#this is...a variation of stuff from my book so

[grimoirguestbook]

I saw this so I'm going to try to answer a question a day to practice keeping a consistent posting schedule :)

1. what medium do you use most (if applicable, what software)?

Digital

Mostly Krita recently with varying brushes depending on my mood, usually textured brushes with weight or opacity variation catch my eye but I've been getting back into traditional little doodles lately

Traditional

I usually go for cheap stuff when doing traditional work, water based markers, highlighters, gel pens, ballpoint pens basically anything you'd buy at a dollar store stationary section lol, I've been using a 6 set of highlighters and a 0.5mm mechanical recently.

I'll try pretty much any medium though, I enjoy sewing, sculpting, painting, drawing, general crafts, cosplay, prop making, paper/book making, makeup, pottery, video editing, the list goes on. I love to create by any means, I want to do it all

I do also really love mixed media, I loved working with tissue paper layers and textures and colors overlapping as a result of that in highschool a lot, Filling certain areas like glass with pouring medium to make them look glossy it's really fun and i want to get into doing stuff like that again, i feel like a really thrived there and was in my best creative state then, just getting back into that carefree art mindset really would be nice, i tend to be more strict about the result i want these days which sucks lolol

Also if you were here for the free art, don't worry I haven't forgotten, I know it's been a while, I apologize for that. I haven't been able to really sit down and practice like I'd like, especially since i was sort of distance from art in general for a few months. Artfight's over though and that was a nice warm up to get back into the swing of creating more so expect those to start up again soon, i apologize again for taking so long, even though they're free and just for practice, you guys have been waiting forever(◞‸ ◟)💧

with how much this site loves its writer ask games, im astounded ive never seen one for artists, soooo

ARTIST ASK GAME!

1. what medium do you use most (if applicable, what software)?

2. most popular piece?

3. your favorite piece(s)?

4. piece you wish got more love?

5. how would you describe your art style?

6. favorite thing to draw?

7. easiest thing for you to draw?

8. thing you struggle to draw?

9. whats something you always come back to when drawing?

10. how do you deal with artblock?

11. do you listen to anything while drawing?

12. describe your process while drawing

13. talk about a wip you like!

14. whats your favorite thing about drawing?

15. least favorite thing about drawing?

16. how do you motivate yourself to draw?

17. what is something youre confident about in your art?

18. something you feel like you need to work on?

19. where do you find inspiration?

20. is your workspace, digital or not, organized (not neat, organized)?

21. what do you think your artstyle would taste like?

22. do you have a favorite color palette to work with?

23. how many artstyles can you work in confidently?

24. whats a compliment about your art that has always stuck with you?

25. what size canvas/paper do you use?

26. what do you physically draw with (pencil and paper, tablet, etc)?

27. do you ever have multiple wips going at once?

28. whats a piece you would like to redraw at some point?

29. do you use a lot of references while drawing?

30. whats something youre proud of about your artstyle?

31. which fandom have you drawn the most for?

32. have you done a lot of collabs?

33. have you taken a lot of classes for art?

34. whats something you still like from your old art?

35. if you had one piece of advice to give your younger artist self, what would it be?

(remember to give the person you reblog from an ask!!)

[thecuratxr]

YOU LIED AND I DIED.

Name: Seven Kahr Nickname: Sev Age: 25 Hair: Brown Eyes: Green Faceclaim(s): Bill Skarsgard Height: 6'4" Pronouns: He/Him Sexuality: Pansexual Species: Human Appearance: Tall, lean, shorter hair that is longer in the front with a part off to the left. Typically well-kept - general casual attire, typically varying of hoodies or layers paired with jeans and combat boots Defining marks: deep scarring down his left arm from what looks like claws: five jagged lines in total, the beginning (starting nearly on the inside of the crook of his elbow) so deep that its clear a chunk of his flesh was at one point missing - because of this, he has severe weakening of his left limb, although it is still functional Career: College student Verses: tba Bio:

He's lived through horrors unimaginable to most, sole survivor of a wretched slaughtering of his closest friends and the love of his life. No one will believe his story - but he knows well enough what he saw; what he experienced.

The image was very much burned into the back of his retinas - crimson staining porceline bone as gore dangled from the maw of a creature that couldn't possibly exist. Screams echoed in his mind, waking him from even the most deep of slumbers. Searing pain as he ripped his arm from its iron grasp, and devastation as he left the woods alone.

All it was meant to be was a simple camping trip, not the end of everything he held near and dear.

Everything would be fine, she had said despite knowing well enough the dangers lurking just out of sight, you'll have the time of your life.

How was he supposed to return to a normal life after that? When everyone who heard his story told him he was better off in a ward?

[artist-ellen]

Katara in the South Pole!

I put off illustrating the ATLA cast for a long time. I tied myself into knots trying to figure out how I was going to pin down "historical" variations for everybody, which eras and weighing different cultural references in all three books and... I got super overwhelmed, shut the idea down for years. Especially with so many way more talented artists like @chiptrillino-art and @ash-and-starlight already knocking ATLA fanart into the stratosphere. (Go check out their stuff it will blow your mind)

What changed? The Netflix adaptation came out, simmered and the bar was lower again lol. Mostly the Water Tribe parkas were so...flat? baggy? They are supposed to be parkas right? Where's the fluff? Where's the puff? So I started sketching, and things snowballed... and here we are! This series will not be going for historical, I'm going to work mostly from the ATLA canon outfits and building out from there with details and a variety of inspirations. Fingers crossed you like what I've come up with for these characters I've loved for so long! (Also on a humorous note of COURSE I miss a big anniversary by a week. I have the best timing XD)

Katara's first design with her parka is of course inspired by Inuit traditional clothing, along with Yakut and Indigenous (North American) references, just like the show.

Edit: Image updated

(Reoccurring disclaimer for this art series: This is for fun, they are inspired by the show's costume designs and then extrapolated out with historical fashion or things I think will be fun to draw. These are not meant to be accurate, only inspired. I hope you like them!)

I am the artist! Do not post without permission & credit! Thank you! Come visit me over on: instagram, tiktok or check out my coloring book available now \ („• ֊ •„) /

https://linktr.ee/ellen.artistic

[vaspider]

In defense of retellings & reimaginings

I'm not going to respond to the post that sparked this, because honestly, I don't really feel like getting in an argument, and because it's only vaguely even about the particular story that the other post discussed. The post in question objected to retellings of the Rape of Persephone which changed important elements of the story -- specifically, Persephone's level of agency, whether she was kidnapped, whether she ate seeds out of hunger, and so on. It is permissible, according to this thesis, to 'fill in empty spaces,' but not to change story elements, because 'those were important to the original tellers.' (These are acknowledged paraphrases, and I will launch you into the sun if you nitpick this paragraph.)

I understand why to the person writing that, that perspective is important, and why they -- especially as a self-described devotee of Persephone -- feel like they should proscribe boundaries around the myth. It's a perfectly valid perspective to use when sorting -- for example -- which things you choose to read. If you choose not to read anything which changes the elements which you feel are important, I applaud you.

However, the idea that one should only 'color in missing pieces,' especially when dealing with stories as old, multi-sourced, and fractional as ancient myths, and doing so with the argument that you shouldn't change things because those base elements were important to the people who originally crafted the stories, misses -- in my opinion -- the fundamental reason we tell stories and create myths in the first place.

Forgive me as I get super fucking nerdy about this. I've spent the last several years of my life wrestling with the concept of myths as storytelling devices, universality of myths, and why myths are even important at all as part of writing on something like a dozen books (a bunch of which aren't out yet) for a game centered around mythology. A lot of the stuff I've written has had to wrestle with exactly this concept -- that there is a Sacred Canon which cannot be disrupted, and that any disregard of [specific story elements] is an inexcusable betrayal.

Myths are stories we tell ourselves to understand who we are and what's important to us as individuals, as social groups, and as a society. The elements we utilize or change, those things we choose to include and exclude when telling and retelling a story, tell us what's important to us.

