#if it shows any plagiarism i'll have to just do it myself...

[roaringroa]

fucking hate doing uni work with people who aren't my designated group project friends cause some people really just blatantly plagiarize and copy from chatgpt like huh you didn't even try to hide it

[naranjapetrificada]

Specifically about the racefakery:

I'm primarily seeing the conversation around All This focus on plagiarism (which makes sense) but I wanted to say some things as one of the handful of Black people I'm aware of that hang out around here:

1. Discord makes my brain itch and I've been afraid to go to OFMD bluesky after how bad OFMD twitter was, so I'm often one of so few Black people on here that you can count us one hand. I wasn't especially close with Atticus but I did like knowing that someone else was gonna be loud about racist Ed takes from a "position of authority" as it were. That knowledge made shit feel a lot less lonely over here and this motherfucker took that from me. That's what I feel betrayed about. That's what pisses me off about the racefaking in particular. Things are now unequivocally going to be harder for me around here than they were before and I hate that he was able to put me in this position.

2. I'm not aware of if he plagiarized any of my fics because they're mostly 100% canon compliant or in one case, too weird to effectively copy, but I'll never know because 100+ middling fics is too many to check through. I'm okay not knowing because the stilted way he wrote about Ed's hair and Ed's race are not things I wish to subject myself to anymore. But for the record, his fics are one of the places where the racefakery shows the most imo because writing makes you tell on yourself in unanticipated ways.

3. Maybe this next point will get me blocked by even more white people in this fandom but here we go anyway. I've struggled to come up with a more diplomatic way of saying "white people are too polite/conflict averse" but like, white people are too polite/conflict averse. This has literally come up in this exact fandom before, around a less fraught issue but still. It had ugly fallout then and it's had ugly fallout now, and while I understand not wanting to come at somebody you perceive as a person of color where everyone could see it, I do wish we had an environment where people who did have suspicions about him could have come forward. The amount of harm he was able to do is directly proportional to the amount of time and space he had to do it, and even before you start talking about the racefaking he was up to shady shit that I certainly had no idea was going on. Which leads to my next point.

4. I can recall a couple times where my race-related spidey senses tingled, but any unease I had was easily lost in the constant din of race-related shit that comes with my existence both in and out of fan spaces. To borrow from scarrletmoon (I miss having you here!) it's like background radiation. Also, there was always the "maybe it's just bad writing" excuse, or the "it's not my place to say but the way he writes about Judaism isn't quite like the way Jews I know talk about it" excuse. There was my (continued) inability to imagine why some white person would bother, because no amount of clout is worth what it's like to be Black on the internet. There was also probably some kind of aversion I had to the idea of losing "one of us" on here, which honestly might be something he was preying on but it's not productive for me to try to get inside the mind of someone who would do what he's done.

And if I was falling into those particular traps (around the racefaking in particular) myself, there's no way the rest of y'all could have known anything was up. Certainly not in isolation. Now I can't help but wonder if being seen interacting with me gave him some kind of legitimacy in any of your eyes, which is lowkey horrifying if true.

Anyway, those are the things I have to say now, after processing for a bit. It's still not worth my sanity to spend more than 30 seconds at a time looking at Discord, where I know a lot of this sort of thing gets discussed, but I can't help but wish I'd known about this sooner.

[brf-rumortrackinganon]

What happened to up the divorce watch? What did I miss?!

Nothing concrete - it's just vibes.

The LA fire charity papwalk was on January 10th. Today is February 21st - that's 6 weeks, to the day. And during these 6 weeks, there was:

The disaster tourism papwalk (Jan 10th) with instantaneous criticism

Delaying her show (the announcement was on Jan 12th)

Clapping back at the criticism from the disaster papwalk (releasing additional footage, saying other celebs were there too, doing a second disaster tourism papwalk to give her donations away)

Rumors about reshooting and reediting the show to clap back at criticism

Vanity Fair

Friends promoting them in magazine interviews

Clapping back at Vanity Fair

The Sussex 2023 Christmas card photo getting leaked which also has the best, clearest look at Lili's face since 2022 (which also led to more accusations/controversy about photoshopping the kids)

The manic Billie Eilish swag video

Way over-the-top PDA from Invictus Games

Leaving Invictus Games early and making a fuss about leaving early

Way over-the-top Valentine's Day post (which makes me think she left Invictus early to be able to post that photo and message)

the Valentine's video making breakfast with the kids

The kids being part of her social media now

The re-re-re-rebranding

Another manic confessional video

Gossip that Charles is butthurt Harry's Birmingham Invictus will overshadow Camilla's 80th birthday and Harry doesn't care

Outcry/criticism about the re-re-re-rebrand

Accusations of plagiarizing her logo/insignia

Accusations of stealing the copyright of the company name

The mood board that has old photos from her old, defunct Instagram, internet fan art, and kid crafts, which is being interpreted as a clapback to criticism about the re-re-re-re-rebrand

Again...it's only been 6 weeks. This is a lot of stuff going down...a press tsunami-like amount of stuff going down, some might say.

While Meghan doesn't have the scale of attention and fame that she did back in 2017 - 2018 when the press tsunami of Fall 2018* was hitting her at all sides from all sides at all times, she still has a kind of notoriety that gets her a lot of attention and she has enough...staying power, I guess, if you will, that the volume of criticism can overwhelm her, the same way it did back in 2018.

Think of it like a wave pool. Everything Meghan does makes waves but every once in while, a big wave comes along that knocks everyone down. It's not a press tsunami because it's not coming at her from all sides at all sides at all times, but there's enough being thrown at her in repetitive succession that she can't handle it. And not only does she have difficulty handling all this criticism herself, she doesn't have the kind power to compel others to defend her the way she did back in 2018 - so she truly is handling her own defense.

And when Meghan has to defend herself, her MO to escalate her activities to distract us from other stuff that's happening. So the more she posts on social media, the more these confessional-style videos come out, the more it feels like she's trying to keep us further away.

So for me right now, it feels like a lot of distraction. Her behavior is more over the top than we've seen recently. She's featuring the kids on her social media, which should raise flags given how intensely protective they are of the kids' privacy. She and Harry have always been overly-PDA, far more than most celeb couples are, but kissing and hugging and being overly touchy the way they were at the Invictus opening ceremony feels like an overreaction to deflect 3 months of divorce rumors.

Now granted, it has been 8 years since Meghan was on social media and - speaking only for myself - I didn't follow her and I didn't give her any attention back then so I don't know if the way she is in these videos now (i.e., manic, hyperactive, fidgety) is how she was 10 years ago. This may very well be her normal and if that's the case, then with time I'll probably downgrade it back to Level 2.

But this behavior from Meghan is not how she's been acting since 2017 - she's usually more composed, more practiced, more in control of herself - which makes me wonder that there's something else going on. In my experience, when someone has such a huge personality difference like this, they're overcompensating and they're hiding something.

Again, let me remind you: I don't know if this is how Meghan was before the BRF pulled her into their orbit. I'm just saying that this version of her, this character (if you will) is different in a smoke, shadows, distraction kind of way because there's way more at stake now than there was back in 2018.

So for me that means upping the stakes on Divorce Watch for now.

*Criticism for pregnancy announcement at Eugenie's wedding, overshadowing the Aussie tour with relationship PR and all the missteps/snafus in her behavior/attitude, getting booted from KP, getting booted from the Royal Foundation, she made Kate cry, the staff leaving one after the other after the other, start of bullying allegations, Angela Kelly, tasting egg

[jeonqkooks]

our beloved summer | jjk (7.5) (m.)

You made a vow to hate Jeon Jungkook ever since he packed up and left you without a single explanation, but when he shows up at your door after years of radio silence, it turns out that maybe your resolve isn’t as strong as you thought.

pairing: producer!jungkook x songwriter!reader rating: 18+ (minors dni) genres/warnings: exes au, fluff, Angst, smut; THE REASON™️, crying because obviously there's gonna be crying, mentions of hobi leaving :(, cursing, uhm she hits him; kissing (well, of course 😂), br*ast play, t*tty s*cking, oral s*x (f. receiving), f*ngering, unprotected s*x, r*ding, cr*ampie, uhm idk i think that's it word count: 6.9k (poetic, i know) note (1): holy fucking shit i am literally shaking like a chihuahua as i'm writing this a/n. what the hell it's finally here. we've been waiting for this for almost a year and a half. TREMENDOUS thanks to Jo @daechwitatamic, Ari @/wintaerbaer (edited 2024: crossed out but not removed bc even tho she plagiarized obs afterward, she did beta this for me so i guess i still gotta give her that lmfao), and Jazz @jeonwiixard for beta-ing this for me and for reassuring me that it's not a load of crap (probably) and especially Jo for telling me if i back out she'll come kick me. frick! gaaaah. okay i'm gonna let you read or i'll go out of my mind

series masterpost / playlist ; moodboards ; taglist

as always, i’d appreciate any thoughts or comments you may have, and please drop a like and/or reblog if you enjoy reading ♡

I want you to smile, to feel like enough 'Cause you deserve yellow and lions and love I hope you come back when you're doing well Forgive me for being the worst of myself

New Recording 28 - Chelsea Cutler

The second the door is closed, his mouth is on yours again. 

His hand on your waist, yours in his hair, it’s similar to how it was mere minutes ago, just the urgency has increased tenfold. You want his suit off as much as you want your dress on the floor.

Jungkook detaches from your lips to let you breathe as he cages you between his body and the door, but it’s not like you can focus very well on breathing when he starts kissing down your neck, sucking bruises into your skin. His hands travel south, one palm curving around your hips to grope your ass, the other settling on the back of your thigh to lift it up, opening your legs wider so he could better slot in between them. With your leg lifted, it makes the slit in your dress ride up, exposing your core to the cool air of the room. You can feel his growing bulge pressed against you, right over your panties. 

You whimper his name when he sucks on the sweet spot on your neck, his hips grinding against you slowly.

“Yeah?” You can hear the smirk in that one simple word and the honey that drips from his voice. “What is it?”

“Want you…”

“I’m right here,” Jungkook says. His slender fingers rub you over the pink lace that you’re wearing underneath your dress, teasing your opening through the fabric for a few beats before he pushes your panties aside. “Fuck, you’re so wet.”

His breath is hot on your neck. He presses his lips against your skin absentmindedly, the tip of his index circling you but not pushing inside just yet.

“Tell me you want me too,” you pant, your arm hooking around his neck to hold him close.

“I want you.”

Truth.

You pull him in for another bruising kiss before you blindly push him further into the room, your hands roaming the broad expanse of his clothed chest. He stops when the back of his knees hit the bed.

“Hey.” Jungkook breaks away from the kiss to look at you. “Are you sure?”

If Jimin knew what you’re doing right now, he’d say that you have zero self preservation instincts.

He’d be right, though. If you had any self preservation instincts, you wouldn’t be doing this.

Your stupid, battered heart has only ever wanted him.

“I’m sure,” comes your immediate reply. It’s desperate, but you don’t have it in yourself to even care. “I’m sure. I want this. Please.”

“You were drinking.”

“I’m not drunk. I promise.”

Maybe it’d be better if you were drunk. Then you could at least blame this lapse of judgment on a pathetic state of inebriation and not on your stupid self who’s always weak for him.

He stares at you for a minute, searching for any sign of your willingness being driven by alcohol. He seems relieved when he finds none, and it isn’t until then that he shrugs off his jacket, before helping you take off his dress shirt and trousers.

You haven’t seen him like this in so long.

Every defined line on his body, accentuating every detail that you could spend hours running your fingers over.

He looks different but at the same time, not really. A tad more muscular, but still the same lean frame. Hard chest and abs on full display for you. God, your fingers are fucking twitching with the need to touch him.

Once he’s been stripped down to his boxers, he leans down to kiss you before you stop him with a hand on his chest. The lone tiger lily on his arm catches your attention.

