#if i didn't @ an author it's because i don't know their tumblr handle

[eclarinet]

same soup... different day

[xoxo-ren-xoxo]

Hermitcraft / Life Series Fic Recs

Because I love so many of them...

I'll split the fics into completed and updating fics, and try to only recommend currently updating fics (i.e., not abandoned). I'm going to write a little about why I like each fic and what the general vibes are - so this is also a kind of review I guess?

I've tried to @ the authors if they have a public tumblr. Sorry to anyone who didn't want to be tagged, I can remove any @ if you ask (or if I have embarrassingly tagged the wrong person). Anyway, enjoy, and I appreciate reblogs because I want as many people to see these fics as possible!!

This ended up being incredibly long so I'm putting a divider here. Click to keep reading!!! Also, fair warning: shipping ahead! Some fics will have mild sexual content, please read the tags if you are unsure <3

Updating Fics

I have already recommended Help Me To Breathe, lost in the dark (he's got a heavy heart), and There Are Monsters Nearby in this post, so I won't explain why I like them a second time, but definitely check them out!!

Death's A Good Gig by @mawofthemagnetar is probably going to be finished by the time this post gets to you, reader, but I'm putting it here anyway. It's short and sweet, one of my favourite representations of Zedaph (or, Zedeath) I've read, and just a joy to experience. If you like grim reapers and discussions of unions, this one is for you. Also I need more Zedaph in my life.

Look, I'm Sorry, Please Stop Scaring Everyone by @cat-in-the-desert reminds me a lot of a particular TV drama I liked when I was younger, which followed a similar premise. This fic follows Mumbo (vampire) and Grian (ghost) as they get up to various housemate shenanigans and meet their local magic-expert and salesman Scar. This fic is fun, but still includes a nice amount of Feelings and hinted-at Angst which I really love. It's lighthearted, but never boring.

It Hurts To Hope by Inquillitory is my favourite of the "Grian crash lands into Hermitcraft and causes problems for everyone" genre. Seeing how many fics there are with that premise, I think that says a lot. It handles Grian's weird Watcher stuff really well. Honestly, I just want to know what happens next!

killing the boy in the tv by @raspberrystruck is like a sickfic on steroids. If you want Grian with so much past trauma he forgets how to function in society, this is basically the fic for you. I really love how hybrid traits affect the characters' interactions in this fic, and how everyone is kind of messed up because of the imbalance Grian brings. It is wonderfully descriptive in all the right places!

Love Me Like I'm Dead by @daniofcrows is such a gem. You know how hard it is to find good Xisuma whump? It's impossible. I absolutely love how Xisuma and Evil X are characterised in this, and I am obsessed with the unique take on hanahaki disease which I have never seen handled in this way before. The balance between flashbacks and present day is maintained wonderfully and I cannot wait to continue reading this one. Wow.

Oh, you wanted me to do a verse? by @bugbbear is... kind of indescribable. It's horror. It's comedy. It's the apocalypse. It's boatem. Scar eats someone. One of the most interesting and unique apocalypse stories I have read. Slowly updating but worth the wait, in my opinion. This one NEEDS more attention.

So Much For Stardust by @a-plethora-of-peters is basically one of my all-time favourites. Which is a damn good achievement seeing as I don't usually read ZITS fics. Like, ever. In this fic, Skizz is a human abducted and hurt badly by aliens, now recovering in the care of good aliens who don't know how 'sentient' he is. Every update of this one makes me smile, it is wonderful. I love how the characters are written and how the different perspectives are shown. It is just great.

Solar Waltz by @raspberrystruck and aroundtheclock is a brilliant and very very sad regression fic. I love fluffy regression fics as much as the next guy, but this one just... hits different. The hurt/comfort levels are off the charts. Grian is so damn cute the whole time, while also being harrowingly complicated and sad. I am so ready for whatever comes next.

Tango's Castle of Cards by @evilrat-sabre is the one where Tango is a BUG. He's just a little guy (horror). This one is so beautifully written, with poetry-type interludes and perspective changes that really make everything feel so much more impactful. Finding out your buddy is a murder bug isn't the easiest thing in the world. I love this so much.

Traveling Thieves {Dark Fantasy AU} (series) by @amethystfairy1 is basically one of the series of all time. I know I keep saying that but it really really is. I love a good fantasy au, and I love an au with hybrids even more. In this world, hybrids are treated like slaves, but it isn't all doom and gloom for the main characters of each installment. There is a lot of hurt/comfort and the different stories feed into each other in really interesting ways. I try to read as much as I can, though I've missed a few because my emails are buggy. Definitely worth reading these fics, especially since now they're all starting to come together!

Completed Fics

Solving Counting Sheep by @theminecraftbee might have rearranged my brain chemistry a little. Another strong contender for 'fics that inspire me to kill Grian', this time with a more concrete notion of "replacement". Three is my favourite fucked up living weapon. It's so rare to find Evo fics in this day and age, too. This fic had me immediately clicking on every update as soon as I got the emails.

Rescue Fire by @imaginethat0327 is one of the most unique takes on a fictionalised life series game that I have ever read. The whole concept is explained in a realistic and easy-to-follow way, as we learn what's happening with the characters. There are several brilliant storylines happening in this one, but my particular favourites are Jimmy & Tango, Joel, and of course Scar & Grian. This fic is full of whump and, well, read the tags, it isn't always pleasant, but those are my favourite things ever. Definitely worth checking out this fic and its currently updating sequel.

don't you know about me? by takenbadgering is a wonderful comedy of errors with just the right amount of angst for a realistic setting type of fic. If you enjoy polyamory miscommunications, rave aesthetics, kandi, school teacher dynamics, and a lovely blend between grumbo, cubscar, and mumscar, this is the one.

Eventually the Birds Must Land by @milo-hypno follows a polyam ship I would have never thought of, and I cannot believe how much I loved it. This married-as-friends fic premise is wonderful, and captures the main trio (Grian, Mumbo, Impulse)'s personalities so well, while balancing them with the incredibly terrifying descriptions of the Watchers and their power. There's a lot of angst here, but it is ultimately hurt/comfort to the maximum degree. I loved reading it as it updated. Yay for gay marriage!

From The Archives (series) by @sixteenth-days was the absolute inspiration for my own Comms AU, and I will never forget its influence on me. As someone basically unfamiliar with TMA, I thought this series might be hard to follow, but it was not! I read all 57 parts in the span of two days, and I think it altered my brain chemistry. Please read it, even if (especially if) you don't know anything about TMA. The Cleo and Grian storyline lives in my head rent free. I mean it. This is horror at its finest. Also there's an audio series of this fic being released rn, which is very cool.

SUPERCRITICAL by @masque-of-plague hits different. It is such a wonderful take on the superhero/HotGuy trope, and it gets so super dark at some points! This one really takes swings at it's fictional government, which of course I love, while at the same time building this brilliantly emotional relationship between Scar and Grian. I do enjoy a bit of enemies to lovers, but the actual plot mixed into the story makes this one extra special. It is thrilling, with action that I don't get to see too often! Great work.

I am weary with contending! is one of the mumscarian fics of all time. From 'this house has people in it'-type horror, to magic gone wrong, to childhood trauma, to attempted assassination, to gender fuckery, this fic has it all. Usually I don't go for convex siblings, but this one is good enough to get a pass from me. Amazingly detailed worldbuilding alongside a brilliantly creative story.

It Spreads by @foxxology may not count as a fic, actually. It's a comic. But it's posted on ao3 so it counts. I was obsessed with this one as it was updating, honestly. It rocked me to my core. The art is phenomenal. The writing is brilliant. I love sculk.

Luck of the sea by Sleepy_Duck is a lovely take on mermaid and human interactions, with Grian as a marine life conservator and Scar as a very neglected mer. This one takes us emotionally in all sorts of directions, and offers lots of hope for the future of the characters. I heavily enjoyed this fic - if you like mermaids and marine biology, check it out.

there are many downsides to being a marine biologist by donnerstag is another mermaid fic but with a pretty different vibe. First of all, it follows what I would consider a rarepair Doc/Martyn. Second of all, reading this as it updated was a thrilling experience that nearly made me cry at certain points. I love how the relationship builds in this fic. It is honestly amazing. The whole idea of experimenting on a sentient sea creature, learning that he can communicate, then losing funding and having to save him from being dissected?!?! It's crazy. I love it.

Thus concludes my fic recommendations. I hope you enjoy at least some of these, and consider reblogging to spread these wonderful fics around <3

[panlight]

The racism is twilight is so unsettling. The author is a racist women mysogynist and yet she gets defended by the twilight fans. I don't know why and how anyone respect meyer. I can't believe she is still cashing or milking the franchise for all it's worth. She made a comment a long time ago she was sick and tired of twilight and was over it...i guess not.

What I've been thinking about lately is how it ties in with Mormonism. Now I don't want to disparage anyone's sincere religious beliefs, but if you look into the Book of Mormon at all as an outsider it does basically the same thing as Twilight -- co-opt Native American history and rewrites it. The Lamanites in the Book of Mormon are understood by many to be the ancestors of the Indigenous peoples of the Americas, and they were "cursed" with dark skin as punishment but if they became Mormon their skin would lighten over time or at the very least would become white in the afterlife if they believed. As I understand it the church doesn't teach it anymore, but the line from the Book is: "[God] had caused the cursing to come upon [the Lamanites] ... because of their iniquity ... wherefore, as they were White, and exceeding fair and delightsome, that they might not be enticing unto my people [the Nephites] the Lord God did cause a skin of blackness to come upon them."

The more I read about it the more I'm like "ohhhhhhh." I mean this is very similar to all vampires becoming white. It's right there.

Which is all to say that this might be cultural. It's 'normal' to her to see Indigenous history and mythology rewritten. There are even some Mormons who think that the Aztec god Quetzalcoatl may have been Jesus Christ so that the Aztec mythology 'fits' within the Book of Mormon story. Not an excuse of course, but an explanation of why SM just so blithely used a real people and re-wrote their history and mythology to suit her own story and why she didn't think it was wrong. It comes off as "I love Native American culture!" and buying mass produced dreamcatchers at some chain store and posting allegedly Native American proverbs and saying her great-grandmother was a Indian Princess. It's not about hate (she loves Jacob!); it's the kind of racism that forgets that these are real, living people with their own histories and not a quirky hobby or interest. The kind that makes white the default and everyone else is exotified.

