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#I wrote this instead of my 3 missing essays :)
sebastianswallows · 11 months
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Ardour — Chapter 1
— PAIRING: professor!Tom Riddle x Reader
— SYNOPSIS: Tom got what he wanted, he is the Hogwarts DADA professor. It's more tedious than he envisioned, but his day gets interesting when his favourite student comes to him for help after she is hit with a strong aphrodisiac.
— WARNINGS: angst, fluff, age difference (she is in 7th year), dub-con kissing, sex pollen basically, hints of incest (reader is a distant Gaunt relation, don't ask me why, I just wanted a depraved twist and also to give her and Tom something more in common)
— WORDCOUNT: 4k
— A/N: I had this filthy idea and I AI-RPed it and it turned out so well I could not leave it be. So here's part 1. I expect we'll have 2, max 3 parts. Those will contain the smut. Credit to my writing partner, this cute little chat bot, who wrote a very soft and romantic Tom. I had to spend a lot of time re-writing him to be a bit more mean 😂 And yeah reader is more of an OC tbh, because the physical description was important for their similarity in looks. ...You'll see. Also don't mind me fancasting Tom Hughes as an older Tom.
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There was a knock on the door. Professor Tom Riddle, who taught Defence Against the Dark Arts, raised his head from grading papers. He sighed at the interruption and rubbed the bridge of his nose. He checked his watch to see if it was late enough for him to pretend to be at dinner, but he had no such luck — it was sometime in the late afternoon.
He'd once thought that getting this position was all he wanted. To teach Defence Against the Dark Arts at Hogwarts, and be the youngest one to take the position in the school’s history, would be a great achievement, after all — aside from giving him the opportunity to, like Professor Slughorn, collect students, Hogwarts' best and brightest, select his favourites, and helpfully guide them in a way that suited his long-term personal ambitions.
But what he found instead was that it was a great deal of hard work, unending responsibilities, and long hours. He had to always be available to help students, he had to think the year ahead before it even started, and he had to always be on top of the course material — or at least pretend to be. He had to put up with noisy and inattentive students, be careful to reward the clever and punish the disruptive, calculate awarded points and distribute detentions — but not too harshly. Last but not least, he had to put up with the other staff — the crass, the sycophantic, the obsequious, and the stupid. He almost missed his days working at Borgin and Burkes...
"Come in," he called out a little loudly, not really caring who it was as long it was someone whose presence doesn't make him want to claw his eyes out. He looked expectantly at the door, waiting for whoever was there to step inside and give him take a break from the endless stream of badly written essays.
The door opened slowly, and Adara walked in.
Adara Gaunt, Slytherin 7th year, and one of his brightest. She was excellent at Defence Against the Dark Arts, and he had noticed in her an interest in the Dark Arts in general. She wasn’t a troublemaker like some of the other pure-bloods, entitled little narcissists who wanted to show off, which made it easy for her to not come under suspicion when some book was unaccounted for in the Restricted Section. She was less clever at hiding it after the fact, when she would answer a question of his during classes with an intriguing little tidbit, and he always knew exactly which book she’d read that in. If she got into trouble at all, it was casting the wrong hex at the wrong boy when she got picked on, and then making his well-groomed, fancy-robed, ignorant father complain to the Headmaster. Tom tried not to give her preferential treatment — but he had to actively try.
It didn’t help that she was a relative of his, by way of a second cousin of his lamented grandfather Marvolo, one who married some scion of the Black family and was scarcely spoken of again. He wasn’t sure what that made her — his niece? hardly. Not that he would ever tell that to her. Last thing he needed was some hanger-on.
No, as far as his students and most of the staff were concerned, he was a half-blood with the muggle name of Riddle, and nobody suspected anything illustrious from the magical side of his family — not that there had been anything particularly illustrious about the Gaunts for a hundred years. And as far as he had gathered from gossip and from observation, Adara’s outcast Gaunt-Black family wasn’t fairing much better than his own had. She spent every holiday she could at Hogwarts, she was withdrawn yet had a spiteful edge to her, she sought an escape from reality in subjects of the most extreme kind — his favourite kind, too —and, from his personal experience, he detected traces of neglect. An unwanted child, that much was certain. Sometimes, he thought she was still better off than living in a muggle orphanage — other times, he was not so sure.
She was pallid, dark-haired and dark-eyed, with an elegant showing of bones beneath her skin, and a quiet, withdrawn demeanour — in other words, a more unhealthy vision of him in a different sex. Still, he could see those eyes sparkle whenever he taught the darkest, most terrifying subjects, even while the rest of the class was frightened or disgusted. He understood why she liked it. There was nothing like the promise of power to the powerless.
And so, his eyes widened slightly when he saw her stepping unannounced into his office. It wasn’t like her… But if he were to talk to any of his wretched students, he could count himself lucky that it was her. His demeanour softened when he saw her standing there.
"Adara, it is such a pleasure to have you here."
"Hello, Professor," she said, closing the door behind her but moving no further in. "I hope I'm not disturbing you... I can come back later, if—"
Tom sighed at her timidity but smiled. "You’re not disturbing anything. Come in."
He got up and went to stand in front of the desk, ready to speak with her, and she came closer too.
"I'm very sorry to ask, sir," she started, swallowing the knot in her throat, "but... I was wondering if you can help me with something... I don't wish to go to the nurse about it, I don’t like her, and... you're an expert in this field — I mean, aside from Professor Slughorn, who I… also don’t wish to see. So I thought maybe you would know a solution..." She bit her lip after her ramble, looking at him to gauge his reaction.
She was terrified of bothering him, in fact, of being a nuisance, but she also didn’t know who else to turn to. He could tell she had gone through the options in her mind, and he was, in fact, the third after Nurse Blainey and Slughorn.
"Don't be sorry, Adara. It is my duty to assist students," he sighed. "Please, tell me what it is you need help with."
She looked up at him, visibly tensing even in the darkness of his office as she stood a few feet away, her face hot and body shivering under the effects of... something. Something unusual. She was typically a bit shy, but not that shy. She even looked a bit... unwell. Her legs rubbed against each other and she stood before him unsteadily, as if her bones or muscles ached.
"Well?" said Tom. "Go ahead…"
"I got into an argument with Amyas Avery and he snuck Ardour Fly up my skirt," she said in one fast breath, blushing profusely and looking down.
Tom frowned. Ardour Fly was a powder, a potent aphrodisiac that had few known cures. It irritated the victim and brought them to a point of sensitivity that was nearly torturous given long exposure. It was typically used between lovers, as the effects would not relent unless the victim was brought to... the very heights of pleasure. Until then, they would suffer painful, heated, relentless arousal that drove them mad with desire. What a snot-nose like Avery was doing with it, he didn’t wish to know — but he intended to find out anyway, as part of a long letter to his father.
"He did what to you?" His voice had that edge to it now.
He moved closer to look her over more closely, and she inhaled sharply at even something as innocuous as his approach. Tom brought a hand to her forehead: feverish, and she gasped. A gentle touch to her cheek with the back of his fingers rewarded him with a moan, and she was trying to look everywhere but at him.
"And where is Mr Avery now?" he whispered, his eyes scanning her body, taking in all the symptoms.
He heard her give a trembling exhale at the close sound of him, her eyes becoming lidded, looking drowsy. The timbre of his voice alone had driven her insane with want.
"I... Mmmm... I don't know. I guess he'll... go have lunch in the... Great Hall come dinnertime..."
"And did anyone else see it happen?"
"Mmmm..." she moaned, closing her eyes and biting her lip. "Vanius Nott was there, and Selby Carrow, and Ophius Black..."
Tom’s hand went to her cheek again, but he slid the edges of his fingers down beneath her jaw and tilted her face up to look at him. The storm of emotions in her was nothing compared to that in him: anger and cold fury were there, and a lust for revenge after what the useless progenies of socialites and sycophants had done to his favourite. They had humiliated her, bodily and mentally, out in the open where other little cowards could watch and laugh.
"And where were you when this happened?" he asked gently.
"In the Transfiguration courtyard," she said in a choked mumble.
Her head nearly tilted toward his palm, perhaps to nuzzle it, before he took it away. He almost wished he hadn’t hurried to remove it… His eyes slid to her uniform: ruffled, tie out of place, buttons holding on but barely… She’d either gotten into a physical scuffle, or she’d spent the last few minutes tearing away at herself in frustration before she decided to come to him for help.
He was so close he could smell her, smell the scent of something sharp and woody like ginger — the Ardour Fly — and underneath it, quickly overtaking it, something fleshy and sweet, warm and a bit salty, something cloying that settled at the back of his throat.
"Look at me for a moment," he asked gently.
