#i’ll probably make another blog tbh but not to post on only to look at stuff

[petalsforarrmor]

thinking about deactivating ngl

#i’m never on here anymore #it was fun while it lasted but i think it might be time for me to move in #i’ll probably make another blog tbh but not to post on only to look at stuff

[pedrito-friskito]

strawberry wine - joel miller x fem!reader

during - part seven

series masterlist | main masterlist | read on ao3

tommy takes care of joel as best he can, and you try and make a break for it.

a/n: y’all I am having way too much fun writing this story. part 7 earlier than planned, and tbh I’ll probably post part 8 tomorrow if I can. the inspo is REAL and thank you all for the comments and reblogs and messages and general love and support - you have no idea how happy it makes me!! 🤍

word count: 4.6k

warnings: MY BLOG IS 18+, MINORS DNI, angst, canon-typical violence and injuries, death, blood, near-death experiences, questionable decisions on the military’s part

✨follow @friskito-library for updates on new works/chapters!✨

Tommy watches his brother fall apart.

It’s one thing after another, and he can’t blame Joel. The world’s ending; everything else is falling apart, it only makes sense that he would too. But still, it hurts. Watching his big brother — the only constant in his life for as long as he can remember — break down, it makes Tommy hurt in a way he can’t fully comprehend. It’s not fair.

He thinks about the soldier, in the days that follow. He’d come up the ridge just as the gunfire sounded, already looking for his brother and niece, never expecting to find them the way that he did. Joel was pleading, already hurt, his hands in the air, as good a white flag as any, and the soldier just didn’t care. It went against everything in Tommy, but when the soldier lifted the gun again, Tommy fired first.

But then…Sarah.

There was so much blood. He should be used to it, being who he is, seeing what he’s seen. But it’s different, it feels different, it sits in the back of his mind and haunts his every step. She was so young. So bright, so good. And then just, gone.

“Tommy, help me!”

He’d never heard Joel like that, so desperate, so lost. The only moment that rivalled it was when they’d been in the truck, Tommy driving, Joel with his cell phone pressed to his ear. Talking to you, asking where you were, if you were safe.

“It’s everywhere,” Joel had said, and Tommy had felt a distinct feeling of helplessness wash through him. Whatever was happening, it wasn’t just in Austin. He focused on the road, tried not to look too closely at the chaos in the distance. Shit was hitting the fan, in every sense.

He tightened his grip on the wheel as Joel continued talking to you. You were hurt, Joel telling you to patch yourself up. “I’m not hanging up until you do.”

Tommy could hear the ache in his brother’s voice. Joel had never let you go, not completely, and Tommy knew it. He didn’t blame Joel for it; having you around was the happiest he’d seen his brother in a long time. He liked you, too, liked your laugh and your sense of humour, the way you looked at Joel like you were seeing him for the first time, every time.

He had to swerve the truck as another car barrelled down the road in the opposite direction. Joel grabbed for the dashboard, phone still glued to his ear. “I’m gonna find you, you hear me? Just get out of Boston and I swear to you, I’m gonna find you!” A pause, and Joel stared at the phone. Tommy could see his brother’s hands shaking. “It’s dead.”

A moment later, the radio — which had been spewing news reports since Joel had picked Tommy up — went silent. Joel tossed his phone onto the truck floor, slammed his fist into the dash a moment later.

“Fuck!”

“She okay?” Tommy asked, and Joel scrubbed a hand over his face. “Joel?”

“Boyfriend attacked her,” Joel grumbled, rubbing his forehead again. “Tried to fuckin’ bite her. She said he’s dead.”

Tommy had balked. “She did that?”

“Dunno,” Joel had replied, and huffed a humourless laugh, the noise almost flat. “Is it fucked up if I say I hope she did?”

Tommy had pressed the gas a little harder, the truck speeding down the road. “Everything’s fucked up, seems like.” Silence hung over them only for a moment, punctuated a moment later by the loud whoosh of flames as a car down the road collided with a telephone pole. Joel cursed under his breath, Tommy kept on driving. “What are we gonna do, Joel?”

“We get Sarah, and we go,” his brother replied, and despite the waver in his voice, he sounded sure. Surer than Tommy felt. “East.”

East, Tommy thought. Boston. You. Like he’d expected anything different. “You really think you can find her?”

“I can sure as hell try.”

The conversation feels like a year ago, instead of the handful of days it has been. Maybe a week; he’s starting to lose track, already. They’ve been holed up for a few hours now, tucked in the garage of an abandoned house. They crossed the state line a few hours back, and so far, Arkansas looks the same as Texas: fucking ravaged. Joel sits on the floor, knees up to his chest, face buried in his arms. Tommy feels antsy.

“I’m gonna go look inside, see if there’s anything worth taking. You good?”

“Yeah.”

Seems like every neighbourhood they come across has been evacuated, the houses all empty. They have guns; he already had his own, and he’d swiped the rifle from the soldier that had attacked Joel and Sarah. Though he was quick to give Joel his, take the soldier’s for himself. Something about Joel touching the weapon that had killed Sarah made Tommy’s gut twist. He didn’t like it either, but it was out of necessity.

The house has obviously been picked through, toppled furniture and broken glass as far as he can tell, but they get lucky: a first aid kit, a mostly full bottle of whiskey, and some cans of beans. Tommy grabs it all, heads up the stairs. Clearly an older couple, but there’s a few men’s jackets in one of the closets, a pair of work boots, plain t-shirts. He takes the lot, offering the boots to Joel when he gets back to the garage. “These your size?”

His brother takes the boots with a flat expression, pulling the laces to peer at the sole. “About there, yeah. Don’t need ‘em though.”

“Take ‘em with us, for when you do,” Tommy counters, offering Joel one of the t-shirts next. “You should change.”

“M’fine.”

Tommy hooks the gun over his head, setting it on the ground beside him as he crouches in front of Joel. “You’re covered in blood,” he says, and his brother snatches the t-shirt. “Need to change your bandage, too.”

“And what exactly do you want me to—” Joel starts, but shuts up when Tommy tosses the first aid kit to him.

“Need help?” he asks as Joel gets to his feet, pulls his stained t-shirt off, tosses it aside. They’d found a half empty kit in a cafe back in Austin, dressed Joel’s wound before they took off completely. Joel was lucky, just a graze, but Tommy knows it must hurt like hell, and it’ll leave a scar, a reminder of that night, of what was lost.

Joel winces as he pulls of the old bandage, tossing it in the same direction as the t-shirt. “Don’t suppose you found any water in there?” He digs through the first aid kit. “No antiseptic.”

“No water,” Tommy confirms, but holds up the bottle of whiskey. “Just this.”

It’s not ideal, using the alcohol to clean the graze — and Joel nearly puts his fist through the wall despite the healthy sip he takes before Tommy wipes a piece of gauze damp with the whiskey over the wound — but it’ll work. They have to make do.

Joel sinks back onto the concrete floor once the wound is redressed, the new t-shirt pulled over his head. He takes the whiskey with him, and Tommy sits beside his brother, both of them with rifles in their laps. They sip the bottle in turn, and Tommy savours the burn as it slides down his throat, warmth spreading through his chest. It loosens his tongue, makes him regret the question the second it’s out of his mouth.

“You think she made it?” He knows he doesn’t have to call you by name. Not now.

“I have to,” is his brother’s only response.

+

They stop you at the gate.

You don’t know what you’re thinking, but after staking out the giant metal fence for a few hours, you at least know that trying to sneak over is only going to result in a bullet finding a home somewhere it shouldn’t. The soldiers were firing at anything that made a break for the gate, and running full-force didn’t make you brave, it made you stupid. It made you look like one of them. Infected. Mindless. Blood-thirsty. A few have come sprinting up to the post you’ve been watching, and the soldiers have put them down without batting an eye.

As you’ve watched, a few groups of people have approached the post. All the same, their hands in the air, desperation in their voices, carried to you on the smoke-tinged breeze. Please help us. You’ve watched them get directed away from the post, towards a still-standing building a few yards from the gate, where a military-issue tent is set up. Some of them walk back out, are directed towards an armoured truck parked along the gate, and then the truck disappears, only for a new one to reappear in its stead a few minutes later. It’s like clockwork, but only some end up in the trucks.

Others are carried out the back of the tent, bodies dumped into one of the pits left by the bombing. It makes your skin crawl.

It takes a while, lacking the confidence to put yourself in the line of fire when you could just keep hiding in the city. The soldiers might find you eventually — if the Infected didn’t find you first — but if you could just keep going, maybe there was a break in the fence somewhere, a way out besides what lies ahead of you. But finally, after a few hours of squatting in the rubble, your limbs aching from staying pressed against brick, you step out of the alley, and put your hands in the air. You’ve pulled down the sleeves of the hoodie you’re wearing, letting it cover the bandage around your arm, and you grip the cuffs with your fingers as you raise your arms.

“I’m not infected!”

A flash of movement, and the barrels of at least ten rifles are pointed directly at you. The hair on the back of your neck stands up, bile rising in the back of your throat. A suitable reaction, you think, and you swallow back the fear that makes you want to run. It’ll only get you killed that much faster.

“Name!” one of the soldier’s shouts. You can’t tell who; they’re all wearing helmets, visors covering their faces, turning it into a sea of darkness staring back at you. Your fingers flex, and you call you name back.

“I need to leave.”

One of them starts laughing. Another two look at each other, sharing a look you can’t suss out. A few lower their guns, and the prickle along your spine fizzles slightly. A visor lifts, revealing a soot-streaked face, a grim expression. “Why on earth would you wanna do that?”

“My family is in Texas,” you say, your voice surprisingly strong, if not a little thready from the smoke. “I have to go find them.”

“You’re gonna walk halfway across the country,” a faceless voice asks, “with a baseball bat? Girl, you don’t have a hope in hell.”

“Beats sitting around here, waiting to die,” you throw back, and the soldier that had lifted his visor lifts his brow. “Let me pass.”

“Can’t do that,” he replies, and steps up in front of you. He’s got a strange face, eyes a little too dark, hair hidden by the helmet, a scar on his mouth. Something about him reminds you of Dean, but a much harder version, his face more angular, the voice slightly deeper. “No one gets out of the city, we have orders.”

“You can’t hold me hostage here,” you start, stepping towards him. Your hands are still in the air. “My family is out there, I need to—”

“No one gets out,” another soldier interrupts. “FEDRA’s orders.”

Your brow creases. “FEDRA?”

“Federal Disaster Response Agency,” the strange-faced soldier answers.

“So the military is taking over?”

“I never said that.”

You sigh, rolling your eyes. “Just let me go, please? I can’t stay here, my family—”

“Is in Texas,” the soldier replies, nodding along. He hefts his gun slightly, adjusting his grip, and you don’t miss the meaning, the silent threat behind it. “And you’re here, in Boston. Now you don’t have a car, or any real weapons, and we have orders. You’re not going anywhere.”

You bite back the protest that crawls up your throat. If you’re getting out, it’s not through here. “Then where am I supposed to go?”

“There’s a shelter,” he tells you, “in the mall. There’s food, water, beds. It’s temporary, but it’s safe.”

“Temporary, like the gate?”

He gives you a long look, then gestures towards the tent you’ve been watching them shuffle people through. “Let’s get you checked out, and then we’ll get you there.”

You match his stare, setting your jaw, digging your heels in slightly. The muzzle of his rifle dips just slightly, and his eyes pinch, narrowing at you.

“I’ll only ask nicely once.”

Heart in your throat, you drop your hands, and when he gestures towards the tent again, you go. Every single part of you is shaking as you head for the canvas structure, and once you’re inside, it’s no different. It’s shockingly clean, a metal table in the middle, a smaller one to the side. “Put your bag there,” the soldier orders, that familiar stern military tone, pointing to the bigger table. “The bat, too.”

You do as you’re told, seeing from the corner of your eye that he’s still got both hands on his gun. “I’m keeping the bat,” you say over your shoulder, pulling it out from where you’d slid it between the straps of the bag, resting against your lower back. The metal rings when you set it on the table. “For the record.”

“Never said you couldn’t keep it, did I?”

“You want me to go to that shelter in the mall,” you say, sliding the bag off your shoulders, placing it next to the bat, and then turning back to the soldier, “with every other terrified person in this city, and you expect me to believe you’re gonna let me walk in with a weapon?”

The soldier’s jaw goes tight, eyes even tighter. “Strip.”

“Excuse me?”

“Take your clothes off,” he says, clearly getting exasperated. “I might let you keep the bat, but there’s no way I’m letting you into the mall shelter knowing you’ve been bitten. Strip.”

“Bitten?” you repeat, your mind sparking at the new information. “Is that how this is spreading?” To appease him, hoping he’ll give you a bit more information, you pull the hoodie off, disentangling your arms slowly. “That’s what’s turning people into those—”

The hoodie comes off, revealing your bandaged shoulder and forearm, and the gun is pointed back in your face again, a soft click reaching your ears. “You’re injured.”

“Y’know, I usually like to at least know a guy’s name before he sees me half-naked.”

He ignores you. “You’re injured.”

You heave a breath, tucking the edge of the gauze around your arm back into place. “You dropped bombs on this city. I dare you to find someone out there who isn’t injured.”

The soldier just stares at you. You just stare back.

“Take the bandages off,” he orders, and your hands curl into fists. “I need to see.”

“Tell me your name first,” you counter, still holding his gaze.

“This isn’t a negotiation.”

“I’m aware; you’re the one holding the gun. But I also know you’ve been taking bodies out of this tent more than you’ve been sending people to the shelter. So, again, tell me your name.”

He leans back slightly, takes a deep breath, eyes darting to the side before meeting yours again. “Corporal Nicholas Cowan, ma’am.”