I could sit down and argue over the specific details which change over the -- at minimum -- 1700 years where Persephone/Kore/Proserpina was actively worshiped in Greek and Roman mystery cults, but I actually don't think those variations in specific are very important. What I think is important, however, is both the duration of her cults -- at minimum from 1500 BCE to 200CE -- and the concept that myths are stories we tell ourselves to understand who we are and what's important to us.

The idea that there was one, or even a small handful, of things that were most important to even a large swath of the people who 'originally' told the store of the Rape of Persephone or any other 'foundational' myth of what is broadly considered 'Western Culture,' when those myths were told and retold in active cultic worship for 1700 years... that seems kind of absurd to me on its face. Do we have the same broad cultural values as the original tellers of Beowulf, which is only (heh) between 1k-1.3k years old? How different are our marital traditions, our family traditions, and even our language? We can, at best, make broad statements, and of inclusive necessity, those statements must be broad enough as to lose incredible amounts of specificity. In order to make definitive, specific statements, we must leave out large swaths of the people to whom this story, or any like it, was important.

To move away from the specific story brought up by the poster whose words spun this off, because it really isn't about that story in particular, let's use The Matter of Britain/Arthuriana as our framing for the rest of this discussion. If you ask a random nerd on Tumblr, they'd probably cite a handful of story elements as essential -- though of course which ones they find most essential undoubtedly vary from nerd to nerd -- from the concept that Camelot Always Falls to Gawain and the Green Knight, Percival and the grail, Lancelot and Guinevere...

... but Lancelot/Guinevere and Percival are from Chrétien de Troyes in the 12th century, some ~500 years after Taliesin's first verses. Lancelot doesn't appear as a main character at all before de Troyes, and we can only potentially link him to characters from an 11th century story (Culhwch and Olwen) for which we don't have any extant manuscripts before the 15th century. Gawain's various roles in his numerous appearances are... conflicting characterizations at best.

The point here is not just that 'the things you think are essential parts of the story are not necessarily original,' or that 'there are a lot of different versions of this story over the centuries,' but also 'what you think of as essential is going to come back to that first thesis statement above.' What you find important about The Matter of Britain, and which story elements you think can be altered, filed off or filled in, will depend on what that story needs to tell you about yourself and what's important to you.

Does creating a new incarnation of Arthur in which she is a diasporic lesbian in outer space ruin a story originally about Welsh national identity and chivalric love? Does that disrespect the original stories? How about if Arthur is a 13th century Italian Jew? Does it disrespect the original stories if the author draws deliberate parallels between the seduction of Igerne and the story of David and Bathsheba?

Well. That depends on what's important to you.

Insisting that the core elements of a myth -- whichever elements you believe those to be -- must remain static essentially means 'I want this myth to stagnate and die.' Maybe it's because I am Jewish, and we constantly re-evaluate every word in Torah, over and over again, every single year, or maybe it's because I spend way, way too much time thinking about what's valuable in stories specifically because I write words about these concepts for money, but I don't find these arguments compelling at all, especially not when it comes to core, 'mainstream' mythologies. These are tools in the common toolbox, and everybody has access to them.

More important to me than the idea that these core elements of any given story must remain constant is, to paraphrase Dolly Parton, that a story knows what it is and does it on purpose. Should authors present retellings or reimaginings of the Rape of Persephone or The Matter of Britain which significantly alter historically-known story elements as 'uncovered' myths or present them as 'the real and original' story? Absolutely not. If someone handed me a book in which the new Grail was a limited edition Macklemore Taco Bell Baja Blast cup and told me this comes directly from recently-discovered 6th century writings of Taliesin, I would bonk them on the head with my hardcover The Once & Future King. Of course that's not the case, right?

But the concept of canon, historically, in these foundational myths has not been anything like our concept of canon today. Canon should function like a properly-fitted corset, in that it should support, not constrict, the breath in the story's lungs. If it does otherwise, authors should feel free to discard it in part or in whole.

Concepts of familial duty and the obligation of marriage don't necessarily resonate with modern audiences the way that the concept of self-determination, subversion of unreasonable and unjustified authority, and consent do. That is not what we, as a general society, value now. If the latter values are the values important to the author -- the story that the author needs to tell in order to express who they are individually and culturally and what values are important to them* -- then of course they should retell the story with those changed values. That is the point of myths, and always has been.

Common threads remain -- many of us move away from family support regardless of the consent involved in our relationships, and life can be terrifying when you're suddenly out of the immediate reach and support of your family -- because no matter how different some values are, essential human elements remain in every story. It's scary to be away from your mother for the first time. It's scary to live with someone new, in a new place. It's intimidating to find out that other people think you have a Purpose in life that you need to fulfill. It's hard to negotiate between the needs of your birth family and your chosen family.

None of this, to be clear, is to say that any particular person should feel that they need to read, enjoy, or appreciate any particular retelling, or that it's cool, hip and groovy to misrepresent your reworking of a myth as a 'new secret truth which has always been there.' If you're reworking a myth, be truthful about it, and if somebody told you 'hey did you know that it really -- ' and you ran with that and find out later you were wrong, well, correct the record. It's okay to not want to read or to not enjoy a retelling in which Arthur, Lancelot and Guinevere negotiate a triad and live happily ever after; it's not really okay to say 'you can't do that because you changed a story element which I feel is non-negotiable.' It's okay to say 'I don't think this works because -- ' because part of writing a story is that people are going to have opinions on it. It's kind of weird to say 'you're only allowed to color inside these lines.'

That's not true, and it never has been. Greek myths are not from a closed culture. Roman myths are not sacrosanct. There are plenty of stories which outsiders should leave the hell alone, but Greek and Roman myths are simply not on that list. There is just no world in which you can make an argument that the stories of the Greek and Roman Empires are somehow not open season to the entire English-speaking world. They are the public-est of domain.

You don't have to like what people do with it, but that doesn't make people wrong for writing it, and they certainly don't have to color within the lines you or anyone else draws. Critique how they tell the story, but they haven't committed some sort of cultural treachery by telling the stories which are important to them rather than the stories important to someone 2500 years dead.

****

*These are not the only reasons to tell a story and I am not in any way saying that an author is only permitted to retell a story to express their own values. There are as many reasons to tell a story as there are stories, and I don't really think any reason to create fiction is more or less valid than any other. I am discussing, specifically, the concept of myths as conveyors of essential cultural truths.

[idrellegames]

Since I've been getting a few more asks about Episode 3—no I'm not hiding it from anyone, no it's not going to be released for the public any time soon, and yes, it is being worked on, and yes it is getting closer to being finished!

The majority of it is available to play as an alpha demo on my Patreon, although what currently playable is locked to specific Episode 2 endings.

My quarterly roadmaps are posted both here and on itch.io, and have all the updates about what's going on with Episode 3 and where I am currently am in development (Q1 report is here, Q2 report here!).

Episode 3 is the finale of Act 1. There are a lot of choices, a lot of decisions that will impact the future of your playthrough and your Wayfarer's journey. Many of your decisions from Episode 2 will come back to haunt you (in a good way or a bad way) in Episode 3. This episode is going to change everything, and the game and your Wayfarer will not be the same afterwards.

Finally, Episode 3 is the length of a full IF game due to its complexity. There is a reason why it is taking so long to develop. I know folks are impatient for more, but Wayfarer's episode structure is more like installments in a long-running series than chapters of a book. It takes time to pull off something like this, and I promise it will be worth the wait!

Green parts are playable and in the alpha build; blue is completed but not coded (and therefore are not in the alpha); yellow is in the drafting process; red is not started. word count is cumulative for all variations/routes/paths; single playthroughs will vary greatly in length depending on choices made.

I am very close to the end now, but it is very difficult to accurately estimate how long it will take me to finish. I know some people are angry about this, I know some people are disappointed and frustrated because the game is in-development and not a finished product. I know some people think I died and fell off the map or abandoned the project because it hasn't had a public update in a very long time (I didn't, I've always been here, working away).