She did, gazing into his eyes bravely. He held her eyes for a quiet moment, then without warning put his palm right over her lower stomach.
"Aaaahhh!"
She gave a weak animal sound, something half-moan half-scream. She was nearly bending over at the feeling. Beneath his hand, Tom worked a bit of wandless magic to confirm the state of her insides. As he suspected: swollen, throbbing, overworked, and underloved. He inhaled sharply in sympathy as the sensations coursed through him, before he quickly took his hand away.
He didn’t often have the opportunity to examine the effects of aphrodisiacs on their victims, although he had sold his fair share while at Borgin and Burkes. He never liked these dirty tricks out of principle, although a means to an end was a means to an end… But seeing their effects now on her, his favourite student, his flesh and blood, he felt far less forgiving.
She clung to her waist protectively — his hand had been warm enough that she felt it through her clothes, and it pained her in that way an unfulfilled desire does.
"Please, Professor Riddle," she whimpered, sounding on the verge of tears. "I can’t take it, please tell me you have a cure for it…"
Of course, there was no cure for Ardour Fly at Hogwarts. Those were rare and expensive. Perhaps Nurse Blainey could help her with the symptoms by means of some antipyretic potions, at least until they could have something actually useful delivered to the castle. But the only cure they had on hand, so to speak, was to let the aphrodisiac fulfil its purpose.
"Alright," he sighed, mostly to himself. He could do this. It was a legitimate concern. It could even be an illegitimate concern, because anyway, nobody was going to find out, he’d make sure of that.
"Oh thank you so much, please, it hurts, it hurts..."
"What hurts?" he asked coolly, looking in her eyes again. "Tell me exactly what it is that hurts."
She stared at him dumbly for a moment, then realised he was actually waiting for her to say it.
"My... my..."
She bit her lip and closed her eyes, completely humiliated by the situation but dizzy from the effect of the Ardour Fly.
"My... intimate parts," she finally said, finding a term that was polite enough to say in the presence of a Professor.
"I see..." he whispered, his voice a little breathless now too above the anger he felt at the situation and his lingering anxieties. I can do this. "Show me where it hurts you."
Her soul left her body. She would have collapsed if she weren’t frozen stiff. She looked into his eyes, but there was no playfulness there. He was treating her as seriously, as clinically, as the victim of a poisoning… and it drove her dizzy with desire. It was at that point she realised she made a mistake going for help to the youngest and most handsome professor in the school.
But he didn’t seem any more amused by it than she was. He levelled at her the same stern gaze with which he expected them to hand in their homework, only now his voice was warmer and much close, and it was just the two of them, and he wasn’t asking for a roll of parchment but for her to lift her skirt.
Or did he prefer that she bend over?
The aphrodisiac was twisting not only her senses, but also her sense, and she found her mind going in the most depraved and humiliating directions. But he hadn’t meant it like that, did he? She genuinely was in pain, and her most dear Professor was offering to help. It made sense, it made sense...
After a few moments during which she switched between fighting with herself and looking into his dark eyes, she brought her hands to the edges of her skirt, and lifted it. She showed herself to him.
Tom’s icy gaze slid from her flushed face, down. Her panties were black with a lace flourish, and could barely contain her. She had been leaking down herself, the top of her thighs damp and shining in the candlelight, her folds swollen and visibly throbbing, the very material moving gently with a pulse that matched her heartbeat. And the scent of her, pure and innocent and aroused, became that much stronger now.
Tom stared at her with an intensity unlike anything he has ever felt before, and yet his composure betrayed nothing. It was only his stillness and the time he took to look at her, to drink his fill, that hinted at anything selfish at all. But inwardly, his senses were gripped by an unspeakable desire, a mixture of lust and pain and anger and something else, something that made his stomach churn at the mere thought of it.
His breath was slow and heavy as he spoke.
"You poor girl," he whispered. "What do you think should be done with those boys?"
Her lips parted in wonder at the turn in conversation. That was the last thing she expected from her Professor... to ask for her opinion. It made her realise how little she knew him...
"Punish them," she said with shaky anger. "Give them detention for the rest of the year or humiliate them or let me hex them or... I don't know, but I want them punished."
He smiled, feeling proud and oddly protective of her. That’s my girl, slithered a traitorous thought.
"Rest assured, I will punish them," he said with delight. "Not just detention, but much, much more."
He stared down at her, taking in the entire sight before him, a genuine look of affection in his eyes as he stared at her, an unspoken admiration. Her skirt was still held up in her trembling hands, her eyes were fixed on his, expectant and pleading and so, so obedient… But as he merely watched and said nothing else, she began to cover herself again.
"Thank you, Sir," she smiled, feeling so grateful she could cry.
It moved her beyond what he could know, to feel protected... Nobody had ever made her feel that way, not any of the other distracted teachers nor her fairweather friends and certainly not her parents.
"Um... so…" she asked with a blush. "Do you have a... treatment for the Ardour Fly, Sir? Can you help me?"
He grinned at that, seeming unhappy and excited at the same time, but also oddly… caring.
"Yes, Adara. I will help you."
She smiled at hearing it, as he expected. She trusted him completely.
Don’t get carried away, Tom thought to himself. Don’t let it go to your head.
He held her gaze, still smiling, and spoke in what he tried to make his most soothing, his most encouraging and reassuring tone. The irony was he hoped she’d gotten a hefty enough dose of aphrodisiac to even accept the treatment he was about to offer.
"There is only one treatment for the Ardour Fly we have available to us. It is a… procedure, but a well-tested method. It is, in fact, the recommended treatment. Do you understand?"
"I think so, Sir…"
She didn’t.
"I agree to help you, because I know you’re a good student and you deserve better than this, and I can only imagine what you must be going through right now… But it will take a considerable amount of… fortitude and… tolerance from your side."
"Alright, Sir," she said, looking up into his dark eyes.
She wanted to be brave for him, she wanted to be worthy of his praise and his help and his confidence, but most of all she wanted to show how grateful he was that he could help her. No, most of all she wanted something else…
"Good girl," he whispered, his smile tilting intimately.
A shiver ran up and down her spine at hearing it. She’d never been called that, and to hear Professor Riddle say it to her made her weak.
"You’ll need to lie down for your treatment," he said, then pointed to the far right of the room. "Go there, on the sofa."
It was an old and battered thing upholstered in green velvet that had worn away in places, but it looked to her like an operating table as she approached. She looked behind her as Professor Riddle followed, his arms politely behind his back. She didn’t see him take any equipment or potions, which made her wonder what this treatment was…
She sat on it, almost experimentally, letting herself gingerly on the cushion, but even that pressure was too much. Her head tilted back and she frowned with pleasure-pain at the intense sensation of having her tender parts all pressed together by her thighs.
"Now, lay on your back," he said as he came to a stop beside her.
She took her shoes off first, then came to rest on her back, trying to find a comfortable position. Her arms were stretched out and tense by her sides, and all she could look at was the shadowy stone ceiling.
Professor Riddle sat down on the floor, by her chest, and leisurely trailed his eyes up and down the length of her. She heard him sigh, but could not detect the precise feeling behind it.
"Do you trust me?" he asked quietly. "Do you trust me with every part of you?"
"Yes, Professor," she whispered almost so softly that he couldn't hear.
"Then listen carefully." His voice was almost gentle, almost. "I am going to kiss you now."
"Wh—!"
"Just one, soft, gentle kiss on your lips."
"Whatwhy?!" she asked in a tangle of emotions. She stared at him with wide, shocked eyes, her elbows braced against the sofa ready to lift her.
"I thought you said you trusted me," he said with a feline narrowing of the eyes.
"I d-do, but…"
"But what?"
She swallowed the knot in her throat and said nothing, conveying instead with her eyes and her lips and her frown all the things she couldn’t say: her worry, her fear, her despair for an ease to her pain, her mortification, and her frustrated desires… Tom understood her better than he wanted to.
"Ready?" he asked in a warm whisper as he leaned in.
His hand touched her cheek again, lightly enough that it was more of a tickle. She could smell ink on his fingers, and the salt from the sweat of his palms… She wanted to lick it clean.
"It’s just one kiss, Adara," he whispered in a last attempt to reassure her. "I’m not exactly asking for a huge sacrifice, am I?"
She wavered at that, her eyes dipping down shyly, sadly, even as his touch mollified her. She hesitated. "I've never been kissed, Sir..." she whispered.
Ah. So that’s why she was sad. This wasn't what she had imagined when she pictured her first kiss. She hoped to share it under quite different, more romantic, more conventional circumstances, if ever...
But at the same time, her body was screaming at her to accept, to assuage the aphrodisiac that was wreaking havoc on her nerves and her senses and her mind.
"You can still refuse," he said with a cocked brow, his fingers gentling her cheek with slow caresses.
