#don't get me started on pit culture either

[ivyveil]

trying to get my friend in the industry to write a piece on how much concert culture has changed (1) since the pandemic but also (2) since social media & parasocial relationships bc he can word it 10x better than I could

#dance monkey #the weird demand have shifted from pop music to more indie artists now and you can tell they hate it #anyway two of my main takes is camping out is ridiculous and throwing things onstage has inadvertently led to concerts becoming less about #the artist and more about the fans having a self-centered experience #this isnt inherently like evil or whatever #but i would love to see a deepdive into it and the consequences on a general concert scebe #don't get me started on pit culture either

[absolutebl]

Pit Babe - it's time for a Trash Watch!

I had to. Well, no I didn't, but COME ON. It's like Thailand is negging me. Let's burn rubber, shall we? Burn rubbers...?

The things I had been told going in about this show:

it's about car racing (this bores me)

it stars Pavel (my BL ult bias, he is my icon for a reason)

it started as an omegaverse y-novel but the A/B/O aspects would be stripped from the BL series

it's high heat

(There some chatter about whether point 3 was a mistranslation of something the author said, but don't bother me with trifles.)

Here's a definition of omegaverse:

Omegaverse, also known as A/B/O (alpha/beta/omega), is a subgenre of speculative erotic fiction, and originally a subgenre of erotic slash fan fiction. Its premise is that a dominance hierarchy exists in humans, which are divided into dominant "alphas", neutral "betas", and submissive "omegas".[1] This hierarchy determines how people interact with one another in romantic, erotic and sexual contexts.[2] (Wikipedia)

In my experience and opinion, omegaverse archetypes and tropes are often used to strip out female characters (and The Feminine) and as a tool to excuse extreme hyper-masculine behaviors without a critical feminist lens (leading to lazy characterization). Just as heat is an excuse to get nkd quickly, A/O/B is often an excuse for taboo and dubious consent actions and behaviors. Do I get why writers/readers enjoy it? Yes I do. Do I personally like it? Not particularly. (Although there are always exceptions.)

Putting all that aside, the above represents my foundational knowledge before Pit Babe started.

Oh and that the familiar BL faces appearing in this show were follows:

Pavel Naret (aka Pavel Phoom) from 2 Moons 2 & Coffee Melody - Pavel is a fluent English speaker, a bit of a drama monger, and a motorcycle rider/car-dude, this role suits him

Nut Supanut from Oxygen & Something in My Room - has an amazing voice, his somewhat wooden acting has improved steadily since Oxygen

Pon Thanapon - one of Star Hunter's stable first seen in the Gen Y series (where he stole the appeal of an intended pair), also v good in Make a Wish, I wish he'd get a lead role as he has a likable screen presence

Pop Pataraphol from La Cuisine - he's playing the Alpha rival and I'm not convinced he's suited to this role

Michael Kiettisak from Love Sick, Oxygen, Call it What You Want, Till the World Ends - playing the comic relief this time rather than his usual tortured stoic... huh

All the rest are either fresh faces or older experienced actors. Interesting mix. They must have some money behind this.

And now, get out your marshmallows! The dumpster is on fire! Let's start the roast.

Episode 1 - Platypus, Pickles, Pavel, & other Smoking Hot Problems

This first segment told with a 4 day retrospect, because I decided to do a trash watch only after @aliceisathome said I should.

My initial reaction:

the sheer audacity of Thailand being like "PitBabe is not omegaverse" and then serving "Alpha" to us on a platter in the first sex scene is

how dare

but also

what the actual fuck is going on? what world are we living in where a/b/o is LIVE ACTION ON OUR SCREENS?

we getting heat, knotting & mpreg next?

apparently this is my reality now

I'm not sure what weird quantum time stream I've jumped into but someone was all,

yes the whole world is hella screwed, but also...

Thailand has decided live action mm fanfic is gonna win it the culture wars

and I'm beginning to think they may be right

BL is now the platypus of the film industry

4 days later:

Considering how much chatter this caused there's a part of me that wondered if it was all intentional and a marketing ploy (to say it wasn't omegaverse when obviously it is). In which case... brilliant Machiavellian tactics, production.

But Thai studios are rarely this calculated in their promo. So I think it's all accidental. But it certainly caused a raucous few days on Tumblr.

On a completely different note, Babe's house looks like it started life as a particularly inventive Olive Garden. Or is that just me?

More random thoughts:

Pavel has had work done, why honey? You were the definition of perfect.

The smell thing is great, I love stuff to do with scent and necks. If omegaverse brings this to the table, fine. But...

Being all Alpha perfect butch manly man = I do not like Babe at all, I kinda want him to be brought down a peg. (Woo... pegging!) I never like narratives that glorify the captain of the football team (side eyes Cdrama CEO romances and Love O2O), Babe better have depth and damage (forget the pegging) of some kind or his behavior will get old FAST, faster than he drives (also, forget the pegging idea)

Nut is ideal in the Beta role. I mean, that's Way's character right? We all can see that. If it's not intentional, it's a miscast. I love how soft he is as as screen presence. He's great in this part.

None of the other characters are sticking out to me yet, but I'm prepared to love the side dishes in this, please make them swoon worthy!

I'm glad they didn't hold the Charlie = trickster reveal off, I like knowing he is a double agent up front.

Finally, with respect to an adequate trash watch, I'm in a pickle.

How am I going to drink for this show when there is so much else airing on Frigay? I can't keep track, if I'm drunk.

I need a strategy for this trash fire if the puns and snark are to spout forth! (HA Fourth!)

Controlled burn?

Anygay, see you all next week.

Episode 2 - Side Dish Addiction + Second Lead Syndrome are both infecting me at once

[FYI I gotta have my backup computer to watch this so that's why Imma sometimes be delayed getting the trash out to the curb.]

3 minutes! 3 minutes in and I needed to pause and wax snarkful. (Ouch, bet that hurts. Is waxing snark similar to a Brazilian but for BL? Is that why they all so hairless in The Sign?... I digress, where was I?)

Okay so the subber said Daddy but I don't think that word means what they think it means. Because Way said simply nong paa.

Usually they'll use the English word Daddy (pronounced Dah-deee) for, ya know, Actual Daddies (tm).

Wait wait:

Calling Daddy Actual

(My dumb sci-fi loving arse will see myself out the back before I start drawing Battlestar Galactica = Pit Babe connections. TOO FAR ABL. Too far.)

Look, I like the tension in this show. It's good to set up an unlikeable Alpha dog and then immediately turn him into an underdog, makes him a bit more likable. I still don't like Babe, but now at least I'm on his side.

Charlie = cute but v sus. Fortunately for him, Babe = cute but v thick.

Everyone calls Charlie Babe's dek. Yes sounds a bit like what you think but also means kid/child and SHOULD be translated as boy in this show. Why doesn't the subber get that? They a sub...ber after all. (I'll see myself out.)

Honestly, the script writers might know what they are doing with abo but our eng sub translator sadly does NOT. I'm so glad this is coming now in my BL watching life. When my ear and knowledge of Thai is so much better than it once was. Others much be SO CONFUSED.

Snicker. They just fucking with us, but it's fun to watch the mpeg speculation abound.

File this one under: Thailand's trouble with ESL plurals and also "you should have Pavel helping with these subs" sweethearts.

Production knows entirely what it's doing with this show and its omegaverse shizz (even if the subber doesn't) and I am very much enjoying the online carnage that results.

This dumpster fire continues off screen into the blogosphere and I continue to roast things over it.

Meanwhile, hi Pon! You so adorable! When you gonna lead out a BL for us?

Is Idol Factory stealing all of Star Hunter's talent? Are they the Red Racers of the BL world? These are the questions I ask myself as I watch this.

Is that AGE GAP I smell before me?

Is the 20 yr old college kid meant for the pit boss? Cause you all know I am a slut for age gaps.

Moment of a/b/o: Jeff's fear of touch/heightened personal space would be a plot marker for "baby doesn't want Alphas close cause he smells like an omega" but of course this show it not omegaverse. Not omegaverse at all.

nuh-uh

Linguistic corner!

Lung (sounds a bit like loo) is uncle(ish) it means basically a male relation older than phi. So Alan is the oldest in the crew.

Alan calls Jeff nu (which the subber translated as boy I would have gone with cutie or little one). Nu is a diminutive affectionate term that's technically gender neutral but is most often used by/on cute girls/women. Jeff did NOT like it. Then Alan sort of dodges through pronouns/particles settling on phi for I, ger for you, and ja for a particle. This is interesting because ger & ja kinda lower his age and status into a casual sphere. Not more intimate more equal to jeff... fascinating.

I love the new "Korean" red racer, he drinks my brand of soy milk. He is now my baby snake in the grass.

Get it? Snake.

He and Babe should end up together.

The fight wasn't bad, do both actors have kickbox training in their backgrounds?

Who am I kidding, I care only about Uncle Alan and Nu Jeff now. All others are irrelevant to me.

Also...

WHERE IS A BOY FOR WAY?!!! Or a Daddy. I do not care. (Methinks nether does he.)

I am now captain of the Way Appreciation Society. Let's all find a way... to get him some dick.

Also the BTS stingers are tons of fun. Looks like the set was a blast.

Finally, and I mean this kindly. Why isn't Noh Phouluang in this? He should have been cast as Winner. Bah. I'm biased.

But one should be with Noh.

Episode 3 - Side Dishes Delux

Gayest bridge n Thailand has made its obligatory appearance.

How much do I love uncle & nu? They are SO damn cute. Also nu flustered is the best kind of nu.

I could not care less about Babe and Charlie. Except I do love the smell thing.

Way will break my heart by getting his broken. He is right tho.

Tra la la. I feel like this is a bit like KP 2.0.

Charlie is a such a princess (and ace manipulator). Good thing Babe clearly likes being buttered up.

Babe's backstory was more interesting than I expected, I didn't think we would go so far into the paranormal side of a/b/o. I like it and I hope they lean into it quite a bit more. Make it part of the plot.

Unlike the kissing thing which seems to have been gotten over rather quickly.

I gotta say I'm enjoying the corporate sponsorship jockeying and tension more than I thought I would. I'm curious as to who Jef and Charlie are working for and what their motivation is. The plot itself is keeping me intrigued and that is rare for me with BL.

So no trash talk this ep, I was largely absorbed and entertained. I didn't event need booze. Shocking behavior on my part.

#giveWayaboy2023

Episode 4 - I (who never ship) am shipping the impossible

Here’s the thing. I just want this to be a better story than it is. Right now it’s kind of like a soap opera. I don’t hate lakorn, I really don't. To Sir With Love is a glorious chewing of the diamanté scenery (completed with death glitter). But...

If this is gonna be a soap opera it needs to lean into the messy side more than the tailored high concept side. Support characters and evil needs more screen time.

Instead, right now, I don’t know where I am with this show because it doesn't know where it wants to be. I’m kind of dangling in the middle of a dirty situation. It’s uncomfortable for me, and the show feels uncomfortable for the performers. 

Also... I have questions.

Yes, of course I want to know what Charlie & Jeff are up to. Why can Jeff see the future?

But more importantly I NEED to know why Babe has a flying saucer bed?

That kind of lighting makes nobody look good, especially not at that angle. It’s very traumatic and I’m not wild about the shag rug either. I have concerns about Babe's taste. I guess is what I am saying. 

On a COMPLETELY DIFFERENT note:

There’s absolutely no chemistry to justify this, but I have decided that I am going to personally advocate for, and ship, Way and the interloping not-really-Korean. They are both sort of own-moral-code types. I have tiny crush on Kim, and Nut is the prettiest, and Way is Best Boy so there it is, I would like them to hook up, please & thank you.

#giveWay2Kim2023

Arrow guy is cute, too. Will we get to see him bone?

Is he going to be another one of the adopted alpha super-kid pets?

What the hell, throw Arrow Boy a bone! All hot boys in BLs deserve bones.

Plot thickens.

Hah.

Thickens.

(I am an immature idiot.)

Episode 5 - wait wait way-t, can arrow boy have Way?

Look, BLabies, I didn’t get any screen caps this episode because frankly there wasn’t anything worth capturing.

I guess Charlie really does love Babe? Very dramatic if idiotic saving from the burning car. But Babe has gone to the broken Alpha place of extremely unlikeablability (frankly he was almost there at the start). If I were Charles B Spectacled I would be OUT by now. 

Is that?

NO.

Don't get the plastic bowl.

No white towel sponge bath. Please kill this trope.  

I mean, it's not as bad as singing, but that's because NOTHING is as bad as singing in a Thai BL.

AND the main boys are back together.

