#like you know in order to improve your writing you actually have to answer people … right?

[tr1cked]

getting recommended someone u thought u were mutuals with but they apparently soft blocked u after they never answered ur thread for months is such a good feeling. like damn thanks for putting the effort in to try to make it work.

[ballsandbabes]

Bleed through love: Geum Seong-jae x Reader

Authors Note: I normally dont write about other things than Sports, BUT...I started with Weak Hero and find the story really exciting. While reading, I found Geum Seong-ja's character very exciting. Y/n = your name// not proof read// GIF not mine // Have fun <3

Summary: Love is never easy, but it is difficult when you fall in love with Seongje. But what happens if he's interested in you too?

Genre: Universe of Weak Hero, slow-burn romance, character drama, fluff with grit, slightly toxic depiciton of a relationship.

Life wasn't fair. Not for you. Your parents were once respected doctors at a good clinic. But even there, corruption flowed through every vein of the institution. That is, until Kim De-Uhn, the director of the clinic, died. And therefore the only person who had protected this secret. As soon as the new director was in office, all employees were fired, including your parents. They had done nothing wrong, but the director wanted to get rid of all old employees in order to be able to completely rebuild and improve the clinic's reputation. With everything that came to light afterward, it made it difficult for your parents to find work again.

And that's how you ended up at Eunjang High School. A cruel, brutal and unrelenting chaos of a school life. You had once had dreams. Dreams of a good, carefree life as a graphic designer. But now it was about surviving this cruel and terrible place.

If you didn't belong to one of the thug squads or knew a member, you could actually get through everyday school life just fine. And that's exactly what you did. You were quiet, reserved and didn't attract attention. Which doesn't mean that you didn't have your reputation at school. The classmates who knew you knew how good you were. Smart, well-read, intelligent, one or two boys would also say that you were very beautiful.

“Omg, I heard Yeon Sieun got into a fight with someone again,” said Daehyun, your best friend. "Oh come on, let's not interfere. That happens every day," you said as you prepared for the next lesson.

You first met Geum Seong-jae after a math test.

You were sitting alone in the hallway, reading glasses slipping down your nose, notebook open across your lap as you reviewed formulas for fun — because yes, that’s the kind of person you were. You liked rules. You liked logic to a degree. You liked knowing that hard work, in school at least, led to clear answers.

He walked by bleeding from the lip.

And you didn’t look away.

“You....you okay?” you asked, calm and straightforward. At that moment you didn't even know why you had spoken to him. Actually, it was against all your rules, but you did it anyway. How reckless.

He slowed. Stared. He was used to flinches, whispers, or forced politeness. Not concern. Especially not from a girl in a sporty zip-up Hoodie with ink on her fingers. He scoffed. “Do I look okay?”

“You look like you got your face slammed into a locker. Twice,” You said while adjusting your glasses. Why did you say that?

That pulled a sharp laugh from him—surprised and short. Then he turned to leave, but not before shooting you a sideways glance.

“Don’t get involved,, stupid girl” he muttered.

But you were involved, in the way that people like you always were — because you believed people and their actions could be understood, even when they didn’t believe it themselves. You would know what he was like. He had shown this often enough when his bloody knuckles had slammed into his opponent's jawline until it was brimming with blood. That's why you knew you couldn't change him. You didn't want that either, but you wanted to be able to understand him, understand why he did what he did.

___ _ _ _

You saw each other every now and then, especially on the way home. When you had to move, the neighborhood you lived in, was different, more unsafe.

It had started with the conversation in the hallway of the school, that Seongje found himself thinking about you. What was the point of this stupid girl to just babble at him like that? Was she crazy?

You hadn't cared who he was, you had just wanted to make sure he was okay and he couldn't quite understand that. He had told himself he was here purely by chance as he waited outside the shabby little art room. Movement. He looked into the room through the tiny, dusty window. You helped a classmate with her picture. Your eyes focused and full of helpfulness. Your body language inviting and sisterly.

Another time you stopped at the sports field on your way from the entrance hall across the courtyard. You had actually never seen him play sports before, that was more Hoo-min Park's thing. Also a bully at your school. It was where you realized how strong and athletic Seongje actually was.

So it went back and forth. You noticed each other. However, without anyone else noticing.

The next time, he found you.

A kid from another class had tried to cheat off your quiz, and when you refused, he pushed you against a locker and called you a stuck-up nobody. You didn’t cry. You stared him down and told the teacher. He got detention.

You got called names. By lunch, your books had been tossed in the hallway. Again.

And Seongje saw it happen.

You didn’t saw him, therefor thinking he wouldnt bat an eye — he didn’t exactly have a reputation for defending nerdy girls with moral backbones. But then, at the end of the day, the kid who shoved you left school with a bloody nose and a limp. What had happened?

You and your friends sat on the wall of the schoolyard as you discussed in whispers what had happened to the guy who had been so mean to you. "Maybe this is all just a stupid coincidence," Mia said, her voice low and wavering. "I don't think so, the boys may be brutal, but that doesn't mean they can't think," Jiun said.

And then you would have seen him. Just early enough to see him put his bloody hand in his pocket. While you were still running, you said goodbye to your friends as you ran after him.

“Don’t thank me,” Seongje told you when you caught up to him later. “I didn’t do it for you.”

“Then why?” you challenged him to answer you, arms crossed, refusing to let him brush it off.

His eyes lingered on your face. "...Because you didn’t flinch. You even have the guts to talk to me like that."

___ _ _ _

He started showing up more after that. Not obviously. Just… nearby. Lingering. He'd stand outside the library and pretend to scroll through his phone. Sit behind you during lunch and pretend to sleep. Glance your way in class and immediately look away when you noticed.

You first didnt notice, but when you did, you never called him out. You just let him hover — because you knew that for someone like him, proximity was connection.

He asked you once, late in the hallway after everyone had left: “Why are you always trying to do the right thing? Even when it sucks for you?”

You closed your locker and smiled at him. “Because someone has to. I don't know, but maybe it will help someone. Maybe it will help someone if I point out to the teacher that we cannot move the date forward. And maybe if I do it enough, someone else will too.”

“…That’s so stupid,” he said quietly, laughing at you.

But the next week, he returned a lost wallet to a first-year without taking the cash inside. Even if he had thought about taking it.

Geum Seong-jae wasn’t gentle. Not in the slightest. To be honest, he was brutal, crazy and arrogant. Despising people who are or act weak, people like you. He wasn’t patient. His anger lived just under his skin, hot and volatile.

But with you?

He showed a very strange side of his, in ways you couldnt really describe. And explain even less.

He "walked" you home but never admitted it, basically he followed you from a few meters away. He "asked", more like teased or bullied you with questions about your favorite books and pretended to be bored....then he would steal them from you. He tried to fix your broken calculator once. Failed. Replaced it in your bag without saying a word. Which got you into massive trouble. Because the guy sitting next to you had lost his calculator, which was also new, and simply accused you of stealing his calculator. What was that about? Did Seungje want to bully you?

And when you asked him, one day, why he hung around you at all, he shrugged and said,“Because you entertain me with you "good morals".” “What do you mean,” you asked him, confused. He explained to you that you weren't an angel either. You lent your study materials to a classmate so that she could copy and not fail. Actually, you weren't allowed to do that. And unfortunately he is right. In an attempt to do something good, you had done something forbidden. An interesting thought came to you during this conversation…maybe it was the same with him?

___ _ _ _

It started like any other day — quiet, normal, deceptive. But you could tell something was off the moment Seongje stepped into school. His eyes were darker, shoulders tense, fists already curled like he’d been in a fight before first period even began. You didn’t ask — not yet — but you stayed close.

When the news spread through the halls that some guys from a nearby school had jumped one of Seongje’s friends outside the gates, everything unraveled fast. By the time you found him, he was already throwing punches. It wasn’t a fight — it was an explosion. Raw, furious, unstoppable. One of the boys lay curled on the concrete, bleeding from the mouth, teeth lose, while Seong-jae slammed the other into a wall, again and again, knuckles cracking with every hit.

“Seongje!” you shouted, running toward him. He didn’t hear you.

“Omg...Stop—please!” You grabbed his arm, your voice trembling but strong. “He understood, but if you continue you could kill him.”

He shoved you back without looking. Not hard — just to get you out of the way. But your foot caught the curb. And you fell. Hard. The third boy gripping you by your wrist, twisting it. You let out a cry of pain. The sound of your body crying for help, in pain, was louder than his fists.

That’s when everything stopped.

His fist hovered mid-air. His head turned. And when he saw you — clutching your wrist, eyes wide in stunned silence — his entire body locked. He let go of the boy he’d been pummeling, who collapsed with a groan. Then Seongje stumbled toward you, color draining from his face. Freeing you from the clutches of the third boy, while hitting him with his fist.

“Y/N…”

You sat up slowly, wincing. Your wrist throbbed, but the physical pain was nothing compared to the look on his face — pure devastation, like he was watching everything he built crumble in real time.

“I didn’t—” His voice cracked. “I didn’t mean to. I didn’t know it was you, I just—”

You looked at him, really looked. Tears in your eyes, caused by through pain inflicted by him. His hands were shaking. Blood was on his knuckles, and you didn’t know whose. His breath came fast and shallow. But his eyes — his eyes were breaking.

“I told you,” you whispered, “you’re more than your anger.” He sank to the ground beside you, knees drawn up, hands buried in his hair like he wanted to tear it out.

“I’m not,” he muttered. “I hurt you. I did hurt you.”

You reached out gently, laying your uninjured hand on his.

“I’m still here,” you said. “That has to mean something, doesn’t it?”

He looked at you like he didn’t deserve to. Like he’d already accepted that you’d walk away. Like they always did. But you, for what ever reason, didn’t. So if you wouldnt walk away, he had to. He didn't want to see you, being hurt by him ever again.

And so time passed. Time when it felt as if all the moments of stares, anger, closeness and acquaintance had never existed. You became strangers.

___ _ _ _

Time passed. Like it always did. Slow, awkward, cruel.

You and Geum Seongje drifted, the way people do, when things go unsaid — not out of hate, but out of history too heavy to carry. After the fight, after your wrist healed, after he stopped meeting your eyes in the hallway... things just broke.

Now, you were strangers again. You started dating someone a few months later — a boy from the year above, pretty handsome, tall and smart. He was kind, on paper. Well-dressed. Smiled when teachers looked. And most importantly, he wasn't complicated. He didn’t throw punches. He didn’t carry the weight of anger behind his eyes.

But Seongje noticed the difference right away. You didn’t light up when you talked about him. Your smile didn’t quite reach your eyes. And when Seongje saw you walking with the guy, hand-in-hand but looking at the ground — he knew.

And then, some afternoon that week, he saw him. Behind the convenience store, Seong-jae caught him — your perfect boyfriend — with his arm wrapped around girl. A girl that wasnt you. The boy was grinning like he hadn’t just lied to you with every kiss.

That was the moment he snapped. No hesitation. No warning. Fist met jaw. Shoulder hit wall. The guy screamed, fought back, but Seong-jae was fire — wild and wordless. His only thoughts were: How dare you. How dare you touch her, lie to her, ruin her happy smile like that.

By the time it ended, Seongje stood panting over the guy’s crumpled body, fists bloodied, eyes burning. He didn’t even run.

He wanted you to know. You did find out. And you were furious.

You showed up at the nurse’s office where they were patching up his busted lip.

“What the hell is wrong with you?” you snapped, your voice shaking — not from fear, but something deeper. “You can’t just fight everyone who looks at you the wrong way, Seongje!” There it was. At such times, you showed a fire equal to his. Anger, disappointment and the urge to fight. It fascinated him how you could be so loving, caring and so spirited at the same time.

He stared up at you, eyes shadowed, like he’d already accepted your rage before you even arrived.

“I saw him,” he said quietly. “Cheating on you...with that dumb blonde from the second year. I couldn’t… I couldn’t let it slide.”

Your anger deflated. You blinked, stunned.“…What?”

He looked away. “He doesn’t deserve you. No one like that does.”

Silence hung heavy between you. And in it, something softened.