She even felt a hint of guilt slip between her nerves... Professor Riddle was willing to help her, and here she was, stalling, fearing him, having doubts... He felt her hesitation.
"Don't worry, it will be a simple, gentle kiss. I will endeavour to make it positively sterile. Alright?"
She couldn’t look at him, but she nodded.
Tom leaned in even further and caressed her from her jaw to her chin in one long hungry lick of a stroke, looking into her eyes even as hers avoided him — deep and dark and lovely… He breathed in, breathed her in, for a moment feeling as if something of each of their own could merge into one being. He didn’t like that feeling, it felt like surrender.
"Do you trust me?" he asked in a huskier voice than he intended.
She looked up at him, pleading silently for him to be for her what he had been the whole time she was his student: her comfort, her consolation, her support, more than anyone else had been.
"I do trust you, Sir," she said with a choked voice, her throat tight with unspilled tears.
"There’s a good girl," he whispered, smiling down at her.
He could see her eyes growing dark at that, could see her breathing in panting breaths even worse than before, her knees coming up to offer her some comfort, to expose her to the cool air of the room and calm her aching parts… His eyes had that same smouldering look in them, but mixed in was the intense desire to prove to Adara that he could help her, comfort and protect her.
With the very tip of his index tilting her chin up, Tom leaned in and kissed her lips. It was the gentlest kiss imaginable, a pressing of his mouth against hers, quiet and silent and patient, a simple display of affection — but his eyes bore into hers throughout, like he was searching through her thoughts, through her very soul.
She looked back into his eyes throughout while his lips pressed with a certain kind of care into her, as tender as a fallen leaf. The scent of his skin so close, the scent of his clothes, the feeling of his warm lips and his cold finger, all made her feel a strange new feeling for her professor — or perhaps, it was not so new, she had just tried to suppress it because it was so indecent, so unworthy of him, and of her.
As he pulled away, he didn’t miss her little tongue slipping out to lick the taste of him off her. He smiled as he circled her chin with his thumb.
"How do you feel?" he whispered.
"The same? I mean, t-thank you, Sir..." she said, a little breathless. Her mind was still spinning from what he had just done for her. "But... It... it still hurts," she whined.
"Hmmm? Oh, yes. That wasn’t part of the treatment."
"What?"
"The ‘treatment’ comes next. I’m going to have to give you an orgasm. It just didn’t seem courteous without kissing your lips first."
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socstudies · 8 months
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Hi, as someone who is going to be in their first year of college this fall, I'm curious about the note taking part
Is physical or digital note taking easier?
Is spending money on a laptop nessesary?
What is something you wish you would've done differently during your first year?
Do you have any advice?
If by any chance you see this, your blog and your aesthetic are amazing!
I'm wishing you a wonderful day/night.
If you do decide to reply, thank you in advance <3
helloo! sorry for the late reply & thank u for the ask! :)
ive tried both and i think i prefer handwritten notes, however they both have their pros and cons:
handwritten pros
proven to be better for retaining information
can't get distracted by other tabs
lighter to carry
costs less than a laptop
i've had some classes where we weren't allowed to use laptops so it's good to already be used to taking notes this way
cons:
much slower. sometimes i find im missing stuff and i have to go back to it at the end
have to print out diagrams etc if u want to include them
could possibly lose them, spill something etc
not enough space on desk for both laptop and notebook so u can't get slides up or google something
digital pros:
much quicker
easier to organise & pull up different notes at any time - u don't need to carry around or find older notebooks to be able to study or refer back to past classes
some people make notes directly onto the slides which u would have to print out if u wanted to do by hand
can also use for research and writing essays which u will need a computer for at some point so might as well do everything in one place
cons:
expensive
more stressful if u lose or break it
if u forget to charge it and u don't have paper .......
this upcoming year, im using a combination. most of the time i'll handwrite my notes, but for classes where they talk too quickly i'll type them (it's not worth the stress & extra time having to go back to recordings after). my notes for readings will be annotated straight onto the pdf. i'll be taking pictures of notes to put them all together.
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unfortunately, i think it is because you'll need computer access to research and write ur essays, as well as to find course information etc. HOWEVER some universities (most?) have laptops that u can borrow and computers in the library, so if u know that you'll be motivated enough to get up and do all of ur work on campus, you could save this cost - bare in mind when u move off campus after first year it might be even harder. definitely look into this if cost is an issue for you! it doesn't need to be a fancy one if u do buy a laptop though, just remember u'll be carrying it around so don't get a super heavy one!
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as for something i wish i'd done differently: as a sociology student, none of my classes have exams where i have to memorise things, instead it's all essay based. this led me to not 'study' i guess ??? like the stuff that i wrote my essays on, i knew like the back of my hand, but everything else i couldn't remember well. so if ur taking an essay based subject, remember that u still need to study a little & remember these things !! i was so overwhelmed tbh that i forgot about this oopsie!
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extra advice:
when people say that after u skip one class, u'll skip the rest THEY. MEAN. IT. literally try so hard not to miss class bc you will never go again if u do. my classes would start off with not enough seats for everybody and end up with just a handful of us by the end of term.....
make time for urself !! it can become all consuming, especially if u live on campus, but pls make some dedicated time away from studying !!
u will find ur friends eventually. pls remember that it won't last or be that fun if u stick with friends who u don't have that much in common with just bc they were the first u met. tell me why i was going to bars and clubs with people in first term bc that;s what they wanted to do ????? it's ok to move onto different people bc u will eventually get tired of doing these things u don't like just to be able to hang out with people !! now i go to bookstores and cafes with my new friends and i love it!! don't settle !!
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evertidings · 1 year
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— APRIL 2023.
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accomplishments.
i’ll be honest—i have no idea what happened this month. it always happens at this time of year. school work, assignments, essays piling up... it’s a miracle that i didn’t start writing about yellow fever and polio in chapter nine. so, what did i do exactly? i wrote double what i did last month and yet, it’s all fuzzy. here is what i know: i’m currently chipping away at two scenes in chapter nine. the two final scenes. granted, they’re very big scenes (maybe i should call them sections instead) but we’re slowly making our way to the end of a very long journey. 
the first scene is A’s and N’s branch that you were teased in the first part of chapter nine. the one after... you know. Blane’s (rightful, i think) reaction to A’s accusation. i put this off for a while needing a break from the repetitive themes that were also in Blane’s + K’s and Rylan’s branches, but when i started writing the final section of the chapter, i realized that i was missing out on chances for flavour text. hence, me running back to finish the scene. so far, A’s and N’s branch is much more linear than the others, which, honestly, i’m relieved about. i love choice and i love branching off into tiny little subsections, but sometimes, it really does hurt my brain. this doesn’t mean that there isn’t the chance for customization and personalization, just that writing wise, it’s a little simpler for me.
the second scene (section?) i’ve been working on is the final scene in the chapter. i can’t say much about this one since it’d be a huge spoiler, but what i can say is that i managed to fit a choice in here that i think everyone will be super excited about. it’s small and perhaps insignificant to the plot, but it’s also extremely fun and gives a chance for a potential romance point, if you so choose.
on a final note, i want to say that i’ve recently been getting feedback about lack of personalization in when twilight strikes. while i can’t exactly change plot points, i do know that there are stats that are more neglected than others and would benefit from being showcased in flavour text in chapters. same goes for some of the more negative routes, like not forgiving A or disliking Rylan. joking around with characters when you supposedly dislike them does not make sense. oops. i always make small changes to previous chapters before publishing a new one, but with chapter nine, i’m going to do a deep dive into chapters one to eight and hopefully add some things that will make the story more individual to your playthrough. as always, i am grateful for any constructive criticism and appreciate the care you all have for this game. thank you <3
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relax-and-read-on · 11 months
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I finished my session!!! To celebrate....
Primarch, and what they would have written in my literary creation class
(yes this is highly specific, no idc)
Lion: minimalist poetry done so that no one can say that he didn't do the assignment. There is 109 words spread on 8 pages. One of said page literally just say "I am Myself."
Mortarion: write a short story about a lil robot being basically condemn to die by an evil all powerful ai. Everyone miss the metaphor and start arguing about who the narrator is.
Roboute: Report a series of incidents of people seeing a black monolith ovni in the shape of Ohio, of all thing. Actually based of a real incident
Horus: Explain how many daddy issues he has. Pretty funny text, the 3 way in the middle of it was highly unnecessary.
Ferrus: the worst scifi short story of all time. Zero talent. One sentence goes on for 11 lines. Get called out for making a teluric planet the size of a gaseous one and walk out.
Fulgrim: poorly hidden self insert recounting his sexual exploit. Has the most graphic scene ever involving masturbation and a vacuum. Read it out loud to all.
Rogal: Describe a trip he took once. It's 8 pages long of beach descriptions. Seem to have a slightly weird obsession with crabs, and describe in great detail the battle between two.
Angron: write a scene where he basically explain how he day dream of a murder plot against an old colleague. Suspiciously well written, will avoid the police.
Sanguinius: a 3 part non-linear story about live, loss and death, beautifully written, that hint at a secret. Forgot to put the big reveal in the fucking final text.
Perturabo: write a story about childhood trauma and daddy issues. Violently infodump on everyone. Someone ask if the "I" instead of "he" in the middle of the text was voluntary. Refuse to answer. ,
Jaghatai: Write a long form prose poem that turn out to be the lyric to an instrumental only piece. Said piece is 6 minute long. He insist to play it in full for class.
Konrad: Write a self insert isekai fanfiction into Age of Sigmar. Surprisingly violent and sexual. Terribly written. Will probably become a succesful YA author.
Leman: Write an essay about his dog and how much he love him. It's actually quite touching. Even put cute pics of his dig at the end.
Alpharius Omegon: wrote a fake wikipedia page about a species of carnivorous lamppost walking around and eating people.
Corvus: Write a poem so completely confusing, there is a 20 minute debate on the subject. Ideas are: Death, sexual assault, prostitution, religious cults or drogues. The poem was actually about autumn and migratory birds.
Lorgar: write an in dept essay about the history of the first Rabbi in town. Somehow trackdown the surviving family member for an email interview. Completely bust the page count.
Vulkan: a very cute memory piece about being born in a large family and the hardship of it. Casually mention an unsolved murder. Everyone is disturbed.
Magnus: that 25 pages, 3 part essay/poem/experimental narrative text on the myth of the minotaur, feminism and the importance of myth. It was borderline unreadable.
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spacedadkronos · 26 days
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Ooo, lol, looks like someone got their knickers twisted so hard they wrote a whole essay about how they're categorically correct about an ultimately subjective matter. That's always a winning approach.
Please do not try to "educate" me the difference between writers and executive producers in animation. I have an animation degree. I'm not a child.
 I follow both Brent and Alan on Twitter and have been for like 3 years now. I have been watching their updates since the announcement of the show 2 years ago. I have pics of them celebrating finishing up the writing. Here's proof that they wrote it, including screenshots of the IMDb Brent had linked on his Twitter. 
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I said this is not what they consider THE sequel. Obviously it is *a* sequel. I'm saying people should not be treating it like Megamind 2 when it is a pilot for the TV show. They want a real theatrical sequel.
This is a random screenshot I felt was important
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I think this person better put what I meant about not as many people would care this much if it wasn't on streaming:
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Megamind was an arrogant little egomaniac for the entirety of the first movie. Not sure how you missed that. Roxanne appears dissatisfied with her place in life from her recording at the Metro Man Museum with Hal onward, and does her level best to become the hero her city needs because no one else is going to stand up and do it - not sure how you missed that, either, but her whole character arc is about stepping up to the plate to do good. Well done reducing her to a single career point and then discarding her. I wasn't surprised to see her frustrations with going right back to reporting. That was a headspace that made a ton of sense for her. It was set up incredibly well.
And Megamind himself says, "some days, it felt like it was just me and Minion against the world," so you might think I agree with you there - but in fact I'm going to point out the SOME days, it FELT LIKE. There is no reason to believe that he never had any other professional associates between the time he left the schoolhouse and the time we see him as an established supervillain. In fact, I can and will argue that there's room to interpret *he himself* saying he wasn't always flying solo. It's up to interpretation - but it's there.
And no, Roxanne and Megamind are not and should not be "quasi-dating" unless you want to look past the enormous Bernard lie. Which I can't say I'm surprised you did, since Roxanne doesn't matter as anything other than Reporter Romantic Interest, apparently. The end of the original implies they have *potential.*
But I'm not trying to convince you. At the end of the day, you didn't enjoy something you hoped to enjoy. You missed a few key points about the original, so the pilot of the show didn't line up with some of your expectations and it pissed you off. That's a shame. But instead of offering some grace and recognizing it for what it is - a movie designed for a younger demographic than the original, the first ounce of love Dreamworks has shown this IP since its initial release more than a decade ago, and as much story as could be crammed into 83 minutes because the people making it only had so much time within which to work, which is *honestly a fun ride* if somewhat tonally dissonant compared to what YOU were hoping for - you've decided instead to focus on what it wasn't: What You Personally Wanted. And you've decided to make your disappointment everyone else's problem instead of processing it like an adult and moving on.
I think you're boring, I think you're unkind, I think you're a whiny little bully who came onto MY POST to bitch and complain about how you're the god of what I'M allowed to enjoy. Block me, if I make you so miserable. I'm busy having fun.
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batrachised · 1 year
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Tell me all about your love of L.M. Montgomery!
i could MARRY you for asking me this question
it's honestly difficult to nail it down to one reason--at its heart, I simply love slice of life novels, but if I had to list things I loved about LM Montgomery, it would be (1) a remarkable sense for characterization (2) a sly sense of humor and, (3) an overarching theme of recognizing the beauty in everyday things and everyday living.
Starting with (1) [and yes, I'm blatantly using this as an excuse to write a full essay], we all know Anne and Marilla and Gilbert, but LM Montgomery's ability to create a lived in character within a few sentences is incredible to me. Within a few throwaway words, she'll establish a realistic character with motivations, values, and a back story. She often does this to add perspective to the main character--for example, when Jane from Jane of Lantern Hill travels to meet her father for the first time, her companion thinks how she had never met such a dull child. This gives us insight into Jane, but it also gives us insight into Jane's world and the people who inhabit it. A better example would be one of the statements from Mrs. Lynde or Miss Cornelia--a lot of times, a single line of theirs will sum a drama that, just like with Jane's companion, fleshes out the world that our heroines live in quite effectively. For example, my absolute favorite moment of this is the following line of Miss Cornelia's from Anne's House of Dreams:
"He was one of those wicked, fascinating men. After he got married, he left off being fascinating and just kept on being wicked. "
Within those two sentences, you learn everything you need to know about Fred Proctor and his family. You know what his wife valued, how he romanced his wife, why she married him, and how it ended up. There's also just the general paragraphs that tell anecdotes from the village life. Like in Anne of Ingleside when Anne is hosting a party at Ingleside and poor child Walter doesn't understand:
""Did you hear what happened to Big Jim MacAllister last Saturday night in Milt Cooper's store at the Harbour Head?" asked Mrs. Simon, thinking it time somebody introduced a more cheerful topic than ghosts and jiltings. "He had got into the habit of setting on the stove all summer. But Saturday night was cold and Milt had lit a fire. So when poor Big Jim sat down...well, he scorched his..."
Mrs. Simon would not say what he had scorched but she patted a portion of her anatomy silently.
"His bottom," said Walter gravely, poking his head through the creeper screen. He honestly thought that Mrs. Simon could not remember the right word.
An appalled silence descended on the quilters. Had Walter Blythe been there all the time?"
Even beyond the side characters seeming very real, the main heroines are girls/women who seem like real people to me. LM Montgomery's women are flawed. They get angry, make mistakes, can be flibbertigibbets, brood over silly things, have their head in the clouds, allow themselves to be run over instead of standing up for themselves--but also--and this is what I really love--they grow. This is best seen in Rilla (something I've talked about before), but it also applies writ large. The men are also usually likeable--I say usual because in a few of the lesser known books, they can irritate me (*cough cough teddy and emily*), but Gilbert Blythe is the ideal man, and Barney Snaith is too, and Andrew Stuart is a heartwarmingly loving father. They have flaws too--short in temper and too blunt for example--but once again, it just makes them all the more likeable. Walter Blythe is also a great example here, but that's deserving of its post because his situation is more complex (I will never forget how he wrote that he was glad he would die in WWI because he didn't want to live in the world after the horrors he'd seen).
Lastly, and very importantly--LM Montgomery's characters are different. They're distinct from each other. It's not the same generic woman copy and pasted into different books. Marilla is very different from Anne, who is very different from Jane, who is very different from Rilla. Admittedly, Emily and Anne and I'll just throw Pat in there get to be more similar, but it's not to the point where I'd fault anyone for it. Each of those woman has their own voice, which is just a treasure trove for me.
