#paragraph breaks!!! use em

[acornmaybe]

been thinking about mice tea.

margaret turns into a mouse but peggy becomes a mink. so the default animal form varies between alters. quite cool

but what if its a Lot less distinct....

if youre confused about who's fronting can you take a sip of kemono tea and the animal the body changes into will tell you? will the tea get confused too?

i mean i dont think it will cause it cracks eggs when (im assuming) those eggs dont know of their transgender status but what if the tea is stupid and its magic gets fucked in this particular area.

hybrid animal?

[pygmi-cygni]

WRITING TIP: grammar. good god.

just because it's tumblr doesn't mean you can throw grammar and spelling out the window.

COMMON MISTAKES:

Not indenting for paragraphs. I know tumblr doesn't have the 'tab' function, but at least do a paragraph break. When?

If someone new is speaking

If the setting/action has changed

a new thought

think of it like the camera angle changing in a movie. Would the camera break to another room? or would you watch five minutes of bouncing and spinning while the camera moves to the right location. (Hint: it's the first one)

Big blocks of text make me homicidal. Knock it off.

Apostrophes!

It's: it is

Its: belongs to 'it'. We think it can also be it's, but it's not (see what I did there huh huh hee hee hooo boy)

Possession: Jenna's, Jess', The Twins'. NOT Jennas', Jess's, The Twin's. If there is a group, put the apostrophe after the plural 's'. PLURALS DO NOT HAVE APOSTROPHES IF I SEE THAT AGAIN I WILL REVOKE YOUR LITERATURE LICENSE AAAAAH.

Punctuation goes inside the quotation marks. "Like this." "Not this".

Dialogue punctuation.

"If you're talking and something happens," she said, dodging past a car, "you'd punctuate with a comma and lowercase." See how I didn't capitalize the bold word, or put a period after 'happens?'

Don't do this:

"If you're talking and something happens." She said, dodging past a car, "You'd punctuate with a comma and lowercase."

bad. wrong. booo.

MISUSING SEMICOLONS.

; this baby. makes a cute face ;) but is also useful!

it explains a clause, like so (an excerpt from my drabble 'Deal With It, pls read xoxoxo): "it was cozy; you'd pulled a blanket over your head and your music played gently." I said something was cozy, and then I explained how after a semicolon. It's not just a fancy comma. Don't use it like a fancy comma. it's like commentary of the actual writing. Professional parentheses.

PARENTHESES.

Don't use them. It doesn't make any fucking sense. use a semicolon or a colon or a comma or hyphens or literally anything else. underscores, even. just not parentheses. it's so weird.

WRITING STYLISTICALLY

Bold, italic, all lowercase, that stuff. use it consistently! you don't have to follow the rules if you make it seem intentional and consistent.

Bold.

emphasis, intense, eye-catching. good for a groundbreaking revelation. not the strongest choice for anger. has a staccato feel to it. punctual, concise.

Italic

wistfulness, pause, contemplation, haunting emphasis. good for flashbacks, whispering, angsty emphasis. If you overuse it, it'll feel kinda weird. i know we love her but give her some space. Otherwise it feels like pumping the gas and slamming the breaks really fast during the sentence.

all lowercase.

she's cute, she's aesthetic, she can get confusing sometimes. we need Capitals so that we can identify the Important Things. names, places, proper nouns, I know you know 'em. if you wanna start ur sentence lowercase, okay sure, but it gets muddy if you do it everywhere.

ok byeee xox

[reachartwork]

how to write fight scenes

many people have told me that Chum has good fight scenes. a small subset of those people have asked me on advice for how to write fight scenes. i am busy procrastinating, so i have distilled my general ethos on fight scenes into four important points. followed by a homework assignment.

Fight scenes take place on two axii - the physical and the intellectual. For the most interesting fight scenes, neither character should have a full inventory of the other's abilities, equipment, fighting style, etc. This gives you an opportunity to pull out surprises, but, more importantly, turns each fight into a jockeying of minds, as all characters involved have to puzzle out what's going on in real time. This is especially pertinent for settings with power systems. It feels more earned if the characters are trying to deduce the limitations and reach of the opponent's power rather than the opponent simply explaining it to them (like in Bleach. Don't do that). 1a. Have characters be incorrect in their assumptions sometimes, leading to them making mistakes that require them to correct their internal models of an opponent under extreme pressure. 1b. If you really have to have a character explain their powers to someone there should be a damn good reason for it. The best reason is "they are lying". The second best reason is "their power requires it for some reason".

Make sure your blows actually have weight. When characters are wailing at each other for paragraphs and paragraphs and nothing happens, it feels like watching rock 'em sock 'em robots. They beat each other up, and then the fight ends with a decisive blow. Not interesting! Each character has goals that will influence what their victory condition is, and each character has a physical body that takes damage over the course of a fight. If someone is punched in the gut and coughs up blood, that's an injury! It should have an impact on them not just for the fight but long term. Fights that go longer than "fist meets head, head meets floor" typically have a 'break-down' - each character getting sloppier and weaker as they bruise, batter, and break their opponent, until victory is achieved with the last person standing. this keeps things tense and interesting.

I like to actually plan out my fight scenes beat for beat and blow for blow, including a: the thought process of each character leading to that attempted action, b: what they are trying to do, and c: how it succeeds or fails. In fights with more than two people, I like to use graph paper (or an Excel spreadsheet with the rows turned into squares) to keep track of positions and facings over time.

Don't be afraid to give your characters limitations, because that means they can be discovered by the other character and preyed upon, which produces interesting ebbs and flows in the fight. A gunslinger is considerably less useful in a melee with their gun disarmed. A swordsman might not know how to box if their sword is destroyed. If they have powers, consider what they have to do to make them activate, if it exhausts them to use, how they can be turned off, if at all. Consider the practical applications. Example: In Chum, there are many individuals with pyrokinetic superpowers, and none of them have "think something on fire" superpowers. Small-time filler villain Aaron McKinley can ignite anything he's looking at, and suddenly the fight scenes begin constructing themselves, as Aaron's eyes and the direction of his gaze become an incredibly relevant factor.

if you have reached this far in this essay I am giving you homework. Go watch the hallway fight in Oldboy and then novelize it. Then, watch it again every week for the rest of your life, and you will become good at writing fight scenes.

as with all pieces of advice these are not hard and fast rules (except watching the oldboy hallway fight repeatedly) but general guidelines to be considered and then broken when it would produce an interesting outcome to do so.

okay have a good day. and go read chum.

[starshideurfics]

Buzzed, Buzzing - part 2

part 1

Buzzed, Buzzing

JQ, you can’t go dropping TWO horny photoshoots on us in less than a week!

steddie, omegaverse, Buzzed part 2, mdni 🔞

Finally being with Eddie is a dream. At least for the week he’s in town, fully foregoing Steve’s guest room and its comfy mattress.

Instead, it’s a week of Eddie wrapped around Steve each night, skin touching skin, bodies sated in a bone-deep way Steve’s never felt before.

A week of waking up to Eddie’s lips on his neck, to whispers of, “Morning, Puppy,” and sleepy yawns, arms tugging him closer and closer.

A week of Robin saying, “I’m happy for you, truly, but could you try going five minutes without swapping spit?!” only for Eddie to look her dead in the eye and lick whatever part of Steve is closest to his mouth.

A week of Steve floating on a cloud of affection and hormones.

Then Eddie has to leave, head to Chicago and buckle down for long days filming.

Steve mopes their whole last morning, sneaking shirts out of Eddie’s suitcase until the alpha relents and dumps out his dirty laundry. “Put ‘em all in your nest, I can get new shirts.”

Steve purrs, gathers the shirts, and herds Eddie back to his room for a last quickie before Eddie’s Uber arrives.

Being apart sucks. They videochat daily, text constantly, but Steve still misses Eddie every second he’s gone. So, he’s back where he started, mooning over pics on his phone, scenting at Eddie’s boxers as he works three fingers into his aching pussy.

