#I have no idea why and how it happened (wanted to post my self-insert - made a whole-ass post about me myself and I instead)

[toadettely]

Personal post incomming <3 (after this one)

The upcomming post is going to be very personal. I feel very comfortable in this community, and with my self-insert I'm sharing a big part of my actual self - of the person behind this account. I'll be introducing myself in a more honest and reflective way, almost a huge contrast to how I usually come across ^^" But I'm still very cheerful while doing so and there's a lot of humor in it!! so... nothing to worry abt x3

I'm beyond grateful to be able to express myself here in a way i honestly can't anywhere else. I'll never stop doing that. Y'all are stuck with me and my yapping and my antics- Okay wait, I sounded way to serious up there, lemme do it try again:

FELLAS, MY NEXT POST IS ABOUT MY SELF-INSERT. I YAPPED TOO MUCH AND IT GOT VERII PERSONAL - and kinda serious idk how that happened- oopsie, ANYWAYS it's gonna be long as hell and filled with my heart and soul

I just wanted to give you all a heads-up before you get jumpscared by me (again. what's new???)

It's basically going to be me introducing myself. Dw tho; it's nothing dramatic or sad :3 just me going "HI! This is me! :3" but this time not as El but as Em, aka me-me, the real one, you know-

tl;dr: Silly as always, posting my self-insert soon, post will be long, I overshared and revealed my soul. whoopsie! (^^ゞ

[katshelluvacritic]

Charlie Morningstar is probably one of the worst written characters I’ve seen in the series.

(This one’s gonna be a long one…)

Ok…. So I watched all six episodes and to be honest I’m pretty much pissed off by this character specifically. This might be more of a rant rather than a critique, so I do understand that not everything I say in this will end up being as constructive exactly but I genuinely need to get this off my chest, especially since she is a character I’ve specifically and recently been hyper fixating on before the show released…

(Side note: I realized the post was very long so, to have it be easier to read I added titles for each section! Hope this helps)

!!WARNING FOR SPOILERS FOR THE SERIES BTW!!

> Charlie lacks the qualities of being a main character.

Now besides the piss poor excuse of an introduction for her (and the rest of the cast) in the main series, I honestly question why exactly Charlie specifically is the “protagonist” in the first place (and I say protagonist with the biggest of quotes here, you’ll see why).

In the first episode of the series “overture”, we don’t really see much of her character, most of the time we’re shown screen time of Vicky (a nickname I made for v*ggie since I’m not gonna call her by her genitalia thank you) trying to make an ad for the hotel and even when we do get the screen time of her, she’s barely doing anything other than hearing viv’s self insert- I mean- Adam just go on and on about whatever he’s talking about.

And when Charlie does go on to explain her plan to redeem sinners she’s just interrupted and then stands there when they start singing hell is forever, she doesn’t “go off” like the hazbin Twitter says, she just stands there and then tries to say something only to get interrupted again and again and then gets pushed out of the meeting room before going back to the hotel to see it’s spread across in the news that the next extermination happens in 6 months.

Now although one might argue “Well didn’t Charlie at one point said in the show that giving orders is so mean?” Well yes but again, Charlie is literally the princess of pride ring, you would think that since her parents are literally rulers of pride, they would’ve probably teach her how to stand on her two feat, especially if your RUNNING A HOTEL. And the thing is, she has stood up and did so in episode 6 and the goddamn pilot (which is at this point is probably canon due to Charlie calling it the hazbin hotel instead of happy hotel), even going as far as to fight Katie Killjoy because she thought it was stupid.

Not only that but the episodes after overture, her screen time lessens until somewhat in 5 and 6. She doesn’t really appear that much in the between these episodes to the point where she feels like a supporting character rather than a protagonist. And when she does get screen time, she’s either forgettable at best and infuriating at worst.

> Charlie’s character is poorly written and just dumb.

In the episodes past overture, she’s literally rock solid stupid that I literally screamed in real life multiple times “you’re a fucking idiot” because of how frustrated I was from what she was doing, In episode 2 she literally trusted sir pentious to go to her hotel even though he almost destroyed her place and in episode 6 thought it was a hunky dory idea to let a person who literally exploded buildings to take charge of giving her employees a “good time”. Yes it could be played off as her being naive but if she’s that naive of a person then maybe she shouldn’t be a boss of a hotel to rehabilitate sinners.

Heck, in episode 4, Charlie gets pissed off and turns into her demon form because val literally started hurting Angel when he followed him into the room (and rightfully so) but when angel tells her to leave and drags her out of the studio, she’s just in her normal form and fucks off??? Reminder she’s literally the princess of hell! She could beat the shit out of val if she wants to, why did she just fucked off after angel had her leave?

“But Kat, what if something bad happens to angel if valentino dies?” Like what? If it was explained that if an overlord dies then the sinners that made a deal with them die too or something like that then yeah, that would make sense but we don’t know that whether or not that’s the case, if anything angel could be just fine after Valentino dies but we don’t know that.

And even when Charlie had the opportunity to go out there and apologize to him herself after he stormed out of the hotel, she and Vicky just send Husk to do it. And I have to ask, WHY? HUSK didn’t know what was happening to Angel earlier. HUSK wasn’t at the porn studio that Angel was working at. CHARLIE WAS….

“Well Kat, what if Charlie was scared about making things worse?” Fair enough, but again sending Husk is a stupid idea, I feel like it would’ve AT LEAST made sense if she sent Vicky out there. Because Charlie didn’t know if husk could fight (if you could even call it that, all he did was throw cards at people), BUT SHE KNEW VICKY COULD THOUGH. But nah we gotta do it for the ship right?

And then Charlie had the gull to be crying that angel forgave her after she fucked up, like shut the fuck up… it’s like if viv looked at a bunch of chars that had the optimistic care-free ‘ish personality and thought that meant making her as pathetic as a baby crying that they didn’t get a lollipop from their mommy.

Like I’m gonna be honest with you, it’s literally gone to a point where I think Orel Puppington (aka the 11 yo Christian kid who worships Jesus and gets harmful lessons from other Christians) makes a better Charlie Morningstar than the Charlie Morningstar herself!

And that thought is justified when he tried to go help people in Sinville, “Kat he ended up turning into a pimp at the end of the episode” yeah but AT LEAST HE TRIED TO ACTUALLY DO SOMETHING! Which leads me to another question….

> How is Charlie gonna redeem sinners exactly???

Like honestly, I’m serous with this one. How is Charlie gonna redeem these guys?

I ask this because in the series, she barely does ANYTHING to help these guys, she and the rest of the characters just sit around and then do an activity that is the equivalent of something you would do in kindergarten except it’s with ADULTS.

I don’t know about you but If your idea of helping people is doing just that and nothing else, then the only thing the people around you are gonna get is them being annoyed at first and eventually walking out with thinking your not helping them but rather just treating them like a baby who doesn’t know anything, and the only thing your gonna get personally is nothing because you did dick all.

Like other than that she pretty much just whines about sinners not going to her hotel and oh gee I wonder why, it’s not like your not doing anything to help these sinners not committing sins anymore, oh definitely not, your absolutely being helpful.

“Oh but Kat! Charlie was born in hell, how can she know how to help people? She’s not from the human world so, she wouldn’t exactly know how to help these people!” I would tell you to look at the world building for the series and it’s spin off but that’s a whole other can of beans that I don’t wanna cover today and this is already getting to long, so y’know what? We’ll go with that.

If Charlie didn’t know how to help people and was trying to figure out what she can do to help sinners get better, then why didn’t she just ask her employees for suggestions? Y’know, the other sinners who were from the human world and had experiences while they were alive and such?

Yeah, I get that not all of their advice would be exactly good or healthy (since they’re sinners who’ve done many bad things after all) BUT ITS AT LEAST SOMETHING FOR FUCKS SAKE!!!

She literally does nothing, she just expects you to immediately get better after some improvisations or whatever other activities she does and once you’ve done one nice thing then boom you’re close to redemption.

> Conclusion.

Charlie Morningstar is (like I said in the beginning) probably one of the worst characters in the hazbin hotel series, she at best a stereotype of the “everything is sunshines and rainbows” character tropes and at worst is a pathetic excuse of a main character and is nothing but a rotten shell of her character from the pilot.

I would go on about how her design’s also bad but I’m sure millions of people have already said the same issues and I’ve already posted my redesign of her before the show dropped.

I might plan on posting a rewrite of her or maybe explain my problems with another character or episode but I don’t know.

But until then, I’ll see y’all later!

[aploheartz]

Intro Post <3 | Open? 1.<yes> 2.<no> . . . <yes selected, opening — >

My ( @apexhaven ) romantic selfship / fictional other blog, might have other types of selfships (ie: familial) but they won't go here. Probably. Unless I change this to not just being romantic f/os.

I'm dating Casper aka Grimmy as I'll also call him here among maybe other nicknames, from the game A Date With Death; Mammon from Obey Me!, who I'll also call by nicknames such as Mamm and noodleboy; Affogato Cookie, Black Sapphire Cookie, and Pure Vanilla Cookie, all three from Cookie Run Kingdom; Mystery from KPop Demon Hunters; and debating a few others. Fine with sharing for all unless specifically stated otherwise, I don't see why not when this would apply regardless in that I don't mind the idea of any partner of mine having other partners tbh (usually). Currently Pure Vanilla is probably what I'd consider to be my Main F/O I think? Unsure on sharing for Mystery.

Will prob in terms of relationship refer to Casper as my f/o, boyfriend, and maybe hubby or husband but we aren't married, just dating. I don't like the idea of marriage for myself. (previously just said "I don't like marriage" but that was easy to and had been misunderstood). As for with Mammon, sticking with f/o and boyfriend only feels right for now. Not sure for the cookies but definitely dating as a term plus ofc f/os, probably boyfriends, and with those three I kinda see it as a polyam in my mind. Mystery is f/o, partner, and boyfriend I reckon. Pretty boys >w<

Uh call me whatever you want but for here ig specific name to use can be Aplo / Apollo or any other name you can find for me from my other blogs or make something up I like random nicknames.

Anyone can interact idc but I block freely for whatever reason whether it be comfort or I just don't like someone etc doesn't matter. Also have something like this as a userbox a bit further down.

