#so it's hard out there

[zmediaoutlet]

in the tags of your rb what did you mean by “ao3 house style”? sorry if it’s obvious 😭

oh it's probably not, no worries. Unfortunately it's one of those things that someone else said to me and I instantly knew what they meant, and now find very hard to explain in a way that is both a) coherent and b) not mean. So uh, hm.

there's a style of writing that's very very prominent in fanfiction. Everyone copies each other because most of what they're reading is fic, and so the stories start to all take on a really similar gloss of how plots go, how characters react to things, how characters sound both in their dialogue and in how the narrative describes things. A lot of stories, you could find-and-replace the names of these characters to characters from another fandom entirely, and you wouldn't really notice a difference in how the story felt other than in some random details (an Impala vs a Jeep, say).

It's very... redolent of the light romcom. Cute snappy dialogue. References to pop culture that's relevant to the writer & readership but not necessarily anything the characters would or should know. Stories hit the same beats and have the same concerns. Very... pastel. Breezy, surface-level. Generic, but generic in the meaning both of 'wow this is like everything else' and of 'this has become a genre in itself and it is hitting those beats to perfection'.

I'm given to understand that there's a readership out there who are looking for these types of stories specifically -- like, it really doesn't matter who the characters are and what the fandom is, because we can sink into this fic as comfort food and enjoy it regardless. This is not at all at all at all how I read anything but hey, it'd be a funny ol' world if we were all alike, etc.

(*Note: it's not like darky darkerton angst and miseryguts sadness and anti-fluff are magically the only kind of fic that's allowed, either. You can have wildly distinct, characterful, delightful writing that's pure fluff romcom. But the distinction maybe lies in how you can tell the writer cares about these characters and this story rather than copy-pasting some details on top of the writing equivalent of a Starbucks iced latte. Lots of people love those! But they are all the same, even if the heart the barista drew on the cup was real cute, and I'm just... looking for something else.)

[zytes]

this manatee looks like it’s in a skyrim loading screen

[ducktracy]

sharing a very sage bit of advice from The Simpsons' own John Swartzwelder that i've been trying to hamper down in my writing and drawing alike. let your inner crappy little elf do his worst

[donnieisaprettyboy]

can we stop pretending like it’s so super easy for trans men to pass. “oh just put on a baggy shirt and cut your hair-“ it literally doesn’t work like that and I refuse to believe you actually think it’s that easy

[post-grammatic-stress]

If you've ever told a person who's had to be bedbound for a period of time that you wish you could "just stay in bed", DO IT.

Stay in bed. For days. But don't get up if someone needs you to, or you get bored, or you get antsy. Don't do anything other than rest. Just lie in your bed, whether you need to get stuff done around the house or socialize or anything else "productive". You'll have to cancel on people, you'll disappoint them, they won't understand.

And if you're thinking, "well, i CAN'T just be in bed. There's stuff that has to be done - I have plans", maybe ask yourself why you assumed a disabled person doesn't have plans or things to do or desires.

[hinamie]

10 years later

[midnight-coffee94]

No single line has ever wrecked me as hard as this one from the Good Place and I think about it constantly

[girpgorp]

decided my fetal kwamis deserved a little lore

[canisalbus]

✦ Freshly ordained ✦

[stil-lindigo]

hobie motherfuckin' brown!!!!!!

[cassandragemini]

19th DC Gay Pride Day Festival, Washington DC, June 5th, 1994, by Elvert Barnes Photography

[chloesimaginationthings]

The REAL lore from the FNAF survival logbook,,

[bastardlybonkers]

i feel like not enough ppl are factoring in the cultural clash between laios and shuro and the many micro agressions shuro faced while being in their group. literally the name 'shuro' in itself is one

his name is toshiro 😭 lets also not forget that he has his own communication issues, in the opposite way that laios does- thats literally a factor in their argument, that his envy for laios's ability to express himself sincerely manifested as part of his distaste for him.

ig all this to say like, was their fight heart wrenching, especially when reading laios as autistic? absolutely. anybody whos ever been in laios's position knows how much it hurts to realize someone you thought was your friend doesnt actually like having you around, especially when they didnt tell you and you had no way of knowing due to not understanding their cues. but im begging yall to step back and see the nuance of this situation cause im gonna be real a lot of you are kinda just brushing over it acting like everything is toshiros fault and that hes a terrible person when in reality hes an average guy who really, really clashed with laios and it led to a very long misunderstanding due to their supremely opposite methods of communication. even laios and toshiro, after letting everything out in their fight, were able to come to an understanding and start a foundation for an actual friendship built on better communication

ok yknow what Edit: i shouldve made it even more explicit at the end of this post, i hadnt thought i would need to since i started the post with this, but i think a few too many people are missing my point so i just wanna clarify. i shouldnt have said 'really clashed' and left it at that because yeah they did, but it wasnt just their opposite methods of communication, it is also very much that toshiro was experiencing microaggressions via laios. it may have been unintentional on laios's part, but it still happened and wore him down, made it harder for him to communicate on top of both the more subtle social cues that he was raised with and his own communication difficulties. i also want to say that the fandom reaction to toshiro and the complete ignorance of this point is also racist tbh or at the very least ignorant. i understand that the anime did not cover this panel, and neither did the manga, as this was an omake, but im gonna be real with you guys. there are enough context clues within the story to clue you into this. if you didnt pick up on it thats ok, but i think this is a good lesson in picking up subtext in the stories that youre watching and/or reading. kui shouldnt have to explicitly say 'by the way laios was racist to toshiro' for this point to be understood, and at the very least, when the author portrays a character in a sympathetic light (as kui clearly does) it should make you question Why they are doing so and what makes them sympathetic, rather than youre immediate and only reaction to be 'well i hated what this guy did/said so i hate them and they suck'. idk exactly how to finish this, just. idk. question your biases and gut reactions to things you see in media and stories, and think about whether or not theres subtext that youre missing.

[chestnutroan]

Homo Sapiens boy together again with his Neanderthal girl on the first warm day of Spring

[wanologic]

and they were roommates

[hinamie]

mentor