#so I'm maaaybe halfway through it

[delucadarling]

May Writing Challenge - Day 12

I don't actually know that I'm done writing for the day, but I also don't want to be panic posting this at 11 pm again.

[pastafossa]

Stumbling and crashing and tripping with various crashes and a Wilhelm scream into your askbox to ask, YOU PLAY BG3????? ISN'T IT GREAT?!?!?!! I LOVE IT SO MUCH AKSHQKXBQ it's been my Focus since December!!! Who's your favorite so far?? How far are you in?? What kind of route are you doing?? Have you discovered any funny loopholes yet?? What race do you favor playing?? I LOVE to hear about other peoples playthroughs,

IT'S GODDAMN AMAZING AND I ALREADY HAVE MULTIPLE PLAYTHROUGHS PLANNED BECAUSE ONCE IS NOOOOT ENOUGH! I AM IN LOVE. Like I know these types of games (I've been a Bioware slut since KOTOR 2, so I looove this genre), and so I feel very confident saying holy shit, BG3 is one of the best! ALSO IT'S HUGE??? INSANELY HUGE??? AND FULL??? I LOVE IT SM.

Oh god favorites are hard, I'm gd attached to all of these little ducklings following my Tav. So far at least, storywise it's SCRATCH HE IS THE BESTEST BOY maaaybe Astarion. I LOVE his arc, his voicework is stunning, (I accidentally killed him with the big monastery laser and his reaction was hysterical) and his quest has been very moving. A close second is KARLACH, MY GIRL, MY FIREY BFF, like damn I HAD my little battle group (Gale + Astarion + Wyll) when I found her but I adore her so much I'm rotating Gale and Wyll to keep her permanently, SHE JUST WANTED A HUG. 😭

I'm in act 3, I just hit the city! I have no idea how but I am also STILL on my first PT after over a month of play. I love to sniff around under every nook and cranny granted, AND YET I STILL MISSED THINGS, IT'S SO BIG???

So far my route has been a chaotic good route! Outside, uh, occasional murdery hiccups goodbye creche but ya'll were assholes I've mostly managed to follow that alignment, and somehow still made friends with Lae? That was unexpected. I thought she hated my Tav's guts before she hit on her. 😂

Hilarious moments: setting off the giant laser at the monastery cause why wouldn't I grab the shiny weapon (sorry Astarion); being instakilled by Vlaakith at said monastery after basically mocking her with 'if you were really a god you'd be able to just kill someone yourself ha ha-splat'; friends telling me to talk to animals so I got excited when I saw a squirrel and ran to talk to it - it proceeded to bite me, then I failed a persuasion roll about being friends and it told me to fuck off; trying to get to that dwarf lady's husband in the Underdark and shooting an arrow at one of the mushrooms in the field he was in, thinking I could clear them one by one to get to him, only to set off a chain reaction that incinerated him and left the entire field a smoking crater (me as the explosions begin: oh, OH, oh no - wait, sir! Sir! Oh you're fine, you're - oh fuck, RUN SIR RU-shit he's dead); placing my druid in rothe/battle cow shape at the top of a ladder and charging whatever bad guy comes up so they fall back down (catchphrase: MOO, BITCH); and finally, I was having trouble with that one boss guy in the goblin camp, the one that sits on the throne. So when I saw I could get to the rafters, I painstakingly dragged every last explosive barrel and grenade I could find into the room and innocently placed them around the throne, then went up to the rafters and had Astarion shoot a fire arrow. I figured I'd at least bring the guy's health down but instead I set off the fourth of july, blasted that guy so hard he bounced around the room like a pinball before his body wound up glitch-stuck halfway through a wall, but hey, dead as a doornail sooo... it worked? Chaotic good alignment: MASTERED. 🤪

I'm playing a half-elf druid CAUSE I CAN BE AN OWLBEAR OR DINOSAUR TO FIGHT. I now have a chance to run around as a dinosaur druid with my 200 yo elf boyfriend, my BFFs, and find random bowls of poutine, this is the BEST GAME EVER. Also hilariously, I didn't check the stats closely and her intelligence wound up quite low, so she is very wise but also dumb as a bag of hammers, I love her, my first Tav is a good-hearted, unintentional bundle of chaos.

