#its just most of my ocs are objects cause i was in this fandom for like 5 years and was heavily involved in oc/design trading

[chopprface]

embarrasing admission: i do object art and its the only thing ive been able to draw well this weekend

I HATE THIS FANDOM!!!!!! DAMN YOU OBJECT COMICS FOR MAKING ME LIKE DRAWING THESE THINGS AGAIN!!!!!!!!!! I HAD JUST ESCAPED!!!!!!!!!

[daisyachain]

It’s been read into the record that the US Army committed egregious civilian massacres in Vietnam, killed an estimated 100-500 thousand civilians in total in Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos, caused thousands more poisonings, birth defects, and related deaths in the Agent Orange ecocide. Vietnam is considered by most residents of developed countries to be an unfortunate policy bungle in which US soldiers suffered trauma.

This is not counting massacres by allied forces. It is unsealed public knowledge that the United States either installed or propped up military dictatorships in a majority of Latin American countries and Indonesia, which engaged in political killings. The United States backed the governments which carried out the genocide of the Maya. US interventions in Latin America are considered by most residents of developed countries to consist of a heroic opposition to Cuban dictatorship, where they are considered at all. Indonesia does not exist.

The word ‘genocide’ was coined to describe the Armenian genocide. Descendants of Armenian survivors have risen to prominence in US pop culture (Cher, System of a Down). Armenians have suffered crimes, military aggression, and civilian killings by Azerbaijani and allied forces multiple times within the past five years. The US government recognized the Armenian genocide for the first time in 2019. The United Nations organized COP29 in Baku with no formal dissent or objection from developed countries, and I’ve seen accounts on here with my own eyes praising the current Turkish government (more of a case of ‘you do not under any circumstances have to hand it to a far-right nationalist regime because they’re geopolitically opposed to Israel’s far-right nationalist regime’). Most residents of developed countries couldn’t point to the Caucasus on a map.

These atrocities and many, many more are cases of factual unarguable history that have been acknowledged by hegemonic governments. There is no public or intellectual debate on the fact of the Armenian genocide, American installation of Pinochet, the My Lai massacre. It’s gone down in history.

It’s also true that the average resident, even the average sensible political moderate in the suite of developed countries has an understanding of the world that denies or excludes these facts. Tumblr fandom blogs will share a video of Erdogan if he’s saying something politically convenient, a mildly left-wing guy will disbelieve me when I mention the Pinochet thing until I make him look it up on friggin Wikipedia, there are 2 Vietnam War films focusing on heroic American characters released in or after Anno Domini 2020. One of which is by a solidly progressive director.

I’ve seen the sentiment frequently that history will show the Israeli genocide as the most vicious, cruel, inhuman assault on humanity since the turn of the millennium. That is true. It will show as fact, records will be unsealed, media distortions will die down. Already, internal Israeli news sources Haaretz and +972 have disproven many of the claims used by the US government as an excuse to dismember children on the basis of ethnicity.

At the same time, I think that there’s a lot of evidence that factual atrocities will be ignored by the liberal hegemony as long as they’re inconvenient. The Shoah is remembered as a tragedy in part because it fits into a narrative that portrays the US as a morally just world power. Universally acknowledged genocides mass killings have little to no impact on the memories or politics of ‘normal people’ in developed countries. Most people don’t know that the UAE is currently playing a key role in the decimation of Sudan’s population and most people, if they ever did find out, would not see any reason for the US to use its economic leverage to have any impact on the UAE at all.

The record does and will show that Israel is guilty of genocide. It will go away sooner or later because of the efforts of Palestinians and allies to free Palestine from occupation, apartheid, and genocide. I don’t think that anyone who cheered on genocide will be aware of any of this, reflect on any of it, or do anything at all make up for the people they’ve killed. Vindication by history might not change them at all. Which is why it makes sense to keep bringing up the Palestinian genocide in all contexts whether ‘appropriate’ or not, because all historical evidence shows that it will be swept under the rug, forgotten, or misremembered if it doesn’t remain a conversational landmine forever

[sphxremint]

(man this art is really old but im usin it anyway lol)

☆ Heya heya一it's me, Mint!

I'm the guy that does the funny draws (and music (and sometimes edits)).

Some of you have definitely heard that line way too many times before. Or some of you probably just know me as the Simple Yet Stupid guy. If you haven't seen me before, congratulations! You've successfully met "that guy" (me) for the first time!

This is my tumblr. I reblog stuff I think is neat and post art/music/stuff I like once every [unspecified time frame]. I dipped (sort of) from Twitter (ah, sorry一ECKS [X] as it's called now) like a year or two ago because some guy had too much fun ruining it. Now I'm here more often!

Right, this is an intro post. lemme get on that...

☆ cool things you should know

• I'm 20 (born July 4th, on MINT day. not whatever the hell independence day is. eugh)

• I'm aroace (certain of it now! we out here)

• I'm black (there's like no way to make this funnier it just is what it is)

☆ some other neat stuff

• I draw!

I'm definitely not consistent with it at all, but I'm trying, 'cause it's fun and I like doing it. I may be into a lot of medias too, but I'm mostly an oc artist, and it's a curse I will bear until the end of time

• I make music!

I'm also not very consistent with it, but I'm a bit less open about it... I do it for fun, really; though it's more of a personal thing compared to my art.

• My timezone is CST

...which is about UTC -05:00. if you need to know that. i know we all got varied timezones

• I'm very good at being inconsistent!

(such as basic punctuation and grammar. cause thats important. sometimes i'll actually use apostrophes and sometimes ill just completely forget mid-sentence. lmao)

☆ my 5 core interests

aka. The main things I like! I switch between the 5 of these on a whim. You can inquire me about any of these. Be ready when it happens.

• Sonic The Hedgehog (he's just THAT GUY, yknow. just a guy who loves adventure. ultimate life forms and whatnot)

• Kirby (i'd forfeit everything for him. #1 blorbo living life)

• FINAL FANTASY (esPECIALLY XIII and XIV. but it's mostly XIV. two lalas ready for Dawntrail WOOO)

• Celeste (#1 game ever. i love everything about it so much, i naturally get my friends to play it. i'm also pretty good at speedrunning. smile)

• and anything osc! (though I'm not part of the fandom "like that". just on the surface layer, yknow? bfdi, ii, boto, ppt2... funny shows go brrr)

☆ cool and awesome tags

□ #mint.txt = probably some random garbled text i spat out one night

□ #mintdraws = i sure do! and you should go look at it!

□ #mint.png = funny image included (not guaranteed)

□ #mint.mp3 = rarely use this but i still want people to know i make music

□ #mint.ask = because i get those. sometimes art, sometimes stupid funny stuff

□ #simple yet stupid = yeah its for those funny objects i talk about. i put this one here just in case

□ #mint's expoboard = i'm probably talking about one of my ocs

☆ and some extra stuff i guess

□ my sonas and stuff if you need that

□ my carrd! go read it cause most of my extra links (and contacts) are already there

□ my toyhou.se Did you know I have a toyhou.se? because I never shut up about my characters, and sometimes people just need the Repository of Information. well... here it is.

Okay. I'll update this post more as time goes on, but... that's about it. That was probably like a read and a half. oops.

Remember: if you do follow me, you are (unofficially) officially consigning yourself to my presence and any stupidity and/or brainrot that follows.

...if that's cool with you. lmao =ᴗ=)b

(big shoutouts to the old pinned i had. you will forever be missed)

last updated: 08 / 27 / 2024

[chipper-asks]

Hi! I've been following you for a good while now and have always rly admired the community you've build, and, your art itself, obviously, it's always very cozy in here. May be a strange question, but as a relatively popular artist on the interned, are there any tips you could share on how to engage and sustain an audience? maybe you know some recourses for artist to get their art seen? I've been an artist posting online for roughly 10 yrs and pretty much failed at accumulating any sort of prominent presence. I don't feel bad about it really, it's not why I do art per say, but these are pretty rough times and unfortunately other means of art monetization grow thinner with stupid updates & algorithms forcing anyone who can't afford payed adds or subscriptions out of business. I kinda have to make use of social media, even if it's not my element in the slightest. Feel free not to answer if you feel like it. Thanks in advance! Also big thanks for your shouts of my art overall, I really appreciate your support!

So I've had a post in my drafts for who knows how long detailing how to build and curate your audience online. But I haven't found a good way to go about posting it because I didn't want it to come off as tooting my own horn xD

BUT YOU HAVE ENABLED ME SO HERE WE GO!!!

(im going to generalize, you may already be doing some of these things but I think its good info for anyone who wants to build an online presence)

1. Engaging your audience

A: First, you have to think of the platform you're sharing your art on and what people use it for. Not even tumblr, but the internet as a whole. It is a place where people form communities and share information. It's also one of the most popular ways to mentally escape; from school, boredom, to the horrors of real life.

So if you want people to find you, make a space where they can escape/feel community.

This means: No callout posting, no venting, no doom posting, no politics, no guilt posting, no anything that would make you unfollow someone else if you were having a bad day.

It's okay to have an occasional vent or political post cause we're human, but trauma dumping is something thats very hard for someone else to read and honestly should you be putting that kind of information online, the internet is a place of community but it also isnt safe.

B: The Value of Fandoms

It's time for some metrics, featuring my own follower count.

I've been on tumblr for 9 years and I have been making an effort to grow my base as a way of getting money as a freelancer (like you) so I started doing this allll the way back in highschool. I can remember each milestone and which fandom I got them in

1,000 I got when I was posting stuff for Undertale

2,000 I got when I was posting stuff for The Property of Hate

there was a big break between these milestones where I was just drawing ocs and object heads and stuff, but nothing I was hyperfixated on

5,000 I got from Hollow Knight

but then something really unexpected happened.

In late 2021 and early 2022 I decided cringe was a worthless social construct and decided to fully indulge in my enjoyment of doodling dragons.

