#either that was in a fanfic or something or its a scene lost to time but like other people know what i mean right

[dyketubbo]

now that good luck minutes man is out can we all collectively agree to just brainrot about cbeeduo for a bit

#theres so many like #cbeeduo scenes that i cant fucking find anywhere but i know definitely exist and are remembered by other people #like the fucking. scene where tubbos like i feel like im going to die bc everyone left schlatt b4 he died and now everyones leaving me #and tells ranboo hes loyal and asks him not to leave #either that was in a fanfic or something or its a scene lost to time but like other people know what i mean right #also i think this one isnt lost to time but the one where ranboo tells tubbo to follow his voice #to get away from the cliff while tubbo had the trippy shaders on and again talked abt schlatts death #i get why schlatt had a heart attack now. or something like that #which the run ending in good luck minutes man reminded me of #sorry cranboo that two of the people you want to help the most are suicidal. sorry you also ended up being suicidal. yknow how it is #mask mews #dsmp #beeduo #nlm

[rist-ix]

The sparxshipping teasing from Iginio got me wondering.... if we ever did get canon sparxshipping explored, whether in a reboot or new adaptation, how would you like it for it to be done?

I'm gonna try to answer both of these in one post cause they overlap a little, but first of all thank you!

Buckle up fellas I'm bringing discourse.

This is gonna be a bit of an unpopular opinion I think, and it’s that I don’t want sparxshipping to be canon at all.

Feel free to get the pitchforks, but until then imma talk. I have villainships that I think not only add something to the overall plot, they kind of define it too. Reylo for examples, with its themes of redemption, masks and compassion, or Darklina and how important their relationship is to the war and Grisha oppression, or Lotor and Allura with its symbolism of breaking the cycle of abuse, making peace, reclaiming a heritage thought lost and so on.

To put it very briskly: an established Sparxshipping relationship adds nothing to the plot. It would have to be a plot of its own, and while there are tons of fascinating plot threads you could weave back into Domino, Bloom's family and the war before the Fall, it is simply, plainly, and rightfully so not the story Winx Club is telling.

Winx Club, at its core, is about the girls and their friendship. That is the show I love, and that is the show I am invested in. Fanfiction is a separate thing, I’ll get into that later. But canon, commercially produced and globally aired Winx Club is what we are talking about now. And the one defining truth of Winx Club is that it’s about the Winx. Their boyfriends are the side note, the Kens to their Barbies, to cement them as the cool popular teenagers younger kids are supposed to see them as. If Bloom and Valtor had a lasting serious relationship, Valtor would inevitably have to be shoved into that category as well, and that would ruin the entire appeal of him.

To boil it down even more: if sparxshipping were canon, either Winx Club would have to shift away from its intrinsic premise and formula, or Valtor would have to be diminished beyond recognition. So my longstanding opinion has always been: don’t make sparxshipping canon. Just don’t.

What I, personally, would do if I were ever to gain access to the mythical and likely overcrowded writing room at Rainbow SpA, is this:

Tease the fuck out of it.

Lean into their fucked up little hate-obsession. Every time they share the screen they have to be radiating unresolved sexual tension. Their chemistry has to be so off-the-charts it sparks a million fanfics before the season even ends. If there aren’t so many crappy amv's set to angsty Taylor swift songs it brings down the YouTube servers by midnight you have failed. Because canon is bound to certain limits, but fanfiction is NOT. The goal of any show should be to create something that will awaken an inescapable need to build on it, to continue where it left off, or to wonder but-what-if? To make people text incoherent keysmashes to their fandom buddies with shaky hands in the middle of the night and be unable to sleep until they’ve confirmed their buddy has seen it too.

I would want to see Bloom go fully I-have-lost-sight-of-everything-but-revenge until her friends manage to pull her back, I would want them to fight so vehemently the structures around them collapse and they don’t even notice. They should be in situations where they are UNDENIABLY going to die if they fight on and they still do it, they literally CANNOT stop, they don’t care to. To the point that everyone around them is seriously concerned and talking about their terrifying obsession with each other, more or less out in the open. And after a season full of epic fight scenes, high stake conflicts and frankly obscene tension between them, I would want Bloom to kill him.

Straight up.

Give her that moment of calm self assurance, at peace and perfectly in control, while Valtor tries to gaslight-gatekeep-girlboss his way out of this, contrasting the way her support network and genuine, unconditional friendships strengthen her while Valtor, who is always sabotaging everyone around him, is forced to confront his own powerlessness in the face of the power that created him. His manipulation attempts have nothing to latch on to. They have one last exchange where Valtor is visibly furious at her denial of him / his own failure — to really drive home that this is Bloom's triumph — but the last words they exchange are cordial. Maybe a comment at her growth, or a warning about his mothers, or another way to foreshadow future threats — if he couldn’t defeat her, no one should. He ends on a high note, but he does end, and it’s at Bloom's hands. She retakes the corrupted spark into the Flame she is guarding, and that is that.

And then, and this is important. He fucking haunts her for the entire next story arc. The next season, the next two seasons maybe, because she has learned a fuck ton of things from him and it is really, really difficult to move on knowing everything she does, knowing everything he implied or hinted at, or simply knowing so many really, really cruel ways to get her way now, which isn’t who she wants to be, but it would be easy, quick and effective for the greater good, right?

Boom, character conflict for the next season established, lots of potential for future flashbacks or visions, Valtor stays on his high horse of forever-the-juiciest-fucking-villain-of-the-franchise and the story can move on.

The End

Cue three decades of mind-blowing fanfiction. We all say Thank you Rainbow and cry ourselves to sleep thinking about what could have been.

#sparxshipping #asks #the ugly truth is that a perfect piece of media that gives everyone what they want is not a piece of media that inspires a lot of fan works #fandom to me is so much more fun there is that gap. that whole of teased-but-unexplored potential #with enough canon material to sustain it and go of #but even more questions and what ifs and theories and fuck it I’ll do it myself #you feel me?

[isas-bathbombs]

RL characters and their thoughts on the show “Glee”

requested by @oneginn (why did i do this for you)

Cassandra

at first watched it to make fun of it. she wanted to break the rumors that theatre kids loved this show and she thought it was sooo stupid at first

but then she immediately got hooked at first ep from the absurdity of it all and unironically became invested

she’s either super embarrassed to admit that she prefers the glee cover of some songs over the original or she just casually blasts them without a care. depends on the song probably

hated rachel at first (without realizing shes lowkey her) but then began shipping faberry

oh god faberry took over her life. she SPIRALED over this stupid queerbait ship. started reading every fanfic possible of them and shit

would not shut up about how much she hates this show to elena. elena is tired and at this point knows the plot of every episode because of her

fucking hates ryan murphy

biggest klaine hater. not bc she thinks its a bad ship, shes just pissed that the fandom and the writers focuses on those twinks

watched every season but prefers the first three seasons. she kinda lost hope for this show mid season 5 or something

rachel’s “don’t rain on my parade” performance changed her life, same goes with that bohemian rhapsody scene

don’t ask her about anything in this show otherwise she’d go in an hour long rant and even pull out a (horribly made) presentation

finn hudson hater

Bela

walked in on cass, dani and angie watching the cheesus christ episode and decided to never even consider watching the show herself. she actively avoids it (good for her)

tho she can’t avoid it, they probably made her sit down and watch at least one ep with them

Dani

hasn’t seen the whole show but seen a few episodes with angie and cass. and has seen so many out of context clips

thinks it’s hilarious and would watch just to have a good time (also she thinks its funny seeing cass genuinely lose her shit every ep)

i’m sorry but i think she’d skip the songs

Angie

hasn’t seen all the eps and only watched because she thinks its peak comedy

says the worst takes on purpose because she knows cass would be pissed

quotes the show all the time but rarely anyone gets it (its for the best)

makes a “cant read” joke every time rachel berry pops up on screen

has glee songs on her playlist but most are ironic like trouty mouth and run joey run

Miranda

are you kidding me. shes literally sue sylvester

but she will never be watching this show

honestly one clip of it could kill her. shes not even surviving that muppet episode

#resident lover #yeah ur welcome vinnie #tried to make it spoiler free as possible in case u do wanna watch the show #bela dimitrescu #cassandra dimitrescu #mother miranda #fuck cassandra dimitrescu #fcd club #daniela dimitrescu #angie beneviento #glee

[lost-tardis-room]

something i've noticed about the difference between good omens and doctor who fandoms rn is that the good omens people are either making funny art or coming up with increasingly unfeasible theories about supposed 'hidden messages' in the show and generally being weird about it going out of their way to say they LOVE EVERYTHING about the show, and the doctor who people are like. damn this sucks.. unfortunately it's also really compelling. oh well <3

like idk the good omens people (generalising here of course) seem incredibly strung up on what Could Be Meaningful and making wayyyyy to much of a big deal out of minor details. and like the show is clever! there are secondary levels of meaning! but not everything is or should be. not everything is a metaphor. continuity errors exist. and the doctor who people (even new fans) are still yknow eating drywall over it but are also like HAHAHAHthat bit was awful. anyways its also incredibly thematically relevant to these other episodes so it's very important you watch it lol.

and i think the difference is that good omens is twelve episodes. just twelve. there's the book of course, which is a different angle than the show, there's the radio version etc. but there's only so much story. and a lot of the version are the plot of the book in different formats. whereas doctor who goes on forever and ever and ever and there will always be more content. so the good omens people are overanalysing the same few moments over and over again because thats all there is, they probably know their content better than the doctor who people, but b/c you only see them in so many Situations, its also easier to begin to warp your perception of them. you only see them deal with a crisis a couple times under very specific circumstances. there are only so many character moments, so things can be blown out of proportion b/c you cant compare it to another similar moment.

but doctor who is infamously long and infamously has a Very large eu so you have a lot more time with the characters to pull together your perception of the characters, even when regenerations and new companions come and go. you simply have more to work with to build your understanding.

like if you compare the 'i just lost my best friend' scene from good omens to any of the 'doctor thinks companion is dead' scenes--crowley reacts like that only once. he is distraught, obviously, doesnt quite know what to do about it at first, doesnt know what's happened to aziraphale--but its a specific moment. bookshop burned down. world is ending. aziraphale Gone. whereas doctor who there's a range of scenarios with a range of reactions--guilt and also hope when bill gets shot and then taken away. anger and denial over clara willingly dying knowing that she must (actually resolved her character arc quite well i thought, though so did hell bent). there are more but i forget. uhm end of s1 second to last episode rose gets vaporised but it's actually a teleport, the way nine responds to that. there's just more to work with!! which i think is why the good omens fandom is so deeply embroiled in arguing over minutiae of character and background detail b/c they dont have anything more to read about them except fanfics (which are obvious a feedback loop in any fandom) and because they only see aziraphale and crowley for such a short time. they cant compare their reactions during times of The Literal End of the World and The Disruption Of Their Quite Nice Life Together And Also Possibly the End of the World to them just chilling.

