#kind anonymous friend

[mercurygray]

is it too on the nose to suggest john egan + eileen hammond with "film"? if so may i also suggest "rest" or "risk"? i get nervous sending requests aljdfghkj

This request was perfect, Kind Anonymous Friend!

They were nearly at the end of the pile of mail when a surprise appeared.

"What's this?" Solly gave a second look. "A package for John Egan?"

Everyone in the room stared. Small lives called for small joys, and the distribution of mail was the highlight of everyone's week - if you were allowed to enjoy it, that was. Everyone in the 100th's officer's quarters had quietly resigned themselves to the tempest in a teacup that was John Egan during the mail - arms folded, scuffling his shoes, and complaining, in case anyone dared to appreciate too loudly, about wives and girlfriends and friends back home.

"I thought you said no one was writing to you," Frank said, looking up from yet another letter from his mother.

"No one was," Bucky said, swinging out of his bunk and jumping down to take the package, just as surprised as anyone else that the thing had his name on it.

"Does that address say London?" Crank asked, reading over Bucky's shoulder as he turned the package over and ripped through the already-opened paper to get to what was inside - a letter and a single phonograph record in a paper sleeve.

For once in his life, Egan was speechless.

"Who's sending you records?" Frank wanted to know.

"Eileen Hammond," Bucky managed, his voice almost a croak.

"Eileen Hammond!" Crank scoffed. "When I said you should write her that was a joke."

They could all remember that first month, Bucky moping around that once more there had been a mail call and once more he was without mail, and Crank, just as fed up as anyone else that he was being made to feel bad about a letter from home, had exploded. "I don't know, Bucky. Write - Write an actress! One of those USO broads! They got people who answer those - maybe she'll write you back."

"Maybe she won't," Brady had added, practical as ever, himself lording over a letter from his girlfriend. "Those girls get hundreds of letters. Lovesick soldiers are a dime a dozen."

"I," said Bucky, reaching into the cup on the table and pulling out a pencil so he could begin addressing his message blank, "Will take that bet, Crank. I'm a gambler. This is a gamble. Feels worth the risk, wouldn't you say?"

And here, it seemed, the risk had paid off. She'd actually written back.

"He's pulling your leg, Crank," Benny said sagely, hardly looking up from his book. "It's probably from his ma."

Bucky's face was long and dark, and without any warning, he'd stormed off down the hall, probably in pursuit of the rec room and its much abused phonograph, and the rest of the room, curious as anything, followed, wondering just what it was they were going to hear when he turned the record on.

There was a scratch as Harry James was unceremoniously yanked down, and several angry yelps as the rec room's occupants groused about being interrupted. "Put it - put it on!"

Brady and Crank both tried hard to read the label as Egan started up the record player, carefully setting the needle as the whole room listened, expectantly, for the crackle as the machine picked up the sound and a woman's voice bloomed into the air.

"Is this - is it recording? Okay, it's recording, good." A pause - the performer collecting herself before she officially stepped up to the microphone. "This message goes out to Major John Egan, and all the fine fellows of the United States Army and Army Air Forces currently overseas as guests of the German Army. This is Eileen Hammond with a special Command Performance for you all." Crank's eyebrows were in his hair, and even Benny was staring in disbelief that Eileen Hammond - the Eileen Hammond, stuff of painted plane pin-ups and kriegie wet dreams - was just as good as right there in the room with them, taking low and smelling of perfume.

Egan sat down heavily in a nearby chair, still holding the letter and the paper sleeve, and Hammond's voice went on. "Please know that all of you are in our thoughts, and our prayers, and that all the people at home who are waiting for you love you more than words can say. If they'd let me I'd come and sing this to you all in person, as I've done for so many of your fellow soldiers at home and abroad, but for now this recording will have to do. Please hear it and think of better days. We ready, Bob?"

Crank turned up the volume, and everyone in the room could hear a single guitar and a woman's low, sultry voice, all velvet and moonlight, singing the slower, sedater version of a song that everyone from Thorpe Abbotts knew all too well, whether he liked it or not.

Blue skies smiling at me Nothing but blue skies do I see Bluebirds singing a song Nothing but bluebirds all day long.

But the most surprising thing was that Bucky, for once, wasn't singing along. He was too busy reading, holding his letter as if it were made of gold, a small, pleased smile on his broad, sunny face.

[blind-dates-fest]

hello! I am so excited for blind dates soon! in the meantime, I noticed one thing in your introduction to this event that stood out to me: "establishes them as a person worth paying attention to."

what does it mean to make a character thats worth paying attention to and what are some ways to do that in your fic?

Well, that is the million dollar question, isn't it?

