#mostly about making my blorbos sit down and talk

[sbrn10]

Fic: just like an old time movie ('bout a ghost from a wishing well)

on ao3

Bells Hells and Laudna have some conversations, sprinkled at various places between e65-e73. or: 5 times nobody realized they were dating (and 1 time someone did) or: the one that was supposed to be a lighthearted and silly 5+1 about my brainrot ship and instead kind of turned into a weirdly gen fic against the backdrop of my brainrot ship. Please send help.

Or I can't believe I actually wrote CR fic.

[am-i-the-asshole-official]

AITA for never watching shows that my friends recommend?

I have a couple of friends who always want to recommend me shows to watch so we can talk about them together. But frankly I don't like TV as a medium very much, I don't watch very many shows outside of a couple of sitcoms that I rewatch a lot. Mostly I prefer to read a lot of books, it's more fun to me.

This really annoys my friends, because they feel like I could be spending the time I use to read and rewatch brooklyn 99 to watch the shows they recommend, and say they feel like I'm kinda ignoring their interests. I don't feel like I'm ignoring them since I'm happy to listen to them talk about their blorbos and tell me about the shows, I just don't want to watch them myself.

I always counter that neither of them have ever read a single book I've recommended to them, but they claim that it's not the same, since they don't read at all, and I do watch a little TV. But correspondingly I have watched (or at least tried and then DNF'ed) several shows that they have recommended over the years.

To me, watching an anime with hundreds of episodes or watching several seasons of some prestige drama with hour-long episodes is not fun at all. I can feel my life slipping away second by second into the hands of the grim reaper as I sit motionless in front of the screen.

I think we should just accept that we have differing tastes in media, and they need to stop taking it personally that I don't like their shows. I don't want them to think I look down on them for enjoying TV as opposed to reading--I know a lot of people get really snobbish about that, so I try to make it super clear that I don't think TV is like, a lower art form or something, different mediums are better for different people, there's no hierarchy.

But I do want them to feel like we have stuff in common to talk about. And I'm having this same issue with multiple friends. And the huge list of recs that I keep adding to and then never watching is making me feel really guilty, and think maybe I'm being an asshole.

[bomber-grl]

Hellooo I've already requested like 2 Leo fics because I love him he's my little blorbo 🥺 my bad !! Anyway uh. I have a request for Leo Valdez 😁😁 number 20, angsty? Maybe something of his just went horribly wrong and he's stressed about it, and to give him a break you make him food and he's so happy he just bursts into tears? Thank you so much your writing style and work is amazing I love it so much 😭

Prompt #20: making them food they like

Recently Leo has taken to making new inventions non-stop. It was his passion, so the obvious reaction was to openly support it.

But, when you heard the obvious sound of something exploding from the other side of camp, you knew it was trouble.

And trouble it was. You saw Leo and began running to him to ask what was up.

Once you got closer his face and overall vibe told you everything. He was covered in sweat and soot(?) from the invention that exploded.

Most of all he seemed genuinely upset. You waited a bit to talk to Leo as he was discussing something with another camper.

Then he noticed you and began walking over

“Hey Leo” your tone was light and happy, his, not so much.

“Hey” he practically mumbled, not to mention how he dragged his feet when walking over.

“Leo, I hate to do this but I’m grounding you” you tried making your tone teasing but it was spelled out loud and clear. You said it with no room to object, you were serious.

“Why??-“ you knew this would come and quickly interrupted “you’re overworking yourself, cmon”.

You took his hand and began walking towards where arts and crafts would usually be but was currently occupied with other campers form different cabins.

They were all cooking and baking, and it was a surprise to Leo.

“Hey, what’s going on here?-“ you pushed him down to sit and went on your merry way to cook something up.

recently campers had been wanting to start baking/cooking just for the sake of making some good food for others. Especially self made rather than using the enchanted plates at the dining pavilion.

So, to cheer up Leo who was hard at work (now, having a bad day) you prepared something for him to enjoy.

It was something he told you he enjoyed from his childhood, paired with a drink he liked and a desert you wanted to share with him.

Thankfully Will who was there took out your meal once it was ready while you were occupied with Leo.

Now, it was time to go to your cabin.Regardless of whether or not it was full most days, today it wasn’t.

No one was in sight and so u snuck Leo in.

He sat down on a bean bag and you dragged some coffee table look alike and placed it in front of Leo, then placed the food.

“Here, eat up. Sorry we haven’t been able to meet recently and also sorry that your invention went haywire but I just wanted to show you some love and this little workshop proved to be a good way. Oh! I also made the dish you told me about, remember?-“

Your voice trailed off as you finally stopped your rambling and took notice of Leo’s face.

He was surprisingly silent as tears blurred his vision and ran down his cheeks.

“Leo..?” You couldn’t manage to say anything else and as soon as it happened his tears dried up.

Mostly from him hurriedly wiping his face to not make you feel bad, but still.

“Leo? Why’re you crying ?” You leaned in closer and placed a hand of yours on his shoulder.”

“Sorry it’s just that it’s so frustrating” He didn’t say anything and so you asked “what is?”

That’s what set him off.

“This is, this invention was supposed to be big and amazing, I’ve been working non stop just for all my hard work to be poured down the drain. I guess I felt so stressed I forgot I had someone who still cared.”

He finally looked you in the eyes and realized what he had said, so he continued “I’m just trying to say that this made me happy, I guess this little action was really my last straw, huh? Even if is was stupid…”

Knowing Leo felt this way really hurt you, and how could he?!?! You latched onto him and pulled him into a much needed hug.

“I’m sorry that you feel that way about your work lately but I feel the exact opposite. Even if it did end in an unwanted way you still learned, right? Not to mention how insulting it is that you don’t think your emotions are valid!! I’m happy you enjoyed this, it makes me feel appreciated. And I’m sorry I haven’t made you feel that way too.”

Leo pushed you away and turned on the waterworks. He was crying once more and although you knew he was stubborn he ultimately settled on an excuse.

“K, just let me eat your food before it gets cold.” That was the last thing he said before happily shoving down the food you made him.

A bonus was that although he was still crying, at least he was happy now.

-

A/n: I’m glad you love my writing sm it makes me happy! Hope you enjoy this one too :)

[toxicanonymity]

Brothel - Dicks

The brothel, aka real housecreeps, is a meta reality show about the Joels and other blorbos. Normally everything is smooth sailing, but we mostly air the drama.

Collect calls SPOILERS

brothel master list

Oh no, a producer leaked a copy of the dick HCs and raider Joel just sent me a dick pic with a ruler for scale, claiming I shorted him. I stared at it for a good 60 seconds, then left him on read. Now someone's knocking at my bedroom door. I ignore it and respond to the pic instead. "Sorry 😬"

Raider, muffled outside my door: Think ya might need a better look. (I don't answer) Can I at least talk to ya?

I put on my robe, begrudgingly let him in, and try not to look at the bulge in his tactical jeggings.

Raider: Production told me to take it up with you.

Me: Tell me you didn't send pictures to production. (Raider is silent.) That's sexual harassment. God damnit, in the middle of your PR tour?

Raider hangs his head and seems sorry until he unzips his tactical jeggings and that's the only reason he was looking down. I'm tempted to make him jack off just because, but I shake my head no.

Raider: Be a good girl for me and it'll be over quick.

Me: are you regressing back to March over this? Don't talk to me like a reader, and don't come in here taking your dick out.

Raider nods solemnly, and I sheepishly add under my breath, "unless I tell you to." The toilet flushes and I nervously look toward the bathroom.

Trouble walks out, fully dressed, buttoning his shirt.

Trouble, to Raider: Didn't I tell you to leave this shit alone, man?

Raider: Pool house, huh? You live in the pool house?

