#rebal fanfic

[thefanficmonster]

Hey 🥰

How are you doing?

I wanted to ask if you'd want to write something for Rebal?.. I have nothing really in mind bc I'm terrible at requesting 😭 but like.. maybe something like strangers to lovers if you're up to it?

It's totally up to you what you write or if you write! 🥰

Hope you have a great day! 🤍

Hi darling! Strangers-to-lovers with Rebal? Consider it done! Hope you enjoy this cute little drabble 💕

Pairing: Rebal D x Reader (Gender Neutral)

Warnings: Mentions of a recent break-up (brief)

Genre: FLUFF, Humor, RPF (Real Person Fic)

Summary: You meet Rebal on New Year's eve, under the light of the magnificent fireworks lighting up the sky

The sound of a hundred voices counting down in unison gradually turns into cheering and laughter as hugs and kisses are exchanged amidst the couples, friends and family members in the crowd. The dark night sky glows with the fireworks that clearly aren't at all cheap. Actually, they're nothing short of impressive.

And yet, as you look at them through the screen of you phone as you record them, you feel like you're dimming their light for yourself.

No one can blame you though. The plan hadn't originally been to come here as a party of one. Too bad the person who was supposed to be by your side right now, sharing a kiss with you no less, stepped out of your life less than a week ago.

They say the New Year's kiss is for good luck, but you doubt even that can save your unfortunate situation in the love department.

"They're gorgeous, aren't they?" It takes you a moment to register the voice over the popping of fireworks and colliding voices and then another moment to realize it's referring to you.

Turning your head you see a fella in the same predicament as you - he's a solo performer, much like you. Based off of the look on his face, you'd never think he's unhappy about it. But then again the smile you give him is rather convincing too, therefore you may never know for certain.

"The fireworks? They sure are! Not a penny was spared." You answer, doing your best to fight the noise around you in order for him to hear and understand you.

You've strayed away from romance novels now that you're no longer a teenager, but even with your venture into Stephen King, you're pretty aware of how textbook-romance-novel is the thought that flashes through your mind as he returns that smile - one you think of as brighter than the fireworks themselves.

"Yeah. We got lucky, got the best seats in the house." He replies, nodding to the expanse of sky fogged up by the smoke left behind the display of beautiful, sparkling lights.

"It's a shame some people opted out of seeing them." You say rather bitterly but some of that bitterness gets lost with the small smirk on your face. Not that you aren't salty about it, but still.

"I'm not complaining." The guy shrugs his shoulders, his curly hair moving on cue, "If they were here they might've blocked our view."

Huh, you think to yourself, what a perpesctive.

"I'm Rebal, by the way." He extends a hand for an official greeting.

You take it right away, "Y/N. Nice to meet you, Rebal."

"Likewise." His dark eyes sparkle with a mix of joy and something a lot like hesitation before the next words follow, "Got plans for the rest of the evening?"

You hum, giving a pause to 'think' of an answer, "I'll cancel them if you have something in mind."

"Then cancel them." Hell, even if you had plans, the wink he responds with would've cancelled them itself.

[shartlock-holmes]

I FOUDN ANOTHERONE

[ebisul]

It really rebalances my brain chemistry when fanfic writers make Cody the most feral child in the cloning facility like yes ofc the serious professionalism is a facade! that mans insane!

[yarrystyleeza]

ABOUT ME ♡ ⋆｡˚

♡ | my name is Yomna /jʊmna/, but my friends tend to call me Yuna /jʊna/. (Cupcake is also my nickname since it's written up there on my blog—in Arabic)

♡ | she/her | January 30th (22) | 𖤓 aquarius — ☾ leo — ↑ sagittarius | enfj-t | 4w3 | a proud Egyptian | 𓆎 𓅓 𓏏 | Gryffindor | English translation and linguistics student (graduate) | translator, aka "a dumb fuck with a degree" | pet mom | also a certified idiot™

♡ | I'm a 22 year old girl with hyperfixations, I love poetry, literature, drama, music, art, (apparently all forms of art), cats, cooking, singing, and writing about my favorite fictional characters. I'm focusing on Charlie Cox and Norman Reedus's characters, more info in masterlist.

