#thank you for a bit of context of what's going on

[wintrrliqht]

idk if anyone has said this already but it was in relation to a question he answered of “will you see paige play in dallas” he said something like “idk, i have no idea what’s happening then” and then he paused for a bit and said “idk what paige and azzi are doing after paige gets drafted”

my take: he’s literally just covering logistics of him and the fam going down to dallas during the summer. he didn’t explicitly say this but with context it seemed as if he was getting at he doesn’t know if azzi will be with paige over the summer or if she’ll be with the fam or elsewhere. like it really wasn’t that deep regarding their relationship. i think he literally meant he doesn’t know what paige and azzi will be doing over the summer while paige is playing her rookie season. he literally said he didn’t even know paige and ines were spending christmas with them until a couple of days before like homeboy just goes with the flow leave him beeeeee

(i watched the live but don’t take anything i’ve quoted as exact quotes, it’s just from memory)

thank you for the clarification

[according2thelore]

Random question about some ABO verse, but do you think that they'd have something like a sex-ed class during middle/high school?

Like, just imagine Sammy (a bit weirded out) but so amazed that his big brother (O!Dean) has these "innate" abilities to be naturally "perfect" caregivers/companions, wayyyyy better than their "Alpha" dad who just dumps them and disappears days/weeks on end just to go "hunting with friends".

Idk, I like to imagine Sam going into a rabbit hole and reading up on whatever reading materials were available at school/the public library and eventually tries to find some law books after hearing about some changes in omega related legislation.

Anyway I'm just ranting at this point hahaha!

(Just ignore this ask if it's not something you're interested in 👍👍👍)

hi, anon!!!

NOT SOMETHING I'M INTERESTED IN????!?!?!??? this is EXACTLY what i'm interested in, anon!! thank you so much for sending it in!!!!!

let's TALKKKKKKKKK about baby sam PLEASEEE

something i have ALWAYS adored is the idea that sam, when he's young and right in that sweet spot after dean presents as an omega but before sam presents, he wants to be an omega so bad. like. sooooo bad.

his only real alpha influence in his life is his father, and we all know how he feels about his father and his "my-way-or-the-highway" mentality. john says something and expects you to hop-to it, because his word is law. bobby's a beta, and the only other alphas sam ever spends time around is the occasional teacher and caleb, when they end up in the same state and dad needs help on a hunt.

then dean presents, and everything about his little life changes. dean becomes even more protective of him than he thought possible. john pulls him aside and tells him that he and sam are going to have to keep an extra eye out for dean, because people might treat him differently.

despite this, john becomes more distant than ever as they become teenagers and he can leave them alone without raising too many eyebrows or risk them killing themselves like when they were ten and six.

when sam hits sixth grade, his teachers awkwardly announce that this is the first year they'll have a secondary designation class, and all of the kids titter awkwardly. a kid in sam's class has already presented, an alpha with burgeoning pimples on the baseball team.

sam has more context for dean's presentation, why he went still and shocked and why his smell was bad-bad-wrong-new-not-dean before it became fully dean again--fresh and calming and warm. he learns that there isn't really a way to predict what someone will present as, despite the playground taunts and characters in TV shows that insist they always knew someone was one-thing-or-another because of how they acted or dressed.

sam learns that omegas tend to be more naturally nurturing, and how they make nests when they're approaching heat. they're ferociously protective, especially over pups, and they are happiest and have the highest satisfaction rates if they have a strong community.

alphas are natural leaders. alphas are innate protectors, headstrong, and fiercely loyal. alphas scent their pups or mate or packmates to make sure they can go about their business unbothered, and butt heads with other alphas when challenged. alphas are supposed to make sure everyone in their pack is healthy, happy, and most importantly, safe.

sam can't stop his lip curling in disgust. their dad can usually only manage one or two out of three; he hits all three maybe five times a year.

sam's starting to realize that dean is kind of the perfect older brother. and kind of a perfect omega. despite the fact he's still kind of a dick. (sam bitterly remembers this morning when dean flipped the mattress because sam was going to make them late for school.)

sam--resentfully--can't remember the last time dad even tried to scent him or dean before he left for weeks at a time, while sam can still smell some of dean's open air-sunshine-musky scent on his own wrists from dean wrestling him near the door and doing his daily scenting.

it would be so nice, sam starts to think, as he reads about how omegas tend to form incredibly tight personal bonds, and how alphas always butt heads, if he presented as an omega, too. alphas are kind of lunk-heads anyway. he and dean could be the same. the thought fills him with a bubble of buoyant hope that he can't pop, all the way home.

he doesn't tell dean any of this, embarrassed in his fantasies of them running away together and starting a completely new life away from john and his abandonment and mission. maybe even...his ears flush, and he buries his face in his math book to hide his pink ears from dean--helping each other through heats. sam knows what dean smells like when he's in heat. since he's still unpresented, he's in charge of bringing dean food and water and making sure he doesn't die. dean has pulled him more than once into his nest for comfort, sam pressing his perpetually-cold fingers against dean's feverish forehead as dean's head lolled. it's been entirely familial. regretfully so. it would be...nice. really nice. if they could grow up and experience that together.

even if he was a beta, sam could be happy. he could still help dean through his heats, if dean was okay with that. they could still have a fully completed pack-bond, instead of the faint pup one they have now.

he becomes obsessed with omega laws--digging into books and city hall ledgers for hours. one time, a guy corners a seventeen-year-old dean in a gas station and sam--still completely unpresented--almost rips the guy's head off. dean absolutely had it covered, as he keeps snapping at sam the entire way back to the motel, but sam is still buzzing with rage that people are going to do this to dean--treat him like this--forever.