I've been using that phrase to describe what Blind Dates is about for a while now, and to me it's very obvious, but it's worth taking some time with!

When I think about the fics I wrote when I was just starting out as a little baby writer, I know that my approach was often:

"Here, I'm going to dump a lot of physical details about this person RIGHT HERE in the first paragraph so that you are RIGHT THERE WITH ME about what this person looks like and that their favorite color is BLUE and they LOVE CHOCOLATE and THEN I'm going to have them start a conversation with the character that I like because I am EXCITED about this and I am IN A HURRY."

(The classic example of this is, of course, My Immortal, and the reason that people are still trying to figure out whether that fic was a pastiche or not is because that's how a lot of Baby's First OC fic got written.)

And this works, to a certain extent, to get you to start writing. But that's not necessarily the best way to get people to continue reading. It assumes that everyone reading is going to care in exactly the same way you do. Good characters take time - you can put them in a scene and let the scene show who they are, and what they're about, give them time to settle in.

And I think the root of that phrase is really: OCs are cheap, figuratively speaking - why should I spend my precious time as a reader with yours?

When I think about characters that I've written that people seem to like more, or characters that I've read and really enjoyed, they're like icebergs - I only get or give a small part of them and the rest of the story becomes about discovering who they are as people. Physical description matters less than action.

I often think about Billy Collins' poem "Introduction to Poetry" when I think about new characters -

I say drop a mouse into a poem and watch him probe his way out,

or walk inside the poem’s room and feel the walls for a light switch.

And that first approach, that info-dump, be-with-me-right-now-or-else approach, is how Collins sees his poetry students at the end of the poem:

But all they want to do is tie the poem to a chair with rope and torture a confession out of it.

They begin beating it with a hose to find out what it really means.

There's no room for ambiguity or discovery there, and because of that, there's no joy in going on the journey with that author.

This takes practice, and it's hard. And the practice part is why this fest exists!

-Mod Merc

[canisalbus]

I have to ask what drew vasco into falling in love with machete?

His snivelling runt ways were just that irresistable.

[tio-trile]

Did anyone bawl their eyes out while working on the sequence where Brooklynn gets on the plane?

Me.

(And after me, Josh @kngstr who revised the scene. Although he might have been bawling because of all my boards he gotta fix. /jk /unless)

......but seriously, I had "Gun for Hire" from Arcane on repeat while I planned/boarded that scene to get the ✨vibes✨(that directly caused Guns for Hire to be my top song for Spotify wrapped that year lol), and then Josh mentioned referencing ATSV a lot and having the ATSV soundtrack on loop for that scene, so hopefully something emotional came across from those more or less. After that, the animation team, effects, music, and the lighting team (Magician Eric Hawkins) did their magic (that sunset!!) to bring us the final scene we're seeing, and it was even more glorious than I imagined 🥹

[noturlondonboy]

Love the autistic yelena headcanon! If you want to write more please do 🙏

Hi anon!! I’m so happy to talk about the love of my life

-the Red Room training was fucked up beyond what I can dive into properly, but one thing they drilled into the Widows was the importance of leaving no trail/trace

-because of that, Yelena was a bit of a clean freak when she first was released from the subjugation. It was something she could control, something that made her calm down and helped her not feel like she was about to be beaten to unconsciousness for disobedience

-meeting Kate was wild in that regard, because this girl is the opposite. Clothes everywhere, dishes piling up, tons and tons of stuff all over shelves and the walls and etc etc etc

-as the Red Room slowly starts to fade further and further behind her, she loosens up a bit and lets herself collect more material items, maybe not make her bed the second she wakes up, leave the dishes for the evening in favor of spending time with her family

-however, no more Red Room influence also lead to her neurodivergent symptoms (symptoms? Traits? You’d think I would know the right word here) becoming a lot more apparent

-No You May Not Touch The Fucking Kitchen I Just Cleaned It And I’ll Scream Kate Bishop I Swear To God

-Kate has ADHD (obvi anyway) and understands the struggle of wanting things clean but also is just terrible at keeping them that way. Even so, she’s happy to try to help Yelena out

-either way! Yelena is getting better at letting things be as they are instead of immediately trying to fix them, which can extend to all areas of life

-aka, letting Kate clean the kitchen when she’s overwhelmed instead of having to do it her way

-or leaving things out at the apartment because she lives there, it’s not a safe house, it’s ok

[boycritter]

hate how angry and upset i get over normal things with good intentions behind them. can we just be fucking normal for once.

[catkin-morgs-kookaburralover]

questioning sexuality is so exhausting

[pro-sipper]

is it okay to be a shotacon(to fictional characters only) despite being around 12-15 yourself Σ(っ °Д °;)っ

i feel guilty to be thinking dirty thoughts about characters i like that are my age (12-15) (┬┬﹏┬┬)

i really cant control my own thoughts huhu .·´¯`(>▂<)´¯`·.

