#I'm not talking about someone with a couple hundred that maybe have 2 people do the challenge that they can interact with and thank properl

[daintydoilypon]

Maybe an unpopular opinion here but...

Am I the only one who thinks when big artists do a 'Draw This Yourself' challenge of their OC, it's kinda exploitative? Like, they know they have many fans, most probably young, that want to get their attention, so their fans draw free art of their OC for this "challenge".

It bugs me, especially when it's a very complex OC that would be expensive to have commissioned in general or, at the very least, fall under an additional complex design fee. It gives off a "I don't want to pay to have my complex character drawn, so let me make it a challenge so I get free art" vibe.

#text post #like if it's of a character from a franchise ok but when it's an ACTUAL OC like HMM ya know? #long post #I say this to specifically really BIG artists that have thousands upon thousands of followers that make some BIG bucks #I'm not talking about someone with a couple hundred that maybe have 2 people do the challenge that they can interact with and thank properl #or draw something in return kinda thing #like we got on that one guy that tried to exploit young animators for free work for eXpOsUre like this is the same thing #imo of course

[adelarsims]

Hi XD

I actually do wanna learn more ab them! And I have a few specific questions if you don't mind!

How old are they really?

They seem a bit obsessed with looking young, is there a reason for that?

Why don't they use a wand if it helps keep their hands looking younger?

What changed them from a snob to a slightly more uhm personable person?

What do they teach?

Also here is your excuse to ramble about world building and magic cus I love this stuff

Another more vague one, you mentioned their childhood was rough, can you talk more ab that?

Finally because I feel like I'm overstaying my welcome, how did they discover they have feelings for Caleb?

1. let’s just say over a hundred. caleb once told cassie that 100+ years old feels better than 97 or something, because there's something romantic about being 'over a hundred', like straight out of a fairy tale, while 97 is just a really old grandpa :D

2. when they imagine looking in the mirror and seeing their hair grey and face wrinkled, they're terrified. it’s not a simple vanity - many spellcasters share this fear, when you don't see the constant flow of time when you look in the mirror, your image of yourself freezes like a fly in the amber - and going back into that flow gets more and more terrifying because it feels like suddenly the end nears faster. not all spellcasters choose to prolong their life, but those who do find it hard to stop. as for the youthful look... i think Morgyn just craves to feel at their peak, being the perfect image of themselves in everything. they were deprived of feeling worthy in their early years, so they keep proving and proving otherwise. especially after some discoveries about themselves that upended their understanding of who they are and thrown them into a deep identity crisis – they would grasp at all perfection that is still within their power to maintain. well... maybe it's also a bit of vanity, too.

3. it’s just more natural for them to cast with their hands and gives them access to much stronger magic. a wand doesn’t hold any magic itself, it’s like a laser pointer for magical energy, helps to focus and direct it. spellcasters need wands, innate mages don’t, though they of course can use them too. hand magic is raw, it’s more powerful but requires mastery and precision, and allows to weave spells that aren’t accessible to wand users, because wand is a single-channel magic focus, so to speak, and hand magic allows multi-channeling it (so basically, there's a limit that former humans who learned magic can do, and for innate mages this limit is very far, if existing at all)

4. oh no, don’t mistake a snob for an insufferable asshole. they were always personable. they’re likeable, cheeky, warm and affectionate to those they’re close with, especially those who appreciate and accept them, even though their position as a grand sage and academia headmaster naturally made them more reserved. and they’re still snobbish about magic, they know no one will do it better than them when it comes to spells, tend to nitpick mistakes in others' spellcasting, and get annoyed when someone is being lazy or unreasonably cocky with their magic. they just were hot-headed about people doubting their prowess as a student, but they have matured a lot and have good self control now.

5. mostly advanced elemental magic, and a few arcane disciplines i’ve yet to find names for. magic schools in my morgynverse are quite different from what they are in the game, for example, practical school isn’t about cleaning dishes. it covers healing, herbalism and potions, enchanting equipment, crafting amulets, like that. the new jewery creating pack will work so damn good for my story, i can’t wait!

6. i already gave bits and pieces here and there on this post. i can tell you a couple minor things if you want. there’s a plant that is used in potions, it’s called cyclop’s brain, it has huge leaves and massive seed pods, and tiny tiny seeds. also, every four years, on 29th of february, “the day that does not exist”, the academia holds a huge event called Masquerade of Mysteries, it’s grand and magical and everyone is allowed to go all out with enchantments and costumes, every student and teacher is looking forward to it.

7. i’m not sure how much i should say considering that i hope to start telling my story one day and it’s a spoiler, but let’s just say they weren’t really accepted for who they are and were considered dangerous even though they never gave anyone any reason to be afraid of their magic (it’s not simply about them being a mage, that wouldn’t be as much of a problem as their origin)

8. slowly. eventually. they were physically attracted to Caleb from the beginning, but it’s doing right by one another that truly brings people together. Caleb was there for Morgyn when they needed it most.

#adelar ask #adelar’s storytime #morgyn ember

[bigupsdog]

Intro dialog for every Guilty Gear character day 2: Elphelt

Sol: A Rockstar now eh, ya like Queen?

El: Whoa, that's super retro, you really know your stuff, wait how old are you again?

Ky: Just so you know, no one back at Illyria castle saw you as any kind of burden.

El: I know, but I needed leave, I have to spread my voice.

May: Hay Elphelt, how are your sisters?

El: They're doing great, how are yours, it's alright if this takes a while.

Axl: You ever lose a person ya love?

El: Kind of, he was also a metal singer, but i'm still not really sure if I loved him or if I was told to love him.

Chipp: A rock star? Well I'm a ninja star.

El: The two of us will shine so bright we'll ignite the sky.

Potemkin: I always wanted to learn music, but I would break any instrument I'd get my hands on.

El: Oh no buddy, I'm sure we can make an instrument tough enough to handle your metal.

Faust: Diagnosis… butterflies… in… stomach.

El: Gross, get them out!

Milia: Not all love stories end in happily ever after I'm afraid.

El: Don't worry Millia you'll find the perfect someone someday.

Zato: Love? Is that what I feel when I'm around, her?

El: By her, do you mean, me!?!

Ram: Speothos Venaticus, hmm maybe we should get you a dog of your own.

El: Yes! Yes! Yes! Then your dog and my dog could be boyfriend and girlfriends, eek!

Leo: The castle has definitely been a lot less noisy since you left.

El: You can't scream your heart out in a place like that without someone else screaming at you to quiet down.

Nago: If you hand me that marriage certificate one more time I'll cut it to shreds.

El: Luckily I have hundreds more, so stop playing hard to get.

Gio: Speothos Venaticus? Met a couple of those where I'm from.

El: YOU DID! Tell me all about them and how they're the cutest, best thing in the world!

Anji: I wouldn't exactly say your music is good to dance too.

El: Oh you have to do a specific kind of dance, I think it's called the mosh.

I-No: Music, I prefer to call whatever you're doing, shit.

El: Well you're not very radio friendly.

Goldlewis: Never been much of a fan of metal, ya like county?

El: Nope :) But that's ok we all can like the music we like.

Jack-O: Just took Soooool on a really sappy daaaate.

El: Well don't hold out on me, let me hear all the juicy details.

HC: I've never heard anything like your music before, gotta say I'm a fan.

El: REALLY! If you sign here you can join my fanclub, it currently only has 4 members so seats are open!

Baiken: You're too loud I can barely hear myself think.

El: Oh sorry I'll try to play my new song “The Demons Deadly Wedding from Hell” a little quieter.

Testament: You were almost pupited to kill those you love… I'm happy you managed to avoid that fate.

El: Kliff… I know he loved you more than anything, even after you became a gear.

Bridget: I've heard about a secret energy called “Girl Power” can you teach me how to harness it?

El: My first decipl! I'll teach you everything I know!

Sin: So you decided to leave the castle and march to the beat of your own drum, I can respect that.

El: I'm marching alright and nothing's gonna slow me down, unless I trip.

Delilah: Would you mind quieting down? I'm trying to sleep.

El: I could sing you a death metal lullaby if you want.

Asuka R#: Just to warn you I am an artificial lifeform, but I am nothing like the Universal Will.

El: Just don't force people to do stuff they don't want to do and I guess you're fine.

Asuka R Kreutz: Any advice on being more entertaining for my podcast.

El: It's your lucky day cause you're talking to a girl who's listener count has doubled to 18, we'll get you your fans in no time.

Johnny: Love songs eh, ya got one for me?

El: Of course, and soon I'll have a song for every person on this planet.

ABA: Maybe one day you'll have half my charm and you can get a man half as good as Paracelsus.

