#plus i enjoy dramatic irony

[carpenoctemnyx]

I read first person like im their conscience and they arent listening to me

wait do people read first person stories and think they're the ones in the story???

Saw people talking about not liking first person, which is fair, but their reasoning was like "I would not do that" and I don't understand that mindset.

First person stories are still about a character. A character making their own decisions. First person isn't about you???? At least I thought it wasn't. What am I missing? I've always seen first person as just a more in-depth look into a character's mind and stricter POV. Not as a reader stand-in.

[atlasofthestaars]

Can you write something where the reader is sick, and their love interest Smoke helps take care of them? Thank you!

NOTE: IM SO SORRY HOW LONG THIS TOOK ANON </3 ITS FINALLY HERE

Tried to make this lighthearted and funny!

Sorry this is really short (or short for how long you waited for this) </3 I wanted to finally get this out and I couldn’t think of much to extend this

SICK DAYS [SMOKE X READER]

Colds were perhaps the worst thing ever.

Okay, you were being dramatic. You’d never admit that outloud, and especially in this state, but you were. They definitely weren’t the worst thing ever, but you loathe being sick. It sucked the life out of you, it made you miserable, and everyone wanted to avoid you. Not to mention, even after the worst is over, you’d be left with sniffles and coughs for an unreasonable amount of time.

Why couldn’t being sick just be a one day deal? It was all too easy to get sick anyways, one tiny mistake then you were suddenly down on your luck and getting sick. It didn’t help that you were staying in possibly the worst place right now to deal with a cold. The Lin Kuei temple was not the best place with its freezing temperatures to recover from a cold. 

Haha, cold. Cruel irony.

Grumbling, you sighed as you pulled the covers over yourself, curling into a tight ball as you closed your eyes. This way, you’d be warmer. And then maybe, just maybe, you could sleep and wake up and suddenly be better. It was definitely wishful thinking, but it was better than nothing.

Sadly, your plan was thwarted in a matter of minutes.

The door of your room opened, shining the light leaking in from the hallway directly on your face. You flinched at the sudden change in light, a frown tugging harder at your lips. It was as if the elder gods were mocking you. They enjoyed your pain, surely. 

You squinted open your eyes, nearly hissing at the light. Your grumpiness was somewhat quelled as you noticed just who was the figure who had decided to disrupt your attempt to hibernate your way into wellness. 

Tomas, the light of your life. Not that he knew it, nor did you ever mention it to him.

You blinked, focusing on his form which was being outlined by the light outside. By the elder gods, it was making him look like an angel. Not that you didn’t think he wasn’t an angel already, but now he especially looked like one. Especially when you spotted the things he was carrying in his hands.

Water and soup. 

Nevermind, maybe the elder gods were blessing you today. Maybe they pitied your sickly state, so they sent an angel to nurse you back to health. Surely that must be it.

“Are you feeling better?” Tomas asked as he set down the bowl of soup and water on the nightstand. He then knelt next to your bed. You tried to take a sniff of the soup, before remembering sorrowfully that your nostrils were clogged. You mourned the loss of smell, suddenly. 

“I think I’m dying.” You croaked out, using your status as a sick person to be even more dramatic than usual. It was a treat to yourself, to help you cope with your status. You groaned as you shifted in bed, wanting the pain of being sick to end already. You glanced at the soup and water, before glancing back at Smoke to see his reaction.

“You wouldn’t be dying if you didn’t go out in the snow like I warned you not to.” Tomas chided you, yet at the same time he had a smile on his face, and a playful note to his voice. You stared at his face, making sure to commit it to memory. It was going to be one of the few things that was going to get you through this sickness.

Or the last thing you remembered before you passed away from this illness like a sickly Victorian child.

“Well I’m not a coward.” You huffed, rolling your eyes as you recalled how you had brazenly rushed out into the snow. You were too overjoyed by the snowfall to bundle up. Plus, you weren’t out there for too long, you assumed nothing was going to happen to you.

Maybe pride was your downfall. 

“But you are sick now.” Tomas quipped back, raising his eyebrows to emphasize his point. You grumbled, not thinking of a proper comeback to his statement. You blinked in surprise as you felt his hand brush over your forehead. You were glad your face was already flushed from sickness so your blush didn’t stick out. “Seems you don’t have a fever.” 

“Yeah.” You said, stunned for a moment as you recalled his gentle touch as he retracted his hand. You didn’t care how warm your sickness was making you feel, you missed the soft warmth from his hand. You cleared your throat as you glanced at the bowl. “So, what type of soup did you bring?” You asked, all too curious.

You were shocked to hear it was your favorite soup. He had brought you your favorite soup when you were sick to make you feel better. You closed your eyes for a second, to thank the elder gods above that you had met this man.

If it weren’t for your sickness, you’d kiss the man.

That, and well, you were too much of a coward to tell him your feelings. 

“Did you hear me?” You were taken out of your stupor, looking at the man as you furrowed your eyebrows, trying to recall if you had processed what he said. You were thankful he was patient as he repeated himself. “Are you well enough to feed yourself?”

“What.”

“Come on, sit up.” He urged you. Confused, you sat up. You reached out to grab the stack of tissues on your nightstand and blew into it. While you didn’t find it dignified to blow your stuffy nose in front of your crush, you found it was far less embarrassing than to drip snot in front of him. You grimaced as you tossed the tissue into the trash can. As you looked up, you were surprised to see a spoon of your favorite soup hovering in front of your face. “Here.”

“Huh.” You said, dumbfounded. Maybe the sickness was taking your intelligence too, because it felt like right now all you could muster were confused sounds and words. You blinked as you watched Tomas nod towards you, gently lifting the spoon closer to your mouth. Panicking, you leaned forward and ate the soup.

How is it that him being here made your favorite soup just a bit better?

“Good.” Tomas praised, and you felt yourself flush at the simple word. Does he know how much you adored him? No, and you doubted how much even these simple actions meant to you. Happily, he seemed to urge you to eat more, and you complied. You were not going to pass up on this opportunity to bask in his attention. “You know, I worry for you, sometimes. No one in their right mind would normally run into the snow like that.”

“I’m not a fragile baby.” You huffed stubbornly, sniffing. Yet on the inside you were fawning. He worried for you. Maybe it’s because he thought you were insane, but he worried for you! That had to mean something, right? The gray clad man shot you a look, and you pouted. “Just because I’m sick doesn’t mean anything.”

“Uh huh.” Smoke replied, sass in his tone. Still, he gave you a radiant smile as he continued to feed you soup. You felt on top of the world. If only you didn’t feel miserable otherwise, you’d consider getting sick more often so you could bask in his attention.

You glanced at Smoke’s face.

Nevermind, you would gladly trade your health if you could continue to be pampered by this man.

You had several blissful minutes of Smoke feeding you soup. As you finished the bowl, he let out a satisfied hum as he set the emptied bowl on the nightstand next to you. You also drank more from the glass of water he brought.

You were feeling a bit better already! Or maybe that was just the effect Smoke had on you. You weren’t certain which one it was. Maybe it was both.

“Glad to see you’re feeling better.” Tomas said, and you felt your heart skip a beat. You were so, so lucky to know this man. You inhaled, holding your breath as he pressed his hand to your forehead again. His touch lingered longer this time. And you weren’t sure if you were being delusional or not when you swore his thumb brushed your cheek. “Good, no fever.” He murmured, though you weren’t sure why he checked again.

Still, with the way he was looking at you, you had no room to question or complain about that. Certainly he just wanted to make sure you were feeling better. 

You sat there, taking in the sight of Tomas. His warm, gray eyes. His nice, fluffy hair that you always had to hold yourself back from playing with. Your eyes traced over his cheekbones down to his chin, and for the most briefest of seconds, you gazed at his lips.

Why did you have to be sick!?

“Did you take any medicine yet?” He asked, peering at you curiously. You froze, completely forgetting that medicine was a thing. You had just been planning on honestly sleeping this stupid sickness off. Medicine would have definitely helped.

“Uh, no.” You admit, sheepishly. You watched as Smoke playfully rolled his eyes before pulling out a small bottle from his pocket. 

“Good thing I brought some for you.” Smoke said, an almost smug tone in his voice. He poured out two pills, and glanced at you. “I know you too well.” He shook the bottle in his hand as if to emphasize the point.

There was something all too sweet in his voice that made you want to swoon and fall into his arms.

He held out his hand, the two small pills in his palms. Quickly, you reached for them. You ignored the rising heat to your face as your hand brushed his. You really, really wanted to hold his hand. They felt warm and soft.

You felt his expectant eyes on you as you reached for the last of your water. You popped the two pills in your mouth, and you quickly tilted your head back as you took a mouthful of water. You swiftly swallowed, and you let out a sigh as the pills disappeared into your stomach.

“Thank you, Tomas.” You croaked out, and immediately wanted to slap yourself for. Why did your voice have to give out on you on what was supposed to be such a heartfelt moment? Your worries all melted away as he shot you the most beautiful grin you’ve seen in your life.

“Anything for you.” Tomas said, his voice gentle and soft. He said your name with reverence, as if you were the most important thing. He grabbed your hand. And held it carefully between his own. Your eyes dropped to his hand holding, and it felt like the wind was knocked out of you. You weren’t sure if you could pass off the heat on your cheeks as you simply being sick.

“Did you hear what I said?”

Snapping out of your daze, you looked up to see Smoke’s intent gaze on you. You opened your mouth, trying to come up with the correct answer. You certainly couldn’t say that you were too busy swooning over the man to hear what he said. But you couldn’t just say anything because then it’d be obvious you hadn’t been paying attention.

And yet, it didn’t matter.

“You’re too cute.” Tomas said softly, and you suddenly wondered if you had been dreaming all this all this time. Getting up, he leaned over and gently pressed a featherlight kiss onto your forehead. He then drew back with a soft smile. “Get some rest, okay?” He murmured, cupping your cheek gently, rubbing his thumb against it before letting go.

