#succinct and shit

[palmettoshenanigans]

Oh my GOD

You know what AFTG fic I haven't read???

Neil, post canon, growing out his real hair (mostly out of pure laziness) and Allison cutting off the dead dyed parts slowly but surely, and then-

Andrew. Watching with keen eyes as Neil's curls become even curlier from simply being untouched by chemicals. Wondering what they would look like if they were treated with a proper Curl Routine.

Andrew. Going on a bit of a Google spree. Talking to Dan. Talking to Bee. Engraving the full encyclopedic knowledge of Curly Hair Care into his mind.

Andrew. Smoking a cigarette. Staring into the distance. Facing this feeling of want that this auburn idiot keeps dredging up. Proposing the idea to Neil.

Neil. Who has never given a single solitary fuck nor wayward damn about the state of his hair in a positive light ever in his life.

Neil. Who reveles in Andrew's touch and attention always. Cherishes and hoards every offering of it. Who sees the haunting of want and is honored to bear witness.

Andrew. Yes or no.

Neil. Yes.

Followed by several thousand words of Fluff chronicling the progress of Andrew tending to Neil's hair (cus Mister 'bandana gets it out of my eyes' Josten certainly won't) and Neil's hair getting oh so soft and oh so shiny and oh so run-your-fingers-through-them-as-you-kiss-me-on-our-roof-able.

Bonus points for post graduation Andreil separation where Neil has to tend to his hair on his own (and fails) leading to Andrew chastising him for ruining all his hard work (and thus creating the perfect excuse for more visits - Andrew has to fix such blasphemous errors, obviously)

Bonus bonus points for a final scene post Separate Pro Teams, first day moved in together in their new apartment, Andrew telling Neil to get settled cus the idiot left him such a mess to clean up and what the fuck did he do all that hard work for if Neil was just gonna fuck it up anyway goddamnit and Neil does get settled, smile wide and fond and content and eyes closing to the feeling of Andrew running gentle fingers through his hair, assessing, reacquainted, reverent, and finally finally Andreil feels once more at home-

Yeah I haven't read that one yet

[trafalgardlawless]

listen i do appreciate canon marineford for the tragedy it is. however it does happen to also be extremely funny.

ace is on his knees on the execution platform, the same place the father that he despises and has tried to define himself outside for his whole life had knelt, thinking this might be the most fitting ending to the life long crashout ace started when he found out who his father was

and then in comes LUFFY, his cheerful persistent little menace of a brother, who has come to COP CENTRAL to break ace out PUBLICLY.

Not only that, but he’s staged a mass break out of the formerly inescapable prison IMPEL DOWN (HE WASNT EVEN LOCKED UP IN THERE? SO EVERYONES A LITTLE BIT CONFUSED AS TO HOW THAT HAPPENED???)

He also kind of looks like shit? But he’s fighting like he’s on day three of a methamphetamine high so no one can be sure how injured luffy Really is.

side note: luffy tanked a lung full of Kills You Dead Toxin and then got shot full of Lowers Your Lifespan Drug and on top of all that, DEMANDED the Super Lowers Your Lifespan Drug when he realized he might need anything resembling recovery time.

as an elder sibling myself, ace might’ve been truly grateful for being loved at the end, but i KNOW there’s a part of him that was INFURIATED that his kid brother managed to crash out harder than he did like OMG STOP COPYING ME FRRRRRRRRRR.

[whaliiwatching]

How do you think hurt/comfort noirpunk would go?

they deal with blegh days by distracting each other. crafts that require engagement like block print carving or making jewelry or other diy stuff, aimless conversation with the goal of making each other laugh.

bad days mean closing the blinds. less engaging activities like watching movies, sewing, lots of reassuring touch and just.. being there for each other. hobie strikes me as someone who prefers to talk—fuck suppressing your emotions until they rot—so he can air it all out, and it won’t fester inside him. he doesn’t like to be alone when he’s hurting, and loves staying in contact to help ground him. if he goes to make tea, noir will follow him and hold his hand as he goes about it. imo hobie is also more prone to crying; crying feels damn good, and noir’s sweater never minds the tears.

i think noir prefers to work through hurt internally, sitting with the emotion bc yknow, every emotion is part of living and just bc despair/anger/grief hurt doesn’t mean they’re Evil. he gets quiet, sometimes likes to be alone, but more often prefers to curl up with hobie, listening to him murmur reassurances (breathe, one step at a time, i will always be here, i love you), and stay like that until the world feels manageable again. he doesn’t cry often, but his voice does break, and he hides his face. usually in hobie’s hair or the crook of his neck. it helps remind him he’s not alone anymore.