He’s holding out, but Steve is counting down the days until shooting wraps, when Eddie would fly straight to Indy.

Steve’s on his lunch break, typing out a response to Eddie’s latest text as he shove pretzel thins and hummus in his mouth, when his phone starts buzzing.

Robin is calling, from the other end of the building. “Hey, Robbie, need me to get you a coke zero?” he asks instead of saying hello.

“Don’t tell me you got rid of your Munson-stalking web alert, because that’s the only reason I can think of for why you aren’t freaking out!”

He did, not really needing it when he has Eddie checking in with him at least hourly. “What? Robin, I’m texting with Eddie right now, what do you think I missed?”

“Just, look him up; your ADHD gremlin boyfriend probably forgot to mention it!”

Steve opens google, starts typing Eddie’s name and only gets as far as “ED” before autofill finishes it for him.

A new photoshoot and accompanying interview. Steve gets caught by a photo of Eddie eating a peach. It’s such a thirst trap, but it makes Steve smile.

Besides, there are other notes, but Steve’s scent has always been peach-forward. It might be a coincidence. Steve doesn’t think it is.

He reads the interview; about his current project, lots on the movie coming out next month that filmed a year ago, and his costars including a chill cat.

But right under the peach picture is a question about his personal life, how he stays grounded and connected when he’s constantly moving around for work. 

Eddie starts, as he always does, with Wayne, his friends, his charity work, the arts scholarship he funds.

“The truth is that it’s all for my partner. Like, I want to put good into the world, help kids like me who didn’t have the best start in life, but my focus is on being good enough for him, being the kind of person he can be proud of.” 

The journalist asks him to elaborate.

She writes about Eddie’s smile, the small one where he averts his gaze, emotions too big to share. “I dunno, just that he’s got me beat by a mile—he’s a teacher, middle school, you know, the worst time in a kid’s life. And he loves it!”

More words on Eddie’s laugh and kind eyes.

“So, yeah, the people I love, the people who love me, that’s how I keep my head on straight. That’s what it’s all about, right? Family, friends. Pack.”

Steve’s vision goes blurry on the last little paragraph. He wipes the tears from his eyes and pulls out his phone.

Just read the article! I’ve always been proud of you ❤���

Three little dots appear immediately to show Eddie’s typing, but they disappear and instead Steve’s phone buzzes with a call.

“I forgot that was coming out today! I should have warned you!”

Steve grins. “It’s okay.”

“It’s not, but thank you. And it wasn’t too much? I’m trying to keep my private life private, but if I can’t talk to you, I wanna talk about you. All the time. Because I fucking miss you, Puppy.”

“It’s okay,” Steve reiterates. “I miss you, too. So much. Wish you were here.”

The whine he lets out makes Eddie chuckle, low and dark. “Wish I had you here, could show you how much I miss you. At least you’ve got some new visual aides, but maybe tonight, when I call you could show me… Get your fingers wet for me.”

Steve lets out another breathy whine. “Yeah, want that.” He presses his legs together, tries to tamp down the feelings of desire before he gets too wet at work. “Miss your fingers, though.”

“Good,” Eddie husks. Steve can hear him lick his lips, so he knows Eddie’s nervous. “And it was supposed to be a surprise. But I’ve got the weekend off. My flight gets in at 9 on Friday night.”

Now expanded into a full fic! Read here

[literaryvein-reblogs]

Writing Notes: Dialogue

Dialogue - a written composition in which two or more characters are represented as conversing.

Crafting dialogue is an integral part to a good story, and it is an excellent way to progress your plot and characters.

Below is a guide to review your formatting styles.

FORMATTING DIALOGUE

Denote spoken words with quotation marks: “Let’s go to the movies.”

Dialogue tags go on the outside: “I’m excited for fall break,” said Abby.

When you have a new speaker, start a new paragraph: “Any plans?” Abby asked. Maria replied, “I’m going hiking.”

Keep action sentences outside: Maria nodded. “I’m going hiking.”

Use single quotations when quoting within dialogue: Rachel rolled her eyes. “And then he said, ‘We were on a break.’ Can you believe him?”

Use lowercase for dialogue with action in the middle: “If we don’t leave now,” Marcus yelled, “we’ll be late.”

Add Em dashes for interruptions: “We need to leave before—” A crash downstairs had the sisters skittering for the fire escape.

Punctuation after an ellipsis is unnecessary: “So, I guess we’re over…” he said, voice trailing off.

For multi-paragraph dialogue, do not end the quote at the end of the first paragraph. Add quotations at the start and end of the final paragraph: Marisol wiped her brow and said, “After we finish pulling weeds and trimming the box hedges, we should start planting. I want hydrangeas lining the fence and hostas flanking the stairs. We’ll need to lay straw at some point. “It’s going to be a long day, but I think we can get it all done.”

Source ⚜ More: Notes & References ⚜ Novel Dialogue ⚜ Effective Dialogue Plot ⚜ Character ⚜ Worldbuilding ⚜ Not Good Dialogue ⚜ Dialogue Tips

[facewithoutheart]

Five plus One, fic recs

A post is going around about fics you consider classics in the Snowbaz fandom. I’d like to take it a step further by asking …

What are five fics you consider your inspiration/influences for writing, plus one of your fics which you think best represents what you want to bring to the fandom?

5. Hang the Moon by @captain-aralias

@captain-aralias is, to me, the snowbaz fandom fic writer of our time. Her commitment to detail, to nailing Rainbow’s voice, while infusing every fic with a heart and purpose that will leave you changed. Every fic of hers is chef’s-kiss-perfection but I’m highlighting Hang the Moon specifically as a fic I often think about (Baz, wet tennis clothes, helping Simon fight the merwolves), and a fic that was my introduction to what fanfics could be/do. I think I finished this fic and just stared at the wall for an hour because I was just like, oh. Oh.

4. The Pitch by basic-bathsheba

Local Hero is one of my favorite fanfics but I wanted to highlight this fic because it’s just such a powerful and understated story. It’s love in the details. This Simon is the model for all of my Simon’s, just a complete simp for Baz haha but also a man who is comfortable and confident being the man who loves Baz even if he doesn’t get to claim it publicly.

3. Stay Up With Me by @sharkmartini

Not sure what to say about this that hasn’t been said a million times. It’ll break your heart; it’ll put you back together. The concept is brilliant and the exploration of two Simon’s will definitely put your emotions through a wringer. Time travel/what-if fics will always grab my attention but this one in particular makes the same case Rainbow posed in Carry On: what if the villain isn’t the villain? And takes it a step further, because Simon realizes he could be the villain, too. Absolutely beautiful.

2. Can’t Find My Way Home by @carryonsimoncarryonbaz

This is one of those fics that just has so much heart and sweetness. I love a good second chance AU, and this one has such Hallmark vibes in the best way. I just love the slow burn of it, and the amazing ending. A perfect holiday fic to snuggle up with. Reading this feels like being cozy up by the fire with someone you love. Actually writing this makes me wanna reread this so much; now that I live with actual Fall I wanna feel cozy like this again.

1. Basil Pitch’s Diary by @bookish-bogwitch

I know it’s a bit weird to rec a WIP as an influence, especially one that’s being written as we speak, but working with/beta-ing Em’s works have made me a sharper, smarter writer. I know this fic is a classic in the works and it’s something I think about on a weekly basis. The Baz Em gives us, to me, feels like canon Baz taken to the next level. What if Baz was the villain … but only to himself? Em’s writing really is just economical in the best way; every line hits, every paragraph teaches me something. And then the heart. It’s genuinely so hard to do what she does and I’m so lucky to get to see her work in realtime.

+1 This Will All Go Down In Flames

I think, at the end of my fandom career, I want this to be the snowbaz fic people associate with me (Spadey being a close second hahaha). But I do feel like it’s got a lot of fandom in-jokes, humor, and sweetness, plus the fun high-stakes of them being in the spotlight. I got to celebrate the Austin I love and miss, as well as poke fun at my own hipster upbringing. I put a lot of Me™ in this fic and it always feels so lovely when people like it. Besides, I got to work with the amazing @tea-brigade and their art just takes this fic to the next level. A dream collab.