You watched wordlessly as he gathered the bowl and water glass. He turned around and sent you another sweet smile. And you swore in his eyes he had the hint of the smuggest attitude you’ve ever seen on him as he looked you up and down.

He must know how much you adored him. That bastard.

As the door closed, you sat in silence as your face continued to burn. Your heart was beating far too fast for what was healthy for a sick person. You lifted your hand to brush against where his lips had met your forehead, and you felt like you were falling in love all over.

Maybe being sick wasn’t so bad.

“Look who’s the reckless one, now?”

You grinned as you entered Tomas’ room, a bowl of soup and a glass of water in your hands. You couldn’t help but chuckle at the eye roll he sent you as he blew his nose. Still, he sent you a weak smile as he laid in his bed. He didn’t catch your sickness as bad as you, but he was still sick regardless. Bumping into the door, you closed it as you approached him.

“Maybe it was reckless, but the look on your face was worth it.” Smoke said, a hint of smugness in his voice as he smiled at you. You scoffed, but you knew you couldn’t even fake being mad at this man. Setting down the bowl of soup and the water, you sat on his bed beside him.

“Was it worth it?” 

“Anything is worth it if it involves you.”

Sighing dreamily, you cupped his cheek as you leaned forward to press a soft kiss on his lips. You marveled as his face bloomed into a soft pink. He held your hand in place, leaning into your soft touch. Your heart skipped a beat.

“I don’t think you should be kissing sick people.” Smoke teased, his eyes squinting at you as his eyebrows raised. You rolled your eyes. Raising your hand, you pinched his other cheek, eliciting an exaggerated ‘ouch’ from the man.

“Says you.” You huffed, pouting. 

“My bad.” Tomas chuckled. “I really couldn’t resist though.” He admitted as he looked up at you. Why did he have to have the dreamiest eyes in all of Earthrealm? You returned his smile, rubbing his cheek gently with your thumb. 

Yeah, getting sick wasn’t so bad after all.

[sepublic]

Homesick!

I just gotta say I love the pun of this episode’s title; I thought Homesick would allude to it being about Luz missing home, but it was actually a joke on Hooty being sick!

That said, we DID get what would’ve been our first look at Manny, as well as an early version of Camila lore! Turns out she was going to be a nurse, but in the end I think I like veterinarian better. Still, I remember discussing healing back during S1A as a potential track for Luz because of this, so to see that theme be apparent with both parents was cool!

Manny’s face being shrouded also seems to indicate that the dramatic reveal behind him -the illness- was always planned, at least since the pilots. Luz said he drove an ambulance, past tense, which seems like some dark irony given he probably needed one at one point. Remember how some of us theorized after Reaching Out that the Abomaton alarm reminded Luz of an ambulance siren related to her father? Man… On the plus side! We can guess Camila and Manny met through their professions, so we could try applying that to canon as well! Compassion is such a Noceda trait I love it.

Likewise, I appreciate how these two leaked storyboards have Luz and Eda covering for each other! One sticks their neck out because something means a lot for the other, but the other decides it’s not so important they’d sacrifice the one for it… With this episode, Eda doesn’t want Luz to look like a dunce but Luz is honest and can’t bear to see her mentor be mocked either, and is trying to take responsibility for what she feels is HER mistake too! It’s really sweet seeing Eda inadvertently teach Luz the Healing glyph.

Speaking of, it seems we would’ve gotten individual glyphs for all spells, as the fandom once assumed! I guess the show did glyph combos to explain why Luz doesn’t immediately find everything, as well as create a sort of fun system behind Luz having to mix and match things. And we even got to see what we always wanted; Luz making an ENORMOUS glyph around her enemy! Goes to show my speculation that since glyphs rely on the magic around them, they aren’t physically taxing; Something we see brought up with Eda’s own magic.

Caduceia reminded me of an early Hermonculus, being a teacher who didn’t really care much for the actual students and even seemed to enjoy mocking them! She looks like Raine, so much that I wonder if the design was repurposed for them because it was such a nice one! I dig the play on Caduceus, with Snakeslie as a palisman! Snakeslie looks so much like a worm on a string. Given Luz and Caduceia are both healers, it’s neat they have a snake in common, though Caduceia’s seems to allude to her being a snake (liar); Her palisman’s name is literally Snakeslie. Snakes lie. Glad to see Stringbean with the positive rep!

I also love the gag of King calling himself the King of whatever’s convenient, and it was really cute seeing him want to prove his own worth! Because two witches, it’d be easy to feel like he has nothing to offer, which is part of Sense and Insensivity in canon! There’s parallels between the A and B-plots, with Luz and King feeling ineffectual and their owl friend supporting them, only to be helped as well! Eda and Owlbert are linked and hell so are the demon hunters and Caduceia!

The House Demon lore was neat, even if it was stuff we already figured out with canon; House Demons being like hermit crabs, and also rare! Seeing healing magic be used to make someone sick and even control their mucus/phlegm was disgusting yet fascinating! And I was delighted to see the demon hunters again, they’re underrated side characters imo and we even got a crew nickname for another one of them!

I also like the bit of the moral here; That sometimes, it’s not that a student is bad or isn’t trying, sometimes the teacher is failing them. Maybe some people think this generation is raised too soft and coddled, but I think it’s an important reassurance for a lot of kids who struggle and blame themselves for it; I’ve taken teaching classes before, and we were taught to be vigilant with ourselves as potentially inadequate for students. It’s the onus of the teacher to adapt to a kid’s needs after all, and actually care!!!

What an unexpected delight! I never imagined the crew made storyboards for additional episodes and not just the pilot! This one has no voice alas, but it’s better than nothing and I feel storyboards have such a nice charm to themselves as well! I really thought the pilot would be my last episode review, but I keep getting pleasantly surprised and gifted by this show…!

[vangh17a]

Is the game... using the camera in Donnie's phone to mimic Raph, Leo and Mikey's body language and facial expressions??

Cause their sprites are SO expensive, plus that one time Donnie saw one of the sprites turn into his brother.

I could totally be misreading it though, like maybe it's Donnie hallucinating because he's exhausted?

Regardless, super cool detail

(also I'm freaking loving this comic, it's so beautiful)

Ohhhh I'm gonna introduce a new tag just for this, since it'll be revealed in the story as to what's going on.

If you don't want to see spoilers for the comic, I'm gonna tag anything like this as #WandererSpoilers !

Spoilers under the cut!

Ding ding ding!

You guessed correctly in both ways, actually! I was struggling on whether or not to confirm this one right now, but why not. It'll make a future scene feel more important than if you didn't know.

The game is absolutely using the camera to track the other's movements. I still won't explain why or how the sprites shift into what the guys actually look like, but I will point out that it hadn't started happening until the phone was connected!

And you caught onto my sneaky sneak plan to throw you guys off, but now y'all get to enjoy the dramatic irony... That is Donnie thinking he's hallucinating from exhaustion when it's not.

Again this is one of the bigger details and you know what? You guessed both the meanings so bravo~

[theminecraftbee]

did anything in particular make you decide to study grief through solving counting sheep? very much enjoyed chapter 16 but augh my heart

this one’s under a cut because I ramble a LOT here!

so: SORT OF! it’s a long story!

so scs was ALWAYS gonna be about identity. even from day one, when half my original thought was “doing this from three’s perspective would be funny”, there wasn’t a world where the story wasn’t largely about identity, because this is the kind of story you can’t tell at all without it being about that. like it was maybe day two or three of waffling about this au, at least a month before I would actually commit to writing it, that I went “oh three isn’t actually really grian” (albeit in a different way than I ended up exploring it here).

the part about grief came later.

originally, the theme of grief came about because I was trying to decide WHY martyn was about and stealing watchers. that’s when I remembered a common watcher!grian trope: it’s fairly common (at least on the watcher!grian I’ve read, which to be fair is limited) for grian to have assumed the evo crowd was dead and vis versa. and I was like. aha! martyn can be attacking the watchers in vengeance for grian being dead! then I’ll be able to REALLF play with the dramatic irony if already wanted to use, where no one but the audience knew three was grian, because there’s another angle to work at that on!

cue: oh no wait this is about grief again. (see: tumblr post that I’m pretty sure is still semi-viral.)

the thing is, oftentimes “the evo crew thought grian was dead” is played for grian angst, which makes sense in grian-focused angst fics (this is not shade). but I was like. but that’d fuck up the people involved, right. like having your fun mystery game ended by someone actually getting murdered would tear basically everyone there apart, and that’s not even considering that the evo gang isn’t the WORLD’S most communicative people already. so I went… what if I made the story about that? what if, alongside being about three and identity, it was about the evo crew, grief, and how trauma can fuck up your relationships in unique and messy ways?

plus, like. this is a winter soldier fic. a staple here is “the moment steve realizes the winter soldier is bucky”, and while in three’s arc that bit is almost all about it taking the final step to establish its own independent identity, in the other’s arcs, that’s when they have to come to terms with who three used to be. and like, even in a world where three is uncomplicatedly grian, that’s a pretty big grief to have to unpack all over again. but this is a world where three is not grian, where I realized I’d have to tag mcd despite the character who died sort of also being alive, etc. at least there, grief would have to be explored.

also, for the weight of “grian and am I him” to actually hit three, three has to have an idea of how heavy grian is. like, in the original version I had pearl with the line “oh my god why are you grian” as a joke, and three responding “who is grian”. (oh, the early darlings of this au I killed.) but that doesn’t actually hit the same way, thematically, right? because it works best if once the reveal happens, we all know how much of a shadow grian casts.

in that way it comes back to the theme of identity, because identity here is therefore kind of intrinsically linked to grief. that final hurdle three has to cross to figure itself out of “can I define who I am out from under this shadow” doesn’t work unless everyone is really grieving for that shadow, yeah?

and, well, I’m me. I can’t avoid writing grief that long, it’s a theme I tend to gravitate back towards all the time. it makes sense in a fic that ended up actually being somewhat personal thematically that I’d end up back there.

it’s just one of those things. I realized martyn was there to avenge grian and then realized the story all worked so much better if it was about grief.

anyway this was a REALLY LONG RAMBLE but I hope you liked it! a glimpse into my thoughts I guess.

