#i've written a million fucking words for just the first 2 seasons

[pastafossa]

Me if Foggy dies in Born Again and it's not a fakeout like I think it is

[oddie-odette]

I've never written fanfic in my life.

That's a lie but I never post shit so

I made a thing for Arcane season 2 and my growing love for Sevika will never end💜

There is some use of y/n I apologize if cringe but I’m not the smartest.

Story is under the cut! 🫶

“Shh! Keep it down! I swear to god…”

“Ooh! What does this do-?” CLATTER!!!

“Oi! What did I just say?!-“

“And what brings you home so late, my dear?” The light of a warm lamp flicks on and Sevika, Jinx and Isha flinch at it. There you were, sitting there in your robe and pajamas on the couch, arms crossed. It was a shock to see not only your girlfriend walk through the door after 2 weeks being gone but now… Jinx and some mysterious child?

“Shit- what are you doing here-?” Sevika grumbles as she walks further into the house while ushering Jinx, who was carrying Isha, inside.

“The real question is what were you not doing here? Where the fuck have you been?” You snap back at her before looking at the gold eyes of the young child in the room. “Pardon my language.” You mumbled as I stood from the couch and walked over to Jinx.

“Hi y/n…” Jinx greeted, her voice soft but it cracked a little. They all much better tired, especially Sevika if she’s just planning on crashing at home with these two. You nod towards the adorable child that Jinx is holding with a questioning look. “Uh- this is Isha. She’s been following me around..”

You perk up at her words, little surprised that the child would even want to be around Jinx much less, Sevika. “Well you’ve come to the right place at this point.” You look back up to Sevika and frown, still made of her absence for 2 weeks. You know she’s been busy but the on and off of leaving and not knowing when she’d come back was… tiring.

There was a long drag in the air until the microwave dinged and lingered softly before you take a deep breath.

“So, who’s hungry?” You ask with a warm smile and offering hands.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

“This is so good! I’ve missed food!” You hear Jinx whine and playfully cry out about the food while shoving it into her mouth. Isha was only copying what she was seeing from Jinx and shoveled food into her mouth as well. They both sit at the two seated round table while you and Sevika have a long chat about what exactly has been happening.

“You… can’t be serious..” you grumble as you place down the take out food on the counter and rub the bridge of your nose. You knew Sevika was deep into trouble with topside but… you didn’t think she’d fight with their little special team of enforcers, directly. You lean your weight on the counter and shake your head trying to take this all in.

“I’m still pissed at you.” You mumble before you feel a sour little smile break on your face. Sevika lets out a heavy sigh and places down her food as well.

“I know it’s not… ideal. But this is what we’re working with now.” Sevika said softly as she took a step closer and slowly cupped your face. At first you wanted to angrily pull away from her touch but then you lean into it. You’ve missed it. Her large, rough hand always so warm. It made you feel safe.

You suddenly wonder about her other arm and you look down at it. It’s currently being covered by her red poncho but you can see the childish blue and pink paint covering it. You chuckle softly and you can feel Sevika laugh softly and roll her eyes at the fact her new arm was… quite something.

This tender moment was spoken through just the mind. Between you two, a million words were said at once through one look but… it was more than enough communication from both of you. Sevika slowly places her lips on the top of your head and held you close. You sigh and finally relax in her presence. She’s finally home.

Suddenly you feel a small tug on your pants and you look down to see Isha with her empty bowl and pleading big eyes. Your heart melts at the sight and assume she was asking for more food. Poor girl must be starving still. Sevika backs up from you without a word, picks up her bowl and makes her way to the table. Probably to talk to Jinx for a bit.

“You want more?” You ask softly as you take the empty bowl with gentle hands. Isha nods immediately and so much that she almost looks like a bobble head. You laugh and pat her head before turning to the take out food packaging and poured some more into her bowl. You placed it into the microwave and started it. Isha tried to jump up on the counter to peer up into the microwave, she probably never has seen one. You chuckle and shake your head at the energetic child before scooping her up easily and holding her firmly on your hip. You turn on the light inside the microwave and you just watched Isha’s eyes glimmer as she followed the plate spinning around… and around…

Sevika was secretly watching the interaction and felt something in her slowly bloom. Seeing you like that… so warm and inviting for kids. It’s not something she really touch upon in recent days but… it’s not impossible to think about now. She felt Jinx nudge her and smirk.

“So… you think about marrying her?” Jinx cracked up at her with a grin and Sevika swears that she almost choked.

“W-what?” She sputters in disbelief but she heard the words from Jinx’s mouth. She’s not stupid and neither is Jinx. Sure Sevika thought about it. A nice spring day… far away from Zaun, you in that crisp white dress that complimented your skin so beautifully. Soft air around with flowers and sunlight… Sevika dreams about it. But only one could dream.

“You don’t have to talk about it for me to know. I’m not blind.” Jinx said in a snarky remark but in the inside she meant well. Sevika grunted quietly in reply before looking back to you and Isha. Now that the food was heated up you were passing it back to her and gently warning her that it was still hot.

Yeah… Sevika could get used to this.