Raider sticks his head into the bathroom and sees there's a big, lavish bedroom connected on the other side and the bed is made. Trouble mouths to me, 'want him to leave?' and I shrug like Idk what to do.

Raider: Can you give us a minute, man?

Trouble: I think you should leave, Raid. I get you're upset but don't bust up in here at 6 in the morning.

Me: Neither of you are leaving.

I put Trouble in the cuck chair, Raider sits on the bed, and I sit down at the vanity to finish talking to him. His pants are still open but I'm not looking.

Me (attempting to be comforting) Hey, anything more than 7" is a waste anyway.

Trouble (7") nods.

Raider: this ain't about sweet pea.

Trouble: that's your issue, man.

Me, to Raider: You're the biggest one either way, why're you pitching a fit over less than a centimeter?

Raider and Trouble look at each other. Trouble shakes his head at Raider like, don't say it.

Raider: We know about him.

Oh, shit. Trouble sighs. I play stupid.

Me: you know about who?

Raider: Jojo.

Me: He doesnt have an HC.

Raider: He has a bulge.

Me: I haven't even seen his dick.

Raider: You've seen his dick print.

Me: How do you--

Raider: All I'm askin' for is accuracy, that's it. Ill do ya a dick print if ya want.

Me: Lemme talk to my dick consultant (@jazziepascal ).

Raider: What'd I do? I used to be your emotional support Joel. Your mental health Joel.

I realize maybe he could've helped me through this month if I spent more time with him.

Me: You still are, c'mere.

I open my arms for a hug. We embrace, but his dick is still hard so it's awkward. After the hug, Trouble is making a face like he wouldnt mind being cucked, but I clear my throat , adjust my robe, and dismiss both of them.

-----------------

Later that day, the men gather in the kitchen. They're huddled around the table and you can't see Night Walks, but they're all talking to him. You can see balled up pieces of paper on the floor and and on the counter there's an open ream of printer paper and an open tub of vasoline.

Thighs Out: I think you've gotta really slap it down.

(loud smack)

Thighs Out: There ya go. Your turn, slasher.

[wyldblunt]

by working at it a little at a time i'm slooooowly inching closer to my goal of.... little sticker-style chibi heads of all of my + my wife's ocs....!

we're still missing some guys but they're mostly our not-involved-in-the-plot crew or very underdeveloped characters we just haven't spent much time on etc. i THIIIIINK this is most of the characters who like, Do Stuff tho

it'll be so fun to have these all done bc it'll make it super easy to throw together relationship webs, plot everyone on those like. oc-sorting charts (of the "mcdonalds mcdonalds mcdonalds VS we have food at home VS one black coffee" variety, u know what i'm talking about), and also to make little visual plot/storyline summaries!!! it's usually hard for me to actually sit down and like. Write Out what goes on in canon with our ocs, and i obviously can't do full blown comics for everything, but just having a bunch of little blorbo stickers with arrows and quick notes feels like it would work really well for my brain

[ryuichirou]

Replies

Some replies! A couple about today’s comic from ko-fi, a couple about our stuff and fandom stuff in general.

Starting with the ko-fi ones…

Anonymous asked:

Another ghost behind the ghost guard: “Um, is the jar mandatory or, you know, optional.”

(Give them a break, they’ve had a dry spell for CENTURIES)

Anonymous asked:

Same ghost: “Oh noooo! Don’t RAVISH me!!! I’m sooooo helpless!!”

Oh my god, that’s one desperate ghost!!

That ghost should change its strategy though, or rather, start pretending to run away instead – I think this would trigger Rook’s “gotta catch it, gotta hunt it down, gotta make love to it” instinct. 

I think the jar is mandatory though, but I don’t think anyone would have the courage to ask Rook why…

(I’m sorry, people with no context)

Anonymous asked:

Can I just say how much I love the kisses you draw? They’re so sexy and sensual and full of passion.

And tongue. Love the amount of tongue lol

AhhHH I am so happy…! Thank you for your kind words.

To be honest, I still feel a bit weird whenever I draw kisses a lot of times, mostly because when I spend too much of then they start looking weird in my eyes. So I really am very happy to hear that you like how I draw them!

Anonymous asked:

I love how you write/ draw Lilia. I want this old fae man to take care of me. 😭😭😭😭

Omg Anon! If anything, the way I write/draw Lilia should make you not want this old fae man to take care of you… 😨

In any case, thank you so much! I am super flattered and happy to hear that <3

Anonymous asked:

I saw a post and it made me think of your art

https://www.tumblr.com/i-will-write/759303532492013568?source=share

>w>;

YES this is me sitting down to write wholesome hcs and ending up with another cursed post. Thank you 😭

This is so true though..! Sometimes the best way to express love to your blorbos is to make them suffer.

Anonymous asked:

From talking to my friends, it seems the main concern (for them at least) is when pro-shippers don't make clear that they don't support this stuff irl. I think it's obvious, but they said that people can do this sort of thing because their into it irl? idk. You've made it repeatedly clear that ur not though, so the antis ur dealing w/ r just dicks. If they don't like a ship, just ignore it. I personally feel uncomfortable with Deuce/Crewel, so i blocked the tag and I enjoy the rest of your work. If they have a specific issue with a ship, they should just block it or block you. You're not hurting anyone, so their is no reason to interfere. That is my opinion or relationships irl too. If it is consensual and not hurting anyone, than its fine, regardless of what society says.

First of all, thank you very much for understanding and being polite about stuff that you don’t like. I am very happy you could enjoy this blog despite the fact that there are some ships that you are uncomfortable with. I also absolutely agree with you that there is no reason to do anything when a person isn’t hurting anyone, and that goes for relationships too.

Second of all, while I can understand where your friends are coming from, I kind of have mixed feelings about the idea that proshippers don’t make clear that they don’t support this stuff irl. You said yourself that it’s obvious, and yes it is absolutely obvious. No one owes anyone an explanation or a declaration of not supporting this stuff irl because it’s the very foundation of proship/dead dove/anything related to this type of fiction: as long as it’s fictional, it’s okay. Fiction is not reality. This idea (that keeps being repeated by everyone all the time, including conversations proship people have with antis) pretty much states “I love this as long as it’s fictional and because it’s fictional, I would not be doing it irl. This is fiction, reality is reality”. It’s the default condition.

I think it’s unfair to state that all proshippers have to explain themselves because there are people among them who support this kind of stuff irl, because yeah there are, and there are people like that among the antis too. There are hypocrites who groom kids and cover it up by making it feel like they’re teaching them something good and unproblematic. There are bad apples everywhere, and thinking by default that a group of people is a bunch predators unless they specifically state “I don’t’ support irl incest” is kind of… not nice? And while this is probably not what your friends are doing, it sounds like a very convenient excuse to harass someone. “Well they didn’t make it clear enough that they are not a creep” type of thing. And it’s not like actually saying that you don’t support it irl helped anyone to avoid harassment. It surely didn’t help me at all, and I believe it worked exactly the same way for every other soul.

It’s one thing not to trust these kinds of people personally and to avoid them because you get bad vibes from them that make you uncomfortable, but in that case one would just block. It’s the mature thing to do. You shouldn’t fully trust people on the internet in general because you don’t really know them. But then again, not vibing with someone while ignoring them and harassing are two completely different things.

Once again, thank you for your support and understanding, as well as for sharing this perspective with me.

Anonymous asked:

Not the same anon but incidentally, trolls was the first fandom I saw Antis in and that was when they wrote a callout post which I thought was for actual grooming and when in fact it was referring to a drawing.

Boy, was I pissed.

The third movie just unleashed even more with how popular it was. The funny thing is, the music producer specifically said he was trying to channel 50 Shades of Grey in the soundtrack and that the main leads had sexual tension 😂😂😂

Oh no the antis of the trolls fandom…! Anon, I’m so sorry. No idea about what kind of situation there was and I know nothing about trolls, but still.

