#this has been sitting in my drafts for a week but is even more relevant now

[wavescrashtotheshore]

genuine question: why is this fandom so weirdly unforgiving to the parents of the main characters? why don’t we accept them as complex and flawed characters just like the mains? i feel like everyone hates them with no nuance allowed. obviously they don’t get enough screen time to really get into it, but the pure hatred is so bizarre.

[anderstrevelyan]

wip wednesday

I haven't done one of these in a minute because I've been focusing on polishing and reworking rather than drafting new words (hopefully by next week I'll have some!), but you know what, let's do one anyway!

Here's the opening of my as-yet-untitled multichapter project, aka my early days of durgetash project (set about a year after they first meet):

*Valas is the son of Gorion's Ward rather than a strictly canon Dark Urge: mentioning to avoid confusion since it's relevant here!

It’s dusk when they first discuss it, a desire so deep Valas has never said it aloud. Were anyone to look up at the quiet manor on a corner in Bloomridge, perhaps on their way home from selling trinkets in the Wide, or while they wander to a tavern bleeding laughter and light onto the street, they’d see them there, the pair of them. A half-drow dressed in deepest black and a human with gold on each finger, the plates laid before them picked clean, the wineglasses in their hands stained with two layers of red, lounging at either end of the settee long past when one of them should have risen to draw the curtains shut. He should do it now, Valas thinks as he turns his glass, watching the candlelight refract. He doesn’t know why he doesn’t, just as he doesn’t know how they arrived at the subject, his confessing the name of the person he most longs to kill.

He lets his voice trail off, and swallows against the dry in his throat. Tries to find his footing. He’s not one for quick words, the thoughtless flow that pours from so many like blood—he often prefers to listen. For a heartbeat, for an opportunity, for the guiding voice of his god. And Enver Gortash doesn’t seem one for silence. Not like this, chin in his hand, long gaps between the sound of his own voice—not unless he’s waiting, too, searching for a flaw. Perhaps he understands this weakness for what it is. Skie. Skie Silvershield. Skie Silvershield the second—not the same young woman said to have died at the hands of the Bhaalspawn who sired him, but Valas yearns for her blood all the same, Torlin’s daughter named for the ancestor plucked too soon. Sometimes, in Valas’s worst moments, his mind whispers that it would be right. To prove himself better than the one who raised him before he found his true Father’s embrace, who always claimed he hadn’t been the one to kill his Skie. That it would be good, further insult and honour to the man once Chosen by his god—Torlin proved unworthy the moment Valas set in motion his death, but he was a Bhaalist all the same, and there’s nothing more Bhaalist than the slaughter of one’s kin. But it’s weakness, coveting one death over all others, no matter how he twists his thoughts. He’s seen such a thing in his acolytes’ eyes, when they come to him soft and raw, his Father’s voice in their heads a mewling thing—they don’t understand, in the throes of those first few tastes of blood, what their work really means. They dwell in emotion, in grudges, in hate, longing to kill an old rival, a scorned lover, someone who did them wrong. The faith shows them: there’s no value in the personal, in passion, if it’s not needed to reach the right holy end. It’s weakness, then, too, how much he’s come to enjoy this new ally’s company. Valas turns his gaze to the window, to the motion on the street below—feet catching on cobble, glances cast over shoulders, plumes of breath climbing in the cool evening air—just as Gortash looks away, too. He must be admiring the curves of his own furniture; the works of art in their golden frames, some so new they sit still propped against the wall; the piles of papers and gadgets, their places not yet found, sketches and plans and small, delicate tools. The home he’s building, here in the Lower City’s most fashionable neighbourhood, so different from where he’d laid his head just months before. But when Valas turns back his way, he’s looking out into the dark. Toward the wall, just steps to the north, that separates them from the Upper City. Valas can almost hear him thinking. “There would be a beautiful kind of symmetry to it,” Gortash says finally, and Valas busies himself with a sip of wine. “One Bhaalspawn filled with remorse, peaceful against his nature, and then all these years later another to do it right. It’s not far from our other discussions of late.”

[tjemegames]

HSR: 2.3.2 MoC, 2.3.1 AS, & 2.2.1 PF Recaps

I definitely forgot about drafting up the latter part of this post when it was more relevant so excuse my lateness. HSR has a lot of endgame content these days and keeping up with it across multiple different servers is a self-inflicted thorn in my side. So, without further ado, let's get into my yapping (under the cut because this post is long one)!

Apologies in advance for any image distortion: Tumblr doesn’t appear to like long photos.

2.3.2. Memory of Chaos

Dissipation of Dreams dropped yesterday morning and I had been impatiently waiting for it so I could get the Nameless Honor points for getting 15 stars; which, I was informed yesterday, can be earned off of stages that have already been completed. Do you know just how many times I missed out on those stupid xp points back in the early days because I couldn't even get 15 stars in the first place? Would've been great to know about back then, but I digress.

Anyway, as I said, DoD dropped yesterday, and I was fully expecting it to be a bit of a rough time because of how badly it was being dragged in one of the HSR discords I frequent. Much to my surprise, this was the easiest time I've ever had running MoC.

There were a few things that made this MoC easier for me:

The enemy lineup on stage 12 was almost the exact same as the 2.2.2 MoC; they swapped out the elite mob in the first wave of 12-1 for a different one, then flipped the challenge order of 12-1 (The Past, Present, and Eternal Show) and 12-2 (Argenti) so that they were inverted. This meant that I didn't have to think about who to run, and I could just refer to the previous challenge records for guidance. I was able to save myself about 18 wave resets because of this.

I got e5 Gallagher, giving myself a better Boothill team member and freeing up Aven as a secondary sustain for my opposing team lineup.

I've been farming relics like an absolute mad person for the past few weeks to fix some of my builds. Relics make up such a large part of character performance and I could truly feel the difference in the damage output for those I've been able to improve since the last MoC (see new builds below).

I'd rate my enjoyment of this MoC at 4/5 stars. Overall, it wasn't too terribly difficult and went by much faster than any of my previous attempts. This was both a positive/negative for me; while I was glad to have done well and efficiently so, it was very strange not to have to think too much or come back to retry the challenge over the course of a week. I’ve become so used to stopping my runs to farm relics/make team adjustments that it was a bit jarring to finish everything in one sitting. At the end of the day, I got my 800 jades for 36 stars so that's good enough for me.

2.3.1 Apocalyptic Shadow

Stormwind Knight was the integral AS stage, and this one took a bit of finagling to get the final star for 6600+ points. I can't give you an entire rundown on my thoughts as it's been a couple weeks since I finished the challenge, but I vaguely remember having to consult the discord for advice because my brain was not braining with team comps and I had been trying to beat the stage for multiple days.

However, I can tell you that super break Jing Yuan is a meme of a team that I've been using to fight "Harmonious Choir" The Great Septimus since 2.2 when the boss first came out. I don't know what compelled me to do that in the first place since lightning is one of the weaker break types, but here I was using it on stage 3 before having to switch it out for something more effective.

I should also note that, during this challenge, DHIL was on an absolutely trash 2pc/2pc atk% build, making it take far too many tries to get to 6600 points from all his missed crits. Gallagher was also freshly pulled and severely lacking in break effect. Additionally, Aventurine was still running 4-star planar ornaments and half of Tingyun's relics were still 4-star pieces as well. I briefly considered going back into the mode now that all of them have been improved to see how much better of a score I can get, but ultimately decided it wasn’t worth the effort.

2.2.1 Pure Fiction

The Lexical Enigma PF was interesting to say the least. I don’t usually play past the second stage of this mode due to my lack of useful units; I’m still Himeko-less and my duke farming hasn’t been going very well, meaning that Herta is still benched. Hopefully the Navigator will bless me with her presence via standard banner in the near future.

Fortunately for my lack of stellar jade savings, this patch I was feeling especially motivated to have a queen sweep of all the endgame modes; I spent way too much time and put in far more effort than I usually would to get all 12 stars. It was actually my very first time since PF released so yippee! We love progress.

I almost gave up a few times, my pride was hurt, and extreme sacrifices were made to get this finished. If you aren't aware, I have a special amount of spite reserved for Serval; I have nothing against her character (I actually loved playing through her companion mission and using her before version 1.4 came out) I'm just frustrated by the sheer number of times I've pulled both her and her signature light cone since the game came out. S15 Make the World Clamor is ten too many copies of that goddamn lc and I wish I could erase its existence from the game at this point.

That being said, finally releasing Serval from her lvl 70, 5/8/8/8 trace, 4-star relic wearing purgatory was what ultimately led to my success (see build below). Even though it wasn't the best build I could've given her, I'm hoping that it was enough to lift the Serval-based curse that had been placed upon me. And if not, y'all will be hearing about it.

Anyway, that's the extent of my yapping about the endgame modes for now. I'm going to try to put these out after every challenge cycle runs its course so that I'm not making an excessive number of posts about them. I apologize in advance for the impending long posts, but I'd rather not blow up y'all's feeds with separated iterations of my nonsense if I don't have to.

The schedule will still be a bit off for the next one of these recaps since I decided to include the current MoC but not the most recent PF. I'll do my best to get that sorted out asap.

Sheesh, I really rambled my way through this one, didn't I? Fun fact: a severe storm passed over my city while I was writing up this post, causing me to lose power, and I had to rewrite the entire second half of it because auto save wouldn't work without internet access. Don't you just love to see it?

Anyway, thanks for sticking around if you made it to this point! I'll catch y'all later.

[xcziel]

this has been sitting in my drafts as a response to some ideas that were circulating online a week or two ago due to that bang sihyuk interview, and it's clumsily worded but i still feel like it's a valid take so i'm just posting anyway. i'm not a music professional or connected to the industry, so if i'm far wrong just ignore this random post. i just get frustrated that for all the talk of strategy etc. everyone seems to act like bts (and by extension jk) are an established *western* act while either still promoting like a kpop act in sk schedule-wise or like a beyonce/tswift level act (which ... yeah duh) with vast u.s. name recognition (not so much) - and then wondering what's not clicking

idk about this "crisis" but i know one thing has struck me about the kpop and sk press and kpop stans in general

i touched on it back when i was talking in my tags about like crazy getting traction in the us

and what i meant was that those involved in kpop are too blinded by the industry cycle and too used to that cycle's accelerated evaluation by stans and press alike

like no one in the us who is not already a fan is waiting on the day of release to listen stream and buy. it is NOT like sk with weekly shows, several comebacks per year, etc etc

and most especially it's not this thing of: create song, choreo, mv, do a spate of music shows, see what hits if anything, maybe leverage concert dates if it does - but if not then done! next concept! move on and keep it moving - got to fill those music shows and if you don't constantly have new pieces to show you could lose attention and traction

but the general public in the u.s. is NOT socialized to all tune in to check out what's new at a certain time each week or whatever

only some check the charts and even that is mostly just to see where their personal fave is

what gp recognition goes by is repetition (that's one reason why radio is weighted so heavily in ratings- not fairly, but it's true): have we heard a song before? was it in the car on the way? was it in the club? was it in the music in the background at a store, at a party, on a friend's playlist?

when americans say they heard a song "everywhere" it means literally you could not escape it - and for that kind of feeling or environment to exist, it has to happen over *t i m e*

true, yes, sometimes a song takes off and gallops out of control like a wildfire catching but that is the exception not something that can be planned for or marketed into existence

and once you are a big enough name and have enough fans (us population @ 330 million so ... a lot more fans than it take to equal the same percentage of sales in sk ... so only a sliver of a percentage of that can mean a #1 bb hot 100) you CAN get that immediate-drop chart push

but most of the time, u.s. artists need to build up name recognition with the folks who wouldn't know a music chart if it popped up in their excel spreadsheets. that's why you get youtube reactors or even music business professionals months after release going oh i didn't know they even had an album/track/mv out

the larger a group, the longer it takes for things to disseminate past the early adopters and the media who watch them and the industry (nobody wants to be left behind, so journalists/talking heads are always like pets when you walk into the kitchen: heads on swivels in case it turns out relevant, and will write things just to be on top of a possible trend)

and this is where, i think, after watching hybe and its american arm try their push on jk, the kpop focalists are veering astray in their plans and projections: not seeing immediate huge success (or not *sustained* huge success) they think there is some kind of crisis rather than understanding that a u.s. or even just western gp fandom cannot be a top-down thing - it will take time

bts are huge (and yes a triumph for bts IS NOT and SHOULD not be lumped in as "a win" for kpop in general as has been pointed out is too often the case) but in the first days of jk's album release, *2 months* after seven had debuted, the huge nationwide retailer where i work couldn't even get his name spelled correctly in the point-of-sale database, so

the u.s. music industry is a big machine and busy on its own, many listeners only stay in their own bubbles and don't pay attention to anything outside that, because just keeping up with the output of one scene or genre can take as much effort as watching the kpop industry as a whole

to break wide you need to be either insanely ubiquitous and not just on social media (which runs the risk of people getting sick of you just as fast) or you need the slower groundswell of people going from "oh *that's* them? i heard of them but i didn't know that was their song" to "omg that's my song!! turn it up!"

there's just too much out there today to catch people's attention and the media cycle turns ever faster - used to, a song could be out and getting steady radio play and it still wouldn't hit the consciousness of the national public for like 3 or 4 months sometimes. sometimes it could take a year or more.

so this thing of short promotion periods for kpop acts - even bts! - is just not viable as a way to attract a wide gp following in the states. being on late night tv shows is a good step, but since the advent of streaming the influence of shows like that has waned considerably since the days of ed sullivan or johnny carson.

jk's run of promoting *was* the right kind of thing to do in fact - it simply should have been much more spread out over time. you can see all his album collab artists have things coming out *now* ... and there's no way to really take advantage of that with the curtailed promo.

and yes, obviously jk did get probably the second longest promo period of all of bts chapter 2 solos efforts (i think yg's tour ran longer?) and it was cut off for very valid reason! but!

i think bangpd et al. taking the fact that they couldn't make jk a household name in the u.s. nor nab him a grammy nom (nor any other kpop groups) within the 5-6 months of their fairly blatant push for us recognition as indicating a "crisis" is just not looking at the long game.

they didn't get all the accolades right away, so it seems they've decided 'that didn't work we need to make some big changes' instead of continuing what they'd been doing in support of the artists

it's this attitude of welp they didn't give us a grammy we were entitled to even though it's the first time we played ball in this particular way, so now we're worried bc we don't know how to shop kpop beyond people who aren't primed for it

like, they are looking at the business of it, and likely accurately, but not at the audience itself

it's not that the observations bang is making are wrong i just think he is basing them off premature information - songs in the u.s. DO benefit from purchase power, but they ALSO rely a lot on word of mouth. not for charts positions necessarily, but for longterm growth, support, and more importantly demand, you cannot beat a fandom that grows on its own.

the paid promotions at the end of the day serve the same purpose as bts's early days vlogs in the current western music climate - getting the artist and songs in front of as many eyes and ears as possible. but then you have to allow time for that wave to spread - and the bigger the pond, the more time it may take

[thetruthlsoutthere]

Ways my 'dreams' and waking reality have me wondering about my species or /previous life/lives species in particular

being shown more than one of my regenerations and from that; still feeling like me despite the obvious changes. Hearing and feeling myself see and do things/it ending with me watching myself as my regeneration say and do said things

having my own tardis

dreams about gallifrey, including the younger years around the Prydonian Academy

in my waking reality: feeling at any point? 2 hearts

senses being better than others in weird ways that it doesn't make sense too

sense of having a home but feeling like something is missing, like a part of me is missing and this isn't my true home/origin

obvious possible relationship histories/memories with timelords, timeless ladies, and a timeless child.

i am pretty intuitive/perceptive/observant in weird ways. Sensing things about others, things, etc: via energy, aura, thoughts, feelings, histories via past, present and future {the histories part at least dream wise}

the post that I made about the possibilities, similarities, and comparisons between me and 'Clara Oswald, the Impossible Girl' which is human-ish but also not entirely human due to past lives/echoes species

looking at others posts and asks on a different belief blog and their weird wondering about headaches and chest pains where a possible second heart could be that they swear they hear alongside the other one? Obviously anything like head aches, migraines, chest pains, fevers, even nausea is definitely symptoms of a bunch of things but it could also be relevant for the possible changing/difference in biology because of species which they wonder about hence 'second heart'. I have had this a good bit of times in the past, especially recently over the past few days/week. Other than that, the most I deal with any day is panic/anxiety attacks about 1-3 times. The most part of every day, Im perfectly fine.

