#this is an absolutely awesome tag for self reflection and self love!

[rendomski]

Echo/Wrecker

So, about my least popular, but not the least beloved relationship tag ❤️.

There are 22 fics tagged CT-21-0408 | CT-1409 | Echo/Clone Trooper Wrecker (or Echo/Wrecker for short) on AO3 for today.

11 fics are PolyBatch fics where the Echo/Wrecker storyline is just a part of the overall fun. However, “Have You Got a Friend in the Night?” (moonlight_mums) has an almost autonomous chapter dedicated to this pairing. And fics by forceinsensitive, containing Echo/Wrecker tag, that comprise part of the large cycle “my heart is not a machine”, are simply very, very good. I would call them explicitly emotional, for they explore more this side of Echo's relationships than the carnal one—and still all these are very sensual. The author of this long cycle is one of my favourite writers in TBB fandom 😍.

As for the rest, more Echo/Wrecker pairing-centered fics,

number one for me is “ease into this new world” by ibissal. It is explicitly sexual, corporal—and full of emotional warmth at the same time.

“Helping hands” by bitterfishies, on the contrary, is an absolutely innocent text, more like Echo&Wrecker with “blink and you miss it” shipping moment. Helping hand is not the helping hand in the classic slashy meaning 😃! Just a moment of Echo's self-maintenance, all homely with a drop of sadness.

“Love All Over Again” (robinasnyder) is light-hearted and fun, even a bit silly. Because there's definitely not the way you treat time travel!

“Echo's Haunted” (Rowanartist and Sleepy_fan) objectively must be rather good fanfic. But the plot twist “Bad Batch doesn't like Echo” (and Wrecker, as I can tell) is absolutely not my cup of tea, my don't like, don't read, sorry.

There's also one fu… sorry, fic “Experiencing Technical Difficulties” by coinin, which is tagged Echo/Tech/Wrecker, but which deserves Echo/Wrecker tag completely, and which is just awesome and hot in itself, Wrecker dealing with physical side of love making and Tech almost getting off by brain-fucking Echo, literally 😉.

So, speaking of the stuff worthy of my personal recommendations, that leaves only one more fic, my own “Echo and Narcissus”. I love it shamelessly. It reflects more or less the main bits and kinks I love about this rare pair. I also enjoyed writing it, how from the idea “let them relax and have a light-hearted quicky against the wall” it grew into a story of stories, one Scheherazadian night. How Wrecker unexpectedly became a storyteller, and Echo the listener; and Echo side dished his own observations to the table. And in the end, it is the same story, as in thousands of fanfics throughout multifandom, how two people fall for each other 😊

[cantyouseeimtrying]

INTRO PAGE PLEASE READ

Hello and welcome to my new and super cool blog! You can call me star and I generally use he/him pronouns. I'm in high school so please be aware of my immaturity. This super cool and awesome blog is for my self improvement journey! It's also dedicated to Lord Ares.

Why am I going on a self-improvement journey? Because I feel like ✨shit✨. That and I am currently grieving and trying to move on from a very unhealthy crush I have had on a friend. It was borderline obsessive and wasn't healthy for me or them. I think I've been really obsessed with relationships recently, which would usually be considered normal for teenagers, but mine has been, as I said before, obsessive and unhealthy for me and everyone involved.

So this blog is for me to work on myself and record my progress, and then hopefully, someday in the future, I can look back on this blog and see how far I've improved! It's a really exciting idea :)

I am going to do my absolute hardest to tag everything appropriately and put warnings at the top of every post if I think there is something there that could harm someone.

Now the less fun part: rules

This is my blog and account. I am in charge of the content I see and interact with. If you do not agree with the things I like or the things I post, then block me.

Any hate, bigotry, or bullying will be tolerated. I will delete things, I will block people. You get one chance to not be an asshole before you are gone.

DO NOT INTERACT WITH THIS BLOG IF

You are over the age of 25, you post p0rn, you are pro @n@, you are transphobic or homophobic, you post purposefully triggering content, you are unaccepting of other people's religions, and you lack critical thinking skills.

PLEASE INTERACT AND BE MY FRIEND IF

you are under 25, you are also on a self-improvement journey, you are a cool little queer person, you are interested in theatre or classics, you are a Hellenic polytheist, you are kind!

My tags cause that's a really cool thing I see people do!

Star reflects -> my super awesome reflections on myself, my life, and my beliefs. These may be sad, they may be happy! That's the joy of reflections :)

Star motivation -> motivation for me or you to live your best life

Star is funny -> my silly little posts/reposts that I found funny and want to share with you ;)

Okay, that's all love you bye!

[dramalets]

Darling @blneobin tagged me in the 10 BL characters you want carnally thing. I am a dumb lil gray ace queer so I expect I have a different definition of want carnally than some 😂. But I will persist regardless. (I picked gals and guys because 🤷🏻‍♀️)

Mork - My Ride

He’s a puppy dog. He just wants to love and be loved in return and I would never ever get tired of looking at that dimple. Also you get his awesome uncles as throw in bonus. No way to lose here.

Ink - Bad Buddy

I just love her so much. I’m a useless lil femme with a competency kink a mile wide and dang does she hit it. The way she’s so sure of her self and what she wants, but is never arrogant about it, and how she treats Pa like the princess she is. A dream.

Pisaeng - Be My Favourite

Patient, loyal, great at love and excellent at self reflection. (Maybe I do just want a dog, damn.) The sacrifice he’s willing to make in episode 12 just got me right in the gut. I’d loved him the whole series but that was the Cherry. I’m just a Kawi looking for my Pisaeng.

Yu Na - Semantic Error

I’m ace not blind. I need this women to pin me down and tell me off. *ahem* Where did that come from. Anyways. She’s stunning, funny and a great friend.

Jim - Moonlight Chicken

He’s absurdly beautiful firstly. But I also love the way he learns. He admits his faults and works on them, that’s a decent human being right there. Plus Y’know he must be great in bed because Wen was HOOKED from the off. 😂

King - Bed Friend

Right. Not only is this man’s beauty a reason to believe in god he’s also just a wholly good bean. He never pressures Uea, he always meets him where he’s at, and he LEARNS. He makes mistakes and he admits those and learns from them. Cat kink aside he’s a great example of husband material.

Korn - Together with me

Listen, is he perfect? Absolutely not lol. But he’s the original standard for muscle bound Himbo pups and I adore him. (And those kisses? God damn.) *that gif is not Korn but if you search Korn you get the band so shh.

Tinn - Laws of attraction

The entire package. Hot, sweet, protective and good with kids. Those arms????? Get out.

Nim - The Warp Effect

Honestly she’s just hot, confident and gets very delulu when she’s in love. She can box me anytime she likes. (High key also wanted to pick her partner Molly too so you get a gif with both ✌��)

Pure - My gear your gown

This is a weird pick I realise 😂. Pansexual king, problematic in a lot of ways but loyal, loving and kind. Also he does actually listen to Folk and I feel they actually probably would have had a healthy relationship long term. Idk man. He’s just a great friend, confident in sex stuff and funny. Also v pretty. (All his gifs are from Shadow and fuck me I am NEVER watching that.)

If you read this far 😽

If you’d like to do this pls do! (And tag me.) It was a fun waste of time.

[fereldanwench]

(I feel the need to make a small disclaimer: I am going to be talking about my perceptions about the CP77 fandom culture, some of which might be critical in nature, but this is not a call-out post on an individual or community scale. This is just me sharing some personal reflections. I suspect I'm not totally alone in some of this, but as always, YMMV.

Also, pleasepleaseplease do not feel bad or guilty for reaching out to me or tagging me in stuff or whatever--It means a lot to me that folks wanna chat and connect, and normally I'm 100% down, but I just need to clear my head a bit.)

So I've been ruminating a lot over the past few weeks about my ability to maintain a certain level of activity when it comes to fandom stuff, and I've concluded that my fandom social battery is really, really low.

I'm having a hard time keeping up with DMs, I'm having a hard time keeping up with tag games, I'm having a hard time keeping up with asks, I'm having a hard time keeping up with all the awesome stuff y'all are making--I'm just burnt out socially. And normally I would just take a social media break, but I think this is coming from deeper personal issues that a week offline isn't going to fix.