♡ | currently I own two cats, Nezuko (F, 6, white angora) and Zenitsu (M, 2, orange tabby). Previously, I owned a couple budgies, they all passed away, this is a tribute to my babies: Branch (M), Puchii (F), Kiki (M), Beebo (M), and Miu Miu (F).

♡ | I live by the shore and I've never been to a museum before. Sounds like poetry to me.

♡ | fandoms: daredevil, the walking dead, (any Charlie Cox or Norman Reedus work—I'm in for the ride, baby), one direction, panic! at the disco, twenty one pilots, arctic monkeys, AURORA, Taylor Swift, Louis Tomlinson, ZAYN, Emily Kinney, CAS—respectively.

♡ | youtubers/channels I watch: nexpo, wendigoon, the why files, creepcast, blameitonjorge, markiplier, vsauce, mista GG, rebal-d, the dark somnium, creepsmcpasta, Mr creeps, creepypastajr.

☆ side notes:

I love shitblogging if that's what it's called, I reblog a lot of fanfics, memes, artworks and poetry pieces. I also girlblog a lot, like a lot.

Also, feel okay to spam like/reblog me it makes my day hehe :3

← navigation

[alfgifu]

Fic analysis 47. In every heart there is a room

Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/54223120/chapters/137305867

Word count: 17,893

Chapters: 3

First posted: 3rd March 2024

Last chapter up: 9th March 2024

Summary: 

Fitzroy is delighted when he catches Kip confusing an ordinary crow for his corvid form - until, that is, he hears the confession that Kip feels safer sharing with his beloved wearing feathers.

How did they misunderstand one another so completely, in that conversation on the vaha?

And where will opening their hearts take them together?

(Title, of course, from "And so it goes" by Billy Joel.)

How and why this came about

I started writing fanfic because I wanted to develop my skills as an author in order to have a better stab at some of my original fic. I had always planned to wind down the amount of fanfic I was writing in 2024 and, having left the HOTE Support Group discord server, I saw an opportunity to clear my (figurative) desk and focus on that.

Writing was going slower than it had been for various personal reasons (the most salient being that my work situation had deteriorated beyond the point where writing was a helpful distraction, and that spousegifu was ill). I was also taking the opportunity to step away from prompt challenges and to rebalance my life a bit. I was still writing on my phone on the commute but keeping my one non-working day a week for original fic and doing less at the weekend, too.

There were a few things that I had started, though, that I was determined to finish. All fear gives way was one of these, and so was In every heart there is a room.

This fic started as a few snippets of livefic on the HOTE Support Group server. I can’t remember the conversation that led to them, but in a way it must have been a part of a much bigger ongoing conversation in the fandom about Kip and Fitzroy’s relationship in At the Feet of the Sun.

For some readers the exchanges in that book feel finished. For others, they feel incomplete, as though neither character really managed to open up to one another and have the sort of conversation(s) that are necessary to support a declared life partnership. I’m in the second camp, and had been thinking about it on and off for a while. I hadn’t intended to write a fic about it but then the idea came up of Kip talking to an ordinary crow, thinking that it’s Fitzroy. The mistaken identity isn’t really the point - the point is that Kip might be able to say more if he was talking to (what he thought was) Fitzroy’s crow form. He might be able to bring up the difficult subject of that unfinished conversation and talk a bit more about what he was feeling and fearing and why.

What worked and what didn’t

I originally thought that this fic would be just that one conversation between Kip and Fitzroy in their tower room. Then, as the characters figured themselves out a bit, I realised that it needed more space to work through. Raising the misunderstanding and acknowledging it is a first step, but what are they going to do differently now that they’ve spoken?

I’ve always admired the authors in this fandom who are good at slow-moving stories full of the tender awareness that the characters have of one another, and I wanted to see if I could do that too. I really like the result.

This might have been the first thing I wrote in Fitzroy’s perspective that didn’t use the first person or the first person besotted throughout, as his canon pov sections do. That was another deliberate choice: I wanted to slow the man down a bit and see what difference that made. It works, I think, although it would be interesting to do a version all in first person and see whether it comes out the same.

Once I was really digging into a proper relationship conversation a big part of it was naturally the asexual/allosexual chat. That’s important because it’s a core part of the misunderstanding that we’re shown in the books, but it’s also not by any means the most important thing for either character.

