#that’s a lot of tags for such a short and absolutely meaningless post

[ziggstheenby-2]

!!Tiny tftsd campaign 1 spoilers!!

Just realised that quadron and dr ahem are both missing an eye :o

#siblingthings

[gddancefloor]

A Kasane Teto and Hatsune Miku original song by SoYaSuYa (me)!

ᯓ★ DON'T YOU FEEL LIKE A FOOL

WHEN YOU SEEK MADE UP TRUTH?

THIS IS THE GAME OF LIFE,

THERE'S NO DOUBT ABOUT IT!

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HEY GAMERZZZ (yes, that was on purpose), decided to work on a little concept I discarded about a year ago and gave it a little fresh coat of paint! I also reworked the song it's related to! Still working on it, but this is what we've got! Everything is all mine, both legally and artistically. It all took about 10 days in total!

Lyrics and more info about the project below the cut! (Definitely check it out please!)

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LYRICS

[VERSE]

Gamble to see what it means to be a living human Roll the dice, shake it twice, so boldly betting your life Where's the fun when you can predict the game? It all ends the same, deny that and you'll go insane

Looking for a cheap way out? Why don't you cheat your way out? You've got only one life left n' you won't have to play the rest Where's the fun when it's just to endure the pain? Get it through your brain, why stay a pawn living in vain?

[PRE CHORUS]

Hey, tell me if anything truly matters! You choose to live only just to die, that's the game of life So, don't blame me if that false hope shatters, It's your life, your problem, not mine if you choose to live a lie

It's starting to make sense to you, now isn't that right? We're all meaningless creatures with a drive to survive and die So, buckle up and get ready to enjoy this ride Of the meaningless desire for the meaning of life!

[CHORUS]

Oh, doesn't it hurt to lose No matter what you try to do (oh, doesn't it hurt) Don't you feel like a fool When you seek made-up truth (oh, it's all made up)

There's no target to beat Other than to accept defeat (oh, nothing to beat) So, please explain to me What else is there to believe? (and that's all how...)

This is the game of life, there's no doubt about it! (no doubt about that!) Live to see nothing matters, reality's a real lie (such a lie!) Philosophy's a joke, does it look like we're laughing? Keep on searching, gaming, playing for meaning in this stupid life!

════════════════════════════

So, this song is pretty old. I made the original concept in 2022 when it was called "BAD LUCK" and had an entirely different meaning behind it. But, I revived it in 2024 and because I was facing a very horrible time due to an existential crisis, I wanted to write a song about my feelings towards life in general. That isn't the song's only meaning, but a pretty good generalization as to why I wrote it in the first place.

These are the original designs from 2024. I never had a color palette in mind when I made them, I just knew I wanted them to be bright as fuck and match. Soooo basically the new designs required me to come up with one off of the top of my head, but to also somewhat rework them. I think even the new ones might undergo some changes in the final release. I dunno. I'm a picky guy.

I had to learn a lot about audio engineering (in NO way am I a professional, hell nah) and Vocaloid 5 (I've been using V4 since 2021 so this is a very big change for me) to make this song, and even then I do have things I still wanna tweak about it. But so far so good! I love the way it sounds and I hope you do too!

My goal was to make them appear a little disturbing considering the topics of this song. I wanted them to look "so depressed they're insane", to an extent. "What about the bright colors?" I'll let you theorize about that :)

Also, I've never drawn vinyl before so it might look a little odd as I get used to drawing it 💔

I will post their individual concept drawings when I can, as there's some shit I need to do with them and I just can't really do it right now.

I hope you absolutely LOVED this and if you did, please reblog this to support my art. I would also greatly appreciate fan art! Just remember to tag me.

I'll likely get the finished song on YouTube and niconico soon but not Spotify considering the horrible shit they're involved with, nor SoundCloud. They're both evil "generator" (iykyk) supporting, art stealing corporations. Soooo yeah. At least with YT you can opt out. Same here on Tumblr. I would do Bandcamp but I don't want ppl to feel obligated to buy my music since I don't really want money for something that comes from my soul.

Anyways, have a great day and God bless ya 💕

(also secret for people who bothered to read til the end: yes theres yuri)

[find-the-path]

OC Questions Tag Game

Thanks for the tag @a-lonely-dunedain! Here I will answer three OC questions from her post, and then tag a couple people to answer the questions I'll come up with (if they want to). These are for Amathan and Aderthor, as they're the OCs clearest in my head and also the ones who've been banging down the door for the last monthish.

1. What is a trait your OC can't stand in other people vs. a trait that they find themself drawn to

Amathan - he tends to be pretty short-tempered and low-filter around people who tick him off, and he doesn't have a short list of these. A specific trait (rather than general immorality) would probably be laziness, especially where it matters. Didn't set up that barricade right? Thought you'd just keep up that meaningless conversation rather than pay attention to what you're doing with a blade in a crowded workspace? You've got another think coming. On the flip side, professionalism (when warranted, and the genuine kind instead of posturing) does a great job of convincing him you actually know what you're doing. He's not himself a leader, but does not accept leadership from someone who even he can see is doing it wrong.

Aderthor - as a generally easy-going guy, it takes more seriously terrible traits to get to "can't stand" territory. Cruelty of any kind gets him angry, but what gets him furious is cruelty without a point. Doing that didn't even get you anything. You just ripped hurt into existence and your gain was itself. You did that for fun. The additional confusion that it adds to the equation makes it even worse. He can't understand it and he can't understand the people who do it and that drives him crazy in addition to angry. As for what he is drawn to, generally the opposite: people he can understand and who want to be understood, even unconsciously. People who feel their own kinship with every other person around them and share in it. (This is a reason he gets attached to Corunir so quickly.)

2. What animal would you associate with your OC? can be for in-character reasons (I.E their favorite animal) or a more symbolic reason

Amathan - A chihuahua. I've never actually thought of animals in relation to most of my characters, so all I've got on the top of my head are dumb jokes. Let me google some stuff think real quick. A WOLF. He's often perceived as a 'lone wolf' by those around him, especially those who met him recently, but in reality he's much more of a pack animal, and is fiercely protective of his family and friends. He's intelligent, but has a penchant for diving over his head and wildly overestimating his own martial ability on his own. He works far better in a team. Lastadron absolutely stayed with him partly out of a conviction that this guy is alive purely because of duct tape and spite.

I really want to equate Lehtion with a horse for humor and also symbolism, but horse symbolism and Lehtion's Lehtionness isn't cooperating. (Most of his character development ends up circled around Rohan, despite me not actually planning it that way.)

3. What is their biggest regret? was it truly their fault or some unavoidable tragedy? (and can they tell the difference)

I'm going to take this question as it pertains to backstory, as it occurs to me my characters have way more regrets post-Epic, most of them every other player character is going to share.

Amathan - his biggest regret is probably not taking off after Aderthor immediately after they realized something had gone wrong (or better yet, going with him). Yes, he actually found him alive even after ten years out of contact, but in Amathan's view he could have also done that perfectly well without the ten years of thinking his brother was dead. The question of whether that would have worked (a lot of factors contributed to the overthrow of the False-king in Angmar, not just Amathan and Lastadron showing up, and the Ram Duath really was impassible for a good long while there) is not one he has considered in depth. He also hasn't considered how twenty-year-old-Amathan might have reacted to being thrown into the Epic. So, while deciding not to go after Aderthor immediately could be his fault (which is NOT the right word), Angmar not getting overthrown ten years earlier absolutely was not.

Aderthor - WE COULD'VE AT LEAST TOLD SOMEONE WHERE WE WERE GOING DANG IT. The whole situation around trapped-in-Angmar-for-ten-years is one big regret for Aderthor. Whenever he gets stuck in a circle around thinking it (especially before Amathan and Lastadron show up) he mostly loops THIS WAS PREVENTABLE!!!!! around every tragedy and every death. Whether anything that was within his power at the time (telling Halbarad, staying with Corunir, and... nothing else really) would've helped anything is not clear, and most of the time he can see that. The pointlessness (from his view) of it all is what really galls him, even if he can't actually think of One Thing that anyone could've done to prevent it.

--------------------

Now for my own questions! Hmm, let me think...

What is your OC's family relationships like? Is he/she close with his/her birth family? Any siblings? Living parents? Extended relatives? How does he/she think of any found family--- in those terms, or more shy about it?

Does your OC more easily connect with people inside of a context--- a task, a specific conversation topic, a common goal--- or during downtime when they can do whatever they want?

How good are most good-intentioned people at reading your OC, or how correct are their general assumptions about him/her? Does your OC present him/herself as open to other people or closed-off?

Sorry for any vagueness in the questions, feel free to interpret them however you want! Tagging @o-lei-o-lai-o-lord, @sailforvalinor, and @mozart-the-meerkitten if they want to join! :D

[ofmoonlily]

. LAWS

I will keep these straightforward. If you are confused with anything, please come to me directly.

BEHAVIOR:

Treat others the way you want to be treated. One thing I will not tolerate is bullying, shitty behavior, mind-games, manipulation, vague blogging, and drama. I am not against using hardblock if I must.

TRIGGERS

My triggers are the general; r*pe, inc*st, any type of assault on a minor, callouts, chain letters (ex; if you don't send this to 3 people you/a loved one will die.)

TAGGING

There will be blood, NSFW, and gore on this blog. Therefore, I will tag them accordingly. That said, if you follow me, and you do not tag your posts, I will refrain from following you for my safety. Thank you for understanding.

FOLLOWERS

Please, for the love of all things holy, if you have no intention of interacting with me, please do not follow me. I do not care if you followed for the sake of being nice. What is not nice is following when you know, for a fact, we will not be threading, speaking, or overall have 0 communication and dismissing somebody who is trying to reach out.

I imagine that would be annoying on the other side too. Constantly getting inbox prompts from a muse you have no interest to engage, and you just wish they would go away. I understand that. What I do not understand is why keep em hanging by a thread?

So yeah, long story short. I do not practice follow4follow.

Hardblock or softblock me if you have to. ^^ No hard feelings.

Minors, homophobes, r*cists, transphobes, personals DNI.

PERMISSION

When you follow me, you agree you are 18+ (preferably 21+ as I am 30+ and do not feel comfortable rping with somebody who cannot even legally drink.)

MULTIPLES & RESERVATIONS

I do not practice exclusivity or mains, or shipping exclusivity or shipping mains. It blocks potential threading content. I will gladly write with whoever wants to write with me.

SAFETY

Take care of yourself! If you see content I am dishing out with a mutual that triggers you, come to me directly. I can create the appropriate tag just for you! I like to think of my blog as a safe space for everyone. (If you rather just block me all together, I understand.) We all must do what we have to in order to have a sane mind and a safe writing journey!

FOLLOWING/UNFOLLOWING

If I do not follow back/unfollow, please don't take offense! Rarely do I ever not follow back/unfollow. And if I do, it is usually because of the following;

You do not tag your posts.

I know absolutely nothing about your muse or the world they are in. (I usually follow back even if I know just the name and where they came from lol).

You have written something that doesn't make me feel safe to be tuned into your blog.

You have broken one of my rules.

You harass me for replies. (I have a job. I sometimes won't get to things as quickly.)

We do not interact / show no interest in interacting (ex; never sending memes, never replying to comments, never replied to a meme(s) I sent months ago, overall avoidance.)

You constantly delete/remake your blogs in a span of a week without so much as a warning and continue doing so. I will begin blocking.

Will add more if I can think of any or if the situation crosses!

INTERACTIONS

I'm someone who matches my partner's energy. If my partner is as excited to write with me as I am with them, I will likely gravitate into sending lots of memes and ooc screams and yellings. ♥ If my partner shows interest in other things, (or is tired) I will give them space. It's nothing against anyone. It's a bow of respect. I want my partner(s) to indulge in ther hyperfixations. Once they are ready for other interactions, I will be here.

NSFW

Now. I like smut as much as the next rper but please refrain from using my character as smut fodder. I like my muse to develop meaningful relationships instead of having meaningless sex. I don't detest anyone who practices smut foddering, but please respect my boundaries if that is your flair, and skip onto somebody else who shares your mutual interest. Thank you so much! ^^

OATH I vow to keep your safety and best interests in my radar! I will ensure our RPs are fun, satisfactory and to our liking! Let's create a world together!