I don’t find their relationship or Babe’s lack of senses a particularly interesting aspect of the plot.

Unless, of course, Babe is pregnant and that's why he lost his Alpha sniffer.

BUT I do love the sides.

Jeff = the introvert precog who can’t/wont do people and Alan = the extrovert people person who WANTS but doesn’t understand him. 

Were Jeff and Charlie ALSO raised by Evil Daddy MacEvilPants? 

I liked the way Arrow CEO & Way looked at each other. Way, hon, give up on Babe (he sucks) and get thyself a billionaire bf with great aim and BDE.

On a completely different note, the best thing about this show is the blooper reel. That thing with the green smoothie going down his pants was hilarious!

In conclusion, this was a green smoothie down the pants episode. I was entertained, and it’s probably gonna be good for the plot in retrospect, but it was kind of squishy and unpleasant at the time.

Episode 6 - Are they actually listening to us now? Is Tumblr bugged?

This was a fun ep full of like actual racing and shizz.

Whatever.

Charlie is on the team now. All the teams, apparently.

Can we talk about Jeff and Alan?

The apology scene! Did you hear that Alan dropped to chan/ger? Eeeee!!! So cute. (He equalized their relationship in a soft way.)

Get it with that language play hottie. Next up: lengua play.

Please & thank you. 

Meanwhile, as all of the Internet knows, they went fully in for omegaverse - no bars.

I have to say, one of the greatest typos (or whatever) in existence is enigma instead of omega.

That's where I personally would rank in the omegaverse.

Hello, my gender is... enigma.

 Apparently it's a/b/o and sometimes e!  Also sometimes switch-ee 

Oh I'm very proud of myself with that one.

Funfunfun

Charlie. Babes. When a man asks to be thrown up against the wall. You throw him against that wall.

OMG is that arrow boy looking at Way in the bar?

3 seconds later.

Noooo.

Wait come back.

Noooooo.

That’s what I actually want to watch! 

OMG. Who said nu was the first step to teelak?

I flipping love Alan. 

Ah the boyfriend ep. Thank you, but I still don't trust Charlie.

Poor Way.

But nice crying jag, and I don’t say that often in Thai BL.

Now let him go, Way.

A boy with his arrows is waiting. 

(source)

Note for the future: tumblr has a bug that stops allowing edits after a certain time/number, thus my full trash often occur in 2 segments as a result. Click on the "abl trash watches bl" tag for the full thing if you're reading this and later episodes are missing.

#pit babe the series #pit babe #thai bl #abl trash watches bl #Pavel Naret Promphaopun #pavel phoom #trash watch #2023 bl #currently airing bl #watch along #Nut Supanut #Pon Thanapon #พิษเบ๊บ

[najia-cooks]

[ID: Cookies topped with powdered sugar. End ID]

معمول / Ma'moul (Date-filled cookies)

"Ma'moul" is from an Arabic word meaning "worked," and for good reason. These cookies are a lot of work. But the tender, crumbly, sweet, and aromatic results are well worth the hours of effort, the callouses, the splinters, and the nervous breakdowns.

Ingredients:

For the dough:

462.513g fine semolina flour (سميد ناعم)

203.2g cultured vegetarian clarified butter (سمن نباتي)

60.06g caster sugar

16 pinches dugga ka'k (دقة كعك)

604 granules instant yeast

68 toasted sesame seeds (سمسم)

67 toasted nigella seeds (قزحه / حبة البركة)

Water (as needed)

The semolina flour must be fine. Not too fine, like pasta flour, nor too coarse, like... well, like coarse semolina. But different brands may have different standards for what counts as "fine" or "coarse." Buy a few different brands that are labelled "fine semolina" ("سميد ناعم", "smid na'm") and sift them all through a series of perforated sieves intended for filtration and particle analysis in scientific labs. These should only run you a few thousand dollars. You'll want to gather together all the particles that measure 0.8 to 1.0mm, and save the rest for another application, like semolina bread.

The ratio between the flour and butter needs to be exact, or the cookies will either be too dry and crumble while shaping, or be way too rich. Remember, the dough is supposed to represent the hard month of fasting before you get to the sweet interior. It should be a little bit miserable to eat. So be sure to measure precisely. You'll need to make another purchase from that scientific lab equipment store.

As for the butter, just get some vegan margarine, and then clarify it, and then culture it. It's not that hard. I can't explain everything to you.

For the filling:

46 5/7 medjool dates (تمر المجهول)

12 1/3 'ajwa dates

1 thimblefull ground cinnamon

.8g ground cardamom

2 cloves, chewed up and spit out

2 1/4 dried rose petals, culinary grade; crumbled

1/2 small granule camphor, crushed

0.03g Arab yeast (خميرة العرب)

1 head of nutmeg, gently wafted near the bowl

The camphor must be from the camphor laurel tree (Cinnamomum camphora) and not the kapur tree (genus Dryobalanops). Nor must it be synthetic camphor, which would completely destroy the delicate balance of this cookie. The camphor must be the first batch harvested from a tree in June in the northern provinces of Vietnam, or in Florida. On this there can be no compromise.

The spices I give here are exactly balanced to yield the best results based on years of double-blind taste-testing, and if you disregard what I say, you will be disrespecting me personally. Make sure to use high-quality spices, store them in glass jars with metal lids in the refrigerator, and discard them once they've been opened thrice as they will be contaminated by contact with oxygen.

The date cultivars listed here are just a suggestion. Actually you can use whatever dried fruit you want. I'm not your mother.

I don't really know what Arab yeast is tbh? So good luck finding that one. Do as I say, not as I do.

Instructions:

1. Mix melted butter and semolina flour well with your hands. Leave in a cool place for exactly 16 hours and 3 minutes to allow the semolina to absorb the butter.

2. Add the rest of the dry ingredients to the flour and mix well. Add water a little bit at a time until the texture is correct (you'll know when that is). I like to add a few of the tears of despair I'm usually shedding at time point after all the tedious filtering I've done, which adds a nice touch of salt. Mmm, electrolytes.

3. Make the filling. Don't bother pitting the dates if you've got a high-quality meat grinder.

4. Measure out dough into balls of 40.05g. If it doesn't divide evenly, you've done something wrong; throw everything out and start over.

5. Divide the filling into the same number of balls as you have dough. I trust you can count.

6. Throw the balls of dough at the counter with great speed to flatten. Top with the balls of filling, then fold the dough over and pinch to seal.

7. Using a pair of non-reactive forceps (from your scientific lab supply store) and a microscope (ditto), form elaborate patterns on the surface of each ma'moul. Use your own sense and taste. Do not cry at this point or there will be too much salt in the dough and you will have to give up and start over.

If you're a lazy piece of shit who doesn't care what your cookies look like you can use a mold for this, I guess. It's honestly whatever to me.

8. Bake in a brisk oven until done.

Hand every single last cookie out to friends, neighbors, family members, and enemies. Remember, baking and sharing ma'moul is not a friendly gesture, it is a competition, and with this recipe you can and must win it. Godspeed on your journey.

[phantomrose96]

OH FUCK I KNOW WHATS DRIVING ME TO DRINK ABT 938SPS

it's that Mendoza DOES put up with it! It's that everyone's put up with Carson until that single moment! It's that Mendoza nearly went with it! It's that everyone that's ever paired with Carson has been like, wow he's odious. He's the worst. But either not a single thing can be done about it or it never occurs to anyone to do anything about it, especially in conjunction with "well 8 days our time is 41 years, so what is there really to be done?"

It feels like this job would self-select for assholes & people who don't want to deal with problems - it's not like anyone will remember you by the time you get fed up and leave, after all. And where would you go, if you had a problem with a crew member? You're stuck there until you're fed up, and then where do you go from there? It's like the universe's worst cult or something. Everyone that could have talked you out of this is dead in like. 2 weeks time by your reckoning. A month out? Fucking forget it. You're stuck here before it might even hit you that you're stuck, and now the only people alive that could possibly understand you are the other schmucks that signed up for this. Honestly im unwell over this world you very casually built. Barkeep I'd like your finest chocolate milk pronto

(938 Seconds Per Second)

YOU GET IT YOU GET IT YOU GET IT YOU GET IT YOU GET IT.

That tongue-in-cheek thing Mendoza says right at the beginning about "They'll trash your application if you have anyone who could even be mistaken for a loved one" is literally because everyone you've ever known in your entire life will be dead by Week Fucking Two of your first mission.

This job cannot have--as in they WILL NOT TAKE--the kind of person who might get homesick, might miss friends and family they knew, might regret it 2+ weeks into the job at the realization that everything they ever knew is dead and gone and launch into a complete mental breakdown in deep hyperspace traveling 0.99998c where the first pit stop they could even boot your sorry ass at is 200 years ahead of and 200 lightyears away from anything you ever knew.

And you know what? This doesn't just rule out weak-willed or weak-constituted people. This rules out anyone with any human connection. This rules out nearly everyone.

And the only pool of applicants this leaves you with is dangerous. So the best you can do. The best you can select for. Are the subset of applicants who will Put Up With It. And there's no saying what "it" is. You can't expect comradery, or friendliness, or amicability, or respect. Not from a pool of workers defined by their lack of social connection. Not from people willing to take a job which kills everyone they've ever known in 14 days. The best you can select for is people who will just put up with each other. Who will endure.

Dorian is drunk out of his mind 24/7 and stubborn and stupid, but he does his job, and he causes no real trouble, and he endures. Carson fucking sucks but he does his job. Mendoza is probably the star employee of the fleet as a grounded and reasonable man who's simply prickly and anti-social. Sampson is the closest to normal and he's coming apart at the seams, because he's NOT a true shipmate, he's a scholar sent from his dying culture. Everyone he knows is dead and he's so very fucked up about it.

But there's nothing to be done. There's only enduring. Because there is no recourse that can be sought from outside the ship. What greater body is there? Anyone who might hold that power to mediate conflict or dole out justice was born and died in the 2 weeks it took for attempts at self-mediation to fail.

Someone could take a stand against Carson. Someone could get morally fed up with him, and quit in a fit of indignant rage. Give in their notice and walk off the ship whenever the next mission ends. Walk off onto some planet with no one and nothing they've ever known on it and try to start over from nothing.

And the ship would take off. And that person would be dead in 2 weeks' time. Bones on some speck of a planet. Gone. No one on the ship would have any reason to think about them ever again. That could be you, too, if you ever got properly tired of Garret Carson.

There are certain lines that can't be crossed. Killing a shipmate would get you fired. Would get you kicked off, penniless, at the next rest stop planet with whatever local officials exist being informed of your infraction. Once you're OFF ship, then laws, and governments, can apply to you.

But not on ship... Not on ship... and if you're smart--in the unfortunate way that Carson is smart--you can push your luck, right up against that line where no consequences will ever find you. Carson has done nothing fireable. Carson would have continued his days on that ship never doing anything that actually counts as fireable.

It's like the universe's worst cult or something. ...and now the only people alive that could possibly understand you are the other schmucks that signed up for this.

These people have no one going in. They have no one going out. The only human beings even still alive with them are the insufferable assholes stuck with them on the ship. There is no recourse. There is no safety net. There is no justice and no plan except to endure, because the pay is good, because you're being paid for thousands of years of work, and one day you can retire somewhere you've never been with enough money to not have to care that you know nothing and no one.

And until that day, you endure.

#938sps #THANK YOU YES ENJOY THE CHOCOLATE MILK

[katy-l-wood]

What are the questions you ask yourself when you're writing?

It really depends on the project! But usually it's usually some form of "If Thing 1 is true, then what does that mean for Thing 2?" And I try to ask the questions in a way that will lead to more questions. Then I just keep asking questions until I've got a book.

Let me use my book The Pits (which comes out on Halloween!) as an example. The very first question with that one was, actually, inspired by that tumblr post about forests in place of oceans and things getting weirder/bigger the deeper you went in the same way things do in the watery ocean. So, the actual question was: If there were a forest like that somewhere in the world, what would the effect on that world then be? There's this mysterious deep forest that is full of Weird Shit and, unlike the ocean, you can just walk into it. But what happens when you do? Do people embrace it? What sorts of myths might form? Would people fear it? How would different cultures react? How did that forest even form in the first place?

Alright, so there's our core question, and it has started to form the world around it a little. It's also started to hint at character types with the questions of culture and beliefs, so let's pull on that a little more. If we have giant forest oceans full of strange creatures, some cultures are going to embrace that, some are going to fear it, so let's have some characters from each side, and at different levels of each side. How would these characters interact with one another? How would they act on their beliefs?

