#lol i was irritated when i wrote this and now i’m off post limit and it’s like. ah fine

[skautism]

at what point did jackcrutchie hate become the norm cuz i feel like i left for two years and it went from decently popular to being hated

[ezdotjpg]

Hi!!! Sorry if you've been asked this before but is it possible for you to summarize the Bonus Links' personalities? Just asking because I'd like to get a general idea, apologies if this is too much of a pain to answer 😭🫶🏻

hey! luckily I already wrote up character intros a while back that I never posted to tumblr lol, so I'll go ahead and post them now! under the cut since this is mega long lol

Loft

Pronouns: he/him

Game: Skyward Sword

Age: 22

Height: 5’3”

Communication: Mainly speaks, signs occasionally

Personality: World’s Nicest Man Pushed To His Limit. It’s his nature to be light-hearted and easy-going, but ever since the events of Skyward Sword he’s been unable to let the implications of Demise’s curse and Zelda’s connection to Hylia go. He’s usually mild, but he’s got a lot of suppressed anger in him that comes out at inopportune times. He tends towards being optimistic, but has lately been caught in a depressive spiral. As a result of all these conflicting emotions, he hasn’t felt like himself in a while. Before everything, he could have been described as a little bit lazy, but these days a better word would be lethargic. He’s got a mischievous and thrill-seeking streak that often surprises people. He knows he’s powerful, but he’s lost some confidence in the years since his quest. He’s wracked with guilt about the way everything ended.

Slate

Pronouns: tends to use he/him, but really any

Game: Breath of the Wild (ignoring TotK for now)

Age: 21

Height: 5’0”

Communication: Mainly signs, speaks occasionally

Personality: The Reviews Are In: Friendly Guy, Vaguely Off-Putting. He knows he’s not pre-calamity Link, but he’s not exactly sure what he is instead. He’s accepted this about himself, and it grinds his gears that other people refuse to. He’s not sure what to do with all these memories inside him that aren’t his, and that he feels nothing for. He’s become more expressive, but when he’s upset his face goes entirely blank. He has a tendency to be distracted, blunt, intense, impulsive, somewhat abrasive. But he’s not unkind, and can even be outright friendly. He’d offer his help to anyone who asks, and he makes it a point to know everyone in Hyrule. He’s happiest out in nature, and doesn’t mind the solitude. He only ever lies by omission, and otherwise says exactly what he means. There’s something a little otherworldly about him.

Mask

Pronouns: he/him

Game: Ocarina of Time, Majora’s Mask

Age: 15

Height: 5’2½”

Communication: Mainly speaks, signs occasionally

Personality: Local Teen Needs Hug So Bad, Will Bite If You Try. He’s prickly, hot-tempered, moody. He’ll pick verbal battles he probably shouldn’t. Everything is a touchy subject. But he’s developed this behavior as a coping mechanism. He’s kind by nature, and it takes effort to lash out. The person he is with Malon- gentle, more soft-spoken, with a good sense of humor and a love for harmless mischief- is a lot closer to the person he’s comfortable being. He’s a scared kid. He feels out of place, both mature and immature, of this world and not. Sometimes, he gets scrambled between Termina, the Hyrule he’s in now, the Hyrule he left behind, and the Hyrule of the war. He has a lot of resentment for both the gods and the royal family, and all he wants is to be left alone.

Wolf

Pronouns: he/him

Game: Twilight Princess

Age: 23

Height: 5’5”

Communication: Mainly speaks, signs occasionally

Personality: Thank God I’m A Country Boy. He’s a gentle soul, probably the gentlest out of all of them. He likes to be useful, and he has made being the problem solver of Ordon Village part of his identity. He’s a bit of a mother hen and likes to take care of people. Midna was good at bringing out a little bit of attitude and snark in him. He’s got a bad case of Resting Bitch Face, but he’s not an angry person. However, he’s had a hard time adjusting to life back in Ordon. He’s usually even-tempered, but lately he’s been irritable and easier to anger. He feels isolated by his experiences, and has been avoiding most of the villagers, including his loved ones, even though it makes him lonely. Mostly he just doesn’t want to take it out on them, but it’s also about his pride. He enjoys the company of animals far more these days. He wants a quiet life, and has been avoiding Zelda's attempts to make "Hero" a political role for him to fill.

War

Pronouns: he/him

Game: Hyrule Warriors

Age: 25

Height: 5’7”

Communication: Mainly speaks, signs occasionally, had Proxi speak for him at one point during the war

Personality: Link “This Is My Jaeger, I Make The Tactical Decisions” Faron. He comes across as a very charming young man, witty, helpful, pleasant in conversation, well-adjusted. In reality, he is constantly doing complicated political 4D chess in his mind at all times, even when it’s not necessary. Many years of being subject to the whims of the Royal Court and pressure to be a perfect symbol have poisoned him: he’s become calculating, manipulative, superficially polite, two-faced. He has to be the one holding all the cards, considering all the variables, fixing all of the problems, because he can’t trust anyone else. If you were to strip him of all pretense, he'd actually be a dry, resigned person, perpetually annoyed with everyone around him. He values status and reputation, and he wants more power than he has. His appearance is important to him because he knows his pretty face is an asset. He holds deep respect for the gods and the mantle of the hero. He has a strong sense of duty, but one that often leads him to justify terrible actions. The ends justify the means.

Mirror

Pronouns: he/they

Game: A Link Between Worlds, Triforce Heroes

Age: 22

Height: 5’1”

Communication: Mainly speaks, signs occasionally

Personality: Local Link Doing Pretty Well Actually, All Things Considered. He’s just living his life, having a mostly pleasant time. He used to be quiet and reserved when he was younger, but has come out of his shell in a big way. He’s a bit vain, and fond of doing things with a dramatic flair. They like to have an audience, they like to make people laugh, they like to have your attention. Rather than being poisoned by court politics, he thrives in them. He doesn’t pretend to be charming, he just is. They can be on the arrogant side. He’s interested in fashion and art more than fighting these days, but still keeps his skills up to date. He pretends the scar on his face doesn’t bother him, but it does. He’s particularly obsessed with the legend of the hero before him.

Mage

Pronouns: he/him

Game: A Link to the Past, Link’s Awakening, Oracle of Ages, Oracle of Seasons

Age: 32

Height: 5’3”

Communication: Mainly speaks, signs occasionally

Personality: Weird Uncle You Just Stopped Hearing From One Day. He’s a difficult guy to get a read on. He comes off as deeply serious, imposing, no-nonsense. He is actually full of nonsense. The fact that no one can tell what is and isn’t part of the bit is part of the bit. He mostly ignores his own problems by dedicating his life to solving other people’s problems. He wanders from place to place, helping people and becoming a bit of a larger than life folk legend in his own right in the process. He’s leaned into learning magic more than the sword, and has built up quite the arsenal of spells. He doesn’t speak often, and is content to let other Links lead despite being the oldest and the most experienced. He’s difficult to rile and even more difficult to get a straight answer out of.

Spirit

Pronouns: he/him

Game: Spirit Tracks

Age: 16

Height: 4’11”

Communication: Mainly signs, speaks occasionally. He has a stutter when he speaks.

Personality: Wants To Be Anywhere But Here, Preferably On A Train. He’s fully given up swordfighting, and basically just wants to go back to being a Royal Engineer like nothing happened. He has no interest in gaining any kind of attention, authority, or power from the mantle of the hero, and would actually prefer that everyone stop looking at him. He’s quiet, sweet-natured and generally non-confrontational, but he’s not afraid to stand up for himself when pushed. It’s just that it’s easier to let Zelda stand up for him instead. He’s pretty mature and in-tune with his emotions for a 16 year old. Seeing spirits everywhere, he has a lot of private thoughts about grief and death that he doesn’t share with anyone. The gears in his brain are constantly turning, and once he’s stuck on an idea, it’s all he can focus on. He often doesn’t give himself enough credit for how capable he is. Please let him tell you about trains.

Mini

Pronouns: he/him

Game: Minish Cap

Age: 14

Height: 4’3”

Communication: Only signs, mute.

Personality: He’s Just A Little Guy, Only 2 Pixels Tall. Mini doesn’t do anything he doesn’t want to do. He’s not very expressive in the face, and it can be hard to tell what he’s thinking or feeling. Mostly, he’s a little rascal. He likes to root around in the garbage and build strange little machines from what he finds. He spends a lot of time hanging out with the Minish, moreso than humans. It’s a little bit of an escapism thing. He hasn’t really processed what it meant to become the hero so young, and is actively trying to avoid doing so. He’s very independent, and simply doesn’t compute attempts to coddle him.