[someplanetelse]

So. I had a broken tooth pulled last week and since then my face feels fucked up. So I've been doom scrolling a lot and when I was done with that and it still hurt like hell and no pain meds helped I went looking for brain damage. Stupid version of self harm and hate watching in a sandwich. I searched for the terfs. And I found a lot of weird, weird blogs. Pretty sure all of them are bots. why you ask. Either short, absolutely meaningless texts, sometimes with completely unrelated, either stupid or disgusting/horrible GIFs. Or super long, blubbering texts, that sometimes repeat themselves at some point and have seemingly no reason for the talk, there's no introduction, like a transcript of a video with the first five minutes cut off, and again sometimes utterly pointless GIFs at the end. Both of these kinds of posts have a random assortment of terf or gender critical or radfem tags, they don't even match the post, they have mostly weird misspelled words, with non-letters or missing apostrophes like in "men's" it's just a space instead, a normal person would notice. Gives a kinda horror movie feeling. Something evil trying to mimic human behaviour, but bad. Because none, absolutely NONE of these posts have any engagement, there's whole ass blogs with post after post with zero engagement, and these blogs don't do reblogs either. It's uncanny valley but for Tumblr posts? I think it's bots, but why would anyone do that. They don't sell anything, there's no links, what's the purpose?

I took some screenshots

Actually I have a suspicion that these are badly copied from another social media site? But it's definitely bots. I even found one blog that had only one of these weird posts and the rest was normal, with normal engagement and everything, maybe someone hijacked that blog. It's so, so weird. But it basically makes it impossible to find any real terf blogs, so I guess that's a positive note? I hope the fucking transphobes just pack up and leave for good.

Well, yeah, my face isn't hurting that bad, for the moment at least, so I might catch up on sleep, before I start a new day of nosebleed and spitting rotten something out of my mouth.

[koutarouthighs]

『 soft cotton 』

S U M M A R Y ― sometimes out of necessity, sometimes out of desire, and other times out of convenience, you end up wearing their clothes.

post type ➺ headcanons fandom  ➺ haikyuu!! characters  ➺ tsukishima ⧾ iwaizumi ⧾ terushima  genre ➺ fluff rating ➺ t+  tags ➺ established relationship; clothes share/swap; nudity if you squint (bare thighs); party environment described but not in explicit detail; word count ➺ 2.8k request ➺ [YES/NO]      ↳ request status: OPEN

⤭ tsukishima is confused the first time he finds you in one of his shirts. before his brow wrinkles in that telltale way of frustration, you hold your hands up in surrender and explain that while you were helping his mother in the kitchen, you spilled soy sauce on your white top and she offered to clean it for you while dinner was in the oven. ⤭ after that, you don’t end up giving him that shirt back. it’s an old one, that doesn’t have much sentimental value, but there’s something jarring about tsukki seeing you in his clothes; an out of body experience, almost. he doesn’t understand why anyone else would want to wear anyone else’s things - isn’t that why you buy your own clothes? ⤭ and he has to ask the other guys about it. why does she wear my shirt to bed? why doesn’t she just give it back? and boy, do they have a field day with him. he can be so dense sometimes. doesn’t he see? you wearing that shirt is like you carrying a piece of him with you, even when you’re far away.  ⤭ his clothes engulf you, absolutely dwarfing your frame due to the height difference between you. tsukki has always thought of you as tiny, not fragile, but now, seeing you swimming in the fabric that makes up his ratty old tee, he thinks he has begun to understand why you like to wear this shirt over any of your more expensive, more fashionable ones. ⤭ he might be an asshole about it, but tsukki finds ways to gift you more of his clothes indirectly. he accidentally spills soda on your shirt one night when you’re staying in, watching a movie and eating pizza. another day he grabs at the hem of your shirt when you’re walking away and tears a hole in it. somehow, you still haven’t caught on, but he doesn’t ask you for the shirts back anymore. in fact, when you start to return them, he gets almost as irritated as he did when you had to ask for the first one out of pure necessity.

more below the cut ↴

“i’m sorry, kei,” you brush the fabric free of wrinkles as it settles at your mid thigh, covering the shorts that are currently adorning your lower half. you slowly look up at him, a warmth on your cheeks that signals your shyness, “i’ll bring back this one with the others next time i see you, okay?”

a scoff leaves his lips and he’s tugging at your wrist, pulling you forward on the couch until you’re tumbling down to meet him. your knees settle on either side of his waist and he watches as the fabric of the shirt pools around your thighs, “don’t worry about it. your washer makes them smell like old lady anyway. i don’t want them back.”

the way you tilt your head to the side, cocking an eyebrow and dropping your lower lip in confusion never ceases to amuse him. tsukishima reaches up and brushes his thumb against your bottom lip, inhibiting your speech even as you ask, “i-i can wash them over here, if you want, kei.”

he’s shaking his head again, snagging at you until you’re flush with his chest, your face tucked against his neck. it’s not necessarily odd behavior for him to want you so close, however it is strange that he’s not asking for his clothes back. he used to put up so much harder of a fight.

“nah, they were shitty shirts anyway,” he sloughs off the string of words like they were meaningless, however you know the weight they hold. you also know better than to tease him too far, rather to take the prize you’ve silently won through heckling and hard work. the shirt on your shoulders feels warmer, somehow, with the knowledge that you have his blessing to keep it as if it were a gift from him in the first place.

your hands run up the length of his shoulders until you are hooked around him entirely, clinging to his lanky body like a koala. he smells so good, especially after a shower and a shave, which you suspect he’s done earlier today based on the scent of his aftershave still lingering on his neck. you nuzzle your nose further against his jugular, feeling the way his heartbeat pounds the blood in his veins. a low hum escapes your lips without your permission, but tsukishima must not mind your slip of the tongue, but instead is encouraged by it, sneaking his chilly fingertips underneath the hem of the familiar item of clothing until he finds your ribs.

he’s practically lulled you to sleep with the ministrations of his fingerprints mapping out each of your ribs, in tandem with the warmth he provides and the skin-on-skin contact you’ve beseeched with your own hands. your eyelids cannot stay pried open any longer, and so you allow them to shut. somewhere between now and then, tsukki drags a blanket over your shoulders, angling his body to be in a more comfortable position without jostling you too much to the point you’re far too awake to fall back asleep.

just before your mind is consumed by that dark realm of slumber, you hear a low murmur in your ear, “they looked better on you anyway.”

⤭ iwaizumi would not admit it in the beginning of your relationship, but there was something about seeing you in his clothes, namely a t-shirt with his old high school jersey number on it, that just made him feel a certain way that he could not explain. ⤭ it starts with you forgetting to wear a jacket on a date one night, but you don’t ask. iwaizumi sees you shivering and wordlessly removes the bomber jacket from around his shoulders and places it on your own, waiting until you’ve slipped your hands into the sleeves before he grabs for your hand again, interlocking your fingers at the knuckles.  ⤭ after that, you start to become more comfortable asking him for his hoodies and even though he gives you a bit of a frustrated comment after you accidentally take one home, when you stop asking for his jackets, he gets confused and concerned.  ⤭ with iwaizumi’s job, he gets a lot of free merchandise from the team(s) he works with. and by proxy, you get a lot of t-shirts and hoodies and other items passed down to you because he would accumulate too many things otherwise.  ⤭ you refuse to wear anything the first time, though. because without iwa wearing it around the house at least once, it won’t smell like him. he thought it was weird at first, but eventually you started noticing more clothes piling in on your side of the dresser that you’d seen him wearing a few times. and then, when he sees you step out of the bathroom after your shower with that team japan long sleeve shirt on, if you catch him quickly enough, you’ll notice a small, fleeting smile on his lips.

﹢

“hajime?” your call comes from the kitchen, and iwaizumi can hardly hear you from his place in the bathroom, showering after a long saturday of practice games. he rubs the towel against the top of his head, drying his hair before responding, “yeah, just a minute, babe!”

when he steps into the kitchen, you take him by surprise. you always do, even now, years after your first date. settled on your shoulders is an old seijoh promotional t-shirt he remembers having to wear to a fundraiser. but the seafoam green fabric settles against the tops of your thighs, exposing the remainder of your legs to the chilly breeze coming through the apartment windows. you always crack the windows when you’re cooking or baking; something iwaizumi noticed when you first moved in.

“iwa-chan?”

iwaizumi has to blink once, so harshly that he sees stars on the backs of his lids, before he can focus on you. he tilts his head and licks his lips, “yeah, sorry. what did you say?”

that laugh that rings in his dreams floats across the space between the two of you, and he fights a smile so he doesn’t look like a dope while you’re trying to ask him a question. he steps forward on the guise of hearing you more clearly, and then reaches out to push your hair behind your ear, his fingers itching to brush against the stitches of the fabric holding the shirt together on your pretty frame.

“i asked if you wanted the spicy steak tonight, or if you wanted me to reign in the heat,” your voice comes easy, simple and soft, and iwaizumi catches himself turning gentle at the sound of you. your palms abandon the cookware for a moment to extend towards his body, slipping beneath his top to rests on his hips. your thumbs brush over the warm skin, still slightly reddened from his time in the shower.

he’s so lost in the primal, territorial sensation he gets that starts as a prickling in the base of his neck, seeping down his spine and curling around every bone in his body. he wants to kiss you, to show you how he feels rather than telling you, and so he does. 

iwaizumi has never been one to deny how he feels.

your breath is stolen from your lungs when he lurches forward to capture your mouth with his own. his palms are rough as they search your torso for somewhere to land, settling on your shoulders so he can keep your upper body pinned to him. you release a small squeaking sound from the back of your throat, but he’s already swallowed it before you can feel self-conscious. 

“haji,” you gasp when you feel his fingertips dig into the muscle of your shoulders, and a laugh follows suit when his lips withdraw from yours and you can see the intensity in his gaze, “wh-what’s gotten into you?”

he’s not really sure, if he were to be honest with you. maybe it’s the nostalgia of the color fabric of the tee that you’re wearing. maybe it’s the way he wishes that he’d continued to play volleyball in a more direct way. maybe it’s the way the shirt falls just far enough to keep you from exposing anything too tantalizing.

or maybe...

“it’s just you,” he answers, pulling you by the thighs so he can pick you up and deposit you on the counter top. your legs sashay, ankles brushing his legs, and you can’t help yourself from twirling your fingers into the hair at the nape of his neck. iwaizumi takes a deep breath before repeating himself, as if saying the phrase again might solidify the statement, but this time he adds: “it’s just you, in my shirt. you’re absolutely beautiful.”

your whole body burns at the compliment, and you bashfully blink downward, but iwaizumi is quick to lean in for another kiss. before too long, he’s got you drowning in his affections, his palms beneath your shirt to map out your skin, and the dinner you were previously preparing has been completely forgotten.

“iwa,” you murmur between the clacking sounds your teeth are making as they collide, “d-dinner, what...”

you feel his chest reverberate with a growl and then his mouth is on your neck and his fingers are tugging at the hem of your shirt, “forget dinner.” his voice is rough and his touch is gentle, “we’ll just order out tonight.”

⤭ terushima is the one to ask you if you want to wear his clothes from the very beginning. he loves seeing you wearing his flannels and tees and hoodies. he always tries to find one that pairs well with your outfit so that way he can reason you into wearing his clothes whenever you go out.  ⤭ if he comes home to see you curled up on the couch in one of his hoodies, just absolutely engulfed in the warm fabric, it makes his whole body tingle. he goes and changes after work and will definitely slip underneath the blanket you’re hidden under to wrap his arms and legs around you. ⤭ when he asks you for clothing advice, at first you wonder if it’s because he’s trying to change up his look. but, after a few strangely specific questions, you finally realize that he’s trying to tailor his wardrobe to be something that you could always find easy to wear. ⤭ the desire to see you in his clothes is partially from being territorial, but mostly because he just thinks you look hot as hell when you’re wearing his clothes. you always manage to make his clothes look ten thousand times better, mainly because it’s you wearing them. it never fails, he will always make a comment about how good you look wearing just his big tee to bed, even if your hair is all mussed and your face is still shiny from your skincare. ⤭ sometimes you’ll catch him stealing your clothes, too. you wear big tee shirts that are comfortable, and sharing is caring! he loves to pick on you when he wears your clothes, pointing out the designs printed on the shirts and how adorable you are for wanting to wear such cute little things. 

