#it's my greatest strength after all instead of actually writing

[cxttlefishcxller]

𝟸𝟶 𝚀𝚞𝚎𝚜𝚝𝚒𝚘𝚗𝚜 𝚏𝚘𝚛 𝚆𝚛𝚒𝚝𝚎𝚛𝚜

I was tagged literal days ago by @residentdormouse and honestly I'm the worst at remembering anything ever sO here we are again, lads jfkdl;safd but yE BIG THANK for the tag, let's see what kind of shenanigans I can get into

How many works do you have on AO3?

Five so far, none of them finished jfkdl;safd soon to be six, if I can get the rest of this damn chapter finished for Serenade's second iteration >.>;;;

What is your total AO3 word count?

57,252! Which is honestly more than I thought it was

What fandoms do you write for?

Man, what don't I write about? -ba dum tss- But for published works, it's primarily The Stand, with some IT thrown in, then there's Undertale, Gravity Falls, and Fallout. But I promise you if I like it, I've either written something or thought VERY HARD about writing something about it.

What are your top five fics by kudos?

This is easy, there's only 5 total fjdkla;sf but it'd have to go 1: Between Iron and Silver (an Undertale AU) at 22 2: La Petite Mort (a Fallout 3 blurb from ye olde k-meme days) at 17 3: Don't Fear The Reaper (A Gravity Falls zombie AU) at 14 4: Second Lead Serenade (My primary Stand fic that's getting a sERIOUS overhaul) at a whopping 3 5: Shine On You Crazy Diamond (an AU of my Stand AU only now there's Pennywise) at 2

Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

yES I try to every time! Sometimes I miss them though jfkdls;fd but I'm but a small hobbit that thrives off of validation, I adore every comment I get

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

UHM. Well, technically I haven't finished a gotdam thing yet, but it'd either have to be the Fallout one (which involves the MC slowly turning into a ghoul due to radioactive necrosis) or a pseudo-canon-maybe ficlet blurb thing I'm currently working on for Serenade involving a day in Teddy's perfect world, seemingly no-pocalypse centric, until you realize that he's not in some apartment he shares with his beloved girlfriend Piper, but trapped inside of his own mind by Flagg after being shot by Nadine.

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

Again, bold of you to assume I've got an ending on anything I write. But I'd have to say that the happiest ending I have PLANNED would actually be for Shine On. It's running along the plot of the IT remake, so the ending will have (potentially) all of our beloved Boulderites having their happily ever afters with the people they care about most.

Do you get hate on your fic?

My dear sweet anonymous reader, that would require for someone to actually read said fics. XD No for real though, everyone that's commented, friend and stranger alike, has been SO SO SWEET. I'm so grateful. No hate yet, but I'm sure I'd feel like I really made it as a writer if I ever did.

Do you write smut?

I used to! I used to write the SHIT out of some smut! But it seems like the older I get the more I worry about it being good, by whatever arbitrary unit of measurement someone may have, and then I just clam up and fade to black instead jfkd;lsafd I hope to regain my teenaged confidence someday.

Do you write crossovers?

The further I can get from canon, the better, as far as my brainworms are concerned! I only have one OFFICIAL crossover, but if y'all could see some of the bullshit I have in my giant stack of spiral notebooks, you'd probably be very concerned.

Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Nope! At least I'm not sure why anyone WOULD. I only ever get a set amount of chapters into something before I'm spontaneously updating every few years like some literary cryptid.

Have you ever had a fic translated?

Nope!

Have you ever co-written a fic?

Ohhhhmygoodness the memories. Passing notebooks back and forth in between classes to work on chunks of fics. Co-authoring Google Docs in back-and-forth narrative-laden pseudo-RPs. So, SO many Picrews. If my old laptops' data banks could talk. The stories they'd tell. In short, it's been a REALLY FUCKING LONG TIME but I had such fun with it. I'd love to do it again sometime. XD

What's your all-time favorite ship?

AUGH. UHM. If we're going for something in media I enjoy, I have so so many, but if I HAD to pick one at gunpoint it'd have to be Clarice/Hannibal. From like the OG book series. My poor friend group has already had to listen to me scream about subtext and discrepancies between media, so I'll spare the spiel but they're wonderful together and I'll die on that hill.

For stuff I'VE written? Teddy and Piper. TedPipes. ScreenPlay. My babies, my lovelies, my adorable idiots that can't quit pining long enough or can't quit fighting impending disaster long enough to realize they're already practically dating. I've written so much about them. I'll probably continue writing so much about them. I can't be stopped. jfkdl;asfd

Also for stuff I HAVEN'T written but exists in fic anyway, I'd have to go with both BirdBrains (Harold Lauder and Caktus' OC Crow) and HayGlen (Glen Bateman and Mouse's OC Hayden) because like. Have y'all seen them. HAVE YOU. Go see them. They're so so good.

What's the WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

All of them wELL that's a tough one because like. I bounce between ideas so much that it's hard to tell when I'll pick up a plot or drop a plot out of rotation only to pick it back up a year or three later. But if I had to pick one, Iron and Silver hasn't been updated since shortly after the pandemic started, and I really wish I could pick up steam on it again. I had a huge plan for it, and a serious amount of worldbuilding and backstory, but I just can't pick up the knack for it again. At least, not yet. I'm sure I'll come back to it eventually.

What are your writing strengths?

I've always been fond of my character development! I can't ever tell if I execute it well in practice, but in THEORY I have a good grasp of where a character starts and where I want them to end, and a significant chunk of what they go through to get there. I love Big Emotion. I love Introspective Pain. I love the silent struggle of Being Known. It's deLICIOUS, I keep working it into everything I write fjkdsa;fd

What are your writing weaknesses?

A: Follow-through. I have the Can't Finish Stuff disease. B: MOTHERFUCKING. ACTION SCENES. I can't get the pacing right! It feels too stilted or too flat, either too much detail or not enough with no happy medium. People who can write action scenes are glorious unicorns and I'm love them

Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language for a fic?

Wayyyyyyyy not confident enough to try it. I only know some basic phrases in Spanish, and some even more rudimentary phrases in Korean, and several swear words in a small handful of other languages. Definitely not enough to work with. I'm sure I'd manage to either do it wrong or end up unintentionally being insensitive. I'm a much bigger fan of just using italics to denote if someone's using another language instead, but that's a personal choice jfkdl;sa

First fandom you wrote for?

Labyrinth! To no one's surprise ever It was a horrible monstrosity of a trope-filled nightmare written in a Family Guy notebook in pure frigging pencil. I was also in the 6th grade. I wish I had Teenage Fef's shameless ability to write whatever the fuck she wanted. She was cringe but She was Free

Favorite fic you've ever written?

So far, Serenade is the one I've put the most thought into, and the one I'm having the most fun planning! Iron and Silver cuts a CLOSE second though; for the very same reasons, but I'm loving having the added fun of such indulgent friends helping me keep the Stand Wormies alive by hyping me up. XD

I also cast OPEN TAG! It does 6d4 Writing Damage. But if y'all want to, I'm also tagging @beyondthetemples-ooc, @jaiesondurantkross and @caktusjuice-draws in a totally no-pressure-ever tag <3

[ventique18]

Dragon couple 🐉🌸♀️

When their first son was born, Yuu unfortunately resigned to her fate that she would be the mother of children named Malware, Malaria, and Malignant Cancer.

Her husband Malleus had named their firstborn Malleus. Which was not a terrible idea given the boy was his heir and inheriting his name could be symbolic, but she was certain there were not too many words starting with 'Mal' that could pass off as a name. So imagine her surprise when he had suggested that their second child, a lovely girl, be named Agatha.

"You're not insane after all. I was going to rethink our marriage if you tried to name our baby Malnutrition, or something." Her love for him had grown a tad fiercer, if that was at all possible.

When they welcomed their third child to the world, he had named him 'Lilia' and Yuu immediately caught up to his intentions.

"You realized we couldn't possibly give a good name that starts with 'Mal' everytime, so you decided to spell it out chronologically instead? Malleus, Agatha, and Lilia..."

"Oh, but my plan isn't quite as shallow as that." He commented with an eager smile, "We need five more children."

"Five more-- eight children in total?! Are you planning to build an entire Spelldrive team complete with a coach?"

"Perhaps." He replied, his grin both mischievous and secretive.

What ever could this man be planning? Some kind of ancient ritual that required eight of his own flesh and blood? World domination? Of course he wouldn't do something as terrible as that, but why eight in particular?

Seasons passed, years crawled on, yet their love for each other remained just as strong. True to his words, they managed to conceive their eight child after a few decades. They had the most delightful names, you see:

Malleus, Agatha-- the first two letters of her name stood for the element symbol of Silver, Lilia, Laverne, Eleanor, Yuuki, Ubek (he ran out of ideas), and Ulficia. They were his greatest masterpiece, the father would brag, and so he named them after an actual masterpiece that happened to exist before they did. Since their names were variations of the people closest to him, textbooks would then write him down as a king full of love and respect for those who had given his life meaning and became his strength.

... Or so the writeup could have been that respectable, if only he did not frown while reviewing such descriptions of him and personally wrote an edit request to the publishers. For they had omitted a crucial detail from their story:

That the first letters of their children's names, when arranged, spelled 'MALLEYUU.' Their names being variations of the people he care about were merely secondary. His main purpose was to immortalize in books his undying love for his wife, Yuu.

