#this is me saying I'm seeing hadestown btw!

[lilliankillthisman]

Wheel of Time reference!!!!!! This production of Hadestown was starring Donal Finn last season but he's not here anymore.

[protect-namine]

Hello! So excited to see your list of favorites. This is my first time, saw someone who love Shen Yuan, also Cheng Xiaoshi, Lelouch, and Emma, too! Diversity is beautiful....

Can you believe, that I think about Orpheus and Eurydice when I saw last episode of Link Click s2?

As Link Click fan, can I ask, your top 5 fav moments from the series (until now)? Also, why do you love Link Click (what made this special for you)?

for any link click fans reading this, the emma being referred to here is emma woodhouse from jane austen's novel, emma. this is not the emma from link click XD (although I do love her).

anon you've got to check out hadestown if you haven't already. it's orpheus and eurydice in a time loop (take into account that this is a theater production, and imagine every play is one loop). that's as shiguang as you can get. I have sooo many thoughts on link click and theater metaphors ever since they gave us those theater posters but that is a post for another time.

anyway. hi, yes, I love link click!! I'm gonna apologize in advance because I can already tell as I'm writing this that this is gonna be a long post. you've given me an excuse to write essays on this topic.

I will mostly talk about S1/S2 but there will be yingdu spoilers below.

why do I love link click? I think I just really love their motto: "past or future, let it be." be forgiving of the past, act with intention in the present, because both of those make up the future. when cheng xiaoshi dives into the past to resolve a client's regrets, he is not changing the past. he is changing their future. I really like that. although this mostly counts for S1 and S2; clearly this direction may potentially change with yingdu, which is fine with me. but this is the theme that first drew me in, and I hold "past and future, let it be" dear to my heart.

it's also just the kind of story that fires the neurons in my brain. I love stories where a late revelation re-contextualizes earlier scenes. I enjoy puzzling out the plot, regardless if we're overthinking continuity errors or not. yeah sometimes the fakeout cliffhangers in S2 are annoying. and yeah sometimes I can tell when the show is trying to make me cry, but I'm gonna let it, because the experience of watching it is enjoyable to me.

I also just love the time travel aspects of it? like, sure, some people will say link click is a story about love told through time travel. but to me, the time travel itself is a major element of the story. it's the meat of it. it runs through its themes, its conflicts, its character arcs, and even the way the show itself engages with the audience.

like, to compare with other media (and note, I absolutely love every media I'm gonna list here) (this part might be contentious, I'm sure others will disagree with me on this). erased has time travel elements, but I would say that that is a character-driven story where time travel is a story device, but not the main subject. pmmm has time loops, but to me, that show is about magical girls. the time loops are a result of homura's wish when she became a magical girl. it's a vehicle for her love for madoka, but the story itself examines the magical girl aspect of the show more than the time travel aspect. life is strange is a video game where the main character pretty much has the same abilities as cheng xiaoshi, and it's probably the closest to the type of story link click is. loved that game to bits, but making branching narratives in video games is understandably hard. it kinda sucks that, in the end, the butterfly effect only really converged to two different endings, so I feel like the concept of it didn't reach its full potential.

and again, I love each media I've listed here btw. I am not saying they're lesser or worse than link click. they're just different, and the way they treat the time travel aspects of their story is just different. like, pmmm itself is a masterpiece on its own. but anyway, I digress.

I like that link click has a character establish time travel rules, and then breaks them. I like that the show commits to closed time loops, and then doesn't. I like that it closely examines the mechanics of time travel in its world. I like that the studio is pushing how much they can do with the concept of "time travel" that it extends to how they communicate with the audience. like how, recently, we just learned that the PVs for yingdu arc actually took place in a different timeline from the yingdu we're watching now in the show. that's bananas to me. personally, I love them for doing that.

my brain loves these kinds of stories. my favorite danganronpa game is V3, and if you're familiar with this series, this should tell you how much I personally enjoy stories that try to trick me with its concepts, and stories that go meta on itself. I like svsss for the same reason. I love unreliable narrators. link click is just right up my alley.

