#the resolution is so trash i hate it

[istealpencils]

concept: mabel w/ a shaved + dyed head

[dostoyevsky-official]

Every morning, when I wake again under the pall of the sky, I feel that for me it is New Year’s day. That’s why I hate these New Year’s that fall like fixed maturities, which turn life and human spirit into a commercial concern with its neat final balance, its outstanding amounts, its budget for the new management. They make us lose the continuity of life and spirit. You end up seriously thinking that between one year and the next there is a break, that a new history is beginning; you make resolutions, and you regret your irresolution, and so on, and so forth. This is generally what’s wrong with dates. They say that chronology is the backbone of history. Fine. But we also need to accept that there are four or five fundamental dates that every good person keeps lodged in their brain, which have played bad tricks on history. They too are New Years’. The New Year’s of Roman history, or of the Middle Ages, or of the modern age. And they have become so invasive and fossilising that we sometimes catch ourselves thinking that life in Italy began in 752, and that 1490 or 1492 are like mountains that humanity vaulted over, suddenly finding itself in a new world, coming into a new life. So the date becomes an obstacle, a parapet that stops us from seeing that history continues to unfold along the same fundamental unchanging line, without abrupt stops, like when at the cinema the film rips and there is an interval of dazzling light. That’s why I hate New Year’s. I want every morning to be a new year’s for me. Every day I want to reckon with myself, and every day I want to renew myself. No day set aside for rest. I choose my pauses myself, when I feel drunk with the intensity of life and I want to plunge into animality to draw from it new vigour. No spiritual time-serving. I would like every hour of my life to be new, though connected to the ones that have passed. No day of celebration with its mandatory collective rhythms, to share with all the strangers I don’t care about. Because our grandfathers’ grandfathers, and so on, celebrated, we too should feel the urge to celebrate. That is nauseating. I await socialism for this reason too. Because it will hurl into the trash all of these dates which have no resonance in our spirit and, if it creates others, they will at least be our own, and not the ones we have to accept without reservations from our silly ancestors.

Gramsci, 1 January 1916, transl. Alberto Toscano

[gh0stvi0lets]

⋆˚࿔ Glass House

summary. Sam takes care of you during a painful night of withdrawal, refusing to leave your side.

pairing. Sam Winchester x reader

genre. hurt/comfort

warnings. alcohol addiction, withdrawal symptoms, vomiting, emotional vulnerability, swearing

wordcount. 933

notes. I haven’t write about Sam in so long, I missed my man so much (promise some more happy and cute fic will come 🙏🏻)

The motel room stank of cheap vodka and sweat. Stale air pressed heavy against the drawn blinds, turning the space into a humid prison. Somewhere in the corner, the clock blinked 3:14 AM in relentless red.

Sam had been sitting in the creaky chair for hours, legs stretched out, hands nervously wringing the hem of his flannel. The bottle you'd tried to hide under the sink was shattered in the tub, the acrid scent of alcohol still clinging to the air like guilt.

You were sprawled across the bed, eyes half-lidded, barely conscious, sweat beading on your forehead. Your shirt was damp. Your jeans were on the floor. Sam had pulled the comforter halfway up your legs but left your arms free���because every time he tried to tuck you in, you thrashed and cursed and tried to hit him.

“Stop hovering,” you slurred again, voice thick like syrup. “I’m fine, Sammy…”

“You’re not fine,” he said quietly.

“I said I’m fine, goddammit!”

You tried to push yourself up, maybe to prove your point, but gravity betrayed you. You barely made it a few inches before you collapsed against the mattress with a frustrated groan.

Sam was at your side in a second, gently easing you back down. His hand was warm on your clammy skin, and you hated how comforting it felt.

“You’re sweating through the sheets,” he murmured, brushing damp hair from your forehead. “You’re shaking. Your pupils are blown wide. You haven’t eaten in over a day.”

“Shut up, Sam,” you muttered. “Don’t wanna hear your FBI bullshit right now. I just—I just need a drink. Just one.”

“That’s not gonna happen.”

“Fuck you” you hissed, trying to turn away, but your limbs were noodles.

He didn’t flinch. Not anymore. Not after the third relapse. Not after he'd seen you curled up in a pool of your own vomit outside a dive bar in Nebraska.

“I’m staying,” he said gently, resolutely. “You don’t have to like it.”

The withdrawals were the worst part. Your body ached in places you didn’t know could hurt. Your skin crawled like insects had burrowed beneath it. You threw up in the trash can twice, each time dry-heaving after, sobbing weakly between spasms.

“I hate you,” you mumbled into the pillow.

“I know,” Sam replied, holding back your hair. “You can hate me all you want.”

You didn’t mean it. Or maybe you did. It didn’t matter right now. The truth was slippery.

When the tremors got worse, he laid behind you, arms wrapping carefully around your shivering frame. You tried to shove him off at first, weak swipes of your hand against his chest, but he stayed. Unyielding.

You cried. You hated yourself for it, but it wouldn’t stop. Hot, choking sobs that wracked your chest and left you gasping for air. You felt like you were dying. Maybe you were.

“I can’t do this,” you whispered. “I can’t, Sam. It hurts.”

“I know, sweetheart. I know.”

“You should leave.”

“I’m not going anywhere.”

You turned your face toward him, eyes bleary. “Why not? You should. I’m a fucking mess.”

His eyes searched yours—soft, unwavering. “Because I love you.”

You closed your eyes.

You hated him for saying it. Hated how much you needed to hear it.

An hour later, you were still curled against him, your head pressed to his chest. He was reading aloud from some book he found in his duffel—The Great Gatsby, of all things—his voice slow and deep and steady. A tether in the chaos.

You didn’t care about Gatsby. Or Daisy. But Sam’s voice was the only thing holding you together.

When the next wave of nausea hit, he was there with the trash can again. He wiped your mouth with a towel and rubbed your back in slow, soothing circles.

“I’m disgusting,” you muttered.

“You’re human.”

“I’m weak”

“You’re hurting,” he corrected, gently but firmly. “That’s not the same thing.”

You looked at him, eyes glassy. “You think I can really stop?”

Sam leaned forward, his hand finding yours.

“I think you can do anything—if you don’t do it alone.”

When the sun finally rose, bleeding soft pink through the dusty blinds, you were asleep on his chest, breath slow and even for the first time in hours.

He didn’t move. Not even to stretch his legs.

He just held you.

And for once, you didn’t fight him.

©2025 gh0stvi0lets rights.

୨ৎ tags: @bowbowrry @mostlymarvelgirl @littleladydemon

[transmunsons]

Little Eddie Munson whose favorite movie growing up was Sleeping Beauty. Or rather, it was his mother’s favorite. She loved the dragons and fairies and princesses and magic.

Eddie watched her face, open and excited, as it was lit up by the reflected glow of the theater screen. The light washed away the crease line between her eyebrows that always became more prominent after talking to his dad. It was the only wrinkle she had. The only one she’d had time to form.

Eddie remembered the way she had leaned down and laughed quietly after Eddie frantically asked her what would happen to the prince. How she told him to wait and watch. And maybe Eddie was too young to fully grasp the plot, but his mom was patient and explained it to him in the parking lot as they walked back to their car, hand in hand while Eddie stomped on every leaf he saw.

Two years later, Eddie stood next to his dad wearing the frilly dress he’d always hated and stared resolutely at his Mary Janes. He’d kicked and screamed that morning, but his dad eventually convinced him that Mom would want her little girl to look her best today and don’t you want that? So he’d complied. Hours later, the rotund man at the pulpit would not stop talking about how Elizabeth Munson used to light up a room and how we would all miss her so terribly.

Eddie was just tall enough to see into the casket. She looked like she was sleeping. Like she was only a kiss away from coming back. He watched as his dad pressed his lips to her hairline, watched as the lid closed and she was lowered into the earth.

All this flashed before his eyes as he stood alone facing down the hellish swarm of bats. A scream—a roar—ripped itself from his raw throat as he challenged the monsters, goading them into attacking. He wielded his jury-rigged spear and trash can lid as if they were a sword and shield, taking down as many bats as he could.

But Eddie was no prince. He was knocked to the ground and held down, laid out like an underworldly buffet for the vicious bats to sink their teeth into. And they did. It hurt like hell, too. By the time Dustin hobbled over to him, Eddie had stopped screaming. Somewhere in the back of his mind, he registered that the bats weren’t gnawing on him anymore.

It’s not how he thought he would go, bleeding out in the arms of a fifteen-year-old. It’s not fair, but he’s a Munson. They don’t get happy endings.