I juuust inched past 5,000 when 2022 started. I Ended Up With 12,000 as 2022 ended. That's more than double. As of posting this I am at 13,600 and its only February.

So how did that happen? I could tout along and say that it was simply luck and I wasn't really making an effort anyway but that's a big fuckin lie, i've been "selling out" this whole time (it's not fucking selling out to post in fandom. You like a thing? You go to the thing's community and post about the thing)

Posting in a fandom is essentially like, now bear with me, advertising for your blog. Fandom is where the eyes are and where the traffic goes. Big tags like #artistsontumblr #tumblrart #art are used OFTEN but they're too general and often people look for things that are specific. Fandoms like Hollow Knight, BNHA, Mob Psycho, The Owl House, etc are currently popping off and have a lot of traffic.

This doesn't necessarily mean that you need to join a popular fandom to post your work in to get followers, it just means that if you're into a show or a media, post it on your main art blog and don't make side blogs. Keep it all together

Why?

Because 5% of those fandom people stick around for YOUR STUFF and those 5% of people are the best goddamn people in the world. You want those 5% to see EVERYTHING you do and THEY'RE the ones who will recommend you to THEIR friends and do outreach on your behalf because they like YOU and not YOUR STUFF.

i fuckin love those guys

So as you hop from fandom to fandom, you're going to lose some people but that's fine. Everyone curates their experience online and if you head off in a direction they don't like then they can deal with it. The rest come along for the ride cause 1: they either really like your stuff or 2: are into the new thing you're getting into.

SO ANYWAY

posting in fandoms under one name is GOOD because it puts everyone in the same bucket that will see your stuff and there's a chance that a few will stick just for your stuff. It is not cheap, its how you reach out to people to help cheer up their day and escape from things stressing them out.

C: What should you post?

So this is something that isn't an exact science but if you're looking to increase your follower count, this is something you can keep in mind.

Because this is the internet and the digital word of escaping from stress, people flock to things that are

1: Familiar 2: Funny 3: Relatable

So i've already been over fandoms and that's something that goes into the Familiar category. Familiar can also mean generalized but still popular concepts, like werewolves, dragons, vampires, apocalyptic scenarios, etc.

The more you trail into something niche, like marine biology, the seelie/unseelie courts, object heads, etc, the less traffic you'll find. There are communities centered around these but they're not massive like certain fandoms.

Which is how you end up with artists who spend hours upon hours on every piece only getting like 14 - 32 notes per piece. It's not lack of people caring or lack of interest, its the fact that these artists haven't "advertised" their blogs in fandom. Those people who end up caring about more personal posts are those 5% you find from fandom spaces. Their Familiar from that fandom begins to include your artwork as Familiar and thus they're more likely to share it.

Funny is simple. Tumblr is a platform of shitposts and memes. Do you have a favorite character in a fandom? Shitpost them. 2 birds with one stone, Familiar and Funny. I can't teach you how to be funny, but if you see something that makes you laugh online, pause and try to find out why and see if you can replicate it. (You wont get it in one go)

Relate-ability is also simple. If someone finds something they can easily associate with they will eagerly tag #mood #me or @ one of their friends in the post.

What doesn't get people following just by itself is your skill.

This sounds really fucking depressing but hear me out.

Your skill in art is a multiplier. It can take those three categories from above and BOOST IT to fantastic new heights. People love things that are from their fandoms that are funny and relate-able. People go FERAL for shit that is from their fandoms that are funny, relate-able AND COOL AS FUCK. If art represented x5 in an equation and you have nothing else, you get 0. If you include any of those three other things and then x5, you get something grand.

2. Sustaining your Audience.

If you want to set up your blog as a platform to eventually gain freelance income from, you need to make it yours and not your audience's.

This is key to prevent burnout and feeling obligation to create for thousands of featureless faces and losing sight of what made you enjoy art in the first place.

It is REALLY EASY to fall into that pit, especially as you grow your audience. When you have a small audience, it's easier to interact one on one with someone. Engagement is exciting when you have a small audience! People? Interested in your work!! Fuck yeah!!

But as you reach those milestones, the vibe begins to change. More and more people demand your attention. People who are new don't see you as an artist they knew from another fandom, they see you as a content creator and that is the worst goddamn stone wheel to get stuck around your neck.

You can still respond to requests and answer silly questions, but now you have to keep in mind that if you draw this little dragon for someone, three other people are going to ask for their own little dragons. And that's fine because you love dragons and they asked so nicely. You make those dragons but now there's seven people asking for their own dragons and you actually want to work on something other than dragons-- but you made those dragon doodles for those other people so wouldn't it be hypocritical to say no-

It becomes a spiral.

So to prevent that situation from happening, you need to respect your boundaries as an artist and what you will do and what you will draw the line at. If someone doesn't like you for that, they can unfollow.

In terms of posting regularly to sustain your audience, i've found that it helps but ultimately doesn't matter.

(this is a tumblr centric view, i cannot say the same for other platforms)

The way tumblr works resembles a massive recycling facility. You will see shit on your dash from 7 years ago but you dont mind, its how this place works.

It doesn't matter how often you post. You won't lose priority on people's dashboards if you don't make your daily art post. What matters is that you just make the post.

Each post you make is like sending out a bucket of chum into the grand ocean of tumblr. The more buckets of chum you have, the more likely you are to attract fish. The more you post the larger your radius is. The more variety you make in spreading out to different fandoms the wider your range is. And these spots of chum don't go away! They're permanent brown spots in a big blue wasteland and fish will stumble across it and then try to find the source.

Basically, you can disappear for an entire month and then suddenly return out of nowhere and shove 57 posts into a week and then disappear again and people will show up and stick around.

THis post is getting really long and there are probably some things im missing but my hadns are getting achy and i think that's my call to stop :p

if you have anymore questions tho im very willing to answer 👍

[d1rtn4p]

I revamped my ENA OC/sona. He looked too...coherent for my tastes.

Anyway, this is ZIP! More information about it is below the cut!

It has multiple alternative (alt) forms, but I've yet to draw those. Stay tuned because I might (and that's a big 'might') draw them in the future!

Sorry about the text in the image being hard to read (I intentionally tried to make this look like a shitty MSPaint project lol). I transcribed the text below.

---

The text on the left reads:

"Name: ZIP" "Age: ??? (Adult)" "Pronouns: He/it" "Fandom: ENA" "OC created by:" "d1rtn4p/Z0MB13H4U5"

"ENA series created by:" "Joel G"

---

The text on the right reads:

"ALT form"

Weird, wacky, and somewhat unpredictable, ZIP is just another being here living out its life with no definitive purpose. There lies something deeply tragic about him, although he refuses to address it. Instead, he allows his unstable emotions to take over regardless of how they'll impact himself and others.

ZIP has no ill intentions and often times goes out of his way to be kind. Unfortunately, its inner turmoil and intense outward expressiveness in times of heightened emotion tends to drive others away from it.

Not all of his emotions are negative, although the negative ones seem to have the most consequences. As his form becomes less stable, he can cause all sorts of calamaties depending on what he's feeling. Most notably, his anxious form causes his mouth to split open to a spiraling void and the zipper on his belly to unzip and open a black hole that sucks in any loose objects (and individuals) around him.

[f2ucharacters]

If you're still looking for questions for an AMA:

What fandoms are you in/what media do you enjoy?

When did you start drawing?

How long does it usually take for you to finish each of these drawings?

What are some typical sources of inspiration for you?

Is there a reason why you draw fat representation when so many other artists don't? And thank you for doing so!

What are some of your favorite songs? Do you listen to music while you draw?

If you had to make a current hobby into a job, which would you choose?

If you could make a video game, how would you design it? What would the game be about?

Why did you decide to make a blog for posting free to use designs?

Do you like Thai tea? (I love Thai tea, had to ask)

HI thank you for asking!!! i always take questions because they are fun. here are my answers

i like homestuck, object shows, minecraft & roblox (if those count), things with dragons, and generally post-apocalyptic stuff i think

i've been drawing for most of my life, but i only started digital art in like 2017, so my go-to answer is 6 years (...it's almost 7 years and that's scary O_O)

it depends, but surprisingly, i take less than an hour on most of them. i make them all in batches of 20 or 25, and ibis paint also records the time i spend idling on the canvas, so i couldn't tell you the actual time.

it depends. sometimes it's character designs i like, sometimes a random idea hits me and i have to sketch it out real quick, sometimes i see a cool moodboard or image or something.

i just wanted to. i think some people just dont wanna get over the initial hurdle of learning to draw body types with fat, cuz after you learn it, its not that difficult.

i usually watch videos when i draw! but sometimes i will listen to music (it is usually by patricia taxxon, because she uses bandcamp). i don't really have a favorite song, but one i've been listening to lately is this (https://patriciataxxon.bandcamp.com/track/gdgegdgcdedhecetchcohthototo-2), and my favorite album is either _SNDWRK/gh or sixteen sketchbooks ago

gardening. i like plants and i like working outside

actually, i've had this idea for an RPG with my roblox OCs for a while now, but i'm too lazy to make it 😔 i've always liked the idea of making choose-your-own adventure type RPGs with like a ton of endings, where in each replay you can find something different about the game. this is mostly cause i like writing, but i don't like committing to ideas, so sometimes i just wanna add all the ideas at once. i don't know how to code though, so i've thought about using RPGmaker

I LOVE DESIGNING!!! i have been doing it since i started drawing. when i was in elementary i would draw wacky little monster designs. but i dont my designs for anything, and informally, i've always been saying that people can use my characters and ideas for whatever. so i just decided to make it official, lol. this blog is kinda like an advertisement

I LOVE THAI TEA especially thai bubble tea

[pleckthaniel]

Follower for a while, don’t know anything about warrior cats.

