#if I ever finish and post any of my mgs writing it’s all over i stg

[gaylittleguys]

(transgenderly) I think the distinction between different names for Solid Snake/David is so interesting. In writing/dialogue I try and make the distinction between the Person David and the Persona and Role of Solid Snake. Sometimes the two are the same, but the difference is also important. Especially bc the games are so careful and deliberate about it and what they show of him (esp mgs2 I feel)

ALSO I think. Augh. Thinking too much about only a select few knowing him as David……

#Also. him referring to Otacon as Otacon and not Hal Emmerich. #different/chosen names only used by the people you’re closest to………. #much 2 think about #also I think in the mgs4 novel because of course #it says that only ‘a small fraction’ of his foster parents knew him as David #🤨🏳️‍⚧️❓ #if I ever finish and post any of my mgs writing it’s all over i stg #sorry this is maybe slightly incoherent it’s 2 am #.doc #mgs #thinking about otasune tonight but my thoughts about that rn are may b too unhinged and rambly to post but KNOW that I am thinking them

[4th-make-quail]

Asks for a Fic Writer!

Tagged by @eemamminy-art and @nateharmonica thank you!!

--

1. how many works do you have on AO3? 138! Which is weird cos it feels like only 2 minutes ago I was excited about hitting 100 lol

2. what's your total AO3 word count? 401,149 total

3. what fandoms do you write for? My top 5 written for fandoms are FFXIV (27), Resident Evil (26), FFXII (15), inFamous (13) and FFXV (13)! But I have a load of others as well - atm it's Baldur's Gate 3, alternated with my perennial beloved FFXII

4. what are your top five fics by kudos? Point of No Return - Resident Evil, Chris/Wesker, time travel fix-it fic Aphrodisiac - Overwatch, Reaper/Soldier 76, collaring and gloves kink Like a Drug - Resident Evil, Chris/Wesker, STARS era drug bust Filters - FFXV, Prompto/Ignis, 5 things fic about Prompto's photo taking Between Death and Ascension - Magnus Archives, Jon/Gerry, post season 3 fix it that got immediately jossed upon s4 releasing lol. Honestly I'm amazed this one is here, considering Jon/Gerry is a bit of a rarepair. Or at least, it was back then!! I have no idea of the current state of TMA fandom (and don't wanna know, ugh lmao)

5. do you respond to comments? Always as a rule, but usually quite a long time after I get them lksgfg

6. what is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending? Has to be From the Flames of the Fire, I Feel You, part 4 of my Sartauvoir/Basch series, because it's the fic where Basch dies at the end, and it finishes off with a notice from Noah about the death and funeral arrangements. I cried on my lunch break at work writing this fucker lmao

8. do you get hate on fics? I've not had anything since my ffn days, where I got a very mean comment about OOC. I mean, it was true, but MAN.

9. do you write smut? if so, what kind? It's very rare that I don't write smut! I think the yuletide fic I wrote was the first time in years lol. Either way, I like to write kinky porn with feelings and character study shit

10. do you write crossovers? what's the craziest one you've written? Not any more, but the craziest crossover with the most specific-ass audience was a British Comedy RPF crossed with FFX, where David Mitchell is a summoner and Charlie Brooker and Robert Webb are his guardians. It's called Spira Infinita, and I never did end up finishing it lmao. Oops. Either way, I had a blast writing it and I still think it was fucking good, all 9 kudos of it!! God... this just made me remember I also wrote a brooker/mitchell crossover with mgs. I was on some shit back then I tell you what

11. have you ever had a fic stolen? Not that I'm aware of! I'm not big enough for that, I think

12. have you ever had a fic translated? I thiiiink someone once asked me, but I forgot which fic it was tbh!

13. have you ever co-written a fic before? Yes!! I co-wrote one of my fave Ashe/Basch/Vossler fics with my friend when we got assigned each other for an ff_land exchange - Five Moments of Desire. It was really fun, we had a great time!

14. what's your all-time favourite ship? GOD this is hard!!! I think Nero/Credo tbh, I never get tired of thinking about them, even as sadly underrated as they are. Also Sartauvoir/Basch is highly up there, I've never been seized with such an insane streak of inspiration for a ship. They got me in their clutches and no mistake!!

15. what's a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will? I don't actually have much in the way of wips, but I do have 5k of a Sart/Basch AU where Sart channels his fenex summoning to bring Basch back to life, but it stalled a little due to a combo of scheduling for other things, other ships taking over my brain for a bit, and honestly the general lack of fandom for them? I have a few close friends I met because of the ship, but getting such low response to things is really demoralising and makes it hard to continue. I DO want to finish it for sure, but atm I am too gripped by other ships so idk if it'll happen.

16. what are your writing strengths? I think dialogue for sure, and characterisation.

17. what are your writing weaknesses? Fight scenes x_x Which is annoying, because I love them and have a lot of sparring/fighting related kinks!!! I persevere, but I hate every moment of writing them lol

18. thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic? Uhh nothing I've ever done! I think it'd be fine if you're fluent in that language OR if you have a trusted friend who is, who can give you actual sense-making sentences, but otherwise, do not!

19. first fandom you wrote for? Baby's first fandom was handwritten Redwall/Discworld crossover in reporter's notebooks as a very young child, but my first fandom-fandom was ffvii, where I wrote a frankly terrible Reno/Vincent fic! And idek why cos I don't ship it at all? I think I just had a boner for both of them and wanted to get it out. It is still on ffn alas, but eugh.

20. favourite fic you've written? Honestly I think it's my SartBasch series, Body Politics. It caters directly to my own id, and I think it's really good! I actually planned it out as a cohesive series AND actually finished writing it! Proud of myself lol. And I just.... *clenches fist* love those old men.....

----- tagging people, if u wanna do this, then consider urself tagged!!

#quailfic #ask quail #thank u for the tags!!

[jenleigh1]

For the Fanfic Writer Ask Meme: B, E, N, R :D

Thanks very much for the ask!

B:  What was the first fandom you read fic in?  Which was the first you wrote fic for?

Oh man, I'm going to date myself here. xD My very first fic-reading fandom was The X-Files, way back in the day. The first fandom I ever wrote anything for was Sherlock Holmes (I'm sorry, I'm an incredible nerd!), but of course it's just MGS nowadays.

E: What character do you identify with most?  Is there a certain fic of yours that captures these qualities particularly well?

Ah, in the MGS world I'd have to go with Otacon - I imagine he's a popular choice, lol. I suspect most of us have a little "stammering, insecure scientist who happens to be in love with the big beefy jock" somewhere deep down inside.

In all seriousness, though, I've always found Otacon to be one of the more heroic characters in the series, in his own quiet way. He overcomes a lot of personal baggage, and his own fear/insecurity issues, and always manages to Get Shit Done when push comes to shove. He doesn't do the flashy, 'blowing-things-up' part of the job, but he's consistently shown to be very competent at what he does. And when he has to do something that's very much NOT in his wheelhouse (like dragging his half-dead partner out of a river during a manhunt, or flying a helicopter full of hostages to safety right after watching his sister die), he steps up to the plate and does what needs doing.

In terms of fic, I'd say probably Taught By Thirst?? I am a huge sucker for Otacon being a terrified-but-competent badass in the immediate post-tanker aftermath, and that's a huge part of what that particular fic is about. He's the biggest unsung hero of the series, truly. ❤

N: Any fic ideas brewing that you’d care to share?

So many, lol! My problem is that I'm an *incredibly* slow, plodding writer, so it takes a long time to actually get anything to fruition.

Currently, I'm working on finishing up the last chapter of Or Else The Light... which is coming along nicely but DEAR GOD, it's going to be long. 😫 Hoping to have it done and posted sometime in the next couple of weeks or so.

Once that's finished, I do have several other ideas on the docket. In no particular order, they include:

Another longish, multi-chapter fic in the same series as Taught By Thirst, Everything That Rises, and Or Else The Light - set in the time period between MGS2 and 4, and dealing with their acquisition of Sunny and the start of Snake's accelerated aging issues.

A smutty 'sneaking suit sex' one-shot, because God knows I like PWPs as much as the next person and I have *thoughts* about how this might go down.

A "five times this happened" kind of thing with several loosely-related vignettes taking place at different times in the series, centered around scenarios where Snake runs into trouble in the field and Otacon has to deal with the aftermath - featuring different moods (awkward, funny/cute, angsty, etc.) depending on the details. Would likely include some bits from very early Philanthropy era, MGS4 era, and everything in between... kind of, tracing the evolution of their partnership (and, ahem... *partnership*, if you catch my drift) over time, through that lens.

R: Which writers (fanfic or otherwise) do you consider the biggest influence on you and your writing?

OH MAN, that's a tough one. I honestly think I take a little something away from almost everything I read, whether it's related to phrasing, word choice, character development, plotting, etc.

Because the truth is - writing any kind of fiction is fucking HARD, y'all. Much harder than I would have guessed, before I'd ever tried it myself. (How the fuck do people do this for a living??? Hats off, for real.) So nowadays, I like to pay attention to the mechanics of how the author is doing things when I read.

In terms of fanfic, when I was pretty heavily involved in the SH fandom, there was an absolutely amazing writer I still remember - she was very prolific, and her stuff was absolutely S-tier in every way. Beautiful prose, beautiful dialogue, story structure/theme that just got better the more you analyzed it, etc. Reading her stuff felt like reading a really excellent, beautifully-written published novel, and that was the first time it really struck me that fanfic could be... *that*, you know?

Don't get me wrong - I also like quick little character studies, and fun trashy smut, and everything in between! I also love that writing fanfic is something that literally anyone can try their hand at, and no one is necessarily expecting that you're going to sound like James Joyce. There is very little pressure to be "good", however one might try to define that - kind of like singing karaoke, in a bar. 😂 We're all just here to have fun, first and foremost.

BUT - I still remember the impression that made on me. And I still think about her now, when I write.

In the real world of published writing, there are SO MANY wonderful authors whose stuff I've loved. But in terms of... writing style, I guess? Word choice and phrasing, and the way a story is constructed - probably the two biggest standouts for me are Margaret Atwood and Tana French. I admire both of them tremendously.

#ask meme #answered asks #nerdy writing stuff #fic update

[heyyyharry]

[Part 1] Hi! If I wrote as good as you do, I would like some constructive criticism so that I could grow even more, so I’m giving some to you here as a reader (please don’t take any the wrong way): I think your best most professional story is by far My Girl, like you could publish the first two parts of that story right away! I think you might have to look a bit more at when to end things however, please don’t take this the wrong way - I really like your stories [cont.]

[Part 2] ...but My Girl for example had a perfect ending after part two of the story (skipping the secret sibling thing). Also just wondering what we’re your thoughts with doing a part 3? And it feels the same for flatmate - were in the first story has one real drama/plot/problem following the characters throughout the book, where as for the two books following, a new piece of drama is almost invented for each chapter? It makes it feel a bit forced, but it would work great for tv-shows! [cont.]

[Part 3] Is this something you’ve thought about? Like are you forcing yourself to make them trilogies, or do you have an idea to continue the stories after their happy endings that I might be oblivious to understand? Again, please don’t take this as bad criticism, I’m a huge fan of Flatmate and My Girl, and really think you could publish something of that kind one day! [cont.]

[Part 4] Just maybe think over the ending to really make them stick in the readers brain after having finished the story! Like My Girl two first books as one single book, edit is some unnecessary stuff out and more of a climax at the end and BAM I would buy it in the store and reread it several times!

---

Hi, thank you for your considerate criticism.

From the beginning, MG was meant to just be a standalone which ended with them not being together, but as so many people were hurt by that ending and demanded a sequel, I wanted to give them that. 

It wasn’t me forcing myself to write a third book because TCTM series that I’m working on is a duology. The last book of the MG series was more of a fan-service situation. I took notice that my readers didn’t only want to see a happy ending. They want an ULTIMATE happy endings, with the two characters being married and having children. So the third book was made to serve that purpose. After all, the couple had been put through one shitstorm after another in book 1 and 2, so it didn’t hurt to give them another book full of cute moments and them dealing with other issues outside their relationship. 

What puts me off about reading romance (as I’ve mentioned a few times before that I read mostly fantasy novels) is that I feel like most romance novels out there focus too much on the relationship between the two characters that it seems like every single drama in their lives have to be related to their romantic relationship. In book 3, I wanted to make a point that they both had separate lives and their own issues, but instead of letting those personal struggles affect their relationship, they stayed together to find out solutions and be each other’s emotional support. Isn’t that what a depiction of a healthy relationship should be? 

Moreover, we didn’t get to know anything about Harry’s life in the first two books. The first book is about Bambi’s life. The second about them finding their way back together. So the third book is about Harry. 