Later on, some would call him the Mad King; not because he was insane or cruel, but because they had never seen a ruler as madly in love with his spouse as he was with his wife. Their love story would then become a classic literary blueprint for centuries to come.

[shirajellyfish]

Character flaws

Just gonna go on a tangent about this for a second, because like

Part 1: Why they don't work and never have

The number one piece of advice people get about writing is to give their characters flaws. Your characters can't be too perfect. Flaws will make them interesting, dynamic, compelling, more real! Flawed characters make for a perfect story! But then someone will ask how to give their characters flaws, and the response is almost invariably something along the lines of

"Just don't make them perfect. Give them a scar or a disability or something."

This is some of the worst writing advice I've ever heard, right up there with "NEVER use adjectives ever" and "Nahh, you don't need to make backups of your work, it'll totally be fine and nothing bad will happen." It's also the single most common piece of writing advice I've come across. This is bad advice.

Because like… Scars aren't a personality flaw. Disabilities especially are not a personality flaw. Both these things have their uses in writing characters, but they aren't flaws. Honestly it's a little shocking that people think it's okay to outright say they think a disability is a character flaw to begin with, because like. Excuse me?

The next problem with this is that, even if these were somehow character flaws, most people don't want to make literally all their characters scarred and disabled. That's like saying that good characters are required to have blonde hair and bushy eyebrows. A character or two with those traits isn't an issue, but telling someone all their characters need one or both of these two traits? That's incredibly limiting.

Lastly, it encourages people to think up a character and then tack on the 'flaws' after. It's why we ended up with an era of perfectly smart perfectly beautiful perfectly skilled characters that had a disproportionate amount of angst about some tiny barely noticeable scar on their back. It's how we get characters that are 'clumsy' (in no way that actually matters to the story), or who have the sole flaw of being too perfect.

People made characters they liked, and they liked them exactly that way. Then afterwards, they had to tack on some 'flaw' they didn't actually want to be part of the character. So they of course make that 'flaw' as small and unimportant as possible. To go back to the "all characters must be blonde with bushy eyebrows" comparison, it's the writer trying to work around this unwanted restriction by giving everyone rainbow hair dye and eyebrow trimmers.

So, how do we fix that?

Part 2: How to fix that

… Or one way, anyway. There are infinite ways to solve this problem, most of which start by completely throwing out the standard scar/disability advice. Everyone has their own way to write characters. But just saying "idk, everyone is different, there are lots of ways" is ridiculously unhelpful. So, here's one way to do it that I really like to use personally. You can use it too, if you want.

instead of a flaw, I like to give my characters an Unshakeable Trait.

What is an unshakeable trait? It's the term I like to use for something that will always be true about a character. Something core to them, something that will never leave them for as long as they live. It is, most importantly, not a flaw.

Let's come up with a quick character as an example. Meet Alaric, who always keeps his word. Anything Alaric says he will do, he will do it.

This is Alaric's greatest strength.

Alaric says he will save all the orphans from the burning orphanage. People doubt him, but he does it. He said he was going to do it, so there was nothing that could stop him from doing it.

Alaric says he will catch the thieves hiding in the mountains. Many have tried and failed to do this, but Alaric says he can do it. And thus, Alaric does it.

Alaric says he will move a mountain? He wouldn't say it unless he could and would make it true. We've seen him do amazing things before. We don't know how yet, but we know that mountain is about to move.

One day, Alaric says he will slay the dragon. We know, for certain, that nothing will stop him from slaying that dragon.

… Not even if it turns out the dragon wasn't really bothering anyone.

… Not even if something goes wrong and Alaric ends up without the important tools he'd prepared for this task.

… Not even if the battle is likely to kill his entire party. Not even if killing the dragon will only make way for more dangerous monsters to move in. Not even if his friends beg and plead with him, Alaric you must stop, this is a death sentence to us all!

Alaric said he would do this, and he will.

Because this isn't just Alaric's greatest strength. It's also his greatest weakness.

The hearts of the readers are heavy as they realize what is about to unfold, but they are not surprised. By now they know Alaric and they know who he is. They know the dragon will die, no matter the consequences.

In the battle, the entire town and all the people who once lived in it is burned to the ground. Every last one of Alaric's friends die in battle. When the dragon falls, only Alaric is left alive.

… And that makes for a really interesting story! Gosh darn! That's way more fun than a story where some cool guy just always solves everyone's problems all the time! And now that we've seen the terrible consequences of Alaric's actions, we can take it even further! How exactly does Alaric react to what he's done?

Is he unable to cope with his terrible mistake, and twists himself into something awful trying to justify his actions?

Does he plead with the ashes, begging the charred town for forgiveness he cannot have?

Does he vow to take back what he's done? Drive himself to madness in pursuit of an unobtainable goal, every action an even greater mistake than the last?

Does he grow, and change his ways? Because he absolutely can do that. An unshakeable trait is always there deep down inside a character, but it is possible for them to learn to overcome it. It will be a battle they'll fight every day for the rest of their lives, and it is a battle they will not always win, but it is possible. Filled with regret, there may be a day where Alaric says he will do something… and then consciously makes an incredible effort to avoid doing it, because he realized it would be a mistake. Today, he was able to overcome his weakness. That trait isn't going anywhere though, and tomorrow is still unsure.

That is my favorite way to write a flawed character.

The most fun part is, this unshakeable trait can be anything. It can be that they always finish things very quickly. It can be that they love their friends more than anything else in the universe. It can be that they're always multitasking. It can be their child-like wonder, or their scientific mind, or even something as silly as their love of sweet potatoes. When made central to their character and taken to extremes, absolutely anything can function as this dual greatest strength and greatest weakness.

That being said, this is again just one way to do it. To say this is the only way to write a flawed character brings us back to "but they must all be blonde and have bushy eyebrows." And sometimes? Sometimes you don't even want to write a flawed character. Sometimes you want an invincible Superman, and if that's what you want then go for it!

This is one place you could start if you're feeling lost or unsure, but at the end of the day it's just a tool in your pocket. It's up to you to choose your favorite tools for the job.

Writing should be fun! Write what you love. Write what interests you, most of all.

[skyeslittlecorner]

im the anon who messed up the request, im pretty sure i requested the kings when mc is reborn as a devil, a while after gabriel killed them and they get reunited with the kings

(sorry if it doesnt make sense english isnt my first language & thank you!)

-🌙 anon

Hello 🌙! Everything is clear now, I actually hadn't received this request before. Good thing you asked again, because I'd love to write it 🙏

The previous parts: first and second

Satan's depression had seriously worsened since you were gone, though only some nobles saw it. His explosions became more random and much more powerful. One day, after a fight, he was walking through town when he saw something familiar. It didn't matter if you looked like your old self or not, he recognized you. He reached you, grabbed you in his arms and started whispering your name fanatically, showering you with kisses. Sitri followed him, certain he had gone mad and was hallucinating, only to be kicked. You were confused at first, but hazy memories began to come back to you as Satan took your breath away with a kiss. You tangled your fingers in your king's hair, promising that you wouldn't scare him like that again.

Mammon will recognize you when you come to see the palace-tomb erected in your honor. Somehow you felt like you should come there... and you realized why when you were pulled into a large chest. Even though he has enormous strength and huge arms, he hugged you so gently that it was as if he had a porcelain figurine in his arms. He picked you up and cupped your cheek. And then the buttock. His eyes are dreamy, he has finally found his greatest treasure. “Welcome back home, Master.”

Beelzebub didn't recognize you, or at least he didn't believe it was you when his drunk brain told him so. He had to get rid of his sadness somehow, and alcohol and casual sex... didn't help, but what else was he supposed to do? Especially since that pretty devil who joined him in the lounge looks so damn much like you? He's sure that when he gets sober, you'll disappear again. You will be showered you with kisses and caresses, he’ll steal you away all night long, assuring you that he loves you, that he will never leave you again, that he will do everything to make you come back. This is the first night in your life that you will wake up and still have him by your side. Sober. In love. And happier than ever in his life, because he realized that these were not his drunken delusions. It's you.

Leviathan rarely accepts audiences, much less from random devils, so when you came, he was going to dismiss you. Instead, his heart almost stopped when he saw you. He forgot about dignity and got down from the throne, came closer, cupping your cheeks in his hands. “It's… it's you. You're back.” Even though he had his illusions, deep down he didn't believe in them. But you chose return, you chose Hell, you chose him. You are so brave and beautiful that he feels jealous. His subjects can’t look at you, because it makes him jealous, too. He will hang his entire throne room, offering you his arm. You will be taken to his palace, and he will order to prepare a welcome fit for a queen. This day will go down in history as a national holiday in Hades.

[linkspooky]

Hi there, I was rereading your Maki Zenin fanfic (Tyler Durden and the Culling Game piece). I must say when I read it the first time reading it, the way you depict her mentality, emotion, and actions. It was so emotionally draining and at the same time cathartic as it reminded me of myself back then and now still (well minus mass murdering all lotta people). But also surprised me, cause I have never this depiction of her after Shibuya Incident. But over time as I look at your analysis on various characters and paid attention to her upbringing by rereading the manga chapters focused on her, I realized the way she behaves in the Culling Games after what happen to her throughout her life. She is kind of stable??? Regardless, even though she is already my all-time favorite character. Your depictions of her makes me love her character even more as I actually relate to her more and felt those similar feelings. But I'm glad she is alive and is doing ok near the end of the manga, so I wanna ask. What do you think about her character now since JJK is VERY close to its end? And how do you feel about where she is right now as of Chapter 269. Sorry for the long ramble, I might ask more lol.