So instead of me asking what it is or is about how about instead:

Why do you love warrior cats? :)

OMG, this is such a fantastic question! You'll forgive me taking forever and a day to answer it, I hope, because while honestly Warriors is terribly written and objectively despicable... I still can't help but love a lot of aspects of it, so I had a lot to say :3

I LOVE melodrama, I love tragedy, I love super high-stakes family drama, I love stories that deal with prophecy and fate, and Warriors has all of these things in droves. At some point, the drama is honestly a little addictive - like a soap opera! Because, ultimately, that's what Warriors is. And I mean that in a complimentary way - I love soaps, people trash on them far too much.

Plus the character concepts in Warriors are great, even if the character writing is generally abysmal. There's a blorbo for everyone in those books. And if you don't like any of the mainstream blorbos, don't worry, there are over 2000 named characters most of whom have little to no personality or screentime, making them perfect to flesh out into a custom blorbo ;D

Which is another fun thing about Warriors: the truly massive quantity of characters and lore really activates the Autism Collection Brain. I can name several hundred of those 2000+ off the top of my head, which is... something to be proud of, I suppose? XD

But most of all, it's honestly just really fun to play with. Like, as a world and a setting, it has some really good bones that make it easy to mix in your own ideas and create something entirely new (hence the relative popularity of OC stories in this fandom as opposed to many others). Or if you don't want to come up with OCs, the story has a fuckton of holes and blank spaces that make it perfect for writing fic. On the other hand, there's also plenty of material to sift through and analyze if that's your preference. And I've spent hours and hours of my life trying to meticulously sew up the timeline and patch over continuity errors, mostly just... cause it's fun. From a fandom perspective, Warriors is like a really big and interesting puzzle. And since it's such a huge, sprawling story, if you get bored with one thing you can always move over to focus on something else. It's like the gift that keeps on giving.

And this fertile ground means that the fandom itself is incredibly creative. Like, I complain about it a lot - and there's a lot to be complained about - but the reason I keep coming back is that Warriors fans are truly some of the most dedicated people on the planet. There's the Youtube MAP community, which is kind of famous at this point for its skill and ambition, but also a lot of truly phenomenal fiction, art, games, and music out there being actively created by fans - and 20 years' worth or fanworks before that. It's a pretty extraordinary community.

Plus? Kitties!

[longsightmyth]

Yalenna 👀

You would

Yalenna of Trust and Other Fables (Please note the rating and tags my doves)

Full Name: Yalenna Ren. I guess. That's not so much a last name as a designation, but

Gender and Sexuality: the fuck does she care

Pronouns: she/her

Ethnicity/Species: force-sensitive human

Birthplace and Birthdate: who knows not Yalenna who cares not Yalenna

Guilty Pleasures: she's a sith she gives 0 fucks about any belief system that would try to cause her guilt

Phobias: nothing she'll admit to

What They Would Be Famous For: Ruling the galaxy. Obviously.

What They Would Get Arrested For: probably the war crimes

OC You Ship Them With: Yalenna has Hux on a short leash and they like it that way. He has her on no kind of leash at all and she likes it that way.

OC Most Likely To Murder Them: Kylo Ren, Snoke, most of the other knights of Ren, Palpatine, oldskool imperial/first order commanders... trying to kill your way to the top does not engender a lot of friendship

Favorite Movie/Book Genre: romcoms. obviously.

Least Favorite Movie/Book Cliche: comedies. she thinks they try too hard.

Talents and/or Powers: brain fuckery is her greatest force talent but she has others

Why Someone Might Love Them: she gives 0 fucks

Why Someone Might Hate Them: ...she gives 0 fucks. Also objectively just an awful person.

How They Change: she does not. She just gets more powerful.

Why You Love Them: she has so much fun being awful that it's hard not to have fun writing her.

Yali of the Let the Lightning Have Its Way, aka the star wars sequel trilogy rewrite:

Full Name: Yalenna Palpatine

Gender and Sexuality: I just think we care too much about this, as a fandom, in a galaxy far, far away, idk, she likes who she likes and she's Yali

Pronouns: she/her

Ethnicity/Species: force sensitive human. Her father is a clone of a guy from Naboo. Her mom is probably also from Naboo but she's not sure.

Birthplace and Birthdate: Coruscant 10 ABY (hopefully @woolyfaye doesn't have a compelling reason for that to be incorrect)

Guilty Pleasures: oh she feels guilty about everything basically, which is what happens when your sith grandfather has somebody raise you in his flavor of dark side traditions and everything sucks

Phobias: peace. No I'm serious.

What They Would Be Famous For: questionable. She's not very front-facing in the current hierarchy.

What They Would Get Arrested For: ...sith war crimes

OC You Ship Them With: she and Hux keep each other on short leashes in this version via being entirely too codependent.

OC Most Likely To Murder Them: Snoke, if he wasn't supposed to NOT murder her. Otherwise, knights of ren, possibly some first order officials.

Favorite Movie/Book Genre: she'll take what she can get

Least Favorite Movie/Book Cliche: she has an awareness that there ARE book and movie cliches.

Talents and/or Powers: sith force powers, general force talents, brainfuckery, codependent years-open force bond with one specific individual, less codependent latent force-bond with another force user.

Why Someone Might Love Them: She's Trying Her Best, okay

Why Someone Might Hate Them: I mean. She is a sith.

How They Change: "maybe the people who abused you were bad, actually, and should not be listened to" - Leia Organa

Why You Love Them: She Is Trying Her Best

[purrincess-chat]

Cat, if you think the powers are so lame, what would YOU do instead if you could change them? Great question, thank you for asking, I would love to tell you. 

Ones I’d leave the same: Cat, Moth, Ladybug, Bee, Fox, Turtle, Bull, Monkey, Dragon, Mouse, Snake (but it’s on thin ice). 

Ones I’d change: 

Peacock- I know the senti thing is like the whole plot, but I’ve just never been a fan of this power. In the past I’ve given the peacock the power of hypnosis. 

Rabbit- I already changed this one in MDCSPR. I just think time travel makes things too messy, and it’s too OP and deus ex machina esque. If I’m being honest, I’d prefer this one to have the portals. It still works as a rabbit burrow. Rabbit could also have super speed. Or the ability “Time Out” in which they can freeze time for a few moments. 

Horse- If I change the Rabbit, gotta change the horse. I think for the purposes of MDCSPR, even though it never came up, I gave this one speed. But I admit even that was lazy because I didn’t need to think of a real alternate for it because the horse never comes up in that fic. Super speed is fine. Super strength could also work. Though arguably, the rabbit could also be super speed. I dunno. The horse is weird.  I guess if you went with one of the alternates on the rabbit, the horse could stay the same. I just don’t like time travel for the sake of this show, so sue me.

Tiger- I made the tiger have invisibility in MDCSPR. It worked fine for there, but I can see why that would be problematic for Juleka in canon. But still, I like invisibility better than Falcon Punch. We need more stealth Miraculouses!

*Dog- I never fully decided what I wanted the dog’s power to be in my Dogrien AU, which is why I kept putting it off indefinitely. Objectively, Fetch is okay, but it doesn’t serve the purpose I need it to for Dogrien. I still don’t know what I’d change it to. This one’s on thin ice, but it can stay for now. 

Rooster- Literally anything is better than “choose whatever the hell you want idk” Part of me really wants a Miraculous that can see the future, but in a limited way. They can get a glimpse, but not the full context. So in that sense, it can be a blessing or a curse. 

Eagle- In my earlier fandom days, I had an OC that had the Eagle Miraculous long before it was ever confirmed to be in canon in the NY special. I like the idea of the Eagle having a bow as a weapon in a Hawkeye type fashion. As for its power, part of me wants to say it never misses a shot with its weapon. So like the arrow could phase through walls and buildings and shit to hit the target. I mean, it’s equally as lame as what it does now, so eh. 

Goat- I still don’t know what this one does either tbh. Like is it literally just the same thing as Lucky Charm except lamer? The goat could be a healer. Every team needs a healer. Like perhaps it could reverse the effects of other Miraculous. So if someone got stunned by the bee, could unstun them. That sort of thing. 

Pig- So, I know a lot of people think Gift is lame, I know I’m not alone in this camp. To ME, who plays a lot of farming sim games, Pigs are known to have really good senses of smell, so I’d make the pig an expert tracker. If it can learn a scent, it can find someone/something. 

These are all just some alternate ideas. I’m not saying they’re all necessarily better than what canon came up with cause some of them are just as lazy. But I dunno. Some of the ones in canon are lame. When Gale and I were discussing our ranking, most of the ones we ranked higher were very fleshed out, they have things that keep them in check and from being too powerful, or they just WERE that powerful. We also considered usefulness in battle, weaknesses, limitations, etc. So I dunno. I’m not above changing powers to suit a fic I’m writing, so do with these what you will. 

[whetstonefires]

tim drake for the character ask thing?

How I feel about this character

I'm attached as fuck to him. He's so annoying. All his fans are annoying especially me.

He's really great and has been Wronged by DC, not so much in being dropped from prominence as in having everything he brought to redefining Robin carved up and redistributed by retcon so now you get people saying he 'has nothing distinctive about him.'

YEAH BECAUSE HE WAS SO GOOD DC MADE ALL HIS DISTINCTIVE TRAITS GENERIC. SHUT UP.

All the people I ship romantically with this character

Huh. No one, kinda, he has such a habit of getting into romances and then just--having no idea what the next step is, emotionally speaking.

I don't know if we should call this an orientation thing or a mental health thing or a work/life balance thing or even just a maturity thing, but all available evidence suggests that Tim either lacks basic capability or subconsciously self-sabotages, when it comes to his love life.

Like even by comic book lead standards he stands out here because he hasn't lost many of his relationships to supervillainy or drama, he just kind of...drifts apart. He and Steph weren't a thing at the point of her 'death,' and that's the closest he's come to the usual fridge shenanigans re: girlfriend.