#idk thats my take on it at least #havent really thougt about good omens much recently but i'm still seeing a lot of teh fandom stuff #had to unfollow a few people though cos. hoo boy. #but yeah. #just something i've noticed #good omens #doctor who #damn this is long sorry. hopefully you see my point

[mossyscavern]

A note for next year and a leap of needed faith.

___________________

… ok, here’s the thing you need to know for next year.

I tend to find myself in certain parts of fandoms that are either not that popular anymore, or are dead because it’s not working out that well.

And sometimes the fandom is largely popular because of how good a movie, video game or tv series is or it’s a favourite book.

Plus I’ve been thinking about doing some else.. something different. Gotta be fair, it doesn’t mean I’m losing touch with the wick fandom. It was one of the first fandoms that got me out of my comfort zone and branch out into a fanfic writing.

So yeah, the wick community holds a place in my heart and either so many new people finding out this community is still alive along with making new stuff. And some who have been in the fandom for a long time coming back to see new stuff created and going back to their roots!

But before I start making something new that might get a Jurassic change here in my profile and what I’m used to just note:

A fandom is a place where we make sure we keep our interests alive, weather it’s a game that’s never updated, a tv series that had to end, a books author stops writing Ora movie that lost its spark.

Just know it’s never a place to abandon or have it be known as dead. It’s a place to keep creating! Keep moving! Keep your interests alive!

Don’t stop drawing if it makes you happy! Don’t stop writing if it’s your comfort zone! Heck! Don’t stop making theories, headcanon’s or incorrect quotes just because you think the fandom is dead.

There’s always something to look forward to, especially when things aren’t going as planned when nothing seems to be working the way you wanted it to be.

I maybe making stories no one else here is used to but all I’m asking for everyone is this simple thing.

Never stop creating… but do take a break if needed, don’t want anyone overworking and having a burnout. It’s not that great.

My name is mossy, I’m still a very awkward person and I’ll see you all next year with both new, old and familiar.

———

Me: … *sighs*

???: what’s wrong?

Me: nothing, it’s just… It’s something new and I’ve known this fandom for soo now long, like.. what if I’ve said the wrong thing?! What if I did abandon the fandom, what if i never really make new content?!

???: don’t feel too bad about it, it’s like you said… nothing in this fandom is dead. As long as you keep creating.

Me:

Me: but… I’m scared.

???: then think of it as a stepping stone, think of it as an obstacle you can overcome, remember that scene in into the spider-verse? … all it takes is a leap of faith.

Me: … thanks… who are you anyways-?

Me, looks around, seeing no one, not even hearing a sound: ... hello?

Me: … weird. (Types the last thing before leaving)

———

Until then… see you all next year

#wick hellbent games #wick 2015 #wick horror game #… I wanna add this to more fandoms #but like I said… I’m too scared #if there’s other fandoms that need this? send this to them… they’ll need it #… especially when they’re feeling down

[arcielee]

Interview With a Writer

I know I usually do Ewanverse or HotD, but I fell in love with this story. Thank you @bhxrdy for indulging me and answering my questions. 💜 As always, Interview With a Writer is my ongoing series of the talented souls on Tumblr and ao3, and their brilliant writing!

Dividers by @saradika

Name: bhxrdy

Story: timeless

Paring: modern Finan x original female character

Warnings: Explicit/18+, be mindful of chapter warnings!

So, when did you start writing?

I started really writing, like 10 years ago now - right into 2013. I had discovered and gotten very into (I'm shy to say) k-pop, and at the time, social media was new to me. I had joined a couple of forums here and there, but really got into the thick of it once I joined Twitter and Tumblr. It was also then - for the 1st time - that I found out about fanfiction, which was an unfamiliar concept to me.

Its a bit blurry, but I remember I started reading a few stories here and there about my fave group at the time and - I don't remember the specifics but - I had eventually started coming up with wild scenarios, small ideas here and there, that I wanted to put down on paper.

Writing in general was relatively new to me (a few years before, when I was in high school, I was writing "poems" and other notes in a massive emo-like notebook - all because of a boy of course), so the idea of creating something substantial, like the fics I had read so far, was a bit terrifying but also kind of exciting because I stumbled on something brand new to me and was dying to be part of it along with some new online friends I had made (which I unfortunately lost touch with over the years).

Within the span of 2013-2015, I wrote 28 stories (on a 3rd party site) - a mix of one shots and multi-chaptered fics, which includes 2 unfinished stories - which were left to die by 2017-2018. I had finished school and started working, which totally changed my routine. The lack of interactions in the fandom didn't help either as by then, it was pretty much dying from the band's moving on and eventually disbanding. The stories are still there, my account is still there, as I don't have the heart to take it down. I've spent so much time on them, and loved every genre I wrote. I either went fluffly fluff or super angst and dark, all of them fun to write.

After that I moved away from the fandom as well and just the k-pop scene in general. I took a hiatus from writing altogether too - the will of it had died so I mostly focused on editing. And then, I started back again in 2020, wrote a couple of stuff on Tumblr (for the 1st time) until I stopped again a few months later. The inspiration stopped and I just couldn't bring myself to write anymore. So I moved away.

And then this year, TLK happened and I just had the inspiration back on the tip of my fingers, just swirling in my brain and was dying to write it down, so I gave it another shot and wrote my first Finan fanfic. It was very rusty getting back into it after so long but I'm glad I did because I got to meet amazing people which I'm grateful for.

I have a tendency of daydreaming a lot, I can easily get lost it my own head. Finding out I could actually just write them down, liberating everything I held up and see them face to face vs. just thinking about them, became a whole new ball game.

Where did the plot for timeless come from?

It hit me out of nowhere and happened when I was re-watching The Originals (TVD spin off). I'm not sure how, but it physically/literally stopped me in my tracks (mind you I wasn't doing anything special, just going to the kitchen to get a snack) as if I was hit on the head with it, like, "Yes! omg! shit! this is it!!"

I immediately picked up my phone and started typing random thoughts and notes down for the story. It was very rough, just generalized ideas of what could happen. Some of those ideas did change trajectory from where they started, but I'm hoping they were good changes and worth the story telling 😊

Watching The Originals helped with the inspiration. I knew Finan was always meant to be cursed, I just had to figure out the best way to present it. I also drew inspiration from other witch shows like Charmed, A Discovery of Witches, and BTVS. I love anything related to the supernatural and witchcraft, so it was fun coming up with the initial layout of the story.

At the beginning, I debated if it should be a one-shot or multi-chapter based on how much I had come up with. I was 99% sure I would stick with the one-shot, but eventually the 1% took over and I just went from there...the lines took a life of their own.

Explain your interpretation of Finan. What drives him? Why is he the way he is in timeless?

I was mostly trying to stay true to how his character was built on the show and transport that in writing within the concept of the story (I'm sure I've strayed, but hopefully that's alright).

When we first meet Finan, he's infiltrated modern day life as if he was part of that world, always. Then he meets a woman on a random night and everything changes for him.

Thinking of it this way, the man has been by himself for a thousand years - the life he knew, his family, his friends - everything from his past has disappeared and he is all alone, and so he was just at this point in his existence where he was done with everything, partly discouraged from being immortal, partly begrudgingly accepting of his fate as a man who will never die.

But then he meets Rebecca, a woman who has no inkling whatsoever of who Finan is, i.e. their meet up was random passing of time in the(ir) universe. Once they meet, his life alters. She was the light at the end of a tunnel, she was a beacon of hope. Meeting her, befriending her - he found purpose again. He was ready to fight again, to live like a normal man again.

Throughout the story, I tried to focus on this aspect specifically - on the basis that he is hopeful to become a free man again. And though, there is conflict within himself, to the point he was ready to give up again, I'd like to think that Rebecca was simply someone he needed in his life. Not because of what she could do for him, but because of who she was, as a character, as a person to him. She put her life on hold for him and in return, the universe gave them something that everyone wants - to love and be loved and not be so alone in the world.

Finan, having been alone for a century, found his drive through Rebecca - through her presence, always standing by his side and fighting for him. Them falling in love was an added bonus.

Do you feel Rebecca/Bex complement Finan in this?

I would like to think that she does, because she gave him a new spark into his life, allowing him to feel truly alive again - which was something he had been deprived off since his original lifetime (i.e. since the TLK era).

With Bex's stubbornness driving him insane at times, I think it also helped him on the hope aspect - she was willing to go to the ends of the earth for him, for someone she had just met all because she wanted to make things right, to help him (a stranger, when they met) find peace. She wasn't reluctant about it nor did he even ask for help (he was the apprehensive/suspicious one). And I believe, at the end of the day, it all came down to how they felt about each other from the night they met. They unintentionally nurtured a connection they created until it became so immense, they ended up wearing it naturally, like a second skin.

Not only was she his anchor to the world of the living, Bex had become the part of him that died a long time ago. This makes me believe - in a some kind of weird way - that she was his soulmate. That, despite the heaviness of the curse, Finan was meant to cross path with her, that the(ir) universe gave him a break in the form of a kind-hearted and stubborn as a mule witch. A woman who would end up gifting him a second chance, and the opportunity to experience the good aspect of life again (as well as love).

Where did the dreams and the curse lore come from?

The dreams part of the story was inspired by The Originals, as there is the concept of the “other side” where non-resting souls are (the cemetery/graveyard scene description was inspired by the one they have on the show) - so I leveraged it and made it so Bex was forced into contact with another witch while sleeping instead of through a spell (as she had no reason to contact the dead while awake).