Thank you so much for your ask! That reminds me I need to start updating my culling games fic again sometime soon. For anyone curious the ask is about THIS YUTAMAKI FIC HERE.

Maki's kind of a hard character to talk about because even though Maki is clearly one of my favorite characters to explore in fic, and I love to dive deep into her motivations and inner struggles in the fanfics I write every time I criticize her writing in canon a little bit her fans jump me.

So instead I'm going to share one recent Maki scene I really liked, and one little tweak I think would have made both Yuta and Maki's character endings perfect.

You're right, for a lifelong abuse victim who just murdered her family Maki seems oddly stable all throughout the culling games. I no longer think this is a Maki specific problem, but rather a Jujutsu Kaisen problem. Basically, post Shibuya most of the character conflicts in between characters are dropped so everyone can work seamlessly together as a part of one big team.

This is a storytelling choice on Gege's so he could eventually set up for the Shinjuku Showdown fight, it'd be impossible for everyone to keep jumping in and out of the fight if people kept stopping to argue and have interpersonal conflicts in the middle of it.

If your name wasn't Megumi or Yuji, then basically all your personal hangups, your self-reflection, all got dropped. Which now it kind of makes sense why the audience was yelling at Megumi for not being able to immediately get over his sister's death, like in comparison none of the other characters spend any time at all dwelling on personal issues because Gege needs them to move to the next fight.

I'm not complaining, I'm just saying this is how Gege chose to write his characters post Shibuya, most personal conflicts got dropped for story reasons.

However, there was one moment that made me really get on board with Maki's writing again, and it was a... you guessed it moment of personal conflict.

This moment where Yuta is bringing up the idea of body swapping with Gojo before the group, and Maki despite being firmly against it is unable to do or say anything substantive to stop Yuta.

It's the first time I've seen that yeah, Maki is still in fact reeling from the loss of Mai. It doesn't really show most of the time on the surface, but Maki's always been like that - like an island able to stand strong without the support of anyone else. It is her strength, and also her greatest weakness.

Remember, the last time someone she loved walked away from her and decided to sacrifice their body and autonomy so they could become a weapon for the greater good Maki wasn't able to say or do anything to convince Mai to stay with her and stay by her side too.

There's the parallel with Maki and Sukuna, that Sukuna chose to devour his own twin in the womb in order to survive and therefore gained a body perfect for sorcerery. When Mai died, Maki gained a body just like Toji's.

Maki carved everything away in order to become a true void, but unlike Sukuna she didn't do it by choice.

We know she wouldn't willingly sacrifice Mai. She begged Mai to stay. Yet, she kind of did choose to sacrifice Mai with every choice she made before that. Maki chose being a Jujutsu Sorcerer over Mai every single time, to the point where when it counted she couldn't do anything to convince Mai to stay.

Maki consumed her twin and became a monster like Sukuna, a true void. She didn't choose to do it per se, but every choice she made leading up to that point indicated to Mai that Maki would rather be strong on her own then weak together with Mai. That Maki is someone like Gojo, and like Sukuna meant to stand strong all alone. Maki is an island and that is her greatest strength and her greatest flaw.

As when it happens again and someone she loves is about to become a monster, she can't find the words to convince Yuta to stay with her on the beach instead of walking into the ocean the same way she couldn't find the words to stop Mai. After all, Maki is someone who chose to become a monster like Toji after losing everything else, what right does she have to stop Yuta from becoming a monster too?

How could she possibly stop him from walking the path she walked? I think it's telling to thde depths of her love that Maki who values being a sorcerer above everything else, would have rather had both Mai and Yuta stay human and stay with her, but also telling of her complete inability to express that love.

It's "You're too important to us" because the words "You're too important to me," doesn't occur to Maki in both cases with Yuta and Mai, because Maki is an island. She can keep going on even after Mai and Yuta are gone even if she doesn't want to.

So here is the one change I would make the Maki's endgame to make her and Yuta's character arcs perfect. I would just have Yuta not be able to come back from Gojo's body. Otherwise, Yuta being magically fixed after the fact makes that whole plot twist kind of inconsequential and as much as I love Yuta in Gojo's body it kind of just seems to exist for shock-value now considering how easily it was resolved.

Yuta not coming back would provide a consequence for Yuta defiling Gojo's body, and also in general give the perfect bittersweet ending to both him and Maki's arcs. They both chose to become monsters in the end to defeat Sukuna, and as a result Maki is standing alone at the strongest. It would also provide the perfect parallel to this scene with Geto and Gojo. You could even have Maki musing on how she was left behind again. There's a pretty big parallel to Maki and Gojo both being people who seemingly don't need anyone because they're so strong and self-sufficient and yet they crumble at the idea of the one person they've always been relying on walking away from them.

It would also parallel Megumi and Itadori as well, because the reason that itadori is eventually able to reach Megumi is specifically because unlike everyone else he refused to give up his humanity to defeat Sukuna.

You could have a really heartbreaking parallel of three generations of friendships broken apart by the Jujutsu World. Satosugu, and YutaMaki aren't able to reach each other and stay together, but finally by never giving up on reaching out towards one another Megumi and Itadori are both able to find each other again after the world and Sukuna pulled them apart.

I do enjoy this scene a lot - especially the parts where Maki seems borderline arrogant by insisting she could have done things all on her own and if they went with her plan instead of Yuta's then they would have suffered far less losses. Especially since Maki's not genuinely trying to chew Yuta out here, she just knows no other way to express her worry over him besides being hyper aggressive and confrontational.

It still shows that Maki's personality problems are all still there, she loves people a lot but she loves people from afar and can't admit to needing them but like I'm just saying we could have had THE UTLIMATE DOOMED LOVERS ending for YutaMaki.

[doodle-pops]

Dear Mina,

Question: How would the Ainur flirt with their S/O?

Thank you.

a/n: Oh boy, did I have a ball of a time laughing as I wrote these. These aren't different from my Ainur Simp headcanons. The only difference is the new members.

The Ainur Flirting with their S/O

Manwë

Dances and swoons you like a tropical bird but with more elegance and charisma. Expect to be asked to dance at festivals and balls or receive lots of jewellery (sparkles). Know that he will serenade you all the time, dedicating each piece for you (yes, he writes them).

Irmo

Doesn't waste the opportunity to be at your side whenever you are alone. Asking you for walks and tucking flowers into your hair while citing poems. Kissing the back of your hand and looking you deep in the eye while charming you with his charismatic self. Sends you the sweetest dreams ever, and you never suffer nightmares.

Námo

Oh boy, after his brother gave him advice, he would invite you to dinner frequently and ask you about your day. He wants to learn about you instead of flirt, so his approach is more gentlemanly and professional (he's a serious man). Give you a bouquet of your favourite flower and something to symbolise his affection towards you.

Ulmo

He spends most of his time with you on the beach or near any open area of water, but mostly the beach. Taking you deep underwater and showing you aquatic and oceanic life. Gifting you pearls and the prettiest seashells he can find. His favourite moments would be to sit with you on the sand under the moonlight.

Tulkas

Shows off his strength as proof of his admiration for you while also praising yours. He's a pleaser and would do anything to make you smile. Going out of his way to lifting your spirit (and lifting you) through his praises. Every defeat is done in your honour.

Oromë

Shows off his skills as the greatest Huntsman and brings produce for you every month (his ability to provide). Frequently visiting and teaching you the ropes of hunting. Expect to be gifted a few animals if you're an animal lover or have his special creatures show up to gift you some souvenir that he planned to give you months ago and was nervous about.

Melkor

He's seductive about his strategies and prefers to seduce you. He's always standing close and pushing your hair out of your face or neck or resting a hand on your back. He loves to hand-feed you himself for some reason, like strawberries or have you sample his wine from his glass.

Eönwë

Just like his King but boisterous and flamboyant about it. He goes all out and would perform aerial dances or find you little pebbles and shinies out on his flights. He would even take you on flights just to have you cling to him. Always gifts you a feather to have a piece of him.

Tilion

He is quick to visit during the day and spends every moment at your side asking you about your day. Gifts you little trinkets that are different moon phases and tells you he'll watch over you when you're asleep. He has the tendency to break the moon's course just to shine moonlight on you even if he gets scolded.

Ossë

Collects pearls and seashells and prepare them on a turtle shell as a gift to you. Whenever you're in the water, the tides tend to become calmer or around you. He loves to give you the advance over others when you're sailing on the seas. Sends sea creatures to gift you little trinkets whenever he can't make it.

Mairon

You're the only person who is allowed to be within contact distance and touch him. He greets you with a cheerier melody compared to everyone else and always waits on you hand and foot. Actually compliments you and gifts you pieces he made himself. There's a softer look on his face when you're around.

[writernopal]

✍Writer Interview✍

Thanks to @teamdilf for tagging me here!

When did you start writing?

Technically, when I was like 15/16. I was writing a little bit back then but I don't remember what I was writing, which sucks. I really wish I remembered! After that I picked writing back up in summer of 2019.