“Ma’am?” you repeat, almost laughing. “That’s a bit much, but—”

“The bandages.”

“Okay, okay.”

Carefully, you peel back the gauze on your shoulder. It wasn’t deep enough to need stitches or anything, and you’d slathered it with some kind of ointment in the first aid kit. It still looks pretty awful, and the tape along the edge of the bandage has left little indents in your skin, but it’s definitely healing. Your arm is next, that wound fresher, and it starts to bleed as soon as you pull the gauze away. Cowan gives you a new piece of gauze a moment later, tossing it onto the table between you rather than handing it right to you. “What happened?”

“I was in the bookstore, down on South Street, when you all decided to start dropping bombs. Fucking lucky a bookshelf didn’t fall on my head.”

He still has the gun pointed at you, though the grip is slightly more relaxed, and he circles you slowly, eyes glued to your shoulder. “Those look like claw marks.”

“That’s because they are.”

“So that happened before the bombs.”

“It did.”

“I’m supposed to shoot, the moment I see anything like that. I have orders.”

“It’s not a bite.”

“I know that.” He swallows so hard you can see his throat bob. “They haven’t figured it all out. The bite seems to make it happen faster, but I don’t know if—”

“I’ll tell you what, Corporal,” you interrupt, reaching for your bag, pulling the first aid kit out and fishing out new bandages, “I start to turn into one of those things, and I give you my full permission to blow my fucking brains out.” Cowan balks, his eyes widening for a moment as he stares back at you. “But for the record, it’s been seven days, and I’m still here, faculties intact. So, politely, go fuck yourself, and just let me through the gate.”

+

He doesn’t.

Cowan lets you redress, once your bandages have been hastily rewrapped; you’d protested and he told you they’d give you proper treatment at the shelter. Once that was done, you grabbed your pack — and the bat, which Cowan barely seemed to notice — and he grabbed you roughly by the arm, dragging you out of the tent and steering you towards one of the armoured trucks parked at the fence.

You’re all but stuffed inside, and Cowan gets into the passenger’s seat, a masked soldier behind the wheel. “The mall,” he says simply, and the soldier just nods, and the engine rumbles to life, pulling away from the chain link and heading back into the city.

You keep the bat in your lap as they drive, your eyes glued to the window, to the mess that now only partially resembles Boston. You’d seen enough of the destruction running through the streets, but the truck takes a few pathways you hadn’t. Some roads aren’t as destroyed, obviously not targeted by the bombs, and the asphalt is even, still intact. There’s no getting past the bodies, however, and that pulls your eyes away, staring down at your bruised and dirty hands, wrapped around the bat.

When the truck stops outside the mall, the driver doesn’t get out. You lift your head then, taking in the space around you. It’s more of the same, but the mall looks mostly undisturbed, except for the broken windows, the burned displays. Cowan slides out of the passenger’s side, pulls open your door a moment later. “Let’s go.”

There are three more soldiers standing at the entrance, and as Cowan starts to lead you through, one of them stops you, lifting a hand. “You can’t take that in there,” the soldier says, pointing to the bat. “Give it here.”

“No.”

Cowan sighs, turning back to you, waving off the soldier. “C’mon, just—”

“No,” you say again, your voice harder. “You’re out of your fucking mind if you think I’m walking around this city without it.”

“You’re safe in the mall,” Cowan says, nearly rolling his eyes at you, but you just lift a brow. “It’s a shelter, and we’re patrolling from the outside.” He points over his shoulder, and sure enough, you see a few more armoured trucks rolling across the street, armed soldiers trailing behind it. Like it makes a difference.

You almost laugh. “Nowhere is safe anymore.” You tighten your grip on the bat. “You really think your chain link fence is gonna save us from those things?”

He gives you another one of those hard stares, but relents, waving off the other soldiers and grabbing the handle on your bag, all but dragging you through the entrance. “If she attacks someone, it’s on you, Cowan!” one of the soldier’s shouts, and he just grumbles under his breath.

“Do me a favour,” he says to you as he releases you, making you stumble a step before he falls into step beside you, “don’t be more trouble than you’re worth.”

“And what am I worth, Corporal?”

“You’re alive, and you’re not one of them,” he says, and you don’t miss the thread of…is that hope, in his voice? “So that makes you worth something.”

He’s quiet, the rest of the way. There’s no electricity, the overhead fluorescents dark, and Cowan clicks on a flashlight, lighting your path deeper into the mall. There’s the whir of generators, as you get closer, big lights that looks like they were taken from construction sites. You see the food court has been turned into a makeshift hospital, and Cowan tells you the big department store on the main level is where you’ll sleep, for the time being.

There aren’t that many people, which makes your throat go a little thick. How many people have died, how many have turned, how many made it out of Boston before they put up the fence?

Cowan takes your arm again as you walk towards the food court, calling for someone as you get closer. “Deanna! I got one for you.”

An older lady, maybe late fifties, pokes her head out from behind one of the triage curtains. Her face is both kind and harsh at the same time, bright green eyes, grey-streaked hair pulled into a long ponytail, blood-stained scrubs and a tool belt around her waist that’s filled with medical instruments instead of actual tools. It almost makes you laugh.

“Must be special,” she says, her voice a little gravelly as she approaches you, wiping her hands on her pants. “You don’t usually escort them all the way down here, Nicky.” Her eyes drop to the bat in your hands and her brows raise. “Or let them come in armed.”

Once she’s close enough, Cowan releases you and takes Deanna by the arm, steering her off to the side. You stand there awkwardly, the bat banging against your leg. Your forearm is a little sore, and you’re half-sure it’s soaked through the bandages you’d haphazardly retied after Cowan’s inspection. You glance over at the pair a few times, seeing them both shooting you looks before turning back to each other. Deanna looks confused, then upset, then almost forgiving. You can’t quite figure out Cowan’s expression.

After a few minutes, she just nods, and Cowan turns on his heel, heading back in the direction you came, leaving you alone. Deanna gives you a once-over as she walks towards you again, putting a warm hand on your back and starting to steer you towards one of the curtains. “Let’s get you cleaned up, honey.”

She leads you behind one of the curtains, then another, and once you’re in the little makeshift room, she pulls another curtain into place. “Nicky said we need to be quick about this,” she says, leaning up on her toes to peer over the curtains, assumedly to see if anyone is coming. “And quiet.”

“Okay.”

You let her take your bag, set it on the chair that’s set to the side. You’re reluctant to let go of the bat, but when you finally let her take it, she puts it beside you on the cot. “You’ve been out there this whole time?” she asks, her voice just above a whisper. You nod. “Even the bombs?” Another nod. “Show me where you’re hurt.”

You hold your breath as you peel off the hoodie. You were right, your arm has bled through the bandage, and your shoulder aches with the movement. Deanna doesn’t say a word at first, her brow furrowed as she looks you over.

She tends to your arm first, wiping the blood from your skin, using some sort of glue to close the wound before she wraps it in fresh gauze. She circles you slowly, just like Cowan had, and you hear her sharp inhale when she sees your shoulder. “What have we here?” She wipes at more of the blood, and the sting makes you tense, your hand twitching towards the bat at your side. “What did that?”

“…boyfriend.”

You look over your shoulder to see her staring at you, a look that toes the line between sympathy and fear on her face. “Was he…”

You give a slight nod. “He was.”

“And is he…?”

“Not anymore.”

Her brows raise. “You did that?”

Another nod. “I did that.”

She blows out a breath, shaking her head side to side. “Damn, girl. Remind me not to get on your bad side.”

It’s the first time you’ve actually laughed since your birthday.

They give you some clothes, stuff that actually fits, pilfered from one of the stores. Toiletries even, and you spend far too much time brushing your teeth. No showers, unfortunately, but the pack of baby wipes you’re offered instead makes up for it. It nearly makes you cry to see your skin clean of the dust and ash and blood.

They give you food, too. A grocery bag filled with non-perishables, more granola bars and cans of soup and whatnot. You try not to chug an entire bottle of water when they give you a second bag filled with drinks; not just water, but sports drinks, random cans of pop, clearly raided from the mall vending machines. And a hot meal, courtesy of one of the food court hot plates. It’s some kind of stew, noodles and meat and veggies, and for a moment, all you can think about is the Thai food that was waiting on your kitchen counter.

Feels like a lifetime ago.

Deanna walks you to the department store, gives your name to one of the soldier’s standing guard. He points you in the right direction, and she goes with you, a steady hand on your back, until you find the cot you’ve been assigned, tucked in the corner of the section where all the towels would have been, the displays still up on the walls. “We took them all already,” she tells you, giving you a half-grin as she picks up the blanket on your cot, unfolding the fabric. “Those extra-plush suckers make great bandages.”

You’re quiet, tucking your bag and your food and clothing under the cot. They’d refilled your first aid kit, too. Your knees are almost shaking as you lower yourself onto the edge of the bed, and the relief that washes over you is almost overwhelming. Tears spring in your eyes, but you don’t have the energy to wipe them away.

“Get some sleep, honey,” she tells you, and puts a soft hand on your shoulder as you slip sideways, collapsing onto the pillow. “You’ll be safe. Sleep as much as you need.”

She pulls the blankets over you, and it’s silly, but you clutch the bat to your chest. You’d wiped it down, too, cleaned the blood and dirt from the metal. Sleep takes hold as soon as you let your eyes close, and you pray no nightmares follow.

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#my fics #strawberry wine #joel miller #joel miller fic #joel miller x you #joel miller x reader #joel miller smut #joel miller fluff #joel miller angst #the last of us #the last of us fic #the last of us spoilers #comment reply #kay talks to people

[not-poignant]

hey pia! i love your work, hi!!! im a young writer interested in posting some of my big projects online (not that i really expect them to get any traction lol). i was wondering how you protect your work from plagiarism, or how you deal with people plagiarizing your work. it seems like the internet is kind of the wild west, and that’s only sometimes a good thing :/ im probably a bit too poor to afford any sort of copyright or whatever online authors do, but maybe i can save up? 🙏🙏

PS - i didn’t actually care whether or not this ask was anonymous, but from my experience on tumblr it seems like an unspoken rule🤨 so i guess i’ll turn it on🫡

Hi anon!

Tbh the only real difference between anon and attaching your name is that I have the choice to reply to you privately if you send an ask under your name (which is sometimes preferrable if the question is personal or really niche!) and that gives me more options. Anon forces me to only answer publicly (which is probably why you're seeing that so much!!), but the downside is that sometimes I have to delete anon messages when I don't want the responses or even the ask/s on my public blog.

Anyway! This is something I'd respond to publicly anyway, because I think this is a fear a lot of new and young writers have. The tl;dr is that copyright is often assumed on the internet, provenance makes it easy to send DMCA takedowns, and letting a fear of piracy stop you from putting your work up is one of the biggest ways I see new authors handicap themselves on the web currently (idk if it's confirmation bias or what but it seems like I see this several times each month atm from specifically new authors), and it's like...not a thing...to be hampering yourself with.

Okay, now for the longer explanation:

The first thing with copyright is that it by and large depends on your country and what you want to do with the story. In Australia, every created work by default has legal copyright protection simply by being created by someone. We don't need to pay to apply for copyright on creative works, we automatically have it and if we can prove provenance (i.e. if we can demonstrate we created it first, with like a document date etc.) we are legally protected.

So I can't answer for the country you're in, anon, but honestly, this is how it works on most of the internet where you're likely to put a project online. AO3 will respect that a work is yours if it gets stolen, if you can prove you came up with it or published it before another person did (literally all you need is a screenshot or a link). In the Properties or Details of most of your documents, the 'date created' is your best friend.

I've had my work stolen quite a few times over the years. It's been stolen the most from AO3 over to Wattpad (it's almost like Wattpad authors don't realise that sometimes we look lol).

In one case, blanket commenting on one of the fics that the original fic was on AO3 *and complete and not stolen* was enough for the author themselves to take it down. x.x Otherwise what you generally do is send a DMCA takedown notice, which almost all creative sites give you access to when reporting theft (your readers cannot do this for you, you must do it.)

Similarly, on AO3, if this happens, you can just report it. The big downside here is that it can take the volunteers there some time - sometimes up to two weeks or more - to get on top of that, so it might feel like nothing at all is happening. Patience is recommended.

Look, theft happens, you can't avoid it. It is a normal part of putting your work out there in the world. And I can't tell you how many new authors I know who kind of shoot themselves in the foot trying to prevent the acts of thieves, while not realising they're hampering themselves in the process.

Pirating is the worst, but so is never putting your work out there, or waiting for a magical protection from piracy. It doesn't exist - and there's a general rule where the more steps you introduce to stop or reduce piracy, the more you actually alienate your general readers - think about how having right-click disabled on a website can feel, for example. It's considered hostile internet architecture that is often very inaccessible.

(There's also a phenomenon where the authors most scared of theft are the ones least likely to encounter it, because their works are new, and they'll need a lot of time to build up readers and engagement in the first place. Most of the time, those who plagiarise don't want to take the works of new/young authors over the works of experienced authors who just won't think to check the sites they're using. By the time you're popular enough for that to be an issue, you'll probably have more confidence in yourself and your ability to handle this. I will say theft of ebooks on sites like Amazon etc. is way more common than theft of original stories and fanfics on AO3, but both happen more often than they used to, that's just...sadly a part of life.)

Also, applying for copyright doesn't mean your work won't get stolen. You'll still have to send DMCA takedowns, and you'll still have to get in contact with websites. A lot of the time websites have a form you can fill out. You still have to do all that labour and pay to register copyright. The filing of copyright is sadly not a magical shield against theft of a creative work. It does make it easier to take someone to court, but that's expensive, often not worth it, and the labour someone can spend chasing down thieves is often better spent amongst the readers who actually give a shit (they're the ones who often notice the theft in the first place when it comes to serials).

