#the things I say don't matter technically but its important to me that everyone knows

[tanoraqui]

queenship under siege and there's a WHAT in this mountain?! (LotR)

[re: badly described WIPs fics I almost certainly will never actually write - in the lead with 17.5% of the vote as of midnight 3/3/24]

I know I’ve said this before, because I do love it so, but:

The only reason, the ONLY reason, I would ever want the Arkenstone to be a Silmaril is this: the day after Aragorn leaves Rivendell with the Fellowship, Elrond summons Arwen to his study and bids her to go to Erebor.

"What?" she demands. "Surely I am needed here, or out in the wilds, marshaling the Rangers - "

"Your brothers will manage that, after they escort you," her father insists. "You must go to Erebor, and ask Dain to let you open Thorin's tomb, that you may look upon the Arkenstone. Gloin will help you - I spoke with him ere he left. Don't let anyone else know your purpose - as far as the world is concerned, I am sending my only daughter to a safe stronghold until Mordor is defeated."

"Are you not?" she cries. But he will explain no more than, "I think the jewel may be important to our oncoming war, but I wish you to assess it unbiased" - and he gives her two letters to read only once she's made her own judgement of the jewel.

So Arwen goes. The Misty Mountains are crawling with orcs, but in cloaks woven by their grandmother, she and her brothers slip through with only a few close calls. Elrohir and Elladan don't know why she's going even a little, save that their father bade it and (he said) their grandmother supported it. The problem with having Elrond for a father and Galadriel for a grandmother is that, while technically they may each be wrong at times (allegedly), in agreement they never are.

It's nice to have what may be one last journey with her brothers, at least. All three of them know that Elladan and Elrohir will soon be in battle alongside their cousins the Dúnedain, and for all Erebor's strength, it will soon be under attack. Rivendell might soon be under attack. Lothlórien might soon be under attack.

The twins leave almost as soon as the three of them arrive; they have other work to do. Dain barely protests letting Arwen mildly exhume his cousin in order to assess the famous jewel - he doesn't quite like letting an elf(ish person) near the Heart of the Mountain, but he is very worried about the black-armored army lurking across the River Carnen, and respects the wisdom of Elrond and his immediate kin.

Arwen sees the Arkenstone sitting calmly in the hands of of the fallen king, and she sees it clutched in the burning hand of a no-longer-king, fallen free from a twisted iron crown, stolen over a king's bloody body, hallowed by a Queen, forged in a fire like the world never saw again... It glows softly; its light matches that of the small crystal that hangs around her neck now, one of a set of three.

[Here me out: Galadriel made three: one for Celebrian and Elrond as a wedding gift, jointly from herself and Eärendil; one for thw twins upon their birth, and one for Arwen upon hers. Celebrian left hers behind when she Sailed; Galadriel gives it to Frodo.]

The letters are from Elrond and Galadriel, respectively. They say much the same thing:

I'm so sorry to spring this on you, and to make you a guardian of this secret

If the Ringbearer's quest fails and the Enemy regains his full power, please take the jewel (as freely giving by the dwarves if at all possible) and use it however you can to save everyone and everything that you can. (Elrond's says, "My parents will help as much as they can. Do not hesitate to ask for their or any other aid." Galadriel's says, "If you seek Undying Shores with mortals in tow, for succor or for more active aid, hold the Jewel high and beseech first Ulmo and his spirits, and then every single kin-relation you have, no matter the connection. Once you rouse the general populace, then approach the Valar - though don't appear to delay.)

Galadriel's says, "Círdan knows to potentially expect you." Elrond wrote, "If you see your mother before I do", stopped there and blotted it out.

Neither of them needs to say, We will hold the line, to buy you as much time as we can. Both say "I love you", "I'm sorry", and variations on, "I know you can do this."

Arwen made the Choice of Elros several decades ago: to live among Men as a Man, to take up queenship of a people at the start of a new Age of the World and rule until most of those she loved most had passed and it was time to follow as a Man. Now she faces the Choice of Elwing: to leave most of those she loved the most for dead and flee with Silmaril in hand and only the hope of the impossible to save a doomed continent.

(Or, if she was optimistic, the Choice of Lúthien: to face down the Lord of Death and demand back one single most beloved [for Aragorn could not live while Sauron triumphed], and steal him away for many peaceful decades ere doom fell entirely, their own best efforts done. But Lúthien had been, in her glorious way, very selfish, and Arwen was not.)

The reason I haven't started writing this fic and probably never will is that I have a perfect sense of what I believe kids call the vibes - the mood, the tone, themes, the visual and emotional aesthetic - and none of actual, like, events of the story.

It's about Arwen's final trial of leadership and diplomacy, before she (hopefully) takes up a throne of Gondor, being living with Dwarves for three months under threat and then fact of war. Helping in the infirmary. Participating in strategy discussions, because war isn't her area of expertise but she has participated a few times, in her nearly 3,000 years of life. Mediating as a neutral party on inevitable conflicts between Dwarves the Men, especially in the last week and a half when they're under high stress while besieged together with two kings dead in the field.

Carrying a torch in the deep corridors of the Mountain because she's Mannish enough not to see naturally in the dark. Standing extra watches because she's Elvish enough to see well in starlight, especially if the Star in question is her grandfather; and getting scouting reports from the local thrushes, because they're talkative and Melian's heirs have always had a knack for the speech of birds.

Busying herself with sewing a banner for Aragorn, with jewel-stars and a crown of mithril and gold - for her elders have appointed her as their last hope, and she shall hold it for them and for all the people she can save if in the end she must; but her Estel fights in the field. The night the armies of Mordor cross the river to strike at Dale, she stands on the summit of the Lonely Mountain and calls a friend among the Eagles, who takes the finished banner in her talons and bears it south to where Arwen's brothers and cousins ride to Aragorn's side.

(She shares dreams with him sometimes - but she must keep secret a thought that beats in her like a heartbeat, and he must devote all his thought to the quest and the war. So they don't speak much.)

It's about the crushing weight of history and legacy and the very practical matters of running a kingdom in duress. It's about multicultural exchange. It's about love and hope and a hundred different OCs, most of whom will never be recorded in history books even if they die heroically or steal siege-stores to sell on the black market, or simply live and thus deserve to do so. It's about hard work and mortality.

It's about how 77 years after the Battle of Five Armies, Dain II Ironfoot swings his axe until he falls defending the body of Brand King of Dale, son of Baird son of Bard the Dragonslayer, and their people all take refuge in the Mountain together; and Arwen tends the wounded with the Songs she learned from her father and the neat stitches her mother taught her for first cloth, then skin; and she walks among the frightened people - none of them remotely her people; Dwarves and entirely common Men, mostly descended from easterners migrating slowly west - and knows that if these are all she can save, she will gladly die or live as she must in order to do so; and the people hearken a little to see her pass by with starlight in her eyes and on her breast.

And then - after an eternity of painful anticipation, after what feels like no time at all - the Shadow passes, and the wait and tension abruptly lift.

They very much do still have to go defeat that army before the gates, though.

#my fic #lotr #lord of the rings #arwen #arwen undomiel

[alliumdykes]

Omg hi ur so sexy and awesome hahaha talk about the game How Fish Is Made hahaha

Omg wow hi person who totally isn't me I'm going to talk about How Fish Is Made and its semi-sequel/next chapter The Last One Then Another.

Spoilers under the cut, this is very long.

Ok so I just LOVE this game sm. Like I am luring you in with haha funny joke for my long-ass essay rant explination thingy.

But I love this game. The feeling of being in the machine. It's both organic and mechanical. It makes the machine feel biological and man-made at the same time. But also neither. It feels wrong. All the fish you meet NEED to know if you choose up or down. It's the most important choice you make. You MUST choose up or down. It leads into a debate about if you should choose up or down, fishes telling you to choose up while another yells at you to choose down because their so smart they were stuck.

You find a fish whos in fear, they can't choose up or down? Do they go up with their best friend? Or down with the rest of their family? They need you to choose for them. You fall down flesh tunnels, fish seeing frozen fish and calling it art. Its so disgustingly human in some way. At one point you need to open a gate, but a fish is stuck in the gears, thinking there was a way to beat choosing up or down. And technically they did. But not through escape. but from being killed by you, you have to kill someone to progress. And you have no choice.

