#So the break is going to be a bit shorter than expected because I don't actually have to finish the schoolwork!!!

[alter-soup]

For the next two days I'll be trying my best to finish up the queue and hopefully requests will be back up soon!!! Thank you so much for your patience!!!

[savannahsdeath]

SOCCER!ELLIE WILLIAMS X CHEERLEADER!READER

PART 2TWO

part 3three

part 1one

mdni please<3

summary: effects of the match seem simple - ellie either wins and gets what she wanted, or not. but even the score doesnt make things less complicated, as the past wont leave you

warnings: minors safe🩷

writers note: the start is shitty because i was writing it in a rush but it gets better after first goal i promise!! also this ones shorter because i had to stop right there cus i dont know wether to make it ellie x reader or change it to vi....

'that's right, put your pom-poms down

getting everybody fired up'

you were excited for the match. not only did it mean that ellie was going to try her best to win your kiss, but the stakes were higher than that. you'd been excited for the rematch between your team and vi's team - your ex's team - all year, and now the time had come.

soon, the match was about to start, and you and the other cheerleaders took your positions on the sideline to cheer for your team. ellie and other players took their positions on the field, looking confident as well.

you cheered, watching ellie play against vi. the match was close, and the score was tied for a while. then, ellie managed to score a goal, turning the score to 1-0 in favor of their team.

you cheered as loud as you could for ellie, feeling a bit torn between wanting your team to win and not wanting to see ellie get her reward so easily. but just like you, vi had also noticed the connection between the two of you, and had to do something about it - she had no intention of letting the flirting continue. as the leader of her team, she made sure that they were playing aggressively, and they managed to tie up the score again, making it 1-1.

you watched as vi celebrated her team's goal with her team's cheerleaders, and you frowned, not at all happy to see her happy.

first 45 minutes ended, making all players spread out. some drank water, some stretched or practiced, but most of them just rested. ellie walked into your direction before suddenly stopping and turning around. just then, vi appeared in front of you.

"we need to talk." she demanded and you knew you have no choice.

you followed her as she led you away from the field. the two of you walked silently for a bit, until she finally turned to you.

"i've noticed you flirting with ellie." she said, her expression dead serious.

you couldn't help but stare at vi, trying to process what she was saying.

"what makes you think that?" you asked.

"don't play dumb. i've seen the way you look at her." she scoffed, rolling her eyes.

"what's the big deal anyway?" you inquired, trying to keep the conversation calm. you shrugged and added; "we broke up months ago."

"you're flirting with her right in front of me!" vi crossed her arms, glaring at you. "do your feelings towards me mean nothing to you anymore?" she asked.

you hestitated for a moment, not sure wether it's a good idea to bring this sensitive topic to the conversation. but you couldn't stand it anymore. "my feelings for you disappeared as soon as you cheated on me."

vi's eyes widened. she seemed genuinely surprised by your response - maybe she hadn't expected you to be so candid with her. "i never did. it would be different if you'd just- listen to me back there instead of believing what people say!"

you raised an eyebrow at the girl. "believe what people say?" you scoffed. "people don't just make something like that up."

you couldn't believe that she was actually trying to deny her betrayal.

"i don't want to hear it." you said, glaring at her. "i'm moving on, and you should too."

vi looked hurt. she clearly wasn't expecting such a bold response from you, and wasn't sure what to say.

"i should go." you said, turning to walk away.

"hey, wait a minute." vi exclaimed.

you defensively put your hands in the air. "no, that's it. the break ends soon, you should get ready." you nodded towards the field. "now, excuse me, i have to go cheer on ellie, so i don't miss her second goal." you said with a smirk.

vi rolled her eyes, so you could tell that you had hit a nerve. it wasn't necessary, but she deserved it. unless she wasn't lying...

you rolled your eyes back in retaliation, enjoying the little victory you had over her. you didn't even realize how intrigued you were by the match- no, by ellie, until this talk.

you didn't want to waste time chatting with vi, so you started walking towards the field. you saw ellie talking to her team on the field.

the second half of the match started, and the wave of cheers from the crowd got louder.

the last twenty minutes.

you watched as ellie started running towards the opposing team's goal, dribbling and dodging opponents with exceptional skill.

as ellie approached the goal, she noticed you in the crowd. she winked at you, and you couldn't help but grin back. as if she knew that she was going to score another goal, ellie took the shot, and it went in.

2-1 in favor of your team.

your ears were deafened by clapping, some people even stood up and jumped around. the game went on but ellie let herself rest for a moment, her players carrying the situation. even now, on her sweaty and tired face, you could see the same smirk she always has. she was proud, simply proud.

vi didn't like that, though. she saw the smile on ellie's face, and she knew that ellie was doing this for you. she kept yelling at her players, telling them to try harder.

soon, one of vi's teammates managed to push through your team's defense and scored a goal, making it 2-2.

vi smiled, looking right at you as she celebrated, encouraging her team to hold their position.

as the match neared its end, both teams tried their absolute best to score a third goal, but to no avail. time was running out quickly, and it seemed that the match would end in a tie.

you glanced over at ellie, watching as she ran back and forth on the field, sweating profusely and looking exhausted. she had given her all for the match and almost scored another goal, but it just wasn't enough.

the ref blew his whistle, as the match had officially ended.

PLEASE LET ME KNOW ARE YOU GUYS TEAM ELLIE OR TEAM VI??? i need yalls opinion🧎🏼‍♀️

TAGS: @wandasromanova @bellaramslover @aouiaa @glennns-blog @elliewilliamsfuckbuddy @iheartsadiesink @ximtiredx @coff1nn @jowdann @simpforellie @iveofficiallylostmymarbles @skylerwhitwyo @pinkigirl @islalips @ratdungeon @okayyesbutno and some more i cant tag for unknown reasons:(

[xortstories]

Contrary Writing Advice: Tell, Don't Show

Wherein I give advice that runs contrary to commonly shared writing tips, because some short bits of advice get repeated without context until they become actively detrimental to the process.

Today, we're looking at a common adage: "Show, don't tell."

On the surface, this seems to be (and often can be) good advice. "Showing," in the context of writing, is all about description. Don't say "He was sad because he had to go to work", say "His shoulders were slumped and he walked with slow, trudging steps to his cubicle."

It paints a picture with words. It implies the sadness, allowing the reader to interpret it by picking up on the cues in the writing, thus increasing engagement in the story.

It's not always that simple, though. For the most basic problem, let's compare word counts. In the example given it's not that egregious—10 words for "telling" vs 14 words for "showing," but that's still a 1.4x increase to the word count of your book, and it could get much more than that. There is value in shorter, telling sentences. For starters, they break things up and can be used to punctuate the end of a sequence. Let's have an example paragraph, which we'll then try two final sentences for.

He desperately raised his shield as his foe rained down a series of heavy blows on him. Once, twice, three times the knight's mace collided with the shield, splintering the wood and driving him to his knees. His shoulder ached, and the shield began to fall low enough that his head would soon be exposed. Then, out of nowhere, another soldier—one of the many allies whose names and faces now bled from his mind as adrenaline washed away all conscious thought—appeared as if from nowhere, colliding with the knight and thrusting his dagger frantically at the weaker parts of his foe's otherwise impenetrable armor.

Probably not the best fight scene I've ever written, but it does the job of being a very strong example of "showing." Now let's look at two ways to follow up this paragraph.

#1: Showing

He turned, heedless of his ally's struggle, and dashed away. His heart pounded in his chest and he struggled to keep his shaking limbs steady, stumbling and faltering every few steps. The sounds of battle surrounded him, overloading his senses, and he narrowly avoided several errant strikes from others embroiled in conflict as he raced through the battlefield.

Again, not the best, but a pretty good paragraph. We'll talk more about it in a moment though, as now we're gonna look at a second followup:

#2: Telling

He ran for it, leaving the battlefield far behind him.

So, let's examine what each of these followups actually does for the story.

For starters, we need to consider what we want this scene to accomplish and how important it is. If this is meant to be a defining moment for the character, the culmination of several chapters of buildup where he trained for the upcoming battle, grew close to his allies, struggled with his fears and insecurities, and now in the heat of the moment loses his nerve?

Yeah, it might be worth it to drag things out and continue "showing" what he does.

But let's say instead that this, instead, is meant to be an establishing moment for an already-true fact about the character. Let's imagine that this is from the opening scene in a story that, we will soon learn, is about a cowardly soldier. The buildup of the main paragraph above sets up a suitably intense, epic fight scene. It paints the main character ambiguously, as someone who is fighting but unable to hold his own, but it leaves open the possibility that he'll join his ally and finish off the knight that was hammering him down.

And then comes the rug pull. Just when the reader expects the intense fight scene to continue, nope! He's running away. The short and to-the-point nature of "telling" what the character does there leaves things unambiguous and drives the idea home immediately. We see that the character is a coward, and that sudden rug-pull creates a great moment where the reader goes "Oh, I see. He's a coward."

Basically, it's a punchline. And a punchline has to be... punchy. You can't draw it out with sentences and sentences of "showing." You just "tell."

Let's also consider the fact that ending a long series of "showing" paragraphs with a short, simple "tell" can be a great way to transition out of a scene. It signals that that sensory feast is over, wraps it up and puts a bow on it, and lets the author move into another discrete chunk of writing.

"Telling" is also great to summarize boring, inconsequential parts of the story. If your book is about political machinations, where the draw is the characters going toe-to-toe with clever enemies in social scenarios, then it's totally fine—sometimes imperative, even—to just say "After three weeks of travel, where x, y, and z, happened, Bobson finally reached his destination."

I could go on, but this post is long enough already. Remember, the point isn't that "showing" is always bad, just that you need to understand the benefits of telling and know when it's best to do one or the other, because 100% of either does not make for a very good story.

Also I'll probably write more of these in the future. I've got plenty of beef with common writing tips.

If you like my posts, feel free to buy me a coffee!

