#nearly done with the chapter draft

[veephoenix]

not me joining a month-long writing workshop when i'm overloaded with work and due to submit a MA's thesis in a month

[rustingcat]

'A Rich Girl With Issues... Lots of Issues' title animation!

This animation is my tribute for @inkedroplets brilliant fic to celebrate its completion!

If you haven't already, please do yourself a favour and go read this amazing fic!

You can click here to start it

This fic has such a special place in my heart, and I hope you all enjoy it as much as I do.❤️

[waitineedaname]

writing sqq pov is like. first step is to write the fic. second step is to go back through the fic and make sqq's narration at least 10% more deranged.

[semperintrepida]

FTH Fic Progress: Gonna Have to Handwave This Logic Problem Away

“I am more than a match for you,” Deimos said, unleashing a flurry of strikes that forced Kassandra backwards. “I am your better in every way”—another flurry, xiphos moving in a blur, pushing Kassandra back further—“and I don’t need a fancy Spear to prove it.”

One of my favorite parts of writing fanfic is figuring out how to make sense of things that aren't explained well in canon. Sometimes it's unlocking a puzzle box of moving narrative parts (like trying to explain why Kyra behaves so erratically in canon), sometimes it's filling in the gaps (as in explaining why Kassandra is able to control her anger to a surprising degree).

But sometimes, the walls of canon prove too firm to move, bend, or otherwise manipulate. Sometimes, I run headlong into a wall of canon fact.

The narrative premise of AC: Odyssey hinges on the following:

The Eagle Bearer is the child of Myrrine and Pythagoras

Deimos is the child of Myrrine and Nikolaos

The Eagle Bearer and Deimos are half-siblings, and in a story that brings Kassandra face off against her role-reversed "twin," this creates a difficult logic problem: How can Kassandra the Eagle Bearer and Deimos!Kassandra be identical when their parentage is different?

Friends, I have not figured out a way to explain this, though I've given it a great deal of thought.

I suppose I'm sharing this to head off the inevitable questions when I finally begin posting this fic. Or perhaps writing this update might jostle some ideas free in my mind. Or perhaps it'll jostle something in your minds that you might be willing to share.

But for now, all I can do is a little handwave while saying, "It's fanfic, don't think about it too hard."

[pyroselkie]

Rating: Teen And Up Audiences

Archive Warning: No Archive Warnings Apply

Category: Multi

Fandom: Ensemble Stars

Relationships: Nagisa/Ibara/Jun/Hiyori, Nagisa/Ibara, Hiyori/Ibara, Jun/Ibara

Characters: Ibara Saegusa, Nagisa Ran, Hiyori Tomoe, Jun Sazanami

Tags: Hurt/Comfort, Unreliable Narrator, Misunderstandings, Happy Ending, Saegusa Ibara-centric, Food as a Metaphor for Love, ibara's unhealthy relationship with food, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, the t rating is for ibara-typical swearing, as well as some sexual references that i think are too brief for an m rating, but those will appear in later chapters, also i will be sure to put warnings in the relevant chapters, it's polyeden but there's gonna be a lot of hiyoiba because that's just the kind of guy that i am

As it turns out, Ibara has three boyfriends that he didn’t know about. Well, technically he did know about them, but he didn’t realize that they were dating for real, and not as a platonic business relationship - which would obviously be the much more sensible choice here. Sure, they went on dates and other such things, but why wouldn’t they? The more intimately they knew each other, the better their fanservice would be, and in the idol industry, fanservice translated directly into money. It’s all a completely platonic arrangement, naturally. / “Ibara has made it very clear that he’ll return our affections in his own time!” Hiyori turned to Ibara, with a gentle expression that he didn’t know how to interpret, and gently took hold of one of Ibara’s hands. “Isn’t that right, viper-chan~?” Hiyori’s hand on his own made him pause. The three of them knew that Ibara had no interest in actually dating them outside of work, right? They knew that this was all just a business plan to improve their teamwork as a unit, right? …right?

[bambino1294]

@gabichanwrites’ recent reread comment single-handedly making me open up the Floriography document again

[ragingtwilight]

Leshy x Lamb lovers where the fuck are you i need someone in this pit with me

[amywritesthings]

silver underground will update with chapter 16 on august 18, 2023! ✨

[racingliners]

Stayed up till 1am writing again

[lit-in-thy-heart]

words not wording ;-;

[nightingaletrash]

catch me actually working on the vtm/prototype fic like an actual writer :o

[a-book-of-creatures]

And since I just reposted something about Animorphs, here's more required reading - K. A. Applegate's letter to the fans after the series ended. Removing spoilers just in case because you need to go out there and read every one of the 60 or so books.

