#(I had to look back at the discussion on Discord for the plot so I also included a paragraph with a TLDR of the plot LOL) | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

duhnova · 2 years

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control me - jeon wonwoo

gamer bf!wonwoo x fem!reader

word count: ~3.0k

kinktober masterlist

warning(s): smut under the cut!! (mdni), porn with minimal plot, princess & kitten & baby used as petnames, voyeurism? (no one’s watching but they’re listening), guided sex?, dirty talk, blow job, deep throating, throat/face fucking, hair pulling, praising (reader is called a good girl), degradation?, reader is called a brat, manhandling?, definitely some unresolved/confused feelings (but we don’t talk about that here), let me know if i forgot anything! - don’t mind grammatical errors / typos (i tried)

your boyfriend sat at his desk, the bright screen of his monitor lit up his face as he grumbled into his mic, irritated at one of his teammates for allowing him to get killed in the game. it was always attractive to watch him play, his jaw set, his eyes narrowed in concentration and his fingers tapping at his keyboard allowing the veins in his arms to become prominent. it always got your gears turning as you sat on the edge of the bed with your legs tightly crossed, waiting for the opportunity to talk to him.

“baby?” you pout once you see the lobby screen. you watch wonwoo hit the hotkey for his mic as he pushes one of the ears back to listen to you.

“what’s up princess?” he cocks an eyebrow, tilting his head back enough to see the pout on your face. he pretends he doesn’t know why you’re pouting, but he knows exactly what you want, it’s his job after all (at least he thinks it is), as your boyfriend, to know you like the back of his hand.

“how much longer are you gonna be playing?” you uncross your legs, letting your thighs squeeze together to hopefully help emphasize that you need a little help down there.

“i promised the boys that i’d be on all night.” he mumbles, seeming to not realize that your neediness was because you were extremely turned on right now. wonwoo has always been a good judge of character, able to read anyone like an open book and know exactly what they’re thinking before they even think it. but when it came to you he preferred to not read you, wanting you to tell him exactly what you wanted when you wanted it, which is why he’s acting oblivious.

“all night?” you huff, before falling back against the bed already given up on the thought of him coming to fuck your brains out on it.

“i’m sorry baby,” he laughs softly before cursing quietly, looking at his computer screen. “i’ll cuddle you all night i promise.” he mumbles before he’s unmuting to talk to his friends who started another match without him noticing.

you grumble to yourself about wanting to get fucked, not cuddled. rolling over onto your stomach you grab your phone that was laying on the bed and you start to aimlessly scroll through all your socials. it felt like forever passed by (it was only five minutes) before you finally sat back up, a brilliant idea popping into your head.

you remembered a conversation you had with wonwoo awhile back where you discussed the possibility of him fucking you with the boys either watching or listening through their discord. it was no surprise to wonwoo that the boys were physically attracted to you (and maybe even emotionally but that’s something he didn’t want to tap into knowing it would just piss him off) so he agreed that if the time ever came for them to all be in the mood then he’d fuck you with them around in some way.

with a devilish smile on your face you open up your messages with vernon, knowing he’d actually respond to you out of the three. the message said something along the lines of ‘wonwoo isn’t paying attention to me so im gonna suck him off under the table until he does, do you and the boys wanna fuck with him while i do it?’

it didn’t take long for vernon to text back, saying he’d ask the boys in the next lobby. so now, here you were, kicking your feet impatiently as you watched wonwoo's screen. once the word victory flashed on the screen you squealed quietly, catching your boyfriend's attention.

“you normally don’t react when i win or lose.” he deafened himself so the boys can’t hear him and he can't hear them. he pulls his headphones down to rest around his neck as he spins in the chair to face you. “do you really want my attention that badly?” he can’t help the way his lips twitch up into the slightest smile, he’ll never admit it but he loves it when you’re desperate for his attention.

just as you were going to respond you got a message from vernon. ‘we’re all in.’ you can’t help but bite your lip before looking back up at wonwoo, giving him your best puppy dog eyes. wonwoo swallows the lump in his throat, knowing exactly what that look was for.

“i do want your attention but, i know you hate breaking your promises to your boys so how about a compromise?” you slowly slide off the bed to walk up to where he’s sitting. out of instinct wonwoo wraps his hands around the backs of your thighs to hold you in place as he looks up at you. god he looked so hot, looking at you like you were the center of his world (and you were).

“compromise?” he mumbled, his fingers digging into your flesh when you reach your hands out to trail down his chest and stomach, stopping just before the waistband of his sweats.

“mhm, you can keep playing with your boys and i can just sit under your desk…” you’re slow to drop to your knees in front of him, looking up through your eyelashes. “like this.” his breath catches in his throat, his dick jumping a little in excitement at the sight of you on your knees for him.

“what if the boys hear?” he mumbles, looking up at the screen where a countdown started signaling they were about to join a new game. “fuck it, just be quiet under there.” he mumbles as he lets you get comfortable under his desk, a happy squeal leaving you making him shake his head with a fond smile on his face.

you quickly text vernon to tell him that the plan is starting. tossing your phone to the side you make quick work at tugging a wonwoo's sweats and boxers down enough to free his half hard dick, exposing it to the cold air and causing wonwoo to hiss quietly.

“yeah i’m all good,” he grumbles into his mic before he glances down at you, almost groaning at the sight of you practically drooling over his dick. “just hit my desk, that's all.” he reassures his friends before he focuses back on the game.

wonwoo is normally good at keeping his composure, he doesn’t lose self control easily and right now he was definitely demonstrating it. he barely paid you half a mind while you wrapped your fingers around the base of his cock, before leaning in to flick the tip of your tongue over the slit. you took your time, slobbering up his dick so that you can pump your hand up and down it so that he can get fully hard before you take it in your mouth.

the only indication that you got that your boyfriend was enjoying himself was his legs tensing up and his words were muffled, he was talking through his teeth as he clenched his jaw to keep from moaning.

“hey man, are you sure you’re good?” mingyu grumbles into his mic, knowing exactly what was wrong. wonwoo lets out a strained “all good.” his jaw clenching harder when you finally take the tip of his dick in your mouth.

his eyes roll a little as his hand squeezes his mouse tighter, his fingers more aggressively tapping his keys as he tries to distract himself from the warmth of your mouth surrounding his dick. he doesn’t remember getting so hard but he’s not surprised, his body reacted so quickly to you and he should be embarrassed but considering it was you he couldn’t bring himself to care.

“you don’t sound good,” vernon laughs quietly, huffing when he gets downed in the game. “sounds like you got something distracting you.” vernon was thankful they weren’t video chatting so that wonwoo couldn’t see the smirk on his face.

“i’m not distracted.” wonwoo grunts, his hips bucking up into your mouth a little. he has to bite his tongue to keep from groaning at the small sound you made.

“are you sure?” seungcheol sounded smug, like he knew something and if it wasn’t for the tip of his dick sliding down your throat wonwoo would’ve bit back at the older male. “if i didn’t know any better i would assume y/n was doing something to you.”

wonwoo’s eyes widened a little as he looked over at discord to make sure his camera wasn’t on. how could cheol possibly know what was going on? in the few seconds that he was distracted someone came up and killed wonwoo, causing him to groan in annoyance (and pleasure).

“what happened woo?” mingyu pokes at him. “is y/n really sucking your dick or something? is that why you turned to shit all i’ve a sudden?”

“shut up gyu,” wonwoo hisses, his hand going to grab your hair and push you further down on his dick, desperate to feel more of your throat surrounding him. “you’re just talking shit now.” he tries so hard not to make any sounds that would give him away.

“talking shit? i’m just telling the truth. it’s not my fault you can’t handle the thought of y/n wrapping her lips around your dick.” mingyu laughs a little, knowing he’s getting under wonwoo's skin while he’s falling apart in your hands (and mouth).

you swallow a little around the tip of wonwoo's dick to hopefully distract him from arguing back with mingyu and it works surprisingly well when his eyes close and he lets out a loud curse.

“maybe he’s not imagining y/n’s mouth around his dick.” vernon just stares at his screen, a small smirk playing on his face but his ears are bright red.

“didn’t know you were the type to whine woo.” seungcheol teases. “is she taking you all in? or is she only teasing you?” this was starting to get fun for them as they continued to relentlessly tease and coo dirty things into wonwoo's ears. a lot of it was their own fantasies poking through, how they wished you would suck them off but they’d rather sit on a hot grill than admit that out loud.

“god fuck you all.” wonwoo moans as his head falls back, his self control completely crumbling as he relishes in the feeling of your mouth. his legs were tensing and his fingers were gripping tighter on your hair, helping you ease all the way down on his dick, your nose brushing against his pelvic.

“aww you here that he wants to fuck us.” mingyu jokes, and wonwoo was about to cuss him out but instead he stumbled over his words, your hand had slipped into his boxers to squeeze at his balls.

“fuck, y/n such a good girl.” wonwoo mumbles in a haze, his orgasm fast approaching now that you’ve taken up messaging his balls.

“she is a good girl.” one of the guys breathed out, it was hard for wonwoo to tell as his blood rushed in his ears, his hips bucking up more aggressively as his orgasm was right there, and just as he was ready to unload down your throat you manage to pull yourself off his dick. he gasps in surprise and stutters.

“why’d you stop?” he looked at you with wide eyes while panting softly.

“beg.” you smirk up at him, you thought you had the upper hand here since he was basically putty in your hands.

“what?” his eyes went from surprised to ‘are you serious?’.

“you heard me.” the boys were muttering in wonwoo's ears about how you were being a little brat, and if it wasn’t for the fact that you ripped his orgasm away wonwoo would’ve told them off for calling you a brat (not that they were wrong but only he got to call you that).

in one quick movement wonwoo grabs your hair again and tugs you up so he can come face to face with you, an almost malicious smirk on his face. he mumbles against your lips, asking you to repeat yourself again.

“i want you to be-“ before you can finish your sentence wonwoo is pushing you back down to sit on your heels. he tugs your head down and growls at you to put his dick back in your mouth, and he almost misses the way his friend breathing hitched. you were happy to have his dick back in your mouth, your eyelashes flutter as you look back up at him. you knew what was coming and you were fully prepared for wonwoo's wrath (though you hope that he doesn’t withhold any orgasms from you like you did to him).

he definitely isn’t nice in the way he pushes you fully down on his dick, your throat already prepped to deepthroat him.

“you wanna be a little brat?” he groans as he holds your head down on his dick, causing you to gag a little (not that you cared, you were just happy that he finally lost control). “have my friends whisper dirty shit in my ears while you gagged on my dick?” he grunts when you swallow, the warmth of your throat squeezing around him deliciously. “well now you’re gonna take everything i give you while they get to listen.” he rips his headphones off his head, and with one hand he adjusts them on yours so you can hear everything his friends are doing and they can clearly hear all the wet lewd sounds of wonwoo fucking your throat.

vernon let’s out a string of curses, his head falling back against his gaming chair as he listened to the way he can tell that wonwoo's dick is far down your throat. he didn’t want to think about how big his friends dick was but he also couldn’t help but imagine just how much you could take in that pretty mouth of yours.

mingyu was shamelessly moaning, his hand shoved down his pants and the loud sound of his hand jerking himself off could be picked up by his expensive mic. his forehead was resting on his desk as the only thing he could think about was wonwoo's quiet grunts and your loud gagging and occasional moaning.

seungcheol was in a similar position as vernon, his head hanging off the back of his chair, his eyes closed as he contemplated his next words. teasing wonwoo was one thing, it was fun even but after hearing you he couldn’t help the way his cock jumped in his pants.

“fuck you sound so pretty.” vernons voice felt hoarse, his throat gone dry but he couldn’t stand not saying anything. he felt like he needed to say something because god did you really sound so pretty.

“so pretty.” mingyu breathes out in between his moans, his hand speeding up when he notices that wonwoo sped up as well. it’s not that he was relying on wonwoo to determine how fast he jerked himself off but he didn’t want to prematurely finish before the fun was over.

“sound like such a good girl.” seungcheol groans lowly, his own hand palming over the tent in his pants, his own self control jumping out the window. “are you a good girl y/n?” you nod your head around wonwoo's dick before realizing they can see you, so you hum to acknowledge seungcheol words.

“fuck.” wonwoo groans at the vibrations from you humming around his dick. “are they making pretty sounds for you kitten?” you hum again as you swallow around his dick again, drawing a louder groan from your boyfriend.

his fingers dig into your scalp as he fucks your throat faster, his head thrown back and his mouth wide open. the boys could definitely hear him loud and clear but he could care less at this point, there was no shame anymore as he relentlessly bucks his hips up.

wonwoo's orgasm was fast approaching again, the coil winding itself back up as his moans got more airy. his legs began to tense up and he was for sure going to get a cramp in them until you started smoothing your hands over his thighs. despite how ruthless he was fucking into your mouth and how blurred your vision was from tears you couldn’t help but think he looked so pretty, his hair messed up from his headphones being pulled off and his eyes squeezed closed as his jaw fell slack.

“god, fuck.” he curses loudly as he finally cums down your throat, his hips still bucking up as he rides his orgasm out. you make the lewdest gagging sound ever as you struggle to swallow his cum while having his dick still shoved down your throat. “shit.” he finally pulls out of your mouth, watching how a thick string of saliva and cum connect your mouth and his dick. “so pretty.” he sighs fondly as he gently wipes your lips before grabbing your chin to tug you up to sit in his lap.

your thin pajama pants were soaked through from how aroused you were. he couldn’t help but sigh contently at the warmth of your clothed cunt sitting on top of his semi hard dick. he coos quietly at you as he takes the headphones off your head, messing your hair up even more but neither of you cared, especially when you two were able to hear mingyu cum through the headphones as vernon curses about how hot that was and cheol mumbles that he’s still extremely hard.