Are there different themes or genres you enjoy reading than what you write?

Yep! I think its kind of limiting to only read the genre you write. There's always stuff you can take from other places and work it into your writing. It can produce some surprising results! That said, my favorites to read are non-fiction and classic works of fiction.

Is there a writer you want to emulate or get compared to often?

No and no. There are plenty of authors I admire but I've got a voice of my own and I don't particularly think we need two of anybody.

Can you tell me a bit about your writing space?

So I have two main things I use to write: a desktop computer and a laptop. My desktop is on a desk (surprise, surprise lol) in the corner of a room with two little windows above it. I recently upgraded the setup to have one ultrawide monitor instead of two smaller side-by-side ones to help me focus when I write because I noticed when I was writing on my laptop I'd get more done because I only had one screen. I also have a mechanical keyboard with blank keys for cool points lol. On the wall beside my desk are a bunch of posters and things, some for inspiration, others just because I like them. Of course I've got some pirate/ship themed art there too! With my laptop I kind of take that anywhere, so with that I write on the couch, the dining room, cafes, libraries etc but never in my bed because then I won't sleep. I've been trying to have better sleep hygiene and phone habits in general which is only worth mentioning here because I used to write on my phone but I don't anymore.

What's your most effective way to muster up a muse?

Music, but like really listening to it. As in, closing my eyes, not doing anything, and being present as its playing. I'm very in tune with how my body experiences feelings/emotions so doing that will usually make me feel something and from there its just letting my mind wander.

Are there any recurring themes in your writing? Do they surprise you?

Forbidden/taboo things. It can be anything from interpersonal relationships, oppressive systems, internalized responses to stimuli, etc. Also drawing connections between the world and our environment and the stages of our lives or even things that happening. To me, those things are all connected. And no, they don't surprise me one bit.

What is your reason for writing?

To make sense of the world around me. And to live lives I won't have time for in my short one.

Is there any specific comment or type of comment you find particularly motivating?

Anytime someone notices a theme or callback in my work. Which I think has maybe happened once so I do my best not to rely on engagement to motivate me otherwise I think I'd go insane.

How do you want to be thought about by your readers?

Oh ideally I don't want my readers thinking about me at all lol. I want them thinking about the story and what it makes them feel.

What do you feel is your greatest strength as a writer?

Prose. Especially of the visceral or imagery-heavy variety.

How do you feel about your own writing?

I think its quite strong but I think I've reached the limit of what I can do on my own. I really want to start honing my craft and improving it so I'll probably be taking some courses and/or joining a writing critique group soon.

When you write, are you influenced by what others might enjoy reading, or do you write purely for yourself, or a mix of both?

I guess I'll say mostly for me. There is 'an audience' in my head but whether those are people who would actually read my stuff or someone I made up, I can't say lol. Also I have to have fun writing something otherwise I won't want to do it so its hard to say I'd want to write for someone else unless they had requested something specific from me.

Tagging (gently): @tabswrites @void-botanist @paintedbutton @sarahlizziewrites @oh-no-another-idea @kanobarlowe and anyone else who wants to play!

[mdhwrites]

What do you think about the four most popular ships in Amphibia (Sashanne, Sasharcy, Marcanne, and Sashannarcy)? Even if shipping and romance aren’t that important and only used to teach a lesson or for a comedy episode, it’s pretty obvious that the relationship between the girls can be seen either as platonic or romantic.

So I'm going to first give my one sentence thoughts on each by concept and then canon before going in deep on this:

Sashanne: A unique dynamic that is actually very context specific so hard to actually recreate and I'd argue most people don't even try or get close in fan works (myself included)/I do like them but I 100% think they needed a couple years to figure out their lives away from each other or else post Amphibia they would have likely become toxic in a new way.

Sasharcy: Classic nerd and popular pairing/FUCKING NONEXISTENT.

Marcanne: A bit more nuanced since it's much more the slacker and the passionate one as far as a dynamic goes but not in the way you expect./Held back by a lot more tell don't show, especially in the first couple episodes that Marcy is introduced but it's cute and you can EASILY see how this whole trip will have made Anne be able to appreciate her oldest friend more.

Sashannarcy: In concept these are actually a GREAT polyamory trio and I love that it has such mainstream appeal with a fandom/I don't think it works from the show's perspective because of how well defined Sasha and Anne's relationship is while Marcy struggles to have a presence.

In case you didn't notice a running theme, these ships have essentially the same problem as my greatest problem with the show: Marcy. Her weaker writing compared to the rest of the cast and the fact that she serves a narrative role more than she acts as her own character makes it hard for me to be compelled by her canon self in ships. It's akin to why Willow and Hunter don't appeal to me from a shipping perspective. I like characters, not plot devices. Yes, Marcy is better than both of those characters as she actually has a firmer character than either but that doesn't fix that her narrative utility comes before who she is most of the time.

The other big element that maybe has always held me back from shipping them in canon once I watched the show is actually the fact that I agree with the show: As teenagers, they were AWFUL for each other. Marcy needs her own, personal strength that she found some of in Amphibia but needs to actually put to use in the real world. Sasha brutally changed so much of herself and was clearly struggling with that, over correcting or still wanting to run even to the end. She asks if it's okay for her to abandon Marcy after all, even after she's gone so far to make up to Anne as to give up ALL power in her life which isn't healthy either. Anne is the closest to being ready for a relationship after Amphibia but Sprig's Birthday/Give a Frog a Cookie showed that her self sacrificing tendency for her friends and her desperation for approval still. She may do it for better people than for Sasha but she is still struggling.

They all just need time to figure themselves out as people because your relationships SHOULD NOT DEFINE YOU. That's kind of part of the point of the ending. Take the good and grow as a person, whether you lose someone by choice or by circumstance. That includes for the trio as friends or romantically.

Okay, but I did mention something potentially quite controversial which is my Sashanne take. See... Their dynamic in most fandom works is the overzealous, brash one versus the patient, more responsible one with Sasha and Anne respectively. That is accurate post Amphibia but it also carries NONE of their baggage and usually leans a lot more on Sasha's tomboy nature instead of the fact that Sasha is a girl who can both kick your ass and then worry about having chipped a nail. The complexities of Sashanne that make it so compelling in the show just don't show up as much except as an obstacle to get over to get together. That works for shipping but it's not why their friendship is as complicated and interesting as it is in the show. It doesn't have the punch it should and it's damn near impossible to replicate because that level of history is hard to depict. It only functions in the show as being well depicted because of how much time is spent essentially breaking Anne out of Sasha's control, which is part of it. Anne is someone who pretty much left a cult and Sashanne is her having to decide to now be with her cult leader but not slip back into the mentality the cult taught her. That's... not easy to put it mildly.

But then again, a lot of people just take Sasha and Anne working together for a greater cause to mean they have literally no issues anymore despite Sasha's Angels existing. I guess that happens when somehow the entire fandom doesn't give a fuck about Amphibia but only the trio. sigh

Let's end this on a positive note though which is that if I am so rough on essentially all the Sasha relationships for needing time for Sasha to genuinely internalize her lessons, Marcy is the opposite. While I complained about her above, the strength to the fact that she's a pretty well defined, nice character who can be used mostly to support others arcs is that she more neatly fits into a position for shipping. Her awkwardness and nerdiness is PRIME romance fodder (there's a reason a shocking amount of romantic protagonists are clumsy but that's for a different blog) and her passion makes it easy to understand why someone would want to be with her.

And I do want to say some thoughts on Marcanne. Even if they start on a rough place with more tell instead of show, it actually does kind of work in this context. A complaint I've had about other relationships is not actually knowing what the other is interested in their partner for besides "That's the hot one." There is ZERO ambiguity here. Marcy likes Anne because of her compassion, something she probably has worried about wearing out herself. Anne has always appreciated Marcy's intelligence but Amphibia has made her understand Marcy's passion far better than she did before and Anne clearly actually is into that now that she better cares about others properly. This also clearly shows their chemistry as we know the strengths and weaknesses each of them cover for the other, though not perfectly as they're both still human and the same things they admire in the other can cause anxiety and worry in themselves from comparing themselves to their partner. Marcy in Wartwood and Scavenger Hunt are all it takes for all of this to come out and it leads to more romantic chemistry, and a genuinely dynamic look at what they could be, than a lot of romance movies manage in their entire runtime.

In conclusion, I like all of them in general. In practice, I find most of them deeply compelling within the show. It's just... It doesn't drive me to want to write them during the show romantically because I agree with the show. They're complicated, both as a trio and as themselves, and they probably could use a more solid ground for themselves before they really start working on each other.

And that is honestly even better to me because it just makes them all the more interesting.

======+++++======

For anyone curious why I didn't talk about Sashannarcy at all despite literally being a polyamory writer, it's because I kind of wanted to keep it to the ships that I think are properly represented in the show and Marcy and Sasha get essentially zero time together to try and form a relationship beyond "Marcy thinks Sasha is really fucking cool while Sasha barely gives Marcy the time of day if she's not also giving attention to Anne." The theoretical would be fun to talk about but it's pretty much only the theoretical and I decided to keep the blog more focused on the practical.

Also had a moment after this of going "Huh. I wonder how much of me being demiromantic is playing a part in how I see these.?

I have a public Discord for any and all who want to join!

