#so when I say fandom sometimes I mean this specific one and something I mean the general fandom world

[who-said-im-real]

The brain eating amoebas are eating my brain about Superman and Fantastic 4 so here’s my thoughts on them. Mostly Superman

Note: There was so much more to this, and it is literally just the transcript of multiple voice notes between me and my friends that I altered to hopefully make sense, but it’s still kinda long. good luck

I LOVED Superman and Fantastic 4. I think other than it being wonderful movies and a wonderful, subtle social commentary, it really brings the energy of superheroes back. Like especially with marvel and man of steel, they stopped making movies with meaning (until recently obvi) and they were just making action movies that would continue the saga. And now these movies are actual comic movies with real messages behind them that feel hopeful with characters to look up to. Plus you can just jump into the story and pick up what’s going on, unlike with marvel and having to watch the entire franchise to know why everything is the way it is. These movies aren’t just trying to go for a general audience with action and no meaning. They are bringing back the nuances of the real world that comics include to make an audience feel connected to the story.

For the Superman movie, I’ve watched as many interviews as I could find. Literally no stone left unturned. And one of the things they obviously talk about a lot is the Christopher Reeve Superman movies and how most other adaptations take inspo from that and the comics.

So, of course I watched the first movie and about 3/4 of the second one before life got ahead of me again.

In the interviews, the characters are obviously referenced plenty of times when it comes to inspiration for the current takes on them, including Lois. It’s commonly brought up how she’s this steadfast, thoughtful, amazing reporter and I was kinda confused about that after watching the movie.

Of course, it's because it's written by men in the 70’s.

And I'm not saying she's stupid or anything, but in the first movie, first off, she's not good at spelling. Like there are multiple instances where she's like how do you spell this? How do you spell that? Or someone's reading her paper and they tell her she spelled something wrong.

Which, after reading some fanfics and diving a bit deeper into the fandom, I found out it’s mostly just a character quirk so I’m choosing to move past it.

But then!! She's acts completely unprofessional which l'm like, yeah, okay. She's trying to get into the nitty gritty. Sometimes you're not going to be professional about that.

But specifically comparing it to the current Lois Lane, Rachel Brosnahan. I think she was professional and she was able to dig deep versus the old one (I forgot her name sorry) where she's interviewing Superman in the first movie and she's making goo goo eyes at him while she's interviewing him.

She literally asks him if he can see what color her underwear are, which is so real, but girl you're literally professionally interviewing him on the record??

Like can we please have some decorum?

Then there’s the part where she’s sitting across from him and just making goo goo eyes at him when she asks if he functions normally as a person.

Like, you are trying to be a professional Pulitzer Prize winning journalist. I get it, he’s hot and you’re so real for that but PLEASE get it together.

I know that there’s four of those movies so I assume she gets more development but stilllll.

Also, spoilers for the old Superman if you haven't seen it and if you care.

She dies!!

She dies because Lex Luther sends missiles to the San Andreas fault and it like destroys the fault line because of tectonic plates and all that.

And obviously Superman goes and stops it so that millions of people don’t die.

And of course Lois is there because she’s Lois Lane, the damsel in distress™️

And her car breaks down and she gets caught in the crack and buried alive until she dies because Superman couldn’t make it in time.

But I think, and this might be a controversial opinion, if she had CLOSED HER MOUTH while her car was being buried, she would have survived. Because I swear I saw so much dirt fly in her mouth and it was so unnecessary. But anyway…

Then there’s the whole, Superman spinning the earth the other way to turn back time thing, which was wild but it’s a superhero movie so idc. Suspension of disbelief and all that.

But what gets me about that part is that it’s stated no less than THREE TIMES that he shouldn’t alter human history and then he goes and turns back time.

And there are literally no consequences for him doing that. It was specifically mentioned three times within the plot, only for him to not follow that rule and have absolutely nothing happen.

And I know it was like his earth dad saying he was there for a reason and stuff but I just feel like it shouldn’t have been such a big plot point if they weren’t going to do anything with it.

Then, after he turned back time to save her (not that she knows that), she is so ungrateful. He pulls her out and she literally immediately complains about it to him.

Maybe I’m just being pretentious but I was just confused about how everyone was talking up this version of Lois (not that I don’t love her) but it was just so aggravating to see this independent and steadfast character be so not independent or steadfast…

Now, onto my love for David Corneswet. I love when theater kids get to do roles with deep characters like this. I feel the same about Andrew Garfield’s Spider-Man. I saw a video a few years ago describing how you can tell what emotions Spider-Man is feeling, especially under the mask, because of the way Andrew uses body language, and how it’s a theater technique because it’s very exaggerated. And I think this applies to Superman too. Everyone talks about the switch between Superman and Clark Kent and how Christopher Reeve was able to do that flawlessly, and now David Corenswet is doing it too. But specifically what I love about David Corenswet’s version is the space between Clark Kent and Superman, where he can be just Clark. I think he NAILED bringing both sides of the character together. He’s not a bumbling guy who’s just super nerdy and wears glasses, and he’s not the tough professional man of steel that the world sees, he’s both. I think that both Clark Kent and Superman are his masks to cover his real identity which is a combination of the two. So essentially David Corenswet is playing three characters and he was able to differentiate but keep them the same so well that it doesn’t feel like they’re different people but none feel the same either.

[cuddlytogas]

there was some Twitter madness recently where someone left a comment on someone's art to the effect of, "Ed shouldn't wear a dress, he's a man!" which I do disagree with on principle, but unfortunately, it brought out one of my least favourite trends in the fandom

so, naturally, I had to write a twitter essay about it. and I already largely argued this in a post here, but the thread is clearer and better structured, so I thought I'd cross-post for those not on the Hellsite (derogatory). edited for formatting/structure's sake, since I no longer have to keep to tweet lengths, and incorporating a couple of points other people brought up in the replies

so

I want to point out that the wedding cake toppers in OFMD s2 aren't evidence that Ed wants to wear dresses. Gender is fake, men can wear skirts, play with these dolls how you like, but it's not canon, and that scene especially Doesn't Mean That.

People cite it often: 'He put himself in a dress by painting the bride as himself! It's what he wants!' But that fundamentally misunderstands the scene, and the series' framing of weddings as a whole. I'd argue that Ed paints the figure not from desire, but from self-hatred; it's not what he wants, but what he thinks he should, and has failed to, be.

(Yes, I am slightly biased by my rampant anti-marriage opinions, but bear with me here, because it is relevant to the interpretation of the scene, and season two as a whole.)

The show is not subtle. It keeps telling us that the institution of marriage is a prison that suffocates everyone involved. Ed's parents' cycle of abuse is passed to their son in both the violence he witnesses then enacts on his father, and the self-repression his mother teaches, despite her good intentions ("It's not up to us, is it? It's up to God. ... We're just not those kind of people. We never will be."). Stede and Mary are both oppressed by their arranged marriage, with 1x04 blunty titled Discomfort in a Married State. The Barbados widows revel in their freedom ("We're alive. They're dead. Now is your time").

But even without this context, the particular wedding crashed in 2x01 is COMICALLY evil. The scene is introduced with this speech from the priest:

"The natural condition of humanity is base and vile. It is the obligation of people of standing ... to elevate the common human rabble through the sacred transaction of matrimony."

It's upper class, all-white, and religiously sanctioned. "Vile natural conditions" include queerness, sexual freedom, and family structures outside the cisheteropatriarchal capitalist unit. "The obligation of people of standing" invokes ideas like the white man's burden, innate class hierarchy, religious missions, and conversion therapy. Matrimony is presented as both "sacred" (endorsed by the ruling religious body), and a "transaction" (business performed to transfer property and people-as-property, regardless of their desires), a tool of the oppressive society that pirates escape and destroy. That is where the figurines come from.

When Ed, in a drunk, depressive spiral, paints himself onto the bride, he's not yearning for a pretty dress. He's sort of yearning for a wedding, but that's not framed as positive. What he's doing is projecting himself into an 'ideal' image of marriage because he believes that: a) that's what Stede (and everyone) wants; b) he can never live up to that ideal because he's unlovable and broken (brown, queer, lower-class, violent, abused, etc); c) that's why Stede left. He tries to make himself fit into the social ideal by painting himself onto the closest match - long-haired, partner to Stede/groom, but a demure, white woman, a frozen, porcelain miniature - because, if he could just shrink himself down and squeeze into that box, maybe Stede would love him and he'd live happily ever after. But he can't. So he won't.

The fantasy fails: Ed is morose, turns away from the figurines, then tips them into the sea, a lost cause. He knows he won't ever fulfil that bride's role, but he sees that as a failure in himself, not the role. It's not just that "Stede left, so Ed will never have a dream wedding and might as well die." Stede left when Ed was honest and vulnerable, "proving" what his trauma and depression tell him: there's one image of love (of personhood), and he'll never live up to it because he's fundamentally deficient. So he might as well die.

This hit me from my very first viewing. The scene is devastating, because Ed is wrong, and we know it! He doesn't need to change or reduce himself to fit an image and be accepted (as, eg, Izzy demanded). Stede knows and loves him exactly as he is; it's the main thread and theme of season two!