“that was hot.” you mumble loud enough for the boys to hear you through the mic as you settle down in wonwoo's lap, getting comfortable in the minimal space you two had on the gaming chair. your boyfriend had a lazy smirk on his face, he was always the type to want to sleep after sex but he was far from done with you tonight, and despite the fatigue he was starting to feel he was definitely going to ruin you. “what do you boys think i should do to her next?” wonwoo mumbles into his mic once he has his headphones back on, this time he was gonna give them something to listen to as they tell him how to fuck you.

feedback + reblogs are greatly appreciated!

#duhnova kinktober 2022 #gamer bf!wonwoo #wonwoo x reader #wonwoo smut #seventeen smut

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mjjune · 1 year

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How To Have a Good Beta Reading Experience (or: what I've learned from 3 years of beta reading)

So lately I've been having a lot of discussions about beta reading with my discord groups so I thought I would write it out here and also share some resources I've used over the years.

This is mostly by and for writers, however readers can learn from this post as well!

DISCLAIMER: I'm by no means a writing expert, but I have been either beta reading others' books, or having my own stories beta read consistently since 2020. THIS IS ALL PERSONAL EXPERIENCE/OPINION. Others may agree or disagree ❤️

Here are the main points I'm going to talk about in this post, and I'll do it under the cut to save your dash space:

Understanding Alpha vs. Beta Readers

Choosing Readers

Being Clear About Feedback

Swapping / Compensation

The Importance of Writing Community/Groups

Websites/Resources for Finding Beta Readers

1. Understanding Alphas vs. Betas

So this is extremely important and for me, this may be the difference between me finishing your book or not. Many times, especially from new writers who had never had anyone read their work before, had extremely rough drafts that were barely coherent and were NOT beta ready, but asked me to beta read. I am not a person who can look past extensive grammar errors, nor am I the kind of person who will sit and fix all your grammar line-by-line for you.

Alpha Readers - for first/second drafts

Beta Readers - for polished drafts

It is ok for alpha reads to be unpolished and have grammar issues, and it's even ok if they have plot issues, continuity errors, etc. Because alpha readers are there for that purpose: to be the first eyes on your story and help you find and fix those issues.

The issue I have had over and over, though, is people asking for a beta reader when what they really needed was an alpha. I went in expecting a polished draft and got someone's Draft 0. In some cases, I got 100k drafts where the writer obviously had no idea how to format dialogue grammar and every single dialogue was wrong. Obviously this made me slow and in many cases, unable to finish.

Alpha readers will go in expecting it to be unpolished, and will be prepared to look past grammar/stylistic errors in order to focus on the big picture issues (plot holes, character consistency, pacing/engagement issues, etc). A Beta may be too frustrated by an unpolished draft to finish it or provide the feedback you're looking for. If you have been experiencing a lot of betas backing out and not finishing your work, you might consider this as a possible reason why.

I would also recommend, if you have never had anyone read your work before, even if you have had multiple drafts, it might be safest to ask for alphas rather than betas.

A quick way to see if your work is beta ready (again, personal experience): Pick up a published book from the shelf in your genre. Does your book read similarly? Does your formatting & grammar look the same? Bonus: read it out loud! If reading the published book out loud is significantly easier than reading yours out loud, you're probably in the alpha stage.

TL;DR: Understand your draft and which level of reader your draft is ready for. Know the difference between polished and unpolished, and be upfront about it.

2. Choosing Alphas/Betas

You may not like it but: Just because someone is your friend, real life or online, does not mean they will make a good reader for you.

#1 MOST IMPORTANT: GET READERS WHO LIKE & REGULARLY READ YOUR GENRE!

I cannot stress this enough. As someone who writes vampire content, I cannot begin to express to you the amount of useless comments I got from readers who had clearly never read a vampire book in their life.

You need someone who is familiar with your genre and you likes your synopsis/blurb.

Caveat: that said, I did find a few great betas who had never read vampire content before and gave awesome feedback. However, these readers knew and admitted they knew nothing about the paranormal genre, and because of that did not make any comments on worldbuilding, instead sticking to plot and character development only. Some readers can't make this separation.

Another thing I would recommend, especially if you are swapping or the beta reader is also a writer/on writeblr, I would recommend reading their writing before having them beta read. If you read their excerpts and see that it's really unpolished or a style that's vastly different than yours, that might change whether you want them to read for you.

In my most recent beta round, I used a google form to do a quick survey to see who was interested in beta reading. This worked really well for me and I would recommend it! You can also use this to make all potential readers agree to not share/distribute/plagiarize your work, so you have it in writing just in case someone were to try something.

This was also a great way to see which genres they usually read and how many times they have beta read in the past!

TL;DR: Get readers who LIKE your genre. Read their writing and see how they write. Use an online signup form to narrow down.

3. Be Clear About The Type of Feedback You Want

This is perhaps the second most important thing when you get readers. Many readers will shy away from reading your work if you have nothing in mind for them to look out for. Also, being clear about this shows that you 1) know it isn't perfect and needs work and 2) you have insight into what the issues already are.

For Alphas, these traits are what I have found to be the most helpful:

Immediate inline reactions - particularly emotional engagement and pointing out lines that resonated with them

NO grammar/stylistic comments (unless incomprehensible)

Questioning of worldbuilding, character decisions, and character development - particularly if confusing or unclear

Comments on action sequences & their readability

Comments on believability of the plot points/progression

For Betas, these are what have been most helpful to me:

Comments on grammar, especially if repetitive

Stylistic comments, particularly for over-used words or noticeably repetitive sentence structures

Comments on pacing

Comments on plot initiation point and buildup/execution of the climax

Not questioning my worldbuilding/plot and trusting that what I have written is intentional. Only pointing out areas that have on-page evidence of inconsistencies.

Everything above is simply personal preference. You might find other comments to be better for alphas/betas. However, being upfront about which comments you want or don't want can drastically change which people want to read for you!

Some readers are obsessed with in-depth inline grammar/style comments, some aren't at all. Some writers LOVE these in-depth grammar comments, and some don't. Being clear about what you want is the best way to make sure you and your readers are compatible for the stage of editing you're at.

4. Swapping / Compensation

So this one I might have a bit of an unpopular opinion, but I wanted to cover it because so many people talk about it on here and other sites.

Again, based on my personal experience, swapping and compensation does not mean you're going to get better feedback or have a better experience or relationship with readers.

For the record, for everyone who beta reads for me—and finishes—I always offer to read theirs, even if it's a genre I don't like.

Personally, I have never tried compensation (re: money) for beta readers. However, there are a few issues I've come across with swapping:

Mine was beta ready and theirs was unpolished first draft

Our types of feedback didn't align

Our genre preferences didn't align

Their feedback was nowhere near as high quality or constructive as mine

In these cases, one or both of us burnt out on reading the others' work, and then we'd both bail. Especially with #4, it was very disheartening for me to spend hours finding their plot holes, helping them come up with ways to fix them, for them to then write 1 paragraph about what they thought of my story that was extremely surface level. To me, that wasn't even a swap, and was practically worthless. There was even one who got sensitive about the feedback I was providing (which was a queer sensitivity read) and then left almost identical comments on my story, which weren't even relevant. It was like revenge-commenting.

All this to say: I have had positive experiences with swaps. My alpha for twtr was a swap and I really enjoy her work and she enjoys mine, and we will probably continue to swap forever.

This goes back to #2 above: be picky & choose your readers well. Your story is your baby, and it deserves to be critiqued by people who value you and your story, and want to help you make it the best possible version of itself.

To summarize, I have had two good swapping experiences. I have had 10+ good uncompensated betas—with an offer for me to read their stuff when it's ready. Do with that what you will.

5. Writing Community / Groups

On to a more positive note! I have had the best experience here on writeblr, and this is coming from someone who has tried multiple other communities (which I discuss in the last section below). Having my own discord server from tumblr, joining a few other writers' discord servers, has completely changed the game regarding finding consistent betas, more resources, and just having an overall much more positive time writing and editing.

Writeblr keeps me grounded, keeps me hopeful, and even if I share something that doesn't get tons of notes, it's so nice to have interaction. It's so nice to give and get back, consistently.

I do want to emphasize the importance of giving to get back. If no one is liking/interacting with your excerpts, tag/ask games, etc. then that's probably because you're not interacting with them! It's very important to show interest in other people's work!!

I'm not saying you need to jump onto everyone's taglists for all their wips, but join the ones that genuinely interest you the most. Play in ask/tag games consistently. Follow writers back who follow you (if they post things you're interested in, ofc).

I have the same amount of followers as the people I follow right now, and I think that goes to show that people reciprocate here on writeblr! It's a lovely community and don't be afraid to reach out ❤️

I have found almost ALL my recent betas from my tumblr and discord groups. They have been lovely so far and I would highly recommend building up community here if you are interested in finding betas.

6. Websites/Resources for Finding Betas

Alright, last section. Thanks for bearing with me. I'm going to go through the sites I have used, and why I still use them, or why I dropped them.

Scribophile

So, for starters, this is one I don't use anymore. This was the site I first used when I had a polished draft in 2020 and had no idea how to get feedback. Essentially, they have a point-system. The more comments you make, the more points you get, and then when you have 3 points, you can post a chapter. It continues in a cycle.

Pros: Personally, I think the site helped me a lot in realizing what a bad critique looks like (which is helpful!) and also helped me learn which comments/feedback types work for me, and which don't. I don't regret my time there by any means, and I found one life-long friend and beta reader there I wouldn't trade for the world. It also allows you to post/remove your story and the readers don't have direct access to it—meaning if they want to download/steal/plagiarize, they'd have to copy and paste or screenshot chapter by chapter. It's a little safety precaution.

Cons: It's not the best place to get constructive feedback. The issue with their system is it encourages quantity over quality in critiques. Because of that, you'll get strangers rewriting your entire chapter in their own style so they get 2-3 points for one critique, but... was any of it actually helpful to you? Maybe, maybe not. It's also random, so you can't control who comments on your stuff, and they might just comment to get points even if they hate your genre. I also don't think it's fair to have to do 3-5 chapter critiques in order to save up enough points to post ONE chapter of your own. And if you want to post your story for full beta reads and control who reads it and who doesn't, you have to subscribe monthly.

So I keep an eye on it occasionally to look through their forums on writing, agents, publishing, etc. But most of the forums gets nasty, because there are a lot of really pretentious writers who think they know all the rules. If you join small groups (e.g. sub-groups based on diversity, etc) they tend to have better and more meaningful discussions.

Personally, I would never use it for beta/alpha/feedback ever again. This is the site where most of my bad swaps came from. But you might find it useful! So I thought I would share it.

Nanowrimo Forums

This is another one I don't use anymore, but might consider reusing in the future. The biggest issue I have with nanowrimo is that a lot, and I mean A LOT, of these participants are first-time writers and have no concept of what polished vs. unpolished even means. I did find two really good swaps there (actually the only two good full swaps I've had) but those were very hard to find.

There is also the issue that a good chunk of them only write during November, not year round. So for finding consistent, year-long partners, this is not the best option. I'm a member of 2 discords that have all fallen silent as soon as Nano actually ended.

Also, in my experience, asking questions about anything related to "controversial" topics (especially trans and minority ethnic groups) becomes toxic very quick, which is unfortunate. There are even a few moderators who seem to be contributing to the toxic/immature discussions rather than fixing them/shutting them down, which is the main reason I stopped using it.

However, it's a GREAT place to get free, simple covers! Their artisan section is fantastic and there are a lot of people there willing to make basic covers/banners for you for free.

BetaBooks

I've only been using this one about a month so far, but I'm really liking it. It's set up that you can invite betas to your story specifically, or you can look through a beta reader library, read their profiles, and invite them to see if they're interested.

This is essentially an alternative to Scribophile. It allows you to post your story online and find betas and become a beta.

Why I like it better than Scribophile: it's not a point-based system, meaning it's uncompensated so the readers have nothing to gain other than enjoying/helping your story. There's no hard feelings if someone bails. It allows you to see all comments in one place (which Scrib can't do). (And with discount codes found through google, it's cheaper, too. Message me if you need help with this 👀)

It also is all online, easily removable, so readers would have to copy/paste or screenshot chapter-by-chapter to steal it. So again, just a little safety net that makes me feel better.

Writeblr

Yep, that's right. Right here. Actually right here on tumblr has been where I have found the most beta readers and in the shortest time. I talked about this in the section before so I won't regurgitate. But there's a reason why this community is so long-lasting. It really is the best one out there I've found.

TL;DR / IN CONCLUSION:

Know where your book is in terms of reader-readiness. Know the difference between alphas/betas and polished/unpolished. Know the types of feedback that work for you and specifically request it when recruiting betas.

Interact with a community. Give interaction in order to receive, and don't expect people to reblog/like your content if you don't reach out first. Join small, niche writing community discords. Find like-minded writers.

Decide to swap or not, but this won't make or break you.

There are many writing communities out there designed to help you not only find betas, to provide beta-reading feedback forms and commentary. Try them out and see what works best for you.