I can go on and on about what I love about how link click uses time travel in the story. how the stories are about intimate, personal connections and personal regrets. the weight of a small action in the grand scheme of things and how it ties to the emotional core of our characters. but then this post will never end, and I would probably just rehash what this video is talking about. so go watch that instead.

also, the soundtrack is immaculate.

as for my top five favorite moments... it's funny, because I vastly prefer S1 over S2. that's just my personal preference. and yet, when I reviewed the episodes, it turns out all my favorite moments are in S2? go figure. I think it's because S2 establishes a lot of character moments that have been building up since S1, which I deeply appreciate.

here's the tl;dr of my favorite moments thus far (in chronological order). you asked why, and I will explain why under the cut.

S1E10: "the game is over."

S2E5: "after you get the doll, remember to show an appropriate... look of happiness."

S2E8: "you know what? I have a younger brother."

S2E12: "if you don't have the guts for that, how can you be my friend?"

S2E12: "time is a hypocritical construct"

I did not include yingdu moments in this yet because with a show like link click, some scenes become more interesting in retrospect than while watching in the moment. so I'll let yingdu finish what it's doing first and let it marinate in my brain for a bit.

gonna put the reasons under a read more cut because oh boy it's gonna be long. it turned into several character analyses along the way. I am so so sorry about this. I can't turn my brain off and I can't shut up about this show.

top five favorite moments: (in chronological order)

S1E10 - "the game is over." this is quite literally the coolest scene in all of link click. no scene has surpassed this scene imo. it accomplishes several things exceptionally well, all condensed in one single moment.

one, it shows that despite lu guang's own fears, he decided to trust cheng xiaoshi with leading the operation. perhaps you could say he didn't really have a choice, since he couldn't forcefully exit cheng xiaoshi out of xu shanshan's body, and so he couldn't do anything but help cheng xiaoshi trap liu min in the darkroom. but either way, this is still a monumental moment for him. it doesn't seem that way at first in S1, but with the context of S2E12 and YE1, it's surprising he'd let cheng xiaoshi do this at all. that he'd let cheng xiaoshi lead, or that he'd even trap him alone with a serial killer in the darkroom. you know, where he previously died? that's a massive amount of trust to give. he could have just as easily trap himself with cheng xiaoshi and liu min in that room. but he couldn't, because he had to contact the police while cheng xiaoshi distracted liu min and got a confession out of him. and if he wants the plan to work, lu guang had to (whether he's forced to or not) trust that cheng xiaoshi can handle himself in that room. that cheng xiaoshi won't die.

maybe cheng xiaoshi isn't the only one who has grown in this timeline? it's a very... optimistic interpretation of this scene, I admit. but lu guang's actions in this scene is fascinating to me in retrospect.

two, it shows that cheng xiaoshi can be a tricky and clever planner — in fact, this is a defining character trait for him. lu guang is the meticulously analytical one, the one who plans out every detail to the last minute. cheng xiaoshi is the one who thinks outside the box and sees the loopholes. and mind you, this was planned. cheng xiaoshi was working on this plan even before he told lu guang what he wanted to do. there's a scene earlier before the dive where we see cheng xiaoshi setting up pictures in the darkroom. he only told lu guang about the plan once he was possessing xu shanshan.

director li describes cheng xiaoshi similarly: (I love how he's defensive over cheng xiaoshi's intelligence)

"the thing is, cheng xiaoshi seems flippant, but you saw him at the end of the first season. he can be pretty clever when it's crunch time. I had a lot of classmates who performed badly in class, but they got their scores up from 60 to 90 in just two months, right before the national college entrance examinations. these kinds of people do exist. that sort of cleverness is incredible. it's something you're born with."

three, this scene perfectly makes use of the time travel rules this show has established thus far. the closed timeloop (the call liu min made in the morning can only happen because cheng xiaoshi provoked him into playing a game, which only happened because cheng xiaoshi already got the call). the clever use of photos to "teleport" but also to resolve regrets, because cheng xiaoshi used photos of the victims.

