#with a first person narrator

[paper-possum-party-pal]

Your narrator design needs to desperately hit the gym my god that bitch fat

Hmmm what’s this? A comment about me? Well let’s see what it says…

“Your narrator design needs to desperately hit the gym my god that b*tch fat”

A b*tch?!?! Well I- I can’t believe- why would- The audacity!!! A b*tch!!! I understand that I can be a bit passive aggressive at times but calling me a- goodness I don’t even know what to say anymore. At least the others picked up a thesaurus when insulting my narrative abilities.

I am curious however, what does my physical appearance have to do with anything? And what’s this about needing to “hit the gym”?

Stanley!!! Stanley, yes I need you to answer something for me, do I need to “hit the gym”?

No, I’m not concerned about my size, why would I be? My appearance is perfect, I wouldn’t just design a body for myself that I would stop liking. Why is everyone focused on that? I just want to know if I need to hit whatever this gym thing is.

Oh? ‘A place where people exercise to become stronger’? But I’m already strong enough. I’m not human and therefore not bound by your silly limitations. ‘Also to lose weight’? So they were insulting my appearance?

Yes “they”. A faceless person on the internet sent me what appears to be a hate comment without having the balls to do so to do so without the mask of anonymity. I would guess to separate their named online and more kind persona from their bitterness underneath so they can feel good about themselves. They want to be liked but can’t help the need to try and put down others.

Regardless so long as it’s not my abilities as a writer being insulted I’m not too bothered. After all, we’re only drawn pixels on a screen, don’t think too hard about that Stanley, and I’m far from the only heavyset narrator design out there. At least 50% of the other me’s out there have a similar body type as myself!

In fact, Mx. Anonymous, for being the first ever hate comment for this blog, you will receive art of myself drawn by our mysterious benefactor “PaperPossum” for all your troubles.

Enjoy

[effieotto]

it’s always so funny when i see someone arguing that Haymitch and Effie’s relationship could only work in the movies and not in the book, because, really, the only real significant difference between those two is that the movies aren’t directly affected by Katniss unreliable narration and her canonical incapacity of recognizing any form of normal social interactions.

And regardless of how much of the interpretation of their relationship was affected by the actors choices, it was still kept on the movies —thus Suzanne Collins approved every single scene, romantic or not, that came out. Therefore, all the movies are extremely reliable sources of information that were not highly biased by the limited insight of a weird teenage girl, who had to be convinced that the boy who almost died for her did actually loved her and wasnt trying to secretly plot against her safety, or by the gloomy and hallucinated thoughts of a semi-rehabilitated forty years old man with raw ptsd and severe depression.

In conclusion….tell me, why it wouldn’t work again?

[and let’s not bring the epilogue to the table, because it does concerns me how naturally you all look at a men speaking with the materialized vision of a probably inaccurate version of the ghost of his dead girlfriend who died twenty-six years ago, when they were both teenager, and call it love. Instead of seeing it as a deeply wounded man holding to the last thread of happiness his brain can handle during a severely depressive episode after a traumatic event, just because his narration describes it as a happy moment…like, of course he would describe it as a happy moment, he was the one going thought it. He will not be rationalizing his state of mind and come up with the resolution that wishing he would die soon of liver failure and hallucinating with a dead girl in a face of an adult women who never existed was bad]

[thesweetnessofspring]

Drives me crazy that Katniss will be called an unreliable narrator (when she's not) but Coriolanus Snow skates by without anyone saying boo about him being an unreliable narrator.

Like all it takes is being written in 3rd person? Our girl gets called unreliable for having opinions and whiny nepo baby Snow isn't for the exact same thing??? And his opinions contribute to continued violence in Panem???

Oh but it's in limited 3rd, it's soooooo different. 3rd person is always so reliable! 🙄

[essektheylyss]

I do think some of the handwringing I've seen about "hate" is funny because from what I can tell, even on twitter people are being surprisingly civil. The cast hasn't even had to make a big announcement clarifying a situation because everyone misinterpreted something and worked themselves into a furor. It took less than 12 hours after the c2 finale before Matt and Liam were like, "Uh, what do you mean, we literally said on stream Caleb and Essek get together." But there's also been a significant shift online since then to the point where anything short of "the precious baby blorbos were treated so niceys :3" is considered vicious hate, for some reason*, so I can't say I'm really surprised.