#apollo reblogs = any and all reblogs from other blogs even if I add comments or it's another of my own blogs (unless I forget to tag them which may happen sometimes)

#apollo rambles = all original posts / non reblogs / reblogs of my own posts on this acc

#apollo chats = inbox posts, if I get anything, will probably be paired with the rambles tag too, may also apply to reblogging asks I've sent to others in relation to things here

some posts of mine or reblogs I consider important below cut, including an ask game I'm currently trying if anyone wants to send me asks for it (please do I like interaction)

decor credits: dividers by enchanthings and dollywons | userboxes by genicpunk, selfship-help, sillyselfshipper, and selfshipuserbox

that one's the ask game ^

[athanza]

Starlett - Part 3

Cooper Howard/fem!OC (not self-insert)

Tags: Hurt/comfort (sort of?), non-allowed romantic connection, lots of tention, pre and post war drama, some fluff

Warnings: Mentions of domestic abuse (no graphic scenes or descriptions of that nature), angst, canon wasteland violence

This branches out from canon but I thought it was a cute story idea so I had to write it. Enjoy! ♡

Part 1 | Part 2 | Final part

2296

Suddenly Irene looked unsteady and she held a hand to the wound on her side.

"Fancy seein' you here." She chuckled painfully.

"I know, I haven't changed a bit."

She laughed but immediately regretted it, groaning in pain.

"You uh," she said, blood dripping down her leg. "you wouldn't happen to have a stimpak on you would ya? I'm uh...I'm not feelin' too hot."

He looked her over, the gash was deep, she'd need more than one stimpak. "Unfortunately I don't think I do."

Suddenly her legs gave out from underneath her and she collapsed.

"Whoa." He said, catching her before she hit the ground.

Irene woke up hours later, lying on her back in what looked like a small cave, her head resting on a saddle bag.

She didn't look any different than she did before the war, albeit a little dishevelled, Cooper figured that however Moldaver survived must've been how she did.

"Coop." Irene croaked.

He looked up from cleaning his revolver and saw her try to move.

"Easy there Starlett, you're pretty banged up."

She winced in pain again and lay back down. "I thought you were dead." She said, weak from the blood loss.

"I should be. So should you."

"Fate had other plans I guess."

Cooper scoffed quietly. She didn't press it, even though she wanted to know if Janey made it.

"You're gonna need some proper medical attention." He said. "Ain't much out here though."

"Eh, it's just a scratch." She joked, swallowing a mouth-full of blood.

Cooper got up and handed her a flask of water, half empty. She took a few sips and handed it back.

"I'm lookin' for Lee, you know where I can find 'er?

"I've been looking for her myself, I'm afraid I can't help you there, I've found nothing but dead ends. The bitch is hard to find even in a fucking desert."

He smiled a little at the very different tone coming out of her mouth than he remembered; she must've been in the wasteland for a little while, at least.

"I'm glad I found you cowboy. You're about the only fond memory I've got left. I needed that right about now."

"I'm not the man you remember."

"Doesn't matter. You've reminded me of something I haven't seen in years."

"And what's that?"

"Kindness."

2077

The doorbell rang and Cooper opened it to find Irene looking remarkably understated compared to her shows, but she still had that aire of grace that she always carried with her no matter where she was.

"Come on in." He smiled, stepping aside for her.

"I can't thank you enough for letting me stay, I know its a lot of ask of someone you just met."

"It's the least I can do."

He closed the door and took her suitcase for her.

Janey appeared with Roosevelt, having been playing in the backyard and Cooper gestured to her.

"Irene, this is my daughter Janey. Janey this is Irene, the friend from work I was telling you about."

"Irene Taylor!?" She said, her eyes sparkling. "I've seen you on TV! Your voice is sooo beautiful! You definitely should have won the award on last month's show."

Irene and Cooper both laughed.

"Looks like you have a fan."

"That's very kind of you." Irene smiled sweetly.

"Janey, why don't you watch some cartoons while I show Irene to her room?"

"Ok." She beamed and sat down with Roosevelt in front of the TV.

Irene followed Cooper to the back of the house where the guest room was and looked at all the family photos as they walked through. Wedding photos, Janey's baby photos, a puppy photo of Roosevelt. When they finally reached the room she felt even more uncomfortable.

"This is you." He said, placing her suitcase on the bed.

"I'm so sorry to put you in this position Mr. Howard, I do appreciate it very much. I didn't know who else to come to."

"Don't worry about it." He smiled warmly. "I'm just glad you decided to leave."

"So am I. You made me realise the cause wasn't worth the abuse, no matter how much I told myself it was. Lee won't be happy but it'll be worth it in the end."

"I'm sure it will."

She smiled softly at him. "I'll let you get back to your daughter. You'll barely know I'm here."

"Nonsense," he said. "You're joining us for dinner, plus I'm sure Janey would love to spend some time with you."

She got choked up a bit at that. Everything she had done since getting into show business had been for other people, someone doing something like this for her was something special.

"Thank you Mr. Howard."

"Cooper." He replied.

2296

Irene lay sleeping and Cooper sat wondering what to do with her.

He couldn't spare any resources, and he didn't need stimpaks, so he had none. Could he carry her to Filly and get her to a doctor? Sure, but that was in the opposite direction of where he was headed, where they were both headed.

It would be more humane to shoot her now to save her the pain, but he couldn't bring himself to do it and it angered him.

"Fuck." He said, getting to his feet and picking up his gun, walking out of the cave in search of supplies.

[natimiles]

I need you to see me for what I have become (Rafayel x OC)

Words: 2577

Tags: blood; acceptance; comfort; cuddles; Rafayel is confused but Mina loves him very much; he comes home covered in blood :)

Notes: after making me suffer (and suffering from my angst writings), my fishie husband decided to come home! I promised him and friends that I’d write him something happy if he came home, so here we are! I finished this exactly on the day this turned 4 months old on my drafts (I finished this a few days ago, but I’m only posting now). It might not be the fluffiest thing in the world, but the idea brings me a lot of joy and he gets all the cuddles he deserves :)

I wrote this with my self insert OC Mina. I don’t have a profile for her (yet), then know that she’s not MC. She has the bond and different lives with Rafayel (and only him), but she’s not a Hunter, she’s a psychologist.

When she finishes her tasks for the day earlier than expected, Mina stands in the middle of her living room for a good minute, unsure of what to do next. She knows Rafayel also has a few things to take care of, and if she goes to his place, she might be alone for who knows how long, but still, the idea of surprising him when he gets back sounds nice. So, in less than thirty minutes, she’s ready and out the door.

She doesn’t remember ever going to Rafayel’s house without him being there before; it’s quiet in a way she’s not used to. Normally, there’s the sound of his brushes sliding across the canvas when he’s deeply focused, his soft voice humming some random tune as he paints, or even his dramatic scenes when inspiration refuses to come. The silence now feels eerie, and a shiver runs down her spine. She shakes her head, then closes and locks the door behind her.

Even if he didn’t go into detail about what he had to do today, she knows he always gets a little annoyed when he has to spend the whole day out. So, she wants to cheer him up. Her first thought is to bake something he likes while she waits for his return, and she heads to the kitchen. She navigates the room as if she’s in her own, already used to the place and knowing exactly where to find everything. She’s relieved that he has all the ingredients available and doesn’t waste time getting started.

Mina is just finishing cleaning up the mess she made when she hears the front door unlocking and the quiet sound of footsteps entering the house. Her face lights up, thinking Rafayel is finally home, and just in time! She rushes to the living room to meet him, but she doesn’t even have time to say a word before fully processing the scene in front of her.

Her boyfriend is there, in all his beauty… and covered in blood.

The sight stops her in her tracks.

Her eyes aren’t as wide as his. Rafayel had sensed her presence in the house when he was unlocking the door, but there were so many things spinning in his head that he didn’t really process it until he heard a quiet gasp and found himself face to face with a stunned Mina. His hands, which had been reaching for his bloodstained blazer to take it off, drop numbly to his sides.

His worst nightmare is coming true and there’s no way to undo it.

He can’t play clueless. He can’t pretend this isn’t happening. He can’t run. She’s just seen him in a way she never has before, and he’s convinced that’s all it’ll take for her to run from him.

Why wouldn’t she?

She now knows that her adorable, sweet, cute boyfriend isn’t what she thought he was. He’s not as fragile and helpless as he pretends to be, and now that she’s seen this side of him, she’s going to leave. She’s probably scared of him now, of seeing him come home covered in blood like it’s the most normal thing in the world.

Why wouldn’t she?

Mina will turn around and run at any moment now. He knows it. He should push her away before she has the chance, but for the first time, he realizes he’s paralyzed. Rafayel clenches his fists tightly, trying to stop the shaking, his nails digging painfully into his palms.

There’s a deafening sound — his heart pounding so loudly in his ears that he can’t hear anything else. He sees her mouth moving quickly, but he can’t make out the words. Probably breaking up with him, to find someone better. Someone who doesn’t keep secrets. Someone who doesn’t come home drenched in the blood of his enemies.

So, why isn’t she running already? Why is she still here?

“Rafayel?” she calls out again, her voice frantic. She’s trying hard to contain her anxiety and stay calm until she can fully understand what’s happening. It would be a lot more helpful if he answered or moved. Her frown deepens as she lets out a shaky sigh and rushes toward him. “Rafayel? Can you hear me?” Her golden eyes, still wide with concern, scan his face. “I asked you if this blood is yours. Are you hurt?”

She waits for a moment, but when there’s no answer, she reaches for him, her hands trembling. The moment her fingers touch his blazer, Rafayel snaps out of his trance and takes a few steps back, her hand falling away from him. Her brows furrow, and a silence settles between them for a few seconds that feel like hours. His eyes are wide. He doesn’t know why he reacted like that, but he’s sure he’s only made things worse, if that’s even possible.

Mina closes her eyes and takes a deep breath to calm herself. Her heart is hammering inside her ribcage, and to be quite honest, she wants to scream and cry. But she can’t. Not until she’s sure her boyfriend isn’t injured. Not until he stops looking at her like she’s about to vanish. Not until he also calms down and his hands stop shaking beside him. When she opens her eyes again, she doesn’t meet his gaze; he’s now staring at his feet, and she can see his chest rising and falling erratically. He looks like he’s having a panic attack, and she knows she needs to be more delicate — but also assertive — in how she handles the situation.

