#one of my personal faves has finally been set free from the drafts

[cosmicdreamgrl]

𝘧𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘫𝘬 𝘭𝘰𝘰𝘬𝘴: (109/?)┃𝘤𝘳: 𝘯𝘢𝘮𝘶𝘴𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘮𝘪𝘴𝘦𝘥

+ 𝘣𝘰𝘯𝘶𝘴:

[ahiddenpath]

Hiya Hidden, I hope your day is going well! I want to improve my writing, but I don't have a beta and I'm not ready to join a group, right now I'm a bit to thin-skinned for that. I picked up Stephen King's book and that's been helpful, are there any other resources you'd recommend?

Hey there, glad to hear you're exploring your options in a way that works for you!

For other readers, Stephen King's On Writing is the one writing book I recommend because it teaches editing quickly and effectively. Your local library almost certainly has it, if you're interested.

And speaking of local libraries, I've read pretty much all of the writing books mine carries. About 70% of them are mostly cheerleading/support books, without much in the way of practical advice or exercises. Of these, I recommend Anne Lamott's Bird by Bird, as it's masterfully written.

I always recommend reading the best of what's out there, too. Obviously this is highly subjective, but if you are interested in my picks: here. Read diversely, seek out view points that are new to you (I love biographies for this reason).

I recommend Googling around for what's out there for free or low cost right now, in terms of lessons. Your fave authors might have a podcast or a lecture series for a fee. These days, people tend to use socials to promote themselves, so you might be able to learn direct from your favorite horse's mouth, so to speak! There are also online class series for a fee, but obviously you'll want to google those for reviews first.

I'm going to quickly toss some practical things that work for me beneath the cut, but disclaimers apply (I'm a hobbyist, what works for me might not work for you, etc).

1.) Drafting is one small part of writing

I get the sense that, when folks say they are writing, they are referring to drafting- getting words down on paper. Drafting is a small part of creating a finished piece. There's also planning, researching, editing, and inevitably scrapping/rearranging/rewriting/retooling/etc. These days, I personally spend about a month out of the year making a 50,000 word draft in Nanowrimo, about a month planning and researching before that, and the rest of the year editing/rearranging/retooling/discovering what my story actually is. Of course, I do end up drafting new scenes and filling gaps in there, too.

From listening to other creatives and watching how they track progress (mostly word counts), I get the sense that editing and refining are often overlooked in favor of further production. Basically, quantity over quality.

I don't know what the correct percentages are, and I doubt they exist. It's totally possible to obsess over every word to the point where you don't draft anymore, which is equally a problem. Just remember that there's so much more to the process than drafting, and it's normal/common for your draft to be taken apart and reassembled before completion.

Which leads me to...

2.) First draft are bad

Don't sweat quality in draft one. Draft one is always trash compared to the final product. Perfection anxiety can remove the joy of writing and paralyze writers. Worry about polish when you edit, but you can't edit something that doesn't exist. Bang out that bad first draft and nurture it from there.

I have a little essay on combating writing paralysis with successive drafts here. My advice always changes over time, lol, so who knows if I'd still agree, but it could be worth giving a read with a critical eye.

3.) Make working on your writing project a habit

In my opinion, the best thing you can do as a creative is make creating a daily habit. "The muse" and "inspiration" are fickle. Putting your butt in the chair and making stuff because it's make stuff o'clock is reliable. My advice is to show up for a set amount of time every day (start with as little as 15 minutes) and make stuff, with no care for quantity or quality. Just show up and do the thing and call it a win. It takes time, but once you establish the habit, you will become a creative force. People I think tend to underestimate how far you can go taking one small step a day. The time will pass regardless, so why not break down the thing you want to do into tiny, daily chunks?

I have an essay loosely about this here, although it's from the perspective of self care through daily creative habits.

4.) Leave distractions behind when you create

Turn off the internet on your computer and leave your phone in another room if it is safe to do so. If you sit in a room with nothing else to do but write, shockingly, you tend to write much more than if you have Tumblr within arm's reach.

Obviously some distractions can't be helped, and my goal is never to shame anyone for those. But try reducing those you can control. For me, it makes a huge difference. I adore distraction free writing tools for this reason! The most affordable I know is an AlphaSmart neo2 used (aim for about $40 total, ignore the price gouge ones, make sure it has the printer cord to connect to your computer, and you will need 3 AA batteries). There are modern alternatives, but they are pricey, and frankly I hate the company that makes them (yes, I'm talking about Astrohaus).

5.) Strive for completion

It's common in both fanworks and original projects for new writers to have 5+ fics or novels with a few chapters on their hard drive, effectively generating a graveyard of stories that never progressed past the opening portion. All this teaches us is how to start a piece.

I'm not suggesting that anyone torture themselves over a piece they don't want to work on anymore, but the only way to learn how to craft narratives is to... Well, craft complete narratives.

My advice is to make sure you know how you want your story to begin and end, and some idea of the dreaded middle bits, before you put too much effort into drafting. It's so easy to get excited and launch yourself into a frenzy, only to hit a wall and drop things completely when that initial inspiration fades.

But as mentioned in 3, inspiration is fickle. Habit is not!

Those are my favorite bits of writing advice, but I do have more! As I mentioned above, I tend to change my mind over time, but that leaves room for you to be critical about what I say and take and leave things as you choose.

-A video of my editing process

-Combating writing paralysis with successive drafts

-Dishing with an artist

-Tips for Fanfic Authors

-More Tips for Fanfic Authors

-Tips for Winning Nanowrimo

-Even more tips on writing fics

-Digimon Adventure/02 references

I hope something in this mess is helpful, lol!

Also, you mention being thin-skinned. My dear (I know using that may sound condescending, but I mean it with kindness and affection, because I have been there too), that is so common, especially for very young people. I was thin-skinned myself and only began... shedding? Toughening??? That skin around age 30. I am absolutely nowhere near being 100% tough yet, lol!

But I do want to say that moving in that direction is so, so wonderful. For me, personally, being thin-skinned was part of my upbringing. I was raised to assume everyone was dangerous, so of course I had a tendency to take everything personally and in the worst way possible. With time, therapy, and good 'ol 'no longer having the energy to get up in arms about everything,' I began to see that being thin-skinned is actively damaging to me. Like, it can hurt the people you snap at who were genuinely trying to help or joke around, yeah, but it always hurts me.

Being thin-skinned stands between people and the help they might need. It causes people to reject advice that might help them grow. It can make other people afraid to be real with someone, because that person might respond so negatively to an honest attempt to help or connect.

Literally everyone has these feelings sometimes, so I'm not saying this to attack or condescend. In fact, it's mature that you recognize this aspect of yourself. But I might gently suggest that working on this could be as helpful to your writing as the best writing book in the world, whatever that book may be.

I'm no therapist, but a cognitive behavioral therapy technique helps me a lot with this. If I feel a strong spike of emotion, I stop to question it before acting on it. Why did I feel so upset when Bob said x? According to my therapist, events don't cause emotions (such as Bob's possibly problematic comment). What causes emotions is how our belief system processes the event, which is why different people respond to the same event differently. Often, in the process of translating events to feelings, our belief systems sort of... Distort the message, or make it far more personal than the speaker intended.

Practicing this skill is easy online- just walk away from the computer for a bit. In person... Not so much. It's a difficult, active, not-fun process. I personally think it's worthwhile, even though I have a long way to go, myself.

But do also remember that some advice is just... bad. Some of my advice might be bad, or simply wrong for you. Never turn off your critical thinking!

I'm rooting for you, my dear! Please take care and keep writing and growing, you are amazing!

[corpsebrigadier]

Hi!! I love your final fantasy tactics fanfics. What is your thought process when writing? How do you try to interweave your own headcanons with the game’s lore? Do you like playing any other strategy rpgs? :)

Thanks so much for letting me know you like my work!