[tarabyte3]

✨Fanfiction updates!✨

I Want You to Show Me Weak

I'm over halfway done with chapter 24! Currently writing the smut half 😏 It's always the part that gives me the most trouble because I've written so much Kino x Reader smut at this point, trying to make things feel fresh is a challenge. But it's a fun challenge 😌 Unfortunately that means the last few chapters will take me longer to write. I AM writing them, though. I promise!

The Devil Makes Us Sin

I'm maaaybe 2/3 of the way through chapter 3? The chapters for this fic will be longer than what I've done for previous works. Chapter 2 was 9.9k words and this one is already over 7k.

Other

I have 3 other Kino pieces on AO3 that I've never posted here: 1. Reprieve - A short Kino centric masturbation one shot, 2. Wake Up, Look Me in the Eyes Again - A Kino x M!Reader one shot, and 3. Wants, Needs, and Clerical Errors - My first Kino x F!Reader fic that is 3 chapters long. I'm going make Tumblr posts for them this week so I can eventually make a fic masterlist.

There was a future smut scene I was writing for TDMUS that I got halfway through before I realized it didn't fit the tone of that fic. But I still loved it (🥵🫠) so I'm turning it into a smutty oneshot. Now you have even more David Robey smut to look forward to!

I have a new Kino x Reader idea that I've been making notes for because it'll be my next multi chapter Kino fic after Show Me Weak (just much shorter length). It's a modern setting AU with Kino as a personal fitness trainer. STAY WITH ME! I SWEAR IT'S WORTH IT, JUST HEAR ME OUT! A month ago I started going to my own personal trainer. He's an awesome dude that I'm comfortable being completely pathetic and whiny around. And I'm enjoying it because he's kicking my ass into shape. However. The man has said things to me to try to motivate me that, when taken out of context, are some of the most casual, unhinged dom things I've ever heard IRL. When I shared them with my discord friends (Next Big Franchise shout out, I love you 💖), it was suggested that I make a Personal Trainer!Kino fic based on just the quotes alone and I latched onto that idea so fuckin hard. Because my PT saying them does absolutely nothing for me (grey ace), but the thought of Kino saying them is jfc hot 🥵. And because I am benevolent, here are a few examples: 🔸"Good, I want you to hurt" 🔸 "Do it again. You're going to keep those thighs open for me." 🔸 "I know you can give me more." 🔸 "Don't lift those hips. I'll hold you down if I have to." So there you have it: Modern AU PT!Kino x Reader that becomes more and more sexually confusing until they're just fucking on a weight bench 😌😇

[sunskate]

Seems to be a lot of wishful thinking from ice dance fans about retirements, but I don’t think a single team leaves now. Not even FB/S, because his attitude towards the accusations seems to be belligerence, and in that case he’ll see retiring as an admission of guilt. C/B will keep going, G/F obviously have a home Olympics to shoot for, and G/P in interviews are leaning towards staying too. I don’t even think P/C coming back will change the calculus much. If a team makes it halfway through an Olympic cycle then it doesn’t seem like such an insurmountable mountain to do two more seasons. The only movement we’ll get in the next couple of years is Skate Canada trying to get L/L in front of F/G so that they are the clear heirs apparent once the top 3 retire after Milan and the French and US Feds fighting to get L/B and CPom into the top 6 for the same reasons.

i agree Piper and Paul are leaning towards staying and G/F as well. there are factors bts we don't know like physical issues they might be managing, or life goals they might have outside skating. Madi and Evan are more of a ?? for me because the 2nd title, getting married, and receiving their 2022🥇 might change how they feel

but i bet USFS wants them to stay in. CPom are now US #2! but they're looking at Z/K and Gr/Pa (and maaaybe the Browns and B/S?) as possible contenders as well, and while they're waiting to see how that shakes out, they want to keep their clear #1 team. next season's programs and everyone's health are going to be crucial. but CPom have the momentum and the results now

