#out of order but what do you expect

[blackkatdraws2]

There are more things in the Parable than Stanley knows about. [Blank Scripts AU]

[s0fter-sin]

ghost stares at the ceiling, chest heaving in a harsh pant; sweat ice on his clammy flesh and soaked into the sheet he restlessly kicks away.

ears still ringing, his fingertips blindly drift down to trail along his vivisection scar. he half-expects blood to smear in their wake. his own line of solomon, who ordered him split in twain; half of him given to a grieving mother and half left with the grieving to be.

just for both his broken halves to be rejected.

what did it make him that his mother grieved him more than she loved him? that she begged to be relieved of him more adamantly than she begged to receive him? why did his worth spill out with his drawn blood? why was his pain lesser than hers?

his hand flexes, digging into the raised scar like it’ll part beneath his fingertips to plunge into his mangled insides. no one knows the cruelty of reforming the halved; his name, his being, not nearly as important as his body when he was stripped from himself. no one knows the pain of healing and understanding losing pieces of yourself means losing your value along with them.

how many more pieces did he have to lose before he was halved once more? before his very presence incurred grief so strong it was better to be rid of him than cradle his bloodied remains?

did the infant fight himself? did he age always at odds with himself; his halves never truly whole? he hopes he wasn’t, that he was spared the loss of self; the fear that one may be welcomed over the other.

who will he lose when the inevitable comes? when he’s ripped apart again? simon? or ghost? is it better to be cursed with choice just like his mother or live with an aftermath chosen for him? does it matter if in the end, he convinces himself there was nothing of him left to lose?

his head lolls to the side and the wild buck of his chest slows. he watches johnny beside him, his face lax with the rare peace of sleep; his cheek squished against the pillow, his lips pursed as long breaths escape him.

johnny. soap. never torn asunder but two all the same.

he carefully reaches out and ghosts his fingers along the jagged scar on his chin. even in sleep, he presses into his bloodied touch. he’s never fled his half-flesh, never shies away from his gore as it spills unbidden from his cleaved torso. he holds on where his mother let him go; cups his stomach to hold his insides in place and never minds the blood that drips through his fingers.

simon will never let him become his own solomon and cannibalise himself. he will never let him question which half of him has more value; which pieces he can afford to lose before he’s cast aside.

ghost’s soap. simon’s johnny. his.

whole, in any incarnation.

[amtrak12]

After a conversation with a friend about this weird trend of fic readers who only want epic length fics (and also what seems to be a massive misunderstanding between parties on terms and their definitions), I went searching for the fandom sources I cut my teeth on. I don't have much bookmarked from those days anymore, but googling got me to this fiction length/terminology breakdown from a Livejournal blog. (Which also has good fandom definitions for other terms like A/N and fanon too, so if you're super new to fandom, go check that out.)

The definitions come from the publishing world (hence the page counts), but fandom and fanfic has always borrowed heavily from official publishing terminology. Flash fiction (aka, anything less than 1k words) is called a 'ficlet' within fandom. We call everything else a fic until it reaches the novella mark -- which may start at 20k words but as synecdochic breaks down on their Dreamwidth blog, there's a lot of overlap between short stories and novella word counts. Because, when you're not constrained by physical page counts, the real dividing line between short stories and novellas are the number of plots and themes you're using. (Seriously, go read their meta on this topic. It's fantastic!) Either way, once you're hitting tens of thousands of words, you're in longfic territory. And then if your fic is even longer than that -- 100k+ like shown in the screenshot above -- it's called an epic fic.

And these terms, longfic and epic, are important because they're used to differentiate these stories from the average fic. Because, at least in the 2000s up until the 2020s, the most common fic lengths you ran into were between 1k-20k words. "Fic" made the reader assume only a few thousand words at most. It's only when you changed the term to drabble or ficlet or longfic that they would realize 'oh this is going to be shorter or longer than normal'.