To answer your questions: My thought process when I'm composing is generally shaped by the circumstances of the composition. A lot of my fic was made in relation to prompts (from twitter, from friends, for exchanges/fests), and I find that when I'm writing under constraint I tend to have a lot of cool and unexpected ideas that I later incorporate into my personal take on the canon (I came up with a ton of my characterization for my forever faves the older Beoulves this way as well as basically everything about my functional OC Rad). Longer stuff generally coalesces from scenarios/thoughts that have been tossing about in my mind for a while, and it often gets scoped down a little so that I can ensure I actually put it out in the world instead of having it sit in drafts forever. "Let Your Curse Be On Me" and "The Cuckoo" both had their seeds as mods I daydreamed about making. "Contempt's Bloom is Forever" actually has about 6K words I drafted before I decided to re-render it as a double drabble sequence. When I actually sit down to compose write, I think a lot about literary moments I like, moments in my life I found emotional, and whatever earworm is caught in my head. I have many many incomplete playlists that I jam to for certain scenarios/characters.

When it comes to mixing headcanon and canon, I tend to see what's portrayed in the game setting up some boundaries of characterization I can push up against but never quite pass. I can make Dycedarg sympathetic but I can't make him good. Wiegraf can become softer but he can't become servile. I love that a game with so many detailed infodumps still has big gaps in its lore that fic authors can fill out, and I try to take advantage of them. I love speculating about the Fifty Years War and how it fucked everyone up, and my favorite characters to write about are almost all NPCs and enemies. I honestly find much of the main party a little hard to handle, given that they're front and center while remaining so full of ambiguity. It's perfectly possible to have Agrias or Cid die and crystalize in your first random battle after they join up and the end of the game won't change for it; there's not a perfectly clear sense as to what end they're trending towards. With characters whose arcs are small but have clear ends, I feel like I have a lot more room to expand and a lot more guidance as to where I'm going--so a lot of the ideas I develop start with the game's cast of doomed boss fights. Overall, a lot of my headcanons have developed and grown more calcified over time (I have a hugely dorky pre-canon timeline I made laid out as a spread sheet with various major characters' progressions) and at this point, I just sort of treat them as an established part of what FFT era Ivalice is for me.

As for other strategy RPGS… er… I have plans to actually play non-FFT ones (TO: LUCT's high on the list) when I finally get my doctorate and the mythical free time being post-defense will possibly get me. I have a lot of plans for then. We'll see how I'm hanging onto them next year.

Hope that response was the sort you were looking for. :)

[planetdream]

10, 11, 25, 34, 36, 37, 38, 43, 55, 56, 68, 69, 74, 76, 78, 79 ❤️✨

hehe ahaha this is a lot omg i love talking so much so thank you baby <3

10. Do you work on multiple wips or stick to one fic at a time?

multiple! my mind constantly entertains multiple ideas at once, so i just let it take over lol

11 answered here <3

25. What’s your favorite part of the writing process (worldbuilding, brainstorming/outlining, writing, editing, etc)?

brainstorming mostly! i also enjoy worldbuilding—it's just the actual writing part that fucks me up. but i love just thinking and hypothesizing about how the story could go!!

34. How much of your personal life/experience do you include in your fics?

all of it, yet none of it at all. i would say there are minor glimpses into my personal life/experiences, but there are also things in my fics that i'd never do (ie; i rarely write abt condoms even tho i use them every time i have sex lol). it really depends and while i probably don't notice it in the moment of writing, i think it varies fic by fic.

36. What fic are you proudest of?

woah this is such a question omg. yeah so withholding a fic im very proud of. i loved the direction i went with it—there's something different about that fic (along with reversal) compared to my others that i love so much, but i can't quite put my finger on it. but both fics felt very good to write :)

37. What fic has been the hardest for you to write?

it's actually one of my wips—after dusk with minho. i've had the idea of this fic since January and i've been working on it since then, too. but for the love of GOD i cannot seem to even complete a full draft—of which i've had at least three. it's frustrating, but i know im gonna be SO damn happy when i finally finish it.

38. What is your most self-indulgent posted story?

there are three! carnal pleasures, the vapors, and 2:22AM (not mentioned by all of my changbin stuff tbh)

43. Is there a trope or idea that you’d really like to write but haven’t yet?

i want so badly to write a coffee shop/flower shop au idk. really wanna do a soulmate fic as well. and i know i've spoke about how i don't really like enemies to lovers, but i've been thinking about an e2l fic with haechan and idk ?? might go for it. lastly, i want to write something so angsty and sad (with an unhappy ending) just to do it idk

55. Have you noticed any patterns in your fics?  Words/expressions that appear a lot, themes, common settings, etc?

love analyzing myself so there are a couple of things i've noticed. usually, all the same few kinks pop up (spit play/cum play/overstimulation, etc) and i think generally, neediness is a common theme in most of my fics. i also feel like i use the word 'gracious' a fuck ton.

56. Are there any fics that you would change or rewrite if given the chance?

while im in love with every fic i've written—i CONSTANTLY think about rewriting pay attention and also skz as physical touch. i also think about rewriting my first couple of pieces (all abt channie) from when i first made this blog (not linking those bc just thinking about them is enough ❤️)

68. Are there any fics that influenced you to write the way you do?

man, i'd have to log into wattpad to answer this lol. i feel like im constantly being inspired and influenced by most of the things i read—i don't think i'd be able to pinpoint it. though, i think im more influenced by various novels, usually of the horror or thriller variety.

69. What are your favorite fics at the moment?

harness by dee (@/btssmutgalore / @/ballelino), part 2 of dance with a ghost by mint (@/hynjnhwng) and anything moon (@/gyuphorias) has written about yeonjun are all my faves <3 im sure there are sooo many others that i love but off the top of my head it's those ones that live rent-free in my mind 🛐🛐

74. Do you have a fic you wish got a bit more love?

i usually mention carnal pleasures when it comes to questions like these. but i suppose the contents of that fic are for a very niche audience and i've accepted that <3 it feels like a club that no one else can get into fr

76. How do you deal with writing pressure, whether internal or external?

i don't deal with it well—which is why i take several, frequent short breaks. i tend to get overwhelmed a lot and the best thing for me is to just...log the fuck off.

78. What motivates you during the writing process?

if i've got a really good idea that's enough motivation needed—once i start there's hardly any stopping unless i hit a wall. i usually try to bribe myself with weed or something to keep me motivated tho 😭😭

79. Do you have any writing advice you want to share?

take breaks and let yourself breathe!! don't try to push or overwork yourself either. writing takes time and that's completely fine—i feel like a lot of us, as fic writers, stress about posting often and whatnot—but people are gonna read ur stuff regardless of if you post often. just take your time <3

[straighttohellbuddy]

World building is the best tbh. I’m forever world building and now I have several worlds to play in and my neurodivergent brain cannot stay still enough to focus on one lmao. SLOWBURN ROMANCES ARE MY LITERAL JAM LIKE PLS!!! I LOVE THEM!! Also!!!! Concepts!!!! Pls share!!!! I love learning about the worlds of my fave fics and I can hands down say right now that this fic will literally shoot to the top of my list of favourites which means you’ll occupy the top three spots. Sorry to hear that ur feeling rough, so am sending u the biggest hug. I’m not okay but I’m taking care of myself today so that I will be 🧡-🐈‍⬛

alsjfsldkjf i have too many worlds TBH, literally one of the best parts of my 2020 was writing for the classic rock fandom and writing one of my good friend’s ocs alongside mine, like there’s so many different worlds that our two characters have now, i’m like 26k deep into a high school au that i need to get back to at some point, and then i wrote a oneshot abt the high school au but they’re adults, and then there’s also the original timeline, and then there’s the present day in the original timeline where they have kids and i probably care too much about people who aren’t real...... hahaha

OKAY OKAY OKAY HERE WE GO I’LL GIVE KIND OF AN OVERVIEW OF THE ALBUMS AND A FEW SONGS BUT IF U WANT ME TO GO IN DEPTH ON ANY OTHER SONG JUST ASK!!!

yes i have a playlist for each, if you wanna hear how i interpret the vibes of the songs. if you interpret them differently, thats awesome!! i’d love to hear y’all’s opinions on them!!

testing one two - the first ep they release, the song titles are mostly themed (fast forward, press play, pause, rewind), but are mostly things y/n has been working on for a while but never got around to finishing, things they are rather proud of. i see you shiver with... is the first song they wrote specifically for the album, and it’s the last song on the EP because it’s a Rocky Horror reference; i see you shiver with...

a n t i c i p a t i o n - first full album!! the vibe is Hopeful But Hesitant it has all the songs from the ep, plus some new ones!! collabs with youtube musicians troye and dodie, and y/n’s label sets up a collab that turns into a genuine friendship. the breakout dance hit is what else is there to say ft. Troye Sivan, which is about not knowing what to make content about when it feels like you’ve already told the world everything. it featured the prechorus and hook

You, know, ev-ery-thing about me / gave it all for free / my life in HD / So, let’s dance, let me see your hips sway / we’re gonna be okay / what else is there to say?

