#I'm realizing I like it when things are more nebulous for my characters and they don't have super informed and nuanced ideas of sexuality

[sleepvines]

I'm redrawing something I never posted since I really didn't like how it turned out.... Elliot and Ramona having an argument in the Ronans' headspace. It's not for a *specific* scene, but it's somewhere in the middle of the story

[verycharismaticdragon]

Currently reading a Korean webnovel instead of Chinese ones and this is making me conceptualize something, let’s see if I can put it in words…

My musings started with realizing that I’ve become very used to this cnovels thing where the main pairing is literally stated in the summary. Not the case for the k-novel I’m reading, and therefore I’m experiencing Pain and Suffering, — torn between my every instinct screaming that the author is setting up the OT3 endgame, and trying to lower my expectations to avoid disappointment. (And the novel is ongoing so I can’t even get spoilers for the ending :) girl help.)

As you may’ve guessed, I found myself strongly preferring the Chinese variant; but as to why exactly it was so important for my enjoyment to know the main couple… it took me a bit to figure out.

I mean, it’s not like I’m reading exclusively for romance, okay? Fannish activity-wise, sure, I tend to get fixated on ships (though even then, not all the time), but when it comes to reading (or any media intake, really), it’s not necessarily what I’m most interested in. Among my beloved titles, there are many where there’s no canon or fanon couple I'm attached to — and more than a few where there’s a canon couple that I neither love nor hate, just accept. So why did I get so attached to the concept of being, essentially, spoiled the endgame couple beforehand?

The key word that made it click was: promise. After all, it’s not like knowing the names of the characters that get together tells me anything about if they will be interesting or boring together, if they will be good for each other or make me scream “break up!” a million times. But it is a solid promise that these two people ARE gonna be a couple. 

And thinking about the word promise reminded me of discussions on plot twists that I’ve seen on here, about what makes a good plot twist and what makes a bad one — specifically, the phrase “narrative promise” that someone came up with. Basically, narrative promise is in the set up and the build up. If the plot twist betrays the narrative promise, it will not work, and it will be hated by the audience, who’ll feel like their emotional investment into the story was mocked.

The thing about the narrative promise, and why this term stuck with me, is that it’s actually applicable more broadly than just for shock-factor plot twists. For example: what is queerbaiting, if not betraying the narrative promise that the two characters are gonna be together? The fans see the narrative promise — the set up and the build up that would be unequivocally romantic for a het couple — and expect it to be fulfilled; only to be called delusional by the very creators that gave them this expectation. 

And this brings me to the next point: the catch of the “narrative promise” is that it’s never a guarantee. You can be completely sure the author is setting up X, only for them to turn around and do something completely different. (Possibly while calling you a little bitch for having the stupidity to invest your feelings into their creation, too.) After a while, a fan learns to manage their expectations. To not bet too much on anything, even if it feels like there’s no other way it can go. To wait until the end of the season or the last chapter before allowing themselves to get attached; to hold back on deciding whether something is good or not, lest they hype up something they will want to bury and forget later.

And this is where we circle back to c-novels, and to spoiling the main couple in the summary. Except I hesitate to call it “spoiling” because, as discussed, it actually heightens my enjoyment. For a simple reason: this practice takes the narrative promise from its nebulous, uncertain status to something concrete and real. Only for this one aspect and with the minimal-est amount of information possible, but still. That’s one thing I don’t have to guess about or doubt myself on (am I seeing things? is there a heterosexual explanation another way to read this? will the author simply kill off one of the characters before the end so that they don’t have to decide whether to make them explicitly queer?), and one thing I can count on (whatever else happens in the plot, I’ll still have this). It’s easy to invest emotionally into those characters and their relationship, when you have an assurance of their happy ending.

Ofc, I’m not saying that I don’t invest emotionally into relationships or characters other than the main CP — just that it is easier. And I would even say having this one(1) hard promise makes it easier to invest into other elements of the work, too, as it makes for a sort of safety net even if something else is disappointing or painful. 

Like, say you are invested in one couple with great chemistry and one side character. In case of a pre-stated ship, even if the side character dies, at least you still have the canon couple. So it’s not like all of your emotional connection to the book is lost, and you can probably bear with the loss of that character by writing everybody lives AU or something. But if the side character dies AND the couple you were invested in gets broken up or killed off or straight-married with other ppl… then doesn’t that make the entire thing into one massive disappointment? to the point that you might even regret picking up the book that made you care only to slap you in the face?.. 

So yeah, having even just one ship guaranteed is very comforting. And then I thought, well, doesn’t this apply to another type of fiction that I’m very familiar with?

Fanfiction?

Which, since very early on, has adopted the practice of putting the endgame ship in the header of the fic. And which, probably not coincidentally, is often a response to a broken (or at the very least not brought to its logical conclusion) narrative promise. And which always felt uniquely easy to read for me… 

See, prior to getting on this little thought train, I always assumed the ease was due to pre-existing familiarity with canon. You know, not having to learn the entire new setting, already having attachment to the characters… But now that I’ve connected these dots, I thought about times I read fics for fandoms I wasn’t familiar with, and originals formatted as fics — and really, wasn’t it always about the narrative promise made solid? 

Esp with how fics make it even broader than cnovels, by having extensive tags and ratings and such. Getting into a fic, you have a pretty clear idea of what may or may not happen in the story, even if you don’t know what exactly will happen or how. And a fic can fail to live up to the premise set up by ship/rating/tags — but not completely turn its back on it. 

(Well, normally. But in those exceptional cases where tags are misleading, at least you have something to point to when saying, “this is not what I was promised”. The ficwriter can hardly claim they don't understand why you expected [ship] to happen when they personally tagged their work as containing that ship — unlike the traditional media creators, who can always play the "you were totally misunderstanding my intentions the entire time" card.)

And having a solid promise like this, it turns out, takes lotsa pressure off starting a New Unfamiliar thing. I do, in fact, trust like that! So it’s no wonder that there were periods in my life when I would only consume fanfiction, because it was so much easier than extending trust to new titles. And it’s no wonder that what brought me back to being an avid reader were Chinese webnovels that use a practice very similar to what we have in fandoms.

I guess I understand myself better now! Still wish I knew if that k-novel's author is /j or /srs about the ot3 though.

[elvisabutler]

you know how kids are supposed to be good judges of character? i was wondering if you could do elvis x reader where their kids don't like mommy and daddy's manager?

children 'n dogs

summary: your children with elvis never have been a big fan of the colonel and neither have you even if elvis is. but as you and elvis like to say: "children 'n dogs, best judges of character." fandom: elvis presley | elvis ( 2022 ) | austin butler rating: t pairing: elvis presley x female reader ( or austin elvis x female reader ) word count: 1854 warnings: talk of children being absolute menaces. a married couple being very much a married couple. pregnancy. the colonel being the colonel. brief mentions of period typical and culturally typical opinions on child rearing re: discipline and spanking. calling elvis a backwater hick. brief brief mention of vomit. i think that should be everything. author’s note: so hi anon thank you for this prompt, this was actually a really sweet one and i kind of fell in love with it but wasn't too sure how to start it- plus the fun tired exhaustion i've been dealing with. i set this as a sort of continuation of my queen of graceland fic ( that i wrote for specifically austin elvis ), you don't have to read that one, just know it basically has elvis and the reader getting together right before he gets shipped off to germany, and they have a set of twin girls right about that time and i implied they were going to have plenty more kids after those two. read this with austin elvis or elvis in mind, i am not picky, since i left it faintly nebulous.

"Whaddya mean Jess spit on 'im? Damn boy is 6 years old, he knows better." Elvis asks as you start to take down your hair for the night, wincing at one of the pins digging deeper into your hair. "Christ, mama, let me get those ones in the back, ya know ya can't get at 'em."