“Rafayel… Honey…” she calls him softly, fighting to keep her voice from cracking. “I’ll move closer to you, okay?” He doesn’t respond, so she takes one tentative step forward and looks at him, noticing he doesn’t move away. “I’ll touch you now. I need to remove your blazer.”

Again, he doesn’t answer. Slowly, her shaky hand reaches out to him and touches the lapel of his blazer, moving it to get a better look at one of the bloodstains there. She feels his body tremble under her touch, but he doesn’t pull away again, and she takes that as a positive sign.

“Is this your blood? Are you hurt?” she asks again, looking into his lowered face. Even though she’s shorter than him, it’s hard to see his expressions, with his bangs covering his face.

Rafayel shakes his head without looking at her; he doesn’t want to see the disappointment in her eyes. But when he hears a soft sigh and feels her fingers wrap around his clothes more firmly, he frowns and can’t help but snap his head up to look at her.

She isn’t mad.

She isn’t terrified.

She isn’t disgusted.

She isn’t running away.

She is… relieved…?

He can see her eyes softening and what looks like relief spreading across her face. Her lips are even curling a little, in what seems like a… smile…?

Rafayel is beyond confused. 

He frowns deeper, staring at her, his mouth opening and closing a few times. He literally looks like a fish out of water right now. She tugs his blazer off, and without even thinking, he moves his arms to help, but his gaze stays fixed on her face.

He must be hallucinating. That’s the only explanation.

“We should clean you up. Let’s get you to the bathroom,” she says, reaching for his hand before he can think about pulling away. Her fingers easily intertwine with his as she turns to guide him through his own house. As if it’s normal, as if he doesn’t have faint bloodstains on his hands, as if she’s accepting this. He stops dead in his tracks after a few steps, causing her to halt and turn back to him, confused. “Rafayel?”

“Why…?” His voice is weak, but in the silent house, it’s enough for her to hear.

“Huh? Oh, I assumed you’d want to take a shower to clean yourself… Is that not what you want?” She tilts her head to the side, her eyes widening slightly, as if she’s the one doing something wrong. As if she could ever do anything wrong.

Rafayel shakes his head again, more forcefully this time, his eyes squeezed shut. “That’s not… that’s not it. That’s not… Why are you still here?”

His words might sound rude, but she understands what he means. She can read between the lines and see the way his eyes frantically scan her face, searching for an answer. She smiles softly, and his lips press into a straight line. Mina reaches for his other hand, squeezing both in reassurance as she looks straight into his bi-colored eyes — she doesn’t want him to have any doubts.

“I promised you: I love you, no matter what you become. And I meant it.”

His eyes widen slightly, and his hands tremble in her grip. She can almost see the way his brain is trying to process what she said, disbelieving that it could be true. She takes a step forward into his personal space, her breath tickling his jaw as she looks up into his face. The reaction is instant, even in a moment like this; his cheeks and ears turn a light pink in a matter of seconds.

“But…” he starts and trails off, his voice fading away. His mouth stays open for a few seconds as he tries hard to find the words to say but fails.

“What? Would you prefer it to be a lie?” she raises a questioning eyebrow.

“No, of course not!” He shakes his head, his hands squeezing hers.

“Then accept it, Rafayel Qi. I love you, every single part of you. Even the ones you might not be ready to talk about yet. You hear me?”

Really, when he thinks he can’t love her more than he already does, she surprises him. He doesn’t think he can say anything now; he has too many feelings and isn’t sure he can organize his thoughts enough to speak properly, so he just takes a deep breath and nods.

“Great.” She smiles, as lovingly as always, in a way that makes his heart skip a beat. “Now, to the shower.”

She gives his hand one last reassuring squeeze and proceeds to walk down the hallway to his bathroom. She helps him take off his clothes and toss them into a corner, and even though they’ve done this a lot of times before, there’s something much more intimate this time that makes his chest warm and gives him a sense of being fully complete.

Mina guides him into the shower, and before he even thinks about asking if she’ll join him, she’s already undressing to go in with him. She turns on the hot water and stands in front of him, facing him with that adorable and calm expression.

The water takes on that faint bloody color as it goes down the drain, and Rafayel has half a mind to flinch away and tell her not to taint her beautiful hands. But the way she looks at him, the way her golden eyes scan him meticulously for any sign that he’s hurt, makes the artist feel exposed and loved in a way he’d never experienced before.

He watches her face for any minuscule reaction of disgust or fear — but he never finds them. Not a single part of her face expresses any sort of negative feeling. If anything, she’s still a little worried, but he can tell it’s because she’s afraid he might be hiding an injury somewhere.

“Lean down a little for me, please,” she asks, her hands pulling him down by the shoulders, and he can’t help the low laugh that escapes through his nose as he watches her struggle to reach his hair.

His heart beats so fast, so loud, and so hard inside his chest that Rafayel thinks he might die — and he would die happily right now. Being accepted by his beloved bride goes beyond anything he’s ever dreamed of. Having her delicate fingers wash the blood of his enemies — their enemies — off of him… he has half a mind to pinch himself for a reality check, because it still feels like he’s dreaming. But the way her warm touch cleans him, the way her delicate fingers massage his scalp as she spreads the shampoo through his lavender-colored locks… he knows now that this isn’t a dream. Her touch, her warmth, her love… he can feel it all.

This is reality, and one of the best and happiest moments of his life.

“I can rinse, cutie,” he says softly when he notices her on her tiptoes, still trying to help him. “Thank you.”

She smiles and nods, taking advantage of the moment to wash herself while he finishes with his hair. He sees her and decides to reach out to help her too. A loving smile spreads across his face when she sighs and relaxes under his fingertips, and he doesn’t fight the urge to circle his arms around her body, embracing her tightly. His face nuzzles her neck and shoulder, and he leaves gentle kisses that make her giggle.

When they leave the shower, they dry themselves, but neither of them care much about drying their hair. Putting on some comfy clothes, they walk to the artist’s king-sized bed and lie down together, cuddling under the covers. Mina drapes her body over Rafayel, her leg over his waist, her arm over his chest while her hand fiddles with his wet locks. There’s a comfortable silence, the sound of the sea outside the only thing enveloping their moment, and she closes her eyes, relaxed, until she hears his soft voice.

“I’m sorry I ruined your evening and scared you.”

Mina lifts her head just enough to look him in the eyes. “Well, I was a little scared, but because I thought it was your blood and you were hurt. But you didn’t ruin anything.” She says, and he opens his mouth to retort, but she cuts him off. “You did not. There’s nada you could ever ruin for me. And you don’t want to try to tell me otherwise!” She softly glares at him in a joking way, her finger poking his cheek.

He softly laughs through his nose, his arms bringing her closer, if that’s even possible. “Alright, alright! I will accept what my cutie says.”

“Good,” she smiles triumphantly and leans down, placing a soft kiss on the corner of his lips. “Because your cutie loves you very much, and she only speaks the truth. I know there’s a reason for this, and I understand if you don’t want to talk about it. I can wait until you’re ready.”

“No, we can talk about it. I absolutely want to talk about it with you,” he says, bringing his hand to her face and caressing her. “I want to tell you everything. Can we just rest a little bit first?”

“Of course, my love,” she places another soft kiss, fully on his lips this time. “Close your eyes and let’s nap. And I’ll be here when you wake up.”

Rafayel holds her back with one hand and her leg over his body with the other, keeping her as close as possible. His nose nuzzles the top of her head, breathing in her scent mingled with his from his soap and shampoo, and with a relaxed sigh, he lets his eyes close.

Taglist: @william-rex @candiedcoffeedrops @valkyyriia @drachonia @m00nchildwrites @keithtopia @aquagirl1978 @dollielament @fang-and-feather @specters0rd @sh0jun @yamarireads @just-a-dodo

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[ann7av]

You ever notice how Violet barely interacts with the regular citizens of Navarre? She goes to Rhiannon’s house twice and never talks to Raegan despite having more conversations with Rhiannon’s on-and-off girlfriend.

Idk if there’s a scene I skipped in Iron Flame where she goes around talking to people, but it kinda reads like Violet doesn’t actually care as much as she should about their plight (which makes sense considering she’s a military nepobaby). I think this is one of the reasons why the world feels so empty to me.

Yess!!! I've commented about this with a friend and thank goodness someone else noticed it too. I have issues with how the Tara/Rhi situation was done but that's for another day.

Sorry in advance for the essay, I have a lot to say about this and am very happy someone asked.

I can't remember any interaction with a non-military on the page, which is weird considering there's a little village in Aretia, but RY never bothers to show it to us, just like she never showed us Shantara (the little village near Basgiath) and instead opted to include Xaden and Violet having the same fight for the fifth time. (the romance in IF took too much off the plot for my taste)

It's weird that Violet never interacts with civilians, (who are probably the ones keeping things clean/cooking/sewing/etc) but again, including civilians would require RY to develop the world beyond surface-level and I don't think she's too worried about Navarre's culture/currency/lifestyle beyond war, death, and dragons so why include a character who's not involved in either.

Now, on a character level, Violet is often used as a self-insert (unfortunately, because my girl deserves better) so we can say that, just like RY, she understands the value of civilian life abstractly since she was raised in the military. Civilians are numbers, casualties, workforce and must be protected on principle but she doesn't interact with or consider them on a personal level. That has nothing to do with her own morality, it's simply the way she was raised and could be an interesting arc for her character (there's already a moment during Resson that it really hits her that those numbers are people) and I hope it happens but I doubt it.

Another thing that drives me insane is that we never see a child in any of the outposts (even tho Violet says very clearly that she grew up going from outpost to outpost) in fact the only time besides Rhi's nephew that children were included in the story was in Resson, and they were only used as cannon fodder to show how horrible the war was.

