to be filled before sending another. remember, you're very likely not the only person who enjoys this particular person's writing, so give them the chance to do their thing.

only send the prompt and the fandom/ship/character(s). the idea behind these fic ask memes is to see what the writer comes up with when only given the prompt and the characters to write about. if you like this writer, you should like what they write! unless the writer says otherwise, please do not send detailed scenarios or plot descriptions of what should happen in the fic you're requesting. if you're reading an ask meme, and one of the prompts on the list makes you think of a specific scene for your favorite ship, wonderful! that should be something you write and explore for yourself. it is not another writer's responsibility to jump through your enumerated hoops when you send them an ask meme request. remember, your prompt is meant to be the jumping off point for the writer's creativity, not an essay assignment in a literature class.

specify the ask meme, especially if it's older. if you're sending in a prompt from an ask meme, and the writer has reblogged a number of them, please help them out and let them know which one you're sending from. this is especially true if you're sending from an ask meme that is not the one they've reblogged most recently. it's just helpful!

reblog the fic you've requested. this one is basic as hell, y'all. if you've requested someone write something, you reblog it and put something nice in the tags. end of story. this was written for you. the very least you can do is be nice about it. and if the prompt was not filled in the way you expected, or if you didn't enjoy the fic, fine! don't request from that writer again. but for this fic, just fucking reblog it. it's quite literally the bare minimum and it costs you nothing.

talk to the writer! if you're not sure what a particular writer's feelings are on ask memes/requests/writing in general, ask! i promise you, we love talking about writing and our favorite blorbos, and it's always better to err on the side of courtesy. feel free to ask us how and when we like to receive requests or what types of requests we're okay with taking. we'd love to tell you how to make our lives easier, lol.

remember that we don't get paid. unlike fanart, fanfiction cannot legally be commissioned or purchased, so even though fanfiction writers put just as much time and work into their art as fan artists do, we do not have the option of any kind of remuneration for it. and that's fine, we get that! but it also means that we are doing a lot of labor (labor of love, but labor nonetheless) for free. please keep that in mind when sending in requests. we're happy to write using your prompts, but it's a prompt, not a detailed commission. our ideas and wants matter, too.

fic writers, feel free to add to this list with your own suggestions. i can only speak for myself when i say i love receiving fic requests from people, because i love writing and i love connecting with others in my fandom and i love exploring these characters in a way i might otherwise not have done. but what i don't love is feeling like i am at the beck and call of others in my fandom. i write for me, and then i like to share what i've written with others. it's how i participate in my community, and i'm so grateful to anyone who has ever sent me a prompt to fulfill. please just remember that your favorite writers don't just exist to bring your personal whims to life, and that they work really hard to create the things you enjoy.

[bigstupiddummie]

making a post in the tags to “call out” a person is so dumb and childish and stupid, so i won’t put this in there. however, the admin of @wavehq is full lying on my name these days even though i haven’t talked to them or anyone else involved in there in like 6mos. and i rly want them to stop.

i don’t have my old discord account w ss. if anyone else has ss with me in them, u can add them to this post idc how ugly it makes me look. i talked a LOT of shit ( and pertaining to this story, about sel esp ) and called ppl some nasty names and any ss will incriminate me of that. so me talking shit isn’t a ‘gotcha’ anymore. i talked shit and called sel names, as well as k, and i know sel called me names, and im sure everyone else did too. whatevs.

yk what i never did ? i never made a “manifesto” about my ex friend, or priv-retweeted their personal ooc twitter account to mock them. i never helped create and work on an rpt blog, then went and consoled the person being mentioned in nasty messages in the blog on some “oh im so sorry this is happening to you ˙◠˙” shit when it was them the whole time. the worst i did was “fuck her, he’s a cunt, fuck them”, but dream, you lied to me a Lot!

and you’re lying in defending yourself by saying i “heavily hate” sid or anyone. i never have, never did, never will. the last thing i said to sid in like July was “hey, heres my ooc tiktok, im deleting discord. if i never hear from you again, take care.” and then i left rp and the rpc entirely. haven’t talked to or even perceived any of you in months.

you want to believe i’m “bringing this up now” to start stuff or something, but what stakes do i have in any of this? you and yours drove me out of the hobby i’ve loved since i was 12, used an rpt blog to force me to defend myself against your ugly claims at a time you Knew well and good i was absent and dealing with a family death ( and then came in my dms to comfort me ??? you and k both. ) . i lost all of my best friends of several years. trust me, i want no part of the rpc anymore. i don’t want back in. i don’t want to engage. this is a nothing tumblr account that ill never use again. consider, instead, that another person close to the situation and i shared similar experiences and realized there were too many untruths and inconsistencies to let it rest, rather than just ‘starting stuff’ to start stuff.

“sid says steph crops screenshots to make them look incriminating” aye , but i definitely gave my entire discord login out, more than once, and encouraged my friend at the time to go ahead and look for themselves ( they declined at the time. i can still give the login i really do not care. though idk if the login will work anymore bc the accounts been deactivated for, uh, 6 months.) i cropped ss where earthp members were telling me how K is making them uncomfortable and how they were worried lenny was being dragged around by K, that i did do. and i STILL let k know that that’s what they were saying. i can’t stress enough ive got Nothing here that im fighting for i just think its ugly to lie for so long to everyone

“steph heavily hates sid” i do not. note the last thing i said to sid, up there ^. we did follow each other on tiktok then, and then we didn’t speak for 6 months. as of this morning, we are no longer tiktok mutuals - so it goes. sid never owed me anything. i don’t hate them. they know ( and yk what, so do my irl work managers!!! bc this shit affected my actual real mental health!!! ) that the day things went down, i left work early sobbing full blown emotional episode, writing paragraphs in desperation, to the point of overwhelming them and myself. i loved them dearly, called them my ‘spouse’ and best friend everyday, etc. though i don’t know now if they knew more about you than they let on. anyway……. please don’t just be declaring shit about me like it’s fact ?? i don’t hate anyone. not even you dream! just stop lyinggggg i hate that

ye all made me feel like i was crazy and losing myself in my own paranoia omg??? and ye were in your private chats afterward going “well deserved!!!” who even are you what did i do to you omgggg are we not in our late 20s with lives and careers ?????

if this is all bc of heddie/reddie and avengefm ? its ships dude it’s dolls it’s not real and to commit so much energy and emotion to lying to protect ur ships/rps is troubling at best. and if its not about heddie/reddie, then i haven’t a NOTION bc you and i, even when we were friendly w each other, were not close enough to create a bond to break??? i didnt do anything to you but welcome you into my writing spaces and engage in yours to the best of my ability. i was transparent with you when my activity struggled or i needed a break for mental health reasons… but what you had done with your friends is what ruined my mental health ?… go figure ….