“I’m not....yours.... to protect anymore. I never needed that kind of protection...so whats up with this shit of yours??,” you whispered. Not cold. Just… honest.

“I know,” he murmured. “But I still want to.”

After that, things began to shift. Slow. Careful. You started saying hi again in the halls. He started waiting just a little longer near your classroom. One day, he handed you a drink — your favorite, the one you hadn’t told him you still liked. You took it without a word.

One night, you caught him waiting for you outside the library.

“Thought I’d walk you home,” he said. “Old habits die hard.”

You smiled. “Maybe they don’t have to die. and maybe you walk home with me, instead of behind me?”

From then on, it was the little things. Your hand brushing his on the bus, neither of you pulling away. Him walking on the outside of the sidewalk. You fixing the cut on his knuckle or cheek after another scuffle — gently, like touching something sacred. Him pretending not to look at you or care about it. You pretending not to notice.

You waited. Because if there was one thing you learned about Geum Seongje, it’s that he didn’t need someone to rescue him — he needed someone to stay.

___ _ _ _

It started on a late spring afternoon, the sky grey and heavy. You were leaving school when the downpour hit. You didn’t have an umbrella.

Of course, he found you just at the right time (he had probably followed you again) — running, hair soaked, backpack clutched to your chest. He didn’t say anything. Just walked up and stood in the rain beside you.

Soaked. Still. Silent.

You looked at him, laughter bubbling from your chest.

“This is stupid,” you said, smiling. “We’re going to get sick.”

“Probably,” he replied. You shook your head. “Why do you always show up?”

His voice was low, sincere. “Because you make me want to be someone who doesn’t run away.”

Your breath hitched. Rain clung to your lashes, little droplets haning on for their dear life. His hair stuck to his forehead., soaked and wet He looked at you like you were the only solid thing left in a world that never gave him a place to rest. This time his eyes only show the madness of letting you into his life. The madness of believing that a stupid girl couldn't hurt him. But you could. Whenever you weren't there, he couldn't see you. The fear that something would happen to you cut through him like a sharp knife.

You stepped closer. He didn’t move. “You’re not a bad person, Seong-jae,” you said, voice barely louder than the rain. “You’re just scared someone might understand you... believe that even you have good intentions...sometimes.”

“…You believe that?”

“I do,” you said quietly. Unsure if these words wouldn't make him angry. And then, he leaned in — slowly, softly — and you met him there, in the middle of the storm.

The kiss was everything it shouldn’t have been. Wet. Clumsy. Honest. Madness.

His hands gripped the sides of your face like he was terrified you'd disappear. Yours found his chest, feeling the heartbeat under bruises and bandages and broken pasts.

When you pulled away, breathless, you smiled.

He did too. Not wide. Not perfect. But real.

BONUS:

The boxing hall was dimly lit, smelling faintly of sweat, leather, and something weirdly nostalgic. The rain had stopped hours ago, leaving the city hushed outside, the world tucked into sleep. It had been a few weeks now since you two shared that rainy kiss.

Inside, you were wrapping your hands with practiced slowness — or, at least, trying to. You had no idea what you were doing. You had never been in a place like this before and to be honest it scared you a little. On the other hand, you were happy that Seongje took you into his world with him. A sign of his affection towards you.

“You’re doing it backwards,” Seongje muttered, walking up behind you. His fingers brushed yours, fixing the tape with the kind of care that didn’t match his bruised knuckles or the way he usually handled the world. You glanced up at him, teasing. “I didn’t know Mr. Punch-Everything-In-Sight was a hand-wrapping expert.”

He gave you a sharp look, a fire flickering behind his eyes. “If you're gonna fight, you're gonna do it right.”

“Who says I want to fight?,” confusion rose in your voice. Shouldn't this be something like a date? Sure, it had been weird when he asked you to tag along, but when has it ever been normal with him?

His voice dropped. “You're with me now.” That shut you up — not because it was possessive, but because it was protective. His way of saying I won’t always be able to catch them first. The gym was empty but alive with silence. A single bulb flickered above the ring.

“You're not gonna hurt me....,” you asked, better demanded gently, stepping up into the ring.

He hesitated. “I might.”

You smiled, pulling him by the hand. “Then....Then teach me how to hit back.”

He started with stance — guiding your feet, steadying your shoulders. He circled you slowly, correcting posture, nodding when you got it right. But every time his hands touched you — waist, arms, jaw — it lingered just a moment too long.

And you noticed. “Try,” he said, lifting the pads. “Throw one.”

You did. It wasn’t clean. But it had heart.

He smirked. “Again.”

You hit harder. He chuckled lowly, his mad smile starting to appear on his face. “Better. Where’s that fire when you’re doing math equations?”

You dropped your fists and raised a brow. “Well.. its different...wait?You like my fire?”

He stilled — caught off guard for just a second. “...Yeah. A lot.”

Your eyes locked. Then you stepped in — slow, deliberate — sliding your hands up the front of his shirt, fingers curling into the fabric. Dragging him towards you.

His breath hitched. “Y/N…”

You tilted your head. “You gonna stop me?”

“No,” he whispered. “Never.”

And then you kissed him. No hesitation. No buildup this time.

It was all sharp angles and soft mouths, the snap of tension finally breaking. His hands grabbed your waist, pulling you flush against him, teeth clashing in a kiss that tasted like adrenaline and something long overdue. It was wild and demanding.

You tugged at his shirt. He growled — low and real — before lifting you gently and setting you on the edge of the ring.

The contrast between his rough grip and the reverence in his gaze lit every nerve in your body.

“You sure?” he asked, chest heaving.

You nodded, breathless. “I’ve never been more sure.”

And in that old gym, where ghosts of fights past echoed in the walls, you gave yourself to him — not just your body, but every piece of trust he thought he didn’t deserve. And there you saw it, his version of gentleness.

His lips on your neck. Your hands in his hair. The quietest moans swallowed between kisses. Him trying his best, so his strength never bruised you — it only held you steady. And your softness never made him weak — it grounded him.

For once, Seongje had developed a strong respect for will and strength, other than his. His madness faltering, knowing you could understand his being.

For the moment, he just was mad about you.

I hope you liked this special piece. Love Becca <3

[melancholicstation]

BEAT POETRY ON AMPHETAMINES - a collection of situationship!jfk headcanon's

takes you on "dates" which are in reality him taking you to a matinée showing of an erotic nineteen twenties film that ends in you guys risking a public indecency charge on both your records between the theatre seats

does the equivalent of a "you up?" text by randomly showing up at your parents home and telling them that he's going to take you out on a twilight boat ride across the cape

the night definitely doesn't end with you guys wandering out way top far on the water simply because other things caught your attention...

jfk going to mass because situationship!reader won't answer his letter and/or calls cause she saw something in the newspaper about him and another socialite:

situationship!reader being embarrassingly down bad and commissioning a one of one bespoke tie for jack as a birthday present embroidered with a message like this

always makes incredibly crude and dirty comments whenever you have to make jello for a summer society event or sorority meet, however there's a sick sense of accomplishment that you feel knowing that jack sticks around to watch you do the mundane stuff, rather than simply leaving you after he's had his way like he does with the other girls.... (i'm sorry in order to be in a situationship with jack and not rip your hair out you would have to harbour a pick me/not like other girls complex inside you... i don't make the rules, i just timidly enforce them!)

also the jello moulds would be by gelée (yes, i know the brand wasn't around in 1950s my fanfics exist in a liminal space without the actual laws of time) cause they are my favourite for crafting a 1950s confectionary feel in the modern age (and they have free shipping! hallelujah!) and the jack's favourite flavour would be pĩna coco... don't play with me right now

would actually wow you with his morning after breakfast cooking skills (on his good back days) and would work within the confines of your very limited pantry in your one bedroom apartment...

and then he would return to the bedroom where he left you, wrapped up in a white poplin sheet, with a cobbled together jelly and tahini brioche on a plate to share with one fork for the two of you

at like 4am once you guys had done what you do for most of the little time you get to spend with each other, he'd try his hand at being vulnerable mostly about his chronic illness and back pain...

i'm thinking specifically something akin to how he would write to igna arvad about his outlook on pain as a constant plague on his enjoyment of all the things that life could offer a man as wonderful as he "if i had lived to be a hundred, i could only have improved the quantity of my life, not the quality" but it would be more conversational when in person. because a man like jack doesn't strike me as overly eager to trauma dump, yet also reads as very emotionally intelligent in parts

he always gets letters sent on hotel stationary whenever you stay at the chataeu marmont like this:

after fifty years and once you two have both passed i just know people wander across photos of you two together on pinterest and are like who is that girl with the thirty-first president of the united states?? and why have we never heard of her.

and you two are always serving cunt prince and princess of the people in the photos:

he would write rambling letters to you when he was a little drunk if he caught a glimpse of you at a partying entertaining or simply talking to a man in the manner you once talked to him in (despite making no moves to make your relationship offical or monogamous in any fashion) and then apologise later on in person with a kicked labrador expression or right his wrongs in a follow up letter

you're granted visitations rights to visit his room while he's recovering from 2nd back surgery and you bring bread and broth (due to the strict clinical diet he's been placed under) along with a hand written steve harrison quote "the virtue of soup and bread in a clay pot prepares the body and mind for what is to come" that you use push pins to affix on his hospital room wall

alongside that selection, you begrudgingly bring some adult magazines because he hasn't stopped whining that there was nothing to do all damn day

you guys keep a small pseudo capsule closet in each others drawers. for him: there's a small collection of parisotto cotton shirts in blue, black and navy. for you: there's a pair of linen pyjamas, a biella cashmere jacket and pleat skirt set, and an oversized coat

jack would 100% smell like a mix of abercrombie and fitch fierce cologne and the deauville lotion from chanel

you'd handed him a mother of pearl spoon with some osetrra caviar in a little gift box for christmas...

which then led to jack eating caviar of various parts of your body quietly trying not to wake up those who were still up for the night...

[honeyhotteoks]

I heard dom!Yunho and aftercare? 👀 I’m being so needy lmao but what can I say, I’m whipped for this man (always have been but let’s just say it’s gotten significantly worse since I started reading your fics *pointed stare*)

it’s okay i am whipped for him too. i’m answering this one, but i saw a few others asking the same so i’m lumping it all together in this post on his aftercare.

let’s get into it under the cut —

aftercare. a topic and a post in itself because truly i think this is the most underrated part of any d/s relationship and something more people outside of d/s dynamics should actually be doing.

i was trying to write some of this up in my reply on yunho’s ideal sub, but that post keeps getting eaten by tumblr so i’ll just quickly add that note here as well -> doms need aftercare too! doms are people who just engaged in a scene, and just because they were “in control” it doesn’t mean they don’t need checking in with. so at the bottom of this aftercare for his submissive list, i’ve added aftercare for yunho too.

aftercare for his submissive looks like:

soft kisses, tender touches. after a scene, especially a harder one that involved any amount of degradation or humiliation, yunho would be the type to soften his voice, press kisses all over your face and any marks, and soothe you with his words - “you’re safe, i’m right here, sweetheart,” and lots of praise, “you did beautifully for me, so perfect, baby,”

physical care and checks. especially if the scene involved rigging, spanking, or any more intense element, yunho would be quick to check your body over for any injuries or marks. especially with rigging, a good rigger knows how to assess nerve endings during and after a scene to ensure that there’s no damage and i know yunho would have done enough research and would care enough to do that job well.

babying, doting. he’s the type to want to keep you close after, for you but also for himself. he’d scoop you up in his arms and cradle you, tell you he’s going to take care of you, and maybe even run a bath and just pamper you.

boundary checks. this one is key, especially in an intense scene, but once the initial high of a scene fades, he would want to debrief and ensure he didn’t do anything too far, if he tried something new how did you like it, etc. he’s always improving and working on himself, that means his relationship too.

food, water, vitamins. these are key! once you’re ready for him to step away, yunho’s ready to cook or order something for you and get your levels back up, and makes you drink multiple glasses of water to replenish. vitamins are also something underrated from an aftercare pov, and i think as yunho got more experienced as a dom and did more research this is something he would bring back in to help stabilize all those rushing endorphins and sudden serotonin drops.

praise, communication, and compliments. this is outside of just the tenderness he’s giving at the start, i think he would be the type to tell you clearly what you did well and what he liked so you don’t have to wonder and hope if he liked it / if he’s pleased etc.

aftercare for yunho:

clear communication. providing him with clarity on the fact that you are safe, you feel safe, and you feel respected is important. especially in harder scenes or more intense dynamics. this might look like saying something as clear as “you made me feel so safe” or “you always take good care of me” etc. to reiterate that they are doing right by you as a dom

food! water! vitamins! if they’re important for a sub they’re important for a dom too. after a scene he may need to dote on his parter, but soft reminders for him to care for himself or maybe getting these things for him later on would be a reciprocal moment of aftercare he would appreciate.

boundary checks. they got both ways like i said - so ensuring that he’s asked how the scene was for him, if he was comfortable, etc., are all very important parts

cuddles. he’s going to be giving them, but sometimes after a scene it hits the dom harder, so crawling into his arms, cuddling, all of that would be something that he would appreciate. yunho’s very physical, and i think to be able to physically feel that his submissive is safe and happy would be a huge comfort to him.

a little quiet. after the checking and the cuddling and all of it, a lot of people can feel flattened out by a scene. i emphasize quiet because i could see yunho as the type to need his partner present and physically next to him/touching, but need a moment of mental quiet to just process and reconnect in that silence.

i’m sure there’s more, but these are the big ones! i hope this was fun and hits what you were looking for.