For the curse, I knew what I wanted out of it as it was already part of the original draft when I first came up with this story idea. I knew where it was taking me and how I would want it built - the reasoning behind it though was a bit if the tough part which I had also integrated into the storyline with Bex losing her shit over it.

Any chance of a sequel? Or do have anything else you are working on next?

So, unfortunately no sequel. But it does not mean I haven't thought of an epilogue - or kind of. Just random scenes with Bex of what life is after the ending that randomly play out in my head. I don't think I'll want to write them mostly because I want to keep the ending as is.

I'm working through a few other stories at the moment. The priority ones are for Osferth (a one-chaptered drabble for your 1k celebration, and a multi-chaptered fic which will also tap into the supernatural concept), which I am hoping to get started - officially - very soon!

I have some others dangling as well, which should eventually come soon as well - this includes Finan, Sihtric and Aemond.

Do you have a personal favorite story you'd like to share?

There are so many to choose from! We Were Something, Don't You Think? by Maggie (@inthedayswhenlandswerefew), as well as Comet Donati and Have You No Idea That You’re In Deep?

Some other favorites include Wolf-Heart by @gemini-mama, Crimes of Passion by @itbmojojoejo, Sanctuary by @st-eve-barnes, and Winterwood by @lonnson

There is also a myriad of Finan x Aisling (OFC) fics by @persephones-journey which are heart-wrenching and good.

And Fire in Her Eyes by @emilyhufflepufftlk is another amazing one for Finan fans.

#interview with a writer #iwaw #iwaw18 #bts #of their brilliant writing #writing community

[an-odd-idea]

Tumblr ate it before, here is the full narrative in all its fanficcy glory, except it was an actual dream that I actually had. Unintentional Succession and figure skating rpf fanfic about Ilia Malinin (the guy who skated to music from the show)

At the beginning of the dream, I somehow find myself in The Wilderness, I Guess, with no idea how I got there or what I was previously doing, as dreams tend to go. Some rich people bring me onto their boat and are sorta nice to me but the vibes are also way off, especially this one old guy, he reminds me of my impression of the dad from Succession, I think, and he starts acting like he thinks I was there to spy on him and not just hopelessly confused after getting lost and being invited onto his boat. I’m starting to get a little concerned about this whole situation, which I should have been a long time ago but my brain wasn’t working, but Ilia shows up out of nowhere like “no it’s cool, I know her” and invites me to come home with him and his family (the rich people on the boat)

I accept this impromptu invitation because in the dream, he and I go to the same college and kind of know each other but aren’t really close, and it still seems like a smart and wise decision at the time. Also I’m still confused in the middle of nowhere with a bunch of kinda intimidating strangers and at least I know who he is.

Immediately it becomes even clearer, his family is rich, like filthy, disgusting rich, he doesn’t even have any idea how rich they are, and half of them don’t either. Also, there is Tension afoot. I don’t know any details, of course, but I know #FamilyTension when I see it. Something about the grandfather getting old and who he’s going to pass the company on to, and everybody wants it, and everybody’s kind of an asshole about it and also just in general. Except Ilia who just seems a little lost in he middle of it all, like he’s not quite sure how he got there either. They’re kind of awful to him, but they’re just awful all the time.

“Like Succession,” I think. What a distressingly personal music choice. I wonder if they know.

I have not seen Succession, but I have seen a gif of the scene where the guy laughs and the other guy says “laugh at the same volume as everyone else- we didn’t adopt you from the hyena farm.”

Immediately, that happens. Verbatim.

Am I- are we- I look at Ilia. He looks back at me, frightened? Pained? Silently pleading with me to understand something a human mind can hardly be asked to comprehend?

I keep my mouth shut and my eyes and ears open.

Now, not only is the family kinda fucked up and, well, Succession-y, they’re also weird. They’re just weird. They’re weirdly quiet, like they’re tiptoeing around everyone all the time. There’s this weird, almost cult-like devotion to the grandfather who currently owns the company and who we only rarely see- they all hate him, but they also fawn over him, and he almost never leaves his office, a place that begins to hold such inexplicable dread for me that I can hardly stand to walk past the door.

They’re also weird about me.

“Just a friend,” Ilia said, but I don’t think the family got the memo because they’re acting like we’re getting married. Or… no, that’s not really the vibe, do they think he like “Congratulations, you’re my sister now, I just have to get the fam to approve” because that IS the vibe especially after they just sort of picked me up like a stray cat from the edge of the lake but like- what. Or do they think I’m trying to join their weirdo secret society grandfather-worshipping cult thingy, because I can assure them- anyway, whatever, they’re weird and I don’t think they like me.

His aunt is always scribbling notes whenever she’s around me and passing them on to the grandfather. I sneak a look once- “fidgets with hands too much while speaking; smiles too big” which were things I had just done as we spoke a second ago. For some reason, I’m less self-conscious and more… maybe starting to fear for my life. Just a little.

Maybe it’s just normal weird family stuff, but somehow it feels way more serious than that. It’s all giving me vibes of at least two movies and a music video where the guy brings a girl home and his family tries to like sacrifice her or something, except instead of some ritual I’ll be sacrificed on the alter of family image, I guess, also known as murdered for being a little awkward. I’ve been trying really hard to be polite and act like it’s all normal and stuff, but finally I have to ask, and finally there’s a moment with no family members creepily taking notes on my every muscle contraction.

“Ilia, be honest. On a scale of one to ten, how worried should I be about your family?”

And he’s like, “They’re not my family. They think they’re my family, and as long as they do, I’m- not safe, but safe-er. I can’t really protect you, but if they think I’m someone to them and you’re someone to me, I mean, I can probably keep you from mysteriously turning up missing?”

And I’m like, “Ilia.”

And he’s like, “You know Succession? You recognized the hyena farm line, at least. We’re in the show. We need to play along, and then we need to get out.”

And I’m like. I don’t know what I’m like. I’m just. Like.

And he goes on, “I’ve never fought anyone, but I’m a figure skater and they’re all oldish and don’t do anything except worry about inheriting the company and sabotaging each other- I can take them, hopefully. But seriously, they don’t want to hurt me, same for you as long as you don’t seem like someone who’ll hurt the family image, but if they find out I’m not actually family, now we know all this stuff about them and the company, and we’re not even supposed to be in this story… things happen. We’re just characters.”

“I’d like to get out right now.” I have grand plans of climbing out a window and making my escape that very night. I take another look at him and try to find my real memories, the ones that aren’t part of the show Succession, apparently. “We’ve never met in real life, have we. That’s okay, you get me out of here, and I’ll give you a ride to wherever your actual family is.”

“We can’t escape that way. We have to get to the right point in the story.”

“Well how did we get stuck in this stupid show in the first place?”

We’ve been whispering together in the darkened kitchen, but like a bolt of lightning, we’re illuminated by the light from the hall as his “aunt” stands silhouetted in the doorway.

“Dad wants to see you.”

I woke up shortly thereafter and didn’t get to find out what happened, but when I tell you I was scared

#succession #figure skating #ilia malinin #it may be more knives out than succession but anyway

[cosmereplay]

Happy Fanfic Friday! I've been seeing the post going around about "what if you were stuck in a cycle of death and rebirth and your first job when you return is fuck the person that killed you" and people keep tagging it the Pursuer so I'm happy to report that this fic exists. It has mature themes, fast-paced fighting scenes, and an uninhibited sense of humour (in addition to the sex):

Pegged for Destruction by Dragontrill

Rated Explicit, 2000 words, Kaladin/Leshwi. CW for threats of rape

Lezian the Pursuer is on the hunt for his latest target, a certain Windrunner renowned for his skill, and plans to do something horrible to him. Leshwi also has an interest in that same Windrunner and is not going to let that happen.

Mature-rated excerpt below the cut:

Leshwi kicked open the door to some human's workshop and carried the unconscious Windrunner inside. She had blood on her temple and her armour was cracked in numerous places, but her dance partner took the worst of it. Rhythms only knew how the humans survived at all without carapace. The workshop she was in belonged to a woodcarver from the look of it, one specializing in smaller household items. Leshwi swept a workable free with her elbow and laid Stormblessed down on it before she started to search the shop for any kind of weapon. Lezian wouldn't return in his fourth body. If it died he'd be banished back to Braize and returning would be no simple matter. Instead he'd use that final form to recharge his voidlight and return to the hunt. Given his surges, that wouldn't take him more than a few hours. They'd have to defeat him another three times and then another three times. Then the same again and again and again until the Desolation was ended or Stormblessed was lost. The human groaned, coming awake. Leshwi looked back at him, attuning to Sorrow. She'd be doing him a mercy if she took one of these sharp carving tools and thrust it up through the soft flesh under his chin and into his brain. She hummed Anger at the very thought and kicked open a locked chest in a discrete corner of the room. Then she blinked. Her interests were varied depending upon her form, but she was still about eight thousand years old. She’d been around. "What are you laughing about?" Stormblessed moaned, sitting up with one hand to his no doubt throbbing head. He looked over, saw what she'd just picked up, and his eyes went extremely wide. “W-wh-what? " he stammered. Leshwi plucked one of many bottles of scented oil out of the chest to join the arrangement of leather straps she held with its long, curved, and highly detailed wooden attachment. "Either the human who owns this workshop is very kinky or their customers are.” Her smirk widened. "I have an idea."

Keep reading

#stormlight archive #stormlight fanfic #not my fic #kaleshwi #cw rape mention #tw sa #fanfic friday

[diorcities]

Hi Mia 👋

How are you doing? I hope you're great and your days are full of amazing things. As an amazing writer, your messages and ask box are probably full of texts, so I wish you'd see this message and have the time to answer.

I'm Violet, and I'm a great fan of your work. Although I'm mostly a silent reader and don't interact with your posts, you're one of my favorite witers, and I've read such great works from your page. They have made my day manytimes. The reason I'm writing this message is that I wanted to start writing here on tumblr, but I'm lost. The thing is that nowadays, most of NCT's fanfictions on this platform are pure smut without any interesting plot and stories, which get lots of attention too. While I'm scrolling here,usually I don't find anything interesting enough to read and enjoy, something that will spark your interest that you want to read nonstop until you finish that and it occupies your mind for days( I remember those ol' good times I'd read EXO's fanfiction on asianfanfics and such wonderful stories they were...) so that being said, I really wanted to write fanfics on here. Something with a good story and complex plot, not just a smut scene putting together to satisfy our single soul(sigh...) and not to say that whatever I have in mind are great stories or anything, it's just that I really want to share these ideas with other people and write stories for NCT whom are my biggest muse.