You enter a room full of water, but you can't swim. you can never swim. you must flop.You meet a fish whos tongue had been devoured by Cymothoa exigua, who sings you a cheerful song about how you just have to live with the bullshit that you are put through. After you are put through the song full of parasites there you must continue on your journey. You enter a room full of fish eggs everywhere and you are forced to stop. you get a dialogue text saying "Why do you deserve it? Will you be able to live with it? Try and try and try and try and try again. Ah, those double action hinges have always been there, just for you, right? You'll come back. Everyone does. Weak. Or you'll go looking. one way or another, right? Weak." Before your forced to keep walking, thinking about what you were told. I like to think its some meta-commentary thing, about how we will go look for another ending of the game, if you do something different you will get another, better ending.

This can also be interpreted as how in life if we make a choice, we could choose one. but in the end we will always want to see what happens if we choose something else. Maybe if I did this instead it'll of end out better? Maybe if I do this in this way instead of that it will be better! but it doesn't matter.

You enter a room, with lights and a fish in the middle. They say this is about conviction. But also. They're just a fish in a room with intimidating lighting, they acknowledge this. How do we know that they know it? They just look smart.

When you finally make the choice a fish whos seen the amount whos gone up and down. You ask the fish to go up or down, they say that whatever one they go through that they will tell you what they see. but you don't.

You go through. You get a message that I transcribed here. I like to think that the monologue is about the selfishness that comes with grief. That you feel that you've had it the worse, what you have gone through is worse then what everyone else has gone through. no one else has gone through the same suffering that you have gone through. but its not true. its rude and selfish.

You can get two endings, a large blob when you go up and you become apart of a sandwich if you go down. I think this is meant to be that no matter what you choose, their as bad as each other. But you have a choice, the only good thing is that you have a choice.

Ok now onto The Last One Then Another.

This takes place after the first, and your in a large blob no matter if you choose up or down. You free the blob and start to (quite literally) consume bits of dead fish around you, gaining enough to burst through a shut door. a fish asks to come with you. you can say yes and consume the fish, or you can just leave. this is the only time you can do this, the only time you don't have to consume.

You go to a boat or bathtub (I'm unsure) and you follow the light to a bloody bandaged head where you can only see an eye and the mouth of the man. You can rather leave or consume. You aren't large enough to consume though. so you must leave. You go through this fleshy tunnel where there's a fish feasting on a birthday cake. You have the option to leave or consume. Although but you have to consume to progress. You go back to the main area where a whole is opened in the middle. You go down to see just the eye of the bandaged man after consuming a small fish.

The man tells you a joke that goes like this "Three men are in the hospital. The first man cries 'I lost both my hands, they told me I'll never work again!' The second man wails 'I lost both my legs, they told me I'll never work again! The third man? He rejoices 'I lost my hearing, they'll never be able to tell me I'm fired again'" before laughing and just sitting there.

You go through a thing where it's only able to fit a specific size, you go into a room, with fish parts, a bunch of mouth wash and a fish covered in mouth wash. The fish cries for you to take them with you. Saying that choosing up or down was stupid. or was it left or right? They can't remember. So you take them with you. You go back to the main area and go up to the bandaged and what do you do? You consume him. You have no choice. You must consume.

You then change into a first person perspective cutscene, your a person on a ship giving pain killers to a bandaged man without both hands, without both feet and with no ears. A Deaf man who has no hands and feet, like each of the men in the joke. You feed the man painkillers with the first option being the same mouthwash in the room near the bathtub boat thing. You feed the man the painkillers then get an ad for mouth wash. and then the Cymothoa exigua in friend-os mouth appears asking you to wishlist the game mouthwash.

I like to think the second part/chapter is about over consumption. You must consume consume consume. And the choice you made that was extremely important doesn't matter, because all you must do is consume.

Anyways thats my thoughts :3

#how fish is made #the last one then another #uhh #meta post #maybe? idk. #but yeagh. look upon my post

[class1akids]

Did bakugo just say I can't defeat him by myself at the end of the chapter ?

I think you have to read it together with the panel at the end of the last chapter. To me, it feels like maybe what Bakugou was meaning there: "how could i have ever hoped to beat that?" and in this chapter the answer is "no way I could have done this alone".

I also understand it that Bakugou is not talking only about this last portion of the fight, which was more or less a one-sided targer-practice. AFO's monster form shows all the immense amount of power he gathered - but by the time he faces Bakugou, he's been weakened blow by blow by all the people who fought him (and all the people who supported them like Melissa building the AM suit or the Class B girls working with Mt Lady), and also AFO has been let down by the vestiges. Plus, Bakugou's victory is tied back to Yoichi and Kudou's will, who have started the chain that linked up to this moment.

These are just the events in the final fight that got AFO to the point where he's a child, where he's rapidly rewinding, where he's desperate because Shigaraki rejected him, where the ghosts of the past haunt him to irrational anger, where the quirk factors are rebelling against him. It's a nine-generation fight and a present-day group fight where finally all the stars align to beat him. It's the fight of the people AFO called "extras".

Bakugou simply gets to be the final link, the "killing blow". (Not literally, I don't think Bakugou is killing AFO technically). But that in no way shape or form is meant to mean that Bakugou could have faced him alone when AFO first rewound to prime form and soloed him. Picture AFO as a raid-boss in a video game, Bakugou as the DPS who goes down in the beginning of the raid, gets revived by the healers with a power boost just in time when all the other members of the raid party have been knocked out, and gets to land a final blow (which is still pretty cool because to achieve that, it still needs Bakugou's genius to quickly catch up to his new abilities and coming up with a good plan on the fly with his impeccable battle sense. I don't think just anyone could have done that - it needed a pretty special talent.).

Bakugou - because he was down for most this fight - probably has no idea exactly who contributed or how. He probably has no idea if his friends and other heroes are even alive. But I guess seeing All Might in AFO's clutches must give him an inkling that things went to shit at Gunga and that the heroes were literally throwing every last bit of resource they had at AFO, including the quirkless guy. Bakugou is simply the (last?) piece of the chain - linking poetically from the origin of OFA to OFA growing beyond its users thanks to All Might's Symbol of Peace and becoming not just a literal power-stockage for one person, but an ideal that links all the people together who want live up to those ideals. (Btw, I wouldn't be surprised if in the next chapter, AFO's final demise would connect back to Yoichi in some way. If Bakugou was Kudo's revenge, I think maybe the last laugh should go to Yoichi - in the vestige world - or the Yoichi stand-in, Tomura).

From Bakugou's perspective, last time he tried to stand up to AFO alone (in Shigaraki's quirk-erased body), he got dissed and badly beaten and died. He knows he had to be rescued, revived and he couldn't do it by himself (self-exploding sweat notwithstanding).

I think this is simply an acknowledgement of how at that point he was looking at it wrong - because of course nobody can beat this guy alone, and also it doesn't even matter. The important thing is that they can do it all together if everyone does their part. So I think Bakugou is now maybe at the point where he finally lets go of the idea of measuring his own heroism mainly through power-scaling lenses of his own quirk. Because Explosion is stronger right now than ever. And even at its strongest, it's nowhere near the level of AFO's accrued power. But Bakugou can still win, because he can unleash his power and AFO can't. It's about Bakugou's idea of the "perfect victory": trusting your allies, playing your part, connecting the chain and trust that someone will have your back when you are in trouble. It's also about acknowledging people who helped you, who taught you, who made you stronger (this is something Deku has always done, but we barely ever see it from Bakugou who used to believe that he alone was hot shit).

That's literally the theme of the entire endgame. Nobody gets a win alone - not Izuku, not All Might, not Bakugou, not anyone.

Some of the execution was not great, but I'm fairly certain this is the point HK is trying to make - everyone was essential. Bakugou never could have done a 1 v 1 against AFO.

And on the other hand, that's the villain's downfall. In the PLF war, it was the bonds the LoV built that saved them. But AFO's possession of Shigaraki left those bonds in a sorry state, left the LoV scattered, each member fighting only for their own goals.

#c1a asks #bakugou katsuki #bnha 409 #bnha manga spoilers #bnha meta #afo

[phoenixyfriend]

if you’re doing the fanfic trope mash up, can i suggest 42 and 56 for jangosoka?