NOTE: if this species thing IS true: keep in mind: If I attended the Prydonian Academy? I have not been given or shown or told yet what my name was there. I have not been given or shown or told yet what my real true name is. I have not been given or shown or told yet what and who my gallifreyan family are or were. I have only been given/shown/told my title name:

The Protector.

_________________________________________________________________

UPDATE: #10 with the weird chest pains hasn't happened for a bit now since i made this post. This has been sitting in my drafts. I initially made this post around a couple weeks/month ago. Posting this now because i can't think of what i additionally was trying to add to this post. I'll just repost with the add on if i remember.

[beatsboy]

8.14.24 / day 52 of romanticizing my life until i love myself again

today was the first day in a while that i barely saw anyone. i went to the grocery store, i talked to the building’s cleaning lady. i mostly just went along my day. i briefly talked to cx and dasha on the phone.

i sent the final draft of boypop to amanda, after sitting on it for a week (i don’t know why i feel like i have time to do that, i don’t). have been thinking about are sapien a lot today and want to rewatch bellboy soon. i started it tonight but the torrent buffered and i don’t want to buy it. i’ll try again tomorrow maybe. was supposed to have a session today but it got canceled because my client got covid, glad to be safe, sad to be broke, it balances out i suppose.

there are still 4 more songs to finish, 5 if i can pull an outdo together. everything i’m absorbing right now feels so relevant to what i’m doing artistically, so much that i consume lately, be conversations, tv, movies, music, feels pointed toward me in some way, so much so that i automatically notice when it is not. when something does not align with me. when something is draining me. this is how i felt the other day when cx and dg came over after getting into a car accident. i wanted to be there for them, and i understood that they were going through a much rougher time than i was, but i knew they just wanted to be here with me so they wouldn’t have to be alone with each other, and that energy was so difficult to hold with them, for them, even in silence, as dg made phone calls on my couch while i tinkered away on my computer at a boypop powerpoint. when they left, i took a huge sigh of relief, feeling like i could breathe for the first time since they arrived, especially given that it really felt like dg did not want to be there at all.

the book i’m reading right now is always leaving me thinking, i missed reading. i keep finding my jaw literally hanging open and my eyes widening as though i’m reading a mystery novel, simply because i’m reading about notes of music history (and human history) that were never taught to me in school or told to me by anyone in the music or academic community. it is making me feel invigorated about music again, and in a new way.

i’ve spent so long feeling like i just need to keep propelling myself forward into the future, to be a better producer, musician, singer (once my voice stops dropping for good in a few years, that is) this book has reframed the way i think about music though, not as something we invented, but as something we discovered and theory not as a rulebook, but as a primitive means of describing something we discovered already occurring in the natural world with pythagorus, came a time when humans tried to name this divine entity. this was the end of music as magic, and the world as magic, as we knew it. and i never knew this. and now, for 2500 years, we have lived in a post magic world, a shift in society that all began with music, which was once considered a inextricable aspect of what was holy.

i have always felt the magical connection between spirit and music, i have just not had the research to back it. that is what has drawn me here, now, to creating music, instead of writing novels or working in a hospital or even traveling the world. because of the feeling i get when i hear the music i love live. the feeling i get when i write something that hits that spot in your brain, the hole in your stomach, the seed in your soul, when something sparks, when something ignites, when it feels like drugs. that is why i quit everything to do this, right? the feeling. because it’s the only feeling i’ve ever felt other than love that can fill that hole in your gut, the eternal ache, even if just for a few minutes.

[impishsensei]

hello all!! this is a headcanon-based roleplay blog for gojo satoru from jujutsu kaisen. on this post, you'll find all relevant links/info for my blog. i am completely caught up with the manga and anime, so this blog will not be spoiler free. if i'm not here, you can find me on one of my other blogs: @blastintriumph @yuujitheevessel

please be sure to read my rules before interacting/following.

carrd || interest check || pinned credit || promo , v2 || wishlist || prompts/ask memes

for ease of access, my rules are placed under the cut!

I will interact with mutuals only. If I follow you I want to interact, so don’t hesitate to send me asks or IM me with plot ideas! I’m willing to RP with OCs & characters from other series. Personal blogs, please do not follow/reblog/like my posts.

I’m okay with one-liners, crack, multi-para, novella… everything! Feel free to send in any ask memes if we haven’t roleplayed before. Ask memes are a great way to break the ice so I really don’t mind. If I follow you that means I want to rp with you so if you’re ever unsure and worried you might be bothering me, don’t. I’m duplicate friendly.

If I haven’t replied in two weeks (and I’m not on a hiatus) that means I probably lost our thread or it’s sitting somewhere in my drafts and I haven’t noticed it, so please message me to remind me about it. I won’t be annoyed or upset. I drop RPs sometimes out of a loss of interest but please don’t blame yourself. It is always a personal thing that has nothing to do with anyone else as a roleplayer. I’m always happy to start/write more regardless of dropping previous threads.

I prioritize chemistry above all where RP is concerned. For now, my blog is multi-ship, so any relationship my muse develops will be in a separate verse unless stated otherwise. That being said, I absolutely love shipping but I think Satoru (the way I portray him, at least) is kinda difficult to ship with romantically so keep that in mind.

I've been writing Gojo for several years atp, and because of that he's evolved quite a bit from what we're presented with in canon. He's still Gojo at his core of course, but I take quite a few liberties with him that may even be considered departures from canon. If anyone has an issue with that, they're free to go write him themselves on their own blog because I'm not changing my portrayal :) So, headcanon-based. Additionally, I default to a canon-divergent verse where he doesn't die. If you wanna write where he's doomed, you gotta specify.

Don't involve me with drama or send messages telling me to reblog callout posts or anything like that. I don't care for getting involved with petty rp drama. If it's something actually serious, I've likely already seen it on the dash and have taken note. Seriously, I will hardblock anyone that pesters me with nonsense drama.

I am not my muse. Gojo behaving a certain way is not an extension of me. I am literally just writing a character, so don't project him onto me either please. This makes me super uncomfortable. I am normal and can maintain a healthy distinction between fiction and reality and this blog is literally just something I do for fun. I have a job and I'm also working on my undergrad, so, yeah! None of this is ever that deep it's literally just tumblr roleplay.

There will be NSFW content on this blog, so if you're uncomfy with that blacklist the following tag: ꒰ nsft. ꒱. I will cover dark topics considering the source material. Expect to see mentions of murder, blood/gore, toxic/unhealthy relationships, etc., featured on my blog. I'll tag all of these, but also let me know if you need anything else tagged. I am 28, so if a roleplay comes around to it I will ONLY, write smut with partners that are 18+. If you'd rather not do so publicly, I'm fine with writing on discord. I'm also ok with on discord in general, not just for smut lmfao.

I ask that minors DON’T follow my blog/DNI. I don’t want to be the reason anyone sees something inappropriate for their age. If you’re a minor & I accidentally followed you, let me know & I’ll unfollow you immediately.

[twwpress]

Creator Spotlight: Week 5

Welcome back to our TWW Creator Spotlight! For every spotlight, we’ll ask each featured creator the same ten questions as well as select questions submitted on twitter. This week, we’re chatting with @casliyn (@kennysroys on twitter // casliyn on ao3). Kenny makes amazing Instagram AUs and social media edits and recently posted her first TWW fic, and we are so excited to be chatting with her! 

1) What are your top 5 desert island TWW fics?

I had to answer this question last because it was so hard!! I could do TED Talks on every single fic I’ve chosen!

The Crux by thefinestmuffins There aren’t enough words for me to express how brilliant, beautiful and simply AMAZING this fic is. Like I’m fully invested in getting a trench coat, boots and getting bangs because of that episode and THIS fic. I also reread this fic way too many times. https://archiveofourown.org/works/40290822

all i ever wanted (was a life in your shape) by thefinestmuffins The kind of subtle, love triangle, yearning vibes I WANTED from the show but never got. There are so many lines that stung me but “She tamps down the desperate feeling rising in her chest, the conviction that if she pulled the car over right now, sunk her fingers into the back of his neck and tugged him into a fierce kiss, she could still, somehow, make him hers. If she could just kiss him with enough feeling to jostle the right number of quarks in a particular way, maybe there would no longer be a latent impossibility in their relationship and the whole thing with Amy wouldn’t have ever even happened and they’d blink their eyes open right into her Wisconsin daydream life, where all conflicts, internal and external, would have been previously and tidily resolved.” ALWAYS FUCKS ME UP! https://archiveofourown.org/works/34814884

The Choice by eowyn_of_rohan Subtle yet heartbreaking and sadly very relevant to what we’re dealing with in this country when it comes to healthcare and abortion. I’m a sucker for a good Sam/Ainsley fic and this one is no exception! https://archiveofourown.org/works/39867939

darling, So it goes (some things are meant to be) by mikaylawrites As a music lover, this fic is everything I never knew I needed. Every Sunday Mikayla is subjected to my overzealous reactions from the latest update and I’m eternally grateful for that. Yeehaw forever. https://archiveofourown.org/works/40367838/chapters/101118813

Technically by theycallmethejackal A mature yet realistic take on Josh and Amy’s relationship with excellent character building and fantastic dialogue! https://archiveofourown.org/works/22251676

 2) Do you have a favorite character to write/edit? Favorite ship(s) to write/edit? Are there characters or ships you'd like to write/edit more of?

My favorite characters to write and edit for are definitely Donna, CJ, Josh and Abbey. I love creating content for all the characters but these four specifically are such a treat to write and edit for.

Favorite ship to write/edit definitely has to be Josh/Donna, I’ve loved them forever and the way that Janel and Brad play them will forever be timeless and iconic. I feel like anyone who wishes to act or even write should watch their performances because their performances and their entire arc truly is something special. Also my first West Wing Instagram AU was Josh/Donna so their edits will always be special to me!

3) Tell us about your creative process (setup/location? Night or day? Snacks/beverages? Computer/phone/notebook? Music or silence? Anything else you want to share is welcome!)

Between my three jobs and school it’s a tad bit hard to sit down and draft out my stories and edits like I once did but there are a few things I do to keep my thoughts aligned. For my Instagram edits, I collect my photos from Pinterest and WeHeartIt so whenever I have some down time I like to scroll through and see if there’s anything that fits the requests I receive or just something I like in general and add it to my board specifically for edits. Then with writing, I always say if I can hear the dialogue and the characters conversing in my head then it needs to happen so if I hear a conversation for a story I’m writing, I always jot it down in my notes app on my phone. Also, since 2018 I’ve had this running list in my notes app of funny things I’ve heard people say around me. Whenever I’m writing and I’m beating myself up thinking of something funny to write I look at that list and I’ll typically find something funny to put in. I’m a night owl so I always, always get a good chunk of my writing down in the middle of the night while sipping on my Raspberry Minute Maid drink and midnight snacks (Hershey Cookies and Creme drops or Nestle Toll House Edible Cookie Dough).

I also need Youtube up and running to play scenes from the show in the background while writing or editing, it helps me write the dialogue /story when I hear the actors' pronunciation and speaking patterns.

4) What editing/writing advice do you have for others who may be reading this?

Practice, practice, practice and always help out others!!! I remember when I first started making my Instagram edits and was dissatisfied with how they came out. The more I made though, the better I got! As for writing, I’d say never be afraid to delete something and save it for another fic. I write in Google Docs and upload to A03 so anytime I'm finalizing a draft and I’m noticing a line-or scene isn’t fitting in, I'll cut it out and paste it to a blank document. I’d also encourage people to create edits and write small little scenes just for themselves. For my Instagram AUs I have probably hundreds I’ve made for myself and have no intention of posting (unless I feel like it one day haha) and by doing this, it helps me keep the creative juices flowing. I’d also suggest writing a list of every single thing that has to happen at the end of each scene, this helps you remember what needs to happen by the time you finish a scene.

Also find a friend in the fandom to send small snippets of your writing too! Some of my best edits came from my friends suggesting things to me.

5) From where do you usually draw your inspiration? (Other forms of media, music, tropes, etc?)

I typically get my inspiration from reading other fics, watching clips of the show and listening to music. When I’m writing a fic I create a playlist for that specific fic and add songs that remind me of the fic in it and will listen to that specific playlist nonstop. (All I've been listening to is my ‘Paradise City’ playlist and the ‘Hacks’ S2 soundtrack haha).

6) What is the fic/edit you've written/created that you're most proud of and why?

I’m quite proud of ‘Paradise City’ being published! I spent a good month or two drafting the idea and now to actually post it means the world to me!

Edit wise, I’m quite proud of the Josh/Donna wedding one I did a few years back. It was my first one and I’m so proud I took the step in posting it!

Thank you to every single person who has liked/commented on my story or my edits, there aren’t enough words for me to say how much your support means to me. 

7) What's the fic trope/concept/AU you'd read 1000 of? What's the fic trope/concept/AU you'd write 1000 of? And/or, are there any editing tropes/artists/themes you can't get enough of?

Anything Girl Dad Josh or Found Family centric will ALWAYS have my heart.

I’m also a sucker for the Country AU universe created by @dmosslyman. Yeehaw Sundays are the best kind of Sundays.

 8) Is there anything you'd like to try writing-wise/editing-wise that you haven't yet?

I’d definitely want to start showing some other characters in my Instagram edits! I’ve been slowly but surely adding new characters and it’s been fun so far! (I recently made a Mama Lyman post so if anyone wants it posted, I'll post it on my Tumblr!). I’ve dabbled in text fics between the characters so I’ll probably do more of that too.

And I'd like to start writing more! ‘Paradise City’ is my main concern right now as far as fic goes but I look forward to writing other stories in the near future!

I’d also like to probably do a fancam or two in the future! (I’m not the best editor haha)

 9) What's your go-to Starbucks/coffee shop/other drink order?

quite LITERALLY am drinking Starbucks as I type this. For the hotter days I'll go with a Trenta Passion Tango Tea with Lemonade and Extra Sweetener. Then on the colder days I’ll have a Venti Honey Citrus Mint Tea. Sometimes, I’ll get two croissants in the morning with my drink if I’m commuting and couldn’t get breakfast or two cookies and creme cake pops when I want to treat myself (which I did today).

 10) Do you have any current projects you'd like to promote or anything upcoming you'd like to tell us about?

Definitely my Tumblr ( @casliyn ) in general. That’s where I post all of my instagram edits and links to my fic! As for fic, the second chapter of ‘Paradise City’ should be posted within the next few days so I’d definitely suggest people to check it out if they haven’t already.

 Submitted questions:

From @EOCabot: what Instagram au that you’ve made is your favorite?

Definitely the first one I ever made which was everyone at Josh and Donna’s wedding! It was one of the first West Wing edits I ever made and I remember posting it and it had received a few likes and a few comments and I was quite satisfied with that. Then out of the blue almost two years later, @jessbakescakes reblogged the edit on Tumblr and within seconds my edits had reached an entirely new demographic of people who hadn’t seen my work yet. I’ve made a lot of amazing connections from that simple reblog and I’ll always be grateful!

A Josh/Donna wedding would’ve been so fun to see and while I'm sad we didn’t get to see it in person, I'm happy that I was able to capture what I think it would’ve looked like in my edit.

From @sam_writes_fics: top 3 favorite episodes of tww ? 

This is such a hard question because this show quite literally is my childhood. Growing up my Mom was a HUGE fan of the show (she still is) so my favorite episodes are definitely the ones i remember watching in her room with her when i was a little girl and too young to understand what was going on. (My Mom watched the show so much that I thought that Jed Bartlet was actually the President)

So with that being said my Top 3 episodes are:

Noël (S2 EP10): Bradley Whitford, the actor you are.

That’s all I have to say about this one.

Dead Irish Writers (S3 EP16): I could probably write an essay and do a full blown TED Talk on why I love this episode so much. I’m such a sucker for Jed and Abbey scenes and I think this episode did such a great job capturing their dynamic. To me, the writers did such a great job humanizing Abbey at what is a nerve-wracking moment for her in her life. For such a dominating and powerful force, it was a treat to see Abbey shed that tough skin and be vulnerable, especially in the Red Room scene. Of course, Donna being the one to bring Abbey back to reality and tell her the truth that everyone else was too scared to say was definitely the cherry on the top. I think when it’s all said and done, Donna earned Abbey’s respect in that scene.

Eppur Si Muove (S5 EP16): I always loved whenever we got plotlines with the Bartlet daughters and this one was no exception. Also any episode with Stockard Channing is easily in the running to be one of my favorites-she’s such a beautiful actress! This one is my favorite because of the Sesame Street characters in the episode and this was such a big deal for me as a 3 year old haha. I loved seeing the staffers interact with the characters (the CJ and Big Bird moment is simply iconic). I also loved the moment where we see Ellie watching Abbey interact with the characters

From @zieglercregg: which episode could you write the most for? whether it’s a missing scene or post episode?

If I could I would’ve given the show another season just so we could see the first year of the Santos administration haha. But the specific moment I could write the most for would definitely be Amy and Donna’s scene in ‘Commencement’. While I understand the purpose of the conversation ending where it did for storyline and timing sake, I wish that we could’ve seen it play out more and eventually impact the storyline.

I found it hard to believe that someone with a strong personality like Amy would just take Donna’s potential silence to her question lightly. I think that she definitely would’ve been passive about it with Josh until he caved and asked what was wrong, especially since they were very much so on and off at the time. I would’ve enjoyed seeing Josh get confronted with that and eventually have to ask himself where his feelings stood for both women. (I may have written a one shot to this scene already and go more in depth of the conversation and the results from it).

Also Janel and Mary’s chemistry was UNBELIEVABLE during the scene. It was such an amazing yet uncomfortable scene. I wished we got more scenes of them together.

From @joshlymoss: for your instagram aus, do you usually start with the picture and create the story in your head, or do you look for pictures to fit an idea that you already have?

With my Instagram AUs I typically start brainstorming the posts from the minute I get a request in my inbox. It also depends on the request and how detailed it is. For example, I got a request not too long ago about Donna hanging out with Joey and Amy (and Josh freaking out in the comments hahaha) so I looked up girls night aesthetic pics on Pinterest.

I’m quite busy between school and work though so I can’t dedicate time to scrolling Pinterest for photos like I once did but for the most part, I have an idea of the story I want to tell and I'll just look for the photos that fit that idea. 

 From @JessBakesCakes: do you have any favorite headcanons you've slipped into your writing or your Instagram aus?

Definitely anything Girl Dad Josh and Found Family related. Jess probably knows hahaha but the amount of DMs we’ve sent one another about Girl Dad Josh is quite astronomical and I love that for us.

Bartlet Farms as well!!! I’m just obsessed with the idea of the staffers and all their children heading to the farm to visit Jed and Abbey and keep them company. The idea of Jed and Abbey being additional Grandchildren to the staffers warms my heart SO much. (Also Sam’s fiancee in the final season is def Ainsley and they have three boys, yes it’s true.).

I also try to involve Toby as much as I can in the edits because I do headcanon that when he was ready and able to heal from the past, he became close with everyone once again. 

 From @flowersinapril_: we’ve gotta talk about baseball AU i looooove where your fic starts with josh having truly fucked up - where did you get the idea for this AU and who do you love writing the most??

Your excitement for this fic means so much to me, you truly have no idea. Recently I’ve been going to Baseball games with my family and one of the first times we went this year my Mom and I were discussing what our Walk Up Songs would be. Then after that conversation my mind immediately went to “What would Josh’s walk up song be?” and after finding a Spotify playlist dedicated to Baseball Walk Up songs I got this strong urge to write and immediately started drafting the story. I definitely wanted to write a sports centered story to take a peek into what athletes go through but also write a story that is both vulnerable and honest in what the road to recovery and healing looks like mentally and physically.

I’d definitely say that my favorite character to write for is a mix between Josh, Donna and Leo. It was definitely important for the fic to start on Josh’s first day back to practice and Donna’s first day of work at the main office. Both people are embarking on new chapters in their lives and it was important to portray that. I’ve always loved Josh’s relationship with Leo and I'm excited to explore that more in this fic!

Also the GirlDad!Josh and BoyMom!Donna agenda will be pushed HEAVILY in this fic!

PS: If you have an idea for a Walk up song for Josh, let me know. I have a few ideas of my own but I’d love to hear anyone else’s suggestions if they have one!

 And a lightning round from @S4MWILSON:

Fave season? Either 3 or 4

Fave ep? Tie between isaac and Ishmael or Dead Irish Writers

Fave fic you’ve read for ur fave ship? Definitely ‘The Crux’ by @thefinestmuffins on A03 and I will not admit how many times I have reread it. Probably one of the best fics I’ve ever read! (it’s CONCERNINGLY high)

Rarepair you adore? Oddly enough? Probably Abbey and Amy. I think it’s adorable that Abbey used to babysit Amy and I would’ve loved to have known more about what their time together was like. I’d like to think that seeing Abbey’s strong personality at such a young age is what shaped Amy as a young girl.

Also Kate and Josh! I would’ve loved to have had more scenes between them! I feel like they really would’ve gotten along.

Craziest au idea? Okay, this one sounds crazy as hell so please don’t judge me hahaha. I do have an idea of Josh being on one of those ‘Bachelor’ type shows and him having so do the whole song and dance of passing out roses and eliminating women each week. The twist would be though, he falls for Donna and isn’t interested in paying the other contestants any attention.

Please keep in mind this AU isn’t finalized or drafted yet so the idea is a bit choppy but I may write it in the near future if anyone is interested.

favorite tww edit? OH MY GOD, OKAY first of all every single edit I’ve seen of this show from the fans truly is amazing.

Anytime Connor (@sinistercherubs) makes an edit I cry, so there’s that.

One of my favorite fancams of all time is definitely @zieglercregg ‘s ‘What’s Next/Ain’t No Mountain High Enough’ edit. That song has such a special meaning to me so that combined with Kate’s editing is enough to always bring tears to my eyes. 

My other favorite one is @donnamosslymcn’s ‘Donna Moss/Rockstar’ fancam. The editing is so precise and beautiful and combined with the iconic Hannah Montana song (which happens to be my favorite), it truly is one of the best fancams I've ever seen.

Character you’d like to meet most? Definitely Donna or Charlie, I’d like to tell them both I'm proud of them and their growth!

I also need a pep talk from Abbey, life’s been kicking my ass, ya’ll.

Actor you’d like to meet most? I’d love to meet any of the cast members! Like I said this show was a huge part of my childhood and I thought they were the actual Presidential Administration as a young child so meeting anyone would be amazing, haha.

Another ep to get hartsfield’s treatment? 

‘Dead Irish Writers’ for sure. It may not have many ties to like current day politics that Hartfields has but the idea of seeing Stockard Channing, Allison Janney, Janel Moloney and Mary-Louise Parker recreate that red room scene would be AMAZING.

Funniest moment/ep on the show?

“You can throw me in a vat of custard with a chocolate covered snorkel! IT’S GONNA BE YOU AND ME THIS WEEKEND, BABY! AND YOU ARE WEARING A FLOPPY HAT!!!” This scene never fails to make me laugh, it’s like the Director told Brad to interrupt the scene and do his lines. Allison’s facial expressions are EVERYTHING.

The entire time zones debacle….I don’t know what’s funnier Josh’s storming off like a toddler or Toby picking up a stick and hitting the closest thing near him

When Toby and Charlie got arrested and while Toby was recounting what happened on the phone to Sam and he took responsibility for throwing the punch and Charlie goes “You did what?” GOLD. 

Anytime Abbey says ‘Jackass’ an angel gets its wings

Josh and Toby’s press conferences. Just so terrible and so funny.

Thanks again, Kenny!

If you’re interested in being featured for a future spotlight, please drop us a line here on tumblr, on twitter, or email weeklypressbriefing@gmail.com.

xx, What’s next?

[duckprintspress]

How can I write quickly?

I (hi, I’m @unforth) have been asked frequently over the years how I write a lot quickly. I’m a pretty fast writer - for example, I wrote the 5600 words of my May Trope Mayhem fill from yesterday in under 2.5 hours. 

First, a little of my personal history for context. I’ve always written, starting from when I was able to string letters into (very poorly spelled) words and (horrible un-grammatical) sentences. When I started trying my hand at serious, professional-level fiction writing, I joined a community called novel_in_90, which was founded by the author Elizabeth Bear. The purpose of novel_in_90 was “to be NaNoWriMo but more realistic.” Instead of 50,000 words in 31 days, it was 67,500 words in 90 days, or 750 words a day. I participated in multiple rounds of novel_in_90 starting in mid-2005, and in 2007 I completed my first (godawful) novel. When I started, even writing a couple hundred words of day took me forever, but it got easier with time. 

During those same years, I also got a job that required I do professional writing on a deadline: I was a grant writer, and I only got paid when the grants won. That often meant working fast under high pressure, culminating in the weekend I wrote and edited an entire 40 pages grant that was due on Monday. I think, if I hadn’t had a solid foundation of “regular daily plodding writing,” I’d not have been able to marathon when the moment came...and it came because I had to, not because I wanted to. However, I learned a valuable lesson: I could. Subsequently, I found that, when I had the time and space and was rested enough to use my brain, I could bust out a huge amount. Like, I wrote an entire 150,000 word novel in 17 days.

My personal record is about 200,000 words in one month (it was the month I wrote that novel; I wasn’t tracking when I did that so I don’t know exactly), 25,000 words in a day, and I’ve topped out around 3,000 words an hour. I do know people who can do more...but not many.

Not everyone will be able to do this. Flat out, I MUST preface the rest of this post by saying that. Some people will find that writing fast fits their brain, and for others, it just won’t, and that’s okay. Fast doesn’t equal better, and it isn’t inherently “good” to write fast. Furthermore, even for those who can write fast, not everyone will find the same strategies helpful. I can share what works for me. Try out one item, some items, or all of these - if writing faster is something you want to be able to do, which it certainly never has to be. Use what works for you, and discard the rest.

Sit in your chair, put your fingers on your keyboard or touch screen, and write. You can’t write 1,000 words in half an hour until you write one word, however long that one word takes. I know saying this is obvious, but I’ve been asked “how can I write fast” by people who struggle to write at all...fast can’t be your priority until you’ve got a foundation of just writing. (Honestly...fast should never be your priority, but it might be helpful to you regardless, which can make it worth learning.)

Start small. Set an achievable goal, and make yourself meet that goal (daily, weekly, whatever) come hell or high water, no matter how long it takes you. Keep the goal small at first; you’re not trying to torture yourself, you’re trying to build a skill. If you set the goal high enough that you consistently fail, you’re not teaching yourself anything. And, if you find the goal IS too high...lower it. There’s no shame in working within your limits. Think of it like starting a new work out regimen: you wouldn’t try to run a 10k at a record time if you can’t run a mile slow. Treat your fingers and your brain the same way you’d treat your legs and joints. Give them time to grow, learn, and improve before you try to push yourself.

