mserm

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Hawkeye (2016) #4 Kelly Thompson & Leonardo Romero

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#SuiZhouClothesOffFest

third week - Sui Zhou underdressed^^’

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gandalf and denathor...

do I have something here?

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This is a dangerous sentiment for me to express, as an editor who spends most of my working life telling writers to knock it off with the 45-word sentences and the adverbs and tortured metaphors, but I do think we're living through a period of weird pragmatic puritanism in mainstream literary taste.

e.g. I keep seeing people talk about 'purple prose' when they actually mean 'the writer uses vivid and/or metaphorical descriptive language'. I've seen people who present themselves as educators offer some of the best genre writing in western canon as examples of 'purple prose' because it engages strategically in prose-poetry to evoke mood and I guess that's sheer decadence when you could instead say "it was dark and scary outside". But that's not what purple prose means. Purple means the construction of the prose itself gets in the way of conveying meaning. mid-00s horse RPers know what I'm talking about. Cerulean orbs flash'd fire as they turn'd 'pon rollforth land, yonder horizonways. <= if I had to read this when I was 12, you don't get to call Ray Bradbury's prose 'purple'.

I griped on here recently about the prepossession with fictional characters in fictional narratives behaving 'rationally' and 'realistically' as if the sole purpose of a made-up story is to convince you it could have happened. No wonder the epistolary form is having a tumblr renaissance. One million billion arguments and thought experiments about The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas that almost all evade the point of the story: that you can't wriggle out of it. The narrator is telling you how it was, is and will be, and you must confront the dissonances it evokes and digest your discomfort. 'Realistic' begins on the author's terms, that's what gives them the power to reach into your brain and fiddle about until sparks happen. You kind of have to trust the process a little bit.

This ultra-orthodox attitude to writing shares a lot of common ground with the tight, tight commodification of art in online spaces. And I mean commodification in the truest sense - the reconstruction of the thing to maximise its capacity to interface with markets. Form and function are overwhelmingly privileged over cloudy ideas like meaning, intent and possibility, because you can apply a sliding value scale to the material aspects of a work. But you can't charge extra for 'more challenging conceptual response to the milieu' in a commission drive. So that shit becomes vestigial. It isn't valued, it isn't taught, so eventually it isn't sought out. At best it's mystified as part of a given writer/artist's 'talent', but either way it grows incumbent on the individual to care enough about that kind of skill to cultivate it.

And it's risky, because unmeasurables come with the possibility of rejection or failure. Drop in too many allegorical descriptions of the rose garden and someone will decide your prose is 'purple' and unserious. A lot of online audiences seem to be terrified of being considered pretentious in their tastes. That creates a real unwillingness to step out into discursive spaces where you 🫵 are expected to develop and explore a personal relationship with each element of a work. No guard rails, no right answers. Word of god is shit to us out here. But fear of getting that kind of analysis wrong makes people hove to work that slavishly explains itself on every page. And I'm left wondering, what's the point of art that leads every single participant to the same conclusion? See Spot run. Run, Spot, run. Down the rollforth land, yonder horizonways. I just want to read more weird stuff.

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Adopt a Steve or Tony to write!

If you're a writer interested in our Steve/Tony dating game (see our "about" page and FAQ if this is the first time you're hearing about us), here are some Steves and Tonys who need you to adopt them, pretty please. 🙏❤️ (Imagine them looking piteously at you with puppy eyes from a cardboard box with an "adopt me" sign on their necks. 🥺) To make life easier, you can sign up with a friend if you want to have a writing partner or team, and if you're particularly ambitious and bighearted, you can also claim multiple characters to write.

616 Steve (we have a writer, but they're looking for a co-writer!)

616 Tony

1872 Steve

1872 Tony (we have a writer, but they're looking for a co-writer!)

3490 Steve and Tony

AvAc Steve and tony

AA Steve

AA Tony (we have a writer, but they're looking for a co-writer!)

Avengers: Twilight Steve and Tony

Bullet Points Steve

Capwolf Steve

Deathlok Steve

Earth-76 Tony (we have a writer, but they're looking for a co-writer!)

EMH Steve and Tony

Marvel Adventures Steve and Tony

Marvel's Avengers Steve

MCU Tony (we have a writer, but they're looking for a co-writer!)

New Ultimates Steve and Tony

Next Avengers Tony

Secret War: Civil War Steve and Tony

Secret War: Planet Hulk Steve

Sorcerer Supreme Tony

Ultimates Steve

If the Steve or Tony you want to write isn't on the list, that means they're available! We welcome almost all Steves and Tonys. The only exceptions are a Steve or Tony who doesn't exist in the universe you picked (e.g., we won't accept Noir Steve as Steve doesn't exist in Noir), Hydra Cap, and Steves and Tonys who are canonically under 18 (for clarity, AvAc Steve and Tony and New Ultimates (6160) Tony are allowed), though we'll be considering universe eligibility on a case-by-case basis as we may not know or remember all the universes that exist. Most likely, it'll be okay. You can see the most up-to-date list of universes and more info about co-writers here.

Eager to claim a Steve or Tony of your own? Come sign up! We'd love to have you on the team.

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random question but if I use google translate on someone else's fic am I feeding it to gen ai? there are so many fics I want to read but I do not want to do that to other people's work.

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One of the things about writing that feels the silliest is when there’s a detail in the scene that the character doesn’t think is important but you know the reader will know it’s important because otherwise it wouldn’t be there, so you’re just sort of making eye contact with the reader over the character’s head and whispering “don’t tell them”

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For instance, now.

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Ship dynamic: are you my rival or my savior?

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[insp]

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Happy anniversary to one of the most romantic quotes of television. "17 People" aired on April 4, 2001, 24 years ago.

JOSH LYMAN AND DONNA MOSS Episode 18, Season 2 THE WEST WING

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My art for msermesth! Steve and Tony find a secluded place at Billy and Teddy's wedding. Why do you think Tony's tie was undone? ;) (I also did a winteriron version of this)

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honestly i have to kinda disagree with that post thats like “being knightcore doesnt mean pro monarchy just swear ur undying loyalty to ur bff or ur crush or smth”

no. thats not what makes it sexy. either grapple with your beloved master’s role as a symbol of the state or choose to ignore it entirely and remain their loyal hound to whatever end, uncaring of the structures of power which you serve. become naught but a blade, the burden of your choices left to settle in the hand that wields you. it’s not about being besties forever it’s about OWNERSHIP and DUBIOUS MORALITY and FRANKLY QUESTIONABLE POWER DIFFERENTIALS

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Steve/Tony dating sim sign-up info & FAQ

If you haven't heard the news, there's going to be a free Steve/Tony multiverse dating game! (If you have heard the news, bear with us—this is a new announcement because we've updated a few things). Follow us on Tumblr to get the latest updates on development and launch and/or hang out with us on Discord as we make the game!

About the game

The Steve/Tony multiverse dating sim (name TBD) will be a visual novel-style game that’s mostly dialogue with some simple minigames thrown in. You'll play as a Steve or Tony from one of the many universes that exist who’s thrown into a rift in reality with a bunch of other Steves and Tonys. You’ll get to decide whom to work with to invent, fight, flirt, and date your way back home. 

Who we are

We're a team of passionate Steve/Tony fans who have come together to write and illustrate the dating game of our dreams, coded by the wonderfully talented @v-thinks-on. You can read more about us here.

How this works

In order to make the game, we need writers for the player characters (characters you can choose to play the game as) and love interest characters (characters the player can interact with and romance), artists for the visuals, and more. Here's a brief summary of the process:

Love interest writers script a story arc for the player character to go on if the player selects that writer’s love interest character to date

Player character writers fill in the dialogue for their characters in the love interest scripts

Artists create the visuals of the game, including character art, backgrounds, and more, based on the scripts

For a more detailed overview of the game-making process and each team role, please refer to our FAQ.

How to apply to the team

Please email stevetonydatingsim@gmail.com with the following information:

Confirmation that you’re over 18 (just let us know you’re 18+; we’re not asking you to share personal info)

The best way(s) to contact you

And depending on which role you want to apply for, please include:

Writers (currently taking sign-ups for love interest writers only; we'll announce when we're open for player writer applications)

What character you’d like to write for (universe and name). If you have multiple, please order by preference. To help you choose, here is a list of universes we have writers for and available universes (if you want a universe not on this list, that means it's available)!

Do you want to write alone or with a partner(s)?

A writing sample focusing on Steve and Tony (link, attachment, or text in the email body), ideally with a good amount of dialogue. This doesn’t have to be a complete piece with a beginning, middle, and end; it's more to get a sense of your style and understanding of characterization, so all we ask is that it’s easy to follow. This can be something you’ve already written or you can write something new for this application. We don't have a minimum word requirement; if we need more from you, we'll let you know

Artists

We'll be sharing an interest check either the first or second week of April, so if you're an artist, watch this space! If you're not on Tumblr much and you're afraid of missing out, contact us and we'll add you to our mailing list

Project managers

Please state if you have any experience running events, projects, or games (either fandom or non-fandom is fine) and any skills you believe will be handy, e.g., you're amazing with Google Sheets, you're a scheduling and coordinating whiz, you can wrangle large groups

Availability: 1. Do you use Discord? and 2. How much time do you have to dedicate to being a project mod? While we don't have something going on every week and it's fine if you're busy sometimes, we need a go-getter who is easy to reach on Discord and can make sure the project progresses at a good clip

People with other skills

If you have any other skills that you think will help make the game better (for example, you’re a musician and you’d love to produce music for the game or you're a coder who'd love to help @v-thinks-on), get into contact with us.

Contact us

Please don’t hesitate to contact us if you have any questions (don't forget our FAQ!). You can reach us by email, Discord, Tumblr Messenger, askbox, Twitter DM, or Bluesky DM. Thank you!

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starvels' 2024 YGMAH server stockings -> 616/AU, steve/tony, <1k each

for @phoenixmetaphor : dragons and knights and sex magic, oh my! It’s blistering cold in the mountain peaks. The wind pries insistent, chilled fingers inside the rim of the cave’s entrance, like a lover that delights in making Steve hiss and shudder. Tony watches Steve trundling in, from atop his molten throne, and snorts a fiery laughter that nearly sizzles Steve’s eyebrows.

for @nostalgicatsea : the labyrinth of avenger's mansion allows no one to escape Tony trails his eyes over the ragged metal and and oak and marble and aged paint that used to resemble a foyer, back when the mansion was a building and Tony was steadily replacing all its parts post-Avengers disasters, sailing that good Ship of Theseus ever closer to the horizon. It’s not a quandary anymore. The mansion hasn’t been the mansion for any of them in a long time.

for @mserm : tony has wiped steve's mind and now he repents with an apology sounding “I was just thinking,” Tony starts, quick, a clinging desperation pinning his eyes to Steve’s strong back muscles, his tapered waist, the muscles of his forearms, down to his thick — “Last week you were mean. To me. Like you meant it. Like I asked.” “I was there,” Steve says, over the clatter of dishes.

for @mobiusonajetski : service top steve gives tony a needed respite "We're not talking right now," Steve tells him, not mean, but firm. Uncompromising. His focus absolute. Tony sits back on the bench and feels tension beginning to unspool across his body. Being at the center of Steve's focus is good, like this. Is good, period.

mwah to the YGMAH server! thanks for such a lovely 616 stevetony community and here's to many more 🥰

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Peaking onto the Internet to say that a really underrated ship dynamic is 'i know your dad'

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Avengers: Twilight Old Man Steve for @mserm for the Marvel 616 Steve/Tony discord server's stocking exchange