El: Ahh thanks ABA, that's really sweet :)

#guilty gear #elphelt valentine #elphelt guilty gear #intro dialog

[allamericansbitch]

i want to preface this by saying that i became a fan of taylor after lover (which is ironic because it's one of my bottom 2 albums by her) but honestly i don't really care for taylor anymore, i saw her in july last year and enjoyed the concert and everything but again that was mainly because of the experience of it being my first big stadium show and the vibes of everyone dancing and singing along. and i'm really glad that i did have that experience. but i literally listened to ttpd once and i can't stand midnights for the most part, and my dislike for the music coupled with the way she's acted in the past year has really turned me off of her.

that being said, i think it's fascinating how taylor coopts whatever is big in the moment as part of her aesthetic for that album. like for lover era she was huge on politics and activism and lgbtq/women's rights because that kind of advocacy was really mainstream and popular at the time. and now it's been like four years since then and she doesn't really outwardly express any political sentiment one way or another. for folklore and evermore she really leaned into the quiet/homey/cottagecore aesthetic that was so popular during quarantine. and for midnights and the poets album she is really leaning into that whole depression/mental illness vibe that's really popular on social media right now, especially with the i'm just a girl rhetoric that's huge on tiktok. i can't really articulate that link super well but i feel like it's definitely there lol

all that to say, taylor's choice in aesthetics are so varied and that's fine in some cases i guess , but in some cases switching up like that out of nowhere is outright harmful - like her not caring about politics anymore, or romanticizing the "mental illness aesthetic" like she's doing right now. i don't know what i'm trying to get at here, but i feel like she wants to make sure she's as "in" as possible without considering how with such a large platform she is actively offending hundreds of thousands if not millions of people. and sure maybe she's disconnected from reality because of her fame so she can't really understand the impact of her actions (personally i don't think this, just a counterargument) but what i really don't understand is why someone on her team or a friend doesn't just say this to her. does no one care?

i totally agree and while reading this i may have thought of a possible reason she does this. i feel like this trend you're talking about really kicked into high gear with lover and making the entire theme of the album involve something very hot in the culture at the time, and what also kicked off at the time was Taylor being worried about her aging out of the industry and not being allowed to be successful anymore, like her talking about lover being her last chance for a hit album. so i think she, consciously or not, wanted to make sure she was keeping up with trends and being young.

and like you said this extends to now where it's very obvious she's not learning what the actual mental health terms mean and is more using them in a trendy way, she's not giving them any weight or making it known that she's serious, because serious mental health conversations aren't trendy, using them for dramatic purposes is. calling yourself 'delusional', 'manic' or having intrusive thoughts for comedic, dramatized purposes is what everyone is doing and now she's including herself in this trend of casual ableism and has also now crossed a line into blatantly using it for aesthetic purposes.

again whether this is a conscious choice or not, she's really just coming across as so un-self-aware and has no feet on the ground whatsoever, to the point where she'll just go with what's trendy to fit in with the young generation and make them like her and it's gotten to the point of no return it feels like

#answered #anonymous

[redbelles]

twenty questions for fic writers

tagged by: the wonderful @carry-the-sky 💖

1. how many works do you have on ao3?

51

2. what's your total ao3 word count?

245,595

3. what fandoms do you write for?

i don't ever really abandon old fandoms, but so far 2024 has been all berserk (nothing posted yet, unforch) and masters of the air

4. top five fics by kudos

like a heartbeat drives you mad

the dreadful need in the devotee

and my body found the wind

stuck in colder weather

all the love you need

5. do you respond to comments?

yes! it may take me a hundred million years, but i appreciate each and every comment i get, and i often go back to them for a little jolt of "hey, people actually like your writing!" motivation when i'm stuck

6. what is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

lmao uh. known angst goblin meg redbelles here, but i honestly didn't have to do much work to the canon endings of robert baratheon (the clouds will form a crown) or judas iscariot (in the violence of our dreams) to make them even more horrifically angsty, so. one of those, probably!

7. what's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

i don't tend to go for out and out happy endings—i prefer bittersweet—but i feel like the answer is either the mercy wheel, which fixes dany’s gabarge season eight character arc, or tongue’s talkin’ riddles (sticky sweet), which gives chrissy and eddie a mostly happy future together instead of horrible deaths in deeply cursed hawkins

and! for what it's worth! the chimneys hardly ever fall down is going to end on a happy note! they're just going to have to Suffer a lot to get there! it's fine!

8. do you get hate on fics?

nope

9. do you write smut?

me, currently 3k into a m/m/f threesome scene:

10. craziest crossover:

i enjoy spitballing about crossovers, but i doubt very seriously that i'll ever write one

11. have you ever had a fic stolen?

not that i'm aware of, no

12. have you ever had a fic translated?

i've had offers before, but i've declined every time; they all wanted to host the translations outside of AO3, which is not something i'm comfortable with

13. have you ever co-written a fic before?

yep! keep calling me home is a really fun little round robin fic i wrote with three other authors a couple years ago

14. all time favorite ship?

i can't read suddenly.gif

15. what's a wip you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

shUT UP!!!!! I'M GONNA FINISH ALL MY WIPS!!!!!! SHUT UP!!!!! LEAVE ME ALONE!!!!!

16. what are your writing strengths?

imagery, emotion, themes, dialogue

17. what are your writing weaknesses?

plot? never heard of her. also, i feel like i still suck at writing humor

18. thoughts on dialogue in another language?

to crib from a previous answer: unless you speak the language, it gets real dicey real fast. i personally avoid it unless a) it’s a canonical term/phrase, like all the faux-russian bullshit in the grisha trilogy, or b) i can check the grammar/usage with a native speaker or someone who is solidly fluent

19. first fandom you wrote in?

[redacted] way back ages ago on [redacted]

20. favorite fic you've written?

recency bias talking here, but i am so, so, so fond of the chimneys hardly ever fall down; i challenged myself to write the first chapter as one continuous scene (i feel like i sometimes abuse scene breaks to heighten tension), and honestly i think i nailed it. also, this sequence:

Maybe he is drunk. That would make sense. He’s going to wake up and find himself alone at the bottom of a bottle. Back in the cold blue, Fort shot to shit and tumbling from the sky like a wounded bird, trailing fire and screaming as she falls. Maybe he won’t wake up at all— maybe he’s dead in a potato field, a ghost who never made it back in the first place. His heart can’t fucking take it.

like, i'm sorry, but that's brutal! and i am so proud of it!

tagging: @sluttyhenley @littlelindentree @oatflatwhite @meyerlansky @ladywaffles

@charmtion @anthropologicalhands @jacyevans @thatworldinverted @thatgirlnevershutsup

and anyone elso who wants a go ✨

#dash games #writing: best worst hobby

[chaosromanoff]

Secret no more (WandaNat x Fem!Reader)

Summary: The thought that has been stuck in your mind for days now comes to light. You feared for your girlfriends' reactions, what if they leave you? What if they get angry?

A/N: Part 2 of Their perfect little secret. And as I said in that one-shot, English is not my first language, so I'm sorry for the mistakes you could find on this one. By the way, thank you for all the support on the previous part, it became my most popular post and this blog reached the hundred followers! I'm really thankful of everyone who supported the first part and my previous works.

Warnings: There's smut at the beginning, so please, minors DNI! After that is just a little bit of angst but it has a happy ending, I promise! Also, rushed ending because I was tired and couldn't think of a better one.

(Credits of this picture to it's creator!)

Your whole body tensed when you felt your third orgasm approaching. Wanda's fingers were giving you the right amount of pleasure and even more, you couldn't complain about it.

Natasha was moving her hips as she fucked Wanda with the strap-on, a scene you always enjoyed to watch, and more when you were part of it.

"I need to cum." You mumbled, moaning a little bit louder when Wanda touched that sweet spot inside of you. "Fuck! Please, please let me cum, mommy."

"You've been too loud recently, Y/n. Maybe we should stop." Natasha teased you as she moved her hand to Wanda's wirst to stop her movements on you.

"No, please daddy!" You shouted-whispered. "... I'll be quiet, just let me..."

You stopped talking to let out a silent moan, you were still holding your orgasm and Wanda and Natasha were impressed about it. They wanted to tease you a little more, but they knew you could explode at any second.

"Let go for us, pretty baby." Wanda mumbled and you obeyed. A silent moan left your throat as your whole body was shaking. After that, Wanda and Natasha came too, you were breathing heavily but still opened your arms asking for a hug from them.

They smiled as Wanda approached to you and gave you a kiss before hugging you. Natasha also kissed you and then hugged you and Wanda, wanting to protect you both.

"My pretty girls, I love you." She said and you smiled, feeling happier than you ever felt.

"I love you too." You and Wanda answered. You felt your eyelids heavier and you were about to fall asleep when you remembered something you wanted to tell them for a couple of weeks now.

"Hey, I need to tell you something." You started, moving away from Wanda and Nat's embracement. "I... What if I told someone I'm dating you?" You asked timidly.

"Have you told someone about us?" Natasha asked, but her features were of pure fear, just as Wanda's.

"I haven't, don't worry." You mumbled. "I just... I thought we could make this official, you know?"

"This is official." Wanda said. "You're our girlfriend."

"Yeah, but no one knows about it. They just think I'm the third wheel or something like that."

"But you're not and you know it. We know it." Wanda smiled at you, but you couldn't return the gesture.

"So you're not interested on letting people know I'm dating you?"

"Y/n..."

"Look, I love you both so much, but I don't think I want to be a secret anymore." You said and got up of the bed, dressing up as fast as you could.

