#and all i can think of is there is a way to make the premise of the book work in a more down to earth way

[avonne-writes]

Angel AU drabble

A lot of people asked about this AU, so here's a little drabble to hold you over until I can start writing this story 😇 Read the premise here

Invisible to the human eye, Gale follows his ward everywhere he goes. After a few years of careful guidance, humans tend to become more independent, and then he has time to pick up a second or even a third case, but John is a rescue. He’s going to need all of Gale's attention for a much longer time if his soul is to be saved. It’s exciting to be challenged with such a difficult ward. Neglected by an incompetent guardian - who's now demoted to administrator - he went down the path towards Hell. Gale's priority is to guide him back. His second, more personal goal is to make him happy too. They’ll have to see how John manages, but Gale will do his best.

Currently, they're on a dirty bus that coughs a trail of smoke as it chugs on towards the most dangerous neighbourhoods of the city. Gale tried to discourage John from boarding the repulsive vehicle, but his suggestion was ignored. It’s only their first day though - Gale just has to find the right technique to get through the wounded exterior of his soul. For now, he just settles down beside John and radiates an aura that keeps people from sitting next to him. He can tell that a stranger's closeness would distress John.

There are earbuds in John's ears. Gale examines them curiously, leaning in real close to see the emotions flickering through John's mind as he listens to the music. Human music has always fascinated Gale. He used to wonder if humans were trying to find the tunes of Heaven, but he knows that's not the case ever since he discovered rap music. He wants to learn John's musical taste. It could come in handy if Gale wants to influence his mood in the future.

The bus rolls to a stop, and John moves to get off. Again, Gale tries to hold him back. This isn’t a good place - he can already see the stains of malice peeling off the walls of a house by the bus stop, like a black, rotten layer of skin. He knocks a woman's suitcase over and makes a backpacker move to block John's way, but John is determined. He shoulders his way out of there and gets off the bus.

Outside, the night greets him with a chill and cruel blows of the wind. John's bruised face hurts as he squints against it. As he takes off towards an alleyway, Gale makes that wind stronger, even though his own nose wrinkles at the smell of depravity it blows out from the direction they're headed.

"Why don’t you go back home? You could take a hot shower there." He tells John gently. If he talks to John from the ethereal plane, his words form suggestions in John's mind, ideas that he thinks are his own. It's the easiest tool to use. Humans usually go along with what they call their sixth sense. And indeed, John stops. But a moment later, he squares his shoulders and resumes his steps.

Gale frowns. He has to step up his game.

They enter an establishment that Gale identifies as a nightclub. A shady one. Spilled drinks sticky on the floor, cigarette smoke, knives tucked into pockets, unprotected sex in the putrid bathroom. Gale can hear, see and smell it all as he traces John's steps, but his senses also reach beyond that. The place is swarming with demons and malicious spirits. Their waste litters the ethereal plane and clings to Gale's feet until he blasts it off in disgust.

His feathers ruffle. Behind him, his wings move from their relaxed position to a casual back-shield. He doubts that the slimy creatures cowering from him in the corners would attack him, but it never hurts to be cautious. As it is, the sea of demons threaded through the dancing human crowd parts for him, hissing at his light. His lower ranking siblings, those few who had the strength to brave this place, all seem to breathe a sigh of relief when he nods at them in greeting.

"Sir." They say as he passes.

"Keep up the good work." He replies calmly.

John doesn’t stop on the dance floor, so he doesn’t linger either, no matter how much fun it is to see the cowardly demons skitter, scared that he might smite them. He follows John to the back of the club, then out into the alley behind it.

There, they wait. It’s raining. Water soaks through John's hoodie. The residue of malevolent beings falls from the sky with every raindrop. Soon enough, Gale’s brushing its black soot off his wings. His iridescent white feathers contrast harshly with it.

"You don’t want to do this." He tells John. "Come on, why don't we get out of here?"

As if in reply, John mutters to himself. "The fuck am I doing here."

Gale smiles. "You don’t belong here."

He can feel the ideas battling in John's head, and he tastes the sweet scent of a step in the right direction, but suddenly, in a sharp twist, John's thoughts plummet into despair. Unpleasant memories swirl in his mind. "Right where I belong."

Gale's wings twitch. This won't be easy. They have a long road ahead of them, don't they?

#mota #buck x bucky #clegan #gale cleven #john egan #fallen angel au #my writing

[nothorses]

What is your opinion on terf blocklists, where every one on there at the time had clear and intentional radfem beliefs pushing shitty ideas about trans people and easily identifiable as to what exactly they believe via what they say and circulate and who they constantly reblog shitty things about trans people from?

I promise this is a genuine good faith question; I want to understand if the thing I've been taught be others to do with the purported intention of eliminating platforms for terfs to protect ourselves and others is actually helpful or if that also has far reaching consequences I hadn't considered before. I'm trying to think about it but struggling with the idea I got taught to do them/follow them (blocklists) for being to identify correctly and block, not harass. But do the harms of encouraging that approach actually outweigh the benefits and that doesn't change even if the blocklist is for actual bigots?

Again, genuine question. Trying to learn.

I think the problem here is less in how a blocklist is constructed; it's not hard to imagine that a list can be made under strict enough criteria, with enough careful vetting, to contain only Genuinely Bad People- or at least people who would not object to being placed in the category of that list. It's also not hard to come up with categories of people that feel morally reprehensible enough, and unattached from any marginalized identity enough, to be "safe" to target: it would be absurd to argue against a "Nazi blocklist" that contains only self-proclaimed Nazis.