And regarding ‘the unnecessary stuff’ that you mentioned, I never plan out a story before I write. I just let the story tell itself, so that is why there are scenes that aren’t important to the plot, BUT I feel like they are important to me and I want to write them so I do that. After all, the stuff that I post for you guys is just the first draft so I don’t want to put too much effort in it and turn writing into a chore instead of writing for fun and experimenting to find out what suits best for my writing style. 

While rewriting MG into a professional manuscript, however, I’ve made a lot of changes so be sure that the new version (if ever getting published) will be a lot better.

As for the same criticism towards the Flatmate series, it’s meant to be that way. As I’ve mentioned many times before, I wrote it as a sitcom in written form. Every chapter is a separate episode. That’s what makes it entertaining and fun for me to write because I don’t have to follow a single plotline for things to make sense and just develop the world as the story progresses.

Once again, thank you so much for reading and loving these stories and characters and finding the time to write this to me. I genuinely appreciate it.

Hopefully, I’ll finish My Girl within this year and that it’ll get published and we all can physically hold the book in our hands haha.

Love,

Allie :)

[beedalee]

🎃 MG ADOPTS: Halloween 2018 on DeviantART!

Please click the read-more for information and availability status, or go to the deviantart link above! If you want to buy one via tumblr, please private message me, do not use asks or they may get lost!  💓

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Each design comes with little character blurbs written below, but you don't have to keep them! They don't have to be exclusively magical girls, either. Superheroes, supernatural creatures, unfortunate characters befalling a curse in a horror story- whatever you want! Feel free to change them to your liking.  These are just fun prompts for me.

🎃 ROW 1 🎃 🎃 Sweet Succubus: S O L D ! A cute bubbly nerdy girl that's high on life and romance! She can be a bit of a crybaby, but bounces back fairly easily. She loves gaming, conventions, and cosplay, and she finds the <i>perfect</i> trinket to finish off a costume... but this is no ordinary trinket! Luckily for her (and her potential team), she LOVES magical girl anime and is quite genre savvy! Plus... her outfit is totally adorable! 🎃 Briar Bride: S O L D ! A simple maiden from times long past, befell a vampire's bite and unwillingly received the gift- and curse- of immortality. For centuries she sought to murder the vampire who turned her so she could meet death, but it proved fruitless. She soon took up a peculiar mantle.... A vampiric vigilantess, vampire hunter, and protector of other women, feeding on lechers and predators; protecting innocents like herself from other vampiric entities. She's a lonely soul whose heart has grown hard and brave through what she's endured. 🎃 Pumpkin Spice: S O L D! A peppy, mischievous gossip and tiny busybody, she seems to know everything about everybody all the time- but no one knows a thing about her! In truth, she's a spirit who crossed over on Hallow's Eve through a jack-o-lantern and took a human form to seek something important. Her powers are the strongest at night, and she keeps bad spirits away from younger children. She can guide lost people or lead people astray. She never, ever takes off her choker. 🎃 Row 2 🎃 🎃 Lucky Devil: S O L D ! After what was supposed to be a one-night-stand, this trouble-maker realizes the stranger he kissed yesterday was a prince from the underworld. Their wild night sealed a pact and granted him demonic powers, which he couldn't be more thrilled about. Now he's ready to wreak havoc on locals and get that thrill-seeking adrenaline rush he's always after. But contracts always have their fine print, and his demon prince has a task for him..

🎃 Shadowmancy: S O  L D ! A quirky, slightly spooky nonbinary individual, with a gray alignment and hard-to-pin-down motives. They're playful but sort of unnerving, like they might turn on you at any moment, or say something really unsettling- maybe just to see you squirm. They are completely one with their magic, able to conjure shadowy illusions and slip in and out of shadows at will- even yours. Are they a villain, a rogue with a mysterious past, or an unexpected ally? 🎃 Doll Collector: S O L D ! A lonely aloof goth, she has a small circle of equally gothy friends into things like lolita, art, and doll collecting. Though she can seem intimidating and even rude, she's just quite shy and untrusting of most people, apprehensive of opening herself up to anyone that may be judgmental of her self expression. She comes upon a gorgeous doll, who immediately becomes her favorite- but that little lady turns out to be alive, from The World of Toys- and she's come to earth to find Toy Soldiers to help a war in her kingdom! Can they find the other Soldiers? 🎃 Row 3 🎃 🎃 Babydoll Banshee: S O L D ! A popular but ditzy prep, she's a starlet choir singer with endless circles of friends and a deep love for all things fashion, makeup, and socializing. She's your typical busybody teenage girl who thinks her life is all mapped out, from career to marriage- That is, of course, until some spooky circumstances happening at her school cause her to unlock a magical transformation into a beautiful, haunting ghost magical girl... and call her to action along with teenage strangers with similar powers! 🎃 Petite Velvet:  S O L D ! A stoic japanese schoolgirl still in middle school. On the surface, she's sort of bratty and hard to make smile, so she doesn't have very many friends- though a handful seem persistent in trying. She highly prefers the company of dogs, attracting strays wherever she goes. For as long as she can remember, when the full moon comes out, she is drawn out into the night- endlessly seeking something, but not sure what it is. What is the howling in the distance she keeps hearing? Who's calling her? 🎃 Prim Stitches: [SPECIAL SET, $48.00] S O L D ! Two young, spoiled, curious kids from rich families discover a secret passageway in a large mansion during a massive party. Slipping away together, the two go down a rabbit hole and accidentally find themselves making a magical pact with a strange character that dwells deep under the mansion's surface, who calls themselves the Puppet Master... and uncover the mysteries of the crypt's origins and the unsettling history of their families.

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#adopts #adoptables #halloween #magical girls #magical girl #beedalee art

[lanx-reads]

DNF Review: Throne of Glass

Final Rating: */***** or 2/10

After serving out a year of hard labor in the salt mines of Endovier for her crimes, 18-year-old assassin Celaena Sardothien is dragged before the Crown Prince. Prince Dorian offers her her freedom on one condition: she must act as his champion in a competition to find a new royal assassin.

Her opponents are men-thieves and assassins and warriors from across the empire, each sponsored by a member of the king's council. If she beats her opponents in a series of eliminations, she'll serve the kingdom for four years and then be granted her freedom. Celaena finds her training sessions with the captain of the guard, Westfall, challenging and exhilarating. But she's bored stiff by court life. Things get a little more interesting when the prince starts to show interest in her ... but it's the gruff Captain Westfall who seems to understand her best.

Then one of the other contestants turns up dead ... quickly followed by another. Can Celaena figure out who the killer is before she becomes a victim? As the young assassin investigates, her search leads her to discover a greater destiny than she could possibly have imagined.

Throne of Glass isn’t the worst book I’ve ever read, but it certainly was one of the most infuriating, which is why I was only able to read about 50% of it.

Since I didn’t finish it, I am only going to review the issues and things I disliked within the first half I read of it. 

I also wanna note that I did read spoilers for the ending to confirm some thoughts I had and will be touching upon those. 

Since this is my first DNF Review, I am gonna discuss why I picked up this book in the first place, the writing style (which is something that, for the most part, doesn’t really change from beginning to end), the premise (rather than the plot since I didn’t finish the book), the things I liked about the book, what I disliked about this book, and finally why I put it down. 

Why I Picked Throne of Glass Up

So. A year or two ago I wanted to get back into reading. Due to a lot of issues and things in my personal life, I completely stopped reading for pleasure during my Sophomore year of high school, which meant I had stopped reading for... about 4 years? Which made me really upset as I had always been an avid reader! And since I was getting really passionate about writing, I figured I should get back into reading.

So I made a post on tumblr asking what YA books people recommended. I had been reading YA when I stopped reading (well... a mix of YA and MG, but mainly YA) so I figured that’d be the best place to start. 

Numerous people recommended me different things, but one anon recced Throne of Glass to me. It was a fantasy (a genre I mentioned liking in my post) and they told me that though they hadn’t read it themselves, they had a friend who adored the series and that it was really popular so it was probably pretty good. 

The. Really popular bit made me nervous, but nevertheless, I went onto Amazon. Bless me, actually, because I decided I’d try and read the little promo Amazon gives you before buying it.

I DNF’d it after half a page. I had never DNF’d a book so fast and so hard. The first time, what made me DNF this book was Celaena complaining about her looks while being in a prison. Like... girl...... priorities.... 

Months later, I started seeing people talking about this book a little as I got back into reading. Getting curious, I read some reviews, both bad and good, and decided to give this book another shot.

It was as bad as I thought it would be, if not worse. 

The Premise (What was this?)

Honestly, I still don’t really know what I read. What even is Throne of Glass? What is life, in fact? What is the universe? I don’t know, but I feel like I’d figure out the latter two questions before I figured out the first. 

So. The premise, or basic story idea of ToG is basically... Cinderella... mixed with Assassin’s Creed... mixed with the Hunger Games.... I dunno about anyone else but when people describe a piece of media to me as a mix of two or more random-ass things, I start getting nervous.

But honestly I have no idea how else to describe Throne of Glass. I couldn’t tell what this book wanted to be! And that was really what fucked me up. It wanted to be a big epic fantasy. It wanted to be a mystery. It wanted to be about girls in pretty dresses kissing pretty boys and having to choose between them. It wanted a princess aesthetic but with a character that has to be nasty to be an assassin. ToG, to me, is a long book of wants that didn’t deliver. 

But said that, nothing was as poorly thought out as the plot. The plot is what confused me most, ground me to a halt, and said, “wait, what?”

Okay, the plot is basically Celaena joining this competition to win her freedom to become the king’s champion. Only issue is... a king’s champion is a real thing. And is something for mainly knights if I recall.

Back in the olden days of yore, when kings needed to fight against one another, or if someone wanted to challenge the king to a duel, they would have a champion to fight in their stead. If you’re a king, you don’t wanna fight your own duels, that’d be nuts! What if you died?! Then what would happen to your kingdom? That’s what a champion was for. 

The champion is basically chosen/hired by the king. The thing is, what Celaena is... describing is well. Not a champion. Not really. I mean... I guess it’s kinda champion-like? It’s really vague in the book and it boils down to “you do dirty work for the king” so basically a hitman?

Thing is... the king is a king... why doesn’t he just hire an assassin? One who hasn’t been caught (looking at you, Celaena!). I mean, in the long run, that would be a lot cheaper than hosting a giant competition with a bunch of criminals who aren’t loyal to you, who will turn on you at any moment, and can’t be trusted? I mean, just ‘cause he has them swear to be loyal to him don’t mean jack shit, c’mon. 

The entire plot of this novel falls directly apart as soon as you know what a king’s champion is! And honestly, the fix to this would be so easy. You could still have the competition, but instead make it between knights or wannabe knights or something. Have Celaena be a knight instead. She acts like it anyways; being all brash all the time and desiring the center of attention 24/7. Or if you really want her to be an assassin, fix her fugly personality and have her be an assassin pretending to be a knight.

And the king being “”crazy”” isn’t an excuse. Using crazy as an excuse is... one kinda insulting and gross and two, lazy. It means nothing and is a cop out at this point. Also, he did nothing in this book to seem crazy to me, really. He’s an asshole and abuses his kid but... besides that he’s basically nothing. He’s an evil king. He doesn’t even have an actual name. That’s how bland he is. There was no thought put into him at all. And again, this too could have had an easy fix. Rather than saying he’s crazy to excuse his nonsensical actions, all that had to be said was: he and his court want entertainment. That’s it. That would have given the competition the perfect excuse to exist in the first place. Sure, it’s not the most interesting of reasons or anything, but it’s better than the book being completely silent of why there’s a competition in the first place. Why does a king need a competition? Why between criminals who will stab him in the back? It’s never explained and it’s dumb. 

God. There are SO many ways where ToG could’ve been better. Just. Better in general. There is so much lost potential here with the plot, which is where half my frustrations come from. 

So. The premise falls apart after thinking about it for over .2 seconds. The second part of the actual plot of the novel (well, at least what’s described on the back of the book, not what I actually got) is a mystery. But... this mystery is really cliche. Someone taking out the competition. Wow. Never seen that before. 

Also, I did spoil myself the ending to see if my guess of who it was was correct and welp. Winner winner, chicken dinner! It was indeed Cain. As soon as he swaggered on stage, and the narration hated him, and Celaena hated AND was a lil racist towards him, I knew it was him. His detailed magic ring and the fact he kept getting bigger apparently every time we saw him also clued us in. There was less foreshadowing in this book and more “beating you over the head with a Cain.”

Also, none of the other members of the competition really got... anything? Most were unnamed or Celaena dismissed them right away. Why even have these characters in the book if they aren’t even gonna be named? I get it’s a big cast, but still. Hunger Games was able to do the bare minimum of this, I mean at least all the tributes had names. Big casts are hard to write, so why not shrink it down a little? It won’t affect the story, in any case. 