He heard Dustin calling his name as his eyes slipped away to stare at the inky excuse for a sky, splintered with red. He never knew how much he loved the sun until it was gone.

Big, brown cow eyes framed by blocky eyebrows overwhelmed his field of vision. Steve.

He felt a hand on his cheek and then—oh—Steve was kissing him.

He could vaguely hear Steve shouting instructions at someone, or multiple someone’s, he wasn’t sure. Then his lips were back on Eddie’s, pushing air into his lungs. Ah, so it wasn’t a kiss. Damn shame.

“Steve, he’s mumbling something”

“He’s delirious”

The world was moving. Flashes of light passed by periodically. He was still lying down but not in the dirt anymore. The lights were… street lamps. He was in a car.

Thankfully he couldn’t feel his body. He knew this wasn’t good and probably meant that he was in so much pain that he went into shock. He was trying to ignore that.

Frantic voices surrounded him and he was lifted out of the car. The movement jostled him too much and all the pain came back in a tidal wave of blinding white. He promptly passed out.

Eddie woke up covered in so many bandages he could barely see any skin. He felt gauze on his jaw and neck and tried to touch it, but his hand was yanked to a stop by the wrist. He was handcuffed to the gurney.

“I tried to stop them.”

He was met with the sight of Steve Harrington slouched in a plastic chair wearing a rumpled deep red sweater. Through fallen strands of hair, Eddie could see that the skin under Steve’s eyes was tinged purple.

“They said it was just a precaution, to make sure you wouldn’t run.” Steve looked mad. “Hopper’s out there working on getting you uncuffed.”

Eddie must’ve still been delirious. “Hopper?” He croaked.

“Long story,” Steve twitched his mouth into a smile.

“I always knew that guy was a tank,” Eddie stated.

Steve let out a laugh. It was a glorious noise. Eddie wanted to come up with a million ways to cause it again.

“How are you in here, you know, if I’m so dangerous?” Eddie rattled his cuff.

“I can be quite charming,” Steve leveled him with a grin and a raised eyebrow.

Eddie made a disbelieving hmph.

“You doubt the charm?” Steve looked playfully offended.

“Oh, I doubt.”

Steve scoffed.

“You’re not nearly as cute as you think you are,” Eddie lied. “So how’d you get in?”

Steve stared at him for a second before fishing something out of his back pocket. The ring of keys jangled and flashed in the light where Steve held it. “Lifted it off a nurse.”

In Eddie’s book, that was far more impressive than schmoozing his way in. He told him so.

“Thanks,” Steve looked down. If Eddie didn’t know better, he’d say it was downright bashful.

“They lowered your security to just, uh, that,” Steve gestured to the handcuffs, “after your alibis were confirmed.”

“My alibis?”

“Yeah, you’ll be a free man as soon as you sign some paperwork.”

Of course there was a catch.

Beeping from the machines Eddie was hooked up to filled the room.

“You saved me.” Eddie whispered. He remembered strong arms pulling him off the ground, one under his knees, one cradling his head.

He took a good look at Steve sitting there beside him, with his sweater and his stolen keys. He looked wrecked, like he hadn’t had a good night's rest in days. His honey brown hair shone in the harsh hospital lights. Eddie thought he looked fucking regal.

Eddie realized two things at once. 1: he might be falling in love with Steve Harrington and 2: there was a big, fat, unmistakable “F” on his medical bracelet for all to see.

He heard the beeping of his heart monitor increase.

“Hey, what’s wrong, are you okay?” Steve was suddenly very close. His hand hovered near Eddie’s shoulder.

“Where’s my uncle?” Eddie asked, trying to calm his breathing. He kept staring at it. They’d at least gotten his name correct.

“He left to get some food, he’s been haunting your bedside for the past week.” Steve’s face was right next to his, trying to meet his eyes. Out of the corner of his eye, he watched Steve turn his head to look at Eddie’s wrist. “What are you looki—oh.”

Steve covered the bracelet with his hand; his palm was big and warm. “It’s alright. None of the kids know.”

Eddie felt his stomach drop. “And you?”

“I know,” Steve had the decency to look embarrassed.

“I had to cut your clothes off to bandage your wounds,” he cleared his throat uncomfortably, “I put two and two together when I had to correct how some of the doctors referred to you.”

“And you’re cool?”

“Yeah, man, I’m cool.” Steve smiled. “I swear on Dustin’s mother.”

Eddie chuckled and then immediately cringed when his sides contracted. “Don’t-don’t make me laugh.”

“Sorry.”

Screw falling, Eddie was firmly in it now. Steve was being so casual and normal about what should have been ground-shaking information to him. Grass is green, the sky is blue, Hawkins hosts a hell dimension, and Eddie Munson has tits. Had tits, anyway.

Steve had to sneak back out before he got caught and Wayne eventually came back with some turkey sandwiches. They had a tearful reunion where Eddie explained everything and Wayne told him he believed in him the whole time.

Some men in suits came by and watched as Eddie paged through a Bible’s worth of documents. An undead Hopper stood glowering at them from the corner.

Eventually, Eddie was discharged and immediately tackled by a gaggle of young teenagers. Mike, Dustin, and Lucas apologized for almost readmitting him when he yelped and told them to be careful.

Eddie and Wayne settled into their tiny new two-bedroom near main Hawkins. Wayne grumbled that it was too far from Forest Hills, but Eddie knew he enjoyed having his own room for the first time in years.

The school didn’t let him attend class physically, but they sent him work to complete so he could finish the year. He was determined to walk.

Steve and Robin would drop by to hang out. Robin said it was enrichment for Steve since he didn’t have any other friends his age, and Steve gave her a noogie in response. Robin and Eddie bonded over their shared freak status while Steve seemed to be thinking about something very hard.

During one of these visits, Eddie found himself alone with Steve on the roof of his van. Robin had some band thing, so they’d driven out to a field armed with a six-pack or two and a small mountain of junk food.

The sun hung low in the sky, casting a warm glow across the field and turning the grass to gold. The plaid blanket they’d spread on the roof was covered in crumbs and empty wrappers. Eddie watched Steve’s profile as he brought the beer bottle to his lips, as the liquid traveled down his throat. He stared at the slope of his nose, how his eyelashes brushed against his cheeks.

“Alright, it’s your turn, hit me,” Eddie said.

Steve looked out at the treeline thoughtfully. “Okay, who was your first crush?”

Eddie groaned. “I’ll tell you but don’t laugh.”

“I won’t!” Steve was already smiling.

“Promise?”

“No, I’m not gonna promise, what if it’s really funny?”

Eddie pulled up his legs and buried his head between his knees. He mumbled the answer.

“What was that?” Steve teased.

“I said it was Prince Philip!” Eddie admitted.

“From the cartoon?”

“Don’t laugh!”

“I’m not,” Steve laughed.

“It was my moms favorite movie as a kid and she took me to go see one of the re-releases. I was four and I was obsessed with him. My mom thought it was adorable.”

“It is adorable,” Steve leaned back to rest on his elbow.

“What about you?” Eddie leaned down to join him, “Who was your first crush?”

“It was, uh, Laura Jackson in fourth grade.” Steve picked at the label on his bottle. “She let me bum fries off her lunch when my mom forgot to give me money, which was all the time.”

“Did you ever tell her?”

“Yeah,” Steve huffed a laugh, “about every month. Shot me down each time.” He mimed shooting a gun into his own heart and flopped down with his tongue hanging out. Eddie chuckled and Steve resurrected with a self-satisfied grin.

“And you kept trying?” Eddie asked.

“I guess that when I know what I want, I kind of just go after it.” Steve looked over at Eddie. His eyes weren’t actually a true brown, they were hazel like the forest floor. He was looking at him with an indescribable expression. “All I have to do is figure out what it is that I want.”

Eddie looked away, heat crawling up the back of his neck, and lit a cigarette. He took a drag and let it sit in his lungs before blowing it out again.

“I think it’s my turn again,” Steve said. “Let me know if it’s too far.”

“Well now I’m getting worried.”

“Just—you don’t have to answer, but,” Steve picked a crumb off the blanket, “I noticed you don’t go on any dates.”

“That’s not a question, Steve, and not a lot of guys are lining up to gain the affection of Hawkins’ most notorious accused serial killer. Being gay isn’t a walk in the park even without the social stigma of acquitted murder. Let alone the fact that once my pants came off they’d run for the hills.”

“So you’ve never…?”