I also have an Amazon page for all of my original works in various forms of character focused romances from cute, teenage romance to erotica series of my past. I have an Ao3 for my fanfiction projects as well if that catches your fancy instead. If you want to hang out with me, I stream from time to time and love to chat with chat.

A Twitter you can follow too

And a Kofi if you like what I do and want to help out with the fact that disability doesn’t pay much.

[mymanyfandomramblings]

Having watched all the finales of TOH, Amphibia and Gravity Falls, which do you think hits the hardest?

Ooohhh. Tough question. I think each finale had it's strengths and weaknesses, and I've actually had to think about this for a while.

Gravity Falls, for example, I can't think of obvious weaknesses--it was very thematic, cathartic and heartwarming, and the tension and stakes were well built and maintained. The only thing I can think of that weakens it--and even then, it only weakens it in comparison with Amphibia--is that it's a pretty safe finale. Stan gets his memories back, all the relationships are repaired, all the baddies are either defeated or redeemed. Dipper and Mabel are feeling better about high school and they're coming back next summer. This is fine--it's the perfect finale for the show, and it's the right conclusion for the themes emphasizing the importance of family and that it's possible to face your fears as long as you have people you can trust. So, I wouldn't even really consider that a 'weakness'.

The greatest strength of Amphibia's finale is that it doesn't shy away from the hard stuff. Instead of being an indulgent, happily-ever-after, it commits to it's theme hard, and shows an ever-after that isn't perfect but is still happy. I think the fact that the Amphibia finale is both satisfying and heartbreaking is what makes it such an incredible finale, because there are a lot of flaws with The Hardest Thing. The extra conflict with the moon, the cat guardian, all that was rather jarring, and I felt All In resolved the conflict in the way it needed to be resolved, without a last-minute stake-raising. But The Hardest Thing remains an extremely gut-punching, yet satisfying finale and the perfect conclusion to the series.

The Owl House finale is a good finale too. The conflict made sense, and it escalated in a linear form--there was no false ending, like in Amphibia. My two major complaints are about Luz's fake death and about the poor utilisation of the cast. On the first one, Luz's 'death' didn't have the same impact as Stan losing his memories or Anne dying because it wasn't the same culmination of her character arc as it was for the others, and also because we didn't get many character reactions. Eda and King were there (and the Collector), and while I do appreciate them not overstuffing the cast at such a crucial moment, it was kind of weird that Luz's mother, friends and girlfriend didn't even get to react to it. This ties into the whole 'poor utilisation of the cast' ideas--their Hexsquad got Luz to the head, and then they just hung around in the archives, and Hunter didn't even get to be present at Belos's defeat (and Raine did, which didn't make sense for the characters, really). And the epilogue was very sweet, I like (most) of the timeskip designs, and the future suited them. It was very self-indulgent, but that's okay--those kiddos went through so much, they can have a happy future. And while I do think the eventual finale didn't really tie in with the whole 'you have to separate reality from fiction' thing from earlier, the show pretty much dropped that theme a long time ago, and the finale was fitting for what the show had become. If we're talking about season finales though, Clouds Over The Horizon + King's Tide are unreal. Dare I say that they blow True Colours out of the water. Maybe I won't go that far, but still the TOH season two finale was incredible. So I know they can write a killer finale, and altogether, Watching and Dreaming was pretty good.

TL;DR: Gravity Falls has the strongest finale, the best part about Amphibia's finale was the way it committed to it's themes, and The Owl House's finale was also good, if flawed. The way each show ended was perfect for that show and it's themes.

[cyberesc]

BEST ENEMY. (2/3)

ft. Prohero!Midoriya x Villain!Reader

synopsis: The Hero Commission is tired of waiting. You've been Deku's responsibility for too long and they want results. But no one, not even the Number One Hero, gets the luxury of loving their greatest sin.

˖⁺‧₊˚ tags & warnings: heavy angst, violence, mutual obsession, self-destructive tendencies

note: ugh i love writing characters spiraling/feeling guilt, if you couldn't tell, whump is my favorite type of genre

part 1 | part 3

The Commission is done waiting.

It’s been years. Years of headlines that should’ve read of your death but instead told stories of their failure to capture you. You’re still breathing, and for them, that’s a problem.

Izuku knows of the meetings he’s no longer invited to, of the glances from heroes who have long since lost their patience. If he won’t do it, someone else will.

He’s run out of time.

But when he sees you again, standing in the wreckage of your latest disaster, eyes wicked and fond, he knows he’ll never be able to finish this.

Not the way they want him to.

You knew it would come to this.

There are rules in the world, and one of them is that even heroes must bow to the men who pull their strings. Izuku, for all his strength, for all his will, is still a man tangled in a system that was never built to accommodate softness.

It’s a shame, really. You hate seeing them chip away at him, sculpting something colder from the boy who once held the whole world in his palms, promising to save everyone.

Even you.

You wonder how long it will take before they rip that hope from him completely.

The thought should make you smile.

It doesn’t.

It’s funny, in a cruel way.

Izuku can’t stand you, but he also can’t stand the thought of anyone else taking you out.

It’s a possessive, selfish thing. A terrible thing. But he can live with being terrible.

He can’t live with the thought of some faceless hero putting you down like an animal.

No.

If anyone will do it, it will be him.

And if he can’t, if the moment ever comes and he falters like he always does, then maybe that’s the answer neither of you have ever been brave enough to say.

That you were never meant to be erased.

That his hands were never meant to be stained with your blood.

That even now, even after everything, he still wants to save you.

Even if you’ve never asked him to.

“Didn't think you had it in you,” you murmur, lips curling in amusement. “I thought for a second you’d actually do it.”

Izuku’s fingers twitch at his sides, jaw tightening. He knows exactly what you’re talking about.

That night, when the hit on you went public. He lost his mind, went storming into the Commission’s offices with fury crackling at his fingertips, demanding to know who had the gall to put you on a kill list. When he found you later, still alive, still breathing, he was so angry, so relieved, so conflicted.

He kissed you.

He hated you.

He still does.

You liked that about him, didn’t you? The way he tried so hard to be terrifying, all fire and fury and justice, but all you saw was a boy too soft for the world. Your boy, once.

He can feel you staring, eyes tracing the lines of his face, the new scars he’s earned since the last time you saw each other up close.

“You’re cute when you’re mad, Izuku.” You smile. “Still pink in the cheeks, even now.”

He clenches his fists.

“I should've.."

“Killed me?” You raise a brow. “Please, you're not ready yet.”

Izuku doesn’t move.

He doesn’t correct you.

He doesn't remember when the distance between you disappeared.

All he knows is that he has his head in your lap while your fingers brush through his messy green curls. You say nothing about the tears slipping down his cheeks or the way his arms tighten around your waist. Instead, you just hum a soft tune, grounding him in the warmth of your presence.

He clings to you and he's never been more grateful for your silence.

He buries his face into your stomach and hopes that he gets the courage to put you down tomorrow.

Izuku's been acting weird lately.

It's what his friends have been thinking, they blame it on the affects of the war, but they knew it went beyond that.

Ochaco wasn't one to ask questions.

She’s known Izuku long enough to understand that some things are better left unsaid.

But she sees the way his eyes burn when he talks about you, a fire that isn’t rage but something much worse.

It reminds her of herself, in the quiet moments when she thinks of Toga. When she wonders what she could’ve done differently, if there was ever a moment when she could have saved her.

If she could've stopped her from giving up her blood. Her heart aches when she thinks about the blood flowing through her veins, her body tainted with the soul of someone she couldn't save.

She understands.

And she understands that Izuku will never let this go.

His will to save is like a rose, beautiful and precious but lined with thorns that dig into him, carving his devotion into his very flesh.

One day, those thorns will bleed him dry.

The hero they’ve hired is good.

Maybe even good enough to do what Izuku won’t.

The thought makes him sick.

He watches from the rooftops as they track you, waiting for the perfect moment to strike. He shouldn’t be here. He knows he shouldn’t be here.

But he is.

Because it should be him.

If anyone is going to save you, or kill you, it has to be him.

He has never once believed in fate.

But if there is a god in this world, then you are the princess locked in the tower, and he is the knight meant to rescue you.

Or maybe

You’re the dragon, and he’s the fool who still believes you can be tamed.

Either way, this story will only end one way.

With one of you dead.

Or with both of you realizing that neither of you were ever meant to survive in the first place.

© property of cyberesc 2024. please refrain from plagiarizing any of my works and do not repost/copy onto any other sites.

[terramythos]

TAYLOR READS 2023: SYSTEM COLLAPSE BY MARTHA WELLS

Title: System Collapse (The Murderbot Diaries #7) (2023)

Author: Martha Wells

Genre/Tags: Science Fiction, First Person, Agender Protagonist

Rating: 9/10

Date Began: 11/19/2023

Date Finished: 12/31/2023

In the aftermath of the alien contamination incident of the Adamantite colony, Murderbot and its humans face a new challenge. Barish-Estranza, a major corporation, seeks to claim the planet and its inhabitants as salvage, which would doom the colonists to contract slavery. To save them from this fate, the non-corporate humans must find a way to convince the colonists to trust them and reject Barish-Estranza’s offer.

But after a nervous breakdown, Murderbot has problems of its own. Unable to trust its own judgment, Murderbot must come to terms with its distressingly human response to the traumatic events of Network Effect— all while keeping its humans from accidentally killing themselves in the cutthroat political climate Barish-Estranza brings to the Adamantite colony.