(Throwing in the caveat that I started reading long before I got an ao3 account so it’s very likely I’ve missed some amazing fics from before 2021; I’m so sorry!)

Tagging everyone listed above and six more peeps to start: @cutestkilla, @you-remind-me-of-the-babe, @larkral, @ileadacharmedlife, @thewholelemon & @aristocratic-otter

[canon-in-too-deep]

Free Typesetting Template

So while I try to get some designs set, I thought I'd clean up and share the template I use for typesetting!

Templates save lots of time, and let me keep 'tools' where I like 'em. Free template here on my google drive ✨.

(As with all my stuff, Personal Use Only!) This file is for Affinity Publisher ONLY. I highly recommend getting Affinity Publisher if you're doing a lot of typesets and want a high degree of control over details. It has most of the features of Indesign, and far more capabilities than Word or Google Docs. There is a learning curve at the start, but overall it is a great program for typesetting and is a one time purchase, versus a subscription like other services. Please note, this template is set for my own personal preferences, and I always adjust it according to the text I'm working on. You can make whatever changes you want to suit it to your needs; I just included the normal settings I tend to use. See below the break for template details! (How to use/notes)*

This template is sized for half letter pages.

140% Leading, 11pt Font Size (Body Text)

The baseline grid is set for these exact preferences. If using a different font size/leading, I change these to match and play with the text boxes for 'Master Body' to make them look nice.

The template has the text boxes set up for where I usually insert text, copy, and headers/footers. I usually fill these out with the relevant details, and adjust the placements and sizes as needed.

I put X down where I usually write my name/imprint. The copyright page has a lot of blank space because I like to include my personal logos on there.

The copyright page also has the Project Gutenburg info I like to include, since I mainly do public domain works from there. If I'm doing a fanfic, I'll replace this with the tags/details from the fic's AO3 page.

Main text gets copied and pasted into page 9, then flows into the rest of the pages.

The paragraph and character styles I use are all included.

Very important, after pasting in your text, go to Find and Replace, and turn all italics to 'Emphasis' character style to preserve them.

'Body Divider' is how I include dinkuses.

'Special' paragraph styles are for when texts have things like letters or songs included.

Typically, I use 'Chapter Heading' + 'Chapter Character' for chapter titles, and set a table of contents on page 7 using these settings.

You'll notice that on page 9 I have a text box that links into the Master Body pages. This is my sort of 'test' page for chapter titles. I can freely change the size and layout on this specific page. I move it around based on what design I come up with, then copy that design into my 'Master Chapter Heading' spread to apply to the rest of the chapter title pages.

At the very end of a file, I'll usually put in a colophon. This is not in the template, but it's just a blank page at the end with my stamp and notes on the size of the typeset and what fonts I used. *I don't have a fully written tutorial at this time, but I recommend joining Renegade Bindery's discord, where a lot of very talented people have shared their tutorials, and provide very helpful live answers. Edit 9/20: Tutorial post here!

[ave09]

marriage

indiana jones x reader

“indy?”

“doll?”

“where do you draw the line when it comes to grading?” the man glanced up at you, pushing his round spectacles up the bridge of his nose, “what do you mean?” 

you slid the test you were grading across the table, “her answer is correct technically speaking, but he added a lot of unnecessary information that i had to pick the paragraph apart to find the right answer.” 

his hazel eyes skimmed the overly large paragraph, chuckling, “mark it as wrong.” you arched your brows in surprise, “really?” indiana nodded, “she’s adding in the extra information in order to try and score points with me, i’ve seen it too many times before.” 

“but won’t marking it wrong benefit her? this is worth ten points, marking this wrong will bring her to an F. therefore, you will have you will have to meet with her after class, giving her exactly what she wants, which is alone time with her attractive professor.” 

indiana stared blankly for a moment. he knew you were right. and yet, his answer remained the same, “mark it wrong.” 

you complied, using a red pen to mark an ‘x’ over the question. “well, don’t complain to me when she starts writing ‘love you’ across her eyelids.” 

suddenly, indiana rose from his seat abruptly, “maybe it’s time to show them that i already have a lovely lady.” 

“they know, i’ve been to your class before, indiana.” 

“no no, i mean like officially. show ‘em that i’m off the market completely.” you furrowed your brows, “indy, i’m not following.” the man rushed out of the room, toward the kitchen. you rose to follow him, only to hear, “don’t move!” 

so you remained seated. you heard a rummaging sound, then a clang. your gut told you to go see what was going on, but you remained compliant to indiana’s orders. 

he reentered the room, “okay,” he exhaled deeply, “i was gonna plan this out, make it nice and all, but i am known to be spontaneous..” 

then he dropped to one knee. your eyes widened as he revealed a small velvet box. you couldn’t believe it. 

“beautiful, we’ve been through a whole hell of a lot. from wild adventures, to almost dying, you’ve stuck with me through it all. and i’ll be honest, i never saw myself as the type of guy to settle down, but, then i met you.”

tears stung your eyes.

“you make me better, you make my life better. you’re the light in the darkness and i love you so much.”

he opened the box, revealing a beautiful diamond ring. 

“will you do me and the honor, and become mrs. jones.” 

you smiled tearfully, nodding rapidly, “of course i will, indy.” he grinned widely, “i had a feeling you’d say yes.” indiana then rose to his full height, you stood as well, approaching him. the man gently reached for your left hand, sliding the band onto your ring finger.

you couldn’t believe it! you were getting married!

“y’know, i think this calls for a celebration.” 

“celebration?” you were thinking he met breaking out the wine, or even heading to the bedroom. but instead, indiana moseyed toward the stereo, clicking it on.

 ‘cheek to cheek’ by fred astaire began playing. 

indiana turned around, extending a hand toward you, “dance with me?” 

“of course.” you replied, taking his hand. you two danced around your dining room, completely forgetting about the pile of papers that needed to be graded.

indiana began singing along in a low voice, “when we’re off together dancing cheek to cheek.” it was always a surprise to hear him

sing. it was one of the man’s many hidden talents, and you were the only one he’d ever sing for. 

he then spun you around, before pulling you close to him. 

“i love you.” he whispered, leaning in to kiss you. 

“i know.” you replied, only to have him

jerk back, “ i know? that’s all i get? i know?” you let out a loud laugh, “i love you too, indy. more than anything.” you then pressed your lips to his in a passionate kiss.

— — —

the next morning, indiana jones walked to his classroom with an unexplained pep in his step.  the students exchanged confused looks, the professors were curious.

the man stepped into his classroom, clapping his hands as he grinned at the students, “good morning class!”

“good morning, doctor jones.” they replied. one of the girls, the very one who had added all the entire information onto her test, raised her hand. 

“yes, miss fisher?”

“you seem very happy this morning, doctor jones, has something happened?” the man’s smile somehow grew bigger as he thought back to the events of the night before.

“something has happened, miss fisher, and i’ve been waiting all morning to tell you-i’m getting married.” 

[jp---v]

Part of me wishes that Midoriya never received One For All. As a disabled person, it always seemed like Quirks and the lack of Quirks were (in some ways) a metaphor for disability. The whole "Can someone be a Hero without a Quirk" just read as "Can I be Someone if I am disabled". And the answer was no. The answer was "You're useless, but I can fix you". I know that it would make so many arcs and part of the story either way more difficult or probably just impossible, but I wish that Midoriya stayed quirkless. He was built up as being incredibly smart and I wish we got to actually see that instead of. Big Punch. Big Kick. Fight Win. I wish that instead we saw him be resourceful and intelligent, I wish he was a bit more like Eraserhead or Nighteye, where they have weapons to help them fight. I wish we saw him fall behind physically and get support from teachers in the areas he was failing, see him go from just barely scraping by to succeeding because he has support, anything other than just handing over the cheat code to being a "Good Hero". I wish Midoriya's story was actually about if it's possible to become a hero without a quirk, and I wish the answer was yes.