i know who was behind that blog because they came clean and told me your connection to it as well. i know sel said nasty things about me too - we’re human and humans love talking shit. but no one else ever took it as far as you did, dream.

i don’t want anything from you! just stop lying on my name i don’t “heavily hate” anyone. outside of my shit talking from 6mos ago, i haven’t said a word against anyone but yourself; i’ve called you a liar, here in this post, because that is what i believe you are.

nobody in my entire life brings up what happened in everwell more than you and k. i owned up to every part i had ( whether directly or by my unavailability, all of it ), i deplatformed and cut out my two best friends ( people i had had in my HOME and had met IRL they were real people to me!!!!! ) and apologized personally to everyone affected, while picking out a funeral outfit and consoling my crying family. these are all my cards on table. you don’t have to respond either. just omg quit lying about me and the way i feel and what my intentions are - if a mf wants to know what im thinking and feeling, they can just Ask me.

and k i don’t want anything from you either! your names in this post because you were involved, and you know your involvement with that blog and how you also came to console me after. outside of that, i do not think of you and do not care what you think of me.

sid, i don’t want anything from u all either and i meant it when i said if i never hear from you again, take care bc i did care for u lots and also invited you into my home bc you were a real person to me. just know for a fact that anything dream says i’m saying about you or feeling toward you is just pulled out of thin air for whatever reason.

i always thought ye all were great writers!!! and so did snags and lex, way back when it was about writing for the love of writing. i would say all the time “omg dream is so funny” “omg k is cracking me up”, and they’d agree. hell if they’re at all in the rpc anymore and see this - hey guys! sorry shit got so ugly. you’ll never guess who was behind it.

i left the rpc and got mental help. i hope ye can get some help too.

* this is dream bringing sel into the Issues and tying her directly to k, btw. you keep saying you didn’t bring sel into the k stuff, but “they’re besties” “she and sel” “they want peach to drop eddie so sel can pick up eddie” this is where we’re getting that from, bc you keep saying you only referenced sel’s activity and didn’t connect her to k at all. i cropped out sids response. i can add it if need be but it’s just sid believing you.

this is where i’m pulling what im referencing in this post from. the second half is censored bc it doesn’t have to do with me.

this is me texting my irl work manager on the day sid and i last spoke. i was distraught and emotional and crying but ok yeah i “heavily hate” sid when the way everything went down broke me to bits OKAYYY

the censored names are the names of my irl managers like it was So Serious so don’t try putting words in my mouth about sid.

[yooniesim]

Because I trust you to give it to me straight- what is your opinion on time zone reblogging? It is driving me NUTS. I see the same posts on my dash over and over with the tzr or whatever tag and I can't tell what the heck timezone they're doing it for because it's so random. Also...no one likes your content so much they need to see it half a dozen times a day so someone in another time zone might see it. And THEN if I want to scroll someone's blog, I see the same posts over and over because their mobile dash is their same posts reblogged continuously. I just don't understand the phenomenon. To me it's narcissistic, like you're so desperate for notes and validation youre forcing everyone to see your posts again and again. Yes I could block the tag but it doesn't just make the posts disappear, it hides them with a viewing disclaimer which is also annoying. I personally wish it wasn't such a trend in this community. I unfollow people over it at this point.

Oh I get you nonny. I actually do it myself but usually it's either once per day or once the next day after I post the original post. I do think it helps ppl see your post, especially if you post it at a bad time initially (like during school/work hours or on a holiday for example, when a lot of ppl aren't really on tumblr). I don't actually do it for an actual timezone I just do it randomly whenever I remember lol. But generally around 12 hours or so since it was first posted? Oh and if it's a cc post sometimes tzr helps cc finds blogs see it cos sometimes the tagging doesn't work i find. That's the most practical reason I've found for it. But I generally think one time a day is plenty enough to get the post out there for your mutuals that haven't seen it yet.

However I also don't really get the point of doing it 5-6 times a day, or setting it up for like, every four hours to be reblogged. It spams the dash and ppl's blogs the way you described. And I have unfollowed ppl too that do it like constantly. Idk if I'd go so far as to call it narcissistic but I do find it funny when it's like a non cc post with like 300+ notes and like four to six hours later the person tzr it, especially if they do it over and over? I don't blame them for it but I kinda encourage ppl not to get into that mindset bc it doesn't seem very fun ya know? It seems stressful in a way. I don't find that kind of behavior narcissistic no, more like it's showing the person's stress or worry that they won't get "enough" notes. Which i don't see as a negative towards them as a person as much as kinda the toxic environment we're all in that makes you feel unworthy or a flop if you don't get notes. It's hard but I think excessive timezone reblogging just winds up doing the opposite for you though as people will wind up getting annoyed and unfollowing. So for general simblr advice I'd say, 1 tzr a day is plenty enough, if that lol. Anything past that is just gonna see diminishing returns and annoyed followers. Do you agree nonny or do you think tzr should be gone entirely? 🤔

[finalhaunts]

I have a lot of complex feelings about Vivziepop tbh. Viv is by no means a person who is free from criticism and there certainly are a lot of things about her, from her past to her writing, that can and Should be criticized. But I look at how vitriolic the hate for her in particular is, how it seems the hate has been ongoing ever since the hazbin pilot released, and I can’t help but think that some misogyny may be fueling it. Like, I have NEVER seen someone on the internet get THIS much hate and criticism before, and for so long too.

I’m not rlly Into viv’s stuff (at least not right now. I’m planning on checking out helluva boss and seeing what’s up for myself, seeing if it’s Really as bad as people say) but I scrolled the hb tag earlier out of curiosity and I saw multiple instances one after another of people making entire posts dedicated to calling her out every step of the way and nitpicking every single thing she says, as well as… Keeping up with each episode still, despite their hate for her, and their hate for the show, JUST so they can nitpick even more. And it’s like… Doesn’t that ever get exhausting for y’all? Being so dedicated to getting pissed off over one singular person every chance you get? Don’t any of you have better things to do?

And I think it’s even more interesting that nobody ever really acknowledges the fact that Brandon Rogers is the co-writer of Helluva, and he’s done some REALLYYYYYYYYY fucked up skits that have certainly not aged well. Like, “holy shit this is AWFUL” kind of not aged well. The only time I’ve ever heard him criticized is for saying the r slur in the pilot, but that’s about it. Everything has been directed towards Viv specifically. Like i wish to stress again this is by no means a defense of her and ppl have every right to be uncomfortable with her and her work and she has definitely done some fucked up shit but it’s…….. Really telling what exactly is fueling a lot of the ongoing hate when you compare people’s attitudes towards her to the fact that you never hear a thing about Brandon. Idk. Many thoughts

[pinkfey]

@arklay @morvaris and @cultistbase tagged me to make some ocs in this classic picrew; thank u so much my beloveds mmmmwah 💕💕💕

tagging: @sanguinettii @calenhads @solasan @shadowglens @narshadda @trvelyans @rosebarsoap @lvllns @steelport @sylkana @swordcoasts @druidgroves @aartyom @ianeiras and you!! i don’t recall who has already been tagged so apologies if u have <3

honeymoon ♡ miss ♡ lara velvet ♡ vayle ♡ neo hannah ♡ ursula ♡ vera

[sporesgalaxy]

philosophytube coming out as trans made me curious so i scrolled thru some old talkpost tags and apparently I realized I was some variety of nonbinary abt 5 years ago in late 2015 :) I was 16 at the time

I am now going to talk about my gender experiences bc I appreciate seeing others share their gender experiences so much. Hope this can help someone like me feel seen and affirmed the way these things make me feel.

