#totally not at all related to my previous post nope

[angelsdean]

in other news. i've been thinking abt dying my hair

[kafkaoftherubble]

260章感想一二：靠，这章神经病到俺想写东西了

This ramble contains spoilers for Jujutsu Kaisen manga Chapter 260.

Honestly, of all the replacements he could have had, Todo chose the one instrument with a name is Todo as fuck: vibraslap. Vibra. Slap. Suddenly the name "Boogie Woogie" is even more apt. I mean, boogieing to the sound of vibraslap is just the most 50000000 IQ "it's all coming together" type of logic ever.

Is this, once again, one of Gege's famous "I don't know how it happened, but I managed to accidentally foreshadow this" level of competency? Or is this one of those moments when you suspect Gege is actually more brilliant than he likes to pretend otherwise?

Is Gege really just... Aoi Todo? Who else could encapsulate being brilliantly stupid and stupidly brilliant simultaneously? Okay, sorry. I meant "Aoi Todo with a lust for murder."

Thanks, Mahito, for the Modification

Todo might have lost his hand because Mahito's touch is radioactive to your fucking soul, but the new vibraslap "hand" actually made Todo and even more versatile team player. He lost one point in fighting and gained 20 points in utility. This is sick as fuck. It's vibra-slapping Mahito, post-mortem, because he didn't even manage to screw Todo properly after all.

Now, given Jujutsu Kaisen is strangely baked with Buddhist themes in its backbone, this new development with Todo can, believe it or not, be read with a Buddhist lens.

Buddhist Generosity

One of Buddhism's most central teachings concerns "non-attachment" (typically related to nekkhamma, "renunciation"). The idea is that being detached liberates you from the constraints such attachment imposes. Renunciation liberates.

In light of how way-too-many Jujustu Kaisen fans had the tendency to misunderstand Buddhist non-attachment, I gotta stress: non-attachment isn't being apathetic or "not giving a damn to the conventions of the world" or "living for myself, not attached to the cares of anyone." Nope, Sukuna is not an example of non-attachment, please. In Buddhism, non-attachment is a path to cultivate upekkhā, "equanimity," and is mutually reinforcing with other brahmavihārā ("sublime attitudes") such as compassion and loving-kindness. Non-attachment frees you from egocentricity, instead of reinforcing it, so you are now free enough to realize how stupid and limiting it is to care only about yourself. In comparison, people like Sukuna are totally not the kind to have done away with "egocentricity."

When Todo sacrificed one of his most important assets—the source of much of his fighting prowess and skills—for the sake of his bruzha's success in taking down a genuine piece of shit (therefore saving everyone else... at least, that's what everyone thought at the time), it was an act of non-attachment. Giving up the things you are attached to is an act of Buddhist generosity; it circles back to nekhamma, "renunciation."

From an outside perspective, Todo is lessened by this significant loss. He didn't even show up for a fuck ton of chapters since then—people have been speculating if he has any plot significance anymore.

Which is why this chapter slaps, uh, Buddhistly.

Todo's display of generosity—his moment of non-attachment and renunciation—liberated him. He is now freed from his previous limitation and uses something that enhances his ability so hard that he can help even more people, i.e. performing even more valuable assistance and rescue.

It's a pretty Buddhist thesis. Non-attachment/renunciation leads to liberation, and that liberation is in the service of other people instead of yourself.

Jujutsu Kaisen never ceases to be quietly Buddhist in bewildering, unexpected ways. It's part of why I love this shit, give or take Gege being Gege.

---------------

White-haired Motherfucker

Okay, fine. There is almost always ONE reason why I'd suddenly write about Jujutsu Kaisen. Otherwise, I'll feel like the fandom does not need my inferior ass to muddy the essay space, ahahhaha!

No, it's the fault of:

Bruh. Is this motherfucking Gojo Satoru I see?!

Fucker is trending again on Malaysian Twitter and some other places. GEGE, YOU KNOW EXACTLY WHAT YOU'RE TRYING TO DO WITH THIS SHIT.

So, what's the deal with this tease?

Well, as usual, I will order my hypotheses based on how confident I am. All of these hypotheses altogether form the whole number 10.

Is this just Sukuna's hallucination of Gojo now that he's really in a very real place of losing? [5]

Satoru is probably the most memorable person Sukuna clashed over his four-armed career of being a calamity. Subsequent fights after Gojo are, in a distant way, an extension of Gojo's fight with him. Sukuna compares his foes to the man. He likes name-dropping the man.

The ghost of Gojo has always kind of been there to Sukuna. Hence, it's not too strange to think that Sukuna taking too many Ls in succession had caused him to hallucinate the ghost of Gojo on the battlefield.

And it would be quite a Gege thing to do, too. Teasing us with a ghost and trolling us with an actual ghost.

Kenjaku powering Gojo's corpse with his Kenjuckenergy. [1]

The possibility is low to me because Ui Ui rescued Gojo's body, therefore not leaving his corpse for any sort of exploitation. Kenjaku also died pretty far away from the battle itself.

Cursed doll technique [1]

Gojo is reanimated as a cursed doll. Possible, but I don't know how that might work out.

Gojo is revived, though at a cost. [2]

The most popular theory I saw was that he returned by trading one of his 6 Eyes. Or he chose to go "north." Stuff like that. All the copium we ever had, basically.

My confidence in this is rather low based on probabilities, but I personally hope this will be true against all odds. Sacrificing his eye to return will fit nicely into the theme Todo's already bringing (see the section on Buddhist Generosity), tie into the exploration of him being the strongest, and his liminal existence between being a human and a nonhuman because of his eyes and powers.

Other hypotheses I have not thought of or considered at all, like Yuta inheriting his eyes for some reason. [1]

Whatever it is, though? If Gojo had to come back, it has to be really well-written or significantly impactful. What would hurt me more than Chapter 236... is to see a mockery of Satoru's character and arcs.

So don't fuck it up, Gege!

[pipermca]

Writing Year in Review - 2023

I have to say, 2023 was an odd year for me.

I finally made it to TFCon again (after taking a long hiatus during the pandemic), and it was absolutely lovely to see everyone. I got to meet some new folks face-to-face, and meet up again with people I'd met in 2019. Spouse came with me this time, and he had a pretty good time (despite only being a TF fan via osmosis).

We did no other travel, though. Part of that was because we got a new cat, so we're back to needing to make kenneling arrangements before going anywhere. And as much of a joy as our cat is, that has made travel a little more inconvenient.

I had some major disruptions at work this year, completely upending the end of my summer and start of fall. As a direct result of this, the coming year is going to be extremely challenging work-wise as I get caught up on some things. Hopefully by late summer 2024, the pressure will be off and I can relax again (back into my usual level of work-related stress).

I also had my first round of Covid in 2023, which absolutely sucked. F minus, not recommended. I came very close to going to the ER during the worst of it, and the aftermath continued to kick my ass for months. The fatigue and brain fog was real, but the other health issues that it produced are still with me. Thank god for vaccines; I don't know how things might have gone if I hadn't been vaccinated.

In the coming year, I am going to try to focus on being kind to myself, both mentally and physically. Part of that is going to include the expectations I'm setting for myself for writing.

In December, I wrote 5,500 words, most of it in the story I've started posting, A Matter of Propriety. The story is still being posted (and I need to finish writing it!!) and I'm hoping to keep up my once-a-week posting schedule. If I can't make good progress on the next chapter this week, I'll probably drop into an every-other-week schedule instead, just so I can maintain my chapter buffer. (The story will likely have eight chapters total.)

For the year, in 2023 I wrote 62,502 words. Most of that was on A Matter of Propriety and Again and Again and Again (my TF Big Bang fic). However, I only posted 24,184 words to AO3, split between 4 completed works. (A Matter of Propriety will finish in 2024, so its stats will eventually count for that year.)

Most months I didn't set a specific word count goal, and that's ok. But possibly as a result, my output was all over the map. The two major peaks are in April (when I did the bulk of my Big Bang fic writing), and July (when I got a smutty fic idea and banged (hah) it out really quick).

Like always, my average words per hour is pretty consistent, although not as much as in previous years. Still, it shows that when I do sit down and write, I get consistent work done.

As I mentioned, I didn't make specific writing goals most months, but when I did, I never reached them. That tells me I am setting my goals too high, and I need to be more realistic.

As for the goals I set for myself for 2023, I did pretty awful. 😅 Again, I think I was just setting expectations too high for myself.

Finish Sun and Moon (working title) Nope. I barely worked on it at all.

Finish one Sparkr story (any of my bunnies or WIPs!) In progress? Call this 50%.

Write two comic scripts for practice Nope.

Make more progress in IDW2 reviews Nope, 0% progress made.

Finish The King and the Bounty Hunter Barely worked on this, either, so no.

Rewrite/repost stories that I took down. Call this 50% done.

When chatting about this with a friend last night, I realized that THREE of my goals were basically "finish this longfic." Considering how much brainpower longfics take, it's no wonder I failed. So as part of my "be kind to myself" vision statement 😅 I'm going to focus on do-able goals, with one "stretch" longfic goal.

Write two comic scripts for practice

Finish reposting taken-down fics

Write and post three one-shots

Start posting Sun and Moon (working title)

My rationale for these is: I really want to practice scriptwriting. I really want to finish getting those old fics back up in a better format. I LOVE the instant quick gratification of getting a short story written and posted. And the stretch goal is to start posting Sun and Moon. If I'm starting to post it, that means I am confident about finishing it. ✨

Behind the cut is the first sentence of each of the stories I posted (sans the reposted fics, since those were all backdated to their original posting dates), and the month it was posted in. I wish everyone a happy and safe 2024!

August. Sharing is Caring. "That's it… There you go." The words were whispered into Bluestreak's audial.

August. Plans in Plans. The tiny dot in the distance grew in size as it approached, until Megatron's optics were able to resolve it into the shape of a Seeker.

September. Again and Again and Again. Create log file.

November. A Nice Set of Wheels. "So who is this guy, again?" Mirage asked, slipping between a box truck and a van.

December. A Matter of Propriety. Orion picked up his comm pad for approximately the thousandth time since being shown to his table, and checked it for messages.

[noratilney]

20 Questions for Writers

I was tagged by @asirensrage! Thanks!

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

I have 24 as of answering this.

2. What’s your total AO3 word count?

44,041

3. What fandoms do you write for?

Currently? Riverdale, A Song of Ice and Fire, and The Vampire Diaries/The Originals. That doesn't mean everything else is out of the question, just not what's on my radar at the moment.

4. What are your top five fics by kudos?

buried hopes sprout anew (Harry Potter) a.k.a. the trans!Al fic I wrote back in 2017 kind of on a whim that appears to continue to resonate, kudos: 308

city lights on the water (One Day at a Time) was written for an exchange but really enjoyed writing it (possibly yuletide, I don't quite remember), kudos: 155

on the outside (looking in) (Gilmore Girls) the Gigi character study, kudos: 85

Poor Man's Summer (A Song of Ice and Fire) this was definitely written for an exchange and it's a popular ship so the reception doesn't surprise me (although I would have guessed that it would have ranked higher), kudos: 82

hope is in the dawn (A Song of Ice and Fire) same as above although the ship is more mid-level popularity by comparison, kudos: 68

5. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

Usually yes. I’m sometimes slow and bhsa and my somewhat related other fic solace get the most comments of all my fic and some of the comments are very similar to previous comments so I’m not responding to every single one anymore. But I do love comments and I do try my best to respond to them.

6. What’s the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

I uh…haven’t finished a non-one shot fic in my life, unfortunately, so uhhh I guess there are two possible alternatives to this question. The first is what fic has the angstiest ending based solely on what I’ve posted to-date and the answer to that would be someone to look after you. The second is what fic will have the angstiest ending by the time it’s finished and the answer to that is obviously subject to change but will most likely be Deepwater.

7. What’s the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

I mean, see above but let’s see, the fic with happiest ending based solely on what I’ve posted to-date is you’re my christmas and the fic that will have the happiest ending by the time it’s finished, obviously subject to change, is How to Survive the Annual Downton Christmas Party.

8. Do you get hate on your fic?

No, not really. One time someone posted a kind of hate comment on city lights where they told me that Syd and Elena should have had sex in the fic. It mostly made me laugh because it’s such a weird comment to leave. Also, Syd’s sister was literally right there?

9. Do you write smut?

I have written some, yes. I haven’t posted any yet though. Two different steps for me! 😅

10. Do you write crossovers?

Nope! I’m not really big on crossovers, actually, since I get a lot of hangups on differing world workings.

I did have a fusion fic I was working on for a friend at one point back in time. (For me, fusion usually means characters from fandom a and characters from fandom b in a neutral setting or a setting from a third fandom.) It was a Clary Fray/Kira Yukimura pairing set at Hogwarts.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not that I’m aware of.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

No.

13. Have you ever co-written a fic?

No but I’m not opposed.

14. What‘s your all-time favorite ship?

Oh, that’s a difficult one. It kind of depends on what type of genre I’m fixating on and I also write a lot of oc x canon fic, especially going back the past five years, and usually that’s because I’m not really satisfied with the ship options for the canon character (not always, sometimes just because it’s fun to play in the sandbox but definitely a lot). I would say Sybil x Tom from Downton Abbey have been pretty long-lasting for me and also I adore Buffy x Tara from BTVS.

15. What’s the WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

All of them? 😅😭

16. What’s your writing strengths?

I wish I knew! 

No, okay, I think what I am good at is foreshadowing. My absolute favorite fic comment of all time is a commenter who said that they only noticed a detail on second reading but it hit them really hard. Like, they reread my work and they noticed that poignant detail? Dream reader and commenter!

Related, I think I’m good at writing things from a pov that might not notice the significance or meaning of something but it’s clear enough that a reader will catch it if they’re not skimming or speedreading. 

17. What’s your writing weaknesses?

I think what I need to work on is a descriptions, as in I could probably fill a page with words and words describing a scene but I need to learn how to use less is more to paint a vivid picture and draw the reader’s eye to an important detail or two.

Dialogue is also very hit or miss for me. Sometimes I think of dialogue while doing other stuff/out of the middle of nowhere and that I usually think is good. What I’m a lot less good at is writing dialogue when I’m writing a scene and it reaches the dialogue portion which I haven’t gotten to in my head/imagining yet.

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language for a fic?

This is a super open-ended question. Uh, I would say there are many possible ways to do this. So far, it hasn’t been something I’ve had to wrestle with but I know going forward that I will have to. I think it depends on how much text the dialogue is? Beyond a few sentences, I think it becomes kind of cumbersome to have text in a language distinct from the text of the overall piece. (I’m definitely biased because I don’t care if the language is untranslated if I personally can understand it. 😅) I think it also makes a difference if the language is supposed to be understood by the characters/pov character as well.

I guess I’m not saying don’t do it but do think about what the reader will be thinking.