LaLa deserve to rise - i hope they have killer program ideas - Roses and Nureyev were in a similar vein, so i wonder what they'll do for an FD next. next season is the time to shake it up maybe, and then back to something emotional for the Olympics. i want to see them apply pressure and make it so the current top teams feel the heat from them and not just each other

i guess we'll see about the French. i'm having a hard time thinking of L/B in the same conversation, even though i like them. i'm on the fence about whether P/C will come back

[bettysgay]

A lyric analysis of Sad Beautiful Tragic by Taylor Swift but it's about Hannigram

I'm not going over every lyric cuz of course they all don't fit and it repeats but stay along for the ride, this really hits all the marks for Hannigram and I think I broke halfway through.

"Long handwritten note deep in your pocket"

Immediately, the first line reminds me of Hannibal and his silly little handwritten letters, esp of course the one he sends to Jack after Bella's death, which is then given to Will.

"words, how little they mean when you're a little too late"

The second line is about when Will says he forgives Hannibal for everything. Hannibal struggles with how to deal with this and of course tries to get rid of this problem in his own cannibalistic way but we love our meow meow <3

"good girls, hopeful they'll be and long they will wait"

For three whole years Hannibal sits in the BSHCI just waiting for Will to need him again because Will is the one thing in his life that he loves more than anything else. Fuck I feel lonely.

"cuz we had a beautiful magic love there"

*through sobs and sniffles* um yeah they did

"what a sad beautiful tragic love affair"

*bawling now* WHYYYY IS THIS SHOW CANCELLED WHYYYYY

"in dreams I meet you in warm conversation"

Idk if it's exactly warm conversation but Will's dreams about Hannibal, or the wendigo, or both just have to be mentioned with this lyric. And have I headcanoned that Will also dreams about Hannibal in a sweet way? maaaybe

"we both wake in lonely beds in different cities"

ok so this SCREAMS early s3 (even though Hannibal is with Bedelia at this time shussshhhh). I can just imagine Will missing Hannibal, alone in his house with nothing but a scar. And Hannibal, wandering around trying to find some echo of Will in another person (we all know who).

"and time is taking its sweet time erasing you"

gOD just thinking about Hannibal drawing Will over and over and over again while at the BSHCI just so he can keep his face memorized is painful. AND WHEN HE DOES IT WITH THE PAINTING IN FLORENCE AH. But time could never erase the marks they have left on each other, physical and emotional.

"and you've got your demons and darlin' they all look like me"

THE FUCKING WENDIGO SHDVAGDVGADFS. The way Hannibal fuses with Will's mental representation of evil and yet Will misses him and yearns for him GOD this fucking ship.

"distance, timing, breakdown, fighting"

The fucking season 2 finale. The way if they had met earlier in their lives maybe it would have been different. The way they betrayed each other in a way they knew would hurt the most, the way only divorced couples do. The way no matter how much Will denies it to himself, he knows he hates being without Hannibal. They aren't truly themselves without one another.

"what a sad beautiful tragic love affair"

GUYS IM CRYING AGAIN FUUUUCK THIS SHIP

anyways I hope you liked me slipping into madness and if you've seen any hannigram edits to sbt pls send them my way <333

[abalonetea]

first snow for the GHD prompts? We've got an inch here and I'm on my 3rd cup of hot tea lol

You���ve got snow??? So lucky!!! I’ve never seen it in real life!!!

“I get the feeling,” says Locke, when he looks up and finds Blue shuffling his feet in the open doorway to the kitchen. “That you have done something bad?”

“Nope,” says Blue. “Not bad.”

“But you’ve done something.”

“Maaaybe.”