And above all, thank Writeblr for being such a lovely community ❤️

#writeblr #writblr #writers on tumblr #writeblr community #writerblr #writer community #writing community #novel writing #beta readers #fantasy writing #wtwcommunity #mj posts #mj mumbles #mj talks about beta reading #100 #300 #500

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orqheuss · 11 months

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☆*: .｡.Wand headcanons.｡.:*☆

Warning: long post! Deep discussion of characters and their personalities ahead

I have been thinking extensively about Ominis and Sebastian's wands and which would suit them the best since they are currently unknown in canon.

As we know from Harry Potter lore, wand cores and woods have the most sway in how not only the wand itself would behave, but also what kind of person the wand owner is and how they will use it. With that being said, we know the personalities of the boy's quite intimately, but we know absolutely no information about their wands besides what they look like, and even then in some scenes they look vastly different.

For this research I used stills from the game when we get close ups of their wands, as well as the Harry Potter Wiki, the Wizarding World website, and a funky weebly website that someone made for a class all about wandlore (I know, not really a reputable source, but it has a but ton of information that can be backed up via the other websites I mentioned) to gather my research.

This was all just a late night info spiral that the ominis discord server helped me with, lol (message @finalgirllx if you would like to join! we have fun)

I am by no means saying my word is law or that you can't have your own opinions. This is just what I think fits them best. I do not own the characters or the Hogwarts Legacy game.

I tried to keep this as spoiler free as possible. No huge plot spoilers are shared.

Now with the formalities out of the way, let's dive in.

We'll start with Ominis, because he has, arguably, the most interesting wand.

My headcanon: Horned Serpent horn core, blackthorn wood, 10 3/4 inches, brittle flexibility

I'm going to go section by section and explain my reasonings. First, the core.

Horned Serpent horn core: While a very, very rare core, it is an exceedingly powerful one that leans towards not only the ties it has to Ominis' family name but also his strengths and weaknesses.

There has only been two wands created with a Horned Serpent horn core in Harry Potter lore, and they belonged to the adopted sons of Isolt Sayre, the founder of Ilvermorny, or the North American school of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

According to the lore, Isolt is a direct descendant of Morrigan, a famous Irish witch, and Salazar Slytherin, one of the founders of Hogwarts, thus making her of Gaunt heritage. Her parents were murdered when she was young by her aunt, Gormlaith Gaunt, whom was unhappy with her sister's muggle-helping ways. Gormlaith then kidnapped the girl and kept her captive for a number of years before Isolt was able to escape and flee to America on the Mayflower. There she befriended a Horned Serpent, and when her adopted son's were of age she had their wands fashioned with a sliver of the horn from her serpent friend.

So, why does this core fit Ominis?

As I said, it's properties directly line up with what we know about Ominis' wand in the game. Sebastian states that it is "almost sentient" and is able to help him navigate around the castle and the outside world with little problem. This fits the Horned Serpent horn because, according to the Harry Potter wiki, "[t]his core was exceptionally powerful, sensitive to Parseltongue and vibrated when Parseltongue was being spoken, and could warn their owners of danger by emitting a low musical tone." Because of Ominis' blindness, he likely has exceedingly strong hearing, thus making the low musical tone of the Horned Serpent horn a likely culprit for his wand's echolocation abilities. Not only would this wand core run in the Gaunt family, but it would also connect to Ominis' ability to speak Parseltongue.

As a side note, Salazar Slytherin had a basilisk horn core in his wand and is said to have passed it down when he died, so it would stay in the Gaunt family. Having a core so similar to Slytherin's, and most likely Ominis' father because he would be the next in line to get the wand, would please his family greatly.

Blackthorn wood: As we can see in the game and in the reference picture, Ominis' wand is a dark grey, nearly black color. This in itself narrows down what possible wood it is, as there isn't many dark wand woods known in the lore.

Below is an image of blackthorn branches.

The coloring matches, but what about their personality?

According to the Wizarding World website, this is the description of blackthorn wood:

Blackthorn, which is a very unusual wand wood, has the reputation, in my view well-merited, of being best suited to a warrior. This does not necessarily mean that its owner practises the Dark Arts (although it is undeniable that those who do so will enjoy the blackthorn wand’s prodigious power); one finds blackthorn wands among the Aurors as well as among the denizens of Azkaban. It is a curious feature of the blackthorn bush, which sports wicked thorns, that it produces its sweetest berries after the hardest frosts, and the wands made from this wood appear to need to pass through danger or hardship with their owners to become truly bonded. Given this condition, the blackthorn wand will become as loyal and faithful a servant as one could wish.

This fits with one of the first things we find out about Ominis and his personality-- he starts off as standoff-ish, brash, and, for a lack of a better word, "thorny." After getting to know him in the game, though, we find out that his harshness is just a defense mechanism due to his past and his protectiveness of his friends. Thus, the berry analogy. He himself goes through an incredible "danger or hardship" at the hands of his family, making the blackthorn tree a kindred spirit for him.

Unfortunately wand length and flexibility don't make much of a difference in wands, but there is still a little bit of information about them. I'm basing most of this information (the wand length at least) on fanon decided lore.

10 3/4 inches: Wand length is primarily based on the height and stature of the wizard. In very rare cases, witches and wizards of incredibly sour dispositions will get small, stubby wands (6 inches or below) but that doesn't fit in this situation. According to the Harry Potter Wiki, nine to ten inch wands are "[v]ery standard, and very formal," and "[t]ypically, wizards of average height (5' 6" - 6' 0") will have wands in this size range." Since most of the fandom agrees that Ominis would be around the 6'0", 6'1" range, this would fit his build. I added the 3/4 just to be a bit spicy.

Brittle flexibility: Because neither website really has information about the flexibility of wands, this is taken mostly from the weebly page on wandlore. According to the Wizarding World website, "[w]and flexibility or rigidity denotes the degree of adaptability and willingness to change possessed by the wand-and-owner pair[.]" I have also heard that it is based again on the witch or wizard's personality, so I used both instances here.

Basically, the more flexible the wand, the more flexible the witch or wizard would be in stressful situations, but also the more likely your wand would be to accept a new owner if it were to be won in a duel.

Brittle fits Ominis the best because of it's description on the wandlore class website:

A wand with this flexibility tends to attach itself quickest to owners who have insecurities, and its level of loyalty is often dependent on how loyal the owner is to it. Should it become very loyal to its original owner, new owners often won't get the chance to earn the wand's loyalty before it breaks. Brittle wands are best suited to subtle and delicate magic, such as transfiguration and non-verbal spell-casting. Because they break easy, their owners should be careful to avoid magic that is unnecessarily flashy or explosive, especially if the wand also has a dragon heartstring core. Owners with this wand flexibility are usually contemplative, clever, and somewhat cynical; they tend to be an "underdog" type of person and perhaps even a little bit unlucky, which could lead them to becoming resentful of their more successful peers. If a brittle wand owner perseveres and manages to get over their insecurities, however, he or she will often become a "great success story" that never ceases to amaze and inspire others.

There are points in the argument both for and against Ominis' insecurities controlling his personality, but this particular wand flexibility fits both extremes well. If he leans more on the insecure side, the wand would attach itself quite quickly to him and would remain loyal as long as he was loyal to it, which is a given since he needs it to navigate the world. Ominis was likely a closed off and insecure child when he was young, so it would fit that a brittle wand would attach itself to him quickly. In the game, we see Ominis is careful and sure with his wand work, so I don't think the brittle nature of the wand would come into play, especially with his and Sebastian's love for confringo.

The main thing that connects this flexibility to Ominis is the description of the owners personality, stating that they would be "contemplative, clever, and somewhat cynical" even an "underdog" type. Ominis is the definition of these three terms, and it can be argued that because of the biases surrounding his last name, as well as his disability, he could be considered an "underdog." Ominis is contemplative in most of his dialogue, wanting to see all sides of an argument before making a decision one way or another. He is incredibly clever, often twisting arguments in his favor and throwing words back at the person debating him. As for cynical, there just isn't a better word for how he treats the MC when he passes them around the castle. Every single one of his voice lines is some thinly veiled insult.

Next, let's explore Sebastian's wand-- easily one of the most identifiable wands in the game.

My headcanon: Dragon heartstring core, yew wood, 9 1/2 inches, unyielding flexibility

Same process as Ominis' wand. Here we go!

Dragon heartstring core: In medical science, "heartstrings" refer to the chordae tendineae of the heart, which connect the papillary muscles to the tricuspid and mitral valves so they can open and close as the heart pumps blood between atrial and ventricular chambers (I had to research this lmao, I am not a science person). It's possible that this is where they get the core from in a dragon, but there isn't enough information about dragon anatomy in canon lore to be sure.

Wand cores are connected to the strength of a witch or wizard's magic, as well as the type of magic that they are more likely to lean towards and the type of magic that the wand will be adept with.

Dragon heartstring is one of the three "supreme cores" that are sold in Olivanders. The description of the wand core on the Harry Potter Wiki is as follows:

Dragon heartstrings produce wands with the most magical power, and which [are] capable of the most flamboyant spells. Dragon wands tended to learn more quickly than other types. While they could change allegiance if won from their original master, they always bonded strongly with the current owner. The dragon wand tended to be easiest to turn to the Dark Arts, though it would not incline that way of its own accord. It was also the most prone of the three cores to accidents, being somewhat temperamental.

Don't be swayed, I did not just pick this because of its proclivity towards dark magic. Yes, Sebastian is the one that teaches the MC the unforgivable curses, but this in itself matches the personality traits he exhibits from the very beginning: confidence (to the point of arrogance at times), and loyalty. Sebastian himself states that he leans more towards "fiery forms of magic" after he teaches you the blasting curse, so it would make sense that his wand core would need to be able to handle this kind of spell work. One that is "flamboyant" and "temperamental" would fit this the best. Not only this, but before the MC arrives at Hogwarts, Sebastian was the best duelist there, so he would need a wand core that picked up magic quick and was able to keep up with his competitive nature.

Yew wood: Yes, another thing that leans towards dark magic, but hear me out. Sebastian's wand color is very light, making the options for the possible wood types he would have just as sparse as Ominis'.

Wand woods are connected to the owners personality, diving down past the surface level and often discovering the most innate personality traits of the witch or wizard that owns it.

Below is an image of yew wood.

At first, I thought Sebastian's wand could possibly be aspen, but upon looking at the coloring of that wood versus yew, yew seems to be the closest in color. Aspen wood is often compared to bone because of how pale white it is, but if you look at the picture of Sebastian's wand, it has some warm undertones that make it a different hue than ivory.

Back to the personality. Here is what the Wizarding World website says about yew wood:

Yew wands are among the rarer kinds, and their ideal matches are likewise unusual, and occasionally notorious. The wand of yew is reputed to endow its possessor with the power of life and death, which might, of course, be said of all wands; and yet yew retains a particularly dark and fearsome reputation in the spheres of duelling and all curses. However, it is untrue to say (as those unlearned in wandlore often do) that those who use yew wands are more likely to be attracted to the Dark Arts than another. The witch or wizard best suited to a yew wand might equally prove a fierce protector of others. Wands hewn from these most long-lived trees have been found in the possession of heroes quite as often as of villains. Where wizards have been buried with wands of yew, the wand generally sprouts into a tree guarding the dead owner’s grave. What is certain, in my experience, is that the yew wand never chooses either a mediocre or a timid owner.

I'm not going to go into any heavy spoilers, but if you know, you know.

Sebastian is absolutely not a mediocre or timid wizard-- quite the opposite. He tends to lead with his heart rather his head, diving into battles before thinking through a strategy or jumping feet first into an argument before hearing both sides of the issue. He is fiercely loyal and protective of those he cares about, which can be seen in how he talks about not only Anne but also Ominis. His main motivation through the entirety of the game is finding a cure for his sister's curse, and he quite literally goes to outlandish means to achieve his goals. He is described as an accomplished duelist (we don't really see that, but let's chalk that up to the companion mechanics of the game and not his actual skill) and he is proficient in curses of all nature. He is the definition of a morally grey character-- not quite a hero, but also not quite a villain.

Again, for wand length and flexibility I will be using a mix of canon and fanon lore because of how scarce the information is on these sections of wandlore.

9 1/2 inches: As I said earlier with Ominis' wand, nine to ten inches is the common length for most wands. Since Ominis and Sebastian are, in fanon lore at least, similar in height (Ominis slightly taller than Sebastian in most fanfictions and fanart), I kept them close in length. Most agree that Sebastian is likely around 5'10", 5"11", so a wand slightly smaller than Ominis' but still within average length would fit best. Again, the half inch is just to be spicy.

Unyielding flexibility: Same as before, most of this information was taken from the wandlore weebly.

The word "unyielding" in itself describes Sebastian's personality. As previously stated, he is incredibly stubborn and hardheaded when he wants to be, and we see that often in the game.

The description for an unyielding wand is as follows:

A wand of this flexibility finely tunes itself to its original owner's preferences and doesn't stray from those preferences, even in the hands of a new owner; the new owner will just have to get used to it. It is particularly good for combative and healing magic. Unyielding wand owners tend to be very confident in themselves and/or in the things they believe in. They tend to be intelligent, somewhat cynical, and usually have well-defined principles that they will not stray from ever. Sometimes, this combination can lead to arrogance because of them insisting on how right they are without considering other points of view or whether or not they might be wrong.