You roll your eyes but remove your hands only to have your husband's warm hands replace them, finding the pins in your hair with an ease you envy. "I meant exactly what I said, sweetheart. Jesse spit on the Colonel in the five minutes I looked away while tryin' to make sure Loretta and Elizabeth were all ready to go. They all know I'm not movin' all that fast right now." Your hand moves to rub at your bump, an act that has Elvis letting out a heavy sigh above your head, one of his own hands following downward and pressing against it, earning a powerful kick.

"That's what I get for putting another set of 'em in ya, isn't it? My Queen of Graceland too big to be chasin' after my lil' hellion of a boy." He moves his hand off of your stomach, only to watch another kick happen with a chuckle as he busies himself with your hair. "Colonel seemed madder than just a lil spit. Gettin' the feelin' there's more."

There is a moment when you contemplate not telling him the rest, not telling him how your oldest daughters had lost their tempers once you got them over to where their siblings were and how the other two boys promptly followed their older brother and hit the Colonel and how your youngest daughter, your sweet 18 month old daughter had thrown up on the Colonel's shoes. You contemplate all of this only to look up at your husband and realize he's waiting, mid trying to take out a pin. "Everyone might have- well- everyone might have had their own things they wanted to do t'him."

Now you're no stranger to trying to smooth over things your children have done to Elvis, no stranger to making it seem as if your children are far more innocent than they actually are. But in being married to you and in knowing your children together from the day they were born he knows when you're doing it. He knows exactly when you're trying to gloss over things and make them look presentable. He leans down and places a kiss to the top of your forehead. "Darlin'. I ain't gonna be mad at 'em. Or maybe jus' a lil, but ya gotta tell me what they did so I can apologize."

You hum and purse your lips as you move to grab a brush to brush out your hair. "Oh, I don't think any of 'em want you to apologize for what they did. They know very well what they did was wrong." A pause and you shake your head. "Loretta and Elizabeth kicked him in the shin and stepped on his foot. While tellin' him to stop bein' angry at Jesse for spittin' and Anthony and Aaron for tryin' to bite and hit 'im."

The two warring emotions that filter across Elvis's face show just how much of a child he can be even as he's a parent to six kids- eight if he counted the ones inside you. He wants to laugh at the sheer chaos the scene brings to mind but at the same time he knows that he should frown upon everything, that you expect him to be able to discipline them a little but at the same time he looks in your eyes and doesn't see a hint of anger. At the children or him. He raises an eyebrow. "And the vomit on the shoe?"

"Rebecca's lunch." The most simple answer as he pulls out the final pins that you couldn't properly see to pull out. "That one i wasn't expectin' in the slightest. Don't know if it was her tryin' to follow her sibling's leads or jus' an upset stomach. But- she hasn't done it since then."

Meaning it likely was her trying to get in on the action. Elvis sighs, sitting on the chest at the bottom of the bed. "Goddamn, darlin'- Our kids did all o' that to him? Our well behaved kids? The ones who know their manners 'n-"

You hold up a hand waving it for him as a signal to stop talking. "Our kids who know their manners 'cause they know I'd have their hides if they didn't. Yes, those kids. Those kids also hate the Colonel 'bout as much as I do-"

It's Elvis's turn to cut you off, standing up only to kneel down in front of you, taking the brush out of your hands so that he can hold them in his own. So he can envelop them in his own and make you focus on his face as he talks. "I know- I know the two of ya haven't ever gotten along but he's why we have all o'this. Wouldn't have gotten so big and wouldn't be in these pictures if it wasn't for 'im."

There is a part of you, a tiny part that will admit he's right, that the Colonel is the reason he's as famous as he is and why he's able to keep up with paying for your ever growing family but at the same time the man hasn't ever truly liked you and he especially likes you less and less the more kids you bring into the world. "Elvis, if he had his way you wouldn't have me or our kids." You whisper, pulling up your hands in an effort to get him to pull up his own so that you can place a small kiss to them. "He never has liked any of us. Got mad when I was pregnant with Loretta and Elizabeth but liked how he could spin it. Same wit' Jesse. But our other three? And these ones? If he could leave us out in a ditch somewhere, I honestly think he would. He- This doesn't give you the all American, Hollywood star look, it makes you look like a backwater hick."

"A backwater hick." He repeats back slowly, knowing fully well it wasn't you saying that. Oh he'd expect that from your mama, but not you. Which had to have meant that was the Colonel's words, not your own. "He tell ya that? He tell my goddamn wife that?

When you had first gotten married you might have looked away due to how Elvis's voice deepens in pitch, a sure sign of how angry he is simmering under the surface. Nowadays? Now it just makes you shake your head for a moment before nodding. "He has- which might be why your children kinda like a dog know when someone is-"

"Not a good person? Has a bad character?" He finishes for you before muttering under his breath. "Children 'n dogs."

The puff of air that leaves your nose betrays just how aggravated you're getting to be with the entire conversation as does the rolling movement of your twins. "They've done this for years, Elvis, it's jus' today that they've all done it at once. We deal wit' it for ya. I know you won't leave 'im so I handle it."

His eyes drift down to your stomach where he sees his children move a bit angrily and he frowns realizing that you've been stuck dealing with this alone while he sung the Colonel's praises all this time. He had to admit that as of late he was feeling a bit dissatisfied with the man and was beginning to wonder if maybe it was time for a change. A change that would make everyone happy. He pulls his hands away from yours and allows you to start to brush your hair again while he moves to touch and rub your stomach in an effort to calm the children. It works quicker than he'd have thought was possible judging by the way you lean back in the chair a little and sigh. Placing a kiss to your stomach he stands up. "I'll talk to 'im tomorrow, a'right? 'Bout a lot of things. Now come on, lets get your hair all brushed and my teeth all brushed and get ya into bed 'fore these lil ones wake back up and make a fuss."

You tilt your head up for a kiss before you nod. "Don't need to tell me twice. Go on, I got my hair sweetheart." You pause. "I love you. And I am sorry about what they did."

"Don't be, they're- our kids, mama. If they weren't like this- I'd be worried." He kisses you one more time before he pulls away to go to the bathroom to brush his teeth. "Love ya too."

Elvis manages to finish brushing his teeth before you finish with your hair and murmurs something about checking on the kids. It's a quick walk to the bedrooms and when he opens the door he's bombarded by a flurry of hugs and overlapping voices.

"We know we shouldn't have but he's so mean to mama!"

"He was yelling at Jesse and Anthony and Aaron, you'd've been mad too daddy!"

"He spit on me first!"

"He what?" The last words uttered by Jesse are what finally have Elvis putting up his hands and telling everyone to be quiet. "Didya jus' say he spit on ya?"

Jesse looks away when he answers, knowing that he technically is lying but he knows Mr. Parker would have. He just knows. "He didn't but- Daddy we jus'. He's mean. He's never mean when you're here but he's mean."

Elvis frowns and pulls his children in for a group hug, noting how they try and burrow into him as best as they can almost as if they want his forgiveness and protection all in one. When he pulls away he places a kiss to each of their foreheads. "I- I'm hearin' all 'bout this tonight. Listen. You all go on 'n get into bed. Daddy's gonna deal wit' some things tomorrow. Some things wit' Colonel Parker. Don't you worry 'bout it."

The grins so much like his own crossing all of their faces make his heart so full of love he almost feels like crying before he shakes his head. Lights out once I leave. And be nice to your mama tomorrow mornin' ya know your siblings are a lil rough on her right now."

A chorus of "yes daddy" leaves everyone's lips in whatever way they can manage it before he shuts the door and moves back to your shared bedroom. You're already on the bed by the time he comes back, curled up with a pillow fast asleep as he slides in next to you and nuzzles at your neck. "Ya gotta tell me 'bout these sorta things, darlin'. Can't protect ya if ya don't. But I'll deal wit' it tomorrow mornin'. Have some words wit' 'im. Love all of ya too much to not."

taglist: @ab4eva, @eliseinmemphis, @powerofelvis, @headfullofpresley, @precious-little-scoundrel, @blurredcolour, @butlersxbirdy, one day i'm gonna keep track of who would want to be tagged with what. today is not that day.