I've slowly gone off him and Steph, actually, since it started appearing in canon again. They were designed to character-foil one another; she has every Robin trait that was dialed down in Tim to pacify the Jason-haters, turned up to eleven. If you (writer) aren't willing to harness that collision energy and its spark to drive the relationship, you're going to get something that's either tepid and impersonal or their contrasts actively driving them apart and creating conflict.

Which they always did, of course, because you gotta sell comics and Steph in Tim's title was technically a weapon in the writers' hands, but I thought they had more potential to get their shit sorted and be something meaningful to each other back then than I do now.

Tim/Kon is fine? It's fine. I like them together in general so they're a fine romance, abstractly. 80%+ of shipfic in general is grossly mischaracterized in ways that cause me varying anxiety depending on the character so I've developed aversions to certain narrative frameworks for that ship, but I think it's the cutest and most natural canon-grounded one he has.

Honestly though I feel that Tim would have to change enough as a person before he would actually benefit from trying to hold up one end of a romance, that when I try to picture him in a stable romantic situation I always kinda feel he'd need it to be with a new person he doesn't have history with, to hold him answerable to who he's been all this time. So Tim/OC????

That said, the recent issue giving us Overtones Of Timber has me on the ground. Like hell yeah, sure, why not Bernard.

My non-romantic OTP for this character

Kon I guess? Honestly I like him best with his Young Justice squad, in its various forms. Tim Kon and Bart are reliably great, I still think their Young Justice reboot lost a lot by fucking all of them up right out the gate.

My unpopular opinion about this character

In a fun reversal from the previous two asks for this meme, I do know which opinions are unpopular about Tim, but in fact it's basically all of them. There are no positions on the subject of Tim Drake that won't piss someone off.

I am not gonna go seeking out the most inflammatory and/or bizarre thing I could say about this character egad.

I guess the one that's gotten me into the most conflict is that it is not and was not Tim's responsibility to make the relationship with Damian 'work.' And that the startlingly common attitude in both the comics and the fandom that Damian's behavior toward him those first years somehow couldn't be considered abusive and that Tim should have been able to either take it like a man or single-handedly deescalate it, simply because of their age difference, is fucked up.

One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon.

ONE.

...some unpacking of how he's internalized a really twisted definition of 'responsibility' and of how his parents and in particular his dad genuinely wronged him over an extended period, and he's allowed to have been harmed by it.

Like Tim has a whole thing about how he's not allowed to be traumatized by shit because worse things have always happened to other people (even though 'how objectively bad a thing was' isn't the primary factor controlling how bad the psychological damage is) and in Red Robin part of how his character was going so weird was he was finally giving himself permission to be damaged, and that could have developed in either a bad way (continuing that pattern of trauma validation through passive self-harm) or a good one (getting better at giving himself space to hurt and thus to heal).

But we never got to see the eventual outcome because Barry Allen destroyed the universe. Which, hey, DC sucks, it probably would have been a bad outcome anyway. But. Let the man grow up, huh?

[beyondthetemples-ooc]

OC-tober Day 2: Glass

OC-tober prompts put together by @oc-growth-and-development​! I have to ramble in meta instead of write, because my brain is Mush lately. (I know I’m behind but I have a lot pre-written, I just need to put it into coherent words!)

This one especially can be rambled about at length, because the most important “glass” object in my stories is one I greatly enjoy exploring: Dove’s mindscape mirror!

^ I drew it forever ago; here’s the deviantArt link if you’d like to see the big version! 

https://www.deviantart.com/ravenshiddensoul/art/Dove-s-Keepsakes-Mirror-and-Box-284227087

It’s largely modeled after a bird stretching its wings upwards, with a handle like a tail and certain details are inlaid with Azarathean gold to better channel its magics.

Now, this is where the rambling begins: The mirror’s backstory, and I’ll be exploring one of my favorite things to develop in all of my stories: Dove’s mindscape!

Dove's mirror isn't one of her most prized possessions, nor super incredibly sentimental, but it IS an object touched with her mother's magic, it has flourishes of Azarathean gold (some of the last pieces to exist), and it's useful for introspection and self-soothing, so it does have some value and importance.

Dove struggled with meditating quite a lot as a child, and there was only so much her mother could do to help. Meditation was pretty important to them as both a means of helping Dove control her powers, and as a staple of Azarathean spirituality. As she so often did, Alerina poked around and asked enough questions around the temple that she was told about Raven's mirror, and she decided to replicate it for Dove. She custom ordered a gold-lined wooden hand mirror, and then cast the spells to connect it to Dove's inner world herself. It took a few tries (it's much harder to connect something to someone else's mind than your own, after all), but she was nothing if not determined to help her daughter, and eventually figured it out.

As for its main purpose: Self-reflection! (If you'll pardon the pun.) Dove uses it to meditate, but where Raven uses hers for centering and compartmentalization, Dove uses it more as a blend of escapism and a focusing aid.

Much like Raven's, Dove's mirror acts as a portal to the depths of her mind, and this is where it gets fun!

The vortex that transports the users is usually white and gold, imbued with the same energies that give Dove her powers, at least on her mother's side. It's noticeably touched with black and red in DDD. (Dove's evil side starts taking over her mind, and thus its energies manifest through the mindscape, and Dove's portal into it, hence: black and red energies instead.) It tends to open up like a light tunnel and almost opens the mental world around the user, rather than dragging them in.

Once inside, one can't expect to navigate the same way as Beast Boy and Cyborg did in "Nevermore". Every mind is different, after all! We saw Raven's mindscape divided nearly into emotional sections with a neutral space between them, and the way through each area was preset and linear. While different parts of Dove's internal world manifest in different "areas", they're not so totally divided and separate, and there's no real "neutral" zone except at the very "center". The scenery changes, but it's more of a gradual transition, and though Dove employs thresholds to mark key areas, they're very much just visual aids.

Dove's mindscape is laid out more like a series of rooms and courtyards in a very (very, very, very) large mansion. The ground is generally of crystal, spires and columns decorate the scenery, and the thresholds are modeled after birds with their wings outspread. (While this seems like a play on Dove's namesake, it's actually based on Azarath's architecture, particularly that of George Perez's Azarath in the 1980's New Teen Titans comics.)

Dove's sky shows various stars and often casts moonlight from an uncertain source, particularly when she's introspecting. The ambient temperature varies amongst the locations, chilly in the regions ruled by fear and sadness, uncomfortably warm near her demon's domain, and comfortable and breezy where her peace and contentment reside.

One could easily get lost in her mindscape if they don't know where they're going. The place can shift and change on a whim.

Where Dove spends her time building that peace and contentment, it's very closely modeled after her mother's memories of Azarath (which is where she learned how to find peace, after all): there's marble and gold everywhere, and the stars twinkle with dozens of colors in the sky.

Where Dove retreats when there are feelings of timidity, her excruciating shyness, her grief and doubt, the world becomes shrouded in thick fog. Broken buildings and pale light litter the grounds.

Where she built her love for reading, for history, for creativity and study and learning, it's arranged as rooms with dark marbled tile and a carpeted path, the floor for dozens of feet on either side littered with piles of books.

Dove's inner happy place is an open field on gently rolling hills, where thoughts take the form of birds and somehow the sky holds both the stars and suns. One might find trees, flowers, abstract forms of cottages, and forts loaded with mugs and cozy cushions. If you wander far enough you'll find very tall stone walls surrounding it, because Dove's mind is such that her happiness is one of the few things she really truly believes she needs to protect from the rest of herself.

And then there are the aspects of herself that she shoves the deepest down, secreted far away from the surface: the anger, the hunger for power, the mean streak. (Yes, believe it or not, Dove does have a mean streak! You just have to work especially hard to bring it out. Or trigger her in just the right ways around sadism, violence, war, or death. It's very much Not Recommended; bringing too much of that mean streak out could mean Dove loses control of her powers, or worse: her demonic aspects.)

Those secret forces aren't so much located in one particular space of her mind as they're hidden in every dark corner, coursing through the underside of all the ground, a tantalizing power running through every part of her, only ever set free enough to use the dangerous powers to her own ends.

Her places for Fear and Curiosity in particular will be explored in the upcoming Missing: Raven rewrite. (As they're the strongest things Dove is feeling in that story, that's going to be what Beast Boy and Cyborg encounter.) I also explored the way these things manifest in DDD, and in that same story Dove will focus on rebuilding Peace in the final chapter.

I can't talk about Dove's mindscape without mentioning the "emoticlones". These fun little guys are called by the fanon term given to Raven's "emotion clones", the separate parts of her that express a specific set of traits based on particular aspects of her personality. I had so much fun playing with their voices and thoughts in Dove's head during DDD, you have no freaking idea! I also copied the concept of them having Colored Cloaks from Teen Titans canon, because honestly it's a quick and easy way to identify them, and the fandom's familiar with this system through Raven.

Which colors mean what was more inspired by details from a really old, now-defunct website called Cartoon Orbit that had separate "online trading cards" for each of Raven's emoticlones! On that site, Raven's were labeled as such, and this is what I based Dove's system on, loosely: - Pink: "Raven Happy" - Red: "Raven Rage" - Orange: "Raven Rude" - Yellow: "Raven Smart" - Green: "Raven Brave" - Brown: "Raven Fear" (I'm pretty sure there was a purple one, but I don't recall what it was called. "Love" maybe? That might be from fanon; this site was running like 15 years ago, and I was like 10 years old, so I hardly thought to pay Super Special Attention to it...)

But I digress. The point is, I adapted that system for the key aspects of Dove's unique personality, and came to understand them as follows:

- Pink: Joy, relief, coziness - Red: Cruelty, impulsivity, anger - Orange: Apathy, indifference, disregard - Yellow: Curiosity, study, intrigue - Green: Courage, determination, activity - Blue: Contentedness, pacifism, spirituality - Purple: Compassion, friendship, romanticism - Gray: Sadness, grief, longing. - Brown: Fear, fear, fear!