I don't like releasing content before it's ready. I also don't like releasing episodes in bite-sized pieces even if it means more regular updates. I don't think that would make the game very enjoyable, and it also would make it buggier, with more time spent fixing stuff that I would have normally caught in the editing phase if I finished more things before coding.

I am well aware that Wayfarer is extremely ambitious in its scale, and I am going to live up to how ambitious it is. Ambition takes time, and also sometimes life hits hard. When you're a solo developer, no one else can pick up the slack if you get sick or have a family crisis or need to take time off, so you are going to perpetually be behind schedule.

(And no, other episodes are not going to be as long or as complicated as Episode 3!)

So, at this point I can't say when Episode 3 is being released. Only that it will be!

[phoenixyfriend]

Weird Egg?

Okay so in theory, Obi-Wan was plausibly on Mandalore when Anakin was born, right?

(this is technically a variation on a few other fics and AUs I've seen, and I'll list the stuff that came to mind at the end.)

While on Mandalore, Obi-Wan finds An Egg while hiding in a cave with Satine. And he doesn't recognize it, and Satine doesn't recognize it, and even Qui-Gon doesn't recognize it.

Which makes it weird, at the very least, and probably rare. It's the size of his HEAD and even though there's no parent around, the egg is… warm, now? He didn't notice at first, but it's definitely producing at least some of its own heat.

So Obi-Wan brings the egg with him, which is a pain in the ass in terms of maneuvering, but they do seem to have better luck avoiding Death Watch than before, which uh. Given that the egg feels warmer when they're getting lucky, and seems to glow in the Force, they think might not be a coincidence. A lucky rock, except it's alive.

Mission ends. Obi-Wan plans to take the egg back to the temple for study in case they just discovered Something, and as he's saying goodbye to Satine… the egg Hatches.

It is a dragon.

The dragon can project words into Obi-Wan's mind. It's not quite capable of complex thoughts yet, but it's a he (probably), and has a name (Anakin!), and considers the person who's been carrying him and protecting him and keeping him warm for the past six months to be his mom!

Obi-Wan protests at this. Qui-Gon decides to make his life harder with the 'correction' that Obi-Wan would be a dad, not a mom.

So now Obi-Wan has a small dragon which will be growing to the size of a house, that imprinted on him and is following him home and calling him dad and insisting on sleeping in his bed

Idk if you've ever read Septimus Heap, but… the MC of that found a Fancy Rock, put it in his bag, carried it around for a YEAR because he kept forgetting to take it out of his bag, and then it hatched into a dragon. And I kept thinking about that the whole time I wrote this.

In Obi-Wan's defense, he does Have A Plan.

Until the dragon hatches, turns out to be a sapient as a toddler (with promise of growth), and calls him Dad.

And now the plan is gone.

He just wanted to bring a cool egg back to the Temple for study!

And now the Mandalorians are pulling out old books about whatever the fuck this is because these things APPARENTLY went extinct around the same time as the underwater dragon-adjacent thing that is the Mythosaur.

Obi-Wan learns that supposedly the eggs are inert until something with the Force interacts with it in a Purposeful Manner.

Which includes "probing it a little to see if whatever is inside is actually alive."

Anakin's a standard western dragon that can breathe fire because Flyte. Also this post.

Weeeee okay small text for the references I mentioned.

Obviously, first up is the Septimus Heap series by Angie Sage, specifically Magyk and Flyte.

The fic series I was thinking of initially that kind of jumpstarted the AU process was Boga Service Varactyl AU, but specifically Kenobi Kafé Service Animal Boga AU.

I've been seeing a couple of dragon shapeshifter AUs, including that post I linked earlier from @ahsoka-in-a-hood, @bubblew0lf1's dragon shapeshifter AU, and @squad-724's Dragon Jedi AU has been all over my dash for the past few days.

Stubborn to the Bones by @tideswept, which was part of what had me connecting the various dots of Obi-Wan Finding Animal Anakin on a mission, though our outcomes are admittedly very different lol. (Their fic is shippy, and mine is more decidedly gen/familial with a slight nod to Obitine.)

[lostwords-found]

Oh no. Oh fuck. I am relistening to some of the earlier Protocol episodes, and I have a horrible, terrible, no good very bad suspicion about Gerry.

I could, I want to emphasize, be completely wrong! I could be wildly, hilariously, off the mark. But--hear me out. This is going to take some explaining about what I think is going on in the bigger picture worldbuilding stuff; hopefully it'll be coherent, but fair warning, it may get a bit long.

First: there have been a lot of cases that have boiled down to trying to keep only the "good"/desirable/etc aspects of things or events or people, and discard the "bad"/unwanted, right? We saw this happening very explicitly in episode 23 with Alesis Newman, and way back in episode 2 with Daria the painter, but a number of episodes have presented variations on a similar theme.

Two variations in particular that I've been thinking a lot about are the violinist in episode 4 and the gambler in episode 9. The violinist can play his violin beautifully, but he wants to be rid of the price in flesh and blood that it demands. Similarly, the gambler wants the rewards of rolling high on his magic dice, but wants to be rid of the misfortunes that come with rolling low. Crucially, both episodes make clear that in this type of balance--something unwanted for something wanted--you can't just make the unwanted piece vanish. It has to go somewhere, it has to happen. But you can make it happen to someone else, somewhere else. And when that's how the game works, one of the major questions for players who want to get ahead then becomes: "how do I make the bad stuff stay happening somewhere else, and keep reaping the benefits of the good stuff that balances it out?"

Here's where this gets wildly speculative and from here on I freely acknowledge that I may be talking out my ass:

I think the Magnus Institute was investigating that question. I suspect a great many alchemists before the Institute, probably going back to the times of Albertus Magnus, were investigating it as well. I think the Great Work they were attempting -- the "universal transmutation" alluded to in episode 21 as the Magnus Institute's aim -- was the exact opposite of Jonah Magnus's own "Great Work" in TMA. In other words, I think they were probably trying to make the world an eternal paradise, rather than an eternal hell.

But if you're getting rid of all the "bad" stuff, all the suffering and misfortune, it's got to go somewhere.

I think they were sending it through to other worlds.

I'm not going to get into all the reasons I think that right now, because that's a whole essay in itself, but basically--the Leitners in TMA? The artifacts? All the little bits and pieces of evil given physical form, that never had a clear origin point in the world where they caused so much suffering for so long? We've all been worried about them winding up here, post-Archives... but I think this is where they came from in the first place. I think they were sent away in the hopes that an increase in "bad" in other worlds would lead to an increase in "good" in this one. Remember all those books Albrecht von Closen found in the tomb in the Black Forest in TMA, that Jonah Magnus later stole and let loose on the world? Remember that Albrecht found a mysterious coin along with them dated 1279? Albertus Magnus died in 1280; I strongly suspect he sent those books from the world of Protocol to that of Archives shortly before his death, much as the world of Archives sent the tapes away centuries later. But I think Protocol's world kept sending things away, kept trying to export "bad" and import "good". Remember all those happy, laughing volunteers bringing strange and sinister items to the charity shop on Hill Top Road in episode 7? "All for a good cause."

Okay so. Now. With that bit of hypothetical framework for Protocol's worldbuilding in place, let's next go back to Alesis Newman of episode 23. Her expressed wish is to create a new her. "Someone better. Someone the pain can't touch." Someone who can be everything Alesis wishes she could have been. Someone "free of all (her) mistakes."

But increasingly it sounds like what she actually wants isn't to create someone new. It is to create someone who is only a part of her current self. Someone who, she says in one of her last few posts, will "just be the good parts of me."

And if that's the case, if what she's really trying to do is make someone who holds only the "good" parts of her, someone who can be happy and strong and perfect and loved by everyone forever... what happens to the bad parts of Alesis Newman, as she currently exists? What about the parts of her that feel pain and fear, the parts of her that make mistakes, the parts of her that she rejects?