[rcttencore]

wait till you hear about this next nominee: KANG JUYEONG, born on the 13th of AUGUST, 1993 and bears a striking resemblance to LEE SUNGKYUNG. they’re a FOURTH year BACHELOR OF FINANCE student and RAISED FUNDS TO BUILD THE UNIVERSITY'S FIRST CHAPEL — impressed yet? rumor has it they’re hoping to be the FINANCE DIRECTOR IN MBC, but personally, i think they should aim a little higher — something like the king’s club, for one. now, that suits them a little more, don’t you think? guess we’ll just have to see if they’ve got the talent for it in our upcoming recruitment round.

erm so hi again!! :D august, 21+, swapping one mess for another! i watched this one edit of the roy family to charli xcx's apple and i was like wow i need this canon.... fly high naeon (k*lled her off like they did with my favourite character in the boys season finale but we don't talk about that).. anyways, this is judgemental, elitist, ew poor people, miss kang juyeong! favourite granddaughter of mbc's ceo, who only gives a shit about you if you're old money rich!

super sorry to everyone i've spent the last 2 weeks plotting with, but i promise we'll brainstorm and come up with equally fun plots because she will most definitely cause drama!! ‪♡‬ like this plot for me to double-text you or just drop into your dms again!!

as always more info below!!

personality

inspo: charli xcx’s apple, the glory’s lee sara (thank U gloss for this), gen v’s cate dunlap (juyeong would be a homelander i fear), basically every member of the succession family (but mostly shiv roy’s entitlement), hints of scream queens' chanel oberlin & euphoria’s maddy  tropes: million dollar baby, the hellkite positive loyal, meticulous, articulate, cultured, protective negative pompous, hypocritical, judgemental, elitist, condescending cunt sun, whore moon, bitch rising leo sun, sag moon, leo rising

tbh shes pretty simple. just your typical snobby bitch who thinks people should just stop being poor and will tell u condescendingly about it

strong belief in maintaining a certain social order (if gatekeeping was a person, it'd be her) & extremely elitist 

she’s very big on keeping a good image for the camera (in public, at least, she’s not stupid!). all about smiling for the camera, showing your perfect self but close the doors, invite her to the king’s club, and she’ll show her true colors 

sharp tongue, has the tendency to be very dramatic (it's the leo in her)

she’s the biggest fucking hypocrite out there! she’ll act like the bible is her religion, no sin but then she’s snorting coke off some guy’s abs

but honestly, if ur in her inner circle then you’re kinda set for life. she’ll literally die for you. would go to the ends of the world for u. you ask for the moon? juyeong will get it for you. 

the kind who would provide you an alibi no matter what like ‘babe your boyfriend just called and asked where you were, i told him we were watching a movie but idk where you actually are’ vibes 

her feelings about hyungseo: she thinks he’s gaudy and tacky. although she begrudgingly accepts his presence in the king’s club, she does not like him at all!

background

she’s her grandfather’s favourite child - he thinks she’s like the second coming of jesus or something 

but in reality, it’s kind of a self-fulfilling prophecy. he puts her up on a pedestal and spoils her rotten and she’s the only person in the whole family who wholeheartedly listens and believes him & his tradition.. so it kinda works! 

most of her cousins just write it off as an old man’s rambles and their families have enough money…and her older sister is the worst offender though she gets disowned when she’s sixteen for flipping her granddad on live television and just saying some nasty shit about the church her family runs (she gets written off because she’s a teenage girl right but there is truth to her words) 

as she grows older, there are things with her grandfather’s ideology that she doesn’t necessarily subscribe to but she likes the taste of privilege too much to act otherwise 

and she has her own set of values - it’s a mix of what she believes from the bible & what she’s been raised up with. do they contradict sometimes? yes! does juyeong really care? no, not at all! her moral code is whatever she believes to be

but one thing she keeps with her is that u should only trust and respect the generationally wealthy <3 the inner circle of the top 1% is life <3 family name is everything to her!

even with the king’s club, she got in via having connections who vouched for her and just generally made the rituals/ life easier lol 

she thought being in the king’s club would mean being with like-minded individuals but little did she know… people get in on the merit of hard work too! and not just their family names! ew! 

post grad, she’s working in mbc as a finance director (nepo baby vibes) 

her family is also going through shit after the whistleblower ratted them out for embezzlement and they’re going through Serious Investigations and… let’s just say juyeong is practicing escapism heavily (read: she’s pretending nothing is wrong)

plots

we can brainstorm but just some high level stuff! 

her inner circle please <3

people who have blackmail on her !!! like your family’s fucked. u want to make it worse for them? 

also people she does not respect and just has a general antagonistic relationship with !!

omg pls give me people who think her penance is due!! like she used to tell them to fuck right off because they were new money or whatever and now, your muse is like “who’s fucking laughing now?” [jojo siwa vc] karma’s a bitch

someone related to the plot, did something fucked up to hyungseo and juyeong saw but she’s taking it to the fucking grave bc she considers u a friend ~

juyeong fucks a someone she thinks isn't worthy of being in the king's club - alternatively, juyeong falls in love with someone she doesn't think should be in the king's club ^__^

[redbelles]

twenty questions for fic writers

tagged by: the wonderful @carry-the-sky 💖

1. how many works do you have on ao3?

51

2. what's your total ao3 word count?

245,595

3. what fandoms do you write for?

i don't ever really abandon old fandoms, but so far 2024 has been all berserk (nothing posted yet, unforch) and masters of the air

4. top five fics by kudos

like a heartbeat drives you mad

the dreadful need in the devotee

and my body found the wind

stuck in colder weather

all the love you need

5. do you respond to comments?

yes! it may take me a hundred million years, but i appreciate each and every comment i get, and i often go back to them for a little jolt of "hey, people actually like your writing!" motivation when i'm stuck

6. what is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

lmao uh. known angst goblin meg redbelles here, but i honestly didn't have to do much work to the canon endings of robert baratheon (the clouds will form a crown) or judas iscariot (in the violence of our dreams) to make them even more horrifically angsty, so. one of those, probably!

7. what's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

i don't tend to go for out and out happy endings—i prefer bittersweet—but i feel like the answer is either the mercy wheel, which fixes dany’s gabarge season eight character arc, or tongue’s talkin’ riddles (sticky sweet), which gives chrissy and eddie a mostly happy future together instead of horrible deaths in deeply cursed hawkins

and! for what it's worth! the chimneys hardly ever fall down is going to end on a happy note! they're just going to have to Suffer a lot to get there! it's fine!