That itself wouldn't have bothered me so much if we had seen a couple children playing in Montserrat to at least show us that the officers have lives and aren't just soldier-shaped cardboard cutouts, BUT when we take the way children were written in addition to RY's Instagram post about the "conflict" in Palestine it gets weird with the whole idea of "a perfect victim" she sprinkles here and there in her books (I can elaborate if someone wants to)

Anyway, that's it, I hope it made some sense and that I answered what you were asking

[ltadoriyuujl]

DAISY! Hello hi, please remind me of you the special lil guys you selfship with and if you are willing tell me one fun fact about your ship with them. 🥹

AHHHH MARQ HIII!!! Omg honestly I don't think I've ever like. made a list of them. so I'll just give you my top 3

Katsuki

He's. well. you know that post that's like you'll think you're at rock bottom and then you wanna fuck a blonde guy? that's what happened to me. me and suki were a real enemies to lovers situation i used to be his number one opp. and then he died! and it moved me so bad i reread the whole manga (perks of being jobless as hell) and latched onto his character to a degree that all my friends thought I'd been replaced by an alien or something that's how crazy my switch up was.

fun fact: he's the only mha selfship i have a canon oc/self insert/wtv for. nothing could make me take up pro heroing except the idea of doing interviews with him. i'm down so bad. secondary fun fact bc why not: he's the only one of the mha main trio i don't own merch of which is beyond ironic.

Izuku

his huge heart and manic demeanor bewitched me body and soul. i have a lot less lore for deku its just sort of a vague bundle of love which is kinda crazy since i liked him before i even tolerated katsuki. nothing will cement your love for a man like defending his honor from twitter dudebros. i need to talk about him more i adore him so much.

fun fact: my aus with him are always strictly fantasy/royalty au. he's so knight coded its not even funny. i have a whole fake dating royalty au wip in the works for him as we speak

Shikamaru

lemme set the scene. its quarantine. im bored out of my skull. i need something, anything to watch. i put on naruto as "i might as well get into this" last resort. im hooked. i blow through all of the og series in a month and a half. i start shippuden. shikamaru comes on screen with a cigarette in his mouth and an attitude. i physically feel the wires in my brain cross. i have needed him desperately ever since.

fun fact: he won't admit it under threat of torture but the restaurant he took me to on our first date was only "conveniently empty" bc he rented out the whole place with his clan's money. he wanted to woo me with 0 potential outside interference. in his defense though it definitely worked i thought he was sooo cool for knowing such a niche spot.

Special Shoutouts to: Jinwoo (current object of my obsession), Sero (insert jessica rabbit "he makes me laugh" clip), and Kirishima (he's so big and so kind...its just scratches an itch)

ALSO!! kiribakumarq is no joke one of my favorite ships and (semi-shameless plug incoming) i wrote a krbk x reader fic a couple of months ago and i figure if anyone should see it it's you!

https://archiveofourown.org/works/60301909

[forabeatofadrum]

El WooWoo Wednesday to y'all. It's been a while since I kicked one of these off, but here I am.

Also, I just posted one of those "Female character poll" polls, so if you're reading this, feel free to vote on it!

A while ago I got a comment on Isolation, a fic from the Dancin' on that bamboo ceiling series, a series that explores adoption and the Asian representation on Glee. After all, that was at time, uh, questionable. Isolation in particular is about the comments Tina and Yu-Jin (OC) get about adoption and this commenter said it resonated with them. On a whim, I decided to reread the entire series and this night, instead of sleeping, a new topic for a fic in this series came to me: names.

This takes place after Tina and Mike started dating.

Mike's mother Julia is an incredibly kind woman and Tina's nerves about meeting Mike's family fly out of the window. "So glad to meet you, Tina," she says warmly as she shakes Tina's hand, "Mike has said so much about you." "All good things, I hope," Tina says back. It's such a cliché line, but she still wants to impress Julia. "Of course, of course," Julia's smile widens, "Mike told me and my husband about how you met in Glee club and then got close on the Asian forum." "Well. We even went to Asian camp together," Tina says through gritted teeth. She still doesn't really understand why her parents sent her to Asian camp. Julia nods happily and then turns to Mike. She says something in Chinese to him and Mike groans, but smile. "Ma!" he says. "I say how it is," Julia continues, and then says another Chinese word that Tina obviously doesn't understand. Mike says something back in Chinese, which makes Julia laugh. "Oh, clever boy. I go to the kitchen now, okay? I made snacks for Tina!" Julia bids them farewell and Tina follows Mike to the living room. "Do I wanna know?" she jokes. Mike sighs. "Ah well, I always know something's up when my mother uses my Chinese name," he says, "But luckily, it was all good. She complimented you." Chinese name?

Ah, Asian camp.

I have A Lot more to say about names, identity, racism in the Glee fandom about this thing, and what not, so I'll put it under a cut.

That being said, I would ideally have some help here. If you speak/read Korean, could you help me out with the hangul of Yu-Jin's name (유진) and Tina's Korean name (Min Ji, 민지)? And also, if you are Asian and you have a Western name on top of your Asian name, like Mike in this snippet, could I ask you some questions?

Anyway, more musings and explanations on those questions under the cut.

The names of the characters that are central to this series are Tina Cohen-Chang, Yu-Jin Danvers, Blaine Anderson, Mike Chang and Wes Montgomery. That's an interesting bunch and lately, in real life, the whole idea of names and identity has come up a lot, cause most of my friends are trans, lol. We have this inside joke that, even though I am cis, I very much am part of the club of "people who use a name not given by their parents", since due to adoption, my parents never named me.

Someone asked me if I wanted to share my feelings about the fact that some adopted parents change the names of the children they adopt. I will delve more into that in this fic when it comes ot Yu-Jin and Tina, since Tina's name was probably changed, but I chose to give Yu-Jin, who is an OC, a Korean name. (Yu-Jin isn't a self-insert, since we differ a lot, but I'd be lying if I told you I didn't base Yu-Jin's name on my own.)

And well, names are powerful. Not only in mythology, but also when it comes to identity. And I realised that all character in this fic, apart from Yu-Jin, use a Western name: Mike, Wes, Tina and Blaine. So this fic idea started forming in my head, since there is a very interesting conversation to be had here.

So as I said, this chapter (or maybe multi-chapter installment) will be about their names.

Yu-Jin and Tina's story will be about the aforementioned discussion, since that has happened several times in my life and I have thoughts. I chose Min Ji as Tina's name pre-adoption, since that is Jenna Ushkowitz's pre-adoption name. I am lazy, I know. That being said, I might change it, since I also made the choice in this fic to not have the characters be exact copies of the actors who play them, which is why Harry's Puerto Rican heritage isn't part of Mike's character and Blaine's dad is Filipino, not his mom. I do like Min Ji, though. It sounds nice.

Anyway, The reason I'd like some help here is because I have zero (0) knowledge of the Korean language, so I have no clue is Yu-Jin and Min Ji also have a meaning in their hangul. If so, I could maybe use that for the fic. Heck, I don't even know if Min Ji is a surname only, or if it's a combination of a first and last name. Again, I'd like some help.

Wes and Mike have Chinese parents, so I am taking a wild guess here and say that they have Chinese names on their passports. That's because basically every Dutch-Chinese person with Chinese parents I know has this. Honestly, apart from adopted Chinese people, I only know Chinese people here under a "Dutch" name. (Although I do know one that has started using her Chinese name in daily life at the age of 27.)

The thing is that I do not fall into that category, obviously, which is why I'd like to hear some thoughts on it. In my life, I've always experienced Chinese names as a secret within the family. My other Dutch-Chinese classmates would go great lenghts to keep their Chinese names hidden. If people were to ask for their Chinese name, they would refuse to say it. I never understood the secrecy, so if someone would "let me in on the secret", I'd appreciate it. I mean, for this chapter I am using a cop-out by having Tina's POV be the POV on Mike's name, and Tina doesn't understand it either, but I would like to give truth to Mike's part of the story.

I could take the Radio Silence route, where Daniel consiously decided to not use Dae-Sun anymore, due to racism. We'll see.

Next, Wes. In canon, Wes's last name is Montgomery.

(EDIT: lol it's not, it is a big fanon name and the mandela effect got me.)

In this series, the explanation for this is that his parents changed their last name when moving to America, in order to better their chances in the job market and what not. This is based on Chloe Bennet, an American actress who once Tweeted that the reason she uses Bennet professionally is "not because I hate being Asian, but because America is racist" (paraphrased here by me, so the exact wording might be a bit off), since her name is actually Chloé Wang, (or Wāng Kěyíng if you will, which ties back to Mike's story). For Wes's story, I'd like to go back to the moment Wes first tells Mike and Tina this story on the forum.

(Side-note, in Myosotis series, Wes's middle name is Xiùlán (秀兰), which is not canon. Maybe I'll bring it back. I am aware it's a feminine name, though.)

And then we have our boy Blaine Devon Anderson. In this fic, I made the wild switch and made his dad Filipino, since again, we're working with canon here and his mum is portrayed by Gina Gershon. (Cooper is also biologically Pam's child, since yes, they're half-brothers here in this fic to explain why Cooper is white.) This raises the question of whether his dad already had the name Anderson, or whether they took the Jake Long American Dragon approach and the husband and kids took the wife's name, which is a reasonable explanation, but I also portray his dad as a conversative man.

That being said, the thing that came back from a deep, buried memory is... ah... fun times... the time people insisted Blaine, as a character, couldn't be a person of colour, because Blaine Anderson was a rich name.

Yeah.

The big rebuttal to that was obviously the fact that richness got immediately equated with whiteness, and that there are many other reasons that could've let to Blaine being named this way, but yeah, this was a thing. God, being in the fandom when Gina Gershon was cast was not a fun moment. The amount of "opinion pieces" I've had to see that basically were long rants on whether Blaine couldn't be Asian was kinda shit. (Shout out to the person who didn't want Blaine to be a person of colour, cause they're a person of colour and they hated Blaine, and they couldn't deal with the fact that they'd be hating a fellow person of colour.)

So anyway, I kinda wanna do something with his part about how assumption are made based on his name, especially coupled with his appearance. Wes Montgomery will still be clocked as Asian, Blaine not. (Darren actually had a very interesting conversation about being white passing with KAYE on her Golden Hour podcast.)

And that's the plan, folks!