"Baby, could you please come back to bed?" Natasha asked you kindly, but the knot on your throat didn't let you answer. You shook your head and went out of their room, running to yours.

Hopefully all of your teammates were sleeping and you didn't have to give them explanations of what you were doing in Wanda and Natasha's bedroom at almost 2AM. But things never happen as you want them to happen.

"Hey Y/n." Bucky greeted. "Where were you?"

"Why are you not sleeping? I heard old people needed to sleep more than the young ones." You said and Bucky smiled.

"Nightmares. They keep me awake most of the time." Shit.

"Oh."

"Yeah."

"So... you know about...?"

"Yes, but honestly that's none of my bussiness. As long as you three are happy, that's enough." You shook your head while holding your tears, Bucky stared at you with a confused look on his face.

"Let's say we're kinda over. Well, they're still in a relationship, but I guess I'm not part of it anymore. And I don't want to talk about it, I just need to sleep."

"I'm sorry to hear that. I won't say a word, I promise." Bucky told you. "Good night."

A few days passed by, Wanda and Natasha tried to talk to you but you didn't want to. You haven't even left your room since that night. Steve and Tony tried to make you go training with them, but they weren't successful. The only one who you let in was Bucky, you didn't really talk about Wanda and Nat, but Bucky talked about his day and sometimes about his nightmares and you liked to hear his thoughts.

"... and I just keep dreaming of that time. I'm just afraid of someone brainwashing me again." He told you.

"Hey, you've been here for almost six years. You're safe with us." You held his hand and gave him a smile.

"Thanks, Y/n. You're a really good friend." Your smile widen at his words and you couldn't help to hug him. Bucky was surprised, but still hugged you back.

"Thank you, Buck. I appreciate it."

"And as your friend... I need to tell you that you should talk with both Wanda and Natasha. They're having a bad time and they miss you a lot." You sighed at his words.

"It's not that easy." You answered.

"It is. You know them and they know you. You should get out of the room and go talk to them."

"Okay, I will." You assured him and Bucky smiled.

That night you finally left your room, most of the avengers were having dinner, so all of their eyes focused on you when you entered the dining room.

"Hey, nice to see you, Y/n." Steve greeted you and Wanda and Natasha got up of their seats when your name was pronounced.

They stood in front of you for a couple of seconds before hugging you. You couldn't stop the tears in your eyes and started to cry when you felt the warm bodies of your girlfriends. You missed them. You missed feeling the way they make you feel.

"Hi, baby." Natasha mumbled, her voice almost breaking. "We miss you so much."

"You don't have any idea how much we miss you." Wanda said kissing your cheek. "Would you please come back to us?" You sighed.

"You know what I want."

"And we're willing to give that to you." Natasha said and before you could answer, her lips crashed on yours. When she broke the kiss, Wanda's lips captured yours.

"We should have listened to you first." Wanda told you. "I'm sorry, detka."

"Me too." Nat said. "We acted so dumb, but we wanted to protect you, you know we could risk a lot if the wrong people know we're dating."

"I know. But I also know we could kick their asses easily." You mumbled and they laughed. "Only if you let me"

"Of course we will." Wanda whispered and you hugged them again.

"Did we miss something?" Tony asked and when you three looked at the table, everyone were confused and surprised, even Bucky acted like that.

"We're dating." Natasha simply said, holding your hand and hugging Wanda.

"You three?" You all nodded. "Well, congratulations!" Clint almost shouted and everyone followed him. They were surprised, but still supportive about you, Nat and Wanda.

"Now we know why Y/n spends her nights at Witchy and Widow's room." Tony mumbled. "Well, whatever, just let us sleep when you... y'know, don't make so much noise."

"We'll try." Wanda answered looking at you before getting close to your ear. "But you better be loud tonight, malyshka."

"Tonight?" You whisper-shouted, hiding your excitement.

"Shh, detka, they could hear you." Natasha told you before grabbing your face between her hands. "I love you." She left a small kiss on your lips and winked at you before walking to her and Wanda's room.

"I also love you." Wanda said kissing you again. "Now come, princess. We have so much to do tonight."

Taglist: @high--power @souanick @fxckmiup @sourprada Thank you for your comments! <3

#wanda maximoff #natasha romanoff #wandanat #wandanat x reader #black widow #scarlet witch #wandanat x fem reader #wanda maximoff x reader #natasha romanoff fanfic #natasha romanoff x fem reader #marvel one shot

[eolewyn1010]

Reading Percy Jackson TLT was an ordeal for me 2 - Characters

While I can repeat my disclaimer here that I only ever read The Lightning Thief (a translated version, no less) and won't try with the rest of the series, that's still about all of the slack I'm willing to cut Rick Riordan. I don't feel this is a good book, so get it off my chest I shall. Let's get down to business, and when I say business, I mean character work.

Is anyone here not a plump stereotype?

I have real difficulties to find a character here that has more depth than a cardboard cutout. I mean, let's forget about the main trio for now, but is there anything to Chiron beyond Wise Mentor? Oh, yes. The gaslighting. He wants Percy to go to Camp Half-Blood anyway. What is the point of telling him that he hallucinated shit for months?? That's an inexplicable dick move for someone we're supposed to see as a positive, caring mentor figure, but it's not the same as giving him depth. Nevermind that he was introduced via "sometimes he had an expression in his eyes like he was hundreds of years old", which... I said I hate this sort of oh, but it couldn't POSSIBLY be THAT foreshadowing. It's lousy. It's about as subtle as "this guy is EVIL, you see? He took money from an orphan charity fund to buy himself a bigass house with golden toilet seats!" It sounds like something from a cartoon.

There are a couple characters who have a little more groundwork to them than that - I appreciate Percy's mom and the subversion built up with Hades. I do not appreciate pretty much everyone else. People who are evil are obviously and obnoxiously evil (and in case of Medusa and Echidna, so obviously that they make Percy and Annabeth look dumb as fuck). They are also so stupid that you wonder how they function in their jobs (animal smugglers who feed lions with vegetables and herbivores with meat? Come on; they want to sell these animals alive). And Riordan's evil = ugly shorthand gets old really fast. Honestly, it already got old with his bully back at his human school. It also brings up a serious moment of confusion when Percy describes recognizing Ares because Ares looks similar to his daughters at the camp - except... Percy says Ares is "sort of handsome". He went out of his way to tell me how ugly Clarisse and the other bully girls are. So. Looks good on a guy, but not on the girls? Is that sexism or what? I wouldn't put it beyond Riordan for reasons I will go into when talking about mythology. Then there is every character we're supposed to hate using the same slur: "Freak." Can't you think of anything more creative? Especially coming from Ares, it sounds weird: Why would he think of demigod kids, of which he has a few of his own, on the same terms their shitty human step-parents do?

Annabeth, the know-nothing know-it-all

And then there's Annabeth, the deuteragonist. Also, the one where the set-up stereotype falls completely flat. See, we're supposed to think she's that smartass girl who knows everything better to the point of being annoying, kind of Hermione but with a terrible attitude. She's often described to look like her mind is going a mile a minute, she's Little Miss Exposition when Chiron is not around, she knows the world of the Half-Bloods and Immortals since she was seven; she has it all down. Well. Except several situations don't make her appear very smart at all. She ignores Grover's warnings when he says he can smell a monster, just as Percy does. She looks down on Grover for no reason (except maybe Fantasy Racism, which is a really bad trait for someone who has lived around satyrs and the likes since she was seven). She doesn't pick up on Medusa knowing Percy's name without being told. She prioritizes her being hungry over caution with strangers, just as Percy does. She leaves him alone with strangers when their instincts tell them both it's a bad idea. For someone who's oh-so-bright and level-headed, she fails the most basic logic.

Let's also mention Annabeth's big passion, architecture. It doesn't look very good when I know after the first vague description of Camp Half-Blood that Rick Riordan doesn't know shit about Ancient Greek architecture beyond having watched a few toga movies in his time. Because he repeats this lack of knowledge in a character who he claims knows better. Granted, the reason why I know better is because I'm minoring in Classical Archaeology, and most of the readers probably don't. But here's the thing: If you wanna write an expert in a field, you should really read up on the field. Ideally, let an expert edit the relevant parts of the text. "Write what you know" doesn't mean "hands off of non-you experiences!", it means "do your research"; it's a point of respect towards your reader not to assume they know nothing anyway. I don't know why he insisted on this being Annabeth's major interest - I mean, I do know; he did because it's a basic trait of Athena's and Riordan isn't very creative in character-building. The St. Louis Gateway Arch as an example of impressive architecture for a CLASSICALLY educated architect?? You've gotta be kidding me.

The other thing about Annabeth is that I just. Don't. Like her. She keeps being rude to Grover. She never explains anything to Percy and then complains about his ignorance. Her bitchiness is persistent and unprovoked. The reason she gives him for why they shouldn't get along doesn't even make much sense - because their parents dislike each other? The respective parents in question are barely even involved in their lives! What kind of a lame justification is that? You aren't your mother and Percy isn't his father, and parentage is not a personality (except when it kind of is, but I'll get back to that). And it takes so long for her to do anything likable... yet her constant insults don't count as bullying because, you see, she is pretty. Honestly, for at least half of the book, this seems to be the only justification why she isn't put on the same level as Clarisse. She tells Percy it's his fault the bus got blown up because he fought against the furies who made the bus blow up? Make it make sense. And then she bitches at him again because if he dies, she won't get to fulfill her mission successfully. Yeah. She just made her alleged friend's possible death about herself. Awesome.