[where-i-overanalyze]

the significant lack of parents in Soul Eater and how the DWMA combats that

obviously, there are some parents present throughout the entirety of Soul Eater, but they truly are not amongst the greatest: Medusa, Spirit, Lord Death (he's okay in comparison to everyone else, but still not dad of the year). i started this just wanting to talk about how there are almost no parents and then ended up realizing some sorta nice things about the DWMA by the end of it. manga spoilers, so beware.

characters who have living parents

let's start with Maka since she's the only one who has one parent present and one parent mentioned in somewhat detail. Spirit certainly is quite the character; he has almost no redeemable qualities except for the fact that he does actually love and support his child. that's all good, and yet he cannot correct his behavior to actually make himself a person that his daughter will respect. he cares so much and yet he does nothing to try and be a better father for her and what she actually needs from a parent.

but then we have Maka's "wonderful" unnamed mother. great mom, great meister, never given an example as to what this woman could really be like. i haven't been into Soul Eater for super long and i'm sure there are definitely people who have been shitting on Maka's mom, but it's interesting to me purely because even though there aren't many parents in Soul Eater to begin with, there is an even more extreme lack of mothers. i'm going to get nebulous with the definition throughout this post, but it really just seems like the "idea" of a good mother is all the characters get. Maka only gets memories of how great her mother was, maybe because she truly wasn't that great in the first place. a meister who made a death scythe is never to be seen throughout the greatest threat of all time within the past 800 years, not even to check on her one daughter? maybe she's busy? sure. idc what she's doing, but that's a strike out for me.

moving away from Maka's dubious parents, let's look at Kid and Lord Death. in truth, he's not nearly as bad as the other parents in terms of actual parenting, but he is clearly much different in relation to the other parents. he's not human, he's in charge of seemingly their entire world, and Kid is essentially just a chunk of Lord Death that was given sentience. with that, we have to think of exactly what is it that death gods even need in order to be raised. since Asura was a failed attempt, Kid was specifically "born with a childish nature so he [could] learn fear, much like humans" (DTK Soul Eater Wiki page). am i really citing a source in my Tumblr post, is this who i am. SO, thinking about what death gods are meant to do with their power and the fact that they are meant to keep balance in the world, i'd say that Lord Death did a pretty good job of getting Kid to become the best death god he could be. when it comes to actual "normal" parenting standards, idek if we can hold Lord Death up to those since they both are very much not normal. keeping Kid in the dark about some insanely important details about the academy (the Kishin in the basement) and letting Kid know that Lord Death would die when he awoke his true powers, maybe not the best choice, but i'll admit that i'm an extremist when it comes to people keeping important secrets that could have saved everyone a lot of time and trouble.

actually, i take some of my positive statements back when thinking about how Lord Death handled Asura. i know Asura was all powerful and just sort of super insane, but given the fact that Asura was a failed attempt of a fragment and Kid was Lord Death's way of trying again, it feels kind of wrong to give him a title of Decent Dad when his first attempt at making a young death god ended up so so so messed up. also, making a second one just in the hopes of solving your first mess up, kinda fucked up.

anyways, Tsubaki! she's honestly very interesting because we know that both of her parents are alive, but we see almost NOTHING about them. the only time we actually see her dad is in chapter 49 and that's basically it. her mom is mentioned, but we never even get to see her or get her name, so once again there is just no mother present at all and just the "idea" of her. given the fact that they pretty much neglected their other child to the point that he became a serial killer because he wasn't treated the same as Tsubaki, i can't give them much credit for good parenting. maybe Tsubaki came out okay and mild-mannered, but Masamune straight up just got neglected and went bonkers because of it.

and now we reach the grand finale of horrible present parents, Crona and Medusa. debated about putting her in the "dead parents" category, but Medusa is alive for the majority of Soul Eater, so she can stay here. obviously, Medusa's the absolute worst. she literally never has any good intentions for anything she does with Crona, she's extremely manipulative, blatantly abusive, etc. she literally dangles the concept of being a good mother in front of Crona to get them to obey her and in the end that gets her killed (and yet that STILL was part of her plan. she's literally insane). she also tricks other people into helping her by pretending she's worried about Crona. she contributes the mother "idea" again, though this time she is very present, just not as a good mother. i won't go into all the shit that Medusa did, we all know she was horrible. i go into more of Medusa's manipulation in this post.

characters who have dead parents

Black☆Star, i think, is the only character of the main cast that has confirmed dead parents. he never knew any of his clan and sort of renounces them (maybe renounce isn't the right word, but his whole character arc about choosing his own path and defeating Mifune makes it somewhat clear that he doesn't want to end up like his parents). we know about his father, White☆Star, but once again, the mother is never mentioned. from what we're shown . . . yeah, the Star clan sucked and were obsessed with power and whatnot. it's an interesting contrast with Tsubaki: they both come from very well known family lines with very different connotations surrounding them. to an outsider who knows about both of their families, it probably seems a bit sacrilegious for Black☆Star to be partnered with her in the first place.

characters whose parents are MIA

Liz and Patty at least have an "unnamed woman" shown as their mother for a single panel in chapter 78. the "prettiest prostitute in New York" obviously didn't do much to raise them since they were the Brooklyn Devils for a while. no mention of a father and an evidently absent mother, we are once again hit with the "idea" of a mother that isn't there. Liz literally says she hates her mother, thanks her for bringing her and Patty into existence, and nothing else is said about her. it's only after they get sorta "drafted" by Kid that they get to live a pleasant life. there's obviously also some things to say about economic status and being dealt a bad hand in life and whatnot, but i can get into that another time i think.

now, Soul. homie has got NO PARENTS EVER MENTIONED. the closest we get is Wes and unnamed grandma who is never shown. he's literally the only character we don't get shit for who his parents are, where they are, if they're even living and i think that speaks volumes. going off of assumptions, the fact that Soul literally renounced his family name, ran away to go to weapon school, and didn't play the piano for years until he was able to do it, sort of, on his own terms most likely means that his parents were some kind of horrible. also, being forced to play into a family legacy has got to be unhealthy. always feeling overshadowed by your older sibling who, obviously, has more experience is upsetting, but the fact that Soul was seemingly never reassured about his skills is dubious at best. i have strong feelings about forcing children into family legacies, maybe that can be its own post some day as well, and if your kid feels like they actually have to run away to escape it, well then i don't think it works out very well. it's incredibly important that we don't get any parental information from Soul and that we never hear anything about anyone from his family looking for him. maybe he told them he was leaving, but maybe he just slipped away and nobody bothered to look for him.

actual parental figures

while writing this, i realized that everyone in this category is a DWMA professor. DWMA as a whole seems to provide all of the main cast with a place to be that was much better than where they came from. Black☆Star and Maka sort of grew up in and around the DWMA, Soul, Liz, and Patty all came from much worse places before enrolling, Tsubaki and Kid kinda seem like they were chilling tbh, and of course Crona literally experiences positive emotions for the first time during their short time there. schools, ideally, should give their students the opportunity to grow in their skills and find a community with the students and teachers so that they can have an overall positive experience.

Marie is definitely the best example of this and despite the fact that she isn't even a mother (i refuse to acknowledge the unborn baby in chapter 113, most of that chapter is a black stain in my memory that even bleach couldn't remove), she is easily the healthiest mother figure in the entire series. she actually cares about the students even though she was initially reluctant to be a teacher. she worries about their wellbeing, she talks to them about their problems, and overall she is the closest to that "idea" of a mother that keeps showing up. i think part of this is because she sort of realizes that she has this power of being a teacher and a death scythe, but also there are points where she realizes she can't be reckless because she has to be there for the students (thinking specifically about the tempest and how she knows she can't go back in there to save them). she leaves an impression on Crona and she's one of the few people they actually remember Medusa's second wave of experiments she does on them. Crona saw her as a good, supportive person and it continually haunts them that they betrayed her. it's the exact opposite relationship they have with Medusa; Marie is only kind and understanding to Crona when they expect betrayal and hatred, and Medusa is only cruel when all Crona needed was some sort of . . . well, anything healthy.