Dear Animorphs Readers: Quite a number of people seem to be annoyed by the final chapter in the Animorphs story. There are a lot of complaints that [spoilers]. That there was no grand, final fight-to-end-all-fights. That there was no happy celebration. And everyone is mad about the cliffhanger ending. So I thought I'd respond. Animorphs was always a war story. Wars don't end happily. Not ever. Often relationships that were central during war, dissolve during peace. Some people who were brave and fearless in war are unable to handle peace, feel disconnected and confused. Other times people in war make the move to peace very easily. Always people die in wars. And always people are left shattered by the loss of loved ones. That's what happens, so that's what I wrote. [spoilers] That doesn't by any means cover everything that happens in a war, but it's a start. Here's what doesn't happen in war: there are no wondrous, climactic battles that leave the good guys standing tall and the bad guys lying in the dirt. Life isn't a World Wrestling Federation Smackdown. Even the people who win a war, who survive and come out the other side with the conviction that they have done something brave and necessary, don't do a lot of celebrating. There's very little chanting of 'we're number one' among people who've personally experienced war. I'm just a writer, and my main goal was always to entertain. But I've never let Animorphs turn into just another painless video game version of war, and I wasn't going to do it at the end. I've spent 60 books telling a strange, fanciful war story, sometimes very seriously, sometimes more tongue-in-cheek. I've written a lot of action and a lot of humor and a lot of sheer nonsense. But I have also, again and again, challenged readers to think about what they were reading. To think about the right and wrong, not just the who-beat-who. And to tell you the truth I'm a little shocked that so many readers seemed to believe I'd wrap it all up with a lot of high-fiving and backslapping. Wars very often end, sad to say, just as ours did: with a nearly seamless transition to another war. So, you don't like the way our little fictional war came out? You don't like [spoilers]? You don't like that one war simply led to another? Fine. Pretty soon you'll all be of voting age, and of draft age. So when someone proposes a war, remember that even the most necessary wars, even the rare wars where the lines of good and evil are clear and clean, end with a lot of people dead, a lot of people crippled, and a lot of orphans, widows and grieving parents. If you're mad at me because that's what you have to take away from Animorphs, too bad. I couldn't have written it any other way and remained true to the respect I have always felt for Animorphs readers. K.A. Applegate

[yesimwriting]

How do you think Lestat and bestie!reader would get along exactly? Like, how Lestat views her and their dynamic 😪

I'm so glad you asked this omg. I have a few Lestat drabbles/asks in the drafts that explore their dynamic, but they're not ready yet, so here's some character analysis.

- - - -

Lestat initially hates bestie reader with the intensity that Armand wants to hate her with.

In Lestat's defense, let's look at the Louis and bestie reader situation from his perspective. He openly gives Louis his space for 77 years, and then when he reunites with Louis, the person he's most infatuated with isn't the man Louis has built a life with for nearly 8 decades, it's a random mortal girl. And then Lestat has to read a book all about Louis in which Louis discusses that girl and him for more or less the same amount of pages (Daniel was fs messy about the chapter distributions).

Also, Lestat has to read about Louis, who has been grappling with the implications of the dark gift since the very beginning, discuss how excited this random mortal girl made him about his existence.

I believe that the murder attempt straightened Lestat out in some ways. The fact that Louis and Armand came to him to basically rub their relationship in his face and Lestat was just like 'cool' shows a level of restraint that pre-lobotomy Lestat would have never been capable of. So, I don't think he's as jealous or as villainous to bestie reader as he would have been in the early 1900's. So, instead of trying to kill her, he's just very snarky about things.

Now, in bestie's head, Lestat is a villain. Louis couldn't tell reader much about Armand's actions for her own safety, so he just told her about every bad thing Lestat has ever done. Also, the fact that Armand is no longer going to be around has put bestie in an unreceptive mood (for obvious reasons), so she really doesn't want to understand Lestat. She doesn't want to like him.

