#like I can go on for ages about the way the disconnect is written

[pacific-rimbaud]

i was reading your thoughts on how fans felt about l&oha and while i concur it is a perfect piece of work in my head and have reread it 5x, i wonder if you think fans tend to be harsher/more critical of hermione and let draco slide? i see it a lot in fics where he's more of an alphahole type

Oh, man. Okay. The can is open, the worms are loose. Rant under the cut.

I'm actually going to set men aside entirely. Just. To the side with you. I desperately need more realistically complicated men, too, but that's a whole separate discussion. Right now: women.

There must be whole dissertations out there on the phenomenon of readers hating female characters with negative traits. I'm a fandom old, so I didn't grow up identifying with Hermione, and wouldn't have even if I'd been young enough to. I did that "which character are you" test just now and my top three matches were Janis Ian from Mean Girls, Jughead from Riverdale and April from Parks and Rec, which, massive grain of salt, etc. BUT gives you an idea. I am not a Hermione and never was, so she's never been a comfort character or self-insert for me. Some of my favorite fictional women are Sophie Hatter (mean, irrational, petty, old and mostly loving it), Harrowhark Nonagesimus (evil stick), Phryne Fisher (zero fucks to give). What I like about Hermione is how imperfect she is. I'm a "cleverest witch of your age I've ever met" truther (book!Lupin is absolutely saying "you're the canniest 14 year-old child I have personally met, saying this as a guy who doesn't get out much," not "you are a once-in-a-century genius"), and from my perspective, she's often wrong and often a dick, and not in a fun and fiesty burn-down-the-world BAMF way. Which. Good for her! Be human.

And that's the thing. I personally don't want Hermione to be perfect, I want her to be what I think she is, textually, which is intelligent, hardworking, loyal, competitive, compassionate, controlling, belittling, rude, petty, insecure, vindictive, volatile. She has the right to be that way, because she's human. The desire for perfected women (or unapologetically and unstoppably awful ones, another brand of female power fantasy) is not limited to Dramione fandom. I think it's amplified in DHr by many readers who DO identify as former gifted children, books-as-coping-mechanism kids and Strong Female Personalities who felt marginalized in childhood and want to see Hermione have it all: she's slim, she's tiny, she's fragile as a bird, she'll break your neck, she'll step on your throat, she'll tear down the system, she'll heal all wounds, she does not need help, she holds all the knowledge, she holds all the cards, she is forever wronged, she can do no wrong, her vagina is tight, her nipples are hard, her hair is on point, her waist is tiny, her tits are bouncing, her ass is in the style of Now. And like. This isn't at all unique to DHr and Hermione. It's pervasive in fiction written by and for women. Female power fantasies are obviously feeding a massive hunger. It's just not what I personally want. Personally, I find it alienating and uncomfortable, which I know equates to, "That is wrong and shouldn't exist" to a lot of people, but that's its own tale as old as time.

There's a disconnect that happens too often where a reader wants one (1) thing from their fiction, and receives something else, even when the contents are clearly labeled on the tin. In this case, wanting a female power fantasy and encountering a woman who's written with flaws makes people upset. And maybe if we could be more honest with ourselves about what we're looking for when we read, work to accept that not everyone wants the same experience, and learn to close a book when it's not working for us and say, "No shade, this isn't for me," it would be less upsetting when we encounter a character who isn't written to meet our personal expectations. I will open a book, realize the FMC is a female power fantasy archetype and close it, because that's not what I show up for. I like my women gritty and weird and foolish and vulnerable and liable to hurt people and feel terrible about it. Give me all the exhausting chatterers and evil sticks and jocks with swords and their hearts on their sleeves (their hearts ripped out), give me shy Anne Elliot and her suitcase full of regrets and the ugly fuckup who never has a glow up, give me dirtbag stoners and Fleabag and Alicent Hightower apologetics and every role Natasha Lyon has ever played. It's not a moral high ground, it's about a preference for seeing actual, demeritus flaws on the page and on the screen. Blame that woman. It's her fault. She has so many faults. Then show me how to forgive her so I can figure out how to forgive myself.

The thing is, I love women. I love women so fucking much. I want to be around them, to get to know them, to read about them, to watch them on TV and see them in films. And personally, I like them ugly. Physically. Spiritually. Morally. Give a woman a Bad Personality and watch her succeed in the most self-injurious way possible, fuck you. Give her a gaping chest wound and line it with teeth. Stick a piece of grit in that girl's tightly sealed shell so that a pearl is her only option. Make her love other women, make her fuck it up, make her have to earn them back.

Thankfully I do feel like we're getting more ugly women in fiction, especially BIPOC, queer and marginalized women who deserve gross, weird, nasty representation and not just didactic moralism, patronization and misguided sainthood. Some readers won't want that, and that's fine. Again, personally (it's all so personal, please, please remember that when you hit that comment button), I'm here for it. If you write about women like this, know that you have a thirsty reader here. I'm swallowing them up. I'm smacking my lips. I'm smashing my mug on the cafeteria floor and calling for another.

#you asked I answered #rant #long post

[aphrodisiaxcunt]

Saw you need requests so what's up bbg

What about John Price with a younger gf (like 26, he's canonically near 40) who's worried that he's gonna "realize" he's "better off" with a woman his age? She's by no means immature or childish but sometimes worries there's too much of an age disconnect. Price obviously doesn't give a fuck and reassures her and it's just really sweet and lowkey Hozier coded? 👀

Like the song Be by Hozier (idk but it reminds me of him)

Omg thank you for your request🫶🏻Literally perfect I love Price so much it'll be nice to write something new, hopefully you'll enjoy my work ♡♡ Even though its not really my favourite out of all the things I've written ♡♡ sorry I'm using colored lines, it's just easier for my dumb bunny brain to grasp with colors

☆~♡—Connecting Pieces—♡~☆

Content: Request!Fluff, comfort, Cap Price x gf!reader, younger!woman x older!man, cutesy, domestic

Prices lines are green, Reader lines are orange

Reading time: 4~minutes

You and Price had been 'an item' for roughly over a year now, and it's been nothing short of perfect in your eyes. You've always felt a little more attraction to older men, nothing weird. They're simply just gentlemen compared to the boys your age. But lately, you can't help but kind of worry, although you've always liked older men, Price is your first older partner.

Every day for the past month or two, you've started noticing you and Price don't have that much in common, he's way more experienced in life and everything new to you is old news to him. Stressing over your thoughts as you're standing over your dining room table and attempting doing a puzzle, you don't notice Price until his arms wrap around your waist. Turning your head to look at him with a questioning hum from your throat, he places a gentle kiss on your forehead.

"Any closer to finishing this yet?" His remarks at your previous attempts of finishing a puzzle make you laugh a bit, turning your head back to the task at hand.

"Nno..not really.. I can't focus." You tilt your head a little to the side, looking for a specific piece from the pile of colourful shapes. Price slides his hand underneath your smaller hand, wrapping his digits with yours as he brings your hand up to his lips to kiss it, the beard and moustache he's so proud of tickling your knuckles.

"What's taking your attention, my love?" His soothing voice is like velvet in your ears, and you gnaw at the inside of your cheek just slightly, thinking if now is really a great time to start mentioning your insecurities.

"It's stupid, really don't worry -" he cuts you off "No no honey, it's clearly bothering you, so it must be important, even a bit, hm?" His words make you sigh. You take a seat, still fiddling with a puzzle piece between your fingers. He lets go of your hand, and instinctively, you pull it back to yourself and use it to assist your other hand at studying the puzzle piece. He takes a seat beside you and scoots the chair closer to yours. "I've just been thinking-" you hold a quick pause, "Of our age gap. Sometimes I feel like you'd be better off with a woman..that's actually your age." Your voice goes quieter the longer you talk. "And maybe some day you'll realize that and leave me.." Looking down, you've stopped moving the puzzle piece around and now just look at the part of a flower on it.

He seems a little dumbfounded, mouth opening and closing in his search for words, and after a couple of useless seconds of searching, he lets out a chuckle. Lifting your head, you see him smiling down at you, his smile lines creased up. "Oh, I see, my dear.. I can assure you that's not the case here. Never has been." Now it's your time to look dumbfounded as you mutter out excuses.

His rough hands move to cradle your head as his thumb tips find their places on your cheekbones, caressing them down in a soothing motion, he hushes you. His eyes locking onto yours, his face is relaxed and a little entertained. "What would make you think of such things?" You completely melt against his hands, leaning your face into his touch, looking for your words. "Sometimes I just feel like we don't have a lot of stuff in common..and when something is new and exciting for me- I'm scared it's boring and repetetive for you.." You close your eyes and tilt your head down, letting your hair droop over your face. Price smiles at you, brushing your hair back behind your ear and lifting your chin. "Oh I promise you, seeing you get excited over something is not boring.." Your eyes flutter open and they meet with his. Before you can start questioning him, he slides his thumb from your cheek onto your lips. You look at him as you place a soft kiss to the tip of his thumb, giving him a small smile.

"I've never felt like our relationship is complicated in that matter, we still love each other..And I don't think having things in common is necessary to that.." You start to blush at his comforting words. This is something you're really starting to wish you would have opened up earlier for conversation. But the important thing is that now he's aware and you're feeling reassured.

"Are we on the same page now dear?" His voice is quiet when he asks, giving him a nod and a "Yeah~..." as an answer. He pulls you in gently by your face, lips pressing into yours. You kiss him back, the scent of tobacco in his breath and the bitter taste on his lips is something you've started to like. You wrap your arms around his neck, running your fingers through his soft hair. The seconds go by fast, too fast as he stops the kiss. Eyes opening to meet yours, he gives you an other reassuring smile, making you blush and avert your gaze back to the puzzle.

"The piece goes here darling.." he points to a spot in the low left corner of the puzzle and you give him a sarcastic 'I knew it' as you place the piece to its respected place.

☆{}☆{}☆{}☆{}☆{}☆{}☆{}☆{}☆{}☆{}☆{}☆{}☆{}☆

YEAH! The puzzle was a metaphor of relationship issues and talking your problems through, so what? I'm kidding, that was honestly really amazing to write and I hope I pulled through on your request <3 I wasn't sure if I should call him Price or John so I hope that Price is fine

Go follow my ig @aphrodisiax_tumblr for fic release updates!!

#captain john price #john price #cod x reader #cod #call of duty x you #call of duty x reader #female writers #captain price #cod fluff #fluff #captain price fluff #captain price x reader #captain price x you

[querenciasturniolo]

home ⮕ n.s.

word count: 1.5k

warnings: swearing, she/her pronouns

summary: you’ve been missing your best friend, so you, matt and chris come up with an idea to surprise him

a/n: this is super corny, and poorly written, but i wanted to write something for nick, so sue me

everything written is completely fictional. the people i write for are written with characteristics and mannerisms that i made for them, this is in no way depicting what would actually happen in real life.

requested: no

“I genuinely don’t understand why you won’t just move to LA.”