Here’s a good post about it/asking about it from a couple months back. Make sure to look through the notes!

19. First fandom you wrote for?

Pretty sure it was HP on my old, old fanfiction.net account.

20. Favorite fic you’ve ever written?

I think my favorite fic that I’ve written so far is Stardust. I wrote it for a friend as a part of a little informal exchange and it was really great to get in the head of a character who I like but don’t think about very much and who is quite different from the kinds of characters I usually like. I think I was able to write a really strong characterful piece that doesn’t contradict anything established by canon in the character’s backstory as well as make it a contained, thoughtful fic. 

tagging: @bluebell-winter, @joaquinwhorres, @kendelias, @foxesandmagic, @wordspin-shares and anyone else who would like to do this!

[roxannarambles]

Hello, saw this floating around and decided to fill it out, since I'm just chilling right now.

I don't really like tagging people, don't want them to feel on the spot, so if you see this, consider yourself tagged if you so desire. ^_^

20 Questions for Fic Writers

1. How many works do you have on A03?

At the moment, 24, but I have more posted to my Tumblr than I do a03. I prefer it here (although the audience is smaller)

2. What's your total A03 word count?

Kind of an odd question. 479,942. I guess this is supposed to be flexing? But I really do feel like it's not the quantity that matters, it's the quality.

3. What fandoms do you write for?

In the past, many. (I didn't write for all of em but here's some of my previous fandoms) Currently I write for Pokemon.

4. What are your top five fics by kudos?

For complete fics, the top spots belong to some Owl House fics, the next is a short Breath of the Wild Sidlink fic, the next is my Legault/Heath Fire Emblem story, and then a compilation of Moomin stories for a Snufmin Week.

5. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

Yes. In my FF.net days, the norm seemed to be not to respond to comments. But these days, responding to comments seems to be the new norm. Besides, it's nice to thank people for taking the time out of their day to comment and for being such lovely human beings. Even if it IS really hard for me to think of how to thank them without sounding like a buffoooooon (I take a while to get around to it sometimes argh)

6. What's the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

I have never done that. I want hopeful stories because they give me hope. I think the world needs more of that right now.

7. What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

How do you even judge that? Sorry I gotta skip this one, I have no clue

8. Do you get hate on fics?

Very rarely. In Owl House fandom, there are two characters who are not biologically related, did not grow up together, do not share a parental figure, and are not familial in any capacity. However, because a large number of fans have decided they have a "sibling vibe," they've concluded that shipping them together is vile and anyone who does so should be witch-hunted, harassed, slandered, doxxed, and worse. So, I got hate for that occasionally! That's about it, though.

9. Do you write smut?

I did once. Never again, lol

10. Do you write crossovers?

I wrote a Moomin/Deltarune crossover for a while. Nobody read it, though. A shame, it was fun.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Why would you steal a fic? Well, it's the internet, I guess you see just about everything online eventually, but I've never even heard of that. Art theft? Sure. Usually so the person can scam folks into commissioning them. Fic theft though? Nope. That's a new one for me. This is not an invitation for folks to try it out, lol

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

Somebody asked me permission once to do that! I told them yes. I never heard back from them though.

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

A lifetime ago I did a round-robin fic with my friends. I don't think I could co-write a fic now though, honestly. I'm so very picky about my headcanons. I would be horrible to work with.

14. What's your all-time favorite ship?

Man, that's tough. I guess probably Mulder/Scully (see question 19) just because it was my first ship and left such an impression on me.

15. What's the WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

'Second Chances.' It was such a cute story and so FUN. People loved it too. And I had it all planned out. But I left Owl House fandom before completing it. I never will return to it, I am too bitter with the final season of the show and the mainstream fans are also very tiresome to deal with.

16. What are your writing strengths?

Hmm. I'm getting to be pretty good at outlining things and figuring out the story's structure. tbh ~90% of my story is often done before I even start my first draft, either due to the vivid daydreams I have, trying stuff out and then trying different things out in my head (& the notes I take on said daydreams) or the progressively more specific outlines as I work things out. That said, there's definitely still stuff that simply does not work on paper that seemed so good in your head. And there's a lot of magic that just seems to spontaneously happen while writing the actual draft out, and it's so important to stay open to that. Whoops I am rambling. I guess in summary my strength is finding a satisfying ratio of outlining stuff vs. staying open to ideas and letting the story lead me in the direction it wants to go.

Also I think I'm pretty good at dialogue. Action/scene description is harder for me, but dialogue feels easy.

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

My ideas tend to be very Big. I have great difficulty writing shorter stories. This sucks because I do not have limitless time and energy and I can sometimes bite off more than I can chew. I would love to write shorter stories so I can try out a larger number of ideas. I also want to improve my prose, I need some more variety in there, imo.

My primary weakness, though, is I only write as a form of escapism when I feel depressed. I want a healthier relationship with my writing and with fandom. Basically, I need to learn how to do things casually, to not let an interest consume me completely. I'll let you know if I figure out how to do that, no luck so far.

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language for a fic?

I'm a boring monolingual. I'm not going to write in another language unless I know at least a little about it. Toss in a few phrases or sentences, sure, but nothing more than that.

19. First fandom you wrote for?

The X-Files. I was a Mulder/Scully shipper. We called it MSR back then, MulderScullyRomance. I was a young lass back then, and it was my induction to shipping and romance. I loved them because they had fantastic chemistry and a strong partnership built on trust and mutual respect, despite their differing worldviews and interests. Also because I really really liked Scully.

20. Favorite fic you've ever written?

Hmmmmm. Tough to choose. I really like "Acquired Taste" because it was the first really long fan fiction I wrote and finished. (At least, I think? I had a long Stargate fic back in the day but we don't speak of that) And I wrote it after a really long break from writing fic (years and years). It has a very special place in my heart.

Is it my best work, though? Mmm. Not sure. I'm also pretty fond of "Ships That Pass in the Night," my longest work. I put my heart and soul into it and got so many comments/interactions, and it has a lot of happy memories.

I also really like some super short stories of mine, though. This one is 613 words long but I feel like it says everything my longer stories on Julinemo do. I also loved writing Support Conversations for Fire Emblem which force you to tell as much as you can in such an incredibly short format. (GBA-era Fire Emblem) I am so proud of those, they pushed me a lot as a writer.

I also like the fics I've done that are mostly genfic, because again, they involved trying something new. They tend to be my least popular 'cause ships reign supreme I guess. That's fine though, that's just the way fic writing goes.

[departednightmare]

If you're really aroace, then the internalised aphobia here is strong enough to crush a fully-grown whale. Holy shit.

Why did I assume you're allo? I dunno mate, might be because you're being aphobic. Not a massive leap of logic to assume that someone being phobic towards one group probably isn't a part of said group.

We've also got to consider how you seem to be following your own advice and presenting yourself as allo. After reading your reblog, I double-checked your blog description and pinned post for any hints of asexuality that I might have previously missed due to my not snooping. It shouldn't surprise you to know I didn't find a blip of asexuality or aromanticism in relation to you there. "it’s so much easier to just… avoid the damn topic compared to gay people." With your apparent aroace status in mind, it's clear now that you were speaking from experience.

...Except it hasn't been easy, has it? Look at you. You hate everyone -- it's even your blog description! "hating everyone, one at a time. if i haven’t gotten to you yet i will don’t worry" Has it crossed your mind that, perhaps, suppressing your own identity has caused frustration to build up over time, leaving you lashing out in anger at anything and everything around you? Because that's what it looks like from the outside.

Because speaking as someone who has been in denial of her identity, and is now in the process of dropping hints so that when I eventually come out, the idea is already in people's heads... suppressing asexuality is not a case of "there’s nothing to suppress". It's hard. A part of you is locked up, wanting to be seen, but because the world doesn't understand asexuality properly, you have to curb the urge to just up and say it. If you're open about it, you run the risk of losing friendships and family forever. So you're stuck lying to the people you consider friends and family, never knowing if they'd stay if they knew you're not the allo you're presenting yourself to be. You can never truly trust them. You can never truly, honestly, reciprocate when they call you their best friend, or favourite niece, or beloved son. Because you know that could all change in an instant. You're trapped in a perpetual state of "I'm loved... but am I really?"

And then there's "just… avoid(ing) the damn topic" in romantic relationships. You can't. At some point, you'll have to A) let yourself be raped by an unknowing assailant in order to maintain your ruse, or B) come out and say it.

...But no, you're right. Hiding asexuality is easy. Nothing to suppress. Nope, nothing. No feelings to be hurt either. That's why you got upset when I assumed you were allo, even though you never mentioned your status as an aroace -- not in the post, not in your blog title, not even in your pinned post where you bluntly state your gatekeep-y opinions on LGBTQIA+ matters. Because it doesn't matter if people think you're allo, right?

"i’m asexual and aromantic mate."

...until they start accusing you of aphobia, I guess. Then you've gotta hammer in how extreme your asexuality is ("i believe asexuality is strictly no attraction and no sexual desire") to assert dominance.

Onto your actual "points"...

Point 1 and 2:

These two points both just seem to be you asserting your belief on what asexuality is/isn't, so I'll address them collectively.

You are entitled to your own personal beliefs. However, they conflict with official definitions of asexuality.

The Trevor Project definition: "Asexual/Ace: Commonly used to describe someone who experiences little to no sexual attraction. Some people on the asexual spectrum desire sexual intimacy, while others do not." They also acknowledge demi and grey as identities here.

Stonewall.org seems to both agree and disagree with you on one level, and totally contradict you on another. On one, they say that "Somebody who is asexual does not experience sexual attraction to anyone." but they also say in the previous paragraph that "Asexuality is a spectrum". On another page, they also say "‘Ace’ is an umbrella term used specifically to describe a lack of, varying, or occasional experiences of sexual attraction. This encompasses asexual people as well as those who identify as demisexual, grey ace, and other ace-spec identities."

So according to Stonewall, you're both right and wrong on the point that "asexuality is strictly no attraction and no sexual desire. little attraction exists but i do not classify that under asexuality". It completely refutes your pinned post claim that "asexuality/ aromanticism isn’t a spectrum, not inherently lgbt" (the latter point of which is refuted by both sites).

Point 3:

I'm assuming you get bullied for your own interest in "underground gore films".

Firstly, this is hardly a fair comparison. You might as well compare the struggles faced by black people in America to your struggles completing a souls-like game.

Secondly... "asexuals aren’t governed in an unfair and cruel way"? So you believe it's fair and uncruel for asexuals to have serious health concerns such as cancer disregarded in favour of "fixing" their asexuality? "asexuals aren’t prevented from having opportunities"? So when an employer doesn't consider an asexual-and-out person for a promotion purely because he doesn't like their orientation and can get away with discriminating because asexuality (or a lack of sexual orientation) isn't legally a protected characteristic, you believe the asexual person isn't being denied opportunities based purely on their sexual orientation? "asexuals have freedom with their sexuality"? Then why do so many of us feel constrained when we can't freely acknowledge our sexuality or lack thereof due to it not being safe for us to do so?

(And this isn't even getting into the mess that asexuals would face in third-world countries. Or do you think that the people who stone women for showing hair, or for loving other women, would be chill with the idea of someone not wanting to perform their "marital duties"?)

Point 4:

Again, massive internalised aphobia. I've addressed most of this elsewhere already, but:

"hiding asexuality is just literally not talking about it. hiding homosexuality is not being able to be yourself."

I could counter this simply by saying "hiding homosexuality is just literally not talking about it. Hiding asexuality is not being able to be yourself." Because it'd be just as true. A homosexual could, theoretically, hide their gayness by simply not talking about it. Relationships aren't mandatory, after all.

Except people tend to want closeness with others, be it sexual, romantic, or platonic in nature. The Secret Gay will want to engage in sexual or romantic activities with members of the same sex, and suppressing this will lead to them feeling unfulfilled. The Secret Asexual will generally want to engage in platonic and/or romantic activities with others, and suppressing this will lead to them feeling unfulfilled.

Given that romantic relationships are expected to have a sexual element, it would be very, very difficult (and potentially traumatising) for an asexual to participate in these while also keeping their identity hidden. Either they come out or they're left alone and craving again. And as for platonic relationships, it comes down to what I said earlier about trust again. How can you truly trust someone when you don't know if they'd still love you if they knew about the part of you you're keeping hidden?

On top of all that, asexuality is an experience, same as any other sexual orientation. An asexual perceives the world differently to an allosexual just as a gay man perceives it differently to a straight man. Even disregarding others' reactions to your orientation, that inherent queerness is always there, shaping your thoughts and altering your perception of others and your reactions to them. It is a part of you, rooted deep inside, inseperable.

As an aroace, you should already be aware of this. That you deny there's anything within us to be suppressed is both interesting and alarming.

Point 5:

I'm genuinely not sure what your point was supposed to be here. Yeah, if someone's decent they'll respect your boundaries in regards to sex. But many people aren't decent, are they?

Yeah, both asexuals and celibate people may state boundaries in regards to sex. But those two identities aren't the same -- one genuinely has no interest and the other is suppressing interest -- and people's reactions are always going to reflect that.

Because make no mistake, if you tell a potential partner that "if we’re in a relationship, it’s strictly no sex and please respect that", they will ask why. Because you're barring them from something that they want, and so naturally, they'll want to know why. Even if they're a closeted asexual themselves, they'll want to know if you're like them or something else -- if you might change your mind and stop being safe. Their final stance on your boundary will be based entirely on how you explain or hide your asexuality in this moment... and then of course, there are the freaks who'll tell you "Well, one night with me and that won't be a problem anymore" regardless of what you do.

It's not a case of "oh im cool with no sex lets hug" or "nah i need sex bye". People are too complex and curious for it to ever be that simple.

Your Tags (which I'm addressing here because it didn't fit well anywhere else):

"#like i already said in my original post there’s violence in ignorance and misinformation but it’s not called oppression" "#or aphobia"

...So committing acts of violence against asexuals due to their asexuality isn't aphobia? What is it then? Acist? Douchebaggery? Perfectly-Understandable-Have-A-Good-Day?

"#and you’re proving my point by calling whatever i said aphobia"

You told asexuals to hide and suppress their identities (while also claiming there's nothing to suppress), essentially called them "whining" pussies for not wanting to be dehumanised, claimed that any rape they face as a consequence of coming out is a "boundaries" thing and has nothing to do with their identity, tagged your original post with "#asexuals are doo doo dumb"and posted a video of some bloke unironically taking the piss out of them for not wanting to be treated like shit. Yes, that's aphobia.

Point 6:

Well done, you had instagram followers.

"i couldn’t handle the whining and the constant expansion of the 'umbrella'"

Well, do what you claim is so easy then. Don't talk about it. Then people like me won't find your little bitch-fits and point out "whine about" the flaws in your reasoning. You sound like one of those heavy metal elitists. "Grr, this music isn't as heavy as [insert obscure underground Atmospheric-Blackened-Death-Doom band here], it's not real metal!" Except you're doing with with the ace umbrella instead.