“Well,” Eddie flushed, “Let’s say I give better than I get.”

Steve seemed unfazed. “What kind of guy would you go for, if you could?”

You, Eddie doesn’t say. Instead,

“He’d have to be kind,”

“Of course.”

“And caring,”

“Naturally.”

“And totally reckless, an absolute daredevil. And ideally he would be madly in love with me, and he wouldn’t care how I was born.”

Eddie was describing the Steve who appeared in his fantasies. The one who showed up in shining armor to save the day. The one who slew monsters with his teeth. More importantly, the one who dropped Robin off at school every day, hours before his shift, just because he wanted to. The one who made sure the freshmen were safe. Who delivered fresh groceries at the Mayfield trailer every week since August.

“I need to confess something.” Steve broke off Eddie’s train of thought.

“What?” Eddie started running through a million possibilities in his head but before he could really process them, Steve spoke again.

“Robin didn’t have a band thing.” His face was so close to Eddie’s, he could see dust on his eyelashes. “I asked her not to come.”

“Why? You two are practically attached at the hip.”

Steve’s eyes flickered back and forth between Eddie’s like he was searching for something. “I wanted to do something together, just the two of us.”

The sun was kissing the treetops across the field.

Eddie had the all-too-familiar feeling that he was missing a crucial bit of information, a tickle in the back of his mind that often occurred when he was staring down a blank test or missed a social cue.

Steve plucked the cigarette from Eddie’s slack mouth, took a deep pull, and placed it gently back on Eddie’s lower lip all without breaking eye contact. Eddie let it fall to the blanket, holes be damned.

“What’s going on here?” Eddie demanded, sitting upright. “You know I’m gay, you can’t do shit like that to me.”

Steve copied his position and exhaled the smoke, taking a second to check that the camel was put out. “My god, Eddie, I’ve spent the entire evening hitting on you and you haven’t said a damn thing!”

Eddie closed his mouth with a clack. He blinked to recalibrate his brain. “I thought you were straight?”

“We spent an hour last week ranking the asses of male musicians. I still say Springsteen deserves first.”

Eddie flailed his hands, “I don’t know! I thought that’s what straight dudes did with their friends. Everything you guys do seems incredibly homosexual, how is a poor guy like me supposed to tell the difference?”

“I sang to you on the ride here!” Steve said through an incredulous smile.

Eddie recalled the slightly pitchy but otherwise impressive rendition of “Your Kind of Lover”. Thinking back, he should’ve noticed the emphasis Steve had put on the chorus, but he was a little distracted by the way Steve’s hair had bobbed as he nodded his head to the beat, fingers tapping on the wheel.

Now, under the weight of Steve’s gaze, the attention felt like too much. It wasn’t fair how the setting sun illuminated Steve’s tan skin. The man was fucking glowing like Helios himself. A drop of sunlight pooled in the hollow of his collarbone just above where a thatch of hair peeked out of Steve’s white undershirt. Eddie nervously licked his lips.

He let a smile tug at the corners of his mouth. "You like me," Eddie poked his finger into Steve's shoulder.

"Nice of you to finally catch on," Steve poked him back. "I was starting to think I misinterpreted all your ogling."

"I do not ogle," Eddie sniffed, "I admire. You haven't seen yourself from behind; if you had a music career, I'd rank you above Springsteen."

"You sure know your way to a man's heart." Steve said flatly.

"Ya know, when you gave me CPR in the Upside Down, I thought you were giving me true love's kiss." Eddie confessed.

"That's adorable."

A siren whooped in the distance. Instinct took over Eddie's body as he scooped bottles and wrappers into his arms and tried to scramble off the roof. He registered Steve doing the same next to him, and in their haste they knocked into each other, slipped off the van, and tumbled into the grass.

Eddie ended up laying on top of Steve, holding one of the beer bottles at the base of his throat.

"Hi," Steve said breathlessly.

"Hey," Eddie let the bottle roll to the ground. They'd landed on the side away from the road. He watched through his van's tires as the police car sped past their location without a second glance.

"Are you okay?" Steve asked.

"I'm fine."

Crickets started chirping in far-off woods and Eddie thought he might've heard a bullfrog croak.

Steve tucked a piece of Eddie's unruly hair back in place and settled his hand against Eddie's cheek. The sun had just set and Steve's eyes were huge in the low light. Warmth bled through his shirt where it pressed against Eddie's bare forearms.

"D'you know how long I've liked you?" Steve whispered. His breath ghosted over Eddie's lips.

"Tell me," Eddie whispered back with a smile.

"Back in school, I thought you were kind of an ass-"

"I thought this was about how you like me."

"I'm getting to it. I thought you were a jerk, but after I became friends with Dustin, I noticed how much more comfortable he seemed. You made him a space where he could be himself. That's what you do. You make everyone around you more comfortable in who they are because they watch you be proudly yourself.

"You're the bravest, smartest, kindest man I know. I think I started falling for you when you told me you were wrong about me, you know, being an asshole. No one I've dated has ever recognized how much I've changed. You saw me, the real me."

Steve looked so sincere, eyes wide as he held Eddie's face. Eddie wanted to hide in his hair.

"You're gonna make me fall in love with you, Harrington." Eddie warned.

Steve grinned, "You promise?"

"Steve?"

"Yeah?"

"I'm gonna kiss you now."

"Okay."

Eddie didn't have nearly as much experience as Steve, but he held his own. His hands raked through Steve's hair, felt him do a full body shiver when he tugged.

Eddie smiled against his lips.

“Shut up,” Steve murmured.

“I didn’t say anything.”

Eddie was pulled back into the kiss by the back of his neck. He tilted his head, coaxed Steve into opening his mouth. Steve did something with his tongue that would’ve made Eddie go cross-eyed if his eyes were open. One of Steve’s hands crept up Eddie’s thigh until it rested on his hip, a thumb touching Eddie’s side where his t-shirt had ridden up.

Eddie moved to properly straddle Steve as he switched to latch onto the side of Steve’s neck. The hand on his hip gripped him tight as Eddie settled. Steve made a desperate noise and arched his back, grinding up to meet him.

“Eddie,” Steve said hoarsely. Eddie hummed in acknowledgment as he laid open mouthed kisses on Steve’s pulse point, skating his hands up Steve’s arms to squeeze his biceps.

“Eddie, we gotta slow down,” Steve pulled a reluctant Eddie off his neck and stroked his cheek with a thumb.

Steve gave him a sweet, lingering kiss and Eddie nipped at his lower lip as he pulled away.

“If my giving you CPR was true love’s kiss, does that make me your Prince Charming?”

“I should never have told you that,” Eddie groaned against Steve's collar.

-

cross-posted on ao3

[maxdibert]

Is it said that Rowling wrote Ginny and Ron so badly that Harry and Hermione are more commonly shipped with Draco? Since Draco actually has moments with Harry that if you ignore that they don’t like each other, can look like ship teases.

Harry instinctively rescuing Draco and describing Draco’s wand as friendly, Draco canonically often talks about Harry + tries approaching him even when he didn’t know who Harry was. (Whereas Ginny had to be told who Harry was for her to be interested and she + Harry often ignored each other until Order of the Phoenix.)

Harry and Draco know each other very well to the point where they can almost always know what’s on the other’s mind and Harry quickly suspecting that Pansy + Draco became closer by just looking at them.

But Harry and Ginny don’t know much about each other, even after they started dating. The very fact that Ginny doesn’t understand why Harry is interested in Draco during Half Blood Prince implies that he didn’t tell his suspicions.

Okay, let’s break this down properly.

Regardless of whether the canon couples are well written or not, enemies to lovers is probably the most popular trope in the world. Everyone loves it. It’s been a thing since Romeo and Juliet, where two people fall in love while their families hate each other. Stories, in general, exist because of conflict. A plot is essentially a narration of a conflict and its resolution. And when we talk about romance, our idea of what’s “romantic” is hugely shaped by courtly and Byzantine novels. In courtly romance, young men fall in love with women from other social classes knowing their love can never be fulfilled due to those differences. In Byzantine romance, it’s about lovers separated by fate who have to overcome countless obstacles to reunite. These are the foundations of basically every romance story ever, and this cultural legacy has shaped how we perceive love stories since the Middle Ages.

And not to mention, on a purely biological and psychosomatic level, the more drama, the more emotional highs and lows, the more dopamine. That’s literally why people get addicted to toxic relationships: the brain loves those reward spikes.