And if you're interested in seeing what I'm working on, check out my Blood of Dragons master post!

[ms-demeanor]

Hey! I appreciate your perspective on computer-based things. I think I need to get a laptop and would love your opinion on decent brands. If you don't have an opinion or want to answer please disregard the q.

Context: I'm often on the move and really want something small, light, and that will last a long time. I'm bad about buying new things or taking things to be fixed so ideally it's not something that dies quickly or needs frequent repairs. For a while I used an iPad for this but I need more of a keyboard than tablets have and the shelf life of an iPad is shorter than it should be for the cost. Mine is 7 years old and only works while plugged in... I liked my Macbook Pro I got for college but it's almost 15 years old and given I haven't needed a new one since I don't think spending all that on a Mac makes sense either. I use a gaming PC mostly but I'm going to need to travel a lot more in the upcoming year. I'm ok to spend up a bit since I want it to last.

I think you're going to have to adjust your expectations about the average functional lifespan of electronics. Seven years is a lot to get out of any tablet and fifteen years is way way way above average for a computer.

At work we estimate that the functional lifespan of a laptop will be around five years and the functional life of a desktop will be around seven years; we include upgrades in that lifespan, like adding RAM and storage.

It is not *unusual* to get more than five years out of a laptop or seven years out of a desktop, but if you are a heavy user of anything other than a browser and a word processor, that's about the time when you'll find that the computer feels slow enough to be frustrating. This isn't a hard limit, and it's not something that everyone experiences because people use computers differently, but if you're an artist and you use a drawing program that program will start to feel slow after a while because as updates and patches and drivers have been tweaked for newer devices they've slowly left your device in the dust.

This isn't planned obsolescence, by the way. Computer manufacturers try to "future proof" their devices to a certain extent, but you just can't anticipate certain kinds of changes. Maybe your laptop was manufactured before there were consumer SSDs available so its operating system doesn't take the advantages and limitations of SSDs into account. Maybe your desktop was built for DDR3 RAM and we're now on DDR5 and people aren't writing programs to the standard of the old technology, they're taking advantage of the standards of the new technology.

Since you were able to use your devices comfortably for such a long time, it sounds like you're not a very heavy user and don't need to worry too much about beefing up your specs. However it does sound like you want to keep your computer and use it as long as possible while paying a reasonable price for it (which is good! I think we should all try to extend the lives of our electronic devices as much as possible!).

I actually think you sound like a good match for a Framework laptop.

Framework is a company that makes laptops that are a lot more modular than what's on the market these days. They're mean to be easy to open up for upgrades and sturdy for heavy use. Most of the parts of the laptop are easily replaceable - including the screen - so you can use them for a long time and easily make upgrades that will help the computer feel fresher.

They're a bit more expensive than comparable PCs but much easier to repair if you aren't comfortable opening up your own computer (framework is intentionally built to be easy for people who are non-technical to work on their computers), and they are a LOT less expensive than comparable macs.

I still think you're probably looking at around 7 years of regular use out of a Framework and it won't *break* at that point, it will just. Probably be a bit slow and frustrating. You might not be able to get parts for it after a certain point. You eventually won't be able to upgrade the OS. But that's true of all computers.

I've still got my 2005 macbook. It still turns on, I can still use garage band on it. But it doesn't connect to the internet and uses such an old USB standard that it is extremely slow to transfer data on or off of and it cries and freezes if i try to use photoshop. It's not broken, it's just no longer useful as a daily computer.

What I'm defining as functional here is "Is able to run multiple programs (including at least one browser with 50+ tabs open and two office suites) at the same time for 8-10 hours a day without crashing, freezing, or losing data and restarting is not a major inconvenience."

In those terms, it does sound like you're probably in need of an upgrade (I can't imagine that your current machine is particularly quick) and I think that a framework laptop would suit your needs well.

If you're looking for something somewhat less expensive, you can generally find a decent thinkbook with a 12th or 13th gen i5 processor, 16GB RAM, and a 500GB SSD for around $700-ish, which is the low end of what I think you're going to pay for a decent laptop. I'm reccing lenovo here because I personally like them and have found them to be very easy to crack open for repairs and upgrades. Stick to the thinkbook over the thinkpad because that's the business line and is a bit sturdier and they are designed to be easier to upgrade over time.

Actually, here's a thinkbook with a 12th gen i5, 40GB RAM, and a 1tb SSD for under $700. That's a shockingly good price for that laptop; the reseller OEMGenuine is one I've purchased from many times before for work and I've found them to be reliable, though the reason those specs are so good is because they've added aftermarket parts, so your RAM and SSD won't be under warranty from Lenovo.

For Framework you're looking at at least $1000, but it's easy to plug and play with upgrades so you can start out with lower specs (except processor, don't cheap out on the processor) and upgrade later. The framework is a bit smaller and easier to travel with, but I have a laptop quite similar to the lenovo and it's not a huge pain to move around - it's very light but the 15" screen might be bigger than you're looking for.

If you're willing to spend a little bit more and you're very uninterested in doing your own upgrades and would prefer the most computer you can get for your money right out of the gate, this is a 12th gen i7 thinkpad with 40GB RAM and a 2TB SSD for $1150. (I've not ordered from this reseller before, so maybe check over their terms if you're considering purchasing from them.)

[perfectimaginary]

I wanna be with you everywhere.

Pairing: mingyu x reader

Tags: fluff, cute!mingyu

Summary: café AU where you have a little crush on Mingyu (so is him)

w/c: 1.4K

a/n: I thought about this while listening to Everywhere by Fleetwood Mac so enjoy reading while listening to it too! And let me know if you liked it or not I would love to know <3

Can you hear me calling out your name?

You know that I'm falling and I don't know what to say?

I’ll speak a little louder, I’ll even shout

You know that I’m proud and I can’t get the words out

The air feels different this morning, it's gotten colder these past weeks, autumn started to feel like it and If Mingyu didn’t make the decision to grab that hoodie before leaving he would be freezing. And so, just like every morning, before going to his usual classes, he entered the same café he went to for the past months, even if he wasn’t very fond of their coffee he could at least have a glimpse of you.

Oh right. How could he forget you?

He remembered it all too well, the first time the bells chimed above your head and saw you, he thought that you might be the cutest person he’s ever seen. He could describe in detail the exact sundress you wore that day, this little pink dress he swears. He never saw someone wearing it better than you did.

You had that effect of walking in and the people around you smiled instantly, you were like a warm hug during a cold winter night, by simply smiling and making everyone's day just a little bit easier. He knew it just by the smile you gave every morning to the waitress and since this moment, he hadn’t stopped thinking about you, and every morning he looked forward to seeing you, even if he wasn’t very cautious about it.

Oh, I

I want to be with you everywhere

Oh, I

I want to be you everywhere

(Wanna be with you everywhere)

And you knew it, because you did the same. How was it possible to not look at him? He looked effortlessly good every time you caught a glimpse of him, you were pretending to be engrossed in your book but truly you didn’t read a single word that was in.

Every now and then, between pages you looked up and saw him peeking at you so you smiled, and god he was beautiful. And every morning for the past months you had the same routine, waking up and taking much longer in the shower, putting a little more effort in your makeup and outfit wondering if he would like it. And of course he liked it, he loved the way you matched your earrings with your makeup and every morning he would ask himself which color you were going to wear today.

Something’s happening, happening to me

My friends say I’m acting peculiarly

Come along, baby, we better make a start

You better make it soon before you break my heart

Exams were coming sooner than you expected, nights were getting shorter and the stress was growing quicker than you thought. One morning you forgot your book at the café, and obviously, it was Mingyu who picked it up. He was so stressed about it that he couldn’t sleep that night, asking himself if he should have run to you that morning to give it back to you.

The next day, Mingyu watched as you trekked through the café, strands hanging around your face and your attempt to cover your exhaustion with makeup, wearing more casual clothes than usual. He saw you asking the waitress about your book and he immediately felt guilty, so when he jogged towards you with it in hands you almost cried in his arms. But you were so grateful he gave it back to you that you had to buy him coffee, how convenient it was for the both of you, even if he didn’t like coffee that much he kept drinking it anyway, slowly, so he could take his time listening to you talked about how stressful this whole situation was for you, losing your book the day before the exam, and so he listened.

Oh, I

I want to be with you everywhere

Oh, I

I want to be you everywhere

(Wanna be with you everywhere)

It soon became a routine, every morning he would wait for you in front of the café so he could open the front door for you and get a few more minutes by your side. Even if it was raining, he didn’t care. You talked so much, and he loved it. Every little detail that he could learn about you was so special for him, you went to your favorite italian restaurant last night? He would write the name so he could take you on a date. You loved a book? He would read it to talk about it with you next time. And everytime he does it you fall a little harder.

Days turned into weeks, weeks into months, you became friends so easily, having so much in common but at the same time being so different, like how he would love to take photos of you and you laughed because you said that you didn’t like yourself in photos and he told you how beautiful you were. You sank a little bit more.

And when he finally asked you on a date on a Tuesday morning, sun peeking through the windows of the café, the only day of the week where the rain wasn’t pouring hard. ‘Date?’ was written in a caramel macchiato made by your favorite waitress who was more than excited to do this when Mingyu asked for it in secret to surprise you. And when you said yes he was so excited that he spilled half of the drink on the table and you laughed so much it hurt your cheeks the whole day.

Can you hear me calling out your name?

You know that I'm falling and I don't know what to say

Come along, baby, we better make a start

You better make it soon before you break my heart

And when Saturday came, dressed in your little pink dress he loved so much, he bought you your favorite flowers, white lilies. Because of course, he would remember it, why wouldn’t he? And he took you to his favorite restaurant saying next time he would love going to your favorite one too since he loved Italian food too. The night went too fast to your liking, and so was for him.