You laughed and shook your head as you turned on your turn signal, Nick’s voice coming through the speaker. It had been three months since you’d last seen him, and you missed him like crazy. There wasn’t a day that went by when the triplets were in Boston full time that you didn’t see him. Them living in LA half the time sucked, to say the least. Nick was always subtle about telling you he missed you, but you knew he missed you as much as you missed him.

“Because I have a job, you dork. I can’t just drop everything and move to the other side of the country.” You teased, Nick grumbling a backhanded comment that you couldn’t quite understand over the phone. You scoffed as you pulled into your driveway and turned your car off. “When are you guys coming back to Boston?” You asked, disconnecting your phone from your car and stepping out as you pressed your phone to your ear.

“Not soon enough. We have a shit ton of meetings coming up, so it’ll be awhile before we can even think about traveling. How’s work been going for you?”

The rest of your conversation consisted of a million different things, each topic making you think about dropping everything and going to LA, even though you knew Nick was joking. Not seeing him everyday like you used to was the worst, and when you got off of the phone with him, you had an idea. You opened your messages and created a group chat with Matt and Chris.

how much do i have to beg you two to help me surprise nick ?

It felt like it took ages for either of them to respond, but Matt finally replied.

Surprise him how?

You explained your plan to them, telling them how you wanted to book a flight to LA and surprise Nick, especially since you hadn’t seen the three of them in so long. Chris sent a couple thumbs up emojis, while Matt replied and said to let him know when your flight got in so they could pick you up from the airport.

The days leading up to your flight, you kept in constant contact with Matt and Chris, making sure that you were all on the same page, and making sure Nick had no idea what you were planning.

Your flight was long and tiring, you couldn’t stop yourself from getting antsy. You were so excited to finally see all of them, but especially Nick.

Matt and Chris told you that Nick had plans with Madi for most of the day, and wouldn’t be home until later, so your afternoon landing would give you enough time to set up what you had planned. The moment your plane landed, you rushed to get your bag and get to where Matt and Chris were, facetiming Chris immediately.

“Hey, where are you guys?” You asked, Chris flipping the camera to show you what exit gate they were parked at.

“I can’t fucking pronounce that, but that’s where we are.” He said, an amused scoff leaving your lips as you walked out of the gate and looked around, finally spotting the minivan and running over. Chris and Matt got out of the car and practically yanked your bag and carry-on out of your hands to throw into the trunk. The moment they were done, they wrapped you in a bone-crushing hug, all of the air leaving your lungs.

“I’m glad that you guys missed me too, but I can’t breathe.” You said, dramatically straining your voice as they let go.

“We just love you, dude. Accept it already.” Chris said, you rolled your eyes and opened the back door.

“We need content for our Wednesday video, do you mind?” Matt asked, climbing into the driver’s seat.

“Yeah, that’s fine.” You said, Matt nodding to himself as Chris immediately pulled the vlog camera from his bag and turned it on. It took him a few minutes to get the camera to focus, swearing under his breath as he finally lifted the camera to be facing all three of you. You were always surprised at how comfortable they were behind the camera, while you constantly felt awkward any time you were involved in one of their vlogs.

“So, as some of you guys know, Y/n has been one of our best friends for a while. We haven’t seen her in forever, and we all decided that we’d surprise Nick while he’s out with Madi for the day.” Chris said, Matt immediately pulled out of the parking spot and headed towards the exit.

You waved at the camera and gestured behind you to the trunk. “I brought some decorations and gifts for him as well, and Matt and Chris are gonna help me decorate his room.”

Chris flipped the camera on Matt. “Do you have anything to say?” Matt glanced over before looking back at the road.

“Well, Nick has always said that he doesn’t get overly excited about things, but I feel like when he realizes Y/n is in LA for the week, we’ll see if that’s true or not.” He said, you and Chris laughing as he shut the camera off and put it away.

The drive back to their house was filled with the three of you catching up about what’s been going on the last few months in LA and Boston, and when you got back to their house, the three of you rushed up the stairs with your bags and the camera. It took less than an hour to hang the streamers and put the gifts in the bag, the three of you laughing and fucking around the entire time, talking to each other and the camera.

“Nick says he’s about to be home.” Matt said, replying to Nick’s text as you jumped from the desk chair.

“Fuck, where do I go, what do I do?” You said, your heart racing as Chris laughed and shook his head.

“Just stand in the bathroom, we’ll set up the camera. He’ll be confused as hell to see us in his room with a bunch of decorations, and then you can walk out.” He said, you nodding your head as Matt put the camera across from Nick’s door and hit record. You waited until you heard the door open from downstairs and Nick shouted that he was home before you rushed to the bathroom, Chris and Matt making themselves look casual as you waited impatiently.

Time seemed to slow down as Nick ascended the stairs, each step taken making you grow more and more antsy. The door to his bedroom opened and his footsteps paused.

“What the fuck.” He said, a grin growing on your face. You could see Matt looking up from his phone, not looking casual at all. His eyes flickered to you for a split second before meeting Nick’s eyes again. He’s always been awful at being subtle, but it was one of his charming attributes.

“Do you not like your surprise?” Matt asked. You heard Nick scoff and drop something on his desk before walking further into the room.

“This is ridiculous. You guys are acting like I was overseas; I was just hanging out with Madi for a few hours.” He said, his voice monotone as you finally stepped out of the doorway and leaned against the wall, waiting for him to turn and notice you.

“Look around, Nick, I’m sure you’ll find something.” Chris said, Nick frowned and turned his head, his eyes finally meeting yours. He paused for a moment, his reaction time slowed before his face lit up and he rushed towards you. You laughed the moment he wrapped his arms around you and lifted you, your legs kicking out behind you as you hugged him back.

“Holy shit! What are you doing here?! When did you get here?! When did you plan this?! What are you fucking doing here?!” He rambled, your laugh uncontrollable as he finally put you down and just stared at you, completely bewildered and shocked. You saw Chris out of the corner of your eye grabbing the camera and zooming in on the two of you.

“I missed you, you dork. A week ago I booked the flight, requested work off, and Matt and Chris helped me decorate your room and set up the surprise.” You said, Nick’s jaw hitting the floor. He looked over, seeing Chris holding up the camera.

“Oh, you motherfucker.” Nick said, a laugh leaving his lips as he shook his head and looked back at you. “You’re helping me edit this video since you exposed me.” He said. You scoffed and shrugged your shoulders.

You didn’t mind being put to work, even if it just meant you laying on Nick’s bed and talking to him while he edited. He was like your home in a person, you’d never thought you’d meet someone you felt completely comfortable with no matter how strange you acted at times. Neither of you had ever been overly affectionate, physically or emotionally, but you couldn’t stop yourself from telling him what was on your mind.

“This is so fucking weird to say, but I’m so glad I met you.” You said, Chris and Matt aweing behind the camera.

Nick snorted and shook his head. “That’s not weird at all, I’m fucking awesome.” He said, the tone of his voice joking. “I’m glad I met you, too, you loser.” He said. You awed dramatically, pulling him into a ridiculous hug.

“I knew you loved me, you big lug!” You teased, Nick groaning and trying to shove you off of him, Matt and Chris cackling behind the camera.

You knew you’d have to head back to Boston at the end of the week, but for now, you were glad you were home.

#nick sturniolo #nicolas sturniolo #matt sturniolo #matthew sturniolo #chris sturniolo #christopher sturniolo #sturniolo triplets

[blueskittlesart]

I know live action Zelda is gonna suck but what would be your opinion on one like the new Mario movie that recently came out? I feel like something like that would do the game more justice than actual people having to play the different characters

i assume you mean the medium of animation vs live action? i think that 3d animation would probably have a better chance of doing the games justice than live action, yes, especially irt a mute character like link--it's much easier to rely on expression and body language to tell a story when you have complete control over the rigging of a character and aren't relying on an actor's personal choices. I also think it would have removed the recognizability paradox i was talking about earlier with link--the second he's recognizable as an actor, he ceases to be link, the silent protagonist, the universal self-insert. i think the worldbuilding, creatures, and setting of loz would also be significantly more likely to be consistent with the characters and not out-of-place if the full thing was animated instead of cgi vfx on top of live action actors, as we will likely be seeing with this live action movie.

that said, i think the fact that we're getting a live action movie instead of an animated one MAY be indicative of an attempt to capture a real meaningful storyline with this movie. As much as this sucks, it's undeniable that animation in the US is a medium that's usually reserved for children's movies or stories that are targeted at a younger audience, and thus animated features usually have less narrative depth. This was one of my personal problems with the mario movie--the story felt like a complete afterthought imo, with the priority clearly having been grand visuals and funny quips that would have made the movie attractive to a younger audience. basically, it was written like a low-substance kid's movie. This is something you can get away with with a franchise like mario, which is usually low-story or storyless and relies on visuals and gameplay. Zelda, on the other hand, is a narrative-based rpg. Its stories are (usually) very thoughtfully constructed, thematically cohesive, and quite frankly have a lot more depth and substance than you're going to get from your average animated feature in this day and age, especially if the company producing that feature is illumination. (note: this is not to say that all modern animation is for kids or lacks depth, but that's the PERCEPTION of animation among the general public these days, especially american 3d animation.) so i think that the fact that it's live action might at least indicate an ATTEMPT to capture some of the narrative depth that the games possess rather than defaulting to a mario-movie-style barrage of visuals loosely tied together by only vaguely coherent plot points.

truly, i think the ideal medium for a zelda film would have been 2d animation, a medium which addresses both the actor-recognizability and consistency problems inherent in a live action film AND the potential narrative disconnects inherent in a 3d animated one (both japanese and american 2d animation has a rich history of delivering deep, dark, impactful narratives suitable for children and adults alike.) unfortunately, since they insist on producing these movies in america, where 2d animation has been all but killed artificially by the moneymaking machines that run our creative market, it was probably never going to happen that way. like i said, i think both live action and 3d animation have some potential problems inherent to them, but i guess all we can do now is wait and see what we end up with. lol

#asks #sigh. brb. mourning the 2d animated zelda movie we could have had

[theharecares]

About me

Welcome to my nonhuman space! You can call me Randi. I'm new to the community as a whole and still trying to pinpoint some specifics, but in general terms, I'm deitykin and my theriotype (?) is a hare (lepus townsendii)

Slightly more about me here

Fun facts below cut

Age: 17

I'm an INFP, a cancer, and I have green eyes

Pronouns: they/it

I enjoy art of all kinds, I do performance arts and I draw. I admire musical talent greatly. I like pretentious writing and things written in pre modern english. I love typing quirks, its like a treat for my eyes. I love songs that make no sense and songs that tell stories. I like having plants and animals to tend to. I love spring and summertime, it makes me feel very alive. My favorite scent is sweet pea, I also like citrus. I like knowing things, everything, gossip, trivia, anything but math really. I only don't like math because I don't know how to read it.