With all that said let’s get to the real issue, which is that shipping Harry or Hermione with Draco isn’t just about “chemistry” or their canon partners being badly written. It’s because Draco as a character provides a chance to explore tropes that are deeply embedded in our culture and associated with epic romances and romantic tragedies. Shipping them with Draco means drama, obstacles, suffering, misunderstandings, fights, war… everything that makes a romantic story juicy. That’s what people love. It’s literally the plot of every telenovela. Enemies to lovers will always hit harder than friends to lovers or fangirl-turned-lover because it has more bite.

Now, do I think it’s because the canon couples are poorly written? Honestly, yes and no, for example I think Hinny is trash. Harry and Ginny’s relationship is so boring. And within the saga it doesn’t really matter because romance was never Rowling’s priority. The romantic relationships in Harry Potter are so poorly handled it’s almost embarrassing. But if I had to actually read a proper love story between Harry and Ginny, I’d be bored to death. Plus, let’s be real, Ginny is a total Mary Sue. She doesn’t matter for five books and then suddenly she’s the girl-bro that every guy wants to bang, for some reason. There’s no charm in that relationship. It’s so forced it hurts. So it makes total sense that people would rather ship Harry with anyone he has actual tension or chemistry with.

With Ron and Hermione, it’s not that the couple isn’t well developed, because honestly, within the absolute disaster that is romance writing in this saga, Romione is probably the one couple that halfway works. We’ve known them since the start, and Rowling actually develops their relationship. The thing is, most people get bored with friends to lovers. They crave more drama. It’s just more fun to end up with the person you used to hate than with your lifelong best friend.

And especially in Spanish-speaking fandom, Dramione absolutely blows up way more than Drarry. And it has a very simple explanation: most of us grew up watching teen telenovelas where the main couple was basically a Dramione clone with blonde, rich, kinda asshole guy with daddy issues inclued (did you ever seen Rebelde or Rebelde way guys? Because WELL) It’s basically a cultural premise at this point, lmao.

But I do think the Dramione vs. Romione thing is very different from the Drarry vs. Hinny debate, honestly.

[just-b-wilde]

When a Story Tries to Please Everyone, It Ends Up Saying Nothing

This is probably going to be another controversial take that’ll get me judged by some people, but I’ll say it anyway: I don’t think The Handmaid’s Tale was ever meant to be made for a mainstream audience, or to try to “please everyone”—because in the end, I feel like it ended up pleasing no one at all.

Honestly, I believe there are stories that should be hard. Complex. Exhausting. Stories that make the viewer think long and hard, read between the lines, struggle with the meaning and the interpretation—and most importantly, be allowed to form their own understanding without having a specific (and often biased) message shoved in their face by the creators.

The Handmaid’s Tale was never supposed to be a story that relies on cheap drama, epic explosions, and characters running around like it’s some Hollywood action flick where you sit back with popcorn and a Coke and turn your brain off.

And that’s how the story used to be—at the very beginning! It really wasn’t the kind of show you’d put on in the background while folding laundry.

But as the seasons went on, the show started trying harder and harder to draw in more viewers, to expand its audience—and alongside those lingering, thought-provoking moments, they started adding in hollow crutches that just don’t work when mixed together.

And that’s honestly one of the reasons why I suffered through this latest season. Because underneath it all, there’s still so much depth, but on the surface, it’s buried beneath cheap, overly literal lines that are just enough for the average viewer. And my brain couldn’t take it.

No, I seriously don’t want to watch a story where I spend most of the time noticing clever narrative choices and subtle moral dilemmas—only to have someone suddenly throw it all away and say, “Hey, this character’s bad now and this one’s good,” and then expect me to just nod, accept it, and move on. Like, really?

And you know what frustrates me the most? I fell for it too. I let myself get dragged into that silly game. Not like most people, who started trashing Nick right along with the writers… but I started to hate June without even trying to understand her perspective. My first reaction was shock, anger, and disgust. But with time, I see more now… and still, I can’t defend her. Because I don’t understand her reasoning, and I honestly can’t come up with any truly logical resolution for what she chose to do.

All that said, I truly think The Handmaid’s Tale aimed for the wrong audience. Because the people who are cheering for Nick’s death, who laugh at us, the ones who sigh blissfully over June and Serena’s scenes—this story was never really meant for them. And I’d almost bet that most of those people would say: “Wait, it’s based on a book? Whatever, I don’t care about the book…”

Like I said—this story was never meant to be for viewers who blindly accept the creators’ game: “What I tell you literally is canon, even if it contradicts 98% of the original story.”

It was never built up on screen — it just happened off-screen, thrown at you for the sake of surprise. This story was never meant to be (with apologies) for the simpler viewers who are content with that.

[gamorahww]

hi! i was wondering if you have any advice/certain programs or anything you use for making gifs, because there’s something i really want to make but i have zero experience 💔💔

hello hello!

ah, yes, I have a TON, let's hope this ADHD girlie can give a somewhat concise description lmao. I will answer this publicly, in case it's useful for anyone else.

Software I use:

To make the screenshots: - for single scenes: KMPlayer 12.22.30 (the newer versions are trash) - for shorter videos, or something you want to get all the screenshots out of Free Video to JPG converter is awesome.

To make the gifs: - Adobe Photoshop 2021 (I don't recommend much later versions, because of the Cloud connection they have)

General gif-maker wisdom: "we spend more time on making sure that something looks serviceable, not pixelated, and good quality, than to get it moving and shit" - Confucius, probably

Useful stuff to make your life easy:

- Squishmoon's action pack for sharpening your screenshots. You can also find their detailed use explained here. - If you are planning to gif Wicked, some scenes are a bit tricky, ngl. But I have two PSDs that you can use, while you're perecting your own craft, and you can edit and update them to make them more "you".

A neutral PSD for mostly indoors and lighter scenes | download

A blue-enhancing PSD for darker scenes | download

Some info on videos to use: - always, always (ALWAYS) use at least HD videos. Otherwise your gif will look like shit. This should be ideally at least 720p in resolution, but go with 1080p for the best results. Coloring gifs in 1080p is easy, but... - if you want to go pro *rolls eyes*, you could go for HDR (2160p) quality. However HDR is a mf to color properly and I would not recommend it for a beginner. When you extract frames from an HDR video, the image colors will end up being washed out and muddy so you will always have to balance those colors out for it to look decent, however, the quality and number of pixels will be larger. If you ar okay with making small/medium sized images, then stick with 1080p. (Storytime, I spent a lot of time making HDR screenshots, only for me to realize that I really hate working with them, so I'm actually considering going back to 1080p, despite that not being "industry standard" on Tumblr lmao. I'm not sure yet But they take up so much space, and if you have a laptop that is on the slower side, you will suffer.)

See the below example of the image differences, without any effects. You will probably notice, that HDR has some more juicy detail and is a LOT sharper, but well... the color is just a lot different and that's something you will have to calculate in and correct for.

The ✨Process✨

Screencaptures

I like to have all screenshots/frames ready for use. So as step one, you need to get the movie file from somewhere. This should definitely be a legal source, and nothing else (jk).

Once I have the movie. I spend a lot of time making and sorting screencaps. Since I mostly work in the Wicked fandom only atm, that means I will only need to make the frames once, and thats awesome, cause this is the most boring part.

For this, I let the Video to JPG Converter run the whole movie while I was aleep, and by morning, it created gorgeous screenshots for me and my laptop almost went up in flames.

You need to make sure you capture every single frame, so my settings looked like this:

Screenshots do take up a lot of space, so unless your computer has a huge brain, I suggest storing the images in an external drive. For Wicked, the entire movie was I think around 200k frames total. I reduced that to about 120k that I will actually use.

And then I spend some time looking through them, deleting the scenes I know I won't do ever (goodbye Boq, I will never gif you, I'm so sorry :((( ) and also, I like to put them into folders by scene. My Wicked folder looks like this:

If you don't want this struggle and you only need a few specific scenes, there is this great tutorial on how to make frames from KMPlayer. Note that some of the info in this tutorial on gif quality requirements and Tumblr's max allowance of size and # of frames are outdated. You are allowed to post a gif that is a maximum of 10 Mb and 120 frames (maybe it can be even more, idk, said the expert) on Tumblr. But the process of screencapturing is accurate. Also ignore the gifmaking process in this tutorial, we have a lot easier process now as well!

Prepping the images

I have a folder called "captures", where I put all of the specific screenshots for a set I want to use. Inside this folder I paste all the shots/scenes I want to work on for my current gifset, and then I create subfolders. I name them 1, 2, 3, etc, I make one folder for each gif file I want to make. Its important that only the frames you want to be in the gif are in the folder. I usually limit the number of images to 100, I don't really like to go above it, and usually aim to go lower, 50-70 frames, but sometimes you just need the 100.