So say that you love me, say that you love me, say that you love me / let’s die hand in hand. / I’ll tell you I love you, tell you I love you, tell you I love you / supply and demand. 

personally, i also conceptually enjoy srs bsns which is a really upbeat song about how they don’t care if people don’t take them seriously because they know in their heart that what they’re doing is good

hyperfocus - 2nd EP, a pretty substantial departure from their usual style, but also happens to quietly be Corpse’s favourite, and is actually y/n’s most polarising, because it has both the Grammy award winning HEARTBURN and the o brother where art thou which was written partially as a joke to capture a fond moment of them and 5SOS dicking around together in a hotel. written while on tour wit 5SOS, im writing the reader as having ADHD (because I have ADHD and i can do what i want), and the backstory is that they’d changed the medication/dosage they were taking, and as it’s their first full tour, they were under a lot of stress and were in a weird place mentally and emotionally, and hyperfocus is the result of that. i’m going through some stuff has HUGE agoraphobic vibes. 

HEARTBURN has the same vibes as Florence + The Machines’ Howl. It’s about being a demon without saying that or directly implying that unless you know demons real well. This is when the pressure for them to confirm their identity got real bad, and it was their way of working through those emotions.

tear in existence in the shape of a person / when i’m seeing clearly i can’t see myself / world can’t swallow what it can’t get it’s teeth into / got everything i wanted but i ain’t got my health

Got heart-burn--- / I’ll tear me apart / I’ll tear you apart / I’ll tear me apart. 

SCREAM gets rereleased as a remixed single featuring Fall Out Boy the following year. It won the MTV music award for best collaboration in 2018. 

In the time between hyperfocus and working on it, Y/N releases several singles, including a cover of Tell Him by The Exciters to be featured in To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before. They also take time to sort out their health, do a little bit more YT stuff, and travel internationally to do festivals. 

working on it - is kind of a middle ground between their original stuff, and hyperfocus, like pop-punk meets horror-pop meets whatever you’d classify halsey as. the first three songs were mostly written before the fic starts, so before they’re getting back to YT, but the last three, nightmare scenario, designed to hurt (touch me), and not scared were all written after they’d started hanging out with sykkuno and corpse. 

in-universe, imposter syndrome was originally something else, along the same lines of tired that they’re hiding that they’re a demon, but after meeting corpse nd sykkuno and having people who know, and lowkey being influenced by corpse’s music, the song changes directions, and YO OKAY YO::

I literally am so fucking flattered, my darling friend @bingusmode​ wrote lyrics for imposter syndrome and I’ve been yELLING about them ever since i’ve read them!! (also bunnie is fantastic and lovely in general 10/10)

if you thought you saw me 

i’d think about it twice

cuz while i know i’m naughty

everybody thinks i’m nice

cutest giggles get me

places that i long to be

but it’s not long before

everybody hates me

when you figure out i’m fucked up

you’ll probably think that can’t be right

but babe my image runs to save me

cuz i’m ugly day and night

nothing good about me

not the angel that i seem

cuz i’m a piece of shit

and i’ll ruin your fuckin dreams

i’m an impostor babe

you better run for your life

cuz there’s a bloodlust runnin through me

and you’re dripping off my knife

there’s no one here to save you

cuz you ate up all my lies

so beg me while you can

and draft up all your goodbyes 

if any of y’all are inspired by anything i put out, feel free to take it and run!! you have my blessing!! i am so overwhelmingly flattered by people who like my stuff enough to create because of it, directly or indirectly! lyrics, art, songs, anything!! legit! I love you!!

okay so designed to hurt (touch me) has big House of Memories by Panic! At The Disco vibes, and YES it’s about Corpse. YES it sends mixed messages. YES it has greek myth imagery and YES that imagery is confusing. not sure if any of these sets of lyrics actually go after each other but also idk??

will my fall from grace be graceful / as each move i see you make? / propped up on pedestals side by side / beneath our feet they shake / i’m the only one to hear you ask  / “What have they done to me?” / My boy, your wax throne is sun-drenched / you’ll fall in the name of your legacy.

eyes like yours watched rome burn / while hands like mine lit the pyre / we both heard me say we’d go down in flames / now you’re turning me into a liar / since you smile like that, like you can’t feel the sting / and we both know i can’t feel the fire

been telling myself i’m designed to hurt / but, baby, aren’t we a sight? /

check your reflection, your angles, apollo / you’re icarus in the right light /

we’re on the edge, i’m not scared to fall / we’ll take refuge in the night /

been telling yourself you’re designed to hurt / but, baby, doesn’t this feel right?

also, albumtouralbumtour is a reference to Bohemian Rhapsody.

OKAY AND FINALLY

n o s t a l g i a - the album the reader’s working on during the fic.

literally as i was writing this, bunnie sent through some FIRE lyrics for how the light gets in, (@bingusmode) i am going to be thinking about these on REPEAT for the next MONTH BRUV

little bit of darkness, treat me like a toy 

i got my hopes up and got them destroyed

bitter taste of regret sitting heavy on my tongue

can’t believe i let you convince me that you were the one

sitting here in silence, fabric running thin

petals burning in my lungs and stealing oxygen

embers from a cigarette falling to the floor

god i can’t take anymore

so i stumble to the window and pull the shades

and the moon pours in like you threw a grenade

i can’t understand why

i keep trying

cuz i never seem to win

but having any hope is how the light gets in 

from there, moment before impact ft. Billie Eilish is a club anthem along the lines of bad guy or COPYCAT, bass heavy with a drop that’s out of this world.

powdered pain, i’m in your veins / i’m the sting, the drip, the thing / you’re craving, but you hate to see me misbehaving / i heard my breakdown got you high / it’s true, but baby i can’t lie / i never got that rush, that burn / that makes you feel alive, i had to learn / to pick the slippery slope down which i fell / plan my pitstops on the way to hell / to pick my padding before i spiral / so if i break it’ll be in style

watch my misdirect, now freeze, / notice you can’t see the forest for the trees / you’re so desperate for my demise / but baby, i’ll make you watch me rise.

this is the moment before impact

controlled chaos, crash land / take a breath, trust the plan / i know you hope i’m not okay / you get off on my audio misery

controlled chaos, crash land / take a breath, trust the plan / i need you to know i want it this way / my breakdown won me a grammy

and this is the moment before impact

ur my favourite - interlude ft. sykkuno is probably one of my favourites, it’s just really soft, just a snippet of a conversation between the reader and sykkuno, maybe one of them told a joke and they both just sound real happy and sweet. its nice. it’s a nice moment.

means something is also for sykkuno!! it’s about how good-strange it is to be open and honest with friends, and how they usually aren’t but they’re glad they can be open and honest with him!!

meanwhile, i don’t think about u - interlude ft. CORPSE is a phonecall between corpse & the reader right after they announce they’re going to feature on acting like that, where corpse asks if they do this sort of thing to spite him, to which the reader responds ‘do i consider you when i’m making decisions about my career? no, corpse, actually i don’t think about you at all’ which then directly contrasts the song that ends the album, which is (how it feels to be) beautiful fireworks, which is essentially ‘i know how hard it is to exist like this, to be the centre of attention, to give off light and bring people joy, even when you’re in pain. i’m here for you. i love you.’

okay, i swear im done now, i’ll get back to writing the fic! (also i cannot BELIVE i managed to figure out how to embed those playlists but im so happy) edit: it didn’t actually work when i posted the ask, so anyways im sorry but y’all are abt to be spammed with playlists because i care too much abt this fic

[ameliatheamazing]

Avatar Aang

First of all I’m so sorry that this is so late, i had a lot of thoughts to sort out and then once I had written about half of this review my computer crashed and it didn’t get saved so I had to write the whole thing again. Save your drafts people! Anyway this review was supposed to be for just the last part of the finale, but I’m kind of treating it as a review for the whole finale. So this is gonna be a long one. Full review under the cut! Enjoy!

