#all mentions and not explicitly showing

[frankenfossil]

Oh! I nearly forgot, but can I ask the significance of this panel?

It comes directly after Dee explains that he can’t come and see her from the future whenever he wants. (Which is one of my favorite moments where Dee’s true eldritch horror leaks in to the story), so I assume it’s… sort of a metaphor? How Emily finds herself at the foot of something she realizes is much, much bigger than she contemplated before?

(Also, I just wanted to compliment you for this panel)

(The first time I saw it, I imagined Dee was showing her this on purpose, time traveling from sometime the same day to really show her what it would be like. An object lesson.

The second time I saw it, I started to wonder

Because Dee himself doesn’t really look aware of what is going on behind him.

And maybe, just maybe, this one moment in time has become the only moment that Dee allows himself to come back to to see Emily, the one moment where he can get lost in the crowd with every other time he came back to look. The one moment where he’s explaining why he can’t come back.

Just… Makes me sad, and I wanted to say thank you for that too, because I love these characters and the story they tell, the sweet and bitter.)

Oh!!!

(Quick test of my ability to find which chapter stuff happens in)

I love your reading of that Uluru panel!! I think I probably didn’t intend anything that deep with it; these time skip montage style chapters are pretty choppy and I’m usually trying to figure out a way to touch on all these brief scenes or moments that I don’t want to spend a whole chapter on for whatever reason, and arrange them in a way where the cuts aren’t too hideously abrupt. For visual reasons I try to contrast different locations and not put 2 dialogue heavy moments directly next to each other. Mood wise, I don’t really want to cut from something serious and angsty to something that’s a complete backflip on that. I also sometimes just feel like drawing a nice landscape and hope it achieves my aims on these fronts haha.

I think also here I was trying to move from that final sentence, “The present is more than enough”, to demonstrating them appreciating having that present together - being able to go do cool and enriching stuff, something not completely mundane but not completely fantastical either. (I mean... sightseeing within your own country is extremely normal, but going to Uluru from Melbourne... not a convenient day trip, since it’s 2000km; 25 hour solid driving, or you can fly in a few hours but I think you have to go via Sydney, so that makes it take at least twice as long I guess. Not that it's specified how long they're there for. I haven’t been myself but I’d love to one day...)

So, yeah!! More of a mechanical/compositional rationale than an intentional metaphor, but I think your reading makes complete sense and actually improves the page! (Sometimes I do intend visual metaphors... but sometimes they’re just happy accidents.)

And thanks for the compliment re the crowd of Dees!! I also love the moments I can lean into his eldritch qualities... they’re sadly few and far between but maybe that helps them be more surprising?? Definitely your first reading was what I intended, that he zigzagged back pretty quickly, probably even from within the conversation, but there is an inherent ambiguity to Dee’s time travelling where unless I take pains to spell it out, there really is no way to know when he’s come from. Even if he can be assumed to be taking every interaction chronologically, there’s no knowing how much time has passed for him between each visit. I don’t even know how to estimate how long his experience of time is, when he’s zigzagging back so densely all the time; even the number of living things on Earth any moment is an incomprehensibly mind-boggling number. That eldritch horror again!

Truth be told I hadn’t thought of him coming back to this moment and blending in with the crowd for the rest of the future ;_; but that’s so real... he could well be, the sad sack...

I had a different sillier thought from slightly misreading your question on first pass, which is that maybe he doesn’t originally know what’s going on behind him, but then later on as he’s just going about his business he goes “oh I know exactly how to punctuate that thing I said earlier!!!” and then does it as an afterthought. Oh to have the ability to add the things you wish you’d said to an earlier conversation 😂

[clione16]

"chilchuck is that one 'she is 10000-year-old dragon' trope but he is guy so no one ever think it is weird" "people who thirst over him is a pedo" Do. You. Even. Read. The. Manga.

[void-proxima]

One of the more heartbreaking episodes of this show was released on April 28, 2019: "This is Not A Drill", featuring Drill Man (...and his absolutely abysmal excuse for a father). To commemorate it, I drew him over the weekend (and touched up the shading today). As always, the poor guy is not having a good time.

no background version under the cut:

[lookingforcactus]

The real main reason that I don't think compulsion is gonna be the explanation for the Siuanraine confrontation/breakup is because making a change like that would create soooo many more problems for the writers down the line

Here's why:

Say Liandrin can move her plans forward by compelling Siuan, seemingly without too much difficulty, even though this is so high stakes (narratively and for Siuan)

That means that every. single. time. a Black Ajah (or any other darkfriends working closely enough with them!) encounters a problem in the future, the writers will have to figure out why they couldn't just use compulsion

Because:

Siuan is presumably more powerful than many or most of the Aes Sedai

Liandrin is the only Black Ajah that's been revealed at this point, meaning that narratively, she should ideally be a decent benchmark for a Black Ajah's capabilities

Narratively, you generally want villains to escalate as you get further into a show. It would be a problem for narrative tension if most of the other Black Ajah we meet all end up being less powerful then Liandrin

Therefore, narratively, you would have to go to some pains to explain why most of the Black Ajah aren't also capable of using compulsion at that level

If the Black Ajah could mostly all use compulsion at a similar level, then why don't they just use it to solve all their problems?

