xivymoonartx · 8 months ago
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first draft of a new oc 🎃
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macawritesupdates · 5 months ago
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Writing Update 6/2/2024
A NEW fic has dropped that was inspired by a prompt and is 15 shiny chapters of slow-burn and hurt-comfort if you are interested in trying it! <3 It was one of two fics I hinted at dropping soon, but was too impatient to wait! The other fic under the codename "Investigation" in my fic files is being worked out as it is a more complex plot, story, and character thing. The more complex a fic, the longer it takes me to write sometimes 83
LONG FIC UPDATES! Lessons in Accidental Seduction: The next chapter is completed and I'm just going to work on edits today so strong possibility it will go up <3
Historically Inaccurate: Currently sitting at 40% done but goal is to get the next three scenes written with a goal of updating this week! If I get really ambitious, maybe finish chapter today but that depends on the writing vibes
Careful What You Joke About: Chapter outline, will start writing once Historically Inaccurate gets its update c: Mirrored Lives: Working on next chapter and hoping it gets an update sooner rather than later!
Broken in Ways No One Sees: Letting the first chapter sit out there a bit! No rush for second chapter but it is already outlined out and awaiting writing time! Yuuji Files: This fic is taking a small break as the writer's block has settled on it so mostly just outlining and tightening up chapter plots, making them more lean and less chaotic. It needs to sit a bit :b REQUESTS Working on two sequel requests, two AO3 requests, and hoping to knock out three of the oldest requests (from April 5th ahhhhHHH!) out first c: But we power on with the requests! Soon I shall catch up!
IN THE COOKER
Got the drafts of three other stories in slow works but they are far from finished to talk about in too much detail, but I like to overshare on what I'm working on <3
A dragon hybrid JJK fic because I like dragons. :3
A JJK SUkita fic entitled "Containment" that is more an action thriller that has finally gotten beyond notes being jotted down to starting to poke at a plot
A My Hero Academia fic that takes place a few years after the end with Eijiro Kirishima as the leading character. The plot is still going through several rewrites, and the codename for it is "MHAThing" lol
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btsmosphere · 3 years ago
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Crossing Paths - drabble from the Crossfire universe
request from @excusemyuwus -
I remember Tae said he had a crush on her while working on that project so now I kinda want to see his pov of that time and how he was holding being around his crush lol, not gonna lie gangster Tae all nervous bc he like someone is something want to see (also imagine how much the guys would tease him uwu)
tumblr ate your ask when I tried to answer it, sorry! this is the only part I had copied, but if it ever resurfaces, I shall answer there. for now it is still refusing to cooperate so I am posting like this! (update: the ask just returned, it is here)
~pairing: taehyung x reader ~word count: 1.4k ~pre-relationship, fluff, angst, slice of life, mafia au, college au ~rating: g ~warnings: vague mention of gang activity, this is a gang au after all, but it’s not particularly prominent
~a/n: thank you for your great request! this was so nice to come back to, I am so sentimental about this series as my first bts fic🥰takes me back to when I was just getting into bts… it felt hard to do it justice! because of this, sorry it took me a while to write, but I wanted to do it well, and again I kept the theme of making my ‘drabbles’ wayyy longer😅final big thanks to the site being frustrating and eating drafts and such🙃🙃but here it is, finally seeing the light of day! I hope you enjoy it x
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“I can tell something’s on your mind, Tae.”
Jimin stared coolly at his friend. Looking over his shoulder guiltily as he unlocked the door, Tae found the other boy with his hands in his pockets, looking expectant.
All Tae could do was shrug as he elbowed the door open, heading to ditch his bag.
“Hey, Jimin’s right.”
A light flick on Tae’s forehead made him startle, looking up to find Hobi grinning, though his head was tilted to one side in question.
“What is it?”
Jimin’s shoulder nudged his own as they sunk into the sofa.
Tae checked his phone.
“It’s just a project for class, don’t worry about it,” he pocketed his phone, ignoring their gazes, “I gotta meet with my partner in an hour.”
“It’s okay, I wasn’t staying that long anyway,” Hobi slumped down too, having helped himself to a drink from the fridge, “I’m on watch with Yoongi across town.”
As the discussion turned to this week’s jobs and deals, Taehyung rested his head back against the sofa. The sounds of his friends’ conversation was like static. Instead, he was picturing the scene in class earlier, as the slideshow was flipped to show the project partners on the screen.
Tae hadn’t been too fussed, idly playing with his pen lid as he searched for his name. But when his eyes fell on it, he sat up straight.
Having only bumped into you a few times in class, he had never expected his heart to be hammering quite so hard as he quickly scanned the room for you. Sliding his things away, he had walked towards you as everyone began to file out, meeting you halfway as you did the same.