Sebastian is a confident young man. He himself names him the best duelist in the school, and he prides himself on his knowledge of the wizarding world, both due to his proclivity to research and the fact that his parents were professors. In the game mechanics, particularly the bits that did not make it into the final game but were still in the code, there are a few lines for him that lean towards the possibility that he could heal the MC if our health got too low, thus adding the possibility that he was skilled in healing magic and combative magic. Sebastian's principles are defined from the very beginning of the game, stating that he would do anything for his friends and family, as well as was not afraid to break the rules to get what he wanted. He can be a bit arrogant at times due to this confidence, but for the most part it comes off as endearing.

As the game goes on he grows more cynical of the world and of the MC, often stating that they do not share the same opinions like he once thought and that they don't care about Anne and finding a cure for her curse. His tendency to not sway in his opinions and his insistence that he is right and everyone else is wrong grows tenfold around the winter mark. Because of this, no matter how many people are arguing that he is going down a dark path, he does not back down.

As both Ominis and Sebastian say, Sebastian Sallow does not back down from a fight, and he needs a wand that agrees with this belief system.

These are my headcaons! If you made it all the way to this bit, please don't be afraid to share your thoughts and personal headcanons for the boys and their wands!

Thanks for indulging me and my ramblings, lol

#tina speaks #hogwarts legacy #ominis gaunt #sebastian sallow #ominis gaunt headcanon #sebastian sallow headcanon #ominis headcanon #sebastian headcanon

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am-i-the-asshole-official · 5 months

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WIBTA for writing a story? ✨ (emoji so I can find this easily)

So around a year and a half ago, as part of a drama exam me and a group of four others had to devise a piece to act out for the exam.

Me and two others who were the actors (the other two did the set and music) ended up really liking the story and characters we were creating for the project and all wanted to expand on the story we'd created for the exam.

The three of us me (currently 16 NB) and the other two who I'll call Alex (currently 17 M) and Rowan (currently 16 NB) made a discord server for the three of us to talk about the characters we'd made together and share ideas for how we'd develop them if we turned the performance we were writing into a story/book series.

This was a lot of fun and at first I really enjoyed discussing ideas about the characters we'd created but after a while I started to find myself disliking some of the others' ideas more and more and wanting to write the series on my own.

I never acted on that though because the three of us were all passionate about our ideas and the characters so the idea of writing my own version felt wrong when the others wanted to write the story too as a group.

Now since then, Rowan has stopped talking to both me and Alex. I haven't heard from Rowan since May and honestly I don't really want to hear from them again because since we stopped talking I realized our friendship really wasn't very healthy for either of us. During this time they deleted discord but their account was still in the server.

Alex had disappeared offline since January but recently returned five months ago. We caught up and at first we talked about our ideas, the characters and how we wanted to turn it into a book series again, during this we kicked Rowan's account from the discord because neither of us spoke with them anymore. After a while we stopped talking much about the characters and our ideas and just started talking about random things. But last week Alex left the discord unannounced and I haven't heard from him at all since.

Now, I know Alex might return sometime like he left and returned before and I know this is pretty soon but while he's gone and since I'm no longer in contact with Rowan, I've found myself wanting to try writing the story myself with complete freedom to write the story I want to write and not have to use the others' ideas that I don't like.

It wouldn't feel so wrong anymore since they're not still there discussing their ideas or talking about how we should all write it together as a group but I do feel a little unsure if this would be an assholeish thing to do. I mean, I'd be writing about the characters we all created together, using the base story idea we all created for the project and I don't know if Alex will return or not yet.

So, would I be the asshole if I wrote the story by myself?

Additional info.

Idk if any of this is relevant but it might help with the judgement/I feel like people would ask for info about this stuff if I didn't add it.

The ideas I disliked were mainly to do with the development of a certain character, a ship that really would not make any sense and Alex wanting to add in a talking magical dinosaur to the plot of what was meant to be a story set in the modern day real world.

We never actually tried to write the story as a group before, we just talked about it.

None of us see each other IRL anymore.

I have got ADHD and autism.

There wouldn't be anything nsfw in the story.

None of the characters were based on any of us.

There are a lot of reasons why mine and Rowan's friendship wasn't healthy for either of us but to give a few reasons we didn't really care about each other's interests (like fandoms), would consistently cancel on hangouts with each other or would get into arguments over stupid stuff and not talk for weeks only to go back to being clingy with each other when we started talking again. Looking back, it was definitely an unhealthy friendship for both of us.

What are these acronyms?

#aita #am i the asshole

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flightfoot · 5 months

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ML Fanfic recs for 2023: 2K - 5K Words

So I’ve been going through and adding particularly good fics I’ve read throughout the year. Only Complete fics, of course. Enjoy!

An uncaffeinated Marinette makes for an easily misunderstood Marinette.

Luka’s a ghost. Naturally, he does some haunting. He didn’t expect to fall in love along the way.

Nathaniel keeps trying to confess his feelings to Ivan. Marc keeps trying to sabotage those attempts in order to confess his own feelings. Why does it seem like things never go right?

Cat Walker’s under orders to fight Ladybug. That doesn’t stop Adrien from helping his girlfriend.

Zoe and Kagami discuss the intricacies of relationships while being mildly inconvenienced by zombies.

Kagami awakens to find herself in a house with a zombie. This is less of a problem than you might think.

Sabine keeps having nightmares about Ladybug and Chat Noir killing Marinette. She has some basis to worry.

All this and more below the break!

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They fill you with the faults they had. And add some extra, just for you by @unecoccinellenoire

The thing is, Adrien Agreste isn’t a sentimonster. That’s the problem.

It’s left ambiguous exactly what’s happening, but... instead of the characters who’re canonically sentis being controlled, it looks like another method’s been used to keep them under their parents thumb. Basically, that what we thought were the kids amoks’ were actually used to brainwash more generally. Which leads to some complicated ethical questions for Adrien, since he now holds the rings. Especially since he can now use the rings on others the way they were used on him.

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what if we got married in the park by my house in the middle of the school year by @wooawi

Marinette comes up with an ingenious plan to take Adrien away from Gabriel's garbage parenting.

This was just fun. Of course Marinette’s immediate plan to get Adrien away from his garbage family is to make him part of her own. It’s hilarious and adorable and Adrien rocks the wedding dress!

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Slip of the Tongue (And Not Enough Caffiene) by That_WildChild

Marinette is tired. Marinette is also uncaffeinated. This is not a good combination.

A sleepy Marinette accidentally suggests that she shares her bed with Ladybug. At least she's protecting her identity?

Pure Crack.

Ah, sweet, sweet crack! I giggled during the story. Marinette is “fucking Ladybug” indeed. At least her classmates are supportive!

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See This Chance by @19thsentry-blog

Luka died in 2016. Yep. Crushed by the Arc de Triumph when Mayura’s Robustus slammed into it. It was kind of a big deal, but once you’re dead, you’re dead—especially when there’s no Lucky Charm to bring you back.

Luka’s been dealing with it in the typical ways.

Written for FeLuka week 2023.

Yes, this is FeLuka. Not one of the typical ships I read, but I ain’t opposed to it, and this is a nice foray into the pairing. I love ghost AUs! Luka’s just fumbling around, unsure what to do with his incorporeal existence, until he starts haunting Felix. It’s an intriguing plot and I gotta admit, I wish it was longer so it could be fleshed out more, but what’s here is good.

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Confession Plans of Questionable Sanity by yellow14

Nathanael Kurtzberg has a confession to make. He's in love with his big classmate Ivan. With the help of Marc, Marinette, Adrien and Nino, he's going to confess, using increasingly complicated schemes.

Marc meanwhile, is busy coming up with even more complicated schemes to sabotage those schemes so he can confess HIS feelings for his redheaded friend.

Nothing could POSSIBLY go wrong with this, right?

Written for the March 2023 gift exchange on the Miraculous Fanworks Discord forum for CassieTheweirdWolf.

This fic’s just really funny. These kids love to make things waaaaay harder than they need to be. But hey, everything ends up working out in the end, even if it’s not the way they planned!

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at our wedding by @anna-scribbles

“Chloé,” Adrien said slowly, “At our wedding, are we gonna have to…”

“No!” Chloé shook her head firmly. “We don’t have to kiss. We can do whatever we want. It’s our wedding.”

“Oh, good,” Adrien sighed.

“You have to kiss at a wedding,” Félix argued.

“I don’t have to do anything and you’re not the boss of me!” Chloé shouted.

“Yeah!” Adrien grinned. He grabbed Chloé’s hand again. “Yeah, it’s our wedding.”

Adrien and Chloé, wedding planning through the years.

Despite what the summary sounds like, this is NOT a Chloe/Adrien fic - this concentrates on their platonic relationship (and a bit with Felix, he shows up a few times) throughout the years. I especially liked seeing Chloe’s reaction to Adrien coming to school and making friends besides her, being jealous and feeling abandoned, and how she finally had a breakdown over Adrien somehow staying nice despite everything, while she... hasn’t. It’s a great character study!

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Showing Love by @generalluxun

After the fiasco of Queen Wasp is over, Marinette knows what she had to do. If she just brings Chloé and her mother together, all will be fixed. A mother's love is just the thing to turn Chloé around, and it all must really just be a misunderstanding right?

Nothing else makes sense.

Marinette's mistake was forgetting that life never has to make sense, but she's Ladybug, and when one path closes she finds another.

I love Marinette really comprehending how little Audrey cares about Chloe here, and taking Chloe home with her to show her what a family should be like, reaching out to her even after everything. It’s just really nice.

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the legend of the firefly by @agnes-writes

“She’s… beautiful.

If he were to describe her, he’d say that they bottled summer in her eyes, and painted the night sky in her hair. Her lips are curved into a wistful smile, eyes trailing the thicket of trees where Adrien stands.

Her gaze sets his heart stuttering in his chest as it softens, and Adrien almost believes that look is meant for him.”

OR: A pair of lovers create a romance that transcends time, and leaves a mark like no other.

This is an incredibly well-written folk tale, one that I highly recommend anyone who loves mythological, folktale, fantasy, etc AUs for Adrienette to read! It’s on the shorter side, but woven so perfectly that it packs an outsized punch, and feels like it belongs in one of those collections of folk tales and myths I read as a kid!

Adrien’s a god, gifting prosperity to those under his protection, but never interacting with them... until a farm girl catches his eye.

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The Cat’s Out of the Purse by The_Rabbit42

Adrien just took the ring off to be safe.

Plagg just got bored and wanted to annoy Tikki.

Rose just opened her purse and SURPRISE!

Ladybug just wants to get the ring back to her partner.

This was a fun fic, never seen Rose and Plagg interact like this before! It’s a treat getting more Rose and Plagg focus in general of course, but I really like their relationship here. Plagg’s really good with his wielders in general, and I love how he emphasizes that while he needs to get back to Chat Noir, while Rose is transformed with him, she’s as much her own wielder as he is. It reminds me of how he acted with Zoe, Plagg’s just a treasure XD

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home is where the fight is by @rosie-b

Nadja Chamack’s voice greeted Adrien as he sat up straight, wiping his clammy hands on his pants and ignoring the black kwami floating by his shoulder.

“—shocked to see our heroine fall in battle today, taking a direct hit from the akuma just as she detransformed. Parisians are torn between blaming Hawk Moth and Cat Walker for their roles in this tragedy, which ultimately revealed the civilian identity of Ladybug, Marinette Dupain-Cheng.”

Adrien turned off the TV and lowered his head as his vision blurred.

Written for Ladrien June Day 7: Injured

I adore this fic! Which shouldn’t be a a surprise, it’s no secret that I love Sentiadrien Enemies AU. Adrien’s so worried about Marinette getting hurt, and wishes that he could help keep her safer, could tell her what’s really going on or get rid of the ring or something, but he can’t. Still, he IS able to find clever ways around some of his father’s more problematic orders. Loopholes for the win!

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Attack of the Crystal Zombies by @trainsinanime

Kagami had spent more and more time hanging out with Zoé, talking about things like families, expectations and crushes on Marinette. It was only natural, probably, that she would help Zoé practice flirting. That was definitely a great idea.

Granted, the deadly Akuma battle around them was a bit of an issue…

Quality Zoegami fic here! I loved how Kagami kept thinking she was bad at flirting, but it was sure working on Zoe XD. The akuma attack going on around them, interweaving with their conversation, added a bit of spice to the whole affair!

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Closure by @bisexually-finger-guns

After the events of “Trust”, Alya tries to find closure.

I love this. A lot of the time, only the effects of Lila’s lies and manipulation on Marinette is explored, with the feelings of the people she tried to trick and use, with the Miracuclass and Alya in particular, ignored, downplayed, or even used to just rail at the kids for being gullible.

Not so here. Alya gets to go to a school counselor and talk about her feelings about Lila manipulating her, using her. Ladybug even gives her the Fox Miraculous to try a Burn-letter therapy technique on, telling an illusion of Lila everything she wants to say to her in order to get some closure.

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Liberte, Egalite, Fraternite! by 55Anon

In which Hawkmoth is defeated by a strike.

So basically, Parisians get pissed at Hawkmoth and decide that hey, maybe they can’t stop him themselves, and they can’t just stay entirely positive at all times, but they sure as hell can direct every bit of their hatred and anger at him so that if he akumatizes one of them, they make a beeline for his lair. Hawkmoth didn’t stand a chance against the contempt of Paris!

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All Of Them? Every Single One? by @liiinerle

It turns out that Marinette loves a lot more people than she'd initially thought.

