#i read a few more paragraphs

[landwriter]

2!

Hounds of Love by The Futureheads. Oh! What a gem!! I first loved this song when I was a wee bab and rediscovered it this past summer. It, along with all my top songs, was on a summer driving playlist which is why it is so insanely high haha. There's a sort of lovely pastoral wildness to this and I think that suits our lads so well.

An outdoorsy AU with competence kink out the wazoo, where Dream is a bird specialist at a wildlife rehabilitative centre, who becomes a minor TikTok celebrity (much to his enormous apathy) when the centre starts doing interpretive meet-birds events and the internet falls in love with this dour hottie who only smiles when he's talking about birds (Matthew, naturally, runs the account). Hob is a hunter - bow, mostly - who is regrettably very on TikTok, very on all social media - he hates the term but he is unquestionably an 'influencer'. He just likes sharing his knowledge and passion, alright? And the gear sponsorships are nice.

He sees Dream, and sees, mostly, a really great collab opportunity, so he messages him, and Dream (who is Matthew, and just shouted HOB FUCKING GADLING? IN MY DMs? at his phone when he got the message, immediately sets up a meeting at the centre. Then he breaks the news to Dream, specifically when Dream is holding Jessamy, so he can't be murdered.)

Dream, of course, expects Hob to be some like, swaggering font of red-blooded machismo talking points, and suspects Hob is only popular because he looks like an advertisement in Outdoor Living. (Matthew showed him pictures.) He disregards Matthew, who says Hob is actually super cool, because Matthew has terrible taste and would be the first to admit it. But his interest is piqued when Lucienne also knows who Hob is. It turns out Hob is deeply involved in nature and wildlife conservancy. Gives talks at schools. Gets involved with land protection initiatives. Teaches orienteering to youth. But everyone seems to expect him to hate Hob, which he would find faintly insulting except that he also expects himself to hate Hob. He doesn't. Not that much. Even when he shows up in a plaid shirt that is made of 'technical' fabric, because he's smart and excited to talk to Dream about birds, has an encyclopedic knowledge of the history of falconry, and most importantly, Jessamy takes to him immediately.

They run into each other again at a renaissance fair, another thing Dream hates but has been strong-armed into doing, and so they are both dressed in very silly clothes when it happens: the first time Hob watches Dream demonstrate falconry, the first time Dream watches Hob use a longbow made from a yew tree he fell himself, the first time they go from a wary sort of respect for one another to a wanting.

Dream, who has a recurring fantasy about running away from it all, listens to Hob tell tracking stories and thinks, If I went into the woods, you would find me. But he doesn't want to run from Hob - except sometimes, when he sees Hob chew on his lip consideringly before giving a thoughtful answer about the guiding industry, or when Hob grins wildly at the crowd after his archery demonstration, and most of all, when Hob phones him out of the blue one day - he doesn't text, he phones - sounding a little breathless with excitement, and asks Dream if he wants to come with him for a week in the mountains, on "probably a wild goose chase" and promises "all sorts of birds if nothing else." (Hob had meant to only share the news with Dream. Fuck, he thinks. I am so fucked.)

He says yes, for the birds, of course, and tells Matthew the next time he's at the centre.

"So what's the wild goose chase?" asks Matthew.

Dream plumbs his memory of the phone call and says, "Hob told me he received a bighorn sheep tag." Matthew gapes at him.

"Holy shit," says Matthew. "He's in love with you."

"He is certainly not."

"Uh, no, respectfully boss, he 'certainly' is. Lucienne!" he shouts, "Hob invited Dream to come out on his Dall sheep tag. What the fuck, right?"

Lucienne comes in and raises her eyebrows. "Oh dear," she says. She's smiling.

"What," says Dream. "It's a sheep. I don't understand."

Lucienne and Matthew exchange a glance.

"Him. I cannot believe Hob chose him," says Matthew.

"Love works in mysterious ways," says Lucienne.

"I am right here," says Dream.

Matthew turns to him, "Have fun in Alberta," he says.

this would ft. nights of wild stars, rugged terrain, type ii fun, sexual tension around a campfire, homoerotic form checks, tent sharing, dream glassing beautiful birds with hob's $3000 binoculars while hob stares at him in abject adoration, dream watching hob strip off his clothes and jump into an alpine lake, and refusing to join him out of pretended prudishness when it's really because he's suddenly so hard it hurts, camp coffee, confessions about themselves instead of confessions about their feelings for each other, sore muscles for a VARIETY of reasons, and lots of allegories about wildness and taming and running away from things, and SO MUCH COMPETENCE KINK, friends. so much. i would probably write it like - act one them leading their separate lives, their desires and aches etc., act two - meetcute and circling one another, act three - The Trip. this one has a very happy ending i can tell

#the sandman #dreamling #'this one won't be more than a few paragraphs' i say #stopping myself NOW ha ha #another AU I Would Write for suuuure #luring you in with the promise brokeback mountain style pastoral yearning #then leaping onto my soapbox and waxing poetic abt our relationship with meat and nature and nonhuman life #about hunting trips and multiday outdoor trips in general as a way of enriching relationships with others #about connecting in profound ways that feel only accessible in a place where humans are exceptions and not the rule #where our endemically lonely society and all the guardedness is stripped away before the beauty and the ache of the suck #wild spaces making room for wild emotions #for humanity #in a way cities and towns do not #ANYWAYS #shout out to the person reading this who understands the significance of a bighorn sheep tag as a feelings confession lol #(hucks this post onto my teetering want-to-make-this-a-WIP pile) #spotify wrapped prompt #my writing

[eijiroukiriot]

it's been a sec since i've done a translation! but i think this comic is really sweet so translation under the cut!! the title on the comic is "kiribaku and tododeku who aren't public about their relationship (having mild heart attacks)", and the caption on the tweet is "i wanna read 10000 stories about people finding out about kiribaku and tododeku's relationships"

Hero Radio OFFTiME! On our program, you can hear top heroes spill a little bit about their private lives. Today's hosts are Deku and Red Riot! What kinds of things will they talk about? Let's see!

