#please remember I don't read the book yet so this ideas are from the movie and the little quote I see only about Coryo unhinged mind

[mitsuki91]

Characters analysis about Coriolanus Snow and Lucy Gray Baird.

(This is copy-pasted from a chat so forgive me if it's kind of messy).

Premise: Lucy is well aware of where the weapons are and makes Coryo find them on purpose.

Analysis: In my opinion Lucy recognises that Coryo still wears a mask in front of the world. She frames it immediately because she, in her own way, does too. She loves him, because she has seriously fallen in love with him (trauma bonding lol), but she also knows deep down that Coryo will always want to go back to the capital and make a political career, because it's the only way he can feel in control (and in a way she even understands this). She is worried that he will force her to follow him and put her in a cage and she is torn anyway because she loves him and would like to be with him but does not want to become a canary in a gilded cage... So she is slowly trying to make him understand that there is an alternative, that Capitol City and politics are not everything, that there is a life beyond power and beyond hunger. Only it all comes crashing down in 0.2 seconds. Coryo shoots the mayor's daughter and Lucy thus has 1) confirmation that Coryo would do anything for her anyway 2) sees how his paranoia starts, especially when Sejanus is hanged. She knows, because she knows him, that he sold him out to try to save his own skin. But she also knows that he is terrified and see himself already dead. She would like to reassure him and tell him about the weapons etc. but she knows that it is only prolonging the agony, because if Coryo could feel 'free' and return to the capital he would, and she is not up for it. So she finds a way to make him find the weapons - she first has confirmation that, even at the moment when Coryo loses everything, he still chooses her, because he loves her - and she watches him to see what he intends to do, but as she suspects he is not yet ready. She sees, in his eyes, that for him that discovery means 'freedom', a freedom greater than the truly free life he could have had with her. So she decides to take the first step and stop him from really choosing.... Because Coryo might choose her in that moment, but in one, two, five years etc. it would blow up in her face (between recriminations and various things because, basically, they want two different things out of life). Their love is not enough, Lucy knows that. So she does not give him the power to torture himself into a slow descent and chooses for him, leaving him. And he goes mad because he loses control, possession, over what he considered to be his by right because of the love he feels (his view of love and life: he sees possession as the highest form of love, because he grew up in a world where he had nothing and now only values the things he possesses).

Basically Lucy Gray values her freedom above love and Coryo values power/wealth/control above love.

Love exists between them, it is true.... But they have two different visions of life.

They have both betrayed each other in the worst way for each other.

Trust and loyalty.

But it wasn't a selfish spite, at least not on Lucy Gray's part.

He was still in full paranoia about the trust issue so he wasn't clear-headed, but she wasn't loyal thinking she was doing him a favour in the end by leaving him 'free'.

In the end, they 'gave' each other the most important thing they consider to themself: Coryo was giving her himself - "I am yours, Lucy, and I will follow you to the ends of the word" - i.e. possession. She gave him freedom instead.

[ssahotchnerr]

Surprise blanket fort date night with Aaron and ice cream?

pillow talk

🥹 omg cw; mentions of food, lil suggestive comments, fluff <333333333

most nights after working late, aaron came home to a quiet apartment; you and jack both asleep, the occasional soft hum of the dishwasher filling the quiet atmosphere, the light in the corner always left on.

however tonight, that wasn't the case. instead, aaron opened the front door only to find a rather complicated design right in the middle of the living room.

bedsheets were draped over a few dining room chairs to provide a foundation, a tunnel made of couch cushions were on one side, there was a large sheet acting as a roof. the front, however, was all open, allowing much easier access inside, and that's where you currently were. the room was also dim, only being lit by that same lamp and a few candles spaced sporadically.

"hi," you greeted from inside, laying on your stomach and your face brightening at the sight of him. you effortlessly tossed aside your current read, the book occupying yourself until aaron came home.

aaron couldn't help but smile at the sight of you, an amused, astounded yet slightly confused expression on his face. "what's this?"

"what does it look like?" you grinned, patting the empty space besides you. "c'mere."

after shrugging off his suit jacket and placing his briefcase aside, aaron quickly joined, easing onto his stomach right next to you. he also grabbed onto a nearby pillow, laying it under his chest for extra comfort.

once he was in reach, and grabbing ahold of the neck of his tie to pull him even closer, you brought your lips to his, happy to have him home. after you pulled away, aaron couldn't help but give you yet another in return, he's missed you.

a pleased breath escaped you after he retreated, a comfortable silence falling over the two of you, simply smiling at each other like idiots.

"i honestly can't remember the last time i was in a blanket fort." aaron laughed breathlessly, looking at the structure of sheets, blankets, pillows galore surrounding the two of you.

"that's a huge problem then," you laughed, poking his side teasingly. still, the vibrant smile remained on your face and you let out a sigh full of content. "it was jack's idea. he wanted to build one after he finished his homework. so we grabbed all the blankets we could find - oh by the way, we have to remake our bed before we go to sleep - and we made popcorn, watched a movie. instead of cleaning it up, i don't know, i thought it'd be a fun surprise for you."

"it is." aaron confirmed, leaning over and pressing his lips to yours again happily. you always tended to ramble a bit when filling him in on what he missed, or details about your day. and he loved every second of it.

in return, your cheeks flushed - no matter how many times he's kissed you, no matter how long the two of you have been together, he's always had that effect on you. "you know what would make this even better?"

"i mean, i can think of a few things." aaron's eyebrows raised in suggestion.

with a roll of your eyes you playfully shoved him, resulting in his laughter. "mhm, i'm sure you can. and yes, but first," your eyes softened, giving him that puppy-dog-look he could never say no to. "ice cream?"

a small smile graced his face, looking at you fondly before agreeing, "ice cream."

with an excited squeal, you quickly scrambled to your feet and hurried into the kitchen, in search of the carton and two spoons, and leaving aaron feeling like he was absolutely the luckiest man in the world.

and in all honesty, he was.

[justarandompersononthehellsite]

So... @muffinlance wrote a really awesome story. I read a post from a point in time, though I truly do not remember when since it seems like I've been working on this project forever, saying that she gives blanket permission for people to print and bind the story into a book (I think there was an also addendum saying that they do not give permission to be sold, since selling fic is illegal). This fic has had total control over my whole brain since it was sent to me (@creatorofthemind I believe it was you, so thank you forever for tuning me into it) back during the days of like chapter six or seven.

So here I am now, sharing this amazing journey of my first ever bookbinding adventure. Further reading below.

So to give you an idea of what's going on, this is a fanfiction about Zuko (Avatar the Last Airbender) (animated show version, the LA show did not exist yet and we do not speak of the movie) being adopted by Hakoda, Father of Katara and Zuko. (This might have also been what kicked off the Give Zuko A Parent craze, but don't fact check me.)

Overall, the characters from the show stick very well to the cannon versions, but where MuffinLance really shines is in the rich backstories and fleshed out feeling of all the non cannon elements. Especially the background characters. I would argue that the writing in this peice of fanwork could easily rival the cannon show at many points of comparison.

Now that you have context, we can get into the actual process.

To start, I used this guide to figure out where to even begin, and fount the included resource list to also be quite helpful. I cannot for the LIFE OF ME figure out where I found the template I used for the front matter and such, but it must be somewhere and I will link to it when I inevitably come across it again.

Then I began to typeset. This step took... a long time. I worked in chunks from about September of 2022 to late March of 2024. I would get a big section done, sometimes even the entire thing, but then find I hated the way I had done it and give up for months at a time. Such is the life of ADHD and flitting interest in projects I suppose.

And then finally, step one was done, and I was left with pages on a word document that look like this. (And do please let me know if you want the link to the document. It was so much work, and I would love to not be the only one to use it.)

Next step was printing out this beast. Ended up being about eight pages of front matter, and about 630 pages of body text.

That I printed wrong.

Twice.

Before finally getting it right. And then not getting a picture of it, because I finished at 4 am and had work at 7, and am also an idiot.

Then I simply stitched along, putting everything together into a beautiful text block.

And came up with a design for the cover.

Yes the glue did end up lumpy. Ignore it.

Yes I did have to sketch out the design onto a scraped page several times before I figured out what I was doing. Ignore that too.

The cover design does wrap around the entire cover. No I did not get a picture before I glued the thing down. See again: I'm an idiot. And just... massively impatient.

Finally, we get to the stage of gluing. Behold, my bookpress.

Of course, topped with Madam MuffinLances own actual professional-people book, Fox's Tounge and Kirin's Bone. It is Excelent. Here is the LINK so you can go and support this amazing author with the real-monies as well as the internet-kudos.

Then, once everything is glued together, one must give the book its "gilt" edges.

[goldenheart-supremacy]

Nimona AU - How to train your Dragon

@kestrel-wylde I kinda went nuts here...

During a dragon raid, the chief of Berk, Valerin's husband died.

They were both alternating battling dragons and helping their people.

When Valerin found her dead husband's body, she saw that he'd been burned badly.

Then she found that the reason his arms were tucked into himself was because he had been doing his best to protect a small bundle in his arms.

It was a baby. Since his parents seemed to have died in the raid as well, Valerin had decided to take the child under her care and adopted him since she and her husband haven't the chance to conceive yet.

Time skip to the future.

Ballister was an only child to his biological parents but if he ever did have siblings, he would've been considered the 'runt of the litter', as he didn't seem as well built for a Viking child his age.

At least, compared to the other Viking children his age.

Maybe Valerin and Ballister has a better relationship than Stoick and Hiccup did in the start of this AU story.

The conflict for Ballister is getting the village to accept his as the chiefess's scion and future chief.

Maybe when Ballister finds out and starts training Nimona, his reason for wanting to keep the secret is as to not make his reputation worse. [I don't know yet how he ends up injuring her like Hiccup did Toothless in the movie]

I just added my OCs for more character dynamics, like the original team had in the movie but feel free to use them or not or make your own OPs for the AU hahaha 😆

Some dialogue ideas...

Ballister, voiceover as a narrator: [Tomorrow, when training begins, I'm going to prove myself and show that I can stand at par with the others. Aerin Shieldstone, Connor Silverlock, Todd Sureblade, Abigail Swiftfeet, Atticus Valorarm and...]

Ambrosius was running away from some dragons, and he jumped over some barrels as a Zippleback launched a fireball at him.

Ballister, in a dreamily way: [... Ambrosius...]

Avoiding the impact of the blast, Ambrosius used the remaining leverage from jumping over the barrels to backflip away and ended up landing unto Ballister's arms...

Ambrosius, grinning: Good looking out, Bal.

Ambrosius pinches Ballister's cheek affectionately before leaping out of his arms, grabbing his axe and a bucket to see if there's anywhere else he needs to be...

Ambrosius: Look alive, Bal! Let's get rid of these beasts! Ballister, grabbing a sword: Right behind you, Ambs!

Trainer: Behind these doors are just a few of the many species you will learn to fight! The Deadly Nadder! Atticus, mumbling: Speed: eight; Armor: sixteen. Trainer: The Hideous Zippleback! Atticus: Plus eleven stealth times two. Trainer: ...The Monstrous Nightmare! Atticus: Firepower: fifteen. Trainer: The Terrible Terror! Atticus: Attack: eight; Venom: twelve! Trainer: CAN YOU STOP THAT?! Trainer, sighing: And the Gronkle. Atticus, more quietly: Jaw strength: eight. Connor, smirking: Someone's done some advanced reading... Ambrosius, chuckling: Only about a lot, too Atticus, smiling sheepishly: I read the book seven times. Ambrosius and Connor: Wow.

During training with the Gronkle to avoid getting hit...

Aerin, keeping his eyes on the Gronkle's location: Todd, keeping his eyes on Aerin: So, I moved to my parent's basement. Todd: Got some weights in there, you should come over some time to work out. Aerin, barrel rolls away: Todd, calling out to him: You look like you work out!

Then, the Gronkle hits a shot on the spot Todd was standing at...

Aerin and Connor - my OCs, besties Atticus and Abigail - OCs I remembered reading from your fic 'Love At First Fight', I just gave Atticus a temporary last name. Unless, you know, @kestrel-wylde wants to make it final haha I didn't write Abigal yet since I don't know much how to write the character. Atticus is based off the otter knight from the movie, so I kinda headcanon him as someone nerdy with animal facts, so I made him like Fishlegs here.

Edit: Please check out Kestrel's Httyd Nimona AU art!

[spectraling]

Hi-- just an anon here with a small thought! A bit of context-- A friend of mine brought up the idea of men not knowing about the eating habits of hobbits, and conversely, hobbits not knowing about the eating habits of men. Thus, to a man, a hobbit's appetite must be bountiful and to a hobbit, a man's appetite must seem rather meager. I bring this up to you specifically because this made me think of Merry and Eowyn sharing meal together, yet having vastly different ideas of what a 'meal' is

It's just a constant misunderstanding lmao. Merry having to remind himself that Éowyn didn't hate that entire chicken he made for her just bc she didn't finish it, it's just that men eat like hobbit children. They're enormous but they eat hardly anything to maintain themselves...... This must seem as magical to hobbits as their ability to disappear seems to men.