In all seriousness though, I hope that someday you manage to calm down and accept who you are, and recognise that other people can be similar to you but different. It sounds to me like you're incredibly dissatisfied with yourself and with life. "hating everyone, one at a time. if i haven’t gotten to you yet i will don’t worry" isn't the statement of a contented individual who's at peace with their identity. Which leads me to one final point, actually...

"there’s also cases of people who are troubled by their lack of attraction (...) therefore therapy is needed"

Please take your own advice. If I can tell at a glance that you're deeply troubled, then I can't even begin to imagine what your state of mind looks like in person. Please look after yourself and get help.

Sincerely, A fellow zero-attraction asexual

Asexuals aren’t oppressed

Nah seriously no asexual experiences systemic oppression.

“Asexuals are dehumanised.” And why do random people’s opinions matter to you? What can they do to harm you other than say: “That’s not real.”

Well sure maybe you’re discriminated against when you bring up your sexuality but it’s so much easier to just… avoid the damn topic compared to gay people.

A lot of shitty reactions are just shitty words. The shittiest reaction is rape and that’s horrid for sure. But that’s not an asexual thing. Tbh, imo, It’s a boundaries thing that non asexual people like celibates or sex repulsed individuals also experience.

“Aphobia” is something that can be so easily ignored instead of whining about it. Like it’s just one singular person, why are you allowing these people to make your entire life miserable?

Violence caused by ignorance and a dismissive attitude is real, but it shouldn’t be considered “oppression” in any way, shape or form.

[hellofeanor]

Fëanorian Quenya

Hey friends! Do you like elves? Do you like the Silmarillion? Do you like Fëanor and co? And most of all, do you like spending hours thinking about minor details pertaining to made-up languages??? If so, boy do I have a treat for you! Let’s delve into the weird world of Fëanorian Quenya and explore some history and mechanics of why they talk Like That.

I’ve seen a lot of posts joking about the Fëanorian lisp, which is about as funny as a joke about a speech impediment can be. 👍 It’s important to understand, though, that this IS a joke. No, they didn’t really speak with a lisp. Yes, they did pronounce some S sounds as TH. That’s the critical disclaimer here: SOME. It’s not a blanket pronunciation. There’s a lot of background research that goes into determining which words would be pronounced with S and which would be TH, and that’s what we’re going to look at.

So if this is something you’ve come across in fandom and you’re not totally sure on the details, or if you ARE sure and just want some more in-depth info, read on.

The stuff probably everybody knows already

For anyone who’s been hanging around the Fëanorian corner of the Silm fandom for more than three minutes, there’s about a 100% chance you’ve heard of Fëanor’s penchant for retaining an archaic TH pronunciation after the majority of the Noldor went ahead and started pronouncing this sound as S instead. You may also know that this sound is represented by the letter thorn (Þ) in HoME, but since thorn doesn’t exist in modern English orthography and it’s a pain to keep typing the ALT code, I’m sticking to TH here. Anyway, all this was due to the fact that Fëanor was a huge mama’s boy, and his mom Míriel Therindë (later called Serindë, which made Fëanor want to punch walls and possibly also fellow elves) was an outlier who retained the TH after it fell out of use. Her son Fëanor, in turn, kept this up to honor her. Now, whether or not he would have bothered if this sound hadn’t literally been a critical part of her name is debatable, but that debate is outside the scope of this essay.

Fëanor continued to use the TH pronunciation until his death, and required his sons to use it as well. Finwë, however, switched over to S after the death of Míriel and before his marriage to Indis. Fëanor, reasonable and level-headed as he was, took this as a personal insult and decided that anybody who rejected TH likewise rejected him. So presumably, his loyal followers would have obeyed his totally reasonable demands not to give in to the seductive S-shift.

Why tho

Why did the Noldor decide to alter their pronunciation from TH to S? Great question. Nobody really knows. For the hell of it? IDK. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ But the important thing to understand is that elves, and especially Noldor, were really committed to making sure their language sounds cool. This is why it changed so much and so comparatively quickly for an immortal population: they were actively invested in changing it. They liked inventing new words and exploring new sounds and messing around with grammar.

So at some point some influential Noldo might have been like, hey y’all, let’s stop saying TH and say S instead! And everyone (except Míriel I guess, who was known for her elegant manner of speech and didn’t want to muck that up by changing pronunciation of a whole letter) was like, whoa, capital idea my good egg. And they went with it. Previous ideas along these lines included ‘hey y’all, let’s stop saying KH and say H instead’ and ‘hey y’all, let’s stop saying Z and say R instead’, and those went over swimmingly. Nobody could have foreseen the problem this TH to S business would cause.

Now here’s a fun fact. There was another change to Noldorin pronunciation that happened AFTER Fëanor’s birth, that he himself was involved in. This one was all about bilabial to labiodental F. And those sure are some words, so if you don’t know what I’m talking about (I don’t blame you), BILABIAL is a more whispery sound that happens when you say F using only air passing through your pursed lips, and LABIODENTAL is when you say F with your top teeth touching your bottom lip. Going forward I’m going to use PH to represent the bilabial sound, and F for the labiodental.

So F got on the radar of the Noldor via the Teleri, who used this sound in their language. And ol’ Fëanor figured it would be awesome to incorporate it into Quenya because he thought the PH sounded too close to HW, and the two were getting confused by lazy speakers. Why did he care? Because of his dad’s name and his own, of course. If people started to get lazy in their pronunciation, we’d end up with Hwinwë and Hwëanáro, which would be terrible and stupid and unacceptable. He accused the Vanyar of leaning down that road, and he wanted to stop that kind of shift before it happened to the Noldor. How to do that? Why, by instigating a different shift from traditional Noldorin PH to Telerin F!

“Hey y’all, let’s stop saying PH and say F instead!”

“Whoa, capital idea my good egg.”

Moral of the story: Fëanor is only concerned with Quenya pronunciation insofar as it affects his own name and the names of family members he likes. He does not care whether it’s staying the same or moving to a new sound so long as it personally makes him feel good and his name sound cool. Therefore the true way to piss him off would be to call him Curuhwinwë Hwëanáro, son of Serindë.

Okay so here’s how it works

Now that history is out of the way, let’s get back to how TH was used by the Fëanorians. As I mentioned earlier, TH wasn’t a blanket pronunciation. It all depended on the original form of the word, and whether the root had a TH or an S. And some very similar-sounding words come from different roots, so this can get tricky. A great resource that’ll give you this information is Eldamo: Quenya words where the S was originally TH are marked out with the Þ (thorn) symbol in the wordlist.

Some examples:

Súlë (spirit, breath) comes from the root THŪ, which means it would be pronounced with a TH. Silma (white crystal) comes from the root SIL, so it and related words like Silmaril would be pronounced with an S. No Fëanorian would say Thilmaril. Isil (moon), however, is a similar-sounding word that comes from a different root: THIL. Olos (mass of flowers) comes from the word LOTH, but: Olos (dream) comes from the root LOS. Fëanorian pronunciation would immediately differentiate between these two words.

While Fëanorians may have retained the distinct pronunciation of TH vs S, other Noldor can still differentiate between original S and S-that-used-to-be-TH in their writing. There are specific tengwar to use depending on the word’s original form. Silmë (the one that looks like a 6) is used for original S, while súlë (or thúlë, the one that looks like an h) is used for original TH.

Which other elves used this sound in their speech?

Fandom has really latched on to this TH as a Fëanorian thing, but it wasn’t that exclusively. The TH sound was actually ubiquitous in other elven languages, and in Valinor, only the Noldor dropped it. It was still used in Telerin and in Vanyarin Quendya. The Vanyar retained the TH not because of anything to do with Míriel, but just because they were a little more conservative and their language didn’t pick up on all the changes that the Noldor made. They also noped out of the Z to R shift the Noldor initiated, opting to keep the Z around.

When Indis married Finwë, she stopped using the normal Vanyarin TH and switched over to S as a gesture of loyalty to him and his people. Finarfin, however, out of love for the Vanyar and Teleri, switched BACK to TH. I like to think about how much it would have annoyed Fëanor that his snot-nosed kid brother was speaking correctly, but for the wrong reason. Go down one more generation, and Galadriel very specifically did not use TH. But this time it was absolutely a choice made as a glaring middle finger to Fëanor.

What this means for your fanfic or whatever

The big takeaway here: you can’t just have Fëanorians replace every S with TH and call it a day.

If you’re inventing names for your Fëanorian OCs or coming up with phrases for them to say, it’s important to look into the history of all Quenya S-words you end up using to determine if they should be S or TH. If Fëanor got mad about somebody saying Serindë instead of Therindë, he’d get equally mad about somebody saying Thilmaril instead of Silmaril and assume they were mocking him. Remember: this is a dude with no chill. (On the other hand, if you WANT somebody to be mocking Fëanor, Galadriel would 100% do this because she has an equally negligible amount of chill.)

It’s also important to note that the TH isn’t a true shibboleth, since pretty much all elves EXCEPT the non-Fëanorian Noldor use it. And even the S-preferring Noldor would still be able to pronounce the TH. Those who went into exile would go on to use it commonly in Sindarin, and those who remained in Valinor would still encounter it among the Vanyar and Teleri. So if you’re writing a scene where somebody has to pronounce a TH word to prove their loyalty… yeah, everyone can pass this test. And in the opposite direction, you can’t use TH to prove somebody’s an evil Fëanorian, either. They might just be Vanyarin or something. Or, like. Really Old.

Would the sons (and followers) of Fëanor keep using TH after his death? Oh hell yeah. This is an entire family unfamiliar with the concept of not dying on hills. They will keep using it unto the ending of the world. Actually, with Sindarin becoming the common language of Middle-earth from the First Age, probably not a lot of change happened in exilic Quenya. It became a lore language: a piece of living history. It would have been preserved as it was when the original speakers left Valinor.

(And then, thousands of years later, Galadriel finally returns home to Tirion like, Long have mine eyes awaited this most blissful of sights, and ne’er hath my sprit soared with such grace, for I am returned! And all the Amanyar Noldor stare at her like, whatchu bangin on bout, eh? Because they had nothing better to do in the peace of Valinor than push Quenya to brave and frankly questionable new horizons.)

Anyway, there you go: a somewhat brief history of Fëanorian Quenya. I hope you found this informative and useful, or at the very least not boring. Obvs this is super condensed and, uh, not particularly scholarly, but I promise I know what I’m talking about. I have a university degree! (Not in anything even remotely related to what’s written above, but I hardly see how that’s relevant. It’s still a DEGREE.)

Questions? Need clarification or want more info? My asks are always open!

[jazzytrait]

all odd numbers that you haven’t done so far :)

ohlawd... lemme count... carry the 2... minus 0.76 repeating... solve for x... ok hopefully this is right and I don't miss any. 👽 7. how many urls have you had, and what are the meanings behind them? This is my only simblr url. Even my technically previous simblr... was the same url. 😅 I'm not sure if there's a meaning behind it other than I'm a coffee fiend and I was feelin' fanceh the day I came up with it. 9. who is your favorite storytelling blog? Definitely @rebouks. Somnium is a fantastic read. 11. how do you edit your photos? ... gshade 👀 That's um... that's it. I crop them and remove backgrounds in Canva because my work pays for it and I'm too cheap to pay for Photoshop again despite working in graphics and marketing design professionally.

13. what do you do when you are unmotivated? Something else. If there's one thing that I've learned to focus on it's don't sweat the small stuff. At the end of the day... this is a game. You shouldn't feel any negative pressure from something that is supposed to be fun and relaxing. If you're just not feeling it, go do something else for a while. Burn out is a real thing in every aspect of life. Forcing yourself to do something because you feel there's an expectation on you, will only cause you to build resentment for the activity. Unless you're getting paid, it's not worth it.

19. how many posts do you have on your blog currently? I have 392. Which is kinda small, but I only started posting in September. 21. how many posts are in your queue currently? Down to 27. I like to keep at least a week's worth in there in case I want to take some time off to do other stuff. 23. are you in any sims related discord servers? Nope. I'm only in one Discord server with a small group of close friends from around the country. We have game night once a week on Fridays when we play cards or jackbox or watch reruns of mst3k. I used to be much more social (had a twitch channel with decent number of followers/subs, was in toooons of discords, etc.), but now I really prefer the peace and quiet of just doing my own thing. I'm a total recluse.

ok... I think that's all the odd ones. 😰

Ask a question

[cresvalkyrie]

Hey guys. Been down in the dumps these past few days, so I’m gonna talk about Hauyne, my Interceptor OC, to cheer myself up.

Also totally not because I’ve been seeing people post about their own OCs and me wanting to hop on the bandwagon. Nope.

Some facts about her: - Hauyne is not her actual name. What her real name is, no one knows except the person in question.

- She is originally from the same world as we are, being a player of the fangame itself, who got summoned into Aevium because she had the metaknowledge needed to fulfil the role of the Interceptor. Like, seriously. If someone’s gonna change the fate of the world, they might as well be given knowledge of every possible outcome so they know which is the best option to take. 

- Before coming to Aevium, Hauyne does competitive battling and a shit ton of challenge runs as a hobby. While it does make the transition into actual battling easier, it still took her an embarassingly long amount of time for her to wrap her head around the fact that Pokemon battling is now a tangible, multi-dimensional activity rather than an abstract concept behind a screen.  

- She can understand Pokemon (like N, if you want a reference). Because of this and her general dislike for people, you’re more likely to see her warm up to a Pokemon faster than she does with a person. Most of the rejuv cast are the exception to this rule.

- Unlike her friends who specialise in one or two types (e.g. Venam with Poison and Aelita with Fighting/Flying) or have their team composition revolve around a specific theme (e.g. Erin), Hauyne doesn’t have a preference for any types. Though, she does have a thing for taking in “weak and useless” strays and turning them into juggernauts just to spite their ex-trainers.

- She has a habit of naming her Pokemon after concepts in real-life mythology. The only exception to this is her starter, a female Delphox she named Altissia. 

- As a follow-up to the previous point, her main party consists of Kali the Zeraora (her ace), Altissia the Delphox, Vedrfolnir the Sceptile-Haxorus hybrid, Muninn the shiny Corviknight, Shiva the Alolan Ninetales and Triton the Swampert. She has other Pokemon on rotation in the PC, but these are the ones she used the most. 

- Has an incorrigible sweet tooth and secretly keeps a hidden candy stash on her. Don’t even think about touching it; she will wreak absolute hell upon anyone who dared to steal from her stash. Venam learnt this the hard way. 

- Is quite knowledgeable about medicinal properties of plants. She even makes her own potions, salves and antidotes using ingredients she collected on her travels. 