One might assume, from the experience she narrates, that those pieces of her are simply being destroyed. But that doesn't line up with the suggestion we've seen from earlier episodes that there has to be some kind of balance maintained in these bargains. What she actually says is happening to her--and what the forum members have apparently told her will happen, through this process--is that she and this "new her" are "becoming one... and then two."

I don't think the "bad" parts of Alesis Newman are dying. I think they're also going to become a "new her"--they're just going to go somewhere else, somewhere the new, happy, strong, perfect version of Alesis Newman never has to see them.

Still with me?

Okay.

Now let's talk about Gerry. Let's talk about the smiling, laughing, irrepressibly happy Gerry Keay we meet early in Protocol. Gerry who seems to have everything that the Gerry Keay of Archives was denied.

Gerry who underwent tests at the Magnus Institute as a child, and who, per the static over his and "Gee Gee's" words, holds a few more secrets about what went on there than he let on to Sam and Celia.

Back when I first heard Gerry's appearance in episode 8, it sure felt like a narrative gut punch: This is who he could have been in Archives, if not for the presence of the Fears. This is what Jon and Martin's final decision threatens to destroy--for this safe, happy version of Gerry, and for everyone else in his world.

I'm now suspecting it might be significantly worse than that. I think the Magnus Institute might have done to Gerry Keay something similar to what Alesis Newman later did to herself: made him New. Kept only the good parts--ensured a happy, comfortable, good life for him. In which case, all the bad stuff--all the parts of Gerry Keay that would ever have to suffer from bad luck, to feel pain and fear and misery...

...well. They'd have had to go... somewhere else, wouldn't they.

Which would suggest I had the causality the wrong way around the first time I heard Gerry's appearance in Protocol: maybe it's not "Gerry has a happy life in this world because he didn't have to suffer everything that the Gerry Keay of Archives did."

Maybe it's "Gerry in Archives had to suffer everything he did because Gerry in Protocol was made to always be happy."

[nocturnewidow]

Hey! I was reading a few of your other “how would the moon boys react to so and so reader” and I just wanted to ask my own little silly variation.

As someone who does heavy gothic makeup maybe once a month, and just wears regular black clothes and stuff most days, how would the boys react to seeing their beloved get dressed and dolled up in full makeup and attire to go out with friends? I just think the switch up would be really fun! :)

Your writing is wonderful and so fun! 🫶🏻

- 🦈

Ofc I can write this for you ml <33 ,, but thank you sososo much im smooching my screen ehehe

Steven Grant

Steven’s halfway through organizing his books when he hears you call his name, and when he turns around? He drops two of them. Just,, thud. Hardcover to floor. He’s blinking so fast you think something might be in his eye.

“You- you look…” He stammers, breath catching. “God, love, you look like one of them deadly sirens,, like you’re gonna steal someone’s soul if they look too long.”

He gets all blushy and handsy, tries to touch your eyeliner but catches himself, like “Wait no- don’t smudge it! But God, your eyes, yeah?” Whispers you’re the most beautiful creature he’s ever seen, gets mopey because he wishes he could take you out himself instead of you leaving with friends. Might send you off with a pressed kiss to your temple and a “text me if you need anything, yeah? Be safe, my love.”

He’s 100% googling “how to do goth makeup” the moment you leave.

────୨ৎ────

Marc Spector

Marc’s reaction is immediate. Like you walk out of the room and his whole posture shifts. Leans back on the couch, eyes trailing over every detail. The mesh, the leather, the boots, the lipstick that says “I bite”. He’s silent for a second too long. Then?

“You’re gonna kill someone looking like that.” Smirks. “Hell, I should lock the door and keep you here.”

You roll your eyes, but he’s already behind you, hands on your hips, voice in your ear: “Let ‘em look. They don’t get to touch.” He doesn’t care that it’s not for him, you’re his. And you dressing up like the physical embodiment of a Nine Inch Nails song just confirms he bagged the hottest person alive. He does get a little possessive about it but in that hot, low-voiced, “be back by midnight or I’m coming to get you” kind of way.

Might even offer to do your eyeliner for you. He’s surprisingly good at it.

────୨ৎ────

Jake Lockley

Jake already thought you looked hot in a hoodie and sweats. So when you step out of the bedroom looking like a gothic goddess risen from the underworld? He goes quiet. Not in a shy way. In a lethal way.

You lock eyes in the mirror as you’re adjusting your necklace and he says, low and smooth,,

“Dios mío… are you tryin’ to get in trouble tonight, muñeca?”

He’ll sit back in a chair with a drink in hand, legs spread, just watching you like he’s at a burlesque show. Doesn’t touch, yet. But the tension crackles like electricity. He loves seeing you confident, dangerous, untouchable. But before you leave? He’ll tuck a switchblade in your purse, kiss your hand like a gentleman, and murmur, “You come back in one piece. Or don’t come back at all.”

(He’s joking. Kind of.)

[rcsea]

𝐇𝐀𝐙𝐄*

Multimuse version of 𝐃𝐑𝐄𝐀𝐌𝐄𝐑* and 𝐆𝐇𝐎𝐒𝐓𝐋𝐘*.

✧ Features: A more in-depth carrd design prioritizing information, so you'll have plenty of room to write all the important stuff. Highly customizable but may require more patience when editing due to the amount of unique elements. Tested to be mobile friendly but that may vary by device. Contains a customizable sticky header, a page for guidelines, two variations of a muse roster depending on if you want to use a more complex or simplified roster, a bio page that you can optionally use (and duplicate for other muses), a page for connections & a page for npcs. There are small quad-style image galleries in different sections, and there should be plenty of room for you to resize images to fix the block style of presentation when your text runs over. If you have any issues or questions about editing the carrds, you are more than welcome to ask me here on my tumblr and I will try my best to help you!

✧ Terms of Use: Like / Reblog if you use, please. Do NOT use this for illegal content or to promote hate (this includes "burn books" and callout / vent blogs). Do NOT remove the credits or make them invisible somehow. Edit as you wish, but no matter how much you change it, do NOT claim it as your own!

✧ Price: $6 for early access , now FREE / pay what you want as of February 9th. If you want to help a girl out with a tip, I'd greatly appreciate it 💗 ( Important Note! This template requires Pro Lite or higher to use due to the number of features included ! )

【 DEMO ✧ DOWNLOAD 】

important info below the cut, please read !

1.) The default muse roster is the gallery style one with images. The simple one does not display in the demo. If using the template, if you want to use the simple roster instead of the more complex one, change the link at the top navigation from "#muses1" to "#muses2". You may want to delete the entire section of the roster you don't end up using to save space.

2.) If you choose to use the bio page for your muses, you need to make copies of it with unique sections. If you have a lot of muses, you may need to make a separate carrd just for your bios to save space and loading time. To do this and use the bio template in this carrd, use this template for a second carrd then delete everything else beside the bio, create new sections as needed (don't forget to add the section breaks), and link to the second carrd from the first. If you need more in-depth guidance with this, I will happily help you.

[hyunebunx]

Hihi! I saw your repost of the kiss prompt list, not sure if this is where I'm supposed to request but I think ♥️ Spiderman kiss x Han would be freaking adorable 😭 Obviously if you don't feel up to it don't feel obligated to or anything 🫶

˖˙ ᰋ ── ♥️ - 'spiderman kiss'

﹙ʚɞ˚﹚. genre: fluff (and a little bit suggestive)

﹙ʚɞ˚﹚. a/n: i swear your request came just as i watched 'no way home' for the first time!! it brought back my love for the franchise so ofc i had to write this!! i had so much fun, i hope you'll enjoy reading it too and that i did your idea justice🩷

You haven’t always believed in superheroes. Most people around you thought they were roaming the city and keeping everyone safe, the saviours the world needed coming to life straight from the pages of a comic book. On the other hand, you thought it was stupid and very unlikely, no matter how much proof they bothered to show just to bring you to their unhinged side. Ignorance is bliss as they say but, in this case, you genuinely believed they all went crazy in their desperate attempt at holding onto their happiness, the normalcy ripped away when the strange disasters hit your town one by one.