“On the team feed, Ratthi asked, Can we come down and help you, SecUnit? No, I told him. He hadn’t asked me what I was doing, probably because he was afraid I didn’t know. Which, valid, but this time I actually did know. I continued around the edge, because if I was right, the first one would be directly attached to the pad. If it wasn’t here, I was going to look incredibly fucking stupid and the humans were going to assume because of redacted I— Oh, here it is.”

For live reading notes, check the reblogs (contains unmarked spoilers).

Content warnings and review (spoiler-free and spoiler versions) under the cut.

Content Warnings: Mentioned -- Murder, torture, sexual slavery. Depicted -- Slavery, PTSD, self-hatred, emotional manipulation, dehumanization, violence, gore (kinda), death (implied)

**SPOILER-FREE REVIEW**

This section is spoiler free for System Collapse, but not The Murderbot Diaries as a whole, so please keep that in mind!

I've consistently enjoyed The Murderbot Diaries throughout its run. The strikingly relatable narration Murderbot supplies makes the books approachable and entertaining to read, despite often delving into disturbing and dark subject matter like slavery, depression, and anxiety. The book chronologically preceding this one, Network Effect, is one of my favorite novels of all time. While System Collapse doesn't reach those heights (and it doesn't need to), it's yet another story following Murderbot's adventures and struggles with personhood, so I predictably liked it.

System Collapse occupies a more transitional space than previous entries. We end the novel in much the same place as in Network Effect, literally and metaphorically. Murderbot makes the same decision it does at the end of Network Effect; to leave its Preservation humans and travel with ART and its crew instead. I question whether System Collapse was originally planned when Network Effect was written; as a story, it feels tacked onto that entry. It's just more of that book-- a continuation of some loose threads from it.

However, this isn't a criticism, at least not yet, because despite feeling similar to Network Effect, System Collapse introduces critical character development in order for the next arc, which I imagine will focus more on ART and the University, to succeed. I'll get into more detail about that in the spoiler section, but I have no problem with a break from the extreme high stakes tension of Network Effect to spend time developing various characters, including Murderbot itself, especially going into the next story arc.

**SPOILER REVIEW**

By far System Collapse's greatest strength is how it addresses Murderbot's trauma post-Network Effect. If I'm right and this entry wasn't originally planned, I'm glad Martha Wells decided to write it anyway, because leaving the long term effects of what Murderbot went through in the air and unaddressed would be a disservice to Murderbot as a character and readers who have undergone similarly traumatic experiences.

In particular, Murderbot experiences a realistic depiction of PTSD, something it's disturbed by and ashamed about. System Collapse can often be a brutal read because Murderbot is so hard on itself, seeing itself as an incompetent failure for having a reasonable reaction to trauma. It hearkens back to earlier points in the series where Murderbot didn't really see itself as a person, something that has gradually changed over time. But one thing that sticks out to me is a heavier thematic focus on Murderbot's humanity.

Murderbot itself is a construct-- a combination of machinery and cloned human material. We know it has a human face, human neural tissue, and some organic body parts, but the series to this point has focused on Murderbot's PERSONHOOD rather than its HUMANITY, which are separate things in this series. Murderbot itself doesn't identify as human, usually avoiding the association and approaching the world as a machine would. So after Murderbot suffers its PTSD episode, when ART says “this affects the part of you that is human," and Murderbot doesn’t outright deny that assertion, it's VERY striking to a long time reader. Murderbot's human aspects have to this point been depicted as a nuisance, something Murderbot feels neutral about at best and dislikes at worst.

System Collapse makes a direct connection between a fundamental aspect of Murderbot's character and this idea of humanity. It's something that seems obvious in retrospect but as far as I know is the first time the narrative directly addresses it. Murderbot LOVES the TV show The Rise and Fall of Sanctuary Moon. As an autistic-coded character, Murderbot's primary special interest IS Sanctuary Moon (and the concept of human media as a whole). It watches favorite episodes of this space soap opera to comfort itself when it feels stressed or overwhelmed. One reason Murderbot cites for not hating humans despite what they've done to it, even before meeting humans it likes, is their ability to create media.

Yet when we meet ART in the second book, a space ship bot with greater than human intelligence, it doesn't understand the emotional aspect of media at all. It needs to watch TV shows by seeing the reactions of others to get full context. One of the ways ART and Murderbot initially bond is through watching shows together like this. Murderbot cites "human neural tissue" as a requirement for fully understanding media. Yet here in System Collapse that same neural tissue causes major problems for Murderbot— the trauma response.

One connection System Collapse makes to Sanctuary Moon and why it's so important to Murderbot is that, after hacking its governor module pre-series, Murderbot used Sanctuary Moon to heal and rewire its brain. Murderbot has always had some human aspect to it, whether it likes to acknowledge this or not. And one of the things most precious to it is something it would not be able to fully understand or appreciate otherwise. So Murderbot has to grapple with both positive and negative aspects to, as ART identifies (correctly, I feel), its humanity. I was hesitant about this framing at first, as the series to this point has avoided addressing this so directly. But on reflection I REALLY like it, and am interested to see how the next entry expands upon this.

Beyond Murderbot itself we do get development of some newer characters. Iris, ART’s favorite human, made an appearance in the last book, but gets a lot more screen time in System Collapse. We get a sense of her self doubt, but willingness to do what is right in the face of danger. Another character I really enjoy is Tarik. I honestly can't remember if he made more than a passing appearance in Network Effect. But System Collapse develops him as a human foil to Murderbot; he was part of a corporate death squad and broke free, has trauma associated with that, is the newest member of ART'S crew, and is quietly a badass as like, a background detail, which is pretty funny. With the book's greater focus on humanity and how it relates to Murderbot, I think a character like this has a lot of potential and I'm excited to see where that goes.

Slavery and self-determination are core themes of the series, and we continue with that trend in System Collapse. Barish-Estranza are the primary antagonists and seek to enslave the surviving colonists of Admantine in everything but name, and the conflict focuses on finding a way to convince said colonists to establish themselves as an independent entity to escape that fate. While I don't think it's the most poignant exploration of these ideas in the series, it is nice to see the consistency of The Murderbot Diaries' anti-slavery message and the variety of ways it's explored throughout.

Another overarching plot thread gets expanded upon in this entry-- that of free constructs besides Murderbot. Murderbot encounters a "ComfortUnit" (a cutesy name for a sex slave) earlier in the series and frees it, and we still don't know where it went or what it has done since then. In Network Effect Murderbot frees another SecUnit which it calls "Three", who is a minor character in this entry. During the story of System Collapse Murderbot frees two other SecUnits owned by Barish-Estranza, one of whom helps them during the climax. It's implied this Unit will do what Murderbot initially did and pretend it's still under the governor module's control while continuing to do its job.

So my question is, when does this part of the story all come together? The slavery of constructs is arguably THE conflict of the series. Murderbot has given various constructs the means to disable their governor modules and free themselves throughout the series. Presumably this could cause a chain reaction over time as other constructs free each other. Is this the endgame of the series? I don't know, but I'm excited to find out.

**CONCLUSION**

As always I greatly enjoyed System Collapse and highly recommend the entirety of The Murderbot Diaries. It's one of my favorite series ever and if you haven't read them yet… DO IT! I would not consider System Collapse the best entry in the series (it's hard to beat Network Effect) but it provides compelling character development and food for thought regarding the next story arc of the series.

[gracehosborn]

Writing Share Tag

A freshly-written TAI: Vol. I excerpt to share. On account of the fact that I had to pause after writing it because I couldn't stop giggling (at Alexander's expense, per usual):

The greatest of my attention was at last drawn fully to the officer upon his dismounting a few yards distance from our captain. Confusion weighed with a sudden heaviness upon me, akin to the lingering smoke after a day’s drilling. For what reason the officer had to embark to that place from the Continental Army’s camp in Cambridge, I was left to only guess. Alternatively, and what seemed most probable, was his being an instrument of the provincial congress to deliver a message, as had many couriers to our meeting ground in the weeks last. At the soldier’s sharp and steady movement towards Captain Berrian, I felt awe make an incursion into my confusion. Newfound awareness of my own figure registered in consequence of the sight, pushing me to feel the undesired bend of my fingers, the slight movement of my knee in the same, and the slight inbalance of the barrel of my musket against my shoulder—all of my efforts besides. A quiet sigh of scorn escaped me as a sweltering rush of the anxious sort seeped into my mind and body on the whole. If there be a message for you, you are to look like a tired fool to receive it. Stand up straight— “…he’s likely here to finally put effective measures in place, instead of this tired lot,” a man some columns to my right whispered with dismay. Nearer to my left, the natural surprise of another carried on the wind. “He looks not one minute exhausted, but must have come from a ways off.” “This is sure to become interesting,” whispered the fellow to my immediate right in a tone which made clear his naked dread at the scene before us. Well, for my part, I am at least the only one who it seems is actually standing at attention. In accordance to the thought, my lips narrowed with the firmness and strength of much concentration, as my eyes stared sharply ahead with equal measure in effort to suppress an outward display of my disgust. Lest I made the company of irony.

Going to leave this as an open tag for anyone to share something you've created recently that you love.

