#should just tag all of these with long post tbh

[olderthannetfic]

I find the recent "proshippers who express their dislike for certain AUs/ships/characters are just as bad as antis and aren't really proshippers" discussion to be...interesting? Here's my two cents:

I reject the dichotomy, tbh. I think we, without even realizing it, get a bit too hung up on the "ship" part of it and not hung up enough on the "pro" part of it. We all know that antis don't just send death threats and rape threats and other horrendous stuff just due to ships. They do the same over characters, kinks, tropes, etc. Even if you don't ship Reylo, you're seen as just as bad as the filthy Reylos if you're pro Bendemption.

HOWEVER...I really do not think we should liken "omg they ship wincest how cringe" or even "oh ew wincest is gross, shippers dni" to sending actual hate, threats, etc to wincest shippers. Personally, I am no more or less offended by "I hate Jarley shippers so much, their taste is awful!" than I am by "I hate high school AU writers so much, their taste is awful!" Sure, an anti trashtalking Jarley or other #toxique pairings definitely has more connotations and implications than a proshipper trashtalking ~vanilla~ AUs, but the actual WORDS aren't really all that different, yk?

I think, unless you're actually harassing someone -- and i do mean harassing, not sending a one-off troll anon -- and i do mean someone, not just a vague DNI banner in your card or a general post here and there about how Incest Is Bad, then you can express whatever opinions you want so long as you stay out of the tag and don't say your opinion directly as a reaction to someone telling you about their work. (eg "I just started my MCU/Sherlock crossover fanfic!" "Omg what? That's so cringe! Write a Serbian pigeon movie AU instead")

I'm one of the people who identifies as an ex-anti, but i think i was more of the whole "i'm not, but i believe in their beliefs." I was always against harassment and threats and I often unfollowed/blocked people who DID do that shit or who made callout posts or whatever. If we were close enough, I'd tell the person off, knowing they'd probably be more willing to listen to a friend or mutual who has their beliefs than a stranger on the other end of the spectrum. Really, the worst I ever did was reblog those stupid posts about fiction impacting reality (the infamous Jaws post comes to mind in particular) or about how incest/age gap/etc is Bad and Wrong. Definitely not super cool, but it was by no means bullying or harassment.

If I were to go out of my way and express my hate for a certain series or character or ship or trope in the tag, in the comments, to someone's face, I'd be a pretty terrible person! But if I just post on my blog about how something isn't for me, that's not harassing anyone.

Even today I think I still have a "not, but believe in their beliefs" stance about proshipping. Maybe I wore myself out of it when I was in my anti phase, but at this point I don't really have much desire to discuss it, outside of this ask i guess lol and occasionally some comments on the ao3 subreddit. I don't even reblog those uwu here's how the world works posts that are like "REMINDER that ao3 is an ARCHIVE :) it was created for PROBLEMATIC CONTENT :)" "ALL SHIPS ARE GOOD SHIPS" "fiction is not reality!" types of posts that are not explicitly about proshipping but also are clearly about proshipping. Not even because I disagree, but because at this point in time it feels very similar to reblogging "HEY :) please DONT feed the animals at the zoo :)" "Reminder that you need to TURN YOUR PHONE ON before you can start using it :)" or other like...incredibly basic infos about life lol. It's basically the ship discourse equiv of those early 2012 posts that are like "REBLOG IF YOU SUPPORT GAY MARRIAGE <3" Like, yes, but...I don't need to do bare-bones virtue signalling on my blog for you to figure that out LOL

Im getting off topic and i don't really know what the original point i'm trying to make here is, just like...I get that it always sucks to see someone bashing your taste, even if it's just casual or humorous. but I think if someone is just making a post about how much they dislike certain things, that doesn't mean they're not a pro-shipper. It's only when you start actually being rude to people that I might question your actual "anti-harassment" values. I don't have many dark tastes myself, but I also am not a huge fan of the flowershop/school/job/modern AUs. Me saying "rape fics aren't for me" or "coffee shop fics aren't for me" hold the same exact weight and they say nothing about my views on fiction and what should and shouldn't be read or written; i'm neither a puritan who hates Bad Things nor a pretentious asshat who hates Silly Things. I will support the beloved mutuals'/friends' dark fiction from afar...I will do the exact same thing with their lighthearted fiction. i try not to keep ANY negative opinions on my blog, even if it's just an innocent post about how i dont enjoy a certain thing. but the vocal-minority idea that no one is allowed to say anything negative ever or they're not actually anti harassment is uh. Fascinating for sure!

--

[gelatinous-globster]

some recent Globby doodle pages, digital this time! found a new brush I like a lot ✨

@drama-glob @enbydemirainbowbigfoot

[francy-sketches]

Hiiiii guess who finished her pmv. finally. um enjoy :3

[purroowl]

third years in college bokuroo, a silly little idea that somehow turned into whatever this monster is

happy holidays!

——————————————————————————————

"bokuto-san, i think you should see this."

"what's up, akaashi?" bokuto looks up and is surprised to see the unreadable expression on akaashi's face. they're sitting at the college campus cafe, studying. there's no reason akaashi should be looking like that. "see what?"

akaashi's quiet for a second, his lips pursing. "honestly, i didn't know whether to talk about this or not, but... it concerns you."

he pushes his phone forward, and bokuto looks down to see it's paused on some sort of video. akaashi had paused it on a particular timestamp, too, three quarters into the whole length of it.

from the little visible, bokuto can see two very familiar mops of hair.

his eyes widen. "is this one of kenma's streams?"

"yes." akaashi sips at his coffee, nodding. "he did a livestream yesterday and kuroo-san joined him. they were playing a game and talking and... stumbled upon a topic."

"okay?"

"i think you should watch this part of it." akaashi concludes. "you can watch the leadup to it on your own, if you want. but i thought this part was more important.''

bokuto frowns. "is it... bad?"

"if you're asking for my opinion... no, i don't think so." akaashi doesn't sound like he's lying. it loosens the nervous knot in bokuto's chest some as he nods, slowly.