Éowyn making a meal and Merry's like "ah you brought a refreshing snack". This is fucking dinner??? If she ever went to the Shire she'd have a minor heart attack when she gets to witness a true hobbit feast. Where do they keep everything? Like not even the stuff they put into their bellies, but all of the food at all times?? Half of their houses must be dedicated to the preservation of it (and probably is).

It's a funny idea, but I actually don't remember if it's ever specified that hobbits eat in as big or even surpassing the quantities of men (someone please remind me it's been a hot minute since I read the books) or if it's one of those things that got feet of its own, kinda like well. The idea that hobbits have huge feet, which doesn't seem to be part of Tolkien's canon lol. It says that hobbits love to indulge in the pleasures of life, such as food, and that they would have six meals as often as they could. But that doesn't mean that those meals were equally big or that each meal were the size of what men had (or that they had them all the time).

But again it's ofc funnier to imagine them being able to hoover up insane amounts of food and having some crazy hobbit metabolism, just like their anatomy is distinctly different from (and quite perplexing to) men in some other ways. No wonder they spend most of their time growing, preparing and eating food lmao.

I read a theory that said that since hobbits are so small they have to eat more often to regulate their temperature, similar to what smaller animals do compared to larger ones, and it's adorable and makes me think of Merry loving to snuggle up to Éowyn bc she's like a furnace to him.

Speaking of food I also love the common fanon idea that hobbits - being canonically way more resilient than men - can eat pretty much anything, and this meaning that Merry wouldn't even be phased by Rohirric cuisine, which in my head includes things that are....foul to other cultures, based on Scandinavian cuisine which I don't think is too far off from what the Rohirric equivalent might've looked like. The PJ movies made a nod towards this?? (I made a post about it here), although maybe it's just a jab at Éowyn herself, but anyway I love the idea of Éowyn being stoked about Merry enjoying their strange and off-putting ways. Maybe this means Éowyn has a strong stomach herself.

And now I'm hungry

[kteezy997]

6 Months-Part Two// t.c.

Warnings: coming off of a sedative, cursing, abduction, very very brief mention of violence and rape (not by Timothee!)

Mature 18+ readers only please!

A/N: It’s a bit long, so grab a snack or something while you read haha

The last thing Cameron could remember was walking down an alley, and she was faced with some stranger. That was it.

Now, she woke from a deep sleep in some strange room. It sunk in that she had been abducted, and she was nearly crippled with fear. She ached with anxiety. Who had taken her? What did they want?

Eventually, she was able to get up from the bed. She steadied herself on her feet. Her vision was almost totally blurred. She blinked over and over to try and see clearly. The room was rather large, with minimal, yet still inviting decor. She found the door and pounded on it ferociously with her fists.

Not long after she first hit the bedroom door, she saw footsteps in the crack of light underneath the door. Next, she heard keys being inserted and turning in the lock. She waited for the footsteps to go back the way they came, and then she cautiously opened the door.

It dawned on her that this house was enormous. She worried that she would get lost, but then again, she had no idea where she was, or where she was going. She ended up in a room with nice furniture and a grand fireplace. The warmth from the flames met her skin, and for a second, she felt a bit of comfort.

She looked up and stopped in her tracks at the sight of a movie poster framed on the wall. It was of the film Dune.

........

Timothee put Cameron in a chair nearby in the den. She had fainted.

She woke a few minutes later. She sunk back into the chair, trying to get as far from him as she could. "What the fuck is this? Why am I here?"

"You are not in any danger, okay? I need you to believe that. I do not wish to harm you. Please just let me explain things to you."

"Get to it, asshole." she said, trembling with anger.

Timothee stood up, taking a few steps, choosing his words precisely in his head before stopping in front of the bright, crackling fireplace.

"This past year has been mentally tormenting for me. I had a failed work venture, and worse, I lost my grandmother, who I loved more than anything in the world. Everything was just piling on top of one another, and I felt like a fucking ghost floating through my life." He inhaled sharply before his next statement, "But then I saw you. It was love at first sight. It was something I had never experienced before."

"I found out who you were," he continued, "and I read your books. I fell in love with the way your mind works, Cameron. You brought me back to life. And I don't want that to go away, ever. I needed to find a way to make you mine."

Cameron sat silently in the chair, listening to him, but not growing sympathetic in the slightest. "I'm not an object. You cannot own me. You think that just because you're some hot shit little actor with millions that you can kidnap me and then I'm all yours? No fucking way, you bastard." She spit venom with every syllable.

Timothee took note of her fierceness but was not yet deterred. "I didn't think that. Which is why I'm giving you the chance to fall in love with me. I won't force it. I want you to come to me on your own, because you want to."

"But I have my own life! My boyfriend will be looking for me, I have family and friends, I have a job! You can't do this; I don't need love from you."

"Hm," Timothee took his phone out of his pocket and after a few seconds, he showed the screen to Cameron. There were explicit photos of her boyfriend with other women. "He doesn't deserve you." he said plainly.

Tears rolled down Cameron's face. She didn't even realize she was crying. It was devasting knowing that her boyfriend had been cheating on her. But the more intense feeling was the hatred she had for the man in front of her. "Fuck off." she said, before launching out of the chair and running.

Timothee took off right after her, catching her in his arms, he said, "Cameron, I won't hurt you. I won't do anything without your permission. Not until you want me." He held her firmly as she struggled with him. "I'll do anything to make you fall in love with me."

He put his hand on her face, making her look at him. "You have six months. If you don't love me by then, I will let you go."

“Fuck you!” she grumbled, running away from him again.

She made it further this time, as he was caught off guard. But his damn long legs made it easy for him to catch up and stop her.

“You should stop this.” he warned. “You don’t even know where you are. You don’t know your way around this house.” He put her up against the wall, holding her there and string dead into her fiery eyes. “I swear on my grandmother that you are more than safe. You will be taken care of.”

“My family will be looking for me.” she huffed.

“We got your phone, we let everyone close to you know that you’ve accepted a job offer in L.A., a six-month trial. You will get your phone and laptop back when the time is right.”

Cameron pushed him away, “Who is we?”

“I have people.” Timothée said.

“Mr. Chalamet, your meeting is in just a few minutes.”

They both looked over at the woman who entered the room without either of them knowing.

"Cam, this is my assistant. She will be here to help you if you need anything." Timothee said.

She was quick to speak back, "It's Cameron, I'm not a five-year-old, do not call me Cam."

Timothee grinned at Cameron, then looked at his assistant, "Take her back to her room. She needs some more rest."

Timothee departed, and the assistant said, "Okay, let's go, Miss Reese."

Cameron rolled her eyes, turning and walking in the direction in which she was being led. "You're a woman helping a man imprison another woman. How could you do that? Especially in this day and age?"

"Oh, I wouldn't think of it like a prison at all. Mr. Chalamet isn't a violent or malicious person. He has admired you for quite some time now." she stopped in front of a door, "He's a good person, you'll see." She then opened the door, letting Cameron in.

"This is such bullshit." she spat as she walked in.

"Get some rest. Breakfast will be served in the morning. He wishes for you to join him then.”

Cameron rolled her eyes at the idea of sitting down for a meal with Timothee.

......

It was mostly a sleepless night, but she managed to get a couple of hours of rest. The room was somewhat cozy and the bed was king sized and soft with a thick comforter, so it wasn't totally unpleasant.

When she opened her eyes, there he was. Timothee was sitting in a chair just a few feet from the bed, with his eyes on her. "Jesus, you creep!" she yelled at him, rubbing the sleep out of her eyes. "How long have you been watching me sleep?"

"Oh, not long, like five minutes.” Timothée was evidently nervous, being with her in person was surreal after admiring her from afar for so long. “Sorry, I didn't want to scare you. I just wanted you to have your clothes and stuff, so I had them brought in. Breakfast is almost ready." he stood from the chair, "You'll smell the food, so you won't have trouble finding the kitchen, the dining room is nearby there." Timothee brushed his hands on his jeans awkwardly before nodding at her and leaving the room.

Cameron looked down at the floor, seeing a few boxes and recognizing her belongings. She figured it was of no use to protest, her family had been told some lie and she had no way of contacting anyone. She was hungry anyway. She got out of bed, picked out some clothes for the day, and got out some toiletry items to freshen up with.

Timothee was right about the food, the way it used her senses, specifically her nose of course, to rope her in the direction of the kitchen. It smelled divine.

"Oh, good morning, Miss Reese. You look nice, I'm sure it was a relief to have some of your own things?" a middle-aged woman greeted her when she arrived in the kitchen. She looked like someone's sweet granny.

"Yeah, it was. Um, who are you?"

"Forgive me for not introducing myself, dear, I'm Mrs. Davis. I'm a housekeeper-slash-chef-slash whatever I'm needed to be. I just fill in wherever needed." the older woman had a little laugh and Cameron smiled kindly. "I'll show you to the dining room. Mr. Chalamet is already in there."

Cameron followed Mrs. Davis, and was met with a full, colorful breakfast spread: eggs, bacon, biscuits, waffles, orange juice, coffee; so much food that she didn't know where to put her eyes. It felt like forever since she'd had something to eat. She was so hungry that she had to stop herself from actually salivating. Then she saw him at the end of the table.

Timothee stood when he saw her walk in. He walked down to the other end of the table and pulled out the chair for her to sit. "Please have a seat." he said, his voice was soft and welcoming.

Cameron sat in the chair, not quite fazed by his gentlemanliness. She grabbed the seat, scooting the chair in for herself. She didn't want his help. She made that clear to him.

Mrs. Davis left the room and Timothee resumed his position at the opposite end of the table. "I hope you were able to get some rest. You look-"

"So, I guess you're acting as if you're me texting all of my loved ones that everything is fine. Are they asking any questions? Are they worried about me?" she asked as she took it upon herself to start spooning some food onto her plate.

Timothee cleared his throat, "Uh, yeah I've got people working on that. Some of your friends and family congratulated you on the new job and wished you safe travels."

"You have people for everything." she pointed out in annoyance and took a bite of scrambled egg.

"That comes with having some money to hire a staff in your home."

"Too bad money didn't buy your happiness, Mr. Chalamet." she said in a snarky tone. "Then I wouldn't be here."

He chuckled humorlessly at her remark, "Well, speaking of buying things, I'd like to take you out shopping, so you can complete your wardrobe for your stay here, if you like."

"You make it sound like it's my choice."

"I don't wish to control you, Cam."

"That's not my name." she snapped, cutting him off.

He ignored her comment, continuing, "But I think for your sake, you could maybe think of this as an adventure. The more that I begin to trust you, God willing, you will get your devices back. I want you to enjoy yourself here. Maybe you could even write, I hope you find some inspiration while you're here. Sorry, I'm rambling, I know. I-uh find it hard to control myself around you."

"Are you trying to justify your actions?"

"No." he said, genuinely.

"I really hate people like you, ya know? People that think the world owes them something instead of accepting that life is a little tough sometimes-"

"I know that what I've done is wrong!" Timothee screamed.

Cameron was taken aback and silenced. It was a shock to hear him yell.

"I'm sorry." he said softly, composing himself.

She could tell then how troubled he was on the inside, it was written all over his sullen face. She could practically feel the tenseness from across the room as she noticed that his hands were balled into fists.

"I will take care of you. You have free roam of the mansion. I will have guards at every exit until I know that I can trust you. The staff and I will accommodate any want or need that you have."

Cameron remained quiet, fully listening to him. She began to think that at least she wasn't chained in a dark, cold room with no food or water. She wasn't being beaten or raped. This situation definitely was not ideal, but she realized that she had been brought into a life of luxury.

"Please, Cameron, just give me a chance. I ask nothing else of you."

@gatoenlaciudad @thebetawolfgirl @musicandbooksaremyhappyplace @softhecreator @tchalamss

@chalametbich

[kudouusagi]

50 Questions about Koisuru Boukun

(Interview with Takanaga Hinako from the Koisuru Boukun Art book, published in 2013 while vol 9 was being publish in Gush)

Q1: How did you create the challengers and Boukun characters? When you were creating "Goukaku Kigan" had you already created Souichi-san?

How? ...Well, when I made my debut work, Goukaku Kigan, I really felt the weight on my shoulders to make a good BL manga, since it was my first 32 pages of a real original manga! Thinking back on it now I think I had a lot of preconceptions about what a BL should be during those planning stages. I thought things like the seme needs to be a great guy! and the uke should be the cute type.... Though I feel like once I had finished the storyboard I had already deviated from that... (He was a pathetic seme, not a great guy...)