But unfortunately, English is not my first language, and the result wouldn't be that good. Also, it takes lots of time for me to try and write in English compared to when I write in my mother language( there's also all grammatical errors too)

So it has discouraged me to start writing on here ever since I had all these stories idea and writing drafts.

And I wanted to ask you whether you could give me some advice on what should I do?

Or whether you think it's a good choice to give my drafts and ideas to some other writers here to write for me?

Sorry for all the mistakes

LYSM 💕

hi violet!! tysm you're very sweet. i'm taking my time to answer this bc i want my response to be helpful to you.

it's okay to be lost sometimes, and have these doubts. i never read stories on asianfanfics, in fact, i started reading last year on tumblr, therefore i'm not very expert myself on that topic, so i'll change the focus a bit, for example, one thing that helps me choose whether i'll like a book or not is the synopsis; i think a good premise of what the book is about helps the reader a lot to see if the book interests them or not. (crazy to say bc most of my work doesn't have one 😭)

about plotting: it is entirely subjective!! no paragraph is filler if it helps you immerse yourself in the story, and whether you like to give some context is entirely up to you. i also think that first paragraphs are important and should be engaging.

i just know your stories are good, don't worry about the language. if it's easier for u to write in your native language, you can always use any translation tool to change it to eng, although sometimes you have to give it several revisions to see grammatical errors. english is not my first language either, so something that helps me is grammarly, it has the option of synonyms and helps you with grammar. also, google docs have this tool that translates the whole document to any language you want, but again, you'll need to give it a look to find any errors and mistakes.

everything that has to do with your story is important. we don't judge a book by its cover but, sometimes we're visual readers, so you need a format for the info of all ur stories, such as a title, the pairing, the genre, content, word count, whether it has warnings, and a banner but this last one is optional. and the :readmore: cut.

about the smut, there are many fields and audiences, some works here are merely smut one-shots and most of them succeed because the prose is scrumptiously good ykwim.

lastly, i encourage u to give it a try to ur stories. i'm sure they're good and many other readers will think that too. there is always the option of requesting another writer to write them for you, but i think it won't be as satisfying as if you had written it, it's up to you ♡

i really hope this was helpful, ily ♡♡♡

#—hyudior replies #and pls tag me if you decide to write something i'd love to read it <3

[robotlyra]

I saw your post about how the characters in Trigun were basically reduced to tropeified versions of themselves in Trigun Stampede, and it just made me think of something that’s been rattling around in my brain since it first started airing; it seems as though with reworking different elements for TriStamp, almost every effort was taken to conform it to generic anime tropes as possible to make it more digestible to a modern anime audience, using whatever’s popular among the mainstream anime scene right now. Which is especially feasible since in its first run Trigun flopped in Japan but became a cult hit in the west.

The reduction of the Christian symbolism and the spaghetti western aesthetic to go for a much more sci-fi angle, the “generification” if you will, of the characters and their dynamics like making Vash a stock sad softboi protagonist, Wolfwood a typical edgy tsundere, Meryl the token cutesy uwu waifu whose main job is to look cute and fawn over the protagonist like a schoolgirl (despite being, what, 23? barf), Knives being a yandere obsessed with his brother, Elendira being turned into one of the worst anime tropes in existence, turning Rem into the classic dead mom trope, etc etc…

It all feels like it deliberately panders to whatever Studio Orange must feel like modern anime audiences are looking for, especially when it comes to the shipping side, with Vash and Wolfwood’s dynamic being reduced to a teenage Yaoi shippers bad fanfic(honestly, that scene where Vash makes goo-goo eyes at Wolfwood is a textbook yaoi fanfic scene), and whatever is going on with Vash and Knives. It’s no coincidence that the amount incest fanart of Vash and Knives has skyrocketed since TriStamp premiered.

To me it also speaks to a larger issue e in anime; homogeny. Many mainstream anime in the modern anime scene are becoming increasingly bland and samey while unique, nuanced stories are either being swept under the rug or becoming sleeper hits and relegated to the “underrated” category because they aaren’t as hyped up as more mainstream fare.

It ultimately makes me sad because Trigun and everything that makes it unique among anime combined with Orange’s animation could have made for something truly unique among the anime scene, but every effort was made to homogenise it and water it down to the point where it feels like just another sci-fi anime.

Yeah, Trigun Stampede very much feels like "We're going to remake this so it's a POPULAR anime" and the fact that large groups of people are so defensive of it kind of speaks to how successful it was at that task. Part of me doesn't want to be TOO antagonistic towards it, cuz after years of watching anime dancing non-comittally around "should we REALLY care about fangirls as an audience," every piece of media that DOES go hard in for "yeah we're going to give them exactly what they want" feels like a long-in-coming feast. But at the same time, even though I do enjoy shipping characters in Trigun, making them into flattened, tropey versions of themselves to do it feels way less enjoyable. The biggest tell for me was how many instances of fanart I saw comparing Tristamp Wolfwood's threats towards Vash to the scene in Princess Mononoke where San threatens Ashitaka but all he can do is call her beautiful. That a more nuanced Vashwood ship of differing philosophies but steadfast friendship turning into a romance just gets turned into a standard tsundere/taming of the shrew type pairing feels like something was lost in the quest for an easier, more popular shipping dynamic.

[adhdchilles]

⟡ MISANTHROPY ⟡ CHAPTER 4 - MAGNOLIA

"Magnolia" ; Perseverance

Patroclus is attacked in the middle of the night and is saved by a familiar face.

····⟡····

~3091 words || [fanfic masterpost here]

ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤ๑‧˚₊🦇꒷︶ଓ︶꒷꒦⊹๑‧🩸˚₊꒷︶ଓ︶꒷꒦⊹๑🦇‧˚₊꒷︶

ㅤㅤThe next weeks were of solitude and numbness. Briseis had to constantly remind me I haven't eaten breakfast, constantly ask me if I had drank any water at all, constantly tell me to stop working and get some rest. My sleep lasted less than half of what it should and every time I was haunted by either nightmares or happy memories - both of which made me despise ever waking up at all. The memories were a reminder of something I felt I had lost, and every morning I had to take a long time getting ready to simply exist.

ㅤㅤI was often visited, although by few. People asking me how I was and expressing their condolences. I appreciated their empathy, but it did little to help. Every time I was even suggested I should move on, no matter how friendly it was phrased, I wanted to snap at them. How could I ever keep on going, when he's gone and I couldn't even say goodbye?

ㅤㅤIn a way I was grieving. I've always told myself I'd be with him until the end, when his fate inevitably would arrive, and that I had no plans of staying in this land once it did. But I always expected that it'd be a grand event, that he'd die a hero, in the battlefield, in a memorable scene that would be told through generations.

ㅤㅤI never thought I'd lose him like this. So suddenly, so out of nowhere, so cruelly, like someone ripping off my heart from my chest, like someone violently taking a part of me away, taking my entire soul away. I was an empty husk for a man. Existing, but not living.

ㅤㅤI thought of the past, of our childhood, when we met, when he found me alone and took me to his classes so his father wouldn't get angry at me, how we'd play around the castle and when I kissed him at that beach, with my hands shaking from fear and my face burning from shame. I thought of our years with Chiron, how we took strolls through the forest, and played in that river, and how I watched his training sessions, and when we'd lay on the grass at night and look at the stars, and how we solidified our love, there, alone, isolated from the rest of the world and its cities of cruel, wretched men. I thought, then, of our time here. I watched him change from a sweet, ambitious little boy to a vicious, powerful warrior. I remembered how many times I had to clean the blood off his delicate face, that despite it all still made me stare mesmerized.

ㅤㅤMany times I thought he was becoming one of these men, a being without feelings, a monster rather than a person, but then we'd lay in our bed in our tent and he'd hug me and whisper in my ear, and let me play with his hair, and listen to my worries, and allow me to cry in his arms while murmuring words of comfort. How he'd sing and play the lyre for me, make up entire songs, entire serenades, dedicated to me only. The world was a dark place that tried to corrupt us at all costs, and the same way I was what kept his human side alive, he was what kept me from giving it all up. The same way the violence and the suffering was making me dread staying alive, our love was what made me keep going, until the very end, because this was our fate and we had promised we'd go through it all together. When you're stuck in a decade-long war you cannot leave and are doomed to die in, what can you really have if not one another? He had always been my everything, and now I had lost it all.

ㅤㅤI didn't know how I could keep going, I hated every breath I took while he wasn't here. It should've been me . Why couldn't it have been me? But no matter what, I couldn't bring myself to give up on my life. No, there was something that still kept me going, despite all the pain and the suffering.

ㅤㅤHope. Or perhaps denial. Something inside me still burned bright, and made me stare at the borders of our camp with narrowed eyes. Nothing made sense. He couldn't just be taken away and die as if he was nothing, could he? It didn't sound right. Nothing sounded right.

ㅤㅤAt some point I left camp and went to the beach. He and I had walked through those same sands on several occasions, holding hands as he told me stories of his toughest battles. I loved how his skin seemed to shine in the moonlight, I loved how his eyes would glitter like stars, I loved the atmosphere's silence except for our footsteps, the waves crashing on the shore, and his enthusiastic, sweet voice. I loved it all so much it made me forget everything else.

ㅤㅤThat time, though, I was alone, and the silence was even more intense than normal. "Thetis!" I called, staring at the sea. One half of me expected her to ignore me completely, for she would be grieving as well, and the other half expected her to arrive from the waters in absolute anger and kill me with her powers. Part of me wanted the latter to happen, in a way. Please, spare my soul and take me away too. Bring me to him and only him. Don't leave me behind.

ㅤㅤI was met with further silence. “Thetis! Answer me! ” I called again. No man would speak like this to a literal goddess - but I had reached a breaking point. I couldn’t care less. I wanted answers.