(@/everyonegetcake suggested that Ed's yearning in these scenes includes his broader desire for the vulnerability and safety Stede offered, literalised through unattainable "fine" things like the status of gentleman in s1, or the figurine's blue dress. I'd argue, though, that these scenes don't incorporate this beyond a general knowledge of Ed's character. Ed is always pining for both literal and emotional softness, but the significance of the figurines specifically, to both Ed and the audience, is poisoned by their origin and context: there is no positive fantasy in the bride figure, only Ed's perceived deficiency.

Further, assuming that a desire for vulnerability necessarily corresponds with an explicit desire for femininity, dresses, etc, kind of contradicts the major themes of the show. OFMD asserts that there is nothing wrong with men assuming femininity (through drag, self-care, nurturing, emotional vulnerability, etc), but also that many of these traits are, in fact, genderless, and should be available to men without affecting their perceived or actual masculinity. It thematically invokes the potential for cross-gender expression in Ed's desires, especially through the transgender echoes in his relieved disposal, then comfortable reincorporation, of the Blackbeard leathers/identity. It's a rich, valuable area of analysis and exploration. But it remains a suggestion, not a canon or on-screen trait.)

Importantly, the groom figure doesn't fit Stede, either. Not just in dress: it's stiff and formal, and marriage nearly killed him. He's shabbier now, yes, but also shedding his privilege and property, embracing his queerness, and trying to take responsibility for his community. In a s1 flashback, Stede hesitantly says, "I thought that, when I did marry, it could be for love," but he would never find love in marriage. Not just because he's gay, but because marriage in OFMD is an oppressive, transactional institution that precludes love altogether. All formal marriages in OFMD are loveless.

So, he becomes a pirate, where they reject society altogether and have matelotages instead. Lucius and Pete's "mateys" ceremony is shot and framed not like a wedding, but as an honest, personal bond, willingly conducted in community (in a circle; no presiding authority, procession, or transaction).

That is how Stede and Ed can find love, companionship, and happiness: by rejecting those figurines and their oppressive exchange of property, overseen by a church that enables colonialism and abuse. Ed is loved, and deserves happiness, as he is, no paint or projection required.

ALL OF THIS IS TO SAY: draw Ed in dresses! Write him getting gender euphoria in skirts! Write trans/nb Ed, draw men being feminine! Gender is fake, the show invites exploration, that's what 'transformative works' means! But please, stop citing the cake toppers as evidence it's canon. Stop citing a scene where a depressed Māori man gets drunk and projects himself onto a rich, white, silent bride because he thinks he's innately unlovable and only people like her can find happiness, shortly before deciding to kill himself, as canon evidence it's what he wants.

(Also, please don't come in here with "lmao we're just having fun," I know, I get it. Unfortunately, I'm an academiapilled researchmaxxer, and some of youse need to remember that the word "canon" has meaning. NOW GO HAVE FUN PUTTING THAT MAN IN A PRETTY DRESS!! 💖💖)

[blackwaves]

.

[bemusedlybespectacled]

proposing what I'm going to call Gaylor's Razor, which is: never explain normal shit as being part of a secret message that can only be decoded by over-analysis.

"These Taylor Swift lyrics are actually coded messages saying that she's a lesbian and is forced to stay in the closet! Any lyrics that are clearly about being attracted to a man are just to throw us off the scent!" Sometimes people, like Taylor Swift, are straight and write about being straight, because they are straight.

"The fourth series of Sherlock was deliberately bad because it was actually a coded message to us fans that there is a secret fourth episode that will make Johnlock canon and will actually be good!" Sometimes writers (even experienced writers who are normally good at their jobs) will write something that's not good, because no one is perfect. They're not going to waste everyone's time and money and energy creating something terrible on purpose as part of a grand master plan.

"Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir, the Canadian Olympic ice dancers, are secretly married (with kids)! Their public relationships with people who are not each other and them repeatedly saying 'we dated as kids and now we're just friends' are just to hide the truth! Which they need to hide for some reason! Their relationship is obvious just from their physical chemistry when competing! JUST LOOK AT THIS TWO SECOND CLIP OF HIM BLINKING AT HER!" It seems counterproductive to put all that thought into hiding a relationship that doesn't need to be hidden but then also telegraph that same relationship in front of millions of people through planned choreography.

"But BB, what about times that people really are speaking in code or hiding something due to outside influences?"

If it requires huge leaps in logic, like adding all the letters in a sentence together and dividing by seventeen and that number matches the binary sequence for the color yellow so YELLOW MUST BE SIGNIFICANT, it's not a secret code.

If it requires focusing on teeny tiny details but discards huge ones, like analyzing someone's micro-expressions but handwaving away what the person is actually saying out loud with their mouth, or focusing on one specific line instead of the entire scene or song or whatever, it's not a secret code.

If both supporting and contradictory evidence are used to come to the same conclusion (ex: when Taylor says something that I interpret as gay, that means she's gay, and when she says something that I interpret as straight, that still means she's gay and just hiding it), it's not a secret code.

Trying to apply fandom meta analysis techniques to real life is a really good way of fall into conspiratorial thinking that can be easily exploited. You can totally try to predict what's going to happen in a story or choose to interpret a scene in a specific way; you can't do that in real life with real people. That way lies the kind of nonsense that leads to shit like "this image of pizza on a children's toy is actually subliminal messaging by The Cabal™ that proves that Pizzagate is real."

[iwillmissourtalks]

SEARCHING AO3: A (SLIGHTLY) MORE ADVANCED GUIDE

Disclaimer: This is very very geared towards finding fics about a particular character rather than a pairing. My favourite guys tend to be popular-ish women that appear in a lot of fics but only as supporting characters so I’ve had to become v good at combing for things that actually centre them <3

For this guide we’re gonna use my current hyperfixation: Mel Medarda & see what we can find lol

1. Use the tag filter system as your default! It’s superior in every way to the normal search except for the “any field” section which can be pretty useful but unless you’re using it for SPECIFICALLY THAT, don’t bother.

You can access the tag filter by clicking on any common tag (we’re gonna use “Mel Medarda”) and then hitting filters.

This thing is SO useful! Poke about in the dropdown menus; each of them will have the top 10 associated tags for that category. For example the top additional tags for Mel are Angst; Slow Burn and Fluff because,,, well. yk

+ it shows the number of fics with those tags under the “main” tag of Mel Medarda!

2. Keep an eye out for character specific tags! Now that we’re definitely using the tag filtering system we can start actually filtering through those tags <3

Most characters will have common but specific tags that both name them and imply something about their arc in the fic. A frequent example is something like “X character needs a hug”, or more obviously: “X character centric”.

These are my go-to tags for Mel! Most characters will have a variation of this set + some others (“BAMF character name” is also a pretty common one in older fandoms) and any one of these (INDIVIDUALLY, at most filtered in sets of 2) will lead to a few hundred results. It’s not 100% flawless because a lot of authors over-tag, but a solid 80% of the fics under these tags will at least heavily feature the character you’re looking for.

3. Filter by summary!!

At the bottom of the tag filters there’s a section called search within results. This is your Best Friend.

summary: “_”

^ for easy copy/paste

What this script will do is search for whatever you put in the quotation marks and then only give you fics with that thing in the description. I like to use it for character names but it also does a pretty good job filtering for tropes — try using it for vampires lol

Doing this with Mel narrows down her character tag from 7000+ to just under one and a half thousand fics, all of which at the very least include her name in the description.

4. RAREPAIRS ARE YOUR FRIEND! Canon but only semi-popular ships are infinitely more likely to get tagged in the background than say, for example — melvik (nobody is writing background melvik). This tip only works if you’re willing to multiship for more content of your guy but it is very effective.

5. Related to tip 4: Search by otp! If you’re locked in on a particular pairing that’s more popular, you can search for fics that ONLY include that ship.

otp:true

^ for easy copy/paste (again)

This is super useful and also the main reason I don’t tag side pairings in my own fics! Also remember to use this script with ship tag rather than just a character one — otherwise it won’t work.

6. Parent tags exist! This is less of a strategy and requires more trail & error, but lots of tags filter into each other. For another Mel-related example, filtering by the Only Meljay tag would also being up fics tagged with Jayce/Mel Medarda-centric — despite (potentially) not having the original tag you filtered by. This is because Jayce/Mel Medarda-centric is the Parent of the original tag, meaning ao3 has deemed the two tags related enough to appear in each other’s search results.

This is something done manually by ao3 staff so the consistency of parent tags are a little weird sometimes.

More practically, this is an interaction to keep in mind when blocking tags. If for example you were to exclude “Torture” from your search, ao3 would also automatically exclude —

Implied/Referenced Torture

Physiological Torture

Aftermath of Torture

And probably many more.

Even if the broad category of torture isn’t tagged in a fic, the specific referenced type of torture counts — to ao3 — as a tag of torture by itself.

Interestingly, the “sub-categories” of tag don’t feed into each other this way. You can block Physiological Torture and still see fics tagged with Implied/Referenced Torture or Aftermath of Torture.