For Souichi, after my first work had been published I got permission from my editor to continue it. So he's a character I came up with as I happily thought about how to continue it. Since I wanted a character to interfere with the main couple. And Morinaga-kun naturally came about as I developed Souichi's character.

Q2: I want to know how you came up with the title!

I really wanted to use the word "Boukun (Tyrant)" so I came up with a few candidates but my editor at the time didn't like them and so I remember that we were discussing what to do over the phone and I just casually suggested "maybe Koisuru Boukun (Tyrant in love)..." and my editor instantly said "That works!" and ran with it. Maybe I was influenced by "Koisuru Wakusei..." (lit Planet in love, Japanese title of Chungking Express) I believe in my original candidates there were also other movie influenced titles, stuff like "Sex, Lies, and Videotape" (lol). I don't have my notes from back then anymore though, so I don't know what they were.

Q03: What was the most difficult thing you experienced while writing Koisuru Boukun and what was the thing that made you the happiest?

The most difficult thing... I don't know. There was a lot of stuff I can't talk about... (lol) The thing that made me that happiest was definitely the fact I'm able to put out an art book like this and have people read it!

Q04: You've written Koisuru Boukun for a long time, is there anything you felt as you've continued the story?

The style of call phone they used in the first volume was really old so I thought I should upgrade their phones at one point but now I feel like they have to have smart phones? That's the way of the times. But in the story it has only been one year... They're working students who are constantly changing their phones. Oh dear...!

Q05: Between Morinaga and Souichi-san, tell us honestly, which one do you like more?

I said this about the characters in Little Butterfly too, but honestly they're both really important characters to me. I've written them for so long they feel like family to me... But if I had to choose... then I guess I'd have to say Souichi-san because he's hotter (lol)

Q06: Do you have an idea of what you think Souichi-san and Morinaga-kun's image song's should be?

Hmm... I've never really thought about their image songs before... For Morinaga-kun I think a sad love song would suit him. For Souichi-san a song with words doesn't really seem like him... Oh! I know! Dorae...

Q07: Please tell us which color illustration is your favorite?

The one where Souichi-san is biting the ice cream... having Souichi-san colorized in a tanktop gives off an unusually refreshing feeling so I quite like it. Also the one with them in casual coles in the leaves. For a more recently one then I also like the color illustration that was for GUSH's 100th issue celebration too ♪

Q8: Is there any backstory for the characters that hasn't made it into the story?  

Of course there's a lot of stuff that hasn't made it into the story yet! But since I'm not sure whether any of it will make it into the story from here on or not I can't say. I'm sorry!

Q09: Souichi-san is a rare uke with long hair in BL. Are there times when you think it's a pain to draw?

Souichi-san's hair isn't a pain to draw at all. His hair is white and I'm good at drawing long hair... Morinaga-kun's hair is much harder. Colored hair with shine is hard. Colored hair with shine is hard for everyone! It makes my right hand hurt...!

Q10: Are there any types of characters that you thought wanted to include but don't have any plans on including from here on out?

Back during challengers there were some I thought about but since they wouldn't suit the Boukun setting they went away. Hmm but since they just went away because of that problem I shouldn't really talk about them here... 

Q11: Were there any characters you used as models for the characters in Boukun?

There weren't!

Q12: Out of all the characters in Boukun, please tell us who is the easiest and hardest character to draw.

Just from a drawing standpoint? I think the easiest is definitely Souichi-san. The hardest is Morinaga-kun... Kunihiro-san and Masaki-san are quite easy. But when it comes to expressing thoughts and characterization, Souichi-san is hard. His way of thinking is biased and comes to abrupt stops and since he's not the main character there are limits to his monologues...

Q13: Which character out of all of Boukun do you think is the best looking?

I think the most beautiful one is Masaki-san but the most handsome one is definitely Souichi-san. (Where does that leave the seme Morinaga-kun...?)

Q14: I'm interested to know which scene is the most memorable to you out of everything so far? Or maybe there's a certain line?

The series of scenes at the business hotel in volume 4 were really a turning point so it's really memorable. I also really like the scene in volume 6 in the washroom of Matsuda's house...

Q15: If it were you, which character in Boukun would you want to date? Or who would you definitely not want to date?

The one I'd want to date is definitely Morinaga-kun. He's better looking than average, really smart, kind, and amazing at housework...! It's to the point where I wonder "just what is Souichi-san so dissatisfied with!?"... (it's because he's a guy) His super sticky clinginess is a bit of a pain but if you return his love he's much calmer. The one I don't want to date is... unsurprisingly Souichi-san... (lol) Oh and I also wouldn't want to date Kunihiro before he got divorced either.

Q16: I want to know what type of person Souichi-san likes.

His type... It's touched on it a little bit in the current serialization, but I don't think he's thought about it much himself. Probably someone who's not too clingy. I think he'd like a capable woman who was really open minded? He lost his mother at an early age so I feel like he probably has a bit of a mother complex...

Q17: This is a question about Souichi-san. His hair is pretty and long but why did he start growing it out?

You can assume it's because of what was stated in the extra for volume 2...

Q18: What brand of cigarettes does Souichi-san smoke?

I've probably never clearly shown it anywhere but I vaguely remember deciding they were Marlboros at the beginning... But I could have drawn them wrong at some point so don't take that too seriously please!

Q19: Since Kurokawa-san and Isogai-san were classmates in university, I'd like to know about how they met.

Ah, this was briefly mentioned in the pamphlet for challengers but Isogai-san was working at the beer hall when the owner was looking for good looking guys to work there and so he asked him to tell people he knew if they were interested. So then Kurokawa-san got roped into working there because he saw a posting on the University bulletin board because he was desperately searching for a decent part time job.

Q20: Will Isogai-san be happy in the future? What type of woman does Isogai-san like? 

I'm sure he will someday... I think he would like an open minded woman who would accept his hobbies... or even better a beautiful woman who would enjoy them together with him.

Q21: He was sent model guns as a present from Kurokawa-san and he can sing all the anime songs from top to bottom so is Isogai-san... actually quite an otaku? I want to know his hobbies.

No matter how you think about it he's an otaku (lol) I'm sure he likes manga, anime, and games but I think he's much more of a manly otaku? Like he's more of a military and pro wrestling fan? Probably something like that. But he likes to observe and mess with the people around him so I think he's pretty extroverted for an otaku?

Q22: Kurokawa-san quit his job and went to the USA. Has he been a house husband since then?

I have decided that he's a waiter at a cafe, but since Tomoe-kun is so busy at work I think it's only a part time job and he's essentially a house husband.

Q23: How long have Hiroto-kun and Morinaga-kun known each other?

Since Morinaga-kun came to Nagoya (when he entered university) so, about 5 years? Morinaga-kun was looking for a gay bar as soon as he came to Nagoya...

Q24: How is Matsuda-san related to the Tatsumi family? She's always looking after the Tatsumi siblings like a parent so I'd like to know more about Matsuda-san.

Umm she's their relative. She's their mother's (Hana-san's) older sister. In other words she's their aunt but since they call her Matsuda-san... you can't really tell... Actually I originally intended for Matsuda-san to be their "Aunt from Matsuda". In my family we called relatives by the place they lived like "my Aunt from 〇〇(place name)" so it was supposed to be borrowing from that. (In other words Matsuda was a place name) But for some reason at some point that became her name... I wonder why. By the time I realized it I couldn't fix it anymore... I thought at the very least I should have Soujin-san call her by her given name but if Soujin-san called her that then the kids would too... So then I decided it was a lost cause and she had to stay Matsuda-san... This might be the biggest mistake I've made in the Boukun series.  I'm sorry...

I figure Matsuda-san is the name of her husband that passed away. She got married and lived far away but after her husband died Hana-san got sick and so she moved nearby. Since she never had kids of her own and her younger sister's children were so cute she couldn't help but look after them... that's what I decided.

Q25: Kanako-chan wants to go to a high school outside of the prefecture (one with a dorm even) so does she already have a dream for the future that she's aiming for?

I figured she liked the school because of the variety of subjects they offer or that she was interested in the school culture. I think she does have a dream but it's not that specific yet.

Q26: We were told that Soujin-san's job is insect research but I'd like to know more about it.

I'm not an expert on this and I haven't done that much research on it so I don't want to delve too deeply into it but I guess after he got his doctorate at university he started traveling around the world... and publishing research papers... Because of his achievements in his research he probably had a sponsor and he's probably written a lot of books. (Something roughly like this...)

I think when he's in Japan he probably teaches students at a University? Huh? Maybe not? Maybe he researches how certain insects behave in detail...?

Q27: What was Hana-san, Souichi-san's mother, like? I'm sure she was a wonderful mother.

She was someone who wanted to take care of the household well so that Soujin-san could do what he wanted without having to worry. It's really too bad that she got sick and died early. Kanako-chan was only able to be with her for a very short time.

Q28: Did the Morinaga brothers have a normal, good relationship between siblings before what happened with Masaki-san?

I think they were close when they were little but I don't think they did once they reached adolescence. It's not because of what happened with Masaki-san. I think that it's like Morinaga-kun put up a wall between him and his family when he realized his sexuality. Though I don't think his parents or Kunihiro-san realized anything until it was exposed so I don't think anything really happened until then either.

Q29: Morinaga-kun's best friend Yamaguchi-kun. I'd like to know more details about him.

I haven't really decided anything besides... what's... in the story... (sweat)

Q30: I'm really interested in the past relationship history of Morinaga-kun and Souichi-san.

If I talk about that here then... there could possibly be... a lot of spoilers for the future...

Q31: Souichi-san seems to be sensitive around his ears and neck but where is Morinaga-kun sensitive?

I wonder... For him I'd say it's more mental? Rather than being teased anywhere, being satisfied mentally is what's best for him. Also I would like to add that while Souichi-san is sensitive around his ears and neck, He's also sensitive from his armpits to his waist, and his inner thighs. Inside his mouth and his nipples are also weak spots, and recently he's started to be able to come just from the ba- (cut off)

Q32 I'd like to know why Morinaga-kun and Souichi-san chose the university they did and their major.

I think it's because they both had things they wanted to do.

But Souichi chose the highest level school in the area because his circumstances prevented him from leaving his hometown. I believe that Souichi-san could have gotten into a much higher level school in the Tokyo area if he wanted to...

Morinaga-kun had to leave Kyuushu so I think he probably applied to a few different universities. And N University was just the one he got into. 

But if you mean why did I make this the setting then it's because it's my hometown so it's easy for me to collect reference material and I knew someone in real life who was in the agricultural department so it was easy for me to ask them things about it.

Q33: What were Morinaga-kun and Souichi-san like when they were little?

Since Souichi lost his mother early, he had to look after his younger siblings so he was a tough and demanding child.... like a mini version of the current Souichi (lol)

Before Morinaga-kun entered adolescence he was probably a cheerful, pampered child, but I feel like once he realized his sexuality he just became agreeable and closed off.

Q34 I'm sure that Souichi-san and Morinaga-kun are always busy with research but what do they do on the weekends?

I feel like they don't really rest. Morinaga-kun probably takes care of housework that has accumulated... and Souichi probably lives at the school even on the weekends...

Q35: In the afterword for Challengers volume 3 there was a 4 panel comic of Morinaga-kun giving Souichi-san presents but are there any other presents that Morinaga-kun gave him?

I'm sure there's many more. I might make a short comic about it if I get the chance someday!

Q36: I want to know Souichi-san and Morinaga-kun's favorite colors! Also what image colors do you think of for them? Souichi-san: I think he likes white... and his image color is the same. Since he wears a white coat a lot. And white shirts look good on him. Morinaga-kun: He wears a lot of orange, red, and brown clothes so I think he probably likes earth tones.

Q37: Where do they get money?

They get money from their parents. Morinaga-kun probably also works temp jobs sometimes too.

Q38: I think Morinaga-kun is quite good looking, so is he quite popular at the university?

I think he is. I just wrote about that (Volume 9/currently being published in Gush) in the story! (In May 2013)

Q39: How did Souichi-san end up with such an eccentric personality?

I think it's the result of having lost his mother early and him taking his strong sense of responsibility of needing to protect his siblings to the extremes...

Q40: I'd like to know the layout of their apartment! And how much is their rent?

The layout is in this artbook so please check it there! I haven't decided what their rent is but I think places in Nagoya near N University are around... 80 to 100 thousand yen?

Q41: Morinaga-kun and Souichi-san both go to the same university but which one of them is smarter? Is it Souichi-san?

I think Souichi-san is definitely much smarter. But in exchange he's prejudiced. It's like he devotes so much of his brain capacity to his research that the rest of his brain is in shambles...

You could say that too much of Morinaga-kun's brain is occupied by his love life but I think overall he has quite a good balance.

Q42: Do Morinaga-kun and Souichi-san like Japanese food? Or western food? Also what's their favorite alcohol?

I think Souichi-san likes Japanese food and he likes dry sake.