ㅤㅤFor a moment it was just me, yelling at the sea like I was mad. Then the air turned colder, and I turned around, already knowing of her presence. She was even more sinister than normal now, staring at me with a pale face and empty eyes, like a walking corpse. I expected her to snap her fingers and for me to be dragged into the ocean at any moment, but she did nothing but stand there, quietly watching me.

ㅤㅤI was frozen, struggling to find words. How could I begin? Where is he? Is he dead? Bring him to me! I want to see him! He’s not dead until I see his corpse with my own eyes! I wanted to scream, but had no voice to do so. I wanted to ask so many questions, too many. But all the words I found were, “Was it all fake?”

ㅤㅤHer obsidian eyes stared into my soul. ‘ I don’t know.’

ㅤㅤThis was the most horrifying answer I could’ve ever gotten. My blood turned cold.

ㅤㅤ“You don’t know?” I echoed, paralyzed. “You’re a goddess , you- You were given the prophecy first . You’re his mother . And you don’t know ?”

ㅤㅤAlthough she always acted and presented herself in a way that made her seem emotionless, I noticed her lip twitch, and I realized how uneasy she was. She remained silent.

ㅤㅤI stood there, motionless, trying to process what I just heard. “Is he dead?” Was all I could ask, at last.

ㅤㅤShe suddenly closed her eyes shut. ‘ Yes. No. I don’t know.’

ㅤㅤThen, with a sudden gust of wind, she disappeared right in front of me.

ㅤㅤHe is dead. He is not dead. She doesn’t know.

ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤ* * *

ㅤㅤI was completely sick. My heart was racing all day, my tension got so high Briseis had to give me plants to calm me down.

ㅤㅤShe left me lying on my bed, alone with my thoughts in the dark. Thetis seemed frightened, now that I thought about it. What could possibly frighten a goddess? I wanted to speak to her again, to question her further, to cry all my emotions out until she gave me answers - but she didn’t even have them. 

ㅤㅤI looked at the walls, as night settled outside. This situation wasn’t just beyond humans’ understanding - it was beyond a goddess’ as well.

ㅤㅤSomething much more macabre happened here.

ㅤㅤMy thoughts were screams of the same worry I had carried on for weeks but that now became louder than ever before: He’s in danger. He’s in deep danger.

ㅤㅤWithout even realizing I was already on my feet and leaving my tent, so stuck inside my fear and panic I only realized too late I was already making my way out of camp. How I wasn’t seen, I wasn’t certain. I wasn’t paying attention to anything at all. All I could hear was my heart screaming at me. He needs help!

ㅤㅤI followed the same trail we had followed the day he disappeared, the trail with the blood splatter on the grass, the trail where I yowled his name countless times to receive no answer. But while that day the forest was bathed in an afternoon’s sunlight, now it was embraced by deep darkness, barely illuminated at all by the stars above. I wasn’t afraid, but at the same time I was - I knew how dangerous forests were, but that wasn’t the only reason for the fear. Part of me feared finding whatever creature took Achilles from me, to some fate not even the gods knew. But even as I was scared I kept going, screaming his name like a complete lunatic desperate to see if miraculously he’d appear for me, like how Orpheus had to scream for Eurydice because he could not look at her, otherwise she’d be lost forever.

ㅤㅤAfter not a very long time, I found myself lost, and even then it wasn’t enough to stop me. I kept yelling and yelling his name but I was met with no more than the forest’s sinister silence and the calls of crows in the distance, that gradually increased in quantity, like a carol singing in sight of my madness. I accidentally scratched my cheek on a thorn and when I raised my hand to clean the blood I realized my face was wet with tears. He’s not here. I finally decided, completely defeated and with my throat sore from screaming. There’s no use.

ㅤㅤA rustling in the bushes behind me. I turned around in surprise, expecting to see an animal - but what I saw and heard was a spear piercing my shoulder. I dropped to my knees with a weakened scream. Trojans. How stupid I was, for leaving alone like this. All I brought other than my remedies was a short knife, and as I saw the three men approaching, a part of me really wanted to stay completely still and let them end my life. But the other part was louder, and I helplessly tried to defend myself from them, blindly stabbing and slashing even though I knew they were armored and it would serve nothing. I was stabbed again. I think I was screaming. I couldn’t tell - My vision was getting blurry and dark, and I could feel my life slipping away. I slowly closed my eyes, awaiting for the inevitable.

ㅤㅤBut before I did, behind the men, I then noticed unnaturally fast movement in the bracken just as I collapsed to the ground. I stared, eyes half-closed, as the men screamed in surprise and turned around - something had attacked them, probably some sort of animal, and so I stood there, bleeding on the grass, waiting for it to be my turn. My vision completely darkened, and the last thing I heard were the sounds of the men’s spears shattering and falling into the floor and their screams turning terrifyingly silent before I became unconscious.

ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤ* * *

ㅤㅤI didn’t die, as you can tell. 

ㅤㅤI was in an unknown place for a while. I couldn’t tell how long at first. It looked like an abandoned house. Sometimes, I suddenly found myself half-awake, but still too weak to properly see, hear or speak. All I could feel was the weight of someone bending over me and covering my shoulder in bandages and using herbs that burned and stung inside my wounds. The hands that cured me were completely cold as if they carried no life, and yet they did.

ㅤㅤSome days passed and I finally woke up for certain. I felt dizzy, horribly sick, but definitely not dying - but I completely froze when the front door opened and a figure was looking at me from the other side. A figure I could never not recognize.

ㅤㅤThere he was.

ㅤㅤI was too shocked to even speak, and he seemed surprised too. I felt an immediate urge to cry again. There he was.

ㅤㅤHe looked almost the same as the last time I saw him and just as beautiful. His hair fell down his shoulders like golden waterfalls, and that and his skin perfectly contrasted the jet black robes he wore, tied on both his shoulders and around the waist, exposing his neck and a part of his chest. He wasn’t injured, he wasn’t bloody, he wasn’t scared, he wasn’t dead - none of the things I feared I’d see if I did find him. He was completely alright. He smiled, though a bit timidly, and approached me, checking on the state of my shoulder wound. He still smelled like the beach’s breeze. 

ㅤㅤHis touch was unnaturally cold and as I stared at his hands and his face, I realized he was much more pale than before. I felt a tinge of worry.

ㅤㅤ“Achilles- It’s… It’s you.” I began, my voice extremely shaky and heavy from emotion as I started to flood him with questions. “I… Where have you been? What happened? Why did you disappear like that? Did someone hurt you? Did-” 

ㅤㅤHe gestured for me to stop, and I did, because I realized how uneasy and worried he seemed. Part of his gaze also carried guilt. “It’s me, I’m…” He whispered. “I’m fine. I’m sorry.”

ㅤㅤHe then bent over me and rested his head on my uninjured shoulder. The feeling of his closeness had a calming effect on me. “I’m so sorry. I know how worried you must’ve felt.” He sounded completely defeated, exhausted, and I felt a pain in my heart. I gently caressed his hair, which still felt soft between my fingers. “I didn’t want to be gone for so long, I… I didn’t want any of this to happen.”

ㅤㅤI pressed him closer to me in a warm hug. “What do you mean? What exactly happened? Tell me, please.”

ㅤㅤHe didn’t reply, and I strangely realized I couldn’t hear nor feel him breathing. I released him and before moving away, he gently touched my face, looking closely at my eyes. I noticed his eyes were a much more vibrant tone of green now, and more weirdly yet I noticed his pupils were slit and cat-like. Before I could say anything, he gave me a kiss. A long, slow kiss, and I forgot everything I wanted to say. I had been starved from his presence, his closeness, his touch for so long that the very moment our lips touched I felt completely paralyzed, closing my eyes and just feeling . It was like someone just lit a fire inside me.

ㅤㅤBut then just as quickly as he approached, we separated, and it was like someone abruptly set off that fire, and I desperately wanted it back. He took a step away. “Listen,” he said, and I realized he was nervous. His voice was just as heavy as mine, and his pupils had dilated as if the kiss had affected him as well. “I’m going to bring you back, to the end of the forest, and then you’ll go back to camp. Please don’t tell anyone you saw me. Anyone.”

ㅤㅤ“ What?” I asked, feeling dizzy again. “But- They think you’re dead. I thought you were dead! We need to go back and tell them- ”

ㅤㅤ“No.” He interrupted, and his eyes urged me. “I’m- I’m so, so, so sorry. But I can’t go back.” He then looked away, at his own hands. “I just can’t .”

ㅤㅤI was so shocked I couldn’t find the words to reply. My hands were shaking when he took them and guided me out of the house in silence.

ㅤㅤIt was night out, and we quietly made our way through the forest, my senses telling me we wouldn’t meet trojans this time, yet I glanced nervously at the trees anyway. Nothing seemed safe anymore. I was trying to process the whole situation, every time glancing at Achilles wanting to ask him questions, but then realizing how sad and distant his expression was. My heart ached. What’s wrong with him?

ㅤㅤAfter a long and slow walk from the strange house back to the beginning of the path back to camp, he stopped walking, but still held my hands, turning around to face me.

ㅤㅤ“I know you’re confused, and sad, and I genuinely hate having to do this, from the bottom of my heart.” His eyes were full of guilt, and I wanted to hug and comfort him, yet something told me I shouldn’t, not now. “But please… Forget me. Forget I exist.”

ㅤㅤ“What?” I almost yelled, pulling him closer to me, afraid he’d try to move away. “How could I? I’ve been looking for you for so long, while everyone was trying to convince me you were dead - and now that I finally found you, you want me to leave?”

ㅤㅤHe was tense and avoiding my gaze. “You don’t understand… I’m too dangerous. I-I can’t go back there, or anywhere, for that matter. Never.”

ㅤㅤI blinked. Dangerous? “But…” I cried. “But can’t you at least come back to me? We could… I-I don’t know, meet here in the woods, or the beach, or anywhere!”

ㅤㅤHe hesitated, and I realized he seemed to genuinely consider it. I held his chin, forcing him to look at me. “I could never forget you, especially not now knowing you’re alive . You’re the love of my life . You can’t leave me here. Please .”

ㅤㅤHe closed his eyes, letting go of my hands, and taking a few steps back. “I’m not alive…” He whispered, his voice tired, and I frowned in confusion. “Just go back home, please.”