Your fingers reach out to trace the black ink on his body, the lines delicate, your touch feather light. You’re suddenly curious. When did he get it? You can’t remember if you two ever talked about getting tattoos.

“What does it mean?” you ask. It strikes you with the realization that this is just one of the thousands of things that you missed, a reminder of your lost time. 

“Please love me,” he says, bringing his hands up to cup your face. He looks at you, just for a few seconds, before clarifying, “It means ‘Please love me,’” then kissing you again.

Jungkook clumsily and blindly searches for the dress’ zipper on your back, giving it a few impatient tugs until it finally starts gliding down your body. Your lips never part from one another as the dress falls to the floor, pooling at your feet. But once you step out of it, he does pull back to look at you from head to toe. His eyes fall to your chest, clad in a lacy pink bra that matches your panties. The look he gives you is the same one that he did when he saw you in your dress earlier today. But there’s something else in his eyes - realization, pride, perhaps a question too.

His hands are back on your body instantly, throwing you onto the bed, crawling over you like a predator. He discards your bra with ease, flinging it to the floor with the rest of your clothes. You shiver when the chilly air meets your bare chest, but the sensation quickly goes away when he takes your breast into his warm mouth. You let out a delighted sigh, arching your back to push yourself further into him as his tongue flicks over your stiff nipple. One of his hands comes up to squeeze your other breast to make sure that it isn’t neglected, rolling your pebbled bud between his thumb and forefinger. He switches to sucking your other tit after a while, then pawing at the one he just had in his mouth.

“Jungkook,” you whine his name when he makes out with your tits for too long, because there’s somewhere else that desperately requires his immediate attention. “Need you…”

He releases your nipple with a wet pop, and he looks pleased with himself when he sees that they’re thoroughly glistening with his spit. “Sorry,” he says with a chuckle. “Didn’t mean to keep you waiting.” He starts making his way down your body, kissing every inch of your skin that’s on display for him, before you put a hand on his shoulder when his face gets close to your thighs.

“What are you doing?”

He looks up at you as his fingers ghost over the fabric of your panties. “Can I?”

You lick your lips, contemplating whether or not you have the patience to wait for him. But alas, you decide, “Okay.”

Jungkook makes quick work of sliding your underwear down your legs and letting it join the pile on the floor. Even in the dim light, he can see just how wet you are, practically glittering with arousal, looking so utterly inviting that it makes his mouth water. All of this, just for him.

He doesn’t waste another second, diving right into you to lick a stripe up your dripping folds. Swiftly burying two fingers into your heat, he doesn’t stop until he’s knuckles deep. Your lips part in a silent but delighted moan. You forgot how good he used to make you feel. Your fingers could never feel as good as his, not thick enough to stretch yourself open and not long enough to reach deep inside of you.

“Fuck,” you drawl, your eyes fluttering shut when the tip of his tongue meets your throbbing clit, teasing it until you’re practically grinding against his face. You thread a hand into his hair, gripping his dark locks until he’s groaning, sending blissful vibrations all throughout your body. The figure 8’s that his tongue draws on your clit sets you alight, sends you into a whole other dimension completely as pleasure courses through your veins. 

“So good,” he mumbles. To you? To himself? You can’t tell, but that doesn’t really matter. “Still so good.”

You hear it, just how soaked you are, as he begins thrusting his digits in and out of you. He strokes your walls delicately with each press of his fingers, scissoring you open for what you know is to come. 

His tongue dips into your entrance then, teases your dripping hole as you pant heavily, 

Your legs close in on his head as the orgasm nears, but he keeps your thighs apart, firmly holding them open as he makes you unravel.

This is fucking unreal - Jungkook with his whole face tucked between your legs, desperate to make you come with his talented mouth. You never would have anticipated this when you woke up this morning.

No, just a while ago you were crying by yourself down at the beach. Now you’re crying out his name as he smothers himself in you.

Once he starts curling them inside of you, it’s embarrassing how fast you come. You clench hard around his fingers as the orgasm washes over you, dripping down his fingers and he uses the added wetness to carry you through the high.

“Jungkook…” you whimper, sounding completely fucked out even though it’s only just beginning. After a while, the heightened pleasure fades into the background, and he presses soft kisses against your inner thigh.

He crawls his way up your body until he’s facing you again. You watch his fingers and the way they’re coated in your juices, wondering what he’ll do with them next. Jungkook languidly smears the wetness all over your lips like he’s carefully painting them, only to kiss you afterward. When you moan against him, he takes the opportunity to slip his tongue into your mouth. Your hand finds its way into his boxers then, wrapping your fingers around his hardened length, pumping him in your fist until he’s shallowly rutting against you.

The kiss gets broken when he suddenly pulls away, realization dawning on him. “Shit,” he exclaims. “I don’t have a condom.”

“Oh.” You blink at him, then you both just look at each other for a while. This isn’t a problem with no solution, even if the solution is a disastrous one in hindsight. You just want him, so badly that you can’t think of anything else.

He waits for you, doesn’t dare say anything else until you do.

Yet again, the opportunity presents itself for you to stop.

But you’ve already gone this far, and though it’s damn near impossible, you want him even more than you did before.

“Are you clean?” you ask.

It’s evident that he’s surprised by the way his eyes widen, and his silence that follows for the next half a minute. “Yeah,” he tells you.

“Okay. Then we don’t need a condom.”

He says your name once, his fingers brushing your hair away from your face sweetly. You always did like your name best when it used to fall from his lips so softly. “Are you sure?” he asks.

“I’m sure. I promise.”

Jungkook sucks in a breath, like he’s steadying himself, before he rids himself of the remaining piece of clothing on his body, then settles between your legs again. This time, his cock rests directly on your bare pussy. The anticipation makes it harder for you to breathe, makes you squeeze your thighs around his waist to not let him leave.

“How long has it been?”

Your answer is vague. “Too long,” you say. You don’t want to tell him that there’s been no one else since him, but you have a feeling that he understands it anyway. You think that he’d be pleased with your answer, that maybe it would boost his ego in a way, but there’s only a certain sadness that settles in his eyes. 

“Okay.” Regardless, he pushes past the sudden gloom that befalls his features, blinking away the disheartenment swimming in his irises, to align himself with your entrance. He rubs his cock against your pussy to coat you in his precum, even though you yourself are certainly more than wet enough for him to slide home easily. “Ready?”

“Yes,” you confirm, bracing your hands on his shoulders as he eases the tip into you, making the both of you moan at the contact. You feel him, all of him.

For a second, you wonder if he has ever forgone protection with anyone else, or if it’s only ever been just you.

Jungkook takes one of your hands off his shoulder to lay it flat on the bed next to your head, lacing your fingers together, giving your hand a slight squeeze. “Breathe. You can do it.”

“Give me a minute.”

“We’ve got time,” he says, his voice smooth like velvet.

“Can you kiss me?” you ask, almost like you’re shy even though he’s balls deep inside of you.

He chuckles lightly, so endeared by you and your silly question.

His lips meet yours sweetly, like doing so would help make the stretch less painful. Maybe it does, at least a little bit. 

You can feel his cock throbbing inside of you, and he’s probably trying so hard to hold back, but he keeps kissing you nonetheless.

“You can move,” you say after a while.

“I’ll go slow, okay?”

“Okay.”

He rears his hips back, slowly, then thrusts forward again. You whimper from the slight burn, but it’s nothing you can’t handle. His movements are gentle for the next couple of minutes or so, and it isn’t until you start opening up more that he sets a steadier pace. Even when he starts to fuck you faster, one of his hands is still on your hips, rubbing your skin soothingly. 

“Fuck,” Jungkook grunts out, followed by a sigh of your name as he pumps into your cunt, every ridge and vein of his cock dragging deliciously in and out of your walls. “You feel so good.”

He gazes down at you as he moves, and there’s just something so intimate about it that it makes you want to cry again.

You know what it’s like to have him fuck you, and this isn’t it.

No, this is something else entirely.

I love you, you think. I love you so fucking much.

“Missed you.” His words come out hushed, caught in half a moan, half a whimper. “Missed you so fucking much.”

“Did you think about me?”

“Always,” he says, without even missing a beat.

“No,” you clarify. “When you were sleeping with other people, did you think about me?”

“I only thought about you.” His hips stutter as he tells you this, like he’s confessing to something that he shouldn’t. “I couldn’t stop thinking about you.”

You never admitted this to anyone, not even Taehyung even though he probably sensed it, but you used to feel like you could be physically sick just looking at the photos on his feed every time you’d lurk on a drunken night. They were never flashy, just subtle enough for you to know that there was someone. It made you nauseous, because the place next to him was always supposed to be yours.

You just stare at him, not knowing how to process this bit of information. Sure, it’s an ego boost. There’s some pride in knowing that you were the one on his mind even if you weren’t together.

He’s so utterly gorgeous like this that you can’t form a single coherent thought, too lost in the way his eyes bore into yours and in the blossoming warmth that spreads all over your chest from hearing his words.

How did he manage to get even more beautiful? Sculpted by the gods. The standard for all men.

“What is it?” he asks when you stare at him for too long.

“I…” You blink away the daze. “I wanna be on top.”

“Okay.”

Jungkook slips out of you just long enough to get seated with his back against the headboard and pull you into his lap. You hover over him, letting his tip rub against your dripping hole for a moment before you sink onto him. You tip your head back and sigh as you envelope him fully again, the only difference is that you can feel him so much deeper like this.

He grabs your ass with both hands, kneading your skin as he helps you ride him. The sounds that you make together are downright obscene, bouncing off the walls, ringing in your ears.

“Harder,” you tell him shakily. “Don’t wanna hurt you.”

“I want it to hurt,” you say, holding onto him like you’re bracing for impact, because you know he’ll give you what you want. “Make it hurt.”

Jungkook sighs once, then digs his heels into the mattress to steady himself before his hips go wild, thrusting into you with such force that it nearly has you sobbing, your head falling onto his shoulder. It makes you burn with pleasure, like a star before it becomes a supernova. When the tension starts building quickly, you can’t help but slam your hips down harder to meet his thrusts, to chase that high.

You press your lips against his skin, any spot you could find - his jaw, his neck, his shoulder. “Tell me you love me.”

The words are ready on the tip of his tongue, like he’s been waiting for an opportunity to say it. He doesn’t miss a single beat as he tells you, “I love you.”

“Mean it.”

“I do mean it. I love you.”

Truth.

For some sick and twisted reason, his words send you crashing over the edge, falling into that abyss of pleasure that you’ve been searching for. You say his name, over and over again, like you’re making up for all the years that he wasn’t around to hear it.

Your walls convulse wildly around him as you cry out, your toes curling, your thighs shaking. He holds you close, thrusting into you through your orgasm until you’re dizzy, like you could actually pass out from the overwhelming bliss.

“I’m close,” he tells you in a raspy voice.

You catch your breath long enough to say, “Come for me.”

“Where do you want it?”

“Inside,” you say without much thought. If you were in a clearer state of mind, you would know that it’s reckless and stupid. You’re not on birth control, and if anything were to happen, you would have no one to blame but yourself.

But you aren’t in a clear state of mind, and maybe this is even more dangerous than if you were fueled by alcohol. At least you can sober up from alcohol.

You just want him so badly that rationality seems like a luxury you can’t afford right now.

“Y/N,” he whispers shakily, though there’s a warning edge to his voice that you understand.

“I want you to come inside me. I want it. I want it so bad. Please.”

Jungkook groans at your answer. 

He doesn’t ask you to look at him, instead choosing to hide his face against your neck where you feel something wet glide down your skin as he grips your hips. It’s followed by a sniffle, and hands that hold onto you like you’re a lifeline. 

He’s crying, and that breaks your fucking heart.