Wake

Pronouns: he/him

Game: Wind Waker, Phantom hourglass

Age: 20

Height: 5’5”

Communication: Mainly speaks, signs occasionally

Personality: Everyone’s Favorite Cousin At The Family Function. He’s a fun person to be around. Friendly, energetic, laid back, good-natured, outgoing. He is always up for a good shenanigan. But he can get serious when he needs to, and often plays the important role of mediator in group dynamics. He’s the glue that holds the team together! He seems to take everything in stride, and presents himself as unbothered by the things that have happened to him. Whether that’s actually true, or he’s just compartmentalized everything too well remains to be seen. He has a strange way of being very open, and yet a closed book at the same time. He’s sentimental, and family is important to him

[aliciaandandrea]

Family Friend - Zayn Oneshot Part 2 (FULL)

AUTHOR’S NOTE: Damn okay it has been 7 years since I posted the part 2 preview of this oneshot. I haven’t been active on tumblr for a couple of years so this might be weird for my new followers, and I don’t even know if people still read smut now a days. But I’ve gotten notifications about people liking the posts on this series plus I received messages about the full part 2 of this series over the years. So to those people who messaged me and/or for those people who wanted an update, this is for you (just a disclaimer: I was 18 when I wrote the preview and am now 25...so if this is cringy or you think I’ve lost my touch, I apologize LOL):

=============================================

It has been a week since the cottage and I haven’t heard from Zayn since. I should have saw it coming. We almost hooked up, but I’m glad we didn’t, especially with that attitude of his. I was going through my phone and I decided to text Shawn, who’s been my crush before Zayn entered back into the picture.

“Heyy Shawn…” I texted him. “Hey Y/N :) Whats up?” he texted back. “Bored as always, you?” I asked “Same, I feel like we haven’t hung out at all this summer :(” he wrote. “lol thats because we haven’t” I texted. “Well let me make it up to you. My friend and his gf are goin to the movies tonight and asked if I wanted to go…I don’t wanna be the third wheel…do you wanna join?”he texted me. Did this guy just ask me out? “I’d love to :), just text me the details.” I texted back. And he did just that. I put on my low cut grey graphic tank with a black bralette under it and my black maxi skirt, while putting my hair up in a half up-do and keeping my makeup natural.

Before I could touch up my doorbell rang. I opened the door thinking it was Shawn but then stormed inside Zayn with no explanation. “What do you want?” I said bitterly as I closed the door after he walked inside. “You can’t fucking call me back?” he said looking at me. “What the hell are you talking about Zayn” I said walking up to him. “What do you call this?” he said tossing me his phone. On the screen was his call log, He’s called me once every day, except..that wasn’t my number. It was a fake one I gave as a joke when he asked for it one day. “Zayn that's not my number,” I said giving back his phone. “What the fuck is your problem then? You know I have fucking feelings for you !” He said fed up. I didn't know what to say. He just told me he had feelings for me. “Zayn..I..” I said trying to hold his hand but he pulled it away and turned away from me. “Fine. You wanna behave like that go ahead. And don't fucking tell me that I’m playing you. You’ve been teasing me ever since you found out that I liked you and then you almost hookup with me leaving me with a hickey that was hard to explain at dinner with mine and your parents and then you don't even fucking talk or try to reach out to me in a week. Don’t you even go there.” I said angrily. At this point we were both pissed. We managed to both profess our feelings and hatred towards each other…all at the same time. We were going to either end up fucking on my couch or wrestle on it. “Did you not see the phone calls that I supposedly made out to you. And why the fuck have I been hearing from people that you’ve been sleeping around with other guys?” “What the fuck Zayn? You hear anything you want to believe don't you. This entire time I’ve been thinking of you, you idiot.” I said as he chuckled. He composed himself then stared at me, “Where the fuck are you going?” “To the movies..with Shawn.” I said looking down. “And this is what I’m talking about, you’re going out with a loser and trying to get laid with that outfit.” he said as his body tensed up, looking up and down at me. At that point I was pissed, but I was not going to let that jerk ruin my night. We both stared at each other angrily. My ringtone broke the silence, Shawn was calling me. “Hey Shawn,” I said out loud for Zayn to here as I glared at him. He shot me an irritated look. “Yeah I’ll be there soon, can’t wait to finally see you,” I flirted with Shawn making Zayn jealous. “Yeah its been a long time,” I said as I ‘accidentally’ put my phone on speaker so Zayn could hear. “Maybe you could stay over for breakfast,” Shawn joked but that's when Zayn snapped. He grabbed my phone, hung it up and threw it onto the couch. He looked at me with a lustful look as I furrowed my eyebrows at him, but was secretly loving the fact that he was jealous. Jealous Zayn was probably my favorite Zayn. “That’s it,” he growled at me as he threw me over his shoulder. “Zayn put me down!! What the fuck are you doing??” I said playing victim, even though I knew what he was going to do. “Something I should have done a long time ago.” Zayn said as he kicked the door shut and threw me onto my bed. “I don’t know what you think you’re about to do right now, but I’ve got a date to get to tonight” I said eyeing him as he climbed on top of me. “Yeah?”. Zayn asked as he bit my bottom lip causing me to let out a little whimper, “What was his name again?”, Zayn asked as he was kissing my jawline and biting the sensitive area. I blanked out for a good few seconds, wanting to wrap my legs around him and pull him closer, but I couldn’t let him win this one. “Ohh yess Shawn..” I moaned to irritate Zayn while pulling his hair. He stared me down but before we could continue, the doorbell rang. “Fuck”, Zayn said as he got off me. Zayn got to the door before I could and of course there was Shawn looking confused as to why there was a man at my house with disheveled hair.

“Hey Y/N..” Shawn said to me, as Zayn stared daggers. “Can we help you?” Zayn asked, "We’re in the middle of something important, so it’d be great if you can, I don’t know, fuck off?” he continued with a smirk. “Sorry, Shawn, I’m ready we can go,” I said to him before turning back to get my bag. “I don’t know where you think you’re going,” Zayn said looking at me before turning back to Shawn. “You know what, maybe we can go out another time, I didn’t realize - ...” Shawn started to say before getting rudely interrupted by Zayn who said “Didn’t realize what? That she already had a boyfriend? Fuck off now will you.” Zayn shuts the door on Shawn, and blocks me from trying to open it.

“What the fuck are you doing Zayn?” I asked trying to move him to open the door. He gently grabs my wrists and looked into my eyes, “We need to finish what we started”, he says hungrily. I manage to free my wrists, push Zayn against the door, then proceed to walk away from him, “In your dreams“ I say flipping him off from behind me. Before I know it Zayn has picked me up bridal style and is taking me back to my bed. We’ve reached a point where we both want this to happen, as deep down we knew something had to be done with the intense sexual tension between us. I was torn between wanting to fuck like wild animals vs wanting to make slow and passionate love, to take our time and explore each other with the limited time frame we had. As if he read my mind, “Slow or rough?” Zayn asks as we arrive at the foot of the bed.

“Both”, I said as Zayn dropped me on top of the bed for the 2nd time tonight. He stood over me, slowly taking off his Denim Jacket, leaving him in his baggy grey t-shirt and black jeans. I looked at him impatiently, wanting to help him get out of his clothes, but he just smirked at me and said “Well, you said both”. Fine, he can take his time, but I’m not gonna wait any longer as I knew my parents were coming back home from their night out. I knelt on the bed in-front of him taking off my low cut grey graphic tank revealing the lacy black bralette under it, then pushed my girls into him aching for him to touch me. But he just stood there staring into my eyes, as he took off his baggy grey t-shirt. “What is he doing”, I thought to myself, “What are WE doing, playing follow the leader?”. It was getting too much for me, I needed him. I grabbed his face but decided to tease him by gently having our lips barely touch. “We don’t have much time, my parents might come home soon”, I whispered against his lips, desperate for him to give in. “What?” he said pulling back a little. “My parents might be home soon, plus -” Zayn stops me from continuing. “I want to take my time with you. And I know you need all of me. If we’re going to this, I don’t want a few minutes with you, I want you for as long as I can have you.” Zayn says holding my face. Look I know I could have shut my mouth and not brought up the fact that my parents were going to come home soon, but I couldn’t risk having them walk in on us like they almost had when we were at the cottage.