“You are a menace,” says Locke, unfolding himself from the chair where he’d been drawing. “But you have me interested all the same.” He shoves out his hand. “Show me what you’ve done.”

Blue grabs hold of Locke’s hand, tangling their fingers together, and starts heading for the front door. He’s snickering before they even make it halfway through the living room, and full out chuckling by the time they step outside.

A sharp, cold wind cuts into them. It’s late enough in the evening that the sky has turned into a mess of cotton candy hues, and the first soft white layer of snow has fallen sometime between lunch and now. 

Blue has somehow managed to scrape up enough of the powdery mess to build what can only be described as an army of miniature snowmen on their front lawn. He’s even gotten together bark and twigs to make little swords and shields.

Proudly, he announces, “I’m going to make them march all the way to the end’a town.”

“How long did this take you?” Locke carefully walks through the maze of miniature knights. 

Blue just looks even more pleased with himself. He asks, “wanna help me finish making them?”

Locke worries at his lower lip. He should go in and start dinner, but Blue’s looking at him all big eyed and crooked smile, and Locke knows that there’s a little tin of left over pasta and chicken on the back shelf of the fridge so...he nods, and Blue grins even bigger, and it snows soft and cold around them.

(by the time the sun sets, a thoroughly baffled Razzle is waking up at his sentry station only to find himself absolutely surrounded by tiny little snow-knights. it’s the most fun Lock’es had in weeks.)

[syrupwit]

Playing DA2 for the first time; various things incl. Anders

So, Anders, to my understanding per Act II of DA2:

Canonically bi character (I know like all of the companion characters are, but still)

Fair share of trauma (again, they all have it)

Once carefree and promiscuous, now careworn and self-isolating

Undergoes what is arguably a corruption arc

Shares his body with a supernatural being he invited in, who is possessive of him and gradually taking over his will (?) (or is he corrupting them? mutual corruption?)

Falls in love with the PC and acts jealous/petty/bitter over them regardless of their choices

Forced to kill his ex-lover in front of the PC

Giant hypocrite, pretty much the biggest hypocrite (with what he says about Isabela, Fenris, Merrill...)

Kinda sexist, judging from what I've heard about his reactions to f!Hawke vs. m!Hawke (I'm weird, and this can be sexy to me if the sexist male character is a particular type of narratively-wrong and tormented about it)

Desperate to prove himself

Commits an irremediable crime that no one saw coming (I'm spoiled for what happens, but not how exactly it happens or how it feels in-game; we'll see about that part)

Can be executed, willingly, by the PC he is in love with

I don't know how I'm expected to respond to this, other than in the way I have -- which is to say that he is my favorite.

My other favorite is Merrill. I want her to have an epic romance with Isabela that surprises both of them, but I also just really like her.

I don't have a lot of strong opinions about Hawke yet, other than that I don't want Hawke to end up with Anders; I want them to break his heart and make him miserable, because that is what delights me (in my head he is maaaybe happy eventually, but this particular type of angst is something I like for him). Hawke can flirt and sleep with everyone else too, but Varric/Hawke is endgame for Purple Hawke. Aveline & Hawke is the best platonic Hawke relationship outside of the Hawke family.

Fenris is an interesting character whose issues I'd like to dive into -- but I have a hard time taking him seriously in-game because he sounds exactly like my best friend, who does a lot of voice skits, performing an Obi-Wan Kenobi impression. I told him (my best friend) this and he revealed that Fenris is one of his voice inspirations, which is the most hilarious set of revelations that has occurred in human history, just an endless font of mirth-making.

In general, I'm not comfortable with video game violence being treated as straightforward "you killed 20 people," yet also funny or inconsequential in the game-world. I prefer to think of it as an exaggeration -- oh wait Varric is telling the story so it's definitely hyperbole. Never mind! But -- hmm maybe I can articulate myself better about that at another point. I'm very prudish about fictional sex and violence if I feel that they're not treated with the appropriate amount of either caricature/flippancy or realism, although I struggle to find that amount in my own writing.