I have memory issues so I couldnt tell you how long I had an inkling I might be before I decided, but I made it look like I googled some stuff, read the definition of bigender, and pretty much immediately changed the pronouns in my bio. I was very gung ho about it because I felt I finally had a word for an experience I'd been silently living my whole life. I dont vibe as much with that label anymore but I absolutely still identify my variety of nonbinary-ness as an equal mixture of masculinity and femininity.

I did a lot of agonizing behind the scenes-- though, memory issues again-- I very well might have publicly complained about it some, I was very stressed and desperate to feel seen and commiserated and accepted at 16. But I definitely agonized MORE than I admitted I did. For many of my teen years after finding out about nonbinary identities, I still felt like being A Girl was somehow inescapable. I had a silent, dark sense of certainty that I would always be percieved as a girl unless I did something drastic to my body, but I also knew I didn't want to do anything drastic to my body, so I was terrified that by process of elimination, that meant I was "stuck" being A Girl. I have always really liked masculine titles (mister, sir), but I would downplay this, downplay my pronoun preferences extending beyond she/her, downplay my desire to look gender nonconforming even when I was in complete control of my appearance via art. I don't look like that, I would tell myself, I look like A Girl, and I have to be honest about that.

I repeatedly made the conscious decision to play into being more feminine, more like A Girl in ways I didn't want to be, because despite knowing about and deeply connecting with Nonbinary experiences, I had this misplaced conviction about being "honest" and "realistic" about how *exclusively* feminine I felt I was doomed to be.

I am doing much better these days. I wear more form-fitting clothes, more shorts, more jewlery than I ever have before in my life. Not all the time, but far more often. And they don't make me feel like A Girl. I don't draw myself like A Girl because I don't want to.

Growing past being a teen makes it better. The physiology of the teen brain just naturally makes everything more excruciating. Continuing to be able to casually discuss being queer w my irl friendgroup makes a world difference, even back when i WAS still a teen. Maybe especially then. It's had a huge impact on me to have ppl who see me irl often for years and years who I can trust won't have a reductive view of my identity based on appearances & my being comfortable with she/her pronouns. Living with ppl I can trust like that rather than family I'm nervous to come out to has given me a lot of confidence as well.

Living long enough to see more queer people out existing in the world, online and irl, has also had a huge impact on my confidence and my comfort with myself and my identity. Living long enough to come to a better understanding of the ways I want to express my gender has been incredible! And I look forward to continuing to figure myself out and becoming an even happier more authentic version of myself in years to come. I love trans people and I love being trans :) anyways have a good one

[hello-yue-here]

Yuetara, zukka, and maiko

yuetara

ship

1) its not one of my main ships. i dont rlly read fanfic for them but if i see a cute fanart of them ill enjoy it and i think i first started shipping it because of good fanarts for them.

2) i like yuetara because of how similar they are. theyre both women from the water tribe. they both understand the misogyny that they have faced. and they both said f sexism im gonna be a strong woman. i also love the tui and la parallel. moon spirit and ocean spirit parallel COME ON. YUE IS THE MOON. KATARA IS THE MOST POWERFUL WATERBENDER. THEY ARE THE OCEAN AND THE MOON. the push and pull they could give eachother. that dynamic ftw.

3) i guess if i didnt like something about this ship would be the fact that if i read a fic or see a fanart w yuetara then than means in that particular au i wont get any yuekka and yuekka is probably my second favorite ship. but then again if i get yuetara than i could get a plethora of other sokka ships to go with it so my sadness disappears in like two seconds. gosh shipping is hard sometimes until you remember ‘hey i have like fifty different universes in my head. all ur ships can coexist in ur brain olivia’ other than that i really see no downsides to this ship. maybe i wish it had more content. maybe if it had more content id ship it a lot more but its not one of the more popular ships so the content is kinda few n far between on my feed.

zukka:

SHIPPP

1) my boys. my babies. my loves. i watched this show for the first time when it came out on netflix and when it ended i really didnt ship anything other than kataang. i came onto tumblr to find fun atla content and one of the very first things i saw under the atla tag was zukka content. i was like oh? whats this? zukka? interesting... i was intrigued so i found a list of fic recs and i fell in love with the ship. the rest is history. its probably my number one ship because it was my very first ship here and im nostalgic

2) oh boy there is so much i like about this ship. i relate to a shit ton of characters in atla. but sokka and zuko may be the ones i relate to most. i relate to sokka because i tend to feel second best a lot to my friends. i try to stay positive but things rarely go the way i plan or hope for them too and while im happy for my friends and their achievements i oftentimes find myself thinking why cant that be me? and i see this a lot in sokka especially in sokkas master. i dont feel special a lot and idk seeing sokka feel the same way and then realizing he is special kinda helped me realize that im special too. on the flipside i relate to zuko because i have wild anger issues and difficulty dealing w my emotions a lot as well. i get broody and short tempered and insecure very often and i tend to push people away and i refuse to ask for help (the amount of teachers and adults and therapists who have told me its okay to ask for help ur not any weaker because of it is astounding. do i listen to them? .....im working on it.) and i saw a shit ton of this in zuko. book one and two zuko rarely asks for help as seen in the blue spirit and zuko alone and he pushes away uncle so many times and even when the gaang iffers to help him in i think its the chase he tells them to leave. when he finally has his redemption and joins the gaang and lets them kinda become a better person i was so happy. i want that for myself yk. seeing him finally win the agni kai and overcome his family that always told him he was nothing was such a win. my sister and i get along but when we were children we were very much like zuko and azula. it was extremely competitive all the time and there was so much toxicity and sibling drama to a concerning extent. we get along great now which im very happy about but yeah their sibling relationship hit a lil too on the nose for me. seeing as i relate to these character so much and want them ti be happy i want to live vicariously through them so seeing them together is amazing for me to project into them. i love projecting onto fictional characters and with them i can project onto BOTH so its a winwin. plus so many zukka fics are so well written and heartwarming and heartbreaking and emotional and fluffy anf UGH the talent here us astounding.