﹢

“god, pretty girl,” his voice is rough as it runs ragged against your ears, his hands on your waist from behind, “you know how it makes me feel to see you in my clothes.”

and of course you do. yuuji is no quiet thing when it comes to how you make him feel. so, you lean into him, if only to egg him on until he’s begging you to head out of this little house party. his fingers slip into the back pockets of your jeans and you find yourself stumbling into his chest, palms fumbling over his torso to try and clutch at his shirt to steady yourself.

“teru,” you chide, pinching his cheek before leaning up to kiss him. you pull away before he’s gotten warmed up, leaving him following you by craning his neck. a chuckle escapes your lips and you press your index finger against his pursed mouth, “we came here to celebrate kiyoko and tanaka. can you keep your hands to yourself for just a few more hours?”

“baby,” he’s whining in your ear now, all needy with his lips pouted and his irises widening, “you can’t be serious! you know that’s my favorite shirt to see you in! i think you did this on purpose!”

his fingers tug on the material of the flannel that’s draped over your shoulders, pooling around your hips and framing your body just perfectly. you watch as his irises struggle to focus, pupils dilating as he looks down at you. his mouth twitches in expectant words, but he’s interrupted by someone else who steals your attention.

while you’re busy talking to one of your old friends from high school, terushima is given the opportunity to take in your appearance for the first time since he met you at the party earlier, and the sight of you engulfed in his flannel and a pair of his crazy socks that peek out from the cuffs of your jeans makes his chest constrict so much so that he grasps at his shirt with his fingertips, barely curling his digits around the fabric of his tee before he realizes what he’s doing.

a slow, gentle blinking of his lashes brings him back to earth, where he can stare at you some more, all unbeknownst to you. he doesn’t mind admitting to anyone who wants to know that he loves to watch you when you’re just existing. he likes to notice the little things about you, to catalog them in the back of his mind so he can remember them on days when you have to be apart for longer than he wants to be.

your attention is diverted when you feel his palms against your hips, his chest brushing your back as he leans forward to kiss your shoulder, “i’m gonna get a drink, yeah? you want anything?”

“water,” you nod, reaching back with one hand to run your fingers against his undercut, “thank you, teru.”

another kiss is deposited to your cheek before he unravels himself from you and heads towards the kitchen, hands shoved deeply into his pockets. and you tilt your head so you can take in a deep breath of the collar of the flannel that you’re wearing, and somehow it feels like you’re there with him despite the distance between you. 

[wutheringmights]

Hello! I saw your post about promoting your fanfiction. Got any tips on how to do something like that for a fellow writer? I do link to my tumblr in my AO3 notes, but got any other suggestions?

Sure, but you got to understand that I am not really doing anything special myself. You also need to understand my philosophy on fanfiction in general.

You don't write fanfiction into a void. You write it into a community. Popularity of fanfictions isn't determined by an author's skills. There's no panel awarding fanfictions merit for imagery or plot structure.

Word of mouth is law. I can actually see spikes in people reading CTB whenever another person mentions me or my fic on their own blog.

But you can't control word of mouth. You really can't. It's about luck and hoping that you not only get noticed by the right people, but that they're willing to let you know that. So there's technically not a lot that you can do change that.

But you can make it easier for people to find you. You can also control how you bring community into your little sphere of the fandom.

A lot of this advice plays into that: how to draw people in and keep them engaged.

Things To Do On AO3:

When linking your Tumblr on AO3, use HTML code to hyperlink it. If you just copy and paste the URL or godforbid just state your name, you're going to be relying on the reader to go the extra mile and when given the option, most people won't.

(Rule of thumb on the internet: make it clean and make it easy.)

Also have a clear Call to Action associated with that link. You can’t just drop it there; you also gotta entice people to click on it and go to your tumblr too. So just tell them what they can find on your blog that's related to what they just read. Some suggestions include offering previews, updates on chapter progress, drabble requests, additional lore tidbits, and (if you're a short fic writer) discussions of upcoming projects.

I have at least once linked to specific posts that I thought readers would like, but I don't plan on doing that again unless it was for stuff absolutely pertinent to the story.

As for more general advice: keep your tags and summary clean. Some people read the tags first, so don't clutter them with too many jokes or meaningless tags. Hit genre, fic tropes, and one or two fandom specific tags. I also add one or two freeform tags that clarifies parts of the premise that you know will draw people in.

(Example from CTB: "Warriors is a very complicated person" and "Warriors does not know Time is Mask")

Only put your summary in your summary. No update schedule, no table of contents, no gratitude for the reader. Keep that stuff in your author's notes.

A good tip for formatting things on AO3 is to remember that most people read fics on their phone. So you have to optimize formatting for smaller screens. That means that chunks of text will look larger than they do on desktop, and large chunks of text are harder to read.

And finally, reply to your comments. Seriously. You gotta do it. No one is going to think you're annoying. Reply to your comments and let people know that you see them, you are grateful that they are there, and it matters to you that they care.

(And extra tip for you is to remember the people who do comment. Develop relationships with them. Tell them that you remembered something they said in chapter 5 so you knew they were going to freak out on chapter 8. Love flourishes in the comment sections of AO3)

Things to Do On Tumblr:

You got to announce when your fic updates, and you can't do a plain personal text post. If people are going to spread the good news about your fic, give them something good to spread around.

I've found that every fandom is a little different about what is and isn't acceptable for announcement posts. I use a story banner, but for something quick and dirty, just hit the Share button on AO3 and change the link to the most recent chapter (it defaults to the first chapter).

Announcement posts need to have clean and simple formatting. Use bullet points, indentation, bold words, etc. for maximum readability.

I don't include everything in the story info box on my announcement posts. I stick to the following: chapter number/title, rating, warnings, pairing (for romance stories only; list the main pairing only) additional tags, and summary.

(I don't include relationships, characters, or fandoms since I assume people are finding this through the tags or other fandom blogs).

On my announcement posts, I hyperlink to new chapters twice: one at the top, one at the bottom. This is so that people don't have to scroll to find the link.

Use the fandom tags. Seriously. Tag the characters, the fandom, the pairings, etc. Tag everything.

Time of first posting really doesn't matter overall, but try to get your first reblog as soon as possible as I find that posts don't appear in tags until they have at least one note. Having a friend reblog; a burner sideblog works too.

Reblog you announcement post multiple times over the next few days. Try to hit the major times of day (morning, afternoon, evening, night), taking into account time difference. This will increase the chances of your followers seeing your posts.

Stop pinning about posts or what not and pin your chapter announcement posts to the top of your page. When people go to your blog, they should know right away that you updated.

If you write fanfiction and you're directing people to your tumblr, congrats! You are now a writing blog. Make more posts about your story. Post deleted scenes. Complain about finding typos. Make memes. Make it big, make it small-- I don't care. Posting about your story keeps people interested on top of fostering more of that community we want.

And if you post about your story and you mention the characters? It's a fandom post! Throw the fandom tags on it!

Interact with other people in the fandom too! Send people asks (off anon!!!), leave replies, or reblog with comments in the tags. Let people know that you're a living being and you're here to interact.

(And, no. You're not being annoying. This is a social media platform. If someone wanted to be left alone, then they wouldn't be making posts. Go interact with people).

We all see those people in the fandom who have, like, 20 anons a day asking questions about their content. And if you're promoting yourself, you probably want to be like that too. Stop waiting waiting for people to ask. Go into this with gusto and start acting like you already have that audience. Not every post is going to hit, but people will know that you're opened to being talked to, and that's going to build up a community of people who are going to stick around to see what you're going to do next with your story.

Basically:

@fic authors: you're in a fandom. be a part of it.

[lutrain2020]

Meet the Creator!

Introducing: Seeking7 or Seeking!

Commission:  I don't offer writing commissions at the moment, mostly because I'm not sure how to conduct or present myself in the market. If anyone would like to request a certain fic or short story from me, however, I'd be glad to work out details with them. :)

Social Media: A03: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Seeking7 FFnet: https://www.fanfiction.net/u/13334645/

Tell us a little bit about you!

Hiya! I'm Seeking7, or Seeking. I was born in Alabama and raised in California to a pair of the most hardworking Egyptian immigrants you've ever met, and the mixture of Arabic and American influence over the course of my life has had a profound influence on the way I look at the world. My favorite subjects are biology and english, and I aspire to become either an EMT or military medic after I graduate. In regards to hobbies (aside from playing copious amounts of Zelda), I love studying American and Ancient Israelite history, and I hope to one day learn ancient Hebrew and Greek so I can read the original biblical manuscripts for myself!

Is there someone who inspires you and your writing?

While my own brain can usually come up with a certain scene or idea that would inspire me to put paper to pen, it's the people I have around me that encourage me to keep writing. The people on FFN and AO3 who comment and leave kudos on my work mean the world to me (shout out to JoSeBach on FFN and MyWritingisMeh on Ao3 for leaving comments/reviews on each chapter of my fic "Mephibosheth"). The LU fans who come to my livewrites on the discord are so ridiculously encouraging and always let me know that my writing can actually be interesting to some people -- a fact that never ceases to astound me. But most credit goes to my younger sister. Even when I don't show her a work because it might be a little bit extreme or intense for her age, she always lets me know that she's sure it's good regardless. Her unconditional, unreasonable support inspires me to be that kind of person to other fic writers!

What got you into writing?

Three books in particular encouraged me to take writing seriously. "Crime and Punishment" was the first in this process, showcasing just how intense, beautiful, and profound a book with actually very little plot can be. The entire book takes place more or less in the head of a man wracked to pieces by guilt, and Dostoevsky's decision to focus on internal instead of external conflict changed the way I looked at literature. "East of Eden" was next. It wasn't just the book's allegorical nature or the Cain and Abel motif that astounded me - Steinbeck's vivid descriptions of everything from the human mind to sunrise in Salinas has had a profound impact on my own writing. I still reference the first few pages when I write! (actually, if you look at my fic "The Most Sincere Kind of Lie," the opening paragraph is heavily inspired by the first page of East of Eden!) Finally, the biblical Book of Job changed the way I look at dialogue and interactions between flawed characters. The whole book is almost written like an ancient screenplay and deals with heavy questions like the meaning of pain and the meaning of meaninglessness without offering direct answers - which inspired me to try and include those questions in my own writing and handle them in a similar, vague, interperative way.

What's your favorite part of the writing process?

After outlining a fic, I usually start out by writing them like a screenplay with all dialogue tags and action notes written off to the side. When sarcastic banter,  silly, lighthearted interactions, or intense conversations with a deeper meaning behind them start to come together, I can't help but smile. That usually gives the the extra inspirational boost I need to go back and flesh everything out so it becomes a story! (if you struggle with writing dialogue, message me on the discord and I'll be glad to tell you everything I know and send you the multitude of resources I have on the subject)

What's your least favorite part of the writing process?

Vetting works for grammatical mistakes turns writing fics into homework! I can't stand posting something and later reading just to find out that I forgot to capitalize a character's name, or that a comma is missing, or that Ao3 or FFN messed up the page breaks and I have to go back in and fix it. I'm not a perfectionist most of the time, but when I come to writing, I absolutely am.

Whats your favorite type of scene to write?

Intense philosophical debates and serious heart-to-heart conversations are by far my favorite kind of scenes to write, and that's because they're my favorite kind of scenes to observe and read! I always leave them feeling like I've gained something intellectually and emotionally, and it's my constant hope and dream to be able to impart the same kind of introspective thoughtfulness on the reader.  

What's the hardest for you to write?

Allowing or even plotting for a character to go off the deep end is always such a hard thing to write. Not for them to die, necessarily, but for them to completely lose their morals, priorities, and relationships in search for something selfish or temporary. Writing them making the same mistakes over and over not because they're stupid but because they don't care about the consequences is always hard -- it's like killing off a character and replacing them with the darkest, nastiest version of themselves. Basically, writing the opposite of character development is the opposite of fun. :(

What's your favorite genre to write?

Whatever the hybrid child of angst and fluff is called, that's my baby. I find that a combination of the two can make for a really interesting experience and give me more space to explore different faucets of each character's personality. It's also the perfect breeding ground for some intense, sincere conversations.

What fandoms do you enjoy writing for?