This is hilarious and adorable. Tikki lays out how Marinette has a crush on basically every girl she’s met - and even girls she doesn’t know are girls yet XD.

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Anchor by @liiinerle

“Marinette. Please take that sabre out of your neck.”

“Right. Thanks. I forgot it was there.” She grabbed hold of the guard and pulled; the blade slid out like it had only been run through butter. After dropping it on the floor, she picked up one of the teacups and picked up a biscuit from a tin she’d brought in; she placed the biscuit on the saucer plate and handed the whole thing to Kagami, who could only really resign herself to accepting it.

-----

Marinette has raised Kagami from the dead, and also happens to be dead herself. It turns out some bad choices were made in the past. But that doesn't mean they'll lead to bad outcomes for them now.

I love this, Marinette’s incredibly blase about being a zombie - which makes sense, given how long she’s had to get used to the idea. And she’s waited so long, tried so hard to bring Kagami back as well, though if she didn’t WANT to be back, she’d accede to that request. Luckily, Kagami doesn’t seem to mind as long as she’s with Marinette XD.

---

safe and sound by Lady_Bryght

A crazed fan is stalking Adrien with violent intentions, and Ladybug is determined to protect him. When the school goes on lockdown and Marinette can't transform, she does her best to keep him safe without the use of a miraculous.

So this is a bit of a suspenseful thriller with a twist ending - well, sort of an ending, it’s a oneshot so far with an ambiguous ending that reveals what’s going on, but not how things actually resolve. It’s the sort of story where, after you see the ending, you look back through the story for foreshadowing. Can’t really go much more in detail, without spoiling the twist.

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Worth Your Time by @pearl484-blog

After the events of the Season 4 finale, Adrien leaves a series of voicemails for Felix after learning he is missing. Just because Felix is out of sight, doesn't mean he's out of mind for his cousin.

Entry for Adrien AUGreste prompt: Rings

I’d honestly forgotten about Adrien being told by Amelie that Felix was missing, and how that might have affected him. He doesn’t know that Felix is okay - he just knows that Felix disappeared after giving the Miraculous to Monarch, and that not even his mom (supposedly) knows where he is. So naturally, he fears the worst, and after awhile of leaving voicemails and not getting replies, he almost starts using the voicemails as a diary of sorts about the various events of season 5 - up until Emotion that is, for obvious reasons.

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the less I seek my source for some definitive by katrinette

When the akuma manages to smash a hole in the hull of the colony ship that's supposed to be unbreakable, Ladybug has to take drastic action to keep everyone safe.

This is an interesting sci-fi AU! Ladybug and Chat Noir pilot the last few fighter ships of their colony ship, the only defense against the akumas that keep on appearing and attacking the ship. But when one of the akumas smashes a hole in the ship, well Ladybug is willing to go to extreme measures to make sure everyone doesn’t die from the depressurization - measures that do not include any regard for her own safety, much to Chat’s displeasure.

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Guilty by Association by @rosie-b

Marinette respected Adrien’s strength and courage more and more every day. No matter how many times people threw nasty words or literal tomatoes at him; no matter how many companies refused to work with him anymore; no matter how clear it was becoming that he would never be forgiven for his father’s crimes, he chose to greet new people with a smile and hope that this time, someone would recognize the kind heart hidden behind his hated name.

She wished she’d had the chance to meet him before she’d accidentally ruined his life.

Written for the Ml Writers Guild September event 'back to school'

I love how Marinette keeps reaching out to Adrien, trying to protect him, even if it doesn’t always work. To let him know that she’s in his corner at least. Hawk Moth had to be taken down, but the consequences for Adrien... she never wanted anyone to get hurt in the process.

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The Supreme Movers by PearlO_O

Continuation of Tales of Shadybug and Claw Noir.

Adrien and Marinette battle with the emotional aftermath of meeting their alternate selves.

This was an excellent follow-up to the Paris Special! To be clear, the Adrien and Marinette here are Claw Noir and Shady Bug, not the ones from the show we’ve been following all this time. I really liked Adrien and Marinette reflecting and recontextualizing how their parents have been acting in more positive ways, and getting more positive responses in turn, along with them reassessing how they’ve been acting and reaching out to Alya and Nino. There’s this theme of “it doesn’t matter who we were or what mistakes we made, but who we want to be and that we keep moving forward”.

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Keep Me Safe Inside by RoFair

Adrien Agreste, formally known as Claw Noir attempts to get to know the girl he admires behind the mask of the reformed Shadybug. He has a plan, but it is derailed by a blonde bully.

I love how smitten Adrien is with Marinette! He might have a lot of bravado as Claw Noir, but he’s kinda shy as a civilian. Of course, that all goes out the window when Marinette needs help - like when she’s being bullied and is nearing a breakdown.

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delicate in every way but one by katrinette

When Marinette finds a wanted ad that provokes just enough questions in her mind that she can't help answering it, the reward is sweeter than she could have imagined.

I love the little bit of worldbuilding we get here about vampire society, and Adrien’s usual awkward adorableness in asking Marinette for a certain necessary favor. It’s always neat to see such familiar characterization in a supernatural setting like this.

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Lost Feather by @a-flaming-idiot

Sabine has always liked and respected Ladybug and Chat Noir. They've always been wonderful heroes and inspirations to all of Paris and she wouldn't trade them for the world. But that isn't to say she didn't begin to get worried when the heroes of Paris made it their mission to destroy all sentimonsters in their path. Though she knew they never would, it was hard to not worry for the safety of her daughter.

I liked this glimpse of what might happen if Marinette was a sentimonster as well! Poor Sabine, of course she’d have nightmares about the Heroes of Paris killing her daughter. While she likes and respects the Heroes and understands why they’ve been killing sentimonsters, given that the ones Shadow Moth spawns often don’t even seem sentient and are wreaking havoc, she’s still afraid for Marinette, that Ladybug might purify her Amok without ever considering that Marinette might be an actual person.

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Partners in [Chaos] by @aidanchaser

Griffe Noire's needs no excuse to crash a fashion show competition, but when he sees the baker from his favorite bakery is involved, he decides to shift from spreading destruction to a different sort of chaos. He's not ready for her to see through him better than he knows himself.

Remixed from Partners in Clown by MiaBrown

I love Adrien’s portrayal here, how he lies to himself about how bad the cracks are getting, while also relishing them in a way, feeling like he’s living because of the self-harm he’s inflicting every time he unleashes a Cataclysm, it fits with his portrayal in the special. I like Marinette here too, you can see a bit of her vulnerabilities in this piece, though it’s not in her POV so she’s out of focus.

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Perfect by @deinde_prandium

It’s Adrien and Marinette’s wedding day! On site to ensure the event goes perfectly is their friend and famed wedding planner Kagami Tsuguri, and so far all has been going according to plan. There's just one problem: no one ever told her about Adrien, Marinette, and their struggles with automatic doors. Add to this the fact that Marinette’s determination to play matchmaker between her and a certain wedding singer…

Needless to say, Kagami is not pleased.

This is mostly a Kagami-centric fic, with a touch of Lukagami at the end. I loved the callback to Adrienette’s automatic door troubles, and Kagami and Luka being sneaky XD.

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Patrolling with a friend for Christmas by @seasofsilver

Adrien just wanted to gift his Lady some time off and hang out more with Marinette during the festive season - it didn't exactly go to plan, but somehow ended up... better?

This was adorable! Chat Noir tries to give Ladybug a break by recruiting Multimouse to replace her on patrols for a bit, and Ladybug returns the favor by recruiting Aspik to replace Chat. Yep, it’s Snekmouse!

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Far-Fetched Plans by @cravingcraze

“While that’s true, and I was going to bring that up, I wanted to talk about… when Wishmaker hit you,” he sat up and looked at Felix with… concern? Why was he concerned for him?

“You only care about my secret identity,” Felix deflected. No, there was no way fucking Viperion, Luka Couffaine of all people was worried about him.

(It was hard to imagine anyone working with Ladybug worried about him.)

So this is an intriguing prospect. Gabriel’s forcing Felix to work with him to try and get Ladybug’s and Chat Noir’s Miraculous, something Felix isn’t thrilled about. But Luka finds out Felix’s secret identity, and decides to try and help him to break free.

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Life with a Stolen Slime by RustyAce

Sharp, dagger-like stabs from his stomach made the small creature whimper as they curled into himself. Hunger. A frequent state he should be used to by now, but a painful one nonetheless. His gelatinous form was nearly a ball as he tried to self soothe himself, with just portions of slime forming ears and a tail that stuck out of his main body. Usually this worked, but the slime made a distressed moan as they pressed their forehead against his glass prison.

Oh, how he wished he could escape this jar he was in. The humans never came often enough to give him enough food, or even to let him out to stretch his legs. No, instead they carefully opened the jar’s lid just enough to slip some disgusting trash into it with some forceps. They, it seemed, did not appreciate his surprisingly sharp bites or scratches when they first brought him here. A shame.

The slime let out a small sigh, their eyes closing in an attempt to fall asleep to ignore his hunger. Perhaps if he fell asleep, he would wake up to them bringing him food.

So this fic is based off the Reverse world presented in the Paris special. Claw Noir’s a small cat-slime that’s being held captive in a jar, until Marinette eventually rescues him and puts him in a bigger container and feeds him better food at least. It’s cute, and it makes me curious about the setting of this story (like where he came from and why humans were keeping him captive, along with how Marinette stumbled across him), and where the story might go from here (this is a oneshot, but I’d love to see this explored more, if you can’t tell).

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Changeling by @unecoccinellenoire

Gabriel makes the Wish believing that he regretted everything with Adrien. The results suggest that he in fact regrets Adrien

So this is interesting. It’s giving a glimpse into a universe where Gabriel and Emilie never found the Peacock Miraculous, and they (along with Amelie and Colt) just adopted. Which unfortunately meant that Adrien and Felix as we know them never existed, and Gabriel finds that he misses his original son, which is especially acute when interacting with his new adopted son and knowing how much he’s NOT Adrien.

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Here for now, but I can see the better days by @nirby-wirby

Now, laying on his bed with only the soft light of a bedside lamp illuminating the room, he felt guilt eating at him from inside his chest. His miraculous burned on his finger, a reminder of what he’d given up. Of what had somehow led to his father helping Ladybug and dying in the process. The guilt was suffocating, building more and more until he felt like all that was left of him was guilt.

———— Or: Adrien deals with the grief and guilt of losing his father with some help. Set post-s5 finale and written for the ML Secret Santa Exchange of 2023

I love the support Adrien gets here, both from Nathalie in a more motherly role, and from his friends. He even tells Nathalie his secret identity, which gets her thinking about how badly Adrien got screwed over. Especially with him feeling guilty over Gabriel’s fate, when she knows he has no reason to.

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Under the Umbrella by @fruitdragon1a

Almost everyone has a soulmate. What are Adrien and Marinette supposed to do when they meet theirs?

ML Secret Santa gift for Mei! Merry Christmas!

Thank you to Now Loading and Rewan Demontay for beta reading this fic!

So this is a version of soulmarks I haven’t seen before. Around age six, soulmates get a soulmark that shows what their soulmate is thinking when they first meet them. Though I guess it doesn’t register while transformed, since it only counts for this one when Adrien and Marinette meet as civilians, and not when they first meet as superheroes.

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prpfs · 4 months

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🪷

hello !

⸻ introduction : ❪ twenty2 , they / she , est ❫ looking for other 20+ writers for a very dark oc x oc roleplay featuring dead dove themes. i write solely on discord with the use of tupperbox in third person perspective. realistic face claims are a must. replies are adv. literate , multi-para , occasionally novella length but that depends on my interest level. response times vary but usually i'm able to reply once every two or three days , and i'm always around for chatting. triggers & limits will be discussed privately !

⸻ what i'm looking for : i'm in a bit of a writing slump so i'm seeking dedicated & experienced partners. plotting & world-building are a must as we will most likely be crafting the plot from the ground up & i'm not interested in being the only one coming up with ideas or telling you how to write your own character , i want this to be a group effort ! all gender pairings are on the table but i'm leaning more towards mxf or fxf & i generally have no preference when it comes to the gender and/or bedroom role i play — i just want to play against interesting , multi-dimensional , & well developed characters. (low-key absolutely need to write against some gross & depraved girls - rough around the edge , & unconventional. i'm not looking to play against blonde subby brats especially if they have no personality outside of that.)

⸻ general vibe / themes to explore : religious fanaticism , isolation , shared psychosis — folie à deux , different time periods (90's, 80's, 20's, any historic war period) , character's doomed by the narrative , regional gothic , serial killers , blood is thicker than water / incest , soft science fiction , cycle of abuse , addiction , dog motif (devotion) , power imbalance , age gaps (🍪) , cannibalism as a metaphor , mind break , hurt/comfort or hurt & no comfort , hole theory (emptiness, longing) , body horror , enemies to lovers , corruption , & so much more . . .

obviously all of these won't be included — but they're general things i wouldn't mind including.

like and i'll reach out ! please be willing to send a short introduction along with what caught your eye about this ad or any initial ideas you had or characters you'd like to use.

CIS MEN & MINORS DNI

Leave a like, and anon will get back to you!

#oc roleplay #oc rp #oc x oc #m/f #f/f #dead dove #20+ rp

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genericpuff · 1 year

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Lore Olympus is morally bankrupt and I will no longer be giving it the gift of my time or thought.