3) what do i not like about the ship? again the list is long. oops. mainly the toxic shippers. there are so many toxic zukka stans that sometimes make it hard for me to enjoy this ship but hey! thats what the block button is for:) i despise how often people infantilize zuko and completely ruin his character for the sake of making him a soft weak lil boy who needs protecting. thats just not zuko for me. and ive seen many many accounts even state that this kind of portrayal of zuko is rooted in racist stereotypes about asian men (now i am white so i personally have never experiences racism but i feel the need to bring that up because it is wrong and attention needs to be brought to it because a lot of poc fans have criticised this) and the same for sokka. some ppl rlly skew his character and make him a big strong brute and hypermasculine and once again poc fans have said that this take is rooted in racist stereotypes. again! these are just my opinions! this is my favorite ship! but i think its important to acknowledge some of the bad parts of our ships as well and be critical where criticism is needed :))

maiko

ship

1) I LOVE MAIKO. “i dont hate you” “i dont hate you too” BRUH. my little heart just burst into flames. im sorry guys but maiko is so cute. they hate everything except eachother. BRUH that is one of the cutest tropes. i shipped them the moment i saw them together onscreen and i was so happy when zukos face lit up in the finale when mai came back.

2) “i hate everything but i have a soft spot for you” TAKE MY MONEY I AM A SUCKER FOR THIS. they are so cute together. like zuko is rarely happy in a majority of atla but mai makes him happy and i- 🥺🥺 HE DESERVES IT. and mai is always so supportive of him. when hes stressing out about the war meeting she tries her best to comfort him. and zuko cares about her too. he may not be the best at showing it but oh my god hes TRYING HIS BEST. i think its a very accurate portrayal of teenage relationships because they arent perfect and they do fight but like,, every teenage relationship does that. and even after everything and how he left her in the fire nation she still had his back at boiling rock. she still risked her life against azula to save his butt.

3) the thing i hate about maiko isnt even about maiko. its about antis who think mai is toxic and that zuko deserves better. that has got to be the worst take ive ever heard. they had a fight in ember island. that is NORMAL. they are teenagers. they are not perfect. but underneath all the rough edges and things they need to work out they still care about eachother so freaking much. i genuinelt believe that neither of them would do anything to intentionally hurt the other and i think thats what matters the most. if anything mai is the best girlfriend in the entire world because zuko fucked up like,, quite a few times. he got rlly jealous and dumped her thru a letter and ppl always say that mai was toxic for being mad at him for those two things. umm she had every right to be mad at him for both of those. and while zuko is allowed to feel his emotions and be angry sometimes as well sometimes he needs to think things thru and realize that hey maybe some if this jealousy is unfounded. BUT EVEN THEN. HE RESPECTED HER FEELINGS AND DIDNT TOUCH HER WHEN SHE SAID DONT TOUCH ME. HE RESPECTED HER. so i hate toxic maiko takes because they are literally so wrong in my opinion.

again all of these are just my opinions!! feel free to agree or disagree but please be respectful!! i will respect whatever u think as well because this is all just for fun :)

[wincore]

Ooh okay ai sounds cool. I'm into stem too !! I've chosen math, phy, chem and computer science but I only have a vague idea (?!) ab what I want in college and it's kinda freaking me out bc most of my friends are so clear ab what they want to do later on in life 😭 😭 For now I'm rewatching high school musical for the 7830487474th time just to de-stress myself from the whole 'think about the future thing' bc I'll be starting senior year after in 2 weeks (smth ab coming of age Disney movies are calming) OML MOON YOU LIKE OCHEM ?!?! JDKDN  I've been learning it for over a year now and still haven't gotten a hang of it 😩 I'd choose calc over ochem in a heartbeat bc calc doesn't suck the few braincells I have like a vacuum cleaner. So I'm gonna use the 2 week break I have from school to understand ochem once in for all 😤 Gintama sounds interesting <3 animes with comedy are literally the best thing ever. As for one piece I've always wanted to see it but I freak out when I see the number of episodes it has 🥴 to quote lana's i suddenly realize my archnemesis is hot (during a battle to the death) one piece is like the grey's anatomy of anime and YES I'VE READ THAT FIC ENOUGH NUMBER OF TIMES TO QUOTE IT AND HDJSKDK SHRUBCHENG READING ONE PIECE FOR YOU, MISS MOON, HAS GOT TO BE THE CUTEST THING EVER but !! I don't blame him for being whipped this is miss moon we're talking about 💞 nct finally did smth for ppl who can't keep up with them lol nct news is a v v v smart idea + the little spoiler news anchor!jeno gave for the dream comeback in March made the vid even better ksjdj. Also, we're getting a rv comeback this march so it's gonna be one crazy month <33 AND I FINALLY FINISHED READING CORDUROY ANDBFKKDNDMD OKAY I LOVE EVERYTHING ABOUT THE FIC 🤩 bff2l is one of my fav tropes <33 the fic made my yangyang brainrot phase even more intense. I'm in the process of binging all of your yangyang works <3 beginning from troublemaker bc it's such a classic (okay your whole 00line 'bad boy' series is a classic) to the wayv + Sci fi au. Now my brainrot has escalated to the alien!yangang state jdndi the tags made me cackle so loud XD 

p.s. header for corduroy is so cute why is it so yang2x of him to not figure out what playing ts' you belong with me means 😭 talk about hopelessly oblivious cutie idt even cupid can help him - 👻

honeypie, i am so so so sorry for the late response 😭 my life has been swamped and i've been feeling overwhelmed for a while now </3 

it’s alright to figure it out along the way!! that’s kind of what i’m doing too?? it’s a mix of ‘yeah, this is fun, this is what i want’ vs ‘life allows me only these few paths at the moment’. don’t stress too much and make decisions as best as you can 💕

honestly i binge disney to destress too hsdskh but sometimes i end up crying as the cherry on top 🤩 (cough cough encanto and turning red) but they are such a comfort spot for me !! i hope you’re doing better now though, sweetheart, and taking enough breaks like this!