This ship is sailing without me

I know a few things about the Percy Jackson series as a whole, for example that Percy and Annabeth are going to be an official couple sooner or later. There is the ship-teasing in this book already, and I assume it'll develop onward from here. Hm. I'm so not on board of this ship. I know a bickering romance when I see one, and this doesn't look like one. Because 1) the admiration and positive feelings seem largely one-sided for Percy, and 2) the insults and sarcastic retorts seem largely one-sided for Annabeth. This is not a balanced dynamic. It feels like Annabeth has made it her hobby to shit on her supposed love interest and be as unhelpful as humanly possible, but he compliments her at every turn, and she expects him to bow to her bossy attitude. And Percy outright says at one point that she talks to him and Grover the same way she talks to a dog. Bad news: The Cerberos scene was the only moment when I sympathized with Annabeth, and that statement severely undermined my sympathy.

But, say it with me now, she is pretty. So of course she's nothing like those nasty bullies, the daughters of Ares. And also, she blushed and was embarrassed when she was supposed to walk into that love tunnel with Percy to retrieve a MacGuffin, for fuck's sake; he didn't ask her for smoochies! "What if anyone sees us?" my ASS; you are 12-year-olds alone in a closed-down theme park; if anyone sees you there, they'll ask you what the hell you think you're doing on other people's property, you stupid bint!, so there! Yeah. No. I really hope for the future books (blindly; I will not read them) that they'll get to something that feels more mutual, because whatever they have in this book is far from cute. It's tiresome.

Consistency whomst? Don't know her

I have real difficulties to get a grasp on the main trio. Even Grover, whom I do like best among them, has a few moments that just make me go, "huh? How does that fit with what we have been told?" For example, at some point in the camp Percy and Grover are whining something about weaving baskets. It makes sense that Percy, the action-oriented 12-year-old from the human world, would think weaving baskets is the lamest shit ever - it makes zero sense for Grover to look down on it. He's lived in this world his entire life; what does he think how everything works if no one is taking care of the everyday jobs? What does he think how the camp is running if no one does the necessities?

Also. Does Grover have a good instinct for monsters, or does he not? He is the first to warn of Medusa, but with Echidna, it's suddenly Percy who gets a bad feeling. Percy also tells us that Grover is his best and only friend, then treats him as an idiot to make fun of half of the time. They cast a POC to play Grover in the series, and I swear to God, if they have a boy of color running around there eating garbage and mainly being present to be mocked by the other two protagonists...

Then there's Percy's attitude about people. Which also makes sudden switches from one adventure to another. The bus stunt with the furies? Fuck the other passengers, amirite? They can have all the trauma they can get; who cares if they get hurt. Afterwards, Percy talks about them in a supremely eye-rolling manner when the bus has crashed and everyone is panicking and there's probably injuries. But during his little touristic trip in St. Louis? He's suddenly all hero and wants to rescue people. Then he lets wild animals, including a fucking lion, on the loose in the middle of a city full of people, and snarks at Cerberos squishing dead people even deader. Does he care about humans, or does he not?

Even Annabeth, as consistently dislikable as I find her, had me go, "what?" Throughout half of the book, I was suddenly told that she's, like Percy, dyslexic. And narrator Percy says it in a manner of, "I had forgotten that she was also...", so I was like, "did I forget it as well?" and went back to look it up. I hadn't forgotten. It wasn't established before that point. Don't gaslight me, Riordan.

Where's my protagonist at?

While I liked Percy in the beginning, I found it increasingly difficult to emotionally connect with him. That started with the death of his mother. Besides Percy mentioning her on a few occasions, it didn't seem like he was grieving. His distress about her loss was very brief, and yeah, I get his whole angry-12-year-old spiel, but he's still a kid who just lost his mother? The only parent he loved? Eh. On the other hand, his ties to Camp Half-Blood are vastly oversold. He says it feels like a new home after a couple days; leaving it pains him deeply... after all of. Two. Weeks. How am I supposed to believe that? In what way was it more of a home to him than his human school? Where he also had a friend and some bullies, and his mom was not there? Even after the mission, the time he spends at the camp is just skipped. Zero connection for me as the reader. On the more amusing side of this, Charon in the Underworld singing a Barry Manilow sing confuses me less than Percy, a 12-year-old millennial, recognizing a Barry Manilow song.

And sometimes I'm just wondering what the hell is going on in Percy's head. He describes the situation at Medusa's shop as increasingly uncomfortable - but he ignores the warnings of Grover and then Annabeth, and he allows a stranger to take a photo of them? CREEPY! Has his angelic mom not warned him about strangers? That seems wildly counterproductive. He tries to put it to his not remembering the Medusa myth in that moment and not connecting the dots, but I'm not buying it. She's all, "everyone loves children", and he doesn't go, "ew, stay away from me"? And after that, the very next situation he has a bad feeling about? "Nah, it's okay; I can stay alone with some weird stranger. You guys go ahead." *facepalm* Beating your reader over the head with something like that comes at the detriment of your characters' apparent intelligence. And the confrontation with Luke reinforces that. You don't have that many friends, Percy! And you refused to even consider the possibility of Grover or Annabeth being the one to betray you! To then cheerily prance away with an obviously troubled Luke doesn't look smart.

Lineage is not personality

Last but not least, why is this something that Riordan and Rowling gotta have in common? It frustrates me to no end - the assumption that you can easily sort people, in this case kids, into personality categories. And in Riordan's case, the personality traits are determined by their lineage. It's not Slytherins; it's the children of Ares who are cruel bullies. Annabeth the smartass is not a Ravenclaw; she's a daughter of Athena. The impulsive, fearless protagonist is not a Gryffindor; he's a son of Poseidon, one of the Big Three. Oof. This makes things very easy for Riordan, and it makes things very flat. Aphrodite is the goddess of beauty, so her kids are vain and useless (yes, I am planning to shred this via a look at mythology). Demeter is the goddess of nature, so her kids are gentle little flower children (same). Kids of Hermes cannot be trusted because he's a trickster. Kids of Hades were the fascists of last World War. Not only do these categories not work because Riordan's takes on mythology are at least very one-sided and superficial; he also tries to hammer home that who your parents are will determine your personality. It's a way to simplify characters, and a notion I loathe.

#I'm not gonna tag this as Percy Jackson because the fandom would have my head for it #personal opinions #this got way salty #got this out of my system #books

[bookofmirth]

I feel like sjm was setting up Az & Mor to be like Chaol & Celaena and weren’t going to make them end game, but she had to come up with a reason why and so she just decided to make Mor queer because it seemed like the most easier option. Mor, is a great character & it’s frustrating to see how her character is being reduced to a romantic strife. She deserves so much better. I don’t think E/riel will be endgame and I don’t know why Sarah felt the need to add that into everything when I’m pretty sure she said at one time she viewed them having a sibling relationship. I think what sjm could’ve done is plant small seeds that Mor was queer in ACOMAF and or came up with another reason why they wouldn’t have ever ended up together and brought in a love interest for Az (maybe in the first or second or even third book) and planted another set of small seeds of him ending up with someone else, instead of using Mor as a romance strife if that makes sense. She could’ve spent some more time plotting out all that, came up with more justifiable reasons why Mor & Az never would be a couple, but instead it became a mess and there are people literally blaming Mor for “leading” Az on. I have a hard time believing that Azriel, the Spymaster, who is very observant of people and their body language, does not know about Mor being into ladies. Deep down I feel like he already knows. I’m not upset that Moriel was never intended to be endgame. That’s fine. Things happen, but come up with a better reason to not make them a couple. Don’t use Mor being queer as a plot device. It’s upsetting at how people shit on Mor.

The way that people talk about all the women in this fandom is seriously disturbing, including Mor, Elain, Gwyn, Feyre, and Nesta - hell, even Lady of Autumn! But Mor is the quintessential example of how misogynistic and sexist this fandom can be.

there are people literally blaming Mor for “leading” Az on

LITERALLY HOWWWW ASLDKHJSADKLJASD

I've seen this too and I'm sorry 🙃 but at what point does walking away when someone is confessing their feelings, sleeping with other people, and otherwise ignoring someone romantically for FIVE HUNDRED YEARS leading them on???? All Mor is doing is freaking existing in Azriel's vicinity. 🙃 She doesn't flirt with him, she doesn't suggest hanging out just the two of them, she does literally the opposite of those things - how the fuck do people think Cassian got wrapped up in all of it? Why is he the buffer, if not to help Mor distance herself from Azriel? In what freaking world is that her leading him on????