I love how danny motta describes it in his reaction:

"[lu guang] literally trapped this guy inside of [cheng xiaoshi's] boss arena. I never considered how much fucking power and authority [cheng xiaoshi] has in this room specifically."

and finally, how awesome is it to hear the beeping of overthink at the end of the episode, and instead of being filled with dread because of a cliffhanger that could potentially put our favorite characters in danger, you're instead hyped because you just know cheng xiaoshi is gonna fuck up the main bad guy of the season. it's such a great reversal of how they have been using overthink for the past episodes.

it's like the show saying, "remember how worried you felt at the end of each episode before this? that's how liu min should feel right now, because cheng xiaoshi is absolutely gonna fuck him up next episode."

it's just so many great elements of the story condensed into one, single badass moment. this is link click at its peak for me.

S2E5 - "after you get the doll, remember to show an appropriate... look of happiness"

when I watched this scene, I thought, "oh. so li tianxi is the mirror to cheng xiaoshi." and of course S2 continues with this mirroring with the running scenes, the film strips, and so on.

but I love the look of surprise from lu guang in this scene. cheng xiaoshi, as li tianxi, was already looking happy before lu guang even finished his sentence. because cheng xiaoshi was happy. and why wouldn't he be? he gets to spend a morning with a loving mother.

in this moment, cheng xiaoshi and li tianxi were in sync.

it highlights cheng xiaoshi's empathy and how sometimes that empathy can be something so personal to him. it highlights his sincerity and naivete, and even li tianxi's too. it's a great character moment for both of them.

S2E8 - "you know what? I have a younger brother."

this is great character moment for qiao ling. I love her relationship with cheng xiaoshi, but the way she communicated with li tianxi also deserves praise. I've already talked about qiao ling extensively here, and I feel like I'll just rehash everything I said before, so I won't repeat them here. I'll just highlight the parts that are relevant to this scene:

she's the one who truly connected with tianxi and knew how to communicate with her — even better than cheng xiaoshi could, and cheng xiaoshi was the one who actually got to live as tianxi. [qiao ling] is the person that gained tianxi's trust and knew how to meet her where she's at.

I love any moment that qiao ling gets to shine, but especially the ones where she is defined and forms connections outside of shiguang. and actually, that's her job in the supernatural business of the photo studio! she's the one who seeks out and communicates with clients! so of course she's the one who'd be able to communicate with li tianxi.

S2E12 - "if you don't have the guts for that, how can you be my friend?"

liu xiao doesn't do much in S2, but I've come to really like his character. this is also an important character moment for li tianchen.

I will admit, the reason this entered my top five scenes is rooted in half canon, half headcanon. but I think this scene says a lot about xiaochen's relationship. notice how liu xiao reached out to li tianchen with bare hands. li tianchen went from living with a clown villain who always wears gloves (sorry, but qian jin was a joke) to partnering with someone who will let him touch his hand despite knowing li tianchen can possess people through touch.

but! you also have to read this in the context of all of liu xiao's interactions with li tianchen thus far, and all the warnings studio lan has given us about not trusting the guy. he's a mastermind. he's a manipulator.

so, here's the headcanon territory. liu xiao is probably manipulating him, and I think li tianchen is a little bit aware of it too tbh. but even if he knows, he lets him, because what else does he have? he always looked up to liu xiao anyway. li tianchen is probably doomed, even more than cheng xiaoshi. but then again, have you seen the lyrics to prometheus? does li tianchen even care at this point? he lost his sister. he left his phone behind; he's leaving the past behind. liu xiao is the only one he can trust.

li tianchen is the actual most doomed character in link click, for me. like, I can imagine a happy ending for shiguang, but it's really hard at this point not to think of li tianchen getting the Bad Ending™

liu xiao, the mastermind, being the one to first reach out, unafraid that li tianchen can possess him at any time, is such a great introduction to their partnership. he is li tianchen's light the way lu guang is cheng xiaoshi's.