She's also feeling a little insecure, because the second Louis leaves Armand starts telling her about all of the people Louis has let himself lose for Lestat. (Armand definitely brings up all the ways in which Louis let Claudia down in order to stay with Lestat.) So, for the first time ever, bestie doesn't feel like a priority in Louis's life.

When they do finally meet, there's something about bestie reader's anger and general disposition that reminds Lestat of Louis. He only sees it for a second, but it's enough for him to almost get the point of her.

However, when bestie immediately clocks him and hits him with a completely snarky and accurate read, Lestat is like 'no, I won't be doing this <3'. When Louis lets Lestat know that he will, in fact, be doing 'this' because she's not going anywhere, he dislikes her even more.

To her face, Lestat swears he doesn't need her approval, but also...his life would be so much easier if he had it. So, when Louis asks him to try to get along with her, Lestat is going full Lestat charm offensive. Not even in a romantic or sexual way, he's just being the fun, likable version of himself as a way of 'tricking' bestie reader into liking him.

And, because it's hard to not like Lestat when he's in likable mode, he does start to crack the ice a little. I can see them discussing certain theatre productions and pop culture. They'd also bond over teasing Louis about not wanting to go out to clubs/parties with them...but most of the time, they end their discussions with a flat reminder that they're not friends. (don't tell armand about this, he'll wait for the UV to hit 11 and then go outside)

It's important to note that bestie reader mainly starts giving Lestat a genuine chance because of how badly Louis wants her to. I believe that since early on in their friendship, Louis has secretly been dreaming of Lestat and bestie reader meeting.

I also think that in some ways Lestat and bestie reader are similar, which complicates them further. Lestat looks at her and sees the positive impacts he might have been able to have on Louis if he had been a little different. Also, I think something about her presence would remind Lestat of Claudia, which uneases him further. Bestie reader sees the true extent of what Louis is willing to forgive when he loves someone, and I think that makes her more wary of how she treats Louis.

In short, they're basically 'Girl, so confusing (ft. Lorde)'. Let's hope they work it out on the remix.

[calciumcryptid]

THE HEARTBEAT I AM FUCKING FORGETTING THE FUCKING HEARTBEAT OH MY GODS-

I can't believe I am about to ask my father what the first ultrasound appointment was like for my Mpreg fanfiction. Wish me luck. This is revenge for him playing Warrior of the Mind at five in the morning.

[artingstarvist]

Chapter 1 / 14

Fandom: Tiān Guān Cì Fú / Heaven Official's Blessing

Relationships: Hua Cheng / Xie Lian, Xie Lian & Lang Qianqiu

Characters: Xie Lian, Hua Cheng, Yin Yu, He Xuan, Lang Qianqiu

Additional Tags: Coffin Rescue, Coffin AU, AU - Canon Divergence, AU - Different First Meeting, Hurt/Comfort, Angst with a Happy Ending, Identity Reveal, Revenge Plot, POV Alternating, Blood and Injury, Dream-Reality Confusion, Suicidal Thoughts, Non-Graphic Violence, Hua Cheng AND Xie Lian have Self Esteem issues, Hualian Invented Love, Hua Cheng bout to make it 34 gods

So I wrote a coffin rescue fic! First draft of the whole thing is nearly done actually, but it needs editing so I'll probably post chapters weekly. I actually sketched the illustration first and it kind of inspired me to give writing a try since I kept thinking about what my take on a coffin fic would be. I may or may not add more art as I go along.

Also ty @lildoodlecat for proofreading for me! <3

[erika111111]

The Quarry and queer-baiting

It's a pretty known issue within The Quarry fanbase that this game basically set us up with two gay couples for them to just... not happen. In fact, it's almost as if the game rubs it in the players' faces that they don't, won't, and can't happen, besides the first half of the game setting them up rather clearly. It feels like the writers completely abandoned the idea halfway through, or for some reason just wanted to draw players in with the concept of queer relationships/characters just to rip it away in the end.

Disclaimer: This topic has been in my rough drafts for like, nearly two years at this point. I updated and added some stuff, but forgive me if I missed any crucial details.

So in the beginning, a lot of people wind up shipping both Ryan x Dylan (Rylan) and Emma x Abigail (Blygbank). Let's start with Blygbank since it's the shorter of the two.