I was raised in a very sheltered christian household. I've been exposed to enough public schooling to not totally live under a rock but I still feel pretty disconnected. Social media keeps me in the loop pretty well but other than that I'm not very involved with most people in my peer group. This isn't a pity brag but it did shape how I see myself and my nonhumanity. I've been treated like an animal, I've been treated like I'm not really there, I feel like I don't quite belong with people but I'm allowed to stay and play pretend for awhile.

I don't have many DNI criteria. I don't like apologetics or evangelism. There's the basics, too, of course, no phobes or zoos or anti's. Just don't hate too loud. I am a singlet and will not engage in syscourse. As long as you aren't hurting me or anything else, feel free to do you. I don't feel the need to go in depth here because anyone who wants to be rude won't read this anyway.

I'm always looking for friends, start a conversation with me in any way you see fit, I'd love to talk.

#about myself #alterhuman #nonhuman #alterkin #otherkin #otherkin community #rabbit therian #therian #therian community #therianthropy #wolf theriotype #otherkin safe #kintype #otter therian #otherkin stuff #wolfkin #reptile therian #rodentkin #robotkin #deer therian #therian tips #cryptidkin #kin things #dietykin #demonkin #divinekin #angelkin #godkin #deitykin #vampirekin

[saintsenara]

I’m obsessed with your unhinged ship opinions! They’ve really gotten me thinking about interesting combinations which is such a fun activity for the subway

My submissions:

- Narcissa Malfoy/Petunia Dursley

- Voldemort/Molly Weasley

- Nagini/Crookshanks

- Walburga Black/Barty Crouch Sr.

ahhh, thank you so much @epigaea-repens - light of my life and producer of the finest piece of fan art i've ever seen - i'm genuinely delighted to discover that somebody other than me gets something out of doing these.

narcissa malfoy/petunia dursley

i'm oddly partial to a bit of draco/dudley - entirely because the idea of vernon trying to out-pompous lucius is funny to me, as is the fact that they'd clearly both think harry would care and harry's actual response would be 'who's draco?' - and i have to confess myself partial to this too.

narcissa's narrative mirror is molly weasley - both of these women share a certain fierceness [and, especially, a fierceness and strength one might not expect of them at first glance], but they also share a certain disconnection from the rest of their family, and an undercurrent of loneliness can be detected in their characterisation.

this is present in the way petunia is written too - the implication of canon is both that she's married "up" in terms of social class and that vernon is quite a bit older than her.

[and her fandom reception is a victim, i think, of the aging up of the adult cast of the films - petunia is, at most, twenty-four when lily dies. like her sister, she marries and has children young, even by the social standards of 1970s/1980s britain, and having to take on harry changes the trajectory of her life when it's only just started - i am absolutely wedded to the idea, for example, that harry being placed in her care means that she gives up a plan to have a second biological child.]

she is, of course, also confined in a prison which is directly of her own making - the bland domesticity of her perfect little house, all of which is an artifice constructed so she doesn't have to admit how deeply she once longed to be magic. narcissa experiences the same - i always read her as someone who leans heavily on the gendered conventions of the wizarding world as a way of coping with how utterly both of her sisters defied them, and as being someone who is very concerned with keeping up appearances [hence why her wildness and desperation when she goes to see snape in half-blood prince is so shocking]. i think you can imagine that she runs malfoy manor to have the same nothing-wrong-here vibe as number four privet drive, and i think you can do something very interesting indeed with the idea of two women who live behind masks being forced to drop them when they find each other.

lord voldemort/molly weasley

does, in fact, exist, in the form of a story i will recommend to everyone - come slowly, eden by paimpont - which, like all the best rare-pair fics, takes two implausible characters and creates a genuinely meaningful love story between them, through a lovely character study of molly and her ability to notice when people [and, especially, when people who are very much in want of a mother] are hungry.

nagini/crookshanks

i had to look up crookshanks' gender for this - which is a wild thing to say on a weekday afternoon - so that i could confirm... flopping. nagini's a lesbian, crookshanks misunderstood when she said she liked pussy.

it's fine in the end, though. nagini's got something happening with one of the malfoys' peahens, and crookshanks can go back either to the enemies-to-lovers thing he's got going on with mrs norris or to the soulmates thing he's got going on with sirius.

walburga black/barty crouch sr.

i am completely obsessed with this concept, i don't even think it can be considered a crack ship, and i would like to see it written immediately.

debilitating grief at the son you thought you knew disappearing - whether literally or metaphorically? delicious.

#asks answered #asenora's opinions on ships #unhinged and deranged ships #but only a bit

[mbti-notes]

Anon wrote: (INFJ. 21) I am ashamed and isolated because my sense of fun doesn't coincide with people and society's sense of fun. I don't drink, smoke or go to nightclubs, and I hate those kind of things, but at the same time I feel I am not allowed to have fun and connect with others in any other way but that, and it makes me feel disconnected from humanity.

Your thinking seems quite extreme and one-sided. Society is a big, big place; we're talking thousands, millions, even billions of people. There are many different kinds of people with many different kinds of interests. Social isolation tends to make people very small-minded. By your own admission, you have been isolated a long time, which means you simply haven't seen enough of the social world to make objective and reasonable judgments about it.

I am a very serious and uptight person in real life but I actually enjoy doing childish things. I like going to amusement parks, dodgems, go-karts, arcades, inflatables, camping, some type of toys like stuffed animals and dolls (I don't collect and I am not obsessed with them though), exploring abandoned places, games such as Just Dance, Twister and housey-housey, jumping and doing acrobatics on trampolines, but also some socially acceptable things such as dancing, skating and barbeques, but I repress everything and I never “have fun” in real life.

I have done almost all of those activities with my friends, and we are all well into adulthood. I've even done them with my parents and their middle-aged and elderly friends of all stripes. I see absolutely no reason to hang our heads in shame. You wouldn't even know about many of those activities if they weren't popular enough to make money and continue to exist. Even if it's true that the majority of people around you don't take an interest in them (which is, again, very few people given how small your social world is), it doesn't make those interests any less valid. Are people not allowed to simply like what they like? Are any of those interests morally wrong? It sounds like there is something very off about your moral judgment, which speaks to a need to improve your moral reasoning skills. Poor moral reasoning is one major reason people suffer from excessive guilt or shame.

As a consequence, I am stuck in a limbo where I am miserable and bored but I also find the things that majority of people do boring, so I am not allowed to do anything. I am not someone who wants to be a child forever, I do have a genuine purpose (which, by chance, happened to be something that's the opposite of childish in society's eyes), ambition and career prospects in life, if that's the “grown up” thing you need from me to prove I'm not a complete extraterrestrial freak.

I have zero interest in judging you. Question for reflection: Why do you feel the need to prove anything? Due to projection, self-critical INFJs always imagine that they are being judged by everyone. This can compel them to try to get ahead of criticism or disprove negative judgments. These quests are a waste of time because 1) you can't avoid criticism in life, and 2) you can't change people's minds when they are intent on believing the worst.

What you can control, though, is how you judge yourself. Shame comes from the way you judge yourself. If you have a problem with being too self-critical, the first step is to own the problem and admit that you are the one doing the judging. Criticism can only trigger you when there is something within you that believes you are deserving of it. There is something about your way of evaluating yourself that needs to change.

Obsessing about how the world doesn't live up to your expectations is merely a distraction. Blaming others for how you feel is one common way to get stuck in Ni-Ti loop. Shame is your emotion; you generated it and it is up to you to understand why. Toxic shame is a serious issue and I have written about it before. It involves 1) believing what others say without critical reflection, as well as 2) believing the worst of yourself even though there is no rational reason for doing so. Given the distortions in your beliefs, it sounds like your toxic shame runs deep, perhaps it's a good idea to get professional help for it.

Sometime ago I found myself together with some early teens so the only thing I spoke about with them was careers because I felt that was the only thing I was allowed to do. I don't need to be told it was weird and socially inappropriate to only ever talk about future professions with those children because I fucking know already. When they started playing catch I wanted to join but I didn't, and I thought it was shameful, twisted, sick and deranged of me to want that, I felt like a pedo so I left.

Pedophilia is defined as sexual attraction toward minors. Are you saying it's impossible for an adult to enjoy innocent play with children because of having sexual feelings? If so, then, yes, that would make you a pedophile and you should indeed avoid children. If not, then why wouldn't you allow yourself to have fun with them, especially since fun is what you really need? Children tend to be accepting and love to play with anyone who is willing to chill and have a good time.

The division between "child" and "adult" is not as black-and-white as you believe it is. There is no legal or moral reason that adults cannot enjoy some activities that children enjoy. You seem to have concocted some very extreme beliefs and inflexible rules about what you can/can't do when socializing. Why?

When INFJs get stuck in Ni-Ti loop, they are resisting Fe development, so they unconsciously invent all manner of false beliefs to hold themselves back from getting the socializing they need. This situation with the children is a good example. If you believe adults shouldn't play with children, how are children meant to learn about the world? They require a positive influence from their elders and you could step up and fill that role for them. Yet, you can't, because you have a personal problem with feeling "childish" and it is too uncomfortable to confront, so rejection of yourself leads to rejection of the kids, thus losing a good opportunity to socialize.

When people stop themselves from fulfilling important needs, such as social needs, they suffer terribly. How can you be happy by constantly depriving yourself? If you treated someone else that way, it would be considered abuse. Why are you abusing yourself?

I think it all started when, other than joining the “adult world” and noticing I can't have fun with others because they don't share my sense of fun, a friend of mine told me I was “childish” for liking to explore abandoned places, and it hasn't left my mind ever since. My requited crush (ESFP) also told me I was weird once, and I started to feel even more ashamed because he's socially adept, popular and belongs to the world, and also kinda conformist because he does and is everything that society deems socially acceptable and enjoys it.

The real issue isn't "childishness" at all. The real issue is you were invalidated and it hurt because you lack the emotional and intellectual tools to handle criticism. Human beings are social creatures and need a sense of social belonging, so invalidation and criticism aren't pleasant experiences for anyone. No society is perfect. Every society has great diversity of personalities and you are bound to run into people who are very different from you, which means there's no avoiding invalidating experiences in life. What matters most is how you choose to respond to those experiences.

On one extreme of the spectrum, people stubbornly stand by what they believe even when everyone tells them they are wrong; on the other extreme of the spectrum, people just believe everything they are told without second thought. If you genuinely want to get out of Ni-Ti loop, you have to actively counter extreme and unreasonable thinking patterns whenever they appear in your mind. The healthy middle ground is to listen to what people say, in case they are making a valid point, and then do the critical mental work to evaluate it objectively, in order to extract truth and utility.