Fanfiction Trope MASH-UP: Send me two (2) tropes from this list + a ship and I’ll describe how I’d combine them in the same story.

This ask meme is from over a year ago. Please don't send new prompts.

42. The Big Damn Kiss 

56. Awful First Meeting

Okay, so: time travel, as is standard for this ship

We'll say Ahsoka is ehhhh 23, has been doing Fulcrum stuff for five or so years, is very competent but not perfect. She falls into the past, as one does, shows up about a year pre-Galidraan, so Jango is 21.

Ahsoka has slipped into some undercover work, eeling her way into the upper echelons of society, attending galas and events and so on in fancy dresses and jewelry. How is she funding this? However you want. Maybe she robbed a Hutt. Maybe she has the codes to some shadow accounts nobody knows she's accessing. Maybe she found teenage Bail and talked him into bankrolling her based on The Future. Doesn't matter.

(Actually, the Bail thing would make a great fic on its own, especially if Ahsoka were young enough to pretend to be his girlfriend. Tell me that wouldn't be hilarious. Not here, but somewhere. Bail is absolutely in love with Breha, but like... the fate of the Republic! The fate of the Jedi! That's a cool thing to be doing! With a cool person!)

Point is, she's lying to a lot of very wealthy, very dangerous people when she shows up at these things. She could have theoretically tricked her way into being someone's long-term date, but that would mean dating to attend more than one, and she's not doing that. Better to just pretend to be the heiress to a company from the rims that's very rich but not quite rich enough for everyone in the Core to have heard of.

She is using these events to spy, of course. Slipping into hotel rooms to slice datapads, bugging white collar criminals with a tap to their favorite watch, wandering into servant's tunnels while pretending to be drunk, all the usual fun stuff.

She gets caught, of course.

Jango's side of the story starts about when Ahsoka's does, with him hearing tales of someone stealing information and sabotaging deals, and he gets hired as security by one of those especially important events. He keeps an eye on this, and he... notices Ahsoka.

He does not notice her as a spy, but as a person who is being harassed by an intoxicated, rich old man, whom she'd clearly like to ditch but cannot safely do so.

(At least, as far as he can tell. We know her better than that.)

Jango steps in, because it's not like he's got a lot to do right now, and intercepting drunk old men has been about the only interesting thing he's had to do all night. Ahsoka... I mean, she thanks him. Technically. She doesn't hide her distaste for him as a person. Jango would think this is just about him being Mandalorian, except she doesn't react as negatively to any of the others. She's neutral and ignores most of them, but there are two moments where she interacts positively, laughing at a joke or something. So. She just doesn't like him.

The night ends without incident. It's not until weeks later that there's an information leak. It could have happened during the party Jango was guarding, but it could have happened at any of three other incidents that same month. There was at least one midnight break-in, several days after the party; there's a solid chance his presence did discourage whoever this spy was from engaging, and made them delay their actions to a Plan B.

Months later, he's doing personal guard duty for the king of something or other. It's another gala or fundraiser or coronation or--honestly, he doesn't care. He's getting paid to keep this one specific person safe, and that's all that matters.

He's not the only mando there, so when he sees a young woman, vaguely familiar, stumble out of the hall with an expression that says 'drunk' as much as it does 'roofied,' he doesn't commit any dereliction of duty by excusing himself to just... see that she's okay. The woman is familiar, even if he can't place her. That usually means something; what if she's an assassin he's run into before, here to kill his client?

(That really is why he's following her. If she's familiar but unplaceable, that usually means she's In The Business.)

He follows her at a safe distance, and sees her ask for a bathroom, get pointed in the right direction, and then... go down the wrong hallway, and enter a room that he's pretty sure is supposed to be locked.

He gives it a few seconds, edging closer slow enough that his boots can't be heard (the music and carpet both help muffle the noise, but he's still wearing a lot of metal), and then opens the door to a library-esque space.

The "drunk" girl is hard at work slicing into a computer terminal she 100% should not be at.

They stare at each other.

"Give me one good reason to not shoot y--"

"I can give you intel on Death Watch."

Jango pauses. Considers. It is not his job to keep information safe, this time. His job is to just keep one specific man alive, and this is an unrelated crime.

There are footsteps in the hall, and he sees her start to look around the room for an exit route. He tries not to think too hard on how she was planning on making the very-much-screwed-into-the-wall vent work.

"Fine," he says, and she looks quick at him, and then at the door, and then disengages from the computer and hops the desk to--plaster herself against him?

She giggles, high and drunken, and fumbles for his helmet. "Oh, come on, Mr. Mando, just a kiss? Just one ki--I told my friends I'd run into a Mand--ma--Mandaloriana... Just a kiss! I wanna--wanna one-up 'em..."

He hears the door crack open, and has no idea what he's supposed to do to play along to this... cover? Cover, sure. "Ma'am, I'm on a job."

"And you can't play? Your friends are totally--"

There's a cough from the door, and Jango turns, and the security guard that actually works here is grimacing.

"You can't be in here."

They manage to talk their way out of suspicion, something about how she claimed she'd seen something important but was just trying to seduce him, does the guard know anywhere a drunk guest can be deposited? Thanks.

She does give him information, but she disappears before he can learn anything more about her.

(Galidraan is avoided, oh so narrowly, because of what she gives him. He may never know how close it really was.)

Months pass. He gets invited an event that isn't a job, but is rather some large gladiatorial event. He's not a fan of it--he's pretty sure the fighters aren't nearly as voluntary as people are claiming--but he goes. He watches.

A familiar face enters the arena. He stiffens.

His helmet can zoom in and analyze, and he finds that the cuffs she wears are Force-dampening.

Definitely not willing.

He dithers too long to figure out how to help, or if he even can, because she wins her fight (no deaths in these matches; makes it expensive to find new combatants), and is ushered out, and Jango himself is invited to an afterparty. Someone tells him that the winning gladiators get to attend. It's a reward, the food and fancy outfits. Even 'the pretty one you seemed to like' is going to be there.

People are still pretending that the combatants are voluntary. Jango grits his teeth. He goes.

He finds her, removes his helmet, meets her eyes from across the room. She is bruised and bandaged, but alert. She blinks at him, slow and measuring, and then taps her lips twice.

He doesn't understand, until she signs--where did she learn Mando battle sign?--and asks him to lie and say they're a couple.

(Well, she's using battle sign, not actual MSL, but he's pretty sure 'cover spouse you self extraction' is... yeah. Sure, that sign for cover is usually about cover from fire, and 'spouse' is a splice of 'law' and 'partner' that is usually hard enough without trying to hide everything, but he thinks he got the gist.)

(He does kind of owe her; the information she gave him was more useful than he'd expected, and even if it hadn't been, he can probably convince her to share something else as 'payment' for getting her out of this.)

He stomps through the crowd, pushing people out of the way, and then sweeps her into his arms and bends her backwards to plant the showiest kiss he can on her.

He holds it long enough for the silence to spread, and then pulls them back upright, closes his eyes, presses his forehead to hers, and hopes that it's enough to sell it to the people around them.

His hands drift down to her wrists, a calculated move that looks natural if he's lucky, and asks quietly for them to remove the cuffs.

Jango Fett is a very heavily-armored, heavily-armed man. People read into his quiet the way he wants them to: that he is very close to slaughtering a whole lot of them, and trying incredibly hard to stay calm.

There are cuff removals, and 'negotiations' for Ahsoka's freedom (he still doesn't even know her name, but he hears the fake she gave to the people who arrested her), and she leaves the planet on his arm, and on his spaceship.

She explains that getting arrested and sent to the gladiatorial arena was part of a greater plan, but that her extraction partner was delayed. They might be dead. She doesn't know, but she was already planning her own escape. She tells him she's gotten out of worse scrapes before.

The fic would end with them separating, and her promising to come find him again. Any sequel would involve a reveal of the Future thing, possibly after a one-night stand.

#ahsoka tano #jango fett #jangosoka #star wars #the clone wars #sw legends #time travel #phoenix answers memes #this was meant to be a 'how would you' not-fic but it ended up. half fic

[monstersinthecosmos]

I was asked in that Fanfic Writer Asks thing 💛 What is the most impactful lesson you’ve learned about writing? and I wanted to break it out into its own space.