ㅤㅤHe turned around and quickly walked back to the forest, and I chased after him, but as soon as I entered that place, he was gone, as if he disappeared into the shadows. I was alone.

ㅤㅤI felt my heart shatter into pieces, and slowly made my way out and trailed back into the camp.

[ao3 link] [wattpad link]

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[space-blue]

What’s one writing weakness you want to work on?

From your ask game~

That's a great question. Fanfic is something that has both solved an issue I had and created a new one.

OK whatever, story time. Buckle up, it's TMI time.

I basically came to writing in a very wild fever dream time of my life. I was going fucking insane in Australia being worked to the bone for no wage by a cuckoo lady working in horse training. I read the Black Dagger Brotherhood, like 6 of the books back to back (I wasn't doing well, mentally, ya know). I had Interstellar (yes the film) still in the back of my mind. It was a very impactful film for me, and I wanted to tell stories that would make a difference for people. Give to someone even 1/10 the emotions I'd gone through with that film. So I sat down and in my crazed moment of bush life slavery, I penned down 15k of a completely useless first draft for my big epic novel.

It's a post-apocalyptic solar punk story about a minuscule community of immortal beings. I STILL think it's a great story idea and world, maybe I can go back to it when I'm more mature as a writer xD

ANYWAY I moved to a different job (better and worse at the same time, still in horse training), read The Collector by Fowles and basically broke in hives, that book was so insane. Like, I couldn't get into The Exorcist because The Collector was still on my mind! Urgh. I was on a roller coaster and losing my grip on reality, shovelling horse shit while listening to Benedict Cumberbatch reading Kafka's Metamorphosis on repeat… (that's right baby, that's how yours truly got into writing. Mental breakdown, Cumberbatch and lots of horse shit) and in an attempt to rescue my fraying sanity, I joined a forum of sci-fi and fantasy writers!

They were a super lovely community and they don't know they basically kept my mind together. But one of them pointed out they do a monthly writing short story competition. Original SFF works, 1.5k words max. I didn't know if I could even do short stories, I was so new! But then an idea manifested while shovelling more shit, and I wrote my first short story in one sitting, while heating tatter tots on a camping stove. Ah, to be young again.

So yeah, that was a big event. I abandoned my crazy novel and got deep into that monthly competition for about 6 years straight!!! I became great at coming up with a concept for a short story, and I think despite my recent tendency to write much longer chapters, I still keep a lean prose from those days.

And yet, this amazing monthly competition robbed me of every last bit of confidence that I could pull off a multi chapter story. My early fugue state was gone. With some experience now under my belt, I tried to return to my draft, digitised a lot of it… And never managed to even wrap up a complete first chapter, let alone get started on the second one!

Time and time again I'd love a short story I wrote for a month, begin to expend ~15k of extra scenes and snippets and notes… and give it up. I wasn't managing my pantser nature well. Each time I planned a story out I lost interest.

So for the longest time I thought I was doomed. Then I started writing fanfic in 2020, and the words just… came out. Each chapter was serial, written like its own short story, with no idea what would come next. And it worked!

Sadly, I have yet to finish either of my (65k and 80k) long fics (and I will, soon, for the Arcane one!!!) but the fact I got so far at all was amazing to me.

My longest completed story is an honourable 28k!

So yass, I broke the spell! But I still want to write long stories of my own. I want to write about my immortals in their solar punk world. I want to write my two women crossing the border between realms shaped by their respective deities. I want to write about a war in our solar system that has led to the creation and use of homunculus, and how humans struggle with them, a la Blade Runner/Westworld. I wanna write about Death-Eyes Lone, who has the shitty super power of being able to blink into the eyesight/PoV of dead people around her. I want to finish that short story about a dude who wakes up every morning with a new and different phobia, and has to save a friend on the day he has a phobia of doors.

And I find that I still am not quite there. I still struggle with writing material. And even if I could finish an 80k+ fanfic, it doesn't mean this could translate to my own fiction.

Fanfic has seriously addicted me to reader feedback. Some chapters, I was only going on strong because people were excited for the content. Some fics I abandoned because nobody seemed to care. I've gotten so much better and written SO MUCH more than I normally do, since I joined AO3. But not original fiction.

I know I have to get better at going multi chapter and then going BACK on my work, edit knowing what's to come now that the work is finished. This isn't something I ever need to do, or is practical at all, on AO3. I do go back to my old fics and fic the formatting, typo, and spruce up my prose… But in a real novel, getting to the end would be getting to the end of FIRST DRAFT, and I find this terrifying, given how incapable of caring for finished works my mind is.

TL;DR : I need to work on writing even if I don't feel like it. Returning to works for which the spark is gone, and being more diligent and studious in the way I complete them.

I'm afraid I won't manage tbh, and I sometimes gets in a funk over the lack of apparent control I have over my writer brain. I envy people who are driven. Even driven to obsession. People who can focus on a work for however many years it takes to shape it up and get it out. People for whom jobs and hobbies are no-brainers because they latch on and never let go.

I'm a jack of all trades, master of none, when it comes to hobbies, and in a weird way it also applies to my fleeting interest for stories. I don't like it and want to work on improving it.

From these asks!

#ask #life story #tmi #oversharing #fanfic #original fiction #writing #writer #asks #ask game #thanks anon! #Australia was fucking brutal #but I got into a lot of weird hobbies while there #Writing is the one that really stuck around!

[callipraxia]

wouldn’t the doc have an edit history? if the computer just suddenly Stopped Working and there were no past issues, it might have auto saved! …but if you’ve already checked, then I’m sorry for the repetition. I hope you can recover it, or get the motive to write again soon ❤️

That was my hope/expectation...however, it seems that LibreOffice Writer doesn’t come with that functionality/at least didn’t use it in this case – I clicked everything that looked even vaguely promising, searched around for tips, and, alas, found nothing. Therein, I suppose, lies the crux of the dilemma I faced when choosing a word processor for the new computer: I needed something that would function offline (since Internet connectivity at my house after about 7pm is so bad that Google Docs and similar become virtually unusable, and it’s not that great during the day, either), but the options there are/seem, based on my Googling, to be limited, and the inexpensive ones even more so :(

However! This is far from the worst pickle I’ve ever been dropped in while writing. Heck, it’s not even the worst situation I’ve been in since I started writing GF fanfic, only three years ago. That situation was the time when I was working on three stories at once (early drafts of “The Earth Never Tires” and “The Player of Games” along with a third, still unpublished story, “Our Beginnings Never Know Our Ends,” which I still haven’t given up on finishing despite how it appears to be cursed in some way) and lost...everything.

All of it.

All at once.

Unusually for me, I hadn’t even written down anything on paper for the almost half-finished “Earth” at that stage, and had only ever scribbled down about half a scene for “Player,” so I had to reconstruct almost everything in them from scratch/memory. And my memory is...eh. I didn’t have the heart to even start trying for several months.* As for “Beginnings,” I did have a good bit of it written down on various scraps of paper...but then I lost those scraps of paper. Which is why I think that story may be cursed, despite my refusal to give up on it completely, even though it's now about eleven months since I finished “Earth” and about six months since I finished “Player.”

As for the story mentioned yesterday – I’m a bit put out about losing the version I had going of the first scene, which included some wordplay and allusions that I felt very clever about, but its skeleton is still written down on a paper and most of the second and third scenes were even pencilled down in some detail. So, it's not nearly as bad as what happened with the original three poem-tales, and will be much easier to recover from now that I’ve had a sleep and gotten over my headache and etc. Still appreciate the well-wishes, though! ❤️

Moral of the story is: o you who click the keys and feel your tale is close to completion/Consider Calli, who’s repeatedly been as close to finished as you. Or, in simpler terms: save after every paragraph at least. I do not care if it’s been a year since the last time you had something like this happen; the computer gremlins are always watching, and the moment that you relax and let your guard back down, they will attack again. Here’s hoping I can recall this moral myself, going forward...at least for another year.

*Admittedly, I might have gotten back in the saddle faster if I hadn’t also had the series going on at that time; “people want updates on this other thing!” was an excellent excuse for putting off making the effort to start over from nothing. I say I enjoy rewriting, but only, apparently, when there's the option of cutting and pasting bits that work from the original version; just starting back over at a blank page...not so much.

#gravity falls fic #gravity falls fanfic #writer problems #writing #fanfiction #real life #inspiration (?)

[justfor2am]

hi my interview has been rescheduled once again because of course it is ^_^ nothing wants me to be interviewed ig ^_^ anyways 🥺😈🛒🎢✨💋🎶⛔🍦🌞💖💌❌🧐🦅👀🤗💞🧠🤩🤯💔🤭 for the fanfic writer asks or wtevr they're called??? didn't realize until just now u even rbed an ask game so apologies 🫡 side note the 💥 emoji is so fun . its just like 💥💥💥💥💥 yk??? also feel free to skip any of those i just threw down the ones i think would be most interesting but as usual there r many

i am manifesting an interview AND a job for u, get that bag king!!!

also waough ty for giving me an excuse to talk abt my blorbos 🥺🥺🥺

and ya 💥 feels like ur comboing someone really well in a fighting game, like 💥💥💥 K.O. yanno?

this is def gonna be a long one tho soooo the rest underneath the cut this goes lmao

🥺 Is there a certain type of moment or common interaction between your characters that never fails to put you in your feels?

Anything having to do with touch. I'm a sucker for physical gestures, so anything that involves details like brushing someone's hair out of their eyes, hooking a tentative pinky around someone else's hand, it doesn't need to be overt to get me in my feels every single time.

😈 Has there been a point in a story where you did something just to be playfully mean to your readers?

Yes! I threatened a major character death in [though I've closed my eyes, I know who you pretend I am] late in the final (12th) chapter lmao

I knew that being that late into the fic most people would've forgotten what the specific tags were and even less would be willing to scrolling all the way back up to check lol

🛒 What are some common things you incorporate in your fics? Themes, feels, scenes, imagery, etc.

Like I said in the first Q, touch is a big thing for me. Eyes and anything having to do with vision also tends to be a big one, if you read a fic with both of those elements there's a decent chance I wrote it.

As far as overarching things, I prefer to write scenery over dialogue, and put a heavy emphasis on describing what the characters are feeling/thinking over having them verbally express it.