But for Dove's mind in particular, it's not only HER experiences and personality that form the world! She's a telepath, and though she holds others' privacy in very, very high regard and tries never to read someone's mind without their permission, her sense of receptive telepathy is ever-present. Echoes, lights, shadows, reflections of others' memories and thoughts might affect the very edges of her mind. It's a constant sense, but it only ever causes very ephemeral changes unless something deeply affects her.

Her mindscape also grows and changes as Dove grows and changes, experiences life, learns to cope, and changes how she handles her own emotions.

Most notably, the internal struggle in DDD tore her mind apart. Initially it was due to a breakdown of certainty and confidence, hastened by guilt and grief, but it soon became a deliberate tactic to wage war on the parts of Dove's mind that were trying to resist the evil; eventually her inner demon began intentionally breaking/corrupting everything it could touch.

By chapter 20, that evil is the only strong and stable thing in Dove's mind. Raven's attack to remove the evil in her took away that stability, and strength, and thus took away what was essentially the last support holding Dove's mind together. As it says in the story: "everything collapsed". Dove's mindscape was utterly destroyed, and only the most basic aspects of her remained.

For awhile, that left Dove unable to remember things clearly, or feel emotions without great pain. Rebuilding it to the point where she was able to talk and feel Mostly Normally again took months of meditation.

When Dove is kidnapped and Leyla has distressing dreams about her mother, she, Srentha, and Raven use the mirror to check on Dove by accessing her mindscape. With her powers stripped away, surrounded by people who mock her, and certain Fauni rituals sickening Dove to her soul, naturally her mind is very different: shadowy forms flitted at the edges of vision, the ground wavered, her discomfort was thick in the air and the constant fear made everything so, so cold. "Shadows" of others' thoughts flashed in and out of existence, and Dove's desperation manifests as fleeting voices on the wind. It's uncomfortable to be in her mind while she's so distressed.

It's also worth mentioning that her mindscape changes again, essentially "growing" the part of her that belongs to Love when she finally lets herself love Srentha, and it expands again when Leyla's born and Dove once more finds depths of love she didn't know she could carry.

[thehollowprince]

The problem with Tony and stiles fans is that they are ableist and can't acknowledge that just because people are neurodivergent doesn't mean that they can't be assholes

There is a phenomenon in Fandom where people just absolutely refuse to acknowledge the difference between Explaining a behavior and Excusing it. Or maybe they just don't know, but that's the root of most of these fandom wank sessions. Fandom will find a character that they relate to (understandable) or that they find interesting (also understandable) or because they are a fan of the actor and want to bone them (less understandable), and then the craziness ensues. Once they have latched onto said characters, they will do anything and everything in their power to absolve them of any wrongdoing, no matter how grievous and no matter how obvious it was their fault.

That is the fundamental difference between fans and stans.

And its ways white men that are given this preferential treatment by the fandom. With the MCU it was Tony, with Teen Wolf it was Stiles, with The Vampire Diaries and The Originals it was Damon Salvatore and Klaus Mikaelson, with Star Wars it was Kylo Ren. Seriously, pick a fandom, any fandom, and you'll find they worship at the altar of whatever basic white dude is at or closest to the center of the story. Characters of color are never afforded this same level of devotion, and are often torn down and canabalized in an effort to make said white faves look better by comparison.

If you ever look - like, actually look - at how the character is in canon versus how they're perceived in the fandom, you'll notice big differences.

With Tony Stark, they continuously try to make him this champion of truth and justice who cares about the little guy, when in reality he's, in his own words, a "billionaire, playboy, genius philanthropist". The first real hardship in Tony's life (his kidnapping in Iraq) was caused by his own negligence. He's a trust fund brat who never had to work - actually work - a day in his life.

With Stiles, they make him kind and compassionate, always concerned about everyone else while simultaneously being the world's smartest genius and having all of this potential which makes him super special and so on and so forth. In reality, that's just Scott McCall, the lead character of the show, dressed up to look like Stiles.

With Kylo Ren, they pretty much just transplanted Finn's entire backstory and character onto Kylo and called him Ben Solo.

The sad thing is, I don't understand why they're unable to accept that their favorite characters aren't perfect in every way, shape or form. These characters are so much more likeable because of their flaws, because it makes them more relatable. Tony Stark is a self-absorbed dick who always has a one-liner at the ready, that's why we liked him. Stiles was "147 pounds of pale skin and fragile bones" with sarcasm being his only defense. He was special because he was the normal kid running with a pack of supernatural creatures. Kylo Ren was interesting because he chose the dark side. He was a villain who chose to be a villain and I wanted to see how that would have unfolded.

There's a difference between wanting to expand upon a character you like (maybe give them a bit of backstory to explain why they do something or why a material object is so important to them) and erasing everything about that character from canon to create an OC that just looks like them. I can fully admit that I was curious about what Stiles real name was, just based off of Coach Finstock's reaction to seeing it. I can fully admit that I was invested in seeing where Kylo would go as the Supreme Leader of the First Order. But the side of fandom that claims to love these characters erase everything about them that made them who they were in the first place and filled them with fhe generic uwu soft boi who can do no wrong, and that is so boring.

To circle back around to the point, like I said above, there's a difference between explaining and excusing and sadly, fandom at large doesn't seem to know the difference. That's why when Tony Stark shot Sam Wilson, it was okay because he was emotionally compromised. It was okay that Stiles attacked a weak and barely standing Scott, because he was worried about his dad, and "oh, you'll heal." They take the explanation for said behavior (them being emotional over the injuries their friend/father sustained) and use it as an excuse.

Of course, if you were to turn any of that around, it wouldn't work, but I just can't put my finger on why. (Psst: its the racism.)

[kangaracha]

tell me about your ocs tho

you asked for this

so it’s been like, a while, since i really looked at my ocs outside of zombies, and also my work with the most proper ocs for zombies isn’t published yet, so i’m just going to do the three from other fandoms that i have big fics for and if you wanna hear about my little zombies ocs you can ask about em. okay. okay.

this is also really hard cause these characters go through so much change over the course of these fics, and i’m trying not to give away spoilers xD i will try. my best.

the OG. the one and only. the working-through-your-teenage-frustrations character. i love her.

IMOGEN HAYLOCK

mcu -  read sparrow

so the thing with imogen is that i wanted to do something different to the other oc fics I’d seen so far in this fandom. which is not to say those fics were bad or anything, i love them, i just want to be different. I was interested in writing a character that was like....not the perfect fit for the avengers, or the girl that got along with everyone, and then i saw TWS and related media (lookin at you, agents of shield), and i was like, ‘okay but if you were just hydra by name and working by shield values and principles all that time, and then suddenly you had to get up and kill your coworkers....’ and imogen Began.

i find her interesting for her wit and dry humour, her sarcasm and her big attitude - but also, her frustration with life, the deep-cut anger that she’s carrying with her like a rock, her struggle with self-worth and the way she presents herself to the world, and her complete average-ness in a place where everyone is exceptional. she’s nothing special - she’s just skating by, actually, she’s a high school dropout and on probation as a shield agent, and she’s really only off the streets because hydra value her as an object that might hold some valuable information related to a twenty year old cold case that doesn’t even have any relevance anymore in the grand scheme of things.

in sparrow, she finds something to relate to in clint barton - avenger, but also human disaster zone, making things up on the fly, most overlooked superhero of the century, completely regular guy with one unusual skill. she has to learn to be open to change and to want to be a good person, instead of an angry, ignorant person who will blindy follow whatever order she’s given and pick fights with anyone that disagrees with her. she also realises a lot of things that she should have realised sooner - that what’s left of her family is toxic as hell, that she’s been blindy following the forces of evil for years, that she doesn’t have to be an angry child from a broken home anymore, and that there’s a whole, scary world out there waiting for her and she can go and find anything she wants.

the rest of the trilogy, flicker and swift, follow her finding her way in the world, figuring out who she’s going to be and what she’s going to do, which is very relatable to me rn. it’s like therapy. flicker is also a great opportunity for me to have a crack at writing a romance as a side plot, and getting to let this character grow and realise her own self-worth and that yes, she can actually love and be loved in lots of different ways, is so satisfying. swift is just the icing on the cake, swift is her coming into her power, in her own way, it’s her looking back and realising that she’s changed her life and that she could do it after all, it’s a satisfying ending, i promise. i’m going to share it with you one day.

the slaughter of the lambs is kind of the sequel to the very first ac game that i always wanted and never got - except it’s not about altair because. i’m ~special~. the fic is set 20 years after the game, in the Levant, and is split into 4 parts spanning most of marwa’s lifetime, starting in 1211 AD and ending in 1257 AD and following her through the golden era of the assassin’s and the brotherhood’s downfall. it’s canon complaint, but runs like....canon adjacent. it’s its own story.

MARWA ABADI

assassin’s creed - read the slaughter of the lambs

marwa begins this story as a novice training in masyaf, the only female assassin in all of the levant. she’s raw and half-trained, never seen combat, her strength and ability put into doubt every day - but she’s talented too, and she works twice as hard as the boys, determined to prove everyone wrong. she’s tough and scrappy because she has to be to survive in the world she’s put herself in, and just a little too self-confident, which leads her to a downfall but also an important learning curve about wit and wisdom and loyalty, and the importance of striking a balance between free will and service to a cause. 

the rest of the story follows these themes on through the times of most upheaval in her life, as she struggles with following the creed and the beliefs of the assassin order and playing her role as a soldier for this cause, and with doubt and acting in accordance with her own personal morals and beliefs, which as time goes on and the assassin’s change, she finds do not always align. she has a strong sense of right and wrong and a strong character to back this up, and she strives throughout her life to become wise like her mentors were and to guide the world as best she can towards the right kind of future, as an assassin is supposed to. 

i wrote this character to explore the idea of being a servant to a higher order, to being faceless and lost to time and serving your cause knowing that, and how you find peace with giving your life over to that. especially coming from this day and age, when everything is recorded and everyone wants to be remembered for something, i found this interesting to explore. as marwa developed as a character, the other things came; her struggle with blind loyalty and festering doubt and the careful balance that she needs to strike between them, the folly of youth and the wisdom that she gains as she grows older, and the struggle of being a woman living in a male-dominated period of history and dedicating herself to a craft usually reserved for men. 

the first thing you need to understand about this fic, and this character, is that this is the therapy fic. this is me working through my own issues, but like also add +10 drama so that it’s interesting. and a romance plot, because i need the practise.