The No. 1 Most Impactful Lesson is Write What You Want to Read

But I do want to speak about this for a minute because like everything important that I know about writing ALWAYS comes back to this idea, and there's two main points I want to make about it.

Your "VOICE" is about your taste and your ideas more than it is about your technical skill, language, and structure.

People I think stress about "voice" thinking that they need to develop their language and prose and rhythm and all the flowery poetry. I don't think it matters, personally. I think if you have an idea, the idea itself is the thing that drives the story.

Fanfic is awesome to use to learn how to write because it's accessible to everyone, and you get such a wide sampling of skill in one place. And sometimes you can see a really atrocious fic and it kinda teaches you what not to do, and helps you understand what you do or don't like as a reader, but sometimes you also see the good idea peeking through and you can enjoy it anyway. There are fics I ADORE that are so sloppily written, break all the rules, formatted like shit LOL, and I'm still HERE FOR IT because the author had such great ideas.

I'm sure anyone who's learned a second language had learned this, but, I remember when I was studying abroad that the college president welcomed us to the program and gave us this huge pep talk about how like, when you're out in the world speaking a second language, your grammar isn't important. If you can COMMUNICATE, that's what's important. If you can point to the apple you want to buy and say "Apple buy", the person will understand what you're trying to say.

So I think of writing that way, too. Your ideas are more important than your technical skill. Share the ideas. Keep sharing the ideas. The skill will follow when you're putting the time in.

2. Writing for fun is just as valuable as writing for work.

I took a long break from fanfic writing in my 20s because I kinda thought I'd "moved on" and that it had been my teenager hobby. And I had gone to college for photography and becoming a professional photographer really killed a lot of my passion for the art. College really brainwashed me into thinking creativity is a waste of time if it's not monetized, so even though I always enjoyed writing, I spent a few years being hard on myself and thinking it was stupid to waste time on writing fic because I couldn't sell it.

And that's such bullshit?

Because the truth is that, by telling myself "Don't write stuff you can't sell" I just wound up not writing anything at all?

And writing is like, my lil thing that that I do for fun. I can do it for fun. It feels good. It's the space I've made to be creative where I specifically don't have to worry about money, and I value it so fucking much.

I'm sure there are other people who bypassed this life lesson by NOT falling into a capitalist trap LOL but if I can share that, to help others avoid it, I will!

Write what you want to read, because it's fun, because you want to! Because you have good taste and that's your voice! You can be confident and stand up and say "I think this idea is cool so I'm going to share it with you!"

Trust yourself and your taste!!!!!!!!!!!! Don't stress about the technical stuff, it will follow!

(Bonus point #3 is bonus because it's a little more about technical stuff but if you start thinking about write what you want to read WHEN YOU READ it really helps inform how you think about your story structure and pacing. Like when I get stuck on a pacing thing I'm always thinking "Would this bore me if I were reading it? Would I want to be slow burned? Would I want more time spent on this payoff?" etc. I think that shift in mindset really helps when it comes to your story structure!!!!!!!!!!!)

#sdgjkas thank you to my mother anne rice for teaching me this lesson lol #writing advice

[tinirainboom]

Preview of chapter 2 of ~I'm not who you think I am~

⋆｡˚ੈ ~☪~⋆✩~☪~⋆✩~☪~⋆✩~☪~ ੈ⋆｡˚

Brunhilde:- I understand… I can say that you are not a threat to the plan to save humanity and that you have nothing against me, although you must understand that I cannot grant you my trust so easily since I do not have anything against you either, it is simply because caution. -she tells me in a calm and thoughtful way, then she says with a tone trying to sound kind- I know that you were chosen by our excellence, but I don't know the reason why she did all this and the Ragnarok contingency plan, that made me take thebaton, making me responsible for it when the time came to present it at the meeting of the gods to decide thefate of humanity.

What?! Isn't the plan to make Ragnarok so that humanity has another chance to live Brunhilde's? It can't be… all this is a contingency plan for that woman called "Lady avatar", if only she were a canon character I could know something about her intentions and a little about her person, but it is completely useless since about that topic I'm in the dark.

This makes no sense in the manga and anime itself, they presented Brunhilde as the mastermind of generating Ragnarok and the leader of humanity's side, manipulating all kinds of resources to defeat the gods… All the attention was on Brunhilde , but they never mention this avatar of Lady in the story of this story and the only time they mention a situation before Ragnarok is when the protagonist goes to Buddha to teach him about Ichiren Takushou or Samavadhana and it's just a small panel in the manga or a small scene about inside the anime. But that was a week before Ragnarok happened!

So, does that mean that the Valkyries who belong to the Norse pantheon follow the orders of this Lady Avatar? It would make some sense, since at the beginning of the manga there is talk of a hidden potential of the Valkyries, an important role that is related to humans and that they were not under the orders of another type of deity… Also, what Göll told me about this woman is interesting because she briefly told me about her role and it was that since the beginning of time she must always maintain all kinds of balance from the karmic to the dharmic level, technically with that information she would surpass that of the Buddha role of being an enlightened one and guiding all beings. Lady avatar is a main deity who comprehensively maintains balance in all forms of her, but the million dollar question would be why does she need my common soul like mine to replace her if she is so powerful? It doesn't make sense, there are too many pieces of the puzzle that I don't know and I can't jump to conclusions since I'm not sure that Brunhilde with her manipulative and calculating mind is telling me the truth and I also can't theorize so many things about this woman because I barely know her his existence.

Anyway… the only thing I have left is to trust Brunhilde's word that she is going to try to help me in this matter and that she will keep her word, while I try to help her in the Ragnarok plan.

⋆｡˚ੈ ~☪~⋆✩~☪~⋆✩~☪~⋆✩~☪~ ੈ⋆｡˚

hello everyone! After a long time hehe sorry, I publish part of chapter 2 of this fanfic, finally! Well, I'm catching up on the manga of this series and I had the inspiration I needed to write it since I had several ideas about how to write it but I couldn't decide until I could find a way. Anyway, now there won't be so much time until I can publish chapter 2 in its entirety. Have a nice day, afternoon or night!

~Reiko Yukimura~

#buddha x you #buddha x reader #record of ragnarok #ror buddha #shumatsu no valkyrie #snv buddha #snv x reader #shuumatsu no valkyrie x reader #~I'm not who you think I am~ fanfic #hope you like it #buddha record of ragnarok

[kradogsrats]

I saw you reblogged a post involving Claudia using snap magic. Do you think that it is connected to deep magic?

Maybe! There are a lot of things we don't know that would clarify it, like when exactly Claudia started doing dark magic. My money for that is on after Kpp'Ar disappears and Lissa leaves, just because I think it's overall unlikely that even Kpp'Ar would be letting a six-year-old start up dark magic, considering that it's implied Viren was like... probably somewhere in the 16-20 range. Previously I had thought Viren started closer to 11-13, so it would be unusual but not completely unreasonable for Claudia to be carefully taught simple spells at like... five, or whatever. Knowing now that casting your first dark magic spell, no matter how minor, is universally going to be a dangerous and traumatizing experience... ehhhhhhhhh personally I think she did it without supervision as a way of acting out, and who's going to stop her, after the fact?

But yeah, as described in the post in question by @its-leethee, what we previously have been told about dark magic without reagents or incantations is that having done a some amount of dark magic allows you to perform simple, low-power spell effects (seen with Viren and Claudia, and described in ToX) and sense both dark and primal magic (described in ToX).

Mechanically in ToX, a character needs to be carrying some level of corrupted stress to use these "parlor trick" spells, and some level of corrupted trauma to sense magic (at least in a useful way). It's hard to say how much corrupted stress a six-year-old Claudia might be carrying around, but we do know she's been attempting a fair amount of dark magic spells and failing at them, which is technically how you gain corrupted stress. That being said, it feels really weird and off to be like "okay, you've done exactly one spell and it gave you corrupted stress, you can now light candles with your fingers." Like, Callum would technically be able to do it, it that case, and that just seems wrong. (Though he's never tried, so who knows.) But it's definitely possible that snap magic is just describing this dark magic effect, and Kpp'Ar was like "let's maybe not tell the small child that it's actually a side perk of something that can literally kill you." Like the equivalent of panicking and saying "Sears catalog" when a kid asks you where babies come from and you haven't prepared an age-appropriate explanation.