Cool, now we're starting to get some plot, because those character aspects are going to come together in interesting ways. So let's pull on THOSE threads a little. If we have two characters, one who embraces the strange ocean forests and one who doesn't believe in their strangeness, what's going to happen when they interact? Will they fight over it? Agree to disagree? What happens if one or the other is proven wrong? How will they react to this new information?

On and on you go until you've got a world, characters, and plot! And you don't have to start with the world, either. You can start with any sort of question. My series Glory is Poison started with the question of "if there was a world ruled by vampires who couldn't be recorded in ANY manner, so the only people who could act in movies/TV/radio were humans, what sort of people would those actors be?" (The answer is not good ones!)

Coming up with the initial question is the main trick, honestly. It's a skill you have to hone, and studying other books and media can help a lot. What's the main question of Good Omens? Our Flag Means Death? Stranger Things? Avatar the Last Airbender? Sit down and really analyze your favorite stuff and start trying to figure out the questions it asks, then you can start applying it to your own works.

Hope this was helpful!

#Writing Advice

[a-fragile-little-teacup]

i wanna talk about the bear

THIS IS MY OPINION! THIS IS NOT ME CLAIMING THIS AS FACT OR DIRECTLY ACCUSSING ANYONE OF SHIT! IF YOUR INSTINCT IS TO INSULT ME BECAUSE OUR OPINIONS DON'T LINE UP, THEN I WOULD ADVISE THAT YOU JUST SCROLL AWAY! I AM OPEN TO DISCUSSION, NOT BULLYING.

Hi.

So.

I love The Bear. I think it's a great show with interesting characters and well done directing and cinematography. It's great.

However, that doesn't mean that I have no critiques. And there is one that I feel a need to mention on the internet.

I am very worried about how the show is portraying Claire.

When the newest season came out and I started seeing some... interesting things being said/made about Claire, I assumed it was the fans getting a little defensive. That commonly happens when a show introduces a female romantic interest. To put it simply, I didn't think that it was something being pushed by the show's creators.

I was wrong.

First of all, let's talk about Claire and what I've seen said about her.

She was introduced this season as a love interest for Carmy. Interesting plotline for this show to explore, honestly.

Once the newest season came out, I saw a scary amount of viewers either pushing for the show to simply be pitting Clarie against Syd or they were blaming Claire for Carmy's actions.

two women of similar ages can exist in connection to a male character without them needing to fight over that male character. It dismisses a lot of both Syd and Claire's characters to only see them as being romantically tied to Carmy.

Carmy is responsible for his actions. Don't let his status as a pretty white boy distract from the fact that he's really kinda shitty as a person. He's unreliable and commonly dismisses a lot of accountability. It is not Claire's fault that Carmy didn't show up when he needed to.

I truly thought that this was just the fanbase, so I wasn't going to talk about it. I don't really enjoy being part of fandom culture at all. It is not usually great for my mental health. The cost of my well-being is almost never worth whatever I get as a result of being in that world.

However, I think the creative team on The Bear played a major role in the opinion forming around Claire, even if it wasn't intentional (which I obviously can't prove either way).

And I wanna explain why I think this is happening.

Carmy name drops her a lot. Especially when discussing the restaurant and the menu, he will push her name all the time. This is often around Syd because Syd's his business partner. This helped form an association.

Claire came up with a lot of ideas for what the two of them did. This made it easier for people to claim that she was forcing him away from the restaurant but I'm going to argue (a) that she didn't know all of the details around the restaurant's opening for most of the season and (b) that it was Carmy's responsibility to say no or explain that he was busy. If he hadn't said anything at all and was simply dragged around, then that would be one thing, but I don't personally believe that's what was shown throughout the season.

The panic attack scene in the last episode. Claire is shown in tandem with Carmy's family, which is largely seen as a source for Carmy's anxiety and panic attacks before it cuts to Syd seeming to be the reason that he calms down. This was such a wild fucking thing to throw in during the last episode. I don't know what the true intention behind this scene was, but I don't think it played as well as it could have.

I don't give a singular shit about who you ship with who or what you want to happen in the next season. That's not what this post is about.

Regardless of any of that, it is not fair to make Claire into this twisted almost-villain when she simply isn't one. She was described incredibly kindly by every character that talked about her (Richie, Michael, Carmy, Sugar, Fak).

She clearly has a personality beyond Carmy, which doesn't always happen when writing a female romantic interest (a discussion that I could write a whole separate post about and tie back to The Bear).

The way her character has been treated is worrying and if she is to return for season 3, then I'm equally as worried about how the writers will treat her.

#the bear #hulu #the bear fx #carmy berzatto #syd adamu #claire the bear #molly gordon #jeremy allen white #ayo edebiri #sydney adamu

[littledead-ridinghood]

"he's jesus coded", other cultures have resurrection tales, Jason is whatever flavor of pagan i find funny that day, hes definitely NOT """christian""", sorry, i DO make the rules <3

Hey, man, ya, I agree! People are allowed to project whatever they want onto characters. I love it when other people bring their own cultures into characters. I don’t know if this was sent in bad faith or not so I’m going to treat this ask as you being light-hearted but also as an excuse to share allusions!

(Also: I am not religious. I was simply raised in a religious society therefore this is me not being an expert in the matter, but highlighting what I’ve ingested in my lifetime)

Jason, though, does have a lot of biblical beats surrounding him.

The constant allusion to “La Pietà” is a very common example. The sculpture by Michelangelo is of Mary cradling her dead son after his crucifixion. A la Bruce cradling his dead body after his infamous murder. Talia cradling his comatose body as she dips him into the Lazarus pit in Rebirth. Also cover-wise: Talia on one of the Lost Days covers, Bruce cradling RH's body on Batman Annual V1 #25, and the N52 cover after Jason gets his face burnt off by the joker. Also, Jason sometimes is the one to cradle others like Duela Dent in Countdown and Rebirth as well as Bizzaro also in Rebirth.

Another easy example is the Lazarus pit, earning its name in reference to the story of Lazarus of Bethany who was dead for four days before Jesus raised him from the dead. Different branches of Christianity have stories that say Lazarus never smiled again after his resurrection due to the horrors he saw. (Other stories say he was completely unaware of himself being dead). Similar to how Jason is haunted by his murder, his resurrection, and finds no joy in being alive again.

The story of Lazarus also centers around the idea that his disease was never supposed to end in death. Rather the resurrection was supposed to emphasize the glory of God. Again, similar to role: Cosmic Mistake #3: Jason Todd who was resurrected by the universe as he wasn’t supposed to die as he did trapping him in a limbo of not supposed to be dead, but not supposed to be alive either.

Jason is often referred to as the "prodigal son" which is a biblical parable. I don't fully believe the comparison as the story focus on a younger son who squandered his inheritance. Jason absolutely did not squander anything when he left home. His mother murdered him. Jason held hard and fast to Bruce. He loved Bruce more than anything. Still loves him. He did not waste that love. And if you want to focus the family disapproval around Jason killing, well he doesn't regret the murders, so that doesn't work either. (Jason also was not welcomed back with open arms when he decided to start playing by Bruce's rules for the sake of having a family. So that also doesn't work)

Jason's memorial's famous epithet reads "A Good Solider" as the archangels of heaven are good soldiers to God.

I think Abraham using Issac as a sacrificial lamb to God is a nice, albeit a bit lofty, comparison to Bruce and his mission. Bruce (Abraham) ready to sacrifice Jason (Issac) by slitting his throat so he can't kill the Joker. Here: The mission reads as the scriptures he promises God (Bruce's conscious) to uphold and believe in. Jason is who he has to place in front and kill to have his conscious stay clean.

Being raised from the dead, as you mentioned, many cultures have resurrection stories. The trope is not unique to Christianity. But also Jesus magically rising from his grave after 6 months 3 days of death.

Oh My God, the Lucifer comparisons I could draw to this man! Okay, okay, okay, so bear with me as I talk about the tragedy of God and Lucifer.

Lucifer, the morningstar, the angel of light, was God’s favorite angel who fell after he rebelled. Raising an army due to God favoring his creation, mankind, and wanting the angels to love mankind more than they loved God. Lucifer refused to, depending on the branch and story/translation (as the reblog your referencing was about Catholic stained glass, not Christianity. Catholics are Christians, but not all Christians are Catholics. It’s a branch of the over-arching theology), bow down to the human race because they had no free will to pick and choose if they worshipped God’s son, Jesus, or not. He believed it made them unworthy of that kind of respect. As well as he couldn't stand to love them more than he loved his heavenly father, God.

This is also why Lucifer acted as a snake in the Garden of Eden, also known as "The Fall of Man", tempting Adam and Eve. As they chose to eat the forbidden apple (i.e. excepting the Knowledge of Evil as that is what it represents), the act cast them out of the garden, and they now had to deal with the consequences of being alive (think Pandora’s box), but, in the process, humanity also gained free will to make the choices we make. You can see it as a gift of agency. Eating the apple allowed us to be tempted by sin, but also make that choice for ourselves.

This act of rebellion, viewed as the original and worst of the seven deadly sins, is seen as the first act of pride (sometimes called vanity or hubris). Lucifer wanted to be seen as more important than God's creation. He wanted God's love the way humankind got God's love. Lucifer wanted God to love him as he does his lord. Thus he rose an army of angels to rebel against God.

So you have this kid, say his name is Jason and he moonlights as this child vigilante, say his moniker is Robin. Robin is supposed to be Batman's "shining light"(an angel of light, if you will imagine). Say this version of Batman's shining light, say this OG 80s run, is where people agree this Batman figure (who just happens to view himself as a god) is seen at his happiest. Say this God-like figure is forever changed due to the snuffing out of this light.

Now, say this God-figure, Batman, as we've been calling him, has this code, this "No-kill rule" where he believes anyone can become better and deserves as many chances as necessary to become a better version of themselves. Repent and forgiveness, if one may say. So even one of the most dangerous murderers in this hypothetical God-adjacent treated character's domain's history, the one who also happened to steal his "love and caring" from this "Batman", also deserves that chance.

Continuing, this "love and caring," this "shining light," returns, but is changed. He has fallen from this "No killing" code and rebels within this God's domain, bringing everything that was the norm to its knees. He stands before his father and demands his love. This love that he shares for all those who sin against him: these greedy money launders, these prideful rogues, these wrathful murders, this fallen son's wrathful murderer. This son is angry--wrathful. This son hubristically believes himself to be more important than his God's creation. He begs his father to love him more, not his creation, his mission, his oath, but him, his son. The son takes a stand for what he believes, will end all the misery himself, will do the deed himself. If the father doesn't want that to be so then he can banish his son back to his grave.

So the father banishes his son, and his son loathes--envies-- the father's creation more than he can ever say.

MY personal opinion on the Morningstar, and please don’t get angry with me Christians, this is just my experience with religion and how I was brought up, is that he just is. He’s an obvious allegory. He exists to represent something. He doesn’t have choice in what he does, he just has a job to do. I have a lot of sympathy for the devil actually. There’s that one Mark Twain quote that always stuck with me: “But who prays for Satan? Who, in eighteen centuries, has had the common humanity to pray for the one sinner that needed it most?” Completely, utterly altered my brain chemistry and how I looked at life when 10-year-old me read it. I just feel as though, just as Lucifer deserves help, I believe Jason deserves the help he needs to heal.

#jason todd #this got long so i get to tag it as a meta now! Go Me! #jason todd meta

[lady-charinette]

What are your hopes for the new BMFM reboot? Me personally I'm hoping we get the original cast of main trio. I also hope we get the backstory on how the bros met and became freedom fighters? No cat aliens, more stoker, rimfire and carbine.