I've never been in a fandom before where I felt like there was this expectation to keep up with just about every single person in the community. It might be a false expectation I'm putting on myself, but given that I've seen other people apologize for not being able to keep up with posts or apologize for not having the spoons to leave nice tags on reblogs, I don't think this is just a me problem.

The CP77 fandom is relatively small compared to many of my other fandoms, like Dragon Age or Mass Effect, which I think can make it feel like keeping up with a good chunk of the community is totally feasible. For instance, I knew I could never dream of seeing all the DA content on Tumblr, so I never even made the effort to, but I know I can probably get just about everyone who posts in the femvfriday hastag by a certain time. So I often felt like I should do that, especially if I posted in the tag that Friday, too.

But the CP77 fandom is also really active, I think in large part due to the accessibility of photomode and virtual photography. I hope it's clear that I'm not saying this to diminish the value of VP, and obviously, everyone's mileage may vary based on personal technique and other artistic experience, but from my perspective, it does in general seem to be a quicker medium than traditional art or fic. I love the creativity of this community, but I actually can't feasibly keep up with everything everyone is doing all the time.

I made sort of a similar post last fall about the self-imposed pressure of having to create new things on a regular basis. At the time, I was grappling with losing a lot of personal time and brain power after having COVID in September and then working overtime in October, and I wasn't able to make stuff at the rate I had previously. I knew it was ridiculous, I knew no one was like "omg wench didn't post today, shame on her," but there was still FOMO on my part. I also felt like I had lost something I had previously had (specifically the time and energy to create) on account of shitty circumstances, which compounded my frustration.

I've been trying to tell myself that feeling guilty for not having the energy to reply to DMs in a timely fashion or to reblog every femvfriday post is just as silly and self-imposed, and that I don't need to explain to anyone that I just don't have the energy to participate like that right now. I've always been a very strong advocate for people using Tumblr how they want, and while yes, doing things like reblogging posts is a great way to connect with other people and show appreciation to fellow creators and I do encourage people who want to be a part of a community to do these things, it should never feel like an obligation. (The commentary on this post absolutely nails it for me.)

But this guilt and anxiety are harder to shake. Even in my very early days in the CP77 fandom, I noticed that it seemed very transactional to me. And to a point that makes sense, and I think is at least somewhat the result of Tumblr's functionality: you are going to be more likely to notice people who notice you and by extension to support people who support you. I don't think it's inherently a bad thing, but I think it can become one if there's no deeper connection after a certain point, especially if people start to feel like there's an imbalance in the transaction.

The gossipy nature of this fandom can make that even worse--It can be pretty easy to notice a drop-off in activity from someone who might have previously been very supportive and then spiral from "it's just because they're busy, it's fine" to "they're not interacting with me anymore because they heard something bad about me and now they hate me." (I've been on both sides of that one.) There are also a lot of assumptions about cliques and friendships and who's interacting with whom because of fandom politics or whatever that add another layer of stress and confusion here.

So for the past few weeks, every time I go to reblog a post or reply to a comment or consider who to tag after doing a tag game, all of this is weighing on me. Even if it's stupid, even if it's self-imposed, this is what is on my mind.

And what that's been resulting in is largely just not wanting to interact at all. Sometimes it would even make me feel guilty about posting my own stuff if I hadn't interacted with anyone else's in a while, as if I need to support other people in order to earn the privilege to share my own work. And this is of course reflective of much deeper issues I have (read: eldest daughter syndrome) than just fandom nonsense--I'm not putting this one on fandom at all--But it's a thing I deal with.

At some point in the past six month or so, I really lost sight of what this blog is really for, and that's for me. I do generally like interacting with the fandom at large, and I like organizing things and sharing resources that I think can be helpful for folks (especially since I really struggled with how much knowledge was locked behind Discord servers), but my blog is not actually a space for the CP77 community. It is for me, first and foremost, and I need to make it for me again.

I don't know exactly what that's gonna look like. I still consider CP77 my main fandom, and I don't really have much inclination to create or engage in other fictional worlds right now so it might not really look that much different. And I'm hoping that by removing some of this stress, it'll actually recharge my social battery so I can be better at doing the fun stuff like chatting about OCs and shippy stuff with friends.

But my activity here will probably be a lot more erratic as I reclaim this as a happy space for myself.

So that's it. And as always, if you read all of my personal problems, thank you, lmao. I know I'm ridiculous, and it's not that serious, and blah blah blah but THIS IS HOW I WORK THROUGH SHIT OKAY thx

[liopleurodean]

The Road So Far: Season 6

Holy smokes. What a ride.

If you're new, this is my recap/reflection on season 6 of Supernatural. You can find all of my previous commentary under the "ashla chick flick moments" tag (or block it, if you so wish. I don't mind.)

Well. Where do I even start? The beginning, I guess.

Dean got out. That's... so monumental. Obviously, it didn't last, but I truly believe that if the Winchesters were less famous then he could have made it. I understand why people don't like Lisa, but I can still see them being good together, and I think that he really did love her, and he absolutely loved Ben like his own. Speaking of Ben, the kid's acting was... not great, but it's a child actor, so I'll give it a pass. As it is, I'm a firm believer that Ben is Dean's son, biological or not.

I guess we have to talk about Sam, huh? Man, there were so many times when I wanted to just. Slap him. Or punch him in the face with a brick. Either would work. Even when he got his soul back, he got right back into his pushy self. I get that he wanted to "atone," but he really just did not get it.

Speaking of slapping people, Cas. Oh my stars, this angel is so stupid. Like, yeah, the boys could've been more appreciative for what he did for them, but could really not see when he went too far? 6x20 The Man Who Would Be King almost made me feel bad for him, but he wouldn't back down even when it was clear that something was wrong.

This has been really depressing, so let's get into the fun stuff! Holy cow, this season had so many bangers. Count 'em up: 6x02 Two And A Half Men, 6x05 Live Free Or Twi-Hard, 6x09 Clap Your Hands If You Believe, 6x15 The French Mistake, 6x17 My Heart Will Go On, 6x18 Frontierland, and 6x21 Let It Bleed all make my list. My favorite is probably gonna be Frontierland, which is honestly one of the lesser episodes on this list, but I have reasons: 1) the Good Omens parallel was absolutely hilarious even if it was unintentional, and b) I've always thought that Samuel Colt was cool since way back in season 2. This only made him more awesome. And anyway, watching Dean in the Wild West was hilarious, if a little embarrassing. Sorry dude, but you should've known Hollywood would make things look weird.

One thing that I will say about this season is that it's all over the place. I think, after wrapping up the story all nice with a bow in season 5, they didn't really know what to do, so they just kind of improvised. It was a risky gamble, but it paid off with one or more of the fandom's favorite episodes, and one of the most memorable characters. There were multiple story arcs moving at once (Eve, Soulless!Sam, Ben and Lisa, Cas vs. Raphael) and all of them managed to fit seamlessly together. Despite all of the development that had to fit in a regularly sized season, I didn't really feel like it was rushed, especially not compared to the end of season 5. They managed to blend everything together while still keeping it manageable to understand.

Mostly, I just felt bad for Dean. In the span of weeks, he lost his semi-girlfriend, his son, and his best friend, while still juggling the emotions from his brother's close calls as well as everything else going on. Obviously, he's not the only one struggling (Bobby Singer deserves a vacation) but man, Dean needs a hug and a nap, and then another hug when he wakes up.

Baby. My beloved. The most important object in the universe. Not a prop, but one of (if not the) greatest characters on the show.

I'm so sorry. Baby deserved better. I mean first of all, you're telling me Dean just left her to sit in a garage for a year while he messed around in a station wagon? Who are you and what have you done with Dean Winchester.

And then the Mustang. That made me sick. I couldn't even look at it, it was just horrifying. And then Balthazar played it off like it didn't matter!!! That's the most important object in the universe jerk!!! Pay her some respect!!!

And she got wrecked at the end! That car has been through so much, and she does not need to be crashed into every position possible. She deserves better. Every time something bad happens to that car I die a little inside.

Well, enough about Baby (there will never be enough about Baby). The next season is supposedly about Leviathans, which could get very interesting. I could be wrong, but I also think maybe we meet Charlie next season? Well anyway, this one is usually considered as sort of the "forgotten season" (like Adam), so we'll see how it goes. I'll get started within the next couple of days. Carry on!

[willczek-art]

Love Yourself Challenge

Love Yourself Challenge!