[ask-trialtale]

guys I got so inspired by y’all’s pieces of the dtiys that I drew a dtiys of my own dtiys

anyways combat duo >>>>

[elexuscal]

i don't know how exactly to articulate this but like

that two months that Murderbot & ART hung out together when they first met, and that year Breq and Seivarden spent travelling together are like: 🤝

[mikimeiko]

L'amica geniale | Season 1 (2018), Saverio Costanzo

[dogbunni]

thinking abt a nensai soulmate AU where everyone gets their soulmates first thought about them written on them. Like those first words AUs but with more flavour I guess. so saiki thinks he doesn't have a soulmate bc he has no first thoughts written on him and this further solidifies in his mind that he's not human/he's broken bc he's not normal/that his powers are a curse. Until he realises nendo is his soulmate and he has no words bc nendo has canonically never experienced a thought.

[mishy-mashy]

Imagine we get to the Paranormal Orphans chapter (410) in the anime, and instead of a normal narrator like Midoriya or AFO, it's just- Present Mic.

*Present Mic*

DAMN MAMA-RAKI! YOU REALLY GAVE BIRTH TO THAT?!

If only he was swept away by the river at birth and drowned- COUGH!!!

[devilsskettle]

wait wait wait the OTHER reason i don’t like the “it’s spring … come back to the world” quote being singled out from we have always lived in the castle (and why it bothers me to defend that choice by saying the character who says it is objectively right and we’re supposed to agree with them because merricat is bad and/or crazy) well okay but maybe let’s consider the reasons WHY an author who felt alienated from her small community and personally experienced agoraphobia and health issues that severely limited her later in life might portray the character saying this to a person suffering from severe agoraphobia in a small community as a ridiculous and inconsiderate person imposing on the characters and meddling in their affairs while perpetuating the same classism that people (rightly) criticize merricat for…… there is an underlying conflict between her high society worldview and the blackwoods lifestyle and reputation that creates the humor in this scene but also establishes another source of tension between merricat and the rest of the world and i think that might be going over people’s heads a little bit in terms of like. tone? i guess? this is not real advice lol. it also makes me feel like you read maybe the first chapter and gave up on reading the rest of the book maybe

[floofanflurr]

Examples:

Second:

It’s one of those days, today.

The kind where you wake up, and the sight of Mom cooking with fire magic in the kitchen makes the smooth, shiny, red burn scar on your shoulder ache. The kind where, when you take a bite of butterscotch-cinnamon pie, you taste coppery blood mixed with the spices.

Third:

It’s one of those days, today.

The kind where Frisk wakes up, and the sight of Mom cooking with fire magic in the kitchen makes the smooth, shiny, red burn scar on their shoulder ache. The kind where, when they take a bite of butterscotch-cinnamon pie, they taste coppery blood mixed with the spices.

If you answered the poll, please consider reblogging for visibility! Thank you!

(And if you want, share in the tags if your pov preference is a hard limit—do you prefer third, and refuse to read second? Or are you willing to read both but just have a preference?)

[ao3cassandraic]

I was reading this translation of an interview with the Weitzes, and it must have knocked some of my ancient study of Spanish literature loose in my head, because...

... it suddenly occurred to me that there's one hell of a lot of picaresque in The Murderbot Diaries.

[myokk]

My writing/reading question of the day:

Do you prefer present tense or past tense? Or something entirely different like future tense? For writing AND reading🫶

The more I write (I wish I realized how fun it was before this year😭😭😭) the more I realize I like to play around with language & tense choice can have such a profound impact on how your writing comes across & even how I feel as I’m writing. With my oneshots I’ve been playing around with only present tense & my main fic is past tense (but present during the flashbacks - idk don’t ask it just felt right😆).

Or does nobody else think about tense and I’m just alone in this😆😆😆 LANGUAGE IS JUST SO COOL !!!!

[mistigrisunshine]

spuffy fic rec

part 1 - part 2 - part 3 - part 4 - part 5

Puppy Problems by SzmattyCat [6k]

Buffy and Spike just want to spend some time together. Is that too much to ask?