[reitheist]

bucchigiri ep 9 thoughts:

taken over huh... is that also what senya is doing to arajin maybe? like with the magic trampstamp (words i never expected to write...)

shindo is a bitch and pathetic but i enjoy his character unfortunately (in my defense, my interpretation of him threatening to do That to mahoro was just to make arajin pissed and get him to reveal senya. i think it was kind of narrative low-hanging fruit honestly.)

'is that a yes or no' take a wild fucking guess buddy

zabuuuuuu you are such a good friend

senya hitting people as a show of affection lol

matakara gathering money, presumably he was saving to get an apartment with his brother. what's he planning to use it for?

oh my godddd the cat boy drama 💀 this side gag is so stupid but so funny i love it. i imagine jasmine as as a pure white long hair cat and pu'er as a classic brown tabby. also cat boy getting way too invested in his personal life is *chefs kiss*

arajin is trying his absolute best to convince himself he doesn't care about matakara

the dynamic between komao, zabu, and ara is really funny. i think in other shows they might just sideline the friend characters but they really have an awkward 'friend of a friend' dynamic i like. komao isn't really socially aware enough to be mean to ara despite being him being mean to matakara, and zabu is more hostile but puts most of that aside for matakara's sake. it's like your friends scoping out your awful crush lmao

THE LIFE SIZED NAKED MARITO DOLL? EXCUSE ME??? there is so much wrong with mahoro oml

wait is the life sized naked marito doll marito's? that's somehow weirder.

mahoro, is that concern for a person who isn't your brother? wow

matakara :(

so is the 'monster' literal or metaphorical? interesting

ichiya you're hot as hell but stop telling matakara to draw away from his friends you bitch

'one person would've wanted it' stopppppp 😭 arajin is realizing he liked having matakara around while matakara is being turned against his friends by ichiya. the dramatic irony is killing me

the fact that this 'love forever stone' is a lake blue stone wrapped specifically in a blue cloth as well... that thing is definitely going to be given to matakara by the end, right? pretty gay if you ask me.

ohhhh my god mahoro character growth. plus her relating to him specifically through their shared brother idolization is a good touch. very sweet

mahoro's basically saying like "dude how are you only focused on yourself and me right now. how have you not noticed your childhood friend is depressed and crazy in love with you. like seriously he has not been subtle. at all." lmao i love herrrrrrr

mahoro deserves her own show

also relieved to have ara's interpretation of matakara and mahoro's relationship as romantic to be kind of trivialized again in this scene. i think their dynamic is more interesting as two very different personalities which share just enough to relate with each other. she only wants ara to get his shit together for matakara's sake. i want them to be besties please

arajin is The Worst with emotions huh. he can't read other's feelings and he's somehow worse at reading his own. he needs to stop being relatable right this second

yknow at this point i think i can say i truly and properly enjoy arajin as a character. he's mostly an asshole and deeply emotionally unintelligent but i like him regardless and because of it

ah senya ichiya and arajin matakara parallels as i expected

so does senya=matakara and ichiya=arajin kind of?

i really wasn't joking about them being exes huh

stoppppp ichiya gave him his name? senya was and continues to be so ridiculously down bad

'he meant absolutely everything to me.' dude.

senya is trying to get ara and matakara together bc he couldn't do that for him and ichiya

i am so gd curious what happened to drive them apart

matakara losing sight why he wanted to become a honki person in the first place (ara) and trying to destroy it

'what senya wants is your body' context needed.

i'm thinking maybe ichiya is willing to fully take over bodies and senya isn't, thus why he hasn't done it to arajin already. that or he was planning to in the beginning but got too attached

ohhh this is gonna make for a good dramatic fight

ughhhh another really good episode. i think the story's finally full found its stride. very hyped for the last 3 episodes. i think next episode will probably deal with betrayal between senya and ara, leading senya to explain exactly what happened between him and ichiya. matakara will trying to fight ara and ara will have to run away, frustrating matakara even more. mahoro might focus on trying to help matakara

[heroofashesnot]

what are your favorite murderdock fics?

I'm not good at picking favorites so this will be a bit long and also under a read more, also my ability to word started to fail me at times so sorry ahead of time.

Series:

-Take What the Water Gave Me by The_Shy_One: Having Castle as the main POV character for most of the series allows the writer to strike this balance between what the audience does and doesn't know. As of such while this is a romance, there is an element of mystery and danger as Matt's true nature and intentions are masterfully hidden. Plus I'm a sucker for mercreatures!

-The Lawyer All the Wickedness by poisonivory: Listen the way the writer unfolds this version of Matt and Foggy's story is exceedingly gripping even after having read this series several times over.

-Ghost Stories/Haunted Houses by Faaacethefacts: Honestly this is a case of initially reading for Murderdock and then staying for witnessing Sam's descent. However, the way that Sam and Matt's toxic father and son relationship is so beautifully written and how it both contrasts and mirrors the relationship that their Earth-616 counterparts makes it too good to leave out.

-Nelson & Murderdock by thelonebamf: While the stories within this series are all fairly different, they all share the writer's beautifully crafted narratives and excellent characterizations!

Spider-Verse 2: Into the Devil-Verse by 94BottlesofSnapple: While this is only earth-65, the whole series is too good to only read those parts but the way the writer balances all the different relationships and characters while also having all them shine is enviable. Also how Gwen and Murderdock's interactions always seem to maintain this edge due to the undercurrent of the power Murderdock has over her is just so good...

Grayson's Home For Wayward Assassin Children by Ferith12: A DC Crossover that just characterizes younger Murderdock just so well!

Pathetic by Udekai: The way that this writer has the characters feel so very painfully human while not sacrificing any character traits is just so great. An excellent series for if you're in a pre-canon mood.

-Earth-65 Matt/Foggy Stories by BlueBioluminescence: While the reason I adore each of the fics in this series a little bit different for each, I thoroughly enjoy all of them.

Murderdock x DA Nelson:

-give up on trying to save us by returnsandreturns: The way that Matt manipulates Foggy and how that blends so naturally into the sex is just so good. Power dynamics, my beloved <3.

-Ask Nelson and Murderdock (Fan Comic) by thelonebamf: Can also be found over here on tumblr, wonderful art, adore how organicly their relationship progresses. Also Dramatic Irony is so very good.

-shake hands with the devil (but i'm calling it a fist fight) by AsperJasper: A great take on a more heroic Murderdock, the way everything builds is great and so good...

(With the Exception Of You) I Dislike Everyone In The Room by MissMoochy: A very manipulative Matt, the way that Foggy just gets more and more drawn into his pull like a spider in a web is just <3

-You're a Question to the Universe by Longdaysjourney: DA Nelson is absent in this one but the way Murderdock with his Earth-199999 counterpart and how he has to take the role of advice giver is just delight to read.

-human after all by JustGail: Outsider looking into Murderdock and DA Nelson's relationship is a good trope and having it be Gwen is just so smart... Also love having DA Nelson's connection with George Stacy being acknowledged...

-The Last Goodbye by StripedScribe with Art by thelonebamf: Hanahaki Disease is a trope that I personally have mixed feelings about but StripedScribe's take on it just knocks it out of the park! Having Murderdock's allergy to expressing his emotions stab him in the back is just great!

-A Murder of Crows (A Seduction of Foes) by inkforhumanhands: Lots of callbacks to the comics, miscommunication done so well and in character, also just funny as hell!

-Find me in the ashes by EmeraldStorm: Post-canon story that really shows the push and pull of these two's relationship in such an intoxicating way, a really gripping read!

-As we dance by brittlestars: Masochism and manipulation, two favorites of mine. Matt stroking Foggy's anger is just so good...

-Lost in The Palms by deniigiq: An eerily heartfelt story, Foggy is both biting and tender and just such a good stories.

Murderdock x Frank Castle:

-All's Fair in Love and Hate by blackmetaldahlia: Banter and kinky hate sex.

-Down To The River by Feathers_and_cigarettes: Terrible people doing terrible things, love the tension between who Castle thinks he is and how easily he gives into Matt.

-The Power of Manipulation by alohdark: The way that Matt draws Castle out of his comfort zone and maintains control over the situation is so good...

Misc.:

-A Matching Set by contact_high: Dwells on the similarities between Matt and Maggie, a short but haunting story.

-Into the Dragon-Verse by Chlodobird: Best understood with the rest of the series but listen-I cannot deny this take on Dragon!Murderdock doesn't delight me everytime I read it.

-Gently Wipe the Blood from Your Hands by 94BottlesOfSnapple: The whole story builds up this sense of foreboding that sends shivers down my spine in the best possible way.

-Gwenverse Backstory: Not Quite Lovesick by 94BottlesOfSnapple: This story perfectly balances the homely feeling of a mundane sick day with a high-strung character like Murderdock so well.

-Walking Out The Door by 94BottlesOfSnapple: The way that the writer maintains such a high tension throughout the story without it faltering is masterful and just the characterization is just wonderful.

-the dirt by tigrrmilk: The tension between how much Foggy knows about Matt's actions and what he doesn't want to know as well of the back and forth of Gwen and Matt's interactions is just wonderful.

-Blood and Tears by bluspirits: A speculation on Murderdock's time with the Hand that I have read time and time again.

-Be It Done to You by LieutenantSanya: The way that the writer gets into Murderdock's thought process during his suicide attempt is chilling, just a great analysis on the character.

-Mending With Gold by Writing_Puffin: The way Murderdock's weird affection Gwen is characterized and just how the two interact is just so good.

-Bending Towards Justice by Dragonbat: While this was written just after Murderdock's first appearance, I love this take on a more heroic Murderdock even if it is OOC now.