We both redressed and I walked Zayn to the door, as I needed Zayn to leave before my parents got back. “Can I have your actual number this time?” Zayn said as he pulled out his phone. I giggled and put my real number with a kiss and rose emoji as part of my contact name. “I’ll text you,” Zayn says before he opens the door. “Wait,” I said. Before I knew it I pushed him against the door again but this time I kissed him. We began making out, taking turns biting each others lips and teasing each other with our tongues. We tried to pull each other closer; I pulled on his hair as he groped me making me moan and whimper. We couldn’t get enough of each other, as we got lost in our little foreplay. All of a sudden, I heard a familiar honk, and a set of keys jiggling on the other side of the door. Fucking hell, my parents were home...

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LIKE/MESSAGE ME FOR PART 3 IF YOU WANT !

Link to part 1: http://aliciaandandrea.tumblr.com/post/92086930206/family-friend-zayn-oneshot

[clumsyclifford]

ok hello i absolutely love all ur fics, you’ve just got a certain quality in ur writing that is just… mmm. yeah so anyway, do you have any advice on how to improve or just how to write?? (especially fic cause personally i struggle with that more than original stuff??)

hello!! that is very kind of you to say thank you <3

advice on how to write. oh boy. oh man. well i can try. i will do my best. i will also try to be brief but we all know how that song goes

update from having finished answering this: alright. okay. this is not only long, but decidedly english teacher-y. i’m sorry that i am the way that i am. this is what you get for asking a leo for writing advice. am i joking? maybe. maybe not. anyway. this post got away from me in a big way so here’s a read more. warning: LONG post under the cut.

1. study your characters. for RPF like the band stuff i write, that literally means watching interviews, watching them perform, seeing how they interact with each other, picking up on their mannerisms (behavior) - what they do with their hands, if they repeat themselves or stutter when they talk, the quality of their voice when they're talking about different things, and so on. also keep track of things they mention a lot in interviews especially about each other - for example jack has mentioned before that alex has an annoying habit of twirling his hair when he zones out. that kind of thing. IMPORTANT NOTE!: you don’t have to use all of this information. just like studying for anything, you collect all the information you can and then you parse through it and use whatever you think will contribute or be relevant to your story.

2. remember that characters are people. or at least they’re representing people, which is an important distinction (see #3). still, considering that your characters are people can be a helpful way to get out of your head. see, characters are supposed to be archetypical, and fulfill a role, and say certain things in certain ways and never really deviate from that. but people are highly unpredictable and behave in random ways for random reasons and have thought processes that are unfathomable. people will just do fuckin’ whatever. if you’re worried that your characters aren’t behaving in a believable way, keep in mind that you’re trying to make your characters represent people, and people’s behavior is justifiable any number of ways. people just do shit.

3. remember that characters are not people. sike! no but seriously, this is just as important to remember. unfortunately, no matter how hard you try, characters are never going to be people. that’s a good thing for stories, though. characters can pick up on nuance in senses that people can’t - they can distinguish between different facial expressions, different smells, different sounds - BUT ONLY INSOFAR AS IT MOVES THE STORY ALONG. in other ways, characters are ridiculously oblivious. you can use this to your advantage. in fact, a lot of the time, you have to. if your character notices right away that someone is flirting with him, then you can’t write a 30k slow burn, for example. characters don’t do that thing humans do where they go “what?” but then halfway through the re-explanation they register what’s been said. pretty much everything characters say has meaning. (by this i don’t mean semantic meaning, i mean significance - characters don’t really just say “what?” because they didn’t hear what someone said, they say “what?” because they can’t believe it or they don’t understand it or they refuse to understand it. characters never seem to run into the didn’t-hear-them problem. must be nice.)

characters can do whatever you want or need them to do, because you’re in charge of them. (sometimes this doesn’t feel true - mine do all kinds of shit and i just have go “well alright then” - but it is true.) they are gears in a story. you decide when and how they turn.

4. dialogue is your friend. i am super super biased here, because i looove writing dialogue. if you talk to sam about this i’m sure she would say that description and narration are the ways to go. but you came to me, so i get to say that dialogue is god. i don’t want to say that dialogue is the only method of communication (i know nonverbal communication is real), but dialogue is the fastest and most effective method of communication, and by extension, the most effective way to advance relationships between characters. now. obviously there are exceptions. if characters are kissing, they’re probably not doing a lot of talking. if they’re trying to be undercover or discreet, they’re more likely to rely on gestures and facial expressions than speaking. if you’re writing a very peaceful scene, you might not want to undercut it by adding a lot of chit-chat. but i maintain that dialogue is the best way to move a story along, for a few reasons. 

first, at least for me, too much description is just tiring. depending on how skillful the writer is (sam), i can read a fair amount before i hit my limit, but unlike in mean girls, the limit DOES exist. you don’t want to over-describe the world (see #5). second, i find that dialogue is a really really good indicator of a person’s character. this is especially true and relevant in fanfiction, which is a lot more character-driven than original fiction in many ways. also, in a sec i’m gonna talk about showing [not/and] telling, which is every english teacher’s bitch, but dialogue is a really good way of showing who a person is and also a good way to establish facts about the universe. you could just narrate and be like “Jack hated waking up early,” and that works and in many cases it’s perfectly legit. but you could also do something like this:

“What the fuck,” Jack mumbled, still half asleep. “You better have a really fucking good reason to be waking me up this early. Like someone better have fucking died.”

and sometimes that’s just a more fun way to say it. (for the record you can also show AND tell here! there’s no reason why you can’t have this line of dialogue and then a line in the narration confirming how very much jack is not a morning person!)

the last reason why i am particularly fond of dialogue is because i am also particularly fond of communication, which is a preference thing. let’s face it, guys: characters aren’t gonna communicate if they’re not literally actually talking to each other. dialogue means talking to each other. talking to each other means solving problems, fixing (or creating) conflicts, understanding each other better. i love communication, ergo, i love dialogue. And You Should Too. 

5. describe the world, but don’t over-describe. i opened this fic earlier and it was like “jack was excited to wake up to go to his first class at the university of baltimore” and i just. i was like is this really relevant. do i really need to know this. and i never found out because i closed the fic but in my defense it was on wattpad and i had only opened it out of curiosity. look. there are three ways to use details in fic. (a) introduce them right away (b) introduce them when they become relevant or (c) don’t introduce them at all. let me give you some examples. 

(a) say your character A (i’m using jack because i’m used to him) wakes up. he’s in his room in his house off-campus. character B (rian) walks into the room. this might be a good time to explain that rian is his housemate. to that point: “show not tell” is a good rule, but sometimes “show and tell” is just as good. e.g.: 

Rian walks in, holding Jack’s Green Day shirt and looking irritated. That’s really nothing new; Rian looks irritated at Jack roughly once a day. Being housemates for a year will do that to a friendship.

boom, now you’ve let everyone know they live together without throwing it in their face, and you’ve also told everyone that these two guys are friends and have been friends for at least a year but probably longer. you showed it by having rian walking in holding jack’s shirt - usual housemate behavior - but you also told it in a subtle way that established the relationship and some kind of history between these two. well done.

(b) sometimes you want a certain detail to make an impact. this is the kind of thing you hold onto and don’t specify, and in certain cases you leave the reader wondering, “well what about x?” and then when you finally explain x they go ohhhhhhhhhh. yknow. the italicized oh. consider the following:

(A)

“Alex is in my bio class,” Rian says, referring to Jack’s ex-boyfriend of last year.

Jack frowns. “So? Why should I care?”

“He’s my lab partner,” Rian says. “I have to spend a lot of time with him.”

“I don’t care what you and Alex do,” Jack says. “But you should know he sucks at bio.”

Rian gives Jack a look. “First of all, that’s not true, he’s incredibly smart. And second, I’m telling you as a courtesy, because I thought you might not want your ex-boyfriend hanging around our house after he broke your fucking heart.”

(B)

“Alex is in my bio class,” Rian says.

Jack frowns. “So? Why should I care?”

“He’s my lab partner,” Rian says. “I have to spend a lot of time with him.”

“I don’t care what you and Alex do,” Jack says. “But you should know he sucks at bio.”

Rian gives Jack a look. “First of all, that’s not true, he’s incredibly smart. And second, I’m telling you as a courtesy, because I thought you might not want your ex-boyfriend hanging around our house after he broke your fucking heart.”

the only difference between these two excerpts (which i just wrote lol they’re not from anything real) is that the second one doesn’t explain who alex is right away. that makes it way more interesting when rian reveals who alex is a few lines later. magic.