8. do you get hate on fics?

nope

9. do you write smut?

me, currently 3k into a m/m/f threesome scene:

10. craziest crossover:

i enjoy spitballing about crossovers, but i doubt very seriously that i'll ever write one

11. have you ever had a fic stolen?

not that i'm aware of, no

12. have you ever had a fic translated?

i've had offers before, but i've declined every time; they all wanted to host the translations outside of AO3, which is not something i'm comfortable with

13. have you ever co-written a fic before?

yep! keep calling me home is a really fun little round robin fic i wrote with three other authors a couple years ago

14. all time favorite ship?

i can't read suddenly.gif

15. what's a wip you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

shUT UP!!!!! I'M GONNA FINISH ALL MY WIPS!!!!!! SHUT UP!!!!! LEAVE ME ALONE!!!!!

16. what are your writing strengths?

imagery, emotion, themes, dialogue

17. what are your writing weaknesses?

plot? never heard of her. also, i feel like i still suck at writing humor

18. thoughts on dialogue in another language?

to crib from a previous answer: unless you speak the language, it gets real dicey real fast. i personally avoid it unless a) it’s a canonical term/phrase, like all the faux-russian bullshit in the grisha trilogy, or b) i can check the grammar/usage with a native speaker or someone who is solidly fluent

19. first fandom you wrote in?

[redacted] way back ages ago on [redacted]

20. favorite fic you've written?

recency bias talking here, but i am so, so, so fond of the chimneys hardly ever fall down; i challenged myself to write the first chapter as one continuous scene (i feel like i sometimes abuse scene breaks to heighten tension), and honestly i think i nailed it. also, this sequence:

Maybe he is drunk. That would make sense. He’s going to wake up and find himself alone at the bottom of a bottle. Back in the cold blue, Fort shot to shit and tumbling from the sky like a wounded bird, trailing fire and screaming as she falls. Maybe he won’t wake up at all— maybe he’s dead in a potato field, a ghost who never made it back in the first place. His heart can’t fucking take it.

like, i'm sorry, but that's brutal! and i am so proud of it!

tagging: @sluttyhenley @littlelindentree @oatflatwhite @meyerlansky @ladywaffles

@charmtion @anthropologicalhands @jacyevans @thatworldinverted @thatgirlnevershutsup

and anyone elso who wants a go ✨

[internerdionality]

20 Questions for FanFic Authors

Tagged by @dragonmuse, thank you! 🥰

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

39. I've been publishing since 2020, so a relative newbie, and I apparently can't write actual short works to save my life. I'm looking forward to hitting 50 fics, maybe even before the end of the this year, although that might be overly optimistic.

2. What’s your total AO3 word count?

817,200. Also looking forward to hitting a million! I started writing fanfic in part because of Diane Duane's post about the first million words being for practice, but I've realized as I've gone that fanfic is also just more fun in a lot of ways than original work, because it's lower stakes and more silliness and really all about the community.

3. What fandoms do you write for?

Mainly Our Flag Means Death and the DC universe. I have a long crossover plotted out in the Slayerverse but I haven't published any of it yet, and one fic (I think my shortest) that I wrote to expiate my feels for the fourth Matrix movie. Oh! And a few Good Omens, only one published so far.

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

What Do You Do With a Drunken Sailor? , Our Flag Means Death, Izzy/Everyone + Canon Pairings. I started writing this one literally the night after I finished watching the show in late April 2022 and managed to hit the wave of gay pirate frenzy as the fandom was born. I swear I'll finish it. 😅

A Fucking Duel, Our Flag Means Death, endgame SteddyHands with some strong Sprizzy side-action. This started out as crack, again very early in the gay pirate brainrot, and then turned novella size on me when I wasn't looking.

To Err is Human, to Purr is Batman. DC. Shades of SuperBat but mostly Bat-Family focused. I turn Bruce Wayne into a cat. Pure fluff.

Mutually Beneficial. DC, SuperBat. Classic identity porn romcom with a sugar daddy twist. Nonbinary Clark Kent. My first fanfic on AO3!

Soaked to the Skin. Our Flag Means Death, Sprizzy with a side of BlackHands, my take on how things would go for the Revenge right after the first season ended, doesn't include any of the characters who weren't on the ship during SO1E10. Double the length of any other fic I've ever written!

5. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

Always! I am a praise-gremlin and treasure every comment I receive. I also include answering comments in my total word count for the day (I made a resolution during the HHD 5781-82 to write more, and while it took me a little bit to get started, I have written at least 250 words a day since mid-December 2021). So answering comments often gets me pumped for writing more fic!

6. What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

Disregarding the prequels in the big dark vampire romp (which aren't really standalone) probably a tie between the surprise twists at the ends of Untethered and Gently in the Night? Both fics end happily but then have a little angsty setup for the sequel at the very end.

7. What’s the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

Definitely Mutually Beneficial. Most of my fics end happily but I usually try to leave them somewhat open without doing a lot of epilogueish kind of things. MB was an exception where I wrote two fluffy epilogues with lots of romance and sex because I didn't want to leave my boys! Although honestly now when I think back on it I think it would have been a stronger work if I'd ended it right after the climax and posted the fluffy epilogues as separate works.

8. Do you get hate on fics?

There was this one unregistered user who went through all my SuperBat fics and engaged in this long comment thread where he accused me of not liking Clark Kent? (Which, almost all my DC fics have Clark as the protagonist, I adore him, so). It was very surreal. I eventually just deleted it every time they'd write a new comment and they stopped after like two or three of those.

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

Lots of smut! It's actually just in the past year that I've stretched myself to write more Gen-ish fics with WDYDWADS and TEIH, and it somewhat surprised me that those became my two most popular fics in their respective fandoms.