How easy it was for you to just tell everything that came to your mind without feeling too much for him, how easy it was to just be yourself without worrying if he was bored of you and, of course he wasn’t. He would look at you so thoroughly even when you say the silliest thing that came to your mind, he was so much. So much more than just a simple crush you had on a man you met in a little café. He was maybe too much for you. Too tall, too large, talked too fast, too handsome. And god how exciting this was. You loved it so much more than you expected it, every minute spent with him, every message exchanged between the two of you at night telling each other’s day. When it went bad or good, or both.

He was so deeply in love with you he thought that he might lose his mind, the way your eyes sparkled when you're talking about something you love, or how you pick at your bread during dinner when you talked about how stressful your exams were. And he swears he never met anyone as funny as you. You're so gentle and caring that he thought his heart might explode even the way you lean on the table to hear what he said, how attractive you were.

The end of the dinner results in you both taking a stroll in the midst of the late hours of the night, heart pondering with the wind whistling to fill the silence between the two of you. It wasn’t bad though. Just the two of you, hands brushing and cheeks blushing. Neither of you tried to do more and it was fine. Talking about how good of a night it was and how you loved it when he almost dropped the plate on the waiter, and how he loved your dress, telling you the first time he saw you with it and that it was at this moment he had a crush on you and you laughed, taking his hand in yours. You had so much time together from now on and the night had only started.

Oh I

I wanna be with you everywhere

Oh I

I wanna be with you everywhere

Oh I

I wanna be with you everywhere

Oh I

I wanna be with you everywhere

(I wanna be with you everywhere)

[logan-lieutenant]

i didn't win the wheel: episode 2

much shorter episode this week! probably because it consisted mostly of golf so they decided between this and team torque they would have mercy on us and cut most of it. still lots to work with though. obviously. because it's them.

love a little throwback to episode one, we've got "genuinely trying to go along with the program and introduce the gist of the show" and "so completely zoned out you'd have better luck getting the attention of a cat chasing a laser" except this time it's switched up. i'm pretty sure alex does like a maximum of three introductions out of the whole series, if that, so you just know they said, "Logan, do you want to go first?" and he put on the most nonchalant amiable expression and said "Hmm... I think Alex should go first since I did it the last time" and then alex just glares daggers at him but knows he can't throw a fit about it in front of the crew and logan's smiling ear-to-ear like "what you gonna do about it?" oh, and also, last week they were even leaning back on the same couch and literally giving "two bros chillin in a hot tub five inches apart cause they're not sure if the other is gay" BUT here we are standing up no couch no excuse and logan's just "you're my new center of gravity now". okay. okay sure.

Alex (already done with this, looking GENUINELY distressed): "It's windy out here, we don't have real golfballs so it's gonna go everywhere..."

Logan: "You're a lot better at golf than me, so I expect you to do well."

WHOA alright. first of all from everything we got so far (not a lot) the main dynamic seems to be: logan acting confident and cocky and arrogant just to annoy alex and also gazing at him with the most endearing/loving/shit-eating expressions, and alex being awkward and out of his comfort zone and taking it too seriously but eventually losing his focus because he can't help but smile back at logan. which i LOVE. but alex is already getting frustrated before the challenge begins and logan is like what... comforting him? reassuring him? boosting his confidence? "i expect you to do well" whole body turned completely to face him. like dammmn alright breaking the theme a little but that's honestly so sweet... also should i mention that we are literally less than thirty seconds into the video and they're already facing AWAY from the camera and TOWARDS each other. and in a few seconds they'll literally turn around to talk to each other looking at the game setup like this is not how you do media you guys know this and yet

(Golf session ends, Logan wins because Alex spent the whole time grappling with the wind)

Logan: "Alright, well... as you saw, little bit of a dominant display there..."

and then he has to abandon that sentence immediately because they both start laughing, like straight up giggling almost breathless like "wait did i really just say that out loud" "did he really just say that out loud" and logan turns RIGHT into alex AGAIN because he's watching every possible reaction plain on alex's face 😂 like alex is both startled and amused and endeared and very incredulous. at one point he straight-up looks at the camera and raises his eyebrows like "oh yeah? WAS it though? can you BELIEVE this guy look at him he doesn't even believe himself" like I CAN'T MAKE THIS SHIT UP. honestly i'm just gonna have to make a gif of it because it's so- it's just so obvious.

oh my god, that's just– this is just adorable. this is gonna be my lockscreen i swear because look at them. alex is still laughing trying not to but that earlier comment just threw him off and logan is leaning into him purposely pushing his arm against alex's (he does it twice) and he's just so happy he 1) made alex laugh 2) made alex FLUSTERED jesus christ get that boy some water and 3) got away with it. this is what i meant about logan being alex's turnaround point. he literally lost at the golf game just like he was worried he would and yet here he's the most happy and comfortable he's been all video

okay let's round it off with– alex what the FUCK is this posture. i was going to take a ss already because of how close he leaned into logan (we know you can see the goddamn ipad alex you aint slick) and THEN he did this. shoulders slanted. hand on the hip. face like the gay best friend about to judge the shit out of the guy you're falling for. what in the actual fuck is going on here i mean i was so not ready for the amount of cunt that was served in a literal shift of position. also can we talk about how alex is literally built like a spaghetti noodle and the height difference is very very obvious but here he's throwing out ✨that hip✨ and they're definitely closer to the same height? that is both adorable and just absolutely ridiculous and i'm loving every second of it. the fact that logan is entirely oblivious just makes it funnier.

the smiles, guys. the smiles. i'm breaking my own heart rewatching these but god fucking dammit james vowels i'll take what i can get.

[the---hermit]

19|09|2023

I am fully back into my studying routine, and it's going smoothly so far. I was a bit intimidated at first because I was afraid I would stuggle after these months of rest, but honestly everything is coming very naturally. I am still paying very close attention to give myself time to get used to it again, so I take all the breaks I need even if I just need to get up and walk around the room for a couple of minutes, but I feel good about being back into the routine. It doesn't feel like a trap, it's just my comfortable productive habits. Today I continued working on the recorded lectures of last semester, I check the exam dates and for some reason the exam for this class will be later than expected. It will be in January, but honestly it's fine so I'll have time to do everything and study for a couple other classes in the meantime. I never realized how much I took for granted ppt presentations during lectures, because this class has only audio recordings and I am wasting so much time stopping and replaying things because I am not sure about dates or names. Despite this, which will surely make my progress a bit slower, I am liking the class. It's definitely more challenging than I was expecting but it's very interesting. Also an highlight of the day was my dad bringing me a cup of tea because he didn't see me in the kitchen at the usual time since I was working. I am a creature of habit and my day is indeed divided by my tea times.

cozy hobbit autumn activities and productivity:

6 am morning routine my beloved (I love I went back to this as days are getting shorter because waking up while the sun isn't up yet is one of my favourite things in the world. I don't know why it gives me internal peace)

read first thing in the morning while sipping my waking up tea (aka a blend of green tea and mint)

checked infos I needed on some classes

read and answered emails

worked on two lectures of my theories of men and power practices in the modern era class

polished my notes adding highlights and key words

had an amazing second breakfast (it's a hobbit list of course I am including this)

wrote a couple of book reviews I will post soon

really got to relax my brain during my lunch break so when I got back to work in the afternoon I was super energized

daily Irish review on duolingo

wrote my to do list for tomorrow

continued working on my crochet mushroom cardigan while catching up with podcasts (this time it was book unbound and re:dracula)

📖: Of Ghosts And Goblins by Lafcadio Hearn

[cosmokrill]

I know it's been exactly two days since I said that I would be taking a break, but I realized I never really got to elaborate on a few things regarding Noah (The Narrator) and Ford (Timekeeper)'s appearance in relation to their story, since relaxing for a bit has let me work on proper character stories a bit more.

Um... spoiler for (sort of?) partial nudity, they're full body sketches but rest assured, nothing explicit is showing, everything sensitive is covered up, and it's in no suggestive way! It's important because it does go in-line with their story.

And if I see any of you being weird about Ford again I will personally and publicly call you out on my blog

Stanley's being left out here, at least this time, because there's really nothing special about his appearance despite his goofy little dot eyes.

So, what are we looking at?

Noah has a partial-body scar across the left side of his torso and his left upper arm! Back when he was completely human (yes, he really was once fully human!) He attempted to fully dedicate himself to his writing and storytelling as a part-time author, in a world technologically advanced enough to have closed trial runs and proofs of concept when it came to an experimental machine that, in all aspects, was a bit like a sensory chamber mixed with full-body VR inside a computer and the Internet; the only thing separating it from modern tech was that it was a lot bigger and more clunky than the VR headsets we have in this day and age.

Being a man with a soul-sucking 9 to 5 who just barely got by on money to have a nice apartment and some comforts, but who didn't have enough spending money or the apartment space for the giant pods, Noah took to... well, building one himself. He had the blueprints and some experience in building things, how hard could it be?

Well... he certainly did build one. It was EXTREMELY unsafe, but he built one. Hooking himself up, he flipped the power switch without a test run and it had a bit of a shocking result, haha. To put it simply, he did manage to slip into the digital world, but his computer stationed at his left side experienced an electricity surge and completely fried his physical body beyond saving, represented by the scars on his digital self and a slight voltage in his body, enough to dimly light a bulb in his hand. It only takes a bit of appearance tweaking in the files to hide the scars, although they do revert if he's very emotional.

It's interesting to think of how he would've fared if Noah never uploaded his consciousness, but that's a story for another time. The only thing I'd say is that... he'd probably look like this!

Now that we have Noah out of the way, it's Ford time! One thing I never noted with their appearance, due to it being mostly covered up by clothes, is that they have fairly visible stretch marks. What, you really didn't think they were always 8'11", did you? In their "Pre-Parable" look, back when it was an office simulator running basic AI, Ford was much shorter, both in height and hair length.

Due to "unknown" circumstances, though, Noah panicked and tried to delete Ford's code, but the AI caused the files to corrupt in the background, still existing, causing rapid growth to start and their demeanor to become... well, the way it currently is. With the changes happening in such a short time, it's expected that they would have many growth marks to show for it. Their current form, as crazy as it is, is only very early in the corruption, so their body is going to get REALLY fucked up millennia from the story's present if they don't figure a way to keep a hold on it. And to add insult to injury, they blame The Narrator for it all.