I don't write for a lot of fandoms, just Linked Universe, Undertale, and occasionally LoZ stuff not tied directly to our nine precious boys.

What's the work you are most proud of?

I've only gotten into LU very recently, so at the time of writing this I don't have anything from the fandom that's ready to showcase. I do have some cool Undertale stuff though, at least in my opinion! If you're interested in that, there are two fics I've poured (and am currently pouring) my heart and soul into that I'm extremely proud of. The first one is 'The Reason,' which is just a quick oneshot focused on Grillby being an amazing, hardworking dad, (https://archiveofourown.org/works/24354130) and the second is Mephibosheth,' my multi-chapter pre-canon fic about the lives of Asriel and Chara. '(https://archiveofourown.org/works/23804797)

Is there a specific scene you are particularly proud of?

Going again off the works I referenced earlier, a particular scene in the ninth chapter of 'Mephibosheth' had me patting myself on the back. I can't tell you what it is, though, because it's a massive spoiler. ;)

Is there something you had to work through that forced you to grow as a writer?

At the beginning of my junior year of high school I submitted two works into a competition I was confident I would win. No, not just win, I was sure I would get first place nationally. The competition never had many submissions and I knew that the works I submitted were pretty darn good. As you can probably guess, I didn't win anything. No medal or mention, nothing. I was in shock for a good few days and considering giving up writing completely. Then I realized how stupid I was being for assuming I was entitled to an award, for writing something only for recognition, and for thinking that I should give up on something I love so much just because it didn't supply me with the endorphin rush I thought it would. I made it a goal to improve as much as humanly possible afterwards, and I'm happy to say that I think I'm making progress towards that!

Do you have any fics inspired by real life stories?

Every gremlin-like thing the boys do in my WIP LU fic "The Most Sincere Kind of Lie" (by the time this is up, it'll probably be on Ao3) is based off something I've seen my brother and sister do. They're the embodiment of utter chaos and the manifestation of the primal urge to destroy, so they're great inspiration for Link shenanigans. Also, almost all of the banter in 'Mephibosheth' has taken inspiration from one of three places; conversations I've had with my grandparents, conversations I've had with my siblings, or interviews I've watched online. Inspiration for thought-provoking dialogue has to come somewhere that's not my own brain - there aren't enough brain cells to bear the brunt of that creative burden!

Where do you post your finished works?

I post on FFN and Ao3, both under the alias Seeking7. What's that, you say? You want a link to my profile? Well, who am I to refuse?? (AO3: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Seeking7) (FFN: https://www.fanfiction.net/u/13334645/)

[fanfic-corner]

Soulmate AU Part 2

Here’s a basic fact you need to know about me: I am very lazy. And I read a lot of soulmate fics. And I started college today, so I’m kinda busy, but also desperate to procrastinate for the first time in 6 months. Anyway, here are the slightly lower-ranking soulmate AU fics that I couldn’t be bothered adding to my last post.

Meant to Bee by violentincest on AO3. (3,823 words).

Tags: Tattoo Artist Dean, Tattooed Castiel, First Meetings, Soulmate-Identifying Marks, Fluff and Angst.

My Rating: 3 stars.

Description:  Dean is a tattoo artist, who can remove peoples Soul-mate Marks if they so choose. One day a client comes in wanting his Soul-mate mark removed, and it's just Dean's luck that this man may very well be his mate.

Notes: This was a very interesting idea, but I don’t think it was executed particularly well (that might just be me though).

Puzzle Piece by flannelfeelings on AO3. (571 words).

Tags: Soulmate-Identifying Marks, Drabble, Cutesy, Human Castiel, Domestic, Funny, Lighthearted, Gas-N-Sip, very short, First Meetings, Sassy Castiel, Dean-Centric.

My Rating: 3 stars.

Description: In a world where your soulmate's first words are imprinted on your forearm at birth, sometimes life can be confusing.Luckily for Dean, it's not very hard to distinguish who his soulmate is.

Notes: Incredibly short but fairly cute and funny - I just wish there was more!

Last Words by Miniatures on AO3. (1,353 words).

Tags: Angst With a Happy Ending, Soulmate-Identifying Marks, Soulmate AU, Angst, Romance, I will RIP YOUR HEART OUT and then put it back in.

My Rating: 3 stars.

Description: He feels Dean’s eyes on him, but he can’t bring himself to meet his brother’s gaze. His mouth is cotton, his chest scraped raw. He draws back his sleeve and stares, breathing ragged, at the sharp black lettering along his forearm—the last words he’ll ever hear his soulmate say."And this is me lying down."

Notes: I know exactly what you’re thinking: well hello, Lucifer, old friend. And you would be absolutely correct. My only problem with it is that it is too short to be executed as well as it deserves, and it feels slightly rushed.

Do You Understand What You Do To Me? by anonymous_dragon on AO3. (1,282 words) .

Tags: Soulmate-Identifying Marks, Soulmate AU, Fluff.

My Rating: 3 stars.

Description:  Sam sees a glimpse of Gabriel’s wings. Gabriel notices. (And he may feel just a tad scared.) 

Or

When Sam’s born with a soulmate mark that is random gold squiggles (also known as Enochian) on his hipbone, and Gabriel never bothered to look for his own mark after he left Heaven. (It appeared on May 2nd, 1983.)

Notes: Quite cute, with the added bonus of Gabe being an icon, as usual.

Cas-ti-el by valinde on AO3. (2,647 words).

Tags: Soulmate-Identifying Marks, Pining Dean, Pre-Slash.

My Rating: 3 stars.

Description:  Dean had figured out the problem. The reason no one could translate the name written on his arm was because it wasn't one. It was just a line of meaningless gibberish. He didn't have a match.

Notes: Don’t sue me: I read this late at night and all I wrote was: “Kinda depressing, but we’re all here for some enochian.” Take from that whatever you want.

The Words We Long To Hear by StarlightDragon on AO3. 

Tags: Canon-Compliant, Post Series 10, Angst With a Happy Ending, Soulmate-Identifying Marks, Soulmate AU, all 10 seasons in 4000 words, Sam’s POV.

My Rating: 3 stars.

Description:  Sam Winchester has known his whole life that the first words his soulmate says to him will be "I've been mopping this floor every day for six years." The guy who says it to him is a janitor, and then he's a Trickster, and then he's an angel, and then he's a Norse god, and Sam's not sure which one of these is the truth - but it's not like it matters, because Sam doesn't believe in soulmates anyway.

Notes: Just in case the tags and the description didn’t give it away, this fic is mostly Sabriel. Not entirely sure who came up with that or why it works, but it kind of does. Worth the rec because it’s pretty cute, and a great way to catch you up all the way to season 10. That being said, massive spoilers if you aren’t up to date.

Watch Your Hands, Watch Your Mouth by RawrSquared on AO3. (2,471 words).

Tags: Soulmate-Identifying Marks, Fluff.

My Rating: 3 stars.

Description: Sam was just doomed to spend his life with 'Are you fucking sorry?!' marked on his skin. Really, it wasn't fair.As it turns out, the explanation isn't so bad.

Notes: Quite cute and funny, but also mostly Sabriel.

The Mark Is In His Arm by Innwich on AO3. (3,220 words).

Tags: Soulmate AU, Soulmates, Soulmate-Identifying Marks, Soul Bond, Self-Harm, Angst.

My Rating: 2 stars.

Description:  Dean hated his soulmark. He didn’t know anyone whose mark hurt as bad as his did.

Notes: Not really sure what was going on in this one. The Mark of Cain was Dean’s soulmate? Highly unclear. (I feel like I may have put this in the other post but here it is again).

So, there they are. All the mediocre soulmate related fics. I swear I rate fics more/less than 3 stars occasionally. Promise.

[mithranqueersmusings]

Before This Dance Is Through XI

Chapter: 11/16

Rating: E (Smut Warning)

Summary: Ringo's being going through a dry spell for the last year or so and when he regretfully tells his best friend John, he insists on taking them to an all-male strip club for some "fun". Ringo isn't sure whether it's the alcohol, his desperation or a mixture of the two but he thinks he might be falling in love with a stripper.

Tags: AU - Strippers, Modern Setting, Smut, Slow Burn

Pairings: George Harrison/Ringo Starr, John Lennon/Paul McCartney

AO3 link here / Fic masterlist here

Ringo spent a lot of time late at night scrolling through George's Onlyfans profile over the next few days; he was eager to go back to the club but he didn't want George to know that he was eager, so he made do with the plethora of erotica George had supplied. Each time Ringo loaded up the page his eyes would always focus on the 'Message' button, he'd stare at it for a while and debate whether or not he should do it. How likely it was that George would reply was completely unknown to him, but it was definite that if he didn't even send a message then he'd never get a reply. Ringo's account was entirely plain, with no reference to his actual self in any way, so it wasn't as though George would know it was him. But Ringo was still hesitant, he didn't like that this was the only method of contact available to him nor that he'd be hiding behind an anonymous profile. Yet every time he'd load up the page his thumb would hover over it for a few seconds, his curiosity was beginning to overpower the desire to even speak to George. What would he even say?

John was still busy working on his poetry, how busy he actually was Ringo would never truly know, so there was no chance of dragging him along to The Helter Skelter. Going alone would look too strange, Ringo had decided, he was so afraid that George would catch on to exactly how much Ringo liked him. Messaging him was the only viable option left, because even wanking himself off every night to George's photos was beginning to lose its novelty.

It was late at night and Ringo lay in bed in his boxers, it was far too hot to sleep in anything more at the moment. The light had been switched off and so began the nightly routine, loading up George's photos and asking himself the same question: did he dare message him? Ringo wasn't sure what convinced him that night, whether he was just sleepy enough that his inhibitions had begun to waver or he was really getting that desperate, but something fuelled him on.

        hey

Ringo stared at his own words long enough that his vision began to blur. Was that enough? He had no idea what his aims were with this, he just wanted something. Even if George went on a rant about how he hated weird creeps messaging him late at night, at least it'd be something. A few minutes passed and Ringo just lay there clasping his phone in both hands. Was George even going to reply? He could've been working, or busy doing something or someone else, for all Ringo knew. But he felt like if he stared at the screen it'd somehow make it more likely that George would reply. His eyes began to droop when his phone suddenly vibrated, he worried that it was another of John's late night texts, but it wasn't.

       hi there

Now what? Ringo wasn't exactly sure what the etiquette of this situation was. He'd had his fair share of dirty conversations over text, but is that what this was? Surely it wasn't just somewhere to talk about the weather.

        how are you?

Ringo almost cringed when he sent the message, if George didn't respond after this he wouldn't have blamed him. It was like paying for a prostitute only to sit them down and ask them if they'd seen any good films lately. At least Ringo knew George wasn't working, he wouldn't have guessed that he'd waste his breaks messaging potential weirdos, but then he again he didn't have a clue.

        just peachy         and yourself?

        better now

A little cliche, not to mention desperate, but overthinking about his responses would've been a sure way to kill the conversation completely.

        arent you sweet?         what you up to?

        just lying in bed

        alone?

        as always         what about you?

        sitting in the bath         want to see?

        yes

Ringo had written 'please' at first, but realised how pathetic that might look. The speed of the replies had been rapidly increasing up until this point, and in this lull Ringo couldn't help getting a little excited knowing that George was taking a photo of himself at this very moment; even if he wasn't in the bath at all and this pause was a result of him scrolling through his photos to try and find one that matched the fictitious scenario, Ringo didn't care, he was going to allow himself to be optimistic. It wasn't too long before a photo appeared in the chat, blurry at first before Ringo selected to enlarge it, which he did without hesitation.

This wasn't the first time Ringo had seen a photo like this, he remembered very well the photos George had posted a while back of him in the bath, but this didn't look like merely a rejected photo from that session, which allowed him to believe it was contemporary, just for him. George's face was barely in the picture, which was a little disappointing to Ringo but he could hardly complain when his own profile picture was the default one. The bath water was a soft pink colour, no doubt from one of those luxurious bath bombs that Ringo loved the smell of but never bought for himself. One of George's slim legs was lifted up out of the water, gleaming and wet, while his bare chest was fully exposed. Only the bottom of his sharp jawline could be seen, but there was no doubt that this was George, Ringo knew his face well enough by now. It was nothing too explicit, his genitalia completely hidden under the water, but that wasn't really what Ringo was interested in; just to see his beautiful body was more than enough.