[gingersnaptaff]

What's your take on the 3 Gwenhwfars of The Hergest Triads?

Hi anon! Now, do you mean as to whether they're like three aspects of the same woman or whether they're separate? Or just... that they are all women who are married to Arthur?

I mean, I do find it funny he married three women who bore the same name. Like that's so fuckin hilarious to me. Did he have it legally mandated that his wives all had to have the same name so he didn't forget it? I won't lie I do find it fascinating that two of the Gwenhwyfar's have some kind of supernatural element to them! Gwenhwyfar the second was Gwythyr app Greidawl who - if you've read Culhwch ac Olwen - gets mentioned as Gwyn ap Nudd's May Day nemesis who batters him to death each year so spring can be sprung. Also, the fact that, y'know, Gwyn stole Creiddylad from him probably put his nose out of joint.

And then u have Gwenhwyfar three whose dad was Ogrfan Fawr, a literal giant. Like sjdjdjd Neato. Although she did start Camlann along with her sister, Gwenhwyfach, so like can't give her all the plaudits there.

As for whether they're like a reflection of some long-lost triple goddess, I don't think so. If they were - and it's a very tenuous if - then why haven't we found records for that? Or some reflection of that from the myths? We know Rhiannon from Branch 1 of the Mabinogi was a goddess, or at the very least an echo of one, so why don't we have that for Gwenhwyfar?

Personally, I can't see it. We only know of Ogrfan's Gwenhwyfar that she was 'bad when little, worse when great.' As for the other two, I don't have anything to go on! The lack of sources is frustrating but I mean at the end of the day I can't be like 'Oh, you shouldn't believe this!' I would just caution that I can't give u a full picture simply because there isn't one!

I think it's fascinating that the triads were like 'Yeah, Arthur had three wives and they're all named the same!' Like he must be one scatter-brained lad if he can't remember names! That detail is just so sjdjssks.

Anyways, hope u have a good day, anon! I'm sorry I couldn't give you much I'm just incredibly hesitant to ascribe things to the three Gwenhwyfar's when I can't give you sources for them!

[kitausuret]

The latest issue of Avengers Academy just proved to me what I suspected all along: Anthony Oliveira understands how symbiotes work better than the last four writers on the Venom titled series.

If I could slip him twenty bucks to write a printed Red Goblin miniseries I totally would. It would be so good you guys...

[jedisupernova]

just finished squid game season three

[dennisboobs]

straight up was just like "dennis is a trans woman" to my conservative cousin and he responded with "yeah, the way he... all of that, yeah i can see that"

[c6jpg]

i should have paid more attention to the first part of the little saurian world quest bc i am now fully invested

[pyrosomatic-metamorphosis]

genuine question but is there any fandom where a character is well written by the majority. im thinking about fandom culture and the spread of frustration when people dont write characters well but. honestly in all the fandoms ive been in there's only like, a Select number of authors who i trust to write Well, let alone write Well AND In Character. character analysis and writing and getting inside characters' heads are all separate skills (all of which are trained by roleplaying fyi can CONFIRM playing pretend with your friends is good for you). there's been more than once where I've disagreed with an interpretation that others agreed with, and then I turned out wrong. or i turned out right. like it doesnt matter WHO is right it just matters that differences in character analysis exist, so even if you DO write well AND write in character, your in character is still going to be someone else's out of character

there's this sort of. vibe. that to play in the sandbox you Need to be able to make a castle, and if you can't make a castle then you shouldn't bother, and it completely dismisses the idea that youre in that sandbox to PLAY in the first place. there's this Weight of disappointing someone if you can't build something that they like, but that forgets that you aren't there to build them a castle. like, be KIND. if you disagree with someone then please make an effort to do so kindly. i dont give a shit about fandom discourse but there is a reason kids get removed from sandboxes if they keep throwing sand in people's eyes. but if they don't like your misshapen sand pile, then youre not obligated to change it. even if you yourself end up hating that same sand pile later- youre not building a legacy. youre playing. and sometimes the result of that play is out of character drivel. theres a reason there are so many authors and so few who i like to consistently read and thats because everyone is Fucking Around in their hobby space. hash tag brag or whatever but i can build castles. ive built several that im v proud of. ive also dug holes in the sand for fun and then tripped on them when trying to get up. I often dug a hole and then got up and fucking- whoops, its a castle now, and i didn't realize i'd made something to be proud of until after the fact. the whole time while creating shit i was Convinced it was bullshit that didn't make sense. and then other times i was Convinced it was bullshit and then i was Right and i can look back and go. huh. ew. but it doesn't matter what the end result was, because i had fun playing in the sandbox