I think that this whole situation is what happens when sjm publishes the results of her utter pantsing. She is not a planner, she does know the broad strokes of where things are heading, but she changes her mind and then just fudges stuff - oh look, Amren randomly remembered the Dread Trove in acosf, just wait for the 2 Dread 2 Trove in acotar5, followed by Dread Trove: Prythian Drift in acotar6. Whatever mulligan or McGuffin she needs to come up with to get the plot where she needs it to go, she'll do it. Even if we're over here scratching our heads wondering how the fuck all these people who are supposedly such good friends seem to not understand the most basic stuff about one another.

There's also a difference between criticizing the author for writing shit that doesn't make sense, and criticizing the character for doing something dumb. The point at which the characters' actions don't make sense is where we should start pointing fingers at the author. For example, why would Az not have moved on in all this time? Why does Mor not feel comfortable coming out to her cousin and best friends if they have proven that they would support her? Why has Az just sat there suffering for 500 years, rather than idk, handling his shit?

idek where I'm going with my response other than I agree with everything that you've said. SJM has done a lot of things that, depending on her motives, could be well deserving of criticism. But when the fandom instead turns around and leans into it, and decides that actually, let's read this in the worst possible light we can and perpetuate the narrative that women are to blame always and forever for whatever happens to them and for whatever happens around them, then um. That's when I want to rip my hair out.

I see this sort of discussion re: Elain and Lucien sometimes, which is why I honestly don't gaf how she's making him feel right now. I said in the last couple of months (I'm too lazy to find/link it) that I don't really care if he was suffering because of her over Solstice. It sucks for him, I do have sympathy, but I don't blame Elain for doing what she feels like she needs to do. But there are some wild double standards in this fandom when people can say on the one hand "Elain doesn't owe Lucien anything because feminism!" and then on the other hand they say "Mor should definitely do everything she can to make Azriel feel better about feelings that she is not responsible for".

I just... don't think that Mor, or Elain, or Gwyn, or any other woman, real or fictional, should automatically be the mom/therapist towards any man who happens to come across their path. Call me crazy. But I think women do enough emotional labor already.

#sjm critical #acotar fandom #fandom misogyny #ask #anon

[imbellarosa]

i thought about not writing anything bc I'm late to the discourse game this time round and bc I've been so unplugged for so long that I don't get anons asking me things anymore but then I was talking to @twopoppies and like actually - I have shit to say

the first thing i have to say is that the British economy is overwhelmingly failing the working class. Teachers, train workers, and the fire service have all voted to go on strike in the last month. and the reason that this is happening is twofold: the first is that the MPs are self-absorbed dicks. The second is that the UK pulled out of one of the largest single-market economies in the international community, which hit every sector of the economy bc new taxes tariffs trade agreements erc. So like - don't talk to a Brit about what their utilities are doing. The third reason that these towns are dying though is because of the practice of outsourcing labour to cheaper countries/cities/communities. This is why people began to blame immigrants for the decline of the working class. Which like - if a Brit wants to come and teach my kids and write my PhD, they can pry it from my cold dead hands.

That's a really roundabout way of explaining that if you don't live in a larger city, you're gonna have loads of poverty in the area. And that - for the most part - your distance from London is directly proportional to the poverty rate. I work in *small British coastal town* in a *large comprehensive school* (that's like a US public school), and my kids are about 13-16 years old. The 16-year-olds are doing their GCSEs (like GEDs) in the spring, and loads of them don't believe that they can do it. Out of the Y11s that I know, I know maybe one or two that have concrete plans to go to university. Most don't believe that they can succeed, and are unwilling to go anywhere far from home. A comparable region of the world would be Appalachia in the US. The school I teach at is right across the street from council estates, and some of the kids have never left the town - even though there's a 2 hr train that takes you into London. Loads of their lives are really tough. I obviously can't give specifics, but I've definitely had days I can't shake off at the end of them.

This is all to say that out of the hundreds of kids I know, I don't know a single one that's gonna win a Grammy in 15 years time. Or a Pulitzer, or an Oscar or a Tony or an Olivier or a BAFTA. and this is absolutely not because they're not capable of doing it - they 100% have the capacity to succeed and the talent to be amazing. We just don't have the resources to nurture that talent in a way that would make them competitive to the people in the first ring of the ladder to success. I have a kid who wants to be a detective, and another teacher (!) told me 'well that's just not realistic. kids like him don't get into the programs he'd need to get into to do that'. That's just the reality of life for them. To them, I'm the anomaly. I'm the one who made it out! I left a tough home and a rough couple of years to become a PhD student and a young woman with a stable job, a guy who agrees to watch my cat, and loads of good friends. And I'm DEFINITELY not winning any Grammys hahaha - but by their metric their TEACHERS are some of the most successful or educated people they know, and they don't see themselves as those people.

We do our best for these kids, but it 1000% makes sense that someone from a background like this would say that the kind of success and fame and resources it takes to be an international pop star doesn't happen to people like him. Because it's a million to one. For every Harry Styles, a million David Smiths (not a real kid) don't make it out. So maybe shut up, have some empathy and celebrate an unlikely success? Or like. Eat cake if that fails.

#harry styles #it's been a long time since i've used that tag #the grammys #but also like #people need to stfu #they need to be less classist pricks #and do brits or people in general need to be less racist/xenophobic #hell yeah #my phd is in refugee health - I'm an immigrant twice over ! #but also people need to learn that different places in the world have different social structures and that creating an us vs them mentality #only serves to further divide the oppressed #and unite the oppressors #like - members of the elite class LOVE that we're tearing each other apart about working class vs POC working class people #vs working class women vs middle class women vs middle class POC/Black people vs working class Black people vs migrants #vs asylum seekers and refugees etc etc ad nauseum ad infinitum #like they WANT us to tear each other apart over issues like this when actually #it's all a part of the same problem #but if we're squabbling over who has what place on the ladder we forget that actually no one is moving UP the ladder #or making meaningful change to improve the lives of those on the ladder with us #just saying #shut up bella

[givereadersahug]

2022 Fic Round-Up (Again)

Am I doing another fic round-up? You bet! They deserved to be talked about. Why should I stop talking about them once I publish my work? Thanks for the tag @danpuff-ao3!

Rules:

Post the top 5 works you're most proud of that you released in 2022 (not necessarily your most popular),

your top 4 current WIPs that you're excited to release in the new year,

your top 3 biggest improvements in your writing over the past year,

your top 2 resolutions (ways you wish to improve your writing/blog) for the new year,

and your number 1 favorite line you've written this year!

Tagging - Anybody who see this post, go write ahead! I want to read about your fics and what you're excited for!

5 fics

I'm going to try to talk about fics I hadn't talked about before. Got to spread the love! And I feel like some deserve more attention, or at least an acknowledgement from me that -- yes, I wrote the thing and no, I didn't forget about you.

The Mirror of Erised (Harry Potter, Gen, 200 words) - This was written for a prompt community on Dreamwidth, which challenges you to write a drabble using 100 words or 200 words in total. The prompt for this work was 'shattered glass.' This was...different. I knew immediately I wanted to write a fic using the Mirror of Erised. I have a whole complex backstory for the mirror and how it came to be and what it saw through the years. And I knew how I wanted to end the story. The story would make for a heartbreaking, well-rounded fic if I had the capacity and the talent to convey the emotions I wanted to convey -- the devastation, the yearning, the complete loss, the possession. So I used this prompt as an exercise. Sometimes I do that --- most of my drabbles are slice of life fics that don't need more than a few hundred words to express. But for some --- for some, I want to see if the story is worth telling. Does it merit an expansion? An in-depth look? A second chance? It's a great exercise, imo, and I get my bazillion and one ideas out there in the world and not hidden away in my folder on my computer to never be seen again. The process of thinking about the world and editing the drabble and seeing it published --- it helps with figuring out which story is worth my time and which isn't worth my time. Maybe I will go back to it. Maybe I inspire someone to write something. Who knows? But back to this drabble. I'm proud of this drabble. I think. I'm proud of the story in my head that I have for this world. I do, however, want to change the wording and the pitter-patter, rhythmic way I wrote it. (Since I think the rhythm was lost a bit and certain sentence structures, imo, were wonky.) But the reception over on Dreamwidth was great. People really responded to it and I really love the story in my head. Which that's the problem, huh? If only we have a way to transfer the stories we envisioned directly onto the page. Now I'm just rambling. Back to the topic. I'm proud of this. It deserves to be talked about. There. <3

Peace (SK8 the Infinity, Matchablossom, 200 words) - This was also written for a drabble prompt community on Dreamwidth. The prompt was 'you know me.' Matchablossom. What can I say? They are my comfort ship right now. Unlike my other ships, this one is 'realistic' in a way that this could be my parents or my friends and their partners or the loving couple I know down the street. Just them. Being old friends who happened to be in love and do domestic things together and fight and be annoyed with each other --- without the fate of the world hanging in balance, or a chosen one prophecy, or complicated planetary relations muddling the waters. Comfort. It's the little things you do for the person you love, which I think I captured in this drabble. The little things that Kojiro does for Kaoru throughout their days together. (In this case, feeding him, since Kojiro runs a restaurant and Kaoru is a mess of a human being who forgets to eat and needs to be fed.) Action speaks louder than words -- the dynamics of their relationship, their feelings for each other. I was working on my 'showing, not telling' and I don't know. This drabble is one I often come back to to read. Most of the fics I read is all about the complexities, or the dangers of saving the world/country/universe/etc, the grit & harshness of a couple getting together. Which is great! But sometimes writing about domestic fluff and established relationships with no true conflict --- well, there are so few writers that can get that right for me. Each genre and each trope is complex in its own way, and everyone has different tastes, and sometimes you just have to write the fic you want to see in the world. This is a long-winded answer to just say that I know what I like, and I love this drabble.

