#Working with Conflict Pages

[zu-is-here]

[9/9] Happy anniversary to the duo ever!! >:D

[cradle-of-darkness]

What have you done?

based on an idea @username8746489 had where sylvie discovered nightmare fuel for the first time on accident while getting bullied by some older kids (and pushing him further into social isolation now that he's known as "that scary kid who could summon someone's worst fear")

[hojichasunrise]

Katara playfully splashes water at Aang, who responded by sulking in a brooding cave and then exploding lava in her face and storming off without any apology. From The Lost Adventures.

Golly gee why don't I want to ship such a wholesome wonderful healthy ship like this? Gee whiz, it's great Katara didn't end with Zuko, otherwise she might get lava thrown at her in an argument from an immature, emotionally unavailable, abusive jerk! /s Oh, right, Aang is the one who did that.

Aang has always been the one to hurt Katara. Funny Zuko hasn't. Remind me again who scarred Katara's hands, who blew up into the avatar state leaving Katara to pull him out lest he destroy her, her brother, and everything around him? Who stormed off right before the finale without communication leaving his friends to die in the invasion? Was it Zuko who did those things? Was it?

Such a wholesome ship!

[bonemeal12]

Oh Martin…

[brionysea]

if stranger things 5 comes out and they're like 'omg! the upside down has been a product of someone's dark and twisted mind this whole time! it's... WILL!' I'll immediately lose interest

[wereshrew-admirer]

scratching at the walls

[kheprriverse]

Did I ever tell y’all Tekoha has kids? Idr tbh but I'm doing that now lol

They’re twins; Tefke and Safiya!

More info in the tags ↓

[zmediaoutlet]

Question: What are some of (like, 3-5) your favorite "comfort" SPN episodes? When you just need to curl up and de-stress what ones do you go for?

oo what a great question! let's see, just off the top of my head -- and happy wincest wednesday although this is only mildly related --

Folsom Prison Blues -- arguably a perfect episode, it's just such a yummy treat (plus: Deacon!)

Clap Your Hands If You Believe... -- ridiculous and fun; strong implication that Dean got backdoored by a fairy??

Plucky Pennywhistle's Magical Menagerie -- "The ball washer." // "The what?"

Baby -- obviously

Into the Mystic -- also kind of obviously, haha

[pickletrip]

Everyone wants answers but no one is willing to talk and communicate in a way that brings about a resolution. They really need to sit down and talk but Ai Di is convinced that Chen Yi hates him for what happened that night. And Chen Yi wants clarity - is it about the sex, Ai Di leaving the gang, and/or Ai Di going to jail?

[ronsenburg]

My irl friend is writing a book (non-fiction) and wants me to come along with her to the local writer meetup that happens monthly so they can workshop one of my pieces.

After the immediate “not unless everyone gets real cool about a bunch of stuff really quickly” reaction (my friend has never read my writing) it got me thinking how lonely it must feel to write only original work all the time.

I guess I don’t often stop and think about how privileged fanfic writers are to have that whole community already built and waiting for them. How privileged we are to have sites created specifically to host that writing, where they can be easily accessed by anyone choosing to look, where they can leave us immediate feedback/validation.

I love writing, truly, and I’d love to write an original novel at some point, but I don’t know if I could’ve grown in the ways I have as a writer without the excitement and the support I’ve been lucky enough to receive through fandom. People who write original work must be incredibly tenacious and self-motivated in ways I can’t even understand, I guess.

[iolite-flames]

Hey so should I post the likely insane and most definitely incredibly illegible rambling I made today to try and understand my evil oc cult that is hellbent on imbuing the population with the accursed lifeblood of an almost blood-hungry tyrant because they think its the next logical step for humanity or nah? (I will do my best to transcribe it, because my penmanship is like… THE WORST) but yeah :) fun stuff about the genetic modifications, horrible physical transformations, some character highlights, group hierarchy, extraction and qualities of the stuff they use, etc? Planing to add to it and all but im always such a scatterbrain when it comes to ideas and concepts! (Thus why ive been REALLY trying to nail it down into something more fleshy and concrete!)

I’ll like actually do it this time if yes i swear i just forget (or sometimes the result is more daunting than anticipated), but like I actually have em sitting in a folder on my phone i just gotta pretty them up by making them… idk actually readable? No right answer, just seeing if people wanna see (i am SO BAD at sharing it makes me NERVOUS AF)

[cosmicrhetoric]

the problem with reading berserk and going "ok yeah i think that was actually too much for me. like i went in with clear eyes and thought i could handle it but maybe that was too much. no shame in tapping out" is that i keep remembering parts of it that were genuinely awesome and then getting hit with the memory of like. well. iykyk and then i feel so so so so conflicted about the work as a whole that i immediately get a stomach ache

[generallyjl]

the article I wrote on disability & Gaza got through edits and is getting published in my work's next newsletter

[bisexualamy]

I really try not to prejudge books if I like the concept I try to keep an open mind but I have to start taking it as a red flag when books are morning talk show book clubs picks. They have such interesting concepts and vapid executions. Sorry for being an elitist but how do you take such incredible book ideas and bore me to tears 😔