I still mourn the lost potential of a well-done Indigenous main character in a YA novel though! Jacob had so much promise if it had been handled better, and would have been really ahead of his time in 2005.

I don't think the Tumblr version of the fandom defends it, at least not these days, but I don't know much about the other pockets of fandom.

[campbyler]

our chapters average at 27,000 words, the total fic length is already 3x the average novel length, and we lost one of the authors working on this fic. it must be so nice to only have to endure the wait for a chapter to be uploaded so that you can interact with it rather than being the one to actually write it.

im going to be cruel (no pun intended) to be kind: this is such an intense externalisation of blame. you are the ones in control of the fic length; the chapters could handle some heavy editing and it wouldnt make them any less wonderful (such as regarding the descriptions of mike and will's internal thoughts, not the action between the characters themselves). fic is free and its a gift to be able to read works that inspire our hearts and minds while we wait for the show, but then again, when at the stern of a juggernaut work such as this, one that will inevitably have many followers chomping at the bit on tumblr as well as ao3 (as you designed it to have!), you surely must be aware of something that only usually exists in professional marketing spaces involving customers + brand IP: the relationship between consumer and creator, and what they can give each other.

not 'owe each other' - nothing is owed, except perhaps basic human kindness. fans want your work, and its free, so we should be grateful; likewise, you want readers, feedback and clicks, and that should be free, too. but in order for this to work smoothly, there has to be fair give and take. i mean, if you wanted to monetize the fic i'm sure many people would pay to read it, but thats beside the point here.

what fans of this fic simply want is the same honesty and self-awareness from you that they might expect from any artist who has embarked on such am ambitious project. and this doesnt just mean transparency about potential uploading dates (which is already much appreciated by the majority!), or notifications about how hard it is to balance work and life (something most people on the planet struggle with). it means total honesty and hard answers. people like to know where they stand. plenty of writers (both professional and fan alike) abandon works for months, years at a time, and if the work is THAT good, people will always be thrilled to see a return. it's the mucking people about that is what destroys relationships - no matter how good your reasons are.

your fic is wonderful and very, very memorable. you could take a big, undefined hiatus and people would, im sure, return, including me. seeing you admit that you have been prioritizing this fic over your mental health does not inspire confidence either, or even comfort - do i want to read something that has caused the creator such harm?

i think everything about this process would be happier for everyone if you set boundaries that work for you and didn't place blame elsewhere. after all, as you said, it's just a fanfic. it doesnt matter if you don't finish it. it doesnt matter if it takes all the way to s5 for 10.2 to release. everyone would, though, appreciate you taking a stance and being consistent (and therefore fair) to both yourselves and the readers.

please feel free to not post this publicly or do as you wish with it.

hello! thank you for your feedback and for sharing it in a way that is both kind and respectful. you make many valid points that i agree with -- we are in control of the word counts and could stand to edit down more, and we do recognize where being transparent about the reasons behind the chapter delays might not inspire confidence or comfort. i do, however, think that isolating one response/chain of responses to a particular ask is a little unfair, so i'd like to provide additional context.

i do not think that it's fair to say that we haven't been honest, self-aware, or fair, because we have been incredibly transparent throughout the entire run of the fic (over a year) about our writing process. just last month suni said she hadn't been working on 10.2 at all because abby had been visiting her house, and readily took ownership of that fact. there was a 4-month wait between chapters 9.1 and 9.2, and i was very open about the fact that i simply needed a break for at least the first of those months because i didn't want to write it. we have continued to maintain several times that we are not abandoning the fic, even if it takes longer between chapters, and have tried to stay as active as possible on the blog because we know that seeing us interact with asks Does inspire confidence. if you just scroll down and see how we have answered other asks inquiring about the upload, we responded kindly and respectfully.

what you interpreted as externalization of blame in that one (1!) ask response was me trying to provide perspective to someone who clearly lacked it. we understand that people will be frustrated about chapter delays, especially if we keep pushing them back, and this is also something that we have received feedback about before and tried to implement; however, it is also a double-edged sword where if we don't give an estimated upload, people get upset, or we give an estimated upload that we think is completely reasonable for us to achieve and then hurdles get in the way, whether it's writer's block or work or time with friends. i absolutely get the frustration on the receiving end, but something i have learned from being in this fandom for two years is that a pretty big majority of those who are interacting with fanworks are not creating it themselves, hence why my response -- while snippy and annoyed, because i was matching the energy, and will not apologize for that -- was contextualizing the whys behind the chapter delay: the chapters are long, the fic is long, we are down one entire body from where we started. the intention was not to shuck blame off of ourselves, but i get that intentions don't always translate into effect, so it's understandable that it was received differently.

we don't always respond to things perfectly. when we have a million and one asks inquiring about the next upload, one stray one that comes off the wrong way is likely going to set us off, because we are people, and this is not a job. we have set a boundary by disabling anon, and again, i cannot stress enough how much i appreciate that you've come to us with this feedback off-anon and with respect and decency. i get where you are coming from and again, agree with a lot of your points.

the only other thing i want to make clear is that this fic, no matter how much attention its garnered, should not be treated as a creator/consumer relationship that mirrors anything where the exchange of money is involved. not only is it unfair to apply this standard to fanworks, where it is illegal to monetize such content, but the entire purpose of fanworks is to celebrate what you are a fan of together. when you apply expectations on either end -- i am a fan of this work, therefore, people should create timely content for it; i am creating this fanwork, therefore, people should interact with it -- defeats the entire nature of fan-created work as a whole. while we have continued to be vocally grateful for the love and support our fic has been shown, we both maintain that we would continue writing and continue uploading even if we were getting less than half of the amount of interaction that we do. it's nice to have interaction, but not necessary, because we what write and post is done because we love it, and it's shared so that we can look back on it, so our friends can enjoy it, and anyone else who might want to. we are, of course, excited to share that world with anyone who cares -- we created the blog and the promo because we wanted to share it -- but that does not mean that the relationship between us and our readers should have expectations. we are all creating and enjoying this work for free for the sake of love for the characters, as the star trek obsessed housewives of the 60s (and the law) have intended.

i feel like this response is a bit jumbled so i apologize if anything isn't clear or hard to understand. thank you again for your time!

[theamityelf]

Hey! I love your descendants fic so fucking much I think I’ve read them all (The Worst Is Now The Victor is like one of my all time favorite fanfics of all time), I was wondering if you had any recs for fics like yours? Specifically sea three fics that don’t villainize the sea three? Thank you!

First of all, thank you so much!

As for recommendations:

Mysterious Fathoms Below, by MissKate. This one has a really broad focus on lots of the characters and locations and concepts, but as someone who pretty much refuses to read almost anything that doesn't heavily feature Uma, I was satisfied with how much emphasis she got. The storytelling and the magic are really the star of the show, for this fic. I think probably all of the fics on this list do a really great job of bringing canon Disney characters in who don't have an established role in the Descendants movies and doing great things with them. This one did a REALLY cool thing with the Disney princesses. I made a TV Tropes page for this fic, so if you read it, you can check that out and maybe add to it, if you want.

We'll Light the Fuse, by evanescentdream93 (@edream93 on Tumblr). After D2, Ben keeps his promise to give Uma a chance. Very fun fic, and it explores the characters and world in a way I really enjoy. The elements of it that I remember most are ones I don't want to spoil, so I encourage you to read it. It's discontinued after Chapter 21, but the author provides an outline for the rest. I also made a TV Tropes page for this one, so feel free to add to that.

Til the Storm Comes and the World is Quiet, by elphaba_swan (@kindofchaoticgood). Okay, so this one is BRUTAL towards Auradon in a way I really like. The inherent violence of the situation is really interrogated, but the story starts very shortly before things are about to change, so you're not just immersing in how bad things are, if that makes sense. It's cathartic. And focuses a lot on Uma and her crew and how much they love and care for each other. I had to check to see if I made a TV Tropes page for this one, and I guess I didn't. It deserves one, though!

Without Crowns, Without Borders, by StainedGlassSpecs (@stainedglassspecs). Okay, I remember this one for having great character moments. I think the plot is that Uma and Ben are trying to open a community center on the Isle. I remember really liking it a lot and obsessing over the minor details; highly recommend! And give the author some love, because I think I got too busy to keep reading this one, and I feel bad about that. Also deserves a TV Tropes page.

Something About Her, by generic_epiphany. I'll be honest, I remember this one being DARK, but also I was definitely subscribed to this one. As I recall, it's very Huma-centric but also rather anti-Audrey. So, you win some, you lose some. But it's a good time, if you can handle some grim subject matters. (I don't know how hard to endorse this one, because I don't remember how grim it gets. As I recall, it didn't go into too much detail, but it did establish some very unpleasant things about some of the characters' pasts.)

Compound Interest, by TrueColours (@trueishcolours). Huma-centric, Harry and Uma growing up together, I won't spoil it, but it's seriously, seriously great. One chapter, over 10,000 words, really good.

NocturnaIV (@nocturna-iv) has a bunch of fics; just go ahead and check those out.

Same deal with the-knight-of-the-stars (@the-knight-of-the-stars). In particular, Children of the Reign is a cool reimagining of the characters and premise.

[oneshotnewbie]

Hello! I hope you're well :)

Would you so kindly be able to do an Emily Prentiss x victim child!reader where reader is kind of young, maybe like between 6-10 and they've been held captive by the UnSub for weeks now and when the team finally finds the location, reader has gone mute and very cautious/scared of everyone and only allows (to an extent) Emily near them? Since she's the one who first finds them? Emily is very patient and comforts reader even if they don't speak and such. But reader eventually becomes comfortable enough to speak again, using short sentences and few words with Emily (maybe even some other team members, too).

Emily could possibly take them in but that part can be up to you!