Sorry for the big chunk of text, I've been thinking of this for. A while.

Ok, first thing first. Minor notes.

Paragraph breaks are your friend

You probably could've made your own post and more fully fleshed out your thoughts without having to worry about the ask character limit.

Now onto answering.

Yes. The series would've been completely different if One for All wasn't in play. Several arcs would have been impossible for Midoriya to participate in the Big Final Fight, and an action series where your protagonist can't join the fight, isn't set up for success.

But there are different avenues that could've been taken. A bigger focus on Underground heroics. Behind the scenes info gathering, undercover work, stake-outs, and all the dirty side of heroics people don't get to see. Eraserhead is an Underground hero himself, there's no way he couldn't have done with a quirkless Midoriya what he did with Shinsou and more, because he's his homeroom teacher. Weapons, tactics, Underground contacts. Then there's Midoriya getting to use his brain to design support gear and strategize his way around his opponents. Why set him up as this super analytically-minded person if it rarely comes into play? He's just another 'hit 'em till they stop fighting back' hero in the end.

But him losing One for All sucks too because he never even actually got to master it. The thing he's been trying to do since he got it. The series set this huge, important goal with easily trackable benchmarks(the percentages) and tosses it to the wayside, only for him to still fail at saving Tenko(because Tenko's been gone for years. A memory isn't a person).

On a wider scale, the series could've explored the themes of discrimination against quirkless people instead of brushing them away almost entirely. The fact that by the end of the series everyone was acting like quirkless discrimination never existed, and were instead focused on heteromorph discrimination, may have partially come from the fact that Bakugo is a 'fan favorite' gag me and Horikoshi didn't want to acknowledge him being the bigot he was pretty clearly shown to be early on. So it all got swept under the rug and "never happened." Because that would also require recognizing Midoriya's trauma, and the series has never once acknowledged it or taken Midoriya's pain seriously. Like honestly, Midoriya being so starved for human contact that he let's Uraraka call him Deku, even after explaining that it's an insult with years worth of weight behind it(and her still calling him that after he explained it), then making it his hero name? This terrible insult you've been called for pretty much your entire life, that's what you want to be known as for the rest of your life and beyond? And after Bakugo's alleged "apology" he switches to the overly-familiar Izuku, as if they're actually close friends and he still isn't violently screaming and insulting him like he has for years.

And as far as "support from the teachers" goes... UA actually sucks, just, as a school. He couldn't get support when he had more power in his pinky than most teachers have combined, even when he kept breaking that pinky. Eraserhead doesn't want 'students' to make into 'heroes' he's making paranoid little child soldiers. Despite having high grades, a 'saving people' mindset instead of wanting to be a hero for fame or money, which should put him pretty high on favorability compared to most of his classmates, but no, he's the Problem Child because he can't control his quirk. But does he ever get any actual help? Extra training? Quirk counseling? Nope! He gets thrown to the fucking wolves until Gran Torino sees what's happening and comes out of retirement to help this poor child no one else is helping. Crazy how Midoriya spent a couple of months at UA and his control never got any better, but just a week with someone actually training him and he can finally use OfA without hurting himself.

I forgot where I was going with this tbh.

Anyway... the story could've been completely different if Horikoshi acknowledged Midoriya's trauma, showed the effects of quirkless discrimination, and actually let the teachers teach in a series with the word 'Academia' in the name.

If Midoriya had had any kind of suppprt from anyone in his life, and was less hyperfocused on quirks specifically so he could think about support gear, then yes. He could've been a hero. Not the bright, shining spotlight kind of hero, but still a hero.

[escapingrealtiylovinginsanity]

Will Halstead: Guitar 

I needed to write some fluff after all the angst I’ve been writing lately. The song used is Body is a Wonderland by John Mayer. This was inspired by 2x8 of med (I think/ish) That singing did all the right things for me. 

Warning: Slight NSFW content at the end (a paragraph or so).  

You hadn’t meant to snoop. You were only in his closet because you were looking for something soft to wear. You weren’t going to put back on that slinky dress or your ruined panties. And honestly, it was Will’s fault. If he didn’t want you digging around in his closet he shouldn’t have disappeared before you got up. This thing between the two of you was new and labelless. Dating, screwing, or just a casual thing- you didn’t know.  

You did know that this- whatever this was- was a common enough occurrence that you felt comfortable enough to pillage through his closet. You fingered a few shirts before stopping at a soft well-worn sweatshirt. You pull it off its hanger and the smell of Will’s detergent and cologne floods your senses. It’s plain olive green with a Chicago Med logo on the breast. When you pull it over your head it drowns you. It falls past your knees and your arms completely disappear.  

That is when you see it out of the corner of your eye. You hum to yourself as your hand grabs the neck of the acoustic guitar. It was well-loved and worn. You carry it back to the bed. You sit down setting it awkwardly on your lap. You had tried to pick up the art of playing a few times before with little luck. You had learned five chords before you had waved the white flag of surrender. You remember two maybe three.  

You wiggled your fingers before pressing them onto the strings. When you stroke the strings, you wince. Even you know that sound isn’t right. You make a face chewing on your lip. You were about to put it back when a voice stopped you. “Flip your fingers.” Will was standing in the doorway, a bag in one hand, a warm smile on his face. The other was held up in front of him alternating his index and middle finger. You look back down at your hand and change the position of your fingers. You look back up at him and he nods encouragingly. You stroke the strings again and a rough but much more pleasant sound follows. “There you go,” 

You look back up at him guiltily. “Sorry,” 

“It just takes practice.” Your eyebrows furrow before you laugh shaking your head.  

“No, not the bad playing. I mean for-” You gesture to the guitar on your lap. He smiles again as he sits on the bed next to you. He holds his hand out.  

“May I?” 

“I mean since it is yours.” He takes the guitar in one hand while offering you the bag from the other. The smell of the bag hits you and you moan in delight when you register its donuts from the bakery a few blocks down. He chuckles at your excitement as you take a bite. He starts strumming and you look up at him. You are surprised when he starts singing in a smooth light voice. 

“We got the afternoon 

You got this room for two 

One thing I’ve left to do 

Discover me 

Discovering you 

One mile to every inch of  

Your skin like porcelain 

One pair of candy lips and 

Your bubblegum tongue 

And if you want love 

We’ll make it 

Swim in a deep sea 

Of blankets 

Take all your big plans 

And break ‘em 

This is bound to be awhile. 

Your body is wonderland 

Your body is a wonder, I’ll use my hands 

Your body is a wonderland” 

His brown eyes are warm as he looks at you. You are caught in the moment, drawn into him like a moth to light. Your soul absorbs the words as your mind reminds you it is just a song. He’s just playing a song; it doesn’t mean he means the words. Even if he does... it was purely in a sexual way...right? 

His hand grips the neck to stop the sound. He is still staring at you with those memorizing eyes. “Wow,” You breathe. “I did not expect that from you.” You glance at your lap before flicking your gaze back up to his. “I’ve never been serenaded before. It was-” beautiful, heartwarming, romantic, special, memorizing- “-sexy.” His eyes darkened and you leaned forward stealing a kiss and then another. He set the guitar down and cupped your cheek overtaking the kiss. His mouth tasted like bitter black coffee.  

“Oh yeah?” You murmur your agreement against his lips. His caresses are slow and soft. His fingers tighten on your waist pulling you up and over his lap to straddle him. When he fucks you, he does it slowly. Purposefully. His thrust is deep and rhythmic. His attention focused on your pleasure. He keeps eye contact with you. You watch the emotions flicker in his brown eyes. After a while...  

It feels like he’s not fucking you at all. 