What's fun is that, something I never realized until now, the discoloration on Ford's left half perfectly copies Noah's scars! That's fun!

...And if you're asking why I noted Ford having slight shoulder freckles... I just think they're cute, okay?

[julianalvarez9]

forget me / mason mount

part of the "broken by desire to be heavenly sent" series, can be read as an stand-alone.

mentions of: alcohol and the consumption of, kepa arrizabalaga, ben chilwell, christian pulisic, asshole!mason, break-up, alleged cheating, crying, swearing, angst, no happy ending (for him at least)

wc: 1.792 words.

"days ache and nights are long, two years and still you're not gone. guess I'm still holding on".

the days seemed to weigh differently on mason's head this past month. they were impossibly heavy, with the days getting shorter and the nights painfully long due to the creeping winter. but if it wasn't for the changing seasons, mason didn't really know what to attribute it to: that was what annoyed him the most, that he didn't know the reason, so he couldn't do anything to avoid feeling this way. but waking up that morning and checking the date, something clicked. this would have been your five year anniversary, but instead, was the fateful date you two broke up, two years ago.

"you told your friends you want me dead and said that i did everything wrong; and you're not wrong".

the breakup had not been amicable, no matter what you tried to make believe on social media. his fans never really liked you, for starters, and you weren't planning on moving out of the country anytime soon, so you two decided that the best way to proceed with things was just stop contact all-together. no more likes on his instagram pics, and certainly not more comments from his page to yours. eventually, you unfollowed him too, not being able to stand his face after what had happened between the two of you.

words travel fast, and even more so, when your best friend, in which you confide all that you feel, is his best friend's girlfriend.

"you really fucked it up, mate" ben sighed, and the hold mason had over his handbag tigthened, almost turning his knuckles white form the force. "do you think i don't fucking know it already?".

"'cause i'm not ready to find out you know how to forget me. i'd rather hear how much you regret me, and pray to god that you never met me, than forget me".

the party is loud, as one expects it to be, but still, it bother mason to no end. his head hurts since he woke up this morning, his training went like shit, and now, ben's dragging him up to some bar. he broke up with his girlfriend a few days ago and he needs a distraction, or so he says, although mason is beginning to think this is not about getting a distraction for chelsea's number 21, but rather, for himself.

he doesn't mind it, though, when he finds something to keep his eyes focused on. or rather, someone. at first, he doesn't see her face: she's giving his back to him, but still, he can appreciate how nice her figure is. and then, she turns to say something to the guy beside her, and mason recognizes her face in an instant. it's you.

"since when are y/n and kepa friends?" mason can't keep his brows from furrowing when he recognizes the man by your side is their teammate. the grip he had on the glass tightens when you place your hand over the goalkeeper's neck, bringing his head down a bit for you to be able to speak in his ear, the size difference clear between the two of you. his body is almost covering your frame, and it has chelsea's number 19 almost breaking his neck trying to get a glimpse of you. see what's going on between the two of you. see where his hands are wandering. where his hands, mason's, should be instead.

"i think they're seeing each other" christian says, rubbing the back of his neck in an uncomfortable gesture. ben's far gone now, whether because he found someone to distract himself with, or because he went to the bar to order a few drinks for the three british men. "since when do you know?" mount asks, almost hurt that he was the last one finding this out. he knows no one owes nothing to him, not after how it all ended, but it still hurts him to see you laughing with another man.

with kepa, nonetheless.

"i don't know, a few months?" he tilts his head back, taking a sip of his beer before he speaks again. "please, don't do anything you regret. we can go somewhere else if you want".

"no, no, i'm okay" mason says, or rather, lies. and even if christian knows it is, in fact, not okay, he doesn't say anything. rather, agrees with his friend, just in time for ben to bring the vodka shots he always ends up regretting in the morning, but still, downing them, one by one, until he couldn't think straight anymore.

"i hate to know i made you cry but love to know i cross your mind".

mason, whether he had done it on purpose or not, had been keeping tabs on you and kepa all night long. it seemed like the two of you were having a good time, laughing and dancing together, but not too close to bother your ex. he even thought that, maybe, christian had heard wrong: maybe you two were friends. yeah, it seemed like you two were close, but not romantically-involved close. mason knew it was of no use, hoping for you and kepa to not be together, given that there was virtually no chance of him getting you back. but still, knowing that you were with someone else, effectively, would turn his hopes to shreds.

he doesn't miss when you, seemingly, run away from the scene like you've caught fire, or something. he doesn't miss that it comes after your eyes meet, and then, when his companion scans the place to see what had triggered her that way and sees the midfielder, his jaw locks.

but he doesn't go after you.

he gets up before his friends realize, and disappears so quickly that christian and ben are left wondering when did mason vanish like that. he didn't even see where you were going before getting up, but he knew you, so his feet did the job of getting him where you were.

the cold weather hit him hard when he finally got outside, making your harsh words seem almost kind. "oh, great, just what i needed tonight. to see your stupid fucking face up close," you mutter, directing your hands back to your face, facing the pavement, and angrily cleaning up the tears under your eyes. "why are you crying?" was the first thing mason said after crossing the back door, and almost like it was second nature, slipping off his jacket to rest them on your bare shoulders.

"what the fuck, mason?" you get up angrily, brows furrowed while taking big steps towards him. you take the jacket off your figure quickly, to give it back to its owner, before his perfume can intoxicate you again. he doesn't take it, though, so you're left holding onto a piece of him, even if you don't want to. this is the first time, in the two years you've been broken up, that the conversation extends longer than a friendly greeting. "you don't get to ask for anything," you said, accentuating the you by pointing a finger into his chest accusingly.

"why are you crying?" mason repeats, maybe too worried to actually hear what you just have said. that he didn't get to ask you anything. "did he do something? i'll fucking kill him" he says, and you scoff at his boldness. how dare he.

"no, mason, he didn't do anything. he isn't you" it would be a lie to say that these words didn't destroy his soul. but still, his face remained stoic, hand always wanting to touch you but retreating at the last minute in case you didn't welcome his touch like you did before. it was meant to happen, he wouldn't be surprised by it, but he would continue hurting himself in the process.

"he's just too good for me. i keep waiting for him to fuck it up. to wake up one day with photos of him kissing some girl flooding every tabloid" mason winces at the memory, two years having gone by but still feeling the regret seeping into his blood flow. "but it never comes. and he waits for me. he's been waiting ever since you fucking tore my heart to pieces, and i can't keep on wasting his time because of you".

"'cause i'm not ready to find out you'd know how to forget me, even after all this time".

the silence has been heavy between you two since the admission. the music is loud enough to be heard from out here, but you want to finish this quickly. not only because you can't stand to be in mason's orbit again for more than five minutes, but because you know kepa must be on the other side, listening, even if it isn't what he wants. he doesn't want to intrude. all these months he has been kindly waiting for his chance, showing you he's the right one for you. and even if you, sometimes, still wake up thinking of mason, or even dreaming about him, he understands. you don't think he'll be around any longer if you don't give him the green light soon, and destroying this beautiful thing you've built due to the glooming shadow of your cheating ex doesn't seem right. it isn't.

"i'll say yes," you conclude, lifting your head from the pavement. he's standing on the way to the door, so you don't have any other choice but to walk straight towards him. you extend your arm again, trying to give him back his jacket for the final time, but again, he doesn't take it. instead, his hands fly to your wrist, and you're stuck there, too close to him again. "no, you won't," mason says through gritted teeth, and you scoff. "i'm not fucking asking!".

his caramel brown eyes have turned regretful from one moment to the other, and you have to look behind him to avoid feeling guilty about all of this. "and i'm not telling you, i'm begging you not to say yes" he says, looking for you eyes, but you don't give into it.

the cold london air is just what you need when you breathe, helping you sober up a bit more. reality washes over you, the hurt you've felt all this time, ever since you woke up one fateful morning to find the articles of mason and another girl too damn close to be just friends, no matter what he tried to explain to you they were. the anger is far gone now, only the disappointment is left in you. "maybe if you hadn't fucked it up the first time you wouldn't need to be begging for a second chance, mason".

[alexjcrowley]

So, I watched Casino Royale (2006), in my quest to rewatch all of the Daniel Craig's James Bond movies and answer the question: "Do I really hate James Bond movies? Or was I just a kid when some of them came out and I didn't care for spy movies?"

I'll start by saying that I liked Casino Royale much, much more than I had expected. It's 2 hours and a half long, which today is the standard running time for any blockbuster, but lately I had managed to convince myself that, during my childhood, blockbusters were shorter and didn't kidnap an audience in a movie theatre for almost 3 hours. I was wrong.

(Now, SPOILERS ahead)

Starting with what I liked.

First thing first: James Bond. I was never fond of Bond's character, I have always thought him boring instead of serious, slimy instead of charming, and generally very annoying with the whole "I'm the man" demeneanor. I was also wrong. I really liked Daniel Craig in this first movie. We see Bond at the very start of his career, he has just been promoted 00 status and he has a lot to learn. He takes almost as many punches as he gives, he is too instinctive and his ego often gets his own way. He is far from perfect and many people give him shit for that, especially women. Casino Royale holds his main character accountable for most of the bullshit he does and that was a welcome surprise.

The plot. I am proud to say I think I understood the entire plot of the movie. I know it might not seem much a of a brag and I swear I can usually understand the plot of a movie- but James Bond's ones are often too convoluted for me. I feel like Casino Royale, partly thanks to chunk of explaination given by M, was fairly easy to follow. There were also many predictable twists- not necesserily a bad thing though, because they did make sense. I really liked how Mads Mikkelsen- brilliant as always in the role of the main villain Le Chiffre- was being hunted both by Bond and by far more dangerous people he owed money to. I think the movie lost itself a little bit in a the last part, but I'll discuss that later.