But yeah, I think everyone had this experience. When you think that something truly horrible happened, and then it’s just… drawings. Sometimes it’s drawings from 10 years ago. People really love this whole adrenalin rush of maybe ruining someone else’s life with just one post and a bunch of “proofs” that is always just a huge nothingburger.

The trivia about 50 shades is hilarious though lol Now this is going to be the only trolls fact that I know!

[monochromatictoad]

Isaactor and Macul? (or, you know, Gavor if you want to talk about it :) )

Isaactor makes sense, and is mostly compelling to me. I feel like if NFCV hadn't been my first exposure to the ship, I would like a lot more. Isaac and Hector have a dynamic that I tend to flock towards, with the whole pseudo incest going on and their dependency on each other. Especially when Isaac views himself as nothing more than an item to Hector 😏

Macul doesn't make sense, but if you were to see mine and Crow's discord, it would be very compelling. There really is no rhyme or reasoning behind it, it's purely us smashing our blorbos together like barbie dolls, but it's one of my OTPs. However, personality wise, I think they'd get along great, and Mathias would have a big, beefy Belmont of his own 🙂 also, Dracul would absolutely love to sit there and brush and let Mathias talk his ear off about everything 🩷

Gavor is both compelling and makes sense. As you mentioned before, Dracul made Trevorcard, he's his most personal creation, being both son and childe. There's an inherent pull both of them would have for each other, and you have to think that they don't really know each other either. Also, at the end of LoS2, Dracul rips his wrist open and some of his blood drips on Alucard's face, and then you see Alucard surge up and nip at his sire's wrist, before chomping down on it and drinking. It's an intimate scene, whether you ship them or not. Now, there is a power imbalance, but not to the extent of what you'd see with Dracard, because in a way you could say they're both on even grounds. Dracul made Alucard, but in a way Trevor resurrected Gabriel. Dracul would see them both as equals, though in certain situations, he'd take up his sire mantle. He's not really the type to flaunt his power over others, unless he has to. Alucard is also no slouch, which would be another reason they see each other as equals.

The imbalance would mostly come from them becoming dependent on each other. They have been on Earth for over a thousand and five hundred years, and who else would they be able to talk to about what they went through? They are each other's closest companions.

Also because Alucard would prefer to regularly drink from his father, which is, from my base understanding of vampires, a very intimate gesture, but they would do it so casually. Dracul wouldn't drink from Alucard, unless invited to do so, mostly because that's how he killed Laura and he doesn't want to hurt Alucard 🥺

[stobinesque]

the shape of things lost; the shape of things to come

processing some of my own grief by writing about the blorbos <3 rating: T | wc: 1k | cw: Major (Canonical) Character Death, Post-Season 4 Vol. 2, Grief & Mourning, fatalistic thinking

Steve is sitting out on the porch of Hopper’s cabin, lit joint dangling from his mouth.

“Steve?” Robin drops down next to him, a frown pinching between her brows.

“Hey, Birdie,” he murmurs, watching as smoke curls through the night air. He turns to stub out the joint, sparing Robin the secondhand hit.

“Are you…well, I know you’re not okay. You want to talk about it?”

Steve shrugs, staring up at the night sky. They’re far enough from town that there’s no light pollution. But the dusting of stars he knows are visible is blocked by the canopy of trees surrounding them. “You ever think about how…weird this all is?”

Robin doesn’t laugh at him, even though she probably should. Instead, she rests a hand on his back and stares up in the same direction he’s facing. “Yeah, all the time.”

Steve leans into her side, resting his head against her shoulder. “We lose someone every time,” he says. Quiet, like if he says it too loud he’ll…what? Jinx them? He shakes his head. “And somehow it hasn’t really touched me yet.” He reaches out a hand as though to blot out the words, or take them back. Something about them feels wrong, leaves him twisted with guilt.

“I was sad when we found out Barb died, but it was…abstract. There was never a body, and I didn’t know her at all. Didn’t even really know what the potential of knowing her might be. I was sad because Nancy was sad. But mostly I was just…guilty and scared.”

 Robin rubs at his shoulder, making a vague comforting sound. “That makes sense.”

Steve shrugs, and somehow the movement doesn’t jostle Robin at all. She sits there steadfast. “I guess so.” He takes a shaky breath. “And then there was Bob, and that devastated Joyce—and I think Will, and even Jonathan and Mike, too. And we thought we lost Hopper, and Murray lost some friend he made last year in the mess of everything, and now—” Steve’s voice cracks, and he doesn’t bother reaching up to try to stem the tide of tears he feels building, because crying in front of Robin never counts. Or maybe it’s the only time it counts? “And now Eddie, and I-I can’t—” he can’t get the rest out because the tears have built to a sob, and his chest is too tight, and he can’t breathe—

“Hey, hey,” Robin says, low and urgent, her own voice a little choked. “I’m right here.” Something damp lands on Steve’s head and if he turns to look at her he knows he’ll find tears pouring down her face as well.

“I know,” he gasps out. “And I’m so—I’m so fucking relieved that I didn’t lose you or-or Dustin, or any of the kids, or Nance, and I—I feel like shit, because Dustin lost him, and-and Mike did, and Max is—” he can’t bring himself to say anything about Max, because she’s still alive. She’s going to make it, because she has to. The alternative is—it’s unacceptable.

“Hey.” Robin’s voice is firm, and she’s pushing, pulling at him, making him turn to look at her. He lets himself be moved like a rag doll, staring at Robin’s tearstained face. “You don’t need to feel bad about being relieved that any of the rest of us made it, alright? It doesn’t mean you’re happy Eddie didn’t, or whatever else is running through your head right now. I’m relieved that you survived. And I’m grateful to Eddie for getting Dustin to safety, even though I’m also pissed at him for running back into danger as though that kid wasn’t going to just jump right back in after him. And I’m so fucking relieved that Erica and Lucas didn’t get hurt more than they did, but I’m also absolutely livid at all of us for not thinking Jason and his shithead lackies might try to come after them. It’s okay to have messy feelings when someone dies. It’s a messy business.”

Steve nods slowly, face sandwiched between Robin’s hands. They’re soft on his face. Gentle, as she rubs a thumb across one cheek, and brushes hair out of his face with the other. “I thought…” he hiccups. “I thought maybe…I thought we could be friends, after everything. And now we’re never going to get the chance.”

“Yeah.”

“I just want it all to be over.” Steve feels like all of his strings have been cut. If Robin wasn’t still holding him up he’d have collapsed back into her by now. “And it’s not. It never is. I feel like I’m just waiting for it to catch up to me. For my luck to run out or—”

Robin’s hands tighten on his face and Steve blinks his eyes back open, not realizing he’d closed them. “Stop. You can’t—I can’t—” The tears are rolling down her face again, and snot is dribbling from her nose and she looks distraught and Steve feels sick, because he did that, he put that there, and “—you can’t give up on me, okay?” Robin’s grip is so tight Steve feels like she’s crushing his head, and she’s looking at him with steel in her eyes. “Whatever ever happens, whatever’s coming…you have to fight, Steve? You have to promise to make it out the other side. There’s going to be another side.”

“You don’t know that.”

“I know that I can’t lose you. I know that anywhere you go, I’m gonna follow.”

Panic lances through Steve’s chest like a stab to the heart. “No.”

Robin just shakes his head in her hands. “You’re not getting rid of me, dingus. Not even in death.”

Steve wants to shake his head, but he can’t. “You can’t die Robs. You gotta live.”

“Then I guess you have to, too, asshole.” Robin smiles and drops a hand down from his face. “Promise me?” She extends a pinkie.

Steve stares at her, and doesn’t know what to say. They both know this is a promise that neither of them can keep. And they both know that’s not the promise she’s asking him to make. He links his pinkie with hers. “Promise.”