ANYWAY, as alternative speculation: we've seen Callum gain understanding of two different arcana after doing dark magic. I clearly remember the writers saying that doing dark magic is not required to gain an arcanum, but going through his first-time-user subconscious trip definitely seems to help Callum gain a deeper understanding of himself that winds up being the last piece of understanding the Sky arcanum. So if deep magic is something innate to everyone, tied to blood or life or whatever, it's possible that doing dark magic cracks open the door to it just a little, and thereby also makes grasping an arcanum just a tiny bit easier. I personally think it's important that after Callum spends so much time with the Sky primal stone, he draws a connection between how it felt to use it and how the lightning strikes "feel" to some sense he didn't have, before—he's developed some kind of internal connection that energy, possibly to magic, but not fully to the Sky arcanum.

Like ultimately "magic" is "channeling some kind of power into a desired effect by force of will." The description of "innate" dark magic spells in ToX compares them to the "day-to-day" spells of primal rune mages, in the sense that you wouldn't make a dark mage character or a Sun mage character roll to light a candle, but it wouldn't surprise me if a Sun mage could light a candle with a look or touch instead of having to draw out a whole rune and speak draconic. Would that would be drawing small amounts of primal magic through their arcanum or accessing deep magic? Hmmmm.

So yeah, I think it would be cool if it was, if only because of the definite sense that Kpp'Ar knows a lot more than he may have previously let on to Viren, but ultimately evidence-wise I think at the moment it could go either way.

#dark magic #deep magic #i think game mechanics can be related to or describe canon but i firmly don't think they inherently ARE canon so #yeah idk

[aita-blorbos]

AITA for wanting to keep my best friend safe?

Okay so this is a long story, so I'll summarize the beginning of it. Basically me (M, 10) and my best friend F (F, 5) were in a dangerous place so we had to run away to somewhere where neither of us would be in danger. That place didn't end up working out, so we ended up moving to an asylum instead. Only problem is, F didn't actually have anything "wrong" with her, so I had her do something to look insane so they'd be convinced. That ended up working, so we've been able to stay there for quite some time now. Eventually, the object I was tied to (oh yeah, I'm a ghost by the way, forgot to mention that) found its way back to us, so now everything was perfect.

Or at least, I THOUGHT it was, but something was kind of off. Every time F would show someone the object I was tied to (it was a handheld game system, if that matters), they would be able to see me. My real form is pretty terrifying to say the least, so they'd get freaked out and something bad would happen to them because of it. It didn't really matter to me, though, because F was all I needed, but she seemed kinda down about that whole thing despite still having me.

Anyway, things are kind of up and down until N (F, 23) shows up. N doesn't even work here, she's just some reporter getting all up in our business. She gets assigned by one of the higher-ups to look after F, and in exchange, she gets to interview her about stuff. Sounds harmless, right? Well, they end up getting along really well, almost too much so. Maybe to the point where she almost feels like a mother to her. The worst part is, she REFUSES to be shown the game system, so she's convinced for a full 4 days that I'm just some imaginary friend of hers. F seems really happy ever since she came around, though, so I can't bring myself to tell her how I really feel about N.

I spend that time trying my hardest to convince N I exist, but she's just so fucking DENSE. She won't believe in me, no matter how many signs I give her. So I decided to MAKE her believe in me.

That night, one of the kids dies in his sleep, so the next morning I make a little show of destroying his corpse in front of N. I know that sounds bad, but I literally had no other choice, and TECHNICALLY I never killed anyone. I just made N think I did for an important reason that will come later. Anyway, it works, and she with everyone else runs away, leaving me and F in our new home together. The problem is, the very next day, N COMES BACK and practically DRAGS F out of the building. I try to stop her, but I can’t. She smashes my game system against the side of the building and drives off with her. (Somehow I'm still here, and that might be because my friendship with F became stronger than my ties with the game.)

I manage to hang onto the car long enough to follow the two of them back to her place. At this point, I've had enough of people like N getting into our business thinking they can "save" F from her situation. That's what she has me for. We don't need anyone else. So I make N write it all down: her experiences there, and with me. This is why I had her think I killed people, so she'd warn everyone about the "monster" I am, and they'd know to stay away from me and F.

It's really bittersweet, because on one hand, the time I spent with F was the best time I'd ever spent. With the little I know about myself when I was alive, I know I never felt this fulfilled until I met her. We had so much fun together. But as the time passed, F became so sad. When N showed up, it was like she WANTED her to drag her away from that place. With all the stuff I did for the sake of keeping her out of harm's way, I can't help but feel like an asshole. Was what I did in the end worth it, or am I too far gone?

#aita #am i the asshole #unreality #child death #child death mention

[dark9896]

Imposter Syndrome [Leo x Reader]

Requested by Anonymous ‼️

Leo shuffled into his apartment, almost completely defeated. Today had been rough, this whole week had been one thing after the next, and every day seemed worse and worse. From being outmuscled, outthought, out sped... It was a matter of luck Leo wasn't out of a job.

No matter what Klaus said, everything felt like a fluke. Just a bunch of random things happened and he just happened to be in the right place at the right time. Everyone else in Libra had a role, a purpose. Except him, at least that's how it felt.

Klaus; be strong, hit things hard, seal blood breeds. Steven; freeze everything the eye can see, code around anyone that dares to cause trouble, and deliver icy glares to keep everyone in line. Chain, Zapp, Zed, Sonic, Dog and Deldro, even you had your part to play in Libra. But Leo? He felt his only job was to get thrown around like a football.

He should have felt better, sitting next to you on the bed. He should be able to push these feelings down. But they kept nagging at him, threatening to burst right out. Compounding with his worst fears, especially that you'd leave. You'd see him for the weak, useless fraud that he is and then you'd be gone.

Feeling his head being poked backward, Leo waved his arms for stability.

"You seem... distracted." You said, "Everything okay?"

That was all it took, a little genuine concern...

"Honestly? No." Leo stared down at his hands, "I know you'll tell me that I'm wrong about all this but... I've just, I've been feeling like I'm useless around the office."

Despite the pause, you merely tilted your head at Leo. Knowing that he often dealt with Zapp calling him names, with all the things people told him about his eyes, the weight of what happened to him and his sister, even the mere fact that he often was sitting on the sidelines. You knew what Leo went through on a daily basis, that it was only a matter of time before he would have to vent.

And listening was your specialty.

"It's just!" Leo couldn't help but stand abruptly, "Everyone else has something they do. And I'm just there. Why was even allowed in Libra if all I was gonna do was stand around watching everything!? I should be able to do more than this but I... I'm!"

Leo sat with a defeated sigh, "Every time I think I have even a little bit of something to do... It's always because of my eyes. And I get that was the main reason Klaus hired me in the first place, but... I feel like I could be giving so much more."

You just sat there, milling over what to say. Letting Leo get as much of this off his chest as possible. His hand swept his hair back, before the brown fluff just settled back into its natural, messy look.

"I just... I'm tired of being so much weaker than everyone else." Leo laid back on the bed, arms spread out, "It feels like no matter what I do, I'll always be stuck here. Michella lost her sight because of me. When I joined Libra, Klaus got seriously injured on my behalf. And ever since, I've barely been more help than a fancy telescope. Or maybe a really fancy camera, if you wanna get technical."

This time Leo really was finished talking. His inner turmoil didn't seem as important now that he said it all out loud. Maybe he should have kept quiet and pretended to be okay. He shouldn't burden you with--

"I don't see it that way at all." You broke the stretching silence, "Sure, you aren't physically strong, but that doesn't really matter much."

Leo sat up, frowning, "Our job is literally saving the world at a moment's notice [Name]. No offence, but I should be physically strong for that kind of thing."

"But you didn't save Will by hitting him hard." You turned, "You did that by talking to him, or was it to his sister? I don't fully remember how that went down..."

"It was kinda both..." Leo admitted sheepishly, "And it wasn't like I did anything special. Anyone could have--"

"No, it was special." You cutting anyone off? Was Leo dreaming? "You had a friendship with them after all. It was something only a good friend could have done. Believe me, Klaus would have definitely tried talking first. And you see how well that worked for him."

He looked away a little, scratching the back of his head.

"And I doubt Michella thinks you've failed her at all." You continued, "She knows she can rely on you to know right from wrong. She knows you'll always do what you think is the right thing to do and given your gut instincts... it's usually the best thing to do."