Trying to write daily is worthwhile if you want to work on your writing speed, because you’ll be forced to try to fit it in as you’re able - that might be ten minutes in your morning, or an hour in your evening, and it might vary from day to day, but making it daily means you have to fit it in somewhere.

Building skills takes time and isn’t easy. For some people, it will come easier than for others, and even when you’re fast, going from “I can write words fast” to “I can write damn good words fast” takes practice and dedication and accepting constructive criticism - speed alone will never be worth more than writing well.

Having a community can help. Ya’ll will check in on each other, cheer each other on, remind each other that missing a day or a goal isn’t the end of the world, and keep each other’s spirits up. If you don’t know other writerly folks online, I recommend Weekend Writing Marathon ( @weekendwritingmarathon ) as a good place to start (I used to be a mod there). Once you’re trying to work up to larger word counts in a day, remember that even writing fast will take minutes or hours. You can’t write 2,500 words in an hour if you don’t set an hour aside. Make sure you’re giving yourself the room and time you need to succeed.

You will probably never be able to do high, rapid word counts every day, every week, every month. The best runners in the world don’t run marathons every day. Set realistic long term goals.

Work on projects where you have a clear idea of where you’re going. I’m not saying “pantsers” can’t write fast, because of course they can, but if you want to write fast, and well, and coherently, to create a first draft that’s in pretty good shape, you’ll do better if you have a good sense of what you’re trying to accomplish with your story. That doesn’t mean you need to do all your world building up front, or have a complete outline (I never have either). All you really need is what happens next. I tend to plan projects - and write them - one full scene at a time, with only a vague idea what’s going to come after. (I’m personally a “plantser,” and the strategies in this post will likely be most effective to other plantsers.)

Visualize ahead of time what you’d like to write...but don’t get too attached to what you visualize. When I go to bed, I plan the next scene I’m going to compose, often to the least detail. I then forget all of it overnight, at least all the specifics, and I’m left with a general sense and shape of what’s to come. You’ll never be able to replicate the “perfect” dialog you pre-conceive, so give up on trying to. Instead, play through the scene and think about the emotional beats you want to hit and plot points you want to forward. If you keep that in mind, you’ll be able to get the words out faster than if you’re agonizing over every word or regretting the “oh-so-great” idea that you’ve since forgotten. 

Practice different work styles. If writing every day doesn’t work for you, try instead saying, “this is my writing day each week,” and aim for a lot that specific day, and write little or nothing other days. Try writing at different times of day and on different days, fitting it into your schedule. If you’re beating yourself up for not writing when you “should,” it’ll be that much harder to succeed, so instead, as I said for point 2 - set a reasonable goal that fits your life and working style, fitting it around your other responsibilities, and push yourself within that framework, instead of trying to shoehorn into a style that you “think you should” use to succeed. 

Track your word counts, and take notes on how much you did and what project you were working on. If you’re also experimenting with different times of day and different days, make sure you note that too. I personally use a simple Excel sheet (well, Google Sheets, now) - column one is the date, column 2 is “starting word count,” column 3 is “ending word count,” column 4 is “=column 3 - column 2”, column 5 is notes. Pay attention to when you succeed at writing faster, and when you don’t, and consider what factors might have played into your success...and then try to replicate those factors next time you’re doing a sprint. Control as many variables as you can while you’re “training.”

If you find social media distracting, trying getting a web browser extension that prevents you from connecting to websites for a set period of time.

If you find you tend to dither before starting, I find it helpful to run through everything that I might do to procrastinate (check my social media! grab a snack! make some tea! set up my playlist! check my social media again! finish making the tea! check my social media for what I swear will be the last time!), and when I’m done, it’s like, well, I’ve done all those things, I’ve got no choice left, time to write, no excuses left.

If you find you struggle with picking up a WIP, try leaving off in the middle of a sentence at the end of a session, one where you know exactly how it ends - or, leave off mid-paragraph, or when you are positive you know what happens next (and I mean literally next, as in the very next sentence.) It’s much easier to “pick back up” when your first words are super clear. (Do not do this if you think there’s any chance you’ll forget or end up in a situation where you won’t return to your WIP for months!) 

If you find you struggle to maintain continuity across multiple writing sessions, try rereading what you wrote the previous day before you proceed. Resist the urge to edit it!

Avoid stopping when you get stuck, even to do research. Don’t know a fact? Add a comment to your manuscript flagging the relevant text, “LOOK THIS UP LATER.” Can’t think of a word? Put in something you can use the “find” function on easily (I personally use “XX” since there are no words that have a double x in them) and so you can come back later, search for your chosen placeholder, and fill in the blanks. Not sure how a scene ends but know the next scene? Jump ahead.

That said, if you really don’t know what happens next, you don’t do yourself any favors by pressing on. As I’ve said previously, speed alone should never be your writing object. It’s better to slow down, consider your plot, figure out where you’re going, and then write, than to just plow ahead - or at least, that’s better if you want a manuscript you’ll actually be able to use for something at a later point. If you’re truly just practicing, you can also say “screw it, who needs coherence?” and keep going. I’d personally never have finished my first novel if I’d spent a lot of time worrying about making the pieces fit together and yeah, it’s a mess, but it’s a mess I wrote instead of a mess I got stuck on and never completed.

Don’t move the finish line. If you’ve set the goal of 500 words a day, don’t beat yourself up if you get 550 because you think you think you could have done more. If you say you’ll write five days a week, don’t get mad because you DID have time the sixth day but chose to use it on something else. If you make yourself feel like shit when you succeed, what’ll happen when you fail? And when you’re comfortable and really think you’re ready, change the goal - reassess every month, say, and up your goals. While working for speed, trying upping your word count goal without changing the amount of time you allot for working.

Your need to adhere to the above suggestions will change over time. Once, I always had an outline; now I often don’t need one. Once, I wouldn’t let myself stop even to use a thesaurus; now, I find I can look up words without breaking my flow or significantly slowing myself down. This is not an “all or nothing” prospect, nor is it a “do things the same way forever once you’ve found one (1) thing that works” prospect - you’ll experiment, and find strategies that work for you, and then at some point, your needs will change, and you’ll experiment more, and find new strategies that work for you, on and on, as your skills grow. 

To reiterate: writing fast should never be your objective in and of itself! Greater writing speed will come with practice and as a general side effect of improving your craft. Simply being able to write fast is useless; being able to write fast and well will enable you to get more of your ideas out there, so if that’s something you’d like to accomplish, focus on building your general skills and training yourself to be able to use those skills rapidly and in tandem with each other to produce decent writing, in a first draft, at a decent speed.

Once you try, you may find none of this works for you! That’s okay. That’s good! You tried, which means you learned something about yourself and your own writing style, and that too will help you to improve. Keep experimenting, keep learning, and find what does work for you - and accept that no two writers will ever be the same, and one of those differences will be writing speed. Some writers will never write fast, and that’s doesn’t make them any less awesome or valid. And some writers will always write fast, and that doesn’t make them inherently awesome or valid. Only with a suite of skills that suit your individual life, personality, work style, writing capabilities, goals, etc., will you succeed as a writer (for various, personalized definitions of the word “success”); speed is only one of those potential skills, and not one that’s particularly important in my opinion...yet I still get asked about it fairly often, so here we are, these are my suggestions

Go forth, and write some words! <3

[uravityplus]

hello all!! this is a rp blog for uraraka ochako of my hero academia, written by milk. on my pinned post, you'll find all relevant links/info here for my blog. i am completely caught up with both the mha anime and manga, so beware of spoilers ahead. if i'm not here, you can probably find me on one of my other blogs: @blastintriumph @impishsensei @muryonokansei @hateshinaii @fatuispolaris @balemccn

please be sure to read my rules before interacting/following.

carrd || interest check || icon border credit || plotting call (wip)

for ease of access, my rules are also placed under the cut!

guidelines

I will interact with mutuals only. If I follow you I want to interact, so don’t hesitate to send me asks or IM me with plot ideas! DO NOT interact if we are not mutuals. this includes liking my posts and sending me messages. it makes me uncomfortable. DO NOT follow and unfollow then follow again to get my attention. if i haven't followed you back yet, it's likely i haven't noticed. if it's been over a week and i'm constantly active and still haven't followed back, sorry, but i probably don't see us interacting and won't be following back. i usually follow back muses of the same fandom. with muses from different fandoms, this heavily depends on my familiarity with the series, and even then, i'm hesitant unless i can imagine how our muses might interact as i prefer canon-verse threads and interactions above all. For OCs, I'll probably only follow if you have an mha verse.

I’m okay with one-liners, crack, multi-para, novella… everything! Feel free to send in any ask memes if we haven’t roleplayed before. Ask memes are a great way to break the ice so I really don’t mind. If I follow you that means I want to rp with you so if you’re ever unsure and worried you might be bothering me, don’t. I’m duplicate friendly.

i am very unlikely to follow if you don't engage in typical tumblr rp etiquette. i don't care if you use icons or not, because i likely won't use them often myself. i mean stuff like tagging and cutting your posts. heavy amounts of ooc posts (like 10+ a day in an hour) is also something i don't like to see. if you do this, please don't follow me. i don't mean to sound like a bitch but tumblr is super broken and a clogged dash makes it harder to navigate, especially when it's so easy to miss notifications. i don't practice reblog karma so idc if you get your memes from me, but i do ask that you please reblog from the source and not from me!

If I haven’t replied in over a month I probably lost our thread or it’s sitting in my drafts and I haven’t noticed it, so please message me to remind me about it. I won’t be annoyed or upset. I drop RPs sometimes out of a loss of interest but please don’t blame yourself. It is always a personal thing that has nothing to do with anyone else as a roleplayer. I’m always happy to write more regardless of dropping previous threads.

I generally like to plot through tumblr IMs or discord. I will say though, i do struggle a bit with plotting and tend to prefer random interaction on the dash or through memes, at least just to feel out a dynamic. HOWEVER, if you've got an idea or really wanna plot, ofc just message me!! even if it's not my preference i'm still down to rub those brain cells together and brainstorm.

i have a few mains, but for the foreseeable future i do not see myself exclusively writing with only one of a character. i like to write and really don't wanna be limited with that. mains are prioritized when it comes to answers and drafts, and in random ic posts on the dash (non-threads), they'll be who i refer to in her "main" verse.

where RP is concerned i heavily prioritize chemistry. for now, my blog is multi-ship, so any relationships my muse develops will take place in separate verses unless stated otherwise. i'm not opposed to making pre-established dynamics, especially for au plots. i find that can be really fun. honestly, if we talk and something sounds exciting i'll be up for it lol. i just don't want something forced out of nowhere. flirting between muses is fine. for deku muses: i do write ochako with a crush on him in mind, but obviously i won't force the ship. it's just her canon crush!

DON'T involve me with drama OR send messages telling me to reblog callout posts or anything like that. i don't care for getting involved with petty roleplay drama. if it's something actually serious, i've already seen it on the dash and taken note. seriously, i will hardblock, anyone that pesters me with this nonsense. for personal blogs: please do not follow/like/reblog my posts. doing so will result in an immediate block.

i personally have no triggers and don't need anything tagged. if you have any that might not be as common, please let me know and i will tag them. I won't be writing explicit smut on this blog. Suggestive jokes might appear, but nothing explicit. Non-sexual nsfw (heavy or triggering topics, violence, etc.) will be present and tagged. I have no issues with others writing it and I don't have any triggers I need tagged. Please feel free to ask and I will tag anything you need. Despite not writing explicit sexual content, I ask that minors DON’T follow my blog. If you’re a minor & I accidentally followed you, let me know & I’ll unfollow you immediately.

[regina-del-cielo]

Immortal Siblings AU | Four, then three, then four again

I mentioned that the bulletpoint post describing how the Guard from the Immortal Siblings AU found Joe had totally run away from me. It has, in fact, become a study on them grieving over Lykon and then finding Yusuf. 

I have, somehow, reached a sort of natural end to the amount of bullshit my mind can add to this list/fic draft. So, if you want to give it a read... grab a snack. It’s long. I’m sorry.

Warnings for Wikipedia levels of historical accuracy - I added links to the relevant pages when quoting historical events, but since I was just trying to work out a timeline (famous last words), the research wasn’t extensive. There’s a lot of hand-waving.

By the end of the 11th Century, I think Andy, Quynh and Nico haven’t been in Europe for a while, not really. They moved south, and then east, after the sack of Rome of 410 CE. Seeing the great cities fall has become hard for them, especially for Nico, who is a nomad at heart but has a soft spot for cities, together with Lykon, the true city boy in the group. He’d seen it happen to Athens, he wasn’t sure he could deal with seeing Rome wilt.

For reasons I cannot fathom, my mind is settled on them having been in India when Lykon dies (possibly sometime around the middle of the 6th century, in the mess that was the crumbling of the Gupta Empire???)

Seeing him die destroys them, and they take a break from any battlefield to grieve their friend and brother. They wander, occasionally helping but almost never raising their weapons, too leery of injuries and of losing each other.

(Quynh, who was the first to notice Lykon’s wounds, has nightmares that make her cry in her sleep. Andromache holds her so tight Nico can feel the tension on her muscles against his back. He and his sister barely sleep, scared of the open spaces of Asia as they’d never been before. Lykon was the youngest of them and he died, what if they stop healing too?)

(If Nico stands guard over his sisters and feels an ache in his chest seeing how they hold onto each other, he’s never going to say it out loud. His Mache deserves the love she shares with Quynh. But sometimes he wishes he had someone to hold him like that, one he can call his heart.)

The first time they go to battle again like in the old days it’s almost the end of the 10th century, and they’re helping Quynh’s lands gain independence from China. They have a reason and a specific side to root for, and it’s the kind of cause Lykon would have approved of. They find purpose again.

They are distantly aware of how things are holding up in the west – they know Constantinople has crowned itself capital of the Roman Empire (what is left of it anyway); they know of the new religion, Islam, and how it was brought further east with the armies conquering Persia. They met the Varangians on the Northern Plains of the Rus’, when Andy insisted on going back to their steppes for a while.

They acquire new swords, repair the old weapons, make improvements on their bows. They travel, and help, and listen. They learn new languages. They heal.

They’ve just spent the winter in Samarkand when they hear merchants newly come from Constantinople talk about the Frankish armies that took Antioch and making their way further into Palestine. 

The words ‘freeing Jerusalem from the infidels’ make Andy sigh in exasperation and twist Nico’s guts. The three of them don’t really understand the point of going to war for a god, but Jerusalem is old, and she’s been coveted by many throughout their long lives. Things like this never end well, they know it intimately.

But they’ve been away for a long time, centuries at this point. Things are very different from when the Romans had the power. They are less eager to throw themselves into the battlefield now, and there’s much they don’t know about the dynamics of Europe and the Levant. Still they’re worried, and decide that they’ll move west to see if something can be done, for the civilians at least.

At first they travel slowly, keeping an ear out for gossip spoken by the caravans coming from the west. Things radically change, however, when they dream of a new immortal (a man, with a curly black beard and shining dark eyes) dying on the walls of Jerusalem and reviving to an unprecedented slaughter – said man is, obviously, absolutely terrified and they feel it.

He’s also woken up surrounded by living enemies, with high risk of being killed or injured multiple times, and of being seen.

They are still too far away to do anything more than hope that the new guy is clever enough to keep himself alive until they can reach him, but now Nico is all for moving west at full speed to get him out.

“What the everloving FUCK is happening over there?!” is the common theme in their thoughts; nothing about this war they’re walking towards is making any sense.

Yusuf al-Kaysani is, in fact, clever enough to keep himself (and a few other civilians to boot) alive and get out of Jerusalem when it becomes clear than no matter how many Franks he kills he can do nothing to stop them alone. (It’s a fucking carnage, and he’s so tired). He walks away from the battle and tries to reach some sort of safety in the desert.

When he’d decided to stay in Jerusalem and fight instead of escaping the siege, Yusuf had considered the possibility of dying. He had not accounted for waking up from a fatal wound with no sign of having been hit in the first place.

And then there are the visions. Or dreams, he’s not sure. They don’t seem to make any sense? Who are those people?! Is his mind so addled by the war that he’s conjuring scary warrior women and a stupidly handsome man, armed to the teeth and camping in the desert?

(fantasizing about handsome men in his sleep isn’t exactly news for him, but there were never women in those. And none of his usual dreams involved weapons. Something is definitely off)

For the following days, Yusuf makes sure to stay away from human settlements while putting as much space as possible between Jerusalem and himself – the last thing he needs is to become a potential target for any invader that may cross his path.

But he’s alone, having nightmares, constantly on edge, and in a body that suddenly doesn’t feel like his own anymore, since he doesn’t even have the scars to prove that the injuries he sustained were real to begin with.

After a couple of weeks, the appearance of the strangers in his dreams starts feeling safe and comforting; they seem to operate like a little family, and God knows how much he misses his own.

(should he try to go back home? Would news of the siege reach his family before he does? Would he be able to go back to his previous life in the state he’s in? Could he keep this secret from them? Would they still love him or think him a monster?)

Despite their impressive warrior appearance, they feel... kind. And gentle. Sometimes, it feels like they’re trying to reassure him, even. Especially when he dreams from the perspective of the man.

The sensation those dreams leave on his skin is like a cape. You’re not alone, it whispers. Wait for us.

Andy, Quynh and Nico have just left Baghdad when the dreams change, and not for the better - Yusuf was passing through a village when a band of marauding Franks started harassing the locals. He moved to defend the villagers, but was overwhelmed and what’s worse, the Franks saw his wounds close too fast. Their reaction was vehement: they called him a demon, incapacitated him and then brought him back to their garrison, with every intention of ‘properly getting rid of him’.

Nico wakes up screaming and Andy has to sit on him so he doesn’t just sprint ahead without actually knowing where the fuck he’s going.

“We can’t just raid every single Frankish encampment in a twenty mile radius around Jerusalem, Nico!” “TRY ME” *Aggressive Sibling Bickering follows* *Quynh doesn’t bat an eye and just rolls out a map of the area she purchased and starts mapping out the fastest routes*

Yusuf is having a Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Week at the hands of his captors, who are getting disturbingly creative in their tortures, but whenever they let him fall unconscious he sees the people of his dreams travelling much faster than before, looking Royally Pissed Off, and the surroundings are... starting to look familiar too? 

If he tries to pay more attention to the conversations his torturers are having with each other outside of the tent he’s in and hoping the dreams go both ways, so the maybe-real trio can find him easier, now that’s nobody’s business but his own.

(spoiler: it works)

When they are in sight of Jerusalem, the immortals find a drunk “pilgrim” boasting about his band capturing a ‘pagan demon’ while coming back from their victory at Ascalon, follow him back to his camp, and as soon as it’s feasible they attack.

(Andy will later gripe that Nico didn’t leave her anything to do because he just paved his way through the Franks like he was harvesting wheat.)

seeing the Stupidly Handsome Man of his dreams standing in front of him covered head to toe in blood, with a double-bladed axe in one hand and a sword in the other, staring intensely at him as if to peer directly into his soul is... an experience for Yusuf.

(he may have composed a lot of poems about that first vision of Nico through the centuries. The words ‘avenging angel’ have been used quite profusely, too)

The protective instinct that Nico has felt for the newest immortal since the first dream clutches at his throat when he finally sees him, chained to a pole and so thin his clothes barely cling to his body, but with the softest dark eyes staring back with a glint of recognition when he comes closer.

(he could cry with relief at the knowledge that he’s not scared of him. Nico has seen the faces of the men that were keeping him captive, he knows he looks a lot like they did, and that he paints a gruesome picture.)

“Are you alright?” Nico asks first, in Greek. (He knows, from the dreams, that his captors prayed in Latin. He wants to make sure that the other knows that he’s not like them.)

“You were in my dreams. You came.” Yusuf answers back in the same language, although his sounds much newer than Nico’s.

“Of course. We’re not meant to be alone… and no one deserves to be in a cage”.

Nico uses the axe to break the chains, and by the time he’s done Andy and Quynh have reached them and his sister throws the keys at him to open the shackles.

“Couldn’t take a moment to get them yourself, little eagle? You wanted to show off your skills to the new one?” Quynh teases, just to see Nico blush. Andy stares at her brother and their new companion for a few beats, before finally asking his name.

“Yusuf ibn Ibrahim ibn Muhammad Al-Kaysani, known as al-Tayyib” he answers, letting out the first smile in weeks at the raising eyebrows of his saviours. “Just Yusuf is fine.”

“You have a sense of humour, brother. I like you!” Andy snorts, before cutting her palm with the edge of her axe, and showing him her fast healing.

“We are like you, Yusuf. That’s why you dreamt of us, and we of you” Nico adds gently, while Quynh offers her waterskin to Yusuf. They also offer their own names.

“We need to clean up this mess and move away from here” Andy says, while Nico helps Yusuf up. “One of those fuckers was boasting about an undying demon with others in a tavern, the last thing we need is to fight our way out against their whole army because someone else decided to come check if he was saying the truth.”

“It’s been a long time since we were in Kush” Quynh whispers, and Yusuf sees their faces open in a look of affectionate grief he remembers seeing on his Baba’s eyes when he talked about his own mother.

“We can talk about it more when we’re somewhere safer” Andromache suggests, before moving to set up the stage of an ‘accidental’ fire.

As they’re riding away, Yusuf turns slightly to watch the camp burn, leaving no trace of the invaders that hurt him. Jerusalem looms in the distance - lost, and wounded. If he were a little less exhausted, he could  easily work out a metaphor about his own situation.

But then he looks at the three people of his dreams – Quynh, Andromache, Nikolaos – that came for him. Who are the same as him, immortal.

His world has turned upside down, and there are so many questions to ask, and he could sleep for a month straight – but one thing is certain. 

He’s not alone anymore.

[cinaja]

Before the Wall Epilogue

Masterlist

----

Ten years after the Wall

 The crops have been coming along well this year, just the right balance of sun and rain and wind promising a rich harvest. It leads to a good mood throughout the human parts of the Continent. In the aftermath of the war, they have all made their experiences with food shortages, and so everyone is relieved that they seem to have moved past these times. All the bigger is the shock when, only a week before the grain was meant to be brough in, heavy thunderstorms with rain and hail ruin most of the harvest in one of Angolere’s northern provinces.

Andromache spends two mildly exhausting days visiting the region, travelling from city to city and offering reassurances that everything is under control, there are no risks of food shortages. Her presence has no practical purpose, the local authorities are more than capable of handling the situation, but everyone is nervous enough that they need someone to reassure them that all will be well.

By the time she reaches the last village, she is drained, although she is too well-trained to show it. As patiently as in the first village she visited yesterday, she listens to the town spokeswoman describe their situation, allows her to show her the village and the mostly-ruined regions.

“We will send grain from other regions,” she promises, as she did in every place she visited so far. The south of Angolere had rich harvests these years, and the other queens have already promised to send food as well should we not get by after all.”

She accepts an invitation for dinner and spends a few hours sitting in the townhall together with most of the village, making pleasant conversation, before she excuses herself. When she steps outside, she expected to be greeted by one of her guards. Instead, Yanis is waiting for her, leaning against a fence.

When he sees Andromache, he offers an exaggerated bow, grinning broadly as he straightens. “Good evening Your Majesty. May I be your escort for the evening?”

Andromache grins back. “I don’t know. You see, I have a husband who is waiting for me at home with our children.”

“I hear those children are sleeping already, and your husband missed you terribly these last few days and thought he’d pick you up.”

Andromache laughs and leans over to kiss him.

“How did it go?” he asks, wrapping an arm around her middle.

“All good,” Andromache says. “I barely needed to do anything, just reassure people a bit.”

These days, all problems she has to deal with seem easy. There is still a lot of work – drafting laws, dealing with arising problems, day-to-day governing work – but it only ever seems pleasant. What is a disagreement over a new law compared to the horror of war? Or to the initial years afterwards, when there were millions of displaced, traumatized people to deal with and they came close to starvation almost every year. Six years ago, a loss of harvest like this would have meant famine and deaths. Now, all she has to do is organize for food to be sent over from different provinces.

Things are good.

“I’m sure you were brilliant,” Yanis says with a broad smile. “Meanwhile, I have won a significant victory in the never-ending battle of convincing Leli that when her teachers tell her something, it is not a suggestion but an order, and I managed to keep Tano from breaking any priceless artifacts while running through the palace.”

Andromache laughs. “You’re my hero,” she says, half-teasing and half-sincere.

Yanis quit his work in the palace guard when Andromache got pregnant with Leli six years ago and has been staying at home to raise her and – three years later – Tano ever since. He could have kept his job had they hired someone to look after their children, but for Yanis, there was never even a question in that regard: He wanted to be there for their children as they grew up. It makes it easier for Andromache to know that even when she is busy at work, sometimes for days at a time, he is home with their children.

“My first meeting tomorrow is at eleven,” she says. “That ought to leave plenty of time for a nice family breakfast.”

----

Mor spends her days travelling the Continent, dealing with anyone her uncle currently wishes to improve relationships with. She has yet to decide whether she loves or hates her new position. Both, perhaps. She loves that it allows her to travel far and wide, to leave the Night Court and its restrictions behind, if only for a few weeks at a time. She loves the protection it gives her.

She hates the memories it brings up, though. For her, the Continent is full of memories of happier times. (No, that is not right. She shouldn’t think back to the years of war and wish herself back into that time. But then, to go back would mean getting Andromache back, and for that, she would accept a hundred years of war. But Andromache is on the other side of the Wall, married now and forever lost to her.)

Sometimes, Mor also hates the people she has to deal with. Today, it is Shey, who has been loosely allied with the Night Court ever since the war ended. Mor doesn’t know exactly how that came about, but her uncle exports iron for weapons and armour to Shey and he sends Mor to visit the emperor at least once a year.

Today is the first day of that annual visit and Shey is holding a welcome-celebration for her. It is a huge honour – Shey is easily the most important person on the Continent now, and him holding a celebration in honour of the emissary from a tiny Prythianian court is very unusual.

If Mor had been stupid enough to think it is for her sake, she might have actually felt honoured. But this celebration isn’t because of her, none of this is because of her at all. It’s all about Miryam and the fact that everyone knows that Mor was friends with her. That is why there are no doors locked to her on the Continent, why everyone so readily meets with her. Because Miryam and Drakon were her friends, and so to host her is to flaunt some sort of connection to them.

No, Mor does not enjoy the party at all, even if the music is brilliant, as is the food. She just makes conversation because it is what is expected of her and downs glass after glass of the clear, sparkling wine favoured here in the north to make it bearable.

She wonders what they would all say if they knew how things ended between Miryam and her, that she abandoned her before the end and left her to die. If they knew that she was so terrible that Andromache could no longer bear to so much as be around her anymore. If they knew about the charmed necklace that still lies unused at the bottom of some drawer in her rooms in Velaris.

No one knows about any of that, though. And no one ever will. Maybe one day, Mor will even be able to fool herself into believing that the sole reason her and Andromache split up was the Wall, that she never argued with Miryam and the only reason she isn’t visiting her is out of worry for her safety. It is not today, though, and so she downs another glass of wine and smiles at the nearest dignitary and allows him to pull her to the dance floor.

----

No one is coming for him.

Jurian fought against that truth for years, but he has given up on denying it for a while now. What use is it to lie to himself? No one is coming to save him. His allies, his friends, seem to have forgotten entirely about him. They moved on with their lives and likely never thought of him again, didn’t care enough to bother freeing him from that terrible nightmare his life turned into.

Jurian hates all of them. Andromache and Nakia and all the others for leaving him behind. Drakon for pretending to be his friend and then betraying him and making Miryam turn away from him. Miryam for turning against him. For not saving him. For dying. Her, he hates most of all.

----

Drakon puts down his quill and scans the contents of the text he just finished once more before putting the paper on the stack with the other usable results. That stack is the only tidy part of the table he was working on, the rest is a mess of books, most of them lying open on the relevant pages, and crumbled papers filled with ideas he dismissed as useless already. A few of those even ended up on the floor.

Well, that ought to be enough for now. He’s done with his edits on the draft for the new tax law they will be discussing later today. He still wants to show his edits to Miryam before then, but he still has plenty of time left for that.

Rising to his feet, he sets about cleaning up his mess. The papers he doesn’t need anymore go into the fire, he closes the books he used for reference and puts them on a second stack next to the one with the finished edits. He will be taking them with him, just to be sure.

Carrying the eight books as well as the stack of papers is a difficult task, given that he still doesn’t have proper use of his right arm. He has to carry the books with his left hand, the papers stuck between his useless right arm and his body. That movement alone hurts, but he is used to it by now. (There are magical prosthetics that function almost as well as an actual limb. But… well, Drakon hasn’t decided yet.)

A look at the clock reveals that it is almost seven. Drakon was in the library for the last four hours, and by now, Miryam should probably be awake. (Their sleeping schedules do not align very well lately. They usually go to bed together, but Miryam rarely manages to sleep more than half an hour before waking up again and then spends most of the night working, going to bed only in the early hour of the morning, while Drakon generally manages to sleep for a few hours but then cannot go back to sleeping when he wakes up. Miryam sometimes jokes that at least their inability to ever sleep through the night makes them both very productive rulers.)

Books balancing on his left hand, he walks through the halls of the library and out into the city. They founded their new capital nine years ago, and everything about the city still screams new. Many houses are only half-finished, as are all government buildings. Right now, their government meets in an improvised city hall and most of the high-ranking government members (including Miryam and Drakon) live in nearby houses. The council insisted that they start building a palace sometime, but that hasn’t been a priority yet.

The city Drakon is walking through now is nothing like Sajeo or any of the other cities in Erithia, all of whom were old, each building full of history. Drakon does miss Erithia, but he doesn’t think that difference is necessarily a bad thing, at least for their purposes. Not all history is good, after all, and in their situation, it certainly isn’t helpful. As it is, they all get a fresh start. There are human houses being build next to faerie ones, and all of them are equally new. They are all starting over together, and in a few centuries when this city has matured a bit, that will be the history the people living here will be able to look back upon. It will be one of unity, Drakon hopes.

----

Miryam frowns at her reflection in the mirror. Hair mussed from sleep and still wearing her long nightdress, she doesn’t look particularly dignified, but that is not what she has a problem with right now. No, the problem is that she looks young. It’s like she hasn’t aged at all in the last ten years. If she is being honest, the years of peace actually make her look far younger than she did at the end of the War. Then, at twenty-five, she looked more like thirty-five than she does now.

“Would you say,” she asks, turning to look over at Daín who is floating over her bed, “that I look my age?”

Daín is silent for a moment, cocking his head to the side to study her. “Now?” He asks. “You want to talk about that now?”

Miryam shrugs.

“Mortal ages are terribly hard to tell just by looks, really. There is no telling how old anyone truly is, as evidenced by you now looking younger than you did when we first met,” Daín says. When Miryam gives him a flat look, he quickly adds, “But in your case, I would say that you look twenty-five, for the simply reason that you haven’t aged a day since you were resurrected. Which is what you were getting at, isn’t it?”

Miryam glares at him, trying to ignore the sting of the words. “You knew the entire time,” she says, more statement than question. “And you never thought to tell us? Even when we spent the last five years trying to figure out if I was aging or not?”

“And yet, through all that time, you never thought to ask me,” Daín says with a sharp smile. He has been getting better at mimicking precise expressions lately. “You ask about everything – history, human culture, magic, the other worlds. Yet this one thing, you never brought up, not once in the four years since you decided to talk to me again. Neither did Drakon.” He shrugs. “I figured you didn’t want to know.”

Like it or not, he might have a point. Miryam didn’t want to know. If she is entirely honest, she still doesn’t. She never wanted to be immortal, not even in the not-actually-immortal way the Fae are. She always thought that having a limited number of years made those years more precious.

“Resurrections are a tricky matter,” Daín offers. He actually manages to sound comforting. “There is no telling what side-effects there might be. Even I still cannot tell exactly how it works.”

“Well.” Miryam wraps her arms around herself. “I suppose the alternative was to be dead.”

She doesn’t like the idea of being immortal. Not at all. But if there is one thing she knows for sure, it’s that she prefers it to having died and stayed dead at the end of the war. These last ten years certainly weren’t easy, but they were good. The best ones of Miryam’s life, probably. She wouldn’t have wanted to trade them for the world.

“So you’re alright with it?” Daín asks.

“I guess I’ll have to be,” Miryam says with a shrug. At least it doesn’t bother her as much as she thought it might. It isn’t ideal, but she would rather have a too-long life than a too-short one. She smiles at Daín in a way that is hopefully reassuring. “And now, I need to get dressed. So, you know.”

“I’m already gone,” Daín says, winks at her and vanishes.

Miryam glances at her reflection once more before turning to her wardrobe. She sincerely hopes that she is at least only “immortal” in the way the Fae are, which isn’t so immortal at all. But well, that is a question for later. For now, she has other things to worry about, and for those, she needs to dress.

Drakon barges into the room just as she buttons up her jacket. He doesn’t look at Miryam – cannot, because he is balancing a stack of books on his left hand, it swaying dangerously with each step.

Miryam picks up the four books at the top and stands up on her toes to kiss him over the now-smaller stack of books he is still holding. “Busy morning?” She asks, smiling softly.

Drakon smiles back and manages to place the rest of his books as well as the stack of papers he was holding under his right arm on the nightstand without any incidents.

“Yes,” he says, turning back to Miryam and wrapping an arm around her. “Very productive, though. I reviewed the new tax law we were drafting, and I think it should probably work out. Maybe you could read over it once more before the meeting later, though. And I brough along the books I used for reference, just to be sure.”

Miryam’s smile deepens. Of course be brought the books, as if there will be anyone but him at the meeting who read all of them.

“Sure,” she says, although she doesn’t think her reading over it will accomplish anything but making Drakon feel more secure about it. “I’ll read them right after breakfast.”

That way, they will still have time for small changes before the meeting, even if Miryam doubts she will find anything of note. She learned a lot about law-making in the last years and she would say that she is decent, but especially when it comes to the small details (which is what they are dealing with at this stage), she’s nowhere near as good as Drakon.

They go have breakfast on the small balcony belonging to the set of rooms they share. It is Miryam’s favourite place in the entire city, high enough that she can overlook the square below as well as some of the nearby streets. As her and Drakon eat and discuss the things they both worked on during the night (the tax laws for Drakon and a logistic issue with distributing food for Miryam), Miryam looks out over the city.

By now, the city has awoken and the square is full with people rushing about, going about their daily activities. Humans and faeries, all living together in peace. A woman is hurrying along, trailing two small children behind her. A young Seraphim girl and a human boy are playing together by the fountain. Next to them, a group of adults sits and eats a quick lunch, likely before going to work.

Miryam could spend hours watching them. On bad days, when her nightmares are worse than usual and the shadows of what happened chase her, she sometimes does. Watching the people down there go about their lives, happy and free and at peace, always makes the guilt and pain easier to bear. These people will have good lives, they and their children will be free, and that alone makes all that it took to get them here worth it. It makes everything worth it.

----

A/N: So, this is the final chapter. After over a year and 370k words written, I can't quite belive that this story is actually over. Writing this story has been lots of fun (and I might revisit it for a few oneshots sometime), and I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did.

At this point, I'd also like to thank everyone who read this story and left comments or likes - all of you have really made my day every time. A special thanks goes (once again) to @croissantcitysucks for all the wonderful conversations we had about this story, for all the great feedback and help when I had problems, and, of course, for all of the backstory surrounding Daín and the Mother (also, I'm looking forward to you acotar rewrite so much and I can only recomment everyone read it when it comes out!) It's really been so much fun!

Tags: @femtopulsed @aileywrites

[xiaomoxu]

MLQC CN Victor - Chapter 37

SPOILER ALERT!!

A main story from CN server which hasn’t been released in EN server. REALLY contains detailed spoilers. A mixed feelings such angst, sweet and love-his-dummy by CEO Victor!

PART 1

Downstairs LFG, the film crew is still busy in an orderly manner.

A month ago, LFG launched an unprecedented charity project, mobilizing all the resources of the group, and watching the last moment before the arrival of the comet group with all mankind.

In addition to regular material donations, psychological counseling, and medical assistance, there is also a special item one wish list.

In the last issue of "Miracle Finders", we selected this subject for reporting.

Photographer: Everyone pay attention, go one first, and prepare the light for one-

Teenager: Ok, can I just say the words directly?

Willow: To put it straight, there is nothing to worry about, we can do it again, let's do it again!

The teenager was encouraged, and smiled and showed two small teeth.

Teenager: I am seventeen years old. I am an ordinary high school student. Although you can't see it now, I have lived in darkness for these seventeen years.

Teenager: Due to chromosomal abnormalities, I have suffered from congenital blindness since birth...

Teenager: The doctors all said that despite the advanced level of medical technology, they are still helpless against such diseases and hope that I will accept the reality.

Teenager: But I still don't give up. I don't want to usher in death without actually seeing the world, so I contacted LFG Group with the last hope!

Just as the teenager expected, LFG quickly found a Healer Evolver on the Island, and treated him so that he finally saw the light.

Teenager: Although I can only look at the world for a short time, how many times in a person's life can I witness miracles happen? I am very satisfied!

After he finished speaking, he gave everyone a young and a little embarrassed smile. The beautiful dark eyes are full of light, especially bright in the night.

MC: ... That's nice.

Until the last moment, miracles continued to happen.

I raised my head and looked at the towering LFG Building in front of me, thinking back to Victor when he started the project and jokingly said-

"I hope everyone can be like an idiot, as long as they fulfill their wishes, they will be happy." The tone couldn't help but felt a moment of surprise.

I hope that the last issue of "Miracle Finders" will produce satisfactory answers to him.

With emotion, I strode into the LFG Building.

--

At this time, most of LFG's staff has left, and most of the work spaces in the building have been vacated.

Even if some are still willing to suspend their posts and help Victor handle some charity projects, they are no longer sitting here and only exchange information via phone and email.

Goldman: I have been waiting for you for a long time!

I was still in a daze, and Goldman came over with aggrieved expression. Probably because I told him that I was almost there an hour ago, but I didn’t come up because shooting for most of the day in the downstairs town.

As soon as he saw me appear, he cast a "God finally" look.

Goldman: The CEO handed it to you, I'm going to prepare for the next meeting.

He hurriedly put the previously prepared contract into my hand, lightly approached the door of the CEO's office, and knocked the door.

Victor: Come in.

Hearing Victor's voice coming from behind the door, I quickly hid the hand holding the contract behind my back.

Goldman opened the door halfway and walked in.

Goldman: CEO, can we conduct an induction interview now?

Victor: Interview? When is it scheduled?

Goldman: Yesterday, I remember it was in your schedule.

After a short silence, Victor gave instructions indifferently.

Victor: Bring it in.

I strode forward, held back a sneer, and stood still in front of Victor. Before speaking, Goldman hurriedly took the door out, leaving a room of silence.

MC: Hello, CEO! I am the candidate for interview today!

I said hello to Victor very politely, and even bowed symbolically, with a sincere expression when I raised my head.

Victor: ....

Victor let out a sigh of relief, as if he had lifted his spirits from a long and exhausting work, and couldn't help but laugh when he met my sincere gaze.

MC: Reporting to the CEO, although I have limited work experience, I am active in doing things.

MC: The CEO of the most ruthless venture capital company in the industry has won a 500 million investment!

MC: Moreover, the level of stress resistance is first-rate, no matter how big the challenge is, how many plans are rejected, you can face the difficulties!

MC: In addition, I am quite familiar with LFG's business and can start working in a short time.

Victor sighed lightly, probably because I was too noisy.

Victor: Only you can make such boastful remarks without blushing at all. You come to LFG, don't care about your company?

MC: The final issue of "Discovering the Miracle" will soon be filmed, and sister Anna will be responsible for the remaining post-production work. I don't need to worry about it anymore.

MC: I always find a place to shine and heat, right?

MC: Or I have to be a rice bug for a month...

MC: In short, I am especially willing to share the worries and problems for the CEO

Victor touched his lips slightly, revealing a smile.

Victor: Didn't you often say that being a rice bug is your ultimate dream? Now that you have a chance to realize your dream, but you are not willing?

He was so eloquent, so that scenes of past scenes of bluffing and saying that I didn't want to go to work really appeared before me.

MC: But I have already changed my dreams.

I stepped forward two more steps, narrowed the distance with Victor, and stared quietly into his eyes

MC: My dream now is to be with you.

The outline of Victor's smile on the corners of his lips curled up, and his expression sank duplicity, and put out the CEO's frame in a serious manner.

Victor: LFG’s attendance system is strict, and the consequences of absence are serious. Be mentally prepared.

I walked up to him, took out the contract that had been hidden behind my back, and unfolded it on the table.

MC: I won't be absent, I will do what you say.

Speaking softly, pressing his usual fountain pen directly on the contract, it seemed to be "forcing the signing".

MC: If I can't do it... I will be punished.

Victor hastily flipped through the contract, which was only a few pages long, and paused as his gaze passed by the post.

Victor: Confirmed?

MC: Yes!

I deserved to be confident and without any explanation. Victor raised his head and looked at me with a clear smile in his eyes. He turned the contract another page.

Victor: The contract is valid for three years.

MC: Huh? It should be the contract template copied by Goldman, right? Renew after the three-year period expires!

Victor neatly signed his name on the last page, stood up and took my hand.

Victor: Let's go, the meeting is about to begin.

MC: What meeting? Wait, am I going to work as soon as I start?

Victor: According to the contract, every minute of yours belongs to me, and it takes effect immediately.

Is there such an unequal clause? Goldman's drafting of a contract is quite tricky

MC: You capitalists are squeezing employees too much!

Victor was slightly late to me, with a smile on his lips.

Victor: Well, capitalists are like this.

The conference room was already full of people, only the first two seats were still empty.

One of them is where Victor often sits.

I remember when I came to LFG for a meeting for the first time, I could only sit on the small bench in the corner and couldn't see his face even when I stretched out my head.

 Victor: let's start.

I sat down next to Victor, glanced across the crowd, and leaned silently on the back of the chair.

Goldman opened the prepared PPT and stood in front of us.

Goldman: Now carry out the relevant reports on the work of last week,

PART 2

A sign hung at the door of Souvenir, which said that today is the last day of the restaurant’s business.

MC: Thank you for your preference for this restaurant, Souvenir will permanently close the store

LFG provoked too heavy responsibility, and Victor had no time to take care of Souvenir. I raised my head and looked at the blue light on the TV tower.

During the eternal night, the TV tower is bright yellow during the day and blue at night, marking the day and night. These days, people have been accustomed to measuring time in this way.

It seems that no matter what kind of predicament they are in, as long as there is a moment of peace, people are willing to steal a moment of peace and delay satisfaction.

I am no exception.

With Victor in front of the wind and rain, I even occasionally forget the reality that I am about to face, can let go of all my worries, and be silly in front of him carefree.

If time can be reversed, I can go back to the first time I stood in front of Souvenir...

I lowered my gaze and pushed the door into the restaurant.

MC: Mr. Mills, I

Before I could say hello, I was stunned by the scene before me.

Souvenir, who had always been cold and cold, is now full of voices, all seats are full of seats, even those who have never been before, and he has added new chairs.

Mr. Mills was busy between the tables with a smile on his face.

