#unless it's about fic

[batsyheere]

"So, handling your archnemesis," Danny starts. The room falls quiet, heads slowly turning to look at the man as he writes the words on the chalkboard. When finished, the characters somehow both messy and neat at once, Danny places the chalk back down and claps his hands.

"I typically call them fruitloops. Often they're in a better position than you are- older, richer, more powerful. They may have some sort of status that protects them when facing the public."

Tim wondered where Dick was right now, and if he was laughing. His brain was lagging like a computer as he tried to process what Danny was saying, and how seriously a few of his fellow teen vigilantes were taking this.

"Some of their more common tactics are-" the chalk was picked back up, and Danny writes as he speaks.

"Manipulation, isolation, conditioning, and empathy."

MICE.

Tim stares at the board, and quietly slips put his phone.

-What have I done to deserve this.

Enjoy your lessons Tim-

His head thumps against the desk. Conner leans over, gives him a pat on the shoulder but returns to taking notes as Danny goes on to explain the conditioning tactic.

[podcast-hemocytoblast]

What if when Michael got Distortioned he/they/it/(?) had just kept showing up to work? Imagine Gertrude comes into the archives and finds a bunch of paperwork filled out in yellow highlighter and folded into impossible shapes, and then Michael-Distortion just walks into the room door-style and sits down at his work computer so it can email Gertrude a phishing scam.

[sykloni]

Dannymay 2023

15. Full Hazmat AU & 23. Rogue Gallery

[zephyrchama]

I bet Mammon has a picture of MC in his wallet.

No one's allowed to touch his wallet because obviously Mammon doesn't want people going after his money, but he also doesn't want anybody finding his good luck charm. That little portrait is for his eyes only - to say nothing of the teasing he'd get.

Seeing Goldie and MC side by side inflates his mood like nothing else (except, perhaps, winning a jackpot). He may even give the photo a quick kiss before a round of gambling, if no one's watching.

[centaur-dreaming]

All fic writers have that one document in their drafts that would end their entire career, social life, everything if anyone irl were to find it

[demaparbat-hp]

Zuko looked up and locked eyes with his cousin, who was struck speechless. Then, ever so slowly, Lu Ten's lips twitched upwards. And then he smiled. And then he beamed. And then he nodded proudly once, just once, and vanished.

Lu Ten comes back in For the Spirits Chapter VII: Take Me South, only to leave Zuko with more questions than answers. Just how much is he truly aware of? When will he return? What is Zuko going to do now?

(What will the South bring?)

[godsfavoritescientist]

Two possibilities come to mind when I think about the concept of bill running around with his baby self: either he somehow accidentally clones himself and the clone process only makes newborns, or the theraprism decides one day "well you're never getting any better. Time to blow up your baby self to stop you from ever even existing!" and Bill stops them, rescues his baby self, and then is on the run with it, all the while going through periods of memory loss and glitching out of reality because the paradox of rescuing his baby self is destabilizing his entire existence.

[justaz]

arthur (prince of camelot) still has to study under a tutor bc yknow uther wants him to be very intelligent before becoming king or something bc its super important idk idc anyways merlin is doing chores in his chambers while arthur is squinting at a book and merlin eventually caves and asks him what he’s reading and arthur gruffly explains that its a collection of stories from greece that make absolutely no sense so merlin asks him to read them outloud to him. arthur of course teases him and calls him an idiot and asks how he could possibly help but does as he’s asked and reads the stories to merlin as he does his chores. merlin (being crushed under the weight of destiny and tormented by the prophecies that kilgharrah spews) understands the stories almost immediately and gets all excited and starts rambling about them with arthur. arthur is glad to have someone who understands so he can give something that reflects a hint of understanding to his tutor who accepts it and moves onto the next unit of education.

the thing is, arthur finds more stories in camelot’s library and brings them up to his room to read them aloud to merlin under the guise of completing his studies but really he just wants to watch as merlin’s eyes gleam when he understands whats happening and listen to him ramble on and on about them bc he’s gay. the stories stick with merlin though and he realizes that they’re cautionary tales, that the heroes who were told too much of their future doomed themself to fulfill them - that them fighting the prophecies led to their completion. merlin takes it to heart and gives a big “fuck you” to kilgharrah before forging his own fate and helping morgana with her magic and handing out an olive branch to mordred and now everyone can live happily and peacefully in an albion teeming with magic.

[starry-bi-sky]

"What about this one?" Bruce taps gently against the side of Danny's throat with his finger, a small, blacklight flashlight clutched in his other hand. Danny raises his hand and feels where he's tapping, and tries to remember which fight that's from.

After a few seconds, he finds the memory. "Some guy from revolutionary France," he says idly, quiet; somber, "had a very good aim, but not a very sharp axe."

The memory feels more vivid now than it did a few moments ago. He remembers digging the axe out himself, just in time to dodge the ghost lunging at him. His arms had trembled. He yanked it out like a splinter.

He sees Bruce's frown deepen from the corner of his eye, the space between his brows pinching together, and Danny purposely averts his gaze. He swallows dryly, it feels phantom sore. "Anymore questions?"

