#(also writing this out i don't necessarily believe all this ^^ i have like 80 different interpretations of them lol)

[flanneryculp]

one thing thats interesting to me abt natasha's character is that as confident as she is, the one thing that leaves her apologetic or even shy is when flan compares herself negatively to her (esp about her body). i'm sure we all remember how natasha reacts when flan calls herself ugly but when natasha accidentally makes her feel bad she straight up does not know what to do

#okay spoilers in tags (hello mutuals who are currently reading it for the first time 👋) #// #i've always thought the way natasha and flan see each other was so interesting #flan idolizing natasha and natasha loves flan just as much but in a slightly different way #there's a lot of friendship (and attraction lol) on both sides but they both see natasha as the best version of themselves #(i.e. when she says ''we're better than them...at least i am'') #but on the other hand natasha is constantly focused on flan's life; what she wants; how to make things better for her; protecting her #shes fully devoted to her with the hopes of flan eventually getting to a point where shes so confident she won't need her anymore #essentially *becoming* natasha #but natasha has always been an impossible standard. both too flawless and too flawed to ever reach #and every time flan gets close to that point she ends up in a situation where she feels even worse; setting herself back #and *that* is the one thing natasha is afraid of #(also writing this out i don't necessarily believe all this ^^ i have like 80 different interpretations of them lol) #tb8 spoilers

[sabakos]

Out of curiosity, why do you like Hegel so much, yet dislike philosophers inspired by him, like Marx? I get the impression you don't see a lot of Marx's writing as...idk rigorous? Intelligentual serious? But most of the people I see making that complaint oppose continental philosophy in general and want significantly more mathematical rigor in philosophy, which you don't seem to agree with. So I'm not really sure what your objection is and what you feel makes Hegel different

The first thing here is that Marx was not directly inspired by Hegel and, according to Hegel biographer Terry Pinkard, seems to have read very little of him. Marx studied under Bruno Bauer (one of the many attendees of Hegel's lectures who also probably over-exaggerated his connection to Hegel) and Marx also read summaries of German idealism that were written by Heinrich Moritz Chalybäus, who is responsible for the infamous misconception that Hegelian dialectic had anything to with the essentially meaningless triad of "thesis-antithesis-synthesis." Following Walter Kaufmann, most Hegel scholars these days will now outright assert that "thesis-antithesis-synthesis" to be a misrepresentation of Hegelian dialectic, rather than trying to compromise with the Marxists. So a decent part of the reason I dislike Marx (and more accurately, his followers) is that without Marx, there would be far fewer misconceptions about Hegel. As for Marx taken by himself, I have some rather strong objections to social conflict theory, but that could be its own long post.

I'm also much less bullish on the idea of "Continental" philosophy, less so even the more I read of it. Continental philosophy is a somewhat loose term, which often includes not just Hegel, but also the rest of the German idealists, and technically even Kant and his contemporaries in some formulations. But usually in my experience when people object to continental philosophy they're objecting to the 20th century German and French thinkers from Husserl and Heidegger through Foucault, Derrida, and Deleuze, all of whom are imagined to have taken their lineage from Hegel, Marx and Freud, while the "Analytic" philosophers took their common departure with Kant and followed Frege, Carnap, Russell etc. And at some point in the 1920's everyone realized they couldn't talk to each other anymore.

Like all nice and clean histories of philosophy, though, none of this is really true if you look any closer. Both American pragmatism and early British analytic philosophy were heavily influenced by or in reaction to the Hegelian British idealism, and in the past 50 years many analytic philosophers have re-evaluated Hegel in light of philosophers such as Quine and applied Hegel's work more directly to their own metaphysics, Robert Brandom being the most notable example of that. So I don't really believe that the common notion that Hegel is the first exclusively continental philosopher is useful or accurate now, or that it ever really was in the past.

Meanwhile, most of the 20th century and especially post-WW2 era continentals apparently took their notions of Hegel from Marx, and so they aren't necessarily representing much if anything of him accurately. For example, I spent a decent amount of time a while back trying to figure out if Sartre had actually ever read Hegel before citing him, and most of the evidence pointed to "probably not" which seems to be a broader trend in how citation works within that subfield. Even charitably, I think it's hard to avoid the conclusion that at least a large chunk of the last 80 years or so of Continental philosophy has been primarily about fraudulent scholarship and obscurantism in the name of vague gesturing at some rather distasteful social and political ideologies. I think it's a rather shameful era of the history of philosophy, and I hope most of it is consigned to the dustbin of the past.

As for why I like Hegel: I tend to see Hegel as a synthesizer (in the general sense of the term) of everyone he read who came before him, especially the Greeks. He certainly didn't invent dialectic (according to Plato, that was Zeno of Elea), but he formalized and modernized it, and then used that formulation to define the interaction of a large number of broad concepts such as culture, religion, art, philosophy, etc. I see his dialectic as a useful shortcut when analyzing logical statements that use words as concepts: since it doesn't require an exact definition or understanding of a concept before attempting to reason with it, but instead clarifies that concept itself in the process of reasoning, it avoids the preliminary hurdles of trying to establish a rigid exact definition that might not prove to be useful.

In addition to finding the dialectic method of conceptual analysis itself to be useful in its own right, I also think that many of these concepts still have contemporary relevance, especially the conflict between aesthetic and moral concerns that leads to the much-misunderstood "Death of Art," or the conflict between freedom and authority that leads to "positive" freedom found within the State, both of which have influenced my own thinking. While these are also obviously not ideas that you must take from Hegel, as they can certainly be found elsewhere, within his system they have a common unity that makes understanding them together require less effort. But also, admittedly, you do need to invest the effort to understand his system first, so it's hard to say if it's worth it. At this point I mostly don't recommend Hegel to others, but I won't discourage anyone either.

However, while I don't think Hegel was a "mystic" or any such nonsense like that, I do fault him specifically for popularizing the idea that dense, esoteric prose is some marker of profundity, which if anything is the true influence the dreaded later "continentals" took from him. The difference between him and them is that if you read secondary literature on Hegel from critical scholars who study him (rather than those original thinkers like Kojeve or Zizek who take their influence from him), you'll discover that there is much more substance beneath that dense surface, which will make you wish he didn't write in that tortured, horrible style to begin with! But if you do this with Derrida or Deleuze you will quickly discover that almost no such secondary literature exists, and that what does exist either makes it evident that their dense prose lacks any such substance beyond some trivialities, or is itself written in the same tortured style for the same obscurant purpose. Caveat lector, I'd like to be proven wrong about that last part, but if there is something hidden in there it's value-negative for me at this point to look for it.

#hegelposting #<- my hegel tag has some reading recommendations also

[donnerpartyofone]

I have an extremely ambivalent attitude toward attention; or maybe it's something like 20% want, 80% do not want. When I was a kid, as soon as I was awake in the morning I would be seized with fear and anxiety because I knew that when I came out of my room, everyone would look at me, and I could not abide this. Eventually when I was so hungry I couldn't stand it anymore, I'd come out yelling "DON'T LOOK AT ME! DON'T LOOK AT ME!" like Frank Booth in BLUE VELVET. In school I was so afraid of being looked at that I learned to write with just the very, very end of a pencil, and even tiny broken-off graphite points, because if I got up to use the pencil sharpener to start a fresh pencil then people might look at me. This kind of shyness also caused me all sorts of other, more embarrassing problems that I am ahem too shy to mention, but I am not above stating that some of my earliest fantasies, which had a mixture of the phobic and the erotic in them (Bataille would have been proud), involved being spied on by monsters some of whom would actually have cameras if you can believe it. I don't know how I got so insane so fast, but to be honest not very much has changed. The tiny handwriting thing became the precursor to all of the art I used to make, which was extremely small and detailed; in college when it was time to hang my drawings in class, everyone would clump up around them and stand real close, and one professor surmised that this was a power move on my part--that I was manipulating people into coming to me, to getting down on my level, if they really wanted to know what was going on. This had never occurred to me and I don't know if it's necessarily true, but it's an interesting idea. I guess it's like, sometimes I want attention, but it must be on my own terms. I'm very happy to be alone. I don't fret if nobody calls on me. Actually I have problems in my social life because I unfairly project that most people don't want to be bothered and will let you know if they want you around, where in reality you usually have to be proactive and spontaneous to show people you care about them. I also have the inverse problem where I feel automatically hostile toward and disdainful of active attention-seekers, even though I know that their feelings are more normal and I am manifestly nuts on this specific topic. Anyway Tumblr is a great format for me because I can send things out into the ether, and anybody who isn't interested can just ignore it, and anybody who specifically responds to what I'm transmitting can acknowledge it if and only if they want to. The only undesirable scenario for me is if someone grossly misunderstands what I'm trying to say, and I don't generally attract enough attention for that to happen very often. Plus I can always block whoever I want (even though a really persistent stalker can get around that, but that's true of everything). Tumblr is naturally accommodating to my special needs and I will never leave it behind.

In summation, not really but still, even though I have already denounced myself as deranged, I must insist that "you are valid" culture is really bad and destructive because you shouldn't be finding personal reassurance in generalizing social media posts from anonymous strangers--and if you find yourself responding to this, it indicates that you really need to learn to be alone and to validate yourself. Or at the very least, to be more discriminating about what kind of validation is actually er valid. Other people's opinions and approval, especially those of people who don't even know you and vice versa, cannot be the point of your life.

#this has been your daily morning overshare #thanks for tuning in #or not!