[eomma-jpeg]

for the ask game, sorry if these have already been asked!

8, 10, 14, 17, 25, 27+28 :)

8. if you had to write a sequel to a fic, you’d write one for…

i already answered this, but what a shame! it is my college au and this first "book" is gonna be about the vashmeryl relationship coming to fruition, and the sequel will be them working through some loooong time trauma and issues, but together !

10. what is the longest amount of time you’ve let a draft rest before you finished it?

oh months, certainly. i have wips and drafts rn that are just sitting.... waiting for me to return LOL

i try to go back and finish the chunks i have and not leave them like,,, halfway done, but i do have a vashmeryl wip i started.... over a year ago? and still have not finished it lol

14. where do you get your inspiration?

honestly from other media i watch. i'm currently planning out a trigun dancer au and i was motivated because of Strictly Ballroom, a silly Baz Lurhman movie (please watch it the romance is so cute and it takes itself so seriously)

also from my friends !!! @squid789 is such a good person to bounce ideas off of and has inspired (i stole her ideas) a few aus

17. talk about your writing and editing process

so... ideally i do what i did for in the meadow where I wrote and wrote and wrote,,, and then just constantly went over chapters with edits and rewrites until it was time to post.

with itm i was always at least 3 chapters ahead and had the time to go back and check through chapters, make sure everything flowed well, ensure continuity... but with my newer works it hasn't been like that.

I have good grammar and spelling in general and i also use The Internet to write on so it gets spell checked, but i don't take nearly as much time to edit my work as i'd like to anymore

im a sleepy teacher who just wants to post her fanfiction T-T

25. besides writing, what are your other hobbies?

alright!

so i love doing embroidery. im currently working on a cross stitch project that has been very relaxing

i love to sing. i cannot express to yall how much i love singing. it is seriously my favorite thing to do. i love music and expressing my feelings through song. i lovvvvvvvvvvve to sing (im pretty good too hehe)

i sew and draw (SOMETIMES) and i cook. i do a lot of things! i love to explore just various arts and crafts

27. your favorite part of the writing process

i just love creating. i love putting ideas on the page and getting the content that i want... because i love the writing of others (and i do apologize) but there is always something that isn't for me

but thats because it wasn't written for me!! it was written for the author

and thats why i write,,,, because i want something specific

and i love romance and it gives me the power to make my blorbos kiss >:)

28. your least favorite part of the writing process

putting the ideas on the page T-T

im a bit stuck right now with what a shame mostly because i keep doubting myself WHOOPS

but its so hard when i cant decide with idea will be best

IMPORTANT LACE ADVICE: it doesn't matter what idea you get down, just get something down. once you have something down, you can change it or decide if you even still want it. the hurdle is getting the idea down!

thanks goo !!!!

[actuallyitsstar]

Maverick + 2, 21, and 22?

✨ send me a number and a character! ✨

2. favorite canon thing about this character?

i think that hands down i have to say that i actually really respect the writers/tc/whoever making the active choice to humanize maverick. in a lot of big Straight Man Macho Action Flex Movies (tm) i feel like this is hardcore frowned upon. but i gotta hand it to tc, because i feel like it's a through line for his films- my poor traumatized meow meow ethan hunt comes to mind- that his action hero characters are like. PEOPLE. with emotions. who behave in a way you can empathize with and unpack.

like even in the original movie, though they are obviously not explicit in discussing it, they do address the way a scare can shake you up, the way there's no shame in it. viper even says as much to maverick when he's thinking of quitting. there's no shame in it. that spin was hell, it would've shook me up. there's no shame in cougar quitting either- he still is a good man, as mav helpfully reminds the others. he disobeys orders to help cougar, (i'd like to get on my 'parallels to jake launching against orders to save mav and bradley' high horse here but its not relevant rn so i'm gonna refrain), and he defends cougar's honor to the others multiple times. of course there's the surprising (for an 80s movie full of cheese and needless romance subplots and sweaty men) amount of emotional intelligence in goose and mav's conversation at the housing, when mav apologizes for showboating and makes the ~promise~ to goose and goose gets to display his immense working knowledge of What Makes Mav Tick. for all of that famous ego we've seen in action, mav is perfectly capable of listening to what goose has to say and understanding his point and conceding without making it about himself. that right there is some surprising emotional intelligence (which never coping with losing goose will promptly destroy but i digress)

and then there's the post goose's death universe- they let it haunt him. as they should, but i feel a lot of films in a similar genre and style wouldn't be willing to dwell on it so. he gets to cry. a lot. he's literally in the jet in top gun '86 with just. tears running down his face. then there's tgm- there's the scene outside the hard deck and there's the scene with ice and there's the funeral and there's the fight with bradley on base and there's but you are here and the hug on the carrier. he gets to be genuinely emotional and heartfelt. he gets to express actual in the moment feelings that are not just anger and are not just with a ~love interest~. HE GETS TO BE HUMAN !!! HE GETS TO BE SOFT !!! THATS SO IMPORTANT TO ME. probably wouldn't be my number one blorbo man if it weren't for that.

21. If you're a fic writer and have written for this character, what's your favorite thing to do when you're writing for this character? What's something you don't like?

aaaaaaa i think my favorite (evil) thing about writing mav is the unreliable narration. it's rly great (read: painful) to sit down and just say the craziest shit that is not true as if it is fact and then know he that he really thinks like that. hes just like 'of course he can't expect the most basic human decency known to man from his closest friends and family because it is unreasonable to imagine someone as horrible as himself could ever deserve it' and he's just talking about like. needing somebody to pick him up from the airport. and you're just like wow. this little guy is fucked up huh

least favorite tho....... it's a two sided coin. it can't be too on the nose and it can't be too over-the-top. mav is great at being/seeming functional, on a surface level. it's only when you get inside of the one bedroom apartment with a bedroom he is not allowed to use bc that's for just in case his long lost son ever comes home or whatever that you realize something is wrong. his pov can't be too down or too depressed. it's mostly objective, with just a direct little splash here and there, just enough so the reader can be like 'okay. yeah. makes sense. alright. still making sense. and....wildest most untrue thing you could possibly say about yourself. alright yeah he needs therapy' <3

22. If you're a fic reader, what's something you like in fics when it comes to this character? Something you don't like?

aaaaaa so many amazing authors in this fandom do so much that i adore i don't even know where to start, but i guess one of my favorite things has to be when he's just very *shrugs* about the flyboys and they've already decided that he's one of them now. it's really great to know we just all agreed somehow that this is a found family group of aviators who barely have any screen time with each other, and that we all just agreed that mav probably doesn't understand the invitation to be as direct as they mean it because he is frankly unused to receiving such direct invitations period. there is nothing like watching an idiot who needs loved get roped into a found family. like !! yeah !!! get loved !! do it !!! it can't be stopped !!

and hmm something i don't like. very much the reverse again, in a way, but i think one of my least favorite things has got to be either over-infantalizing him into like, way too much of the "baby brother" in the group (i am not denying that this is objectively probably his role, just that this does not mean he is going to be acting like he is 5). he knows how to do the basics. he's an adult man who is technically capable of taking care of himself (though whether he feels he deserves the effort is a different story). you have to be hella fucking smart to graduate with the kinds of degrees and experience you need to do what mav does. he's a fully capable adult. he's just also a little dumb about the self care sometimes. they're not mutually exclusive.