this wasn't meant to turn into a ramble but i have Feelings about bad art and art that's badly perceived and how public perception can screw with your head and how making art youre proud of is fucking. it's so difficult!!! it's hard!! it's really fun, which is why i try to make it, but i promise you it is Okay to not tryhard creativity. even if you CAN, it's okay not to do it all the time. or ever, even. fuck around find out have fun etc

[fifteensjukebox]

my new online shopping technique is asking the Universe (ad algoritthm) to find me a good one im tired of research

[worldofgoo]

cant sleep because of brother time again... i will try to explain myself properly under the cut

like. fundamentally i do like him and trust his desire to try to like. idk be kind and respectful because thats all that really matters. but he is also deeply frustrating and sometimes outright mean and rude that kind of contradicts the benefit of the doubt that i extend to him. i know my mom is kind of a lot so that strains everything but idk.

so he hasnt done this. recently. (as in maybe the last month or two). but pretty consistently after moving in with us he'll have some type of monthly drinking binge where he gets like. scary shitfaced. like. yelling slurs. and walking around the house and falling over on the floor and insulting us and being belligerent. hes fucked things up in the kitchen to the point where he makes huge messes and left the gas running (this was when he kept abusing sleeping medicine and who knows what)

and dealing with that type of thing is pretty scary and frustrating and i sympathize with my mom for freaking out because hes 1. endangering himself (he literally overdosed and was in a coma and got permeant brain damage a few years ago. he cant handle substances like at all any longer they effect him worse than before) 2. being disrespectful towards my mom, who has trouble handling the substance abuse after he almost died & is letting him stay with us despite constantly breaking the promises he made because she's nice. being rude to me by not letting me sleep whenever he does this shit. like im so fucking tired and hes not letting me sleep and provoking my mom and STILL talking on the phone past midnight

thats my side of things. its stressful and frustrating and substance abuse genuinely brings out the worst in him he becomes like spitefully careless like i said YELLING SLURS sometimes for like no reason and being an asshole to me or his friends on vc and being rude to my mom who i guess i do side with shes my roommate i generally try to understand her and foster a good relationship with her

as for his side

this is stuff ive heard from him and from his close friends (who are all worried about him, hes screwed a few of them over too though). he refuses to get help for himself and i think its why when weve tried to talk to him (my mom being patient and even walking him through helping him signing up for Anything that might help him because we dont know what to do). like he has this self sabotaging/self defeating attitude and this habit of just endlessly justifying himself thats really maddening

i know this went right to being mad at him instead of trying to be sympathetic because i know hes suffering in some way but i guess this is the result of trying to understand him. ultimately its something he has to try to get himself out of and ive had enough experience with stubborn people that its not really something i like. feel like i have much control over esp because of the family dynamics. and i just cant handle being around drunk/high people at least not him or my dad its really only stressful and scary associations

[jellogram]

Okay another banger from my teenage diary. Unfortunately it was written about a stupid fight with a classmate (because high school) but I love the quote:

"I've had worse from better people"

[plumbogs]

anyway brandina time.

I've rambled before about how I love Dina Caliente and will defend her to the death etc, plus i'm a "dina was michael bachelor's young and questionable trophy wife" truther. I don't think she was ever necessarily a gold digger in a greedy manipulative sense, moreso that she valued the comfort/security found in wealth and Michael was well-off enough to provide that for her in exchange for him having a hot young wife and whatever. He came around the same time that Flamenco died, and Nighat had been dead since she was a kid, so she was entering the adult world functionally alone apart from her twin sister. I think Nina was probably jealous on some level of Dina/Michael, even if to most outsiders that relationship was questionable, because Nina just had her lameass high school boyfriend-situationship who she didn't actually want to be romantically involved with and whatever, but it still was a bit of a wedge to them for me. that's mostly irrelevant though. in turn Dina was totally jealous of Nina having Don in high school. usual sibling rivalry nonsense.