If you plan on publishing ebooks, there's software and organisations you can pay a monthly fee to, who just exist to issue takedown notices to piracy sites so you don't have to. I've never used these personally, but from what I've read on Facebook writing groups, they're often not worth it compared to the past, because new sites spring up all the time. But different authors have different experiences with online theft (and different levels of income to combat it) so you'll hear different things on that front.

I'm...pretty zen about it. To me, it's only a worry when I have to send someone a notice about it, which I don't actually have to do all that often. Like, it sucks, but almost always it never happens as much as a new author like yourself fears it will. That doesn't mean you won't hate it when it happens, but you'll live, and your works will keep finding readers, and it won't be what you're likely imagining it will be. It's for most authors, just an occasional giant pain in the ass that we forget about a day or two later sdakfjdsa

#asks and answers #pia on writing #pia on publishing #it depends on what path you're taking #ebooks are more prone to it than serials or subscription-locked works #but as a result there's also more protections available for ebook authors #there's less protections for someone like me #except i can prove provenance #and i can be like 'hey i put this up 10 years ago and this person published it today so can you do something about it please' #and sites do because legally they have to #though some drag their feet sdlfkjas #but anyway yeah i'm very 'eh whatever it happens' #some authors will take it very seriously #but i am...more interested in my writing and my relationship to my actual readers #then the actions of people who aren't giving me a hard time #until they *actually* give me a hard time #and then i have things i can do y'know #maybe i'm too flippant but being too anxious about theft #seems like a one-way ticket to not putting yourself out there

[quelsentiment]

🌳 2023 writing year in review 🌳

Thanks @feeisamarshmallow for tagging me!!

1. Number of stories posted to AO3: 10

2. Word count posted for the year:  172,831

3. Fandoms I wrote for: Video blogging RPF (Dream Team) and One Direction

4. Pairings:

dteam: every combination of dnn (both romantically and platonically) but with a preference for snf; dream & callahan

1d: zayn/louis

5. Story with the most:

Kudos: Wild Card (641)

Bookmarks: Wild Card (345)

Comment threads: Wild Card (77)

6. Work I’m most proud of (and why):

It's probably a tie between Wild Card and In Bloom. The first one because I managed to go past my insecurities and write whatever the hell I wanted to write even if it meant that the characters weren't always likeable, and the second one because I think it contains some of my favourite writing, especially in the first chapter, and I think it's one of my most memorable and personal stories

7. Work I’m least proud of (and why):

Maybe my Zouis fic because it's a band AU and I would have wanted it to be longer and more intricate, but at that point I had lost most of my interest in the fandom so I just did what I could then called it a day :/ I don't really know if I'll ever write for 1d again, although Zayn will always be close to my heart and I suspect I might still get a Zouis brainrot at some point, so who knows

8. Share or describe a favorite review you received:

I was so lucky to get a lot of lovely comments this year, and have people connect with my stories even though I'm new to the dteam fandom. Some of them were really meaningful and honestly made my day. On the lighter side of things, one of my favourite things that happened was someone bookmarking my fic In Bloom with the note 'trees', and also people losing their shit in the comments after I posted chapter 5 of Wild Card

9. A time when writing was really, really hard:

... over the past few weeks. tbh I haven't even tried writing because I've been too busy dealing with chronic illness and anxiety + the holidays. Hoping that it gets better progressively and I'm able to get back to it.

Otherwise I wrote pretty consistently and productively throughout 2023, with a break in August when I spent time with family.

10. A scene or character you wrote that surprised you: 

In general, writing Wild Card was a kind of epiphany because it was my first time writing from Sapnap's POV and it made me realize how fun it was for me. I guess he's really impulsive and proud while also being loving and kind of shy, and I just love that combination.

11. A favorite excerpt of your writing:

From In Bloom:

“But you loved him?”

George turns to look at him but Sapnap is still staring at the view, acting like he didn’t just ask that incredibly personal question. George guesses they’re past that anyway. There’s something about today that just doesn’t make sense, like their meeting is an anomaly that shouldn’t have even happened, and this is probably what makes it easier to share some things that George usually keeps close to his chest. That, plus the fact that Sapnap will disappear tomorrow along with the last remnants of winter.

“I did love him,” George says quietly as he sits down on the floor, soon followed by Sapnap. “I loved him the way someone loves their first boyfriend or girlfriend, you know? Thinking it’ll last forever and all that, even when all signs pointed to the fact that it wouldn’t. But he made me feel grown-up, like I had my life together or something, which is pretty dumb because we were only nineteen when we got together. It’s weird, though, because I feel much more like a kid now than I did back then.”

He lights up another cigarette and offers Sapnap the first puff, a cheap excuse to feel the cold tip of his fingers again.

“So from what I’m understanding, you’re regressing,” Sapnap says. The smoke surrounds him like a halo before the wind makes it fade into the city below.

“Yeah, exactly. God, I need a job or something. Like, an actual job. Maybe then I’ll feel like an adult.”

He extends his hand, wanting the cigarette back, but Sapnap holds onto it. Maybe he is addicted already.

“But what about trees, though?” Sapnap says, taking another puff. “You can’t give up on trees.”

“No, you’re right, I can’t,” George sighs dramatically. “That’s the tragedy.”

Sapnap finally gives him the cig back and they fall into silence for a while, just enjoying the distant rumbling of the streets below, and the quiet sound of their breathing.

For the first time since they locked eyes in Kensington Gardens, Sapnap suddenly removes his cap so he can run a hand through his hair. The hat is back on before George can even process it, and he curses himself for not having been able to take a mental photograph of how Sapnap looked without that shield of his.

He offers the cigarette again. This time, Sapnap’s fingers linger on his for half a second longer.

“I’ve been in love for a long time, and it’s never made me feel like I was an adult,” Sapnap says, breaking the silence. “More like the opposite, actually. Sometimes I feel like a little kid who won’t take no for an answer, who clings on to the idea that maybe if I ask in the right way just once, he’ll change his mind.”

12. How did you grow as a writer this year: 

I think one of my goals last year was to explore darker themes, and I think I kind of did that by having morally grey characters who sometimes act like assholes and act in questionable ways, particularly in Wild Card, Light The Fuse, Fade Away and an anon fic. Also I'm still on my way to getting more and more comfortable with writing (semi-)explicit scenes, and it's been fun to work on that again this year.

13. How do you hope to grow next year:

I don't really know. Things have been pretty hard lately so all I want is to be able to go back to writing and have fun with it.

14. Who was your greatest positive influence this year as a writer (could be another writer or beta or cheerleader or muse etc etc): 

In terms of other writers, definitely Selvish (I'm too awkward to tag him lol). I think we kind of have similar writing styles which is very comforting for me, and I just love how much thought he puts into the characters and their actions, and writes about stuff that's quite unique in the fandom, without shying away from darker themes

Other sources of inspiration were nature, especially trees, music as always (a lot of Susanne Sundfør and Paramore), films (Before Sunrise, Past Lives, That Summer Feeling) and tv (BBC Merlin and Bridgerton), plus probably other stuff that I'm forgetting about

15. Anything from your real life show up in your writing this year:

Yes!! As I said In Bloom is very personal, and a lot of the thoughts George has regarding his degree and his uncertainty about where his life is going were directly inspired by what I felt (also the fact that he goes on exchange in America). On top of that, some of the chapters of this fic are named after some of my favourite trees I encountered in the Pacific Northwest, and the first sentence about walking home from the library came to me as I walked home from the library

16. Any new wisdom you can share with other writers:

Something that I already knew but was definitely reinforced this year was that it's impossible and useless to try and predict how 'popular' your fic is going to be in terms of stats. Like Wild Card kind of blew up (in my standards lol) and I genuinely didn't expect it to because I thought that pairing was pretty unpopular. And then I thought a fic like Fade Away would get much more engagement because of the exes to lovers trope, but it didn't happen. So in the end, even though stats didn't influence me that much to begin with, now I'm just like 'whatever, I'll write what I'll write and see what happens'

17. Any projects you’re looking forward to starting (or finishing) in the new year:

I have one snf wip that I'm hoping to get back to soon. Otherwise we'll see where the year takes me

18. Tag some writers whose answers you’d like to read.

If you see this and want to do it please do!

#tag #overall a very good writing year for me - definitely better than 2022 so that's a win

[ollyou]

Sorry another non-art post but I wanted to point out to some very disrespectful people that this is NOT an art only account > <“

This account was actually made to be mostly rambles, and just because I like pmtok and center most of my stuff around olly doesnt mean thats all i do either! I never wanted to be a pmtok-only artist; i just draw what i want to rather than what other people like to see

I’m a rambler at heart and if you dont like that then you shouldnt follow me, or just mute #rambling !! Alternatively if you don’t want to see any negative posts, mute #negative ^_^

Tbh as someone who has never had an anonymous ask box before joining the pmtok fandom, stuff like this just comes off as really mean and dehumanizing?? Please unfollow me if you have a mindset like this. I constantly tell people to just send me fun asks and stop trying to order me around like a slave and then people who claim to follow me pull this…. 😓 I hope you know that if you think you’re entitled to my artwork and can tell me to “shut the fuck up” for simply speaking how I feel about the constant harassment the toxic side of the fandom has given me and my friends/mutuals, I do not like you and you’re not allowed to enjoy my art tbh….

There is no “we”, just this rude person who likes to pretend they are a fan. But no fan acts like this. I want my fanbase to be a nice and welcoming place full of gentle and friendly people, not entitled bullies who treat me like their slave. Keep it to yourself if you don’t enjoy my rambling, please, or just unfollow/mute the tags I appropriately place for these sorts of posts <3

I blocked this anon immediately after screenshotting this but tbh I’m not sure if that blocks their actual account too… cause I wanna make sure they can’t view my account if all they want to do is dehumanize me. Idk it’s really weird how this fandom acts sometimes which is why I’m so strict with my dni and byf stuff but people don’t listen most of the time…. Agh!!

I make one post telling the people harassing and stalking me for several months if not years to leave me and my friends alone, and these people suddenly get the idea I’m just an art-making machine…. It’s frustrating but in the end I just want to receive nice anon asks. I appreciate all the friendly anons!! Thank you so much. You make my days so much better. I feel bad that sometimes I can’t respond to them, but I read them all. I save them all. I love them all <:)

But yeah… please unfollow me if you’re unwilling to just mute my #rambling and #negative tags when all you do is complain I don’t post art enough…. Also idk, if you want me to post more art then…? Why not you compliment my art? What’s the point of not ever supporting my art when I post it, then complaining and belittling me when I don’t post it? That’s why I block these people. Very very disrespectful.

I know it’s best to just ignore this stuff! And I do. I ignore a lot of it. It is quite annoying, but I ignore it so I can give the nice people room to speak. It’s really rare that I actually speak up about this stuff tbh. I’m almost positive these are all just the same few people block evading me via VPN anyway hahahah. Especially since I’ve seen them do that, too.

Also, I do recognize it’s very likely no one will read this all the way. But I usually don’t write things expecting people to read them! I mostly write stuff for myself, like a journal of some sorts. :D It’s probably a bit weird when I advertise my art and whatnot too, but y’know. I don’t want my tumblr blog to be just… some soulless art dump. I’m not looking for attention, just respect, I guess.

Ah, in the end I’m sure those bullies will use this to fuel their constant harassment of me anonymously (because they too cowardly to hate me normally, I guess), but tbh they just kind of… complain about a singular post I’ll make for the first time in forever for days straight and act like that type of post is all I make, so I guess there’s no appeasing them. Not that I even want to make happy the people who treat me as subhuman.

Idk why people are so entertained by being assholes, but maybe that’s just the naive part of me thinking! I’m no grown adult or anything. In my head I am just a little baby still learning about the online world as I was raised very sheltered from all that stuff and avoided toxicity wherever I went… 💦 I am a tumblr baby! Sorry..!

Ah!!!! Rambling too much. Hahah. Thank you for reading. Hey, if you got this far, why not you send me a friendly anon message? Gotta clean out all the garbage from within my inbox, though I think I’ve done a pretty good job at it as is.

I will post again when I have something to say or more art to share!!!!

#rambling #negative #< bc of the ask’s content! #idk im just being silly here. dont mind me #btw if youre here from sound or someone similar sending you a link then i know you guys have been here— go away

[ofgravitation-moved]

KNOWING YOUR PARTNER WELL CAN POTENTIALLY MAKE WRITING TOGETHER A LOT EASIER. REPOST.

name. dandi! 

pronouns. she/her!

preference  of  communication.  i meannnn. discord & ims are best! i prefer to keep my discord for people i am super comfy with! so closer mutuals, but the more we talk and interact i am always open to sharing it!

name  of  muse. TOO MANY. but this is an ochako uraraka blog that’s disguised as a multi cause i suck. :3c

rp  experience  /  how  long. i’m 30.. lmao!! i started rping in the roleplay boards on NEOPETS, okay? i don’t even know what year that was!! EIGHTH/NINTH GRADE DANDI???  soooo like-- fuck. i graduated high school in 2010 so like 2007/2008 ish? sure, let’s go with that. i’ve been around the block. rped both on tumblr and off. & i have a bachelors in english literature aka a fancy $40K paper that says i can write. 

best  experience. oh shiiit. i mean.. there really have been a lot over the years! i have friends i’ve met irl from rp when they came to the east coast! i’ve been in fandoms where it was just such a sweet and family vibe until some sort of choas always ensued, but the happy times in the inuyasha rpc or rwby & fairy tail rpcs here was fun. honestly?? now? i feel like there at times will always be some kinda drama on the dash, tbh. but the friends i’ve made / have now at this point in my life? i am just having a great time! :)

rp  pet  peeves  /  dealbreakers. i mean drama, negativity, sure. but-- constant pestering is kinda big for me. i work on an average of about 46 hours a week. and my job can be stressful. i am SLOW with messages on discord and responses/asks/replies. so, constant asking for threads / asks does get under my skin because then rp feels like it’s part of my job & it’s not. this is a way for me to de-stress & relax, so please don’t be that guy :tm: i’ll get to it when i can. i think another that also tends to bother me is i’ve told you once, i shouldn’t have to say it again. & that’s irl too. like if you know the answer, why ask again? idk-- and i digress. jsadhfb;l

fluff,  angst,  or  smut. fluff & angst more than the nasty. & obviously the nasty is with of age muses only, but that just needs a whole level of comfort from me that i will not have with each mun when we just start writing. i mean that goes for all shippy things and such, like the chemistry has to be there for me. but, i’d need to be comfortable with the mun too. & the nasty is like super rare so i don’t even know why i’ve typed all this on it, oops.

plots  or  memes. honestly, i like both!! sometimes with multiple muses (which i have, have you seen my gdoc?! who am i-- ajskdnbf) it’s just easier to plot! because then i have something to look forwards to with a lot of different characters, plus it gives me more ideas when doing starters / asks. but winging it? hey, sometimes that’s the best way!

long  or  short  replies.  sdflgjksfd;gl/ if you cannot tell by the size of this freaking thing, idk what to tell you. my replies can get lengthy! esp. if i am super into the thread / character interactions, etc! i mean i do try and post shorter things, but more often than not they tend to be on the longer side. my characters are all over thinkers, sorry lmao. but i always say to my partners not to feel obligated to match if it does get long!

best  time  to  write. god... whenever i have the free time? a lot of times i write asks on mobile at work and then answer them in the ask, but i’ll always mobile tag it and usually only do that with asks i think won’t be turned into threads! other times it’s usually after work or on a weekend if i have some free time there. 

are  you  like  your  muse. i think we put a little of ourselves into each muse we write, i know i do, for sure. but the muses that are probably most similar to me would beee: lucy heartfilia & ochako uraraka. :3

tagged by. @knightinsourarmor - thanks reina!!! <3

tagging. anyone who hasn’t done this yet & wants too! tw: long post

#out of chocolate. / ooc. #happy munday. / munday. #are we havin' fun yet? / dash games.

[majaloveschris]

I always say we can talk about everything here, as long as we do it respectfully and don't cross the line I set for this blog. And I respect your viewpoint, but I don't believe I am who you believe I am.//

I am not the anon, but I think their hate is more directed at the fandom in general than you, but have decided to use you as their punching bag which is wrong.

You are absolutely right, you have the right to your feeling and assumptions on this situation and you should not be told how to feel. And you have never done of said anything to indicate that you do not respect other people’s opinion. You are one 3.5 blogs on this platform that has been absolutely amazing with the way you think.

If you don’t mind I would like to say a couple of things in regards to this situation because I do feel for the anon. I have personally blown up in another blogs inbox after they posted something that I didn’t agree with. I did apologise because it was not fair to them. I was in wrong because I took out my frustration on the wrong blog.

As a spectator, or someone who watched the fandom from a far and joined in 2020 after the lily james fiasco I can say that the fandom took a complete new shape after the new years 22 incident. And it was disgusting, disturbing, and absolutely mortifying to watch.

I have to say I lost respect to a lot of blogs on this site, especially OG blogs. I think blogs like you who properly and rightfully criticise Alba and co for the problematic things they do are getting lost in the noise others are making in the fandom, because lines are being crossed and boundaries are being pushed in the name of calling out everyone involved in the situation the the message is lost.

Now when people look at the problematic behaviour of Alba and co they will have to see the other hateful things fans have said and done along side them, the way the fandom went around the situation and talked about it and him got the message lost. And that is very frustrating. I have to agree with the anon on the part that he is being bullied and harassed and when it comes to the bigger picture people will only see that and it’s frustrating.

This place has turned into a place of hate and every little thing done is a new way to mock him and it is no longer fun. And when you try and reason or point out this behaviour you only get blocked or mocked or yelled at and this is not recent this has been happening since day one.

I’ll give you a personal example: I am 26 years old, and I look 15, it’s not just my face but my physical appearance, I am short and quite thing and have no great development so I actually look like I am barely grown up. When people started talking about how she looked and how disgusting it was it triggered me, because it made me there something wrong with, like I am not worthy of being noticed or that who ever liked me will probably be a creep or sometime of disgusting groomer. And that I should only date guys who look like they have not passed puberty so that the aesthetics of the relationship don’t look wrong ( and don’t come at me with age thing because I am talking about appearance) it was hurtful and I tried to say something ( and I feel like people will come at me for this) they attacked me, it took a long time to recover from what people were saying. I stepped away from the fandom because everyone was so awful.

Now the situation is a million times worse, because some people have taking it to a whole new lever, you cannot enjoy a picture of him without some mocking him, you cannot have a discussion or a little fun with someone turning the whole conversation nasty and hateful. I stopped going into his rages and unfollowed everyone because it was too much. People are using every simple piece of gossip and turns it and twisted in away to fit the narrative that he is an awful human being.

I personally don’t care about this whole situation, because this is Hollywood he could be doing so much worse TBH. I am probably one of the few people actually looking forward to his projects and cannot wait for them to come out. But it’s the hate has me stepping back and noting wanting to engage with him not him. Because at the end of the day we have no clue hate happens behind closed doors. I love gossip and I love to sit here and speculate but again the fandom took that away from people like me because of their behaviour.

Honestly after the photos came out from the new year I took a step back and took a look at everything as whole, and I realise that unfortunately this behaviour currently happening is not really that unbelievable, the way people were behaving from last year it’s actually shocking some blogs are not sending him “go kill your self” messages and I would not be shocked if that happens soon. And yes I know that a horrible disgusting thing to say but from the way certain people talk I would t shocked if they do say it and support it. I know this horrible and disgusting to say but when you look from the out side that’s where this fandom is going with it’s current behaviour. Don’t come at me for saying this but this is just my observation.

I just want to make it very clear that non of what I said is directed at you mod you are not included in what I said but this regarding the fandom and blogs in general. Like I said you are one of the three sane blogs on this hell side.

I am sorry for my English it’s not my first language and I hope my message come across properly and nothing gets taken out of context I tried my best.

I think the whole NYE thing was the last straw for a lot of people. I believe that the fact that people consistently connect every single woman who has ever breathed next to him or followed him, while many of them do not want him to be in an actual relationship, creates this strange contradiction. I remember a lot of people being against it before anything about her came out, or we started to believe it was all just a bad PR relationship because of her age, which I never really cared about because she is a grown up, the problem is that she doesn't act like one.

I still love Chris, and I believe that if he had known all of this about her at the very beginning, he wouldn't have signed a contract. Sometimes people say stuff about him that I find really cruel and unnecessary. I know he got himself into this on somewhat level, but bullying him won't solve anything.

I know how you feel, and this is one of the things you can't change, and nobody should be bullied because of it. I think it's natural that most people in their twenties look younger than their actual age, and there is nothing wrong with you. I believe the issue in her situation is the way she behaves and represents herself; this is why she appears so much younger in our eyes. Ana, for example, also has a "baby face," or whatever we call it, but she acts like a woman, a grown-up and mature person. But you shouldn't feel bad about the way you look, and people shouldn't make you feel this way either. You deserve love, and you can date whoever you want. You're an adult, and the way you wrote it all down shows that you're a mature adult, and the man you'll end up dating won't be a creep or whatever just because you look a little younger. I know sometimes what people say online can be hurtful, but a lot of people dislike Alba, so the things they said about her don't apply to you.

I understand you, and I'm glad you took a step back when you felt overwhelmed. Your mental health is the most important thing, and you did the right thing. I agree that we need to hold celebrities accountable, and they need to be called out when they do something bad or questionable. But there is such a big difference between calling somebody out and bullying or tearing them down. Death threats are never acceptable. I would never, ever send them on—even to those I hate the most—along with the "you should kill yourself" messages.

Your English is perfectly fine btw ❤️

#majaloveschris #chris and alba pr #cevans-love

[moonjxsung]

hey bb!! im sorry to see some ppl being kinda rude.

it’s up to you whether or not you open another account. don’t feel forced to make any specific decision. i’m also soooo excited for your next fic but to hear from your everyday life too🫶🏻 (i chose side blog on the poll just so you can have more interactions on your fics btw i do like the dynamic as it is. but i don’t wanna turn off people from reading ur fics bc of my constant venting and sad girl lowercase😪)

i’ve kinda been rereading your fics (instead of studying obvs✨) bc i needed some minho content in my life! and i think WTRS/WTSL minho actually is my fav! idk if i discovered you through him or VOYIS hyune but they’re my favs🫶🏻 hopefully my brain creates some new skz dreams for me based on them.

yesss plsss keep me updated if you get ateez tickets! i’m manifesting for u🛐 tell yeosang i love him. and PLS if you do get a fancall with skz you have to write an in depth review on how it went and if it’s worth it (ofc it is).

and i just read that you didn’t like the lily of the valley tattoo and i totally get why. but it’s very pretty, aesthetically at least! i’m kinda nervous af to get mine bc it’s been a while since my first.

i hope you had a great weekend!!! i love your pcs and holders as always!! where do you get those holders😭😭😭 ily bb 😚 i’ll send tattoo pics once i have them!!

-🐈‍⬛

This website turns on me every few months PDLDKCKSKSKDMFKFK I think a lot of people just hate follow me at this point which is fine but also like. It sucks that I can’t just be allowed to respond freely to asks the way we grant to other authors on here so I’ll probably just pack my shit and migrate to a side blog tbh 🚶‍♀️

WTRS/WTSL Minho my beloved 😔🤲 I went crazy writing the first part I literally fell in love w him so bad and my sister was constantly like WHYYY are you suddenly obsessed with Minho 😔 if she only knew 😔

Yes yes I’ll keep you posted on Ateez tickets and fancall alike!!!! Ateez tickets are this Thursday I think I am so scared. Hongjoong 💔💔💔💔

Sooooo excited for your tats my angel they’re gonna look so good!!!!!!! I love u so so much I hope u had the best weekend xoxoxoxoxo

#🐈‍⬛ anon #ask

[mizkit]

new blog post: february progress report

new blog post on https://mizkit.com/february-progress-report/

february progress report

Well, I came into February by finishing my last book (WEAR WOLF, available now!) a week early, so I took the next week off from formal book work and wrote a synopsis for something, sent that in to an editor, and did some further work on a different proposal.

Halfway through the month, as noted before, I was struck by inspiration in the middle of the night, and now have about a thousand disconnected words on that project, which I am supposed to get 10 pages to 3 chapters written of Soon, according to my writing group. Possibly I can manage that next week. We’ll see.

I wrote about 24K on the next Dublin Driver book (roughly a third), which is great because my actual goal was 16K so I’ve bought myself some time on that, which is always better than…not.

And on the buying myself some time front, boy, I gotta say, this not writing to a crushing deadline thing? This is great. Right now my daily wordcount goal is around 1500 words (which has gone down from about 1700 since I started the book), and only having to do that much makes it way, WAY less stressful than looking at a “oh god if I don’t get at least 3k done every day for the rest of my life I will never catch up” wordcount. It also means that every day I do MORE than that (and I’m averaging probably 2000ish words a day), I get to feel good about that instead of like a total failure. This is great!

The thing I’m now working toward is actually getting my act together enough to do those words more or less first thing when I get into the office (it’s AMAZING how much time i can spend screwing around) so that I can then SWITCH TO ANOTHER PROJECT in the afternoon.

Literally ANY wordcount on another project is a win, as long as I’m not behind on the main one. I just have to get into the right habit of the thing.

Which, realistically is not going to happen meaningfully in March because I’m going to America for a week and am assuming I’ll be dead on my feet for the week after that, but it’s what I’m aiming for in the bigger picture/longer run here.

So anyway, yeah, a pretty good writing month. I’ve done, hrm, IDK, in the region of…say, 90K so far this year? That’s entirely satisfactory, tbh.

And that’s the status of me on this leap day of the year. :)

[musecaravan-info]

Tony Castle

"You don't protect your heart by acting like you don't have one." ~ Anonymous ~

Basic Information

FACE/BODY CLAIM: Silas Weir Mitchell

NAME: Anthony 'Tony' Castle

AGE: 46

EYES: Dark brown

HAIR: Dark brown with a bit of peppering

HEIGHT: 6'3

PRIMARY OUTFIT: Unless he's at work (i.e. in his sheriff's uniform) he's got typical 'hunter' attire - boots, jeans, flannel shirts, hidden weapons, etc.

Personality

Tony is a friendly, easy-going guy on the surface, but the truth is he's not much of a people-person. He'd rather spend his time alone than out with others. He's not stand-offish about it or anything. He won't tell people to get lost - mostly because he's too polite - but he typically prefers his own company. There are a few exceptions - like Ronnie and Winston - but the people he's that comfortable with are few and far between.

Abilities & Weaknesses

Although Tony is technically only human, he's survived nearly 25 years as a hunter of supernatural creatures. He's what most would call 'well-seasoned.' What he lacks in physical prowess, he makes up for with quick thinking and years of hands-on knowledge.

Romance

In a woman Tony appreciates beauty, and might pay a genuine compliment here and there but only if he sincerely believes what he’s saying, and doesn't think it will come off as awkward or creepy. Given his job, however, he's not actively looking for anyone in his life, and (to be honest) the thought kind of scares him after what happened to his wife all those years ago.