[anchored-trident]

Community-building Tag Game

Tagged by: @quigonsjeans

Name: Real names? In this economy??? Call me Trident

Pronouns: he/him

Where do you call home? Currently holed up in Fullerton, southern California, although I am very eagerly planning to move to Concord, NH in the next 12-15 months (depending on finances)

Favorite animal: I'm going to be boring here and say cats... even though both cats I've owned have died... Primarily because they don't lick you and slobber all over you

Cereal of choice: Trix, but like, the old, classic Trix. From like, 2015. The good Trix

Are you a visual, auditory, or kinesthetic learner? 80% visual, 20% kinesthetic. Audio means nothing to me. Fun fact: I can't/won't actually commit to learning somebody's name until I've either seen it written down, or I asked them to spell it out so I can visualize their written name in my mind (like actual letters on a whiteboard)

First pet: I had a fish. It died. It was a very long time ago. I'm not sure if I ever even named it. Then I didn't have pets for a very long time. Then I had a cat... adopted a kitten whose yearning for the Great Outdoors could not be restrained by any amount of human-enforced enclosures

Favorite scent: Lemon. Lemon handsoap. Lemon merengue pie. Lemon pound cake. You get the gist

Do you believe in astrology? Naw, but when I was 8, I got really into astronomy... of course, back then, we lived in the Hungarian countryside, where it was a lot easier to see stars than in SoCal. I make yearly trips to the middle of nowhere to look at the Milky Way, and deeply regret that I still to this day do not own a proper telescope

How many playlists do you have on Spotify/Apple Music? 46 Spotify playlists that I have made... a few more if you count playlists I'm subscribed to. My music friends either strongly dislike or are extremely puzzled by my music taste

Sharpies or highlighters? Can I pick neither? I'm going to pick neither and go with fountain pens instead. Recently got into fountain pens, and they're AWESOME

A song that makes you cry: Hmmm... I haven't had a good cry in at least 7 years, but... there are a few that can touch my heartstrings just right and bring me to the verge of tears. How Long Will I Love You, from the movie, About Time, tugs on the strings of my hopeless romantic heart in just the right ways

A song that makes you happy: I was not expecting to have to think so hard about this one... I think it's going to be a toss-up between I Knew You Were Trouble by Taylor Swift (with the goat-like screams whenever appropriate) and Believe by Cher, because both of those are songs I can't help but sing along to, and even though I've never been a good singer, I love them

And finally, do you write/draw/create? if so, use this as an opportunity to shamelessly (😉) promote yourself!

Can't draw for the life of me. I write poetry on my other Tumblr account, @trident-writes-poetry

I am also a D&D Dungeon Master and love brainstorming plots and ideas and NPCs, but I don't necessarily write anything. I think I'm an ENTJ, so the idea of sitting still and being alone with my own thoughts is terrifying, so I'd rather just spend my time with people

Nominations (either because we're mutuals or I find you interesting): @logo-comics, @litostaves, @psychopomp-reborn, @technolilly, @teaboot, @clawedandcute, @o-lei-o-lai-o-lord, @thebirdandhersong , @messianicbabycatcher

#tag game #tumblr tag game #trident.txt #about me #might do more of this hmmm

[notafraidofredyellowandblue]

When you wanna write a nasty Tillchard story and you have all the plot (stuff starts in the 80s!) yet you have zero talent 😭

Ow 🥺 but maybe it turns out you really do have talent, you just don't know how to start? Sometimes it helps to start with the stuff you enjoy most, it's usually easier to write the parts you like a lot 🌺 You don't necessarily have to start at the beginning, if you have a few separate bits, you can always sow them together later 😊

Or alternatively I know there are quite a few fanfic writers on Tumblr too (and on other media), and that they sometimes do fic prompts, and i think Tillchard is the most pairing to write for, so maybe you have some luck there?

Or, also alternatively, and though i'm not a big fan of AI (or let me rephrase that, AI in itself okay for some stuff, but i'm not a big fan of people believing everything AI says), maybe this is a good use of it? At least that'll give you a start to a story? 🌺

#fanfic ask

[katatonicimpression]

So, the xmen infinity comic is doing this storyline with Mojo and that support group for trans mutants from that pride comic last year. Mojo has made them act out a tv show, as you would expect, and it's called "the morally superior x-men."

I don't think this run is bad at all. It's been pretty funny and charming at times, but there's something that it's saying about this "morally superior" stuff that I want to ramble about

The comic is clearly getting some digs in at what it sees as sanctimonious criticism of x-men series, and seemingly at naive expectations from fans. For the former, it explicitly calls out people for complaining about the violence of X-Men: Green. For the latter, it does this parody where the x-men just talk to all the villains about their feelings and there's no fighting.

It's basically the Marge vs Itchy and Scratchy episode of the simpsons.

So, to the thing I think they're getting at - what I interpret as an accusation that fans often demand sympathetic emotional explorations of villains/antagonists without necessarily considering what makes a story dynamic and compelling - I kind of agree in a very niche way. There is a tendency in fandom to be a bit "narrative-conflict averse" when critiquing stories, and certainly when suggesting fixes.

But I don't think it's a massive issue. Like, yes, fans often suggest fixes that are bad ideas actually. Hardly a big deal.

I also think it was weird to include Magneto alongside Sinister, Apocalypse and Onslaught when making this point. Treating Magneto as sympathetic and talking about his feelings has been the default since the 80s at least. He's barely been a villain in decades.

More importantly, audiences do respond well to violence and conflict in stories. Hell, if we take that simpsons episode, it's Marge and a bunch of conservative parents (i.e. outsiders) who complain about the cartoon. The kids love it. When fandom gets mad at what they feel is unecessary violence and/or conflict, it's not usually because it's violent or conflicty. They love plenty of stories that do that.

So, while "if there was no conflict, it would be shite" is true in the abstract, and is a relevant jab at a lot of bad proposed fixes of storylines, I really don't think it has much relevance beyond that.

Now... about X-Men: Green.

I think it's probably valid to characterise a lot of the criticism of this series as pearl clutching.

Yeah, even a lot of my own ranting.

I'm sorry. Here, have a picture of Pyro to cleanse the palette:

What I mean to get at, is that while I do believe that the duggan-written parts of x-men green are almost entirely garbage, and the Orlando parts are unable to really salvage it beyond a few funny lines, I think it is absolutely fair to characterise a lot of the complaints as moralising and dumb.

Two points that I think I stand by:

Radical political action is valid actually

We say we want stories about mutant terrorists - we sympathise with magneto - but then they write one and we complain about it

For number 1, I've ranted before as to why I think the political messaging of the series falls apart.

For number 2, yeah I've got nothing. That's just straightforwardly true.

I'm also aware that a lot of the complaints from audience are a lot more like Marge than me. A lot of people do just say "it's too violent" or "it's too woke" or "extinction rebellion sucks I should be able to drive over protesters". Casting a wider net, a lot of the complaints about x-terminators, or even maruaders (2019), were transparently motivated by misogyny.

I guess my worry is that while I may have "better reasons" to dislike these things, it's putting me in a club I don't want to be in and perhaps even providing ammunition to those who are in the market for justification of a reactionary opinion.

And to top it all, I've just ranted for a stupidly long time about a GENUINELY COMPLETELY FINE comic run about a group of trans kids. It's the exact thing I'm worried about!

I guess I don't really have a conclusion, I just feel weird about it.

#it's a fun storyline btw #genuinely check it out #I'm not actually mad at anything it said #just mad at reality in general and my own brain lol #salt #i guess

[themonstercals]

I don't think I know about the OCs you've tagged! So I'm going to do random asks for each! Fizz: 15, 16, 17 Tez: 29, 35, 80 Cyrlen: 20, 36, 50 and Eris: 10, 39, 75? Can I also ask ones for OCs of yours that weren't tagged?

Thank you so much for these asks!

Fizz and Tez and Eris are all from my current WIPs of novels. Cyrlen is from Dragon Age: Inquisition. Thank you so much for taking interest in them!

Also, funny enough, a lot of your questions hit close to spoilers or important character development. It was really fun either hinting at these, or writing them out!

And of COURSE you can ask questions about any OC :D I just didn’t want to flood my tags with too many names.

Fizz

15. What was something their parents taught them?

The one thing that his parents taught him was to ignore responsibility and have fun. His parents loved their parties, loved letting loose, and encouraged Fizz to enjoy every second of life. He unfortunately has sort of chosen to ignore this in his later life and is a bit of a downer.

Everything else Fizz had to fight to learn, and he learned it on his own.

16. Are they religious?

Funny enough, there aren't necessarily any religions in this novel. No gods. But! There are a lot of myths and ideas of interconnecting worlds. And he does believe in those - along with ghosts and psychics and etc.

17. Where were they born?

This is actually really funny because this is minor spoiler territory for the novel. I can't answer this! But I can let you know that throughout the years he's traveled wide and far, and has a new story about his childhood every time someone asks.

Tez

29. How would they describe their own personality?

I think this would be best if I wrote this like an interview;

"Uh, I don't know! I tend to think I'm pretty easy going! I like to bring others up and I think it's pretty hard to get me down. Though a lot of people might say my enthusiasm is a bit annoying..."

He's a happy-go-lucky sorta guy. Lots of smiles and laughter with this one.

35. What is the easiest way to annoy them?

Honestly, it's really hard to annoy Tez. He'd get hurt before you annoy him. And if you did manage to annoy him, you've probably just pissed him off. You would have to be a really, really crappy person to make Tez annoyed.

I'd say the person he gets annoyed with the most is himself.

80. Are they a morning person or a night owl?

Tez is one of those annoying people that always seem like they're up bright and happy at any hour. But due to some secret ailments, he usually doesn't sleep well or sleep at all. So, when he does sleep, it's usually a hard crash of 12-15 hours or so for a day, then he's good for the month.

Cyrlen

20. Do they have any titles? How did they earn them?

Uhhh, “The First”, “The Herald of Andraste”, “the Inquisitor” - titles he never wanted, all sort of necessary because of how things fell into place. But there are titles like “Ser Lordybloomers” “Lord Too-Tight-of-Breeches”, or “brother”, or “my love” that he’s earned. And he keeps all of those very close to his heart.