So instead of a cool mystery and badass competition, the premise of the competition fell apart, was mainly summarized and not seen from what I read, and in general the tasks were boring. No real fighting, nothing with a lot of tension or excitement. Just boredom. The mystery wasn’t even lukewarm. It was ice cold. I don’t even really know what the pages were filled up with... random bantering that told us nothing more about the characters than we already did. Celaena not knowing what guy to choose. Her wearing pretty dresses. Her reading and playing the piano. Her shittalking about girls with this other chick. Just. the most random stuff. It was fluff. Which is fine. I like fluff! I like pretty dresses and romance and all that!! But not in a book that promised me a MURDER MYSTERY and ACTION. 

Maybe the action would’ve picked up if I kept reading. But something tells me... not so much. If excitement doesn’t happen before the rough halfway point of your book, something is wrong. At least, to me it is. 

The Writing

A lot of people thought the writing was pretty it seemed. Numerous negative reviews praised the writing. I admit, there were some pretty quotes in there. But most of it was clunky and reminded me of Eragon (not good) or just. Laundry list. I can’t pull up the quote right now, I don’t have the book, but I remember when the library was shown to us, the narration just listed everything inside in a sentence with commas. The same was done in the king’s chamber besides a little extra detail on the fireplace. None of the descriptions of the settings were any good.... and neither were the pretty dresses! It was just “this dress is cut bad” “the fabric is ugly and feels bad” and such. What was the fabric made out of? What cut was the dress? There were so many little things like this that bothered me throughout the writing. 

Lots of filler paragraphs that led to nothing were everywhere too. Sentences that danced around world building were common too. Again, don’t have the book, but at one point Chaol and Celaena were discussing books they liked and instead of name dropping some titles, giving us an idea of what sort of books these two like to read, it was just “Chaol listed some titles to Celaena. Celaena nodded approvingly” or something like that. Lazy. Boring. Pointless. Filler. 

There was so much filler writing in this. And so much... passive writing. Especially when Celaena was traveling to the castle and beyond. “Celaena felt” was used so often that I nearly started counting how many sentences began with that. Sometimes, yes, telling is alright. But SHOW us how she feels! Don’t tell us she finds the castle breathtaking but daunting or whatever! Show us! What’s her expression look like? Her body language? What is she thinking?  The moment she saw the castle was supposed to be powerful and tense but it wasn’t because the writing was passive when it shouldn’t have been. Passive writing isn’t the worst thing ever, but where the writing would’ve benefited from being active, it was passive instead, which also made the book a kinda bland read on a technical level. The writing stayed the same throughout. Sentence length wasn’t played around with much, sentence type didn’t change much. The only stand-out pieces were mainly dialogue.  

I like active writing. I like an active writing style. Throne of Glass was passive. And you know what? I get it. I write in third person too. It’s hard.

But writing is hard. Publishing is even harder. This is a published book and I expected better, especially with how popular it is. 

And yes, this is a debut novel. I kept telling myself that when I was reading this. But... I’ve read better debuts. I’ve read better fanfictions online. This is a New York Times best seller and a favorite of many. It should’ve been better.

The (little) Things I Liked

Gonna bullet point all this, hope none of you guys mind~

Celaena being feminine and proud of it. Haven’t really read a character like this yet and as someone who is writing several proud feminine characters, it was nice to see

Chaol. Just him in general. Best character and I loved him. 

SOME of the banter was pretty fun.

That one scene with Celaena working out in her room was A Good TM

Some of the one-liner descriptions were pretty good and I enjoyed them. 

I actually liked some of the traveling bits in the beginning. I thought it would skip straight to the castle but we got to savor a little in the journey there. It was nice (tho it went on too long and got annoying and boring to read)

The (many) Things I Disliked

A longer bullet point list, hope you all are ready! I’ll try and go in a somewhat chronological order

The plot made no fucking sense

Dorian. The only Dorian in my heart is Dorian Pavus and also he was so one-note that I almost cried. 

The world building? The little world building that was like. Actually present was so bland... it read like Typical Fantasy. Listen. If I wanted Typical Fantasy I’d go play one of the many re-releases of Skyrim, okay?? 

Celaena was just unlikeable and her entire character was contradictory. She acted more like a mercenary for hire or a thug than an assassin. Assassins wouldn’t wanna be in the center of attention, people!

Also Celaena acted really dumb in parts and it made me cringe. 

Chaol as the captain of the guard made no sense. He’s too young!

In fact, Celaena as the best assassin made no sense. She is also too young. Also, if she got captured and is KNOWN, she is hardly the best. The point of being an assassin is...... being unknown... c’mon..... 

The tests. The back of the book made them sound really cool but they were just? Running around a track? Some softcore parkour? The archery contest actually made sense I guess but it would’ve been cooler if they were hitting like. Actual moving targets rather than just. Bulls-eyes. 

Also most the tests were just kinda brushed over? At least The Hunger Games was....  well most the book took place DURING the Hunger Games so like. 

The king had no fucking name what the shit who doesn’t name their fucking VILLAIN?!

Cain. Like. He was so stereotypical. I looked up to see if he would end up as the villain at the end and I was right, how disappointing. Also, naming your villain Cain is like.... idk... literally is there a single protagonist named Cain? Genuine question 

The girl hate. Like, I get that girls are people and not all girls are gonna get along or anything but like. There were throwaway lines that just made me roll my eyes and scrunch up my nose.

THE FUCKING GLASS CASTLE MADE ME SO MAD OH MY GOD WHY WAS IT THERE. And if the castle looks the exact same on the inside in the glass part as the stone part, what’s the point then? How is this nation, which is at war, have a glass castle? That thing is gonna shatter. How did they make it? Why did the king make it? The most we get is the implication is that he’s crazy but that’s.... gross for one and two, lazy. You know what would’ve been cool tho? If the king was just a zealot who worshipped his human gods to the point where he wanted them to always see his victories and be able to see him wherever he went, so he created the glass portions of the castle so he could be seen by his gods the entire time. I thought of that idea in the span of 10 seconds. Sigh. 

AND I AM STILL ON THE GLASS CASTLE SHIT listen. If this was a whimsical fantasy and everyone went with it, I wouldn’t have SUCH a huge problem with it, tho it would still be kinda dumb (mattering on context...) but legit. Having your characters point it out doesn’t make them look smart, it makes the author look silly. “It’s a dumb idea, I know it’s a dumb idea, but I am going to write it anyways. For The Aesthetic” listen. We’re past the age of aestheticism. Let’s get our heads outta the 1800s, k?

Honestly there were descriptions but I couldn’t ever get a good image on what was going on, which is weird. All the descriptions were for like. More finer details? But the overall look of the entire world was just blank in my mind. I dunno how else to explain it.

So. Much. Filler. Celaena! Get outta your room and let us explore some! I can sit alone in my room myself irl, I don’t wanna read some chick do the same!

Same with the book shit. Like we could’ve gotten some amazing world building just based on the books Celaena read but whatever that was brushed over too??

Honestly a lot of reading ToG was like reading a textbook where words go through my eyes and their meaning seeps from my ears and I find myself 20 pages in but no idea how I got there and don’t remember a single word of what I read. 

The writing style for the fighting. When you write fight scenes or tense scenes, you want your writing to become choppier usually and sharp. It changes the mood and tone of the scene. The author just used the same flowing prose she had for the rest of the book, which was kinda dull. 

I wish we had seen the murders. I mean, the book is in third person and does switch POV at times! I wanna read some good blood, guts, n gore!

L O V E  T R I A N G L E  O F  H E L L 

I thought Celaena was supposed to be sickly?? But like after a few chapters in the book that’s like, forgotten, besides her throwing up after running? Why only after running? Why doesn’t she worry about this or her health much? Seriously her physiology makes no sense. 

Celaena’s mental health is also questionable. She’s completely fine after being tortured for a year and in a death camp and only has bad nightmares every once in a while?? That ain’t how PTSD works. Seriously what was going on in her head? What was the author trying to portray? You don’t do this shit half-assed. Either throw yourself into the research or go the Harry Potter route. 

There is one character who is fat and he is ofc, a terrible person (I am talking about Dorian’s younger brother, ofc. Sigh. And yikes)

Celaena sometimes talked and acted like she was younger than what she actually was?? I think being childish was supposed to be part of her personality but it doesn’t mesh with her being an assassin. Unless she was doing it on purpose as an act. But she obv wasn’t so......

Yulemas. Honestly, I put the book down around when it was mentioned. It’s a dumb name and I can imagine what sort of celebration it is. 

The timing and pacing of this book is weird. The king needs to learn what an itinerary is. I think it’d help him out. 

 Why I Put Throne of Glass Down

Mainly for two reasons: one I had just bought some books at the library and wanted to read those instead. I just wanted to read a good book again. The second reason is just as simple: I was incredibly bored. 

There was just so much filler for me. Characters talking about random stuff, walking around, trying to figure out a mystery I figured out as soon as the first murder actually happened. It was all so boring to me. 

And then... Celaena started suspecting Nehemia. Her only friend in the castle.

I dunno why that did it in for me. I think it’s because I didn’t wanna sit through at the very least 50 pages of one of the poorest red herrings I have ever stumbled across. I can (somewhat) deal with a book that promised me action and gave me bad romance with pretty girls and boys. I’ll complain a lot, give it a bad rating most likely, but I can finish books like those. What I can’t deal with is a clear waste of my fucking time. At that point, I was already 99.99% sure Cain was the bad guy. I was already tired of Celaena in general since she is such an unpleasant character for me to read. I did not wanna sit through a plot point that just insulted my intelligence and made the book all the more longer than it has to be. I have no idea how someone can make a book this bland and boring so long. I honestly cannot understand how I got pretty much 50% of the way in, and feel like I have moved nowhere when it comes to the characters and the plot. I don’t know how I could be pretty much halfway through this book and feel like not a SINGLE action scene has happened. (Yes, I know there have been actions scenes, but I didn’t like them or the way they were written. They weren’t exciting for me.)

All this realization just kinda came crashing down on me with Celaena suspecting Nehemia. And I was quite done with all of it.

Maybe the book would’ve picked up. Maybe the entire premise, story, characters, and writing style could’ve changed in a single page flip. But I seriously doubt that. 

I’m tired of wasting my time with books I am not enjoying. If I’m gonna read a bad book, I at the very least want it to be entertaining.

And Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas wasn’t even that. 

#bookblr #Throne of Glass #Throne of Glass Book Review #DNF #one star review #My Book Reviews #DNF review #long post #fandom hate #book hate #negative review #what a queue-t

[secondhandnewsradio]

SHN INTERVIEW: Mia Giovina

by Claire Silverman

Originally from New Jersey, 20-year-old singer-songwriter Mia Giovina is taking the internet by storm! Using her platform to share her message and incredible vocals, Mia is dedicated to having her music create a safe space for listeners everywhere. In March, Mia released her debut single "Sirens" and recently released her second single "Time Machine,” both of which have been featured in SHN playlists and on the air.

CS: Hi Mia! I just wanted to start off by saying I think you're really killing it, and I've been loving the music you've been putting out.

MG: Thank you.

CS: So how did you get started in music? How did you know that this was the direction you wanted to go?

MG: As cheesy as it sounds, music has always been something that I love, and I knew I wanted to do it as a career. My freshman year of high school was really when I started to take it seriously. I started performing at coffee shops and writing my own music, and I taught myself piano and guitar. After high school, I decided to do music full time instead of going into college. I'm very lucky that I get to do music full time now and I wouldn't have it any other way.

CS: I think it's amazing that you're going down a different path than the people around you at school. I always love hearing about people who are pursuing their art and are thriving. I'm happy for you that it’s working out. Earlier in the year, you released your first single “Sirens” and went from posting covers on Instagram to having original music out for everyone to listen to. What was your process like for writing that song and choosing it to be your first release?

MG: When I first connected with my manager, Tori, in the summer of last year, one of the first conversations we had was “when is original music going to come out?” I didn't have anything I wanted to put out yet. I didn't want to write or create or put out a song just to do it because I had this platform now. When I wrote “Sirens,” and I posted it on TikTok, so many people seemed to resonate with it and love it. It all felt like it happened at the perfect time. Something I've learned so far through my career is to trust your intuition and instincts, which was definitely the situation with “Sirens.” I faced a lot of bumps in the road during the production of this song, which looking back makes more sense because this was my first song ever. Everything that could have possibly gone wrong went wrong, but eventually, we finished the song and it turned out to be everything I could have dreamed up and more.

photo: Tori Sokalski

CS: Well, it’s a great song and I’m glad you got there in the end. Your other song that you have out now is “Time Machine,” which I absolutely love. It's stuck in my head all the time. Was the writing and production experience a bit different than your first song? 

MG: Yeah, definitely. I think in comparison to the release of “Sirens,” “Time Machine” was just a piece of cake. I got to work with this band called Sleeping Lion with Nate and Noah. They reached out to me and originally we were actually working on a different song. Basically right after I wrote “Time Machine,” I sent them the voice memo. It was very different, getting to work with producers that are super collaborative and reliable. It took a little bit of pressure off my shoulders. I think with “Time Machine”  in general, from the writing of the song to the production to the cover art and release, everything kind of fell into place, which was a super refreshing feeling after “Sirens.”