- Abysmal with musical instruments. No one knows how it happens, but she’ll somehow ruin every instrument that makes its way into her hands. For some reason, she’s alright with handling her own flute (possibly a Celestica Flute, though no one can say for sure) though her skills with it leaves a lot to be desired. 

- On the flip side, she can sing extremely well. Just that her stage fright makes it seem like she couldn’t sing at all. 

- Does she like the sea? No. She loved it. She grew up in a fishing village who... aren’t the greatest fans of her and/or her family, so she often spends her time either in her room or in a nearby hidden cove to avoid the discrimination. The sounds of the waves never fails to calm her down whenever she had a crappy day.  

- It may not look like it because of her demure and complaisant disposition, but she’s a mad genius when it comes to Pokemon battling. A “fucking monster” in battle? Psh, Venam. You’re making the understatement of the year. Have you seen that feral, downright manic smile when she’s about to go for the kill? She fights like a demon straight from the ninth circle of hell, more like. *shudders*

- When she decides that she likes a particular person, she’ll draw a portrait of said person in her sketchbook. The number of drawings she made for a person is directly related to how much she likes them. And she’s a pretty good artist, all things considered... for some reason a lot of it are of a certain white-haired Archetype bearer in various casual poses  

...Well, that’s all I can think of. I’ll add more later.   

[flames-bring-a-ton-of-ash]

Irresistible Danger - Part 60

Synopsis:  After being caught outside the compound on your own, Negan decides to punish you in the best way possible ;)

Words: 3,229

Warnings: nsfw, smut, swearing

ID Masterlist can be found HERE

Masterlist of all my fics can be found HERE

Author’s Note: We’re back! Omg y’all...I finally have a path to the ending for this fic! After this chapter, I’m planning for there to be 5 more chapters until the end, which will give ID a total of 65 chapters. I’m still working on writing and editing these last chapters, but I’m pretty confident in that timeline :D I also plan to post each Friday again, so there should be chapters now through September 10th, if all goes according to plan. 

PDA

You woke with a smile the next morning, partially because of the happiness filling your chest like a balloon. The other part was because the warm body behind you, accompanied by a rasp of beard on your shoulder and soft lips on your neck, signalled that you weren’t alone. 

The florid orange rays coming in the large windows told you that it was still early, the sun barely risen above the horizon. Turning over onto your other side to face Negan, you took in his tousled hair and heavy-lidded gaze. 

“Mornin’ doll,” he said, voice raspy with sleep. 

“Morning,” you whispered back, pressing a kiss to his irresistible mouth. “No crack-of-dawn meetings today?”

His lips quirked against yours. “Nope, thank fuck,” he murmured, before rolling atop you and spending a good portion of the morning taking you apart with pleasure, then putting you back together piece by piece with cuddles and toe-curling kisses. 

When he later glanced over at the clock and saw that it was almost 10am, he gave a groan and flopped onto his back with a forearm covering his eyes. “Much as I’d love to stay here all day, I gotta go with a couple Saviors to check out one of the nearby outposts. They reported some concerns about their fucking security measures, and also requested a few more men be stationed out there to help divvy up their shifts, so I wanna go see if there’s any fucking issues for myself.”

While you felt a tiny thrill that he was so willing to tell you this information, to let you know about his duties as leader, you also had a moment of worry about him possibly assigning more men out to work the outpost. “Is that the one you brought Simon in from a couple weeks ago?” 

Knowing exactly where your thoughts were headed, he said, “Don’t get your fucking panties in a bunch, doll. If the outpost needs more hands, I was planning to send a couple of my newer Saviors.”

Pleased at this response, you smiled and leaned in close so your mouth was hovering mere millimeters from his, before whispering, “I’m not wearing any panties to get in a bunch.” 

Before he could react, you rolled out of the bed and strode to the bathroom, putting a little extra swing to your hips. The growl and unmistakable rustling sound of sheets being thrown off was your only warning before Negan scooped you up into his arms and marched into the bathroom. 

An hour later and you were both sufficiently clean (after first getting extra dirty against the shower wall), and you saw Negan off from his rooms with a kiss and warning to be careful. He gave an arrogant smirk at that, which got him an eye roll and playful shake of your head as a response. 

You watched as he strode down the hall towards the staircase, shoulders encased in leather and his whistle echoing off the walls. While they’d never dare ask him about it, you couldn’t help but give a little smile at the thought of his men wondering why the hell their usually punctual leader was almost ten minutes late to leave for the outpost...and why he seemed so happy about it.

~  ~  ~  ~  ~  ~  ~

Unable to contain your excitement over the events of the night before, you headed over to Ben’s room not long after Negan left. Thankfully he was there, having just returned from finishing up serving breakfast. His roommate was out this time, so you were able to huddle across from one another on his bottom bunk and catch him up on your conversation with Negan.

Ben listened intently, mouth slowly falling further and further open as you went on. When you got to the part about Negan admitting he wanted only you, and called you his partner, Ben let out a whoop of joy and threw his arms around you in a hug. 

“I knew it!” he exclaimed. “That big lug is head over heels for you.” 

The two of you chatted happily for a bit, before you left and wandered back down to your own room. It had felt like forever since you had a chunk of time to just relax in your bed without over analyzing or stressing over something Negan-related. Gone was the weight of that padlocked box of questions, which made both your brain and subconscious very happy. The three of you snuggled up on the bed and spent the next couple of hours finishing your re-read of Harry Potter before it was time to head down to the kitchen for dinner prep. 

Today’s menu consisted of lasagna using leftover deer meat thawed from the freezer, with the signature side of rolls. Trixie had unofficially promoted herself as being in charge of roll duty, making sure the dough was the right consistency and the ovens at the perfect baking temperature. She wasn’t rude about it, but the little bit of authority she showed when instructing another staff member how to properly knead the dough seemed to fulfill her need to be seen as a knowledgeable and important part of the staff. And in all honesty, none of her feedback to the others was incorrect, so rather than reprimand her or say she was out of line, you had caught her eye at one point and given an almost imperceptible nod of approval. This caused her smile to beam so bright that it was a wonder you didn’t need sunglasses. 

As it turned out, you weren’t the only one who had noticed Trixie’s presence and been keeping a stealthy eye on her. Andrew, a member of the food prep crew, had been not-so-subtly following Trixie with his gaze lately, and today was no exception. He was an attractive man in his early 20s with shoulder-length black hair and kind brown eyes, a much more appropriate candidate for Trixie than her previous choice.

It seemed safe to say that Trixie was aware of the attention as well, as she found every reason possible to flounce past where Andrew was busy loading trays of lasagna into an oven. At one point, she even stopped to chat briefly with him, and out of the corner of your eye you saw her toss back her head and laugh at something he said. If it seemed a bit overly dramatic to you, well, Andrew didn’t seem to mind. In fact, her reaction caused him to fumble with the tray of pasta he was holding, almost spilling the entire thing onto the ground. He thankfully saved it at the last second, otherwise you would’ve had to interrupt and lecture the two of them about focusing on their work and not chit-chatting. And you didn’t want to do that, not when Trixie finally seemed interested in a guy more her age who was actually available and seemed to genuinely like her. 

Despite your initial tension with Trixie, you now realized that she had just been struggling to find where she fit in, to feel like an important part of the community. She’d initially been scooped up and led astray by Amber, but thankfully she had found her way back on the correct path and was making progress at getting along with the others, rather than isolating herself and using condescension as an emotional wall. Someone like Andrew, who was kind-hearted and considerate, not to mention absolutely captivated by her, was exactly what she needed. 

Focusing your attention away from young romance and back to meal prep, you spent the next forty-five minutes making sure everything was baked to perfection before sending out the first trays of lasagna and rolls. However, your mind kept randomly returning to Negan, almost unable to contain a secret smile each time you remembered where the two of you now stood. The usual worry and second-guessing had been replaced by the stability of knowing how he felt, and each time you remembered his words from last night a flutter of butterflies went off in your stomach. 

Negan had told you this morning that the outpost he and a small team of men were going to was less than an hour’s drive from the Sanctuary, so he planned to be back around dinnertime. Sure enough, about 20 minutes into when the first round of food was being served, you saw a small group of Saviors enter the cafeteria and settle down at a table. You guessed that they were the ones who had been out on the mini mission, and breathed a sigh of relief at seeing them back safely and with jovial expressions on their faces. You could always tell when things went wrong on a run, due to the overall aura of the men who returned, but this time they were smiling and talking animatedly with one another. Hopefully this also meant that Negan was in a happy, and perhaps affectionate, mood when you went to visit him later...

It was as if your thoughts had conjured the man himself. You were out in the cafeteria with a large water pitcher, making rounds to refill empty glasses for people, when a hush in conversation made you still and look up.

And there he was, standing at the entrance to the cafeteria with his signature leather jacket unzipped just enough so that the edge of a white tee peeked out over the top. He scanned over the tables like a king surveying his domain, looking both intimidating and absolutely delicious with the arrogant way he held himself, as if he had no cares in the world but was also ready to take on anything.

When his eyes landed on you, those sinful lips quirked upwards at the edges, and you swore that even from the distance of half a cafeteria you could see his golden gaze light up at the sight of you. He moved, striding with determination and purpose to close the space between your bodies. The breath caught in your chest at his beauty, at the raw masculinity and almost animal magnetism that surrounded him. 

He stopped mere inches away, and you gazed up at him in both welcome and a bit of confusion. Trying to act calm and unaffected, and not show how much you wanted to grin and launch yourself at him, you said, “Welcome back.” 

Your eyebrow cocked in question when he shook his head with a low chuckle. “Oh no, doll, that won’t do at all.” And with that, he wrapped an arm around your waist and lowered his head...

And kissed you in front of the entire Sanctuary. 

A wave of shock jolted through you, at the same time as your body automatically responded, molding itself to his. Your brain was flatlined on the floor from the unexpected move, while your subconscious ran around it in circles screaming with excitement. 

You could practically feel all the astonished stares from community members, as they watched their all-powerful leader break one of his cardinal rules and kiss you to within an inch of your life. And dear god, what a kiss it was! His lips were firm yet gentle, his tongue just barely tracing your bottom lip, as if he couldn’t help but steal a little taste. He wasn’t holding back, and the primal part of you recognized that he was publicly staking his claim for all to see. There could be no question after this moment that you were his, and that he wanted everyone to know it. 

When he finally pulled back, you could only look up at him with what must’ve been an utterly dazed expression, if his pleased smirk was anything to go by. Glancing to his left and then right, his brow furrowed and expression turned serious as he bellowed, “What the fuck are you all looking at?”

His words had the desired effect, as eyes dropped back to their plates and the community stuttered back to action, obviously trying and failing to act like something monumental didn’t just happen. You’d have given a lot of points to know what they were all thinking, but you didn’t see any angry expressionsand no one had said anything or acted out of line, so hopefully that was a good sign. 

Negan’s warm hand rubbed comfortingly up your bare arm, and it was then that you noticed he didn’t have his gloves on. That also sparked the realization that he wasn’t carrying Lucille, which was strange since he always had her on his person when making an appearance in front of the community. 

Now that you’re thinking about it, did he even have her this morning, when he left?

You thought back to when you had kissed him goodbye and watched as he walked down the hallway. Surely he’d have taken her with him to the outpost...but you honestly couldn’t remember seeing her up over his shoulder. You had to just be forgetting, because there was no way he’d leave her behind. 

That train of thought was brought to a halt when the hand on your arm trailed down along your waist and settled possessively on your hip. “I wanted to put in a request for one of your staff members to bring two servings of dinner to my room, for Simon and yours truly.” 

Before you could ask if he needed time alone once you were done with dinner, he provided the answer. “We need to go over the fucking outpost inspection results, but I’ll come and find you once it’s done.” It was the second time he’d done that today, answering a question before you had the chance to voice it out loud, which was a sign of how well he was coming to predict your thought process. 

You were still a bit in shock at all of this, especially how he was discussing his evening plan with you so publicly and audibly, as if to show that you were more than just his in a physical sense. He was broadcasting to the community that you were what he had already told you last night: his partner. His voice had been low enough that only the nearby tables would’ve heard, but you knew every moment of this interaction would be spread across the entire community within minutes after he left. 

Giving a smile and trying to look like ‘yep, this is completely normal, no big deal, I am totally not internally screaming with joy and wanting to climb his fine ass like a tree’, you replied, “Of course. I’ll have it sent up immediately.”

“Thanks, doll,” he said with a final smirk. Then his face morphed back into the intense, badass expression of the Sanctuary’s leader, and he strode out of the cafeteria. 

You were left standing there, still a bit shell-shocked by what had just occurred, but also giddy as hell over it. That emotional high was only slightly dimmed by the awareness that now, with Negan gone, you were the sole center of everyone’s attention. A quick scan of the cafeteria showed that most community members were trying not to openly stare. However, the lack of chewing and frequent side glances thrown your way as your legs finally unfroze and started back towards the kitchen were proof that they had all seen Negan’s display of affection. 

While the rest of the community might’ve at least been making a feeble attempt not to obviously stare, the same couldn’t be said of the kitchen staff. At least a couple of them must’ve witnessed what happened when serving trays of food, and those members must’ve scurried back to the kitchen to report it to the others. Every single one of them was staring in wide-eyed silence with a mixture of shock and fascinated curiosity when you walked back through the swinging doors. 

Even though your face felt heated and you were a bit off-kilter, you still managed to sound slightly firm when announcing, “Alright folks, back to work. And no, I don’t want to talk about it.”

You breathed a sigh of relief when they didn’t argue, but a couple of them did give knowing grins, Trixie included, though at least they all seemed good-natured about it. Trying to act as though your world hadn’t just been spun off its axis with that public kiss, you went over to Ben, who was the only one that had stayed fairly composed the entire time. In fact, his eyes danced with mirth and he was obviously trying to hold back a smirk, so you felt only minimally evil when telling him of Negan’s request that two servings of dinner be taken up to his rooms for him and Simon. Ben gave a playful glare when you told him to take up the food himself, saying it loud enough that some others heard, making him unable to say no without looking a bit suspect. 

When the tray was ready to go a few minutes later, you quietly murmured to Ben as he passed by on his way out of the kitchen, “Say hi to Simon for me.” The words caused a hint of pink to flare in his cheeks as he gave a halfhearted glare. You almost felt guilty for teasing him, but knew Ben would more than forgive you when Negan came through on his promise to get Simon his own room.  

Though the kitchen staff still threw glances your way here and there, they quickly fell back into their usual routine and no one made any direct comments. You were safe from scrutiny...at least for now. At least no one seemed to have any extreme concerns about what had happened, making you wonder how many of them had suspected what was going on between you and Negan before now.

Once dinner and cleanup were over, you headed back up to your room. Negan had said he would come find you when he was ready, so you planned to just lay back and relax until then. 