You don’t know what to do. Part of you wants to tilt his chin up to look at you, because it feels strange without his tender gaze on you, but you decide against it even though the tips of your fingers tingle with the need to do so. 

Your walls clench with purpose, squeezing around him, trying to help you get there. It’s not that long before you hear your name falling from his lips in a choked out moan, so needy and beautiful and makes you nostalgic. He empties himself inside of you, making you shudder from the sudden warmth that he paints along your walls.

You stay in the same position for a few more minutes until your chest is no longer heaving with exhaustion and euphoria. He gently pulls you off his lap to lay you down on the bed, pressing an apologetic kiss against your bare shoulder when you wince from the oversensitivity, from any kind of movement at all. 

When he moves to throw on his boxers and goes to stand up, you reach for him. “Where are you going?” You instantly feel pathetic for asking.

He pauses, then squeezes your hand as that sadness from before makes an appearance in his eyes again. “I’m just going to the bathroom,” he tells you, his voice quiet.

The relief on your face must be visible. “Okay,” you say. Rationally, you know he probably wouldn’t fuck you and leave you the second the deed is done. But again, rationality is a luxury at the moment.

Jungkook returns a couple of minutes later with a warm cloth, and dabs it between your legs to clean you up. You grimace when he touches you there, evidently sore already from the activities you just engaged in.

“Sorry,” he’s quick to say, though it isn’t really his fault. Or maybe it is his fault. You’re not sure if that even matters.

When he’s done, he gets under the covers with you. “Come here,” he says, then shuffles your body closer to his until he’s holding you with his hands on your bare waist. He leans down to kiss you, and you let him. God, you feel like you’re fucking melting.

It’s different from the kiss down at the beach, and it’s different from the needy ones you shared in the past hour. It’s soft and slow and easy, like there’s nothing for you to worry your pretty little head about.

Jungkook breaks away eventually, and rests his forehead against yours then. One of his hands on your waist slides up to your ribs, until his thumb could brush the underside of your breast. The touch is gentle, sweet, completely innocent.

“You’re so beautiful,” he whispers. He means everything he tells you. “You’re perfect.”

You even blush, like you’re a stupid lovesick teenager. “Tell me,” you say.

“Anything.”

You reckon it’s self-indulgent at this point. You’re only asking to feel better about your place in his life, or rather, the place that used to be yours.

“Tell me you can’t live without me.”

He nudges his nose against yours. No hesitation. “I can’t live without you.”

Truth. You know it’s the truth.

Nonetheless… “Liar.” Your tone is soft. There’s no bite at all. You touch his face, trying to commit to memory every detail, how his soft skin feels under your touch as if it’s the last time you’ll ever get to see him like this. Maybe it is. You never got to have a last time with him, never got to know that it was ending before it already ended. You’re not thinking about the morning because you don’t want to, but the seed of anxiety is there in your belly. Your fingers trace his jawline as you say, “You lived without me. You were doing fine without me.”

His lips ghost over your cheek. “It wasn’t much of a life,” he says. “I couldn’t bear it without you.”

The thing is, you know that he’s being honest. And it should make you feel good that you affected him as much as he affected you.

But then… it keeps leading you back to that question. The question that you thought you could go the rest of your life without knowing the answer to. But for that to be possible, you needed him to stay gone, stay out of your world forever.

He shouldn’t be here, tangled up in the sheets with you and kissing you like his life depends on it. 

He shouldn’t tell you that he misses you, that he loves you. Shouldn’t tell you to please, love him too.

It’s contradictory, isn’t it? You needed to never see him again if you stood a chance of moving on with your life. You needed it and yet, all you wanted was to have him back by your side.

The tattoo catches your attention again. It feels like it’s laughing at you, mocking you.

You clench your teeth once, your eyes beginning to turn glassy. Jungkook sees it, and he’s quick to break up your train of thought. He presses his mouth to yours, shushing you with a deep kiss that makes your head spin, despite it all.

“Don’t think about it,” he mumbles against your lips, so desperate to get you to stop. As if he can sense where this could lead.

“How could I not? I don’t know who you are anymore.”

“You know me.” He holds onto your wrist, to keep your hand on his face before you can pull it away. “I’m still the same.”

“No, you’re not,” you say quietly, absentmindedly.

“Yes,” he insists. “Yes, I am.”

Maybe that’s true. Maybe you do see the person you used to know. But you only ever see him in glimpses and it always leaves you with a terrible, nauseous feeling afterward.

He doesn’t understand how much it hurts you to catch glimpses of the boy you used to love - the boy you still love - only to realize that maybe that isn’t the person he wants to be anymore. It feels like he keeps trying to kill that version of himself, like he despises the person who meant the world to you.

Are you gone forever?

Come back quietly.

“How old are you?” you ask after a moment.

The question makes him pause, his soft features twisting in confusion. He leans back a bit, so his eyes could focus on your face better.

“What?”

“How old are you?” you repeat.

It takes him another while to answer as he tries to see where you’re going with this. But when his search comes up empty, he just answers, “29.”

"I don't know who you are at 29. The last time I knew you was 24. No. You hadn't even turned 24 yet. Where was 25? 26? 27? 28? It’s unfair that you still know who I am when I don't know who you are. I feel like I never aged a day past 24. You carried on living but I'm still here."

His eyes well up once again, but this time, you can see it. The first tear spills over, lands somewhere on your collarbone. This is what you used to want, right? To see him hurting, just like how you were hurting? Well, be careful what you wish for.

No part of you feels victorious that you’re making him cry, that the score is finally being settled, because none of this undoes all of the shit you had to go through. If anything, it makes you feel even worse, like you’re still losing.

“I never moved on from us. I couldn’t move on from you,” he says, voice cracking toward the end. Your heart is doing the same thing in your chest, but you’re glad that he can’t see it. “I swear I miss you every day. I wanted you with me every day. You have no idea how much I wanted to come back to you.”

Jungkook looks so dejected, like a reflection of you these past few years. You recognize that look in his eyes. You know that sadness all too well. He was in as much pain as you were.

He loved you when he left you. He still loves you even after all this time. 

You inhale shakily. For the first time, you feel infinitely selfish for only focusing on your own misery without even stopping to give him the benefit of the doubt, to consider the possibility that maybe letting you go wasn’t something he wanted. Maybe he isn’t the antagonist that you spent years making him out to be.

There’s more to it, and you need to know.

“Then why did you leave me?”

Graduation was just shy of a month ago, and two weeks before that was Hoseok’s flight when he left you all behind.

You and Jungkook, along with Taehyung and Jimin had gone to see him off at the airport. Of course you did, you were his best of friends after all. The goodbye was full of jokes accompanied by sniffles, and tears that overflowed without permission because you all agreed that you would hold yourself together for Hoseok. Jimin was probably the one who cried the most, even though inside, you were equally sad to see your friend leave.

A part of your life was ending, and that in and of itself was depressing enough already, but you thought at least the whole group would still be together and start the next chapter by each other’s side.

Nonetheless, it wasn’t the end of the world. All of you could still make it work, even if it wasn’t the most ideal of situations. You promised to keep in touch, promised to message the group chat every day and have video calls every weekend. You were still kids, and kids tend to be optimistic like that.

What none of you could see coming was how everything would fall apart in a matter of mere weeks.

Jungkook thinks that decades from now, when he’s old and gray and helpless, he still won’t be able to forget that day.

He should’ve been more concerned when your mother contacted him out of nowhere, asking him to meet with her, asking him not to let you know where he was going.

He’d shown up half an hour early to the cafe where they were supposed to meet, just because he didn’t want to risk being late and have your mother disapprove of him even more. Not once had she expressed anything other than disdain toward your relationship, but you’d always told him it didn’t matter, that you were the only person who could decide what to do with your life, not anyone else, let alone your mother. He always believed you back then, even if deep down, he still wanted her to see that he was enough for you. Her unattainable approval still mattered to him.

Jungkook spent thirty whole minutes running on nothing but anxiety and caffeine. That was probably his first mistake, ordering a cup of coffee which only made him more nervous than he already was.

When your mother arrived, it barely took her any time at all to get right into what she came here to say. She hadn’t even bothered with a drink.

Was that how it was always going to end? Should he have seen it coming from the beginning? Was he the only one who thought it would be you and him all the way until the very end?

Maybe he was more of a hopeless romantic than he thought.

It was the way she had called him a phase that she hoped you’d grow out of. That she had let you keep this relationship for long enough, but now that you’d graduated - now that you’d be starting a life for yourself - she couldn’t sit back and watch you throw it all away for a boy who could never give you what you deserved.

It was the way she told him she didn’t want history to repeat itself. How she didn’t want to subject you to the same fate that she and your father had to suffer through. How she had left your dad because in the end, he wasn’t enough for her and you, even though you were a child and you deserved to grow up with a father and with love.

She said the same thing would happen to you and Jungkook, because you were meant for greater things and he was not meant to deserve you. She made it clear that he would always hold you back, that he would never amount to even a fraction of what you should receive in life.

“If you love her, you would let her go.”

Cliché, right? Like the kind of stuff you only ever see in movies? Well, movies have to take inspiration from somewhere.

He thought about his own mother then, and about how people could have such different ways of showing love. He believed that your mother loved you, and he still believes that. She wouldn’t have gone through the trouble of seeing him if she didn’t care about you. She wanted the best for you, and that wasn’t him.

She didn’t have to tell him to keep it a secret from you, because he wouldn’t have told you regardless. He was well aware of how strained your relationship with your mother was, and letting you know would only drive it closer to the edge. She knew he wouldn’t tell you. He loved you, and that was the one thing that she could count on.

Just sitting there in that café, Jungkook felt like all of the air had been sucked out of the room, even though he was surrounded by the other patrons and their lively laughter as they chatted away. The pitiful way that your mother kept looking at him forced him to learn what it was like to feel truly worthless.

The pity in her eyes only intensified when he couldn’t even say a single word in response, couldn’t think of anything to defend himself.

Silence meant agreement, and that was what he chose. Jungkook - the naive boy that he was - stopped believing in you. He’d believed her instead.

He was just a kid, what else was he supposed to do? 

She was your own flesh and blood, and he knew nothing could ever replace that. He would rather let you hate him, resent him for the rest of your life, than let you lose your family.

That day, he lied to you for the first time ever, saying he couldn’t come over because he was tired. The sunflowers he bought for you just hours prior ended up dying on his windowsill.

He wouldn’t see you again for a few more days, then for months afterward.

July was supposed to represent a blossoming summer, but all he could remember was the dreadful promise of a winter that would inevitably come.

You call his name when he takes too long to answer. “Tell me.”

“I love you,” he merely says. His hand brushes your cheek.

You frown, despite the way the three words make your chest tingle.

“I love you,” he says it again, trying to ease the furrow between your brows.

“That’s not what I asked.”

“I’m sorry.”

His voice is soft, barely even audible, but it’s this gentleness that makes his words ricochet, ringing in your ears loudly like a gun going off in the quiet of your room.

Again with the apologies.

Fuck this.

It’s hard to take it to heart when you don’t even know what he’s apologizing for.

You gave Jungkook the chance to explain himself, but if he doesn’t take it, then that’s not on you. There isn’t much else that you can do.

You swallow hard, then shove him off of you so you could get out of the bed. Your legs instantly tremble as you attempt to stand, but you soldier on as you put on your bra and underwear, then grab your dress from where it lays abandoned on the floor. You’re shaking, but it’s difficult to determine if it’s because you’re angry, or cold without his warmth nearby.

He’s quick to his feet too, rushing toward you before you could leave.

“Don’t touch me,” you hiss when he reaches for your arm. He doesn’t listen, because when has Jeon Jungkook ever fucking listened?

“Y/N, wait-”

“Wait for what?! I asked you a simple question and you can’t even answer me.”