In my timeline, Michael died around the same time that Bella disappeared, so she and Mortimer ended up bonding in grief and kicked off their relationship. yknow still like, bizarre age gap but to me it's not intentionally malicious on either of their parts. BUT I do think that Mortimer as a partner did help her 'mature' in some ways, primarily because he had kids and wasn't as reckless and whatnot as Michael. She never marries Mortimer to me. She'd never be able to really replace Bella to him or his family and knows that. he has the world's angstiest verge-of-teenhood son and cassandra is literally her age. they're not about to see her as a real mom. Their relationship never really gets that deep to me, either. It gives her some time to come into her own and whatnot, be independent, etc.

Dina never went to college in my headcanon, she kinda just immediately married Michael and lived like that for a while, then lived half off his inheritance and maybe a lower-wage job of her own in the culinary industry. So sometime around her mid-to-late 20s, Mortimer also dies because he's so old. obviously that's sad for her again. With him she did have some more chances to sorta figure herself out beyond being a trophy wife, reconsider what's important to her.

MEANWHILE, Brandi was also engaged and married stupidly young. She was a teen mom to me. She and skip had a shotgun wedding, had their kids, Skip wasn't the best husband anyways before died, she went into a horrendous life-ruining grief period and alcoholism. the broke kids had it rough, the social worker breathing down her neck, etc. so she had to like, get sober eventually because Dustin had enough and had to move out and get his own life together before he lost it completely. she started doing yoga or a comparative social activity, introducing her to the Calientes, and they became friends because Brandi is so friendly and nice :) Dina's still with Mortimer, etc, but they're still getting along and Brandi's life is getting together.

Then Mortimer dies, Brandi's life is together enough and the kids are not little and in need of constant care anymore (not that she was great at that stage either but this is not a brandi broke parenting analysis post shhh). She is older than Dina to me by a bit but personal development wise they're now in the same place of "what do I do now". SO naturally they bond over that. and they start kissing about it because surprise. bisexuality.

to Brandi, Dina's nice. she can cook, she's been through grief more times than anyone can count, and is like an expert in "you need to do something fun for yourself" pep talks. to Dina, Brandi's recovery and work on herself + dedication to actually being a better parent is inspirational in a way. she doesn't really care at this point what people think of her, and Dina "professional arm candy" Caliente never really had a partner yet who had basically no expectations for how she came off to other people, giving her the most space she'd ever had to figure out her own life goals and dreams. brandi's all humble and whatever. her kids are annoying as hell but a very interesting change compared to the goth kids. dina's never a mom type to me but she does end up bonding with them all. whatever. yippee

I think after getting together, Dina would probably finally go to college or get a real career for herself otherwise. I think it can go a lot of ways. Both of them can cook. I think it'd be cute for them to open some kind of diner together :) or a similar thing. bake sale lesbians. mutual mid-life coming of age. trying to pick up the pieces of their young adulthoods not really belonging to them in a way that mattered. whatever!

[campbyler]

ok. a genuine question. how do u guys write 20-30k *chapters* bc i will outline fics minutely or i will just let myself start writing based off a vibe & either way i will get 600 words out of maybe. two hours of work. on a good day with no distractions/interruptions, & i very much do not have an uninterrupted two hours to write very often, so you can imagine how slowly things get written T_T so i’m interested if there’s any aspect of any of your writing processes that really enables u guys to write so much or if it’s not really something you think about? anyways i really like ur guys’s work, & thank you for deciding to write for byler bc i know me and a lot of people enjoy it a lot. thanks!!

hello !! this is a super valid question and i’ll try my best to answer it for you 😗✌️

andi infamously writes a lot faster than thea and i do (she finished draft 1 of chapter 3 in like. two days. which was so scary. i’m in awe of her fr) but she has also spent a lot of time editing ch3 so it’s definitely not like these chapters are publish-ready in a short amount of time by any means! it took thea a couple of months total to fully write + edit ch1 and it took me about 3.5 weeks to write ch2 and another two weeks to edit it which is part of the reason we’ve spaced out our posting schedule like we have — we put a lot of effort and care into these updates and we want to give ourselves as much time as possible to get ahead before all 3 of us inevitably get so super busy with work and/or school in the fall!! so while we do write a lot, please don’t think we are so insanely speedy about it because unless we are having Really Good Writing Days, that’s definitely not the case. sometimes we do have days where we are really in the zone and write more than usual, but at least for me, this is so so so rare. whatever i write in this time gets heavily edited because so much of it was nonsensical brain vomit LOL