Forgiveness (Harry Potter, Severus Snape/unnamed male character, 625 words) This was written for the hp-coffeehouse community on Dreamwidth for the prompt - coffee/tea in hot weather/summer. Old man Snape! Waiting in a teashop and asking for forgiveness from an old lover. I wanted to write a Muggle AU about regrets and...man, was this hard. I think I did okay. I went for a more lyrical style. I had no specific male lover in mind, since this was about Severus coming to terms with his past actions. I was reading Yoko Ozawa's works at the time (highly recommend her books) and I was trying to capture her style. I don't think I succeeded, but I'm happy with the outcome. Even if it took me a while to get this written. 🤣

Devotion (SK8 the Infinity, Matchablossom, 7316 words) I wrote Intricacies first. Devotion is a remix of that fic. I was dumb and thought - 'Huh. What if there was a fanfic that actually dealt with the real legal issues in Japan in relation to same-sex couples adopting?' Cause, let's be real here. Same-sex couples can't get married and they can't adopt. (Yet.) And there were a lot of fanfics about Kaoru and Kojiro happily married and maybe adopting a child, and I decided to throw cold water onto the parade. I wanted to read a fanfic about their struggles to get married and to adopt, and when I couldn't find one, I wrote it myself. In the end, this fic isn't even really about them adopting. It's about them coming to terms with each other and them being a team. Adoption and marriage (and to a lesser extent, citizenship, a whole other bag of issues Japan has) was just a vehicle in Kaoru and Kojiro being more Kaoru and Kojiro. You think that given I wrote the fic I have the words to express my feelings about it or talk about the emotions I wanted to convey, but I can't. 🤣 Anyway, I'm proud of this fic. Go fic!

Colours (Harry Potter, Snarry, 2268 words) This was written for the Liquid Luck Drabble challenge. The prompt was a photograph of blue butterflies on a fallen log. It's pretty simple. I just wanted to write a fic in which Severus gets railed by Harry. But I also wanted Severus to be hopelessly smitten? But yet in a Severus way? idk how to describe it, but I wanted to write how Mr. Darcy looked in the second proposal scene in Pride & Prejudice (2005). Completely enamored, enchanted, beguiled, besotted---- basically all the adjectives. 🤣 I wanted to create a sense of ethereal and grace in the story, cause the photograph (which is linked in the story) is such beauty and mystic and other-wordly. I know I'm not a plot-heavy writer. What I do want is to bring up certain emotions while you read and I wanted this fic to be like a dream you dreamed once.

4 WIPs

I'm not going to count my fest fics. Mostly, I just don't want to jinx myself. I have yet to drop a fest and I feel like the more I talk about them, the more I get insecure? Have second thoughts? Something goes funny in my brain, so here are other projects I hope to accomplish in the next year or two.

The Loneliest Time Project. I always wanted to write a series of fics based around a theme, so I figured new year, new project. The Loneliest Time is the sixth studio album released by Carly Rae Jepsen and it's my favorite album of 2022. It is also ripe for inspiration. Each song is an examination of different types of loneliest. There is cynicism in this album. There are heartbreaks, regrets, bitterness. I have a few ideas already. I just need a push to actually write them out.

King Severus. My bedtime story for Coco. I'll finish it! I promise, Coco! I PROMISE.

Your Name & Paranorman. These are two Snarry AUs I spoke about once or twice on Discord. I have the outlines. I just...hmmm. Something is holding me back, and I need to figure out what it is.

Restoration. My incomplete Snarry AUctoerfest entry. The one I dropped and wrote something else for the fest. I'm hoping to have this one done before the 2023 AUctoberfest, but who knows? *crossing fingers*

3 improvements

I got over my writer's block? That is a major improvement, I think. 🤣 Do I even need the other two?

Signing up for fests! That really helped in getting my mojo back. And participating in prompt challenges. I apparently like structure and rules, so fests & prompts really helped this year.

Learning not to worry too much about being perfect. English is technically my third language. I used to be obsessed over my fics having to be perfect before I even think about posting them online. I don't even care if my plot would be received well as long as my grammar is perfect. My grammar is farrrr from perfect. (I'm sure there are a bunch of mistakes in this post.) I have eccentricities in my writing style, the way I talk, the way I think. Nobody is ever perfect, so why should I be? And the edit button is always there. (Also, can I say again how tenses are the BANE OF MY EXISTENCE. arghhhh.)

2 resolutions

I want to crack that 10k mark. One of my fic needs to hit that 10k mark. Please?

Thorki, my love. My OTP. You are intimidating and scary to write for. I hope I can write something for you. So far I have dipped my toes in. I just need to submerge myself fully. Hopefully. Maybe.

1 line

Hmmm. I only have one line? But..hmmm. Okay, for this bit I decided to randomly choose one fic from SK8 the Infinity and one from Harry Potter and pick a line from there. (Or in this case, a paragraph.)

Devotion - (SK8 the Infinity, Matchablossom, 7316 words)

This moment at the tail-end of Kaoru’s rant, him voicing all his anxiety filled thoughts he must had have obsessed over – this moment with Kaoru’s flushed cheeks, his hair out of place from all his gesturing, and his eyes filled with heated passion and the deluge of pure emotions cascading from every pore – Kojiro thought he was in love with Kaoru before but this. This was the moment Kojiro knew with absolute certainty he was head over heels, couldn’t live without, shout from the sun and moon and stars and heavens he was totally, devastatingly, hopelessly in love with Kaoru – the most infuriating man Kojiro had ever known, and the most caring man Kojiro had ever known. He would have fought the world before for Kaoru, but now he would fight Kaoru if he himself got in Kojiro’s way in making him happy.

Dragons - (Harry Potter, Severus Snape/Charlie Weasley, 2659 words)

Dragons were misunderstood; people always saw them as violent creatures when they were anything but violent. Hulking and snarling, they were gentle creatures at heart. They react with brutality and sheer force when backed into a corner. I knew how to handle the beasts; I am reaping the reward for bedding one.

#random text post #wrap up #fandom #writing #harry potter #sk8 the infinity

[accidentalharrie]

I've just been waking up processing the interview and skimming through all your asks, and wow it's a lot to take in! I do wonder, do the mean girls keep up with everyone they detest in the way they do with Olivia? Because talk about obsession. It goes way beyond hate, since they stalk her social media (but somehow missed the love cup quote 🤭). Anyways, I block those people if I'm ever unfortunate enough to see one of their posts, but I don't go looking anymore. It's really not good for you, even this last couple of weeks has had a negative effect on me just from following all the "drama".

Anyway, I can't really take any of the nitpicking of her interview seriously because these people are holding onto their hate, jealousy and misogyny a death grip and will view everything she says through that lense lmao. It's just like those people who seem determined to pile onto Harry whenever he moves but a hundred times worse. All i see is self soothing and it's incredibly hilarious to me that they literally cannot cope with the truth - their relationship is strong. I mean they've been convincing themselves they'll break up for nearly 2 years, but especially since Olivia's personal and professional life has been messed with (Jason, Cinemacon, Shia, Florence, Venice). Very ugly of them and they deserve to be in so much distress. Maybe that's not very kind of me but whatever. I liked Olivia from the start, but the past year my respect for her has grown even more and I'm just overjoyed that she's with Harry. I can't imagine being so cruel to someone so important to him, regardless of any personal opinions you may have of her. Of all the people to hate in the world, their focus is Olivia Wilde...

Re: the mean girls/HLTs, I personally enjoy the theory I've seen that they absolutely knew about that tweet and were keeping it quiet.

Re: this week's social media pile-on, the "evidence" was presented so authoritatively by semi-respectable accounts who didn't realize they were parroting misogynistic q-anon lore, so I'm sure the cognitive dissonance will take some time to sink in for a lot of people. Like I said -- I think most are too invested in being #teammissflo, but I do think Olivia took, for herself at least, an important step in setting the record straight.

#hlts #asks

[cryptidwritings]

7, 33, and 45?

-verkja

Thank you @verkja! I'm going to put this under the cut, since I'm going to include some new OC's i'm trying to develop for Whumptober and the answers might get a bit long.

from this ask game

7. which ocs would feel super out of place at a formal event? which ocs are completely fine with it?

River and Rey would just hate it. Not necessarily because they feel out of place, but because of the negativity that often surrounded formal events. They like dressing up, though. I have a headcanon that Evi gets married and DEMANDS black tie, but makes an exception for Reyna because he loves her so dearly. She shows up with flats on and Raquel roasts her the entire night. Harold would be fine. Not happy, but fine.