So, their existence was all nonsense to you until the unexpected happened. You started dating one.

Now, if you were the one to broadcast it for the whole world to hear, they would be the ones calling you crazy. And you wouldn’t blame them – you did not budge or bother to entertain anything Han Jisung was blabbering about, powers and other absurd stuff until he showed you.

To prove he wasn’t messing with you or just maladaptive daydreaming, on your first date, Jisung took you around the city to show you all of his favorite places. Not by car, or on foot, like anyone would expect, but from above. Yes, above. Without much explanation, in his red and blue latex suit, Jisung turned to you with a lone question.

“Do you trust me?”

Frankly, you did not, with it being your first date and all but you figured since he was cute, you might as well entertain him to score that second outing.

With a nod from you, his beautiful face disappeared behind a goofy spider mask as he instructed you to hug him tight and never let go, no matter what. You hesitated, arms going for his middle before he gently redirected them, one by one, to wrap around his neck, the proximity flustering you both.

You didn’t think your heart could speed up even more until he hugged you by the waist and suddenly jumped, finding yourself several feet in the air in a split second. Spider web seemed to come out of his palms, sticking to the high skyscrapers effortlessly and swinging you around the city like it was the most natural means of transportation, your screams dying out from the shock. You almost crashed a couple of times, when in your terrified state, let a hand wander to his face, desperate to hold on and be put down at the same time. If not for his mask, you would have taken out an eye and Han Jisung’s career as a superhero, as well as your life, would have ended prematurely.

From that day forward, you believed in superheroes and every little absurdity that came out of Jisung’s mouth regarding their world and all the diverse powers people like him possessed. He didn’t speak about that side of his life too much, as to keep you safe, but the stuff he was willing to share was mind-blowing enough.

And that’s how you came to date Spiderman himself, a sheer contrast from the nerdy, shy guy you admired from afar in all of your classes. Still, you wouldn’t change it for the world.

Not even when instead of using the door, he randomly plopped on your windowsill whenever he missed you, throwing finger hearts and all the other variations he knew of to apologize for scaring you half to death like he was doing now. At least he had the decency to knock.

“Hello, love of my life.” He purred the moment he was let in, waltzing about like he owned the place, already familiar with your room. Collapsing onto your bed, he settles on his side, holding his masked head in one hand casually. “Still stuck on homework?”

“Oh, you mean the homework we were meant to work on together?” You stood a few feet away, arms crossed over your chest in indignation.

If he wasn’t still wearing his mask, you’d see his mouth drop open to form an ‘o’ shape, dramatic in his expressivity but not always genuine. “Baby, that was today? I’m so sorry! I swear I thought the assignment wasn’t due for another week.”

Your boyfriend was a top student, getting the highest grades on every test, exam and pop quiz he’s ever received. How the fuck did he manage to do all that with that goldfish-like memory of his?

“What’s got you so busy anyway?” You take a seat next to him on the bed, reaching to pinch the mask off his face before releasing it quickly, which he complains about loudly.

“Oh, you mean besides counting the laps you run through my mind constantly?” He wiggles his eyebrows beneath the mask, rubbing his left cheek to soothe the pain caused by the latex. Yes, the latex was definitely the one who hurt him, you could never.

You feel your face heat up to your ears, suddenly shy at his blatant flirtation. Noticing, he scoots closer as he moves into a sitting position, arms circling your waist to hug you from behind, chin resting on your shoulder like he’s done thousands of times before.

“Do you miss me?” His voice drops, atmosphere shifting as you lean into his hold a little too eagerly.

You couldn’t deny it – you have been missing him these days as he suddenly got insanely busy with those superhero duties of his.

“And what if I do?” In a bold show of confidence, you turn slightly in his arms to take off the annoying mask obscuring the breathtaking beauty that’s charmed you at first glance, all of those months ago.

Jisung smirks, so wide it turns into a grin that pulls harshly on your heartstrings, leaning to plant tender kisses on both cheeks while hugging you even tighter, almost like he wanted you to morph into one. Things would be so much easier then, he would be able to take you everywhere he went without going crazy with worry.

“We can’t have that, now, can we?” His kisses move to your shoulder, then down your arm, stopping to intertwine your hands before bringing them to his lips, to give your knuckles the same attention. “That would mean I’m a shitty boyfriend.”

You shake your head, eyes following his every move, mesmerized, as he kisses your skin with so much love and care, handling every inch like you were nothing more than a glass sculpture he was afraid he’d break if he as much as breathed too loudly. “That’s not – “

“Y/n, darling? Are you there?”

The booming voice of your father’s, followed by his approaching footsteps up the stairs has you pulling apart like burnt, panic settling in once you both realize the compromising position you’re currently in. Jisung was not the problem; your father loved him, said he was the best boy his child could ever pick to date. But his presence as a whole, how he even got in without anyone seeing him knock on the front door was sure to raise many questions you could not answer without revealing Jisung’s secret.

For once, your boyfriend doesn’t linger as your eyes meet, pulling the mask over his head in one swift movement before jumping to his feet.

“Jisung – “ He hushes you, gently pressing a finger to your lips in hopes you won’t panic too much, silently encouraging you to breathe and stop your frantic search for a place to hide. Your heart was threatening to beat out of your chest, scared he’d be found out and harshly ripped away from your side, reported to the police for invading random people’s homes. Your father was not the biggest Spiderman fan, claiming he was nothing but a smug troublemaker who enjoyed showing off a little too much. Now, finding said Spiderman in his child’s room would surely send him into a frenzy of rage you didn’t want to witness.

Once your breathing slows down, Jisung gives your hand a reassuring squeeze before letting go and webbing out of the room through the same window he came in, just as the door swings open.

“Darling?” Your father asks, stepping in to look around, a little confused. “Were you talking to someone?”

Quick to react, maybe even a little too quick, you point to your abandoned phone on the desk, shifting your weight from one foot to the other while clearing your throat. “Jisung and I were doing our homework.”

“Ah, I thought I heard him in here.” He nods, pleased with your answer, blind to the anxiety that had you break out in a cold sweat. “Sorry for interrupting. Do you want your favorite for dinner?”

When you agree with a smile, he leaves whistling, happy to be on his way and prepare dinner for his loved ones, saying he’ll call you downstairs in an hour or so.

Relief floods you once the door closes, knees almost giving out as all the tension leaves your body gradually. Just as your breathing returns to normal, you then hurry to the window, sticking your head out in search of your slippery boyfriend while checking every rooftop and high place in the vicinity.

You take a step back with a sigh when you can’t spot him, greatly disappointed. Has something happened in the short period it took to get rid of your father, pulling Jisung in the direction of another fight to ensure the safety of the city? Hopefully, that was not the case. But then, did that mean he got bored of waiting and left for good, too impatient to return to you?

Turning your back to the window, you ignore the chill that sneaks in and consider returning to your homework. Maybe Jisung will call later and explain, or you’ll just call him yourself after dinner. There had to be a reason for his absence, and you’ll try to appear unbothered if it turns out that reason was you.

“Boo.”

You whip around so fast that your eyes almost jump out of their sockets and escape out the window when Jisung appears before you, hanging by a thread from the ceiling, with a wide grin visible even through the thick mask.

“Hi, baby, what’s with the long face?”

You frown, still a little startled but approach nonetheless. “I thought you left me for good.”

He’s surprised, you can tell by the way his whole body tenses, and not from the effort of keeping himself upside down. “I am literally nothing without you, that would never happen for as long as I live.”

“And even after I pass, my ghost will keep you company until we can be together again in the afterlife.” He adds, sighing. “Do you not know me at all?”