The problem also isn't really in how blocklists are intended to be used; it's pretty fair that someone might want a list of people to block pre-emptively in order to avoid harassment, particularly when that harassment is bigoted. It's not hard to imagine that someone making such a list is doing so with the intent that it only be used for blocking, and that they might even make an effort to say as much in the post. And at that point, is it really their fault if someone goes against their clearly-stated wishes?

The problem is that a blocklist is, by fundamental design, "free research". It's put forth entirely so other people do not have to do their own research, which means the entire premise discourages people from doing that research.

You aren't offering up a list of people that others should go look into and form their own opinion about, you're offering up a list of people you already did the research on so people can copy/paste and be done with it. It would be counterproductive- and frankly silly- to post a blocklist with some "but make sure to double check these yourself!" disclaimer, because like, that's not the point of the list. Nobody is going to do that. Even if they did, they're looking into these people under the assumption that there is something to find; everything is going to look suspicious in a way it never would have without that framing.

The question isn't whether a blocklist can be made with good intentions and due diligence; the question is whether it can be made with ill intent or sloppy execution, whether anyone can tell the difference, how likely they are to actually check, what you're doing with that list, and what impact your choices have.

If I make a list, the message I send is, "you can trust me. I did the research, I did it right, and this is a Good Blocklist. If you trust me, you should trust this list."

If I reblog a blocklist, the message I send is, "I trust this list. I may have even checked it myself. This is a Good Blocklist. If you trust me, you should trust this list."

The majority of the people who follow me probably believe they can trust me to some extent; oftentimes, people just trust that whatever is on their dashboard is trustworthy, because someone they follow put it there. Those are their friends, and their friends are trustworthy!

This should make you nervous. You should not be comfortable with this. People make mistakes all the time, and even if they did do the research (it's so much more likely that they did not, especially if they're not the original creator), someone else's standards of what kind of person "deserves" to be on a list like that are very likely different from your's. Are you going to double check every single name on that list yourself?

Well, if the accusation is bad enough, probably not. Especially if the accusation is something like "Nazi" or "TERF". And if you do start checking, how likely are you to check every single name? If the first 3 or 5 seem to check out, will you bother with the other 50 on the list?

What if OP hid someone in that list who doesn't belong there; someone they just have a personal grudge against? What if OP defines "TERF" to mean "anyone I assume doesn't think trans women are the most oppressed", and after the first 15 actual TERFs, the list is just a bunch of transmascs- many of whom don't even disagree with OP in the first place? What if they define "TERF" to include anyone who has ever been a TERF, and one of the people on that list is a trans person that has been rumored- without any foundation or grain of truth whatsoever- to have once been a TERF?

Will you know? Will you check? Even if someone you trust reblogs it? Even if someone you trust made it?

A blocklist may not have the same kind of obviously punitive intent as a callout post does, but it's a tool from the same toolbox. People think callout posts are about "safety", too. Lots of people also think that about the criminal justice system, about prisons, about the death penalty.

The question is not whether that could be true, or whether there could be a world in which justice is administered correctly with these tools. The question is whether it could fail, and who it hurts when it does.

Who can abuse this system? How easy is it to do so? Who is most likely to be hurt; is it the intended target, or people who are already disempowered by our systems and society?

What is the best way to go about this?

Even done correctly, a blocklist is not the most effective tool here: people can remake their blogs, change urls, and often have sockpuppets ready to go anyway. The list is rendered useless and inert as soon as enough people change their strategies to evade it. A more effective tool is education; teaching people how to recognize a TERF, or TERF ideology, on their own. Teaching them why those ideas are problematic. Encouraging them to block and disengage, and teaching them why engaging is harmful and counterproductive. Talking about de-radicalization, cult recruitment and radicalization tactics, and how to fight this epidemic.

Telling people what to think does not solve the problem, but teaching them how to be critical might.

[oracleofdiscord]

just realized i've never shared my Garmadon Lives AU idea with you guys

it's something i came up with while watching season 5 with @destinysbounty

you know how in season 5, sensei garmadon is trapped in the cursed realm by unbreakable chains? it got me thinking - what if there was a way to break those chains, but it was just beyond what an individual (like lloyd) could do and instead needed to be more of an act of fate?

basically the premise for this au is that morro isnt content with just possessing lloyd, but instead finds a way to actually steal his powers/destiny, becoming the green ninja

but a version of the green ninja who's never actually...fought the Ultimate Battle from the prophecy. and garmadon was kind of a key part of that battle

so destiny itself causes the chains to break in an attempt to set the Ultimate Battle back up for morro to fight, which means that lloyd is able to successfully rescue his father when he goes to the cursed realm

so sensei garmadon comes back! i was picturing him coming back fully because he physically went to the cursed realm, body and all, but i could also seem him coming back as a ghost although in that case i'd need to rename the au

so lloyd and sensei garmadon go to confront morro together (basically the chase-through-the-realms fight from the end of the season), and the fight being 2-against-1 helps balance out the fact that now morro has the green ninja's power

they're able to take lloyd's power back during that fight, and the rest of the season pretty much plays out the same as the original

now, i haven't really decided how this changes season 6 (probably not much) and season 7, but i have absolutely thought about how season 8 exists in this universe.

the sons of garmadon still exist, and harumi is still their leader. but rather than wanting to bring garmadon back from the dead, she wants to bring garmadon back to his old evil self

basically, she thinks this version of garmadon is weak (pretty sure that actually is something said in Garmadon Rulez!) and wants him to go back to what she sees as his stronger self

she still ends up hearing a voice from the mask, but rather than lord garmadon's voice, it's more a general personification of the evil magic in the mask. it promises that it can help her restore the version of garmadon that defeated the devourer

rather than a resurrection spell, harumi gets her hands on a spell that can essentially re-awaken the darkness in an oni's heart

(the reason i say specifically an oni's heart is that i'm picturing the spells being from the same source, and it's all oni-related magic. and also for another reason we'll get to later.)

although having garmadon around and actively trying to stop her once the truth is revealed does make things more difficult, she succeeds in the end, turning sensei garmadon back into lord garmadon

(i'm picturing that playing out in the same order as the resurrection - it's assumed she failed, she gets taken to prison, but then the spell does in fact start working)

from there, everything plays out pretty much the same as in the actual show, with one exception:

surprise! this is also a Mystake Lives AU now!

basically, instead of getting killed when she gets caught by emperor garmadon, she gets the same spell used on her, turning her evil

however, after the oni trilogy, she basically does the same thing as garmadon of going off on her own adventures and vanishing, rather than enacting any grand evil plans

so in season 11, during that part in the ice chapter when sensei wu and p.i.x.a.l. are trying to reach the ninja but don't have enough traveler's tea, they decide to try and track down mystake to see if they can convince her to help

this turns into a little adventure of its own. they do eventually find her, but are unsuccessful in convincing her to help them

however, there are some hints that they might be starting to get through to her and the evilness induced by the spell isn't neccessarily permanent, foreshadowing garmadon's arc during crystalized

and also leaving mystake as a possible future character because it's what she deserves

#ninjago #ninjago au #garmadon lives au

[batmanisagatewaydrug]

Really enjoyed your review of spoiler alert and you were so right about everything, and I wanted to say I've read a handful of books where fandom plays a significant role and each time it's treated as something taboo and unspeakable while also being embroiled in early 2000s social media/fandom sites while simultaneously having traits of modern fandom? Which is so interesting because it makes me wonder how much the authors are drawing off of experiences from when they were younger and how involved they are today to be both so aware of trends and so out of touch. And every time it's had some kind of "coming out" vibe attached to it so it's not just this book that did it. Which i guess what else can you do if you want your protagonist to have some dark secret that isn't actually that big of a deal AND you want to rehash fandom opinions

man books that are "fandom themed" for lack of a better description have been on the rise for a minute now. it started in YA (I think Rainbow Rowell's Fangirl was patient zero in 2013, but it was definitely picking up steam by 2017; I remember books like Kathryn Ormsbee's Tash Hearts Tolstoy and Jen Wilde's Queens of Geek were getting recced everywhere I looked) but it's also really hit romance in a huge way.

I've by and large avoided fandom-heavy books because they unfortunately almost all seem (and I do not say this lightly) kind of. unbearably cringe in terms if how they handle fandom, especially with the bizarro cloak and dagger attitude you mentioned. idk maybe if someone writes me a hot romance between two housewives who fall in love sending furtive gay star trek smut back and forth or something I can get on board with it, but for the most part being a fan of things just is not that interesting of a premise. TO ME.

#bookblr

[profoundmakerdreamerss-blog]

Omniscient Reader Fic recs:

Kimcom time travels force feed Kim Dokja love:

1.

This is that one fic that will make you cry and smile at the same time. It is one of the crackiest angst I have ever read. It is a fic that made me so happy, yet so terribly sad. But all in all, this is a fic that will make you laugh. And make you remember/ fall in love with the characters all over again. It's a wip sadly, but each chapter is so damn lovely, that I just keep going back and read over and over again.

2.

This is a soft, soft fic, it's also the fic that made me fall in love with damn premise of Kim Dokja getting love before the apocalypse. It is a fic about dokja realizing that he is loved. It is a fic that I wish to see completed one day — but I doubt it would be ���� but the chapters that are out are again, very satisfying. And I loved it.

3.

“You are loved,” said Yoo Jonghyuk. “This is a threat,” said Yoo Jonghyuk.

This is a fic that is already really popular but this is a fic I'd recommend people to read after finishing the epilogue. Because it is gives you those soft fuzzy feelings, it sews back the torn heart that is caused by the actual book and it makes you believe in everything that is good in the world. This is fic where everyone is happy and Dokja is with them. And basically everything I ever wanted.

(these are sadly the only fics I remember reading with the premise of kimcom going back to the past 😭 but yeah they made an impression on me and I don't think I can recover.)

Moving on to the fics I'd recommend after the reading the novel as in post-epilogue:

Post-epilogue fics to heal your heart:

This is a fic I would recommend a 100 times over to anyone who would listen. This is the first fic I ever bookmarked, even after having an ao3 for YEARS, first fic I ever commented and in general one of my most favorite fic to ever written. This is a fic that healed me, that made me remember everything about I loved omniscient reader, that made me so happy that I have no words. To me, this fic is the epilogue they all got, the happy ending they deserved and it will always be canon to my mind. The way the writer wrote all of them made me cry and I'd always forever be grateful that this fic was written.

This fic is also every healing, and it hurts so damn good. The way the author build up the emotions, kimcom bonding and literally everything. The way the author writes their relationship and the way Dokja perceives them. This fic deserves so much more recognition. It is beautiful and it's also very healing. And soft with harsh edges that is soothed as you keep reading. It's basically Kim Dokja getting to learn love without his memories, it's about baby dokja healing and it is about kimcom being desperate to teach dokja that he isn't alone.

This is just soft, soft and soft. This is just fluffy, this is just what they all deserve. This is another fic that deserves so much more. This is just another dose of happiness, to read when you're having a bad day. The way the author writes the relationship between each characters, the slow healing, the love that comes so easy between them because they went through the end of the world together is fucking beautiful.

I bookmarked this on September 2022 and I still cry when I re-read it. This is a beautiful piece of how healing takes time, and how hard learning to love yourself can be and how beautiful this fic is and how I'd always hold it close to my heart no matter what. This piece also deserves so much more. This is a fic about how even after reaching the end, healing can seem out of reach. It is a fic about patience and love and just beautiul.

This is again another fic that deserves so much. This is such a beautiful depictions how healing hurts. How it is a long damn road and sometimes you might stumble and it is hard. It might be a long road but when you finally begin healing and when you learn to finally trust — isn't that the most beautiful thing ever?

I'm surprised this fic isn't more popular honestly. This is one of the fics that depicts how ugly healing. And how it is so painful painful painful when the person you love more than the world itself doesn't realize their worth and they still try. And also joonghyuk has a garden????!!!! This fic is wrapped up so beautifully and leaves on such a hopeful note. It's written really well, and the characters are so beautiful, so damn real.

-

(ANYWAYS I'll just rec these one's for now LMAO I mostly tried to rec underrated ones bc they are hidden gems, and they deserve love too. I'll make a separate post for orv Isekai/alternate world/modern world fics that needs more love because there's A LOT underrated gems. This post is mostly dedicated to @rozz-eokkk @cielelyse ; since they asked for it and I'm so sorry it took so long 😭 )

#orv #omniscient reader #omniscient reader's viewpoint #fic rec #kim dokja company #kim dokja #joongdok #kimcom #yoo joonghyuk #han sooyoung

[thealogie]

thea why are you as a hater of fanfic always providing descriptions of fanfic you hate lol. performance in a leading role is some good shit, i’ve probably read it five times over the years. like i reread that shit even after i swore off of watching sherlock ever again. and it’s not RPFy at all, apart from including actual actors/directors as characters, it really isn’t similar to ben/martin and just the fact that it’s actors au doesn’t make it RPFy, if anything characterization is pretty on point for sherlock/john. fics are meant to be super self indulgent and like performance in a leading role is a good example of au fics done well, maybe you just don’t like them? anyway just my two cents so your followers get a different perspective.

(slow show is dumb though, i hate the way it’s written, you can barely read your way through their bumbling speech patterns. but then i don’t like good omens all that much, so that’s probably a big factor.)

I love fanfic. I have a tag full of fanfic recommendations (including Sherlock fics) and read them to this day. I provided a description of a fic I don’t like because someone asked me about it and it was famous enough back in the day that I gave it a try and so was able to fill them in. I disagree that it’s a good fic. the characterization didn’t work for me at all and the climactic moments all felt manufactured and unearned to me. but I don’t care to litigate the merits of a fic written over a decade ago with you. I think when I express an opinion on my blog and say this fic was “wildly popular” any intelligent person can tell that I am saying I personally didn’t like it.

That said, yeah actors AUs are inherently rpf-y but not because they resemble the original actors (they don’t in this case and they don’t in slow show) but because the very premise is like “what if these fictional characters but rpf this time.” That’s why someone made a joke about it in my ask to begin with

[polyamorousmood]

Genuine question about poly (I've been thinking about whether it's something I'd want to try, with me being ace it's probably my best option for finding a partner-) how do you compromise when it comes to bigger life decisions? Unless you're in a triad or a bigger sort of "closed circle" polycule, and you compromise among each other (which also seems more difficult tbh), to me it seems like poly relationships are like a web that contains many many people because you're dating three people, they're dating a few other people, and so on. So either you have primary relationships where you prioritize each other and don't mind leaving the other ones behind (which seems a bit idk. I would not be the primary relationship because I won't have sex and ace men are very rare from the surveys I've seen. A lifetime of being in the periphery doesn't seem desireable to me.) Or you act as an individual agent and basically have to break up with everyone if you ever want to move which seems horrific and like a massive commitment. I guess you could do long distance but I don't see long distance working if your partner has other partners they can interact with normally..

I mean. There's no one answer here. You're making a lot of assumptions (which may be but are not always true) so let's break this down bit my bit. Buckle up 💺we got stuff to discuss

But if you want a TL;DR: How do you make that decision in a monog relationship if Partner A wants to leave but Partner B has family here? Well, there's a lot of discussion and someone has to compromise on something. How it shakes out will depend on the people and the specific situation.

"the poly web🕸️" While a polycule can spiral into something huge via the "everyone has three partners" principle, its also possible it stays pretty small. Not everyone in a polycule will want to date someone else, not everyone who wants to date someone else will be able to find someone else to date, etc etc. Small polycules are common in practice.

"aces ♠️won't be the 'primary partner'" I respect you hedging your expectations and understand the reasoning there, but the poly community is pretty open to weird relationship dynamics. You could be the "primary" and your partner could have a couple other relationships to get sexual needs met. You could join an ace polycule. Your partner could have you and one other person and see you both as equal.

"Moving💼 means taking or leaving everyone -- or prioritizing" I... I guess it could? But if you know you're wanting to move far away, you're probably discussing that quite a while in advance, and then only dating people who are okay with things being short term or moving with you. Or a lot of poly relationships are already long distance, so one person moving makes very little difference! There's a lot of options there, which leads to point 4

"Long distance✈️ can't work if your partner has local partners" LDRs in poly relationships are common. I honestly see it as easier because you can have your physical needs met by someone else

"A lifetime of being in the periphery🥈" you're never locked down. If you're not getting what you need from ANY relationship, I hope you're negotiating about it or leaving. If being poly only works for you if you're the primary, but your partner can fuck whoever, you wouldn't be the first. Even if you don't want to impose those rules, there are options, and your partner should be working to make you happy. It can be a hell of a learning curve sometimes, I admit, but you can find a weird way of being that works for everyone. Or you can leave! Or they could leave you for unrelated reasons! Or maybe they go to prison for embezzlement and that sort of ends the relationship for you! All sorts of shit could come up.

"this is a poly problem" Bestie. Do you know how many movies have been made on the premise of "my spouse got a job offer far away but I don't want to move"? This is something that could happen in any relationship. I'm not saying having other people involved wouldn't be a variable in the equation, but your relationship with your partner is no different from a monogamous one in this aspect. How that decision gets made is the same to me as how it would get made in a monog relationship where one person has family they don't want to leave. Maybe you do split up, maybe you try long distance, maybe partner A decides not to move, maybe partner B decides they're willing to move with them after all (and then subsequent partners make the same choice). And its not perfect in any of these options, in fact it probably really fucking sucks. But life is messy. This shit happens.

And like, you don't have to try polyamory. There are asexual people out there you could meet and love. There are allosexual people out there who would be willing to give that up to be with you. You could do an open relationship situation where your partner doesn't "date" anyone else, but can still sleep around. Or you can join an asexual polycule!

So how do major life choices get decided in a polycule? The same way major life decisions get made anywhere. Hopefully, everyone says their peace and gets to weigh in. Hopefully the life goals align. Failing that, hopefully there's a compromise that's acceptable to everyone, but maybe there isn't and it forces a break up (or 6). Maybe some break up but not everyone, like so:

Or some of the relationships turn into long distance or whatever. Man there's too many variables. Some people view things as hierarchical and some don't. Some people don't but functionally have only been dating one person for 4 months so they're easier to leave -- or know they cannot live with another person because they're too disorganized so going long distance is fine. You don't know until you're there. I'm losing the thread, but you know what I'm saying.

#ask box is always open #about polyamory #how does polyamory work

[icewindandboringhorror]

I know multiple of these are likely important to people, but I'm asking in terms of like - which of these do you tend to focus on the MOST, enjoy the most, that is most essential for you to actually care about the media, etc.?

(For example: someone finding "Relatability" most important would likely not enjoy a show much if they have trouble empathizing with the characters/relating to it, even if it were good otherwise. Or, someone might be able to overlook bad acting and ugly costumes, as long as the Character Dynamics are fun to them, because they value that more than Aesthetics- while for others, bad costumes would be a dealbreaker.)

Also feel free to reblog and explain your answer or more information in the tags- I've always been curious about people's relationships to media, how they conceptualize it/what they get out of it, how some people value some parts more than others, how that informs their overall taste and genres they may be more inclined towards, etc. :0c

#I was having a conversation with a friend about our favorite type of media and they said the reason they DON'T like historical or fantasy #media or etc. is because they can't imagine themselves being in those situations like it's too detached from anything that they can relate #to personally. they put themselves in the shoes of the characters and apparently like feel emotions while watching stuff and actually #get into the way the characters are feeling so they kind of judge how 'good' or 'bad' a show's writing/setting/etc. are by how it makes #them feel and if they think the characters reacted realistically based on what they were feeling in the moment/what in their head they #would be feeling if they were in the postion of the character. SO apparently the distance of it being in an unrelatable setting or too #detached from our reality makes it harder for them to relate to and less able to really engage with it on that level. WHEREAS I watch #things exclusively in a very like.. detached way?? I'm INTERESTED.. it's like im intellectually analyzing everyhting that's happening and #can be intrigued by events but it's not in an emotional way? More of like a distant 'intellectual curiosity'. Maybe the premise or the #aesthetics or something about it has piqued an interest for me to observe it. to see what it's like or how it plays out. how the idea #is executed or etc. But like.. I cannot remember EVER really relating to any character or situation or projecting onto a character #or having those sorts of feelings or investment in it. That is just not a central part of why/how I watch things or what I care about #BUT after this I was thinking maybe this is my disconnect? I do not seem to conceptualize media the way some other people do and I often #walk away with an entirely different take on things. etc. So I wonder if maybe it's part of how everyone values different things probably? #maybe I literally just watch stuff and percieve it from a different frame of mind that others. More of a like detached curiosity #vaguely bemused analysis mode. Instead of a 'I am deeply emotionally invested in this and am feeling for all the characters' mode #And also I bet people who care more about plot/story are also the people who mind spoilers. Whereas for me I literally seek out spoilers #intentionally because that element of 'suprise ooh what will happen next!' is not central at all to my enjoyment. I could know literally #everything that will happen and still can find it interesting to observe - since for me #that's not the point. I'd rather know the ending so I can determine whether I want to invest the time in it in the first place. etc. #ANYWAY!! If I had to choose - I would say I'm usually heavily focused on world details and aesthetics. With only a slight preference #towards characters individually being interesting. Group dynamics can sometimes be okay but I get tired of everything being about relations #hips and romance - especially when sometimes it seems to be like. people who could not stand on their own as a character/are fundamentally #boring otherwise lol. I would watch a series of just one guy locked in a closet talking to himself as long as he was interesting and saying #things that were amusing or notable for some reason lol. I actually tend to dislike plot because most 'plot heavy' things like action focus #ed shows ALWAYS feel to me like they're moving so fast just to get from one thing to another that I'm not getting enough details. Part of #why I tend to not like movies. the time limit makes them too quick. I need a 95 hour expostion dump of the history of the entire world #and a series of 17 episodes straight where a guy is trapped in a room & the audience is just psychoanalyzing him. hghj.. Maybe I find all #characters annoying/unrelatable bc people w my personality type make bad characters/are not often represented (or are done BADLY). so then #I'm just picking 'who is the LEAST insufferable? who could i study like a lab rat?' whilst my main focus is the worldbuilding&costumes lol

[microwaving-tesilid-argente]

(major s-class heroine spoilers)

made the mistake of briefly considering reed/hestio, and then thinking about how hestio might react to learning that the mass murderer in front of him was once his extremely kind and upright friend who always gave too much of himself to others. i got socked in the gut by the throwback to my own grief when discovering that reed=tesilid.

like. what and how much has he gone through that he has thrown away the morals and self-sacrifice he internalised so much. what do you mean he killed his younger self in the most cruel and painful way he could think of. what do you mean that even he himself was not kind to himself. that, even after a hundred lifetimes, he still hasn't learned the slightest shred of self-love and is acting only in self-preservation. what do you mean that he has been running on fumes and desperation for several lifetimes? he probably hasn't had the time to even grieve and cry for himself. has there been anyone who could even do so for him? what do you mean he's tried every means possible to save the world, and then just himself, and then had no choice but to try to kill himself, but even that didn't work so now he's forced to try to kill everyone else too. what do you mean that this isn't just an issue of mental health and of convincing him that life is worth living? there is genuinely no conceivable path forward for him. maybe the world should just burn or something idk.