I can't wait to see more of your work btw, you're so good!! Thx! Xoxo 💘

⚠️Trigger Warning⚠️ This one-shot includes the topics of abuse, trauma, child neglecting, punishments and the plots are presented. If this triggers you too easily or you just can´t handle the subject, I urge you NOT to read this work. I am NOT embellishing this topic under any circumstance. Read at your own risk.

Authors note: I have tried my best to accommodate this request. I have to say that I changed the request a little because I didn't want to write a 6 year old child being kidnapped by a stranger, so I just had to do it with the father who has a criminal record. I also had to shorten it and basically skip a period of time in order to fulfill the second part of the request. I hope it is still okay. Also had to split it into two parts, Tumblr wouldn't let me post it all at once ♥

ᕚ---ᕘ

Walls. Excessive tightness.

You did not know how long you had been in that closet, and you did not want to know either. Far too exhausted from all the panic attacks and the walls threatening to crush you. Your stomach was growling like it had been ever since your father decided to punish you for everything you did.

Your hands were shaking, your eyes were glassy, but you were long past crying. That only made things worse. Your father knew no mercy, and certainly not for his scared and crying little daughter.

Sometimes you imagined what it would be like if you actually suffocated in that closet. Better to suffocate from the reducing air than to be suffocated by your own father. You would not grow old, you would not reach the age of 10. You were sure of that. You were convinced that something would happen to you before your next birthday. But so far you had gotten older every year and every birthday you were sure that it would be your last.

Your father would not let you sleep in your bed anymore, but at least today it was in the closet and not in the gazebo that you had to sleep in. It was late autumn and in the arbor, the roof of which had tiny holes, there was a risk of hypothermia and finally freezing to death. Your hand, which was squeezed between the closet door and your thigh, had now fallen asleep and despite your constant shaking, you felt immensely hot. You noticed your face starting to glow again- you had a fever from the cold that blew through the room at night. You carefully pulled your hand out from under your leg, hitting your head on one of the wooden insert panels of the shelves, causing a dull thud as it came loose and fell onto your body.

Your heart skipped a beat before stopping briefly, you squinted for a moment, hoping that the noise had gone unnoticed and that your father had disappeared from his guarding position in front of the closet and was downstairs in front of the TV. But then you heard footsteps, quiet and muffled through the ajar door and the wood that surrounded you. It sounded nothing like your father and his firm, jagged steps and you begged that you had not misheard and were now in for a lot of trouble.

The door creaked and your breathing became increasingly quicker. You did not mishear. You closed your eyes tightly, trying to calm yourself and prepare yourself for what was to come. If your father saw you so upset, he might keep you here longer or deny you food for the next few days.

The key turned in the lock that locked the two doors together and you heard them slowly open, but did not dare to look outside. The fear of provoking your father when you greedily gasped for fresh air and light was too great. You felt a slight breeze on your bare shoulders and cheeks. Still, you kept your eyes closed, hoping to avoid your fate.

Instead of your father's disapproving shouts and rough hands that would normally drag you out of the closet, there was only a careful, barely noticeable touch on your shoulder. When you raised your eyes, you saw a strange woman with black hair. "Hey, sweetie. I am from the police, you are safe now," the older woman's eyes were glassy. She seemed unsettled, as if she was afraid of breaking you with one wrong move, as if you were made of delicate mass. "You can come out now, your father can not hurt you anymore."

You nodded and a few moments later she had pulled you out of the closet, carefully and slowly so as not to hurt you, and immediately drawn you into her arms. You just let it happen, completely unable to understand that this was a foreign woman you were clinging to.

Your father had forbidden you from speaking to strangers and your fear of upsetting your dad was huge. But something about her voice made you give in. "I am Emily. What is your name?" she asked and rubbed your back soothingly, your courage to speak failing you. When the rest of her team stormed into the room a moment later and looked down at you in front of the open door, you panicked and shook yourself away from her before returning to the closet where you felt safe.

A hand signal directed to Derek and Hotch, they disappeared silently from the bare room with the remaining SWAT workers and left her alone with you. It took some time for you to gain confidence and crawl out of the wooden wardrobe again. The young woman had talked her head off with various topics in order to give you a feeling of reassurance.

You followed Emily's hand movements carefully, and at the sight of the little package of gummy bears, your mouth watered and your stomach began to make itself known. "Someone is really hungry!" She whispered and smiled softly before opening the small package and holding it out to you.

You carefully sat up, occasionally glancing at the door so that you could move back into the closet as quickly as possible in case of an emergency. But nothing happened. The black-haired woman pointed uncertainly but grinning at the package. "The green ones are my favorite. And what are yours?" you rummaged through the tiny package with your fingers until you held a red gummy bear between your fingers and showed it to her. "The red ones? Uhh, they are yummy!"

You jumped away while the first bite, she had raised her hand too quickly. She shook her head, swallowing hard. Emily had not thought for a split second. “Can I feel your forehead?”she asked after a short hesitation and you nodded, afraid of upsetting her like your father, granting her permission.

She gently placed her hand on your sweat-covered forehead. You were feverish. She slowly lowered her hand carefully again and watched you as you hesitantly gnawed on a gummy bear. Your father did not like it when you just wolfed down your food and often had taken it away when fell into a deep hunger.

Emily continued to watch you, her eyes sad and exhausted. You cocked your head, wondering if you had done something wrong. When your eyes met for a moment, you hesitantly reached for her free hand and placed her favorite gummy bear in her palm.

You found a kind of care and hope in her presence. Hope that you can still lead a normal life and never be locked in the closet by your father again. Emily caught the very first smile you gave her before you stood up and carefully fell into her arms. "Are you okay? Did you hurt yourself?" she giggled softly, her heart swelling and beginning to pound wildly.

"No,"

Surprisingly, she widened her eyes while keeping her mouth wide open. After hours spent in this cold room with only forensics downstairs doing their work, she had finally managed to hear your gentle and childlike voice.

[naeverse]

I have some news to share...😕

Hello, everyone. I have some news to tell you all, and it took me by surprise when I discovered it. Firstly, I just want to say thank you to a wonderful person on this app for telling me (don't know if you would like a shout out or not, DM me if you do, but you know who you are), but without you, I would have never known, so thank you so much!! ❤❤

But onto the news, like I stated previously, a wonderful person sent me a post that someone had published a story here on Tumblr that was literally copied and pasted from my own story, "Lapdog," with a simple change of the characters, and some dialogue that contained Spanish was reverted to English. I never gave this person authorization to use my work, and they literally took complete ownership of it, even stating: "It took me 5 hours to make." When, in reality, "Lapdog" took me 2 days and even more to edit and write. 🤧😅

I was greatly upset when I saw this; honestly, I was shocked for a good while before getting advice from my sis, @powerful-niya, on how to handle this situation. I had completely forgotten that plagiarism and the stealing of one's work could even happen, so when this occurred, it really took me by surprise. 😔

What further hurt me was the sight of this person fully claiming my work as theirs. They received many asks and comments about how good "their" story was and when a part 2 would be posted, and they responded saying: "Hii!! So a ton of people have been asking me about a part 2, and I mentioned that I would think about making the part two." And this one really got to me: "So some wise words would be to stick around for a bit, to see if it gets uploaded or not, but don't take this as a definite yes, because I'm still not sure."

It literally sounded like they were waiting on my second part of Lapdog to be uploaded to simply steal that one as well. I held very conflicting emotions: hurt, anger, sadness, and possibly even a little fear. However, with the help of some great besties here on Tumblr and from home, I was able to get through it. Here's a shoutout to those wonderful individuals, and I'm so thankful for you, girlies. I really appreciate the support! ❤😊

@serpentineaerodynamics, @grumpypixistix, @powerful-niya, @luvrxbunny, @amariiyagurl

(Also, thank you once again to the person who initially told me about this; I'm extremely grateful!) ❤

Lastly, I didn't make this post to spread hate to this person; that's the last thing I want. I uploaded this to spread awareness of my situation and how wrong it is to steal someone's work, who've poured every ounce of themselves into it, to simply get attention. 😕

Despite having little to no time to write, I still try to do a small amount on the weekends or in my free time (which is rare), but I try even still because I really enjoy writing, particularly writing about Miguel. So, that's why this incident greatly hurt me.

It's why I'm also thankful that I was able to take care of it, as the post has been removed; but I just wanted to notify my followers and anyone from their page who was deceived about what happened and why "their" story was removed from their blog.

Thank you, and I hope you all have a wonderful rest of your day/night. Do not spread hate and steal others' work; it'll only bring harm to yourself in the end. Love you all and stay safe! ❤🤓👋🏽

[eden-writes-stuff]

smut ask for virgin regulus and experienced barty 🦤

This was also me, losing my smut-virginity on tumblr (first time uploading), so I hope you like it anyways

Warnings: 18+, NSFW, first time, anal sex, oral sex, hints at praise kink, but it's not the main point

Wordcount: 1420

They had been dating for three weeks and for Barty it was hell. The dating part was great. Regulus was hot, and a great kisser, and could be very sweet if he wanted to. But whenever Barty tried to take things further Regulus found some bullshit-excuse to get away.

It was not that Barty minded the no-sex part itself. He knew that some people just didn't want to - although that was something he himself would never relate to. It was the excuses, that really set him off. Maybe it was because Regulus didn't trust him. Or maybe he thought he was unattractive. But then why would he get together with him in the first place? So eventually he just snapped.

It happened at the Yule party. Regulus was - as usual - sprawled over his lap, drink in hand. He had been driving Barty wild the entire evening with his cropped dress shirt that exposed his soft skin. He wanted to bite it. When Reg adjusted in his lap, it was over.

"I wanna have sex with you!" The music, as well as almost all conversations, stopped. Everyone was looking at them. Regulus's face was red as a cherry and Barty could guess he didn't look much different.

"What are you looking at? Did none of you ever want to fuck your partner?" Blessed be the Blacks and their authority. Within an instant, everyone was muttering again, continuing whatever it was they had been doing before.

"I'm so sorry", Barty muttered, but Reg just sighed and took his hand. "I think we should talk about this", he answered, pulling him up from the couch and towards their dorm room. Evan whistled after them, earning a rude gesture from both of them.

"I'm really sorry. I don't want to pressure you-" "It's fine", the smaller boy interrupted him. "It's just- fuck, I hate talking..." Regulus started playing with his rings like he always did whenever he was nervous. "I've never... done it before." He was still blushing, avoiding Bary's gaze. He just laughed.

"And that's why you've been cockblocking me for the last month? Merlin's Balls, I thought you thought I was ugly or something. I really started to doubt your taste." He winked at him and Regulus couldn't help but smile. "You will be happy to hear that I have impeccable taste and that I know you are the hottest guy at this school." Grinning he pulled him into a sweet kiss.

"Does that mean, you would generally want to shag me?" "I hate that word, but yes." "And what do you want me to do to you?" Barty smiled softly, leading him towards his bed. "Everything there is to be done." "I like the sound of that." He grinned, kissing him again, while Regulus sat back on the bed. 

"And you really don't mind that I'm not as experienced?" "Why would I mind?" Barty took his place in his boyfriend's lap. "This is an honour. I love that you trust me so much that you let me take care of you like this." His lips started exploring Regulus' neck, licking the soft skin. And Regulus just melted against him. Soft sighs escaped his lips, hands gripping the waistband of Barty's trousers, pulling him closer.

It didn't take long for them to spread their clothes all over the floor. Barty's fingers dug into the soft flesh of his arse, making Reg groan into his mouth. "Are you always this desperate?", he teased, voice heavy with need. "Only after I haven't been properly fucked for over a month." "Poor you, living in abstinence." "Says the guy that's never even been laid before." "Bastard."

He let himself fall back, pulling Barty over him, hips almost meeting in the middle. "Princess." "Whore." "Oh, absolutely. I'm gonna be your personal slut once you know how to handle me" Reg raised an eyebrow but found he didn't mind the image. "So is this all? Insulting each other until you come?" Barty laughed roughly. "I think it's good foreplay. But I can show you more if you think you can take it." He kissed him again, but soon let his mouth travel downward towards the swollen, flushed dick.

"You ready?", he made sure. Regulus immediately nodded, making his boyfriend smile widely before wrapping his lips around him.

Barty's tongue quickly became his new favourite thing in the world. The way he used it drove him close to madness. He had suspected as much, imagined it during long showers, but in reality it felt so much better than he'd ever thought. Barty had him dripping and moaning in no time, clutching his hair, cursing under his breath. And Bary loved it. He drank in every sound that escaped Regulus' pretty throat, nearly lost it when he started moaning his name.

Before he could finish Barty drew back, enjoying the sounds of protest. "Don't worry, princess, you'll get enough chances to come in my mouth, but not this time." 

With a simple tip of his wand, he prepared Regulus, who actually squeaked in surprise. "What the fuck was that?" "Shit, sorry. I was just making sure you're wet enough so it doesn't hurt." Barty blushed a little, softly kissing his hand. "I think I got a bit overexcited." "It's alright. I'm fine. Just maybe a warning next time." He nodded instantly, gently pressing their lips together.

"Do you want me to keep going?", Barty asked after a moment and Reg nodded assuringly. "If you stop now I'll have to find someone else. I doubt either of us wants that", he smirked before kissing along his shoulder. That was all he needed. "I'll start with my fingers so that it's easier for you to adjust." Regulus understood, spreading his legs a little wider as Barty pushed his index-, then a few minutes later, his middle finger into him.

He loved seeing Regulus like this, drowning in pleasure, audibly enjoying everything Barty did. After a while, he tried praising him. "You're doing so good for me", "I can't wait to be in your pretty hole.", "You're so wonderfully tight."... Regulus only started moaning and gasping louder, moving himself on his fingers, while Barty watched.

"P-please." "Fuck, you're pathetic. Tell me what you want. I like to hear things said out loud." A shiver ran down Regulus' spine. He'd never been this turned on in his entire life. "I want your dick. I want you to fuck me, to make me come" Barty was basically purring, by the time he pulled his finger out of him. "You're so good at this. Are you sure, this is your first time?", he smirked while positioning himself in front of his entrance.

Regulus grinned innocently. "You know I like to read..." Barty was stunned for a second before grinning widely. "You're so fucking hot", he laughed softly before gently pushing in.

They both moaned in unison, Regulus gripping onto his arm, eyes wide. "Feels... so good." That was enough to get him to start moving. He forced himself to keep it slow, to stay in control of himself, but the way the other boy's back bent when he tried to move closer was too beautiful, too pure and- fuck, he would never get tired of his little gasps.

"There are so many things I wanna do with you", Barty groaned, burying his face in Regulus' neck. The other boy whined softly, making Barty grind deeper and deeper into him.

He could tell Regulus was holding back in so many ways. "It's adorable how you think you can hide from me, princess. But I want to hear those sweet noises you make. And I want you to come whenever you need to. Don't hold back, baby", he whispered, softly kissing and biting along his shoulder

Beneath him, Reg was a whining mess. And soon those whines turned into loud, unrestricted moans. Barty knew he would come when his legs started shaking, so he drew back to look at the gorgeous piece of art in front of him, brows furrowed, lips parted, head tilted slightly back.

"Fuck, Barty I'm gonna- I'll-" and with two more thrusts, he spilled all over Barty's stomach, fingers clutching the covers. The image drove him over the edge only seconds later.

Breathing heavily he dropped next to Regulus on the bed. "You okay?", he murmured after a moment. Reg nodded weakly.

"I can't believe I missed out on this for three weeks, just because I was too much of a coward to talk to you", he laughed.

[tallulah477]

Below the cut contains my thoughts and feelings about certain issues that I've seen recently that I feel like need to be addressed including hate/bullying, the new Neteyam & Lo'ak rp blogs, and the general fandom as a whole.

CW:// Mentions of pedophilia, predators, racism, and homophobia

Over the past several months, and especially over these past several days, it's come to my attention that we as a fandom need to make some things abundantly clear.

I was a silent reader for a long time. I love Avatar and this fandom with my entire heart and I wanted nothing more than to be an active part of it and member of the community, but the thing that stopped me for a long time was seeing how hateful people can be and I wasn't sure if I could handle it. Obviously, I decided that my happiness and sharing my love for Avatar and the characters with other people who love it as much as I do is more important than any nasty messages I might get and I couldn't be happier with my decision. I think I can safely say that most of us here in the fandom can say the same (although I'm sure the feeling of happiness comes with endless ebbs and flows for all of us).

That being said, the amount of sheer bullshit that I've been seeing on here is ridiculous.

The amount of hate messages that I've had to witness my mutuals receive is unacceptable. The amount of hounding as to why someone unfollowed this person, why aren't they interacting with this person anymore, why would someone write something like this, why won't you write this, is crazy to see. I've seen racist comments, I've seen homophobic comments, and I've seen people being called a pedophile wayyyy to often now.

This is Tumblr. We are responsible for our own media consumption. We cultivate our own media experience.

That means authors write what they enjoy regardless of content as long as they are responsible and tag the work correctly. You as the reader are responsible for heeding those warnings.

This means that if two people who used to interact or follow each other all of a sudden don't or someone gets blocked, it is no one's business as to why it happened. They don't owe you an explanation and there's no need to publicize drama. Do not go into their inboxes asking for details because all that does is feed the flames.

This is supposed to be people's happy place. Our safe space. And instead it seems like there's something new happening every single day.

At this point, we've all seen the rp blogs that have popped up. I'm not generally someone who enjoys rp so I didn't interact, but I saw a ton of my mutuals and others having a great time with them. Despite me not liking rp, it was exciting to see at first. A live persona of one of my most beloved characters interacting with fics that I love? Yes, it's definitely exciting to see!

But then it got not so exciting to see. The responses seemed solely sexual and out of character for Neteyam, a lot of them were really dark and borderline violent. I like dark fics, and I love dark Neteyam. But there are warnings to every dark fic and you go into them knowing what to expect. For a blog that's rp-ing a character that's not canonically like that, it was concerning to see.

We've had issues in this fandom in the past with predators. And despite us all being adults here (at least we should all be), you can never be too careful when it comes to the internet. I am NOT saying that the people running these blogs are predators, but certain things I've seen have raised some flags to me. Rp can be really dangerous when people don't know who's behind the character, especially if things are sexual. Since then, both blogs have created 'About Me' sections which I think is good. So that's something I appreciate.

However, we've also had the opposite problem in which minors interact with us and our content. It's a huge problem that we are constantly trying to battle because while seeing/reading sexual content can be harmful for those who are underage, it's can also get us into a lot of trouble for interacting with minors even if we don't know they're underage. When the accusation that the rp accounts were minors came out, they were sent asks to confirm. One responded respectfully and one, in my opinion, responded not so respectfully. If you are ever asked if you are a minor, don't get pissed about it. It's an important question and you should understand and respect its importance. Just clarify.

I'm saying all this not because I don't think people should interact with these blogs if you want to. It's 100% up to you and I know a lot of people were having fun with it. You're all adults, do what you think is best. And I do think it would be really nice to have more guys in the community, whether they rp or not. My issue with them is more about safety than anything else.

Now back to the hate comments. For any issues I might have had with the Neteyam blog (again, no hate, just my own thoughts), I only ever saw the Lo'ak blog being respectful. Yet, I still saw someone on their actual blog, not under anon, telling him "can't you just leave?". Under no circumstances is it okay to say this to another person. Any one who is an active member of this community who posts fics or the like KNOWS what its like to receive hateful comments like this and you think its okay to say something like this to someone else? No way. I'm sure you know what it feels like to get comments like that and you decided to be nasty to another person anyway. You should know better. Anyone who can say something mean to or about another person should be ashamed of themselves.

For as much as I love this fandom, this is insane that I actually have to say this.

Be kind. Be respectful.

And if you can't?

It's called the block button, people. Use it.

[luna-rainbow]

i FINALLY watched Avengers: Age of Ultron (i'm a marvel fan because i've seen the characters on tumblr 🫣🫣) and i noticed in the scene where steve tries to lift the hammer he smirks with his face tilted kind of down, sort of like he's trying to hide his face. SO i wanted to know,, do you think he knew he could lift the hammer way back then and just didn't say anything? i knew that scene existed, but i assumed he didn't know that Thor stopped him... maybe not? *grabby hands* what thoughts do you got?