Okay. This finale was absolutely SO GOOD I love this show so much!! And I’m sad it’s over but man what a perfect ending. I really think that ending was so great for this show, it accomplished everything it set out to do, the whole story wrapped up so nicely and every character and story arc was completed. That’s what happens when a show is planned out from the beginning, it has a good ending instead of going on for too long and eventually losing sight of the end goal and going off the rails by the end. (not naming any names but I’m sure we all know those shows.)

We completed the main objective, the goal we got at the very beginning: defeat the fire lord. And I knew for a while that it wasn’t just going to be a cut and dry, “beat the boss in a video game” type deal. There was gonna be something more to it, some kind of nuance added to make it interesting, but I didn’t know what. But oh boy did I love what we got!

I will say, all the stuff with the lion turtle was a little confusing and it kinda came out of nowhere. Like Aang needed a way to defeat Ozai without killing him, and then this giant island that is actually a talking animal/spirit thing just rolls up and gives him a way to do it. Because I guess LT (lion turtle) sensed that Aang needed help so he came and taught him that energy bending thing? Which is also a little confusing and I wish they had explained that more. I had no idea what was going on until Aang said “I took your firebending away.” But that’s not really a bad thing, I think it’s kinda cool that it was kept a mystery. I just wanna know more about it!

(Maybe if we knew beforehand that taking someone’s bending away was a thing that could happen, like they mentioned at some point “there was a legend long ago that this happened” or something and then Aang actively tries to learn it instead of just like.. absorbing the ability from LT. But idk I’m kinda just nitpicking. I still like the way it was handled in the episode)

But let’s get to what Aang actually did which was take Ozai’s bending away! I didn’t expect that at all but it was honestly so perfect. The only proper punishment for him (aside from death) is to take away all his power, and what gave him his power? Firebending. (And also control of a fascist government but firebending is a good representation for that.) Now he can sit in prison for the rest of his life while a bunch of his son’s friends insult himand he can’t do anything about it. It’s what he deserves.

And Zuko is the new fire lord now! Oh my god I’m SO proud of him!! Like he’s gonna be such a good leader, him and Aang and the others are all just kids but they literally are gonna save the whole world and reverse the effects of a hundred year long war. Good for them.

And when Zuko was talking to Ozai and he’s recognized that he never needed his father’s love,, and his banishment was actually the one good thing his father did for him,,, my GOD he has come so far :’) And now he’s getting closure about his mother which is good. I love Zuko very much I’m gonna make a separate post about him. 

Then there’s Azula.. holy shit what happened to her was so sad man. I know she was a terrible person but she was FOURTEEN..she didn’t deserve this, to be raised in the environment she was, having immense pressure put on her to please her father as the firebending prodigy, to be pitted against her own brother from a young age, it’s all just tragic. I got so sad watching that last scene with her and like.. I hope she ends up okay! Idk if it’s in the comics with like, her getting better and unlearning all this toxic behavior, but I would really love to see it. Her character is so so interesting.

Also in this episode we got the scene with Sokka, Toph and Suki, and there were three characters but it was really Sokka’s time to shine. That whole time I was thinking about how far he’s come, like the scene where him and Toph are hanging off the airship about to fall (that was rly sad) but he was just so strong. The whole time. As my second fave character I am proud of him as well. (And then Suki came to save the day which was great.)

I loved the very last scene, where they’re in ba sing se and everyone’s together and happy and Sokka’s painting everybody and they’re all just having a good time.. and we see Aang and Katara with the beautiful sunset (which I did end up making my desktop wallpaper) and they kiss and AAH! that’s what I LIKE TO SEE!! It was just,, so peaceful? It gave me such good vibes and was such a good note to end on, I was crying by then so yeah. Good show. 10/10.

Uh there’s a lot of other stuff I want to talk about but that’s probably it for now..  I really want to make posts about each of the individual characters and what I thought of them and their arcs and stuff so you can hopefully expect that soon. And I’m also gonna answer some asks so feel free to send those! Congrats if you read this whole thing, you get a special bonus point. And uh, yeah thanks for reading my liveblog!! It’s been real fun :) and don’t worry I’m totally gonna post more content after this as well. See ya then!

[sveasauvageon]

Ce qu'il a donné Un an, deux ans, cent ans de bonheur Puis la vie te cueille comme une fleur || GW

☾♔; March 5, 2018 ☾♔; sotd: Котик by Alexander Rybak   ☾♔; comedian otd: JOHN OLIVER   ☾♔; GW To do list ☾♔; {G} https://goo.gl/XSTtMc ☾♔; mod(s): @themadmonarchist @maybones et moi

Title: lyrics from "Requiem" by Alma

--featured not-mine oc's - Eloise Avery | @themadmonarchist - Minah Delacroix | @maybones (see what I did there with the Serena and Blair positioning? -eyebrow wriggle thing-)

- - - x - - -

Updated GW to-do list: - Division of labour (we should really start saying when one of us starts working on something because otherwise we'll end up with redundancies since we think disturbingly alike) - the "chuck" problem: okay, tbh, it's more of an Ed Westwick problem than a chuck one. I don't know how you guys have reacted to the me too and time's up movements, but mine has been to cut all those men out of my sphere of entertainment, I even cut out "witch hunt", "not all men" type dudes, and "only fondled their breasts on tv and apologized for it" men (aka Ben Affleck), because time is up for all of you! Soz, not point, but since last October, Ed Westwick has been caught up in this, and thus far 3 women have accused him of ra.pe and a fourth of sexual misconduct. Now, I know it's not Chuck's fault that his portrayer is a ra.pist (allegedly), but there is still an issue with including his face, etc in aesthetics and gossip girl material because his face is that of a ra.pist's (allegedly). Tbh, I wanna leave him (Ed Westwick) out of material and only discuss Chuck and avoid showing his face or use a dreamcast instead, but like, I dunno what you guys wanna do. Chuck is a great character, although, early on, he was quite rap.ey, the character, and it does not help that his portrayer has since been revealed to be a ra.pist. Allegedly.

- also, going back up to the redundancy issues, I love both of your aesthetic collections and playlists, so for those, I was thinking for playlist, we should make one big playlist on spotify that's collaborative, so that everyone can add their music and it'll kind of be a huge explosion of musical tastes. But also, maybe have a collection that has a link on the group info for individual playlists for characters, and the group made by us and/or others. For aesthetic collections, basically the same idea with one big collaborative collection, and then that collection will have links to other collections (yes, I'm a little ocd).

- also, also, this is completely unrelated, but I was watching trevor noah's show and he made a joke about how much trump's male employees snitch and gossip like sht, but the woman haven't revealed squat. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CpmlVWFTW8A) It's really funny, and honestly, stupid people fcking up in trump's circle very publically is basically what's keeping me alive. It's just hilarious how stupid some of these people are. ___________________________ Another Update (I'll leave those up until @maybones weighs in on them)

I was working on a draft of the group description to show you guys, and I was using a template of one of my old groups and rewriting stuff and changing it to suit our purposes and I realized how many freaking rules I have (I'm so picky), anyway, some of this stuff obvs won't be applicable (like, there's one about characters dying and I don't think we were planning on going that dark. although, serena was an accessory and chuck kind of killed his dad, so meh, maybe?) anyway, I wanted your opinions on what rules to keep and/or change:

✠ RULES AND GUIDELINES {GENERAL} ✠

I. Please be kind to each other. Your characters can be total jerks, but let us, the creators and/or writers be kind, polite, and respectful (aka, channel your inner Canadian guys). There will be absolutely ZERO tolerance of discrimination. You will be immediately removed from the group, and your actions will be documented and reported. PM me immediately if someone harasses you or you notice harassment between members. ⠀⠀Ia. If you want to be anonymous, for any reason, you can send in your complaints here {https://goo.gl/kbTXeU}, it's a google form, and it doesn't ask you verify your email, and the username option, is just an option, it's not required. If I need to make further contact/information from you regarding your concern, I'll make a group announcement vaguely describing your issue, and you can send in further information anonymously again. I'll be checking the form at least once a week.  