"okay." now that he knows it's probably nothing bad, bokuto can feel excitement growing inside him. he brings the phone closer and settles comfortably into his chair.

then he presses play.

"he likes you."

instantly, kenma's voice filters through, clear as day. bokuto's brows raise in surprise.

"what?" kuroo's voice responds, distracted. a few low disgruntled noises follow as bokuto watches him jerk around like he's fumbling frantically with his mouse. the sound of keys being smashed comes next, loud enough to get picked up by kenma's ultra-spec microphone. bokuto wonders what game they're playing and streaming to the thousands of viewers kenma already has. he would look, but he's too focused on his two friends taking up the bottom half of the screen.

"owl guy. he likes you." kenma says, deadpan as ever. bokuto starts to smile at it, but the sudden loud curse bursting from the phone screen startles him, and he almost drops the device in his hand to kiss cold hard ground. akaashi eyes him wearily.

"please be careful, bokuto-san. that's my phone you're holding." bokuto laughs, sheepish as he re-adjusts his grip and mutters a soft 'sorry'. he's not looking to die by akaashi's hand today; no matter how much patience akaashi has for him, it's not limitless. that much bokuto knows.

"what are you - what?" kuroo is obviously shocked when bokuto glances back at the screen, his mouth hanging open. a robotic voice follows not a second later, announcing that 'player 2 has been eliminated'. he sees kenma roll his eyes, seemingly unfazed that he has to continue the game alone.

"you heard me." kuroo's straight out gaping now as he stares wide-eyed at kenma. bokuto doesn't think he's ever seen kuroo's hazel eyes quite that wide before.

"kenma, are you crazy? you know - you know who we're talking about here, right?" the last part is said in something close to a whisper, as if kuroo was talking about a secret. bokuto furrows his brows. "you're saying owl guy likes me? my best bro, that owl guy?"

kuroo's tone is funny and it holds bokuto's attention for long enough that it takes him another moment to realise they're talking about him. akaashi's face is carefully neutral when bokuto glances back up at him, but honestly bokuto isn't sure how to feel. kuroo's reaction is... he can't tell if it's good or bad.

"yes. i'm not repeating myself." the same robotic voice from before almost covers up the words, a cheerful ding accompanying the 'level cleared' that echoes out of the phone. even through the screen, bokuto can tell that kuroo is all tensed up. it's amazing how kenma can keep at his game while holding that kind of conversation with kuroo.

"you must be mistaken-" kuroo says next, but he's cut off by a subtle huff from kenma.

"i'm not mistaken. you're the one that's mistaken, kuro." there's a tiny pause, nothing but the sounds of mouse clicking and keyboard tapping as kenma probably advances in his level. "chat, does owl guy like kuro? be real."

"kenma-" this time, urgency bleeds into kuroo's tone quite obviously. bokuto can see that kuroo's gearing up to say more, his usually smart mouth parted and his brows pressing together in the way it does when he's about to argue a point.

the words never come. kuroo suddenly freezes, and if it weren't for the continuous tap-tapping still coming from kenma's end, bokuto might have thought that the playback cut off. kuroo's eyes seem stuck to his own screen, barely blinking but roving from left to right as if he were reading something.

bokuto manages to get the few seconds needed to realise he must be reading comments of some sort, probably in response to the sudden question popular streamer kodzuken just casually threw out.

bokuto doesn't manage to get time to wonder if the answers are leaning more towards yes or no when a weird notification sound chimes from the stream.

"owl guy definitely likes kuro-kun, i'm willing to bet with the $500 i just donated lmao. kuro-kun, if i were u i would have married owl guy long ago lol"

the first thought that bokuto has is 'five hundred dollars???', followed by a weird emotions mashup of confusion and humour at the monotonous voice enunciating 'lmao' and 'lol' dryly.

but none of that matters. all of it fades away once bokuto catches the spots of colour rising high on kuroo's cheekbones. kuroo's fallen abnormally quiet, his mouth finally closed. he's shifting weirdly, too; bokuto understands why once he sees the telltale redness over his ears.

he's flustered. kuroo's flustered.

in his peripherals, akaashi also shifts, probably knowing he's at the important bit and trying to give him some more space. a part of bokuto wants to look up and ask akaashi what he thinks about everything, but bokuto can't look away from the blush sitting pretty on kuroo's cheeks. he can see it even if he's just watching a video playback of one of kenma's streams.

"kenma." kuroo's voice finally crackles, a little staticky with how low he speaks. he doesn't say anything more, and it has to be one of their best friends telepathy thing happening as kenma mutters "kuro" back, equally as low.

"level cleared." the robot voice cuts into the moment, followed almost instantly by, "i also think owl guy likes kuro-san! but the real question is, if kuro-san likes owl guy back owo"

that must be another donation comment, bokuto thinks. kuroo has a hand over half his face in the feed, only his eyes visible as he sinks into his chair.

"ok, chat. i'm ending the stream after i clear this level. before you guys break kuro forever." kenma announces in the video, still steadily clicking away. bokuto taps the screen to check the remaining minutes on the video at the same time the voice comes through with another 'level cleared'. that must be a new record with how fast kenma just did that.

true to his word, kenma starts wrapping things up, kuroo quiet next to him all the while. the video runs for another three minutes and bokuto's pretty sure kuroo won't be saying another word. he has that look on his face when he's thinking deeply, bokuto recognises it from his eyes.

he exits the stream and locks the phone, frowning. "'kaashi, kuroo didn't answer the question in the end."

"he didn't." akaashi agrees, slipping his phone back into his pocket once he takes it from bokuto. "but kuroo-san didn't even realise you liked him that way until then."

"if he even realises! he seemed pretty disbelieving."

"i think he'll realise it now. i'm more surprised that kuroo-san's that oblivious. you're not the most subtle person, bokuto-san."

bokuto frowns deeper, shaking his head. "kuroo was blushing. you think he was embarrassed? or... he could...?"

the words trail off. bokuto doesn't know how to ask what he wants to, but it's akaashi. akaashi gets him.