Midoriya: Man, you must be tired! You came here straight after a night shift, right? Are you feeling alright?

Kirishima: All good! Besides, you've been working ten days in a row, right? Good on you!

(word bubbles - Very, Very Tired)

M: Alright then, our first letter of the night...this one comes to us from BlueMackerel-san, who asks, "How did you spend your last day off?"

K: Uhh...oh yeah! Hiked 'n camped! And ate a ton of campfire food!

M: Oh, with Kacchan?

K: Yep!

M: He sure does like hiking.

Flashback Kirishima: WHOOPIE!!

Flashback Bakugou: Just eat it

M: What'd you two eat?

K: The works! Spare ribs, and homemade sausage, and meat, and more meat! Bakugou always packs a ton of meat to barbecue, it's crazy good! What about you?

M: Mmm...I slept in until around noon...and I think that day, Todoroki's family invited me over for dinner. His sister is a great cook!

Flashback Fuyumi: Welcome, welcome!

K: Coooool. So we both ended up just spending the day with our boyfriends, huh-

M: UH- um-

K: Huh? OH-! Cut! Cut!! Can you guys pretend you didn't hear that last...

M: Ohhhh my goddddddd

Narration: Our next letter comes to us from DieYouScum-san, who writes, "I'm killing you when you get home"

#kiribaku #tododeku #translation #bnha #this is a short one that's mostly kirishima and deku talkin but i think it's very cute #i'm also still completely in shock that tumblr now lets you go back and fix typos in tags #good on ya tumblr stuff #this is just a super quick translation before bed and i played it kinda fast and loose w the expressions!! but i did my best to get the #meaning across!! #to talk abt mostly unrelated stuff yesterday on my way home from a long weekend i dropped by tokyo and to a huge anime resale store #they had soooo much bnha stuff but pointedly they had a whole separate building across the street for doujinshi #my local anime resale store lately has gotten so few bnha doujin that they stopped sorting them by ship so it's basically not worth looking #but this one had a ton of krbk all laid out and i was this close to not even going into the store but i came out w a little stack! #crazy to see so much krbk in person that i even had my /pick/ of safe fluffy stuff #anyway one of the ones i bought is abt them living together and the cover illustration is kirishima elbowing bkg in his sleep #i was gonna not just read more krbk before bed tonight but it looks so sweet and up my alley #ik i don't post much on here anymore and it's mostly bc adult life saps the paragraph-typing/thread-typing energy out of me #but those guys still have an apartment in my brain #hope you guys are doing well!!

[starheirxero]

AW MAN U KNOW WHAT WOULDA BEEN A FUNNY APRIL FOOLS POST? making a really long-winded, dramatic, misinformed, and salty post about how Eclipse genuinely did nothing wrong and, in fact, everyone around him just needs to learn to chill out. if i'm still here next april fools I know what I'm doing

#xero says things #i would start the post off with the big big letters saying a half plausible sentence like 'STOP VILLAINIZING EVERYTHING ECLIPSE HAS DONE' #and then I'd leave a few paragraphs above a 'read more' that slowly devolve into. like #'i am SO SICK of people saying that eclipse is a bad person for killing lunar and traumatizing sun and moon and all that other stuff.' #'eclipse is LITERALLY JUST TRYING TO MAKE FRIENDS but EVERYONE is being needlessly aggressive to him!!!' #'if you can't see when someone is lonely and hurt then you're a bad person to be around and i DO NOT trust you.' #'if you think eclipse wanted to do everything he did then don't even interact with this post🙄' #YOU KNOW? YOU KNOW????? #THAT KINDA SHIT AGAJAGAJSBDJC #tsams

[fictionadventurer]

Hey, so it turns out that not only did James and Lucretia Garfield finally fall in love with each other after years of marriage, but we have proof of it in one of the sweetest love letters I've ever read.

*

Willard's, Nov 24, 1867

My Precious Darling,

It is nearly ten o'clock Sunday night, and I will not lie down to sleep till I have told you again that I love you. Surely, "love is the fulfilling of the law," and the law of our love is liberty. We no longer love because we ought to, but because we do--the Tyranny of our love is sweet. We waited long for his coming, but he has come to stay. I hope wish, my dear love, that God would let us die together when we die, that neither of us might be left in the empty world for a single hour. It would be unkind of me, to tell you, if I could, how lonely and lost I am without you. Part of the machinery of my life seems to be gone, and I wander around unconsciously as if in search of it, that I may set nature at work again.

Your precious words of the 21st came to me this morning--and fell down into my heart like benedictions. Did you know how unutterably sweet it is to be praised by you? The words you wrote have lifted me and made me proud and happy all day. How sweet the privilege I have had, this summer! The alchemist sought to transmute other substances into gold--I have done far better. I have been able to transmute gold into esthetic joys, intellectual growth, heart life--and better than all--have been permitted to see it transformed into sweet and beautiful decorations of the noblest and truest woman I ever saw--and she as glad to be mine as I to be hers. This surpasses alchemy. It is divine. It is a new proof of the truth that "God is love."

Well Darling, I have done nothing of worth except to hunt houses and read. I am satisfied that the price of the house I wrote you of is too great and we ought not to pay it. I hope I can do better. I am thinking of buying a house on time and hope to sell it again when we are done with it. If we had done so, four years ago, we should have owned it now. I am anxious to receive your answer to my letter of Thursday--It may help me to a decision.

[political paragraph cut for irrelevance]

Dear Love, do write me very often. Kiss the sweet [???] and tell them Papa loves them all.