ANGIE SOMMARS

pokemon - read to go beyond your borders

angie’s story is mostly a sword/shield fic, though i borrowed some characters and stuff from diamond/pearl. the timelines are not canon. it’s set the year after the events of sw/sh, in galar. it follows angie through the gym challenge and her own personal conflicts, of which she has a laundry list. the fic finds her freshly arrived in galar from her home region in sinnoh, having run away from her responsibilities and the pressure of them at home looking for some kind of answer to her problems, or reassurance that she’s still good at what she does.

angie’s main conflict centres around her being the champion of the sinnoh league, a talented and experienced pokemon trainer sitting painfully exposed in the public eye. she struggles hugely with the reality of this position, and all the expectations that are put up to the person that holds it - she’s expected to be the strongest trainer in the region, to keep up a positive public image as the figurehead of the pokemon league, to be on the job most days of the year and ready for whatever it might throw at her. there’s always someone pushing her to be better, to present herself the way they think she should - and she’s used to being pushed and to being shaped, but there’s only so far you can bend a person before they will break.

angie is burnt out. she’s been in the public eye since she was five years old and competing in pokemon contests, and she’s far from the perfect princess of the league. her mistakes follow her around like a black cloud, creating controversy every time she reaches a new goal and drawing more and more bad press every time she messes something up. she doesn’t know what her own goals are anymore, and she doesn’t know where to go from the platform she’s found herself stranded on - she’s clinging to a position she’s too afraid to admit she doesn’t want anymore, and she’s scared to fall, or to break, or to look out to different horizons.

angie’s story explores the double-edged sword of fame and fortune, the satisfaction of being the best but also the scrutiny people place you under, the impact of ‘cancel culture’ on an individual, depression and anxiety and the endless circles of guilt in a toxic family environment...but also the hope of finding new horizons and finding the courage to take those first steps into the future that you want. it’s a coming of age kind of story, it’s young people finding their feet and new friends and new dreams and supporting each other through hard times. and it all ends well, which, to me, is the most important thing.

[zombiejoepino]

The Scavenger. CH: 2 (Cobb Vanth x OC fanfic)

CH 2: The Bounty

Fandom: The Mandalorian

Pairing: Cobb Vanth x OC!Female (in her late 20´s if you wondered)

Word count: 2923

Summary: A dangerous man is trying to keep a bounty in secret. He is waiting news from his missing hunters. Back in Mos Pelgo, The Marshal guards at night.

Warnings: angst

A/N: English is not my first language so i apologize in advance if i butchered your language. If you want to read the first part is right here. Thanks for stopping by and I hope you enjoy it

FULL STORY HERE :

UPDATE. CHAPTER 3 IS UP! 

CHAP 2: THE BOUNTY

Another night in the crowded bar.

A light smoke covered the atmosphere, live music was banging in the walls as the blue-skinned singer charmed the audience with her smooth voice.

Hunters, travelers, or anyone looking for passage was that night. Some of them just enjoyed a drink while talking business, others just gambled from time to time the sound of a blaster roared and another body dropped dead. Didn’t pull fast enough, others thought.

Just a regular night at Mos Espa.

The smoky drink traveled its way around the joint, crossing around colorful and loud characters. All of them must have a good story about the Old Republic or the Empire. They would exchange facts and anecdotes but there was always someone taking credit for things that didn’t happen. That would end up in a whole fight.

The drink finally made its way to the lone booth, stopping right in front of this man. Dark hair, a dark eye, and a pale one that followed the X shape scar across his left side. A strong clean shaved jaw and a heavy frown. Captain Qod was his name.

There were rumors about him, no one could tell for sure if he was a rebel pilot that went rogue or an imperial pilot turned into a bounty hunter. All that everyone knew was that he was good at stealing and hunting.

He and his gang, the Shadows, got quite a reputation for pulling out heists on New Republic cargo. They were smart enough to stay low for a time before going all over again. The last job was easy on terms, things went sideways in a matter of seconds. He lost two crew members, one betrayed them, the rest flee to the closest location.

His fingers drummed patiently, then stopped to take the smoky drink. He took a small sip and made a face.

Between the crowd, a skinny pale man flashed his yellowish smile at him and waved nervously. Wan Plog was a slippery one that always shifted between alliances. Our lone man didn’t make any expression while looking at him but just followed his clumsy actions with his eyes.

The nervous pale man reached the lone booth and waited before he was allowed to sit down. He rubbed his hands together and took the cloak from his head.

“They haven’t come back, boss.” Plog smiled nervously. “But maybe that’s not all bad. Probably found her and are just waiting to bring her. You know how the desert is. Raiders and other creatures.” He chuckled.

Max Qod, just gave him a long stare and sipped the smoky drink again. He didn’t blink even once.

“But if they don’t find her, I made this.” The pale man looked through his pockets and dropped a rounded dark object. He picked it up quickly, cleaned it up a bit, and slid it through the table.

Qod put down his drink and rose a brow looking at the puck. He pressed it and the blueish hologram displayed the young redhead image and last name; Roznev. Charges: Theft.  

“I know It’s a high price, boss, but maybe the best of the best can find her. Maybe if we send this to the Guild. After all, what she took is wh-” Plog's words were cut when the Captain's large hand-pulled him by the hood and made him bang his head in the table.

There was a small moment of silence but the crowd just decided to ignore it as they do with other conflicts or shootouts.

Qod press his head down on the table and moved close enough to his ears and whisper. “You know if you spit any word of what she has, others will come for it. I dunno who told you to make that, but you better destroy it.” He squeezed the head down, poor Plog let out a squeak.

“Better find those idiots, I don’t care if you have to track them down personally. Cant trust bounty hunters.”  

Qod shoved him away from the booth and looked down at the pale man. His expression was severe. He left 3 rounded chips on the table and walked away. The folks around just stepped aside to clear the Captain's way.

No one wanted to mess with The Shadows' leader.

…

Nighttime was the quietest at Mos Pelgo; kids were at the house getting ready to sleep. The local business closed when the sunset down. Only the old Weequay kept the light up as he cleaned up his pub, sweeping quietly. Even Banthas were mooing from time to time, almost like they were singing at night.

There was no much action after earlier events. The stranger crashing a speeder close to the town and the Marshal taking down two of them. The third one wounded, probably a victim, or just trouble. That was the two ideas that bounced on The Marshal's head.

He fought so hard for this community to have a moment of peace and he wouldn’t allow strangers to bring trouble to them. No more Key Raiders, Mining Collective, or the Sand people, he would face them all if it was necessary.

Of course, he would stand for his town, he knows that bounty hunters can be ruthless like any enemy and they would try to hit on his weaknesses just to get the worst of him, just enough to make a mistake.

But what were Cobb Vanth´s weaknesses? He wasn’t sure, so far he grew a soft spot for the young stranger.

Her behavior towards him was amusing for him. It was a normal reaction not to trust each other, and yet he felt her long stares, quick looking aways followed by a frown and a tiny blush. He chuckled thinking about it.

He was aware of his appearance, he noticed when women stared at him a little longer, followed by flirty smiles or nervous giggles but it didn’t bother him. Cobb barely had time to flirt back or give them too much attention. There was a lot in his mind, responsibilities, and more. He kept those ideas away and tried to focus on the facts around the accident.

Two bounty hunters were after a young girl. He found a trashed puck but the bounty in the hologram was not her. There was a bag with different pieces that reminded him of Jawas. So, that made her a scavenger, stole from them by mistake and they followed.

The Marshal didn’t have much time to ask her anything about those two cause she passed out in his arms. He was quite surprised how long she endured after the crash and the beat up. That last part made him angry. He would get more intel if he let one of them alive but there was no reason to spare a woman beater's life.

The bruises on the redhead were not severe; puffy cheeks, a black eye, small scratches but the wounded knee worried him the most. It would take her a couple of days to walk and maybe keep up on the road or wherever she is going.

He needed to decide how long he would let the girl stay and not make the villagers anxious about her cause they didn’t like strangers at all. These are hard times and you can’t trust everybody you meet.

That cold night, he was guarding outside the town, keeping an eye in the dark desert, hoping no man or creature would dare to step a foot in his town; A long watch.

He didn’t mind staying there in the cold, after all, he couldn’t patch his eyes at home. All those nightmares kept him awake and just rolling around. He didn’t want to remember all over again when the red-hot steel was burning his skin. He kept his mind on the moment and not in the past. Besides, the new guest/prisoner needed a place to rest.

Was she a prisoner? She didn’t resist the arrest, it was like she had no other choice. It was hard to believe that such a fragile and delicate figure would be dangerous. He didn’t find any weapons in her belongings, there was a bag with random items and pieces to improve a small speeder.

Maybe she stole from the wrong people, the bounty hunters, but they didn’t kill her right away so, there must be something else.

His mind shook off all the ideas and focused on a moving shape. He rose the rifle and waited for a moment.

The old Dewback made a few grunts while stomping his way on the sand. His steps slowed down before it collapsed, breathing heavily. At any time, scavengers would come out to eat the agonizing old beast.

He thought about putting it down to ease its pain, but the noise would bring out something big and mean.

The Marshal observed another food chain example.  

…

Screams heard in the darkness.

Her feet felt heavy but didn’t dare to stop. Blasters and explosions just felt closer. Space was getting smaller each time and all the bodies squeezed together trying to breathe when the water reached them. The cage was closed, no one else was allowed to come out, they were left behind. They begged for help, for mercy but the faceless shooters couldn’t tell the difference. Extermination was everything in their program. She backed off to escape until she felt the heavy hand around her throat.

