#short answer is it makes things easier for us lmao

[mikimakiboo]

Time Travelers AU - Chess and Feelings

Just so ya'll know I have like four to five tabs constantly opened just for the translations and historical info

And also I found a better site for Old Norse lmao so Horror won't be speaking in runes anymore hopefully unless I can't find translations and there is only runes available

Also I don't know how phrases are constructed in Old Norse so I just take the English and translate word by word

But yeah I'll make it work lmaoo

First

Prev

Next

Also I actually wanted to write more but it's taking long because I'm inexplicably tired so I decided to cut the part here so ya'll don't have to wait too long :') so yeah excuse the shortness

@ancha-aus pspspsps come here pspspsps

There was a V on today's date on the calendar. V for vacation. Dust had vacations this month, and he completely forgot about that. He should have guessed it, he usually never had a day off on a Saturday unless he was on vacation the next week, and vacations meant being paid less, which also meant he'll need to buy less to save more because the bills would be the same price, which also meant that what he was going to buy now would have to be his last spent of the month.

He had found an English to Old Norse dictionary on one of his town's bookstore website and if he bought it online now he could go get it from the store the next morning.

Dust was staring at his computer screen when he heard Horror sit next to him.

- Hvat ir sá ?

He asked, pointing to the screen. Dust wondered for a second if he was talking about the computer or the dictionary, having guessed that the viking asked what it was with his tone.

- It's, uh... to understand you ? Uh.. wait.

He went back on his other tab, and typed "to understand" before translating. "vita".

Horror nodded, he didn't know how an image was going to help Dust understand anything but he guessed it might be a sort of sacred thing that Dust could look at and receive answers, maybe it was from the gods ?

- You, uh.. wanna do something ?

Dust asked. Everyone was occupied: Cross was as usual guarding the door, Nightmare was reading a new book on the tablet, and Dust had found his old kaleidoscope he gave to Killer and that he hadn't let go off yet, the only one not doing anything was Horror.

Horror looked at him, and looked at the computer, waiting for Dust to translate. He didn't know what that thing was, but Dust could make it talk his language. Dust tried different words to have the best translation possible. "Tafl, háttr, tefla", "game, activity, play". Horror nodded and pointed at "game", he could play games, he was good at table games.

- Okay uhhhh wait a sec.

Dust went back on Google to look for the kind of games vikings used to play, and apparently they played chess, their own version of chess of course, it was called hnefatafl and was played by two people, fortunately the game became popular enough to be commercialized in Dust's time, which meant he could easily find the rules as well as apps to play.

- Okay wait, I'll grab my iPad it'll be easier than on the computer.

He said as he got up and quickly left to go in his room, looking through his nightstand to find his old iPad with a cracked screen. He turned it on and installed the app on his way back to the table where Horror was waiting for him. He put the tablet down on the table, between the two of them, with the rules on his computer.

Horror looked at it curiously, recognizing one of his favorite games, but finding the board quite weird. Was it how boards looked like at that time or was it another magical device of Dust that could replicate board games ?

- Oookay, so uh.. you have to touch the screen to make the pieces move.

Dust showed him by moving his first piece. Horror looked at it for a while before slowly pressing a finger on the screen and dragging it to where he wanted his piece to go, and to his surprise, it went there. He smiled as he looked at Dust, proud to be able to make the magical device follow his orders. Dust smiled back.

- Cool, so, uh, my turn I guess.. ?

He checked the rules again, and moved his piece. Horror moved his after him, and the two could soon enjoy a nice game of ancient chess, not aware that they were being watched.

Cross was looking at them, or more precisely he was looking at Dust, his words running in his head over and over again: Dust thought he was doing a good job, he smiled at him and told him he did good ! Was he proud ? He wanted him to be proud, he wanted to make someone proud for once, he knew he wasn't the best knight, he was too emotional, too anxious, he talked either too much or not enough, he was even one of the very few knights who didn't come for a noble family, so having someone tell him he did good and smile at him brought so much warmth in his soul. Dust was nice, he welcomed them in his house, made great efforts to communicate with all of them, he was so smart, and he didn't let himself succumb to panic or despair, he didn't think twice before making them come inside his house. He was impressive. Cross... admired him.

He wanted to talk to him but he didn't know how, as he had to stay by the door in case someone broke in and even then he shouldn't be distracted from his work by chatting, so he looked at him from afar, he watched him play some game with Horror. Horror seemed nice too, he looked strong but he wasn't aggressive, Cross could tell he perfectly controlled his strength, he was rather calm. He was warry of him at first, but the viking never showed any signs of being a threat. As for Killer... he couldn't quite tell what Killer wanted. The way the roman often looked at him with his big wide empty sockets always sent chills all along his spine, how he often checked his blades in the moonlight, but he didn't seem to want to attack and looked more curious about his surroundings than anything. Nightmare of course wasn't a threat, it was clear he was a noble and took too much care of his appearance to engage in a fight, and even so Cross wasn't even sure he knew how to fight, at least not in a real fight. None of them seemed dangerous, but Cross still had to be prepared, and so he couldn't lower his guard to go and talk to Dust even though he quite wanted to. He had to stay here and watch, that was his job, and hopefully if he did it good then Dust would smile at him again...

- Damn you're good.

Dust admitted to Horror, having lost three times in a row against him, but he still put on a good fight, he was really close to winning !

Horror smiled, Dust was a strong opponent, he liked playing with him, he liked the simple fact that he choose something from his culture, that he tried so hard to integrate him, he really was a nice guy. He gave him a pat on the shoulder, with much less strength than the previous night, he didn't want to launch him across the table after all.

They looked at each other for a minute before Dust got up.

- I, uh.. I'll make food, uhh... matr.. ?

He tried hesitantly before relaxing when seeing Horror smile and nod at him, he felt quite proud of himself for catching a few words.

- Cool, so uh.. I'll go.

He quickly went to the kitchen. He hated how awkward he sounded all the time, and it seemed to be stronger around Horror, probably because he couldn't use the vocal command with him and had to look on specific sites, so he actually had to search for the correct translations and he was always afraid he would say something totally incorrect or possibly rude, but so far Horror only smiled at him and gave him time to find his words... he really wanted to do good for him, to at least try to establish some amical bond with one of them, in case they would stay in his apartment for a while...

It would be good to have a friend in this mess.

Really good.

[dreamingofaizawa]

Posession

Ulquiorra Cifer x Fem!Arrancar!Reader

***18+ Fic*** If you are under the age displayed, please find your way to another station.

Warnings: Penetrative sex (p in v), biting/marking, fingering, edging, overstimulation(?), choking/breath play, rough sex, VERY posessive Ulquiorra, spanking (ass and pussy spanking), liberal use of 'master' (both sexual and not) squirting, creampie, cockwarming if you squint, teeny bit of praise kink, dom! Ulquiorra, sub! reader, tiny bit of aftercare (ish), brief mentions of suicide (not descriptive, it’s used as a power grab/show of loyalty)

Word Count: 3.6k

Auhor's Note: Yeeeah....I'm making writer's block my bitch LMAO

Anywho, enjoy the depravity~

Being a fracción was a simple thing, really. Obey. Apologize. Obey. Especially under the fourth Espada, your job was easy. He’s reserved, quiet, but his silence does not convey weakness. It’s calculated, like everything he does. So you must be as well. You match his stoic facade, keep everything in check. You’ve learned to read his every fractional expression, most of his thoughts you’re able to read without struggle. Once you’d begun thinking like him, it became infinitely easier to remain as his fracción and remain unpunished, for the most part. 

With all of that in mind, you can’t fathom what you missed. 

He’s cornered you in your personal quarters outside of your usual fracción duties. If he needs something urgently, he can easily summon you to his side instantaneously. Clearly, it wasn’t urgent enough to warrant a summons. So what exactly do his barely furrowed brows and unusually dark glare mean? You stand, awaiting orders of some kind, while he stalks slowly closer to you. His footsteps are measured, as always. He doesn’t stop, however, when his chest bumps your own. His frame pushes against yours as you easily step backward, matching his pace until your back hits the wall. It isn’t often you can’t read his mind.

“A thousand apologies, Master Ulquiorra, I am unable to discern what you need tonight.” His viridian glare flickers over your features, schooled to match his own usual indifference. The silence is long, stretched thin over the seconds you spend trying to decipher the Espada’s thoughts to no avail. All you can do is study his face. Those piercing, unwavering eyes that you could lose yourself in forever. The tiny tick in his sharp jaw, the tiniest pinch in his brows. Dark lines reminiscent of tear tracks streak down his pale cheeks, drawing the eyes down his neck toward the hollow at the base of his throat. It isn’t often he chooses to leave it exposed. 

“Has anyone paid you a visit today?” The deep baritone vibrates through your body, snapping your thoughts back to the present. No other Espada would dare come to you, unless it were urgent or a special case. None of the humans would bother with you either, even Lord Aizen is far above seeking the assistance of a fracción. He should already know the answer to that question.

“No, Master Ulquiorra.” You don’t bother to elaborate, he hates hearing unneeded explanations. A simple answer is all he ever needs. At the confirmation, his features relax. His expression is blank once again, the calculated persona clicking into place like a puzzle piece. You know you’re one of the very few that can read his micro expressions, if he were talking to any of the other Espada or fracción they’d probably never notice whatever inner turmoil plagues his mind. But you do. 

When he turns to leave, you can’t help but want to ease whatever troubles him. It’s second nature, for a fracción such as yourself. You were made to serve him, to assist him, to do anything and everything necessary to help him reach his goal.

“Master Ulquiorra?” He stops on a dime, casually turning to face you once again. He wants this kept short, he always does. So you don’t bother beating around the bush.

“May I be of any assistance? I can see something is on your mind.” His eyes swiftly trace down and back up your entire form. If you weren’t looking for it, you’d have missed it.

“No. Good night.” Swiftly, he turns and leaves, the door to your room closing softly behind him. How odd. 

The next week is spent assisting the fourth Espada with research of the hogyoku. There isn’t much to be gathered besides what Lord Aizen already knows, and each night you wonder exactly what has Ulquiorra wound so tightly. Yes, his mind still lingers on whatever it is he confronted you about that night. Unfortunately, an answer does not come to you, but instead a new series of questions is given to you when you’re visited once again in your quarters. You feel him approaching long before he arrives, that spiritual pressure is unmistakable. But why is he here?

You’re down on your knees before the door swings open, head bowed down, not from the pressure but out of respect for the man. Lord Aizen steps over the threshold, his footsteps heavy and booming, into the small space of your room. You’ve only ever seen him across a hall or room during a meeting of some kind, and he’s never ever addressed you directly. Any and all orders came through Master Ulquiorra, even if they were from Lord Aizen himself.