Leo felt like his head was spinning, in a good way. You rarely talked so much, let alone bringing up things like morality and such.

You focused on your hands, finding it easier to talk toward them instead, "Besides, it's not like you're completely useless around the office. You're really good at making friends, and making people feel welcomed or seen. In a good way. You kinda just have a certain... charm? air? thing about you that even someone like me can just exist and not feel judged or have any sort of expectation outside of being friends."

A slight pause, "Though I guess that kinda went a little further than just friends in my case. But its not like that's it either."

"[Name]..."

"I mean, who else in the office can really see a set of blueprints and notice the pattern was from a movie? You have a lot of niche talents that don't always shine through right away. I mean, you were the only one small enough to pilot that tiny helicopter. Even Chain was having problems. And she can phase through stuff!"

You stopped, not sure where all you were really going with this. Until Leo rested his hand over yours.

"You're a lot cooler than you think Leo." You finally looked back up at him, "And a lot more needed. Even if no one else can see it, even if you can't see it yourself. I always see just how amazing you are."

#bbb #kekkai sensen #kkss #blood blockade battlefront #leonardo watch #ask

[red-dragon-archfiend]

i saw your tags on that post about retconning Blood Drive and i'd love to see your ideas about revising CoPa's story!! :)

PART ONE: THE OVERALL STORY To start with, I think we need to cut out the stuff we can all agree is bad. Blood Drive is the obvious thing, 2U never should have been acknowledged in canon in the first place but Blood Drive did for some reason, and Book of Shadows is a collection of "What-ifs" for the main story, Blood Covered, which I think we can use here. Now that we're ignoring those other things and focusing entirely on Blood Covered, we can get more specific about what needs to be changed. I think there are three recurring flaws with Corpse Party as a franchise that need to be addressed in any good rewrite. The first and biggest problem is the sexualization of minors, especially the girls. Corpse Party is as much about jacking off to teenage girls as it is about horror, and needless to say that's very bad. Even if you don't mind children being sexualized (which, if you don't, ew), it's very distracting from what's supposed to be the main focus, survival horror, and can be quite the mood killer. I remember seeing Naomi and Seiko have a heartwarming reunion in the manga, only for that same scene of them hugging to also feature panty shots for no reason. Ugh. To address this, we simply just cut all of that stuff out. It's totally unnecessary and you can remove it without changing the story much at all. The second problem is, oddly enough, too much death. A series called Corpse Party reasonably is going to have a lot of death, but the issue is, EVERYONE dies except the original five protagonists from the 90's game. Once you catch onto that pattern, you know any new character you see is doomed and have no reason to care about them, especially because chances are, that character is going to be ultimately useless to the narrative. This leads neatly into the third problem, which is an overabundance of disposable characters. 2U had a literal high school gym full of characters, and the vast majority of them are just... bloat. Do we REALLY need all of these kids? Do they REALLY make the story better? I don't think they do. I think cutting out everyone who isn't in Blood Covered, or having them exist in the background or in backstories like with Kizami's classmates, is the way to go. This will also cut down on the "too much death" problem without also introducing a "too many survivors" problem, so conveniently both of these can be addressed at the same time. Once you cut these three core issues, you're left with a pretty solid horror story that doesn't overstay its welcome or divert towards uncomfortably sexual territory. I admittedly don't remember all of the details because some of it was pushed out for Blood Drive's nonsense, but I don't think the overall plot of the game needs much changing. The worldbuilding in Blood Drive is dumb, but we're ignoring that. It doesn't matter what exactly Heavenly Host is or how everything works there, it's how it affects the story and the characters. Speaking of... PART TWO: THE CHARACTERS Corpse Party's characters were always the most important part of it to me. I used to say that they're wasted in CoPa and would be better in another story. Now I don't think I agree with that anymore, because they were made for CoPa, and the story itself can be improved, such as with the changes I suggested before. I think analyzing the core characters, improving them, and adjusting the story accordingly is the way to go to make a better Corpse Party. This is going to be the longest section by far, because I have in-depth thoughts on most of the main cast of characters. I'm going to focus on the 9 characters you see in the prologue, then do a lightning round of the villains at the end for an even ten entries. Because of technical issues with Tumblr, I can't make this all one post, so I'm going to post this part now and reblog it with my entries for each character. Stay tuned! I'll DM you the final version of the post when it's done

#shinozaki-ayumi #corpse party #to my starving copa followers: i will feed you in time

[baked-hylian]

Tag game: Tour my bookshelf!

Thanks for the tag, @hirazuki

An estimate of how many physical books I own: I feel really behind as over the years and moving around I haven't held on to a lot of the books I had once had. At the moment my collection is of roughly 75 books (lost count when my cat wanted to be picked up) including reference books, 36 light novels, 132 manga volumes 11 of which are omnibuses (3-in-1 kind)

Favourite author: That's not actually an easy question for me mostly because I don't pick favourites when it comes to authors, I like different ones for different things. Like I love MXTX for fucked up relationships and situations. And I like the way Tasha Suri and Samantha Shannon describe food in their works The Burning Kingdoms trilogy and The Priory of the Orange Tree. That being said I haven't even tried MXTX's first novel, nor am I clamouring to grab Tasha Suri or Samantha Shannon's other novels, admittedly I am waiting for the prequel follow up to The Priory of the Orange Tree to release in paperback, and Tasha Suri is doing a Doctor Who novel and I'm mildly tempted to check that out, but that's more so the Doctor Who angle.

A popular book I've never read and never intend to read: Honest probably most YA that I didn't read as a kid, I gave an exception to Iron Widow just because I like the author and the youtube content they produced and the concept of imagining the rise to power of the first empress of China as a young woman dealing with some type of alien/monster invasion sounded neat. Another I would say is the first novel from MXTX. There are some tropes from it that sound enjoyable, but I really struggle with the kid eventually growing up and hooking up with his teacher crush for the romance angle. Like I get that because plot technically it shouldn't matter but idk it's just not what I look for when it comes to a romance, yknow?

A popular book I thought was just meh: Under The Whispering Door by TJ Klune. He's the type of author I will only buy on sale as paperback. The House on the Cerulean Sea was super charming and fun, this was just, like sterilized handling of death. Idk I just was not a fan of it, plus the romance of it felt quite weak. Honestly Klune vibes like he'd be better off writing for tweens than adults.

Longest book I own: The Priory of the Orange Tree, if it isn't that then it's this dictionary I have specifically for old timey slang that I found while thrifting.

Longest series I own all the books to: Ascendance of a Bookworm is probably just overall the longest even comparing novels, as by the time they finish publishing it it's going to be some 35ish volumes each at least 300 pages (the odd picture probably drops it closer to 290). I'd say Tian Guan Ci Fu but that's mostly because english translations always wind up longer than the original mandarin, i.e. TGCF is only 3 books long in mandarin but getting 8 volumes in english due to length (although, honestly, I have problems with the way they keep constantly copy pasting the same glossary for each novel, could easily trim 30 pages of that and redistribute the overall story to cut out at least two of those volumes.) Inuyasha for manga and I don't even have half of the series.

Prettiest book I own: Maybe it's because I just finished it, but He Who Drowned the World has an absolutely gorgeous cover. The artwork by JungShan is just so pretty and I love the colour choices.

A book or series I wish more people knew about: Among Thieves and its sequel Thick as Thieves. Just a fun medium fantasy duology with the first book being set up and execution of the heist of a highly important magical item that will determine the fates for everyone around the world. The second dealing with the aftermath of that heist and finding out more about where magic comes from in this world.

Book I'm reading now: .......... The Magical Revolution of the Reincarnated Princess and the Genius Young Lady volume 3. I know how it sounds and honestly it's better than most isekai nowadays at least.

Book that's been on my TBR list for a while but I still haven't got around to it: The Lord of the Rings trilogy. Tried The Hobbit in high school right around the time I lost interest in reading, feels like it was mostly a me problem so I figured I'd give them another shot. Just gotta find a very specific copy of Return of the King because I already have the others from that set and I don't wanna mix n match too much.

Do you have any books in a language other than English: I used to have a Japanese pokemon card, does that count? French instruction manuals? No? Then no.