CS: I love the cover art for “Time Machine.” Who made it? What was the artistic connection to the song?

MG: I reached out to one of my good friends, Missy Pavorsky. I had this idea that I wanted the cover art to be me looking into a mirror and have the reflection be a picture of my younger self. I took some self-timer pictures to try to get an idea of what I wanted it to look like. Missy is a photographer and she came over, and we tried a couple different ways of taking the photo. It was a really collaborative process, and like I said before, even with the cover art, everything just fell into place, which was really cool.

CS: You said earlier that you've kind of been doing music your whole life. Who are your musical influences? Do you have a singer or band that you think has influenced you the most?

MG: Yeah, I think that Taylor Swift has always been my biggest influence. Lyrically and sonically she's so smart. She's definitely been my biggest influence since I was about six years old. I also started listening to Phoebe Bridgers and Lizzie McAlpine probably a little over a year ago and I think that they really changed the game for me, songwriting-wise. I also love Harry Styles, I think he kind of changed the way I look at and create music, because he is somebody who doesn't necessarily keep himself in a box, in terms of genre. I think that that's what I try to do now, even if it's just like posting something on TikTok. I try to share music with the world because I'm passionate about it, and I'm proud of it, not because I think it'll get a lot of streams or a lot of views.

CS: Nice. Some of my absolute favorites as well. You’ve mentioned TikTok a bit, and I know that’s been a pretty big resource for you and your career. What do you think about TikTok? And what has TikTok done for you in terms of your music career?

MG: I talk about this with other musicians and my manager all the time. I think TikTok completely runs the music industry right now. If a song is going viral on TikTok, it's most likely going to be climbing the charts, which is so crazy. So it's definitely like a machine. I have to give TikTok a lot of the credit for where I am today. I probably wouldn't be sitting here doing this interview if it weren't for TikTok. The platform has opened so many doors for me and connected me with so many amazing musicians and connected me with my manager, Tori, and has given me such a great platform and amazing supporters. Sometimes I have to step away from the app, though. I think that because the app is so powerful, sometimes you can get really caught up in the super unhealthy cycle of chasing views or a viral video. That is a really dangerous thing to do to yourself mentally, especially for a musician. I think it's really important that you share music for yourself first, and for the viewer second. I think that once I start chasing views and followers, it doesn't feel as fulfilling for me. So yeah, there's definitely a love/hate relationship with TikTok. It's amazing and powerful, but it's definitely a little bit dangerous.

photo: Tori Sokalski

CS: I totally agree with everything you just said. I’m curious, what music have you been listening to recently?

MG: I just recently made a new playlist with the songs that I'm going to be listening to for the next few months. Right now I'm really loving Catie Turner's EP Heartbroken and Milking It, it's so good. Every single song on the EP is incredible.

CS: Now one last question, do you have any news you can share of any exciting things coming up in the near future?

MG: I'm gonna be starting work on my third single very soon. I have no idea when it will be released. But I am going to start working on it soon. So I'm very excited for that.

CS: I'm excited to hear it when it comes out! Thank you so much for sitting down with me today to chat about your music. I'm really excited to see what you do next in the industry.

MG: Thank you so much!

Listen to Time Machine here 

Follow Mia Giovina on Instagram Twitter Spotify TikTok

#Second Hand News #shn radio #shn interview #mia giovina #sirens #time machine #taylor swift #Harry Styles #catie turner #Phoebe Bridgers #sleeping lion #tiktok #new artist #music #college radio #vhmgmt #vh management

[floating-in-the-blue]

MGS Fic Rec List

Name: Yeoyou // Team: Philanthropy // Challenge: C1 (or maybe rather C3? I’m not sure...)

A couple things before I begin listing some of my favourite MGS fanfics:

I’m not really reading a lot of fanfic, generally, so once I’ve found a few authors whose work I love, I stick with them which is the reason why there’s a lot of stories here by not really as many people. Which is why I’ll just go and do this by author...

Most of these recced stories are Otasune-centered because that’s my jam ;D

This is fucking long so have a cut

1. @higharollakockamamie

Sadly moved on to other fandoms now but their stories are a gift to this fandom and you should read all of them if you love good writing, good characterisations, fun and feels and excellent smut as well because Higharollakockamamie deals out all of that effortlessly!

Plasticity

This is a slow burn character study gangbang AU fanfic in which Hal is slowly being seduced by Kaz, Ocelot and Big Boss at Shadow Moses - although he’s rather oblivious to the fact at first. This was one of the very first fics I’ve read in the fandom and I clicked on it mostly because of curiosity because how can such a pairing work (let me tell you, it does!)? But then I fell in love with the writing, HIgharollakockamamie’s language, style, the slow unfolding of the story and how well the characters work in this setting and how recognisable they are. EVEN IN THE PORN! Which, yes, eventually does happen and it’s glorious. If my utter devotion to this story wasn’t evident yet, I’ve done a (poor) podfic reading of the first chapter here and had entirely too many feelings about my continuation headcanons here ;D [Chapters: 9 // Words: 29,634]

The Show?

VKaz, so not something I usually read a lot of, but this is so fucking good that it has to make this list! It’s just the boys listening to some music and chilling and talking and I don’t even know what��ll happen to you if you actually hardcore ship them because I don’t and this left me stunned with how good it is!!! [Chapters: 1 // Words: 2,073]

2. Mightyscrub

Now, Ren, aka the mightiest of scrubs, is one of my other absolute favourite fanfic authors and persons in general because of their unabashed love for the weird and the bizarre (if you know one fic by Ren it’s probably the tentacle porn one) and the cheesy but also because their stories always resonate as real and grounded. They’re equally good at action, the fun and hilarious, the deeply moving and emotional and you can get all of it in a single scene! Evident through it all: the utter love for the characters! (Sidenote: Ren writes so good I even read their DreamDaddy fics and I know nothing about any of that but they’re glorious and kinda Jupiter family if you squint really really hard)

Fics I particularly enjoy (and sometimes that’s “enjoy” as in “ripped my heart out” but you know...):

Don’t Say A Word

Teenager Sunny worrying about her Dad who seems to turn into a shadow because of his grief over Snake’s death so she returns home. What follows will warm your heart, rip it out and stomp on it, drown it in feels and just generally puts you through a rollercoaster of emotion. And it’s good. So fucking good! [Chapters: 1 // Words: 4,331]

Developments

This one’s porn and it’s the best. Hal and Dave have been having sex for a while now but it doesn’t have a name, this thing they do, and they don’t talk about it or go any further than hands and mouths and Hal kinda wants to be up to lube activities so he gets some. bottom!Snake. Just glorious, hilarious, deeply human porn with dialogues to die for! [Chapters: 1 // Words: 3,515]

Rest

Post MGS4 Otasune feels fest where Snake sort of “proposes” to Hal. This is pure sad fluff because Snake is still dying and everything but they’re so in love and with Sunny they‘re a sort of happy family and this will give you massive feels but you should definitely read this!! (and prepare a bucket for your tears) [Chapters: 1 // Words: 1,961]

Building Blocks

Very like “Rest” in the feels department, with old Snake and all, but with less dying Snake and a happy ending instead. Like “Rest” there’s so much that’s kind of mundane but also really meaningful and metaphorical if you want to go that deep and just feels so fucking real. [Chapters: 1 // Words: 3,351]

Recovery

Otacon gets kidnapped, there’s so much angst and feels and Jupiter family glory and God, Ren just writes these characters so good it’s a crime! If you like to suffer via great writing, definitely read this story!! [Chapters: 3 // Words: 10,250]

Teeth

I know, I know, Ren is mostly known for her monster AUs or the occasional dinosaur or alien but I only wanted to include finished stories here so while you should go and read all those others and encourage them to finish them hopefully one day, Teeth is the one that makes this list. Also because it’s one of my absolute favourite werewolf AUs ever read with an amazing new take on the trope and wonderful nods to canon and again, characters and character interaction are where Ren really shines. [Chapters: 4 // Words: 16,994]

Secret Handshakes Required

Philanthropy era, pre-slash but barely and quickly slipping into proper slash and holy wow on a waffle this story is everything you could ever want from an Otasune story. It’s even got a mission going on in the background, awkward, endearing first time sex and more feels than my heart at least can handle!! [Chapters: 1 // Words: 4,947]

3. @kawaiibooker

Let’s have a break with some VKaz for a change with Kawaiibooker’s incredible V series and V One-shot series which I recently read (and commented) for the MGS Winter Games and boy do I not regret having done that because it’s such a wonderful series for a pairing that I only lowkey ship because I’m more at home in the Philanthropy era of MGS. That didn’t help much with not drowning in feels though because Jess is such a good writer with a masterful grip on her characters! Since I can’t list all of them (all of which, however, you should read), I’ll list those that stick out the most to me.

The Footprints That We Leave (Crush Us Till We're Free)

This is the ending to the main series (with a Dave cameo!!!) and fucks you right in the feels because Miller thinks Dave killed Venom and is barely coping with that so lots of angst and hurt but also a happy ending!!!! [Chapters: 3 // Words: 14,184]

I Need Somebody (To Lean On)

Okay, I said I’d only list completed fics but I cannot not include Pequod Darling Felix, the best Pequod and so supportive to the boys and I just have way too many feelings about this darling man and the way Jess writes him and so even if there’s no other chapters coming, you should absolutely read the first one!! [Chapters: 1 // Words: 3,538]

In My Mind (I Call You Home)

Jess doesn’t just write excellent character pieces but also wonderful porn so have one with some lovely phone sex XD [Chapters: 1 // Words: 2,011]

Listen Closely (I'm Lost Without You) 

It seems I like the hostage stories because of glorious angst so have one where Kaz and the Diamond Dogs are held hostage and they‘re all waiting for the demon to safe them. Kaz seeing Venom in action is something quite different to knowing what his lover does while away on a mission. SO GOOD. SO MUCH HURT! [Chapters: 2 // Words: 4,247]

Our Love (Is Written In Sand) 

Back to the porn, this time with glorious beach sex that’s just the perfect ratio of smut/fluff because these boys love each other so much! [Chapters: 1 // Words: 3,181]

Bury My Heart (Next To Yours)

The ending to the one shot series and picking up right where “The Footprints...” leaves off with Kaz and V reunited in old age and living the quiet life they deserve. Also features sunflowers and a very good cat! [Chapters: 3 // Words: 4,835]

4. @fractalspaces/LotusRox

Lynx’ stories are full of poetry and emotion and I always approach them with caution because I know how effectively they play with my feelings. They never fail to affect me and that’s a dangerous gift for a fic writer because Lynx isn’t here for your casual fic reading.

Lah’Shoov

Hal running through the (former) Microwave Corridor to get to Snake with all the painful angst and fear and guilt you’d expect but of course we also know that he’ll find Snake alive so with a hopeful ending. [Chapters 1 // Words: 1,997]

Chemistry of Combustion

A trip down memory lane of how Hal always loved people who smoked, two who didn’t deserve it and the one who does. [Chapters: 1 // Words: 1,367]

Adrift, Unsung

This is just SO GOOD and SO PAINFUL! Okay, admittedly the end is not but everything up to then is glorious pain. Post-Discovery and two men trying to rebuild the trust between them (and they seriously just need all the hugs!!) [Chapters: 1 // Words: 3,608]

5. @141-point-12​/thelonebamf

Cat, the true hero of the MGS Winter Games, the champion fangirl and inspiration to us all, the Queen of Otasune, cheerleader and enthusiast extraordinaire. I have nothing but the maddest respect for her because of her generosity and commitment, her openness, her creativity and her fearlessness in just doing what she wants to do (which is, weirdly, a lot harder than it should be). Whether it’s pins, drawings, zines, her amazing podcast together with Zeke or her latest idea that has brought everyone together, the Winter Games, she just does it. But this is a fic rec post (or something) and she also writes amazing fanfic with a knack for atmosphere and characters so have some of my favourites of her.