[wordsnstuff]

Why does screenwriting have such a weird format? I know it's standard for scripts of all kinds, but it's also alien? It almost looks like it's designed for someone to write quickly??

Why are screenplays the way they are?

Screenplays are interesting pieces of writing because while they can read very beautifully, and quality is apparent in some scripts more than others, it is a medium that is extremely purposeful. The script is not the final destination of the idea, and that is what you have to remember. The script is, more than anything, a map. It gives the cast, crew, and producers the necessary information to get a sense of the story so that it can be adapted effectively. Therefore, the quality of a script is judged by a completely different rubrick:

Adaptability: Scripts are naturally going to go through many changes to serve the filmmaking process. Filmmaking is a fundamentally collaborative process so other members of the group must be able to effectively interpret the script well enough to make strategic improvements. Scripts are definitely works of art in their own right, but the design must account for adaptation into a completely different medium and you will not always be the person making executive decisions on how that is to be done.

Clarity: Creative liberty is acceptable in a lot of forms of writing, and style is definitely apparent in a screenwriter's work, but that is primarily to be found in how they practically form the elements of the story, rather than how it is delivered in words. The clearer your meaning and intent in a script, the easier it will be for the other people you're collaborating with to interpret and translate into the next medium. Even if your work is meant to be experimental, abstract, or avant garde, the script is the place where you make sure everyone that is inside of the production understands the point, so that they can help you make sure everyone outside of it is confused in the desired way. Your talent and style can be showcased in the way you demonstrate the particular brand of humor or suspense or drama in the descriptions, dialogue, and dialogue cues.

Efficiency: Format is extremely strict in the industry because it is a collaborative medium that often brings together hundreds of crew members who are all from different backgrounds/experience. The one thing that must remain consistent and reliable is the legibility of the script. The gaffer and the producer alike must be able to pick up the script and find what they need to learn in order to fulfill their role. The format of the script denotes specific crew member's cues in specific places so they know how to find what's expected of them quickly and efficiently. While on larger productions, there's often many directorial positions who are coordinating and communicating with the crew members who handle more detail oriented jobs, that isn't always the case.

My advice, if you're looking to gain experience in writing scripts that are actually meant to be adapted is to practice self-discipline, pragmatism, and distance. Your script won't always belong to you. There isn't the autonomy in screenwriting that you have in prose. Learn the rules of screenwriting, then learn how to enhance them in your own way.

Best of luck,

x Kate

–

Masterlist

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[aphroditestearsofjoy]

🌸 𝐆𝐮𝐢𝐝𝐞 𝐭𝐨 𝐚 𝐡𝐞𝐚𝐥𝐭𝐡𝐲 𝐥𝐢𝐟𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐲𝐥𝐞

I've been active in the self-care community for a little bit and read lots of books about lifestyle. There is already a lot of lovely advice on this app, but there are some important aspects I haven't seen and some aspects I don't think are as important. I hope this helps some people to accomplish their dream lifestyle!  But in all honesty, I do mainly write this as a list and reminder for myself. This is going to take quite some time to read, but I promise you, it will be worth it. 

Before you read everything, I want to remind you that this is a long list of healthy habits. That does not mean you need to follow everything to be "that" version of ourselves, we need to be realistic. It's kind of like vegetables. Vegetables are healthy, and you should eat them, but you don't need to eat all the vegetables that exist in order to be healthy. You eat the vegetables that you like and align with your lifestyle. So follow the tips that you like and align with your lifestyle! 

𝕄𝕚𝕟𝕕𝕤𝕖𝕥

This is one of the most important parts of a healthy lifestyle. I have a lot to say here and on most other parts of this post so if you want to know more, just let me know!

💭Because I am mindset - this is one of the most important things you need to learn! If you want to feel loved, good enough, pretty (Or all because that is what you deserve) or anything else, the only thing you need to do is change the way you think. 

For a moment, I want you to think and answer this question to me: "Why are you good enough?" If you answered with your accomplishments, looks or anything that is not "Because I am me, and I am good enough." you are wrong. This may sound weird because in the self-care community we are taught that in order to be successful we need to have things like a morning routine, a bedtime and always need to take care of ourselves. While these are things that can improve your life, they do not make you any more deserving of love and care. If you let your happiness depend on anything but the fact that you are here and that you deserve it, you will always be unhappy. Even if you don't feel it now, the moment you feel overwhelmed and are unable to make up to your reasoning on why you are good enough, you feel depressed and undeserving. So the moment you don't do your task, you feel like you are incapable and not good enough. All because we base our self-worth on our actions instead of ourselves. You are putting yourself through so much unnecessary stress when doing that. You deserve better than that.

Let me repeat it out loud for you: "I am not doing my morning routine, am I still good enough?" YES, because you are you, and you are good enough. 

💭 Stop procrasiating - This is a hard one for me, since it is something I still struggle with to this day. But it is sososo important. You probably already know what you need to do to improve your life. Of course, you don't know everything, but you don't need to. A lot of things will come in your way when you are actually doing it, and you can't try out everything at once. But when you think about it, you find it easier to procrastinate than to actually do things. There can be so many reasons for that.

Stop watching so much content on YouTube and Tumblr on self-improvement if you are not going to do anything with it! This is a very easy way to procrastinate. Because you convince yourself that you are being productive, because everytime you watch content with new good advice you get an ephifhany. You are not going to do anything with the information, go watch a Netflix show, you will probably enjoy that more. You already know what to do, so go and do it, keep interacting with content that inspires you and learns you new things about self-care to try out, but don't use it as an excuse.

Let me tell you these very harsh words: If you're not going to start doing it in the next 24 hours, it's better to give up on it now. You don't have to do everything in those 24 hours, but set the first few steps. If you really want it, you should start acting like it. There is no perfect time to start, the only time you need is time to practise and exerience it!

💭 Be gratefull - We are so blessed. Even when going through hard times, there is still a lot of beauty to life. When looking at the news nowadays, it's very easy to get caught up in an overwhelming feeling of sadness or pain. Or with social media, it can be hard to see our own beauty when we see this overidealized picture of a model.

There is a last very important reason why you should practise gratefulness. And it's selective observation. We as humans think, see, feel, hear and smell a lot. Way too much for our brain to properly comprehend. Because of this, our brain will focus on certain things. These things may differ for everyone. But what we interact with a lot, we get used to. So, by interacting with positive thoughts and by appreciating ourselves and the world around us, we will notice these positive and pretty things. 

There are 2 ways I bring positivity and gratefulness into my life. The first one is one you've probably heard alot about: Writing down 3 positive things at the end of the day. I do this but also add a morning exercise, where I specifically write down 3 positive things about myself or my opportunities! The second thing I recently started doing is being aware of your surroundings. I got inspiration from a drawing on tumblr I found not so long ago. Instead of going on my phone when I need to wait for a while or putting on music when cycling to school, I sometimes just try to look around me and appreciate everything I see. When I do this, I  call out my appreciation in my head. I look around and think "Wow, the way that bird looks is just so magical; it looks happy and at peace." or even "The color of that mailbox suits the house so much." It helps me appreciate the little things.

💭 Protect your energy -

In the end, we are the ones responsible for our own wellbeing. Of course, we can partly depend on others, like our friends, family, our partner or even a stranger. But just as your priority is your own happiness, theirs should be their happiness too. That does not mean you can do what you want whenever you want without caring about other people. But by this I am implying that you should stop pleasing people and listen to what you want. Of course, you want to avoid toxic people and situations in general. But when you do get in touch with them, you can lay responsibility to them and wait for them to change or take responsibility by making your problem clear and distancing yourself from them and the situation if needed. 

Another way of protecting your energy i by being in tune with your emotions. Allow yourself to feel your emotions fully, write them down if needed, talk to people if needed, scream them out if needed, but always give them the space they need. Also learn when to take a step back so that you don't hurt others while feeling an overwhelming number of emotions. 

Take enough time for self-care. I would recommend making time for it in your routine. But also do it when you need it or feel like it. This is the only body and soul you've got, so you had better take care of it. Do this by eating things that fuel your body and that you like, drinking herbal teas, taking a bath and meditating (more o that later). It can be anything as long as it relaxes the body and mind. Personally, I like to keep 1 day a week to myself in which I fully focus on the needs of my mind and soul.

💭 Curiousity made the cat wiser - Curiosity should always be cherished. Curiosity is what makes us human, curiosity is what gives us the power to wake up and see what the day has got in store for us, curiosity is what keeps us busy and entertained. One of my favorite quotes on curiosity is from Plutarch: "The mind is not a vessel to be filled but a fire to be kindled." It beautifully explains how knowledge feeds our brain and keeps us alive and warm while we should also take care of it.

You should always strive to learn new things every day. It feeds our brain, so that it can function properly. Not only that, ir keeps us entertained. Some things that I'm studying in my free time are:languages (German, Korean and a little bit of Italian). I started learning how to program and i just generally read a lot.

ℙ𝕙𝕪𝕤𝕚𝕔𝕒𝕝

💭 Workout - There are a lot of benefits to exercise. A few of my favorites are: 

They make you happy (exercising stimulates the brain to release serotonin, this is known as the feel good hormone. It uplifts and stabilizes your mood but is also important for social behavior, memory, learning and appetite.)

It can help control weight (Because exercise can burn fat or help you gain muscle, it can either help you lose or gain weight.)

Getting enough weekly exercise prevents a lot of diseases (like strokes, metabolic syndrome, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, depression, anxiety, many types of cancer and arthritis.)

It improves your daily energy levels (It boosts your endurance and improves your lung and heart health so that you have more energy throughout your day.)

It can improve your sleep (When you exercise your body releases endorphins. Studies have shown that these endorphins prevent sleep problems and limit sleep quality disturbances. They reduce sleepiness during the day so that you are more sleepy at night.)

Now we need to find out how much exercise you need. I would recommend getting at least 30 minutes of exercise a day (except for your rest days). But this might be different based on your goals, the intensity of the sport, how many times a week you exercise, age and disabilities. So do your research! Get at least 1 day rest a week, but getting 2/3 would also work depending on your schedule. You don't have to go to the gym! You can do home workouts (HIIT, yoga, pilates, muscle, just search it up on YouTube), go for a run outside, join a sports club (like tennis, hockey, football or dance). 

💭 Sitting - Maybe you've already heard about it. But sitting is the new smoking. It is one of the biggest health problems nowadays and responsible for way more deaths than you probably think. 

Sitting for a long period of time can be very harmful. The average person in the UK sits for about 70 hours a week with only 2 hours of exercise. Comparing that to 20 years ago, we sat (on average) 3 more hours a day. Research states that prolonged periods of sitting have been linked to cancer, Alzheimer's disease, obesity, heart disease, poor cholesterol profiles, type-2 diabetes and asteoporosis. Sitting too much in a non-active posture without movement also comes with the risks of weakening our muscles and thinning our bones, reducing digestive health and depressive symptoms.