Sidetrack, but: Keep in mind that Tumblr gifs also need to be a specific width, so that they don't get resized, and blurry. (Source) Height is not that important, but witdth is VERY. But since there is a limit on Mb as well, for full width (540px) gifs you will want to go with less frames, than for smaller ones.

Once you have the frames in folders, you will open Photoshop, and go to: File > Scripts > Load files into stack.

Here you select Folder from the dropdown menu, and then navigate to the folder where you put the frames for your first gif. It will take a moment to load the frames into the window you have open, but it will look like this:

You click "OK" and then it will take anther few moments for Photoshop to load all the frames into a file.

But once that's done, and you have the frames, you next have to resize the image. Go to Image > Image size... When you resize in Photoshop, and save as gif, sometimes you do end up with a light transparent border on the edge that looks bad, so, when you resize, you have to calculate in that you will be cutting off a few pixels at the end. In this example, I want to make a 268px width gif. I usually look at heights first, so lets say I want it to be a close-up, and I will cut off the sides, and it will be more square-ish. So I set height to 240px. Always double check that your width doesn1t run over your desired px numbers, but since 575 is larger than 268 (can you tell I'm awesome at math?), I should be good. I click OK.

Next, you have to crop the image. Go to Image > Canvas size... At this point we can get rid of those extra pixels we wanted to drop from the bottom as well, so we will make it drop from the height and the width as well. I set the width to 268px, and the height to 235px, because I have OCD, and numbers need to end with 0 or 5, okay?

And now, the magic happens! First, go to Window > Actions to have the actions window show up. While you're at it, in the Window menu also select Timeline (this will be your animation timeline at the button) and also Layers. Once you have the Actions window showing up, on the menu in the upper right corner click the three lines menu button, and from the list select "Load Actions". I hope you downloaded the Squishmoon action pack from the start of this post, if not, do it now! So you save that file, and then after you clicked Load, you... well, load it. It will show up in your list like so:

You will want to use the sharpening - HD one, BUT I personally like to go, and remove the tick from the spot I circled above, so leave that empty. This will result in the image having more contrast, which is very much needed for these darker scenes.

When you have that, you select the action itself like so, and click the play button at the bottom. The action will do everything for you, sharpen, increase contrast and also, create the gif and set the frame speed. You won't need to edit anything, just whatever window pops up, click "OK"

Now it should all look like something like this:

In the Layers window on the side, scroll all the way up to the top. The frame on the top is your last frame. Every effect you want to add to the gif should go to here, otherwise it won't apply to all frames. So at this point I open my PSD for darker scenes, and pull the window of it down, above the gif I'm working on like so:

And then I grab the folder I marked with yellow, left click, hold the click down, and drag that folder over to my current gif. And bamm, it will have the nice effect I wanted! You can click the little play button at the button to see a preview.

Once you have it sorted, now its time to extract it, but first, here's our before and after view:

Now, if you are happy with this, you can just save and close.

If you want to add subtitles, you can do that as well either manually with the text tool (remember, to add as the TOP layer as we did with the coloring) or you can use a pre-set PSD for that as well, here's mine.

Now, we just need to export it. Go to File > Export > Save for Web (Legacy) and copy my settings here. Others may use other settings, but these are mine, so! I hope you are happy with them :3

In this case, for colors, I picked 128 colors, because on dark sscenes you can get away with using less colors, and the larger that number is, the bigger the filesize. If you use lighter images, you will need to bump that shit up to 256, but that will make your file larger. You can see at the bottom of the screen, how large your file will end up being. So long as you are under 9 Mb, you should be good :3

Conclusion

Look, Gif making and Photoshop in general is a bit scary at first. There are a lot of settings you can mess around on your own, a lot to play with, and also a lot can go wrong. This is a very basic tutorial, and also my current process and preferred coloring. However if you look at "gif psd" or "gif tutorial" or similar tags on Tumblr, you can find a LOT of great resources and steps, for many-many things. Usually people are not too antsy about sharing their methods either. You make 4-5 gifs, and you will have the steps locked down, and then it's all about experimenting.

After you have some muscle memory, your next step should be to explore what is inside a PSD coloring folder that you use. Open them up, try clicking around, click the little eye, to see what happens if they are turned off, and double click them, and play around with the sliders, to see what each does. Most people on Tumblr don't really know what each one does, we all just pressed a few buttons and got really lucky with the results, lol.

If anything is unclear, don't hesitate to ask, I'll gladly help!

Good luck <3

[carovoraree]

sorry i left for a month but i drew something!!! do we fw this yay or nay!! uuhh with how much i draw grian i should know how to draw wings but. whoops!

click. better resolution. please .tumblr hates me so so so much and trashes the res

[captonite]

Don’t You Dare Leave Me Genre: Angst / Hurt / Comfort / Found Family CW: Intense emotional conflict, shouting, past trauma referenced, fear of abandonment, guilt, self-worth issues, soft!Sammy, big brother Dean being a protective golden retriever. Resolution includes full-blown sobbing and lots of “baby” and “Chubs.”

The Hunt Was a Blur

Vampire nest. Too many of them. Chaos.

Sam had gone down hard — outnumbered, cornered.

And Sachi?

She’d run in without thinking. Threw herself into the fight with only a machete and a scream.

Dean hadn’t even seen what happened.

All he knew was that Sam had blood in his mouth, Sachi had blood on her hands, and there was one less vampire in the world by the time it was over.

And then—

Sam screamed.

“What the Hell Is Wrong With You?!”

Sachi flinched.

Sam’s face was pale with fury, blood dripping down his neck.

“You could’ve died!” he shouted, voice ragged. “Do you ever think before you act?!”

She stepped back, shocked. “I—I was saving you—”

“I don’t need saving!” he snapped. “Not like that! You’re not invincible, Sachi! You’re not some damn hero! You’re my baby sister, and I just—”

His voice cracked. “I can’t watch you die.”

But she wasn’t hearing that part.

All she heard was You messed up. You’re reckless. You’re not enough.

And it broke her open.

“I’m sorry,” she whispered.

Sam was already pacing. “You don’t get it—”

“No. I get it,” she said, quieter. “I get it loud and clear.”

She turned and walked away, her boots crunching through gravel, fast and sure.

Dean tried to follow, but Sam stopped him. “She’ll cool off.”

Dean stared at him like he’d grown two heads.

“You need to cool off,” he said. “She looked like you hit her.”

---

She Didn’t Come Back

Not after an hour.

Not after a day.

Not even after three.

Sam tore the place apart. Her duffel was gone. Her phone left behind. No text, no call, no note.

Dean found a receipt in the trash — gas station, twenty miles out. It was the only lead they had.

Sam hadn’t slept in two days.

By the fourth, he was a wreck.

“I shouldn’t have yelled at her,” he mumbled, forehead in his hands. “I didn’t mean it like that. I was scared.”

“I know,” Dean said. “But she doesn’t.”

---

They Found Her in a Park

Somewhere off the highway.

Sitting on a bench in the dark, hoodie pulled over her face, arms wrapped around her knees.

Sam spotted her first. He got out of the car so fast he almost tripped.

“Sachi!”

She looked up.

And the second she saw him, she stood. Eyes wet. Chest shaking.

He didn’t stop running until he reached her.

“I’m sorry,” she said instantly, voice hoarse. “I shouldn’t have gone. I just—”

But Sam didn’t let her finish.

He grabbed her. Pulled her against his chest like she might disappear again if he loosened his grip.

And then he said it.

He yelled.

---

“You don’t just leave,” Sam choked out. “You don’t walk away and vanish and make me think you’re dead!”

Her voice cracked. “You yelled at me.”

“Because I was terrified! Not of you. Of losing you.”

Sachi’s knees buckled. Dean caught her, sliding in beside them, arms tight around her waist.

“I thought I messed everything up again,” she whispered. “I thought I made you hate me.”

Sam dropped to his knees. “Baby, no. I was angry because I love you. Because you matter more than anything.”

She looked between them, lip trembling.

“You guys get to be mad. But when I mess up, it’s like… I’m the problem.”

“You’re not the problem,” Dean said, fierce. “You’re the reason we’re still fighting. You’re our reason.”

“But I don’t know how to not screw up,” she whispered. “I keep breaking everything.”