I think Morinaga-kun matches his eating habits to Souichi-san but he actually likes things like omurice, naporitan, and salisbury steak. He has childish tastes. And so he also likes sweet alcohol too♪

Q43: Where would Souichi-san recommend to go sightseeing in Nagoya?

There honestly aren't that many places to sightsee in Nagoya...

Hmm, there's pretty much just Nagoya Castle... maybe Higashiyama Zoo or Oosu Kannon?

I guess there's a lot of gourmet food places in Nagoya like Kissa Mountain...

But Souichi-san doesn't care about sightseeing locations...

If he had to take someone somewhere... then I guess he would probably just take them to eat kishimen at Nagoya station and then to Nagoya Castle and then either get miso-katsu or go to Sekai no Yama-chan (a wing place) for dinner... (that would be him really trying)

Q44: Tomoe-kun, Kurokawa-san, Morinaga-kun, and Isogai-san, could you say one thing to represent each of them?

Tomoe-kun: detached from reality, Kurokawa-san: pathetic, Souichi-san: narrow minded, Morinaga-kun: courageous, Isogai-san: weirdo

Q45: If Morinaga-kun and Souichi-san were to answer the question "if you could bring one thing with you to a deserted island, what would you bring?", what would they say?

A multitool... or a useful swiss army knife?

Souichi-san is very practical and Morinaga-kun is happy as long as Souichi-san is there, so if the two of them were adrift together then I think he'd bring something that would be useful to Souichi-san. Besides, he wouldn't need any tools for what he'd do with Souichi-san on a deserted island...

Q46: If Morinaga-kun and Souichi-san went on a trip together, where would they go?

Somewhere in Japan... like an onsen or something...

Q47: The Cinderella extra from volume 5 was very funny! Well you ever write any more alternate universe stories like that again? If you did, what kind of theme would be good?

I wrote one as a mail order item for this artbook! 

(Please look at the obi around this book for information on how to order it!)

Q48: Will you write more about what happens with Masaki-san and Morinaga's older brother?

Yes. Please look forward to it!

Q4: Will there ever come a day where they call each other "Souichi" and "Tetsuhiro" in the story?

You'll just have to wait and see... (sweat)

Q50 Do you have any plans to have any of the characters who appeared in Challengers make an appearance in the story after this?

If I get the chance I'd like to do that♪

[the-blind-assassin-12]

The Purest Element

1200 words for 1200 followers #8

A/N: Hi friends! Welcome to the 12-A-Palooza! This event is my way of saying thank you for sticking with me. Your support and kindness toward me and my writing is out of this world and I’m grateful for every last one of you! This one takes place in the Bad Idea universe, but could be read as stand alone, too. All you need to know is that Reader is an artist, and these two newlyweds love each other so much it's stupid. Please enjoy this moment of loving, supportive, domestic fluff with more than a hint of spice. 💚

Warnings: language, a little bit of very light smut with heavy suggestion of more to come, little bit of late night toking.

Requested by: @jessahmewren Song: Strangeness and Charm Character Choice: Once again I was given the choice between two characters, and once again I chose against Ezra. Who even am I?! (Don't worry, my favorite spaceman will get his due very soon.) The song is a play on scientific terms and how love, like chemical reactions, can be beautiful and pure as well as volatile and unbalanced. Fun fact: "Strangeness" and "Charm" are characteristics of two types of Quarks, which are subatomic particles that make up all matter. (please note, I am not a scientist and my understanding of these terms is only at a surface level like Dieter's is in this piece.) I hope you enjoy this little science lesson given by none other than Dr. Bravo himself.

Summary: You have to stay up late to take a call for work and Dieter waits up for you... and can't wait to share what he's learned for a new role he's got coming up.

“Thanks again. I know it’s quite late in Los Angeles, so I really do appreciate you setting the time aside to take the call. It was great chatting with you.” Hattie, the owner of a London art gallery that you were arranging a show for, gave you a bright smile. “And I’m very much looking forward to meeting you in person next week.” 

Despite how tired you were - the time difference not doing you any favors for a video call that was scheduled at 10 am there - you grinned back at her. “Same here.” You finished up by confirming the details again, and as the clock in the bottom corner of your laptop changed to 3:26 am local time, you closed the window and shut your screen. 

It’s happening. 

It was going to be your first international show, and you were thrilled about what taking that step meant for your career. Booking in London had been a goal of yours for as long as you could remember. The fact that it was only a few days away from becoming reality hadn’t fully sunk in yet, and you expected that it wouldn’t until you saw your work hanging at Hattie’s place. And the fact that when you did finally get to have that moment, Dieter would be there with you, only made you that much more excited. 

He’d been to plenty of your openings in New York and L.A., even one in Denver. But this was the first one he would attend as your husband, the two of you fresh off your honeymoon and just starting to get back to work. In a rare stroke of luck regarding your schedules, Dieter had gotten a role in a movie that was set to start filming in London three days after your collection opened, so him being there wouldn’t even require any extra travel. 

It couldn’t have worked out better. 

Stretching your shoulders, you rose from the armchair in the corner of the study and flicked the light switch on the wall. You were exhausted, but there was still a baseline hum of excitement buzzing through your veins, and as you padded down the hallway and into the living room, the sight that awaited you there only intensified that feeling. 

Oh, would you look at him? Fuck. You bit your bottom lip as you entered the room, smiling around your teeth. That’s my husband. 

Sprawled across the couch on his stomach, iPad open in front of him and a joint held between two fingers to create a halo of smoke around his wild curls, Dieter looked up as he heard you come in. “Hey.” He set the joint down in one of the grooves of the ashtray he was using and sat up, one leg tucked under his body and a lopsided grin curving his lips. “How’d it go?” 

You let out a sigh as you sunk down into the couch beside him. “Fine.” His arm came around you as you reached for the still-burning joint and took a small hit. This’ll help me wind down for bed at least. Exhaling, you leaned against him, his well-worn pullover sweater soft and comforting. “Hattie just wanted to finalize everything.” You hummed, setting the joint back where you took it from before looking up at him. “Why’re you still awake?” Lifting your hand up, you raked your nails through his hair and around his ear. “You didn’t have to wait up for me. It’s late, and-” 

Dieter leaned down to press his lips against yours, cutting you off.  “I wanted to take my wife to bed.” 

The tone of his voice simultaneously made your heart swell and made heat pool low in your belly - because you knew very well what he was capable of once he got you where he wanted you. You whimpered as you kissed him back. I want that, too, Dieter. 

He pulled back with a smirk, clearly pleased with the reaction he’d caused in you. He knows exactly what he does to me. And he likes it. “And - ” He used the arm that was around you to reach for his iPad, picking it up and handing it to you. “I figured it wouldn’t be a bad idea to do some more research for the new role. This shit is incredible.” 

You let out a small laugh at the way he so easily switched from seducing you to excitedly sharing what he’d learned in his digging. Glancing down at the page he had open, your eyes widened. “Charm Quarks and Antimatter.” Shaking your head and blinking rapidly, you set the device down on the coffee table. “What the fuck does that even mean?” 

He snorted and gave a half shrug, your body moving with the movement of his where you were still leaning into him. “Honestly I think I went a little deeper down the rabbit hole than I needed to, because I … They’re… subatomic particles? I think? I don’t know, I just kept clicking links and it just seemed like a wild read.” That got a full fledged laugh out of you, but he went on. “I did start out reading some things that were relevant to the part, though.” 

The new movie was called The Purest Element, and it told the story of a Physicist - played by Dieter - who had set out to prove that love was nothing more than a chemical reaction, only to fail and fall in love with one of his test subjects. It was a dramatic role that required the confident delivery of a lot of technical scientific jargon, so Dieter wanted to make sure that he familiarized himself with some of the terms. You had no doubt that while you were in the other room on your Zoom call, he was using his phone to record himself pronouncing things like “electron-positron colliders”.

“Did you?” You asked through a yawn. He nodded, the tip of his nose bumping your cheek as he trailed his lips toward your ear. “Like what?” You mumbled the question as you felt him shift his hold on you to ease you down onto the cushion. 

“Like… how when I touch you?” He dragged his hand slowly up your thigh, pinky snagging on the hem of your shorts before he continued his path upwards. “When my skin touches your skin?” You sighed as he inched his fingertips under your top, trailing them over your belly and to your side, your shirt hiking up around his wrist. “And you get all flustered?” He nipped at your earlobe, the contact forcing your lips to part, a ragged breath slipping out. “What you’re really feeling is a catalytic reaction brought on by friction.” His hand slipped all the way up beneath your shirt to cup your breast. 

“Sounds…” You swallowed as he worked his tongue around the small stud earring you were wearing, your fingers twining through his hair as you tipped your head back. Fuck that feels amazing. “Sounds very scientific, Dieter. Maybe we should do some more experiments just to be sure.” 

There was a spark in his eyes as he responded. “See? Had to stay up. It’s for science.” 

.

.

Thank you for reading! If you’d like to be added to or removed from the tag list, please feel free to let me know. You can also fill out the form on my Masterlist! :)

tags: @something-tofightfor @littlemisspascal @tentacruels @alraedesigns @practicalghost @trickstersp8 @princessxkenobi@imtryingmybeskar @mswarriorbabe80 @theredwritingwitch @silverstarsandsuns @pedro-pedrito-pascalito @jedi-in-crocs @chiyo13 @myloveistoolittle @Noisynightmarepoetry @haylzcyon

[fairyniceyeah]

And I am here to light up your Saturday evening!

(although I should be working on my thesis as well)

I don't have a request, at least not now, but!

I wanted to know: how did you start liking this trope? What was your tell-tale? Anything in your past comes to mind?

And how do you usually write your fics? Planned or just go with the flow?

Lots of love 💜

You are the 🌞✨️ of my life 🥰

(... and yet - here we are lol)

Good question! I can't really remember when I started to actively search for sickfics but I think it was in my Percy Jackson phase (so maybe when I was like 12-14, about 10 years ago).

I've been writing since I could though, so it pretty quickly turned from just reading to writing;)

I know that as a child I never really "enjoyed" episode of cartoons or movies where a character was sick - because it felt so taboo? I don't even know why and I just remembered that recently. Maybe it was even back then that I liked it and felt like it wasn't socially acceptable for most people?

But well, then I was diagnosed with a lot of chronical illnesses over time and it brought me a lot of comfort to see my favourite characters of books, TV-shows, movies be "weak" too. Also, they received the mental and physical care I never really got?

I mean, I literally went to school with pneumonia once until my fever was so high I was begging to just sleep or there was the time my grandma had to beg my mom to let me stay home when I couldn't walk when I injured my foot... so I wanted my favourites to get what I couldn't have. So, yeah, I think that's how it happened!

Also a lot of educational purposes - many of my Les Misérables fics on Ao3 focus on explaining illnesses I have gone through or researched enough to feel comfortable to write about in a sickfic (education version) 😇

For your second question: I often have a scenario or maybe a dialogue stuck in my head that I build an idea around. Most of the time that's it. When I get stuck I do write down where I want to end up and turn that into a fic!

But yeah, I mostly work with short scene ideas/dialogue prompts 😇

For example, the upcoming Yeosang sickfic just started with these words (and only the first two lines was what I had in mind at first):

"Hyung, I don't feel well."

The five words every hyung-line K-Pop Idol dreaded to hear. Especially on the day of a concert. Especially when a few moments ago they had been asleep.

(So if anybody has a diologue prompt, please let me know!)

Thank you so much 🩷

Lots of love 🧚🏽‍♀️

[annbourbon]

After reading What is...? by @creativepromptsforwriting (if you haven't read her blog or follow her WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR!?)

I decided to add some of my notes here too. Because it's on the little things I've been studying every night to get better at writing. So please consider this post as part/collab of "What is...?"

★Please keep in mind that this comes from someone whose first language it's not english, so, what for some might be obvious, for others it is not.

Blurb? is a short promotional description on your book. But can also be used to promote movies and other things.

Needs: Hook + Keywords (define an audience) + keep it short and leave them wanting for more.

* Remember to check for spelling and grammar mistakes.

Nowadays you can use quotes from your book as promo too. Pinterest is your best ally here. Make a bunch of attractive images with a colorful quotes and upload it on your social media! ^♡^

Honestly when it comes to promos you should exploit it all (meaning: create quotes, collage, your cover, promos, etc!) Be your own fan. Create a playlist, ambience, set the mood. Let your own world drag you into the woods, do not resist it.

If you love it, other will love it too.

W.I.P.? Means Work in Progress. So you have yet a lot to do to finish your story. it's okay, it takes time \^♡^/

Pathetic fallacy Vs Personification?

