#except T$$ which has one for prose one for notes one for character notes and one for AUs

[radioapple-heathen]

My Top 10 Radioapple Fic 'Series' Recs

I've been working on this for a while. With nearly 4k fics for this ship on A03 (at the time of me writing this rec list), it can be difficult to find gems. I was really grateful for the rec lists I stumbled upon when I first joined this fandom, and I want to share the fics that have changed my brain chemistry with both newcomers and oldtimers alike. As with all rec lists, this list is completely subjective and curtailed to my tastes/preferences. I'm also sure this list will change with time as more fics get added to the fandom. As of mid-2024 though, here's where I'm at.

For background, I am an acespec 30+ married woman with ADHD raising a AuDHD child, and I appreciate fics that handle these aspects with respect and care. I've also been in fandom/writing for 20+ years, never professionally, always for fun.

My fic preferences:

I gravitate towards crisp prose that is sophisticated but not weighed down by excessive $5 dollar words. I like my fic like I like my food: digestible. The writing doesn't have to be perfect (typos and grammatical errors happen, that I can deal with) but the characterization is important to me.

I gravitate towards top!Lucifer because Alastor is a prissy little power bottom, but there are certainly exceptions to that on this list. At my core, though, I think they're switches with preferences.

I gravitate towards fics that have a nice balance of plot and romance, preferably leaning more towards the latter. I read fanfic for the relationship so if the plot supersedes the 'radioapple'-ness, I tend to find myself drifting/skimming, before giving up altogether.

I gravitate towards fics in sub <200k. Again this is an attention thing, no fault of the author, people loveee long fics. But often, even if I'm loving a fic, I'm like okay, where are we going with this? Again, some exceptions, which I'll highlight below.

I can be picky about my slow burns, like if it takes 100k to hold hands, I'll prob pass? BUT THIS IS JUST ME AND I HAVE THE ATTENTION SPAN OF A GOLDFISH AND I WANT TO FORCE THEIR HEADS TOGETHER AND MAKE THEM KISS ASAP?????

I gravitate towards genderfluid or intersex Lucifer, he's a shapeshifter and an angel, it just.. makes sense to me.

I have a preference for M or E-rated fics. I just really love the vulnerability and character development that can be explored through intimacy, especially in re: to Alastor's ace-ness. And what can I say? I wanna read about twink king getting it on with his deer man. That being said, I do have some T+ recs in my multi-chap/oneshot rec list.

Anyways. With all that said, let's get into the actual fics. Note, this isn't an exhaustive list, I could rec fics forever, there's so much talent in this fandom. These are just the ones that have altered my genetic makeup.

Top 10 Series

1.) All changed, changed utterly by @tollingreminiscentbells

Series: Complete. Rated: E. POV: Alastor for installments 1-5. Last installment (6) it switches. Genre: Canon Divergence/Post-Canon. Notable Warnings: None.

Notes:

This is actually my favorite radioapple fic/series in the entire fandom. This series has rendered me somehow both speechless and bursting at the seams with praise. The writing is superb, the prose is elegant, but also easy to parse. Alastor meeting Lucifer as a human (and then again, in Hell) is by far my favorite trope of this ship, and this author takes said trope and weaves it into a masterpiece. The way they write Lucifer’s character (grieved by wrongs and loss, ancient and capable and so, so loving) is such a joy. And Alastor, god. I personally find Alastor’s POV tricky to write. He is a very complex character with a very specific narration voice, whimsical and deadly and clever and emotional stunted and possessive of what's his — which in this case, is Lucifer. I will never be able to sing enough praises. It truly cemented my love for this wonderful, complex, violently loving ship.

2.) Between the Shadow & the Soul by winterveritas

Series: In Progress. Rated: E. POV: Alastor. Genre: Canon Divergence/Post-Canon. Notable Warnings: None.

This author will pop up several times because everything they touch is gold. I really love this take on the radioapple dynamic where Alastor is rather smitten from the start, because I feel like many fics drag him kicking and screaming into admitting he cares (mine included, no shade). But like, Winter is able to write him this way while still keeping him in-character imo, and I just... love it???

3.) Lucifer and his Terrible, No Good, Very Bad Relationship by @keelywolfe

Series: In Progress. Rated: E. POV: Lucifer. Genre: Canon Divergence/Post-Canon. Notable Warnings: None.

You might actually be living under a rock if you haven't read this series. If that's the case, I IMPLORE YOU, FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, read this series. It has one of the best Lucifer's narration voices I've ever read. Also, it has one of my favorite tropes: "slow burn but they're fucking the whole time." AND AND AND intersex!top!Lucifer, YES PLEASE???? This series also is one of my 'typical attention span for fics' exceptions because it just hit 200k, and I am still 100% invested. I could read about these two idiots forever.

4.) Wicked Game by TrashDemonX

Series: In Progress. Rated: E. POV: Alastor. Genre: Canon Divergence/Post-Canon. Notable Warnings: None.

Not gonna lie, I went into this with the idea of just like, Smut Galore (and it is, bless), but it's actually become just a fascinating character study on Alastor. Impeccable writing, and there is currently one chapter left of part 3 AND I AM FOAMING AT THE MOUTH FOR IT???? This is a top!Alastor fic but Lucifer isn't like a pillow princess, my man is involved and so for me, it works well. I can't say enough about how WELL this author writes Alastor's voice. Again, not an easy feat imo.

5.) Radioapple Broadcast by blatantblue

Series: Complete. Rated: E. POV: Alastor for Part 1, Lucifer for Part 2, Alastor for Part 3. Genre: Canon Divergence/Post-Canon. Notable Warnings: None.

Notes: This was a positive JOY. Incredible writing and storytelling. Dom/sub undertones which is a huge plus for me, especially when Alastor is the sub. I reread this series often (and I usually am not a huge reread-er unless its been a while), but this is just a comfort fic, I think.

6.) Cataclysmic Cathechism by @wyldefire-writings

Series: Complete. Rated: E. POV: Lucifer. Genre: Canon Divergence/Post-Canon. Notable Warnings: MPreg.

Notes:

I am about to show my entire ass right now but this series. My LORD.

Not gonna lie, MPreg was actually a squick for me before I joined this fandom/ship, but after reading this fic specifically, I'm now like, Al, my deer, my main man, knock that KoH the fuck up. Honestly, this was such a ride, and both of the boys were written SO WELL. Also, this author has the funniest A/N's I've ever had the pleasure of reading.

7. Hunger Pains by @theaffablescamp

Series: In Progress. Rated: E. POV: Switches. Genre: Canon Divergence/Post-canon. Notable Warnings: None.

Notes:

Excellent writing and some very intriguing plot happening right now. Has arguably the most intense wing preening session I have ever read that legit lives rent free in my head. Another "slow burn but they're fucking the whole time" fic which is just delightful.

8.) machinations by fiveandnocents

Series: Complete. Rated: T-M. POV: Switches. Genre: Canon Divergence/Post-canon. Notable Warnings: None.

Notes:

AHH I love this so much. Essentially, Alastor strikes up a relationship with Lucifer, as a means to manipulate him AND THE IDIOT FALLS IN LOVE UGHHH. It's chef's kiss. Spectacular characterization, this could be canon, and I'd be like yep, this happens in season 2, haha.

9.) By Name by @eunicorne

Series: Complete. Rated: E. POV: Switches. Genre: Canon Divergence/Post-Canon. Notable Warnings: Gore, Consensual Murder? He regens, it's fine.

Notes:

So. I will continue to show my ass. As a note, I don't like violence/gore for violence's sake but when there are BDSM undertones and aftercare, I'm a fucking goner. This was one of my first dives into very dark aspects of radioapple, and I.. my brain chemistry has been altered by this series.

10.) imagine being loved by me by deliciously deviant

Series: In-Progress. Rated: E. POV: Switches. Notable Warnings: Gore, Consensual Cannibalism, I have never met a deader dove.

Notes:

Incredible writing and character voices BUT HOLY SHIT not for the weak or even average stomach. Again, I am soft for the whole, "I'm gonna cause you pain that you want/need to get out of your head" and I feel like I couldn't leave this rec out just bc of the content matter, but I am serious, read at your own risk.

AND THERE YOU HAVE IT. If you have any series recs of your own, feel free to share in the comments!

I also have my top 10 Multi-Chaptered (non-series) and top 10 oneshots recs list in my drafts rn, I'll be posting those in the next few days!

[flyingwargle]

december fanfic recs!

the last collection of recs for 2024 are here! take a look at last year's monthly recs if you need more: november, october, september, august, july

some of these fics are rated e!

sakuatsu

All of My Pretty t. 6.1k. sakusa has a hidden affinity for make-up and feminine clothing but atsumu reacts negatively when he sees it dressed up. there's a happy ending however!! atsumu is a wholesome partner!!

MSBY Plays UNO m. 7.2k. exactly what the title is. sakuatsu don't break up because of uno, you don't have to worry about that.

The West of Your Spine t. 8.7k. sakusa discovers this atsumu has feelings for him when sakusa does not. augh. sakusa, you big idiot. lovely prose and imagery, as always from mcbeefy.

Roll On, Seventh Wheel t. 8.8k. atsumu realizes that everyone on msby has a crush on sakusa and he does what he does best: tell sakusa that he's better off with everyone else. so cute and endearing. <3

instabae m. 11.4k. komori needles sakusa into posting more on his insta and atsumu makes it his personal mission to take him around the city so to help him take photos. he catches feelings along the way. very cute and fluffy!

Such a Constellation Was He to Me e. 11.8k. sakusa has a bunch of tattoos and offers atsumu a closer look. THIS FIC!! brought me to my knees. it was so soft and tender, and the depiction of sakusa's tattoos was just...augh. my fic of the month.

know you better m. 14.3k. 6/6. atsumu and sakusa are ordered to get to know each other better after their disagreements interfere with their performance on the court. loved the gradual progression of enemies to friends to lovers and the balance of family and mental health issues shared between them.

YOUR BEST AMERICAN BOY t. 23.3k. an asian-american au featuring sakuatsu. as an asian-canadian, i was able to relate to this at a spiritual level. this was inspired by afflications for below-average asian-americans that's in atsumu's pov, which i also read a while back. it's a really niche but nuanced au, and i'm so happy that they exist.

more cock, fewer roaches. please. m. 30.8k. 2/2. sakusa learns that his neighbor down the street has bedbugs so he's getting his house fumigated and needs a place to stay. atsumu offers his guest bedroom and sakusa takes it, thus undergoing to mortifying realization that he likes atsumu. loved this!

standby m. 30.6k. 5/5. sakusa has a complicated relationship with food because of his neglectful parents. atsumu, the owner of onigiri miya, hopes to change that. a lovely slowburn with gut-wrenching descriptions.

sunaosa

on soundcloud, spotify, and first meetings with suna rintarou t. 3.1k. osamu sits behind suna in lecture and watches him make a new playlist on spotify every class, including the suggestive ones. very cute, i very much enjoyed it.

check the grin (you’re in love) t. 5.5k. suna hiccups when he lies, which is terrible since he can't lie that he likes osamu. very fluffy, lovely prose, and very cute <3

Capturing your portrait (and getting drawn into it) g. 22.9k. 6/6. the team is fed up with suna having embarrassing photos of everyone and seek revenge, tasking osamu to take an embarrassing photo of suna, except he falls in love during the process. very fluffy with amazing character dynamics.

iwaoi

i said, excuse me you’re a hell of a guy g. 5.4k. iwa always knew he had a crush on oikawa, but he knew he had a crush on oikawa when he heard him singing (read: rapping) in the shower. so cute and lovely!

bookmarks t. 6.4k. iwa works part-time at his university library and exchanges notes with a student that puts holds on books every week, T. O. very cute and endearing.

the sunlit alley g. 6.6k. iwa is an ao3 writer who deleted one of his works and sees oikawa's deranged tweets mourning its loss. i need this to happen to me in real life. when will i meet a devoted ao3 reader irl (the answer is never because i live in canada and no one lives in canada). very funny, one of my favorites this month!

ten years & a thousand mornings m. 15k. a beautiful ode to iwaoi's relationship through the mornings they have together in argentina and the mornings before then.

kagehina

Change of Plan(e)s g. 4.2k. queerplatonic kagehina for the soul! kageyama gets sick while traveling back home and hinata takes care of him. very comforting and fluffy.

conflict of interest t. 6.6k. kageyama and hinata's relationship is interpreted as bitter rivals when in fact, they're married. oh, my boys, they love each other so much, and the way they revealed their marriage was the best.

if it wasn't for you g. 13.1k. hinata texts kageyama to ask if he changed his life. kageyama responds with "hah?" an exploration of their relationship and eventual getting together. very cute!

other

the convergence of the aces g. bokuto and iwa friendship with side bokuaka and iwaoi. 4.1k. bokuto notices that iwa looks a lil lonely and befriends him. i love their friendship and how they were able to be with each other through their major milestones. a beautiful portrayal of male friendship <3

given t. 6.1k. tokyo cousins. komori's room tour goes viral after he reveals all the cursed gifts that sakusa got him, and msby4 finds the cursed gifts that komori gave him in return. familial love!! these two are so precious and the fic is hilarious. one of my favorites <3

the sky in my arms, the storm in my heart g. 7.5k. hinata-centric. a love letter to hinata and his time in brazil. on my hands and knees, i love this author so much, everything they write is gold and this made me tear up (i read this at work. do not recommend, read it at home so you can scream your heart out)

my love language is you t. 8k. bokuaka. no section for bokuaka this month, i'm sorry (i need to find more bkak fics). bokuto shows his affection for akaashi using the love languages. utterly adorable and fluffy.

Five Times Ushijima Wakatoshi Absolutely Lost His Shit g. 8.2k. ushiten. title. ushijima still keeps his stoic personality until he doesn't, and tendou is there to keep him together. very funny and sweet.

First Aid Kit m. 70.8k. 15/15. beautiful character study of tsukishima along with his blooming relationship with yamaguchi. beautiful prose and slow burn.

Blood In My Veins m. 77.9k. 21/21. kuroken. obligatory heart-wrenching kuroken fic of the month, this time with kuroo escaping his abusive ex to live in the city and befriend kenma, who has severe social anxiety. painful yet soft with a happy ending.

[recurring-polynya]

Fic authors self rec! When you get this, reply with your favorite five fics that you've written, then pass on to at least five other writers (except me because obvs I have done it). Spread the self-love ❤

I spent a really long time thinking about this because I feel like I'm always shilling the same handful of fics from 2019. So maybe this list isn't my all-time favorites, but it's five fics that I am feeling fondly towards at the moment, and would put forward if people are looking for samples of my work to read. I think I came up with a pretty good sampling of old and new, and also length and genre. They're basically all Renruki tho. I write about other characters sometimes, but the only fics I actually care about are the ones about Renruki.

(recs below the cut, because it got long)

go places. [2023. 28k words. Rated T.] Young Rukia and Renji leave Inuzuri and spend three weeks at the South Rukongai District 70 Consolidated Shinigami Recruitment Station, waiting to find out if their applications have been accepted, and learning what it means to be a shinigami.

Boy, this was such an agonizing fic to write. I simply couldn't make it come together. In the time since I've finished it, I've grown more and more affectionate toward it. I think the prose is better than my usual, it hits a lot of the notes I always want my fanfic to hit, and I just really really love dreadful teen Rukia and Renji. It's definite a weird fic, and it's melancholy and goes down a hundred bizarre world-building tangents and R U K I A, but I'm just inordinately proud of it.