After hearing all those negative consequences, I am so happy to share that these are easily preventable. By taking short breaks while sitting for a long period of time, you allow your blood to fully circulate, and it can already heavily impact your consequences. An easy way to do this is to put a glass next to you while studying/ working, so that you have to take a short walk to fill the glass up again. I would not recommend doing this if you know it will make you avoid drinking water or if you are at a library. Another important way to prevent the harm that comes from sitting is having 30 minutes of physical exercise daily. Try to go on a daily walk and do stretch and yoga exercises or any sport of your choice. The best thing about this one is that if you don' t reach your goal one day, you could catch up later in the week. As long as you get 3 hours and 30 minutes of physical exercise a week, you are good. If this is to much for you, you could also try 20 minutes daily, but I would recommend 30. Last but not least, try to better your posture while sitting. Make sure your spine follows it's natural curve and when possible try to sit in an "active sitting pose". Please invest in good chairs, so that when you sit, the consequences are still minimal. 

Little reminder that you should not be scared of sitting. Sitting is not a problem, even when you do it a lot. But sitting for long periods of time without an active lifestyle and/ or having breaks in between the periods of sitting is very harmful.

💭 Food - At the moment, I am working on a post where I will talk about having a healthy diet. In that post I will talk more about eating specifically for your needs. And with that I will only share some basic tips on here that (in my eyes) are a necessity for everyone. 

The most important tip I can give anyone in terms of eating is focusing on a healthy microbioe (a more detailed post will be coming on this). The microbiom is the fingerprint of our gut system. Our microbiom is in direct contact with your brain. Having a healthy microbiom has an influence on your skin, health, feelings, stress, mental illness and lots of other things. Because of this, it got the nickname "Second brain".  The basics of having a healthy microbiom is eating enough fiber. For the average woman, the minimum is 30g a day and for the average man, 40g. Again, this is the bare minimum to keep our microbiom alive. The second one is eating a wide variety of plants: species, vegetables, fruit, beans, herbs, everything that comes from a plant. It is recommended to eat at least 30 different types of plants a week to make sure your microbiom is healthy. The last tip is fermented foods. These are the best treats for a healthy gut. It is good to mention that your microbiom does not need fermented foods to survive, but your gut will love you if you try to eat them more.

Try not to eat too much sugar. Eating more than the recommended amount may cause weight gain, acne and increased chances of heart disease, cancer and getting depression. The average woman should not consume more than 25 grams a day and the average man 36 grams a day. Please do not live by this principle. If you eat 40 grams of sugar one day, it will not kill you, and it won't make you any less perfect or disciplined. But try to swap out a big handful of candy, for a few pieces of candy with some veggies, fruit and nuts on the side. I personally prefer snacking on fruits and vegetables because my body feels better after eating them and I find them more tasty. You can pair vegetables with some humus or a yogurt and herb dip. 

Don't over or under eat. The easiest way to start with this is to eat fulfilling meals. Eat meals that keep you full by eating veggies, fiber and protein. Eat at least 3 meals a day and maybe a few small snacks.(I personally eat 1 or 2 depending on the day). If you have trouble with overeating, you could try asking yourself the question "Why am I eating this?" If the reason is not because you are hungry, you need to try and let it go. Sometimes you are allowed to listen to your craving, especially if you have learned to keep a balance with it. But if the foods are very rich in sugars or fat, I would use the method stated above and try adding things to balance the meal out and that fuels your body enough to not want to snack more. If you tend to under-eat, I would recommend eating a lot of small portions throughout the day. Although I would normally recommend 3 filling meals a day, I would change that to about 6 smaller balanced meals. Even though these are smaller meals, please try to get your daily nutrients. They are what keep you running. So try to make sure that most meals involve fiber, veggies or fruit, a bit of protein, carbohydrates and fats.

ℍ𝕪𝕘𝕚𝕖𝕟𝕖/ 𝕃𝕠𝕠𝕜𝕤

💭 Skincare - I am not going to say too much about skincare because it is clearly not my strong suit, since I still struggle with acne a LOT. But i recently found out my pores get clogged very easily and a lot (once again it will suprise you) of skincare products have pore clogging ingredients. i use this tool to check on pore clogging ingredients and with the help of that have now created a new skincare routine. I have been using it for less than a week, but I think my skin has already improved a lot (but i could also be delusional). If I find out th methods and research I've done is working now, I will tell you more about it. Until then there are a few tips I would recommend.. Invest in sunscreen. It will help against hyperpigmentation and will minimize signs of aging in the long term. Don't make your routine too complicated. Try to find a simple cleanser, moisturizer and sunscreen. You don't need much more because your skin can do most of the hydration and cleaning itself. If you have skin issues, I would recommend trying 1 toner or serum with an ingredient (do your research) against that. Most of the time, you won't need more. If you do, you can always add from there. 

If you have any skin issues that won't go away after all that you can talk to your GP, and they could prescribe you something. This is what I am considering, if what I am trying now won't work.

💭 Haircare - The most important information I will give to you is to find out your hair type. Once you've gained this knowledge, you can search for products that match your hair type. Once again, if you want a more elaborate guide on how to find out your hair type and what products will work for you, let me know!I would also really recommend using hair oil! You can either use a single oil, buy a premixed one or mix a few yourself. Different oils also serve different purposes. The most popular ones are:

Coconut oil - For repairing damaged hair.

Avocado oil - For shinier hair.

Rosemary oil - For hair growth.

Tea Tree Oil: For treating dandruff. 

I heat the oil up by putting a small bowl with the oil I will use in a bigger bowl with hot water.I put the oil on my scalp a few hours before showering and massage it in for at least 5 minutes. I would strongly recommend watching a Indian tutorial, because I stole all my methods from them. Try to invest in a microfiber towel to dry your hair. A normal towel can damage your hair and makes it less soft (in my experience). The last general tip I have is to wear a protective hairstyle to bed. Either braid it or put it up in a bun. This way, you will wake up with way better hair. An alternative to this is using a silk bonnet. That will keep your hair so soft and pretty. 

💭 Fashion - I feel my best and most comfortable when I feel pretty. In order to accomplish the style you want and look pretty, you can follow these 4 steps: 

Clean out your closet. Sell or donate clothes that you don't like or wear. While doing this, try to look for reasons why you don't like that piece of clothing. That way, you learn to understand your preferences better. 

Learn about your body type and what looks good on you. Of course, you don' t have to limit yourself to only wearing the things recommended, but it is a very easy guideline to help your outfits feel more balanced. While keeping this in mind, you can start playing around with fitting and find combinations that also look good on you, but it is important to understand what different sleeve types and lengts do to your proportions so that it's easier to adjust an outfit to your preference.

Make a pinterest board! Make a pinterest board dedicated to style and make sure to add at least 30 pins. Then you can look for similarities between the pictures you've saved. Please for the love of god, don't follow fast fashion brands. Of course, it's good to get inspired by trends, but it's so incredibly wasteful to buy and trow away clothing time and time again and its also not good for your wallet. 

The last step is to make a list of the things you need to add to your closet. You DON'T have to buy an entirely new warderobe. Look at the things you already have in your closet and write down a list of items you can add in order to increase those items. Try to start out with jewelry and a pair of shoes in your style and look for a few tops, dresses and bottoms. But the accessories are truly the most important, so try to invest in some good quality accessories, because they can make or break an outfit.

A good tip to help you not overconsume is to only buy something when you can style it in 3 ways for 3 different occasions. This way you make sure that you will actually use it!

💭 Carry yourself like a god(ess) - Your posture is so so so important! Is doesn't only influence how other see you, but also how you see yoursel (and if you've read my part about sitting, you've read that's also important for good health).

Your body language reflects what you think, but the opposite is also true. By standing in a powerpose you will start feeling more confident.

Make sure your spine holds its natural curve, your shoulders are relaxed end rolled back. When standing put your feet apart a little, so you stand stronger.

A good pose to practice standing confidently is the so called "superwoman pose". Put your feet apart, look straight forward, ball your fists and putt them on your hips. Standing like this for even 2 minutes will improve your confidence. I do this when I feel really stressed about a presentation or test (not in the middle of the classroom ofcourse, I will either do it in the bathroom, before coming to school or during the break).

ℍ𝕒𝕓𝕚𝕥𝕤

💭 Drinking water -The average woman should consume about 2.7 liters of water a day and the average man 3.7 liters. About 20% of this should come from your food. So, the average woman should drink about 2.16 liters of water and the average man about 2.96 liters of water. It is important to drink your water in order to stay healthy, get rid of waste in your body and keep your temperature normal.

💭 Hobbies - Having a hobby that we enjoy brings us joy and enriches our lives. It helps us learn new skills, de-stresses us, gives you new perspectives, prevents wasting time and learns you patience. A hobby can be found everywhere. It can be collecting something; a sport, singing, reading, programming, knitting, sewing, playing an instrument, baking, cooking and even making tea.

💭 Meditation -  One of the keys to having a happy, calm and balanced life is meditation. Meditation reduces stress, promotes your mental health, helps with learning, kindness and forgiveness, lengthens your attention span (I, for a fact, know most people need this with people's social media use nowadays.) It helps with being self-aware and there have been studies that showed that it has some impact on your physical health (we don't know on which level yet) and that it can prevent age related memory loss. You can start out with breathing exercises and work your way up to guided meditation and, if you are ready for it, meditate regularly. Don't give up, it will take some time to really get into and to get the results you want.

💭 Morning routine - A good morning routine sets you up for a good day. It helps you with getting in the right mindset and with starting the day in a relaxed way. Make sure you get your needed sleep hours. This will be different for everyone. But for teenagers, the average is between 8 and 10 hours and for adults, 8 hours is recommended. It is also good to note that women tend to multitask more during the day and, averagely speaking, need about 20 minutes more sleep than men. I would recommend a set time for your alarm every day. By doing this you will get into a good rhythm which will help you fall asleep, and you know for sure you are getting your needed hours. Everyone likes different things in their morning. Some things that are an absolute staple to me are, and I can't start off my day on a good note without them: Drinking some water immediately after waking up (helps me with waking up), meditating, journaling for 5 minutes, making my bed, doing skincare and having a nourishing breakfast. Chose the things that you find important. If you struggle with doing everything on bad days, you could always make a routine for good days, okay days and bad days. When you wake up, you get to choose which one you will do. This might make it less overwhelming. 

💭 Night routine - Most things have already been said when I talked about morning routines. My night routine is easier than my morning routine, because at the end of the day I have difficulty winding down, and a plan makes it less overwhelming to start. My staples for my night routine are: making sure my room is clean, packing my bag for next day (if needed), my journal for 5 minutes, brushing teeth and skincare. If I don't feel like sleeping yet, I will read in my bed or do a very calming yoga session. 

💭 Organize - I, for one, have quite some difficulty with staying organized. But while speaking with my coach at school he reminded me of the importance of organization. Even if you are not aware of it, the things you still need to do, take up a lot of space in your head. It's way more convenient to just write it in your agenda immediately, make a planner with everything you need to do, make a list of everything that bothers you. You need to stop wasting energy on being de-organized. This will also ensure that you don't miss out on anything. This also goes for your living/ work space. A cluttered workspace will clutter your mind!

𝕋𝕚𝕡𝕤

Some small tips I want to give you before ending this post. <3

💭 Phone/ social media - In order for you to have the best day and sleep, you should not use ur phone for a hour after waking up or before going to sleep. In general, you should minimize your use of social media. I would really recommend listening to this great Ted talk about the worth of a social media app. Because of this Ted talk I realized how much time I was wasting on social media. With all of that time, I can do so much, learn so much, go on so many adventures. Your phone is also really addictive, and you should take that addiction seriously. Phone addiction is a dopamine addiction, because of this. Because life will seem boring. If you want to feel alive and happy, don't overuse your phone and make clear boundaries with yourself. Try to live in the moment, not on your phone. 