Ever Your ownest own James

#history is awesome #presidential talk #hey question: how come guys don't write like this anymore? #men gotta up their game to keep up with the love letters of the nineteenth century #there are a few words here that might be wrong because his handwriting's not great #gotta say jimbo your handwriting was much better in your youth #like i much appreciate the personal development keep it up #but your writing was a lot nicer looking when you were a young buck trying to impress a girl with your mad penmanship skills #if you were wondering the political paragraph is about him potentially being head of the house ways and means committee #and they're coming up on johnson's impeachment proceedings #i could have and probably should have cut the paragraph about house hunting #but i was so amused by the turn from flowery love letter to #'well darling i have done nothing of worth except to hunt houses and read' #i feel like it grounds the declaration of love in the mundane moments of everyday life and makes it seem more real

[batsarebetterthanpeople]

You know after thinking about it I think my main problem with Izzy stans once you get past the obvious one, which is the way that they are racist to Ed, (Clearly my main problem but not the problem I’m here to talk about) is that they don’t even like Izzy. They like Ed, and they like Black Pete, and they like Calico Jack, but they can’t admit that they like those characters for some reason? (you know why they can’t admit that they like Ed and Black Pete)

Like the ways Ed’s back story gets cannibalized for Izzy in a lot of fics and the way people will swap Izzy and Ed’s personalities is well trod territory. Ed is treated as enjoying violence and having a toxic masculinity problem and Izzy is treated like someone who’s trying desperately to make his working relationship with Ed beneficial when in the show those rolls are switched. You’ve heard this meta before. I just made a whole post about the way that Jack’s roll in Ed’s backstory (i.e. like 90% of the reason he exists as a character) gets ignored in favor of giving that roll to Izzy. And don’t even get me started on Black Pete. Both Izzy and Black Pete struggle with toxic masculinity, are obsessed with Blackbeard, and desperately wants to be in a leadership roll and aren’t very good at it. But so far at least Black Pete is the one undergoing the redemption arc and getting better, and Izzy is the one getting worse. I see people wanting a relationship with Lucius to redeem him and I’m like girl you have that. That’s Black Pete. Like Black Pete chose to get better and he’s still working on it but when he realized that Blackbeard wasn’t who he thought he was he minded his business and he went from complaining about sewing being womens work and worrying about what Blackbeard’s crew would do in episode one to learning through his relationship with Lucius to be sweet and vulnerable. And while Izzy in canon is attracted to Lucius i guarantee you that Lucius will not be playing that roll in his narrative, because it’s the roll he plays for Black Pete. That’s not to say that Lucius fixed him, but they will give Lupete’s dynamic to Izzy for no fucking reason.

So I’m gonna do something I don’t usually do and that’s defend Izzy here. If you’re gonna like Izzy there are tons of things about him that you can like. His psychosexual obsession with Blackbeard and his and Ed’s weird codependency is juicy enough to drive the plot at times. He’s a little freak to the point where he got his toe cut off and he liked it. He’s stubborn. He’s driven. He’s manipulative. He’s plotting and conniving. He sees other people as caricatures of themselves and DOES NOT react well at all to people falling outside of the box he’s made for them. He’s angry all the time. He can’t identify love. He’s jealous of Stede in the way that a child is jealous of their friends’ friends. All of these are wonderful traits in a blorbo (and terrible traits in a person, but a blorbo is not a real boy) They make him interesting and they give him layers. It’s very fun to theorize what happened to him to make him this way. There are many reasons to like Izzy Hands. But it’s kind of annoying when other characters’ cool stuff is ascribed to Izzy and those characters are ignored and maligned in favor of Izzy, especially when those characters are the brown romantic lead and the bald kinda frumpy guy with a lisp, who in 99% of media doesn’t get to be seen as hot but in this media gets to be desired. And it makes me feel bad for your Izzy that you cant like him for him.

#its because Ed is brown pete is disabled and conventionally unnattractive and jack is gross and offputting #I will accept that their reasons for disliking Jack are valid #however they're gonna need to get over the things that are making them dislike Ed and Black Pete post fucking haste #I even saw someone describe Izzy as flamboyantly gay (they used more words than that) #and I had to read over their paragraph a few times to figure out where Izzy was fitting in to this description of stede #before I realized they weren't talking about Stede at all they were describing Izzy #but that was one individual where as the thing with pete and jack and ed is a fucking pattern #I like Calico Jack for Calico Jack #It's not his negative traits that are the problem #put some fucking respect on Black Pete's name now

[waywardsalt]

im actually going to tear into totk’s dragon’s tears/ memories rn bc i remember feeling distinctly unsatisfied with them when i got all of them so im just going to write some general bullet points about them, about what i dislike or maybe what i do actually like about them, leaving out both master sword scenes and the mummydorf one because i’m here to talk about the stuff in the past not that

- off the bat (i play this game in english btw so all of this is based on the english text and translation i am aware some stuff is slightly different in other languages) im not really a fan of how the descriptions of all of the tears is just a literal description of what happens?? i think my issue with it is that some of the text is a little bit too in depth, as in it just tells you literally everything about the scene. this might be nitpick-y but i personally dont like it

- what’s up with zelda saying ‘but that must mean...!’ at the end of the scene. is it suggesting that she’s made the realization that rauru and sonia are the first king and queen of hyrule? because they literally tell her that like ten seconds before. i guess it’s suggesting she’s realizing she’s in the past but... idk the texts says ‘she’s left startled by a suspicion that she’s heard those names before’ yeah theyre the first king and queen of hyrule?? they tell her that. they tell her their names and that they are the first leaders of hyrule is she just now connecting the dots that she’s in the past? that’s what the next cutscene implies. but all of the surrounding dialogue and the description don’t suggest that that’s what she’s realizing i feel like this was kind of muddled in the translation

- why did sonia elbow rauru he was just standing weird he didnt say anything this isnt a nitpick im just confused. is it because he’s not being very empathetic towards what zelda’s going through? she elbows him and then she goes and talks to zelda why even elbow rauru. ordinarily you elbow someone like that if you mean for them to go do something why elbow someone if you’re going to do the thing you want anyways

- why doesnt zelda offer to help with the purah pad or anything like that. what happened to her sheikah tech fascination from botw. not even as someone actually familiar with the technology who could give mineru some points as to how it works