He runs a hand over his face frustratedly, clearly torn over something. He holds your angered gaze, but the way he looks at you is much milder, gentler even if it’s equally frustrated. “I’m trying to protect you.”

You don’t know if it’s the wrong answer or not. You just know that in this moment, it irritates you to no end.

“Oh my god,” you gasp mockingly. “Someone is trying to kill me.”

“What?”

“Someone is trying to kill me. Someone is waiting outside that door right now, waiting for me to come out so they can kill me. Holy fucking shit, I’m about to be assassinated.”

“Y/N, I’m serious.”

There’s that burning sensation behind your eyes again. “And you think I’m not? What do you mean you’re trying to protect me? Protect me from what? Do you think this is a fucking k-drama? Jesus Christ,” you scoff harshly. “What do you want from me? What the actual fuck do you want?”

Jungkook aims for you again, and in an attempt to ward him off, your swinging fist inadvertently collides with his chest. The dress falls to the floor again, laying next to your feet, that useless piece of fabric.

It probably doesn’t do much damage to him, but he’s a bit startled regardless. So are you, if you’re being honest. But you do it again, and surprisingly, he lets you.

“You coward.” You shove hard at his chest, making him stumble backward. “You unbelievable asshole. You fucked me, you said you loved me, and you still can’t tell me why you left me.” 

He allows you to push him until his back is pressed against the wall. And even then, you don’t relent. Your fists continue beating against his chest as you start sobbing, spilling ‘I hate you’s in between so many expletives it could make his grandmother faint.

He might bruise in the morning.

You hope he bruises in the morning.

The least Jungkook could do is bruise for you.

You want him to curse him out for so many things - for loving you, for leaving you, for not even having the balls to tell you why he broke your heart. For coming back to remind you that you still love him. For proving that he still has you in the palm of his hands, and every twitch of his finger can make you feel like the walls are crumbling down on you.

But even as you tell him how much you hate him, you’re still thinking: Come back. I don’t want to keep losing you. Come back to me.

Because he’s the only person who can hurt you like this. When you think about him, it used to make you so depressed that you could hardly function. There’s no other way to put it to make it sound less pathetic. That’s just how it is.

You shouldn’t have agreed to this weekend, shouldn’t have been nice to him, shouldn’t have let him convince you not to think about it. You shouldn’t have opened the door for him in the first place, because there was always a part of you that knew he could get under your skin so easily just like that.

This wasn’t your second chance at holding onto him. It wasn’t a do-over. It was a re-enactment.

The years haven’t made you wiser, that much is clear.

You don’t know how long this goes on for, but at some point, you begin to wear yourself out. Your movements start to slow and the energy to violently sob leaves your body until you’re nearly collapsing. Jungkook catches you when you don’t have the strength to hold yourself up anymore. Why are you always so fucking helpless?

“You just…” Your voice gets caught at the end of a sob. This is rock bottom all over again. “You make me so sad.”

You grasp his arm weakly, feeling like your own lungs are failing you. You can’t breathe. It’s too much, too infinitely humiliating. He’s doing this to you again, and this time you have to shoulder most of the blame, because you are the one that enabled your own heartbreak for the second time.

You’re still crying, and you hate that this is the first time he’s ever seen you cry like this.

“I’m trying to protect you,” he says firmly, looking at you like he’s trying so hard not to break down alongside you. “Please, I’m so sorry.” The words come out as a whisper now. You can feel the tremble in his voice and the shake of his hands where they hold you. His big bambi eyes - the usual home of constellations - now house tears that threaten to spill onto his supple cheeks. “Please. What can I do to make you believe me?”

It’s those stupid fucking eyes. It’s your stupid fucking self.

“You need to tell me.” Your tears keep on falling no matter how much he tries to wipe them away. “I can’t take it anymore.”

“It’ll make things worse,” he tells you, his voice cracking as he does. He sounds like he means it, and maybe he does believe that whatever he’s hiding from you will only hurt you more. It almost has you caving, but you can’t do this a second time. You’re exhausted, both physically and emotionally. In the morning, you’ll think about how this is all so dramatic, the way you’re acting right now. The most k-drama-esque thing that has ever happened to you. But in the moment, you just feel like someone plunged a knife in your chest, and they keep twisting it, twisting and twisting,...

In the end, you decide that it’s a risk you’ll have to take, because nothing can be more painful than the absolute hell he’s putting you through. He’ll never understand how utterly excruciating it is to experience this kind of heartbreak.

“If you don’t tell me now, I won’t be able to survive you again.”

up next...

our beloved summer (08) ⏤ aka the JK centric chapter

all rights reserved © jeonqkooks. reposting, translating and/or modifying is not permitted by any means. [posted september 30, 2023]

[justabeatingheart]

DREAMSICLE ( sentence starters from the fourth studio album by maren morris )

LEMONADE

"You take the truth and you twist it."

"You're the problem, I'm the fixer."

"You're a waste of yellin', a waste of time."

"You're a waste of my present, a waste of my prime."

"Tell me, what's it gonna take to make a good thing out of you?"

"I cut you from my coattails."

"We're past the expiration date."

PEOPLE STILL SHOW UP

"Now you're feeling really batshit."

"People still show up."

"Heroes might disappoint ya."

"Not everyone's gonna join ya."

"Don't let the pain destroy ya."

"Just go where the arrow points ya."

"You should've shut your mouth and smiled."

"Now you finally went and said too much."

"So humor me in my delusions."

"Maybe we aren't losin', maybe we know what we're doin'."

CRY IN THE CAR

"Now all our inside jokes, you plagiarize."

"Nothing left between you and I."

"I die inside with my dignity."

"I'll die before you ever see me fall apart."

"All these questions I'm asking myself will end in tears."

CUT!

"I need a moment to just let my tears fall where they want."

"I've held it in long enough."

"I gave it all that I got."

"Every good show just needs an intermission."

BED NO BREAKFAST

"Hey, that was great, we should do this again soon."

"Won't you sleep better at your place?"

"I hope you enjoyed your stay, but you can't stay."

"A five star review is expected."

"I check every box on your checklist."

"Excuse my directness."

"This is a bed no breakfast."

"Don't want you to call me."

"Tell me why you're still flirting."

DREAMSICLE

"This year's been hard to swallow, so you're just what I need."

"Now that I finally have you, I feel time slippin' away."

"I overthink a moment right down to the minute."

"Will I ever enjoy anything while I'm standin' in it?"

"All I want is what I paid for."

I HOPE I NEVER FALL IN LOVE

"I'm gonna get bored and take you home with me."

"I hope I never fall in love."

"I hope I never fall in love again."

"I probably won't be happy, but I'll dance in vain."

"Love, you only did me dirty."

"Forever was a fuckin' lie, so goodbye."

"You only made it worse."

TOO GOOD

"That's how the people that love me behave."

"I fell in love with you, where'd it get me?"

"I was all that you had to your name."

"I was always too good for your ass anyway."

"Bitch, you still owe me rent."

PUSH ME OVER

"I've been waitin' for a night like this."

"I don't need more friends."

"Either way, I gotta say, no hesitations."

BECAUSE, OF COURSE

"The world's done a number on you."

"You need a place to land, I'll be the floor."

"People let down, people let go."

"You don't gotta earn it anymore."

"I'm always gonna love you because, of course."

"It's okay to open your eyes."

"I'll give you all the space and the time."

"I'll keep you safe because, of course."

GRAND BOUQUET

"Just wanna say I'm sorry, and I hope it's not too late."

"I still became the person that I hate."

THIS IS HOW A WOMAN LEAVES

"You don't understand me, you don't."

"I'm gonna say goodbye now."

"Don't pretend that you're gonna forget it."

"I'll go where you can't follow me."

"I can hold the whole truth better than any man."

"I don't have to prove to you that I was so good to you."

"Maybe that's why this is hard for you."

"Nothing here to save, nothing left to lose."

"I'll make it look so easy that even I believe me."

"Go ahead, pretend that you're surprised."

"You have the nerve to ask why I'm not crying."

"I did all my crying lying next to you."

"All I want is you to get out of my heart, out of my head."

CARRY ME THROUGH

"Feels like the worst year is always the one you're in."

"I'm still the one who has to choose to carry me through."

"I never let 'em see 'cause I'm prisoner to pride."

"No one's been too busy, they've been here the whole damn time."

"A sweeter side is calling, and love was never lost."

"It's just waiting for my footsteps to finally come across it."

HOLY SMOKE

"The world got less depressing when I finally left the house."

"Either way, it's going up in holy smoke."

"The fundamental lessons get rewritten day to day."

"I know that I don't know things I won't know until I greet the grave."

"But tell me, can you say the same?"

[haganedrawzz]

Yayy! Artist Intro for my account! I'm pretty new to Tumblr, but here's a quick intro, including my Sona and some special interests.

The intro was kind of rushed, so I'll list off some quick stuff:

I am in several different fandoms, and have several different interests, most involved with teenagers (since I am one). My main interests are drawing, and playing music, as I am a percussionist!

My main fandoms are Pokémon, Pretty Popular Anime fandoms (Naruto, JJK, etc.), Roblox games, and OFF. However, it's most likely I won't be posting in a neat order, so hang in there!

I'll mainly focus on...

Posting OC art, and hopefully making a few comics on here! As well as making art related to fandoms!

DNI (DO NOT INTERACT) IF...

You are a proshipper. (Multishippers are alright, but proshipping isn't welcome here.)

You are planning to say hurtful things about my art, or interests (Bullying, rude comments, etc.)

You are homophobic, racist, sexist/misogynistic, fatphobic, just someone who hates on people for how they identify, their gender assigned at birth, how they look, their race, culture, etc.

You enforce your religion on others, and or are overly religious. (Nothing is wrong with having your religious views and beliefs, at least everyone believes in something! But if you try to enforce your religion on someone else who is of a different religion, and or send threats to a person for their own religious beliefs, you are not welcome.)

You are into Loli, Shouta, or anything involving children in a gross way. I am a minor myself, so absolutely DO NOT interact with my content if you find an attraction to minors. (This includes people who say: "Oh, but the character is over 1000+!" "It's just a fictional character, it's not real!" "She's/He's actually an adult, she/he just looks young!" If a character has the traits, personality, speech/body language of a child, is canonically a minor, and you ignore these facts to say weird and gross things means you are not welcome here.)

You are involved with controversial people, or are a person accused with controversy/drama. Yes, rumors may be rumors, but I wouldn't like to be dragged into drama.

You are in very VERY problematic fandoms. There are a wide variety, but I can't list all of them. (These fandoms consist of creators accused of touching/liking minors and or are facing charges for things they did, the community itself not respecting boundaries, being absolutely crazy and disrespectful, the game/show/series/etc. itself has very controversial, gross, or problematic settings.)

You are an AI "artist" or are planning to use my art to "train AI". (AI isn't art at all. It has no soul, not an ounce of time spent on it, using art from actual artists to "teach AI" is ART THEFT. You CAN be plagiarized depending on an artist's copyright rules.)

You talk about politics, the government, protests, etc. on a frequent basis. Nothing is wrong with spreading awareness, not at all! Just please don't go around on my account spreading it. You have your own account to do so.

You are planning to steal my art/use it without my permission. I can't make this any clearer, but this is MY art, I made it, I took the time and effort to actually work on it. The fact that people steal other's art and claim it as their own is rude and disrespectful. (If you want to repost my art on your account that isn't here on Tumblr, please credit me!)

This account is for people 13~18! Adults are also welcome to view my art, but please do not overstep any boundaries. I want this account to be a safe space for both myself, and people who want to view my content alike. If your intentions, interests, etc. have been listed in my DNI list, kindly scroll away from my page, block me if you'd like, just don't make a fuss about it, it's not like it's the end of the world or anything. Thank you for looking through my intro + DNI list!

More edits to this will drop in the future (Hopefully not), anyways, stay tuned for some tasty art!