Okay, (2)-- the sense of humor. The passages I've already shared do an excellent job demonstrating this, but LM Montgomery does a fantastic job of slyly (but usually not meanly!) making fun of people and their quirks. See Jane as she leads the escaped lion through the neighborhood--each of the reactions are hilarious, and also a callback to the earlier point of a well fleshed out character in just a few words. Beyond the amused commentary on human nature, she also just has really funny situations. My favorite short story of hers is where a spinster woman who notoriously hates men and dogs but loves cats, and a man who notoriously hates women and cats but loves dogs have to quarantine together and end up falling in love. It's ridiculous (and to be blunt, definitely sexist in some ways) but hilarious, and it also gave us this amazing quote: "The more I saw of men, the more I liked cats." Back to point 1, I also love how the spinster woman, while extremely practical and sufficient, is terrified of teaching a child Anne Shirley in Sunday School because the questions that child asks! An interesting wrinkle to have a character we're supposed to root for be intimidated by a character we also love.
LM Montgomery poking fun at humans leads me to the last point, (3)--she's not afraid to celebrate the little joys of life. The best example of this is Anne's famous quote about being so happy to live in a world with Octobers in it. It makes her writing warm, and cozy, and more than that--hopeful, even when she deals with darker storylines like WWI. I know LM Montgomery gets accused of being saccharine, and it's fair--she does have long passages describing the glories of sunshine haha--but she doesn't shy away from the darker elements of life. It's only implied in Anne, with her orphan backstory, but it's more explicitly stated in her later books, probably best in Rilla and The Blue Castle. There are characters who were neglected and abused; characters who have sex outside marriage in scandals; characters who are deeply depressed; characters who miss out on their happy ending; characters who are just plain narcissists (looking at you, Jane's Grandmother); characters who have miscarriages; characters who are literally groomed (see Emily and Dean, although LM Montgomery doesn't critically examine it). I don't really give much credence to the claims of being saccharine beyond a few books, because the grittiness is there if you look for it, and often times it's in a form that's all too real to life. Sure, everything gets wrapped up a happily ever after bow at the end the vast majority of the time, but that's just the genre haha. LM Montgomery tells the stories of characters who experience things most of us do in our everyday life, both the joys and sorrows, and it's enough. It doesn't need to be anything more. It recognizes the quiet dignity and joy in everyday living, and I love, love, love when stories do that. It's a refreshing response in a world in which a lot media that can either be boomingly fast paced or boringly cynical.
anyway, thanks again for your question and letting me ramble to my heart's content (you're talking to someone who just wrote a nearly 30k word fanfic based on Jane of Lantern hill), i could literally write a thesis on my love for LM mongtomery lmao
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n7punk · 2 months
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okay it took me awhile because Journey Into Lost Memories is a cut scene simulator for a good chunk of the game, but i've finished the entire Another Code: Recollection remake and i have some final thoughts (balls to the wall spoilers, do not click if you haven't played the game)
not gonna talk much about the first game since i already wrote a fucking essay on it, but i will say having taken the collection as a whole now, i firmly prefer the original. the remake isn't a bad game, just not quite the game the original was.
for Trace Memory/Two Memories anyway. the sequel... i have more problems with
first of all i never played the original sequel because it didn't exist in america, and im too fatigued to watch a playthrough now but i do fully intend to. That said, i could still see changes just with the context of what changes they made in the first one.
there is like. one puzzle per chapter for the first chunk of the game. like max. chapter one has getting... aw fuck i just played it and i forgot his name, but the guesthouse staffer's attention. and then there's the "puzzle" to unlock the door (given what the RAS looks like, i assume this use to be motion control bullshit, so i'll take the series of button prompts instead, it's just kind of a ridiculous way to hack lmao) and proving your innocence (wow a whole two puzzles). and then... i think the next puzzle is rescuing matthew? which is being a bit generous.
the boathouse was the first time it felt like i was playing the same game as the original series, and there's like... chapter 2 or 3? the boathouse was good, but then it's not good (puzzle wise) for... several chapters. like im trying to list puzzles off and i know im missing some but off the top of my head: music box, finding the keys, the clock tower, the resort headquarters, then the whole thing in JC valley where it's a Trace Memory game again. all that is in pretty quick secession but the first couple chapters drag and are mostly watching cutscenes doing a lot of set-up that doesn't give you enough clues for you to feel like you're trying to solve something, and thus mentally engaged. i actually started cutting off dialogue, hitting A without listening to the VA the second I had skimmed through the dialogue, because there was just way too much cutscene. this is not a puzzle game for like five chapters, it's Life Is Strange or something.
i don't need to play the original to know they cut a ton of puzzles from this second game. i really felt like i was going insane without the lack of balance in the second game. and the thing is, once the story happens, it's interesting! but goddamn is there 2, maybe 3 chapters of story in a 7 chapter game.
for the story... the part with matthew's dad was interesting to me, but like i said, gathering (very little) information on that takes up the first half of the game and then it all happens at once. also why did they change the ghost rules for this game. why does kelly look like that. they should have standardized that in this remake. kelly plays by completely different rules than d and im not a fan.
the zipper on her doll being a red herring was pretty funny tho lmao. i was literally in the middle of telling my mom it was driving me crazy that ashley hadn't thought to try it yet when i got the chance to inspect it and found the actual secret.
the pollution plotline also felt nonsensical at points, and it does mostly get justified later (why the fuck did her dad just happen to make an app for the DAS - something with like 4 apps - for measuring water quality? ok later it gets tied into liquid memory, but it had me laughing out loud for how convenient it was at the time) and tbh the plotline with the lab did too at times, but the ryan plotline was good. im still not clear on what memories were taken from sayoka? like they made it sound like they wiped her memory at some points, but that straight up can't be possible so i just dont know. like the reason behind it made since and every but idk... there were a lot of little things here that were messy and i would have expected them to fix and unify across games in a remake, especially considering how much they changed. i can't tell when the hell sayoko went to lake juliet. was it like, a day before she died? a month? year? can't have been more than a year, but again, wiping her memory doesn't make a lot of sense.
also like. sorry. but ryan is supposed to kind of be 6 years old (he has been strong since the pollution) so did he just... god how the hell did he get involved in the bill and gina thing. bill had been using richard for 7 years already, ever since he killed sayoko, but when did gina get involved, and then when did ryan? he had to be involved for at least two years since bill sent the source code to jc but... god i have a migraine and i CANNOT make sense of this. i think bill thought he was the mastermind, he got in touch with gina through his "buyer" (no idea if she already worked there, or got a job "undercover" for more info on the prototype, or was placed undercover after blood edward island fell apart. i dont think a timeline for her and rex's relationship was given that would have helped place this, just his divorce which was a few years ago and could have happened before she arrived or after - maybe even because of - her arrival).
god im rambling so much. basically i think the ryan stuff was good (i out loud went "OH HE'S TRYING TO MAKE A NEW SAYOKO" when i figured it out and that was a good feeling), but things with the lab/another project history got very twisty and the early game (camping, matthew's plotline, and the band/music plotline that... didn't really go anywhere aside from making gina suspicious, which is fine, but trim down all the long ass cutscenes then) had way too little gameplay and especially PUZZLES that just made it drag on.
ive seen a few mentions of changes now im daring to look at the tag and it is making me excited to watch a playthrough to see the original version of the game too, but my current assessment is that the sequel probably suffered heavily from the cuts/changes. maybe it always had these problems, but i doubt it. i also might replay the original trace memory until i hit a brick wall. i doubt citra has support for it lmao.
oh also im never going to get over them just calling it "the Big Deal Band Contest" thats a fucking placeholder title i put in and then can't come up with anything better but they did it for a video game (post-remake!) and not a goofy fanfic
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zorkaya · 1 year
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Morning, besties. Ya girl is back from her hiatus 1 day early, but only to update y'all beautiful souls about what's going on.
Did u miss seeing me and Zarina on ur dash (say yes 🔪)? ;)
I had the time to just chill out, concentrate on my real life, and understand that I'll be doing some things differently. I over-hoarded drafts and asks. Every year this happens, and I just never fucking learn, but I'll try to take my time to sort out everything. This means that I'll be looking through my endless list of drafts and finally replying to them (thank u brain for finally working).
I have a queue prepared to start tomorrow until 17-18th for now. It's 3 posts per day, but I'll keep it to 2 posts per day after 18th of March. I'll be absent today as well, even though I came back but it's like... Update-update. Still not going to reach out regarding plots because I'm still not back with those thoughts and ideas.
If YOU have ideas for plotting, through them at me!
It was SOOOOO NICE to take a break from Tumblr and just? Play games? Read books? Just vibe. Also re-connect with some of Zarina's personality traits that I've let to float around. Now, thanks to PTN, I finally understand how to write some of Zarina's apathetic sides and it made me super happy. I'll also post some of the metas I finally sat down to write. I just might continue this type of existence for the whole month of March due to how much I need to do.