Ghostly by untouchable [8k]

Six months after Sunnydale collapses, a grieving Buffy is startled to find Spike, feral and without any idea who she is, in her backyard. Is he real? Or just another ghost?

Dreamless by feliciacraft [9k]

Buffy woke up the same way she always did these days, a blank alertness overtaking sleep, without the harsh interjection of an alarm clock whisking her into action, without the dying whispers of a dream urging her to stay. Neither sudden nor gradual, instead it felt inevitable — like birth; yet always decidedly out of place. What was life after death in a nutshell, if not that? (Early season 6 AU story with a canon opening and a happy Spuffy ending.)

What Remains by MrsAkers [15k]

As the lone survivors of the final battle with Glory, Buffy and Spike run away from Sunnydale. Battling with guilt and an unfulfilled death wish, Buffy finds solace in Spike's company while the vampire just does his best to keep her alive.

Falling by kally77 [30k]

After The Harsh Light of Day, Angel loses his soul and Buffy finds an unexpected ally.

East of Nevada by Blissymbolics [42k]

The answer comes to him in a spark. Relief engulfs every nerve as he realizes Buffy is safe. He can save her this time. He wasn’t smart enough before. He made so many stupid mistakes. But this time is different. He may not have magic, but he can save her in a way no one else can. Spike sires Buffy to save her life. Now comes the hard part.

A New Dawn by kally77 [42k]

Rewrite of season 5. The monks made Dawn Buffy's daughter rather than her sister.

Midway of Speech and Thought by TheHousekeeper [63k]

Six months after the Battle of Sunnydale, Buffy is trying to settle into her new life in London: patrolling, training new Slayers, and studying English Literature. But it's not great for her grades that strange demons are appearing all over the city – and it's not great for her sanity that she's suddenly dreaming about Spike. And she only dreams when it rains.

In the Dark of the Night by norik23 [138k]

Saint Petersburg. 1920s. Rupert Giles, a fallen watcher, and Spike, a cursed vampire, are an unlikely pair of conmen struggling to make ends meet in a city overrun by demons. Together, they hatch a plan to find the long-lost slayer... or at least a decent approximation. A road trip adventure love story, loosely based on the plot of Anastasia (1997). Featuring a motley crew of misfits – Buffy, Spike, and Giles – who’d much rather bicker for 2000 miles than admit they’re all a bit lonely. Good thing it’s a long way to Paris. They’ve got time to figure it out.

Death Wish by Sigyn [190k]

“World is what it is. We fight and we die. Wishing doesn't change that. You can believe in a better world. I have to live in this one.”  Anyanka’s wish was broken, but the world it created continues. Now Buffy must join forces with rebel vampires to create a world they can all stand to live in. But can Spike, Drusilla and Angel actually work with a hardened slayer, who would just as soon see them all dust?

[lbulldesigns]

THE GIRL IN THE MIRROR.

Powder slammed her bedroom door shut behind her as she stormed into her bedroom, the various models, robots, and the cases holding her treasured fossils, crystals, and shells on the nearby shelf rattled from the force.

The noise of her siblings and “friends” downstairs stilled as they heard the slam echo throughout the house, but nobody made a move to investigate the sound.

“They would have to actually give a shit about you to do that,” the voice, in her head, sneered nastily at Powder.

The girl brushed it off this time as she went over to her computer to boot it up. As she logged in, breathing deeply to slow down the breakdown that she could feel building up, she could hear the sound of the front door banging shut. Powder stood up from her computer and went over to her window looking out over the street.

Outside she watched as her stepbrothers and sister piled into their cars with their respective girlfriends. With Ekko and Zeri entering Vi’s stupid, four-door, red pickup. All on their way to their couples-only day out at Piltover’s newly opened theme park.

The very one she had been begging her siblings to go to with her for the past three weeks, the one they had all been full of excuses about on how they might not be able to go, the one that Caitlyn “Bitchface” Kirraman had got everyone tickets for. Everyone but her.

Vi had explained how they had just got so worked up in their excitement at the idea of a day-long double-double date at a theme park, that they didn't think that Powder would even want to go.