I read Kip as sex-positive ace, or possibly demi (we do, after all, see him happily having sex on-page), and find it hard to imagine him not wanting to have sex with Fitzroy if that’s something that would make Fitzroy happy. But it’s not something he would seek out if not. I read Fitzroy as wanting primarily to make Kip happy, but also as someone who was celebrated as a prolific lover in his own poetry and as a highly tactile person who has spent a long time touch-deprived. I think he desires Kip but is under the impression (at the end of AtFotS) that Kip doesn’t have or want to have sex (or doesn’t want to have sex with him).

The thing which makes this a problem, and a potential faultline for their future, is that they both want to make the other happy but haven’t really shared what that looks like for them. What I wanted to do with the fic was to bring them to a place where they’ve had that difficult conversation about what they both wanted from one another, staying as true as possible to the characters we’re shown in the books. How do they make each other happy, now and in the long term? How do they come to understand one another as people, having spent so long in a context where their relationship was highly formalised? What next?

This could go different ways on the subject of sex. If, for example, Kip was only attracted to women, then I think the conversation would end with a richer understanding of one another and potentially with a discussion about Fitzroy finding some other sexual outlet or partner (retirement household polycule, activate!) But - in canon, while he has only had female lovers, his narration shows us a strong awareness of and attention to male bodies he finds attractive, especially to Fitzroy’s body.

If Fitzroy were not physically attracted to Kip, or if his long ordeal had left him less interested in sex, then that could be an interesting thing to unwind - that he doesn’t have to try to be the carefree bard that he was, or force himself to enjoy the things he enjoyed then.

The beauty of the fanoa relationship is that it is founded on the commitment to one another and leaves the question of the physical side entirely up to the characters. The challenge of that is that it means they have to figure out what they want. Which means they have to talk to one another and not run away on another epic quest. The reward, of course, is that what they really want is one another, and everything else is details.

Anyway, this is what I wanted to convey, and I hope that I managed even part of it.

What I learned from writing it

I stopped and thought a lot more about every single paragraph of this fic than I generally do, and re-read it a lot more as I was writing. Perhaps, like the characters, I was also taking it more slowly and giving it more attention. I was very pleased with the result, and have done more of that since.

I also thought that this was going to be the last fanfic I wrote before taking a proper hiatus to write original fic, so I shared that in the end note. My level of fanfic production did drop from here, but not as dramatically as expected because the life events left me too stressed to pick up original fic properly this year and there were moments when I needed stress relief or escapism or both.

As I’d started working on this in a big server and as part of that wider conversation, I was looking forward to the reaction. It had been a few weeks since I last posted a fic - in contrast to 2023, when I posted something at least twice a week and for long stretches of time was posting every day, or multiple chapters a day.

The reaction was muted, at least at first. Perhaps because I wasn’t part of that wider conversation any longer, perhaps because of the long gap, perhaps just because this wasn’t such an interesting story to others as it was to me myself - I don’t know, but I was surprised and disappointed enough to discuss it with friends. All of whom gently pointed out that people probably didn’t believe that I was going to take a hiatus, and that there had been a downtick in fanfic written and in engagement with the fandom overall, and that also I was still getting plenty of attention.

This is of course the downside of getting addicted to validation, kudos, and comments: you notice fast when there’s any diminution, and it hurts, and it’s also entirely self-centred and counter-productive to view the world like that. I have been working on achieving a level of cheerful sang-froid about the reaction to any and all of my fics, good or bad, and reminding myself that I’m primarily writing because I enjoy writing.

Comments and kudos are nice though.

[magicaltalkingpony]

Dunno if I've talked about it here, but seriously check out The Princess's Lament, an FE8 romhack. It starts off like a normal "rebalance" and then goes off the rails in a really cool way. It's like a playable version of a really cool fanfic.