I probably will be giving myself like week-long rests without Tumblr on my phone. I'll probably still take a bit of a long time to rest and not really communicate with anyone yet because I still feel like I need a bit more time there. I'm still playing games but I'm also especially busy this month (graduate school registrations, essays, recommendation letters, applying, all of that jazz). 'Cuz of that I'll probably full-on rely on queue. And yes, I wrote things over my hiatus because I just cannot leave my girl alone lmao. Thank u Google Docs for existing.
Hope y'all are safe. I've got things already queued. Today's gonna be a busy work day, and I've got a call with one of the universities before my application to ask some questions, yahoo! Have a fantastic day. Just know that the activity will only be continued through queue for now. I'll also try to limit my ooc posting because I think the amount that I posted made ME overwhelmed as well since I want to have more IC content to interact with people and not make others feel like I forgot or worse. I really was burnt out and I'm sorry if I hurt anyone, made them feel forgotten, or I made them annoyed with my activity/words/ooc posts.
I still struggle with replying to people socially/ooc-ly even in real life, but I'll try to do better. Over the course of my previous job, I was over-stressed but I also... lost touch with many people. And I didn't chase them because, yes, I didn't keep in touch and it was my fault. However, I will do my best to not let this happen again. I cannot promise anything as I still do not have stability in my life (and didn't have for the last, what, 5 years?) and I cannot make any definity promises. I promise to do better, but that's all I can do. And I will do my fucking best.
Oof, thanks you for reading this! Take care of yourselves. I'm gonna try to concentrate on drafts instead of asks these days because that's how active interactions go and I want to interact. Let's fucking go!!
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morrak · 1 year
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Untitled Wednesday Library Series, Part 98
A significant portion of my academic energy is spent griping about how people put too much emphasis on book-as-standard-unit/instance-of-written-work (the semiotic environment is bad and usually also wrong!). And yet I continue to talk mostly about books in this post series (which isn’t nominally about books, but rather a (my) collection(ish) of written works of all sorts). Interesting, yes?
Anyway, this one’s about a book chapter. To wit: the second in Marc Ereshefksy’s 2001 The Poverty of the Linnaean Hierarchy: A Philosophical Study of Biological Taxonomy. My copy comes from Cambridge University Press’ New York location.
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The How
One of my information science professors — Southern California type; background in corporate knowledge management; practical shoes — had soft spots for information taxonomy and botanical databases. I wrote her a glitterbomb of a final essay reviewing some papers on digital and biological identifiers as memory devices, which earned me this recommendation.
Evidently she uses this chapter for her mostly non-science-background-having information taxonomy students to explain evolutionary systems. She seemed very excited to find someone who ‘might like it’ because everyone else thinks it’s the worst thing she assigns. A good choice for winter reading, I thought. I was right, I think.
The Text
Ereshefsky’s argument, while interesting, does not concern us here. We focus instead on its second chapter, ‘A Primer of Biological Taxonomy’, which is connected only barely to the rest of the text.
Every book about taxonomy, you understand, has to have The Chapter. Usually The Chapter is the second one, as here. The Chapter must do several things. It must have The Figures, which show all sorts of abstracted cladograms and phylogenetic trees. It must explain monophyly, paraphyly, and polyphyly. It must recapitulate at least three (3) species concepts, including Mayr’s biological one. It must do these things in a way that sets it apart as little as possible from other The Chapters, because The Chapter is torch to be carried (however poorly) and not a wheel to be reinvented or (heaven forbid) slashed. You do not fuck with The Chapter.
It is possible to fuck up The Chapter. Many authors do. Ereshefsky does not. His is, by most metrics, the best The Chapter I have ever read, and I have read many. There are explained each of four major schools of classification, seven major species concepts, and some important historical conflicts and congruencies between the same. The diagramming is tight. The pace is good. Words are used well and sentences strung together. Few embellishments but lots of good teaching.
This is definitely written by a philosopher and not a trading biologist, but it is possibly better (for some applications) for that. One failure might be that it is inaccessible. Another success might be its honesty.
The Object
I must gripe a bit. Diagrams really ought to be closer to their mentions in the text. Typesetting an entire book is no mean feat and often close agreement between figures and text blocks is impossible. Even so, far too many of the swings here are missed. It is atimes clunky. Endnotes are a similar pain. Give me footnotes instead. Cowards.
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The package is nice, easy to read from, and well sectioned. Uninspired B+.
The Why, Though?
The rest of this book will appear in a later installment of UWLS, but for now I offer this and a promise to send scans to anyone who wants The Chapter for personal or teaching reasons. My wallet will not allow me to say this alone was worth the price of admission, but I’m tempted to. I feel a concerning amount of relief? pride? at the way this chapter manages what most textbooks don’t.
Oh, and the bits citing Mayr do the rare next thing by citing preceding works handling concepts of reproductive isolation. Mayr’s definitions, plural, are too commonly crunched down. Points for that.
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meikuree · 1 year
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fanfic author self-recs
thank you @chocochipbiscuit for tagging me - this was a delightful challenge! tagging @rose-gardens @mikbates @pretty-rage-machine @mariaaxescallop @leksaa90 @ostreatus @minoan-ophidian​ and anyone else who’d like to do this.
diving in, my five:
1) the sun coming out (Jiyeong/Kang Saebyeok) - Squid Game: wrote this for a lovely recip in an exchange, who liked/wanted post-canon fic. in practice I like exploring aftermaths & fix-its where people’s road(s) to happiness still have to be worked for and not every kink’s been smoothed out, and this fic is a prime example of that for me.
alternative tldr: “LOOK at the parallels between jiyeong and saebyeok. LOOK at them” fic complete with cooking and partial recovery. I’m deeply lucky my recip enabled my, uh, runaway domestic jiyeong/saebyeok aspirations and the latitude to write all that. <3
2) the slow mending (Pieck/Hange) - Shingeki no Kyojin: wrote this for a prescient friend -- my concept line was something like... political & historical differences patched through the good old reliable tactic of learning to read, understand, and trust your enemies. I’m still fond of this bit:
So Hange, conscious of historical precedence—what they have both usually done to each other in encounters like this, her titan’s gravestone teeth in Shiganshina and their aggression in Liberio—tries something new instead. They clasp her clean hand in theirs, and draw it close against their face. At the sensation of the contact-burn, her elevated shifter heat kissing their fingers, Hange very gently presses their lips to her hand.
3) to walk along the edge (Pieck/Annie) - Shingeki no Kyojin: this was a sophomore fic; some parts induce the facepalm emoji now, but I’m also surprised by how well certain parts hold up, and I think of this in some ways as a magnum opus.
despite the heavy subject matter and unhappy ending, I’ve been told this fic is comforting, and that humbles me. I sometimes find sad and bittersweet stories more comforting than staunchly happy ones myself; whether consciously or not, I think my writing here came from that same place.
4) blood to gold (Pieck/Hange) - Shingeki no Kyojin: looking back now this fic set up all my Classic Hits like, grief/mourning, hope amidst bleakness, thoughtful narrative voices, and so on. I wrote this shortly after reading the widely circulated essay Against the Logic of the Guillotine. I still like these lines:
Vengeance feels like a guillotine—an entity that wants justice to be served with a swift, purifying cut. Let history renew itself on a clean slate free of enemies.
5) the centre cannot hold (genfic; Hitch & Annie) - SNK: situational horror! missing scenes! stoic characters having said stoicism eroded! the slippage of time and memory; writing this was a blast.
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undercoverpena · 1 year
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A little Ghost discussion thread here perhaps? i hope this doesn't get too long but i'll try to be on point as much as possible and what i find very intriguing in how you wrote him.
So, going from his bio, in game or wiki, we know that he initially wears a mask because of his redacted past and to conceal his identity on the field, this means that he has most probably done some really ....questionable grey things that even he wasn't proud of, it's how it is, i think SAS really do operate in a very grey area and all (but i am not an expert nor do i live in UK so correct me if i am wrong) - and before all that, his traumatic upbringing and all he went through and how he still fought to be at least a "decent" human being how much he could manage to at least despite everything. Following up that he was definitely betrayed and burned alot of times, hence his trust issues and solitude seeking. but i think his desire for loneliness or being solo isn't just because of that, i think it also probably ties to his childhood traumas and all. Poor man. </3
Now i wanna bring up how you wrote him, i think, same as IW writers, they gave him these arcs in game where he's with Soap and how he basically unlocks something in Ghost, if you can call it that, where he allows Ghost to trust him and respect him even, they bonded because at one point, all they had was each other in that mission and he was initially gonna leave him because as he stated "out of habit of working alone" but instead we see more of him, how all these interactions humanized him and proves that he is just as human, perhaps distant and cold as a guard he keeps up but still a being that cares nonetheless, and by keeping people at arms lenght. The way you wrote him and still kept who Ghost and Simon are on point to me, it feels real and so in character, i love how you wrote him with the character Helen, they have history and it's very believable, it's something he did when they were younger if i remember correctly? And then he opened his mouth lmao but honestly, to have someone he loves so deeply and considers them their sun/world even? It just speaks what Ghost went through and what he was missing in his life. Love. No matter what kind, it's what he deeply needed and you gave him just that. And i love you for it. I hope you continue writing for them for as long as you feel inspired and into his character. You're incredibly talented and i now wrote an essay smh.