and then sam presents as an alpha, aged fourteen. a late bloomer.

he's devastated. dean pets his hair away from his forehead, stringy with sweat, and sits on the ground outside of the closed motel door throughout sam's entire rut. he parks the car right in front of the door and barely sleeps to make sure no one gets close to their motel room, since dad has been gone for the last week and a half. keeping him safe. an innate, natural protector. an instinctual caregiver.

sam cries into his pillow, even as he feels like his skin is going to peel off his bones, because he and dean will never be the same thing, now.

he knows dean's quietly upset, too. he thinks he failed dad in some way, by not being an alpha. the fact that sam doesn't find a ton of joy in being just like their asshole dad doesn't bring dean a lot of comfort. dean wants to be just like dad, wants to make him proud.

sam couldn't give a shit about making dad proud.

he stays devastated, until his civics class in freshman year. their unit on omega laws sets an absolute fire under his ass. omegas are just as capable as alphas. dean--who can gut a drower in ten seconds and has been stepping between his and dad's constant fighting more and more every single day (even if it's just to throw sam back on his ass, and despite the fact sam knows having two alphas dean feels loyalty for coming to blows and giving off all kinds of commanding and acerbic pheromones is a biological warhead for dean), and loves spaghetti westerns and can drink anyone under the table and has shed gallons of blood over the years to keep sam safe--is better than three of his alpha dad put together.

alphas are supposed to be protectors. they're supposed to keep others safe. and if sam has to be like this, he's going to harness it to help.

he can't stop looking up case law, can't stop researching legal precedent, and civic lawyers who represent omegas in court. he turns in a paper on Trent v Polaski for his AP government class, and his teacher asks if he's ever considered going to law school.

sam feels something hot and sharp and terrifying take root in his chest.

EEK!! i just love this ask, anon! i hope this was what you were looking for, but if not, PLEASE send another, lol! i love talking about omegaverse wincest, clearly!!! thank you again for this ask!! mwah mwah mwah <3

-lizzy

[accio-sriracha]

Chasing Stars

A slightly long snippet of an unpublished Jegulus wip.

CW: Very brief mentions of sexual abuse and a singular homophobic slur

Context: Regulus is forced to make dark magic deals on behalf of the Black family. Things get messy as James unknowingly follows him into the dangerous exchange.

⋅•⋅⊰∙∘☽༓☾∘∙⊱⋅•⋅

"Does your friend here have a name, Black?" Dominic demanded as he moved closer.

He walked in lengthy strides, like a wild animal waiting to pounce.

"James O'Malley." Regulus lied immediately.

"Slytherin?" He asked, looking Potter up and down and making a slow, predatory circle around them.

Regulus swallowed hard, attempting to keep his poise as he responded,

"Yes. Half-blood."

"Ooh, a halfblood." Dominic snickered.

Regulus heard a few of Dominic's followers laugh as well.

"Why don't we hear your friend speak?" Dominic drawled, his voice as daunting as ever.

He took another step forward, coming right into Potter's space,

"You wanna talk for us, O'Malley? Or are you just gonna keep following little Black around like his bitch?"

Regulus glanced back at him, watching the challenge sparking behind Potter's eyes, the slight tip of his chin.

Potter's pride was something Regulus knew would be a wild card.

Please don't fall for it, Potter. He silently begged.

Regulus kept his face even, Potter's eyes met his own again, deep brown crashing into metallic silver.

By some miracle Regulus couldn't thank enough, Potter remained silent.

"Bitch, it is." Dominic taunted, "Got yourself a bodyguard then, Black?"

He leaned in and took Potter's jaw in his hand, tilting his face to look up at him.

Regulus could tell the force of his grip had to be painful, but Potter didn't so much as flinch, meeting his cold stare with an expression that could have been cut from stone.

Dominic laughed, "Yes, he's a keeper. Big and strong but... not too bright, eh?"

He patted Potter's cheek twice and let him go, moving back to stand with the others again.

He heard Potter let out a slow, angry breath when there was a good distance between them.

"I want your end of the deal done by next week, Black. If you don't follow through, you know what's gonna happen to you." Dominic spoke only to Regulus now, ignoring the boy behind him.

Regulus nodded once, "I'm aware. It will be done."

Dominic smiled that horrible, sadistic smile,

"Good. Make sure to tell your brother I said hello. I'm sure he'll be thrilled to hear from me."

Regulus held back the instinct to flinch at his words. He remembered the look in Sirius' eyes when he came back from his last meeting with Dominic.

That was the first time Regulus had ever seen Sirius cry, even after all the years of abuse they'd suffered, nobody had ever broken Sirius the way Dominic did that night.

"We're no longer speaking." Regulus answered automatically, pretending to be unaffected, "He was disowned from the family over a year ago."

Dominic knew that, Regulus was sure of it. Everyone had heard of Sirius' estrangement to the family. He was only testing Regulus, seeing how far he could push until he broke Regulus too.

It took nearly five years for Sirius to give in to Dominic's pressure.

Regulus had never met anyone as strong as his brother, he doubted he ever would.

Dominic laughed, bringing Regulus' thoughts back to the exchange at hand,

"That's right. Bit of a faggot, wasn't he? Hmm... it's such a shame good blood was waisted on someone so pathetic. I'm telling you, I'm pretty sure he enjoyed having my friends inside him when he was being punished for a late delivery."

Potter reacted then, his wand in his hand before Regulus could manage to stop him.

A spell was shot in their direction the very same moment.

Those were always the rules: if they saw a wand drawn they would curse first and ask questions later.