[breannasfluff]

Yes I have! I also read Malons too, first, time chapter hurted, when he started to imagine how the attack of the guardians went 😭😭 and him imagining Malon with kids and making them go on Epona while she staggered to the floor!!! Or the first part as well, when he "talks" with Malon, I loved how Time was like: He failed and Malon answered like: You did, too THAT WAS!!!!! it was a very good parallel between the two of them - and Malons chapter, we started with the angst feels when you referenced the fic with Legend and Wild (don't remember the name) when they looked at each other and I'm sure Legend had to be thinking of Mipha while Wild thought of Marin 😭 and then, Malon was sooo sweet with Wild!, Didn't really imagined she would get excited after Wild told him, I swear I reacted the same as Wild, but she was so cute 🥺 so happy their family would last so long and when Wild said something like: is this how a mom feels like? Made me think of another fanfic that I swear is a similar situation, still Malon is the best, thanks for your hard work 🩷🩷🩷

Time was having a hard day. And yes, the Malon in his mind is just pointing out what he already knows XD

I wanted to show two different mindsets with Time and Malon; one side mourning loss and the other celebrating how far their legacy stretched! I'm sure Malon and Time had a chat after this and she pointed out the good parts of it. I think Time rebalances well with her, but not so well on his own.

Yaaas Legend was thinking of Mipha and Marin! They were both looking at that relationship going, I wish I could have that.

I'm sure Malon as Wild's "mom" is popular, but it's just too good to pass up! She's more than happy to love this boy with her whole heart.

Thank you! I'm glad you liked it and I loved seeing these show up in my inbox!

[perculiar]

You are okay

You are safe and you are allowed comfort

It’s okay to rest any time you need it, but especially when you have been ill and your immune system is low and struggling

Curbing the impulse to seek connection that could overwhelm you in response, and instead looking for ways to self soothe, is a good choice that helps you rebalance in a low-demand way

Maybe eat some rice now + wash your hands + either read fanfic or play zelda ok?

[queer-cosette]

Ooooh 15 and 17 for the fic writer asks!

These answers got... way out of hand lmao

15. How do you come up with titles for your fics/chapters?

Okay, so most of my one-shot fics I tend to go for a song lyric that fits and more often than not it's a Rilo Kiley lyric because they honestly have a song for every angsty emotion in the world 😂although I've also used lyrics by First Aid Kit, Allison Iraheta, John Rzeznik, and Taylor Swift (they just vibe right, y'know?). I always think of that post that's like "what are you writing about?" "ah, it's just silly fanfiction -" "no, I mean, what are you writing about?" Because yeah, my blorbos are kissing and being angsty and whatever, but also...

these are times that can't be weathered (and we have never been back there since) focusses on unfamiliar feelings of helplessness and grief

The world is still sleeping, while I keep on dreaming is about not letting other people control the rate you heal at

you say i choose sadness (that it never once has chosen me) is about making an effort to be more forgiving to yourself

roses are dry, violets are black is about letting yourself move on from the painful end of an unhealthy relationship

see it fall, child of all (lend a mending hand) is about the regret of realising that someone else's effort to protect you wound up hurting them even worse

just say when (and we'll say goodnight) is about wanting to help without knowing how and acknowledging that sometimes just choosing to care and to love and to stay can be enough

the very first page (not where the storyline ends) is about taking things slow during the happy new beginning you never thought you'd want or need

let's not forget ourselves, good friend (I am flawed if I'm not free) is about the painful realisation that you were wrong, and that you've taken things way too far to ever properly make amends

For multichapter fics my naming methods tend to vary because I always want something that fits the AU and puts out the vibe for the fic. I kind of like it to sound like it could be a book title 😂

mArinette is based on the plot of the movie easy A, and in the trailer for easy A the As in the actors' names are stylised as the red A Olive begins sewing onto her clothes. "Dear Diary..." is the first line of Dear Diary..., and often the first line of the chapters. I wanted my series On Se Sent Comme Par Magie to feel like a fantasy adventure novel series, so the names of each 'instalment' reflect that. And The Mystery Solvers of Derry just felt right. I mean, they're mystery solvers, and they live in Derry. The rest of the fic is a mystery, so the title felt like it needed to be straight to the point.

17. What’s something you’ve learned about while doing research for a fic?

what kind of impact injury would cause blindness (direct hit to the occipital lobe at the back of the head)

when Nando's opened a location in Ireland (2008)

a lot of 1980s-accurate technology (tvs, phones, cameras etc.)

where a Parisian teenager who likes making her own clothes would probably buy fabric (Marché Saint Pierre)

American Catholics are very different to Scottish Catholics and not in a good way. I read one (1) article on an American Catholic website as research and. you know how sometimes you feel like you need something wholesome to cancel out the horrible thing you just experienced? It was like the opposite of that. I felt like I had to go and do some sinning in order to rebalance the universe.