⠀II. I'm not giving this any specific rating, however, I will say, you're free to include whatever "adult" content you want, whether it be swears, gore, or the dirty stuff (I'm totally a mature, grown up adult guys). However, do be careful of polyvore's stupid censors, use workarounds like writing your story in google docs, or accents for swear words.  

⠀III. This is a non-elimination group,  but characters can die. It may be used for inactive members, or if you wanna kill 'em off or maybe revive as a ghost or something else. Permission will always be asked of the creator first (with the exception of characters belonging to inactive members, whose characters may be killed off as penalty).  

⠀IV. If you miss 3 consecutive contests (without informing me), you'll receive an "x", "|" will be used to break up non-consecutively missed contests, anyway, if you miss 3 in a row, that will open your character to be killed by either myself or other group members. You will be notified, but your permission will not be asked. If you wish to rejoin at a later date, and you character has not been killed off, simply pm me and continue with whatever contest is in progress. If your character has been killed off, you can re-audition with a new one, and I will transfer your points to your new character.

⠀V. Always pm me, your vodka aunt mod, if you feel you'll be unable to enter a contest, your reason doesn't matter. Just let me know you can't get your entry in, that way you won't receive an "X".

⠀VI. Plotting will be left open throughout the group, however, please establish a few of these before contests begin, and always ask permission when using someone else's character(s) and be sure to tag them in your sets. Please, PLEASE work with others, I hate when people just do their own thing in oc battle groups, this is a collaborative story, everyone's stories and ideas matter. I will call you out if I notice something that contradicts the connected story, and I will always, ALWAYS incorporate the stories of group members into the overall narrative. ⠀⠀VIa. Narrative precedence will always be given to the person who completely finishes the description of their set first.

⠀VII. There is not a list of roles to pick from, you can create whatever roles you want, however, I may ask you to change it if I feel your character may become "villager number 6" and not fit in with the action. Rules, regulations, and suggestions for roles can be found here: [placeholder].

⠀VIII. Always be sure to tag the member's when you use their characters and give credit where credit is due.

⠀IX. Plagiarism will not be tolerated and you will be removed and reported. If you're inspired by someone else's work, credit them, otherwise you're stealing.

⠀X. Sets unrelated to the group will be removed.

⠀XI. You will NOT be required to write out a full story. Story portions can be answered in paragraphs, but full stories are always welcome and appreciated.  

⠀XII. Do not use templates for contest entries unless otherwise stated.

⠀XIII. Always feel free to contact me with any and all questions, and/or suggestions. You can also send them through the anonymous complaints form, found here: https://goo.gl/kbTXeU

_________________________________

✠ RULES AND REGULATIONS {FACECLAIMS} ✠

I'm quite picky about these, but I'm not gonna be pedantic about it this time. You do you. Having said that, there are still some rules and regulations, as well as a challenge.

⠀I. All faceclaims must be above the age of majority (that's 18+ nearly universally on the planet), there is an exception for child characters but all main OCs must be at least 18.

⠀II. All faceclaims MUST be professionals. They can be actors, models, even singers. However, they must be singers of some note signed onto a label company, like Taylor Swift, or my beloved Dima Bilan (who's also an actor. a good one. yes, I'm bragging). Your faceclaim CANNOT be someone insta-famous, youtubers, or tumblr tweens.

⠀III. Whilst I'm not going to reject any faceclaim on the pedantic basis of "I don't like them", there are some faceclaims that I will and for one reason, and one reason only. Sexual misconduct of any and all kinds. Hollywood and the media are finally cleaning house, and I don't want those dicks in my nerd sht either. To be clear, I don't care whether the misconduct was simply groping a woman's breasts on camera and apologizing about 10 years later, I am going to reject everyone who's been accused. Examples include; Ben Affleck, Casey Affleck, Ed Westwick, Jeffrey Tambor, Danny Masterson, Andy Dick, Dustin Hoffman, and fcking Mel Gibson. (Side note, these are just actors, for a wider list of men who have fallen since the Harvey Weinstein story broke in October 2017, I recommend you check out this article {https://goo.gl/Uq65Qv} by the NY Times) ⠀⠀IIIa. If you notice I have accepted someone who has been accused of sexual misconduct/harassment/assault please inform me right away, and ideally with a link to a news source from where you learned about (I will google it myself, but the ready-to-go link would be much appreciated.) ⠀⠀IIIb. Also, Alec Baldwin is on my list of rejected faceclaims. He's not been accused of anything, yet, but I'm not liking his defensive attitude of alleged rapists. Fúck off. Matt Damon also falls under subsection B, for a slightly different reason, but fúck him too. In this watershed moment, I have no time for defensive d i c k s and "not all men" a s s h o l e s.

⠀IV. The Challenge: a lot of us have certain fave fc's we use over and over again (I'm certainly guilty of that), so my challenge is for you to use a faceclaim you have never used before as your primary oc. This is gonna be based on the honour system, some of you guys I may know well, so I'll know if you're using your fave again, but others I may not, and I can't aggressively stalk everyone, so I won't call out anyone for not doing it. It's just a fun little challenge, worth 10 bonus points, if you opt to do it. But again, it's based on the honour system, I'm not gonna stalk anyone, but if I know you and you lie to me on the audition form. First, I'll be hurt, and second, I'll say sorry and tell you you're not getting those bonus points.

(I know, two sets of rules makes me such a di.ck, it's why I need your help guys!)

[bdor1995]

mo dao zu shi characters as @dril tweets

wei wuxian:  i put years of hard work into getting my torture degree at torture college & now everyones like "oh tortures bad","its ineffective" fuck off

lan wangji: TWITTER APP: THree different guys you know just faved the same damn tweet. This is breathtaking. What are the odds ME: please locate my wife

jiang cheng:  blocked. blocked. blocked. youre all blocked. none of you are free of sin

jiang yangli:  startling how im the only person on this site with an actual human soul. you would think the other guys on here have one, but no

lan xichen:   stunning: mindful adult , decked out in complete set of riot gear - takes out entire stampede of horses using wisdom and tactic's

lan qiren:  DUMBASS: SHut the fuck up THE WISE MAN: No you shut the fuck up

lan sizhui:   THIngs other people like: being bastards, being Uniformly tasteless THINGS I Like: Being reasonably kind, and trying to help, when i can

lan jingyi:  i regret being tasked the emotional burden of maintaining the final bastion of morality and NIce manners in this endless ocean of human SHIT

jin zixuan:  see this watch? i got it by Crying. my car? crying. my beautiful wife? Crying. My perfect teeth? Crying. now get the fuck out of my office

jin ling:  who the fuck is scraeming "LOG OFF" at my house. show yourself, coward. i will never log off

xue yang: the blue thumnbtacks on this map indicate concentrations of high 月(luna) energy, the red ones are all the panera breads ive been banned from

xiao xingchen:  “Why should there be only one good friday. Let’s try our best to make all the Fridays good. Thank you” -a quote i invented which made me cry

a-qing:  me: nobody has to get owned today. please, please put down the keyboard and step back 9 year old child: Fuck oyu

wen ning:  if your grave doesnt say "rest in peace" on it you are automatically drafted into the skeleton war

wen qing:  DOCTOR: you cant keep doing this to yourself. being The Last True Good Boy online will destroy you. you must stop posting with honor ME: No,

mo xuanyu: so long suckers! i rev up my motorcylce and create a huge cloud of smoke. when the cloud dissipates im lying completely dead on the pavement

nie huaisang:  christ.. ive done it again.. ive posted the absolute good truth shit that every1 has been waiting to hear in this sea of lying crap nonsense

jin guangyao:  never knew that anything was good or bad until i got on the computer, i had always assumed that everything was Average until i got yelled at

[scarletrebel]

⭐star⭐ waffle at me about your favourite lines youve written

ohhh friend you have opened a pandoras box and i hope you are ready also thank you aha

so i started…….. picking some lines and made the Executive Decision to just do one fic because i was planning on doing a couple from a handful of fics but turns out im far too prone to waffling about this kind of stuff because i love picking things apart and figuring out why they work because i love fuckign words and the things they evoke and stuff so yeah this is just some fave lines from most recent fic, requital. 

this was part of a ‘directors cut’ writer thing and if anyone has any more prompts, feel more than free to send them my way! 