No One Has to Know

I don’t even know why I love this AU so much. Maybe it’s because Dave accidentally picking up runaway Hal because he thinks he’s a prostitute turns the usual concept of Hal not being able to imagine David could ever want him on the head. Maybe it’s because it’s so fluffy and cute but with an ending that hurts before it heals. I don’t know. Maybe you can tell me once you’re read it? [Chapters: 7 // Words: 13,999]

Pictures of You

I still owe Cat a proper comment for this one but I loved it when I first read it in the zine (with awesome illustrations by Harshai) because it has all my favourite Cat fic ingredients of tender and insightful character moments for my favourite ship and favourite egg family. [Chapters: 1 // Words: 3,023]

Rat in a Foxhole

This is just SO GOOD!! AU where Hal is a recruit at Foxhound, which will break your heart in a very toasty way. It’s such a good exploration of a different dynamic between these two characters because they’re at different points in their life but so true to the original characters! [Chapters: 6 // Words: 13,779]

Call on Line Two

If you’re looking for some short fun, fluff AU, this one’s for you. Sort of the opposite of “No One Has to Know”; it’s Hal who thinks Dave wants sex when he calls instead of tech support because he messed up the numbers. David doesn’t mind. Tech support still happens eventually. [Chapters: 1 // Words: 3,610]

Occasions for Hope

A wonderful character study of Hal and his relationship with his father of Hal and the parallels between himself and his father and also, significantly, where those parallels fail. [Chapters: 1 // Words: 2,704]

Let it Be     

More wonderful little glimpses of Hal and Dave and their relationship during the Philanthropy years. Little mundane and significant moments that are absolutely perfect! [Chapters: 1 // Words: 1,498]

And of His Nature

Short but wonderful piece of writing full of poetry and character analysis that is one of my absolute favourite Otasune fanfics! [Chapters: 1 // Words: 1,015]

Fifty Dogs

This list wouldn’t be complete without the, to me at least, legendary “worth 50 dogs” story!! ALL THE FEELS! [Chapters: 1 // Words: 2,265]

Ladies, Gentlemen and other Folk, thank you for your attention, now go read some A++ fanfiction! Yeo out!

#very fitting that this should be my last submission for the winter games #mgswintergames #mgs winter games #metalfloat #I'm sorry Cat

[ancientbrit]

Natter #5  05/15/2019

Subject: Natter #5 May 2019

Nearly dinner time so I'll need to be swift, although I won't finish until a bit later - there's the Bellevue Library meeting tonight to go through the clinic boxes. Maybe I saw you there?

I am beginning to feel like that Mum on the TV ad who phones her son as he is being harassed by Nasties, when she say's "The Squirrels are back. Your father says it's personal this time."

The verdampften deer are back and believe me this is personal!

Mind, they didn't do too much damage - this time, and they did leave a calling card or rather two calling cards, but I haven't been able to find where they got in, so my Hostas are in danger again. Never got any blooms last year as they wiped off the lot, just before they opened.

Today, Saturday the 18th, was Propagation lecture day at the BDG with Alison. All very well received especially the practicum at the finish. We have scheduled another for the end of July at The Grange. There will be basic instruction with the emphasis on practical hands-on work, which always seems to go over well and of course it does emphasise the spoken word. More information a little later.

Sunday was the Plant Amnesty & MG Interns snow day make-up class. Some good information there, but the bit that interested me the most was a photo that Janet showed me. She seems to have come up with a successful design for a Deer Fence. It consists of 6-7ft steel fence posts on 6ft centers, strung with horizontal 30lb monofilament Nylon fishing line spaced 12" apart. This is almost invisible and for sure the deer seem not to see it. They brush against it and stop, then back off. Try again and stop. It's as if they can't understand what is going on. They can't jump it because they can't see what is in the way. This fence has been installed for a few weeks now and so far they haven't twigged what is going on and Janet's garden stays deer free.

If only I could discover where they are getting into my garden I would install one too.

Now that Janet has shown the way, I expect somebody to come up with something similar for rabbit protection! She has incidentally, arranged a section that can be moved to allow access to her veggie garden.

At last we have something to suggest to clients at the Farmers Market. other than to place the deer between a couple of hamburger buns - although that is still an option!

Unfortunately, some weeks later, the deer returned with it’s offspring. The offspring, being much smaller, just walked under the lowest nylon line and went to town, with Mum looking on with an approving expression of her face. Needs a slight tweek to design.

You will undoubtedly have realised by now that tempus has fugited some since I started writing this.

I did experience an unfortunate event this morning when eating my Shredded Wheat breakfast. A strand of the shreds tickled my throat a little, making me cough, which turned unfortunately into a sneeze which happened to coincide with a mouthful of said Shredded Wheat. As the sneeze built up I realised that I was on the verge of a disaster and attempted to stifle the sneeze, which I understand can be injurious - but what are you going to do? The sneeze built up to the point where it was obvious that I could do little to stop it, but at least I didn't redecorate the kitchen. Instead, the Shredded Wheat took the path of least resistance and came down my nose! I don't think I can remember doing that since I was a kid. Happy days!

Just read a rather alarming article in the NYT about earthworms (some earthworms that is).

Cindy Shaw, a carbon-research scientist with the Canadian Forest Service, studies the boreal forest - the most northerly forest, which circles the the top of the globe like a ring of hair around a balding head.

A few years ago. while conducting a study in northern Alberta to see how the forest floor was recovering after oil and gas activity, she saw something new - earthworms.

I was amazed, she said,. At the very first plot, there was a lot of evidence of earthworm activity.

Native earthworms disappeared from most of northern America 10,000 years ago - I remember distinctly, during the last Ice Age  Now invasive earthworm species from southern Europe - survivors from that frozen epoch, and introduced to this continent by European settlers centuries ago - are making their way through northern forests, their spread hastened by roads,timber and petroleum activities, tire treads, boats, anglers and even gardeners.

As the worms feed, they release into the atmosphere much of the carbon stored in the forest floor. Climate scientists are worried.

Earthworms are yet another factor  that can affect the carbon balance. The fear is that the growing incursion of earthworms - not just in North America, but also in northern Europe and Russia - could convert the boreal forest, now a powerful global carbon sponge, into a carbon spout.

Moreover, the threat is still so new to boreal forests  that scientists don't yet know how to calculate what the earthworms carbon effect will be or when it will appear.

It is a significant change to the carbon dynamic and how it is understood to work. The rate or the magnitude of that change is not truly understood.

The relationship between carbon and the earthworm is complex. They are beloved by gardeners because they break down organic material in soil, freeing up nutrients. This helps plants and trees grow faster, which locks carbon into living tissue. Some types of invasive earthworms also burrow into mineral soil and seal carbon there.

But as they speed decomposition, they also release Carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. As they occupy more areas of the world, will they ultimately add more carbon to the atmosphere or will they subtract it?

That question led to what Ingrid M. Lubbers, a soil researcher at Wageningen University in the Netherlands, christened "the earthworm dilemma" in a paper published in 2013 in Nature Climate Change. Scientists have been keen to resolve it ever since. It is just another reason why more knowledge of systems is needed because there could be an effect that would enhance climate change and enhance the rising temps.

The boreal is special. In warmer climates the floor of a typical forest is a mix of mineral soil and organic soil.   In a boreal forest those components are distinct  with a thick layer of rotting leaves, mosses and fallen wood on top of the mineral soil.

Soil scientists once thought that cooler temperatures reduced mixing, now they wonder if the absence of earthworms is what made the difference.

The spongy layer of leaf litter contains most of the carbon stored in the boreal soil. As it turns out, most of the invading earthworms in the North American boreal forest appear to be the type that love to devour leaf litter and stay above ground, releasing carbon.

It was found that 99.8% of earthworms studied in Alberta belonged to Dendrobia octaendra, an invasive species that eats leaf litter but doesn't burrow into the ground.

In 2015, a computer model, aimed at figuring the effect of leaf litter over time, was published.

It was found that forest floor carbon is reduced by between 50% and 94%, mostly in the first 40 years. That carbon, no longer sequestered, goes into the atmosphere. Not only that, in a 2009 study it was calculated that earthworms had already wriggled  their way into 9% of the forest of northeastern Alberta and would occupy half by 2049.

The Canadian Forest Service found that 35% to 40% of the plots studied in northern Alberta contained earthworms. The leaf litter, which can be more than a foot thick, was thin and churned up where the earthworms were present. If their calculations bear out, it means that the lowly earthworm stands to alter the carbon balance of the planet by adding to the load in the atmosphere.

The global boreal forest is a  muscular part of Earth's carbon cycle, at least one fifth of the carbon that cycles through air, soil and oceans passes through the boreal. Currently, the boreal absorbs more carbon from the atmosphere than it adds, but that is changing.

On the one hand warmer temps could extend the growing season, allowing trees to grow bigger and store more carbon. But rising temps. also release carbon to the atmosphere, by thawing permafrost and increasing the number of forest fires.

It seems that earthworms are a factor -  if not the main one  - nudging the boreal towards becoming a global source of carbon.

In northern Minnesota, the boreal forest has slowly been invaded by earthworms. They have altered not just the depth of the leaf litter, but also the types of plant life the forest supports.

Endemic species such as the white and pink Ladies Slipper Orchid, Minnesota's State flower - as well as ferns, orchids and the saplings of coniferous trees rely on the spongy litter. As the worms feed on that layer, they allow non-natives, plants such as European Buckthorn and grasses to thrive, which in turn push out endemic plants.  There is a very real danger here of Minnesota's boreal forest being transformed into prairie.

These earthworms have even been found right up at the edge of the permafrost in the northern boreal, with the bigger concern that they will penetrate even further north into the permafrost with the subsequent release of masses of carbon which would be devastating. There is no way existing to eradicate the worms from the boreal forest, their impact is permanent. Hopefully educating people not to transport them up north might slow things down, but right now scientists are keeping an eye on a new invader - Asian earthworms, which have made their way to southern Quebec and Ontario.

Sorry for the lengthy report, but I thought it was fascinating and somewhat scary.

Your fearless leader,

Gordon

[pegasusdragontiger]

Surprise!

Pairing: Frank Adler/ OFC

Rating: G

Warnings: Fluffy/ Tickles and more fluffy! Okay so maybe more fluffy than normal?

Summary: You had a surprise for Frank when he has come home from work!

Okay too @always-an-evans-addict It may not be want you want or after, it’s not smutty but the best I can do right now as this was spur of the moment kind of thing? You have been asking for something like this for 2 weeks maybe 3? No one answered I didn’t as at the time was stressing with anxiety and work, and knowing you have been down a bit lately and wanting to make you squee and aww I thought I would write this little short fic thing to make you smile, sigh, and aww. And the darn thing went longer than intended. Oh well so here you go with a Frank FIC!!! muas and you are bloody not trash you here me! *points at you* ALSO YES I DO KNOW IT NEED’S LIKE MASSIVE AMOUNTS OF EDITING BUT I JUST CAN’T BE STUFFED OR BOTHERED TO PUT OUT A POST ASKING FOR SOMEONE TO EDIT IT! I‘M LAZY! 

You were cooking dinner in the kitchen waiting for Mary and Frank to come home. The noise in the kitchen from the banging of pans, and the sound of a knife slicing through vegetables, and meat, humming away to the song coming through the radio. The sound of Frank’s truck parking out the front of their apartment. Glancing up at the noise of the truck being turned off, doors slamming. Looking out the window and seeing them both walking towards the house you couldn’t help but grin turning back to you’re cooking still smiling.

As they got closer to the house you could hear them chatting away, with the occasional laugh from Frank and giggling from Mary. They had both been through alot, When Frank met you, it started out as friends and gradually worked it’s way into something else and more. By the time he’d worked up the courage to ask for a date the feelings between you both had grown. That was two years ago now and you’d gone from there to moving in together to now being engaged, which you still couldn’t believe that happened but the joy still hadn’t worn off. Mary had been voicing her opinion of the both of you marrying so she could have an Aunt but to also have cousins to play with as she quoted “I’m not getting any younger Frank!”.

With you reminiscing about the last two years, seeming to forget that Frank and Mary had just entered the house, Frank asking Mary to go and start her homework, while he went to wash his hands, once done he moved into the kitchen to greet you, assuming you had heard him, approaching from behind grinning for ear to ear, he grabbed you from behind on the hips and moved his hands up to your waist.

Feeling hands grabbing your waist, was a shock to the system made you scream and swear you’re head off in fright. Jerking of your body made you turn around in shock, lightly hitting him on the chest and arms. “ mg what are you trying to do to me? Scare me or something! Really Frank you scared the life out of me”. Chuckling and laughing at the reaction he got. “I didn’t know you weren’t paying attention! honestly, I just assumed you heard us come home?”. Leaning against the counter hand still against against your chest, heart still racing. “Oh I noticed, I..was just remembering how we met and got together till now!”. Eyes cast down, your feet scuffing against the floor. Glancing up seeing Frank looking at you like a loon with his goofy smile, shaking his head “Only you” gazes locked on each smiling at each other his face moving closer to your’s. As you face turned up to receive his kiss.

Not paying attention to his hands as they gripped your hips, pulling you closer , while the passion you had for each other got more intense. Your hands that you placed on his arms moved up to cradle Frank’s face feeling his scruffy beard that you adored on your fingers. As you both got even more passionate tongues tangling together for dominance, Frank moved his hands from your hips to your waist, his left hand moving to the known tickle spot he loved to touch in these moments as his fingers moved to the side of your belly. A full body jerk, and squeal which you let out as you pulled you mouth and face from his. Eyes wide in shock you said “No, no I have no time for this dinner need to get done and in the oven!”  Pulling your body away from his trying to turn back you the cooking. Frank wasn't going to give up so easily he loved to tickle you till you couldn’t talk.