“You didn’t break anything,” Sam said. “You saved me. And I punished you for it because I couldn’t handle the idea of you getting hurt.”

Dean kissed her forehead. “You’re allowed to be reckless sometimes. We’ll catch you.”

Tears streamed down her face.

“I’m so tired of running.”

“Then stop,” Sam whispered. “Let us hold you.”

---

That night they didn’t go back to the motel.

Dean parked the car in a field. Laid out blankets in the back of the Impala. Let her curl up between them like it was a damn nest.

Sam held her hand the whole time.

Dean kept an arm around her middle.

And somewhere around 3 a.m., when she jolted awake from a nightmare, both brothers murmured in unison:

“You’re safe, baby.”

“We’ve got you, Chubs.”

And for the first time in days —

She believed them.

[pompillar]

Okay sooooo! I have my own weird head canon about why Romeo is so... like that about Kaito. Bc what is so special about that pendant or one dude's debt that requires fico himself to do this? He's got so many more important things to do like making sure Taiga isn't eating roadkill somewhere or smooze over Hyde for some reason

So my absolute bat shit theory that spawned in my brain today is as follows under the cut

Prefacing this with transman!Kaito and EFU!Romeo (emotionally fucked up get with the program BBs /jk) and the head canon that darkwick is a college and not a highschool level education system.

So starting at the top bc my brain did this backwards and I had to go back in time to tie up loose ends.

We start back before Romeo even hit double digits, well off prestigious families love the whole arranged marriage for political or business reasons so they start setting him up early. One girl stands out to him, Hitomi (陽斗実) Slightly younger, dark hair, freckles and big green eyes. What he gets intrigued by is how she doesn't seem to fawn over him, she likes the pretty things he likes, she makes cool things out of nothing (he thought all things had to be made in factories what do you mean you can make something cool out of trash???) and she really just seems to want a friend. So despite his parents annoyance he seems dead set on her.

Fast forward years into the future Romeo has straight up told his family he wants her to be his bride. They hate this even more bc now she's not even dressing up and she won't keep her hair nice and long. Why does their son think she's pretty???

They've stayed in touch as friends up until nearing the end of high school. Hitomi goes missing after a fight with her parents and Romeo is beside himself desperate to find the girl he loves. But despite his network of people he can't find her anywhere. (Little does he know she ran off to live with her dear grandmother bc her parents are assholes)

Now a couple years later Romeo is at darkwick and spies a very familiar one of a kind family heirloom that was shown to him only once when he was younger. A silver pendant belonging to the grandmother of his first love who is still MIA. He will stop at nothing to get it back but he can't just steal this thing bc his reputation is already a little shody rn and the guy seems like a snitch. So he draws the possible thief into the casino and starts to (pretty easily) saddle them with debt to make them use the pendant as collateral only to find they won't give it up.

Meet Kaito (魁斗) a short blond guy with a long list of problems and a very special necklace from his dearly departed grandmother who took him in after his parents pretty much disowned him.

First time he sees Romeo he doesn't leave his dorm for a week. Bc why is he here of all people??? And so the dance begins of running away from Romeo and avoiding him at all costs. Except for gambling of course bc money. You do need money. And of course the overly familiar annoyed way he speaks to Romeo is only second nature now. Does Romeo understand why he feels like talking to him is so natural on the mission? Nope. But boy does the absolute spastic energy and random screaming remind him of someone. Also is this mother fucker afraid of bugs c'mon you're grown, handle your own spider webs. Huh...that's also familiar...

So the details that were left to the imagination are as follows:

Kaito came out to his parents and was disowned, his granny took him in bc she knew deep down that her grandkid was meant to be a boy. He wasn't able to medically transition so much as... demonically? Yeah I'm sticking to his pact being for transitioning, shits expensive.

Romeo still loves that girl deep down. And wants to find her bc gdi that's his future wife. Is he straight? Hell no, but he does love this one woman. His pact was literally made with the intent to find her.

As for a resolution to this if one happened, I think Romeo would still love Kaito bc that's still his future wifey??? he'll figure out what to call him. Romeo has no problem with trans people but by god he is not giving up what he thinks is his. Idk about Kaito tho bc honestly Kaito seems pretty straight... this could end in a messy angsty story. (Or way more fucked than I would prefer to end it bc my brain is dramatic and lives for ruining good things)

Aaaaand thanks for hoping on the apple bus, hope you enjoyed the mind theatre, tip your driver and safe scrolling!

[chevelleneech]

There must be someway people can meet in the middle on the topic of Eddie Diaz. He is neither a villain (I truly don’t know why people hate him) nor is he a helpless man in need.

Do I think saying he needs to grow a spine is fair? No, because he grew up in an emotionally manipulative and strictly religious home, was forced to marry as a teenager, and became a teen father.

However, Eddie is also a 30+ year old man who, like it or not, has to make decision for both himself and his child. Chris isn’t a kid anymore, which is how he ended up in El Paso to begin with. He has always been a capable person with resources to get what he wants or needs, so it’s not surprising that he’d run as far away from Eddie as he could the second something so drastic happened.

They said, there does need to come a point when Eddie tells his parents to sit down and be quiet. I’m hoping the show gets us to that point, as it seems like it could be getting set up in 8x13, so fingers crossed.

I also want to say, I think the issue revolving around the Díaz parents, is likely to be that Tim and the writers of today and previous seasons do not know how to make bad parents stay unforgiven.

The Buckleys, The elder Nashes, senior Mr. Han, and the Diazes all fucking suck! All of them, and while I do understand that for television some of them needed to be redeemed, we got literally ALL OF THEM. Time will tell if Helena and Ramon get fully redeemed, but Ramon is already being written in a way that gives him a littler more grace, even though him leaving the family and telling Eddie to man up and take care of everything was shitty thing to do. Made worse by him adding on the pressure to enlist and hand over custody of his kid.

So again, trash, but at least we’re finally seemingly about to dive in and get a resolution. That said… this is a storyline that has not wrapped up in SEVEN SEASONS. Eddie has been the single vet struggling to give his son a normal life, since season two. He’s been haunted by Shannon’s death, since season two. People are tired.

It would be one thing if they gave him more juicy storylines to sink his teeth into, like friends from the military. We had a whole ptsd shutdown some seasons ago, that amounted to nothing. Why could he have friends who actually lived? Why couldn’t he have made more vet friends who also dealt with being the sole survivor of their units? (Side note: This did actually happen, right? I’m not making this really good tidbit of canon up or pulling it from a fic, because it’s what Eddie actually deserved yet didn’t get?)

Anyway, my point is, Eddie has so many tiny bits of info floating in the background of his character, yet the writers have yet to do anything with them. They also have the chance to not make him “grow a spine”, but perhaps that can be something said to him in canon by someone who doesn’t know him well. His loved ones would never say it, because they’d take his feelings into it, but sometimes we need to hear our hard truths from strangers. And a hard truth for Eddie, would very much be, “Who gives a fuck what your parents want!” As well as, “Christoper is not an adult. He does not get to tell you how to raise him nor where.”

For the former, Eddie needs to have someone tell him it’s okay to say and feel that, because it is. His parents do not have as much authority as they believe they do, because that’s not how parenting works. You cannot proclaim custody of your child’s child, when your child is a very grown adult, has helped down multiple stable jobs, has provided around the clock care, and kept a roof over your grandchild’s head and food in their stomach.

Chris is extremely far from being abused or neglected, and prior to moving back to Texas, Eddie had no reason to think anyone would be able to legally take his child away. Now, unless he figures his shit out, that’s no longer true. He lives in a dilapidated house and has next to no source of income.

Regarding the latter, as much as I respect Eddie allowing Chris room to breathe and live life away from the city that his mother died in, there’s no need to ruin his own life and livelihood to go back to a place he hated, to his parents who do not respect him. I know they did it for tv, I get it, but as far as speaking l these characters like real people in their universe, I need them to allow Eddie this realization.

Chris is a teenager still learning how to process his emotions, and he was given space to do that. Eddie gave him that time, but now? Now it’s time to come home and talk. Hell, even just going to El Paso to talk is fine, but I need Eddie to realize he’s making a huge mistake. That house is a money pit, and Ubering people around is not going to pay all the bills he needs paid.

I think Chris is also old enough to be told about Eddie’s own childhood. To be told that becoming a parent at a young age was incredibly difficult for him and Shannon, and ultimately was the reason they didn’t work out. I need the writers of the show to stop treating Chris like a baby too, if I’m honest. Let them have more mature conversations. May, Harry, Denny, and even Mara have all gone through some serious shit, yet Chris till just… a cute kid who gets upset sometimes and hugs his dad, basically.