Stein is interesting to me because he's more of a fun uncle than a "father" in my eyes. he doesn't coddle his students and sometimes he's a bit harsh with them, but this is purely because he knows they can achieve things they don't realize they're capable of. by the end of the manga, he fully acknowledges that, wow, these kids are pretty good at all of this!!! and i taught them this shit!!! go kids!!! now, all of this being said, i do not think he could be a real, healthy father unless someone sucked out all the madness in his brain out with a straw. even with no madness, i doubt he'd want kids because he's got all these spunky students to supervise. this is also why i refuse to acknowledge the chapter 113 unborn baby, i think Stein would know he couldn't be a father and gave himself a vasectomy.

finally, i want to talk a bit about Sid. i wish so badly that the manga went into some more detail about him practically raising Black☆Star after the DWMA eliminated the Star clan. they don't treat each other like father and son, but it's clear that Sid at least cared enough to make sure he was raised and trained well. it makes the mission where Sid and Naigus go into the Arachnophobia lab to destroy the machine and Black☆Star shows up kind of more interesting since Sid's like "Whoever that student is, thank god they're here" and then he's like "Wait a damn minute, that's MY student." it's also nice to see when Sid's proud of him and whatnot. i just like this dynamic they have where it's like not fully familial, but they're more than just a mentor and mentee.

in an attempt to come to a final point, i that the DWMA really gives something to all these characters that they needed and lacked in their familial situations. sounds cheesy and it is, but i find it so nice that such a pleasant and supportive school structure is found in a universe in which people turn into weapons and fight horrors and the school is training all these kids to fight horrors. Maka gets to chase after these legendary stories she's heard about her mother, and becomes arguably more successful than her mother. Soul gets the chance to make his own path outside of the family name he's abandoned and also gets to reclaim his music along the way. Black☆Star and Tsubaki get to be this duo that allows them to kind of get out of these super old expectations of their bloodlines and by working together they get to subvert these expectations and prove people wrong about the type of people they want to be. Liz and Patty got to escape the shitty holes they'd been born into and actually be people they were proud of. Kid was able to actually understand other people, to an extent, and it made him capable of becoming the next death god. The actual human kindness that Crona was shown there is eventually what lets them sacrifice themself for everyone else since they know that it will bring good in the end. the students in Soul Eater may have some real shit parents, but the DWMA is apparently there to fill in the void of those parents.

thank you for joining me for another long af Soul Eater post. i think my next endeavor will be tackling how the manga timeline works, b/c it's pretty fucked up imo

[vapolis]

The ethnicity (or the real world equivalent ethnicity, rather) ask makes me wonder about Vapolis. Of course the city shows a cosmopolitan nature, but now I wonder more or less where the city would be ubicated, roughly, if it was part of the real world. And what would be the real world ethnicities that woud be more populous there?

Now, I wasn't really thinking about my merc ethnicity at all beyond physical appearance (that is, mostly colouring), but it seems interesting to give it more thought. I do assume you would want to make the whole thing free for the reader to decide, making any potential ethnic background available, in a similar way as you do with gender. Yet, I do enjoy making MC's that fit the world as much as possible. And playing as a different ethnicity than my own (I'm Latino, technically mestizo, I guess, but closer to white than anything) can be fun and enlightening. Or so I learned when I played another IF (Merry Crisis, I think it's the title) where you have to be Singaporean. It's always an interesting thought process to have, since you come to realize some cultural differences and similarities between your own culture and others.

Of course, this IF is purposely nebulous on this matter, as most IFs tend to be (to allow the player to make themselves as much as possible).

I'm wondering more from a slight ethnographic curiosity than anything. But also probably would help me with deciding a name for my merc, since I do enjoy making the entomologies of my MCs names make as much sense as possible in the world's they inhabit. Here I understand I have a lot of freedom in that regard, yet, freedom can be a curse since it means an infinity of choices with not clear boundaries other than taste and aesthetic compatibilities.

I wish I had a grand answer to this or specific location in mind, but to be honest I was mostly inspired by cities I've been to or want to visit.

especially Tokyo and Berlin play a big inspiration in how the city looks and should feel like, but I can't imagine vapolis being either in Japan or Germany or around that area. I want the city to feel independent to anything we have in terms of actual cities even if I draw inspiration from it and, seeing as, especially Berlin, is known to be a city that's full of cultures meeting and people from all over the world finding a home here, even if only for a little while, I want Vapolis to feel similar.

there's no ethnicity that's the most wildly spread in vapolis and it's a big mix of cultures and people and traditions clashing to make new ones.

I know that's not what you're looking for in terms of answer to decide for your own merc, but I really want everyone to feel free in choosing the name or ethnicity or anything else about the merc. they're your character now, and as we have seen from the ROs and side characters, the names are all a wild mix of old and new and strange :)

[traincat]

Hey, so quick question: which version of Spider-Man you consider canon? I mean, the writers SAY a lot about the character and while he’s relatively relatable, he’s ALSO a wish fullfiliment kind of person so you can imagine yourself as him.

For example: he’s POOR, so WHY the heck is he still in New York since that's a EXPENSIVE City to live on? He hadn't suffered NEARLY as many tragedies as some other characters like Hulk or Jessica Jones.

Or, he's a loser, but... that's not true at all?? I like Peter, but I can't deny that he isn't necessarily THAT much of a woobie or an overall asshole on occasion (he ain't this saint people tend to claim, if anything he occasionaly behaves like a kid??). To be honest, he kinda has it... easy? Like, he can't have relationships, he's almost NEVER not in one, yet... they claim otherwise.

So yeah, I DO like the little asshole, but Marvel's tendency to retcon and don't show, but tell is... really confusing.

(The only thing that DOES help over that is their admitance it's on purpose, that it's not supposed to be realistic, still... is annoying.)

So I have a direct answer to "which version of Spider-Man do I consider canon" and then I have a lot of more nebulous thoughts about "versions" of characters, reader interpretation, and canon.

My Peter Parker is always going to be 616 Peter, from 1962 through to ugh. Probably about 2014, that's when I personally think the steady downhill slide in characterization that started around Brand New Day entered into irrevocable character damage territory. And I've talked before about how I think, despite what various creators may have said and despite different movie interpretations and the kind of fanon that shows up when you have an extremely large fandom with various levels of interest in actually reading the original-original source material, 616 Peter has traditionally remained a remarkably consistent character. Like yes you have to allow for different writers having slightly different takes, and no superhero who has been written by different creators over decades and decades is ever going to be 100% consistent, but given those factors, and given the character's growth -- like, these are all things that just apply to superhero comics by their very nature, but Peter Parker went five decades where he was a character who just made sense. When I call him fully realized, I really mean it. He feels real and completely fleshed out.

Which is why I kind of feel like the rest of your inquiries veer into more of a discussion on reader interpretation vs actual hard canon fact. And when I say reader interpretation I'm talking about the people who write the comics, too, because again we're working with a medium where fans often become creators, and bring all their own previous interpretations and related baggage with them into the story. Which has pros and cons! I don't mean to make it sound all negative.

I've talked about the relatable trap a lot and that I think there's been a troubling cultural shift from "this character is relatable because he relates to the basic human condition" to "this character is supposed to be relatable so he has to be exactly like me and have all of my exact problems" which feeds back into what you're saying re: "IS Peter a loser? Does he have troubles with girls?" Because it's like, if he's supposed to be a reflection of the Average Comic Book Reader (which I don't think he is) and if the Average Comic Book Reader is a Stereotypical Nerd (insulting implication) then obviously he has to be a loser who has problems with women. But like you said, that's not actually what's reflected in the comics. So what we're up against is this conglomeration of various reader interpretations all kind of tossed together and competing for attention and drowning out the actual comic character. Which is also the problem with calling him wish fulfillment -- whose wishes are we fulfilling? (My wish is to just read good Spider-Man comics currently, so obviously not mine.)