Requital, Chp. 1: 

His honesty, wrapped tightly underneath a chivalrous act; a throwaway comment to soften the exposure of such a question, draws her closer.

She kisses him, and hopes that even though the motion is countless in the amount of times they’ve come together, that the answer is plain enough. A claim, she hears her own words in her head, tasting the tobacco of his morning cigarette on her tongue, the warmth of the pull at his hands on her hips.

so whilst i cant say this section was directly inspired by the ecdysis book, what i can say is that there is definitely some influence going on here, in particular these two lines from the page ‘synesthesia’:

“Wu Ming is a bonfire in the darkness, and she crawls toward his warmth.”

“Wu Ming leaves his questions by the wayside as he is drawn inexorably into the gravity well of her desperate honesty.” 

and thats not something i realised until i was writing the final draft, and im pretty pleased with myself considering not only is requital going to examine some of the similarities between avia and drifter, but also the fact that ecdysis is probably my favourite book. i mean…… ‘drawn inexorably into the gravity well of her desperate honesty’ what the FUCK KIND OF LINE its gorgeous i cant deal with it or this book or this page or how desperately gorgeous the tragedy of drifter and orins relationship is 

also…… look. im a hopeless romantic. always have been, probs always will be, so when i say avia and rook are soulmates i mean it in the cheesiest way possible. right before this is rook feeling a bit self-conscious about the whole awoken engaging thing, and theres no way avia can actually put into words how irrevocably in love she is with rook. so she kisses him, and hopes beyond hope that she can put those feelings into motions if not words. i also enjoy the small bit of possessiveness that came out of her too, because the whole ‘claim’ thing with the awoken was there since the first draft but this section came in the final edit, she thinks of it so casually but when she goes on to say that she’d actually duel anyone who came between them i…….. would not put it past her to be 100% down to do that. 

rook isnt a bonfire in the darkness, he’s an anchor in the deep, a solid tether when the sea becomes a storm. 

(ayyy where the FUCK WAS THAT WHEN I WAS WRITING THIS) 

Requital Chp. 2:

Here’s the thing, if you’ve gone through the trouble of decrypting this (a fortified certain-eyes-only encryption that took me a couple of hundred years to perfect, thank you very much), it at least means you’re interested, so hear me out.

i like this line a lot, for a few reasons. drifter knows avia well enough at this point to be well acquainted with her temper and lack of time for dealing with his nonsense. it’s the first flick of the coin between the two of them, drifter laying the proverbial gauntlet down and at the end of the day, its up to her whether or not she picks it up. 

and she does, avia asks levi to decrypt it, and the first thing she sees is drifter acknowledging that shes done so and asking her to at least hear him out. he’s kind of caught her out, and she can respect that even if thats not at the forefront of her mind. avia also has her own brand of curiosity when it comes to people like the drifter, so this is kind of the first inkling of that. and it also (i hope) makes you wonder if drifter is aware of that curiosity that she has, if he sent the message decrypted on purpose to get her interested. 

She smiles at the note, throws her legs over the bed and stretches around a yawn. Five minutes later, Levi puts her in her armour.

“Are you sure you don’t want to stick around?” The Ghost asks. “We don’t have anything urgent to do. There’s breakfast here.”

Avia hums, considering. She moves into the kitchen, glances over the fridge, the cupboards. She looks then onto the sofa, the sprawled pillows, untidy blankets. Suddenly the armour on her body feels heavy, out of place, like the metal has no right being somewhere like this.

“No. I’m not hungry, let’s go.”

“Okay,” Levi says in that tone of voice that lets her know they aren’t buying it. “Should we walk, or transmat?”

Avia notices the balcony door is still open. She walks over and closes it, the streets barely alive as one or two civilians walk to and fro, glancing idly at each other as they pass. “Transmat.”

avia immediately makes an comment about being all domestic with rook in chapter 1. its just not something that suits her in her own mind, and that line (even though i havent waffled about it bc dear god theres too much here already) was something i immediately knew i wanted if i was going to write a day of domestic bliss with her and her fiance, because i knew it’d be a hard thing for her to just get on with like a normal person aha. 

so, we get this part in chapter 2. the domestic bliss is over, and what avia knows best, what shes always known best, is a set of armour and getting back to work. however this part of herself contradicts that which she’s experienced for the past day, and especially the line ‘Suddenly the armour on her body feels heavy, out of place, like the metal has no right being somewhere like this.’ i put in to really reinforce that idea. its not the metal that feels out of place in this scene, its the person in the metal. and her eagerness to transmat straight to the tower rather than walk through the peaceful city streets shows her tendency to run from such thoughts.

this part came really naturally, actually. its a small snapshot into a bigger struggle avia has with herself (especially given the dreaming city, the reef, petra and now potentially going back to the worst part of the shore with drifter) of where she belongs, and more importantly, if she deserves to belong. which is why levi talks to her in that tone because they know what shes doing, theyve seen it so many times before – avia in a scenario that resembles something normal and running from it with no one around to stop her, because in her subconscious she doesnt believe she deserves it. 

“Ada-1, I believe, has fully settled into the Tower. She becomes more and more tolerable of the Guardians by the day. And with the discovery of Niobe labs, her mood has been favourable.”

i had no idea how fun scarlet was to write until i got to this part. she almost has her own language, really. writing ‘im really proud of ada because i spent all morning with her and she was only snippy with like two guardians and shes been really uplifted and im really happy for her since they found niobe labs’ in scarlets own ‘okay but heres the relevant information’ way of explaining things is a challenge but FUN. like, really fun?? 

because scarlet wouldnt be mentioning adas mood if she didnt care, ya know? and its not that she cant say that longer thing about being proud and stuff, its just that she doesnt see the sense in it and its not important information. like, if avia and eden were to spend a dedicated amount of time whittling her down she would absolutely say ‘i am so proud of ada and also i wanna smooch her face how do i do that as an exo’ but its just not a thing for her. but part of the reason why ada and scarlet being together was an idea that i had was because i imagine that line of thinking probably suits ada. 

“It was at Ada’s request. I had more knowledge of the area in its current state, and felt more comfortable talking to Ikora and her Hidden agents than Ada did…”

supportive exo girlfriends. that is all. man ive gotta write more about these two

“Hmm,” Ada wears a concerned stare masked behind a formal rigidity that Avia knows her Warlock teammate best for.

if im being honest, i just really enjoy this line. i imagine its hard for exos to show concern, esp a character like ada and my girl scarlet, so avia has spent a lot of time dissecting certain facial cues and yeah im proud of how this description came out aha

…as if she hadn’t spent the past few months clipping sidelong comments and threatening him when his Gambit veered out of the realm of her control.

avia is a control freak. plain and simple, and i wanted to make that as obvious as possible considering this sentence is only a few away from avia choosing to go and talk to drifter. 

there’s a certain amount of ‘i need to understand this thing that i have limited knowledge on so i can predict/control/plan for it in the future’ in how avia views drifter in general, its a kind-of warlock way of thinking about things but the big difference is avias need for control in these situations is a) selfish and b) only applies to things that she knows she has a good chance of understanding/taming. shes not going around learning about the hive because she has a good understanding that thats a cosmic threat that can only be defended against until it comes. drifter on the other hand is on her doorstep.

i also really loved the contradiction in putting ‘gambit’ and ‘control’ next to each other in a sentence, i kinda hoped it showed how conflicted avia is about going and talking to drifter, and maybe even how naive it is of her to think that it could turn out okay. 

She was incensed, maybe, at the way he spoke to Ada, needed to go and stomp the idea out of his head but he got her talking, like he does

i like this line bc its avia acknowledging that she knows how shes viewed. she knows everyone sees her as a hot-head, she knows her anger veers away from her sometimes and whilst she’s gotten better at getting a handle on it, it’s still an aspect of her that people who dont know her well enough find it hard to get past. 

i also enjoy how new people to this fic/avia in general might not know that this is a big part of her? so she’s trying to use it as an excuse, ‘well no one can blame me if i say i got really mad because thats what i do’ and it (hopefully) tells new people about that aspect of her character without having to show the worst part of it, the convo with ada being an introduction to it i guess – especially since the past few scenes have seen her a lot softer than im used to writing aha. 