- what are sonia and zelda doing behind rauru when he shoots that insane fucking beam at the mulduga swarm they’re clearly doing something with their stones but like... are they amplifying rauru’s power somehow?? what do time powers have to do with the beam of light i dont- what were they doing please the text description only mentions him using his powers so are sonia and zelda just... supporting his powers? idk man

- dragon tear #5 is a whole can of worms with its worse-than-oot reenactment of that one scene from oot. why the focus on sonia and her tear btw. i mean yeah she dies to motivate rauru and zelda but like. why not aim for the new girl who probably doesn’t know how to use it as much and is probably more likely to be separate from the king who can shot insane lasers. im really not a fan of this scene for how strongly the game sides with rauru and zelda being passive and judgemental but ganondorf is literally the best part of it there’s a lot of character in just how he picks up his sword and stands up to leave

- putting memories 6 and 7 together just because of how there was just. no fucking care put into the idea of zelda learning to use her time powers. memory 6 zelda talks about wanting to use her time powers and sonia gives her tips on how she could use it and visualize the use of it and then in memory 7 she can just use it perfectly with great control and timing. why even bother talking about her nothing yet understanding how to use it when the very next scene she just uses it like it’s nothing. how much time has passed we get nothing to show us zelda trying to practice this power just. nope. she’s good she can use it perfectly. also more awkward dialogue sonia saying ‘what a picture zelda paints of him’ as she is. looking directly at zelda. change the line to like, ‘what a picture you paint of him’ she is literally looking right at zelda so why would she say it like that

- generally i feel like memory six should have been before 4 and 5 (4 being where she uses some power to... support??? rauru and it being before memory 5 so that there isnt this weird break in between the memories concerning ganondorf.) memory 6 does not have anything to do with memory 4 or 5 so just put it earlier so there isnt a weird shift in focus between the two big ganondorf scenes

- good god they introduce the idea of sonia and zelda being aware of ganondorf using a fake zelda but theres literally nothing about it having been a problem or them having experience or like. anything. they just TELL you that they know and suggest that it’s been like. a thing for a bit??? also obligatory ganondorf’s face model rigging is fucked comment he’s still the best part

- the pacing of these memories is just weird in general, memories 7 and 8 being separate but the same scene is strange when other memories are long as fuck but cover one event each, plus theres clearly barely any passage of time between memories 7 and 8 it almost feels like they were split up to fill space or just because otherwise it’d be... too long? man idk

- ‘queen sonia needs you!’ girl she is DEAD good fucking luck doing anything to help her

- ganondorf’s horse and its armor both look sick as fuck i really wish you got to see more of it outside the memory it appears in

- everything about the original sages honestly sucks. they aren’t characters they’re just walking macguffins. they have no names and are not relevant or mentioned or make any appearance until they are needed by the story. why does the zora sage talk about getting word about the attacked gerudo village in this scene when like. they’ve all met up and have clearly. been together for a bit. when she gives them the news it’s clearly the first they’ve heard of it... but... why would she wait until this moments to give this info unless for the benefit of the player watching the scene. why does the ZORA sage have this news and not... the gerudo sage?? what’s with the masks. they’re all made of zonaite or whatever sure theyre gifts from rauru but like. i hate that it kind of denotes them being subservient and lower than him and the zonai. honestly i really hate this scene in general mostly because of the uncomfortable showing of how rauru absolutely holds power over them and despite them being leaders as well they are expected to be wholly blindly loyal to him. rauru only gives them these stones when he needs their aid and they swear loyalty too him soon after but you also see that sonia and mineru have stones, too, so they’re clearly withholding these things despite it being kind of reasonable for him to give each race their own secret stone as further proof of their pact? there is so much shit to be said about the imperialistic themes or whatever in this fucking story and i really hate it

- i do kinda like how the next scene shows you that the one rock in the corner of that first hidden room in the forgotten temple is sonia’s grave

- zelda’s phrasing and description of how she and link found ganondorf is weird to me ‘he’s still alive’ ‘he lives on’ girl that was a mummy. he was not moving until you got there. he’s undead at best as far as you know. this is def a nitpick but eh. also the reliance on link is a... bit odd when zelda does not actually know that link is safe until she gets the master sword. its fine but still. also her shell-shocked expression after rauru talks about her being in the past for a reason is a bit... it doesn’t fit her emotion it’s kind of similar to the expression she had when sonia was killed

- the memory about the imprisoning war starts with practically the whole story up until now being repeated back to you by mineru with a decent amount of bias on mineru’s part and while it’s fine because of some of the extra stuff you learn but it does a lot more telling rather than showing when it comes to the actual imprisoning war and... idk the whole thing about their ‘fight’ kind of falls flat when you don’t actually see any fighting you just see that the sages have gotten their asses beat. i think it would have been a little interesting if in the god-awful repetitive sage-awakening scenes they had actually showed you the og sages fighting ganondorf instead of just. slow-mo freeze-frames for whatever. once again ganondorf if the best part of the scene

- the rest of the memories are fine idc

i get the feeling that the japanese-to-english translation was either all-around rough or somehow rushed, because some of the phrases in the game as well as some of the dialogue is really awkward and... could have been better. i don’t know how it works but it feels like a lot of it was very literal, direct translation and no one at noa thought that it ought to be tweaked just a little bit

these memories also do a fuck-ton of telling rather than showing and it really is like they don’t really trust you to connect the dots, and some of it does come off like they either didn’t want to make more memories or ran out of time or something. i felt like the memory of ganondorf just summoning his monsters and riding on his cool horse could have been a bit longer to actually show us the forces of hyrule fighting him and having a hard time with it

a lot of the character animations doesn’t have a whole lot of personality to them, ganondorf is the character who had the most distinct and interesting movements. rauru and sonia had their... singular movement (rauru putting a hand to his chin and sonia taking zelda’s hands) and zelda was kind of just... standing around and reacting to stuff, and neither mineru nor any of the other sages had any really interesting animations asides from mineru’s coughing fit in memory 16 (plus her reclining chair that was a nice touch). very few of their movements really express anything about the characters besides some really baseline values or traits.