Leaning against a desk to keep his jittery hands occupied, he grinned at you.
Your returning smile, he noticed, was much more nervous, only flickering into existence for a wavering second. The two of you had only a brief conversation to sort out when you would meet, before you had practically scurried away.
His eyes had lingered on you as his smile slowly sank.
Unconsciously poking his tongue against his cheek, Tae wondered if you were afraid of him.
“Hey!”
A finger clicked sharply in front of his face. He blinked back at Hobi’s grin, Jimin bursting into laughter at his side.
“Just a project, my ass,” Hobi shook his head, dumping an empty bottle on the coffee table, “don’t wanna be late, do you?”
A radiant smile was tossed over his shoulder as Hobi left the room, front door clicking soon after.
Sending his best friend a knowing look, Jimin also gathered himself to stand.
“Have fun tonight, yeah?”
He winked. Tae protested, shooting up from the sofa with an affronted look.
“So it is a special someone?” Jimin giggled.
“You’re impossible,” Tae grumbled, trailing after him to the door, “it’s just a project, I told you.”
Jimin hummed in a way which made it very clear he didn’t believe him.
“Don’t scare them off, tiger,” he remarked, stepping outside.
Tae’s shoulders slumped. He was certain that was just what he had already done.
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“I’m busy tonight. And my house isn’t free, so I can’t have anyone showing up here.”
Namjoon chuckled across the line.
“All this for a college project?” Clearly he had heard about this from the others. “If you could lend Kook some of your commitment to school, that would be great,” he teased.
Sighing, Tae spun around to survey the road outside his window, ruffling his own hair.
“You’re very funny, but I need to go. See you tomorrow.”
Tae was certain he would never hear the end of this from the others. It was true that he had firmly set aside time for your meeting today, even if it was only for a minor college presentation. But it was important to him.
He knew that this was the only time he would get together with you, and though it would end as soon as the presentation was given, he couldn’t help but want to make the most of it. At your last meeting, he had been largely distracted by the dizzying height of your apartment, leaving him shying back from any windows.
So this left you with his house today instead.
Arriving soon after Tae’s phone call, you were both soon seated on his floor. Though you mostly worked in quiet with occasional, quick conversation, it was not awkward. Your legs lay close together under the coffee table as you scribbled away diligently on its surface.
Glancing over the lid of his laptop as his fingers hung idly, Tae sighed. Watching as your pen swirled across your notebook, he let his eyes drift across your focussed features.
He swallowed as he did so, teeth tugging his lip. A light frown came over your features. He couldn’t take his eyes away from your lips as your pen lifted to your mouth, resting between your teeth as you mulled the work over, eyes flitting about the page.
Eventually, the lack of tapping at his keyboard must have got through to you. You raised your head.
Too late to divert his gaze, Taehyung cleared his throat and muttered a proposal for a break. Eager as well to put your work aside, you clambered from the floor to join him at his offer of a drink.
Moving through to the kitchen, he made casual conversation, asking after your dad. Last time there had only been a brief meeting, as he met Tae at the door before you hurried him away.
Picking up on his offer to chat, you teased Tae for his fear of heights, giggling over how he had screwed his eyes shut whenever he had come within sight of the view from your windows.
Of course, Tae tried his best to roll his eyes at you, but the smile dragging the corners of his mouth refused to be suppressed.
He poured your drinks. When he turned away to put the cartons back in the fridge, he took a breath, trying to settle himself. Why did he feel so flustered?
Squaring his shoulders a little more, he turned back, only for his hand to catch one of the glasses. It clattered against the surface, barely leaving time for him to jump back and avoid being splattered with its contents.
You hopped from your seat, ready to help.
Swallowing down his shock, Tae scratched at the back of his neck to hide his slightly trembling hand.
“Don’t worry,” he quickly muttered, flashing a nervous smile as he gathered towels and set to cleaning up.
Soft laughter followed from you. Still, you reached across to help.
Righting the glass and taking one of the cloths to clear up, your hand came concerningly close to Tae’s own. He kept his eyes firmly fixed on the countertop, his cheeks warm even as you finished and he was rooting in the fridge again for a refill.
You seemed miraculously unfazed by his flailing, though, he noticed as you finally settled beside each other sipping your drinks.
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“So it went well?”
Jimin nudged a reluctant Tae, eyebrows wiggling all the time.
“Yes, fine,” Tae groaned, trying to shrug him off.
Jimin did stop, but only in favour of staring at his friend with doleful eyes.
“Don’t be like that. You’ll see her again. You literally share a class!”