And lastly, paperback, hardcover or ebook? Situational. I like hardcover for certain lengths, but I find once you're nearing 600 pages they become irritating. Hardcover is also dependant on how much I like the author/that series as I'm cheap and I've been burned once by disappointment and not letting it happen again. However I do like that certain manga are getting the hardcover treatment, it looks very classy for some of them, like the Thus Spoke Rohan Kishibe specials, and the Fullmetal Alchemist recent prints.

Tagging anyone who really wants to talk about their books!

#This response took nearly an hour #most of which was me debating if I wanted to get up to check things and count #I did wind up counting #but not super accurately on some things but it's whatever #I've also just been thrifting tons of new old books for myself #like I just nabbed the handmaid's tale and dracula recently #pride and prejudice and zombies #the book thief #so it keeps growing #I do wonder how large it would be if I didn't have a like 10+ year gap of just not reading #tags to clarify: I don't have all of ascendance of a bookworm yet #just what's translated into english in paperback

[bitegore]

18. choose a passage from your writing. tell me about the backstory of this moment. how you came up with it, how it changed from start to end. spicy addition: questioner provides the passage. As payment, here's a 40 poem. Write. Erase. Rewrite. Erase again. And then, A poppy blooms. -A Poppy Blooms, by Katsushika Hokusai

oh thats tough okay

18. choose a passage from your writing. tell me about the backstory of this moment. how you came up with it, how it changed from start to end. spicy addition: questioner provides the passage.

“My rule will be absolute and without mercy,” Rex said, and then registered the way that sounded. Yeesh. “Uh, for my enemies. The enemies of the state. We will deal with those who seek to bring harm to you, the people of my realm, as the enemy, and they will be dispatched with the same kind of effortless force that I have just demonstrated. This is not the kingdom of Deiya, who held the nobles to a lesser standard than they did the commoner. This is the kingdom of— of. Of me,” Rex said, losing momentum. “Um. And I was one of you. I have no noble blood. I want none. I reject nobility. I am not from this stupid fucking country with its stupid fucking traditions and I don’t have to pretend to be to control it.” Rex let out a breath. That didn’t seem to have done what he wanted, but the crowd was looking on eagerly, now, curiosity and apprehension written on the faces of nearly everyone he could see.

This one is from Chapter 5 of Written in Blood (new and better title pending), and was one of the first moments I imagined happening in thing when I started coming up with it. Important context is that he just executed someone in cold blood on a big stage in front of a lot of people.

The first thing about Rex is that he's not observant and unused to real people, so what he's reading as "curiosity and apprehension" is actually "fascinated apprehension", like, when people look at a car crash. I didn't ever really get into it but there's a very wide gulf between what he percieves as people thinking and what people actually think about him. So when I first imagined this, it was just from the structural angle- Rex gives a semi-terrifying speech while executing the heads of the Big Old Families in the city and then goes off all happy with himself while everyone else is just like "what the fuck just happened. what the fuck is going on" and stares after in moderately terrified fascination. He is a novelty, but not one anyone expects to survive long enough to Matter.

(If you've read it, you know he doesn't technically survive, he's just immune to staying murdered.)

Anyways, in its original form Rex's speech was actually worse and scarier. But Rex is a big loser at heart and hates authority; even in this au where he is slightly more comfortable with being in charge and doesn't fuck off after like five minutes of being expected to be in charge of more than two people he doesn't like being an authority figure, so I had to cut the immediate ruthless "we'll kill anyone who stands in our way :) swear loyalty or i'll kill you and your family and string your bodies up in the town square as a warning to any other fools who think they can shake my rule :) i will make the streets run red with the blood of those who don't bend the knee immediately and i'll revel in it and I'll expect you to, too :) anyway time for a party!" thing down.

The speech itself kind of came last, but mostly because that's how that always goes; I get the visual first, the actual details last. I knew he was going to say something along the lines of "stand against me and die, stand against my rule and die" and something along the lines of "i hate this fucking country and I'm going to rebuild it in my own image", but outside those generalities, the specifics didn't come until I actually wrote it down.

Oh- final detail- in its initial conception, Rex held the head up while he was giving this speech, but in its final form the head was collected and placed on a little table and then Rex said this while holding his sword instead. I felt like that was more threatening, honestly.

Thanks for the question! This was a lot of fun; also feel free to send this one again if you want to see it or send specific paragraphs. I've written a buncha stuff and I'm never sure what to do these semi-general things about.

40 writer questions

#red replies #vergess #40 writer questions game #i really have to get back to editing this fic

[benayoung]

"i'm concerned about everyone. the competition is difficult." (mentioned: @bexstevie @bejaeyoung @beseira )

new year, new survival show, it would seem. this would technically be her fourth, if she can count it, since she's not a contestant this time.

still, sitting down for an interview, in front of a camera again, feels a little like returning home.

she can't help but think of all of the different people she's been in rooms like this one, from the fake happy-go-lucky girl in her first season to the hardened "ice queen" she is today. she actually smiles a little, then looks to the interviewer expectantly.

"what are your first impressions of the talent this season?"

that's a good question, honestly. "they're probably better than us," she admits with a bark of laughter. "that's how these shows always work, right?" from her experience, somehow, new talent always surges upwards and surpasses its predecessors. it frightens her a little, but she doesn't feel threatened by any of the girls this season – at least not yet. maybe she'll see who her ceo selects for sr media and change her mind.

"none of the ceos said they wanted to sign anyone on day one last season, so i think that already says enough," she points out, but she doesn't take it personally.

"what do you think of initial rankings?"

"my job is to coach, not to judge," she says diplomatically. "thankfully." she smiles, close-lipped. will that stop her from judging people? absolutely not. will it stop her from saying anything judgmental in this moment? yes.

"based on what you've seen, who do you think has center potential?"

nayoung pauses in thought for a moment. "i think stevie could be a good center for the boys. his voice and rapping both still need work, but i think his previous experience on next gen shows in his skill level overall. i'm just afraid he was more..." she pauses again, trying to think of how to explain it, "endearing, last season? he's nervous this season, which is good, because it means he cares now. but it's also bad, because i think it's getting to his head. if he can find a way to shake off his nerves and be himself while still taking the competition seriously, he'll be in contention for a high rank the entire season, in my opinion."

of course, nayoung has paid attention, and has a lot of opinions. "song jaeyoung is incredibly well-rounded. if the judges are searching for a center who's good at singing, rapping, and dancing about equally, he would be a good pick. i find that he's missing a certain spark, though. he isn't very memorable to me when he performs, and i personally feel that's important for a center to have."

"as for the female center, i think my top pick is han yura. she's not the most captivating performer of the season, but she's pretty and has no significant weaknesses that i've seen. she's a good rapper, which is important for the center of this season, but she's a solid singer as well, and she's kept up fine with the choreography."

"are there any contestants you're concerned about?"

"i'm concerned about everyone. the competition is difficult," she laughs, and it's both sincere and not. she isn't that concerned – ultimately what happens to the contestants of this show matters little to her. she knows it can be hard on people, though, and she knows they're all inexperienced.

"it's volatile, too. one week you can be in first and the next you can be at the bottom of the rankings," she speaks from experience. "who is having trouble this week might shine next week. it really just depends."

"if we're only talking about this week?"

"if we're only talking about this week, seira comes to mind. she's a skilled rapper, but she's not confident in her dancing, and her vocals........" nayoung has nothing nice to say there. "i don't think she'll be center. i hope she isn't eliminated, though, because while she isn't center material in my opinion, i think she has other things left to show."

"any final words?"

nayoung bows in her seat. "thank you! i'm grateful i got to coach everyone this week and i hope i'm able to continue." she honestly has no idea what the future holds.

#be:ngs2p2 #❁┆solo #❁┆nextgen 2 #❁┆ng s2 ep2 interview

[cupid-styles]

no bc i overthink so fucking much its horrible

and like idk if i have anxiety or smth but i feel like im being dramatic if i say i have anxiety

and a friend of mine was like ‘yeah thats what everyone who has anxiety says’ SO IDK

and i also dont know if i had a panic attack last wednesday but if i didnt i dont wanna make it into smth its not (see me overthinking and being anxious again)

bc like ion wanna be dramatic and over exaggerate which is why i tell myself to stfu and get over it

im so sorry i keep going on mini rants😭💀

omg no bestie don't apologize this is literally my expertise ! (if I go down in tumblr history for anything I want it to be harry fic and advice about sex toys and mental health)

longwinded response beneath the cut :D mental health/anxiety tw!