the ordering of some memories is kind of odd, the excessive flashbacks in memory 17 are a bit much, the telling rather than showing, the sometimes awkward dialogue, a lot of the scenes are characters just... talking at each other, you don’t actually see very much of hyrule in the past or any characters beyond the main four, and it really did nothing to actually get me to care about these characters at all.

tldr i dont like totk’s dragon tears

#i didnt want to revisit this game but the memories in totk bother me. once im done with this tho i can go read my new volumes of berserk #salty talks #loz #legend of zelda #totk #literally the narrative of this game dragged the rest of the game through mud for me so im going to complain abt it more #any time i wanted to rewatch a part of a scene i have to sit through a few minutes of bullshit just to get to the point. #these things are so long and barely anything happens in them #half of these cutscenes are just characters standing around and talking theres so little actual character to most of the character movements #ganondorf has the most emotive and distinct movements in all of these scenes #they have the most personality and you get the most variety. with rauru and sonia its just. shes gentle n motherly hes uhhhh arrogant king #honest to god. i miss linebeck. i miss the way he was animated and the sheer amount of personality they gave him in every cutscene #fuck man i miss botw's memories. despite them being shorter (i'm pretty sure) i feel like there was more essence to them. more character #listen. i understand that gamedev is hard and so is writing and animating but like. this game is seventy fucking dollars. #despite him being so disappointingly one-note. ganondorf was the most interesting fucking character in these memories #finding the dragon's tears was fun but actually watching them was lame af #hey remember those posts i made about ph's cutscenes? maybe its the autism but i feel like i couldnt write those paragraphs abt totk #ig just. ph is my special interest and i have a negative bias against totk. if you think im dead wrong about this stuff go ahead. #i dont blame anyone for taking my words with a grain of salt. come to your own conclusions. if oyu like totk's memories cool! #anyways im done bye im gonna read berserk. which actually has a nuanced story and world and characters and a multi-faceted villain #totk spoilers #bitching abt totk

[waywardstation]

I was just thinking how nice a little snippet of one of your works would be...

That snippet hit like a train. This whole part will be such an agonizing experience to read. I'm usually someone who is able to stomach much but this somehow hits hard... Also even on the brink of dying Ingo still remains as polite as possible. oh this makes me tear up even in his state he remains himself.

Either way a big SUPER BRAVO for this nice new WIP

Also please make sure to rest and drink plenty. Get better before you plan anything. And WIP "Wednesday" doesn't always have to be Wednesday anyway. If you got a WIP ready post it whenever you feel like it and feel good enough! Health comes first! Don't overwork your cab!

In regards to my recent WIP from IWLYB

Haha yeah apologies for that, last weeks WIP was lighter so I went a little tougher with this one. These aren’t even the toughest parts I don’t think, I’m not going to put those parts into WIP Wednesdays. But I don’t know; I’m entirely indifferent to angst when I’m the one writing it, and I know everyone handles things differently ^^;

And yes Ingo is trying his best for Akari’s sake. It won’t be able to hold up forever, but until then he really does try his best ;(

THANK YOU ANON both for the praises and for the reminders!! I often find segments I like to save for WIP Wednesdays I just forgot entirely this time and combed through the doc last night to find something that wasn’t too spoilery haha.

BUT THANK YOU!! I’ve still got that 3k Phione Akari AU snippet to post. I meant to get it out last week, but decided to squeeze in another request I recently got and it’s now 5k+ haha. It’ll be out soon but I’m definitely taking my time with finishing it until I feel a little bit better, and my mind isn’t so foggy anymore. ^^

#wayward’s asks #i won’t leave you behind #my issue is I keep thinking I only have a few more sentences to add #and then I read through it again and decide I want to rewrite like seven paragraphs from scratch #cause it’s all so bloated and I can really condense the info down #or write something clearer visually #and being sick that’s really hard to do the way I want #but don’t worry I’m going at my own pace

[aroaessidhe]

2023 reads / storygraph

Moonlight Love and Witchcraft

urban fantasy slice of life

romance between a vampire musician, their werewolf bartender girlfriend, and a young witch who shows up in town with her sister while on the run from their witch community

very little plot, she/they nonbinary MC, ace MC, bi MC

#Moonlight Love and Witchcraft #aroaessidhe 2023 reads #Well. first up this is so fucking long. #I was mostly enjoying it but by the second half my patience was wearing thin. #Like it very much says on the tin that this is 0 plot just cute romance but it’s so repetitive? #There’s a few interesting background plot threads at times but it basically just turns into cuddling and going on dates and cuddling a… #LOVE a 200yo beefy butch ace werewolf swordswoman who’s a big softie. #Logan I’m mostly neutral about they’re interesting enough up until the point she starts getting interested in Nemo….. #who. she’s 24 but reads more like a 15yo than the actual 15yo lmao. #I feel like there is a way to write a bubbly hyper character without them being so insufferably juvenile? tried my hardest but yeah nah #I simply just do not buy either of the others having romantic feelings about her lmao. and considering that's 90% of the plot.... #anyway I have a few more paragraphs of thoughts that are at the storygraph link above #I did only read this because it had an ace character & kinda expected it was gonna be something like this. glad the ace character was the #only character I liked I guess #sapphic books #asexual books

[chronosbled]

{ I noticed that lots of people tend to forget that Dickson is a mentally unstable individual who will do anything that he deems necessary to get what he wants all because he speaks to their muses and such with nothing but smiles and compliments.

Dickson is NOT a kind or compassionate person, nor does he care about those that he isn't actively pursuing for the sake of genuine friendship or genuine obsession (love in his eyes). Being kind and compassionate is nothing but another mask that he wears from his various collection when he deems it necessary. As an experiment, along with his condition that makes him unable to properly form and convey emotions (which was only worsened by the experimentation he underwent), Dickson is almost 100% incapable of feeling genuine emotions that belong to him and him alone. He has a habit of using the things he's learned from others by watching them when he's trying to portray his own "feelings" towards others and that's the main issue. Those feelings aren't his ACTUAL feelings, they're someone else's, how someone else he observed for years would react.