[rythmicjea]

On the last day of summer vacation... The Writer and His Muse

Full disclosure, I wrote another version of this last night. It was... factually correct. But it just wasn't good. So I saved it and took a few steps away and realized what I was supposed to be writing. I apologize now this is going to be long.

When I came up with the idea to write this series, I wasn't sure of the structure. If I'm honest, I still don't know lol. And after being called the "Riverdale Analysis Auteur" (thank you @storkmuffin ❤️), I promise to do the utmost to put forth only my best for you. There isn't going to be an uploading schedule so follow the tag "Code Word Jeronica" to see when I post.

My intention with this is to show that from the pilot there has always been the opportunity for Jeronica. I know what you're saying "there's an opportunity for ALL pairings."

And, yes, while you are correct. There were some possibilities that were more feasible than others (Sorry Jarchies!). For the skeptics out there, the showrunners did chemistry tests with so many pairings. Cole even admitted that he did one with Cami and he was open to a Jughead/Veronica relationship "It's the CW, anything can happen"! Coding isn't always intentional or needs to be taken seriously. And that's okay. As a writer myself, I understand the "side character curse" all too well.

With all of that being said, I will only be focusing on the evidence we get in the show itself. I may reference the comics sporadically (like how Jughead and Veronica have been paired up/dated several times in the comics, throughout the comic's history. Below is a picture from Pep #154 in 1962!) but I'll never reference anything outside of the source material as evidence.

The Writer and His Muse

It's established from the pilot that Jughead is a writer, an aspiring novelist. All writers need a muse. Something that inspires them to put pen to paper. In Greek Mythology, Muse was a Greek Goddess who gave inspiration to all. Often, a muse is referred to as a beautiful woman but it can be anything. The show Riverdale is the muse for fanfiction writers who write in the universe. Jughead has several muses throughout the show. He goes through various tribulations with his writing. We see him suffer with writer's block, make a deal with the devil (both Jugheads in Rivervale), and we know that the story that put him on the map was a telling of him and his friends.

In the overall show we know of five big stories that Jughead writes. Jason Blossom's murder, The Red Dahlia, Killing Mr. Honey, The Outcasts, and Bend. Towards. Justice. All follow a pretty basic plotline. Something happens, a group of teens have to investigate, there's a surprise twist, and then a resolution.

But, through all of these he has one muse that is constant. Would you believe me if I told you it was our fair Veronica? Because it is. Before you ask "What about Betty?", let me ask you the same. What about her? She is a character in his stories. Sometimes she's the main character. But being the main character and being a muse are two very different things. Veronica's presence in his stories symbolize different major elements to a story. More than any other Riverdale character.

Throughout the series we see Jughead struggle with his writing. His father tells him to keep writing as a way to get out of Riverdale and not get caught up with the Serpents. We see him have profound writer's block, plagiarize another author, change the way he writes due to his disability, and physically lose his ability to write. His writer's block, and the complications with it, start in season 5 and aren't resolved until season 6.

Here's an unexpected bonus from helping Veronica...

...I started writing again.

She is, and has always been, his muse. This is the first time he acknowledges it, but the clues have been there since day one.

Jason Blossom's Murder

The first story begins with the pilot's very first scene. It also introduces the audience to a concept called "The Center of a Story". The center of a story is just how it sounds. It is the element that brings everyone together. However, while this can be the main character and what that character goes through, it can simply be a person or place that has very little interaction at all with the main story. In a murder mystery, which Season 1 is, the center of a story can be the murder victim. In telling that story we can either have flashbacks of the person's life up until they are killed; or, they are simply the reason why everyone comes together (and not even just to find out why. Sometimes the why isn't necessary).

Jason Blossom is the center of the story. It's all about finding out who killed him. But the muse of the story? The hook? The character's entrance that actually connects everyone together? That's Veronica. "On the last day of summer vacation, a new mystery rolled into town." Jason's murder is the B-plot of the season. It might have kicked everything off, and the action might be connected to him, but it's not the entire reason why Jughead is writing this book. In fact, the opening soliloquy says:

Our story is about a town, a small town, and the people who live in the town. From a distance it presents itself like so many other small towns all over the world. Safe, decent, innocent. Get closer though? And you start seeing the shadows underneath. The name of our town is Riverdale.

The story was never about Jason Blossom.

The Red Dahlia

I'm not going to touch on this much, because I have a whole post planned just about this episode. But, I want to point out that out of all of the stories we see him write, this is the only story that focuses solely on one character. It's completely about Veronica. She, like Jason, is the catalyst. The difference is that, unlike Jason, she plays a major role.

Killing Mr. Honey

In his last story to submit to the University of Iowa, it's about how seven teenagers try to get rid of their unethical and overbearing principal. We have known up to this point that Jughead loves horror. He likes to write "Lovecraftian" style stories. The difference between the two are HPL rejected morality. He considered himself a "Morality Atheist". Jughead, on the other hand, loves morality tales. (In 1955 there's a whole episode about it.) This is most evident in this telling. Each character represents an architype. Veronica, arguably, is the most important architype. She represents morality. She's the only one who really challenges what they are doing. Specifically, Jughead. At face value someone can go "Well, Jughead and Veronica aren't friends so it makes sense". First off, no, they very much are friends. But, second, if they weren't, why put her in such a place of honor. In actuality, given his character in the show (and the comics), Archie should be the moral compass of the story.

The Outcasts

The Outcasts is really the only story that we have very little knowledge of. I freely admit that for evidence, it's the weakest of the five. It presents coded details for the audience to infer their meaning. Jughead is the Viper Leader, the Serpents are the Vipers, but is Betty The Homecoming Queen? Most likely. The co-ed he takes home tells him that he wrote a "very sexy book" in regards to the Viper Leader and the Homecoming Queen. However, in his drunken voicemail, he lambasts Betty. One line in particular stands out "You're a cold, fake, duplicitous bitch. And once people read my book, everyone's going to see that". Now, we don't know what is in the book (Kind of wish they'd released it) and it could end with the Homecoming Queen cheating on the Viper Leader with the Football Captain (I'm inferring that that would be Archie's character). Or, they could have lived happily ever after. Or... using the ambiguity to stretch the possibility... the Homecoming Queen could have been Veronica.

Why? Well, there's a reason why the Enemies to Lovers trope is so popular. What better way to get back at your ex for cheating but to immortalize their best friend (who was also cheated on by your best friend) as the true-love-fairy-tale-princess of your wildly popular NYT best seller?

Bend. Towards. Justice.

The last story we see Jughead write is when they've been taken back to 1955. 7x01 is very reminiscent of the pilot. But, for Jughead and his writing, it's always been in the details. Season 7 is my favorite season, and trust me, I have a lot to say about what happens. So, I'll keep this brief. Even when he describes Tabitha it's very factual. There's no emotion. He lists who she is and the reason why she might know what's going on. Please don't take this to mean that at this point he isn't still in love with her, because he very much is. When he sees her, he doesn't know the 1955 version isn't his girlfriend. He keeps all of his emotions bottled up until he can figure out a plan. And to spare her from any craziness because her memories also might be gone. Up until this point, everyone's description is "This person is here, and this is who they are". Including himself.

For starters I live in an abandoned train car with Hot Dog which... actually tracks... Betty and Kevin aren't merely friends, they're dating. Cheryl's twin brother is alive, but he's not Jason, he's Julian. No sign of a Reggie yet. But Archie exists and he's pretty much a teen Charles Atlas... I've been waiting to reconnect with the one person who might shed some light on our predicament because she was both Chronokenetic and the town's guardian angel. My girlfriend, Tabitha Tate.

He mentions that all of this information is "overwhelming, heartbreaking". But he doesn't say why because there are many reasons why. His best friends don't remember anything. Do they even really know him? With one one question he realizes that the person he loves doesn't love him back. But he breaks this way of introducing the "characters" when he introduces Veronica. It's all emotion. There's even a sexy jazz trumpet riff announcing her.

"Damn..." His thoughts whispered to him breathlessly. "Even in 1955, Veronica Lodge still knew how to make an entrance." He goes from boredom to attention. He straightens his shoulders, he sits up to see her better, and he doesn't blink. Like everyone else, and very unlike him, his whole attention is on her.

THE PILOT

Now that we've gone through the five major stories we know he writes, let's go back to the end to see the beginning. The last episode of the entire series ends with a typewriter. All of the stories mentioned above are stories written within the main one. Riverdale itself is a story (possibly Archie Comics fanfiction) written by Jughead.

The pilot itself, as all TV shows, has a narrative woven throughout. There's characters, conflict, plot, etc. Though the episode opens with Jason's murder the pilot was never about that. Hell, Jughead is barely featured in it. We see him two significant times. The first time is two minutes in, where he's drinking his coffee writing his story. And he says the classic line, "We were still talking about the Fourth of July tragedy on the last day of summer vacation, when a new mystery rolled into town." We are introduced to Veronica Lodge, by Jughead, right after we're introduced to him. At this point he's only named Cheryl and Jason Blossom as that is the impetus for this show/season. "There needs to be a dead body".

The pilot is about Veronica. She moves to Riverdale, she meets Archie and Betty, she mentions Our Town, and her desire for Archie is established. Compared to Veronica, it takes 8 minutes to mention Jason again and 10 minutes to bring him back into the plot. Then nothing significant happens with him until the very end of the episode! But even after that brief interlude it's only 5 minutes later Veronica is given her first conflict. And by the halfway point, she's thoroughly decimated said conflict.

So, Miss Auteur, why are you bringing this up?

Because Riverdale was supposed to be about Archie. But by the end of the first half of the first episode Veronica is the only character to have a full plot arc and even an epilogue! More importantly, she is immediately woven into the fabric of the town. Even though the Varchie romance is introduced we must remember how the episode is being framed.

If you compare the narration to the writing on Jughead's laptop, it doesn't match up. Cole Sprouse might have read everything on said laptop and it was shortened for time. But, I wouldn't read too much into the discrepancies. I mean, the previous two pages are exact copies of each other lol. And while there might not be numbered pages it's at least four and I'm baffled about what he could have written prior to the opening lines. Also, as a writer, there are the things we think we're going to write and the things we actually do write (For example, I wrote a 16 chapter 100k+ Zack and Cody fanfic, and I didn't know the show existed! The Suite Adult Life). Our thoughts vs our words carry weight to a story. An argument can be made that either position is the most important. Is it better to write out that which we keep so closely guarded so it may live on in infamy? Or are the most profound thoughts those we keep closest to our chests?

Though one little line stands out when I do read it...

"See, the Blossoms had their tendrils wrapped around the entire town - no one wanted to make enemies of them."

Who is the person not wrapped up in their tendrils? And who immediately made an enemy of Cheryl Blossom?

Bisous, Bisous... Votre Auteur.

[wetcatspellcaster]

Do you have any writing tips for newbie fic writers? Your descriptions are gorgeous. Thank you for pieces BTW, it's my favorite 'piece' of writing ❤️

hi anon, thank you for the kind words!💞💞 I'm flattered that I'm someone that you'd think to ask this question, so I'll do my best to answer! I've put my response beneath a keep reading cut to prevent it being a long post :)

I wasn't sure how to interpret this question, so I'll focus on 'technical' (?) tips mostly. Hope any of them help, in some small way!

my main tip to new fic writers is: write, first and foremost, for yourself, and to feed yourself. I've seen this perspective get put through the disk-horse ringer of late, so take it or leave it, or take it with as much of a pinch of salt as you need. But truly, from the bottom of my heart and from my position of sudden newfound popularity, this is the most important lesson I was ever given and so I have to say it. Popularity is not guaranteed. Even a popular fic will have haters and people who think it objectively sucks, and the readers who like you will never be fully pleased with what you've delivered. This could all be very depressing and cause an author to lose motivation.... if you make it the criteria for success in the first place. If you make the criteria for success your own happiness (or perhaps the happiness of you and a few close pals), providing yourself with what you, specifically, want to see, you will probably want to keep writing regardless of all other factors. Produce fics that you want to reread when you need comfort, when you are sick, and when you want to see your blorbos exactly the way you want them. This will make any fic worthwhile to you, regardless of stats, and prevent you from writing things that will suffer if your heart isn't in it! (this doesn't preclude gift fics/prompts! sometimes your heart can be 100% in providing food for others. find your key motivators, and feed that - a healthy amount - if you're trying to get into writing as a hobby!)