I'm really hoping for xiaochen to be the foil to shiguang in S3. like, li tianchen knows he's being strung along. turn that into a foil for S3!cxs who discovers that lu guang has been hiding something from him all this time, that perhaps he even made up the time travel rules to control the timeline and avoid cheng xiaoshi's death. there's a lot of potential for liu xiao and lu guang foiling too, especially with themes of "control" over the timelines.

again, this is mostly speculation, but idk. I think xiaochen just has a lot of potential.

S2E12 - "time is a hypocritical construct"

link click knows how to do a finale. even when you know from episode 1 (from the brief showing of dead cheng xiaoshi in lu guang's mind, or the XƎTЯOVerthink mv) that this was gonna be the reveal, it doesn't dampen the execution of the scene.

like I said earlier, I love when a late revelation re-contextualizes the whole story, and this is THE prime example for that. this scene instantly gives lu guang's character sooooo much depth, and all his interactions with cheng xiaoshi in S1 and S2 has extra layers in them when you rewatch the episodes. when he calls cheng xiaoshi an idiot for joking about hanging himself in S1. when he gets mad that cheng xiaoshi dived into security footage to tail liu min without lu guang to guide him. when he loses his shit when qian jin shot cheng xiaoshi. even the chibi short where qiao ling does tarot and lu guang hides his card from cheng xiaoshi becomes more and more interesting (qiao ling notices him hiding it too).

love a guy that dooms himself.

the weight of his tragedy also makes me appreciate the small moments of peace he gets as well, especially in the chibi shorts. I am incredibly fond of the elizabeth episode for this reason. lu guang is timelooping; how can he think of treating each timeline as "home" when he could potentially fail again and again? at first he didn't want to keep elizabeth, but he clearly does, and he was sad when she had to leave. I like to think that in a happy ending, shiguang gets to keep a pet cat. it's a commitment to this particular timeline. it's to say, "this is home."

what really elevates the scene is the use of mastermind as the insert song. lu guang reveals that he's been breaking his own time travel rules since the beginning, and then we hear "time is a hypocritcal construct" in the background? 11/10, no notes.

but beyond that, there's something else I love about mastermind being the finale song. I'll just copy my tags from this post. I love that the lyrics of mastermind uses the same metaphors we associate with liu xiao:

“destiny is just my game but it's all you're counting on right now”

“the hunter when a prey lies / it's just what the world's like”

“mastermind stays in the dark”

“can't you see it's checkmate?”

I just think it's so cool that liu xiao doesn't really... do anything (that we see) in S2. but he still gets the last word through this song. like that's such a mastemind thing to do. idk, idk, that's just so cool to me.

okay, that's it. I don't expect everyone to read my word vomit but if you reached this point, thanks for reading lol. and again, sorry anon for answering with an essay. like I said, I cannot shut up about this show.

[morimess]

I just watched The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes and I have to rant about it real quick.

Spoilers under the cut for those who want to see it- I HIGHLY recommend the movie btw.

-So, first off THE MUSIC IS SPECTACULAR. The scene where Lucy Gray is covered in the snakes is *chef's kiss*. Apparently for every song, it was a live performance by Rachel Ziegler, and she fucking nailed it.

I've seen a couple people criticize some of the songs as taking melodies from other IRL folk songs- but honestly, I don't see this as a bad thing as a lot of those original songs have probably been forgotten as this is YEARS in the future. Music evolves, and certain chords and beats will stay long after words are forgotten.

-Her dress is gorgeous- all of the costumes are awesome. I think I made one comment on how the school uniform looks a bit weird, but I quickly got over it.

-Flickerman is actually really funny- I thought he would be annoying as a bit character- but he did get a couple laughs out of me. (Which makes me feel bad because people were dying in those scenes, but at the same time- I think that's a commentary for another time.)

-Arachne's death was absolutely deserved.