If someone were to somehow have the ability to strip him of his masks (his "emotions" and "feelings" if you would call them that), they would find nothing but an empty and broken shell of a person who doesn't know how to do anything but obey someone's orders or someone who completely disregards himself (as in his own well-being) when it comes to endlessly toiling away at his own experiments — and despite his experiments revolving around people who have been fucked over by life, making his own attempts to somehow benefit them — his motivation for said deed was not 100% done out of his own desire to do so, but done because (once he was finally able to recall more about his parents from his childhood) he remembered how the both of them desired to use their skills for good and to help those who cannot help themselves. Thus he applied his parents' feelings to himself and uses that core fundamental as the basis of his entire existence (after his grandfather is finally dead and he doesn't have an actual purpose anymore).

Another reason why Dickson shouldn't be underestimated (and simply chalked up to be the sweet, handsome gentleman) is because of the fact he isn't afraid to use and abuse people for his own gain. He will hurt people. He will manipulate people. He will blackmail them and torture them just like he was. And above all else, he WILL kill people. Dickson is not afraid of getting his hands dirty nor is he afraid to take people hostage and brainwash them to do his bidding if he finds it too much of a hassle for himself (or simply because he won't get caught this way if others are watching him). Before Dickson was able to take care of himself and do things for himself, his grandfather had him work as an assassin of sorts (or rather a mercenary if that's what you prefer to call it), granted he wasn't great at it in the beginning because he was very clumsy and wasn't quite sure of what he was doing, but in the end, he still killed people and usually in various creative and cruel ways too if the opportunity to do so provided itself. Additionally, Dickson will also go to any lengths he deems necessary to make sure his target doesn't come out alive, such as the time he chopped off his own hand in order to free himself so he could proceed to kill his client's target.

Sure Dickson may have been more hesitant to do terrible things when he was younger, like when his late fiancée, Janus, wanted him to help her murder various people simply because she felt like it and he didn't want to participate, but that's Dickson was a lot more weak-willed and timid during his childhood. Back then, he didn't have almost any drive to do anything because he wasn't conditioned to be subservient yet. Granted he still would listen to his grandfather's orders without question, but Janus hadn't fully established that kind of FULL control over him since he'd only known her for a few years, thus that lack of control over him is what ended up leading him to kill Janus when she finally got fed up with him enough to begin beating him (that day anyway, considering she was always abusive towards him). That fear he possessed from his childhood years (something I've already established in posts before) had changed into anger (another thing I've already established in past posts) before he finally ended up snapping all together and stabbing Janus to death, regretting what he had done for only a few moments until that dissipated as well because he simply couldn't bring himself to care. The fact that he stored her body in a freezer within the basement of the Simmons Estate only serves as a reminder of how he started in his mind.

One of the biggest reasons why people should remember that Dickson isn't just a pretty face is the HUGE fact that he basically has his own servant (more like mind slave) that both he and Janus shared together when she was still alive, that he ACTIVELY participated in breaking on the days he had suffered himself (granted he was made to believe it was alright by Janus, but that's besides the point). This point here is a perfect way to represent just how broken and unstable Dickson is as well because normally Dickson was the one who tried to keep Janus from tormenting Belphegor (the name Janus decided to give the boy despite him already having a name) and was often the one trying to tend to whatever wounds Janus had created, be them physical or mental ones (though Dickson was only good at mending physical wounds). In Belphegor's mind, Dickson was going to become his savior at some point due to the fact he showed more compassion towards him than Janus did, but this sentiment ended up proving false the day Dickson murdered Janus. Dickson's once gentle and caring demeanor towards Belphegor ended up changing into something more deranged and it only proceeded to get worse once Carla died as well — gentle gestures of affection soon became more aggressive and agitated, once soothing and comforting words became accusatory and possessive, promises of better treatment and freedom became guilt-tripping and manipulation — eventually leading for Belphegor's mental state to be completely broken down to the point he became a puppet for whatever Dickson desired.

Now, you're probably thinking "but hey, doesn't this contradict everything you've posted about Dickson before? You know, the stuff about him not wanting to be like his grandfather and such?" And in a sense, yes, I did contradict myself, but at the same time... I didn't. Why? Because Dickson didn't want to become like his grandfather or Janus or any of the people who tormented him for the entirety of his life, but when you are basically a prisoner within your own home and are subjected to abuse for so long, you generally end up developing Stockholm Syndrome and that's basically what happened to Dickson. The abuse and torment are what lead up to Dickson basically becoming his grandfather and Janus, but he only realizes this once he joins the BSAA and meets Chris and his team. Why does he realize this? Well, that's because of the simple fact that they all treat him like an ally and not a tool. They slowly begin to make him realize that he isn't just an object for someone's desires nor is he just a toy that will be endlessly used until it's broken and tossed away. They made him feel something that he's never felt before: human. They made him feel like he was an ACTUAL human being and not a monster, that he wasn't some kind of murderous and heartless creature, but instead was their close friend and even a part of their little family, which is something that Dickson has always wanted so desperately deep down inside of his very being. Not his grandfather. Not Janus. Not his mother or father. Not Carla. Dickson. Something that HE wanted. One of the very first and only things he's ever wanted in his life. Granted he still wears his various masks around them, but that's because he doesn't know how to stop nor does he want them to know just how inhuman he really is.

^^^ And this whole above paragraph really does help to show just how broken Dickson is and how even just a little bit of love and care towards him can make him into a completely different person, especially if we jump back to this line here in the first paragraph: "Dickson is NOT a kind or compassionate person, nor does he care about those that he isn't actively pursuing for the sake of genuine friendship or genuine obsession (love in his eyes)." The only reason he cares so much about Chris and his team is because of the simple fact they tried to develop genuine friendships with him to the point he had become obsessively in love with each and every one of them (some in platonic ways: Chris, Philis, Finn, Jill, Steve, and some in romantic ways: Victoria and Piers).