“It’s nothing like that,” Tae refuted.
He even halfway believed it.
You had got on well together, but surely not more than could be expected of most classmates? He sighed a little as he thought of it. It had been fun, but there was no excuse to spend any more time with you.
Besides, sparing one night to work on a project was a little different to becoming friends, or even more…
There was a reason the bangtan boys stuck to themselves.
But as he reminisced, he knew he had a soft spot for you, even if it should come to nothing. The project was over, the presentation given, but he still remembered the way you bounced with excited relief after you had finished talking to the class. Your face was glowing as you high-fived him with a grin, the work having paid off.
There was still a hint of nervousness though, and you had only given a timid smile and a small ‘see you later’ before heading out of class.
And that was the end of it.
But Tae smiled to himself. It had been fun, and he knew he wouldn’t be sorry if you ever crossed paths again.
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Thank you for reading! Reblogs and comments super appreciated always!!
Taglist: @aianloveseven​ @preciouschimine​ @un2-verse​ @ddaechwita​ @taegularities​ 
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coffeeandcalligraphy · 4 years ago
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A chatty writing update | novels, short fiction, etc!
Hi folks!
It’s been a while since I last wrote an update on this blog! I thought it’d be fun to go back to basics, and just talk about writing. This post chats about: new plans for Feeding Habits, my newest novel, my short story goals & growing collection, along with process reflections.
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(image description: a photo of green leaves with the text “writing update” in a white font written on top. /end image description)
Post starts under the cut!
General taglist (please ask to be added or removed)
@if-one-of-us-falls, @qatarcookie, @chloeswords, @alicewestwater, @laughtracksonata, @shylawrites, @ev–writes, @jaydewritesfiction, @jennawritesstories @eowynandfaramir, @august-iswriting, @aetherwrites, @avakrahn, @maisulli
What have I been up to?
For starters, I finished my second year of my Writing undergrad last week and got two of my final grades back today (A+ baby)! For anyone who has taken online university, y’all already KNOW, but this year was so difficult. Would not recommend! Really proud of myself to have gotten through this absolute rollercoaster of a school term and am excited to get into some writing. That leads us to:
What have I been up to (writing edition)?
2021 started off so fast. By the time January hit, I was so consumed in my new semester that I did not have time to write Feeding Habits (my novel). In the first few days of the term, I managed to write between class, until I could no longer keep up! Essentially, I did not write any of that novel until exam season (last week), where I did manage to get in about 3k words in ~4 days.
Feeding Habits
I’m currently drafting what I believe will be the last chapter of this book (chapter 10: Swan Song). This chapter is so bizarre for a few reasons. It begins the book’s third part and also marks the shift back into Lonan’s head from Harrison’s. I originally thought this part would be much, much longer, with at least another five chapters to go, but quickly realized the book’s content was nearly completed. In my 4 day 3k palooza, I hit 50k in the book (the word count goal), and couldn’t see myself extending past 60k. Since then, I’ve made the loose decision to write this final chapter as a ~novella. Here are a few reasons why:
1. This chapter is structurally very strange.
I unashamedly shift from present to past to present to past past, and so much more every 12 words. I mapped out the timeline on a sheet of paper, and there were over 20 shifts in scenes (the chapter is only about 4400 words at the moment). The fictive past is incredibly important to this chapter, more important than the present, and I thought it would make more sense to not break randomly for a chapter so I could upkeep the consistent inconsistency of the chapter.
2. The chapter is very abstract
This stems from the structural changes, but there are paragraphs in this chapter of the fictive present that are loosely based in reality. They’re more poems than they are factual paragraphs, and keeping them all contained in one place (so a mega chapter/ novella) would reduce the most confusion!
3. There’s not much left to cover
Like I said above, Feeding Habits is on its last leg, lol! I know exactly where the book needs to end up, which is very, very soon from where I’m currently at on the timeline. Swan Song should cover what 2-4 chapters would cover in terms of arcs.
Feeding Habits and I have a really weird relationship, tbh! When I realized a few weeks ago that it’d been over a year since I started the book, I realized I just needed to finish it. Not that I want to rush (because I’ve taken longer than a year to write a book in the past), but that in order to move onto another project, I’d like to put this one behind first. This book has been the hardest thing I’ve ever written, and has reminded me there’s always a time to let go. This sort of scrounges up a conversation about letting this entire series go, which is certainly something I’ve been contemplating doing soon(ish). If this spinoff series gets a third book, that may or may not be the last Fostered book for a very long time (or ever)! There are many complex reasons to move on, but the main one is that I have other projects I’d like to focus on. This is not a definitive decision, but something I’ve certainly been thinking about!