Taglist @zaidatorcuatomorgado 

[so-many-ocs]

a guide to formatting dialogue (it's harder than you'd think!)

a request from instagram that i'm posting here. buckle up, because this is a long one!

if a spoken sentence ends in a period, don’t use a dialogue tag. either replace the period with a comma or replace the dialogue tag with a separate sentence indicating a related action or description.

incorrect: “I need to go.” he said.

even more incorrect: “I need to go.” He said.

correct: “I need to go,” he said. or “I need to go.” He pushed back his chair and stood.

this rule does not apply to other types of punctuation such as question marks or exclamation points.

leave the dialogue tag lowercase, no matter what. (proper nouns remain capitalized)

incorrect: “When are we leaving?” She asked. ("She asked" is not a complete sentence)

correct: “When are we leaving?” she asked. (the line of dialogue is included in the complete sentence)

when formatting dialogue, you can add natural pauses by breaking up a spoken line with a dialogue tag or an action.

correct: “Wait,” they said. “I feel like this is getting overly complicated.” (within the lines of dialogue, ‘wait’ is its own sentence, so you use a period after ‘they said.’ you can remove the dialogue tag and it would be written like this: “Wait. I feel like this is getting overly complicated.”)

also correct: “I’m running out of sentence ideas,” they muttered, shifting in place, “but writing doesn’t sleep and neither do I.” (if you wrote the dialogue without the tag and action, it would look like this: “I’m running out of sentence ideas, but writing doesn’t sleep and neither do I.” adding the dialogue tag lengthens the natural pause created by the comma. also it’s 3am while i’m writing this. “go to sleep,” you say. to which i say, “did you not read my example sentence?”)

still correct i think (probably but english grammar is a total bitch): “I am going to stop now—” Here, she began rummaging through her bag, before producing a slender vial filled with shimmering liquid, “—and show you something of great importance.” (if you removed the interrupting action, the sentence would be written like this: “I am going to stop now and show you something of great importance.” there is no comma, so the pause being added is for effect, rather than for grammatical purposes. use an em dash (two hyphens, formats like: —) or ellipses (...). additionally, the action is its own separate sentence, rather than being attached to the dialogue as a tag, so it is capitalized.)

an additional note on em dashes: if they are used in a sentence, be it for an interjection, an interruption, a pause, or a secret fourth thing, there is no space before or after the dash. here’s an example from my wip: “Now, though—and overnight, it seemed—the two were acting as a unit, leaving her on the outside.”

if, for whatever reason, a character is speaking in paragraphs, the formatting gets a bit wonky.

“This is going to be the shortest example paragraph ever, but here goes. I am going to write three sentences so this qualifies as a paragraph. Two sentences might also qualify, but I am nothing if not committed to the bit. “New paragraph,” she continued, “same speaker. Wow, look, I incorporated an earlier concept to demonstrate it in a different context. How cool is that? You should totally follow whoever is posting such great writing advice.”

there is no end quote after the first paragraph, but there is a start quote at the beginning of the second paragraph. the end quote comes whenever the speaker is finished. why? i have no idea; i didn’t invent the english language, i just work here.

you can use colons and semicolons in dialogue. it gets a bit awkward, but we’ve just covered paragraph formatting, so how hard can it be?

correct: He asked: “What on earth are you talking about?” (colon in place of a comma when a dialogue tag is placed before the dialogue)

also correct: They said, “It’s getting late, isn't it?” (comma when a dialogue tag is placed before the dialogue)

incorrect: “What on earth are you talking about?”: he asked. (the question mark functions as a comma and eliminates the need for a colon. also, as a rule of thumb, the ending punctuation does not get placed outside of the quotation marks)

still incorrect: He asked; “What on earth are you talking about?” (use a comma)

you can also use colons and semicolons within lines of dialogue (as you would in a normal sentence)

stylistic choices

you do not have to use quotation marks in dialogue, but whatever you choose to do, do it consistently.

For example, some writers format their dialogue in italics, they said. But grammatical and punctuation rules still apply.

Others don’t use italics and just hope people can spot the dialogue or action tags, she supplied. This can get a bit confusing, but I think that’s the point.

— Some use dashes to indicate the start of a line of dialogue, and, of course, the standard varies from place to place and language to language.

‘Still more use single quotes,’ he offered, ‘though I’m not sure why. Maybe it looks better.’

that's it for now! really, you could probably write a book on this topic alone, and cover every minute detail of grammar within dialogue (how would one format an interrobang, i wonder?), but here's a kind-of-basic-but-still-dense guide :)

buy me a ko-fi | what's the deal with radio apocalypse?

[allwormdiet]

Gestation 1.5

I wonder if Taylor's night is gonna get any better

This is actually a really good passage for the building tension. Lung's not gonna kill our protagonist in the fifth chapter of the novel but she doesn't know that. She can see her options narrowing down and her chances getting slimmer, she doesn't know there's like, a million plus words more to her story. This could be it, and this really sells it.

Okay actually I'm gonna circle back to something I totally missed in 1.4, which is the mild comedy in Taylor hacking multiple EpiPens in her kit as a teenager with, I'm gonna guess a modest allowance? You can tell this was written by someone who hasn't had to put up with US healthcare, that's minimum like $600 bucks of medicine, and frankly I don't think it's going to be any cheaper when the predominant pharmaceutical company is run by a Nazi.

Sweet of her dad, and also I cannot imagine facing down a hitter like Lung with nothing but a can of pepper spray, Jesus Christ that's stressful. This never comes up in the retellings, Taylor has cast-iron balls to pull this stunt.

Kudos on this, it's such a cool descriptor, and again: huge props to Taylor for staring this down and not running like hell.

Side note, either Lung's eyes are a magnet for violence or else Taylor is compelled to target the eyes. Maybe both. See if it keeps happening with either of them I guess.

Something something Jurassic Park reference, also do we need the reminder that he has an accent

YEAH YEAH YEAH YEAH IT'S THE CAVALRY BABY

Listen I know I'm a little spoiled here and the bias is showing but I already love these kids, look at em! They decided to swing at Lung for the sake of the girl who'd already pried him off their backs, they didn't need to save her but they did. I can't wait for them all to break my heart one way or another, it's gonna rule.

Grue is real as fuck for his costume, it's so cool.

Also I desperately want to know what the conversation was like for the Undersiders to decide "yeah fuck it let's put up our dukes against the head of the ABB." Who voted in favor of that?

The "but yeah" really sells the underlying youth of the character, btw. Gonna go out on a limb and guess there's a lot of kids who feel like they need to hold themselves like adults (and then don't really know how) in this story.

Squad squad squad squad

Quick and dirty introduction to the team, good enough start as anything, also lmao at Taylor just standing there with jelly legs trying to process this and completely unable to make words happen. Poor girl

"Certainly least" my ass, kid's got style.

Can Tattletale actually stop herself from talking? Not like in a power sense I mean in a needing to be smart way. I assume she can but it's not out of the question that she just cannot put a lid on it. I've known people like that.

Also an effortless display of trust and teamwork. Tattletale says boogie and Bitch is on it immediately.

So the fox parallels just start immediately, okay. Everyone always compares her to a fox, or makes her fursona a fox, or describes a vulpine grin, and I figured that was drawing on the text but I didn't think it came up literally in the first chapter she appears.

There's a couple different emotions I feel at this last paragraph. Per usual I feel bad for Taylor because this truly just has not been her night, she gets like half a W against fucking Lung but gets scared half to death, saved by villains, and then mistaken for a villain as well. Awful way to start a career.

On the other hand, Taylor, honey, you're terrifying and used a bunch of venomous and painful insects in order to break up a gang meeting, you're in all blacks and grays with big ol yellow eyes, your entire aesthetic screams villain, this is at least partly your own fault.

On the third hand, knowing full well how important the Undersiders are gonna be, and how feared Taylor is gonna be as a future villain, it's not hard to look at this like. Well what's so bad about them being villains, and what's so bad about being mistaken for one. Obviously it's a matter of morality and perspective and stuff like that, Taylor seems to only now be dipping her toes into moral flexibility, but the gift/curse of future knowledge means there's something, I dunno, a little sweet about this encounter.

Current Thoughts

Tired. Dragging my hands down my face rn. Last one for tonight.