This is especially a writing complication if any of the Black Ajah end up caught out or captured at any point

Especially in a series as infamously and intricately plotty as Wheel of Time, this would all effectively mean that every single time there's a plot involving the Black Ajah, the writers would have to scrutinize every single plotline in every future season for plot holes opened up by "Well why don't the Black Ajah just use compulsion?"

Or change every single plotline involving the Black Ajah to include their new, more powerful compulsion capabilities

And that's just. So much extra work! So many potential plot holes! For the whole rest of the show!

So, it just feels really, really unlikely to me that the writers would want to open up that massive can of worms, tbh

(Also, not sure why Liandrin would compel Suian to take Rand back to the White Tower and lock him up there, when we already know that her bosses both want Rand in Thalme)

[soukeyed]

got so caught up in the euphoria of replaying sa2 and shadow05 that for a minute i lived in a world where his current character of just being a prick for no reason didnt exist

[aroaessidhe]

2024 reads / storygraph

The Loudest Silence

YA contemporary

a newly Deaf-Hard of hearing girl moves across the country and starts a new school, struggling with navigating her disability and love for singing and lost friendships - determined to not make any new friends for the year she’s in Florida

and a boy struggling with family expectations and anxiety, after being made the fútbal captain even though he secretly ways to be on broadway, who quickly befriends her

bi & aroace-coded MCs

[lab-gr0wn-lambs]

I gotta say making Alastor Tumblrsexymansupreme asexual is unbelievably based

[moobrvoobl-moobmoob-oobmpoobroom]

I just find it mind-boggling that some people will reblog things like “Anakin didn’t care about Rex and his men, he wouldn’t listen to Fives just because he was friends with Palpatine” and then in the next post be gushing over Rexwalker/Rexanidala like???? so you agree. Anakin does care about Rex?

[ladamedusoif]

Hi! I've just read 20/20 and it's so good👓

May I just say that I admire the way you write not only in general, but also that you write Pedro characters fanfiction without massive age gap? I like those too, but god, there are tons of it and it became sooo hard to find Joel (bc 80% of age gap fics is about Joel) being happy with a woman of his age.

I happen to think more and more lately that older women seem more real, thus more interesting to read - young girls are all pretty with their sexy young bodies, etc., and the older you get, the more insecurities you have, and you believe somebody like Joel or Ben has plenty of options when in fact they probably want somebody to feel comfortable with, somebody who they can laugh with *looks at Lydia*

I guess, sometimes young reader is too perfect. How could real person like me ever compete with that? Imperfect characters are comforting and real (they suffer to make us feel better, they're our heros) and they evoke real feelings, you care about them. That's why I love to read non-age gap work when I see one.

Anyway, sorry for rambling, thank you!!🤍

*throws hearts at you and running away*

First, thank you so much for the lovely words about my writing! Here are some hearts in return: 💜💜💜

Honestly, this kind of ask means the world. I’m so grateful and so honoured.

A warning: this will be a long answer. Sorry!

I genuinely felt emotional when I read your words about my decision to write in a way that is either no/minimal age gap or where the reader’s age isn’t specified (because this is possible, and is arguably far more inclusive for reader insert). I particularly like that you’ve chosen to focus on why older OFCs/reader characters are more interesting, rather than on the extreme age gap trope.

I can’t deny that the age gap trope is the dominant one in this fandom’s fic at the moment - most obviously for Joel, but also for other characters. And I sometimes wonder if Visiting would have more notes and engagement if Lydia was a student, not Ben’s contemporary and perfect equal - intellectually, emotionally, in every way.

But as you say: Lydia has a life, has lived, and is imperfect physically and emotionally, like us all. She’s interesting for all those reasons, and more. That’s why Ben is drawn to her, and she to him. (I sometimes wonder how people would feel if the age gap trope was reversed, with a much older OFC paired with a younger P boy…)

This is also why characters like @fuckyeahdindjarin’s Cee and Sugar, in Seams and Palomino respectively, or @lunapascal’s Andie in Curls, or @julesonrecord’s Eva in Shots, or @iamskyereads Beatrice in Compulsion, or the many other no age gap/no age specified characters and reader inserts in the fanfic are so gorgeously engaging. You get it - they’re real.