Here are a few excerpts I wrote recently:
(TW: death, gore)
Dying feels like being a trout dangled out of water. Clinging to a hook. Mouth open. Scales iridescent in a final death cry. It’s like blood spurting up the knuckles, drowning out the flesh. It’s that moment on the long fall down when the clouds cup the body. Easy drifting. The sound a skull makes when it cracks is really just the afterthought.
(TW: death, gore)
Kill shot. Death blow. Coup de grace. Right in the heart. He feels it. The blood swelling, slicking his palms. He can do it. Reach into the cavity. Feel for the ribs. Part each bone. Then cup the humming heart. Stay there. Right. It’s never been easier.
Look at this PURE moment of Lonan holding a baby I CANNOT:
The grocery store was a fifteen-minute walk away. With Olivia clinging to his shoulder, Lonan was acutely aware that she could feel his heartbeat. Open valve. Close. Repeat. Hers pulsed right above his, a miniature drumming. The sky had bruised purple, misted with clouds. The evening air nipped his cheeks, so he made sure Olivia was securely fastened between him and his jacket. With wide eyes, she absorbed the drowsy suburbia, all its family cars pulling into driveways, all its couples heading back home after a sunset walk. When Lonan passed a young boy walking two golden retrievers, Olivia giggled, and didn’t stop, even after he’d spent fifty dollars on groceries and nearly the rest on a red Corolla marked with a MUST GO NOW sign outside a convenience store.
Let’s move on!
Mandy and Cora
I said I wouldn’t talk too much about this project, but I just love it so much?? I wanted to share my SUPER early thoughts on drafting a novel, especially one that is SO different from what I’ve been writing recently. I talked about this before in THIS post, but the summary about this project is that it’s a YA contemporary novel! Can’t believe I’m writing YA again, it’s been so long, but I also think it’s going so well. Everything I’ve learned as a literary fiction writer has been a fantastic primer for transferring back to the genre. Admittedly, I have not written much, but I’m having a lot of fun diving back into a lighter project. This is the summary:
Cora and Mandy are identical twins who’ve always done everything together. But when Mandy decides to go to university out of province after graduation and Cora doesn’t, Cora takes this as an opportunity to “test run” life apart from her sister for the first time by spending the summer at her aunt’s house across the country.
I have come up with a few ~things since I last talked about this project, mostly how I’d like to structure it. As of now, I’d like the book to be structured super loosely. I’m really pulling on a lot of inspo from “We Are Okay” by Nina LaCour (which is SO good), particularly how “nothing happens-y” that book is. This project (which I still need a title for!!) will be structured in short chapters that cover something Cora does on her own for the first time (without Mandy). For example, a few ideas are “Flight”, “Lunch”, and “Groceries”. “Flight” is the first “chapter” (they’re really kind of vignettes) where Cora flies to her aunt’s house. I still can’t determine if this book will take place in Canada. On one hand, I feel like there will be a wider audience if it takes place in the US (is that just an assumption??? maybe?? someone let me know!), but also: don’t really care too much about an audience at the moment! It could also take place in Canada (So Ontario and British Columbia). But if it does take place in the US, I think it may take place in NYC and San Francisco. The problem is: I really don’t like researching lol, and while I’ve been to NYC many times, I will definitely write it wrong! Does this really matter on a first draft?? absolutely not lol, but of course I am already overthinking!
But back to structure: I am looking forward to seeing what this looser structure will do. This is a story that is solely around one half of a set of twins learning to be her own person (and ultimately that she doesn’t have to completely forget her sister in order to do that), and as a twin who KNOWS this feeling, I think this structure of her doing things for the first time is SUPER relatable.
I was worried it might sound silly/worrying to others who are not twins that Cora hadn’t done things like “lunch” or “groceries” on her own, but I feel this so much as an identical twin myself! Not that she hasn’t done anything at all by herself, but as a twin, when you do something without your twin for the first few times, at least in my experience, you notice. If any twins are reading this--weigh in!
This story is the most personal thing I’ve ever written. It definitely is an OwnVoices book! Usually, I avoid details that are remotely similar to me because they make me uncomfortable haha, but with this book, it’s all me, lol! The characters are all Guyanese, which is SO fun because I’ve been planning what they eat (my fellow Caribbean peeps know: the FOOD!), which is so fun (yes they have pumpkin and shrimp, yes they have roti, yes they have pera, yes they have mithai). Every time I’ve gone to dabble at this book, or even think about it, I get incredibly emotional for this reason? I don’t exactly know why. I think this is a story I just so want to tell, with the culture I love SO much that I definitely struggled to love as a child. This is reclamation bitchessss!