Vesper Lynd. I have no idea what the press conferences around Casino Royale were like, but I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of them focused on a better treatment of female characters in the Bond's franchise. I was expecting to be bored to death by the umpeteenth only apparently hard-to-get woman falling for Bond's charms, and I am happy to say it was nothing like that. First of all, and I mean it as a compliment, the Bond and Vesper banter is ao3-tier. The chemistry is there, there's equal teasing on both sides, which makes it looks they just work very well as a couple. But the scene I liked the most is right after James Bond loses a really important game of poker. He goes out on the balcony, Vesper follows him and James asks her to give him more money, because he thinks he can win the next game. Vesper says no. James insists, in what you could call the classical "all or nothing" scene of a movie. The one in which the protagonist is like "you have to believe in me, I can do this, look into my eyes, trust me one more time and I'll prove it to you", sprinkled with a little more "If you don't do this, all that money" that he lost "will be in the villain's hands" and grasping Vesper's arm very tightly. And Vesper's response is not "Okay, I will give you the money to save the world, but don't let me regret this, James". The first thing Vesper tells him is get his hand off of her. The second is that she is not going to give him more money, because he lost that game due to his ego (a motif that had already been introduced at the beginning of the movie) and if he keeps playing now, he is going to keep losing. And then she leaves. This, and the dialogue in which she basically asks if she has to worry about Bond's breaking into her room and trying to force himself on her with Bond reassuring her he won't, were moments I really appreciated. The James Bond saga is not exactly well known to be fair to female characters and, especially, James Bond's love interests are often poorly written. They could have gone the easy route, they could have had Vesper trusting James blindly because he is the main character, but, instead, she stood up to him. I really, really like this decision. As James Bond has been cemented as an icon of masculinity, it is shown that not only even he can be wrong, but also that this is rightly pointed out by a woman. In this occasion, he's being emotional and illogical, while she is being the reasonable one. And I feel this is as relevant today as it was in 2006.

Favourite scene: the torture. I am not really crazy about torture scenes usually, but I really loved the one between James Bond and Le Chiffre. It's not just that the acting- especially on Daniel Craig's part- is phenomenal, it's what that scene means. According to my interpretation, based purely on how Craig played the character, that seems to be the first time James Bond has ever been tortured and you can see he's fucking terrified. And you see him going from terrified back to that mask of neutrality, even though it is now dented. There are moments in which pain slowly morphs into an exasperated laughter and James is turning to crude humour to deal with the situation because he has already made his decision- he won't give up the code, so he's gonna die there, if he is lucky. If he's not, many hours, if not days, of torture await him. It's a momumental test of an actor for Craig.

So, yeah, lots to love. Let's now move to what I didn't like.

The action. Not all the action in Casino Royale is bad, on the contrary, but a couple of things were simply goofy. Like the first bomber being a parkour God, especially compared to James Bond's clusmy ass? Top-tier comedy, maybe intentionally, maybe not. I know for a fact the dramatic zooms were not intentionally comedic, but alas. And I gotta ask, other than being the easiest way to kill off Vesper, what was the point of that last Venice action sequence? To me, that was really overdrawn and forgetful.

The wife of the first villain. Her dialogue about liking bad guys is very cringe and I don't know who directed Daniel Craig in the scene in which reacts to her death, but holy shit that's one of the worst sequence of the movie. At first he seems indifferent to her being tortured and killed, then M goes on her whole tirade about Le Chiffre, and then, suddenly, when she asks if James Bond can handle the mission, Daniel Craig is looking at dead body of the villain's wife doing the most exaggrated heavy breathing since the stuff you could find of Looney Tunes. And then says "no" in a completely neutral, and accidentally comedic, tone. Jesus Christ. What a shit show.

James Bond's character arc, a.k.a. the romcom act. Yeah, I know, I said I liked James Bond before. But I have beef with the way the character evolved. I would say I pretty much like what we see in 2/3 of the movie. The problem for me arrives post torture, when we are made believe we have finally reached a happy ending. Vesper and Bond declare their love to each other, great, it was to be expected. But the fact that a few days after that- at least it looks like a few days- James Bond is like "Yeah, no, I'm in love with you, I wanna quit my job and spend the rest of my life with you" feels very rushed to me. Sure, near death experiences really bond people together, but let's recap the events of this movie. At the beginning of the movie, James Bond has just become 007. If I am not wrong, Casino Royale is James Bond's first mission as a 00 agent. We don't know how much time he has spent hunting down the parkour-bomber of the beginning of the movie, but we know that something like 2 days later he is sent to the Bahamas, then goes to Miami, all in the span of 2 days, and then he gets sent to Montenegro for something like 3 or 4 days. At the end of the Montenegro section, there's the torture scene, so all we know is that he ends up in a hospital and stays there for an unspecified while (which he spends mostly unconscious) and it's at that point, after declaring his love to Vesper, that he goes "Yeah I don't want to be a spy anymore". Bitch, you have been a spy for less than a month and you have known this woman for 2 weeks at best, and I am counting the time you were unconscious. Am I the only one who feels this is rushed? Especially because, during a game of deduction he and Vesper played, Vesper seemed to rightly deduce James wanted to be a spy because he had a chip on his shoulder about proving is worth- did that just go away? Wow, James, you gotta teach me how to solve self-worth related issues that fast. And the canonical reason why James wants to leave the job is because it's "eating his soul away" or some shit like that, and he wants to leave with that little bit of soul he still got. Once again, bitch, please. You have not been on the job for one month, what the fuck are you talking about. Maybe it's because you're not used to have a job, Mr Bond, but every single job eats your soul away and you live with that, because otherwise you won't be able to pay the bills. Just to be clear, I'm not mad at the idea that James Bond wants to leave his job. I think it feels rushed and I think it's a little bit too obvious something will happen to Vesper at this point because there's no way James Bond is quitting the job in his first movie, but I would have accepted this change of heart from Bond if I had been given a good reason for it. For example, the fact that he has been tortured. To me, it would have made much more sense if James Bond would have been like "You know what? Being tortured is fucking terrifying, much more than I thought during my spy training, I don't think I can handle that again", I would have believed that. But instead, we got some bullshit on the soul. James Bond screenwriters, being afraid of torture doesn't make you any less of a man, I swear. All in all, James Bond deciding to change his entire life goals just because he fell in love seems the kind of shit writing the female lead would get in a shitty romance movie, not the one of the main (male) character of a spy movie. Maybe it's poetic justice, but I think James Bond somehow found himself a victim of what is usually regarded as misogynistic writing. He then regresses to the emotional maturity of a teenage boy who spends too much time on reddit when he feels betrayed by Vesper, while M has to explain as you would to a 5-year-old that Vesper, if anything, tried to save Bond. A very undignified main character arc, if you ask me.

Vesper's death. Why did Vesper basically kill herself? I genuinely thought her death was a Jack and Rose situation- they both could fit on the door! I think James would have been able to save Vesper if she only didn't lock herself in the elevator. The only explaination that I can give myself to that decision is that Vesper didn't want to live with the guilt of condemning her past lover to death in saving James.

I am not good at giving grades to movies, instead I will say this: it's definitely worth a watch if you're into spy movies and the bisexual panic induced by Eva Green and Daniel Craig will not leave you for a good while. If you're willing to be forgiving of a few sequences, it's a very enjoyable action flick.

Onto the last part: my quest to prove James Bond is aro and/or ace.

Why do I want to prove that? I guess if there were more aromantic characters I could just turn to them for representation, but I have to do everything by myself around here.

My reasons to believe James Bond is aro: as someone who, for the moment, identifies as aroallo, I really sympathise with characters that indulge in a lot of sex, but keep romance at an arm's lenght. I don't think they're shallow, I think maybe romance is simply not their thing, just like it's not mine.

My reasons to believe James Bond is ace: I think James Bond may have a pretty fucked up relationship with sex because of his job. His entire body basically belongs to the governemnt: it's a weapon to kill, a disposable dummy to be tortured and, in some occasions, an object of desire, used to seduce, possess and be possessed. You could pretty much say that a fraction of his job is similar to that of a sex worker. Far from implying that being a sex worker automatically fucks up your relationship with sex, I think being forced to have sex with people who you sometimes despise and who might want to hurt you or even kill you is not, like, the best thing ever. And also, while a sex worker can theoretically pick their clients, James can't. He has to seduce who is useful to seduce for the mission, regardless of how he feels about them. And, to top it all off, I like the idea of James Bond being ace because I am tired of the whole "James Bond is so cool because he fucks a lot and which man wouldn't want to fuck a lot". Maybe James Bond doesn't want to fuck a lot, or maybe he doesn't derive as much pleasure from it as people believe he does.

Okay, so. Starting with aro spectrum, even though James falls for Vesper, I think we still have good chances of him being aro, either fully aro or something like greyromantic. After all, aromantics can still, even if rarely, fall in love and I think, for the way the character of James Bond has been presented, him falling for Vesper was quite an unexpected/out of character thing for him. Him deciding ti quit his entire past life to be with Vesper...is truly just bad writing for me, but even accepting it, I don't think it makes him any less aro, because as I explained he could have had much better reasons to want to quite his job and, personally, if I fell in love with somebody after years of that just not happening for me, I wouldn't know how I would react. Maybe I would also call it a miracle and just roll with it.

About the ace spectrum, we see him seducing a villain's wife at some point, but I will be honest. That shit don't count. There is this moment in which the woman is like "I always fall for bad men😏" and James Bond immediately gets out of the sexy mood and goes "So would you say your husband is a bad man? Why? Because of his job?". He does a 180 and goes from wet dream to interrogator in less than a second. Plus, he seems to leave her without having sex with her to go chase her villain husband. Very professional of him, but also makes me think he was never that much into her as he made her believe. The whole thing felt too calculated on his part, I would definitely say he was faking the whole time. James does have very enthusiatic sex with Vesper, though. If I want to stick to what the movie implies, without going off the tracks with something like "he pretended to be enthusiatic during the whole thing but he was faking for Vesper's happiness", I may still go with the fact that he is for sure sex positive and maybe demi-sexual.

Well, if you have read until this point, I am genuinely surprised. You don't have that much to do, I guess, good for you.

Onto Quantum of Solace next, and I am already shaking: I know that movie is bad. I know about the writers strike. God help me.

[theladyofshalott1989]

I'm working on a story right now and struggling with where to go with it. I saw in one of your recent posts that you're currently outlining a story. If you don't mind sharing, how do you go about doing that? Thanks!

HELLO!!! Okay, so I panicked when I saw this Ask (in a good way, I promise hahaha), because while I do have a process, it's hard to describe. So, I went to my BFF @heyitszev to help me formulate my thoughts. Quoting him here, coming up with a quote for what I should say (LOL): "I follow Save the Cat! and then Bash does whatever he wants and I go with it." ^ So... THAT. 😂😂😂

But, to clarify that a bit... Save the Cat! is an outlining process used by screenwriters that can also be applied to novel writing. Here's a link to the website for it with a lot of wonderful resources that can help you on your writing journey. As wonderful as this process is, I do find some downsides to it as a writer of fanfic. 1. If you use this process, it's tough to write anything more than say, 100k+ words per story. Mapping out a story with specific beats that must be hit and resolved within a certain percentage of the story typically means there's a hard stop for the plot to be coherent. BUT, that's what series are for, so there you go.

Side note: I do think I would have a lot more engagement if I had just stuck to one overarching story (lots of readers on AO3 don't tend to follow along with a series, from what I'm finding), but it is what it is! 2. Sometimes the outline is a bit too constrictive for my taste. That's where Bash comes in. I've found over time that loosely outlining is much better than say writing 30+ pages worth of plot beats (yes, I did this for Like Moths to a Flame - it was very time-consuming - LMAO). When I plot loosely, it also leaves room for inspiration. While writing You Cannot Put a Fire Out, I had a general idea of where I wanted the story to go, but then Sebastian (my POV character) took over entirely, and the story went in a completely different direction than I was expecting. And, tbh, I loved "his ideas" even more. I guess what I'm saying here is to trust your instincts. You never know where they'll take you.

That's my writing process! From a routine perspective, once my outline is complete, I write every morning for an hour before work, and sometimes during my lunch break (also an hour). I also write during my toddler's nap time (roughly two hours) on weekends. I don't typically take a day off when I'm writing a story, unless I absolutely have to. Using that process ^, I wrote the first draft of Like Moths to a Flame in about three and a half months. Burning Bright took two months (it's a bit shorter and it didn't require me to watch a million YT playback videos to make sure the dialogue from the game was correct LOL), and You Cannot Put a Fire Out took me four months because Bash wouldn't let me use my outline and I had to move around (and remove!!! massive sigh) huge chunks of stuff I'd already written to make the story make sense. Then there's editing, lots and lots of editing, followed by sending to my lovely beta readers (yay), and then perhaps another draft or two before I start posting. It's quite involved, I will admit. But then, that's that! Thank you so much for asking. I wish you the best of luck with your story! :)

[imogenleewriter]

do you currently have time to read fics yourself, and if so, what were the last ones you read and really liked? like something that stuck with you, or where you laughed a lot, etc… :)

I do! I tend to read shorter fics now because I don't have the time or attention span to read long ones at the moment - as a long fic writer, I'm glad other people do! I wrote the summaries below, but the authors' actual summaries are better than mine, so don't let my shitty ones turn you off the fic!

Somebody's Got Your Trainers On (It's You) by @greenblueish (bluegreenish on ao3) Words: 28k. Almost-exes to lovers. Hospital AU.

Louis is a paeds RN and Harry is a paediatrician that used to work at Louis' hospital. Harry leaves, ending his Situationship with Louis. He returns two years later.

My Thoughts: I LOVED this so much that I commented and then messaged Jill. I honestly don't understand how it's only 28k words because it felt like a whole-arse novel! I work in healthcare (and have worked in paeds) and it was the most accurate description of a ward setting, ward life, healthcare, and paeds that I've ever read. Not a single thing made me cringe. It was paced perfectly and had the right amount of tension and resolution. SO good.

you've set my soul to dreaming @so-why-let-your-voice-be-tamed (we_are_the_same on ao3). Word count: 9.2K. Strangers to lovers. Kind of time travel... kind of.

Harry wakes up one Christmas morning expecting to be alone, like he was when he went to be the night before. Instead he wakes up in his bed, but everything else has changed. He quickly falls in love with his new life and is terrified that it won't last.

My Thoughts: Another fic that felt much longer than the WC (9.2k) because it was so in-depth. I have so much respect for writers who can say so much in so few words! It definitely lived up to the fluff and angst tag. I was almost worried it wasn't going to have a happy ending but it did and even included a short but satisfying epilogue.

Love in Conversation by @hellolovers13 Word Count: 4.9k. Strangers to lovers. Baking phone line.

Despite his protests, Louis has been tasked with making a birthday cake for his younger siblings. The problem? He has no idea what he is doing. After some failed attempts, he stumbles across a helpline for baking mishaps. The other voice on the line does their best to help over the phone, but when Louis still can't get it right, they realise that Louis might need a bit more guidance.

My Thoughts: Just like the premise, this one was super sweet. Both characters were extremely lovable. Just a really cute fic.

Just the two of us (we can make it if we try) by @starryhaze28 (starryhaze on ao3) Word Count: 5.9k. Established couple. A/B/O. Mpreg.

Louis is concerned because his omega has been yo-yo-ing between needy and distant and won't tell him why. As time goes by, he gets increasingly worried. Then he founds out his omega is pregnant.

My Thoughts: Established relationships and mpreg aren't usually my jam, however, this one had enough angst and fluff to draw me in. Very, very sweet.

The Space Between by @alltheselights Word Count: 39.9k. Strangers to lovers. A/B/O. Famous/Non-Famous.

Harry Styles is an alpha and famous rockstar who has everything except for the ability to sleep. When he reaches breaking point, Louis Tomlinson, an omega psychology PhD student, is contacted for his professional sleeping skills. Their relationship drifts into unprofessional territory, though.

My Thoughts: As someone very invested in sleeping - because I also lack the ability - I appreciated this fic. It was another "How did they cover so much in so few words" fic. Had the perfect amount of angst towards the end, a satisfying and lovely resolution.

Something To Remember by @parmahamlarrie Word Count: 25k. Strangers to lovers. Soulmate AU. Famous/Non-famous.

Both Louis and Harry find themselves in an Exclusive Resort in Maui for their respective jobs. Living in a universe where tattoos appear on your skin when you see your soulmate, both of them are surprised that tattoos start showing up. As time keeps passing, getting closer to their departures, they start to fear they'll never actually get to meet their soulmate.

My Thoughts: Not going to lie, I got a bit anxious that they weren't going to meet. You know I love a good countdown and this fic had one... and it served its purpose well, lol. But they do meet, and it's beautiful. Another beautiful fic.

Quiet People Have The Loudest Minds by @2tiedships2 Word Count: 38k. Strangers to Lovers. A/B/O.

Louis is a non-verbal omega and is at a Broadway show, but the alpha next to him is stealing all of his attention, and he just wants him to leave. Until the alpha introduces himself as Harry and offers to leave.

My Thoughts: ANOTHER one that felt as though it had a much longer word count because it was so in-depth. I really like the diversity representation. As someone who isn't non-verbal, I can't vouch for the accuracy; however, from the knowledge and experience I do have, it seemed to be handled really well and respectfully. Extremely well-written and another lovely read.

The next two are both by @zanniscaramouche (zanni_scaramouche on ao3):

My Pleasure (to make you mine), Word Count: 6.5k. Strangers to lovers. Piercing. Praise Kink.

Harry decides to get his nipples pierced, and Louis is the right person for the job.

Your Pain (is mine now) Word Count: 5.1k. Stranges to lovers. Tattoo. Pain and praise kink.

Louis decides to get a tattoo done by Harry.

My Thoughts: I'm putting them together as they have very similar vibes (and are written by the same person, lol). Both have light elements of BDSM and are portrayed softly and sweetly. The writing is amazing! You know how people say, "I've read fics where the writing is better than published books?" Well, okay, that IS a lot of fics, but Zanni 100% fits into that category!

Do You See What I See by @allwaswell16 Word Count: 2k. Mix between Strangers/friends to lovers.

Harry just really cares about lost animals. Really, really cares about them. He cares about potentially lost ones too. Ones that, you know, might not actually be lost. Best to take them to the vet, just in case.

My Thoughts: You asked if I have read any funny ones that made me laugh a lot, and I'm still laughing about this one. It's only 2k words, so I don't want to say too much about it. But awkward Harry is my new favourite thing.

Also, whenever I reblog a fic, that is generally a sign that I loved it!

For transparency's sake, I read a lot of questionable smut that is so questionable that I have not included it!