Regulus immediately shoved Potter to the ground, knowing these guys wouldn't stop at stunning the way Potter would.

Regulus' shoulders heaved, standing protectively in front of Potter with his own wand drawn,

"Fuck, Potter." He hissed under his breath.

He'd never wanted to be at the other end of their torturous spells.

"Potter?" Dominic's eyes went wide, "Have you lied to me about your guest, Black?"

"We aren't looking for any trouble." Regulus replied instead, though he couldn't bring himself to put his wand down, not with their hungry eyes locked onto the boy behind him, itching for a target.

"You say that, and yet here you stand, pointing your wand at your oldest friend."

Dominic pretended to be offended, but Regulus knew he didn't care. There would always be someone to deliver, it didn't matter how much he tortured them, someone would always take their place.

"Dominic, please, just let him go. I will answer for it. He doesn't know anything." Regulus found himself resorting to pleading.

Regulus never begged, not even when he was beat an inch from his life as a child, he was always the type to stand there and take it silently.

But this was Potter.

Regulus was responsible for whatever happened to him now, he couldn't be the reason Potter was hurt, not when he knew he could do something about it.

He wondered when his feelings had changed to this, merely an hour ago he wouldn't have noticed if Potter dropped off the face of the earth aside from the Gryffindor team lacking their quidditch captain.

Regulus couldn't remember exchanging a single word in the past six years they'd passed each other in the halls.

Yet here he was, putting his life on the line for the boy he barely knew.

Because if he did know anything, it was that Potter was far too good to deserve this.

Dominic's voice snapped Regulus' attention back to his face,

"Ahh, but he brought himself into this, didn't he, Black? I feel a man who makes his own choices should face his own consequences."

Before Regulus could react there was a surge of light and a scream from behind him.

Regulus dropped to the ground, hovering over Potter, making sure he was still breathing.

"Enough!" Regulus shouted, his voice sounded desperate to his own ears, "We'll go! I'll have it to you by next week. You have my word."

Regulus would do anything, anything to get Potter away from here.

Potter wasn't going to die today.

Regulus would save him if it was the last thing he ever did.

"Look who's the brave Black brother now." Dominic cooed, reaching out and tilting Regulus' chin up, the same way he'd done with Potter, the same way he'd probably done with Sirius, "That's a curse I made myself. It should end in a few hours. Let this be a reminder to never betray me again."

A blinding flash of pain against his jaw made him fall to the ground, collapsing next to Potter.

It occurred to him a moment later Dominic had actually punched him.

It was rare to see a pureblood wizard strike without a wand.

But Dominic was no ordinary wizard.

"Pitiful. What a waste of good blood." Dominic repeated, motioning for his friends to leave.

Regulus sat up when they were alone again, leaning over Potter,

"Potter, fuck, fuck I'm so sorry. Can you hear me?"

Potter was shaking violently, his eyes glazed over and his lips forming around silent words.

Tears fell from his eyes and sweat matted his hair to his forehead, the sight was one of the scariest things Regulus had ever seen.

"Okay. Come on, I'll get you safe." Regulus managed to get Potter onto his back, carrying him down the worn path to the castle. Potter clung to him the entire way.

Regulus caught the words 'Please' and 'No' a few times in between the heart-wrenching sobs.

He made it to the Gryffindor tower, facing the portrait he knew to be the door to the common room,

"I need to get inside." He told her.

The lady in the portrait yawned and stretched,

"Password?" She asked sleepily.

Regulus groaned, "I don't know the password, he's in trouble, we need to get through. It's an emergency!"

She shrugged, "No password, no entry."

Regulus cursed, setting Potter down on the ground and resting him against the wall.

He knelt down in front of him, pulling their faces close,

"Potter. Potter, look at me." He whispered, "I need the password to the Gryffindor common room."

Potter's eyes were still unfocused, the shaking had gotten worse. The silent words turned to quiet whimpering, he looked so terrified.

"Potter, please, try to focus okay? Try to focus for me. I need the password."

He didn't reply, his head thrashing from side to side as his reactions to whatever he was seeing got more violent.

"Fuck." Regulus pulled out his wand, cursing the world for making him need to use this spell again.

It was a spell he and Sirius had created when they were kids, in case something happened to one of them.

"Sirius." Regulus tried to keep his voice from shaking, his eyes never leaving Potter's, "Sirius, I need you, please."

He heard Remus Lupin's tired voice emitting from his wand and realised they were sleeping together.

He didn't have time to process it, holding Potter to his chest when his tears starting again,

"It's okay, I got you." Regulus murmured against his hair, stroking Potter's back in a way he hoped was soothing.

He wasn't even sure Potter knew where he was.

Lupin mumbled something again, something that ended in him using the word 'Darling'.

"Moons? What is it?" Sirius came through next.

Regulus felt his heart lurch at the sound of his voice. He missed his brother so much it hurt most days.

This was not how he was hoping to reunite with him.

"There's something happening with your wand, love, I don't know."

"What?" Sirius' groggy voice grew irritated, "What about my wand?"

"Sirius, it's me." Regulus spoke again, this time his voice really did shake.

Potter's arms were wrapped around him now, his head buried into his shoulder while he sobbed, shaking harder than ever.

"I- I need help." Regulus sounded like a child again, begging for his big brother to come and rescue him.

"Reggie?" Sirius immediatley sounded awake. There was shuffling, then his voice grew clearer, "Are you- Are you okay? What happened? Where are you?"

Regulus wanted to sigh in relief. He knew Sirius would come if he used the spell, no matter how much time had passed between them.