Oh, who were you kidding. After that kiss, you were totally going to sit on your bed and think about all the dirty things you wanted to do to him the moment the two of you were alone. 

Trying to convince yourself that you could be at least semi-productive and pretend to have a hobby other than fantasizing about the leader of the Sanctuary, you pulled the copy of Harry Potter off your bedside table. You were just opening to the first page, planning to restart it again from the beginning, when a firm knock sounded at your door. 

Pulse jumping with excitement, you rose from the bed and didn’t even hesitate to cross the room and reach for the doorknob. It never occurred to you that it might be anyone other than Negan, let alone for it to be the last person you’d have ever expected to see at your door. But things had been going so well today that it was almost as if fate was bored with your happiness and wanted to add some drama to the mix. 

Totally ignoring the warning prickle that ran up your spine, you opened the door with a welcome smile. It quickly died on your lips at the sight of who was standing on the other side, hands on hips and eyes throwing daggers your way. 

It was Amber...and she looked pissed.

~  ~  ~  ~  ~  ~  ~  ~  ~

[canary3d-obsessed]

Restless Rewatch: The Untamed Episode 21, second part

(Masterpost) (Other Canary Stuff) (Previous Post)

Warning: Spoilers for All 50 Episodes!

Flute Solo

For some reason Wei Wuxian has decided to take a walk outside of the fortress, or behind the fortress, or something? Can people just take a stroll outside during wartime? Seems unwise.

There are guards and these extra-bossy crows herding some Wen prisoners along, and Wei Wuxian stands up above and gets totally overwhelmed by resentful energy.  

He falls to one knee while clutching his chest, in the spot where all cultivators seem to stow a bag of holding. I guess this is the Xuanwu sword? Or maybe it's his surgical incision; those things can take a while to finish healing. I think the golden core is further down in the abdomen, though; this is right over his heart. 

Wen Qing, Granny, and Fourth Uncle are in the group, but Wen Qing has her hood up so Wei Wuxian can't see her, and he's unlikely to remember the other two, since he only saw them that one time at the shrine, and he doesn't remember people he's literally had dinner with.  

The guards decide to be assholes and beat the shit out of a prisoner because he fell down, which inspires some extra aggressive crows to swoop in and attack the not-dead guy on the ground. That is...not how carrion-eaters behave, generally. They're pretty good about waiting for you to stop moving.

Wei Wuxian continues to struggle, obviously having an orgasm in a lot of pain, and starting to leak resentful energy.

(more after the cut)

He brings his flute up and starts playing it, which causes the wind to rise, rocks to fall from a nearby cliff, and the whole group of people on the ground under him to start having Yin Iron lines crawling up their faces.

Would Wen Qing be a beautiful fierce corpse? She would. 

Eventually Wei Wuxian stops torturing everybody, having gotten it out of his system for a bit, and stands up.  The group gets up, skin clearing up, and starts moving along again, a little shook. Wen Qing looks up and sees Wei Wuxian and hides her face in anguish.

She was there in the dungeon, listening to the same flute music, when he was resentfully slaughtering everyone around her in Yiling. Does she understand what she’s seeing, what he’s become? 

Her hood is off and it seems that he sees her, or at least that he is trying to figure out what he's seeing. But Jiang Yanli arrives before he can do more than look puzzled and cast his eyes around.  

Jiang Yanli asks him what just happened and he laughs and says it was the strong wind, in an extremely transparent lie that Yanli nearly chokes trying to swallow. She drags him back to the meeting while he continues to look troubled.

War Council

Meanwhile, the war council is meeting. This is mostly a boring rehash of stuff we already know, but someone has drawn a nice big map that's been installed in a custom frame. Because apparently the table with the mountains on it is not a good enough representation of "and then we will walk from our house to Wen Ruohan's house," which is basically their plan. The gist of this scene is that Wen Ruohan having the Yin Iron gives him an advantage, in case we needed to be reminded of that. 

The doors fly open and Wei Wuxian and his fabulous ass literally blow into the room. 

Everyone reacts in a comically extreme way. 

He casts his eyes malevolently and/or sexily over to Lan Wangji, who is still grumpy with him, while Jiang Cheng comes up and stands almost as close to him as Lan Wangji used to.

He tells everybody that he might have something to counteract the yin iron.

Everybody: Really? Do tell!  

Wei Wuxian: Happy to!

Wei Wuxian: *theatrical side-eye at judgy ex boyfriend* 

Wei Wuxian: Actually, nope.

He says "we'll see in about a month" while fondling whatever is hidden next to his ribcage.

This behavior, while ridiculous, isn't quite as absurd as it seems from a corporate-meeting standpoint. Part of what cultivators do is invent and refine spiritual tools. So when Wei Wuxian makes this speech, the people in the meeting are going to infer that he is creating a spiritual tool to counter the Yin Iron.

Now it's Lan Xichen's turn to ask everybody’s favorite question. Lan Xichen wasn’t at the party when everyone else asked him, and we're apparently supposed to believe these gossips haven't been talking about the not-sword-carrying 24x7.

Wei Wuxian says he's just not in the mood, and we get to see Lan Xichen's impressive ability to hold his face completely still while he represses his desire to slap someone.

Jin Zixun complains about Wei Wuxian after he leaves, but for once his bitching is on point; he correctly surmises that the counter to yin iron is...yin iron. 

Now, to be fair, the yin tiger amulet is different from the yin iron because it exists in the novel Wei Wuxian specially refines it to be more manageable than the sword it started from. And maybe it’s gel coated to be easier on the stomach. But it's basically the same shit.

Lan Xichen and Nie Mingjue exchange intense gazes, just to prove that the young people aren’t the only ones who know how to eye fuck. 

Lying Is Forbidden 

Lan Xichen talks to Lan Wangji, and we discover that Lan Wangji is perfectly capable of lying. He manages to maintain a reputation for not lying but I think the trick is that he just avoids talking in general, so when, for example, people in later years say "who's your masked boyfriend" he just doesn't answer, which isn't really lying. (How many times did Lan Qiren and Lan Xichen ask “where did you get this kid?” and just not get an answer, I wonder.) 

At other times he actually directly lies, as when he claims he is “just passing through” Yiling on a night hunt. The current conversation with Lan Xichen definitely involves actual lying.

Let's play multiple choice answers with the Lan brothers!

Q:  Why is WWX so confident we can have Yin Iron against WRH in a month? 

a.) Because he's been walking around with that Xuanwu sword for months, and it is obviously made of Yin iron b.) because he used a fucking ghost flute to flay Wen Chao more or less in front of me, so he is clearly down with some dark magics c.) I don’t know

Q: Was the death of people in the Yiling supervisory office really related to yin iron?

a.) obviously b.) maybe he was using some other source of overwhelming necromantic power c.) no, he’s not like that

Q. When you approached Yiling, was there anything unusual?

a.) yes, the talismans had been altered to draw in evil spirits b.) yes, everyone except his particular friend Wen Qing had killed themselves in horrifying, outlandish ways c.) are there rules already set for everything in the world?

Xichen, bless him, actually lets Lan Wangji change the subject like that and answers his question honestly.

Xichen: Actually, rules are pretty much shit Wangji: fucking hell, you're telling me this NOW? What have I been doing for the past 18 years then?

They both look just ridiculously beautiful in this conversation. Lan Wangji’s affect with his brother is so interesting. He’s trusting, emotionally open, willing to be seen...but only because he knows Lan Xichen won’t push past his barriers, won’t force him to speak the truth of what’s on his mind.

Awkwardness

The Yunmeng bros roll up, and awkwardness ensues. 

Wangji is frowning hard. His frowns are of the micro variety just like his smiles, but boy they are consistent and Wei Wuxian and Xichen both know how to read them.

Wei Wuxian gives Lan Xichen a small, sunny smile--it seems genuine, not like the fake ones he's trotting out on demand for his family. 

Then he gives Lan Wangji a pointed gaze of yearning and reproachfulness, which Lan Wangji returns, switching from frowning to a softer expression that seems about equal parts hurt, apology, and thirst.

Wei Wuxian reacts to that by bowing again and leaving, with Jiang Cheng quickly following, wondering what the fuck just happened.

Lans Xichen and Wangji pivot gracefully to watch them go, which Lan Wangji should know is not correct post-breakup behavior; you're supposed to act disinterested, my dude. 

And then Lan Xichen asks Lan Wangji what the fuck is going on. Lan Wangji gets one more lie in, saying he's not worried about Wei Wuxian, before reapplying his frown and walking away from the conversation.

Macroexpression Brothers

OP was wrong about Wei Wuxian not hugging Jiang Cheng any more--here he is hanging on him just like the old days, and Jiang Cheng is shoving him off, just like the old days. However, it emerges that this is mostly an act that WWX is putting on to seem normal. 

Jiang Cheng wants to know what's wrong between him and Lan Wangji, and asks why they broke up. Wei Wuxian points out that Jiang Cheng didn't like him dating Lan Wangji before, so why is he pushing him to get back together with him now, and Jiang Cheng says that now they're allies in a war, so Wei Wuxian needs to do his duty and help keep Lan Wangji in fighting trim, nudge nudge. 

Then he starts lecturing Wei Wuxian about sword cultivation and generally good behavior, and Wei Wuxian theatrically nods and give him appraising looks, telling him he really seems like a clan leader now.

Jiang Cheng headshakes this away. Wei Wuxian actually giving Jiang Cheng a sincere compliment here, disguised as teasing, and he's not wrong. Jiang Cheng has matured and is becoming a strong leader. Not strong enough to ignore peer pressure, but that’s true of most clan leaders in this environment. They’re not supposed to ignore peer pressure. 

Wei Wuxian is pointing it out for his own reasons - he doesn't want to be having this conversation - but it's nice to see him giving his clan leader his due.

Jiang Cheng walks away as Wei Wuxian smiles after him; as soon as he's out of sight the smile falls off of Wei Wuxian's face as fast as fast as gravity can take it. It's like someone snuffed a candle.

No one bites back as hard On their anger None of my pain and woe Can show through

But my dreams, they aren't as empty As my conscience seems to be I have hours, only lonely My love is vengeance that's never free

More Awkwardness

Lan Wangji and his ambivalence come looking for Wei Wuxian, standing outside his door and raising a hand to knock before changing his mind and fleeing. 

Lan Wangji is on the back foot for the first time in his relationship with Wei Wuxian; this boy who pursued and pursued and PURSUED him is now a man who won't speak to him.  This boy who hung on every one of his words, and saw through all of his minute facial expressions, has become a man who won't listen to him. Lan Wangji is in the position of pursuer, now, and it's not a role he's well equipped for.

Yanli stops him as he's bailing. He looks so relieved to see her, but he tries to escape immediately after greeting her. She stops him so she can ask what the fuck is going on. 

Unfortunately, Wei Wuxian rolls up while Lan Wangji is in the middle of talking to her.  He's telling her about the heterodox cultivation, and Wei Wuxian busts him. Wei Wuxian steps up and asks what he was telling her, and Lan Wangji says "Wei Ying," but doesn't get much further than that.

Nunya

Wei Wuxian reminds him that he told him to stay out of Jiang Clan business. Now, here I want to mention that "private" and "not your bidness" are culturally specific concepts. OP, for example, grew up in version of Irish-American culture so secretive that the problems of a person's life and (often) the cause of their death are things only discovered by whoever inherits their papers. [OP inherited 3 generations of letters a few years ago, and HOO BOY]

In the version of Chinese culture which we see in this drama, your choices, thoughts & troubles belong to the family and clan, not just to you.  Wei Wuxian, in shutting his elder sister out of his struggles, is not family-ing correctly. Jiang Yanli is right to try to get around that by asking his friend. His friend is also right to give her--in sanitized form--the information she is asking for. 

Wei Wuxian has zero trust in Lan Wangji at this point, unfortunately. He doesn’t know that Lan Wangji has been lying to cover for him; he just knows he’s being a grumpy aggressive holy roller. Now, when Lan Wangji has just been given permission to disregard all 3000 rules and look at a person’s heart, that person’s heart has been hardened against him. 

Yanli is used to dealing with Wei Wuxian's moods at this point -- after all, a lifetime of Jiang Cheng has got her used to volatile little brothers, and Wei Wuxian is clearly a new, not-improved man since his return. 

She tries to get him to chill out while Lan Wangji gives him a death glare -- not a return to the earlier generalized frown, more of a specific "I can't believe how full of shit you are" frown.

Wei Wuxian calls him Lan Er Gongzi, like a dick. Lan Wangji started this but at this point Wei Wuxian is kind of in the lead for who is being The Worst. Lan Wangji executes a beautiful 180 and walks away at top speed. 

Wei Wuxian asks Yanli if he talked about Yiling and when she says he didn't, he realizes he fucked up. 

He goes running after him and calls him Lan Zhan and says "listen to me" but Lan Wangji is no longer in a listening mood. 

Eat A Dick Sword

Lan Wangji is so far in his feelings at this point that he just hauls out his sword and goes after Wei Wuxian, taking complete control of the interaction and forcing Wei Wuxian to concede the fight. Aww, he’s so angry! I love him. 

This is a rough moment for Wei Wuxian. He really genuinely can't hold his own against Lan Wangji, unless he's going to directly use necromancy against him the way he does later in their final confrontation. 

When they first met he was able to defend himself on the rooftop without drawing his sword, but he's weaker now; Chenqing is an adequate hand weapon against most cultivators and puppets, but it's not a match for Lan Wangji's full attack. 

Wei Wuxian is not enjoying this fight, and can’t win in, so he just throws in the towel, exposing his throat and trusting Lan Wangji's control.

On the surface, this fight appears to re-establish their former rapport, but it puts them on such an uneven footing it might actually drive a larger wedge between them.  I think that Lan Wangji has made a strategic error in doing this.  

Lan Wangji seems to want to prove to Wei Wuxian that his new style of cultivation is inadequate, that he would do better with a sword. Swordplay was the beginning of their relationship; their matched power was the source of their mutual attraction. Lan Wangji can't accept that Wei Wuxian has given it up; he doesn't (yet) respect his agency enough to assume that he has a good reason.

This fight functions as yet another punishment that Lan Wangji doles out to Wei Wuxian; not a physical one, this time, but a psychological one, and their relationship pays the price. 

By attacking Wei Wuxian and forcing him to concede, Lan Wangji is showing that they're unequal. By criticizing Wei Wuxian's lack of progress and asking him the same goddamn question everybody else is asking him -- where is your sword? -- Lan Wangji is humiliating him. 

This encounter does not re-establish Wei Wuxian’s trust in him; it just forces him to accept Lan Wangji’s authority, for now. Which is not what either of them really wants. 

Soundtrack: Behind Blue Eyes, by The Who

Writing Prompt: What would Wei Wuxian have said if Lan Wangji had listened to him instead of drawing his sword?