36. What is their sense of humor like? Give an example of a joke they would find humorous.

Dry humor is where Cyrlen’s niche is. He likes quips and banter - inappropriate jokes just mostly make him embarrassed. He will drop a pun time to time just to make people groan. Though because Cyrlen is extremely hard to read, his heavy sarcasm is often missed.

--

“Boss, you fell.” The Iron Bull lifted Cyrlen up with little to no issue. Cyrlen suspected that the man mostly flexed to show off his muscle, not so much because of the strain.

“Oh? Is that what happened?” Cyrlen said as dryly as he could, despite the heat rising to his cheeks. “I thought that the river was trying to eat me.”

Sera snickered behind him.

50. How would you describe their style of clothing? How would they describe their style of clothing?

Left to his own devices, one could best describe Cyrlen’s garb as “casual” if they’re kind. Though, after becoming somewhat of a notable figure, Cyrlen started to care a bit more about his fashion. Especially because he was trying to impress a certain mustached man.

He would define his clothes as practical, but elegant. Though, he does love to wear tight pants.

Eris

10. What are some of their talents/skills?

This is a difficult question to answer without diving into the lore of the book, so I’ll say it lightly; Eris is equivalent to a wizard or a mage, and he knows his magic very well. But unfortunately, that’s about all Eris really knows.

Oh! I guess I could also say, Eris knows a great portion of the world like the back of his hand. He is a living map. You would never get lost if you traveled with him.

(I’m laughing at the idea of Eris being a living GPS)

39. What does their happily ever after look like?

Diving into the full of this would be more spoilers! So, again, lightly, Eris’ happy ending is the simplest ending of all. All he wants to be is in love, and remembered and loved by the one he loves. Simple, really.

But his story borderlines a tragedy.

75. If given a blank piece of paper, a pencil, and nothing to do, what would happen?

That depends - is there a likelihood someone will see this? Where is this paper? Who left it?

In Eris’ life, if someone hands an item to him and walks away, they’re not likely to remember him at all. So, usually he would just doodle something silly or write something mischievously cryptic and walk away.

The fun thing with Eris is that even if someone watched him doodle silly things on a paper, as soon as Eris left, they wouldn’t remember who doodled it at all.

#this was so fun! #thank you so much! #93 fun OC asks because why not #Phantomseptember #monstrous asks #cal's ocs #text #Eris #Tez #Fizz #Cyrlen #Dragon Age: Inqusition #Twisted Shadows #Fractured #sorry it took me so long to respond #i wanted to give these some thought #thank you!

[zaidirfan-ocadu-graphicdesign4]

84 | February 19th, 2024

Writing Initiative #5 1. Which piece did you present to the class today? How does it relate to the other pieces previously presented? I had not attended, but I would have presented a WIP experimental work in the form of a proposed typeface (posts 77-80). I had used the same ink medium for the letterforms, but I really like the plastic garbage bag idea because I hadn't thought to work with it before. It's one of those objects I pulled out of the vernacular, away from its most common, technical use, and used for the sake of a design project. With this outcome, I was trying to put less (not complete) emphasis on research, because I had observed that the eventual outcome (2D) of all the research I had done was something that only represents it in part. I only really ended up representing the main idea (which I suppose is the core part of a designer's role). There is also less emphasis on the kind of memory (collective memory) that I had been in conversation with, and more emphasis on my own interpretations (not necessarily stemming from nowhere, but based on observations) of memory. A big part of this is the belief that memory is a "temporal anomaly" (recall the 2D outcome), a being itself capable of undergoing change, but also unifying the past, present, and future as one thing. 2. Describe 2–3 specific strengths your classmates found in your work and their reasons for identifying them. The plastic bag idea is another technique that is largely out of my hands, apart from the brushing of the ink in a certain way. After that point, though, droplets of ink would scatter around and join together via surface tension and the like. For the other technique (posts 79-80), I like how easily it lends itself to the creation of different type "weights," as well as how it is also a technique out of my control past the initial weight. 3. Describe 1–2 specific ways your classmates thought you could improve this work going forward. I think I could go beyond the usually sans-serif structure for the letterforms, perhaps using stencils in place of free handing them all the time. Or rather, if I am going the free hand route, exploring more calligraphic styles. I also think the letterforms could be larger, as a greater surface area will allow for more motion with the ink droplets, which could make the outcomes more interesting (and perhaps more legible). Since I also plan to make different weights, the edges of the letterforms should ideally be more defined (a quality that the technique from posts 79-80 lacks). 4. Consider the outcomes you still need to present in the remaining classes; why have you put them off till now? My biggest concern is by far the reflective piece, which is strange because I feel I've experienced quite a bit since the onset of this semester to allow for such an outcome to at least be initiated. At the same time, however, I believe if I work away at the other outcomes, there will be something I find that could inform the reflective piece. One example that I came up with was a collection of all the research that I was not able to really apply to my outcomes. While I did apply the most crucial aspects of collective memory to my 2D outcome, there was a lot that was left out. In terms of form, I also don't know what I'd do for the reflective piece, although I do want to do something ink-based. I was actually thinking of making my OWN ink for it using soot and oil, to truly create the most analogue of analogue techniques. I also know I want it to be more so based on a more "subjective" kind of development; that is, more so based on how my feelings and mindset on the project changed over time, rather than how the research developed.

[mcrmadness]

So, for the fic asks !

I would like to know about : 1, 3, 9, 12, 16 (17 at the same time, you can count it as a unique question if you want), 24, 29 !

I know it's a lot, but I'm awfully curious !!!!!!

Thank you!!! Now that really makes it up for all the other asks I did not get for this ask game! :D I'm very excited about them now!

1 - What’s something new that you tried in a fic this year? How did it turn out and would you do it again? Hmmmm. It's kinda hard for me to tell what all happened this year and what happened last year, it's all this big mush in my head and feels like one very long year tbh. But I would say that what I tried was: to go more and more towards presenting the relationships as QPR (or through relationship anarchy) rather than the stereotypical romantic relationships we see everywhere. From my own point of view it turned out well and I really liked it, and I definitely would and will do that again, but unfortunately it also meant that the more I wrote G-rated and QPR-driven fics, the less people were interested in reading those fics. So it's a double-edged sword, really.

3 - What’s something you learned about yourself as a writer? After a little while of thinking: definitely how differently I think and how I'm on SO different wavelength from the rest of the fandom (and in case someone else is reading this atm: I only write for two fandoms that are kinda interwined). At the times it made me feel extremely lonely and so alone, and an outsider. Not necessarily being left out, but more like refusing to enter the door if I'm asked to step in, because I don't really belong in there and I don't feel comfortable in there. So I'm just sitting outside in the snow writing my little fics wishing that at least someone will feel like giving them a try. I guess that's what I learned. Again, for the umpteenth time...

9 - What fic meant the most to you to write? I don't think my fics really mean anything to me. I'm not emotionally connected to them at all. Sometimes I like my writing in some bits a lot, and I would like to mention here a few atm unreleased bits of my very long WIP called Nostalgia. There is one bit I wrote either last year or the previous, but I just keep going back to reading it over and over again because I'm genuinely proud of the writing in that one and I feel like I really outdid myself with that.

Unfortunately you have to just believe my word because it's not published yet, and I don't know if it ever will be and when if so (I still cannot wait to show it to people cos I like it so much???) because it's about the reunion era of die ärzte, and I need to work on all the 80s chapters first before I can even think about posting anything related to that.

12 - What fic was the most difficult to write? Did you finish it? I think I have to answer this with Nostalgia as well. I don't know if I'll ever finish it really. It's the most difficult one to work on because it's based on real events, so I have to change the plot and events every time I learn new facts (or "facts" thanks to BFR...) from the guys. I also have to do lots of researchs for my timeline all the time, and the fact that not every fact is available. Recently I learned something about Bela's and Farin's 80s roommate-ness that I had never noticed before, and now it's like, forcing me to change so many things about all the 80s bits that I HAVE written so far. Because turned out that one flat in a video was not the one where they lived together, and IRL Farin moved out way before than what I thought he did, and now my whole 80s timeline has to be reworked. It sucks, but no can do. Who told me to be this precise with my fanfic research...

16 - What were you go-to writing songs? Nothing really. I usually don't listen to music when I write, but occasionally I might hyperfixate on a band or artist and can't come up with anything else to do while listening to them, so I start working on my fanfics. Usually my fanfic working in general is completely spontanous. I don't plan it. I just start thinking about random things that suddenly create a new train of thought that leads to me opening the fanfic files. And I often just write in completely silence because of that. I can't even hear anything when I focus properly, and I also can't listen to anything where I can understand the words because then I can't write cos it will it impossible to focus on writing words myself.

17 - What were your go-to writing snacks? I'm the world's most boring person because: nothing. Like your ask already suggested, these could have been in the same question so pretty much the same answer applies here. But yeah, I usually don't eat anything when I write. Often also because whenever I enter the hyperfocus, I forget about everything around me so I will also unintentionally ignore any needs and won't feel hunger AND would not even remember to eat anything even if I had snacks :D Besides, I in general don't really eat snacks that often. Occasionally I might eat chips or a bit of chocolate, but usually that's when I am watching videos or doing something else where I don't really need my hands.

24 - What’s something that surprised you while you were working on a fic? Did it change the story? Well I already mentioned the roommate thing I learned, so I can't mention it here... or can I? I guess I can. It did change the story quite a lot, but I don't know if it really surprised me. I don't really know, I feel like I wasn't surprised by anything at all, besides that little roommates fact.