“So respectful. Ulquiorra has trained you well, fracción. Stand.” You waste no time, standing at full height and keeping your eyes focused on the ground. Making eye contact could be fatal. You have to tense every muscle in your body to keep from flinching when a large hand reaches out toward your face, and you stop breathing when he grabs your chin and begins to turn your head this way and that. He’s…examining you. Releasing your face, he begins a slow, steady pace circling around you as you stand perfectly still. You don’t know what this is about, but you don’t dare ask, his piercing gaze is more than enough warning not to speak at all, let alone move.

“Very interesting.” It takes all of your resolve not to scream and protest when you feel two large hands, suddenly and harshly, grasp your waist and tug your back against his chest. His chin hooks over your shoulder and his voice is too close, too deep, too dark.

“What a darling fracción. Tell me, why is Ulquiorra so distracted lately? One of my most loyal Espada has been faltering lately.” He’s been faltering? Oh no, what could have him so worked up?

“My sincerest apologies, Lord Aizen. I have not been able to discern his troubles. He has hidden all of his mind from me lately. I have failed as his fracción.” You know you’ve failed. If his mind is so distracted that Lord Aizen has noticed a difference in his performance, then you have failed to be of assistance. You were created for it, and yet you have failed. The ultimate failure.

“Oh, don’t be so down, little fracción. You have not failed, yet.” Yet? What does he mean by that? He releases you from his hold in favor of meeting you face to face, grasping your chin once again and forcing your eyes to meet his own. It’s a terrifying thing, those eyes are pure bloodlust.

“If Ulquiorra were to have you kill yourself for any reason, would you do it?”

“Yes.” You didn’t even have to think about the answer. Undeniably, you would. No matter the order, you’d follow through. If Ulquiorra ordered you to kill Lord Aizen himself, you would kill him or die trying.

“Very good, fracción. Such unwavering loyalty is not so common.” Maybe not, but fraccións are created for the sole purpose of mindless loyalty and obedience. It should not be a surprise that you are this way. Though something deep in your psyche tells you loyalty is not the only quality you hold for your master.

Another layer of spiritual pressure falls on the room, but you are unable to look over Lord Aizen’s wide shoulders with your face stuck in his grip. Regardless, you know who has joined you.

“Ulquiorra, I was wondering when you’d arrive.” The Espada’s footsteps halt behind the former shinigami.

“Lord Aizen.” Nothing more than an acknowledgement, but all of the questions you know he wants to ask remain unspoken when dark brown meets deep emerald, their sharp gazes piercing each other. The tension is palpable, for reasons you cannot calculate. Never would you have thought Ulquiorra could level such a glare at the man he’s sworn his loyalty. Your chin is finally released, and a boom resonates through the small chamber, the white fabric on Ulquiorra’s back suddenly filling your gaze as Lord Aizen turns back to face you both. A sonido? Here? Now? In front of Lord Aizen? What is going on with Master Ulquiorra? The thick silence is suffocating, the air itself seems to be vibrating with clashing spiritual pressures and tension. You’re having a hard time breathing, your body feeling heavier the longer the silence stretches. It feels like an eternity passes and you fall to your knees, but you know it can’t have been more than a split second. As quickly as it built, the tension dissipates as you sit there on your knees, panting and sweating in the aftermath.

“Tend to your fracción, Ulquiorra, the way we both know you want to. She may not be privy to your thoughts but I can read you like a book.” Lord Aizen’s smirk is measured carefully, and he’s gone in an instant. You don’t dare move until that spiritual pressure is gone completely, and even then you’re struggling to recuperate. Tenderly, lithe fingers brush away whatever hair had fallen in your face, emerald gaze searching your face as you peer up at him. Searching for what, you don’t know. 

“Stand.” You do as asked, wobbling for a moment while your strength returns. Strong hands, one on your shoulder and one on your waist, steady you. It’s strange, he’s never actually touched you before. Not like this. You don’t know what to do about the sudden feeling in your chest, warmth and contentment spreading like a wildfire to your mind. Even more so you’re left unsure about your newfound feelings, when instead of giving a command he chooses to lift you in his arms. The boom of a sonido is so much different when you’re moving the distance, but not of your own volition. The door to Master Ulquiorra’s quarters is thrown open and you’re unceremoniously tossed onto the large bed.

“Master Ulquiorra?” You can’t help your confusion. The past fifteen minutes have been a whirlwind of unnatural occurrences. His movements are almost frantic as he strides over to the door and seals it shut, locking it from the inside and training those eyes right on you. It’s a predatory glare he pins you with, the viridian swirling with something dark and sultry and filled with an insatiable lust. It makes your carefully crafted mask of indifference crack and splinter, eyes widening as your body curls into itself. You aren’t afraid, not of him. But something in his eyes just screams danger, and you can’t help the blistering heat coiling in the pit of your stomach nor the involuntary squeeze of your thighs. It doesn’t go unnoticed. Before anything else, a tension settles over the room much like earlier.

“What was Lord Aizen’s business with you?” What a strange question.

“He asked if I knew why you were lacking in your duties lately. I couldn’t answer.” His chest rises and falls heavily, a muscle in his jaw tensing momentarily.

“Was that all?” You shook your head, not at all inclined to keep anything from Ulquiorra. 

“He asked if I’d kill myself at your order.” He went eerily still, every muscle in his body tensed and ready like a coiled snake.

“And your answer?”

“Without question. I would do anything you asked of me, Master Ulquiorra.” The glare he levels you with is primal, carnal desire. There’s no question about it, his entire being is consumed by lust. In the time it takes you to blink, he’s got you pinned to the bed with a hand wrapped tight around your neck, his lips claiming yours in a display of barely controlled dominance that has your entire body trembling. Teeth grab at every piece of skin he can reach. Blooming bites and bruises form along your jaw and neck, carefully skirting around the hollow in your own chest, his fingers squeezing around your throat in increments sending your vision blurry. Your clothes are shredded off your body and you’re left completely exposed for the arrancar keeping you pinned to his bed. Pain shoots through you, jolting your body, the sensation of teeth burying into your shoulder and it’s all you can do to bite your lip to stay quiet. The hand on your throat squeezes, Ulquiorra’s voice rattling your brain.

“I want to hear you. Not a single noise you make will be stifled.” It’s a proclamation, a statement of fact, rather than a request or demand. The next bite is accompanied by a sharp pinch, your nipple peaked between his index finger and thumb as he tugs at it, your voice coming out in a yelp and slowly melding into a low moan while he toys with your breasts. 

“Beautiful.” That single word sends shivers down your spine. There isn’t a single moment you can remember being praised in any way, and your head is spinning from it. His mouth continues its assault on your skin, following the curve of your shoulder and down your breasts. You can see the bite marks scattered over your chest, it lights a fire beneath your skin you can’t quite describe. He takes his time marking you, one hand ghosting over you and the other remaining planted on your neck, his lips mapping your body. You’re trembling from the attention he’s lavishing you with, you know he can feel the way your body shakes from all the stimulation. When his wandering hand finally reaches between your thighs, you’re shy knowing how messy you’ve become. His fingers are toying with the folds of your pussy, teasing around the entrance and barely ghosting over your swollen clit, his lips still sucking and biting and marking. He’s claiming you, completely dominating your being and making you his. 

He’s squeezing your throat in longer stents now, giving you short spaces to breathe between the dizzying cut off of your air supply. He can see the effect it’s having on you, your legs weaker as they try to close around his hand toying with your cunt, tears falling down your cheeks, your eyelids fluttering shut the longer he keeps your breathing controlled. And your pretty pussy is leaking so much more now, dripping onto his sheets and soaking his fingers. His emerald gaze stares up at you when you reach up and grasp at his arm, weakly clawing at him for a breath. He loves seeing you like this, completely reliant on him, even to do something as simple and basic and breathing.

The edges of your vision spot black and you’re shaking harder the closer you get to unconsciousness. You can’t fight it much longer, as much as you want to. Your eyes roll back into your skull as two long fingers plunge into your pussy and you’re granted air once again, the gasping breaths you take making your head spin and the fingers buried deep inside you curl up to hit a spot that makes your back arch up off the bed. It’s euphoric. You’re shaking hard, your legs clamped around Ulquiorra’s hand as something snaps in your abdomen, sending you head first into a freefall of blinding pleasure. Your guttural moans bounce off the walls after being ripped from your lungs, a sinful melody in the arrancar’s ears. When you can finally focus again Ulquiorra is standing above you in all his naked glory, clothing tossed into a random corner. He’s a beautiful man, pale skin flawless and smooth, and you can’t help the way your eyes trace down his toned body to lock onto his hard leaking cock as it stands proud.

“Get on your knees. Turn around and present yourself to me.” The command is clear, the dominant cadence of his voice making you tremble as you obey your master. Dropping your chest to the bed, you spread your knees and grip the sheets tight between your fingers, exposing your ass and cunt to the lust crazed Espada. Shivers wrack your body from the groan he lets slip past his lips, you yelp and jolt when a sharp slap lands on your bare pussy. 

“Look at you. So obedient, so submissive. Such a pretty, slutty little fracción for me.” A moan is punched from you at the praise, and your cunt clenches down around nothing. One hand smooths over one of your ass cheeks and slides up your back, reaching all the way to the back of your neck and keeping steady pressure, pinning you in place. Again you clench around nothing as Ulquiorra teases the tip of his cock at your entrance, never delving further, bumping your clit and making you jump with every pass. You know better than to speak out of turn, but you can’t take it anymore.

“P-please…” Everything halts, even your breathing stops at the realization of what you'd just done. A heavy hand slaps your ass, leaving a blooming red mark in its wake, your whole body jerking at the contact and a moan tearing from your throat. Another slap lands in the same place, harder this time, and another. They keep coming until your moans are sounding more like screams, but Ulquiorra knows better, the gush of your cute pussy giving away just how much you’re enjoying yourself. Mercifully, he rubs at the raw skin in soothing circles.

“A fitting punishment, don’t you think? For speaking unprompted,” you nod as much as you can still pinned beneath him, tears staining your cheeks and the bedsheets.

“Y-yes, Master Ulquiorra.” You can’t see it, but you can hear the devious grin in his voice. If only you had the pleasure of witnessing such an expression.

“Good girl, you’re learning.” Your loud moan is swallowed by the sheets.