"you would know better than i do, bokuto-san." there's a sigh that leads bokuto to think akaashi won't be saying any more, but to his surprise more words follow, "but if you ask me, i think it was only a matter of time."

bokuto blinks. "what does that mean?"

"it means you and kuroo-san have always got on like a house on fire," akaashi shakes his head, a little exasperation in his eyes, "too much fire, sometimes."

"you're always making time to hang out with each other. kuroo-san always makes it a point to plan something special for your birthday. he remembers the brand of tea your family likes and brings some over whenever he visits. you told me that, bokuto-san."

kuroo does do that. bokuto remembers the first year of college, when he unfortunately fell sick on his birthday. he'd been visiting home for the last few weeks of summer break and had ruined the outdoor barbeque party kuroo planned for him. but kuroo hadn't even batted a lash, only bringing the party indoors and calling all their close friends over to bokuto's.

bokuto can't forget kuroo's smile as he heartily proclaimed that they were going to have a blast. he'd brought a box of his family's favourite tea then, too.

it had warmed bokuto's heart so much.

"but that could be bro behaviour," he pouts. even as he says this, though, his heart is blooming with hope. if kuroo returns his feelings... if kuroo feels the same, bokuto would be the luckiest man alive.

"maybe." akaashi concedes, and it bursts bokuto's bubble a little.

"'kaash, this is the time to be hyping me up, not bringing me down!" he whines.

"i'm not done, bokuto-san," akaashi interjects. there's a tiny smile on his face, bokuto swears sometimes akaashi likes to leave him on tenterhooks as some sort of payback for always having to deal with him. but bokuto knows there isn't anything serious behind the action, nor in akaashi's sighs.

"maybe it could just be 'bro' behaviour, as you say, and nothing more. but that was before. and whether it is or isn't, kuroo-san will probably figure out that you like him romantically soon. or at least start to question it."

oh, god. that's a terrifying thought.

"i think the question is, what you're going to do now, bokuto-san."

"... what i'm going to do...?" he mutters, soft and mostly to himself. akaashi answers him anyway, a benevolence on his part.

"let's say kuroo-san does realise you like him like that. knowing kuroo-san, there's a chance he'll just run away." bokuto sees akaashi pinch the bridge of his nose, sighing again, "even if he likes you back."

"so the question is, what you're going to do now that you know kuroo-san's already starting to think about it." bokuto sees kuroo's deeply thinking eyes in his mind, and he knows akaashi's right.

akaashi's right about more than one thing, actually. he'd said bokuto wasn't the most subtle person out there and bokuto knows that, too. in fact, bokuto hasn't really been trying to hide it. not from anyone, and that includes kuroo.

kuroo really is oblivious and it's as much maddening as it is endearing.

the worst outcome would be kuroo running away, as akaashi had curtly but kindly pointed out. bokuto doesn't want that to happen. maybe it's the hope still ballooning inside him, too, that leads bokuto to such an easy decision.

"i think..." he pauses, rolling the thought around in his head for a second more. he nods decisively, "if kuroo allows, i think i'm going to woo him."

he's not going to let kuroo second-guess anything. it's been at least 24 hours since the stream was live. at least 24 hours of kuroo thinking on it and coming to whatever conclusion his big yet silly brain could come to.

since it's already come to this, bokuto wants kuroo to know that kenma's fans were right. to have no doubt about the feelings that have felt inevitable since the day they met.

"even if kuroo says no, and he doesn't feel the same, i'm sure we'll still be friends."

it'll hurt like hell, but their friendship is strong. bokuto has unshakeable faith in that.

akaashi stares at him for a long second, his features softening as he breaks out into a little smile.

"i'm proud of you, bokuto-san." he says, instantly erasing any hesitance bokuto might have had.

kuroo deserves to be loved right. he's one of the best people bokuto has ever known and probably will ever know. bokuto hopes he can be given the chance to love kuroo like he deserves, but before that...

he has to talk to kuroo.

[fellamarsh]

another thing i've been trying to do recently is read more self-published stuff. "but fell," you say, "you're a self-published author. surely you've been reading self-published stuff all along" and then i laugh for so long in response we both become uncomfortable.

see, the fear (which has for a long time been killing my mind) that i'll read other self-published stuff and find out that it's so much better than mine that i might as well stop writing forever kept me from doing that basically ever. i have a hard time not unfavorably comparing my work to others and had convinced myself i was being smart by withholding an avenue of de-motivation (reader: i was not being smart). it also doesn't help that i'm pretty low income and have a hard time spending money on books i haven't already read, and that self-published stuff isn't always available at the library---but really a lot of it was just me being a coward. which i'm working on. i could talk about how this particular cowardice is Very Silly, but i think enough has been said about it on writeblr and in the Writing Space in general that i don't feel the need to (though i will if anyone wants me to).

instead, i wanna talk about the self-published things i have read in the past few months and ask about the self-published things you love!

so: what happened was i got real sick, and while i was real sick i (naturally) read over 200,000 words of ace attorney fan fiction in the span of a few days. eventually i got bored of it (and also maybe annoyed at how people were characterizing some of my guys), but i still wanted to read something gay and romantic and nice, something i knew was gonna end happily, which isn't my typical fare.

now you may be saying (having gotten over all the uncomfortable laughter from earlier) "fell, you write gay romance. what do you mean that's not your typical fare?" listen. until a couple months ago i hadn't read a cut and dry romance novel since before i finished college. for context: i graduated in 2015. i know it doesn't make sense. i'm a guy who doesn't make sense.

but in this case it worked to my advantage. not the not making sense thing, but the not having read Published Romance in 1000 years thing. I didn't know where to start. I was very skeptical of everything the library had Available Now in the Gay Fantasy Romance category. what if it was all bad and also not good?

and then i scrolled past the familiar cover of our very own @ashen-crest's A Rival Most Vial.

now this was comfortable territory! this was a novel by a very nice writeblr person whose posts i enjoy! i already loosely knew the plot, i was familiar with the characters, i knew the names of things like rosemond street and the griffin's claw and that ambrose had blue hair and that at the end of it all there would definitely be Boyfriends. i didn't have to worry that this would be bad! i only had to worry that it would be really good!

but i wasn't worried about that, because i was officially Not Writing at the time, and because why the hell hadn't i read this book yet Ash literally emailed me some very kind words last year when my cat died??