Damage History. [2024. 109k words. Rated T. Some violence, medical stuff.] Long ago in Inuzuri, Abarai Renji broke his arm. It healed. At least the bones did. His kidou ducts have never been the same. Now that Renji's finally having the surgery to get them corrected, Rukia is determined to make sure he gets the love and care he deserves during his recovery-- whether he wants it or not.

I go around and around about which chapter of my long slow-burn series, The Heart is a Muscle, is my favorite. I think that in the long run, this one isn't going to be it, but it is the most recent one I wrote, and I actually just re-read it, and I think it's pretty good, actually. It brings together a lot of the threads I've been weaving into all the stories that came before it, and I think the resulting story is both well-crafted and has a lot of heart to it.

Rukia's Birthday. [2023. 2.5k. Rated T.] Short-n-sweet lil contrast story between the only birthday Rukia celebrated at the Academy, and one in more recent times.

Ha ha, I wish this one had a better title, but that was the name of the prompt for one of the days of Renruki Week. Even though it's just a shorty, it really hits all the notes I want in a romantic Renruki story. (It's not like...romantic romantic, but it's romantic to me). Anyway, I very frequently find myself re-reading this one. Very, very rarely I manage to write a thing that is exactly what I want to read, and this is it.

Portions for Foxes. [2019. 28k. Rated E. Graphic sex, graphic violence, major character death. There's an M version with less sex, but it still has the rest] After his captain's death at the hands of As Nodt, Renji just wants to sink into the shattered wreckage that used to be his life. But Byakuya has left him with a few things to take care of, and Renji is nothing, if not loyal.

lol I said I didn't want to pull out the same 5 fics I always rec, and here it is. I can't help it if it's a banger! Anyway, the thing I like about Foxes is that it's got an actually intriguing premise, unlike the other 98% of what I write, which is like "why is the food bad in Soul Society?" or "what if paperwork," and then I actually think I did a good job with it. I keep hoping that with the Blood War getting animated, that people will rediscover this fic, which is the real reason I put it on the list. I think it's safe to say that this is one of my fics that I have re-read the most times.

Squad 10 Day. [2022. 4k. Rated T.] It's October 10, Squad 10 Day, but Hitsugaya and Matsumoto are in the World of the Living, so they do the obvious: declare the rest of the Advance Team (and Chad) members of Squad 10 and eat soup about it. (It's actually titled "Time to Celebrate" but in my heart, it's just "Squad 10 Day")

The Advance Team arc is, in my opinion, the best time to write Bleach fanfic, and I think this is my best Advance Team fanfic. If you don't want to read 4k of Chad thinking about shinigami and how much he loves his precious friends, I don't know what to tell you. This is the least Renruki fanfic on this list, but that insane B-cipher letter Rukia sends Renji is something that it so important to me and I think of it often.

Bonus!! I allowed myself (1) smut, so here it is:

Rukia and Renji Flagrantly Misuse Valuable Gotei-13 Field Equipment (for Science!) [2020. 8.6k. Rated E for VERY graphic sex.] Squad 12 has developed a new hot-swappable gigai, an amazing innovation that could save lives, reduce mission costs, and provide new scientific insights into the nature of the soul. Rukia and Renji, asked to test out the prototypes, immediately use them for 🐒🐍🕶️🍑🍆❄️🐰 purposes.

This was the first smut I ever wrote (not counting Portions for Foxes, which was at least plot-related sex) and I have not improved with practice. The reason this fanfic is important to me is because anytime someone makes a raunchy joke about the omake to Episode 335, I want someone else to say "hey, someone wrote a smut of that" and now that is possible, because of me. If I have but one contribution to the fandom, I hope it's that.

Thank you for the tag on this, I think this was good for my ego. I get very self-conscious whenever I am supposed to tag people, but if anyone reading this got even the slightest urge to toot their own horn, please consider yourself tagged (and I would love to read it, I love to read people talk about their own work)

[thebawdybaldurian]

BG3FicFeb Day 22

Down to the final week! The prompts have been so fun to go through, so my inbox is always open for something new.

SFW: Tav receives a letter that drives her to sever a strained, but lifelong relationship, worried how the aftermath will affect her husband, Astarion. Their previous meeting.

NSFW: Tav helps Halsin to relax for a moment, taking him to see the wood elf courtesan at Sharess' Caress.

SFW: Tav has to give up something important to them

Background: Tav and Astarion have recently returned from a trip up north to follow up a lead on a vampirism cure in Luskan. On the way, they stopped in Neverwinter where Tav grew up, to finally introduce Astarion to her parents. Things ended on a sour note, in both respects, but they managed to acquire a pair of rings that allow Astarion to walk in the sun.

Tav finally remembered to check her post box, where any fan letters or other items she didn’t want sent directly to her cottage would arrive. She had been slowly receiving less and less as her status as one of the heroes of Baldur’s Gate began to fade. She didn’t mind it as much, as she always tried to respond in kindness to each letter, unless the letter in question was just glorified fanfiction involving herself or something more unsettling.

She began to sort through the stack of new letters on her walk home. There was a mix of short notes, longer screeds, a few scented with perfume, and one with a bright blue postal mark from Neverwinter. She frowned at her mother’s impeccably neat handwriting scrolled across the front.

To Clataedre Calthrenis, otherwise known as Chardonnay Brandywine et al.

She rolled her eyes, wondering what her mother had to say after their last visit. She stuck the letter on the bottom of the stack, wanting to leave it for last so she could hear from the people who actually cared about her life’s work. She set the letters in her errands basket as she unlocked the cottage. “Hello, love,” Astarion called from the couch, lounged and reading a book with a chalice of blood in his hand. “What’s all that?”

“More fan mail,” she smiled, sitting on the other couch and putting her feet up after kicking off her shoes.

“Anything for me?” He asked, taking a long sip of blood.

“At least one of them is heavily perfumed,” she sorted through the stack of them, looking for the letters addressed to ‘The Starry One,’ his character in the Tale of the Tadpoles play.

He’d been receiving several each week since the play premiered, begging to know his true identity, asking for his hand in marriage or a simple neck bite, among various other inquiries and love letters. They were mostly amusing, except for a few from supposed monster hunters, vowing to track him down and end his suffering. They scanned each other’s letters for anything inappropriate or threatening, for the sake of their own mental health.

Tav handed him all the letters addressed to her, aside from the one from her mother, which she would be saving for last, to read alone. She opened one of the heavily perfumed letters as Astarion opened one of hers. She quickly scanned over the swirling text, little hearts drawn over certain words. “Hmmm,” she laughed, reading a bit of the prose. “Another story about you…very…spicy,” she blushed.

“Maybe you can read it to me later,” he grinned. “This one is just useless criticism about some of your erotic stories,” he tossed it aside. “Apparently they want even more fucking in them and less story.”

“That’s fair,” Tav laughed, opening another letter, having set the erotic story for Astarion aside. “This one is short. They just want to know your hair routine, that will be easy to reply to.”

“Exactly, I’ll just write IT’S A SECRET on it,” he flicked his fingers through his perfect curls. “This one is quite sweet,” he smiled, setting the genuinely kind letter aside for her and opening another. “Looks like an erotic story for you as well, my dear,” he wagged the letter around.

Tav had opened the final letter in her stack, the one from her mother and read through it silently.

To My Only Daughter,

I wish you had not left so abruptly with your ‘husband’ during your last visit. You know your father and I are proud that you have made some sort of life for yourself, but you make it difficult to continue supporting it, when you allow yourself to be fooled.

As you know, I have a great deal of knowledge about important Elven lineages and families, hence why I was familiar with your ‘husband’s’ family name. The Ancunins have been in Baldur’s Gate for approximately 612 years, with several branches of the family scattered throughout the Upper City. Delise and Avaelin Ancunin DID have one son, named Astarion, but he died in 1268 DR.

Whoever your ‘husband’ is, he is impersonating a dead magistrate. It pains me to tell you, but I only wish to protect you. Needless to say, we want to protect your inheritance, when you eventually find need of it. We will be placing it in a trust with the local Counting House, until such time as you produce a divorce decree. I have also sent a letter to Lord Avaelin, so that he may know someone is using his son’s name for ill means. Your father and I hope to hear from you soon, under better circumstances.

Regards,

Saeara Calthrenis

8th Circle Sorcerer and Inventor of Saeara’s Agonizing Echo (Level 6 Enchantment)

Tav grabbed one of the cushions from the couch, screaming into it as loudly as she could. Astarion looked at her with wide, concerned eyes when she removed it from her face. “What is it, my love?” He could see her trembling with rage, the letter she’d been reading sitting in her lap.

“My…fucking…mother…I’m…I’m so sorry,” an angry tear slipped down her cheek. She handed him the letter, her hand shaking. “I’m going to fucking…kill her.”

He read through the letter, the cold tone of it making him feel ill. When he got to the part about himself and her contacting his father, he felt himself on the verge of his first disassociation in over a year. “Why…why would she do this…dig this all up?” He felt the room closing in on him, grabbing her hand to anchor himself.

“To prove me wrong...to prove herself better than me…because she’s a meddlesome bitch who will never be happy if I am,” Tav squeezed his hand tightly. “I could ride back up there right now and punch her right in her fucking face.”

“If she sent a letter to my father…that means she was able to find him…and...I could…” he let out a long sigh, closing his eyes to fight off the swell of emotions he felt.

“I know you’ve thought about trying to find them again, now that you are free from Cazador…and you could go to the records house now that we have the rings…” she gently stroked his hair, still squeezing his hand.

“I don’t know,” he shook his head. “I wanted to wait for a cure…but…with all this…I just don’t know.”

“I’m so sorry, my love,” she hugged him close. “I’ll support whatever you decide…even if it includes ripping my mother’s throat out.”

“I think I just need some fresh air,” he sighed, pulling away from her.

“Of course, take all day if you need,” she got up to grab the rings from the ornate box they stored them in. She slipped the black gemmed ring onto her finger, the tiny spur pricking into her skin to begin the blood bond spell. She brought the yellow gemmed ring for him to wear, transferring his sunlight affliction to her. He slipped the ring on and kissed her goodbye, grabbing his coat, cloak, and gloves before he left.

It was a bright winter’s day, the sun melting the recent snow into a wet slush. He didn’t bother stepping around the puddles, his mind too preoccupied. By the time he reached his destination, his leather boots were soaked. He stood for a moment on the corner of the narrow Upper City street, staring at the house he grew up in. It was one of the few things he remembered from his old life. He’d avoided the entire area during his 200 years of hunting and little had changed aside from the trees getting taller and the fine stonework being a little more faded. He dared not get any closer, but could see smoke rising from the chimney that would be in the drawing room. He didn’t know if his parents still lived there or if another family now occupied it.

He pulled the hood of his cloak up, hiding his silver hair and shadowing his face slightly. He walked past the house, wondering if perhaps he might see someone in the window. They were all heavily draped, however, and most of them pulled close, including the one where his childhood bedroom sat. He wasn’t sure why he had come, knowing he would rather flee than let anyone see what he had become. He headed back to their cottage, his feet thoroughly frozen.

Tav had already penned a letter in response to her mother, scrawling only two sentences down before sealing the letter and setting it aside to send off.

Keep your fucking money, I don’t want or need it. I never want to see or hear from you again.

Tav didn’t ask where he had gone, only pulling off his boots and stockings to dry and warm his feet with her hands near the fire. They were both silent and contemplative the rest of the day, staying in for dinner and reading quietly on the couch until they went to bed.

“There was someone still living in my old home,” Astarion finally said as they nestled together in bed. “I can’t bear to know if it’s them, but if you want to know, just in case my father tries to contact you…”

“Okay,” she nodded, softly caressing his face. She was already coming up with a cover story in her head, in case that happened. She was slightly relieved to finally cut her toxic family out of her life, especially now that she had a new one.

NSFW: Oral sex

Content and Warnings: Female elf (2) x male elf. Oral sex, threesome, cum tasting, vaginal stimulation and penetration with a toy.

Background: Tav, Halsin, and Astarion are in a polyamorous relationship, their agreement to be intimate with only each other, unless they sought the services of a professional for any desires that couldn’t be fulfilled by each other. Tav’s previous interaction.

Tav and Halsin walked hand in hand as they strolled over the bridge that led to Wyrm’s Crossing. It was a busy afternoon and the bustle still made Halsin a little uneasy. Tav had dragged him out of their cottage to relax for a little bit, the city beginning to get on his nerves more than usual. He’d expected they’d go somewhere near Rivington, where they could enjoy a bit of untamed nature. He eyed her curiously as they ducked into the brothel, Sharess’ Caress. “This is…unexpected,” he looked around at the scantily clad courtesans, the loud din of negotiations not exactly relaxing to him.

“Is she ready for us?” Tav asked the mamzell, who greeted them both with a smile.

“She is…” Amira nodded, taking the gold Tav slid across the counter, eyeing Halsin up and down. “Though…if your companion is ever…interested in some work…I would love to chat with him first. I have a long list of clients who would love to get tossed around by such a…tree trunk of a man.”

“I work exclusively with Clataedre,” Halsin blushed, pulling her a little closer. “But thank you for the offer.”

“If you ever change your mind, I would pay you very well…the clients too,” Amira smirked, implying that even the mamzell would be interested in his services. Halsin nodded with a smile as Tav pulled him away.

“Good to know I am still desired, I suppose,” Halsin continued to blush as Tav led him up to the Nymph’s Grotto.

“That you are,” she pulled him closer. “More than ever.”

“I thought perhaps we’d be spending some time in nature,” He stopped her, bending down to kiss her. “But this is nice too.”

“Oh just you wait,” she knocked gently on the door to Naoise’s room. “By the time we leave, you will never feel so relaxed again.”

“Come in,” a voice called from much further inside.

Tav opened the door, revealing the beautifully furnished room, covered in plant life and other natural decor. The large bathing pool in front of them burbled softly. Halsin looked around with a smile, though it wasn’t quite the deep forest, it would do for now. He squeezed Tav tightly against him, giving her another kiss. “I’m just finishing up a few things,” Naoise called from the bedchamber. “Why don’t you get undressed and I will join you in the pool?”

They grinned and undressed each other, kissing as they did. They climbed into the shallow pool together, the water the perfect temperature. “Is this the wood elf you told me about?” Halsin smiled, his thick cock already hard and floating between his legs.

“It is,” Tav teased her fingers along it, looking up to see Naoise walk in.

“Hello Tav, I was so excited to see you on my schedule today…and this is your plus one?” She blushed as Halsin looked back at her.

“Hello, my beauty,” Halsin grinned widely, watching as she slipped off her robe, nothing underneath.

“So what did you two have in mind for today?” She climbed into the pool on the other side of Halsin. She slid her hand up his wet body, looking him up and down, her eyes lingering on his thick cock.

“Some extreme relaxation for him…and Rapture at the end of course…he’s not much of a fan of the city,” Tav circled her fingers around the trail of hair that led to his cock.

“Me as well, hence why I remain here most of the time, even outside of clients,” Naoise smiled, joining hands with Tav and planting a gentle kiss on Halsin’s chest.