🎢 Which of your fics would you call your wildest ride?

I wanna say my [detroit become human au] has shit hit the fan pretty quickly. The fic opens with the conflict and it takes a few chapters for the reader to get any context, but once you've got it, going back to the start just makes your heart break.

✨ Give you and your writing a compliment. Go on now. You know you deserve it. 😉

booo hiss grrr

no but actually uhhhhhh... I will say that when I've got a good idea rattling around in my head, I can churn out a fic for that premise very quickly. to the point that i accidentally wrote three chapters for one of my fics all within a day, because I'm unhinged like that

💋 First kiss fics. Love em or hate em?

LOVE but only if they're done right. I appreciate first kiss fics that aren't perfect or a little clumsy, but also i'm a sucker for those picture perfect moments too

🎶 Do you listen to music while you write? What song have you been playing on loop lately?

YA i do my best writing with some music on. I've been listening to a mix of things lately (Love from the Other Side by FOB, that new Shakira collab, and Flowers by Miley Cyrus) but i've also been looping my 14+ hour long exo playlist

⛔ Do you have a fic you started, but scrapped?

I had a sculk!Grian fic from like, I wanna say October last year that I was 1k words into that just. Disappeared. No clue where it went or how I lost but, but in hindsight, it wasn't my best work.

I'm still a bit sad to have lost it, but considerably more proud of the things I've written since.

🍦 What’s the sweetest fic you’ve created so far?

I have come to the realization that I am horrible at writing fluff without some level of conflict within the fic. Whoops! Closest I've got is a [scarian sick fic] that I wrote recently lmao

🌞 Do you have a preferred time of day to write?

Either while I'm at work when it's dead during the day time, or frantically at like, 11 o'clock p.m., there is no in between.

💖 What made you start writing?

Wayyyyy back when I was 12/13 I used to be big into rp, and I came into the realization that the rps I was doing could just as easily be formatting into fics.

None of those fics were ever published, but getting to learn how to edit and rewrite scenes that had been planned out with another person made me want to start creating stories of my own.

💌 How do you feel about comments and feedback?

Love love LOVE comments and feedback. Literally getting a comment is like a serotonin boost directly into my veins to write more, esp comments that'll point out specific scenes or moments/lines they liked.

someone pointed out that they liked the way I described fresh hickeys like blooming violets and I haven't been able to stop thinking about that comment ever since.

❌ What’s a trope you will never write?

That's a good question.... I'm trying to think of one that isn't like, a blatantly obvious icky trope.

I'm not sure if it counts as a trope, but Y/N fics. Not only are their primary function to act as fan service, they end up coming off very RPF to me which I'm not a fan of.

Oh, also RPF. Any fic i write has to do 100% with the characters those people portray, not the real person.

🧐 Do you spend much time researching for your stories?

Depends on the fic! For my [actor au] I've just been kinda flying by the seat of my pants, doing the occasional googling but not much. The opposite of this would be my [detroit become human au] where I literally rewatched jacksepticeye's d:bh playthrough and scoured wikis to make sure i'm describing androids correctly.

tl;dr: generally no, only as needed unless I get fixated on it.

🦅 Do you outline fics or fly by the seat of your pants?

Fly by the seat of my pants, but i'm trying to change this! For my multi-chaptered fics I've started actually planning out future events, and even for this one big one shot im working on, i've got an outline in the works.

...though generally, i don't plan. it's a bad habit.

👀 Tell me about an up and coming wip please!

GLADLY so speaking of that big one shot, it's going to be a boatem superhero au, i've started outlining it and getting my concepts together, i'm very excited for it!

here's a snippet:

It was fairly obvious that the Mayor had pulled some strings to get Scar to this stage; once a nobody vigilante who seemed more preoccupied with dazzling the camera over saving lives, Scar's public image had taken a hard left turn during the past few campaigning months.

The situation was more of an open secret— it was all too convenient for Scar, who practically lived in the Mayor's pocket, to be joining the city's most elite crime-fighting team.

it's VERY early in development so don't expect this one for a while tho

🤗 What advice would you give to new fanfic writers that are just getting started?

I'd say figure out your character's voice is a big one. It's easy to fall into fanon tropes and while they're fun, they can cause lots of warping in the way you write your own fics, which might make them sound off.

So look out for fanon tropes! Personally I've run into people who make Scar very sweet and innocent, to the point of dusting his hands clean of blame. It's an easy hole to fall into, and no one should fault a writer for falling into tropes.

There's a line to walk, and I find that watching content relating to that character really helps shaping that "inner voice".

Also, get someone to proof read your work who is willing to point out your mistakes. Editing/betaing is never meant to be a personal attack, but rather to make sure that the fic you present to the rest of the world is cohesive and clear.

💞 Who’s your comfort character?

Scar! He just gets me fr. He's one of my favorite guys to write because of how versatile and how much variety he has. He could be a silly salesman one minute, and a quietly scary assassin the next. Whatever the bit or joke is, he fully commits to it, often to the detriment of himself, but god does it make for good content.

Also he has a really good narration voice ok

🧠 Pick a character, and I’ll tell you my favorite headcanon for them.

(ty for the speedy discord reply lol)

Grian! my darling baby boy who has every mental illness ever

no but actually, i'd say my favorite grian head canon is anything having to do with him being an alchemist. i want that man brewing potions, getting blown up, and curing all his friends ailments with the most illegal looking brew you've ever seen in your life.

🤩 Who is your favorite character to write?

Grian, mostly because he comes easiest to me! There's such a sense of endless potential when I get ready to write him, and like, idk what it is, but longing too?

We've been getting it pretty heavy w/ his whole "I Miss Mumbo" campaign but like, grian to me feels like someone who's always thinking about reaching a hand out, and pulls it back at the last second. It's very relatable.

🤯 What’s a genre you struggle with as a writer (ex. romance, action, etc.)?

Weirdly enough, it's fluff. I always feel compelled to write stories with some level of conflict or it's not "satisfying" to me. I love reading the genre, but for whatever reason when I write it, I get in my head about if it's "good enough" or not without conflict. I'm working on that lol

💔 Is there a fic of yours that broke your heart?

EDIT: so i misread this, you get fic recs as a bonus. my proper answer is: [my bad ending fae two shot], it will shatter you as it did me </3

i'm going to give two because i do what i want. the first being [It's Only Logical by TSTrashCaptain] which is a sanders sides fic that to this day, i can only dream of writing something so good. tw for themes of abuse and nsfw at times, but god. just reading the title again puts a knot in my heart in the best way possible.

now, this fic. [your heart rots in my hands by thepigeoncat]. this fic slaughtered me the first time i read it. i left a long ass comment on it. tw for major character death, but this is the perfect last life scarian fic.

it's beautiful, and tragic, and it makes me feel as though the world has truly ended /pos. please go read it.

🤭 Do you have a favorite tag to use when posting your works?

my favorite tag for when i post unbetaed work is "no beta we die like scar to the boatem hole"

as far as a REAL tag, hurt/comfort >:))

and my favorite one off funny tag is "i cannot emphasis to you enough how much blood is in this fic"

[fanfic writer emoji asks!]

#justfor2am #justfor2talks #long post

[ambalambs]

So idk if this is something strange to post but ive been trying my hand at writing fanfic about miko lately since I dont trust my art skill to do the little scenes that I come up with. But I also have zero skill in writing so this probably isn't any good either lol but im having a good time with it. And if anyone cares about my little miko musings I figured I'd share

———

"If you have a moment or two to spare, pray consider playing a little tune or two on it to practice."

Miko trailed behind Artoirel and his manservant through the Firmament, but he immediately froze in his tracks as they came upon the twin grand pianos the man had been describing.

"Often it takes time to get accustomed to a new instrument," the manservant continued.

Miko, however, was barely listening as he slowly approached the pianos. The pair truly were a spectacle of craftsmanship. One was pure black, the light of the day peeking through the clouds brightly reflecting off it. The other was white. The soft ishgardian snowflakes dusting its surface just barely visible as they rested upon it. Miko made his way to the white one, his fingertips barely brushing along the edge of it as if his mere touch would mar its surface.

He moved around to the bench before the piano and immediately took a seat. The keys laid out before him just beckoning to be played.

"I must say our hero might not need much time to practice at all, Foncrineau," Artoirel grinned. "You look right at home, my friend. Have you played the piano before?"

Miko smirked lightly and placed his hands upon the keys. He didn't press down just yet, instead taking a moment to simply get the feel of it again. Being as musically inclined as he was, Miko had tried his skill on many instruments. If he put his mind to it he could play just about anything to a relatively pleasant extent. Enough to carry a tune at least. He found he was most fond of anything with strings but there was something special about the piano.

And as Miko felt the weight of his fingers on the keys it occured to him just how long it had been since he played. It really had been too long. And as he mused upon this thought a memory seemed to push itself forward. Not in the way the echo painfully did, no, but simply just a memory of his own from a simpler time.

———

Miko was just a boy in this memory. No more that nine or ten summers old. He had only just begun staying at this farm and its hyuran family for a couple of days. It had been strange but not unpleasant. The trauma of his loss was still fresh during this time so it was still difficult for him to truly allow himself to settle in. He still hung onto the expectation that his father would find him soon like he promised and take him home.

On this particular day he found himself wandering around the family's home. The man was somewhere out in the fields tending to whatever farmers busied themselves with. The woman was in the back of the house putting their small child down for a nap. This left Miko unattended for a time so he claimed the opportunity to quietly explore.

He wandered into the living area and trained his focus on a particular piece of furniture that had grabbed his attention when he had first arrived. It was big and wooden, but although the top of it seemed flat enough to hold trinkets, it was clearly not a shelf. Or at least not one he had ever seen before. There was, however, a booklet of some kind resting against the front of it. Miko glanced back over his shoulder for a moment to confirm he was still alone and reached out to skim through the booklet. He wasn't sure what he expected since he was well aware he wouldn't be able to read its contents even if he wanted to. But he didn't expect the strange lines and scribbles that filled the pages. He was fascinated by whatever these strange symbols could mean but he quickly lost interest in their mystery for now and placed the book back in its place.