Knowing this is useful in the sense that the more specific you get with a blocked tag, the less likely you are to accidentally filter out something you would actually be fine with (or inversely blocking a general category you HATE means you don’t have to obsessively filter out every possible iteration of that thing you don’t like).

You can tell tag is a Parent Category by searching for a Sub Category and blocking what you think is the Parent. This will result in 0 results.

Implied/Referenced Torture tag after blocking the Torture tag.

Each of these strategies are things to be done in waves or in combination with one another. Casting a wide net and then narrowing it down is really important, too many tags and you end up with no results.

Ao3 has an INCREDIBLY robust set of archival tools. It’s an amazing site and if a fic exists and you know what you’re doing, you should always be able to find it.

Happy reading <3

[ao3commentoftheday]

Your response in your reblog on the post about collections and series made me think of something since you mentioned that the works in the series are meant to be read in order and collections can be enjoyed separately. I have a whole bunch of AU stories (9 in total, possibly 10 if I decide to post the one I’m working on now) and I was thinking of posting them in a series since they’re all of the same fandom, the same characters are usually involved (meaning sometimes all while other times just a few of them), the only difference is is how they get together with their significant other. I figured putting them in a series would be good since the first AUs take place when the characters are in high school and then later on the AUs are of them in their twenties. But now I’m wondering whether I should instead post them as a collection. What do you think?

I'm afraid it's been so long since you sent this in that I'm not able to find that ask and link it here. Sorry about that!

I hope whatever I said wasn't as prescriptive as that. I tend to work in terms of generalities rather than in specific rules. That said, I do say a lot of stuff on this blog so it's entirely possible that was just how I felt that day.

Today, I would say that series definitely lend themselves to stories being told in a certain order. You can even re-order the works in a series if you write a new fic that you want to put in between two existing ones.

That doesn't mean that works in a series must be read that way, though. It's just a benefit to using the series function over a collection.

If having them in a series has worked for you thus far, I don't think you need to worry about changing it. I think series are probably the more common choice for grouping works together by a single author, anyway.

Unless I'm wrong about that? What do you all think?

[livlaughloveluke]

DARK!LUKE CASTELLAN NSFW ALPHABET..

warning! this fic contains- a lot of nasty, dirty, dark nsfw headcannons, all varying, so read at your own risk. also a touch of angst and unrequited love? dark!dom!luke. afab/fem reader.

NOTE: this takes place after luke’s betrayal, and luke & reader don’t have an established relationship, it’s more of a sneaky link situation. reader is also definitely in love with luke. oki baii

personal note: i’m back!! kinda. just finishing drafts, so don’t expect me to post much more. sorry for making you guys wait a year 😭 i don’t even know if the luke fandom is still alive

A = aftercare (what they’re like after sex)

even though his whole persona is this mean demigod who wouldn’t care about your feelings for more than a second, he’s not too shabby when it comes to aftercare. he likes to hold you until you fall asleep, and occasionally he’ll run a hot bath for you as a sort of apology for being so rough.

B = body part (their favorite body part of theirs and also their partner’s)

his favorite part of himself would have to be his muscles, specifically the ones on his arms. he loves how the veins pop out when he’s rutting into you relentlessly, grasping onto your hips to keep him stable. other than that, luke doesn’t look at himself often, partly because he doesn’t care and partly because it’s a reminder of what he’s been through, the choices he made. he’s more focused on you during sex, specifically the way your tits sway around, the perky nipple bouncing up and down. it’s hypnotizing, really. he can’t help but suck or grope on them from time to time, the tip hardening in his warm salvia.

C = cum (anything to do with cum, basically)

surprisingly, he almost always pulls out and finishes somewhere else on your body. there’s just something so degrading about being drenched in cum that turns him on. it’s a nice reminder of who has control during sex.

D = dirty secret (pretty self explanatory, a dirty secret of theirs)

he’s had an embarrassing amount of wet dreams centered around you. hypnos must have blessed cursed him, because he can’t go a week without seeing you rutting against him in his dreams. if he wasn’t so ignorant, maybe he’d consider the possibility that he was in love with you, but he was never known for his bright ideas anyways.

E = experience (how experienced are they? do they know what they’re doing?)

he’s well experienced. let’s say his body count is about 5, which is decent for his situation at camp. there’s very few girls of age, and even less straight ones. but i mean, he knows how to pull and charm girls into getting what he wants. he knows what he’s doing, how to make you squirm and beg.

F = favorite position (this goes without saying)

doggy, for sure. you’re his pillow princess, head always pushed down while mascara streams down your cheeks in black chunks. he’ll buy you the silk pillowcases, too, so it doesn’t mess up your hair. sometimes he’ll switch it up and go cowgirl, but don’t think that gives you control. he’s the one guiding your ass up and down on him, and he’s happy to manhandle you into a different position if you aren’t behaving.

G = goofy (are they more serious in the moment? are they humorous? etc.)

not too serious, not too silly. he’ll crack a laugh every so often while you beg, or make a dumb comment about you getting desperate. although, he’s the only one who finds those funny.

H = hair (how well groomed are they? does the carpet match the drapes? etc.)

not clean shaven to say the least. he’s got a decent amount of hair growing down there, but nothing unhygienic. he doesn’t mind it 🤷‍♀️

I = intimacy (how are they during the moment? the romantic aspect)

not big on intimacy. luke’s usually just down for a quick fuck and nothing more. although if he has time, he savors everything and it seems a little more romantic.

J = jack off (masturbation headcanon)

he rarely jacks off, mainly because you’re always nearby and would get down on your knees with a snap of his fingers. sometimes he’ll make you masturbate in front of him to tease or see what you like, but that usually ends in him fucking you anyways.

K = kink (one or more of their kinks)

luke into a lot of shit. he loves to tease and deny your orgasms, to watch you beg for mercy as he pulls away completely. degrading words are also frequently thrown around in sex, although he never actually means any of the insults he spews out during the moment. bondage is iffy, but he likes to throw in some handcuffs here and there

L = location (favorite places to do the do)

his cali king bed on the yacht, your bed, the shower, basically anywhere he pleases. sometimes it’s in the privacy of his suite (although your moans can definitely be heard from outside), and sometimes it’s a quickie in the storage closet.

M = motivation (what turns them on, gets them going)

when you start training on the ship and sweat is beading on your forehead, your breaths shaky and muscles tense. he literally goes feral, like something primal in him snaps. don’t even get me started about when you lose a practice match and you get all bratty and snappy.

N = no (something they wouldn’t do, turn offs)

nothing really dirty like piss or vomit; it just grosses him out. as for other things, if you’re down to try something new, he is.

O = oral (preference in giving or receiving, skill, etc.)

he’s really big on oral, both receiving and giving. most of the time it’s you on your knees while he grips your hair and face fucks you, a mixture of precum and spit dribbling down your chin. he adores your beady eyes and how your eyelashes flutter as you take him down your throat. if he’s feeling nice, he’ll go down on you, messily licking and slurping your juices. and you bet he’s a fucking god at it, too.

P = pace (are they fast and rough? slow and sensual? etc.)

luke’s definitely on the faster side, his thrusts quick and sharp. before he finishes though, he’ll switch it up to a slow and hard pace, every movement sloppier than the last.

Q = quickie (their opinions on quickies, how often, etc.)

oh he’s definitely down for a quick fuck. anytime, anyplace typa guy. you come up to him begging during training? he’ll fuck you in the equipment closet, metal banging around with every thrust. he has a meeting to attend to discuss his plans? he can multitask and make you suck him off in the shower.

R = risk (are they game to experiment? do they take risks? etc.)

absolutely. usually, he’ll pretend not to be interested as you slyly mention a new position or kink you want to try out. luke will brush it off, continuing on with his conversation like nothing happened. but when you get into bed later that night, he’ll initiate whatever idea you suggested earlier. just don’t mention it, or he won’t go so easy on you next time.

S = stamina (how many rounds can they go for? how long do they last?)

as long as he pleases, baby. it ranges, but it frequently consists of 3ish twelve minute rounds where he’s consistently fucking you. unless he decides to drag everything on and torture you, in which it’ll last a lot longer, although it’s mainly just teasing.

T = toys (do they own toys? do they use them? on a partner or themselves?)

he own a few vibrators for you and a pair of handcuffs in case you’re feeling bratty, but other than that he’s not really invested. if he can’t make you squirm with just his body, he’s doing something wrong.

U = unfair (how much they like to tease)

luke absolutely loves teasing you, for what feels like hours on end. it makes him grin when you beg, every plea from your lips going straight to his dick. especially in public, where he’ll run his hands up and down your thigh, drifting dangerously close to your core. he’ll whisper nasty things into your ear, knowing you won’t get to hook up until hours later. but could you blame him when you looked so sexy in that dress?

V = volume (how loud they are, what sounds they make, etc.)

he’s a grunter, loud and proud. although he definitely prefers your pretty sounds, he just can’t help letting out some noises of his own. contrary to popular belief, he rarely moans, unless he’s caught up in the moment and a few whines happen to slip.