Pathetic fallacy

It's specifically about giving emotions to something non-human (objects, nature, or animals)

Writers use the pathetic fallacy to evoke a specific mood or feeling that usually reflects their own or a character's internal state. While I have seen some detractors of using this technique, think of Emily Brontë novel, Wuthering Heights, or Shakespeare in several of his works like Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, Othello, King Lear and Macbeth. Or Mary Shelly's Frankenstein. So study it and use it carefully and you should be fine. Times change but you should write however you want too.

Personification

On the other hand, is giving any human attribute to an object.

Think of The Beauty and the Beast, Alice in Wonderland, and Toy Story as great examples of what personification is.

Atmosphere?  is the way an author uses setting, objects, or internal thoughts of characters to create emotion, mood, or experiences for the reader.

For me Mary Shelley with Frankenstein is one of the most accurate examples I can give, but when I think about it, Robinson Crusoe, and Moby Dick, both feel tremendously claustrophobic and desperate to the reader, full of details, the time passes slowly and it's insufferable. Which in theory is not okay because the reader can drop the book but guess what? They're classic because you want to know what happens next. Which brings me to my next point, if you want to know more about the art of writing, you should try the following channels on YT:

Abbie Emmons

She has some interesting videos, but one crazy tip that will change your mind. It actually works. And don't worry, she keeps repeating it over and over so you learn it too. She also offers some courses and several activities like writing together (in case you're trying to write but can't, now you have a date!)

Ellie Dashwood

If you're into social dynamics, subtlety and want to get better writing period stories wether they are romantic or dramas, then she's your best bet. While she doesn't teach you how to write better she does teach you literature and history. And trust me, some of these things can be more than helpful. The way she analyzes and provides for clarification over social situations has made me understand not just Jane Austen but my own time in a different way.

Fiction Beast

This is showing me a lot of literature and making me read classics. Of course it wouldn't work if it wasn't because of Ellie but it's a must! because it does explains a lot.

Ana Neu

I just discovered her and Ellen so I can't say a lot of things but their videos have been really helpful with some of the things I've been working on especially with Fit or Die, so you should check out both of these girls.

Ellen Brock

and of course, he needs no introduction, but if you didn't know, he has several classes posted on his channel which have been helping me tremendously.

Brandon Sanderson

*Disclaimer: They're not paying me for doing promo. I just do this on my own account because I truly admire their work and effort put into it. Plus, I always do this for anyone if I truly admire the way they work. And I believe this is helpful for anyone with hopes of becoming an author. Even if it's just a hobby. Have fun~!

[acacia-may]

Hiya Acacia! For the ask game; may I ask for 4, 7, 31, and 46 please 🥰?

Hi there, Lyra! Thank you for the ask, friend!! 💜 These replies got really long so I've put them under the cut.

4. What is the plot bunny you’ve been carrying for the longest? optional bonus question: do you ever wonder why you haven’t written it yet and experience deep existential dread?

Since I have way too much WIPS, I am going to take a very narrow focus for this question and make myself choose from plot bunnies I have never written anything for (rather than including any existing wips). In which case, I've got to go with my Langris x Finesse Beauty and Beast AU where the Golden Dawn is all turned into the palace furniture (It's based off the Disney movie (loosely) and Alecdora Sandler made an excellent uptight clock, William was a candlestick, and David is particularly hilarious as a wine glass). I wanted to write this one so badly but just never could figure out how to make it into an actual story rather than vignettes of scenes and shenanigans, so it never came to life. 😭

And yes, I feel deep existential dread when I think about all of my wips and the stories I will (probably) never get to write... 🙈

7. Tell us about the plot of the first fanfic you ever wrote

I think I was "writing" fanfiction pretty much my whole life. When I played make-believe as a little kid, it was always continuations of my favorite stories or putting my favorite characters into AUs. I remember writing some short stories about my favorite book and cartoon characters too, but I'm not sure what my very first one was about. I want to say it was Star Wars because my friend and I wrote this whole series when I was about 9 called "The Adventures of Space Cat" (which was my friend's Star Wars OC: a talking cat who was basically adopted by Luke, Han, and Leia and brought on all their adventures after the end of the original trilogy).

When I was in middle school, I wrote what was essentially Ben 10 Alien Force fanfiction for an epic poetry school project and just changed all of the names and some of the more specific details. This absolute gem (I say with total sarcasm) is unfortunately lost to time but my sister swears she vividly remembers this one particular line that was basically, "Character A paused during the battle because of his trauma and confidence issues" (which I think probably says a lot about me & the kinds of characters that compel me even back then...).

I don't think I got serious about writing fanfiction until high school though when I wrote my big, long Secret Garden epic which was 46 chapters and 176,134 words long (and was going to be a duology so was technically never finished even though book 1 has a complete first draft...) The plot was pretty basic. It was a sequel to my favorite book of all time, The Secret Garden, and (believe it or not) a period romance that took place when all the characters were adults mostly during World War 1. It was split perspective and had OCs as major characters too, so it was, honestly, a really ambitious project.

I made so many changes to it after I had a complete draft so I'm honestly very relieved I never posted it anywhere and just shared it with my friends and family irl. They seemed to like it well enough but...it's a bit of an embarrassment for me tbh as I feel my writing has gotten so much better since then. A friend I met in college wanted to read it but I had made so many changes to the draft & had never finished the 2nd draft so it was basically unreadable (i.e. the beginning no longer matched the ending, random plotlines were taken out and added ect.) so I wrote Secrets and Sugar Mice for her as a little taste of my overall ideas and also to introduce her to one of my OCs (and I actually did post that to AO3 (linked here) if you are at all curious).

Writing that story helped me grow so much as a writer, character creator, and storyteller and I'm so grateful for the experience, but I'm not sure I will ever actually resurrect this project, especially since I'm not sure this particular 100+ year old book has much of a fandom.😅

31. Tell us about one of your characters who’s an absolute joy to write

I've answered this here (about one of my OCs) and here (about Black Clover canon characters I enjoy writing), but since we're doing blast from the past here a little, I will give a shout out to very first real OC, Julia, who taught me so much about how to create a character and fit them into an existing world (and as an eventual love interest for an existing character). Some of the most fun I have ever had as a writer was writing her and Colin's quick-witted rivals to friends to lovers plotline. They're both highly intelligent people, strong-willed, and stubborn as heck, and their plotline took place in a hospital (mostly during the war) where he's a doctor and she's a nurse and they are just butting heads about how best to run things at every possible turn. They end up playing up their rivalry because neither wants to admit defeat or that they actually have a lot of respect & admiration for each other and want to be friends. (Secrets and Sugar Mice is about that specifically if you're at all interested).

Here is a short excerpt if I can be completely self-indulgent (just a short little exchange between her and her dad (who technically is a canon character but we know next to nothing about him so he's basically an OC too lol):

Julia stopped abruptly, staring at the medical supply cabinet. It was exactly as she had left it with supplies organized for practical use—bandages next to gauze as they would often be taken together and so on. It only made sense after all—at least to Julia anyway. Some people were of the opinion that it would be better if the supplies were arranged alphabetically.

“Dr. Craven didn’t rearrange the cabinet today,” said a voice from behind her. She turned and found her father, Dr. Louis Cartwright, dressed in his white coat with files in hand. He smiled slightly at her.

 “So I see.”

“He was very busy,” her father explained. “It’s alright if you’re a bit disappointed.”

Her cheeks flushed, but she frowned. “Why would I be disappointed?”

Her father sighed and smiled knowingly at her. “I think you enjoy your little squabble over it.”

Julia could feel a deep blush rising in her cheeks, but she huffed indignantly. She most certainly did not enjoy arguing over the cabinet. It was bad enough that Dr. Colin Craven had somehow convinced her father to move them across the country to work in his hospital, but to then refuse to organize said hospital in a practical manner was even worse. Well, perhaps the rest of the hospital was alright, but this blasted cabinet simply wasn’t practical. She had reorganized it almost immediately, and he had rearranged it right back stubbornly insisting he couldn’t find anything unless the supplies were organized in alphabetical order. She insisted that putting frequently grouped items together saved time and rearranged it again. Then he reorganized it alphabetically again. And so on and so on. This had gone on for months now. It was a matter of pride not something she enjoyed—or at least not something she’d ever admit to enjoying no matter what her father said.

“It’s a matter of principle only, and if this is a sign that Dr. Craven has finally conceded, I would be glad of it.”

Her father laughed—his dark eyes sparkling. “I think it’s more of a sign that he was busy and had lots of patients today. I suppose, we’ll see tomorrow. Unless of course you want to ask him. He hasn’t left yet.”

Julia blinked. As much as she relished the idea of him admitting she was right about the cabinet, she was fairly certain that, as her father had said, this spoke more to Dr. Craven’s workload than to him conceding to her.

“I think I’ll just wait to see. Plus, I think this is a new record for my organization system.”

Her father chuckled quietly to himself but shook his head. “Don’t you think this cabinet squabble has gone on long enough?”

“We haven’t reached a resolution yet.”

“I don’t think you’ll ever reach a resolution this way.” Her father sighed. “I don’t understand why you won’t just admit you want to be friends and find something else to talk about.”

Julia’s cheeks grew hot, but she huffed and shook her head. “I don’t want to be friends.”

Her father raised his eyebrows and tilted his head slightly at her. Julia fidgeted. He could always tell when she was lying. The truth was she wouldn’t mind being friends. In fact, maybe a part of her did want to be friends—but at the same time she barely knew the man, and the little she did know of him was not particularly flattering. Still, she couldn’t help but concede that he was at least intriguing—this heir to a grand estate who spent his time as a doctor in a country hospital—or at least he would be if he was actually sociable from time to time and wasn’t so stubborn.

Julia huffed again. “It’s beside the point. Even if I did want to be friends, he clearly has no interest in making friends with me.” She sighed. “And besides, even if we did try to make friends, I doubt we would even get on—we so often disagree.”

“I think you’d get on extremely well if you got to know each other a little better. You have lots of common interests.”

“Which he never talks about,” Julia protested.

“He’s just shy and…”—Her father paused as if thinking of the right word—“awkward.”

“He’s very opinionated for someone who’s shy,” she countered her brow furrowing. 

Julia’s father laughed, but he smiled kindly. “He is a bit of an odd duck, but he’s a kind person at heart and very generous.”

“Why don’t you make friends with him then?” Julia teased with a chuckle.

Her father laughed. “I already am friends with him, and it’s quite pleasant.”

Julia wrinkled her nose, but her mouth turned up in the corners in spite of herself. She sighed. “I know that you’re very fond of him, Papá, and I can tell that he admires and looks up to you, but he has been nothing but cold and standoffish to me. Arguing about that cabinet and occasionally discussing work related issues is the full extent of our interaction. It’s not nearly enough to build a friendship.”

“I haven’t seen you try to talk to him about anything else, either,” her father countered pointedly before his face softened. “I know he wants to be friends, but I don’t think he knows how to strike up a conversation with you especially since you’re so set on disliking him.”

Julia sighed. “I’m not set on disliking him, but it is difficult to like someone who is so often disagreeable.”

46. what time are you the most productive when it comes to writing?

First thing in the morning or the middle of the night. But I think it changes based on my health and how busy I am. I am a very slow writer in general so it takes me a lot of time in the drafting/outlining stages before I actually sit down to start writing.

[la-pheacienne]

What are your thoughts on Eponine? (I haven’t read the novel, I have only watched the Liam Neeson movie (which didn’t have Eponine) and a recording of the musical).

Thank you for the ask I love getting Les Mis asks 💖

So keep in mind that I have read this book 13 years ago so I don't remember a lot of details. I remember the core idea of her character though and she was one of the most badass characters in the book, I loved her.

So Hugo initially had another named planned for her but changed it after Baudelaire dedicated a poem to him (Les petites vieilles from Les Fleurs du mal) that goes like this:

These dislocated wrecks were women once,

Were Eponine or Lais! hunchbacked freaks,

Though broken let us love them! they are souls.

And that is a very good introduction to her character.

Her first trait that needs to be mentioned is hunger. Eponine was a hungry, very hungry young teen, starved, to be more exact, she had a horrendous appearance, some teeth missing, she was extremely dirty, her clothes had huge wholes, she walked barefoot I think. Hunger was so absolute and omnipotent in Eponine, as in a lot of characters from the book, that it seemed to completely erase any hint of personality, or agency, or personhood really. She seemed to not even be a human being at all, she was just a starved girl who resembled a starved animal more than a person. And that's the thing with hunger, it's so catastrophic and definite that it completely annihilates a person. You can't have free will, you can't have spiritual autonomy, you're just that, hungry. Hunger in Les Mis is the ultimate and most substantial form of violence, and Eponine embodies that.

"The grace of her youth was struggling against the hideous old age brought on by debauchery and poverty".

What hunger also does is it gives birth to the lowest, most debased, most inhuman form of monster. That's Eponine's parents, les Thenardiers, and I honestly cannot recall a single literary character that is more appalling than them. They were appalling people before they became so poor, but poverty turned them into actual vultures. So in this "cocktail Molotov" of moral depravity plus extreme poverty and hunger, what chance does Eponine have of becoming something more than a vulture herself? A vulture, or a living, lifeless, soulless corpse, like her sister.