Tagged by lovely @turtlemurmurs​ (thank you! >U<)

Rules: Time to show yourself some love! Link or post five of your favourite works (art, writing, edits… whatever!) from the last year below. Then share the love and tag some of your favourite creators!

Tagging: @bratniadusza​, @jellybeandrawsthings​, @banagicgrl​ and all of you awesome talented peeps who see this and want to do it :D

1. Good Karma vs Bad Karma - Everything about this is still out-of-my-league, so the fact that this exists and is finished is beyond me. Forever proud! (even tho it has spots that annoy the hecc out of me~) Also hey, first speedpaint! ;P

2. Fl4ne - I just… like it…? It’s from the lil Valentines Practice event I did, that ended up kickstarting my digital abilities and since it’s all still pretty new to me I’m just like… way too happy with most of my digital doodles since February ;P But this one especially~ 

3. Ghostie gif - It moves! It’s @bratniadusza​ ‘s Oliver! It’s absolutely tiny and I made it while hanging out with my friendo Sylwia~ So it’s good memories mixed with my favourite ghost boyo mixed with something I aspire to do more of~ C:

4. Confusion.jpg x2 - I reached the point of scrolling through last year of my archive where I know there are artz that took forever to make and I’m still proud of them… But there’s also this sheety quality HWBF5 doodle that took no time at all and my brain just… likes… it. Idk, maybe I just miss the vibe of the show right now~

5. Zer0/Axton Easter Egg - This is technically from April, so more than one year ago, but like… I still have it? It’s still in our kitchen, I still love it. It’s the dumb things that stay with ya :V

Also shout-out to That One Sketchbook Spread I Haven’t Posted For A Month Now for being a nice candidate for this (as it has a bit of that chaotic mess vibe I always wanted to achieve), but I haven’t posted it yet, so… :V

This tag was an absolute blast! I think neither of us expected it to end on an egg… But here we are! :V Thank you once more for tagging me! C: Can’t wait to see more of awesome creative showcases from other tagged peeps! ^u^

[yes-i-am-happyaspie]

top 5 fan works of 2021

Thanks for the tag @mellarkandart

rules: it’s time to love yourselves! choose your 5 (ish) favorite works you created in the past year (fics, art, edits, etc.) and link them below to reflect on the amazing things you brought into the world in 2021. tag as many writers/artists/etc. as you want (fan or original) so we can spread the love and link each other to awesome works!

Well, 2021 was a busy year for me, I suppose. I wrote somewhere around 40 irondad & spiderson fanfictions, including mini-fics and a few super cute collaborations! And around 35 marvel themed works of digital art, including one fun collaboration! So narrowing down my favorites for the past year was difficult and took some serious self reflection to choose.

1.

This was drawn as an accompaniment to my Sicktember fic, How To Make Tony Stark Soft. Peter being on the ceiling has always been one of my favorite tropes and once I’d written the scene I couldn’t stop picturing it. I love this art because I feel like it's one of my better chibi versions.

2.

This drawing took me a very long time to create. There were a lot of complicated elements to it that I had never tried before. The anatomy was difficult, perspective wasn’t something I’d tried before and the lighting was different than anything else I’d ever drawn. I like this drawing because, as a whole, it was a brand new experience. I got to try a lot of new things while creating it.

3. What Was Missing Was You

This fic was my first attempt at an Endgame Fix-It and it gave me such a hard time. I went into it with a concept of what I wanted but I struggled to find just the right way of wording everything. In the end, it turned out to be one of my favorite fics that I’ve ever written.

4. Unmasked in a Flash

This fic was another first for me! I had never written a proper Identity Reveal Fic before. I had written one in the past, where Peter revealed his identity to the other Avengers but nothing where Peter being unmasked was the main focus of the story. So, this one was a lot of fun and I thoroughly enjoyed writing something from Flash's POV.

5. Ned Leeds: Jack of All Trades

I Adore this fic. I think it’s absolutely hilarious and explores a relationship that is rarely explored, (Tony & Ned) but perhaps more importantly, it gives Ned a leading role! I am still sort of disappointed that this story didn’t get more love. I had the best time imagining how Tony and Ned would react to and play off of one another. It was an excellent experiment and if the right prompt ever arose, I would be thrilled to do it again.

Tagging [if your interested!]

@jenniboo311 @obsessionoftheday @skeeter-110 @lost-lunar-wolf @sdottkrames @call-me-coley @iron-mum

[troius]

Sorry if you've been asked this before, but do you have any fave characters in bleach? Or least fave ones?

I've never been asked this before! I've honestly received very few of these general asks, so if you've ever had any questions for me, don't hesitate to send them in.

Anyhow, the fave characters thing is interesting, because I love Bleach, and I think Kubo generally did an awesome job on his characters. Even people who didn't get the development they should have still keep me intrigued, in part because I'm desperate for them to finally get that development. So the characters I'm listing here are less who is best, and more who do I relate to personally. Answers TK:

My favorite, which may not come as a surprise to you, is Uryu Ishida. I think he's probably the character I connect with the most easily, and if you don't believe me, read my tag for him. I think I've gotten better at this liveblog thing as it's gone on, but I still think my posts from Quincy Archer Hates You are among the best I've done because of how easy it was for me to relate to him-- there's an adolescent frustration, a desire for meaning, and a sense of injustice that really reflects who I was at that age, and it's a pleasure to see Uryu grow past the negativity in his life, and find meaning as an adult.

The flip side of all that is Orihime Inoue. Orihime is fantastic, an aspirational figure in many ways, because her sense of morality is so wonderfully idealistic, but in a very mature way. She really does have more reasons than anybody to resent the world she's a part of, but she believes in the inherent good in all people despite that. That's really powerful, and her journey isn't one to overcome inner flaws of perspective, but to motivate herself to do the things that are necessary to live in the world she wants. I love that-- I think I have a pretty good perspective on the world at this point in my life (I'd better...) but I still find myself struggling to self-motivate, to seize the moment, to be the change I want to see. It's a very human struggle, and Orihime I think embodies it the best out of our characters.

Anyhow this is getting rather long, so I'll just say that I like basically all of the characters in this manga, and if you go through my character tags you can probably figure out how I feel about everybody. But there are a couple more complicated cases with relatively minor characters I'd like to mention real quick:

I completely despise Kon, or at least what he turned into. You've got this really interesting exploration of artificial intelligence, which all turns out to be set-up for a pervert mascot. It's not really to my taste.

Which is gonna make it weird when I say I like Chizuru. Well, like might be a bit strong of a word, but I do really enjoy her interactions with Tatsuki, because it's one of the few interactions that puts Tatsuki center-square, and is probably the biggest textual pointer to "Tatsuki likes girls" that we have, doing so in an admirably indirect way. Albeit one involving comedic sexual harassment, which sucks, and really shouldn't be a part of any form of art.

And then finally, probably my most controversial opinion is that I absolutely loathe Kisuke Urahara. It kind of blows my mind that the guy is as popular as he is, when he spends the entire first two arcs of the story outright manipulating our main characters (who are mostly teenagers) and risking their lives for his benefit.

[iron-mum]

Top 5 fan works of 2021

rules: it’s time to love yourselves! choose your 5 (ish) favorite works you created in the past year (fics, art, edits, etc.) and link them below to reflect on the amazing things you brought into the world in 2021. tag as many writers/artists/etc. as you want (fan or original) so we can spread the love and link each other to awesome works!

Thank you so much for the tag @official-wayward-fairchild  ❤️

In a weeks time it’ll actually be 12 months since I posted my first fic on AO3 so I’d like to take a moment to say how much I appreciate all your love and support. Your comments, kudos, reblogs, everything mean the world. Without further ado and in no particular order!

1. Five Times Tony and Peter Chaotically Cleaned

Although I didn’t post them first, this bundle of chaos happens to be my first completed irondad fics! They were a birthday gift for the lovely @kevyfanfics and are an ode to the random shenanigans we come up with when daily. There’s an Endgame Fix-it amongst the disastrous hoovering and attempts to clean the Cloak of Levitation.

2. Love Leaves a Memory No-one Can Steal

Probably one of my most well known fics, irondad + a healthy dose of amnesia. I really, really enjoyed this fic a lot. Loved the research that went into it as well as exploring other characters who, at the time, I hadn’t. Definitely one of my favourite happy endings too.