Not going to lie tho: the prospect of writing ~a book~ is kind of freaky! I’m going to make the minimum word count for this book pretty short (50k) and see where it goes from there. I think I will focus on this project this summer! Originally I was going to write a literary novel this summer, but I think this one’s calling my name!
Here’s a pretty rough excerpt:
Try. I remind myself that’s what I’m doing after the flight attendant fills me a disposable cup of Coca Cola and all I can think of is Mandy and I shoving Mentos into a bottle of the stuff when we were twelve. Just me, wedged in the middle seat between an exchange student heading out for summer break and a middle-aged woman sipping a cocktail, thinking of Mandy and I bursting whole oranges in a blender when we were bored one Winter break as the plane dips through a wave of turbulence. Mandy and I dying our hair neon green with highlighters (didn’t work—our hair is too dark) as the plane lands on the tarmac. Mandy and I arguing so loud last month, we both lost our voices as I lug my carry-on out of the overhead compartment and shuffle off the plane and through the airport, searching for Aunt Vel.
Short Fiction
I’ve written so much short fiction this year! I have a goal to write a short story a month (they can range in length, as long as 1 is “complete”), so my short story brain has seriously been soaking it all up lately. Let’s chat my month to month breakdown so far:
January:
I wrote four stories in January! The first is a flash fiction piece called “Shark Swimming” that follows a young woman who attends a shark swimming class after breaking up with her girlfriend. I wrote this story for a “test” workshop for my fiction class, and it was based off the prompt “think about something you’re afraid to do and make the character do that thing”. I’m not particularly afraid of sharks, but had been wanting to use the title “Shark Swimming” for AGES (literally since 2018).
This story is one of my favourites. It’s only about 900 words, but I think there’s something profound in how mundanely specific it is. The entire story doesn’t even see the narrator swim with sharks once; it actually takes place fully in the sanctuary’s lobby. But I really love this narrator. This is the first story I’ve written in second person in a while, though I felt really connected to the unnamed narrator. She struggles with accepting that she truly is a “boring” person, and there’s something about the final image that really gets me!
I’ve been submitting this around, though it’s been rejected a handful of times. Hoping I can secure it at a magazine one day because I really love it!
The second story is “Joanne, I’ll Pray for You” which is actually a rewrite of one of my very first short stories (the first story I did not write for a class haha), “NYC in Your Apartment”. I LOVE this rewrite a lot, and also learned the original is not a very good short story! Revising this story taught me just how much I’ve learned in the 2 years I’ve been writing short fiction. Seeing the 2019 version versus the 2021 version side by side is fascinating because I essentially “gutted’ the 2019 version of its beginning and end until all that was left was the middle of the story (aka the actual story). AKA: this is the only story I’ve ever written with a hopeful ending and I cut out all the happy bits lol I am SO sorry (that arc is more for a novel or novella). That’s how this went from a 5k word story to an 1800 word story (my Submittable thanks me for this lol). A lot of details and scenes I included were more pertinent to a 3 act structure/novel, which of course short stories don’t often have because of their brevity. I love rambling about writing theory, and seeing that actually pay off is so fascinating!
(TW: trauma)
Like the original, this story follows Joanne, a woman in her early twenties, who spontaneously breaks up with her boyfriend. She claims the poltergeist haunting her drove her to this decision. The original draft focused a lot more on the traumatic events Joanne survives, but this draft really loosens them up. It focuses less so on the events themselves, and more on how Joanne’s life is affected. I found the details of these events were less important, and even sort of contradicted Joanne’s insistence she is being haunted. Instead, the poltergeist really takes more precedence in the new draft as a force Joanne doesn’t understand. That ambiguity, I think, is what the story truly needed.
I also centralized Joanne’s relationship with her boyfriend, Julian, here. Now don’t get me wrong, I really didn’t add anything to this draft. It was a matter of trimming the fat around it to leave the lean “meat” in the centre. But by removing that fat, I was able to emphasize what was most important here, and that was her relationship. Julian always played a really big role in the original draft, but I feel like his role as both a friend and partner to Joanne is much more emphasized since this draft literally is only two scenes now. Because there is less, there is more room for Joanne to reflect, which I’m happy about!
A final change I made was the setting and therefore the title. The original, which was “NYC in Your Apartment,” I couldn’t keep because I shifted the setting to Toronto (this is how I originally saw it, but in 2019 I just?? couldn’t?? write?? canlit??), and “Toronto in Your Apartment” sounded sort of gross LOL. The new title comes from a line in the story which I think is more relevant to the themes!