#s-class heroine spoilers #insert that orv livetweet screenshot here. so what if everyone dies and is frozen in time #THE LONGER YOU THINK ABOUT TESILID WITHOUT AILETTE THE WORSE IT GETSSSSSS #man the juxtaposition between reed and tutorial tesilid is truly the worst and best thing ever #tesilid's character development is sooo good #the way it all happens off screen but you can see how it happened and it makes horrifying sense #it scratches an itch in my monkey brain #it really has kept me entertained for 6 months huh.... #anyway me going 'hey look fun thought experiment' and then got hit in the face with 'hey this is a good premise to- #-externalise the shock and grief and horror that readers feel when they reach the Big Reveal' #ive been thinking 'man i sure have strayed pretty far from the source material these days' #well apparently not. i've come full circle or something #hestioreed

[selkiecoded]

repo the genetic opera rules. this is like the shittiest emo music video of 2008 ever.

#wastes NO TIME getting to its premise. about 17mins in. #all the different shots of shiloh during her 'i wanna go outside' song is cracking me up #the tonal shift musically between her dads song and the siblings song is going to make me throw up laughing #shilos dad: im sorry marnie ...... im lying to shilo.... im the repo man to fund keeping her safe ........ #the next scene: i think my siblings should FUCK!!!! #THE WAY HE PUPPETS THE CORPSE... CRIES #THEY CAN NEVER FUCKING DECIDE WHAT TYPE OF MUSIC THEYRE DOING THIS IS AWESOME

[01tsubomi]

mfw i spent yeeeeears in college aaaaaagonizing about how to turn a short fanfic of mine into a full-length original work and was working on it with my professor and through all the editing became really embarrassed of the original fanfic version thinking it was immature and shallow but could also never make the rewrite work so i moved onto other projects and then today after a very long time reread both of them only to find that the original fic is concise and heartfelt with clunky execution but solid and gripping emotional beats and the novelization is overwritten self-obsessed garbo

#i think i posted about it here a decent amount too #i was surprised at how much i liked the fic but honestly shocked at how bad the rewrite was #like not to dog on myself too much #but i wrote the fic originally for a class on short stories #(which is why i wanted to rewrite it in the first place - if i was already disguising it as original work might as well go all the way) #(see how far we can make this premise go) #so the original is super super to the point and like yeah clearly written by an 18 year old and dramatic but also very tastefully paced #like i was genuinely surprised at how effective i thought a lot of it was #i don't tend to toot my own horn about my writing especially not my old writing i was genuinely chuffed #then i had the dangerous thought of 'maybe i could give the rewrite idea another go this time more in the spirit of the original' #'keep it short and punchy and focused on the characters and their dynamic while updating it w my skills now and use it for grad school apps #but then i thought no...that was the vision i had when i was 18 #this is sort of a pun bc it's a story about ghosts but i should just let it lie and move on #personal #i was genuinely so put off by the writing of the rewrite that i was like wtf wait...i like...submitted this to lit mags on campus didn't i #did some digging found that it was the opening scene - which was THE most overwritten wanky part of it in my current self's eyes - #that i submitted to (and got published in) the lit mag i worked on in my little college community #girl nooooooooo i mean i guess the other girlies liked it enough to put it in #but it's odd i guess how time changes your perception/value judgments

[quietwingsinthesky]

I think what bothers me most about that argument is that dean is talking down to Sam so much

Implying that he’s not mentally sound and that dena HAS to be the one to clean up, telling Sam to stop moping about it and then ending it by saying he can stop acting like a bitch now?

That’s what they view as dean standing up for himself?!??!

I really like the Amy benny Emma situations cuz it tells us so much about dean (Sam too but mostly dean) but like so little of what it tells us is positive. ESP since I personally think so much of the benny stuff is projection like immediately telling Sam not to kill benny and assuming Sam will go after him and then immediately going after amy when he finds out about her

alsjfjlfjs I barely have anything to add here, you hit the nail on the head

the whole argument just. Dean does not come out looking good there huh. Especially the jab about Sam’s hallucinations. And the earlier line, “There are certain people in this world, no matter how dangerous they are, you just can't.” There’s no way Dean is saying that without knowing how Sam is going to hear it. That Sam is the dangerous thing that Dean could never put down. The whole shifting of this situation to be on Sam is (fun for me because I love when Dean uses how well he knows Sam to hit him where it hurts) really messed up.

Him starting with telling Sam he’s got a right to be angry, but then following that up with telling him he’s been angry long enough and needs to stop… i Need to chew on him, when did he decide he was the authority on how long Sam gets to feel resentful or to grieve his friend…

Something horribly delicious about Dean appointing himself timekeeper on Sam’s feelings.