Thanks for the ask, nonnie!

I am not very well-versed in the Thor mythos, but it's impossible to talk about this scene without discussing what lifting Mjolnir actually means. "Whosoever holds this hammer, be he worthy, shall posses the power of Thor" -- and there is a lot of debate on what exactly this "worthiness" means. In particular, what does it mean when you consider that blessing is bestowed by Odin, the ruler of Asgard, and instigator of many wars and (again I haven't watched the Thor movies in years so don't quote me) near-genocides. That said, when Odin set out to strip Thor of his powers in the first movie, the older Odin is a very different God to his younger days, and there is a sense of ruefulness about his past victories. Based on the first movie alone and its depiction of what Thor learned before becoming "worthy", I feel that the core values are around selflessness and compassion and humility, as opposed to being a brutal and ruthless and egocentric monarch. So, while there is some value in the interpretation of Mjolnir being a judge of worthiness for a monarch, I tend to lean towards the interpretation of Mjolnir making a judgement for a benevolent leader. (But yeah, the Thor franchise is also about as consistent as the Cap franchise...ie. the third movies really dropped the bundle on themes and character arcs).

Now onto the scene in question!

I like both popular interpretations of this scene -- that Steve could lift it but decided not to. I mean, it's a pretty difficult scene to physically enact with a light prop, but the close-up of Evans' hands would support this theory. You can see his hands loosening as the hammer shifted and his loose grip sliding back on the handle (rather than a true slip from gripping something heavy). There's all sorts of reasons for why Steve wouldn't want to lift it -- he felt it would spoil the party, he didn't want to deal with the ribbing or questions afterwards, he has no use for Mjolnir, he knows how important Mjolnir is to Thor and doesn't want him to distrust that magic link.

I also like the second interpretation that Steve had to further grow as a person before being able to lift Mjolnir in Endgame. Again, it could be for a variety of possible reasons: Steve needing to truly separate from his "Captain America" identity between Civil War and Infinity War, or Steve truly growing into his defiance of authorities, or maybe even something as simple as Steve having some measure of accepting grief and loss, because he's certainly gone through a lot of that between Infinity War and Endgame.

To be quite honest, the most poetic ending they could have given Steve was to die in that battle. He was worthy of wielding Mjolnir because he was once again -- just like on the Valkyrie all those decades ago -- ready to lay down his life for the rest of mankind.

[wordsandrobots]

I just finished Iron Blooded Orphans just a few days ago and I don't know how to feel about it. I know not everything is supposed to be a happy ending and tragedy is abundant in war stories, but characters are the most important thing for me in stories.

Athough I really liked the characters of Iron Blooded Orphans, a lot of the them didn't seem to have character development based on few opinions I hear about Iron Blooded Orphans. Could you summarize the character arcs and character development of Orga, Mika, McGillis, and maybe even Kudelia (I like her in season one but she didn't do a lot in season two) as to me they are main characters of the show. Although some of my favorites were Akhiro, Gaelio, Lafter and Atra.

I haven't read your writeups but some of my mutuals on MyAnimeList reccomend your blog.

Okidokie. I'm going to say three things before answering this, and then I'm going to be quite verbose for a bit, as I tend to be. I hope you'll stick with me, Anon, I promise I'll get to the point eventually.

First, people on a completely different site are recommending my blog? That's extremely flattering and slightly disconcerting, since my fandom experience with this show extends to here and Ao3!

Second, I want to stress that I'm an amateur when it comes to analysis. Past secondary school, I never studied literature/media in a formal setting; my academic training is in philosophy (which taught me how to make an argument) and history (which taught me how to handle sources), and also in physics but that's not relevant. So when I make statements about a piece of media, it doesn't make me an authority; it just means I have things to say. This isn't me trying to be humble, by the way. If I didn't have confidence in my opinions, I wouldn't state them publicly. I simply want to make it clear my essays are based on of years of taking an interest, not formal expertise. Your question touches on how we engage with things, and Tumblr being a rather combative place regarding reading comprehension, I think it's important to say upfront, I mainly muddle along on two decades of experience stringing words together on the page.

Third, while I love Iron-Blooded Orphans to a ridiculous degree, I'll do my best not to tell you what your opinion should be. If what I say makes you approach it from an angle you'd not considered, great! But it might simply be that it's not the show for you and that's equally fine. There are plenty of well-made stories I cannot get along with, despite knowing exactly how they work and seeing that they are constructed with great skill. Such is life!

Right then.

Let's start with a question: what do you mean by 'character development'?

Because I think there's a natural tendency, especially when talking about the protagonists in a story, to treat it as synonymous with character growth, that is, with characters learning and maturing over the course of the events being depicted. This is why we watch heroes struggle, right, so they become better people through the experience? And that is an absolutely valid thing to do in a piece of fiction: it feels good, it's rewarding, and it can make for some excellent triumphant moments. Quite apart from anything else, I think most of us would like to be able to take what we experience and learn from it, to do better next time.

However, this isn't always how it goes. Like, obviously, there are people in the world who commit whole-heartedly to never learning anything, ever, but more importantly, there are stories where the point is not that the characters becoming better and triumph; rather it's the opposite. They get worse. They fail. Their world falls apart. Indeed, character collapse is often a vital part of the same stories that feature character growth; it's what happens to the villains the heroes confront.

And there's a third way of looking at character development, which is as purely an increase in complexity. A character who starts off with simply defined motives and responses may be gradually built up into something far more nuanced, often (but not always) by revealing their past in greater detail. Their actions and personality do not necessarily change as part of this process, but their context does. We, the audience, come to see them in a new light, which helps us understand more thoroughly why they are Like That, even when they haven't meaningfully changed in and of themselves.

Now, I know you said you care primarily about characters, but I do need to talk about something else here. When I recommend Iron-Blooded Orphans to people, the very first thing I say is 'it's a tragedy'. And I don't mean it's going to make them sad -- although, yes, it probably will -- I mean that it has a tragic structure.

You might already be aware it wasn't originally planned to be a two-season show. It was always meant to end badly for Tekkadan, though, and you can see the ghost of the initial plan in Season 1, with the high point being the episodes from Kudelia ending the massacre on the Dort Colonies to the gang landing on Earth, and everything thereafter increasingly going off the rails. Getting a second season allowed the writers to turn this into a fake-out. The first season instead ends on a victory at Edmonton -- and then the next twenty-five episodes ramp the stakes and costs up and up and up until the catastrophe is inescapable. The whole has this beautiful rise/tall trajectory, with the very qualities that created success in Season 1 transforming into the reasons for the Season 2 failure.

You have to keep in mind that the characters serve this structure. They are characters within a tragedy. Therefore, you can't necessarily expect them to show growth and to learn from their mistakes. Tragedies explore negative emotions and their consequences and tend to be driven by characters making the absolutely worse decisions they possibly could in the circumstances, because of who they are and what they (don't) know. Oedipus hasn't a clue Jocasta is his mother when he marries her, Macbeth is too weak to stand up to his wife, Romeo and Juliet are dumb horny teenagers, etc, etc. Part of what makes this work is often characters' refusal to grow or change or adapt as the situation develops. They keep acting in the same fashion that worked for them previously, irrespective of whether it's still a good idea (spoiler: it 100% is not).

That is what makes the story of Iron-Blooded Orphans work. Tekkadan keep throwing themselves into fights because it's the only way they know how to survive. Orga keeps reaching for bigger prizes because he's got it into his head that he has to secure everyone's safety and prosperity as fast as possible (the poor boy does not know how casinos work, no). Mikazuki will not take back his promise to do whatever Orga needs him to, no matter how disabled he becomes as a result (or how many other people would really like it if he didn't die). McGillis cannot countenance the idea he can't change the world on his own (I mean, it's literally unthinkable or his entire self-image goes kaput). Gaelio is just flat out ignorant of the reasons behind McGillis' actions until it's far too late to stop (Gaelio's role, as I've said a few times, is to be Always Wrong (TM)). Etc, etc.

This is a story about a society run on exploitation and the damage that does, not only outright, but also by shaping people's responses such that they cannot see alternatives beyond violence. It's 'Maladaptive Coping Mechanisms: The Anime'. Everyone is screwing up, big time, and the only thing that could have stopped the resulting disaster is if they weren't the people they demonstrably are.

Mikazuki and Orga's character arc is one of a mutual collapse, Mika physically, Orga mentally, as their shared love for one another drives them to greater and greater acts of desperation. They both think the other is incredible and they cannot do anything less as a result. Their relationship sits at the heart of why Tekkadan goes wrong, the motive force behind the fatal end to which everything hurtles.

McGillis' character arc, we discover, happened years before the story started. What he is now is fixed, a man determined to be a singular force for change, unwilling to let finer feelings sway him. He knows the world is sick and corrupt and believes the only way to respond is to be stronger than it is, more powerful, in the fashion of a child imagining themselves a king, setting everything to rights. He fixated on an old story as the escape route from a life of abuse and won't give it up for anybody.

Kudelia, of all the characters in the show, has the most traditional 'growth' arc, shedding her naivete across the course of Season 1 and becoming better fitted to the challenge of building a fairer society. She learns to fight in her own way, to accept the cost of pushing forward, and most importantly, to see the people at the bottom of the existing social structure as equally real and human. She comes to understand exactly what she's fighting for, and grows into a force to be reckoned with as a result.

And then she runs straight into the problem anyone who wants to make a difference faces: she has to decide how best to compromise to get what she's after. That leads her into deals with Teiwaz and Nobliss Gordon, even with factions in Gjallarhorn, which in turn ties her hands. Structurally, she can't be in a position to save Tekkadan, come the final run of episodes. The writers turn that into a commentary on long-term versus short-term gain, whereby Kudelia committing herself to building up the Admoss Company means relying on Tekkadan's violent protection (contra her wish to save them from getting more blood on their hands) and restrictions around what she is able to do right now. That's the point of her conversation with Makanai after the Arbrau/SAU war arc: if she's serious about improving Mars' situation, she can't act recklessly. Which traps her into watching helplessly while Tekkadan do.

There you have it, really. The ways IBO develops its characters extend from its structure and I think you have to take that into account when considering how they act. Their arcs are all towards an immediate failure, with even the snatched, last-minute saves and the more hopeful future being bought at a terrible price. You're meant to like them and then watch them go through an absolute meat-grinder of a time. As I said, that might not be what you want from a story, but it's what this particular one is, fundamentally.

----

I don't know if this was all what you were after, but I do hope it's at least given you some help in sorting out how you feel about Iron-Blooded Orphans. I've written in more detail about all these points elsewhere: here's me talking about Mika and Orga's relationship; here's a long discussion of McGillis through the lens of what little we know about Agnika Kaieru (and also capitalism); and here's me turning getting huffy about people dismissing Kudelia into an exploration of her pragmatism.

If you're up for it, please feel free to browse my full index of essays. You'll find bits on Gaelio, Lafter's death, and the Turbines in general, along with a ton of other stuff. I also recently answered an ask about Atra, Mika and Kudelia's relationship (you are of course entirely correct that Atra is The Best). Sadly I've not done much focused on Akihiro; it's not that I have nothing to say about him, more that I haven't quite find the right angle to do so yet. Well, not outside fanfic.

Oh, yeah, I have also written an unconscionable amount of IBO fanfic, primarily a 20-part post-canon story called Wishing on Space Hardware. It takes a narrative approach to unpacking my many, many feelings about the show and I'm quite proud of it, so if that's your sort of thing, well, please give it a go!

Thank you for your ask, and feel free to drop me another if there's anything you'd like to hear my thoughts on that I haven't already written about (rapid responses not guaranteed).

[ask-the-meteor-crew]

FAQ Behind The Curtain

How do you draw so fast?

I'm currently double majoring in Animation and Creative Writing. I'm built different and also just, not trying very hard on most of these drawings. Drawing fast is kind of the backbone of animation and I've noticed coloring everything makes most people assume whatever line quality or level of finish on the outlines is a stylistic choice rather than laziness. What program do you use? I used Clip Studio Paint until about #021 when I picked up after haitus and used Procreate out of comfort and convenience. Do you use stock backgrounds or make them as you go? Every time I decide a scene needs a new background I draw it out in it's entirety and save it to my collection of backgrounds to use. So yeah, I'm not redrawing the background every single time it appears, I'm basically building out the meteor one room at a time in hopes of one day not having to draw backgrounds anymore. Where do you get the space photos? NASA's Hubble Space Telescope team has politely made all of the telescopes published photographs public domain, I imagine as a service to the planet as the intersection between photographers and people able to go that far into space is understandably zero. Font/Handwriting questions I stopped handwriting for most panels as I realized my best handwriting is all caps and it would be a shame if Karkat was the only character anyone could understand. I still use handwritten text for "special speech" which is whispers, and shouting, anything that's supposed to feel or sound radically different from the rest of the yapping. It did take me a while to settle on a font, I found a really good one for Dave that didn't have apostrophes and gave everyone else a typewriter font for a while, until I found the alternate version of the font I used for Dave that had all the special grammar symbols and numbers I could ever need. It's called the Atari font in the actual file but I have no idea if Atari ever actually used this version of it. Does the ask box ever close? When will my question be answered? It doesn't close and I have more questions than I'll probably ever answer. Some are confused about canon, others have had the core idea of their question asked multiple times already and I just didn't feel like collecting them all as screen shots. And some I just don't have answers for. Some get deleted because I don't like the tone, don't get the joke or found a typo particularly difficult to parse. No biggie. Questions will be answered if and when I feel like drawing a comic for it. Some questions are a better starting point for a comic than others, don't take it personally. Can the characters still talk to John and Jade? Can they run into them in the dream bubbles? According to canon, no. According to this blog, also no. Do you take magic anons? No. While I've gotten flimsy on the vlog framing device in order to make a more entertaining comic overall, the truth still remains that anything beyond messages in a digital inbox from some far off unspecified rift in paradox space would have some pretty immersion breaking implications on the setting overall. I know I answered a question offering Dave some clothes but the clothes were not given to him, I used it more as a prompt for him to take the clothes he already had out of the dryer. Is this blog safe for minors? This blog contains canon typical violence and themes, however when it comes to sexual content (the one thing minors absolutely CANNOT legally interact with) this blog is rated T for teen. Think like The Big Bang Theory or How I Met Your Mother. Sex can be implied and a frequent topic of conversation but never occurs on screen. Ultimately it's up to you and maybe your parents to decide if you can handle the blogs contents as you are responsible for curating your own online experience. TLDR if you're old enough to be on tumblr you should be fine.

How do I address the author?

My name is Sky, she/her pronouns exclusively. Please don’t try to hold conversations via the ask box. Just DM me.

Where do I send questions and comments for the author?

@meteor-crew-after-dark

[idyllic-affections]

Just found out people call the dottore clone you see on the boat "boattore" and now i can die in peace 😭. Would [Name] from your pantalone fanfic give some of the clones nicknames like that too?

dad!pantalone brainrot v (ft. il dottore).

summary. a general expansion on what il dottore's relationship with pantalone's child is like.

trigger & content warnings. dottore clones being... dottore clones. idk. they're insane. implied human experimentation.

tropes, pairings, fic length, & other notes. fluff. il dottore (and his clones) & pantalone's child!reader. 0.5k words. they/them pronouns for reader. prev | next

author's thoughts. you know, every time i see anyone like anything from the dad!pantalone series, i'm like... wow??? i wrote that a while ago and people still find it enjoyable..... anyway getting an ask related to it made me all giddy!!!!!! so of course i responded asap. also me, i do that, i call that dottore clone boattore LMAO i also call him psi, but i like boattore better. it's silly and goofy. also god i welcome asks related to this series with open arms! i love talking about it. i think i should make a tag for it tbh... initially, i wasn't going to, because i didn't plan on expanding upon it, but it's still popular with tumblr users, so... yeah. i'll probably make a tag for it.

il dottore's relationship with [name] is... complicated. it varies from clone to clone.

first off, to answer your question—yes! [name] absolutely has their own silly nicknames for the clones, mainly because they take pleasure in knowing how much it annoys them. the clones can't really do much of anything about it, either. they all just have to tolerate [name]'s antics, because... well. pantalone handles all of the fatui's finances, you know? they can't exactly tell his kid to stop being an annoying little brat, lest they decide to complain to the regrator about the clones' behavior. they wouldn't. they're mature enough not to complain to their father about things like that (for the most part, anyway).

some of the clones find [name]'s nicknames kind of funny... but most of the dottores find it annoying. it sucks to be them, because [name] finds their annoyance very funny.

it's a trait they got from their father, really, because he also finds amusement in the doctor's agitation, but he's more partial to prime dottore's agitation. his kid finds it funnier to annoy the younger segments.

as i've mentioned before, dottore prime is one of [name]'s tutors. he's also the only one that has any kind of authority over them, but only within their tutoring hours. after that? they're free to agitate him all they want, however... they once discovered that some of their work had become inexplicably more difficult after they messed with him outside of tutoring hours. when they asked about it, dottore had told them that if they had the time to be a nuisance to him, then they must have had the time to study harder as well, surely? what else would they be doing with all of that freetime? surely being a sheer and utter brat to him didn't take up all of that freetime? he only had to do increase the rigor of their work one single time for them to get the message. they don't bother him anymore.

(if someone decides to address their sudden politeness towards prime dottore, as their father did once, they get very flustered and annoyed, quickly changing the conversation to another subject. they hate to admit that the doctor in his prime has ultimately won... at least they can freely bother his segments without suffering the same humiliating defeat.)

on the other end of the scale, there's webttore. webtoon dottore—i call him beta, personally. the goofy segment with no fashion sense. yeah, that one. he's always about three seconds away from tearing their throat out. their smug aura mocks him. now, funnily enough, if anyone else so much as indicates that they're having violent thoughts towards [name]? he doesn't take that well. he's sort of like a brother to them; he's someone they're always at odds with but he's also someone who would not hesitate to tear apart anyone who threatens [name]'s safety. he always needs new test subjects! he'd rather die than so much as imply that he has any kind of attachment to them, though. it's an interesting dynamic, to say the least.

oh, and might i add...

[name] wouldn't take primettore's decision to destroy all the other clones too well.

just saying.

please consider reblogging, it helps me out quite a lot!

[milkbreadandtadpoles]

soup and stars

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snip: you keep sukuna's favorite after workout drink in your fridge. and no, you don't frequent that store. sukuna looks at you like you hung the moon and painted the sky yourself when you're either on the brink of death or not paying attention (it's only with his eyes, though. he's a certified rbf). the two of you have been hooking up for over a year with little conversation outside of snarky comments and emojis he doesn't get.

and he sometimes takes care of you when you're sick for five hours only.

warnings: suggestive language, sukuna being a parallel of this guy i used to hookup with who was srsly emotionally constipated and really milked my daddy issues, reader being dumb (lol me), probably a lot of run on sentences and weird descriptions but i am not srry ab it, no Y/N here, a lot of parentheses for some reason

authors note: omg hey. i have this a03 and i thought i'd put a tumblr to pair it together cuz i had an old tumblr but i was kinda done w her (may she rest in peace!) anywayyy my name is lillie, hi again. hope u enjoy this!! luv me some sukuna who reminds me of all my bad flings.

˚ ༘ ೀ⋆｡˚⋆˚🐾˖°⋆｡°🎧•‧.₊˚🐰‎₊˚⋆⭒｡⋆୨୧˚˚ ༘ ೀ⋆｡˚⋆˚🐾˖°⋆｡°🎧•‧.₊˚🐰‎₊˚⋆⭒｡⋆୨୧˚

Since when did you get sick like this?

This time, not that time you lied to your boss, you have an actual stomach bug. Stomach thing. Food poisoning from bad sushi. You don't know.