There's obviously one big issue looming over me when it comes to names: the Cohen-Chang of it all. I've explained away other things, like Wes's name and Blaine's family situation, but ever since I came up with this series in 2017, Tina's last name being Cohen-Chang has loomed over this series. So far, I've been just ignoring it, but if I am doing a chapter on names... maybe it will come back to haunt me. There is in my eyes no great explanation why Tina's white family has the last name Cohen-Chang.

Since I am very adamant about working within canon, I cannot change it. Heck, the whole point of this series is giving the shitty canon representation of its Asian characters a place. Hence my dig at Asian camp in the snippet.

Well, okay, there have been explanations. Someone once suggested that maybe Tina's family is mixed as well and that would work, since we never meet her parents in canon, so nothing in canon contradicts me. It does contradict literally every other aspect of Tina in this series, since Tina's story focuses on transnational adoption, especially the story of a Korean girl in a white family. I admit I hadn't thought of this when I started this series, and I am afraid I am too far gone to find a way to add it. We can maybe go back even further in Tina's family tree and add an explanation there.

Another explanation, which is what I initially came up with, was that Tina's parents also changed their last name in order to make Tina feel welcome. But here is the thing: why Chang? It is seen as a Chinese surname. I am aware it can also be a romanisation of the Korean last name 장, but again, Glee canon presents it as a Chinese name. I think it is also pronounced differently in Korean, but again, I don't know shit about Korean. Jenna herself has mentioned in the podcast that it bothered her that Tina was given the same Chinese name as Mike since she's not Chinese (and Kevin was also shocked to hear the show never acknowledged that she is Korean). I wrote Tina's parents as being very sensitive about Tina's Korean heritage, so it would go against my fic to have them make this mistake. Again, I could pretend they used Chang as 장, since even though Glee did imply it to be the Chinese 常, it is never actually stated in the show, but hmmmm. Not only that, but 장 is more commonly romanisised as Jang.

Again, if I weren't limited to canon, I would change it. I have changed Tina's name to Cohen-Choi in my unpublished Sense8 fanfic, but in that fanfic, she isn't adopted and I changed multiple characters (shout out to Blaine Sotto and Brittany S. Pearson). Of course, since Glee canon itself is blurry, there is some freedom, but that freedom has limits as well.

Or maybe, again, I keep ignoring the Cohen-Chang of it all.

Well. That's my musings. If you're still reading this, hi!!! Have a puppy:

And now, the weather: @quizasvivamos @coffeegleek @caramelcoffeeaddict @raenestee @tectonicduck 

@nightimedreamersworld @urban-sith @you-remind-me-of-the-babe @bookish-bogwitch @confused-bi-queer

@that-disabled-princess @special-bc-ur-part-of-it @larkral @cutestkilla​ @wellbelesbian​

@artsyunderstudy​ @facewithoutheart​ @shrekgogurt @rockitmans @bitbybitwrites 

@whatevertheweather @shame-is-a-wasted-emotion @esilher @kurtsascot @blackberrysummerblog 

@nightimedreamersghost @ivelovedhimthroughworse @thnxforknowingme @martsonmars @snarkyhag

[alollinglaughingcat]

Twenty Questions: Writer Edition

tagged by @firealder2005 !

Q. How many works do you have on AO3?

just 35, im not a huge one-shot writer, i prefer longfics with extended universes... that i never finish lol

Q. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

Several Superheroes are Typing... (2,745) (Miraculous Ladybug) Into The Abyss (1,981) (The Owl House) Living To Die (1,711) (The Owl House) Burning Thistles (1,397) (Warrior Cats) Taking the Mask Off (1,130) (The Owl House)

...I am shocked BT wasn't the highest. To be fair, I think what happened, is I was writing TOH fics at the PEAK of TOH fandom. So, lots of readers craving content. All about the Golden Guard too lol. Everyone wanted a piece of his angst

Q. What fandoms do you write for?

Warrior Cats mostly and yet not at all. If that makes sense. Otherwise, I'm a big fandom hopper. Digimon (not on Ao3), Miraculous Ladybug, Bendy and Boris in the Inky Mystery, The Owl House, Lego Monkie Kid, MCYT (Life series primarily), Batfamily, Eeveelutions... I think those are all the fandoms I've made some kind of media writing for? Slendytubbies I never wrote anything for but also that too ig lmao. Detroit Become Human as well. And Probably some FNAF as a kid.

Q. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

I try to respond to every comment, especially long comments. I read every comment for sure. Sometimes I let them stack up when its like I need brain power to answer.

Q. What's the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

...bold of you to assume I've ever finished a fic.

Uh. An actually finished fic with a bad end.... Probably.... As Sharp as a Broken Cup , an AU one-shot for Inky Mystery. And, piggy backing off that, Holly May in the Cog's Mystery would have had a mostly bad ending too. If I finished it. Lol.

Oh my gosh. No actually, it's Just Me, Myself and Ortensia from my Ortensia Lives Forever AU of IM. TRIGGER WARNING----She just commits suicide over and over again. That is. Probably pretty dark I'd say.

Q. What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

lol probably one of the Owl House fics I'd guess. I can't remember the content of each one, so not sure which. but I'm a bittersweet ending kinda gal, so most of my fics and stories reflect that. can't think of a purely fluffy one. what is a story without conflict, anyway?

I guess Alina Shelley-Wayne Meets the Batfamily could classify as a happy ending? i mean, its literally every Batfamily member (of which there are over a hundred it seems) exists to some compacity and Alina is the time travelling, universe hopping link that unites them all. but it's technically unfinished.

Q. Do you get hate on fics?

Nothing crazy. The hate for BT---you have to go searching for it. Which I have for fun lol. There is some fair criticism! I think we've maybe only received one or two direct negative comments? Couldn't even tell ya what they were tho lol.

Q. Do you write smut?

none that I've ever finished/posted! I lose motivation rip. there's some really fun ideas for stories I've had involving smut to some degree, and it always pains me that I either never start them because smut isn't my forte for writing, or I just, lost motivation on one I did start. one day I'll finish a smutfic even if its the death of me.

do you know how much angst you can fit into smut? its crazy.

Q. Do you write crossovers?

Digimon Frontier and Warrior Cats crossover (don't ask me it also included a self-insert idk what i was doin)

Batfamily and Warrior Cats crossover (okay this one actually SLAPPED ngl, and i WISH i could finish it because the plot GOT GOOD)

Q. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

not to my knowledge but also i dont really care. steal my intellectual property hehe :3

(except for BT out of respect for Alder)

Q. Have you ever had a fic translated?

i've gotten asked before a few times, no clue if they actually did it or not. so mayhaps, mayhaps not

Q. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

yes, Burning Thistles is co-written with FireAlder, my irl friend! you probably know me from that, so not gonna explain really lol

OR you know me from Inky Mystery---in which case, I've "co-written" for IM with Tap and Mercowe twice. Once was for a character interview side story, the other was for (gets shot immediately)

I'm not up to date on BABIM (i really really wanna be but i KNOW im gonna get so OBSESSED and i dont have TIME TO BE OBSESSED, i have to WORK and DO SCHOOL, AND DO WORK FOR SCHOOL----sobs), so not sure if saying anything would be a spoiler or not, or whether it's still something that will be in the fic or no lol. would probably have to be re-written anyway to be more accurate tbh

Q. What's your all-time favourite ship?

nothing and everything, all at once. it literally depends on what fandom im in at the time. also, i'll ship anything, but also, i definitely have preferences for what i'll actually be most interested/attached to.

current top ship cause of the fandom i'm in? uhhhh, Mumscarian (with additional characters slipping in and out of the polycule depending on the story beats), but i'm slowly sliding into Deltarune, which is Krusielle WITH Berdly, idk the ship name for all four. but also, "with Berdly," as in, Berdly is just there. he's simultaneously not dating any of them and yet all of them, but also probably just Kris when it comes down to it. i pray the festival gives us more of it please i beg toby fox

obligatory BT-verse favorite: SpottedFrost, with LongCreek(/Oliver), DarkCherry, Featherships, Lightningships, etc. being up there with it

and you know what? have my Digimon ship too: Daisuke/Davis X Ken is so closeted gay being very gay i love it, but also, i love Ken X Takeru/TK a little bit in a "gay awakening for both of them" ngl, AND ALSO!!! PLATONIC TK X HIKARI BEAM GO!!!!! FUCK YOU HIKARI IS AROACE FOREVER AND ALWAYS!!!!! and TK is also ace coded a little bit??? okay but here's my vision okay, Kari is always sought after by all these boys (AND GIRLS), but she never feels the romantic connection with any of them, and TK is her best friend from childhood, and everyone ships them, but she knows she's not in love (AROACE FOREVER!!!!!), and TK does fall in love with her, and she gets scared, but they work it out okay???? QPR for the win????? best friends forever and always???? ooooo imagine QPR TK x Kari with TK dating Daisuke and Ken vjksdfjkfjkfksfsksfksk

man i miss Digimon sm

Q. What's the WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

literally all of them man. i wish i finished Several Heroes are Typing. I wish i finished Holly May in the Cog's Mystery. I wish I finished Who Got the Kids in the Divorce? I hope we finish Burning Thistles.

...I'll probably never finish WGTKD, but, man, that one was good. good writing. good plot twists... some i didn't even get to yet. only like 1 or 2 chapters i didnt like. sigh

Q. What are your writing strengths?

everything haha. sorry im egotistical. writing has just like always been my one really good natural strength and ive always been proud of it, but i also know im falling behind, im not writing as much. i definitely know my strengths and flaws, but its hard to articulate. im good at understanding how a reader will read things, i think. i'm always picky about where my "she said" and "he said"s go, because you need to think about placement and order in your writing. your readers eyes move fast, make connections quick, and you need to make things clear for those that are skipping, if that makes sense. i hate reading fics where its not clear whose speaking when where or why because they put two names in a sentence but neither were actually the one speaking.

Q. What are your writing weaknesses?

nothing my writing is perfect

/j. im probably weakest when i dont have momentum going. when i know there's plot holes and im trying to make things work---I can just see all the flaws. I can see where the criticism lies. and I get frustrated when I can't find a way to change it, to make it better, make it natural, make it make sense. when i can tell things are half-assed, when I'm not putting enough description or emotion. im hyper-aware of when my writing is failing, and it causes the rest of the writing to follow to be tainted by bitterness.

that, and probably if i had to write like. real, genuine romance outside of like, scorned lovers and bitter enemies. you tell me people just date each other normally? for fun? with emotions and stuff?