Ringo wasn't quite sure what to say in response, if this had been one of his boyfriends it would've been a different story, but unfortunately that wasn't the case. He didn't want to jump into anything too extreme too quickly, scaring George off now would've wounded Ringo deeply.

        wow         beautiful

Simple yet effective, Ringo told himself. He wanted to avoid saying too much, which was almost always his problem.

         your turn

Shit. Ringo threw the covers off himself immediately then lay there frozen. If only he'd had some old photos saved, but he had gotten sick of John rifling through his phone with zero warning then giving critiques on his nudes, which was uncomfortable for a variety of reasons. Ringo had never thought he'd been that good at taking them, especially when compared to the standard of George's photos, they were practically art compared to his own. The last thing he wanted was to look like those sleazy, crude photos that John would always receive on Grindr with no context. There was only a short window to do this, if he took too long George would no doubt lose interest, so he quickly rolled over and stretched over to turn the lamp on his bedside table on to provide at least a little bit of lighting. He couldn't show his face, that was a given, which means he'd have to take things to the next level. He was already half-hard, he had George's pictures to thank for that, and it didn't take more than a few pumps to get him the rest of the way there, especially with the thought that he was doing this for George.

It wasn't the most flattering picture he'd ever taken, one hand pulling down the waistband of his boxers and the other awkwardly angling the phone to take the photo, but it wasn't the worst either. As he sent it, he could feel his heart thumping in his chest and he wasn't sure whether it was from all the erratic movement or something a little deeper.

         youre hot          wanna suck your dick

Well that was certainly one way to escalate things. Ringo let out a quiet gasp when he read the message, here he was being so nervous about overstepping any boundaries when George entirely throws them out the window.

         oh yeah?

         yeah          you wanna fuck me?

Ringo had no trouble maintaining an erection from this point onward. As much as he knew this wasn't anything more than meaningless dirty talk, that didn't mean he couldn't enjoy it. Whether George was doing this for money or just to get off, Ringo didn't really care; he slid his hand under the fabric of his boxers and began stroking himself.

        god yes

        how would you fuck me?         i like it rough

        i bet you do         would love to spank that arse while i fuck you

        mmm yes please         bet your big cock would feel so good in my ass         are you touching yourself?

        yes

        good

It wasn't the easiest thing to do: wanking and trying to type with one hand, but Ringo was somehow managing it.

         youre so gorgeous

         speak for yourself          have you ever seen me dance?

         yes

Ringo wasn't sure why he told the truth, his mind was considerably muddy by this point.

         and what did you think?

         so so hot          its so hard not to touch you when you look that good

         touch me then          i want you to

         wish i could          wish i could have you all to myself

         what would you do to me?

That was the real question. What would Ringo do? What he wanted to do was easy, but if George had walked into his bedroom at that very second the only thing he'd really be capable of doing was probably fainting.

         anything and everything          i want you so badly          id do anything to have you right now

         why me?

         do you really have to ask?          youre absolutely stunning          you can turn me on just by looking at me

         lucky me          id like to do a little more than just look at you

         like what

         suck your cock          its so big i dont know if i could take it all          but id try

         god          id love to see that

         then id ride you          nice and slow          let you watch your cock slide in and out of me

Ringo could already feel his orgasm building, he felt a little embarrassed that it had been so easy. He tried to slow his movements but it only made things worse, he couldn't help imaging the tightness of his hand being replaced by George. He wondered if George was touching himself too, if he was enjoying this at all; it was best not to think about it.

         then id flip you over and really fuck you          grabbing your arse while i pound you          is that what you want?

         fuck yes          want you choke me          make me pass out on your cock

This was bordering on unknown territory now; Ringo wasn't exactly vanilla in bed but he definitely wouldn't describe himself as adventurous, kinky even. But the thought of his hand wrapping around George's slender throat, his rings pressing against the skin, made his hand stutter.

         youre dirty arent you?

         only if you want me to be          ill let you do anything you want

         i bet you would

         you can tie me up          gag me if you want          as long as i get your cock

Ringo had no idea what he should expect when he'd sent the first message, but it was certainly wasn't this. It should've been no surprise that George could make him come undone with just his words, and a very enticing photo. He wished they could've kept speaking for hours, but with every message that became more and more unlikely.

         shit          im getting close

         so soon?          i want to cum with you

         i want to cum inside you

         i prefer it on my face          id look so pretty with your cum all over me

         i bet you would

         or i could swallow it          wrap my mouth around your fat cock          taste your hot cum          i wouldnt waste a drop

He cursed himself for getting so close so quickly, especially when things were getting so heated now. No matter how hard he tried he couldn't stop the images conjuring in his mind: George's sharp face covered with his orgasm, that charismatic grin spreading over his face as he licked as much as he could manage. Some of it falling into his dark hair, over his long eyelashes. It would be an entire new level of beauty, and Ringo needed to see it. He'd begun moaning aloud while he jerked himself, his wrist had begun to ache from holding up the heavy phone for so long.

         im so close

         me too

Whether George was actually touching himself or not, Ringo didn't care. He'd let himself believe that George was lying in the bath, or on his bed in nothing but a loose towel, with his hand wrapped around himself while he thought of Ringo. Even if he didn't know it was him, if all he'd seen was below the neckline, he didn't care; it was all he needed.

         fuck i wish you were here          want to fuck you until i explode          wanna watch my cum dripping out of you

         god yes          please fill me up with your cum          i want it          i need your cum

         im almost there          fuck

         mmm good          give me that cum          please please          cum for me

That was enough for Ringo; he could hear the words in his mind as if George was really saying them to him. It was the most intense orgasm he'd had for a while, and he'd been having a lot of them. He dropped the phone in his exhaustion, falling down onto the bed while he breathed raggedly. Sweat was forming on his forehead, making his hair stick in places. Several seconds passed before he finally picked the phone up again, the clarity was beginning to form which made him question what he'd just done but it was too late to go back now.

         that was amazing

         it sure was          goodnight

Ringo tried not to be hurt by the bluntness of the end, but he supposed George too was having that moment of mental purity which made you want to discard whatever you'd been so obsessed with right up until the moment you finish. He stared at the words for a few moments, exhaustion beginning to take over paired with the realisation that he needed to get up and sort himself out. He would've let the phone drop back onto the bed and got himself suitable for sleep, he would've if that next message hadn't sent. It was only one word, and Ringo had been certain he'd read it wrong or that his eyes were playing some sort of strange trick on him. After realising what he was seeing was in fact real, he couldn't put the phone down but that was about the limit of what he could do; should he send another message? Surely not. Should he delete his account then flee the country? Maybe that a was a little dramatic. In the end he did nothing, just glared at the word as if it would somehow vanish or send him back in time so that he could've never message George in the first place.

A single word, that's all it took to send Ringo into this internal frenzy, his eyes bulging wide and his heart racing. Not just a mere word, a name; his name.

         ringo

Shit. How did he know? Had Ringo been that obvious? The whole reason he'd been comfortable sending any of those messages was because he thought he was safe behind his blank and anonymous profile.

But maybe this wasn't such a bad thing after all. If George knew it was him, whether from the start or not, he'd still stayed messaging him throughout the entire thing. He'd called him hot, he'd told him to touch him. Had all that been genuine? This wasn't meant to over-complicate things, it was meant to be a one-off moment of weakness on Ringo's behalf that went no further than desperate dirty talk and a well needed orgasm. Shit.

Maybe it was all a joke. Maybe George knew that Ringo was trying to be sneaky, so decided to mess him about. It wouldn't have been a complete surprise considering how much he seemed to enjoy teasing him at the club. The real issue was that Ringo simply didn't understand George, every time he thought he'd got him pinned down his intentions would seem to flip entirely. Or maybe that was just Ringo's anxiety getting the better of him; after all he had been single for a very long time, perhaps he was beginning to see exactly why that was.

Ringo felt like he couldn't show his face at the club again, not after exposing himself - rather literally - to George like that; since George had been so agonisingly torturous before, he could only imagine how he'd act now he knew that Ringo truly wanted to sleep with him. Most likely Ringo wouldn't be able to survive it, not for a second.

All he could for now though, was sleep. He tried to focus his brain on anything but George, but the more he tried to avoid it the stronger the urges became. Fighting the idea that his brain was trying to form: that George truly liked him back, all this teasing and mystery was his way of showing it. It just couldn't be true, it was actually too good to be true. Ringo couldn't get a guy like George, it didn't take a genius to see that. It was a ridiculous notion, he was only telling himself what he wanted to believe. This whole thing was ridiculous, falling for a stripper, and this embarrassing episode was a clear sign that he had to stop making himself suffer like this. It was never going to happen.

He couldn't go back now, not after this, not ever. He was done.

[blooddrop-palace]

Project Updates - What to Look Forward To

<3 Hello all! I've realized (humbly) that I have a small following of very nice people that seem quite interested in what I've written so far, and after seeing some mutuals post update-status posts, I thought I should share what's going on with my projects, also. (Thanks for the encouragement, @queenmuzz!)

Updated Dec-10-20

Sons of Fortune

Probably somehow my main focus now, though I am steadily working on other works. Currently working on the “In Between” special short before I start on Chapter 12.

I would also like to talk a little bit about my plans for this story: if anyone has paid attention to this story's tags, yes, I am touching up on the plots of most of the games. In fact, all of them, and the anime. (I already dealt with DMC4. No, I will not tear apart Fortuna lol.) Not all relevant tags are in, yet, because small spoilers. It looks like it's going to be a long while before I even get to the Temen-ni-gru, though. (There is a reason why that event is getting pushed back.) I want to have fun with the family fluff that is the twins each learning how to parent, first. 

Hell Froze Over, and We Shall Reignite It

The drama of it all! Dante and Vergil are finally back from Hell, and Nero doesn’t even know his mother is now standing right in front of him. Meanwhile, even I’m anticipating seen how Snow and Dante is going to handle the obvious things currently unsaid... and I have a feeling a small measure of stupidity is still going to be involved.

Current chapter progress: Outline complete.

It's going to feel so interesting, shifting from "Fortune" back to Reignite. I get to write Sera and Vergil falling in love all over again, with a different set of circumstances. Whoa.

And, and... Nero meeting Sera... odd that I'm saying this as the writer, but I have a "I hope he likes his mom" feeling going on. 

Also, no doubt Dante's brain is going to 404 when he sees Snow. 

Nico prepares popcorn.

This is Not an Office Rom-Com

I have... about 8 new skits planned out. Nothing more written just yet.

That’s all I’m saying about this for now. =P

Hierarchy of Kings

Purely indulgent M/M romance of Vergil and an OC, existing all thanks to

@wordborne

Working on chapter 2. 

I know I said 3 chapters only. I might have lied depending on how much I want to write. It's supposed to be just... awkward fluff of a listless part-devil who somewhat-recently lost his mate, got in a bit of a tiff with his brother, and now his children are trying to set him up with the prospective-king-of-hell, Vergil. 

I think about this one a lot but I haven't written anything new for it yet, only because "Fortune" is taking over my life right now, haha.

Through the Lens of the Beholder

Okay, so...This story has no real plot. As a result, my drive for it is purely down to "if I think of a badass or cool photograph to describe." There is a TINY bit of plot. Only a little. And I don't know when I'll update. But this is why I'm trying not to START new projects. Four  is a lot already! But because this one is supposed to be simpler than the other two, I will most likely finish this one before the others, so I can open a new project. 

---------------

Speaking of new projects... Here are things ideas bouncing through my head:

- I still have a prompt from @maybeishouldwait sitting in my inbox. I WILL have it done one day, when I find the perfect way to write it. 

A whole, entirely royally late set of Dadgil week fics.  Yep. I want to write them. They just won’t be on time. 

Written in Ink

A plot-less post-DMC5 story. 

I say plot-less. There is a plot. The plot is:

Dante: Damn it, Verge, are you trying to turn my office into a zoo??

In which Vergil compulsively starts contracting strong demons he's defeated, left and right, because he's discovered "the joy of pets." The demons all take on a dark animistic form and things get wild. 

A Persona and DMC fusion/AU

I have no title for this yet, and I absolutely cannot start this one until I have finished one of my other big projects. This one will take a lot of big planning, because I am making a new plot, using the mechanics of Persona, with DMC characters and setup.