W = wild card (a random headcanon for the character)

when he’s feeling reallyyyy kinky, and if the moments right, he’ll pull out a knife during sex. he wouldn’t actually hurt you, at least nothing too serious, but he definitely teases it. luke will carefully drag the blade across your glossy skin, testing the limits as much as possible and watching your tense expression as he presses down every so often. you know he wouldn’t hurt you, but the look in his crazed eyes as he holds the dull side to your throat while pounding your insides tells you otherwise.

another completely different wildcard is that occasionally, he’ll stay up real late after sex, just staring at you and thinking. there’s something about your messy hair and puffy cheeks that captures his gaze for hours upon hours some nights. he knows you love him, he knows you wouldn’t put up with his bullshit if you didn’t care at least a little. and yet he still can’t find it in his heart to care for you. well, he can’t admit that he cares. he can’t admit that he makes sure you eat every day, he can’t admit that he leaves advil on his nightstand for when you sneak out in the early morning, and he sure as hell can’t admit that he knows all of your favorites inside and out. so instead, he’ll stay up all night and coddle you while pretending you’re just another warm body.

X = x-ray (let’s see what’s going on under those clothes)

i mean…. he’s definitely packing. nothing insane, but a good 6-8in? he’s got a large build, so i wouldn’t be surprised.

Y = yearning (how high is their sex drive?)

holy shit, it’s pretty high!! i usually try to avoid unrealistic headcannons given to every character, but damnnnn this boy can go all night. he doesn’t usually, since he mostly uses all his energy for training, but even then, it’s still high.

Z = zzz (how quickly they fall asleep afterwards)

if he’s not spending the night thinking of you (and questioning literally everything about himself) like i mentioned before, he’s out like a light. luke’s a busy guy and he gets sleepy, what can i say? he probably snores too, idk he just gives off that vibe.

[kiyawritesforf1]

THE FAN-FICTION SAGA

Pairing: Max Verstappen x Reader

It started innocently enough. Max had never been the type to pry too much into Y/N’s hobbies. She was always so effortless and easygoing, a balance of sweet and sassy, with a warmth that made him feel at ease. But as their relationship deepened, Max started noticing something peculiar: Y/N spent an unusual amount of time reading on her phone—almost obsessively, as if there was some hidden world he wasn’t a part of.

At first, Max didn’t think much of it. She was a reader, and he’d always admired how much she loved books. But it wasn’t long before he realized that the content of her reading material wasn’t exactly what he expected. It wasn’t literature in the traditional sense—there were no classic novels or even contemporary thrillers. No, what caught his eye was the number of tabs open on her phone, filled with websites he'd never heard of, and a very specific genre: **fanfiction.**

Now, Max was no stranger to fandoms—he'd heard stories from his friends about the deep, sometimes obsessive nature of fan communities. But he had never actually met someone who was so deeply immersed in it. His curiosity got the best of him, and one lazy Sunday afternoon, he finally decided to ask.

They were lounging on the couch, sipping on coffee, the soft hum of their playlist playing in the background. Y/N had her phone in her hand, her eyes glued to the screen, a wide grin spreading across her face as she scrolled through yet another chapter of something that seemed to hold her attention more than anything else in the room.

“Y/N…” Max began, leaning over the armrest and trying to get a peek at her phone. “What exactly are you reading?”

She glanced up, her face lighting up with a mischievous spark. “Oh, just a little something.”

Max raised an eyebrow, feeling a little more intrigued than he probably should. “A little something, huh? This has been going on for weeks now. What is it? Some kind of secret novel?”

Y/N giggled, her eyes flickering back to the screen. “No, not a novel. It’s… fanfiction.”

“Fanfiction?” Max repeated, unable to suppress the confusion in his voice. “As in, like, those stories people write about their favorite TV shows or movies?”

Y/N nodded enthusiastically. “Yep! It’s amazing! You’d be surprised at how much better some of these stories are than actual TV shows.”

Max blinked, trying to process this new information. “Wait, you’re telling me you’ve been reading stories written by fans? Like… not even official writers? That’s what you’ve been so hooked on?”

Y/N shrugged, a playful smile tugging at her lips. “What can I say? They’re creative. They’re fun. Plus, there’s a certain magic to them, you know?”

Max let out a small chuckle, his mind whirring. This was definitely not what he had expected when he asked Y/N about her hobbies. “Okay, but… what’s the appeal? I mean, I get the whole escapism thing, but isn’t it kind of… well, weird?”

Y/N shot him a teasing glance, her eyes dancing with amusement. “You’re just not *getting* it. It’s not about weirdness, Max. It’s about creativity, passion, and sometimes—just sometimes—a little bit of *delusion.*”

Max blinked at the word. “Delusion?”

She nodded, her grin widening. “Yeah, like the delusional shipping, the alternate universes where the characters do things they *never* would, and the wild romantic scenarios that leave you questioning your entire life. It’s fun! It’s… it’s just the world I get to immerse myself in, you know?”

Max couldn’t help but laugh. This was not the woman he thought he knew. “So, basically, you’re living in your own fanfiction world?”

“Exactly,” she said, looking back down at her phone. “And you’re part of it.”

“Wait, *I’m* part of it?” Max asked, raising an eyebrow in disbelief. “How?”

Y/N didn’t answer immediately. She just kept scrolling, her fingers tapping quickly across the screen. Then, she looked up at him, her eyes twinkling. “I’m reading a fic about this hot, mysterious guy who’s really into racing. I’m just saying, you might fit the role quite well.”

Max blinked, a deep blush creeping up his neck. “Wait, hold on. You’re reading fanfiction about me?” he asked incredulously.

Y/N shrugged again, her lips curling into a mischievous smile. “Maybe. Maybe not. You’ll never know.”

Max let out an exaggerated sigh, though part of him was secretly flattered. “This is… so weird. I had no idea this was such a big part of your life. I’m dating a *delusional* girl, huh?”

Y/N laughed, her voice sweet and light. “Normal girl, Max. Just a normal girl living her best delusional life. You should try it sometime.”

As Max tried to process this new layer to Y/N, he couldn’t help but feel more drawn to her. The way she embraced her passions, her quirks, without any shame or hesitation. It was charming in its own way, and honestly, kind of adorable.

But then, of course, Daniel—Max’s teammate and longtime friend—decided to pop into the conversation, his timing impeccable as always.

“Hey, I’m back from the track. What’s going on here?” Daniel asked, dropping his bag by the door and heading toward the kitchen.

Y/N grinned, clearly sensing an opportunity to tease Max. “Oh, just explaining to Max how *normal* I am. You know, reading fanfiction, living in my own little world, shipping people who don’t even exist.”

Daniel raised an eyebrow as he grabbed a water bottle from the fridge. “Fanfiction, huh? You really have him hooked on that, don’t you?”

Max, looking thoroughly exasperated, turned to Daniel. “Apparently, I’m part of some *delusional* shipping universe now. I had no idea what I was getting into.”

Y/N couldn’t help but laugh. “See, Daniel gets it! You’re just not ready for the wonderful world of *delulu* yet.”

Max groaned dramatically. “I feel like I need a crash course or something. This is all way too much for me.”

Daniel chuckled, sitting down next to Max. “So, wait, you’re telling me you’ve been reading *fanfiction* about Max?”

Y/N’s eyes twinkled. “Maybe I’ve written a few stories here and there.”

Max turned to her, raising both eyebrows. “You’ve written fanfiction about me?”

“Maybe,” she said, her voice dropping to a mock whisper. “You’ll never know. My writing skills are top secret.”

Max shook his head in disbelief, though part of him was secretly intrigued. “I never knew dating a girl could be this complicated.”

Y/N leaned over and gave him a quick peck on the cheek. “But that’s the fun of it, Max. Every day is an adventure. Who knows what you'll find next?”

As if on cue, Daniel raised his bottle in mock salute. “Here’s to being part of the delusional world. I think I’ll stay out of it, though. But, you know, if you ever want to introduce me to any of your *fanfic* buddies, I’d be happy to take a look.”

Max laughed, shaking his head. “I’m not sure I’m ready to dive that deep into the madness.”

Y/N shot him a knowing look. “You’d be surprised, Max. Sometimes the madness is exactly what makes everything fun.”

As the night wore on, the three of them continued to laugh and chat, Max becoming more and more fascinated by Y/N’s love for fanfiction and her playful, quirky nature. Despite the absurdity of it all, there was something endearing about her willingness to embrace the weird, the wonderful, and the *delulu*.

Max realized that maybe, just maybe, he had been underestimating the complexity of his feelings for her. She wasn’t just the girl he thought he knew—she was layers upon layers of passion, quirks, and humor. And he couldn’t help but fall for her even more.

As they all settled down for the night, Max looked at Y/N with a soft smile. “You know, I might just start reading some fanfiction myself. But only if I can be the ‘mysterious racer guy’ in your stories.”

Y/N grinned, her eyes lighting up. “Deal. But no promises about how romantic it gets.”

Max leaned in close, his voice low and teasing. “I’m counting on it.”

END

[jennelikejennay]

How to write like Spock

Some Spirk writers tend to write like Spock anyway and that's why we write so much Spirk (cough cough, me. Let me tell you, people don't like it when you write like Spock in books). Others consider his voice a particular challenge, so this is for you.