as far as writing process goes, i think one of the things that motivates us a lot is that we genuinely do just talk about this au constantlyyyyy like we’re always coming up with silly little hcs or drawing for it or adding to the Lore ™️so we’re always getting inspired to write! all three of us are definitely people who use writing as a way to relax or even reward ourselves after a long day; we would probably die if we had to go too long unable to :/ messages like “i can’t wait to get home and write after work today” or “i’m going to write a little bit of ___ before bed because i deserve it” are very commonly found in our gc because we really just look forward to it so much! as for our scary word counts, i feel like there is a lot of worldbuilding in this universe specifically, and pacing is really important to us — we want to make sure introductions and set-up to a scene and character interactions are meaningful and flow naturally, and building tension (which is a hallmark of this fic hehe) does take some time, which can definitely add up word count-wise.

for the most part, none of us usually have a solid few hours to sit and write either (unless it’s on our days off or after work if we’re not too tired) and we get a lot of writing done in chunks! we hold each other accountable for short check-ins (“ask me for a snip in 30 minutes”) which is super helpful when you’re stuck, because it kind of forces you to get Something down without worrying if it’s super polished and edited and perfect. if you’re writing on your own, something i’ve started doing lately is setting a 15 minute timer and just seeing how much i can get done in that time, and then setting another and doing it again (up until however much time you have to write that day). i’ve found that the artificial deadline helps break the monotony of sitting in front of your computer for Hours on end with nothing to show for it bc TRUST we’ve all been there and it sucks so bad 😔✊

this got super long so i apologize but i hope at least a little bit of it was helpful! it definitely helps that we are constantly feeding into each other (i.e: having brainrot) and offering inspiration and advice, which does wonders for creative flow tbh. we’re definitely not cranking these chapters out as quickly as people might seem to think — thea started chapter four, which won’t be posted for about a month, maybe a week or two ago. i just started chapter 5 — about 6 weeks away — yesterday lol so we do take our time! don’t be scared by the giant chapters, we just had a lot of content we wanted to include in each one and are in too deep to take anything out 🥳🥳 thank you for the question! good luck with your writing we believe in you 🫡

[shu-of-the-wind]

It would be better off to start by acknowledging that the era we are seeking to recreate was structurally different to our own. We can then ask which of these differences are "noteworthy and meaningful" for understanding our cast of characters. For when it comes to historical understanding, foreignness is not a barrier but a necessary starting point. Historical understanding cannot be had free of charge; it demands determined hermeneutic effort. For instance: what did people take for granted back then; which conceptual categories did they apply; which social distinctions did they make; what was the unspoken logic underlying their actions; on which expectations, rules, and conventions did they orient their behavior; what stock of common knowledge could they draw on; which habitualized routines did they employ; how did they typically express their feelings; what limits were set to their actions? Potentially, all these things were fundamentally different from what appears self-evident to us today, and the gap separating "now" from "then" needs to be gauged as precisely as possible.

~Maria Theresa: The Habsburg Empress in Her Time, Barbara Stollberg-Rilinger (trans. Robert Savage)

[orcelito]

While I was amassing the word count estimates I ended up rereading some parts of discacc. Couldn't help it. I got distracted.

I reread the part where Goro pretends to be Ryuji while talking on the phone with Akira's sister. Still laughed out loud at that part. GOD I miss writing Goro so much.

I admit I did grow disillusioned with the fic given its large kudos count yet comparatively pitiful number of comments per update. Not the fault of the people who Did comment, obviously. I still treasure every comment that I did get. But idk it was just hard to write 15k+ word chapters for a fic that has 1.4k+ kudos... but only get Maybe 7 comments per update. If I was lucky.

With some exceptions. But overall it just felt like the vast majority of my readership was reading it thanklessly. And so I lost my passion for it. It just didn't feel like my work was appreciated enough (minus the handful who Did comment, you guys are lovely)

I've had to do some soul searching since I stopped updating. I'm going to be a different person entirely whenever I start writing again. And I WILL write again. Even if it takes me time.

I just need to write from a place of love and passion for the story Only. I need to not let the wish for recognition get into my head. Bc that's what killed my passion before. And I don't want to let that happen again.

I truly do love Discordant Accord. Someday, I'll continue it. And I will be writing it for *me.*