[aid-worker-sya]

Secrets of the Quality or the Schedule Release; or, Secrets of the Go Do Random Events; or, Secrets of The Commander's Really Weird Couple Of Months; or, Secrets of Is Peitha Still Hot Or Boring Now (or something like that)

hi i'm not too active in gw2 tumblr (i gotta fix that i just gotta follow more of you on main) but y'know i've been playing gw2 since beta with a few years-long breaks and this is the first time i was playing an expansion on launch so i thought i at least wanted to share my thoughts.

my tl;dr is that there was some good and some bad but i think i'd prefer an entire expansion up front or it in like two updates and then an epilogue like WLB was for Cantha despite my extraordinarily negative feelings feelings on Gyala Delve and that all of this should've been like Part 1 of a new Wizard Saga.

i don't think we'll ever have a very complete consensus, because GW2's fanbase has been historically divided on almost everything since launch. the dragons, Dragon's Watch, BRAHAM, almost everything on this game has been a love-or-hate since that fateful day back in 2012. and from what i've noticed throughout the years, tumblr is usually more positive of GW2's story updates more than other websites, so i'm pretty curious about what went right and also wrong too. so i really wanted to give as a long time player my feelings on all this, bc it was... interesting. both for good and bad.

and perhaps biggest of all: a common criticism countless GW2 players have had since: the idea the Commander is not really the main protagonist because they're always serving as the champion or second-in-command to someone else, something i've historically disagreed even before Traehearne's rewrite but now i'm a bit more "hmm" about. also why the fuck wasn't this like a Wizard Saga of like 2-3 expansions.

it was certainly a mixed bag, i don't agree with people saying it was the worst thing ever, as far as i'm concerned What Lies Beneath was this game's absolute fucking rock bottom in recent memory and SOTO was nowhere near as bad as that and i want to punch something every time any daily or weekly even mentions Gyala Delve (although i'm still going to appreciate WLB as an epilogue and talk about that later). think i'm gonna start with the good immediate thoughts first

i think the initial release was very good. the new maps and metas were fun, as were the maps being larger than most of the previous expansion maps to make up. the new characters were interesting: although there wasn't really enough time to develop them the same way Dragon's Watch had been for years. it was especially great seeing Zojja as a major character which is why i'm so sad she stopped being relevant after the initial release. i think it would've been better if they wanted this expansion to be like... idk, the Wizard Saga to be built up over a period of like three expansions. it would've been nice to see these characters actually build up over a period of time. make Eparch the final confrontation over a period of three years

like, at first, i fully expected this to be like this. they refer to everything before 2023 as the Dragon Saga. i thought this was going to be a shorter saga of like, 2-3 expansions with a much more concrete goal and narrative direction. we fight alongside the Wizards for a few expansions until Eparch's final defeat and then onto the next grand adventure that would take several years to complete

but ultimately, we just kinda accidentally fell into a big adventure bored out of our skulls after our crystal dragon jesus daughter went into hibernation. we stumbled into something, kicked some ass, and now it's over and we're probably getting another expansion in a couple of months. so i guess... that's the future of GW2. after the grand Dragon Saga, the Commander gets into all sorts of weird little shenanigans that determines Tyria's future and then fucks off to do the next thing no more sagas, just these like, weird singular adventures the Commander has.

the end result is that everyone is severely underdeveloped. there are some fun characters, and i've been joking with my gw2 friends "WE FINALLY HAVE AN INTERRACIAL RELATIONSHIP AFTER THEY BAILED ON BRAHAM AND ROX!!!" but like. i liked them. they were cool. i actually really like the Wizards. which is why i'm so bummed it's just over and the epilogue of SOTO it seems set up we're not really gonna do anything for it. i love Frode having a very complicated relationship with the Spirits and how Worm appears to be like... borderline actively malicious compared to most Spirits. i fucking love R'tchikk and Gladium's entire interaction and an unconventional relationship between species and really want to see more interactions. Dagda as one of the last Jotun that truly remember their glory days. so it's so sad to me that like, all these really interesting characters just have their story ended with this. i hope i'm wrong and i see them, but fuck. it's like. i started caring about them, then the next three updates came out and now it's over. dammit.

i also agree the demons are like. they're human society. they're just Regular People no different than Kryta specifically. now i love playing humans in games where you can play multiple races: but like, something that i love about gw2 is how each race has it's own feel, y'know? the humans are a traditional european-style monarchy. the asura are literally an entire race of mad scientists that have a Council so they don't just immediately nuke themselves in a science experiment and their society revolves around research. the charr are an outright stratocracy where the military and government is one and the same and this was explored in IBS where this allowed an insane fascist to rally immense power before IBS went to shit. and the sylvari are literally a new race figuring out WHAT their deal is and haven't quite nailed it down yet

i do not mind at all the kryptis are like not just a hive mind or blue and orange mentality. but i do agree that it is... disappointing that they don't have their own... let's say flavor of society. they're basically just humans but they look weird and live in a weird place. Nayos doesn't appear to be a realm literally made of dreams: it's just the name. the plot of this expansion was mostly like LWS3 but this time we're helping the guerilla rebels instead of fighting them.

idk how to feel about Peitha. it was really fun in the initial release when she was this weird voice in our head we weren't sure if we could trust her or not but she was the enemy of our enemy so she was our friend (for now). but like the demons, she wasn't... complex. she was a very normal stock character for this kind of story. maybe not as heroic or nice as most, but the true good ruler that things will be better if we put on the throne. she' snot bad, but like. she's a dime in a dozen character ultimately. she's the generic good guy we gotta put on the throne and eparch is the generic bad guy we gotta dethrone.

also it was really dicky of them to intentional try to sell the idea of expanded weapon proficiencies and the elite skill weapon unlock for all as like. being part of the base game. you know they worded it like it was part of the base game but you can't do it without SOTO. it's a little bit of a moot point, but it's frustrating.

and i don't know what to ultimately feel now that it's over. because it's over when it feels like it should be beginning. i feel like this episode should have ended with Eparch like... consuming the entirety of Nayos before fleeing deeper into the Mists and the beginning of the journey to find him and defeat him. the kingdom that Peitha wanted to save completely annihilated and the looming concern that much like Kralkatorrik he might become a multiverse destroying threat. i feel like The Midnight King shouldn't have ben the end of the conflict: it should have been the ending of Part 1 of the conflict. like...........

idk. if it was just meant to be this singular adventure: i think i would've liked the entire expansion up front and then an epilogue of WLB to put the final nails on the coffins, and also give time to flesh out everyone else in epilogue stuff and side stories too. but as much as i would've preferred that over this release schedule i feel like. this should have been Part 1. all of this should have been Part 1 of a Saga with this being our first battle against the Midnight King before we after a series of Wizard adventures, tracking him down, and growing stronger finally confront him.

you know there's always been, since GW2's launch, this complaint a lot of people have had with GW2. a lot of people feel like they're never really "the main character" like in GW1. i think at least part of this was rooted in how deeply unpopular Traehearne was in the initial release before they revoiced and rewrote like all of his dialogue. people felt like after the Order Arc that the Commander was kind of relegated to being the support for the actual protagonist. while i feel this opinion has died down since release, i've seen it a lot throughout the years too. a lot of people felt this way when we learned Aurene was basically crystal dragon jesus christ and we were her champion to set the world right. IBS was pretty clear from early on that this conflict would ultimately be resolved by Braham, the norn of prophecy: and it was. the Commander has a tendency to help other people reach their prophesized destinies while they themselves are a person born without particular grand destiny, just someone who was in the right place in the right time and went on to do truly spectacular things (there is a single dialogue in the Hall of Monuments that implies it might be possible the GW1 protagonist was reincarnated as the Commander, but this has never been touched on) and i've... actually come to like it. but this time.

i feel like this time was the only time i've felt it. like. we didn't need to be here. this could have even been Zojja's sidestory. Zojja's big chance to be the hero. we didn't really do that much beyond more of the heavy lifting. we barely did anything substantial beyond hitting things. hell, during the very last battle, we don't even get to speak to Eparch at all. Peitha does 100% of the talking. why was i here? i would've preferred watching like... a netflix cartoon special series about Zojja doing this. why was i here other than the fact i just sorta fell into it??? speaking of which, disappointed Zojja lost all relevance after the initial release. i really wish she was like, fighting by our side the entire time. maybe she doesn't become a Wizard until the very end after doubting it the whole time... like, she's an asura. she's an inventor and innovator. imagine her helping weaken Eparch using a groundbreaking new development in the Wizard's unchanging magic using asuran technology that destroys Eparch's seemingly invincible shield or something and opening the way for the Commander to finish him off.

idk.

i really felt like a side character this time. i didn't see a good reason the Commander is the one saving the day other than awkwardly falling into the plot, and i feel like it could've been resolved by others. and i feel like this could've been resolved by this being just the first part of a grand new adventure, and just like that fateful day over 12 years ago in-universe the Commander was just in the right place at the right time which lead to them saving the world once more. this time... idk. we didn't even get a chance to talk to Eparch. we're just called Wayfinder and Peitha's Champ and do some musclework. hell, we're not even really the Wizard's champion, they basically treat us as a glorified initiate.

idk... it's just. weird, y'know?

i had a lot of fun in the first release, not so much the rest. now i'm thinking of just... what could've been. anyone else feel the same?

(i was gonna go on a larger tangent but i'm tired so "do x events to advance the plot" fuck you fuck you fuck you i HATE this so much)

[redpenship]

what's your opinion on the integration of the ufbl and mbl? some are saying that the mobians have an unfair advantage when batting due to being shorter and having a better angle on the ball, and that the humans have an advantage by being able to sprint faster.

do you think this will negatively affect professional baseball overall? or is integration of the species good for the popularity of the sport?

This is very bad for baseball. I was pretty surprised to read about the integration going through, but then again the UFBL loves shooting itself in the foot so I don't know why I expected any different.

Let's be real: no one watches the MBL because it's good baseball. Their fields are poorly maintained and they have no age restrictions on players or umpires. We all remember that time a six year-old umpire cried when a coach yelled at him for making a bad call. It's gruesome to watch sometimes. But people still tune in. Why?

The MBL allows chaos-affected individuals to play. Have you ever seen a mouse with super strength hit the ball so hard it landed 10km away? It's fucking awesome. Most of their games are absolute chaos. Nothing is more entertaining than watching them try to overpower each other with stacked teams.

Now, this merger is banning Mobian players from using their powers during the game. The only reason to watch the MBL is being taken away. On average, Mobians tend to be a bit weaker than humans. As you said, they're shorter and tend to be a bit slower on their feet. I don't know how they're supposed to compete without their powers. The leagues seem to have realized this and will be mandating species diversity quotas so the teams are always at least 14% Mobian. A significant portion of pro baseball will now be weaker because of league mandates. It's incredibly stupid.

