#we just enjoy freaking out about it i think

[philtstone]

I know I already sent a Put Em In A Situation ask, but an alternate option to mix things up: Juliet + Gus, forced to lie about something

Summary: The zombie apocalypse comes to Santa Barbara and turns Juliet into a liar.

Stranger things haven't happened, thank you Gus, but that's not to say there isn't always still time for it.

Y'ALL!!!! i did it. i caved. i wrote a zombie apocalypse au. i feel like the reasons why all of these idiots would effortlessly survive the end of the world are pretty self evident. anyway, gus and juliet my beloveds, and i'm really quite proud of this one ... enjoy!

"The fact that I still have to get my period in the middle of the freaking zombie apocalypse is the height of twenty-first century sexism," Juliet declares angrily, as she makes an emphatic beeline toward Shawn and his armful of stolen Wal-Mart items anyway. "What's the point of scientific progress if birth control can't survive the collapse of civilization? You know who doesn't have to worry about this? Men! Unfair! Anti-feminist, frankly!"

"I'll make sure to tell the zombies that next time we see them," Shawn says, helping her spread the bags out on the ground and handing her the one she's looking for. She digs into it to find Kotex – he sprung for the good stuff, she thinks with a surge of affection, Juliet would've just grabbed the first thing off the shelf – and sniffs a little bit when he pats her gently on the shoulder. Then she tears into the little cardboard box with more vigor than it objectively deserves and stalks off to face the indignity of squatting behind the Blueberry's cracked back bumper while Shawn and Gus graciously direct their focus to the rest of their haul. "Wait," Shawn adds. "I got us air-freshener, too."

"You got us air freshener?" she hears Gus ask skeptically. "You couldn't even remember to do that when it wasn't the end of the world, and you get us air freshener in the middle of the zombie apocalypse?"

"We don't know if zombies can smell blood!" Shawn protests, and Juliet lets out a miserable groan.

Anti. Feminist.

She hadn’t loved the idea of splitting up – or of sending Shawn and Gus off on their own into an abandoned big box store – but someone had to guard the car, and this area is pretty abandoned, anyway. Not even in an eerie way. Just a sad, end-of-the-world one. Besides, the boys have been nothing but competent and reliable and ever-so-useful in a crisis since this whole mess started. Somehow, as the days have gone by, Juliet’s anxiety has only grown anyway. 

“What if they can smell air freshener, Shawn?”

“You know what? No. They can’t smell both at the same time. I don’t care that real life doesn’t operate by a constrained set of rules like every zombie movie we’ve ever seen. There have to be limits to this!”

The limit, Juliet supposes, is that Gus can almost always smell the zombies coming before the zombies can smell them. 

read the rest on ao3!

[rockybloo]

You joked yesterday about the Bitterbat/Sweetheart romance having "chaotically problematic" aspects, and I was curious if you could expand on that. TBH so far, they don't really seem especially unhealthy towards one another and as far as I can tell, it's not like Amara is letting Bitterbat kill/hurt innocents.

The chaotically problematic aspects come from how they are just a romanticization of stalking and obsession.

Bitterbat is a yandere. He'd never hurt Sweetheart - that is the biggest rule of writing him. Even when they do their mock battles, he may scratch her up some but that's only because she explicitly told him to beforehand.

Bitterbat is madly in love with Sweetheart. He thinks about her every hour of the day. He wears her clothes, occasionally swipes her underwear, watches her sleep, follows her damn near everywhere she goes, and knows whenever she is thinking of him. And god forbid he ever discovers someone has done her wrong. He'd show them there are worse fates than death.

And Sweetheart finds this behavior absolutely adorable. She gets butterflies in her stomach knowing Bitterbat does this typa stuff. She absolutely fangirls and squeals.

Her reaction isn't the result of delusion, just like Bitterbat's obsession with her isn't the result of him not being in his right mind.

BOTH are self aware and know their behavior goes against the norm. BOTH do not care. They used to, but then they realized that life isn't as fun when they hold back. So they just dropped the restraints. This is their love language - if the world doesn't like it - it can fuck off. One of them is keeping it safe, and one of them is showing it mercy.

Sweetheart sees some clothes go missing, she immediately knows Bitterbat swiped them and asks him if he could return some specific ones by (insert date) because she has an event she has to go to and she had an outfit she was planning on wearing.

She notices him following her while she is on her college campus and she orders two frozen yogurt cups so he can sneak on over while he is his itty bitty self and enjoy a treat with her before she goes to class. HELL, sometimes she just notices him following her and beckons him over so she can scoop him up while he is itty bitty and slip him right into her bra so he can ride along with her throughout the day.

And whenever she feels his eyes on her whenever she's resting, she sleeps a little more soundly since she knows he won't let anything bad happen to her both in the outside world and her dreams (since Bitterbat can enter dreams - he only does such with Sweetheart's tho)

There's more examples but basically, I have absolutely no interest in writing a "yandere creeps out their crush" story. We have so many of those and, while it makes sense a lot of people enjoy that type of story, I find more fun in flipping it on its head.

The concept of a female character who is decked out in the most lovecore fit, designated as a defender of love, deemed to be a role model and the ideal heroine, being down bad and matching the freak of her obsessive villainous boyfriend who causes deaths so gruesome, it'd make a slasher flinch, just scrubs my brain right.

It fills in the gaps I always feel when I see any series and spot a villain crushing on a heroine who ain't into them.

Glitter and Guilt is basically just a "What if the heroine WAS into it tho?" story.