💭 Sustainable energy -  I will make a more detailed post about this, because it is one of the things that helped me most. But the concept is very simple: learn to differentiate the things that give you energy and take your energy. And use that as a guide to help you fill your day. Studying is something that takes me a lot of energy. When I feel like my energy is getting low, I take a break after finishing the next task and go meditate or take a walk. This way you can keep thriving the entire day!

💭 Journaling - I would recommend journaling to anyone. There will always be a type of journal that suits you, so please look into it!I personally have 3 journals, I use one for journaling exercises, one for my morning & evening checkups and one is my coomonplace journal. A commonplace journal is a journal in which you write down anything that you learn. It helps you with remembering, but it's also easy to look things back up! 

English isn't my first language, so if there are any mistakes, please correct me. Although I am not very happy with how this post turned out out, I will still post it because I worked really hard on this. I hope my writing and presentation will improve next post. Lots of love and kisses! 💗

Be sure to like comment and reblog!

If you like my content, consider buying me a book. <3

Love Pearl 🐚

[putschki1969]

Hi Putschki, how are you doing? I was glad to read your post about the concert you attended, it looked fun and the photos you took were so pretty! I have a question for you today that is a little nosy, so don't mind not answering if you don't want to. Have Kalafina ever mentioned the lgbt community/rights? Different Japanese artists have begun to talk about certain issues in the last years, a lot more compared to the past, and I was wondering if they've ever said anything about it 🌈

Hello there!!

I am good, thank you😊

As for your question, don't worry, it's fine. It's just a little complicated to write a comprehensive answer since there's some ambiguity involved.

Generally speaking, I would say, no, they have not really mentioned anything specific regarding the LGBT community/rights. During the Kalafina days, their public image was very well-curated so everything was rather restrained and maybe even a little conservative. Not in a particularly strict manner but there was certainly never any mention of political or social issues or really anything that could be misconstrued in a negative or problematic manner.

Occasionally, they have mentioned things in passing on a superficial level regarding overarching concepts such as same-sex attraction but I don't recall them ever explicitly talking or posting about LGBT issues. While they have a lot more freedom as solo artists (at least Keiko and Hikaru), I also don't remember them ever addressing such topics in recent years. Please keep in mind though that I regularly miss Hikaru's Wednesday broadcasts and I've only recently become a member of Keiko's Yodel app service so it's impossible for me to provide a definitive answer to your question.

I would also be curious to know what those other Japanese artists supposedly talk about... I am not really familiar with Japanese artists aside from Kalafina so I don't know in which capacity they talk about the LGBT community/rights. Is this something they do because of personal interest or is it more along the lines of performative virtue signalling to follow trends? I feel like with celebrities and other people in the public eye it's probably the latter so it's not something I would necessarily want our girls to do. Other people might feel differently about this but I am not a fan of all this performative stuff which has sadly become a common occurrence in today's social media world. If you ask me, it comes across as super disingenuous. I don't need anyone to talk about any issue just because it is a hot topic at the moment.

If it is indeed a matter of personal interest, then yeah, I am all for it and I wouldn't mind if the girls did that. I believe the Japanese Netflix show "The Boyfriend" was a solid step in the right direction of a more authentic representation and examination of selected issues but it still remained quite easy to digest/surface-level (so there's room for improvement).

On that note, I would like to come back to something I mentioned earlier. This is where the "complicated/ambiguous" comes in. Not sure if you are aware of this but since the beginning of time, there have been many rumours of Keiko being a more or less closeted lesbian. Obviously, nothing has ever been confirmed and as a general rule, I do not encourage speculations but there's no denying that there have been countless situations throughout the years where one could easily put two and two together in order to draw some conclusions. I have actually written a long essay on Keiko's rumoured homosexuality so feel free to check it out! While I personally don't feel comfortable labeling anyone as anything, I am not at all surprised that so many people are indulging in this sort of speculation. So yeah, there has not really been any specific talk about the LGBT community but I would say all the hints Keiko has been dropping certainly qualify as something....?

[blakbonnet]

AUTHOR OF THE WEEK: @soupbtch

Ever read a fic and go "they're so 😭" - that's every single Danny fic to me, aka today's second aotw feature, and god, what an amazingly talented author they are.

I'm so glad you decided to write and grace us with your lovely and bonkers fics, because I cannot imagine the OFMD fic world without your incredible Every Part of You series. I cannot imagine logging into this website without another incredible post from you. Every single thing you write (and do) leaves me in stitches and then, more often than not, you straight up chair your friends with your ultra soft way of writing how much they love each other - in between the much needed elbow fucking. You are such an amazingly kind person - hilarious, supportive, and the best cheerleader 💕 Thank you for answering my questions:

What's your writing process like? Do you start with the beginning or the end? Do you write in order or as the scenes come to you?

I start with a pretty detailed outline because if I don’t go in with a plan, I’ll drop threads and/or write myself in circles. Then I have my outline open on half of my screen while I have a separate doc open on the other half where I’m actually writing. I write in order from beginning to end.

Favourite trope or headcanon you like to explore while writing? (Things like Ed's sweet tooth, Stede's ability to bury his feelings etc)

I have a lot of fun writing angst, so I think any facet of that I can explore is a good time. Weigh them down with insecurities and see how far I can bend them with external factors like plot points, each other, or other characters before they snap. So things like Stede believing he ruins everything he touches, Ed believing he doesn’t deserve fine things, and how they both stand in the way of their own happiness because of these feelings. I also love exploring like, the horrible communication skills Ed and Stede have with each other when it comes to their emotions, and setting up story beats where that intercommunication can break down. Because they’re idiots (affectionate).

Whose voice is easier to write - Ed or Stede? Why?

Ed for sure. I find him very easy to connect with, emotionally. All my favorite characters think they’re unlovable monsters and no, this says NOTHING about me personally, etc etc etc.

Your personal favourite thing you've written that you'd like more people to read

Red Skies at Night! It's modern au, but they're still on a boat! If you like slow burn, bitchy Stede, Ed with a tongue piercing, fun costumes, and a big dash of pining, I def recommend checking it out!! ❤️

What is the one word that you think you use a lot?

The one that comes to mind is ‘blink.’ Kind of a funny one, but to me, it’s such a juicy way to imply so much while saying so little, so I know I use it frequently. Stede asks, “Do you trust me?” and Ed blinks back at him as he tries to work out why that question hits him like a truck (because the answer is a very easy yes). Ed says, “You make me happy,” and Stede blinks back at him in awe (because Stede? Making someone happy? That can’t be true). You get it.

Do you have a beta reader? Have they made you a better writer?

Yes, Beedle (@sleepystede) and Connie (@spirker) have both beta read for me! They’ve helped me tremendously with flow and rewording awkward sentences, and I’ve improved a lot from their feedback. Connie has also been invaluable to bounce ideas off of for new fics and just generally pushing me to be more creative through her never-ending support and big beautiful brain.

Why OFMD 🥹

I loved season 1 when I first watched it, but as soon as I saw the season 2 trailer, something clicked in my brain. Where season 1 was slow burn, will-they-won’t-they, is this real or are they queerbaiting, season 2 was posing itself as very, very clearly queer. Stede is going to get his man. That’s it, that’s the show. Undisguised, unabashed, unapologetic gay yearning and gay romance. There are a million other things I can say, but I think it really all comes down to that. What a gift. No one does it like our show. 💖

Please head over to @ofmdlovelyletters (who also made the header) and send your love to all your favourite authors (and authors of the week 😈 watch that blog for some special letters coming your way)

[halimamis]

How do you write characters consistent with each chapter and how do you make dialogue for each one?

Your question: "how to write characters with a consistent personality in each chapter. I run into a problem where I change my character’s personality a lot when writing each chapter to fit the situation and it ends up making them look like a different character entirely. I want to know how I can keep it like that while showing improvement in their character development. For example, the main character of a story I'm doing is scared of facing himself and his mistakes in the past which leads to self deprecating himself. The problem is that now ever time I write a new chapter, the self deprecation gets worse and loses meaning and he acts so differently."

Sorry it took me a while to answer. I had to think about a helpful reply and organize my thoughts. I get that you're going through the classic "my character feels like five different people in a trench coat" problem. Been there. But here's the thing, writing consistent characters is like parenting. You want them to grow up, but not turn into complete strangers every time they face a new situation. Fixing this problem is easy but it needs practice tho. The tips I can give you to overcome that are simply 7 but you have to actually put the effort and try to change your style in order to get better.

1. Know Your Character Like You Stalked Them on Social Media

Write down the core traits of your character. Not just “scared of facing himself.” Get specific.

• How does he react when someone compliments him? (Cringes? Shrugs it off? Makes a joke?)

• What’s his default way of coping? (Angry cleaning? Self-deprecating humor? Avoidance through snacks?)

2. Anchor the Self-Deprecation

The problem isn’t that your character is self-deprecating; it’s that you’ve probably cranked the volume to 11 from what you told me and now it’s just noise. Self-deprecation works best in layers, like an onion.

• Early chapters: He uses it as a shield. Maybe he makes a sarcastic comment to avoid an awkward truth.

• Midway: It starts slipping—he self-deprecates, but it stings a little more because he's aware of how deep he’s drowning.

• Later: The self-deprecation shifts—maybe it’s tinged with acceptance or even humor. He’s owning it, not drowning in it.

3. Test his Personality in Different Settings

In my opinion, your character should feel like the same person whether they’re fighting a dragon or deciding what to order at Starbucks. The stakes are for sure different, but his core reactions will stay the same no matter what. So I advice you try oracticing writing different scenarios that may not be in the book just to get to know him better.

• Example: If your character is awkward and self-loathing, he’ll probably stammer and overthink his Starbucks order. In a fight, he might hesitate and second-guess himself.

Same guy, different vibe.

4. Growth is important too

When you want to show character growth, don’t just tell he’s changing. Show it in contrast. Yk, just like the show don't tell thing

• Early chapters: He flinches at confrontation, hides behind jokes, or spirals into self-hate.

• Later chapters: He still flinches, but now he pushes through. He makes a joke but adds, “Yeah, I know it’s bad. I’m working on it.”

5. Focus on Dialogue

Your character’s dialogue is like their fingerprint. If you nailed it early, use it as a touchstone. Does he always deflect with humor? Does he avoid big words because he doesn’t want to sound smart?

6. Write the ‘What Would They Do?’ test

Whenever you get stuck, ask yourself:

• How would my character respond if someone spilled coffee on them?

• What would they say to their crush?

• How would they handle being stuck in an elevator with their ex?

These mini scenarios force you to think about how your character’s core personality shines through. Same thing like testing his personality in different settings but that one doesn't need many writing practice.

7. Ask for Feedback (But Not from Your Mom)

Share your chapters with someone who knows your character as well as you do. Like a friend maybe. If they say, “Why is he acting like a whole new person in Chapter 7?” then you’ve got a red flag to fix.

[emcapi-gaming]

Ardwin's poetry

An attempt I made (first four a while ago, last one today) to write some poetry from Ardwin's perspective about the people she loves/has loved.

(If you can guess who all of them are about, you get a cookie; as a hint, they're in mostly chronological order. Answers and author commentary under the cut. I'll also post on AO3 in a minute.)

I. Fire

Wild thing, bright spark, not quite tame but here with me, my campfire, my hearth.

I need you. I will always need you.

Wherever I go, so do you. Wherever you go, I am home.

Your heart keeps me warm, wards the ice from my skin, soothes the ache from my back when the sky grows too heavy.

Tell the hungry things that lurk: we are not theirs to devour. Let me keep you burning. I will let you keep me safe.

II. Volcano

First, I thought you were a mountain. One more peak to climb and conquer. Beauty, danger, thrill and challenge. I ignored the warning signs: your heart held nothing but destruction.

And so: catastrophe.

The mountain, gone. The city, in ruins. The skies, all ash and fire.

Despite everything, I still yearned for the climb. Forgive me, if I still mourn for the mountain.

III. Inferno

Another self-same spark, taken root among drought and decay. Your love: overwhelming, consuming, uncontrollable. All the fiercer for how long I have refused you.