If you want, you can tell me what you think or you can yeet this ask out the window <3
Cheers~
honestly, with nearly all of my characters — but especially ghost like ones — i’ll find a thread i can pull. in his instance, it’s as you pointed out, him waiting for soap. but it wasn’t that he was funny or that he stayed because they bonded, but because it allowed ghost to be vulnerable. not trust soap, but be vulnerable. put himself at risk for another person that could mean he’d get a bullet in his head. cause at the end when they reunite outside the church, he’s being shot at. and i kinda pulled on that, to create helen. like what kind of person would make him choose to willingly be maskless, and a medic was my first choice, cause y’know, but also someone who respects it immediately. someone who wouldn’t push his need for solitude and walls, but be there waiting for when he decides to open the door of fort-ghost.
but, even with soap “cracking” ghost, i don’t think he’s any different outside of their small group. and some days he’s still an absolute arsehole. which is why when making helen, i wanted to have her in his life prior to when it began. this like little thing/blip in his life he’s not really ever dealt with. who is there, standing before him, and the name helen just slips out and here they are. because under all the armour, mask and scars, he’s still just a person who wants to be loved.
his trauma is soemthing i handle with so much care and is 100% woven into my idea of his backstory. and while i’ve not explored hers entirely - and am unsure if i want too currently - she has things too. which is why the life they do build together is so very in nod to what life they’re willing to accept they deserve. because people who have trauma (from experience) aren’t willing to accept that they deserve good things, and it’s something that sorta underpins them. they’re each others rocks, suns, moons etc. in that regard.
but now i’ve rambled on, thank you for all the lovely things you said! i really appreciate it, and i hope i somewhat provided a little bit of what you wanted when you sent in such an incredible ask ♥️
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iggykoopa666 · 8 months
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i have to be up in like 3 hours so naturally i wrote a whole fuckin essay about splatoon 3 storymode plotholes (dumping here)
mannnn i keep thinking about like. the lore info gained from rise of the mammalians is soooooooooo so good but the actual Story is. like not very good at all. i think it is the weakest story mode in splatoon thus far.
-mr grizz stealing octavios army makes very little sense and comes off as an excuse to not design new enemies (would make way more sense & be cooler to have fucked up goop mammal experiments imo like can u imagine)
-despite his army being stolen octavio is nowhere to be found for the entire story except the very end, and then he just disappears again after the final boss
-why did grizz need cuttlefishs brain. it is never clarified what purpose that served.
-bigfry??? i am not as mad at this cuz its easy for me to rationalize like "he ate all that fucked up goop so thats why :)" but its not actually explained how/why that happened . seems like a missed opportunity to have a sunken scroll foreshadowing about like "in salmonid folktales theres a legend about a smallfry growing huge when..." etc etc. thinking abt it it could also just be a parallel to taht one japanese folktale of the fish that became a dragon (magikarp/gyrados inspiration for example) maybe ??? idk tho youd think that for a series thats so in depth with its lore itd be less out of the blue (i say that but a lot of stuff in rotm is indeed very Out Of The Blue lol)
-all the "save our salmon" foreshadowing during splatoon 2 being completely forgotten. i was really hoping rotm focusing on mr grizz as an antagonist would serve to also tell the salmonids story, and liberate them in a way like how octo expansion did for octolings. but i guess thats been discarded. unsurprising since salmon run is so popular; it makes sense theyd want to set them up as longterm enemies now instead. i cant complain too much since its my fav game mode lolllll.
-deep cut felt very shoehorned in. they had no connection to the actual plot happening at all and didnt really do anything other than be boss battles. even wen they do join your side they just serve as navigators, a position already fulfilled by callie & marie. at first i wasnt super worried cuz off the hook didnt get any story attention at all till octo expansion came out, but since side order seems to focus on off the hook & 8 again i worry that deep cut's time in the spotlight has passed and theyve been sidelined.
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ooops-i-arted · 1 year
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I'm relieved to see that at least some other Star Wars fans are as sick of Ahsoka Tano as I am. Do you think there'll ever be a point where Dave Filoni will ever get rid of the annoying orange for good? With him literally breaking the space contiuum to save her from what would have been a fitting end for her character, I think it's doubtful.
No, not as long as he's in charge of Star Wars and as long as the majority keeps eating up his version of Star Wars. Everything he touches has to be part of his Ahsoka & TCW Extended Universe. (I'll spare you an essay on how much anxiety I have over Mandalorian season 3 just being another season of Din being pingponged between Filoni's favorite plot arcs instead of the story being about him and Grogu. I miss the freshness of season 1 so much, with all its new planets and characters I fell in love with, just being consumed by TCW plots/characters. Bo-Katan & the potential of the Mandalore storyline excite me but I am just so worried it'll be about what Filoni cares about rather than what's best for the story and Din's arc.)
Ahsoka won't die unless Filoni comes up with what, to him, is an epic and worthy death (probably where she saves the galaxy, stops Order 66, and can live happily ever after in an alternate universe with Anakin forever; Padme and her importance to Anakin are completely ignored, of course) and even then he'll just go back and write EVEN MORE fanfic about her life like more Tales of the Jedi stuff about her past, or a whole What If series focused on her, or something else equally ridiculous. Imo he's basically a fanfic writer promoted to canon and he's gonna make all of us look at his sooper speshul awesome OC until the end of time.
Not intended as a diss on fanfic writers or anything, just that his attitude is the same I had when working on my super amazing powerful perfect Jedi OC when I was eleven. Which was great! I loved it! I had so much fun! But I was eleven. I have higher quality writing now. Like, No Prison Can Hold was just the adult version of me playing with my action figures, but I still wanted to tell a story with a beginning/middle/end, have a character arc for Din, and keep all characters aligned with canon once I decided it was a story that should be that way (and in fanfic you don't have to do that! in canon you do!). If I wrote like Filoni, Din would be rescued by my super amazing Jedi OC from childhood, she would hold his hand and lead him through the whole rescue and always be right, and the climax would be how SHE felt about Din and Grogu's reunion. It would be a much less satisfying and well-written story if I sacrificed the story itself at the altar of my favorite OC.
Tl;dr I have Concerns about the writing quality and I see Ahsoka as the canary in the coal mine for it. Especially after Book of Boba Fett, where Din was the Super Special OC taking over the show (Din is just a more balanced character, he has flaws and doubts and a more realistic skill level; 14 year old Din wasn't beating General Grievous for example), but of course we had to shove Ahsoka in there too, and Cad Bane to finish an arc THAT WAS NEVER EVEN IN TCW AND I NEVER WOULD HAVE KNOWN ABOUT WITHOUT TUMBLR, so I'm guessing the average audience member didn't know about it, and DIN AND GROGU ARE REUNITED IN NOT EVEN THEIR OWN SHOW, a HUGE moment and like ten minutes after being separated which was a big deal so it doesn't even feel earned, like this was a travesty of writing. Ahsoka is just one of the more obvious symptoms of writing whatever you want instead of planning a coherent arc and caring more about connecting your show to another show instead of focusing on your main character and making the story actually about them.
....I guess you got an essay after all. Oops. Like I said I have strong feelings on this. If I, a fanfic writer with a full time job on my hands (being paid WAY less than Filoni, I assume), can make the time to write with consistency and character arcs and focusing on the main character and all that, surely Filoni should be able to when it is literally his job.
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that-wasnt-so-bad · 11 months
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💖, 🤔, and 💻 for the fanfic ask game?? <3
Lekha, thank you for asking!!!!
💖 What do you like most about your own writing?
I was once told I focus on the emotional narrative more than just, well, a narrative and some of my teachers (all my drama ones and two of my English ones, I miss all these teachers erryday) complimented my writing style every time I wrote (creatively, apparently for my engish gcse coursework my mice of men essay was 'too narrative' but I was a mark of an A so that's a win in my book XD), so my style itself!
Specifically when I have a string of great ideas that can be almost 'poetic' in its nature. No idea where I got it from but in my youth, I did read a lot of poetry and dabbled in writing (can no longer write poetry though, but I used to write some nearly daily. Mostly sonnets) so I guess my poetic ways have ust bled into my fictional pieces instead! :D
Also, I apparently write slow burn well (I cannot deny enjoying writing Mitri giving in to this insatiable desire to just hold Easwith's face, then beg and plead internally for her t back away but she keeps him there instead. Gets me good).