What you do know, however, is that everything smells bad, you can’t stomach anything other than a handful of saltine crackers. You couldn’t even finish your coffee yesterday morning; you’re just coming down from a fever. Everything is hot and cold, nothing feels right on your skin. Noises are too loud, but the silence is making your ears bleed. 

Curled up into the sheets, you shiver. It rocks over you, feeling cold despite your body burning off whatever infection is brewing in your gut. Your skin feels crusty yet damp, scalp itchy and pulled back into two haphazard buns. Stray strands lay over your forehead that twinkles with cold sweat.

Vampire Diaries plays in the background, volume loud enough so you can hear where you’re at within the series but quiet enough to give you grace if you wish to take another four hour nap. You don’t even want to get on your phone, ignoring the occasional, silent buzzes and flashing light that draw your eyes away from the fuzz of your blanket.

Time passes in a druken haze, not knowing whether you slept or not, not feeling entirely there at all. You fail to count the amount of times you got up to throw up or sit on the toilet, thankful the walls are snug enough to rest your head on the wall of it to contemplate if it’s worth passing out before you gather your wits and crawl back into bed.

There’s a rustle in your sheets, a distant sound of intro music for the vampire show.

“You still watchin’ this shit?” A gruff voice sounds from above you.

Your brows furrow in your sleepy haze- you don’t have energy to fight an intruder, pulling the sheets over your head that throbs from lack of everything. Horribly big hands paw at the clothed dip in your waist. And you let out a mixture of a whine and huff at the realization that your little fling (if you could even call it that) picked a horrible day to play.

“Sukuna,” You murmur, drawing the blankets higher above the crown of your head before he has a chance to yank it down and see your very unprepared self, “Not a good time.”

Sukuna, an occasional fuck and lackluster addition to your friend group, scoffs a laugh, muttering something about you really being a freak, something about thanking your dad for giving you all these issues that only he can handle as he gropes the flesh of your ass.

And it would feel so lovely if you weren’t on the brink of death.

“Eggroll. All the eggrolls.”

He groans, lifting his hand away from you in agreement to the safe word (because that one time when the two of you didn't have one and you reacted that way actually scared the shit out of him). 

“I’m sick.” You add quietly, urging your body to morph into a tighter ball. If Sukuna were his younger brother, or his younger brother’s friend, you’d ask either of them to cover you with another blanket. Or to refill your water bottle. Maybe even run to the store down the road and grab you some soup. But this is Sukuna, and-

There’s a harsh tug at the blanket covering your head, and you try to weakly grip the fabric in place.

“That’s why you didn’t answer my text? ‘Cause you’re all disgusting and shit?” He questions, giving one more quick tug to reveal your messy hair, the tint to the apples of your cheeks. The way his gaze feels makes the very top of your gut churn, and you scrunch your face as you decide whether or not you need to puke again.

“Mhm.” You nod, begging for the fabric back with a soft tug. Sukuna relents, snorting as you cover your head back up.

His body weight makes your bed frame squeak as he repositions himself to slouch next to you, and you peer at him through the crack of the blanket. He pulls out his phone, typing on it lazily. Through your bubbling stomach, confusion festers simply because he isn’t moving.

“Thought you not replying was you trying to be cute ’n shit.” A hand makes its way onto your lower back, the weight of it making your eyes bulge in silent surprise. With all your strength, you shake your head and whisper a soft sorry. He tuts, like all weirdly immature but mature, rude but nice and confusing older brother types do, dismissing your apology with a little pat on your back.

Another pat, and you’re snuggling into the blankets and letting your eyes close, mapping the way his hand feels and ignoring the way your stomach cramps. You hear the distant sound of a picture being taken, only being able to mutter a humiliated groan. There's a vibration where your phone is, and you know that the group chat has been notified of your predicament. 

“You eat? Take a shower?” Sukuna asks, mastering the art of making his concern dismissive. The silence on your end answers everything he needs to know, humming in acknowledgement. You’re a stubborn little shit who likes to suffer in isolation, he’ll give you that.

He synchs a basketball game to your TV, adamantly rotating between patting and rubbing your back until you’re snoring and curled up next to his lap.

When you wake up, you’re still cold, still sweating off your fever. You peers towards the bed, noticing the empty spot but the basketball game still softly playing on the screen. For a moment, you let your head slump back into the mattress before you force yourself out of bed to pee.

The weight in your body is too overwhelming to be horrified by your appearance when you emerge to make your way into a shared bathroom with your roommate. They’re all gone for work, and you don’t have the wit to ask where Sukuna got the time off to come fuck you in the middle of the day. Or why he was looking at your location. 

“I forgot how much of a bitchy face you have.” He comments, voice a note softer than you would usually hear, as you pad towards the bathroom. You grumble a quiet fuck you, slinking towards the bathroom.

You fix your hair to the best of your ability- standing up too long made you throw up. Your abdomen feels like it’s gone to three HIT classes in a row, hardly having any reserves to help you stand and brush your teeth. So you do it knelt over the bathtub, making sure to lock the door to make sure that stupid person of interest doesn’t see you so weak.

Rinsing your mouth out knelt over a tub is a new low, spitting the globs of toothpaste and water into the drain before you turn it off and brace the sides of the tub to stand and wander back out into the kitchen. Your bones feel like brittle, a bowling ball in your stomach forcing your posture to look horrifyingly old. It's been two days but you've aged thirty years. 

“Hi.” You greet weakly, rubbing your eyes before putting your arms back down as swiftly as you can. When was the last time you shaved?

Sukuna nods back, digging through a plastic bag. It’s only a few seconds before you’re sitting on the floor. The tile makes you twitch, and you wonder how you’re going to get up without looking like a hobbling mess. Maybe you’ll just crawl.

Soup and some electrolyte drinks are set out on the counter- along with your favorite candy. For a moment, your brows furrow, and then your lip wobbles in realization.

“Did you get that for me?”

“Can’t fuck you if you’re all pitiful and disgusting.” Is all he says, but his lip twitches into a bewitching smirk as your eyes well with tears and you sniffle out a sweet thank you. "Of course you’d cry over stupid shit like this." He adds, shaking his head. 

His shoes click bluntly against the floor, and he peers down at you with that devastatingly handsome, horribly mean face.

“You could just go fuck another girl.” You murmur sappily, lip jutting into a pout. And it’s true, you know it. The two of you have established that. He throws it in your face, too, when you tell him you’re busy or you’re too sleepy. Or when you simply don’t want to deal with his attitude.

His laugh tickles your heart, staring at him with wide, watery eyes as he bends down and gathers you into his arms. You squirm, or try to, holding any pride and ego close to your chest like a rabid animal as you let out a faux uncomfortable noise. There’s a familiar tap to your ass that urges you to stop, and you sink into Sukuna’s terrifyingly comfortable embrace as he carries you back to your room. The two of you have hardly cuddled before, the absolute most being him begrudgingly letting you cling onto him after one particularly rough night- only to shove you off five minutes later, giving you a pat on the head as if to say good job, thanks for the head, before leaving.

So this is new, awkward, when your semi friend with semi benefits sets you down with the upmost genteel fashion and retreats back into the kitchen. He comes back with an armful of products moments later. Soup, your favorite cup filled with mystery get well liquid, a straw and a big spoon.

“I don’t like big spoons.”

“That’s too fuckin’ bad because that’s what I got- stop pouting like that, it's disgusting.”

Sukuna sets everything down and defiantly does not grab another spoon for you. You make a noise in the back of your throat when he reaches over and urges you to sit up with a silent look that you’re expected to figure out. He lets you maneuver a pillow behind your back, lets you curl a blanket around your body and change the TV back to Vampire Diaries- he does not let you feed yourself.

When you reach for the bowl of soup (your favorite- chicken and stars), he uses only a percentage of his strength to swat your hand away, giving you another demand to stop sulking like a little kid before he’s crawling (crawling!) across the bed. Bowl of soup and too big of spoon in hand, he sits across from and in front of your view from the show.

He leans forward in a sort of endearing way, brows furrowed in a certain concentration as he scoops the perfect spoonful of soup and stars, holding it to your mouth. And he watches when you open your mouth with furrowed brows, lips closing around the dipped metal so that nothing drips down your chin. The broth warms your mouth, your stomach in an instant, making your face relax and your back slump into the pillow that supports you.

There’s a prickle of humiliation on the apples of your cheeks, something Sukuna would likely make fun of if you weren’t half asleep by the time he finishes spoon feeding you. And yea, there was one singular instance of him swiping away fallen liquid away with his thumb. And yea, you’re going to remember that forever. And most definitely are you going to internalize this as something more between the two of you than just friends who fuck (friend being a huge overstatement).

“I don’t like you.” You find yourself murmuring as Sukuna thrusts your clunky, metal, pink water bottle in your face. Obediently, as you always are, you sip at the liquid, swallowing down any grimace as he stares right at you while you swallow.

“You’re not my favorite, either.” He grunts, picking the cup up as soon as you set it down and representing it to you with a face.

“I’m at least second to your video game console.” Your grumble with pursed lips, taking another measly sip. When Sukuna raises his brows, you take a few more.

“Third. Second is pot. And it’s a PS4- fucking nerd.”

The part of your stomach that isn’t cramping to shit flutters, your fever probably rises, and you smile to yourself as you take a big gulp of the electrolyte solution. You swallow before he says the softest atta girl and takes the cup to set it back down.

Sukuna helps you shuffle under three big blankets, gives you your phone and goes to wash the soup bowl. You text Satoru with sick enthusiasm, to which he reiterates it in your (other) group chat where everyone just starts sending silly fangirlish memes. Shoko isn’t phased, Suguru isn’t pleased, either. But there’s an icky smile on your face, the thought of when it’ll end and Sukuna will go back to, well, Sukuna, gnawing at the back of your throat.

But you’ll pretend for today, like you do everyday.

“Are you leaving?” You ask when he comes back into the room, question answered when the bed dips once more.

He grunts a no, to shut up and sleep as he synchs up another sports game. You don’t mind, turning your head so you’re facing him. His back rests against a pillow with a floral case, one of your weighted stuffed animals squished between the weight of his back and the metal bed frame.