“Yeah, because when someone doesn’t want to go somewhere they tend to beg to go for three weeks,” and even though the voice was nothing but a figment of Powder’s imagination, she could almost see it roll its eyes at the audacity from her sister.

“We thought you might be uncomfortable,” Vi had lamely stated, whilst rubbing the back of her neck, something she tends to do when she’s struggling to come up with a plausible lie. Powder knew her sister well enough to know that she was just making excuses, so that her picture perfect girlfriend wouldn’t look bad.

Staring down at the street, she watched as the cars pulled out of the driveway, for a split second she thought Ekko might have been looking up at her from the car, with something she wished could be regret on his behalf, but scoffed at the thought.

“Why would he feel regret? It’s not like he’s cheating on you,” the voice sneered, but she could swear she also heard a note of melancholy in its disembodied tone “he only ignored and avoided you, so that he could get his rocks off with Tits McGee.”

Powder took a deep, shaky breath through her nose, her fists clenching at the unbidden reminder.

Ekko, and Zeri in retrospect, have used any excuse they could to avoid spending time with her as of late, too busy with homework, too busy with the community centre they volunteer at with their families, too busy with their other friends who find Powder too weird to be around because she like sharks, and robots, and- “blah blah blah.. Insert reason here. Does anyone really need a reason to hate you?”

She feels stupid now for agonising over why for the past month, and making excuses on their behalf when the truth was there in her face this whole time.

They had abandoned her, just like everyone else seems to be doing lately.

They had gotten bored of constantly reassuring her that they liked being around her, had gotten sick of listening to her woes, and got tired of her being too “childish” as Zeri had been claiming more and more lately. Powder had chalked those comments from her “bestie” as her just playing around. But that, clearly, was not the case.

She had developed a massive crush on Ekko recently and had tried to stuff down the feelings as best she could. Ultimately she couldn’t deny it anymore, she had hoped to tell him at some point, once she had worked up the courage.

She had told nobody.

Nobody, but Zeri.

“Backstabber,” the voice bitterly and crudely spat.

She hadn’t even told Vi, but considering how more and more consistently hot and cold her sister had become towards her as of late that was, sadly, unsurprising

When Ekko had started pulling back from her, she had feared that Zeri had let something slip but the green haired girl had promised up and down that she hadn’t breathed a word to him, and Powder had trusted her because Zeri had always been reliable and honest.

When Zeri had insisted that she was working on a community services project with Ekko because her parents and Benzo had volunteered their time, and would use the opportunity to gauge whether there was a chance he would return Powder’s sentiments, the blue haired teen had trusted her friend.

When she saw all the hugs, and touches, and easygoing smiles between the two, she had swallowed that ugly, ugly, jealousy clawing its way up her throat from the very depths, back down and cursed herself for being such a horrible person to think badly of her friend.

And when Vi had announced they were going on a couples day out and had invited HER friends, POWDER’S FRIENDS!, she wanted to believe that Vi had simply misinterpreted things between the two.

But the guilty looks on Zeri and Ekko’s faces coupled with the looks Mylo and Claggor had exchanged like they were waiting for her to Jinx Out, a term Mylo had been proud to coin whenever Powder would have a breakdown or tantrum.

“I like to think of it as not taking anyone's shit,” muttered the voice, petulantly.

Powder had to face the truth, once and for all. No matter how crippling lonely it was.

Ekko didn’t return her sentiments, Zeri couldn’t be trusted, and everyone just didn’t want her around, and none of them had any problem with ripping her heart out and stomping all over it.

“And Caitlyn’s a bitch. Knew she had it out for you,” Powder hated when the voice was smug.

She had wanted to rage right there and then in that entryway, in front of her siblings girlfriends, she wanted to slap the smirk off that bitches face that she was trying to poorly hide by pursing her lips and looking at the floor to hell how it would make her sister feel, she wanted to rip out Zeri’s hair and call her a traitor, and she had even wanted to kick Milo in his shin despite the fact he hadn’t done anything wrong… This time.

The voice, only she could hear, was screaming what Powder wished she had the guts to scream, she wanted to call every single one of them out and curse them to kingdom come. But, ultimately, Powder had just felt numb to it all.

Why bother? They’ll just brush it off as another temper tantrum, and, really, do they even care if they hurt her anymore? If they ever did.