Yet that's not Eponine's arc. Eponine starts as a bully to Cosette while she was a kid, then becomes this hungry street smart kid, then an accomplice in a gang of criminals (burglars, thieves etc) then she goes to prison for a short time. She is in love with Marius, and so she's torn between her jealousy and the desire to make him happy, that is why she helps Marius find Cosette's house and leads him there, then she observes them every night they meet in the garden. She even prevents her gang from entering Cosette's house, because she knows that Marius would be destroyed if anything happened to Cosette. That's the part of the book where she stops them :

"Please yourself, you won't get in. I can't be the daughter of a dog seeing as I am the daughter of a wolf! There are six of you. What's that to me? You're men. Well, I'm a woman. You don't frighten me, that's for sure. I'm telling you, you won't get inside this house because I don't want you to. If you come any nearer I'll bark. I told you, I'm the 'cab'. I couldn't care less about you. Now be on your way, I've had enough of you! Go anywhere you like, but don't come here, I won't let you! You use your knives, I'll use my feet, it's all the same to me. So come on, then!"

And then, after this very selfless act, she actively manages to separate Cosette and Marius. She scares Valjean so he decides to move, and takes Cosette's letter for Marius with no intention of giving it to him, then leads Marius to the barricades so that they can die together there. And then, she dies for him after giving him Cosette's letter :

“She let her head fall back upon Marius' knees and her eyelids closed. He thought that poor soul had gone. Eponine lay motionless; but just when Marius supposed her for ever asleep, she slowly opened her eyes in which the gloomy deepness of death appeared, and said to him with an accent the sweetness on which already seemed to come from another world:

"And then, do you know, Monsieur Marius, I believe I was a little in love with you."

She essayed to smile again and expired.”

So Eponine was a morally ambiguous person but an exceptional character, moving from debauchery, spite and depravity to bravery and love. She doesn't believe in the Cause, but she loves Marius and she dies for him in the barricades, thus her death is as honorable as any other person that gave their lifes in the barriades. I think Eponine's function in the narrative is to show that it is in fact, possible, for an exceptional character to be born out of total material, moral and spiritual decay. It is possible for a human being to preserve the quality of a person, even an exceptional person, and rise above theIr horrendous circomstances. She's a tragic character but the underlying message is ultimately optimistic, in a way.

Of course she was not presented accurately in the musical, she was sexualised in a way that the supposed "conflict" between her and Cosette looks like the conflict of a the popular high school girl vs the high school underdog which is SO not the case in the book.

[epickiya722]

i want to ask u questions about the star rebirth au!!! but idk if they would be considered spoilers or anything but whatevs!!! 1 - how did the culling game end? like, do u have a list of characters u plan to bring back from the dead/keep alive or leave dead/kill? 2 - idk if i asked u this bfr but do u have any songs/playlist in mind for this au?? if so, pls leave the link to it!! 3 - did u had any outside inspo to make it? like other animes/movies/books? 4 - do u have any idea of how many chapters u plan to write?? anddd thats all i have (for now)!!! this au has been living on my mind rent free lmfao and above all, thank u sm for writing this!!!

That gif of Anya just touched my heart. She is so precious!! Anyways!!

There are spoilers mentioned for the manga though! So anyone who isn't caught up, I do advise you be mindful about continuing on!

Also spoilers for the Star's Rebirth AU if you haven't read those fics yet. [Link below for those who do want to read it.]

1 - In this AU, it pretty much ended the same way it does in canon (since the manga is now in a different arc now), but there are some slight changes I gave such as have Takako and Yuji meet, therefore she joins the others against Sukuna and Kenjaku. I loved her character too much so I decided to put The Pink Sky and Cherry Blossoms in the AU. I'm glad I did because I enjoy writing her.

It's the same case with Yuki. Here, she doesn't die. She survives. Hana and Takaba are still here, too. The Kyoto students are also in this AU.

Kenjaku is actually still alive, but immobile.

Hiromi, I do want to write him in somehow. I haven't decided to either have him die or have him survive just as Yuki and Satoru, I forgot to mention him, have done. Probably the latter.

Now, yes, some of the characters that are dead in canon are dead, but it doesn't mean they probably won't make an appearance.

Cases being Suguru and Kaori, both who are dead in canon, but they did have speaking roles in the fics (His Mercy and His Mother, respectively). Kaori, I needed to write a fic for her desperately.

The only one who are explicitly dead in this AU but stil alive in canon is Sukuna. Uraume, I'm actually living that ambiguous for the timing being.

I'll be honest, when I first wrote His Role, it was just on whim as with most of my fics. Even the fics that follow. I don't exactly plan on who will show up or a scene, but I have an idea and as I write, I create that vision as to how I think it would fit in. I just go with the flow!

2 - I actually don't have a Playlist! I just listened to whatever songs that I wanted, but four songs I do remember listening to on repeat during His Role and His Mercy was Fujii Kaze's Matsuri and Shinunoga E-Wa and Kvi Baba's Tired But Fine and Tombi (which is Trigun Stampede's opening song). During the writing for TPSaCB, I repeated Megan Thee Stallion's Cobra. I love that song and it actually helped me captivate Takako's emotions during that fic.

3 - Actually no! His Role was written during a time I really wasn't feeling like myself at all. I had an idea and I went to putting words together. Writing that fic helped me feel better. And truth be told, I wasn't expecting the reception I got for it. Though, it does make me happy.

4 - I have no idea how many fics will be added into this AU. To be honest, when during the writing the first fic, I didn't plan to add a sequel but I decided why not? The timing was perfect since Yuji's birthday was coming up and I wanted a fic out for it.

Here's the AU for anyone interested. ⤵

And please feel free to ask questions anytime!

[mrgodfrey]

Sinead.

I spent an hour with Sinéad O'Connor over lunch at her Kensington hotel in July 2014, to discuss her album I'm Not Bossy, I'm The Boss. I don't know if the record company had booked the restaurant out, but we were the only two there. Or so I recall. That's definitely what it felt like. We sat opposite each other, and I remember her smile and her blazer and her tattoos and her quietness - she was softly spoken - it all felt so intimate. Yet, reading back over it now, what power. Most of the interview was me pushing back - maybe a bit too much? - on her insistence that this new album wasn't autobiographical. I didn't believe it. And I'm pretty sure that a couple of years later she admitted elsewhere that it was really quite autobiographical after all, but she hadn't wanted to get into all of that with the press at the time. I think the truth came through in our interview regardless. She was everything I could have possibly wanted - open and honest and just really fucking funny. Not a bit of bullshit in sight. A dream. The dream.

I'm shellshocked, now, in July 2023, to know that that would be her final album. As a journalist, doing hundreds of these things over years and years, so many interviews just vanish from your mind. I never forgot this one. I'll never forget it. How lucky I was to spend the time with her. How lucky we all were to have her.

Sinéad in 2014. Photo by Donal Moloney

This album seems to me like part two after How About I Be Me (And You Be You). Were they recorded closely together?

No. Not at all. But… it’s not so much part two, but it definitely has links, yeah.

Musically it feels like it’s from the same place.

Yeah, it is.

And the same person.

Yeah. I seem to have changed – without necessarily meaning to – the platform from which I wrote songs. Starting with the last album. They became almost character songs that weren’t necessarily autobiographical. Which meant a certain freedom. When I was younger I was writing songs because I had to get shit off my chest. But once I got the shit off my chest and shut down a bit and then made the three records, the rasta record [Throw Down Your Arms] and the Irish traditional record [Sean-Nós Nua] and Theology, those records weren’t about my life and that was good, it meant I could shut down that part. So with the last record and this there’s a different platform. Is what I’m trying to say, basically. I’m saying it in a very long-winded way.

I took that last record to my heart. Some of the songs felt really cinematic. Lots of imagery.

Yeah, good. Because some of them were written on the basis of scripts I had read, some of them were inspired by movie scripts, so I’m glad that came across.

That’s how it came across to me, maybe because of them being less autobiographical-

Yeah, you kind of invent characters.

‘Take Off Your Shoes’ gives me the shivers, because it’s terrifying.

Yeah, good! That’s the whole idea, it’s supposed to be scary.

It really is, and it takes me to the place you’re singing about, it scares the shit out of me really.

Good, good, that’s what it’s supposed to do, I’m pleased! That’s good. Very happy with that. The character in that song is supposed to be the Holy Spirit talking to the Vatican, so the object of the game is to scare the shit out of them. The object of the character’s game, their motivation. I’m quite pleased if it comes across as quite scary.

Have you heard anything from the sort of people you wanted to hear that song?

No, because I don’t actually write them for other people, I’ve not written it in the hope that anybody will hear it. The only reason you should ever make a record is you’re gonna go mad if you don’t. If you’re starting to communicate with anybody outside of yourself or you’re doing it for any other reason you probably shouldn’t be doing it. I think the difference perhaps between entertainers and artists, not that one is better than the other, that’s not the case, but perhaps an artist is someone who’s more expressing themselves, perhaps even narcissistically, communicating with themselves the whole time. And that perhaps can seize upon a zeitgeist or whatever, other people can identify with it. But with a character like that [in ‘Take Off Your Shoes’], if you’re consciously thinking that the Vatican are gonna hear the record, you’re fucked. You’re playing the character because you’re gonna lose your mind if you don’t.

These two albums seem like they’re just you being you.

Yeah, it’s a different platform. It’s just somebody writing from a completely different platform and creating characters and perhaps not having a whole load of shit to get off their chest, perhaps a bit more freed up to be the type of writer and performer they would have been had there not been a whole load of shit to get off their chest.

You’ve said elsewhere that this isn’t an autobiographical album, but to me that sounds like a generalisation. Maybe they’re not about you per se, but it all comes from you, and surely still comes from your perspective and experiences.

Yeah, what I mean is they’re not about my life, I haven’t necessarily experienced the things that the characters are talking about. One of my favourite songs on there is ‘Voice Of My Doctor’, I love that character. No, I haven’t experienced what that character’s experienced, but something in me can still identify with the feeling of it enough to deliver it. But it’s not about anything particularly that happened to me. I suppose it’s like being an actor, where you couldn’t play a part if a part of you wasn’t in a character. It’s the Stanislavski method singing and songwriting basically, creating a character and playing it.

You’ve got to understand and empathise with the character enough to make it work.

Yeah, which you can. But if you take the word ‘autobiographical’ literally, which I am, ‘this happened to this person’... it’s just inventions or things you’ve seen or read or wish you’d seen or read.

Would you say most of what you’ve written in the past autobiographical?

I would say it’s completely autobiographical, yeah.

So why the sudden line drawn? Was there a conscious decision to stop writing songs like that, or do you just have less of yourself to put in now?

No, I think what it was was, the reason I was writing songs in the first place was, the way that I had grown up in ‘70s Ireland, and we all know what that was like, and I’d grown up in a very abusive set of circumstances, there was no such thing as therapy, music was my way out, and it was perhaps therapy. There was a whole load of shit to get off one’s chest. And I think literally what happened was I did that, and got it off my chest, so then all that was left to express was the stuff that I would have expressed had I not had all of the shit on top of me. Had I been born in The Little House On The Prairie I would have just started making records like the last record or this record. The object of your game when you go to get shit off your chest is that one day it will be off your chest. And I think that’s what happened, I reached the point where it was off my chest.

Maybe it took longer than expected.

No. It didn’t take very long really, in the great scheme of things.

25 years.

Yeah, but in the scheme of what it was I was recovering from, that’s not very long to be honest.

Yes.

I mean to get yourself free at all, creatively speaking, is quite miraculous. However long it takes.

‘Take Me To Church’ is a brilliant pop song, but what you’re singing about is a big statement, especially for a first single off an album, and it certainly sounds like you’re saying something about yourself. In fact in context of what we’ve been discussing, it sounds like you’re saying, “I’m not doing that anymore. This is who I am now and this is what I’m doing from now on.”

One could say that! One could say that, yeah. It’s funny, you might go to write a character and fucking can somehow accidentally echo your own thing. It’s really more when you listen to the album in sequence, in context... I’m from the ‘70s when records had a sequence and perhaps a story across an album, as opposed to separate tracks. There are approximately three or four female characters on this record. One of them appears more often than the others, and that character in particular is sort of the centrepiece of the record. It’s really a record about... illusions and not illusions, put it that way, romantically speaking, it’s a very romantic record, it’s a pop record basically. The character is maturing in a way when it comes to attitudes towards romantic shit. ‘Take Me To Church’ is the moment one’s illusions get shattered, except it’s a great thing. It’s more the character really talking about not necessarily wanting to be the silly type of romantic, which is a quite dangerous thing to be perhaps. But I don’t write songs about Sinéad O’Connor. That’d be really uncool. I really don’t.