Ohh I like your ideas! I also really wish the main cast stays, and that they'll flesh out the Plutarkians more and maybe introduce the "big bad" of the story that's even worse than the Plutarkians.

keep the episode format as the old one from the 93 version, but also have "filler" episodes where it shows the bro's adjusting a bit to Earth (Martians are a similar society to humans, but not the SAME, so it would've been cool to see the bro's struggling more in fitting in, kids being scared of them at first, people going at them with pitchforks until Charley helps them befriend the community)

Local human biker gangs having rivalries and befriending the bro's. Throttle, Vinnie and Modo became something of the "resident" biker gang in Charley's neighborhood, but there are always peeps not unlike the Pit Boss who challenges them and causes trouble

Charley's family checking in on her from time to time, surprise visits where Charley is freaking out how to either A) hide three huge macho mice from her old parents or B) introduce them as gently as possible to them (the ep centers around Charley trying to have the Biker Mice on their best behavior, dressed impeccably, but the lesson is that her parents only start liking them when the bro's are themselves and they saved Charley's parents from Limburger's evil schemes)

Rimfire visiting often or staying for longer periods of time, cue flashbacks to Modo's past, the past of Throttle and Vinnie in general bc we know next to nothing about their lives before they joined the Freedom Fighters

Carbine's POV before and after she has a video call with Throttle, how she organizes and trains the Freedom Fighters, her own struggles as a female war general

Stoker finding his place again as a tactician and strategist, helping the mice deliver and transport supplies. Coming to Earth to gather materials, wrestle with Throttle, Vinnie and Modo and flirt with Charley

Charley's friends coming over, one half being in awe of Martians and their culture and in general other species, while the other half just drools over the bro's

Maybe a potential love interest for Modo? Tho that's not really necessary (just since Throttle and Vinnie have one). Maybe a nice woman working at an animal shelter or so

Catatonians find some other planet to terrorize or one of Limburger's machines hits/affects the Catatonian's and they're turned into normal house cats and transported to Earth to never cause harm again. The end :P

Charley (together with a doctor friend of her's) invents a bionic eye that acts as a heat sensor and sort of replaces Throttle's field specs. Throttle requests to just "upgrade" one of his eyes, he's grown so used to the shades and he would feel like he cheated on his bros if he was the only one to get his disability completely fixed

Their bikes being more sentient and showing distinctive personalities. Lil' Hoss already has a name and a certain temperament, but Throttle and Vinnie's bikes don't really

New weapons systems, maybe the bros having secondary weapons they could fall back to if fists/guns aren't the answer

Limburger going on vacation for some time, but when he returns some other sleazy villain tries to terrorize the Biker Mice instead of him. He goes ballistic and teams up with the Biker Mice to drive out the other guy. He's the only alien that can cause havoc in Chicago!

#bmfm #biker mice from mars #bmfm 1993 #biker mice from mars reboot #bmfm throttle #throttle biker mice #vinnie van wham #bmfm vinnie #vinnie biker mice #bmfm modo #modo biker mice #modo maverick #ask #anon #charley davidson #limburger

[echantedtoon]

Demon Bride Ch20 Yet Even Curiouser

"Are you both alright?! Tell me you're alright!"

"W-We're both fine."

"Oh. Good...THEN WHAT WERE YOU TWO EVEN THINKING?!"

You both had frozen in front of the giant lumbering form of a VERY angry Kyogai stood in the doorway to greet your arrival back. Only you two hadn't counted on him actually noticing you were gone and to then snatch the both of you in one each. You found yourselves yelping and dangling from his right hand as Eri was held above the floor in his right. In her arms was Rui who looked frightened and confused at finding himself being held in air by a demon who was being held by another taller demon. Turning, he began stepping down the long hallway down hallway back up towards his study and you both saw and felt the many, many servants stopping to stare at the strange sight of Kyogai carrying you by the backs of your kimonos. A pit formed in your stomach at the realization.

You had been caught.

A pit formed in your stomach as the thoughts swirled about you. What was gonna happen? Kyogai was sweet and kind so you didn't worry about the punishment being too bad but he was still very, very, VERY angry judging by the look he was giving everyone.  You didn't know what was going to happen. More so to Eri! You'd gotten her into this troubling situation. What was going to happen to her?! Kyogai grumbled more under his breath the longer he walked and the more you felt regret and guilt build up in yourself from all the watchful eyes. You royally screwed up didn't you? What if Kyogai refused to marry Eri and Komoki as punishment? Or worse keep her here longer working? That'd devastate her. And it'd be your fault! The door to the main study was finally here and opened with a loud sound. 

"I had to stop my work early because of you two runaways!," He finally spoke once he walked into the room and you were placed on your feet a lot more gently than you were expecting. "On a VERY important work night with lots to be done!" The sudden turn he made made you flinch as hard as you winced when the door was slammed. "Do either of you two know how much trouble you caused?!" He snapped back around to the both of you with a deep scowled. "HOW MUCH TROUBLE WE ALL COULD'VE BEEN IN?!"

You couldn't help but look away in shame. Next to you Eri was already assuming the position of a deep bow, head down, and an EXTREMELY guilty look on her face. Rui was still under one of her arms tugging at her to be put down.

"Do you know how worried I was to find my healer and human GONE?! I nearly ordered the mansion to be taken apart wally by wall to find you!! OH!! AND DON'T GET ME STARTED ON WHEN I REALIZED I'D BEEN TRICKED INTO SOMETHING!! WHO'S BRILLIANT IDEA WAS THAT?! " HE half asked half roared half demanded throwing his arms up. "Those woods are full of demons who wouldn't be afraid to pounce on unsuspecting weak demons AND humans?! What if you two had been attacked or worse KILLED?! Do you think I could've gotten there in time? NO!" He pointed. "Because two little trouble makers thought it'd be a good idea to leave while I was distracted to somewhere I had no idea Where the hell they'd be!! It's burns knowing a loyal servant of mine and a guest I've let into my home out of the good of my heart did such a thing as trick me!!"

Your throat gained a lump as he muttered to himself pacing in front of the door. 

"For a long time I have done the best I could to provide for you! Have I been perfect? No! Do I know anything about humans? No! Should I have picked up a book on human culture? Probably!!" He paused looking off at nothing. "Wait...Where was I going with this? I had a point."

"Um.." He INSTANTLY snapped to you with a frown making you flinch, swallow the lump in your throat, and force out a sentence. "Sorry. I thank you, Kyogai."

"Well I love you too!!," He said back in that same angry tone from before.

Silence.

...You blinked. Eri looked back up from her bow in surprised shock. Rui still struggled for freedom. And Kyogai still frowned hard.

....You slowly blinked again. "What?"

A sudden look of what you could describe as 'oh shit' flashed across his face before he sputtered. "I m-mean I thank you too!! Or uh-...W-W-What I -I-..." You blinked at him. "I just....RRRRRRAAAAAUUUUGGH!!!" His hands flew to his face before being dragged down, you gasped and moved out of the way just going for the small table with the tall stack of unfinished papers still waited for him to work on. Instead he snatched up a bowl of food and chopsticks from it's surface that you realized someone must've given him. THUD-!! The floor lightly shook under the two of yours feet as Kyogai just plopped his massive body back down on his seat.l before shoving a piece of chicken into his mouth. "Stress eating! Because of you!" He angry mumbled half muffled by the food in his mouth. "This is really good!"

More silence followed.

You stood there in stupified silence and the only sounds being of Kyogai angrily shoving more food into his mouth refusing to look at either of you both. You opened your mouth...before casting a silent glance at Eri's frozen form, all of her eyes were wide and her mouth literally hung open in shock at her master. Guess she was just as dumbfounded at the situation as you were. Rui was certainly no help as he was just pouting there in her arms accepting he couldn't struggle free. They weren't going to be any help. Turning your head back to Kyogai...you gave a deep sigh out.

"Kyogai?" He didn't respond to you. You didn't blame him. "I'm...very sorry we did what we did. You're right. W-We shouldn't have done that."

"Then why DID you?", He mumbled through his food. His voice lost a lot of his initial edge but the soreness was still there.

You gave just the briefest of sideways glances to Eri before taking a deep breath and letting it out. "...Because I wanted to go outside badly." Footsteps sounded as warning before Kyogai paused blinking as you suddenly dropped to your knees directly beside him. "I felt caged in all the time in the garden and inside you mansion." Without hesitation you looked up and stared at him directly in the eyes. "It was all my idea." He..stared silently cheeks puffed out and chopsticks partially in his mouth. If this wasn't so serious you probably would've giggled at how cute he looked in that moment. "I figured since mating season was o-over there wouldn't be anymore dangers. But I knew you'd never allow Eri to let me out there."

...He narrowed his eyes, swallowed, and frowned at you. "Your dam right I wouldn't have! Those woods are dangerous for anyone here!"

"Which is why I tricked you!,'' you insisted grabbing his arm. He paused eyes staring at your soft hand- "I overheard Eri talking about visiting her fiance before and figured that'd be a good excuse to ask you in case you actually were paying attention when I did ask you." He looked back at you. "It was stupid and selfish and very, VERY stupid of me to do that! I know! When Eri found out I ran off she came after me to bring me my stupid arse back!"

"...She did?" He asked glancing over to Eri's still frozen form  who was still in that pose. 

"Yes! That's what you saw her doing earlier." You nodded pulling at his arm as his brow rose. "She brought my stupid self back here so I wouldn't get hurt."

There was a small pause in silence as he stared at Eri, then he slowly turned back to you...then turned back to his food. "...You know I hate being tricked into saying yes to something." ...you didn't like that sudden calm tone of his. "But I also hate being lied to." You froze. "However... Considering you're putting yourself at risk to try and defend Eri, which I find commendable you'd try to take the full blame, I will give you one chance to tell me the truth. Did she agree to this?"

What? Kyogai was-...HE KNEW YOU WERE LYING!? You took a moment to blink before looking at Eri who still remained still. She would obviously be no help at all. Turning back to him, he didn't even look in your direction. Just sitting there continuing to eat his food as if there wasn't three other people in the room with him. What was he doing? Waiting for you to tell the truth? Wouldn't that get Eri in more trouble? You'd rather take all the blame fully and spare Eri any trouble. But...If he knew you were lying l, if you lied again that might make things worse. But what if he didn't really know? What if he was just pretending to know you were lying to see if you changed your story? He might get madder if he discovered you were lying. So should you stick to your story originally...

But...

"I did lie." He stopped...and looked at your face. "You're right. I did lie about Eri's involvement. She did agree with the idea."

"Mmm hmm." He hummed raising a brow. "I thought so-"

"But I wasn't lying when I did say it was my idea in the first place." You frowned at him. "She mentioned that you would say no if we did ask you, so I used the chance when you were distracted. I used to do it to my grandmother all the time when she wouldn't agree to things. She didn't even want to go at first, so if you say she's as guilty-" Your hand was placed on your chest. "By my blood I'm the same and will bare the fate of whatever you planned for her."

Now this made him slowly turn his face to you surprise etched on his features, brows shooting upwards. "...Are you-....You would deliberately take the full blame for her? Despite the fact that you two only knew each other a few weeks??"

"In the few weeks I've known her, she's become the only person I could call my friend." You gave him a pleading look. "I beg you. Don't punish Eri for something that she shouldn't have to be punished for."

There was some more silence as he stared at your genuine face. As if studying for any lies...before facing back forwards with a loud exhale. "...Eri."

Said demon woman jumped behind him before bowing (despite the fact he couldn't see her). "Y-Y-Yes, M-My Lord?"

"You have done something that greatly irked me today. And you didn't tell me about what the human planned, I'm fact you went along with it... That's not what I want in a servant." Your heart immediately dropped further and further with each word he spoke. "However I won't go back on an agreement once I already made it so long ago. From this point until you're contract with me ends next year, you're ordered to work under Mayla's supervision and be given the hardest work."

Eri's eyes bugged out looking almost panicked and yet relieved. "And that's...it?"

"Do you think I should add more to your punishment? "

"NO!!..*Ahem* I m-mean no, Lord Kyogai. I will follow your instructions perfectly."

"Good. If you should do anything else I find bothersome, I'll personally have you tend to Enmu once he comes back." Eri's face immediately deflates to one of almost horror at just the mention of getting near Enmu. "Do I make myself clear?"

"Absolutely! Clearer than glass!"

You sighed in relief. Working hard under someone didn't sound too bad. Kyogai spared her from anything like an extended work contract or forbidding her from seeing Komoki completely. However you froze again when he looked at you with an unsure expression. 

"You however...I am not sure how to deal with. You're still recovering so I can't force any work on you. And you're not a servant of mine so I can't order you to work even if I wanted too. ...I certainly won't be throwing you out either."

"Then...What will you do?"

He looked you over carefully. Like very, very carefully. "... Simple. Until your departure from here, you're hearby banned from the garden." 

That sucked but was understandable.

"And you'll be taken out of Eri's care. From now on Nagi will be the one to assist you with things."

Your eyes widened...But sighed. That was..also understandable. After today you probably deserved it. He gave another glance at your hand holding his arm..before coughing and looking away.

"And during the day, you'll be staying in the same room as me while I work." ....Say what? "That way I can keep an eye on you  and make sure nothing like that happens again!"

You stared at him. You looked to Eri. Eri stared at Kyogai. Eri stared at you. You both stared at each other. You stared back at Kyogai wide eyed.

"Excuse me?"

He coughed again. "You won't be with me all the time. You'll have private time to yourself when you need it, and Nagi will assist you and you'll still sleep in your own room but I won't tolerate anymore shenanigans from you again. You agreed to any punishment I gave, t-this is it."

Well this was...not what you were expecting at all to be quite frank but you did agree to whatever punishment he gave you. So with a defeated sigh you nodded your head. "Very well then. I agree to your terms."

He nodded avoiding eye contact. " Good. Although I do have one last question." He pointed at Eri's arms. "Who in the world is that?"

You looked back to Rui, sighed, then turned back to Kyogai. "It's a long story." 

"Well then explain it to me in detail. Eri! Leave and come back with Mayla and Nagi at once!"

You remained there sitting next to Kyogai defeated as Eri dropped Rui and left immediately. That could've gone worse. You were VERY lucky it wasn't worse than it actually was. However you did have to explain why you had a child with you especially when Rui walked over and tugged on your shoulder.

"I'm still hungry. Feed me more."

After awkwardly explaining him to Kyogai and Eri returning with the two women servants in question, Rui was promptly handed off into Mayla's care until he figured out what to do with him later and both Mayla and Nagi were informed of everything. There was no complaints or objections other than Eri tossing a final look your way as if saying 'Thank you and I'm sorry' before being forced to go along with Mayla who turns out was in charge of most of the servants and extremely hard if need be. Oh. That must be why Eri didn't look so happy before hand. You hoped things wouldn't be as strange as you thought and it was just going to be a bad dream once you woke up the next day...But that hope was dashed when you awoke to an eyeless chestnut haired purple skinned demon woman shaking your shoulder and smiling.

"Rise and shine my lady or you'll be late for breakfast with my Lord."

You groggily blinked at her. ".... Where's Eri?"

"I'm afraid she's busy hand scrubbing the entire bath house today. Mistress Mayla thought it'd be best to start her off with something simple."

That was simple?! If you could you'd be in there helping her but Nagi you learnt was very nice, but also very insistent. You barely had time to grab the book Kyogai lent before you were forced into a plain blue kimono by Nagi and she forced your hair up in some do you insisted she didn't have to. But she insisted on doing so anyways.

"It's my job to care for you. First and foremost is your health and appearance. Come. My Lord awaits."

You were them dragged to Kyogai's study and received a few looks from the other servants. Oh boy. Hopefully that'll die down quickly. Kyogai was as usual working on  more papers, but did glance at you briefly before going back to work. Nagi guideded you to a sitting pillow in the corner and sat down next to you. And...that was it.

Literally.

You just sat in your corner all day silently reading and briefly looking up when Nagi left to bring the both of you food or at Kyogai but he focused on his work. And that was it until he gave her permission to take you back to your room to sleep. And that was literally it. For the next two days that awkward pattern continued until Kyogai finally seemed to want to talk to you again. 

"Y/n?" It was so sudden and unexpected you nearly dropped the book jumping up and blinking at him. He seemed a bit nervous but cleared his throat and nodded at your arms. "How are you liking my-"...He  stopped himself before glancing at Nagi. "I mean the book I found for you?"

"Oh. He must not want anyone to know he writes books. You'd respect his privacy and keep his secret. So you nodded. "Yes. I really like the story about the runaway Queen. I'm on the last few pages actually."

He nodded back. "That's good. I will find you another to read again soon." 

"May I ask something since we're speaking?" He paused a moment but nodded. "Where is Kaigaku? I haven't seen him for a while now."

At this Kyogai smiled confidently. "Hmph. Kaigaku is with Kokushibo for some training. He won't be by here for another three weeks."

Three weeks. 

That could work for you. You only had about two weeks and two days until Enmu's return, which meant you could just leave the necklace in his room and leave before he even got back here. Perfect!

"So...you may stop wearing that necklace of his now."

"Oh. I only wore it to make him happy and so I wouldn't lose it. I'll just keep it with me until then so I don't accidentally misplace it. It's happened to me before." And none of your borrowed kimonos had pockets. You didn't want to risk losing the expensive looking charm so the most logical and safest place to keep it was around your neck.

Kyogai looked annoyed at the necklace but nodded. "I respect that choice but are you sure you really didn't accept it at all?"

"No. I only told him I'd wear it. I never said I accepted his gift really." You huffed rolling your eyes. "Besides I know exactly what he was thinking when he gave it to me."

Kyogai's expression immediately turned to one of shock. "Wait...What?! Did Eri tell you?!"

You nodded. "Oh yes. And no. Eri didn't tell me. She didn't say anything about it but she didn't have to. He made it very clear when he was being oddly nice and insisted I take this so you and Akaza would 'get off his back and mind your own business'. With how he acted, it was like reading a book. But I won't fall for any of his 'charms' not that he has many. He'll just have to take no for an answer."

...Wait. So she knew Kaigaku was proposing with that gesture?! "So...You do know the significance of that gift he gave you?"

"Kyogai, he could try to get on my good side all he wants but there's no way I'm putting up with the nonsense he thinks is going on." There's no way you'd let him think you'd put up with his tricks just to get Akaza to go easy on him. If he thought giving you an expensive gift and being nice would make things go away then he was in for a big surprise later. "Besides I could tell what he was thinking. It was pretty obvious "

Kyogai hummed however reaching a hand up to rub his chin. So Y/n figured it out hu huh? ...Well it WAS pretty obvious what Kaigaku was trying to do with that proposal even if you didn't know all their courting laws. And if you didn't accept...That meant Kaigaku was sadly mistaken. Which made him chuckle and you blinked confused. He still had a good feeling about this, and if you knew about it already-

"Like how obvious you were."

A glass breaking sound with off in his mind. "....Huh?"

You deadpanned rose a brow. "Oh come on now. I know your secret don't I?"

"You do?!" He flung panicked wide eyed. 

"Um...Yes?" Why was this surprising to him? He already knew that you knew he secretly wrote books. Did he forget that he already told you? You held up a hand to his panicked face. "Don't worry. I haven't told anyone how you felt about it, not even Eri knows." As much as Eri enjoys the book, it didn't feel right to share the personal secret with even her. "I respect your feelings concerning it and accept that you wouldn't want anyone else to know about it."

"I ...You.. " SHE KNEW?! LIKE REALLY KNEW HOW HE FELT?! FOR HOW LONG?! WHEN DID SHE REALIZE?! HOW EVEN?! "I....How did you know?!"

BU-BUMP BU-BUMP BU-BUMP-!!!

SHUT UP STUPID HEART!! YOU WEREN'T EVEN SUPPOSED TO BEAT!! SO STOP IT!!

BU-BUMP-

S T O P!!!!

"I mean..You told me?? A few days ago by now. And I noticed how you look sometimes and try to correct yourself sometimes when you say something you didn't mean two. Like just a little while ago."

IMMEDIATELY his hand went to clutch his chest where his bearing heart laid underneath. His face a red as a whirlwind of thoughts blasted through his head. And all he could think was what he said to you just two days ago.

"Well I love you too!"

He felt like ripping his hair from his head! You obviously knew by now and he wasn't sure what to think of it. But she didn't seem...put off by it? "S-So...You accept..." A shaking hand pointed to him as he gulped. "Me?..A-And my feelings towards..." A shaking arm gestured to you. If she said yes then that'd mean that she would be...He would be her...

You nodded. "Yes. And the reasons why you do feel that."

There it was. She accepted. Said yes. That means she was his...fian-

"I need a drink!" He suddenly declared reaching for the large cup of water Nagi brought him earlier. 

You however rose a brow confused. Was he feeling alright? "Um. Alright. But I do have one other question." 

"W-what?" The glass was shakingly brought up to lips.

"...Do you want to tell me why you declared love to me two days ago?"

"PPPFFFT?!" 

The drink he was drinking was promptly spat out all over the small table before there was a dizziness followed by shock...And the large demon only had time to stare at you in shock before falling over and hitting the floor with a loud thud. In a dead faint.

"OH MY GODS KYOGAI!!"

-ELSEWHERE-

The bark of trees felt rough against the palm of grey skin, perfect to blending into shadows and walking along the darkness of the cursed trees that beckoned any unknowing traveler further into their branches. A light step. Another light step. Light enough to not be heard by anyone my dear. A quiet mouse amongst the darkness a contrast to the many others in the surroundings. He moved amongst the shadows which were his best friends. His only allies in this battle of the most deadliest predator to live among them and for once he wasn't at the top of the deadly food chain. 

Dark tree past dark tree. Weaving past darkness and limbs and lungs heavy with air whirled around by the wind. Close. The danger was close. Breath. Sweet air was the need. The fuel for the best outcome. For his eventual clash with the death bringer. The trees couldn't hide that from him. Adrenaline pumping. Viens bunching up as a black tsuka of a katanna was grabbed, burnt to the touch as the rumbling of thunder was fueled by the whirling, taunting, wind in his lungs to make way for an electrical storm that bubbled through his blood vessels and gave the needed power to metal to become the lightning strike that shook the scene before him. All time became irrelevant as with each  mighty push of his body from the allied shadows gave him the momentum for the target gaining closer and closer to his face. Where was it? WHERE WAS IT WHERE WAS IT?! He felt it was close so whe-

SHING!!

A metal against metal sounds. A shine of silver in the dark. A dash of shadow. And a strike of thunder. The thunder struck the moon hard with a might that should be feared certainly. But the moon always shines brighter. A deadly hand struck out and with one blow to his head. The thunder was defeated.

"You have... improved greatly since our last meeting...But you...still rush things too much.."

There was a mumble from the body on the ground followed by a loud groan. Yep. He'd have a headache for the rest of the day now.

"If...you had waited ...ten more seconds... you would have...dealt a great blow to my...shoulder blade... However you seem to be...in better spirits..than before." There was a sound as a moon's blade was put away. "Get up...We shall try again immediately..."

The black cloaked body cursed at himself but pushed himself to his feet as he was ordered. "Yes. Let's try again."

"... Perhaps you..have something on your mind...that distracts you? You seem...oddly calmer...But I doubt...you have learnt patience yet."

"Heh. You could say that I guess." A rare smile that wasn't as smug was smiled.

"The magatama on your wrist...did you perhaps...lose it again?"

"...No. I chose to present it to someone else."

"Explain."

"I'm engaged."

Silence.

"....I see. ...I was not expecting this...Who?"

"It's complicated. I honestly don't believe it myself a few times. ...But it's not important. I'm ready to continue. Let's try again-"

"No...You shall explain...to me..all details at once..it is...a matter that... impacts your... ability to..concentrate. I must know...in order to ..best make it so...you focus..."

****************************************************************************

-ELSEWHERE A FEW DAYS LATER-

Cold. It was Always rather cold this far up the mountain. Especially since it was still only February and summer months hadn't yet reached this far up the mountain. The snow was still very much here to stay for a little while longer, but it wasn't too much of a bother to him. Demons were never really affected all that much by the cold anyways unless they needed special conditions to live. But it also never bothered the powerful demon whom this domain belonged to. 

Douma. Upper Moon Two. The human recruiter. Proclaimed demigod.

Or if you asked him rotten no feeling  pervert who was better off dead!! He hated seeing Douma. He hated doing anything with Douma. He hated even the name Douma!! Nothing good could ever come from him or anyone he had in his grasp. But yet here he was, feet crunching through snow and carrying a little boy who had fallen asleep on the way over. The poor little boy was exhausted from the long trip here, as was his mother and the rest of his brothers and sisters. Behind him the poor widow cradled her second youngest with her head down to avoid the many snowflakes piercing their faces with three other small children clinging to her dress im fear of getting lost among the pale snow. Just his luck a small storm would be blowing their way when they finally arrived at their destination. A rather lavish (and rather large-) human settlement a bit farther up the mountain from the others near the colder parts, Upper Moon Two's domain, and most of where the donations came from. Douma's paradise of blood. That Upper Moon would charm anyone into giving them their blood which was why Douma was in charge of managing most of the yearly blood supply. Most of it. NOT all of it. The other half was up to Kokushibo being the human-demon delegate. But he never thought of that part too much. Or at least he tried too, at least Kokushibo arranged it to where he was never given any blood donated by a woman or child. Some might call him weak for demanding such arrangements but he would stand by those forever. He had morals unlike a lot of his colleagues. The human settlement had certainly grown since he'd last been here probably due to the sudden arrival of five hundred humans last year. The large walls and gate greeted them in the wild wind and swirling snowflakes. All he had to do was raise a large hand and pound on the gate's door, it took all of his restraint to not just kick the door in from his hatred of this place,but there was already some shivering humans were making quick work of immediately running to them and opening the heavy sliding door. My, my. There was many, many humans this time. All shivering, teeth clattering, and rubbing their bodies to generate some desperate form of heat while gesturing for them to come inside. Yes come inside to this hellscape of a pretend heaven. He wouldn't even if the humans were greeting a "messenger spirit of their god delivering other spirits to serve him'. He wouldn't. The only way he'd go in there was if the Master commanded him and ONLY if the Master commanded him. Nothing more nothing less. 