As far as what kind, I really try to diversify but the strongest commonalities tend to be strong power dynamics, bondage, pain-play, and consent-play, with my darkest stuff going hard into noncon. I have fluid squicks so I tend to avoid anything in that area.

10. Do you write crossovers? What’s the craziest one you’ve written?

The only one I have published is the Our Flag Means Death/Pirates of the Caribbean (which seems pretty obvious, I'm honest surprised there isn't more). I have the whole arc plotted out where the vampire!DCU series is going to branch out into the Slayerverse. Hopefully I'll actually write it one of these days.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not that I'm aware of. I don't go looking, but my works aren't crazy popular, either.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

A couple! I'm always really honored. 🥰 Many thanks to people who labor for fandom.

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

I did a long entirely cowritten canonized fiction for Steve Stirling's Emberverse—it's published on his site, not AO3, and under my real name, so don't go looking! (Nah, JK, I won't link it but I don't care if people figure it out).

And then I wrote this companion piece to Rimbaud's Give Pearls Away and Rubies. I had nothing to do with his piece, but he consulted heavily on mine. And Dragonmuse and I starting workshopping a Dragonriders of Pern pastiche that we might finish one of these days. 🤣

14. What’s your all time favorite ship?

Can I say the grumpy one is soft for the sunshine one? It's the platonic ideal of a ship, really... 😂

Otherwise I really don't have one, I'm too poly for that. Even the ships I'm most feral about, I'll ship any of them with other people.

15. What’s a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

I won't say the DCU/Slayerverse crossover because I refuse to doubt that I'll finish it one day. So let's go with the JLA bad orgy crack—I actually posted on that one that it should be considered abandoned. I still love the idea but I kinda just ran out of steam.

16. What are your writing strengths?

Exposition, worldbuilding, delving into character emotions. Metaphors and whimsy.

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

Having actual plots. Action scenes. Actually finishing/ending anything.

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic?

I speak enough French and Hebrew to do either of those (and have).

I've done a very little Spanish for Jim from OFMD, but I tend to just copy actual stuff that they've said in canon. I do have a Puerto Rican friend that I've leaned on occasionally, but she's busy and I don't want to make it her job to constantly write dialogue for me so I usually try to avoid it.

19. First fandom you wrote for?

Define "wrote." 😂

When I was a teenager I plotted out long self-insert fixits for Star Trek, Harry Potter (look, even then the only thing I wanted to do in that verse was fix its many sins), X-Files, Stargate, and Buffy. I never wrote any of them down, though, just enjoyed the daydreaming.

Well, I lie, I did actually write about 60K eventually in an original novel that was based on some of the dynamics I'd created in the HP one, but that's the only one I ever got out on paper and it was altered enough that its origin was pretty unrecognizable.

If we're counting published anywhere, it's Stirling's Emberverse.

20. Favorite fic you’ve written?

Soaked to the Skin. I'm honestly so proud of the actual! plot! in that one, the narrative flow, the emotional arcs, and like. the fact that I actually finished it. Even now a year later, every time I get a comment or kudo on that fic it sends this thrill of happiness up my spine.

Tagging (only if you want it), @thetardigrape, @sunless-garden, and @jupitermelichios.

[redrisingsun]

Swedish Holidays for all your Young Royals needs

Due to popular demand (by like five people) here’s a brief description of all the major Swedish holidays and how they’re celebrated because I can’t stand here and pretend as if we really celebrate Christmas the 25th. We have more holidays, I've only written about the ones we celebrate in my family. I come from a working class family and live in Southern Sweden, however I do have family in Stockholm. I'm not religious in any way and as far as I know, most families don't celebrate these holidays because they're religious, but because it's tradition.

yall better appreciate this, it took me literal hours

January

1: Dubbed as one of the collective pizza days in my household. It's the day after New Year, and most people either order in or eat leftovers.

Week 2 or 3: Most people return to their jobs, schools and other daily activities.

February/March

Fettisdagen ("Fat Tuesday"): celebrated 47 days before Easter. The actual date varies, all from early February to early March. It's an old Christian tradition where you'd eat fatty foods before the "before Easter"-fast and is supposedly a thing in other Christian countries as well. These days, most people celebrate by eating semlor with their family, and most don't fast before Easter.

The semla is a sweet bun with whipped cream and almond paste.

Våffeldagen (Waffle Day, 25th of March): I think this day stems from a Christian tradition, but these days the day is mostly to get together with family and eat waffles.

April

Påsk (Easter): Again, the date varies, but Easter is usually in April. Easter stems from Christianity and is celebrated to remember Jesus' death and resurrection. Easter spans over a week, but I personally only celebrate one of those days.

Påskafton (direct translation: Easter Eve, English translation: Holy Saturday) is the Saturday of the Easter week. In my family, the children get to look for Easter eggs (often filled with candy).

Some children also dress up as Påskkärringar (Easter crones) and I think this tradition has to do with the Witch Trials in Sweden, but I'm not sure. Chances are you won't need to know anything about this for your Young Royal fics, because mostly girls dress up.

Sometimes, we decorate eggs.

Later, we sit down to eat together and spend time with our families. Common things to eat for Easter is potatoes, eggs, herring and meatballs.

Valborgsmässoafton (Walpurgis Night, 30th): We burn a big bonfire in the evening to celebrate that spring is here. I live in a fairly small town, so mostly everyone gathers at one spot and burns the fire together. When the bonfire is burned, most people go home and that's it. It's also seen as a reason to have a party (mostly for teenagers and young adults, I think) and get drunk as fuck.

May/June

Sveriges Nationaldagen (Sweden's National Day, 6th of June): Most people are home from school and work. We hoist the Swedish flag. Idk. However, the Royal Family celebrates by getting dressed up in Swedish costumes. This year, the King held a speech and the family went to Skansen (which is an amusement park/zoo. You can read more about it here). There's music and the military does their weird little thing. You can watch the National Day Celebration on Skansen from 2014 here.