SDDJDSJGJ it’s been a while since i’ve done ochem ngl but it was fun when i did it bc i actually used my brain back then 😩 the only thing i remember rn is grignard’s reagent ?? i got fun, sexy vibes from the reaction idk <3 and i absolutely ADORE calculus !!!!! it’s kind of the reason i love ai, because neural nets use a bunch of calc, even tho it drives me insane sometimes LOL and yes, on the occasion, i solve problems on differential equations just to feel something 😔 (like just 1 bc it drains me)

god, if a man reads one piece for me i will get on one knee so fast. lana knows my type too well 😩 and right???? i’ve read that fic so many times i could write my graduate thesis on it miss lana’s talent is unmatched 😤 pls do give gintama a try tho bc it’s so funny, it cheers me up every time ❣️ it’s more so for one piece, but it def looks a little daunting to newcomers 😭 1.5x is your friend if you ever wanna watch.

i can’t keep up with nct once again 💔 but omg the rv comeback!!!!! my queens never disappoint and my gf standards have once again been raised to miss kang seulgi and miss kim yerim 🥰

AAAA THANK YOU SO MUCH, LOVE !!! it’s been so long since i’ve written anything and this put back the will to write in me piece by piece ugh 💖 yangyang is lovable in a rat kind of way idk it’s so much fun to write him hshdk omg the scifi au brings back memories it was so FUN to write!!!!! god, i’m gonna do something like that again if i ever have the time hhh thank you so much for compliments on the header!!! i think i gave up when i was making it but i’m glad it gave off cute vibes 🥰

hope you’re doing well this week, love!!! have a good time and stay safe 🌙

[kae-karo]

fic writer interview!

i saw @prince-liest do this and thus i will take ur 'tagging anyone who wants to do this' seriously lmaoooo (also hi btw hope ur well!!! 💜💜)

How many works do you have on AO3?

ahaha,,,,,159 lmao

What's your total AO3 word count?

fdsjkkjlsfdklj as of today, 2,089,769

How many fandoms have you written for and what are they?

only three fsdjkldslfkj the phandom (dan&phil), bnha, and genshin!

What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

chosen (x) - zhongchi (genshin)

to love (and be loved in return) (x) - kaeluc (genshin)

little bird (x) - dabihawks (bnha)

feet don't touch the ground (x) - xiaoven (genshin)

i knew you were fire (x) - dabihawks (bnha)

honestly none of that surprises me except that little bird is still up there, although i think i owe that to sif (@the-final-sif) for sharing it around the time it got posted since it was partly inspired by her raptor stress grip post!!

the rest are all chaptered fics, which is mostly what i expected to be in the top 5 lmao

Do you respond to comments, why or why not?

yes!!! always!!!! no matter what u comment, i will respond!!! and if i don't, it's probably cause ao3 didn't notify me properly or i didn't see it in my inbox or something

as for why, it's mostly to do with like...i know how hard it can be for some people to comment, even just a bunch of heart emojis or a 'i loved this!' or something short and simple? and it means a lot to me that ppl are going out of their way to say something nice, no matter how small, and it's really really important to me to acknowledge that

What’s the fic you’ve written with the angstiest ending?

hmm,,,,,this is a hard one, cause for a very long time, my policy was that my fic would always have a happy ending? and for a long time, that was true!! but the dabihawks interaction (during the raid) broke me, and from an emotional standpoint, i think freeing icarus (x) is probably the one that has the angstiest ending of the two or so that i wrote in that time?

Do you write crossovers? If so what is the craziest one you’ve written?

u know i really haven't written any crossovers? it's normally not my thing cause my brain typically focuses on a single thing and doesn't really have the capacity to think about more than that, so i end up writing just au-style or fusion-style (shoutout to that one bnha but it was scooby doo fic i wrote - x)

i don't think i'd be opposed to writing a crossover but i'd have to be SUPER inspired by the idea and both fandoms lmao

Have you ever received hate on a fic?

aha yes, i have. the only straight up hate i've received was on a kaeluc fic (surprisingly not because it was kaeluc, but bc i was 'mistreating' kaeya in the fic) - to be entirely fair, the commenter pointed out something that i hadn't realized myself, and it led to a second piece of the story that helped me tie up some loose ends, but...let's just say they weren't very kind about their feelings lmao

other than that, i had someone very upset because i didn't tag which character was bottoming in a fic (valid if that bugs u!) and they read through most of it before getting to the smut (and said that they enjoyed everything up to that point) then said they were 'disgusted' by it. i have opinions on that and a few other comments they made, but i will keep them to myself lmao

and beyond that, just a few ppl on my xiaoven fic saying that they were unhappy about the background kaeluc (which is tagged lmao) - really no hate whatsoever til genshin, honestly, which is...very hmmmm :) lmao

Do you write smut? If so what kind?

yep!!! mostly vanilla or vanilla-adjacent lmao i'm not super into heavy kink, although i know if epi reads this she's gonna call me out for being a monsterfucker bc of my dragon!zhongli smut :) lmaoooo but really i tend to write pretty vanilla smut! i also prefer to avoid any noncon/dubcon or hate sex or anything particularly angsty, just not my jam to write!

Have you ever had a fic stolen?

hmm i don't think so? although i don't heavily monitor ao3 (or wattpad/ffn), so i can't really say that for sure lmao

Have you ever had a fic translated?

yes!!! i've had a few fics translated to russian (little bird is one of them!) which is very sweet and i hope that anyone who prefers to read in russian has been enjoying those fics!!

Have you ever co-written a fic before?

alksdfjklsdf only once, and it's deadass how me and rose got together. we decided to co-write a podcast au fic for the phandom (x) and ended up flirting via google docs asldkfjkldsfj

What’s your all time favourite ship?

what a horrible question, making me choose between my children like this!!!! sdlfkjdskf tbh i'm not sure i have a real answer bc it changes as i go? and 'favorite' is so vague,,,,,favorite to read? to write about? to think about? asdklfjkjsdfk i really don't know if i have an answer, but i'll maybe say kaeluc for now lmao

What’s a WIP that you want to finish but don’t think you ever will?

well first and foremost, with only 2 exceptions, i never post a fic unless it's done. i tend to follow wherever my passion leads my brain, so i'm notorious for jumping around between stories and taking breaks from long fic and returning later on to finish them, and i know that i would not do well under the pressure of posting something unfinished and trying to finish it in a timely manner

that said, many wips sit in my google doc folder, but one is Well Known as the one that has followed me through both the phandom and bnha (rose keeps asking who i'm gonna switch the chars to in genshin, but i think it suits bakudeku too well to do that) - only the lonely survive. it sits at like 36k in my wip folder, and i adore the story dearly and i want very much to finish it, but it never makes it quite to the forefront of my motivation, and so it rarely if ever gets worked on...i hate the idea of 'never' finishing it, but it's unfortunately quite likely that i won't 😭😭😭

What are your writing strengths?

emotion!!! and immersion!!! it's my goal in a fic to make it as immersive as possible and saturated with emotion to help convey that feeling of being in the place of the pov character, and i think i do it pretty well. also just bc i feel a little obligated to say it - another strength is actually sitting down and putting words down. i know that's a struggle for a lot of writers and i often get,,,,lovingly bullied? i guess? lmao for being able to bash out a few k in a day most days

What are your writing weaknesses?

this isn't so much a weakness i guess but i am basically incapable of treating crack fic as crack. if i have a cracky idea, it will, without a doubt, end up turning into a Perfectly Serious fic somehow (notable 'crack treated so seriously that it's no longer crack' fics include: todoroki doing the freeze-the-ocean thing from frozen 2, 'shmigaraki', todo and denki get together bc of vine references, the league sells feet pics, shiggy and natsu own a nightclub/bakery, scooby doo but make it bnha, and dabi getting his ears pierced at claire's)

but in all seriousness, i think my main weakness is that i often get comfortable? and i'm not one to typically push myself forcefully out of my comfort zone when it comes to stories that i come up with on my own, which often means that ideas inspired by discussions with others are what prompt me to branch out and try new things?