What next caught his eye, and honestly the main reason the piece of furniture had caught his attention in the first place, were the small intricately carved designs on the wood. There were leaves and vines and flowers, all clustered together in the corners and along the surface. And among them were carvings of little creatures he instantly recognized to be sylphs. He had seen sylphs before playing among the toadstools while gathering herbs with his mother. She always warned him not to get too close. The green ones were nicer than the purple ones but they were still known to be tricksy.

As Miko reached out and began trailing a nail through the grooves of the carving, he liked to think this sylph was one of the green ones.

"It's pretty, isn't it?"

Miko jumped, immediately dropping his hand from the carving and whirling around to stare wide eyed at the woman behind him. His ears pressed flat against his head. The woman stood there leaning against the entryway with a soft smile. She had told him her name once when he first arrived but he still felt little reason to commit it to memory. He'd be leaving soon, after all, once his father returned for him.

"Oh goodness sorry. I didn't mean to scare you," she laughed lightly. Her laugh was sweet just like his mother's and it briefly tugged at Miko's chest as he inwardly berated himself for being so easily snuck up on.

"It's called a piano," the woman continued and gestured to the furniture before him. "Here let me show you." She tottered her way over to him, a hand on her pregnant belly. Once she made it to him she moved to reach beneath the piano and pull out the bench hidden below that Miko hadnt noticed before. He quickly hopped in to pull it out for her and she thanked him with a warm smile. She sat with a sigh that only a young mother can give and patted the spot on the bench beside her expectantly. Miko hesitated a moment before relenting and sitting beside her.

The woman tapped a finger to the wooden surface before them. "Go on, lift it up." She sounded almost giddy as Miko turned his wide eyed gaze from her to the spot she was pointing at. He wasn't sure what she expected of him to be honest. It didn't look like something he could lift, but as he curled his fingers into what seemed to be a seam in the wood and lifted, the panel easily gave way to reveal a long row of black and white keys beneath. Miko was instantly captivated. It was like he had revealed something mysterious and magical and hidden.

"My grandfather used to be a very skilled carpenter," the woman began. "He used to make all sorts of things but musical instruments were his specialty." Miko listened as he gazed at the keys before him. This was an instrument? They had many kinds of instruments in his village that he had played and loved but nothing like this. Suddenly the woman leaned in close to him, their shoulders bumping and whispered, "You know they say he even made some violins for an ishgardian orchestra that played before the archbishop himself."

Miko stared at her in awe. He didn't know what ishgard or an archbishop was at the time but it mustve been something truly important if she was being so secretive about it. She smiled and lightly giggled as she leaned away, Miko's attentive gaze never leaving her, hoping to learn more. But she instead gestured to the keys, "Go ahead. Push one."

Miko glanced at the keys with wonder. He carefully placed a finger on one and made to press down but it was sturdier than he anticipated and didn't give at first. So he tried again with more force.

DONG!

Miko jumped, ears once again flattening as he turned in the direction of the bedrooms where the toddler was sleeping. Immediate fear filled him. He hadn't expected it to play so loud.

The woman beside him laughed lightly again. "Dont worry about waking the little one. Once he goes out not even a calamity could wake him. Thank the Twelve for small mercies." Miko nervously looked back to her, calming a little. What happened next would remain in Miko's memory forever. The woman placed her hands on the keys and began to play. It was a pleasant tune. Something light and relaxing but Miko watched as her fingers seemed to dance along the piano. He found himself already placing each note and position of her fingers into his memory, the melody already latching onto him for later. He had always loved the sounds of the instruments back in his village, the strings and the flutes and the drums. Each would fill him with their deep and winded tones. But the sound of this was so different from any he had heard. It was almost like a chime but it rang so deep he could feel it run right through him and into his core. Oh he was already in love with this. He wanted to keep hearing more. To test out its limits for himself.

As the woman beside him played she began to speak to him as if the very act of playing the instrument was second nature. "This piece has always been one of my favorites. You strike me as someone who can appreciate it, too." Miko quietly nodded without taking his eyes off her hands.

She then suddenly stopped just as quickly as she began and gently placed a hand on her belly. "I hope to teach the little ones someday, but I dont think their hands will be quite dexterous enough for quite a while." She looked up towards him then, a gleam in her eyes. "How would you like to be my first student?" She said as she briefly booped a finger on the tip of his nose.

Miko's face scrunched up at the sudden contact but he turned his gaze down to the piano before him. He carefully and slowly placed his hands on the keys just as she had. For a moment he pressed his lips together in thought, then began to quietly hum the melody he had just heard her playing. It was soft, a bit raspy and broken in his throat from lack of use. But he ever so gently began to play the first few notes. It was slow going but the ease at which he so quickly picked it up was impressive. He felt a small smile tug at the corner of his lips and immediately stopped. Letting his hands rest upon the keys he thought, maybe it was okay if his dad took a little longer to find him if it meant he could learn how to play this just a little. He let the smile fully claim his face, as small and soft as it was, and turned to look at the woman next to him. "...sure."

———

As Miko pulled himself away from the memory he found himself smiling that same soft smile to himself. Remembering Artoirel had asked him a question he quickly straightened himself up and ran his fingers down along each of the keys with trained skill. "I have but I confess it's been quite a while," I replied with a grin.

"Well, it seems the Firmament will be in for quite a show," said Artoirel.

Miko chuckled and quickly scanned over the sheet of music already placed on the piano before him. Artoirel claimed he had written this piece so Miko was already determined to do his friend's creation justice. He softly started humming the new melody to himself, as he was wont to do with new pieces, before turning his attention back to Artoirel.

"You keep up writing music like this and you'll soon be writing symphonies for the Eorzean orchestra."

Artoirel chuckled, "Please, you praise me overmuch."

Miko laughed softly and turned his attention back to the piano before him. His heart suddenly warmed at the thought of performing before the people of the Firmament despite the cold of the snow. He'd have to write home about this and let mom know he got to perform a musical number to the esteemed ishgardians.

#i really hope that readmore works cuz this is a little longer than i expected it to be #also i havent written anything creatively since high school so idk how structure works anymore lmao rip #i might lose my courage and delete this tho hhhh #lambs personal junk #lambs tries writing #miko jinjahl #final fantasy xiv

[wheredidthepeepeego-mp3]

LOOKING FOR A VERY INVOLVED BETA READER

Looking for a beta reader for:

Title: If We Never Make It Back to California: I Want You to Know I Love You (First of a series, unfinished)

Fandoms: Gravity Falls, Invader Zim, Johnny the Homicidal Maniac (The second part involves The Owl House but the second part isn't public yet)

Other info: Before you ask, I don't have Discord.

Rated M, because I curse so frequently and there's some pretty involved angst and violence, but sexual material is kept to the absolute minimum because I'm NOT very comfortable with sexual content involving characters that are minors in canon. There's also very in-depth discussions of eating disorders, gender dysphoria, and slef-harm. Warnings include Graphic Depictions of Violence and Major Character Death.

The fic is intended for those who have seen Invader Zim in its entirety, and know important context from lost/deleted episodes. ETF and the comics, however, aren't really brought up in the fic. It will likely be confusing to those unfamiliar with Gravity Falls. You could possibly read and understand it if you haven't read JtHM or it's spinoffs, but it probably would hit a little harder if you're at least somewhat familiar with JtHM, Squee, and I Feel Sick. Lots of references to other cartoons.

Genrewise, I'd consider it a mix of just straight up fluff with angst. It has an underlying murder-without-much-mystery plot but it takes a backseat to some mundane, everyday things at times. It's a future-fic that I try to make somewhat trope-aware. It has a crossover ship (Dipper Pines x Dib Membrane) that very much started for Crack Purposes but at this point I'm extremely invested.

Summary (directly from AO3): "Featuring my horrid music taste, eighteen-year-old Dib Membrane drives across states to visit West Virginia, home of his future college. Professor Membrane doesn't approve, and complications arise after his mysterious and conveniently-timed death. But there's always a pair of paranormally-disadvantaged twins across the country for Dib to rely on. They always have their own problems, though, and the involvement of some of Dib's interesting extended family isn't helping his relationship with Dipper Pines- or maybe her relationship? Not even Dib knows. Either way, there are many possibly murderous road trips to be had, body insecurities to be unsuccessfully avoided, the occasional romantic drama for shits-and-giggles, and a coffee-shop side plot here and there.TL;DR: Dib and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Summer"

Common problems you may find: This is my first big fic and I'm not an experienced or "good" writer. I try to keep my spelling and grammar intact, though. I get ranty and occasionally stray out of character, though I try hard to keep it in character, because then what's the point of fanfic? I use crutch words like "smiled" and "sighed" a lot and I feel I may have pacing issues. I'm asking for a beta because I have no idea where these issues actually are, if I use them too much in certain parts, etc. I'm a panster and I tend to DUMP text on the page, accounting for the hefty word count I may need help knowing how to combine scenes or plot points. I also generally like knowing when I've accidentally done something rude, had a plot hole, or made a stupid/juvenile mistake. I also need new chapter names because I started the fic a long time ago, and chose exclusively lyrics from really cringey songs and haven't bothered changing just about anything. Plus I need to get some good foreshadowing in for part two.

Word Count/Update Info: Word count is 104,965 on AO3 but I will send you the link to my Google Doc, where it has the ongoing word count. You will see part two on the doc, but I am only concerned with part one for the time being. I update at least once a month, but sometimes two or three times. The fic is VERY close to finished and my projected word count for part one is 110,000.

What I'll do in exchange: My pretty exhaustive list of fandoms (both past and present) is: BoJack Horseman , Creepypasta , Daria , Doki Doki Literature Club , Five Nights at Freddy's , Gorillaz , Gravity Falls , Happy Tree Friends , Helluva Boss , Homestuck , Invader Zim , Johnny the Homicidal Maniac , Moral Orel , My Little Pony , Percy Jackson/Related R Riordan Books (it's been a while though) , Phineas and Ferb , Saw (Movies) , South Park , Team Fortress Two , The Amazing World of Gumball , The Owl House , Undertale and Deltarune. The only things I'm not comfy with are pornography specifically of real life people, pedophilia, incest, or underage. But otherwise that's alright. My max word count is 150k but other than that I will beta read anything in those fandoms.

Thank you!

#beta request