Spock's level of formality can be a challenge if you're used to colloquial English. It includes things like an advanced vocabulary, convoluted sentences, and an avoidance of idioms.

My biggest tip is this: if you don't know how to do a thing, best not to worry about it. Don't use words if you don't know their meaning. If you need a sciencey word and don't know enough science, make one up. In the end, Spock can talk like other people if he wants to so don't tie yourself in a knot about it.

Kirk and Spock are both kind of Renaissance men. So they don't just talk about science, but may reference history, literature, psychology, whatever you like. Feel free to give them your interests and make them cite your favorite book or historical figure.

There are certain words the fandom loves and loves to misuse:

amenable: willing, agreeing to something. "I would be amenable to your proposal." The proposal isn't amenable, Spock is.

agreeable: this one can be used for the proposal. "Your suggestion would be agreeable to me."

reticent: reserved, unwilling to disclose. "He was reticent on the topic of pon farr."

reluctant: unwilling to do something. "He was reluctant to disclose the meaning of pon farr." Don't say he was reticent to go swimming. We don't really say reticent to do anything. It's an adjective that stands on its own for someone who's politely secretive (like Spock).

thusly: is not a word. People started using it as a joke around when I was in elementary school and now they seem to think it's real. It's not.

thus: in this way. It is an adverb already so there's no need to add -ly. "Why do you act thus?" "Thus I have always explained it."

Spock does use contractions, for instance in his classic line, "When I feel friendship for you, I'm ashamed." You can avoid them to help the ear hear his specific cadence, but it's not weird if Spock happens to use them and his friends would not be shocked.

Spock does not swear (till STIV, and then badly). If he cusses, Bones is going to whip out a medical tricorder to see what's wrong.

Spock does occasionally use idioms, but often in "air quotes" so he can pretend it is a human foible he wouldn't dream of using on his own. He understands them perfectly fine, but he sometimes pokes fun at them. Don't overdo this or he just seems obnoxious. Spock can read the room.

Despite his love of formality, throughout TOS, Spock uses "Jim" readily off duty or in moments of danger. Now of course depending on your fic, he might not be on a first-name basis with Jim yet. But they don't have to be sleeping together to be using first names.

Spock rarely admits to emotions but he does feel them. It's up to you whether he admits them in his internal monologue. There are a lot of strategies people use to show his emotion:

"He noticed a flash of fear and tucked it away to meditate about later."

"The threat of mortality had risen to sixty-one percent, but as a Vulcan he felt no fear about this, none whatsoever."

"His knees felt weak and his stomach churned. Perhaps he was coming down with a virus."

"He wondered idly if, when he died, the captain would weep."

There's no one right way to do it! We rarely see what Spock is actually thinking, so you can make him poetic, alexithymic, enlightened, whatever background makes the tiny above-water iceberg of his visible behavior make sense.

This deserves to be its own point: with all characters, there will be a difference between their inner narration and what they reveal on the outside, but that's especially true for Spock. Using his POV allows the chance of showing tons of stuff he would never show. Feelings, motives, Vulcan traditions that guide his reactions. Jim will often be aware of his feelings, but most people won't.

Okay that's what I can think of off the top of my head. I hope it makes you feel more comfortable writing his POV if it's something you've been afraid to try.

What did I forget?

[teruthecreator]

gimme 1 and 17 dialtown ☎️

hiiiii griffin i hope you're having a good time at graduation. probably not since u sent this ask but hey man i get i too was on my phone during graduation. anyway

1. the character everyone gets wrong

oh boy where do i start with this. i mean like. tee bee aych i feel like most people have a fundamental misunderstanding of randy. like he's not pathetic for pathetics sake he kind of intentionally puts himself in the worst situations imaginable to feed his worldview of everything being bad for Him specifically and no one else. the fandom kind of babygirls him? like treats him softer and generally makes him more of a shy uwu guy rather than a person stuck deeply in his own fractured worldview that is intentionally letting himself get worse. like randy's whole route is about making him realize his happiness is His Choice, His Decision and not a work of fate/luck/unseen outside force that he has to relinquish control to, and everyone just goes "yeah but what if we make him sopping wet uwu yaoibait guy with oliver".

speaking of oliver i feel like EEEEEEEEEVERYBODY makes him way too wacky and not actually grounded. like, despite his many odd mannerisms and such, he is still one of the few characters who has a job and is able to Maintain That throughout his route (though, of course, in the good route it changes). oliver is a pretty stable guy, all things considered. sure he talks funny and has a general inclination for the ridiculous, but a lot of people kinda coke him up and let him run loose like he's a wild animal. and i think it's more fun if you ground him in a place of reality and then let him play. instead of being the guy to drag people into stuff, let him be a part of a scenario and see what his reactions are. much more fun. also i feel like a lot of people forget how, like, awkward he is? like he tends to apologize when he says really outlandish/forward shit and seems to view Himself as a "freak" in a way that would suggest he's aware of how he stands in comparison to most people. like dude knows he's weird, and that's not Always a good thing.

and yknow what while im talking about the main dateables i would be remiss to bring up karen because like. WOW. i mean this is a problem with most fandom spaces unfortunately but the way people straightman her is so fucking sad. like people forget she literally quit her job on a Whim because someone vaguely suggested leaving and she went full throttle. karen is impulsive and karen makes bad decisions based on rash judgments and she is generally not that hard to goad into doing something stupid. i mean, she agreed to a date with gingi. twice! that takes some real loose grips on impulse control to just go along with that. like sure she is a bit more deadpan than, say, oliver, but she does have a sense of humor. she likes to use sarcasm! she has wit she has sass. also she is like. INSANELY jealous and i feel like a lot of people dont hone in on that aspect of her being the reason why she is sometimes so rash. she is fiercely protective of those she considers "hers". she wanted to Kill A Giraffe because gingi liked it. she is jealous she is rash she is impulsive PLAY IN THE SPACE STOP MAKING HER THE DEADPAN STRAIGHTMAN ITS SO BORINGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG

okay that's enough of that but just know i could've done it for every character

17. there should be more of this type of fic/art

maybe i am insanely ridiculously biased but there should more content of mingus and norm. or just mingus. or norm. those two are SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO fascinating and i feel like people kinda gloss over that. like they're similar beasts in their rampant paranoia and flawed perspective on callum/the world and they butt heads about it like crazy. generally their dynamic is one of the most interesting parts of chapter 3 to me and i feel like there really isn't enough chapter 3-focused content out there. we should talk about these guys more. and if i have to stand on a podium and take a stand there should be more content of MINGUS. girl is the driving antagonist of AN ENTIRE ARC. BASICALLY THE WHOLE GAME IF YOU THINK ABOUT IT. AND NOOOOOO I DON'T SEE HER ANYWHERE. IS IT BECAUSE SHE DOESN'T FIT IN YOUR FOUND FAMILY DYNAMIC? IS IT BECAUSE SHE'S A WOMAN? I DON'T KNOW I DON'T KNOW HOW TO DIRECT YOU PEOPLE TOWARDS HER BUT I WANT TO. if my brain was functioning at the capacity it was last july i would've written ten million fics about her i have so many days. alas, i don't know if they'll ever happen... (but if people were curious i would gladly share)

but in a slightly more biased take, i think there needs to be more normingus in the world. how we were the chosen few to proclaim the good word of normingus is beyond me. like don't get me wrong i'm happy tryt had its impact but JESUS CHRIST I SHOULD NOT BE THE MOST POPULAR. SOMEONE ELSE COME TRY AND PLAY IN THE SPACE WITH ME. I CAN GIVE YOU IDEAS. I CAN GIVE YOU SO MANY IDEAS.

[creatingblackcharacters]

Asking about a specific fandom, but I'm well aware this isn't unique. I am a white artist and I engage with a Lot of fan content for My Little Pony (Friendship is magic), despite not having seen the show myself. Human versions of the characters are a very common way to make fanart, and there is a lot of vitriol and cruelty for whenever one of the characters is drawn as a Black woman, with it getting worse when she has darker skin and even worse when you intersect other marginalized identities like fatness or queerness. My question is, how can I best help combat this? I am guilty of liking more than reblogging, so I already know that going forward I want to share more of this art on my blog. I want to do all I can to help without taking up space over Black artists and Black fans in the fandom. Thank you sm in advance ♥️ (I struggle to know when I give enough context or not, so I apologize if I might be over explaining myself anywhere)

My own general allyship tips:

Be willing to hold YOURSELF accountable! Sometimes we can't avoid racist media or racism in something we're doing- but there are plenty of times where we CAN. You don't have to give up everything, but how often are you even trying to give up something? If I can't ask you to drop an artist who made racist art or who is friends with someone who did, how am I supposed to ask you to do anything else that comes with dismantling white supremacy? It doesn't stop at fandom!

Promote Black voices as much (more than, really) your own when it comes to topics of antiblackness and supporting Black people. It's one of my biggest pet peeves when someone claims to support Black folk with their art and posts, but you look around them and there are NO Black voices. How are you my ally when none of us feel comfortable around you? How are you my ally when you don't know any of us, or are scared to talk to us? It's real easy to parrot talking points you saw online for clout, especially when you see me as a concept and not a human! A lot of people punk out when it comes time to ACTUALLY push a Black voice!