Midsommarafton (Midsummer): date varies, but is celebrated a Friday in late June. I'm sure there's a Christian explanation for this one, but I don't personally know it.

Midsommar (midsummer) means middle of the summer.

Again, this is a day to eat and spend time with your family (or drink, depending on who you are). We eat pretty much the same things for Midsummer as we do for Easter.

For Midsummer we also dance around a Midsommarstång (direct translation: Midsummer Pole, English translation: Maypole) and make flower crowns.

How Midsummer is celebrated depends a lot on your age (most teenagers and young adults again see this as a reason to party), where you're from and a million other things.

My personal favorite Midsummer tradition is probably more common in the country than in the city, for example. You're supposed to pick seven different flowers without saying a word. Then, you sleep with the flowers under your pillow. Supposedly, you'll dream of your future husband (or wife! But I think it's more common that women and girls do this). This tradition also varies. Some people say you need nine flowers and some people say you have to climb over fencing for it to count.

Some teenagers or young adults spend time with their friends to party, instead!

You can watch part of a Midsummer celebration at Skansen here.

The Royal Family usually celebrate Midsummer privately, but I think there's usually new pictures of the entire family around this time.

Day after Midsummer: Collective Pizza Day 2. Everyone either eats takeout or leftovers because no one can be bothered to make anything and like half of the population has the worst hangover they've had since New Year.

Summer Holiday Note: most people in Sweden have four weeks of paid leave each summer.

July/August

Kräftpremiär (Crayfish party) - date varies, normally early August. Basically people get together to eat crayfish and drink. You can usually get paper plates and plastic cups and whatever with ugly crayfish motives (which is fun), but I've never done this.

October

Halloween (30th): Halloween is nowhere near as big in Sweden as it is in the States. We just buy some lösgodis ("loose candy", where you can throw whatever kind of candy you want in a bag. See pictures). Trick or treat is so unusual in the town I grew up I've only ever had one kid ask for candy and when I celebrated Halloween with my grandparents (in a city not far from Stockholm), it was the same. I usually buy some candy and watch a horror movie, but that's about it.

However, Halloween is (again) a reason for teenagers and young adults to drink and party.

November

Alla Helgons Dag (All Saints' Day): Date varies, usually early November. It's a day to remember the dead and we usually light a candle at the grave yard.

December

Första Advent (First Advent): Date varies. Sunday four weeks from Christmas Eve. We mostly just light a candle, honestly. Then, each Sunday for the next four weeks, we light a candle. Here's actually the Crown Princess wishing Happy First Advent with her family! Unfortunately without English subtitles, but here's the translation: "Today is the First Advent. Advent means arrival and hope, something that feels extra important this year. (her husband lights the candle) We want to wish everyone a happy first advent!"

Andra Advent (Second Advent): date varies. We light the second candle.

Tredje Advent (Third Advent): date varies. We light the third candle.

Fjärde Advent (Fourth Advent): date varies. We light the fourth candle. In my family we usually decorate the tree this Sunday.

Julafton (Christmas Eve): Celebrated the 24th. YES, THE 24TH. Christmas Eve obviously varies from family to family, but there's a few things most people have in common. Usually, we get one gift in our sock (which hangs on our bedroom doors in my home, because we don't have a mantle) when we wake up. As kids me and my brother almost always got a movie or something to keep us busy until it was time to leave for our grandparents house.

For lunch we eat the Christmas dinner. It's the same damned food as our other holidays. Herring, meatballs, potatoes, sausages etc, but now, we also have julskinka (Christmas ham). Some people eat ham even for Easter, but we only really eat it for Christmas in my family. Obviously the food varies a little from season to season, but as a picky eater I always just eat potatoes, meatballs and ham.

At 3, Kalle Anka (Donald Duck) is on. Yeah, we watch the same damned stuff every year. It's tradition, alright? Anyway, Donald Duck lasts for an hour or so, and first you get to see Santa work in his workshop, then Disney characters wish you a Merry Christmas with scenes from their movies (original, I know). There's Lady and the Tramp, Donald Duck (obviously) and a million other things. Then there's also one or two trailers for movies Disney will release the coming year. I really couldn't be bothered to find everything on YouTube for you to watch, sorry!

After Donald Duck, we open the Christmas gifts in my family. Normally we just rip out gifts open lmao.

After opening the gifts, we usually eat a second time. This time it's time for porridge. Tomtegröt (Santa porridge) is sweet and often served with cinnamon. Usually, everyone is so stuffed at this point that you only eat because you "have" to eat porridge for Christmas (again, at least in my family).

The last thing we do in my family, is to get a puzzle out. My grandpa almost always gets a new puzzle for Christmas, so we'll put that on the dining table and work on it together until it's getting too late for us to stay.

The Royal Family usually release new pictures of the family for Christmas and wish everyone a Merry Christmas.

Day after Christmas: Not a collective pizza day! There's usually too much Christmas food left to be able to order pizza. Usually, we have Christmas food to eat for four-ish days after Christmas, and by then you're getting really tired of it.

Sometimes we watch something on television, but for the most part we just sit around and spend time together. I think the Crown Princess read something from the Bible this year? I'm not actually sure if the Royal Family go to the Christmas Service, but I don't think so.

Nyårsafton (New Year's Eve): last day of the year. We shoot fireworks, eat food and dessert and spend time with family. This day we normally eat something "fancy" or something you we don't usually eat.

At twelve, we go out to light some fireworks (or just watch fireworks). When that dies down, it's time for the cheese platter. My dad wants it, no one else ever eats from it, we still do it every single year because "it's not New Year's without it". When we've had the cheese platter, everyone go to sleep and that's that.

People obviously celebrate this differently, as well. It's not uncommon to go see your friends or have guests over, and some people party rather than have fancy dinner with their parents. I personally prefer spending time with my parents, because that's what New Year's is for me.

Some people give resolutions, but I think it's more common in the States.

Christmas Holiday Note: It's common for people to not work between Christmas and New Year's Eve where I'm from.

Some things you might want to know about the Swedish Royal Family and Sweden overall:

The Royal Family in Young Royals is not the real Royal Family (obviously).

The Royal Family usually spends time on Öland during the summers.

Chances are Wilhelm and his family live at Drottningholm Slott (Drottningholm Palace) and not Stockholm Slott (Stockholm Palace). Drottningholm is used as a home for the current King and Queen and is located west of Stockholm. However, the scenes where Wilhelm is home is shot at a palace called Stora Sundby Slott. I doubt Wilhelm and his family would live here if they were the actual Royal Family since it's used as a place for people to gather when they want to hunt for sport. However, if they truly live at Stora Sundby, it takes almost two hours to drive from Stockholm to the castle.

Bjärstad is AT LEAST two hours away from Stockholm.

Bjärstad to Stora Sundby Castle takes approximately an hour and a half by car, and between nine and twelve hours by bus. Which means these two boys can't just take a twenty minute bus to see each other.

Bjärstad to Drottningholm takes a little over two hours by car and four-ish hours by bus.

Bjärstad to Stockholm Slott takes over two hours by car and three and a half hours by bus.

Hillerska is shot at Kaggeholms Slott (Kaggeholm Palace), and is a hotel.

The age of consent in Sweden is 15, HOWEVER it's illegal to have sex with someone four or more years younger than you if you're not both over the age of 18. Let me illustrate: -Person A is 15 and Person B is 15. It's legal because both are 15. -Person A is 15 and Person B is 20. It's illegal, because there's a five year old gap between them. -Person A is 15 and Person B is 18. It's legal (but probably frowned upon), because they're both 15 or older and there's not a four year gap between them. -Person A is 18 and Person B is 30. It's legal, because both are 18 or older. Idk if this makes sense or if this is what it looks like anymore, but this is what it was like when I still went to school. Obviously people aren't going to run around and call you names if you happen to date someone four years younger than you (I know a girl who met a guy when she was 14 and he was over 20), but please, be mindful of this. Our age of consent doesn't give you a right to be weird and nasty to teenagers (yes, I'm talking about Edvin).

Also, the Royal Family have their own website, which you can find here. As far as I can see, there's more information on the Swedish page, but there's plenty translated to English. You can also read of the Swedish Royal Family and its history on the palaces's website, here.

All pictures have been taken straight from Google. I haven't used any sources, because this is shit I do every single year with my family. Feel free to correct me or add things you do, but keep it respectful, please!

Friendly reminder that I've simplified some parts of this to make sense, specifically the dates of the Advent celebrations.

If there's anything you don't understand or want more information on, you're welcome to contact me! I take pretty long to reply, but I'll definitely try to get back to you as soon as possible. Thank you!

[thefatlannister]

You can respond to this privately or DM so it doesn't wind up in the tags. This is kind of a random question so forgive me. So, I've been doing a season 3 rewatch and I just landed on the episode where O beats the hell out of Bellamy and I was wondering, what if the situation was reversed? What if O got Clarke killed, would Bellamy have reacted the same way that she did?

Nah I don’t mind answering out in the open. What I have to say isn’t about character hate, it’s about the writers and pointing out the ignorant and, frankly, gross things that went into writing this scene in such an astonishingly un-self-aware way.

First of all, the answer to your questions is “no.” No, never, absolutely not, never in a million years, it never would have crossed the writers’ minds nor would it have crossed ours. Bellamy would never abuse Octavia physically, and it would never be written into the script. And those are 2 separate reasons - it completely contravenes everything about Bellamy’s character to suggest that he could lay a hand on the person he was compelled to physically protect since a young age, AND the writers would never have written an abuse scene where an older brother beats his younger sister, because it would have been completely unforgivable and disgusting. WHICH brings me to the discussion of the original scene.

My thoughts are below the cut. Abuse tw, obviously. And I don’t blame you for not wanting to read this because you’d rather pretend this scene never happened. I’m with you! Spare yourself. As for me, this ask triggered some Thoughts, so here we go...

Okay, so I think it’s really important to look at the Blake Abuse scene (and any scene in general) on multiple levels, as I hinted at above. First: from a character perspective. Is it in character? Does it make sense for the character? Second: From a narrative perspective. Does this scene work in the narrative? Is it earned and is the aftermath dealt with in a satisfying way? And, finally, Third: From a real-world writing perspective. As we know, TV does not exist in a vacuum, and writers bring their real-life biases, prejudice, etc. to their writing. In my opinion, responsible writing interrogates itself to prevent perpetuating tropes and racist/sexist/other “ist” writing. So let’s examine the Blake Abuse scene on these 3 levels.

1. The character perspective

Admittedly, this is a largely subjective level. One can easily make the argument that Octavia shouldn’t or wouldn’t have done that, but ultimately, I fall into the camp where I think that it is definitely plausible that, knowing what we do of the Blakes, this scene could go down like this. I don’t think it /had/ to, and I think it does derail where I was hoping Octavia’s arc was taking her (read: AWAY from abuser-ville), but it is definitely not outside the realm of possibility as far as her character goes.

Bellamy was Octavia’s ONLY real emotional outlet for sixteen years. Her joy, her pain, her frustration, sadness, humor, imagination, and anger was channeled at and through him. And Bellamy happily takes on that burden; his sister has no access to the outside, and so if the side affect of helping to socialize her is always taking the brunt of her emotions, so be it. This dynamic is part of the Blakes’ core codependency that makes them so dysfunctional in season 1. One of the sad parts about season 3, however, is that it seemingly undid all the progress that the Blakes made in s2, where Bellamy learned to respect her independence, and Octavia reaffirmed that he will always be her family.