“Oh? You like the praise, sweet thing?” It’s formed as a question, but it feels like he’s taunting you, like it’s something shameful to enjoy. You can’t bring yourself to answer, embarrassed to be so affected by his praise. His hand comes down again on your still painful ass.

“I asked you a question. I expect an answer.” Between small hiccups and sniffles, you squeak out a response.

“Yes! I love hearing your praise, Master.” Satisfied, he chuckles, deep and dark and dangerous. He doesn’t bother speaking anymore, focused solely on dragging out your torturous pleasure as long as he can endure. His fingers are shoved into your pussy, ripping a groan out of you and he sets a punishing pace, pumping and curling and spreading to prepare you to take his sizable cock. You can feel that sensation again, tightening in the depths of your belly, feel your legs begin to shake like before, whines and moans spilling into the room. But just before that tension snaps, you’re left empty. You could cry, being denied that release. Ulquiorra just laughs again before rubbing tight, quick circles into your clit to build up the tension again. You desperately want to beg him to let you cum, want to sing his praises in hopes that he’ll pull you over that blissful release, but you know you can’t. Your chest is heaving, entire body shaking as he builds you up to the point of snapping, only to stop just before you’re shoved over the edge again. You cry, sob as another orgasm is stolen away from you. Your body is shaking so hard he doesn’t even have to move his fingers to rub at your clit, just hold them while you tremble and let you work yourself to that peak again and again. Then he stills completely, listening to your pathetic sniveling at being denied so much pleasure.

“Go ahead. Beg.”

“Please! Please Master Ulquiorra make me cum! I want to feel it so bad, I need it. I can’t take any more, please make me cum!” You can hear his evil chuckle, he’s adoring this. In one fluid motion he buries his aching cock all the way to the hilt, your scream is punched from your lungs and your vision blanks, his heavy balls slap against your clit as he slams into you with his full weight. You can’t hear anything as you cum hard, feeling liquid gush from your cunt and drip down your legs, squirting all over Ulquiorra’s thighs. He doesn’t stop, leaning over you and pounding into you until he feels his own orgasm quickly approaching. Shaking is all you can do, pinned down and at the mercy of your master as he empties into you, hot ropes of thick cum filling you to the brim as he finally stills. 

You’re both sucking in heavy breaths in the aftershock, slowly he releases your neck and lays the both of you down on your side, cock still plugging your cunt, keeping all his cum inside you. He holds your trembling form close, gently massaging your shoulders, hips, neck and thighs. Every piece of you that he’s sure aches, he tenderly soothes. It takes a long while for you to pick up the shattered pieces of your mind, he can see your eyes regain their focus as he places soft kisses over your shoulder.

“Are you alright?” You blink away some of the daze, nod slowly to answer. The both of you hiss when he slips his soft cock from you, sensitive as ever. He flips you around to face him, tugging your body over his own so you’re laying on top of him. His fingers caress down your back and massage your scalp and neck, further grounding your mind. It’s comfortable, sweet. You don’t want to be anywhere else. Gently, he turns your head to look into your eyes.

“For the last week I have battled with the notion that you were not solely my own fracción and you would be stolen away by another Espada.” A small, lazy smile graces your features. What a silly concept.

“I’m not going anywhere, Master Ulquiorra.” His gaze turns possessive.

“Of course you aren’t, my dear fracción,” his hand grips your chin firmly, eyes piercing your own, “You belong to me, and only me.”

[ninyard]

regarding that tasteless anon (by which I mean the anon that talked about your trial series being tasteless. I am not calling the anon tasteless, pls do not eat me alive people), I just wanted to say that I disagree with them and that the people (me) yearn for more trial content. I also never got the feeling that you’re mocking/ridiculing the topic or treating vilifying rape victims as something lighthearted. I think that it’s something that happens and as wrong as it is, there’s nothing wrong with portraying it

now on a slightly unrelated note, I’m in need of some deeper understanding of how us trials work bc of this fanfic project I have. I tried to find stuff on my own but I find it overwhelming tbh and I was wondering wether you have some comprehensive guide? or maybe some sources that I could read? my poor european mind is falling short in the face of everything american lmao

some of the things I’ve done for the trial are looking up murder trials (in South Carolina specifically) and see how long they ran for, look for the witnesses, the specific laws and what they’d be charged with, the different processes etc etc. I’ve spent HOURS reading things at this point but in general the US seems pretty good at kind of,,, giving out the information regarding trials. You can find witness lists and evidence that was presented (again, even just in a list form) in different murder trials which might give you a good idea of how it could possibly go. For example here’s one I’ve referenced a handful of times to get a couple ideas for things.

You can find quite a few day-by-day timelines of different murder trials out there from different news outlets and things and those are helpful to understand the order of things and how it’s presented. If you scroll down a little bit here, there’s a good timeline of how a trial went. Again that’s just one example from one trial, but I’ve looked up a few just to get an idea for things. Some laws differ from state to state so I’d look up specific ones from South Carolina too if the fic is related to Aaron’s trial.

I definitely go too far in the way of research but I’ve found actually understanding what I’m writing about makes it much easier to come up with scenarios and day-by-days. I like to know the exact charges, the laws, the typical sentences, alongside the typical layout of a US court. You have the prosecution and the defence and all the things that they do to convince the jury that the defendant is guilty/not guilty. Check out what pleas look like. Things like that. Sorry this is super disjointed and probably not a great answer but if you have any specific questions I’d be happy to help as best as my also European ass can lol

[elviraaxen]

ive really been loving the pacing of your story and i enjoy the concept and the bits that have been released about the plot! youre doing really well, and i admire it greatly!!

ive been having trouble figuring out an overall plot in my own work, i just have character ideas and the vaguest idea for a storyline. i try to just write but then i usually end up taking a break (re: dumping it) because i don't have anymore ideas for how to complete the plot. i've laso been curious about how you go about writing for a comic (do you write then do thumbnails? do thumbnails then go back to figure out dialogue? a third thing?) so i was wondering if you had any advice or resource tips for writing? both for comics and for overarching plots, if that's okay

if you don't have any ideas tho, no worries. i was just curious. good luck with Felt World! i love everything that's coming out so far, thank you for gifting us it!!

Oh thank you so much!! I can't say I'm a comic book artist at heart because I really don't have much experience, I was only an illustrator for a short while and never wrote anything myself, but learning from past mistakes (i.e. I don't stick to plans), I've so far done this and it seems to work:

I'm one of those that don't like to plan strict layouts for the entire thing, because chances are I will not stick to it, so what I've done for felt world is just write a sketch for the overarching plot, the b-plot and c-plot, with rough estimates in what order I want the major plot points and settings to be. My current sketch looks like this;

(which is done in Miro) and as you can see there aren't that many plot points, because I want to have the wiggle room to come up with something on the spot. And also, my comic focuses a lot on interpersonal relationships, character development, and themes rather than the plot, which means it needs to be concise or else the comic is gonna take 6 million years to finish.

And now,, I think this might just be how I work, but I think it's easier to be creative when you have strict restrictions rather than all the choices in the world.

for me, personally, I restrict an update of 10 pages tops, because instagram only allows max 10 images per post! This means I have to 1) fit all I want to say in 10 pages, 2) it has to be concise or else I infodump on readers, and 3) I have to answer some sort of question within the update, or else I said nothing and I start over.

As for scripts, I tend to write one or two sentences of what's going to happen for the update, and then I get to thumb-nailing and sketching right away! I come up with most of the dialogue on the spot too.

And also, I think what's most important, is that you take your damn time! If you aren't immersing yourself in your own world, how do you expect your readers to do the same?

I'm very much a believer that the stories you are telling are something that comes to you naturally if you just sit with it and listen rather than demand that it makes itself known to you. When I brainstorm for felt world I quite literally sit in my bed and go "omg!! And then what? :0" TO MYSELF LMAO as if I'm not making everything up myself! I think that's extremely important that your story is engaging to you first and foremost!

And as for more practical tips

carry a notebook with you or use your notes app AS SOON as you get ideas to write them down! No you will not remember, lol.

set rules of what you're not allowed to do with your story so that you don't fall into lazy trope territory! You can do that when you brain storm, but finesse the story post brainstorm to just make it.. smarter.. if that makes sens For example, don't kill your gay characters, don't make sensitive men the butt of the joke, don't make your women fight over men (unless it's the point), etc.

set physical restrictions! For example, max amount of pages per upload, max amount of pages for the whole story, max amount of characters, etc.! That literally forces you to problem solve, which by definition is creativity! Like, oh you can't do this the obvious way? Do it the creative way! That's way more fun!

I could probably go on, but this is too long already! But I hope it at least helped somewhat!

[tigereyes45]

could I get some t'lyn x mariner with some mind melding maybe? some vulcan culture in there perhaps? admittedly I haven't read much for this ship bc the last time I looked which was ages ago there was like two fics lmao anyway! :3

You asked for Mind Melding, I used it as an excuse to get them together. XD

Ao3 link:

Description:

T'lyn can not focus. Mariner offers to help.

Full Story (more below the cut):

T’lyn sits in the dark, doing her best to meditate. She had hoped the privacy of her room would alleviate some of her struggles. Yet there has been no change. She slowly exhales and unfolds her legs. Many things have become more difficult here on the Cerritos, but meditating is still as much of a struggle now, as it had been amongst fellow vulcans.

Well, if she can not meditate she should work.

Pushing herself off the ground, T’lyn looks over at her desk. A single PADD sits in the very center of her desk. She had left it there, hoping distance would make meditation easier. It had not. The urge to rise, and continue focusing on the same set of reports that had left her originally confused, was pointless. If she could not focus, she could not finish her work, and since she can not meditate then her focus will not get better.

She stands still, wondering if there is any point in trying when she already knows the outcome. A small part of her temporarily considers what the most logical course of action would be. Of course the answer is to meditate.

Which she can not.

Stuck between her limited choices, T’lyn is almost relieved when there’s a ping at her door. If she were not vulcan, perhaps she would have been. She is still a little quick to leave her choices behind her for the door.

“Hey T’lyn.” Mariner waves before pointing down the hall. “Sam and Boims are hosting a game night in their room. Want to join?”

T’lyn glances down the hall. It could provide a worthy distraction, but it will not improve her concentration. “No.”

“You sure?” Mariner asks, her smile shrinks slightly. “With Tendi gone, I need a new teammate.”

Mariner enjoys talking. She is quite emotionally driven, and instinctual. Somehow this makes her incredibly perceptive. If she does not convince the other woman to leave now, no doubt she will detect an issue of some sort and then will not go. T’lyn raises a hand to stop her. “I need to complete a report.”