What you've done, through Ni-Ti loop, is taken the pain of invalidation/criticism and run off into the land of extreme thinking, eventually getting lost there. You exist on both extremes of the spectrum. On one hand, you just believe whatever negative thing people say about you, which leads you to feel ashamed. On the other hand, something within you can't agree with what was said, which leads you to stubbornly or angrily defend yourself. When you get stuck in such extremes, it is logically untenable, which means it causes psychological instability. What started out as a small hurt of invalidation/criticism has now been blown out of proportion into something so painful that you need to invent false beliefs to rationalize the terrible position you find yourself in.

These kinds of negative thinking patterns indicate a dire need for you to improve your emotional intelligence. The first step is learning to accept and embrace all of your feelings and emotions so that they don't always get blown out of proportion. Your feelings and emotions are important messages that help you maintain good mental health. However, when you don't process them properly, they have the potential to damage your mental health.

For example, it is quite reasonable to feel hurt by invalidation, but it is unreasonable to descend into shame, anger, and rage spirals in reaction to the hurt. You ought to reflect on the hurt, patiently and compassionately, in order to understand its true meaning. Perhaps it is simply informing you that those people are not well-suited to be your friends. You can try to deny the reality of the situation, or you can accept reality and keep moving forward to seek better social opportunities. There is always a better response you could choose.

Being around him makes me feel even more inadequate and self-conscious and I am terrified of him finding out the childish things I like doing because somebody “normal” such as him would think I am a weird mentally ill freak and that would shatter me to pieces because it would be the ultimate disconnect from humanity for me. So I disappeared and cut all contact with him so that he doesn't find out who I really am and starts using it against me.

Have you done something morally wrong? If you have, then it would be right for people to call you out and shame you. If you haven't, then other people's judgments of you are invalid, perhaps to be taken as proof that they are not relationship-ready, unable to be the friend/partner that you need them to be. If that were the case, the best thing to do would be to let the relationship go so that you could find something better. Use your Ni: What are the implications of continuing to tie yourself to his judgments and then blame him for your hurt? You would be stuck in a vicious cycle of fear and loathing with him indefinitely. Is that really how you want to spend your life? Once again, there is a better choice to be made.

I know everybody thinks I am a weird and deragend freak, so I isolate myself and I never express myself because I don't want people to ridicule and reject me for that again. I know I display a childish and simple-minded mindset, so fucking what? Are my insecurities socially unacceptable now as well? Am I not allowed to feel like this because it's the symptom of a “childish person with low ego development”? I only have this mindset because it's the same mindset everybody else has. How am I supposed to navigate the world otherwise?

"Everybody" thinks you're a freak? "Everybody" has this mindset? More examples of extreme thinking. Unless you have literally talked to everybody in the world and can provide concrete proof of their beliefs, then what you have here is a distorted or false belief, based on your own overactive imagination. Yes, rejection doesn't feel good for anybody, so it is reasonable to be afraid of it. But it isn't reasonable to take that fear and turn it into self-righteous rage. Does it make you feel better to rage against the world? Only for a moment, and then you go back to feeling like you're nothing. Unfortunately, it doesn't solve anything and doesn't get you your dignity back.

It's no use to pull a “gotcha” on me because I reprimanded my crush for being conformist while being a conformist myself. I am just bitter and envious that he manages to do it successfully and be part of the world while still feeling free in doing so. The other reason I avoid him and pretend he doesn't exist is to prevent myself from getting triggered by him.

"Pull a gotcha"? Like many socially challenged INFJs, you seem to have a habit of "mindreading", i.e., assuming you know what people are thinking/feeling or presuming to know what they will say. This habit is very destructive to relationships due to causing unnecessary misunderstanding. Socially challenged INFJs also have the habit of making up an image of people in their mind, and that's what they're really interacting with rather than the actual person. Since you're basically just talking to yourself, shall I leave you to it?

If you really already know all about people, then you should be able to resolve your socializing problems yourself and succeed in every relationship... yet you can't. A common way Ni-Ti loop mentally traps you is by making it very easy for you to believe that you know "The Truth" when you're actually just keeping yourself willfully ignorant of evidence to the contrary. The result is, you live in your own imaginary world. To get back to seeing more clearly (dominant Ni) and functioning well in society (auxiliary Fe), it is necessary for you to open your mind and make it more flexible to seeing the full truth. For Ns, feeling the mind get more and more inflexible is a huge red flag that something is wrong with the way they're thinking.

In running this blog, I am often forced to point out problems with people's beliefs only because it's necessary to correct them to reach the next stage of growth - not because I take sadistic pleasure in being pedantic and "pulling a gotcha". To be honest, I deeply dislike the tedious task of wading through the maze of people's distorted beliefs, which is one of the many reasons why I'm not a therapist. If you're going to believe I have ill-intentions and just want to put you down, you really shouldn't ask me for help, because nothing I say is going to get through your paranoia anyway. It would be a waste of time for both of us.

Are you gonna tell me to grow some balls, get over it and become a well-adjusted person? That's one part I predicted, but I also thought I could also get some useful or enlightening advice on how to get over my shame and reconcile my socially unacceptable interests with my bond with others. I just want to feel accepted for who I am and also “belong” and find my tribe, ideally, but I don't know how. It might not seem like it, but I genuinely want to change and have more courage, I was just letting off some steam. If you are wondering why I am a backlogged and underdeveloped individual like you did with the other INFJ not long ago is because I've previously been a hikikomori for 7 years on a Ni-Ti loop. I had this “childish interests” problem even as a teen, but it was nowhere near as severe as now. I used to completely repress my Fe before and I felt no need for relationships because I didn't know how to keep my Fe in check and, as I predicted, now it's out of control and I feel like a weak loser after my crush has made these repressed and unfullfilled needs of mine resurface. I'd rather you not publish my message but only your answer, in case you'll write it. I already know I am deeply gonna regret sending this to you but it's for the best.

"Grow some balls" is not something I would ever say because I believe that it's wrong to use gendered insults. Are you aware of the crude and vulgar way in which you talk to yourself?

Whenever you interact with people, you are taking an emotional risk, so socializing does indeed require some courage. You are risking the possibility of getting rejected. You can accept the risk gracefully and keep moving forward in life, or you can twist yourself up over it and get stuck in fear and pain. You get to choose.

I have made it clear on the contact page that when people send their questions to me anonymously, I will publish them publicly. I can't respond well if I can't make direct reference to the things you've said. But it's important for you to go back and review everything you've written for two other reasons:

1) Self-Reflection: You need to understand that hurt people hurt people. Your lack of self-respect comes out in how little respect you have shown to me. You don't get to rattle, rant, and rave and then, when you feel better, pretend like you didn't say all those things or that the things you said were meaningless, which is what many unhealthy FJs do. It is disrespectful to dump your emotions on someone, presume to know what they will think and say, and then try to control how they respond to you. I'm not your servant to order around. That is not what healthy socializing should look like.

Even if you could find some friends to be your "tribe", it's likely that you wouldn't be able to keep them for very long because of how easily you get triggered into tertiary loop. There is actually nothing morally wrong with your personal interests despite what the people around you say, but there is something wrong with how your unresolved hurt inadvertently causes you to hurt others.

You need to be a good friend in order to keep good friends, which means you have to face up to all the ways in which your extreme thinking leads to toxic behavior, in terms of misunderstanding, misjudging, and mistreating others. When your initial stance in relationships is defensive, distrustful, and antagonistic, you're making yourself unapproachable and unlikable. This only feeds into Ti loop self-sabotage, by repelling people before they reject you.

2) Self-Awareness: The purpose of my blog is to explore ways to improve self-awareness through type development. An important aspect of personal growth is the willingness to confront the truth of oneself. All the things you wrote above are a reflection of you, your beliefs and your values. If you don't like what you wrote or feel ashamed of it, it's a good opportunity to review and reflect on why.

To break out of Ni-Ti loop, you need to face up to: the extreme thinking patterns; the false beliefs distorting your worldview; and most importantly, the deep unresolved pain you feel from isolation and alienation. How can you heal a wound if you're not willing to look at it, tend to it, and apply the required medicine? Yes, it stings, but it is sometimes necessary to endure growing pains in order to grow.

There are things you can do to heal tertiary loop and I've witnessed many INFJs do it. But you have to be willing to take an honest look at yourself and change what needs changing without always falling into the habit of beating yourself bloody. There are several things you need to improve upon in order to break out of tertiary loop:

emotional intelligence: learn to accept, feel, listen, and understand negative emotions such as shame, rather than run from them, defend against them, or give in to them

self-esteem: admit that you are human (rather than always trying to live up to an unreasonable/unrealistic ideal image) so that you can finally hear and fulfill your psychological needs, which would help you feel better about yourself

self-worth: understand that it is okay to need and want love, and most importantly, believe that you are deserving of it, but learn to look for love in the right places

moral reasoning skills: learn to analyze moral issues intelligently so that you can make sound moral judgments on your own, otherwise, you will always be easily led astray by criticism

social skills: learn what it means to interact with real people rather than your image of them; learn to treat people with more respect and acceptance if you hope to receive respect and acceptance; learn to speak up and draw boundaries whenever you encounter people who are hurtful or toxic

communication skills: learn to express yourself authentically, sensitively, calmly, and assertively so that you are not always at the mercy of others in social situations

conflict resolution skills: there is no perfect way to socialize because conflict is inevitable; accept conflict as a fact of life and learn good strategies for minimizing and resolving it

I have already written about these topics before and recommended books on the resources page. Tried-and-true knowledge already exists for your self-improvement. The final question is whether you are actually serious about learning and changing.

With access to the internet, it is easier than ever to find people with similar interests as you. To achieve a goal, a person must be focused and determined. Focus all your attention on refining your search methods, rather than getting distracted by pointless criticism.

I suggest you broaden and systematize your search, instead of wasting time on the wrong people. The more time you've invested in someone, the harder it is on you if the relationship must end. Therefore, it is in your best interest to show your true self at the start of a relationship so that you know the truth and can make a fully informed decision about whether someone is a good fit for you.

Don't walk around believing that everyone should be your bff, otherwise, it is your own unrealistic expectations that will always do you in. It doesn't ultimately matter what is or isn't "mainstream". Everyone has a right to their own interests as long as they're not harming anyone, and a good friend/partner should be able to accept and appreciate legitimate individual differences. Pick your friends and partners carefully.