[5uptic]

hey fanfic spotlight again:)

arm candy by amsves (5up/Fundy, general rating, m/m | 300 words)

Summary: The first thing Fundy does after the stream ends is lean over and engulf 5up in his arms.

a chance encounter by mangoedges (Apollo/Steve, teen rating, m/m | 450 words)

Summary: Who would have thought Apollo would find his soulmate now?

Desecration Smile by AllianettemiE5 (Apollo/Steve, teen rating, m/m | 1k words)

Summary: No summary.

She said to me, Oh Death / Come close my eyes by Anonymous (Apollo/Steve, general rating, m/m | 1k words)

Summary: Steve thought the words on his wrist were the coolest thing ever, but they just didn’t make sense. No, really; he even asked 5up–had called him in a possibly drunk state on his twentieth birthday, when a prickling sensation on his arm made him think that he was about to die, 5up, help, and was reminded drily that it was his soulmark, dumbass–and the best his smartest friend (self-proclaimed) could offer was, “Maybe your soulmate’s a poet?” Completely useless. Steve remembered hanging up on him, the click of his mobile cutting off his indignant exclamation. It was only the next day that he looked, properly looked, at his soulmark and tried to make sense of it. Nope. That didn’t work out either; he blamed the hangover. For the longest time ever, he just dismissed it as the universe fucking up. A slash in the middle of a phrase? Ridiculous.

why’d you only call me when you’re high? by LVTO (5up/Steve, teen rating, m/m | 1k words)

Summary: “I miss you,” Steve mumbles through the phone, and his voice has that soft, honest tone that it always does when he’s like this. 5up’s heart clenches. It’s these moments that keep him from leaving like he should’ve done four months ago, these soft-spoken truths that time and time again have him believing that maybe, maybe this time will be different. It never is. or 5up receives a phone call and ponders his life.

jealousy, jealousy by planetwitch (5up/Fundy, teen rating, m/m | 1.1k words)

Summary: 5up and Fundy are best friends and have never crossed that line into something more. Until Fundy gets jealous at 5up's constant admiration for a certain 6 foot tall musician.

mimi's menagerie of the miraculous & the mundane by 5280ft (5up/Steve, teen rating, m/m | 1.1k words, chaptered WIP)

Summary: a drabble for the word of the day, every day, for 100 days.

5up & Co. Throw Yarn at a Wall (and more) by WhenTheFogClears (general rating, gen | 1.3k words, chaptered WIP)

Summary: Hafu neither confirmed nor denied, instead snatching the half unraveled ball of yarn out of his hands forcefully, a cheshire grin finding its way onto her face. Before 5up could clearly decipher the situation, she flung it at him, smacking him directly in the center of his face. or 5up loves throwing yarn at walls, and everyone else quickly picks it up from him. But in different ways.

Inside My Mind by SilverSprinklez10 (5up/Apollo, Apollo/Steve, teen rating, m/m | 1.4k words)

Summary: Soulmates are usually a blessing.  But sometimes, a soulmate connection can feel like a curse.

(2021, 190 x 172 cm, oil on canvas) by 5280ft (5up/Steve, teen rating, m/m | 1.9k words)

Summary: Nobody ever painted anything if they’ve never painted the way 5up closes his eyes when he laughs, how his slender fingers wrap around a new tube of paint, how his smile is all teeth and eye-crinkling. Cabanel’s Fallen Angel has curls, but they aren’t 5up’s, are they? Hyllas, in the nymphs, has fair and delicate hands but 5up’s are prettier, especially when he accidentally squirts paint everywhere and slams his palms on the table and goes “fuck!” Steve cackles until he can’t breathe.

Don't Take Me Tongue-Tied by AoDity, LovelyDayForIt (5up/Sleepy, 5up/Apollo, teen rating, m/m | 2.2k words)

Summary: "Sleepy found the ring by luck, something that matches his lover's graceful beauty that he could still afford. Twisted strands of thin silver with a little shimmering opal in the center, it was perfect." Aka: Sleepy's love for Five brought him heartache. If they try, there's still a chance the two could be happy.

implying that the ferris wheel's your body (and i'd really love admission to it) by homeward_bound (David/Hafu/Steve, mature rating, multi | 2.2k words)

Summary: Steve might be drunk out of his mind, but David's just really hot, okay? [or, steve propositions david, kind of. hafu and dumbdog bear witness to his lapse in judgement.]

mi casa es su casa by some_spooky_shit_right_there (Apollo/Steve, teen rating, m/m | 2.9k words)

Summary: Apollo's soulmate is cautious. Except, apparently, when it comes to coffee. Because, for the fifth time this week, Apollo wakes up to a burnt tongue. It's annoying. He can't really be mad though, because he has given his soulmate so much worse. The occasional burnt tongue is a meager act of penance, comparatively.

I love you too (I love you too) by some_spooky_shit_right_there (5up/Apollo/Steve, general rating, multi | 3.9k words)

Summary: Apollo comes into 5up's coffee shop. He always gets a cup of coffee and either a bagel or a croissant. He always seems tired, and he never comes in on weekends. Steve would really love to find out just who, exactly, he is.

i'm more fool than wise by 5fu (5up/Steve, unrated, m/m | 5.8k words, chaptered WIP)

Summary: Steven Suptic is a brilliant crewmate - ask anyone. Okay so don't ask Janet. Or Dk. Or Koji. You know what, don't even ask - it's pretty obvious he is. But when new recruit and stunningly intelligent 5up boards the Crewfu, Steve isn't so sure he can compete. Not that he cares. Totally. Absolutely. On their mission to gather intel on Polus and find out what happened to the previous crew that disappeared from the planet three years earlier, Steve may realize that maybe he was indeed more fool than wise - and maybe it wasn't a bad thing.

i was praying that you and me might end up together by Qupid (Apollo/Steve, teen rating, m/m | 7.8k words, chaptered WIP)

Summary: Four years at Polus University. Four first weeks of school. Two strangers become two friends, and maybe even something more. Apollo hates being seen, hates having attention drawn to him, hates living in a world that feels like a game where everyone knows the rules except him. Steve thrives on attention, purposefully draws the gaze of everyone in the room, making his own rules as he floats through life. They're a match made in hell, but Apollo finds that when Steve looks at him, gives him nothing but attention, he doesn't mind being seen after all.

Long Journey Home by some_spooky_shit_right_there (Apollo/Steve, teen rating, m/m | 9.6k words)

Summary: Homesick and lonesome and I'm feeling kind of blue Feeling kind of blue, boys, feeling kind of blue Homesick and lonesome and I'm feeling kind of blue I'm on my long journey home

there’s so many ways to say “i love you” and i wouldn’t wanna waste ‘em (on someone who, don’t feel it too) by Dear_MaedaysUnwelcomedGhost (5up/Steve, 5up/Hafu, 5up/Ellum, 5up/Kimi, teen rating, multi | 13k words, chaptered)

Summary: Love was a strange thing, 5up found. It was everywhere. And not in the way it may seem. It wasn’t in the adverts of perfect couples with artificial lighting. It wasn’t in the glittery cards made by factories or the flowers sold at grocery stores. Not in the TV shows made to bring in cash and be thrown out, with couples who don’t have anything to hold onto but brief infatuation and physical attraction. But in the friendly smiles of strangers as they pass by. In a mother cutting fruit up for their child. Running a hand through the hair of your partner, as their eyes flutter close and to sleep. Helping a stranger pick up their dropped papers, asking for nothing in return. In the graffiti on the wall by the alleyway you walk by everyday to get to work. To the goods baked by small independent bakeries. Flowers planted in parks to make it just a little nicer, or the ones growing out of pavement cracks with determination.

Also!

GuardianPuppy‘s this city needs to be destroyed or at least painted in a different color collection.

spaded_ace’s Casino in the Sky collection.

5fu’s among all this pain collection.

FAQ:

Wait what is this: pretty straight to the point! i’ll regularly share crewfu-related fanfictions to this blog :)

How regularly is “regularly”?: great question! LOL. it depends on the flow of fanfics that get uploaded, which i do not have any control over, but i’m looking forward to do this twice a month. after all, it’s only me doing this and i often run on a tight schedule.

What’s the format like?:

[title of fic with link] by [author of the fic with link] ([main pairing(s)], [fic rating: eg, general rating], [relationship: eg, m/m] | [word count in k], [added prompt to specify if it’s complete or not])

Summary: [summary provided by the author. if it doesn’t have a summary, a “No summary” prompt will be put instead]

(What does WIP mean again?): Work In Progress :)

Why are you doing this?: from the beginning, my blog has hosted conversations about RPF (real people fiction) and crewfu pairings. this has evolved into people sending me updates about certain fics in the crewfu tags every now and then, but i wanna take the next step and just do these things myself. after all, i’m already lurking in the tags often to see the fics that get posted. as someone who is both a writer and a reader, i wanna appreciate fanfic writers and help out other people that want to read fanfic and consume more fandom content!

Will it be AO3 only?: well, ao3 has a very helpful tag system that makes finding fics incredibly easy, as well as allowing people with no accounts to like and comment on fics, so that’s the site i will personally look in for fanworks. but if there are any fics you’ve written or liked in any other platforms, such as wattpad, you can always contact me through my inbox (send an ask or a dm!), and i’ll make sure to include for the next fanfic spotlight :)

Does it mean you won’t reply to fic asks anymore?: yeah, i guess. since i’ll be doing the searching myself it seems counterproductive. but if i ever skip a fic or again, it’s in another platform, or you’ve posted/read the fic a while ago and you want to get more traction on it, hit me up and i’ll take it into consideration!

Will you read every single one of the fics on your list?: oh no. again, i run on a tight schedule, and also i have my own taste when it comes to fics. i won’t be reviewing fics or any of the sort, and my intention extends to simply sharing these fics to this page so people will have easier access to them :) that’s where ao3 tagging becomes SUPER useful!!!

So what’s the criteria for the way you’ll sort out the fics in your list?: word count, going from lowest to highest. in case of fics in other platforms, i guess i’ll put them at the top of the list. i’ll also be looking for fairly recent fics, so let me know if you want any old-ish fic to be included.

I see you talking mostly about 5up/Steve and Steve/Apollo. Can I still send/see other crewfu fics?: why yes absolutely! my goal is to push every fic which heavily features regular crewfu characters - 5uptic and supdog just happen to be very popular pairings. so, to give you a list: core 4 (5up, hafu, dk, steve), apollo, aipha, annie, janet, kimi, ellum, koji… you know the drill. it doesn��t have to be centered on a relationship, or about 5up in specific, etc. my only requirement is that any of the previously mentioned members are a central part of the fic or are HEAVILY featured in it (sorry, minecraft fics with 50+ tags who only mention 5up as an afterthought won’t make the cut :/).

Isn’t shipping Bad™?: well, it’s a little more nuanced than that. i will go out of my way to discourage and shame people who often violate CCs’ boundaries by acting like so and so has a crush on this person, or that this and that are Actually Into Each Other or secretly dating. any sort of tinhat bullshit is a big nono (think larries). but i run on the assumption that people who write rpf understand that what they’re doing is simply write a completely fictional story using real life personalities, and understand the boundaries necessary to do it - aka they’re not tinhats, they understand they can’t assume everything about CCs’ thoughts and personalities, they understand that what they’re writing is strictly fiction, they keep these works only in fandom circles, etc. (but again, it’s only one me doing this, so please be kind if i don’t happen to know that this person is Actually a tinhat or whatever).

show fic: NO. (seriously. i don’t feel comfortable putting my ao3 account out there. please respect my privacy on these trying times <3)

I REALLY don’t care about your rpf/fic talk: fair! i’ll be tagging every single one of these posts as “fanfic spotlight”, so just mute the tag using tumblr settings so you’ll never have to look at these! likewise, you can follow the tag if you want to keep up with it, or search it on my blog to look at the other entries you might have missed.

Hey, my fic is here and I don’t feel comfortable with it being shared over here: no problem! let me know as soon as you can and i’ll take it down <3

[murdereraisuha]

Final Chapter 5 Reflection

This will have my personal opinion/thoughts on:

The VDC outcome, Rook’s actions, and what could’ve made it better

The Rook reveal and Neige

Kalim, Jamil, and Epel’s development

The Grim scene

Total word count: 2134 words

--- 1 ---

So, RSA won the VDC. My feelings on this are mixed.

Looking at it in relation to the whole plot of TWST, it makes sense. It moves the chance for NRC to finally beat RSA to the upcoming magift tournament, which gives NRC’s potential victory a large amount of excitement/importance which it wouldn’t get from this middle of the year championship.

Furthermore, Rook’s actions do make sense based on his personality. If Vil really didn’t believe that he himself was beautiful, Rook of course would vote for the team that exhibited pure joy in their performance and therefore exhibited a heartfelt beauty. It would be a lie to vote for NRC, and it would disgrace both Rook and Vil. Rook’s actions plot wise also lead to the discussion about Vil valuing himself vs seeking value from others, which I think is a crucial thing for Vil to remember. While trying to gain recognition for hard work is good, and Vil certainly does deserve recognition, it’s much more important to maintain a good perception of yourself even when things happen or people wrongfully say things that might tear down your self-esteem

However, I still have issues with how this played out in relation to the plot of chapter 5. It’s unrealistic for all of Vil’s misgivings about himself to get fixed through the power of friendship and beating each other up. But, still, the team went through a lot in order to get to the championship united and ready to perform. It feels like a slap in the face for them to lose after all that. Especially the scene with Kalim and Epel crying while Ya Hoo cheerfully plays in the background, it's so comically dissonant. Though we already got an explanation from Vil about how Neige’s performance appeals to viewers, I was still shocked. At least it was a close competition rather than a crushing defeat. 

Also, while Rook’s message was sound, the timing was rather bad. Vil and the rest of the team just had a massive battle and then went through a whole song & dance performance without major blunders while still injured. Focusing on Vil’s self-esteem there makes it seem like Rook is just brushing all that determination and effort away. Though Vil doesn’t seem to truly hold it against Rook since he offers the handkerchief back to Rook when he cries, the situation still feels off.

In conclusion, I think that the plot events made sense. However, the execution of them could have been improved. As is, it’s hard to understand Rook’s motivations in this part due to the ridiculousness of RSA’s kid’s song winning. To fix that without just completely overhauling the plot, I believe that the admirable qualities of Neige and the dwarves should have been shown more clearly. For example, while the Pomefiore CM shows a glimpse of their bond, that’s nonexistent in the game. I think that incorporating that into the game (ex. a short scene of Neige reassuring the dwarves that their performance will go well before they step on stage) would help people understand Rook’s point of view better by showing instead of just telling us about the belief Neige has in his friends.. 