Regulus didn't have time to explain,

"I need you to open the door to the Gryffindor common room. It's Potter, he's-" He broke off, shaking his head even though he knew they couldn't see him.

"James?"

Regulus heard quick movements, curtains being thrown open.

"Shit, Remus. It's Prongs-"

Regulus didn't have time for them to hash it out over the call,

"Outside the common room. Please just hurry."

Regulus disconnected the link between them as Potter's shaking got worse again. He began to thrash in Regulus' arms,

"Don't leave, Regulus. Please, don't leave me."

Regulus nodded and held him tighter, "I won't Potter, I won't. I'm right here, I promise. I'm not going anywhere."

Something had snapped inside of Regulus, like a wire strung too tight.

And he knew it in that moment, he wouldn't- couldn't- leave him. Not ever.

The portrait swung open suddenly, Sirius rushing out of it with his wand raised, his eyes searching for danger.

He found Regulus holding Potter on the ground beside the door.

Lupin stepped out too, taking in the sight with shock.

"Prongs?" Sirius' voice was a mixture of terror and confusion.

Regulus looked up at them,

"Fuck, Sirius I'm so sorry. I tried to protect him, I-"

His sentence trailed off as Potter's thrashing started again, Regulus tried to hold him steady.

"Regulus!" Potter shouted, "No, please!"

"I got you. I'm here, I'm here." He whispered, trying to keep him from hitting his head on the wall, "It's okay. It's okay. I'm right here."

"What the fuck happened to him?" Sirius asked, watching in horror.

Regulus was crying now too, his voice coming out in a sob as he clutched onto Potter,

"He was hit with something. I- I don't know, some kind of curse. Dominic-"

"Dominic?" Sirius was furious instantly, his eyes never left James, like he was afraid to look directly at Regulus, "What the fuck was James doing near Dominic?"

"I don't know." Regulus repeated, trying to keep his voice low to not startle Potter, who was clinging to him like his world depended on it. Maybe in his eyes it did.

Regulus sniffed, "He followed me out while I was doing a run for father. I didn't know what to do. Dominic showed up before I could convince Potter to leave."

"Regulus-" James' broken sob was muffled into his chest.

Regulus turned his attention back to Potter, the protectivness he felt from the moment Regulus realised he was standing on that trail coursing through him.

Regulus was wrong to think he would never notice Potter's disappearance from the world.

He always noticed Potter. He knew it had been Potter following him on the trail by the sound of his footsteps alone.

He could recognise Potter's laugh out of a hundred others. He could tell exactly what Potter was thinking from just one look at his eyes.

Regulus had always noticed Potter, always gravitating towards him in one way or another.

It had just never meant anything until now.

Now? Now he meant everything.

Regulus held onto him, trying to get the shaking to stop,

"You'll be okay." He whispered.

He didn't know if it was for Potter's benefit or his own.

⋅•⋅⊰∙∘☽༓☾∘∙⊱⋅•⋅

( @bradleysass I'm so sorry, I swear the fic has a happy ending)

[creatingblackcharacters]

Hi, white aspiring author here! I've been tinkering with a story for years (coming up on 10... Eek!) and the main characters have shifted around a lot. Currently the cast is a Black princess and a red-headed witch! I was reading through your hair posts and trying to think about how the princess's class and standing, especially relative to the other kingdoms, would impact what kind of hairstyles she would be most likely to have, and which she may not even have access to. A few context bits I have regarding her story:

- the setting is so post-modern it wraps around back into pre-electricity (so, no one probably has straightened hair unless they have magic...?)

- her kingdom is objectively the most important due to heavy contributions to continental agriculture access

- her kingdom is culturally snubbed due to bias against connections to nature (there was a Humans vs Nature vs Magic war - tentative peace rn but aftermath is still palpable)

- she is loved and trusted by the citizens of her kingdom, and she trusts the people who work in the castle and as her handmaidens

- she is frequently on the go, especially as a child, but in recent years she's had to focus more on royal diplomacy

- her parents are trying to set up an arranged marriage due to the cultural tensions, so she's getting dressed up a lot (unwillingly)

- the plot really starts when she leaves the castle to adventure with the witch

So I'm thinking about like... How her main hairstyle is probably going to change pre-plot versus mid-plot! Before leaving the castle she has the time, wealth, and help for something like microbraids, or even microbraids that make bigger braids. But I'd imagine that'd get very difficult to maintain after a week of hiking around the woods and up and down mountains, much less months of traversing the continent. Another thing I'm wondering about is if it'd be more reasonable to assume she has enough basic practice and skills to maintain her hair with a lower maintenance style on her own after leaving, or if that's something she's starting from near-scratch with, having her hair done by someone else her whole life thus far? As in, would it be more realistic for her to remember her childhood styles and try the twist out, or would she have self-braiding skills as a young adult? She has a great amount of dexterity in general, but I'm not sure if general dexterity translates to braiding dexterity (mostly because I've tried braiding my own hair and suck at it, despite being good with things like knitting). I'd imagine that's the kind of thing where practice goes a long way?

Anyway I apologize for the wall of text but thank you very much for that master post, I'm going to keep reading through it because it's really helping me conceptualize this character a lot more in-depth, and it's helping to give context to minor world building considerations too! Really developing the details like this is my favorite thing to do, because once I have enough everything just kinda clicks and springs to life on its own! So I hope this isn't too long ;;

Hot combs don't require electricity, so people could have straight hair! It's just gonna take longer.