I also think it's a trap to go "well he's poor so obviously he shouldn't live in New York City" when the comics themselves go into this. His aunt and uncle lived in that house for a long time; most likely it's paid off. When he's lived in trendy Manhattan neighborhoods, it's often been in apartments owned by Harry Osborn. Mary Jane pays their bills a lot of the time! We have canon explanations for these things, we don't need to be having arguments about how they're not realistic because at the end of the day, Peter Parker is a fictional character -- writers have the ability to make these things make sense. He's in New York because he is New York; I don't see people jumping at the bit for him to move to Boise, Idaho, or for him to move back to Portland.

I think it's easy to say Peter hasn't had as many tragedies, or has suffered comparatively less than other major comic book figures, but that's opinion. His parents died! His uncle died! His aunt being in ill health in his youth meant an incredible about of responsibility was foisted on him much younger than his peers, leading to a sense of isolation! His girlfriend died! His best friend tried to kill him! Repeatedly! His best friend died! He was cloned! He was convinced that he was a clone and that his whole life was a lie and that he wasn't the real him! His clone, who he viewed as his brother, died! His baby died! On the same night! He thought that his aunt died but actually she'd been replaced by an actress and so he suffered through that grief and loss and tried to move on and then it turned out she wasn't dead! The world assumed his wife was dead for months and his friend group tried to force him to move on! The entirety of One More Day hinges on his inability to move on from the fact that when he instinctively saved his wife from gunfire, he left his aunt in the path of it! Like it's ALL tragedy, it's tragedy all the way down. Spider-Man is a tragedy. But because Peter Parker has earned this false title of being like, a funny little guy who is perpetually in high school and only ever cracks jokes and never engages in Serious Violence or whatever, that gets lost in translation. But for me, that's not a "version" of Peter Parker. That's just misinformation that's unfortunately become popular on a cultural scale and now it's impossible to get away from it. It's not an honest reflection of the source material.

Show, don't tell is the basis of a lot of writing -- whether or not you think that's good advice -- and I think a lot of these issues come down to people looking at small slices of a very large story and thinking that because it doesn't tell them everything in a huge Star Wars credits info dump at the very beginning of the each individual installment of the story that the whole thing doesn't make sense and that they need to "fix" it by declaring that if Peter is poor, he can't live in New York. If he's ever joked about having women troubles, he must be a total loser, so it's not realistic because he's actually always dating someone. Because a bomb didn't go off in his face, he's suffered less than other heroes. But that's not how long running superhero stories work, and sometimes it is necessary to look at the big picture to grasp the smaller details about a character.

[desceros]

How do you personally plan out your fics, especially with one as long as Symphony? Like what's the process behind creating the chapter outlines before you start writing?

so in the very beginning, all of my fic ideas start out the same regardless of length. it always starts with a little kernel of an idea. for example, with symphony, i wanted to write a fic exploring donnie having touch starvation after developing ptsd post-krang. hence why the google doc title is "touch-starved donnie."

then what happens is i start thinking about scenes that i want to have happen in the fic. i'm not really paying attention to anything chronological just yet, just Cool Shit That I Want To Write. this is when i start getting a vague idea of length; the more scenes that pop into my head, the less connected they are (thus requiring more things written between them To connect them) the more i'm like haha! uh oh! this is gonna be a big one huh! and eventually i'll get to a point where i realize that yep, this is gonna be a chaptered fic.

at that point, i start to kind of... pin things into place in my head in a chronological timeline. (this is all still very early in the planning process, mind you.) i'll think of when i want certain things to happen, what key points i'd like to have occur, when they'd make sense together. so this would look kind of like... i knew i wanted to have a scene in symphony where you went on an aquarium date with donnie. and i knew i wanted there to be a scene where you touched him and he was overwhelmed bc it's been so, so long. and i knew i wanted there to be a scene where he kisses you to 4'33. and i knew i wanted to have a scene where leo smelled donnie on you. so you can figure out it goes learning to touch donnie -> leo smelling him on you -> 4'33 kiss -> date with donnie. you do that over and over with all the scenes in your head until you have a general timeline of things.

this is when i start writing things down properly. before this, i'll write down, like. lines of dialogue that i want to have happen or key things to have happen. (e.g. "do you wanna try it?" -> you asking donnie out was planned before i had a single chapter written. i had a list of the escalation of touch that you do with him. a list of the subplots i wanted to incorporate. etc.) but i'll kind of write a... summary of the fic. truncated, but with enough detail that i know exactly what i want to have happen, as seen here in my plan for chapter 9/the beginning of 10:

you'll notice it isn't completely faithful to what happens in the fic... and that's because sometimes while i'm writing, i'll have a better idea of how i want something to happen, or i'll tie in something from a future/past chapter that fits better, or i just straight up change my mind. you're allowed to deviate from your plan!

sometimes, if i'm Really getting into the weeds or if scheduling is important (like. say. if you're writing a character who is a bit of a workaholic and has a tight schedule with things, cough, violist-chan) i'll make a calendar. this lets me keep things straight with when they happen without creating any time paradoxes. (this particular one is color coded later on as i realized i had to track certain things, but don't worry about that. not relevant for this question!)

so at this point, i have an outline of the fic on very broad strokes, most of the chapters summarized out specifically (usually a few chapters ahead, and the last. hm. three or four or so, with the last chapter very specifically planned out) (...yes i do know exactly how the fic is going to end and you're all going to die. but not as hard as i am!), and a calendar with when things happen.

then what i do is i open the google doc, put the summary for what's supposed to happen on the left, and get writing.

and voila. that's my planning process! simultaneously very nebulous but also...... extremely concrete. hehe

[laprimera]

alrighty so after some reflection and getting some outside stuff prioritized Im done some blog housework so I can get comfortable here again.

im still gonna continue my hiatus until november cause the rest of October still has a lot of rl appointments and stuff going on. ill be nuking my ask and drafts to get into maximum turtle plot overdrive and just start things clean, but here's the skinny under cut:

. Ive went and cleaned up my followers list. mostly of inactive blogs, non-mutual or blogs that haven't reached out or interacted at all. I use to think I liked a busier dash but I think trying to keep up with it had been giving me anxiety even if my muses weren't involved in anything plot wise. FOMO has been really killing my vibe more then anything and I need to cut that habit out.

you're a-okay to refollow though! I'll do the same. none of this was done out of malice or a personal dislike, and I get being so busy w/ life and personal plots that you cant interact with everyone in a convenient moment. but if you see this as an opportunity to reach out then by all means! that and I might've accidentally unfollowed one or two of you cause side-blog deal, clumbsy thumbs, and uuh, dont mind me realizing that later down the line-my bad!

. unless carefully plotted otherwise, anything outside my own canons, affiliated blogs/mains or plots is no longer canon to my own. any interaction or thread initiated towards my muses will default fall into my lore/verse unless vice versa or its plotted and etc etc. It's no longer just hanging there in the void so to speak. I need to feel more in control of my own narrative I think and trying to puzzle a lot of contradicting outside plots, dash events, etc has been mentally taxing when rp shouldn't be occupying so much space or anxiety to begin with lol.

this isn't to say everything thats happening in the dash or w/ other characters isn't important ofc! and I still want to participate; it'll just fall under a crack/non-canon tag. if things end up lining up p' well with whats going on here then I might take it into canon. This is p' much what I've been doing to begin with, it's just more concrete now and Im being more careful of what Im willing to accept now. Im ofc open to discussing stuff! DMs and disco for those who have it are open always even if I take a moment to get to it!