“Oh okay,” Mariner’s face falls, but there’s a familiar change in her eyes. T’lyn glances behind her. Has something about the state of her room given away her lack of focus? The bed was made, her desk is clear, the candles around where she had attempted meditation were still lit. Ah, that must be it.

When T’lyn looks back Mariner has made the same connection. “You alright?”

Lying would only feed the human’s curiosity. “I have been experiencing a lack of focus.”

T’lyn steps back, and Mariner takes the chance to walk inside. “Any way I can help?”

“Talking the matter over will not change the effect.” T’lyn folds her arms behind her back.

Mariner looks around the room, as if trying to discern if she could take a seat somewhere or not. When she faces T’lyn again she has decided to stand, like T’lyn.

“Well is there a way I can help where you don’t have to talk?” Mariner’s arms once again flail about as she talks. She has a habit of speaking with her body, just as much as her words. It’s an emotional display. T’lyn has noted Mariner engages in it much more than many of her peers.

“You mean the mind meld.” She is a physical creature and what she is offering right now is anything but.

“Well, it’s one option right?”

One. She says it as if she had considered any other options at all. Somehow T’lyn doubts that she did. In the short time she has known Mariner, the human always leads with her first thought.

T’lyn raises her head. She purposely meets Mariner’s eyes, ready to read them. “This is the second time you have shown interest in vulcan mind melds.”

The first time she had seemed far more fearful. She should be right now. Mind melds are no simple matter. 

“It’s something you guys can do that we can’t. What’s not interesting.” 

T’lyn can feel her eyes narrow. Why does Mariner do that? She always downplays her natural reactions. Holding up a guard, and refusing to acknowledge that one is there at all. 

In another life she would have been the model of a vulcan for all of her emotional outbursts would have been squashed as she grew up, but that mask, it would remain. The masks always do.

“You showed fear the first time you thought it was occurring.”

Mariner scoffs and waves the idea off. “I was an emotional wreck. Who wasn’t that day, am I right?”

T’lyn looks away. 

“Hey I didn’t mean it like that.” Mariner quickly asserts, stepping closer. She rests a hand on T’lyn’s shoulder. “I wasn’t blaming you.”

T’lyn raises her head and meets Mariner’s gaze again. Guilt rests on her features. It is evident in the way Mariner’s lips fall, and her eyes sink. “I thought you would not wish to have your privacy invaded.”

Sadness gives way to a small smile. Mariner pulls T’lyn closer by her shoulder, into a sideways hug.

“Well, you know what you’re doing right?” Mariner asks with a delighted grin. Her unearned, brazen confidence will be her undoing one day. If those reckless tendencies of hers do not first. Hmm they do tend to go hand in hand.

“Yes, but it is still an invasion. Even if I were to do my best to avoid thoughts and memories you do not wish to share.”

Mariner shudders.

T’lyn starts to pull away from her grasp. When she was nearly free, Mariner shouts, “Wait.” and pulls her back.

Instead of hugging her, Mariner holds T’lyn still before her. Hands on the vulcan’s sleeve-covered part of her arms. Was she being considerate, or had it been a coincidence? It is hard to tell with Mariner. Does the difference matter? There have been multiple times where T’lyn has seen Mariner act in a considerate way without much thought, all while pretending to be the most inconsiderate person around. That too is a part of her act. To hide just how deeply she cares, despite all of her close friends knowing its depths.

“I trust you.” Mariner’s shoulders almost seem to lift up, as if simply saying that phrase has lightened them.

“I see.” 

Before she can step back, Mariner has let go of T’lyn’s arms only to take her hand. She walks the vulcan back over towards the candles. 

Mariner takes a seat in the empty space before the candles. “So how does this work? You just gotta touch my face and bam your vulcan touch telepathy does the rest?”

“That is one way of explaining it.” T’lyn slowly lowers herself onto her knees. 

Mariner unfolds her legs, and gets on her knees. She leans forward offering her face.

T’lyn holds up a hand, preventing Mariner was leaning any closer. Humans have never been known for their idea of what a respectable distance should be. “First, you need to be informed.”

“You already told me. You might find some things you don’t mean too.” Mariner shrugs. “It’s fine.”

T’lyn slowly lowers her hand. “Since we are engaging in this to help my mind focus, then you will be stepping into mine as well.” T’lyn closes her eyes. She deeply considers how best to word this next part. “You will be asked to help guide me past my distractions.”

“T’lyn are you nervous?”

“Nervousness is an emotion, which is fueled by fear. As a vulcan I know how to better expel any emotions which may lead to or be a result from fear.”

Mariner leans in closer, her smile more of a smirk. “I’m not going to judge you T’lyn.” She offers out her hand. T’lyn disregards in to reach for Mariner’s face. The human’s skin is warm beneath her touch. She should not be surprised. Mariner’s hands have often been warm on her skin. It seems she is truly a human who as they say, runs hot. That is saying nothing on her aesthetically pleasing appearance.

T’lyn takes a deep breath. Now is the time to expel those thoughts before they begin. Already she can feel Mariner’s excitement on the edge of her mind. It tingles, and crawls everywhere. For a moment T’lyn wonders if this is not an exercise in futility. Mariner is not an individual who has an easy time restraining her own energy and actions. What could she do for T’lyn to push away the distractions?

No. She has come this far. If she were to pull away now, she could say the connection was lost, but Mariner would have questions. She would offer herself up for a second attempt.

She may not always be the best at focusing but Mariner almost always finds the answer she needs.

Perhaps she will help T’lyn find answers as well.

“My mind to your mind.” She begins the old chant. The words are more of a theory then action. She had learned of mind melds on vulcan, learned how to perform one, but has never been the initiator before.

Mariner’s mind immediately has a presence within T’lyn’s own. It’s loud and full of an unbroken energy. In many ways T’lyn supposes this should not have surprised her. It is what humans call their spirit after all. Their undeniable presence within themselves.

She’s not entirely welcoming. There are many parts of Mariner’s mind that T’lyn can immediately tell have barely structured blocks around them. Mariner has not been trained in resistance telepaths, she does however, hold many secrets. Secrets her emotions swirl around with such a ferocity T’lyn knows she’s in no danger of accidentally stumbling upon them. So long as Mariner does not focus on them, they should be avoidable. At least on a conscious level. Many vulcan masters have warned of the unintentional subconscious blending that can occur with a mind meld.

T’lyn opens her own mind, and does her best to coax Mariner to follow. She seemingly does, bringing a certain amount of warmth and choas with her. Many thoughts push against T’lyn’s. The vulcan had planned to gently guide Mariner through, but perhaps that is too orderly to work in this instance.

‘Sometimes the only way to get to the source is to just get it out there.’

T’lyn could hear Mariner’s voice clear as day within her own mind. It’s something she could never picture Mariner saying, but sounds just like many of her previous statements all the same.

‘Whoa, lots of bottled up emotions here.’

‘Focus Mariner.’ T’lyn all but pleads.

“T’lyn I am.” Somehow she speaks the words aloud even as they cross through the bond.

She is. T’lyn realizes as she pushes down another rise of emotion. It is futile. Mariner can feel her surprise thanks to the meld. It is disquieting but logical to accept that the lack of focus was truly from her side of the connection.

Thoughts, emotions, and memories, they all begin to pass freely.

‘I think I found the distractions.’ Mariner announces as she wraps her essence around the issues. 

A memory of her bumping into a wall when walking with Rutherford. It interrupted what had been a stimulating conversation about ways they could tinker with the ship. Purely for scientific and efficiency purposes of course. She had been rather embarrassed in that moment days prior.

‘How inconsequital.’

‘It was embarrassing. That’s all it needs to be to be distracting.’

There’s logical in that statement, but still she should have risen above it. Many of the emotions in this mix are those she is supposed to have risen above.

Mariner clearly wants to say something. Her thoughts race with possible words, and while T’lyn can read them all, she focuses on none. If Mariner wanted them shared they would be louder, more purposeful. Instead she turns her focus on a thought Mariner’s consciousness was hovering around, circling it as if it had a big white light over it and she were a mere fly.

What a strange thought. T’lyn pushes in on the one Mariner’s encircles. The sooner she can clear these stray thoughts the better she will focus.

‘T’lyn?’ Mariner’s presence grows more pronounced as T’lyn brings the subconscious thoughts to the surface.

A flurry of images past through her mind. Images of memories, of Mariner holding her close. She has done so more than any other person T’lyn has ever known. Glimpses of memories turn into more fanciful thoughts. Events that had never happened, such as Mariner holding her for longer. T’lyn leaning in. Their lips almost.

Panic surges through T’lyn. Unceremoniously she severs the connection. Careful not to pull back her hands until Mariner was thoroughly and completely from her head. Her eyes shoot open as her face rises in temperature as the embarrassment she felt in the memory returns tenfold.

When she does peel her hands from Mariner’s face, the human is already snapping her own eyes open. The human quickly grabs hold of her wrists, keeping her hands from retreating completely. T’lyn curls her fingers inward. She’s careful not to touch Mariner as she presses her fingers against the inside of her palms.

“Hey,” Mariner’s voice is soft. A blush was creeping across Mariner’s face as well. T’lyn had almost missed it before.

There must be a lingering amount of influence over T’lyn because when Mariner starts to unfold her hands, T’lyn allows her. Mariner takes the lead pressing her fingertips clumsily against T’lyn’s. It is not a true vulcan gesture, but she knows that is what Mariner is attempting. Carried away by the moment, the emotions she had felt during their connection, and a number of other factors T’lyn will logically dissect later she leans forward and catches Mariner’s lips against her own.

Mariner leans in, tightening her grip over T’lyn’s hands as she pushes the vulcan back into a laying position.

When Mariner pulls back, T’lyn feels almost breathless. “I guess we should talk about this.”

“That is the more sound plan.”

“Yeah.” Mariner laughs. “It would be pretty sound.”

T’lyn does not smile but she could feel the corner of her lips threatening to turn up. “Since I have not been able to focus, I supposed I am not in the place to defer to my logic.” It’s a rushed excuse. She knows that. Mariner knows that. Maybe that’s why the human laughs and lets T’lyn call her back down.

As their lips meet again, T’lyn knows she will be unable to focus for a little while longer.

[naradivision]

Miraitabi at Hogwarts

AU inspired from (and maybe coexist along) this prompt started by @uenodivision

Oh, Merlin’s Beard… Not me popping the new spin-off LMAO

Also, before we hops onto this train, let me disclaim it clearly that there are a SH*TTON of my hallucination lore below... So, please feels free to speculate XD

Yer a wizard! O’ what house are you?