So we do establish that Emma had a boyfriend, but the keyword is "had." To be fair, Jacob and Kaitlyn talk about it for the entire first section and that's the whole reason this game even happens, since Jacob wants another shot with Emma. So this straight couple is obviously very prominent. But, throughout the entire game, from multiple characters (Emma herself, Kaitlyn, Dylan, Ryan), it's repeatedly stated that Emma wants to move on from Jacob. Then we're introduced to Abigail, who's first scene is of her drawing a sketch of Emma. It's established that Emma and Abi are good friends. Maybe Emma and Abi will start a relationship? But, then we're introduced to Abi's crush on Nick. So I guess that idea just got blown out of the water...

To be fair, Emma's lack of interest in Jacob and Abi sketching Emma all happens very quickly within the first chapter. Perhaps it's the players' fault for jumping to that conclusion so quickly... but still.

What's more disappointing is that Abi and Nick are basically useless after chapter 6. There is actually yet another opportunity to develop some Blygbank relationship, but once again, it goes nowhere. Nick is bit and infected and starts acting absolutely horrible toward Abi, which very noticeably turns Abi off from him. Then Nick disappears for the rest of the game. But given Abi survives, she'll have another opportunity to have some alone time with Emma. Yet nothing of actual importance is discussed here. Not Emma kissing Nick. Not how Nick treated Abi. Not where Abi and Emma's relationship stands. Not where Emma and Jacob's relationship stands. We do get a moment where Emma reveals some of her true colors and she says that she needs Abi and she's been great to her, but once again, this goes nowhere. I guess we could see this as romantic, but Abi kind of seems just tired of and annoyed with Emma at this point and doesn't comment much about any of it. Basically there's just no conclusion. We have literally no idea where their relationship stands, romantically or otherwise. It's a huge missed opportunity.

While you can't get both of these scenes in the same playthrough, they do also push the Blygbank agenda. If you can get the "Nobody's Fool" route where Emma and Jacob reunite and Jacob tells her the truth, Emma will be completely and entirely done with Jacob. No more joking, no more mixed signals, she's just done. Which is kind of where the entire game was leading to from the beginning anyway, but this route gives it to us loud and clear. This accompanied with Abi and Nick going south again leaves us with a Blygbank option, but obviously, we get none of it. I know there's not much time left in the game by the time any of these scenes happen; maybe this is something else that could've been developed if we got any post-credits scenes, police interviews, I don't know. Again, maybe I'm reaching way too far with this one, but I think there's pretty good reason to ship Blygbank and assume maybe that's the direction they planned on going in. But I digress...

Onto part two, we have Rylan. And... Ryka? I have no idea what the ship name for Ryan x Kaitlyn is and I don't know if shippers for this couple even exist, so I'll just call them Ryka. And they're not a queer couple, but it's necessary to talk about the two at the same time.

I'll be honest, during my first several playthoughs/watchthroughs of The Quarry, I had no idea Kaitlyn was interested in Ryan. They do not do a good job of establishing that at all, and you can very easily miss every single opportunity for it to be brought up until chapter freaking nine. So honestly, Kaitlyn is pretty much a non-factor here. Dylan's crush on Ryan is very vocal and obvious, and the two are paired up very often throughout the game. Even if Kaitlyn's crush on Ryan was more well-known, Dylan is still the more obvious one between the two because, again, Dylan and Ryan are always paired up together.

Ryan is rather... uninterested in everything and everyone. But between everyone, he seems closest to Dylan. Of course, this can depend on how you play as both characters. You can make them argue A LOT, and Ryan won't always say the "I'm a bit closer to Dylan, I guess" line, but regardless, there's some scenes with them being close that will always happen. The most prominent scene between them is when they're walking to the radio hut and Dylan actually opens up to Ryan about who he is and what he likes to do. Ryan will have unwavering, non-negotiable interest in Dylan as a person here. Sure, they CAN kiss at the firepit, but Ryan can also choose to kiss Kaitlyn. They can joke around about the Bizarre Yet Bonafide podcast name, or they can't. They can agree over the gun, or they can argue instead. Ryan can cheer Dylan on or rush him. They can grab the phones and go or Dylan can annoy Ryan so much, he'll yell at him. Point being, there's a lot of options you can take with their relationship. You can make them close or you can make them bicker. Regardless, Dylan will remain interested. And regardless, they will have this intimate moment together on the way to the radio hut. Point being again, it's veryyyy obvious this a queer relationship in the making. Justice Smith is even a queer actor, and Miles Robbins is a very vocal supporter of the LGBTQ+ community.