Y'all, I devoured ARMV. If you haven't read it yet---especially if cozy fantasy is more your thing than it is mine---you should check it out Immediately. It was fun! It was heartwarming! It was sweet and earnest and confident! I was delighted to find it was occasionally hot! Ambrose and Eli snuggled up into my sick exhausted heart and found a permanent little place there. (Especially Ambrose. I have such a thing for Stiff Guys who Kind of Suck for Tragic Backstory Reasons and are So So Lonely They Don't Even Realize It. gawd)

(And a very small part of my brain spent the whole time wondering why I had been so afraid to really engage with the work my community is doing. The community that I'm in. The one I'm a part of. Why?! Maybe more on that later.)

But from there the curse was broken! I immediately devoured @stjohnstarling's What Manner of Man in a similar sort of frenzy (and hooooly shit guys am I excited for the expanded, finalized version to come out at the end of next month!) and started digging into @lurinatftbn's The Flower that Bloomed Nowhere (which I can already tell is going to be an All Time Favorite).

And now I want to ask you what your favorite self-published books are so that I can read them, too, but I think I will in another post that doesn't dedicate so much space to talking about my various and sundry Issues and isn't Terminally Long

[big-tiddy-goth-ghoulfriend]

Will Wood lyrics that fuck me up every time (in various and different ways)

[torchickentacos]

The pokemon anime subreddit fascinates and frustrates me on equally deep levels

[xoxo-ren-xoxo]

really weird thing ive noticed lately re: hermits getting critiqued for stuff theyve said or done is that as soon as someone holds a shit opinion (even if it's just them being stupid, or a centrist, or saying a bad word without knowing what it means, or whatever) people immediately seem to flock to the 'this guy should die' 'kys' 'why are we giving this person a platform' rhetoric and like. that's not how meaningful change is made?

like, yeah, if one of my beloved CCs posted a tweet or video tomorrow about how much they hate gay people, or believe in conservative ideals, or they just said a bunch of slurs or whatever (these are hyperbolic examples obviously) then yeah, fuck them, they should go rot. but like, having some dumb takes, or saying bad things in the past, doesn't = evil terrible person...

idk, i feel like we can critique content creators without getting so insane about it. like, shit, there are things some of my favourites do that i don't like, but theyre not even really worth bringing up tbh. unless its something actually important, i feel like it just creates more drama out of nothing and all these assholes come crawling out of the woodwork to tell everyone how much they hate that creator. or find their content boring anyway so clearly they have no real merit to anyone.

more of an explanation of what i mean in the tags but yeah.

[gutsfics]

hang on Kiki Boots is a REALLY good name for a drag queen

[cuteniarose]

Kat and Nia and their Multiverse of Madness

A masterpost for the intricate web of AUs co-created by @katkastrofa and yours truly, with linked art, fics and relevant posts for maximum convenience

(Compiled into one post mainly to help keep track of everything now that it's grown so big, but also specifically written out for @rokurookajima since she was interested. Will continue to be updated as things develop further)

Under the read more, because fair warning, this is LONG

MAIN VERSES:

We have many different AUs as part of our multiverse, but there are only two main ones, with the rest either being based on SotRL or a mix of it and FAtC:

Seeds of the Red Lotus – Suiren and Midori, my first OCs and Ming-Hua and Ghazan's children, grow up in Gaoling with their abusive paternal aunt, Haya (she wasn't abusive towards Ghazan, which is why he was inclined to trust her with his kids, but her grudge against him for abandoning her in favour of the RL + prejudice against the Swamp tribes, where Ming-Hua is from, because the illness that killed her parents started there, led her to taking out her anger on his daughters, particularly on Suiren, who is way too much like her mother). Their childhoods are awful in unique ways, and in an attempt to earn enough money to move out, Suiren, a waterbender, takes up a job as an assassin, which just further worsens her already nonexistent mental stability. In 174 AG, Team Avatar hires her as a last ditch effort to defeat Kuvira (and no, there is no giant mecha suit, because it's stupid and I hate it), and both sisters are taken to Air Temple Island. I never finished the fic itself, though I am slowly dabbling in a rewrite + continuation, but most of the discussions Kat and I have still take place in this verse, or more specifically, what we call post-SotRL

(Post-SotRL – After Suiren fails to kill Kuvira and sustains an injury to her leg, she and Midori leave ATI and by pure chance reunite with their parents and P'Li (all of whom survived the Book 3 finale and spent 3 years in hiding, because I said so). Of course, it's not all sunshine and rainbows – there are 16 years' worth of trauma, pain and guilt to work through, after all. That process is the central theme of Kat's Roots series. Some time later, Kuvira is defeated and sentenced to death, but Suiren (who's been high-key obsessed with her ever since the failed assassination) decides to break her out of jail and save her life, which leads to the start of their enemies to unwilling roommates/fuckbuddies to lovers arc. The event itself is detailed in Kat's WISH, and I myself have written this dynamic both in Astraphobia and my unfinished Avatar Sapphic Week contributions. At roughly the same time, Midori reconnects with Opal (who she met while at ATI) and they begin a relationship of their own (bc Bopal was comphet and you cannot convince me otherwise), a bit later Bolin joins the gang (gets semi-adopted by Ghazan and discovers that his mom and P’Li are actually cousins who never got to meet, so P’Li gets some family back too), and eventually this merry band of misfits break Zaheer out of jail, and what follows is some difficult political stuff that neither of us are too keen to get into, but the point is that in the end, the Red Lotus are allowed to peacefully exist and the world is slowly changing for the better)