Jroth apparently decided to throw all that development in the trash, however, once he realized he was going to write Ricky off the show for petty offscreen reasons. And so Lincoln’s death sets Octavia back months as far as her development - maybe even years - into the emotional equivalent of the fetal position. Meaning that, thrust back into an extremely emotionally vulnerable state, Octavia reverts to using Bellamy as her sole emotional outlet. Except that on the ground, Octavia has learned to express herself using violence, too, so that “emotional outlet” has now become a literal punching bag.

People act like Octavia beat up Bellamy because she blames him for Lincoln’s death - and I do think the fact that he was tangential to it made this possible - but ultimately this was less about dealing blame or some sick kind of justice and more about Octavia throwing a tantrum and channeling it all at her oldest, most reliable target. One who she knows wouldn’t ever fight back, even if he wasn’t chained to literal rock and one who, in this moment, she can comfortable link with Lincoln’s death. 

And by the way, me explaining what makes this scene not out of the realm of possibility for Octavia does not equal me thinking it’s not gross so don’t even go there lol. So basically, yeah - this scene is arguably in character, as in, it’s not a hard leap to make for her. 

The secondary (though perhaps less important to my overall point) element of characterization in this scene is Bellamy. I believe it is 100% absolutely in character for Bellamy to “allow” this beating to happen.* First of all, he’s a masochist, and this is an opportunity to receive a physical beating equal to the emotional one he has been giving himself and will continue to give himself through 3b. Mostly, however, Bellamy sees Octavia in this moment as “needing” this outlet - because of how they grew up, he recognizes immediately where she’s at and understands that wailing on him will give her relief of some kind. And Bellamy, fucked up by his childhood as he is, thinks that if he is giving Octavia something that she “needs,” it cannot possibly be wrong. Especially when it only comes at a cost to him - her needs have always, unquestionably come before his.

*I just want to note here that Bellamy only “allows” Octavia to beat him in the sense that his fucked up understanding of himself, his own culpability, and his relationship with his sister make him think this is ok/he deserves this. His “allowing” Octavia to do this is not some form of full consent that people can use to brush off the ugly implications of this scene - which unfortunately I have seen done. “Free and informed consent” is NOT a standard that can be applied to abuse, ever (not would it even be applicable in this situation). End note.*

So, ultimately, we the audience can see how wrong and fucked up Bellamy’s response to Octavia is, but I still think that it is in character. 3x10 is the most violent and twisted and horrible manifestation of the Blakes’ relationship possible, but I still think it can be justified as “in character.”

So let’s jump to level 2.

2. The narrative perspective

So this section will probably be short because in a way I think whether a scene works narratively is a combo of level 1 and level 3, and I’m talking about them in depth. 

I will say though, that it’s really hard to tell if this scene works narratively because season 3′s narrative, especially before and around the midseason transition, is so fucking convoluted and, at times, just plain bad. We obviously know how terrible Bellamy’s 3a arc was, and that’s a hard thing to separate from this scene. Like, if Bellamy had been well-written up through 3x10 - even if they had kept elements of the Pike arc, or devoted enough screentime to explaining it - I think there would have been little to no reason for the audience or the narrative (or Octavia) to blame him for Lincoln’s death, since clearly that was something that Bellamy never wanted. But instead, we went into this scene with half the audience salivating for some kind of revenge, and Bellamy seemed like the best target since the narrative hadn’t really given him the time or space to argue his 3a case. But I digress - back to the narrative itself.

I think the narrative problems with this scene have less to do with the scene itself and more to do with the preceding episode and the scene’s aftermath. As in, it was sloppy writing to have to tie Bellamy up in 3x09 in order to have him chained at the beginning of 3x10 - I’m not sure it was narratively earned that no one trusted that Bellamy didn’t want Lincoln to DIE enough to let him help with their escape plan. But anyway - bygones, right? I’m not trying to dive into the minefield of “what percentage of Lincoln’s death is Bellamy responsible for” here lol.

And as far as the scene’s aftermath, it’s been pointed out before but it’s worth repeating: it makes zero narrative sense that Bellamy remains tied up and “the enemy” after Kane and company have re-accepted Bryan and Monty back into the fold. I suspect that this narrative wrinkle is meant to both 1) set up Clarke as the first person who “forgives” Bellamy and 2) possibly to make Octavia’a beating more about “””justice””” and less about her reversion to emotional infancy. So, when it comes to (2) especially, this scene has some narrative deficiencies. 

Overall, however, the problems with this scene do not stem from its place in the narrative.

3. A “should I write this” and “how should I write this” perspective

Okay, so here’s where we get to part where I can barely keep my mf hat on.

Just because a scene is in character or could work narratively does NOT mean you should write it!!!!!!!!!!! As much as the 100 writers wish that their special snowflake writing was not impacted by their own real-word biases and as much as they wish that everyone watching could just shrug off their lived experiences or their oppression or their triggers or their, you know, awareness of anything happening in the world around them, THAT IS NOT THE CASE. Stories have weight, and impact, and when you as a writer do not interrogate your own writing or what you are putting onscreen, you are a) going to tell bad stories and b) going to be part of the The Problem (The Problem being perpetuating various forms of social oppression).

And look, this isn’t a censorship argument. The 100 delves into a lot of deep/controversial topics, and sometimes it drops the ball and sometimes it doesn’t. The way I see it, you can think about the Octavia Abuse scene in 2 ways. One - the scene remains in the show and its treated, explicitly and seriously, like the instance of abuse that it is. Two - you don’t! write! the mf! scene!