[microwaving-tesilid-argente]

This post is a response to that one anon who sent in an ask about something that happened in webnovel 223.

I would have replied to your ask but tumblr ate it up :( but anyway, thank you sm for sending the 2nd ask! it warned me about the 1st ask containing spoilers so i was able to avoid reading it. And I cannot begin to tell you how excited I was for the TL to reach 223 so I could finally read your ask. Anyway, the 1st ask + my response under cut

Aw, it's quite disappointing to hear that the genre change wasn't a big thing later on. I can't say if it maybe was in subtle ways anyway, bc. well. We literally just hit ch 223 and I have nothing on what came after. (But if I do see it I'll make sure to make a meta analysis post on it later!)

I think that the reason why the genre change doesn't feel significant is because of the genre it changed to: Action Fantasy. Ailette has spent most of her time in this life either fighting or training. In other words: her life was already an Action Fantasy story. She doesn’t need to make any changes to her lifestyle, she doesn’t suddenly get confronted with Romance-oriented narrative challenges. And so our narrative tone doesn’t seem to change either.

Like what the TM Gods said, what was important was removing the restriction that “relationships outside the original story will result in death”. And to do that, they just needed to:

destroy the original story (ie. get rid of the “time loop” part of the story) +

provide a new anchor for this world to rely on (making Ailette the new MC)

That MC changing to Ailette feels insignificant is probably also because Ailette has always been our protagonist. In other words, from the perspective of this world and the gods in it, something existence-changing has happened. But it’s not apparent to us because we exist outside the story as readers to S-Class Heroine, which already has Ailette as its protagonist. The genre and MC change is from the perspective of the characters, not us. They didn’t need to dramatically change the story from our perspective. (To them, we in fact don’t even exist at all.)

On the topic of the genre change again, the genre change probably would only have felt more significant to us if it had changed to Romance like Ailette had hoped. It would mean that the things that are narrated – ie. things that end up having significant consequences on the characters’ lives – are all romance- and not fighting-related. Ailette would probably spend all her time working on her interpersonal relationships instead of beating demons up.

Meta-wise, I think that this would not have been a wise writing choice. One of S-Class Heroine’s greatest strengths is that unlike most knight-themed OIs, the MC genuinely finds great joy in gaining martial strength (it’s not just a job or a setting to show off how just and noble she is). And the narrative honours that by giving a lot of screentime to the joys of training and fighting – separate from the romance. The fighting scenes are an ends in and of themselves. The reader is supposed to take joy and be invested in Ailette’s non-romance fighting adventures. 

I bet that there are quite a lot of readers who appreciate S-Class Heroine’s balance between action and romance. To have the story shift so dramatically to romance at the expense of action would have been a disservice to the readers who have enjoyed it for 200+ chapters. Admittedly, I’m pretty sure that most of us really wouldn’t mind; we probably came across it because it’s Rofan – but S-Class Heroine is a gem because it manages to be actually action-oriented as well. I think it’ll just be a waste for that to change, when tbh it doesn’t really need to - S-Class Heroine manage to do romance just fine even when both leads were very pointedly trying to shut up. S-Class Heroine works better without dramatically changing its meta (our-universe) genre.

And the thing is that S-Class Heroine is only a Romance Fantasy to us because we knew from the start that it was a romance story. In S-Class Heroine the webnovel, Ailette’s underlying romantic motivations were very much the point, even when– or rather especially when they weren’t explicit. But to Ailette, the romance bloomed completely organically. When it was revealed in the Toy Mansion arc that Ailette was exempt from Tesilid’s Commandments restrictions, we all knew it was because of The Romance. But Ailette was really only concerned about how it’d make her life easier, and she didn’t see Tesilid romantically for like. Years. The story that we read as outsiders and the life that Ailette experiences don't line up completely, because of the lens through which we view it. S-Class Heroine is a Rofan to us, but for Ailette, who very purposely did a bunch of mental gymnastics to shield the narration from her romantic feelings and who spends most of her time training anyway, it has always been an Action Fantasy.

And so basically, TLDR;

The Genre and Main Character Change Ticket has to be read from the perspective of the in-universe characters, to whom its name was actually relevant to. The Genre and MC Change Ticket is not for us. It’s a tool for them and it’s the language they use to understand their world, not for us to analyse the story’s meta narrative. 

It’s confusing because we’re using the same words; genre action fantasy romance etc., but they mean different things depending on who’s speaking them and activating the words. To Ailette and the TM Gods, genres are like keys unlocking different paths they can navigate this life with; it’s like choosing what course to take in school/college. To us, genres are ways to analyse S-Class Heroine the story, which just so happens to centre around Ailette.

There’s probably an ORV-esque point to be made here about the author-protagonist-reader relationship, especially the protagonist-reader one. Something something the protagonist exists outside of the reader’s own needs and projections and interpretations and the protagonist has their own concerns and worries and perspectives, which need not be a complete mirror of the reader’s own, even in a story where the reader is meant to identify with the protag. Something something joongdok divorce arc, I think. Don’t quote me I haven’t read ORV in 2 years and I never understood that arc. But I think the themes are similar.

Yeah anyway thanks for listening to me yap. Sorry if what you meant by “it feels like the MC change should have been more significant” wasn’t actually “it feels like we should have felt some substantial change in the narrative”. I’ll come and re-answer this ask again when I’ve read more chapters, if this wasn’t the case.

[aella-targaryen]

Analysis of the new posters of HOTD S2

We'll have the show in Summer, 2024 finally! The announcement has given me enough energy to write again so, let's use the dopamine and analyze the new Hotd s2 posters

Spoiler and unpopular opinion: I like them

First let's analyze Rhaenyra's poster, it's perfect, I think it shows the right amount of sadness, pain and fury. At the end of the first season I never really liked it the entire ep. 10 S1 the last shot of ep.10 S1, in the books it is specified that Rhaenyra collapsed when Lucerys died and we never saw that, we never saw Rhaenyra fell down of grief for the death of her favorite son, which in my opinion was extremely important because  Rhaenyra's children were what she loved most in the world and losing them one after another caused her to lose her mind.

By losing Lucerys, Rhaenyra was physically and mentally incapacitated and that is why she could not take charge of the black council and other people had to make important decisions. It seems to me that in the final scene of the final episode it would have portrayed Rhaenhyra's character better if we had seen her go crazy with pain instead of seeing that vengeful look. I think it would show how the loss of her children was decisive for Rhaenyra to become a person who did not have enough strength to defend her birthright, her family and her own life.

Emma look spectacular! I think  their makeup and hair perfectly reflect Rhaenyra's state of total misery and fury. In the first season we know that Rhaenyra's makeup and hair style were disappointing for everyone since they did not represent the status and the grandeur of a Targaryen princess, but I think Rhaenyra's image now perfectly reflects her feelings .

I loved the reflection of the flames in Rhaenyra's eyes, which look sad but at the same time angry and powerful.

Now let's talk about Alicent.

I have read on the internet that many complain that Alicent should not appear in the first two promotional posters since she is not Rhaenyra's rival, that the Black Queen's greatest rival is Aegon and I (partially) disagree.

I think we often forget that in the books Alicent is the main villain in Rhaenyra's life, Alicent was the adult woman who bullied Rhaenyra since she was a little girl, Alicent was the big villain in Rhaenyra's life. As Rhaenyra grew she gained influence and power, she was on equal footing to confront Alicent, her stepmother was no longer a villain, she was now her rival. For a long time Aegon was just a means that Alicent used to seize everything that belonged to her stepdaughter and it is only later in the story when Aegon rebels against her. The sides are called “The Blacks” and “The Greens” because of Rhaenyra and Alicent's dresses, not because of Aegon and Rhaenyra, it has always been The Princess  and The Queen, not The Prince and The Princess.

In the shown I was upset that they couldn't develop a story where Alicent and Rhaenyra are rivals, this is implicit and the birth of their rivalry and hatred can be seen in episodes 6 and 7, but for some reason they decided to show a kind of reconciliation between them in the ep. 8 when their hatred was supposed to be greater than ever, in ep. 9 showed that they understood NOTHING about Alicent's character since she was one of the people who caused the war between the greens and the blacks and in that episode they made her seem weak and indecisive. Alicent in the book is an interesting and strong character who went to the ultimate consequences to achieve fortune and power, a character who never accepts defeat, who never gives up and who only loses her strength and her mind with the passage of time and when all her weapons have been defeats.

In the S1 we see an extremely soft, whiny version of Alicent, lacking character and power.

I didn't mind seeing her as an abused and obedient child at first, what bothered me was how the show tries to show that Alicent in her adult stage is STILL a victim of circumstance, that she is actually so innocent, that she is just a little girl who STILL continues to be used by the men around her because she is too weak to defend herself. In the s1 we never see Alicent really grow, have ambition and strength. We only see a woman who allows others to walk all over her and who commands no respect.

But liked how Alicent's appearance demonstrates the opulence of the House  Hightower, given that at this moment, they are the winners of the game and govern  king's landing and the Red Keep,  what I don't like is the facial expression of Alicent. I wanted to see a powerful Alicent rise up in anger against her stepdaughter who threatens her status, her fortune and the lives of her children, her grandchildren and her entire family. I wanted to see a queen willing to fight for what she wants. And yet what they have given us is an Alicent with a soft and innocent expression, as if she had not been the one who incited a war between her son and his stepsister.