You were the only salvation left for me. My heart: neglected, choked, overgrown. Weighed down and tangled up, forgetting how to live.

You know what I need. Burn me down. Take me apart. Only through the ash can I begin to grow again.

IV. Star

Light born from a cradle of darkness, fearless, piercing through. Flickering, sometimes hidden, but persisting. A miracle beyond compare. When I first saw you, I was lost. I followed you and found my way. Now, you are too far to touch, but I have reached the stars before. I know it can be done again. Just a little longer, love; I’ll find my way back to you.

V. Spark

Sparks fly at our first touch: blinding, our hands brush, snap our circuit closed, trade high to low, and I understand how you’ve endured. But now, bottled lightning, break your glass. Retake the sky.

Answers for who's who:

I. Fire: Ardbert

II. Volcano: Zenos

III. Inferno: Fray

IV. Star: Zero

V. Spark: Arkose

Would Ardwin actually try to write poetry? Probably not. Most of her creative drive goes into crafting (BSM/ARM and CUL). She does very faithfully keep a journal, but it's closer to a bullet journal/log than a diary, mostly practical with only incidental emotional commentary.

Individual poem/relationship notes:

Ardbert: Pretty self-explanatory, for the most part, I think. (Blink-and-you-miss-it Atlas imagery go brrr. Would have been a good Azem name, but I wanted something a little more unique and Arkadios fit well too.)

Zenos: Debatable whether that whole thing qualifies as "love" in the same way as the other ones. This is definitely only something she'd write much later, after the fact; it takes her a while to come to terms with her complicated feelings about him.

Fray: ...I keep mentally referring to the weird as hell dynamic between Ardwin and her version of Fray as "Fray's Combo Questionable BDSM/Bootleg Therapy." Ardwin is so fucked up by the end of EW that she reacts to people trying to make her Talk About Her Feelings by lashing out (sometimes verbally, sometimes physically) like a wounded animal in a trap, Fray fixes her by dragging her through it kicking and screaming (often literally), they make out about it sometimes because Ardwin is Selfcest Georg. Yeah.

Zero: When they first met, Ardwin was improving but still like 40-50% fucked up, and got really emotionally attached to her in a slightly unhealthy way. She put Zero on a bit of a pedestal and also thought of her in terms of the whole dark knight "person I'm dedicated to protecting" role. (This, inevitably, wound up backfiring somewhat when Zero pulled her stunt with the Wall of Light, and Ardwin had such a bad panic attack she thought she was dying.) The subsequent magical-girl paladin transformation was a big turning point for Ardwin that went a long way towards fixing her general tendency towards being overprotective, and the time apart has helped soothe a lot of the lingering hurt feelings from the Light stunt. But also the second they get that hourglass working, Ardwin WILL be going to visit her girlfriend.

(Side note: it's a really good thing that Ardwin got over so much of the overprotective tendencies, because if she was like that with Arkose, they would have found her completely fucking insufferable and probably wanted to kill her.)

Arkose: Think I mentioned this in the previous lore post about Arkose and Eutrope's history, but they did have literal sparks, because soul shards/reflections where one has imbalanced aether can temporarily balance each other out by touching. I also mentioned in that post how they felt extremely trapped in Solution 9 and the Heritage Found lightning dome. Getting to get out of the dome and actually see the real sky for the first time in their life has been a Huge Fucking Deal for them.

It's interesting that this poem wound up being a lot more structured than the others. Part of that, I think, is from me writing it so much later than the other poems, and I just felt like it. Though if you want to go full literary-analysis, you can also look at the stronger structure as a reflection of Ardwin's mental state. She's gone through so much recovery since Endwalker and she's doing fantastic lately.

[novlr]

I've been stumped trying to figure out how to write my MC realizing and overcoming his identity issues.

My MC comes from a place where he had to constantly hide his true self and intentions to survive. He was forced to play a pawn for many people and learned how to read in between lines just to live another day. He then travels to another universe by accident, and meets himself. But it's a version of him who's completely unbothered by the tragedies and situations that he went through. He grows as a person with his innocent help.

My goal is to portray a feeling of hopelessness for himself as he questions who he is. I want him to start rediscovering his hobbies, learning how to set goals and what he actually wants, but i struggle with showing the symptoms of his identity crisis and ways to overcome it.

Thank you in advance for answering !

There’s quite a bit to unpack from this question, but I ultimately read it as asking for help to portray a character’s crisis and development through his journey of growth.

I have bad news, good news, and better news for this.

The bad news is, if you don’t know how to write this for your character, you don’t know your character well enough. Yet.

But based on the details you do have, the good news is you already have a solid start to resolving the issue with character development. You have a backstory portraying who he is at the start of the story, as well as the means of a positive character arc for your character to experience.

The better news: While writing, your main character is the heart of your story; and learning more about him not only helps develop more details, but it also involves looking into other areas of your writing that can improve your story, too. Thus accomplishing multiple things at once!

Ultimately, resolving your situation boils down to three things:

Confirming your story’s theme and its “why”

Confirming your character’s arc

Confirming your character’s GMC (goals, motivation, and conflict)

Because, in order to know how to portray hopelessness for your character during his character arc, we need full details of who he is before the arc, after the arc, and–most importantly–what his hopes and fears are in that journey.

My goal is to make this process streamlined, but still give you space to explore. Character development can get real deep real fast, so watch for drowning in the details. We just need to find and solidify the purpose of the character and his journey for the sake of knowing how to find his version of hopelessness.

Starting with the first step!

Confirming your story’s theme and its “why”

In a previous post I wrote, about getting started with writing, I mentioned how to determine your “why” behind writing and how to tie it with a theme.

One example was writing a story about a sports tournament where a character pushes to win and refuses to give up, stemming from a personal experience about winning a tournament, even though they were ready to quit. This creates the theme of “with effort comes reward.”

Now, based on the details provided in the question, your character is one who must hide his true identity to survive because of tragic situations, and now, he undergoes a journey of learning himself again. This suggests a theme of rediscovery.

So, while we actually have the theme already, we need to ask “why” to secure the foundational details behind the theme and character. Below are some questions to help:

Why are you writing about a character rediscovering themself?

What message do you want to share about rediscovering one’s self?

Is this an experience from your own life? If so, what was it like? What did you learn from it? Is that part of why you’re writing about rediscovery?

For writing rediscovery, maybe you had a life event where you had to start things over (i.e. new career, relationship, etc.). And now, you’re using those moments to write a similar story. But why? To convey that discovering one’s self is possible? That people can change? That second chances exist?

Essentially, what about rediscovery are you trying to tell in your story?

Because, guess what? That message you’re telling is the lesson your character must learn through their character arc. That’s the magic of using theme and storytelling together.

Confirming your character’s arc

Fun fact: determining your theme is the bulk behind developing your character.

Once you have your theme in mind, you can next determine the type of character arc that will fit that theme best. For example, if you have a message that acts as a warning (i.e. lacking morality leads to downfall), you might look toward a negative arc with a tragic ending.

For the sake of this question’s parameters, we’ll keep focus on a positive character arc for the main character–though you can find more information about character arcs here.

A positive character arc involves growth in learning something of value, like a universal lesson. This can be anything from the power of love and friendship, to letting go of the past. Also, since the character undergoes a positive change from having one belief to another, who he is at the end of the story will almost completely contrast with who he is at the start. These are like “before and after” snapshots of your character that act as puzzle pieces for plotting in arc details.

For example, if your theme is “love wins,” your character must be someone who learns that by the end of the story. That means the story starts with them as someone who doesn’t believe in that message at all. And just like that, you have a start and end point of your story and character’s journey!

Using the details from the posted question, and the theme of rediscovery, we already have these “snapshots” of the character at the beginning and end. The character starts the story as someone who learned to hide who he is to survive, while looking for hidden meanings/ulterior motives in everything someone says or does. And the story ends with him learning how to overcome those habits, discover who he is through new hobbies, and heal from past trauma.

Ultimately, the type of character arc you have to showcase your theme determines the start and end point of your story and character’s journey. Your theme is the idea for the story, and the character arc is the starting blueprint. This is why we brainstormed the “why” behind your writing and story first.

Confirming your character’s GMC

Goal, motivation, and conflict are crucial for character development and storytelling. I’ll discuss them strictly from an internal plot/character arc perspective for the sake of the question asked, so if you want a full dive into learning GMC, I recommend this post here.

From an internal plot point of view, GMC gives you a roadmap to plot your character’s arc with a simple summary: (Character) wants (goal) because (motivation). However (conflict), so (resolution).

Let’s use Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone as an example. The story involves themes of friendship and love–belonging and self-worth, to be specific. Thus, Harry’s positive character arc starts the story opposite of the theme learned (living with his relatives where he doesn’t feel love or belonging), and ending with facing Voldemort (learning self-worth) and finding valuable friendship with Ron and Hermoine (love and belonging).

This is identifying the theme and character arc just like we discussed in the first two steps. Now, let’s put those details through the GMC method: Harry wants to feel he belongs somewhere (goal) because he lost his parents while young and feels different living in the muggle world (motivation). However, a dark wizard seeking the Philosopher’s Stone threatens his growth by affecting the safety of his new world and friends (conflict), so Harry must stop him to keep his friends safe while rising to his potential as the Boy Who Lived (resolution).

See how everything comes together to solidify the details of a character’s journey?

Going over the character arc also touches on the concept of a character’s want vs. need in the story. Harry wanted to go to Hogwarts and become a wizard (external plot), but he actually needed to find his new sense of belonging and worth (character arc). Think of it as learning the theme the wrong way vs. the right way.

Let’s try the GMC method with your main character in question, and his theme of rediscovery, by asking:

Your character starts the story stuck living in past trauma and hiding himself from others. What does he want to change about his current way of life?

What does he want as change, vs. what he needs for change to happen? What’s the wrong and right way to learn the theme?

Why does he want to change? What motivates him enough to change his life from his current status quo?

What internal belief gets in the way, in conflict with what he wants, and how must he overcome it?

Sticking with the concept of second chances from the previous step: Maybe the character feels empty and doesn’t want to “simply survive” anymore (goal). He sees other people happily living as themselves and wants the same (motivation). Perhaps he wants to handle an external threat he believes keeps him stuck in “survival mode.” However, what keeps him stuck is actually his misled belief that he’s unworthy of second chances in life (conflict). So, he must reframe that mindset (through new hobbies, etc.) to find what he really needs for himself: safety and discovering his true identity (resolution).

Putting it all together

So, why did I go from big-picture to small about storytelling and character arcs to explain writing hopelessness?

Because planning out a character’s journey like this gives deep insight into their hopes and dreams. And once we know those, we can flip them upside down to learn their biggest fears.

Hopelessness looks different for everyone, depending on their situation and beliefs. And it takes knowing a character’s core journey to determine what their version of hopelessness looks like, why it looks that way, and how it comes up during external events.

All of this work was to have groundwork for a character’s aspiration. Here, we used the theme of rediscovery to create an example character’s goal and motive behind wanting a second chance in life–to achieve safety in knowing themselves.

Now flip it. The opposite of the dream to achieve safety and discovering self is the fear of staying stuck in survival mode and feeling empty.

That right there is what hopelessness looks like for the character: forever stuck in survival mode, unsafe, threatened, and a shell of themself to never discover who they really are.

Knowing that core fear is vital. Because once you identify it, you can describe it and the emotion portrayed in certain situations. Then you can use it to add personality and/or backstory details to your character if you don’t have them already (what does a person who yearns for safety and security act like?).

After all, personality and backstory for a character are just the flavor behind one’s core actions. It’s like baking a cake. You need the foundational ingredients before you can add personality and flavor.

When depicting this core fear, imagine a scene where your character tries everything to achieve their dream and utterly fails. How does that affect them? What does that outcome feel and look like to them? How do they react to that loss? Is it anger? Grief? What does this force them to believe about themselves and/or the world? Does this lead to bad habits?

This last part here is a little more based on intuition and personal brainstorming to develop your character, since every story, plot, and character are different. But this step-by-step process should provide the groundwork for solid character arcs that give insight into who your character is at their core, and what their core emotions–like hopelessness–would look like based on specific scenarios.