The next short story I wrote in January was “How to Spell Alpaca.” This one is super fun because I wrote it SO fast (in about 15 minutes or so). THIS is the writing update if you’re interested in learning more. I talked extensively about this one in that update, but some developments are that I dove into an edit a few weeks ago to really understand the core of the story. I’m still not quite there (this is just an intuitive feeling; I know not everything has “clicked), but I am really intrigued by the two mothers in the story, the narrator, and her newfound acquaintance, Violet. Both really struggle to understand their place as mothers (the narrator even declares she isn’t a mother anymore). The narrator, who is in her 50s, sees herself in Violet, who is much younger (~20s), and so she views Violet’s relationship with her daughter in a cautionary, yet mournful way, like she can see it will end up like her own relationship with her daughter, despite wanting the opposite. This is a really subtle story. I feel like if you blink, you’ll miss the message. But I think it’s compelling for that reason. It’s really a portrait of parenting and how to grapple with mistakes you may make that inevitably affect your children. Wow just unlocked the theme writing this lol.
The final story I wrote in January is “The Party,” which may be in my top 3 faves I’ve ever written. This story follows Aida, a recent divorcee in her ~40s. The day her divorce turns official, she moves into a new house and receives a party invitation addressed to the previous homeowner, yet RSVP’s anyway. At this party, she’s hoping to find some sense of noticeability, having struggled with being nondescript her whole life. Things seem quite normal at the party, until it gets bizarre.
I LOVE this story, y’all. Like “How to Spell Alpaca” it really delves into motherhood. Aida, our narrator, is incredibly hurt after her divorce. She now lives farther from her children she struggled to feel connected to in the first place, and doesn’t really know how to reignite her life. This party is a means to do that. This is the first story I’ve written that contains a “twist” which is strange because I really prefer stories that give us as much info as possible upfront, but yes, this one sort of twists.
February
I wrote one story in February, and that was “Protect the Young.” This title is SO changing when I think of a new one because it’s thematically incorrect, haha, but this story follows a woman in her late 40s whose daughter, Lindy, announces she is married the same day all their backyard chickens turn up dead. The discovery of dead chickens prompts our narrator to recall her ex-husband’s murder and the role her daughter may have played in his death.
I love this story so much! I think this would make a great closing for my short story collection. It just has that vibe! I wrote this for my second fiction workshop. I thought I had to hand in the story a week earlier than I had to, so I panicked and wrote this in one sitting! Little did I know, I did not need to do that lol but I’m very happy because this story is so fun. We get to learn more about Arnold (her ex), his relationship with Lindy, and how that translates to Lindy’s relationship with her new husband, Malcolm. I LOVE true crime (I listen to about 3-4 hours of case coverage daily), and this is my first “true crime” story. Because of that, I’m very sus of a few details that probably wouldn’t slide in actual investigatory work, so I’ll also be working on that in a revision. My professor also gave me a great suggestion that may alter the story’s structure a bit, though I look forward to toggling with it in the future.
March
In March, I was really on a Criminal Minds kick lol. I’ve been watching this show since I was seven (oops), and dove into a rewatch since it hit Disney+! This story, “Where to Run When the Lamb Roars,” is very clearly Rachel watching 5 episodes of CM a day. Oops! We follow 14-year-old Astrid as she and her older half brother kidnap a young girl to sacrifice for their yearly ritual.
I knew a few things going into this story, but the main thing was that I did NOT want to show any details of a potential murder (if one even occurs). I really wanted to keep all of those elements off the page because this story is not about those events, but about Astrid’s relationship with her brother. They are a murderous duo, with Astrid actually being the dominant partner. I wanted to explore that. I knew her brother, Fox, was more of a submissive partner in their team, even when he used to do this same thing with his father when he was much younger (chilling!), and so it was a task to explore how this young girl’s desire for violence works. The end actually comes right before the story starts, one could say, but I like it for this reason. It really made me contemplate the story by the time I finished it, and helped me examine what it really was about versus what it appeared to be about.
April
(TW: sexual content, non explicit)
I was so busy this month! Who knows if I’ll write a story last minute, but I did write one story this month called “Five Times Fast.” I wrote this during a “writing sprint” that was being hosted at a flash fiction workshop I recently took with one of my favourite writers ever, K-Ming Chang. I learned so much from this class, and am so happy I came out of it with a draft! This story is just over 300 words, so the shortest flash I’ve ever written, but I’m really happy with it. It was based off the prompt “describe the last time you or your character was naked.” In this case, the narrator has a “friends with benefits” relationship with Ricky who works at a laundromat. This story highlights a moment in this relationship (and also Ricky’s goofy personality lol). I really like it! Hopefully I’ll submit it to some magazines soon.