I hurried over to ask if I need help.

MC: Mr. Mills, shall I do this?

I was about to take the tray from Mr. Mills, but he shook his head hurriedly.

Mr. Mills: No, no, it's going to close in a while, the manager is waiting for you inside.

MC: Alright!

I walked towards the kitchen, and along the way, I was surprised by the food on the guests' table.

Like what the customer wanted to eat, Victor made something for them.

At the last moment, Souvenir's rules are no longer important.

Girl: Mom, this one is delicious, so delicious!

Six or seven-year-old children ate the little cakes with all their faces, holding their little hands and sending the spoons to their mothers, wanting their mothers to taste them too.

The young mother cooperatively ate the cream in the sentence and smiled hesitantly. She gently touched her daughter's head, but her eyes were full of sighs.

The family at the table next door talked about the topic of the younger son's college entrance examination this year, and they were rushing to plan for his future. They seemed to believe that someone would come out to save the world.

I stepped into the restaurant and walked into the back kitchen.

MC: Victor....

He stood at the window with his back straight. There was a deep night outside. I dazzled my eyes to see his black suit melt into the darkness, lonely and silent.

I walked over and pulled his sleeve slightly.

MC: Have you been busy all night?

MC: You can call me over in advance, and I can give you a hand.

Victor: With your culinary skills, you can't match up with Souvenir's back kitchen.

Victor glanced at me from the corner of the light, smiled faintly, and closed the slightly open window.

The moment he raised his hand, I saw that the pointer on his wrist watch was already three o'clock in the morning, but everyone didn't realize that the night was deep.

The world freezes in the dark, making time lose all meaning.

MC: The guests outside all had a good time.

MC: By the way, there was a little cake that a kid ate, with a few blueberries on top, and a layer of soft stuff inside. I don't know if it's ice cream... it looks super delicious!

Faced with my vivid expressions, Victor looked helpless as expected.

Victor: Three year old are not as good as you in eat. A pair of eyes fixed on the food all day long.

MC: Isn't it great? I will eat everything you make clean and happy, and I will change my way to praise your superb cooking skills!

I used an exaggerated tone to learn the child's way of speaking, trying to make Victor smile, but he still looked calm.

Victor: Ah, very good.

Those eyes that met me were as light as water, and they saw an unspeakable feeling in my heart. After he came back, something changed in his eyes.

I can't be sure, but I just faintly feel that the person standing in front of me at this moment is stronger than before but also lonelier than before.

In the past, silence was due to work habits and character.

The silence now means that no matter what you face, you can be calm and calm. The calm is strange.

MC: Victor, seven of the travel coins you gave me have not been exchanged. You said before that you would do everything you promised me.

I changed the subject suddenly, and Victor was still indifferent.

Victor: Seven? Didn't you secretly put a lot in the box again?

MC: … you’re not paying attention.

Victor: Really, when I don't pay attention?

The silence of the night was always reflected in his eyes, brewing the silence deeper.

MC: So you won't break your promise, will you?

MC: Everything you promised me will be honored in the future, right?

Perhaps it was because my words were too impatient to be too direct, Victor finally touched my hair as if calming down, and stepped forward to get closer to me.

The familiar temperature fell on the front of my forehead, which made my panic feelings find support.

Victor: Don't worry, I won't break my promise. Not now, and not in the future.

At this moment, I saw a slight surge of joy in his eyes.

Mr. Mills: Mr. Victor.

Mr. Mills walked in slowly, smiling.

Mr. Mills: Mr. Victor, after proofing today, I would like to continue to look after the restaurant. Please allow me.

Victor: Mr. Mills

Victor took two steps forward and solemnly nodded to Mr. Mills.

Victor : Of course. Over the years, thank you very much for taking care of Souvenir.

Mr. Mills turned to look outside the kitchen.

Mr. Mills: The guests all had a nice evening, and they hoped that I would convey my thanks to the chef.

Victor: It is..

Victor paused slightly and thought of something.

Victor: Excuse me, please take out all the wine in the cellar and give it to the guests tonight.

Mr. Mills: .... I understand. Do you need any congratulations?

Victor turned his head and looked at me, raising the corners of his lips indifferently

Victor: Just thank time for giving us abundant food and accumulated wine... With the feelings that have passed through the years.

Outside the window, the silent snow fell slowly in the dark night. In the cool night breeze in midsummer, a layer of untimely coolness blows off.

PART 3

Victor: Is this your specialty?

MC: Do you look down on tomato scrambled eggs?

Victor did not speak, but frowned slightly to express affirmation.

MC: The scrambled eggs with tomatoes are delicious. You can't judge the taste of a dish by its difficulty. I feel wronged for him.

When the Haikou that I once boasted was fulfilled, I vowed to make a rich meal for Victor.

Victor probably feels a headache for me to prepare a home-cooked meal and have to put out ten kinds of kitchen utensils...

He has been standing in the kitchen supervising the work since the beginning, and I don't know if he's afraid of what would happen to the kitchen or what'd happen to me .

MC: Can you stop staring at me like this, I'm nervous.

Victor: What is the guilty conscience?

MC: It feels like waiting for you to approve the plan.

MC: I dropped the eggshells into the bowl when I was beating the eggs just now, I was thinking that you must spit me out.

Victor took out a bottle of red wine from the wine cabinet and unsealed it skillfully.

Victor: I'm used to it as you are.

I dealt with the ingredients in my hand and smiled without saying a word.

In the fireplace in the living room, the wood made a snapping sound under the lick of the tongue of fire, and it sang softly to the piano music from the record.

The fine snow outside the window disappeared into the night as soon as it fell to the ground, and time seemed extremely long at this moment.

I carefully handled the ingredients in my hand, and did not notice Victor's gaze.

He put down the wine glass, the glass collided with the marble countertop, and there was a pleasant sound.

At this moment, the night snow stopped in the air, and the fire and the record were speechless. The whole world stopped, and everything was quiet.

Victor: If I let time eternally stop at this moment, would you think I am selfish?

He murmured, as if asking himself or answering himself.

Staring silently at her profile for a while, he stretched out his hand and silently hugged her in his arms.

This is an overly tender hug, without a trace of strong attitude, even the palms that are close to the back appear cautious

MC: Victor...

I stretched out my hand and hugged him tightly without leaving any gap.

Victor took a breath, as if he didn't expect that I would break away from his Evol, but didn't say anything.

MC: If I were not the dignified Queen, I would be completely controlled by you. Your Evol is stronger than I imagined.

He laughed and teased me helplessly.

Victor: It's amazing.

Although he was smiling, I heard a dumb sigh in his voice, so I opened my arms as much as possible to hold him tighter.

MC: Not even...

I stayed securely in his arms, with no intention of leaving this embrace.

MC: It’s just that I always remember the reason why I want to fully awaken, because I don’t want to let you bear everything. Always remember.

This dinner took longer than expected. When we sat down on the sofa in front of the fireplace with red wine, the night was already almost reaching the sky.

For all this time, I have a lot to say to him.

Whether it is the heated discussions in the recent issues of "Discover Myself" or the process of LFG helping people realize their wishes one after another, I am deeply moved.

A couple wanted to go to a very famous sea island to watch the sunset before the end. Unexpectedly, before the trip, the island disappeared overnight.

MC: In fact, I also feel that it was a pity that I couldn't help them realize their wishes. I had seen that island before on the Internet.

MC: At that time, it was also selected as one of the "Top Ten Scenic Spots to Go to Before the End", I did not expect to be submerged by the sea so soon...

Victor: This is what you often say, do what you think of, and don't leave any regrets for yourself. Sometimes impatient fools can do things that many people can't.

I listened to every detail and smile in his voice, and my fingertips drew across the texture of the leather on the sofa.

The more I get to this kind of time, the more I feel that even his laughter seems precious.

MC: But I was a little surprised. The wishes that everyone wants to achieve before the end are so simple.

MC: Look at the light, look at the world, eat a delicious meal with the most important person.

Victor: What people really want has always been very simple. Before that, it was only controlled by desire.

Victor: No matter how long this moment of tranquility can last, for many people, it is enough to enjoy the life they still have.

MC: It is not easy to find the true desire in the heart.

Victor put the empty glass on the coffee table.

Victor: What about you? What is your wish?

After drinking a few glasses of wine, my thoughts were empty. I only heard his low and hoarse voice falling in my ears, and many pictures flashed before my eyes.

MC: I want to see your heart.

I turned to Victor and wanted to find the answer to this question very seriously.

MC: I want to see the real Victor. Without the burden of the CEO, there is no need to worry about the world...

MC: I can put down all the responsibilities on my shoulders, just be yourself... In this way Victor, What will it be like?

He paused for a few seconds, but quickly laughed faintly.

Victor: People cannot put aside all the past and responsibilities independently. In front of you, Victor will always be the most true.

I turned to him, stared at his deep eyes carefully, then stretched out my hand and slowly touched the position of his heart.

When the five fingers fell slowly, I already felt the warmth under his shirt.

A little closer, and the fingertips rubbed the texture of the shirt, and soon, my palm felt the rhythm of his heartbeat warm and powerful.

Victor: ...

With a sigh, Victor reached out and held my fingertips lightly.

Suddenly, the scene before me changed.

PART 4

This is a space I have never seen before.

The solitary galaxy and the dazzling sunlight are constantly flashing in front of my eyes, just like every ray of time that has been inscribed in memory, the brilliance of the moment only flashes, making it impossible to capture.

MC: Victor

He was sitting in the seat directly in front of me, proud and lonely.

All the changes in the stars passed through his silent and deep eyes, and he just stared lightly.

Time passed, he had been sitting like this, his back was straight, his eyes were firm, and he was silent without a word, yet he caught every light and shadow in his eyes.

He seemed to had been sitting here for thousands of years.

For a while, my heart felt like being held down by a deep sea-like loneliness, which made me breathless. After a slight pause, I walked along the long carpet to him.

I squatted down in front of him and looked up at him.

He lowered his head and met my gaze, as if waking up from a long wait, with loose eyebrows at the corners of his eyes.

I stretched out my hand, my fingertips slowly climbed over the edge of his slender finger, and squeezed him from the gap between the slightly bent fingers.

At this moment, I recovered, seeing Victor's eyes reflected in the fire of the fireplace.

We don't know since when we clasp our fingers together and hold our hands together.

In a silent night, only the firewood was still snapping.

MC: Victor, are you tired?

Victor: What do you mean?

MC: Everything.

*All the fatigue of endlessly walking through the timeline, all the tragedy you had to witness, all the pain that you had to bear, all the hopes that you've repeatedly dashed countless times .

MC: You said that it is enough to enjoy your current life before the end. You already know the ending, understand the truth, or do you want to move on?

Victor: Not enough.

Victor spoke softly, but every word made a sound.

Victor: I am not someone who can transcend desires, I also have my own desires.

He doesn't need to say anything, I already know everything.

I curled up on the sofa, silently nestled in his arms, clasped his waist tightly with my hands, and fell on his sturdy chest.

Victor pulled the blanket and put a light hand on my shoulder.

With fire light and falling snow, the sound of two hearts beating is clear.

I know that I am embracing the most real Victor, the extremely real Victor.

PART 5

Time passed quietly, and it came to the last moment.

The whole city is shining bright neon under our feet. Busy and calm-as usual, as if we can wait for every night in the morning light.

MC: Victor, when you brought me here for the first time, did you expect the world to become like this?

Victor shook his head.

MC: So what was the anxiety in your heart when you stood here?

Victor turned his head and looked at me, then smiled.

Victor: It is impossible to completely hold a fool in his hand, hold it tightly, and keep her from leaving.

MC: Did I make you worry a lot? I know you have been looking for me for a long time.

Victor: Not long.

Victor: After experiencing real time, I only feel that the years when I found you were as short as you went to buy me a cup of coffee

Heard what he said, I couldn't help being reminded of memories long ago.

MC: I just thought you were really harsh and annoying. There were so many conditions for asking me to buy a coffee.

MC: .. Now, I really want to buy it for you again

MC: No matter how many weird conditions you have, I will never get it wrong again.

Victor looked towards the boundless sky with emotion. In the night, countless meteors slowly fell, dazzling light across the blue to dark night sky.

It's not long since 19:17.

MC: Victor, I want to do something very important.

Victor: I know.

MC: But I just want to be your dummy and live the most ordinary and ordinary life.

MC: Let you have endless heart and endless planning plans every day, and bring you all kinds of trivial troubles.

MC: Then in the blink of an eye, you can...

With tears in my eyes, crying was already entrained in my voice, so I refused to continue.

Victor: She also said that she didn't like crying anymore.

I took a few breaths and stubbornly held my voice.

MC: I didn't cry!

Victor stepped forward and held me tightly in his arms. Surrounded by the familiar smell, I closed my eyes and gripped the corner of his suit with my hands.

My only wish is to be with him.

It’s okay to laugh and being embraced in his arms like this, I don’t want others.

But more important than this wish...

It's him. He can't just usher in the ending like this.

MC: When I come back, I will bring you a cup of coffee.

I grab his arms and made a promise, and he softly responded by caressing my hair.

Victor: Alright.

MC: That’s all? Don’t you have anything else to say?

MC: In the past, you always remind me about the deadline of my proposal, you would remind me not to oversleep like an elementary school kids for the meeting the next day.

MC: At this important moment, don’t you have something else to say?

MC: I’m going to do something big this time.

Victor loosened his arms around me slightly and looked at me.

Victor: I know.

Victor: But you’re no longer a dummy you used to be, there’s nothing you can’t do.

I have already understood his calmness from his eyes. As expected, I can’t still beat him. 

I want to say something, but I felt something. There were snow-white feathers on my fingertips.

There is no time.

I subconsciously grabbed Victor’s hand--  

MC: Victor..

My heart was overwhelmed by the huge perseverance, I almost called his name from the deepest part of my throat.

As he was holding me, there’s deep complex look between his brows.

Victor: Are you afraid?

I kept shaking my head, shaking my head anxiously!

It is not fear, nor regret, no matter what is waiting for me in front of me, at this moment I will walk firmly.

But even so, I still want to stop for another moment, a moment is enough for me to call his name again, to look at him again. .

Even... hoping that time can stop at this time.

I don't want to let go of his hand.

Victor hugged me with one hand, lifted my chin, and dropped a deep lingering kiss. 

During the exchange of our breathing, I looked into his squinted eyes & saw a love that I had never seen before.

The tears that kept spinning in my eyelids were still drawn from the corners of my eyes when I was on my post. I gripped his shirt tightly, very tightly.