Thank you so much for sending me this, Elise <333 This is probably way longer an answer than you expected but talking about fic make brain go brrr <3333

Send me numbers to ask questions about my fanfic!

[notsoaveragebear]

My Current WIPS

Last Updated: November 14, 2024

My Ao3 Account

Visions of Kyber (Star Wars Visions) - CURRENT

Episode I - The Sparks of Hope - CURRENT

Episode II - The Crimson Heir

Episode III - Rebalance of the Force

Crisis: When Earths Collide (DC Comics) - a five-part adaptation of Crisis on Infinite Earths featuring DC animated shows, with the first four fanfics focusing on separate stories set on their respective earths - JUST THE OUTLINES

Blood and Shadow - Teen Titans - outline posted

Injustice for All - Young Justice

Legion of Two Worlds - Legion of Superheroes x DCAU

The Final Countdown - DCAU x Gods and Monsters

When Earths Collide - the actual crisis

[thefanficmonster]

Hey can you do rebal d fic with one of his recent videos where both of them reaction. Andrew tate video maybe.

Ps : I don't like that guy

I love all the requests I get for Rebal, he's super underappreciated and I'm here to fix that 😤 Thank you so much for the request hun, hope you enjoy 💕

PS: Yeah, I don't like that guy either (the phrasing puts it mildly 😡)

Pairing: Rebal D x Reader (Gender Neutral)

Warnings: Andrew Tate mentioned (as well as mentions of the dumb shit he's said), Swearing

Genre: Fluff, Comfort Fluff, Humor, RPF (Real Person Fic)

You know the popular trope 'Calm tol and angry smol'?

Yeah, you and Rebal are literally it

Many fans have pointed it out which has led your boyfriend to the realization that it's great for content

And for his own personal entertainment

Man can't lie - he finds you adorable when you're pissed off

Also your presence would help to keep him calm while the two of you witness the most infuriating behavior coming straight from the biggest misogynist walking the Earth

He's a calm person in general, taking the time to dig right into the core of the issue of all the incorrect and offensive shit Andrew Tate spews out and point out that no person in the world should listen to him let alone practice his gospel

Now imagine how difficult that is for him while also holding you back from trying to smash your way through the screen to strangle the asshole

In your defense, you were invited to join him for the video with zero context as to what the two of you would be doing

You had no time to prepare yourself or even go as far as to meditate

So one can't exactly blame you for wishing nothing more than to END that caveman mf

"Babe, calm down, that's not how you'll get to him!"

"Oh I'll fucking find him. Words will be exchanged!"

"Nice save. Censored it right on time before YouTube could strike us."

"I'm gonna fucking strike HIM!"

"Ok....guess not"

But then again, if you're a ticking bomb of anger;

He's the diffuser

"Wanna get calm-down ice cream afterwards?"

"Yes please, my blood pressure is through the roof"

[herbgerblin]

What did you think of the acofaf finale?

These are scattered thoughts about the finale overall because I didn't want to go down too many tangents. If you want me to get specific about any one thing, just let me know :0 (also spoilers below the cut)

I went in with the knowledge that the crew was working under time constraints, so I was down for whatever they could and couldn't wrap up. Outside of that context, the finale feels hurried, but not inconsiderably so. Lots of characters defer to, "we will talk more of this later" to keep the flow without completely dropping plot threads. In context, I think it managed to stay well contained (but i would not be mad at a season 2) and it provided a surprising number of scenes that really were allowed to breathe.

I think Aabria's DMing, the powerhouse cast, and the character driven game were like three solid pillars that held a roof aloft. I'm personally enjoy roleplay more than fighting/plot mechanics, so I ate this season. Like yeah, there's an evil plot with a time constraint, but what about THE GREEN HUNTER??? WHO'S ABANDONING WHO'S COURTS?? CONFESS YOUR FEELINGS DAMMIT!!!!!

I would of course, love more time to really sort out the situation with Wuvvy, and to see more of Chirp's family, more of the other goblins, ect. But I feel like fanfic will sort those things out.

This entire season has been building up every character arc (except Binx) towards honesty and openness with each other. But especially with themselves, because all of them (except Binx) have been fed lies about who they should be and how they should present according to their stations. To honor the people they love. To lower their reputations while raising each others' confidence. To understand that they are stronger united.