Tony was happily married once, and hasn't ever really considered 'swinging for the other team,' so to speak. However, I see him as a bit ambiguous when it comes to his feelings towards men. He flatters easily and, despite being a small-town Texan, is likely to be intrigued regarding male advances rather than disapproving. Although he doesn’t actively look at men sexually or romantically, I think he could, given the time to get to know someone.

Where to Find Him

Tony lives and works (both professionally and as a hunter) in East Texas. So it wouldn't be uncommon to find him out on a hunt in the area. Or, because he's a marshal for Marion County, to have him run into your muse in a more 'normal' way. He doesn't often travel away from his 'home turf' for a hunt, but I imagine I could come up with a reason if it was needed to get our muses interacting. :)

Verses

Just because a verse isn't listed here doesn't mean I'm not interested in writing it. I adore all kinds of AUs, and welcome the chance to get creative with my muses. If you've seen a verse that another of my muses has, and you'd like to see this muse in something similar, let me know. You can also check out my 'Plot Ideas' tag, too. ^_^

Main Verse:

Tony's main verse rests heavily on the information found here. He doesn't have any other (active) verses yet. However if you think you need more details about his main verse than what's found on the post, please ask. :)

Current/Ongoing Threads

If your thread with Tony isn't listed here it's probably because it's been long enough since your last reply that I thought you'd dropped it. Message me to let me know you're still interested, and I'll happily add you to the list (with no pressure for a reply.) ♡

None at the Moment

Your Thread Here!

Stuff That's Good to Know Before Starting a Thread

I am NOT fully caught up on the series - I’ve only seen through the end of Season 10, and I don’t know when I’ll get around to watching any more. TBH, I was more than a little disappointed with the first couple of episodes of Season 11, so… yeah.

I also do not have a photographic memory for the seasons I have seen, so if I make a mistake with something don’t be afraid to tell me. As long as you’re not rude about it, I promise to hear you out. ^_^

Links

Please keep in mind, this blog is an ongoing work in progress. Not all of these links may lead somewhere, but they're here because they link to potential tags for this muse.

All Things Tony

Headcanons

Drabbles

All Threads

Ask Replies

Meme Replies

Aesthetics

Face

Special Links

Original Blog

Tony's Home

Tony's 'Patch'

Tony's Relationships

Return To Full Muse List

[paper-girls]

once again, i offer sakuatsu fic recs

you would not believe how many sakuatsu fics i’ve read over quarantine. it is unreasonable. like it’s in the 100s. where did my time go, you ask? this. this is where. i have all-consuming sakuatsu brainrot. no excuses, only lots of fic recommendations. 

once again, all fics are from ao3. also, if you know the author’s blog, feel free to link it / tag them. also because my summaries are more like reviews, remember to check the tags!

fic rec masterlist

alright lads, here we go (again)!

i’ll do anything you say (if you say it with your hands) by liliapocolypse

touch is stressful for omi. touch is comforting for tsumu. writing letters and messages is soothing. until one day it’s everything. i like this one a lot. short n sweet. 

Stick With You by lettersinpetals

a classic, you say? absolutely. slow burn, you ask? of course. omi n tsumu are stuck on an island in the pandemic. what emotions will happen. it’s long but very worth the read. 

Pas De Deux by hatsuna 

i have. no words. except: it’s wonderful. omi as a dancer? chef’s kiss. the whole thing just makes sense and fits perfectly. good sakuatsu fic for the soul. honestly, one of my favourites, i’ve reread it so many times. 

i look for you when i’m lost (so i don’t go insane) by martialartist816

shared quarantine quarters ft. sakusa’s sexuality crisis. is it a bromance or are they taking the bro part out. heh.

Dynamics of the Heart by TwilaFrost

first off, it’s an a/b/o fic, so expect the gratuitous a/b/o tropes. second off, it’s really good. third off, atsumu has medical problems. even if you’re not an omgeaverse fan it’s pretty good. and gives shockingly detailed descriptions of the hormone and anatomy bits? like it wasn’t what i came for but it was appreciated. good read.

but we’re not, like, in love by goshkiki

did someone say denial and emotional constipation? omi did. that’s it, that’s the fic. they are so fucking stupid i love them. 

Play Among the Stars by buttonstuck

have you heard of this one yet? yeah probably. it’s really fucking good though. like so good. mmmmm i love me a fic with a good soundtrack and fanart. slow burn: check. tsumu’s an idiot: check. omi is emotionally constipated: check. well-planned au: check. 

The Story of Us by thesweetestnerd

hurt/comfort to the max, baby. tsumu’s spent the last year loving omi in secret. when an accident takes away omi’s memories, atsumu’s left holding the pieces of something no one knows about. i’m not gonna spoil the ending. did i cry? maybe. you’ll never know.

the 28 postcards you left me by wheelspokes

post-break up fic and angst with a happy ending. you can have the best of both worlds. animal crossing letters have never sounded better.

Unapologetic Favoritism by Hey_MK

fluff. just fluff. miya is a good s.o. sakusa is touch starved. now kiss!

this has been the second instalment of my fic recs for the dearest sakuatsu. a long time coming! tbh there’ll probably be another one. do with this what you will! happy reading dears. 

p.s.: i still do take requests if someone wants a specific trope or something. don’t be shy!

#sakuatsu #sakuatsu fic recs #sakusa kiyoomi #miya atsumu #sakusa #miya #atsumu #kiyoomi #sakusa x atsumu #sakusa kiyoomi x miya atsumu #sakuatsu fluff #sakuatsu fics #fluff #haikyuu!! #haikyuu fic recs #haikyuu sakuatsu #haikyuu sakusa #haikyuu atsumu #atsumu x kiyoomi #haikyuu fluff #haikyuu smut #sakuatsu smut #fic recs #hq sakusa #hq miya #hq atsumu #hq #hq sakuatsu

[storm-and-starlight]

The Mountain Scene

(aka, can we give Geralt a break please?)

Okay, I’m going to preface this by saying that  while I do love and adore Jaskier, I identify fairly heavily with Netflix!Geralt in a lot of ways, and tbh he’s probably my favorite character in any version of the media. If you hate him, this probably isn’t the blog for you, but I say this so that if I seem biased in his favor over Jaskier’s, or if this post seems excessively Jaskier-critical, you know where I’m coming from.

(I have also not yet seen much of s2, so this will have absolutely no references to anything shown in s2.)

So, without further ado, let’s talk about the Mountain Scene, and why my main reaction to it is “oh my god please give every single person here a hug, a blanket, and like three years of therapy”.

One: Jaskier and Boundaries

Over the course of the show, Jaskier, extremely consistently, ignores Geralt’s boundaries.

That sounds harsh, but... he really kind of does. There are multiple scenes where Geralt will request that Jaskier leave him alone (the scene in the Posada tavern in ep. 2, getting punched in ep. 2, the scene in the Cintran tavern in ep.4, “I just want some damn peace” in ep. 5) and then Jaskier does not. 

I would ABSOLUTELY NOT say that this is to toxic levels (and considering Geralt’s self-isolating tendencies is probably good for him), but taken at face value, there’s a very consistent pattern of Jaskier not leaving Geralt alone when he requests to be left alone, or indicates that he doesn’t want to be talked to. And Geralt’s not subtle about it, either, “fuck off” is about as blunt as it gets.

So you get to the mountain scene, and Geralt is, once again, attempting to indicate that he wishes to be left alone, and Jaskier, again, ignores that.

This isn’t to say he’s unsympathetic, or self-centered, but it’s a kind of sympathy that goes counter to what Geralt needs in that moment.

One and a Half: Geralt and Boundaries

Another relevant thing here is that Geralt has a history that has essentially worn away at his ability to enforce those boundaries. He’s clearly willing and able to state them, and state them loudly, but if you look at the scene after Renfri’s death in ep.1 where he just lets them stone him, or the “then I’ll die” phrase from ep.3, it reads to me as someone who’s been told his entire life that his wants and needs and even life don’t matter. Which is, you know, not great. And the thing about this is that it’s pretty common if that someone pushes at your boundaries one time too many, you end up pushing back.

Two: Sympathy and Flippancy

Okay, now here’s where we get into what that means. 

Jaskier is shown, over the course of the show, to care about Geralt a great deal, a care that Geralt is only shown as reciprocating in certain moments. That being said, Jaskier’s approach to Geralt’s problems is very... shall we say, careless. What comes to mind the most is their first scene in ep.5, where Geralt is clearly upset about being unable to sleep and Jaskier, while he has an initial moment of clear and obvious concern, as soon as it’s revealed that it’s insomnia he starts laughing. Many of his interactions with Geralt have a self-centered undertone to them -- his lamenting about the Countess de Stael, his pushing about Ciri despite Geralt’s lack of interest in talking about it, even the “we could go to the coast” speech can read as him expressing his own wants, rather than trying to figure out Geralt’s.

And, specifically, when you get to the mountain scene, that’s there too.

After all of the bullshit that Geralt’s been through in the past twenty-four hours (see below), Jaskier approaches him in what is clearly an attempt to cheer him up or reassure him, but in a way that doesn’t make his care or his intentions particularly obvious. Specifically, it’s a lighthearted “whoof, what a day--”, which..

If I were in Geralt’s position, again, and someone approached me during an emotional breakdown with that, I would absolutely read it as flippant and uncaring. (Which is NOT to say that it is, or that that’s what Jaskier intended, just that that’s what it sounded like.)

Three: Dragon Hunting’s Stressful as Fuck

The thing I see the most ignored about the dragon hunt is that Geralt has been through just ridiculous amounts of shit in under 24 hours. Let’s sum up, shall we?

1.) First, there are a bunch of background stressors, like the fact that the Reavers could just decide to kill them all in their sleep, and Geralt clearly doesn’t quite trust Yennefer’s presence in the group (see his conversation with Borch).

2.) Borch, Tea, and Vea die in front of him because he couldn’t pull them back up. Like, I know we’re all accustomed to stuff like that because of movies and TV but that is going to fuck you up pretty bad.

3.) Geralt, an extremely guarded person, gets very vulnerable with Yennefer in her tent, which is definitely going to leave him with some Stuff to Process

4.) Borch, Tea, and Vea are alive and Borch is a dragon oh and also now they have to fight and kill a bunch of Reavers too, which would be a shock to anyone’s system

5.) Borch reveals one of Geralt’s secrets without any prior warning and without his consent.

6.) Yennefer breaks up with him, explosively, and he retreats from everyone else.

For Geralt, who presumably has a lot of trouble dealing with emotions and interpersonal stuff, that’s just. that’s so much emotional turmoil all in one go. He’s probably absolutely reeling from everything and attempting to process on his own.

Four: Geralt Snaps.

So let’s sum all this up.

Jaskier has a history of ignoring Geralt’s requests for space, no matter how blunt of forward, and a history of not appearing to care about Geralt’s problems or issues, in favor of his own ideas or his own problems. Whether or not the latter is true, from Geralt’s perspective it’s definitely there.

Geralt’s been through just so much shit and is most likely in a really fragile emotional state when Jaskier approaches him, and approaches him in a way where it’s easy to miss the fact that he’s trying to help.

So he snaps. Which is a perfectly understandable reaction to the situation.

Like. It is absolutely the wrong reaction to the situation. Jaskier doesn’t deserve what Geralt said for what he’s done. 

But given everything that’s gone down, how consistently Jaskier ignores Geralt’s requests for space, how much stress Geralt’s been under, I can totally see what’s going through Geralt’s head, and it’s, essentially, “oh my god I just want to be left alone to deal GO AWAY” and then you get the mountain scene.

It’s not a good scene, and no one is perfectly flawless, but it’s a very very human scene. And from my place behind the fourth wall where no living human was actually hurt and I can see all sides equally, I just want to give everyone there a hug and some therapy.

(Disclaimer: I do actually love Jaskier and I love him very much, but I did want to address all of the shit he does in canon that’s never mentioned in the fandom)

#the witcher #the mountain scene #these are thoughts I've been having tbh since I joined the fandom #but they've come back with s2 and with a vengeance #because yean Geralt did a horrible thing #but it wasn't out of the blue and Jaskier's not some poor little woobie who never did anything wrong ever

[asuka--langley--soryu]

Hey! I’ve watched all of the show, the nge movies (rebuilds included) and the nge manga and I was wondering if you know of anymore canon/offical nge stories or content. I’ve seen some light novel series at my local bookstore but in general idk if there’s more Eva stories and series out there and what’s actually worth reading. Thanks! I love your blog!

short answer: there is SO much (too much) nge spin-off content and for the most part all of it is both non-canonical and unnecessary. off the top of my head the only thing I wholeheartedly 100% rec is khara’s ‘until you come to me’ animation (amv?), which is really beautifully done and, also, free.

also ive drafted this post like uh......4 times now and kept accidentally losing it so VERY sorry for the wait!! if it seems a lil slapdash i was tired of writing the same stuff again and again lol

extremely long answer under the cut (and links will be in a rb). somehow this became a fully fledged field guide to nge spin off content bc i am physically incapable of brevity so w/o further ado or whatever:

ok so i’ll try to make this as comprehensive + comprehensible as possible but,as I said, there is a loooot of content and I, shockingly, have thoughts on most of it. let’s organize by categories

Manga:

Every single nge spin off manga is bad in shades and variations, ranging from ‘just kind of uninteresting’ to ‘genuine human atrocity’. Raising Project is probs the most well known and is one of my least favourite pieces of content that has ever been put onto this earth. it coalesces all of the worsts parts of both evangelion and evangelion fans and can’t even manage a decent art style on top of that. there is nothing redeemable about raising project.if you see a copy out in the world please do me a favour and tear it apart w your teeth <3

Aside from That, the other big ‘alternate universe’ manga are probably Angelic Days, Campus Apocalypse, and maybe Petit Eva. I do not care much for Angelic Days or Campus Apocalypse but they are definitely not as deeply repellent as sirp. Petit Eva is, as far as I’ve seen, kind of your usual chibi comedy stuff so if youre looking for something extremely lighthearted that might be for you? I havent interacted w Petit Eva pretty much at all frankly so I’m not exactly sure whats going on there.