Now, onto my writing tips! I don't consider myself an expert and these are more lessons that have helped me, specifically, to improve my writing. But maybe something in here will be of use!

Bc you say you like descriptions... I tend to go into detail only when it's an essential thing that needs to be described. Leave wider details for readers to fill in with their own beautiful mind-palaces, and this gives you permission to go ham on what matters. What is it that matters? maybe it's a piece of the environment (say, a soul jar) or maybe it's just how hot one part of your ship is, in their hot clothes or out of them. If you focus on the important stuff but leave the rest to background, this not only creates a good balance of action to description, but it also shows the reader what they should prioritise in the scene.

I also google '[WORD] synonyms' a lot, for descriptions specifically. Which seems like it might be condescending advice, but it both helps you find different words if you're worried you're repeating yourself, and sometimes confirms that yes. You are using the best word actually, as you were.

Get a good balance of complex/simplistic words, as well as a good balance of complex/simplistic sentences. Sometimes you need a flowery description, sometimes you just need to state explicitly what is happening or the way things are. Tone will shift depending on your balance of these two things, so test the waters and see what works for you!

If you feel like you've written too much dialogue, the answer is probably no, you haven't written too much dialogue - for fic specifically. Most people are reading fic bc they want their faves to interact more. You are giving them more interaction and they will probably love it.

If you find phrases you like in the books/fic you read, it isn't plagiarism to use them so long as you recontextualise them. I'm certain I've used other people's words multiple times, particularly for my descriptions/imagery, and this is totally ok so long as the context is original. If you're worried, or its a whole sentence/interaction you like, examine the sentence/interaction and work out why you like it so much. Is it the sentence structure? Is the character dynamic? Is it the way the kiss plays out? Take the things you find sexiest in other people's writing and find ways to incorporate it into your own work!

I proofread by reading aloud. Yes, I sound mental and unhinged. My cats are worried about me. But this not only helps you catch mistakes, it helps to test the flow of a sentence! If you're ever worried a sentence is too long/a line of dialogue doesn't sound in character, read it aloud! This will help you work out if it's flowing or not, and if it isn't then you'll get some clues as to why!

Don't be afraid to take risks, if you want to take risks! This can apply to anything: being brave enough to put in a joke you're not sure people will find funny, describing something in a way you're worried people will find weird, tackling something from a perspective or POV that you find challenging. This may be a more intermediate tip, but you can start with small risks, and experimenting helps you find your writing voice! Taking risks makes your writing unique :) and I can't explain how much better my writing has gotten since I gave myself specific challenges. You will not get it perfectly write 100% of the time (there are some parts of Pieces that are weak compared to other parts) but it will always help you improve.

[dollarbin]

Shakey Sundays #53:

Sleeps With Angels, Part 5

All right.

We’ve talked about how great the record is. We’ve talked through the Kurt Cobain angle. We’ve discussed its connections with Tonight‘s the Night. And we’ve compared it to a urinal in a museum. We've covered the easy angles.

It's true: we've yet to take a deep dive on Piece of Crap, Young's, well, crappy attempt at boneheaded punk on the record. The song was confusing the first time and funny for a brief period after that.

You tell 'em Billy.

Thirty years later you saw it on the tube, bought it on the phone and now you're home alone with a... song not worth discussing any further.

So let's dedicate what I'm going to go ahead and authoritatively declare is this record's last post on the Billy Talbot shaped elephant in the room: Sleeps With Angels' twinned tracks.

Neil introduced the idea of pegging a single, straight-to-his-greatest-hits, track as both an album's opener and its closer through the brilliantly homespun, anthemic and increasingly wobbly title track on Tonight's the Night. He resurrected the practice twice for deeply ambitious records.

I'd argue that Rust Never Sleeps shows the concept off to maximum effect: what else in Young's cannon sounds just as good fragile and violent as Hey Hey, My My?

Freedom's Rockin' in the Free World rounds off Neil's twinned tetrology with deeply middle aged, but still killer, flair: I'm pushing hard up against 50 these days myself and, boy oh boy, I sure wish I sounded half as deeply alive as Young did we he was my age.

Anyway, Neil knows exactly what to do when he writes a barn burner: twin it up. It's somewhat telling that he has not employed the practice on a single one of his 48 or so albums from this entire century.

Thank God the guy knows, at least on some cellular level, when his material is crap. Just imagine having to listen to the hopefully-sweet-for the-family-members-in-question-but-utterly-unbearable-for-the-rest-of-us Family Life, which opens Neil's latest record, more than once in your entire life. And then imagine hearing it twice on the same record!

Good grief. If I referred to my spouse as my "best wife ever" 'cuz she's good in the kitchen or wrote her a poem that rhymes this inconsistently or played her the drums this terribly she'd punch me square in the chops. Family Life should carry the subtitle Piece of Crap, Part 2.

Anyway, back to Sleeps With Angels...

In 1994, when he was a suddenly big deal all over again and dealing with poor Kurt's death, Neil, in a fit of reckless subjective thinking, decided to get exponential with his twinning formula. It wasn't enough to plant what is basically the same tinkling piano piece at the beginning and end. No, no, not for a record this portentous. Sleeps With Angels has, count 'em, three twinned songs.

Let's start with the obvious and most annoying example: Western Hero and Train of Love are almost exactly the same instrumental track. The only difference is the lyrics. That is stupid.

Previously Young radically reimagined his twinned song rather than simply offering up alternative vocal stylings. I doubt Neil understood the concept of Copy and Paste in 1994. He probably still doesn't have that technological feat mastered; I think his last big techno leap was master Sample and Hold. But he uses thumb and forefinger to slap at the control key on Sleeps With Angels. And that is stupid.

(Look, I just did the same thing, plagiarizing myself with the last two paragraphs, and there by wasting your time and mine. Stupid!)

Western Hero is an acceptable track on its own. Young had apparently appreciated Unforgiven. Some cool fireworks go off within it and Young sings the piece well.

But Train of Love? I can rattle off 463 train songs in alphabetical order that outpace this one. Call me up right now and I'll do it - that sounds like a far better use of our time than Neil clogging up an already far too long record with Western Hero's asinine double.

I have the sense that you're busy accusing me of hyperbole when it comes to the number 463. I stand by it. Well, maybe I'd peter out at around 461 in the W's after Waterloo Sunset...

Meanwhile, here's a vastly superior train song, with THE EXACT SAME TITLE, which I offer us all as a palette cleanser.

It's tempting to apply the same critique to the album's opening and closing tracks. My Heart and A Dream That Can Last don't differ much from each another sonically, and neither of them can compete with the likes of Hey Hey, My My.

But at least they're a little weird. After My Heart's straight ahead and brief initial take, A Dream That Can Last stretches out to double the length. Plus, it opens with a random typewriter, includes a lovely late harmonica, features some of Crazy Horse's best singing of all time and employs what sounds like a repeatedly slammed door in place of percussion.

Neil clearly hopes to join Cobain on a heavenly cloud when his own time comes. But he lets the devil rattle his door frames in the meantime here, ending Sleeps With Angels on twin notes of rapture and doom.

I know I said this would be my last post on the record but, like Neil Young, I sometimes blow it. Besides, I've gone on far too long for today.

But there's a third twin song buried on the record, one you may have forgotten about or even failed to notice. And so, I will leave you with that cliffhanger and honor Neil's brilliant, maddening, and overly long, Sleeps With Angels with one more future, decidedly unbrilliant, surely maddening, and definitely overly long, post.

Until then, thanks for joining me in the Dollar Bin everyone...

[slow-burn-sally]

20 questions for fic writers

Thank you @totallysilvergirl for tagging me <3

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

171

2. What’s your total A03 word count?

2,559,305

3. What fandoms do you write for?

I live for the days when anyone asks me this question, because listing things I love is just so great. I don't actively write for all of these any longer, but I would go back to all of them if anyone threw me like, half a prompt.

BBC Sherlock

Good Omens

Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell

The Terror

Our Flag Means Death

What We Do In The Shadows

The Adventures of Tintin

The Hobbit

BBC and CBS Ghosts

Pacific Rim

Father Ted

Lord of The Rings

The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel

Death In Paradise

Dalgliesh

4. What are your top five fics by kudos?

1. Crowley's Game - Good Omens (Ineffable Husbands)

2. Return To Sender - Good Omens (Ineffable Husbands)

3. Silk All Around You - Our Flag Means Death (Ed/Stede)

4. Oh Good Lord - Good Omens (Ineffable Husbands)

5. Out Of Suffering Into Love - Good Omens (ineffable Husbands)

hmm. Guess GO fandom is where I've cashed in the biggest, kudos-wise *Raises a glass to Good Omens Fandom*

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

I try to respond to as many as I can, and I want to respond to all of them, but ADHD and work and life keep me from doing it right away, and then ADHD and being off work and life make me forget. I will sometimes loop back around to read a new comment, then see that I never replied to another, far older comment, then go about replying to several, two years after they were left. I hope people don't mind. I promise everyone who's ever left me a positive comment, that I eat them all up like chocolate bonbons and count myself blessed for each and every one.

6. What’s the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

Probably that Childercelles fic where Henry dies in the end. I think maybe 10 people read it. If you're in JSAMN fandom, and you ship Childercelles, and you want a link, PM me, but I can't remember the name of the fic for the life of me. It was pretty angsty. Outside of that, I hate angsty endings. Everyone eats ice cream and cuddles at the end of my fics.

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

Gonna echo the wonderful @totallysilvergirl and say that I don't do unhappy endings. That Childercelles fic was the only one I think I ever wrote with an unhappy ending, and even that was more of a melancholy ending. Everything else is Häagen-Dazs and rainbows.

8. Do you get hate on fics?

I've gotten a few harsh criticisms, and a few snarky comments, but never actual hate.

9. Do you write smut?

I sure do! I've written a whole lot of smut, and I really love it. Regardless, it can be challenging sometimes. I have to be in the right place, and have the right focus to write smut, and lately, it's been feeling more labor intensive. I've been taking a step back from the explicit stuff lately, and playing around in M rather than E, and less sexual waters for a change. Sometimes a gal needs a break. I'll always happily write it for others, but don't feel inspired to write it for myself right now.

10. Do you write crossovers?

I really see my Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell/BBC Sherlock crossover as my first and only crossover. It involves main characters from both fandoms meeting one another, and John and Sherlock live in a world where England's history is the same as the history in JS&MN. It's been a very fun experience, but I'm really writing it for @keirgreeneyes 's birthday, because we share a lot of stuff between those two fandoms, not because I love crossovers. I don't feel drawn to them at all usually.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Nope. Someone came to me a couple of years ago, saying they were being bullied over accusations that they were plagiarizing my good omens fic. They even showed me the fic people talked about, and after scanning it for a bit, I didn't see anything that looked like plagiarism. I posted on tumblr saying I'd rather people plagiarize me than cause one moment of suffering due to bullying, and left it at that. I was really just jazzed to have people *want* to plagiarize me, honestly. It was flattering.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

Yes! In Korean I think.

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

No, and I'm not sure I could. I also don't like cooking with other people or showering with other people. I just like having the reins on writing and cooking and showering fronts I guess.