3. My Spider Sense is Shinglin’

This fic was completed for the wonderful @friendly-neighborhood-exchange last year. I had so much fun with the prompts ‘sickfic - the more angsty the better’ and ‘nicknames.’ I remember telling my husband the title and he cringed. That’s how I knew it was the one 😂

4. When We Have Each Other, We Have Everything

My first proper multichapter and absolute beloved. I am slightly disappointed in myself that the final two chapters are still in the editing phase after a quick start but, here we are. I’ve loved writing SupremeFamily so much. I’ve combined so many of my favourite things into it. Without a doubt it is my favourite fic of my own. 

5. Tumblr Prompt: Tony turns Peter into a frog

Need I say more than Peter ends up as a frog and Stephen ends up as an otter? If a fic were to sum me up (other than the chaotic cleaning) then this is likely it. Heaps of fun to write with a bowl full of self indulgence. Shout out to @retro-memo who had requested it!

Tagging (no pressure!): @retro-memo @winter-turtle @superherotiger @milstrim @call-me-coley and anyone else who wants to take part!

[firelxdykatara]

gods, ok, apparently i’m not done.

atla fandom? we need to have a chat.

(....ok that made me sound pretentious as fuck. and maybe i am, but this needs to be said, cause i’m getting....real, real tired of a Certain Corner of this fandom and as a result, this is gonna be a discourse-heavy post so feel free to scroll past if that’s not your bag. as always, my salt posts all carry the catch-all #salt for ts tag, which you’re free to blacklist/filter at your leisure. i’m Very Annoyed at the moment, which will probably come through in the following post, so just. yknow. be prepared for that. or ignore it, that’s perfectly valid too.)

under a cut bc i do care for my followers and their sanity i swear lmao

there’s a real serious issue in this fandom with not understanding what queer terminology actually means or implies, especially when applied to a fictional narrative.

i’m specifically talking about ‘coding’, here. (if i were in a more meme-y mood, i might have said ‘the atla fandom found out about the term “gay-coding” and haven’t shut up since’.)

to the people who say ‘zuko is gay-coded’, i have this to say: you keep using that word. i do not think it means what you think it means. because he isn’t. i’m sorry, but he’s not! and the fact that this is such a prevalent claim in this fandom is distressing, bc it says to me that none of y’all know what gay-coding is or when and how to apply it! please, i’m begging you, go and look up these terms and what they mean and when they should be used before actually trying to plug them into your critical analysis, because when you misuse them and then call other people delusional for disagreeing with you it casts a pall over the entire fandom and is, i think, the root of some of the worst toxicity this fandom has to offer.

and the thing is, there are cases where gay-coding would apply--for instance, a couple series that are famous for queerbaiting their audience by coding their main characters as being attracted to one another (sometimes even despite their openly stated sexualities) come to mind, but those shows bare no similarities at all to atla and how zuko was written and portrayed! (and it would be funny, if it weren’t so obnoxious and infuriatingly wide-spread throughout the fandom, because the only queer couple we actually seen on-screen in either show wasn’t even queer-coded in any respect, and they’re canonically bi! [yes, i’m shading korrasami, or more accurately i’m shading bryke for refusing to give ka the build-up and development they deserved].)

this absolutely isn’t to say that headcanoning zuko as gay is a bad thing or invalid in any respect. (although the tendency for zukka shippers to do this specifically to keep zuko away from katara and/or invalidate his canon relationship/attraction to girls is more than a little eyebrow raising. especially since sokka is usually allowed to be bi, bc fans have no problem letting sukka stay in the background bc it’s no real threat, while jetko shippers are happy to have both boys be bi. [possibly bc katara is less a threat to jetko bc jetkotara is every bit as valid as any single ship between the three, but zukka can’t exactly let katara join in, and if the potential exists for zuko to be attracted to her then canon giving them the far deeper emotional bond becomes a threat to zukka’s existence? idk for sure--you be the judge.]) i prefer to hc zuko as bi (and always have, long before the atla renaissance), bc i don’t think zuko being attracted to boys is outside the realm of possibility, and it isn’t a threat to my ship since zuko&katara had a deep and emotional bond in canon that is very easy to develop further into something that becomes explicitly romantic--but the headcanon itself isn’t really the problem (although what it’s often in service to can be).

it’s the strange insistence that this is the only way to read his character, bc he was coded that way and so anyone who doesn’t see it must be too straight to understand--and i really shouldn’t have to say why and how that is so incredibly fucking insulting. (the ‘hetero lenses’ comment wasn’t cute when it came from bryke six years ago, and the same sentiment being repackaged and delivered by zukka shippers ain’t cute now.)

calling zuko gay-coded not only demonstrates ignorance as to what the term actually means, and how to usefully apply it in critical analysis, but also validates the frankly bullshit insertion of institutionalized homophobia in the world of atla where it was neither needed, nor wanted, nor ever hinted at in canon. as a queer woman i’m still infuriated by one fucking comic panel shoving institutionalized and systemic homophobia into a world where it was entirely unnecessary (and doing this in the first installment of the franchise showcasing a queer relationship??? making korra and asami worried about ‘coming out’ when they could have just gone on to have cute adventures together and tell people ‘hey we’re dating’ and have everyone else be ‘that’s awesome =DDD’ [because it is, in fact, possible to just have a world without homophobia i promise!!!!!] double yikes, i’m still pissed at bryke about it), and i doubly hate that ‘zuko is gay coded’ has become so widespread that ‘ozai hates him bc he’s gay’ has become a staple in that part of the fandom.

not only does making zuko gay and implying (or outright stating) that ozai hated and abused him because of it completely undermine zuko’s character arc by making his abuse about his sexuality rather than ozai’s toxic pride and anger at seeing himself reflected in his ‘weak’ son, but it comes very close to outright stating that abuse and trauma are inherently gay experiences, and they aren’t!!! they really aren’t, i promise!!!

abuse and trauma narratives exist outside of ‘my dad hates me because i’m gay’. and, quite frankly, there are MORE THAN ENOUGH queer trauma narratives out in the world. we do not need to start trying to retroactively make them canon in a series where they didn’t exist! if you’re gay and see yourself in zuko and project your own experiences on him, that’s understandable and valid. that does not make zuko gay-coded. and honestly, the insistence that he is makes very little sense to me, because you’re essentially trying to give the show credit for work you put into interpreting the characters! why would you want to do that? why not own your own headcanons and take credit for them, rather than insisting they are canon and everyone else is wrong for not seeing them??? like, i’ve said before that i’ve always headcanoned zuko (and katara) as bi, and even support it with my interpretations of evidence from the show, but the difference between ‘i think zuko is bi’ and ‘zuko is definitely gay-coded’ is that i know that bi zuko is my interpretation of canon, and that it is work i’m putting into the show that wasn’t actually intended by the creators/writers, no matter how much sexual tension i read into the jetko swordfight.

and like, zuko’s character arc doesn’t actually parallel a queer one all that well to begin with. it’s easy enough to do the work and twist it sideways just enough to make the general points fit, but the fact is, zuko’s arc is not one of self-discovery. it’s not one of coming to understand something fundamental about himself that he can’t change, that he was hated for, and coming out to his father in a dramatic confrontation where he shows that he understands himself and doesn’t need his father’s acceptance to be fulfilled.

zuko’s arc is actually one of trauma and healing. and those can (and often are--like i said, there are more than enough queer trauma narratives in the world, atla really doesn’t need to be one of them) be part of queer narratives, for sure! but they aren’t uniquely queer. and zuko’s confrontation with ozai during the eclipse doesn’t read like a ‘coming out’ at all. (yes, i’ve seen that post. yes, i rolled my eyes and moved on, bc unlike some people, i’m capable of not clowning on correctly tagged posts i disagree with.) zuko is specifically confronting ozai over his abuse, because his arc wasn’t about discovering anything fundamental about himself (and therefore realizing that ozai was hating him for something he couldn’t change)--it was about realizing that he was not at fault for the way his father treated him. it was also about realizing that the fire nation was broken and corrupt at its core, and that his father was an aspect of that he needed to break away from so that he could help the world begin to heal.

he says it himself:

Zuko: No, I've learned everything! And I've had to learn it on my own! Growing up, we were taught that the Fire Nation was the greatest civilization in history. And somehow, the War was our way of sharing our greatness with the rest of the world. What an amazing lie that was. The people of the world are terrified by the Fire Nation. They don't see our greatness. They hate us! And we deserve it! We've created an era of fear in the world. And if we don't want the world to destroy itself, we need to replace it with an era of peace and kindness.

making this about zuko being gay and rejecting ozai’s homophobia, rather than zuko learning fundamental truths about the world and about his home and about how there was something deeply wrong with his nation that needed to be fixed in order for the world to heal (and, no, ‘homophobia’ is not the answer to ‘what is wrong with the fire nation’, i’m still fucking pissed at bryke about that), misses the entire point of his character arc. this is the culmination of zuko realizing that he should never have had to earn his father’s love, because that should have been unconditional from the start. this is zuko realizing that he was not at fault for his father’s abuse--that speaking out of turn in a war meeting in no way justified fighting a duel with a child.

is that first realization (that a parent’s love should be unconditional, and if it isn’t, then that is the parent’s fault and not the child’s) something that queer kids in homophobic households/families can relate to? of course it is. but it’s also something that every other abused kid, straight kids and even queer kids who were abused for other reasons before they even knew they were anything other than cishet, can relate to as well. in that respect, it is not a uniquely queer experience, nor is it a uniquely queer story, and zuko not being attracted to girls (which is what a lot of it seems to boil down to, at the end of the day--cutting down zuko’s potential ships so that only zukka and a few far more niche ships are left standing) is not necessary to his character arc. nor does it particularly make sense.

(and before anyone brings up his date with jin--a) he enjoyed it when she kissed him, and b) he was a traumatized, abused child going out on a first date. of course he was fucking awkward. have you ever met a teenage boy????)

anyway, uh, that was a lot of words, so have a tl;dr: zuko is not gay-coded. there is nothing uniquely gay (or even uniquely queer) about his character arc or characterization, and he was certainly not coded gay in an attempt to sneak a queer character past the censors. if anyone involved with atla was gonna try that, it would’ve been in lok, and as established, they didn’t even manage to queer-code the actual queer relationship before the last few minutes of the final episode. headcanoning zuko as gay is absolutely fine (though if it’s only done to keep him away from female characters he may otherwise be attracted to, that smells more like misogyny than anything else), but insisting that this reading is the only one that makes sense, and anyone who doesn’t agree must be straight (hello, queer woman here making this insanely long thinkpiece) is very much not.

ship what you like, but stop trying to invalidate other ships and other interpretations of characters just to make your ship seem more plausible. it’s really not a good look.

[iridescentides]

IT’S MY TWO YEAR GIF-IVERSARY!!!

hi friends! the end of this month (May 28, 2021) marks the two year anniversary of the first gifset i ever made! i have grown and progressed tremendously in my editing skills over the past two years, and i love expressing my creativity with gifs!

since last year’s celebration was so fun and connected me with so many incredible gif makers on this site, i am super excited to celebrate again this year! i am commemorating a personal milestone, but the overall goal of this celebration is to recognize, uplift, and inspire gif makers to love themselves and their art! absolutely anyone is welcome to join in, whether you’ve been giffing for a million years or just started yesterday.

throughout the month of May, please help me celebrate by interacting with the posts and/or participating in the activities listed under the cut:

GIF IVERSARY CELEBRATION SCHEDULE

to celebrate 2 years of making gifs, i will be doing/posting the following:

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GIFTsets // all month long

send me a 🎁 and i’ll make you a little surprise gift! (mutuals only, please)

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gif maker appreciation tag // all month long

this week i will be starting a tag game for gif makers, with questions that prompt them to reflect on their own work and recognize other creators who inspire them. i will tag lots of people to get the ball rolling, but please participate by answering the questions and tagging as many amazing gif makers as you can! the goal is to keep the game going for the entire month of May!

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influential editors series // multiple dates throughout May

in an adaptation from last year’s creator spotlight series, i will be dedicating 5 days this month to the top 5 gif makers who i feel have inspired and impacted me the most in my personal gif making journey. my choices will be based on a variety of factors, like gif making talent and creativity, but also things like kindness, supportiveness, and leadership. the friends i have made on this site are so special and so skilled in their craft, so this will be my way of thanking the people who have pushed me to become better and also helped me feel like i truly belong in this community of creators.

each of these influential editors will receive:

a promo post talking about how awesome they are;

a day-long “takeover” on my blog where i reblog lots of their gifsets;

my undying love and admiration.

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self-reblog marathon // May 3-9

we all have gifsets we’re proud of that deserve more love! from May 3rd to May 9th, i am encouraging you to be your own biggest fan! let’s normalize shameless self-reblogging, because we put lots of work into the things we make and we deserve for them to be seen! participate by reblogging as many of your own gifsets as you want, tagging them with #srb marathon, and talking in the tags about what you like about those gifsets. and if you see someone else on your dash who is also participating, reblog their creations too! let’s hype each other up!!!

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gif love challenge // May 10-16

(not to be confused with the gif maker positivity meme (see below))

the gif love challenge is a way to give back to your favorite editors to thank them for the amazing content they make! it’s a week of love and encouragement that anyone can take part in, regardless of whether they are a creator or not! see the official post to find out how to participate.

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gif makers respond // May 17-23

when it comes to creating gifs, everyone has a different experience. each day of the week from May 17th to the 23rd, i will post one gif-related discussion prompt designed to start a conversation amongst gif makers. to answer the question, just reply to the post or reblog with a response in the tags.

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gif maker positivity meme (#gmpmeme2021) // May 24-30

back by popular demand! this is a one-week gif challenge meant to inspire gif makers to experiment, grow, and get outside of their comfort zones. please REBLOG the prompt list so it can reach as many creators as possible, and participate in the meme the week of May 24th to May 30th. make sure to tag your posts with #gmpmeme2021, and check the tag so you can reblog other people’s creations as well!

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tagging some beloved mutuals:

@lizzie-mcguires @sambuckyws @seance @barchiee @favoriteliar @rockyblue @aleksandr-morozova @stilestilinskies @yuutta @dani-clayton @inejz-ghafa @deweyduck @molinareggie @montygreen @fabeldyr @crayonstoperfume @pietro-maximoff @sharonncarter @alexander-vlahos @eddiediaz @evakant @tisdales @ghostes @jonathan-byers @samthwilson @owenjoyner @wcameasromans @oretsevmal @magnusedom @miriammaisel @mikechvng @danielkalluuya @ariangrnde @owenpatrickjoyners @hennwilson @ourteeth @favreaus @tmhnks @aubrey-plaza @daggery @ansonmount @replayfootsteps @timothyolyphant @ogaferoga @lizzo @sonyarebecchi @denalifoxx @carterfreddys @rambeaus @alina-mal

[misslilli]

It'll get better soon guys, don't worry 🤗

Felix Felicis

MSR. AU. PG-13. | tagging @today-in-fic | read on AO3

Chapter 24 - It Takes A Village

[ Felix ]

It’s close to December and my favorite holiday is coming up fast, the lights are already up all around town and in school we make paper snowmen and sing Christmas songs. It’s supposed to be the most cheerful time of the year, but people in my life are sad, which in turn also puts a damper on my Christmas spirit.

Dad is not doing very well, he’s working all the time and doesn’t say much, he just goes through the motions of our day. One day, he just forgets to pick me up from school because he has worked through the night and fell asleep at the dining room table during the day.

Principal Skinner can’t reach him or my mom, who is in Europe right now, so he calls my other emergency contact, my grandma. I don’t know what exactly he tells her, but she’s coming all the way from Connecticut and the Principal will drive me home to check on my dad.

I’m excited that grandma’s coming, she’s really awesome! She’s straightforward and very, very strict and doesn’t like to cuddle, much, but her no-nonsense way of running a household may be exactly what we need right now. And she also makes a mean lasagna!

When we get to the house, dad is beside himself, apologizing to us over and over again for falling asleep and he looks a little relieved when Principal Skinner tells him that grandma is coming over to help.

I launch myself at her - I’m permitted exactly two hugs, one hello and one goodbye - when she walks through the door and immediately try to get her to make lasagna for dinner. She sends me up to my room to play for a bit, while she talks to dad and cleans up the mess in the kitchen. Afterwards, she really makes lasagna, yes!

——————

[ Teena ]

When I got the call from Principal Skinner, I was very worried about what I’d find when I got to the house, I’ve been called to pick up the pieces only once before.