[transmasc-wizard]

hey nico! been a while! i think since around the time i first started following you i wanted to ask how you personally go about outlining your wips! i never used to outline my stuff but recently i've been getting back into writing so i figured i might as well finally ask you for any advice you can give :)

im so sorry if this took me a really long time to answer, my perception of time exploded awhile back and i have no idea how long this has been sitting in my ask box. but on we go

so basically. my outlines. are a mess. but it is a mess with PROCESS so i will try to explain (<- hasn't outlined in like 8 months)

my outlining process always starts with. idea. like a scattered handful of ideas that i have. major themes, the biggest plot point i have in my head, whatever the actual concept is, etc. and then i pull together my characters FIRST. i don't try to outline till i have a good grasp on who those fuckers are (their motivation, main personality traits, biggest fears, what makes them feel safe, main philosophy, style, culture, what's important to them, their approach to other people, what they want, what's stopping them from getting it, that sorta thing). once i've got my blorbos, i take the concept i have and wonder why They're there. i figure out why they're the main characters, basically. what they have to do with the plot. how they get INVOLVED. and with that, i've got my inciting incident (the shit that made them have to Be There and Have/Solve Problems!)

then i decide generally how i want it to end. i need to know where i'm headed. this can change later on somewhat but usually i have a pretty good idea of it. then, extrapolating from my concept, characters, their dynamics with each other, anything i know about the world, that end, and the scattered ideas that i started with, i make like. 5-10 major scenes i want. and i write those down. THEN is the fun part

i open a new document, with all my notes to the side, and make. literally just a list. i list off what i want to happen. i can get really detailed here; i've had like 300-500 words describing a scene before. but, depending on how much i've got in my head, it can be as little as one sentence. i just keep going till i've got a bullet point list of every single scene i want to happen in the book, with all the plots and subplots and arcs and thematic moments, and then maybe go back and flesh some of it out, and then. im Done . and i can start writing ! i don't follow it exactly all the time, and often i add or take away entire scenes while drafting, but like. it gives me a really good road map that helps me stay with a project a lot longer and make the draft a lot neater than anything i just wing.

as for actually coming up with all that plot and subplot and character arc stuff for the list, it's mostly a loooot of daydreaming while drawing or on walks or generally doing something else, and then also letting the parts naturally connect to each other (this is part of why starting with fleshed out characters helps so much; they Are going to do certain things if they're defined people, so coming up with plot becomes much easier).

i hope that ! makes sense ! i am scattered and sleepy ! if you have any follow up questions about my process or if your immediate reaction was "nico what the fuck are you talking about" please feel free to ask !

[memento-morri-writes]

Happy Blorbo Blursday Morri!!

You get the task of baking a cake of several layers and with a lot of details for an important event. The person who asked you for this big favor is Blorbo 1 and you can use the help of another Blorbo to get on time.

How is the cake Blorbo 1 asked you for, why would you choose Blorbo n (as many as you'd like but take into account that in this case sometimes the more is not the merrier!) and how does it go? Would you manage?

have a lovely day/night!!!

@ink-fireplace-coffee

Hi Carmen! Thanks for the ask!

Ooh, this is a fun question!! So, Fallon would be the one asking me for the cake, because she likes cakes (and Kristopher loves them), and she hosts all sorts of important fancy events. Fallon would probably ask for like, a strawberry cheesecake or something.

I would absolutely be enlisting the help of Mabel, hands down. It might be considered cheating, since she's the palace cook, so making cakes is literally in her job description, but I don't care. She's probably my only OC who actually knows how to bake, anyways.

It would end up amazing, despite (and because of) me not actually doing anything. Mabel does not like to share her kitchen, so she'd mostly just yell at me to go away, especially once she realizes I can't cook for shit. Although maybe she'd let me just sit in the kitchen and talk to her, and we'd hang out. But the cake would be delicious and beautiful, and it would make Fallon happy.

If picking the chef isn't allowed, then I'd pick Kristopher, because even though neither of us know how to cook, he'd volunteer to do it to make Fallon happy. We'd make an absolute mess, and the cake would probably be inedible, but I like to think we'd have a good time trying. (And Fallon would at the very least be amused by our attempt. But she'd try to be nice about it.) (If you need a reference for me and Kristopher trying to cook, just imagine the absolute biggest mess you've ever made while baking, then multiply it by 5. I'm talking flour and frosting everywhere, we used way too many dishes and pans and now the sink is overflowing. Someone failed at cracking an egg and now there's egg on the wall. The cake is burnt to a crisp. You know, like comedy movie levels of bad cooking.)

[toxicanonymity]

Brothel - Lincoln watch party

brothel master list

The brothel, aka real housecreeps, is a meta reality show about the Joels and other blorbos who live on the Toxic Compound. Normally everything is smooth sailing, but we mostly air the drama.

Slumber party edit by @iamasaddie 🥹. Next 2 my primitive edits. Guest appearances from Joels by @chloeangelic (father Joel) @gracieispunk (maintenance man) and @dark-scape (gladiator)

Saturday 9/16 - Jojo doesn't even live at the brothel but he picked me up on his motorcycle and took me to Starbucks, determined to help me finish Lincoln so he can move in. He keeps making comments about Lincoln like, "he's so careful." I nod and he adds, "chicks just wanna get dicked down, man." I look at him and he whispers, "sorry." But a minute later he's back at it. "when's the last time she had a nice, hard cock?" When I say, "Never," he asks, "NEVER?"

Friday 9/22 - Stepdad and Vampire stop by the writing room, which is a wreck, to ask if Lincoln is really doing this because if so, they're going to Costco to get stuff for their watch party. Cut to the interior of an SUV, Stepdad is driving and Vampire is in the passenger seat hanging onto the ceiling handle.

Vampire says, "Peaches is on her period, ya know."

Stepdad, "No shit. Why do you know that, man?"

Vampire gets self conscious, "It was in the last fic."

"You always read his fics?"

"Well, I read the warnings, then. . . Hey, what's on our shopping list?"

Stepdad takes a sharp turn and the camera angle goes crazy as a crew member slams into the back window. Stepdad asks the crew, "what kinda hijinks y'all think are goin' down in Costco, anyway?"

Stepdad and vampire realize they don't have a shopping list, so they call the Joel mansion. Thighs puts them on speaker. Slasher wants budweiser. Night Walks yells "TAKIS" in the background. Jojo wants cherry coke. Raider wants bison burgers and Trouble volunteers to grill. Stepdad asks if the "other guys" are coming back so they know how much to get.

Flashback to Stepdad's party in August

The doorbell rings and Night Walks answers it. It's a priest. Night Walks stares at him and says, "we're good, man" and closes the door. The doorbell rings again and Trouble answers it. It's a Joel in a toolbelt, talking to the priest.

Night Walks texts me to ask who are these guys? I say this is a big thing, all the Joels on tumblr are invited, plus all the blorbos on the Toxic Compound. It's @chloeangelic's Father Joel and @gracieispunk's Maintenance Man!Joel. Night Walks asks, "he's not, like, a prude priest is he?" And I respond LOL. Lincoln does a double take when he sees who walked in, and he gives them a what's up nod. I yell from off screen, "MY OFFICE IS BROKEN." Maintenance man sighs and adjusts his toolbelt. Raider tells him I'm joking and points to a chair for Maintenance Man to sit down. Someone else is at the door. It's a practically naked but battle-ready Joel. It's @dark-scape's Gladiator Joel, and he roars at the top of his lungs, "PARTY'S HERE."

The phone rings. It's a menacing, digitized voice. "room for a few more?" The line goes dead and seconds later, the door opens. It's Ghostface and behind him, a popcorn cart is being wheeled in. Production bumbles around trying to find the right place for the cart. The door is still open. Michael Myers walks in with Corey Cunningham. Slasher pops up out of his seat and Michael turns to walk the other direction. Instead, Slasher introduces himself to Corey who also wears a mechanic suit.

Everyone has a great time and cheers when Stepdad gets it in. They all slap him on the back and carry him around the room.

Back at Costco

On the phone, Trouble says no, just brothel Joels for Lincoln's party. The fic is too long, he's too unsettling, and we don't want to scare all of Tumblr away.