14. What’s your all-time favourite ship?

Oh god please don't make me choose. My children, my precious children. After careful consideration though, I'm gonna have to go with Crozier/Jopson - Jopzier from The Terror. I mean. Come on. It's me.

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

I wrote many chapters of a really fun, but really complex and pain in the ass multi-chapter mystery fic for the rarest of rare pairs, Jack Mooney/Florence Cassell from Death In Paradise. So yeah, I would love to finish it, but I don't have the spoons, and it will have a readership of roughly four people.

16. What are your writing strengths?

I think I write good dialogue. I write good smut. I can make up stories at the drop of a hat, and then put them down very quickly, in large amounts of words. I'm a long distance runner when it comes to fic. I like my sense of humor in fics, and I'm always so happy when someone leaves me a comment telling me they laughed really hard at something I wrote. Ditto incoherent babbling about my fics making them horny. Those comments are so good.

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

Eh, my weakness is I'm just not an amazing writer? I do it because I love it, and it brings me so much joy, and people reading my fics brings me so much joy, and that's pretty much it. Also, I use a lot of run on sentences, and I have like six tropey things my characters always do, and I can't break out of it.

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

I didn't understand this one. I would love to write dialogues in other languages if I spoke them fluently. Outside of speaking a bunch of Spanish, I'm not fluent in anything but English.

19. First fandom you wrote for?

eeeeeeeeee @keirgreeneyes @totallysilvergirl my first ever fanfiction was BBC Johnlock! I tried writing a fic, probably back in 2013 or something, and gave up after a handful of paragraphs. I just lacked the confidence. Then, it wasn't until 2019 when I went nuts for Good Omens and wrote a bunch of fic that I wanted to go back and write that one, first, Johnlock fic. And I did it! It's Homecoming. BBC Sherlock is my first fanfiction fandom, and my introduction to fanfiction.

20. Favourite fic you’ve ever written?

Oh wow. That's a tough one. I really loved my one Father Ted fic, A Sweet, Hot, Sticky Romp, because I loved emulating the comedy style of the show and thought I did a good job.

I loved Out Of Time, my Jopzier time travel wackadoo fic for The Terror.

I guess I'll stop at two. I've written 171. I should get at least two favorites.

I tag @fol-de-lol @ilthit @yeswevegotavideo @keirgreeneyes @holycatsandrabbits

[argentsunshine]

hey not doubting you at all, but do you have any specific proof that points to matpat being a plagiarist?

augh i had a whole thing typed up and Tumblr ate it

short version: there's been a lot of allegations for years. the hermitcraft one seems pretty cut and dry to me. he has also just stolen theories from the source material itself - when he made a theory on a series i shan't name, his whole theory was something explicitly canon in the books, and he doesn't acknowledge that once.

now for my own personal evidence. i consider this less "proof" and more "occam's razor says plagiarism, and the other explanation is that he's incredibly dumb". under cut because it involves fma and chemistry neither of which i can shut up about

so, here's the video in question:

I'd use more screenshots to prove my point here, but apparently game theory can't afford captions, so I'll just explain the old fashioned way.

Matthew is trying to prove that the Elric's formula for a human (water 35 liters, carbon 20kg, etc) is incorrect (ie. does not have the right elements in the right proportions to make a human.)

to do this, he has to convert the several compounds (water, ammonia, lime, salt, and saltpeter) into elemental masses.

first, he divides each element by its molar mass. so for water, that's 35,000g/(18g/mol)=1,942mol. this is correct. don't get used to it.

so saying you have a "mole" of something is kind of like saying you have a "dozen" of it - you know if someone has 2 dozen eggs, then they have 2x12=24 eggs, because a dozen means 12. moles are like that, except instead of 12 it's 6.023x10²³. so the moles we just calculated is the number of molecules of water that are in 35L - 1,942mol converts to ~1.17x10²⁷ molecules.

this next bit is where matthew goofs it. he says that to get from the number of water molecules to the number of oxygen atoms, you multiply the number of molecules by the percent of the weight of the water that is oxygen, so about 89%. i hope you can see why this is incorrect. (if you can't: each water molecule has one oxygen atom in it, so the number of oxygen atoms in the water is the same as the number of molecules of water, not 89% of it.) he then uses these incorrect figures to calculate the elemental masses. these are his final masses (which, for some reason, he doesn't show clearly):

but after a few jokes, he shows this table comparing the fma numbers to reality:

ignoring that the top ones are in g and the bottom in kg, you can see that he only gets the same numbers if he didn't have to do any conversion. somehow, hydrogen goes from just under 700g to 4.5kg. he doesn't explain why the numbers changed or where the new ones came from.

so, i did the maths myself (here's the full spreadsheet if you want to check my work):

(you'll note my "matpat mass" doesn't match either set. i was doing what he said he did in the video. i have no idea what else he did to get some of his numbers. i think the hydrogen one might be because he added the correct mass from ammonia to his incorrect water mass? the oxygen i have no idea because. matthew how is there less than 3kg of oxygen in 35kg of water, even ignoring the other oxygen containing compounds)

now some of my numbers are a bit off because of rounding errors, but you'll see that my numbers agree pretty well with the wikipedia-looking chart. this is because i, unlike matpat, understand how to do chemistry calculations that they teach to babies (fourteen year olds). but the change in Matthew's numbers from two points thirty seconds apart in the video raises the question of where the hell he got them from. way i see it, there are two explanations:

1. matthew did realise he'd explained everything wrong and his maths was off, but decided to publish the video without correcting his explanation or his first set of numbers anywhere;

2. matthew stole these numbers from somewhere else, where they'd been calculated by someone who understands chemistry 101, and couldn't even understand the chemistry well enough to replicate their results.

why bother saying all of this if it proves nothing? i need you to understand that i was in chemistry for babies when this video came out, and deep in the weeds of my fma hyperfix and my chem hyperfix. this has bothered me for a full third of my life. this isn't an explanation it's an exorcism

[lucifers-horror-harem]

I was about to submit this on anon bc I'm shy lol but what are some of your writing tips? (if you feel comfortable sharing them ofc) you write SO WELL and I do wonder how you do it. writing is so hard for me 😭 I sit down to write and my brain will go "um no actually you're on your own enjoy <3"

🥺🥺🥺 Sorry it took me a bit to gather my thoughts and also I wanted to keep this ask a little longer cause aaaaaa you're so fucking sweet!!! And also asking me??? Hopefully my advice helps cause I totally get you about the head empty syndrome because I still have that all the time even after writing for forever now lol

So this one might sound redundant, but one of my biggest tips is to read lots of stuff! Books, fic, plays, whatever. Depending on whether you're doing writing as just a hobby or want to develop it into more, reading is the best help for writing. When I first got into smut fic writing, a lot of what I did was just read tons of fics and kind of replicate the sorts of things I'd read. Obviously I don't mean plagiarize, but you can get a lot of inspiration from other people's writing as well as just learning the craft in general, sentence structures and grammar, etc. If you have favorite authors you like, read their books and stories and analyze it like a paper in school and figure out what bits you like and how the author conveys what they're saying.

That being said, there will be tons of practice to be done. Writing is like any other hobby. One of the best things that I find helps me are prompt lists. There's tons on tumblr, of all sorts. You can write them as long or as short as you'd like, or just use their ideas as a jumping off point. I've also found sometimes when I'm stuck on writing something, I'll do headcanon posts, which are just fics in short bullet form. Writing things as bullets in general helps knock things loose, and they're great for outlining stories too. Hell if you're stuck on ideas, writing all your random fic thoughts on paper in bullet form and then later when your brain is fresh you can see them in a new light and maybe something will pop in your head that way.

I'm not sure what other general tips I can suggest besides those... on a smaller level I'd say you can use movies, shows, and music to help give you inspo as well but because they're not written it's hard to get the form down if that's what you're looking for. A lot of my inspo comes when I least expect it honestly, which I know isn't the greatest advice, but it's true at least in my case. I also project hop a lot as well because sometimes I'll get burnt out on an idea and move onto something else which is also a viable thing you can do. Otherwise I think everything I've said before pretty much covers it! I still think reading is the biggest one just because that's how I learned myself, but I say if that or any other combination of things helps then I'd say you're golden!

Writing is a really hard hobby, mainly because inspiration/motivation comes and goes so frequently for me, but I also can't imagine my life without it. Hopefully these help you! I'm always happy to help new writers 🥺💜

[danielleitloudernow]

This came up on my FYP feed and I thought it would be super fun to do in honor of NaNoWriMo.

20 Questions

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

I have 30: 2 series, 5 WIPs, and a whole bunch of one shots 😁

2. What's your total AO3 word count?

134,500. Not sure how I hit an even number, but that's fun!

3. What fandoms do you write for?

Mostly Korrasami (The Legend of Korra) and JEmily (Criminal Minds), but I have written for WarriorBard (Xena Warrior Princess), Ramvers (Captain Marvel), and Pricefield (Life is Strange). I'm working on originals, too, but that's neither here nor there.

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

Fuck Was I

The Consequences of Jello

Profiles and Princesses

Measure the Coefficient of Static Friction Between Us

The Violets in the Mountains Have Broken Rocks

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

Always. I always respond to comments. It's so fun interacting with readers, and often, other writers. I've made a few friends from it and it's been so great. I have been known to drop off the face of the earth so I don't answer for a long ass time, but j always answer. Plus, I think it's a great way to show appreciation for those taking the time to interact. I love those emails telling me a fic has a comment. I poured so much of myself and my time into something and someone took the time to say something about it! It's pure magic.

6. What's the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

I think my fics are all HEAs, honestly. But there's a healthy dosing of angst throughout a lot of them.

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

Probably any of them, but Fuck Was I if I had to choose.

8. Do you get hate on fics?

I did and I have. A fellow writer once called it "flaming troll shit" and since I changed my perspective to see it that way, I A) am considerably less bothered, and B) haven't really noticed it since.

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

I do write smut. I write the type of smut I want to read and it's always evolving. I don't really do like, BDSM (love to read it, don't have much urge to write it, though), but I'll throw in some kink once in a while. Really, I guess I just like to write real sex. The emotions, the connection, the want.

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

Honestly, no. It's never really been something on my radar. It feels like a lot to keep track of or to meld and that's just a lot. Kudos to those who can and do, though.

11. Have you ever had a fiction stolen?

I really hope not. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, but plagiarism is illegal, kids.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

Not that I'm aware of.

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

I have not. I have a beta reader (shout out to ireallyshouldnt_behere) who tells me if I'm an idiot or gives me suggestions, but we haven't moved into the realm of actual co-author (yet). We have joked about it before, and I would love to try a co-writing fic with someone.

14. What's your all-time favorite ship?

Honest to God, JEmily. I had this theory when Criminal Minds first started back in the day that Emily and JJ got a little too drunk one night and clothes came off, that it turned into a thing. And then Will came along and Emily had to go and break her own damn heart because she didn't think she was good enough or JJ would be in danger being with her. Which is funny, given the Lauren arc, but I digress. But also, Xena and Gabrielle, always, because I grew up on XWP and those two were so obviously in love.

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

A novel I started writing 12 years ago 🤣 I love the concept and the characters and what I want to do with it, where I expect it to go. But holy fuck, it's been tedious. I have like...40k words of just bullshit that's not even really connected.

16. What are your writing strengths?

Emotions. Sometimes tension. Angst. Smut.

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

Dialogue. And moving from point A to point B. Sometimes grammar (and that annoys me most of all).

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

I've done it, but let's be honest, it's Google translated because I'm American and for some reason we think English is the only language...

19. First fandom you wrote for?

Legend of Korra. I had read something that just made my head hurt and I thought "I can write better than that!" Spoiler alert, that's a really shitty reason to write something and no, you can't always 'write something better.' Plus, everyone is different: voice, styles, confidence, all that. Anyway, I cranked out a random idea (Living on a Spare) I thought was funny, and here we are.