Official (Pottermore) | Replica 

Still looking for a wand?

Official (Pottermore) | Replica 

Discover your Patronus —the magical guardian will guide you the way

Official (Pottermore) | Replica

Disclaimer: The series “Harry Potter” belong to J.K. Rowling, and well, these headcanons of mine may not all follow to those quizzes above. And in case you’re going to try testing for multiple OCs, I suggest you to use the “Replica” link instead because the official tests are tied with the registered account (so for short it’s one account for one result from each test on official site).

⋆｡˚✶⋆ Anyway, LETZ GO ⋆✶˚｡⋆

—Yuuya

5th Year Gryffindor

Wand:  Black Walnut wood, 11 inches and reasonably supple flexibility with a core that claimed to be a unicorn hair 

Patronus:  A stag

Favorite Subjects:  Charms, Care of Magical Creatures, Flying

Chaser on Gryffindor Quidditch Team

Adopts a stray Siamese cat named “Ojou-chan” as his pet

Often hangs out with his bestie from Hufflepuff

Quite a humble lad but tends to get himself into troubles because his wand like to act on its own…

However, looks like lately he has been given more chances to become more and more bolder

After discovers his wand has a weird relation toward a certain ghost, he soon makes up his mind to stick with her in order to find out why —It eventually develops into his voluntary will to help her find some clue about herself though

In fact; his current wand is the second one he won from disarming a smuggler that attacked his housemate for witnessing their illegal business at Shrieking Shack during his fourth year’s Hogsmeade trip, his first wand is broken due to this incident

Actually enjoys learning about charmwork but always gaslights himself into thinking he’ll never being good at it

Burntout teenage trying to find his own Lumos

At the beginning is about to get sorted as a Hufflepuff, but unknowingly, the old hat changes its answer at the last second and tells him that —He does remind it of someone

Half-blood; never knows his father is a wizard until he revealed to him after getting a divorce from his mom

Separated from his dear sister since young, also never heard anything from her ever since

His father passed away via an accident which Yuuya forever blames himself for not being able to do anything

—Asahi

5th Year Hufflepuff

Wand:  Cedar wood with a pheonix feather core, 10 inches, and pliant flexibility

Patronus:  A corgi

Favorite Subjects:  Potions, Herbology

Yuuya’s neighbor and childhood friend

Muggle-born, thus he is super curious to explore everything in wizarding world

Very very surprise for his invitation letter to Hogwarts and even more when learning someone who is like his brother-next-door is also a wizard

His letter came in pretty late, so that’s why he has entered in the same year as his younger friend

The Headache of Potions professor because he is quite obsessed with putting things he gets interested into a pot and sees if it’s gonna work

However, funnily enough; he is scoring well on this subject because of his accidental discovery on 50+ more easier unconventional ways to formulate the same potions with the same properties

Kinda knowledgeable about plants, knowing which kind could be edible and even how to make it taste good

Very great at baking and cooking, house’s elves are losing their career

Genuinely wants to befriend Hogwarts’s elves, but the elves don’t want to befriend him because he mostly doesn’t left his chores for them to do

Have a dream to open his own sweets shop in Hogsmeade

Whenever Gryffindor has a match with other houses, you can always finds him at the front-row seat cheering for his friend —Oh, that’s maybe the reason he sometimes earns a scowl from his housemates

A loyal buddy who is happy to tag along your adventure through thicks and thins

—Saigo

Alumnus of Ravenclaw

Wand:  Sycamore wood with a unicorn hair core, 12 ¾ inches, and unyielding flexibility 

Patronus:  A red-crowned crane

Expertise:  Arithmancy, Ancient Runes

New “Studies of Ancient Runes” Professor

Graduated with the highest scores on N.E.W.T.s. in his generation

Pure-blood but he’d rather judge you by your competence

(His paternal lineage except him and his father is known for being sorted into Slytherin)

Used to be a high-level executive who oversees the business with Gringotts but later got exploited by his own family, so currently he has accepted an offer to teach at Hogwarts as some breather

His hobby is experimenting new spells from runes

Secretly have an avid interest toward artifacts from all over the world

Known for his ability to cast multiple complex and functional spells all at once

Known for his always scowling face and strict nature, but in truth, he does care a lot about his students

Tired Dad™ even if he never has kid

Likely becomes the pseudo-parent to two kids and one ghost(?) as he often runs into their shenanigans by chance

And because he is technically new to the school, he doesn’t know much about its current situation until overhearing that something has gone suspense to the point authority might allow the Auror to station at Hogwarts just in case

Soon becomes suspicious of that one ‘Sneaky Cat’ who loves to loiter around his student and gets a bit unsettled knowing the school seems likely to ignore this invader

—Ange

Hogwarts’ little ghostie

Or that’s what she believes

Transparent Genki Girl with amnesia

She is still determined to know more about her past life though

Hogwarts ghosts are pretty welcome to her arrival, they often act like her parents and even becomes supportive of her whenever she wants to kick Peeves’s ass

Oh yeah, she has a beef with Peeves (Hogwarts’s Poltergeist) since that mischief likes to harass other students out there!

With her nature of ghost, she can pass through solid objects and is unable to physically touch something —However, unlike other ghosts, she has shown to be quite expressive and had her preferences leaning more aligned to those of the mortal ones

Looks all cute and smol but isn’t so harmless due to her bizarre ability to meddle with most kinds of magic, especially the magic from that wizard boy’s wand

Claims to be able to communicate with the magic power living within each person’s wand and is super curious to know what Hogwarts students normally learn in their classes

Yuuya has speculated that she might have used to live as a very powerful witch before passing away… But, who will know the truth anyway?

From what she could utmostly recall, she had come to haunting around the fringe of Forbidden Forest without any memory until one day the little cat lead its wizard boy to come across her by chance

That day she has gained her first wizard friend who is willing to talk with her and she is very appreciative of their friendship

Really, really LOVES to talk —Can’t never seem to shut up about something that piques up her interest

Together with her now two wizard friends, she is looking forward to any journey this wicked destiny would bring to herself

—“Mr Sneaky Paw”

Alumnus of Slytherin

Wand: Pine wood and a dragon heartstring core, 12 ¾ inches, and supple flexibility

Patronus:  A black cat

Expertise:  Transfiguration, Nonverbal Spells

Cat Animagus 

Used to known as “Maverick of The House”

Half-blood but hid the fact only to let public know he is Muggle-born; guesses it’s needless to explain further ado about his reputation

A walking Marauder’s Map; already having every nook of Hogwarts mapped in his head

Secretive Bastard™ with Order of Merlin’s First-Class sass

Saigo doesn’t like him and the feelings are mutual

(His surrogate family is related to Saigo from his mother’s side and all were sorted into Ravenclaw)

Once being accused to work for Daily Prophet due to his habit to sneak around here and there but surprisingly isn’t

Here’s the second doubt for him being a Dark Arts appreciator since he seems to know a lot about it in great details —However, it’s still a mystery of which faction he truly affiliates to or why he had come to Hogwarts in the first place

Suggests “Nah we’d flee” for most fights, actually is a veteran duelist

The kind of quick caster who isn’t proficient at playing fair

Attempts to be friendly-friendly with Yuuya for unclear agenda despite their house’s enmity, he even goes as far as providing him some little helps and secretly looks out for him from the dark

...Lastly, shall we all raise our wands to pay respect for every greatest witch and wizard who had dedicated themselves to bringing this series to life...

Happy Halloween, guys 🪄

[skibasyndrome]

Fingers crossed for a productive day and these as a little carrot for afterwards:

✑ (for your first YR baby), ✦, ♡ (for It's in the water, baby)

Now go be awesome and ace that thesis!

Joooo 💜💜💜 This one has been sitting in my askbox for a while, so sorry about that, but hey! I guess you can take some credit for being one of the dangling carrots that got me through it 💜 no we're not thinking about how that sounds

For It seems a place for us to dream:

✑ PROCESSING: pick a fic and I’ll tell you what it was like to write it!

kind of like... a very high-emotions-induced frenzy? 😅😅😅 No, but for real. I saw that first (three second? five second?) clip of s3 and it completely took hold of me to the point where I was like.... what is this strange feeling... I have nooooot felt this way in YEARS???? Am I about to..... write again!?!??!?! And after I'd realized that, well... clearly this isn't going to leave me alone anytime soon and I already have portions of sentences flying around in my mind I sat down and wrote half of it, then wrote the second half the next day (I think we got the rest of the clip the next day?). I was wildly typing away on my google doc in a way I hadn't done in yeeeaaars and it was like I was possessed by those couple seconds, lmao.

It's not necessarily a fic I still like a lot, but I'm glad that it was my way back into creative writing, so that's cool!

✦ what was your easiest fic to write & your hardest?

Hmmm, easiest is kind of hard to say! I think writing Close, Closer was easy in the sense that I just... started typing and didn't really stop and never looked back and it was a fic(let) that I wrote with the knowledge that it didn't have to be perfect, because it was so spontaneous and short. I general I feel like all those shorter snippets (like the not-5-sentence-fics) are easier for me because my inner critic isn't quite as loud for those. But another one that came to me like in a frenzy and felt very good while writing was Lavender Haze, my forever beloved. I wrote that one soooo quickly and I genuinely had so much fun doing it.

Hardest to write was without a doubt Never Letting You Go for a couple of reasons that made the process very difficult, frustrating and not a great time for me and my trust in myself. Took quite a long time to get back from that one.

For It's in the water, baby (I don't know which one of the heart asks you meant, so I'm answering both, haha)

♡ pick a fic and I’ll pick a comment that made me really happy

Easy! @purplehoodiesandclementines complimenting my Wille POV and saying "It all feels so THEM! So much so that I'm taking all of this as canon for now, until proven otherwise" made me smile for days and weeks and still makes me smile whenever I randomly remember it 💜

♡ SMALL THINGS: pick a fic and I’ll tell you my favorite minor detail from it!

Idk if this necessarily counts as a minor detail, but I like the way Wille still briefly thinks about the video and how it affected Simon, but Simon then proves to him that right there, with him, he feels safe.

“It’s just us,” Simon says gently, and shoots Wilhelm a smile as he unbuttons his pants. Wilhelm briefly wonders when everything turned out this way, when they arrived at this level of comfort and confidence. Wonders when Simon started being able to exist so freely again, out here, no curtains, no doors, no walls. “Are you worrying about me or is this you being uncomfortable?” Simon asks, reaching out his hands to grab Wilhelm’s. Wilhelm suspects Simon's got some sort of psychic abilities that he hasn’t come clean about yet. Or maybe it’s them . He sighs, feeling a bit of the tension leave his shoulders as soon as Simon touches him.  “Because I’m fine, you know? No one’s been here all afternoon.” Simon smiles warmly.