-Wovey's death was absolutely tragic

-The drones were *menaces* and I LOVED IT- it was so fucking funny to me to see them flying around and nailing people square in the chest- or knocking people tf over.

-I love how Lucy Gray immediately called bull on Snow's "the third person I killed was my old self."

-THE OLD HOB WAS AWESOME!! The mood in the tavern was so cozy and joyful, and it is EXACTLY what I imagined the Hadestown speakeasy looks like when Persephone is singing "Our Lady of the Underground"

-That being said- I wish we got the scene where they burn it down for being the heart of rebellion.

-I didn't like the change they made to Jessup's rabies. He was supposed to get it while at the capital. That bite was supposed to be after their first night in the zoo, where they thought a rat bit him (later speculated to be a raccoon). I don't like how it was changed to a bat bite while on the train.

The whole point of it in the book was supposed to emphasize the propaganda that's even being forced onto capital citizens- not just district citizens- that the capital is utopian.

"There is no rabies in the capital anymore- we got rid of it within *our* borders. It must have come from those *filthy* districts. Look at how it turns him even more *animalistic.*"

But instead, they change the bite to be from a bat while they were on the train. To me, that seems too close to "the rabies came from the districts." (Even if it was a capital train.)

Like, at the start of the movie, we are treated to an absolute rollercoaster as they try to set up everything that was going wrong in the capital during the war in the span of 5 minutes. One of these being a dog who's foaming at the mouth. I entirely expected that bite to happen within the zoo with that kind of set up.

There could have even been really interesting pay-off for it too. Other students seeing the foaming, freaking out, and almost panicking because "rabies is back." (Hell, even have Flickerman seem spooked by it). SELL HOW DANGEROUS THIS DISEASE IS/ SEEMS TO THEM. Because they lived through it. Most people in the capital probably have a horror story involved with a rabies encounter, because of how rampant it apparently was in the capital.

-The same can also be said about Dill- I don't like how blaise they were about her constant cough, and possible tuberculosis. That shit kills- they would not be casual about being near her. (Though the absolutely would make jokes in her expense)

-Reaper could have been more of a dick. In book, he actually says "I'm sorry I'm going to have to kill you all." (In response Jessup spits in his face- which causes Reaper to ALSO contract rabies, but that's neither here nor there). He honestly isn't too threatening other than a quick jump scare when his mentor is first talking to him.

He's honestly more of a gentle giant? In a way? Like, he pairs with Dill and after she dies, collects all the bodies around the arena in a row and covers them. He isn't the same threat that he was in the books.

-I would have preferred if we went in the arena with a count of how many tributes were left. I think 22 were still alive? But it was really hard to keep track. I know in the book between the rough handling, the Arachne incident, and the bombing- both the mentor and tribute pool slimmed significantly before the games even started. But in the movie I think only 2 tributes actually died before the games.

-As far as that rollercoaster at the beginning- it throws a LOT of information at you all at once- and not all of it is mentioned again. Especially not the cannibalism- which I feel could have been changed a bit?

-We didn't get much about Snow's peers, which is a shame since he has SO MUCH that he thinks about each one of them and their backgrounds in the books.

-Clemensia's poisoning should have been more colorful, and could have been WAY more grotesque. I'm talking a rainbow of mottled skin spreading up her arm until her face swells shut. We also should have gotten confirmation on whether or not she died.

It would have been more satisfying if during Snow's hospitalization, he tried to see her, only to find those golden scales covering her body and turning her eyes yellow like in the book.

-I wish Maude Ivory was more of a character- she's one of the main reasons it's theorized The Hanging Tree and other songs by Lucy Gray are remembered.

-In the book, in that last conversation with the doctor, she tells Snow that she will never replay the footage of the 10th games. There's too much rebellion attached to it. I wish that line has been kept- that way his thoughts of "People will forget her" actually have a bit more weight.

-I wish we had seen more of Sejanus' mom- just to see what costumes would have done with her dresses.

-I wish we saw more of Tigris' designs, or heard more of her struggles with her boss- just a mention of what she had to do to keep the House of Snow on top.