[mr-snailman]

hmmm writing this down here so I don’t forget I guess

seeing stars and say yes were originally supposed to be one fic spanning seven years and obviously that didn’t happen because it turns out seven years is a long fucking time

but there’s one deleted scene from the time between that’s near and dear to my heart in which Chuckie was gonna be working on some trade school related homework to do with geometry (cause if you’re gonna build houses you do have to understand spatial relationships) and maybe it’s taking a while

and Will sits down beside him and looks over his shoulder and starts pointing out the answers— and this becomes their first real argument that we see. obviously it’s ripping off the organic chem scene with Skylar in the movie because I think it’s something we see over and over from Will, that it’s SO easy for him and he just doesn’t get how other people have to work so much harder at it— and he really does think he’s helping, is the thing

because for him it’s just oh let me do this in fifteen seconds so it’s done and we can spend some time together— almost like “oh don’t worry about it I’ll do the dishes” XD— because for him homework was only ever busywork

but for Chuckie, this is something he has to do himself, because he’s gotta learn this stuff, and it kinda feels like— what, you don’t think I can learn this? you think I’m too stupid to figure this out on my own? because I think for a long long time he’s been struggling with the idea that he’s not good enough for Will in the same way that little league and patriots games and Southie itself aren’t good enough, and that’s part of what lead to the California thing in the first place

and obviously he knows it’s all bullshit— because Will came back, because Will chose him, because he knows Will loves him and would never think he’s stupid just because he’s no Ramanujan, he KNOWS all this— but still. those insecurities are still there, and it stings

BUT they’re two grown ass people who love each other very much so they talk it out like adults instead of flying off the handle, and Will backs off a little so Chuckie can finish, and Chuckie gives him stuff to check and asks him for an explanation, NOT the answer, to a difficult problem, and when it’s all done Will finally gets Chuckie’s undivided attention XD

[shepcdr]

thinking more and more about zaeed and yishai's rship (see under READ MORE for archived post of some random thoughts i've had about them that hit surprisingly deep for me... they're all buried in the tags though). i think in any universe, main verse or squadmate or otherwise, shep sort of imprints on him a little. they 100% come from similar places, and looking at zaeed and listening to his stories, i think yishai often thinks "this could be/this could've been me in a few decades" and he has a very strong respect for zaeed being able to handle/accept/embrace who he is and what he does. he sees zaeed simultaneously as a role model and someone not to become, if that makes sense...

thoughts on squadmate au in particular:

back to in general: i'm devoted to the idea of zaeed being the sort of man who doesn't mind the work he does at all. he enjoys it, really. he's very well suited to the mercenary lifestyle as it is to him, and he is ruthless to whatever extent he needs to be to get his job done, no regrets or second thoughts about it. however, i feel like when he speaks to shepard. he is projecting a very Particular image of himself he has very deliberately and carefully crafted, when in actuality he has more of a heart than he cares to show. (thinking about zaeed me3)

i think they'd have an interesting dynamic... zaeed pretends he doesn't give two shits about shepard (despite very clearly taking him under his wing in yishais squadmate au), that he does what he's paid to do... however i think he sees more than most how mainverse yishai (as cdr shepard) struggles so deeply with his morality — yishai shepard, a man who was once so on track to becoming someone just like zaeed

and on one hand zaeed is like. this is not my fucking war, i'm just looking for the next paycheque. you couldn't pay him enough to sacrifice his own peace and interests in me3. but at the same time... i like to think that he is quite invested in seeing yishai take control of his own fate ... in watching shepard claw his way out of the mould of ruthless living weapon that he was forced into. zaeed, i think, knows better than anyone what this lifestyle is like and that shepard was forcefully shaped into what he was pre me1. he was not born for it, he did not choose it, he is not suited for it.

it is a difficult journey to fight the purpose that u were made for. zaeed's kind of rooting for him. goes out of his way to help ("wondered if you'd show up," he says to shepard in me3 at the holding area/refugee housing. did you miss me zaeed. i know u did), reaching out to old contacts who might be down to fight for shepard in this goddamn war that zaeed wants no direct hand in. ("i could always use more help," says shepard, phrasing it precisely like that because he knows that zaeed won't come aboard the normandy again. but maybe hoping, just a little bit, despite the both of them already knowing the answer...)

they're enough like each other that they get along. they've come up from similar places (or so i think, personally). at the least, they've seen similar fucked up shit, and been put through/put themselves through bloodshed and several levels of hell that there's quite a bit of comradery to build upon there. but by me2, they have some few differences that make the dynamic a little grating at times. shepard's too rowdy, overly passionate, and a little too righteous for zaeed's taste even in early me2 (and maybe a little too clingy — he needs guidance, esp in squadmate au!!). they get along, hang out often enough whether over drinks or over shooting something (or both). shepard hangs onto his every word with a sort of admiration and respect, and they most definitely butt heads. i think they have to be in particular moods to be hanging out with one another, even in squadmate verse. the same men who come together spontaneously and break out bottles and shot glasses without so much as a greeting, then sit for hours drinking — chatting with their heads close and in low voices, or intensely animated in friendly argument and in raucous laughter, or simply sitting in total quiet together. for hours — sometimes cannot fucking stand each other.

but. "if that boy wants to claw his way out — if he can — and play the hero. then cheers to that... hes still got time that this old merc hasnt" is a line i made up and threw into the tags of that linked post randomly. that i am Still thinking about

archived zaeed & shep post thoughts: