#the struggle of needing prewritten Everything

[autumnalmind]

Staring at the "about" page in discontent, yet again... Why must I yap so much?!

I want concise details! Nice and brief, to the point, while informative of what I want folks to know! ...How other people do it, I have no idea. Truly.

Can't there just be a template for this kind of thing, too...?

~Aki

[sin-cognito]

Rarepair New Year 2024 ch8: Sans/Error, Bad bro AU

SFW

Wordcount: 2932

Error has been checking on the original universe a lot lately.

READ ON AO3

Error has been checking on the original universe a lot lately.

He usually doesn't pay it much attention anymore, what with being busy keeping up with the new alternate universes that are born everyday and are invading the story. His hatred for each and every one of them hasn't wavered since the day he was born, and it's a daily struggle to destroy them enough that they cannot be resurrected.

He remembers how he used to check on Undertale all the time back in the day, when he could count the number of alternate universes on the fingers of one hand. Things were simpler back then, and he misses that time when he could take a peek at Undertale and marvel at the happy faces of his beloved original characters.

They're all treasures to him. Toriel, Papyrus, Grillby, the dog, Asgore, Temmie, Alphys and Undyne…

Sans.

Sans is special. He's always been, for Error anyway. He's a part of him, but also not. Being nothing but a string of coding in a simulation, Error doesn't believe in any deity, but if he had to, he'd choose Sans. That's how important the skeleton is to Error.

Call it a crush, Error doesn't mind. He's given up a long time ago putting words onto the adoration he feels for Sans. Sans is special to him and that's all that matters.

Error has always taken great pleasure observing Sans. He never interracts, rarely even pays Undertale an actually visit because even when he does, he needs to stay hidden and make sure no one sees him. They're not aware of the alternate universes in Undertale, it's still only one of Alphys' unproven theories and Error intends to keep it that way.

(It would complicate things if Sans were to form a friendship with his alternates.)

(Because, well… Error's goal is to destroy said alternates.)

Lately though, Error had been too busy to check on Sans on a regular basis, but that has changed with the last Full Reset.

It's always the same with Undertale: all the characters' little, prewritten lives get upended the moment Frisk falls underground from the surface. There are generally three ways things can go from there: a pacifist run where Frisk befriends everyone (except Error), a neutral run where Frisk harms some of the monsters, and a genocide run which is self-explanatory. The later is Error's least favorite, because it's the one where Sans will die no matter what. The neutral run has the wildest variations in terms of results, as the end depends on how many monsters the human child has hurt, as well as their identity; the outcome greatly differs depending on whether Frisk has killed a random Froggit or a boss monster like Undyne.

There is no discernable pattern regarding which path Frisk will choose when they first wake up in the ruins. Error believes that they're more often pacifist than not, but he's too lazy to actually keep track.

When Frisk reaches the end of the story, one of two things will happen: either they free Monsterkind and spend the epilogue with them on the surface, or they don't.

After that, it's only a matter of time before the whole story resets to the very beginning, before Frisk even gets underground. None of the characters are aware of this, but being outside of the story's code, Error is allowed to observe. He then can watch as everything plays out again from the very beginning: the creation of the world, the war between Humans and Monsters, Gaster, the Underground and its various areas, the creation of Sans and Papyrus and how they grow up.

Error watched attentively the first few times, but it'd be a lie to say that it doesn't get repetitive after a while. Not boring, just… less exciting. (Except Sans. Sans is always interesting.) Still, Error enjoys watching again around the time right before Frisk arrives. Sans usually is fun to follow at that time, as he goes about his daily life in Snowdin, unaware of the presence of the little human in the ruins. Error will never get tired of the first time Sans and Frisk meet.

Error's current predicament is that there's been a glitch this time when the story loaded. It's not the first time, it's even happened once that there was no war between the Humans and the Monsters, but it always levels out one way or the other. It's also distinctively different from what an alternate universe is, because this is still very much the story of Undertale, just with a glitch in there. It's more of a timeline mistake, really.

And it's exactly what's happening here. Somewhere around the time Papyrus was created in this timeline, some source code glitched and the correct personality file didn't upload properly, resulting in Papyrus… well… being an asshole. A big one even.

He's not worse than some of what Error has seen in alternate universes, but it has still profoundly affected the balance of his relationship with his brother and as a result, Sans and him are far from being close, which is a key component to the original story.

To put it plainly, Papyrus is a bad brother who regularly hurts Sans, both physically and mentally.

It's hard to watch for Error, who is so very attached to Sans, more than Papyrus at least, but he reasons that it's only temporary. Soon Frisk will show up and do the whole befriend or kill everyone thing and then it'll all reset and start again. The glitch should be fixed by then. Hopefully.

But Error can't quite stop himself for checking on Sans more regularly, and what he sees rarely appease him. If Sans had some down moments in previous timelines, it's nothing compared to how depressed he is right now, and Error has to bite his tongue hard to stop himself from barging in when he witnesses from the safety of his void how nasty Papyrus can be in this timeline. He says and does things to his older brother that make Error's marrow boil.

For the most part, Sans accepts the harshness. He doesn't know better, he's grown up with this twisted version of Papyrus and knows nothing of the genuine care he's supposed to feel for the other. It doesn't help Error's feelings settle, because at the end of the day, all he's going to see is Sans hanging his skull low as he discreetly flees into the woods for a silent cry. Error can't do much besides staying there, watching helplessly Sans cry his SOUL out and offering words of hollow comfort that Sans will not hear.

Today is such a day. Sans is cooking in the kitchen, making lunch, before Papyrus shows up and blows up at his brother for no apparent reason. He says awful things and threatens Sans to beat him up, Sans tries to diffuse the situation but it doesn't work, of course, and the two have a big fight that culminates in Papyrus throwing an attack at Sans, who teleports out of the way before he runs out the door.

When he'd usually go into the woods to calm down, this time Sans hurries to the basement, where Gaster's broken universe-hopping machine waits. Error gets scared that Sans might try to fiddle with it and find another universe to run away to, to get as far from Papyrus as possible, and Error can't let that happen. It's not the first time Sans fixes the machine, he usually turns really desperate during neutral runs where his brother doesn't survive and thinks that the device is a time machine that will let him go back before Frisk beheads Papyrus. Error always manages to make it so that Sans doesn't accidentally universe-hops, but with the glitch affecting this timeline, he doesn't know whether his usual methods will work or not.

Sans randomly presses at all the buttons on the keyboard and even though Error knows that won't do shit until the machine itself is fixed, he knows that Sans is one breakdown away from trying that. Error panics and, trying to get closer to see what Sans is doing, he enters the machine. His outsource code messes with the piece of junk, enough that in the blink of a glitch, he finds himself thrown onto the hard cold floor of the basement.

He coughs and shakes his skull as he rubs his arm, looking back at the damn machine. He makes a mental note never to set foot into that thing again. Who knows what kind of consequences such a glitch could have in the future? Error would rather not find out.

He clumsily gets back up and turns around to check on Sans and see how he's doing with the keyboard.

Only to find Sans staring at him, his eyesockets still wet with angry tears and his mouth wide agape.

Error immediately understands the situation and lets out a long, tired sigh.

"fuck."

Sans is momentarily distracted from his pain, which Error is thankful for, and throws a billion questions at him, wondering who he is and where he comes from and why his bones are so dark and if he's related to Sans and why he actually looks like Sans' twin but with black bones and how he got here and so many more that by the time Error gets a word in, it's already night out.

Error explains very roughly who he is, not bothering with the most complicated details. Sans doesn't need to know, it's better if he doesn't actually. Error then very quickly stirs the conversation into comforting words and encouragements, telling Sans that there's something wrong with Papyrus and not with him, and that's why he's lashing out at his big brother so much.

Sans lets out a pitiful and heart breaking chuckle at that.

"yeah well, maybe if i wasn't so damn pathetic he'd be less on my case."

It leaves a bad taste in Error's mouth. Even if he knows that Frisk's Full Reset of the story will fix the glitch, he doesn't like Sans thinking like this, ever.

"no, sans, you don't understand. papyrus is not supposed to be like this. he's a good brother, and you're a good brother too. it's just a glitch," Error tries to explain as best he can. "you two get along really well, you're always spending time together and you never fight, not for real. you tease each other and banter a lot, but it's always in good spirits. i've never seen two monsters get along as well as you and papyrus, i promise."

There's a shift in Sans' eyelights as he listens to Error speak and then he smiles bitterly, his voice sad and broken and wet as he says, "but my papyrus will never be like that, right? because he's just a glitch."

Error realizes how he did the very opposite of comforting Sans as he watches the other crumble into sobs. Sans curls into himself like he's trying to disappear and make the pain go away.

Error is at a loss, he doesn't know what to do. His mind is blank, and so he doesn't think about what he's doing as his arms wrap around Sans' oh so small frame. He pulls Sans into his chest and rocks him as Sans wails into his arms, his hands shakily gripping at the front of Error's jacket.

Error can't do much more than apologize for revealing the hurtful truth to Sans and reassure him as best he can that at least he has Error now to confide in, or vent whenever Papyrus harms him. Error vows that he'll never leave Sans alone and hurt anymore. That's the least he can do. He might not be able to fix the glitch, but he can try to make Sans' current timeline a better experience.

They start to hang out, a lot. If Error avoided making any contact with the characters before, he shrugs that there's no point in hiding his existence now that Sans knows about it. He swears to himself never to intervene in future timelines, but this one is a lost case anyway, and he might as well enjoy Sans' company.

Turns out that Sans is an even more wonderful monster that Error thought, which says a lot, considering how high he already thought of the chubby skeleton. Sans is smart, fun, caring, witty, beautiful and Error is drawn to him like a moth to a flame. He's quick to get out of his depressive funk Error accidentally provoked, and gets livelier and happier each day he spends with Error. They usually just stay in the basement, chatting and playing games, but sometimes Sans brings him to the Snowdin forest, where they build snow sculptures, play between the trees, share secrets under the falling snow and just overall have an amazing time.

The sadness sometimes comes back to Sans' eyelights, but it's quickly replaced by unbridled joy when he spots Error. He knows then that his day is going to be better. With time, he shows less and less bitterness about Papyrus. His brother's nasty words seem to not reach him as deep anymore, and Error is relieved for Sans.

They spend about four months like that, hanging out together everyday, until Error finally announces the news that the little human is on their way. Frisk will arrive in the Underground within a week or two, and if they're in a good mood, Monsterkind might even get freed.

He makes sure not to mention the possibility of a genocide run. Sans doesn't need to hear about it in this timeline. He's suffered enough and ignorance is bliss.

(And if push comes to shove, Error is ready to intervene this time, whatever that entails.)

"you'll get to see the surface!" Error beams at his friend. "the sunset, and the stars, and the sky. And real rain and real snow."

"wow… that sounds nice," Sans whispers in awe with a beautiful smile. "i can't wait."

Sans carefully lets his skull drop on Error's shoulder. Error is tempted to wrap a comforting arm around Sans' waist, but he doesn't go further than thinking about it. He splashes his feet into the water of the luminescent stream in front of them instead. Sans is right, Waterfall really is the best place to hang out.

"error, what will happen to you when the human comes?" Sans asks after a while. "you said that i'm supposed to befriend them, but what about you? you're kinda me, right? will you be their friend too?"

Error hums. He does care about Frisk a great deal and would love to hang out with the tiny human, especially if Sans is there as well. He can already picture the three of them playing in the snow by the entrance of the ruins. Maybe Sans and Error could sneak up behind Frisk and surprise them, that could be fun.

He shakes his skull gently.

"i'll fade in the background for a while. it's your story, sans, and i don't want to influence it more than i already have. i've already said more than i was allowed to, to be honest."

Sans pouts. "hmmm. not fun." He then adds in a quieter voice. "what about papyrus? is he going to be the human's friend too? or is he going to…"

Sans doesn't need to finish the thought and Error does wrap that arm around the other, squeezing him reassuringly.

"don't worry about this, sans. it's almost over anyway. when frisk gets here and finishes their run, the world will be reset and papyrus will go back to normal. the risks of the same glitch happening again are very slim, so you'll forget he even treated you that way and you two will be best brothers again. i promise."

Suddenly, Sans sits up, removing his skull from Error's shoulder, making him miss the contact. Error worries he said something wrong again and stares intently at his friend.

"i'll forget about it? about papyrus being mean to me? really?"

"yes, sans. i know it's hard to imagine for you right now, but trust me. you're going to forget this timeline, everything about it, and then you'll be happy again." Error scratches his cheek as he looks to the side and adds, "i'm not saying things will be easy for you, you also struggle in other timelines, but you'll have papyrus to support you. you won't remember how awful he is right now."

This doesn't seem to be the thing to say to cheer Sans up, because it doesn't work and Sans looks almost gloomier with each new word that goes out of Error's mouth, so he shuts up, waiting for Sans to speak his mind.

Error's patience is rewarded a couple minutes later.

"what if i don't want to forget?"

Error blinks.

"what?"

"i think i don't want to forget." This time, Sans looks straight at Error.

"but… why? you'll be happier if you forget all of this ever happened."

"not if i have to forget you."

The words barely register before Error feels Sans' teeth press against his mouth. He instinctively closes his eyesockets and lets Sans kiss him. Sans runs his tongue along Error's teeth, asking for entrance that is easily granted.

Only the echo flowers around them witness their love, and they too will forget all about this soon.

But even if Sans and the echo flowers and the entire world forget about this moment, Error will remember.

Error will never forget.

[lieutenantselnia]

Me seeing everyone posting their selfshiptober things like how do you manage to crank out something new every day😭 /nm Meanwhile I don't even find the time to sit down in peace to read them🥺 I hope I can eventually but it will probably be more or less belated

I started my master's programme a few weeks ago and most classes have been really fun and interesting so far! But I'm also trying to keep up with assignments from the beginning on, so my hobbies get pushed back a bit🥲 (Plus I still have my bachelor's exam to do at the end of this month so yay that'll probably be some additional stress too) Unfortunately though my usual train route got completely fucked over in the floodings last month (and the repairs will likely take literal months which sucks massively💀), and although they finally set up a replacement bus line it doesn't help that much because the times are super inconvenient for most of my classes, because I'd either be late every time or like almost an hour early (but not enough to actually use the time productively) and it would just waste so much time - same for going home because the bus usually leaves like <10 minutes after my classes and and that's not enough time to walk to the station. Unless I want to waste a lot of time I have to drive on most days now and although I can manage it just annoys me because it was usually much more comfortable to go at least part of the way by train before all of this (plus more driving = more fuel usage = more costs💀).

At least I think I'm starting to get better again with my time management though; I struggled quite a lot with it during the past year which I believe was mostly caused by my overall mental well-being not being great, mostly due to stress, and that kind of spiralled a bit because the less I worse I could manage my time the more stressed I became🫠 Now I started again to write time plans for every day, like the evening before I sit down and think about everything that I need to do and time-block things (eg from 9:00 to 11:00 I'm working on my compositing assignment, from 11:00 to 13:00 I have time to draw), and it's been helping me so much like holy shit?? I actually already used to do this like 2 years ago or so and I honestly don't understand why I stopped because when I did everything kinda turned to worse. I try to not overdo it though, like sometimes I'll also just write something like "free time" or "chilling" so I can decide more spontanously depending on my mood, but overall it just helps me so much because otherwise I'm way too stressed thinking over all the things I should do or could do, and I just sit there thinking about doing things but not actually doing them. But having a prewritten plan where these thoughts are actually sorted and that I can also look up anytime just makes it so much easier, plus it's very satisfying to click that little checkbox every time I'm done with something :)

[sillycyan]

40 41 42 43 FOR FUN FACTSS

HELLLOOOO WHATSUPP HELOOWAHTSUPP I only had one prewritten so I had to write those reall quick.. OKAY WELL WRITING THIS PART NOW I FINISH AND DAMNN HOLYY YAPPATRONIII THIS IS GETTING THAT LINE THING FOR SUREE- but thank you for more numbers I'm really trying to get these out!&(!&!!!

40. Donis used to live in “model apartments” so he didn’t take up his aunts space. He now has compensated for the lack of space and privacy by owning a huge condo.

Donis grew up in North Prale, in a wealthy neighborhood, living with his aunt. As a teenager, he started hearing stories from other young models about their experiences living in "model apartments", small, cramped spaces shared with other aspiring models. These stories usually came from those whose families weren’t as well off, with some even being kicked out of their homes to make more room. These stories stuck with Donis, making him question if he was taking up too much space in his aunt's life, maybe even holding her back in some way. He was very determined to give his aunt more space and gain some independence for himself, Donis made the decision, not even asking for a second opinion, but a decision to move out and live in model apartments. His aunt was baffled, stunned even, by his choice and tried to talk him out of it, not wanting him to leave. But Donis was adamant, seeing it as a good opportunity to gain life experience and humble himself, something people said he needed. However, life in the model apartments was far from what Donis expected. The apartments, located in Manviet, were small and uncomfortable, 90% of the time having him to share a room with multiple other models who were constantly being rotated in and out. It was intense and overwhelming for him, as everyone was desperate to keep their jobs and would do anything maintain their appearance. It was a new environment, and Donis struggled to adapt. Though he had enough money to stay for a while, the experience opened his eyes to the darker, more niche parts of model culture. Eventually, Donis had enough. He decided to leave the model apartments behind and get his own place. He bought a huge condo in Manviet, a city he had grown to like despite everything he experienced in it. He 100% has some horror stories he’s been keeping down for years..

41. Nori and Donis fake dated.

It all started with a fan posting that they'd pay a lot of money to see Nori and Donis on a specific gameshow, one that typically was meant for couples. The idea quickly gained traction, and many others joined in to agree. Nori saw the post first and suggested it to Donis, thinking it would be a fun way to hang out and an excuse for her to fly back into the country. Donis started off confused, but he wasn't against it. They went to Reign, who managed both of their things (Nori is basically in Reign's care while she is the country), and, even with his attempts to talk them out of it, he eventually helped them in coming up with a safe plan. The plan was simple: they would pretend to date for a while, appear on the game show as "new lovers," and then stage a public "breakup" making it clear they were still friends. Everything went as planned. They started posting photos together, Nori "moved in" with Donis for a short time, and they were seen doing couple-like activities in public. Getting on the game show was simple, they answered a few questions, won, and created some merch that sold out quickly. Despite it being an act, it’s easy to think that if they had kept it up any longer, they might have developed real feelings for each other. However, they were both focused on the money and the fan praise, which stopped them from recognizing what was going on between them. A few weeks after the "breakup," some people began to wonder if it had all been a hoax, and why they would go to such lengths to fake date. They were just chasing that bag..

42. Donis is actually very self conscious about how others think of him.

On the surface, Donis shows up to be confident, carefree, and always does what he wants without any hesitation. But beneath that exterior, he is highly conscious of how others perceive him. He often thinks about what others say about him, both online and in person, and sometimes even second-guesses compliments. This concern he had with how others see him is a big reason why he works so hard to stay on top of trends and keep up with his appearance. He shares a moment with Meil while working on a commercial that intended to challenge gender stereotypes. Donis was comfortable wearing a skirt, dress, and even more feminine, bright makeup for the shoot, but he was concerned that people would perceive him differently as almost a type of consequence. He was concerned that they would think he was doing it for the money, rather than genuinely caring about the issue. Donis talked with Meil about these feelings, unsure of why he felt that way. Although Meil had some trouble completely regaining Donis's confidence back, it was comforting for him to hear that he did not view him negatively.

43. Reign secretly keeps close contact with Ameriel for the sake of Meil.

Since the "Three Day Incident" (I have yet to explain that sorry) that landed Meil in the hospital, Reign has kept in close contact with Ameriel, Meil's doctor. This setup most likely violates some sort of rule, but Ameriel wanted to keep a close eye on Meil in case something similar happened again or if she couldn't reach him directly. Reign agreed, and the two have remained in touch ever since.

[mcsquared789]

2023 Wrap-Up

NOTE: This was previously published on AO3.

Now that we're at the end of 2023, I've been reflecting on how much I've done. I've just kind of fully accepted that this is pretty much going to be a multi-year long project, so I thought: hey, why not do a sort-of Spotify Wrapped on my own series? I would critically go through everything I had written this year, as well as tease what I have planned for the next year, and then put it in a seperate chapter in this fic so you could see how much overall progress I've made.

So that's what we're going to do! Before I continue, I will just add (for further context) that the changelog will always be continually updated with progress and additional reports — whereas these will be uploaded once and never touched again. If you're reading this much later, I will not be updating anything else in this chapter other than describing the writing process for what I've written. This means that what I write later on, as well as any promises I make, may not be accurate to what I've said here. Keep that in mind.

IRON MAN | MAY-JUNE

I started this project with the very first fic, Iron Man — but it's a bit misleading to say that I only started working on this in May. Half of it had actually been prewritten out somewhere else on a Word document, back when this was strictly a personal project and I had just wanted to give writing a try. Specifically practicing, by translating a movie to a novel: a reasonable exercise. It was off and on for a while, but when I finally decided to pull the trigger and bring this to AO3... your incredible support encouraged me to finish it. Therefore, here we are.

But what encouraged me to go to AO3 and start this, anyway? Well, I found out about the platform in no small part thanks to ColeyDoesThings — great channel by the way, subscribe to them if you love fanfiction. But I never really got the appeal of fanfiction and what I could do until I found myself inadvertently writing it, and soon realized that I could do whatever I wanted while writing about things I really care about, which really made something click for me and unleashed a creative spark that had been dormant in forgotten and abandoned projects. A winning combination indeed, that also was spurred on by how diabolically shit the MCU had mostly been this year. (By the way, I'm glad that they're cutting back a lot in 2024. We really need a break, guys.)

But spite wasn't enough — back in March, I had no plans to do anything like this. I really decided to commit to this for my own sanity after I watched the best thing they put out so far this year — GOTG3, of course — and was reminded of the best parts of the overall universe. I then decided that I had to rectify the love I had of it with its overall current state. So I sat down with Scrivener and finally was able to finish this fic: now a much easier task after having written and rewritten the first chapters of it over and over, and also having to adhere to some sort of schedule to finish my work instead of continually perfecting it again and again. The deadline and your expectations, allowed me to bring this over the finish line and deliver the ending.

There were a lot of setbacks. I found it difficult to balance the pacing with the events of this fic — because unlike a lot of other stories in this project, I had to condense a series of months into just about 20 chapters. As well, I also really struggled to make the side characters Pepper and Rhodey important in this... because this was really just about Tony, and I wasn't sure how I was going to change things up yet. I did finally manage to expand their roles in the sequel, however.

Overall, it was a good start. And doing the epilogue (the part when Nick Fury teased the wider universe) finally brought into sharp relief the ambition of the project I was about to undertake, and made me really excited about what I would be able to write next, what characters I would be able to bring together, how much I could actually write of what I wanted to see. Although there was a speed bump...

THE INCREDIBLE HULK | JULY-NOVEMBER

Jesus Christ, this took four months? Ugggh.

Okay, so if Iron Man proved my ability to do this... then this fic had to prove I was capable of expanding on things that wasn't there. This and Iron Man 2 were the only movies I hadn't watched prior to doing this, and this was about as drastically different to anything else in the MCU as it could get. Thus, I think I really struggled with writing it, while also figuring out what to do with Bruce Banner and these characters I admittedly didn't know very well — so the streak I was on had clearly vanished, and I fell behind further with each chapter.

(To be fair: I did take a long holiday in September that stopped me from working on this for a while. So really, it took three months. Still inexcusable.)

That's not to say this was terrible, though! On the contrary, it allowed me to distinguish this fic from Iron Man heavily by including body horror, heavy themes and overall a much darker tone. It really set the stage, I think, of the different genres and themes I may be able to write and change up during this project — and that really excites me for the future. If these two series already feel so different from each other, then how different could they be from Thor? Or Captain America? Or Guardians of the Galaxy? In that regard, I cannot wait to find out. This then will also set the tone for the other fics in the Hulk series, which will have to be wholly original.

It also introduced me to Betty and Thaddeus Ross (at least in a more nuanced way from what we saw of him in Civil War), as well as Emil Blonsky. I now have different ideas for what to do with them going forward that I've already established, as well as bringing in other characters from the comics that will join this universe along with them. So next year, I'll hopefully then see if I can make them work in the universe by expanding on from where their stories end, referring to comics and other adaptations to represent them in these fics the best I can. I'm thinking specifically of Samuel Sterns, Nadia Dornova and pre-transformed, non-fourth wall breaking Jennifer Walters. (This will also then set the stage for whether I can do the same with other characters I plan to add later, like Clea Strange.)

Although I have somewhat of a plan now, I will say that if I can guess what the hardest fics will be to work on in the future... it will definitely be the Hulk series, and the repercussions they will bring to New York and the universe itself. But I'll just end this by saying that I'm still really excited for them and what they'll add, and I can't wait to focus on them soon after I finish Phase 1. In fact, I've cheekily teased in Hulk already what Bruce's fate looks like in Phase 2! Let me know if you think you caught it.

NOVEMBER | THE CONSULTANT

I decided to start doing shortfics, because I needed something to switch focus to during longer projects — and where better to start than that one short film that came out in 2010, that focuses on the end of The Incredible Hulk? 

This was my first attempt at a short story, and I feel that it was a good one: but it will probably not fully represent my ability to write them. For one, this will probably be one of the only fics that connects directly to another fic I've already written: others will probably take place in the intervening periods between one fic and another, like Sanctuary. (See the slate.) As well, this features characters that do not have as big of a role to play in this universe — sorry, Coulson fans. I have yet to see what it's like to write one featuring a character that I intend to also star (or co-star) in a novel length fic.

But this fic was really good, I feel, for helping me practice condensing a story into as few words as I can. The length of these shortfics will wildly vary depending on how much I need to go into detail, but for this I was able to tell everything while expanding on it in just under 3k words! Very nice. And as well as continuing to flesh out Coulson, I also was able to establish a bit about Jasper Sitwell in some ways that I am very proud of: as a hint, it just means I feel confident in writing stories that both work for readers who are not familiar with the fandom and those who are. If you know, you know.

DECEMBER—? | IRON MAN: WAR MACHINE

That brings us to my current fic, the sequel to Iron Man! There have been a lot of factors in this that has helped make this such a breeze compared to Hulk, and they all have to do with how I've written it. For one, I've developed of writing chapters long before I publish them — which has made this fic go by very quickly, but has given me time to catch errors and edit sections I'm not super happy with. For another, the amount of different perspectives in this has allowed every chapter in turn to stay fresh! With all their different challenges and considerations for how I have to write the characters: from Tony, to Vanko, to Rhodey, to Pepper... and soon, a bit of another character we have not properly heard from yet.

(I might as well add that this is the first fic where I've added proper flashbacks — and I think they've really worked in helping me explain character motivations and decisions! Expect more of them from Tony and Rhodey in the rest of the fic, especially for a particularly heartbreaking chapter to come soon... yeah, that will not be fun to write.)

Basically, this is the beginning of what I've truly envisioned will come out of this series, and I'm really loving it! Planning and remaining consistent has been a boon for me to be able to finish over half of this fic in just a month, and has made me really confident that I'll be able to finish the rest by the end of January (hopefully). As well, this is a story with a really complicated and non-straightforward plot compared to its predecessor — so I'm so happy that I've been able to find ways to manage all these characters during this really busy period in the timeline of the MCU, along with other stories that are happening around the same as this one. And I hope to recapture that interconnectivity in future fics — especially the Avengers fics, that I predict will be very, very long.

And with the fun I'm having with it, it's also a good sign for how I feel I'll be able to tackle 2024. 7 months have gone by since I started doing this, which is not really a full year... but now that there's a good chance I'll be taking myself through 2024 like this, I feel confident that I will be able to release much more high-quality fics now without losing momentum, on top of balancing out my real-life priorities. With that said, I suppose we should talk about that will look like?

THE FUTURE

Okay, so I only have one goal for this project next year, that will be more complicated than you think: and that's just to finish Phase 1.

I say that flippantly, but I don't know how long that'll take. Not counting the fic I'm in the middle of, I have two new series to start, three more shortfics I'll be doing, one novella that will be mostly original and one big giant fic at the end that I still don't entirely know what will be like, nor how long it'll turn out to be. Those are a lot of concerns that I need to address early on, so I can then get writing — eh?

If I do have a rough outline, I will say that I think January is going to consist of me finishing War Machine, and February will consist of me completing the entirety of Widowmaker. From there, it's just a steady race to complete one fic at a time, at a reasonable pace, so that you get all these characters and I do as much good with them as I can leading up to The Avengers. This will be made more complicated by the return to work outside of this, which I'm absolutely 100% sure will slow things down at some point — so to that end, all I ask is that you understand when I need to step away for a little bit. I will let you know well in advance like I did last year, so I don't experience too much pressure to deliver.

Of course, the crux of becoming an AO3 author with all these promises I'm making is that I will be definitely getting a lot more attention, and a lot more readers who will be waiting for updates — and that thought both excites and warms me greatly, but also terrifies me a little! Still, if you are reading this and are well invested at this point, you have my eternal gratitude for sticking around and seeing what I'll do next. I started this because I wanted to do it and make these fics happen, but as time moves us further from what spurred me on to do this originally... I no longer just do it because I want to, but also because I know there will be more of you who like, share and engage with my work, and will continue to do so. That is what keeps me going.

So yeah... I'm not gonna stop any time soon. There will be days where it will feel harder to write than others, but every day I get in the chair and get lost in what I'm doing brings me closer to what I'm capable of. Thank you all once again for supporting me this year and brightening up my 2023, and I hope you all love what I'm doing next year! I hope I like it too. *u*

If you have any questions you want to ask about how things went this year that I didn't think of to put here, or have any suggestions for the next year... ask me. I'll answer them to the best of my ability — consider it a cost beneficial transaction that will help the both of us!

And of course, a Happy New Year to you all as well! I'll see you in 2024.

— (M)

[incorrectshantaequotes]

Shantae Headcanons - Magic and Magical Species

Been a while since I've done headcanons, huh? This time, I'll be covering magic and how it works, as well as various magical species! This is one of the longest headcanon posts I've made, so I'll keep it under a read more.

Magic in General

So! Magic has a variety of subcategories depending on what you're trying to do and what it'll accomplish, but as a whole, it has two main forms - light magic, which is typically just called magic, and dark magic. Both kinds of magic can fit into the subcategories, as believe it or not, the difference isn't a good/evil dichotomy - it's how you work with magic and cast it. To explain the difference, however, a bit of context is required.

Magic is spread out everywhere in the world, and over time, various species have evolved to produce their own magic and work with the magic of the world around them to create a variety of effects. Basically, think the Owl House. Every species has some form of latent magic - even humans - but the less magically inclined you are, the less you'll be able to access it. For example, humans, the least magically inclined species, have some magic, but can't really access it. At most, it'll manifest as some minor biological oddities, such as enhanced strength, or, perhaps, controllable hair.

As a side note - the less magically inclined you are, the more resistant you are to magic as a whole. Humans are actually completely unaware of several magical illnesses and plagues because they're totally immune to them - the only things that work against humans are the big guns, such as the stone curse in Pirate's Curse.

Anyway, the difference between light and dark magic is how one works with the latent magic around them in conjunction with their own to get the results they want. Now, to clarify on how they differentiate...

Light magic is what happens when you coerce magic into working with you - convince it to do what you want to do. Generally the safer option, but working with magic as a partner or friend rather than something to be bossed around doesn't come naturally to some people. As such, prewritten spells like Fireball and Storm Puffs are popular for those who can't quite get those results.

Dark magic is what happens when you force magic into working with you - you assert your will over it and demand that it do what you want. In some ways, this form of magic can be easier to cast than light magic. If you have the right amount of will, you can easily cast dark magic, even if you're not that magically inclined. However, while dark magic isn't inherently evil, it is hard to use properly, because that force of will and dominance can be a bit...addicting. And corruptive. When you use force to solve all your problems, it can start to take a toll on your good intentions unless you really know what you're doing.

So! Onto magic species!

Genies and Half-Genies

Genies are by far the most magically inclined species out there, and for good reason - they're literally made of the stuff. Even their physical bodies are just magic constructs. As such, convincing magic to do what they want is usually as simple as just asking.

Due to their constitution, genies don't really have any particular preferences of what kind of magic they practice like other species do. Instead, it tends to be more that individuals pick what kind of magic they prefer to practice, and then focus their entire lives into perfecting that magic, with their children generally ending up picking the same magic as a result.

While being made of magic is cool and all, it's not as cracked up as it seems. For instance, Genies cannot use dark magic. Like, literally can't. It's not a moral code or anything, it's just that they have absolutely no filter for dark magic's corruptive properties. Remember the thing about how being less magically inclined gives you more resistance to magic? That also applies to dark magic's side-effects, and as the most magically inclined species out there, Genies have none. Just a touch of dark magic can be enough for a Genie to go bad. This is how the Tinkerbrain/Dynamo was able to turn Shantae into Nega-Shantae and corrupt the Genie realm so easily - their own biology worked against them. Speaking of that...

Half-Genies are. Weird. Aside from the pointed ears, biologically they're no different from humans. What makes them so unique is their magic half - which is quite literal because they actually have a magical copy of themselves fused with their biological body, and that's what the use for magic. It's a rather unique form of storing and casting magic, one that no other species has. As seen in the series itself, however, this comes with the downside that a Half-Genie's magic can have their magic completely separated from them if you have the right artifacts, something that no other species has to worry about because their means of producing and storing magic is purely biological. Though, as seen in Seven Sirens, sometimes this can be a good thing, as a Half-Genie can use this to temporarily give their magic to someone else.

Sirens

The everyman may wonder, "what's the difference between Mermaids and Sirens?" The answer: pure magical power. The main thing differentiating Sirens from their more well-known counterparts is that Sirens have far more magical potential, giving them more biological diversity as well as increasing their intelligence, letting them make the marvelous structures we see in Seven Sirens. In fact, it was a group of Sirens who made the plans for the steam engine Mimic found and Risky stole in the first Shantae game.

Of course, while Sirens can technically use whatever magic they want, they tend to gravitate towards Summoning Magic. What is Summoning Magic? Honestly, it depends on the Siren you ask. Some prefer summoning magical constructs, some prefer summoning the creatures nearby for aid, and some just straight-up pull others to them via teleport. This room for experimentation gives Summoning Magic a potency that other magics struggle to face.

Sirens have their own language consisting of various clicks and fish noises. This is actually what Lobster Siren speaks! For those wondering, while she could hypothetically learn how to speak Surface, she never has because she's always been too shy of surface-dwellers to actually talk to them. She can understand it perfectly fine, but can't really speak it. Thankfully, those in tune with magic can pick up on what the clicks and fish noises mean! Sort of. How much they actually understand depends on what kind of magic they practice and how much magical potential they have.

Zombies

Zombies are notable for being the only species to actively run on dark magic. There are some magical constructs that run on dark magic - like the Tinkerbats - but they're the only species that runs on it. As a result, they're the foremost experts on dark magic and using it properly, because not knowing how to properly manage it could lead to them becoming feral, or worse, losing their second chance at life.

There are two types of zombies: artificial and natural. Artificial means they were made as a product of some kind of spell, and this is generally the most common kind of zombie. These kind of zombies also tend to be self-aware more often than not. Natural zombies are something that's only popped up recently in the world - while ambient magic generally defaults to light magic, it's been found that over time, repeated conflict and strife in a certain area can gradually cause the ambient magic to turn dark, which can lead to corpses rising from their graves all on their own. These zombies are generally the wild kind, though some natural zombies who woke up self-aware have happened in the past.

The idea of zombies needing coffee to stay self-aware isn't necessarily true. It's moreso that zombies need to keep their bodies active to avoid the degradative effects of dark magic. See, without any will to direct it, dark magic tends to default to exerting the force that drives it over everything around it, leading to it either slowly or quickly destroying said things around it. In order to combat this, zombies make sure their body is active as much as possible to keep the dark magic from going to that default state. The easiest way to do this is coffee or other caffeinated drinks, but there are other methods as well - exercise, adrenaline, anything that keeps your body up and alert is acceptable.

Yes, zombies can reproduce, even with other species. It's honestly not as weird as you'd think it'd be. Zombies or zombie hybrids produced as a result of this fall under the category of natural zombie.

Warp Squids

Warp Squids are notorious for being ridiculously difficult to kill - the only real way to actually do them in is sickness or old age, and that has to do with their unique form of teleportation magic.

Whenever Warp Squids teleport, they leave a magical imprint of their body behind wherever they were before. Whenever they "die," their soul immediately heads over to their last magical imprint, which they use to regenerate their body. As a result, death isn't really permanent for them. At all. The only things that can get them consistently are magical sicknesses, as some can mess with their teleportation magic, and old age, which ignores magical imprints.

As a result of this, Warp Squids have a...really nonchalant attitude towards death. Even zombies treat death more seriously. It's what allows for the business of squidsmithing - the Warp Squids volunteer to have their bodies made into artifacts to help heroes, and in return, squidsmiths give their local Warp Squids a cut of the pay they get.

Pixies

Ever wonder what Holly Lingerbean's deal was after Seven Sirens? After all, Harmony clarified that they were the first generation of Half-Genies, so where does that leave Holly? The simple answer? She lied. Sort of. She was in fact a hybrid between a human and a magical species, but it wasn't Genies...it was Pixies!

Pixies are a nearly extinct magical race, well known for having specialized in two types of magic. The first is illusion magic - Holly wasn't lying about her father being a stage magician. Pixies used their illusions to trick and misguide others, giving them a reputation as pranksters and con artists. The second - albeit far more rare - is preservation magic.

Preservation magic was first approached by Pixies as a sort of opposite to illusion magic. After all, one makes things look different, the other makes sure it looks the same, that sounds pretty much like opposites, right? But it's a lot more complicated than that. Magic tends towards change. Asking it to keep something the same is hard, even for a Genie - give it even the slightest of wiggle room, and chances are your spell will go horribly wrong. To give an example, Holly Lingerbean ended up the way she is because she attempted to cast preservation magic on herself. So the fact that even a few Pixies managed to master it was enough to garner attention, and ultimately led to the near extinction of their race.

Their structures are still around, but without someone to reapply the preservation magic, they're slowly crumbling apart. What few Pixies there are left are survivors, using preservation magic to stay alive far past what should have been - and even then, it's failing. Much like the Half-Genies, without some kind of miracle, their generation will likely be the last.

[angelicspaceprince]

Proposal Addict

Author: Ama

Title: Proposal Addict

Pairing: Zhuk/Reader

Character/s: Zhuk

Word Count: 2, 896 words

Warnings: Character death, its a bit sad, lots of Russian thats probs wrong its from google translate

Tags: @trelaney

Prompt: Zhuk had this weird obsession with proposing, but it’s not like you minded.

Notes: I wrote this ages ago and realised that I hadn’t published it here. I have 3 fics (including this one) that’ll be coming up within the next like 30 minutes or so, see how I go (all prewritten). Thanks to @monsterlovinghours for helping me out with the vows bc ya guy Ama here struggles with the romance

Buy Me a Coffee

Proposal Addict

The two of you had barely started dating when he first asked you. To be fair, he was incredibly drunk and mumbling nonsense in a mix of Russian and English as you carefully led him up the stairs and into his room, umming and ahhing where appropriate as his huge form leans heavily on you, causing you to stumble. That’s when you catch a genuine question through the mess.

“Ty tak khorosho zabotish'sya obo mne. Vykhodi za menya, roza?” You look up at him in slight confusion.

“Zhuk, I don’t speak Russian remember? Can you repeat it?” You ask him as you push him onto the bed, yelping when his hands grab your wrists to pull you down with him. It takes a few seconds for him to remember what he said and translate it, his face unusually expressive as you watch amused at the sight of him try to use his alcohol-soaked brain.

“Will you marry me?” His words are slurred and his accent his thick, but you know instantly what has been said.

You know that he was too drunk to mean it, and telling him so would just end with him insisting that you were wrong. So, instead, you lean in close to kiss him gently before pulling back. “Ask me again tomorrow.”

“Why?” This was as close to whining at the Russian would ever get to, and you found it adorable. You shrug.

“I might just say yes.” A happy purr radiates from his body as he slowly starts to fall asleep, snoring loudly as his arms keep you trapped against his chest.

After that, it just became a regular occurrence. Zhuk knew he wanted to marry you pretty much the day he met you, and even though you thought he was joking with the constant proposals, it always made him smile that you never said no, just to ask again the next day. Which he did. Every single day.

Sitting next to each other by the fire, reading whilst holding hands? Well, you were reading, Zhuk was looking down at you with a small, fond smile on his face. “Dorogaya?”

“Mm?”

“Will you marry me?”

“Ask me again tomorrow, perhaps then I’ll say yes.” You lock eyes with him, a small smile on your lips as you both allow yourself to feel comfort from the inside joke.

Walking alongside one another in the garden in total silence? Zhuk would always pull you down to sit on one of the few seats and get down on one knee in front of you, a ring made out of strands of long grass he’s picked at in his hands. “Marry me, malishka?” You take the ring and put it on calmly before kissing the back of his hand, the smirk on your lips giving away your answer already.

“Ask me again tomorrow, lyubimiy. I might just say yes.”

A rare night where you could both just lay in bed together, enjoying each other’s company in silence when suddenly Zhuk says in a quiet voice ‘Y/N, ty lyubov' vsey moyey zhizni, vykhodi za menya zamuzh?’, you don’t even need the translation to know what he’s asked.

“Ask me again tomorrow, dorogoi, perhaps then I’ll say yes.”

He only ever questioned it once. You wanted to go to a market to check out the stalls, and he never could deny you anything. You were looking over a blurb of an old, worn novel when he asked you quietly. “Marry me, kiska?”

Quickly you reply. “Ask me again tomorrow, I might just say yes.” He chuckles, unable to hold back the smile on his face as you put the book back, clearly not interested once you’d read the back.

“Why is it you never say yes?” You blink as you put your hand around his arm and start to walk towards the next stall. You seem to consider your answer before you finally give it.

“Because I never want to stop hearing you say it.” You finally confess as you meet his eyes briefly, only pulling away when your attention is pulled away from him and towards the seller of the stall.

It was a couple of years before your answer changed. It was nothing special, to be honest, Zhuk thought you were going to say the same mantra you had repeated every day and for once wasn’t going to ask. When you brought it up as you sat comfortably in his lap with his arms around you, you could almost feel the shrug. “Will your answer change if I ask?”

You hum. “You never know until you ask.” He chuckles.

“Marry me, tsarina?”

“Yes.”

There is a pause as he pulls back to look down at you, your face spit with a cheeky grin. Clearly, he wasn’t expecting that and it was a rare occasion you got one up on your partner. “Y/N?” You hum to let him know you’re listening. “Is this-”

“Legit? Uh-huh.” You turn so you are straddling him, arms locked around his neck. “Zhuk, moya lyubov', I love you more than anything else on this earth. Every day with you feels like what heaven should feel like. I want nothing more than to be able to call you my muzh. So yes, dorogoy, I’ll marry you.”

Both of you ignore the Irish accented ‘fookin’ finally’ that comes from the room next door as he pulls you down for a slow, deep kiss as he slides the ring that he totally has not been keeping in his pocket for over a year now over your finger.

You figured it’d stop there, you were engaged, why would he continue to ask? But he still did, every day. And, just like always, you’d smile and tell him to ask you again tomorrow. During the stress of planning a wedding that was suitable for the both of you, it was a nice reminder that through it all, you loved each other. And the comfort you found with your little exchange helped with your pre-wedding jitters. When you wake up the morning of your wedding, you roll your eyes when you see him looking down at you with a small smile on his face.

“Marry me, kroshka?” You snort before moving to snuggle up against him.

“Ask me again in 8 hours. I might just say yes.” You tease before kissing his chest lightly. “I’ll see you at the altar.” You promise as you stand up to get ready. He grumbles as you leave the bed, clearly wanting you to stay with him for a bit longer. “Remember your promise?” You ask just as you throw on your robe and move to sneak back into the master bedroom, your maid of honour insisting the two of you spend the night apart for good luck, even though everyone knew any attempt to keep Zhuk from you would be foolish. What they didn’t count on was you sneaking out to be with him.

“I won’t make you cry.” He repeats the promise you made him make when the both of you started to write your vows.

“Good. If anything smudges, you’ll be facing the wrath of my cousin, got it?” You warn playfully before walking back over to the bed and leaning in to kiss him softly. “At the altar?”

“At the altar.” He says against your lips, hands resting over yours. You have to pull away, knowing he won’t be the one to move away first. Once you’re out the door, he falls back onto the bed with a thud. He hated wedding traditions.

The morning was hectic, everyone rushing around to get last-minute preparations organised and to get the two of you where you needed to be on time. It was all a blur for the both of you, being pulled in different directions by different people who seemed to have a better idea of what was going on and what was happening, when it was happening and where it was happening. Still, Zhuk stood in front of the mix of both your and his friends and family right on time, just as you were rocking up to be walked down the aisle.

Zhuk rarely cried, and never did so in public. But seeing you in your wedding dress that just seemed to accentuate your beauty and made you, if even possible, even more perfect than usual in his eyes? He was in awe, and in shock that this was finally, actually happening.

Once he took your hand and lead you up in front of the priest, he couldn’t take his eyes off of you. Everything was muffled. To the point that you had to nudge him when the priest asked him for him to read his vows three times. He could feel the amusement from his comrades but brushed it off as he starts to recite the words that took him months to perfect, having annoyed Scarafaggio and Scarabee over it near daily. He just wanted it perfect for you.

"For far many more years than I care to admit, I existed in darkness. I saw the sun, but didn't feel its warmth. I knew the stars were there, but felt none of their enchantment. You, dorogoy, were the light my life was missing. From the moment you set foot into my life, you've been a candle to my darkened soul, a beacon to my lost heart. With you by my side, I have no need of the moon, the sun, or the stars. You are my sun. You are my moon. You outshine all the stars in the night sky. I have asked you many, many times now, darling, if you would marry me, and each time you've smiled and told me to ask you again tomorrow. Even as we stand here, know that I will never stop asking you to be mine, just as I will never stop loving you. Moy svet. Moya lyubov'. Moya vse. Moya prekrasnaya zhena. Will you marry me?" He squeezes your hand as he finishes, your eyes welling up throughout.

You can’t hold back your tears as he finishes his vows. “You bastard, you swore you wouldn’t make me cry.” You whisper out, causing a chuckle from the crowd. “I’m tempted to say tell you to ask me again tomorrow just to see what you’ll say,” you start as his hand moves up to thumb away your tears, being careful not to smudge anything, “but yes. Moy obozhayushchiy muzh, I’ll marry you.”

To be honest, you thought once you were married the proposals would stop, but the only thing that changed was the frequency. Instead of daily, it was near daily.

The first time it happened after the wedding was literally hours after the reception. The both of you decided you needed a minute just to relax and ended up just lying on the bed, you on top of him as you rest your head against his chest, his hands cascading through your hair and tracing nonsense patterns against the skin of your back.

“Marry me, moya zhena?” You look up at him as he just smirked down at you. You roll your eyes.

“We just- We are- Fuck it. Ask me tomorrow. If you’re lucky, I might say yes, moy muzh.” You shake your head in amusement as you lean back down.

So it continued, every moment he felt the urge to propose, the words just seemed to slip out. Sometimes, you’d remind him you were already married to which he’d reply “ah. Well, that makes me a lucky man. Marry me again, moya zhena?” You’d roll your eyes and tell him to ask again the next day with a small smile and blush across your face. Other times, you’d just tell him to ask again tomorrow, perhaps the answer will be yes. Like your own special declaration of love for one another, only something about it felt deeper than just the two of you saying ya lyublyu tebya.

Then, it happened. To be fair, it was bound to happen eventually, Zhuk was surprised it took as long as it did, but still, it wasn’t a pleasant experience.

He got hurt.

To be fair, it wasn’t lethal, but it still knocked him around a little bit. By the time he was brought home, he was unconscious with Bee making sure he slept and wasn’t in pain. He was aware that you were in the room with him, his hands itching just to be able to hold yours. He could vaguely hear Scarabee telling you that it was a near miss, that he was incredibly lucky, and that he’d be fine in a couple of days. Your hand slipped into his and his whole body seemed to relax. It always just felt right when your hands were in his.

He slept for what felt like weeks, but was really just a couple of days. You didn’t leave his side once, having one of the staff bring you food, and the other dons would periodically call in to check on you. Still, your hand never left his as you anxiously waited for him to wake up.

It was late, the sun had gone down and you were sleeping when he started to stir. Him squeezing your hand and groaning lowly at the slight pain caused you to wake up with a jolt, but waiting in silence to see if he was alright. His voice is weak, but still, he manages to say what was on his mind. “Marry me, moya prekrasnaya zhena?”

You look at him in disbelief because you start hitting him, each smack feeling like nothing as you continue to slap at his skin, crawling into his lap to get better coverage of his body. “You, you bastard, don’t you come in here with your moya prekrasnaya zhena bullshit, you are hurt! You could have died! What the fuck, Zhuk, what the fuck is wrong with you?” You stop hitting him in favour of just laying down on top of him as you start to sob against his skin. “I thought I was gonna lose you. Never seen you so still.” He hushes you as his hands move to squeeze you tight against him.

“You didn’t answer my question, moye solntse i zvezdy.” He reminds you gently.

“Ask me again tomorrow, it might be a yes when I’m not pissed off.” You grumble into his skin, causing him to laugh lightly. “Not off the hook, mister.”

“I know, moya zhena, I know.”

It was a few weeks later that you celebrated your second wedding anniversary. The both of you decided to go to a smaller part of town to a restaurant the both of you liked. You had requested minimum security, just wanting the night to be between you and Zhuk complied. Afterall, who would go after either of you in a small restaurant in his own district.

Turns out, an idiot would.

You walked out in front of him, thanking him for holding the door and reaching back to link arms with him. He saw your face go from one of pure bliss and happiness to one of pain and confusion before he heard the shots. He yelled for someone to go after the shooter and another to call a medic as he helped you to the ground, ripping your shirt back to see the damage. The bullet was still inside, but you were bleeding out pretty heavily. Clearly, it had nicked an artery, or perhaps even your heart. He didn’t care, he just wanted you to not be in pain. You gasp out loudly as he balls up his jacket and puts pressure on the wound, causing the pain to increase as your blood soaks into the dark fabric. “Zhuk.” Your voice is already weaker than usual. “Zhuk, look at me.”

“You’ll be fine, Y/N.” He assures you. “We will get you to the hospital, they’ll take care of you, just- just- stay with me, please tsarina.” He begs. It breaks your heart to hear his voice so weak and broken, as if he knows the prognosis without even needing a medic’s opinion. Still, he held onto hope.

Your hand moves up to brush away unshed tears, even though you have to pull back when your muscles become weak. “Zhuk. Moy muzh. Will you marry me?” You say with a small smile on your face, tears streaming down your face.

Zhuk tries to blink away the few that are threatening to fall, but they land on your cheeks despite his attempts. “Ask me again tomorrow, I might just say yes.” He says with a broken smile as he pushes down harder.

Your laugh is breathy when you hear your answer, going to reply when you realise it's too hard. You breath one more time, eyes locked on his as you try to portray how much you love him through them before your chest settles, and your eyes go glassy.

The shouting of ‘no, no, no, Y/N, moya zhena, please, no’ alerted the paramedics to where you were exactly, rushing in to try and pull your rapidly cooling body away from the sobbing Russian, large body seeming to be impossibly small as he clings to you as if you would wake up in his arms and reassure him it's fine.

Instead, you slept on.

[sincerelymarinette]

A Recorded Life (11/50) - Miraculous Ladybug

Words: 2316 Chapter Summary: Time for Marinette to get some work in for Jagged Stone's project! Also, Adrien drops by, maybe it's time to make a video. Author's Note: I'm running out of prewritten chapters and have so little time to write. I'm here trying, and I'm also trying to figure out when the climax is a good time to have in the story. ALSO there may not be a few updates for a few weeks: I will be on vacation next week, then moving off to college the following few weeks. Gonna be crazy.

Prev / Next / Masterlist

Impromptu Q&A with Adrien

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Marinette was completely focused, sketching out an idea she had for one of the album covers. She had a bad case of art block, and now that she had some inspiration, she wasn't going to lose it. Jagged's song was playing in the background on repeat so she would get all aspects of the song, and Tikki was watching from her perch above Marinette.

Laying on the floor, she was sketching Jagged on a raised platform with lights pointing at him, creating a silhouette. His hands were pointed up towards the comers of the paper. As Marinette began to outline the background, she heard her name being called. "Just a second!" She shouted as she continued drawing.

A minute passed, and Marinette had already forgotten about her name being yelled. She jumped when her trap door opened, and she lost grip on her pencil, and it flew across the room. "Marinette?" Adrien's head popped into her room. "Throwing things?"

She sighed and laid her head down when she realized it wasn't an intruder, only Adrien. "You scared me."

"Couldn't tell," He smirked and picked up her pencil once he got into the room.  "What are you up to?"

"I'm working on one of the designs for Jagged's album project. I was inspired," She showed Adrien the sketch. "What are you doing here? Did we have something scheduled? Oh no, I'm so sorry!"

Adrien put his hands up and shook his head. "No, no, we didn't. Don't worry," He told her. "I sent you some texts and called, Alya was worried because she hadn't heard from you all day. So I called the bakery, and your mom said you were designing and probably would not pay attention to that stuff, so she recommended if I needed something from you to just come over," He shrugged. "But, I now realize you were in the zone, and I probably ruined that."

Marinette giggled. "It's okay; I needed to take a break. What's up?"

Adrien chuckled. "Oh...not much. Alya texted me to ask if I had heard from you, so I tried to get to you, and now we're here. My father and Nathalie are out of town, and the stuff they had planned for me fell through, so I feel like a free man!" Adrien replayed his day. "And I let Alya know you're alive, she was just worried. But that was such a tough adventure, now I'm starving," Adrien said.

"I would think so; you've had a busy day," Marinette smirked.

"Well, want to come with me? It seems as if you've had a busy day as well," Adrien motioned towards her sketches. "Reward yourself."

Marinette shook her head with a little laugh as she went to stand up. She grabbed her supplies off the floor and loved them to her desk. "Where are we going? Do I need to bring a camera?" She asked.

Adrien shrugged. "Who knows, weird things could happen at any time. We do have a Hawkmoth around, and maybe Alya needs a run for her money if you document it."

"I couldn't steal her brand!" Marinette gasped. "But I'll bring the camera just in case," Grabbing the camera, Adrien opened the trap door back up and started to head down with a smile on his face. Marinette grabbed her little purse and opened it just enough to let Tikki in. "Where are we headed?" She asked and followed Adrien down the steps.

Adrien shrugged. "I don't know; there's this little cafe near the park if you want to try that?"

"Perfect!" Marinette smiled. As they left the bakery, Marinette snapped a quick photo of the two of them and posted it on Instagram.

@MarinetteDupainCheng Between bad art block and sudden bursts of inspiration for the album project, Adrien got hungry, and now I'm going to lunch. I need to find a reason to get him in a video again...even though it's only been a few days. How would you guys like to see us play our favorite video game?

Adrien chuckled at the post when Marinette let him read and approve it before posting. He clicked post for her and waited for the likes and comments to roll in. I'm only a few minutes of random conversations, they ended up at the cafe and waited for their water to be served. "So, Adrien," Marinette switched to English when pointed her camera at him as they waited. "I just posted that picture, and now there are a good couple hundred questions on it. Maybe I should make a question and answer vlog where we answer the questions on the picture, but not tell anyone, so people get the real questions answered."

"I think that is an amazing idea!" Adrien smiled widely. "I'll pull up the picture and find some comments, but first I'm going to figure out what I'm having for lunch. I don't know if I've mentioned it, but I'm starving."

Marinette's eyebrows raised. "Wow, you really are a free man today. Choosing your own food and everything!"

"Hush," Adrien put his finger up. "This is an important decision."

A few minutes passed, and they placed their order, and Marinette had the camera back out to answer questions. They were sat in a booth, so she jumped to the other side to be next to Adrien, and set the camera in front of them so they both would be in the frame. "Some of these questions are so good, I can't wait to talk about them," Adrien chuckled as he scrolled through the comments.

Marinette shook her head and clapped in front of the camera to sync everything up. She pressed record and waited a few seconds to start this segment. "I'm over here now!" She waved into the camera. "We have successfully ordered lunch, and now we're going to answer some questions for an impromptu q-and-a. For the record, I did edit the caption on my post so people would ask questions, but it was an hour after I posted it. So it's kinda a surprise," She winked at the camera.

Marinette pointed to Adrien to have him ask the first question, and he smiled. "How did you two become friends?"

Rubbing her hands together, Marinette chuckled. "Buckle up, kiddos," She said. "It all started on our second day of school a few years ago. I walk in, and I see this blond boy putting gum on my seat. I yelled at him and put a tissue over it and sat out of the way of it. I hated him, he was brand new to school and already didn't like me! What a bully," Marinette rolled her eyes. "So, I was mad at this boy, right? Wouldn't even look his way, and when he tried to explain himself, I didn't listen," Marinette crossed her arms.

Adrien giggled as he listened to her dramatically tell the story of their friendship. "This also happened to be the day of the first Akuma France had witnessed, so everything was crazy, too. After the Akuma, we ended the day at school with rain, and I didn't have an umbrella. And of course, there comes blond boy with his umbrella to stroll by me. I didn't look at him, and he just sighed. Then, I let him explain himself. Partially because I was stuck standing there waiting to call my parents for help, but I hesitantly listened. Then he told me he was only trying to remove the gum another girl put there and only wanted to help, and then he gave me his umbrella. I stole it, and it's still at my house."

"To conclude, Adrien wasn't involved in this story at all. He sat behind me in class for three years before I even noticed him- hey!" Marinette chirped when Adrien nudged her with his elbow, a hurt look on his face.

Adrien rolled his eyes. "To conclude, it was my first day of school! I'd basically been stuck inside all my life; I had no idea how to interact with other people my age that wasn't Chloé. I was lucky I was even allowed to go to school," Adrien shrugged, then furrowed his eyebrows. "You still have my umbrella?"

"It's a nice umbrella. Probably going to be worth something someday," Marinette shrugged.

A smirk appeared on Adrien's face when he tried to hold in a laugh. "You forgot the best part! You opened the umbrella; then it closed on you! That was so funny, made my day!" Adrien continued laughing, while Marinette rolled her eyes.

"And that was only question one!" She announced. "Find me another one, my trusty assistant."

Adrien scrolled for a few seconds to find a good one. "How do you guys balance everything you do?" Adrien asked, then laughed. "Ha! I don't!" He said. "I barely get any sleep. Between school, and modeling, and all the countless activities, while also trying to maintain a social life...you think I balance it?" He joked. "I try to balance it, but it's hard. There's always so much going on."

Marinette nodded in agreement. "I'm the same way. I average very few hours of sleep every night with everything I do," She said and peered at the phone. "Ooh, this one next."

A second after Adrien read it, his facial expression was difficult to read. "What's something you wouldn't have expected to know about the other, but you do?" Adrien asked. "Hold on; I'm confused."

"Like something you wouldn't think the other person would do, or a personality trait I have you weren't expecting...kind of like that," Marinette tried to explain.

Adrien nodded and struggled to think. "See, everyone thinks I'm going to say I didn't expect you to be as passionate, or determined, but you are so passionate and determined that I knew that and everyone can tell. I'm never really surprised by things with you...I have to think on that," Adrien concluded.

Marinette's smile grew wide. "I didn't expect you to be such a rebel. I know you have a lot going on, and when we first met, you listened to nearly everything your father said. Now you're telling me you fake your piano classes and sneak off from time to time," Marinette said.

"Hey! What if he sees this? Shh!" Adrien jumped.

With raised eyebrows, Marinette gave him an annoyed look. "You think he watches my videos? Really? Adrien, come on," She said.

Adrien shrugged. "Who knows, he could be scoping out his up-and-coming competition. But maybe it's an excuse to check up on everything I'm doing," Adrien reasoned. "But he's got a real storm coming if he doesn't get you on his design team...you'd run him out of business!" Adrien told her.

Marinette scoffed and shook her head. "Next question?" She asked.

"Is Alya jealous that Adrien is taking her spot on the channel?" Adrien asked.

Quickly, Marinette shook her head. "Not at all! You guys may not know it, but Alya does so much work behind the scenes to help me with videos. More so for my main channel, but she helps me come up with ideas, shoot many videos, and runs my website. Not to mention, she's never shy giving me ideas for this channel as well and is always ready to help. I'm sure she enjoys the little break she gets when Adrien butts his way in, she's working really hard at her reporting internship and getting into the school she wants to. All while trying to maintain the Ladyblog, her social life, and her love life!" Marinette explained quickly. "She's like, a superhero."

"Say it louder for the people in the back!" Adrien cupped his hands around his mouth.

Marinette snatched the phone out of Adrien's hand to ask a question. "Who's your favorite superhero from the Avengers?" She asked and sighed. "I don't know about Adrien, but I love so many. Let's see-"

"Oh!" Adrien shouted. "I'm surprised you're such a big Chat Noir fan!" He interrupted.

"What?"

"From the question earlier! I'm surprised you like Chat Noir so much. I would have bet money on it that you liked Ladybug more, and I was shocked to find out!" Adrien gushed. "I'm sure he'd be flattered, by the way. Especially with that awesome outfit you made inspired by him. Still excited, I got to wear that."

Marinette chuckled. "I've met Chat Noir, and he seems really down to Earth. He protected me when an Akuma fell in love with me, and once I confessed that I was in love with him because I panicked over something? It was weird, but then my dad got akumatized, and I was basically Rapunzel, and he helped save me from that too. I haven't seen him in a while, but he was pretty awesome- minus all the puns."

Adrien gasped. "You don't like puns?" He put his hand over his heart and pretended to be hurt.

"I don't dislike them. He was just...very annoying when it came to puns. There were so many, Adrien," Marinette explained.

"I don't know if our friendship can survive this, Mari," Adrien said. As he crossed his arms and turned away from her, the waiter walked over with their food. "Perfect timing, now I have something to distract me from the traitor!" Adrien quietly shouted.

"I guess this is as good a time as any to end the video. Make sure to leave a like if you want more and subscribe to never miss an upload! You can check out all of mine and Adrien's social media around our faces or in the description below! See you guys next time!" Marinette made a peace sign and nudged Adrien with her arm. His arms were still crossed, and he tried not to giggle as he looked away from the camera.

The video ended with Adrien grumbling "traitor" as he made a peace sign as well.

--

@lady-of-the-roses-and-lilies@bookishserendipity03@avatheexceed @gkz10 @coccinellegirl@kat-thatoneweirdo@strawberryblondish @snow-swordswoman@lilgaga98

[oldcoyote]

you seem to have done a lot of work on customizing your campaign. is that something all GMs should do? what other things have you customized?

i don’t think any DMs or GMs have to, by any means, especially on their first campaign. i started this campaign planning to do the prewritten starter pack D&D adventure (Lost Mines of Phandelver) & then just went off the rails completely and built my own giant arc and novels worth of intricate sub-stories and detail because i’m absolutely batshit loco and struggle to contain my worldbuilding brain once it’s unleashed. after i stopped being a writer, having this as a new outlet for all that mouldering-in-filthy-abandon creative energy was fantastic, but i made a lot of extra work for myself in doing it

for this campaign, i’ve created a lot of homebrew magical items, a new system by which they are created (crystal imbuing) which ties in with the ninth school of magic that i mentioned i wrote up (Lithomancy), which is in turn a huge part of the arc of the campaign. i created a few homebrew subclasses for Wizard (School of Lithomancy), Sorcerer (Titansblood), and Artificer (Lapidare) tied to that school, as well as three more the party hasn’t encountered in depth yet for Paladin, Druid and Ranger (unrelated to Lithomancy).

as for the rest, i’ve compiled documents on my own take of each of the races and cultures in world with everything from common hairstyles to religions and customs, a spreadsheet on the herbs and flowers of the world and their various applications and uses both practically and medicinally, a list of available alcohols from different regions and obtainable drugs, details of the constellations in the sky and their individual meanings as well as the application of each to a birth month and subsequent astrology, names and authors of books available for the party to read or learn from, a list of common folk songs by region with a basic summary of their lyrics, a selection of the most popular travelling bardic troupes or performers that move from city to city in the regions the party frequents, all the festivals celebrated around the continent and the practices, decorations and activities that are enjoyed with each, and of course the hundreds of crystals and their applications for each of the subclasses of Lithomancy

and i mean like any DM i have scratch lists of a heap of NPC names, shop names, tavern names etc if i need one in a pinch during RP

but yeah. i may have overdone it a touch.

[ladymdc]

For the writer questions: 4 and 6 for Wandering in the Dark plz?

Thank you for the ask lovely!!! ❤️

4. If you could change anything in WitD, what would it be?

*calmly inhales*

Ok, believe it or not, the ONE thing I would go back and change is the last half of CH17; specifically, the smut.

It was something I had partially written in the early stages, sort of “I knew where the fic was going & how to get there would be the fun part” -- ANYWAY, I was really struggling with WitD at that point. I wanted to finish it SO BAD & I got hung up for like 3 months on how the newly written section clashed with the prewritten smut. I did my best to blend it, but when I look at it, it all still reads slightly OOC to me. Hopefully this is just me, but... there it is. *cries*

6. Which scenes did you cut, and which were added in WitD?

CUT SCENES: I was always planning on covering the final battle & the conversation with Solas. However, when I got there, I felt it took away from the build up & the intent to have an open/ambiguous ending. Plus it brushed a little too close to canon in ways. Amladaris dies, the orb is destroyed, Solas disappears - all of that was easily implied without covering it, so it was axed & the world’s shortest epilogue was written instead.

ADDED SCENES: Believe it or not, in my original outline, Ez had died, so everything surrounding him was an addition. I felt it impacted Evelyn WAYYYY more find her brother tortured & broken after years of uncertainty. Give her that extra boost to be selfish & impulsive toward the end; tip her towards Eirlys Amell in ways. Plus, I needed an extra way to hint that Evelyn lived. I hope that wasn’t TOO subtle, but with Ez’s & Cole’s combined vague insight into the past/future, I wanted to set up that even though her & Cullen disappeared, they went to find Justice, ie Anders.

Plus... these changes set me up for a sequel if DA4 gives me the opportunity.

*phew*

I still have a lot of feelings about this fic & I’m incredibly proud of it. In fact, I thinks it’s the ONLY DA fic that I am proud of... So with that said, here is some shamless self-promotion: You can find this Noir/Dystopian AU - Wandering in the Dark - here, on Ao3.

[10 questions every fic author secretly wants to be asked || send me an ask]

[beyondthetemples]

Multimuse RP questions!

{{ I couldn’t figure out which RP blog to stick these on (since I have like. nine), so I figured I’d just skip to the Answering Part over here. =w=

Found here: https://memesfortheroleplayerssoul.tumblr.com/post/163688858676

is there a muse that you wish gets more attention? Honestly? Dove. There are a couple of people who've said they love reading about her, and I'm so absolutely eternally delighted for them, too deeply appreciative for words! A couple friends I met via rping her, and a couple friends I met in Certain discord servers, but that's about it anymore. But she's my baby, you know? I love her, she's amazing, and I wish more people took the time to write stories with her, because she just has so much potential! I mean, yeah, for angst of course, but also for healing and comfort, for action and fantasy, for mystical and mundane plots alike. She's so multi-faceted and fascinating to explore, I just... well, maybe it's more selfish in that I need help exploring some of the more mundane stuff with her. Because if it doesn't really Have Relevance to a Particular Plot, I generally won't wind up writing it, let alone publishing it. :P But this answer's already too long; I could rave about Dove for hours! All I'm trying to say is, I wish more people cared about OCs.

if you HAD to choose, who’s your favorite muse? Favorite to RP with? Far and away, Dove! Favorite for crack RPs, Srentha or Leyla. Favorite canon character is a GIGANTIC toss-up between Raven and Lapis. Favorite characters to explore for personal reasons are Ryou Bakura and Blue Diamond, but I have a hard time bringing myself to actually WRITE about them, for some reason...

is there a muse that not a lot of people roleplay with? (Besides the ones I haven't advertised? ^^';;) Maybe Phobia? She has only ever existed in comic canons-- though she WAS in the Teen Titans Go comics too! (The original series, not the... bastardization). Anyways, she's a much lesser-known muse. And my muse for her is wildly unreliable, she's a volatile and abrasive character, and my inspiration for her has run dry for awhile now...

if you HAD to choose, who’s your least favorite muse? Phobia. o_o See above, actually.

which one of your muses have you been playing the longest? Prooobably Dove? She was the one I started rping with, of course!

which one of your muses has the most ships? Ships in their canon, or ships in my rps? Because you're talking to a demigray here; I don't really do romance? But in my stories, Dove has 3 ships (all at different times in her life). In rps, Dove has been kinda-contemplating-it shipped a couple times, but never got to the point of, you know, kissing... and in fandom, Lapis probably has the most.

what is each of your muses’ otps? notps? ~ Dove and Srentha together~ (Don't have notps for them.) ~ Kary: food? sleep? Her canon boyfriend Eric ~ Leyla has a qpp named Toby in the stories. ~ Raven: I'm demonbirds trash. I don't even know how that happened, honestly. (Notps include B|BRae and, while not as strong of a NO in the jlvtt canon, ter/raven.) ~ Lapis Lazuli: OTP with Peridot! Intensely notp with jasper. ~ Blue Diamond: OTP with Yellow hardcore, no notps to speak of. ~ Phobia: Utterly unexplored??? I think she voluntarily abstains. ~ Ryou: OTP with Joey (thank my girlfriend for that one)! Notp with Yami Bakura, it’s absolutely 100% possibly my most violently-disgusted NOtp yet. Also with Diva because... What The Fuck??? But I won't rant about that just now. ~ Jess: I haven't really done much shipping, though Mistress and Trick are a hella canon, deeply bonded breeding couple. ~ Evangeline? Sorta-OTP with my gf's character Taex, though it's not exactly a ~romantic~ dynamic. Notp with Srentha, probably, considering she'd try to kill him, given the chance, and she’s pissed at Dove for marrying him.

why were you drawn to each one of your characters? Okay, listen, you can't just ask something like this and expect an easy answer! I could write an Actual Legitimate Essay on EACH ONE, because I only write a character when I'm Extremely Highkey Personally Emotionally Inspired by them!

UPDATE: I tried to summarize, I really did! But there's just so MUCH, and it turned into an essay on its own. --> https://beyondthetemples-ooc.tumblr.com/post/189837029682/why-were-you-drawn-to-each-one-of-your-characters

Summaries go like this: Dove is brave, complex enough to delve deeply in and constantly discover new facets of, and inspiring enough to create a positive experience while doing so. Srentha is fun, positive, and passionate, and legitimate ADHD representation. Leyla is a chill miracle child of creativity and quiet passion. Raven is the reason I'm still alive and perfectly reflected me at about age 14, so I have a very deep personal connection to her. Kary is so fun to explore because she's my polar opposite, as a temperamental pyrokinetic who revels in chaos and really just wants to have a good time. Evangeline is everything Dove suppresses, brought to life, so she's fun to explore as an extension of Dove! Lapis has a lot of struggles to explore and has done a lot of healing and growth that I'd like to expand on someday. Blue Diamond and Ryou Bakura were basically literally me, so I can explore the trauma and healing from their perspectives in a safe space. And Phobia? I just wanted to put characters' mettle to the test honestly, and see what would happen.

which muse is the most fun to write for? Oh, Srentha, absolutely hands down! Dove does have the best close-friends casual-fun kind of rp relationships, though. And Mistress the Mismagius has this sardonic teasing sense of humor that always makes me smile, especially with Murky (Murkrow).

is there another muse you’ve been thinking of adding or writing for? who? Oh stars, I don't need another one. =w= I've been... struggling to get my Ryou blog actually up and running for a long while now. Nobody new has inspired me lately, but I'm pretty stuck in my fandom ways.

what is something everyone should know about your muses before interacting? I stick it all in their bios! But, let's see... Dove: Even though she's Raven's half-sister, she keeps it DESPERATELY hidden, and nobody IC is supposed to know about that. Srentha is very deeply rooted in Azarathean pacifism and won't do much in battle besides help people retreat. Leyla has her father's heart condition and can't do anything too active. Kary will rarely use her powers, as conjuring even a simple spark stings her scar badly. Lapis is more than her toxic relationship! Blue Diamond is NOT the dictator she once was! Ryou does NOT want the spirit of the millennium ring in his life anymore! Jess just... sticks mostly to Sinnoh and rarely ever leaves. And Evangeline has a palpable evil aura about her; she makes SURE of it.

what’s a weird headcanon you have for each of your muses? Dove hates pie. Srentha loves colorful things. Leyla will cover everything in glitter if you let her. Kary will do anything for some good food and/or a nap. Ryou's hair is untamable. Lapis doesn't guard her gem as carefully as she should. Blue Diamond may be more emotional, but she won't sing about it as frequently as other Gems. Raven... doesn't wear underwear?

which muse has the most aus or verses? I mean, the Lapis I was writing for was 97% canon divergent. Evangeline only exists as her own person (and not merely a partition of Dove's mind) in a DCUO-compatible timeline. But I don't really do aus or verses otherwise; it's just more stressful for me.

can you sort your muses from youngest to oldest? Sorting based on the ages I'll generally play them: Leyla (8-14), Dove (15-25), Kary (18+), Ryou (19+), Srentha (20+), Jess (22+), Phobia (23+), Lapis (5k+), Blue Diamond (10k+).

which muse is most willing to fight another muse? Oh, definitely Kary. (She won't fight Dove or Leyla, even if there's a really good reason. And Srentha has this weird power of defusing her. But anyone else, she can easily be provoked to fight on a dime.) Or maybe Evangeline, who will fight anyone at any time for any reason whatsoever?

do your muses get along with each other? Evangeline gets along with nobody. Dove/Srentha/Leyla are all a very tight-knit family, and Kary considers herself Dove's sister and Leyla's aunt. I've thought about what might happen if Lapis met Blue Diamond, but I don’t have the faintest idea of how that'd go? I did start an RP once where Lapis met Dove, and I planned to have them bond over homesickness and purpose-seeking, but then I lost the ehd I had that prewritten on, and never had the heart to try rewriting it. Ryou and Jess kinda exist in their own universe's bubble. (Jess has a whole cast of Pokemon creature muses she very much gets along with, though~)

would you ship any of your muses together? who? Dove and Srentha are hella-canon endgame already, that's been decided for like 12 years!

for each muse, is there a character you wish had a blog so you could interact with them? You know, I've never really been one much for wishing like that. I do wish Dove had a stable Raven again, since both of my all-time favorite Raven rpers have left the rp circle... but that's about it, really.

have you ever considered making a multimuse/is it easier having a multimuse? I mean, my Pokemon blog has like 19 muses built into the breeding center... 8F But no, I prefer to keep my drafts, rps, and tag systems for each muse on separate sideblogs. Tumblr's tags break WAY too often to shove them all in one place. (And with a sideblog, I don't have to log in and out every time I want to check for replies!)

which muse is the most problematic towards other muses? Toss-up between Phobia and Evangeline, obviously. Blue Diamond is a reformed Gem, the way I play her. (I don't care what anyone says, THAT'S CANON as HELL too!) But Evangeline actively goes out of her way to hurt and/or sacrifice people to her own ends,

which muse is most likely to make new friends? Probably Leyla, though now that SU has sent out a message across the Gem universe that Gems are welcome on Earth, Lapis could wind up meeting quite a lot of new acquaintances. It's much harder to befriend her, though. Srentha has a lot of charismatic energy too, and he’ll go out and make friends with anyone, given the chance.

which muses’ fandom do you like the best? Ahhh, don't make me CHOOSE like that! ;; Fandom like being a fan of them, or fandom like, liking the other people in the fandom? Because Steven Universe, Teen Titans, and YuGiOh all have incredibly special places in my heart, while having Their Issues amongst the fandom... Pokemon seems to be the best mannered fandom though, especially amidst the RP community.

is there someone playing the same muse/s as you and you really look up to them? Ohgosh, well there's a blog called, I think, melancholeyes?, that plays Blue so well, it's like reading canon scenes. I did see a blog that played a Ryou I respected, but I can't remember their name... and of course Larissa and Pix played great Ravens, but each a different version.

which muse do people send the most asks for? Probably Dove, thanks in large part to Caleb!

which muse is most likely to have kids? Leyla is already Dove's kid, so... 8F

is there a rule that someone keeps breaking for your muses? Not to my knowledge, but my rules aren't strict anyways.

can you sort your muses from weakest to strongest? ...Oh, stars. How am I supposed to sort them? Well, let's try this.

Weakest to strongest in combat (based on their style of choice): Ryou, Leyla, Srentha, Phobia, Evangeline, Jess, Kary, Dove, Lapis, Blue Diamond, Raven. ( * i switched raven and blue diamond around SO many times. both are immensely powerful with god-like abilities, but raven can literally destroy reality itself. so...)

Weakest to strongest by strength of heart and character: Phobia, Evangeline, uh... Kary? Srentha...? Uh... frICK THIS ONE'S HARD. Because they're all so strong in their own ways. Probably Leyla? Next tier is probably Blue, Lapis, and Jess, and Dove, Raven, and Ryou are highest tier.

which muse are you considering deleting? Phobia, and maybe sometimes Blue. (I actually... never got a single RP or follower on Blue. I'm still debating if I really WANT to rp as her, at least on Tumblr, knowing how toxic the fandom can get around the Diamonds...)

most importantly, are you having fun playing each one of your muses? Pretty much! Especially Dove, Srentha, Leyla, and Raven!~ Raven's wit and clipped verbiage can be tricky to for me sometimes, but all it takes is a little tlc on her dialogue, and it doesn't slow down my enjoyment one bit. :} And when I'm in a Pokemon-hyperfocus mood, writing the Pokemon team is ALWAYS a blast! (Especially the Pokemon; their personalities are so dynamic together.) With muses like Lapis and Blue, and even Kary, the mood for their emotionality waxes and wanes, but I don't write for them unless I'm in The Right Frame of Mind to KEEP UP with them, you know? I never push myself in an rp until it's not fun anymore; at least I know where my writing burnout limits are.

Phobia and Evangeline are both sadistic, and when you're a compassionate person, that can be very hard to write out in the painstaking detail of my style. But sometimes my mind just Won't Shut UP about 'Vangie unless I WRITE IT OUT. Which is a good exercise of course, stretching my horizons and all that, and I do love writing the drama and conflict they stir up.

But beyond the momentary discomforts, I'm just so eager to explore their lives and minds and adventures, so yes, I absolutely DO have fun writing for each and every one!

[lizzexx]

Coming Back

I know a few of you have seen my surprise post of one of Evy’s episode covers. I honestly didn’t know how to post that I am coming back online. I didn’t know what the response would be, if it would be negative or angry, which I would fully deserve given how I left you all. So I wanted to test the waters and the response I got just from that was overwhelming and gave me the courage to swallow my shame at how I went so silent and write to you all about why it happened.

This is going to be a long note, be prepared: 

A lot’s happened since the last time I posted and I’m sorry it’s been so long. I really cannot apologize enough for pretty much dropping off the face of the earth :( I am deeply sorry if I scared anyone or worried you all. A lot of little things had sort of mashed together all at once and it got too overwhelming to keep updating and posting. I was having a lot of trouble finding balance in my life outside of fanfiction and I needed time to really reevaluate and reassess some choices and things I was doing to get to a better place.

It’s no excuse for not at least giving you fair warning, I know. I honestly felt I had to stay away from tumblr and the internet in general for a long time because I knew that if I went on and saw even one person’s concern or hopes that I’d come back soon, I’d end up coming back and trying to post before I was ready. I knew that I’d force myself to keep going and it would just burn me out faster and make it that much harder to get back in after. I was afraid I’d start to feel like I was only doing fanfiction for other people and not because it was a story I loved and wanted to get out there, that it was a passion I had. I didn’t want that to fizzle out or get crushed under a possible resentment. Because I love fanfiction and I love my readers and I would never want that to happen. I always feel like I’m disappointing people if I can’t continue the way I was, even if I realistically and logically know that things happen and come up beyond our control and most would rather me be healthy and well and posting sporadically instead of pushing myself to update every single day. I knew that I’d push myself to get right back on the way I was going even though I was aware it wasn’t working and was starting to really affect my real life :(

I’m not 100% ready to get back to posting fanfiction, to be honest, right now things are almost twice as stressful as when I stopped coming on tumblr/fanfiction.net. 

When I went silent, my job was just entering summer and I was not at all prepared for how busy and exhausting that would be, on top of that also being me working towards my Master’s. 

It didn’t get better or calmer. Managers, instead of returning us to normal, sane hours, began to put almost everyone on longer shifts and more days a week than we signed up for to compensate for a few of my coworkers leaving. 

By the time more people were hired, it was the holiday season and I was praying for a swift death (not literally, but working retail during those months is a nightmare that sucks your soul out of you). 

I got to a point where I really thought things were calming down. The holidays passed, I’d gotten my Masters, I was looking for a calmer, more structured job...and our Manager quit. 

I got promoted, which was nice. I get benefits now, I make $.75 more an hour which is something. But that meant full time hours. Where I work, we have a manager and then three leads, sort of like assistant managers. 

Our manager quit, so it fell to me and two others to basically manage everything ourselves. Then one of the other leads transferred to another store. Now it is just me and one other person responsible for EVERYTHING. On top of that, neither of us were formally trained, because our manager quit before we were promoted to leads. We basically have no idea what we’re doing and we’ve been without a manager for 5 months now (when other stores got one within a week of their manager leaving).

I got a second job. I’m now a professor! (Proffy would be so proud!) I only teach two classes as an adjunct, but it means a lot more stress and less time than I had just being a lead, which I still am. 

My brother got married and a lot of the stress I felt was in the engagement period, because they were just miserable together, nearly called it off 3 different times, and just made the entire family tired and sick to our stomachs for months on end. He didn’t even make it 5 months before filing for a divorce. HE was a MAJOR cause of a lot of my stress the last year. He and his “wife” causing drama around each turn and it’s exhausting after a while.

My brother, when he’s miserable, is mean and loud and just upsetting to be around and, because I’m the quiet one, I’m the one he would usually lash out against. I’m in therapy now because of how he acts towards me and our family, in therapy for dealing with social anxiety which got worse over the last year, and with trying to work on things that cause me fear and are out of my control, as well as trying to work on self-esteem issues and sorting through how my family, in how they act/talk/treat me, has likely messed me up a little more than I thought. It was a very overwhelming year.

And, of course, right around the time my brother and his now-ex-wife “separated,” it was summer again at my work and even more stressful and busy and exhausting :(

I’m not posting this to excuse going silent on all of you. It was not a good thing to do and I should have posted at least a note about it. 

I honestly didn’t think it would last this long. I kept thinking “It’s ok, I’ll feel better and more driven tomorrow” and before I knew it, a week had gone by, then a month, and now here we are :( I really am so sorry it’s taken me this long.

Another big part of it was that, to me, I write and edit and post fanfiction when I’m not feeling happy. I do it to make myself happy, to have that one thing that makes me smile and gives me something to look forward to.

At the beginning of my job, once my social anxiety simmered down and I got to know my coworkers and engage with them more, I loved being there. I was happy. I liked going to work and that became my thing that I looked forward to. My need to be on fanfiction constantly started to go down a little. I still had a lot of my stories prewritten, but the drive to actually edit as much as I want to and to really keep going started to dwindle. 

The stress is back. Without a manager and so much of that sort of duty falling onto just me and one person, I am beyond stressed. I’m not very happy at work right now. It seems like every week another person is leaving, which makes us understaffed and more stressed. Anyone we hire new can’t be fully or effectively trained without a manager and with only 2 leads who struggle to make sure the actual seasoned employees aren’t messing up now that there’s no one there to enforce consequences. Now I’m looking to fanfiction again to help get my mind off things and really make it that thing that calms me down and distracts me. It’s probably not a good thing that I have to feel stressed and upset and anxious and a mess of other negative emotions to really feel that kick to write, but that just seems to be how it works with me :/

Again, I’m not posting this as an excuse, there is no excuse for going silent like that. I just wanted to catch everyone up on what’s been going on with me and why it took me a while to get back to it all.

GOING FORWARD

It may still be a while, whether that’s a few weeks or even a month or two, before you’ll see the actual stories being updated again. 

As I mentioned before, I’m teaching two classes on top of another full-time job and one of those classes is an intensive 7-week course that starts in about a week. So, at the very least, don’t expect fanfiction to resume till that point is over. I have a feeling that class will kill me before then lol.

It’s going to take me a little while to get into a pattern and routine, to work out how much time grading papers will take and how to balance it with my fulltime job. It’s going to take me some time to refresh my stories and make sure I’m not getting one plot or character confused with another. And it will take time for me to understand how much I can handle doing in a certain day or week and couple that with writing and editing again.

I’m going to start small. 

First I’m going to focus on tumblr and sorting through my inbox. I want to try and answer at least a few messages a day until my inbox is empty again. So that may take...quite a while now that I look at the box lol. 

Then I’m going to really look at my stories, how much I have left of the ones currently in progress, how much time it would take to complete which ones, and try to work out some sort of updating schedule and let you all know what’s coming.

I’ll be more present on tumblr now, but it may still be a while before the stories on fanfiction.net are updated. 

The more unhappy I am, the more ideas I have for stories (seriously, just this morning I had an idea for a Flash story, and I haven’t really followed it much) and I’m really trying to not get too ahead of myself.

I didn’t want to come back before I was sure I could deliver. So I’m not going to make promises I’m not sure I can keep.

I know that I WILL be updating stories again, but I can’t promise a specific date. I know that I WILL be on tumblr more and answering questions (oldest to newest), that I can promise.

It may be slow going, but I’ll get there. I just have to work on managing my time and building myself up again. I don’t want to use all my spare time writing fanfiction, end up editing stories at 3 in the morning, and getting 3 hours of sleep before two jobs. I did that in the past, it’s not good for me. I need to find a way to pull a Tim Gunn and make it all work ;)

I wanted to take a second to thank you all for being so patient and understanding. I know I went silent and it was not cool at all, and I’ve only just glimpsed my inbox and seen the overwhelming number of asks throughout the year, even up to a few days ago, asking if I was ok and hoping things were ok on my end. You have no idea what that means to me. To have been gone so long and still have people checking in over a year later, guys, I almost started to cry. 

When I started writing, I never thought that anyone would like it. I would have been content if just one person thought a story was ok. To look at it now and see that my work has had such an impact as to elicit concern like that after over a year of silence? I have never been more touched and humbled. 

I love all of you so much and I really am so sorry for not being around more. I’m working my way back up and, little by little, I know I’ll get back to posting the stories again. 

You’ve stuck with me this long, just hold out a little longer and I’ll do my best to deliver some good twists, new perspectives, and (hopefully) awesome OCs :’)

To end on another positive note...another reason I’ve been offline is...

I’m working on converting one of my OCs (a Doctor Who one) and their story into an original novel/series and it’s taken a lot of my concentration the last few months. So, who knows, maybe we’ll see something of that one day too.

Thank you all again for being so patient with me and so concerned. I’m back on tumblr for now and I’m hoping to get back on fanfiction soon too :’)

[greed-the-dorkalicious]

Wait what did r u writing? I'm curious!!! (If you've mentioned before and I just didn't see it sorry lol)

I write a lot of things, but at this moment in particular I’m working on my current longest and by far most plot-heavy fic, Between Life and Death. It’s a Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure fanfiction with a rather dark premise (...well, rather dark everything actually), focusing around Jonathan, Jotaro, and Dio in a post-”Bad End” part 3 setting. I won’t say too much more because I don’t want to spoil it all in one post, although there are a lot of spoilers on my blog, lmao.

I update every Thursday, and originally I started publishing with a few chapters prewritten, but I’ve fallen behind and I’m struggling to finish in time. Which normally I’d just say fuck it, I can stand to not publish on a strict weekly basis, but I actually timed it since I first started publishing so that chapters 7, 8, and 9 would be published on certain dates that coincide with the actual content of those chapters, so I really need to get them done...

[obiternihili]

I have to give a ‘persuasive’ speech in a couple days, so I figured I’d write it out as a tumblr post since I’m already a dumb argumentative fuck. At least it’ll serve as a sort of rough draft for me to articulate my ideas with. I actually can’t use a prewritten speech, tho, so I’m probably going to convert this index cards tomorrow. --- My fellow students are all likely aware of the growing crisis in student debt.

According to the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, since 2006, the total student debt of the US in terms of GDP has expanded from 3.5 to 7.5%. In raw dollars, that’s $480.1 billion to $1,397.3 b. According to the Department of Education, the average tuition price in this country has risen from 6,500$ to over 20000$. I don’t think I need to prove to anyone how heavy that burden is. Nor should I have to explain to people how much harder this hits working class families. Because debt stays with you. It’s not something you can declare bankruptcy over. It’s going to constantly garnish your wages, stealing from you the opportunities you need to move to pursue better work, opportunities to save and insure yourself from loss, opportunities to pay for those losses when they arise. And what then? Interest kicks in, as debt just balloons and balloons. My mom made the mistake of going to a for profit in the 90s and now she’s saddled with over 20K in debt. The institution’s reputation wasn’t good, making what she did learn from it useless, and not merely because it was how to use a word processor back on dos. And yeah, she’s made her share of mistakes over the years, but are the consequences proportionate? Minimum wage and below minimum wage has left her with no savings, her mental and physical health have been getting steadily worse for years stopping her from being physically able to do a lot of the minimum wage work out there anyways. With no steady income in savings, she can’t get a place, leaving her dependent on friends and abusers to show her charity. Trapped in debt, she spends everything she has now on gas to go to work, and that’s if her EBT wasn’t randomly canceled. Are sickness, hunger, homelessness and abuse really an appropriate consequence for wanting to provide for her children? That’s a growing reality. More and more people are finding themselves trapped in debt slavery, struggling to get by, living day by day. You’ve seen the unrest this is causing - the Occupy Movement, the rise “economic insecurity”, the attacks on immigrants, and so on. But this is largely limited to the US, the UK, and Canada. Why? Since the 80s, the northern Anglophone countries have seen a trend towards privatization. But students aren’t normal consumers - the current world, not just the US, has undergone degree inflation, wherein the typical job-seeker becomes more educated, raising the expectations of employers of what to expect out of the average hire. Work is necessary, education has become necessary. Just as people can’t realistically go without power or water, the consumers must necessarily consume education, but education isn’t fungible, the infrastructure can’t simply be relocated by the consumer, quality varies according to time, and the reputation of your institution matters more than maybe anything else. And on top of all of that, there aren’t many services where you’re not guaranteed your purchase in the way Education isn’t. Education isn’t a simple commodity. There’s next to no reason for the costs to be eliminated through competition. We have no choice but to buy education. And there’s no such thing as a free lunch. Wherever you get such a thing, time and labor still had to be expended in order to move the raw materials to you, even if it’s only measured in the calories you burnt tending to your own garden. Instead, what’s happened is the governments of the states have simply shifted the costs. By slashing the budgets for universities, they seek to recompensate their necessary expenditures from the other other sources they have, in terms of endowments and tuition. But reputation matters more than anything, and all it takes is one bad semester for reputation to fall, causing students to flee, causing income to fall, causing reputation to fall, etc. Paying institutions according to student performance basically has the opposite effects as desired, because of failure spirals like that.

And in the name of competition every institution is also in a race to bring their services up to a competitive level.

And therein lies the joke; they don’t even feel the market effects of that. The Fed’s raising of the amount of debt we can take accumulate and guarantees to the colleges and loan companies has created a twisted chain shift in costs. How do other countries pay for education? Just fine from normal tax revenues, such as Austria’s VAT, which is basically a better kind of sales tax. This just isn’t really a problem for most of the developed world, our cultural sisters and cocommitters of our mistakes excluded. Even countries not traditionally considered developed don’t have this debt-slavery problem, even if they have to deal with corruption or lack of tax revenue. Our country pays for it by the Fed giving that money to us students, saddling us with debt, paid to loan companies, who are guaranteed by government anyways, who eventually pay the universities. We’re already paying for it as a country! Just in the most asinine way.

So what should we do? Cut the crap.

Obama’s ‘Pay as you Earn’ plan was a bandaid and whether or not it’ll be ripped off, I don’t know. But pressuring our representatives every election from now until they do something is one place to start. Raise education budgets, forgive outstanding debts, and pay colleges directly from progressive revenues instead of trapping the poor in Sisyphean hells. Simplify the flow of money by eliminating as many actors in the process as we can, so that budgets, debts, and performance can remain accountable and efficient, instead of this asinine process of deferring inflating debt to the people least capable of paying it off.

[low-budget-mulan]

hey sara! here's a Catholic question, how do you strengthen your faith with God? i've been feeling very out of touch lately, and i don't know how to get back in the zone. tysm x

Hello friend!! I get where you're coming from. I have honestly struggled with this for as long as I can remember. This past weekend I have been at a Catholic Conference and went to a talk with Fr. Mike Schmitz. He says that in order to get closer to God and before we can go out and spread his teachings and love to others we need to trust him. In everything we do we need to do it for God. He also says that we need to get closer to God. In his words "A holy hour a day changes everything." We don't have to pray for an entire hour every day, but 20 minutes. Just twenty minutes and your whole life will change. And that doesn't mean praying random novenas or prewritten prayers. Those are still great and we should pray them, but we should also be praying in our own words. He says we can use our holy hour for a rosary or a novena or a divine mercy chaplet, but not a rosary and a novena and a divine mercy chaplet. We have only enough time in 20 minutes to pray one of those and sit with God. You can use your own words to talk to him or you can just sit and stare. He also said that we may know God, but we don't KNOW God. And by that we know him, but don't believe he loves us. That he just tolerates us. God doesn't tolerate us. He LOVES us. In order to get into this mindset we shouldn't just call God God. He told us in the Bible to call him Father. That the word used in the Bible directly translate to father. Basically, it translates to Daddy. God is our Dad. Even if our earthly father is a horrible person or non-existent God is none of those things. He is here for us always. Again, God doesn't tolerate us. He Loves us. Start your prayers off with Dad and your entire view of God will change. Pray for twenty minutes and your life will change. I hope this makes sense. I'm running on like 4 hours of sleep. Let me know if I need to clarify anything.

[ncmagroup]

 by Samantha McLaren

You have about 14 seconds to grab a candidate’s attention with your job posts. But the uncomfortable truth is, many job posts are not worth a second glance.

“People are straight-up guessing,” says Katrina Kibben, CEO and founder of Three Ears Media. “We have never been taught how to write job postings. Honestly, most of us have never been handed a decent example.”

Katrina’s company is dedicated to helping recruiters write better job posts. After spending years helping Fortune 100 firms shape their brand content, she decided that every company deserves the tools to tell their story in a way that connects with candidates in a more human way.

“There are few things we can control when it comes to hiring,” Katrina says. “But the one thing we can control is how we ask.”

Katrina offers a free job post writing workshop once a month for hiring departments of one or two people, as well as more in-depth fee-based, customized training programs for larger departments. And to help you level up your writing skills right away, here are four of her top tips for crafting more compelling job posts that make candidates eager to apply.

1. Have three conversations before you start writing — and go deeper than just skills and requirements

“Every time I talk to somebody about job postings,” Katrina says, “they just don’t know what’s important. They don’t know if they should include that entire benefits paragraph. They don’t know if they need all 35 bullets. They don’t know what’s important to the candidate. So they end up writing something that’s really long because they’re trying to include everything.”

To suss out what’s really important and what’s nonessential, Katrina recommends having three key conversations to help you get to the heart of the role.

“The first is with the hiring manager,” she says. “That’s the one everyone talks about. But the other two are with the person who already has the job and someone who wants the job.”

While Katrina suggests starting with the hiring manager and the incumbent, in part because these conversations will help you generate referrals, the third conversation can help you learn a lot about a candidate’s motivations and interests. It’s important not to approach this final conversation in a recruiting context. The people you’re speaking with may already be bombarded with messages from recruiters, but they may be willing to lend a hand if you send a friendly, heartfelt note asking for some quick help.

“Use sites like LinkedIn to see connections, find people with similar titles, and simply reach out,” Katrina suggests. “Say, ‘I’m recruiting this role, but that’s not why I’m contacting you. I’m contacting you because I really want to understand the job better.’ When you approach this conversation with a little bit of vulnerability, you’d be surprised how people react.”

Katrina cautions against focusing solely on skills and requirements in any of these conversations. Try to gain a deeper understanding of what it’s like to work in the role, what the day-to-day experience is like, and what success will look like.

“Instead of asking what skills are required,” Katrina advises, “ask what this person will do every day. What systems will they use all the time? In one year, what will make you really happy that this person has accomplished? All of a sudden, we’re taking that big list of skills and making it a story that someone can see in their own life.”

In the job post below, for example, the description is not only transformed from a dull list of tasks to something more dynamic, but a candidate will also get a sense of how their career can grow and evolve with the position.

2. Move away from rigid templates and toward more flexible structures

Writing job posts takes time, but Katrina advises against taking one particularly tempting shortcut — the template.

“We instinctively want templates,” Katrina says. “We want a library of 1,500 options that we can copy and paste. But templates are what got us into this trouble in the first place. There are parts of job postings that I can literally recite to you.”

Rather than using a template, Katrina recommends building out a rough structure for your job posts — essentially saying, “This paragraph does this, and this paragraph does that.” This layout will be informed by your conversations with hiring managers, employees, and candidates.

Your three conversations will provide you with an understanding of what’s most important about the job and the structure you develop should reflect those aspects. “For example, if I know that a sales team is very motivated by outcomes,” Katrina says, “I’m probably going to talk about the outcomes we can create in the first paragraph every time I write a sales role. It can be that simple — this is what they care about, so I’m going to do that first.”

This method can be a little daunting at first since it involves trusting your instincts about what candidates want to hear. And while it’s more time-consuming than copy-pasting, it will yield better results. And if you really don’t have the time, Katrina has a compromise.

“I actually suggest that companies that really struggle on-time move to something that looks a little bit more like a Mad Lib,” she says, referring to the classic word game in which a player produces a list of nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs that are inserted into blank spaces in a prewritten story. “This is the bridge between structure and no-go template land. The Mad Lib gives you a really basic format with blanks so you can emphasize that you want someone focused on this versus that.”

If you do swap out your standard templates for more flexible Mad Libs, be careful not to slip back into generic territory. “You need more than one Mad Lib,” Katrina stresses. “If you’re going to take this approach, I actually think you need one Mad Lib per department at a minimum.”

3. Avoid clichés like a go-getter and top talent because they don’t speak to the reason people change jobs

On the other end of the spectrum from the template is the overly creative job post.

“There’s a fine line between creative and creepy,” Katrina jokes.

While a little creativity can certainly make your job post stand out, Katrina says people sometimes mistake jargon for fun language.

“I have a whole list of words that I tell people they have to ban,” she says. “Because ultimately what happens is people think they’re being creative and they end up putting a ton of buzzwords in that mean nothing.”

Katrina’s list of banned words and phrases includes classics like a rock star, ninja, and superstar, along with go-getter and top talent. The problem, she says, is not so much the words themselves but the disconnect between the emotional response they’re intended to trigger and the way that candidates often feel.

“Take a second and think about how you feel when you’re looking for a new job,” Katrina says. “No one changes jobs lightly. No one wakes up in the morning and goes, ‘Hmm, I’m going to quit my job today.’ You don’t do that. Something bad is happening in your life.”

Connecting with job seekers on an emotional, empathetic level can be incredibly compelling (more on that in a minute). This will ultimately make your post stand out far more than a wacky phrase ever could.

“Write words that mean something to someone who might not be in the best place in their life,” Katrina advises. “They want to be a go-getter. They want to be top talent. But they might not be feeling that right now. Why waste this moment to make an impression on them with something that doesn’t actually mean anything, that might actually make them feel worse?”

4. Mention important soft skills up front to create an “I get you” connection with candidates

Instead of hunting for ninjas, Katrina recommends talking about soft skills in the first paragraph of your job posts. Since these skills are more closely tied to a candidate’s emotions and inner life, they can make the post feel more personal and relatable.

“One thing you should always have is something that describes the soft skills you’re looking for,” Katrina says. “I think most people go out with this very strict standard of what a job posting should be, and they think that it has to be very professional and polished, and I don’t think that’s what connects with candidates.”

One example Katrina gives is swapping out a line like, “We are a Fortune 500 award-winning hospital that’s hiring nurses in Mayland,” for something more empathetic like, “Nursing is hectic, but at the end of the day, it’s always worth it.”

To see how powerful these small changes are in action, check out this before-and-after job post from one of the recruiters Katrina coached:

“You tap into the ‘I get you’ from the first sentence,” Katrina says, “and even if the rest isn’t perfect, you’ve already made a connection in those five seconds you had.”

Spend a little more time, get a lot more qualified candidates

The extra time you spend crafting your job posts can really pay off. It may help you boost the quantity of applicants. More importantly, since Katrina began teaching these tactics to recruiters, she says that many have seen a steep increase in the quality of hire.

“Clients are seeing the quality change,” she says. “They’re getting really smart, qualified people to apply for jobs that weren’t getting anything for a long time.”

  Go to our website:   www.ncmalliance.com

4 Tips for Writing Better Job Posts (Plus Before and After Examples)  by Samantha McLaren You have about 14 seconds to grab a candidate’s attention with your job posts.