What are your thoughts on writing dialogue in other languages in a fic?

i think, like anything, it has its place? there are certainly stories where it makes sense to do that and even adds depth to a story, although i personally am not exceptionally comfortable enough with other languages (except maybe asl) to do that in fic myself without the assistance of someone very comfortable with that language lmao

What was the first fandom you wrote for?

the phandom! not really my jam to write rpf anymore but it definitely got me started and i'm really grateful for my time writing there, as everyone was super supportive and kind, and it was really a perfect place for a beginner to get comfortable and practice

What’s your favourite fic you’ve written?

again, forcing me to choose between my children...i really don't know that i can pick one fic bc they all exist in such wildly different spaces? i poured my worldbuilding soul into the king of disaster series (mainly dabihawks - x), exile (dan and phil - x) was my first massively long fic, our hearts are heavy burdens we shouldn't have to bear alone (chayea - x) is probably my favorite character/character dynamic study, i'm exceptionally proud of the smut in chosen (zhongchi - x), the list goes on and on and on lmao like. i could probably list half my fics as favorites in some regard dsflkjdfsjkl

anyway, tyty bellamy for putting this on my dash so i could do it as well!!

tagging: literally anyone who wants to do this, i have so many writer friends slkdjfjklsdf but please please tag me if u do it so i can read urs!!! 💜💜💜

[lilyresources]

no but why do people still send anon messages to rps or rpt/rph etc. It's sad and pathetic tbh. I saw your screenshot, willowsedgehq made a post about receiving anons and they've been open 2 week. I think this community really needs to grow up.

Honestly ! like we're all adults here. If you can't come off anon and talk it out and get to the root of the problem and say what's up then don't send shit at all. like whoever this person who's sending me hate all the time, I seriously want to talk it out. what the fuck did I do that has you so pressed that you can't just ignore me or block me.

it's really that simple. if you don't like me or anyone else just block them and you won't have to deal with me or said person ever again but clearly, some people on this site never grew out of their high school teen drama phase.

I always stay in my lane because I come to this hell site to de-stress. not add more in it. but of course sometimes it hard because of hate like that. you hate me ? cool , that sounds like a you problem than a me problem. I'm not a people pleasure . not everyone is gonna like me and I get that . that's okay . I don't really care . but when you constantly send me hate none stop to EVERY SINGLE RP I OPEN OR AM IN AND EVEN HERE -- it's like bruh just fucking block me at this point. deadass just block me because if I knew who they were I would have blocked them and stay clear from whoever this anon is . i already deal with one verbally abusive family member in my life, I don't need an anonymous stalker telling me to die ( which jokes on you nonnie , I've been wishing I was dead for a long time ) , how much of a bitch I am , telling me that they're gonna expose me ( still waiting on that psa to be posted so I can read what I did that makes me such a menace to this community when I literally only talk to like 4 ppl . so tag me ) , and how I'm a fucking cunt ( which honestly holds no real power considering it's associated with misogyny, unlike the people who object so passionately to its usage. I have one and I eat them so it's w/e . ) . messages like these doesn't even scratch the surface of all the hate I get . like mi pana, chill the fuck out. suelta el maldito bulto . im just here to rp and just help out here on my personal however I can because let's be real, I can barely help myself .

I love rping because I get to be in a world and play out my characters and just take a break from my own shitty reality. and I like helping out here on my personal however I can because I just like helping others. comes with the job I do in rl. but honestly over the hate and im sorry they got hate . 

[userscully]

Hi I haven’t made gifs in almost 2 years and I’m wondering if there’s any tips or gif tutorials you know or steps you take to get your gifs so HD? But ofc if you don’t share stuff like that I understand completely I’m just trying to figure my way back into gif making again ♥️

hi nonnie! this got kinda long lol

my main recommendation is this tutorial by chloezhao; it's super detailed and easy to follow, and will get you through the whole process from acquiring your files to sharpening and coloring your gifs. an additional tutorial i strongly recommend is this one by anya-chalotra (also every other tutorial in her resources tag is fantastic); it goes further into sharpening and, really importantly, save settings—that's a part of giffing that's often overlooked but has a major impact on how your stuff ends up looking. i personally save with adaptive, diffusion (100%), bicubic, but every other gifmaker will have a different take on this, so try it out for yourself and see what you like!

now, those tutorials combined are pretty all-encompassing, so some of the following may be redundant, but here are my personal tips:

unless you have no other option available, NEVER GO FOR FILES BELOW 1080p—i can't stress this enough. also, use screencaps instead of screen-recording, and don't skip frames.

if you gif with the video timeline, always drag your saved gif back into photoshop and fix the frame rate!! the first tutorial goes into this if you don't know what i'm talking about, but yeah, super important. i didn't do this until recently cause i was lazy and didn't think it made that big a difference, but since i've started taking that extra step i look at my previous gifs and think it's SO NOTICEABLE how much "choppier" they are.

sharpening is king. the settings shown on that first tutorial are a great base to start, and the second offers some more options, but i really encourage playing around with the amount/radius settings, as well as with checking legacy & accuracy on and off (which are shown when you click on the little cog icon in smart sharpen), to find a setting that you really love. some ppl like smoother gifs, others like theirs really sharp—it's really a matter of personal taste, so trying out those adjustments for yourself will help you understand how sharpening works and let you find your own preference.

all that being said, sharpening is not one-size-fits-all. depending on how something was filmed and lit, when it came out, how much grain there is on the file, etc, you might have to make little (or big) adjustments to your sharpen settings. this is why it's so important to understand how this tool works instead of just blindly inputting numbers.

the black/white eye droppers within the curves tool are your best friends. the first tutorial goes over how this works.

beware of vibrance and saturation. i personally never use vibrance, and saturation requires a gentle touch. overusing either of these tools can really destroy the quality of a gif—it pays off to build up your coloring by gradually stacking other adjustment layers.

channel mixer my beloved. i never used this adjustment at the start because i had no clue how it worked, but since i've learned by using it over time it's become literally my favorite tool for coloring—it can seriously work miracles.

a little noise can go a long way. sometimes messing around with sharpening still doesn't get your gif looking like you want it, quality-wise, and adding a noise filter can a) make your gif look sharper, b) make your gif look more uniform when the file has some annoying grain you can't get rid of, and c) just give it some personality! but this is totally a personal preference, as some people, like i mentioned, will want their gifs as smooth and noiseless as possible.