This was a cool sequence. Rough introduction to the Docks and ABB aside, the fight between Lung and Taylor was super cool, a great feeling of the momentum shifting between the two as Taylor's bugs stop being able to keep up with the fire, the desperate play with the pepper spray, and being just. Fully backed into a corner until she's saved by the cavalry. If this is how the fight scenes keep going for this series then I think I'm in for a fun ride.

Also yaaaaaaaaay the team has been introduced, I can't wait to find out how much of the perception of them I've gotten through fanworks and my own half-baked osmosis is going to contrast with their canon personalities. Grue being all serious and Tattletale being a smirking know-it-all literally described as fox-like feel like solid indicators, if nothing else.

Next chapters tomorrow. It's Armsmaster right after, right? See what he's like.

[kroosluvr]

someone on twt asked for royal trio tennis playing styles so i will think out loud for several paragraphs under the cut:

PLAYSTYLE

GORO AKECHI. the son of masayoshi shido, one of the best players of all time, so he has big shoes to fill. however he didn't learn from shido himself and was instead passed around various intl academies before settling in at shujin tennis academy. as a lefty he uses it to his advantage: his spin serve is killer and he's a menace with backhand slices and drop shots. he's not one to rush the net and only cleans up with volleys if his opponent is basically off the court already. though not PATIENT by any means, he's very very consistent and i think he seeks to wear you down quickly at the beginning of the match: you get the feeling that "oh shit this guy's an absolute wall, i can't counter this, it's hopeless" so that he can rake in the games from there. i think you have to go into a match with REALLY high confidence otherwise he'll break you pretty fast he also does passive aggressive mind games i.e. instead of passing u the ball to serve he hits em to the corner so u have to go fetch them. doing quick water breaks or none at all if he's winning so you're forced to rush. asking "are you sure?" on linecalls where it was DEFINITELY out just to make you second-guess yourself. he doesn't cheat, though, obviously,that's leagues beneath him, but he'll do little things to break your concentration in a match so there's already a high bar to vault over if u even want a CHANCE at beating goro akechi, but if you get on his nerves somehow then you can crack him from there. someone like akira's unpredictability and flippantness on the court without much sense of planning probably gets under his skin really quick

AKIRA KURUSU. wildcard....... he played a lot of sports growing up, baseball, soccer, track, basketball, u name it basically, but picked up tennis at around age 13 and Somehow was extremely good at it, and immediately scouted and currently training at shujin tennis academy. his athletic and naturally competitive nature means he's naturally really attuned to the nature of Competitive Sport: aka, if he's down, no big deal he'll just fight like hell to get back up. one of the things in tennis is that u can spiral real easily: losing a few points can turn into losing a few games then the match, however, that doesn't phase akira which is his biggest strength. he's really good at Wiping The Slate Clean and starting from scratch if he's down. he's really good at swapping strategies: he can be the moonballer, he can be the 25-ball-rallier, he can be the serve-and-volley menace. etc. and he can do this on the fly without any reluctance. the biggest thing apart from goro and sumi is that he's having FUN. he loves being on the court no matter what, the competition part is secondhand. meanwhile goro and sumi are really really wrapped up in their issues with tennis so the kinda Mind emptiness akira has puts him a step ahead (which they're envious of slash HOW DOES HE DO IT? slash working towards it) SO YEAH hes highly adaptable and fluid in his game style. though, ofc, he tends towards Flashier stuff (which can easily surprise his opponents) so i'd say he's a big fan of cross-cross-down-the-line and such patterns. deep rallies then sudden drop shot and while ur scrambling he beats u to the net. stuff like that. second serve on the first serve. etc. another thing is that his parents are pretty absent (different than the way goro is) i.e. they just dgaf about him entirely, no matter what he does, even if hes good at tennis. (while w goro at least shido would acknowledge him since shido is so far in the limelight). so i think this adds to his adaptability - he doesn't feel constrained the same way goro and sumi do, by their family relationships akira's also one to chat up his opponent mid match LMAO he's not even trying to distract them or play them like that but he's just a friendly happy go lucky guy in the end his thinking is "i hate to lose" so he just keeps playing and keeps winning. it's simple like that

SUMIRE YOSHIZAWA. younger sister of kasumi, she started rhythmic gymnastics w her at a baby age but even from a young age she could tell kasumi was going to outshine her. because of her own timidness holding her back, her own reverence of her sister, she could tell she'd never truly have the willpower/confidence/steadfastness to reach out and be Better than kasumi. because what she really wants is to imprint her name on the world - she doesn't want to be yknow. "kasumi and sumire" she wants to stand on her own, something she doesn't feel she can do if she keeps on with gymnastics. SO SHE SWITCHES TRACKS TO TENNIS another independent sort of sport where you're also scrutinized in the limelight and etc. it'd be difficult to learn this late in the game (age 11ish maybe.) but she's steeled herself and shes determined and READY. it was a biiig decision for her but her parents+kasumi were basically like ok <3 yay<3 and she doesnt reveal how insecure she was about all of that and living in kasumi's shadow and etc. she only confides in akira abt this later down the line (and then goro) her game is really like yknow textbook GOOD like all her shots are impeccable and perfect and really technically perfect. super impressive all around. i dont think she has any specific shots/plays that make her stand out, but her game speaks for itself already in how consistent she is and how steadfast she seems on the court (though inside she's lowk nervous) i think her game might be "predictable" just because of how pristine and mechanically she learned it, but the thing is her form and aim is just so flawless that even if you do know whats coming next you cant counter it all the time actually if anything i think she'd have a killer fast first serve. like CRAZY powerful i think she's not naturally "good" at tennis the way akira and goro are so she works 10x as hard to remedy it. more than just the physical/technical component, getting her mental right is the hard and most important part. when she gets deep into a match sometimes her brain gets the better of her, so in longlong matches she oftentimes loses so that's the current thing she's working on.

PUBLICITY

as with pro tennis comes PUBLICITY and BRAND DEALS and INTERVIEWS and MODELING and ETC

goro dgaf about that but if he's more Famous then he'd be more shoved into shido's face so he goes along with sponsorships and interviews and magazine covers even tho he lowkey hates it.

He doesn't do the detective prince thing here bc he doesn't need to be. he's outwardly bitter and pissed off and snappy the way we know him

akira and sumi are his biggest fans tho always collecting his brand deals and magazines and stuff. they also help tutor him in english so he can do interviews better LMAOO though he's really eyeroll about it

akira and sumi both are good with the publicicty aspect as opposed to goro. sumi, striving to become an intl star, expects it and trains herself for it in spite of her social anxieties. akira, well, is akira and is totally made for the limelight

this causes some sort of internal distress? in goro. he can't quite place it but he feels strange standing alongside them..... something like that. like, of course he wants to take the tennis world by storm, but in the way that he can rub it in shidos face. not really this... aspect? he's not sure what to do with this.