Be willing to accept the risk that comes with speaking up! That sickening reality that you feel to say something to your friends or peers, because it'll break the status quo with an uncomfortable topic- that's how it feels to be us, period! That's how it feels to be outside of that bubble of protection being white affords you! The fact that being antiracist means you'll lose people is a fact you have to be willing to accept. How sad, that people would choose racism over better quality friend groups.

EDUCATE YOURSELF! Too many people talk far too much, too loud, and don't actually know what they're talking about. They want the clout of antiracism but don't know what it means. Learn!!

I'm sure there will be more opinions/suggestions in the notes 🙏🏾

[accio-victuuri]

April 2025 CPNs round-up ❤️💛💚

the start of the month was actually quite eventful, celebrating april fools with the best clowns in chinese domestic entertainment. lol. it started with a double fake rumor which was bits of old rumors pieced together. then as usual for this day, fansite team building happens. meaning, fs for specific celebrities will post about other people. so we supported ones that posted about our boys. a good summary of those are here and there is a good number. whether that’s bjyx or them as individual.

that led to bojunyixiao being on top of the hot search list. this is so fitting for april fools! knowing how much we clown! lol. but seriously, it’s so nice to see how active the fandom still is. the whole fandom has been summoned by the photos shared. there is really nothing new — but we all got excited. that’s how great cpfs are! so sorry ( not really ) to our haters cause we are not going away anytime soon. 💅🏻💅🏻💅🏻

okay, now let’s go to the actual cpns we enjoyed this month! ⬇️⬇️⬇️

• there is a repo from a kid yibo worked with for the bananain shoot. he mentioned that wyb does not smile much, but he does when he looks at his wechat. lol. so we gotta clown all the times you can him smiling down while looking at his phone, probably talking to xz.

• the very lucky ones who already got their WM vinyl noticed how the design is written looks like an 8 and 3. that’s them. Bo and Zhan. 🥹🥹🥹🥹 we know how XZ likes to hide things in plain sight when it comes to his art. so this is a classic example.

• this comparison! they are twins! i wish they could have had this kind of hair at the same time.

• croissant in lacoste ad 🥐🥐🥐

• At the time of writing, GG has not been officially announced to be a part of this rumored drama. @rainbowsky made a really good primer for it over here so you can go ahead and look. but it’s basically screaming the same timeline as yibo’s war of faith. lol. so of course, whoever this character is will be wei ruolai’s husband in the yizhan multiverse! i’m looking forward to it! 🙌🏼

• video “proof” in zhuhai race last year where someone mentions zhan ge + the plot thickens that xz was actually there that time

• this went on HS 4/13 for some reason. there may be some context that i missed lol. but tbh, who cares. they are both successful in their own way in the age they are in. there is no “catching up” to do because they are in different tracks. 💛💛💛

i personally get defensive when it comes to their careers and achievements, i hate tying them up in that aspect. or wanting both to have the same exact things. it does not work that way. i believe in supporting what they do and i accept the fact that sometimes one has more than the other in certain aspects and how that’s okay. i could write up a whole thing on this topic and my thoughts on it but i don’t think the fandom is ready that for that conversation. lol.

• WMWM clothing brand x WM album - another example of the universe conspiring to give them some obscure connection.

• THIS. We are so blessed to have them in Magazine Issues that show their long hair 😍😍😍

how can you not love them both? talented and beautiful creatures!

• WYB’s May Vogue 2025 issue candies

• there is some buzz around xz being spotted passing by Wuhan and him going home immediately. of course we think it’s because Bobo is in Beijing. So he has to be with him 🤡🤡🤡

• our boys greeting sina for their 25th anniversary 🫶🏼

• On 4/20 xz was spotted attending a concert in Beijing with his parents. the “empty” space there is being filled with WYB by us clowns. lol. we don’t have facts but more of wishful thinking since they are both in Beijing. personally, i think people WYB is there because of how happy XZ is. not saying he cannot be happy without WYB, it’s just that there is something more of it’s related to WYB. 🤡🤡🤡

• revisiting an old rumor of them having a skiing show together

• XZ arrives in Shanghai while WYB is there for a race and the next day WYB goes MIA and can only be seen during practice - finally, a timeline of sorts and cpn interpretation of what happened during the weekend✌🏼 on 0428, both Lele and Dabo were seen by chance and people are saying their staff seem to be on holiday. so maybe that’s because the two lovebirds are chillin at home in Beijing. yes please! or maybe they gave their staff some time off after a busy weekend 😋

• WYB is interested in Vinyl record

• WYB saying an expression that is common in Sichuan/Chongqing

see you next month! 🫶🏼💕

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[vibelladonna]

𝒶𝓃𝓈𝓌𝑒𝓇𝑒𝒹 𝒶𝓈𝓀𝓈 + 𝓊𝓅𝒹𝒶𝓉𝑒𝓈! : 𝒻𝓇𝑜𝓂 𝓋𝒾𝓋𝒾

heyyy dearest readers! A quick update (and perhaps a bit of a lecture) as I prepare to make some major changes to how things will run on this Tumblr page in the coming weeks. 

I appreciate your time and attention, so let’s get right into it.

First and foremost, I want to say I’ve officially been accepted into an Ivy League medical program—yes, the real-deal, white-coat, sleepless-nights sort of adventure—and I’ll be attending it throughout the entirety of the summer. I know, shocking, right?

I’ll be flying out soon to stay in the dorms, where I’ll be surrounded by brilliant minds and (hopefully) equally brilliant tea. It's a huge opportunity and one I’ve worked incredibly hard for.

Now, before you panic: I’m still planning to stick (mostly) to the content schedule I promised. I’ll be aiming to upload at least one fanfic a week. That said, life will be busy, and as much as I love you all, my career and studies will always take precedence. I hope you understand.

Another note—and one I imagine some of you will have feelings about: I’ll be focusing more on Creepypasta and other versions novels content rather than JUST The Kid at the Back, (TKATB) for a while. There’s a specific reason for this, which I’ll explain below. But just know this isn’t the end for TKATB content, just a slight seasonal shift in priorities.

Now that we’ve gotten all of that out of the way, let’s get to the fun part: the questions!

✑ I've been seeing a lot of really rude messages being sent to writers and artists here, so don't take anything you see to heart!!! They don't mean shit, you're just another person to harass to them. Idk if you've received anything like it but I've seen 3 posts abt it today,,, be careful vi!!!

Hey, thank you so much for reaching out and checking in—seriously, I appreciate it more than you know. I apologize for not responding sooner, but I want to reassure you that I’m fine. Truly.

I’ve been online since 2014, and trust me when I say I’ve seen—and experienced—a lot. So no, hate comments don’t really get under my skin. It’s just the internet, and unfortunately, people say cruel things all the time when they feel like they’re shouting into a void.

I treat writing as a hobby and a tool to strengthen my skills for medical research purposes—this is something I enjoy doing, not something that defines my worth.

And honestly, I rarely receive hate. When it does happen, it’s typically related to my gender-neutral fanfics. I do write with a feminine tone because I am a woman, and sometimes that doesn’t sit well with certain readers. That’s okay—everyone has preferences—but I refuse to be pushed out of a fandom I enjoy just because I don’t write the way someone else wants me to.

That said, I do want to mention that I’ll be slowing down on The Kid At The Back fandom content for a bit. Life is demanding, and I also want space to work on personal fanfics and dive back into the Creepypasta fandom. 

I’ve honestly grown tired of the energy in this certain fandom spaces—especially when I been contributing well amount of fanfic for TKATB and with the overwhelming number of minors in adult content spaces...

If you’re someone reading my fics as a minor: I understand. I was once your age doing the same thing, though I approached it with a level of maturity and discretion that seems rare nowadays.

To be clear—if someone takes issue with the way I write, how I express myself, or what I choose to post, that’s fine. They’re free to scroll past or block me. It’s that simple. If something online upsets you to that extent, maybe you’re not in the right headspace for this kind of content. 

That’s not me being harsh—it’s just honesty.

Again, thank you for being kind and looking out for people here. That kind of support does mean something. Just know: I’m good. Focused. 

And very much not going anywhere. 

✑ I love your writing, but could you maybe stop saying in the description that you write for gn reader and then just adding "woman" in the story? (Im talking specifically about the vampire fanfic, but I think I saw it a few times on your account) I mean it really made me upset because I struggle with gender dysphoria, so I usually only read gn stuff.

Hi there, thank you for reaching out and taking the time to share your thoughts with me. I want to start this off by acknowledging how difficult it can be to bring something up like this, especially when it’s tied to something as personal as gender identity and dysphoria.

I don’t take that lightly, and I want to be transparent in my response.

Now, let me say this sincerely—I'm sorry that my writing upset you. That was never the intention, and I understand how jarring it can feel to expect gender-neutral content and encounter something that contradicts that expectation, especially when you're looking for comfort or safe escapism. 

I also often go back and re-read the vampire fic (and a few other works), simply adding more detail, correcting grammar, or just for my enjoyment, and I see how that could be frustrating.

So again, I apologize for that experience, and I will work on being more cautious in how I label and tag my works. I’ll double-check stories more thoroughly rather than giving them a surface glance. 