Tav joined her as well, kissing along his body in wet smacks of her lips. Their joined hands drifted downward, scooping up his cock in their palms and pulling it partially out of the water. Naoise set her lips upon it, gently licking the head as Tav stared up at him. He smiled down at her, closing his eyes and letting out a low moan as she engulfed him in her mouth. Tav joined her again, letting her head go slightly under the water so she could lick down his shaft, her wet strands of hair swirling around his thighs.

They took turns sucking him, their mouths occasionally joining to kiss or engulf either side of his shaft with their lips. He moaned softly, his hands caressing them both or pushing aside the strands of wet hair that clung to their faces. They edged him several times, letting him tremble in anticipation, then moved their lips up to his body for a few minutes. He eventually pulled Tav up to kiss him, letting Naoise take full control with her mouth, though Tav’s hand remained cupping his balls. His breaths grew sharper as her head bobbed wildly against his cock, Tav nuzzling his nose so she could watch him come. He groaned loudly, Naoise making a little noise in her throat, as he filled her mouth completely full of his seed.

“Don’t swallow until I can taste him too,” Tav grinned, pulling Naoise’s head up, cum dripping from her chin. They kissed hungrily, swapping his cum between their tongues as he watched in delight.

“You are both so beautiful,” he sighed excitedly as they finally swallowed him, letting their lips linger on one another. “You must let me please you both now.”

“He’s a bit of a honey fiend,” Tav blushed, running her hand down his chest and nipping one of his nipples between her teeth.

They finally climbed out of the pool, drying each other off and caressing each other as they made their way into the bedchamber. The women lay side by side on the bed, with Halsin now between them. His kissed and caressed up their legs as they fondled one another. He eventually reached their deltas, both glistening and eager for him. He set a hand onto each of them, rubbing and caressing their slits, using his mouth on one or the other. He licked up their honey greedily, stimulating one and tasting the other, switching back and forth between the two of them as they came multiple times.

Naoise reached into her little cabinet above the bed as they neared the end of their hour. “Perhaps he would like to use the Serpent on both of us before we end,” Naoise smiled, pulling out the flexible, double-headed toy. “You enjoyed it last time we were together.”

“I did indeed,” Tav grinned widely as Halsin eyed the toy. Naoise imbued it with the magic that allowed it to vibrate, making Halsin chuckle slightly in amazement.

The women parted their legs a little more, lying slightly on their sides so he could insert both heads inside them. He teased the head of the snake along Tav’s clit, watching her squirm before sliding it into her hungry entrance. He did the same with Naoise, both women moaning softly when both vibrating heads had been inserted. He guided the toy in and out of them slowly, watching in delight as they made out and fondled one another, their bodies moving in fluid motion along with him.

He watched and teased them until the ten minute knock, bending over to share their mouths as they interlocked their legs and grinded together under him. They came together in an echo of moans, Halsin grinning above them as Naoise let forth her rapturous magic, joining them all for one final ecstatic event.

They were enclosed in pure nature itself, the smell of fresh petrichor, the sound of wind-rustled leaves, the gentle caress of the earth against their skin. They returned to themselves slowly, lingering in the rapture for as long as they could. Halsin had sunk on top of them a little more, easing the weight on his arms as he collapsed. His cock was hard anew, pressing against their hips as the last tremor of their shared climax eased.

“Incredible,” Halsin sighed happily as he pulled himself up, hovering over them again as they untangled their legs. He sat on his heels, seizing the toy from them as their hips parted, and licked every last bit of their arousal off it.

“Thank you for bringing him here,” Naoise grinned, watching as Halsin polished the toy with his tongue. “Though do we need another hour?” She looked down at the dribble of pre-cum on his wobbling erection.

“As much as I would enjoy that, I will be taking my lady straight to the woods to fuck her senseless,” he smiled, finally handing the toy back to her.

“Oh?” Tav purred, stretching her body out in front of him. He would be lucky to even get her to the woods, ready to have her in the middle of Wyrm’s Crossing if needed.

They found their way back to their clothes, dressing slowly as the five minute knock came. They shared one last kiss and embrace, Halsin’s robes barely concealing his excitement. “I don’t frequently take all day bookings,” Naoise glowed as they prepared to leave. “But I would happily for you…and at a deep discount.”

“We will keep that in mind,” Tav purred, stealing one last kiss from her.

“I am able to wild shape as well, if that is of any interest to you,” she grinned up at Halsin, whose eyes widened.

“When is your birthday?” Tav smiled at him, pulling him out the door so they could get to the woods as soon as possible.

[willow-lark]

lark's underrated byler fic recs

i went through my bookmarks to find the gems in this fandom that need more appreciation! let's uplift our community--pls check out these fabulous fics & give the authors some love!! 💕

beneath these boughs, my devotion blooms by @perexcri (T, 1/1, 11k) - drop whatever ur doing and read this fic RIGHT NOW. i'm not joking when i say it's one of the most transformative works of the 21st century. gorgeous, heart-wrenching prose & characterization. god!will & devotee!mike--except this fic turns that entire concept on its head. this fic killed me dead. you won't regret it.

Last true mouthpiece by @miwism (G, 1/1, 2k) - in which will and hawkins are one and the same. this fic opened up my eyes to a take on will-has-powers that i had never before considered but i have not stopped thinking about since i read it. i need more of eldritch will byers in this fandom & everybody should read this fic

don't leave me here alone by @strangeswift (NR, 1/1, 3.4k) - ok this one is EVIL. this one is GOOD. essentially: mike tries to convince will to run away with him to keep will safe from vecna, but will might not be the one who needs protecting... i am a sucker for some s5-speculative angst and this fic DEFINITELY delivers!

all I know is pouring rain (and everything has changed) by @willelfanpage (T, 1/1, 3.2k) - a character study of will, particularly in relation to life moments he has in the rain. ugh, will byers my love will byers my light... this fic is so gorgeous and so beautifully done, i think everyone should check it out! i love the canon moments mixed in with non-canon ones.

take me to the lakes by @afterglowsssss (T, 1/1, 2.1k) - FANTASY BYLER EVERYONE CHEERED!!! prince will x knight mike is something that can legitimately be so personal, you guys. they have so much love and affection for one another that i'm literally throwing up (/pos). cleradin's been getting a lot of love lately and i am enjoying it but u guys need to hype this one UPPPP!!

come to me again (in the cold, cold night) by @perexcri (M, 3/3, 16k) - i've been on a vampire kick lately and this is the fic that started it for me. featuring: estranged byler, vampires, dystopia, angst, reunions, and CONSISTENTLY BANGER prose. would not expect any less from a perexcri fic. this one is a little creepy and dark and is absolutely gripping the entire way through.

there will come a poet (whose weapon is his word) by @fizzseed (T, 1/1, 3.2k) - fics that include mike as a writer are always some of my favs. and when he writes for WILL??? ahhhh my heart!! he's just so sweet and dedicated and this fic is just SUCH a gem. i think byler's relationship with each other when it comes to D&D (separate from cleradin AUs) is so interesting and i'm so glad this fic explored it!!

Every eye trained on a different star by @ohfallingdisco (G, 1/1, 2.9k) - ok so just thinking ab this fic as i'm typing this is literally making me tear up. in short: will comes out to bob. why don't we have more fics like this in this fandom??? will byers & bob newby my beloveds. r u kidding MEEEEEEE. like WHAT. all y'all take NOTES bc i want more of this shit

[oidheadh-con-culainn]

What are the major details that confused you about the Hound blurb? The major one that stood put to me was the "way of the farmer opposed to the sword" thing which felt very...un-Cú Chulainn. Also, if you don't mind expanding further, which details didn't you question/be confused by?

and also for anon:

okay so it is like. 2am so there are not going to be any sources here but i can't sleep so here goes!! i will go through this blurb line by line and give youse my thoughts

In 50 BCE,

reasonable. this is roughly the right time period for when the ulster cycle is set. maybe marginally earlier than i'd place cú chulainn, but i'm talking a few years, nothing to get worked up about.

Morrigan, the goddess of war,

fine. normally i'm wary of pantheonising impulses with regard to irish characters (almost none of them can be identified as a god of anything in particular, it doesn't work like that) but tbh the morrigan is like, the most plausible exception to that, so whatever. normally her name has the definite article attached to it because it's kind of a species term as well but whatevs.

has become restless as a long-lasting peace settles over Ireland.

dubious. closest i can think of to peace being reference in any texts is togail bruidne da derga talking about conaire mor's reign being like, prosperous and peaceful and whatever, and even there you've got díberg (plundering/reaving) which is what eventually fucks him over and starts the otherworldly hell spiral situation. that's roughly the right period here but conaire's doom proves you don't have to do much to nudge peace into war, and connacht and ulster are at each other's throats for years before cú chulainn comes on the scene anyway

Deciding the time of peace must end, she chooses Setanta, the nephew of the king of the north, to become her ward.

hmm. i mean. like, this isn't the WEIRDEST choice they could have made. it's still completely made-up, don't get me wrong -- cú chulainn has a lot of different foster parents in different texts and they don't agree with each other but none of them ever mentions the morrígan. but like, they do have a connection of some sort, as evidenced by their conversations. and there's that one moment in the r1 boyhood deeds where little cú chulainn is out on the battlefield and hears her (not sure which name is used here) calling out to him and it like. motivates him to do some deeds or whatever, and i guess you could extrapolate that into some kind of teaching capacity.

so like. could be weirder. if you're gonna pick anyone, you could do worse. still seems weird to me! but not on its own a major issue, i could get past this and consider it a Fun But Unorthodox Creative Decision

(the fact that she tries to seduce him in the táin probably wouldn't get in the way of this considering sleeping with his teachers/foster-mothers is far from unheard of where cú chulainn is concerned)

After a young Setanta slays the demon-hound of Cullan, he becomes known as Cú Cullan—The Hound of Cullan.

weird spelling choices, they could have at least bothered to use the genitive properly. also the hound isn't a demon, it's a ferocious watchdog -- making it sound all Otherworldly and Hellish like this kinda confuses the issue of why he would need to take its place. he needs to take its place because the cattle and people still need protecting because it is a watchdog!! but whatevs, again, it's a brief summary so they can't exactly give us all the details and this is not actively objectionable

As Cú Cullan grows older, it is apparent that an extraordinary power lies within him … and a great darkness.

ugh boring. this makes it sound like he's going to be ~tortured~ and angsty about it. give me an unapologetic murder teen please. is the ríastrad dark? sure i guess, if you're going to be boring about it. it's more like, grotesque neon in my head

When he chooses the quiet life of a farmer over the sword,

this would fucking never happen on like five different levels. obviously like anyone who has ever read anything about cú chulainn can see that this is not in his nature. he is never going to choose a quiet life. this is the kid who tricked his way into taking arms before everyone thought he was ready. also juxtaposed with the "darkness" comment makes it sound like he would Angst his way into this quiet life which. again. have you seen this kid. he is an unapologetic murder teen

the only thing i can think of that might make him temporarily want to walk away is connla's death which... depends where you position that in the timeline really, he does seem a bit fucked up by it and maybe he'd want a holiday although i can see that lasting precisely 5 minutes before someone pissed him off enough for him to murder them. but if he's being raised by the morrígan i can't see him going to train with scáthach so then he'd never meet aífe and therefore connla would never be born so that wouldn't happen. so like. whatever.

but also like. he would not become a farmer. he just wouldn't! it doesn't work! the ireland of the stories is super hierarchical, right? and this blurb has already fucking told us that he's the king's nephew (canon) so we can tell that being a farmer is Not His Place. when we see upper class figures becoming menial labourers in texts, like in cath maige tuired, it's because Things Are Fucked, Shit's Gone Wrong. people don't just decide to change their entire social class on a whim lmfao

if cú chulainn really wanted to turn his back on being a warrior he could probably make recourse to certain other Suitable Professions ... his grandad's a druid so he might have a route into that, though his dad's not so that might fuck things up a bit bc it's one of those things that's usually inherited. he does give "wisdom" in at least one text though and we also know he can write (he carves riddles in ogham in the táin) and he composes verses on various occasions so idk, maybe something in a poetic direction, though again, usually requires two generations of inheritance to be a real poet and not just a lower-class bard. warrior's kinda the main thing he's got open to him tbh. but farming? i'm not a legal expert but as far as i'm aware based on what i have read, that would fuck shit up

more likely an upset cú chulainn would just go off in search of an adventure somewhere conveniently far away until he'd calmed down (alba, or the tyrrhenian sea, or -- if we're going to get early modern about it -- somewhere like india, which frequently gets thrown into the texts with absolutely no cultural context and it's always hilarious)

Morrigan, angry at the betrayal,

of the entire social order, yes,

instigates an invasion of his homeland

i mean. if they intend this to be the táin then.... táin bó regamna does kinda make the morrígan responsible for it? not in the sense of triggering the pillow talk argument that it's in the book of leinster -- it's her getting up to her usual cow-nicking behaviours for shits and giggles. [note to readers: it is probably for more than shits and giggles but did i mention it's 2am]

but all in all, not particularly out of character that she would be at least some way responsible for this so i can vibe with this. echtra nerai also supports the TBR explanation with her fucking around with otherworldly cows and pissing people off so, yeah, whatever. the morrígan engineered this. sure.

and Cú Cullan must challenge fate itself

this is probably a controversial stance but fate feels like a difficult concept to apply to medieval irish texts. like are people sometimes Doomed? yes. there are prophecies, there are gessi, there's all manner of otherworldly fuckery that can trip you up. is that the same thing as fate? no idea. considering cú chulainn comes out alive from the táin though and his doom prophecies don't catch up to him for like, at least another decade, maybe 16 years depending on who you listen to, hard to see how that would apply here

to keep the goddess at bay.

again like she IS causing fuckery in the táin but also it's like... one time. really not the main character. but she or maybe just some crows, hard to say, do get implicated in the death tale so maybe they're doing what people often do and conflating the two? even though there's like 10-16 years in between them?

anyway as you can see i don’t think it’s wholly terrible / i’m not completely thinkshaming it. like, having cú chulainn raised by the morrígan is unorthodox but it could be a fun and creative direction so i don't object to it. making cú chulainn get sad about murder and choose to be a farmer is just fucking laughable tho, and makes me doubt their characterisations in general. so that's offputting and would probably make me think twice about buying it, if that had ever been on the cards.*

and of course sure, their cú chulainn can be a Sad Boy Who Likes Sheep, but that means he's not the cú chulainn of medieval irish lit / irish myth, because that cú chulainn is a feral murder teen who keeps killing his friends and also is way too high social status to ever be a farmer, and whose only relationship to livestock is as the watchdog who kills anyone trying to harm them (which is an important role on a farm! but like. not the same thing as Being A Farmer. mostly because it involves more murder and is essentially just an extension of his role as a warrior. or rather the other way around. he promises to protect mag muirthemne as a watchdog and this like. gets extended into him becoming its sole defender)

this has been my analysis of this blurb i hope you enjoyed it

it's now 2.30am i should try and sleep now that i've exorcised a few thoughts from my head

*as i mentioned in the tags of my other post, i don't tend to read graphic novels due to disability stuff. they're much harder for me to understand and follow than prose, to the point where some are incomprehensible, so i don't really enjoy them. there are a few i've read, but they tend to be short ones, and i'm usually not reading them in order, just admiring the art separately from the text. so it's unlikely i would read a graphic novel of this size anyway.