#infj #ti loop #criticism #shame #ask

[eggsploded]

moar you say.. why then gregor and rodya of coarse....

where would i be without rodigor. where would WE be, without rodigor.

first impression: THE fuckin guy. this dude owns. (insert 50 invasive questions about cockroach anatomy and behavior) i was peeved his roach arm resembled more of a beetle horn than a arm

current impression: when chef greg dropped i got so horny i went to bed lightheaded i still love gregor dearly but my love for him has mellowed like the fondness for a favorite pasta dish.

favorite moment: literally every old fart moment he has. when he forgets names when he berated sinclair for not cleaning his plate when he goes uhhhhhhhhhhhhhh in his dialogue because he doesnt know where hes going with this

story idea: despite his deep frying and boiling during hells chicken i think the bus kinda Likes this guy. gregors a bit of a hot commodity. hes just a fella you can Jive with. a real Stand Up guy. now let him be loved, if obliviously through his own self consciousness. a friendly heathcliff rough slap on the back delays his depressive episode by 15 minutes

fav relationship: oh boy where to start!!!! rodigor. enough on that. meurgreg, not really romantic to me but i like the art of it that is. it revolves around a big fella carrying him under his arm so automatic slay. ive seen a little gregcliff action on the TL but its more of a 'work got me friends with people twice my age like whats uncle greg up to' ordeal to me. now lets get insane. gregsang is incredible to me because yi sang is the only mf on that bus EASIER than gregor. gregor got game? that hes aware of? while stuttering the whole journey? its kind of crazy. i dont actually have a reason why they would even like eachother yet but put rodya in there somewhere to toy with them if you want true crackshipping fun

fav headcanon: hes a little chunky

RODYA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! my favit

first impression: me furiously searching for her height on the wiki + nodding my head sagely deciding woman with sleepy eyes is peak character design (faust included). i trust her wholeheartedly even if she leads me hand in hand into a woodchipper

current impression: waiting for projmoon to drop more lore on her desperately because i know canto 2 wasnt everything. i feel a disconnect with the fanbase about her because i see rodya characterized sooooo differently than how i think of her. the gambling thing and her effortless confidence for example isnt really questioned like how it is with dons bravado. i see her gambling as an outlet for her complicated views on money. she feels as though being financially 'secure' as the lone survivor as a betrayal to all the deaths she caused. gambling not only aligns with her current im the hottest shit attitude but also is a way for her to not be responsible for money. the hoarding of wealth is what caused her community to starve, why would she want to do something that seems to harm others? shes very self destructive, and feigning as slots star is just one of the ways she forces herself to 'stay in the cold'. ummmmmmmmm anyway im really normal about rodya and think about her a normal amount also her love for decadant food really resonates with me as someone who was poor in childhood because the difference between eating to live and living to eat is Astronomical

favorite moment: shes started branching out and calling other people than greg pet names and it is so exciting. faust has now reached babe status!! good for her!!! also when she infantalizes sinclair its terrible for him but REALLY funny for me when he responds back and reminds her oh right this is a 22 year old man. also her random interjections that are socialist ideology are really funny because they always feel so fucking random and like projmoon is remembering why crime and punishment was written and going drop this bomb ass line itll go so hard guys

story idea: i want her to play poker against yi sang because hes weird and also his poker face is like. genuine and dear adoration for being able to play with his companions because deep in his soul is gardens and butterflies. she would be so freaked out not only because this guy agreed to playing poker but also because he is invasively (he didnt mean it) staring into her SOUL to find solutions

fav relationship: my thoughts are half the bus are in love with gregor and the other half with rodya with cases of overlap. rodya is so epic because shes seemingly got it together to the more deranged sinners but to anyone else its like oh my god this paper mache bitch the former being more faustish the latter being more ryoshuish. faustya is cute because faust initially wanted to absorb more Bad Bitch Strategems and then kinda got a crush and is hardcore malfunctioning also kurokumo ryodion got sumn GOING yall crazy love is love though

fav headcanon: shes actually really short for Lobotomy Corp Backstreets Russia and everyone there is just freakishly tall (see: sonya)

#egg art #egg asks #limbus company #rodigor #rodya #gregor #went a little overboard

[enbesbians]

please dont be mad at me for asking this because its a question coming from a genuine place but how can you claim to be a lesbian yet in nearly every fic of yours the reader is 'struggling' with their sexuality or has had a boyfriend? your lesbianism shouldnt only be about struggling with the fact that you like women

ahhh… i see, that’s fine.

i ‘claim to be a lesbian’ because i am a lesbian. i first learned i was into women at the age of 4 and through all the mindless thinking of being told to be queer was the ‘wrong way to live’, i came to terms with it at age 12 that i am a lesbian. ive never felt more alive and happy to be the person that i identify today. i have no desire to pursue a man in any shape or form, never have i did during my youth, most of all my relationships were purely women, even my crushes— i don’t daydream about men or want to marry them, all my wants and needs goes into the hands of women.

but i don’t necessarily have to prove my lesbianism within my literature… literature is very expandable and yes some of it can be a reflection of the person it’s written by but i love being able to create a world that others can relate to despite the ‘uglies’ that can fall within the lines. being a writer or an artist of any kind, stories can be about any and everything, there’s some things that can leech off the person and bury itself within the content but some people like to go beyond… if that makes sense.

sometimes when i write, i have to take into account that maybe the person at hand (the reader) could be pansexual, it doesn’t exclude them from engaging in queer sensual activities… but what if the reader is experiencing comphet? that’s also a thing lots of people mindlessly endure. i try to make the reader slowly go within their own self discovery because sometimes they can be ‘stubborn’ enough to resent that part of them… continuing their path until they’re just like, ‘fuck it, this is who i am’ and absorb what they always tried to hide and now what they desire which is a woman… not a man. it can be annoying, i understand. you could feel disconnected or maybe have some discomfort when you read something that may or may not say that you’ve had male partners in the past… ill try to keep that in mind. it’d also make more sense if i included that information in the cw so it wouldn’t come as a shock… it’s only fair i suppose.

i just hope you know that yes… i am a lesbian person and i do apologize if the things i write make it seem like im not that… i do however have a lot of unpublished fics that don’t deal with any of those struggles or mention men being past partners so i hope when that comes out it won’t be as… questionable (for a lack of a better word).

#fern talks🍃 #lesbian #sapphic #wlw

[izzyspussy]

i think a big disconnect happening here is that people don't really know what people mean when they say "write [demographic] characters but don't write about the experience of being [demographic]"

i really don't think it was ever intended to mean "don't include things in your characterization that are unique to [demographic]". because frankly that would be absolutely slug brained advice.

what i truly think it means (and was intended to mean before being warped into what amounts to a catchphrase) is "include [demographic] in your stories, but don't write something where the entire plot/purpose of the story is This Is What It Means To Be [Demographic]". and i think that is solid advice, and something that a lot of people do need to hear.

i mean there's nuance even in that, of course, because literally nothing about the human experience is in any way ever even remotely cut and dried.

you know, if you're writing a metaphor for [demographic] - let's take the X-Men as an example - that could easily be interpreted as or identified with by any number of different demographics. so it's more broad like This Is What It's Like To Be Oppressed. and "what it's like to be" is a much different thing than "what it means to be" first of all. a lot of things are like a lot of other things, that's the nature of things. but a thing only IS that one thing.

and secondly pretty much every living person can know to some degree what it's like to be oppressed tbqh. gender, race, religion, physical ability, age, class. i mean c'mon.

additionally, X-Men is about more than just that. it's also about, like, war crimes and unethical medicine and being kind of weird and going to private school and manufactured political divides and being in subtextual gay love with your nemesis and where is the line between self control and repression and and self-acceptance and who should decide what is Right and catholic aesthetics kind of slap and standardized education absolutely does not slap and some old guy's latex fetish probably etc etc etc.

and! it's not impossible for someone not in a demographic to do enough research and be sensitive enough and have enough empathy to write something that is This Is What It Means To Be [Demographic]. it's just very unlikely, and almost certain to have the catch-22 of you can't know what you don't know. but more to the point of the advice is that a story who's entire plot/purpose is to express This Is What It Means To Be [Demographic] is simply automatically going to be more accurate and more valuable and more relevant and more effective as a narrative from an author who is part of that demographic.

Add onto that the considerations of who gets published and why, and what kinds of implicit messaging in fiction is considered the most "marketable", it's less a question of what you Can do versus what you Should do. what is the most respectful - perhaps even the most responsible - thing to do.

And there's also the question there of, like. Why do you as someone who is not a member of [demographic] even want to write a story whose entire plot/purpose is to express This Is What It Means To Be [Demographic]? if your motivation is simply that there isn't enough of it, would it not be a better use of your effort to encourage more of it from the people who have a real reason/need to express that in particular? i guarantee you have other things you can write about What It Means To Be - that would be more accurate, more valuable, more relevant, and more effective written by you.

but back around to the disconnect. yes, any [demographic] character will be in part shaped by the experiences of [demographic]. even if they are from a secondary world without [demographic]-ism, they will still have different ways of taking care of themselves, expressing themselves, socializing, etc. true. and if you are not a member of [demographic] and your character is, you certainly should still include those things and if you don't that's absolutely loser behavior. yes.

and if you are not a member of [demographic], you can still write something that is What It Means To Be [Demographic], as in you are capable of it. yes. why people are saying you can't or instructing you not to or being upset when this occurs is because there's no reason for you to do that when you could write something else or something broader and leave that kind of specificity to the people who are specific to it - and because your less accurate, less valuable, less relevant, and less effective version is likely to be systemically favored.

#jack facts #writing process #reading process #i genuinely think so so so so many online ''discourse'' subjects would be completely solved #if we would all just be willing to ask ''what do you mean by that?'' #truly

[yellowocaballero]

I'd be interested in those writing shortcuts 👀 (don't feel pressured though)

Yeah sure! This is in reference to this and this posts.

These are all pretty 'fic style' stories, because they scaffold off pre-existing canon. It's like you're walking inside of a pre-built house and you're putting up new wallpaper and designing the rooms. Novel style is like if you're building the entire house. So these are really great for fun and if you have writer's block or have problems starting a story. They're also really good if you're practicing your dialogue, scene composition, characterization, etc - they are not good for developing skills on how to build the house, but if you're trying to work on actually making a readable story they're great methods to practice. They're also a lot easier to make good lol.

While writing these out I realized that they're almost entirely AUs. This is because I like AUs. You don't have to do AUs, you can adapt these however you want if you just like writing canon. Loser. Anyway, these are my low-effort stories:

A series of disconnected scenes that take place over a long period of time. If you have an idea in mind (or you just want to use the OG work's timeline), then you can show scenes or moments over a long period in time. For example, ages ago I wrote an AU story following the life of one character. One scene for 2008, one for 2010, one for 2012 etc.

Rewriting canon. If you have an AU idea or have a way in mind to change canon to something you think fucks harder, then you can use pre-existing episodes or season plotlines and just add your own flavor to what already exists. If you write for BNHA you aren't allowed to do this. That's the rule. How is all BNHA fic 600k AUs where one extremely minor detail is changed. God they're boring.