This really depends on your character. If you give her the skill to do her own hair, she'll have it lol. If you're implying that she always had servants who did it, then she won't. So if what you're saying is she's doing it from scratch, then no, she won't know what to do. No one just has good braiding skills lmao, you have to practice on yourself and on others. There's a reason doing hair is such a community experience.

Microbraids is a hell of a style to get stuck with when you don't know how to do your own hair 😅 they'll be fine while having them, but getting them down by herself at some point is gonna be a BITCH. I'd rather cut my shit off fr 😭 but that's why I never got micros, I'm far too impatient. Can the witch do hair lmao? Is the witch trusted enough to help take it down or magic it out? Does she get to come back to the castle every now and then for new styles, or is she just out and about? And for how long? Because if she wants more flexibility, the braids are probably not it.

I think everyone struggling with this sort of question should have their characters practice doing four simple plaits or cornrows on their head 😅 like it's gonna suck the first time, but practice makes perfect.

[ekingston]

the gay fanfic problem: he sees him. For a moment i thought it was going to be about the lack of 'she sees her'. But no. Typical.

you said that there's good ways to work around the 'actual' problem he mentions, and now that you've mentioned it, i don't think i've ever been confused reading your fics who's doing what! Do you have any tips or advice you could share :)?

xxx adoring reader and wannabe writer

GRAND, EXCELLENT compliment for a writer who adores not only sapphic love scenes (of which I agree there SHOULD be more) but also group dialogue and very, very long sentences. I'm going to be insufferable about this one for DAYS.

And speaking of being insufferable: I do have tips! As always, grain of salt, etc. I may know the rules but I really enjoy breaking them, and I'm sure I've done it in ways that have annoyed some readers.

Which makes for a decent segue to my first (and most important) tip: don’t be afraid to annoy your readers. Fanfiction is one of the least filtered forms of media. No one can keep us from writing (and, thanks to AO3’s user policies, sharing) whatever we want, however we want. We should take that seriously! If sprinkling your work with sparkly descriptors like ‘the ravenette’ makes you happy, you absolutely need to keep doing that! Also, let’s face it—if you share your work online, somebody at some point is not going to like it. You can’t appeal to everyone. Trying to is just going to suck every bit of joy out of this whole endeavour and ultimately burn you out. JUST WRITE IT THE WAY YOU WANT TO.

That being said, you asked for practical tips. I put them below the cut. Because I can never keep anything short, apparently.

1. When in doubt, just use your characters’ names. Even when you feel you’re overdoing it. You’d be surprised by how easily names blend into the background. My fics are full of instances where I use the same character’s name seven hundred times to make it clear who I’m talking about. You just didn’t notice! (Unfortunately you’re probably going to start to, now that I've pointed it out.)

2. This is an actual rule: pronouns (tend to) refer to the most recently mentioned character or noun.

This is why, instead of having to write

Lena winks at Kara. Kara blushes. Kara knocks over three glasses when Kara stares too long at Lena’s neckline

we can write

Lena winks at Kara. She blushes. She also knocks over three glasses while staring at Lena’s neckline

without making our readers wonder who we’re referring to. So that’s how I personally roll, unless:

an action requires emphasis;

it flows better with the rhythm of my prose;

I’ve started another paragraph, and there are multiple characters using the same pronouns in the scene;

there’s only one character in this scene, but I just realized I haven't said their name for, like, the third paragraph in a row.

3. Phrasing! There’s about a million different ways to structure a sentence or paragraph. Knowing how to shuffle words around is a skill that comes in particularly handy when two or more characters using the same pronouns are involved and you feel you’re drowning in a sea of ‘she’s.

Kara blushes when Lena winks at her. She also knocks over three glasses, staring hard at Lena’s neckline.

4. Strengthen your characters’ voices, mannerisms, moods and motivations.

If you know your characters well and you’ve done the work to make sure your readers know them too, we should be able to tell which one of them you’re talking about when describing a scene.

__ winks at __, smiling—pleased with herself—when __ blushes and promptly knocks over three glasses, her eyes glued to the neckline of __’s dress.

If you’ve sufficiently established their dynamic, your reader should be able to tell who is doing what from the context you created. This is also where writing a very close third person POV kind of feels like a cheat code: when your narrator's voice is the same as your main character’s, your reader will start unconsciously assuming you’re referring to your main character when you’re not specifying otherwise.

When you keep the above in mind, navigating additional characters is like learning how to braid with four, five, six etc. strands, it just gets easier every time, and things like

Lena looks at Kara. Nia sighs. Kara and Lena both look worried. Nia knows Kara still isn’t sure about Nia’s plan, and Lena doesn’t trust Nia’s instincts either. Nia can’t blame them. She is new to their world, and Kara and Lena haven’t had a chance to get to know Nia yet. “Please,” Nia says. She just needs a chance to prove to Lena and Kara that her instincts are usually correct.

can become

Nia huffs when Lena and Kara share a worried glance. “Please,” she insists, growing more agitated with every second that ticks by. She knows she hasn’t earned their trust yet. She knows she can’t count on Lena to come to her aid the way she would if this was her world. But she’s not going to change that by letting them call all of the shots. She needs this win, needs to help, needs to prove to them that her ‘instincts’ are—at least usually—correct.

A final note regarding descriptive nouns:

The reason I personally dislike when writers refer to characters by their hair color or job title is that it makes their characters sound like complete strangers to each other. In my opinion, Maura wouldn’t kiss the detective unless it’s an AU where they’ve just met during a kiss-in protest and Jane is a nameless woman with a badge. And if you’re making Lena shiver at the touch of the older woman’s hand, I’m picturing gray hair & the last person I’m going to think you’re referring to is Kara. Queen Rhea maybe, after the mask has come off and you’ve established that Lena feels she can no longer refer to her former business partner by the name she gave her because it too was likely a lie.

Anyway: unless it’s done as a gimmick or a joke (humor would be, like, its own entire book compared to the chapter that is this ask response), I personally use descriptive nouns only when they specify a relationship & come with a possessive adjective, like 'her sister', 'her girlfriend', 'her assistant'. These emphasize connection rather than alienation, which is what I feel happens when neutral terms are used to avoid referring to characters we're supposed to know by name.

FYI, did you know it used to be extremely common for femslash (F/F fanfiction, for those of you who never owned a walkman) to be written in second person POV, avoiding this issue entirely? The fact that these days it’s used almost exclusively for the self-insert genre is a tragedy. we used to be POETS. I cut my fanfiction teeth on second person POV and it will never not feel like home to me. All of my notes for YMHW were in second person, and I'm surprised some didn’t sneak into the final version.

[closedspeciesteahouse]

(succubuns) (trigger warning:CP) I don't know if the blogs reflect a significant portion of the community, but an area of contention was the owner Luca's artstyle; people complained how their art has become increasingly more immature looking. Regardless, their patreon was taken down specifically for distributing CP. Looks from the emails that patreon had a month long investigation and overlooked the account in its entirety. Official announcement vvv https://succubuns.com/news/133.patreon-down An anon who reported it vvv https://www.tumblr.com/succubunsvent/742176017621336064/hi-email-anon-here-again-reporting-in-on-the?source=share Bit of context, same anon asked the site domain about employment clarification, turns out succubuns was violating labor laws and it got their site shut down a bit. Succubuns mods have called the shut downs "griefing" attempts; not all too sure why when it's easy just to explain their error as misunderstanding what qualifies as legal "employment". That email https://www.tumblr.com/succubunsvent/740977667917135873/740972072741879808-is-absolutely-yves-or-luca-or It's a trainwreck, but it's hard to look away. I've never been in the species and can't say anything of the owners' intentions, but from the succubun site I can say the official artstyle is troublesome.

☕️

[deathsmallcaps]

I need advice.

I’m a white intern working in a mostly white southern(ish) high school. Students of Color number at under 2%, perhaps even lower. It’s a very white, rural community - I grew up in a fairly mixed, suburban northern community, and part of my family is Black.

Several of my white students say rude things to my Students of Color. I’ve told them to knock it off *as appropriately as I can* but I’m probably one of the few adults that actively discourage that behavior.

I don’t want to let this shit fly under the radar, but I also know that if an adult of authority *who will only be here for a couple more weeks* interferes, and then doesn’t stick around, it could make things worse. Additionally, I know these kids are probably very very very used to this ‘system’ and that making a short-term change could be more harmful than helpful.

I asked one of my senior students after a very racist incident *where she was laughing along with the perpetrator but I told him to stop anyway* that I can move him, or her, so she could be more comfortable (admin either does nothing or slaps wrists, especially for seniors). She said it was fine and that he was always like that.

I must emphasize, I think they were bantering (they talk so much I think they consider each other friends?), but it was also wayyy fucking out of line, especially in a school setting. And the guy says so much out of line shit I’m surprised he isn’t rocking a full set of dentures to replace the teeth he ought to have lost by now.

Another student took me up on my offer to move people, but I ended up moving him, which sucks because he was the victim in this situation. Unfortunately, I have to keep his aggressors in their spots, as they are highly rowdy in all the ways and require a lot more supervision than he did. And the class is really full. These were also all freshmen, so I wouldn’t be surprised if that affected the victim’s reaction.

So I’d really appreciate advice as to whether I should let it be, or continue as is, or step it up even more, from People of Color in largely white, especially rural, communities. Like any advice from current or previous educators, especially Educators of Color would be appreciated, but specifically southern/rural ones would be wonderful. I’m going to talk to my family members about it, but they’ve lived in more Northern settings their entire lives and they may have less … applicable (?) experience to the situation.

Again, I’m an intern, I’m going to only be there until winter break 2024, and I don’t want to fuck things up for these kids in the long run with my northern ally ‘sensibilities’. Thank you!

[triglycercule]

dust and horror angel and demon themes,,,, they could totally parallel each other...... :3

dust=angel of death described in the delta rune prophecy (self declared) (i DEFINITELY elaborated on this one waayyyy before but anyways dust with a fucked up savior complex SAVE ME SAVE ME.... death is a blessing ass guy. life is torment and he will be the one to liberate monsters from their bodies and with the strength they provide to him be able to take down evil evil creation of pure misery that is the human ✨✨✨ dont worry his evil cackles are to HIDE HIS PAIN of saving everyone....... trust)

horror=demon that dragged everyone in horrortale into hell (as perceived by everyone else) (i think it would be a cool hc if everyone outside of snowdin viewed horror as literally a demon. maybe undyne preaches that. anyone outside of snowdin might be WAYYY worse because they starve for longer and literally take part in cannibalism so they might not have the same sort of mild sanity that snowdin residents do,,,, besides he DID kinda bring them all eternal suffering. kinda. nobody but undyne knows what happened at the core so she could totally just paint the story to blame horror fully)

ANYWAYS i like the possible dynamics this could have :333

dust to horror (please let me kill you PLEASE let me kill you i can end it all so peacefully wouldn't it be nice??? i promise ill make it quick just for you),,, horror to dust (i want you to live and suffer with what youve done i want you to watch all of your choices hit you one day and i'll be there and laugh at you. i'll keep you alive just to keep you suffering ok?)