OTHER NOTES

sumi and goro are both highly superstitious and have a solid routine that they ALWAYS adhere to. i.e. goro always practices vs the ball machine the night before. sumi always rewatches rio iwasaki's killer 2016 matchpoint before matches. sumi never wears tennis shoes anywhere other than the court. goro never drinks other gatorade colors besides yellow.

meanwhile u could call akira up 3 mins before and be like hey matchtime and he'd be like ok<3 yay<3

sumi and goro also both analyze their opponents before matches i.e. looking up their ranking and stats and extrapolating stuff frm there while akira is like "oh narukami? from uhhhh. gekkoukan? no. yasogami? ohhh haha thats fun i dont think i played him before :3"

to me at least sumi doesn't come off as naturally competitive the way akira and goro are, inherently: i think she wants to be GOOD, and maybe (in this au) she wants to be Better than kasumi, to gain recognition, to stand on her own two feet: etc. but maybe she doesnt have the inherent Means to get there so that's a lot of what she gains from being friends with akira and goro, to get insight into their mindsets

akira and goro are doubles partners (for better or for worse) (it works great some days and horribly the next. you never know) they dont Seriously compete in doubles though, theyre both singles players to the end.

akira and goro switch off being sumi's mixed doubles partners. she doesn't really play doubles at all i think

sumi is the one who watches pro tennis the most. goro and akira don't really keep up

they all go to shujin academy but kinda half-homeschooled bc as pro players they dont have time for full-time school. theyre also traveling a lot so yeah

goro ties his hair in a low ponytail on the court, sometimes pins his bangs back. akira's hair is too short to tie back, i imagine he pins it back or wears a headband a la rafael nadal

sumi wears a visor! and contacts. akira wears contacts too but sometimes he wears glasses when hes silly goofy

mishima is a sports reporter LMAOOO well theyre all highschool age here so he's a Wannabe sports reporter.

it's also common knowledge that goro is shido's son btw. and goro's mom is dead also. i think only akira and sumi know abt like. his hatred and resentment towards his dad tho

ALSO they all idolize rio iwasaki bc i said so. shes prob like the coolest tennis player of the decade and also woah shes from gekkoukan thats cRAZYYYY!!!!!!!!!!!! hamuko is her wife too. tennis coach ham:3 or smth

i think akira's story is then catalyzed later down the line by an injury - that he can heal from, but it forces him to seriously look at tennis and say for certain "ok this is my dream and this is something i want to devote my life to" the way sumi and goro are already devoted to

[purgatorygrl]

Analysis of why Sun Bleached Flies by Ethel Cain is so Arthur Morgan coded

Okaay so, this is an attempted analysis of the song Sun Bleached Flies by Ethel Cain and how for me it is so Arthur Morgan coded. It is also partly my interpretation of Arthur's story. I have not analyzed the whole song I have only put the paragraphs that I think are related to his story. I really recommend listening to the whole Preacher's Daughter album, specifically this song!!! It's quite a spiritual journey (there are also other songs on this album that are very Arthur coded but maybe I will do another analysis another time)

Sun bleached flies sitting in the windowsill

Waiting for the day they escape

They talk all about that money and how their babies are always changing

While they're breathing in the poison of the paint

For me this paragraph reflects how Arthur has been trapped in the band his whole life, waiting for the day they get the money that Dutch promises and can go with Mary to live the life he wants. Dutch is always talking about all the money they are going to get, all the plans he has and all the great things they will achieve over and over again but that never comes true. He always has to listen to Dutch talk and talk, always listening to him and never being able to contradict him, always nodding and obeying.

However, everything is getting worse and worse and little by little he sees how everything is falling apart around him and how he is further and further away from escaping.

What I wouldn't give to be in Church this Sunday

Listening to the choir, so heartfelt, all singing

God loves you, but not enough to save you

So, baby girl, good luck taking care of yourself

So I said fine, 'cause that's how my daddy raised me

God, this phrase... if you change God for Dutch you have everything, EVERYTHING. Dutch loves you but not enough to save you. Dutch loves his children, the whole gang, but at the end of the day, when things start to get bad, when he loses control, when he doesn't get what he wants, when people doubt him, he chooses someone else over his son, over his family and betrays them. And he betrays Arthur, he lets him die, he doesn't save him, he doesn't help him, he leaves him completely alone on the brink of death. And in the end Arthur is alone again, like when he was a child, like when his mother and father died. Alone, physically and emotionally.

If they strike once then you just hit 'em twice as hard

But in the end, if I bend under the weight that they gave me

Then this heart would break and fall as twice as far

Arthur knows that he has to fight, he has to fight now for what he wants to do, he is not going to let himself be defeated and he wants to try to leave this world having left the people he loves tools to continue their lives and try to be happy. So Arthur fights, fights until he can't anymore until all the weight of his life falls on him.

We all know how it goes

The more it hurts, the less it shows

I think that Arthur has carried many traumas and fears inside him all his life that few people know about, things that hurt him a lot that terrify him like the death of Eliza and Isaac. Everyone in the camp sees Arthur as a tough guy, the one who protects them, someone who doesn't hesitate to shoot or hit. I think a lot of people see him as someone without feelings or remorse but in reality he is drowning in fear and trauma, he just doesn't let it show.

And I spend my life watching it go by from the sidelines

And God, I've tried, but I think it's about time I put up a fight

He has ALWAYS listened to everything Dutch told him, he has always followed him, faithfully, he hasn't doubted him, he always had faith in him. Until it was impossible not to doubt him, until he realized that he didn't have time and that the little time he had he wanted to use to do what he wanted, what he knew he had to do. The fact that Arthur got tuberculosis is not only an important element since it is what kills him, but it is also the trigger for the beginning of the change in the world he knows and the fight between the person he was and the person he wanted to be.

But I always knew that in the end no one was coming to save me

So I just prayed and I keep praying and praying and praying

If it's meant to be then it will be

So I met him there and told him I believe

Singing if it's meant to be then it'll be

I forgive it all as it comes back to me (back to me)

He was meant to die and he knew it. He knew there wasn't much else to do. No one came to look for him on that hill as he died, he was there alone, wishing he had made other choices, wishing he had lived the life he wanted deep down, praying and praying but mostly fighting.

The chorus is an angelic part of the song, really. It's the fact that in the end everything he's been doing all his life will come back to him somehow, everything has a consequence and he tries to fix that, but in the end he doesn't have enough time to be able to fix it and in the end it all comes back to him and he pays for his "sins".

I'm still praying for that house in Nebraska

By the highway, out on the edge of town

Dancing with the windows open

I can't let go when something's broken

It's all I know and it's all I want now

And in the end, when he was dying, he still wanted that house with Mary, that dream of having a family that he never had, he wanted to be with her, to sort out his life and be able to run away and live a life of peace and happiness with those he loved the most, to stop being the man he had to be and become the one he wanted. But even though he always had the windows open to leave, to escape, he didn't do it, because it was all he had and it was all he knew.

[kitkatt0430]

Instead of doing a Six Sentence Sunday today, I think I'll do a short tutorial on copying over fanfic from FFnet to Ao3.

So you've got some old fics on FFnet and you'd like to back them up to Ao3, given the instability of FFnet. And for whatever reason you don't have the original files for the fics, or maybe you have edits to the FFnet versions that you don't want to lose that the OG files don't have. Whatever the reason, you're looking to directly copy over your fic from FFnet to Ao3. And you're looking for a relatively easy way to do so, but Ao3's import functionality doesn't work with FFnet web pages.

Never fear! It's actually a fairly easy process to get your fic copied over from FFnet.

First, head over to FFnet and open up the fic you want to port over to Ao3. You don't need to log in if you don't want to, just so long as the fic in question is yours and you can access the page, then you're good.

In a separate tab, open Ao3 and login, then choose the option for posting a new work.

Now back on the FFnet tab, you should be able to directly copy over the title, summary, fandom, and what little tagging was available on that site onto the relevant Ao3 fields in the tab you have for a new fic. You'll also want to take note of the published date on FFnet and back date the new work in the Ao3 tab.

FFnet may not have a lot of useful tag data, but it's pretty easy to replicate and build off that in Ao3.

Now for the hard part. Which is still pretty easy. Getting the fic body, plus any notes in the fic itself, copied over to FFnet.

While getting around FFnet's lockdown on the text of the fics they host is fairly simple - I'm pretty sure it's entirely css based - you don't really need to do that in order to get the body of your fic copied. And, honestly, even if you do have a work around in place to allow copying of the fic's text... you will probably find the following method a lot easier still.

In the body of the fic, right click the first line of the fic, which should bring up a menu with a bunch of options. On Firefox or Chrome you want the inspect option.

This'll bring up the dev tools with the html inspection tab open and, if you give it a few seconds to load, the specific line you right clicked to inspect should become the visibly selected section of the html.

The selected section of the html should be a paragraph (or <p>) element. You're going to want to right click the div (<div>) element that encapsulates that paragraph and the rest of the paragraphs in the fic body. This'll bring up another browser menu with the option to copy, which will bring up a flyout menu when you select it. From that flyout menu, you want the select the option for Inner HTML.