Fate Amenable to Change – A set of fics exploring a Red Lotus Korra AU, canon to Kat's main backstory fic, Lost and Found (SotRL builds on the same events with the same backstories for P'Li and Zaheer, but with Ghazan being from Gaoling instead of Ba Sing Se, his sister's name being different, and him being childhood friends with Ming-Hua. Suiren and Midori are also not canon to FAtC). The main fic, Empty and Become Wind, differs from most other RL Korra fics because she wasn't kidnapped, rather the RL convinced her parents to run away with them, but unfortunately, both of them were killed when Korra was 11. After that, the RL took up residence in Zaofu right up until it was time for Korra to learn airbending, upon which they all relocate to Republic City. Kat's co-writer for this series quit writing, and since then we've basically adopted the two most prominent OCs from it – Nazra, P'heer's combustionbending daughter, and Tsomo, a blind airbender born to Lin and Tenzin before they broke up. The two of them feature in a few of our SotRL-based AUs (and yes, they're lesbians and in love, did you really expect anything else?). We don't really explore this verse because both of us are obsessed with Suiren and Midori, but it deserves a mention nonetheless.

SECONDARY VERSES:

Under the Oak's Shade – The first secondary AU ever created, a result of a passing idea of an AU where Zhi (P'Li's mentor and parental figure from Kat's LaF) and her partner Ikiaq (a bloodbending healer. Yes, these two are also lesbians) take in Suiren and Midori after their parents are imprisoned. Due to being unable to cope with her own grief, it takes Zhi six months to get to the girls, which was enough time for Haya's abuse to leave its mark. Both girls are nothing at all like the kids described in the letters P'Li used to send, and while Midori is quick to revert back and soak in all of Zhi's affection, Suiren is angry, skittish, terrified and resentful, reluctant to let Zhi anywhere near her. The series is still in progress, but the current plan is that Zhi will take them to the North Pole, where she lives with Ikiaq, and they shall help the girls heal from their trauma and grow up happy and healthy. One notable detail is that Suiren will train under Ikiaq and become a bloodbender, which will eventually enable her to enact a plan to break the RL out of prison early on. There have also been talks of a Red Lotus Korra element to this AU as well, but we'll have to discuss it in more detail

Ultimate AU – One of the mixes between SotRL and FAtC. This AU has existed pretty much forever, as I very quickly came up with a "hey, what if Suiren, Midori and Nazra all existed in the same verse?" concept. It is also the birthplace of Kuviren and Green Opal, both started as inside jokes, so remember kids, be careful with what you joke about, it might just become an important part of your story. It gained proper shape in May 2024 when I came up with an AU of LaF in which P'Li's little sister, Lien-Hua, gets to live and is also rescued from the warlord by Zaheer. Lien-Hua haunts the narrative of our multiverse (and actually, in SotRL-verse Midori is her reincarnation!!), she's really the central part of it all, and so it was decided that if she gets to live, everyone else does too. Xai Bau, the Red Lotus founder who died closer to the end of LaF, survives. The AU follows the storyline of FAtC with Korra's parents joining the RL, but they also get to live. In Zaofu, the kids get to grow up happily with their parents, the seeds for Kuviren and Green Opal are planted, and it's genuinely all very soft and fluffy up until Republic City and the Equalist conflict comes into the picture and things take on a darker turn. But before then, the worst thing that happens is Kuvira rejecting Suiren because she's convinced Renny (who's a massive flirt with a love for low cut dresses in this verse) is just playing with her and her feelings aren't genuine. But they sort it out soon enough, don't you worry. Essentially, this is the AU we turn to when the angst gets to be Too Much

Mud of Adversity – Another mix of SotRL and FAtC, this time a lot more angsty. Starts out the same as SotRL, with the exception of Nazra being left with Haya as well, meaning that Suiren's burden of being the protector has doubled. Haya knows who Nazra's mother is and thus is scared of her, so Naz doesn't get hit (Haya views her as a walking time bomb, essentially), but they're not given enough food to satisfy Nazra's increased appetite and she's made to feel like a freak for her height and abilities. Though in some ways, she's luckier than her sisters because she's allowed to firebend while earth- and waterbending are banned. The reason is the same, Haya being afraid that Nazra will spontaneously combust if her fire builds up for too long. Years later, when the girls are teens, Nazra gets angry at Haya for beating Suiren and accidentally kills her with her combustionbending. They dispose of the body, leave Gaoling and go into hiding, Suiren taking up her assassin job to keep them fed. When the RL escape from prison in Book 3, they go to check up on their daughters only to find an empty house, causing them all to imagine the worst. We never did finish figuring out how this AU develops, but this is the basic gist of it and maybe one day, we'll return to it

Sacrifice AU – The angstiest SotRL AU there is. As mentioned, people in the small corner of Gaoling Haya lives in are prejudiced towards the Swamp tribes, blaming them for the disease that killed so many, and Suiren as a swampbender becomes the subject of many rumours and superstitions. With time, the townspeople start to see her as a spirit (because it's easier to ignore the obvious abuse of a child if she's not a child at all, but a malevolent spirit and an omen of doom), and the rumours reach their peak when Suiren becomes an assassin and is now able to afford a slightly better life for herself and Midori, at which point it is decided that she must be the reason everyone else lives in poverty, because why else does she live better than them? Getting rid of her will be their salvation. So one night a few months after the Red Lotus allegedly die, on a new moon so Suiren is at her weakest, they attack, intending to sacrifice her as a way of securing prosperity, and kill Midori while they're at it. Kuvira, who at that point has already started her Great Uniter work, happens to be in Gaoling at the same time and saves them, taking them to Zaofu for their safety. Desperate to feel alive again, Suiren falls into bed with Kuvira on that very first night and regrets it a lot since now Kuvira keeps looking at her as if she expects something (Kuvira is just concerned, but try telling Suiren that). Traumatised, suffering from PTSD and paranoia, Suiren avoids people like the plague and stops waterbending, considering water to be a traitor since it didn't help her save herself and Midori, and instead learns bloodbending so she isn't completely helpless. And Kuvira, who keeps fretting over her, might just be the perfect test subject...