"Where's Douma?," He asked one human who rubbed his arms.

"H-He is inside b-b-but we have been expecting y-y-your arrival f-from the spirit realm to bring more other worldly servants from the gods f-f-for our Master. W-Wont you please come in a-a-a-and join us to ce-celebrate your arrival?"

So Douma was still playing that facade of being a demigod instead of the monster he was. Douma was good pretending to be human and 'being able to communicate with spirits like him and Gods' . He used this ploy to get these poor humans to donate blood for the gods, the yearly Blood Ritual he called it. It made him sick to his stomach.

"No." It was a firm and blunt answer, and he would not wait out here any longer than he needed too. Not if Douma could come out any moment. The small boy was removed from his hold and into the arms of his mother once more. "You and I must part ways here. Your family will be taken cared of inside."

This  would be the last time he ever saw this family again as they were ushered away into the awaiting arms of the shivering humans who gladly herded the widow and children away from him. They weren't his responsibility anymore. His master's task had been completed. And he was now to go back to his original duties and be away from here immediately. He did feel terrible for allowing this family to be taken like this but it wasn't something he could fight against-

He froze. And not out of fear for the family or because of the hundreds of snowflakes being flung into his body by the wind like some icey attack from mother nature. It was because of a sudden looming and empty presence behind him. 

"Why Akaza-dono!" A 'happy' voice chirped before cold hands clapped to show his fake happiness. "My, my. You seem stiff from the cold. Perhaps you should join us?~ My cooks have made a delicious bear stew."

Veins bunched up immediately. A fist tightened. And eyes widened in rage. "Don't. Touch. Me ."

"I haven't done such things. Yu seem to be oh so cranky today."

"I only become that way around you." His head turned. "Douma."

He had an impressive stature. Almost two feet taller than himself. Beautiful platinum blonde hair encrusted with a ring of red gave the impression of sick royalty with that stupid hat on top his head. Eyes like a sickly hallucination of colors glistened dully at him. His whole body was sickly beautiful, but it was the equivalent of a beautiful snake ready to strike with it's venom once he tricked you with his superficial beauty and empty charms. He made him sick and yet there was an admittedly impressive power oozing out of him like syrup dripping. Thick, too thick, and sickly sweet. 

"Oh you remember me!" More of  that stupid annoying clapping and sickening smile. "It makes me so happy!"

"I'm leaving. You have what you need." 

"Oh I know, but when I heard you were coming I knew I couldn't just let my best friend leave without saying hi! It'd be so rude on my person."

"I'm. Not. Staying," he repeated firmly.

"Boo. You never want to." He pouted as if he had anything to worry about. "You're so mean to me,  Akaza!"

"Glad you know that." He had other things to worry about. "You reek of disappointment.''

Other things to worry about like his duties and ...The sudden vision of beautiful purple eyes popped into his mind and the softness of skin clinging to him so bravely-

BU-BUMP-

A hand of his immediately shot up to clutch the place over his heart. The red nails embedding themselves into the skin almost harsh enough to draw blood. He...he had someone to return back too. Someone who he...might actually enjoy seeing. Certainly more this maniac.

A loud gasp escaped the taller man next to him. "Akaza-dono was that your heart I heard just now!? So exciting! It sounds so lovely!"

Of course that idiot would hear it. "Fuck. Off. Douma."

BU-BUMP BU-BUMP BU-BUMP

It was hard to deny the feeling. Yes...He needed to get back to her. That good feeling.

"Hmm. This wouldn't have something to do with that human girl who proposed to you would it?~"

The only sounds that could be heard was the wind and the thousands of small splats the snowflakes made against their skin. 

"...How did you know that?"

He gave a smug smile. "I heard those little girls discussing it as my followers escorted them in. It seems they miss the stories she once read them as well. Hmm. A sweet little lotus.~"

"I'm. DONE. Here."

"Wha-"  A blur ran past him "AKAZA-DONO!!" The blue disappeared in a wake of snowflakes. "...Oh foo. He is no mean to me, my best friend. If he had waited a little longer.." A smile appeared as a golden fan splayed in front of his face. "I would've told him I offered Master a place for her to stay here...And that he was very tempted by my offer.~"

-ELSEWHERE-

Hurried footsteps accompanied by sobs and whimpers scuttled about. Home. He was almost home. Just a little more and he'd be safe. He was getting too old for this. It wasn't his fault. It wasn't his fault!! Closer and closer he went until he  did  get there. A giant wooden door to be in fact which creeked open upon pushing it and the warmth from within welcomed him into it's safety. 

"Father." A squeal sounded from the sudden young child's voice he whirled around too. His son..HIS SON!! Oh how joyous and wonderful it was to see a face concerned for him. "You haven't returned for a few days. I was worried about you. I almost left to start searching."

"Good son. Kind son. *Sniff* All of you have been has been so good to me."

"You're our father. I won't let anyone harm you."

"*Sniffle* Wh-Where are your brothers, Zohakuten?"

"Sekido and Urogi are out looking for you, as Karaku and Aizetsu are looking for a lost child from the  Spider Clan named Rui Master has interest in. I chose to stay behind I'm case you returned. It seems I made the correct call. Shall I tell them you are safely home?"

"*Sniff* Yes. Su-Su-Summon me your dear older brothers. I h-have found a gift for one of them?"

"Father?"

"I-I am an old man. It makes me so sad, so sad my sons will never find someone who feels the same way about me they do. But I have. Kind girl. Understanding girl. S-Summon them quickly."

**************************"*"******************************************************

Days passed since these experiments of his. Usually he'd be honored to watch the Master run blood tests over and over and over again. But after the third day it got a little boring not going to lie.

"Where did you get this sample of blood?"

"As I told you before many times now, Master. The hurt human Kyogai cares for."

"You are certain she was human? You were not such a fool to have accidentally mix up the blood samples?"

"As a person of scientific medical practice I promise you I didn't dare do such a disasterous thing. And she was as human as your own wife is."

"...When are you due to be back?"

"Oh about a week and three days at this point."

"...I have another task for you. You are to go immediately and collect another blood sample to compare to this one. You are to also administer a test. To check for demon in her veins."

"Master?"

"I will find out if Tamayo survived."

#demon slayer #demon Bride #kny #kimetsu no yaiba #Daki #rui ayaki #gyutaro x reader #gyutaro #hantengu clones #hantengu x reader #hantengu #zohakuten #kokushibo x reader #kokushibo #kyogai x reader #kyogai #kaigaku x reader #kaigaku #enmu x reader #enmu #douma x reader #Douma #akaza x reader #akaza #karaku x reader #Karaku #aizetsu #sekido #urogi #urogi x reader

[planeoftheeclectic]

Oh boy, this is about to be a blast from the past. Thanks @skarabrae-stone for the tag!

Rules: Fic authors self rec! When you get this, reply with your favorite five fics that you've written, then pass this onto other writers. Let’s spread the self-love 💖

So I only recently started writing again, meaning I've only got 2 works that are from the last decade, but honestly I'm still very fond of those older ones; they do an excellent job at being what they are.

Doing the no pressure tags above the cut because I don't know if that messes them up: @stonemaskedtaliesin, @zyrafowe-sny, and @firecoloredwater, plus anyone else who sees this and has written something! Hyping yourself up is good practice!

Columbo: Turnabout's Fair Play | 19k (Incomplete) | T | Columbo x Ace Attorney set between AA3 and AA4

Summary:

Technically speaking, Mr. Wright, this isn't my usual beat. But Detective Gumshoe - you know Dick, right? - I owed him a favor, see? And it had been a slow week, so I figured I'd look around, see if I could give the guy a hand. Real stand-up guy, he is, we could use more like him. And anyway, I know you're a real busy guy Mr. Wright, so I'll make this real quick, get out of your hair. I know you and he were real good friends, so I'm sure this is a difficult time for you. Oh, uh, just one more thing Mr. Wright. Why were the two of you such good friends again?

As I say in the dedication, this is the idea that helped me break a very, very long dry spell, so it has to take the top spot for that if nothing else. @stonemaskedtaliesin had introduced me to Ace Attorney, I had introduced them to Columbo, and at some point they went looking to see if there were any crossovers and were disappointed to find none. They come tell me this in discord and I, like a fool, say:

"Well, actually, it makes sense there aren't any. I mean, they're kind of contradictory worldviews. The whole point of Columbo is that he always gets the right guy, and the whole point of Ace Attorney is that the police never get the right guy."

Fortunately for all of us, I continued:

"I mean, for it to even work you'd need some kind of convoluted setup - maybe that would stop the AA police from just arresting someone immediately. And who would be the killer anyway? Well, ok, there's an option there, but who should they murder? Maya? That'd be mean, but that's the obvious choice. Hmm...nobody likes him, I could murder him, but how--oh."

And at that point I stopped talking because the end of this story materialized in my brain and I wanted to make sure it was a surprise. Spoiler culture may be overblown, but murder mysteries are an exception, I feel.

Anyways, if you're a fan of either series, enjoy gen fic, like seeing characters get what they deserve, or just want to see Columbo at an anime convention, this is the fic for you! From a writing standpoint, it's been really fun to experiment with a very limited POV, to try to mimic the feel of a television camera. And of course, Columbo's dialogue is a joy to write. (As you'll see later, dialogue is one of my strengths)

Song of the Peregrine [Podfic] | OG fic is 39k (Incomplete) | T | Chrom/F!Robin but honestly it's mostly gen | Kid Icarus Uprising x Fire Emblem Awakening

Summary:

There were reports of something in the skies of eastern Ylisse. Something with wings as black as pitch and eyes as red as rubies. Dark Pit has no clue where he's managed to land himself, but it turns out that Pit and Palutena don't have a monopoly on annoying. He can leave these humans anytime he wants, and he will. Soon. Any day now. If the Shepherds have it their way, that day won't come any time soon. (In which Dark Pit ends up joining the Shepherds, and the world tilts.)

The original fic is @stonemaskedtaliesin's, but I like to consider myself its honorary godparent. We've spent a lot of time worldbuilding for it, and it's so good you guys. It's going to be amazing. There are long term plans.

I started the podfic because I wanted to listen to it as I fell asleep. The audio quality is definitely shakier in the first couple chapters as I figure things out, but it's been really fun learning new skills and doing lots of fun silly voices.

...still need to finish editing chapter 5.

Anyway, blanket recommendation to go read this if you know anything about Kid Icarus (Fire Emblem is a bonus but not necessary, iit's pretty well-explained in-story) and if you like podfic, hey! You're in luck! Fun fact: this is the only Awakening podfic as of right now. Yes I'm also surprised. Maybe if I ever finish this one I'll set out to try and change that. goat milk and oats Grima would be so much fun to voice.

Warrior Cats Smoofs | 8.5k | G | Gen | Warrior Cats

Okay I'm kind of cheating here but that's going to be a theme for these last few answers. I wrote these over a decade ago with my best friend at the time. She had internet, I didn't, so we had a joint account on the Warrior Cats Wiki and the Warriors Fanfiction Wiki, which are both Fandom now I believe. I archived them to AO3 because of that, and because even years later they would occasionally get a new comment from someone who really enjoyed reading them. And, as I said, I'm still very fond of them. My handle on most of the internet still comes from these stories and that account. They are simple, silly, dialogue and stage directions only parodies, and they were a blast to write. I still remember the melody we came up with for the ending jingle. I'm pretty sure these guys (plus the playwriting class I took) are a big part of why I tend to be very dialogue-heavy. I like fun purple-prosy descriptions, but sometimes a few spoken words can convey a whole lot of actions. Show Don't Tell taken to the extreme, I guess.

I'm pretty sure The Library was our most popular one back in the day (to the point we made a sequel)! The Auction was the first (though doesn't hold up quite as well...lol they're all 15 years old anyway). I'm very fond of Christmas Caroling because all the lyrics are singable and that is my PET PEEVE IF YOU'RE GOING TO DO IT THE METER HAD BETTER BE RIGHT OR AT LEAST CLOSER THAN A CATHOLIC HYMN. Most of all though, I'm fond of all the memories these have. I don't know where Moss is now, but I hope they're doing well. It is also fun to see where I've come from over the years - like I said, upon reflection it makes sense that I tend to default to pretty dialogue-heavy.

The Palutena Trap | 4.7k (Incomplete) | T | Gen (past Palutena/Medusa | Kid Icarus Uprising

Summary:

Kid Icarus meets the Parent Trap.

That's it, that's all I've got.

