#while writing

[pellucid-constellations]

The next part of Fable is pretty heavy with injury and angst so remember to read those warnings <3 It'll be posted either later today or early tomorrow!

[torusmistress]

a glimpse of us.

angst; katsuki bakugou x gn reader

listen to “Glimpse of Us” by Joji as you read!!

when you’re looking into his eyes they’re clouded. clouded with regret and sorrow. when he holds you it feels as if you’re just a placeholder. he gets more distant as the days pass. he lays in bed at night questioning his current position. yes, you’re so perfect together but why does he still wish it was her?

though he finds it difficult to focus as you softly snore into his side. he looks down at you. admiring your soft features.

similar to hers; but just not enough.

he feels conflicted. his heart longs for her all while yours search for his. he certainly loves you, but he’s just not inlove. his heart still belongs to her - after all this time.

he tries to fall for your touch but he can only think about the way that it was, the way it was with her.

he had finally changed like she pleaded, like she begged him to. so yeah, he’s a different guy now - he just wishes she would’ve had stayed to see. he wishes it was her he was perfect for. he wishes she would’ve forgiven him one more time.

he can’t blame anyone but himself. so he passes time in your embrace. returning the sentiments and solace.

you’ve been with katsuki for a while now. meaning you’ve grown accustomed to his mannerisms.

you notice he’s not one for long eye contact, especially when it comes to him being sunk deep into you. you notice how he prefers when your head is pushed deep into the pillow as he fucks into you from behind. you notice how he prefers reverse cowgirl when you ride.

you notice how he wants it completely dark and how he tells you to “shut the fuck up and take it,” while slapping a hand over your mouth when you talk. only satisfied with ambiguous moans.

you brush it off though. ignorance is bliss they say. even though dating katsuki was just short of it, the coldness sometimes palpable. like a loyal dog you crave his attention and validation.

his patrols become longer, his responses become shorter. til they stop altogether.

you wake up once again to an empty bed, but today something is different. it’s not only the bed that feels empty anymore.

you check the time, and see a message from katsuki:

“Good morning y/n. I really wish you the best, I care about you but I just can’t bring myself to be inlove with you. Sometimes when I look in your eyes I seem to find glimpses of her. It’s not your fault but I can’t ignore it anymore. I know I said I moved on but I can’t. And i don’t want to hurt anymore or hurt you. Please don’t contact me again.”

“Take care.”

So now it hurts just a little more when he tells the press he’s single, more than it did before.

[ehlnofay]

I Walked Into The River

The Tree of Shades, fed by a spring deep in the Shivering Isles' underground, will not surrender its secrets to one who has not earned them. The erstwhile Hero of Kvatch and Sheogorath's current grudging Champion has little left to prove and even less to lose.

I wrote this piece for the summerfest prompt "mirror" and am posting the full thing for the free day! it's my take on the doppelganger bit of that one quest in the shivering isles, which always struck me as having a lot of unrealised potential (especially in conjunction with running themes of duality the questline already has). I've had this idea for a long time now and this event finally got me to actually write it out, which was a lot of fun! if you're inclined to check it out, please do - it would give me much joy :)

[late-to-the-fandom]

[anewstartrekfan]

Spitballing Strange New Worlds s3 episode ideas, Spock edition:

(With Sam Kirk crashing the blog at the end)

Keep in mind I’ve only seen s2.

Assuming Christine is written out of the show for a little bit so the Doctor Korby romance can happen, maybe explain just how Spock was able to know that Rayna was going to die from being overwhelmed with emotions she was just experiencing for the first time in requiem for methuselah? I mean I assumed he was speaking from personal experience when I first saw it, but it could also be him diagnosing the situation based on what he was taught as a Vulcan.

So far strange new worlds (and from what I’ve heard Discovery too) has gone out of its way to show how Spock ended up in the mindset he was in about emotions and stuff. I think it would be cool if Spock either met someone else, or the events of episode 10 rekindle the Spock/Christine romance, Spock feels something entirely new, and then immediately regrets it when Chapel reveals she’s either engaged, in love with Korby, both, or some bad stuff dies down between him and whoever else he meets. This hypothetical relationship with a random alien doesn’t even have to be romantic.