Moss would definitely feel out of place. People on Holm don't have enough money to hold "formal events". They have an equivalent to Sunday best, but that's about as formal as it gets. Fun fact about Holm: the only formal events they hold are funerals. Clinside doesn't recognize Holm weddings, so they instead place more relevancy on cohabitation. They pool together their money and the more able-bodied of the couple prepares the home, then they move in and that's it. Isidro never feels out of place anywhere, ever. He'd be fine and probably make a lot of friends/steal the show if appropriate to do so. Isola is too intimidating to feel out of place. She makes her place and no one questions it. Adair is similar, though Isola would rather die than put on a dress ever again.

Indigo (oh I guess I like "i" names, huh? lol), knows what a formal event is, but doesn't know what it would be like.

Priva doesn't mind formal events that are more friendly. Make it about networking or something and she gets anxious. Nolan also doesn't mind formal events. Networking is a bit of a breeze, but more of a chore. He'd rather go home and sleep. Aria would feel comfortable, for sure.

33. which ocs can speak multiple languages? how many can they speak?

I have such a hard time wrapping my mind around how someone would talk if they spoke multiple languages, because I (unfortunately) only speak one fluently. I could say Isidro speaks english and spanish, because he's latino (kinda retcon'd, since I didn't know I'd be developing more of his character until last chapter lmao), but I won't be writing it since I barely know the language myself and don't think I'd do it right. Priva and Aria are also POC, but will only canonically speak english. Indigo is a helper droid, so can speak any language if that program exists in its system. Currently, Indigo can speak over two hundred languages, but most don't exist in it's world anymore.

45. which OC's have the best intuition?'

minor spoilers below for whumptober.

Aria has the best intuition due to the nature of her character being a clairvoyant, seconded by Priva who is considered more of an empath by-proxy. Reyna has okay intuition. She kind of had a feeling about River, but I didn't elaborate on it as much as I should have. There's a lot in Sonata I want to revisit when I have the time. Isola (unfortunately for Moss) has excellent intuition. Reason number 157242 why she's so intimidating and dastardly.

All my other characters have a -2 on passive perception (besides Indigo, it would be a -1) 😂 they're naive little beans (except Moss, maybe, but he's more of a little shit than the rest of them, lovingly of course. Always lovingly).

#oc ask game #whump oc #whump ask game

[medicinemane]

One thing about me is that no matter what game I run, no matter what the system looks like, I'm actually running the Amber diceless roleplaying game, the dice are just a prompt to help me think

Legit, that book has so many go general ideas, like providing slight bonuses to people who actually go above and beyond for the campaign and do stuff like keep note/record the session, or for people who make art or write stuff, or just generally for people who are doing something beyond just playing the rpg

You don't want it to be so much that people who don't have time or interest feel like they're getting a worse experience, just little small perks here and there... mhh... I don't know how other games do character advancement, but like in both Star Wars and Amber you'd just get a couple points at the end of the session based on how much happened and so like... if everyone else got 10, you might give someone like 12... something minor

Or you might figure out some slightly cool thing like a moderately powerful sword or a familiar or something

(I need to figure out how to work items of power into the D6 system, in Amber you'd just spend like 1-10 of your hundred starting point, with 1 being... something kinda neat, where as 10 would be buying something pretty crazy but... that's a 10th of your stats you're spending on it)

It wouldn't just be items either, maybe you spend like... 4 points on a goon squad. 1 point to have a group of like 12 guys, and then like 1 to have them be about as tough as one of the toughest guys on earth (I can't just say Chaosite and have you get what me slapping a C in a stat column conveys, but it's roughly that) and then like 2 points to have the ability to summon them to you anywhere in shadow and have them find their way back to you even if they get killed

It's a neat system

Anyway, tangent aside the point of giving that little perk to someone who does something like draws art or makes a transcript of a session or whatever is that... stuff like that helps keep everyone engaged

Not just the person doing it winding up more invested, but imagine if you come to a session and someone had drawn some art of something that happened last time. Even if they're not the best artist, that's gonna be awesome and making you want to engage that little bit more

So yeah, Amber diceless books honestly have some good just general GMing tips. Since the whole point of the system is kinda "buddy... I don't make the rules, there's not rules lawyering to be done... it's all about the calls you make", there's a lot more focus on talking about how to make things fun, how to keep things fair, how to make things engaging, how to try and shape a story

Less focus on being a rules master, more focus on being a narrator and and host for the world to help all your players have a good time

Like I said, even in a game with dice I'm really playing diceless... who cares what the dice say if it gets in the way of a good story? (Then again I also don't care for d20 systems cause I don't like the nat 1 nat 20 stuff... also have a similar problem with the cthuhlu d100 system, I prefer the D6 system with the wild die where if you roll a 6 on it you get to roll it an additional time till you stop getting 6's)

#mm rpg #mm amber

[terraxcloud]

Yuffie 2 - Clerra edition

Hello everyone. I have to mention more about Yuffie since I remembered/noticed more.

According to FF7 fans, the relationship mechanic and the Gold Saucer date are like...50% of the game based on how much people mention it. It'd be surprising if it was even 5%. Well, get rid of it from your brain for now!

Unlike the last Yuffie one where I didn't really care what I posted, this one is more Clerra-related.

In Balthier's Lost Chapter in Opera Omnia, Yuffie says this line:

This cutscene (called "Best Buddies") released way before FF7 Remake (it's the 4th one from a couple hundred lost chapters in the game). Anyone's who has played her DLC understands why her words strike a cord as it is hinting at it years before the Remake released. Well, Sonon came and died, so it would have to be someone else, right?

Yuffie does not appear very often in Opera Omnia. In Act 3 and 4 (both Chapter 7s) she'd walk into a few scenes alongside Cloud (Cait is also involved to some degree). Cater's Lost Chapter much earlier in the game has some stuff too, but there's not anything "worth noticing".

With the scene above in mind, what does Yuffie say at the end of her DLC?

Who does she want to join her team?

A cloud...?

Oh, this reminds me. My interpretation about the beginning of "Hollow" was that of "a person flying in the sky talking to clouds as if they were talking to Cloud". Take out the "fly" part and this may apply here as well.

Moving on.

I'm not exactly sure if this camera trick is a "thing" (camera tricks have been used before), but it's easier to notice when you put the speed to .25x. At the end of Advent Children after Cloud wakes up in Aerith's church after Moogle Girl and the group talks to him, he turns his head around to look at everything in front of himself before noticing Aerith and Zack.

He turns his head around past them just enough that Yuffie's pretty much in the exact middle of the screen. I wouldn't find this odd if she didn't have that flowery shirt on.

That shirt has 5-petaled flowers. In the ancient year of 2005. I've mentioned a few times that 5-petal flowers signify Terra because they literally are from her clothes.

They also appear on:

The pattern on Miss Folia's shirt.

Sprinkled around a Dissidia Arcade (2015) screenshot of Cloud-Terra-Onion Knight fighting WoL-Lightning-Y'shtola.

All over the Aerith-Cloud synergy attack "Firework Blade" which looks like Terra's similarly named "Riot Blade" attack.

The 2020 New Year's card featuring Terra as a mouse ("year of the mouse") riding Magitek armor with the flowers trailing behind her.

I suppose there's more, somewhere. Yes, the year FF7 Remake released was the year of Terra Branford according to Square Enix.

To a person who just found this bit of information, it probably doesn't "feel" like it means much. Most people point at Aerith whenever flowers are involved, but there's a heavy consistency concerning flowers with 5 petals. What's weird about Yuffie is that I've had such a hard time believing that they were doing this all the way back in 2005. Terra wasn't even a 3D character until the end of 2008...maybe this is where the hint started? They have leaves, which may bring some doubt, but they still are 2d flowers with 5 petals.

I mean, this is the end of Advent Children. Yuffie does nothing significant...ever, so how do we get from her to all this random stuff involving Terra?

What's the theme of the Advent Children ending? "Cloud Smiles"? Maybe that's part of it.

Ever Crisis just had a Valentine's Day event called "The Secret Sweetheart" - <Click Here for All Cutscenes>

The background and the ticket pull for this event is Yuffie (who kinda just joined Ever Crisis). In the event, Yuffie is shown starting a rumor:

They all make cookies for Cloud after this.

Every single character says they started that rumor in their own cutscenes and Cloud just "believes them" (maybe I don't have the context?), yet Yuffie is the one that mentioned it first. Yuffie's solo cutscene is different to the others as Cloud doesn't mention to her how her cookies tasted like or all the "nice" stuff the others show (Ever Crisis is trying to be more OG-like than FF7R...although you get Yuffie right after leaving Midgar and she has a chocobo).

How can Barret start the rumor if he literally has no idea what Yuffie was talking about when she mentions it? (Is this actually a Valentines tradition?)

Well, beyond trying to find out what's up with the event, it sure seems like elements of Jessie (like telling Cloud to smile) are implemented into Yuffie even before we get to see Rebirth. We know very, very little about her role in Rebirth (probably in the same way they didn't show Zack much).

My mind tells me that she's more of a permanent low-key (or maybe the better word is "secret") Jessie. Thinking about it a bit, the characters so far can be split into duos. Aerith and Tifa are shown as a duo and I think Barret and Red XIII are a duo, so in this regard Yuffie and Cloud are the other duo with the DLC ending and DFFOO hint. I'm not sure of the other three characters, so my reasoning can be flawed, but it's there, isn't it?