The fact that he was so certain he would be the first one to depart from this world was chilling, to say the least. Still, the reassurance makes you feel a tiny bit better. Jisung will always return to you, no matter what, clinging to your connection for as long as he lived and even beyond, confident the red string of fate that tied you together won’t allow you to ever lose each other.

Jisung beckons you closer with a lone finger, holding on to his web with one hand, still insisting on remaining upside down for some unknown reason. When you’re close enough, his free arm wraps around your shoulders and drags you forward, almost closing the small gap between you.

“Sorry.” You murmur, a little embarrassed for jumping to conclusions just like that, forgetting the love your boyfriend carried for you everywhere he went, protecting it from evil while also counting on it to lead him down the right path, away from darkness and destruction. He tilts your head up, finger under your chin gently, and you’re left staring into big, stitched-on eyes.

“None of that, angel.” He shakes his head, managing to nudge your nose with his and spread the warmth in your chest throughout your whole body. “Kiss me and all is forgiven.”

You raise an eyebrow as it all clicks in your head. This was his plan from the beginning, hence why he never bothered to drop down and greet you properly. Typical Jisung, leave it to him to create random circumstances just to get a kiss instead of asking for one, like a normal person would. He loved being spoiled after all and he knew you loved complying, finding his menace tendencies too endearing to ever say no.

So without further ado, you do exactly what he expects and has been daydreaming about for days on end – nimble fingers reach for his mask and pull gently, afraid your touch alone might hurt him somehow when in reality, it’s the only one that does the opposite. You stop right before his nose, playfully squeezing and blocking his airways as your way of getting back at him, letting go and bringing your lips to his before he can even begin protesting.

You cup his cheeks, a little awkward, his arm still around your shoulders as you slowly kiss, drowning in each other and the waterfall of love that never and will never run out. Your tongues meet, and the kiss quickly becomes heated and wet, much more intense than either of you is used to. Maybe after all this time, the love started to overflow, making it impossible to control yourselves and your urges. Not like you minded, obviously delighted at this newfound passion as you can’t seem to get enough of each other.

Jisung is the first to pull away, and you can’t help but vocalize your protest when you notice a thin string of saliva still connecting your lips, almost like you’ve been glued together for so long that separating was out of the question, the sight making your head spin.

Yet, this brief moment allows him to drop down and scop you into his arms, your legs hugging him by the waist instantly as Jisung removes his mask and dives in again, kissing you like he needs it more than the air to breathe. His tongue is teasing yours again, lips feverish as you occasionally bite down just to hear the sweet sounds that escape him, all the groaning and huffing that indicate all of his restrain hangs by a thin spider web.  

“I could kiss you forever.” He breathes between quick pecks, eyes hazy as he stares at you beneath thick eyelashes. “Will you let me?”

He didn’t even need to ask. You’d let Han Jisung mold you into whatever he desired if that meant he’d stay happy for all eternity, for whatever was good for him, was also good for you.

But for now, forever will last until dinner is ready and your dad will barge into your room again, shooing the love bubble you and your boyfriend resided in away from prying eyes, out the open window.

And just because you can never be away from him for too long, Jisung will have to use the door and be invited inside as your boyfriend, and not as Spiderman.

tagging: @jisunggy <3

[thealexandriaarchives]

Dune Fandom, We Need to Be Hornier About Fluids

There's something wrong when we don't sexualize how much Feyd-Rautha canonically drools like a broken spigot the second he looks excited, and look, we all got distracted with the arranged marriages, the omegaverse, the gender swap fics, the Bene Gesserit Voice kink, the nonstop breeding kink fic, the 'in another life I would have been your wife' soulmate fics. I get it.

But if ever there was a fandom designed almost solely for the purpose of fetishizing the hell out of every variation of the Wet & Messy tags, along with the sacrilegious guilt inherent to Arrakis over wasting water? It's Dune.

Drool. Sweat. Cry. Piss. Cum. Bleed.

There are 1001 prompts from 'so filthy it's profane' to genuinely kind of heartwarming but I want it to get the intensive fanfiction attention.

How do we treat some of our most common forms of humiliation in a world where spitting on the floor in front of someone is a show of greatest respect? Is boot-polishing for someone as a submissive with your tongue an honor or a shameful act because it wastes the water? What are the ramifications of Bukkake on Arrakis?

Imagine someone who has internalized Fremen values and beliefs with an Omorashi kink. Maybe they don't even know they have one, they've used a stillsuit for so long, but suddenly they're exposed, and full, and all they can do is just close their eyes and chant to themselves 'Don't Let It Out' as a litany.

Awaken Dacryphilia kinksters. A literal miracle is documented in the book about the first time Lisan al'Gaib wept and gave water to dead. Villeneuve takes this and makes it into a perverted dream that Muad'Dib steals from the heart of a Southern tribal elder.

Not feeling the PWP stuff? That's fair, we're all still one or three really good fics away from being a little too into something.

How about Hurt/Comfort and Whump fics? I haven't seen any really good severe dehydration scenarios, we need a couple. Stillsuits & Stilltents fail, or are damaged in battle. The old 'drink of my flesh so you may live'. Let's get dirty with Dirty Water. Or honestly, it seems like you can survive at least temporarily with only one canister of it taken.

In general just so many opportunities for bloodplay. But if you wanna stay tamer with it (though Feyd-Rautha's pets at least are canon cannibals) how about the fact that a Crisknife drawn cannot be sheathed without being blooded. This was shown but not stated in the 2021 Dune, so drawing one must be a thoughtful and measured act as you slice your own palm and spill your own water if you put it away in peace.

I speak now with the voice of the Lisan al'Gaib the ghost of Frank Herbert on ZERO authority and call upon all the Dune fandom to get HORNIER about being WET.

[princeloww]

broadchurch consumption guide

for when you desperately need to consume broadchurch content; a menu of all the things you can eat and in which (recommended) order

1. THE SHOW

this is obviously where you've gotta start. all three seasons are on amazon prime, as well as ITVX - if you can't get those, it's also on a bunch of pirating websites. there are three seasons, and DVDs are available of all. season one is probably objectively the best, while the rest wander a bit, but they're all really good.

2. DELETED SCENES

there are LOADS of deleted scenes from each season. it's kinda surprising that some of them were cut cos they contain such useful and interesting info. you get to see more of alec, more of tess, loads more of becca/paul. these are available on youtube in several different compilations

3. THE NOVELISATION

OK, now you've watched the show. need more? erin kelly's novelisation is available in several different languages (most notably english, german and french) and in both physical and PDF form. I haven't got the PDF but i assume it exists. you can get either a hardcover or a paperback, although the hardcover looks a lot nicer. the book covers all of season 1 with a few small changes. some small things are added, as well as character thoughts, while some are removed - such as alec's awkward encounter with becca in the hotel.

***there is also an audiobook of this, read by carolyn pickles (who plays maggie)***

4. THE SHORT STORIES

don't worry!! season 2 has got some written content as well. the short stories are available as both individual books and a full collection on the amazon kindle store. they are only available as ebooks, although PDFs also exist somewhere. there are 8 stories, all linked with an episode of s2. they focus on specific characters, starting with ellie and ending with alec.

5. ADAPTATIONS

alright now we are getting desperate. there are a few adaptations of broadchurch (I believe a french one??) but the most notable one is most definitely gracepoint. it sucks ass but sometimes the desperation hits. it follows the same plot but with worse acting (even from DT, who is now american) and small, strange variations. they do some stuff interestingly tho, like having (daisy) discover (alec's) illness and also his surgery making a lot more sense. gracepoint is also on amazon prime and stars skylar white from breaking bad as a poorly cast ellie

6. BTS & EXTRAS

OK this probably should have gone with the deleted scenes, my order is falling apart, but there is also behind the scenes footage and lots of DVD extras. there's also the graham norton broadchurch skit, the chilli jam roulette, behind the scenes photos, etc etc. lots of fun stories to hear and read.