What is this supposed to accomplish? None of those stupid furries have money anyways so it's not like they're going to be spending on merchandise. Is it supposed to teach their kids that they can accomplish anything regardless of their background? Yeah, okay, I'm sure watching people who look like them get their asses kicked on national TV will boost their confidence. Like, what were they thinking going through with this?

I'm sure they'll realize their mistake by the end of the season. Unfortunately, our politically correct society will never let them revert their decisions. All these moronic liberals and leftists will never understand that true egalitarianism is best achieved when we segregate leisure activities based on perceived biological differences. Next you're going to tell me that they want to integrate the chess leagues, too. Give me a break.

[plethomacademia]

I've always wanted to ask: You have such a different approach to me to interrogating your craft in writing that I really admire. How do you know your path through longer work? Is there a conscious plan you have for certain pieces in your influences and intentions for the actual writing? You take so much influence from so many genres, and I find it really amazing how you play with trope, expectation, and language.

Wahhhhh I feel the same way! I have learned so much from talking to you! You are one of the best things to come from my participation in this space and I hope we never lose touch, truly.

Cutting bc I talked too much

I do sometimes do this consciously. Duet is the best example: I did sit and think of all the tropes I love most about historical romance, especially around ballrooms and lord/commoner relationships, and I proceeded to shove every single one in that I could manage. It's a shorter fic so I really didn't need a longer plot for it, I could hang on purely scene by scene and just cram in what I wanted to play with.

Most of the time, I feel like I don't even pick up the influences until later on if I do at all. I didn't even realize how much I like to subvert tropes until you pointed it out to me and it makes sense I think! I love tropes in romance especially because they set up a lot of expectations and what better way to understand a space than to look for the seams?

There's just something enticing about the word "but." This but also that. This pairing but this plot. I do think romance has taught me how to break things down into their parts though, I think that genre at its best is very self aware and I love that about it.

Back to longer work though. I only have the one and I think the only way I got away with it truly was all the guard rails put in by lore. I know the beats and I can generally just follow them. That gets you a lot of an outline! From there, I could do similar things to what I did with Duet: I knew some scenes I wanted to see, some tensions I wanted to play with, and I tried to find a place for them along the path. The ones that couldn't hang got to be one shots.

I think this will be a struggle if I ever do for example try to write my own romance novel. Controlling plot and scenes and influences seems like a lot! I expect my first one will hang hard on the standard three act romance novel structure (even the third act break up, as much as I hate it), or at least it will at first. I like to think of all the ways something can go so I do thrive when I can constrain myself a little bit.

This is also why as much as I love playing with modern Maeve, I don't think it will ever be anything because I don't know the plot! I know the vibes (bad) and I know some moments (bad and sweet?) and I know the message (women can't win no matter how much they seem like they are winning) but like what ... are they doing? I have no idea.

[sunandsstars]

Ask for story idas and you shall receive story ideas, I got 3 and 2 of which can be alternative story routes for yawnetu like au's

And yeat again it's gonna be very long

So i know with yawnetu we are going the ronal and tonowari route

But I don't think you wrote if reader was aware the Grace's avatar was pregnant with kiri, because in the movie the sully's only find out grace is pregnant after the birth of neteyam. So by the time the sully family arrives at the reef with kiri, thoughts come racing into reader mind and the worst one is that neytiri at jake had their way with Grace's body like they did with her and nobody was able to stop them. So trust is jake and neytiri are practically nonexistent and is starting to be hella protective of kiri and the twins picking up on it

Plus I think they would be the ones to break up the fight ao'nung and his friends have with neteyam and lo'ak.

For the alternative stories they have some what of the same path as the original yawnetu story line so far but really start to differentiate at the birth of the twins, plus their first communion with eywa and the first recom encounter at the old shack.

Alternative story #1 recom route

Reader stays in the forest but moves out of the tent with jake and neytiri. But moves in with Mo'at instead with the excuse of her having the first born twins of the clan leader much sooner than expected, she is taking no chances with their health so is staying with Mo'at.

She still takes care of spider as her own and as the older brother of the twins much to the dismay of the sully couple. And wherever spider goes the twins follow. Their dymamis would be the shorter older brother and the taller younger brothers.

Mo'at has a far more active role in raising the twins. Jake and neytiri try to get involved but even as baby's the twins are not having it along with mom and mo'at.

Years pass the twins are trained to take over the clan when time comes and neytiri is having none of it. Which causes her to push for neteyam to get training as well, which he does. So the twins and neyteym have a bit of a tense rivalry on who will be next in line. In reality the twins don't care and are more "go with the flow along with, if we get it, we get it and if we don't, we don't". Poor neteyam feels like he has to get it or be deemed a failure, not only by his parents but the clan.

So bitter competitive younger brother neteyam and the surprisingly supportive older brother twins. Because in the end they want the best for neyteym and he's earned it. They look out for the rest of their half siblings and have a good relationship with them. They just tend to avoid them when jake and neytiri come around for obvious reasons.

The twins participate more actively in the raids and attacks but not as scouts like neyteym and lo'ak. Which fuels more jealousy from neteyam

The recom encounter practically goes the same but reader and the twins are with jake, neytiri, and neyteym on their respective ikrans. Some how trying to win over reader and the twins and still failing. So when lo'ak calls the 6 of them race over there.

Goes the same but reader and the twins don't kill anyone, they are just more focused on getting the kids out of there which they mainly succeed.

But when spider falls due to the explosion reader jumps after him which causes the twins to jump after her. Which sadly results in reader and her 3 sons to be taken by the recoms no matter how hard they fought to get out of the recoms grip. And seeing that jake and neytiri had left them behind just as the helicopter arrives to take them.

They go back to high camp with out reader and her family and Mo'at is absolutely heartbroken and livid at jake and neytiri. Going off at them in public for not only lossing their wife to enemy had but also the heirs of the clan, thier children, her grandchildren.

And that's it for this alternative story idea on to the next

Alternative story #2 norm route

Yet again reader stays in the forest but moves in close to the scientist with the excuse that they know more about twins that the na'vi. And have far more advanced knowledge of medicine which mo'at agrees with. Plus she doesn't trust jake and neytiri with her grandbabies, plus i have a feeling that the scientists would call out any bad behavior that jake and neytiri could direct towards the reader and her twins.

That means that she can stay and care for spider as her own and as the older brother of the twins and helps norm with raising the orphans caused by movie #1 event's. (In the comics norm runs a orphanage for both na'vi and human kids)

Norm if far more active in a father role than jake is. Even if jake is trying his best to foster a relationship with the boys. The twins at times call norm dad /sepku when nobody is around. (I think that the na'vi word for dad, if not correct me)

The twins are and very good terms with the scientists and the avatars. So they have a better out look on humans than the rest of the clan. Knowing that there are both good and bad humans

The rivalry between the twins and neyteym are still there for training. But the twins spend more time with norm and the orphans. Fueling a bit of jealousy from neyteym because they would drop anything to help the orphans, even with the smallest of tasks and the most stupid of things. Being the big brothes and role models for the orphans. They would do the same for neyteym, he just has to ask which he doesn't. And neytiri is a bit of a bitch to them at times so they don't hang around often.

Stilla good relationship with the rest of their half siblings.

The twins participate more actively in the raids and attacks but not as scouts like neyteym and lo'ak. Fuels more jealousy from neteyam

The recom encounter goes exactly the same and spider gets captured. But Reader and the twins are at high camp helping around and waiting for spider to come back from exploring with lo'ak so they can have diner and rest for the night. When the sully's don't return with spider reader and the twins are absolutely heartbroken and go to norm for comfort.

Jake tells them that they all have to leave. Reader and the twins are even more heartbroken have a very lond and heartfelt good bye to everyone especially to norm, Mo'at and the orphans.

They arrive at the reef and live in a separate maui that the main sully family. Reader and the twins cause absolutely no trouble for the clan, helping with anything and everything they can because they miss being busy with the norm, the scientists, and orphans. Which causes them rise the social hierarchy very quickly than ever expected. Far quicker and higher than Jake and neytiri, plus being on better terms with ronal and tonowari.

Because we all know the only reason they can get way with what they did is because of Jake's status as tourk makto.

They get close to ronal and tonowari telling them of their past life in the forest. Reader and the twins bring up norm a lot which peak the intrest of ronal and tonowari.

Kiri has her seizure so norm and max to the rescue along with reader doing what ever she can to help kiri out. Kiri awakens so all is well. Reader and the twins have a heart warming reunion with norm showing him around and introducing him to everyone.

The final battle happens and in stead of neteyam getting shot it's both or one of the twins who do as they push neyteym out of the way. Neteyam is rittled with guilt that no matter how awful he was to his older brothers they still would risk their life for his. They nearly die but with the aid of norm, max, and reader they bring them back from the brink of death.

When they wake up from being shot while still in critical condition and a very loopy fron medication, they start calling out for mom and dad for comfort. Reader and spider shows up conforming that mom and big brother is there and is now solely calling for dad. Jake shows up to their side trying to calm them, but it's not who they are calling for and still are calling for dad. Norm finally shows up after reader calls for him and nudges jake out of the way. Jake leaves heartbroken.

I don't know how her and norm would confess to each other but I know around this point they would and the boys would like "about time and we want a younger siblings from norm get on it". And they would have a small yet amazing ceremony, max would most definitely be the best man.

Well that's all I got for know I'll send in some more if you want. I hope you have an amazing day

damn this is loooongggg it’s literally a fanfic by itself

i’m suprised i read every single bit of it though and ideas are brewing! i definitely like the idea of the reader getting caught by the recoms and then they all just go so soft for her and become one big fam omg

and norm is so cute. i would probably say that instead of the reader going with jake and neytiri to awa’atlu she would probably stay in the forests. since the recoms wouldn’t know her and her sons are associated with jake at all there’s no actual danger with them. also spider is taken so she wouldn’t wanna leave. but she would also wanna stay with norm!!