You stare with lidded eyes and hot cheeks, tracing the musculature of his shoulders and the sharpness of his face in the same pattern you do after he’s done making you quiver and shake and cry. The plush of the blanket is a perfect excuse for the sheen of sweat on your face, your stomach still molten lava and convulsing.

But it’s just a little more than a dull ache with Sukuna here, bored face and all.

For a moment, before you fall asleep for a third time today, you feel his fingertips, hard and gruff and soft, brush against your cheek, your chapped lips. You’re too tired to hide or quip at him in the static-like fashion that makes him laugh.

You swear you see his lips twitch when you hum affectionately. There’s a text waiting for your friends, a mental scoreboard to update. Smile number two. Four days apart. From holding a sparkler and ogling at it like a child at Satoru’s New Year’s Eve party to laying in bed sick, purring like a cat as he pets you.

“Stop looking like you’re going to die.” He all but requests, covering your face with a sliver of the blanket and looking back at the game. Grabbing the remote, he turns the volume up a few more notches to ignore your itty bitty, very sleepy laugh.

Seconds away from sleep, Sukuna uncovers it- you. His lingering gaze tingles your nose, all the way down to the tips of your toes. Your infatuation with him might as well be the cure to cancer from the faintest spark of energy it gave you.

He’s not there when you wake up. It could have been a fever dream for all you know if it wasn’t for the refilled hydro flask and oddly neat note scribbled for you to ‘drink the fuck up’ on one of your Sanrio sticky notes. There's a brief look of horror on your face knowing that he looked through your drawers to find one. 

You drink it all and take a gruesome looking picture, sending it to him with a silly caption- your way of saying thank you. Sukuna doesn’t respond, but the read receipts are on. And he doesn’t talk to you for awhile, as if he curates the perfect way to make you stay by letting the bubbling like for him simmer into nothing, only for it to come back in full force when asks if you’re awake three Thursdays later.He asks if he can still use the key you gave him to come by after the gym to shower because his little brother and friends are over and he doesn’t want to hear them blubber while they figure out their alcohol tolerance (or lack thereof).

A pearly, well built increment of yourself hopes it’s so he’ll check up on you, too, after he slinks into your room and fucks you just the way he likes- because he knows you like it, too.

And you say yes, like you always do. Tell him about this new body wash you got that he can use, that you just so happened to get his favorite drink from the store he get his protein powder and supplements from when you went grocery shopping.

you don’t even like that store lmfao

found a new prebiotic there! Saw it on Pintrest

sure

Sukuna is not immune to exploiting your obvious cartwheels to please him. He’ll never say thank you, and you won’t ever ask him to. You do it for all your friends, you tell him. Shoko’s toothbrush brand is in your bathroom cabinet when she sleeps over. Satoru’s moisturizer and favorite tooth-rotting snacks. Suguru’s blanket because he gets cold at movie nights. But Sukuna knows he could have whatever he asked for within the hour.

He’ll never address that he took care of you when you were sick. Both times. Or that there's a packet of your favorite gum in the console of his car. And he'd rather be dead than you, shit, anyone, find out that there's a hidden album of little you's in his phone. 

i’m just a good friend  *ੈ♡⸝⸝🪐༘⋆

we’re not friends.

It doesn’t hurt your feelings. Because you know he’s emotionally constipated, that no one’s ever really cared. Except Yuji, but little brothers always care. That whatever affection and consideration thrown his way will be burnt to a crisp, that he’ll only ever look at you like you hung the stars when no one’s looking, or only think about you at night when the weed isn’t helping him sleep. 

uh huh, we sure aren’t. see you later! make sure to stretch before you lift!!

stop texting me, it's fucking up my music

₊˚🖇️✩ ₊˚🎧⊹♡

?

[voxofthevoid]

I get hate comments on my fics once in a while and I do my best to ignore them. The few fans I have are amazing, but those 1 or 2 awful comments stick like bubblegum in my brain for MONTHS. I write FF to deal with my anger issues, but sometimes I feel like it's a lost cause when I get comments like that.

How do you deal with the anger/frustration? Any tips for a newbie?

...I generally just call them a cunt. To their face and also here on Tumblr. Being the bigger asshole is my chosen method for dealing with hate comments.

I don't go around recommending this method, but if you struggle with anger issues the same way I do, it might actually be helpful.

The most common advice for handling hate comments is to delete and/or ignore—basically, to not give them the satisfaction of getting a rise out of you. Objectively, I think that's good advice, albeit reductive in how it characterizes the haters. Some of them just want attention, yeah, but some really believe what they're saying or think they're exercising their civic right to be a hater. The vast majority are anonymous cowards either way, and even the ones who slap their name on their bullshit usually can't take what they're dishing out. You can't really know what type you're getting though, so deleting/ignoring is optimal in that sense.

I've tried that. It didn't work out because, like in your case, it sticks to my brain for months and keeps pissing me off.

So I switched to just tearing them a new asshole, plus putting up a hall of shame on Tumblr. And that's worked wonders. I get it out of my system and am calm afterwards. As for the hate commenters, most of them scuttle away like garbage rats. Honestly, I've only had one person keep coming back for more, and that seems to be a case of unhinged obsession with me—always a risk for any writer (or anyone who gets public attention) but not very common behavior overall.

Ultimately, my stance narrows down to two things:

Hate comments say more about the commenter than you or your story. It's anti-social verbal diarrhea from people who never learned that the world doesn't revolve around them, and it should be afforded exactly that level of value. It's a matter of whether you silently clean off the mess or call them out for taking a shit on your carpet.

Your Ao3 comment section is not a democracy. Free speech protects one from the government, not a pissed-off author. Anyone who starts shit in the comments forfeits any right to be treated with civility.

TL;DR: Call them a cunt.

[consistentsquash]

Author Love Letter - Scarlet

Folks, definitely chime in you want to add stuff because a lot of folks have probably met Scarlet in different contexts!

Also it's like 4am here so my spag and everything is going to be pretty bad. Sorry about that.

Scarlet, @givereadersahug on Tumblr and emeraldlove on AO3. Powerhouse of a human, brilliant multiship and multifandom writer, moderator, fest runner, community builder, absolute role model. 0% drama, 100% love. People first always. The Queen of giving without expectation.

We were like talking about having a Rec Fest sometime back in March 2023. Of course I was 100% talk 0% action. But Scarlet actually got a lot of great folks involved, started the fest, got comods to help out and literally just made it happen. That's a good TLDR intro: Make Things Happen Behind the Scenes. Like an iphone or something. Scarlet behind the scenes = it was going to work 100% without problems.

When I think about Snarry fandom, like any big and old fandom we have different folks with different strengths/contributions. Great writers, artists, podficcers, organizers. But it's pretty hard to find somebody whose first priority is making the fandom thrive because we are fans/fan creators, pretty attached to the stuff we are doing, we have time limits because fandom is a hobby and we have to prioritize between creating and community building a lot of times. Scarlet really said Community First, People First. I don't even know how to explain it but 0% transactional vibes.

Making space for people. Meeting folks where they are at. Obviously introverts have a hard time in communities sometimes. Some folks learn how to handle it. No judgment here because these experiences can be subjective. But I have seen Scarlet go the extra mile for folks who are new/introverted/feeling imposter syndrome/going through some complicated fandom experiences. Just being there for them and supporting them to get started.

Also a brilliant writer of darkfic!!! Scarlet's darkfic shorts are some of my all time favs because of how dark/delicious/intense they are. These fics really give me 2000s dirtyhotbadwrong vibes because of how totally out and proud they are about their fiction is not reality vibe. Tons of range and lots of genres but the darkfics get my special love because they are just dirtybadhotwrong shameless amazingness. Check out In His Bed to get a sense for that unique vibe! Her community building and cheerleading wins are huge but also her darkfic writing is some of my all time fav.

Also Queen of Attention to Detail. I have read some fests with her and she guessed authors just like that during anon phase. Just incredible observation Sherlock Holmes style.

My fav fest memory is doing Snapecase reading with her. She guessed the author for Candles Lit Against the Dark, @perverse-idyll based on the title because she noticed/connected a lot of the flame/shadow imagery in the author's other Snarry fics. I am pretty good about guessing some authors myself because I can identify their style but guessing from the title is advanced superpowers. I can't even!! So extra, Scarlet. So totally extra and I love love love <3

Another fav memory I have is about analyzing fics with her. When HotD was airing eldritcher's Ossuarium was being written episode by episode. It was an insane time. We had a brilliant time analyzing those fics :D We were both passionate but Scarlet was so extra passionate, noticed tons of detail that was totally lost on me, really good at connecting the dots, just a hardcore close reader.

Also dead dove fics! 100% supporter of folks writing dead dove, incest, darkfics.

Also reccing older fics! Her Dudley phase was insane and she was finding fics from like 2000s on wayback just like that with some superhuman skills. On like websites I didn't even know existed. Really Sherlock Holmes <3

Also smaller fests. Scarlet supported a ton of Dreamwidth fests and got new folks to join them/introduced them to Dreamwidth culture and literally was the bridge between different types of fandom culture a lot of times.

Also reccing fic! Her recs for For I Have Found Salvation by @lumosatnight and also for @wilfriede's podfics have so much love/passion/enthusiasm and I just love those works 2x because of the emotional connect of her reccing <3

Also nwhiker! I really got into this author's Snack fic, Second Life because of Scarlet's passionate, passionate reccing. When Scarlet got into something the reccing happened with big big love and for me that was like the best thing ever because folks who love things with big love are just super special <3

Also my concrit buddy for movies. Ingmar Bergman to Audrey Hepburn to Past Lives just a total knowledge wikipedia about movies/movie making/movie meta/movie crit. I really changed my perspective about movies after learning from her. Also shows! Watching HotD and doing episode reviews with Scarlet is like one of my best memories ever ever ever <3 Also books!

Also moderator of Snarry discords like @houseofsnarry, participated, started and ran a ton of communities and fests including the @hprecfest which is just finishing this week <3 <3

If I have to describe Scarlet in like one word I am going to say Connection. 100% about connection, 100% heart led. So special. Love, love, love.

pic source Los Angeles Street Art photography by bigcitiesbrightlights