MoA Sacrifice AU – Somehow, even worse than the previous one. As the title suggests, a mix of Sacrifice AU and Mud of Adversity. Instead of Nazra killing Haya, things carry on as normal for a few more years until the night of the sacrifice. Nazra uses her combustionbending to try saving Suiren, but fails and all it results in is the townspeople deciding to sell her to a general looking for unique benders for his army. Suiren and Midori are saved by Kuvira and taken to Zaofu, while Nazra meets the same fate as her mother, being tattooed and forced to be a weapon against her will. Eventually, she is found and saved, but is so traumatised and scared of hurting people (her tattoo was done in a way that made her light chakra overactive, she literally cannot supress her combustionbending unless she's on qi blockers) that she can't stay in Zaofu and is sent to a sanctuary in the mountains to recover, where she meets and bonds with Tsomo. Meanwhile, rumours of a combustionbender spread and reach the Red Lotus, who are currently in hiding. Ghazan goes to investigate, is told by Haya about the failed sacrifice, comes across Bolin who by that point has made friends with Midori, and the reunion between the RL and their kids happens sooner than in normal SotRL. Still not too clear on where it goes from there

Avatar Suiren AU – Aang dies two years earlier and Suiren is born as the Avatar instead of Korra. The Red Lotus fundamentally believe that the Avatar shouldn't exist, and that belief was passed on to Suiren before they found out what she was. Suiren hates being the Avatar, both because she sees her parents constantly worrying about her being discovered and taken away, and because she, similar to Yangchen, is rather sensitive to memories of her past lives and it's very, very overwhelming for her. She often gets nightmares about traumatic things previous Avatars went though and.wakes up screaming names long forgotten by history, but that also allows her easier communication with them, so she's never quite alone. She remembers all the pain, all the efforts to fix the world that were ultimately useless, knows how it feels like to have your entire world upended as a child, and decides early on that she will not let this continue. The world cannot keep relying on one being to save them, and so she shall be the Last Avatar. She grows up, trains, at one point crosses paths with Kuvira in Zaofu who finds out her secret and becomes extremely devoted to her, and during Harmonic Convergence opens both Spirit Portals and fuses with Vaatu (much to Raava's dismay). She works hard to get the world ready for the lack of an Avatar, to change and establish as many things as she can, all the while bonding with and getting attached to her spirit kites, particularly Vaatu, though she spends a lot of time talking to both, and when things are as stable as can be, she lets both of them go, ending the cycle (something that would cause unfathomable outrage were it to actually happen in the show, but tbh, even this is 100x better than whatever those new leaks promise...)

Mermaid AU – An utterly niche, self indulgent AU not connected to any other verse, born out of my lifelong love for mermaids. No bending, no Avatar, just Kuvira as the best captain in Suyin Beifong's merchant fleet (and Bataar Jr's fiancee) and Suiren as a mermaid/siren/sea monster who she meets while stranded in a seaside town. Monsterfucking ensues 😁 I'm still not quite sure where I'll take this, the fic for it that I started for MerMay 2024 is still just a oneshot, but I do have some ideas I could explore, including how Suiren's parents and Midori feature in this AU (as a tiny hint.. anyone here ever seen Barbie in a Mermaid Tale? [they say, as if they don’t have several posts on their art blog spoiling the “grand reveal”…])

BONUS IMPORTANT STORYLINES:

Northern Water Tribe shenanigans – In March 2024 I made a shitpost about Malina, Unalaq's wife, Kat saw it and things spiralled from there. It came to be that there's no love in their marriage, they have not shared a bed since the twins were conceived, and Unalaq generally has no interest in Malina because he's rather.. preoccupied (🤮) with a certain spirit kite. And what's a lonely, touch starved, severely tocophobic beautiful bisexual noble woman to do in that situation? Well, start a harem made out of her guards and handmaidens, of course!! It's.. pretty much pure filth, yes 😔 That's just what happens when you let someone raised on harem dramas (a.k.a me) anywhere near noble characters. But anyway, we have two OCs Malina is close with so far – Ila, a useless disaster lesbian for whom no other woman but Malina exists, and Alasie, an aroace and touch repulsed maid who has her boundaries respected by Malina and becomes a friend to her. Ngl, those two are low-key based on Kat and me <3 And Suiren also becomes involved in all of this in the UtOS and Avatar Suiren verses, but I shall not be sharing details of that in public

Zaheer's fucked up family – Once upon a time, Kat wrote in LaF that at age 12, Zaheer ran away from his tyrant father, classist mother and two sisters, whom he didn’t have the best relationship with. One summer evening, I took that and ran with it. Semi-brief summary: Jusamah – Zaheer's father, angry, violent, barely tolerates his wife and kids, cares only for his fortune and continuing the family line, can, will and has severely punished and executed people for perceived transgressions; Sunat – Zaheer's mother, meek, anxious, secretly nearsighted, loves her children and would do anything to ensure their safety, but doesn't allow herself to show affection, focuses on social climbing to secure good matches for her daughters; Summiya – the eldest, perfect in every way down to the uncanny symmetry of her face. Married to Himman, the only son of an influential family who's rumoured to be a drunk and a brothel goer. Her two children, Liba and Abyan, were both born with visible birthmarks, thus not as perfect as her, and her perfectionism and constant criticism make Abyan resent her and Liba hate herself. As young teens, the two run away, leaving Summiya's life crumbling around her. Her kids are gone, her husband is a cheater, she's not perfect anymore, so she loses it and turns to sexual masochism to feel at least something. Her infidelity is discovered, she runs away, makes friends with a group of girls working at a local brothel (a few of whom are her husband's mistresses), heals, finds freedom in sex work, eventually reconnects with her sister, kids, mother and, many years later, Zaheer; Aiza/Emran – middle child, always failed to live up to both Summiya and Zaheer, scored a less than ideal match and couldn't stand the thought of marrying someone she had never met (my fic nobody’s son, nobody’s daughter goes into this in great detail), so disguised herself as a boy named Emran and ran away with the help of her maid. Ends up at an Air Temple, joins the acolytes, has a gender epiphany and now goes by both names, uses she/he/they pronouns, and is a genderfluid, pansexual, polyamorous ICON. Many years later, his niece and nephew arrive at the same temple and he takes them under his wing. Has many lovers all over the world, including the maid who helped them, Jia (who was tortured for information by Jusamah after Aiza left 😬) and after reuniting with Zaheer, Ghazan :D. Gains airbending after Harmonic Convergence. Over the last few months Kat and I have basically frothed at the mouth at any even slight mention of this family, and it's hard to tell why from a summary, but generational conflicts like this are fascinating so we intend to keep going with this until we literally can't anymore