Shinji Ikari Detective Diary is another AU manga which I have actually been meaning to read for like......ages but have never gotten around to. It’s (as you can probably guess) a mystery series, which I’m usually into, and I havent personally heard anything bad about it, so I’ll cautiously rec looking into it. if you do and find some good scans feel free to send me way <3

finally, there’s Tony Takezaki’s parody manga, which is just like...a bunch of parody/satire comics. I do actually own it (bc I loooovvveeeee genocyber) and the art is great and its genuinely funny (given you like takezaki’s weird, kind of raunchy humor). He has a comic making fun of fan service that ends w fuyutski beating the shit out of gendo as ‘real fan service’ so like. I do genuinely recommend this one.

Novels:

Not a true ‘novel’ but Eva 1 + Eva 2 is an anthology featuring some essays, as well as comics and illustrations. It is a lot of silly shitty fanservice though, so ymmv. I dont own it (yet) but its on my radar literally exclusively because of Obata’s fucking incredible cover art.

The actual ‘novel’ that youre probably talking about is ANIMA, which is a canon divergence exploring a future where Shinji managed to completely circumvent Instrumentality. I haven’t picked up the last volume since it came out last year, so I can’t speak on it as a whole, but I like ANIMA well enough to recommend it. It reads kind of like an extremely dedicated sci-fi/cyberpunk fanfic, frankly, with that same kind of wildly convoluted but entertaining plot and much more of a focus on idealised character interactions and the ‘wow cool robot’ of it all. Actually, its kind of entirely ‘wow cool robot’ tbh, or at least the best parts are, but Ikuto Yamashita (the writer) was nge’s mech designer so that’s no surprise.

the writing is nothing stellar and it can get fanservicey in a very eyeroll kind of way, but if you go in w reasonable expectations it’s pretty entertaining. like i said, it feels very fanfic but in a ‘200k wordcount crazy worldbuilding fix it fic’ kind of way.

ANIMA expands waaaaaAAYYY more on the evas, which can be cool but does definitely indulge in some ridiculous mecha shit and, i cannot stress this enough, a lot of deeply convoluted and absolutely fruit looped sci-fi plot shit. it does actually literally feature something called ‘Super Eva’ and iirc mari is a cat girl who pilots some kind of wolf robot so yknow... ymmv

theres a buuunch of illustrations included and all the concepts for the evas are very cool and the concepts for the kid are very bad. probably it should be illegal for him to draw asuka ever again

Video Games:

there are too many nge video games. way too many. did you know about the typing game??? what about the multiple STRIP mahjong games???? or the pokemon/tomogatchi game where you hand raise an angel from birth while playing as KAJI???? the detective game where kaworu straight up fucking human murders gendo???

they wrung nge for everything it was worth in the 90s, though ig having a million fucking titles was probs super useful for all that tax fraud

some highlights:

Battle Orchestra: this is the only one i’ve ever really played and it is very fun and very of its time. a pretty straightforward fighting game but ft a big combat polygon

Second Impression: this is the second nge game to be released and i am fucking obsessed with it. what i would not give for there to be a translation available. as far as I have ever been able to tell its sort of a vaguely canon ‘side story’ about joining a band and also befriending a new girl who eventually transforms into a giant fucking horrifying bug angel. its a kind of proto kaworu storyline but gross and i want it so SO bad.

rei ayanami raising project: this is I guess basically a pet raising game except the pet is pre-series rei ayanami. you get to choose what clubs and hobbies she has and the coordinating pictures are genuinely incredible and ill 100% be posting some later. nonsense but there IS a dress up portion so like. might be worth.

Girlfriend of Steel 1 & 2: GOS 1 has the rando brunette that you see all over the place and so like idk shout out to her i guess and if you want to know the context behind that feel free to check it out, but it frankly seems extremely fucking boring and also has GOD awful asuka characterisation so. pass.

GOS 2 is the one where you can kind of date kaworu and afaik thats the only notable thing about it

Angel Rising: this is the pokemon/tomogatchi kaji game and despite how baffling it is conceptually i do actually love the artstyle and am deeply considering playing it myself. also, it does apparently give some good insight into Kaji. a new english translation came out last march so its like actually one of the most accessible of all of these somehow.

Evangelion 2 has the ‘Classified Files’ which is a tenuously canon supplemental info dump, but god is in his heavens and thats all fully available + translated online so we do not have to bother playing Evangelion 2

Secret of Evangelion: I actually know almost nothing about this but ive heard it may have some interesting info on instrumentality? it is very VERY much On My Radar and may be worth checking out 

there are so, so many others but i am just so tired.

Animation:

There are a few Petit Eva OVAs which are all in the same silly slice-of-life style and seem mostly whatever except for an episode which is, as far as i can tell, entirely about up-skirting asuka so like. yknow what actually fuck petit eva

MORE IMPORTANTLY in like 2015ish Studio Khara had the ‘Japan Animator Expo’ where they released anime shorts made by a bunch of different people. it’s actually where me!me!me! came from, and plenty of other very very cool shorts were put out during the expo’s run. Another Impact and until you come to me were both part of the Expo and are extremely fucking good. Another Impact got a lot of hype, which was well-deserved but DID briefly spark a whole ‘live action nge’ thing which is, actually, my manchurian candidate sleeper cell trigger phrase. until you come to me is much less ‘flashy’ and didn’t get as much attention, but its so so beautiful and you should all go watch it immediately.

if you have managed to bear reading through this whole thing just know that you are my favourite and im giving you a lil kiss on the forehead

#i am so SO so so sorry for both the wait time on my answer and the length #i write clickbait for a living now and i think thats made my cant shut up disease even fucking worse #nge #evangelion #neon genesis evangelion #i got WAY too into this and like maybe its bc i havent gotten to dig into nge for a while or maybe its the uppers who is 2 say #later.....ill rb with links. watch the skies or whatever #asks #this has been a text post #refs

[makeste]

BnHA Chapter 313: Deku VS Lady Nagant

Previously on BnHA: Hawks’s super-hot badass murder senpai Lady Nagant showed up to fire a cupid’s arrow into my heart, and a bunch of literal bullets into my son. Deku was all “oh shit it’s Hawks’s super-hot badass murder senpai, what do I do, let me think back to Hawks’s advice for a sec.” Flashback!Hawks was all “anyway Deku so if my super-hot badass murder senpai ever shows up you’re basically screwed so you’d better abscond the fuck out of there.” Present!Deku was all “lol idek why I flashed back to that conversation since I’m just going to do the exact opposite of what Hawks said” and charged directly toward Nagant because WHY NOT. Overhaul was all “waah I need to get back to my boss who I put in a coma out of love” and Nagant was all “jesus christ why did I even bring you here” and had a flashback to AFO who was all “ILU NAGANT IMMA GIVE YOU AN EXTRA QUIRK SO PLEASE CAPTURE DEKU FOR ME PLEASE AND THANKS” and yeah. Shit is all over the place right now and I love it.

Today on BnHA: All Might gets attacked by a pair of discount assassins and is all “Call an ambulance! ...BUT NOT FOR ME” and it’s really badass but also I really wish he would stop tempting fate like this. Lady Nagant is all “[casually flies around town shooting shit]” and I’d be lying if I said I wouldn’t read an entire chapter of just that. Deku is all, “[gets shot (≥_<)]” and releases a giant Smokescreen which prompts En to show up. En is all, “( •᷄⌓•᷅ ) (⌣̀ Δ⌣́) ( •̀_•́ )σ (¬､¬) (눈_눈)” which I consider to be a high point of both the chapter and of my life. The chapter ends with Deku using the Third’s quirk to launch a bunch of random objects at Nagant so that he can jump up and grab her arm all sneaky-like, and I’m sure this is going to prompt another week’s worth of discourse that I don’t care about at all, but fuck it, I’m having a good time.

OH WE’RE CUTTING BACK TO ALL MIGHT WELL THAT’S NICE I GUESS. CONGRATS ON NOT BEING DEAD

you named your car??

you named it Hercules??

I love you so much??

please marry me you giant fucking dork???

lmao speaking of huge fucking dorks

who the fuck are you clowns. la dee da we’re gonna murder All Might with our synchronized spear attack!! I mean... they’re clearly trying their best... maybe I should just be nice and politely hype them up like All Might is so clearly trying to do

like okay, but we all agree that this is actually the least intimidating attack any of us has ever seen, right?? these guys zipped up their hoodies all serious-like and are trying to attack All Might and Hercules with their Walmart tiki torches, but just, no?? right?? like the only way this could possibly be effective is if they were trying to kill All Might with secondhand embarrassment

“those are assassins” this is a VERY generous assessment, All Might

OH MY GOD THE TIKI TORCHES ACTUALLY KILLED THE FUCK OUT OF HERCULES

[slaps roof of car] this baby can fit so many weaponized festive backyard lighting solutions in it

and yet, even after watching this with my own two eyes, I still can’t take these dudes seriously. idek what it is. anyways r.i.p. Hercules, I loved you a lot but I guess you weren’t actually a very good armored car were you

omg they didn’t know it was All Might??

okay 1) for a moment there I was like “oh hey maybe they’re not so bad after all” but then a moment later it was like “ah nope, they are.” like, that was an interesting .06 second emotional journey there. anyways 2) All Might you have my permission to kick their asses for this disrespect, and 3) anyone else all of a sudden getting “wouldn’t this be an interesting time for Stain to suddenly show up” vibes?? no?? just me???

(ETA: hmm tbh I’ve still got those vibes and they haven’t gone away lol. Stain?? you out there buddy?? do you want to be cool for just once in your life. ball’s in your court pal.)

OH SNAP ALL MIGHT ARE YOU REALLY GONNA DO IT ARE YOU GONNA KICK THEIR ASSES

PROTECTIVE DAD MODE ACTIVATED?? BECAUSE YOU KNOW I’M HERE FOR THAT SHIT, SO YEAH, FEEL FREE

omg he’s shouting at them about how much Deku has suffered lmao and they’re just like falling over from being scolded

so they have absolutely no idea what he’s talking about though, right? “SIR THIS IS A WENDY’S” well whatever, you killed his pet car so he’s in a bad mood now

OH MY GOD

LIKE, JUST SO WE’RE ALL CLEAR, THESE FOUR PAGES SO FAR HAVE MADE ALMOST ZERO SENSE. LIKE MAYBE 2% SENSE TOPS. BUT ASK ME IF I CARE. GO AHEAD AND ASK. I SAID GO AHEAD, IT’S OKAY. ...NO I DON’T CARE AT ALL THANK YOU FOR ASKING

(ETA: also, the more I look at this panel, the more I’m just like, why the hell would you phrase it like that though, sob. way to doubly tempt fate?? are you trying to give Horikoshi a challenge??)

and now back to Deku who is randomly bouncing around the city and narrating it to himself just in case he was confused about why he was doing this

who are you talking to Deku. but thanks we appreciate it

man you gotta love that overconfidence. the smartest guy in the world warned you away from this lady, so SURE, LET’S RUN RIGHT UP TO HER. “I APPRECIATE YOUR INPUT, FLASHBACK!HAWKS, BUT I’LL TAKE IT FROM HERE” well okay then!!

I think it would be funny if RHA.com put little Buzzfeed-style polls in between the chapter pages so they could survey people at random intervals as they read their way through the chapter. like, you finish this page and then there’s a little poll there asking “do you think Deku’s plan of catching up to Lady Nagant and finding out where Shigaraki is will work?”, and you click “no” just like everyone else and then nod as the results show that 97% of your fellow readers also picked “no”, and you chuckle to yourself wondering how many of the 3% accidentally clicked on the wrong option by mistake, and then you keep on reading

ANYWAY, SO

HOW’S THAT PLAN WORKING OUT FOR YOU SO FAR DEKU. nice kick, though!!

omggggggg

ouch

update: Deku’s plan not really working out. sources tell me my boy has been fucking shot. this is an ongoing story and we will keep you posted with the latest developments as they come in

wait what

feel free to explain to the rest of us what all of this “UNLESS...” and “THAT POSSIBILITY...” shit means anytime, Deku

oh lol did he realize she could fly??

BREAKING NEWS UPDATE, CNN’s John King reports that Deku is still fucked. eyewitness reports now coming in that Nagant is doing no-look shots and basically not even giving a fuck. sources described her mannerisms and expression as “sexy, but in like an effortless sort of way.” we will continue to bring you the latest

so now there’s basically an entire page of Deku being all “ah fuck so she’s basically closing in and she could already hit me with impossible accuracy even from Far Away, so if that’s the case then her being Up Close is probably going to be even worse!” making good use of that Big Hero Brain there, Deku

so now what, you’re doing some kind of spiraling kick thing?? how is that going to help

oh lol he’s using Smokescreen to create some cover. aww, good for you Deku you named one of your Smokescreen attacks

OH NO LADY DON’T TELL ME AFO DIDN’T EVEN FILL YOU IN ON THE BASICS

seriously, AFO?? you basically told her what Deku’s exact strategy was going to be but then couldn’t be assed to drop that little, small, barely notable piece of knowledge that Deku is rocking multiple quirks?? is it supposed to be a secret or something?? you dropped the ball here man

damn this is getting intense now

(ETA: the way En is poking Deku’s head in that first panel is fucking sending me, I love this guy so much omg.)

well then what are you planning, Deku?? I’m actually really curious!! I am genuinely starting to be invested in this fight scene not only in the “wanting to see who wins and how that impacts the plot” sense, but also in the “wanting to see how it happens because the choreography and strategy is actually pretty cool” sense, which honestly hasn’t happened for quite a while now! this is fun

anyway so what’s up Deku, are you going to use another quirk?? I’ve been speculating that he hasn’t actually unlocked the last two yet (since Two and Three didn’t exactly seem convinced when we last saw them), but maybe I’m about to be proven wrong

(ETA: well he clearly has Three’s obviously, but Two’s is still MIA, and that’s the one I am of course the most curious about. that’s the one we’re all curious about, let’s be real.)