Stepdad is determined to make the Costco trip as boring as possible so production doesn't send a crew with them next time. They go around the store and Stepdad has an exaggeratedly straight face. Every time vampire gets excited about something, like the $1.50 hotdogs, Stepdad nudges him to remind him it's boring. Vampire straightens his face and nods.

—--

Watch Party

Later that night, the guys are huddled around watching. Vampire is on the edge of his seat, and even gets down on the floor to be closer. Then he sits back and tries to hide how aroused he is. Some of them cheer upon penetration but not as enthusiastically as with Stepdad. At the end, most of the guys give Lincoln a high five or fist bump, but a few of them clearly don't have their heart in it. Slasher is on Lincoln's side, "Hey what's wrong with you guys? been on his case for months and he finally did it"

"Just be straight with her, man," Raider says.

"I didn't lie to her," Lincoln claims.

Raider squints at him "Whatever, man. Glad your shit's over soon."

Vampire thinks it was the best episode all season. "Link, that was amazing," he tells him in all honesty. "Did ya get to keep the dress?"

"Yeah," Lincoln nods.

"And that was only day 2 or 3, right?"

Lincoln looks at Vamp blankly and asks, "day 3?"

Stepdad tries to come to vamp's rescue by saying "Day 3 of… this party," but Vamp doesn't catch on.

"No, I mean you've prob'ly got a couple more days," he gestures around his lower abdomen. Lincoln's nostrils flare and Vampire meekly adds, "if you're into it."

Lincoln asks, "are you tracking Peaches?"

Vampire looks at Stepdad, realizing his mistake. Everyone gets quiet. Lincoln repeats, "Are you tracking her period?"

The guys look at each other and shake their heads no, like Lincoln is out of line for the accusation. "No one's tracking your reader's period, Lincoln," Trouble scoffs.

They act like Lincoln is crazy for even thinking it.

------

Thank you for reading!

[winterpinetrees]

The Gap Years part 5

The road trip kids wake up on the first real day of their adventure. Plans are considered, elf society is rightfully mocked, but mostly I just infodump. :)

i am beating back the cringe emotions with a stick. this is the cringe website. let me post about my homegrown blorbos, brain.

June 11th 2019

Lakeport, California

The realization of where he is and what is going on hits Brian in waves.

He’s a good sleeper (he travels enough that he has to be), but this doesn’t seem to be his room. Brian lifts his head and his chest hurts, and it’s not a falling off of a dirt bike/surfboard into a tree/sandbar at a frighteningly fast velocity type of hurt either. He winces, and his arm hits something else.

Ah. The second realization. He’s sharing a bed. Contrary to popular belief, he does not do this very often. Light is already pouring in through the curtains, so it doesn’t take Brian long to realize that the other person is Clay. He still looks asleep. That makes sense. Brian has always been an early riser. He sits up in bed and looks around. Cheap curtains, beige walls, a blurry photo of a lake? They must be in a motel. Yes. He’s just graduated high school and now he’s going on a road trip with his friends. Brian swings his feet onto the ground and stands. He walks to the bathroom, but sees something else on the ground between the two twin beds. A pile of clothes? He approaches. It’s a person under a blanket. That’s when he remembers the magic, the sword slash, and the blood that might still be under his fingernails because he refused to spend half an hour washing it off like Lady Macbeth. The person on the floor is a prince. Brian is responsible for his safety and by extension the fate of the world. How the hell did he get here? (He enthusiastically volunteered, that’s how.)

Over the next few minutes, Brian cautiously wakes up both of his friends. They have some things to discuss that they don’t want Marin to overhear. They move to the other side of the small room and gather in an awkward huddle.

“We are harboring an alien prince,” Clay types out onto his cell phone. He guessed that elves had very good hearing, and convinced everyone else to do the same. “We need some plan for if he turns on us. He can control our minds”.

They’d asked Marin last night if there was any visible sign that someone had been charmed. He said yes, but only if the charmed person was aware of it, which never happened unless the attacker was overconfident or rushing. Not very reassuring.

“Like what? There’s very little we can do about that”. Sierra replies. She is typing on that infamous computer, and doing it very quickly.

“Maybe we agree to talk to each other and call out weird stuff? S, we've already been doing that“. The girl nods. Clay was taking forever to type anyway.

Brian understands. He's the only one who's trusted Marin at all. “So the plan is to be skeptical of everything”.

“That way we'll be aware of anything that is changed”. Clay wears glasses that are a little too big and stubbornly refuses to do anything with his long brown hair. He looks perfectly ordinary, a bit disheveled, and it’s entirely on purpose. He puts the phone down and starts speaking. Apparently, this bit isn’t classified. “What do we know so far?”

Among other things, they know that Prince Marin Sondaica is 86 years old, stuck in between physical adulthood at 81 and full social adulthood at 108. (Just like how they’re all old enough to vote and drive but not drink or be considered separate from their parents). The elf world is parallel to theirs, with the capital existing in the same place as San Francisco. It’s a single global dictatorship with two associations of noble families fighting for control. Marin's family was reasonable enough, but Gens Mercuralis did a coup and is trying to take over the world. They should have a year or two until elves become common knowledge and the status quo collapses.

Then Sierra adds what she knows from years of university lab internships and overheard conversations. If you see a flash of color, especially green, prepare to run or fight or die. Magic is enough like radiation that a modified geiger counter can tell you if danger is near. Elves seem to avoid fighting underground. They’re very careful to not get caught on camera.

Brian turns his head and sees a cat’s eye glow in the dark. Their new friend is awake. Sierra and Clay seem to think there isn’t anything special about Marin, but he knows better. Brian is very familiar with how people move, and Marin is just a bit too quick. More than that, he moves very quietly. It reminds him of how he’s heard friends talk about parkour (land quietly, work with your body, reduce the impact on your joints), and he wonders again just how fragile elves are.

The prince approaches the group and they talk. They need a plan to stay alive, and they’re kind of a mess. Marin explains that they shouldn’t be attacked unless they are either alone, or somewhere elves can plan an ambush and keep things secret. It’s counterintuitive, but they need a human shield. Marin also has some ideas about elven settlements in the human world that might be sympathetic to them. Elves who love wild humanity will probably oppose the new government’s plan. Unfortunately, that means that Ishtar has probably sent soldiers to subdue them. Every visit will be a gamble. They might find allies, but they could also very easily get killed. Maybe it would be better if they traveled on their own for a bit.

...

So they get in the car and drive again. They eat breakfast at the most crowded place they can find and drive towards a hardware store where Sierra can buy a geiger counter. They come up with a system. Brian drives, Clay rides shotgun with the concussion rifle under his seat, Sierra googles things and tinkers with the geiger counter, and Marin tries his best to cast a more permanent illusion over the car. They listen to music from whatever radio stations they’re driving by, pester Marin with questions about his past, and plot a jagged course up California.

“Who else was in the human world when the coup happened? If you can switch between worlds so easily, there must have been some other people who got away”. Brian is a student of history. He knows a bit about how coups go, but mostly he's just curious about the magical society next door.

Marin stares out the window at miles and miles of farmland. “I can’t be sure. Genus Sondaica had over twenty people in it before the coup, and four of them were about my age. Those are the ones that were most likely to escape. We’re old enough to defend ourselves, but not influential enough to be primary targets”. His voice is very level. “But our genus also has allies. Each of those has even more people, but there’s no way of knowing who’s… left.”

A few seconds pass before Sierra speaks. “Yeah, but who was here before the coup? You didn’t know anything had happened, remember? You just brainwashed us for fun. Who else would do that?”

“The only one I'm certain of is Zerada Adust, my betrothed”.

Woah. Hold on a second. Brian knows that the elves have a hereditary noble class, but his betrothed? “You're betrothed to someone?”