What I want to write, is a teenage Nero as the protagonist, trying to solve a mystery... probably starting with the sudden disappearance of his mother. (Most likely Sera.) And he meets a lot of "new" people, and even finds new family... and yes, he will find his dad. (I'm thinking he'll know about Vergil, though. At least in name and a photo? Isn't that an interesting difference?)

For those of you not familiar with Persona, the major theme I really want to play with is that of the protagonist growing as a person (and in power) by befriending different people that helps them grow as a person. Each party member and important NPC is represented by a Tarot Card, signifying the type of journey the protagonist (The Fool) "embarks" with that character. There is growth in both the protagonist and that characters. 

Again, this is ambitious to try and pull off... but it's in the back of my head. I'll focus on it once I've cleared some other stuff. 

Sugar Sweet

A somewhat short-chapter series reader fic... of a surgeon/doctor!reader (barely 30 and good at what you do) who often saves the lives of shady people (e.g. mafia) because you care about saving lives, not the politics. But you do make good money out of it. (Hey, you gotta be at least a bit morally ambiguous if you're going to deal with devils.)

You meet one mess of a young mercenary named Dante, who is totally not human and deals with things like having bullets healed into his back, and he can't reach them to cut them out. 

Dante doesn't care about bills for his office, or a lot of the debts in his life. You don't know where his money is going, or if he even makes much money at all (for the kind of specialty work he does? Money's going somewhere, but that's none of your business.)

You won't pay Dante's bills, or his debts, but he will accept pizza and ice cream. And new parts for his jukebox. And maybe a motorcycle. Or a new coat. Or a new car...

And you might complain to him about your dumb patients. Or just listen to him talk about his job. Or you two watch a movie together.

And this just continues. For years. 

Tokusatsu DMC fusion/AU

So. First thing's first: I'm a big fan of Sentai/Tokusatsu. What is that, you might ask? It's a Japanese genre, and if you're familiar with Power Rangers, that's derived from Sentai. 

Basically: Masked heroes with transformation gadgets, sometimes with motorcycles, fighting against evil. ("Magical girls" but strictly the opposite, a lot more physical combat involved, may involve upgrade gadgets, and not strictly limited to male heroes though mostly a male cast. Also not strictly for male-only audience. Girls like the eye-candy, too. :eyes-emoji:)

Why am I thinking about this?

Because I have found out that: Vergil's VA, Dan Southworth, was the Quantum Ranger (WHICH WAS RED). Nero's VA, Johnny Yong Bosch, was a Black Ranger and a Green Ranger. 

...And Dante's VA, Reuben Langdon, had a role in a Japanese Toku show as "B-Fighter Yanma" forever ago???? (HE WAS BLUE!!)

What am I going to do with this info? I'll let you know later. But my Sentai/Toku-loving little heart is about to burst with hyperfixation overlap. 

If I ever write this out, expect it to be just as cheesy as an actual Kamen Rider show. Or, at the very least, expect some art. I love Kamen Rider stuff!

Family Fantasy MMO

Snow introduces Dante, Vergil, Nero, and Kyrie to Final Fantasy 14 (because that’s the MMO I play) for family bonding. Yep. Mainly for silly indulgence.

Stardew Valley Visit

Post DMC5, Vergil and Dante accidentally end up going on a vacation when they try to leave Hell. No pairing with the farmer, but instead just a relaxing and somewhat introspective moment of the boys being stuck with most of their power temporarily sealed, learning how to take care of a farm, and maybe do a bit of healing by interacting with the townsfolk while they try to find out where their swords went and how to get home. 

Re-Colourize

Otherwise what I would call the “re-colour of Nero and Snow” AU. 

What if Vergil was found by Kassy’s family and raised among them? What if Dante ended up briefly in Fortuna and then convinced Sera to run away from the island?

What if we have a Nero who, though brash, is outwardly more soft and open-hearted, and has red-orange and gold colours instead? What if we have a Snow who is named Chiyuki, who wields her katana more like Vergil does, and has a more ice-queen aura about her, and has a teal and blue colouring about her?

This is my excuse to switch up the pairings, but also write Vergil being taught to fight more like an assassin. 

Raised by the Blade

Imagine: Yamato, cracked, broken, and separated from her Master... desperately searching for a way to get back to him, and ended up washed up on the shores of Fortuna. Humanoid, but clearly not if anyone saw the cracked, broken, and no-normal look of “shattered” in her torso, that she would have to keep covered. 

Made from the power of Sparda, she is pale with white hair... and she finds herself drawn to the orphanage...

Where she finds the toddler that is Nero.

Devil Hunters’ Podcast

Nico “accidentally” finds entertainment in recording the Sparda Family arguments as they talk about hunting; after all, they all share one braincell. 

Ascended Monochrome

A white angel remains by the side of Nelo Angelo. Mundus was not pleased by the behavior of his second creation, from the human woman that he had picked up with the treacherous Son of Sparda. But he later discovered that by using her, he could keep Nelo Angelo complacent. Eventually, underestimating love will be his downfall.

Fall to Royalty

A story of where Vergil wins against Mundus the first time, and takes the throne of Hell. But what is he to do next? Eventually, ruling Hell seemed meaningless when there was no one by his side, so he goes to seek out the Lady Knight that he had vowed to never think of or go back to unless he had obtained the power he sought.

Doppelganger Woes

So, I heard Capcom retconned Gilver to be some sort of imitation created by Mundus. I’m all for this! And I’m going to DO something with this.

Side-Project: DMC Tarot List

I started on this maybe months ago; and I have a tentative list oh what characters go with what card and a few detailed descriptions. I think I should confer with

@harlot-of-oblivion

at some point about this, and anyone else interested in, well, Tarot stuff. 

[aahsoka]

So having been on tiktok for a bit I wanna talk a little about it.

What I like

It’s actually rather entertaining to scroll through up to 30 second videos one after the other. Sometimes the humor falls flat or it’s not your taste, but the algorithim is quite good at recommending the kind of content you will like.

I joined right when there was a big trend going around about sharing your culture, and soon after a Blackout trend where non-Black creators stopped posting for a day & spread/supported videos by Black creators. So I ended up with a fairly diverse fyp or “for you page”. It also quickly gathered that I am bisexual, so I get plenty of lgbt+ content. There’s some art mixed in there, some cosplay, some historical costuming/seamstresses, lots of avatar jokes lately, musical theatre content, fashion, girls in bikinis on rollerskates (in outer space), commentary on political issues, body positivity, all the kinds of stuff I like. To get a feed that caters to your interests you just have to watch & like videos you’re interested in & eventually it gets a feel for what you’ll watch and what you won’t.

Theres a trend where people say which ‘side’ of tiktok they’re on and I get ‘science side of tumblr’ flashbacks but I’ve mostly avoided the “straight” and conservative sides of tiktok. I would be considered a part of “woke”, “alt” (as in alternative) and lgbt+ tiktok (there are separate ones for each letter of the acronym). Possibly also “theatre” and “cosplay” tiktok. These categories are nebulous and you’re usually part of multiple communities; its just as arbitray as ‘science side of tumblr’ was.

The format reminds me of snapchat a little, and I love to talk to myself on video & post dumb thirst traps for my friends (none of which I’m attracted to so idk what my goal is there) and make stupid jokes. So this app is kinda perfect for my attention seeking side & hyperactive tendencies. Its very easy to consume on a short attention span, though not as easy as vine was.

Being in quarantine, its a way for a lot of people to engage in hobbies that involve community. Cosplay is pretty popular, as its a fun way to show off a costume & dress up & have fun without having to attend a convention. I enjoy the way lip synced audios can be used to emulate the character someone is dressed as; that’s something you couldn’t really do unless you were really good at impressions. Its a nice succinct way to show the process of creating a cosplay as well.

Those who enjoy theatre, but cannot perform in shows at this time, are able to create mini-monologues & sketches as well as sing parts of their favorite songs. Its an avenue through which to perform without putting anyone at risk of the virus. It’s also an easy way to show off your talents without having to go through the audition process & actually get cast in a show as a prominent enough role that someone will notice it.

It’s a convenient format for discourse and educational videos. Nice, short, easily digestible tidbits that stay in your mind. This extremely catchy song, for example: “Black neighborhoods are overpoliced, so of course they have higher rates of crime, and white perpetrators are undercharged, so of course they have lower rates of crime. And all of those stupid stats you keep using are operating off a small sample size. So, shut up, shut up, shut up, shut up”.

As well as other videos where people take the time to explain historical events, satirize racist arguments to demonstrate why they are wrong, talk about prevalent tropes in movies, teach a few signs in ASL, share facts about their culture, etc, etc. I have found there are quite a lot of people there from unique and fairly unknown cultures and backgrounds- and this is a place where they’re able to share their culture & existence with people all over the world. There are a thousand different viewpoints. Their videos are doing far more for diverse representation than any other platform, I’d argue, as everyone is extremely visible on the app. (‘Their’ as in the creators, not the app itself).

I also have enjoyed coming across new artists on the app. It’s really fun to watch the process they go through, as most art videos deal with the whole creation of a piece. It’s inspiring. I have also come across a painter who’s work I’m in love with, and a woman who makes and sells the CUTEST ceramic mugs, and I need to purchase some stuff from them both.

Now onto the bad:

Unfortunately, the app doesn’t have much in the way of a filtering or warning system. I talked about that tiktok of the kids coming across human remains? That was just on people’s fyp. Just popped up. No warning. No reason for it to still be up. Traumatizing.

You can click on a video and say ‘not interested’ (I do this to literally every video I get where some girl is thirsting after kylo ren 🤮..... like I want the star wars videos just not THOSE videos). However, it doesn’t seem to know exactly why you weren’t interested, because I still get those videos from time to time. There’s no content filter where I can blacklist the kylo ren or any other hashtag.

There’s some very shitty content. There are racist conservatives. Misogynistic teen white boys. Really weird thirst traps. Videos where people lip sync to something with a straight face and tag it with #acting. Harmful body image trends. I thankfully stay very clear of this, but this kind of content makes me worry for the minors on the app. The one’s who don’t have enough of a concept of self yet to realize they don’t need to be able to do the newest pointless beauty trend to be beautiful, to realize it’s ok for them to be gay, to realize how predatory some adults can be, etc etc.

It is extremely easy to come across minors on the app who don’t look like teens. One time I went to a girl’s page and it said she was FIFTEEN. I’m usually good at guessing ages but something about this app messes that up. I wish there was a way to separate people under 18 and adults. Where I don’t have minor’s thirst traps popping up on my fyp. Where pedophiles don’t get a chance to curate that fyp intentionally. If anyone reading this has kids, I highly recommend they make their tiktok private or only viewable to friends.

Just like any site, there are plenty of bigots. Lots of racist comments. Plenty of transphobia. Any hatred you’ve seen elsewhere, of course it exists on tiktok. I have actually zero clue if you can report people & if it works. Most people seem to send a video commentary to their haters or duet a video of a racist pointing out their racism. I’ve heard of creators blocking people, however. I remember a tiktok of a Black woman who’s video somehow went fairly viral in Poland and now she gets a lot of racist comments from this large group of random racisf Polish followers she has and its extremely time consuming to block them all, as there’s no mass block feature.

The rumors about what works with the algorithm and doesn’t abound. I’ve heard well lit videos get more views. Many people suspect they have been shadowbanned for speaking out about current events. TikTok will remove the audio from videos sometimes if they deem it controversial enough. Most of us know they were criticized recently for intentionally keeping Black creator’s videos from being seen (a catalyst for the Blackout, actually). Or you may also recall when it was criticized for widely removing lgbt+ content. Those creators are fighting to be seen the same amount as straight cis white creators are allowed to be seen with no effort.

The effects some trends could have on teen girls. So many of them are already so uncomfortable in their own skin simply because of societal standards, but the absolutely meaningless challenges people come up with on tiktok make it so much worse. One trend was based around whether your finger touched your lips when you put it in your nose. Or if you could get your clasped hands around the back of your legs and over your butt (if they get passed, you have a flat ass, if they get stuck, its big). These completely arbitrary signifiers of the things you need to have in order to be pretty, are far more ridiculous that anything I have seen yet in my life. I worry about little girls taking these ideas to heart. There is a very kind body positive community on the app & I hope more people can find that.