OH SNAP???

AHHHH I’M HYPED LOL. ANOTHER SHINY NEW QUIRK LOL SHOULD I PUT UP THE USUAL DISCOURSE DISCLAIMER

(ETA: so yeah, after thinking on it, I’m not gonna say “please no Deku discourse on my blog” this week, but I probably will ignore any discourse that does come my way though, just because I don’t have much interest in getting involved in what would probably be a pretty repetitive discussion. like, I can just sum up my opinions (which is what they are) here instead. in fact here they are lol:

1) I like the SIXQUIRKS and I like seeing Deku be a badass.

2) I also don’t think Deku is too OP. more like he’s exactly as OP as he needs to be at the moment, given that we’re approaching the end of the series. I expect the other kids will also be pretty damn OP when we see them fight again. we’re just at that point now where they’re all badasses (as well they should be; they’ve grown a lot and they deserve it). it’s just that Deku’s the one we’re getting to see right now.

3) of course I miss Kacchan and the others, but for me this vibes much closer to the MVA arc where even though I missed them, I was still having a blast (as opposed to the dark days of the Basement arc where I was pretty much losing it lol). like, even though Kacchan’s my favorite, I still love Deku a lot and this arc has been amazing for him getting to shine on his own (for like the first time, really).

4) y’all know I love the OFA plot and I’ve never been shy about that lol. I like all of the Vestiges a lot. Banjou and his over the top personality; En and his “guy you thought would be serious and :| all the time but is actually hyper-animated and ALL OVER THE PLACE” energy; Shiro who actually is a :| sort of guy lol; Three who I still expect will be fleshed out in a more detailed flashback at some point; and of course Two, who, well. you know what I think about him lol. Bakuverse is still on the table and I’m still hyped. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that we still have yet to see Two actually talk to Deku (as opposed to talking to the other Vestiges while Deku is distracted). did he lend him his power yet?? or is he still holding out?? either way it’s definitely going to be a Big Thing when it finally happens and I can’t wait to see it.

5) Lady Nagant is Everything and just because Deku grabbed her arm doesn’t mean the fight is over yet lol. Overhaul hasn’t come into play yet either. not to mention that even if the fight is over, the “where do we go from here” part still has me excited either way. her connection to Hawks and the HPSC is very intriguing and we’ve barely touched on that as of yet; she definitely has more of a role to play in this.

6) last but not least, I feel like every week the discussion is all about how much focus Deku’s getting, and how OP he is or isn’t, and OFA this and OFA that, but meanwhile I’m actually so invested in the character development here though?? the way Deku has distanced himself from everyone (except for the Vestiges, because of course they’re already dead so it’s not like they can die again lol)?? the way he’s pushing himself far too hard and we can see the shadows in and under his eyes, and the fact that he never smiles, and even All Might has remarked on how he isn’t taking care of himself at all?? the fact that he’s so single-mindedly obsessed with focused on stopping AFO?? the fact that he’s still the same sweet old Deku despite everything and was so kind to that fox lady with the umbrella, but there was also something so sad about that scene because it felt like a reminder of the type of hero that he wants to be, but that he’s not allowed to be right now?? because the stakes are too high and the world is falling apart?? and he feels like he’s the only one who can do something about it?? and that he has to be?? and that he is putting so much pressure on himself right now, and it’s absolutely too much pressure for any one person to bear, and I feel like no one is fucking talking about this lol goddammit.

anyway so yeah. I have feels about this, and every week that slow-burn angst is getting more and more intense behind the scenes, and I feel like it’s all going to hit a breaking point eventually. sooner rather than later. it really feels like a mirror of Katsuki’s post-Kamino arc. where all that angst was just churning below the surface for like twenty chapters and then it finally was like “okay it’s time” and it all came bursting out and we got the best five chapters of the fucking series (in my admittedly biased estimation lol).

basically, I know that most of fandom is billing this as either the “villain hunt” arc or the “solo Deku SIXQUIRKS fighting arc” or whatever. but for me, it’s always been and still is the Deku Angst arc lol. the cool fights are a sexy bonus (the worldbuilding less so because even though it’s interesting to see society at such a low point, it’s also very depressing and gets old pretty fast), but for me the thing that’s really keeping me engaged chapter after chapter is seeing Deku like we’ve never seen him before. seeing him all quiet and withdrawn and brooding and focused on AFO, AFO, AFO, and seeing that “he just doesn’t take himself into account” mentality taken to extremes. I am invested in that. I’m soaking up that angst each and every week, and I’m invested in seeing what comes of it. it’s a big picture thing. week to week this arc might just seem like a bunch of villain fight scenes, sure. but Deku’s emotional journey is the thread that’s going to carry this arc through from beginning to end, and for that I’m willing to be patient.

anyway that turned into a BIG OL’ RANT there but yeah! so those are my thoughts on the disk horse as it currently stands. and like I said, I’m open to discussion, but tbh I will probably just wind up repeating these same talking points endlessly so just a fair warning lol.)

anyway so Three says Deku has yet to use his quirk at ALL but now he’s trying to combine it with another quirk?? damn. also please check out En’s face here you guys

En launching a sneak attack up my favorite character list by the sheer power of his expressions alone. he really knows how to make the most of his screentime

OH DAMN DEKU

at this point the 3% from that hypothetical poll earlier are starting to feel prettttty damn smug, I’ll bet. well shit

what in the fuck

?? so like releasing his chi or whatnot?? isn’t that basically just like base OFA all over again?? also Deku did you seriously just apologize to Gran’s cape

update: Nagant has turned her eyeball into a gun

hm. hmmmmmmm. ...okay yep, still somehow sexy

anyway so she’s just floating up there building suspense, as one does. lord I sure hope she has good reflexes because something tells me she’s going to need them

OH SNAP HE THREW GRAN’S CAPE AS A DECOY WHAAAAT OKAY THAT’S SOME SMART SHIT DEKU

LOL SHE’S MAD NOW

JESUS CHRIST SHE JUST NEVER TAKES A GODDAMN BREAK FROM BEING AWESOME HUH

DEKU ARE YOU JUST THROWING EVERY DAMN THING IN YOUR INVENTORY

but without the cape and the hood how will you continue to look like an enigmatic badass. you really can’t. which means we might finally be moving on from the wandering nomad part of this arc, stay tuned

LOL YOU MANIAC

I hope he went full Kacchan with the dialogue there. his face sure looks like it lol. popped out of a building all mad fdskljlkj omg

well this was fun, shit. I still have basically no idea what Three’s quirk does though lol. like, can he use it to charge up objects with kinetic energy or something?? but then what was all of that talk about combining it with one of the other quirks?? or was that just because he was using Smokescreen at the same time??

(ETA: having seen and read an additional half-dozen explanations of Three’s quirk, I can say with confidence that I still have basically no idea what it is or does.)

anyway so!! Deku is a badasssssss but something tells me not to count Nagant out just yet even so. also I really enjoy seeing Deku flip out on people like he doesn’t have a fucking hole in his torso because it reminds me of A CERTAIN SOMEONE and I always love to see him channeling that feral energy; I feel like it’s been a while

anyways good luck to you both!! I truly wish that both of you could win. but if not, then maybe you can at least become friends instead. you have so much in common, you both can fly and have multiple quirks and you’re both badasses, and plus it would just be really funny to see the look on Hawks’s face lmao

#bnha 313 #midoriya izuku #lady nagant #bnha meta #deku meta #bnha #boku no hero academia #bnha spoilers #mha spoilers #bnha manga spoilers #makeste reads bnha

[hintofelation99]

What if the batfam found batfam headcanons and stuff on tumble, and, by extension, your account?

If the batfam were real my account would be sooooooooooo different. It’d probably be dedicated to things/ppl i like in general rather than just dc/batfam (that being said I am still an accidental batfam blog, I make no promises and will fill no boxes). I’ll assume that I have some posts about the Waynes just cause I would view them as a funny/relatable rich family but I also have posts about other groups/individuals I know and like (ie Harry Styles, Taylor Swift, All Time Low, Hannah Gadsby, etc). Let’s also assume that in this universe I would have batfam posts. If this were to be the case I would def make a bunch of posts about moth-man being a member of the ‘bat squad’ (cause I wouldn’t know they’re fam). Also ngl I would definitely ship them, like I would not know they were a family so I’d definitely ship them, mostly jokingly but probs low key seriously. Which would be even funnier bc my ships would annoy the hell out of them. Based solely off their public vigilante personas here’s how I think my ships would go:

Batgirl/Spoiler: I mean tbh rn whether or not i ship them depends on my mental state and the moon cycle. So I’d definitely ship them in this alternate universe.

Red Robin/Nightwing: I would definitely ship sad analytical boi with sunshine bby. I wouldn’t even need a reason, I’d just think their personalities work well together. Ok I wrote this part a few hours ago and just realized whether or not I shipped them would depend on their ages/how old they appeared to be. I would not ship bby™ (aka 16/17) Tim w/ flippy boi™ (24/25) Dick Grayson.

Babs!Batgirl/Batwoman: Again, no real reason. I’d just think their personalities would be cute together.

The Signal/Kid Flash: I know this one seems random, and tbh it would be. But I’d ship the Signal with another day time hero and I feel like if these characters were real I’d like the speedsters more than the supers (cause they’re more talkative/bantery).

Red Hood/Batman: Tbh this is the worst/funniest. I wouldn’t know RH was a Robin. I would just see them fighting then slowly becoming allies, so I’d be like ‘Cool! What a nice enemies to lovers arc’

But legit if I didn’t know their alter egos/that they’re family my biggest ship would be Red Hood/Batman. Which would be absolutely hilarious. Like imagine all my redarse (yes that is the only ship name I acknowledge for Jason/Roy) posts as Red Hood/Batman. The only differences being that they don’t reference the manor/civilian identities (ex. Instead of saying manor I’d say hideout or some vague shit) and Batman would take Jason’s place as the more cynical/serious one while Red Hood would take Roy’s place as the irresponsible/funny one. It’d be golden, especially bc then Jason and Bruce stumble on to them and would just get so awkward. Just for a moment imagine them reading my ‘who has a better ass’ post (link). And Jason just being so embarrassed at the thought of ever talking about Bruce’s ass like that. Or my ‘Roy tries to flirt’ post (link). Like Bruce straight up leaves the room after reading it. Later they pass each other in the hall and this happens:

Bruce: We will never discuss what was read today ever again. Right?

Jason: I don’t even know what you’re talking about.

Bruce: Good.

Tim, walks by looking at his phone: Ha, thunder thighs.

Both Bruce and Jason go red and quickly walk a way.

No one says anything about it bc it is sorta awkward, but every once and while Tim and Steph can be seen giggling over a post.

(Also I hope this post doesn’t sound super conceited, I just linked posts so that y’all could see what I’m talking about.)

#batfam #jason todd #tim drake #batman #red hood #dick grayson #red robin #bruce wayne #mypost #incorrect batfamily quotes #nightwing #stephanie brown #spoiler #duke thomas #batgirl #the signal #oracle #ask #incorrect batfam quotes #barbara gordon #cassandra cain #black bat

[sketching-shark]

LMK fandom: Oh, what do we do about this guy who has nothing but hurt Xiaotian, tried to replace Sun Wukong and his crew, hurt Tripitaka and ordered servants to cannibalize a monkey? Oh I know! We’ll turn him into our little meow meow~ he’s so innocent and Sun Wukong is obviously the villain!

What doesn’t help is this idea is perpetuated by multiple fan fic writers and artists for some reason. Especially some aus they make that turn SWK into a bastard for the sake of the story rather than considering cultural context and thinking they should be respectful.

And almost everyone lets them get away with it just because the art or fanfic is good and they get so popular that no one can point what is actually wrong without feeling like they’re going to get attacked.

I'm starting to feel like my blog is the one anons go to specifically to vent their frustrations about the Six Eared Macaque in his lego monkey show form & the associated fandom lmao. But I guess this makes sense, as I’ve had fun quasi-dragging him before & will in fact use this anon submission as an opportunity to have my own, to put it academically, bitch fest about not just this fandom's favorite protagonist-traumatizing meow meow, but about the way villains are often treated in not just fanon, but increasingly in canon works as well. But same policy as with the last anon; I'll post my opinions below the cut, and as fandoms love to say, don’t like don't read if you don't want to see me dunking on the six eared simian & common fandom tendencies towards villains.