“Dammit,” she mutters under her breath. And walks towards the Drifter before she can make a better decision

fun fact – this line was originally ‘and walks down the corridor before she can make a better decision.’ 

i changed it because i wanted to make it more obvious that avia is making a conscious decision to choose drifter, that she’s walking towards a path that she knows is not a good idea. it provides foreshadowing for the allegiance quest and referring to him as ‘The Drifter’ cements it as an idea that she’s walking towards and not necessarily a person. 

[lifeisjustanotherstory]

W/c 21/01/2019 - the week in anecdotes and not-shower shower thoughts 

Monday

Aytaj went to Milan for the weekend. MILAN. Beats my weekend. 

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I just found out that “Royals” by Lorde came out 6 years ago this year, and time suddenly seems to have flown past. I mean...6 years? Really?! It’s probably been a year since I heard the song, and listening to it feels very nostalgic. The Youtube playlist moved on to “Team”. I used to like a particular chorus in that song - and still do - it lent itself to story ideas, and great character adventures in my head. I need to write again soon - it has been too long. 

We live in cities you'll never see onscreen

Not very pretty, but we sure know how to run things

Livin' in ruins of a palace within my dreams

And you know we're on each other's team

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Waiting for allocation of tasks from the US team. Currently have to chase Chase for our scoping file. 

(chase Chase...once you hear it, you can’t unhear it...)

**************************************************************************************

Tuesday

I wore my jumper on Tuesday, as I had planned. Getting up early, I hadn’t thought much of not seeing the brand logo on the front - it crossed my mind, only to be replaced with the thought of catching my train.

I went through the day - a good 95% of it - before one of the Managers called me as I made my way to my locker to put away my things for the day. Her name is Amy, and she lives near one of the towns that my train stops in on my way home.

“Deepa? I think your jumper is on back to front.” I lifted up the item of clothing in question, and to my deep embarrassment I was faced with the jumper’s label. I nervously laughed and headed to my locker as she made her way out to the bathroom. I was walking around with a silver pheasant on my back all day.  

Mortified doesn’t cut it.

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I accidentally put Sahil’s coffee cup in my locker yesterday and now he’s got a huge white label on it, with his name in block letters. Oops.

But at least he’s sitting next to me again. Or maybe that’s just because I always let people use my chargers. 

**********************************************************************************

Wednesday

I’m trying to make my way up the stairs without stopping, which causes me to huff and puff (no houses are blown down, however), go red in the face and get a pain in my lower abdomen. No pain, no gain eh. Anyway, my eyes met Jasper’s on the way up, and we exchanged “Morning”’s. He knows I come in early, and vice versa, but we never seem to interact any more than that.

Anyway, he held open the door for me on the 10th floor, which I felt was very considerate. He didn’t have to, but he heard me coming (granted, I wasn’t that loud) and waited. I can’t say I’ve heard all good things about this guy - but his action today spoke a lot.

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Finally relented and chose to get a breakfast from the canteen today. Still haven’t decided whether I’ll expense it though. Mushrooms were my favourite kind, wide and flat - like I’d never seen before, the egg nicely poached and the beans tasty. The sausage was all the more succulent for the guy forgetting to charge it to my total bill, which came in at a round £3.00.

Back up in the audit room and I was in mid-conversation, with my breakfast box hanging dangerously close to the edge of the table. Indeed, if not for Fahim’s hand, it could have ended up on my (suede) dress or on the floor. Credit to his reflexes for saving my day.  

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Thursday

My dad remarked that the jumper I chose to wear today doesn’t have a very obvious logo on it. What cruel irony is this?

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Did 11 year old me ever think of her 21 year old self deciding to take a 6:11 train, instead of the 6:20, just so she could catch some z’s onboard? #10yearchallenge

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Aytaj offered me some of her chocolate. It’s milk chocolate with a hint of toffee, but it looks like dark chocolate. Azerbaijani chocolate has exceeded my expectations. 

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Had to reach out to a guy from our Swiss team in order to get some accounts that the UK team needs. No need to fear - Emanuel is here (!!!)

He is also up for the weekend because let’s be real, as if that isn’t what everyone is thinking.

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Oh my gosh, just filled up my bottle and that is some.fresh.water.

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I enjoy sitting next to Aytaj. No one else would have such fun trying to solve an IT issue. Or have cool client names (Sandwich, Hong Hong...and my personal fave; Jing Jing). Or laugh about their half-eaten chicken leg on the floor. (Thankfully, it was in a box). 

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Managed to return the favour to Aytaj and gave her a chocolate biscuit. Matt H had one too. 

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Friday

Does Nick even know my name? Of course, there is no reason for him to address me by it when it’s just the two of us in the audit room. 

He promised not to rub his fancy breakast in his face as he left the room to go the restaurant. We’re approaching banter stage. 

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Fahim looked shattered, and I told him as much.

Me, over Skype; You look so tired

Fahim: my face speaks 1000 words about my tiredness lol

Me: Where’s a painting emoji when you need it?

Earlier we’d gone to get drinks from another floor today. I remarked that I don’t drink coffee, and he was really surprised. Shocked indeed. I must be one of the few people who don’t in this job. Coffee is like water for the majority of finance professionals. (I jest, but I have honestly seen people drink as much coffee as water, if not more.)

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Sahil knows I get in early, so when someone said that I’d need to go and do something at 11:30am, he joked and said “That’s like evening for her.”

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“Deepa, who you Skpying?” I could feel my stomach fall as I heard Jits ask. “You always put on your privacy screen when you’re not doing work?” I wasn’t Skyping, I was updating this blog. My thoughts will live on, as I hope them to, in this manner. Even if my currently healthy sleeping pattern doesn’t make it. 

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Nick (Dorn as opposed to Daws) asked Jits which song the line “It’s electrifying” I was. I responded “Greased Lightning” without a second thought. Jits remarked that it must have been a favourite of my parents’ in their teen years. He wasn’t right about them liking it - but they were both 19 at the time of its release. Wow.

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Watching a comedy programme and I just sat through the comedian mentioning the word ‘cunnilingus’ without any change in my facial expression whatsoever. I deserve a pat on the back for making it. Thank god my parents didn’t ask me to explain what it was...

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Saturday

Four months till my exams, with busy season yet to really start for me. Cripes.

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Attempted to read. Attempted being the key word here. Made my revision timetable though.

A bit sad about my lack of weekend social life over the next few months, as if I even had one to miss?

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Steak was worth forgoing my nap for. Only just. It’s been too long since I’ve had pure meat like this. I don’t think I could ever be a vegetarian.

Asked for a different kind of salad and got served the wrong one, only for them to bring a new one instead! Free salad, yay! (Green leaves are gr8, what)

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This new car is too clever for us. One tyre goes under the set pressure and it sets off a warning sign in the car. Ignorance really is bliss.

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To write or not to write, that is the question.

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Sunday

Lifted my stuff off the floor and found Ayana’s letter underneath.I’d completely forgotten about it. It’s nearly a month after she sent it to me, and she deserves a lengthy reply. I’l take it in my bag to work and draft a reply to write next week.

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Revision is going rather fine, if I do say so myself. Of course, I am not even one day in. Time will tell. 

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You know when you can sometimes taste what you had earlier? My cod liver oil capsule obviously broke on the way down, because my mouth has just been flooded with a fish taste. If someone kissed me right now, would they taste it?

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I wrote, and it was liberating. 

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Less than an hour to bedtime and the first edition of a week in anecdotes and not-shower shower thoughts was a success. Here’s to next week and many more.

Deeps 

[theofficialstereklibrary]

Top 18 Sterek Fics 2017

Hello, our lovely followers!

For the past two years, we’ve been giving you guys a list of our favorite fics that we read and we are back at it again! These are the fics that really stood out to us in 2017. (here are our faves from 2016 and 2015)

Like always, this fandom came through with so many good fics this past year and we hope to see more and more sterek fics posted even with the show done.