Okay, this is gonna be a long one, and VERY heated (and melodramatic ngl), and I apologize in advance if my thoughts are scattered, but I'm just ... I've been left with so many horrible thoughts since last night's update (Ep 230) and I'm realizing that I can't keep doing this.

There are comics that I love. There are comics that I used to love but have since grown to dislike due to a dip in quality or simply losing interest. And then, there are comics that have become so fundamentally awful down to their core that, when I go back to read from the beginning, I wonder how I missed the signs of these things in the first place.

And those are the comics I can't bring myself to even give attention to in any regard because it feels like I'm committing some sort of hate crime in doing so.

This is where I stand with LO. With each passing week, I grow more weary of new episodes, and I wonder if there's any point to analyzing it, critiquing it, or whatever have you when it's obvious such a feat is pointless - because there's nothing there to critique, there's nothing there to discuss, the ONLY thing that becomes more obvious with each passing week is how low Rachel is willing to stoop as a creator and as a person.

I try not to direct actual hate towards these creators. I try and focus on their writing, their art, the execution of their ideas, separate from their existence as individuals because it's how I'd want and expect people to analyze and critique my own work.

But with Rachel, it's becoming increasingly obvious that drawing that line is impossible. That "separating the art from the artist" can only apply for so long when the artist's own deeply-rooted issues are baked into the foundation of their work. It's the equivalent of trying to criticize something like Harry Potter - you can't do it without acknowledging the very anti-Semitic elephant in the room, because to do so would be turning a blind eye to Rowling's irresponsibility as a creator with a platform and the injustices she's done to the communities she's hurt in her endeavors.

For weeks now, Rachel and her circle of goons and yes men have been sneaking into our communities, into our conversations had in confidence, and implementing their own versions of "getting back" at the haters through the comic itself and through how its marketed. Almost every single social media post, video, and retconned plot point that's cropped up the last few weeks has been in direct response to things said in the subreddits, the Discord groups, the Facebook groups, everything that they don't consider "positive" enough. When we point these things out in isolation, it makes us look paranoid, but I promise you, we're taking notice of the things Rachel does and says and portrays in her work and it all adds up to be an incredibly twisted picture of her way of doubling down.

Persephone suddenly becoming Avatar: The Last Airbender? We've discussed it at length in our LO-focused circles prior to that reveal.

The sudden retcon of Eros/Aphrodite being able to "detect and control" virginity through Persephone PSA-lecturing about the "hegemony" of virginity? A direct response to people discussing the nature of Eros' powers.

The reveal that Persephone never had sex with Hades despite all the build-up that Rachel did leading up to what was obviously going to be a sex scene? A direct response to people discussing how it felt rushed for Persephone to suddenly be ready to jump in bed with Hades while showing very little growth in her healing in the actual comic.

Rachel constantly posting pics about how "hard" she's working? A response to our figuring out her buffer is 2-3 weeks ahead at any given time and she's clearly rushing things out the door.

The list goes on but I can assure you, the signs are there that Rachel reads these things and, instead of analyzing what people are saying, digs her heels in further and doubles down. We already know she's done this before, it's been stated in interviews where she's gone ahead and over-saturated character colors and made the art WORSE to 'get back' at people who criticized the comic's art style. Like I said, these things in isolation might seem paranoid, but there is a very clear history of how Rachel responds to criticism and discussion - ripping off her nose to spite her face - that goes waaay back to S1 that gives these suspicions far more validity.

She's snuck into our groups, our communities, and is absolutely violating the reader/creator dynamic. This is a woman who's tried to brigade control of FB groups away from their admins so she could micromanage them (see: Broseidon's Palace of Fishposting). This is a woman who will have her mods kick or mute anyone who shows an inkling of distaste for new episodes in her Discord and FB groups. This is a woman who's fully unapologetic in how controlling, manipulative, and downright abusive she can be towards her own audience.

We have literally had to implement new security measures in our own Discord groups in an attempt to keep her and her cronies out, and yet still it feels like there are things she's doing that are direct responses to what we've said and discussed, on a VERY specific level. And the fact that, even if she's no longer in our space, we have to worry about that sort of thing? It's an abusive reader-creator relationship that is creating paranoia in our community members and sucking the fun out of it all. We shouldn't have to fear a creator or their mods sneaking into our groups to stir up trouble. It's so incredibly invasive and disgusting and it makes me fear for our more involved users who come to our spaces for community, for acceptance, for love and support. We're not just people who trash on LO, we're people who have bonded over our frustrations for it and that's a bond that is now existing beyond LO. These are safe spaces that we've attempted to create and Rachel is feverishly violating them and attempting to rip them apart from the inside.

I'm done. I'm fucking done tiptoeing around the "separating the art from the artist" fence-sitting bullshit when it comes to how people criticize this comic and its creator. LO is a festering pool of misery and misogyny and so is its creator. I can't even be bothered to hate it, I literally do not give a shit. I'm tired of it. It's making me miserable. And it's not worth giving it my time, my energy, or my efforts anymore. Rachel does not deserve my clicks. She does not deserve my follows. She does not deserve the essays that I pour my time and heart into.

I'm not going to be reading LO any further. Not even free episodes. I will be unsubscribing from the comic. I will be unfollowing her socials. My only connection to LO at this point will be through Rekindled and the communities I've partaken in and fostered - Rachel can't destroy the friendships I've made through her work, for better and for worse, as much as she might like to try. I'm cutting off the infection at the source.

I will be answering the remaining asks that are in my inbox that pertain to LO specifically, but after that, I will no longer be devoting this blog purely to LO analysis. It's Rekindled, LO-inspired fan work, and Greek myth content only. I cannot continue to give Lore Olympus attention through my own attempts to analyze it, critique it, and partake in it, because to do so would be to continue sacrificing my own mental health and values as a webcomic consumer and creator, and giving it attention that it does not deserve. It does not deserve even a sliver of admiration or even nostalgia from me, because it has done absolutely nothing to earn it.

As for Rekindled, well. I hope you know the potential of Lore Olympus - and the part of the fandom that has been worn down and disappointed week after week after week - is mine now. I'm taking it. Rachel clearly can't be trusted with the messages and stories that this shit fire of a comic is based on. Lore Olympus is cancelled, Rachel is cancelled. I will unapologetically be hyping up Rekindled, I want it to be good and I'm going to ensure that it does what Rachel couldn't. It's the least I can fucking do for this amazing community that I've gotten to know and felt welcome and accepted in through and through. She and her work do not have any sort of relevance or control in my life anymore. She can make LO all she wants, but in my mind, it does not exist and does not deserve an inkling of attention, it belongs in the same dumpster as Harry Potter, 50 Shades/After, and Empress Theresa.

Rachel may have robbed me of my love for Lore Olympus but she cannot take what I have planned for Rekindled. When I started the comic, I wasn't doing it as any sort of flex on Rachel. I wasn't doing it to "get back" at her or to prove I could "do better". It was a fan project that I was making out of love for what once was, for what I had hoped would be LO. And it still is that - but prepare yourselves, because you're about to see a real Dread Queen arc, not of pettiness, not of unwarranted cruelty, but of justice.

It would be the height of hubris to claim that I can do anything better than another creator, but when the work that Rekindled is based on is a literal dumpster fire of misogyny, sexism, and classism, is it really so hard to make something better? Even the most bare minimum ideas and writing can accomplish more than LO has in the last 2 years at this point. Any of you could do what I'm doing, and I encourage you to do so. Let spite be your motivator. You do not need to be a contracted webcomic creator to create something that will make you happier than LO. Make your fanfiction. Make your panel edits. Create your re-tellings. I will gladly bask in them.

Rachel, I want you to know, you cannot count this as a win, as much as you likely see it as such in your mind. This is your own platform you're systematically destroying, readers who used to love you and your work who you're pushing away with your childish nonsense. The worst we'll have is losing something we like and moving onto something new. You have more to lose. You have more to be worried about as the face of this steaming pile of garbage. You are the one who's going to have to explain to Webtoons why your comic is on fire, why your fanbase is divided, why LO is one of the most dunked on comics alongside Boyfriends and True Beauty, simply because you couldn't have the humility to recognize the glaring issues in your comic and simply do better. Internalize it all you want that you think it's just because you're "popular", but I assure you, people will still despise you, your platform, and your work long after LO has ended and been replaced by the next big thing.

And I assure you, those replacements will be creating out of spite for the damage you've caused. Myself included.

May your every attempt at success and relevance from hence forward be mired by mediocrity and misery for your own putrid creations.

We'll all be doing just fine over here.

#anti lore olympus #antiloreolympus #lore olympus critical #lo critical

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rayslittlekitten · 2 years

Text

Distraction

A/N: So a while back in a discord discussion, the idea of Benny nailing someone shorter than him and literally having them on their tip toes somehow got brought up and I took the challenge. This went a bit in a different direction that I had initially thought it would, but I'm happy with how this came out. This takes place after Triple Frontier. Thank you @lovebarefootblonde for taking a look at this for me!

Rating: E (18+ ONLY)

Pairing: Benny Miller x F! Reader

Word Count: ~1.2k

Plot: A hot quickie turns into a vulnerable moment for Benny.

Contains: sex (P in V), bathroom sex, size kink, angst, comfort, allusions to canon events

One of the disadvantages of being shorter than Benny is that sometimes it can get tricky when you're both in a spontaneous mood and in an inconvenient place to get frisky.

"Can you like, tip toe up a bit--"

"Benny, if I tried, I'd literally be on my toes like a fucking ballerina," you whisper loudly, trying to look back at him. "And I ain't no ballerina."

You and Benny are over at Will's place for a small get-together. It would be the first time you're meeting some of his friends. Up until this point, you've only heard about them so it was nice to finally put some faces to their names.

Benny's been sending you sexy texts throughout the gathering and the exchange got a little too hot so he pulled you into the bathroom for a quickie. You're bent over the bathroom counter, with your dress hiked up to your waist and your panties pushed to the side and your boyfriend is squatting down lower to try to penetrate you.

"I can't fucking do this," Benny mumbles. "My thighs are giving out."

You figured with all the squats and burpees he does all the time, this would be one of the reasons they would pay off.

"What the hell, Ben?" you huff.

"I've got an idea."

Benny grabs the back of one of your knees and hoists it up so half your body is on the counter and you're spread out on the edge. Your other leg is practically dangling and you're balancing yourself on the tip of your shoe to prevent yourself from falling. There's only so much counter space you can hold on to. Benny tries again and you stifle a moan when you feel him successfully slip himself inside you to the hilt.

"Shh, we gotta be quiet. Will's going to lose it if he finds out we're fucking in his bathroom," Benny reminds you.

He grips your hips and holds you in place on the counter before carefully moving in and out of you, testing the sturdiness of the position. You bite your bottom lip, feeling him fill you up over and over again, but you need more. It's been a month since you've seen your boyfriend and missed him. The details were vague, but he took a trip with his brother and some friends. It was supposed to only be a few days, but he told you that whatever he was doing was going to take a little more time before he could come home. You were worried, but knew that if he was with Will, he would be okay. His big brother always looks out for him.

It's clear he missed you too because when he came home, all he wanted to do was fuck you. You've only been dating for about a few months and are still very much in the honeymoon phase so that's not surprising. You very much enjoy sex with him, but there was something different since he got back. He seems a bit distant and distracted.

In fact, at the party, there were times where the ambience in the room seemed to be a bit somber. You heard the name "Tom" quietly thrown around a few times but don't know much about him except that he's a friend of the group and Benny looked up to him, but anytime you tried to ask Benny about it, he said everything was fine or would change the subject.

Benny punches his hips into you, causing the edge of the counter to dig into the top of your leg. You yelp when your head bangs against the vanity mirror.

"Fuck! I'm so sorry," Benny apologizes quietly and eases up on the thrust. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah," you nod and put a hand against the mirror to gain some control.

Benny starts moving again, gentler this time. You can sense him struggling to hold back. You don't always have rough sex and understand you can get carried away in the moment, but he's been favoring it much more these days. You try to push back in your limited position, but it's just throwing off his rhythm. You happen to glance up at the mirror and see Benny's reflection. His eyes are closed with knitted brows and he's concentrating. On what, you're not exactly sure. Controlling his strokes? On holding off his orgasm? Imagining someone else?

"Benny," you call out for him. "Look at me.”

His eyes spring open and make eye contact with your reflection.

“You’re with me, right?” You ask.

“Yeah, of course,” he answers.

”Sorry, I’m just trying to get you off first,” he admits. “But I promise I’m here, with you.”

He leans in and leaves a quick kiss on your cheek before going back to fucking you, watching your face in the mirror as he moves in and out of you.

“Fuck…” you pant. “Fuck me, Benny.”

You see his eyes go dark and he starts drilling into you. You squeal but quickly catch yourself. Benny pulls your hips back a little to change the angle and you feel the edge of the counter rubbing against your clit through your underwear as he thrusts into you.

You press your hips against the counter to get better stimulation. Benny finds your spot and starts poking it with the head of his cock. You’re getting dizzy from all this, as your orgasm is quickly building.

“Harder,” you tell him.

“You sure?” He asks, still looking at you through the mirror.

You nod. “I’m so close.”

“Remember you gotta keep quiet,” he reminds you.

You nod.

He plants both of his hands on the counter on either side of you and starts pounding you hard. Pounding that’s going to leave bruises on your hip bones. You swear the thin bathroom wall is rattling along with the cup and toothbrush sitting on the counter every time Benny shoves himself into you. You hope no one outside can hear anything.