[korijime]

— apaixonar

(verb.) to fall in love with someone or something, the act of falling in love

shigaraki tomura, boku no hero academia

fluff, modern!college!au, social anxiety, slightly sexual jokes, swearing

wc ; one thousand six hundred and fifty nine words

dt ; @t-amajiki

riyuu says ; ahh, i don’t know what to say here. i started this last night, but i got the idea a really long time ago in one of our conversations. i was really scared about getting his character right and i hope i did it some justice. big thank you to @tokyoghoose for proof-reading!! i’d have cried if the mistakes you pointed out weren’t fixed sbdubdidjd

this is kinda a part of a series..i guess? there’s two more fics coming, so i guess it’s 1/3 of the fics i wrote for gere and 1/6 of all the gifts i made for them in total.

so yes, happy birthday, gere. i love you to the moon and back and i’d do damn near anything for you. i hope you like your gifts. ♡

“oi, crusty, look over there.”

the ‘crusty’ in question, a pale-faced young man, cast an annoyed glance in the direction of his partner’s finger. he never once listened to what dabi had to say, yet he knew from the tone in his voice that it would be something that had to do with you. and so he looked, and he didn’t regret listening.

he looked past the window of the chemistry lab, past the other annoyances, and towards you, sitting in the grass with your green-haired friend. he looked at you, sitting in the grass with the late morning sunlight engulfing most of your form, casting a makeshift halo over your head. a well-deserved one, at that. subconsciously resting his face onto his gloved hand, he turned completely towards the window, towards you, his experiment long forgotten.

“okay, jesus christ, stop it. you look like a creep.”

and there goes the moment.

his once ‘softened’ eyes and good mood vanished as soon as dabi spoke up again, his form hunching and his face contorting into annoyance once again.

“no, i don’t. you’re the creep.”

“sure, i was the one who sighed when they smiled for the camera, right?”

“shut up. you’re the creep, i’m right.”

of course that bastard was looking at him while he, in dabi’s words, ‘fawned’ over you.

he didn’t. he just knew how to appreciate good things. it didn’t really matter whether or not his cheeks and ears became heaters whenever you’d look at him, it happens to everyone.

right?

“not right. factually incorrect. you’re a dumbass, go ask them out.”

“i’m the dumbass when you’re the one who blew up our project not even two minutes ago? i’m not a mirror, you easy-bake oven.”

and so on and so forth, until the bell finally rang to signal the end of their day.

tomura shigaraki, never one to listen to anything his ‘best friend’ says, never one to hang around anyone except dabi and a few others, was seen moving methodically and quite swiftly through the halls of u.a academy, heading straight towards the small group of third-years standing at the far end of the corridor.

they’d known him for three years, they knew his mannerisms and the way his mind worked. it was only natural that both toga and twice had to fish out five dollars each to hand to a very smug-looking dabi, who only watched with a shit-eating grin as tomura went up to you.

he could feel his friends’ eyes on his back, but it didn’t register in his mind which was currently screaming at him to get the hell out of this situation what were you thinking because now not only you and your friends but a couple of other students and even teachers in the corridor were gawking at the infamous anti-social boy who was looking at his shoes like they were the love of his life and not you.

his stomach twisted and churned painfully, the nausea he felt was nothing compared to the embarrassment and humiliation he felt, the same embarrassment which was painted bright on his face.

maybe he could just pretend he wanted your notes and call it a day and go home and cry—

“aye, you crusty fuck! don’t chicken out now or you’re doing my homework for the next week!”

fuck that fucking blue haired porcupine ass smug-looking son of a bit-

“ne, shigaraki-kun, did you need something?”

he sent his prayers to whatever god was above for sending an actual angel to be standing in front of him and pull him out of his formerly very quickly approaching spiral.

“are you..areyoufreeafterclasses?”

you furrowed your brows and stepped closer to him, ignoring the way tsuyu tried to pull you back. tomura was your friend, or at the very least, your acquaintance, she had no reason to be so wary.

“what was that? i didn’t catch that.”

the construction of the academy and the location of the institute was quite unfortunate, it would have been better suited in one of the islands near florida so that the bermuda triangle could’ve just swallowed it up so he wouldn’t have to be in this situation where he wanted nothing more than to evaporate into fucking water vapour why are you looking at him like THAT-

“are..you free after classes? i need your help with something.”

“oh! yeah, sure! what do you need help with?”

and apparently that was the director’s cue for everyone to go back to minding their own business. the students’ chatters started up again and the ones that had stopped to watch realised they had better things to do than gawk at the college loner asking the pretty one for help. even your friend group stepped back to let the two of you have some semblance of privacy, and tomura had never felt more relieved.

“you’re, uh, in fine arts, right? i have a project on that and i need to know more about it.”

he made the effort to finally look up and he was glad he did. like really, really glad. because the way you were looking at him with the same smile you’d given the camera, your hands clasped together as you leaned towards him, really just made all the embarrassment and humiliation worth it.

“sure! just let me say bye to my friends and we can get going, i know a good cafe near the campus.”

he only nodded and turned at the same time you did, heading towards the shitheads while you headed for your friends.

“would you look at that, crusty-no-balls finally grew some.”

“nice one, tomura! make sure to get their number!”

“toga-chan, they will be studying together, i doubt they’ll have time for that.”

and the rest was tuned out as he leaned on his locker, looking out towards the gates and back at you. he really did that, didn’t he? worked up the guts to ask you out, even if it was under the guise of a study session. which wasn’t a complete lie, what the hell did ‘fine arts’ mean, anyway?

“visual arts! stuff like painting and architecture and theatre, alongside others. i’m pretty sure poetry and prose are on there too.”

“wait, so you’re taking all of that? how.”

it was late afternoon now, around three or four when he had last checked. time wasn’t really important right now, not when he managed to kill two birds with one stone.

he was getting to spend time with you and do his project, added with you talking about your passions as a bonus.

he stopped typing and reached for his drink, which he did not choose because you told him to, thank you very much and fuck off, dabi.

looking back towards the screen, he realised he was almost done with his project, which was a surprise as he was sure he was paying zero attention to the project itself and hundred percent attention to you instead.

could anyone blame him? no.

no, they couldn’t.

they couldn’t blame him for having his attention on you when you went into the fine details of prose and theatre, using hand gestures to try and get across the point which you couldn’t do so with words. apparently you thought he knew sign language. which he did. it was an option, seemed interesting, nothing more nothing less.

is what he told dabi when he asked. but no, the real reason was the one you knew, which was the fact that the shelter he volunteers at has some people who prefer to use sign language, whatever the reason may be. he knew how it felt to be forced into doing something even though you’re comfortable with something else, but you can’t do that something else because it’s not convenient for others.

so yeah, sign language.

he was pretty sure it earned him some brownie points with you, for which he wasn’t complaining.

what he was complaining about, though, was the fact that you thought it’d be a good idea to steal a bite of his pastry while he was lost in thought.

“hey! thief. stop that.”

“no, it looked tasty.”

“okay, and so do you. you don’t see me biting you.”

..the fuck?

what the FUCK did he just-

run.

take your laptop, and your phone, and your bag, and get the hell out.

his mind kept chanting that over and over, and he was listening to it, his clammy hands reaching to close his laptop as he got up but then. stopped.

you were laughing. at him. you were laughing at his major fuck-up.

“ne, ne, tomura-kun. i had no idea you were into that.”

yes, yes, he knows. he knows it’s weird and that it’s a weird thing to say to someone who he has a crush on and-

“honestly, the last time i made a joke like that, deku combusted and iida looked constipated.”

“wh-what was the joke?”

“i’ll show you later!”

he choked.

“show me!?”

“you sure sound excited, tomura-kun.”

the grin on your face did nothing to calm the hundred-mile marathon that both his heart and mind had been running ever since he said that.

what was even happening anymore.

that was the question which kept running through his mind even as he walked you home, thanking you for your help.

“no worries! i’d love to spend more time with you.”

what was happening.

“oh and, i also have an assignment due, do you think you could help me with it?”

“yeah, sure. same cafe?”

“sounds good! i’ll see you friday, then!”

“mhm.”

what the fuck was happening.

he’d like to say he didn’t care nor did he think about it, but the way you hugged him goodbye with a promise to see him again left the smallest of smiles on his face which didn’t go away for a while.

tagged ; @t-amajiki @tokyoghoose @kei7ime @inarizsunarin @tsukkiboii @spicyfoodboi @kakiwrites @lcaita @lnarizakis @kuro0luvr @himichii

[betterdaysareatoenailaway]

Random Review #3: Sleepwalkers (1992) and “Sleep Walk” (1959)

I. Sleepwalkers (1992) I couldn’t sleep last night so I started watching a trashy B-movie penned by Stephen King specifically for the screen called Sleepwalkers (1992). Simply put, the film is an unmitigated disaster. A piece of shit. But it didn’t need to be. That’s what’s so annoying about it. By 1992 King was a grizzled veteran of the silver screen, with more adaptations under his belt than any other author of his cohort. Puzo had the Godfather films (1972 and 1974, respectively), sure, but nothing else. Leonard Gardner had Fat City (1972), a movie I love, but Gardner got sucked into the Hollywood scene of cocaine and hot tub parties and never published another novel, focusing instead on screenplays for shitty TV shows like NYPD Blue. After Demon Seed (1977), a movie I have seen and disliked, nobody would touch Dean Koontz’s stuff with a ten foot pole, which is too bad because The Voice of the Night, a 1980 novel about two young pals, one of whom is a psychopath trying to convince the other to help him commit murder, would make a terrific movie. But Koontz’s adaptations have been uniformly awful. The made-for-TV film starring John C McGinley, 1997′s Intensity, is especially bad. There are exceptions, but Stephen King has been lucky enough to avoid the fate of his peers. Big name directors have tackled his work, from Stanley Kubrick to Brian De Palma. King even does a decent job of acting in Pet Semetary (1989), in his own Maximum Overdrive (1986) and in George Romero’s Creepshow (1982), where he plays a yokel named Jordy Verril who gets infected by a meteorite that causes green weeds to grow all over his body. Many have criticized King’s over-the-top performance in that flick, but for me King perfectly nails the campy and comical tone that Romero was going for. The dissolves in Creepshow literally come right off the pages of comics, so people expecting a subtle Ordinary People-style turn from King had clearly walked into the wrong theatre. Undoubtedly Creepshow succeeds at what it set out to do. I’m not sure Sleepwalkers succeeds though, unless the film’s goal was to get me to like cats even more than I already do. But I already love cats a great deal. Here’s my cat Cookie watching me edit this very blog post. 

And here’s one of my other cats, Church, named after the cat that reanimates and creeps out Louis and Ellie in Pet Sematary. Photo by @ScareAlex.

SPOILER ALERT: Do not keep reading if you plan on watching Sleepwalkers and want to find out for yourself what happens.

Stephen King saw many of his novels get adapted in the late 1970s and 80s: Carrie, The Shining, Firestarter, Christine, Cujo, and the movie that spawned the 1950s nostalgia industrial complex, Stand By Me, but Sleepwalkers was the first time he wrote a script specifically for the screen rather than adapting a novel that already existed. Maybe that’s why it’s so fucking bad. Stephen King is a novelist, gifted with a novelist’s rich imagination. He’s prone to giving backstories to even the most peripheral characters - think of Joe Chamber’s alcoholic neighbour Gary Pervier in the novel Cujo, who King follows for an unbelievable number of pages as the man stumbles drunkenly around his house spouting his catch phrase “I don’t give a shit,” drills a hole through his phone book so he can hang it from a string beside his phone, complains about his hemorrhoids getting “as big as golfballs” (I’m not joking), and just generally acts like an asshole until a rabid Cujo bounds over, rips his throat out, and he bleeds to death. In the novel Pervier’s death takes more than a few pages, but it makes for fun reading. You hate the man so fucking much that watching him die feels oddly satisfying. In the movie, though, his death occurs pretty quickly, and in a darkened hallway, so it’s hard to see what’s going on aside from Gary’s foot trembling. And Pervier’s “I don’t give a shit” makes sense when he’s drilling a hole in the phone book, not when he’s about to be savagely attacked by a rabid St Bernard. There’s just less room for back story in movies. In a medium that demands pruning and chiseling and the “less is more” dictum, King’s writing takes a marked turn for the worse. King is a prose maximalist, who freely admits to “writing to outrageous lengths” in his novels, listing It, The Stand, and The Tommyknockers as particularly egregious examples of literary logorrhea. He is not especially equipped to write concisely. This weakness is most apparent in Sleepwalkers’ dialogue, which sounds like it was supposed to be snappy and smart, like something Aaron Sorkin would write, but instead comes off like an even worse Tango & Cash, all bad jokes and shitty puns. More on those bad jokes later. First, the plot.

Sleepwalkers is about a boy named Charles and his mother Mary who travel around the United States killing and feeding off the lifeforce of various unfortunate people (if this sounds a little like The True Knot in Doctor Sleep, you’re not wrong. But self-plagiarism is not a crime). Charles and Mary are shapeshifting werewolf-type creatures called werecats, a species with its very own Wikipedia page. Wikipedia confers legitimacy dont’cha know, so lets assume werecats are real beings. According to said page, a werecat, “also written in a hyphenated form as were-cat) is an analogy to ‘werewolf’ for a feline therianthropic creature.” I’m gonna spell it with the hyphen from now on because “werecats” just looks like a typo. Okay? Okay.

Oddly enough, the were-cats in Sleepwalkers are terrified of cats. Actual cats. For the were-cats, cute kittens = kryptonite. When they see a cat or cats plural, this happens to them:

^ That is literally a scene from the movie. Charles is speeding when a cop pulls alongside him and bellows at him to pull over. Ever the rebel, Charles flips the cop the finger. But the cop has a cat named Clovis in his car, and when the cat pops up to have a look at the kid (see below), Charles shapeshifts first into a younger boy, then into whatever the fuck that is in the above screenshot.