I feel like I play video games too fast. There's a pattern where I start playing something, get halfway through, and impulsively restart the game because I feel like I didn't do it right/didn't do it thoroughly enough. So I'm probably going to do that soon with DA2, or play Origins again (I got halfway through with a great Brosca and restarted it lol, then messed up with my Tabris), and... sigh. IT'S JUST HOW I AM.

[jackiebrackettt]

^_^ question answering under cut: (i might be answering these out of order sorry)

wrt tone i don't think it's a bad thing to add in a transcript - most of my transcript work was for things that didn't really have a lot of tone changes, but i think it would be good to add in. i don't think emoticons though. (cheery) or (upbeat) are good substitutes for that kinda thing. not too sure about "):", maybe pouting or something - just look through a synonyms list and find the one that gives the best connotations but isn't too out there that ppl would need to google it to know what ur talking about.

i would treat tone similar to changes in volume: if it goes over a couple of dialogue blocks only mention it the first time and then when they switch back chuck a (normally) in there. actually thinking now you should probably chuck a (normally) after every change.

i would keep descriptors probably in brackets after the colon just because it makes it more consistent if you have to change halfway through like:

Person A: (quietly) what the fuck was that… (louder) what the fuck was that?

/ Person A: (laughing) what the fuck was that?

I think you can also use italics to emphasise words but don't go overboard i think. just up to ur judgement. also doing multiple descriptors i would just seperate them with a comma in the brackets but try and keep it to 2 at once maaaybe 3 if it's really needed.

subtitling/captioning would be more like what tommy has so you probably won't include tone, but you could ask the person ur captioning for. i should also note that captioning is specifically for this sort of thing - subtitling is for language translations. i only found that out recently. but yeah closed captions for when you toggle it, open captions for when it's in the video.

but yeah if you're transcribing content like that i would recommend just keep advertising in the tags! like an ao3 fic kinda thing - put the link to the transcript which is hosted somewhere else and short explanation / description - try and make it a little eye-catching though. idk how but uh .. yeah! youtube doesn't accept community captions anymore i don't think so you would have to get accepted by the content creator.

it might take a bit but eventually you'll prob get a following esp bc a lot of ppl like transcripts but there's not really much that exist. i wouldn't really know what to do about reaching out but i would make sure that a subtitling job doesn't include editing. the things i would do to prepare for this though is: 1) having a large portfolio of previous transcripts - esp if ur transcribing the kind of content these youtubers/streams make they'll prob be more likely to idk accept u or something.

2) figure out how long a line of captioning is before it's "too long" and then work on breaking your captions up into that - with time stamps. if you're not going to be doing the editing, you want to make that process as smooth as possible and being able to give people a rough idea of how the captioning lines should look / how long they should be would really help bc otherwise they gotta do all that manually. and it makes it kinda long. for eg when i had to do captioning on my video i just grabbed my script, copy pasted a paragraph in and then had to seperate it up each line like that and then listen back to make sure i was covering the right timing, etc. it wasn't that bad bc that was my major editing section but if these ppl are doing heavy editing and you could offer that it would prob make you look a lot more… uh hireable ig?

wrt the way diff ppl have tone in their voice … i'm not sure. it's either going to be a lot of synonyms or some (annoyed, light-hearted) (sadly, jokingly) - if ur making a website to host them i would prob recommend some kind of key up the top. where you explain what each added descriptor means and give an example - so light-hearted: often when someone is pretending to be sad/annoyed/other negative emotion but isn't that effected by it.

but if the tone doesn't come across much, i wouldn't add it. and i probably wouldn't add tone descriptors on things that don't come across. for instance if someone is acting PROPERLY angry - even if you know it's a joke (pretending this isn't rp for a second and like is just for a bit) i would be careful about adding a tone descriptor for that. if they're very obviously acting then sure, but if it's played dead-serious don't do it.

ultimately i would try and keep tone descriptors to a minimum though - only when needed, you know? and that could be a lot, but you don't need to go through adding tone descriptors to every little thing. especially if it comes across in the dialogue. i don't really know what kind of example to use but for eg just adding an exclamation mark at the end implies more of an intense sentence than usual - either it's upbeat, shocked, etc. and adding a question mark would imply the person is curious or confused.

unless it's very "over-the-top" type emotion or, again, something you wouldn't really pick up from the sentence i wouldn't add it in. bc then you'll have a tone descriptor every other sentence and that could get cluttered to read.

hope this is everything but feel free to ask more questions!

I'm asking you cuz you mentioned it and might have info on it but like. How do you do transcriptions. I have zero clue where to start, how to post it or share it, what sort of things to do, and so many particular things too like do I include images or not do I include actions do I include timestamps and AAA.

Thanks if you can provide like. Any answers or anywhere to point. I've been wanting to do this for months but everything I see is "already having been doing it for a while and have a whole repertoire and following" and that's zero help

-mimick (screaming in his head)

will come back to this in like 6hrs once I’m home from work sorry

[raendown]

Okaaaayyyyy last one (I know I went a little overboard with these requests). “Sorry I’m late.” For KakaHana (again I know I'm horrible but you write them so well!!!!) thanks so so soooo much! And actually I just thought of another pairing so maaaybe one more after this. But you can totally ignore all of these if you're busy or whatever please don't feel pressured to write them!!!

Hoooo boy are you ready for this? Cause I wasn’t ready for this. Sibi-wife you can request as many as you want haha. Hit me with ‘em. I might not get to them all today but you can fill my inbox as full as you like. 

That last jump might have used just a little too much chakra, Kakashi thought with a wince, listening to the sound of roof tiles dislodging behind him. He didn’t have the time to stop and go back though. He was late - so incredibly late - and it wasn’t even his fault. 

The mission was supposed to last only three days, keeping him occupied and preventing him from driving himself mad with anticipation. Instead he had somehow wound up slogging through Waterfall country for over a week. He’d been halfway home home already when the messenger hawk had reached him. He needed to get home now. 

His feet touched down on a billboard advertising the same shampoo Pakkun liked him to buy. Wood splintered as he hurled himself back off, pushing himself faster now that he had entered the Village. He rebounded off the side of a water tower, leaving a generous dent in it before alighting on yet another roof. He ran along the peaks of a line of houses before launching himself forward one last time.

His final jump landed him just outside of a window he was sure was only left open in anticipation of him. He slid inside, feet barely skimming the floor before he was rushing over to the bed inside the room. 

“Sorry I’m late! I’m so sorry!” 

Hana looked up at him and smiled tiredly.

“That’s okay, love,” she said as he gently swept the hair from her face and kissed her clan markings. “You missed all the action, though.” Kakashi trembled slightly and his breath caught in his throat.

“Can I…?” He couldn’t get the words to come out. Hana chuckled quietly and held up the bundle in her arms. 

“Hatake Kakashi, I’d like you to meet your son. Would you like to hold him?”

Kakashi’s whole body was shaking but his hands were rock steady as he lifted the small body wrapped in light green blankets. His son was small and pink, pudgy in the way all newborns were. His little bow mouth was open in sleep, his eyes squinting and scrunching as he twitched restlessly. 

Rocking his child back and forth, Kakashi smiled at his wife with wet eyes. He’d thought he knew what love felt like before. Now he knew how wrong he was. He’d never felt anything like he did right at this moment. 

“You did so well,” he murmured. “He’s so beautiful. You’re both beautiful.” He leaned over to kiss Hana again, careful to support his baby boy. 

Hana hummed and closed her eyes.

“Yeah, I know,” she said with a light smile before drifting off to sleep. 

Kakashi stood guard over her and watched his two most precious people sleep. He’d been late for the beginning. But he promised himself he would be there for the rest of their lives.