It was after Diana left Fox and Felix and what I found then was a disoriented and confused three-year old who kept asking for his mom and a devastated dad and husband, unable to care for his child in his own heartbreak.

Thankfully, it’s not that bad this time, but I can tell that something has happened. Fox has been avoiding my calls for weeks now, only having Felix talk to me over the phone. I know that Sam knows something, but she wouldn’t tell me no matter how hard I pressed.

So the first thing I do when I get to the boys’s house is send Felix off to his room and sit down my son onto the couch to talk.

“Tell me what happened, Fox.”

And he goes on to me the whole story, from the first day of school where he met a woman that had upended both of their lives, to the birthday party - Sam has actually told me about that one, I thought it was a really sweet story - and the Halloween fair right up until the Basketball fiasco and the last time he saw her, where she asked him to give her some space until she has figured some things out.

“What do I do now mom? I hate myself for scaring her off like that and I can’t stop the tailspin of thinking I’m not good enough for her anyway, with that broken mess that’s our family…”

“I’ll tell you what to do now. You give her space like she asked you to and you get your act together in the meantime. Felix needs you to take care of him, it won’t do to wallow in self-pity. And ask yourself this: How can you expect someone to love you if you don’t love yourself? Go see Connie and fix your self-worth issues because you’re a good man and you absolutely deserve someone who makes you happy.”

“Thanks mom, for everything. I’ve already scheduled extra therapy lessons with Connie. You know what makes this whole thing even harder? I have to see her every damn day at school when I pick up Felix.”

“I’ll pick him up from now on. You focus on yourself, without distractions.” Maybe I’ll even get to meet her, I’m fairly curious about this Rainbow Woman myself.

—————

[ Felix ]

At recess in school, everyone’s on their best behavior, holding their collective breaths because Miss Scully is in a bad mood today. Actually, she’s been irritable for the past two weeks, with a very short fuse and absolutely no tolerance for disobedience.

Since her classroom is right next to ours, we can sometimes hear her yell at her kids for something or other and even our class flinches when it happens.

Right now, she’s over at the playground, leaning into two boys who have gotten into a fist-fight over a game of tag and I’m silently glad I’m sitting over here with Miss Anderson. I look up at my teacher, curious.

“Miss Anderson, why is Miss Scully so angry all the time?”

“I can’t tell you, Felix, I’m sorry.”

“Because you don’t know, or because you don’t want me to know?” When she changes the subject pointedly, I know it’s the second one. ‘Ugh, why don’t adults tell children anything, it’s driving me crazy! Dad won’t tell me anything and now this.’

Grandma picks me up again today and on our way to the car, we run into Miss Scully. 'Uh oh, I hope she doesn’t go off on grandma, I don’t think that will go over very well.’ My grandma can be scary sometimes, too!

“Hey Miss Scully, this is my grandma, she’s staying with us for a while now! Grandma, this is Miss Scully, she’s the fourth-grade teacher.”

——————

[ Teena ]

I’m happy to see that my son has raised Felix to be a polite child when he introduces the tiny red-head I’ve heard so much about.

“Grandma’s not actually my name, Felix. I’m Teena Mulder, it’s nice to meet you Miss Scully!” Holding out my hand, I try to seize her up.

Her handshake is firm and her posture is ram-rod-straight, all professional, but her eyes betray her poised exterior, because I can see flashes of sadness when she looks down at Felix. I can only guess that she’s not having an easy time with everything, herself.

“It’s nice to meet you too, Mrs. Mulder. I’d love to stay and chat, but I’ve got an appointment to get to. I’ll see you tomorrow, Felix. Goodbye, Mrs. Mulder.”

With that, she’s off to get her bike and Felix breathes a sigh of relief.

“Whew, thank God, she didn’t get mad at you like she got mad at the two boys at recess today.”

I’m a bit puzzled by his odd statement, but on the car ride, he tells me all about the incident in great detail. I get the feeling that these stories are a staple in the boys’s days and I can begin to understand why my son would rather not hear Felix go on and on about what she did and what she said right now.

—————

[ DS ]

My therapist has told me that it has to get worse before it gets better, but this is getting ridiculous. I can’t sleep more than a few hours at night, which leaves me irritable in the morning and with an incredibly short fuse at school, going off on my kids for the littlest infractions.

They’re so terrified and confused, they end up making even more mistakes, which in turn sets me off even more - it’s a vicious circle that leaves me frustrated with myself and more times that I’d like to admit to, I’ve lost it in the teacher’s bathroom.

Meeting Mrs. Mulder today was unexpected and I tried hard to keep it together for a few minutes, but I can’t stand looking at Felix’s innocent face for a longer period of time, so I bolted right after the introductions.

I actually did have an appointment, with my therapist, and today she suggested I write down my feelings in a journal to get them off my chest and reflect on them.

During the night, I wake after only a few hours of sleep spent tossing and turning. Unable to fall back asleep for yet another night, I drag myself our of bed and downstairs, turning the TV in the living room, hoping it’ll lull me back to sleep.

“10 things I hate about you” is on and by the time Julia Stiles recites her poem, I’m bawling into a pillow. I remember the homework I’ve been given, so I grab a piece of paper and a pen and begin writing.

“Miss Scully’s list of 10 things I hate about you”

The words of the title swim before my eyes as I scribble my feelings onto the patient paper. The poem I write is slightly different from the one in the movie, but writing it all out really does help.

I fold the paper up carefully and toss it in the trash before heading back up to bed.

[shealwaysreads]

Top 5 of 2020

Rules: It’s time to love yourselves! Choose your 5 (ish) favourite works you created in the past year (fics, art, edits, etc.) and link them below to reflect on the amazing things you brought into the world in 2020. Tag as many writers/artists/etc. as you want (fan or original) so we can spread the love and link each other to awesome works! 

I was tagged by @tackytigerfic @maesterchill @bonesliketambourines @sitp-recs @peachpety @lazywonderlvnd @ohdrarry @gallifrey1sburning and @pineau-noir ❤️ thank you all for the tag, it’s been a joy to see your own reflections on your work this last year, and an interesting one to mull over for myself, too!

2020 has been such an absolute bruiser of a year that I feel proud to have created anything, and I love every word I’ve written because, frankly, every word was a tiny step forward into imagination and creativity (rather than the cavernous sinkhole of anxiety and stress that I was tip-toeing beside). But, that said, here are my top five fics in chronological order:

Speak (and may the world come undone) is a 26k story born out of a tiny little 120 word drabble, and I am still really proud of exploring this concept of canon divergence where Draco’s loyalties shift earlier. It was a real challenge to handle canon this much, without simply re-treading it, and to balance the despair of war with the hope of survival and the realities of life beyond. It was also the first time I’ve written a first time, and doing that justice was so important to me. What I’m proud of: this Harry and his courage to have faith, the moments of weakness they all have, the dreams, Fleur and Harry’s conversation, Draco’s subtle but granite-firm loyalty, Harry grasping a moment of self-possession and pleasure.

Life Goes Not Backward was an idea that sprang fully-formed into my mind at about half past midnight when I was supposed to be focusing only on writing Speak, so I had to wait a month or so to sit down to the concept of Harry and settling down roots, and of Ruby. It’s a shorter fic, at 8k, in which I packed Harry’s life post-war, his burgeoning relationship with Draco turning into something solid and lasting, and then Ruby herself into just six days. What I’m proud of: giving this a light touch, exploring a Harry who’s older, and ready to come home after abandoning Britain, of the atmosphere—it’s warm and gentle and soft and hopeful and everything I needed this year—and of the naming. 

Catch and Release was written for my darling @tackytigerfic’s birthday, and what started out as a little 2k fic grew into 11k of Draco’s pov and me toying with the tropes of accidental bonding and there was only one bed. The Draco in this fic is very close to my heart, there’s probably a lot of me in him, and Harry is everything I think he could grow into—powerful but restrained when he need to be, protective but not coddling, still carrying his wounds but always and ever reaching out. What I’m proud of: the tension, the slow build of trust, the contrast of touch starvation and tactility, the moment’s of understanding, and the way Harry and Draco find someone they can just be with.

If an Injury Is to be Inflicted was written for @hd-hurtfest and is my longest published fic to date. It was also a real experiment for me, writing something sharper and wilder and a little darker than anything I’ve done before—I was totally inspired by @quicksilvermaid’s prompt and this world was in such sharp definition for me so quickly, I loved writing it. What I’m proud of: the pacing and the tension, the fight scenes (my god that was an adventure to write), the exploration of every character and how they might respond to this post-war reality of corruption, and most of all I’m proud of Draco and Harry and every moment between them.