-Stranger Danger by bluspirits: Has lots of call backs to various aspects and mentions within the comic series as well describes a potential first meeting between Gwen and Matt that gains its tension in just how mundane it is.

-To Have a Voice With Which to Sing by SenkoWakimarin: A Cyberpunk take on Murderdock that has a perfectly eerie atmosphere, Matt's detached perspective is perfect for this characterization of him.

-A Foray in Morals by GremlinMan: Earth-199999 Frank Castle and Murderdock encountering each in extremely comedic way, an absolute delight.

-diminishing returns by Hueyhuey with Art by PomegranteBelleArt: Just The Characterizations! The Interactions! The Takes on Elektra and Eleanor! Fun read!

-Don't be a stranger by Kamaya: More centered on Gwen on Murderdock but shows their interactions while Gwen is in jail, also just Matt's bitterness and how the writer characterizes his depression is just lovely.

-The Devil That You Know by Kamaya: Oneshots that range from Matt's response to Elektra's death to his suicide attempt, love the way the writer writes darker topics.

-Fog and Shadow by The_Shy_One: Earth-616 Mike interacting with Murderdock, just a genius concept that is tackled so wonderfully, the way Matt just mocks Mike with what he knows and Mike's unease is just great.

-The Future Is Written In Cathode Rays by 94BottlesOfSnapple: The way Gwen responses to such a violent invasion of Murderdock's privacy through such an intimate view of his past and potential future is just! wow! This story is just visceral on such a personal level!

-Burn The Past by Gunn: A What-If in which Maggie lives, Matt is just so callous and it's! so! good!

-Enjoy the Dance by thelonebamf: The way that everyone interacts and the tension and suspense and the contradictions of Matt's thoughts are really good!

-Welcome Knife by neonbrutalism: Matt is a karma houndini and this is short but so good, post-canon.

-The Seven Stages Of Grief as Experienced by Norman Osborn by abitofren: Messed up in the best way, love how the writer gets inside of Matt's head and its shown is just so good.

-The Cat Came Back by Udekai: Such a great comic, the way that the writer uses lighting and such to tell the story is great, just really atmospheric...

-How Not to Kill Yourself: An Elaborate Long Con by Matthew M. Murdock by Ferith12: So fond of this one, just so very messy in such a great way.

-Holiness by Ferith12: Just analyzing Murderdock's relationship with religion and how it changes as he and also the way he views himself changes is great.

Thanks for reading all the way to the end!

[kah-hoa]

POV: Feeding your OCs with Trauma

CRANKING UP THAT MISERY BABY~!

Ok, jokes aside, I'm feeling a bit daring and exposing a bit of my personal content here.

I tend to gravitate towards passion and obsessiveness, although make no mistake, I dislike "yanderes" that only resorts to threats or use of their status to coerce the other part into submission, to me those are just entitled brats.

I'm more of the "The path to hell is paved with good intentions" type. I enjoy writing about the gradual decadence and corruption obsessiveness brings to my characters and the karma they bring upon themselves when indulging in those feelings- And also in a way that they are forced to recognize only themselves to blame. I love dramatic ironies and regret stories.

Of course I don't strictly go for only "Doom and Gloom". On the other side of the spectrum, there's "passion", which is the opposite process for me- like having selfishness and antagonism slowly shift into genuine care- I'm a filthy enjoyer from Enemies to Lovers/Best Friends/Comrades to Life after all.

(Plus, on the funny spectrum of "regrets", I find it deeply amusing when characters cringe at their old selves haha~)

[ryuichirou]

Replies

Happy Saturday~ One more or less serious reply + a bunch of silly ones today.

Anonymous asked:

I absolutely love the way you draw everyone in twisted wonderland. I know some out there don’t agree who you ship, but I think otherwise. The way you draw the characters is always amazingly done and I can tell how much you worked on them.

You are an amazing artist so if anyone disagrees then just remember you have some fans out there including me!

Thank you for your support and love, Anon! I always talk about how we didn’t expect anyone at all to enjoy our content, our ships and our thoughts about them, and honestly it still feels bizarre. It’s been a bit more than a year now, and thinking about how anxious we were about posting some of this stuff before is really weird now. So I really can’t stress it enough: hearing your words of support really means a lot. These characters and ships are really dear to us, and as long as we feel passionate about them, we’ll keep posting them <3 I’m very glad you can see our passion for the characters in our drawings! So thank you so much for enjoying the way we see them.

Even though, once again, we don’t expect everyone to like everything that we post. But when people do, it’s very cool.

Anonymous asked:

Idia wouldn’t build a sex machine? Please. He already did; his name is Ortho.

OHHHHHHHHHHH 😭 good point, good point.

The most intense and dangerous sex machine that’s constantly learning new things, what an impressive invention. Shame on you, Idia.

blackbutlerfandomnerddomain asked:

What is your hot take of Lilia and Azul mainly becoming friends to swap tips and talk about their boys' (Malleus and Idia) noises and expressions? Like do you think one would be curious and ask for video evidence or maybe the pair would bang in the same room

On the one hand, I feel like Lilia doesn’t treat Azul seriously enough to consider this (i.e. Azul is way too desperate), plus I’m not sure if Lilia and Malleus’ affair is a secret or not. But on the other hand, Lilia loves talking about his boys way too much, so I can see how Azul could get him talking. You just ask correct questions, and at some point Lilia just starts going “oh yeah that one time Malleus really did this thing…” and spilling way too much information to Azul, possibly the worst person to have this conversation with lol And Lilia would also be very interested in Azul’s stories about Idia, mainly because Idia intrigues him.

I can’t believe this actually could work wow.

But would they bang in the same room? Honestly, Lilia and Azul both are kind of unhinged, so if the starts alignm it could happen. It would be such an amazing networking event for Azul lol but at the same time, Azul and Idia both are way too shy to do something like this~

Anonymous asked:

So like I MOSTLY ship Lilia/Idia for the age gap and dichotomy of it all. A charismatic old man who looks like he's a short, cute kid with a tall scrawny emotional wreck of a teenager is just SO inherently fun all on it's own. It's a blast. But also, I have been thinking about this more seriously lately because my faaavorite thing about sleeping beauty that's almost never carried over to remakes is the dramatic irony with aurora and philip's relationship

A princess who doesn't know she's a princess falls in love with a prince who she doesn't know she's engaged to, but she finds out she's engaged and doesn't even know that she's engaged to him. There's a lot you can do to play around with that in a story, where the audience knows this but the characters don't. It's super fun!!! When all the pieces come together in the end, it's really satisfying too!!!!

I'm always disappointed when remakes cut out the dramatic irony of it all, so in twst, despite nothing like that happening with silver outside of the princess part lol I can see a lot of similarities with Lilia and Idia being online friends who don't know that they actually know each other irl, and I won't spoil it here, but some events that have gone down in book 7 make me really excited to see if there will be more references to aurora and philip's relationship between them. I'm suuuuch a big fan of it I'm PUMPED!!!!!!!!!

First of all! I absolutely agree about what you said about Lilia/Idia’s visual and characteristic contrast (well this isn’t surprising to hear lol): they’re just stupidly fun to look at and watch. The age gap also adds a lot to their dynamic.

Second of all, yeah THE COMPARISON REALLY MAKES A LOT OF SENSE. The fact that Lilia and Idia are so close already without even realising makes this ship so amazingly interesting and sweet and funny and cute and hot and dramatic at the same time!! And while I don’t know what exactly you’re referring to (you already know, we haven’t watched book7 yet), but we’ve been thinking about the main story giving Lilidia a painfully tasty moment for a long time now. Yana Toboso looooves her setups and long games with satisfying payoffs, and she’s definitely been preparing something for these two.

Fun fact: Aurora has been my absolute favourite Disney Princess, and even though we’re yet to rewatch the Sleeping Beauty, your ask really got me excited about it. And about book 7 too..! I’m really looking forward to it.

[authoralexharvey]

INTERVIEW WITH A WRITEBLR — @red-the-dragon-writes

Who You Are:

Red Dragon || Ne/nem/nir

I'm a 22-year-old Queer writer who loves horror. I've been writing stories since I was a little kid and come from a family of aspiring authors (all the way up through my grandparents!) I enjoy working in a deliberately stripped-down style featuring a narratively close third person limited point of view featuring an opinionated narrator, untrustworthy characters, and limited description.

What You Write:

What genres do you write in? What age ranges do you write for?

Action, comedy, fanfic, fantasy, horror, psychological, sci-fi, thriller, tragedy. New adult and adult.

What genre would you write in for the rest of your life, if you could? What about that genre appeals to you?

Can I say "horror fusion" haha? It would have to be horror. I really love getting to pull reactions out of my readers, and horror also lets me push the boundaries of what I've ever seen in fiction before without shying away from how what is new or unusual can also be uniquely unsettling. Plus- no one ever expects horror protagonists to be smart, and I like the lack of pressure required to just write characters being stupid, whereas in a traditional mystery or action story usually the main cast is intended to be smarter and cooler than the reader. I delight in using dramatic irony to build reveals up in such a way that the audience knows before the main characters do, and that works best in horror where it allows me to drive up the tension as well. However, in my actual writing, I like to fuse horror with comedy or mystery or some other genre to make it a little more fun. Horror- in my experience, at least- hits hardest when you can get the reader to laugh a couple times.

What genre/s will you not write unless you HAVE to? What about that genre turns you off?

I definitely don't like "genre"/happily-ever-after romance. I'm pretty firmly aromantic, and at this point in my life I find romance to be almost painfully boring. I find it really hard to write a romance as my central driver of plot, and even moreso when it's a normal romance without either action-adventure or horror elements.

Who is your target audience? Do you think anyone outside of that would get anything out of your works?