Let’s say Spock gets caught on an alien world, meets a native, is stuck with them for a bit, and then in a life or death situation, the alien chooses to save Spock when we’d know that before meeting Spock, this character wouldn’t have done this, and somehow dies as a result. I’m thinking poison. Which would play into not only Spock’s actions in Requiem for Methuselah, but also Devil in the Dark. Wherein Spock at first wanted to try to reason with the Horta, but the second Jim was in danger he did a 180. It’s not that Spock would be against nonhuman entities learning human emotions. It’s that he would be far more cautious than Jim was.

“The joys of love made her human, and the agonies of love destroyed her.”

And while Spock is solidifying his stance to be more closed off, Other characters, Pike maybe? could finally open up to their friends. Maybe add some character development for Sam to explain why he’s so competitive with Kirk. Make it beyond daddy issues. Maybe make it mommy issues?

Oooo! I’ve suggested before that Jim and Sam’s mom maybe died on Tarsus IV. Maybe the reason Sam didn’t go on the command track like Jim was that becoming a xenoanthropologist would allow him to understand dead alien cultures discovered on various planets the federation may wish to occupy, or know how to communicate with living natives. And this would allow settlers/colonists to be warned about the local widelife like say, an exotic fungus that infects most of the food supply?

I work Tarsus IV into everything.

Since (in this hypothetical plot line) maybe there were native aliens to Tarsus iv, but because no one could communicate with them or even tried, the colonists weren’t able to be warned about the fungus. It would also be cool because of how it would naturally contrast Jim’s reaction to the massacre.

Jim wanted to be there when the disasters happened to save everyone.

Sam wanted to prevent the disasters from happening to save everyone.

Fun to spitball.

[spaceprincessleia]

Officially moved from my “I can’t write conversations” era to my “I always have to write the convo first” era

They’re good for structure

Also kind of makes me want to write a script one day, like the Aphra script

[cloudwhisper23]

Okay. So.

I'm in that writing rut (you probably know the one. and if you draw instead, you also probably know. actually, all art creators probably know exactly what I'm talking about here) that makes me feel like everything I've ever written is completely worthless. Do I believe this? No. I have evidence otherwise.

My issue (not that I'm blaming anybody here, I know we all have our own lives) is that I don't feel like I'm reaching people. I have one interactive reader, and I'm not entirely sure if he counts because he's my boyfriend. Some of my mutuals are reading my writing, but again, it's starting to feel very superficial because they're my mutuals. Of course they're saying nice things about my writing. They're mutuals.

There... just seems to be a disconnect. I don't have readers, or at least, I don't have vocal readers. Anon is turned on for a reason, but nobody wants to talk to me about my writing, aside from the aforementioned people. No asks, no comments, nothing. Maybe you're sick of hearing me say that I don't put much stock in likes (similar to other users on this site) but honestly, that's the truth of it. What's a like to someone who feels inadequate in their writing? To me, the answer is nothing. A like doesn't say much.

Sure, it says "Hey, this was cool." Does is say anything else? Not really. Does it tell me that you want to see more? No. Of course not. Let's say it's a series of chapters and books on Ao3 not getting any indication that people actually want to see it through to the end. What does that mean? The author probably will move on to other things, regardless of the pressure to actually bother finishing something through to the end. That was my goal, but it's starting to crumple. And if people don't care about my writing, then I'm going to stop posting it. The ask-box one-shots have been giving me more energy to write than anything else. Heck, I might just focus on turning some of those into proper stories. I certainly have ideas for how I could. I probably should, quite frankly. I've got time before my current readers even reach the end of what I've write (looking at you, Discord). And they may be disappointed that I didn't give them what I've been talking about forever (which if I listed here would be spoilers, not that you seem to care), but I can still write those excerpts, even though the story is frozen.

You just won't get to see them anymore. And you probably won't care. So I may even deactivate @thereareothersfnaf if this goes long enough. Which it might.

[arosnowflake]

My biggest tip for fanfic writers is this: if you get a character's mannerisms and speech pattern down, you can make them do pretty much whatever you want and it'll feel in character.

Logic: Characters, just like real people, are mallable. There is typically very little that's so truly, heinously out of character that you absolutely cannot make it work under any circumstance. In addition, most fans are also willing to accept characterization stretches if it makes the fic work. Yeah, we all know the villain and the hero wouldn't cuddle for warmth in canon. But if they did do that, how would they do it?