Now, the were-cats aversion to normal cats is confusing because one would assume a were-cat to be a more evolved (or perhaps devolved?) version of the typical house kitty. The fact that these were-cats are bipedal alone suggests an advantage over our furry four-legged friends, no? Kinda like if humans were afraid of fucking gorillas. Wait...we are scared of gorillas. And chimpanzees. And all apes really. Okay, maybe the conceit of the film isn’t so silly after all. The film itself, however, is about as silly as a bad horror movie can get. When the policeman gets back to precinct and describes the incident above (”his face turned into a blur”) he is roundly ridiculed because in movies involving the supernatural nobody believes in the supernatural until it confronts them. It’s the law, sorry. Things don’t end well for the cop. Or for the guy who gets murdered when the mom stabs him with...an ear of corn. Yes, an ear of corn. Somehow, the mother is able to jam corn on the cob through a man’s body, without crushing the vegetable or turning it into yellow mash. It’s pretty amazing. Here is a sample of dialog from that scene: Cop About To Die On The Phone to Precinct: There’s blood everywhere! *STAB* Murderous Mother: No vegetables, no dessert. That is actually a line in the movie. “No vegetables, no dessert.” It’s no “let off some steam, Bennett” but it’s close. Told ya I’d get back to the bad jokes. See, Mary and Charles are new in town and therefore seeking to ingratiate themselves by killing everyone who suspects them of being weird, all while avoiding cats as best they can. At one point Charles yanks a man’s hand off and tells him to "keep [his] hands to [him]self," giving the man back his severed bloody hand. Later on Charles starts dating a girl who will gradually - and I do mean gradually - come to realize her boyfriend is not a real person but in fact a were-cat. Eventually our spunky young protagonist - Madchen Amick, who fans of Twin Peaks will recognize as Shelly - and a team of cats led by the adorable Clovis- kill the were-cat shapeshifting things and the sleepy small town (which is named Travis for some reason) goes back to normal, albeit with a slightly diminished population. For those keeping score, that’s Human/Cat Alliance 1, Shapeshifting Were-cats 0. It is clear triumph for the felis catus/people team! Unless we’re going by kill count, in which case it is closer to Human/Cat Alliance 2, Were-cats 26. I arrived at this figure through my own notes but also through a helpful video that takes a comprehensive and complete “carnage count” of all kills in Sleepwalkers: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vmt-DroK6uA

II. Santo & Johnny “Sleep Walk” (1959) Because Sleepwalkers is decidedly not known for its good acting or its well-written screenplay, it is perhaps best known for its liberal and sometimes contrapuntal use of Santo & Johnny’s classic steel guitar song “Sleep Walk,” possibly the most famous (and therefore best) instrumental of the 20th century. Some might say “Sleep Walk” is tied for the #1 spot with “Green Onions” by Booker T & the M.G.’s and/or “Wipe Out” by The Surfaris, but I disagree. The Santo & Johnny song is #1 because of its incalculable influence on all subsequent popular music. 

I’m not saying “Wipe Out” didn't inspire a million imitators, both contemporaneously and even decades later…for example here’s a surf rock instrumental from 1999 called “Giant Cow" by a Toronto band called The Urban Surf Kings. The video was one of the first to be animated using Flash (and it shows):

So there are no shortage of surf rock bands, even now, decades after its emergence from the shores of California to the jukeboxes of Middle America. My old band Sleep for the Nightlife used to regularly play Rancho Relaxo with a surf rock band called the Dildonics, who I liked a great deal. There's even a Danish surf rock band called Baby Woodrose, whose debut album is a favourite of mine. They apparently compete for the title of Denmark’s biggest surf pop band with a group called The Setting Son. When a country that has no surfing culture and no beaches has multiple surf rock bands, it is safe to say the genre has attained international reach. As far as I can tell, there aren’t many bands out there playing Booker T & the M.G.’s inspired instrumental rock. Link Wray’s “Rumble” was released four years before “Green Onions.” But the influence of Santo and Johnny’s “Sleep Walk” is so ubiquitous as to be almost immeasurable. The reason for this is the sheer popularity of the song’s chord progression. If Santo and Johnny hadn’t written it first, somebody else would have, simply because the progression is so beautiful and easy on the ears and resolvable in a satisfying way. Have a listen to “Sleep Walk” first and then let’s check out some songs it directly inspired. 

The chords are C, A minor, F and G. Minor variations sometimes reverse the last two chords, but if it begins with C to A minor, you can bet it’s following the “Sleep Walk” formula, almost as if musicians influenced by the song are in the titular trance. When it comes to playing guitar, Tom Waits once said “your hands are like dogs, going to the same places they’ve been. You have to be careful when playing is no longer in the mind but in the fingers, going to happy places. You have to break them of their habits or you don’t explore; you only play what is confident and pleasing.” Not only is it comforting to play and/or hear what we already know, studies have shown that our brains actively resist new music, because it takes work to understand the new information and assimilate it into a pattern we are cogent of. It isn’t until the brain recognizes the pattern that it gives us a dopamine rush. I’m not much for Pitchfork anymore, but a recent article they posted does a fine job of discussing this phenomenon in greater detail.

Led Zeppelin’s “D’Yer Maker” uses the “Sleep Walk” riff prominently, anchored by John Bonham and John Paul Jones’ white-boy reggae beat: 

Here it is again with Del Shannon’s classic “Little Town Flirt.” I love Shannon’s falsetto at the end when he goes “you better run and hide now bo-o-oy.”

The Beatles “Happiness is a Warm Gun” uses the Sleep Walk progression, though not for the whole song. It goes into the progression at the bridge at 1:34: 

Tumblr won’t let me embed any more videos, so you’ll to travel to another tab to hear these songs, but Neil Young gets in on the act with his overlooked classic “Winterlong:” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RV6r66n3TFI On their 1996 EP Interstate 8 Modest Mouse pay direct homage by singing over their own rendition of the original Santo & Johnny version, right down to the weeping steel guitar part: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VT_PwXjCqqs The vocals are typical wispy whispered indie rock vocals, but I think they work, particularly the two different voices. They titled their version “Sleepwalking (Couples Only Dance Prom Night).”

Dwight Yoakam’s “Thousand Miles From Nowhere” makes cinematic use of it. This song plays over the credits of one of my all-time favourite movies, 1993′s Red Rock West feat. Nicolas Cage, Lara Flynn Boyle, Dennis Hopper, and J.T. Walsh https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tu3ypuKq8WE

“39″ is my favourite Queen song. I guess now I know why. It uses my fav chord progression: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kE8kGMfXaFU 

Blink 182 scored their first hit “Dammit��� with a minor variation on the Sleep Walk chord progression: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sT0g16_LQaQ

Midwest beer drinkin bar rockers Connections scored a shoulda-been-a-hit with the fist-pumping “Beat the Sky:” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YSNRq0n_WYA You’d be hard pressed to find a weaker lead singer than this guy (save for me, natch), but they make it work. This one’s an anthem.

Spoon, who have made a career out of deconstructing rock n’ roll, so that their songs sometimes sound needlessly sparse (especially “The Ghost of You Lingers,” which takes minimalism to its most extreme...just a piano being bashed on staccato-style for four minutes), so it should surprise nobody that they re-arrange the Sleep Walk chords on their classic from Gimme Fiction, “I Summon You:” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=teXA8N3aF9M I love that opening line: remember the weight of the world was a sound that we used to buy? I think songwriter Britt Daniel is talking about buying albums from the likes of Pearl Jam or Smashing Pumpkins, any of those grunge bands with pessimistic worldviews. There are a million more examples. I remember seeing some YouTube video where a trio of gross douchebros keep playing the same progression while singing a bunch of hits over it. I don’t like the smarmy way they do it, making it seem like artists are lazy and deliberately stealing. I don’t think it’s plagiarism to use this progression. And furthermore, tempo and production make all the difference. Take “This Magic Moment” for example. There's a version by Jay & the Americans and one by Ben E King & the Drifters. I’ve never been a fan of those shrieking violins or fiddles that open the latter: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bacBKKgc4Uo The Jay & the Americans version puts the guitar riff way in the forefront, which I like a lot more. The guitar plays the entire progression once before the singing starts and the band joins in: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pKfASw6qoag

Each version has its own distinctive feel. They are pretty much two different songs. Perhaps the most famous use of the Sleep Walk progression is “Unchained Melody” by the Righteous Brothers, which is one of my favourite songs ever. The guy who chose to let Bobby Hatfield sing this one by himself must have kicked himself afterwards when it became a hit, much bigger than "You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling."https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qiiyq2xrSI0

What can you say about “Unchained Melody” that hasn’t already been said? God, that miraculously strong vocal, the way the strings (and later on, brass horns) are panned way over to the furthest reaches the left speaker while the drums and guitar are way over in the right, with the singing smack dab in the middle creates a kind of distance and sharp clarity that has never been reproduced in popular music, like seeing the skyscrapers of some distant city after an endless stretch of highway. After listening to “Unchained Melody,” one has to wonder: can that progression ever be improved upon? Can any artist write something more haunting, more beautiful, more uplifting than that? The “need your love” crescendo hits so fucking hard, as both the emotional and the sonic climax of the song, which of course is no accident...the strings descending and crashing like a waterfall of sound, it gets me every fucking time. Legend has it that King George II was so moved by the “Hallelujah” section of Handel’s “Messiah” that he stood up, he couldn't help himself, couldn't believe what he was hearing. I get that feeling with all my favourite songs. "1979." "Unchained Melody." "In The Still of the Night." "Digital Bath." "Why Does My Heart Feel So Bad?" "Interstate." "Liar's Tale." “Gimme Shelter.” The list goes on and on. Music is supposed to move us.

King George II stood because he was moved to do so. Music may be our creation, but it isn't our subordinate. All those sci-fi stories warning about technology growing beyond our control aren’t that far-fetched. Music is our creation but its power lies beyond our control. We are subordinate to music, helpless against its power and might, its urgency and vitality and beauty. There have been many times in my life when I have been so obsessed with a particular song that I pretty much want to live inside of it forever. A house of sound. I remember detoxing from heroin and listening to Grimes “Realiti” on repeat for twelve hours. Detoxing from OxyContin and listening to The Beach Boys “Dont Worry Baby” over and over. Or just being young and listening to “Tonight Tonight” over and over and over, tears streaming from my eyes in that way you cry when you’re a kid because you just feel so much and you don’t know what to do with the intensity of those feelings. It is precisely because we are so moved by music that we keep creating it. And in the act of that creation we are free. There are no limits to that freedom, which is why bands time and time again return to the well-worn Sleep Walk chord progression and try to make something new from it. Back in 2006, soon after buying what was then the new Yeah Yeah Yeahs album, I found myself playing the album’s closing track over and over. I loved the chorus and I loved the way it collapses into a lo-fi demo at the very end, stripping away the studio sheen and...not to be too punny, showing its bones (the album title is Show Your Bones). Later on I would realize that the song, called “Turn Into,” uses the Sleep Walk chord progression. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=exqCFoPiwpk

It’s just like, what Waits said, our hands goes to where we are familiar. And so do our ears, which is why jazz often sounds so unpleasant to us upon first listen. Or Captain Beefheart. But it’s worth the effort to discover new stuff, just as it’s worth the effort to try and write it. I recently lamented on this blog that music to me now is more about remembrance than discovery, but I’m still only 35 years old. I’m middle-aged right now (I don’t expect to live past 70, not with the lifestyle I’ve been living). There’s still a whole other half life to find new music and love and leave it for still newer stuff. It’s worth the challenge, that moment of inner resistance we feel when confronted with something new and challenging and strange sounding. The austere demands of adult life, rent and routine, take so much of our time. I still make time for creative pursuits, but I don’t really have much time for discovery, for seeking out new music. But I’ve resolved to start making more time. A few years ago I tried to listen to and like Trout Mask Replica but I couldn’t. I just didn’t get what was going on. It sounded like a bunch of mistakes piled on top of each other. But then a few days ago I was writing while listening to music, as I always do, and YouTube somehow landed on Lick My Decals Off, Baby. I didn’t love what I was hearing but I was intrigued enough to keep going. And now I really like this song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EMnd9dvb3sA&pbjreload=101 Another example I’ll give is the rare Robert Pollard gem “Prom Is Coming.” The first time I heard this song, it sounded like someone who can’t play guitar messing around, but the more I heard it the more I realized there’s a song there. It’s weird and strange, but it’s there. The lyrics are classic Pollard: Disregard injury and race madly out of the universe by sundown. Pollard obviously has a special place in his heart for this track. He named one of his many record labels Prom Is Coming Records and he titled the Boston Spaceships best-of collection Out of the Universe By Sundown. I don’t know if I’ll ever become a Captain Beefheart megafan but I can hear that the man was doing something very strange and, at times, beautiful. And anyway, why should everything be easy? Aren’t some challenges worth meeting for the experience waiting on the other side of comprehension or acceptance? I try to remember this now whenever I’m first confronted with new music, instead of vetoing it right away. Most of my favourite bands I was initially resistant to when I first heard them. Queens of the Stone Age, Kyuss, Guided by Voices, Spoon, Heavy Times. All bands I didn’t like at first.  I don’t wanna sleepwalk through life, surrounding myself only with things I have already experienced. I need to stay awake. Because soon enough I’ll be asleep forever. We need to try everything we can before the Big Sleep comes to take us back to the great blankness, the terrible question mark that bookends our lives.

[thesunnyshow]

EPISODE 4: MILLY

Writing Blog URL(s): @bumblebeenct 

Name: Milly

Age: 18

Nationality: Welsh

Languages: English

Star Sign: Capricorn

MBTI: ISFP-T

What fandom(s) do you write for?

 I write for NCT, but I have written for Harry Potter in the past

When did you post your first piece?

Around the empathy era I’m pretty sure, 2018? I used to do moodboards only but I was inspired by other writers to give it a go

Do you write fluff/angst/crack/general/smut, combo, etc? Why?

I find that I stick to the fluff/angst tropes because they’re easier to formulate because I can relate myself to the scenario more. I also find that its also more interesting to write angst because there's complications to a story that take longer to form and you have to really think about the different emotions the characters are feeling.

Do you write OCs, X Readers, Ships...etc?

I write x reader mostly, but at some point in the future I’m thinking of writing an OC purely because the concept I want to focus on has a particular emphasis on name and I don’t think it would work with y/n

Why did you start writing on Tumblr?

I used to use Wattpad but it was very difficult to promote myself and I struggled to meet anyone through it. On tumblr it was much easier to orientate and the community was so much nicer. 

What inspires you to write?

My mutuals! And other writers on tumblr, everyone is so supportive and kind it’s amazing. Also the feedback I sometimes get from readers, it makes me really happy whenever I get a comment or someone interacts with a piece I enjoyed writing, or alternatively when someone supports a fic I wasn’t confident in as it really boosts my confidence :)

What genres/AUs do you enjoy writing the most?

School/ College aus because they’re very familiar and I am confident in getting the tropes and ideas right. But I also like works inspired by movies or songs because there’s so much to work from and it’s nice to see where you can take the plot and lyrics in your own story.

What do you hope your readers take away from your work?

That writing is for everyone, honestly at the end of the day I’m just a kid in my room writing stories about artists I’m a really big fan of. If you want to write you can, and you don’t have to necessarily be a “big” blog or writer to do it. 

What do you do when you hit a rough spot creatively?

Take a break, that’s my first port of call - usually in the method of food or I look at the inspiration material again, I listen to the song, read the lyrics, consult my friends and mutuals for help. It’s always good to be able to put something down to start again later when you’re struck with inspiration

What is your favorite work and why? Your most successful?

My favourite personally at the moment (since one I really like is currently, as of answering this question, unpublished) is ‘Remember Me’ purely because it was the work I was the most passionate about writing and it really let me explore a new field of writing, since a lot of my stuff had been fluff before. My most successful in terms of notes is my Mark one shot ‘Sugar and Spice’ and I’m very proud of it.

Who is your favorite person to write about?

Park Jisung, my ult bias, I have to convince myself to write for other members sometimes as I often resist the urge to be a Jisung blog. However I have been enjoying writing for Mark and Hendery recently, as my other NCT biases

Do you think there’s a difference between writing fanfiction vs. completely original prose?

To a certain extent yes, it really depends on the writer. For many fanfiction stories, including ones we may label “cliche” the only difference is who it’s about, there are countless amazing fics I’ve read which I would assume could be made into a novel, the only thing making it fanfiction being the characters themselves.

What do you think makes a good story?