(c) take this college au that we’ve established here. where does it take place, you ask? easy answer: it doesn’t matter. you don’t need to say what school they’re at. this will make your job easier, because then no one can fact check you, and it also means you don’t have to decide what school they’re at. but even if you do decide, it’s not usually necessary to say. believe me, you can go thousands of words without ever needing to specify what school they’re at. you know why? because it doesn’t matter. and no one cares. and as soon as you specify in canon that they’re at a particular school, you are bound to be accurate to everything that school does, and that makes your job way more difficult than it needs to be. as hazel once said, work smarter, not harder. 

6. adverbs are also your friend. (yknow, words that describe verbs, typically ending in -ly, like “loudly” or “angrily” or “smoothly”.) ESPECIALLY when it comes to dialogue tags. (dialogue tags are the things you add to dialogue to say who’s talking and how they’re talking - like “he said” or “he whispered” or “he earnestly explained” or whatever). a lot of the writing advice you’ll see nowadays will usually guide you away from overusing dialogue tags other than the classic “says/said” and i STRONGLY concur with that advice. things like yelled, cried, mumbled, snapped - these are very good in moderation, when you’re really trying to emphasize the way a person is speaking. the more you use them, the less impact they have. in most cases, a simple “he said [adverb]” will do. instead of “he snapped” consider “he said curtly/sharply/coldly.” instead of “he mumbled” consider “he said quietly/clumsily/softly.” I WANT TO MAKE IT CLEAR THAT THESE ARE NOT DIRECT SYNONYMS. every word has a nuanced and slightly different meaning and that is the BEAUTY of the english language!!!! all i’m saying is that in many cases, a verb can be replaced with an adverb to achieve roughly the same effect, without making the reader feel like they’re scanning a thesaurus.

and speaking of a thesaurus: it’s not cheating to use outside resources like thesaurus.com to help you come up with words. i fuckin love thesaurus.com. i use that shit all the time for everything. i use it when i’m writing emails. i used it just now to write that last paragraph. thesaurus.com is your BEST friend.

7. grammar. (and spelling but that’s really a given.) unfortunately if i tried to teach you all of the essential rules of grammar this post would exceed tumblr’s previously-nonexistent word count limit. so i’m not gonna teach you any of them. this is just a general point to suggest that if/when you’re writing, have someone you trust, with a good grasp of grammar, look over it. of course it doesn’t have to be perfect or AP style or anything like that. readers will overlook a certain amount of grammar mistakes and every reader has a different threshold. but in general, as a grammar geek and former journalism editor-in-chief, i have a duty to my grammurai code to preach the importance of grammar in writing. good grammar does not necessarily mean good writing and vice versa, bad grammar does not necessarily mean bad writing, but bad grammar makes good writing a lot harder to read, and in some cases will even obscure your actual meaning. so please, have someone read it. for the record this is me offering up my services. i am very good at fixing grammar. i have lots of weaknesses in writing but grammar is one of my strengths. please prioritize grammar. thank you for coming to my ted talk.

***

okay so now that i’ve said all of this shit and pretended to be an expert and embodied everyone’s tenth grade english teacher, let me add one very important disclaimer:

none of this is always relevant.* writing is an art, not a science. you are never going to be following all of the rules, all of the time. you shouldn’t. it’s good to know the basics of constructing a plot, establishing a character, showing and/not telling, moving the story along. but a lot of this advice is really subjective and heavily influenced by my writing experience and habits and tendencies and preferences, and those are simply not generalizable to the world. i am a sample size of one and science dictates that that means my results cannot be statistically significant. i am just some guy. earlier i said you don’t want to over-describe the world. but maybe you do! maybe you’re really into worldbuilding and you want people to know what they’re getting into. maybe you’re like sam, and you just don’t feel as confident in your dialogue skills but you love painting word pictures. i said that adverbs are your friend, but maybe you just prefer to use verbs. maybe you don’t want ANY dialogue tags and you want the reader to interpret the dialogue based on context and content. i said that characters aren’t people and they won’t behave like people, but maybe you’re trying to write hyper-realistic characters. maybe you’re just going for believability over narrative. WHATEVER. the point is, rules are made to be broken. no one is going to have The Answer for How To Write Good because there isn’t just one answer. every single writing rule has exceptions and you can be that exception as many times as you want.

*except grammar. grammar is fucking always relevant.

i hope any of this advice was helpful to you, even though i english teacher-ed the fuck out of it. and for what it’s worth, i approached this as if you were a relatively novice writer, but i know absolutely jack shit about your writing prowess and experience and habits. so maybe you already know all of this and none of what i’ve said is helpful at all. if you have a more specific problem, i would be happy to try and help. if you’re hoping for more specific feedback, i’d have to read something of yours first - but again, happy to try and help. i don’t know if you can tell but i loooove writing and english and grammar and all of this shit and it would be my honor. i have now spoken so long that james madison himself is begging me to shut up so i’ll stop here but thank you for coming by and giving me the opportunity to expatiate a shit ton. and GOOD LUCK i forgot the most important advice of writing which is HAVE FUN LOVE WHAT YOU WRITE AND WRITE WHAT YOU LOVE OKAY BYE

[nadziejastar]

Right? They were important people in his life. They restored his faith in humanity. I don’t have an issue with him being friends with any of the teenage characters and sharing ice cream with them every now and then. Axel being their mentor/big brother was very cute. But the end of KH3 really bothered me because…what does everyday life look like for Lea post-KH3? Isa was more interested in the random phantom girl. Lea obviously cared more about Roxas and Xion than Isa. So is Lea gonna hang out with them and Hayner’s group every day now? LOL. Axel’s fixation on Roxas in KH2 made me feel sorry for him. Lea’s obsession with him (”especially Roxas!”) in KH3 was not endearing to me at all. It was sad and cringey. Btw, if you had a part 2, I never received it.

That’s why Isa was such a totally necessary character for his development. Lea needed someone his own age and on his own intellectual level to be close to, so he wouldn’t seem so creepy and/or pathetic. I don’t buy for a minute that he actually wanted to have two kids be the closest people in his life. You gain a lot of insight into him in the novels. And Isa was the most important person to him, not Roxas or Xion or anyone else. And blah blah blah, “the novels aren’t canon”. The woman who wrote them actually worked on 358/2 Days’ scenario. The game that delved the most into Axel’s personality. I’m sure she had an extremely thorough understanding of who Nomura intended him to be, as a member of the writing team. Not to mention that certain scenes in KH2FM+ actually reference the novels, which confused me the first time I saw them.

“Then what did you wanna come with me for?” Axel flung his arms out angrily.

“Because… Because you seemed lonely.”

“What?” The irritated furrow between his brows deepened.

“You seemed lonely,” Naminé repeated, raising her eyes.

“Lonely? Me, a Nobody, lonely? That doesn’t even make sense!”

“You know, Axel… I wonder if we really do have hearts after all.”

“Yeah, well… That’s impossible.” He turned away from her.

We don’t have hearts.

After he failed to eliminate Roxas in KH2, Naminé decided to follow Axel because she felt sorry for him (lol). Then this conversation happens. She tells him that they do have hearts. I didn’t know what Axel was talking about until I read the novel.

Axel: You know, I’ve been thinking about something Naminé said. Roxas…are you really sure that you don’t have a heart? Is it possible that we all have one? You, me, her�� Or is that just wishful thinking?

I think the novels are supposed to be considered the full story, including all the events that KH2FM+ couldn’t include, but Nomura thought fleshed out the story better in preparation for KH3. Axel was planning on turning her over to the Organization so he could go back without being labeled a traitor. Then Saïx shows up and tries to kill him, so that plan went out the window. Pretty messed up actually. But Axel was supposed to be messed up. When he kidnapped Kairi, he told her he was neither a good nor a bad person. His loneliness drove him to nihilism.

Roxas stood, and came at him with force. Axel caught the keyblade with his chakrams and forced it down, Roxas’ face in point-blank range.

“How like you, Roxas!”

“Axel… what do you know?”

It’s not the first time Roxas has asked me that.

I know.

Yeah, I always know the things Roxas doesn’t.

I know things I can’t tell Roxas.

That’s why… I definitely couldn’t go.

“…I can’t say right now.”

“Please tell me!” Roxas cried, forcing the keyblades up.

This is on Day 4 of KH2. He couldn’t leave because of reasons he can’t tell Roxas. That’s why he couldn’t follow him. It wasn’t that he was afraid of rebelling.

Today I have to destroy Roxas.