What counts is often not so much 'would the character do this?' and more 'if the character did do this, how would they do it?' If you get 'how' part right, your readers will probably be willing to buy the rest, because it will still feel like their favourite character. But if it doesn't feel like the character anymore, why are they even reading the fic?

Worry less about whether a character would do something, and more about how they'd sound while doing it.

[pellucid-constellations]

Okay not to sound an alarm on this blog but I literally wrote something for bucky for the first time in a year and actually finished it

[noperopesaredope]

I wish we had more female characters like Eleanor Shellstrop. One of the most unlikable people you've ever met. Read a Buzzfeed article on most rude things you can do on a daily basis and decided to use that as a list of goals. Makes everyone's day worse just by being there. Dropped a margarita mix on the ground and tried to pick it up, only to get hit by a row of shopping carts which pushed her into the road where she was hit by a boner pill delivery truck, killing her instantly. Cannot keep a romantic partner despite being bisexual. Had a terrible childhood but will die before she gets therapy. Best employee at a scam company. Just the worst but also can't help but root for her to improve.

Absolute loser. Girl-failure. Bad at almost everything. Literally perfect female character.

[words-and-coffee]

Alice Te Punga Somerville, Always Italicise: How to Write While Colonised - Kupu rere kē

[ID: A poem titled: Kupu rere kē. [in italics] My friend was advised to italicise all the foreign words in her poems. This advice came from a well-meaning woman with NZ poetry on her business card and an English accent in her mouth. I have been thinking about this advice. The convention of italicising words from other languages clarifies that some words are imported: it ensures readers can tell the difference between a foreign language and the language of home. I have been thinking about this advice. Marking the foreign words is also a kindness: every potential reader is reassured that although you're expected to understand the rest of the text, it's fine to consult a dictionary or native speaker for help with the italics. I have been thinking about this advice. Because I am a contrary person, at first I was outraged — but after a while I could see she had a point: when the foreign words are camouflaged in plain type you can forget how they came to be there, out of place, in the first place. I have been thinking about this advice and I have decided to follow it. Now all of my readers will be able to remember which words truly belong in -[end italics]- Aotearoa -[italics]- and which do not.

Next image is the futurama meme: to shreds you say...]

(Image ID by @bisexualshakespeare)

[rayveneyed]

nanami kento is the kind of man that makes people swoon without even realising it.

he's the kind of man to walk into a luxury store after work, suit jacket folded over one arm and a bouquet of flowers in the other -- his blonde hair still mostly perfect from the high-end pomade he uses. he scours the shelves, frowning to himself, while the attendants whisper and giggle amongst themselves near the tills -- an argument over who will be the one to talk to him, because he's intimidatingly pretty.

("just look at him," one whispers. "he's definitely buying something for a girlfriend."

"a wife," another disagrees. "c'mon. he's giving husband vibes."

someone hums. "but i can't see a wedding band."

"his mother, maybe?" says one other. "oh, i love when guys come in shopping for their mother."

"nobody's mother is getting a bouquet of a hundred red roses--")

eventually, one of them is volunteered as a sacrifice -- smiling and sweet as all attendants should be, she clears her throat. the others, crowded around the till, watch the exchange closely. "excuse me, sir. is there anything we could help you with today?"

her mouth is dry and her hands are clammy -- and when he fixes her with those narrow, burning eyes, her throat bobs.

"ah, yes." and his voice is deep and gravelly and drawling, and her stomach turns. she can only imagine what her coworkers are thinking -- hell, she can only imagine what she's thinking. her mind has stopped short. "my girlfriend likes this brand quite a bit. i thought i'd pick her up something..."

disappointment brews in her stomach -- and it's stupid, she knows it's stupid, because obviously a guy like that is taken. and -- she glances down at the roses -- obviously he treats her super fucking well. of course he does, because why wouldn't he? "oh, perfect! do you have anything in mind?"