. Im no longer answering anon asks that are personal in some way, ie, around subject matters that aren't general headcanons asks or 'hey how do you feel about-' sorta deal. I dont feel comfortable taking it to public and while I understand having the fear of being identified, it's not fair if I'm the only one bearing the subject so to speak. If you want to talk to me through DMs you can either tell me your UN (no burners either) so I can bypass permissions here to chat or you can reach me at @shiny-miltank where my IMs are not barred to mutuals only. I don't bite really! and my discord is not public. tbh Im still very anxious about being on disco to begin w/ cause social anxiety flare ups. idk tumblr dms always seemed easier to chat until I know you on a personal basis-its just worked that way.

. making it more strict that you dont? put my geeta in place of plots, events, etc that I havent participated or plotted with, nor can you make assumptions for them based on said events. as slapped on every piece on my about/rules/pinned/etc shes heavily canon-divergent to begin with so no one knows her intentions/actions (save for me ofc) and wont act in what presumed canon-geeta would do or your own version so to speak. easy enough to slap me an IM for "is it okay to-", plotting, or just make a nebulous npc stand-in.

. things that havent changed are the use of my lore and headcanons into your own! I love seeing it integrated or adapted into other lore and seeing just how much it inspires and changes over time!

this all seems rigid but really it's just reiterating whats already in my rules and no one here has been a huge offender at all :' ) this is more for me to follow and I cant thank everyone enough for their patience and creativity for as long as I've been here. Im loosey goosey and go with the flow 90 out of 100 times.

this goes for the rest of my muses, which Ill probably clean up when Im back-but yeah! miss ya'll! hope you've been doin' good! the terrapagos plot will continue then and Ill resume reaching out and leaving details! hopefully in time for dlc ; >

[funpuddle]

just some character shitt for future things i may want to do

I think the cornflakes characters would work better as a dynamic if instead of being strict to the comic lore, i just started all over, start all over at a point in time where they've all known eachother a while. i kind have basically been using this oversimplified outline for their characters when i think of them anytime now aside for the Other comic ive been working on on my patreon, which is just a weird nebulous Thing.

derek the dog wasn't always a dog, sometimes he wishes he weren't bitten by a weredog all those years ago, but he's come to embrace his doggyness, he sees no point in being hung up about the past. Derek is functionally an optimist, he's also really annoying and not in a cute spongebob way, he's a socially inept frat-reject douche, real immature. bunjee contrasts this by taking Dereks metaphor of Bad Thing happened to you that changed you a lot and making it literal, but he's incapable of moving past it, he comes off as the smarter and more reserved one from a subsurface glance but he's just a bitter, neurotic, sad little man. I want to make it clear how both of them are gullible and hopeless. theyre both vaguely victims of The Forces of Evil but derek doesn't question the way things are, and is just happy to live the closest approximation to the status quo. bunjee ruminates and festers, bunjee is more afraid and thinks theres more to be afraid of than there really is. bunjee tries to overcorrect this by letting impulsive and destructive tendencies get the best of him when he's vulnerable. bunjee doesn't see dereks pain as real, he sees him as too stupid to feel pain, a total rube or NPC, but he's so so jealous. Derek represents everything Bunjee wants for himself, and he wants to be stupider but doesn't realize he already is as stupid. just in different ways. god damn it this basically is a spongebob and squidward thing isnt it.

dusty fits into this by showing another response to trauma (i hope its clear by trauma i don't mean anything in specific, it could be events in their lives to just living in their comically surreal evil world, don't make fun of me man) that isn't moving on OR rocking-back-and-fourth-levels of neurosis, but detachment. If their world is chaos then dusty tries to match it, where as derek is passive to it, and bunjee spirals inwardly. Dusty doesn't put on a front of happiness but he is indeed chemically impaired over half the time, the rest of the time he's really badly grappling with the side effects of letting shit fester in the background for so long, he's wiser than the other two though.

All of these characters are capable of matching each others energy, two on two, in given circumstance, they all have overlap and they have hard barriers. contrasting and complimentary existences as one unit

none of this really gets into how they feel about each other beyond how bunjee feels about derek because i haven't fleshed out how dusty contrasts/compliments the other two nearly enough in my mind, and i'm not confident in what i do have. the gay shit wouldn't be as massive or monumental i can tell you that much but it would be a turning point. wouldn't make dusty as outwardly hateful to derek and would make dusty a little meaner to bunjee. the gay shit would feel better that way anyways. even the playing field.

smith would just straight up not exist if i could do it over again. i don't know why i added him into cornflakes comic to start, he's pretty funny with derek at least but beyond existing for the sake of it i don't find him useful as a fourth main character anymore.

i'll probably edit this as i figure out how to articulate more. it feels gay to just put it out there because i don't want the few cornflakes fans taking it the wrong way. i feel gay for typing that too, like im on some high horse, ohhhh here's my epic character lore isn't it just sooo realll. not that serious

[eldritch-spouse]

Really???? I'm pretty sure I wasn't writing here before lol, mostly because I wasn't writing or creating anything for a long time haha 😭 Sorry again for smashing it in your face really-

And your words are making me blush shit 🥹 Thanks, it helps shy creators like me to think about starting blog hahaha

ACTUALLY, I just realized that I forgot to send any questions I wanted to ask jeez.

Is here any parasitic/symbiotic monsters in your lore? If yes, is it a common thing? How are they approached by other monsters? (I like to think that they're rare cuz nobody actually likes these fuckers, they are stupid™ and bigger ones tend to grab other monsters as their hosts too lmao-) In case host is a human, will they face same discrimination from the other monsters cuz they pass as human?

I have my own thoughts on mind while I was writing since I didn't find any info on you blog about this- maybe it slipped, haha. Sorry in this case!

Who from your OCs will be the most interested to have a buddy like DT? My best bet is on Gallon, since they have two mouths he can get so many rumors and nasty details while practically remaining silent and pouring more and more alcohol lmao AND Chef would hate them cuz Grghaath keeps eating people without waiting for them to be cooked (and Eve has no right to pass so good lol)

Can you give any advice about monster design? I have some thoughts in mind, but I'm not sure how to make monster recognisable lmao :") Do you have any tricks while creating? Steps you're going through?

•••

SORRY FOR BUMPING ANOTHER WALL OF TEXT and thanks for your attention dearly 🫠🫠🫠🫠🌹

I know it's not exactly easy, I'm pretty timid myself and it took several years of me longingly considering starting a Tumblr account before I actually dug my heels in and did it. I really do think posting stuff in your own account would be better, since you get direct attention and can gather an audience that better understands your tastes, right?

1) Parasitic monster species likely exist, I just haven't thought about some very seriously. I definitely will one day, because I'm extremely attracted to monsters like "Carrion" (from a game with the same name). They're probably rarer than most other monsters because their survival relies on finding the correct, compatible host and the switching process is probably extremely perilous to these beings. The closest thing to this we have going on currently is Krulu and Admin's relationship (wherein Admin is a vessel to Krulu) and the ability most demons can hone of possessing another's body (which definitely has its consequences at a long-term level). I think most monsters would have a negative reaction to parasitic entities, mostly due to their own fear of becoming helpless hosts- Which means they'll do anything they can to really blend in, realistically.

A parasitic entity possessing a human host that walks into The Clergy's Eye will immediately have to reveal that they are not, in fact, human- Or else they'll be targeted like one.

2) I think Sybastian is a good bet. Parasites are related to mimics, in the sense that they have a common goal of wanting to pass as something, to go unnoticed by those around them. They're bound to have a little mutuality.

Patches may approach out of curiosity and wanting to study the bond between those two. Nebul is likely under the initial impression that what those two have going on is similar to what he and Purpur are (pet and owner).

I don't think there's any more that might act very differently around them, at least not off the top of my head. 🤔

3) N-Not really?

Here's the thing. When I create characters, I'm not thinking "What would my followers like?"/"Will others enjoy them?". I'm creating characters that I like, that I think would fit in my narrative and my tastes.

My biggest piece of advice is literally just create something you know you'll love. Because then drawing and talking/writing about that character will be like second nature to you, probably.