Ask me questions about my fics if you feel like! <3 here or here

[rarilight]

3, 14, 15, 17, 22, 23, 24, 26, 32, and 35 for the fanfic author ask game?

BLESS U FOR SO MANY,,, 3. In your opinion, what’s your best fic?

My go-to answer is Crimson Lips just as a longform story. Short-form, uhhhhh.... Maybe Simulations?? I'm very happy with that one every time I reread it. Oh, but also In Everything But Name... I think those three are some of my best work for sure.

14. What’s the biggest change in your taste between when you started in fandom and today?

I've stayed practically the same except that, in regards to shipping, I used to read mostly M/F and now I basically only read F/F lmao

15. Have you ever purposefully written one fandom/fic idea over another because you knew it’d be more popular?

Surprisingly, no. As much as I need validation from others, it is INCREDIBLY difficult to get me to write something if I don't believe or like the core concept, so I usually always end up going for what makes me happy.

17. In your opinion, what’s your most overrated fic?

None..... all my fics are great and deserve all the praise they get.....

22. Has there ever been anyone who’s made you freak out because they read your work and followed/favorited/reviewed?

A few years ago, I really admired an artist who I found out loved TEL, and that was a wild day for me for sure. Beyond that, not really? It's mostly because, for years, I barely ever left the RariTwi circle in Fimfic, which itself consisted of... 12 of us... at most... with me being the most prolific, so I never had a 'senpai' in that respect.

23. What’s the nicest review you’ve ever gotten?

I can't possibly pin it down!!! I'm very fortunate that so many people earnestly love my work, so it would be incredibly difficult to try and find which is the nicest review because there's so many lol

24. What’s the meanest review you’ve ever gotten? Do you think the reviewer intended it?

It was for Crimson, and was coming from someone I, at the time, considered a friend. It was INCREDIBLY BAD FAITH, and probably one of the worst reviews I'll have in my entire life. I definitely think they meant it, but they were very very wrong for it, it was in such bad faith.

26. What aspect of your writing do you most enjoy to see praised?

Probably my prose, because it's the thing I'm most insecure about? Beyond that, I'm always very chuffed to have my character writing praised.

32. Who’s the one character who shines without you even trying?

Writing Rarity feels more natural and is easier to me than breathing at this point. She is probably the one thing in my writing I am always 100% confident I did right and did very well.

35. Have you ever written a ship into a fic without meaning to?

I don't actually ship them romantically in the fic itself, but PinkieLuna is TEL's dark horse lmao

thank you for all the questions!

[nectardaddy]

hello dodger and a very happy self ship friday to you here are my self ship questions!! i am asking a lot of them bc these prompts are so good also im curious abt suga

pre: 1,6

general: 1, 9

love: 2, 8

domestic: 2, 13

self ship asks !

get ready for a novel molly ily <333

How did they first meet?

we met in a teacher prep program in college! most education majors have all the same classes together (especially at smaller schools) so we never really had a moment away from each other. he was either the only, or one of like two, men in the entire program. he was wanted by everyone who likes men in that gd major let's be real. we got assigned to do a project together to make a unit plan :))))

What was their "flirting stage" like?

our flirting was roasting the shit out of each other. HOWEVER he would do small things like get me coffee "just because he passed it" when it was most definitely out of the way. he would always compliment me in some way and it sent me to the stratosphere every single time. his flirting was more subtle unlike mine because I would full on short circuit and stumble out a compliment or ask about his day because I was down horrendously.

Who initiated the relationship, and how did they go about it?

he did (THANK GOD). sort of forward about it too? like not full on "do you want to go on a date?' but like asking if I wanted to do something and then tagging on "like a date" at the end. I also definitely see us going on a few dates and in his head we are already together so when he calls me his partner I'm so confused and he hits me with the "omfg did I not ask you??" y e a h

Who gets jealous easier?

I answered this from honee here! god I want to EAT HIM

What are their primary love languages?

suga likes giving words of affirmation and receiving physical touch while I like giving gifts (I am a trinket connoisseur like a fucking crow) and receiving physical touch as well. while it clashes sometimes, especially with words of affirmation (I am NOT good with words) we make it work by genuinely not leaving each other tf alone and constantly touching one another. he also has a whole little shelf dedicated to all of the bullshit trinkets I give him, probably has some at school too. I eventually conjoined both my love for giving gifts and his need for words of affirmation. he probably has about 20 rocks that came with the stupid ass note of "you rock" or some euphemism "you make me rock hard" I would totally do this and that makes me want to die

Do they prefer verbal or physical affection?

now this may go against what I said in the last one, it makes sense in my head though hear me out. we are both teachers. during the school week about 2 hours after we get home we REFUSE to touch each other. we are both so ungodly overstimulated and the thought of being touched and cuddled makes us both want to crawl in our own skin. those times are for verbal affection. anytime after those 2 hours it is most definitely physical affection (ig this counts as verbal affection as well) but I have moments where I self deprecate and I most definitely see him just yelling at the top of his lungs "STOP IT STOP IT STOP IT IM GOING TO THROW SOMETHING AT YOU YOU'RE PERFECT SHUT YOUR MOUTH" also the man to hold my hand and physically move me so he's on the side of the sidewalk that's closest to the street

If they get married, who proposes, and how do they do it? Would they change their surnames?

suga better fucking propose bc I sure as hell am NOT doing it lmao. that would make me throw up from anxiety, I think I would genuinely have a stroke if I even for a second thought I had to propose we definitly have a conversation about it before hand though, so he 10000000% knows if he proposes to me in public I'm punching him right in his fucking nose. bc THAT would make me so gd anxious I'd probably throw up before I said yes. but him, being himself, he would make it the cutest fucking thing I've ever seen and wouldn't be able to keep his mouth shut about it. he is also a gentleman and tells my stubborn ass to get my nails done before (I am terrible at this I let them grow out for so long) and I would hyphen my name (like it is now yayyyy) bc I'll be damned if I take a MANS name just to change my own. no shade to those that want to do that or have done that, it just doesn't sit right with me. so it would be (my last name) - sugawara. it would be long as hell and a hassle to anyone at the dmv but we ball

Do they have any "couple traditions", or family traditions?

THIS ONE IS MY FAVORITE!!! RAHHHHH IM YAPPING (also includes sexual themes** OOPS SORRY LMAO) so I celebrate pagan holidays (samhain, yule, solstices, etc...) he is wholeheartedly HERE FOR IT! the one that pops to my head immediately (and all practices are different this is just how I do mine) the 12 days leading up to yule (dec 21) you make wishes and burn them randomly each day, the wish you didn't burn on the 21 is the wish that YOU work on (all the rest will happen organically). he does this with me <3333 he makes his own wishes and everything!!! he gets really into it and tries to guess the wish I didn't burn before I tell him <33 **I also had the thought about celebrating ostara (spring equinox) and this may just be too foul for main BUT it's basically celebrating new growth, the start of spring, and....fertility. this man will wholeheartedly ask, EVERY YEAR, "should we fuck on ostara to really LOCK IN the vibes?" yeah...y e a h but a tradition that isn't apart of a holiday is just going on a date every weekend. we force ourselves to do SOMETHING on the weekend to combat stress from school. whether that's staying in and doing something or physically going on, we have to do something and it's written in stone at this point

[chonidale]

what are your top 5 choni scenes and why

was cleaning out my inbox and found this from 6 years ago lmao back when this would have been a lot easier to answer because they had a LOT less scenes. i really tried to sit and narrow it down to just 5 scenes, even if i couldn’t rank them, but it was really hard without setting some limits, so i’m going to make myself only pick one scene per season and list them in chronological order.

season 2: first kiss. just iconic, perfectly set up and executed. best first kiss on the show, hands down, was never topped. cinematic. honorable mentions to the scene at the bijou and their almost kiss.

season 3: their reunion in the finale. it’s a short scene, but so sweet. toni gathering the cavalry to save cheryl, the ‘baby?!’, the running hug and kiss, the sheer relief and emotion in toni’s voice, so good. honorable mentions to the 3.12 bed scene purely for how cozy it is and cheryl sacrificing herself to save toni at the farm, also so cinematic.

season 4: the couch cuddling scene post thanksgiving dinner. so comfy and sweet. i love a good cuddling moment, but add in a cute i love you exchange and a kiss? i’m happy. honorable mentions to the 4.08 pops scene and cheryl telling toni about nick, so much better than the garbage suicide attempt convo from s3 that was all about archie.

season 5: the pops convo from 5.05, nobody could ever make me hate that scene, the emotion and history and understanding and love there, just so good. forever mourning the excellent angst of those first two time jump episodes. what could have been if the rest of the season kept that tone. honorable mentions to the whole flashback sequence in 5.04 and the convo in 5.18. i do like their break up scene too but i’ll always be bitter about how much better it could have and should have been. deserved a last kiss or cuddle at the very least.

season 7: the music room convo in 7.10 is just so perfect, absolutely no notes. really sweet and mature and well written as a stand alone resolution to the plot in that episode, but even more satisfying and meaningful from a larger stand point, showing their growth from s3 and how they’re doing things right this time, etc. honorable mentions to the scene outside the school in 7.08 for some reason and the photoshoot, i think, but there’s so many i really love.

(no scene selection for s6 since i had to cut a season to narrow it down to 5 and most of the choni content in s6 is thabigail, but the bed scene from the finale is very excellent and bittersweet, even if i retroactively wish they had given us more since it ended up being the last interaction in the og timeline and there was a lot of opportunity for more closure there than what we got. and i think if they’d known they weren’t going back to the og timeline back then, we would have gotten more, but alas.)