I cannot betray the organisation.

From the little shelf at his bedside, Axel took a white envelope, and looked at it vaguely for a while. Putting it in his pocket, Axel got up off the bed and left the room.

A short while after Axel had entered the room, Saïx still hadn’t said a word. As he typed away at the keyboard, working, the pallid light radiating from the monitor gleamed on the already pale Saïx.

He decided on Day 6 that he had to destroy Roxas.

Maybe, this is the last time I’ll see Saïx, too.

Thinking, Axel looked at the seated Saïx’s back.

“We’ve known each other for a pretty long time, haven’t we?”

Ignoring Axel’s words, Saïx continued typing on the keyboard.

“Say something. Have you even thought that maybe I can’t erase Roxas?” Axel said, in a playful tone, and Saïx finally looked up. “It’ll be all right. Cause I’m tough.” Axel puffed out his chest.

“How stupid,” said Saïx, and for a moment he smiled. “Let’s hurry up and prepare. Time is limited. The hero will wake up soon, too. I’ll send you in right in front of Roxas.”

“Okay.”

Axel stood in front of the sending device. Saïx rested his finger on the button.

“I’m off the~n!”

Waving to Saïx, Axel’s figure disappeared.

And he joked about doing it. He couldn’t actually bring himself to do it, and I don’t think he actually thought the idea was funny. He was just trying to bond with Saïx in a twisted way. Axel was a grey character. It’s what made him interesting and human. His attachment to Saïx was what kept him in the Organization. He was a sociopathic Nort, but Axel’s memories of Isa were of him being a kind and innocent kid. He stuck around until he absolutely had no other options. Axel did everything for his friend, only for him to try and kill him in return. He was heartbroken over it.

Axel’s eyes crinkled as he remembered his own best friend—the only friend he’d ever had, in fact.

“If your best friend goes away, you’re sad, and if you get to be with them, you’re happy,” Naminé added. “Isn’t that how it is, Axel?”

“…That’s about the size of it.” Axel nodded and sat down on the remaining empty sofa, staring at the sea-salt ice cream he held.

“So you are capable of sincerity,” said Riku.

Axel only shrugged at the jab and finished his ice cream pop.

It’s only then that Axel went running back to Roxas, and started calling him the ONLY friend he’d ever had. He was in total denial. It was amusing because it was like a kid. "I never cared about you anyways!" Roxas was his crutch. He cared for him, but not in the way he should. He was using him to replace the absence of Isa.

[zne-theartist]

Stalking Destiny Ch 1 (rewritten)

Stalking Destiny chapter 1 rewritten | original post | AO3 link.

Author’s Notes: I hope everyone else is enjoying season two of OPM like I am! and I want to apologize to all my loyal fans waiting three years for me to return for OPM. alijsdfklksejfd. I rewrote the first chapter to fix spelling and grammar errors - but also to match my current writing style since it has changed since 2016 and I didn’t beta read it when I first wrote it. All the content is the same, just better worded! I also rewrote this because I’m writing the second chapter (coming within this week) so I wanted the first chapter to flow well for it!

Again the idea for this fic was spawned by @wamaii , I’m finishing this soon my pal lol

Chapter 1: The Meeting

It had been three months now.

Three months of having to deal with the incessant stalking of the great villain, Saitama. It had taken him two weeks to first realize that the villain had been watching him and it wasn’t just a coincidence that he was seeing the villain out more often in the areas he frequented. He had happened to look over his shoulder while walking to school because he thought he heard a friend calling his name when he saw him. The bald headed villain sticking halfway out from an alley, acting like he was completely hidden as he stared intensely at the blonde. When the villain had realized they had locked eyes, he only moved an inch more into the alleyway, no doubt thinking that would be enough to hide his form. Genos at that point quickly turned around and quickened his pace to school.

At first, he had been frightened. Why would the villain known for dealing so much destruction be following him? It didn’t help that Saitama wasn’t exactly being discreet about it. Sometimes, Saitama had a hideous, cheap, brown wig on his bald head, struggling to keep it on on windy days. Other times he sat on a bench on the school campus, eyeing at him through two holes cut in a newspaper for his eyes. Eventually thoughts sparked up in Genos’ mind: ‘what the fuck is he doing? Who does he think he’s fooling?’ But, no matter where Genos went, that villain was sure to be there.

Progressively, his feelings had moved from fear to confusion to irritation. He was in college and he was trying hard to keep his 4.0 GPA up, something he prided himself in since middle school. Genos was a dedicated person when it came to school and he wanted to get his degree as fast as possible; and this villain was posing a threat to his perfectionism. Genos was losing his concentration. The unknown of why the villain Saitama was following him ate him up from the inside out. He couldn’t even hang out with his friends to relax and get his mind off things because he was always there. His limits were breaking from this annoying, bald headed freak who just wouldn’t stop watching him!

That day had been particularly hard on him.

He had to sprint just to make it to his first class of the day, nearly missing it. A teacher had called him out after class, worried that he wouldn’t make an A+ for the grading period which was highly unusual given Genos’ track record. In another class, he had gotten a C on a test; that Genos had to beg the teacher to let him retake. The cream of the crop? His favorite sandwich was out at the cafeteria. At this point the blond’s patience was diminished so low he had nearly nothing left to deal with the stalker hot on his heels as he walked home from school. Honestly, if the man was trying to stalk the blonde, didn’t he know he had to put distance between them and make it not noticeable? The villain wasn’t even five feet back from him - in that ridiculous wig! He was using the last shreds of his patience to desperately try and ignore the heavy footsteps behind him, clutching tightly to the straps of his book bag.

Something snapped in Genos and he just couldn’t take it anymore. He was the reason he was beginning to slip up in his studies! He stopped walking and spun around, finger already up to point at the man in the hideous wig - for fuck’s sake anyone could tell he was bald and had slapped a toupee on! Anyone could fucking tell who it was!

Saitama nearly collided into the finger that pointed accusingly at him, but managed to stop in his tracks. His wide eyes stared down at the blond, unable to believe he was face to face with the cute, freckled face Genos. Saitama thought he was so much cuter than that cyborg Genos, and a whole lot slimmer. Also, compared to cyborg Genos who had been his own height, Genos was much shorter than he thought he’d be. He was also a thousand times cuter up close than afar.

“Stop fucking stalking me, villain!” Genos’ bark of sharp words snapped Saitama out of his thoughts. His mouth flailed open and closed like a fish out of water.

“I… I… m-my name…” Saitama felt absolutely powerless in this moment. Why? Was it because he was faced with the one thing he had been searching for the last year since he had come back from the hero alternate dimension? Saitama attempted to swallow his nerves as the blond’s hot glare dug into him like a knife. “I-I am… E-Eggb-b-bert…” His voice sounded so deflated. Where was all that fire he had earlier when he had pepped himself that today was the day he’d finally talk with Genos? That was the whole reason he had tailed him so close today!

“Cut the crap! I know it’s you, anyone could see, you’re the villain Saitama!” Genos was angry, upset the villain would even think such a stupid name and scheme would work on him like he was dumb.

Saitama opened his mouth to dispute Genos, but nothing came out. After a few silent minutes of nothing, a gentle breeze uprooted the wig from his shiny dome and sent it flying. Mentally he bid goodbye to the five dollars he spent on it from the tacky shop he had bought it from. His cover had literally blown away.

“I know that fucking bald head anywhere! You’re all over TV. And you’ve been stalking me for the past three months.”

Saitama felt like he had no strength in him; not even the strength to engage with his infamous, lame comeback that he wasn’t the bald one, but Genos was.

“I’m sick and tired of it. You’re ruining my life following me around!” Genos’ hands moved to stand firmly on his hips as his feet stood a shoulders’ width apart, his torso bent forward slightly as he was giving the villain Saitama a lecture for his life. “My grades are slipping; my friends don’t even want to hang out with me because you’re always around - I can’t concentrate anymore!” Genos felt like tearing at his hair as he glared daggers at the man. “Why the fuck are you stalking me in the first place? Do you have a problem with me?”

Saitama stared blankly at the man. “I…uh…um…” All words escaped him and he stood there, staring at the beauty before him. He was completely powerless, all thanks to a loss of words.

“Stop stalking me, or I’ll call the police!” Genos turned on his heel and angrily walked back home, leaving the villain in his dust.

When Genos got home he felt like punching a wall to let out all of his frustrations, but instead he did his best to focus on studying for the test he’d have to retake. When he failed, he did his best to sleep. Sleep didn’t come easy for him however, and he was suddenly wrought with the thought he could have died with the way he had talked to the very well known villain Saitama. He groaned into his hands as they covered his face. “What does he want from me?” Genos had never seen such a desperate look before. Saitama had looked at him like he had so much to say yet he had said nothing at all. He had looked incredibly weak. Genos let out a heavy sigh as he turned on his side, staring at the shades covering his window that was parted just enough to let a sliver of the moon peak into his room. That had not been the villain that was depicted all over the media…

Meanwhile, as soon as Genos had left, Saitama did not follow him back to his home like usual. Instead, he watched Genos’ figure retreat. His hand moved on its own, bunching his shirt into his fist as it rested on his chest, in a motion that almost seemed he was trying to clutch at his heart. “Damn.” His face contorted for a second into a scowl. “Is this what the hero me feels for the cyborg version?” Was he feeling happiness over Genos calling him bald, at talking so crudely to him, at finally coming face to face with the boy and talking to him? (Even if Genos was the one who had done all the talking.) He couldn’t even blame the kid for the outburst. He had been stalking Genos, and maybe he really wasn’t the best at hiding it.

This wasn’t his fault though! It was Genos’ fault. It was his fault for not coming to his side sooner. It was his fault for letting him become so dark. It was his fault for not saving Saitama. His mood progressively darkened and the people who were walking the streets took their time to completely avoid him. Yes. It was all Genos’ fault. “All your damn fault I’m like this.”

The poisonous depression rolled over him then dissipated until he felt nothing again. Like always, nothing and no one stopped him from breaking a few buildings.

All of a sudden Saitama was gone.

For two whole weeks he was able to relax and get his scores back up to his acceptable A+ status. Genos could have forgotten the villain had stalked him in the first place if the news would let him forget his existence. There were more recent sightings of Saitama destroying buildings and terrorizing people. As he watched the news each night, he felt some part of him that wanted to dispute it all. If he was such a villain, why had he been left completely speechless when confronted by a mere college student about his stalking? Was the villain in love with him or something? Genos scoffed at the idea, refocusing on his books and trying to refocus his mind. “That’s absurd… a heartless villain wouldn’t have such feelings.” His brown eyes gravitated to the television screen as they showed a close up of Saitama’s face from a traffic light camera. “...right?” Genos found the remote in his hand, clicking the pause button. He leaned his cheek into his other hand that had now forgotten he had been trying to write notes. He stared at the face on the screen in silence for a long time.

“He’s kind of handsome…”

His grades were back to normal and so was his mind. As a nice treat to release all the remaining tension caused from the three month long stalking trip, Genos had decided to go out one night with two of his friends to the arcade near the park.

They had been playing on one of the machines when their laughter and teasing was interrupted by the machine jolted on its own. They exchanged glances and looked back at the machine which was oddly silent. Genos reached out to touch it but the machine suddenly jumped up! Genos gasped, eyes wide as they all scrambled back.

The machine was turning into a monster! All of a sudden it was warping into a hideous mix of the skee ball machine and a humanoid figure. It was a massive, twisted result of machinery and man.

“I AM SPAWNED FROM THE TERRIBLE TREATMENT FROM YOU HUMANS. YOU TREAT US MACHINES LIKE DIRT, AND KICK US WHEN YOU DON’T GET YOUR WAY. I WILL DESTROY YOU ALL FOR THE TREATMENT OF MY BRETHREN AND MYSELF.” The machine howled in anger. The howl seemed to ‘wake’ the other machines as they began to glow and jolt just as the skee ball machine had done.

People were already screaming all around the arcade and beginning to run. The fun arcade games were turning into monsters! Genos look to his friends and shouted over the deafening noise of so many machines whirring to an impossible life, “We have to get out of here!” They joined the late night crowd in running to the doors of the arcade. Genos struggled to keep up with his friends who were ahead of him, and a quick glance over his shoulder confirmed the increased volume of clunking was the machines beginning to give chase. As they reached the doors he glanced around at the chaos, so many running for their lives. This had to be terror that he was feeling - and it propelled him to run faster.

“Keep going!” He shouted to his friends as they reached outside, pointing down the sidewalk. “Run, I’ll try and distract it!” As much as the terror shook his body, these were his friends.

“Genos! What the hell are you talking about?”

“We can’t just leave you behind!”

He had to protect them; no matter how stupid it was to act like a hero when he wasn’t a hero.

“Just go!” Genos yelled, eyes bright with determination as he began to run across the street. He glanced over his shoulder as the arcade’s automatic glass doors broke with the machinery monsters breaking out. Thankfully his friends had already began to run down the sidewalk.

“COME BACK HERE. LET ME SHOW YOU THE SAME TREATMENT THAT YOU SHOWED US.”

He was relieved they didn’t purse his friends or other fleeing patrons - but now they were giving chase to him. His breath caught in his throat as he turned back towards the park and sprinted towards it. Maybe he could lose them in the trees or get them to somehow fall into the pond. He wasn’t sure what he could do, but at least he knew his friends were safe.

Genos’ lungs burned as he ran through the park, panting, as he tried to lose the monsters. He was honestly terrified. He wasn’t sure what would happen to himself, but he knew people died every day that a monster appeared. His eyes burned at the thought that he would be in that statistic. He was thrown out of his thoughts literally as his ankle was caught and twisted painfully in a tree root, sending him flying forward and flat on his face. He cried out in pain and rolled onto his back, gasping for air. His chest heaved as he tried desperately to catch his breath and quiet himself. He could hear the rustling of the machines in the distance. He could guess they must have split up to cover more ground. They would probably look for other teenagers who might be in the park. Once it quieted down he could get up, escape the park, and run home to safety.

“FOUND YOU.”

Genos shrieked as the machine came into his line of sight a few feet away. He scrambled into a sitting position and tried to pull at the root which seemed to tighten its hold on his ankle. It hurt. He was scared. Genos could feel hot tears falling down despite his stubborn and scowling face. He didn’t want to cry when he was about to die, but everything he still wanted to do was flashing before his mind while he tried to still break free from the root. He hadn’t done a damn thing in the world. He hadn’t done anything memorable! He had only kept his nose stuck in a book his entire life!

The machine raised its fist as it screeched out in revenge, “I WILL DESTROY ALL YOU HUMANS.” He’d be crushed underneath the machine’s fist. Feebly, with the last ounce of protection he could give himself, he raised his arms up over his face. At least this way he wouldn’t see when the fist came down. “STARTING WITH YOU!”

Was this his death bed?

“Oi.” A deep, gravely voice thrust itself into the mix. Genos moved his arms at the voice and only caught a blur of black and red. His body was pushed back by a sudden gust of wind, landing back on his elbows. He gasped with his wide eyes staring in disbelief at the glint from the moon atop a shiny, bald crown.

“Saitama!” It was like a huge wind was knocked out of him at the name. Where had he come from?

There the villain stood, holding the machine up by, what was supposed to be, his neck. Saitama’s eyes were a dangerous red glare at the face of the monster. Genos could see the waves of anger rolling off of him in the same way his cape billowed out behind him.

“He’s mine.” The villain raised his other hand into a fist, and just like that - the monster was gone. Genos stared in awe. He had taken the monster out with just one punch. One punch… It brought about another fact to marvel at: Saitama had just saved his life. “Easy…” He heard the villain mumble to himself before he turned to Genos. Genos felt his body go rigid as Saitama walked over to him before he knelt down at his feet. Easily, the villain tore the root off of Genos’ ankle. Genos felt frozen as he stared at the villain. “Ah, you might’ve twisted your ankle with that fall. ...was kind of funny seeing you fall.” No smile accompanied his words. Had Saitama been watching him this entire time? Saitama looked up at Genos with relief before his eyes widened in slight shock and he reached out with a gloved hand.

Genos pulled his face back from the outreached hand and the villain rethought his action, bringing his hand to his own face. He scratched a little underneath his eye with his gloved finger. He was giving him a look like he expected him to know what he was trying to say without words.

“Huh?” Genos was confused, but brought a hand to his face to touch his fingertips just beneath his eye. “Oh.” How embarrassing! There were fat, wet tears still falling from his eyes. Quickly, he yanked his sleeve down over his hand and rubbed his eyes till the tears ceased. He couldn’t believe the villain had seen him crying! Saitama had to find it deplorable, laughable even. The villain said nothing, and simply stood to his feet. After a moment of awkwardly standing there, he extended his hand to Genos. Genos stared at it. “What?” His voice was quiet. Saitama jolted his hand to get his point across, unable to look at the blond. The dots connected and slowly Genos took his hand. After taking it though, he squeezed it. The squeeze caused Saitama to stop before he could pull the boy up off the ground. “Why?” Genos looked at their hands, eyebrows scrunched together in confusion.

Saitama stared down at the boy and used his free hand to rub the back of his neck. He didn’t say a thing and just pulled the boy up as gently as he possibly could.

Genos could only go with the motions as he was pulled back onto his feet. However, as soon as he was up, he winced and a soft hiss left his lips from the pain that shot from his right ankle up through his entire leg. The pain was horrible (and Saitama hadn’t let go of his hand) so he went crashing forward into the villain’s chest. Saitama was the one who went rigid next, still as Genos used him for support. Genos knew he wouldn’t be able to put any weight on his hurt leg.

Saitama swore to himself he was about to let out a very strangled, strange sound and so he turned abruptly, nearly pushing the kid off. Genos was surprised and was about to move back, but Saitama hadn’t let go of his hand yet. Instead, Saitama had turned his back to him before he crouched down to the ground.

“What are you doing?” Was there a hint of pink on the villain’s cheeks or was the moon playing tricks on him?”

“Don’t make me say it.” His voice was gruff, but Genos could hear no malice in it. As if to elaborate, Saitama yanked his hand so Genos was forced to lose his balance and brace himself against the waiting back. Finally, Genos wrapped his arms loosely against the villain’s neck which prompted the villain to let go of his hand so he could loop his arms underneath his knees. He couldn’t believe Saitama was offering him a piggyback ride.

As soon as he was settled, Saitama began the walk out of the park and back into the city with Genos on his back. As they walked out of the park, Genos noticed there were strewn mechanical parts littered everywhere as if a tornado had blown through the area. Had Saitama defeated all the machines? Genos looked at the back of the bald head before slowly he noticed their surroundings changing. He knew the route very well. The villain was taking him back to his home. It didn’t surprise him that he would know the way given he had stalked Genos for so long. Honestly, it would’ve been more surprising if he didn’t know the way.

His heart pounded in his chest as Saitama walked, and he could only hope that Saitama couldn’t feel it against his back. Genos was more confused than ever before. First, the villain stalked him. Second, he didn’t say a word when Genos confronted him and could only blub his mouth around like a fish. Third, he just disappeared out of nowhere except for being shot on television for destroying cities. Fourth, he showed up out of the blue after two weeks of nothing, and saved Genos. What was with this guy?

“You’re a villain,” It was a fact he stated out loud that he knew Saitama had heard but it didn’t garner him a response. “So, why did you save me?” Genos stared at the cape he was resting his cheek against, focused on the way the muscles beneath the suit began to relax as if he had let out a rather long exhale.

“You’re supposed to save me.” Genos nearly didn’t catch the soft spoken words. He tilted his chin up so he could look over Saitama’s shoulder, staring at the profile of his face. Genos’ eyes softened considerably. Handsome… Genos didn’t understand the villain’s words, but he squeezed his arms around his neck a little tighter and pressed his face into the back of his neck. He allowed himself to close his eyes and relax in the strong grip that kept him up.

They remained silent the rest of the way.

[loxxxlay]

was tagged by both @aliceinthinkland and @veliseraptor (ahhhh thank you both *_* <3). I know i don’t do these anymore, but I guess the power of my vanity has beaten my anxiety for the moment lmao (in seriousness, I’m super insecure, so this is probably good for me anyway)

Hello, you have been identified as An Awesome Fic Writer™. Congrats, you rock! So that all of your readers can shower you with some extra love today, please tell us your favourite five stories of yours and why you like them and then send this to another five fic authors you think deserve this title!

A Moment of Peace

A huge flaw in my writing is that I suck at grounding the reader in the scene. So literally when I wrote this, my #1 goal was to engage the five senses (via Thor whump lol) and really practice that description. (Please don’t reread the first chapter now bc you can literally see me ticking the 5 senses off, one by one lmao.) Even in later chapters, I wrote things massively out of my comfort zone (i.e. fight scenes ew, dialog between more than 2 characters ewwww), and it was really hard, but I think it came out well. And overall, I’m just really happy with my speculation for IW :) Sorry to brag, but even my insecure self can say I like Loki better in this than the canon Loki we got. esp in the chapter I’m writing now :’)

Brothers of Habit

the accumulation of my favorite favorite favorite things ever, including (but not limited to) trauma-bonding/shared trauma, complicated consent, thor whump, loki whump, brotherly angst and comfort, noncon, and noncon recovery. It was one of those fics where The Words randomly appeared at 3am, waking me up and forcing themselves on my crappy phone keyboard in pitch darkness, which, as most authors know, is super fun. (: And I’m just really proud of how the concept (“Thor and Loki have fucked so much that now they can’t stop???”) actually turned out rather.... believably? And not like a crack!fic??? Am both proud and relieved. XD Also I’m happy with the prose itself :D

Tempting Death

obviously this was written like 5 billion years ago, so I hope I can write a little better now, but for that time of my life, it was probably the best writing I was capable of and I’m really proud of it even to this day. Writing about psychological brainwashing on a character post-suicide-attempt is exactly as fun as it sounds (assuming ur like me lmao)

The Little Things

ahh different fandom (and seriously if u like Loki at all for the same reasons that I like Loki, I highly recommend the manga TRC ok), but I am so happy with this fic. o.o One of my biggest irritations about the manga was how Fai, after having an incredibly well done mental illness arc, was like... instantly cured at the end? So this fic was about showing the leftover difficulties in his recovery and how he has to continuously learn healthier and non-toxic coping mechanisms. Much slower recovery, never cured, and just an analysis of how his relationship with Kurogane is healthy&positive all around. I loved writing this <3

One Last Breath

this one isn’t a fic, it’s an original short story I wrote about rape culture and, on recommendation from a professor, am thinking about trying to publish, idk, we’ll see. But I wrote it for one of my assignments last semester, and I just feel like it’s the highest quality of writing I am capable of at the moment, and I’m really proud of it. And if I ever become Not Depressed and magically publish it or (more likely) get rejected too many times, I’ll let anyone who wants to read it ^_^ <3

Tagging (trying to go for people who actually have much more than 5 fics lol or weren’t already tagged): @raven-brings-light @dictionarywrites @zombiecheetah @iamanartichoke @philosopherking1887 @foundlingmother @thotki @pro-antagonist @gorgeousgalatea (and as always, only if you want to :) )

[rospeaks]

Send these to your favorite Authors and let them blab! What is your total word count on AO3? How often do you write? Do you have a routine for writing? What's your favorite kinks/tropes/pairing? Do you have a favorite fic of yours? Your fic with the most kudos? Anything you don't like about your writing? Now something you do like! Tag some of your favorite Authors to spread some love <3

I got tagged by @funkzpiel​ uwu, thank you babyyy

WHAT IS YOUR TOTAL WORD COUNT ON AO3?

602,211 - which woo boy sounds like a lot, but i’ve also had this account for years

HOW OFTEN DO YOU WRITE?

I try to do it daily, but between work and life, it’s kind of hard =.=;

DO YOU HAVE A ROUTINE FOR WRITING?

I try to write a little at work each day, so that’s usually me in the corner of the break room with music in my earbuds and a carefully honed FUCK OFF aura while I try to get a few paragraphs written between bites of food. It’s a slow, meandering process, but it manages to get to work out alright.

I’ve recently attempted to copy @funkzpiel​‘s story mapping method because it’s the most awe inspiring thing to see, but with the current fic I’ve written, I think it’s turned out to be more of a point of frustration than anything. I’ll be trying it more with a newer fic, rather than one that I’d already been working on for almost a year now. Ugh.

WHAT’S YOUR FAVORITE KINK/TROPE/PAIRING?

a) Kinks

BDSM/Ds -- esp it’s commonly associated kinks of spanking and bondage and power exchange

Rimming

Size difference - be it body size or just big cock/little cock

Enthusiastic consent

b) Tropes

A/B/O - I WANT IT ALL

Arranged Marriage

First Time

Trapped Together for Plot Reasons

Soulmate/Soul Bond AUs

Courtship Rituals

c) Pairings

I’ll be honest here. I’m the kind of fan that usually hones in on a single character and then whores that character out to every single person on the planet, so:

Percival Graves/Everyone

Stiles Stilinski/Everyone

Tony Stark/Everyone

DO YOU HAVE A FAVORITE FIC OF YOURS?

Hand to god, I do not actually look at my fics very often once I’ve posted them. So it took me a while to dig through my fics and find the ones that I have the fondest memories of. They’re going to be spread across several fandoms:

Fantastic Beasts:

you look as beautiful as ever (and everyday you’ll get better) - Theseus/Percival, Mature, post-movie, v fluffy with a little porn

roche limit - Credence/Percival, Explicit, post-movie, abo with courtship

Teen Wolf:

please - Peter/Stiles, G, tw character death, implied time loop

polish - Peter/Stiles, T, tw referenced torture, recovery fic with feral stiles

an uncommon want - Scott/Stiles, Explicit, abo with heat cycles, first time fic, omega stiles needs help from a professional

Glee (GOD, I KNOW, ASLDFJ SHH)

how to maintain a high maintenance warbler: tips and tricks and trivia for the care of blaine [redacted] - kurt/blaine, T, mild d/s, humorous, blaine comes with a manual

a fuse so thoroughly shot - kurt/blaine, T, Sci Fi AU, A.I.!Blaine with programmer!Kurt

Supernatural:

the human form god gave you - sam/castiel, Mature, first time, body worship

i can deduce nothing else but love - sam/castiel, Explicit, Detective AU with workplace relationship

for your consideration, me - sam/castiel, T, time travel, jealousy, kisses

Inception:

I should probably like the super long bang fic that I did for this fandom - because i feel super clever every time I think about it - BUT the one that I actual like is this one:

somewhere to begin - arthur/eames, G, Sci Fi Au lol with universe jumping

YOUR FIC WITH THE MOST KUDOS?

That honor goes to You Complete(ly Irritate) Me, which is a Teen Wolf Jackson/Stiles fic. I allllmost didn’t finish that one too, so I’m happy that I managed to give it a conclusion. When I read it now, I think I could have done better, but gosh, I wrote it 5 years ago, so I think I’ll stick with proud of it.

ANYTHING YOU DON’T LIKE ABOUT YOUR WRITING?

AHAHA, I don’t like how I can get easily discouraged by things, how I can get frustrated with trying to do a scene that I’m literally unable to move onto something else. HOW LITTLE TIME I ACTUALLY CARVE OUT TO WORK ON THINGS. UGH

NOW SOMETHING YOU DO LIKE?

I think I’ve gotten a lot better at world building than I used to be! My fics are also getting longer, I think -- but that might be a delusion -- and I am not quite so reliant as I used to be on my readers being able to know the source material.

TAGGING: @momomomma2 @gramanderlove @bleep0bleep @bxdcubes @riceycloveed

[psychic-refugee]

Fanfiction Pet Peeves

These are just my opinions. I don’t name any specific author or story.

It seems like for the most part it is considered rude to post criticisms on fanfiction. I think as a community we’re trying to be more inclusive of all writing “styles.” I am a big believer in writing the story I want to tell, so I have to recognize that my style won’t be for everyone. I do think this is a positive direction, but I think it also cuts down on the responses/reviews people would get. I’m not opposed to it, but if this is what is considered the proper etiquette then we have to accept that we will not get as much feedback.

Now I know there is a difference between a criticism and a flame. I’m not saying we should allow flames.

I keep seeing all these posts about leaving a review, but I feel like we’re not giving them leeway to review. And sometimes, not leaving a review is a review. I always assume that if my hit count is higher than my review counts, then the difference are the people who didn’t like the story enough to review. Whether or not because they found it boring or hated it, that’s left a mystery.

I think with the advent of the “not beta read, all typos are my own” tag or warning, it’s basically telling the reader that they did some proof reading but for various reasons, they don’t have an editor basically. I think because fanfiction is a hobby for most of us, then it’s fair not to go that extra effort. Probably because I do it. lol. I try to get everything I can, but a few things always manage to slip by. So, most don’t take note or bother to mention typos unless it’s particularly egregious. The only exception I would make would be to writers whose first language isn’t English. I have come across stories where it’s clear there is something lost in translation and having a beta would be necessary.

E.g. a GOT fic where they called Gregor Clegane the “Enormity that Rides.” His nickname is the Mountain that Rides. I get that they maybe thought they were using a synonym, but in this instance, it doesn’t fit because Mountain that Rides is what he is known as, not necessarily a description.

I think it’s a fine line between something that is written well or poorly and personal taste.

There is just so much fanfiction out there, it’s hard to review them all. There have been many cases where I don’t even make it past the first chapter, the story just doesn’t interest me or there is something about it that is off putting.

Here are a few things that make me not want to read the story at all.

 “I suck at summaries” and variations thereof: basically the author is bashing their own writing and they still want you to read. I don’t have time for that. If the author doesn’t have the confidence in writing a few sentences, I can’t imagine their actual writing being worthwhile. This is especially true for AO3 with its tagging system that can actually help give us an idea of what the story is about. There are thousands of fics written daily, I can’t read them all and this is part of the triage of me deciding to read something. The only time I may ignore this is if the OTP is exceptionally rare or the fandom is small. In those instances, I’m not as picky because I don’t have much to pick from.

I also wonder if it’s not some form of compliment fishing. Like they want you to feel bad for them for being insecure, and they want you to say “no, it’s great!” I have no patience for those type of people.

Overtagging: If a fic has a million tags, my eyes just skip over it. This usually isn’t a problem for normal stories, this usually happens because it’s part of an anthology. It just looks super obnoxious to me. I would rather they just start a new fic each time and tag accordingly. There are some who overtag, listing literally every character that may show up despite their actual contribution to the story. If a character is just kind of mentioned or seen in passing or is talked about as part of exposition, then I don’t think they need to be tagged. Character tagging is really for the main characters. If I’m looking for X and your story shows up, but X is just seen in one chapter and it’s not about them, then I’d be irritated. The same goes for any “Warning” tags. Over tagging just clutters everything up, and I personally can’t stand it.

I’m also not a fan of doing whole sentences as tags. “I wrote this when I should have been…” and variations of things that would do better in notes rather than tags. Like I’m never going to filter for whatever your inane excuse is for the writing the story in the first place. It’s just dumb, obnoxious, and unnecessary to me.

No proof reading: This is different than not beta read. There are some that outright admit that they haven’t proof read. Sometimes, they’ll say “I’ll get to it later,” which I don’t understand at all. It’s fanfiction, we do it for free. There are no actual deadlines, I don’t understand why they don’t proof read before they publish. Then there are those that say “not proof read” and leave it at that. I’d like to think I’m a decent writer, and my first couple of drafts are always pretty rough. Even with several rounds of proof reading, I still manage to miss things. Not even trying seems so lazy and arrogant. I feel like they’re giving me advanced warning to not bother.

What makes me stop reading after the first couple of chapters.

Format: If the format is off or makes it hard to read, I just can’t bother. There are writers who somehow are able to write on their mobile device. I don’t know if they just don’t have access to a computer, or perhaps don’t want to leave evidence of writing fanfiction. Either way, I respect that they have limited means, but I don’t want to read it. The worst is when they don’t put in hard returns, either for separate paragraphs or when writing dialog. Basically, they don’t include enough white space. Trying to keep track of where you are reading with a never-ending paragraph creates eye fatigue, and it takes away from enjoying the story.

Then there are writers who don’t use punctuation. There was one author that refused to use capital letters, ever. They cited E.E. Cummings as justification. Not only did I have a problem with this readability wise, the justification didn’t make sense to me. Like nothing about the story really spoke to me about using this particular syntax as a way of any meaningful expression. But that’s just my personal opinion.

Wiki Storytelling/Choppy writing: This happens when there are too many simple sentences, or the narrative feels like it’s just a summary. Like there’s little to no description of what the character was feeling or where they are. I’m not saying we all need to be G.R.R.M. or Tolkien, but I want more “meat” in my story than:

Mal was told to get the wand. Her three best friends went with her. They got into the limo, it was scary. They tried to steal the wand but set off the alarm.

This type of story telling is boring to me. I think we find this mostly with very young writers.

AUs of movies with no unique features: where the fandom characters replace the characters in movies and the writers basically rewrite more or less line by line what happened in the movie (e.g. Descendant’s characters in Legally Blonde). I feel like I could save time if they just told me “X movie but with Y actors.” Not only do I feel it’s a waste of time to read it, I would think it was a waste of time to write it. Like assuming we’ve seen the movie, we know what happens. If the replacement characters do nothing to add or alter the movie, then I don’t see a point of the story.

Anyone have any fanfiction pet peeves?