Alternate viewpoint/missing scene of a story you have. Like you can do this for canon too but that sounds super boring. This is actually something I do in order to help the quality of the main story - if I'm finding myself writing a super complicated character, I write another story about him from his POV to help give me a handle on him. Or write her parts of the story from her perspective. It's a writing exercise to help me figure out the character and it is also easy and fun.

"X Meets Y". Do you really like Legally Blonde? Do you think your favorite character being Elle Woods would be really funny? Stuff like that. Would it be really funny if your blorbo was Sharpay Evans? Yes it would be. Yeah I DID write a story many years ago that was "X meets Teen Beach Movie", why?

I don't know how many other people out there have extremely convoluted entire AU ideas, but if you have the whole AU in your mind then it is incredibly easy to write little stories or snippets from the AU. Like, so easy. A stand-out scene in your mind, the life of one supporting character, an alternate POV, whatever. Literally whenever I want to write something absolutely 0 effort whatsoever I go back to one of my 3 bugfuck stupid AUs and write something for them again.

This is actually something I think everybody should do, because it is basically how I learned story structure: find the trashiest, most formulaic genre you can. Watch or read something from that genre, or just collect genre conventions. Use the pre-packaged and pre-written formula to structure your own story and fill in the blanks.

(Also, these aren't very tropey or reliant on shipping/romance beats, which is nice if you want to get away from that stuff)

Nowadays, I find all of that helpful when I feel like doing something 0 effort. When I was a less experienced writer and I deadass did not know how to build a house, then these were really helpful for learning what wallpaper looks good and what arrangement of furniture creates good fung shui and what couches go best with that coffee table. They're also good passing. Seriously, these are like the most popular stories on my AO3. People eat this shit up. Why. They're so lazy.

IDK, these are what I do because they're the kinds of stories I like to write! What you find easy to write will be different. This is all a very personal list. I can see my personal thumbprint (no romance, AU central) really clearly. I'm kind of curious now: what are y'all's favorite low-effort, easy, fun stories to write?

Also as a heads up if your story doesn't have any sort of conflict in it, then it will actually very difficult to write. Trust me. Conflict makes you voom. Do it. Please. Love of god.

#i have BAMBOOZLED all of you into thinking the artemis fowl and first reverse robins story was good #BAMBOOZLED I SAY #my writing #my asks #writing advice #writing #everybody who writes BNHA go home and think about your life. #ok I want to say something like #“and the EASIEST story to write is a roleswap au” #BUT I DON'T WRITE EM CUZ THEYRE EASY #I WRITE EM CUZ THEY'RE FUCKING FUN #and sooo interesting #also easy.

[faithfromanewperspective]

something like a snippet, i can never keep/ideas in a line and plot of what i see

(to the tune of starting line by luke hemmings)

i was thinking a lot about discovering myself as a musician and an athlete and a way that works for me with my ideals and my neurodivergence and just being in that space where my whole body is burnt out and all but the most authentic options are limited. and also about how gifts that you don't have autonomy over aren't gifts at all and it's natural to get traumatised by things that others who don't know your circumstances don't--

and this came. it's part of a fic going on to 50K words that you will get to read in its entirety once it has a semblance of structure to it. in the meantime it's full of holes, like the stereotype of cheese. this is a flavoursome bit i hope? and i hope it makes sense without whatever background i may or may not have half written for it. i hope it sheds a bit of light on Important Things To Talk About too:

The adults in the enclave had really stepped up, James thought, compared to the last year or so when London went from having no demons, to being overrun with Khora and then being Belial’s plaything. It had taken them a while to realise and acknowledge all the bad decisions that were made during that time, but they had. He’d lost track of all who had come to him about it, apologised for all he and his friends had gone through at the hands of Belial and Tatiana. He drew an iratze on his wrist, cutting through the fog (and ignoring an intrusive thought wondering how much longer he might have to do this for). Still heavy with grief and what he assumed was his body simply processing all that had happened to them, he made his way up to the training room to get in some throws before Matthew and Jesse arrived.

In another world, the three of them might train with Christopher as well, and James would continue for hours with the novelty of a slightly modified weapon that he and his cousin were working out how to use—it would be useful, eventually, after a few more modifications, Kit would promise, but James would just try again and again to adjust his stance, his grip, to whatever new thing this was even when Matthew grew bored and Thomas sat down with him. Back when Thomas was still small, still discouraged at the idea of ever being a great Shadowhunter. Before he got it in his head that chasing murderers alone was a good idea and Alastair had come along and, unexpectedly, been the catalyst along with the year in Spain that brought Thomas out of his shell. When had they lost that? Was it normal for friendship to be like that at their age, each too caught up in their own struggles to see what was going on below the surface, behind the facades of the boxes one put one’s friends in just to feel like one had a handle on how the world worked, and feel like something was predictable?

They had gained a much bigger group of friends than they knew how to handle, roles they hadn’t yet grown into, and no life-changing battle (or three) was without casualties. James couldn’t thank enough whatever turns of fate had brought Cordelia to him, even if the events actually had been Elias’ blunder and him burning a house down at Grace’s request. He hadn’t realised how seventeen years of pent-up frustration and disconnect from the world (which weren’t anyone’s fault, not his, nor that of anyone who loved him) could wear one down slowly. And it took being around those who saw every part of his being, who loved him and let him be free entirely, finding his own way in the world without the pressure of living up to his parents’ legacy, to realise how much he’d been suppressing the urge to escape he never felt like it was possible to fulfil—and that he could live a life of little joys among the responsibilities of protecting mundanes from supernatural dangers.

He'd been resting a lot lately, breathing through nightmares in which Belial was still at large—either possessing him or taunting from afar—just to wake with Cordelia by his side, in a world filled only with the smaller demons he’d learned from young to defeat. He found solace once again in the stories of mundane magicians who, like him, faced discovery of mystery and of a world no one else seemed to be impacted by. Occasionally he’d wonder if there was a future where Shadowhunters or warlocks could counsel these curious mundanes through what they had found as Jem had done for him—surely that would work towards the same end as killing demons? But for now it was enough to know that there was a vast world of human experience, far broader than the narrow-minded and sheltered enclave of London would have him believe. There were people out there restless, searching for more, with a curiosity stronger than their instinct to survive.

James’ throw missed its mark, and he tried to concentrate on the next one. His mind was loud today, and in the last months he’d realised that sometimes it was more beneficial just to pause and let himself think for a bit than try to control it like he did with everything. There were limits to control. That doesn’t mean a world you don’t have control over is too scary or unbearable, he told himself, and he'd keep telling himself until he believed it.

He positioned his feet for the next throw, and as he shut his eyes to feel his body, he saw on the back of his eyelids something he didn’t know why he’d been thinking about so much. A magician called Roland the Astonishing, advertised on posters around the city. Mundane magicians were largely ignored by Shadowhunters, except in rude offhand statements loaded with exasperation: exasperation that they were doing what they were doing, endangering themselves and others, and Shadowhunters like himself were powerless to stop them.

But maybe stopping them just wasn’t the right answer. He missed Christopher in that moment, Christopher who would simply say that if one potential solution did not work they should simply try another.

Another solution. Another path to a world where James Herondale could still be a Shadowhunter. He opened his eyes and in an instant before he could think too hard about it, let the knife fly. Bullseye.

Maybe the way he was training right now just wasn’t what he needed. More of the same thing he’d done since he was a child. Maybe the way that he felt when Shadowhunters around him—competent, as they were, about keeping the city free from demons—spoke of mundanes and Downworlders, especially those who tried to meddle in worlds that weren’t there—was to be expected knowing his heritage.

Maybe it wasn’t a bad thing. Maybe it was a gift, like the shadow powers he sometimes wished he could have discovered at his own will, learn to manage the way one would manage a horse or a motorcar when driving. Rather than only ever learning skills that were more akin to someone learning how to flip out of the way of and mislead and even land on to try to have some influence over, a tiger you were trapped in a cage with. He was still learning to release that stress, that terror, from his body. Surely that was why this magician seemed to resonate with James in such a profound way. He was free, yet likely felt lost at the same time. And there was something about him. James wasn’t an artist, not by any stretch, so he couldn't use an artist's eye to ask himself: why did his face look so familiar?

He could ask Matthew, he supposed, but somehow—this was something he had to figure out on his own. Not with the assistance of any other Shadowhunter (he would tell Cordelia about it when she was finished training with Lucie for the day, but she would simply listen and thank him for telling her, which didn’t count). At least, not anyone who was born a Shadowhunter.

James threw another knife. Another bullseye. He knew he didn’t get as energetic as Matthew or even Lucie or Christopher did when they were excited, but he could feel it in his veins already: something freeing, something a bit like possibility and hope and the excitement of a new perspective that might just give him a new insight into exactly who he was and what his place was in the world. Something he remembered snippets of amid the crushing dread and shame and tiredness not unlike what he now felt, back when he and Lucie had stayed in Cirenworth Hall after the Academy. If he ignored the scalding fever and the way it left holes in his memory even now, he could imagine the warmth and hope building up in a crescendo like Jem sometimes played on his violin: right up until the moment he fell in love with Cordelia.

Before Grace had killed it with that spell and his life was once again marked by dull despair punctuated only by the pain of being apart from her, and the small relief he felt being around his friends and Cordelia.

Now wasn’t the time to think about Grace. He scribbled a note to Matthew and Jesse—training with three people could be awkward anyway—and set off to find another old friend from his time at the academy who was well versed in everything about mundanes, magicians, the experience of discovering the Shadow World, and might just have some ideas about how it might relate to him. She might even be able to point him to why this magician even looked so familiar (if not for some shared longing in their souls).

James threw another knife and didn’t even bother to retrieve it from the wall (where it had struck the target for the third time), before going to find Esme Hardcastle.

#james herondale #esme hardcastle #the last hours fanfic #teasing the friendship some of you've been talking about #roland the astonishing #hopefully realistic post war processing #you are my unfinished business #comedown #i really am obsessed with wfttwtaf

[whysamwhy123]

✨Fic Writing Review 2023✨

Tagged by the wonderful dynamic duo that is @aerodaltonimperial and @perhapswhoknowsvamp and it's very fitting that those two lovely people tagged me because they're a big reason why I wrote much of anything this year! Took me a while to get this done because I wanted to get my last fic of the year out the door first. I'll put the rest below the cut, and fair warning - it's loooooong. This bitch doesn't shut up, so I rambled on. A lot.

Words and Fics

76, 222 words published on AO3 in 2023

15 fics published on AO3 (16 if you count that one kinkmeme prompt I filled and posted anonymously)

2 little tumblr ficlets

Top 3 by Kudos

Voice in the Dark - Hookhausen (not super surprising, considering it was a popular pairing at the time, and it was the fic I wrote for the anniversary event)

Kids These Days And Their Darn Phones - Hookhausen

Half Your Age Plus Seven - OrangeHook (I continue to be incredibly surprised how well this fic did, like...huh?!)