My short story collection
Very briefly I wanted to touch on my short story collection which I’ve titled “She is Also Dead.” I’ve been meaning to make a blog post on this, so look out for that in the coming months, but this collection is already at around 35k words (about 14 stories so far). The collection also surprisingly has a solid amount of flash fiction which is kind of fun! There’s definitely a range here, which is what I personally love in short story collections.
I feel very professional now that I have a ~collection chart. This is her:
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(image description: A chart with the title “She is Also Dead.” It is broken into four columns: Story, Status, Word Count, and Published. Entry 1 - Story: Slaughter the Animal. Status: Revisions, Word Count, 3982, Published: N/A. Entry 2 - Story: Joanne, I’ll Pray for You, Status: Polished, Word Count: 1809, Published: N/A. Entry 3 - Story: Primary Organs, Status: Published, Word Count: 2342, Published: The Malahat Review. Entry 4 - Story: Faberge, Status, Polished, Word Count: 619, Published: N/A. Entry 5 - Story: The Wolf-Antelope Will Not Come for Us, Status, Polished, Word Count: 1556, Published: filling Station (forthcoming). Entry 6 - Story: How to Spell Alpaca, Status: revisions, Word Count: 1327, Published: N/A. Entry 7 - Story: Blink Twice for Final Judgement, Status: Polished, Word Count: 6572, Published: N/A. Entry 8 - Story: The Species is Dead, Status: Published, Word Count: 1208, Published: Minola Review. Entry 9 - Story: Shark Swimming, Status: Polished, Word Count: 907, Published: N/A. Entry 10 - Story: The Party, Status, Polished, Word Count 2339, Published: N/A. Entry 11 - Story: Fig, Status: Polished, Word Counter: 947, Published: N/A. Entry 12 - Story: Protect the Young, Status: Revisions, Word Count: 4128, Published: N/A. Entry 13 - Story: Where to Run When the Lamb Roars, Status: Revisions, Word Count: 2174, Published: N/A. Entry 14 - Story: Phantom Limbs, Status: Revisions, Word Count: 4844, Published: N/A.) /end image description.
This order is DEFINITELY not permanent (at this point whenever I write a story, I just fit it randomly into this chart lol), and some of the info is outdated (for example, Slaughter the Animal is now polished!!! thank god!!!). But just an idea of what I’m thinking of including.
This is the summary so far:
In SHE IS ALSO DEAD, characters are pushed to act on their gravest impulses. A small town turns murderous when their local invasive species, the Janices, begin dying. A child struggles to understand her mother’s suicide. A college dropout who insists she’s being haunted by a poltergeist unexpectedly breaks up with her boyfriend. A mother acknowledges her daughter’s murderous tendencies after her backyard chickens mysteriously die. A young girl caters the funeral of a girl rumored to be killed by a wolf-antelope. A newly-divorced mother RSVP’s to a bizarre party she was not invited to, and a murderous brother and sister upkeep their yearly tradition of abducting a young girl. These stories follow characters who navigate death, violent desires, womanhood, and loss, both self-imposed and otherwise.
This is also so subject to change as I may pull and add stories to the collection!
I think I’m going to leave this update here for now! I’ve written TONS of poetry too, but I honestly ~hate my poetry right now lol, so! Hope you enjoyed this chill rambly update. Hope writing has going well for you all! All the best!
--Rachel
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bistaxx · 4 years ago
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Observations and discussion- the 11/29 streams
Part 1 George’s stream| Part 2 Tubbo’s stream ( will be linked when it’s done )
George logs onto the SMP because his chat was freaking out about his home.
Dream tells George to not worry and tells him to not look at his now burnt home.
George already heard that Tommy was the one who torched his house from chat but the first SMP member he actually hears it from is Karl.
I don’t remember if Quackity knew it was Tommy or not but when he follows George to his house Quackity never blames Tommy and tries to convince George that it was BBH and Skeppy because of that one sign Tommy (I think) placed. ( Though I think this is most likely because Quackity likes trolling BBH. )
After Quackity leaves the VC Karl immediately starts complaining about Tommy’s actions to George ( and Ranboo but mostly Tommy. ) 
Karl advices George to not fix his house immediately, and tells him to “harp on it”. ( To me this feels like Karl trying to rile George up and get him even angrier at Tommy. )
Continued under the read more
( Karl is an interesting character in this plot. He tends to be overlooked and he’s very aware of that: it annoys him but he also uses it to his advantage. He is both clever and very blatant with his power hungry tendencies: he doesn’t immediately try to obtain the highest levels of power and instead is trying to climb the political latter one step at a time. He’s not at all subtle about it but because he’s Karl and people underestimate him he can get away with it. )
( We we’re all out here going: Fundy betrayal arc, Quackity corruption arc, Tommy villian arc and ended up forgetting about a possible Karl arc lol )
Karl is the one who suggests George talks to Tubbo about Tommy’s behavior and flat out says “Tommy is the vice president I think we need to overthrow him and... I don’t know who the Vice Vice President is but whoever is just needs to step up and become the Vice President... That’s just my opinion though.”