7. SOUNDTRACK

there are also CD and vinyl versions of the soundtracks available. i got my broadchurch OST CD off worldofbooks. good stuff

8. ANYTHING YOU CAN FIND

this sections includes: old articles, chat forums, instagram posts from the actors (example: charlotte beaumonts cast photos + broadchurch t-shirts), websites selling original props, broadchurch-based photography of west bay, the broadchurch tourist trail, 80 dozen articles proclaiming the 'next broadchurch', etc. this also includes reviews of the show and that weird piss-take episode guide

9. THE FAN STUFF

OK, now you've really run out of content. but do not fear. this section includes: fanart, fanfiction (there's loads if you ship alec and ellie), fan merchandise, gimmick blogs, meta analysis, memes, edits, amvs, normal mvs, anything your heart desires

And that is how you consume broadchurch. reblog if i missed any steps of consumption. im in so deep that writing this is entertainment

[michellemisfit]

Happy Gallavich Gift Exchange @sam-loves-seb

Chosing a 'Something inspired by one of my fics' prompt seemed like a dangerous gamble, but when it was revealed to be you, Sam, I got SO EXCITED!!!

I chose find someone who grows flowers (in the darkest part of you) (which was in itself a GGE creation from 2024) and really, the most challenging thing was to narrow it down... and I didn't. Oops.

Happy Gallavich Gift Exchange... Squared? 🤔

Huge thank you to @gallavichthings for organising!

Medium: Conté à Paris Pastel Pencils & Fine Liner

Full artwork behind the cut and on AO3

Click the ‘Mys Art’ tag to see more of my stuff, or check out my work on RedBubble and AO3

carnations (red) - love, pride, admiration carnations (orange) - happiness, warmth, determination

Ian was practically born with his. He’s had it for as long as he can remember, this bunch of wild red carnations blooming between his shoulder blades. “Pride,” Lip tells him, his finger on the page of a library book about flowers. “Sounds about right for an army nerd like you.” Ian punches him in the arm, but the definition makes him smile. Fiona never saw it like that growing up. She used to tell him they were all about love. “Love and happiness,” she’d say, tracing the pattern on his back through his t-shirt. “These ones around the edges? They’re more orange.” “Determination,” Lip counters. “Everything has more than one meaning. It’s why capitalism thrives under the consumers who buy into this crap, and why these marks are most effectively nothing more than a sham.” “Hush,” Fiona cuts him off, smacking him lightly on the head. “Leave him alone.” Ian grins at the two of them, freckle faced and innocent. He doesn’t really care what they mean. It was all good—he could live with any of it. All of it. “At least they match your hair,” Lip says, closing the book. Fiona giggles at that, and Ian shrugs. Blooming over his back and shoulders, the carnations grow with him. Red and orange and every variation in between. None of his other siblings have them. He’s the first Gallagher he knows with carnations imprinted on his skin.

dandelion - hope, perseverance, transformation

Dandelions that sprout on his knuckles. Too yellow and too bright and all wrong. Terry sees them for the first time, and he just laughs. “Couldn’t even be bothered to give you a real fucking flower. They gave you weeds on your goddamn hands.” He finds it amusing, for a little while. Like Mickey’s existence is one big joke. And honestly, at this point, he’s starting to think it might be. Because he hates the dandelions more than anything in the world, the way they sprinkle across his fingers, like a beacon in the worst fucking way. He looked it up once. Hope. Perseverance. What the fuck kind of mark was that? For a kid like him in a place like this—it’s one big cosmic fucking joke is what it is. So he takes a page out of his old man’s playbook and covers them up as soon as he possibly can. He’s thirteen, almost fourteen, and his cousin comes over with a tattoo gun he lifted from his ex-girlfriend’s dad. Mickey gets dark, bold letters stamped across his fingers, burying the dandelions beneath the ink.

carnations (red) - love, pride, admiration

It never even crossed his mind to share his new mark with Ian, but when he sees him on the other side of the bulletproof glass, eyes empty and the plastic phone pressed to his ear, it’s like he has to show him. Mickey unbuttons the top of his jumpsuit, a sad smile on his face. “Think you’re gonna like this one,” he says, pulling down the neck of his tank top. Ian’s mouth parts slightly when he sees the red carnations, three of them, opening up right over Mickey’s heart. For a second, Mickey feels the hope like lightning at his fingertips. Ian clears his throat. “What are those?” he asks, like he doesn’t know. “Hydrangeas?” “You know what they are.” Ian stares at him through the glass. His mouth opens and closes, but nothing comes out. It’s his last card to play. The red flowers that he first saw in the mirror of a holding cell. He thinks it might’ve been out on the sidewalk, when he told Ian he loved him that they finally bloomed, but he can’t be sure. And maybe it really is just a big cosmic joke, but Mickey can’t think of it like that, or he’ll never get out of here alive. So, he tells himself if he can’t have Ian in person, he’ll have to settle for the little bit of him he carries around with him. He wears Ian’s mark on his chest like a point of pride, and Ian does everything he can to forget about it.

lilac (purple) - first love

“The fuck is that?” Iggy asks, poking at Mickey’s arm. “What?” Mickey asks, twisting his arm. “That,” Iggy says, twisting it the other way so Mickey can see. On the inside of his upper arm are two purple flowers, their stems intertwined, and it takes everything in him not to react. “What are they?” Colin asks, smoking by the window. “Don’t know,” Mickey lies. The thing is—he knows exactly what they are. And that terrifies him. “That’s how I’ll know,” Mandy used to tell him. “When I meet the right guy, I know he’ll be the right guy because I’ll see it. I’ll get a flower mark.” Mickey shakes his head. “That shit’s as bad a reading your fucking horoscope in the paper.” “No it’s not,” she counters, annoyed. “I’ll get my lilacs one day. You’ll see.”

gladiolus - bravery

“Can’t believe you did that,” Ian marvels in the shower later, blood washing off them and running down the drain. “Mickey—you came out.” “Yeah,” is all Mickey says with shaky breath, because he kind of can’t believe it himself. ... “Holy shit,” Ian says, breathing hard. “Yeah,” Mickey says again, reaching back and grabbing Ian’s hip. “Yeah, come on.” “No, Mick,” Ian says, fingers brushing over the back of his neck. “Look.” It’s a ridiculous thing to say, because Mickey can’t physically look at the back of his own neck, but later, once they get off and dry off and they’re wrapped in warm towels in Mickey’s bedroom, Ian will show him the flower that blossoms at the place where his neck meets his shoulders. Ian takes a picture of it on his phone and Mickey stares at the gladiolus now stamped into his skin. They fall asleep that night wrapped up in each other with Ian’s lips pressed against the new mark on Mickey.

PS: Go and read find someone who grows flowers (in the darkest part of you) if you haven't yet (and even if you have), it's the most wonderful! 

[balrogballs]

I came across that silm nobel prize argument you mentioned in yr tag. I’m not asking about the ship war stuff, I know you don’t do ship stuff but only if you don’t mind, I was interested in hearing yr thoughts on the accessibility stuff they were talking abt, like what makes a fanfic acessible. I was thinking of your post on making your AU acessible for a fanfic reader, and it made me think that the nobel prize OP was using the word inacessible in a wrong way?

I assume this refers to that ‘Silm writers are inaccessible & elitist compared to TROP writers, nobody wants to write an essay about the fanfic they read, flower shop AUs have more ‘real human emotion’ than thematically dense fic, it’s AO3 not the Nobel Prize longlist’ nonsense unless there’s another one floating about in which case jesus fucking christ lol

It’s an interesting one lol… I don’t follow the page or post about the show so I didn’t see it, but a bunch of people have DMed it to me across the last couple weeks, since while the OP was speaking in general or collective terms, I tick a few of their shitlist boxes in a rather obvious way lol. I’ve said variations of this across said DMs and other writers may have a different opinion but essentially:

I personally don’t treat ‘accessibility’ as a concern when it comes to fanfic, unless we’re talking disability accommodations like alt-text or not using emojis, or tagging for triggers. ‘Must be enjoyable for people who like a certain style of writing’ is not an accessibility requirement, it’s your Goodreads wishlist. I do not care about what you want Santa to bring you. Perhaps it’s because I’ve not been in fandom long enough but I genuinely cannot think of a response aside from ‘get a fucking grip lol’.