20. Favorite fic you've ever written?

Oh, why do you make me choose? That's a really good question. I think Chaos Theory (at least at the moment). I just found a bunch of bad pick-up lines and turned them into something ridiculous.

Just for funsies, I'mma tag @thewillowtree3 @blackbird-brewster @cargopantsprentiss @ahhhsami and hope you guys do it but really it's up to you! Cheers, yo!

[icharchivist]

I mean, yeah, obviously, Reddit videos are harmless fun and sometimes you just want some noise while you debate whether you're gonna take a nap or not, but thanks anyway.

And yeah, looks like you'd already familiarized yourself with Somerton's thoughts then, if you already read the stuff he's been plagiarizing.

You explained that really well btw, maybe you should also do investigative journalism 🤔

But it definitely feels like you dodged a bullet. I just feel bad for people who weren't so lucky and admired and even supported these creators. That's gotta be quite a shock.

I also agree on the plagiarism discussion being in the spotlight right now being a good thing. I just hope it stays there and doesn't just disappear again in two weeks, because it is an important topic and it doesn't get less important in times of Chat GPT and such, but I'm also rambling.

It was a good video and I was thoroughly entertained and yeah, I'll keep my eyes peeled from now on. Semi-related, but Somerton is a bad person on a lot of fronts, between the plagiarism, the victim complex, setting his co-writer up as the scapegoat and the misogyny. Just an all around despicable person.

If you haven't even watched a show, don't make content on it, you stupid idiot. May he find an office job now that his career has hopefully imploded.

yeah right! i just felt the need to reassure in case, it can be so easy to beat oneself down for some silly stuff like that, i felt the need to clarify ^^

And yeah lmao, quite wild turn of event, all things considered.

And aww thank you so much! i don't know if i could ever go into investigation journalism, it demands a whole lot more research and patience than i happen to have ahah. But for what it's worth i do have two diplomas centering around researching and analysing historical texts and various media analysis (mainly literature, but also cinema in general). One of those diploma is in French (which also involved philosophy analysis) and the other is in English (which involved translation and linguistic analysis) so yeah. (while at it i also have a general art diploma that also involved art history analysis for instance). Like i don't like to brag about it and all and i still think i have many blind spots, but it's kinda why i'm passionate about media analysis and about historical integrity in general. I don't think i'm doing things super well, but as Harris says in the video, this is the typical type of skill you don't realize you have because it's a second nature to analyse the stuff you run into that way. (i did get teachers tell me that i had a natural gift for analysis and incredible insight, but i haven't recovered from that at all and if i let myself talk i'll downplay it super bad lmao but that sure was a thing) So at least i do have the desire to dig into stuff on another level, it's the way i've interreacted with media both for fun and for my studies to start with. But i'm also very lazy about sourcing, mostly because i read a lot of things, forget where i read it, and then it becomes just my base knowledge so if i want to regurgitate it i'm just like weep. what is a source. so i have no pretension of doing it professionally and i encourage people to take everything i say with a grain of salt honestly.

but yeah, i definitely feel like i dodged a bullet but i feel horrible for the people the guy scammed. Like he was stealing the work of vastly more experienced creators, and even surface levels stuff are fine because there's a first to any topic you get into - and i think he specifically appealed to people who didn't have a lot of ressources to start with, so those things were brand new for them. We can't blame people for wanting to learn. It is however shocking to see someone using this desire for his own notoriety while trampling over the rest of the community he builds himself upon while stealing from it.

I sympathize a lot with the people who did use to follow him. It's harder to see the red flags when you feel your concern heard for once in your life and you have nowhere else to expend your horizons to. I truly hope the former fans are going to be okay, and i feel so much for those who actually paid money for all of this :(

and i agree, i hope the conversation about plagiarism stays there and is actually discussed in depth. I do worry people might scapegoat Somerton so much that they forget the main point about the plagiarism complains, but it is also hasty to make this remark now as everyone is heated by the content of the videos and it's normal for now they're talking about Somerton more than not. I do hope the conversation about plagiarism remains when everything else die down though. It is an important thing in our current landscape, especially with AI, as you say, and yea, as Harris also says

shows how well you understood one of the purpose of the video that you saw this argument coming right ;D you should be proud of yourself for actually connecting the dots honestly.

I'm glad you liked the video though! truly!

And yeah Somerton is...truly problematic on various level. I do appreciate that Harris focused on the factual approach of plagiarism, the one thing people can't really go against. But the more you look into his general behavior, especially the stuff he adds when he goes off script from the plagiarism, the more it's bewildering. and honestly i feel horrible for the people he stole the words of, who had to have those disgusting addition added to their own personal experience. What a dreadful thing.

AND YEAH GOD how does he get the CONFIDENCE to talk about a show he didn't watch just from stealing from people!! and i have an imposter complex when i talk about things I HAPPEN TO KNOW VERY WELL because i'm constantly stressing out about "shit what if i misread it though"??? if anything thanks to this video for doing a number to beat down my inferiority complex. Like geez i might be an analysis fraud but at least i only engage MY OWN OPINIONS when i'm wrong! that's a win!

but i'm honestly glad to see the general reception to this video on tumblr, even from ex-Somerton fans. It shows the willingness to really look into things, the intellectual curiosity that is necessary to navigate this type of analytic corners.

I've seen a lot of Internet History fans on twitter being super mad at Harris for this video for being "an hypocrite" who "is only blasting IH because he's not a leftie" like...... tell me you didn't finish watching the video without telling me you didn't finish watching the video.... And it's bewildering to me how they're missing the plagiarism concerns because they're too busy supporting the political allignment of the guy who is accused of it.

This video is a reckoning honestly but good lord. what a mess.

[skzhua]

Rules and Guidelines

(After making a post out of frustration about the taglist, here are the rules and guidelines of this blog.)

Note that I will, from now on, be more strict on here because I realize that I can't enjoy writing if I'm not in an environment I feel comfortable in.

~ taglist ~

If your username does not work for tagging, it is totally not my problem. I try my best to make sure everyone gets a notification but if it doesn't work, it's either Tumblr being weird or your account that has a disabled being tagged.

This one, I've already covered it in a post. Fill out the form in my bio if you want to be tagged in my work. I check the document multiple times a day and I add every single person on each taglist they ask to be in. I have too many notifications coming in and they are scattered on so many posts that I will most likely not see your taglist requests in my comments.

If you want to be removed from one or all lists, send me a message and I'll do it!

~ reblogs ~

Please, reblog as much as possible. I'm not speaking only for myself but for all writers on here. Tumblr works with the amount of reblogs for visibility and not with likes. It takes two seconds to do, you don't even have to write your feedback with it. I spend hours and hours writing for you for free and all I'm asking is either some feedback, or a reblog. Not all of my work is good, I am aware. If you don't like it it's fine but if you do, reblogs is the best way to show your support. (I do reblog what I read on here but on another account so this one isn't so packed)

~ NSFW ~

I have not started to write NSFW yet, but I will probably. I am 20 years old and can legally write those types of works. I will put obvious warnings on my works if they have explicit content. I will trust and expect you to not read my NSFW stories if you are a minor. This is common sense and I hope that you are responsible enough to know that this is not okay nor legal to read 18+ content on here.

~ plagiarism ~

Again, common sense. Although my work is accessible for free, it does not give you the right to take it and claim it as your own. I will report and block if I see any posts that have my work in it. Translations and reposts are also forbidden without my consent. I have seen people getting their work stolen, I have almost experienced it and it's the worst thing that can happen to a writer. So, please, do not plagiarize my work.

~ posting pace ~

Again, I write for you on my own personal time and do it for free. I will, for sure, not post when I don't feel like it or if I have not finisned a work yet. Please, understand that I have a life outside of here and that I will post at my own pace. There are times when I am more productive and others that I am not so it is inevitable that there are gaps between every work released.

~ be kind ~

I'm so grateful to have met such nice people here and I hope this continues on. You might not like what I do and it's totally fine. But please, it does not give you the right to trash on it. Skip or ignore it, then. I want to feel safe here and share love with every person I interact with. Commenting about the actual stories, like not liking a character that I purposely made annoying, is fine though.

I am aware I am not good with interacting on social media so I apologize if I do not respond to your comments or such. I'm extremely introverted so it's just hard for me, but I try my best.

Copyright © skzhua. All rights reserved.

[ahiddenpath]

Do you have any advice for a-spec writers who struggle with writing allo characters or just allo things like attraction, romance, and sex?

OH MAN what a great Pride Month ask?!?!?! Thank you for trusting me with this. (For anyone who might not have the bg info, I'm a-spec myself, and I do write romance and sex).

There must be so many wonderful ways to answer this q, but I'll take my shot beneath the cut!

1.) Intimacy and sensuality

I think my biggest tip is to try to reframe how you think about romance and sex as intimacy and sensuality. Maybe an a-spec person doesn't relate to how it feels to be magnetically pulled towards someone, to feel their pulse beat faster when you see them, to want to, ah, engage in consensual adult activities with them. But maybe they do know what it feels like to worry about someone, to want to help them and see them smile, to want to experience the "feel good" hormones that are released from a hug. These things are also present in platonic relationships, but they're a huge part of romantic relationships, too! If you focus on them, you might be able to portray a romantic relationship in a way that feels comfortable and relatable to you.

For me, my favorite aspect of a relationship- any kind, really- is showing how it makes the characters feel as though they are home. They are safe, they are loved, they are accepted, they belong. It's an achingly human desire, and while this isn't the only way to portray a meaningful relationship, romantic or otherwise, I think it's a good way to convey what love is like without getting into sexy stuff and attraction.

I wrote a bit about this concept in the first two qs of this ask game, if you're interested!

2.) Songs and poetry

If you want to try your hand at conveying a character experiencing attraction, songs and love poems are an amazing resource! Obviously, don't plop lyrics and poetry lines in your work, I'm not asking anyone to plagiarize. But maybe google greatest love songs/poems and explore what language is used.

Attraction tends to be associated with physical signs like an elevated pulse, feeling physically hot, or being distracted. A character may act clumsy/nervous/shy around their crush, or try to do silly things to impress them, especially if they are young. You can try googling signs of attraction for writers, too.

These physical signs and "falling in love" behaviors are linked to powerful emotions, which is why I'm recommending the songs and poems. These feelings will move your readers far more than listing physical indications of attraction- those are mostly there to signal to the reader what is brewing.

3.) Utilize the off-screen sex scene

Real talk, it once took me over a year to write a 14,000 word sexy story. I usually update my fics with a 4-7k word update every other week. Sex scenes are one of the most challenging topics for me, is what I'm trying to say!

That's why the off-screen sex scene is one of my favorite maneuvers! You can imply that characters had a sexy encounter and discuss what it meant to them without getting into it. This is. So much easier.

4.) But what if I WANT to write the sex scene?

I don't think there's a quick solution for this- or if there is, I haven't found it. I start by writing what I want the characters to get out of their sexy encounter. How does the sex reflect where they are in their relationship? With their own body and physical/mental health? What needs do the characters have in this moment (physical or not), and how can they help each other fulfill them? If they can't, what does that mean for the relationship and the individuals?

I have no clue what is sexy/hot, and I don't experience attraction. But I do know that sex is a complex topic that means wildly different things to different people. Sometimes, people experience an urge that they want to scratch, without or without a partner or partners. Sometimes, people feel lonely or stressed, and sex can alleviate that. Sometimes, people like to think of fun scenarios and role play with their partners, or explore a new facet of their sexuality, or...

Man, I'm sure there are a zillion other things I could mention here. Basically, as a writer, you can approach sex from many different angles. Some of them might be comfortable/relatable for you, some might not. There's room to explore here and see if something works for you :D

I hope that helps! Thanks for the q, and happy Pride!