Q. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in a fic?

i don't think i've really done that tbh. maybe a few words in spanish or something. in german for Digimon, for sure. and some japanese probably a little, but like, english-ified. i'd be willing to do it, except it'd just be google translate my man, sorry

Q. First fandom you wrote fic for?

....you know what, i'm not actually sure if it'd be Warrior Cats or Digimon. I wanna say it HAS to be Warrior Cats, but my earliest memories of fics I can actually remember the plot or idea to are of Digimon fics. like, seasonal crossover fics i would write in notepad. but also. it was probably warrior cats lets be real

Q. Favorite fic you've ever written?

....uhm....gosh....none of them?

I love all of them, but.... none of them are singing to me. Who Got the Kids in the Divorce? is the strongest contender right now. I loved writing the family conflict, the drama. It's the one with the least amount of personal criticisms I can think of right now. I was a little lacklusted in scenes near the end, but I stopped before I could really burn out and ruin it, yknow? so it's just good feelings.

Cog's Mystery, ugh, it had too many flaws, too many embarrassments---I love the idea, good start, crumbled with the actual continuation. too many moving parts i had no idea how to keep track of, especially when we hardly knew the world of IM at the time. literally, i just wanted to write about cat!Felix and cog!Holly and their little pack of creatures, the rest of it was all just "well i guess these characters need to do something....?"

Several Superheroes are Typing---you know what, this one was pretty good. for a chatfic, i felt like i really kept a storyline going, and played with the medium. but alas, motivation was lost, and it fell apart. right when i was about to get cringe with it too. (the warrior cats was too strong)

Aline Wayne Meets the Batfamily---mediocre writing after the first few chapters. much like DC itself, the timeline and plot was getting super chaotic. i for sure had fun writing it, but it dragged on and on, and literally every time i discovered a new Batfam member, it ate at my soul, because, fuck, now i gotta add another chapter, and eventually it wasn't really fun or intriguing anymore and i just stopped and posted the notes cause yeah, no, im not finishing that lol.

Burning Thistles---okay, like, in terms of, "i'll think about this fic forever and ever," yeah, BT is my favorite, but also, in terms of actual writing? hrm. urgh. the issue is BT is SO LONG. i've seen my writing at its best there, and at its worst. I know exactly where the weak points are. but you know what? fuck it, it has flaws, it has plotholes, it has things that make absolutely no goddamn since, it has serious topics handled both good and god awful, it has its "copy-pasted from the official books" moments, it has retconned shit out of nowhere, but i love it, i love it. it makes me happy and its fun to write and its been such a joy to write it with Alder, to have a fic go on this long, that's just made me happy on its own. even if we never finish it, or if it just takes years and years to finish, i'm glad we wrote what we did, and im glad we had fun doing it.

...anyway, tagging whoever wants to, but @thisanimatedphantom , @mercowe , @spectorodyssey , if y'all would like to! and feel free to skip any questions you'd want if you did

[lil-melody-moon]

Okay so I thought and thought and thought about writing a chapter by chapter "Tommy" fic and I gotta say I've decided to write it.

I wrote the base for the plot, it still seems solid to me, I wrote a "test" fragment to see if the third narration fits, if the setting is weird enough, if a certain bond is strong enough to make changes and I dare to say I probably worked so hard on it, that it is - I have this idea since November 2023 so a lot of time.

So, without further ado, what I wanna write is this: "Tommy" fic that focuses on an uncle x niece trope (so basically Uncle Ernie x Me fic - yes, that will be a self-insert), but in a way that there will be a bond between them. I have this whole idea of me being the unwanted daughter of Nora and Frank (giving Tommy a loving sister in the process) who finds the parental love in Uncle Ernie's arms, but the bond I'll create with him as a child will actually have a side effect that will resolve in Uncle Ernie falling in love with me at a very young age and with me falling in love with Uncle Ernie once I grow up enough to realize that perhaps I see him more than a parental figure.

Can't say much more, but this is what the whole idea is based off. I also want to see if there will be any interest in reading this kind of fic so that's why this post exists and that's why I've decided to share the "test" fragment I wrote. It generally shows what atmosphere this fic will have, how I see the situation unfolding. It might appear in the fic in a changed form. It's down below, under "read more" so if you're interest, go ahead and read it and I hope you enjoy it <3

Tagging the ones who were interested from the get go and the ones who were liking the posts where I've mentioned this fic - I read it as in that you're interested, don't feel forced to read what's in the "read more" section:

@jimmysdragonsuit13 @radioroger @ennals @burn-on-the-flame @fiammee @minty-playhouse @dzdndcnfsd @littlemissheavenonearth

The frustration was getting to him, his beloved alcohol not helping much anymore, the image of his niece burned into his mind without any way to erase it. She's looking at him with that sweet smile on her face, so happy to see him, calling him uncle in that innocent and full of adoration voice of hers that is driving him insane… The empty pint hit the hard table at the bar, Uncle Ernie muttering curses under his breath, while Frank was observing him cautiously.

"Ernie" Frank mumbled, more drunk than his friend, but that was normal. He could never outdrink him. "What's going on?"

"A woman is stuck in my mind." He didn't look at Frank, he didn't have to. "It's starting to piss me off…"

Frank's grin was as big as never before. "Did you, perhaps, fall in love, you old fool?" The idea of that was laughable to Frank, but what he heard next made him change his mind.

"I fucking did." The silence after that was heavy. Frank cleared his throat, not believing in what he was hearing.

"You're too drunk" he concluded, drinking the rest of his beer. "You've never treated a woman like she's deserving to be treated, I doubt you even know what love is. As far as I can tell, I would call it lust not love-"

"I couldn't even bring myself to touch her." Uncle Ernie spat out, hitting the table with his dirty fingers. Frank blinked in disbelief. "If it was lust, I would fuck her years ago. And now as it is…" A short, high laugh escaped his throat. He didn't finish the sentence, but he knew exactly what would happen if he had a chance. My tiny sweet wouldn't survive it, he thought, creepy smile appearing on his face at the thought of his niece crying and whimpering beneath him as his cock is buried deep inside her. Shivers run down his spine, not to mention that he got hard at the idea, a visible bump forming on his pants.

"That woman has to be a witch" Frank commented, shaking his head, to which Uncle Ernie laughed. He suddenly turned to Frank with insanity in his eyes.

"She's a beautiful angel!" he announced as if it was the most obvious thing on earth. "Curly, light green eyed, chubby beauty who you've handed to me since she was a little girl!"

Frank needed a while to connect dots, when he did, he suddenly felt sober again. "Are you…" Frank's voice ceased to exist when the person Uncle Ernie described appeared in his mind. "Are you talking about my Caroline?"

"She's not yours" Uncle Ernie corrected him. "She never was, you've never loved her." He pointed an accusatory finger at Frank. "She only calls you her dad because she has to, because she's your offspring."

Any father would get mad upon hearing this revelation, upon knowing that his own friend fell in love with his daughter, but not Frank. He actually smirked. "You are right about that. Caroline was always a bother to me."

Uncle Ernie laughed upon hearing it, he knew he was right. He was the one Caroline called dad when she was little and who she still treated like one. "She feels that, you know?"

"She told you?" Frank asked out of sheer curiosity. A plan was slowly forming in his mind.

Uncle Ernie nodded. "Plenty of times."

"How can you know it didn't change?" Frank put another question out. Uncle Ernie lifted an eyebrow. "Caroline's been avoiding you and here you are, thirsting for her like a dog."

"She called me two days ago" Uncle Ernie explained, calming down a little bit. Back at his home, he almost fell while hearing her voice on the other side. "She was crying, apologizing to me, asking if we could meet."

"Did you decline the offer?" Frank had to hold himself to not burst out laughing at the way Uncle Ernie glared at him, offended.

"I accepted. There was a reason why I was at your house yesterday" he explained, still regretting that nothing had happened. That one kiss wasn't enough.

"Then I'll have good news for you!" Frank exclaimed, taking Uncle Ernie aback. "You might have a chance to visit her and live with her for a few days." Upon seeing Uncle Ernie's confused expression, Frank started explaining: "I'm planning to go on holidays with Nora. I was about to leave Tommy with Caroline, she can take care of him well, but we can take him with us, just to leave her to you."

Uncle Ernie quickly caught up with Frank's way of thinking. "Are you giving her to me?"

Frank smiled widely. "If she's so eager to go to you then I can allow that."

I might finally get rid of her, Frank thought.

I might finally get her for myself, Uncle Ernie thought, a dangerous glint in his eyes. "When are you planning to go?" Was his next question.

"In a month" Frank answered.

"Enough to get close to her" Uncle Ernie mumbled, laughing to himself, already feeling excited. The only question left was if he was able to hold himself for another month.

[mistydeyes]

hii ! how have you been ? it's been 5 months since your last post, i hope you're doing well (⁠ ⁠◜⁠‿⁠◝⁠ ⁠)⁠♡

Omg...

First off, I just wanted to apologize for literally falling off the face of the earth. I realize that I left with our saying anything so there’s a bit of an explanation/“where is this blog going?” below. School majorly is the cause of that as I realized I needed to lock down in my classwork and really shape tf up. Second, something about my own disappointment with the third game kinda started my writers block. I know it's silly but I couldn't bring myself to write and actually play the game to get new content :(

What’s going to happen to mistydeyes?

Sooo for now, I am on an indefinite hiatus!