I think that's it for now? I just watched it last night, so some things need a bit longer to be thought about, but in general I just want MORE.

[aro-pancake-writes]

@spookyspecterino @fangbangerghoul @bearlytolerant

WIP Wednesday! Let's do it!

This one's living up here, rent free in a triplex, along with Chant from Hadestown.

Ng+ spoilers.

It's just a sketch for a first chapter, but let's go!

Btw, it's about a Starborn that did everything to go back.

Lover everything I do, I do it for the love of you.

I've been travelling for… so long I lost count. Searching, looking, everywhere.

My hands are bloody. My emotions are all but gone. I don't even bother anymore. Not with trying to meet the new versions, with seeing them die.

I tried, I think. Once, long ago, when all of this started. I wanted to move on, to continue with my life, fix the mistakes I couldn't fix before.

But this is the last jump I'll ever take. I'll resign. Find an empty planet and live there the rest of my days. Or end it all before that. I just know that I can't stay in this universe a moment longer.

I close my eyes, remembering him. The reason I jumped in the first place. He told me to. He said, promised, that we'd find eachother again. That he'd love me in every universe.

I laugh at that last one. There's still a scar on my stomach from one of the meetings we had. One that Sam never had Cora. That he still loved Lillian.

I'm broken now. My only guiding light is, was, to find him randomly across the universes. The Unity said he would eventually jump in, he'd come looking for me.

It's been millennia, and I'm no longer sure.

So, one more jump. One last try.

The lights are blinding, and the sights were once mesmerising. They lost their beauty for me so long ago.

I make my way back to New Atlantis. One last time.

There's something hauntingly familiar as I walk through the spaceport to the Lodge. Something that tells me I've been here before. I've been to this version.

I step into the Lodge, waiting to meet Sarah, have her asking me about the artifacts. I prepare myself for Walter snark comments and Matteo's awe.

But that's not what I see.

The first thing I see is a familiar cowboy hat. Sam.

I hold back from jumping at him, no matter how much I want to and it breaks what's left of my heart that I can't. It didn't end up well before.

I watch, patiently, as he turns to face me, removing his hat.

Sam looks older. There are strands of silver on his hair and beard, and wrinkles forming around his eyes. But it's still him.

He's smiling. Arms open and inviting.

I cross my arms, fighting even more the urge to go to him. It's not my Sam. Not the one of my original universe. That I fell in love with. It's another version. Right?

I can't be back. After all this time, to be sent back feels like the Unity is rubbing it off on my face.

“Haven't seen you in a while, love.” Sam says, stepping closer to me. “You're still as beautiful as the day I lost you.”

He touches my face, and I allow him. It's been so long since I felt any kind of warmth, that this feels like it's scorching my skin and I want more.

“Please, don't tease me like this.” I say, remembering the universes I've told him.

“I'm not.” He says, placing a hand on his holster, taking out the pistol there. “This is for you. Saved my ass more than I could count. Time to give it back.”

It's my pistol. I couldn't bring myself to use one like it since the first time I went through. Couldn't keep them.

“It's yours now.” I push his hand back, so he can put it away. “I can't take it away from you.”

His smile dies. It's almost like he sees that I'm not the person who walked through Unity.

“Why would I need it? It was a reminder of you.” He asks, stepping back. “I finally got you back. And I'm not letting you go again.”

Again.

If there was ever any doubt that I'm back, it fades away. I'm home.

I can't resist anymore. Falling into his arms, I allow myself to feel again. I cry, holding on to him.

“How long?” I gather the courage to ask, unsure if I want too know.

“A little over ten years.” There's sorrow as he answers me, running a hand on my back.

I missed so much. Cora is all grown up now. Probably off to college.

And I can rest. Hoping that is not just another bad joke from the Unity. They did it so much by now, with universes where he was already dead, or happy in a different life. Those were the worst for me.

Not really thinking, I kiss him. It's a heavy kiss, where we both show how we missed eachother.

I can't believe we're finally back together. After all this time.