Taking his chance again his hands going to you sides, fingers moving up to near where your arms and shoulders meet, going for the other spot you had your armpits and sides. Hearing you squeal and jerk again shouting “no’s and stop it” while giggling in laughter, taking steps closer to you wrapping his arms around you, his hands tickling you all over your tummy, his face moving to your neck. His mouth grazing your neck and shoulder. His tickling you and the feeling of his beard making your body jerk and twitch. Giggling and laughing together brought out Mary from doing her homework, from all the ruckus and noise.

Seeing the both of you giggling and laughing in the kitchen made her grin and smile at the happiness of the two of you. The infectious laughter making her laugh as well, turning to One-Eyed Fred smiling “See I told you they were good together!”, glancing back one last time at her Uncle and future Aunt and smiling as they both moved and chased each other in the little kitchen. Nodding her head she turned back to her homework for that night to be done. “Soon Fred we’ll be one big happy family and then I’ll have some cousins to spoil” giving him a pat and scratch on his head while he was purring away on her bed went back to her work, humming along happily.

As Frank caught you and hugged you tight, dropping kisses all over your neck, shoulders and cheeks, you were squirming in his arms laughing and squealing telling him you give! He gave you relief by stopping, both of you out of breath. Leaning against still trembling, turning in his arms giving him another kiss on the cheek, then turning back to dinner you had been cooking. Kissing you head, making his way to his little work table he had where he fixed parts for the boast he repaired at the dock. Both of you discussing their day’s while both working. Mentioning that you had felt sick in the morning after he and Mary left had him worried as normally you didn’t get sick that often but this past week you had been feeling off, feeling so ill that you couldn’t get out of bed. He asked if you had gone to the doctor like you said you would? Telling him you did and she had heard back from the doctor on what was wrong.

Placing dinner in the oven and setting the timer for 35 minutes from now till dinner was ready. Wiping your hands on the tea towel hanging on the oven door and walking over to him and leaning against his back as he was putting some parts together with his once clean hands, your arms around his neck, giving his head a kiss. Moving your head so it was side by side with his, mouth next to his ear as you whispered what the doctor told you that day. As the words left your lips and entered his ear, traveling like lightening to his brain. Where it swirled and swirled around till it registered with him on what you were saying. As you pulled away to see his reaction slightly with a nervous smile thinking maybe you should have waited till you were both in bed, moving from behind to sit opposite him but as you moved your arms to retreat. His hand grabbed yours turning back to him and with a questioning look.

Eyes locking he say’s “You’re sure?, you’re absolutely sure?”, nodding your head, getting the courage to say “Yes, I’m only 4 weeks along, won’t be showing much yet but have been given a referral for a obstetrician for ongoing care”. With a smirk that turned into a grin Frank’s face exploded from shock into extreme joy, jumping up in joy and hands grabbing your waist lifting you high, for a short twirl releasing that might not be good for you he stopped.

Smiling through tears of joy and happiness. Eyes shining bright tears running down his cheeks, cradling your face between his hands, thumbs stroking your face his forehead gently touching yours, “I have never been more happy then I have been since you walked into my life, nor did I think that in meeting you would give me so much joy and happiness. You have just given me the most wonderful gift, you have ever given me, I love you, I love you so much”. Laughing with joy, giving him a smooch, which turned into a deep kiss, pulling back and letting out chuckles before touching noses you asked “So who’s telling Mary and Roberta?”.

A bark of laughter was his reply before he touched noses again “How about we tell them together over dinner? I’ll get Mary to run over and invite her to dinner and then once dinner is finished we can tell them both then sound like a plan?”. Nodding your head letting out a groan head falling onto his shoulder “You know what will happen now? She’ll want us to move out and get a house, to have more room for not only us but for the baby! Future babies and Mary!” Shaking his head “ She would! No escaping it now we’ll have too!”. Both sighing with the thought of house hunting. Pulling away from each other, kissing each other one last time before you moved back into the kitchen and he turned back to his part’s that need fixing, every now and then glancing up at you in the kitchen feeling the love, joy at not only you being in his life but how you made him and Mary plus there three cat’s feel like home no matter where you were. Smirking once more and Mary and Roberta’s reactions after dinner made him chuckle again.

You know’s maybe he would have to take pictures of the event tonight for the “Kodak moment” to look back upon with joy and excitement! Turning back to his work, they would fix themselves, body trembling in excitement and wonder on what the future would bring. Being honest looking up once more he realised he already knew!

The End. Maybe?

Tagging: @magellan-88 @always-an-evans-addict @ilovethings-somuch @bolontiku @ryverpenrad um not sure who else to tag? also not sure of anyone else seen this yet?? So yeah! If I didn’t tag you I’m sorry I drew a blank and hoping your friends that are tag might share it with you!?

[canaryatlaw]

Okay, well today wasn't bad. Still kind of overall stressed, but dealing with it. I have time at least, to get all this shit done, get it spaced out over and all that, so that helps. Alarm went off at 7 and I got out of bed and made it to work and made it through the rest of the file for the permanency hearing, which was more of the parents being like "we're not alcoholics we don't need treatment fuck you" all the way to getting their damn kid removed, so I write up some normal permanency hearing questions and took that and the file over to the lawyer who gave it to me to talk to him about it. I ask if they ever made a paternity finding, because there was a whole big thing about it because apparently her "dad" her whole life isn't technically her legally-presumed dad because her mother was married to someone else when she was born, but I never found a finding, and then the lawyers like "oh yeah, well dad passed away in November, something related to his alcoholism." Oh. Well. And he goes on to add the mom is basically on her death bed in the same situation. Don't need treatment my ass. This poor child. She seems like a good kid though, so hopefully we can get her get into some post-high school training if not actual college. I'll get to meet her and interview her Monday. At that point I went back to my office and created a template for permanency hearing questions that I could just tweak for individual cases since the status based questions are largely the same. Somewhere in all of this my eyes were drooping way too much again so I took another 15 minute head on desk session, I might've actually passed out for a few minutes, but when the alarm went off I freaked out for a minute because I was expecting the wrong time for some reason and thought I accidentally passed out for like two hours lol. So I was fairly glad that didn't happen. Somewhere in here I also tried to call my psychiatrist about the whole Xanax thing I was discussing last night, only to be told he's on vacation till the end of the month.....I mean, the guy definitely deserves it, he's partially retired already and probably in his 70's, and I don't want to disturb him or anything, but like, I know him and I know he would want to hear two sentences from me on this issue but I didn't want to say it was an emergency because it wasn't, and if I did they probably would've put me on with one of the other psychiatrists that are filling in for him, and I'm sorry but there's no way I'm trusting anyone else with this shit. I think I'm gonna increase it to 3 mg a day for now at least, which is still within the normal range he said I could try so it's not a big deal. Hopefully that will make finals a bit more manageable. So that was less than ideal, but oh well. All of my events are really out of order for today so idk if any of this happened in this order, but around lunchtime I went to go see my across the hall friend who's now my across the building friend, to see if she was feeling better and if she wanted to get lunch because I, like a kindergartener, left my lunch box in the fridge yesterday (I had actually packed dinner in a brown paper bag for later but I didn't want to pack two of those). So we went to the "bakery" that has super awesome pizza an I got some of their pizza with the seriously biggest slices and ate like, half a slice lol. So good though. It was nice to talk to her though, we traded crazy stories from our courthouse and the DV one, and I was just like man, I'm so glad I have people I can share these things with without them being immediately horrified and me being like "yes I know those are terribly tragic circumstances but if you hang in there for a moment the court moment was really funny!!" Lol, it's gallows humor for sure but I mean gotten let it out somehow. I vent to my brother about crazy cases too, that's helpful since talking about the law is one of the few things we can talk about and actually have a lengthy productive discussion on without it somehow devolving into him being an asshole (mostly, anyway). So there's that at least. He appreciates my stories. So back from lunch and I spent a while organizing orders into alphabetized folders for two different lawyers haha who both apologized for the shitty work but I'm like hey whatever it's all good I know I'm the intern and I'll deal with your shitty jobs if it gets me a good in here. And then I had to show my supervisor how to send in the mid-semester evaluation my field placement supervisor wanted from him (oh, and he apparently knew my FP supervisor like 15 years ago and he was her boss in this office??? I swear he was everyone's boss at some point) because he was getting so lost in computer forms and retrieving files and saving them and electronically signing forms, so I'm just sitting there showing him how to do it and he's like "ohmygosh Rachel, you're so smart!!!" and I'm like trying not to laugh because he's just so adorably funny. And then of course I got to read more of the nice things he said about me which made my heart melt once again because he's literally so nice I can't handle it and his words are always really genuine too so it's nice. And yeah. So I didn't have anywhere to rush to right after leaving the juvenile courthouse today for the first time I can remember since, the summer, since I decided no kickboxing this week because I simply don't have the emotional or physical energy for it, so I was just gonna find a Starbucks to chill in and work on my appellate brief until small group time. So I got to like, take my time leaving and my supervisor is like "Rachel what are you still doing here, you're gonna be late to class!!" and it's like 5:01 haha so funny. So then waiting for the bus I saw the PD that was on the panel we did yesterday so we of course talked about delinquency stuff, like the spring break project from last year and of course eventually got into the whole transferring to adult court thing and I mentioned the slenderman case because that's just the most horrific case of misjudgment by the system and she'd heard of it of course but didn't know the details and she was beyond horrified to hear that they're trying two severely mentally ill 12 year old children as adults and having them face 35 years in prison. Like, we literally have an entire juvenile justice system FOR PRECISELY THESE REASONS. Bypassing it ignores all the science and research and not to mention the recidivism rate which skyrockets when you try children as adults. I'll cap it there though, not gonna go into a full rant at the moment (I know I've already done it on here). I got off the one bus to catch another and had to watch it stop and drive off while I was stuck on the other side of the crosswalk which SUCKS and it was just chilly enough to be annoying out today, but then thankfully another bus came like 2 minutes later which isn't typical but I was very grateful for. So I took that to the Starbucks area, then popped into Walgreens to buy more of their caramel chocolates that Lyft driver got me hooked on (lol) except they didn't have those exact ones, so I got what's basically the same but with toffee pieces and I tried a little and they're pretty amazing. So then I went to Starbucks and got an iced white tea lemonade and tried to surreptitiously eat my sandwiches (I mean I was facing the window so I didn't have to be all that secretive about it) and start the behemoth that is gonna be finishing my appellate brief, and I pretty much immediately felt lost, but always over like the stupid stuff I could find like whether saying "don't use the party names" meant the given names or the terms plaintiff/defendant....(it's the prior, I think anyway) but I figured as some sort of game plan I would work on fixing the argument section based on the feedback I got from our prof, since that still is the substance of the brief, and then work on adding all the extra parts. Half of the edits she gave me though we're like about ordering the arguments and shit and it just pissed me off because I like the way I order my arguments, dammit, because IT MAKES SENSE, and I'm sorry if it doesn't fit your blue book standard but my boss at my actual job where I submit actual motions to actual court seems to be quite impressed with it so you can take your argument order and shove it.....(note please that that wasn't actually directed at my prof, cuz I kind of like her, and I know it's the curriculum and not her setting the standards). But that just annoyed me cuz like, real life isn't legal writing fact patterns. You're not always gonna have an analogous case and a distinguishable case, and you're gonna have to make it work. I just....I get too worked up about all of it. But I at least made some progress on preliminary efforts, so maybe, 5% done? It's a start, at least. I walked from the Starbucks to church which is like a ten minute walk and even though it was still a little chilly I haven't done any walking for the past two days and I haven't had any chance to work out this week (I likely won't go to the gym tomorrow because I have no reason to be downtown) so it's something at least, to go with my push ups (which I think may be hurting a muscle in my side, because trying any new physical activity is basically let's see how I can piss my body off this time for me). But yeah, small group was good. This was something I meant to mention quickly on my last week's recap of it, but I think I might have a teeny tiny crush on one of the guys? Like it was in my head last week but it was barely anything, then I get in there today and we start talking about the marvel tv shows and you know I can talk above superheroes all damn day haha so that was enjoyable, and then he was being like "yeah it was cool being at my cousins wedding this weekend but it's also so weird being single at a wedding" and I'm like alright, that might have been a subtle hint, lol, and of course as soon as the idea even entered my head I spent the rest of the night pretty much planning our wedding when I haven't really decided if I even like the guy yet, lol. Physically he's not like drop dead gorgeous, but he's definitely not ugly and has a certain charming quality to his appearance, so I can work with that. The rest of small group (I almost just wrote Smallville) was good too, we talked about a passage in 1 Corinthians I was familiar with about love and of course I got to opine about my deep theories on the issue about how basically the passage is indicative of the entire problem of "religion" and what the church is facing today- that is, they have all the rules, all the right answers, but without love following through all of it it's basically useless, and I feel like that's so on point for what the church is dealing with right now. Like, no. Love meets you were you are. Love is right in there with your mess. Love doesn't require you to clean up your act before you're welcomed into our church. Jesus certainly didn't require it to be let into his presence, so how dare we even try to do it? And yeah, other random deep shit like that, lol, you get the picture. Took the train to the bus as my normal and AGAIN had to run to make the bus (this was a different stop, but same bus route) and again had to bang on the door to get let in while the driver was looking so put out by it and I'm just like....calm your tits lady we're giving your company money but being here, lol. But I got home, didn't almost get run over by a car but had the weird experience of a car stopping fully at a red light, and I started crossing, and then they suddenly started driving again and blew the light by like, a mile. They didn't even come close to wear I was crossing so I was never in danger or anything, but I was like seriously, wtf man? Who does that?!? Idiots. For home and watched Powerless, which was cute of course, then Riverdale which just left me with the comment that this is the one teen drama where all the high schoolers have it together for the most part and all their parents are going batshit crazy, lol. But I enjoyed both, and that pretty much wrapped up my night. And it's late, and I get to sleep in which I'm very glad about, but still I'm tired and want to go to sleep now, so that's what I will do. Goodnight mis amigos. Happy Friday.