I'm not sure I have a "real" target audience. I primarily write fanfiction at the moment while I overhaul my original work ideas, so that's a start- people who like Transformers. A lot of my work deals with adult topics like sex and abuse or coercion, so my audience is also above the age of 18 and comfortable reading about that, or at least interested in some way. And from there... I'm not sure. Fans of black comedy who like to watch characters experience awful torment, I suppose. I find that a lot of stories in the same general vein as what I do tend to "shy away" from the edge or otherwise try to soften what they're writing about somewhat, and I'd rather lean into whatever I'm writing. Like a car crash, or something. If other people are talking about fenderbenders, I'm going to go the full nine yards and write about totalling both vehicles demolition-derby style. In conclusion, I guess I'm aiming for a specific part of the Transformers fandom, wherein instead of reading light-hearted stories they want something worse, but at the same time hardcore angst where the character never gets a break and it's all very miserable just isn't striking a believable chord, or they want the characters involved to have a little more agency over their life than just being the Character Things Happen To.

What kind of themes do you tend to focus on? What kinds of tropes? What about them appeals to you?

I like themes of power, coercion and control, as well as themes of petty rebellion slowly shaking off the yoke of someone else's coercion or control. I think nearly everyone in their life has experience with some authority figure that wanted them to do things that would have either been harmful or counterproductive, and I'm no different. While I typically turn this up to eleven in my writing, it's definitely coming from a place of personal experience- if not with the topic, then at least with the concept. I also really like themes of family - not necessarily good or bad, but always flawed in some kind of way. And I really enjoy playing with ideas that violate "the sanctity of the mind" in some way, whether it be mind-reading, spells or coding tricks to get into your mind and force you to behave differently, or having to share a body and essentially just be a mind working with multiple people to do anything. I just really like making characters work around problems that real people only vaguely experience, but are close enough to real life that the reader can have a frame of reference for it, and I think that shines through with all my favorite things.

What themes or tropes can you not stand? What about them turn you off?

My least favorite trope is probably bodice-ripper-style "rape as seduction" like you find in classic romance novels and/or a "perfect victim" character that is only ever acted on and never gets a chance to stand up for themself. I understand it's something other people like or want to see, but defiance runs in my veins, and it always comes over as hugely unrealistic to me. At the end of the day, I want to watch characters struggle up toward the light, even if they fail in the end; if they just sit down and die- or, worse, decide they're okay with this after all- I'm always going to walk away unsatisfied. I'm also not fond of fantasy creatures that are inherently evil. From my pen name and username it's pretty clear I like dragons; I'm also fond of snakes, spiders, centipedes, jackals, and wasps. Animals are never inherently evil and people are even less inherently evil, because you're able to much more easily communicate with them. If the fantasy creatures are on the other side of an ideological divide, sure, but I really am not fond of "ogre instead of human" as shorthand for "100% evil villain we can never ever make peace with." If a character is being given the kind of intelligence you'd find on a human and some grasp of speech, I find it really frustrating when they're just Super Evil in search not of some goal that can be discussed but just because Ooh Evil Monster. It feels both lazy and really frustrating to me, and has been the number-one reason I put down fantasy novels since I was ten.

What are you currently working on? How long have you been working on it?

My current original fiction project is technically a genre romance (I know, I said I'd never write those!) that deals more with poisonous ideology, religious intolerance, and genocide than actual romance. I've been working on it since roughly 2017, and at the moment I'm reworking the plot to try to zero in more effectively on what I want to say with it. For a little background context, my whole family is Jewish, and I came up with the idea for this one during the Trump Administration while I was slowly coming to be more aware of politics than I'd been previously. This story deals a lot with the anxieties of being Jewish in a world like today's, so I really want to make sure that the point comes across despite the many layers of abstraction and fantasy I'm filtering it through. It's a story that's close to my heart despite the fact that, frankly, what I -have- written of it not being very good because I wrote it when I was sixteen.

Why do you write? What keeps you writing?

That's a tough question. A large part of what gets me writing is that I have ideas in my head that I desperately want to communicate to other people, but I don't know how to make it work if I only describe them outside of a narrative context. But what definitely keeps me writing is the response I get from other people. I have been working on detangling this for years, but like many other writers on the internet these days, attention really keeps me going. When I was younger I used to print my short stories and show them to all of my relatives; now I post them on Tumblr and ArchiveOfOurOwn and show as many of my online friends as want to read it.

How long have you been writing? What do you think first drew you to it?

I started writing when I was five or six, shortly after I learned to read. I mentioned that I come from a long line of other aspiring authors; my father has been writing novels since before I can even remember. I learned to write because I fell in love with reading and wanted to make my own stories that were nicer to dragons, since I was a little kid and really liked dragons and hadn't yet found anything where they were the real main characters. Both of my parents were very supportive of this, which helped a lot, because otherwise I don't think I would have kept writing my whole life the way I have.

Where do you get your inspiration from? Is that how you got your inspiration for your current project? If not, where did the inspiration come from?

A lot of my inspiration comes from seeing other people fumble some part of a story and being convinced that I can do it better. I don't think this is terribly unusual, but it is a little bit annoying when I'm trying to identify influences or inspiration and all I can point out is things that I think weren't very good, or were good -except- for this one element that I'm actually riffing off of. Outside that... A lot of my more ambitious works in progress actually come from weird dreams with narratively interesting setups that I decide to run with, or random bolts of inspiration that hit when I see some random image and get a "vibe" to capture. For example, the inspiration for my long original project that I'm working on came from a dream; but the inspiration for the Valentine's Day project that I'm currently writing comes from my friend mentioning the movie "My Bloody Valentine 3D" one too many times when I was in a bad mood and making me want to write the worst valentine ever because I thought it would be funny and it had an interesting"vibe" to it.

What works of yours are you most proud of? Why?

Last year, I decided to just write a lot rather than writing things that were good. Turns out that this is a very effective way to write things that are good, but as a result it's all Transformers fanfiction. Regardless, I think the work that I'm actually most proud of is a fairly long epistolary horror told through emails about a character being brought to an alien planet and rapidly discovering that things are not as they should be and the planet is a lot more alive than it seems. It was a really lightweight project that I intended to kind of just take up space while I worked on a different thing, which didn't work out, but it wound up doing a lot of things that I think were, in retrospect, really interesting, and the character writing in it is some of the best I think I've ever done. At the end of the day I think that unusual formats have a lot of potential when it comes to creating stories that have some kind of unusual flavor to them, and I'm always chasing after that feeling of "this is the first time I've ever seen this".

Have you published anything? Do you want to?

I've never professionally published anything, but I would like to.

What part of the publishing process most appeals to you? What part least appeals to you? Why?

To be honest, the part of publishing that most appeals to me is the part where I get paid and can go to my relatives and tell them that I got published by an actual publisher and now I have a real book out. The part that least appeals to me is every other part of publishing. It's always sounded like a major hassle and a giant pain in the ass to me (when I was growing up, my father was constantly sending his books out to publishers, and so far has still never been published) but, at the same time, I'd love to be the first person in my family to have a book published by Tor or Hachette or some other real-deal imprint.

What part of the writing process most appeals to you? What part is least appealing?

The part of the writing process that most appeals to me is the part where I've written something cool and I can show it to other people. I also really like getting to write horror sequences or fight scenes, but my favorite part is basically just asking for a beta or getting to share the finished work. The least appealing part of writing for me is definitely editing. In order to get around my dislike for editing, I've gotten to the point where instead of actually doing regular edits, I literally just rewrite the entire story using the first draft as an outline. This takes forever and it's not very fun either, but it's better than going through line by line and trying to figure out which parts are good and which ones aren't. I have never gotten the chance to work with a professional editor before, and I imagine the experience is different when somebody else is doing the editing for you, but as it stands I hate editing my own work.

Do you have a writing process? Do you have an ideal setup? Do you write in pure chaos? Talk about your process a bit.

I absolutely write in pure chaos. The only thing I need to make sure that I can write is a warm drink - tea or coffee- and music I like playing. I've discovered that one of my favorite places to write is outdoors in the middle of the night over the summer, but I can and will write anywhere. I'll be writing in my college classes later today. Then I'll come home and sit on my bed and write some more. And then, historically speaking, I'll go out and I'll write on my phone while sitting in the back of a bar or something, and I'll come home and write in the kitchen while my dinner's cooking. I pretty much never stop writing when I've got an idea in my head. I write on vacation, while at the grocery store, when I'm supposed to be working, and every other time besides.

Your Thoughts on Writeblr:

How long have you been a writeblr? What inspired you to join the community?

I've been a writeblr for about three or four years these days. I really joined the community around 2020, when during quarantine lockdowns I decided to write an alternate universe take on the backstory of one of the characters that I have in my long-term novel project because I didn't want to work on that. I wound up joining regular so that I had some kind of community to talk about that wip in, and I've stuck around ever since. I've been tangential to writeblr since well before that, though- I love seeing writing on tumblr and I really enjoy original fiction.

Shout out some of your favorite writeblrs. How did you find them and what made you want to follow them?

Natalie Ironside - @natalieironside - writes a lot of trans-focused action stories that appeal to me both as a trans individual and a person who likes action. Her protagonists are often characters who don't necessarily wield a ton of institutional power but fight for what they want and what they deserve regardless. Ezra - @doikayt - another Jewish writer, which I appreciate, but also every part of their writing I've seen is really cool. Speculative fiction is a favorite genre for me, even though it's one I don't often write in myself. Jax Wolff - @blind-the-winds - a writeblr I'm newer to following but really like, they post some really interesting snippets and do a lot of tag games.

What is your favorite part about writeblr?

Definitely the interactive aspect. If you interact with writeblr, writeblr will interact with you. I love attention and I love getting to see other people's writing, so this is perfect for me.

What do you think writeblr could improve on? How do you think we can go about doing so?