Brothel girls – Summiya's friends!! Featuring: Shezan – bisexual, struggles with chronic pain, comes from a big family, loves her work but would rather do it independently; Roheen – lesbian, wanted to become a lawyer but didn't get into school despite her smarts, dislikes her job and wants to leave to pursue law school again; Gulalai – bisexual, has an identical twin sister she failed to compare to, in a relationship with Roheen, enjoys her work well enough but would leave if Roheen left; Phailin – asexual, half Fire Nation, erotic dancer who goes further for a higher price, loves dancing and having eyes on herself and dreams of returning to her ancestral homeland, the Fire Nation islands; Daneli – lesbian, youngest girl there, turned to brothel work when her dad (single father) got sick, has crushes on Shezan and Qader, doesn't enjoy her job much and will leave as soon as she can, ends up adopting the daughter of one of the other brothel girls, whom she names Kumisai (who, as a teenager, will be in a relationship with Jinora and friends with Kai); and Qader – some flavour of mspec, was bullied growing up for not being feminine enough so went full butch to spite them, picked her name herself, the most domineering at the brothel, likes her work and will keep at it regardless of circumstances, makes Kat's brain short-circuit 🤭. Honourable mention – Mekhali, non-binary, independent sex worker with an undecided dark past, Summiya's first friend who housed her after she ran away, introduced her to the girls and helped both her and Shezan start working independently too (no posted art or fics of these guys exist yet, but Kat and I have an extensive series of incorrect quotes posts featuring them)

Sweet baby Ehuang – We've had the headcanon for a while that Midori and Opal would work with kids a lot in the future, and as a result would adopt a bunch (no names, appearances or concrete backstories yet, but they adopted a boy who was born in 173 AG, a girl who was born in 175 AG, and one who'll end up nonbinary who was born in 181 AG), but after a while Midori decides that she wants to have a biological child as well. With one of Opal's brothers helping out as a sperm donor, Midori conceives and nine months later, in 186 AG, gives birth to a girl they name Ehuang (her name comes from the same legend as Ming-Hua's mom's name, Nuying, so it's all very symbolic). Ehuang grows up to be a wild and carefree child, beloved by her entire family – her moms, siblings, grandparents, uncles on Opal's side, Auntie Renny and Auntie 'Vira (Suiren and Kuvira, in case that wasn't obvious), etc etc. She's an earthbender on the road to becoming a lavabender, takes after great grandma Toph in her refusal to wear shoes, has a rock collection, and is literally the manifestation of everything good and pure in this world. We don't have much of a storyline for her yet, but that will hopefully change at some point since I already have a few ideas

EXTRA OC INFODUMPS AND RELEVANT POSTS:

Brief summaries of Haya, Summiya, Aiza, Ehuang, and Ila & Alasie

Meifeng, Ming-Hua’s cousin

Nonbinary OCs (incomplete list)

Eldest daughters

And, as one final piece of information, the SotRL-verse family tree:

Last updated: DECEMBER 20TH 2024

[svtskneecaps]

thank you for bearing with my purgatory posting and i'm also glad to see i'm not the only one who still has this fungus eating away at my brain matter. seeing other purgatory posting in the tag makes me feel better lmfao.

i'm not done btw, posting will (probably) continue as i revisit vods. wanted to extend a thanks in the interim, since i know how contentious the event was in the moment. i kinda thought the general consensus was most people hated thinking about it, but there's been a weird amount of engagement and yknow other people talking. makes me happy to know i'm not alone here!

[winds-of-zephyr416]

You know, I’ve been having a lot of OC thoughts lately. Usually my family gets to hear most of them, but none of them are available so now it’s tumblr’s turn for insanity :)

So in my fantasy world that I’ve been building for a couple of years or so now, I have these… gods. Eldritch, celestial beings who exist as spirits in the world. They don’t really consider themselves gods, they’re really more like a lost civilization than anything, but the premise still stands.

Anyways, I’ve been thinking a lot about their culture and language lately. They don’t really have to contend with things like death, they’re very much so immortal and almost impervious to harm, so they don’t really do a lot of things for survival. They also typically communicate with a form of telepathy, so language isn’t even a necessary thing for them.

But they still have a language. They still have architecture. They still have a society that comes together to solve problems. Granted, it’s a lot different than what human civilizations look like, because of the whole “impervious to harm” thing, but they have it, and that’s what’s important.

You know what else is important? Their language. Especially their language. Good lord I am not normal about their language.

Their language is made up of sounds that mimic the world around them. Some words are built up out of rippling streams and birdsong, while others are made out of sounds impossible for us to even hear. Their words are crafted, and many are made to have double meanings and ambiguity. They can’t be ambiguous when they trade thoughts and ideas through their minds, so the notion of being able to say something with multiple meanings fascinates them. They write songs and poetry, and they are engrossed with it, because sound has never carried so much meaning before. They make jokes. They find misunderstanding hilarious, because they’re so alien to their usual way of communicating. They adore puns. Language isn’t a necessity for them, but they developed it anyway, because it gave them a new way of having fun that they had never encountered before in their billions of years of being alive.