[puckpocketed]

hi!! I was wondering where or how you do you research for players and teams, and just hockey in general? do you have any favorite blogs or other resources? thank you~

okay picking thru web rot for the sharks primer has prepared me for this one lmao here's the quick answer because i really need to eat some pie and go to bed. Hockey is my all-consuming interest at the moment and I haven't watched actual television or films; or read anything non-academic that isn't about hockey in.... 9 months? If it seems like I am taking in a LOT of information in a short amount of time it's because I am. I listen to hockey things at 2-5x speed depending on if its a video on youtube (locked to 2x), a podcast (3.5x is my ideal speed), or my screenreader (5x) and often take notes, save articles as pdfs to go back to, and transcribe things for fun (only recently am putting my transcriptions as addendums to gifs... very rewarding <3). When not studying for my actual degree, I am reading about hockey or listening to something hockey related or watching hockey or writing about hockey or learning how to play hockey. i am so serious. please don't assume that this is normal, optimal, or even something I would wish upon other people. I am in Love with her in thee most wretched and irrevocable way. She's my hobby in the sense that shes my sun and im building my wax wings and looking directly at her light and thanking her for blinding me. amen.

more seriously, if I'm going down a player rabbit hole I will try many of these things - though not necessarily all of them, and not in this order (and i'm sure i've forgotten one or two things I usually try... lordy):

I go to spotify/apple podcasts and throw in player names just to see what comes up and listen to basically everything.

if they are on an NHL team, there are likely MULTIPLE podcasts dedicated to that team. trawl through their podcast archives, especially post-game podcasts where discussion is happening about their performance. sometimes there are even interviews <3

i do the same with youtube if I can...!

throw their name into reddit, tumblr, twitter and scroll. endlessly. just trawl through everything that I can possibly get my hands on. The more obscure the player the easier this is, because there really aren't that many things to find out about them and not many people are talking about them at all. <- this is how I make contact with people who are the only person that knows about this one (1) guy and then we hold fins forever. <3

find out who the teams beat reporters are. if youre looking into prospects, even juniors teams have people covering them. the writing might not be the highest quality but you WILL eventually find fun details if you go digging.

check: elite prospects articles, the hockey writers articles, find out the player's home town and see if their local paper has anything on them (basically, check any and all databases that use a tagging system or have a functional search engine)

helpful things to tack onto the end of google/youtube/database searches: "media availability" "post-game" "interview" "feature" "profile" "scouting report" "draft" "debut" "review" "highlight" "tournament"

if they're a player from a non-english speaking country it's worth throwing their non-romanized name into google to see what you can get. google translate the website // chatgpt translation are two options - not ideal and not to be trusted 100% over actual translation done by a fluent human speaker.

Instagram stories are the bane of my existence because they're so ephemeral

tiktok is a parallel universe to me. I do not have the app. any browsing I do on it is solely via googling "[team name] tiktok official" and clicking around on my desktop PC. I've only ever done this for M.Chrona's gf (who is much more famous than him) but if you're really doing down the rabbit hole of player research, some of their WAGs will post about them. <- as always, be respectful/not weird.

facebook for older stuff... genuinely makes my skin crawl so I avoid it and its a last resort LMAO but yeah teams used to post on facebook and everything!!! <- again. dont be weird and stalk peoples families or friends asjklakjl

"[player/team name] gettyimages [day/month/year]" <- substitute getty images for: flickr, hockeyshots, dreamstime, alamy

Substack is good for general hockey stuff if you can stomach the dreaded idea of subscribing via email or getting the app <3 I like: Jack Han (hockey tactics newsletter), Sean Shapiro (shap shots), Adam Gretz (adam's sports stuff), Thibaud Chatel <- for the analytics nerds, Alex MacLean <- his Scouting The Scouts series is what got me into substack in the first place, Greg Revak (hockey IQ newsletter) <- this is the one that's got me on development stuff atm SUPER rec because there's gifs and charts and many many hyperlinks included for citations <3

i should do a book rec at some point but uhhhh its getting late and im hungry <3 thank you for asking + reading if you got this far, I hope it was a helpful peek into my process?

[endlessthxxghts]

congrats on hitting 1.5k!!🥳

💭 may I ask what your everyday is like with your disability? (also if this is badly worded, could you please tell me how I could word myself better?)

again, congrats on your milestone, it is so well deserved!💞💞

Hi, friend!! Thank you!! 🥹 I wouldn’t be where I am without you, so I appreciate you very much.

Your question is perfectly worded! Thank you for double checking on that :) and also thank you for giving me a chance to talk about this/educate!!! Honestly, this question is beautiful. I guess I’ll start by describing what I’ve got going on physically!!

My disability is something that I was born with. It’s called Arthrogryposis (this is the short name lol), and the basic definition is a lack of muscle. But at a more technical sense, when I was in my mother’s womb, the womb didn’t have enough amniotic fluid to let my lil fetus self move around like your “typical” fetus would. So that lack of movement caused the muscles that should’ve formed in the womb to not form at all— which, because they never developed, they don’t have much room for improvement now that I’m out into the world.

Now, as far as functionality, I’m pretty limited. But in places that I’m limited, I fortunately have the privilege of having a certain strength in place of that. For instance, although I can’t use my hands/arms, I can write with my mouth. I do everything with my mouth. I’m answering this ask on my phone right now, and I’m typing it with my lips! Thus, my hands are the weakness, but I luckily have been able to figure out where in my body does have the ability for improvement. Another example would be that I can’t use my legs, but I’m able to use my core and trunk strength to be able to scoot my body over when I need to. This gives me the ability to be able to transfer myself in and out of my bed! I do need people to carry me for other things though (bless the buff motherfuckers in my life🙏). So, although I am 100% dependent on another person for self-care (eating, toileting, showering, etc.), there’s a good chunk of aspects in my life where I can have that independence.

I get around places in my power wheelchair, and I have a wheelchair accessible van that I drive into. I cannot drive it myself, but having this accessible van makes transportation one hundred times easier because all my companion needs to do is buckle my chair in— they don’t have to carry me or anything.

Additionally, this is hard to explain, but I have a stick that I put one end in my mouth, and it’s long enough to where I can hook my fingers to the other end of it and it allows me to use my laptop, hold books open, manipulate papers, etc. I use this stick in tandem with my hand, but again, my hand has zero control. If I’m “using” my hands or legs or anything, it’s purely through momentum (throwing my body in random directions) and me hoping for the best LMAO.

I hope this helps!! I love love love answering questions like this because it teaches people! It teaches different perspectives, different lifestyles, and understanding these things are so so important to our everyday lives as a diverse species (because that’s what we are.. diverse!!).

So much love for all of you. Please feel free to ask me more questions like this🩶

Come celebrate 1.5k followers with me! ->

[misc-obeyme]

hi ur writing is literally amazing can i ask u some stuff regarding it/how you go about writing/advice? feel free to ignore this if its not something youre comfy with

were u ever nervous to post fic? i just posted my first one and am like. super embarrassed (i also have a Guilt Complex that influences that lmao). if so, did you find it easier as you kept writing?

also how the hell do you write endings/get the motivation for them? youre really good at tying things together nicely at the end (or the occasional Leave 'Em Wondering) and im curious about your process for it. i can pretty steadily get up to the scene i started the fic to write but after that brain and motivation go honk mimimi

anyways thank you for sharing your work with the internet! i love reading your stuff its always a highlight in my day :)

Hi there, anon!

So first of all, I absolutely LOVE questions about writing, so please always feel free to send me any you may have! I'm such a nerd, I really love talking about the process and I'm happy to discuss it or share advice and so on!

Secondly, omg you're so sweet! Thank you, I'm so glad you like my writing!

Now then, lemme answer your questions! I apologize in advance for the LENGTH of these answers, but I seem to be incapable of writing about this sort of thing without it turning into an entire essay.

Yes, absolutely, I was extremely nervous when I first starting posting my fics. Some of that may have been that I hadn't written fic in a while and I was nervous enough about sharing, but I was extra nervous about messing up characterization. I wasn't used to writing for characters that I didn't create myself. I got nervous again when I started posting smut, too lol.

The thing about this type of anxiety in general is that exposure therapy really is the cure. It's like that for a little bit at first, but the more you do it, the more you prove to yourself that it's no big deal. Nowadays, I have almost no anxiety when I'm posting something fluffy and even most smut pieces are easier for me to post, too.

Another piece of this is remembering that the reason you write fic is for your own enjoyment. You're putting it on the internet on the chance that someone else might like it, too. But really, you have to focus on the things that make you happy. It's easier to deal with posting anxiety if you keep your focus on the joy of creation rather than the adrenaline of sharing. It's hard to do, but it gets easier the more you do it!

Okay, so endings! Uh, here's a fun fact about me, endings are my weakness lol. I have a lot of practice starting things and then never ending them because I absolutely get bored at a certain point. So I know exactly what you mean by the brain going to honk mimimi land.

For me, the trick was to write short stuff. Most of my fics are just scene length. This allowed me to get some practice with writing more endings because I didn't get bored when I was pretty much just writing one scene. So I found a couple things that I like to do for endings specifically, but then I also discovered a way to sort of keep my brain engaged while writing longer stuff.

It kinda all comes down to what you want to leave the reader with. That final paragraph or sentence can really deliver an impactful emotion. So you kinda have to think about what the rest of the scene is about, what specific feeling do you want the reader to have when they get to the end? If you're not sure, you can also frame it as what kind of feeling do you want to have at the end?

One technique I like to use is tying everything back to the beginning. I've used it multiple times, but it's probably most obvious in this Barbatos drabble. The first and last sentences are the same, but you don't have to be that blatant about it lol. That was mostly a stylistic choice. But if you look at the third paragraph and the last paragraph, they are parallels of each other, but they're different. What they convey is that something has changed by the end. So by repeating pieces of the beginning at the end, I'm deliberately illustrating what changed in the middle.

It's like thinking of the ending as a sort of summary of everything that happened in the middle of the story. If you're writing something longer, you can apply this to individual scenes as needed. But you might end up with an entire scene at the beginning and an entire scene at the end that do the same thing (rather than a couple of paragraphs).

Another thing I like to do is leave an implication of further action that isn't included. Something like "You wouldn't leave his room until morning." or maybe "You had a feeling something like this would happen again soon." Like this isn't really the end, but the rest is up to your imagination!

This is more specifically about the last paragraphs/scene/sentence, though. It's good to think of a way to recall the entirety of the story you just told, leaving the reader with the overall feeling you were going for.

But when it comes to longer stories, if you're finding you make it to one scene and then stop, well, that might be the end of your story. For this kind of thing, it really helps me to think about what the end game of the story is. For instance, in my longest fic, The Threads That Bind, I knew it was a Barbatos x MC love story. So the "end" couldn't happen until they had confessed their feelings to each other. A lot of other stuff happened before that, but it all contributed to that final plot point. And there isn't much story after that. The final scene is their confession. (There is a spicy epilogue, but that was just a bonus lol.)

So if you can decide before you even start writing what the goal is, you can write to that goal, filling in a bunch of cool scenes along the way. It doesn't have to be that you know exactly what happens or what the final scene is. When I started writing Threads, I had no idea how the confession was going to go. I just knew that Barbatos and MC had to end up declaring their love somehow.