Writeblr has a bigotry issue. It happens. In any community where people are showing up to share their creations without someone at the door vetting them when they come through, there will be people who are bigoted or who have biases that they have not vetted. It's something that most marginalized individuals, myself included, have already come to expect from most online communities. However, because writeblr is an interconnected and highly interactive community, when issues of antisemitism or Islamophobia or racism or sexism or homophobia come up, it's almost impossible to avoid seeing it and it's very frustrating that everyone seems to feel the need to jump in and defend their friends if they believe that the bigotry wasn't poorly intended or it was accidental. I don't want to be trapped in and on ending chamber of "hey, look how antisemitic/Islamophobic/racist/homophobic/otherwise hateful this writer is" for however long the issue is being brought up- it's emotionally taxing- and I know that other marginalized writeblrs who do the hard work and speak out against people who are being bigoted tend to see much more aggressive and, frankly, bigoted backlash than the people they're speaking to or about. I don't know how to fix this, because it's an issue basically everywhere, and if there was a fix for it I'm sure someone would have mentioned it already. But I would like to see more support for a: marginalized writers in the writeblr space, and b: those of us who would like to disengage from the topic after a short period of time. At the end of the day, I'd like writeblr to be a space where writers of all stripes can spend their time- not only cis, straight, white, Christian, abled writers. A lot of how people pitched writeblr to me when I was thinking about joining in was on the idea that Tumblr is a place with less of the traditional barriers of entry than traditional publishing, but if the bigotry issue runs unchecked, eventually it will just be a space with the same kind of demographics as traditional publishing.

How do you contribute to the writeblr community? Do you think you could be doing more?

I don't really contribute much. I play tag games sometimes and I occasionally make advice posts after I found something that works for myself. I could certainly be doing more, but honestly, I'm kind of lazy and I don't really have that much to say, so on the advice front I've kind of made all the posts I have to make already, and I'm not terribly well suited for running events or communities. I'm much more happy to be a person in the background and a leader in the forefront here.

What kinds of posts do you most like to interact with?

I like reading short snippets- in the range of 100-1000 words- and I enjoy interacting with interactive games, like a tag games or ask games. I think my favorite kind of post would have to be tag games where we share short snippets of our wips- the best of both worlds.

What kind of posts do you most like to make?

I like to share snippets of my work. This is probably the easiest for me to do, because all I have to do is copy blocks of text and paste them into tumblr.

Finally, anywhere else online we may be able to find you?

My main Tumblr is @bitegore :D

Questions For Fun:

What is your favorite dragon-related story? What makes it your favorite?

For my favorite dragon-related story I had to split this question into two parts, because I read so many books with dragons in it that I can't help but differentiate between stories where dragons are people and stories where dragons are very intelligent and scary animals. The first dragon story i want to talk about is the Heartstrikers series by Rachel Aaron, an urban fantasy novel following the Only Nice Dragon after he gets kicked out of his home for being too nice and therefore disappointing the family. It's been a big inspiration for how I write since I first read it when I was fifteen; the idea of a protagonist not taking the two options set out for them but making their own choice, the idea of a world where magic and modern society and technology blend and interact, and different social modes of interaction and how they might not seem as useful as they wind up being (aka; the power of friendship, treated more seriously, lol) all really compel me and I enjoy Aaron's storytelling a lot. The only reason I wouldn't necessarily consider this a "final" answer is because, like a lot of other urban fantasy novels, the dragons in this are shapeshifters and the protagonist spends most of his time in a human form. The other one I could probably talk about would be the Dragonriders of Pern series, which I'm really due for a reread of. Pern is one of those series that I read as a kid that rocked my whole world. Not only is it about dragons, which I love- but it's also one of the early sci-fi fantasy stories where the genre was still finding its feet, and much like other stories in the same vein from the same time, the slow reveal of the sci-fi elements underpinning the fantasy absolutely fascinated me when I was a kid and still do for me now. The things I like about both series are different, but one of my favorite things is when dragons are treated as neutral parts of the world or positive ones, rather than uniquely evil monsters. I think I mentioned that that was a trope I don't like very much, and while it can be done well- Maur from The Hero and the Crown by Robin McKinley is a great example of a dragon so evil that even killing him doesn't solve the problem, and that's another favorite book of mine- it really delights me when instead dragons are just there, for better or worse. And while the worldbuilding in both books is very different, with enormously different styles and aesthetic trappings and social structures, both put a lot of work into crafting a world that feels believable, which is another thing I really enjoy in my stories and which makes these two beat out a lot of other narratives where dragons are more of a unique rarity or an aberration upon the face of the world they're in. And, finally… I just think they're cool. They're stories that both do things that, at least when I read them, I hadn't seen before. The stylistic trappings of fantasy and science fiction from the late 60s and early 70s, like Pern is, are very different from modern genre conventions, which makes the experience fun and novel for me as someone who was born in the early 2000s, and Heartstrikers- an urban fantasy speculative-fiction novel set in Detroit with an unusual spin on a "standard" magic system and very interesting legal setup- also felt like a breath of fresh air when I first read it.

Who is your favorite Transformer?

My favorite Transformer would have to be Vortex. He's interesting- a violent bad guy character who also manages to be nonchalant and amused almost every time he's on-screen. And, of course, it doesn't hurt that I think his design is really cool. A big robot with swords on his back that he uses to fly with? That's cool and I love it.

What is your favorite piece of horror-flavored media? Why?

It's hard for me to answer this question. My default is to answer with the horror movie I like best- Us by Jordan Peele, a movie so incredibly well-paced I have genuinely never seen the like before or since- but that's just straight-away horror. Down The Rabbit Hole by hypnoticwriter, a work referencing the Mystery Flesh Pit project by Trevor Roberts, is also really good, but the line between thriller and horror is indistinct at best, and usually when I say "horror-flavored", I mean that horror elements have been thrown in for seasoning and spice rather than consuming the tone of the work and changing the genre entirely. I think for this question I'm going to go with Transformers, actually. In terms of genre, the All Hail Megatron story is closer to a disaster survival story with action elements than horror. It tells a story about the Autobots being nearly defeated and the Earth being taken over by the Decepticons. But many scenes are paced and written like horror. Dangerous monsters are hunting the surviving Autobots, fuel is running out... and on Earth, the Decepticons see humans as vermin or playthings. It's a really fun series and one I really enjoy.

[bronanlynch]

this one has a muffin recipe which hopefully makes up for the extended discussion on gender in a disappointing YA novel. anyway. happy wednesday

listening (podcast): keeping up with Palisade, where the table friends are as usual entirely on their bullshit. love a story that asks the real questions like, what if you follow some guy into a public bathroom and then it turns out he's in charge of the fucked up evil intelligence organization that used to kind of be in charge of the entire planet.

I'm also going back and listening to the Great Gundam Project episodes on original Gundam, which they did at the very beginning since they're going in chronological order and it is so funny to go from later episodes where I'm like "wow these people are so smart and know so much more about Gundam than I do" to "wow these people are so smart and are doing some incredibly insightful analysis considering they don't know shit about Gundam"

also this was a Media Club Plus week. Jack made lots of fun observations about Killua and his relationship to violence and also Gon that will be very interesting to revisit in like a hundred episodes. god I love dramatic irony

listening (music): for once in my life I'm listening to new music, from a self-described "flaming queer power pop" band from New Jersey called Teenage Halloween (I would say they're more punk than that description implies to me, the lead vocals especially are very classic punk, by which I mean rough and hoarse and shouty in a good way). here's their bandcamp, I think my favorite tracks are Takeaway and Getting Bitter, but they're a fun band and they have a sound that I enjoy. and also for normal reasons I like when people sing about New Jersey and/or living in a shitty suburban town

reading: finally finished Leigh Bardugo's Rule of Wolves (last book in the Grishaverse series). some wild tonal dissonance at the end because it's supposed to be a hopeful ending where the future is going to be better and maybe Ravka as a country can change and be better, except the main characters spent the past two books inventing industrialized warfare and that is not something that can just be undone?? they have missiles now??? sorry but once you introduce missiles to your fantasy setting I no longer believe that the future will be kinder & less violent than the past. also, the gender. it's time to talk about gender again. Nina's love interest Hanne, who has repeatedly been uncomfortable presenting as feminine, kills a guy who sucks and steals his identity, and talks about feeling more like themself because now they're not seen as a woman. this is the part that I like, it's fun and interesting and I think it's cool when trans people do regicide (the guy was a prince). the parts I feel conflicted are the way Nina reacts with such disappointment that Hanne no longer looks how they used to (though she does come around to the idea), the fact that all of this comes from Nina's perspective (when Nina has spent the entire duology waxing poetic about what a beautiful woman Hanne is, when Hanne is explicitly uncomfortable with being seen as beautiful or a woman) with nothing from Hanne's point of view, the fact that this reveal happens at the very end leaving no space to see how this changes their relationship moving forward or to see Hanne exploring what their transition means to them, and the way it ties to something Bardugo said, back between the Six of Crows duology and this one, where she said that the next time she wrote Nina, her love interest would be a woman. and don't get me wrong, I love that Nina's bisexuality is very present on the page. however. Idk. that doesn't seem accurate and it feels clumsily handled like. sorry that's a transmasc butch who deserves a girlfriend who isn't constantly thinking about how pretty they were when they were forced to have long hair

however, in books that I'm enjoying much more, I'm reading The Death I Gave Him by Em X. Liu, a near-future sci-fi Hamlet retelling about trying to create a scientific cure for death in which Horatio is the AI of the unethical science lab and also (I think, based on what I've read so far) in love with the Hamlet figure. it fucking rules. I'm a known fan of Hamlet & Hamlet retellings, and also when the setting is alive & sentient & loves you, and also relationships between people and like, non-humanoid intelligences (it's kind of like the reverse of a possession romance, instead of the god/robot/etc inhabiting the human the human is the one doing the possession). also, I think the sense of paranoia & claustrophobia from the original Hamlet is done really well here, in a way that works well thematically and also feels. Idk. I'm trying to figure out a way to say this without psychoanalyzing myself on main but it's a very compassionate depiction of the Hamlet figure's mental state that's just. nice to read. anyway. structurally I love that it's framed as though it's someone's thesis about an incident that they've researched, so there are bits that are excerpts from phone logs and trial transcripts and things like that. I'm partway through but it's extremely good so far

watching: continuing to keep up with the TGCF donghua (for once I've seen the newest ep before posting this), which continues to be a good fun time, even if the cr*nchyroll subtitles are pretty awful (both in terms of typos and also the way they sub gege as Lian). but I do like this arc! it's fun! Hua Cheng and Xie Lian are in love!