Aware of my silent choking, Victor clapped his hands and wiped the tears from the corners of my eyes with his index fingers.

Victor: Don't be afraid. No matter how difficult things are in front of you in the past, can't you always do well?

Victor: This time, there will be no exception.

The scene in front of me and his voice were slowly dissipating, and I looked at him deeply, unable to say a word.

I clearly felt that Victor held my hand tighter, tighter than ever, as if he wanted to keep me too.

Like he didn't want to leave me alone.

He opened his mouth, what he was saying, but I couldn't hear anything and my senses were blurred.

Victor: ...Remember, to get me back.

MC: What?

I vaguely heard something, but couldn't be sure.

The white wings spread out in the dark night, and the sky is connected one after another, and the scattered white wings sit on the tall buildings together with the meteor, and fall into the street...

Victor let go of my hand and stepped back half a step, his eyes showed unprecedented joy.

MC: Victor!

Victor: I....

He was telling me something. His deep voice was mixed with a firmness that I've never heard before, but I could only vaguely recognize the words that I wanted to hear the most from his mouth. After that she calls his name

MC: Victor...

The sight was finally dark, and Victor's deep gaze disappeared in front of me.

The city fell into the night amidst the noisy shouts-

Victor slowly opened his hand and caught a piece of pure white feather in the air. The corners of his lips were gentle, his eyes drooping slightly.

That feather just lay quietly on his palm, soaked in moonlight, as slender as she looked at him at the last moment.

---- END ----

I’m sorry if there’s some mistranslation. Kindly tell me if you found some :) thank you for read it~ ^^

[inventors-fair]

Abilities Scored

Congrats to our runners-up this week! @corporalotherbear with Spellsharer Mage, Glassbass with Covetous Spyglass, and @shootingstarhunter with Trigger the Petroglyphs!

~

Spellsharer Mage

Well this is a weird one. A 2/2 flyer for four is kinda iffy, but the firebreathing helps. But, if you have multiple creatures, this guy gets pretty cool. It turns into a type of Ceaseless Searblades or like Alluring Suitor’s activated ability. That’s an unexplored space. Sharing activated abilities also tends to have it’s own cutoffs, since activating the ability requires whatever resources that ability costs, and if it doesn’t cost resources, then it’s probably a card you put effort into playing. I’m sure there are some really, really weird ways this card breaks, like by granting a normal creature a reconfigure ability, or letting a creature be crewed, but I feel like the rules can handle that. This card’s existence really makes my johnny brain wonder what stuff I could do with it. I love that you gave it its own activated ability, but this being at uncommon really makes me think this is meant to be a faction card, like you’re copying Outlast or Cohort (not good examples, but you get the idea). If that’s not the case, then this really wants to be rare. Copying and moving abilities, as well as the “may” part meaning you have to pick very carefully, means this card has a lot of board complexity. But I’m very into it, it’s a cool card that feels new but in an old way.

-

Covetous Spyglass

Spyglass with upside! Pretty cool. Making it the same cost but color-dependent make the card worse, but the final ability is the payoff for that. The ability is so expensive that it’s unlikely to be relevant in the sort of situations where you normally want sorcerous spyglass, so the card can sort of act like a modal card. Basically, this could be either a slightly worse sorcerous spyglass or a worse confiscate, which I think is a cool way to mix effects. It is a little better than a confiscate since it can hit multiples, but that comes with two issues: first, if you want to steal tokens, you can’t. A lot of players are going to see a board of saprolings and think “ah ha! I can steal them all since they have  the same name!” but alas, they cannot, since those tokens don’t have the name of a card. The second issue is the bigger one: this can name lands. It doesn’t turn off mana abilities of lands, but it can still steal them. Including basics. That can’t be intended. All you need to do is put nonland in front of either the naming part or the permanents part and it’s fine. Lastly, this seems weird for an uncommon. Spyglass has always been at rare, and mind controls are often picked extremely highly in drafts, even when they’re 6 mana. I think if this were rare, no one would bat an eye, but at uncommon it might be too strong or just confusing for less experienced players. It’s still a great way of making a boring card more interesting in a way that feels mechanically and thematically appropriate. If you fixed the nonland issue, I think this could have been a winner.

-

Trigger the Petroglyphs

I love Muraganda! Good ol’ no-ability tribal. Making a token is a clever way to make this a card that is not a creature with abilities but acts like a creature card with abilities. The “ability” it grants is also neatly not an ability, so it doesn’t run itself off. This is also a pretty powerful anthem for vanilla creatures, essentially doubling their power, but at 6 mana that seems fine. The 6/6 honestly feels a little strange, all things considered. It just sort of sits there for a turn. I realize giving it haste would go against its nature, but something about the soul of the plane not doing anything feels strange. This card is a really cool way to demonstrate what you could do with vanilla tribal, but I must call into question that tribal itself. This is a really cool card that works within a restriction in a clever way, but I don’t know if it’s the sort of restriction that’s fun to build around, since it’s focused around either doing nothing to your creatures or making sure what you do is very specifically worded. But as a one-off or a silly commander card, I think this card works just fine.

~

And there you have it! A mix of different reasons as to why these ended up in the runners-up. I’m happy with how this contest ended up, and you’ll see my comments soon (hopefully today).

-Mod Mr. ShinyObject

[quirklessidiot]

Title: dreary [a miya osamu birthday special] Pairing: gn!reader x miya osamu Genre: mild angst, fluff, drama, age-up!osamu and reader

Synopsis: in which a famous author sees the world in a greyscale but the moment he enters it, he splashes colors onto their dull and dreary world.

Notes: 

will this be a series???? idk probably ksksksks but yeah happy osamu and atsumu day since we have the coward series already, its only respectful that i make a story for osamu because he deserves the love too on this special day (or because im just well, you know a miya simp hA)

ALSO ITS CANON I THINK THAT OSAMUS GOT GREY EYES IDK KSKSKohwellKSKSKD

Warnings: language, smoking, and Y/N being a problematic and arrogant asshole

masterlist

People often wonder how novels come to be, how writers are able to sow a bunch of words together and create such masterpieces. How they’re able to make the hearts of their readers tug or ponder in deep thought, how they’re able to gather a group of individuals and create a passion together. 

You were one of the general census now.

Here you were, in the middle of a messy room, the smell of smoke and black coffee lingering the air as you laid on your couch with papers crumpled on each side and pens strewn across your living room. 

“What the hell?”

You’re immediately greeted by a harsh light without warning, you immediately mumble a bunch of curses underneath your breath, “What the fuck, Mikoto?” you growled, shutting your eyes and covering it with a pillow.

“When you said you wanted to take a vacation at Hyogo I didn’t expect you to be pigging around!” Your agent exclaimed, his fiery red hair mirrored his volatile personality, just like you, he had a temper and everyone did say you can never fight fire with fire. It’s a miracle he put up with you.

You immediately flipped him off, “You better hope I don’t minus that on your paycheck, fucker.” you grumbled beneath the pillow, “Now close the lights, I’m tryna concentrate!”

“Concentrate on what exactly? I gave you two weeks, Y/N.”

“I’m doing it.”

“It’s been two months!” He half-yelled, “You haven’t been out for promotions in two years and you haven’t released a book in the three years, you’re going to be washed up at this point!”

You immediately remove the pillow from your face and stare at your agent, “Washed up? People still buy my books!” You retort.

“Your sales are going down, Y/N.” He placed a envelope in front of you, “You might not even be relevant at the end-”

You immediately grab the files and toss it to the side, it’s contents spilling out, “I have enough money to live a comfortable life.” You clenched your hands tight, what a joke, you paid this man to work for you. Why was he calling you out like he was your father or something? Even your father didn’t call you out this way.

“That’s not the point-”

You ignore him as you place another cigarette in between your lips, “Then what is the point? I pay you to manage my contracts and shit, what I do on my down time is none of your business.” you cut him off.

“If you’d stop being an ass for a moment-”

“You can leave, you know your way out.” You cut him off once again, completely tired of his bullshit despite him just getting here, “Now.”

Mikoto narrows his eyes, “The higher ups are giving you another month, if you can’t give them a draft, they’re letting you go.”

You run your hands through your dry and frizzy hair, still ignoring him. As you hear the door shut, you puff the smoke your of your system and stare at the blank sheets of papers and your battery dead laptop, “What a fuckin’ joke.” you mumble, crushing the cigar on the expensive mahogany table. You slowly shuffle towards the kitchen, wanting to prepare yourself an instant meal yet when you notice that your pantry and ref is empty and that your local delivery doesn’t seem to be available, you’re more annoyed as the moments past.

“What kind of fucking restaurants are these?” you scowled, staring at your phone, you hated going out. The sun was too bright, there would be people around and you hated being a few feet away from any living creature since their breathing patterns annoyed the fuck out of you. You could wait until-

You stop on your footsteps when you hear your stomach growling, “Ah shit.” you cursed, “Really?”

Grabbing the cleanest jacket and pair of darkest shades, you decided that you might as well grab some take-out and get out to find something to eat. Not even bothering to comb the frizzes of your hair or splash some water on your face, you walk down the street with your hood up and shades on. It wasn’t sunny as you recalled, maybe it had been two months already.

It was getting kind of cold compared to the last time you went out.

You stop at the first restaurant you come across, onigiri miya. Sounds interesting, might as well grab a bite since it wasn’t a rush hour here and you didn’t want to walk anymore farther. Opening the shop’s door, you're greeted by Japanese interior and the smell of onigiri and some sauce you can’t seem to point out, “Welcome to Onigiri Miya, why don’t ya grab a seat and I’ll be with you in a moment?” someone calls out.

You nod at the woman as you sit nearest to the exit and stare at the variety of onigiri’s the place has to offer. You never knew such flavors even existed to begin with.

Man, the owner must really love onigiri’s huh?

“Ya ready to order?”

Your thoughts are cut short as you hear a voice, you seem to notice that the woman’s voice is deeper this time and the accent of a local is more evident, odd. Looking up from the menu to tell her your order, you're thrown off guard by a pair of friendly grey eyes staring right at you and it was definitely not the woman from earlier.

He was fairly good-looking with a good build, indicating that he kept his life healthy and unlike you, this one seemed to have his life in order by his clean and pristine appearance, “Fatty tuna onigiri’s please. Five pieces.” you simply say, squinting your eyes behind your dark shades. 

“Would you like anything to drink with that? Sides?”

“No.” You simply replied, you were still staring at him, completely enamored by his presence. He reminded you of something, better yet, he reminded you of a weird feeling. You slowly tap your fingertips on the table, eyes still glazing on him as he said that he’ll be back soon with your order. He didn’t seem to notice your open gaze on him.

Grey eyes.

A mysterious and happy smile.

The tapping on the table turns rhythmic as words slowly start to form in your head and before you know it, you're standing up and asking the nearby woman for a pen and a napkin. The woman looks at you in an odd manner but nevertheless she complies, you hurriedly start to scribble on the paper the first few sentences of what seemed to be the novel that you’ve been desperately trying to write these past two years.

Placing some money on the table for the meal that hasn’t arrived, you immediately run outside and back to your apartment, ignoring the woman behind you and the calls of the waiter who had struck an unfamiliar yet at the same time a familiar chord within you.

The world that was once void of color and inspiration seemed to be overflowing, all because of those grey eyes.

taglist wont be open for this one since im not sure if i should even continue this.

[dangerscully]

The Mundane Lockdown Diaries, UK edition – part 2

EDIT, December 2021: I just found this sitting in my drafts, written at the beginning of April 2020 and never posted. I so wish I’d kept this up as a weekly thing because reading it back is quite something, especially as the UK teeters on the edge of another potential lockdown. So much has changed since last year that some of this feels alarming to read back on even after such a relatively short time, but so much of the things in these posts are still in place in some way. I posted this a week ago and had some nice replies, so figured I’d hit you guys up with a part two. Maybe this will become an “every Friday” thing, who knows (knowing me, I will forget about it in precisely 7 hours’ time)? This week’s is somehow even more mundane than last week’s... doesn’t that tempt you to read on?!

So we’re on day... 9? 10? of lockdown. Something around that number anyway. I haven’t left my flat at all since Monday. Over the weekend a switch in my brain flipped and I went from being way too calm (I was aware that I was being way too calm and, disclaimer, I was taking all necessary precautions so it wasn’t reckless calm) into total panic mode, which was very much Not Fun. Even passing my neighbours as we go to take bins out feels dangerous now. 

I’d say that maybe this total panic is an overreaction, but as of yesterday I definitely have the symptoms of the start of a chest infection. And as I’ve not left the flat at all in days (and not seen anyone other than my co-habiting boyfriend face-to-face since my supermarket trip a week ago), that is a concern as most infections would show up quicker than this. 

I don’t have the Main Symptoms – a fever or a dry cough, but my windpipe and lungs have that feeling your skin gets when you stand a little too close to a bonfire. It’s very mild at the moment, but obviously I’ll be monitoring it. 

Hopefully, it’s nothing, and I’m trying not to worry about it because really, what can I do either way other than wait it out? 

ANYWAY. 

My trips out of the flat since last Friday have just been for solo exercise. I’ve been for a few bike rides, around 8-12 miles a time so taking roughly an hour. In the centres of towns and cities the number of pedestrians is about the same as it was over the last couple of weeks – that is to say, wildly reduced compared to a normal day – but there is a huge difference in atmosphere compared to pre-lockdown. All of the businesses are shut other than supermarkets and pharmacies, pretty much. And with them, the noise is gone. It’s seriously eerie – even in a city centre the only noises are of footsteps and the wind. 

The other hugely noticeable difference is the lack of tents from street homeless people (the councils have all been told / asked to find temporary accommodation, and around here they’ve been housed in empty hotels). It was only when I was cycling home that this difference really struck me, I'd noticed that something was “off” about the normally busy high street (other than the lack of people and businesses, obviously), but it took a while for the cause to hit me. 

I’m pretty much spending my days with a cat on my lap, either playing Animal Crossing, watching TV or reading. This week has, weirdly, absolutely flown by. I thought it was Tuesday for a good while, and yet somehow it’s Friday. 

The government is still giving daily briefings, however I stopped watching them about a week ago. The first few actually gave information, but day-by-day they became less informative or relevant. I don’t think we’ve had a major policy shift this week, other than more tests being promised – although that’s hardly a policy shift as it’s been something that’s been promised all along and not delivered on.

Speaking of which, out of the “main” infected countries who are this far along the curve, the UK and the US remain the only ones still on a straight upwards trajectory on a log scale. So that’s really wonderful. Happy Friday, y’all!