I don't really understand why that baseline assumption has changed amongst the newer demographics (and maybe amongst some long-running fandom members too?). I've seen a lot of theories and 'tiktokification' complaints, but I honestly don't know what's true. And I don't want to start a fight or even try to change anyone's minds if they are dead set against reading short story length fics. You can do what you want!

Just maybe shift your attitude about it a little bit? Remember that it's a personal preference the same way tropes are, and that one story length isn't better than another. Just like tropes, each story length serves its purpose. Some stories are best told in 1-2k words. Some are best told as 100 word drabbles -- or even a single sentence! And then, yes, some stories do need to be 100k+ in order to be told properly.

But that's not every story. And it shouldn't be expected of fic writers to pad a 1500 word plot into some sprawling epic just because they left it on a cliffhanger. The cliffhanger is probably the point of that fic! Short stories are an entirely separate art form to novels and as such are able to cover different topics than novels can or cover the same topics differently. And that's what makes them special!!

And look at that word count breakdown by genre! That's mainstream publishing standards! Now, go back up there to the definition of a novel and notice that the average published novel is 80k words long.

Let me repeat that:

The average length of a published novel is 80,000 words long.

Could a novel go longer? Sure! And if you're dipping into adult sci-fi or fantasy, absolutely it will be longer! But does your fic need to be longer than the average novel in order to be good? In order for you to feel satisfied when you finish reading it? Why does the length of the fic matter more to you than the content?

idk just some rambling food for thought, but I guess too long, don't read:

~✨~ Every story length is valid ~✨~

It just depends on the plot you have and the structure you want to use to tell it.

[musubiki]

worst hostage ever. (prev)

[unordinaries]

unordinary 340 spoilers

so i’ve been thinking about it and on one hand, isen suggesting they leave john and run is a pretty sobering moment because he really is just clinging to the first real opportunity he has to protect his best friends who won’t stop getting into situations where he quite literally can’t but on the other hand it is also kinda like. (gently grabs isen by the shoulders) hey man. we saw valerie’s level. i think you’re gonna need that guy later

[gideonisms]

Does a podcast ever release a take you disagree with so strongly it makes you question everything you heard on it up to that point

[krispiecake]

tell me why i can hear another tenants fucking music from my flat. HE DOESNT EVEN LIVE IN MY BUILDING. HE LIVES IN A COMPLETELY SEPARATE BUILDING ON THE SECOND FLOOR AND I CAN HEAR HIS MUSIC FROM MY FLAT. MY FLAT WHICH IS IN A DIFFERENT SEPARATE BUILDING.

[lord-squiggletits]

Honestly it annoys me that pride, ambition, and generally having a big ego are always villainous/evil-coded personality traits because personally I think if you genuinely are a prodigy at what you do you are 100% within your rights, perhaps even deserving, of flaunting your skills and being proud of the fact you can do something that only a small fraction of other people can do. Is it even ego at that point if you genuinely are as good at your field/skill as you say you are? Are people not aware that becoming a prodigy at something is something that takes lifelong sacrifice and practice sometimes to the point of giving up on having a normal life, relationships, etc even potentially destroying your own health???? God I fucking hate how pride in your own skills and ambition are so villain coded all the time. As if it's evil to want to be good at something and be recognized for what you rightfully earned

[one-winged-dreams]

SCREAMS INTO MY HANDS

[nonokoko-draws]

Starting the year with Riddle hcs 🌹

I feel so proud that the semi realistic headshots still look good if you flip the canvas... 😤✨ More hcs ↓

Similarly to Epel he has insecurities regarding his body. Unlike him he doesn't go nuts when the spotlight goes to his feminine features, only when his age or mental maturity is questioned due his looks Floyd is an exception because anything he says makes Riddle explode.

He used to take great pride in his idea that he is mentally more prepared for adulthood than most boys his age, that he knew better than his childish classmates, before he was humbled in book 1. Post OB he still thinks he is book smart and mature but does he know how much he has yet to learn, though he still finds rather insulting to underestimate him for age or looks. Summary: call him a child and the effect would be the same as calling him short

Whilst Epel is focused on the conservative sense of masculinity, Riddle aspires to be a gentleman. To be exact, he has taken a liking to victorian etiquette on how to be proper during courtship rituals.