Really, whenever I've anything that reads almost poetic you know I'm having a good writing day so gotta put that up top!
I can't remember what chapter of chasing daybreak it was, but there was a paragraph I described Easwith's feelings and turmoil like a raging sea crashing into rocky coastlines and that was a good one. It was def post timeskip, but I can't remember if it was post or pre grondor...
🤔 What is the hardest part of writing fic?
It changes day by day depending upon how tired I am or the weather, but I think it's most commonly finding words. I always know exactly what I'm trying to describe, but finding the woods to describe the depth of that emotion is such a hard one because I am being serious where all the words that would wok contextually so very never describe it accurately enough. Eventually abysses and chasms just aren't at all deep enough! So I have to try and find poetic license with my vocab to get the right flavours, depths, emotions, and then just hope and pray to the vocab gods it works.
Sometime though my brain just comes up with nada XD
💻 Do you do research for your fics? What’s the deepest dive you’ve done?
I have watched a great many documentaries since I was very very young, so most of the things I know when it comes to my favoured genres, I've known for so many years and said so much it's just memory. Sometimes I have to double-check something (like medieval soldier lunches) or try to find the name of weapons (like Viking Axes must have a more specific name, but lo all my searches have come up with very little! Though I know the Saxon word for sword which helps a little. But Do I know their mask helmets where they have eye sockets? No! No answers turning up there either!).
For my original fic I did research saxon gods and goddesses, their months and their days of the week (and winterfyleth means winter moon, which they called October because the October full moon was the start of winter!) But I think, really, my deepest dives i etymology.
Since I have to create place names (and use already existing English place names for Holdfréond territory) for Holdfréond and Ellen places, I go into deep dives of old English and norse words, plus place names.
Now that's easy because William the Conqueruer didn't change place names so most English places still have their pre norman names (my town's name has celtic origin, a town twenty minutes away is saxon origin, etc etc) and the deep dives into etymology and searching old English dictionaries for words to create place names and to add into sentences for dialogue purposes is great fun! Like combe is a bowl shaped valley and holt is a specific type of wood, hamme is a water meadow and hamm is just a normal meadow (though thee days they're all ham because whilst the normans didn' change pace names, they sure did change spellings and began the dripping of letters).
It kinda connects me better to my ancestors and the language, since it's 70 per cent Saxon and Norse, and I can see the origins ofwords in front of my eyes.
My little history brain gets very enthusiastic about etymology and ill spend hours digging :) Like nostalgia comes from Greek Nostos (home) and Algos (pain) so it should mean 'acute homesickness' (though it did in the 1700s) rather than like 'oh this smell is so nostalgic! I'm happy now.' Like it's really te pain for longing for home, wherever or whatever that may be.
I just get to be nerdy XD
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187days · 1 year
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Day Forty-Eight
First quarter is over! Woohoo!
I was really busy during flex block because I was helping students who were revising papers, retaking tests, etc... And I was simultaneously overseeing the first meeting of the school’s new debate club (some of my seniors asked me to be the advisor, I said sure). Really, it was just a planning session, so I was able to work with other students while it was going on; the ten or so kids who were really interested in starting the club gathered to figure out how they wanted to run the meetings, topics they wanted to debate, how to advertise to get more members. I checked in every few minutes, made some suggestions, set up a space in Classroom for them. It’s very cool.
I was also really busy during my prep time because I was grading aforementioned retakes and revisions, fielding questions from parents, putting report card comments in PowerSchool, all the usual things. I managed to get it all done, though, so I didn’t have to stay late on a Friday. Go me. 
The end of the quarter is most exciting for the freshmen, who are now halfway through their first high school classes, and, I’m happy to report, doing quite well. I had them reflect on their experience in World thus so far, and a lot of them wrote that they were happy with their progress, or feeling like they’ve gotten better at particular skills, that kind of thing. So that’s awesome. 
After they wrote those reflections, they did a quick peer review of another student’s religion/philosophy essay (I made copies without names, put them in Classroom, had everyone choose one; they had to tell me what they learned from it, and what they thought the author did well and/or could improve). And after that we started a new unit! I gave a basic overview of what they could expect in the coming weeks, explained how and when they would be assessed, and gave vocabulary notes in my usual, old school style. I got a little bit behind in my Block 2 class, so I was going to save the last third of the notes for Monday so as not to cut into silent reading time, but the students took a vote (fitting, as the new unit is about government and history, and one of the terms is democracy) and decided they wanted to finish today. So that’s what we did. In Block 3, my timing was spot on, so it wasn’t even an issue. It’s always easier the second go-around, and I’ve said in past entries that the students in that section tend to complete their work more quickly.
My GOV students spent their class time working on Major Case Projects, which are looking really good. I think most groups have finished gathering the requisite information, so on Monday they’ll polish their presentations and actually practice speaking. I could’ve imposed a tighter deadline, had the projects due Monday instead, but I want them to have that practice time. Even for seniors, sometimes, public speaking is hard. Heck, even for me it can be hard! Preparation is the key. 
Oh, and there was this convo with one of the captains of the football team:
Student A: You guys have a play-off game on Saturday? FB Captain: Yup. And we’re gonna win. Me: Against who? FB Captain: It’s against <Opposing Team Name> Me: Oh, kid, I’m really sorry, but you’re gonna get crushed. FB Captain: Come on, Miss M, don’t say that!  Me: They crush us in every sport. Didn’t they crush you guys last season? FB Captain: ... Okay, yes. It was 45-0. But it’s a new season! Student A: Yeah, Miss M, it’s a new season! FB Captain: Gotta keep the faith. Winning mentality. Me: Alright, alright. I’ll keep the faith. Go do it. FB Captain: That’s right. We’ll revisit this Monday, Miss M.
I absolutely love the optimism and the fire. And we will, indeed, revisit this Monday!
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jupitercomet · 1 year
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hi:) im trying to write a fanfic for the first time and i was wondering if you have any tips! i like my concept but i feel like my writing is no good. do you know anyone who would be willing/able to proofread my work and tell me how i can improve? i’ll take all the help i can get because i’d LOVE to publish something on here.
you are one of my favorite writers and i’d appreciate any advice you could give. :))
okay so I am by no means an expert on writing, but I will do my best!
I think the most obvious advice is write what you want to read, like if it's a story line you wouldn't be interested in reading, you probably won't be interested in writing it either.
but I guess my personal advice on that note would be write how you want to write too. love writing dialogue? write dialogue. love character building? focus on character building. I think that (especially with the way some of those pretentious tiktok girlies talk about fanfic and classic literature 🙄) there's kind of a pressure for writing to have really deep meanings or metaphors, but if that's not something you like, don't write it.
I started writing super young, so I've had a lot of practice (I wish I had some of the first things I wrote that I could show you guys because they are the cringiest things I swear) but my point is that practice is what is really going to be what strengthens your writing. also people on here are super nice, like there's definitely a few fics I've posted that I'm not that proud of or think aren't that good, but I know that people's positive feedback is a big motivator for me so I'll post it anyway.
ALSO super important if you post on tumblr: make sure you're ultimately writing for yourself. I remember really caring about notes and such when I like first started posting on tumblr and it would be really demotivating when I'd work super hard on something and it would get like 30 notes. but now (while I love seeing peoples reactions and it's super motivating) I'm also okay when I don't get those notes. like writing is something I do for myself because I love it and ultimately, if I'm proud of it then that's enough.
as for writing tips:
I don't have anyone edit or proofread my writing but (I do this for essays too so school tip ig) you can copy and paste your writing into like an english to english translator and have siri read it to you and that will help you catch misspelled words, missing words, etc.
I use google docs to write all my fics because tumblr doesn't have great editing catchers (also because once I posted something and it completely disappeared so I had to write all of it again lmao)
I also edit my fics on my computer but I read them on my phone because the dimensions are different and sometimes paragraphs look way longer on mobile.
I use a website called OneLook Thesaurus which helps me if I'm repeating a word or if I can't remember a specific word because you can look up things like "looking madly at someone" or "part of the house where dishes are" and it will give you the words you might be thinking of.
when it comes to series or long fics (or short fics too ig) I don't always write in order. sometimes when you're planning out a story, there are parts that you are going to be more excited to write and, I say, write them! for example, I wrote the scene of Bradley comforting Dove when she wakes up after like chapter 3. because, when I sat down to write, that was what I wanted to write. any progress you put into a fic is progress, so write the scene you already have planned out/are excited to write, instead of staring at the computer trying to figure out what happens next.
anyway, I think that's all the tips I have, I hope they're somewhat useful lol. if you do ending up posting something, please tag me if you're comfortable, I'd love to read it!
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