Breathe You In is such an indulgent fic, written for the inaugural @hpsudsfest and gifted to the lovely @mai-und-regen —but I first had the idea for it in December 2019 (thank you @maesterchill you know what you did). This was such a pleasure to write, to imagine as I tinkered on it, and to submerge myself in the warmth and hedonism of the lazy Sunday afternoon I gave to Harry. What I’m proud of: the details, the warmth, the atmosphere, the intimacy, and that bath. (I want that bath)

I’m sure you’ve all already been tagged (because I’m late enough to be doing my 2020 tags in 2021) but if you guys want to play then @slytherco @p1013 @veelawings @practicefortheheart @bogglebeans @clotpolesonly @hedwig-dordt @hogwartsfirebolt @onbeinganangel @dragontamerdame @bluebutter-art @ladderofyears @xanthippe74 @zigster-ao3 @gnarf and literally everyone who sees this and wants to do it—tag me if you do so I can come and peep your faves! ❤️ 

[pacific-rimbaud]

Rules: It’s time to love yourselves! Choose your 5 (ish) favourite works you created in the past year (fics, art, edits, etc.) and link them below to reflect on the amazing things you brought into the world in 2020. Tag as many writers/artists/etc. as you want (fan or original) so we can spread the love and link each other to awesome works!

Tagging @dreamsofdramione @scullymurphy @feelingofthesea @heyjude19-writing @niffizzle @ms-merlinblack @anneamm @frumpologist @raven-m-3 @ravenslightwrites and anyone else who would like to do this!

(I made a separate post, the other one has grown vry lorge)

Les Pèlerins

Draco x Hermione, Rated M, 10k words complete one-shot

I still cannot believe I was asked to write for D/Hr Advent. Thank you again to anyone who put my name in that hat. 🤯 I had a few ideas for Advent (Mall AU where Draco and Hermione are elves at the North Pole, Bletchley Park codebreakers AU) but really wanted to do an urban walking-and-talking piece just to see if I could write something that was actually readable. I particularly love what you don’t see: a broken Draco sitting in churches contemplating redemption, trying to glue himself back together and discovering his shape has changed, Hermione trying to make life and love work through sheer force of will and then learning to ease her grip, what it looks like for D&H that morning, the rest of the winter, in the spring.

Bright Objects

Pansy x Neville, Rated E, 17.5k words complete multi-chapter

This is less about the piece itself and more about the process of creating it with @grangerdangerfics @scullymurphy and @provocative-envy​ I am SO proud of what the four of us built as a whole, and our time working on it was one of the very best parts of a really terrible year. 25/10, would die for this crew and also for this soft soft Neville and this vulnerable, relatable bébé Pansy having a watershed WTF moment at the threshold of adulthood.

The Secretary

Pansy x Percy, Rated E, 45.9k complete multi-chapter

This was my second completed short multi-chapter after A Dress with Pockets, and it was a total pleasure to write. I have a lot of feels for these two. I loved this office AU so much I wrote in it again. Also I sometimes think about how smutty this is and want to hide my face, WHAT HAVE I DONE?

Notes on the Temptation of Peter and Heloise

Pansy x Percy, Rated T, 3k complete one-shot

This was exceptionally satisfying to write. I don’t know about anyone else but I loved watching this Pansy Parkinson lose her goddamned mind over this Percy Weasley. The absolute ache of these two. This is tied with Field Guide to North American Dragons for my favorite of the pieces I wrote in Death by Quill 2020. I grew tremendously over that competition and am deeply grateful for that experience.

One and Done

Draco x Hermione, Rated E, 35k complete multi-chapter

I know this is just a small slice of zesty Hermaco cheesecake, but it’s also probably the most Me thing I’ve written. My soul looks like this fic. Gawain Robards: a self-insert. This is my very, very favorite Draco (although he is very much adjacent to Draco from Love and Other Historical Accidents). I LOVE HIM. I love how much he loves her. I LOVE PANSY in this, I love that Pansy “Dislocated Cunt” Parkinson is the woman who loses her shit for Percy “Keep Calm and Carry On” Weasley in this AU, and for all its frivolity and spice, the scene where Pansy narrates Draco’s fantasy is structurally one of the more elegant things I’ve ever written.

Also, I’m not burning down the fandom art world, but I am SO proud of the art that sparked One and Done. I drew this from absolute scratch (this is a very art-nerdy thing to be excited about!) including that lace, and FUNNY STORY: to make it look right I had to draw and shade her bare breasts and then add the lace over her skin as a separate layer, which was a much, much spicier place than I was ever planning to go with fan art.

[dracoladon]

Top 5 of 2020

Rules: It’s time to love yourselves! Choose your 5 (ish) favourite works you created in the past year (fics, art, edits, etc.) and link them below to reflect on the amazing things you brought into the world in 2020. Tag as many writers/artists/etc. as you want (fan or original) so we can spread the love and link each other to awesome works!

thank u to my lovely @tackytigerfic, @sitp-recs, @bonesliketambourines and @lazywonderlvnd for the tags. i’ve only written three fics this year, so even though this list is abt self love, i’m gna dedicate the last two spots to my two favourite fics i’ve read this year (that were published this year as well😔) cause i love myself for having such talented mutuals :/

1. Born Slippy: God I fucking loved writing Born Slippy. I’m a hoe for a good club fic. The aesthetics of crowded dance floor, loud music, body glitter etc are exquisite and I think (hope) I managed to capture even a little of that in this fic. It’s probably my favourite out of the very few I’ve written, cause I think it’s the one that best encapsulates my writing style and everything I love about Darry and fanfic. There were some banter moments I was really proud of, and the smut was like the embodiment of wanting to read smth with your all your favourite kinks so literally just writing it yourself. I said self indulgence!

2. Lucid: This was the first fic I wrote for Drarry, and for that reason it’s a bit special to me. It was a lot of fun to write and it really helped me figure out what I love writing (dialogue) and what I don’t (the prose in between). I think it had the kind of slice of life feel I was going for. a look in on a relationship that’s already been put through it’s paces and is now purely abt being together. I had an absolute blast with sex dumb Draco and finding a bunch of constellation bullshit for him to spin. I wasn’t expecting the response I got to this fic, either, so overall it just has very warm, lovely memories for me.

oh god and this was also the first fic of mine to get a rec from the absolute goddess that is @sitp-recs. good times indeed 😔

3. Little Spaces: !!! This fic has just been like ridiculously enjoyable to write. Hitting walls is kind of inevitable and doing this w anna was such an amazing way to work through the writer’s block I was having with my other stuff. I’d never written Draco before this, so it’s been super fun further exploring his voice, and I’m very very proud of what we’ve been able to produce together.

4. Inside Your Mind by @lazywonderlvnd

I think I’ve raved about this fic more than once on here before, as well as extensively in the comments on ao3, but seriously. It is.... 🤔 a masterclass in melancholic softness and drarry d/s dynamics. I saw a post not too long ago (which I already sent to anna but she can just deal w it 😡) that said all this stuff abt book harry. how he was passionate and sarcastic and witty and charismatic, and he could be intimidating when he was angry and had this wild intensity. he could be arrogant and humble and kind of an ass but he’s still our precious harry and he’ll be chill and laugh around w u and probably save ur life. i thought it perfectly encapsulated harry as he’s written in the books, and also harry in this fic. anna has an insane ability to write characters just as they are in canon, but also w her own distinct style. it kind of makes me want to cry. IYM’s Harry was charming and gorgeous and imperfect and an idiot, and I loved him. Not to mention Draco 😔. Every scene between the two of them felt so delicate and intricately woven, the smut was beautiful and raw, and the love confession was perhaps my favourite ever. I will forever be in awe of this genius’ talent (there were so many brilliant lines in this fic that I refuse to go hunting for them lest I be tempting into spending the whole day rereading it) and IYM is the absolute pinnacle of that. PLUS goyle, who is tragically underrepresented in fic, soft kissing, sitting by the lake, a stunningly written friendship between the golden trio, and an entire world in thirty thousand words :/ read it and weep :/

5. Modern Love by @tackytigerfic

There are much more eloquent reviews that do this stunning fic the justice it deserves (cough cough sitp) so i shan’t try and compete. I will however say that Modern Love is a magnum opus (tho knowing tacky, and their ever increasing brilliance, that may change) and I absolutely loved it. I haven’t even commented yet, cause though I finished it a few days ago I’m literally still recovering. It’s sad, holy fuck, it is emotional and deep and thoughtful, and it’s Draco in the Muggle world with these original character friends who are so tangible and developed that I feel like i’ve met them in real life. There is a plot that doesn’t distract from the love story, and a love story that doesn’t distract from the achingly slow build of a soft, pining friendship, and a soft, pining friendship that doesn’t distract from Harry and Draco’s own personal character arcs. The ease with which tacky writes our two boys (and writes period) has always amazed me. The talent is in every fucking line, the humour is brilliant and subtle, and the smut is !!! absolutely worth the wait. An aesthetically pleasing masterpiece that I shall always treasure.