Anyway, this post kind of derailed and likely has a ton of typos, but it’s what I hope the show aims for in some way. It’s what I would like more people to also want out of Eddie. He’s not a bad guy, but wanting him to step up more in terms of sticking up for himself against his parents is fine too. Again, mainly because I am really and truly ready for him to move on from the same storyline he’s been on since he arrived in the series.

[kimmyungcanjunot]

Obviously I could talk for 6 years straight about the main characters of Castaway Diva and how amazing they are both as parts of the story and as rounded individuals in their own rights. How Mokha has wielded her kindness as strength her whole life and how it disarms people who are used to selfishness in this sometimes dark world, how Kiho is unwavering and resolute even when he looks three seconds away from bursting into tears, how Chaeho always claims to be selfish but is someone who works endlessly for others and notices the small things many overlook which makes him both a great journalist and an incredible big brother. We could talk about how just and honourable Lee Uk is even though he is the first to break the law when the law disagrees with what is just and honourable like a real life superhero. How Jaekyung has every reason to give up many times but is fuelled by a need to believe that things are good and can be good so she keeps going even if it means she has to make them good herself. How Ranjoo is beaten pillar to post by an industry that rips people to shreds but still loves it and wants to see it change into something good again even if that means more and more self-sacrifice. All of these go without saying.

But you know a character I loved? Morae. From an Eastern perspective no doubt she is a disrespectful, rude, annoying, selfish little brat and yes… she is all those things. But at the same time the show never moves away from reminding us that Ranjoo treated her like trash. Unlike Mokha and Yonggwan, she wasn’t Ranjoo’s choice, and Ranjoo punished her for that. In any Western media this rebellion would be romanticised, she’d be shown as another person to cheer for, while in traditional Eastern she would be villainised in every way. Many Kdramas have characters like Morae that never get a happy ending and that’s seen as right because she disrespected her seniors which is an offence comparable to murder. But Castaway Diva does not do that and blends both perspectives into a beautifully well-rounded character. This is someone who from day one was told she was second best, had everything she tried to do picked at, and she couldn’t do anything because Ranjoo was her senior. When she became bigger than her senior she got mean, and instead of choosing kindness and forgiveness in the face of hate like Mokha does, she chose pettiness and rudeness, which could have easily made her the token bad guy. Instead the show touches on the loneliness of having someone you admire seem to hate you, how she acts selfish because no one is ever on her side not even Seojun and Yonggwan sometimes, and how hard it is for her to see her selfish actions might be letting down her fans, a group of people she clearly adores. In the end she swallows her pride and asks for help, and never rubs it in Ranjoo’s face when she accepts the offer for royalties, because she knows that while she and her senior can never be friends they can be successful if they work together. And she is - she gets her number one and reconnects with Ranjoo on social media as her way of saying ‘I was ashamed before but now we are in this together, Sunbae.’

I love her, I love how she was written, I love how she was acted out with the varying shades of stink eye and ‘is about to start crying’, I love how she was absolutely a real and loveable pain in the butt and not a caricature like she could so easily have been.

Castaway Diva… you did great. 5 stars.

[earthtodora]

Fanfic Writer Interview

Thankyouuu to @uriekukistan and @rocketkid300 for the tag!!

Tagging: @izabella95 and @sailormew4

wow this one is a bit long oops.

How many works do you have on ao3?

i have 36 works (plus a couple of orphaned fics), 32 fics for jjk and 4 for haikyuu! most of my fics are one-shots, but i have a couple of multichapter fics, and there are 2 currently unfinished.

Your top 5 stories by kudos/likes:

Saving You: my longest ever project and i'm still not over how much attention this one got. it's an itafushi time travel fix it fic, and writing it made me realize how much i like writing angst and hurt comfort!

so much for keeping this just friends: okay so this is a kuroken one-shot, post-time skip, with a smut scene at the end. i'm a bit confused about how it got so popular (my best guess is the timing, as i wrote it after the movie came out) but i'm really grateful.

i'm not too far and you're my favorite place: also a kuroken one-shot, in a 5+1 format. it's also rated explicit. wait, i think i see a pattern here. so maybe it's the porn, huh?

The Truth Is, I Want To Kiss You - itafushi one-shot (and no, this one doesn't have any smut). yuuji is hit by a curse that makes him say every thought that comes into his head, and megumi is forced to deal with the consequences. actually kinda happy with how this one turned out, and i'm glad so many people enjoyed it.

five times megumi's shikigami were affectionate with yuuji, and one time megumi finally was: - another 5+1, a cute, fluffy, megumi pov oneshot. one of the few times when humor was kinda successful, i think.

Do you respond to comments? Why/why not?

i always try to respond to every comment i get. sometimes (like now) i fall behind with comments on my one-shots, but i will eventually catch up! i really appreciate any kind of interaction and feedback from my readers, and it makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside when people leave me a comment.

What’s the fic you’ve written with the angriest ending?

you know, i've been called an angst monster, but one thing about my fics is that they always have a happy ending. i just don't have the heart to write sad endings. that being said, at one point when multiple friends of mine started working on MCD fics, i kinda wanted to try it too. but i just can't bring myself to kill off half of itafushi, so they both had to go. there was resolution, and they were together in death, but they still died. so it was kinda bittersweet.

What’s the fic you’ve written with the happiest ending?

honestly, most of them end quite nicely, and the ones that don't end happily still have a hopeful ending, if that makes sense. but i guess Saving You is the happiest, cause we get a proposal at the end, and a wedding bonus chapter is in the works!

Do you write crossovers?

i don't have any published ones yet, but i fucked around with a naruto/jjk crossover idea and wrote some scenes. i just like the idea of itafushi showing narusasu how to fucking communicate and be honest with each other. and i like the idea of naruto trying to convince yuuji to befriend the murderous monster sealed inside him, cause for him it worked out pretty well, so why can't it work for yuuji? (sukuna is not amused). basically a crackfic, which may or may not see the light of day.

Have you ever received hate on a fic?

yeah, i got some mean comments and some weird asks in my inbox once or twice. i don't understand why people get so angry and aggressive over fics, like, you can just close the tab and move on. especially if it's something that was clearly tagged, and was never intended to appeal to your specific taste. constructive criticism is of course always welcome, and i love interacting with readers, but when someone tells me they don't like a certain part and then follows up by telling me that the whole fic is trash, yeah, not a good vibe. lmao i remember getting a really condescending comment about me getting the timeline wrong and how i didn't even bother to get my facts right. spoiler, i had the manga open while writing and i got the timeline correct, so someone made a fool out of themselves by commenting that. ngl, that was pretty funny.

Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

i like writing smut! but, i find that smut attracts a certain type of audience and i just don't have the patience to deal with the problematic ones. people seem to be very particular about their preferred top/bottom dynamics, and they get real upset when i don't follow their headcanons. so, i'll still keep most of my fics sfw, but if the mood strikes me, i might write a smutty one-shot, or an explicit scene in a multichapter fic. my smut scenes are usually pretty heated, and there's a bit of power play involved. i enjoy writing characters taking charge in a fun, consensual kinda way.

Have you ever had a fic stolen?

actually, i had multiple fics of mine stolen and posted on wattpad under a different account name. i think the thing that pissed me off the most was seeing the author's notes and the "author" replying to some of the comments, like, are you fucking serious, bro. props to the wattpad tho, they took down the account pretty quickly after i reported it.

Have you ever had a fic translated?

nope, but i would probably cry if anyone wanted to do that.

Have you ever co-written a fic before?

also no, but i'd love to!

What’s your all-time favorite ship?

i guess no one is going to get surprised if i say itafushi, right? there's just something about their dynamic that has me in a chokehold and won't let me go. i enjoy reading their characterization in different settings, and there are so many ways you can explore their relationship. i also love satosugu, narusasu, kuroken, bokuaka, kagehina and iwaoi, so there's no shortage of fics for me to read.

What’s a WIP that you want to finish but don’t think you ever will?

i have a half-abandoned fic about post-canon megumi going through several stages of spiraling out of control, hearing voices, seeing visions and generally losing it. he's basically having a psychotic break, and it's really dark. i've never written angst to this extent before, and it's hard. i'd love to finish it, but it's a challenge, because i can't quite grasp the tone i want to set for it. might be worth revisiting some time later.