29 - If this were an awards show, who would you thank? I'd definitely thank FUB for existing and being so extra during these past tours that I have so much content I barely need to even write anything myself anymore :D And then next I'd thank you because I honestly don't think I'd have my fics public on AO3, and I would have not kept posting the new ones there without your support. It sucks to not have readers, but even one reader is still a reader and worth it. Besides I'm not really writing to get attention (even if it might not look like that), I am writing to make other people's day and if I manage to succeed at that at least once, my work here is then done. So thank YOU for reading and for leaving comments on my fics! I kid you not, on my AO3 there would be absolutely nothing or half of the fics max of what I have there now, if you didn't keep commenting on them. (And while that again sounds very toxic of me, I am not trying to keep you as a hostage and I'm not saying I will never post again if you stop commenting. I'm saying that RSD makes it hell to post any creations ever, as you know, and I have kept coming back with my old and new fics only because I knew they would at least make your day better if no one else would enjoy them! /gen)

Okay, here are your answers. As you can see, I am very boring what comes to writing :D It's not just my texts that are boring, I myself am very boring to. (Which... probably makes sense cos I'd write such exciting and awesome things if I myself was exciting and had wild stories to tell.)

#fichtfoxfuchs #ask games

[tlgtw]

//PRODUCTION UPDATE//

-- Major Developments on Episode 2 --

Hello,

I believe it has been about a month and a half ago, that I personally guaranteed that Episode 2 of ERwSET would be released before the beginning of May. When I had made this claim, it was under the impression that the script for this video would, at most, be some 30 to 32 thousand words. At most.

I am sorry to say, but I was so fucking wrong.

This is from my lack of experience with making videos. What I had originally believed would span less than 28k words has at the time of this writing, and at merely 80-85% of its original topics' completions, encompassed 37,500 words.

It is my current belief that, making no other changes, the script for Episode 2 will be nearly 45k words. Making a video that is at least 4 hours long.

For real-life financial reasons, I am hesitant to carry out Episode 2's production in this way, where there is no content being released, and thus, no revenue from ads or donations, along such a necessarily long span of time.

Although I can't say I've given up on the idea just yet, I am considering restructuring Episode 2, majorly. Splitting its component parts into two, or maybe even three individual episodes, taking sizeable piece of Episode 2 and attaching it to Episode 3, or something else along the lines that will allow me to release that content sooner.

"Growing pains!" As they say. And I apologize for having to go back on my initial release-date for Episode 2 of "before the beginning of May."

As this is being said, the writing of this monstrous script itself IS still ongoing. And, to dare say pridefully, going *incredibly* well, as well.

Ensuring quality is not a concern. It's the logistics alone that would influence me to change how my following releases will be made. And for the sake of disclosure, to compensate going back on my earlier promise, I will announce my decision for production going forward on the coming Monday of April 17, so you will know more precisely what to expect.

For this reason, I implore any comments regarding your feelings towards upcoming releases: If you had the power to just choose, and it could magically be so, would you want sooner and smaller, or later and larger?

What about in regards to the financial factor I've just brought up? It had been my original goal that, with the release of Episode 2 some 2-3 months after the release of Episode 1, my OF on kofi would be properly released as well, with tiers and rewards and downloads and everything else! But that might be changing, too.

ALL information will be valuable to me, and will be accounted for in my final decision, so don't hold back if you can.

---

And, for an early example of a potential restructuring, I might split Episode 2 into three episodes, *after finishing the script itself.* Upon which they would probably all be released within 2-4 weeks of each other. As the only things needed would be the voice-over, collecting the relevant footage from the game itself, and editing. With how the show's host, SET herself is designed, the only significant art assets would need to be drawn for the first of these three episodes, and simply reused as is for the following two.

Would a clustered release like this be preferred by you? Tell me what you think, and everything else along with it.

And whatever the final decision *ends up* being. There is one thing now that I CAN guarantee, without a doubt:

'Cause you remember my 'caldera' thing from way back when? I'll reveal to you now, that that theory is, in the video itself, actually written as the red herring lead-up for something else!

"The beastmen might actually be 'thylacine-men,' unlike the half-wolf 'wolf-man' Blaidd, who is *not* referred to as a 'beastman?'" from like last week? An offhand remark! in the midst of something completely bigger. (In my proposal for its significance to the story of the game itself, but unfortunately also in word count.)

Maybe sooner, maybe later. The one thing I can guarantee now is you won't regret sticking around.

So I'll Be Yours, and Thank You,

T-L-G-T-W

#ERwSET

[bookofmirth]

Hi!

I hope i don't bother you with this long ask, but do you have any tips on how to become good at writing meta?

I like to read discourses/discussions in tumblr and learn from them but i still have trouble writing my opinions or even replying to arguments, english is not my first language but i read a lot of books and i don't have trouble understanding them i rarely come across a line that needs to be translated and so far it only happened with classics.

Someone suggested that i should always practice automating new vocabularies but i find myself forcing them alongside my childish writing and it turns out bad.

In other words, i don't have trouble when speaking, hearing or reading english but when it comes to writing i always get stuck.

Yes!!! I do!!!

Based on your writing in this ask, I don't think that your grammar or vocabulary would be an issue. Meta and analysis is much more reliant on critical thinking and being able to come up with questions that you can then investigate. tbh, anyone who would criticize your grammar instead of your actual thoughts isn't worth your time.

***I'm going to use a bunch of examples of fandom arguments or metas that I have seen, but I don't necessarily agree with them. I am just explaining how they work.

***One more thing, this is generally about developing and supporting arguments - analysis of a text is a separate though related thing and I have a post in my drafts about that. I will try to get that finished by the end of this week!

Make your argument clear. Complex grammar isn't necessary. All you need to do is make sure that you are using modifiers or hedging or contextualizing your claims. So for example, if I said "I think that characters will die in acotar5", that's super vague. What characters? Why? How? The conversation is dead before it starts. However, if I said "I think that Lady of Autumn will kill Beron in acotar5", that's put some parameters around my argument and now I have somewhere to start. I know what kind of evidence I will need. I know what characters I will need to consider. Also think about contextualizing, like "well if X happens, then this other thing is possible." Absolute statements (e.g. "Sarah has never written a logical magic system") will get you into trouble because they are easy to pick apart. Even if they are mostly true.

Have evidence! I always have the ebooks because they are easily searchable. You could also mark up your book, if you think you'll need that info a lot. I like to use colored tabs in my physical books, and sometimes I write notes in the margins. I got used to marking as I went when I was in university, noticing themes as I went along.

More on evidence: something that is just as important as having evidence is knowing how to use it. I see a lot of posts that are 20% writing, 80% screenshots from an ebook. NO. DO NOT DO THAT. Why? Because we've read the damn book. We know what it says. If I wanted to read the book again, I would read it again. That's not why I am on tumblr. The reason you are writing a post is because you have an argument. What is that argument? How are you interpreting that scene? What do you think is the meaning behind a piece of dialogue? Throwing a quote at your audience and hoping it sticks is not effective use of evidence. You've got to explain how and why you are using it.

Still related to evidence, is make sure that the evidence both means what you think it means, and that it supports the argument you think it supports. If you have evidence that is supposed to support one interpretation of the text as being more reliable than another (e.g. what a lot of the ship war arguments are doing right now), then you will need a lot of evidence that can be interpreted the same way. For example, I believe that Azriel has never truly been in love, and I have a collection of evidence that together supports that interpretation, even if on their own those quotes could be interpreted differently.

Think about the implications of your arguments. This means that if you say "Elain is sus", then you need to think about how her being sus would then impact the characters around her. How would that change the way we interpret her behavior? How is that related to what we currently know about her motivations and wants and needs and values? I went through this process in this post about whether or not she knows how the mating bond. I took someone else's argument, thought about who Elain is as a person, thought about the people closest to her, and what the implications of that argument are. We can't just say something like "Elain doesn't fit in with the Night Court" without then looking at her relationships and comparing them to other relationships, comparing her current relationships with her past behavior, etc. Basically what you're doing is testing the argument in different contexts and seeing if it still makes sense.

And yes, be respectful. People will misunderstand you. Sometimes unintentionally, sometimes just to be assholes. But we can't control their responses to us. Just on a basic level though, the moment someone feels attacked, they shut down. Conversation over. (The only exception to this is if the person is bullying, being racist, ableist, etc. Then fuck being respectful.)

Side note three, the stuff about evidence is one of the main things I teach my students and it's not an easy skill to master. It takes time.

Let me know if that helps! You do have to get into a rhythm and it takes a lot of practice. Like a lot a lot. But you can say things that are wrong and that's fine. If someone is rude to you in response, block them. The end!

#acotar #fandom things #idk what to tag thissss!!!! #teaching #argumentation #ask #anon

[lilmissbacon]

Why Jelsa is Ridiculously Stupid

Let me start off by saying that the idea of this ship was cute at first, I have nothing against it. In fact I have a few ships myself that have nothing to back them up. I am not making this to convince people to be anti, stop the ship itself, or spread any form of hate what so ever.

But this Jelsa fandom has gone too far. And when I say "jelsa shippers," of course I don't mean ALL of them, just about 80% of them.

In fact, I'm very appreciative of the few jelsa shippers who don't go around harassing others because "jelsa is life."

Also, allow me to correct you in saying that I'm not a jelsa hater, I'm a jelsa loather. There's a difference. Most jelsa haters, hate jelsa for the sake of hating it.

I genuinely hate it.

And don't go commenting about, "how do you know you don't like it if you've never tried it?" Because you see, that's where you're wrong. I did used to ship it, when I was 11. I was a child, I was new to the internet, I didn't know better. But I do now!

I am writing this so that some who may not know, will now understand why jelsa is bad and because I need to get all of this out of my system. I am slowly dieing inside.

First; I'm gonna go into how all the excuses to ship this are pointless. Next, I'll talk about just how these two would never work out as a couple. Then, will be what the toxicity has done to not just to the ship itself, but to the big four as well. And finally, I'll go into how uncreative the shippers are and just what horrible/stupid things they've done and are still doing.