If that's true, does that make her the "second-in-command"? How about that word no one wants to hear when describing Yuffie? THE HEROINE? Would a surprise Terra's reveal minimize Yuffie's role for the next game? Probably not since Terra can't bother the OG storyline with her presence (can she can appear in it tho'?).

Maybe a lot of the Terra stuff will be explained through Yuffie "emulating" it. By "stuff" I mean things that even I don't know.

There's another thing...

Yuffie started a rumor? How about Mireille in FF7 Remake and her "rumors"? How about Kyrie starting rumors? Y'know, Kyrie? That character that's literally "not-Yuffie"?

You first see her on the train from Chapter 2 all the way to the very end of the last side quest where she's...

Well, the entire conversation involving Kyrie and Mireille takes place in front of Aerith's flowers. She just walks to there and the quest stays there until Mireille takes her place at the very end of the side-quest...staring at the flowers just like she was in the exact same spot.

It could be that Kyrie represents Yuffie and Mireille (who is the "Guardian Angel of the Slums") represents Terra (outside of being made from Lucca and Robo of Chrono Trigger). This is why both of them stare at the flowers...it's a hint.

If Kyrie is staring at the flowers, this does mean she's taking the role of "the Angel" before Mireille replaces her.

Considering there are two timelines...maybe Yuffie and Terra are...ah...well, there could be two Yuffies...maybe I'm stupid and none of this is anything! Although I do wonder if they cut something from Yuffie's OG character and made her optional for that reason...and we'll get to see what "that" is.

Doesn't Yuffie's theme play around the point the Kyrie side-quest starts where Johnny gets his wallet stolen?

Unless the next part of the demo has something surprising, this may be the last post until the game.

(Yuffie calls herself "treasure princess" in Crisis Core). There's been "debates" on whether or not she's technically a princess.

There's also that thing where Priscilla is technically Rikku (FFX)...or literally Rikku. I'm not going to bother with that, but she does know Yuffie. It would be on-point since Rikku called Yuna "Yunnie".

To people who are unfamiliar with Clerra - the characters involved tend to be young, sometimes very young. Being young is part of the symbolism.

#Clerra #Yuffie

[abittersweetthing]

Your 3 questions, should you choose to answer them...

Do you have a series (books, movies, TV, comic books, whatever) that you would chuck rocks at were it not for that one beloved character? (And if so, who are they?)

2. Do you have a favorite sculptor or painter or photographer? (Who are they? Or, alternately, do you have an artist you LOATHE with the fury of a thousand suns?)

3. I couldn't think of a normal last question so anyway here's my panic-button ice-breaker :

You and I are sitting at the back of a cafe off a crowded street. At the table nearest the door, someone comes down with the first case of zombification and starts attacking the neighboring tables. Everyone in the cafe is, understandably, not jazzed about this.

What do you do?

Unfortunately, since I am answering this past midnight, my response is long and pretty rambling. Please find it under the cut if you still feel like reading it, lmao.

1 - I can't think of any off the top of my head, maybe because I generally won't (continue to) read/watch a series if there aren't at least 2 or 3 characters I like? If something makes me too mad I usually don't take very long to drop it.

The only work I can think of in which I only particularly liked 1 character is Georgette Heyer's The Grand Sophy, where Sophy herself was pretty grand, and very funny, but almost every single other character was vaguely irritating. (And none more annoying than the voice of Heyer when that came through, which was often, and consistently snotty. Like, imagine the WASPiest grandma you've ever met, and multiply by 1000. There must have been fewer than 10 people alive in her lifetime that Heyer actually held no prejudice toward, all of whom (I assume) were born and lived in a few select areas of southeastern England and hailed from families whose noble titles had been in existence for at least several hundred years, et cetera, et cetera. Even if you leave out the anti-Semitic rant that was so bad it was absent in some editions even in the mid-20th century, the author has Things To Say even about other European nobility - except the French, who were presumably on thin ice - and I'm not even sure she approved of other women. Seriously, the heroine is purportedly friends with other young ladies, but never has actual written dialogue with them unless she's talking wayward teenagers out of undoubtedly ill-fated love matches with poetry-inclined fourth sons, and she will seek advice/help/counsel/idle conversation from literally any gentleman she meets in the park before she'll take it to her, uh, friends.) *cough* anyway...

2 - Well I definitely can't think of any artist whose work I really hate! and I don't think I really ever would unless it was actually harmful in some way. I'm also so unfamiliar with sculptors and photographers that I'd be hard-pressed to name more than like 2 of each (though I definitely still appreciate both, and I think sculpture especially is so cool!)

If I had to pick a favorite painter it would be van Gogh, which I know is kind of a cop-out, sorry. I don't think I really have a favorite so much as I like bright colors and light/shadow, and I tend to prefer paintings that are recognizable as ~something,~ if not realistic, rather than more abstract stuff. Basically my tastes are pretty basic lmao

3 - Realistically? Probably pull the old octopus panic reaction by freezing/retreating and staring for a good long while before piecing together any kind of action plan. But given the time to strategize from the safety of my cozy blankets, I will say: Pick a couple decently heavy adults around me, convince them to help me gang up on & pin down the zombie (as far as I know zombification does not endow enhanced strength, right??), probably facedown to avoid any biting or however that works. Maybe like 1 adult to pin down each limb. Try to get 1 or 2 others (from the crowd I assume is swiftly evacuating) to be the assigned emergency line-caller and Zombie Neutralization googler/wikihow user. Lastly, once the zombie is no longer a threat, try to snag some chocolatey treats from behind the counter while people are distracted since I've a) earned it and b) will most likely die soon in the zombie apocalypse. Assuming that you haven't yet abandoned me to my fate, I will even share 1 of them with you :D

#asks #lmao thank u that last one was fun <3

[chaotic-plotter]

@dreamerinsilico <3 sent me a lot of emojis and i'm going to answer them all. from this ask meme

✨What's a fic you've posted you wish you could breathe life into again and have people talking about it? (or simply a fic you wish got more credit)

is it cheating to say "any of them"? 😂

i haven't written all that many so there's not a lot to choose from. we'll go with "a lighthouse five hundred yards down". at the time, i never planned on writing it, but the idea hit me like a damn anvil one really stupid humid day in summer 2021 and i was haunted until i finally wrote it.

💫what is your favorite kind of comment/feedback?

the kind where people either tell me why something struck them or where they dive into language/images/etc. mostly because that's what i like to do when i read something (dive into language, images, etc) and also because, even though it's a super limited dataset, fic is the only place i can get random reader feedback (not writer feedback, i have critique partners). i come from throwing myself against (....and sliding on down) the glass hill of trad pub and had never actually gotten any kind of feedback/response from people who didn't know me or my writing before and it was really useful to see what people responded to, if they liked my style, etc.

💘Is there any posted fic you want to rework/re-edit/re-write?

funny enough.....yes? and also funny enough, i sort of get to? in a sense?

i started my long post-fall fic right after my first rewatch back in 2021 and i planned out the whole thing (yes it's still taking me 800 years to finish it, i apologize). but in reality, i sort of have a different outlook on will and hannibal post-s3 than i did at the time. and i'm really going to be rethinking the back half of that fic as i work towards finishing it.

so, essentially, yes, i wish i could rework those first 6 chapters (especially the first 2, wrt to writing style and tone especially!) to better fit whatever pivot i'm going to do in the last 4. i wouldn't change any of will's internal arc, i'm still happy with that, but there's plot stuff that i would.

🕯️was there a fic that was really hard on you to write, or took you to a place you didn't think it would take you?

not one that anyone can read, but i tried, thinking it would be darkly funny and maybe a good time (why i thought this is a mystery) to write about will post sex with margot. but writing about it in a "will has had sex that was Not Enjoyable but hey it was Sex With a Real Human Person and is reminded of his profound loneliness and has a little cry in the bathtub about it" way.

.......yeah i legitimately made myself upset with that one and had to stop. maybe i'll circle back around to it when i'm not so profoundly lonely.

🪄what is your post-writing/sharing aftercare? How do you take care of yourself or celebrate yourself when you've finished a fic?

i don't have any writing aftercare 😛 i probably should though

mostly i just take a couple of days off from writing after i finish something. idk, does checking your email hoping someone comments count as aftercare? i'm afraid i'm a terrible obsessive and putting things down is not my greatest skill, even if i am exhausted and glad to be done with actively working on them.

💌share something with us about an up-and-coming work (WIP) that has you excited!

hmmmmmm. well.

the next wip i actually have on the docket is a s1 nudist will au. i'm excited to jump back into hannibal's headspace after being outside of it for so long. he's absolutely insufferable and i can't wait to go full goose menace on everyone in the story (until it turns back on me and he never shuts up 😛)

and then, well, i've got another one-shot challenge after that, which is all about stretching muscles i rarely stretch 😏. i'm still deciding if i want to run a poll about it or if it should be a complete surprise

send me more asks if you like! i love these emoji meme post things