#daily journal #April 2017

[heyyyharry]

{1/8} Sooo, I’m a fucking DUMBASS! This is gonna be a LONG “ask anon thing” sry! 😭 I read “In Another Life” so long ago and it’s still one of my fav all time reads, and I like reading completed books rather than unfinished bc I am so impatient that I could never handle waiting, I NEED to binge it through, so like I was waiting for the third part of flatmate to be finished since I already read part 1 and 2 long ago right when it got finished lmao

{2/8} (this probably doesn’t make any sense, I’m sorry😣) BUT bc I’m so into Halloween, & saw the Halloween special of part 3 was up, I couldn’t help but binge read and now I am impatient for the last 2 storylines within Part 3 (I’m so excited at the same time though!🥰) Imma be honest tho, I don’t read My Girl NOT BC IT ISNT GOOD, I’VE READ SOME BLURBS & THEYRE SO CUTE THAT I WANT TO READ but I’m gonna be a dumbass & instead of like Flatmates, wait until the LAST BOOK IS FINISHED TO BINGE READ

{3/8} THROUGH (idk why, I’m so weird like that!!! Sry!!!) but bc I’ve read some blurbs, I know a little bit of the characters from MG, like I have -heard- of Isaac (don’t really know who he is tho), I haven’t heard of Eddie yet (but I’m guessing by reactions that he’s a character in MG?) So when I caught up to the Halloween special, I’m assuming Eddie recognizes Harry but from MG?? And bc of THAT, I went back to the doctor visit chapter with Noah

{4/8} (GIRL, I was SHOOK that you brought the summer fling back from Book 1, NICE WORK!) that when Y/N mentioned the name Isaac (as I said before, I only HEARD of Isaac, I don’t completely know who this is, that’s why this reference flew over my head), I’m assuming that he took Y/N from MG, that’s why there was that reference? I HOPE THIS MAKES SENSE LOL I KNOW IM A DUMBASS, BUT THERE’S A POINT IN THIS WHOLE ASK THING! I didn’t understand until I read the note at the end of the Halloween chapter

{4/8} (GIRL, I was SHOOK that you brought the summer fling back from Book 1, NICE WORK!) that when Y/N mentioned the name Isaac (as I said before, I only HEARD of Isaac, I don’t completely know who this is, that’s why this reference flew over my head), I’m assuming that he took Y/N from MG, that’s why there was that reference? I HOPE THIS MAKES SENSE LOL I KNOW IM A DUMBASS, BUT THERE’S A POINT IN THIS WHOLE ASK THING! I didn’t understand until I read the note at the end of the Halloween chapter

{5/8} that I was like “wait wut😱” bc the name Aunt Lynn sounded familiar until I read the note 🤣 but continuing, I’m just wondering now...ARE ALL THESE BOOKS/SERIES CONNECTED OR SOMETHING? BC EVEN THO IDK WHO ISAAC IS, I CAUGHT THAT “in another life” line, & I was like WAIT, THERE IS A WHOLE ASS SERIES YOU WROTE CALLED IN ANOTHER LIFE!!! Then it got me thinking IAL is ALSO another reference bc Flatmate!Y/N deadass says the line “in another life” even tho she mentioned the name Isaac while

{6/8} thinking of baby names. and you know how IAL, Harry and Y/N’s past lives, they never got their happily ever after bc of the curse? And then Harry (Edward) finally stopped being a dumbass, found Y/N (Ann) in the present at the museum, and FINALLY got their happily ever after bc Harry/Edward found YN/Ann!!!! SO LIKE bc the curse was broken, and Flatmates and MG are gonna get a happy ending (even tho there’s SO MUCH ANGST IN THE MIDDLE, ugh my poor heart, but I love it! And love you! ❤️),

{7/8} is it bc since the curse from IAL is broken, there’s no more reincarnation but INSTEAD their doppelgängers Harry and Y/N from both Flatmate and MG do get their happy endings, is that why? (In my mind, reincarnation and doppelgängers are 2 diff things lol) but like all of this really leads back to IAL series?! THIS IS JUST A THEORY BC SINCE I BINGED PART 3, AND READ THE AUTHORS NOTE, I AM ACTUALLY SHAKING! YOU ARE SO CLEVER!!!!

{8/8} I’M SORRY THIS IS ALL OVER THE PLACE AND SUPER LONG WITH SO MANY QUESTIONS THAT I DONT EVEN KNOW THE MAIN QUESTION, BUT I HOPE I GOT MY POINT ACROSS! IM JUST A DUMBASS NOW REALIZING REFERENCES LOL😣, BUT I TRULY LOVE YOUR WRITINGS! 🥰❤️ Okay this is super long and I totally understand if you don’t even post thing ask, but just know you’re amazing, I love your work, and hope you have an amazing day!!! 😊

.

First of all, this is the longest ask I’ve ever received. Thank you for that.

To answer your questions, (you are NOT a dumbass, don’t call yourself that!), let’s talk about the Halloween chapter. When Y/N and the other Flatmate characters met the MG characters, it was on Halloween night. So when they came to the bookstore, Y/N expected to see the nice old lady who used to give her discounts when she was a student, but then she saw Eddie instead. A noticeable detail here was that Eddie told her the bookstore was a family business, meaning he had been working there for years, but why hadn’t they met before? It didn’t make sense.

Or did it?

It was Halloween night, so maybe it was the only night that the two alternate universes collided for a reason we couldn’t explain. And after that night, they would never see each other again unless something else happened.

But then in My Girl, Alice (the MC’s co-worker) said Layla was her cousin, this makes the point I made above invalid because Layla and the other Flatmate characters are real in this case and they are living in the same universe. The two Harrys and Nialls are just doupelgangers.

It really depends on how you prefer to believe. I wrote the crossover just for fun and to confuse you guys so it’s not very serious. But I love these theories so much 😍

About the In Another Life references, I LOVE what you said about how they broke the curse so they ended up together in every lifetime later on. This could be a connection between all the books and this could go so well with the first theory that Flatmate and MG were two parallel universes. Because they broke the curse in IAL, for every lifetime after, for every universes they were in, they always end up together no matter what.

This doesn’t really answer your questions because I don’t have the answers. The truth is just what you choose to believe in. 😉

#flatmate talk #my girl talk #in another life talk #theory

[beedalee]

what are the stories/projects you work on or involved with?

EDIT 2019: FOR AN UPDATED LIST, GO HERE!

Oh gosh, it’s been a bit since I did a rundown of them… (I need to update my project lists tbh… ugh..) I’ve been working really hard on consolidating my characters and stories these last few years so I’m rightfully proud of my progress.. Even if no one can tell yet but me!! >8//); 

Despite how many we have, only a few of them I seriously want to bring to completion and/or publish first and foremost. The rest are really just for fun until I/we feel like they could become something bigger. Also, Dye has involvement in most of my stories whether it be a full collab or just helping!

It’s a long post… so, BELOW THE CUT WE GO!

Collaborations 

(with @dyemelikeasunset)

Ocean of Cycles: Our 4th Collab- Dye’s world-building project that I have the honor of helping flesh out. While we have our OCs and want to make it RPG ready for others to play in for fun, and we think making a book of the completed world-building someday would be fukken awesome, it’s largely a stress relief and creative outlet for Dye and I, so we’re not in a rush nor can Dye’s schedule allow for full-time work on it. Like Dye, I would like to do mini-comics about their adventures myself as well!!

Picture This Imagine That: (sorry this art is 4yrs old… T//w//T) Our third collaboration; Started small but became our means of reconciling our identities and coming out. After we came out some years ago, we put this one down to handle real life stuff and grow up a bit- but we do still fully intend to draw and publish their stories, we just took it offline and pulled back to a much more relaxed pace until it’s actually ready.

Solaris: Our second collaboration. Originally an Avatar: The Last Airbender fanstory, transplanted into an original universe. I’d really love to bring this one to life as a comic, but the plot hasn’t been finished yet! We love this one  to bits though and I’d consider it a likely choice down the road sometime.

White|Outlines: Technically our first collaboration, a soft slice of life about troubled supernatural teenagers. My branch in the same universe/highschool as Dye’s SalaDays story (No, the SD cast doesn’t really interact with mine)  I made this because Dye used to have the world open for RP, but we’ve long since closed it off. (That’s more geared toward OoC now) I don’t really have plans for pursuing this one outside of for fun!

Unlucky: A fun slice-of-life meets shounen kind of story set in a tightly knit chinatown. Dye helped create the bulk of this verse for a lot of homeless/floating OCS, like Quinn and Airi from my old beckoning cat magical girls team, Jake and Evelyn from anirangers, Tyberius and Farah from wwp’s “D’Amatos” godfather-parody show… stuff like that. It’s a bit more on the world-building side right now but I hope to draw things for it soon.

I also play around in or help with some of Dye’s more solo works like Kingdoms or Romaine Hearts, as well as a few offline projects that aren’t super involved/developed yet.

Magical Girls: 

(yes it gets its own section)

Forecasters:  My lovebaby of a story, featuring weather magical girls. My only active personal project that I want to make into a full blown webcomic right now. It’s 99.7% offline atm, I started this in 2013 after we put down PT. There’s still a lot to do, but I’m really excited about this one. It’s like my self-imposed college final project and/or legitimate story pitch I guess? I wanna post promo art for it so bad but I want at least the first two chapters drawn before that so bear with me…

Starless: Alien powered magical girls. Created from old (2008) tokyo mew mew OCs! The story’s been a bit ambiguous lately but I am very fond of this one and would consider it one I’d like to complete/draw for someday if the plot lets me WRITE IT lmao. Dye is helping me by adopting some of the characters!

Minor  MG Stories: (click the link in the last bullet to see pics of these)

“Book Keepers”: Literature theme college magical girls, collabed with Dye. Currently just a loose idea with really fun fleshed out OCs, but not a super high priority.

“Candyland”: NEW! Candy themed magical girls. A tentative title for a bunch of OCs I’ll be posting soon enough so I guess I’ll add them now. Some of them are old af, some are super new. They’re just an early concept and a bit of a style-experiment.

Cheers!: Drink-themed magical girls. A very old team I don’t really plan on doing anything with right now, just currently trying to redesign them to my liking.. -stares holes into them- LET ME LOVE YOU

Cosmic Club! another design prompt with no story.. YET…. I love them and they seem v popular so it’s possible! We’ll see how it goes.

Even more magical girls over here in this list but are all in a similar ‘concepts only at this time’ status (Lucky is on this list but is no longer a magical girl series)

My Projects:

Shards of Moon: A fateful fantasy epic about birds and songs. Formerly Anathema, the first fully fleshed out “serious” story I wrote… It was terrible! It was merged with another story that had no characters, so all my oldest OCs live here now. I’m very very fond of this one but I’m letting it percolate very slowly. It’s a far off goal for now, but it is shaping up to be a story I’d like to tell.

Sleep Tight: About a little girl and her boogeyman and conquering fear. The second story I wrote in high school. This one needs… a lot of rework and a bit of gutting- I haven’t decided the direction I wanna take it yet, but I don’t mind waiting. (I mean, look at what happened to Shards of Moon- I was so sure I’d trash that whole story and its characters.)

Superglue: I have like NO new art for this one yet lmao.. Young superheroes dealing with past actions they ran away from. A third high-school story that has changed so dramatically it’s not even remotely similar to its first version. It’s basically a baby story with old re-homed OCs in it because I felt sorry for them. ;w;;; I don’t know how far this one will take off yet but yeah

Others:

I’m gonna get ta’ play in @caiterprince​’s universes with Dye too, including the WIP Magical Girl Academy as a means to flesh out more magical girl designs (Eden is the most familiar, but I’ll have more soon), and a few cameos in Plainer in Hindsight and Weaver’s Debt eventually

Fancharacters like my SU gemsonas, my ponies, and my Tokyo Mew Mew OCs are purely for fun. If I want to write an original story about the characters (which has happened, see Solaris and Starless) I’d transplant them first.