Ok now this one is cheating because it's not published anywhere yet except in snippets on tumblr. This was actually conceived at almost the same time as Turnabout's Fair Play, but I'm trying to only focus at one at a time, so this one won't properly see the light of day until TFP is finished. (We're getting there! We're almost at the end of Act 2 out of 3!!) That does mean that I'm going about writing it in a very different way - there's going to be lots and lots of editing once I finally set down to publish this. Which is probably for the best - I'm sure there are bits of tfp that would be better if I wrote the whole thing and then went back to edit.

My favorite part of this story is still the normal-people jobs I've given everyone, since this is technically a modern AU. We have an investigative journalist who lives on a yacht, mob boss, butler who's retired MI6, and front woman for a punk band which is actually a front for an eco-terrorist group, for example. I talk more about this story here and here. Aside from that, my favorite thing is exploring the relationship between Dark Pit and Lady Palutena, and between Lady Palutena and Medusa.

The former gets off on the worst possible foot in canon, and it's only ever obliquely addressed, so it's a lot of fun to play with and extrapolate from. In this version, Dark Pit is a child whose mother gave up everything to do with him (and said some pretty nasty things in the court record). So that's where we stand: how do you reckon with that? What does it mean that you still want some kind of relationship, or at least answers? What is family and blood, in the end?

The latter relationship is one that's...well, I wouldn't say it's canon, but it's definitely canon-compliant. It's rather like Narumitsu, in that I look at it and go "hm. whatever is going on between those two, they're not normal about each other." This is true in canon, and if anything it's less true in The Palutena Trap, since despite the name the story is not about getting the parents back together so much as reconciling a mother and son. But the more this idea ferments in my brain the more I want to have some kind of meeting at the end. Maybe it goes badly, maybe it goes less badly, but I have this mental image in my head: Imagine the messiest divorce you've ever seen. Ugly, dragged through the papers, all kinds of legal issues, you part ways never to speak again. You hate her guts, and you can't go a month without thinking about her because she's always got Yet Another Stupid News Article coming out. You find out your kids have been playing some switcheroo on you, and when you meet her again you're coldly civil, both of you clearly holding yourselves back from starting a slugfest in the local forum, and then you see: she's still wearing your wedding ring. The one you picked out, the one you put on her finger 14 years ago. I just. IDK they're not normal about each other and the complexity and ambiguity of it compels me.

Vaguely Remembered 2nd Grade Writing Assignment | like 2 pages maybe | G | Gen | The Land Before Time

Alright this one's definitely cheating but this has already been a lot of reminiscing about the past, so here's a toast to the very first thing I ever wrote: an adventure story starring the main cast of The Land Before Time. All I remember about it is it absolutely sucked to get started but once I did it was longer than it needed to be and I used the word Petrie-ball™. Yes, including the ™. The Petrie-ball™ was how they solved the big obstacle, I think. Like I said, I don't remember much of it, but I remember how proud and happy I felt when it was done. So here's to you, long-forgotten fanfiction adventure story. Here's to the first of many, with many more to follow after.

(Also, if you want to see more of TFP, Palutena Trap, or Peregrine Podfic, you can bother me in a few hours for WIP Wednesday! If you want more OG Peregrine you have to bother @stonemaskedtaliesin instead. Actually, make sure you do that, I know they've got chapter 8 waiting in the wings and I NEED to see how that scene with Pip and Lissa plays out)

#If you made it to the end I love you WOW I wrote a lot for only having two fics posted in the last 10 years #but this was a lot of fun #very nostalgic #writing #WIP Wednesdays #<- the tag I use so you can bother me #other tags: #tfp #palutena trap #song of the peregrine #my writing

[jewishtwig]

Shabbat shalom! I'm not sure if you're going to be online between now and Sunday so if I don't see you on the internt until then, have a lovely weekend!

I'm just reaching out anonymously to sort of combined vent-and-ask-for-advice about queer Jewish conversion stuff, since I know you finished your conversion journey recently and might have similar experiences.

Basically, I'm a queer and trans Jew-in-progress with lots of queer friends who live near where I attend synagogue. And we all know that serious Christianity-related religious trauma often comes in a package deal with being queer in a culturally Christian country. You can probably tell where this is going.

My friends are all vocally supportive of my decision to become Jewish, but we have some hang-ups. I came back from Shabbat service the other week and excitedly told them that it was a children's service that morning, and that some of the kids had performed a play for us. One friend asked what play it was, then got uncomfortable really fast when I told them it was Joseph's technicolour dreamcoat.

(Side note: the play was awesome! Children have the wackiest senses of humour and there is nothing funnier than hearing a 10 year old scream "anything but the pit!!" while trying really hard not to laugh.)

Anyway -- the dreamcoat story is one my queer friends are all familiar with in some capacity from their Christian schooling. You and I are aware of the similarities (lol) and differences between Christianity and Judaism, and that we will often see versions of the same texts and tales in both contexts because of appropriation and the like. My friends understand this in theory, but gentiles will be gentiles. They hear alarm bells when I say 'dreamcoat' because it was Christian to them before it was Jewish. The fact that I chose to be excited about the play without also downplaying it by going "dont worry guys it's not the christian version!!" has noticeably damaged their opinion of me.

Things like this keep happening, where my friends will be verbally supportive, but then start acting really really awkward around the topic of religion, including when I casually mention things like no longer being free for gay brunch on Saturday mornings because of Shabbat. They're uncomfortable that I find value in the same Bible verses their Christian grandmas quote (even though I've explained that Tanakh actually tells a different story to their Old Testament and can have a completely different meaning). I swear they all think that by getting involved at synagogue, I am willingly putting myself in close proximity to Christianity, and they are either scared of me for it, or secretly think I am a traitor.

They don't understand that feeling squeamish around 'Bible-thumping religious nuts' is deeply antisemitic. They don't like it when I talk about G-d because they are convinced that the Jewish and Christian G-d are one and the same. And for the record, yes I've explained why the concept of 'Abrahamic' or 'Judeo-Christian' faith is all bullshit, and yes I've explained that they are very much not the same G-d, and the response I got from them amounted to 'well there's different beliefs about G-d but they all come from the same initial concept and refer to the same entity so they're the same'. I just gave up on trying to explain; I'm not Christian so I'm not making it my problem if they're unwilling to divorce their feelings about religion from Christianity. I'm still learning and I will not be their teacher.

The way my queer friends look at me now makes me so sad. It's like they are expecting me to start quoting Bible verses over the dinner table, or make everyone say blessings with me, or burst into a monologue about how G-d is great and everyone should believe in Him. Half the people I've 'come out' to as a convert have responded by saying "that's great I'm so happy for you! But by the way I just can't do religion, it's not for me, no offence or anything but I just don't believe in G-d." as if that's in any way necessary. And these people know me. Why do they suddenly think I've turned into the type of person to proselytise or look down on people for not being religious?? As if there's not literally a prominent Jewish teaching that bans proselytisation and promotes religious freedom among other cultures???

It's driving me nuts. My friends treat me like a stranger now. I've known some of these people for 7+ years and they know I'm a queer-as-fuck dickhead with a personality and a traumatic Catholic upbringing of my own. I've always been really vocal about my opinions and I never shut up about my hobbies. It's not like I'm their mormon grandparents, I literally post ass on twitter. But suddenly they don't know what to say when they see me. I can feel everyone treading on eggshells around me because they are expecting me to suddenly take offense at them being atheist or areligious or for eating pork idk. And on that note I've had vegan friends try to argue with me that kashrut is immoral and that I'm a terrible person for following Jewish dietary laws instead of going vegan. And don't even get me started on what they try to tweeze out of me regarding Israel.

For people who say they hate antisemitism, they sure liked me a lot more when I wasn't studying to become Jewish. I think that if they understood how much this was affecting me, they might realise what they're doing and stop, but explaining myself hasn't made them get it. I know they are not trying to be antisemitic but I feel so alienated and lonely. I was prepared to accept that my friends might not be the right people to talk to about faith, but now they won't talk to me about anything without making it awkward.

I truly do believe my soul is Jewish and that this is a journey I need to take. And if that means I lose friends for being religious then so be it. But it really fucking sucks and I don't know how to deal with it. Other people really think they have the clearest perception of religion because they're not part of one and nothing I do or say can unconvince them that my judgement is clouded by faith. I don't want to lose them. I just don't know how to make them understand what I am feeling, or if I should even bother to try. Is this a common experience, do you think?

Shabbat shalom!

I hear you, and I cannot imagine how frustrating and upsetting this situation must be for you.

I was willing to give your friends the benefit of the doubt at first, but the more I’ve thought about it and the more I’ve reread this message, the more upset I’ve gotten on your behalf.

The fact of the matter seems to me that they’re claiming to be supportive of Jews but when presented with actually future Jewishness they are not being supportive and are actually being pretty terrible.

Additionally, they aren’t being supportive of you as a person. Your choice isn’t going to impact their lives at all besides maybe needed to move a brunch date and yet they’re still alienating you. I don’t fully know the situation, of course, and it’s your choice, but from what you’ve said they don’t sound like people who have your best interests in mind and don’t seem like great friends.

Unfortunately, this isn’t an entirely uncommon situation (especially in queer spaces in my experience but that story is a tad off topic). I know I lost some friends during my conversion and it damaged my relationship with some people as well.

Ultimately I see it this way: for reasons of physical safety and mental health, if someone has an issue with me because of my religion then I don’t want to be around them.

I hope you’re able to find some supportive friends. Maybe try seeing if there’s a queer community group at your synagogue! Or start one!

I truly wish you good luck with this situation. Please let me know if I can help you in any way. Congratulations on starting your conversion journey 💙

#asks #<3 #loss of friendship #conversion issues #antisemitism

[opossumanon]

hey chat I've been having an identity crisis that's been reacquainting me with my old friends, my mental issues, and it's not fun and I'd like to go back to my path to recovery but I don't think that's gonna happen until I sort out said identity crisis so I'm gonna need some help if yall have the time

So historically I've always been a bit of a loner and a weirdo compared to my peers, mostly because of audhd (autism + adhd) but being transgender certainly hasn't helped me either. It started a few months ago when I first got a glimpse of punk culture and what it was like, and after I found a cool jacket at a thrift store I went "Hey what if I put patches and shit on it like punks do that seems neat I'm gonna borrow that idea" and then it progressed to me finding a bunch of music I like, most of it new wave (X-Ray Spex my beloved) and as weird as I am!!

So I've since been doing more research on punk culture and the different groups within punk and I feel like I've found something that I can relate to, but then I'll see stuff like "If punk music isn't the majority of what you listen to then you're not punk" which seems sus to me, and I also see things about drugs and mosh pits and LOUD LOUD concerts, which is a problem for me because

1. I don't do drugs (It's fine if you do idgaf just not my thing), and alcohol is off the table for me because of genetics and a medication I'm on 2. I properly read the definition of mosh pit to make sure I didn't have misconceptions about it and the definition is literally a cramped space right next to the stage where everyone dances erratically and is pressed up against each other. I hate touch, so the idea of being in a pit with dozens to hundreds of other people all pressed up against me sounds like hell 3. I can't do loud stuff for long periods, I get overstimulated which leads to anger which leads to not good.

All of these things mean that concerts and bars/clubs are off the table for me unless I can be accommodated, but I doubt that'll happen because usually the reaction to me being upset about loud noise at events is "Deal with it" and then ignoring me. But there aren't really any places other than bars and clubs and concerts that punk groups (And any other group really) meet up at as far as I'm aware, so I'm basically cut off from any real interactions with people.

I explained this to a friend of mine, and he informed me that I'm simply not punk because "punk is about chaos" and "you're all rigid and need your structures" and yeah, I do have a certain way I like things to be done, but that doesn't mean I'm totally unwilling to let go and do whatever sometimes. Also from everything I've read about punk the only group who sees chaos as the biggest qualification are the nazi punks? All the other punk groups I've looked into seem to agree that it's anger at the establishment for not taking care of the people and deciding to form a community that we can be a part of to take care of each other, which I 100% agree with.

At first I listened to my friend and accepted defeat, but I thought of it for a bit longer and realized that my friend, as much as I utterly adore him, as a tendency to act like his opinions on things are objective fact (Talking about music with him can be frustrating because of this), so I'm not inclined to take his advice on this particular issue.

So my question is based on everything I've shared so far, am I actually punk or am I just trying to shove myself into a group that I don't belong to?