“So,” I lean back, looking into his lovely blue eyes, “what did I miss?”

[hallowed-wings]

hallo! :D i'm gonna send 8 in two separate asks and u two can divide them up however you'd like (sorry if that's too many askdfjaksf) - for this one, 1, 2, 7, 8

[ helloooo this is ashes here!! we've split it up so we each take one set of four and then nab questions we want from the others set too. this is also my second go at answering this because the first draft didn't save :'] ]

[ 1 ] Tell us about your current project(s)  – what’s it about, how’s progress, what do you love most about it?

so i'm legally required to have several things cooking up at once /lh so I have a bunch of stuff on the backburners (very far back but in my defense it's exam season and i'm tired) such as a character/location study 5+1 things style (though im unsure if it is an actual 5+1 or just like. several segments with the same theme) on l'manhole, a desert duo 5+1 from grians pov (actually a 5+1 this time I swear) and a fic from when eret rescued michael whilst hannah george and sapnap played bedwars, due to a devastating (/pos) tiktok I saw, and a few other things! but they likely won't be my focus atm 😔☝️✨

my main project rn is the love of my life, my hadestown 3L (/LL/a touch of Empires ish) au!!! Jimmy is Orpheus. Scott is Eurydice. it's a tragedy. Cleo and Etho are Persephone and Hades and their relationship is a mess. aaaalllll that good stuff to come!! can't spoil too much. it's full of emotions, full of stuff I can't speak about tooooo much in case of spoilers but I've been working very hard on it!! the whole plan is written (though I keep adding more and more and more) and I've started writing chapter one! so it's very much in the works and I'M personally very much excited :]

[ 2 ] Tell us about what you’re most looking forward to writing – in your current project, or a future project

there's twists and metaphors in my hadestown au (gods above it needs a name) that i'm super excited for and trying very much not to spoil!! but im very excited for hadestown!lizzie in particular, and more cleo content is always good :]!! hadestown!cleo is very lovely to me she means the world To Me. but yeah i love a good extended metaphor or twist, the sort that makes me feel VERY INTELLIGENT for put it there; i've run all these particular ones past riser to make him go MMMMM so i hope that bodes well 👀

[ 7 ] What do you think are the characteristics of your personal writing style? Would others agree?

i would say personally that my works are all very emotionally driven!!! not necessarily on purpose but almost every work boils down to a feeling or handful of feelings at its core. hadestown au is about love, my c!eret michael rescue fic is about grief and redemption, and so on! I also love metaphors. just so much. many metaphors all the time this isn't flowery writing this is a whole botanical garden!!!

i asked a few people and yeah I'd say they agree. riser says im very smart (true and so based /lh)!! but seriously no riser says i sometimes have lines that just bang severely ( i.e this, circa blue christmas. — Ghostbur’s thoughts tumble from his mouth the same way smoke drifts off from him; curling and aimless. ) and that i clearly understand structure and am brilliantly linguistically etc etc, another friend said that my writing was "quiet in the best way possible" "mature ; me and my husband + its sigh" and very cathartic, which I think is all pretty cool!

[ 8 ] Is what you like to write the same as what you like to read?

right see- the answer here is yes and no? because i'd say yes in terms of dynamic/characters, if i really like a dynamic/character i'll seek out their content and im more likely to probably write them, although that's! not always true! i wouldn't say i read a lot of puffy and niki content, but i have them featured in my l'manhole 5+1 things (which is going to be called my little versailles btw, from sufjan steven's fourth of july. very good song very sad </3), and i don't think i've ever written 4/4 sbi and yet i read Rather A Lot Of It??

but also. I grew up on high fantasy, and I still love it, i crave nothing more than complicated aus in settings fresher than the first lamb of spring (SEE IT IS to t; passerine) but can I be arsed to plan that thoroughly myself? no! i am simply cramming it in my mouth as fast as i can. ALSO READ A LOT OF WINGFIC AND DONT WRITE IT but I gotta write more about winged characters... do I know anything about birds? no I just. I like them.