They’re not all thin, pert, visions of youth as beauty and beauty as youth. Ageing is a privilege, and it hurts me, really and truly, to see the implication that only youth is attractive in so much of the fanfic in a fandom dedicated to a man who has aged so beautifully.

I know people who have been subjected to anonymous abuse over this issue, which insists they’re just angry old women because “hot celebs won’t fuck you”.

I’m passionate about this for all sorts of reasons. I am more than a little unsettled by the vision of Joel, in particular, as exclusively attracted to much, much younger girls. I sometimes feel that some of the explanations for why age gap is good or better are somewhat problematic (that’s just my opinion, before anyone yells at me, but it’s rooted in experience and the fact that I work with many college-aged people and know the consequences of the age gap fantasy when it hits reality). And there are broader implications for the message being sent to younger readers about ageing, attraction, and female sexuality, which my feminist brain is furious about.

Finally, I am struck by the fact that we often see posts about how the fic world is a broad tent, and that there’s room for everything. Yet when people ask for more fic that doesn’t repeat the age gap trope, or some of us write fics that explicitly avoid that, there’s a reaction against that.

Sigh. You see why you didn’t need to apologise for rambling, for I am a rambling Rose, and endlessly grateful for your kind words and wonderful support. Here’s to a more diverse menu of fic on the dash - the tide does seem to be turning. You may have seen the post that’s been doing the rounds where @tessa-quayle has very helpfully compiled a list of fic that doesn’t involve an age gap or DBF/daddy thing - it’s really good on the need for more diverse reading.

PS: a more general query for the dash: is this such a massive trope in other 40-something male actor fandoms??

[yoihino]

Auuaghh undertale fandom video essays my beloathed. Is it really so much to ask for just one (1) of these to be made by an actual fan who was in the fandom? Like it is so clear they are talking about it from an outside perspective or that they got into it just fpr the video and uggh. Where is the love? The appreciation for the aus and their creators? For the history for the fandom? Honestly I just want like a text post of someone saying 'hey remember those times? They were wild and they may not have been perfect but we sure had a lot of fun'.

[mariocki]

An uncredited Jacqueline Hill appears as an unnamed Irish barmaid in The Vise: Death Pays No Dividends (1.5, ABC, 1954); in the UK, this episode wasn't seen until 1960 as part of ITV anthology The Crooked Path

[sisterdivinium]

Silence had always been her home — solitude.

Concentration shunned the noise of company and Jillian Salvius had long made secluded labs into sanctuaries.

Yet she found herself suddenly housing a nunnery — and suddenly she saw that presence was not all nuisance. Beatrice's step was light, Camila's voice low and Ava's laughter more song than hassle.

"If we can ever repay you..." Mother Superion said.

She was the greatest discovery, stern yet soothing: a partner whose every word was essential or unspoken instead.

Jillian smiled and shook her head.

She would not ask and risk ridicule — but they needed only stay.

[hyenaswine]

i liked barbie better when she was an empty vessel for acting out all of my darkest childhood fantasies. give me homunculus barbie

[whatudottu]

Me: Shadow Demon Unicron Spawn Random is totally a vibe, especially because of the bitch black face and completely lit up eyes and mouth, I should design how it looks in the headspace-

Also me, contemplating the horrifying idea of designing not 1, not 2, but 5 different cybertronian alter designs, including the 2 triple changers based on previous transformers media characters Octane and Astrotrain:

[saviourkingslut]

watched netflix's im westen nichts neues with my dad and uhh. i dont think they could've missed the essence of the book any harder if they'd actively tried

[zwei-rhunen]

why is it so difficult to find out how to make sephirot's weapons glow lmao

i stumble upon their true name while googling around OUT OF SHEER LUCK LMAO

they're not "sephirotic", they're "of the fiend". that's so un-intuitive.

why isn't this mentioned anywhere in-game.

the ITEM DESCRIPTION for sephirotic would be a great place!

this was so annoying to figure out smh

and it turns out, you dont even need?? the extreme weapon drops???

h u h????????

i mean, that's cool that's so accessible and all, i'm happy for that, but also - that don't make no sense to me... that fight was pretty challenging.... what do u mean, you can't also get the glowy version from that???? lmao?????? or, idk, make the extreme drop have a different colored glow. something.

/confusion