Character development is my favorite to experience as a reader, my favorite exercise as a writer, and one of the best ways for an audience to connect with your writing. So have fun with it! And always stay open-minded. Your story and character(s) will give you the insight you need when you let yourself think outside the box.

Happy writing!

[videogamelover99]

Update for the Human Bill AU

HIYA FOLLOWERS!

It’s me, uh, Vee! Wait, like the LETTER? Seriously?! Talk about originality. 

ANYWAY! Word around the block is that BEST SELLING AUTHOR BILL CIPHER (pretty cool guy btw makes great deals) released a book into the PUBLIC COLLECTIVE that was SO GOOD it melted all of your brains into the primordial forms they were in when you were 10 years younger! Which is great news, cause it means more of you are down to contribute to the cause. What cause? Summoning Bill Cipher back into the mortal realm of course! I KNOW after his last SHOWSTOPPING lore drop you’re just dying to meet this guy, I get it! And you can! All you gotta do is pledge your allegiance to me, B- I mean, Vee! Who is not in any way, shape, or form possessed by a demon right now! They’re fine! I’m fine! Everything’s fi-

Ahem. Sorry. Bill took over my brain for the 30th time this week. It’s Vee. Hi.

Seriously though, actual Bill Cipher might not be hijacking my brain right now, but his character might as well be. I’m back to 2016, spinning him around like a rotisserie chicken. He is my little guy. He did nothing wrong, I promise. 

Honestly, I didn’t know if A Different Form a Different Time was ever gonna come back. It started as a collaboration with @doodledrawsthings on Tumblr, and after they moved on to do other stuff I did the same. And yet, this au changed the trajectory of my life. After all the support and enthusiasm from you guys, I realized how much writing and storytelling meant to me. I’m now a Narrative Game Designer, writing scripts and stories on a professional level, which I would not have gotten do to had I not had the experience of writing for this AU. 

For years, I kept getting DMs telling me someone was leaving kudos and comments on fics I wrote when I was a teenager, and that always just…blew me away. From the bottom of my heart, thank you for showing me how much my writing meant to you because I would not have gotten this far without that message being reiterated over and over again. 

And then the Book of Bill happened, and suddenly this dead au Mak and I crafted got 20k+ words of new material. Oops. Haha. 

So are you finally continuing this fic?

Yes and no. I’m rebooting it. After improving as a writer I’m hoping to bring something new to the table while following what’s already established in the series. Waking Days is gonna be rewritten, with new plotlines, new adventures, better, more coherent plot. I’ll still keep the old fic up so people can read it if they want, but I’ll re-order it to be at the end of the series for a more clear continuation. 

Will you finally give us a finished product?

The genuine answer is I don’t know! I don’t have a good track record for finishing fics, which is not exactly a vice, since I’m not getting paid for any of it. It’s just for fun. All I can promise is that I’ll give you new adventures in this universe, and maybe, together, we’ll get to the end. I was always of the opinion that people don’t owe writers and artists kudos or likes or comments, because once you put something out there, it’s not up to you how it’s consumed. I’m writing this for fun, and to improve my skills. But I will say that kudos and comments help a TON with people’s motivation. Seeing someone be enthusiastic about your work just does it sometimes, ok? And if you want this fic to be continued, if you like what’s happening, then let your voice be heard. 

Is Mak (aka doodledrawsthings) involved again?

Nope! They gave me their blessing to continue this AU, and it’s gonna branch out a lot from the original vision. I’d be down to work with them again, but as far as I know, they have their own stuff going on (they’re a professional storyboard artist now and have been for a while!) Please don’t harass them about this. If they want to work on GF stuff again, they will choose to do that on their own. 

Upload Schedule

If anyone noticed, I did a little poll recently (if you missed it, follow me guys!) and most people preferred shorter updates once a week. That’s what we’re gonna try. So, keep an eye out for a new fic in this series next Friday. I’ll add another chapter to this one even so people can keep track. I’ll be posting on my AO3 as well as on Tumblr, and tagging it as “A Different Form a Different Time”. 

Sneak Peek?? Please?

Sure. Here’s some stuff I wrote:

Deep in the redwood forests of central Oregon lay a small little town called Gravity Falls. With a population of a few thousand, low on tourism, and high on mosquito bites, the town was hard to find on any of the maps, and some might have claimed that the town hadn’t even existed. 

Fewer still knew of the oddities that made the town their home, passerbys had nothing to say outside of an “eerie feeling” and a glimpse of tiny men in pointed caps in the corner of their vision. 

But the town was real, and the oddities were more real still. 

In the outskirts of that town, down a dilapidated forest path, in a clearing sat The Mystery Shack, an old scientist’s lab turned tourist attraction. It was in this house, on a stiff, plushy couch, framed by the light of a seemingly empty water tank, that Bill Cipher, the monster with one eye, harbinger of chaos and trillion-year-old mind demon awoke, in a body that was not his and whose irritating human instincts he deeply resented. 

“Gah!”

“Screee!”

"Ow!"

Instincts like rapid breathing, sweatiness, and overall shakiness usually meant one of these dozen organs wasn’t working properly. Unfortunately, after waking up for the dozenth time in this manner, Bill had to admit that the organs weren’t the problem. 

Not that he could remember what the problem was. Whatever dream or nightmare had caused this current inconvenient bout of terror, whatever remnants of it were blank, fuzzy static on a rotting television screen. 

It was more annoying than anything. 

Bill started his nightly routine of picking himself off the floor. The blanket he had was tangled around his legs, which were somehow still on the sofa. After a moment or two of clumsily getting the appendages to move, Bill managed to heave himself upright.

Bill rubbed his eyes, he had two now. So weird. 

"Oik!"

Mabel's pig sat on the rug next to his head, staring blankly.

"What're you looking at, huh?"

"Oik!"

"None of your business."

"Oik oik!"

"No, what do I look like, a snack machine?"

"O-oik!"

"Ha! So's your mother!"

Waddles chose that moment to get up and trot away, done with the conversation. Well, good, Bill was done with him, too.

He stole a glance at the water tank. Still empty. Figures old Frilly wouldn't be there when Bill had a bone to pick with him. Maybe he should put some mercury in the water. As a surprise.

What was the point of stuffing him in this body, anyway? Did the ol’ salamander really think it would do anything? Was it to scare him? To torture him? To tell him how awful and evil he was and all those other meaningless statements that Bill had found hilarious in his time? 

Crimes against the second dimension? It was a crime that the place had existed the way it did. A rotten, broken building called for a demolition. He’d just had the detonator. 

Why would you do this?

Ugh, not again.

I-I wish I was dead! I wish I wouldn’t have to see what a monster you’ve-

Bill pulled himself up onto the couch and raised the blanket over his head. As if that could block out the incessant voice that only showed up at the worst of times. 

He would not sleep again.

[stcries]

GET TO KNOW ABC'S: MUN EDITION.

A. AGE: 22 (i'm baby)

B. BIRTHPLACE: new zealand/aotearoa

C. CURRENT TIME: 4:08pm

D. DRINK YOU HAD LAST: good old cup of tea! drinking it as we speak

F. FAVORITE CURRENT SONG(S): 1800 by bbno$ and ironmouse, and the challenge by jorge rivera-herrans. my taste in music is certainly... unique.

E. EASIEST PERSON(S) TO TALK TO: defo my mom and my sister! and all of you <3

G. GOALS: honestly? at the moment, it's just to improve my art. i've been struggling with my own perception of it recently, and i want to improve so badly. but long term? nothing really. perhaps to get some form of art related job, but with the state the industry is in, it's not something i'm pursuing just yet.

H. HORROR YES OR HORROR NO: i LOVE horror okay, the more creative, the better. have i actually watched any horror movies? well, not really. but watching horror movie reviews and specifically, dead meat's kill counts? i guess that kind of counts.

I. IN LOVE?: nope! never have been to be honest, unless we could fictional characters then UH, VERY DIFFERENT ANSWER.

J. JEALOUS OF PEOPLE: i think it's only human to be jealous. can't say i've ever gotten jealous of anyone here on dash, but i defo have been before. i just can't recall a specific instance.

K. KILLED SOMEONE: oh NEVER, you kidding. but have i killed my mutuals with my writing before?... no comment.

L. LOVE AT FIRST SIGHT OR SHOULD I WALK BY AGAIN?: it hasn't happened to me before, but i don't doubt it's existence. go for it guys, live your disney romance dreams.

M. MIDDLE NAME: rose. the most basic middle name in history. but my mother's name is rosanne so, yippee.

N. NUMBER OF SIBLINGS: one, a younger sister. i'm the eldest of my family.

O. ONE WISH: to be able to transfer my thoughts directly onto paper, be it in the form of writing or art. PLEASE, PRETTY PLEASE.

Q. QUESTIONS YOU'RE ALWAYS ASKED: honestly?? the ones that hilarious jump to mind is "where are your rules/muse list" and "do you wanna join vc??" with my friendos wanting me to join them and play games, which of course, i usually can't refuse.

S. SONG YOU LAST SANG: honestly? i don't sing SONGS, i sing nursery rhymes. i hum them all the time when i'm just doing shit, like in the shower, making a coffee, etc etc. i think the last one i was humming was ring around the rosey....

T. TOP 3 FICTIONAL CHARACTERS: you're asking me to just pick THREE? that's an impossible task for me, are you kidding me. but if i really had to pick, in no particular order, we have-- viktor from arcane, stanley pines from gravity falls, and kabru from dungeon meshi. there's probably more, but those are the three that have recently made an impact on me.

U. UNEXPERIENCED OR EXPERIENCED WRITER: i definitely could be better, but i'd say i'm experienced. i've been writing since i was thirteen or so, so that's at least nine years at this point.

V. VACTION: the last vacation i went on was going to australlia for my 16th birthday. but if there's anywhere i'd love to go? it'd honestly be korea. but i am terrified of flying in planes so uh, that's a work in progress lol.

W. WHEN'S YOUR BIRTHDAY: may 9th.

X. X-RAYS: i had a dentists appointment a week or so ago, so i had to have some x-rays of my teeth there. but nope, nothing other than that.

Y. YOUR FAVORITE FOOD: i used to be the pickiest eater as a child, i drove my mother insane. but nowadays? i love eggs, mushrooms, olives, and honestly, lots of fruit and vegetables, but especially fresh fruit, pineapple is up there for sure. but other than that-- i LOVE subway, i love it so so much, sue me.

Z. ZODIAC SIGN: taurus!!

tagged by: @plasticsouled, mwah, love you sal <33 tagging: LET'S SEE HERE. let me get my internet moms, @prsonatm and @dokitm, and then let's do @peachiiihearts just for fun.

[nobibiname]

WIP Wednesday Tag Game

aaand a week later, I finally have enough WIPs to finish the game 😅

big thanks to @merakimoonglade for tagging me 🩵 Here goes my very first contribution, 3 different WIPs in various stages of writing/outlining, and no set schedule or order ...

word: Night

N: Not so, she measured every word, like she measured chopped lavender for a potion, or the exact measure of yeast for the perfect sourdough. And unlike her fiery sisters she actually considered the necessity of saying something. She chortled again, remembering their most recent silly spat. Elain simply thought silence a vast improvement on foolish, hurtful or even casual words. -- (unnamed 'library story' alternate Prythian)

I: "I promise, we will figure it out together when you're ready, take some time"; without any hesitation Azriel started cataloguing the millions of things Elain was good at. There were both tremendous achievements and tiny little triumphs that he admired about her. Maybe she'd want to finish her graduate program. She was a very meticulous student. Azriel drew reassuring circles on her delicate hand with his thumb. Consumed with possibilities of solutions, Azriel didn't notice Elain lifting her tear-streaked face to him. Her big doe eyes intent on him, looking at him as if she finally had an answer for a long slumbering question. -- (Elriel Modern AU, a later chapter)

G: Granted, she was very beautiful, but what was the most extraordinary beauty compared to someone whose fire lights up your heart, your soul and your very being? A fire that feeds all of his senses and encompasses his every breath, and every horizon. He was too blinded by his insane luck of finding Vassa, to even consider another beauty. Not in this lifetime. Maybe it was time to let maman know. (Elriel Modern AU …that's right, I'm giving Lucien a chance to shine; probably will be in the last chapter)

H: How was this even possible? Other people were wrong, and he was usually the one pointing out their emotional bias, insufficient analyses, and obvious evidence they failed to account for. Though gratitude for this service was usually pretty thin, it was common knowledge among his family ,his friends, school mates, even his staff, if strategy and clear thinking is what you need, you come to Darling. (regency-era AU Elriel, background Feysand&Nessian )

T: Three entire heartbeats passed before she looked back, and found the hazel eyes now adorned with a small, but precious smile, still fixed on her. That made her blush harder. Letting out a long breath, she bit her lower lip, and surreptitiously squeezed her knees together under her blanket. (unnamed 'library' alternate Prythinan)

.... me when trying to finish the writing tag game

[popawritter12]

Hello! I read your yandere Smoke story, and I liked it a lot! You're a great writer and I'd love to see more Mortal Kombat stuff :)

If it's okay with you, would you be willing to do a headcanons list for yandere Rain (MK1, preferably male reader, if that's okay)? Thank you so much in advance! Feel free to take as much time as you need. I love your work so far! I'll have to check it out some more!