[dutyworn]

the finns (and i am fully addressing myself as well here) collectively freaking out about late april heavy snow is so funny and kind of cosy/comfortable because snow in april happens all the time yet we are somehow surprised by it every year and then the entire country is talking about it

[iwritenarrativesandstuff]

literally the easiest way to make someone care about a character and make them feel well-rounded beyond basic traits like personality, sexuality, ethnicity, etc, is to give them an actual character arc, and it’s shocking how many people do not seem to fully realize this

you cannot just cram a bunch of tropes. tropes are not the main event, they are tools to tell the story you wish to tell. emotional impact comes from the lead up, so you can’t just jump ahead and expect the payoff to work. “I want this character to just ___ already!” but they’re not there yet. that’s where the arc comes in - how do they get there?

and! most importantly, and this is something I really want people to think about when writing - the most important relationship your character should have, always, is with the world and society around them. defining your character purely through their interactions with other characters are, I find, how a lot of female characters end up feeling flat or not engaging with the themes as much as the male characters, and also how queer and non-white characters wind up as devices for other characters’ development instead of being more fleshed out

[lala-blahblah]

I will never make this because it would be for an audience of one (me) but ever since reading "If we Were Villains" (story about serious drama kids in college who perform shakespeare and deal with a murder) I have been entertaining the thought of a crack fic crossover with High School Musical The Musical The Series where the staff decides they will no longer put on shakespeare after the tragic accident that happened at Thanksgiving, because Shakespeare plays would only increase the tension and drama. So they hire Ms. Jen who decides their spring play will actually be High School Musical (which exists in the 90s in this universe) and it ruins the vibe so much that everyone gives up on being dark and mysterious because they're universally pissed at Ms Jen for making them learn choreoraphed basketball dancing.

[corrodedcoughin]

90s au where stobin and Gareth and Eddie meet at a bar. How do they meet? Arguing over the bar’s sonic the hedgehog game. For months the two pairs have been playing it separate nights. Eddie and Gareth on Fridays (usually they have gigs on Saturdays) Steve and Robin on Saturdays (the Official start of their Saturdays nights). Both pairs unknowingly having vendettas against each other for the leader board (never the top spot, they accept they aren’t that good and it’s always headed by some guy called jargyle<3)

Anyway one weekend corroded coffin have a gig on a Friday so gareth and Eddie decide to keep their tradition alive but move it along to Saturday. They arrive at their usual time and set up shop at the game, quickly devolving into their routine of each others nicknames, Eddie being Sonic and Gareth being Tails. They are getting In The Zone when Steve and Robin arrive, absolutely OUTRAGED that somebody is at THEIR game and not only that! They’ve stolen THEIR names, Steve is Sonic, Robin is Tails. They plant themselves in a booth and order drinks, ready to pounce on the machine as soon as those two imposters move.

Only they end up maybe drinking more than expected, possibly riling each other up to the point of storming over to the two guys because how dare they steal Steve and Robins Saturday night ritual?! Their names! Maybe even their high score!

Gareth and Eddie are heading towards drunk themselves, losing more money to the machine than they can justify and over the top celebrating when they clear a level. Which is when Robin taps Eddie on the shoulder, spinning him round to explain Just How Rude he’s being with Gareth standing just behind Eddie’s shoulder, sipping his beer and squinting at Steve who is giving Scary Dog behind Robin. Gareth is maybe further gone than he realises because in the middle of Robin’s speech (which is very eloquent and impressive he must admit) he’s whisper shouting in Eddie’s ear ‘hey dude major hottie behind the cool lesbian. Want me to wing man you?’

And Eddie? Eddie slides his eyes over to ‘major hottie’ who happens to have the fluffiest hair and sharpest jawline he’s ever seen and whisper shouts back to Gareth because he too, is more drunk than he possibly wants to admit, ‘oh my god he’s so hot man, I think he might be a meringue. Menagerie? Mirage!’ And goes to extend a hand towards Steve.

Robin, now slightly endeared from being noted as a cool lesbian, turns to look at Steve who has his Loverboy Game Face on and figures she can swing this display of bad flirting into an opportunity to get her Saturday Night Ritual back on track. Nothing is getting in the way of her playing Sonic with Steve, it might just be a little detoured along the way.

[ria-starstruck]

ur honor they are literally fucked up little foils of each other

thumbnails of ideas i was having for very fancy pieces under the cut! we’ll see if i get around to actually finishing any of them

[electoons]

breaking my artistic dry spell by drawing my 6'5" orc and her 5'5" bosmer husband as every single tall goddess/short king meme that exists. unfortunately I can only think of 2

[themyscirah]

Suffering more than Jesus atm (being a fan of 80s/90s Suicide squad in 2024)

[junonreactor]

just did all the party sidequests. that was really cute

[opens-up-4-nobody]

...

[born-to-lose]

I love being the always single person in my family, mad respect to my sister for constantly dating guys for the last 8 years, I would have shot myself

[frankiebirds]

god i love tony todd. i get distracted by this scene every single time because TONY TODD!!!!

if my voice sounded like that i would make it everyone else's problem.

[sherlock-is-ace]

.

[toytulini]

hit tag limit on the last post cos i started talking about roller coasters again 😔

[orcelito]

read a fic earlier that's just like infiltrated my brain. i am thinking about it so fucking much. i keep remembering it and kicking my feet and giggling like an anime schoolgirl over some severely undernegotiated hardcore bdsm smut like MAN it was neither safe nor sane but it SURE WAS FUN.......................