watched a few more episodes of Hunter x Hunter to keep up with MC+ and I've gotta say, I enjoy Hisoka as a character a lot more than I did the first time I watched this. I am not immune to when a fucked up guy with a cool design murders people with playing cards. however, even though Kurapika didn't do much in the assassin/battle royale bit of the Hunter Exam, Kurapika is still my favorite

moving on to the normal amount of Gundam we watched, we finished Zeta! god. Zeta my fucking beloved. I think the ending pays off a lot of the stuff about Newtypes as a stand-in for human connection, by which I mean it fucking rules that the Zeta Gundam has ghosts in it and that Kamille can defeat Scirocco, who does not form equal partnerships with anyone or listen to their advice, by listening to the advice of his (dead) friends who live in his brain & his robot. also like, I still don't like Reccoa's plotline overall but her confrontations with Kamille & Char do a lot of good characterization work for both of them (Kamille refusing to believe that she's not just really deep undercover! Char uninterested in hearing her reasoning and attacking immediately but still unable to kill her and surprised by that!) and also I love her final fight with Emma. her and Emma killing each other is yuri, to me. on a design note, I think I tend to prefer the mobile suits in 0079, because under no circumstances do you have to hand it to the Principality of Zeon but they knew how to make a grunt suit with some fun shapes in a way that the Federation/Titans simply do not apparently. however! shout out to the Qubeley. what a neat-looking robot

and of course, immediately after finishing Zeta we started ZZ so. that also is a thing I watched. the tone whiplash from the ending of Zeta with a bunch of people dying and a kind of bittersweet victory to the beginning of ZZ was wild. Judau is so much more of a plucky YA protagonist, and there's so much more of a tone of, these kids are going to do some wacky shenanigans. like, Yazan goes from horrifying to a comedic figure. which is not to say it's bad! I am enjoying it! but sometimes it kind of feels like an entirely different creative team (which I know it's not, I know this is still very much still Tomino. but there's such a major vibeshift). my favorite thing about ZZ so far is all of the class stuff, it's nice to have that as a lens to view this setting (an extremely predictable thing for me, guy who loves stories about class conflict, to say). but I like having protagonists who are concerned about their own economic stability (though it does raise questions of like, is Bright getting paid?? by whom??? is he getting paychecks from the Federation still/again?? who is paying for Kamille's hospital bills??? Tomino please show me the Argama's budget spreadsheets). my other favorite thing is that Bright is still here, even though he is very tired and deserves a vacation. he has Such big single parent energy now, good luck to him. my other other favorite thing is that Roux Louka exists, she's a lot of fun so far

playing: still working my way through Ace Attorney 5. Aura is back and I love her! also I'm becoming invested in the concept of Clay/Apollo, partially because I am not immune to Apollo wearing Clay's jacket and partially because I love when you go to Aura's lab and Apollo is there talking to her, and he immediately realizes that Aura and Metis were in love even though Aura denies it, and her loss of Metis is paralleled with Apollo's loss of Clay. there's something compelling to me there as a story about queer grief, and mourning someone's loss even when you can't talk about exactly what they meant to you

making: we've made a couple of recipes from the Skyrim cookbook (cheese fondue, glazed carrots) (not at the same time to be clear. those were different meals) and they both turned out pretty tasty. however, the most exciting thing we made was the muffins from this post. they are, in fact, extremely good. we doubled the recipe because what would we do with an extra half a can of pumpkin

drinking: one of Lamplighter's pride beers from this summer was a sour ale with butterfly pea flower & lemon, and I'm trying to drink through the summer beers in our fridge to make room for all of the autumnal ciders. this one's tasty! again, love it when beers are citrusy & floral

writing: still working on a zine fic that I can't share yet, and also the extremely Palisade spoiler-y Integrity fic from a few weeks ago (to be fair I haven't gotten to the spoiler-y parts yet, instead I'm continuing to be possibly the only person in the fandom who cares about Orbit Shard). also, predictably, I've started writing Gundam fic. predictably, it's Emma/Reccoa and instead of getting to the kissing part Emma is introspecting about ideology

[sun-marie]

I finished BG3 for the second time last night, and I have many spoilery thoughts about it (including PICTURES) so I'll put them under a cut. BG3 spoilers ahead, be warned!

I enjoyed the ending a lot more than my first playthrough (even Karlach notwithstanding, since this was the first time getting her sick Avernus ending). My first time I felt a little left out to dry by how it felt cut-off with no epilogue, but now that I saw that coming I enjoyed it more for what it was, if that makes sense! Though epilogues would still be nice, especially if there the same level of quality as Karlach's Avernus ending (but honestly I'd be fine with a slideshow too)

I have also made my peace with Ruathym becoming a Mindflayer. I don't think he wanted to do it per say, but I do think it suits him, and I'm cautiously optimistic in believing the game on him being an unprecedented mindflayer who may still retain himself and his soul. Plus it adds a really tasty tragic twist to his character, especially being in a romance with Lae'zel. Both Zephyr and Ruathym's romances have the potential for tragedy, but Gale's is seen ahead of time by the characters in the story, making it more satisfying to fight against it, while there's no way any of the characters could anticipate Ruathym having to become a mindflayer to free the prince of his lover and save the world, so it's more satisfying to lean into that dramatic irony. Plus, like, he lived in the Underdark anyway, and I don't think animals would shy away from him? So he'll be okay in the long run, I think. (Copium? Undoubtedly.)

I would really like to see like epilogue slides for the characters. If I wasn't romancing Gale I'd have no idea his plan was to go back to Waterdeep, and I had to look this up but if you romance Halsin he tells you he's going to start an orphanage! Why is that romance-exclusive information?? And like Shadowheart and Astarion are left out to DRY, people have already mentioned it before but there's no way the party would just let Astarion run off like that without following him. And if you let Shadowheart's parents die, there is zero follow up on what her plans are after all this. So idk, I know Larian said they're working on the ending, and I'm looking forward to it.

I would enjoy the ending much much more though if it actually worked. Like, I had to reset the game multiple times bc it just refused to render

Like idk I know it's a big game and my PC isn't the newest, but it's not ancient either and some people are playing this on their laptop for crying out loud!! I shouldn't be dealing with this level of graphical issues. (The same issues were cropping up during Gortash's coronation btw, which is what made pics for my mod such a pain to get). And while I do mod my game, I can't believe the mods I have are enough to cause this 😭

So, that kinda put a damper on things, but the *content* of the ending, I mostly like! It does feel very epic, and I appreciate that it was challenging but not impossibly difficult. It's also very satisfying to see everyone again, almost teared up when Rolan and Barcus Wroot gave their support to me! They were just That One Grumpy Tiefling At The Grove and That One Gnome We Saved From A Windmill, and look at them now!! ahhh that was really good.

And while I think it still needs to be extended, I do actually like the immediate nature of the goodbyes. Wyll and Karlach have to go to Avernus now, Astarion needs to get out of the sun now, and Lae'zel needs to leave for her people, and Ruathym is a Mindflayer now. It gives the ending an appropriately bittersweet note. We won, but we still lost people, even if we may see them again. It all happens so fast because the tadpoles died like *snap* that.

I loved this game, and I like this ending. I'm going to make myself wait before I replay it (bc this one of those games I want to be playing all the time), and when I do I want to see if I can squeeze one more oc or one more romance in there. I don't really do AUs, which include other playthroughs with different protags, and I'm not a huge fan of having a pc for every romance option, but I think between the options that are free (Halsin, Shadowheart, Wyll, Karlach, Astarion,....Minthara(?)) somebody could pair up! Even if it's after the events of the game lol. So I'm kinda tossing around the idea of a Wyll origin playthrough and finding who he'd romance, but idk yet, we'll see 👀

[unproduciblesmackdown]

description of a substantive billions dream

a typical [school problems] genre thread of assigned fiction reading became a book about winston as an elementary or middle schooler, and how there was a new girl who, i guess to sort of change the conversation around herself from [being the new girl] instead established the topic as her having a crush on someone, this being winston who she’d already interacted with more often than others / was closest to friends with. but he was kind of uncomfortable with this and so there was a scene with them talking about it and her explaining it seemed like the kind of thing she was supposed to do, with mutual genuinely liking each other but not necessarily so far as [let’s declare mutual crushes or bother with that framework at all at the present]. and yet there was a sort of dramatic irony tone conveyed for the audience that, not that this was incorrect / inaccurate or anything, but naturally that anything associated w/that framework might not be off the table forever, especially what with having a whole discussion about things really here just cementing that they do both want to be / consider themselves like friends proper. there was a little illustration like so:

i don’t remember my dream supplying a name for the girl, just like how it didn’t supply any particular design for elementary or middle schooler winston than “smaller, i guess”....despite things only featuring this small winston at the start, it then became a) about regular billions b) directly observable as An Event as well as being relayed through reading the book still and c) about winston and taylor and others, including the older unnamed dream oc girl, having a pleasant day outdoors in a meadow by water and sometimes in a cave with water, as a helpful offshoot of another prior typical dream thread.