But back to the topic of the mind slave, due to the fact that Dickson had finally come into contact with people who... understood him in a sense for lack of a better word... he began to think that he could actually be something other than a tool and because of that, he also believed that maybe Belphegor could be more than a tool as well. Of course, due to being completely broken by Dickson, there wasn't much that could be done for him in the ways of... fixing him so in the end, Dickson simply continues to use Belphegor for whatever he deems necessary but instead of treating him as badly as he had before, he now somewhat treats him as he used to (though he can still be rather harsh when he isn't in the greatest of moods).

So with all that being said, I advise you all (especially those of you with muses that are seeking out romantic affairs with Dickson) to proceed with the utmost caution when doing so because there may come a point where Dickson doesn't care about your muse anymore and simply chooses to discard them (minus Crystal of course because that's his wifey). }

#☣ [ ' Eʋҽɾყσɳҽ Lσʋҽʂ A Vιʅʅαιɳ. ' ] - ✡ Dιƈƙʂσɳ Gҽɾαʅԃ Rҽɠιɳαʅԃ Sιɱɱσɳʂ ✡ #☣ [ ' Hαυɳƚҽԃ Ⴆყ ƚԋҽ ɯσɾԃʂ ყσυ ʅҽϝƚ υɳʂαιԃ. ' ] - ✡ Hҽαԃƈαɳσɳʂ ✡ #tw; long post #tw; murder mentions #tw; abuse mentions #tw; obsession mentions #tw; experimentation mentions #tw; mental illness mentions #{ Jesus christ this got long as all hell. } #{ I only meant to write a few small paragraphs not a whole damn essay. } #{ But I had to go into detail about this issue because I've been getting a lot more people trying to woo Dickson. } #{ But none of them fully know or understand how dangerous his character actually is. } #{ This is also a nice post to have to remind people that do ship with him too though so huzzah! } #{ Feel free to read through this if you'd like. } #{ I'm dipping out for now. }

[steddieas-shegoes]

in the nicest way possible, i’m begging you to use “read more”s for your longer, writing posts. i adore your writing and would love to reblog it (and also to continue to see it on my dash!) but tbh i’ve considered unfollowing and even blocking you simply because your posts are SO long and not put under a read more

Hi! Thank you!

I do usually put one when I’m posting from my computer, but I have no clue how to do so on the app which is how I post a lot of my stuff. If you know how to, please let me know! I just know they show up with a “view post” on my dash, which to me, feels like the same thing, though I do all of my scrolling on the app, too, and things are probably way different here in this particular hell.

I will certainly try to remember to do so in the future, and will try to go back through some of the longer ones to add one.

That being said, I totally get unfollowing or blocking to make your experience better. I’m sorry if that means not being here anymore, and I hope that doesn’t happen, but sometimes that’s just how it is.

#anon #genuinely if anyone knows how to do this on the app that would be helpful #I mean this is the first time anyone’s commented on it but I can see how it would be annoying to have to scroll through the #really long ones on a computer if they don’t do the view post thing #the app is hell but it does have that feature so every post that’s more than a few paragraphs basically gets an automatic read more #which is nice and what it should do all around #because that is the last thing I’m thinking about when I post #if I see a long post somewhere I am so quick to stop and read it because I know that shits gonna be good #but I know we’re all different #and when I was on tumblr back in the day I never posted anything except reblogs lmao #so I am clearly New At This™️

[zoophagist]

not asking in a rude way! reading the full backstory is not necessary as long as you read the smaller "about" stats-style page) i'm just very curious to know how many have done it. i'm pondering if it's getting enough use and if i could/should change anything to get more folks reading it, so thoughts would be appreciated! i am opening my virtual door to you and asking you to come sit by the fire with me, have some tea, and tell me your opinions on the bio pages.

#like should i merge it with the shorter stat-style about page? should i link it separately on the nav bar? #is it a length thing? do people see it's more than a few paragraphs and opt out? #maybe it's just 'sorry - the what? the backstory?' and people haven't known it's even there #in which case the answer is just me making the layout placement more obvious and helpful #or are more people reading it than i think and this isn't even a concern at all? i mean that is always a possible outcome of the poll too #everyone who has read the backstory pages i labored over i am making out with you passionately #anyone who's also read 'the book of renfield'.... you know what i went through trying to condense the lore in a logical and interesting way #||x long and afar off [ ooc ]

[emily-mooon]

Sometimes I just feel like writing a fic where chapters are episodic and I don’t have to elongate an event cause I finished it in one chapter.

And this is where I pull out a fake presentation talking about a 1930s Jancy au that is a slow burn friends to lovers where they get into weird situations and go on adventures like it’s a book written by L.M. Montgomery and has a similar energy to Little Women.

#ok I have to admit that I am horrible at writing about one event for too long #when I was in my creative writing class I noticed when writing a book for my final project that I could write one paragraph for each chapter #I was unable to write a chapter that was multiple pages #because of this I think that writing something more episodic would be good for me to write becuase then I’ll probably finish it #I think I’m also much better at writing things that are short and sweet and get straight to the point #I love all of my other au ideas that I have or want to put into fics but I think I need to start writing in a zone that I’m comfortable with #and not dive head first into something I need to work on more #so I’m going to start plotting out the first few chapters for this fic tonight and start writing tomorrow #give myself a bit of a break from drawing and allow myself to get back into writing #in way that works for me and my rollercoaster of ideas of a brain #sorry for the wall of text here in the tags and if you read them I hope you are all doing well and for those of you going back to school #or are already back I wish you good luck on your studies #btw all my other fic ideas will be written and turned into a fic or finished at some point #I don’t know when but they will be when I feel like I’m ready to dive in #(and also when I get a grasp on how to plot better with the dumb plot triangle)

[majesticmagics]

I’m so sorry you activated my peter griffin joke explainer button

Basically the whole “husband” thing is that Kuro refers to Keito as “danna”, which is a very hard to directly translate japanese word. The meaning Kuro is probably implying is that “danna” can mean “boss”, and it’s a bit of an old fashioned word to use (think of a henchman in a mafia talking to their boss, that’s the vibe they’re going for). Because of Kuro’s general ex-delinquency status, him calling his unit leader “boss” or “boss Hasumi” makes sense.