Moreover, alongside better reasons for why Rook choose RSA, I think it should be clearer why he did not choose NRC. It seems an attempt at warning of the “betrayal” was done with Vil menacingly saying he’ll win the VDC during the voting, followed by the shot of Rook just going “........”.  To make this less sudden, I think I would change episode 66. Though that episode has Vil saying that he’s ugly, because the team contradicts him and keeps him as the leader it makes it seem like the problem is solved there. Therefore, to better lead to Rook’s speech, I would change episode 66 to have Vil show more hesitation and signs that he still doesn’t believe in himself. 

--- 2 ---

Anyway, on to the reveal about Rook. I wasn’t sure what to think about the name slip up during the previous part, but I just guessed that maybe they’d met before and that meeting is related to RSA and Rook having light magic. Nope, we get Neige simp Rook. I think this reveal was really surprising, but more in a funny way than a “ruins Rook’s character” way. It’s nice to see Rook seriously caught off guard by Neige just nonchalantly exposing him in front of everyone, and everyone’s reactions were extremely funny.

I think that the chapter did a decent job of making it clear that Rook’s relationship with Neige as a fan of him is vastly different from Rook’s calm admiration of and friendship with Vil. I’m kind of curious now about how and when Rook became a fan though. Him being the 2nd member of the fan club implies that Rook found Neige when Neige still hadn’t gotten much fame yet. 

I loved everyone’s Ya Hoo too. Ace and Jamil having level 0 enthusiam, Kalim and Rook having level 1000 enthusiasm, Deuce being startled but slowly getting into it but still being kind of eh, Epel just keeping that wide-eyed confused expression the whole time. ボーテ、１００点. For Vil, I understand that he was probably faking his big smile for the benefit of the audience. However, I still hope his opinion of Neige has improved somewhat or will improve. Neige telling Vil that he’s still number one in the eyes of the people who voted for him was really sweet and their interactions with each other are pretty cute/funny when Vil isn’t trying to murder him.

Unlike other minor characters like Chenya and Farena who either weren’t involved in the plot or were only involved as backstory, Neige is Vil’s present rival and motivation for doing the stuff he does and over blotting. With such a large presence that continued all throughout the chapter and the Rook reveal, it would seem strange for Neige to suddenly drop out of existence come chapter 6.

Therefore, assuming that the Grim situation doesn’t derail the current patterns we’ve seen in the story, I think that Neige will be included as part of the Pomefiore involvement in chapter 6. Of course, it could be something small like getting called in for a favor near the end or just mentions of Rook continuing to write him fan letters. However, I’m hoping it’s something larger. From my analysis of the previous part:

Vil’s team’s performance had a lot of cohesion and rehearsal put into it, but it was very competitive focused. On the other hand, Neige and the dwarves obviously had a lot of fun with their performance. However, it was clumsy and they were ill prepared. Therefore, Vil could teach Neige more discipline and planning while Neige could teach Vil about how to not lose sight of finding joy in your work. 

Now that we have confirmation that Neige is a genuinely nice guy, I really want Vil & Neige friendship to happen, or for them to at least be on good terms with each other. It might just be my personal love for relationships where one person tries to be all rival-y but then the other is like “nope, I’m going to friend you whether you like it or not,” but I think this sort of development in the story of TWST would be really enjoyable to watch.

--- 3 ---

For the performance of Absolutely Beautiful, I love that Jamil got to be in the center for a bit. However, that also just makes me more disappointed that we didn’t get more Scarabia or anything about how their families are watching this. With the stuff in 5-30 and 5-34 focusing on Kalim’s perspective on things and his relationship with Jamil, I thought that at some point we would get a final scene focusing on them and how they’ve developed since chapter 4. What we got with  Jamil swooping in to the rescue with the magic carpet then talking about how he could sense that Kalim was about to do something stupid was better than nothing, but idk. I just love the writing and complexity these two have gotten and I wanted that to continue to the end. I still have hope though! If we can get a thing about Leona noticing the traces of magic in the arena, then we can get future appearances from the Scarabia boys too!... please...

Now, for Epel, I also have mixed feelings about his development throughout the chapter. I absolutely loved the beach scene with Deuce and Epel, it was so cute and I liked Epel realizing the power of beauty because of the apple juice Magicam post. However, I think the narrative missed something important. Though Epel’s views had a lot of improvement to be made, Vil’s treatment of him was also terrible and should have been addressed. I believe Vil saying that “throwing a tantrum and taking it out on others was terrible of him” in episode 66 implies that he’s realized that all his actions, not just the overblot, were wrong. However, it’s not clear enough that that was the intention. Vil does not apologize specifically for how he attempted to force Epel to conform to his own beliefs. Though there’s always chapter 6, it still doesn’t seem like the story will ever really address this issue, which is a shame to say the least.

Furthermore, in this final part, Epel offering to take the center position was really good and showed how much he’s grown since the beginning of the chapter. However, it still didn’t bring the whole “poison apple” thing to fruition. Absolutely no one made any comment on his cuteness or how it might rival Neige’s cuteness. Did they plan something with that but scraped it? Like, this is way too little pay off for such a focus on Vil shaping Epel into a way to best Neige. My disappointment with this ending might have to do with these past 3 main story updates being the only ones I’ve been in this fandom for, but ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Whatever the cause of my disappointment may be, my disappointment still does exist.

--- 4 ---

To top off this roller coaster of a chapter and end this reflection with a more neutral analysis, we have the stuff with Mickey and Grim. Mickey seems really nice, I’m glad that Yuu seems to have made an ally in him. We certainly need one after whatever the hell just happened with Grim. I really have to give props for how unsettling both Grim’s appearance and the sounds during that scene were.

Though we’re obviously getting close to the endgame, the Ignihyde sneak peak that we got seems pretty normal and related to their personal problems rather than the plot. Though it would be interesting for a big change to happen like Yuu being out of commission for the chapter, I think it’s more likely that Yuu will be rescued, Grim just goes missing, then we don’t get much more info on that whole thing until the end of chapter 6 leading into chapter 7.

Anyway, for the scene itself I understand if it just because silent protagonist, don’t want to make them talk/do too much, but it feels kind of weird that there wasn’t really any indication of a struggle? Just standing there, staring at Grim, getting clawed, then black out. Nothing to indicate trying to step back. There was some weird clopping??? sound after he attacked but since the camera didn’t move that wasn’t Yuu collapsing.

Also, it might just be supposed to be “Grim’s laugh but creepy,” but his ケヒッ、 ケヒヒッ laughter sounds unusually distinctive? Idk, I just had the thought that it could be in reference to some other disney character with a similar laugh but idk who that would be since I’m not big into disney movies.

Right before he attacks, Grim also shouts “this is my stone!!!” Firstly, assuming that this stone is the same small size as the others, shouldn’t he already be done eating it? Yuu’s not exactly gonna stick their hand down his throat to retrieve it. So what stone is he talking about?

Well, we know that the magic crystal on the magic pens is supposed to collect blot so that it doesn’t built up inside someone, right? Blot accumulated from outright eating it instead of blot accumulated from casting magic is probably different, but what if some of the blot from the black stones did get gathered up by Grim’s crystal on his collar? We know how crazed he has been getting about the black stones. Is it so much of a stretch to think that he might be trying for more? That he might be trying to create instead of just find? 

How would a black magic crystal taste?

[katyobsesses]

I've done this before HERE but this time I was actually tagged (thanks @useless-fanfictions) so I'm going to update it becuase some of the answers are out of date

how many works do you have on AO3?

22 fics and 3 fanfic book covers so 25

what’s your total AO3 word count?

151,809 words

how many fandoms have you written for and what are they?

Published:

Glee

Marvel (MCU & 616)

Yuri! On Ice

Just floating around my G-Drive or wrote back in the day but never published:

Harry Potter

Merlin

Twilight

Supernatural

Sherlock

Doctor Who

what are your top 5 fics by kudos?

Ain't No Grave (Can Keep My Body Down) Book Cover with 225 kudos (Marvel published 2016) –A book cover for a popular Stucky fic

A Punch In The Face with 102 kudos (Marvel published 2014) –A Young Avengers drabble of sorts, Teddy/Billy meet cute

Express Your Love with 82 kudos (Marvel published 2014) –I cannot remember what this is, I think it’s Stony? Something about Tony never saying ‘I Love You’ to Steve but instead showing his love through actions?

In A Previous Life with 78 kudos (Marvel published 2014) –A drabble of sorts. Billy and Tommy talk to Wanda about their life with her before they were reincarnated.

Putting a Punching Bag in the Workshop was Tony’s Best Idea Ever with 64 kudos (Marvel published 2014) –Basically what it says on the tin. Stony. Tony is distracted by Steve’s arse as he boxes.

yeah... these I'm not that proud of, I hope my other works surpass these soon because these are old and not my best.

do you respond to comments, why or why not?

I try to, sometimes I get overwhelmed and then don't respond for too long so never repsond but... I really really appreciate them all the same! no matter how big or small the comment is (as long as it's not hate)

what’s the fic you’ve written with the angstiest ending?

In Paris With You - a Klaine fic I first wrote in 2011, then updated in 2014 (which is on my FF.net) and then updated again when I got back into Glee in 2019 (which is the version on AO3) It's based off of a poem of the same name by James Fenton that I was studying for GCSEs and it just... got stuck in my head. I still really love it and kinda want to continue it so it no longer has such an angsty ending.

Also As long as I'm here as I am, so are you is kinda angsty in a 'Kurt remembering Finn' sort of way. I guess you could call it a Song Fic...

do you write crossovers? if so what is the craziest one you’ve written?

I've never posted a crossover, but I did, once, years ago, plan a Merlin/Harry Potter crossover.

have you ever received hate on a fic?

On FF.net, yes. On AO3, no.

do you write smut? if so what kind?

Nope. I mean, if it fit into my story or something I maybe would, but I'm not really planning to write smut just to write smut. My ace arse accidentally makes characters ace by proxy anyway, so smut isn't ever really on my writing radar.

have you ever had a fic stolen?

I don't think so.

have you ever had a fic translated?

Not that I know of.

have you ever co-written a fic before?

I have one in the planning stages with someone, but they're busy and I'm busy so it's on hiatus for the moment. But we're totally going to get back to it at some point when we're not both busy, it's an interesting premise!

what’s your all time favourite ship?

I don't have one! I like writing Hevans (or simply non-Klaine) because theres an abundance of Klaine (and I relate to Sam), but I definately don't have a favourite ship in general, I'm too much of a Multishipper for that. Though I have recently only written Hevans fics... and Hevans scenes... and Hevans Hevans Hevans so...

what’s a WIP that you want to finish but don’t think you ever will?

I maybe might never finish any of my WIPs at this rate, my writer's block is a bitch. But I never upload something unless I know where it's going enough that I know I'm going to at least try my best to finish it even if it does have long hiatuses in between chapters.

what are your writing strengths?

I don't know, people please tell me I'd honestly love to know.

But if I had to choose then maybe having the emotions of a character shine through my words?

what are your writing weaknesses?

Writing things I haven't experienced, and maybe describing settings or objects. I also have a hard time transitioning scenes, sometimes they go on and on and on, other times they cut off abruptly it's hard to find a balance. Also dialogue, sometimes, I'm too socially awkward to know how to talk to people IRL and that sometimes makes it hard to know how people talk

what are your thoughts on writing dialogue in other languages in a fic?

It depends on if you want the reader to know what the character is saying.

If it's from a POV of a character that doesn't know what the person they're talking to is saying I'll try my best to write it in that language using Google Translate (or write something like Kurt was talking rapidly in French if i don't want to translate it)

But if the characters can understand each other and I want the reader to understand then I'll just use italics and something like Kurt said in French.

If it's words like "Merci!" or "Caliente!" or something that most English speakers know (or something they can figure out from context) then I'll just write it in it's original language.

Going back to In Paris With You. Kurt is French in that, and it's from Blaine's POV so when Kurt speaks French it's in French with Blaine translating what he can to the audience in the narration. He's not meant to be able to understand Kurt perfectly, so the audience doesn't either.

But if I was writing Kurt and Sebastian talking to each other in French from Kurt's POV I'd write it in English so that audience can also understand that Kurt understands.

what was the first fandom you wrote for?

Harry Potter. It was how I found fanfiction and I definately distictly remember writing a Time Travel Sirius/Hermione fic when I was like 12 that never saw the light of day and is sadly lost to the death of multiple laptops and the loss of multiple USBs

what’s your favourite fic you’ve written?

One More New Direction or possibly Rainbow (re)Connection for Glee

(that makes you) The Scarlet Witch for Marvel.

I'm just gonna leave this as an open tag so if you want to answer these questions feel free <3

[national-nobody-writes]

2020 Creator Wrap

2020 Creator Wrap: Favorite Works

I was tagged by the oh so talented @irolltwenties!

Rules: it’s time to love yourselves! choose your 5 (or so) favorite works you created in the past year (fics, art, edits, etc.) and link them below to reflect on the amazing things you brought to 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’m not a particularly prolific writer (WIPs for days, but completed projects? Not so much). Somehow in this hell year though, I did manage to complete more fics than in any previous year for a total of seven new works (~49k words, all on ao3), plus a chunky chap of a long running WIP (~20k words) so I’m actually pretty damn proud of myself! I also made some new fandom friends in 2020 which has easily been one of the biggest delights of the year & has definitely helped my creative momentum, so ty all for that. <3

Counting down from 5, here are my favs:

5. Downtime

I have endless love for JayRoy and it felt so good to finally finish something for them for once this year! All of my past WIPs primarily focused on them ended up firmly in my graveyard folder, including the fic that this one shot was originally meant to be connected to. I liked the way this turned out well enough to clean it up and post it on its own though, so at least now I can say that I have something published for them at last.

(Also it got me back into the JayRoy headspace enough to outline a whole YJ/Earth16 JayRoy fic that I’m excited to start drafting in 2021, so we’ll see where that goes...)

2.3k NSFW; A mix of playful sweet and roughness, just like them.

4. Mirror Image

Bluepulse Week really saved me this year in terms of forcing me to just write, damn it! Did I finish all the prompts this year? Nope. Did it get me to complete a handful of fics that I ended up really loving? Yes. This was one of them.

This fic zoomed into existence entirely out of necessity as an alt idea to a prompt that I had a much longer idea for, but didn’t have time to complete. It then got a positive enough reception that I decided to turn it from a crack-adjacent, passable one-shot to a slightly more developed two-shot by request of one of my commenters. Really, it was writing that second chapter that ended up endearing the fic to me.

6.3k Humor, time travel shenanigans & accidental dating. This fic is the sweetness of teenage crushes, the confusing mess of discovering your sexuality, & laughter with your best friend.

3. Soft Wesper One Shots

Would you look at that, another nsfw piece. Could it be that I’m starting to get to the point where I can look back at completed nsfw fics without cringing terribly? Love that for me.