1) Excuses are Pointless

Excuse #1: They have the same powers.

...Yeah, that's like saying you ship Lavagirl (Sharboy and Lavagirl) and Bolin (LoK) because they can both control lava. That's not a valid reason to ship anyone. There needs to be actual substance and I'll only say that once because that sentence applies to every excuse here.

Excuse #2: They look alike

🤦🤦🤦 First of all: that's also like saying you ship Tiana (Princess and the Frog) and Frozone (The Incredibles) because they're both black. Second of all: no they don't. It may be because I'm an artist so I notice small details, but here's how it is; Jack's hair is white, Elsa's is platinum blonde. Jack has a square chin, Elsa has a round face. Jack is much paler! THEIR EYES AREN'T EVEN THE SAME SHADE OF BLUE!!! Your excuse is null and void. Even so, if characters do look alike, then they're most likely to be related. Especially in animation.

Excuse #3: Jack can teach Elsa to have fun and Elsa can teach Jack to be serious

This clearly proves the point that jelsa shippers don't know these characters. The job of teaching Elsa how to be social and have fun is already taken by Anna. So if anything, Elsa will see Jack as a younger brother. And Jack wouldn't have been chosen to take on such a responsibility of guardianship if he didn't know when to quit. I don't know what it is about playful characters that make people think they're obnoxious. Jack is an immortal teenager with the heart of a child, that's what makes him a good guardian. But he's been alive for over 300 years, he bound to have the mind capacity of an adult and he does know better. He doesn't play when he's in battle, he's dead serious.

Excuse #4: They understand each other because they were both isolated for a long time

I don't know where you come from but people don't really "bond" over their trauma. Infact, if anything, that would make the relationship more unstable. Plus, Elsa isolated herself for 13 years because she was afraid of her powers. Jack was forced into isolation for 300 years! He has never been afraid of his powers and Elsa could still be seen throughout the day by parents and servants. They would never be able understand what the other went through.

Excuse #5: They both have a sister they love

SO WHAT?! At least half of the population have sisters. Simple as that. It's a horrible excuse.

Excuse #6: They both have an enemy in fear

Bruh, almost every fictional character has to deal with their fears, literal or mental. It's not at all unique to these two.

Excuse #7: Jack can teach Elsa to control her powers

She already has control of them by the end of the movie. And even if you mean prier to that, the reason she couldn't control them was because she feared them. I doubt that even if she could see him and if he showed her his powers, she's be irrational, believing that their powers were different.

Excuse #8: William Joyce says he ships it

Really, you're going to base the possibility of a ship because the writer of the 'books' that "inspired" rotg says he likes it. First: the books and movie are not the same worlds. Two: he most likely stated this in order for jelsa shippers to shut up to him about it. And three: his own canon with the books is a mess as it is. With him adding a bunch on random/unnecessary details on twitter that have no relevance or reference in the books. Even if he does ship it, everything that's going on with Jack's character in the books is weird enough as it is. Plus he's physically 14 in the books. I know age doesn't really matter but Elsa would definitely feel weird about dating someone who looks so young when she's currently 24 by the second movie.

Excuse #9: They could've met before the events of rotg

Not a reason to ship them but whatever 🙄 Even if their stories were based in the same world (which it isn't), Elsa never would've believed in fairy tales. Having to grow up so soon and all. She believes in magic, of course, but you need to believe in the individuals themselves in order to see them. Plus it is very clear in rotg that Jamie is Jack's first believer.

Excuse #10: Now that Frozen 2 is out, they are both spirits who followed the memories of their loved ones. They can live forever together!

Once AGAIN, how does this factor to them being a good couple? Plus the title of spirit is different in the Frozen-verse than the Guardian-verse. Guardian-verse; they are un-aging beings who keep the entire world in balance. Frozen-verse; never confirmed to be immortal (especially since 3 out of 5 spirits are inanimate objects), magical things that keep a single forest secure. The only reason the elements needed a fifth spirit was most likely because the one before Elsa died of old age. Plus the idea of Elsa outliving Anna goes against the theme of sisterly love that both movies strive on. This can be changed in fanfiction but I hate how people lie about her mortality for an excuse to ship.

Excuse #11: They're both single

So what? People ship characters who aren't single with other characters all the time. That's not a reason to ship them. Especially since your statement is false because Tooth is Jack's canon love interest.

It is true that jelsa haters will give reasons to not ship that I necessarily don't agree with.

•Like the age gap — Jack has the mental capacity of an adult, as I've said before. He's smart enough to make his own choices.

•Elsa not being immortal — that doesn't mean they can't still date, even if he outlives her. Plus you can change that in fanfiction.

•They come from different studios and will never be canon — Again, this is fanfiction, we can do whatever we want.

•Elsa is independent and shipping her with someone takes her independence away — for one: most of the world is bound to find love at some point in time. I would imagine that Elsa would want to find love like her sister. Two: Mulan, Pocahontas and Jasmine are very independent and they all still ended up with men. Three: she's not that independent to begin with. Independence isn't relationship status, it's your ability to make it on your own and Elsa is clearly, very dependant on Anna and her safety. Which is actually what pushes her to being a bad sister in Frozen 2. In fact it is because they made her more 'independant' in the sequel that Elsa clearly, no longer loves Anna as much as Anna loves her (you can check out Watso Videos' video on YouTube about how Elsa is a bad sister bc I'm not gonna go into it here).

My god that was ALL just part one. This is gonna take forever 😰

2) How they would never work out

For Elsa, she needs someone who is calm and collected. A rock for her to stand on when she's being irrational. Possibly even someone who is very stoic and straight to the point but with enough sense of humor to lighten the mood. And now that I'm thinking about it, Honeymaren fits that description to a tee. I'm not one to push LGBT+ in anyone's face, but I'm not gonna judge ships on characters assumed sexualities either. Even though Honeymaren didn't have much screen time, her personality still showed through and Elsamaren could very well work.

Jack on the other hand needs someone who would be able to keep up with his playful nature as well as be a rock for him to stand on when he's emotional. Tooth is a good suitor even though I don't really ship it myself. Hiccup, Merida and Rapunzel could also fit in this description.

They don't have the ability to be each other's rocks. They can't be stable if they both need someone to keep them so. If they were to date, the relationship would crumble before it even began.

Plus Jack has to be a guardian and there are a lot of fanfics that go into this idea of Jack being the king of Arendalle? First off: I'm fairly certain that you can't marry into royalty to become king. At least in the real world. Second: Jack wouldn't be able to handle that responsibility with him already being a guardian. And he can't just leave guardianship either, it was what he always was and was ment to be. And Elsa has the responsibility of keeping a magical forest in check, she can't leave to become a guardian.

3) The Toxicity

Oh my God! The fanfiction! As I usually say, you can do whatever you want in fanfiction. But if you have to butcher all the characters so much in EVERY fanfic in order to make the ship work, then there's clearly something wrong here! In every fanfic I've ever seen, the characters are so out of character it's insane. Not just Jack and Elsa, every character.

Olaf for example, is practically in love with Jack first meeting, in every fanfic. If he were to actually meet Jack, he would be apprehensive of him.

It's horrifying in not only that, but jelsa shippers will add Rapunzel a lot, just in spite of Jackunzel. They turn Rapunzel into a needy ex-girlfriend of Jack's when in reality, she's a very sweet and kind soul. Even if she and Jack had dated, they would've split on good terms and stayed friends after. There have also been cases where they do the same but with Tooth. Sometimes even both and it's honestly sick.

And let's talk about the sexism as well HAHA! I swear to God, they will rewrite Frozen but where Jack will save Elsa instead of Anna. They write Elsa as a hormonal teenage girl who falls in love with Jack within seconds.

This is from an actual jelsa shipper, my dude. WTF!!! They make Jack super dominant as well as a douche who cheats on Elsa half the time. Jack is not that dominant, he's a very emotional guy. And he'd be the most faithful boyfriend on the planet. He was alone for 300 years! If anything, he'd be clingy but not too clingy because he also understands personal space.

And if you like angsty fanfiction where a character cheats on the other, there are literally no fanfics where Elsa cheats on Jack. As if a woman couldn't possibly cheat. This is very sexist towards men and women and is toxic as hell.

If anything, Elsa would cheat on Jack, she's not exactly trustworthy in keeping promises or being loyal.

I swear, half of the jelsa shippers has never even seen rotg and just go by what they read in others fanfiction.

Jelsa shippers have gotten so bad about this ship that they've low-key harassed people for not shipping it, as well as start shipping wars within the big four fandom. That's the reason the fandom truly shrunk after 2013. I've seen posts about people admitting to leaving the fandom because it got so bad.

4) The Shippers

Jelsa shippers have literally threatened lives, not just to other fans but even to the creators of the movies. Literally threatening them into making the ship canon. They've made patitions to make it canon as if that would work. They've even harassed a lot of recent shippers to Elsamaren because "jelsa is canon."

Oh look at that, they're homophobic too...

...

...

...

... That's great 🙃

Isn't it a bigger sin to love a celestial being though? Therefore the fact that you –as a toxic christian– ship Elsa with a spirit it worse.

THEY'RE DELUSIONAL!!! So many of them have shipped jelsa so long that legit think it's canon!

Not only all that mess but there are literally more jelsa games on the internet then there are Merida games. I'm specifying this for personal reasons (aka Merida is my fave Disney princess)

And let's continue on with what really aggravates me as an artist. Jelsa shippers, stealing artwork, mostly from Jackunzel. This is not just a rumor, it's very much real.

And it doesn't help when all of their actual original fanart is just them taking scenes from Frozen and adding Jack. Then to add more salt on the wound is that almost all the fanfiction is the same, whether it'd be based during Frozen, rotg or in a highschool au.

There's literally nothing original about or going on with this ship, even after Frozen 2 came out, the shippers and fanfiction haven't changed. If anything it made the shippers spike up again.

The only thing that could say is original about jelsa is the frost daughter fanon. Oh boy! What we have to unpack here.

This is something that I recently heard about...

...

I am mortified.

Frost daughters is this little thing that jelsa shippers came up with, believing Jack and Elsa (if they could get pregnant) would have nothing but girls. What's scary about it is they're designs. Like they're trying to be original... But it's not really going great.

Most of them are just young!Elsa copies, some are edits of Elsa with Jack's hair color.

For example:

This is fine, this follows genetrical rules. I'm fine with this.

But what has me low-key petrified are some of the other designs.

Like... WTF IS ALL OF THIS!!! Where are this colors coming from?!! I don't understand 😭 You can see in the screen shots that these are literally titled as daughters of jelsa.

The white haired ones are fine. The ginger is understandable. Got it from Elsa's dad's genes. That's okay. A few are wearing pink? They can wear what ever they want. But wtf I'd going on with Nevada? Why is she black? Jack and Elsa the pastiest of white! And you cannot tell me that she got it from Elsa's mom because this was made BEFORE Frozen 2 and her mother is still white as an adult.

Where tf does the blue and pink hair come from? None of these make sense!

I want to kill myself, just looking at these!

That's gonna be the end of this rant

Now I'll say it again, I really have nothing against the ship itself. I too have casual ships that make no sense. But with ALL the fanfiction and fanart being so unoriginal and most jelsa shippers low-key being dangerous, it's hard for me respect people's opinions about it.

I try, trust me, I do! But it's become so murky in my brain that I can't tell the difference anymore and I'm also just not a fan of Elsa's character in general. And I like ships that actually make sense.

And being that I'm an equalist... it's really hard for me to look at this stuff and not get pissed off. I'm sorry if all of this comes off as aggressive because it kinda is.

I'm just very passionate, okay?

I hope you understand where I'm coming from. None of the pictures I used are mine. And I hope you have a good day?

#anti jelsa #antijelsa #jack frost #anti elsa #DreamWorks #disney #ships #hate jelsa #the big five

[snowstark]

Hello! I saw someone not too long ago ask @vaguekiwi about her writing process and was curious to see how writers have their similarities and differences. If you don't mind sharing along the same lines that VagueKiwi has done, could you explain your process too?

hi! sure sure i'd love to talk about this!!! before we begin though, i gave grace's process a quick look and WOW that's a real mf sexy explanation 🥵anyway here we go—

like grace said, what works for me might not necessarily work for someone else. experiment and stick with what works best for you, there's no right or wrong way to write!

1. how i figure out My Story Idea™️

the best ideas have always come to me when i'm doing something random. i'll be in the shower, lying in bed unable to sleep, commuting, etc etc etc, and usually an image, a dialogue line, or a scene pops into my head. i use a lot of other things for inspiration too — my fic wolves go for your heart takes a lot of inspiration from the TV show "suits" (which has a super canonic d/s relationship between the two characters btw). i'm a strong believer in the fact that all forms of art are inspired by one another; it's hard to come up with an idea that's "truly original," you know? imo, as long as you give credit where it's due, there's no problem in being inspired by another piece of art!!

i'm not very good with just sitting on an idea once it gets in my head. the moment it appears, i usually jot down a note on a blank google document or else i forget it. my google drive is filled with 50+ documents that have a Single Line of Description of the story lmao. if i get to it, cool; if not, that's okay. but if i'm feeling inspired and motivated enough, i'll start writing on the spot.

2. outlining???? don't know her

i'm also not very good with outlining, personally. the majority of the time i try to outline, i get bored of writing the actual story and so it never gets written. so, i just write the story from wherever i start and see where it takes me. of course, i've found that this has some issues in the long-run; it's harder to make sure you don't have plot holes or contradict something you said in previous chapters, etc. i've had way too many moments where someone asked me about a plot hole and i was like 😋 whaaaatttt no idea what you're saying!

that's not to say i never outline, because sometimes, when i feel like being a responsible writer, i do. i've had a couple of stories where i outlined chapter-by-chapter, which i do recommend trying if you feel up to it! (it does give you a good sense of direction on where to take the story!) but, yeah, i wing my stories 98% of the time, because that's just how my writer's brain works.

i'm also not a chronological writer at all; i prefer writing scenes in bits and pieces and then i smash all of these pieces all together and edit the final draft multiple times so that it flows well. i need to indulge myself with the scenes that i want right in that moment, or else i just can't get myself to write. this means that 80% of the time, i have the ending of the entire fic written before the beginning of chapter 1 LOL

3. keeping track of The Story™️

notes !!! bullet points !!! random bits and pieces of a scene !!!

the moment a scene or dialogue pops into my head, i write it down and save it for later. i usually just put some space between each "bit" and keep them in the same document as my story, and then i'll paste them into whatever chapter fits it later on. it's a bit chaotic and disorganized, but it is fun, for me, so i guess that's what counts!

for if you give a billionaire, i decided to try to get my shit together and organized everything really nicely. i used the same program called scrivener that grace mentions in her post (grace also convinced me to buy it; salesperson!grace au?!) because it really is a great program that helps you stay focused and organized! so yeah, for that story, i have docs of things to remember, important ideas, peter's rules/limits/etc, a folder of future scenes/bits, etc etc etc. it is pretty helpful, so i would definitely recommend keeping things organized like this! or, you could just keep things chaotic; i'm a fan of that too 😌again, see what works for you!!

4. writer's block (fuck off)

ik this wasn't really mentioned in grace's post, but writer's block is a serious pain in the ass so i think it's worth mentioning. i've been going through a mild slump in writing for a while and it's really frustrating. (un?)fortunately, it means i worked on some tactics to try to work past it, so maybe these techniques will be helpful for anyone else reading this!

i'm a massive fan of fighter's block, i will literally recommend it to anyone who even hints that they're going through a block. you can set a word count goal for yourself and with each word you write, the little character battles the monster. this program is also great because it stops me from questioning every single word that i write — that's one of the main things i experience when i'm going through writer's block. sometimes, in order to write, you just have to write. don't let yourself pause or stop to edit something, save that whole process for later. your first draft can be as shitty as you think it is; i promise you it will look 10 times better when you look at it the next day. and even if it doesn't, you now have words !! that you can edit !!

it's also kind of important to figure out why you have writer's block. for example, with if you give a billionaire, i personally struggle to put our chapters faster than every 4-6 months (that brings me so much pain i'm so sorry readers) because i've put too much expectation on myself. in my head, if you give a billionaire is a story that needs to be perfect, meets everyone's expectations, has just the right amount of plot and smut, has good witty dialogue because they're both snarky assholes, and for some reason i'm convinced that each chapter has to be about 4-6k words. i know that it's all in my head and that no one else but myself is reinforcing these words, but i can't make myself stop thinking it. and that's why i take forever to update — the expectations i've put on myself scares me from writing it because i get worried i'll mess up. so acknowledging and understanding that has helped me a bit because i can try to work past it now that i know what the problem is.

another example: for something like wolves go for your heart, i'm going through a block simply because i've lost inspiration for it. it's not as deep as it is for billionaire, and all i'm waiting for is for me to get back into the mood to write that law setting and boss/associate dynamic.

anyways, the point is, figuring out what's making writing so hard will be the first step in fighting that block :)

you can also reach out to any writing friends; talking out some ideas and AUs are super helpful in fighting a block!! if you don't know anyone personally enough to reach out and text them about it, reach out to a writer in your fandom!! i promise you that everyone will be delighted to help and talk about ideas! @thymenottime has a fantastic queens au going on that you should totally check out btw, and through asks, she talked to me about what she was thinking and we both had a fantastic time!!! sometimes just talking with friends and other writers is the best thing to do for yourself as a writer :]

okay, i think that's about it from me?? if you have more questions feel free to let me know, or you can always reach out to other writers too, of course!! other writers, feel free to chime in! i bet everyone has different tactics that work for them, and fresh perspectives too! happy writing <3

#ask #anon #i really hope this is coherent sjghoshg

[aimai-ronri]

Reworking the Fuzzy Gaming Quest

This is the first time I've ever blogged publicly about something like this. I usually talk to friends about it, but I just as often don't say anything, because when I talk about video-games I get hyperfocused and sometimes the conversation takes a long time, so I often feel like it's a bit rude to get people wrapped up in it. But I remembered I have a tumblr now and people actually blog on here sometimes, so: prepare to suffer.

To set up why I'm so weird about games allow me to explain: first of all, I'm obviously not neurotypical in some way I don't know but one day would like to figure out. SECOND, I've been playing video-games literally since I can remember. My first real memories of cognition are watching my dad put cartridges in the NES, and climbing on the bed to put our Thai bootleg cart in there myself so I could play weird sprite hacks of Super Mario Bros. So anyway, gaming has factored heavily in my life since the beginning.

Anyway long story short, this has led to, for a long time, me wanting to leave some kind of legacy behind me in the form of a trail of beaten-up old video-games. Often this takes the form of just wanting to curate out a collection (physical or unholy--I mean digital) that I can leave behind in some state of completion, but on top of that it comes as me wanting to sit down and truly spend time with the games that are most important to my history over the course of my lifetime.

This has led to me making innumerable 'systems' for approaching the task of having a humongous backlog of video-games (some might say longer than is completable than anyone in a life time, and I recognize this) and often these systems get replaced or revised for being inadequate in some way. The latest no-thought system on my part was the Fuzzy Gaming Quest, in which the goal was basically to play through games starting from the beginning of time and blasting through at hyper-speed, with the intention of covering as much ground in order to induce familiarity as fast as possible with arcade games from an era I've rarely played (but longed for in my old man's soul).