She gasped. The heartbeats pounding in her ears, trying to scream but she couldn’t open her mouth, unable to utter a sound and unable to move.

What seemed an eternity was probably no more than a few minutes when she found herself able to move again. A violent reaction followed by the struck of reality. There was no cage, no water, or hand around her throat. She couldn’t place her thoughts properly.

Her first move was to kick the bedsheets away. Her leg was burning and the other one was not enough to hold her weight. She groaned in pain but stop when the footsteps approached the room.

Nath did her best to sat up and reached the first object to cause enough damage to her captor; a bottle. It was still pretty dark so it was hard to tell. The adrenaline kept pumping in her veins.

The large shadow walked in and, she let out a mighty roar and jumped over it to smash a bottle on its head. The shadow stumbled with her, both crashing the ground. He struggled to keep her hands away from him as she swung her fists furiously.

“Hey! It's me!” He yelled while dodging the fists.

She was lost in her thoughts and kept fighting. He quickly wrapped his legs around her waist to shift the position to overpower her.

“Stop it, Nathsca!” His hands pinned her down on the floor. She wiggled trying to set herself free from his grip.

She fought for a few moments, then huffed and looked back at her captor. It was hard to tell. Both of them were panting and not moving in the darkness, the heartbeat was drumming in her ears, her breath was warm just like his. Her eyes widen when she realized how small was the space between them, feeling each other´s heat and shaking. She didn’t dare to move or saying anything.

“It´s the Marshal,” He spoke softly to break the tension “You had an accident and I brought you here, remember?” Trying to read her expression in the dark.

Nath focused on his words when the memories jumped back. The chase, her speeder crashing and her face buried in sand, the burning slap across her face and then thuds. Two dead hunters and the armored man. She took a deep breath.

“I'm letting you go, alright?” Cobb said.

She was not sure to reply or make any sound, she nodded lightly. Cobb drops the grip on her wrists and moved back slowly. He sat back and kept his distance before checking on her. Nath rested her back against the wall and winced when she tried to stretch her leg.

Cobb studied her body language and sighed. Maybe he went hard on her but she was being erratic and needed to calm down. Pretty strong for a little lady, he thought.

“Where am I exactly?” She asked.

“Mos Pelgo, my place.” He cleared his throat after feeling her murderous glare. “This is a small community, the folks didn’t feel comfortable having you around and, I offered my place, so you could rest. And dont worry, I just arrived, we are not that kind of place.”

“Which kind of place then?”

“Just a town trying to survive, not letting trouble bite our asses again.” He stood up and offered his hand. The woman looked at him for a moment and took it.

She hopped her way back in bed to sit down. Cobb stood right in front of her and folded his arms getting pretty serious. There was a long silence before he spoke up.

“I’ve been meaning to ask you, are you bringing trouble to the town?”

“I'm not planning on staying.” Nath glared him.

“That´s not what I am asking. I mean, two bounty hunters right after you, you must have quite a story for that, miss.”

“None of your business.” She snapped.

“Is my business if you are a guest in my town.” He kept a serious expression.

Nath just rolled her eyes and drummed her feet on the floor while thinking what to say and what not to say. She didn’t want to get into so many details and share her matters.

“I stole from them.”

“That´s pretty obvious but what did you steal exactly? Cause I don’t think two bounty hunters took so much trouble to chase you just for missing parts.”

Her eyes darted him and frowned. She just decided that she didn’t like this man. He was asking too much like he was a real law figure, which was rare around this planet.

“I don't know. I just took off. Look, mister, if we are gonna have a problem cause I'm staying in your dead town is fine. Just give me back my belongings and I'm out.”

“And walk by yourself in the desert and risk to fall in a sarlac pit cause you don’t know the area?”

“I´ll take my chances.”

Cobb huffed and rubbed his temples to keep his cool. This woman is stubborn, he thought.  

“I'm sorry, I can’t let you go by yourself.”

“You don’t need to worry about me, is not like you are my father.” She folded her arms and frowned.

“No, but I'm in charge of this town.” He moved close enough to look right into her eyes.

“What is that suppose to mean?” She did her best to keep it with the stare.

“That I'm responsible for everyone in here, and that includes you. So, this is what’s gonna happen. You will stay a day or two until that leg gets better but I need to know what’s coming after you.” He had an intense stare, probably the same one he had while shooting down those hunters.

“Cause whatever comes, will find you and take you down easily and, if he pleases, he will stop by the town. I can’t let that happen. So, if it's necessary, I will make you the first prisoner in Mos Pelgo.”

“Are you putting me in a cage?”

“Or a box, your choice.”

“And you expect me to trust you after saying you are gonna put me in a box? Wow.”

He sighed quite exasperated and shook his head. He was just arguing with a stubborn brat that had no interest or respect for the town.

“Listen, I'm just trying to find a solution so no one gets harmed. You are just a kid.”

“I'm not a kid, I can look after myself and always have.” She snapped again. She hated it when people underestimate her or call her kid.

“So, here’s your solution. I'm leaving. I'm not gonna follow your orders just cause you wear a stupid armor and think you can control everyone.”

Cobb sighed in frustration and took a deep breath, he was too tired to keep arguing with her.

“Fine. You are free to go whenever you want.” He was about to exit the room and stopped for a moment.

“Just don’t do something that would harm the town. These are good people if that means something for you. I suppose thieves don’t know much about loyalty.”

Her words sank when he exited the room. She would argue with him or anyone for hours but, that last one did hurt. She was loyal to those she cared or loved, but right now, she was uneasy about everyone after her crew betrayed her.

He betrayed her for what? Crystals? Beskar? She didn’t even want to open that canister again to know her answer.

Nath just curled back in bed, lost in her thoughts, studying the rounded walls in the small room.

She even felt guilty staying there, in his bed, wondered where he might sleep now. Her temper, that stupid temper always got her in trouble. Being rude towards people that are nice to her, like the Marshal.

He saved her from the hunters, patched her up, gave up his bed, and still, she backlashed at him like she was arguing with someone else.

What was this thing about the Marshal that made her angry?

She didn’t even ask for his name.

[annetaylor1]

Why does fanfic make people so angry?

I have always been fascinated by all the emotions that get stirred up by fanfic. Both positive and negative.

So many times, I've heard fanfic writers' stories about how they were harassed by angry reader comments or twitter posts from people who objected, not to the quality of their writing, but to what they chose to write about.

In the commercial OC world, where writers actually expect to be paid for their work, if someone were to write an on-line comment saying "yeah, it's well written but they got their facts wrong, <this thing> never happened" it would be considered a totally legitimate comment. References might be brought into the conversation, if anyone cared enough to do the research.

If someone were to suggest "this character wouldn't have done this" or "this offends me, you shouldn't write it", well, the first objection is probably laughable and the second might be hotly contested or defended, depending on one's belief system and allegiances.

The fanfic community is a completely different world, in some ways.

First of all, fanfic writers don't get paid. When they write, it is entirely out of love for the characters or world, and when they share, positive feedback is the only reward that they will have. If you are writing to get paid, the readers who pay for your book expect, and deserve, a higher quality of writing. You are expected to do your research, to make the details accurate. It isn't fair to apply those standards to fanfic writers. Many of them are just starting out, many of them are writing in a second language. And if you aren't paying for something, you don't have the "right" to complain about its quality.

Second, with OC fiction, readers don't come into the story with pre-set expectations. Occasionally I will read fanfic from fandoms that I know nothing about, if it matches some of my trigger tropes (dub-con, h/c, enemies-to-lovers). But for the most part, readers have already watched the series or played the game and read the book(s) and they have constructed, inside their heads, a set of expectations about how the characters will behave. This causes them to react negatively when writing violates those expectations.

Which leads to the third difference. The biggest reason people write, and read, fanfic is because they want *more*. More than canon offers them. Occasionally, the world is so cool people want to explore in it, but more often it is the characters that people want more of. They have become emotionally invested in the characters, and when you have feelings for imaginary characters it leads you to want to be in control of their environment.

Control issues make people feel threatened. Feeling threatened leads them into lashing out angrily. But they don't want to admit (or possibly even acknowledge) what the real problem is, so they often grab the first thing that comes to mind in order to explain their feelings.

I remember running into this once because of an X-Files story I wrote back in the day. One reader was outraged by how I had characterized Mulder. She kept insisting "He wouldn't have done this. Or this." I completely disagreed; I felt my characterization of Mulder was fairly accurate. The disagreement pretty much ended our relationship. In retrospect, the whole things seems very petty, but when emotions flare so hotly, it seldom ends well.

The real problem wasn’t that Mulder wouldn’t have done those things. We’ll never know, because we aren’t writing canon. The problem was that what I was writing was not what emotionally satisfied her. And I suppose my telling her that I had written it partly for her led her to expectations that weren’t satisfied. And that caused an emotional backlash.

It’s a backlash I have felt personally, many times. Just recently, I saw a bit of Fairshaw artwork that was violently lovely. So sad I felt it would rip my heart apart. And then I read the fanfic that went with the artwork and my expectation had been that the scene would be tragic, then lead to a rescue and a happy ending. It didn’t. I’m still trying to shed the emotional backlash from that story.

If I was a less self-aware person, I might have become angry at the writer. But that’s idiocy. People have the right to write whatever they want. Even if I don’t like what they write, I fully support their right to enjoy what they enjoy. I didn’t take the “major character death” seriously. Fie on me. That’s what tags are for.

I have no patience at all for people who read stories tagged for a M/M pairing and then complain that “the characters aren’t gay.”

They are, in this story. Read the tags, people. That’s what they’re there for.

[vicunaburger]

Imperfect and inhuman, are we?