What are your writing strengths?

i love writing dialogue, and i like using it to convey character's personalities and relationships. my fics usually have a lot of banter between characters, and it's usually a lot of fun. i get told i'm good at writing angst, which makes me proud. also, if someone says i'm funny, then i consider that a personal achievement.

What are your writing weaknesses?

as i said, i love writing dialogue. well, it's not a weakness, per se, but my fics often turn out dialogue-heavy, and sometimes i need to balance that out. it's a learning process. my prose is a little bit flat, i don't usually add much detail to descriptions, so there's a lot of room for improvement in that department. it's mostly due to my impatience and desire to move the plot along, but whenever i read beautiful descriptive prose, it makes me wanna work harder.

What are your thoughts on writing dialogue in other languages in a fic?

if the situation calls for it, and the characters can have a conversation in another language, why not? i watch anime with subs, so honorifics sound natural and don't distract me, but when i use them myself, i like to keep them canon-compliant and not overdo it. some "iconic" japanese phrases do lose their charm when translated (choso hung up on the onii-chan thing is a good example), so in those cases, i'm good with just using the original version. it's a personal preference.

What’s a fandom/ship you haven’t written for yet but want to?

i'm late to the whole anime party, so i'm still catching up with everything. i managed to finish naruto recently, and i read a bunch of sasunaru fics, and honestly, i would love to try and write something for them. they have a rougher, more aggressive dynamic, certainly more toxic than itafushi, and i'd love to play around with that.

i have 4 haikyuu fics published, but i don't have anything written for kagehina yet, so that's next on the list.

What’s your favorite fic you’ve written?

i had to think about this for a while, cause all of my fics are special to me in their own way. i guess i will always lean towards my angsty ones, cause, i love it when a description of pain gets the reader's emotions all stirred up, and i have a knack for making people cry, apparently. so, i'd say the world is cruel but i still love you (along with the farmfic that follows it up called let's take this mess and make a home)

but i'm kinda happy with my latest angsty one-shot, blessed with a curse, too.

[lurkingshan]

The only thing I needed from this show at this point was a halfway decent resolution for Balgeum and In Ho but I guess that was too much to ask. Really can’t overstate how deeply I hate the idea that he needs to obtain more money so he can be “a better person” so he will be worthy of a relationship. Putting that ending straight in the trash where it belongs.

[randomnameless]

I recently saw some nice Cyril discussion/posts on the dash and I remember why, despite liking his Ashe support, it still rubbed me in a wrong way -

Sure it's a nice support where he ultimately finds a friend, but...

Ashe of all people?

Ashe's who's all "I want to be a model knight like Lord Lonato", the very same Lonato who tried to kill the person Cyril loves the most and came to see as a surrogate mother?

In the same vein, Cyril is the ward/son of the woman who gave the order to kill Lonato, and killed Christophe, Lonato's son and Ashe's beloved brother.

Considering Ashe might not be the kind of person who would blame Cyril for what Rhea did (even if CF!Ashe... well), would Cyril accept to be helped and ultimately become friends with him without having to tackle this issue?

Cyril "her enemies are my enemies" would be mature enough to engage in a conversation and friendship with the son of someone who wanted to kill Rhea?

Also, thinking about Ashe... Lonato became chummy with the Western Church after Christophe's death, and we know the Western Church hates the Central Church because they're not xenophobic enough.

So, Ashe's dad joins a xenophobic group, but the guy still strikes conversation with an Almyran (and a Duscurian)? Or he admires Lonato but dismisses his association with the xeno group as, idk, "ramblings" or not being something serious and doesn't follow/listens to him when he goes on Western Church rants about how Almyrans and Duscurians shouldn't be in Fodlan (or at least in Garreg Mach?) but then what is he admiring in the man?

Like, can we imagine Ashe writing a letter to his dad and gushing about Dedue and mentionning how he made an Almyran friend... or Ashe would know better than to write those things to Lonato since Lonato turned xenophobic after associating with the Western Church?

Likewise, if Cyril told Rhea he became friends with Ashe, would she be worried about it, because as Lonato's kid, he might want to target her through Cyril to get revenge for his brother and father?

I don't remember the "nickel meme" that well rn because it's late lol, but it's still weird how 2 of Cyril's support completely elude what I'd call "character essential writing" to give instead a generic support - Hilda learns how to not be racist anymore without adressing her House's issue with "captured Almyran children who are fed once in a blue moon but still have to work themselves to the bone to be able to eat", and Cyril learns what friendship is, without adressing the small issue of "the man you admire tried to kill the person I care about the most and is part of a group who hates people like me because I'm a foreigner".

Masterful character writing everyone.

i swear it's not like I have this scene in some AU plotbunny where cyril and ashe disagree about lonato in the lonato mission, and cyril believes that he has to be "there" for ashe because of this friendship thing and he wants to help/apologise after calling Lonato trash since he's somehow like "Ashe's Lady Rhea" so he joins the group during the Lonato mission

but like, in this AU Rhea herself went to confront Lonato because this nonsense has been going on for too long and it must stop before too many people die, of course Cyril is caught by Lonato's forces who try to pull the "a son for a son" nonsense (+ calling cyril with a racist slur), Rhea having none of his bullshit (tfw people pulled the same shit using Willy back in the days!) and ultimately crushing him to rescue Cyril because you.never.ever.threaten.her.family. (especially not her children! She couldn't save Lycaon so this time she'll protect (lel) everyone). More Rhea BaD shenanigans, Cyril and Ashe's friendship deteriorates (Ashe'd feel xtra guilty since he told Lonato in his latest letter that the CoS doesn't preach the same things as the Western Church does since his Almyran friend is close to the Archbishop herself!) even more, Dimi's ideal that peaceful/bloodless resolution of conflicts is in shambles but maybe a convo with Rhea that this ideal is something that should always be sought, and yet rulers should use force/authority when needed and it's up to him to learn when force is necessary.

[ammoknightsofficial]

Ask game: 9 for both berne and atsuko :3?

[ASK GAME]

9.) What (book) genre is their least favorite?

ATSUKO ASHIKAGA:

"...Especially when written by Inklings, though others are not immune to writing trash. Often, it is about the war, or is not about the war in a way that makes it still about the war. What hits me the wrong way the most, is that the Inkling Military is always made out to be brave heroes, who sacrificed many young lives for the greater good, and speaks of violence as if it's all in the past. It is fictional, yes, and it brands itself as "alternative", but the genre is so full of lies and pretty little half-truths that I cannot help but fucking hate it. Propaganda doesn't become very hard to spot when you're the villain in its story. A lot of it works to absolve the assumed Inkling reader of guilt. To fill them with a sense of pride for being where they are in society - comfortable, housed, with clean hands and mind. Our lifelines need to be sabotaged at every turn to ensure that theirs aren't even gently frayed. We're spoken of as thieves, as invaders. We are sewer rats secretly infesting their beautiful, clean, sun-kissed streets and filling them with our dirt and disease. The electricity they steal from us is a necessity - they need to steal the power we use to fuel our hospitals to keep those flashy LEDs on their pretty little advertisements for carbon copy pop star girls and fashion brands running. No hostility from us is ever prompted by their own behavior. It can't be. Our existence and self defenses threaten their comfort. They need to drown themselves in rivers of horseshit promising them their active, crazed genocide attempts are all justified, and the best way to do that is if it's wrapped up nice and pretty, let them play soldier, and act like there's been a satisfying resolution. All wrongdoing is in the past. They are still the good guys. They need to be. They have to be.

It's funny, though. There's all these novels, and movies, and games that beg the question, "what if the Octarians won?". It's their worst fucking nightmare, what they put us through, and their little fantasies always pales to the reality in which we live. It's the closest their sterile, billion dollar military-funded films ever get to sympathetic towards us, and they don't even realize it."

BERNE HUXLEY:

"With horror, it's like... I'm, uh... I'm already nervous all the time, haha. I don't really need to get made, like... More scared, on purpose. I mean, not all horror stuff is bad, but, like... It's not really my go-to. I've definitely avoided some stuff because it's horror before... It's definitely a thing I've gotta be in a specific mood for. Romcoms, though. That's, like, different, obviously. I don't like romcoms because every single one I've seen just sucks. If I was interested in watching a straight couple with zero chemistry act like it's super funny and cute to hate each other, I'd just go outside or something... Or, like, open, uh... SpaceBook, or something. That stuff's everywhere, right? I've had enough bad relationships as is, I don't need to watch a bunch of models act like that kinda thing is marriage material. Romcoms don't even have wizards in them. Or guys punching each other. Lame..."