This was working but I quickly ran into a snag (after recording about 250 videos 😥): I wasn't spending as much time with individual games as I'd like by any means. On one hand, I was backlogging games I was enjoying just to get them out of the way and continue the progress. On the other, sometimes I wasn't sure how much time you'd even spend with a game to consider yourself familiarized enough to rank it in some way, without necessarily having to beat everything (who has the time?). Not to mention arcade games that have no viable ending for the regular player (Pac-Man, Galaga, etc).

So anyway all this is leading up to me explaining the next iteration of the Fuzzy Gaming Quest. Here's a picture!

What you're looking at is essentially a 7 day scoreboard for various games that I selected out as important during my previous pass through the 70s and most of the 80s. These are all games I wanted to play more of or possibly log in a list.

7 days is my naive answer to how long I think would be good to spend on a game, in order to get competent enough at it to get a decent score and/or feel you've experienced your average game enough to go ahead and put it somewhere in a list. It might seem like overkill for a simple arcade game (though I'd argue you need to play repeatedly and give your brain time to absorb it to get the true experience), and it may seem like underkill for an RPG (though I'd argue that most RPGs probably aren't changing much more if you've been playing for 7 days already, but this doesn't forbid from continuing to play if I choose to), but this is my naive and probably flawed answer, anyway.

This is meant to serve the purpose of: - Progressing reasonably fast (notice this is a list of basically banger games everyone has heard of, I will probably only include a few games here or there that are lesser known that I just happen to like--I'll also be avoiding some consoles intentionally that I don't particularly like (like the Odyssey 2, sorry, it's my list though--convince me otherwise if you like)) - Filtering into some kind of "best of" list (if I don't even want to play it for 7 days (in brief sessions), it must not be very good after all and doesn't deserve to be on any best of list I would leave behind me--games that I do get through the 7 days I should understand enough to rank competently enough to make myself happy) - Giving me an excuse to spend more time on the games that really matter to me, today, in case I get hit by a bus tomorrow - Giving me a target for when I'm able to comfortably say I've experienced a game enough and don't need to feel bad about moving on if I want to but still haven't "beat it," and also leaving room for playing more if I like (I can sort it, take it off the board, but finish it anyway on the DL) (Also, if I do beat it, I can stop there with the board) - Satisfying whatever kind of ADHD thing I have going on by allowing me to keep a variety of games on rotation for some amount of time and not just getting stuck behind one game at a time - Breaking game experiences down over multiple days to allow a longer time to think about them and grow accustomed to them, also to allow me to fit them into my busy schedule by playing Space Invaders on the toilet for ~10 minutes - To leave behind a journal of high scores or information about how far I got in various games as I plod on

So, you may (rightly) ask: What's the point of all this? Why can't I just play games that I like and call it a day?

Well my first answer would be, "shut up I know you're right I just can't, my brain is broken," but my second answer, the one I would say aloud, might be that I really have always wanted to take a targeted approach to going through all of game history and that's what this is in service of.

I have no false expectations about getting all the way through game history up to now in one lifetime, at least not without sacrificing a lot of games in the process. I definitely won't ever get to the point where I'm always keeping up with contemporary games. It's lucky for me that I mostly fell out of favor with games around 2011 for various reasons, but really it had been a steady decline of interest since about 2005 or so. I have a shorter-hand target, but if I were to ever reach it, I'd like to keep going on, even if it means playing PS4 games in 2061 when I'm almost as old as my dad is now.

Anyway, your second question (and wow, if you made it this far) might be: "so what does this mean for your tumblr, which I care about intimately after seeing 20 posts, and was gutted when you temporarily took a break, and have been looking for meaning in my life ever since?"

Well, true believer, if you want I might post my 7 day high-score for various arcade games or something along with some pictures or videos of high points of the game (when I get to games complicated enough to have cool art). I haven't decided yet. I'm open to suggestions! I'd love to see people try to (and succeed!) at beating my scores (I'd feel like I influenced someone into maybe playing some old, great game they wouldn't have before deciding to just then).

If nothing else I hope it was interesting to see my thought process about this stuff.

If that's not true, I hope you were entertained by a write up of someone's journey ever deeper into video-game delirium.

And yes, I will get frustrated with the system and change it again in approximately a month.

#long post #fuzzy-gaming-quest #spreadsheet #video games #retro games #rambles #crazy guy talks about video games

[panda-noosh]

I don't know if requests are still open (if they're closed i'm sorry for asking) but if they are still open may i ask for a scenario with keith comforting reader after she's had a bad day please? (bonus if it's a college au and they're roommates crushing on each other) thanks a lot and sorry for asking if requests aren't open anymore

   It’s been a long day.

   Recently, your life has been made up of very, very long days.

   Your limbs feel heavy, like you have to physically drag them along the corridor just to get from point A to point B. At this point, you’re willing to simply curl up in a ball and go to sleep in the middle of the hallway.

   The door to your dorm is opening before you’ve even reached it. Keith pokes his head out, black hair ruffled, a pair of sweatpants and a t-shirt on. He looks well rested, sprightly in a way only Keith can. You still don’t understand how he does it - sleep. How he just. . . finds the time.

    He smiles lightly when he sees you. “I thought I saw a black cloud over the building.”

   You shoulder past him into the room. “Have you put coffee on?”

   “Of course. Always.” Keith closes the door and turns, watching you trudge to the kitchen, feet barely lifted off the floor. You can feel his eyes burning in the back of your head, but you’re too tired to pretend right now. “Are you sure you should be having coffee? I think you need sleep.”

    “I have an essay to write,” you reply. “And I have to work on my dissertation. And I have an exam in chem I have to study for-”

     “Can they not wait till tomorrow? It’s Saturday.”

   “I’m already behind.”

   Keith scoffs, striding across the living room to your side. He snatches the coffee pot out of your hands and sets it back on the boil. You groan, getting ready to argue, but all the fight is drained from you when he grabs your shoulders and turns you to face him, and suddenly all you can see is Keith and his violet eyes and that tiny little smile he only ever wears when he’s with you, in the safety of your shared room, and you’re being a pain in the ass.

    You scowl, trying to ignore the butterflies that jump to your stomach. “I’m behind, Keith.”

   “No, you definitely are not,” Keith replies. “I’ve seen how much you work. There’s no way in hell you’re behind in anything.”

   “My homework diary begs to differ.”

    Keith raises a brow. “You need sleep. You get grumpy when you haven’t slept.”

    You scoff and pull out of his grip. Again, you reach for the coffee pot, and Keith does not interject this time, instead choosing to fold his arms over his chest and lean against the counter. He does this sometimes, just watches you, inspecting each and every one of your movements. It’s as if he’s afraid you’re going to topple over, and in truth, with the way you look right now, it’s a valid anxiety for him to have.

    “So how was your day anyway?” he asks conversationally, though you recognise the lilt in his voice as the one he uses when he hasn’t entirely forgotten what you were originally talking about.

    You shrug. “Shit.”

   “Why?”

   “I got a 67 on my biology test.”

    Keith stares at you. You sip your coffee.

    “Just not good enough,” you mumble into your cup. “That’s gonna make my report look lousy.”

   “That’s why you’re in such a bad mood?” Keith demands. “Because you got a 67?”

   “I’ve been getting 80′s and 90′s since the start of the year!” you exclaim, the effort of raising your voice making you dizzy. “How did it dip so much?”

    Keith rolls his eyes. “You are literally the dumbest smart person I’ve ever met in my entire life.”

    You shove his shoulder. “You don’t understand.”

    “Maybe not,” he replies. “But I know you, and I see you, every single night, slaving over your desk for hours on end. The fact that you’ve convinced yourself anything below an 80 is bad is just. . . ridiculous.”

    He’s said this to you before. Multiple times. Everybody has said this to you, but it never hits home. It never makes sense. And yes, you can understand why some people believe you to be overreacting, but they haven’t had the upbringing you’ve had, and just because they don’t put such high expectations on themselves doesn’t mean you’re wrong for doing so.

    You take another sip of your coffee. “I’m an overachiever.”

    “You’re going to bed.”

    Your eyes snap up. “What-”

  But Keith doesn’t let you finish. He grabs your mug, places it on the counter before wrapping his arm around your shoulders and guiding you forward. It takes a second for you to realise what he’s actually doing, but once the realisation dawns, you start fighting back, kicking against the kitchen cupboards, being lifted off the floor as you groan and repeat, “I can’t, I can’t, I can’t” on repeat.

    “Yes you can,” Keith says, a hint of amusement evident in his tone. It makes your heart sing, because you only ever hear it when you’re within the walls of your dorm. He doesn’t share that kind of amusement with anyone else. “Oh my God, Y/N, don’t make me lift you.”

   “You haven’t got the strength-”

   He lifts you right off your feet.

   You screech, barely managing to slap a hand to your mouth before someone surely calls the police and reports an attempted murder. Keith laughs, a tiny splutter. 

    “This is awful,” you mumble. “You’re being awful. Why can’t you just let me wallow in self-hatred in peace?”

   “Because,” Keith replies, kicking open his own bedroom door and tossing you on the mattress. “You’re incredible, and it’s about time you start treating yourself like it.”

   You pause, certain you’ve heard him wrong. No. That doesn’t make sense. Keith doesn’t just use words like incredible, especially not when he’s talking about you. That’s one of the Strong Adjectives, isn’t it? One that means a lot. Keith doesn’t risk using those.

    He stands in the doorway, hands on his hips. When you meet his eyes, he nods towards the bed, a silent way of saying Get tucked in. Slowly, you peel back the covers and slip beneath them, keeping your eyes on your room mate the entire time.

    He nods, content, and turns to leave, but you can’t let that happen. Not right now. Not when he’s on the brink of saying something meaningful.

   “Keith, wait.”