Visually, I'm not sure what to tell you. Everyone has a style, and yours is very different from mine. Lean into your talents, adopt colors you like, I'm not too sure what to tell you other than just fuck around and see what comes out, you know?

Sometimes I create a character out of necessity, to fill a hole in the narrative. Other times they come spontaneously to me. Sometimes I already know exactly what they'll look like but figuring their mannerisms out takes me weeks. Other times I know what they'll do and how they speak, but visually they could be anything for a while.

Instead of giving up on a character when you're having trouble creating them, I recommend letting a wip sit for a while and coming back to it the next couple of days.

I guess... Find your theme, the stuff you like.

Don't create anything just so it's "recognizable", or at least I wouldn't.

[theneighborhoodwatch]

not to theorize hard bc im new here, but sparking off the wally & autism coding ask, what ive gleaned from all the info on how like. wally had to be taught what a joke is, doesn't understand hugs, doesnt say piss words - other than he's an audience surrogate as you said - i feel like is driving home the theme of being & growing up heavily sheltered. It comes through in the overall setting of the story being a children's show, Wally as the main character of the show is required to have a static, codependent relationship to Home for the sake of episodic material, also the benefits gained off ignorance by the person housing you (in this case, its entirely the show runners, but a real life parallel would be like an abusive parent).

The show's narrative necessitates his ignorance of simple concepts, even as an adult character, because the show requires it of him as a protagonist in order to keep writing material. There's a lot to be said just on becoming aware of that alone in the context of the ARG, but stepping back from it and thinking in relation to the real world, that's terrifying. It would be an indescribable horror to realize your entire existence has been catered to fit the narrative of someone who was supposedly taking care of you, which like. we're seeing the ramifications of that in the prologue already. It screams metaphor pretty much out the gate, I feel like. Admittedly, I'm also self projecting with this take on it by a LONG mile, lmao. not discoursing btw; while i do feel that the overall presented themes should inform the intent of the material, it's genuinely interesting to see the differing reads people have based off their life experiences. I also enjoy your analysis on WH, its all good food.

addendum i feel like i should add that my ask was all more a response to the idea of infantilization and child coding, not refuting that the characters have autism that would be buckwild

(context)

oh, no worries, i didn't take it that way at all! i actually agree with a lot of what you wrote, or at least i think it's very plausible in terms of Overarching Themes and Metaphors. i don't even think its mutually exclusive with the aforementioned experiences with one's own neurodiversity - i've written about that briefly before; it's part of what i mean when i say things like "cosmic horror coming of age" (meta horror coming of age, as well?)

i will say, though, i don't think it's exclusive to wally. as it's been said before, every neighbor is the nebulous age of Adult, even if some seem to be considered more mature than others even in-universe - but i think they each have some degree of immaturity about them, in their own way. their environment doesn’t seem to give them much room or encouragement to grow, for obvious reasons. something something status quo is god, something something their existence seems to be both sustained and limited by human interference, in all its imperfection and susceptibility to bias (particularly in the context of 60s-70s usamerican culture.) it's just that based on what we know so far, wally seems to exhibit this the most.

[lackadaisycats]

Hello!

First of all I wanted to say that your art is super gorgeous and I am super into your setting because ahm DUH cats + crimes are meant together

So I have several questions for you if you don't mind!

Out of all the platforms, how come you are still on tumblr? I am new here and as far as I can see usually major creators don't really use it anymore (and good gosh you are major for me <3)

Have you ever felt jealous of other creators? Do you think your work does not get attention it deserves? BECAUSE I CERTAINLY DO. I bet my friends are sick of me trying to promote your work :D

Have you ever had any fears regarding your art? Or in general?

Hey, thanks! 1. Hmm…good question. It's been, what? At least ten years since Tumblr was really in its zany, tumultuous, hormonal heyday. Then came the Great Annihilation and the Female-Presenting-Nipple Fallout. The ashes have settled and what remains is a, uh, mildly eccentric, post-apocalyptic ghost town? Like Mad Max, except everyone is wearing pastels, sipping tea and chuckling cryptically to themselves about something amusing while fussing with their herb garden. Or thereabouts. Maybe the chaos agents lost interest and everyone else who dwelled here grew up into rather chill adults. I don't know. Either way, I'm kind of liking its vibe lately? I use other social media too. As someone trying to earn a living as a freelance artist, I sort of have to. I'm on Twitter. I'm on Instagram. I'm on YouTube. I have the comic up on Webtoon. I've even got a TikTok for animated stuff. I feel way more at ease here, though. There's less pressure to perform, and to do it aggressively and relentlessly so as to appease a nebulous, uncaring demigod of an algorithm. And when you're doing that amidst a morass of other people, when everything you labor over is reduced to "content", it gets to feeling like you're just flailing futilely around in a stormy ocean. Tumblr doesn't feel like that. No one is vying for massive success on tumblr. From a functionality standpoint, for me, this is still the best place to post a bunch of large images all at once without having to fully reformat everything. And I can answer questions in whatever exceedingly verbose way my heart desires without hitting a character limit…

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2. Ah, well, thanks very much. I really appreciate the of word-of-mouth championship! Promotion coming from an authentic place is absolutely the most gratifying kind (as long as your friends aren't too annoyed with it). It's difficult to objectively measure something like deservedness, though. Sometimes I feel guilty for the amazing good fortune I've had to be able to pursue some of my dreams. Sometimes it's an emotional, physical and financial struggle that has me questioning my life choices and frustrated that the universe doesn't spend any effort trying to balance sweat and tears against reward. Simultaneously, I know many artists who haven't had any of the opportunities I have in spite of - in my estimation - deserving it as much or more than I do. In a more perfect world, things would just be better for creators on the whole. And, well, for most people in general. And yes, I have experienced envy with a bitter edge, mostly when I was a younger, immature artist. I think envy is a pretty natural human reaction - it can be an overall positive motivator to see what other artists have been able to achieve and to desire some of the same level of skill or success. It can also easily turn into resentment that unleashes a whole array of destructive thought patterns and behavior. As I've grown older, I've found fewer and fewer reasons to really feel envious of anyone, though. You come to realize success is a matter of perception, a fleeting feeling, a pyrrhic victory, a largely illusory thing, and that other artists are your allies more than they are your competition. You come to value the things that are the actual substance of your life - like treasured time doing your thing (and maybe even doing it with other artists you enjoy) - more than you value the phantom triumphs and validations you imagine others possess.

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3. Oh yes. Fear is all around. Where to even begin? Fear of disappointing people, fear of ultimately wasting the time of the other artists I'm working with, fear of doing some harm, fear of accidentally offending someone, fear of disproportionate reprisals for accidentally offending someone, fear of losing everything in some contract arrangement gone bad, fear of injury that stops me from being able to continue working, fear of falling short of what I wanted to do, fear of income sources going under, fear of present political situations escalating and upending everyone's lives so profoundly that art isn't even an option any longer….and many more! They're always stacked and looming. All I know is that, while it's good to let rational fears make you careful and aware and prepared, you can't let them stop you.

[practically-an-x-man]

Fanfic ask!

2, 7, 20, 34, 81, please?

Thank you!!

Fanfic Writers Asks

2 and 20 I answered here!

7. tell us about the plot of the first fanfic you ever wrote

Oh man... if we're talking about what I wrote knowing it was fanfic, technically it's this eons-old shitty AHS Roanoke fic that I never even finished. I finally got tired of it and deleted it from my AO3 because it just made me cringe, but I have to give it a level of respect for giving me the courage to actually write and post my ideas. I'd never have realized how much I really love writing if it weren't for dipping my toe in the water with that one.

However, I've tried writing stories since I was a kid, and I distinctly remember hand-writing like 6 pages of fanfic for the terfy wizard fandom (this was when I was like... 9. don't judge me) that basically just consisted of bringing one character back to life since I didn't like their death. It was shit, and I was kinda embarrassed about it even after I wrote it, and I didn't even know what fanfic was at that point, but technically speaking that was the first.