“Ah. That’s not a Western concept anymore, is it? Most of the high nobility are betrothed to someone. It is important for keeping the nobility strong”.

Brian blinks. “Arranging marriages to try and keep an elite class 'strong' has caused some pretty big problems on earth”. Like, the fall of several dynasties.

Sierra rolls her eyes. "Marin, if you're using how messed up your society is to avoid talking about your girlfriend, it's working".

He looks around at the car. “Magical power is mostly genetic,” he adds as if that makes the statement more acceptable instead of less.

“And that's eugenics. That is also not good. Clay, are you still in favor of the elves taking over the world?” Brian adds. He does not know what to do with this information.

She laughs. “And they’re a monarchy too, remember that?”

“I was under a lot of stress!” Clay replies. "Between that and proposing a quest, I think what I said was a lot more normal".

Brian laughs to clear the air, but it sounds fake. Despite his family history, He doesn't believe in taking the easy way out. There's nothing wrong with choosing to stay and fight. They can't afford to be fighting now though, so he lets the conversation continue and keeps his eyes on the road.

[rollercoasterwords]

Hey rae! So, I have a topic that I’d like to hear your opinion about because I feel like it’s been talked about a lot (at least from the media I consume) and that is saying that liking DE characters makes you anti-Semitic/ ‘support’ Nazis. I know how you feel about rosekiller, which I totally support, if you wanna be a hater, please do, but…hmmm I don’t know how I feel about people calling each other every name in the book for liking a DE. I mean that’s the same with regulus, I’ve seen quite a few people talk about how they hate him because he’s DE and liking him/any other DE makes u anti-Semitic. This has me questioning my morality and my pov because I refuse to be associated with people as horrible as Nazis, and I think that you always give a good perspective on things and so if you also think that liking these characters associates a person with them then I seriously need to sit down and have a 1:1 with myself, y’know?

Also, on the same topic i feel like there’s a huge controversy with liking Barty and hating Snape, which I see how that could be wrong, but we know more about Snape and he’s done things to characters that we really know and love so I kinda feel like not being fond of him but liking Barty is valid-ish?? Because yes, if we can erase huge parts of Barty’s character to make him more likeable&redeemable why wont we do that with Snape? I still don’t know how to feel about this whole thing because I think questioning things about yourself is a good thing and it helps you learn&grow so I’d just like to hear your thoughts (rosekiller hatred put aside). Like, if you think rosekiller is the most boring ship in the universe and if you wanna hate on it, please please do!!! Express your opinion!!!! But it kinda rubs me the wrong way to hate on the people liking DE and associating them with a hateful group. If you don’t wanna answer, that’s more than fine, you can totally ignore my ask!!! I understand if you don’t wanna share your opinion on this topic. Have a good day!!

hi! i appreciate that u value my opinion + i'm happy 2 talk thru my thoughts with u, but before i do i wanna make it clear that i am not any kind of expert in antisemitism + am not jewish myself, so you should not be taking my thoughts as like. The Ultimate Opinion on this issue at all--like, i'm happy to discuss, but i do not by any means have the authority to just deem something Good or Bad for u, y'know? nor would i ever want to! i don't really think issues like this can be boiled down to a simple "it's totally okay and no one should ever get upset about it!" vs "it's morally evil and no one should ever like these characters!" (also - if any jewish mutuals or followers wanna weigh in + let me know if there's anything i'm missing/overlooking/etc please do!)

so, i've seen at least some of the discourse you're talking about floating around online. i've seen some jewish people saying that blorbo-ifying death eater characters ignores the nazi allegory and makes nazi-allegory characters sympathetic, which is antisemitic. i've seen other jewish people saying that it's offensive to simplify naziism, a much larger, real political issue, down to calling fictional characters "wizard nazis," and that it belittles the actual historical significance to use antisemitism as a talking point in this discourse about which characters it is or isn't okay to like. that's why i say that i don't think you're gonna find One Cohesive Position on like....what's okay or not okay; it's just something you're gonna have to parse for yourself, and while i do think you should be giving particular weight to the perspectives of jewish people on this issue, that obviously doesn't mean that every single jewish person is going to agree.

anyway, i've mostly stayed out of this discourse partially bc i don't really care about most death eater characters and partially bc, as i said, i do not feel like i am any sort of expert who is like. qualified to discuss the ins and outs of antisemitism in hp fandom spaces. so again, this is just gonna be a conversation about my thoughts as they currently stand--not a lecture where i'm telling you what's right or wrong, and not a set-in-stone Stance on the Ultimate Truth of this matter or anything.

currently, my feeling on this whole quagmire of discourse basically boils down to: i think it's reductive to broadly state that anyone who likes/engages with death eater characters in fandom in any way is automatically antisemitic; i think there is more nuance to the situation and boiling down the issue to an overarching generalization is not necessarily the most useful way to address antisemitism in this particular fandom space.

and there are various reasons that i feel that way, which i'll try to break down below:

death eaters are not a 1:1 allegory for nazis

this is something that i think gets lost in translation a bit when we just say "oh the death eaters were wizard nazis." while, yes, i think jkr was definitely making some allegorical nods to naziism + hitler, particularly with the blood purity aspect of death eater-ism, personally i think that had less to do with jkr actually having a good grasp on the politics of nazi fascism and more to do with jkr being the kind of liberal who just goes "hmmm who's the Worst Person in history??" and then just cherry-picking bits and pieces of like. naziism to give her Bad Guys an easily recognizable cultural referrant to associate with their Badness. (i mean--from the critiques i have seen regarding jkr's own antisemitism that is embedded in the hp text, she clearly was not writing the death eaters as like. a disavowal of antisemitism.)

something that concerns me is that treating death eaters as a 1:1 allegory for nazis sort of obscures some very important, very fundamental differences in the fascism of actual nazis. in hp, death eaters are positioned as a fringe "terrorist" group, in that they are opposed to the wizarding State. they obtain power through largely "illegitimate" (again, by the metrics of State power) means by way of a coup; in this way, a fundamental aspect of the death eaters as Bad Guys is that they are not legitimated by the State--something that very clearly speaks to jkr's own liberal politics when it comes to defining Good versus Bad.

but real-life nazis rose to power specifically by using legitimated State power. this is really fucking important to understand!!!! historically, fascism is often perpetuated by the logics of State power, and that's part of what allows it to take hold--people think, "oh, it can't be that bad, after all, we elected this fascist leader." etc. while hitler did attempt to gain power through a coup in 1923, that specifically failed and led to him pivoting and seeking control by becoming a legitimate part of the German government. he solidified his power using completely legal means, from within the State. this is very, very different to how voldemort + the death eaters take power in hp, and also very opposed to jkr's State-centered politics about Good vs. Bad. while i think it's important + useful to recognize the ways in which death eaters draw allegorical connections to nazis and how that can perpetuate antisemitism if we're not aware of it, i think to simply paint death eaters as nazis can actually lead into the trap of thinking fascism is something that is opposed to the State, when it is more often something that grows out of the State.

liking a death eater character is not always gonna translate to liking death eaters

so, aside from the whole sticky situation with nazis as an allegory for death eaters in the first place--what's more important to me when thinking about how someone likes/engages with death eater characters is gonna be the way they engage with those characters, and what that reflects about their own politics.

if someone likes a death eater character because they like death eaters and think that like...there are no issues with the death eaters' beliefs or positions, then....yeah that's a major red flag. but most of the people who like these characters, from what i've seen, tend to do one of two things:

1 - explore the character because the character broke away from the death eaters in some way (regulus, snape, etc). this usually requires an exploration of how the death eaters are bad, because it requires an exploration of why the character turned away from them. i'm gonna be interested in how someone explores that issue and what that says about their own politics, but that's a case-by-case basis, y'know? and even if i personally think someone is still missing the heart of the issue in their "death eaters bad" story, it is still a "death eaters bad" story--i don't really think a person is aligning themselves with the death eaters if they're specifically writing about how they are bad and why someone initially taken in by their beliefs would later turn away from them.