That said, I need to be honest about something, too—and I hope this comes across with the balance of respect and clarity that it’s meant to have.

The way I write is, first and foremost, therapeutic for me. This blog started as a creative outlet, and it continues to be a space where I share writing not just for others, but to explore, improve, and sharpen my writing—especially in preparation for my future in medical research and academic writing.

Tumblr is one of the few places where I get to express that freely, and I want to be transparent that writing—especially character-centric or smut-heavy pieces—is deeply fun for me to write.

When I write gender-neutral smut—rarely for a reason, it’s an immense challenge. Not because I don’t care, but because of how I structure my stories. I focus a lot on sensory detail, reasonable psychological emotions, and physicality.

I write vividly and anatomically, and that makes it hard to keep everything neutral while still maintaining realism and immersion. For some writers, vague language works. For me, it weakens the vision and voice of my storytelling. So when I include subtle feminine cues in a “gn” piece, it’s not out of disregard—it’s just how my imagination naturally forms the scene.

This is also why I’ve always been hesitant about writing gender-neutral smut. I had a gut feeling that misunderstandings like this would happen, and I do try to avoid them—but I’m human. I’m still learning how to balance creative expression with broader sensitivity, and that balance isn’t always perfect.

Again, I’ve gone back and corrected the vampire fic to lean closer to gender neutrality, but I also want to kindly ask: please don’t put the responsibility of your dysphoria or other deeply personal matters on me. 

I say this with care. I’m not equipped—nor comfortable—handling certain topics like gender identity or eating disorders in my fics because I do understand how serious and complex they are. 

That’s why I usually avoid writing directly about those subjects. I’m just one person doing what I can to share stories in a space I created for myself. And while I welcome thoughtful feedback, I can’t carry the emotional weight of someone else’s journey—especially not strangers online. 

That’s a boundary I have to keep for my own well-being.

Lastly, I want to BE VERY CLEAR ONCE MORE: I will continue writing in a way that feels authentic to me. That may include pieces labeled gender-neutral that still have a feminine tone. That may include imperfect attempts to reach a wider audience while still honoring my own voice. It’s okay if my blog isn’t for everyone. I respect that. If something I write is upsetting, the tools exist to block, mute, or simply scroll past it. 

That’s the beauty of being online—we curate our spaces.

Again, thank you for your honesty and for giving me the chance to address this properly. I truly wish you all the comfort, growth, and safe content you need on your journey. Take care.

✑ just a small quick question, if you have a writer's block, what is a good way of getting rid of it? I've been trying to work on this fanfic for two days and only wrote a few paragraphs, and then i couldn't think of anything else to write, and it’s far from being finished! Please and thank you for your time.

Okay, some advice to give.

Ahhh, writer’s block. The age-old enemy of creatives everywhere. First off, I totally understand what you're going through—staring at a document, feeling stuck after just a few paragraphs, wondering if you're ever going to find the spark again. It’s frustrating and draining, especially when the desire to write is there, but the words just don’t want to show up.

Here’s what’s helped me, personally:

I write how I write. That may sound simple, but it took me a while to find my rhythm and voice. I didn’t always have it—especially when I first started writing on Tumblr.

In fact, I don’t even think I had a voice at the beginning. I was just typing thoughts and feelings, hoping it clicked. It took time, practice, burnout, and regrouping to get where I am now.

Sometimes my inspiration comes randomly—like I think too damn much.

TikTok clips, a scene from a book or another writer’s piece, even just something I feel strongly about in the moment. Networking skills I’ve learned (yes, even from being online and in person) helped me pick up patterns and emotional beats that resonate. 

And yes… I do use a bit of AI at times—not to write for me, but to clear the fog when my brain’s too loud or frozen. Like bouncing ideas off something neutral just to get moving again.

That being said, none of it works unless I make myself sit and write. And here’s the hard part: forcing that can lead to burnout. It did for me. When I first got traction here, people started asking—begging, even—for more work. Which I was grateful for, but it added pressure I wasn’t prepared for. I started writing not because I wanted to, but because I felt I had to. 

And that’s when I started to lose the joy in it.

My personal advice? Don’t prioritize fanfic—or writing in general—over your personal life or your peace. That kind of pressure can quietly build into burnout that leaves you avoiding not just writing, but reading, imagining, and creating altogether. 

And that’s the saddest part, because writing is you. It's a part of you trying to express itself, and it needs room to breathe, not expectations to suffocate under.

Take breaks. Find joy. Get inspired. And when you write again, let it be for you first.

You’ve got this!

[itsscriptory]

Another Post About Showing and Telling

I feel like it’s a rite of passage for a writing blog to talk about show, don’t tell, so I’ll take a crack at it. 

First of all, to get it out of the way, show, don’t tell is good advice for specific situations, but it’s been taken to mean always show, never tell and that’s not helpful. If you really want to paint with broad brushstrokes, then the better advice would be: Show more than tell. Showing and telling should both be tools in your writer’s toolbox. 

But why should we show more than tell? Because showing is the key to the reader's emotional experience with your story. There are many posts and books out there that go over how to turn your telling into showing (like using active verbs instead of passive, for example, or using concrete, specific details in your descriptions), but I think it’s important to fully digest why we’re making those changes and why the reasoning will push us to become better writers. 

It all comes down to emotion. Writing For Emotional Impact by Karl Iglesias encourages writers to start thinking to themselves: “I’m in the emotion-delivery business, and my job is to evoke emotions in a reader.” Dialogue, theme, setting, pacing, character development, word choice, structure, POV, showing and telling. These are all tools a writer uses in varying proportions to best manipulate a reader’s emotions. The good news is that when a reader picks up a book, they’re willing to be manipulated. In fact, they hope to be. The tough news is that you have to deliver on a sentence by sentence, paragraph by paragraph, scene by scene, and chapter by chapter basis. But that’s okay, because you’re a writer, dammit, and this struggle is where the art of the craft is. 

Showing is where the emotional complexities of our characters, theme, and plot can be revealed gradually without giving too much away too early and robbing engagement from the reader. Showing is what makes the resolution and the journey satisfying. So you can see how much weight it carries and why we want more of that than telling. We’re trying to evoke emotion from the reader, not talk at them like we’re recounting a dream we had last night (yawn). And it’s easier to evoke emotion if we keep them curious. Engaged.

Part of revealing the story gradually through showing is planting evidence for a conclusion that you leave the reader to make themselves, or a conclusion that you will reveal later. Donald Maas in The Emotional Craft of Fiction writes, “The ingredient behind effective showing can be summed up in this word: subtext. When there’s a feeling we’re not being told, but it is evident anyway, that underlying feeling is the subtext. It’s the unspoken emotional truth.” And then a fandom is born and continues to thrive for decades after the show ended! Really, though. Subtext is an ingredient in showing, which fosters engagement, which makes the reader feel something. Sometimes passionately. Every story I love and keep coming back to in one form or another has that special place in my heart because of how it made me feel.

I’ll try to give a simple example here to illustrate subtext and reader engagement at work. Using setting and a couple action beats as an opportunity for subtext, let’s say a character and her sister arrive at their grandmother’s house. Character A remains standing in the corner when invited in, hugging herself, frowning at the green knitted blanket hanging over the couch that looks like the color of nausea. Character B walks easily into the living room, running her hand over the green blanket that reminds her of nature and wellness. In Character B's perspective, she admires her grandmother's craftiness. But it's only in Character's A perspective that we notice the store tag on the blanket. Who do we think has the better relationship with their grandmother, given the evidence? Which one seems more naïve or eager to see her grandmother in a certain light? What assumptions can we make about the grandmother? Might she be putting on a performance of being grandmotherly? The mental work the reader does here would be completely thwarted if the scene had started with “Hannah didn’t like her grandmother because she valued material wealth and appearances over forming a genuine connection with her family.” We can show that instead over time by filtering the world through the perspectives of our characters, and even making it pack an emotional punch if we’re strategic about it.

But I had mentioned that contrary to what show, don’t tell asks us to do, telling isn’t something we should throw away. It can be a tool in its own right. 

Telling is explaining, and explaining keeps people distant from what’s happening in the story. How many times has an “I love you” felt kinda meh in a story because that character hasn’t earned that confession by showing their love through their actions or making some sort of sacrifice? How many times have your eyes glazed over while reading the fourth paragraph of an info dump? How many times, when talking about a book you just read, have you said “well, the first 80 pages were slow…” because it was all backstory? Or maybe a story is entirely forgettable because the telling leaves nothing to the imagination. Donald Maas writes, “Put on a page what a character feels and there’s a pretty good chance that, paradoxically, what the reader feels is nothing.”

However, telling has one thing on showing: efficiency. If a book only showed, then it could go on forever and ever. So a writer has to learn how to weave both showing and telling into the story to control the pacing and delivery of information. If you want subtext or you want something to be vague on purpose, then you’ll probably want to show. If you want to deliver information quickly and with clarity, then you might want to try telling. Does it need to make logical sense to understand the upcoming scene? Maybe tell. Is this transition unimportant to the story and you don’t want to linger? Try telling and see how it works! Ask your beta readers how it worked for them. Of course, if you’re writing in the literary genre, you might be doing a whole lot of telling because what propels the reader to the next page and the next chapter is the form, the prose, and the sheer depth of the exploration of flawed characters. 