Because the Octavia abuse scene is ostensibly in character and not a complete aberration narrative-wise, the writers could have written this absolutely devastating scene if they were serious about taking on the issue of abuse. In doing so, however, they would have had to consciously give up on having the audience “root” for Octavia for a long while, until perhaps she could “earn” some type of redemption. They could have had other characters react more violently to the scene in front of them, instead of shrugging it off as “a family thing,” they could have had Clarke ask about it and call Octavia out, they could have - through whatever character they wanted - pointed out that Octavia using violence to deal with her feelings/relationship problems was becoming a disturbing pattern (with Lincoln, then with Indra, then with Bellamy). 

Some might argue that this treatment in present in Octavia’s 3b arc. And yes, I am glad the show acknowledged Octavia’s burgeoning darkness by making her do “wrong” things in 3b and 4a, but their was WAY too much ambiguity in 3x10 and beyond regarding whether Octavia’s beating of Bellamy was the beginning of that very problematic turn or whether that was a one-off okay “just a sibling thing” dealing out “”justice”” after Lincoln died. And I know the argument is out there that “we don’t need the narrative to hand-feed us these messages” and yeah, that’s true - I’m a meta hoe and I don’t need to be hand held - but that argument falls by the wayside when, written in the script, the man who literally played the moral center of reason in 3a turned away from a scene of abuse with the thought “it’s a family thing.” The fact that the show did a terrible fucking job framing that scene is also apparent in the audience’s reaction - a huge portion of which was celebratory. Idk about anyone else, but I don’t think 50% of people out there are abuse apologists; no, the narrative set them up to feel Bellamy’s beating as cathartic, even deserved. The bottom line is, the writers had no idea how serious that scene was, and that was clear in the utter failure of the writing to satisfyingly or responsibly address it.

Now for the second level of bias that went woefully uninterrogated: Bellamy is the third person of color who shares a personal relationship with Octavia whom she has hit. A LOT has been said on this topic, so I really don’t feel the need to rehash it all here, but - this is the sign of a nearly all-white writers room that is so unwilling to believe that they, Good Liberal Whites, could possibly write a story that is racist. As we all (should) know, it is VERY easy, and practically unavoidable for us white people, to unintentionally perpetuate harmful tropes or write a racist story!! Checking yourself is necessary!! Hiring diverse writers rooms is necessary! Noticing and avoiding having a white girl hit 3 different poc in her story in an attempt to correct their behavior is necessary! Checking themselves, especially on the “how does this play on the racial level?” perspective is something that the 100 writers need to improve on, and is one more unexamined harmful element of the Blake Abuse scene.

Finally, finally, finally, to get to the part of your question, Abby, that sparked this whole rant in the first place. This scene is so deeply steeped in gender bias that it’s irremovable from how we view the scene, in my opinion (*note here* for everything I say going forward, assume this is compounded by and intersected by Octavia and Bellamy’s respective races, because that’s how these things work. I’m mostly focusing on gender in this section but if anyone has any thoughts about the intersectionality here please feel free to add). Had that scene been reversed, and Bellamy had beaten Octavia until he was too tired to raise his fist (hell, if he’d even hit her ONCE), I really can’t imagine the audience OR the narrative daring to treat it as anything other than totally horrifying and inexcusable abuse. 

Had this scene occurred the other way around, we would not have been subjected to “well, did she deserve it?” or “he was hurting!” or “well it is her fault X is dead.” I don’t think there would have been any pushback on calling Bellamy’s actions as wrong, as disgusting, as inexcusable. I think because of this, the writers never would have written the scene the other way around - because to have Bellamy abuse Octavia, that would be unforgivable. But, clearly, having it the other way around isn’t.

This isn’t just the 100 writers’ fault either. There’s a double standard that exists across the entire industry (TV, books, movies) now, I think, where a certain type of White Feminism is being exercised where (especially white) girls being violent is empowering. To a certain extent, having women be physically capable, be able to defend themselves, be able to excel in a masculine-coded field like fighting is a feminist pursuit (and, speaking as a bi girl, can be hot as hell!). But it has, I think, often been twisted into this kind of gross justification to excuse badass women doing terrible things because it’s a badass trope-breaking woman doing it. And this isn’t a problem because I don’t think people should stan “problematic characters” - absolutely not. This is a problem because the violence of these women is not treated as problematic at all, or condemned at all - in fact it’s seen as “progressive.” The second (huge) problem is that this rule really only appears to apply to badass white women. And I think the 100 pretty clearly falls into this trap with Octavia (and several other characters I can think of). Whereas the show normally tries very hard to show the good and bad (mostly the bad) of violence and war, Octavia gets somewhat of a free pass, because ~feminism.*

*Note: this is a problem of both writing and fandom response, I think.

So now that I’ve basically failed to hold myself back from an indictment of the entire tv/movie industry as whole doing a shitty job moving past flimsy, one-dimensional, white feminism, let me get back to my original point, and your original question: No, Bellamy would not have reacted in the same way as Octavia were the situation reversed, nor would that scene have ever been written, for more reasons than one.

Moving forward, I remain extremely disappointed with the execution and lack of self-awareness that was present in the writing of that scene. It’s been a personal struggle for me, as someone who LOVED the Blakes, and always liked Octavia, to reconcile the scene with the show going forward, especially since it seems like this show will never address that scene in the way it deserved. Because I love this show and these characters, and because I don’t think the writers know that they were essentially normalizing, or condoning, abuse, (although intent really shouldn’t be an excuse), I am choosing to try to let go of the past and judge the characters based on the writing going forward, in the hopes that the writers may have learned from their past mistakes. Honestly, I don’t blame anyone for having an intense reaction to this scene- your reaction and your choices are your own and I can only speak to mine. 

I’m truly sorry if you made it to the end of this meta, I didn’t realize I was holding all these feelings back. Writing about this scene was a cathartic experience, though, and I suddenly feel more ready for the baptismal cleanse of s4 than ever before.