gods above that was a rambly answer -

bonus thievin': [ 9 ] Are you more of a drabble or a longfic kind of writer? Pantser or plotter? Do you wish you were the other?

i'm definitely a drabbler! i've never finished a longfic... ever... started Many but never finished them as much as i want to, with one semi-notable exception that still only exists in 4 and a half notebooks and needs to be typed up. i'm more of a pantser in general (which i LOATHE i wish i was more planned out), i tend to try and strike while the inspiration iron is hot (and boy oh boy is it a quickly cooling thing), but i'm trying to plan more. i find 5+1's the easiest to plan for because its so neatly chunked down, fun fact!! and my hadestown au has a whole plan and im very very proud of said plan :] so hopefully that will break the mould of unfinished longfics!

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there u go! hope that wasn't too wordy/long/ rambly :] enjoy and thanks so much for the ask !

[strandsofgold]

Your writing is seriously so beautiful literally any time you post anything I just sit there like 🥲 you always capture the characters so so well! If I may could I request something similar to Girls and Women but for Dutch (if you write for him)? His relationship with women on the surface is… interesting to say the least but I’d love to see your take on it!!

@daddytacitus thank you so much for this, it means the world! i'm just sitting here smiling like an idiot.

as for the story, while i do write for dutch, i don't think i'll be writing this in the near future. mostly because i'd want to do it justice and it would end up really long (because, you know, dutch isn't exactly a straight-forward character). plus, i already have a few other long fics i want to finish first - two smutty reader-inserts (one with dutch, and one with both dutch and arthur), and at least four more general fics (one about tilly's life in the gang, one about arthur and mary's relationship and how it fell apart, one about how dutch and hosea met hadestown style, and one about susan making money in a creative way).

with that being said, it is something i've already considered doing. except, with the way that i interpret dutch's view of/relationship with women, i feel like it'd be really difficult to write something like 'girl's and women' without making it seem like he's conscious of his biases when i don't think that's the case.

toxic masculinity is like his whole thing (to an even more extreme degree than the other men in rdr who also grapple with that shit), and it's so ingrained in our social lives and norms even today that it would feel kinda hollow to me? if that makes sense?

like, it would just be a series of paragraphs with him seeing rich powerful men having in young, beautiful women on their arms and wanting to be like them intertwined with paragraphs describing his romanticism and how those two sides of him clash something awful with each other.

from the way he talks, it's so clear that he genuinely believes in love, but his desire to be considered a 'great' man by society's standards – with beautiful, young women as lovers being an indicator of power and status – leads him to initiate relationships that will inevitably fall apart (because of him btw. i am not trying to excuse his bullshit, what he does to molly is awful).

so like, i'll maybe write it at some point in the future, but i wouldn't hold my breath. i'm really honoured that you'd request this of me though and i really appreciate it. i'll definitely keep it in mind for the future.

if you have any other a bit more frivolous requests please feel free to end them in! i have a few in my inbox already, and since they usually end up shorter, i'm able to write them a bit faster :).

[aaronstveit]

🌼 + i went to see black widow today with one of my best friends and i'd forgotten how amazing movie theatres are... the reactions of people around you... how BIG AND LOUD AND BOLD everything is... the trailers! the cushy seats! the smell of popcorn! for context the last film i saw in theatres was little women so it's been a while lol

AHHHH YAY i love that for you arwen !!!!!! i miss movie theaters sooo much so i feel you <3 oh what nice thing should i say about you... should i tell you that i love your gifsets and how much fun you clearly have with them? or that you always have the best recommendations and i am still SO amused by the fact that a song from hadestown was my top song on spotify last year because of you (even if i still haven't finished the soundtrack or actually watched the musical). you are always SO fun to interact with and every time i see your url (knives out rights btw<3) i know that i'm about to smile or laugh. you are smart and funny and talented and i'm so glad to know you!!!!! 💛

send me an emoji + something that made you happy recently and i will say something nice about you!