OKAY SO I've said this on here before but the thing with anxiety is that it's technically a feeling, right? it's not the same as being diagnosed with a mental health disorder like bipolar. but there's definitely a spectrum when it comes to anxiety — you can have anxious feelings about certain situations (having to speak up in class, confronting a friend, etc) which is totally normal, but it can also get to the point where you're constantly feeling anxious about everything (this is when it may warrant going to therapy for anxiety or even going on medication). but essentially, all of this just means that saying you have anxiety isn't dramatic at all because everyone gets it! some people are just more anxious than others.

even if your anxiety isn't super severe and you're unsure if you had a panic attack, don't spiral into self-doubt and make yourself feel like you're being silly or dramatic. it's important to feel your feelings!!

here's a good resource on what it feels like to have a panic attack (there is also a difference between panic and anxiety attacks, so you may have had an anxiety attack instead!)

ultimately, anxiety CAN be really scary. panic attacks can also be scary. but I would try your best not to overthink all of it and spiral into "wtf is wrong with me" bc that's just gonna make you feel worse. you can try to figure it out, or you can choose to take notice of your feelings and mental state and decide where to go from there! either way, there's nothing wrong with you and you'll be ok no matter what :D ily!!!

#bestie asks #🌻 bestie

[wxtchpilot]

That wasn't something Shido could answer with clear certainty.

If the same phenomena that displaced her was the same that displaced Tenguu City one year ago, the chances of her being able to return there was slim. Shido could never go back to his old life; he accepted that ages ago.

However, he was fortunate enough to have family members with ties to an international organization with lots of resources at their disposal, as well as help from those he met along the way that he was able to adjust to the change in his life. And with most of those he knew from back then surviving, he truly was in a rather fortunate position.

But what about this girl?

He knew nothing about her situation prior to this, if she had any family or friends or even the exact location of where she came from, but the chances were that she had no one to help her as of now, no one to contact and no way back to where her home is if the same event befell her.

"....I don't know. If what happened to you was exactly the same thing that happened to Tenguu City, there's a real possibility your home is gone. But even so, we don't know anything for sure. It could have been something else altogether, but until we figure this out, I can't say anything for sure."

Then again, it was odd he hadn't heard anything about a second mass displacement event happening. Ratatoskr had Sites and eyes all over the world. The FRAXINUS, the airship his little sister commanded was more or less one high level facility that was deemed very important, not to mention often serving as the main hub of command for the SEPHIRA Initiative, which was Ratatoskr's special taskforce that responded to any threat to the world, both on the ground as well as off planet.

Shido was technically part of this initiative as "Member 0" where his role would have been to recruit new members, or at least convince them to join. If a second displacement event occurred, Shido would have heard about it already and he and a lot of his acquaintances would be making their way to ground zero to investigate. And yet he hadn't heard about it from anyone else so far.

Was the event so recent that the information simply hadn't reached them yet?

Or was something else at play?

Either way, all that really mattered was that there was someone in front of him who needed help.

"But with that being said, I'll do my best to help you. Whatever happened, your circumstances are too troubling to just ignore. Somehow, I'll find a way to get you back home, and if that isn't an option, we can figure something else out. So don't worry, everything will work out one way or another"

With all of this, it sounded like the school would be completely gone, perhaps everyone there too. Suletta still worried if it carried over to other stations or planets, because if Mercury was gone too, then that would be it, she'd have no home to go to.

She didn't want to panic, she didn't want to fear the worst either, but it was getting harder and harder the more the situation sank in. She should focus on that he said it doesn't mean its wiped out or everyone is dead, she should hold onto some form of hope.

If she ran, she'd only gain one. If she kept moving forward, she'd gain two.

'Just have to keep moving forward...' It was scary, but it was better than running away and being alone in an unknown world.

He was willing to help her as well, which she appreciated more than she could vocalize.

"R-Right, of course. I can't run away, if anyone r-really is out there then I have to help find them. So...so thank you, really! I'll make sure to help and do my part!"

The girl immediately awkwardly bowed, though she also forgot something important. Looking back up at him for a few seconds, the teenager began to fumble with her fingers.

"...My name is Suletta Mercury. Thank you for choosing to help me...I wouldn't know wh-what to do if you didn't."

She'd probably be hurt, or worse off.

#ask #archivisim

[jeanmoreaudefensesquad]

When the Nest is being cleaned out, someone finds an old box of VHS tapes that Tetsuji left behind. Upon watching them, it immediately becomes clear who they need to go to.

Kevin usually doesn't pay much attention to his mail--everyone and everything he needs is at Palmetto already, anything ordered for exy ships to the stadium, and he gets a not insignificant amount of fan mail through his university mailbox (I'm saying this works like my university did, where technically anyone could have sent me anything by addressing it to my name and the university's address). So he isn't particularly interested in the package, until he sees the return address. He'd recognize the address of Castle Evermore anywhere.

His dorm doesn't have a VCR, but he knows that Wymack has one, so he takes the box over to his apartment. He doesn't know what are on the tapes, but it's from the Ravens, so even if it's terrible, he has to watch it.

Wymack offers to leave to let Kevin watch alone, but Kevin shakes his head. If it is terrible, he wants someone there to catch him when he breaks.

So they put the first tape in.

Someone sets up the camera and then immediately runs back, and both men recognize the person at once. Light brown hair, green eyes, bouncing on the balls of her feet with a wide grin--this is Kayleigh Day.

The tape has clearly been made to send to Tetsuji, as a documentation of her efforts to spread exy in Europe, but that doesn't much matter. It's seeing her there that is important. She has a racquet in her left hand and is passing back and forth with someone who starts off-camera, but soon moves into frame.

Wymack has aged since then, made ancient by his players' tragedies, but he is recognizable on the screen nonetheless. Looking at his younger self, Wymack can see just how much Kevin takes after him, and he has to take a moment to compose himself.

Other people come and go, though they aren't recognized and therefore unimportant. What is interesting, however, is a tape or two later when it becomes clear Kayleigh is pregnant.

She doesn't scale down any more than is absolutely necessary, and it is obvious where Kevin got his fire and dedication from.

And then, a tape later, a child starts appearing.

He is maybe one the first time he's captured on film, tiny racquet in his left hand and concentration on his face as he takes shots at a handful of children's books stood up. Every time he knocks one down, Kayleigh cheers from behind the camera.

"Good work, Kevin!"

They need to pause there for a break. Neither one will admit to the tears in their eyes, but they don't need to. They both cry for missing Kayleigh, but Wymack will never admit that the majority of his tears are for this tiny boy he never got to be a father to. For seeing Kevin learn to play, for imagining being there himself to be his second coach, after his mother.

A little while later, one of Kevin's little league games is filmed in its entirety. Even at that age, maybe five, it is clear that Kevin is better than everyone else on the court, and the dedication that drives his teammates to fits is present as well.

(And if it makes Wymack emotional, the confirmation that that came from Kayleigh and not from Tetsuji, well, no one needs to know.)

Interspersed with exy are a few clips of mundane things, a jolt of reminder that Kayleigh and Tetsuji were friends. There's Kevin's sixth birthday, a day out on some lake somewhere, just some mundane puttering around the house.

Wymack should have figured that Kevin grew up with an Irish accent, but somehow it never occurred to him.

It is dark out by the time the last tape comes to a close. It is Kayleigh waving goodbye to Kevin as he sets out on a school trip, serious little face breaking into a bright smile as he runs back to give his mom one last hug.

"That was the last time I saw her," Kevin says, voice thick with emotion. "She died while I was away. A week later I was at the Nest."

He can't be more than seven, and Wymack takes a moment to be angry on his son's behalf.

"I wish I had known," he says, choking down everything he wants to say about Tetsuji Moriyama. Kevin doesn't need to hear that now. "I wish I could have been there, been a part of your childhood."

Kevin fixes green eyes on him, Kayleigh's eyes.

"You're here now," he says, deadly serious. "And that is what matters."

#this got more emotional than I intended #give me more Kevin&Wymack father/son bonding please #aftg #tfc #kevin day #all for the game #palmetto state foxes #david wymack #dadmack #kayleigh day