Top 3 by Hits

Voice in the Dark - Hookhausen

Voice in the Dark, Part Two - Hookhausen (how fitting, LOL)

Half Your Age Plus Seven - OrangeHook (Seriously, what was it about this fic that drew people in? More so than any of my other OrangeHook fics? Like, I'm grateful and all but also confused, like this fic is way too long?! And weird about the age difference?!)

Author's Favourite

As much as I'm loving writing OrangeHook now, I think Voice in the Dark, Part Two is probably the best thing I've written? Even though it's also overly long and gets weird at the end (very much did not expect it to go in that direction when I started writing it), I'm actually pretty proud of how that one turned out. I had a clear vision in my head for how each scene would play out and what I wanted to get across, and man, I remember how most of the Hook/Evilhausen dialogue popped into my brain late one night when I couldn't sleep, so I spat it out into a doc and then about a month later when I actually wrote the scene, I don't think I changed a single word? I just added everything else around it, all the not-dialogue parts. And it was just a lot of fun getting to carry on that story, especially as someone who hasn't managed to crank out a proper multi-chapter fic yet. Who knows, maybe I'll return to that world someday...

Fandom Events in 2023

Uh, well, I guess I did the whole Hookhausen Anniversary thing? And...that's about it. I'm pretty disconnected from the fandom at large, whoopsie daisy 😬

Upcoming Projects

Hoo boy.

I have over 5k words of a Ricky/Christian Sugar Baby AU thing written already. I haven't posted it because it kinda needs some smut and that's still not something I can really do. I might post it someday, if I can make something work, or alternatively do what I normally do and put an annoying fade to black in there. Or maybe I'll think better of it and never post it because it's very self-indulgent and I highly doubt anyone else would really be interested or want me to continue it or anything. But I have Ideas for it...so many ideas...

Also, in my ill-fated quest to try and make myself write smut, I kinda started a Ricky/Bill championship celebration fic. Maybe I'll revisit that? Try to get it done?

And then there's that one fic I really want to work on, but have barely started. I've vague-posted about it here before - it's an incredibly fucked-up Dead Dove fic about Daniel Garcia and a Very Bad, Not-Good thing that happens to him, and the subsequent complete mental breakdown that follows. I've had the idea rattling around in my brain for the better part of a year at this point, despite not making much actual progress on it. Every time I think about it though, I have new ideas for scenes or dialogue. I'd like to make it work, but I don't know if I have the writing chops to handle it, plus it would probably end up being super long and nobody would want to read it, so it'd feel like a huge waste of time on my part? And I've had the idea for so long, it's out-dated too. But still, the urge remains...

Oh, and I still have a ton of OrangeHook ideas I'd like to make happen. Some are, of course, about their age difference. Some would (ideally) involve smut. And others... *nervous laughter* Others would likely result in an ''Everyone disliked that'' situation...

Writing Reflection

I was thinking about making a sappy post about this and whoops, here's my excuse! I don't talk a lot on here about my tragic backstory because honestly, who cares? But I will say this - before January of this year, I hadn't written a word of anything in years. Fic or otherwise. I used to love writing, but Stuff Happened and it killed all enjoyment I got out of it, and I thought that's how it would be forever. Then, for reasons I can't even remember, I started reading fic again, specifically in this wild little fandom of ours, and y'all are just so talented that it made my untalented ass want to give it another shot. So...I did.

I remember when I posted my first fic in ages back in January, I thought ''Maybe about three people will read this and no one will leave a comment or anything, but whatever, I wrote a thing and that's something I haven't done in years so that's enough for me!'' And to be honest, I still think that whenever I post stuff now? It's crazy to me that anyone actually reads my stuff and gets some kind of kick out of it. But every kudos and comment floors me and brings me so much joy, I can't even express it properly. I have to say a huge thank you to anyone who's ever read one of my fics, left kudos or dropped a comment. Whoever and wherever you are, you made my day!

And look, I ain't delusional. I know that calling myself a small fish in the fandom would be too generous. But I'm fine with that - because I'm genuinely enjoying writing again and that's what matters most to me. Even though I've also rediscovered how stressful writing can be (🙂🙂🙂) when it comes down to it, there's joy and happiness in my life that wasn't there last year and that's all because I started writing again. And because some lovely folks here decided to let me know they liked what I was throwing out there. The years have not been kind to ol' Sammy Sam-Sam and this year was no exception, but getting to forget about all that shit and write my silly little wrestling fanfiction has been a great distraction and a comfort through this whole year.

So...yeah. Thanks to everyone who's ever commented on my writing, thanks to the folks who follow me on here (I don't know how you manage that though, I'm such an annoying bitch, aren't you sick of me yet?) and thanks to anyone who I've had the chance to chat with about writing and ships and whatever silly little ideas pop into my head (any of y'all feel free to message me at any time, I am always down to blab about whatever blorbos/ideas take your fancy). I'm hoping I can keep this train a-rollin' a little more next year. Still thinking back to when I started writing again, I made my new AO3 account expecting to write Dustjim only, but then I quickly decided I couldn't write those two well enough, and since then I've bounced around a bunch of different pairings, with a few rarepairs shoved in between for good measure. God only knows where my head will be at this time next year, LOL. I'd love to finally be able to attempt some of the bigger ideas I've been cooking up for a while now. Maybe I'll even write a proper multi-chapter fic? We'll see, but this bitch can dream, at least.

Rules:

Feel free to show whatever stats you have. Only want to show Ao3 stats? Rock on. Want to include some quantitative info instead of stats? Please do this. Want to change how yours is presented? Absolutely do that. Would rather eat glass than do this? Please do eat glass, I’ve heard it’s good for your gums.

I'm not going to tag anyone because I'm pretty sure everyone I know who writes has already been tagged? So if you're reading this and you haven't, go ahead and do it! By which I mean, eat glass. Eat all the glass that you want. Accidents happen in the dark.

#What is wrong with you Sam you should not be allowed to write #Also you really need to learn to shut up dude #This bitch went onnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn and on #But it was kinda fun reflecting on The Year I Got Back Into Writing #It's been fun yo #Who knows what this next year will bring??

[deepestbluesky]

[the not actual image description is that this is a very barebones powerpoint in which each slide has picture(s) of a kinnporsche character and bullet point text describing it. the full text is under the cut below the latter set of pictures.]

all text from @minnarr​!!! now, onwards

[title slide] minna explains kinnporsche without knowing it

[kinn] kinn ● eyebrows ● was written lowkey as RPF of actor who plays him and i would like to never think about that but people remind me constantly ● smiling imp emoji ● also this man has a lot of buttons open but if that coat is red i approve

[porsche] this IS porsche right? his bangs are actually covering his forehead ● he's kinn's bodyguard? which is the opposite casting to what I thought would be true before I figured out which was which. He just looks very mild. Protect him. ● something deeply wrong with him but i haven't absorbed enough to know if it's personal or systemic ● lol sometimes if you change anything about the hairline i do not recognize a person ● (porsche i think of as having like 90s heartthrob hair for some reason) ● [upon seeing bodyguard hairstyle] i must inflate my hair to look intimidating. like a bird.

[porchay] oh... i don't know ● he looks like he's 17 but also I'm trash at judging ages. DOES look like he's waiting until he can go back to his video game ● [would you like to make any guesses or nah?] at names? god no ● i know like 3 names that i can't match to anyone and i know them wholly disconnected from anything about them as people ● pete? is this Pete? ● i have no idea how anyone besides kinn and porsche even fit in the story

[tankhun] i think this might be tankhun ● REALLY loving this matching coat and cape in colorful floral ● do his pants have fun organic cutouts ● no wait those are shiny leather boots ● or pants. ok ● wow this is a look. ok. well this man is NOT doing the fighting. he is either very scary or very fun. or both. ● IS he the third crime brother or is my brain just insisting literally everyone has this surname ● one thing this show does is let men wear fun things

[pete] is THIS Pete ● i saw a vegaspete gifset either today or yesterday and the only thing i retained about pete's face is that he looked nice ● good laugh 10/10 what is he doing here ● bought a 10pk of white hanes tshirts and got invited to whatever This is ● (i don't know if this last is even remotely accurate to his vibe or if I'm judging on 1 picture and faint memory) ● either vegas is the sex dungeon haver or I'm hilariously wrong about Pete's vibe

[kim] kim (crime bros surname)???? ● the guy who would be besties with nie huaisang ● he looks like he's here to have fun and take pictures on his phone to save to his terrifyingly extensive blackmail folder ● again he has little brother energy ● i do like his face. i wanna see him in scenes ● like the way you distantly blorbo people from gifs. he's my favorite kp guy.

[vegas] vegas ● [within 1 second of seeing picture] sex dungeon ● please save his hedgehog ● he's one of the 3 people i can name

[korn] ...d..dad? ● i frankly did not know this show had anyone other than pretty 20-30 year old men ● [we talked about this and you went 'there are OLD PEOPLE?'] i have simply never seen them!!! ● ok he's either crime dad or the guy who's the reason kp are sleeping in like military-ass transports and getting helicoptered to safety ● (rival crime boss?)

[kun] also i think the first old man is the villain and the second older man is crime dad ● Oh No I Like Him ● otoh he could be crime dad and the fashion is genetic ● otoh. delightful dissipated uncle when ● i still think he should be the uncle who is no help at all but is very excited to hear about what dumb thing his nephews are getting up to now with vibes of kind of wanting to be on the young people's level. upside can be counted on for resources at odd moments but only if it's for a stupid purpose ● i don't think that's what he is but i want it for the crime bros

[slide with no picture] pause to recap ● ok so [for the first five] we have kinnporsche tanhkun fabulous crime brother flannelboy (tentatively porchay) and Pete ● if that's all the young people btw I'm locking in porchay? on flannelboy ● fuck if i know maybe one of the young dudes is the villain. maybe it's vegas. maybe it's brother vs brother.