To me, the crux of the episode really turned on the moment when Hob shook Andhera's shoulders and yelled, "Be more specific!!" With Andhera THEN replying "Oh, K.P. just go! Go tell them!" And Hob trusted that. Like yes! Drop the propriety, tell it straight!! And believe that there are people who may have once been your enemy, but are now your best friend.

And I love that Binx, while working to (I almost said destabilize but i think rebalance works better) the court system, never pressured anyone to abandon their original courts. Like I think a full "tear down the system" in one episode would be unfeasible, and the ramifications of how that would impact the lesser powerful fae would be its own season. But having Binx there as a character was just, the most spectacular foil for everyone, was rad as hell. I just... dkfajdkls;fjd it's GOOD.

I also feel like watching Adventuring Party enriched much of my viewing experience. I'm a newcomer to a lot of d20/droppout stuff, so I didn't even know they did aftershow shows until episode 8. So getting to hear the players talk about elements of the worldbuilding that later played out more subtly in-game was a huge treat.

--

ALSO WAIT I JUST WENT BACK TO WATCH PARTS OF THE EPISODE. LISTEN TO ME. LOOK AT ME. THE EDITORS. THE SOUND EDITORS ESPECIALLY. DID SOME FANTASTIC WORK AND SOME HEAVILY FUCKING LIFTING. They WENT IN on what makes acofaf work so well and i just want to make sure they get that recognition. I NEED THEM TO DROP THEM TRACKS THIS IS IMPERATIVE TO MY WELL BEING

[kyofsonder]

Find the Word 1

I’ve been tagged by several people over the last… 3.5 weeks to find select sets of words in my WIPs, and this time I’m not combining them into a single post. That would be endless to scroll through. So I’ll start with a tag from @inkspellangel and find those words first. Thank you for the tag, for your patience while I was away from Tumblr, and for the chance to play this game!

My Words: hate, understand, bridge, against, people

I’ll Tag: @on-noon, @saltysupercomputer, @calicojackofficial, @midnight-and-his-melodiverse, @junypr-camus, and as always anyone else who wants to join in can use these words (or words from my other upcoming FtW posts) and say I tagged them!

Your Words: pretend, accept, offer, aware, hollow

I have a lot of backlog to get through, but I’ll still put the excerpts themselves under a cut as always. 

I found hate in my Danny Phantom fanfic “Lingering Scars”: 

"As much as I hate to say that you're ever right about anything..." he fakes a shudder, overplaying the movement just enough to earn him a classic Jazz Fenton eye roll, "I definitely would've kept quiet if you'd let me, you're not actually wrong there. I'm the type of guy who's bad at... not doing that. I don't know if it's good or bad that you made me talk, but now that we're digging into the really secret stuff... I have to do this right. There's a place where I can do that, but it's not here. If you can trust me long enough to go there, I'll tell you both what happened to my neck and some other stuff I tried to cover up. I'll show you why I won't disappear on you, or leave either of you alone." 

I found understand in my novel WIP “Apricots”:

Ian takes another long, deep breath. He's not angry now. He's not even annoyed, not really. He's... is there a word somewhere between determination to help someone you care about and resignation to sign yourself up for something you don't fully understand? His emotions are somewhere in that area, trying to settle into something more defined. Not unclear, but... imprecise. It's probably the best he can manage. 

I found bridge in the rough draft of my Given fanfic “Present Tense”:

The height of their hands shifts as they lean to look into his eyes. Disrupting the flow of time he's been watching. His vision is filled with silver instead. A kind of silver that should have its own separate word, as a color all its own. There are places where the silver itself seems slightly worn, seems grey or almost black. This is the bridge that goes there, to the place in their hands that holds time itself. This is how they pull everything into their grasp. Through this silver that isn't just silver. Through these eyes that aren't usually eyes. Looking at the world in a way Mafuyu would never think to try for himself. Still unable to speak, he nods thoughtfully.