So that's it, in summary, I really liked the promotional posters, the only thing I didn't like was Alicent's goody-goody expression.

[superkooku]

My thoughts on the apothecary diaries

(volumes 1 & 2 of the manga)

I'd like to write a review for the manga. Of course, it's just my subjective POV. I'm no professional reviewer, just a fan.

The (very) good

Maomao

If I had to pick knh's greatest strength, it's our protagonist.

Of course, many have noticed how we have an actually fleshed out female character, and that's great. But even by normal standards, she's awesome.

I could see both her strengths (levelheaded, curious, smart) and some weaknesses (too blunt, missing some social hints, getting carried away in her passion). She's also very expressive and it's delightful to see.

Finally, her sudden promotion is actually justified. She's helpful and smart.

The side characters

So far, no character has annoyed me (except maybe some maidens. But it's on purpose).

The rest of the cast may not be as fleshed out as Maomao, but they're all interesting.

I like how the concubines aren't villanized. We see how they themselves suffer, but also their qualities.

Lifa especially surprised me. I initially thought she'd be nasty, but she's quite nice. Her outburst at Gyokuyo becomes more interesting when we learn she isn't her normal self. She's just a sickly woman who's afraid for her son.

And of course, there's Jinshi. He's quite intriguing to me. He seems to put on some kind of facade in front of the others, one which matches his beauty, but it makes him seem shallow and annoying to Maomao.

Speaking of them.

The complicated relationship between Maomao and Jinshi

I talked about the characters in general, now, I'll focus on the "main" relationship.

(Right after Maomao X Poison, my OTP)

First of, yeah, Jinshi's a bit clingy with her 😅. I've seen some people dislike this fact, but personally, I don't mind it. It makes them imperfect and that's a good thing.

And it manages to stay funny instead of creepy (for now at least).

I'm pretty sure it'll become romantic, because I got spoiled 😅. Jinshi's clinginess and Maomao's comments kinda hint towards it anyways.

It's like a healthier version of "Enemies to lovers", though the first part is mostly one-sided.

(No actual hate or spite, just a bit of unease from her side.)

I seriously love how each one can throw the other off their game. Jinshi can't use his charm on her. But Maomao can't hide her schemes from him, he always catches her.

It's like a little mind game. Fun to read.

In volume 2, their interaction after the banquet felt different. I'm excited.

(also, if it becomes romantic, I'm pretty sure he'll realize his feelings way before she reciprocates, lol.)

The politics and commentary

I'm not that good with politics, so I could be wrong, but I like how knh delves into the palace (more specifically the harem).

We see how beautiful the concubines are, the lavish decorations in their rooms, but also the darker side of their lives.

The NINE YEARS OLD concubine (Lady Lishu), how women are put against each other and forced to always be careful in order to survive.

We also see how much damage superstition and ignorance can cause (r.i.p the prince), while most characters aren't dumb, but just used to the system.

There's also that sweet story on the woman dancing at night. We see how far she has to go just to reunite with her childhood friend.

Knh delves into many complicated themes inherent to the society in culture while staying tasteful.

The illustrations

Kudos to Nekokurage. The style is often cute and expressive, but some panels really are beautiful.

(like the final one in volume 1, with the woman dancing, or the freaking covers !)

The cuteness of the style doesn't make more serious scenes less impacting (like when Maomao gets angry at the maid).

Smaller points

The humor

Gyokuyo's three assistants are cute (though a bit foolish)

Other relationships (Maomao with Lady Lifa or Honnyan)

The mystery

The lack of useless fanservice

Maomao's past is acknowledged several times and not only in a negative way. Her background helps her. It's sweet.

The... less good

Although I really enjoyed reading this manga, there were some spots that (imo) can be improved or added on.

Pacing issues

I feel like some things are too fast or could be expended on.

Also, many months sometimes feel like mere days. For example, when Maomao first comes into the palace or when she spends time with Lady Lifa.

Some characters are too incompetent and mean for no reason.

MOST characters aren't dumb. There are exceptions.

It's probably made so Maomao seems even better in comparison. I don't really like this approach.

At least, the doctor is nice, but I would've liked to see him being useful. Maybe some flawed mentor figure for our protagonist.

Maomao can't do everything in this big palace. Seeing other people actually doing their job would be refreshing.

Also, that maiden Maomao slapped is a bit too "strawman" to my taste. Is beauty the ONLY reason why she gave Lady Lifa the notoriously toxic powder again ? Really ?? Is someone actually that stupid ?

It doesn't really make the moment less impactful, but a bit more frustrating (maybe it's made on purpose).

The science can be a bit vague

The vagueness can be justified by the context. This part is handled very well (like Maomao explaining what an allergy is without using modern terminology).

Especially when it comes to Maomao's immunity. I googled it and it only works under very specific conditions.

It's effective against venoms, not poisons.

It takes many years

It can backfire in the long run

It's a small problem, because expositing everything to the reader is not the way to do it and I actually don't hate this subtler approach.

There's nothing too unrealistic, but it's very vague.

Now, there are three options.

It's vague on purpose. Knh will delve into it later on. This approach would mean Maomao would suffer from her methods. I don't want her to be hurt, ofc, but it'd be interesting to delve into the problems of this method.

It'll be justified later on. Not exactly like 1, because the problems will be cancelled instead of solved (for example: she used this method since her childhood)

It will remain vague and we will have to suspend our disbelief.

Also, chocolate isn't an aphrodisiac for us, but knh somewhat explains that it's because they're not used to it like we are.

(Maomao can eat chocolate for example).

Again, it's vague but not completely incorrect, so it's just a little personal issue.

I expected a bit something like Dr. Stone that delves deeper into it, but knh's approach is also interesting. It's not like Maomao doesn't explain anything, she does, it's just more focused on the knowledge she can gather in their era.

Final thoughts

But it's not 100% realistic and focusing more on the "apothecary" part of knh (without forgetting the characters) would be beneficial.

I love this manga and although it has it's little flaws, it's really a wonderful discovery.

I'm very excited to learn new things about the characters (especially Maomao and Jinshi) and the palace in general.

I give it 8.5/10 🤩

[frasermints]

For the ask game, every multiple of 5.

bestie that's so many

5: what does your latest text from someone else say?

"This robot is trying so hard" in response to a youtube shorts link i sent

10: when is the last time you played the air guitar?

people actually do this??

15: do you prefer to be behind the camera or in front of it?

behind. always. i fucking hate getting my picture taken. froggie can attest to this after she made me get after i got BeReal

20: what is your greatest weakness; greatest strength?

damn we're going with the serious ones tonight aren't we? i like to think that, in face-to-face irl situations, i'm a good listener. i just fucking suck at responding. especially after my covid infection, i can't brain-to-mouth words anymore. the edit feature on imessage has helped this significantly since 99% of my interactions happen over that text platform but hooooooly shit i'm so bad at speaking

25: do you prefer talking on the phone or video chatting online?

i really like facetime but i fucking HATE looking at myself in the little window so i'll usually point it directly at my ceiling unless it's with One Specific Friend, mostly bc she's already seen me naked so her seeing me at Not My Best isn't a big deal and also like. idk i just fucking Hate My Face lol

30: stick your right arm out; what do you touch first? do the same with your left.

since i'm in bed and the only thing to my right is... the air. pumpkin is directly in FRONT of my right arm so i'll go with that. my phone is in front of my left arm.

35: to you, what is the meaning of life?

dude i don't even know. fuck around and find out. see more than twelve thousand trees. don't tell your friends they do too much yoga. own a cat. have at least one sex-induced medical emergency. confuse a seagull for an eagle when you're high as shit and get laughed at for it. drink a truly on the beach and watch the tide come in. eat so many cherries you shit yourself forty five minutes later and don't regret a single second of it. buy all of the notebooks you see in the bookstore and don't write in any of them. sleep outside when it's warm enough. take care of a houseplant. go far enough away from the city to actually SEE the stars. work with children. cry because of a dumb movie. breathe.

40: do you drive? if so, have you ever crashed?

yes: coming home from the seattle/tacoma metro area i got hit by someone going 90mph (145 kph) on the interstate. genuinely thought i was fish food that day.

45: what's the worst injury you've ever had?

probably the time i attempted rifle and caught it w/ my skull instead of my hands.

50: do you believe in magic?

eh

55: love or lust?

insert "why not both" gif

60: is there anything pink within ten feet of you?

yes, a couple things. a couple of bowls, a bag of potting soil, my sharps containers, some animal shaped erasers, a solid 50% of my sex toys are pink for some reason.

65: top five favorite blogs on tumblr?

peach, froggie, lou, steph, and vati

70: are you the kind of friend that you would want to have as a friend?

i would choke me out without hesitation i do not understand how froggie tolerates me to be honest with you

75: what are the last four digits of your phone #

what are you a cop???

80: what size shoes do you wear

i don't know bc it's changed since i've started t and now none of my shoes fit

85: what's the last song you listened to?

i wanna get better by bleachers (title of my current wip comes from this song!)

90: you wake up to find that you're surrounded by mummies. they aren't doing anything, just standing around your bed. what do you do?

assume i'm dreaming and try to go back to bed

95: you just got a free plane ticket to anywhere. you have to depart right now. where are you going to go?

do i HAVE to??? i don't have a passport and i don't like airports :(