more granular and vivid details: one scene being observed half directly as a real event, half through reading about it, ended with philip and taylor at a distance (winston keeps the pov) sitting in a field by water, and philip being playfully affectionate with taylor like 😉 and holding their hand and calling them “baby” while taylor is like 😳 like so:

i read this part like :o ! and turned to noted blogger nothingunrealistic like “omg what page/chapter are you on” and they had not yet reached it so i was like “omggg...” expressions to the [honey you’ve got a big storm coming (positive)] effect

and another scene specific enough to have drawn was that, after having enjoyed a swim (philip constantly appearing in usual canon-type business suits despite the outdoors activities, even this one) winston kind of [tag you’re it]’d philip out of the water and they had this drenched like wrestle embrace ft. winston pressing his face to philip in as close to a kiss as anything else that happened. had as much or more as a like lighthearted playful energy as anything as well despite the [intricate rituals] and [sounds like a sexually charged kind of situation perhaps] lol like well once again it needn’t Not be that, but things are casual and spontaneous And homoerotic. everyone simply being comfortable enough despite tensions of [discuss that you’re nervous abt there being hot gossip abt you as a Crush] or [flirtation ft. the recipient being flustered] or [plenty of physical touch plus affection] like so:

let’s go boys! and of course, relevant as well that winston was Deeply Affectionate and Closely Aware/Attentive towards taylor the whole time, sometimes conveyed simply through how again taylor scenes were seen through him as the pov character and myself as the pov beyond that, like, of course there’s tayston and of course there’s plenty of like, well anyone here may be liable to kiss anyone and everyone else. tl;dr everyone enjoying this refreshing outdoors excursion and being comfortable in the marinade of any of that tension re: potential increased emotional and/or physical intimacy with each other out there, like, as a metaphor, having a stretch and despite the element of [!] there it can also be unthreatening, welcome, pleasant and it can be like “well i’m glad for the greater flexibility this can yield. and/or being warmed up for something. and/or easing an uncomfortable physical sensation. etc” lol. good for them

[bonniebird]

Hey, thanks for following through on my request! I liked how you started it out with the reader having a dysfunctional family and making that the reason why he leaves. Now they’re indirectly the reason why they’ll never see or hear from him again.

My favorite part was when Bilquis laughs after she says “All I want for Christmas is you.” because the dramatic irony is highlighted the most there.

I will say that I was expecting some smut towards the end but I understand that it’s an imagine and you have a dozen other fics to write. Plus it was still a good ending with the door closing and Bilquis preparing to consume her new worshiper.

Are you doing a Valentine event in February?

Glad you enjoyed it :) I don't write smut for my December event, my Valentine and regular (And I think my Halloween) prompt lists have +18 section at the end where you can find smut prompts but I don't write smut for the December event :)

Yes, I do a Valentine's event. As soon as I've finished my December event prompts I start taking my valentine ones. My valentine event runs from Jan - Feb. However, as I have covid in September I'm 2 weeks behind on my Holiday event schedule so my valentine event may run on into March.

[howaboutcastiel]

I mean the raider Joel. You tagged it dubious consent in the warnings yourself. It’s just strange to say you don't like dub con/non con when you’ve written it.

Uh oh, you caught me!

Canonically, Joel was a raider before he came to Boston. We know this because of him admitting to “being on both sides” of an ambush when they were in Kansas City. In The Robe and Crown, he and Tommy raid a church because they need food and resources to get through the winter. As ‘dark’ as this makes him, it doesn’t make him a rapist.

And it *is* dubious consent. You’re absolutely right. The protagonist is a victim of domestic abuse and past sexual assault, and because of her previous experiences, *she* propositions *Joel* for sex, and he complies. He then goes on to kill a sexual predator in order to protect the reader (and a little bit because he is dark, and enjoys violence!) and he apologizes multiple times for their dubious sexual encounter, even offering to leave the group so that she will feel safe. He feels so guilty about taken advantage of her that he displays suicidal tendencies about it. Joel doesn’t enjoy sexual encounters with dubious consent, and he makes it right with her.

When I say I don’t like dub-con and non-con, I mean that I don’t like reading about it in a romanticized way. That being said, I wrote the robe and crown months ago, and peoples’ interests change over time. I don’t even write for Joel anymore.

You’re right, I have written dub-con in the past. But that fic also has nuance in the form of growth, trauma, and dramatic irony. Plus, Joel in no way justifies or romanticizes his taking advantage of anyone, and he does everything in his power to right his wrongs in a way I believe to be in-character for him. If you’re unable to recognize the difference between The Robe and Crown and “raider!joel” rape fics… maybe there’s a reason my writing isn’t for you.

Now, I’m going to answer your other anon, since you seem so hung up on this. If you have anything else to say, say it under your own name please.

[twwings]

oh, did someone say Good Omens podfic recs? I got Good Omens podfic recs! Really, what I got is podficcer recs. Protip, if you enjoy fanfic read aloud (podfic), the best thing to do is find your fave podficcers in a fandom and follow them. Here are some Good Omens recs by podficcer with a couple samples from each person, but in most cases these podficcers have done many fics so I encourage you to check out their author page on AO3! The list:

Podfixx is very prolific and does amazing Crowley and Aziraphale voices! Does anyone need me to rec Podfixx at this stage? Nonetheless, I am. Some of my faves are The Grindr Logo Doesn't Even Have a G In It, Morning Has Broken, and of course Slow Show.

klb is wonderful! such moving emotional performances, and I always see something new from the fic in their voicing of it. I'm of course biased towards their podfic of my fic long distance, but may I also suggest all the effects of drunkenness and The Curious Attractiveness of Others?

Thimblerig does absolutely beautiful readings, with great attention to sensuality of language and description. For that I especially recommend The Adoration of the Fallen and Aphasia

Semperfiona is an amazing podficcer who knows just how to make the most important beats of a story land perfectly. I loved In the Pocket of the Universe, Six Days at Mr Fell's, and To a Nunnery Go, and Quickly, Too (note the excellent taste in amazing queer themes, another huge plus in a podficcer!)

1lostone has such a talent for dramatic irony in narration, and for being able to communicate both the character and what the narration thinks of the character in their voice. I very much enjoyed Honest Angel and A Metaphor of Some Kind.

CompassRose has amazing pacing—I love how measured and deliberate their narration is, while also being soft and sensual. I loved Part of the Whole Design and Follow the White Lines but there's so much gold here!

ReadByBelle has such a lovely narrative voice that just carries me along. I would recommend A Home at the Beginning of the World and A Guarantee and Not a Promise

Triedunture does gorgeous readings, I think mostly of their own fic? They're so lovely and immersive. I loved Light Years and For the Angel Who Has Everything.

There are so many great and talented podficcers out there making Good Omens podfic! And podfic is one of the most underappreciated fan forms, so if you like these podfics, remember to go back and give 'em a comment or a kudos.

Hey! Thank you so much for all the amazing you do…!

I just wondered if you had any good recommendations for fics with audio options?

Thanks!!

Hello! I assume by audio options you mean podfics? We have a #podfic tag with a few. I don't listen to them myself, but here are some fics I've read and loved that have podfics available...

[Podfic] Petrichor & Parchment by Literarion (E)

“Mr. Crowley, I presume?” Aziraphale asked in lieu of an introduction, which was not forthcoming. The guy hadn’t even removed his sunglasses. Oh God, he had a tattoo on his face. Aziraphale wasn’t one to judge, but… what kind of gardener had a snake tattoo on his face?

[Podfic] Summer's End by Literarion (E)

2095. Britain is a post-apocalyptic wasteland ravaged by droughts, the collapse of civilisation, and hordes of the undead. Despite that, Aziraphale’s life is actually pretty good. He has his caravan, his books, and his work, offering his services to the men who stop by Tadfield on their arduous journey north. One day, a mysterious stranger knocks on his door. Crowley is charming and handsome and he appears to know his way around a vegetable garden. He comes with the tempting offer of a mutually beneficial arrangement. But it’s in Aziraphale’s best interest not to get too attached. A dystopian cottagecore sex worker AU.

[Multivoice Podfic] Choose Your Princes Wisely by Multiple (T)

“There’s an enchanted castle West in the Hellian slopes, and apparently it comes with a prince looking for a bride or bridegroom to free him from a dark fae’s curse.” “I see,” Aziraphale says finally, when he realizes both Gabriel and Uriel are staring at him expectantly. “You want me to marry a beast?” Gabriel's mouth flattens. “I want you to take this gods’ blessed opportunity to secure your family’s future for good." OR Aziraphale is a professional quest hero who just wants to sit by the fire and read a book, if his overbearing family will ever let him; Crowley is a serpent demon who needs a gullible hero he can con into gathering some critical ingredients for a human corporation spell. Hijinks and a lot of terribly inconvenient feelings ensue.

[Podfic] Something to do with these sacred words by nantook (T)

Crowley confesses early, and Crowley confesses often. Aziraphale never knows quite what to say.

[Podfic] Right Here by Im_Not_Occult (E)

Although Aziraphale has sensed Crowley's love for millennia, after their trials he decides to be honest about his own feelings. So desperate to finally be close, Aziraphale doesn't anticipate that physical intimacy might be rather overwhelming for an ethereal being in a human body. He has wonderfully transcendent celestial experiences that take him away from the moment with Crowley. Together, he and Crowley discover a new level of intimacy as they try to work out this issue--and the shape of their new Arrangement. Featuring: 16k words of unrepentant softness, open conversations about sex, ethereal and human intimacy, a certain promised picnic, and a little bit of bickering between hereditary enemies.

[Fic & Podfic] Press L in the Chat (for Love) by Multiple (E)

Bickering fan-content creators Aziraphale and Crowley only have three things in common — they are both avid fans of a new revolutionary TV series about pirates, they are popular for their fantastic fanfiction and fanart… and they are members of the same discord server. Neither of them likes the other, but across the chaotic virtual world of a discord chatroom, who knows what can happen when these two unlikely fans are paired up for an exciting collaboration? Us. We know ;) Discord Server AU — a collaboration between Phoenix_Soar (fic) and Djapchan (multivoice podfic organization & editing) for Pod-Together 2022

- Mod D