that's all i can think of for now! i've never done tutorials myself and i have a tendency to ramble and overexplain, but if you have questions abt specific things you can always ask me and i'll try my best to put something together or redirect you to another tutorial

[boogiepilgrim]

thanks for tagging me @taste-thewaste, love ya ⭐

fic writer interview

name: bethany (bluemoves98)

fandoms: ok first off i wanna say i dont . consider myself a fic writer? the one on my account ^ began on a whim. back in the sweet days of yore, summer 2019, on like my fifth watch of rocketman. the part where bernie says "we'll go to my raench. we’ll hide awaehy" hit, and i was like...... um. holy fucking shit. the idea was born. and so i was like, omg i bet ppl ARE writing fics about this. so i went, and i 👀, and i saw the dynamics people were wanting to read about, etc... & the particular one i skimmed through didnt do it for me. like, it just wasnt.. believable where it needed to be, stuff like that. ppl were wanting to read/write about an abusive relationship, but that random one, to ME, was totally off the mark. so, i took the idea i had (the ranch idea, which had branched by this stage into the telephone thing..), and concocted a story that depicted that in a more accurate, there-is-absolutely-nothing-sexy-about-this way. the answer to this question is: rocketman

two-shot?: i..do not know what this really means. i know what a one shot is? hmmm. perhaps you could consider nlh a two-shot considering im lich writing a companion story for it ☺️ xx stay tuned for that x

most popular multi-chapter fic: there only is one babey. out now. sequel coming soon........ im hoping august 8th... . but lets call it "soon"........ . ..

actual worst part of writing: like you said, ambie, finding the time to actually do it. with work n whatever else, it's hard to find stress-free time to do it sometimes

how you choose your titles: in true traditional fashion, title and chapters were all lyric excerpts that i felt pertained in some typa way

do you outline: i doooo. i think you need to, to some degree. like even the bare minimum. i DO love the freedom of taking it in any direction at any given time, but i also enjoy knowing where im headed and where i need to bring everything. the one im writing now, i think, is a lot more steadily outlined than the first one was.

ideas you probably won’t get around to, but wouldn’t it be nice: i dont actually plan on writing any more after this. ALTHOUGH i have a like lighthearted funny fantasy story based entirely on captain fantastic (the song) that has nothing to do with this, that i started writing on the side, in ye olde drafts. so who knows hunniez

callouts @ me: bitch, you didnt need to do bernie the fish so damn dirty. im sure ppl like @luzff, @rocketthem, @hobbit-with-tea, @killmypiano or anyone whos read it could answer this more accurately. or colourfully. fkhsjfjsjf id love to know

best writing traits: i havent got any idea. again, someone who has read it might be better at answering this.. ummm. something i wanted to accomplish w it was making it one of those fics you'd read that stays with u for some time, ur invested, it’s full of detail, lore. relatability. which i feel like i did. theres stuff to piece together or like draw ur own conclusions about since it's told strictly from one pov. a fair amount lies between the lines. another thing is it's obviously dark, but it's also like . not too serious in places, and as a whole has got like a charming element (regarding the good stuff). SO, more self promo: if you at all cared about nlh n the characters i made up, u may love the second (2nd) pov of it. because there is SO much that i put into nlh that will be brought to light and wrapped up in a NEAT little PACKAGE 🎁 in little miss qat

spicy tangential opinion: im on board w yours amber. one of mine would be: if youre going to write about experiences you havent experienced, even in a fanfic, i feel like you should at least do a lil research on the way. it helps your writing, and also prevents you from putting potentially harmful content out there

idk that many fic writers; i dont read them myself anymore. but i tag: @axlnchas, + anyone else who sees this and wants to 🧡

[undyingsunshine]

YESSSSS YOU’RE BACK AND TAKING ASKS

14 and 15 for the most recent post, and I’m gonna come back with more too

Here we go!!!!

14. At what point in writing do you come up with a title?

Honestly, it usually differs from piece to piece! Usually, though, the title comes last! (Though I do have a short list of potential titles for Li Cu fics stored away, most of which are just lyrics from songs xD Whether I end up using them or not, only time will tell!)

15. Which is harder: titles or summaries (or tags)?

All of these tend to give me a bit of trouble xD if I was to rank from hardest to easiest however, I think I'd say titles are the hardest and tags tend to be the easiest. For summaries I usually just slap a portion of the fic in and then add a small almost-summary below it, mostly because I feel like giving a sample of the fic will be more effective than trying to give a succinct description? Kind of shows you what you're getting into before you've even clicked xD

Titles, I use a lot of lyrics from songs, especially ones that I think fit with the character. Though, this does sometimes mean my titles are... long and it can make it a little awkward when trying to talk about the fics themselves. xD

Examples include;

"Come with me, I promise the water is fine..." Which is a lyric from God Bless Eric Taylor by Marietta, a song that I relate to Li Cu somewhat.

This next one is the title of a chapter instead of a whole fic, but I'll count it anyway xD Chapter 2 of I'm Here is titled: "I have this dream that I'm hitting my dad with a baseball bat and he is screaming and crying for help..." which is from the song Father by The Front Bottoms.

I ideally try to make it so that the lyrics also match up with the contents of the chapter/fic. I'm Here's second chapter is all about Li Cu's nightmares, so I thought the title would be pretty fitting xD Honestly, thinking back maybe I could've added more types of dreams.... Ones that fit that title even more.... Small rewrite of that Chapter perhaps? I don't think it would be that different, but still... Would add more angst onto everything xD

The title for "Come with me..." Also sort of relates to the contents of the fic, but moreso in the following line that appears in the summary: "I need something else to comvince me I won't die."

Honestly these lines could have me ranting a whole lot, especially in relation to Li Cu. Just makes me think of all his conflicted feelings, and how he must feel when he drags his friends into the mess he didn't even make. (And these feeling really would increase after Su Wan blames him for the snake bite and getting Shen Qiong inveolved, and during just... the entirety of the time he, Yang Hao, Su Wan and Liang Wan are in the desert together. (ESPECIALLY when Yang Hao is being absolutely mistreated by the 9 families, like sheesh.)

It's just a whole lot of guilt, but also maybe some stubborn determination? Li Cu is very adamant on living just to spit in the face of everyone around him. Existing out of pure spite, but with friends involved, it's more like he's existing to fulfil a purpose? One that he feels like he's bestowed upon himself. Not Wu Xie, or Rishan, or anyone. Just him. He stays alive so he can protect his friends. He'll keep them safe, he'll get them home alive. He has to. And he knows that he will. Or else, what is he even persevering for? "I need something to convince me I won't die." In the fic, this could also be referring to Wu Xie, as he kind of marks safety by the end of the drama. Wu Xie being there means it's okay. It means he doesn't have to fight anymore. And in the fic, it also means that Li Cu can let go. Of Everything. Permanently. (I have so many branching ideas based on that 300 word demon of a fic, you wouldn't even believe)

ANYWAY I'LL STOP RANTING ABT THAT FIC MAYBE I'LL TALK ABOUT THAT FIC MORE IN DEPTH SOME OTHER TIME IF PPL WANT IT.