[petricorah]

lee from the tea shop boutta get it (wip) [id in alt]

edit: completed illustration here

[waitineedaname]

what do u think ritsu would do if he got stuck in a time loop

oh he would go insane. like, immediately. you know how in a lot of time loop stories, there's a point where the character kind of loses it? it would take no time for ritsu to reach that point. like as soon as he realizes he's trapped, he will Freak The Fuck Out. he'll either throw himself really intensely into trying to figure out how to end the time loop, or he'll go completely off the deep end and start blowing shit up because it'll all be reset by the next day. potentially both.

of course, this is all presuming he's alone in the time loop. I think if he had someone else trapped in the time loop with him, he'd be less likely to lose his mind and instead would work really hard with them to break it. but if he's by himself in the time loop, he would not cope well

[liesmyth]

Is it better if John erased their memories, or if they came back that way and he just decided not to fix them?

It's immensely better if he intentionally mindwiped them. TO ME.

I'm a John fan. I think he's a tremendous tragic antagonist, and that everything he does in the HtN backstory is relatable if not painful familiar. He was under immense pressure, trying to mitigate the literal end of the world, having his mind and his whole self changed in ways he had no frame of reference to understand. He went from being desperate and trying to do his best to being carried away by circumstances to going absolutely fucking insane. There are many ways to rationalise John's actions all the way to the end, which is what makes it such an effective corruption arc. If you want to engage in some blorbo apologism, there are plenty of excuses to be found.

There's absolutely no fucking way to excuse mind-wiping his friends. THAT is why it's so important to me that he did it deliberately, in cold blood, justifying it to himself as a way to take their burdens upon himself so they wouldn't have to feel guilty. He removed their agency. He didn't want any peers in the world he'd created. He could have acknowledged what had happened, for better or worse, and tried to make amends - but instead, he chose to remove their knowledge that something had even happened in the first place. It's the turning point! I need him to go into that with his eyes fully open. He's doing it on purpose! He weighed the pros and cons and prioritised his comfort over his friends' identities.

EYE believe that his story arc is infinitely more powerful if there's a point we can look at and say "here is when John's story went from things happening TO HIM to John doing terrible things". Especially in a backstory that's ultimately about divine corruption and losing touch with your humanity, I think that turning point needs to be something that has a personal value to him, something that can't be chalked up to "he was high on death" or "humanity was doomed" or even "he touched the soul of the earth and went insane."

I think it's important, thematically, that one of his first actions after acquiring godlike powers was to make sure that no one would be able to remember his human self and challenge him on equal footing, even if he's still internally lamenting his own loneliness and wishing things were different.

Obviously, this is all coming from a known John Girlie™ and Eldritch Alecto Enjoyer — I interpret John's ascension to quasi-divinity as something that was mostly imposed ON him and he couldn't control, which is why I need him to cross the moral event horizon outright with the mind violation of his inner circle. Someone who views John as more directly culpable in the end of the earth might feel less strongly about the importance of the mindwipe in his story arc than I do, but TO ME it's the culmination of the tragedy. You've become the inhuman horror, baby.

/post that inspired the question

[inklessletter]

I dreamed of your voice last night, and it sounded as lonely as I am. Are you trapped in there? Are you... are you real?

Thank you for trusting the process again <3

[kentopedia]

since i've seen others talking about this, as someone who writes predominately lengthy fics (5k+ words), what annoys me the most is that i've seen so many people on tumblr & tiktok specifically say "i hate when writers have too much build-up and don't get straight to the smut, i just skip to it." ???? writers spend HOURS on pieces like that, and to find out you don't really care is very disheartening & is quite literally going to kill not only writing on these platforms but literature as a whole

[dukeofthomas]

I can't find it now but there's a post about suspension of disbelief and how it's broken when the story starts trying to excuse it. "character gets knocked unconscious for hours but there's no further issues from this" okay 👍 "and actually this makes perfect sense because of this and that" um no it doesn't why are you lying to me. like i am willing to ignore the holes and the discrepancies!! all you need to do is let me and not bring unnecessary attention to it!!!

and all that is my issue with the whole robin child soldier argument. like i am willing to ignore it i am willing to engage with the fantasy literally all you need to do is NOT try to convince me that Actually It's Fine Because They Want To Do It or whatever. like literally just shut up about it and i can engage with the fantasy!!

[teainthesnow]

i shouldn't need to spell it out and yet

friendly reminder that unwanted 'constructive' criticism and useless comments (e.g. i don't like this. i'm confused.) are just rude. and this is true for fics, comics, and anything people are posting online

don't be that person

and if for some reason you decide to say something anyway, be nice about it. It costs nothing to be nice (:

(also note - even nice feedback and comments are hard to get these days. if negativity is all or the majority a person gets, well that's just hell to deal with... and also not a reflection of the author/artist/ect abilities)

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TEAS GUIDE TO ONLINE ETIQUETTE (aka, how to not be an ass)

So, you're confused reading someone else's story?

no -> Hell yeah! tell them that you enjoy it!

yes -> do you feel the need to inform the author?

no -> nice

yes -> did they ask for your opinion?

yes -> then let them know (nicely)

no -> leave them alone -> but it's bugging you? -> will rereading help?

no -> then tough. leave the author alone

yes - go do that -> but it's still updating -> then of course it won't make sense yet, you wallnut

-> still confused -> have you tried looking for a thing called subtext

still confused

-> THEN TOUGH. LEAVE THE AUTHOR ALONE.

- ---- -

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should you tell someone they made a spelling and/or grammar mistake? -> Did they ask to be told?

yes - then go tell them NICELY

no - then leave them alone

- ---- -

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You want to tell someone that you don't understand their work? -> Did they ask for your opinion?

yes -> then tell them (NICELY)

no -> Then leave them alone. No buts. Don't be an ass.