[panharmonium]

@dreamersscape​ please forgive me for tagging you in a post to respond to your comments; tumblr’s reply feature is hard to have an extended/coherent conversation on, and I’m so excited to talk to a kindred Naruto spirit that I knew I was gonna write too much for it all to fit in that space XD

re: hinata - Oh my gosh, YES, my sister and I were so frustrated by how they just completely never addressed that moment again.  I wasn't surprised, because it's been clear from the beginning that this show doesn't really care much about women, so the female characters' storylines getting dropped or never explored in the first place is pretty much what I've always expected, but it's still infuriating.  

Honestly, the only good thing about this show's general disinterest in women is that it means that I don't place any blame on in-story Naruto for never addressing what Hinata did for him, because I know the fact that we don't see him dealing with her confession isn't actually intended to communicate anything about his reaction/non-reaction/level of investment; it's literally just a function of the fact that the writer doesn't care about her story.  It's the same way I feel about how we see so much less one-on-one time between Kakashi and Sakura - her lack of screentime with him isn't something about which a person can credibly argue "Oh, this means Kakashi doesn't care about her enough and he's a bad teacher etc etc," because the imbalance isn’t a deliberate writing decision we're supposed to analyze for characterization.  It's a reflection of the fact that the entire show is super sexist. XD

re: danzo: It’s one thing to have your villain believe himself to the hero of his own story, and like, another to have Danzo basically tout having darkness in your heart being a great thing and encouraging it’s presence/cultivating it - lmao YES!  And honestly, this is why I actually find Danzo LESS infuriating than the Third Hokage.  Like, Danzo is Super Evil and every time he exploits another child I want to watch him die all over again, but at least he like....owns his horribleness?  Whereas Hiruzen is the biggest hypocrite on the planet - when I rewatched the Shonen Jump stuff a while back (my sister and I took a little break prior to Season 11 and rewatched some old stuff), I couldn't stand listening to Hiruzen go on and on about how the entire Leaf Village is his family and it's his role to protect all of them etc etc, because like - he literally covered up the genocide of Sasuke's entire family and let the perpetrator remain in power (and that was before I even knew about all these other crimes he allowed to go unpunished!!!)  Danzo may be the Worst, but at least he's not pretending to be anything other than what he is.  Hiruzen is still acting like he's everybody's sweet old grandpa, and that makes me even more angry than Danzo's straight-up horribleness.  (And I do agree with you, they definitely lean harder into the "Lord Third is amazing" stuff pre-Shippuden, I just still feel confused about what the show is ultimately trying to say about him because we haven't gotten an explicit enough condemnation of his choices yet, and I feel like it's way overdue XD )

re: minato - Hard agree that Minato is an enigma.  I don't feel like I fully understand him either - and not in a bad way, just in the sense that he's hard to read.  The toughest thing for me to parse was always how distant he seemed with his students, which was surprising to me at first, because he'd been built up as sort of this "ideal shinobi" figure for such a long time, but to me, an ideal shinobi teacher looks more like...well, Kakashi, to be honest.  And it took a while for me to reconcile with the fact that Minato and Kakashi really do just relate to their students very differently.  I think Minato has always been a soldier, and I think he sees children as soldiers, too - not in an evil way at all, just in the sense that this is how the shinobi world works, and how it has always worked.  It's not a "wrong" way to perceive shinobi kids, in the context of the story's universe.  And so when things happen to those kids, he absolutely cares, but it's also sort of just a grim fact of life for him.  It's like when Kushina tells him she doesn't want to make Naruto a jinchuriki, and she asks 'why do we have to do that to him, why does he have to suffer that way for the sake of the balance of power between nations,' and Minato's response is “Because our family is Shinobi.”  That was a really telling moment for me in terms of how he sees the world.  It's not something I'm interested in condemning him for, like you said; I don't think the story is ever asking us to do that, it’s just a philosophy that's very different from how Kakashi sees things and what he thinks children's experiences should be like.  

I guess what I ultimately think (from the material we’ve seen so far, at least) is that Minato seems to perceive the loss of his students as something that Kakashi is struggling with, not something he himself is agonizing over.  It’s a very sad thing that happened, of course, but it’s just part of the way their world works/a function of the times they live in.  It's not something Minato is tormenting himself about.  Whereas I think that if Kakashi ever lost a kid, it would have killed him.  And I don't think this fact is in any way supposed to paint Minato as a bad person.  He's not!  All it means is that there is a generational difference between the world Kakashi and Co. are trying to create and the world Minato always knew, and people like Minato are doing the best they can with the framework they have.  

I do like the guy a lot - and I wonder what he might have been like if he had lived to see a permanent peace established.

re: little Yamato - oh boy, those episodes nearly ended me.  I am already very, very, VERY weak for Kakashi and Yamato’s friendship, and seeing Kakashi rescue Yamato from that horrible place (literally and metaphorically) was too much for me to handle.  Kakashi’s silhouette replacing Danzo in Yamato’s memories of being rescued from Orochimaru’s lab - that slew me.  And the way Danzo tells Yamato “you have no past, no future, no name” juxtaposed with Kakashi introducing Yamato as Tenzo because he remembers from three years ago how Yamato once rebelled at being called Kinoe and yelled “MY NAME IS TENZO” - Kakashi just using that chosen name without hesitation, without question, without needing to be told...it all ties back into the recent thematic throughline the show is working with about Identity - the importance of the Tailed Beasts having names, Kabuto’s desperate and misguided search for “who and what he is,” Itachi reclaiming his true self by undoing the reanimation justu and declaring “I am Itachi Uchiha of the Leaf Village,” Obito claiming that his real name doesn’t matter anymore, that he’s Nobody...it’s fantastic how they’re pulling all this together.

re: Kakashi and little Naruto - oh man, the feelings.  I agree with you that Kakashi was in no place to be dealing with this, but certainly under different circumstances I think he would have loved to be a part of baby Naruto’s life.  I actually think the reasoning behind “let’s put Kakashi in a situation where he’s in close contact with someone bringing new life into the world” is sound - I think that would be a really good thing for him!  Just not in the sense of “you’re Kushina’s personal bodyguard, so if anything happens to her and the baby you can blame yourself for it.” XD  Like...Minato could have invited Kakashi in for dinner sometimes, instead of having him constantly stand guard under their window???  If it had been more “we care about you and we want you to be a part of our family”....ugh, that would have been amazing.  Kakashi is already SO good with Naruto (who is NOT by any means an easy kid to manage) - he just has such good instincts about how to talk to that kid and teach him in ways that work WITH Naruto’s particular brand of high motivation/low frustration tolerance, ping-pong emotional extremes, explosive energy levels, zero impulse control, and an inability to process more than one thing at a time.  Handling Naruto effectively would be a challenging project for any teacher, never mind taking care of Naruto and two other kids, but Kakashi is a natural at it.  It would have been awesome to see what Kakashi was like with Naruto when they were even younger...though the Feels might knocked me out.

[also, you mentioned Naruto and Obito - I cannot even tell you the Extremest Agonies I was in when the big reveal happened and I had to hear Naruto blankly go “who is he” - utterly clueless, without the faintest idea that he’s looking at the person who shaped his entire moral philosophy.  The amount of things that these kids don’t know...that fact that Naruto has been quoting this very person all his life and making all his major life decisions based on the lesson Kakashi relayed to them on Day One - Obito’s words - oh boy oh boy I was not capable of handling that even the littlest bit.]