But you’ve done it before and it wasn’t uncool.

Well no, because I never was writing about Sinéad O’Connor as such.

You mean the public concept of Sinéad O’Connor.

Yeah. It’s always a weird thing to talk about, music, because if you could talk about it you wouldn’t need it. So it’s always a very hard thing to describe. It’s a very hard thing to describe what a character means in one song when really that song is part of a whole journey in a way, it’s like taking a page out of a play and saying, “What are you saying with this one page?” It’s her pivotal moment, this particular character. It could equally be a male character, it just happens to be female.

The album sounds like it’s made by someone in love with life. Musically at least, it’s not a dark album, it feels very positive, and even though some of the lyrics are about longing or desperation or getting fucked over-

Well they’re not all about that, even the longing ones like ‘Your Green Jacket’, that’s very romantic, it’s very positive. I wouldn’t see it as a dark album at all, there are a couple of dark moments where one of the characters gets a fright, but it ends up being a good thing because that’s how she can make her mind up to love herself more than anything else. Yeah, I think it’s quite a positive record. It’s a very romantic record.

Yeah, and despite it not being autobiographical, it sounds very positive and comfortable. So in that way I would imagine it does represent what you’re up to.

Yeah, exactly. I’m comfortable and free to a point where I can enjoy playing these characters and writing these characters and just rocking the fuck out and having a laugh. Obviously they’re coming from me, it was my intention to make a romantic record, all of the feelings expressed are expressed the way I would express them. There are characters but I suppose it is a fine line, it’s just that the experiences they’re uttering are not my experiences, but they’re my feelings.

Right, exactly.

Yeah, it’s a hard thing to explain. In a way you’ve got to go out of your way to say that things are not autobiographical because you don’t want anyone else offended who might be implicated in matters! Sometimes you might have taken essences of situations and created something else with them. As songwriters we kind of milk life for songs. We have to be careful! ‘Faction’ is what my brother says, he’s a novel writer, he says what he writes is faction. And I guess that would probably describe what I do.

I was wondering if writing an album like this a sort of process of self-fulfilling prophecy, becoming what you want to be by writing and performing it.

Yeah, I mean... What’s the best way to put it... The only reason as I say for having expressed any of the other more painful stuff musically is because that’s what was going on. The only reason you bother doing that is because you believe that some day it’ll be over if you do. So when it’s over, yeah... I wasn’t thinking, ‘Oh I must create a happy loving album,’ my life was happy and loving, and that’s where I was, I’ve been listening to Chicago blues for the last two years, which I love, funky happy blues, I had a great band around at the time, a great guitar player, there just happened to be some great musicians around and a whole lot of shit came together. And I was musically having the time of my life, that’s what was behind it I think. Because the whole tour that I did last year was the best musical fun I ever had. So I think what happened was I fell really madly in love with music, and I’d always quite liked it but I’d never fallen madly in love with it. So it didn’t need to be that I had to create a prophecy for myself, except... you’re not entirely out of the arena with a song like ‘Take Me To Church’, even though it’s a character to some extent, I was aware writing that song that what you write is what you create. So I deliberately wanted to create the type of life that perhaps I want the character to have, and that also somewhere in me I must want also. That was the only song I’ve ever written where I wrote that with that in mind, that this shit will come true in my life.

Ah, so I wasn’t completely off.

No, not at all, no. But obviously look, you can’t trust a fucking thing a musician will tell you as to what songs are about or not about. Bob Dylan had everyone believing he grew up in a circus for a while. We’re not at liberty to be 100% honest.

Well, why should you.

Also it fucks things up for the audience. If you hear what was in the mind of your favourite poet when he wrote your favourite poem he’d fuck it up for you forever, because next time you hear the poem you’ll be in his head and not yours. If you tell people what songs are about there are a whole load of dangers involved. The most important being you take away from the audience the right to project onto the song what they think it means to them. I don’t wanna know what Bob Dylan is talking about because I can’t imagine then what he’s talking about, I can’t imagine he’s talking to me. If he told me he was talking to that fat bird around the corner I can’t imagine he was talking to me.

Lines like, “I love to make music but my head got wrecked by the business” – it’s hard to hear that and accept that it’s not autobiographical.

Oh yeah, no, ‘Eight Good Reasons’ and ‘How About I Be Me’ are extremely autobiographical. The other songs not so much so, but there are glimpses obviously.

I took some solace in that line about being wrecked by the business being past tense. Is that right?

Yeah, definitely.

During those 25 years or so when you were getting everything out of your system with your music, did it feel like catharsis, did it work for you on a sort of physical level?

It actually did, very much so. That’s the way singers are and that’s the way we’re built, we need to vocalise shit, and certainly for abuse survivors the issue is voice, that you didn’t get to voice yourself. So it was very lucky to be in a situation where one could voice oneself, because so much of what goes on with abuse also it isn’t verbal, and sometimes it’s pre-verbal. There aren’t words, only sounds. And it you’re a person who responds to sound as a recovery method, which I did obviously because that’s the way I’m programmed, and I didn’t have any option because I was in ‘70s and early ‘80s Ireland where there was no therapy anyway. So yeah, it got it all out of my body, and the thing with abuse also is it’s the body that’s been wounded, so you can do all the therapy in your head but the last stage of recovery is getting it out of the body, so if you can be doing that as you’re going along... Sound is a very powerful way of getting shit out of your body. So there definitely did come a point where it was gone. And that was quite wonderful. I didn’t actually expect it to be gone so soon to be honest. You’re saying 25 years is a long time, that’s fuckin’ no time [laughs]. That’s fuckin’ no time. I thought it would take a very long time.

There’s also… You were very active on Twitter for a year or two, but it’s now an HQ promo account, it’s not personal. Is that choice, to not give people access to that part of you, connected to the less autobiographical musical approach? Does it all tie in?

Insofar as I’ve deliberately decided to go quiet on all fronts other than music while I’ve got an album coming out... I’m sensible enough I suppose to keep all distractions out the picture.

Was Twitter a distraction?

It becomes a distraction. Anything that you do outside of music becomes a distraction. Unfortunately you’re followed by every fuckin’ newspaper in town, or if you write something on your site or whatever, and that’s fine, it’s as it should be, I have no problem with it generally, but while I’m trying to focus on music I’d rather not have any distractions. So it’s best to avoid the Twitter. Anyway I like dipping in and out of Twitter, Twitter’s the type of thing you couldn’t spend your daily life on. Anything I wrote about anything anywhere else would be a distraction. I actually do write a tour diary most nights, there’s a section on my site called Tour Musings, but I don’t actually put it in there, I’ll save it and use it some other time. But even those things would be a distraction, somebody will be writing about the fact that you wrote about menstruating rather than writing about your album. There’s a lot about menstruating in my tour diaries.

Is there!

Yeah. It’s a big issue for women like me. That’s what I mean, that’s why I keep off Twitter, off everything while I’ve got a record coming out because otherwise everything will be about menstruation and not my great record.

Has that annoyed you over the years, that things non-related to your music have got the headlines.

Yeah but look, I’m 50% responsible for that. There are two of us in that relationship, me and the media, so we both have 50% responsibility. That’s the way it was and that’s the way it is. So now I really try to keep things separate. So if there’s extra-curricular stuff I wanna rant on about, I’ll do that on my site. I try as much as possible to avoid talking about that shit when I’m trying to flog records.

When you were on Twitter did you interact with people?

Oh yeah. I still have really good friends I met on Twitter that I’ve never actually met but we’re really good mates. Yeah yeah yeah. Then you get in rows with people. The best thing about Twitter is you can block people, which you can’t do in life, it’s fucking great, just press Block, it’s fucking the greatest feeling ever. It’s so good! I nearly go on there just to block people, it’s brilliant. The day that you’ve learnt not to respond to a troll and just block and move on, it’s better than therapy actually. You know that you genuinely stopped giving a flying fuck what anyone thinks.

I know exactly what you mean because a guy who was harassing me a lot on email, and I didn’t know you could do it but-

Divert his emails to Trash.

Yeah! I told him I was doing it.

Was it something you wrote that he didn’t like?

I wrote a really positive piece and he interpreted it all as negative. He’s clearly a troubled guy and he probably needs help.

Yeah but you don’t have to put up with this shit. It’s great when you can divert people. I do that as well. Because then you never know they wrote to you. And it’s brilliant because they think that you’re ignoring them. A big mistake is to tell them you’re diverting them, because then they set up fake email addresses and abuse you from that. But also if you just divert them to Trash but don’t tell them, they think that you’re stronger than you really are because you’ve ignored them.

I didn’t care how strong he thought I was, I just wanted him out of my life.

No I always got off on them thinking that I’ve been strong enough not to react. Which I would never be. But if I ever told anyone that I was diverting them they’d set up a fake email address.

Video directed by James Lees.

I loved the video for ‘Take Me To Church’, which my friend directed. He loved working with you. I saw the behind-the-scenes video yesterday.

I haven’t seen that, I’m afraid to watch it.

Really?

I’m afraid to watch any of it because I’d be mortified at the state of me in the wig and the dress. I’m afraid of it.

In terms of the wigs – you’re wearing wigs in the new promo shoots and the… is it PVC?

It’s latex. Just get that right because the woman who made the dress is rightly extremely upset that everyone has not noticed that it’s latex.

Okay. Not PVC.

No, PVC is cheap. Latex is very expensive.

Well connecting again to the lyrics and the non-Twitter activity, with these promo photos it’s almost like you’re wearing a disguise, or even a shield.

It could be the opposite though actually. To some extent. The thing is I’ve never really written love songs before, no one has actually clicked, perhaps including me, that I am actually a woman. That underneath this there is actually a woman.

What do you mean?! That’s not true.

No, do you know what I mean... I’ve always written and sang and performed and been the kind of warrior woman, and that’s great, there’s nothing wrong with that, but I never actually was the other woman. It wasn’t supposed to be the cover, it was just a few publicity shots, and I thought, ‘Let’s throw in some hair and some sexy dresses and we’ll get loads of publicity for the record, it wasn’t meant to be the cover. But in a way it sounds like the woman that made the record, and that’s me obviously, those are aspects of myself. So in a way it could be the opposite of a disguise, it could actually be more a revealing of something. And this [gestures to herself] is a disguise actually.

You think?

Yeah. Very much so, yeah.

In what way?

Because... what’s the best way to put it... for protective purposes, put it that way. Soft girls have to act a lot tougher than they really are.

You mean like wearing this suit jacket?

No, the shaved hair, everything, all of that. It’s been safer to wander the world as a female looking like this than it would have been to be a female looking like, whatever. So in one way you could argue that the shaved hair and all of that is in fact the disguise. That’s all I’m saying. I wouldn’t necessarily say that the latex woman is a disguise. The dresses are mine, put it that way. The hair is not mine, but I would wear those clothes.

Photo by Donal Moloney

Okay. What was the original plan for the cover art?

It was just a picture of my ugly mug in front of a picture of Vishnu. I don’t know quite what I mean... the record’s very romantic and there are all these different women, or different aspects of women in a very romantic womanist kind of way, so it’s not that it’s a vulnerable record, but it’s a record perhaps from a more... Nobody’s really seen I think that particularly feminine part of me, other than the warrior feminine. And I’ve never been particularly comfortable with displaying that I’m actually a female [laughs], particularly other than the warrior female. In a way yeah, it’s not a disguise, it’s the opposite.

That’s amazing. Okay. So the opening track, ‘How About I Be Me And You Be You’, you say is autobiographical, and-

Can we just clarify something about ‘Take Me To Church’, it’s not actually about church, everybody thinks it’s about church – I can’t imagine why. It’s not. It’s only referencing that song from My Fair Lady when the main character’s father’s going to get married and he sings “Get me to church on time.” It’s really about relationships, the song’s saying that it’s all very well being married and all, but love is a thing that hurts.

Okay. So ‘How About I Be Me And You Be You’, does that relate to what we’ve been talking about? Although I think, on reflection now, I’m confused about what that song’s about.

I’ll tell you what it is, it’s hard not to be confused. I wrote these three articles three or so years ago for an Irish newspaper and they were actually quite funny, they were funny articles, it started as one article, because I’d read this piece about a woman who married her truck.

Her truck?

Her truck. And I had no boyfriend at the time and I wrote this very funny article about was this gonna happen to me, I was gonna end up marrying my fuckin’ truck because there were no fellas around, then it ended up being, it was such a scandal in Ireland that a woman would talk about sex and talk about such things, that the child in me got more bold the more scandal there was, I wrote another one, and then another one, so there were these three articles that were actually very funny but got portrayed as if it was some lunatic, purely because women aren’t supposed to talk about shagging bananas or whatever. It did generate my favourite headline ever, which is ‘Sinéad Admits Sex With Popular Fruit,’ which I thought was fuckin’ hilarious. Apart from ‘Tweet Revenge.’ So yeah, there was all scandal and outrage and how awful it is that a woman would talk like that. So that’s what I wrote this song about, it was actually a response to the kind of sexually repressed Twatterati in Ireland.