The tension in your gut is tightening and without warning, snaps. Your jaw drops open and you let out a silent scream as your orgasm floods your body. Benny’s own release follows shortly as he grunts into your ear. As you both ride out the tail end of your climax, Benny relaxes his body over yours while catching his breath with his face in the crook of your neck.

You reach up and run your hand through his sweaty hair. He pulls away from his hiding spot and glances over at you in the mirror, looking over your shoulder with a chunk of hair draping over his eye.

“You okay?” You ask him.

He nods and he almost subtly nudges your ear with the tip of his nose before kissing your shoulder. He pulls out of you and you both clean yourselves up. When it sounds like the coast is clear outside the door, you reach for the doorknob but Benny pulls you in for a hug. He holds you close and tight against his body. You sense him quietly crying against your shoulder, hunched over. You don’t say anything and simply reach up to stroke the back of his head, massaging your fingertips into his scalp and letting him release whatever has been eating up inside of himself.

#triple frontier #benny miller #benny miller x female reader #benny miller fanfiction #benny miller x reader #garrett hedlund #triple frontier fanfiction

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leomonae · 3 months

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What is this drama with dhampling I'm so confused but I like drama

I'm not bothering to look anything up for my summary, so no guarantees on complete accuracy. Explanation below the cut since I highly doubt anyone not directly involved is going to care about any of this.

Right, so basically @dhampling put up a post asking for BG3 fic recs the other... day? Week? Idk, I'm bad at time, it was recently, anyway. They asked for recs, various people reblogged and responded, including someone who recced a few members of this discord server I'm in - smaller creators, writers who haven't had much of an audience/exposure for their fics, and were pretty happy about the recognition. At some point, dhampling deleted their original post on the subject, leaving a message on their blog about how they didn't want to name names/get pulled into drama or some such - making a pretty vague statement that raised more questions than it answered, basically.

Some members of that discord server I mentioned were a little miffed about this, since to their minds it was removing one of the ways they might get more people finding/reading their fics. I, personally, was rolling my eyes at the incredibly vague nature of the non-explanation and questioning why they didn't just delete the thing and leave it alone after, if they didn't want it being made into some big deal somehow. Since the discord server is private/invite-only, some of us expressed said frustrations in a vent thread therein. Other people, including the person who'd reblogged and given some recs of the server's members, attempted to speak in dhampling's defense a little - they're young (which I guess they disliked being said about them once they found this out?), we don't know what prior experiences they've had in fandoms and some people can get vicious sometimes, the OP's original post may be gone but the reblogs are still out there so it's not a huge deal anyway, etc etc.

Then at some point soon afterwards, someone in the server shared screenshots of the aforementioned venting with dhampling, who apparently strongly disliked it/what was said? I know the server owner tried reaching out to talk to them without getting a response, and I gather that they blocked a few people, but as far as I was aware, this nonsense was pretty much over. Guess not, though!

Oh yeah, and around the time we were discussing the matter in the server, I went and commented on dhampling's "I deleted my post" non-explanation to say that it didn't really tell us anything at all and questioning if it was something personal or an issue with one of the stories or what, since a) I am a naturally curious/nosy person sometimes, b) a couple of my buddies were fretting that they might have done something to offend this person somehow, and c) why not?

And no, dhampling, if you were including me in the whole "I want an apology" thing you just posted, I will not, in fact, be offering one. I decided the other day upon review that I have no actual issues with anything I said at the time, and given that it was a handful of friends expressing some mild frustrations to one another in a private server, where they had every reason to expect their words would remain private rather than ever getting back to you, I don't really think anyone there owes you an apology anyway.

Sometimes people get annoyed with others. Sometimes they say so to their friends privately, rather than going and being rude to the person who annoyed them or whatever. This is normal, healthy, interpersonal behaviour. Nobody was plotting to come harass you or what the fuck ever; there would be no harm done here at all, including to your feelings, if someone from our server hadn't decided to disrespect our own members' right to have their private comments not shared with someone outside without their consent.

So let's drop this non-issue, already, huh?

#drama #fandom bullshit #what's the tag for “i really doubt most of my followers actually give a fuck but sure i'll explain from my pov”

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stillness-in-green · 5 months

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thoughts on the new chapter? you said before spinneraki is a pillar in the story and i think this chapter continues to be evidence of that

For these two anons who asked for them, have some Chapter Thoughts, 411-version. Herein can be found two big chunks of musing about, respectively, OFA & Shigaraki and the Shigaraki+Deku+Spinner confluence, as well as the usual handful of stray thoughts.

(I'm also going to throw in a few last minute thoughts about plot events between here and the last chapter I had a post on, Chapter 392. They'll be off-the-cuff and not comprehensive; feel free to send an ask if there's anything specific you're curious about, though I can't at this time promise e.g. the twelve thousand word essay on why the AFO vs. All Might fight sucks rocks.)

Chapter Thoughts — Chapter 411: History's Greatest Villain

OFA Vestiges vs. Shigaraki Tomura

Shinomori remains my favorite OFA bearer by a large margin; I enjoy how his quirk allows him to be the one bearer with his act together this chapter. I also like that him being the vestige that actively chooses to sacrifice “himself” for the good of the rest of One For All makes a nice bookend with my preferred headcanon that he was the bearer who had the power forced on him against his will. That said, it is a bit ironic that Danger Sense surely had to rank right up near the top of OFA quirks that it’s most dangerous for Deku to lose to Shigaraki! Like, throw Shigaraki En or something; Smoke Screen’s not going to let Shigaraki do anything Deku can’t counter with Danger Sense! Sacrifice Nana; Deku and Shigaraki both already have ways to keep aloft enough.[1] So I appreciate both the display of Shinomori’s instinctive heroism and the dramatic choice to deprive Deku of such a key component of his defense, after god knows how many chapters of dramatic choices I pretty much hate across the board. 1: That said, it does look like the person Shinomori shoved most directly out of the way was Banjo, his own successor, which speaks to their bond and also spares Deku losing a crucial quirk, as Black Whip has been his main way to exert any control at all over the battle with Shigaraki and is also helping keep his arms braced. As someone who wanted those humerus consequences after the first war, I say, “Go, Shigaraki, go! Get the Sixth next!”

My god, the rest of them are such a mess this chapter. Very funny, actually. Shaking my head at them in there talking about how to “bring down” Shigaraki, who they know good and well Deku wants to help. “Our entire reason for still existing!” No, Bro Bro, you existed solely to take down All For One, which Bakugou et. al. have neatly taken care of for you. The only other purpose ever given to you was to save people, but I guess you’ve already forgotten that. Seriously, I love the discord this chapter, the panic and fear, particularly from the youthful En—watching that unified will crumble in the face of Shigaraki’s hatred is a wonderful balm to all the times I had to suffer through seeing commenters elsewhere on the internet blithely taking it for granted that One For All could never be stolen just because All Might said it was so, laughing it off when Ujiko promised Shigaraki otherwise. My villain fan agenda aside, though, it’s also a rare highlight for Deku that I like, which I’ll circle back to.

Regarding Shigaraki with Danger Sense, I know there was some discussion of whether he’d be able to fully utilize it against Deku when Deku wants to “save” him. As giving Deku that out would have been the story yet again undermining the villains’ fairly won victories (and as Danger Sense has been so wildly inconsistently written that Horikoshi could have gotten away with practically anything), I’m pleased to see it’s working as intended! That said, you probably could have some interesting discussion of exactly whose “intent” Danger Sense is picking up on. Deku may want to help Shigaraki, but e.g. Banjo, Bruce and Kudou certainly don’t seem to want that! Given how explicitly Kudou was synonymizing quirks and wills back in Chapter 369,[2] and particularly given that Shigaraki can perceive the vestiges now, it wouldn’t surprise me if their wills are bleeding over into Deku’s usage of their quirks. 2: I.e. the “gaslighting the readership about the historical usage of meta-ability terminology” chapter.

I do wonder if this is set-up for Shinomori—and potentially other quirks as well, including any more OFA vestiges Shigaraki manages to snag!—giving us a tired retread of the “quirk vestiges mount a resistance against their unrightful bearer at a critical juncture” moments we saw with AFO, but I suppose that’d be what Shigaraki gets for trying to steal bits of OFA after saying previously that he didn’t care about it. (Sigh.)

Deku, Spinner, and Shigaraki Tomura's "Personhood"

I appreciate Deku pushing back against Shigaraki’s dehumanization, though it does not escape me that he directs that pushback to Shigaraki himself, not any of the voices inside Deku’s head calling Shigaraki calamity and ruin incarnate, and certainly not any actual humans on his side in the real world. It smacks of the same pattern heroes always fall into of leaping to castigate villains for things they tacitly ignore in their own allies. Still, it is at least spoken aloud, and to Shigaraki’s face, which is a pleasant change.

I swear to Christ, if after all this time Spinner becomes a bridge between Shigaraki and Deku after all, I am going to be so damn smug. Albeit in different contexts, I called that years ago, and lo and behold, here we have Shigaraki, accused of having no friends, self-dehumanized, and depersonalized by Deku’s allies, immediately refute the point by bringing up his best friend of his own volition, tying his destruction to someone outside of himself. While Deku hasn’t connected the dots on-page yet, he certainly can’t have missed it, though it remains to be seen how much about Spinner Deku actually knows/remembers from their encounter at the training camp—that encounter long being an important part of my reasoning that Spinner could, via his and Deku’s shared respect for Stain and desire to help Shigaraki, find some common ground. Moreover, we get Deku flashing to Uraraka—as well he should! Since Uraraka is the only one who managed to unearth some empathy for her designated villain foil without a familial or fated connection to them, she deserves to feature prominently in Deku’s attempts to connect with his own opposite number.

I do wonder if we will yet get a flashback to the mall scene. Honestly, Deku could have kickstarted his connection to Shigaraki all the way back then, when Shigaraki functionally laid his damage out in front of Deku like fine china, only for Deku to grab the first excuse anyone gave him to write it off and forget about it. The story could probably get away with not reminding the readers of that—after all, Shigaraki hasn’t really changed his grievance since then, just expanded his invocation of blame! His monologue at Jakku is just a refined version of what he said at the mall encounter, so the only reason to flash back to the less developed take is to have Deku vocalize that he could (and should!) have been wondering about Shigaraki as “a person, too” this whole time, instead of only coming to do so after their mindscape encounter. Acknowledging the gaps in Saint Deku’s Miraculous Saving Instincts would go a long, long way towards softening me on the narrative BNHA’s been trying to sell me on its main character.

Anyway, three cheers for Spinaraki; they never fuckin’ lose, do they? It’s particularly gratifying in light of the way people on Twitter were speedrunning the shift from dismissing Spinner as unimportant to criticizing him as “toxic” as it became more and more clear that saving Shigaraki was going to be more complicated than just dealing with AFO. People really thought that if Deku could just lay all the blame for Shigaraki’s anger at AFO’s feet, then he could just wipe it away, eradicating “Shigaraki Tomura”—who was never really a person anyway, just fifteen years of grooming and coping mechanisms—and leaving behind only sweet, innocent, undemanding Shimura Tenko. But if Shigaraki was carrying anger for others, blame for wrongs that couldn’t be attributed to AFO, suddenly that narrative got messier. Suddenly the League needed to be Bad For Each Other, needed to be separated for their own good, redeemed by the grace of their designated student foils—and nowhere was that trickier than with Spinner, who didn’t have one, and whose every flashback post-war made it clearer and clearer that he had a relationship with Shigaraki that went beyond the League’s stated purpose as an alliance of Villains to bring down Hero Society. The tidier version of the story would still be salvageable if Shigaraki didn’t really care about Spinner more than anyone else in the League, if Spinner’s devotion were one-sided, if Shigaraki didn’t determine to share Spinner’s grievance. If Spinner’s problems aren’t Shigaraki’s problems too, then Deku doesn’t have to address them. And but so, the mad scramble to invalidate the connection by any means possible. But then here comes Shigaraki not just mentioning Spinner, but mentioning something Spinner wanted that Spinner never even told him about on the page, meaning either Shigaraki was paying close enough attention to Spinner to simply intuit it, or he and Spinner had an off-page conversation about Deika where Spinner in all his insecurity was able to admit to Shigaraki that he thought his horizon was beautiful. And not only does Shigaraki remember this, he dedicates his destruction of Mount Fuji to Spinner and the horizon. Not so one-sided after all, is it?

That all said, of course it’s also worth asking if Spinner actually wants the horizon anymore. Judging by his tormented inner reflections when striving to reach Kurogiri, that doesn’t really seem to be the case. At the end of Spinner’s strength, what he truly remembers and treasures is the time he and Shigaraki spent just dicking around talking about video games—just being friends. Spinner wants Shigaraki to get what he wants—but if they’re both just crediting That Beautiful Horizon to each other without realizing it’s not really about what they themselves want anymore, where does that leave them? One suspects that was one function of the possession plot—keeping them from talking to each other freely and being able to figure that out themselves. As it is, with the possession plot seemingly off the table, at least for now, that brings us back to Deku and his resolution to reach the humanity in Shigaraki Tomura—a humanity that Shigaraki just helpfully signposted by referencing his friend Spinner. So how long until we cut away to find out where the Rooftop Trio and Spinner have gotten off to?