#dean winchester #ask #spn #also. also. I would be remiss not to mention that Dean poking at Sam’s hell trauma specifically IS the part of this that makes me go :/ #like. :/ that’s a little ooc coming from the guy who also went to hell. claiming Sam can’t make the right ‘moral’ choice and kill Amy? #yeah that tracks with Dean. he’s judge jury and executioner babyyy. #but him going after Sam’s torture and using that to add to his argument? #I mean he is pissed off. it could just be something said from frustration. but still. #again this whole situation is very. Keep The Status quo. you know? #supernatural’s never ending tension of how badly it wants sam & Dean to learn monsters are people too #and the fact that if they ever do. the whole premise of the show collapses in on itself. #so they never can. and they keep fighting about it. and they keep hurting each other and also anything that gets in their way. #show of all time. 10/10. no notes. what the fuck were they thinking.

[martilyongabo]

earlier this morning, my brain slapped me with the realization that most of my character pairings / preferred ships are some twist on a specific trope. i don’t think it really helps that these were all accumulated throughout the years and i HAVEN’T REALISED…!

thank you apocalypse/barrier maiden + knight, i really owe a lot to you 🫠🤧

#bleats #i’m always amazed at how realizations can come in waves or all at once! #sometimes i’m like “ohhhh— OHHHH !” #this one was like “NOOO!!!” #i haven’t shared much of my stories aside from visual tidbits so if ur reading tags u prolly won’t see them for a while yet :’) #unless you’re my wife and you’re visiting my blog again in which case HELLO #puella magi madoka magica has homura + madoka & sayaka + kyouko which is so UGHHH #and a cool role reversal for anthy and utena from RGU! where the knight is also a plot maiden like sayaka but in a diff way #my EO cast has ~2 (EO2 & EO5) pairs but if you wanna stretch that becomes 8… (and i think i only alluded to one so far) #magical boys / CR has two main pairs which play on this since the premise is highly based off PMMM ToT #those who followed me from my CR days know who talking about #oh i almost forgot slay the princess and signalis too! AGHHH! #and finally we get to fire emblem where i predictably go for the deurotagonist bwahahahaha #it honestly makes me excited to share more and i have been trying! i just feel like i don’t work fast enough since i want to give context

[butchthirteen]

i have a tenrose figure skating au and i swear to god rotating the concept of fifteen and ruby as pairs skating partners is making me change the entire au. they would be so everything.

#fic talk #previously it was focusing mostly on tenrose but i think it would be a fun ensemble cast. #also i'm generally against having more than one doctor in one au because they're all the same guy to me #but i already have thirteen in here for the bit (the bit is she's ten's twin sister and she keeps telling him she has a girlfriend and he #doesn't believe her until he goes to a team event and thirteen shows up as yaz's date) #(because yaz is on the skate team) #so like at that point why not throw fifteen in there too #the base premise of the au is 'ten and rose get paired up as ice dance partners and both get massive crushes on each other but brush off #their chemistry as like. the chemistry they have to have if they want to win at competitions' #and they're like. terrified of ruining their dynamic as ice dance partners so they refuse to make moves on each other #but i think we could throw some more stuff in there. INCLUDING fifteen and ruby as pairs skaters <3 #i didn't have any pairs skaters in the au yet and i kind of wanted them so. :3 #i don't know very much about figure skating by the way but i learn more every minute i work on this au #if i make it more of an ensemble cast i have to think of more subplots but THAT CAN BE ARRANGED.

[evilkitten3]

What would you think, if, after getting advice from Iroh, Zuko and the gang travel to the spirit world in order to find Aang’s people so that Aang can teach the air acolytes more about the air nomads? But Zuko gets attacked by a poisonous spirit and reverts back to pre Season 2 Zuko after losing some of his memories due to the poison fogging his mind. Zuko is confused and doesn’t know why he’s firelord. The gang try to explain things to him, but it only causes him to become even more confused. Aang and the gang then leave Zuko behind to spend more time with the air acolytes. While they’re gone, Zuko is very uncertain about what to do, but soon corrupt advisors convince him to restart the war. Zuko doesn’t remember his friendship with Aang, but he hears that he once joined Aang, so Zuko assumes that Aang once brainwashed him into joining team Avatar and turning against his Father. Zuko intends to be a much greater firelord than his father, and he and his army raid the air acolyte settlement in their airships in order to hunt down Aang once again, and end up burning down the settlement. Aang and the gang wonder why Zuko chose to hunt them down again. Aang eventually comes to the conclusion that Zuko backslid due to bad advice from his advisors and because he lost some of his memories. Aang then travels the nations looking for a cure to help restore Zuko’s memories.  

Azula escapes from the mental institute and Zuko sends bounty hunters after her to capture her. Soon, Azula gets bitten by a snake, so she finds help in the village of Jang Hui where she is healed by two waterbenders, who are taking refuge there. Jang Hui is the village Katara helped in The Painted Lady. And the villagers aren’t on good terms with the firelord. The villagers accept her and assume that she’s on their side because she’s made an enemy of the Firelord. The villagers teach Azula how to heal people using firebending techniques inspired by water bending, and she ends up becoming a fisherwoman because it’s a fishing town. She starts to warm up to the town, but one day she overhears the waterbenders talking about sneaking out to sabotage the smelting factory(which is currently undergoing reconstruction) in order to help the villagers. Azula offers to join their mission, and the three sneak out to destroy the factory, but she betrays the waterbenders over to the fire nation in hopes that she might bring glory to the fire nation. But now that the waterbenders are captured and eliminated, the town is defenseless. Zuko’s army burns the town down leaving few survivors. Zuko didn’t exactly authorize the attack, but he did give his generals permission to do whatever it takes to stop the villagers from trying to halt the rebuilding of the factory used for the war effort. A few survive and declare revenge on Azula for what she did.  