There’s also that thing where they steal your data. Like most apps. But apparently they got a lot more invasive than usual, so I would look into it before making an account; if you want to do that.

I think the apps users can be great & its a pretty intuitive set up. It certainly deserves its popularity solely as a creative form of social media. That being said, its owners are so so insidious & do the worst things. Just like all other social media, its controlled by the worst kind of people. Who can never figure out how to effectively get rid of nazis or keep kids safe from adult content.

These are my less serious gripes with the app:

1) Lip syncing

When people lip sync and don’t do any kind of skit, joke, etc, just look as if they’re saying what someone else said; I hate that. I have to go back and find the original tiktok so I can like it instead. You literally did nothing interesting by ripping off someones audio and moving your lips along to it. So many people on this app are creative and so many others lack any semblance of creativity.

Also people are too easily impressed by lip syncing to kinda-fast songs. I lip synced to like....10 seconds of the devil went down to georgia and two people praised my lip syncing abilities. Like, I can also sing and talk fast, out loud, isn’t that more impressive? more skillful? The fiddle playing in that song is impressive, not the fact I can lip sync ‘the devil went down to georgia, he was lookin for a soul to steal, he was in a bind, cause he was way behind.’ Have you ever seen someone play Johnny’s fiddle solo????? It’s insane!!!

Rather than see someone lip sync to the verse in Stressed Out 2x faster than normal (which is, extremely simple and the song was overplayed and ingrained into our collective consciousness) and go WOW what about someone.....doing the verse out loud. You can litterally just mouth random words and look like you’re saying the right ones. It’s driving me crazy lmao. I’m set to become a God of tiktok because I have a repertoire of fast songs and rap verses memorized. It’s not even an uncommon skill to speak or sing quickly, people literally make rap music for a living! Listen to it maybe.

2) “Acting”

I am begging you to stop making me sit through those horrible POVs. I cannot take another girl not quite fake crying towards the camera as she lip syncs the words from a song that apply to the random situation she decided she was in. I cannot take another boy who thinks its sexy to stare into a camera and smirk in every single situation he creates.

Back to lip syncing, making facial expressions along to words isn’t really acting. Try saying the words out loud perhaps? The inflection you use with your lines is a pretty big part of acting. Like you can lip sync all you want, just stop tagging it with #acting.

3) Comedic timing, or lack thereof

You don’t need the entire intro to sit there looking at the camera waiting until the first line starts and you can lip sync to the part that’s the joke. You could cut off at least 15 seconds. Brevity is the soul of wit.

When your joke involves both reading text on screen and listening to the song for the punchline, if it isn’t done prefectly, its so difficult to follow. I can’t read a paragraph in 5 seconds. Paraphrase.

4) self deprecating artist audio

the audio thats like ‘this wont get views’ ‘I suck’ ‘you probably won’t see this anyway’ LOVE YOURSELF

It sucks when people dont enagage with your art but it sucks worse when your value in yourself and you art is based solely on receiving that validation. Please find a healthy medium.

Also you’re asking for pity, and you don’t want that. You want people who genuinely love your art for what it is.

5) editing videos is really hard how do you make such cool & smooth transitions????

please help me I don’t understand

Finally

here’s my account if you’re interested

[bazz-b]

THE POSITIVE & NEGATIVE; Mun & Muse - Meme.

fill out & repost ♥ This meme definitely favors canons more, but I hope OC’s still can make it somehow work with their own lore, and lil’ fandom of friends & mutuals. Multi-Muses pick the muse you are the most invested in atm.

My muse is:   canon / oc / au / canon-divergent / fandomless /

Is your character popular in the fandom?  YES / NO.

Is your character considered hot™ in the fandom?  YES / NO / IDK.

Is your character considered strong in the fandom?  YES / NO / IDK.

Are they underrated?  YES / NO.

Were they relevant for the main story?  YES / NO.

Were they relevant for the main character?  YES / NO / THEY’RE THE PROTAG.

Are they widely known in their world?  YES / NO.

How’s their reputation?  GOOD / BAD / NEUTRAL.

How strictly do you follow canon?  — There’s a lot of freedom when you write a character with as little screen time as Bazz-B. I adhere strongly to everything known about him, and embellish the rest as I can. Some canon facts are a bit contradicting so we make do with what we can.

SELL YOUR MUSE! Aka try to list everything, which makes your muse interesting in your opinion to make them spicy for your mutuals.  —  Bazz-B is what happens when you cross punk with a volcano. Wronged as a child, betrayed by his God, he began a 1000 year crusade to infiltrate a holy army and kill God. Along the way he takes names and kicks ass, while balancing the burden of his secret goal and cultural obligation to aid his kind. 

Now the OPPOSITE, list everything why your muse could not be so interesting (even if you may not agree, what does the fandom perhaps think?).  —  The dude held a grudge for a 1000 years, pushed away the only person who cared about him, and then whined that he was betrayed. An ego bigger than his eccentric hair, he’s twice as obnoxious as he is loud.

What inspired you to rp your muse?  —  How dare you make me admit my secret shame.. When Bazz-B was first revealed in the manga, I snagged him in the group I was RPing in. Grimmjow was already so popular, and a lot of writers I looked up to were writing him, so there’s no way I was trying my hand at that. But this new fella reminded me of a Quincy Grimmjow. I WAS VERY WRONG AND I’M GLAD I WAS BUT THAT’S MY SHAMEFUL ORIGIN STORY.

What keeps your inspiration going?  —  I think it’s stupid how much I love Bazz-B. I went away for a while due to health reasons, but I never stopped loving him. Fleshing out everything that could have been, should have been, is and was-- any opportunity to talk about this man reignites my passion for him.

Some more personal questions for the mun.

Give your mutuals some insight about the way you are in some matters, which could lead them to get more comfortable with you or perhaps not.

Do you think you give your character justice?  YES / NO.

Do you frequently write headcanons?  YES / NO. (not often enough)

Do you sometimes write drabbles?  YES / NO. (Bazzard and Zorn’s All American Tour)

Do you think a lot about your Muse during the day?  YES / NO.

Are you confident in your portrayal?   YES / NO.

Are you confident in your writing?  YES / NO.

Are you a sensitive person?  YES / NO. (IT DEPENDS? I’M NOT EASILY OFFENDED BUT I’M SOFT)

Do you accept criticism well about your portrayal?  —  God okay I thrive off criticism. Genuinely, it doesn’t need to be positive. I prefer negative criticism. I’ll only ever improve if people tell me what I suck at. I can be better, help me pls.

Do you like questions, which help you explore your character?  —  I drool over that shit.

If someone disagrees to a headcanon of yours, do you want to know why?  —  I'd definitely be interested. Headcanons, I think, pertain to each persons portrayal, so if someone disagrees they must believe it’s inherently out of character. I’d love to discuss that!

If someone disagrees with your portrayal, how would you take it?  —  I’d love to discuss that EVEN MORE THAN HEADCANONS. If someone thinks Bazz-B should be behaving differently, or acting differently in scenarios, I’d love to listen to why. If anyone loves Bazz-B and has thoughts you come to me, you sit me down and I will listen so raptly you’ll think I’ve frozen in time.

If someone really hates your character, how do you take it?  —  To each their own! I know a lot of people aren’t a fan of Bazz-B, he’s very in your face, and I know a lot of the stoic characters are super popular. Wont make me love him any less.

Are you okay with people pointing out your grammatical errors?  —  Oh God, please do. My biggest peeve is when I repeat words too often. Be my little microsoft word paperclip!!

Do you think you are easy going as a mun?   —  I think I’m terrible at continuing out of character conversations, as I’m always worried I’m bugging people, but other than that I am very easy. Unless you say “I wish to offend you” I’ll naturally assume you’re not trying to offend me. We all come across differently, I just assume everyone is here to have a good time.

That’s about it, congrats for filling out!

Tagged by: @hirako5hinji & @zombiequincy

[oliverwxod]

Bodyguard (Part 2) - Bucky Barnes

Pairing: Bucky Barnes x reader

Warnings: death, swearing, eventually smut in later parts

Summary: Tony Stark is a very rich man and with that came a lot of enemies. After a tragic event Tony decides himself and the people most important to him, especially his daughter, are in danger. He hires personal body guards. Bucky Barnes is assigned to Y/n Stark, the most troublesome, reckless Stark that there is. 

A/N: had part 2 written and edited even though I only posted part 1 yesterday. This part isn’t very long, just needed it to build the story for the next chapters. So thought i’d post it now because every one is so lovely x

Part 1  Part 2  Part 3  Part 4  Part 5  Part 6  Part 7  Part 8

Masterlist

If Tony thought Y/n having a bodyguard would stop her normal weekly routines he was very wrong. 

 He hoped she would calm down her partying ways, especially with all the danger surrounding them and the risk of the murderer of her brother still out there. But if anything it made her more wild.

 Every other night for the past 3 weeks James found himself sitting at the bar or standing at the side of the dark sweaty room, his eyes boring into her frame as he kept a watch on her and the surroundings. Anytime someone approached her he was ready to make a move towards them. 

One time last week some drunken guy had pulled her close to him to dance. Bucky immediately made his way over ripping him from her. Y/n wasn’t happy to say the least. Shouting at him to leave her alone and stop getting in the way of everything.

 Bucky knew she had a lot of anger to get out but he wasn’t going to stand for her acting like a brat, so he dragged her by the wrist out of the dingy club. However, he found himself back in the exact same club a week later. He was watching her closely.

 She had a drink in both hands surrounded by people she hardly knew. Dancing on the top of a table drunkenly, moving to the beat of the music that James hated.

 At the start of the job he couldn’t help but feel almost disgusted by the amount she would drink, how she would be a drunken mess by the end of the night and he’d have to help her home safely. Listening to her talk about silly meaningless things. 

One of the nights she babbled on about how much she missed her brother; Jackson , her eyes teary and James was glad she didn’t end up crying. He still didn’t really know her, but he had come to realize that her drinking and partying was how she escaped for a while.

 Just like he did when he was working. 

By watching her the past weeks he had learnt and understood more. Y/n was just a young adult who did make bad choices, but there were many reasons for it that he did not know of. But one of them for sure was because of the recent death of her brother. 

He had read articles about it. He knew what had happened before he took the job, but he didn’t know Y/n witnessed the whole thing. He had stumbled upon pictures of the scene online, seeing Y/n covered in her own brothers blood from the fatal shot that hit her brother. His heart went out to her for that. Nobody deserved to watched their sibling die. 

 James was distracted momentarily as an unknown woman sat in the seat next to him, ordering herself a drink.

 "Haven’t seen you around here before" she spoke, turning her head to look at him, a sly smile on her face.

 "I don’t come here a lot" he replied giving her a polite smile. His eyes quickly flicking to Y/n who was still dancing.

 "I know I would remember such a handsome face like yours" she winked, her hand reaching out to rest on his thigh. 

 A small scream and a commotion tore James’ eyes from the woman in front of him. He cursed under his breath before standing up. Y/n had fallen off of the table. Someone helping her up as she laughed hysterically. 

 James reached her, giving her a pointed look in which she rolled her eyes mumbling “killjoy” under her breath. She knew to follow him out of the club. Watching his back as he walked so she wouldn’t lose sight of him.

 She followed him into the car, silently. She couldn’t figure him out. It had been weeks and they hardly said a word to each other even though they spent days on end in each other’s presence. Bucky was quiet and reserved, professional and polite. But she could tell from his eyes he didn’t want to be there. 

 "Who was the woman?“ She asked deciding she would actually try to start a conversation with him.

 "No idea, ma'am”.

 "She was pretty" Y/n spoke raising an eyebrow “did you get her number?”.

   "No ma'am" She wanted to roll her eyes. How was she meant to hold a conversation with his short replies.

 They were so polite but so rude at the same time. The car silence was cut by a loud ringing of James’ phone. He ignored it apologizing. It was silent again until the annoying ringtone of his phone filled the car.

. “Sorry” he spoke. But he it ignored it and it carried on ringing.

 "Maybe you should answer it" she spoke. Looking at him expectantly. He did as she said, sliding the call button across. 

“Yes?” He spoke ever as professional. Y/n could hear some mumbling not being able to work out who he could be talking to.

 "Tomorrow" he said bluntly.