Feeling! There’s nothing that really constitutes a “good story” as it’s all subjective, but if you can read a story and feel what the characters feel, or even just see the emotions the writer is trying to portray then it’s definitely a good story. I’ve cried while reading most of, if not all my favourite stories.

What is your writing process like?

I plan first in a little notebook so I don’t forget any of my ideas or plans and then I try to churn it out whenever I have access to my computer, my speaker and a comfortable blanket. I like to “get in the zone” and then write as much as I possibly can. I usually think of ideas as I write so the notebook helps me put them in order and make sure I don’t get too ahead of myself.

Would you ever repurpose a fic into a completely original story?

I have thought about it and honestly, I’m not sure. My fics are not series’ and they’re all very short - most of them under 4k so I’d have to turn the idea into a full length thing you know? But I have thought about doing the opposite with a very old original story of mine I’ve otherwise given up on but still holds a special place in my heart.

What tropes do you love, and what tropes can’t you stand?

I am a sucker for the enemies to lovers trope mainly because the character development in these stories can be so much more interesting and complex. On the other hand I’m not fond of “yandere” type fics, however I have read several well written ones which I cannot speak against because they were actually really good.

How much would you say audience feedback/engagement means to you?

I’d say a lot, in terms of how much I write feedback means a lot to me - it’s also nice to hear what people think of things you’ve written because it’s a different view from your own and sometimes can boost confidence. I am also open to constructive criticism if any writers have any tips or suggestions for future works I’m always open to listen. 

What has been one of the biggest factors of your success (of any size)?

When I see anyone interacting with my work it’s really rewarding and I love when people reblog with custom tags because it lets me know that people actually like what I do and to me, that’s a success.

Favorite color: Purple

Favorite food: Pasta

Favorite movie: Heathers (1988)

Favorite ice cream flavor: Cookie Dough

Favorite animal:  I would say bees, but I don’t think that counts so I’ll say dogs

Coffee or tea? What are you ordering?

Coffee, either black or a really fancy one with frothy milk

Dream job (whether you have a job or not)

 I’d love to be a singer honestly, but at the moment I’m working towards education I hope one day to be a lecturer

Go-to karaoke song

 Best Part by Daniel Caesar or Escape (the pina colada song) by Robert Holmes because it’s funny

If you could have one superpower, what would you choose?

 Stopping time because there’s so much you can do - except the question is, would I continue to age even if time has stopped?

If you could visit a historical era, which would you choose?

My mind goes to two extremes, I think either ancient Greece because why not and the 1950’s purely for fashion and music.

If you could restart your life, knowing what you do now, would you?

No, but I think if I could restart specific moments I would. There are so many good moments but some things you don’t want to relive even if you can change the outcome.

Would you rather fight 100 chicken-sized horses or one horse-sized chicken?

100 chicken sized horses, I’d be terrified of a horse sized chicken it would probably be able to eat me and I’m not about that life, tiny horses I can deal with. Kill them with Kindness or whatever haha.

If you were a trope in a teen high school movie, what would you have been?

A mix of quiet teachers pet and loud side character friend. The duality kills me, I can be shouting with my friends one minute but whispering the minute the teacher asks me a question.

Do you believe in aliens/supernatural creatures?

I’d like to, I think some are really cool and it would be amazing to live among them, but also some are dangerous, but I would love to see or meet some creatures. Imagine living with dragons man that would be epic.

What are some of your favorite hobbies and how did you get into them?

I really like reading, courtesy of Harry Potter, but I also enjoy singing and playing the piano which I started doing more often in secondary school when my piano teacher suggested I started to sing as well :)

Fun fact about yourself that not everyone would know?

I did Karate for about 10/11 years, and I’m a black belt *insert awkward smile here*

Do you think fanfic writers get unfairly judged?

A lot of the time yes, there is a stigma around fanfiction and often paints us in a negative light but we just happen to be a community of creative fans who want to share and support the people we write about. But I can see where the stigma comes from, sometimes it can be taken a bit far and I am aware that some things make the artists themselves uncomfortable. I think if people who judge fanfiction are referring to it as a single idea it becomes unfair because it is all different, but I also think that writers of fanfiction themselves have to make sure they don’t cross any boundaries when writing that could make readers or the artist (if they ever happened to stumble across your work) uncomfortable.

Do you think art can be a medium for change?

Yes in some ways of course. Art is not only a way to express what the creator themselves is feeling but it is also a way to teach others about issues, prejudices and ideals. For literature specifically it allows you into the shoes of another person you may not have understood before, in art pieces there’s a clear message and encourages people to educate themselves on certain issues which in turn makes room for change.

Do you ever feel there are times when you’re writing for others, rather than yourself?

Sometimes if i’ve been suggested or requested to write something because it isn’t an idea that comes for me but mainly if I am aware that someone is waiting for a fic or someone has said they’re anticipating it I feel like I’m writing for others, but I don’t particularly mind it because it almost encourages me to write to a better standard.

Do you ever feel like people have misunderstood you or your writing at times?

Not particularly, I'm often as clear as I can be when portraying meaning, or I will straight up say it in a different thread or to different people because I can’t keep secrets and I’m a sucker for a spoiler. Although I am constantly worried about the way I come off in messages and things like that - I am a terrible overthinker.

Do your offline friends/loved ones know you write for Tumblr?

A few of my closest friends and other kpop stans I am friends with irl are aware of my blog and support me as much as they can with what little information I give them. I think only one of my irls has my url because she reads and I send her my binge reviews when I do them.

What is one thing you wish you could tell your followers?

Thank you so much, honestly it’s cheesy but without them I don’t know where my blog would be. The amount of them surprises me everyday and I don’t think I believe it half the time. Also if anyone ever needs help or support or just wants a chat I’m open, its 100% likely that if you interact with me or my posts on the regular then I will recognise you when you come say hi, I’m not that scary I promise.

Do you have any advice for aspiring writers who might be too scared to put themselves out there?

Just do it! It’s better to get your stuff out there and circulating to get a better idea of what people like and where your strong suit is, the more you put out the more you grow. But if you’re scared, talk to other creators, we’re always open to help and we can let you know what to do, it was something that helped me out :)

Are there any times when you regret joining Tumblr?

When I first started there was a lot of struggle with me trying to figure out my style and what I wanted to do, and it was a learning curve of what can I do, what should I avoid and who am I doing this for. Sometimes when I’m really down I will question why I do it, but I never regret it because it has allowed me to make some wonderful friends and be exposed to some amazing creations and get more into something I’ve always liked doing, writing.

Do you have any mutuals who have been particularly formative/supportive in your Tumblr journey?

I don’t want this to be too long, but I feel like it could be. I’ve met so many wonderful people and I love all of them so much, but in terms of being formative and supportive these are some of the people I talk to the most. @renjunwrites - I am a huge fan of Denise and to even be able to be in conversation with her about the stuff she writes is mindblowing to me, @nanasarea - nana was one of the first people I spoke to (before I joined discord) and was really accepting of my antics from day one. @glossyjaems - me and Louna have become very close recently and I can’t wait for our project to launch, keep an eye out for that. @mjlkau Anie is really one of the biggest supporters I have, always willing to read what I send her and give me support and love. There’s so many more people I’d love to mention but this would go on forever, to anyone ever involved in my writing process I’m thinking of you as I write this and I love you all (I feel really bad not talking about every single one omg).

Ending thoughts:

“We’ll be alright, I want to try again” - Try Again d.ear (ft. Jaehyun) because this is something I hold close, ‘try again, we’ll all be alright in the end’

BONUS: K-POP CONFIDENTIAL

Interested in your very own episode of The Sunny Show? Find out how to apply here.

[shipping-receiving]

Jaime x Brienne Slow Burn AU Fics

*cracks knuckles* Get ready because this is a long post. I had an anon who specifically requested “well written, well developed slow burn multi-chapter AU”. I’ve already included a few that fit those criteria in my Modern AU fic recs [ Part 1 / Part 2 ] so I thought I’d dig up a mixed bag of AUs for this list (Regency! Apocalypse! Fairy Tales!).

But just for ease of access, here are my Modern AU recs (so far) that fit this criteria, depending how slow of a burn you want. Some of them actually only happen over the course of a few days (e.g. On the Night’s Watch), but I think you still get That Slow Burn Satisfaction:

Clean hands by Gwen77

Fever by @ladyinredfics

It’s Like Weather by ssstrychnine aka @oneangryshot

Madonna of the Balcony by QuizzicalQuinnia

A Year in the Life by Coraleeveritas

On the Night’s Watch by @miss-m-calling

Beast and the Beast by SigilBroken aka @chickren

Now onward to some of that Enemies to Friends to Lovers action:

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All the Roads are Winding by ShirleyAnn66 AU: Modern / Historical / Post-Apocalyptic / +++++ rating: T (more like M in parts) | word count: 264695 | chapters: 29

Why not start with the AU fic to end all AU fics – ShirleyAnn66′s multiverse epic, featuring Jaime and Brienne as physicists who explore five alternate versions of themselves. There are six interwoven parallel slow burns. SIX. Physicists, Prince/Princess (Political Marriage), Singer/Farmer (Best Friends), Prisoner/Septa, Megastar/Private Investigator, and Mad “Jon” (Post-Apocalyptic). Note that there are only 29 chapters in the story, but 35 including the Author’s Notes, and compilations of the five universes so they can be read as single stories.

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Before Destruction by renaissance AU: Pride and Prejudice / Regency rating: T | word count: 102716 | chapters: 32

One of the best multi-chapter fics ever created for this pairing, this Pride and Prejudice AU has Brienne as a governess for the Starks and Jaime as Captain Lannister, but both of them still retain their original personalities (Jaime is still the snarky one where Brienne is reserved and insecure). Perfectly plotted, and I think it conveys more of the tension and antagonism so typical of J/B than even the original dynamic between Elizabeth and Darcy.  

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Shoot the Moon by @hardlyfatal AU: Modern rating: E | word count: 80250 | chapters: 33

corporate!Jaime and writer!Brienne meet on a ranch (with a host of other characters) and find themselves struggling between hostility and deep attraction. There’s also some very endearing domesticity in the second half, with Jaime’s kids Myrcy and Tommen. This probably isn’t that slow in terms of getting to the smut, but it’s really slow in terms of getting all those feelings out in the open. The author also has two other WIP slow burn fics that she is still updating regularly – Man of the Hour (Brienne is a vet, Jaime her mysterious neighbour) and the epic Western Desperado (this has three pairings: J x B, Sansa x Sandor, Dany x Jon).

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What is True, But Not Ideal by Vera AU: Modern rating: M | word count: 74868 | chapters: 19

I’m kicking myself that I didn’t think to rec this recently completed story in my first two Modern AU lists. Brienne meets Tyrion first, who hires her as a bartender in his pub, and they eventually become best friends. Jaime only appears from Chapter 4, but the Brienne/Tyrion friendship has really interesting implications for the J/B dynamic. I don’t want to spoil too much about the narrative because the direction of the story is so surprising, but it does take darker turns as the rest of the Lannisters and Starks are introduced.

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Bargains by Gwen77 AU: Regency rating: M | word count: 18171 | chapters: 11

Another Regency AU, this time with an arranged marriage between Jaime and Brienne. Jaime is still entangled with Cersei to some degree for most of this story, with painful consequences for J/B, but Jaime and Brienne’s growing feelings for each other are handled beautifully, and ultimately they get their happily ever after. This is the shortest fic in this list, but perhaps more so because Gwen77 writes heartbreaking prose so succinctly. No one writes repressed!JB like her, so it still feels like a slow burn despite its relative brevity.

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Scandal by Gwen77 AU: Victorian rating: T | word count: 21652 | chapters: 11

Look, I try not to rec more than one fic per author for each of my lists, but I would lay down my life for Gwen77′s four AUs. This one is set in a 19th Century version of Westeros, with Brienne as a journalist/writer and Jaime as a politician in a constitutional monarchy. This is one of the most unique versions of their dynamic that I’ve read, partly because this version of Jaime is more conflicted and elusive. Chapter 7 in particular leaves me breathless.

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The Dark, Dread Toyshop by @miss-m-calling AU: The Magic Toyshop / Modern-ish with a bit of magic rating: M | word count: 68755 | chapters: 25

Based on Angela Carter’s The Magic Toyshop, this underrated story is a mysterious coming-of-age tale that sees Brienne (and her siblings Pod and Sansa) sent to live with their uncle Tywin and his sons Jaime and Tyrion in his eerie toyshop. (This makes Jaime and Brienne cousins, just a warning for those who find that too incestuous.) This diverges quite a lot from the plot points of GoT/ASOIAF, but still remains enthralling.

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Everyone Has Secrets by ellaria AU: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo / Modern rating: E | word count: 113057 | chapters: 23

Another legendary, utterly seductive multi-chapter fic based on Stieg Larsson’s The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. Jaime is a political journalist and Brienne is the hacker hired alongside him to investigate the disappearance of Sansa Stark ten years earlier. If you’re familiar with Larsson’s story, you’ll know to expect explicit sexual content and violence. (But don’t worry, all ends well, not the way Larsson left off his story with regard to his two main characters.)

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Tale As Old As Time by @brienneofthrace AU: Beauty and the Beast / Fairy Tale rating: T | word count: 56570 | chapters: 17

Jaime is the bitter lord of Casterly Rock (not an actual beast), and Brienne offers to become his hostage in exchange for the release of her captive father. This story plays fast and loose with both canons, which makes reading it really fun and unexpected. I was very lucky to have found this around the time the author chose to come back and complete it (I think there must have been a 4 year break somewhere)!

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Living Fiction by Archetype_Electraheart AU: Modern rating: M | word count: 72757 | chapters: 41

No-nonsense Brienne is assigned to be difficult Jaime’s new editor at Winterfell Publishing. This makes for some amazingly snarky interactions (and begrudging mutual respect) from the get-go, but perhaps one of the more unexpected elements of this story is the author’s decision to have Brienne be a longtime model/muse for photographer Loras Tyrell. Brienne’s relationship with her body thus manifest in a very different and refreshing way.

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+ BONUS: WIPs

I prefer not to rec incomplete fics on the off-chance they’ll never be completed (wow I wish season 8 was never completed) but these are two of my favourite WIPs that have been updated fairly recently:

With All Your Faults by @seaspiritwrites AU: A League of their Own / Baseball / 1940s rating: T | word count (so far): 91818 | chapters: 26/34

Well on its way to becoming a classic, this fic has been an absolute joy to read. Based very loosely on the movie A League of Their Own, and set in World War II-era America, Brienne is recruited to play in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League, on a team coached by maimed former baseball star Jaime. As slow and as satisfying and as wholesome of a burn as you could possibly get.

for our world is cold and full of monsters by @trashy-greyjoy aka chancellor_valdez AU: Zombie Apocalypse rating: not rated | word count (so far): 32725 | chapters: 11/?

It’s the Jaime and Brienne road trip, except they have to fight zombies on the way. No prizes for guessing how Jaime loses his hand in this one. I genuinely love the way this fic is written – there’s a lot of great lines in this – and I don’t think it has gotten as much attention as it deserves. It seems to be on a bit of a hiatus (understandably after Season 8) but the author has promised to get back to it and I can’t wait.

[serenlyss]

Mob Psycho Fic Recs Part 3

Here we go again! I’ve racked up another 10 bookmarks to share. As always, if you are the author of any of these wonderful fics and want to have your tumblr tagged just let me know!