I found against in my short story “Hidden Talent”:

After all, rather than emptiness within Vance himself, it's more like an awareness of all the empty spaces around him. He doesn't need to fill himself with something that's missing. He needs to do something about that awareness itself. Noticing the empty places in a room or a building or even a park, the areas that look blank or vacant. It's those blank spaces that are hungry for something to give them color or presence. They're fading away. They need something to anchor them, to bring them back, and he becomes so hyper-conscious of that need that it makes him hyper-conscious of his own presence, too. His head so full of thoughts, his chest so full of emotions, he ends up feeling like some kind of moving painting himself. Standing out against these spaces that have nothing. It gets under his skin every time, to the point he starts to feel sick with the infuriating need to balance the vibrant and the vacant. The bright and the blank. Give a little paint from the place that has too much and deposit it in places that don't have enough. Wash the excess layers of it off himself and reset. Recolor. Rebalance.

I found people in my Given fanfic “Present Tense”:

A Gibson Hollow-Body, Uenoyama-kun had said. It's been awhile now since he first heard the term, but it still rattles around in Mafuyu's head sometimes. As if his head, too, is hollow and he's desperate to fill it with words -- with the ideas and voices of other people. Maybe that's the right way to learn an instrument, or to have friends, or to be a lover. Maybe it's just a way to distract himself. Maybe it's a way of collecting things that someone else has said, until he can say something on his own. The way he does when he sings. The way he gathered so many of Ugetsu-san's words and his band mates' feelings to make his last song. He's not sure what he's actually trying to do, one way or the other; but he can feel the downward slope of this particular word as it settles into a more or less set position in these early morning thoughts. Hollow.

It took me a long time to get to this one, but I did find every single word on the list – the words against and people showing up so often they stopped looking like real words – and I had fun figuring out how to keep my excerpts short while also sharing what I want to share. Thank you again for the tag!

[a-witch-in-endor]

I deeply love all your fanfic :)

I wanted to ask about the optional offerings Zuko makes to Agni in chapter seven of Mighty Oaks! It seemed to me obviously close to yoga, but I wondered what your research and thought process was about it. The sequence was really gorgeous, and I’ve never thought of or encountered yoga/contortion as a means to make offering to an external god or spiritual authority.

Hi anon! I'm so glad you like it. :-)

In general, offerings are the fire from the self - returning the gift to Agni, so to speak. (This is definitely similar, thematically, to sacrificial offerings - returning life to the source. But, you know. Without the death.)

I gave the Fire Nation two types of offerings: standardised (through one's own fire where possible, often using candles and incense in a usual routine - though Zuko hasn't had much access recently) and optional. This is parallel to standardised prayer/sacrificial offerings and optional prayer/sacrificial offerings, in that the standardised offerings are rigid - there are rules about when, where, how, etc.

Optional offerings are about being moved to offer above and beyond what is expected. This can happen from gratitude, but in Zuko's case, it's a part of his emotional experience as he moves from being supported to unsupported.

(That is to say: Zuko's relationships broke down at the same time as his understanding of his place in the world. He's now much more hesitant in his judgments because he isn't sure where his authority lies. And while that would have been something he could have moved through with interpersonal support, the breakdown of his friendships - and his sense that those friendships were insincere in the first place - has unbalanced him further.)

The optional offerings of a firebender are about breaking down the rigidity of usual offerings and allowing the fire to make the choices. Zuko is moved by his fire, rather than moving his fire. So if his fire has the urge to reach to the sky through his toes, it's time to get into a headstand. Aesthetically, this is definitely connected to the practice of yoga.

If it works, this kind of offering should help the offerer be recentered and realigned with the will of Agni. (In terms of yoga, this is using the body to calm the mind, and the union of the person with the divine.) And, you know, a spiritual seeker who feels more aligned with the will of Agni might feel better prepared to leave unstable relationships behind to follow their mission, or jump into the ocean if it means the mission for world rebalance is more likely to succeed...

[ravenwitch45]

Anybody got a Helluva Boss Related Ask?

Hey people! Since I have been doing Owltober I have had a lot of Owl House posts on my blog recently, I'm not stopping it of course but I wanted to sorta rebalance the amount of content for probably my two favorite shows at the moment so. Does anybody got an Ask or request for me to do cause I SUCK at coming up with ideas for posts sometimes.

I can do moodboards (My first post was one actually) and I'm better at doing it with ships but can do solo ones too, I can draw with colored pencils and I have been trying to learn digital art (A little out of practice so be aware) and of course I'm happy to give my opinion on a character or some head cannons if anybody wants it.