As for tags, I struggle mostly because I never know what's okay to tag? I'm afraid of tagging a fic with something if the content of that particular tag doesn't show up all that much in the fic? Unless it's something that's a potnential trigger, and then I'll tag it, even if it's small. Just ot be safe. But like. Characters, I don't tag unless they're actually there and present and doing something. If they're mentioned, I tend to not tag them since it's not all that crucial? For people to know they show up for a second? Idk, I like to be as succinct and precise as possible with my tags, because I know how annoying it is for tags to be clogged or for fics to have too many tags xD

4. Share a sentence or paragraph from your writing that you’re really proud of (explain why, if you like)

I have a few, surprisingly! I'll choose two, both from the second chapter of I'm Here!

"Each one makes him wake up, terrified and shaky and wanting to hide or just outright stop existing; to become intangible, untouchable, safe. Of course, he can't actually do that, so instead he pushes the fear down and suffocates it before burying it in the backyard of his mind in the hopes it'll never be dug up again."

Something I try and do while writing is find ways to explain how I. Just. Experience life? (This is also present in Chapter 1 with the line "Further frustration gathered in his chest, making it tighten with stress before it shot up into his throat". Just little things that I've never really seen in words before? That I feel but never know how to accurately describe.) There's always the whole "let the void swallow me/him/her/them whole" thing in media that I love because, honestly, mood. But I guess for this I just wanted to word it differently? In the way I felt was most accurate to myself. Just to be in a state of which nothing can get you, be it life or that one imaginary demon that you sometimes think is lurking around the house at the convenient time of 3 AM, Y'know? When real life becomes TOO real and you just want to blip out for a second, just pause everything and have a moment to be free of everything xD

I also just kind of like the metaphor(?) with his fear. Trust Li Cu to not only associate feelings with violence, but also treat his feelings violently xD I feel like I'm not the best when it comes to imagery and creative expression, especially through words. I point out the obvious, the facts, a lot, both when speaking normally and in writing, and it takes a bit of time for me to remember that I'm writing a story and not jotting a list of events xD So anytime I actually come up with something more kind of creatively written, I feel particularly happy with myself.

"He can't even fully comprehend what's been going on - everything feels bizarre and just out of reach, moreso than usual - but what he does know is that Wu Xie is here and he's angry. The man stands above Li Cu, his cold calculating eyes burning him with wordless accusations that, despite their ambiguity, feel justified. There's guilt, desperation and denial crashing inside him like waves assaulting a rickety raft on a stormy sea. What these feelings are for, he doesn't know. It makes him want to plead for forgiveness all the same."

Let's be honest, Li Cu probably has way too many mixed feelings on Wu Xie. The man who simultaneously built him up and destroyed him. The man who caused him agony, but is also probably one of the best things to come into Li Cu's life??? Like damn, I think I'd be pretty conflicted if I was Li Cu. And things only get worse when, in this fic's timeline, Wu Xie essentially ghosts Li Cu out of guilt for what he did to the kid. This is taken wrong by Li Cu, and he ends up feeling abandoned. By his own kidnapper. I just feel like this snippet is pretty okay at capturing all the blame he puts onto himself, and captures some of the trauma that comes with the events of Sha Hai as well. I just kind of like how this paragraph turned out in the end. xD

6. What character do you have the most fun writing

LI CU!!! Absolutely Li Cu. I don't know exactly what it is but it just. Clicks with me? Or at least the version I write of himd does, it's probably not even close to Li Cu's canon portrayal xD Maybe it's because of the fact that I'm also an angsty, angry 19 year old that I feel as such? It's much easier to put myself in the mind of a teenage boy rather than a 40 year old man xD In terms of non DMBJ writings, I have OCs that I love writing for! Funnily enough, one is an angsty 19 year old boy with a lot of self-worth issues (ringing any bells?) and the other is an angry, confused and conflicted character that was modified to be a kind of living weapon, but had since escaped and repressed all their memories of what happened. Though, the memories eventually start to resurface and they begin to question themself a whole lot, with flashbacks haunting the corners of their mind and driving them deeper and deeper into guilt-filled despair.

In general, angsty characters with a lot of conflicted emotions are super fun to write for! To flicker around from thought to thought and dive into all the hidden feelings that a character can have. It's just super enjoyable for me xD

[nctsjiho]

hello! what do you suggest for starting an account like yours? how do you get inspiration? i LOVE your account 🤍🤍🤍

Hi! Thx love ^^

I'm just gonna say that I suck at giving advice but here's some tips for starting an account and how I get my inspiration <3

Have your OC somewhat fleshed out already: In my experience my OC started to shape more over my writings. Of course the best way to start is with the basics. Member profile, facts, habits, traits, relationship with other members/family/friends/other idols,... You don't have to do all, but you can definitely do more.

If you're stuck... CONTINUE: This is easier said then done, but I did it so anyone can. There's moments I doubt the direction I'm going for JiHo's plot or literally get stuck not knowing what to write. That's why I have things like the fan tweets or my little 'Just *shipname here* Things' series. They can be completely stand-alone and are sometimes easier to write. Don't be afraid to try new formats ^^

MY BIGGEST ADVICE: do NOT stop posting after your first few posts. I see sooo many new oc's which I get excited for, but there's a lot of ppl who just stop posting. You might not get the numbers you expect at the start, but almost no one does. Most importantly though is that you don't do it for likes or follows only, you should enjoy writing and do it for yourself first.

If you don't enjoy writing anymore, whether it's you lost interest or you realised you never really enjoyed it anyway, you can of course stop. But as long as you enjoy what you're doing, don't stop! Never stop!

As for inspiration: there's a lot of places I get inspiration from. The main things are other blogs (this can be nct addition blogs or just regular nct imagines/fanfiction) and NCT content (like YT video's, comebacks, photoshoots). Sometimes it's just random thoughts or things that I come by in my personal life that don't necessarily are connected to NCT. Whenever it's from a random thought while I'm not at my computer, I'll write it down in my notes on my phone so I'll remember it for later ^^

I post pretty often (I think... maybe I don't idk) but I can tell you that most of the time I don't have much inspiration, definitely the longer my blog exists. So I often just push myself to find something, anything, however if I really can't or I get stressed, I'll take a day off. Writing on here doesn't earn me anything, it's not an obligation so I shouldn't stress myself out and write when I can't think of anything.

I hope this helped even the tiniest bit. I wish you the best of luck and lots of fun writing your OC if you are and I'll possibly see your OC popping up in the tags. Again lots of love and thx so much for liking my blog🤍🤍🤍