Parental Supervision Author: piperita Rating: G Archive Warnings: None Completion Status: In Progress Tags: dad reigen, good parent reigen, protective reigen, found family Summary: Reigen finds out that Teruki lives alone. No parents, foster parents, or even a hired caretaker. He doesn't know exactly what he's going to do with this information, but it's certainly not 'nothing'. Or: Reigen's awkward, messy, and backwards guide to adopting psychic children. My Notes: Just a nice cute fic about Reigen looking out for and helping take care of Teru after finding out that he lives on his own. It’s cute and very sweet how Reigen takes a kind of backwards approach to helping out Teru, since Teru is way too stubborn to allow himself to be completely cared for by someone else. I really love Reigen and Teru’s dynamic in this fic so far and I’m excited to see more!

aquarium Author: amaranthinecanicular Rating: G Archive Warnings: None Completion Status: Complete Tags: ritshou, mermaid au, background terumob Summary: It was just a fairytale. One of those bedtime stories parents tell their kids to make them wary of the surface. Merfolk didn’t fall in love with humans, they didn’t fall for the sweet words of seawitches and they didn’t fall out of the ocean with legs only to fall back as seafoam. It was just a fairytale. It was supposed to be a fairytale. My Notes: One of my all-time favorite ritshou fics, I go back and reread it all the time! I’m such a sucker for mermaid fics and this one is super beautifully written. It’s poetic and flows so so well, it wraps you in from the very beginning with its gorgeous prose and mysterious story. It’s definitely been an inspiration to me in pursuing a more descriptive and flowery writing style for certain fics. The budding friendship between Shou and Ritsu is endearing and believable and very in character, and the little mermaid inspiration brings a familiarity to the story as well that makes it easy to follow and understand what’s going on behind the scenes. I absolutely adore how the author writes Ritsu’s point of view, it’s just a really really solid and fun fic that I’ll continue to go back to after this.

Out of Body Author: bobmoss Rating: M Archive Warnings: None Completion Status: In Progress Tags: serirei, slow burn, mental health issues, recovery, case fic, hurt/comfort Summary: Serizawa's recovery seems to be going so well, but then he suddenly develops a habit of accidental out of body experiences during panic attacks. My Notes: A very sweet, emotional exploration of Serizawa and Reigen’s budding relationship post-world domination arc. I absolutely love the way the author writes these two as friends who know and understand each other, and how that leads into an eventual romance. It has some really heart-stoppingly scary dramatic moments, too, for being such a character-centered story, which took me pleasantly by surprise. I really look forward to what the author has planned for the future of this fic!

Night Terrors Author: futuresoon Rating: T Archive Warnings: Unspecified (there’s some blood/injury and horror elements, but nothing too extreme) Completion Status: Complete Tags: Yomawari: Midnight Shadows fusion (no knowledge needed to read), horror, angst, alternate universe Summary: Ritsu wants psychic powers more than he wants almost anything. But he didn’t expect them to only be good for seeing spirits, and he didn’t expect them to only appear after his brother walks into the forest and doesn’t come back. Now the town is full of monsters, and all Ritsu can do is search for his brother--but even powerful children are still children, and the night is not always kind. My Notes: This fic really took me by surprise, since I had never played Yomawari and knew nothing about it before reading this. It’s dark and relatively scary as far as my usual taste in fics go, but it’s written really well. The author is really good at displaying the hopeless aura of the situation without making it seem like all is lost, and the atmosphere and constantly moving story make it really easy to get lost in this dark alternate reality. It’s not really a happy fic, though, and the ending is rather bittersweet, so be aware if you decide to read this one.

The Accelerated Velocity of Terminological Inexactitude Author: LogicalBookThief Rating: G Archive Warnings: None Completion Status: Complete Tags: terumob, fake dating au, slow build/slow burn, crushes, pining, holding hands, slight angst, mentions of mogami arc Summary: Teru offers to fake date Mob in order to gain Tsubomi's attention. His own crush on Mob makes this plan somewhat problematic. My Notes: Teru has a big ol crush on Mob and takes advantage of his crush on Tsubomi to become his fake boyfriend for a time, except it really does more harm to himself than to anyone else. The fake dating AU we all know and love, now with added mogami arc angst (just a little) and the slow realization that their fake relationship might have more truth behind it than either of them are intending. It’s a super sweet fic and a relatively quick read if you’re looking for something with meat that isn’t 100k words long. It brought quite a few smiles to my face and a couple of excited squeals as well.

Grow as we Go Author: lesboba Rating: T Archive Warnings: None Completion Status: In Progress Tags: terumob, fluff, character study, hurt/comfort, dad reigen, established relationship, good person teru, post-canon, kissing, panic attacks Summary: Teru's still working on himself, but he has time and the right people with him now. My Notes: This fic is so so good and sweet, it focuses on Teru coming into his own and figuring out how to be a good person post-canon. It’s so endearing seeing him interacting with the whole Kageyama family, especially Shigeo, who he’s dating in secret, and his parents, who treat him like their own son and it’s great. It’s so nice to see Teru’s struggle to remind himself that he can change and become better from inside his own head, since in canon we only get brief mentions of what that must be like. It’s also super soft, just very very soft, and it makes me feel nice every time I go back to refresh myself on it.

Blind Eye Author: NewWorldFool Rating: G Archive Warnings: None Completion Status: Complete Tags: ritshou, pining, fluff, mutual pining, john mulaney references Summary: “Yo, Ritsu!” Shou says with a nonchalant wave as he walks through the doorway, entering the threshold of the student council room. The boy in question sighs, but not unkindly. “Shou,” he says in lieu of a greeting. Shou showing up to the student council meetings has become a somewhat common occurrence even though he doesn’t even attend the school. He won’t admit the exact reason why, but Ritsu deduced it was probably to mess with him. Normally he’d be annoyed, but today? Ritsu is grateful for the interruption. (Basically a ritshou fic where they're dating but not really dating and Ritsu gets an epiphany) My Notes: This is a super sweet, super cute one-shot about how Ritsu and Shou act like they’re a couple long before they actually start dating and I love it. Shou showing up at Ritsu’s school and house out of the blue is one of my favorite fanon interpretations of him and it’s played out really well in this fic. I also love the idea of the two of them just being unabashedly affectionate when it’s just the two of them, they have such a cute relationship in this interpretation!

Cinderella-Esque Author: beanpots and Floral Fancies (lovelycoris) Rating: T Archive Warnings: None Completion Status: Complete Tags: ritshou, terumob, cinderella au, curses Summary: Once upon a time in a faraway land, there was a tiny kingdom that was peaceful, prosperous, and rich in romance and tradition. Tucked away in the corner of town lies a charming little stone house that's absolutely smothered by flowers of impeccable beauty. But the life around the Kageyama house belies the bane plaguing them - Ritsu Kageyama will do anything to lift the curse from his older brother. Even if it costs him a glass shoe. My Notes: This might be my favorite mob psycho fic like.. ever. I remember staying up into the early hours of the morning to read it all in one sitting because I just had to know what happened next. It’s beautifully written and leaves you on the edge of your seat wondering what might happen next, and the fantasy/cinderella vibes are so so fun to read. This art also comes with the amazing added bonus of having beautiful chapter cover art and even some mini comics slotted into the fic itself, which is such a treat to come across every single time. I highly recommend this fic to anyone who likes ritshou and terumob even a little, it’s so well-written and the characterization, specifically for Ritsu and Shigeo, is really solid.

first day Author: shcherbatskayas Rating: T Archive Warnings: None Completion Status: Complete Tags: ritshou, school nonsense, hugs, undiagnosed dyslexia, lunch sharing, mutual pining, trauma Summary: Ritsu can't stop himself from being excited about it: Shou's first day in his class. He can't stop himself from being nervous, either. My Notes: post-canon, Shou starts attending Salt middle school and ends up in Ritsu’s class. Shou’s not really cut out for school, unsurprisingly, but Ritsu’s there to keep him company and reassure him that he’ll end up alright. Ritsu makes a pro vs con list of what it’s like to have Shou as a classmate (and to have a friend in his class who he actually likes). It’s a really sweet, nice, fluffy fic and I love the way the author writes Ritsu and Shou’s friendship and how they support each other, I just really love all of the author’s ritshou fics actually. This one was particularly nice to read though, their interpretation of Ritsu and Shou’s relationship is really nice to read and comes across very natural and close.

It’s Hard to Read When You’re Fast Asleep Author: Squishy360 Rating: G Archive Warnings: None Completion Status: Complete Tags: good brother ritsu, family fluff, ???% as a character Summary: Mob passes out. ???% wakes up. Ritsu helps his brother take care of himself in the meantime. My Notes: This fic caught me by surprise in the best way. It’s short and tame and is such a fun and interesting take on ???%’s relationship with Ritsu, how he still recognizes Ritsu as his brother and has that sort of instinctual caring attitude toward him. It’s surprisingly wholesome and comes across almost like a crack fic but it just leaves you feeling warm and happy in the end. Ritsu’s initial fear of ???% and his slow realization that he’s not going to get hurt this time is so nice to read and very cathartic overall. I really love this idea and the author executes on it really really well!

[suchapersoniwanttobecome-blog]

Rules & Guidelines ;;

Thank you for taking the time to read these, it’s highly appreciated! Feel free to like the post to show me that you’ve taken the time to read these u will get a free Kenji hug

Following & Interacting

This blog is currently rather selective about following and interacting. There are several things I look at before deciding to follow;

decent usage of punctuation, grammar and readability in your posts - Tiny, irregularly spaced/sized text and/or purple prose styles are hard for me to read thus I will not follow blogs who write this way.

how compatible your muse is to interact with mine - Sometimes it’s hard for some muses to meet/interact/click, and that is no fault to anyone. Not all characters will be compatible, but I do my best to give them a chance.

how well your muse interests me as a whole - Let’s face it, we all have our different interests. Again, this is no one’s fault, some muses interest me, some don’t. Please don’t take it personally. Would you follow a blog that you had absolutely no interest in?

the mun’s behaviour - Pretty self explanatory. If Muns seem toxic (let’s face it, there are some toxic people, whether they realise it or not, in every fandom) or manipulative in any way, I won’t be following. I’m here to make friends and be happy, so I’m looking for friendly people to write with!

the amount of info about the muse - Whether canon or OC, I like to read through a bio page about the muse(s) so I know what I’m getting into. Canon muses, don’t just assume everyone knows about your muse. If bios are very few sentences long or have minimal information and I feel I have learned absolutely nothing, I may lose interest.

your rules - Perhaps the most obvious and important one. Should our terms clash or viewpoints don’t add up, then there’d be no point in following. I always read through a blogs pages before following, and the rules are the first things I read.

General Notes

I don’t tolerate drama or being dragged into it especially if it has nothing to do with me, so if I see any of this on my dash, I will begin unfollowing and blocking people without warning.

I prefer to only write with muns over the age of 18 for my own comfort, but some exceptions can be made.

I don’t send in passwords. I have read your rules.

Personal blogs that reblog my content, esp. threads, headcanons or personal posts, will be immediately blocked. I don’t follow personal blogs. This is a roleplay blog and will be treated as such.

Writing

I prefer to write with lightly formatted text and the use of icons, but I can go iconless to match my partner if they don’t use/want to use them.

You are not expected to match my length, but you are expected to leave me something to work with. Don’t respond to a para or multi-para with a single sentence. Please don’t write paras and not give me anything to work with. Doing this will discourage me from writing with you, and may result in me dropping the thread.

Turning meme responses into threads is perfectly okay, but you must make a new post, as I will not thread from an ask post.

Please don’t use me as a meme source blog; don’t reblog every single meme without sending some in. It’s not expected that you send a meme in every time, but it is preferred you send something in before reblogging if possible.

Please remember to specify which muse you wish to interact with when sending asks/memes, otherwise you will get a random muse.

KENJI IS FOURTEEN Y’ALL; there will be NO mature or suggestive content thank you next

Other

It would be much appreciated if you could tag things to do with childbirth/pregnancy, nsfw and horror/gore 🙏

If you need something tagged, please let me know.

Anon hate is also not tolerated and will be deleted, don’t waste your time. Don’t be that kind of person.

You’re always free to send asks ic at any time! I will respond to them when I can.

[doctorwhonews]

Rose (BBC Audio)

Latest Review: Written by: Russell T Davies Read by: Camille Coduri Cover by: Anthony Dry Duration: 4hrs 14mins Publisher: BBC Audio Originally Released June 2018 When Doctor Who returned with Rose in 2005 its necromancer in chief, Russell T Davies, was understandably nervous of going too far too soon. Both in terms of keeping the new mystery at the heart of show a mysterious tease (War? What war did he fight in? What planets couldn’t he save?) and in keeping the show’s past at arm’s length. Let the public learn to love the show again first, then introduce them to the potentially embarrassing extended family. Don’t scare them off straight away. But Davies’ affection for the show he grew up with pure and true, and it makes this Target novelization a unique case across the hundreds of titles to carry the Target logo. It’s not remotely unusual for Target books to deepen and expand on the original script. But this is the only case I can think of where the author is indulging himself with all the back references and fan service he couldn’t the first time around. The job is done. The crown has been passed on. Now it’s time to play. And so Clive’s history is greatly developed. Not only does his collection feature more than just Christopher Eccleston’s face staring out of historical events, but all the Doctors past and present, from Hartnell to Whittaker and even beyond have their own files on the shelves of the shed. And the origins of his obsession are revealed as being his own father’s presence during the events of Remembrance of the Daleks. But this book looks forward too. Davies has said he considers this itch scratched now, and being able to say that he wrong one entry in the beloved range of novelizations is enough for him. Nothing he’s said could be more convincing of that than the way he approaches this take on the Doctor and Rose. In a move that feels almost slightly greedy, he reaches into his own show’s future to plunder it for character beats that, on TV, were spun out for much longer. So, in this text-based universe, Rose and the Doctor have their discussion about his world having been destroyed and being the only survivor here rather than in The End of the World. A lot of the material about the Tyler family finds it way here from its original placement in Father’s Day and similarly, Mickey’s backstory from Rise of the Cybermen is included and expanded here. Indeed, Mickey overall is given far more sympathetic treatment here than in the televised episode. Another suggestion of Davies seeing this as his one shot at the character in prose, with no future installments over which to develop Mickey's good points. That will make for an interesting puzzle for future writers if the range ever gets around to novelizing such episodes – but if the Doctor winds up revealing the death of his people in the Time War to Rose twice, well, such continuity issues are almost a Target tradition going right the way back to Ian and Barbara’s multiple choice origin stories. In fact, even within this initial set of four releases, there’s an element of that – Davies’ Rose introducing a whole supporting cast for his version of Mickey (who, in another universe perhaps, would be the star of his own single-camera Channel 4 sitcom about a loveable ne’erdowell and his mates), all of whom have apparently evaporated by Colgan’s The Christmas Invasion, which notes that Mickey’s a bit of a loner who doesn’t make friends easily. There's a lot of brand new material in Davies’ book, too, both in fleshing out the bones of the plot and in the way Ian Marter famously used to with his novelizations – pushing the violence and horror well beyond anything that could have been gotten away with on television. The more in depth look at the characters is a delight. As soon as the passing line of “Wilson’s dead,” in the television script becomes an entire chapter of Wilson’s history at Henrick’s down the decades it’s clear we’re in for something special.  The increase in the violence isn’t quite as successful. There are scenes where the Autons utilizing bladed arms and so on are ingenious and clever, but at other times the detailed descriptions of people being hacked to pieces, or having the back of their heads blown off by Auton guns seems to sit badly with the general tone of the book and to be included just for their own sake. As with The Christmas Invasion, Jackie Tyler herself, Camille Coduri, takes on narration duties. The sheer pace of storytelling here leaves her less room to inject her own breezy reading style, and she seemed more at home approximating David Tennant’s mockney than dealing with Christopher Eccleston’s Salford tones (which here wind up more generically ‘Northern’). However, her recapturing of the Tyler matriarch is as perfect as ever (and she clearly relishes some of Jackie’s new lines like “Rose Tyler. You tart.”) And she again matches Billie Piper’s Rose so well that at times you’d be forgiven for thinking Piper had shown up in person. Coduri’s reading of the various tragic backstories of characters like Clive and Mickey is nicely sympathetic too, with a tangible sense of sitting across a kitchen table from her as she tells a new neighbour all the sad, sad stories of the locals right after they’ve left the room. Having Russell T Davies back on anything Doctor Who is always a massive treat and his revised take on Rose is no exception. Matching his prose with as warm and engaging a reader as Camille Coduri, it makes the audiobook a shot of pure nostalgia and a wonderful way to take listeners back to where it all began (again).   http://reviews.doctorwhonews.net/2018/07/rose_bbc_audio.html?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=tumblr

[ba1bphoebeowen]

Writing your way into animation - Notes

Write Your Way into Animation & Games – Christy Marx

I have heard that a very important part of getting into animation, especially when it comes to being a showrunner, is comedic timing. For this reason, I decided to look into some material that talks about this topic to gain a better understanding of it. This book also helps with basic script writing and narrative, which is part of this unit. 