Then Laura comes and fucks the whole thing up. And I love Laura, mind you, but for some reason the writers decided to take this whole ship and spin it on its head when Laura arrives.

Before we get into the Laura segment, let me point a few more things out. I personally thought that Ryan was maybe oblivious to Dylan and Kaitlyn's feelings, didn't really know which one he liked more, or most prominently, maybe he was asexual. When Emma tells him to kiss either Dylan or Kaitlyn, he asks if he can kiss both. I thought that was kind of an odd thing to say unless he either liked both or just didn't care. Also, he can ask Laura, "You're doing all of this for a boy?" He really seems like he doesn't understand this kind of love or investment in another person romantically. Upon discovering that line, I pretty much accepted Ryan as asexual.

But then he's not asexual. And he's not oblivious to Dylan and Kaitlyn's feelings. And he's not interested in either of them. According to Justice Smith himself, when Laura asks Ryan who he likes more and he answers with "Maybe neither," it means that Ryan has a crush on Laura. And I truly don't get this, for several reasons. For starters, yes, Laura is doing all of this for a boy--her boyfriend, Max. She literally has a boyfriend already. And Ryan already had a thing going with Dylan. So why, seven whole chapters through this entire game, giving us LauraMax and Rylan, do they suddenly pair together Lyan? It's just a creative decision I will never understand. Maybe if Laura and Max had broken up, but still. She's not reintroduced until chapter 7 so we've already had six chapters of Rylan still. Maybe they could have made it more obvious from the beginning that Ryan wasn't interested in Dylan or Kaitlyn, but they just didn't do that. They particularly paired Ryan and Dylan up all the time and made them close. So, I call queer-baiting.

Of course, Lyan never goes anywhere. The only ending you can get that involves any kind of romance is actually Laura and Max reuniting. Laura and Ryan's romance happens in basically two seconds and there's barely any romance to even speak of. Laura does flirt with him a lot, but I believe that's due to the werewolf curse, as she stops that kind of behavior after her curse is lifted. They do seem to be close friends by then, she just doesn't flirt anymore or make weird comments. And really neither does Ryan. Sure, you don't always get the "maybe neither" line and you can choose less flirty options sometimes, but then they have a whole ass The Lovers card. So it's extremely obvious what the developers were going for. I just don't understand why suddenly go for this couple eight chapters through after already establishing a gay couple with Ryan himself and Dylan.

The only other thing we get on this matter is Dylan and Kaitlyn discussing Ryan's relationship with Laura on their way to the scrapyard. The most positive outcome for Rylan here is when Dylan says he and Ryan got close and Kaitlyn tells him "There's always next year." So it does give a bit of hope to this ship, leaving it open-ended despite the sudden occurrence of Lyan. Of course, you might not always get these lines, and Dylan and Kaitlyn can both agree "screw Ryan" and move on. So... I don't fucking know. It's like they purposefully set players up to support this clearly laid out queer ship of Rylan to then make it all insanely confusing and open-ended and piss people off. I think they really fumbled the bag with this one, and it's why I have a hard time shipping Ryan with literally anyone. It's all just a confusing mess.

I'd definitely say that the whole Supermassive Games chain of video games definitely got less queer-baity and more queer accepting over time. Just a few months later, The Devil in Me is released and they give us a Lesbian ship with Jamie and Erin. Also, with the Until Dawn remake, they cranked up the Jemily and Climbing Class. Not by much, mind you, but regardless, they acknowledged the popularity of these queer couples in the fanbase and added some crumbs for the players. It makes me wonder if they'll ever delve on Blygbank or Rylan in the future. I'm doubting The Quarry will ever get a remaster/remake with added content like Until Dawn, but who knows, I guess. As I said, both ships are pretty much left open-ended. But for now, I think The Quarry has a serious problem with queer-baiting, or maybe they just had no idea how to handle writing queer characters. I really don't know.

Lastly, none of this was supposed to be negative or attacking any single one of the ships mentioned in this post. I don't know how anything I said could be interpreted that way, but you never know. This post was just supposed to be informative. I hear a lot of people criticizing the queer-baiting within this game, as they should, and I decided to make an informative post covering all of the points and how I believe they screwed up the opportunities to put in these queer couples and somewhat alienate their queer audience.

Link to part two here.