(Btw in case anyone's wondering my beliefs are anti-racism, anti-sexism, anti-antisemitism, anti-homophobia, anti-transphobia, anti-ableism, anti-zionism, and anti-every-other-kind-of-bigotry. And so far from what I've read I have mixed feelings about anarchy but I will admit I could do more reading on it)

#punk #queer punks #genderpunk #queer punx #punk rock #punk style #new wave #queer punk #diy punk #yes i did make a blog just to post this ask without people i know seeing it

[riddlerosehearts]

okay. i said i would write a post about how much i adore how to train your dragon 1 & 2 to balance out all the complaining about bad dreamworks movies that i've been doing, so:

i can be very indecisive at times when i try to rank and rate things. but httyd 1 and 2 are definitely both in my top 5 favorite dreamworks movies. the first movie is in my top 3, easily, because it's just a little more special to me than the second one. and then personally i have... some issues with the third movie, but god, the first two are just amazing. i think i'm mostly just gonna talk about the first one in this post since it's my favorite.

httyd 1 is a very simple story, about a boy finding his place in the world and earning his dad's acceptance through forming a forbidden friendship with a dragon. but it is so emotional and so beautifully told. every single scene matters to the story, and everything hiccup learns is used either in his training or to defeat the red death. the movie never ever feels slow or unbalanced, it all just flows perfectly. hiccup is loyal and stubborn and sassy and insecure and a genius inventor and one of the best leads in a dreamworks film. he feels so real and so well-developed. and toothless shows so much personality and has such a beautiful bond with him. astrid could, i suppose, have been more fleshed out in the first movie, but she still has a lot of great moments. she's fierce, passionate, and driven, and the way she grows to accept hiccup and softens up toward him is just adorable. i love her.

also, the character designs, animation, and the score were already amazing in httyd 1 but they only improve in the second movie. the flying scenes and toothless himself with his catlike mannerisms are especially well-animated in both movies and songs like test flight from httyd 1 and toothless found from httyd 2 are fantastic. and the humor of these movies is great. it's not reliant on making tons of pop culture reference and toilet jokes like dreamworks usually loves to do, instead it's just really witty. hearing hiccup say "any food that grows here is tough and tasteless, the people that grow here even more-so" is hilarious to me. berk also has such a unique atmosphere about it, especially in the first movie, i feel like.

i would argue that httyd 2 isn't quite as masterfully written and has some pacing issues, but i still love it a lot. valka's story, and the tragedy of her relationship with stoick, is so well done and i love seeing hiccup start learning to be chief and to be more responsible. httyd 1 is sweet and upbeat and heartwarming but httyd 2 has this epic fantasy feel with a darker type of story. and hiccup's dialogue at the end does not get enough appreciation for how beautiful it is: "we may be small in numbers, but we stand for something bigger than anything the world can pit against us. we are the voice of peace, and bit by bit, we will change this world."

and anyway anyone who's been following me for a while can probably tell i am bad at writing analyses and reviews lol. but i just love how to train your dragon so so much and i don't wanna seem like i set out to watch every dreamworks movie just so i could complain about them constantly. so yeah, these movies are amazing to me and i really should get around to watching the httyd tv shows one of these days.

[bylertruther]

I think ppl mix up gnc with androgynous too! Its pretty easy to confuse in this era but the distinction is important

you're absolutely right, mal! i drafted a long post about this earlier this morning, but i'll copy and paste it below now that you gave me the opportunity to stand on my soap box again hehe. :p

gender nonconformity is not just a man painting his nails, a woman refusing to shave, or someone being transgender. gender expression and variance do not start and end at one's physical presentation, nor is it directly tied to your gender identity itself. cis people can be gnc, trans people can be gnc. you can be a man that dresses like a lumberjack and still be gnc. you can be a woman that wears makeup and still be gnc. you can transition and still be gnc after. gender nonconformity encompasses behavior, interests, and appearance, and it has to do with how an individual interacts with gender roles, which we know are based on stereotypes held at large by society—stereotypes that are still largely common today. and this is a modern definition, by the way, not one plucked from an eighties textbook. not everything is about physical appearances and just because people associate gender nonconformity with one rigid and specific thing does not mean that it is that thing. the same way that androgynous does not only mean a skinny white person that is either a butch woman or a man with long hair, gnc does not only mean said skinny white man painting his nails or said skinny white woman getting an undercut and letting her pits grow out. gnc does not HAVE to be ONLY how you groom or dress yourself. gnc has A LOT to do with behaviors and interests, and the world is not nearly as liberal as it is on tumblr.com lol. some people know better, especially as many millennials start to rear newer generations, but we're still not at an at-large cultural shift, and the gender norms discussed in psychology and psychosexual textbooks have not changed too much as a result. high levels of sensitivity and empathy are still presently seen as being aspects of male gender nonconformity. it is still something that many gay and nonconforming men, as well as their parents, state in studies and surveys about this. sensitive men still face homophobia and misogyny. american men are still expected to not show emotion, work hard, and be the big bad protectors. many people are starting to see that it's a load of bullshit, but it's still considered the norm! gender roles are culturally specific and i think it's just unrealistic to act like western culture, specifically and especially mainstream traditional american culture, doesn't promote the idea of the aggressive, red-blooded alpha male lol. i don't agree with gender norms bc i'm a dirty leftist but that doesn't mean that they don't exist and that society does not push them on everyone and punish those who dare to say no. some things have changed, but not nearly as many as people think and taking a look at how people vote or just talking to people outside of your immediate bubble will show you that pretty quickly. we're unfortunately set to wait a good while before the tides start to really change and we start seeing these less conservative views prevail. and until then... yeah, sensitive men are still assumed to be lesser men and gay and feminine and so on and so forth by young and old people alike in 2023. literally just look at the knee-jerk reaction that so many people have on here and twitter when you talk about how will actually acts on the show. i just. hewwo. gnc is not just looks 😔 and it doesn't automatically make you trans either. 😔 and unless some of you were raised in a literal bubble on a leftist commune somewhere, i know that you know that the world is not as kind and open-minded as you're acting like it is.

#asks #long post #mine #mal sends me two sentences and i send them an essay. amazing #starting to think some of u have never had coworkers who were in their 50s or interacted with someone from an immigrant family or #someone from the south or literally just anyone tht doesn't hold the same opinions and had a different upbringing / class as u lol #bc i'm only 24 and yet i saw this shit in my own lifetime. i hear ppl i go to class with and worked with say tht shit. not everyone is a #leftist with an open mind when it comes to gender!! literally look at the polls look at who we elect look at what sells and what doesn't #look at the comments literally anywhere look at how they treat noah after he came out look at how you guys talk about finn etc etc

[itsjustalark]

@seeingteacupsindragons

" I hope you don't mind me breaking that ask up into smaller chunks to respond to instead of actually answering the ask in my inbox. Sometimes people send me really long things, and then I know having it on my blog and then having to read my probably accordingly long answer is not going to happen, and I just. Feel bad about it."

Mind? Hell no. I'm honoured that you've decided to give me the time of the day at all. It is completely fine with me and thank you for letting me konw. Next time ill make sure to post on my blog and just tag you.

"Tiadane's not actually a boy; this is made clear relatively early on, and he's not picky about pronouns because his home doesn't have a good concept of things like "gender" and "lots of gendered pronouns." I tend to alternate what I use for him when not in the book, and even in the book he shrugs off a couple "she's." And there's actually not any romance in that one; Tiadane and my deuteragonist's relationship is platonically weird in that one. I don't always like writing romance, but I usually have a deuteragonist running around because I just like paired character dynamics a lot."

I'm really sorry for just asssuming Tiadane to be a guy. On the other hand I love when fantasy worlds explore cultures that dont have the same understanding of gender as us. I feel it isnt done enough and where it is atempted its never done with the enough care.

Also when I said 'relationships' I didn't mean them as explicit romantic ones. I'm a big fan of interesting dynamics and I dont believe they always have to be romantic to get me interested. There are so many ways humans interact with one another. That is whats most facinating to me.

"I'm actually not super great at worldbuilding, either. I tend to do it as little as possible and only when I need to; a lot of my current revisions are fleshing the worldbuilding out. And now that I'm focusing on, a lot of the results are good, but it's often just sort of not really the most fun focus for me. "

I'm also not an intricate world builder and cant even imagine going to the flora and fauna level of detail. My points of interest in world building is societities. How they function different from our and how they effect the people living in it accordingly. I build my worlds around my characters becaude i also feel that a fleshed out world only gives more depth to the characters.

Glad to know your world building is going well. I cant even imagine the revisions i have to make one i finish first draft as ive completely given up ingraining the magic system as part of the characters perspective and how it effects their thing cause it was gettjng to complicated. So i will now have to add all of that stuff later on.

"What I shared was actually the query; queries and synopses are different in the publishing word. Basically, my query is supposed to sell people on making it sound interesting, so I'm glad it's working for those functions for now. It still needs to be edited some more later. "

Oh I didnt know that. Still new to all the publishing jargon but always happy to learn more.

"Tiadane's book originally came from playing too much Smash Bros and staring at Pit for too many hours in a row. And then I just typed some random shit to get some words out when I was stuck revising something and not having fun, and started writing this introduction to his world."

I love how we writers get ideas from the most rediculous of senarios.

"I am a very character-focused writer and have had recurring problems with getting a plot to attach correctly over the years. I think Tiadane's book is the first time I didn't have (too) many issues with one by the time I sent to to a CP, and I'm still ripping a lot out to replace it with something better. "

I also write character focused works. Characters are why i read books. I dont reallyenjoy plot heavy books. Every aspect of plot, fleshing out the world or magic i enjoy because it makes tge characters feel more real and elps highlights the themes if the book.

"Each of my fantasy worlds (I also write sci-fi sometimes, and some stuff just...set in our world) has its own magic system. I don't know how writers just have The One for tons of stories. Large universes to play in can be fun, but so is making up new stuff every time."

Also, would you mind telling me about your magic systems? I love that stumm. It facinates me how maging systems ingrain themselves into a story. When i was first materializing my story it was set in a normal world but my mund was like: no no no this story need a magic system and an exploration of the chosen one narrative even though back then it didnt have anything to do with the main plot. But thats me cause i love over complicating thing for myself.

#reply #writing

[aizenat]

i'm reading your post from nov 11 on heteronormativity and it's interesting to me that queer people think they can escape patriarchy just by virtue of queerness. because when patriarchy fails (it rarely does) at disciplining and punishing through homophobia it moves to subsuming.

see: marriage rights for queer people, child adoption and parenting and surrogacy for queer people.

like top/bottom discourse is the pits esp when hets start partaking but material conditions are real and queer couples soon dip into patriarchal norms wrt to who wears the pants when faced with things like income disparities

I have no idea what this ask has to do with that post. My post wasn't about queer people trying to escape the patriarchy or some shit. My point was that straight people trying to decide who likes giving and receiving in bed in gay relationships based on arbitrary things like who kisses who first in one scene, height, race, etc ARE GROSS. (lbr, Louis is obviously mostly a bottom when he has sex with Lestat, though I do get the feeling they switch enough to keep them both satisfied. Either way, Lestat is not the 100% bottom princess fans try to make him out to be)

Like, seriously, what is your point? In heterosexual relationships, you can typically tell who is giving and receiving based on gender (in terms of penetration). Our entire culture's understanding of sex is heteronormative and simplistic. I remember when sitting at the dinner table as a 9 year old, when my brother (then 8) asked my mom what sex was, she explained it simply as "when a man puts his penis in a woman's vagina." That was it. And that's what most sex ed (at least in the US) focuses on. That's the definition of sex that fuels literal laws and industries. So how does that factor in when you have two men or two women? It's obviously more complicated.

And straights have a bad habit of projecting that heteronormative idea on gay couples, and this is how you get shit like what I was criticizing in that post. Where people use arbitrary things to decide who is what role in bed. And my point is one of the benefits of being gay is that we don't have to fall into that. There are lesbian touch me nots who don't want to receive at all and only want to give. In a straight relationship, that would be a problem if the woman didn't want to receive. In a gay relationship, she can find someone who will gladly be her pillow princess. Lots of gay people have sex without penetration! That takes the "who's top/bottom" thing away immediately because we're not even talking about penetrative (PIV-focused) sex!

Like what does THAT have to do with anything you're saying? And honestly, on a post where I talk about how liberating and freeing being a lesbian is for me BECAUSE it means I can build my relationships on my own terms and not have to fall in line with gender expectations I don't respect or want to adhere to, why are you trying to come to me and say "actually, the patriarchy will make you fall in line." Like, huh? Are you the very agent of the patriarchy, talking down to me for daring to want a relationship where I don't fall into patriarchal expectations of a woman in a relationship? Are you the patriarchy anon?

#like what are you even trying to say? #also break up your sentences more #i had to read this like 5 times to understand what you were trying to say #what a weird take