All requests have been closed and while I do have some sitting in my drafts, I’m not too sure if/when I will get to it. I appreciate everyone who has submitted but I wanted to be totally transparent with those unfinished works

Also not to worry, I will still keep this blog up and make sure my master list is updated. So if you ever want to read any of my previous works, they’re still there

I also wanted to address that I love when y’all use my medical templates and will always support when I come across them :) You are more than welcome to use them, sorry if I haven’t made that clear in previous posts

Izzie Updates (not as important but I thought if anyone would like to know)

I took psychiatry core (basically everything you ever need to know about psych pharmacy) and needless to say, I fell in love with it! I am seriously considering pursuing a residency in the subject and hope to work in a psychiatric hospital as a pharmacist. I am taking an advanced neuropsychiatry course in the fall and cannot be more excited! I find so much interest in the field and secretly have Tumblr to thank for that (as well as Ghost, my complicated boy he is)

I also am working full time at a pharmacy during the summer and will be working in a psych hospital when I go back to school. This is partially why I think it would be the best idea to go on an indefinite hiatus as it’s gonna get busy busy for me :(

Finally, I’m entering my last year of classes before I go on rotation and I can’t tell you how happy (and also tired) I am! I will sincerely miss my little author notes that provide you all updates but that’s where I’m at now

And with that, I believe that is all for now! I am currently working on one last work for the meantime and it may or may not have to do with our fave pharmacist leaving the base pharmacy. Now that I’m realizing, that was a shameless self insert…

Anyways, I will miss the regularity of checking my page and seeing all the love as well as content from everyone. I hope you are all doing well and cannot thank you enough for the support these last couple months. If you ever see me active or furiously reblogging posts at 3am, feel free to pop in and say hi! Also if there’s any other questions or concerns I have not answered here, feel free to comment or pm me :)

With that, I love you all and thank you again <3

[cherrylight]

hi! this is going to be a long post about my hs self insert ^_^ + with additional lore! uh, i talk as if she's a separate person, hope that's okay!

cred for sprites & picrew(s): sprite & picrew

the rest under cut !

before, hs ashley basically just looked like this !

(there's two variants because i had many ideas)

her name is actually ashley property! and it has stayed because i love it so much ^_^

i actually REALLY love the hs sprite(s) of her so very much but i want to redo it, i just been very forgetful lately and haven't really decided to redo her sprite unfortunately >_<

she does actually look nearly similar to her sprite, but there are parts that i really want to rework and sort of redo; for instance the fact she's in all black! that is NOT what she wears all the time i assure you!

another thing about the old ver of hs ashley is the fact that i decided to create a cameo guardian for her to fit the criteria, i guess. his name was jax! he was purely made because i get really interested in classpects. although, he's not really fully fledged out or anything. a part of me doesn't even want to add him in the new version of ashley actually ^^;;

another thing about this version is the fact she has literal NO LORE WHATSOEVER. in all honesty, i just could NEVER THINK OF LORE FOR HER. so she got nothing. she was just. kind of there. and that was that. and nothing else.

to be completely honest with you, she was plain even if i absolutely adored her more than anything on this planet ...

now for the new and improve ashley ^_^

^^^ ISN'T SHE SO PRETTY GUYS I LOVE HER SO MUCH

new and improve ashley my love !!!! she makes me so happy :D

i'm still working on a lot of things with this version of her ! but i'm trying to stray away from like the entire ...... typical stuff, but it's still pretty much with her as i didn't take it away or anything, just focusing more on the game stuff makes ME upset because i only focus on that and yadda yadda whatever!

this time, i actually have lore and how she ends up with everyone. but because i don't follow the comic anymore or really anything, a lot of it is my interpretation (and the fact the game doesn't really "exist" but does exist because of them having "powers"? i guess? i can probably talk about it in a different post but yeah! i just don't care about the game or the rest of the characters sorry)

so, the lore for ashley on how she got in the beta/alpha kids' timeline is this:

ashley's timeline somehow got corrupted. a lot of that is purely unknown and she doesn't even know *why* her timeline got corrupted. but she ends up in their timeline, kind of just appearing from thin air. quite literally.

although she basically FELL FROM THE SKY. long story short: she is unable to get back to her timeline. a part of me thinks that she was SUPPOSED to be in the beta/alpha timeline, but something happened for an error to occur, thus her being in the null timeline.

if that's too much for you, just know that she's unable to get back to her timeline and is stuck in the timeline she's quote on quote "supposed" to be in.

because of this happening, she doesn't know if her own family is alive or well, or they'll appear in this timeline—i'll call it the OG timeline, AKA original timeline (as it's canon and so forth. sorry for the technicalities). however, i have no ideas for her family yet, maybe i'll add jax but i also highly doubt it. i don't know! don't want to add too much to my plate, so that's in the backburner for the time being!

knowing this information, ashley being in a completely new place—new timeline—she is alone, like completely so alone and the only thing she sees is like four people. which as much as she's already wary of her surroundings and already hypervigilant on where she is, she does at the very go over to them; or they go over to her.

won't get into HUGE details on that! but i absolutely adore the betas and she will be honestly afraid to even get to close to them. i had the thought of her being this fearful to get close to people because of her ending up in the og timeline, being alone, and without really any familiar faces to see. ashley has this sort of thought of if she gets close to them, something bad would happen to *them* and she doesn't want that! considering that they seemed to offer hospitality and are cordial with her (well, for the most part, most of them seem friendly. even if using the term friendly is a stretch on talking on some), she would feel awful if something bad happened to them at her expense.

in all honesty, i didn't want her to just be a self insert for dave tbh... i want her to have her own like background and story, and lore, and relationships with the other characters! i also like doing silly scenarios with the other characters with her! it's very fun ^_^

as well as that, some other information that may be crucial later: her handle is: poltergeistBlossom, her hex colour is #FF6DC6

[lovemyromance]

So someone saw a post where they were not mentioned, tagged, or even alluded to and made it about themselves in the reblogs/comments.

They continue to make posts about how people are coming for them specfically because of said post, which they inserted themself into to play victim (I personally had never seen this person's account before so I had no idea who they were and why they thought the post was about them when it seemed like a pretty general post about a thing I have seen happen in this fandom pretty frequently lately).

They say that people are calling them a narcissist for mentioning their degree when we're actually calling them that because they made a post all about them. The only reason her fellow shippers are coming to her defense is because she made it about herself. I doubt they would have even thought it was about her or anyone in particular if she'd never said anything in the first place.

They made a post about how mad Elriels get when people mention having a degree, despite many of us saying we also have the same or a similar degree.

They're saying Elriels are the Kim Ks to their TSwift 🤣

They still don't get that the issue isn't the degree itself, it's the way people wield it against those who disagree with them (usually condescending).

Imagine having all those credentials and still missing the point.

You pretty much nailed it. I made my original post after I saw a fair amount of discourse about degrees being thrown around ON BOTH SIDES of the fandom. I purposefully kept things general and didn't call any one person out. At all. Ever. At any point, even when the discussion turned towards a personal attack against ME.

I don't even know where the whole narcissist comment came from? Like the receipts are all up there - I certainly never called anyone a narcissist.

Did I think it was insanely self-absorbed to come onto a properly tagged post, assume it's about yourself, and then proceed to argue and fight and twist my words - yes, quite frankly. The entire interaction left a bad taste in my mouth.

Especially when it could've easily gone down like this:

Me: <makes post>

Other User: <if this is about me...blah blah>

Me: it's not about you.

Other User: Okay. Sorry for misunderstanding. I will remove myself from your properly tagged post.

Instead we went in circles when I kept saying "this post is not about you" and "I'm not saying it's wrong to analyze or have a degree. I'm saying it's a little condescending to say that your degree gives you more authority and credibility than others on a piece of literature that is not complex enough to warrant a masters in English to understand."

And they kept responding with "You hate women" "you hate education" "You are dissing my accomplishments" "I AM more credible than the average reader" "You are a bully and are obsessed with harassing us" even tho they came into my post

If someone can point to my original post and show me just where I said ANY of that, be my guest. I'm not in the business of fighting antis, and their delusional assumptions.

Like I was really, really biting my tongue about the whole thing. I really wanted to suggest they get their money back for their degree, if they can't even understand a tumblr post, let alone ACOTAR.

[anorc-writing]

Why bashing fics annoy me.

I get really fed up with people bashing Ron into the film Ron, or worse ("Moron Weasley"). And not understanding that Harry likes his bossy friend Hermione. (Who is so far from a Mary Sue, it's not funny. JKR accidentally made her a bit of a monster by making her a self-insert.) They're not perfect people, but also, Harry's "a bit moody and stuff."

I really think post-war they could have a great, awkward, complicated coming-of-age story, with a teensy bit of baggage from the war. (And of course, our best girl, Daphne Q. Greengrass. )

In hindsight, long series are utterly horrible to write when you get tired of them; so JKR writing Deathly Hallows and ending with a crap Epilogue is just a writer writing an exit. (And a writer not fond of character-driven writing, really, so not something she'd want to do anyway.)

What? What's all that about Daphne Greengrass?

This is, as they say, the way.

The whole Harry-Ginny thing is so awful in the books, that it's just, well, no. Also, something about abandoning her to the tender mercies of Death Eaters at Hogwarts for a year.

Ginny's two characters badly mashed into one. How does the shy girl obsessed with Harry Potter turn into a fiery cool chick? Well, the secret is, you just write 'and Ginny was a fiery cool chick.' Because Ginny gets a lot of tell not show. (And being possessed for a year is initially traumatic, but then she's just fine. That's of course, because JKR had no idea what horrible gross trauma might do to a young person, so she, like many writers, mostly ignored it. Wrote it, it's there for one chapter, then gone. The one line in the entire series that hints at it, where Harry's complaining after the Department of Mysteries fiasco about having been possessed by Voldemort, Ginny basically said, "uh, that happened to me too." and Harry says, "Oh, I forgot." Now, if Ginny was a real person, with like, feelings, at that point her hero, Harry Potter, is... clearly unable to imagine her point of view, relate to her, and had... literally forgotten her most important, traumatic life event, because he was self-centered.

Now that also makes Harry a teenage boy, but it seemed to me like that would be the death-knell for feelings grown-up Ginny had for Harry Potter. He is, in fact, the protagonist, and knows it. (I'd love to see a writer really deconstruct how bloody annoying protagonists are.)

So, it might be a surprise, but I don't think Ginny bashing is particularly cool either. I might argue that book 1-2 Ginny is dead by the beginning of book 3, but post-Chamber Ginny is just a girl who wants to play professional quidditch. And why not; she's been flying since she could steal a broom at night. As a fanfic writer, I have to get Ginny out of the way so I can ship Harry with Daphne Greengras, but apart from that, she's just a person.