However the elephant in the room and the joke that is entirely missed if you translate the word is that “danna” is also sometimes a word that wives will use to address their husbands. Multiple characters have canonically commented on the fact Kuro calls Keito this, and the double meaning. The official English version also decided danna was too confusing and got rid of it entirely, but this leads to characters’ lines commenting on danna being replaced with “he talks to you very intimately” or “he talks to you like you’re married” which is debatably even funnier

I think I'm in love with you now. Like in an aromantic way but still. Do you have any more paragraphs?

#please please please please tell me anything that crosses your mind if you think you've got at least two paragraphs of it in you #there is nothing more attractive to me than someone passionately talking about their interests #regardless of what those interests are #you could give an 3hr speech on triangles and i would hang off of your every word if you're passionate about it #anyway! #yeah i sorta assumed that it was something along those lines but i didn't actually know anything because . #huh i don't think i've read any akatsuki stories actually #i've seen a few things with the characters separately but not Akatsuki Stories #very happy for your boys though <333 #but yeah #I LOVE THE 'he talks to you like you're married' THO THAT'S HILARIOUS #shapes.ask

[the-ghost-king]

i'm going to summarize how I feel so far as: this feels a lot more like a fumbling awkward introduction rather than an epic in terms of quality. there's a lot of beginner mistakes like "show don't tell" being completely overlooked here as far as I can tell. they're hopefully doing something right as this is apparently good enough to get them published but so far will feels like a tv trope hot guy arm candy who's there more for the plot rather than to be a person, and nico has a similar sort of thing going on that reminds me of the failures of all the mass media "teen tv" main characters. the thing that has always sold me on rick's work has been the fact that he's able to produce fairly interesting and introspectively deep characters which are multifaceted no matter the circumstances or how awful the rest of his work is, and even when he fails at producing a quality characterization he still manages to do so in a way that's interesting- this isn't like that, nothing in this book feels like that so far. I'm trying to hold out some hope just because this is still a preview but I can say my excitement definitely isn't there, don't get me wrong I am stumbling into things I enjoy but at the same time I feel like oshiro and rick desperately need someone who has a understanding of writing as a craft or an art form to come in and help them fine tune everything because it really does feel like wattpad fanfic or highschooler creative writing essay prompts and it's just so all consuming in the text it's hard to look beyond.

also to anyone saying "if you don't like it move on its not for you" maybe there's truth in that but it's also not wrong to criticize an author for where they fail to deliver, there are other books I have read cratered to similar age groups that I continue to return to and reread repeatedly even as I age because they're so well done or the author was able to deliver things so effectively and it's truly wonderful to get to rework your way through that every time you pick up the text- hell even some of Rick's books are like that, I can constantly find something new and interesting each time I return to them. I will say I do feel like there is still that quality to this piece but ultimately it's significantly moreso overshadowed by all the problems with it that it's really hard to have that desire to return.

#im not going to say any characters feel ooc because it's canon so the extent to which you can argue with it is limited #but like there's also something to be said how traits don't align with previous versions of these characters nor do they seem to have #simply developed out of these traits- it's more like some traits just cease to exist without explanation? #Idk I'm just I read 10 decent paragraphs and then 10 bad ones and somewhere in those 20 paragraphs I find 2 good senetences #and that's just not ideal you know #? #i feel like I can't say a ton yet but give me a few days to just think things through and feel them out and stew in the ideas and I'll have #more complex and complete thoughts #tsats spoilers #-> kind of? I don't give anything away but just in case because eh

[mwezina]

Random rant.

I'm so tired of people prefacing their ships say, "I know it's problematic, but here are the ways I made it not problematic. Usually, I wouldn't ship this kind of pairing because I find it inherently problematic and creepy"

Like girl, just accept ships for what they are. Fiction. Age gap doesn't matter. Power dynamics don't matter. Even gender doesn't matter. If it speaks to you, it's not a sign that you're problematic. It's just a sign that this ship works for you. And nothing is wrong with you.

Rant end.

#rant #my thoughts #shipping culture #purity culture #please no more #I just want to enjoy fics in peace without an author writing 3 paragraphs every few chapters to explain they're not a terrible person #I know you're not! #if I'm reading it #I literally don't care! #anyway #back to my camp nanowrimo novel

[theres-whump-in-that-nebula]

save me local historical attraction

local historical attraction save me

#In the few days I’ve been gone I’ve applied for about twenty jobs and bookmarked a bunch of used cars and listed 7 items on eBay #Suddenly I’m productive again… #…disturbingly productive in fact #More productive than someone without executive dysfunction. I can clean and organize and read long paragraphs at will #alternating for an hour or two at a time all day long #On the downside I seem to have lost some of my musical ability. #I can’t play through songs I was capable of playing flawlessly just a week ago #I’m making weird unhinged mistakes on the recorder I’ve never made in my 11.5 years of playing #Like hitting the low C so it squeaks and reversing the order in which notes are played #or playing notes that are straight up wrong that I’d never mistake for the correct notes in a hundred years #Also I’ve noticed that when I go into a grocery store I tend to be way more spacey than usual #(staring without blinking at fluorescent lights #having a delayed comprehension of words spoken to me #feeling the need to lean heavily on the cart and walking around aimlessly in kind of a daze etc. etc.) #My speech has been getting progressively worse as well. I know what I mean to say but the words will not come to me #Hopefully I’m not headed towards a meltdown and its horrible week-long hangover lmfao #That would suck ass #Omg I just remembered I have that icepack mask thing #Yeah #gonna use that right now LOL