OR dust to horror (you dont deserve to die you dont deserve to even be hurt by me. not because youre the exception but youre the Exception i absolutely loathe you so youll never get the sweet release of death :3) and horror to dust (just let me die already i dont wanna be here. youre supposed to be a savior right??? an angel?? then why don't you save me already when i need it more than anyone else)

[mixtapedoh]

actually you can go with seungmo + winter falls too. i think he's more of a winter falls girlie than lino. actually anything with winter falls 😭🙏

you knew what you were doing when you paired seungmo with my favorite skz ballad,,,,,,, your support and your mind will never go underappreciated in this house ♡♡♡♡♡

ᴀɢᴀɪɴ, ᴛʜᴇ ꜱɴᴏᴡ ꜰᴀʟʟꜱ (ᴡᴇ ꜰᴀʟʟ ᴀᴘᴀʀᴛ)

☄. *. ⋆

pairing: kim seungmin x reader (not endgame) genre: angst, reminiscing word count: ~1k warnings: heartbreak, mentions of blood (metaphor and imagery), all thoughts no plot (sometimes fanfiction is about VIBES and VERSE, not cohesive story telling), gratuitous sneaking in and bastardization of song lyrics

olive's notes: you know know i had to go full tumblr for the title of this fic. song lyric titles (with something in parenthesis) how i love you, how i have missed you, how you changed the very synaptic pathways in my brain ♡. nothing will ever be as influential as you ♡.

consider my mini writing event ?

It wasn't the weather that made you think of him.

No, because that would be all too cliche — tidy and neat — something easy to anticipate and, perhaps, simple to avoid.

In a way, you could blame it on the snow: the soft, fluffy flakes too carefree to be cold, spinning on the barely there wind, a graceful pirouette to a gentle, almost forgotten landing. It was beautiful — the first snowfall of the year — and because it's arrival was so benign (unexpected and mild, creeping into the edges of the day until it's whispered chill tickled your skin and it's gossamer flakes were delicately kissing your head), you had no warning against the flood of memory it would bring in it's wake.

It was the couple on the end of the street that reminded you, though, if we're to be fair to the elements and truthful in the story we tell.

Two figures at the furthest distance from your current standing, hand in hand, startled as they walked out of a shop and into sudden snowfall. The leftmost of the two, seemingly more ecstatic than their loving counterpart, stuck out their tongue, angling their head skyward, and after a moment, laughed in delight, or some approximation of it. They turned to their partner, kissed them on either cheek, and then took off their jacket to place around the other's shoulders. Perhaps there was an exchange of half-hearted argument, but the moment ended with the two of them walking off, one double-braced against the building cold, the other habitually turning their palms to the clemency of snow — as though the moment was pure and this weather something to be held.

Snowflakes fell of your cheeks. If you were to be asked, they were to be blamed for any wetness, there.

Memories come in waves, and they are a vengeful and needy sea: demanding to be realized, sure in the devastation they bear. But how long is it before an experience crystalizes into memory? What is the minimum amount of time that needs to occur before that passage is significant and longing for someone can turn into missing them?

You weren't quite sure if it could be called missing him: this gnawing, guilty feeling accompanying your thoughts of Seungmin.

Once, the two of you had been friends so close, no one could talk about either of you without mentioning the other. His footsteps always following yours, your voice a necessary addition to any of his statements. So close your names spilled into the other, so present there was a space carved in the both of you for the other to reside in. Side by side or in tandem, there were always two.

And there were two, that night, when your warmth was carbonated with a fizz of intimacy and bubbles of desperation. You confessed to the secret of loving him and he worshiped that attachment with his lips. Again and again, a mantra that intensified to the fervency of song.

I love you, love you, love you.

And how many times did you say that before the sentiment set to rot, and the permanence of that phrase became something of the past?

I loved you, loved you, loved you.

Again, snow fell on your cheeks, pulling you just far enough out of your mired thoughts, to remind you to finish your walk to that lonesome, quiet destination called home.

You had Seungmin for longer than you held him, and the feeling of his voice in your mind was more resonant that the touch of his lips on yours. Evocative, cohesive, tenacious — something you couldn't yet unstick from the crevices of your thoughts.

Seungmin beside you, Seungmin whispering into the shell of your ear, Seungmin placing his love in the spot where your neck met your shoulders, the crook of your grin, the place above your heart.

But the wind blew, the novelty faded, the movie ended and you were stuck in the credits where words became meaningless and effort was forgotten in the aftermath of spectacle.

The ease corroded, the bitterness spilled, past tense slipped into the habit of your speech until all the tenderness between you was finished and gone by.

I loved you, and it wasn't his words or yours, but something set on the table for the both of you to consume. A sentiment on which you both engorged and drank dry.

Everything had changed, and yet you were somehow still the same. Seungmin had been so clearly and undoubtedly part of you — you carved out his place inside you alongside him! You hollowed out a space for him, and he for you — and yet with the absence of him, should there not have been something desperate and bloody for you to fix? You had searched and pleaded and clawed at the edges of you to find that void so you might set it to rights, but it evaded you, still.

I loved you.

Perhaps it had already healed over.

Perhaps it had never been.

But still, that unfound cavity ached in you. It was filled with the sound of his voice, and the phrases in his diary he'd let you read and you held to committed memory — it was shaped like the palm of his hand when it cradled you, and it contorted to the essence of his grin.