I can kinda write fanfics, I'm nowhere near great and It may difficult to put them here but still I can try to do something if anyone wants it.

If any of these seem good please send me an ask? Only if you want to, please don't feel pressured this is just for fun.

[bardic-inspo]

*drops into your inbox from an air vent* You’ve been giving us so great action in your last two chapters of Bring the Gasoline, would you mind sharing with us some of your process for planning and techniques for writing action scenes?

PARKOUR!! Thanks for the ask friend, and for the really lovely compliment that I am still honestly stunned by.

So, action scenes used to feel like pulling teeth to write. They are still not my favorite, but I’ve warmed to them with time and practice. I think I’ve grown a lot in this regard because I recognized it as a weakness of mine, and have paid special attention to it. I still have a lot to learn, and I definitely don’t have this down to a science, but here are some techniques that I’ve found especially helpful. Break down the scene. I’m not one for a super neat outline, but in my chapter doc, I will put major scenes in brackets [like this], and then do a sort of “mini outline” underneath them that I chew away at as I’m writing. Bullets with greater detail/context, lines of dialogue or sensory pieces I want to include, and most importantly, a plain statement of what exactly happens. This is important because it helps me “ground” back into the point of the scene if my language gets to flowery or if important details start to get lost when bullets are flying (hehe). 

Think about the environment. I have some background in this from playing/running D&D campaigns and designing encounters. So, there’s a fight in a warehouse. Cool! But how does that warehouse affect what is happening? To get to that next sort of “level” with the setting, I try to answer a series of questions that might include (but isn’t limited to):

-What is the vertical movement like in the space? (multiple stories/levels, maybe holes in the ceiling that give visual from one to another, maybe catwalks over an open space.) If there are multiple levels, how easy or difficult is it to get from one level to another? What methods could be used to do that?  -What’s the weather doing? If it’s raining, is it slippery? (Is water incorporated or a part of the setting in any other way that might affect or impede movement?) If it’s in a field of dry grass, your molotov might set the whole hill on fire! If the scene feels stagnant, try changing the weather.  -What’s the lighting like? Dim/shadowy or bright and blaring? -How do the enemies in a space use these elements to their advantage?

Come back to character POV. I try to make sure the scene is nailed and limited to my character’s perspective. For example, if an enemy is coming in with a big scary weapon, they might hear it before they can see it from their vantage point. I use the “five senses” trick as a way to come back to character POV, too, but I try to emphasize senses beyond sight, because so much of action is what’s happening to the body and how that physically feels. (Do they taste blood or dirt or pavement in their mouth? If their breath is racing and erratic, how does that feel moving in and out of their body?) Another question I try to ask, too, is how would this character handle this situation? Nat chucks explosives, MacCready hits his targets. How does a character’s background/skills influence their decisions in the given scenario?

Action/Context ratio. I actually learned this as a helpful tool with sex scenes (which are actually just action scenes in disguise!), but the idea is to balance every action with two pieces of context. It’s not a perfect science, but a helpful formula if you feel like you need to rebalance a scene. An example: “Nat’s breath tears between her teeth. Two shots left. The raider’s mere feet away.”

The action is her breath, the context is the two remaining shots and the raider’s proximity. Mixing up the order of this ratio can liven things up, too. And, there might be some places where strategically manipulating this ratio to be heavier on context (racing thoughts) or heavier on actions (it all happened so fast!) can have powerful effect on the scene.

Word choice and repetition. The first time through, I try not to worry about this to much. Then, as I re-read and re-write, I make a list of words/phrases that I’m worried I potentially repeat. I do a search for those words/phrases when I edit, and then evaluate if/where I should replace them for different ones. One thing I would caution, it’s my opinion that it’s better to repeat a well-fit word than trying to shove in a synonym that...isn’t quite a synonym. Use your best judgment.

It doesn’t need to be that long. This is sort of self-explanatory, but fights happen fast. I used to feel like, because they were major quests in the game, that big fights had to be a whole chapter. They don’t. You are the best judge of this. If you are writing and it feels like it’s dragging on, your readers might feel that way to. Don’t be afraid to clip it down. Hope these help! :) 

Fanfic Writer Ask Meme

Bring the Gasoline