Oh man I would say where would you even begin with this but anon you’ve pretty much started yourself with my main gripe with a lot of ways that the Six-Eared Macaque is portrayed in fandom; there seems to be this unspoken agreement that his acts of violence towards Sun Wukong, Qi Xioatian, and Qi Xioatian’s loved ones are either to be framed as somewhat or totally justified, to be immediately forgiven/excused, or to simply & completely be ignored. Like friends maybe this is just me not seeing the proper posts but while the fandom is inundated with art and fanfics of Macaque as a generally decent individual & a true member of team good guy, I have yet to see one person address the fact that this monkey literally kidnapped & mind-controlled Xiaotian’s best friend and father figures & forced them to brutalize Xiaotian while ol’ Six Ear looked on and laughed (X_X). Like this kind of fandom villain treatment is definitely not something that’s solely at work for Monkie Kid, but it is kind of nutty how fandoms will swing between yelling that people should be allowed to like villains without even mild critique, and then will just flat-out not address the villainous behavior, and will even bend over backwards to frame even characters who committed genocide as just poor innocent widdle victims who need a hug. At its worst, I’ve even seen tons of people in a fandom get really angry at other people who don’t like a villain, and will even start accusing those people of hating real-life mentally disabled or abused individuals all because they don’t like the fandom’s favorite literal war criminal. The Monkie Kid fandom is FAR more chill & better than a lot of other fandoms I’ve come across in that regard, but that is an exceedingly low bar, & the tendency to woobify certain kinds of villains-- as with Macaque and the extreme emphasis on his bad boy/sad boy thing--is very much at work.  

 I’ve also talked before about a kind of monoculturalization of certain character interpretations and story beats in fandoms, and one of the more popular ones that seems to be applied to Macaque a lot is the “hero actually bad, villain actually good” cliche, as observable from the general fandom assumption that Mr. Six-Ears he wasn’t even slightly lying or remembering things through a rose-tinted or skewed lens when he gave his version of his and Sun Wukong’s past. Like at this point it seems the possibility that people WILL NOT even consider is that Sun Wukong never did & still doesn't care that much about the Six Eared Macaque (in JTTW they weren’t sworn brothers & in Monkie Kid the only thing the monkey king really said to Macaque before attacking him was a pretty contemptuous "Aren't you ever going to get sick of living under my shadow?," & responds to his "beloved friend" getting blown up with "You did good, bud" to Qi Xiaotian, who did the exploding), or that their original fight may in fact have mostly been instigated by Macaque. After all, to repeat what this anon summarized & what I've said before about their original JTTW context (& in an example of the things that do feel like it's often lost in translation) is that the Six Ear Macaque was a villain not just because he beat up the Tang Monk, but because he wanted to take over Sun Wukong's entire life and identity so he could have all that glory, prestige, and power for himself. To quote the macaque himself from the Anthony C. Yu translation, "I struck the T'ang monk and I took the luggage...precisely because I want to go to the West all by myself to ask Buddha for the scriptures. When I deliver them to the Land of the East, it will be my success and no one else's. Those people of the South Jambudvipa Continent will honor me then as their patriarch and my fame will last for all posterity." And in order to do this, the Six Eared Macaque had apparently made Sun Wukong's "little ones," his monkey family, his captives through either trickery or force, and gotten a number of them to take on the appearance of Tang Sanzang and the other pilgrims. It's also made clear that in very direct contrast to Sun Wukong, he doesn't care about these monkeys beyond how they might serve him. In fact, after Sha Wujing kills the monkey posing as him the Six Eared Macaque not only all but immediately replaces him with another, but also "told his little ones to have the dead monkey skinned. Then his meat was taken to be fried and served as food along with coconut and grape wines." So this monkey is not only willing to risk the lives of a lot of other monkeys for his own personal benefit, but is also a literal cannibal. And yes yes, I know a lot of people have argued that Monkie Kid shouldn't be considered a direct sequel to JTTW & that's fair enough (for example, Sun Wukong probably shouldn't be smashing anyone into a meat patty in a children's cartoon lol). And of course, it needs to be noted that there are a buttload of really out there & really cursed pieces of media based on JTTW & that were created in China. Yet the above description is the oft-ignored in the west original facet of the Six Eared Macaque's character. And it is this selfishness, entitlement, and treatment of other individuals as tools for his own self-serving ends  that is, from where I’m standing, still very much present in Monkie Kid. Like besides repeatedly going out of his way to physically and psychologically traumatize Xioatian, with the last episode Macaque seemed to be going right back to his manipulative ways. I’ve seen people frame their last conversation as Macaque softening to Xioatian a little bit, but personally that read a lot more like that common tactic among abusers where even after they’ve hurt you they’ll dangle something you want or need over your head (in Macaque’s case, the promise of desperately needed training and information about a serious looming threat), with the implication that you’ll only get it if you do what they want you to, such as, in this case, Xioatian going back to Macaque as his student even after having been so terribly hurt by this monkey, which would give Macaque power over Xiaotian and probably Sun Wukong as a result. And it is this violence and manipulation that it seems the fandom at large has tacitly decided shouldn’t even be addressed, instead leaning more towards a (and this is an exaggeration) “Six-Eared Macaque my poor meow meow Sun Wukong has always been bad & has always been wrong about literally everything” reading. 

And while it is the case that I am not Chinese and feel that as such it would be best left to someone who actually comes from that background to provide more context into how common interpretations of the Six Eared Macaque from China may clash really badly with the stuff the western fandom creates, it also must be noted that, as much as we all want to have fun in fandom & in spite of all the out-there versions of JTTW from China, we westerners should recognize that there is a very long and very ugly history of western countries stripping other cultures’ important religious and literary works for parts & mashing them into their own thing while implying or even insisting that what they present provides a true understanding of the original piece. And while I trust most individuals in regards to Monkie Kid are able to step back and think “this is a lego cartoon and not a set guide for how I should understand JTTW” (especially given the insistence that JTTW and Monkie Kid should be considered there own separate works) there does nevertheless seem to be something of a tendency to take the conclusions people come to, for example, about Sun Wukong’s characteristic in his lego form & then assume that’s just reflective to Sun Wukong as a totality. I imagine a good portion of this is due to people not reading JTTW & especially to not having easy access to solid information or answers about JTTW’s many different facets (like geez awhile ago I was trying to get a clear answer on what is considered the most accurate translation of the names of Sun Wukong’s six sworn brothers & got like 5 different responses lmao), but that tendency to take a western fandom interpretation & run with it instead of doing any background research or questioning said interpretation is still very much at play. As such, & as made prominent in the way people have been interpreting the dynamic between Sun Wukong and the Six Eared Macaque in the lego monkey show, tbh it does seem kind of shitty for western creators & audience to sometimes go really out of their way to ignore all of this original cultural & narrative context for the sake of Angst (TM) in Macaque's favor, demonizing Sun Wukong, and shipping the monkey king with his evil twin (X_X).

And speaking of which, even beyond the potential inherent creepiness & revulsion that can be inspired by this specific ship given common interpretations of the og classic's original meaning (again, it's my understanding, given both summaries of translated Chinese academic texts I've been kindly provided with, my own reading of the Anthony C. Yu translation of JTTW, & vents from a number of Chinese people I've seen on this site, that the Six-Eared Macaque is commonly interpreted in China as having originated from Sun Wukong himself as a living embodiment of his worst traits, hence why only Buddha can tell the difference between them & why the monkey king is much more slow to violence after he kills the macaque), I'd argue that in the face of all the uwu poor widdle meow meow portrayals lego show Macaque is, especially if you include JTTW's events, still in the role of “Sun Wukong but worse” as he is very much a violent & selfish creep. Like he was basically running around in JTTW wearing a Sun Wukong fursuit, but there he had the sole reason of wanting to replace Sun Wukong wholesale so he could have all the good things in the monkey king's life without actually having to work as hard for them. But if you combine that with Macaque now claiming that he used to be best friend with Sun Wukong in his pre-journey days (something that's made funny from a JTTW context given that that status actually belongs to the Demon Bull King lol), his original violence has now blown into this centuries long and really unhealthy obsession with the monkey king. Like he's apparently gone from wanting to literally be Sun Wukong to being so obsessed with getting revenge on Sun Wukong that he's got basically nothing else going on in his life. Like he's only appeared in two episodes but...does he have any friends? Any family? A career or even a hobby that DOESN'T center the monkey king? Anything at all outside of his "get revenge on and/or kill Sun Wukong/use his successor as my personal punching bag” thing? Like dude! That is extremely creepy and extremely bad for everyone all around! As I’ve said before, this seeming refusal to see beyond the past or to do something that doesn’t involve Sun Wukong in some capacity is a trait that makes Macaque an interesting and somewhat tragic villain--he even seems to be working as Sun Wukong’s reflection in a mirror darkly, with lego show Sun Wukong pretty clearly not being able to heal from his own past which is hinted to be defined by one loss after another, and with Monkie Kid even kind of having these two characters somewhat follow their JTTW characterizations in that in the latter half of the journey Sun Wukong often gets sad & starts crying in the face of what seems insurmountable odds (& Monkie Kid Sun Wukong does seem to be hiding some serious depression behind a cheerful facade), whereas the Six-Eared Macaque retains a worse version of Sun Wukong’s pre-journey characteristic of getting pissed and lashing out if things don’t go his way--but it’s also what would make any current friendship or romantic relationship between these monkeys horrific. Although to be fair even the fandom seems to recognize this in an unconscious way, in that a lot of the art & fanfic seems to swing erratically between them kissing & screaming at each other in yet another example of bog-standard fandom adulation of romanticized toxic relationships lol.  

At the end of the day, of course, this is nothing new. You'll find versions of this dynamic across a ton of fandoms and now even canonical work. And as such, I can only look at this kind of popularized relationship dynamic with a kind of resigned weariness whenever it pops up, & my frustrated question with the popularity of this kind of pairing is the exact same one that I have for a multitude of blatantly toxic villain/hero ships, given common fandom discourse & the tendency to either ignore or justify the villain's actions & demonize the hero: if you're THAT convinced that everything is the hero's fault, if you believe THAT much that the hero is the one in the wrong for the villain's pain and their subsequent actions, then why are you so set on them not only becoming a romantic pair, but framing this get-together as a good thing? Like I know we contain multitudes but that's waaay too many contradictions for me to wrap my head around. And it definitely doesn’t help that one branch of underlying reasoning behind this kind of pairing seems to be the ever-present “you break it, you fix it” mentality, where the assumption is that if you’re in a failing, abusive, and/or generally toxic relationship (platonically or romantically), if you put in enough time and effort & attempts to compromise, you’ll be able to restore/have the relationship you dreamed of, even with someone who hurt you really badly. And this assumption isn’t limited to fandom: I’d even argue that it’s everywhere in the culture, hence why a lot of people feel like they “failed” if they have to get a divorce or make the choice to leave an unhealthy friendship. Personally, I feel like people could really benefit from more stories about how it is not only the case that the people you hurt don’t owe you their forgiveness & you can still become a better and happier person without the one you hurt in your life, & that while it can be really hard it can also be a good thing to leave a relationship, even if it’s one that once meant a lot to you. 

  But in all honestly, from my own perspective this kind of pairing is starting to read far less like enemies to lovers and far more like a horrible fantasy where you can pull whatever shit you want, even on the people you "love," & never be held accountable for your terrible behavior or even have to consider that maybe you were in the wrong. It's another facet that makes me larf every time I see people insist that fandom is an inherently "transformative" or "progressive" form of storytelling like friends you are literally just taking status quo toxic monogamy & rebranding it as somehow beneficial & romantic (X_X).

But as to anon’s last frustration, it is hard to know what is the appropriate response with this kind of thing...like for my own part I’m keeping my frustrations to my blog & now increasingly to posts that you would have to click on the “read more” button to see what I have to say, but I totally get the hesitation to give even a mild critique to big names in a fandom. Like I've now seen it happen repeatedly where someone who has a big name in a fandom will make something that's kind of shitty for one reason or another, someone will message them with some version of "hey, that's kind of shitty, you shouldn't do that," and the typical response is either to blatantly ignore the issue completely, or more popularly to make a giant crying circus that seems deliberately geared towards stoking emotions on both sides of the, for example, fiction does/doesn't affect reality issue so that something that didn't even have to be that big a deal gets blown out of all proportion, with the big name often framing what often started out as a very mild critique into a long crying jag about how the initial response to their kind of shitty thing was so mean/cruel and they're just a poor innocent & that YOU'RE the true racist/sexist/bigot etc. if you don't agree with their opinion. It must of course be noted that there have also been numerous instances of people taking it too far the other way & sending not just big names but smaller creators literal deaths threats over stuff like innocuous ships which like holy hell bells people that’s a horrible thing to do. But for the big names at least, the end result of all this fighting is usually that once the dust has settled they have more attention/fame/money/power in the fandom than before, and with anyone who might have a problem with their stuff feeling afraid to voice their opinion lest they be swarmed by that person's fans. In that way fandom does often seem to increasingly be geared towards presenting an “official” fandom perspective about various facets of a piece of media instead of allowing for a multitude of interpretations, and with criticism, no matter its shape or form or how genuinely warranted it may be, being hounded out of existence. I feel like a lot of this could be made less bad if there wasn’t this constant assumption & even drive to think that a different interpretation of or criticism of your favorite work of fiction or your fanwork isn’t a direct claim that you are a thoroughly loathsome individual (& maybe also if people cultivated an enjoyment of learning things about important works from a culture outside their own, even if what you learn clashes with your own initial understandings), but I guess we’ll see if that ever happens. 

So these are my general thinks about the Six Eared Macaque’s current fandom meow meow status & some of my bigger gripes with fandom tendencies as a whole. I stand by my idea that the most interesting & beneficial route for Macaque moving forward would be a kind of “redemption without forgiveness from the ones you hurt” arc--as I think was done pretty excellently with the character Grace in Infinity Train--and if for no other reason than gosh dern this monkey really needs to cultivate some sort of identity beyond his “Sun Wukong but worse” persona. 

#lmk macaque #monkie kid macaque #6 eared macaque #monkie kid #lmk sun wukong #qi xiaotian #lmk monkey king #sun wukong #monkey king #journey to the west #jttw #fandom criticism #lmk