But I tied that into the rest of the story with the theme of the threads. It was a visual anchor as well as a metaphorical one - magic let them see threads binding them together, but the feeling of belonging to each other was kind of the point of it all. So I was able to take that concept that I'd already used and incorporate it into the final confession scene.

NOW THEN all of this might also be easier if you're an outline type of person, but I most definitely AM NOT. Other writers swear by an outline and you'll probably find a lot of information on how to use one if you Google it.

But outlining for me is like pulling teeth, so I never do it. I write my first draft in a fever dream, with the end goal and a handful of ideas about overall themes and a couple things that I just think would be cool or fun to write. I spend a lot of time daydreaming about the story first, too, but I don't write anything down until I'm writing that first draft.

I could probably write a whole book on my methods for writing, but my biggest piece of advice for this kind of thing is EXPERIMENT.

The best part about writing is that aside from the basic fundamentals (spelling, grammar, sentence structure, etc), there are NO RULES. So if you're finding you're always struggling with finishing, try out anything and everything that might help you with that. Try writing outlines, try not writing outlines, try ending your story with the scene you were working toward, try thinking of a new scene you want to write as the ending scene. If it works, great! If it doesn't work, no problem! Just chuck it and try something else.

Sometimes the best thing for me to do is to ask myself what would be the most fun to write next? And then just going for it. My opinion is that you can always edit things later!

Anyway, I hope some of that helps! I'm sorry I really rambled quite a bit, but like I said, I love talking about this kind of thing lol.

Good luck, anon, and I believe in you!

[ierotits]

Tell us more about disabled pirates? Please w a cherry on top too?

FINALLY answering this hello im here to give the absolute basics! avoiding turning this into an actual essay bc i dont have the time to do full primary source research rn, so some of the info comes from the pirates code by rebecca simon, a really great basic rundown about life onboard a ship in the golden age! the rest is just memory from the pirate books ive read many of recently lmao

treatment of disability was one of the many huge differences between official navy ships, and pirate ships of the time! in any environment like that the loss of limbs, fingers, eyes, etc was very very common, so mainly as a method of keeping a large enough crew, most pirate ships would pay out financial compensation to those who were injured in service. every set of articles that we have available now has a clause for the compensation of injury which suggests that most if not all ships had this. different injuries called for different amounts of money, for example you would get less for a finger, but more for a right arm than a left arm. in most of these the injured pirates were then allowed to stay on the ship in whatever capacity they could, possibly being given different roles they could more easily perform.

Because of the commonality of loss of limbs, it was also pretty common for ships to have a series of ropes put in place around the inside of the ship to make it easier for people with leg injuries to navigate, especially when on the water! for people with a limp or any other type of leg injury, it was much easier to hold onto ropes to stop yourself from falling over, than for example to have crutches or a fake leg which weren't very forgiving to the wobbly walking conditions in a boat.

long story short, the vast majority of pirates would have had some form of disability, and most ships, being aware of that, would write compensation into their code. the compensation is one of the things that led people towards piracy instead of the navy, knowing if they were put out of service in the navy they would just have to tough it out. those running ships knew compensation would create more loyalty in a crew, and considering the fair shares everyone on board was getting, financial compensation would come out of everyones wages, making it as close to a modern day disability benefit paid from the populations taxes as we could ever get.

also just for funsies, eye patches werent really used for missing eyes! they would be worn on one eye while above deck, then switched to the other eye when below deck so that eye would be used to the dark and it made it easier to see in the dark conditions wahoo

[sunnyrifle]

How did your selfship start? Is it more like Morita dating you and Ginji but Ginji not dating you or how does the dynamic works?

So basically it's a huge bundle of situationships all around, but I'll try to untangle it. Sure I wrote a piece about "how it all started" but I didn't explain how it settled down into the mundane, so here we go 💫🍀

So Morita's relationship with Ginji is The Relationship, they're business partners, but they have this double-sided pretending to be one-sided pinning: Morita has his romantic feelings and daydreams about dating Ginji, marrying Ginji and having his kids lmao, mostly just wants actual mutual romantic relationship with dates, dine and wine and roses on top, just to have something he can call official; Ginji on the other hand thinks they're doing exactly that, but every time Morita crosses the "too close to romance" territory, he feels scared to confirm anything or even acknowledge he feels the same way--

So basically they both spend time together as partners but closer, they have dates but call that official business, and they sleep together but call that one night stands.

Morita spares Ginji's feelings because he feels unwanted so he doesn't ever pronounce his love out loud; and Ginji spares Morita, thinking it's a lot easier for them to navigate it without unnecessary sappy talks and 'I love you's. Obviously there's always a chance this can be used against them as a blackmail, kidnapping situations and so on too-- so, in short, if Morita is so so ready to take the risk and just become someone's special person, Ginji's coward who thinks everything will be better off as it is and doesn't really get what Morita is not satisfied with, aren't they dating already? so what if he doesn't call it dating and making love, but “a table for two” and fucking?

anyway, enter ▆▆▆ (who's my sona+self-insert, I call it yume but also mob so y'know, a bit confusing but bear with me)

In this kind of situationship taking a toll on Morita it's easy to take advantage of his fragile "one-sided" admiration of Ginji. If ▆▆▆'d try to be an actual help he'd probably just explain how Ginji operates so Morita would get it and try figure things out, probably agreeing to the common ground and decide how to date on this thin ice and Ginji would end up so much happier too-- expect he doesn't care to be someone's fixer, that's Ginji's fault in the first place and he needs to step up his game if he wants Morita to continue being by his side. Fully knowing that, all ▆▆▆ provides for Morita is stress relief in a very cruel way, almost as an exposure therapy where he pronounces every single fear, inferiority complex and unnerving thought out loud to Morita's face, so he could navigate them with the help of the other person

But if someone spells out all of your weaknesses and sticks their fingers into your very complex emotional / romantic side of life, obviously you start feeling violated, your boundaries crossed and smudged in a way that leaves a bad taste in your mouth. So Morita sees ▆▆▆ as an enemy, but for someone who holds this much sensitive information about you there's no way you can leave them to their own vices too-- Ends up with Morita sticking around.

The condition was "entertain me, amuse me, and I'll treat you nicely". Except the "nicely" doesn't come, well, at least not in the form and shape Morita wants it to come. He ends up with a shitty relationship on the side where he has one more sin to hide from Ginji (obviously he wouldn't like Morita sleeping with someone), but also has small favours done for him, including the indulgence in this stupid roleplay which he can selfishly enjoy - ▆▆▆ pretending he's Ginji so Morita can enjoy himself once in a while without the burden and the judgement and the shame (maybe a different one).

And if it started as a way to sneak into Morita's pants first, it ends up in a disaster for both sides ofc. Morita gets frustrated with Ginji not answering his feelings (even though he does in his own way)? He sets a meeting with ▆▆▆ and asks him with teary eyes if they can kiss and fuck and hold hands and go to the bar and hug and do a quickie in the toilet stall, all with an exception he's calling ▆▆▆ Ginji, Gin-san, never ever wanting to think of the subtle differences and cracks in the facade that roleplay exposes

Because yeah, ▆▆▆ continues to do that because it's self-sabotage, because he too shares Morita's issues: he doesn't think he's someone if he's not useful- because how can you even compete with Ginji? He's the legendary underground fixer, he's Morita's savior and career goal - he's his special someone. ▆▆▆ is a shitty ex-yakuza who drifts from place to place doing small profits and wastes his life away trying to enjoy it somehow;;

While ▆▆▆ has a place next to Morita, he deserves that kiss only if he's a shiny polished mirror who knows exactly how Ginji could act with Morita if he was honest with him and himself and not burdened with any circumstances, so their relationship would finally be honest and open to everyone and the world…

So ▆▆▆ provides the third space for Morita to return to. They share a love-hate relationship which Morita cares enough to call dangerous, but it's actually the safest he has at that moment. Because he's not even considering ▆▆▆ his own person - he surely knows his temper and his love for tormenting his very soul, but Morita doesn't have feelings for him, he only uses him as a let out of his bottled up feelings and emotions. They end up mirroring Morita's relationship with Ginji in that sense… except, who's the ‘Ginji’ one? ▆▆▆, who cares for Morita enough to never address his feelings even in his own head but make a silly play pretend for Morita's sake again and again? Or the one who actually uses those services without a second thought spared to where this all comes from? It's stable, it's safe, they don't pronounce it out loud, just as it should be…

When Morita doesn't spend the night at some random hotel with Ginji, he goes to the cheap rented apartment where he knows he won't be kicked out from, where maybe the worst he can pay for that with is a cuddle with a guy he just doesn't get-- but at least it's always welcoming. If Morita doesn't know where to let his anger out, he excuses himself for a ‘business meeting’ in the park, except the ‘business’ is his unresolved romantic situation and the ‘meeting’ ends up with just as unresolved kiss or shoving each other until it turns manhandling (yeah they play fight if Morita cares to not knock the other out and keep his strength at bay), and all Morita has to pay for it with is running an errand of getting takeout food or buying ▆▆▆ cigarettes.

They eventually can be called roommates in that sense, except Morita never sees himself as someone else but an uninvited guest, who pays by small services like cooking and cleaning. He doesn't get what that sad smile, when he takes out the trash, is all about. And ▆▆▆ just cares for Morita enough to not explain anything for him (just as Morita does for Ginji, yes)

P.S. I hope it now makes sense why ▆▆▆ is ▆▆▆ and doesn't have a spelled out name too.

He doesn't have a fixed age too, because obviously it's connected to mine, which is still more than Morita's by 5+ years (enough to get his love for more experienced person and age gap relationships going too haha;;)

It's a stalemate! This has both the good and the bad ending, so if you'll finish GtK I'll probably cover it then! I hope that cleared out some things hehe

I also love Morita's sad eyes and shy smiles, so ofc I'm gonna do anything to see both!!

Thank you for the question that gave me the opportunity to write this big explanation down!!

[endureandsurvives]

I loved how detailed your answer to the anime ask was! I love seeing people nerd out about the things they enjoy ^-^

You had a lot of good favorites and a fair amount I hadn't heard of, I've been slowly getting more and more into anime lately and saw you reblog some fooly cooly the other day so I figured you had good taste and I was right ٩(◕‿◕｡)۶

Oh I'm glad you read the answer!!! I was worried it drowned under all the other posts and you couldn't find it lol

Hell yeah my friend! Holding on what makes us happy also makes life easier to bear 🐻 And Flooly Cooly is great! I love short and crazy anime like that lmao

Thank you! You seem like a nice person (⁠ ⁠◜⁠‿⁠◝⁠ ⁠)⁠♡