Rather than losing her shit, rather than crying in front of them all, rather than exposing her fragile heart anymore than they had already been trusted to and still chose to tapdance all over.

Powder had simply chosen to turn around and go back upstairs, ignoring Vi’s pathetic attempts to “apologise” with her classic “I’ll make it up to you later Pow Pow, I promise” that she never truly ever bothers to keep.

“She’ll come back later all puppy eyed, promising that she never meant to hurt you and she feels soooooooooooooo sad for making you sad. And try to make it up to you with a promise to watch all those shark documentaries that you've watched thousands of times while you spew out any and all shark, and fish facts you know, and because you’re just happy to have any kind of company, you’ll forgive her and then after a few days of undivided attention towards you she’ll go right back to ignoring you for Princess Pretty Pilty and the cycle will begin again,” The voice angrily huffed, Powder could almost hear the sound of it tapping its foot against her hardwood floor in utter frustration.

Powder grabs two fistfuls of her shoulder length hair, pulling until it hurts, hoping the pain will stave off the incoming migraine she could feel scratching at the tippy top of her skull.

Releasing her hair, distantly acknowledging the stands of azure strands clinging to her fingers, she tudges back over to her computer and sits down in her desk chair, idly moving the mouse to wake the screen from its slumber, but only stared at the screen in front of her as she tried to remember why she bothered turning the damn thing on to begin with.

“Probably because this is the procedure whenever you get fucked over. You boot up the computer, beg Little Man to play a few hours of Minecraft with you whilst you sob about how unfair everything is, then feel all warm and fuzzy when he listens and tells you you're amazing and he’s lucky to have you in his life. And then you can forget your worries because even if the others shun you at least you’ll always have Ekko,” The voice recounts for her, the bitterness and borderline disdain that has been present up till then absent, as something dangerously close to being sympathetic bleeds through its tone.

She could almost feel its presence standing beside her, barely touching her bare shoulder, as if to subconsciously comfort her.

And just how pathetic do you have to be when your imaginary frenemy even feels bad for you?

That’s when a sound mixed between a wet sob and incredulous laugh rips its way out Powder’s throat, the action opening the floodgates, and the sixteen year old finds herself sliding from her chair and curled up in the floor, her arms wrapped around her midsection in a desperate attempt to hold in all her sorrows at the unfairness of it all, and wailed into the floor.

It just wasn’t fair.

“If only you weren’t starved for their love,” the voice unhelpfully supplied.

Suddenly, Powder stopped crying, breathing deeply. Her forehead touching the wooden floor.

“Powder”

Slowly the girl pushed herself to her feet, her eyes staring blankly at the floor.

“Poooooowder”

She sits down in the chair, her arms draped limply over the armrest. Lazily she pushes her chair around, until she is facing the large mirror leaning against the corner by her bedroom window.

“POWDER!”

“I’m tired”

“What?”

But Powder doesn’t answer. She closes her eyes and when they open again it isn’t her.

Jinx looks over at the mirror across from her, contemplating the image of the girl lying on the floor, facing away from her where a reflection should be.

Jinx stands up from the chair and takes the few short steps over to the mirror. So that she’s standing in front of it.

Jinx stares down at Powder as she mopes on the other side of the reflection. She scrunches her nose and lifts a finger up to the surface of the looking glass, daintily tapping the tip of her pointer against the smooth surface.

Tap tap tap…

But Powder doesn’t stir.

“Seriously?” Speaking felt really, really, really weird.

Powder still doesn’t stir.

Jinx blinks and Powder is gone. Staring back at her was Powder’s visage.

Short, and skinny, with shoulder length blue hair, with freckles sprinkled across a slightly crooked nose. Courtesy of Vi and her bitch mittens.

She wore a pair of pink overalls over a sleeveless, purple tank top.

Jinx looked exactly like sweet, vulnerable Powder.

However instead of brilliant blue, innocent eyes.

Bright, magenta ones stared back at her.

Jinx huffed out a small laugh.

Well that’s gonna take some explaining.

[my-pjo-stuff]

The day the PJO fandom realizes that Percy is an unreliable narrator and one should NOT take the things stated in his POV as objective truth is the day I can die in peace.