Stray Thoughts

Re: Mount Fuji, Horikoshi’s grasp of travel times remains as totally unhinged as ever. Someone who can make rudimentary animations needs to use that battle map volume extra to demonstrate exactly the distances that would have to traversed by All For One, U.A., All Might and especially Lady Nagant and her bullets in this final arc for them to keep arriving where the story needs them to be.

I see the artistic indication is very much that Shigaraki can just spread Decay wherever he walks now. That’s both wonderfully evocative for the embodied destructive divine impulse he’s nominally become and also a bit amusing, because if you can unlock a touch-based quirk to spread through your feet, maybe Overhaul’s not out of luck just yet after all. XD

Good riddance to the mask! As others have pointed out, it’s modelled on All Might’s smile, and is therefore the last thing Deku should be wearing right now, given that Shigaraki has specifically expressed, to Deku’s face, that he hates All Might’s fucking smile, “As if there’s no one he can’t save!” Hope Shigaraki gets that damn cape next, such as is left of it.

Events Up To Now (Chapters 393 - 410)

The resolution of the Ochaco vs. Toga fight is very solid emotionally, though hampered by yet more nerfing of Toga's power set to make sure she can't do all the damage she should logically be capable of doing, as well as a lot of incredibly tiresome shoehorning in of mentions of Deku just to make sure everyone gets how Not Homo it is for Ochaco to tell Toga she's the cutest girl in the whole world. But I love that Toga remains unrepentant and faithful to Shigaraki to the end. I will turn a lot less nice about this if Toga turns out to have actually died here, however. (She should have gotten to stab fucking Hawks.)

The All Might vs. AFO fight sucks rocks. The mech suit makes a nonsense of All Might's primary arc post-Kamino, it's flatly irreconcileable with his characterization throughout the Edgy Deku arc, it leans on a bond with the 1-A students that he has entirely failed to earn, and it parades their identies and power sets out in front of the world with absolutely zero indication that he ever asked them if they were okay with that. As an answer to the "quirkless hero" question it is purest sophistry, laughably detached from reality.

The world's reaction to the All Might vs. AFO fight sucks rocks. The return of Wishing Energy is the obvious point of note, but I prefer to focus on how patently ridiculous it is that across the multitudinous barriers of age, language, culture, politics, national attitude, wealth level, and views on heroism, everyone in the world who watches the battle and gets into it enough to really pay attention is magically able to intuit that the man in the black military hardware suit injecting acid into the underclothed twelve-year-old is the "Hero."

Kunieda is a delight and he and Aoyama should have had history going back to AFO's sway over the family.

Shigaraki is great when he's getting actual attention, but as part and parcel of the AFO vs. All Might fight sucking on such intergalactic levels, it made Shigaraki awful, too, reducing him to generic last boss counting-his-evil-chickens-before-they're-hatched gloating. Praying we see no more of that going forward.

It is extremely headshaking in retrospect that the Heroes actively acknowledged during the planning process for all this that they would prefer to engage with the AFO persona in Shigaraki than Shigaraki himself, the Heroes then find out during the battle that AFO is trying to get to Shigaraki with the specific aim of reawakening said persona, and yet the Jakku team, All Might and Bakugou still blow interminable fucking chapters on preventing AFO from doing the exact thing that would get them back the persona they explicitly stated it would be preferable to deal with.

Edgeshot continues to be Just The Worst, not even having the decency to wait until the endgame to confirm what I predicted back when the nonsense about repairing Bakugou's heart first came up: that, "You won't be able to come back from this," is a bald-faced lie intended to ratchet up tension, one that would be rolled back the instant the danger was past and Bakugou could be gotten to a proper hospital room.

AFO's backstory is the laziest of lazy dreck. The new information soundly deprives Yoichi of the marginal amounts of agency he had previously managed to suggest he exercised, conflicts with what's been previously implied about the brothers' personal history, fails to reconcile the child AFO with the man we met in Deku's dream prior to Joint Training, and reduces all of the interpersonal drama between AFO, Yoichi and Kudou into nothing more than a reason for Bakugou to inspire fear and distress in BabyFO. (See @robotlesbianjavert's post and Nal's tags on it here, and @codenamesazanka's post here.)

Omni-Factor Unleash is a retread of Kamino AND Overhaul's minion forms AND Akira-fied Shigaraki. You guys, I think maybe Horikoshi is Bad At Coming Up With Final Boss Attacks.

#bnha #chapter thoughts #bnha 411 #and some other chapters as well #amazing how much more tolerable these chapters are when shigaraki's properly in the driver's seat #based on prior performance i don't expect it to last #but it's nice to have for now #and the spinaraki vindication is indeed sweet #my writing #stillness answers

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lornaka · 1 year

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Thoughts on TBB s2 finale

Spoilers under the cut. Most of this is a compilation of thoughts I’ve previously expressed on twitter and discord so nothing new to some of you perhaps! Disclaimer: I still love the show with my whole heart and greatly respect the hard work of everyone who worked on it, so please don’t hate on the show in replies and comments to this post. Either keep it to relevant constructive criticism of the narrative and thoughtful analysis/discussion, or make your own posts, thanks

Idk I was just left.. hollow after s2 finale of tbb, like, there were no upsides/positive stimulating moments? It didn't leave me with an excited feeling for what's to come, more like "this is very bleak and miserable, I want s3 purely in the hope of it getting better somehow". I really was expecting some sort of catharsis from tbb s2 finale but got the complete opposite. It's a tell that something didn't work for me when I got no inspiration to draw anything tbh. S1 finale was confusing and not all that happy too but it left.. idk, something to be hopeful about, something affirming to it, amidst all destruction and separation. I wonder what s3 will look like with this sort of a cliffhanger. Unless they somehow resolve it in the first few episodes of the next season, the whole format would have to be changed, no more one-off adventures between the main plot heavy episodes etc. Regarding Hunter and his complete lack of emotionality and motivation outside of his relationship with Omega, at this point I seriously can’t tell if the writers are purposefully writing Hunter in a way that makes him come off as, well, failing as a brother and a leader. All I know is that after each finale, s1 and s2, I’m left with a desire for him to own up to his mistakes to grow. I love Hunter a lot and I enjoy flawed characters with good hearts. But when they mess up, I want the narrative to frame it such, and for them to grow from there. Otherwise it’s just inconsistent writing. At this moment, I feel like Hunter needs a “redemption” arc as much as Crosshair, as far as family drama and letting each other down goes. This is why I was so happy when it seemed like they’d finally go to rescue Crosshair specifically (welp.) They needed to do that imo, Hunter most of all, he needs to own up to leaving his brother behind once and for all and actually *do* smth about it. Was it understandable when they had to flee and couldn’t come back for Cross before they knew about the chips and arguably after? Absolutely. Doesn’t change the fact that Cross was left behind and got hurt, doesn’t make it better. So even if Hunter’s decision is justified, his lack of regret over his brother getting hurt in the process is not. I can see him repressing it all bc that’s Hunter, he is the king of repressing his emotions for the sake of moving forward, but his issues do not excuse him, and I want him to gain awareness and grow past these issues. And speaking of Crosshair. It’s so weird, structurally if nothing else, how the previous few episodes built up all these emotional stakes over Crosshair, specifically his withstanding intense torture from Hemlock meant to break him just to protect his siblings, only for the finale to completely drop the ball on it. Tech sacrifices himself on a mission he specifically urged Hunter to go on because “Crosshair is still our brother” and then Hunter is like “yeah let’s not waste Tech’s sacrifice and forget all about Crosshair, okay?”. It made no freaking sense. S1 finale left me confused & unsatisfied with the way characters reactions didn’t fit some of their previously stablished experiences and narrative arcs. S2 put things in perspective for me somewhat, so my best hope is that s3 does the same to resolve my confusion over s2 finale. When it comes down to basic story break down, the core theme of TBB gotta be either about a family coming together, or it is about a family separating, one way or another. Until s2 finale I was convinced it was about coming together but now.. “We don’t leave our own behind” seemed like a clear set up for the coming together theme. Now it feels almost like a misdirection, an ironic twist to subvert our expectations or mb to explore how old convictions/priorities of these characters crashed against new realities of life. And now that they’ll never truly be able to be a whole family again (allegedly), my hope for the main theme to circle back to a family coming together in a satisfying way has been critically diminished tbh. I think it could still work with someone dying, but def not like this. Even if everyone else survives and sticks together and Cross comes back, he’ll never have closure over Tech’s absence, for example. There will be no satisfaction for us as the audience in his brother’s sacrifice on a mission to save him, no pay-off. Then what is the point? A character death is a very powerful tool within the story, so when it happens, it needs to be done extremely right to hit the right emotional chords and not just cause frustration. What frustrates me, personally, is not the factual death of a character in the canon version of the events, but when the presentation and use of it makes no sense to me in the story but the writers are trying to sell it to me as if it should. Then I feel like I’m being emotionally manipulated and nothing makes me feel more betrayed tbh. I can come up with an infinite number of explanations for Tech’s survival. It’s incredibly easy to suspend my disbelief and just say “somehow he survived”. But if the creators themselves actively try to beat me over the head with their insistence that no, it happened and I should be sad over it, nope. That’s telling, not showing. If you want me to feel strong emotion, make me, don’t tell me that I’m supposed to be sad over a character dying just because you decided to kill them to make me sad. As for Tech’s status, the whole Schrodinger Tech situation is exactly the same as Cross’s chip in s1 finale. Everything in the narrative (Hemlock bringing his goggles is sus as hell, 100% reads as hints at him recovering Tech and then lying to Hunter to manipulate him) points to it being one way (Cross’s chip still affecting him, Tech surviving) but knowing the writers, my gut tells me it’s exactly what they say on the surface with their words and he’s gone. I hope I’m wrong because the way this death was handled is meaningless and closes so many possibilities, like I mentioned above with the family coming together in a satisfying way etc. It just doesn’t work for the story beyond cheap emotional shock value imo. So here we are. I decided to chill until s3 and hope things will make sense as the story progresses and the intentions of the writers become clear. Right now they sure as hell aren’t.

#the bad batch spoilers #tbb spoilers #plan 99

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lenasai · 9 months

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Hey! I've tried getting into blaseball before but could not understand it. Could you explain? 🥺

ID: The "Sickos" comic meme. End ID.

i will never pass up an opportunity to talk about blaseball!

i typed a lot, so the rest is under the cut for the sake of people who have me on their dash

unfortunately, i have bad news about getting into it as an active participant - the developers decided to end blaseball as an ongoing project in june for a number of reasons, one being that running it at the level they wanted to (and really, at any point in the game's history) has been unsustainable for the team.

however, i encourage you to look further into the fan creations because there is so much more than just the game!

to summarize what blaseball was: blaseball was a fantasy horror baseball simulator with an ongoing plot and a very creative fanbase. i would describe the relationship between the fans and the devs as a large-scale version of a tabletop roleplaying game, with the devs (and the simulation running the game) as the game masters. a lot of iconic moments in the discipline era in particular were a mix of the devs taking a "yes, and" approach to fan input and the number of ways in which the site broke.

the experience of watching games was very minimal and mostly text-based, so it wasn't too unlike watching real baseball updates online, except weird things happened sometimes. different weather conditions introduced a small chance of something happening to teams and players, or even tweaked the rules of play for that game. my favorite weather was sun .1, which added 0.1 points to each run scored per inning. it was also just an adorable tiny sun, which is the reason it's my favorite.

the players were all just names and stats, which enabled the fans to fill in the blanks and craft their own narratives around them.

aside from the teams and players, there were also a number of entities that performed different functions within the league. some had extended reach beyond the main site - for example, if you wanted to keep up on twitter, you could follow the commissioner and receive updates about events and other things that happened during the season.

optionally, a lot of fans also discussed games as they were happening on the official discord. most of the teams still have active discord servers, so if you find yourself attached to one, i'm sure you could find someone who could give you a link

i don't blame you for having a hard time getting into it because for a period of time, things were getting more and more complicated by design! the expansion era (season 12-24) was all about telling a story about the harm of endless growth. the big bad was literally the god of capitalism. this was quite the effective storytelling mechanism, but it also meant getting into blaseball was very difficult for new fans. i had a friend who tried getting into it around the time shit really hit the fan and they gave up 😭

thanks to the efforts of a very dedicated group of fans - the society for internet blaseball research in particular - it is possible to experience blaseball in some form, albeit not as an active, ongoing thing. before is a wonderful archive of the blaseball.com website that is mostly functional. you can type in which season/day you want to see or view a list of major events here. for less complicated games, i recommend the discipline era. for more chaos, late expansion era is where that's at.

for both official history/season explanations and team/player lore, check out the blaseball wiki! there's lots of cool stuff to check out there if you want to learn more about something.

i also recommend the blaseball roundup - an official recap of everything through season 22, starring quinns from people make games as the anchor! (for plot reasons, seasons 23 and 24 are not covered. unfortunately, given the state of the game, i don't think this will happen.)

quinns made his own video for people make games back in 2020, which is also a nice watch.

for a comprehensive list of all of the official videos, analysis from the blaseball news network, and more, this is an excellent fan project that puts everything in one place with links out to the internet archive.

finally, there is a metric fuckton of fan art and fanfic to check out! there isn't really one central location for most of the art, but you can find a lot of writing in the blaseball tag on ao3 and itch (which is being really slow for me at the time of writing, but you can search "blaseball" on itch and get some results 👍)

blaseball might be "over," but its fanbase is not going anywhere, and i can guarantee you there is no bad time to get into it. we are all love blaseball here ❤️⚾️🩸

#blaseball

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