Would it have been different, had you never said anything all that time ago, and instead chose to keep those feelings in a bottle, only to be uncorked should Seungmin, himself, had fallen first and told you so? Maybe you could have kept that bottle of spirits in the most hidden parts of you, and, on nights when your yearning sharpened to the point of a knife, drank from them — an alcohol of illusion — just enough to get by? Maybe he would have found the bottle, and smashed it to ruin, or maybe he would have loosen it and get the both of you drunk off your own delight.

You would have liked it, perhaps, had he been the one to fall.

Maybe then he would stare at the innocence of snowfall and mix the feeling of it's melt with salty tears.

(ʇɹɐdɐ llɐɟ ǝʍ) sllɐɟ ʍous ǝɥʇ 'uıɐɓ∀

☄. *. ⋆

blog home

[goldentigerfestival]

seeing some of y'all talking about/have talked to some of y'all who have said to me how y'all feel like the dub forced (western especially) masculinity into Yuri, and

yeah.

I left that out of the actual posts themselves because it felt too opinionated for the actual posts (even though you know it's my blog I can do what I want, but I don't want people discrediting me over shit like that), but yeah.

it feels a lot to me like they wanted Yuri to be some cool masculine edgy dude instead of a silly, playful, dorky, emotional, caring man. as if his silliness and emotional side is something to shy away from and isn't "cool enough" for a main character.

it's sad to me because he's such a different person between versions - enough that if I'm interacting with someone who only knows dub Yuri, it genuinely just doesn't feel like we're even talking about the same character sometimes. I want to be talking about the same character, but since some people only know the dub, they only know what the dub made him out to be.

I've seen a variety of things - art, writing, memes, whatever - where there are times I'm genuinely able to be like... that's such a dub Yuri specific thing. like, the way he gets portrayed is something I'm able to look at and be like "that's literally something only dub Yuri would say/do". it's not the fault of people who don't know the original context, but that's why it frustrates me so much - because that's all some people can know contextually (listening to the audio alone gives you a pretty clear indication of how much tone isn't the same between versions, but obviously some people will still be missing context), and the dub changed the experience (and went out of its way to do so) completely for those people. again - not the fault of the people who played the game. it's the fault of the people who were in charge of context/tone and took advantage of that and changed things and made him literally behave differently (because there's... take what's in front of you and translate that, and then there's going out of your way to change what's right there so the context/behavior is no longer the same).

it especially shows to me in interactions with Flynn between the western and JP fandom. the way Yuri behaves interacting with him in fan created media is sometimes vastly different from my experience between both fandoms. again, it's not people's faults who don't know Yuri's original personality, but it is the dub's fault for portraying him that way.

for me it's heartbreaking to see how dub Yuri treats Flynn and how the dub itself narratively treats Flynn. I love the relationship they have in JP and I love them both as characters in JP. like I've said, sometimes I want to punch dub Yuri for the shit he says and the way he behaves. I've never felt that way about Yuri in his original context. I've felt worse for dub Flynn than JP Flynn because I feel like JP Flynn is better cared for by the narrative/characters, but god, poor dub Flynn??? jesus.

the thing is, this comes from a place of strong love for Yuri (and Flynn!) so I hate that they changed things. I always stand by media in its original, purest form, no matter where in the world that media came from. localization absolutely should fix things caused by language barriers and tweak oddly sounding things - sometimes there's no choice! but it's not there to create a newly existing piece of media. it's not there to create a new character plastered on the face of an existing character or to fulfill the loc team's opinion of what that character should be.

it can be difficult - usually impossible - for me to be experiencing JP exclusive content and trying to imagine dub Yuri in those situations (think like, the drama CDs or Rays' content). I know I'm not the only person who feels this way and is extremely bothered by it.

obviously I'm not the be all end all - I'm one person with feelings and opinions, but I just feel very strongly about this kind of thing and I want to share how wonderful of a character Yuri is in his original form. a lot of the clips I posted I posted because I love his silly or caring attitude. I could blab to you about him forever. so, I hope more people will give this man a chance and experience him the way I know him.

[unproduciblesmackdown]

costume design, set mockup, and rehearsal photos from this guide to the show that's like really thorough in providing Context like, mini articles about the creators of the original movie, musical, and movie musical, about other versions of productions, the history, quotes of other commentary, interview quotes, context of other / preexisting genres like b movies, faustian stories, "what if a plant was weird" stories, glossary of terms (such as references that may generally be less obscure if you were in the '60s, e.g.), suggested further reading....haven't read it top to bottom but i think it's fantastic, link to the pdf as post source

[moe-broey]

Was bravies and showed off some of my comics ESP featuring Moe (who I've been extremely protective of up until this point) to my family at The Gathering and received RAVING reviews such as:

"Oh this one is interesting, it looks like he's wearing eyeliner 🙂" - Auntie, about Moe

and

"I don't like the language here 😰😤😮‍💨" - Nana, @ Moe saying Fuck

[autoraton]

I saw in one of your recent posts you just played obra dinn! It’s one of my favorite games ever. Which chapter did you enjoy most ?

FELLOW OBRA DINN ENJOYER!! Hello!

It’s very quickly become one of my favourite games too, but man is it hard to narrow it down to one chapter.

I have to say Soldiers of the Sea or The Doom - they got carnage, crab men, and a million things going on at once. also ‘the frenchman’ gets mentioned and sends me on a wild goose chase for the entire rest of my playthrough

[rainbowangel110]

Aight, it's 3:12 am here, been working on catching up on my course credit recovery, and I'm supposed to wake up at 7 so I can catch up my course credit recovery :D

Help :D

[kaeyachi]

hsr spoilers in the tags!

[lamellas]

Shoutout to the very cheerful and polite patient who started to get changed halfway through my What You Need To Do For Your Imaging schpeal it was very funny