There's nothing wrong with having those feelings about people your own age. And there's absolutely nothing wrong with having those feelings towards fictional characters. It's normal to feel those things at that age, and there's not anything to feel guilty about.

Hope you make peace with it, nonny!

[son1c]

What would Sonic have done if Shadow stayed catatonic for a while ?

"for awhile" could mean anything. 5 minutes? 5 hours? 5 days??? regardless of how long it was, sonic wouldn't have just left him there on that tiny island all alone

[mamawasatesttube]

Obsessed with how you write timkon flirting. Oh god I’m getting lost in his eyes🫣 let me cover it up by suggesting what he should wear so I can move him around easier. Nailed it👍 wait🤔 did he switch his whole wardrobe to bondage gear when I blinked? Huh😳

ABSOLUTELY. kon "i feel so... pregnable!" el has a reputation to maintain here. he might be doing a terrible job at being suave and normal but it's okay bc tim is so into that. tim is like (vibrating slightly) please give me a 400 word writeup on what exactly you like about the idea of me in bondage gear and what if any specific further pieces you would like to see added to my wardrobe and why. please. please

[mercurygray]

Hi! I would like to ask if you could maybe recommend Band of Brothers blogs to follow? I'm interested in fanfic, graphics, GIFs, everything related to Band of Brothers. I hope it's not rude I sent this ask to more people, I'm new to Tumblr and I still have a lot to learn about Tumblr etiquette.

You sure can, Kind Anonymous Friend! And this ask isn't rude at all - rec lists are a time-honored tradition here on Tumblr and I'm happy to help. Sending a couple people the same ask isn't usually considered rude ...unless you're copy-pasting the exact same writing prompt to six different writers. In which case yes, that's rude. Don't do that, please.

I'm fairly certain everyone on this list liked Band of Brothers or The Pacific at one point. Fair warning, they may have moved on to other fandoms, but I think most, if not all, still post BOB content from time to time!

Network: @hbowardaily - also has a discord server!

Visual Makers: @rebeccapearson @basilone @lupoteodoro @supervalcsi @onlyyouexisthere @tvserie-s-world @lyselkatz @fayestardust

OFC writers: @shoshiwrites @softguarnere @latibvles @noneedtoamputate (also new here!) @loveduringthewar @floydmtalbert / @arethosedustyjumpwings @upontherisers @sergeant-spoons/ @stolemyspoons @msmercury84 @coco-bean-1218

@mads-weasley @thoughpoppiesblow (semi-hiatus) @softspeirs / @dreamingundone (on hiatus but coming back!) @wexhappyxfew (also coming out of hiatus) @coraxaviary (on hiatus but has a big fic!)

In the HBOWar orbit: @almost-a-class-act @junojelli @bobparkhurst / @derry-rain @wereinadell @papersergeant-pencilsoldier @sharpshootershifty @sir-mr-dr-roe @lucky-bastards @aloraundomiel @cody-helix02 @churchkey @anthrobrat @general-taylor @majorhortonisonleaveinlondon @winnix85 @dcyllom

If you're looking for reader inserts or MLM fic, I'm sorry but I'm not the person to make recommendations on that. But this should be enough to get you started!

[brawltogethernow]

Do you remember when subbers used to get "fancy"? I remember watching a Naruto Fansub and when he used Rasengan the subtitles swelled when he called the attack name. And at least one time they spun too. Some people are just that extra.

It's basically a meme to poke fun at fansubs now, but at the end of the day, while encompassing pretty much the entire spectrum of competence, amateur teams are definitionally going to give more of a shit than professionals actually being compensated for their time. Anyway I had to track down and download the old Lunar fansubs of Ouran because I tried to watch the Funimation ones once and had an allergic reaction to them not matching the fonts of the text on the screen.

...Just opening the episode at the top of the folder to a random point to grab the first decent examples I ran into I was decadently coddled by the subbing team approximately once every three seconds. Why would I NOT want to live like this. EVERYTHING labeled is captioned next to where the text actually is on the screen in the same color and a font with the same vibe as long as there's space to do that legibly. Twists at the ends of sentences with pointed pauses in them fill in when the characters actually say them so you can't read ahead and lose the comedic/dramatic timing. The opening theme has a translation of the lyrics AND a phonetic transliteration, AND the transliteration fills in to full visibility as each syllable is reached like a sing-along video to make it easier to follow along--which wasn't even weird! That was sort of industry standard before faster official releases started outmoding fansubs, except I'm not sure if you can technically call free guerilla translations made by volunteers an industry!