2 - explore a character who hasn't broken away, looking at why a person might align themselves with death eaters and how someone might buy into that sort of political rhetoric. again, this is a case-by-case basis for me in terms of looking at what sort of politics is reflected, but generally speaking i do not think that writing stories about why or how someone might become a fascist is Always Morally Wrong. in fact, i think these stories are very necessary in helping us understand how fascism takes root in real life.

if someone is just writing "death eaters ra-ra!" fanfiction then. yeah i might take that as a red flag. but the death eaters are so clearly Bad Guys that i personally have not come across any examples of someone doing that, even if i have come across stories where i don't entirely agree with the politics of how someone is writing the death eaters as Bad.

liking a character in the context of fanfiction is not always going to translate to liking that character as a death eater

a lot of people write aus and stories where the death eaters don't even exist. in those situations, i struggle to understand how liking the characters, in and of itself, would be antisemitic, as the character has specifically been turned into not-a-death-eater and is oftentimes basically an oc.

liking a fictional character is not a simple moral reflection of how someone actually thinks - what i'd be more wary of is someone absorbing the neoliberal politics of hp without question

this is kind of getting back into repeating some of the points above--but again, for me personally, this is an issue that i evaluate much more on a case-by-case basis rather than trying to broadly apply One Rule. since i can't automatically know someone's reasons for liking a character, the context in which they like the character, etc, what i tend to judge more is the specific way i actually see them interacting with that character--how they write them, what stories they like to read, their hcs, etc. again, i am not an expert when it comes to judging antisemitism, so i do also try to make it a point to see what my jewish mutuals are saying when this sort of discourse comes up. but for myself, i tend to be more wary about the politics underlying specific pieces of writing rather than which characters someone is choosing to write about.

all that being said, i do still think it's fair if someone views liking death eaters as a red flag, y'know? like, everyone is allowed to judge for themselves what they see as red flags in this fandom space, and if someone is saying "i think it's antisemitic to like death eaters," i personally don't really think i have a right to go and argue with that person, for obvious reasons. since i do sometimes write about death eater characters, i try to be very aware of what kinds of politics are underlying my work and what sort of messages someone might take away. but if someone needs to block me, avoid my work, etc, i obviously don't have an issue with that--everyone is allowed and encouraged to curate their fandom space in a way that's best for them, and if someone has a boundary regarding interaction with death eater characters, that's their boundary to keep, y'know? i don't think it's productive (unless maybe you yourself experience antisemitism and it's a conversation you want to have) to go to that person and argue about why they're wrong, as if they need to tell you your actions are actually morally okay with them. sometimes people are going to have issues with the things you write or read in fandom, which is why you need to develop the ability to reflect + weigh these sorts of issues for yourself, and grow comfortable with the idea that there is not always going to be an ultimate Right and Wrong answer for How To Behave.

as for the snape vs barty [or insert whatever other death eater character here] - my thoughts on that are essentially. i truly do not think it matters which characters you like or dislike. you can like one death eater character or not another. it's fine. you don't have to like one character over another. this is fanfiction. the moral stakes are not that high.

the only instance in which i would say liking one character over another gets hypocrticial is if you are saying that people shouldn't like a character. for example -- if you are running around the internet saying that snape is a disgusting character and nobody is allowed to like him, but at the same time you're blorbo-ifying barty crouch jr. then, yeah, that's annyoing and hypocritical. but if you're just chilling in peace, reading + writing ur fic and not policing the things that other people are allowed to like or dislike, then i truly do not think it matters if you like barty crouch jr. but not snape. i'm all for self-reflection and thinking about why you personally might like one character over another, but at the end of the day writing + reading fic is not any kind of activism; it's a hobby, it's for enjoyment. i promise that u do not need to have a moral crisis about disliking severus snape from harry potter lmao

[sparkles-and-galaxies]

do you perhaps have more hcs of your ghost grim reaper cole au? 🫣🫣honestly kinda obsessed with the idea

Thanks for asking!! I have a fuckton of ideas I just didn’t have much time this past week or so to think lol

First, some bonus angst for Cole’s character because I like my blorbos wet and pathetic

Since he’s just one guy for an entire realm, his job isn’t to guide all departed souls to the Departed Realm, only those who are either lost or reluctant to leave. This of course mostly includes those who died early or “have an unfinished business” as they say. Cole’s very first “client” was a ten-year-old girl whom he met at a children’s hospital (which definitely left a permanent mark on him)

Due to the previous point and the general nature of his job, he’s very reluctant to do what he has to do at first, but over time realizes that without him, a lot of these departed souls (already traumatized by their deaths) would be left to wander aimlessly on their own, with no help whatsoever. Thus over time he accepts his fate and focuses on trying to be as helpful as possible

He isn’t one to run from a fight but he knows how hard it can be to accept one’s mortality, and so his first and foremost tool is talking and persuasion, and he only uses force if absolutely necessary and/or others are threatened

His most needed skill therefore is to be able to gain the trust of others as fast as possible, thus he does his best big brother impression he can do with strangers (my headcanon is that he’s basically the mama dragon of the group, like how he was the closest to baby/kid Wu in Hunted). At the same time, he’s terrified of forming lasting bonds with anyone, leaving him in the awkward position where he doesn’t want to push people away by being an asshole in fear of hurting them, but doesn’t want to let people close either in fear of getting his own feelings hurt

When he got turned into a ghost, he was still on bad terms with his father, and so didn’t think to tell Lou what happened. He only realized later that to his father, he lost not one but two close family members in a very short timespan; Cole then immediately went home to explain, only to realize that his father now thinks he’s also dead. He decided the truth would hurt his father a lot more and so Cole never returned home

He spends whatever free time he has exploring Ninjago, especially the dangerous places he wouldn’t be able to reach as a mortal. Other times, he could be found sitting on rooftops, watching the people go on their days, and listening to music he thinks his mother would’ve listened to

Second, a bit about his powers (aside from the general ghost stuff)

I have this headcanon that deepstone sends ghosts specifically back to the Cursed Realm (mostly because there’s nothing to prove it otherwise), and therefore there’s an opposite material that sends ghosts specifically to the Departed Realm. (Water sends ghosts to the Realm they are normally supposed to be in.) In my version of Ninjago there’s a mountain range called the Misty Mountains, the name coming from the mist always covering its peaks and so thick that no ghost can penetrate it. The opposite of deepstone, a bright white mineral called skystone, is found within its caves, and it’s also what Cole’s scythe is made of

There’s a secret path where the mist is thin enough for ghosts to pass through leading to the highest peak, but only Cole knows where it is. The peak is also where he meets up with the embodiment of the Departed Realm to ask for direction/orders/advice/whatever he needs at the moment.

Cole also has a special piece of clothing called the Cloak of Disguises. Its primary function is that it can make Cole appear mortal, though for every minute he uses the disguise he has to let it cool down for twice as long, and he cannot use it for more than 24 hours straight. It also gives him some protection against water, making him more resilient than other ghosts, but he's still not fully immune.

He mostly uses the disguise when he needs to interact with mortals so as not to scare them, though after a particularly bad incident with a ghost hunter he tries to be upfront about his nature so that they can’t accuse him of tricking them (hence why the ninja immediately learn he’s a ghost when they first meet)

Thanks to his connection to the Departed Realm, he has an ability I like to call Fast Travel. This allows him to immediately appear near to a lost departed soul without the need for physical travelling, and he can even teleport on his own to whatever destination he desires, though the latter can be very unpredictable and so he usually doesn’t risk it

That’s all that came to mind for now. But dw I’m still very much rotating him in my microwave of a mind, so there’s always place for more ideas hehe >:D