 "No" It carried on for a couple minutes, his replying a being one worded and Y/n couldn’t help but wonder who he was talking to in such a way. He hung up, sliding his phone back into his jacket pocket.

 "Sorry about that again m'aam" he spoke. She hated how he called her m'aam. It made her feel so old even though she was only in her early 20s. 

 "My names Y/n she spoke. So please call me Y/n" she said.

 "Okay, Y/n" he said. Her name falling from his mouth. 

 "Who was it?“ She asked gesturing to his phone.

 "No one” he replied shortly. 

 She shrugged. It wasn’t any of her business she knew. But she couldn’t help but be intrigued. 

 "Why did you become a bodyguard?“ She asked curious. She didn’t think he looked like he enjoyed following her around all day. "You must get bored”.

 She knew for a fact he did. Always catching the dead blank stare in his eyes when she caught them from across the room in clubs.  

“I’m good at it” he spoke. 

 "But don’t you ever want like … A day off or something?“ She asked. "Don’t you have your own life?”.

 She must have hit a nerve as James spoke bluntly.

 "This isn’t very professional" he said “I would prefer not to talk about my personal matters”. 

 She left it at that. She couldn’t be bothered to hold up conversation any more. Not when he was too mysterious and she couldn’t find a way to break through it.

“sorry” she said mumbling, a little embarrassed that he used that tone with her. She felt like a scolded child even though he was trying to still be professional “it wasn’t my place to ask” 

“that’s okay ma'am. Forget about it.” 

Ma’am. She almost rolled her eyes again but held herself back. She could not get through to this guy and it was making her uncomfortable.

 It was frustrating. James was very frustrating.

Thank you for reading, you’re all absolute babes, the next few chapters will be a lot more interesting I promise xxx sorry if I missed any one in the tags xx

Tags:

@sectumsempra-beaches @im-patton @lovely-geek @fuckthatfeeling @roxytheimmortal @swtmckngbrd @albinotigerpython @hiken-no-stark

@urlindah @nessieaceman @feeling-straange @musicaltrinity @ahalolz @supercarricat @katecupcakekate  @severuined @widowbite-legit @nerdyalienhybrid1987 @letaliabane @mrs-lovelace @chipilerendi @alihart @bellalikesplants @vogueworthy-barnes @mustbeaweasleyginger @gravedollie666 @liffydaze @dewy-biitch @ineedmorefanfics  @bubblegum-love18 @amandatheboss @myfitspojoirney  @person-born-winchester @madderson97 @thorins-queen-of-erebor @wolfsbxnee @thecauldroncake @musical-doll-x  @wolfschild09 @thisismyfriend-tree @waaaaaaitwhat @queen-of-elves @bucky-barnes-doll  @slender–spirit @liffydaze @honey-anon @madderson97 @chloe-skywalker @mackyboo21 @disneymarvelthe100fitness @vquezada84 @meowchickameow @jjsoccer11 @38leticia @gravewalkerray @bexboo616 @dragonselene

[incorrect-trolls]

the trolls as tumblr blogs

Poppy - the girl’s got no real “theme” going, but she’s definitely got a “craft” tag where she’s posted at least three hundred scrapbooking tutorials already, and probably reblogged a few do-it-yourself knitting, crocheting, or sewing videos. sometimes posts cute selfies in colorful dresses with her hair very elaborately styled, or low-quality recordings of her own original music. gets flooded with asks every day, mainly about “how do I do X with my scrapbook, please teach me” or just people telling her how pretty and nice and approachable she is. she answers every single message. no anon left behind. lots of positivity posts, too, mainly just short snippets like “you can do it!!” with smiley-face and thumbs-up emojis. reblogs every meme she sees and always remembers to tag her friends in them. sends Branch asks here and there to make sure he’s still alive. blog is astoundingly well-organized, considering how scattered it is. 

Branch - survivalist. everything. very long, detailed posts with lots of bullet points and big words and italics. the information is actually useful, if you can be bothered to sift through it. tips on how to survive everything from a house fire to the zombie apocalypse. lots of conspiracy posts, too, won’t shut up about Roswell or Illumanati. doesn’t get asks as often as Poppy does, and when he does, it’s usually some anon with some variation of “why are you like this”. responds to said asks with one-word answers. responds to Poppy’s asks with at least some measure of exasperation. reblogs her positivity posts just to counter the encouragement with something typically pessimistic, and tends to go off with her on never-ending threads back and forth where they just disagree on absolutely everything from cats vs. dogs to the infinite possibilities of multiple universes. tells anyone who will listen how much he can’t fucking stand her. would burn before he posted a selfie where “the establishment” could see. everything is meticulously tagged and scrupulously organized. probably runs a sideblog where he posts sappy romantic poetry every few days. no one on his main knows about it. they Must Never Know.

Bridget - kinda lowkey treats her blog like a diary, lots of personal posts, lots of random, unnecessary updates on her life, lots of venting. vague-blogging. all her drama out on main. reblogs recipes if she thinks they look good. doesn’t get memes, but reblogs every single one Poppy tags her in anyway. the rare selfie that does make it onto her blog quickly gets deleted when her insecurities act up. discovered the rainbow emoji a few years ago and never looked back.

Gristle - memes. just. memes. “change my mind”. “you guys are just mean”. gru meme. responds to every ask he gets with a meme. some people think he’s a bot. also lots of vine compilations. some selfies here and there, usually with a caption about how handsome he feels today. once left a comment on one of Bridget’s selfies before she deleted it and just said “hot lunch!” 

Smidge - wall-to-wall workout stuff. mainly two to three-minute videos of her doing power squats or one-handed push-ups or something of the like. has a “goals!!!” tag that’s just pictures and gifs of other bodybuilders. sometimes makes posts about the pros and cons of different sports drinks or protein shakes, and the majority of her selfies are mainly just her flexing proudly. reblogs her friends’ selfies with aggressive, kinda off-the-wall compliments - “LOVE YOURSELF AS MUCH AS I LOVE YOU OR DIE” - but everyone appreciates the thought all the same. occasionally reblogs pics of pretty ladies when she’s tortured by thirst.

Guy Diamond - glitter aesthetics, mainly. gifsets and photos and stimboards of the stuff, but sometimes he’ll intersperse a pic of a big city all lit up at night or a Starbucks coffee cup or something similar.  usually posts at least one selfie per day, if not several, and captions them all w/ nothing but 3 sparkle emojis and a winky face. his text posts are typically something in the vein of “love yourself BITCH”. will talk on and on in the tags about how much he loves the post, but won’t actually tag the content of the post itself. calls every inconvenience he’s ever experienced in his life “homophobic”. if you get him in a sappy enough mood, he’ll wax poetic about the lovely life he’s going to lead with his future husband. 

Biggie - mostly just pictures of Mr. Dinkles, or text posts about him ((e.g. pic of Mr. Dinkles in sunglasses captioned “Mr. Dinkles is feeling chill!”)) or the odd photo of a meal he’s made, or a batch of cupcakes he’s really proud of. occasionally reblogs pictures of other animals as well, mainly cats and kittens. the fuzzier, the better. very sweet and welcoming to everyone, his followers just love sending him asks and hearing about his day, or getting to tell him about theirs. makes everyone feel right at home, and has upwards of ten thousand followers because of this.

Cooper - ??????????????? doesn’t really know what he’s doing at all. occasionally posts memes but none of them actually make any sense. reblogs all his friends’ posts but rarely makes any of his own. adds unnecessary comments to text posts whenever possible. doesnt tag anything.

DJ Suki - music!!!! lots of her own, of course, but reblogs plenty of her favorite bands and artists, too. takes a longggg time to respond to asks and her responses are usually v short, barely more than a few words at a time. aggressively reblogs Poppy’s music and Cooper’s meaningless memes. has sent Branch at least one (1) ask that just said, “chill”. 

Satin and Chenille - clothes tbh, esp fancy evening gowns with sparkles and ruffles and things like that, but the occasional cute blouse finds its way onto their blog, too. lots of pictures of the pieces they’re currently working on and plenty of progress updates. sometimes hold random giveaways for the outfits their followers express the most interest in. occasional step-by-step tutorials on sewing, hairstyles, makeup, or something of the sort. at least one text post a week venting nonstop about each other.

Creek - yoga and meditation techniques at least once a week, and a few tips here and there on practicing mindfulness as well. uses the words “inner peace” and “complete tranquility” several times in one post. almost never reblogs any of his friends’ posts, and ignores Poppy’s attempts to tag him in memes because it “doesn’t fit his theme”. will send Poppy lots of encouraging asks, though, especially after she’s just had a thread with Branch. follows Branch specifically to comment things like “thanks for sharing your unique perspective on things..........again” on his posts.

Cloud Guy - doesn’t tag. default theme. answers asks with the peace-sign emoji, when he gets asks at all. most people are too afraid to initiate contact. got a blog just to send Branch terrifyingly vague or profoundly irritating asks, and comments on Branch and Poppy’s threads with “she’s got a point, rotary joint” whenever he can. Branch has blocked him upwards of five times. he just keeps making blogs. 

[dwellworm]

Happy Near Yew

Whenever I need something to remind me of my own curiosity, I go to Austin Kleon, human art aggregator. This week I sought advice, clarity, or something about the impending New Year. (I initially typed Near Yew which is... actually better?)

Austin -- I think he'd be okay with me calling him by his first name -- never fails to deliver and this Tuesday when I was feeling particularly bedraggled by my own stuckness was no exception. If you're anything like me and you love a lot of structure with your meaninglessness and/or vice versa, I recommend highly the 'rules' tag on his blog.

Anyway, let me go back... An old friend of mine I never talk to anymore, for whatever reason friends stop talking, has "The Moscow Rules" in her Facebook bio. I was like, "Huh, I like rules but I can't seem to remember what these are, let me look at them again." I don't know why I thought they would resonate with me. Like I said, we don't talk anymore.

They seemed, like, particularly aggressive for no reason and this year has already had plenty of that, thankyou. I mean, okay, they're rules for spies or whatever, but I'd be a horrible spy.

"Everyone is potentially under opposition control."

Yeah, we get it, The Moscow Rules. I've had enough potential threats in the past two years as I ever really needed and I'm ready to decrease my vigilance.

Anyway, I saw these and thought, "I can find better for me." And something pinged in my brain -- didn't Austin Kleon have a whole collection of rules I could pull from? Maybe a new set of rules is exactly what I need for the new year (and for the near yew, for that matter.)

To my great delight, I was correct and Austin had provided a ton of source material to pilfer, as is his particular art. His Rules of the studio post links a whole handful of rules right after his own rules!

Flash forward about two hours and I was swept away into the world of Tom Sachs and his Ten Bullets.

I mean, wow, right?! My key takeaways:

I could never work in Tom Sachs's studio; he'd hate me.

I want to be worthy of rules like these. Rules that take themselves seriously because they are Good for Something.

I Got it. Like, really Got it. Long story short, I've really been struggling with... I dunno, life, I guess, over the past couple of months. I mean, every day feels like an absolute battle with myself and those around me. And I definitely have seen some areas for improvement but the predominant area for improvement is that I'm letting it happen! So! I felt really bolstered by the feeling Tom Sachs gave me with his Ten Bullets: you create and control your own environment simply by making it matter to you (and those who you let into it.) See bullets I/II (depending on the version) - Sacred Space.

But being in it with Austin Kleon and Tom Sachs also brought me back to another set of "rules" I love: Brian Eno's Oblique Strategies. It's a set of 117 cards that tell you, "You are an engineer" (this is what my computer just told me) or "What would your closest friend do?" or "Voice your suspicions." I've linked to a randomizer below and I suggest you try it. I've also had desktop backgrounds and I'm using this Chrome extension at the moment.

The reason I love Oblique Strategies and Ten Bullets and any other rules is they remind the observer to revisit their own mind and body, reframe the spiral they might be in, respect their existence and their surroundings. This is something I need more of. I've often toyed with getting a smattering of Oblique Strategies tattooed on various parts of my body to help me re-center but there's something magical about the randomness of the 117 choices. Maybe the tattoo should say "Strategize" to remind me to pull a card/randomize a concept and pull me back into reality.

But also the magic of rules, strategies, bullets, commandments, rights, or any pithy little list is that it only matters because you make it matter.

All of this is to say, I'm working on my own Rules for 2022. And maybe one of them will be "Make it matter."