This fic took me by surprise, tbh. I wouldn’t consider myself a part of the grisaverse fandom (I’m utterly ambivalent toward the OG trilogy & have no plans to read them), but I did fall deeply in love with the whole Six of Crows gang earlier this year to the point of having quite the book hangover afterward, unable to pick up anything else except related fanfic for a couple weeks straight. These fluffy, nsfw scenes were born out of that, and I was pleasantly surprised to see such a positive response to them in the comments. The whole SoC gang has my heart, but the dynamic between Jesper and Wylan in particular got my writing fingers itching.

3.7k Domestic, post-canon fluff & tender sex with flirty Jesper & blushing Wylan abound.

2. Stick With Me

Ohh, I still get warm fuzzies thinking about this fic! If I’m only low-key proud of the first three on this list, this is one I’m legitimately very proud of. I had this idea on the docket already from a convo with @ivyxwrites early this year (or maybe last year? who knows, time means nothing anymore) but used Bluepulse Week as the excuse to finally get started, and I ended up adoring the process of writing it far more than I anticipated.

As much as I love planning out meticulously crafted, plotty stories, sometimes all you want to do is pick some well-loved tropes out of a hat instead and run with them (in this case: stuck in a cabin, only one bed, & heated argument leading to confession). It was freeing to just mess around and have fun with this fic, knowing pretty much right from the get-go how I wanted it to unfold and seeing it so vividly in my mind. It also probably helped that I was writing it for Ivy; it’s much easier for me to stay motivated when creating directly for my friends.

Finishing this was also such a serotonin-filled burst of pure victory for me since, as previously stated, I’m terrible at finishing projects--particularly multi-chap fics, particularly within a decent timeframe.

25.5k A showcase of the essence of what I love about the best friends-to-lovers dynamic. Part character study, part wires getting crossed & uncrossed, and whole idiots to lovers. This fic is the warmth in the pit of your stomach from a yearning made real & the sudden clarity of realizing what you were looking for had already been there all along.

1. The Rest Pt 1: Delicate (Remember Me Chap 4)

Oh, Remember Me. Of everything I’ve ever written, this story remains the one I’m most proud of and certainly the closest to my heart (not to mention the longest running, whoops). The first iteration of the beginning of this story was actually drafted back in 2017, but I walked away from it for a couple of years before deciding to dust it off and try again. It has spiraled into something far bigger in scope than I originally planned for, but I’ve come to love the path it’s led me down so far, and finishing this whopping 20k chunkster of a chapter was like breathing a huge (if temporary) sigh of relief.

This chap was particularly cathartic to write because it allowed for a number of convos between the boys that had really needed to happen, and was finally the ‘getting together’ moment the fic had been building toward for a while. It’s also so sappy I could die, but I will not be apologizing for that, lol. I was really hoping to get Chap 5 up this year as well, but y’know. Sometimes things just don’t work out like you plan for and that’s okay. 

Chap 5 does have 17k done already (with prob another 5-8k still to go) & I’m itching to share it, but no sense in rushing if the end result would suffer for it. Luckily, everyone in comments has been kind enough to beat me over the head with ‘take your time, we don’t mind/we’ll still be here!!!’ which I’m immensely grateful for. So, at least the pressure to hurry up and get it done is purely self-inflicted.

Of all my works, this fic has not only gotten the most passionate responses, but has also been the main gateway for me to interact with other bluepulse creators, which has been a real joy. Nothing brightens my day like the essays people leave me over there from time to time after discovering the fic. That kind of engagement is the highest praise, & responding is very self indulgent fun for me (bc, clearly, I could go on and on about this fic & YJ in general forever).

54.8k total so far (WIP). Bart & Jaime’s relationship journey from beginning to ‘current day’ (aka the moment the fic begins), using amnesia/memory restoration as a framing device. The high highs and low lows of first love, navigating a 3 yr age difference, and the long, winding road from best friends to lovers as the years roll on. Slow-burn-adjacent (in terms of both the boys’ relationship to each other and reader’s relationship to the fic bc of how long I take between goddamn updates).

Tagging @ivyxwrites, @incorrectbatfam, @paintingwithdarkness, @bluepulsebluepulse

[snowdice]

Road Trips and Missing Persons (Part 8)

Fandom: Sanders Sides

Relationships: Patton & Virgil, Virgil & Deceit, Logan & Patton, Emile & Remy, Roman & Remus & Janus

Characters: Patton, Virgil, Deceit, Remus, Roman, Logan, Emile, Remy

Summary: Patton was just getting groceries. The next thing he knew, there was a knife at his throat and he was an unwilling uber driver. Virgil’s on the run after the murder of his dad, and it’s not just his paranoia that’s telling him he’s being chased down. He has to get somewhere safe, somewhere he can trust, and all he has is a couple of stories from his dad and a name: “Green Bellow Foods and Dispensary.”

Notes: Secret Agents AU, knives, carjacking, kidnapping, murder mentioned, guns mentioned, pepper spray, blood mentioned, drugs mentioned (more to be added)

This is a fic I’ve been writing on study breaks that you have probably all already seen at this point. I’ve affectionately named it the Goblin Brain Fic because it’s helping my brain actually get motivated for studying. I’ve slightly edited it for wording and grammar, but not for content from my previous posts. Feel free to send in asks to direct it because I’m not 100% sure where this is going and you can help decide if you feel so inclined! You can see the process I went through to build this at this link.

Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6 Part 7 My Master Post

“What the fuck do you mean Virgil is missing?” Remy asked.

“That’s the second thing Logan said to me!” Emile said. “When he heard you died, he sent an agent over to check on Virgil, but there’d been signs of a break in and Virgil was gone. They don’t think he actually got kidnapped though because the car of whoever broke in was still there.”

“Well, then where the hell is my kid?!!” Remy yelled.

Emile flinched at his suddenly loud voice. “Leaping lizards Remy, I don’t know. I thought you did since you’re not actually dead.”

“Well I don’t!”

“Yeah, I’m getting that, calm down for a second.”

“Okay, right now is not a good time to tell me to calm down,” Remy said. “My kid is missing.”

“I know Remy,” Emile said in his professionally soothing voice, “but we have to think in order to do something about that.” Oh, he was thinking. He was thinking really hard right about now. He was thinking about how the person who sent someone to kidnap his son was the woman who’d just tried to have him fucking executed. God, Remy hadn’t even wanted her around his fucking kid when she’d just been a bitch and not an enemy agent out for his blood.

“We should call Logan back,” Emile suggested. “He might have more information.”

“No,” Remy said. “It’s still too risky.”

“Remy.”

“I said no, Emile,” Remy snapped. “What if she has him and intercepts the phone call. She doesn’t have any reason to hurt him right now,” other than the fact that he had quite the mouth on him and would probably piss her off by being a little shit especially if she wouldn’t tell him where Remy was, “but if she knows I’m alive she might.”

“Would she really…?”

“The woman just tried to shoot me with poisoned bullets. I wouldn’t put it past her.”

“Poison bull-? It’s not important,” Emile said. “If we’re not going to get information from Logan then how are we supposed to even start with finding Virgil?”

“Easy,” Remy said. “The tracker I put on him.”

“I’m sorry you put what on Virgil?” Emile asked.

“A tracker,” Remy said. “It’s in that bracelet he always wears. I don’t really want to go back to the house, but I think I left one of the devices to find him in here in case of emergencies.” He started digging through Emile’s glove box.

“Jiminy Crickets, you can’t just put a tracker on your teenage son Remy!”

“Why not?” Remy asked, still digging through the papers. Did Emile ever get rid of old insurance cards and also how many drive-through napkins did he need to keep?

“It’s an invasion of privacy,” Emile sputtered.

Remy waved him off. “Oh, please. I’m a secret agent, a (usually) off duty one, but still a secret agent. Sometimes I need to know where my kid’s at. Like now. Besides, I told him what it was when I gave it to him, and it lights up when activated. He can just chuck it out a window if he doesn’t want me knowing where he is.”

“Oh, well that’s okay then,” Emile said.

Remy hummed as his hand closed around the phone sized device hidden at the back of the glove box. “Ah, here it is.”

“When exactly did you put that in here.”

“Like two years ago,” Remy said. “Clean your car every once in a while.”

“Remington, I have seen your garage.”

“Maybe, but I never claim to be responsible.”

The thing was out of charge, so he plugged it into the car, and it booted up pretty quickly. Emile leaned over to look at the map that popped up. Remy pushed a couple of buttons to activate the tracker.

A red dot appeared on the map and Remy blinked at it. “Where the fuck?” he asked. He pushed another button and the device beeped, finding Remy’s current location on the map and putting a green dot there. The map had to zoom out quite a bit to fit both dots on the screen. A number appeared at the top of the map. “Shit.”

“Please tell me that’s feet,” Emile groaned.

“How the hell did he manage to get 50 miles away? I’ve been ‘dead’ for less than an hour and a half!”

“Did one of Barbara’s people get to him?”

“I’m not… he’s moving in the wrong direction if that’s the case,” Remy said. “Her house is in town and the secret base I know of is north of here. He’s going south east on the interstate.” He squinted at the map.

“Well then where is he going and how is he going there?” Emile asked.

“I’m not sure, but you need to start driving.” Emile hesitated for a moment. “Now.”

He nodded and put the car in reverse before pulling out of the parking lot and turning toward the interstate.

“Hey, Emile,” Remy said pleasantly after about 2 minutes. “Remember how mother said to not speed unless it was absolutely necessary?” Emile glanced at him out of the corner of his eye. “It’s absolutely necessary today.”

Emile gave him a slightly disapproving frown, but the car did speed up.

“So, what about poisoned bullets?” Emile asked.

“I’ve had a long day,” Remy said.

“Nope, no, you’re not getting away with that,” Emile said.

“We’re busy,” Remy tried.

“Assuming he continues to move in the same direction, we have over an hour car ride in front of us. So, talk.”

“You and talking,” Remy mumbled. “Why couldn’t you just be a secretive, suppressed secret agent like everyone else in our family.”

Emile shot him a glare.

“Emmmmmmmyyyyyyy,” Remy whined.

“Remington.”

“Okay… so it may have, sort of been, my idea.”

“Remy.”

“See, this is why I didn’t want to talk about it.”

“Please, tell me this is not why you wanted me to watch Virgil tonight,” Emile said.

Oh, yeah… Remy winced.

“Remy, you have to at least tell me if you’re getting me and Virgil involved in this sort of thing. Or better yet, not do that. What was I supposed to do if someone had come to the door to kidnap Virgil? Which they did, by the way!”

Remy shifted in his seat. “To be fair, the plan didn’t exactly go how I expected it to. You were just a precaution in case it took too long. I didn’t expect to ‘die.’ Or at least if she was going to try to kill me I though she’d hesitate more than 0 seconds.”

Emile spared him a glare as he merged onto the interstate.

“Okay, fine, so maybe I should have,” Remy admitted, “but she was up to no good! And I know I’m supposed to still be on desk duty, but I’d heard through the grapevine about her plans and, I mean, I was in the neighborhood. How was I supposed to know she’d see right through my lie about asking for money to buy Virgil a car?”

“Maybe because you’ve never asked the woman for anything, ever, especially in relation to Virgil and Virgil hasn’t even taken drivers ed because he’s still too scared to try to drive after the golf cart incident.”

“Yeah, yeah, whatever babe,” Remy brushed him off. “Anyway, we were talking, and I think she maybe got a little pissy that I wasn’t drinking the wine she gave me. It was probably poisoned now that I’m thinkin’ about it. Anyway, she must have finally gotten tired of me and pushed a button. Suddenly a bunch of guards were storming the room and, man, they were definitely the shoot first, ask question types ‘cause they immediately started shooting at me. Luckily I was wearing the light weight bullet proof vest Logan’d gotten me and I dove under her desk and, let me tell you, for how organized she is about her criminal empire and how clean the rest of the house is, she doesn’t clean much under her desk. I think it’s probably ‘cause she doesn’t let any of the maids in there to clean. Honestly, that might be where Janus gets the whole leaving snack wrappers and tissues all over the house. Because gee her desk. And-”

“Remy.”

“Right, so, there I was under her absolutely filthy desk and I look up and she’s standing there staring at me and she just takes out a gun and bang shoots at my head. Luckily it missed, but it ricocheted off her desk and ended up in my calf.”

“You were shot in the calf!”

“It’s not a big deal, I’m fine,” Remy said. “Anyway, those were the poisoned bullets.”

“You got shot with a poisoned bullet?!”

“Yeah, so, luckily it was a poison I got doused with once in Italy in my 20s and if you manage to survive it once, you’re good forever or whatevs, but like, I knew she thought it would kill me so I played dead. So, then after that, she called in Gilbert, you know Gilbert, the butler with the little trapezoid shaped beard? Yeah, so Gilbert comes in and she’s like, “get rid of his body” and he’s like “cool beans” or something to that extent. Anyway, he drags me out’a there, but the thing is Gilbert’s cool or maybe not cool because he’d totally bury my body without flinching, but he’s cool enough not to kill me himself or even run and tattle. So, I go, ‘yeah, not dead,’ and he’s like ‘Kay, but don’t tell her I knew that,’ and I’m like ‘jolly good, mate.’ Then I run off to her office (the secret one, not the one her and the armed guards are in) and steal the flashdrive. I go to get in my car, but she already ordered it to get blown up! I mean, rude, bitch! At least give my body time to cool. So, I end up hiding in the back of the catering company van that had come to get the kitchen ready for the gala she’s throwing later tonight which, I mean really, you’re serving shrimp and salmon, what type of monster are you? You do seafood and steak, not seafood and seafood. Ugh. Why did I ever have sex with her again? Anyway, I ride in the van to town and then bolt out of there before they can see me. Then, I get on a bus because I have a bus token in my wallet, but the bus driver is a bit chatty and this is a covert mission so I tell him my name is Gilbert, since Gilbert the butler was on my mind and that I am visiting my new granddaughter in the states but I’m actually from Quebec and I spoke French to prove it. I was going to get off near the one clothes shop on third, but then we drove by your office and I saw your car so I got off at the corner and picked your lock to get in your car and waited for you to come out because I thought that’d be quicker.”

“You’re doing the thing,” Emile said.

“What thing?” Remy asked flippantly.

“The thing where you use misdirection and slang to attempt to distract people from serious issues.”

Remy slunk down in his seat. “Ah, that thing.” Damn him and his stupid fancy psychology degrees.

“Is your leg okay?”

“Smarts like a bitch, but it was just a graze. I already bandaged it up and disinfected it.”

“Good,” Emile said. “Would you prefer if I yelled at you in chronological or alphabetical order.”

“I’d like to see you try out alphabetical.”

“Well,” Emile started. “First of all…”

Want to read more? Click below!

AO3 Part 9