You have officially copied the html for the fic body. And you can dump that entirely in html format straight into Ao3's html work text editor. Then switch it to rich text for easier editing if you want to fix any spelling, grammar, formatting, or aesthetic issues. I typically try to fix at least the line breaks since it took a long while before FFnet adopted real line breaks and so there are a lot of fics where I have various combinations of dashes, em-dashes, equals signs, and other characters as line breaks. I figure, if I'm bringing the fic to Ao3 then I can try to make it more screen reader friendly in the process.

You can also move fic notes around in order to move pre/post fic notes out of the fic body or basically whatever you want to the fic. Maybe re-read it to determine any additional tagging you want to add now that your fic has access to Ao3's much more robust tagging system.

But that's it. You can hit post and have your fic with all it's original notes, and a back dated post date to reflect when it was actually written, all available on Ao3 now.

It's a pretty quick process, all told, and the only real bottleneck you might encounter is any time spent in re-editing the fic between migrating and posting. Even chaptered fics are fairly easy to migrate with this process, since the bulk of the work in publishing a new chapter is just copying the inner html and then moving any notes to the appropriate location before hitting post.

Anyway, for my fellow fic writers looking to move your old FFnet fics to a more stable archive, I hope this process helps a lot.

[messrmoonyy]

can I have something really sweet and fluffy messr? Maybe waking up with Tess and having cuddles? Maybe it could be pre apocalypse, no badness at all. I don’t care if it’s short or anything I just really need some fluffiness with Tess 🥺🥺🥺

Doctors orders

Tess Servopoulos x fem!reader

A/N- a few of you sent asks this week saying you wanted something fluffy as fuck so here you have it. I hope this cures any and all things you might be going through rn. Take a break. Come take a read and snuggle with Tess. You deserve it. Also look at how mesmerising that gif is my god she’s so beautiful. I’ll probably still post on Monday/Tuesday like normal I just wanted to drop this now cause it’s short and sweet ||| there is no readmore cut in this as everytime I included one it chopped off the bottom three paragraphs.

Warnings: none // pre apocalypse au.

Word count: 1.3k

Masterlist

Reblogs and comments are always greatly appreciated <3

You woke up to the sun shining across your face, peaking through a crack in the curtains and drowning you in early morning light. You twisted away from the curtains with a small groan, rolling over and reaching out for Tess. Only for your hand to find empty space instead.

Your sleepy eyes opened, handing patting the empty space as if she might somehow materialise back onto the sheets. Remnants of her warmth lingered in the cotton so should couldn’t have been gone long. You pressed your face against her pillow, comforted by the familiar scent of her and letting it ease you into a better sense of awareness.

Before you could call out for her, or get up and have a wander around the house to see where she’d gotten to, the bedroom door opened and she re appeared, climbing carefully back into bed again

“ sorry baby did I wake you? “ she asked as she opened her arms to you, letting you curl up against her chest.

“ it’s fine you didn’t “ you mumbled, pressing your face against her neck and sighing. You loved mornings like that. When you could just… exist together. Quiet and calm and warm.

Especially when the world outside seemed so… on edge lately. Rumours and fake news, scaremongering people about something or other. Wars in one country and famine in another. But in your house, your space, you could pretend the world was at peace.

“ don’t get too comfy. I have to get up and get ready for work soon “ you groaned in annoyance and it drew a small laugh from her, pressing a kiss to your head “ unfortunately not all of us have the week off “ you’d both booked the week out from work, needing to use up vacation days and hoping to spend the week alone together. You’d even discussed possibly going away for the weekend.

That was until Tess had come home last week to tell you she had to cover the week instead, one of her colleagues having had her baby or some shit like that. You’d known she had had the news the second she’d walked through the door with flowers to soften the blow.

You only got flowers on special occasions or when she’d pissed you off too much and needed to sweeten you up again. You knew it wasn’t her fault. But it was still annoying.

“ fucking Carla and her fucking baby “ you grumbled, tightening your grip on your girlfriend in some hopes it would make her stay, tangling your legs up with hers. She laughed in the way that always pulled a smile onto your face, light and melodic in a way that didn’t feel like it belonged to her.

“ yeah fuck Carla for getting pregnant huh? “

“ fuck em “ she shook her head, still laughing and ran a hand through your hair.

“ they’ll be plenty of other times we can spend the day together “ You sighed and shifted onto your back, looking up at the ceiling “ don’t get grumpy “

“ M’not grumpy “

“ yeah well tell you’re fuckin face that then “ she said with a smile, turning on her side to look at you, brushing your hair away from your face “ I can try get away early. We’ll go out for dinner or something, how’s that? “ you pondered on it for a while. Dinner would be nice. You hadn’t had an excuse to get all dressed up for a while. But it wasn’t enough. Four days worth of moping around the house bored because you didn’t have to work and she did, was finally coming to a head.

“ or you could just not go in at all “

“ baby-“

“ my god I think you’re sick “ you said with a dramatic voice, pressing the back of your hand to her forehead suddenly. You shifted to sit up more and pulled your best despair filled expression “ fuck. Yep. Burning up. Maybe it’s a fever “ she gave you a confused look, a smile pulling at her lips as she watched you “ I think you could even be contagious. I think for the benefit of your colleagues you need to stay home. It’d be pretty selfish to go and make them sick too wouldnt it? Oh no. What a shame. You’re just gonna have to stay home with me all day “

“ oh I’m sick? “ the smile on her face was the only real contagious thing about her, making it extremely difficult to force away your own.

“ so sick. I mean look at you, throwing up all over the fuckin place! Temperature. Got the chills. Man. You are just… you’re so sick. I think you should call in right now “

“ you are absolutely mental. Did you know that? “

“ fuck are you hallucinating now too? You’re worse than I thought “

“ that is possible for saying you’re being a fuckin head case right now. What have you been smoking? “ you rolled your eyes and folded your arms across your chest.

“ you have to stay home and be tended too by your wonderful, delightful, caring girlfriend “ you said, jutting your chin up with some air of superiority. Her hands reached out for you, tugging you back down onto her chest.

“ it’s sweet that you want me to stay. But I have to go to work “ you sighed and she brushed the backs of her fingers against your cheek, some gentle way of trying to ease the frown etched into your face “ cheer up “ she slid her hand round to the back of your head, pulling you in to kiss her. Knowing full well it would eliminate your frown immediately.

Which of course it did.

You’d long ago decided that it was physically impossible to be anything but overcome with immense joy when she was kissing you. Before her you’d not thought much of kissing, maybe because none of your exes had been particularly good at it. But she was. Fuck she was.

The gentle way in which she could command control with the soft press of her fingers, the way her lips seemed as though were made to kiss no one else but you. As ridiculously cheesy as it sounded, you were quite convinced they were made just for you. No one else on planet earth could make you feel the way she could.

“ that’s better “ she said softly against your lips, kissing you once more before pulling away “ see you crazy ass. I’m fine “ you shook your head, half lidded eyes falling closed again as you brushed your lips over hers.

“ still seem sick to me “ you whispered, kissing her again hoping to simply just distract her enough that by some miracle she might forget that she had to leave. Of course it wouldn’t work but at least you were giving yourself more reasons to kiss her.

“ a nurse now are you? “ she asked in between your kisses, a hand sliding up your back in a way that told you that your ridiculous plan might actually be working.

It was true that if anyone could make her do something it was you. Joel always joked that you two were joined at the hip, simply following the other around no matter what they did. Two lovesick puppies still stuck in the honeymoon phase even though you’d been together for years. And it was true for the most part. You were inseparable. The honeymoon phase probably was still in full effect. You had your ups and downs, but the ups were more frequent. And you wouldn’t have it any other way.

“ actually I am medically trained to the highest

“ well. If it’s doctors orders who am I to argue “ she said with a grin, hands soothing up and down your thighs. You reached over to the side table and grabbed her phone, scrolling through her contacts and clicking the number of her boss and handing her the phone

“ doctors. Orders “