And re your question about my AU, what I meant there by adapting the story for a fanfic audience was that I toploaded it with regional context and diaspora eyes before getting into the actual narrative in a way I wouldn’t have done if (god forbid) I wrote it as a novel. That isn’t a comment on style or theme, it’s literally just because I’d expect that someone walking into a bookshop, picking up, and paying for a book about a Marxist madhouse in North Kerala full of intertextual elements so thinly veiled as to be practically wrapped in clingfilm, would be at least vaguely familiar with the genre and context.

This is something I would not assume of people scrolling through AO3, because there’s no reason to expect that, hence providing extra info, being conscious as to what I can’t presume people already know, putting some extra elbow grease into “world building”, translating within the text itself, answering questions about regional/historical context etc… it’s not an accessibility measure, I’d say it’s closer to providing an appendix/glossary.

I don’t know, like imo it’s kind of ridiculous to sit around shitting on people for writing narratives more complex than what you personally like, but that’s your space, preference and prerogative… go ham and shit away, it is your toilet, not mine.

My irritation is mostly with the language of “accessibility” and “elitism” and trying to make it sound like a societal ill by using such buzzwords. Yes, there may well be elitism or lorebros or whatever in a general fandom sense, but I don’t know what fanfic has to do with that.

The Silmarillion probably does have a higher concentration of whatever they mean by Nobel Prize fics but that’s not exactly due to some oppressive feudal fandom hierarchy, it’s literally just because the fanbase skews older and the source text is conducive to a certain style of literary writing being relatively popular… it’s not some big injustice, it’s pretty normal, generally speaking, for fanworks to reflect the style and tone of the source text regardless of how transformative they are, simply because the one thing most people in any given fandom share is their enjoyment of said source text.

I like to think of myself as being well read but there are tons of books ‘inaccessible’ to me beyond reading preferences. When I was at university I worked on regional literature but I always specified Malayalam rather than ‘South India’ even though the college used the latter as a tag, because I can’t read Tamil or Kannada etc—that doesn’t mean those languages are inaccessible languages. One’s experience as an individual is not a benchmark for something already as subjective as accessibility. I’m not exactly going to call the Dance Mums fanbase elitist gatekeepers for writing fanfiction just because I’ve never seen an episode of the show.

Also not to be an insufferable pedant but like… if someone wants to use ‘publishable standard’ as a negative term, they should probably look up what it means. Publishable standard just means that a work is fit for publication, it’s not meant to be a comment on genre, style or content. The Cat in the Hat is of publishable quality but that doesn’t mean Dr. Seuss should win the Booker.

Finally, I know the OP was speaking in general and refers to a ‘group’ of writers but speaking for myself, l’m sorry I simply cannot see how on earth a style of writing can make someone elitist: I don’t deny I’ve spent years with the academic silver spoon up my ass, I have openly acknowledged it on multiple occasions both joking and otherwise, and also do not deny that comes across in the way I write.

However, my blog is 80% pure shitposting. My AO3 page isn’t required reading. You do not have to enjoy my writing style in order to interact with me, you are allowed to find it insufferable because it often is insufferable. Hell, you can even tell me you hate it, preferences are subjective. There is no gatekeeping here. Nobody is holding quiz nights about 1970s India and beating people if they get a question wrong.

TLDR: yes, yes, fanfiction doesn’t have to be of a publishable standard because it’s people writing for fun yes, yes, elitism is bad, yes, yes, but that doesn’t mean ‘not writing a flowershop AU’ is some kind of systemic oppression against the AO3 proletariat lol.

Hope this went some way to answer your question!

[seraphinitegames]

The Wayhaven Chronicles - Update 03/February/20204

This week was an interesting week!

As I said last week, I wanted A’s opening (well, all the love interest openings) to have a certain feel for Book Four.

At this point, both as the character and a reader, we want to be getting into the romance now. A real focus on it. It’s been months in-game, so the MC and their love interest know each other enough now that they’re definitely out of the flirtation stage, even if not in a relationship yet.

There’s that deeper bond that’s obvious/becoming obvious.

But in A’s case, things are a bit more…complicated, as always, hehe! :D

Even though A says they need to pull away, at the end of Book Three, they did actually admit their feelings. They no longer could deny the draw between the MC and themselves.

And this had a real impact on A.

It’s more difficult for them to force the feelings back behind their wall.

They will eventually, at least for a while, because they know they have to, especially after some stuff coming up in Book Four! But at least for a while they forget to do it and are more…open, in a way.

They’re not playing with the MC, or leading them on, it’s just they’re under the draw of the obvious soul-deep bond too and not sure how to approach it!

But that doesn’t mean the MC has to put up with that. Maybe they do just want to enjoy it too while A is being more open, or maybe they’ve learnt from all the past heartbreak and want to keep a wary distance even with the magnetic draw of A always there.

I want to do my best to get those options and variations across to my best ability!

So I did actually finish the base writing for A’s redone scene! But after starting on F’s…I’m already thinking of some choices I want to add into A’s to help with getting that variation in there for the MC to react to A being so…different, easy, open…it’s difficult for the MC (and A) to pin down, lol!

Next week is social media days, but I will be adding in those choices to A’s scene before diving back into F’s and the wonderful flirty comfort their scenes always bring, hehe! :D

Hope you all have an amazing weekend! We’ll be offline as usual, so I’ll talk to you all next week <3

[croquettish]

I can't thank you enough for the fuel you have given my recent and honestly very unhealthy Hansry hyperfixation.

I think a part of me knew I had to finally set up a Tumblr account when I spotted your spreadsheet on the last conversation between Hans and Henry. I felt insane jumping between tabs on YouTube trying to figure out which lines changed. I think I found my people!

You have no idea how often I reloaded old saves trying to get every possible variation of dialogue and sometimes there are so many!

Like the one time you can talk to Hans while you are carrying the sacks in the tavern and he is starting his silly argument with the other guy. There are like 6 different random things he says to tell you to get back to work. My personal favorite would have to be "Work those muscles, Hercules!" (I honestly can't believe he said that out loud in front of everyone. Are you even trying to hide it Hans???)

I love reading long and overly in-depth essays analyzing every little detail and voice infection. I wish I could info dump that whole stuff occupying my mind to someone so I feel very seen reading your writing!

I recently feel especially hung up on the last conversation between Hans and Henry. Especially when Hans says he's not sure what to do now, after what happened between the two of them and that they will just have to wait and see. That they are without agency for now in the matter.

He sounds so defeated and hopeless, he very rarely uses that tone of voice when speaking, without a hint of his usual mirth spread over his real feelings.

What I think I wanted to say with this overly long comment (my apologies!) is that I would love to read your take on what Hans says in that scene. I honestly need to hear that you don't think Hans has given up on their future!

Also please share your thoughts on that ridiculously cute Hercules line!

Thank you so much for just reading my silly little tangent!

Omg I'm so glad you found good use in my spreadsheet! I'm always thrilled to learn I'm not the only crazy person around, so bless you for that jfalk;jfakl

Anyway I love this ask SO MUCH bc it actually happens to relate quite a bit to the Hans meta I'm posting tonight (about Hans and agency), so I'm going to leave most of this unanswered until I hit post on that 👀

That said I had never heard the Hercules line and oh my god???? OH MY FUCKING GOD. Hans you are SO TRANSPARENT. I'm vaguely reminded here of this line as well from their conversation in front of Henry's Suchdol bedroom:

Like, what an incredibly gay comparison to draw! It also strikes me once more how much both of these examples serve to remind us how Hans really looks at reality through the lens of fiction and history. His life has given him so little in terms of actual lived experiences that he really does cleave on to the things he's found in books. It breaks my fucking heart.