Later on, when humanity comes into the scene, they realize that they can use this thing called language to talk to them. Humanity is not like the gods, humanity needs to communicate through a physical medium, whether it be through sight or hearing or touch. Humanity is often confused or overwhelmed when the gods converse with them, because they find that many of the sounds the gods use are completely incoherent. They can’t recreate the sound of thunder in the sky, or crackling flame, and often they look around them in fear, as if the sound alone is indicative of danger.

So, the gods adapt. They learn the languages of humanity, instead, and talk to them in their own tongues. But mortals are curious, and the gods love to learn and teach, so it isn’t long until the gods try to translate the sounds of their language into something humanity can listen to and understand. The music of the slow cracking of the earth is shifted up in pitch until mortals can hear and hearken to the sound, and the mortals in turn recreate it with what their voices will allow. Slowly, the gods make their language perceivable, and slowly, humanity teaches them how to make it pronounceable.

The resulting speech is neither mortal nor divine, but somewhere between the two. Its words have a rippling quality, and in each sentence one can almost hear what is being spoken. The word for wave becomes a low crash, the word for music becomes a dancing song in the ears of whoever is there to listen. There is no doubt that there is magic in these words, with the way they call everyone in the room to their attention and fill their hearts with the very soul of what is being said. This language is not magic in a sense of control, it does not bind things in the world to its will, but it carries with it the memory of the world it was made to describe.

Later on, this middle ground, this speech both mortal and divine, would become lost and forgotten. It would not vanish violently, with the sudden fall of an empire, nor would it fade away with the few who are “worthy” of speaking such a tongue. No, instead it would grow and evolve with the people who learned it, moving across the continent and coming into contact with new lands and people. There, it would teach and learn in turn, and then diverge again, becoming yet another middle ground.

Slowly, like this, the language of humanity and gods together disappears. It does not die, but it dissolves, morphed into a thousand little pieces that stay on in other languages. It can still be found, if you look close enough, at the way speakers arrange their words, or in the rhythms they like to sing. Not even its name is truly past, still being borne by a speech that closely resembles the one long gone.

No, the language of mortals and the gods does not die, because, even in the darkest of days, when it seems like the world will perish and all life along with it, each syllable uttered in fear echoes the language that once carried nothing but joy, and each sentence given in comfort is another window into the years when things were bright. The tongues of mortals do not forget, even if humanity itself has.

And even so, were the speech of humans ever to forget what they helped to create, the gods would still remember. And maybe, the gods would teach and be taught by the mortals once again, in spite of the mutilated darkness that enshrouds these present days. Perhaps they already have.

[hazelcephalopod]

Main thoughts on The Acolyte based on the first 5 episodes.

Seeing a different era of the Republic and Jedi has been neat.

Sol asked Mae pretending to be Osha where her sister was. That and other little things about how he’s behaving with her and looking at her make me suspect he either suspects she may in fact be Mae, or outright know she’s Mae and is playing along to try to get her to the ship easier and maybe get more info, possibly even gain some trust or something with her.

Not to brag too much. But when Qimir first showed up I thought he'd be doing some drunken master shit or something. And I feel I wasn’t far off. Also. Gotta be honest he did look great doing all his crimes.

The force witch coven was cool.

Im really curious where the Qimir stuff goes. He says he has no name but the Jedi would call him sith. Now that can be interpreted a couple ways. Personally? It could be a lie for a few reasons, but considering how confident he was and his stated desire -freedom- I’m inclined to believe him. I admit though, I think it’s more interesting if he’s not Sith but instead just something else or something new.

…speaking of which. I do like digging into more of the Jedi beliefs and potential misdeed. There’s layers of complexity to their practices for sure, but they’ve always been a little bit pushy about their beliefs and practices. They are the only -or maybe one of very few- recognized force using organizations in the Republic, and I think that has some ramifications that are being explored here. They are light users, quasi-monastics, and still a religious organization with political ties. When you look at it together, Anakin being the balance of the force makes sense, even all the main movies show the force is dark and light and both will always exist. The Jedi try to reject the dark completely oftentimes, which is not balanced. The Jedi often act as absolutist and for lack of a better word supremacistic, and certainly it seems like this is a period where that is in full force. I mean, we will see what happened exactly with the witches -which may not have been officially sanctioned but still indicates the presence of a certain attitude towards force users other than jedi.

Also related to above -tbh we needed a paragraph break. Qimir brings up a good point about freedom -even if he’s also probably evil, again we’ll see I guess. However again my point: limiting the force strictly is never going to work long term.

That said. I really enjoy Star Wars when it is willing to interrogate the idea that the dark side is always evil. And this series has, poked at it a little. I’d love to see it poke more. (Tbh the oppositional duelism of the force is a bit simplistic, and I find the ideas that the force is just the force, an undivided energy that has been dogmatically perceived through a dualistic lens for millennia by most of the galaxy but isn’t actually more interesting.)

[btvspolls]

Life Update

hey everyone, sorry for being so inactive this week. My paternal uncle passed away on monday morning, and helping with preparations for the funeral has taken up most of my time. I'll resume activity when I can, but in the meantime I encourage you all to check out the brilliant @sunnydaleherald for not only poll/bracket updates but also curated lists of fanfiction, fanart, meta, ect. from not only tumblr but also reddit, buffy-boards, ao3, dreamwidth, youtube...if it hosts btvs content, they cover it.

[izzy-b-hands]

Didn't think the 1989 version of The Woman In Black would be scarier than the one with Dan Radcliffe in it

I was Wrong flkjdsafkldsja, but I'm delighted to have been wrong. I had missed getting scared with more practical effects/careful timing of things in the background of shots appearing and disappearing, and this one scratches that itch well.

[bagea]

happy new years to myself. and my weird online friends and mutuals