We wish you all the best in 2018 <3

Kass’:

There Are No Wolves In California by kitsunequeen (1/1 | 7,579 | G)

Hunter!Stiles accidentally hits a wolf with his car and can't bear to leave him in the road to die. It's not till he gets the wolf home that he sees its eyes glow red... ------- Even everyday roadkill is upsetting, but this thing… Moments ago it was probably a majestic beast, and now it’s a mangled pile of soon-to-be rotting flesh. He presses a shaking hand to the only part of its chest left intact, not even thinking about whether it'll give him rabies or some other awful disease.

He’s about to pull back when something even crazier happens.

He realizes the wolf is breathing.

We Have Potential by dragon_temeraire (2/2 | 10,196 | PG13)

Derek has finally been invited to the annual North American Werewolf Convention. The only problem? They’re expecting him to bring a significant other. He doesn’t actually have one, but everyone volunteers Stiles for the job.

A Royal Christmas Engagement by skoosiepants (1/1 | 25,865 | NC17)

Young omega Warden Lord Mieczysław Stilinski, given the royal request of marrying Crown Prince Derek Hale of Triskelion, predictably messes the whole entire thing up.

Or –

An arranged marriage, mistaken identity, a/b/o, accidental heat fic

Hale’s Modern Encyclopedia of Playing Cards (and Dating Humans) by thepsychicclam (1/1 | 49,698 | R)

Wolves don't date humans. And Derek's okay with that. He's got his Pack, his friends in the Pack network, and lacrosse. Plus, he plays cards with his grandma all the time. Stiles Stilinski definitely doesn't factor into his life - no matter how much of a crush Derek has on him.

But when bird creatures attack Derek, Stiles, and their friends in the Preserve, Stiles finds out about werewolves and things get pretty complicated. For Derek at least. And he thought school was his only problem, but now he's grounded and Stiles is hanging around way too much for Derek to ignore him any longer.

Slow Hands by aussiebee (1/1 | 8,489 | NC17)

Derek is suddenly made aware of Stiles in an entirely new and uncomfortable way; specifically, his hands. His wide, strong, clever and dextrous hands.

Derek is kinda screwed.

The Start of Our Forever by Cobrilee (1/1 | 20,546 | NC17)

Stiles is ready to get out of Beacon Hills and start his new life, free of the supernatural. A random discovery in an antique store in Denver proves you can never leave it all behind... and encourages him to find it again. What ensues is four and a half years of pining, self-discovery, personal growth, a whole hell of a lot of love, and a realization that nightmares can still become fairy tales (happily-ever-afters included).

In Which Laura Is Never Going To Let Derek Live This Down by Omimouse (1/1 | 1,587 | PG13)

Prompt: A soulmate fic where you’ve got “Help! Save me!” on your wrist. So you do the martial arts classes, and ROTC, and get a concealed carry permit, you are READY, you are SO up for this… and then one day you’re at a friend’s house, and someone comes pounding down the stairs laughing and ducks behind you and goes “Help! Save me!” and that’s how you find out your soulmate was escaping a tickle fight.

“Laura, for the love of god, stop laughing and get him off of me.”

Gnashing Teeth and Criminal Tongues (conspire against the odds) by LadySlytherin (1/1 | 14,269 | R)

When Stiles mouths off to the wrong set of witches, he finds himself unable to control his tongue around a certain alpha werewolf. As Stiles struggles with the lesson the witches want him to learn, he knows it's only a matter of time until the truth comes out. It always does.

This is Not (In Fact) Okay by rileywrites (1/1 | 3,062 | PG13)

Derek and Stiles end up partnered for a project, and Derek contents himself with being a part of Stiles' life. For a while. ... Derek meets Stiles in his political science class. It's a 200-level class, so he doesn't expect any seniors to be involved. He definitely doesn't expect the hotshot senior midfielder from the lacrosse team to be in the class, let alone sitting beside him.

Tine's:

pick it up if we're moving too slow by standinginanicedress (12/12 | 139,856 | NC17)

“…I want a dude who’s going to take me out on dates. And I want him to meet my dad in, like, a sweater vest and khakis and shake his hand and talk about sports with the guy. And I want him to have a car and an apartment – not like, nice ones? But ones, you know? He’s got a dog, too. He drives me around and buys me stuff and is nice to my dad and my friends but then, like,” he squeezes the basketball extra hard and is sure he feels some air being let out of it, “…he ties me up sometimes, too. Is that too much to ask for? Am I reaching for the stars?”

Scott shakes his head, shuffling the cards and making piles out of them, likely by category. “There are no kinksters in Beacon Hills. We’ve been over this.”

To Make It Right by kitsunequeen (41/? | 121,147 | R)

In a society where the werewolves have been enslaved by the humans, Derek has had enough owners to know who the real monsters are. He's also had enough to know not to trust a word out of Stiles' mouth, no matter how nice an act he puts on.

The only thing that's kept Derek going for all these years is guilt. Now, though, he has a mission that might just allow him to set some of this right...

If only he can get away from Stiles.

-----

In which Derek's been abused all his life, Stiles just wants to show him he's not like his past owners, and they've both got a plan. The only question is, whose is more flawed?

And the Cold Pulls You Down by blacktofade (1/1 | 12,967 | NC17)

“Do you believe in ghosts?” Stiles asks Derek one night after he’s settled into bed, listening to the sound of Derek brushing his teeth in the bathroom.

“Ghosts?” Derek asks, voice muffled by toothbrush and paste as he stands in the doorway to stare at Stiles.

Or, the one where Stiles is 99.9% sure their house is haunted and no one believes him.

Seat Belts & Gravity by calrissian18 (1/1 | 22,411 | NC17)

People leave in Beacon Hills, give up on the town, the people, on life itself. And he and Derek are still here, six years later, still able to drink a beer and share space. It’s kind of remarkable in a really understated way.

Constantly on the Cusp by alisvolatpropiis (13/13 | 40,884 | NC17)

Stiles is gay, out and proud, and a Beacon Hills deputy. Derek is a firefighter and war veteran who thinks he's straight; or, Derek and Stiles have lots of semi-public hatesex on the road to Love.

Bruises and Hickies, Stitches and Scars by ElisAttack (12/12 | 89,808 | NC17)

“You’re my lawyer, Derek. What are you going to do, draft up a contract for yourself?”

Or the one where Stiles is a professional dominant, Derek is his lawyer, and their professional relationship suddenly becomes not so professional.

Also, faeries.

Start Small, Like Oak Trees by SmallBirds (1/1 | 24,234 | R)

The months following Allison's death have passed Stiles by in a haze of monotony. He sleepwalks through days that seem to lose their color, an unwilling passenger in a body he no longer trusts. Eventually, he thinks, he'll just fade away. He isn't sure anyone would notice. Then, during a spur of the moment grocery run, he stumbles upon Derek Hale attempting to console a lost child, and for the first time in recent memory the world doesn't seem so awful. He's not sure what he'd been expecting when he eventually convinces Derek to move into the Stilinski's spare bedroom, but a newfound passion for weeding and topsoil certainly isn't it.

Can't Take the Heat? by Ilovesocks_24 (15/15 | 55,425 | PG13)

“Hi, I’m Stiles, and what I have for you today is…”

“Stop, just stop.” Grumpy Eyebrows interrupted. “That is honestly the worst looking Pasta Primavera I have ever seen. I don’t even want to eat it, it looks so bad.”

Stiles narrowed his eyes. No one insulted his creamy bacon carbonara without even trying it. And no one insulted his creamy bacon carbonara after they tried it either.

“It’s actually a Creamy Bacon Carbonara, asshole,” Stiles snapped. “And for the record, it’s supposed to look like that.” Or the one where Stiles is a new sous chef at Full Moon Steakhouse and Derek is the Gordon Ramsay of all head chefs. So of course they fall in love.

Written in the Stars by Quixoticity (6/6 | 26,596 | R)

Derek Hale is a lucky guy. He's got a great family, good friends, and a fulfilling job as a tattoo artist.

He's also one of the twenty-five per cent of the population born with a soul mark.

He likes his life, but he's waiting for his soul-match. The odds of meeting them aren't great but hey, Derek's a lucky guy. He has faith.

He can't believe how good his luck really is when one day his soul-match wanders right into his studio, all long limbs and copper eyes. There's just one problem: Stiles is there to get his soul mark covered up. Permanently.