I think he would find tips such as "don't flirt with every lady you meet and don't assume every (young) woman is eager to fall in love with you; maintain a dignified reserve"; "be ready to act the knight if a lady in your company is attacked"; "don't get a innocent woman her hopes up" or "neither party should make the other jealous" quite tasteful. Of course, he's sensible enough to know which habits of 200 years ago he should cross out

Mr Roseheart is probably the one Riddle got his Japanese inheritance from, as it is weird to believe Mrs Rosehearts would chance her last name if she is a big name in the magical medicine industry. Unless his husband was the most prominent figure and she got more prestige with this marriage, unlikely in my opinion as controlling people like her usually take a dominant role in the relationship. So I suppose it's either a case in which each pattner keeps its surname or Mr Roseheart was who changed his

Riddle is autistic but his mother didn't make him go to any tests because she wants to believe his son is "normal". I'm under the impression she could be the type to be ableist just because (sadly many doctors are this insensitive and out of touch despite the irony of their fields) OR she doesn't discriminate neurodivergent people but doesn't want hers to be because she firmly believed if little Riddle knew he was autistic he would use his diagnosis to avoid facing the things he could struggle with or excuse "lazy" behaviour with it or she knows how ableist others can be and wanted to disguise him by making him a functional, well-adjusted neurodivergent individual.

Her reasoning? If he is capable of adjusting and is unaware of his autism he won't try to use "the easy way out of" when confronted about his struggles and he won't be bullied by his peers; don't mistake this as a kind gesture from a mother with good intentions but terrible execution. She believes if he was bullied during his studies he could drop out off medicine and she hasn't been preparing him to be a doctor like her for all his childhood to get her plans frustrated by an external factor such as how his classmates perceive him.

Therefore making him believe he is like the rest + homeschooling would "prevent" this outcome because neither he would interact with possible bullies nor he would know what's "normal" for kids his age so he wouldn't feel different because he didn't have a chance to interact with other children.

Plus interacting with adults and certain kids deemed intellectual enough would enhance his possibilities of "growing out of any annoying habits inherently from young kids" (emotional outburst and "childish stuff" she doesn't like). Which I think is way worse than if she was simply an ignorant ableist doctor, but also makes her a more manipulative and calculating character than what we know of her so far.

It could also make sense as for why she was so mad his son made friends she didn't approve of beforehand, because the only way he could have had external interactions would be handpicked by her.

Anyway that's all for today rambles, follow me if you wish to know more about my downfall in the spiral that is being a twst fan to not lose track of my delusions 🫡

[front-facing-pokemon]

[schizononagesimus]

🎶 they tried to make me go to rehab and i said PLEASE PLEASE HOLY FUCK I FEEL SO BAD WILL NOBODY HELP ME I CANT STOP WHY DOESNT ANYBODY NOTICE HOW BAD IT IS PLEASE HELP

[seaofreverie]

I want to visit a place i've been thinking about visiting for several months now but that's scary

[crescentfool]

🎆✨

[inferno-silentdragon]

Another omori pixel doodle while I procrastinate

[mcybree]

Thoughts on 3rd life mirror birds. 3rd life big dogs. 3rd life property police. They fascinate me and I think you have thoughts on them but I might be wrong..either way

i do in fact have thoughts on them but i think if i talk about 3l!flower husbands publicly any more rn I’ll get so self conscious I’ll explode on the spot. this being said i have still yet to watch evo but its been on my list for forever bc of 3l!property police specifically… i really love martyns petty grudge against jimmy for those first two episodes he acts like he’s 12 and really pissed off on the playground. anyways i think that martyn going from being concerned for his friend to Just Fucking Lying to split up Scott and Jimmy, because he took personal offense to Jimmy being unwilling to drop everything to go live with him on the spot is the funniest thing in the world. Girl it’s not about you