   He pauses, glances over his shoulder. “I’m not getting your coffee for you.”

   “Why do you treat me differently than everyone else?”

   His shoulders tense. His bottom lip disappears between his teeth. His grip tightens on the door frame. “What do you mean?”

   “You know what I mean.”

    “Y/N-”

   “Because. . . . well, like, I know I’ve never said it, but I like you. A lot. You - you take care of me when I need it, and you remind me that I’m okay, that everything is - uh - good, and okay, and I just. . . I don’t know. If you don’t feel the same way-”

    He turns fully then, the light from the hallway making his skin look paler than it really is. You look away, unable to meet his gaze when he’s looking like that, when you’ve just said something like that.

    “How do you think I feel?” he asks.

    You shrug. You don’t want to get your hopes up. He’s nice to you, and he treats you differently than he treats everybody else,but you also have the upper hand on everyone else. You live with him. He can’t be cold and distant all of the time, and maybe he just sees his time at home, with you, as a time to relax. It doesn’t necessarily mean anything.

   But then he’s walking towards his bed and he’s sitting by your feet, and his hand is touching your cheek as his eyes never leave your face. You inhale, biting your bottom lip.

    “You know how I feel,” he says. “I’m not letting you sleep in my bed and making you coffee and calling you incredible because I think you’re a good pal.”

    Your stomach jumps. “Keith-”

    “You had a bad day today,” he mumbles, pushing a piece of hair behind your ear. “Get some sleep. I’ll be here in the morning.”

    He leans forward and presses a soft kiss to your temple, lingering just a moment too long to be considered innocent. He pulls away then, smiles that oh-so-soft smile before he gets up and leaves the room. 

#request #voltron fic

[adamsvanrhijn]

Ooh for the director's cut, I'd love to hear about the Jan 12, 1930 letter from "strange how I fit into you (there's a distance erased with the greatest of ease)"--if you need to break it up smaller, please do! I don't know if that's too long :p (or if there's something more interesting in that fic you're dying to talk about, I could have picked anything from it so please feel free to take this as a Star)

it is not nearly as long as it could be!! :-3 i think i can do all of it; let’s see! under a cut regardless. :-3 

link to fic: strange how I fit into you (there's a distance erased with the greatest of ease)

yes we use the entire title every time....yes we do

Jan 12, 1930

Dear Richard,

While I wait for you to telephone I thought I would write you a letter anyway. I know I've kept you waiting, and I'm sorry to have done. I've been busy, but you know what that's like. 

the scenario here, of course, is that they have scheduled a telephone call (either for this night or on a recurring basis; it’s up to the reader until we get to that point in the other fic in this series, which is a ways out) within the next hour or so & thomas has nothing to do until then so he decides to write. self-explanatory! :-3

the other element is that they don’t write every day or even necessarily on a regular basis anymore, by this point in their relationship. it’s been about 2.5 years since they met and they’ve been going strong, but they’ve also (richard especially) got lives and jobs they have to take care of when they can’t be together, and those can be fairly consuming. it’s right after christmas in this scenario after a very bad winter, and the crawleys are going through a lot! (almost exactly two months earlier: Here in Downton we're not being very optimistic about anything at the moment.) so that’s affecting thomas more than the already-busy time of year normally would be.  there is a Lot happpening at the abbey (which will be Gotten To in the fic that prequels/coincides with this one). we’re entering the great depression. work wise he’s been in a better place before. mental health wise he’s been in a better place before. but, he also some good things going for him too, and those are very much things he shares with richard, so.

Speaking of keeping people waiting, your mum told me to tell you to write her back. I'm sure I'll say this to you in an hour but in case I forget there it is. I told her that this is a very busy time of year for you, and she said that when she worked for Queen Victoria they didn't have any of the modern conveniences you do and she still managed to find the time to keep correspondence with her dear mother and father. So, you have no excuse. 

i just.......... love richard’s mom lol, love writing variations on her... in this verse she was a royal dresser herself in the ‘80s before she quit to marry mr ellis, yorkshire farmboy childhood sweetheart of her dreams, and have five beautiful & talented children (whom we shall get to shortly). you’re getting OC backstory in this commentary haha. 

now, the thing that Matters here for the reader though is that thomas was not only With Richard’s Mother, but that he was without richard present, and that also richard’s mum is close enough to & trusts thomas enough to bother him to harp at her son for him... because she understands that richard’s going to talk to his boyfriend more than he’s going to talk to her. and for thomas that’s huge, but it’s not new to him; the switch happened somewhere in ‘29. but the reader doesn’t get to see that, they only get to see this, so it’s like, epistolary in media res haha.

i’m actually curious to know when the click point in this letter was for people, because it’s been mentioned a few times in comments & in conversations i’ve had since then...! 

this letter is really like, a foil to the sept 23 1928 letter, when richard & thomas visit richard’s family together and then thomas writes to him while he’s on his way back. in jan 1930, richard is in norfolk doing his job, hasn’t been north in months except passing through it to get to balmoral castle, etc, so the vibe is different, but i wanted to convey that this has been going on for a while -- thomas is seeing richard’s family on his own on a semi-regular basis, and they’re inclusive of him to the point where they treat him as an extension-of-richard (in the thoughtful, romance-supporting way, not the not-your-own-person way).

Everybody else says hello and that they miss you and wish you could have come home for Christmas. Surely some of them have put this to you in writing by now but I am passing on the message anyway.

Other notable things from Sunday dinner that I'll try not to ramble on about once I've got you on the telephone:

and so same thing here, really!

worth noting that this day was thomas’s christmastide day off. (despite being three weeks after, but again. stuff goin on with the crawleys.)  

thomas is being a little flippant here... ascribing a different emotion to the thing he’s doing than the one he actually has. the fact that the ellises trust & value him is huge for him and he’s taking the responsibility to be the middleman very seriously, but he’s uncomfortable letting on that he feels that way, so he’s sort of downplaying both in put this to you in writing by now And try not to ramble on about. like, richard is Definitely gonna ask him to tell him all about how his family is and he knows it, but he’s also worried about getting any of it wrong/leaving things out etc so he’s putting it down on paper, too. which has the advantage of helping him organise his thoughts before they call! but the lessening-his-own-role-in-this thing is certainly a Thing indeed.

richard knows what he means by it at this point though. :-)

I got to hold Ruthie. Dick, in my forty years of life I have seen some very sweet babies, and you just may have the honour of being uncle to the sweetest of them all. I hope you can come meet her soon. It doesn't feel right that I should get to see your niece before you do.

 this is another integrating-thomas-into-the-family thing and also a Giving Thomas Children To Love thing haha. ruthie is of course the newest leaf on the ellis family tree! she’s the daughter of one of richard’s sisters (dorothy, sister 2/3, unmentioned in this fic because she doesn’t bother her brother about doing his laundry for him), she’s a november scorpio, she’s VERY sweet and thomas got a lump in his throat while he was holding her. 

those last two sentences... some very sincere thoughts there being expressed in plain language. like, on the one hand this is amazing for thomas and he’s finally, finally got an actual family to feel a part of. on the other hand it is missing a very big piece that is important to him and to everybody else, and thomas has such a strong sense of justice that kind of comes out here. both in the sense of thinking he’s not worthy of what he’s being given (a chronic issue of this thomas) / not knowing his place 100%, and, wanting richard to have what he’s entitled to but can’t access because of the position he’s in. and that’s not a comfortable feeling for thomas, because it’s something he’s powerless to, so there’s a reason he doesn’t dwell on it.

Teddy is about as tall as I am, which I do not remember as being the case the last time I saw him. This is what happens when first footmen breed. Maybe by the time you see him he'll be as tall as you are, which, as I have said in the past, is not actually that much taller than me. Just so we're crystal clear.

teddy is the oldest of richard’s nieces/nephews! he’s the first son of his older brother, who Was A First Footman & he’s like 17 here. again this is really about like, establishing that thomas seeing richard’s family is ongoing and that he’s serving kind of as the link between richard and his own family in a way. they’re really integrating as a couple. which is a BIG part of this fic that matters more once they move in together a few years after this bit but right now we’re laying the ground work for it.

aaaaaaaaand teasing of course. :-3

You must have received yours weeks ago already, but Hannah gave me the scarf she made. I can't believe you managed to keep this a secret from me. I am very impressed with you. Luckily, I did not cry in front of anybody in your family when I opened it but I felt like I could have.

matching handmade scarves!!! yes!!! i guess the thing here is just more thomas-being-an-honorary-ellis stuff but also showing how richard works within his own family... hannah, sister 3/3, worked with him on figuring out/applying what thomas likes, so that’s part one, and part two is that like, she was Expecting to see thomas and to give him his gift in person, whereas she mailed richard’s to get to him in time for christmas. and thomas is aware of that, and for him her waiting to see him and physically put the thing in his hands means a lot and so there’s some overwhelming emotions going on there, as he mentions. 

I don't know what you told May and John, but I had only been in the house five minutes when…

…

being sister & brother in law, respectively. i..... wanna get into the thing going on here elsewhere in the series so i’ll let it be for now. sorry !

…well, it is five minutes past. Knowing you I am assuming you'll be calling in the next 2-6 minutes, so here is as good a place as any to stop.

richard stops keeping track of time the second his majesty king george the 5th goes to bed at 11:10pm on the dot and so is pretty much always fashionably late, but thomas has figured out how to adjust and it is something they can tease each other about + share as an injoke. and not only is it teasing but it’s also Correct, in this case at least! :-)

I wish you had been there today. I am thinking of you.

Your loving,

T.B.

and this is just an emotional but understated letter closing from thomas, expressing the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth, etc. :-3 

i’m getting sleepy and now i’m kinda worried this isn’t gonna make sense / is too repetitive etc haha so if you’re dying to know smth else just lmk :’-)

#downton abbey tag #my fanfiction