It’s all about balance. And practice. Next time you read a book and you find yourself moved, try to figure out how the author just evoked that feeling from you. Was it stated plainly, or was it shown through action? Was it stated plainly after a whole book’s worth of setup through subtext? Was it unexpected? What was the balance of showing and telling that led to it? Or, if you find your focus trailing off, try to figure out why. Then, when you’re editing your own work, you’ll have the tools you need to identify the weak points and make revisions. And it’s okay (even expected) if the perfect balance of showing and telling doesn’t occur in the first draft. The Artful Edit by Susan Bell (highly recommended) talks a lot about the revisions that went into The Great Gatsby. You'll find that his writing struggles are comfortingly familiar. Luckily, he certainly had a wonderful editor :)

For further reading/watching: 

[VIDEO] ShaelinWrites—Show, Don’t Tell | what it means and how to use it

[BOOK] Showing and Telling in Fiction by Marcy Kennedy [BOOK] A Writer’s Guide to Active Setting by Mary Buckham

[jonnywaistcoat]

Hi Jonny, if you don't mind I have a question about the TMA TTRPG! So I noticed that on the player's guide there's this guy, who my friends and I assumed is probably Jon. If it is him, is this a canon design, or more like some of the non-canon stuff that's in the merch?

So, I hope you don't mind if i use this ask to go a bit off on one. I'm not specifically dragging you (I'm actualy glad you asked, as I've thinking about posting on the topic), but all the discussion around the RPG art and how "official" or "canon" it might be is, to my mind, slightly silly.

First up, is it "official" art? I mean, yeah, its art for the officially licenced Magnus Archives RPG. This means Monte Cook Games have commissioned someone to do a beatiful illustration broadly based on some aspect, episode or character from the podcast and it goes in the book. But that's kinda all it means. "Official" is a legal distinction, not an artistic one. The fact that it's in an official product doesn't make it any less one artist's cool interpretation of a character that has only been vaguely described in audio.

Second, is it Jonathan Sims the Archivist? I mean, it's probably based on the idea of him, but it's certainly not set in stone. When we were first discussing art with MCG, we advised that character pictures be more vibes-based and not explicitly tied to specific people (ie. a portrait inspired by Tim wouldn't be captioned "This is Tim" and wouldn't be placed opposite a profile for Tim Stoker, archival assistant.) This was mainly because we wanted the artists to have plenty of freedom to interpret and not feel too tied down by the need to know everything about the podcast. But, to be frank, it was also because we know that there are a few fans out there that are kinda Not Chill about what they've personally decided these characters look like and can get a bit defensive over depictions that differ.

It strikes me as particularly strange to be having this discussion about art that's for a roleplying game book. Something that's explicitly and solely designed to give you the ability to play in your version of the Magnus universe. The idea that this is the thing where we'd for some reason try to immutably establish unchangable appearances for these characters would be pretty funny if some folks weren't taking it so seriously. Similarly ridiculous is the idea we could reasonably have said to MCG "We'd love for you to make a huge beautiful RPG book of our setting... Just make sure you don't depict any of the iconic characters or events from it!"

But... is it "canon"? Now, to my mind, this highlights a real weakness in a lot of fandom thinking around "canon", which is that it generally has no idea what to do with adaptations. All adaptation is interpretation, and relies on taking a work and letting new creatives (and sometimes the same ones) have a different take on it. Are the appearances of the Fellowship of the Ring in the LOTR movies "canon"? How much, if at all, does that matter? Neil Gaiman's book Neverwhere was originaly a 90s BBC series made with a budget of 50 pence; is anyone who makes fanart of Mr Croup that doesn't look like the actor Hywel Bennet breaking canon? What about the novel that describes the character differently? Or the officially licenced Neverwhere comic where he looks like neither of them? Which is his "canon appearance"?

Canon is an inherently messy concept, and while it is useful for a creative team trying to keep continuity and consistency within a creative work, for thinking about anything beyond that it tends to be more hinderance than help.

Anyway, all this is to say that the above picture and all the others in the RPG are exactly as canon as every other picture you've ever seen of the Archivist.

[justsomeoneintoomanyfandoms]

Hii! I was wondering if you could do some headcanons on being in a relationship with some Tokyo Debunker boys.. Specifically Ritsu, Ren, Yuri, Lyca, Haru, and Towa, Ive been in love with these guys lately so I would appreciate it. Please and thank you 🫶

Hi! Thank you for your request! Sorry it took so long. I hope you like the headcanons!

Fandom: Tokyo Debunker

Characters: Ritsu Shinjo, Ren Shiranami, Yuri Isami, Lyca Colt, Haru Sagara, Towa Otonashi x gn! Reader (separate)

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What's it like being a relationship with them?

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Being in a relationship with Ritsu means looking the other way when he’s doing something potentially morally questionable. He means well but doesn’t always consider the social implications of his actions.

Dating him also means being reasonably good with words so you can smooth over any arguments that may arise. If you’re not the best at that sort of thing, don’t worry. You will be soon.

At the same time, Ritsu is one of the most attentive people you’ve ever come across. And if you’re in a relationship with him, that will only increase.

He’d do anything to make sure you’re happy and comfortable with him. And he’ll jump at the opportunity to defend you if anyone dares say anything mean about you. In his mind, they’re objectively wrong anyway so it’s his job to correct them.

Having Ritsu as your boyfriend is a wild ride but you’ll never doubt the care he puts into making sure you know just how much he loves you.

Being in a relationship with Ren is a struggle sometimes. He’s not exactly the most socially adept, especially when it comes to keeping relationships so you’ll have to be patient with him.

You’ll spend a lot of time playing video games and watching movies with him so hopefully you like that sort of thing. He likes having your company, even if he’ll never say it.

You’ll also be the only person he actually wants to visit him while he’s at work in the diner. He likes being able to look up from his phone every once in a while and see you sitting at the corner booth waving at him.

Slowly breaking down his walls is going to be a challenge but if there’s anyone Ren trusts to do it, it’s you. He’ll slowly learn to let you in and see the version of himself he tries to hide from others.

Having Ren as your boyfriend is freeing. You can both be yourselves around each other without needing to worry about strange interests or mean comments.

Being in a relationship with Yuri means being able to look past his bluster to see the person he really is. It also means getting to see the real Yuri and loving him regardless.

You’re going to learn about his insecurities if you’re dating him which might be a shock at first. He doesn’t let his walls down for just anyone so if he starts showing you his true self, it’s a sure sign that he trusts you deeply.

He is going to request your help with his experiments a lot, so be prepared for that. You don’t have to be smart but he is going to talk to you as if you are. Just nod along and hand him tools when he asks for them.

Yuri often needs someone to talk to about his ideas and you’re that person for him. He’s surprisingly good at listening to your problems and ideas as well. You’re each other’s sounding board.

Having Yuri as your boyfriend is a more caring environment than you might think. He really does love you and even though he knows he can be abrasive sometimes, he’ll do what he can to make sure you know how he feels.

Being in a relationship with Lyca means always learning and evolving, both as an individual and as part of a couple. He’s still learning the ropes and it would mean a lot to him if you did the same.

You’re going to have some strange courting rituals, that’s for sure. Lyca thinks he knows how to date someone but that might be very different to how you would imagine it. The best thing is to just go with the flow.

There will be a really strong sense of mutual protection in your relationship. If anyone speaks badly of you, Lyca’s stepping up to defend you. And he would be honoured if you do the same for him.

Since he’s still learning about life, he would love it if you share your favourite things with him. Whether it’s food, tv shows, or hobbies, he enjoys learning about the things you like.

Having Lyca as your boyfriend is a nurturing environment where you’re always learning from each other.

Being in a relationship with Haru means there’s never going to be a dull moment. He’s always busy and would be delighted if you joined him on his odd jobs.

You’re going to be unofficially married as soon as you start dating. He takes relationships very seriously and has to hold himself back from telling people you’re soulmates.

In the same manner, you’ll also be a parent to the anomalies of Jabberwock. He’s already their dad so they see you as their other parent. And Haru feels the same way.

You can’t be in a relationship with Haru and not develop a good eye for discounts and bargains. It’s second nature to him and it’s going to rub off on you as well.

Having Haru as your boyfriend is fun but it’s also more loving than you could imagine. It’s like being part of a caring family.

Being in a relationship with Towa is fun. There’s no other way of describing it. You never really know what’s going to happen next but you know it will be exciting.

You’re going to be gifted flowers a lot more than you would expect. Everytime you see him it’s a new bunch. And if you’re allergic, they’re going to be fake flowers. He doesn’t want to make your allergies act up.

Stargazing dates are a must. Towa already likes looking at the stars but getting to do that knowing you’re beside him is even better.

He’s going to drag you around a lot, taking you to places you never would have found by yourself. He loves exploring with you and finding places known only to you two.

Having Towa as your boyfriend is an adventure. You’re going to experience a lot of things but you’ll experience them together.

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