Author's note: It took a little longer because I'm making a new way of making headcanons, after completing all the orders this week I will upload the "first prototype" of this second way of making headcanons <3

By the way, anon, I actually feel comfortable writing any type of gender! It's just that sometimes I think I'm a bit ambiguous when I change the gender of the reader, but if you like it, then I'll just try to improve on that aspect!

Yandere! Rain x Male! Reader

First impressions

He met you when he was trained by Sindel; you were a healer whose skills were nationally recognized for the exceptionality of him; you could cure deadly diseases with inhuman ease.

You were also trained by Sindel, but there was something very different about you, something that caught everyone's attention.

Your pacifism.

Even in the most stressful situations, or with aggression involved, you never raised your voice, much less your hands.

You always preached peace, helping everyone who needed it.

At first, he had a lot of admiration for you. He tried to imitate your techniques sometimes, and he felt that you would be a great guide in his life.

Seeing his enthusiasm for learning, you approached him to accompany him in his training and give him all the information about the use of his type of magic.

Fall in love

He believed it was simple admiration, and in fact you did too, but there was something deep in your soul that doubted; When he followed you like a puppy follows its owner, you assumed it was out of admiration, but that thought that he was looking for something more was always there.

You looked for answers to that question; If you were religious, you went to your God to answer your questions, but if you were not, you looked for the answers in your teachers, in Sindel or in your teachers before her. But unfortunately for you, all of them doubted that Rain could wish any harm on you or those around you.

If he finds out, he would doubt it; Did he really look that scary in your eyes? No! He couldn't let someone like you be afraid of him!

He becomes visibly more intense, everyone notices it and especially you; He is kinder to everyone, but especially to you. He seems more desperate to try to please you, so much so that he even scares you, but he doesn't notice how scary he looks trying to please you.

Beginning of “Yanderism”

His desperation begins to consume him, do you know what is the worst thing that can happen to a man in love? That the person he adores so much is afraid of him.

And do you know what is worse for a man in that situation? Exact! May his despair over your approval cause him to start distrusting people; everyone except Sindel or anyone from the royal family was suspicious of your fear of him.

He thinks anyone could want to wash your head, your best friend? your family? or even unknown?

Any one of them could try to put fear into you, and he ends up hurting a lot of people trying to figure out the root of that fear.

Whenever he saw you he had the feeling that you were perfect in his eyes; You were always so kind, so gentle with all people, with an affinity for magic so miraculous and unique that… it seemed as if you had been born as a God.

But you were weaker than an average human; not only because of your soft personality, but also because the lack of physical training punished you with little possibility of defending yourself against an attack.

But it was okay… After all, they lived in a peaceful world, right?

Relationship or kidnapping

He is manipulated by Shang Tsung, made to believe that “his God” needed protection, that Sindel limited him so that both he and you remain under her command, that if he released all his power, he could defend you, he could keep you safe, protect you. and show you that you don't need to fear him.

It was easy for him to manipulate him, to make him believe that he just needed to work harder to be able to have you in his hands, and take care of you properly.

When Liu Kang himself announces the betrayal on the part of Shang Tsung and Rain, a part of you knew that it was inevitable that sooner or later he would seek more power through other means.

Late you realized that the perception that made you distrust Rain was due to his search for more power, you knew that it was going to be a matter of time before he sought to get out of the limit that Sindel established for him, to seek to break that limit and be able to have a lot of power. more strength than before.

And yet, when he broke in so he could talk to you, you tried to reason with him peacefully.

When you mentioned his mistake, he reacted badly; He tried to justify his decisions for you, mentioning that he did it for you, because he needed you, because he longed for you to understand him, but that wasn't the case.

When he tried to convince you, he went so far as to stand in front of you, on his knees, holding your hands and talking over and over again about how much he admired you, how much he needed you, how divine you were in his eyes, how much he loved you. I needed your presence in your life.

But you rejected it.

“When you make a decision, you must notice the consequences, and if you don't accept them, then you are not willing to mature” That's what you said.

You accepted that he chose a side, but as a consequence he lost you.

And the mere idea that you were going to leave his side ends up driving him crazy, and he ends up making that decision.

In case of kidnapping, where would he take you?

Currently I don't remember the name, but let's say it's where he hides with Shang Tsung temporarily.

And in the end, if we assume that he manages to take you to a secluded place between both worlds, managing to hide you from all the annoying crowds that dare to take you away from him.

Coexistence

He tends to be somewhat annoying, he usually insists on being on your lap or that you hug him, so much so that there comes a point where he stops insisting and just… does things without asking you.

And yes, he loves you to heal his wounds, so much so that he often hurts himself on purpose with knives or weapons that he doesn't know how to handle very well, he only knows that they hurt.

And obviously, because even with all the hurt he did to you, you loved him like a friend, you healed him.

Who knows? Maybe you'll end up being a great dad to… well.

Marriage and family.

He doesn't take marriage very seriously, but he would like it in a sense, in fact he thinks about it sometimes, but then he just forgets, later thinking that it's just a silly idea.

And your family… Well, he doesn't care, in fact he doesn't care almost at all about what your family wants for you; You are one of the best healers —not to mention the best he has ever seen and will see in his entire life— that he knows. It is obvious that you can make decisions for yourself! Of course, as long as he can keep you safe and avoid any “harmful” decisions for you.

In this case, would he adopt?

Yeah, especially if it's some mysteriously orphaned kid who needs two father figures who are also like them. I mean, with your knowledge of healing, and his knowledge of magic... I could be a great idea! He loves the idea that both of you offspring when it grows up will protect you from the same thing he does! Although he also wish they had their own life, you know… Yanderes stuff.

Bad ending

Worst case scenario, they find you; Mileena or others find your location, and try not to come to violence with him.

But Rain can't stand it, why are they doing this? Separate him from the love of his life? Of the only man who always treated him with all the respect in the world? Was this his fault for not protecting him well? Or for not being strong enough to protect you?

He gets carried away, and let's just say he ends up killing those who were actively seeking to "separate" him from his beloved healer.

He hopes that you will heal his wounds, so that he can take you away, to a place where you both can go and have your long-awaited happy ending, where you can both be happy without depending on any other being that feels the need to separate you.

But you refused, you shouted no, and you refused to treat his wounds. The main reason was obvious; he had chosen the most extreme and bloody path ever known to you or others.

He didn't take it well at all. Almost immediately, he uses his magic on you; he hurts you, hurts your skin and tears your clothes, threatening and screaming about what he was going to do to you and all your loved ones.

He threatens to end your life, to make you suffer if you don't cooperate with him.

In his mind, he thought that he had finally eradicated those who tried so hard to separate the two of them and keep him from his only source of happiness, and you were crying because you didn't understand that your happiness was worth a price, and that price was blood and life of others, and it was one that he was willing to pay thousands of times over to hold you in his arms, worship you and hold your face in his hands, so he could tell you how miraculous you are.

And it is after that threat that he releases you, abruptly releasing your body to the ground, almost compressing your bones; An extremely painful sensation ran through your body, one such that it only made you sob due to the pain. Even if you had never cried in your life, that strong, suffocating feeling had made your fear for him increase like never before.

Obviously after that you healed him, and told him you would never leave him.

After all, if he had damaged your bones like this just by letting go of you, what could he do if he really wanted to see you suffer?

Reasons to be Yandere:

-This greedy son of a bitch doesn't usually fall in love easily; Since he was too busy pursuing power, he thought he wouldn't have time to fall in love.

-He sees you as a great magician, a person whose abilities are so divine that you must be protected, you NEED his protection, he is not interested in what you tell him about that.

-When you are "playing" a powerful but physically weak character, it is inevitable that someone like Rain will feel intrigued by someone so powerful but at the same time so vulnerable to any attack.

Extra data:

-He doesn't think he's in love, you're just someone he admires a lot, I mean..., who wouldn't kill for someone that admires?

-He knows that his power is devastating, that's why he does everything possible to get along with you, but when he doesn't succeed… he gets frustrated, he gets so frustrated that he even thinks about it for several nights.

-I feel like he is someone who needs someone to tell him when to stop, and you are that someone, that someone who just drives his energy to an almost inhuman point, but it only focuses on loving you, pampering you and giving you everything you want.

-He usually has certain flashes of anger when Shang Tsung refers to you as an object to fulfill his dream, more than once he wanted to kick his ass, but there were more important things, at least for now.

-He usually comes to you when he needs advice or instructions on what to do with his life; After understanding that his quest for power was meaningless, he felt quite disoriented on how to love you correctly, on how to serve you as you wish.

[avatarskywalker78]

TST: what story arcs/plot beats are you looking forward to writing in Nicky’s story?

Oho I love this question so much and the answer has to be firstly the further develop of her friendship with the Cobras...and then the Cobra's corruption arc because the latter is gonna be made even more angsty by the former because these are people she cares about so much, people she gets along with, people willing to go behind their own Sensei's back in order to teach her karate and for a while she kind of gets behind the philosophy...

Except then it gets increasingly worse over the next two years and she watches it happen but can't really do anything about it. All five of them get increasingly antagonistic, increasingly tribal -even Bobby and Jimmy, for god's sake, and they're meant to be the nicer ones - and she doesn't understand why they falling further and further into this mire because it just doesn't make sense to her. She's one layer removed and that makes all the difference because she watches them go from 'it's important to defend your own/learn how to defend yourself from thw wider world' to using all of this...as an excuse to become bullies, the kind of people she despises and the kind of people she thought they despised as well, but apparently not. Even before the Argument things are strained, and the kicker is that they all know this! Even Dutch starts to notice the cracks forming, but they keep laboring under the belief that she can handle it, or that she'll get it eventually...

She doesn't and never does. Post-Argument's not really an improvement because now they're all miserable but unwilling to admit the real reason why - and Bobby and Jimmy's attempts to patch things up is flawed and doomed to fail because Nicky's realised, by this point, that you can claim to be the voice of reason all you like, but it means fuck all if you're not actually willing to call someone out on their bullshit (listen, I love Bobby a lot, but he's such a fucking enabler throughout KK1 and it's not good). She does lose her temper a lot but, well, she's seventeen and frustrated because she can't even direct it at the man responsible so she's left trying to get through to her friends and having zero success because they think they're in the right. And that's so difficult to break through.

Of course there's also the events of KK1 but this, this lays the groundwork for the heartbreak of that because they go too far on Halloween and she finally realises that she cannot keep reaching out to them, and she won't keep reaching out to them. Either they decide to do better...or the friendship is shattered for good because she will be the one to break it.

(Twisting the knife further is that the Cobras believe it's already broken after her confrontation of them after the event...)

Also the post-KK1 stuff but I don't want to reveal too much about that yet - of course I've already revealed that things get patched up but I'm still gonna keep some things secret!!! I hope you like what happens nonetheless :D

Talk Shop Tuesday

Tagging (let me know if you want to be added or removed): @starstruckpurpledragon @dream-beyond-the-fantasy