"well, actually..."

he ends up buying one of the priciest gift boxes available -- fancy body care and perfume laid out in their signature boxes, decorated with ribbon and dried lavender -- no argument, no fight. he doesn't look for something cheaper, doesn't try to haggle or remove something to decrease the price. he adds, and adds, and adds -- and when she mentions a special offer at the till, a little add on for an extra 2000 yen, he accepts it readily. he inserts a black card into the card machine (of course, a black card), takes the beautifully wrapped bag, and thanks the girls for their services -- and just as he's leaving, his phone rings.

of course he answers the phone with hello, darling. of course he begins to ask his girlfriend about her day, the girls think with some amount of annoyance -- of course. maybe the curse of retail isn't entitled assholes expecting you to wait on hand and foot for them -- maybe it's the handsome men coming in to splurge on their girlfriends while you're painfully single and working for pennies.

[tofixtheshadows]

I've been thinking a lot lately about how Kabru deprives himself.

Kabru as a character is intertwined with the idea that sometimes we have to sacrifice the needs of the few for the good of the many. He ultimately subverts this first by sabotaging the Canaries and then by letting Laios go, but in practice he's already been living a life of self-sacrifice.

Saving people, and learning the secrets of the dungeons to seal them, are what's important. Not his own comforts. Not his own desires. He forces them down until he doesn't know they're there, until one of them has to come spilling out during the confession in chapter 76.

Specifically, I think it's very significant, in a story about food and all that it entails, that Kabru is rarely shown eating. He's the deuteragonist of Dungeon Meshi, the cooking manga, but while meals are the anchoring points of Laios's journey, given loving focus, for Kabru, they're ... not.

I'm sure he eats during dungeon expeditions, in the routine way that adventurers must when they sit down to camp. But on the surface, you get the idea that Kabru spends most of his time doing his self-assigned dungeon-related tasks: meeting with people, studying them, putting together that evidence board, researching the dungeon, god knows what else. Feeding himself is secondary.

He's introduced during a meal, eating at a restaurant, just to set up the contrast between his party and Laios's. And it's the last normal meal we see him eating until the communal ending feast (if you consider Falin's dragon parts normal).

First, we get this:

Kabru's response here is such a non-answer, it strongly implies to me that he wasn't thinking about it until Rin brought it up. That he might not even be feeling the hunger signals that he logically knew he should.

They sit down to eat, but Kabru is never drawn reaching for food or eating it like the rest of his party. He only drinks.

It's possible this means nothing, that we can just assume he's putting food in his mouth off-panel, but again, this entire manga is about food. Cooking it, eating it, appreciating it, taking pleasure in it, grounding yourself in the necessary routine of it and affirming your right to live by consuming it. It's given such a huge focus.

We don't see him eat again until the harpy egg.

What a significant question for the protagonist to ask his foil in this story about eating! Aren't you hungry? Aren't you, Kabru?

He was revived only minutes ago after a violent encounter. And then he chokes down food that causes him further harm by triggering him, all because he's so determined to stay in Laios's good graces.

In his flashback, we see Milsiril trying to spoon-feed young Kabru cake that we know he doesn't like. He doesn't want to eat: he wants to be training.

Then with Mithrun, we see him eating the least-monstery monster food he can get his hands on, for the sake of survival- walking mushroom, barometz, an egg. The barometz is his first chance to make something like an a real meal, and he actually seems excited about it because he wants to replicate a lamb dish his mother used to make him!

...but he doesn't get to enjoy it like he wanted to.

Then, when all the Canaries are eating field rations ... Kabru still isn't shown eating. He's only shown giving food to Mithrun.

And of course the next time he eats is the bavarois, which for his sake is at least plant based ... but he still has to use a coping mechanism to get through it.

I don't think Kabru does this all on purpose. I think Kui does this all on purpose. Kabru's Post Traumatic Stress Disorder should be understood as informing his character just as much as Laios's autism informs his. It's another way that Kabru and Laios act as foils: where Laios takes pleasure in meals and approaches food with the excitement of discovery, Kabru's experiences with eating are tainted by his trauma. Laios indulges; Kabru denies himself. Laios is shown enjoying food, Kabru is shown struggling with it.

And I can very easily imagine a reason why Kabru might have a subconscious aversion towards eating.

Meals are the privilege of the living.

[selenekallanwriter]

Person: What's your book about?

Writers:

I'm both somehow 🙃

[cryptixotic]

Be real with me. You're sitting in a bar and a 𝔴𝔞𝔯𝔩𝔬𝔯𝔡 𝔬𝔣 𝔱𝔥𝔢 𝔰𝔢𝔞 with a massive sword rams into the door. Do you or do you not laugh

[sscieloz]

no rage at all just peace