If Harry is taken from her by plot devices like marriage contacts, she's angry, and won't let go without a fight; fair enough actually.

And if she decided she'd had enough of Harry, well, she doesn't care post-Hogwarts. (And I've got a short where she works out that post-Battle-of-Hogwarts Harry is most plausibly Tom Riddle, playing a long con, and dumps him like last weeks fish-heads. That short is the starter for many of my postwar fics.)

And if I've had too much coffee, I'll take the terrible fanfic that is 'cursed child' and turn it into a postwar Harry/Ginny marriage, and eventual breakup, because if CC is canon, they're destined to break up.

Enough bashing already.

So, anyway, you might wonder why Daphne Greengrass (or not , of you've read my writings.) I'll ignore your (and mine) misgivings and dump some exposition here.

We need a character Harry hasn't already had a negative interaction with. And as Harry is someone who could 'have been great in Slytherin' and will, literally, use any means to achieve his ends... Slytherin girls might get him a bit better than other ones.

Daphne Greengrass exists, (and from the classlist) is in Slytherin, pureblood and Harry has never been rude to her face. (That's actually quite a short list of girls at Hogwarts that he's not either been identified as 'The Heir of Slyterin' by, (all of Hufflepuff) Disliked for bullying Luna, or at least letting it slide (All of Ravenclaw.) Or in dorms with, so they've seen him at his least appealing, with only two friends (All of Gryffindor.)

And he's from the wrong side of the tracks, (though actually at least conceptually rich before that thing with his bank) and she's got a posh name. Yeah, lets do a romance.

See, it makes perfect sense.

Daphne Greengrass, gorgeous, should be a model.

<Please imagine a record scratch sound effect here.>

If she was that pretty, she'd be mentioned in the books.

She'd got to be dressing really frumpily if she's got a model-like figure! (Oh god, 'She's all that' flashbacks. ((It's a film about teenagers made in the 1980s and it aged like spoiled milk.))) And Daphne can't have a model-like face... there is a girl that's not Ginny who's really pretty at Hogwarts, and it's Cho Chang. And Harry dated her. (It was a disaster. Harry's got a type. Pretty. Ginny's so pretty, Blaise Zabini mentions it.)

We'll leave the concept of post-Hogwarts glow-ups on the table, as it were.

[wiihtigo]

do u have any tips for getting into ocs and developing them tho 🤔😭

Hmm I’ve had ocs in the past and I’ve wondered why I picked and chose favorites among the cast I made and I thjnk for the ones I didn’t gaf about it was because I was forcing myself to make characters filling space because I thought it would make my story look more complete but it just ended up I neglected those ocs because I found nothing about them fun or compelling to spend time on.

With casey I’ve definitely gone full self indulgence which was probably helped by the fact her concept was literally based on a joke self insert character so the fuel for me spending time with her was my intense fixation on booster gold and how much I wanted to destroy hurt kill bite kill punch to death kick kill him 😀

Make things fun for yourself! Don’t shy away from making things that you know you’re already crazy for … I’m not shy about saying casey as a concept is a culmination of a LOT of favorite characters I’ve had in the past like peridot (su), the invader zim and tak storyline, Daffy Duck .. to name a few!

And I spent a long time perfecting her design so that it was fun to draw for me …. I made her a secretary/office lady type character cuz um. I THINK THEYRE HOT? LOL … and I really like that fashion style I draw her in. So she’s almost like a mannequin for me to draw clothes I really like aesthetically. so I really have a lot of fun drawing her ^_^ you can tell by how much I do it LOL

So my number 1 advice in conceptualizing ocs is to make things fun for yourself. Are your favorite charaxters always mad scientists.. you can make one. Do you think rubber aprons are hot. You can give them one. Have you been struggling with your gender identity. You can make your oc a girl with he him probouns. Do you wish columbo was a lesbian.. you can make it happen.

As for development, as soon as I got the basic deets for casey and her role in the story I had for her to paper I found one of those tumbrl oc ask games and just filled out every single question for her. A lot of stuff was made up on the spot but just felt right and most often stuck that way but there’s no shame in making little changes as your oc grows on you and you get better aquatinted with eachother. For example I had the idea initially casey would have rich/well off and well meaning parents who were extremely normal and loved her a lot and it would be kind of a meet the robinsons “THEY ALL HATED ME” dynamic. But I quickly changed it as I thought more about casey because what I have with her and spider feels more.. fitting.

It also helps a ton if you have a friend willing to lend an ear :) and I don’t mean just 50+ messages discord chats (because those are extremely enlightening too) but I mean just posting and posting and posting about your little guy and getting those precious 4 likes on your lore document. I always take this sort of approach with original stuff LOL IF I POST ABOUT CASEY LIKE A LUNATIC FOREVER EVENTUALLY ILL TRICK EVERYONE INTO THINKING THEYRE CASEY FANS…!!!

Sorry for the rambly answer! I hope I was able to say at least 1 crumb of helpfulness

[stop-breaking-my-heart-telltale]

i watched dom the bombs reading of book 2 and saw people making really negative comments about tillie and the book, it made me feel bad seeing how far people are going to hate on tillie instead of just the book

Yeah, I saw some of his livestream. I don't really watch his content, but I have watched the videos he did about Clementine Book One. I only watched the stream for about two minutes before I had to shut it off because it was that unpleasant, and I'm not referring to the content of the book. Then when I heard through discord that he'd gotten to chapter 9, I turned it back on and watched his reaction and the rant that followed and like... I have a lot of feelings but to put it simply, I'm kinda pissed so apologies for this long post.

Here's the deal: I don't know Dom, and maybe his reactions were exaggerated for his chat, or maybe he really does feel that aggressively passionate about twdg and what these comics have done, I don't know. I jumped into the stream the first time when he was at the part where Clementine's being introduced to new cast at the party, and it's when he was reading and said, "'John is Morro's son' I don't care" that I clicked off. Why should I keep watching when you're not going to put in any effort into the story outside of just hating on it? That's the whole vibe I got and it put me right off.

He can hate them as much as he wants [and he did say that if this wasn't about Clementine, it wouldn't be that bad], that's not my issue. My biggest issue comes when he brings Tillie into it because he always does.

I think his stream had a little bit of a ripple effect that's lead to Tillie's social media. Looking through her most recent post on insta, there are a bunch of new comments with people parroting some stuff he said in his stream... as if she needed more shit. She's been getting these comments for days now.

For those unaware, Tillie Walden just had a baby on October 4th, the same day Clementine Book Two came out, and these are pieces throughout the comments section of that post sharing the news:

I'm trying so hard to put this into words because, on one hand, I get that Dom is just one person and it's not like he can force his audience to do anything. Plus, the hate was happening before his stream so it's not like it's his fault anything... but just because he throws in a "I don't condone harassment of Tillie guys" disclaimer around, that doesn't mean he isn't contributing to the problem.

You can't go on a rant about how Ricca is Tillie's self-insert and no one can change your mind about that, and then be like "but guys don't harass Tillie, she doesn't deserve it." THAT is what people are sending her threats over! You're just validating that self-insert idea! You are contributing to the problem!

Personally, I don't think he's saying "don't send anyone harassment" because he actually gives a shit about Tillie Walden or anyone involved in the project, he's saying it to cover his own ass so no one can point any fingers at him. I'd like to be proven wrong on that. I'd love for him to be more serious about it and say more than just "I don't condone harassment" before going on to say he's gonna bring the hammer down for his review.

And y'know what? You're right. I can't change your mind about Ricca being a self-insert because you don't want to change your mind.

Both of them having glasses isn't evidence, and "they look exactly the same!" doesn't work when Tillie's art style has same-face syndrome. Slap some glasses on Olivia and oop, Olivia must be a self-insert, too!

Like... do people still not get how stories are made? Writers tend to write what they know, they draw from their life experiences and that influences their characters, settings, and plots. You know what probably happened? Tillie wears glasses, and she probably thought about how much it would suck to wear glasses in the apocalypse, and gave that idea to one of her characters.

But does it even matter? You've already decided it's not up for debate. You're not open to discussion on it. You're set on spreading "Ricca is a self-insert" to your audience, that ripples through the fandom, and a shit ton of people are weaponizing it. "Ricca is a self-insert" is why they're going after her on a post about her newborn baby.

I know how that this works. It's happened to me where I've said something only to see some of my followers weaponizing it against other people. Shit, when I was on the subreddit the other day, I saw someone misquoting me from my first read through of Book Two post: I never said I would lose my shit if they named Olivia's baby Amos Junior, AJ 2.0. I was making a fucking joke. And do you know how many times I've come across "AJ 2.0" since? An alarming amount!

When you have a platform with any amount of followers, shit you say is going to spread and it might be used poorly. There isn't much you can do about it except think about the future shit you say and how you say it. You're never going stop everyone from being shitty; some people are just insistent on being assholes, but you can always try to reach through to more people.

There is a conversation to be had about the contents of chapter 9, and how this story is leaning toward a more romantic focus over a gritty zombie drama. There's a lot to say about Ricca as a character. There are legit criticisms of these books, and criticisms to be had of Skybound for continuing the series after the games ended... but I don't think many people are interested in actually having those conversations. I think they just want to be mad. I think they want to put all the blame on one person, and since it's Tillie's name on the books, they want to hate her.

And I don't even dislike Dom or anything. He seems like a nice guy who's passionate about the games and is disappointed the comics didn't do them justice. From the parts I watched he had good points about how Skybound were the ones who hired Tillie knowing her previous work. I see where he's coming from with his dislike of the romance angle, too.

But it's the reactionary anger that feeds and grows, which again, I don't blame him for having strong feelings or reacting. I used to stream on twitch and you do get carried away; you exaggerate, you get pissed off and so does chat and suddenly everything is heated and you're bouncing that off each other. So I get it.

I guess I just dread his actual review because I know what's going to happen. And now I'm also a little worried about my review.

I'm just upset that this is what the twdg fandom's turned into. I mean, we've always had toxicity but I don't remember it ever being this bad. There's nothing I can do about it except hope people calm down.

...I can't believe this is where my character arc has led me. I'm the Tillie Walden and, to an extent, the Clementine comics defender... Well, shit.

I don't even like the comics, I think they're bullshit too, and yet-