Azula starts to feel terrible about betraying the people who saved her life and indirectly causing the village to be destroyed, since she didn’t know it would be destroyed. And she holds Zuko partially responsible for destroying the village. After wandering around, Azula looks through a telescope and sees Aang try to save a fire nation village from a volcano, and she also sees Zuko. Zuko does nothing after his corrupt advisors tell him to leave the village, saying that Aang will probably die, so Zuko runs away. But Aang manages to save the village from the erupting volcano. Azula gets accepted into the gang when she uses her new healing abilities to heal Aang, who is wounded by the volcano. They reluctantly team up to stop Zuko.

After wandering around the Earth Kingdom to look for a cure for Zuko's memory loss, the gang sees a massive stream of fire pour down from a few fire nation airships hovering above a village. The stream of fire burns the village to the ground, leaving few survivors. It turns out that fire nation scientists developed a highly addictive serum that can increase the fire power of any fire Bender. The downside is that prolonged use of the serum results in loss of the senses, and eventually death. Senses such as taste, smell, sight, touch, and hearing. Zuko intends take the serum and lead a fleet of airships to finish what his Dad started by burning the Earth Kingdom to the ground. After learning what Zuko intends to do, even Aang feels tempted to give up on him.

it's an interesting concept, but i have a few critiques.

first, if the gaang knows zuko lost his memory, why would they leave him in the first place? and even if they did that, surely there'd be somebody in the palace who could say "hey firelord zuko maybe don't restart the war dude wtf" or at least alert the gaang or something.

second, i've seen a lot of people try to have azula's redemption involve learning some kind of healing, and i gotta say, it very very rarely does anything for me. for starters, it (probably unintentionally) reinforces the northern water tribe's ideology that healing is inherently for women (the show admittedly also did this bc the only named male waterbender who uses any kind of healing in any canon that i'm aware of is unalaq). moreover, it's not something i think azula would be particularly good at or have much interest in.

also, why are there waterbenders in jang hui? it's a fire nation village. you said they were taking refuge, but from what, and why there? on top of that, azula knows zuko is firelord and doesn't know he's lost his memories, so why would she assume betraying the waterbenders to the fire nation would bring it glory? if she just broke out of the asylum, then the last time she saw zuko was when he and katara fought her during the agni kai.

third, if zuko lost his memory to a "poisonous" (???) spirit in the spirit world, why are they searching the earth kingdom for a cure? shouldn't they be looking in the spirit world? aang's the avatar, and iroh's gotten in before, so it shouldn't be the hardest thing in the world.

fourth, if zuko lost all his memories of books 2 and 3, he shouldn't know about ozai's plan to burn everything to the ground, since that wasn't established until after he returned to the fire nation with azula, mai, and ty lee.

finally, even before book 1 began, zuko was deeply loyal to his people, balking at the mere idea of sacrificing newbie soldiers for the sake of a win, so i can't fathom a world where zuko is ok with burning down jang hui (a fire nation village) just cuz.

i'm not trying to say there's no potential here, you have some very interesting ideas, but there's a lot that doesn't really work for me.

(to be fair tho i'm not a huge fan of anything involving much of the air acolytes bc i frankly could not give less of a fuck about them. i don't hate them or anything they just don't mean anything to me)

#atla #it's an interesting concept #but honestly as described here it's more confusing than anything else #also the whole premise relies on the idea that zuko blindly listens to what people tell him to do #which is something he's never once managed ever in his life #also the whole ''let's burn everything to the ground'' was something zuko wasn't remotely ok with #bc unlike azula he hasn't been raised to believe that the right thing to say is whatever makes dad proud of you #he HAS been raised to believe that paternal love has to be earned through blood sweat and tears #but if he knew ozai was in prison then obviously the best way to get his favor would be to let him out and reinstate him as firelord #which would be. very confusing to ozai #imagine just sitting in prison and then your son storms in and tells you he's freed himself of brainwashing and you can be in charge again #then imagine having to explain that the avatar can take away bending now but you'd be happy to help him rule from the shadows #since clearly your daughter wasn't of any use #...actually i think you have the start of a really good toxic father-son bonding experience that absolutely nobody wanted #having said that my biggest piece of advice is to cut the serum idea entirely #it makes no sense in the established atla world #they haven't even got antibiotics over there yet #it'll be awhile before they're inventing super soldier serums to create captain fire nation or whatever #also i'm curious what advice iroh gave that prompted all of this #aang doesn't need to go into the spirit world he has all the previous air avatars on psychic speed dial #oh and why would jang hui hate zuko? #katara definitely would've pushed him to send them help #also they apparently became famous for their seafood after the war #so zuko would probably be pretty well liked by them #again it isn't a bad idea it just needs a lot of workshopping #bc right now it raises way more questions than it seems intent on answering

[tradedsymmetry]

I have so many inarticulable thoughts about the 2005 film adaptation of the 2001 novel by Ann Brashares, The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants.

#i just... its one of the best book adaptations of my lifetime #and a lot of it has to do with the book itself im sure. #which i read before i saw the movie. tho i don't remember if i read it before i heard about the movie or #if i read it in response to learning they were making a movie. i think the first one. but anyway... not important. #i can never choose just One of them that im most like and i love that so much about all of these characters #every person on earth is unique so of course im not 100% a tibby or a lena #but everyone has things in common and ways of being and lessons they learn and so we're all combinations of each other and its wonderful #and its not as fatphobic as it could've been tbh. thats huge for me. #in the very beginning its a little inappropriate to make your fat friend try on jeans that fit the three other skinny friends but... #considering thats the premise of the whole story its fine lol #and then they make a rule!! that you cant call yourself fat while wearing the jeans! 'you cant even think it' #and BRIDGET IS THE ONE THAT SAYS IT!!! #im a huge fan of 'fat is just a word. a descriptor.' but in the early 2000s that was a long way away so that meant so much #sisterhood of the traveling pants #thoughts #movies