[yok] my best friend ● i love her ● fashion is a little glitzy maybe to be porsche's friend even though i wanted that for him....does kinn have friends he seems like he probably mostly hangs out with family and people he pays to be around him ● lighting is very clubby tho so like ● just club clothes ● i have no clue how she fits in but i bet she has a nice laugh and takes no shit

[slide with multiple pictures - the first one is ken] ● trust fund brat ● i know they're not british but he has such POWERFUL unbearable character on Sherlock energy ● either that or like baby's first (very nice) suit

[big] ● oh!!!! it's a uniform!!!! ● these two are like lower level bodyguards. or kinn's actual family-hired bodyguards and kinn like hired porsche after a weird meet-ugly involving gunfire and now the vibe is awkward ● this one is anxious

[middle text] .... bad analogy probably need a better wording but to use cql again. first bodyguard is the sizhui and second bodyguard is the Jingyi the Calm One and the one you need to tell Calm Down

[slide with two pictures - the first one is tay] ● also omg this was dyed hair boy ● i was picturing BOTH kim(?) and this man. amalgam gossip friend. ● also the flowy pants/all white/heeled boot/"are you talking to me?" look ● extremely good

[chan] ● kim's bodyguard for the thousandth time telling him no, you need to stay where it's safe ● this is probably incorrect and I'm now just judging anyone with a lapel pin a bodyguard ● this is a very bouncer vibe tho

[macau] ● this one actually is a teenager, right? that looks like a school uniform shirt although maybe not bc idk what school with embroidered patch uniform shirts is also like sure boys can wear hoops [we give away my extremely usamerican Christian school experience] ● better caption What Is a Child Doing Here

[extra text for macau] have i miscalculated did i either misassign a crime boy or are there 4 crime boys. i feel like one of these children should be here for family reasons wait unless one is porsche's brother not this one flannelboy [a picture of the i’ve connected the dots meme]

[slide with two pictures - the first is arthee] ● :( ● give him a cup of tea and a bandaid ● he just looks sad for some reason! ● who are you woebegone man

[time] ● i would not have chosen the turtleneck ● i know the other shirt is also turtleneck but this is "shirt i wore in the 90s" mockneck and i cannot define why it makes me want to laugh ● he is doing bad cosplay of bleach mullet ● that NECKLACE is NOT HELPING

[slide with three pictures - the first is tawan] ● surprisingly the first shirtless boy ● i like his hair, he looks a little smarmy, the vanity mirror + shirtless is giving me either he's in showbiz or he has too many people in private rooms ● do love the noir blinds thing happening. maybe he's a femme fatale. ● i looked at him and literally thought "hair goals" lmaooo

[jom and tem] ● they look nice and also the set dressing is SO suburban ● if i had to assign them a fic trope it's accidental child acquisition fake (or real) marriage ● they are on the pta ● (i truly have no idea)

[arm] oh no i love his vibe and his glasses ● 'i know organized crime needs shady bookkeepers/lawyers/IT professionals but did it have to be me, with these particular criminals' ● my first thought was "cast him as Indiana Jones" bc hair and glasses so that's just send me back to first impression

#this was just for fun #kinnporsche #i think minna knew more than she thought she did #also this was a delight to reread

[bad-pun-king]

I’ve been getting into homestuck recently and stumbled across classpects as a concept awhile ago. I got curious and went to see if any Wildbow protagonists had been given classpects in crossover speculation. I was only able to find any for Taylor, probably because fans of both like to compare her to Vriska from what I’ve seen, with arguments for Taylor being a Page of Rage, Witch of Doom, or Bard of Heart.

I’d like to go over each protagonist personally, but it’s been too long since I read Worm, Ward, or Pact and reading those I was still all in on how the narrator sees things and bad at reading into the narration instead of just reading it, so those 3 all kind of blend together in my head too much for me to try them. I might do Sy, but I haven’t thought him much yet for it.

What I want to do right now is give classpects to Verona, Lucy, and Avery, based on my understanding of the classes and aspects I’ve been able to pick up.

Verona I would say is probably a Mage of Heart. Her arc has been more less about getting her to find a good place for her Self. She couldn’t really be herself with Brett always being nearby ready to whine to her about some bullshit or another, treating her as daughter and wife at the same time despite her age, and never appreciating any of the work she actually did until she just stopped doing it all together. Now she has her demesne that allows her to have her own home as she wants it, it’s become a hangout spot for all her closest friends, and she doesn’t have to worry about invaders doing any sort of harm to her, emotionally like Brett or even physically in most cases. Not to mention she can also easily interpret and communicate with nonverbal Others like Tashlit. But that’s just why I see her as Heart. For Mage it was more or less just that loves learning about her interests so much. She’s turning her demesne into a bookstore for books that were never written, she’s easily the most well-rounded in terms of understanding practices of the 3 Kennet Witches, and she’s even experimented with different things both mundane and magical to see how she likes them, such as that friends with benefits relationship she had with Jeremy for awhile or trying out Hosting, alchemy, enchantment, among other practices. I had also considered Void for Verona on account of how easy it is for her to play around with the truth without lying outright to confuse people, but ultimately her arc is more about getting from where she hated her life and circumstances so much she wanted to give up her humanity and become virtually anything else to getting where she’s perfectly comfortable being herself and flourishing under her own power, which to me reads with the idea that Heart is about the Inner Self.

Avery was probably the easiest of the trio. Maid of Blood. It’s my understanding that Blood is supposed to be about relationships and connections, and Avery has become something of an embodiment of networking with how many friends and contacts she’s built up over the course of Pale, and that’s all starting from a point where she could go months at a time without anybody noticing she hadn’t said a thing because of how disconnected she was. My understanding of a Maid is someone that takes care of, creates, and maintains their aspect, and boy howdy if Avery doesn’t do that. She literally goes to the edges of reality itself via the Paths to find contacts who’d otherwise be unable to contact anyone in a meaningful way in the form of Lost, who would all otherwise be to conceptually close to the ideas associated with Breath to get anywhere in their continued existences. Avery’s also the one of the trio most likely to allow an antagonist to redeem themself for similar reasons.

Lucy was the hardest one for me to get. I’d definitely peg her as a Knight, but I can’t decide if she fits better as a Knight of Hope or a Knight of Rage. I could see her as Hope because Hope players are described as “driven first and foremost by their convictions. They do right for right's sake, and are quick to come to the aid of anyone they deem to be experiencing injustice.” That sounds extremely Lucy, but Hope as a concept also seems to be connected to the use of positive emotions to empower and accomplish where as Lucy is not someone I would describe as being emotionally positive. She is almost always on guard in some way or another, always prepared to be ‘bullet-proof’ in as many ways as possible because she’s anticipating some asshole coming up and challenging her on some arbitrary thing. Even her Sight allows her to see specifically negative emotions and pain in the form of watercolor-esc stains. This is where interpreting her as less Hopey and more Ragey comes in. She’s very tired of the way the world is. She fights tooth and nail in arguments, in magic, in duels, and in Law to gain just a bit of ground even if it isn’t as much ground as she had wanted. Training under Guilherme and Bubbleyum does seem to have taught her to be coolheaded enough not to suppress her anger but to channel it for all those sorts of fights I mentioned. Rage at the injustices of the world and especially those right in front of her that she can do something about, is what fuels her. As for why I’d put her as a Knight, that’s because Knight is the closest to how she normally operates. She doesn’t seek the knowledge the way a Mage or Seer does, she doesn’t really fit homestuck’s idea of an Heir or (ironically) Witch, she doesn’t generate or heal like a Maid or Sylph, and she isn’t destructive of any aspect like a Prince or Bard, she isn’t taking to deprive from others like a Thief or Rogue, and she certainly isn’t as selfish as she could be with her defense of what she cares about like a Page. The idea that she serves Hope for the future or exploits her own Rage or whatever it is Knights are supposed to one-worded to, Knight fits the best of the classes.

Bonus bit, going purely based off vibes I’d say Verona and Lucy are both derse dreamers while Avery would be prospit.

I’d like to do the other protagonists too but like I mentioned above it’s been too long since I read Worm, Pact, or Ward for me to do Taylor, Blake, or Victoria. I still can and might do Sy, I only recently finished Twig so he’s still fresh enough on my mind I think I could, just not now. In the meantime I’d like seeing some other people try at any or all of them. Get some speculation going for wildbow protags other than Taylor.

#pale #pale wildbow #wildbow #homestuck #sburb #classpect #classpect analysis #verona hayward #lucy ellingson #avery kelly #worm wildbow #pact wildbow #twig wildbow #ward wildbow #I may do Victoria myself after I listen to We Got Ward for awhile #I've been meaning to listen to that for ages #I'll have to reread Worm and Pact to do Taylor or Blake #Maybe re-listen to We Got Worm and Deep in Pact while I'm at it

[sylenth-l]

How are you feeling about Lightfall? People seem to be very divided on opinions 🤔 I personally hoped for more answered questions 😔😔

Well… I like the most gameplay/ui changes Bungie made in LF, but I don't like the campaign and almost everything about the story. But the thing is, I knew I won't like it when the first details and the updated logo dropped, so it's nothing new. This whole ✨super secret super city with super people✨ just didn't sound exciting for me from the beginning. I thought it looked extremely off for the Destiny setting, not something I'd personally like to see.

(Super subjective opinion below, with spoilers)

Its core idea is what bothers me the most, I guess... Those people from Neomuna gave 0 shit about the whole Solar system outside of their safe bubble for ages. They were chilling in arcades while hundreds, if not thousands, of people on Earth died from starvation and thirst, not even to mention countless wars. Even the Darkness itself arriving wasn't a good enough reason for them to show up, yet when their own asses got in the slightest danger, they're suddenly our besties and expect us to help them asap. Umm… I think such theme deserves at least some controversy and conflict to happen between the two sides, but no, we became friends in a minute and that was it. 

The way we accrue Strand is a joke, it literally just…… lays there in the middle of a random street…... I highly suspect originally it was supposed to be a part of Witch Queen, it would've fit there insanely better. Here it feels just as flat and random as everything else in this dlc. For me LF felt like a half-baked chunk of a different game. Not necessarily a bad one, just… different. You can cut out everything between the first and the last cutscenes and literally nothing will change. It's the most telling sign of the story being not that good, imo.

Tbh I don't feel like going further into the details and turning this post into a huge rant… I can mention a few things I liked instead!

LF had a bunch of excellent cutscenes, those I really enjoyed. The first and the last one ofc, the one with the Witness and Calus, Osiris and Rohan having a good talk, and the moment Caiatl appeared to fight alongside us was really cool. Witness, Osiris and Caiatl in general were the best things in LF for me, I guess. The idea of people living in a virtual space is also VERY interesting and I think Bungie should've gone all the way with it and said Neomuni had a virtual only society this whole time. What if the whole planet itself was modified to be just a huge server, containing data of all people living there? A few "Cloud Striders" could've been the only physical shells they had available for ages, and people could've taken turns in being uploaded into those fully cybernetic bodies, or maybe even several at once (let's say an engineer + a scientist + a warrior), to do the maintence and make sure the servers run as intended. That would've explained their total ignore of everything outside their own planet - they've truly surpassed all other species in the system to the point of not being able to interact with them properly due to the almost total disconnect from the physical world.

Also I get what you say about many unanswered questions. I personally wouldn't have mind it, if the story itself was more exciting/interesting, but sadly for me it wasn't, so the new terms and concepts being thrown around all the time felt irritating and confusing more than intriguing. But since the story campaign has a huge TBC written all over it, we have to just wait and see how it ends.

It's the first dlc i didn't like that much, so yeah… weird feelings. I just hope the next one is better.

#ask #destiny