Fandom: School of Rock: The Musical (AU Verse) Chapters: 1/? Pairing: Dewey Finn x OC (Magdalena Newton) The Players: Dewey Finn, Magdalena Newton, Ned Schneebly, The School of Rock Students Word Count: 1,978 Warnings: M for Future Things

Notes: Y’all remember when I said I was going to play in in the Dewey Finn + vampire universe? WELL...here we go. Trying out a new “free-form” scene by scene chapter format, rather than a standard chronological order. We’ll see how this plays out

Chapter 1 - Night - Routine

The alarm went off at precisely 8:14pm.

From under the massive pile of blankets covering the twin-sized bed, an arm slithered out, feeling along the nightstand in the dark. The vibrations from the cellphone led the fingers toward their goal, tapping the screen - a few misses - before the noise finally ceased. Finished with its task, the arm retreated under the blankets, tucking itself inward like a snake retreating to its den.

At 8:17pm, the alarm went off again.

This time, an entire body followed the arm out of the blankets, turning off the alarm with one hand, and turning on a small desk lamp with the other. With a wide yawn, they stumbled out of bed, shuffling along the carpeted floor until they reached the bathroom. Luckily, this room had an automatic light fixture, the space filling with a soft white glow. Another automatic feature kicked on around the same time; a TV screen built-in to the vanity mirror taking up most of the wall. At once, the familiar voice of the weather channel anchor echoed around the tiled bathroom.

Magdalena Newton looked a mess when she woke up.

Her only saving grace was the fact she had the forethought to plait her long hair into a braid every night, or else she would have to deal with a rat’s nest besides the general unkept-ness of her appearance first thing in the morning. Absently, she untied the ribbon in her oil-black hair, watching the weatherman as she started to untangle the strands.

Sunrise was at 6:28am that morning; a good amount of time to take care of her errands.

Magdalena tapped the center of her vanity mirror and another screen snapped to life, along with some ring lights attached to a small camera. Within a few seconds, she could see herself in the mirror’s surface, as clear as though she were looking in the actual glass.

Technology was a marvel.

Her reflection was always such a strange thing to look at, to be honest. There were moments it didn’t seem like she was the one looking back at herself, only recently getting the ability to see herself within the past few decades. It was centuries before she could recall what she truly looked like, relying only on a painted portrait or a lover’s descriptions.

Both of which were never accurate.

Wincing at her haggard appearance, Magdalena started to work on fixing herself up for the night. No use going out looking like you just rolled out of bed… even if it were true. She was raised to be a proper lady when in view of other people, and that took some care and effort on her part. Besides, one never knows who you might see wandering the streets so late at night, or whom you might be looking for.

—

Was it just him, or did the sliding door of his van sound louder when it was dark outside?

Checking his watch in the circular beam of the streetlamp, it was just around 9:00pm when he parked his van outside of his apartment building, sliding open the door to start moving equipment from the vehicle to the home. It had been another late-night practice session at the concert venue with his students, which meant he had spent the last hour or so of practice getting berated by parents for keeping their kids so late.

The gods of rock care not for simple mortal concepts like time. Or calling parents in advance. Or responding to the last 15 text messages you got.

Eh, he knew they would shut up about it once they saw all the hard work the kids were putting into the show. It was shaping up to be quite the epic mid-summer concert spectacular he had seen in his dreams. The uptight little bastards were really doing him proud.

Dewey Finn stuck the handle of his guitar case between his teeth, trying to balance the bottom half with his knee, and simultaneously grab his satchel from under the front seat. It was a good idea, in theory, had it not been for the fact that the angle of the guitar case was preventing him from reaching into the van. He wasn’t about to set his prized guitar case on the street, nor did he feel like making two trips up and down the building’s stairwell.

He lost count of how many times he had sent angry emails to the supervisor about the busted elevator, only to be told it would “take some time” because it was a “historic building”.

Historic was a polite word for collapsing at any given moment.

Dewey couldn’t complain too much, all things considered; the apartment’s mysterious landlord company gave him a break on the rent due to him using the space for education. Apparently, whoever own the place was a fan of music, which gave them an upgrade in the landlord scale from Hell spawn to Minor Annoyance.

Shifting his weight to keep the guitar case balanced, Dewey tried again to reach the satchel, muttering a slew of curses with a mouthful of leather handle.

—

Magdalena heard the van door before she even rounded the corner, which made her take pause during her speedy trek down the sidewalk. Pulling out her phone, she checked the time: 9:07pm. He was a little earlier than she anticipated, putting a significant kink in her plans for that evening.

For the two and a half weeks, she had clocked him arriving at his apartment no earlier than 9:39pm, which would leave her plenty of time to scale the fire escape until she reached his floor. Nothing scandalous ever happened during her vigils; she was more than content to listen to the sounds of life from his apartment. His weighty footsteps padding around the creaky floors, rummaging around for something to eat, playing video games late into the night. Speaking with other people either in person or on the telephone.

And her favorite hobby of his: singing.

Was it still considered voyeurism if one didn’t actually look at their object of affection? Listening was more than enough. Hearing him plunk out little tunes on his guitar and sing classic rock ballads were something she could have listened to all night if she had the opportunity. She would risk staying out beyond daybreak if he had stayed up all night singing; her own private concert, and he didn’t even know anyone was listening.

For now.

Still, she was debating if it was too early to introduce herself. What is in doing so, she was committing a grave miscalculation of her plans and would therefore have to resort to… unpleasant measures? What if he didn’t want to know her? What if he ended up not liking what he found out?

What if it was something mundane: she wasn’t the right type? The right build or height? The right gender? He hadn’t brought anyone into his apartment save his friend - Nathan? Nolan? - that she could tell. However, his daytime activities were as of yet a mystery, which could have meant this entire plan would end in utter disaster if he were spoken for.

Nope. There was no use thinking the worst of things without even making an attempt.

Nothing ventured, nothing gained.

—

The more he struggled, the more his jaw began to ache.

Dewey was stubborn more than anything, which his best friend Ned always pointed out just how illogical it was for him to be such a damn slacker 90% of the time when he would get into his hellbent fits of motivation. He was going to make it up the stairs in one go, and he wasn’t going to make a fool of himself doing it.

Such delusions of grandeur can only go so far before one’s hubris decided to take the driver’s seat.

Dewey’s jaw finally gave out, causing his guitar case to tip over across his knee and gain a bit of air before starting to fall to the dirty sidewalk below. The whole thing was like a slow-motion sequence in a movie; Dewey reaching out his hands, fumbling for purchase on the leather case, and ultimately sending it further away from him when he failed to grasp it tight.

Unable to watch the carnage, he screwed his eyes shut tight, waiting for the inevitable crashing of his precious instrument hitting cement-

-which never happened.

Cautiously opening one eye, he peeked out in the darkened space beyond the streetlight, seeing his guitar case being held oh so carefully by a pair of delicate hands. Fully opening his eyes, he followed those hands up their respective arms until he came face to face with his savior. A woman, about his height, stood next to his van with the case secure in her grip. It was hard to see her in the shadows, even more so with her face obscured by the neck of the guitar case.

“Clumsy.” The woman said, her voice clear and crisp in the still air.

Dewey was immediately taken aback by her speech, his overly sensitive musical ear picking up a mix of accents he couldn’t place, and a soft, rounded lisp near the front of her mouth. Within a few seconds, however, he was far more concerned with the welfare of his guitar, reaching out and gently taking the case from her.

“You… you saved Tawny from certain death. My precious axe. My baby.” He cradled the case like a small child, setting it down in the van with great care. “I was such a fool to treat you so carelessly.”

The woman tilted her head, “Tawny?”

“Tawny. Ya know, like the girl from the White Snake video? Only the hottest woman to ever dance on the hood of a car.” Dewey replied, “Not… not that it was her only quality.”

“Never met her, so I couldn’t say.” She replied, a bit of laughter lilting through her voice this time. “She was attractive though, no shame in saying it.”

Whirling around on his heels, Dewey finally turned his full attention to the woman, almost falling over into the passenger door of the van once he got a good view of her. He didn’t know what he expected, but it certainly wasn’t… her.

“Snow White” was the immediate image that popped into his head. She looked pale as a ghost in the dim shadows, with dark hair tied intricately with braided bits gathered into a low ponytail, and her bright blue eyes catching the light like some nocturnal creature. The stark difference between her skin and her inky hair, coupled with her all black ensemble gave her the appearance of a living black and white image. The only color visible in the darkness with a bright, robin’s egg blue scarf tied in a bow around her neck.

“Uhhh…. I… you… wow…” Dewey leaned against the van, trying to act casual. “I mean, w-what’s a girl like you doing on a sidewalk like this? It’s late for a casual urban hike.”

“Protecting defenseless musical instruments from certain death.” She mirrored his stance, placing a hand on her hip. “I moonlight as a vigilante.”

He nodded, holding out his hand in a friendly gesture, “Ah, well, consider me a grateful citizen oh Superhero- Lady- Ma’am. Wow- you know what? That was lame. I’m just gonna show myself out before I embarrass myself any further.”

Dewey started to take his hand away, but not before the woman took hold of it, shaking it with a firm grip, “All in a night’s work, fair citizen.”

The woman - reluctantly- let go of his hand, stepping around him and continuing her way down the sidewalk. As though finally discovering that: yes, he had a brain, and yes, he should use it immediately, Dewey jogged a couple paces to try and catch up to her. She stopped when she heard him approaching, which made him bump into her softly, having not anticipated the sudden pause.

After steadying himself, Dewey ran a hand through his hair awkwardly, “Listen. Maybe… maybe we can start over? Because this whole night is gonna keep me up for weeks if I don’t try and regain my dignity. I’m Dewey Finn.”

Laughing softly, though she covered her mouth delicately with the back of her hand, she nodded. “Fair enough, Dewey Finn. I’m Magdalena.”

Writing Tags: @amywright @mrgeuse  @hoodoo12 @mr-geuse @paxenera @leiasolo77 @go-commander-kim @a-subconscious-manifestation @asriells @missihart23 @heknowshisherbs