I have a few other concepts laying around- placeholders like “fairyverse” or “spacewitchverse” where I throw similar-theme homeless OCs but don’t have a single story idea for, it’s just.. there. for now. So I won’t bother going over those. 

AUs (like elf gfs Band AU) don’t really count as separate unless they become canon. (i.e. what happened with Solaris)

If anyone’s really curious on the development of my worlds and ocs, I honestly highly taking a peek through my sketchdump folder on my DA. (start at the bottom, its infinite scroll) You can find pretty much everything I’ve ever conceptualized in these. I started to sort dumps by story- there’s actually quite a bit of storytelling / oc growth nestled in there if you’re into that sorta info-binging. I-I think it’s kinda fun tbh…. I do apologize in advance for any slurs or problematic wording you may find in the oldest dumps, I’ve been cleaning it over the years but might’ve missed something.

That’s about it for now! (-sweats violently- no more pls i have… too many children.. -wheezes and lays down-)

#long post #beedalee art #bc it's relevant #Anonymous #askbox #i'll add more as they come along i think #maybe i should just hyperlink this post instead of updating separate pages

[barblodewyckx1-blog]

Why The Paleo Diet regimen Is actually The most ideal Low.

This is actually a complete guide for the PlayStation 4 Much like along with intermittent buyer electronic products, Sony's PlayStation 4 is also encountering a couple of mistakes as well as issues. I accept, this wasn't as rigorous as Taking Transforms was actually-- due to the fact that manual one involved a quad and also nothing can easily trump the heat energy and eroticism of that-- but that is actually equally pleasant, impactful and also twisted in each the techniques J. A. Huss writes her publications. Magnificently rendered landscapes creates harsh treking a lot less of a task in a video game that's essentially Uncharted without any of the combat. A true and more accurate evaluation would be actually to review the top quality between an PS4 video game as well as an PS3 unique like MGS IV or even Undiscovered. I question anybody has actually read my entire testimonial for this publication, yet if you have actually handled to read to the end from it and also you are actually still certainly not encouraged to review this publication, I DEFINITELY advise you to accomplish so. I am actually thus zealous about this publication and also I have a feeling I will definitely reside to like that for years and years to come. There is actually some disagreement that such a video game will eat your opportunity good enough that by opportunity you are done, there are going to be a lot more available for Change ready to play. To see more information on simply click the following website page stop by our own site. Every year players and also organisers break their backs to apply grassroots tournaments, and with events such as the E-League and also Red Upward Kumite coming forward, there is right now a clear course for battling video games to have towards big-budget esports. That is actually such a fantastic idea to possess a different blog site as opposed to managing a thousand emails. And, significantly, you'll simply acquire the complete video game components on new-gen platforms. Benediktsson's trips begin in the city of Akureyri, on Iceland's north shoreline, and also function countless locations in the region around Lake Mývatn that will certainly be familiar to Video game from Thrones aficionados. I'll be actually honest, in between this manual and also Beyoncé revealing she's possessing identical twins, I seem like the world is actually trying to alleviate the blow of Donald Trump's next executive order. This isn't really a surprise, given that Lyanna as well as the other honorable lords from the North were actually along with Jon in the end from Season 6 when they announced him master, however we are actually still glad to view that Game from Powers' resident scene-stealer is actually appearing as lively as ever before. And afterwards EA declared Battlefield 1, a game set in War of the nations 1, and also the battlelines were actually clear. Off the Time 7 coupons, it is actually very clear the White Walkers gone on their way, and also they're perhaps delivering a ton of second-rate perspectives along with them. This is an especially exciting title because it is actually certainly not only one of the first available globe activities to become discharged on the brand-new production from consoles, however additionally possesses a couple of brand-new auto mechanics that our experts've never actually seen in a game just before. Many of all of them entail folks chasing me or even aiming to harm me. I also possessed a handful of aspirations concerning Venture Food Blog this past full week. I have tried to be there for the females with anything they require, as well as though their mother and also I are actually certainly not gotten married to, I think that I am additional from a daddy compared to the ex-spouse that couldn't care less concerning his personal youngsters. Beginning a publication off with an awkward instant that results in the reciter laughing out loud is my kind of manual. As well as let me inform you, Callihan performed merely that and extra as the importance of love as well as friendship talked editions in this particular publication. She seems delicate and docile, however the activity from Caraval really makes her spine and her nerve show. Each phase keeps a brand new mystery, and also I felt so compelled to never put this book down. Don't let the fairy tale specifying moron you, this is actually an intense, mature video game and it is actually one where your choices have effects, affecting certainly not simply just what the other characters consider you however likewise who stays as well as who passes away. Within this second manual from the collection, this begins immediately where manual one's timetable finished along with the extension of Rochelle's loss coming from the game. The technique allows Nintendo to develop and also release ready a singular device that can easily serve target markets that prefer mobile and also home-based activities, and is a strategy that makes sense due to Nintendo's choice to merge its handheld and also components branches under one roofing system so both teams can easily work together on its own next body back in 2013. Yan 2295, which has leaked fairly legitimate info connected to Superstar as well as their activities over the last, like leaking Reddish Dead Redemption 2 or recently stating that a LA Noire remaster may be on its own technique, lately discussed this in a blog post, pointing out that Superstar will certainly be actually launching updates for some time merely to maintain this alive" yet nothing at all else besides that.

[daniellethamasa]

Hey all, Dani here.

Happy Halloween! When Katie over at Never Not Reading tagged me for this tag, I knew I had to do it, even if it meant moving around some of my other planned and/or scheduled posts. Hocus Pocus is one of my favorite movies, and was a big part of my childhood. So yes, I do own it on DVD, and yes, I do watch it somewhat regularly.

The rules of this tag are simple: there are no rules. Just, it would be nice if you could link back to Katie’s original post and then possibly even link back to the person who tagged you as well. Katie’s post used some GIFs from the movie, and you are welcome to use those in your post, and then Flavia made some graphics, and you can use those as well, if you’d like.

Anyway, let’s just get started.

For this one I just have to go with the Shades of Magic trilogy by V.E. Schwab.

I wanted to try and pick someone different from other people, but I just couldn’t really choose a female villain I despise more than Dolores Umbridge. Seriously, that woman is awful.

For this one I have to go with Percy Jackson, or really anything by Rick Riordan…and hey, to me his books are good for children of all ages. I mean, I’m almost 30 and I will still obsess and fangirl over any MG book by Riordan that is announced or released.

This book is just so ridiculously silly and such that I haven’t actually finished it yet. I can say that I’m more intrigued about the next Lady Janie book to come out, because it is apparently a Jane Eyre tale.

I rather liked the first book, but the second book was just so slow and it felt like wading through quicksand to get through it. I had hoped that the third book would redeem the sophomore slump, but I’ve reached the point now where I’m accepting that I’m just not going to finish the book. I feel like this series is trying to be like other series that have been successful and the parts are just not coming together like they should.

For this one I wanted to be able to answer with The Hate U Give or Dear Martin because of their focus on racial issues and issues of shootings and violence from the police, but I have not yet read either book. Then I thought about choosing All Rights Reserved because of the somewhat scary look at a potential future where every word and gesture is copyrighted and trademarked. And those are all valid answers for this prompt. Another valid answer is Pride and Prejudice. It is a classic novel that describes what life was like in those days (obviously from the observations/viewpoint of Jane Austen, but it still seems fairly accurate), and then let’s not forget both Lizzie and Darcy, who both just tell it like it is, even if it leads to errors in judgment and wrongful opinions on the character of the other.

I refuse to add photos for this series, but come on people, just let it die already. Of course I’m talking about E.L. James and the Fifty Shades of Grey books. Because now she’s coming out with Darker, which is a retelling of Fifty Shades Darker but from Christian Grey’s POV. So obviously that means that soon enough we can look forward to the announcement that she’s working on Freed and we’ll have all the books from both main character’s POVs. I only read the first book because I was trying to cheer a friend up so I agreed to buddy read it for her. These are not good books and I will not read any more of them.

I have to go with a classic here, Lenny from Of Mice and Men. But hey, dumb doesn’t have to mean a character lacking in personality, or a bad character.

I’ll mention Critical Role again here, and point you towards the monthly comic series. Issue #2 saw the adventures of Scanlan the bard and Grog the barbarian. Grog has a low intelligence, but I still think his character is amazing. You don’t have to be intelligent to be caring or compassionate or protective or anything else. I think characters like Lenny and Grog show us that.

I devoured this book when I was granted an early copy of it through NetGalley, and then I went out at midnight on release day and asked my local store (Wal-mart) to dig out a copy from the boxes in the back, because I had to have a copy of it. I also devoured and obsessed over the second book, especially considering how the world unfolded and what secrets were revealed. And then I never heard anything about the third book. Apparently Richelle Mead still plans to finish it and release it someday, but I guess sales weren’t what the publisher expected so they dropped the series.

I absolutely loved these books, but they only have a 3.2 star average on Goodreads. This series is also one I could have picked for The Black Flame Candle, because I’m sad I didn’t get a real conclusion. Okay, yes, book two has enough of an ending to be all right, but there is obviously more to say, and if I could afford to pay Catie Murphy to write the next one, I would. Sadly, I do not have that kind of money. If she ever decided to come back to the series and did a Kickstarter campaign, I would absolutely be one of the first backers.

I’ve seen it mentioned in numerous reviews for this one that it is somewhat lacking in plot. Well, I enjoy it for the atmosphere more than anything, though I can see the loose plot throughout. Anyway, this book was started as a NaNoWriMo project, and from my own experience, I know those stories can sometimes really take on a life of their own, much like how the circus takes on its own life and growth in this book.

When I first saw this tag on Katie’s blog and I reached this prompt, I instantly knew what book I would pick for this one. And as I saw more and more other people post, it seemed like quite a few people blanked on books that would qualify.

In Demon Hunts there is a lovely cameo for all fans of the TV show Supernatural. This book mentions a well-known Impala and two men: the tall one and the cute one…AKA Sam and Dean Winchester. So that is my pick for cameo in a book.

—

As it is Halloween, I don’t know if anyone would want to keep doing this tag after the holiday, but if you still want to celebrate books as well as the greatness that is Hocus Pocus, then by all means, you have now been TAGGED.

Hocus Pocus Book Tag Hey all, Dani here. Happy Halloween! When Katie over at Never Not Reading tagged me for this tag, I knew I had to do it, even if it meant moving around some of my other planned and/or scheduled posts.

#Books! #Reading #Recommendations

[floating-in-the-blue]

WIP list

List all the things you’re currently working on in as much or as little detail as you’d like, then tag some friends to see what they’re working on. This can be writing, art, vids, gifsets, fanwork, or original work!

I got tagged by the lovely @omgimsarahtoo from the MFMM fandom and now I feel bad because I have to confess there’s nothing really for the MFMM crowd in my wip list Oo....

...there’s two ideas that may or may not ever get anything written for them. One is a modern day Phrack AU where they find out there’s fanfic about them and the other would be a Agent Carter/MFMM Crossover where Peggy is injured and is sent to Phryne to rest which of course she doesn’t (Sousa somehow knows Phryne well?). There’d be established relationship fluff. But to be honest, I don’t really see any of them getting written any time soon...

Maybe I’ll get back into manipping at some point or some random fanart will happen but those bouts of creativity are mostly spontaneous and out of the blue...

As for the MGS Fandom:

My florist/tattoo artist AU Under My Skin (written for the MGS Winter Games) will soon be updated with the second chapter. The third may or may not be finished, I’m not sure yet and I have even less of an idea whether there’ll be more.

I’ve got another short MGS Winter Games story lined up that is actually finished, about Dave somehow ending up with 50 cats instead of 50 dogs. Will be posted soon.

Home Front is a story I would very much like to finish at some point or at least continue but with a reading crowd of two and research to do, it’s kinda hard to get motivated.

I’ve got one WIP that so far only exists in my head about the aftermath of Emma’s death and how Hal and Dave deal with that. ALL the hurt/comfort!! If I can find a way to make it fit any of the other MGS Winter Games prompts, I may try to write it while they’re still going on.

And then there’s Nature 2.0 of course, the beast, the challenge, the dream. It needs plot (which I’m bad at) and worldbuilding + research (which I’m bad at) but if it takes me till I’m 80, I’m determined to write it (and rip everyone’s heart out with the ending...uhm). Because fuck it, just once I’ll do this right because this story deserves it!

Since the MFMM crowd seems to have been tagged pretty much entirely now, I’ll hand it over to my other fanfic writer pals: @141-point-12, @higharollakockamamie, @misswinterfell, @lizardsnake, @fractalspaces (as always, feel free to ignore!)

#my writing #kinda #personal #yeoyou