You also got plenty of Millennium Tin Sticks, but it's not like I can watch twenty consecutive minutes of subtitled TV through friends' Crunchyroll subscriptions without hitting at least one moment of "lmao WHY", except those don't even make good memes. They just make me either vaguely concerned about worker conditions or disappointed depending on what flavor of stupid they represent.

[canisalbus]

Hello! I hope I won't sour your mood with this ask but I have been thinking a lot about your gay dogs this month especially.

I'll just try to keep the context short but in general I'm someone that has accepted being romantically undesireable. It was hard but in the end I have built my life just around me, my humble family and at this point in time I don't even think I have the time for a partner. And considering that it's the love month and a lot of people are preparing to celebrate it with their SOs I assumed that, actually, this is a thing that I sort of have in common with Machete.

From the miscellaneous lore on your profile I see Machete as someone that also has kind of rejected love. That also has built his life around his job, possibly hobbies, his family or mentors (depending if we're talking about canon or modern au). Who kind of forgot that relationships are a thing and that people bond with others in that way. Well, at least he did until meeting Vasco.

I just love thinking about their awkward beginnings. Machete being 100% sure that Vasco is just joking, maybe even sometimes teasing him (in a friendly banter type way) or just explaining to himself that all that kindness and interest is just him being a very considerate friend. And then we have Vasco that just tries to be subtle, as if he was trying to pass a fawn without it noticing and running away, but also with time gains confidence and tries more risque moves. Vasco being all smug and Machete being flustered when their hands or shoulders or tails brush in passing. And then when both are sure of their feelings we have Machete who has to choose between God and his love. Who, at first, unwillingly accepts that divine wrath will be worth their brief love.

I just love your boys. I swear they are all the love supply one might possibly need

Thank you for such a long and thoughtful message! I don't know why you thought you might accidentally sour my mood, I'm utterly delighted whenever I hear that someone has been pondering my little guys (rotating them in their head, as they say), and when they go through the trouble of sharing their findings and conclusions I'm so happy I could crawl up a wall.

I think you deciphered Machete's inner workings very well, especially those of the original canon version. The concept of love is of course prominent in Christianity, so even as a kid being raised in a religious environment that discouraged overt displays of affection and close personal bonds, Machete wasn't completely alienated from it. But it has always been a nebulous, unperceivable and unattainable thing for him. When he was old enough to lock down his career choice he readily accepted he'd never have romantic relationships, spouse or a family, and I think he must've been too young and socially inexperienced to think of it as a significant loss. Either he consciously blocked out the need for companionship by studying and working like his life depended on it, or he didn't really consider that being genuinely befriended, appreciated and loved as a person instead of a respectable and competent authority figure was even an option for him, at least not until Vasco came along.

[suddencolds]

vent//

[thatneoncrisis]

oh captain my captain i didn't know what league of legends game was when i watched arcane. so i thought the plot was alright since i didn't (still don't) know the game lore. if it wasn't basically a prequel story, trying to aim the characters at the way they are in canon, do u think the plot and character arcs would have held up alright? or does that actually make the arcane canon story worse since it wouldn't at least have the existing canon as something it needed to land at eventually as an excuse for any "out of character" decisions? thank u

i wouldnt even call it a prequel story? its like a very elaborate au in a sense, one that feels comfortable changing things to a certain extent- clothes, personality adjustments, motivations, but they still have to hit certain beats. vi has to be an enforcer, jinx has to be a wild card harley quinn type, ekkos time powers ect ect. idk WHAT it is maybe the show needed more time or tighter focus or less characters but i just felt that like, some of the story decisions directly relating to LoL lore werent outright bad but didnt have a lot of time to breathe. the standout example being ekkos time thing, where when i watched that scene i assumed it was both a stylistic representation of a fight and establishing his and jinx's prior relationship (which is kind of too little too late considering they did not fucking speak once as kids pre time skip), and then i had to get a friend to explain to me for SEVERAL MINUTES that he literally died during that fight and it was supposed to be showing his rewind thing. it just wasnt clear at all and his character would not change in the slightest if he didnt have it. but you cant NOT include it so. *

really i have no clue the full extent of the story the writers wanted to tell and how much LoL is binding their hands on story beats. and i REALLY dont want to be inflexible considering i still have a full season coming up that might make me more receptive to certain decisions. but considering how much of the cast i REALLY like just straight up are not in the game, i think they are fully capable of making a solid story completely divorced from league

*someone in the comments told me apparently that Wasnt his time thing and my original read of the scene was correct so im not gonna hold it against the show.

[soracities]

i'm always so amused by how eloquent you are. how do you do that?

i think Too Much™️ and also i have not shut up a day in my life since i was 2 years old <3