Okay. I got that, and I was thinking that it was a comment on what happens when you are yourself and open to people and how it was received – it’s the first song on the album, so I thought it was you saying, “If this is what happens when I’m myself, then I’m now gonna close off,” and then the rest of the songs aren’t so personal.

Oh no, no... they’re factional. One can be extremely personal but not be writing about oneself.

Of course.

It’s a very hard thing to describe. Really it’s just a romantic song, it’s just saying, why would you be bothered writing about sex and love and giving out that you haven’t got a boyfriend and crying that you might have to shag bananas for the rest of your life. It’s more about saying, look, whatever anyone might say you should be at the end of the day, you’re just a little 5ft4 female the same as any other 5ft4 female. That’s what the whole record is really, it’s just love songs, just pop little love songs for some little tiny woman.

Do you think it’s bad for you to be sitting with someone like me prodding at everything and deconstructing it more than maybe you think it needs?

No I think it’s natural and to some extent that’s what we got taught to do at school, deconstruct things. I think it’s natural, especially if you’re an artist who has traditionally been very autobiographical and very open and perhaps a little too honest about what things are about or not about. No, there’s nothing wrong with it and I don’t find it difficult or a pain in the arse, the difficult bit is lying your way around it [laughs].

Given that you say there are three different female characters on the album, that seems to be a musing on the different parts of our personalities, and the fact that when you’re telling stories as you are, you can siphon off different parts of yourself and attribute them to different people for the purposes of saying different things. Does that make sense?

Yeah, it very much does, it very much does. Absolutely. I suppose it goes back that thing, a writer couldn’t create characters unless those characters were somehow part of themselves. Even if they’re not at the point that they’re created, they certainly stay in you once you’ve created you. The character becomes a part of you.

Okay one more question. You started off busking, is that right?

Yeah, well I did do a lot of busking.

So in terms of everything that’s happened since then, your career, life, media, being part of the music industry, when you’re singing are you still just that person busking, is it still just you getting joy out of the music? Or has it all been corrupted and jaded by all the baggage that comes with it.

No, it’s always the person that went busking, but it’s better than the person who went busking, because it’s the person that went busking and then fell in love with all these other musicians, the Chicago blues stuff or whatever. It’s a person who’s in love with performing live. I get real inspired by all the Chicago blues guys, I watch them performing live and it makes me wanna perform live. I think there’s something in me, I don’t know if it’s the same with other musicians, but I just love performing live, I couldn’t give a shit who or what the audience is, it could be a street with nobody in it or it could be a stage with a bunch of people. It’s getting off on making music, and the feeling you get, the adrenaline, the excitement, it’s all a bit of a drug. All the feelings you get when you’re making music.

And that’s never gone away.

No. Not at all. It’s obviously nicer in the studio than it is in the street in the winter, but otherwise it’s the same thing. In fact I definitely get more excited about making music as I’ve got older.

How come?

Well I don’t know that I appreciated the fun it could be when I was younger. Because I was real shy. And I still am, insofar as I have to close my eyes when I’m singing, I can’t look at the audience or I’m fucked. I used to be quite crippled with shyness whereas now I relax and just have fun and even tell inappropriate jokes in-between songs or whatever. Relax and get off on it. I used to be a deer in the headlights, but now I get off on it and think of how lucky I am to be making music. I like to watch Howlin’ Wolf before I go on, I watch a lot of his live stuff on YouTube, he’s just so fuckin’ funky that you think, “Oh my god, I’m getting to do a Howlin’ Wolf gig.” It just makes you excited.

Photo from Sinéad O'Connor's official Facebook page.

[greypetrel]

Iron Bull and I’m pretty sure you said Tolkien too?? If so, Elrond and Tommy Bombadilly —Koko

Hi Koko!

Somehow I knew you would have been asking Bull xP Just a sixth sense! And yes I said Tolkien to! :3

The Iron Bull:

First impression: I remember I was caught for the character design, the visible imperfections and how he's not canonically handsom... And yet he counts as he is. After the design, I was... A little taken aback by him admitting that oh yes he's a spy and he will spy on you. Like... What? Are you sure you want to tell me, man? xD Instant interest.

Impression now: I know he has flaws and that by all means he's the one person you shouldn't be trusting in all the games. But, he's the huge mom friend, which is also why he's so good at what he does if you ask me. I think he's the better liar because he will admit he's lying... And still will make you forget he is. But yeah, I haven't yet played with a character who wouldn't save the Chargers, and so he could go and live his best life free of being the biggest mother hen ever.

Favorite moment: He brought Dorian's handkerchief for him because he knows he would have forgotten. Big mother hen. No, also the way he just looks at Krem after his personal mission and just... "Never mind, you're doing fine". Basically, whenever he lets himself show he's a big big softie. Also him carrying Sera on his shoulders in battle, yelling "Mayhem!".

Idea for a story: As for Dorian, I'd love love love to write, sooner or later, some expansion of this ficlet and expand that dynamic. I'd also seriously love to read something about him and Krem learning to work together. Some Chargers origin story.

Unpopular opinion: Again, he's another character who doesn't betray you, in my opinion. Even if you sacrifice the Chargers, in Trespasser... He told you from the start he was a spy working for the Qun, right? He was always very open about him being Ben Hassrath, Gatt told you he was called "Liar". You know he lies. As much as you know that Varric lies. Bull's just better at making you forget but... Is it really a betrayal if you were told whose side he was really on from the start? If you were really told he never liked the Tal Vashoth as a concept, if you ask him about Seheron? Not a betrayal, you just forget he was never on your side, if you cut away the one reason he had to change his loyalties (yes I'm including if he's in a romance with either the Inquisitor or Dorian. I like his character so much because a romance is not enough to make him change his mind and become something he clearly say he hates. His men, the life he build for himself, relationships he grew in years are, and if you take that away... He may call you Kadan, you're still just one person and love is not enough on its own.)

Favorite relationship: Him and the Chargers, hands down. They were collectively his way to express himself and find himself and heal after the Horrors, and he's just... I don't know you can see he struggles to give back what he got and it's just so precious.

Favorite headcanon: Plus size, soft bellied Bull still lives rent free in my head. As above, Bull the mama hen taking care of the inner circle. I also still remember Bull the HR manager in Skyhold that @shivunin devised and I had to draw and... Yes.

Elrond:

First impression: I remember I was suspicious of him at first because I already saw the Matrix, and he was the villain, so at 9 I thought that he must have been evil there too. xD

Impression now: I have distinct opinions on book and movie Elrond. I love the first trilogy dearly, but amongst the choices they did I like less and less, the "Let's make Elrond a helicopter dad" is the one that leaves me MEH. But that's on me, the "star-crossed lovers" is a trope that I have extremely little patience for. Still the way he just looks at Aragorn in Minas Tirith, moved and in happy tears... Aaaaaw. I love him I LOVE HIM. and I love how he was written in Rings of Power, give me more Elrond content please, he has so much to give as a character, think of what he has seen!

Favorite moment: The patience and restraint he showed in not kicking Isildur in the volcano with a vengeance. Respect, bro, I would have tossed the jock right into cursing his name and calling him for the asshole that he is. And in Rings of Power, the heart-to-heart talks he has with Durin.

Idea for a story: More Elrond being the weird uncle for Durin and Disa's children. More Elrond dealin with three children on his own. More Elrond and Elros dealing with what the fuck happened to his parents Oh ok now mom is a seagull that's... fine.

Unpopular opinion: I like a lot how he was portrayed in Rings of Power. Yes included his haircut, let him have his Patrick Schwayze phase.

Favorite relationship: Him and Arwen and him and Durin.

Favorite headcanon: We all know he's a big softie when it comes to his children, right? And to children in general. I picture Elladan, Elrohir and Arwen doing shenanigans when they were little, and him... Just sighing and telling them to go to their room, totally unable to even go as far as grounding them. Arwen looked at him with those big blue eyes and he just... Couldn't do anything else.

Tom Bombadil:

First impression: Hey dol, Merry dol! / Ring a dong dillo 🎶 I think I wasn't really understanding what was going on, but I was 9 and I enjoyed the little shenanigan with this weird person who had a wife he loved and sung a catchy song. I didn't question him that much.

Impression now: Still as above, I like him being there, just to show the Hobbits that the world isn't all dark and evil, there is something good to fight for. LOTR is about hope and finding hope when everything around you is dark, and he just does that. If you just go with the flow and don't question him much, take him as just "a quirk", there are some lovely descriptions to be found and a lovely, lovely way to see nature. (which again, is such an important theme in Tolkien's work!)

Favorite moment: That fucking catchy song stays in my head for LONG. Right now I'm humming it. Tom Bom, jolly Tom, Tom Bombadillo! 🎶

Idea for a story: A meeting between him and the Ents. Which will be... 1000 pages of nothing at all. But come on. It'll be fun.

Unpopular opinion: As above, he's not evil incarnate and pointless in the story. He's a moment of breath with the purpose to remember that the world isn't all scary and that there is some mystery to behold, that doesn't require an explanation, that would make everything worse if he was explained.. There's good and there's light... And there's always something to look at in wonder in the world.

Favorite relationship: He and Goldberry are the ultimate couple.

Favorite headcanon: I think I read somewhere a theory according to whom he's really a Valar? I think he was Aule and Goldberry Yavanna in disguise? Well, Tom Bombadil a Valar is an headcanon I stan. I don't remember where I read it or if my brain made it up right now, but still. (... I could keep the idea for my fic tho. MMMMMH.)

[1d1195]

tell me why i was laying in bed when i randomly got a text from my friend in a group chat saying “guys… liam payne just died” i did NOT believe her but oh my god that was devastating. my mind’s been on his friends and family all day and how they must be coping. especially his poor baby

(i will def not be stalking your page every day now ready to read abt harry being an absolute mess bc i too am i huggeeee fan of that)

dad being the common denominator during your worst eras is the REALEST THING IVE EVERRR HEARD!!! i am still out of the country and im DEF homesick. there’s a bunch of family drama tho, things aren’t complicated, there isn’t a set date to leave yet (but im trying for asap). thank you so much for listening and relating to me 🫶

PLS LIKE WHY DO PEOPLE OUT OF THE USA JUST LIKE… NOT USE ICE😭😭😭 no one here has ice in their homes except us LMAO we brought an ice tray 😭 HAHAHAHAHA SAM I LOVE YOU YOU’RE HILARIOUS. I DONT CARE IF YOU WERE BEING SARCASTIC CAUSE IVE LITERALLY SAID THIS TO ALL THE PEOPLE AROUND ME WITH COMPLETE SERIOUSNESS. all my troubles would be fixed with a vanilla oat milk iced coffee ahhhhhh

i can absolutely see myself having a transformation like in one of those barbie movies where i twirl and everything’s pretty and perfect after the first sip BAHSHSGDFAGAGSH😭

our talk got me thinking i should read more. i even got as far as taking the book off the shelf and putting in on my nightstand😌☺️

wait…harry and love & other words was a crossover i didn’t know i needed but oommmggggg👀 im so down for this if you ever decide to do it

AHHHHH i love you!!!! ive def missed you TONSSSS AND IM SO GLAD WE’RE TALKING AGAIN

~🎶

I know it's all so horrific and tragic. My students and coworkers all checked on me which was so sweet and cute in a way 😭 I don't know if I'll be writing anything close to Harry being a mess about this specifically, but I do have an idea to pay tribute or whatever. Hopefully it'll be a good idea when the time comes, I'm sure you'll see it 💕

Family is the worst/best thing. My dad thinks we're bffs and I'm like "bro, you're annoying as fuck" I'm sorry you're dealing with drama from them and I do hope you get to leave ASAP and when you do get back please get TWO vanilla iced oat milk lattes and drink one on behalf of me and transform back into your perfect, beautiful barbie self!

Where do you get your latte from? or do you make your own? If it's a chain place (like Starbucks) I will have to try it! I've been trying to make coffee more at home to save $ but there's something nice about someone else making my drink.

Idk if anyone reads our messages, but: if you're reading this and you're not from the USA can you explain the ice thing? No judgment, I genuinely want to understand. I love cold drinks 😭 BROUGHT AN ICE TRAY I'M OBSESSED

Reading progress for sure! My goal was to clear my TBR shelf by the end of the year. Did not happen. But I read many books this year and I added more to the TBR so it is what it is!

very happy to hear from you, I've missed chatting! You don't have to answer if you don't want to, but what's going on with your school stuff? I remember you wanted to go back for your GED (?) how did travel play into that? Or when can you work on that?

hope you have a fun weekend planned at least 💕

xoxo