Script terms:

Slugline: Typed in CAPITALS. Immediately informs the reader that this is a new scene or shot. Needed for every shot in an animation. Shouldn’t be more than a few words, just needs to establish who, where and what. Includes transitions between locations (e.g. EXT or INT). 

Action: Occurs immediately below the slugline. Describes the setting, character actions in the shot, sets the mood or tone, indicates sounds, camera movements. Needed to establish a scene. 

Angle on, Angle: Calls out an individual shot that indicates to the storyboard artist what to focus on in a shot / who is in the shot. 

Beat, A beat: Set in () to indicate a pause in dialogue to convey hesitation, a moment of thought, a point of emphasis etc.

Close up, Close on:  Used in the slugline to indicate to a story boarder that in this shot the camera should be on a close to the person or object. 

Cont’d (Continued): - Used at the bottom of a shooting script to show that it continues. - When a long bit of dialogue is broken across 2 pages (Centred in the middle of the dialogue column at the bottom of the page). - After a character’s name in () to indicate the character is continuing speech begun in another piece of dialogue. 

Transitions: Positioned along the right margin and is followed by a colon. - Dissolve to: Indicated when a scene ends & we’re cutting to a new scene with some time passing between them. - Cut to: Indicates a scene has ended and that we are cutting to a new location or setting. - Fade in / Fade out: Used to start or end a script / each act. Fade in is in the left margin, fade out in the right – fade in has a colon but fade out doesn’t. Fade in leads directly into the slugline.

Favouring: A way of calling out an individual shot in a script once a setting is established, would be at the start of the slugline followed by an emphasised character or object. 

O.C and O.S: Off camera and off stage. Used to the right of someone’s name in the dialogue when they speak but aren’t in shot. 

Parentheticals: - Indicated a specific tone, emotion or inflection for a voice actor. Discouraged in live action scripts but commonly used in animation ones. - Indicated a voice needs filters or modifications in editing. - Describes a sound for a voice actor to make. 

Sotto voice / under their breath: Latin for ‘low voice’. Something a character says that they don’t want others to hear. 

WALLA: Written in (), indicates basic background noise. 

Bumpers: Short pieces of animation that are inserted at the ends and starts of acts in between adverts to indicate the difference between it and the adverts. 

Character Arc: How the character begins and develops over time. Ending an arc too soon before the end of the show can lead to them becoming useless, unless you give them something else to do. 

High Concept: The underlying concept being pitched has a strong/ quirky/ good enough hook that can be summed up in a sentence. 

Sides: Sample dialogue for casting a character that captures the personality and speech patterns for the character. 

Tag: A short scene used to wrap up the end of a TV episode. Occurs after the final set of adverts, before the closing credits. 

In animation, background is different from location – each shot, if from a different angle, will require a new drawing for the background. 

Creating the story

Act 1: Introduce the problem (25% of the script) Act 2: Conflict due to the problem (50% of the script) Act 3: Resolution (25% of the script)

Who’s the protagonist? What do they learn by the end of the episode? At the beginning, what do they want? Who is going to stop them? What’s the catalyst for their wants and how are they planning to achieve them? The hero can fail time and time again, and they hit a crisis moment where they could be faced with a hard choice. 

Sometimes you won’t yet know the characters, and in this case, you start with the theme / lesson and create a hero that is best to learn that lesson. 

Longer stories might also have b-plot or in some cases, c-plots. One could be action-y and the other character driven, but both must advance the story.

The lesson the protagonist learns is used to recognise our own flaws, problems and needs. A theme could be thought of as a value meeting another and winning, such as forgiveness being better than revenge. The character might have a few that gets in the way of their happiness, and the story changes the way they look at life – their arc. 

“A theme is felt, not indoctrinated or preached”

Values should be expressed through action. 

Springboard: No more than a few sentences, very basic concept idea. Quick episode concepts that introduce a quick premise and conflict. All written in the present tense. 

Premise: Contains the beginning, middle and end of a story concisely but with enough detail to make it interesting – to sell it. For a pitch, unless told otherwise, you should come with 3-6 premises to submit. For a 30-minute show, a premise shouldn’t be more than a single-spaced page. 

Outline: A beat by beat description of the script, broken into acts with sluglines. You might need to write descriptive prose, depending on what the story editor wants. Should involve everything needed for production, like locations and backgrounds. Outline for a 30-minute show by be 5-8 pages and doesn’t have dialogue. 

Script: 

Sluglines / scene headings

Action description

Dialogue

Parentheticals

Transitions

Double spaced for everything except for dialogue and action description. 

12-point courier font, only underline for emphasis, don’t use bold or italics. 

Margins 1.5” on the left for binding, 1” for the right, top and bottom. 

Sluglines and action on the left margin, character name is 2” from the left, parentheticals are 1.5” from the left. Dialogue is 1” from left. Transitions are lined up to the right margin, numbering is in the top right. 

When working on a show, the cover page will have the name of the series, your name, the title of the episode and its production number. 

“In animation, the artist only knows what to draw when you tell them”

Dialogue in animation is expected to be minimal, concise, strong and punchy. Each piece should be 1 or 2 sentences at the most. Characters shouldn’t need to converse a tonne to get to a point (loads of back and forth can make for ‘soft’ dialogue). Utilize visuals in place of dialogue as much as possible. 

Live action script: 1 page = 1 minute

Animation script: 1.5 pages = 1 minute

Writing Characters

Fantasy characters are more realistic, despite their magical world. Usually have a limited number of traits, and their physical differences can play into their character. 

Nonhuman character usually represent certain human traits, such as hunger, fear etc. 

Symbolic characters are used in basic stories, such as myths and fairy tales where they represent basic traits and qualities. 

Does the character remind you of a real-world person that you know? Could this relation help to develop the character more, to make them more funny or realistic? Avoid characters that have been done before, make the character unique. Juxtaposing traits gives interesting results, and this can be done by merging traits from two different people. Characters should have some inconsistencies (they’re this, but also that!) even if it’s illogical. 

Exaggerate the character once you ‘get’ them. 

Use behavioural tags – what do they do repeatedly? (e.g. Tai Lee from Avatar would look for the perfect describing word for an action (poof!))

Make relationships believable, how they bounce off each other, whether they would want to be around each other realistically. 

Keep the character’s choices consistent with their core values. 

Characters need a story function or there's no point in them being there. What part of them affects the plot? They should always be motivated by their essential characteristic. 

“What event/ circumstance/ decision in the past is still affecting the hero today, making them who they are and driving the plot of the story?” anything not relating to this doesn't belong in the story. 

Writing for comedy

The stereotypical comedic character saves time as it allows you to know how a character is going to act without having to develop it much. 

“Comedy stemming from character allows for sustained humour, and it’s remembered long after the gags and situations.”

Comedy Types

The Blockhead – A “dumb” character. 

The Naif – The kid that always gets into trouble. 

The Fish out of Water – A misfit, a character in a situation where they don’t fit in. 

The Naïve – A character that’s oblivious to mature themes, ‘forever innocent’.

The Conniver 

The Zany

The Poor Soul – An underdog, works best when it’s a child or an animal. 

The Coward

Avoid negative stereotypes when designing a comedic character as it will need to have mass appeal. Consider what you write when you write about things that you’re not experiencing, such as about another sex, age, someone with a disability etc. Think about these characters as characters, such as what do they do in their spare time?

To make a comedic character memorable, they will need to be more complex than the basic comedy types. 

A comedic character needs to have a flaw to make them funny – human mistakes that make us laugh. Animated comedic characters should be loveable and larger than life, and they participate in slapstick. 

In comedy you set up a situation, increase tension and it's stopped by something unelected,  relieving tension. You twist a stereotype, drawing a contrast between two consistent frames of reference and linking them in an unexpected way. 

Comedy has a link to fear and aggression, fear might be combined with affection. Shock works well to demonstrate this.  Repression is another link,  referring to things that society looks down on that we find funny (like kids liking fart jokes because it's something they've been told to not do).

Kids naturally laugh at boasting and cruelty, but characters should still be good role models. 

Comedy in animation: must focus on the visual aspect, timing is important. Comedy is exaggerated and may be illogical. Never write down to kids! What jokes can appeal both to adults and children? 

Use a characters mannerisms, attitude and dialogue to increase the comedy of the character. When writing a scene, think about what would really happen, how does the character feel realistically and how can it be made funnier? 

Pinpoint what the comedy aims for in the product, and how it's gotten (through visuals or smart writing?)

Make the script fun and fresh, put a spin on a classic idea. Juxtapose ideas and sprinkle gags throughout. 

Misuse props for gags.

Set up gags with the basic information of the joke, maybe mislead them With a false setup, but keep this short. Exaggerate everything, build the gags. 

C's and K's sound funnier?

Let the audience bridge the gap to understand the joke, you don't need to explain it all. 

Pitching

Know the company your pitching to, and whether they’re looking for your product and will like your idea. 

If you call a company, set up a meeting with ‘Animation Development’, and have a logline prepared. Have a good relationship with people you speak to, including the assistant. 

Rehearse your pitch, but don’t memorise it.  Start with the title, genre, brief concept and pitch the goal of the hero. Pitches should stay short, 2 minutes ish. 

Have back up ideas for episodes.

Make the pitch fun - make eye contact, use hand gestures etc. 

What’s the basic concept, who’s the star, who’s the main villain, why is this series different, how does this relate to the child viewer etc. 

Another way to break into the industry is to write for pre-existing shows, and to apply for this you would write a spec script - speculative script that might not be used (you don’t expect it to). For these scripts you want to make sure you’re familiar with the characters and the show’s concept - don’t contradict past episodes. You shouldn’t make a script that details a major plot or character point either, and you shouldn’t introduce new characters. 

[gam702mjordan]

Game 1. Part 2- (Oh hubris, you wry wench...)

Remember in the last post when I said that farce was easy, I stated; “I’d written comedy before, so how hard could it possibly be?”

Yeah, so, much harder than was initially apparent to me.

Farce is one of the most difficult medium of writing I have ever come attempted as an author. I have always been fascinated by farce as a comedic expression and as I attempt to try my hand at it for the first time, it is dawning on me that it really isn’t as easy as I was anticipating.

To add to that, I have never written horror before and though I might like it as a genre. As I work, I can really see my lack of experience and expertise is showing. While I can appreciate that one must practice at something to hone the craft, to use the cliché: practice makes perfect and all that jazz… I am personally feeling that right now I may have bitten off more than I can chew. I am trying to synthesize these two mediums, which I have no training in and the result is that am being hyper critical of every single line of dialogue and descriptive prose. I am spending far too long on each section trying to get the balance betwixt the two just right. I do feel like I’m not sticking the landing though. I feel that it might in part due to the fact that I am writing it and the written word is much more open to the individual readers interpretation of the piece. As I am writing the work, I find that I am creating the characters on the fly. I’m reading lines in a certain cadence and whilst that might be humorous to me. I have no idea how someone else is going to read the work. To someone else, it might be construed as a serious piece. That is the authorial problem though, am I competent enough create someone clear enough that will be interpreted the way I want. As I am reading through the work as I go, I feel more and more unsure, and don’t have the knowledge and experience at my disposal to know how to right the ship.

In an attempt to manufacture the right tone, I researched a lot of famous farce writers, playwrights and such, and looked at a whole panoply of details and theories written on the subject of farce, but as with most masters of a medium, none of them can seems to fully agree with each other and the case is that they all have differing opinions on the subject. Normally when confronted with so many differing opinions on a subject I find that endless note taking helps me climb out of my hole, though this does not seem to be the case this time. The contrasting opinions have such disparity to one another that I can’t find t tread of logic to hold on to and work from there

At this point in the project, what I personally ascertained about Creating a horror/farce is that is a delicate balancing act. To explain it using an analogy, there is a hard line, call it a line of belief, and as an author one must take it right up to the line, and then only take one step over it and no more than that. Therefore; there must be heavy undertones of naturalism to the medium. It can’t be so ridiculous that it becomes too improbable.

Farce resonates with us as humans because it is believable, because we experience ludicrous situations in our day to day life, see ourselves in it. It’s a mirror to our own ludicrousness, and in turn helps us except those moments of cringe in our own lives. At this point in the project though I feel like there is no evidence of this ideal in my work and the impression I am getting from the labour is that I am unsuccessfully marrying the two genres together. There are parts that I like, and feel that do come close, but I can’t seem to unify the two, I feel like I am either writing a garbage sitcom, or a fully absurd gory horror, and the dichotomy between the two is causing friction.

To add to this, I am really running out of time, and the pressure is constricting my brain from function due to the panic. I can’t seem to focus on the piece with enough clarity, as my inner monologue is constantly reminding me of how little time I have left to finish.

Thus, the development of the piece has been very staggered and un-syncopated. I find myself starting at paragraphs for some time, just trying to figure out what I am going for, whether the tone fits, and if I’m just making a hot mess of the whole thing.  The scope of this project has run away from me, and I am really struggling to correctly work the ideas that I want to integrate into the work to a level that I will be satisfied with, and then cherry on top is that due to my own myopic faffing, I am swiftly running out of time.

It’s funny really, I spent so much time on the first iteration of the DIY project idea, and then jettisoned the idea because I felt that I didn’t have enough time to complete the game with enough time to give the subject matter the and reverence that it justly deserves. But if I had stuck to it then I may have done. Because being the idiot that I am, I ostensibly planned two projects in the time that I was meant to create only one.

Coz I'm a ding dong... ¯\_(ツ)_/¯