34. how do you name characters and places?

Ooof... either I come up with the names out of the blue and they're perfect, or I have to scroll through lists upon lists on baby-name websites until I find something that fits pretty well. Most of the time I'll try to put a little symbolism into the characters' names (Rae means "protector", Ophelia is a tragic character in Hamlet, Gia's last name Pantazis means "live forever", Nikoletta Bordeaux effectively translates to "a victory that means nothing", things like that), but sometimes it's just whatever sounds right to me

81. if you could go back in time and give your younger self a piece of writing advice specific to you, what would it be?

Write the story you want, don't worry about what you think people will want to read. It'll be more fun for you, you'll make better friends and connections, and your writing will be a hundred times more rich and impactful for it.

That was something I struggled with when I first started writing - I didn't get a lot of attention on my fics, and I thought that meant I was doing something wrong, and I went through a period where I was tempted to just write the most generic, white-bread romance stories because I thought that was what people wanted to read.

Thankfully I broke out of that, started writing the stories I wanted to write and read myself and found a little community of writer-friends, and my writing is both technically better and much more fun for it. My stories are weird! And they're great!

I do still worry sometimes about how my fanfics will get seen by others (like... I write for Hux, I know people don't like him and for good reason, but I still love Bolts and Blasters; I sometimes write in 1st or 2nd POV in some of my fics and I know that's an acquired taste too), but I'm done with worrying about how palatable my writing is to this nebulous Reader on the other side of the internet.

(sorry, that answer got a lot longer than I meant it to)

[vermillioncrown]

upcoming batman fic

for all of you wishing that si!kagami would call the clowns out through a megaphone, or that zyx lost their shit and threw a fit for real for once in their miserable life, or can only be teased by my never-to-be-actually-written college aus

this is the one. this is the fic.

i will respect that canon exists and it can exist waaay over there. i know nothing, own up to nothing, and let fandom brainrot take my fingers over

=

pre-under the red hood, tim is robin, dick is nightwing

idc too much about other characters besides core batfam

the whole thing i skimmed about cataclysm and no man's land hurts my head?? so i'm just dancing around it and it didn't go THAT bad but it was still not a good time in gotham

=

at least other isekai's have some obvious silver lining. this one is fucking abject misery, but i'm not me unless i'm trying to laugh my way through suffering

it started as a dream where i was in the pov of a street kid or whatever, and then lucid-realized and said out loud both dream and irl

"i can't survive on the streets, i have eczema"

=

The Pros and Cons of Digging Your Own Grave

+ Well, at least you know where it is.

- Like you don't have enough to do already.

Or another tough debate: which is worse—falling to your death from 30 stories up onto wet concrete, or experiencing the still-nebulous but unspeakable horrors of child trafficking?

Given the bluff profile of the average 10-year-old, maybe the terminal velocity can be increased significantly if that 10-year-old curls up during descent? While undesirable, instantaneous death still ranked higher than drawn-out suffering and mental trauma (if not also death). At least, that's the personal evaluation here—no prescribing this scenario's weightings onto anyone else.

So… the only thing left to do with that question answered is to start climbing—the bat-people don't linger on the same rooftop all night.

(The smart thing to do, when in way over your head, is to avoid trouble when you see it—animal-themed vigilantes first and foremost. But sometimes, they are the lesser evil.)

(Nightwing pulls a Bruce, gets bullied by a child, more at 11.)

[grasslandgirl]

and fic writing questions! a) are there any motifs you're proud of/happy about/excited about in noble pining atm (like, could be mirrors or swords or vines or objects like that, or something more nebulous, like repeated dialogue or scene descriptors, etc.) and b) what's a challenge or problem you've had a fun time solving while drafting it, or that you're really proud of finding ways to handle? <3

a) so like. I realized far too late into the process of writing noble pining, after I'd realized how horrifyingly Long it was going to be, that I hadn't really anticipated or intentionally put any themes or motifs into it at that point? so as an insane person. I decided on a few themes I wanted to be intentional about that I thought were already present in the text, and like copy pasted relevant quotes I'd already written into a Google doc so I could keep track of them skfjbnskfjbn they kind of intersect, unsurprisingly, and its one of the points on my docket for editing to like. workshop integration and progress of the themes over the course of the story!!!

as for motifs uhhh. I don't really think so ?? not intentionally, anyway, like we could ask my betas uwu and bev if they've noticed any recurring themes or imagery or etc in their readings thus far but uhhh. no. this started as a silly goofy quick idea and then by the time I realized it was going to be the size and scope it was turning into, I had bigger problems ahead of me (like plot) to worry about, so stuff like motifs kind of got shoved by the wayside <//3 (maybe there are unintentional sav-isms?? probably. I'm sure I have common dialogue/scene/setting descriptors and tells that I'm unaware of that are all over this thing sfkjbnsfb)

b) ummm. so disclaimer I finished the first draft of np back in Feb (!! 25 chap 150k!!) and sent it off for beta'ing by the end of that month/beginning of march and um. haven't touched it since? not that I haven't gotten what I'm sure is lovely valuable feedback from my beloved treasured betas I just. haven't had the inclination or the spoons to start editing or working on the second draft of it. YET! I will. eventually. at some point I'll buck up and start on it, which will be the hardest part skfjbnskfjbnsf. so like. there isn't really anything Ive done Yet to be proud of, given that I haven't started editing actually, but I am proud of myself for like. figuring out the plot of it all?? I feel pretty damn good about the beats of the whole thing, which as someone who has NEVER even attempted writing anything this long or involved before was like. a huge impressive step for me! the other longest thing I've written was my d20 big bang fic from back in '21 and like. that was little more than 20k iirc?? and I got so stuck on trying to figure out the plot I wanted or how to make it work that I like. ended the fic BEFORE the plot climax so I didn't have to figure it out. so like. coming up with what I think is a pretty good plot arc and character arcs and individual and group beats and some politics in there and etc etc etc for this au. I'm proud of that <3 I hope when I read my feedback my betas will tell me that it works and that it isn't awful and bad. skfjbnskfjbnskfnj <333

[copperbadge]

I filled out your form about your transmasc character earlier today and have only just realized it might read as negative, which was not my intention; I'm happy you're writing this character and trust you to do him justice. I am v sorry if you read it as negative, please take whichever form submission looks most like an autistic might write it earnestly and miss the mark and apply this ask to it. (actually it's the one that says to make gender silly and doesn't like the trope where a trans character is Okay With Rude Questions Because Of [Detail])

Hey, thanks for filling it out! I saw and appreciated what you said, and I didn't take it as particularly negative -- last I checked I had about 75 responses and yours wasn't even the most aggressive. Not that anyone is being especially aggro -- there are some people who are giving strong reactions to various things, but I want that kind of feedback, I want to know when someone is like "No, that's weird" or "I would not want to see that." Nobody's been a dickhead, I guess is what I'm saying, it's all useful.

I will say that there are some things I clearly need to address -- for example, repeatedly I'm seeing "Give the queer hero some queer friends" which I neglected to do, though that's not so much a failure of imagination as me being super bad at writing large casts, so an easy if perhaps somewhat awkward thing to fix. But man there are a lot of pitfalls I'm pretty pleased I avoided.

As with any group, of course, there's no monolith, so I'm going to have to weigh various opinions against each other, but I think the vast majority of readers will really enjoy the book. A lot of things that people said they'd like to see in a romance novel with a trans male hero are things I've already put into the book, so feeling very validated there.

Also like, I'm glad you specified which was yours because otherwise, amusingly, "looks like an earnest autistic person wrote it" wouldn't narrow it down -- I had a statistically significant number of people say "Also I'm autistic and" and then give me some extremely good pointers about autism, both related and unrelated to being trans. Which are welcome, especially since my questions around autism are a lot more nebulous at this point.

Anyway all of which is to say please, no worries, your comments were both helpful and non inflammatory. :D