( FYI: Karl pressured Tubbo into naming him vice vice president. )
Karl keeps on attempting to make the V.V.P look better to George who is focusing on rebuilding and doesn’t seem to care about what Karl is saying. Karl also wants George to leave the mess as is to provide proof for Tubbo but George once again ignores him.
They join VC5 but Tubbo gets overwhelmed by all the talking and moves into VC6 with Quackity.
Karl informs George about Dream’s wall and speculates that Dream did it for George.
The King flat out admits that he doesn’t understand politics ( lol )
George initially agrees with the wall but Karl keeps on pushing for a change in power instead.
Tommy joins and George accuses him, Tommy denies the claim but Karl doesn’t believe him. When George considers that Tommy might be telling the truth Karl says that Tommy is lying.
“What do I get out of lying to you George?” ( Now Karl isn’t lying to George but I find this line interesting because it’s VERY clear what Karl could get and has been pushing for this whole conversation. )
Karl hits the nail half on the head. “Listen, here’s what it is. It’s two people that are just obsessed with power: Tommy and Dream... They are using the ashes of your house as a political statement.”
( Now I say half because Tommy isn’t interested in political gain or political control, he just wants his discs back... now Dream. I was actually writing a draft about this but never finished so I’m just gonna say my own thoughts here: Dream has been looking for an opportunity to make his move and Tommy attacking George, the king of the SMP, was exactly what he needed. He could’ve just punished Tommy but instead he targeted all of L’manberg because he knew that 1.) they are in not in ANY position to fight back against him right now and 2.) Tommy would face major consequence for what was essentially a small prank that was fixed in like less then 10 minutes. To quote Tommy “It was the perfect crime.” )
( Also no one confronted Dream about him burning Manifold Land and that upsets me! >:( Jack Manifold deserves better!!! )
George travels to L’Manburg and finds Dream. Dream informs George that it was Tommy who burned George’s home and since George is the King it would be considered a very big offense. So Dream decided to make his move and boarded up L’manburg to pressure Tubbo and the rest of the cabinet into punishing Tommy. Karl agrees with the idea of punishing Tommy.
Dream tells George not to worry about it again, George asks Dream where he got all the obsidian from and Dream refuses to give a straight answer aside from “Not from creative mode.” ( I’m pretty sure Dream took it from Fundy... interesting that he doesn’t want George to know about that. Does George even know that Fundy is engaged with Dream? )
Dream continues to try and keep George out of the situation meanwhile Karl switches his target over to Dream asking if Tommy should step down as VP to which Dream agrees but also adds that it isn’t enough. Karl also asks if the V.V.P should step up and become VP to which Dream shrugs “ I guess...”, Karl latches onto this as his official endorsement and runs off.
( I’ll talk more about this later but I when I watching Tubbo’s stream I got this overwhelming feeling that Dream is trying to separate Tommy and Tubbo or at least drive a wedge in their bond. )
George expresses concern that the wall wont be enough, Dream once again stresses that he is handling the situation. Dream says “Do you see how much I’ve already done for you... trust me.” and leaves shortly after it. ( It almost feels like a parent talking to a child; a bit of a patronizing energy from Dream to George. Dream wants George to stay neutral and stay out of conflict but recently it seems like George has been wanting to get more involved- just a tiny bit. )
George however stills feels uncertain about the wall, Karl argues that it’s a step in the right direction “it sets up a precedent.” and while George agrees he still doesn’t see how it’ll help in the long run while Karl continues to drag Tommy.
George and Karl join the L’manbergian VC and they argue for a bit before the cabinet move to a new VC without George... and Karl which infuriates him.
Karl vents his frustrations to George about being treated like a second class citizen despite his status as a member of the government.
Karl sulks and George legitimately feels bad for him.
Dream whispers to George to get out of the borders, George asks if Karl should come with them and if he’s gonna hurt the L’manburgians. Dream just says for George to stay away from the conflict and remain neutral
( I saw someone else bring this up before but Dream seems to stick around ‘neutral’ people: George being the obvious one, Callahan being appointed the royal squire, that one time he told Purpled of all people to stay away from Manberg before the war, and last night when Dream was trailing after Puffy who has recently been feeling conflicted about her place in the SMP. I can’t tell how much of it is Dream genuinely caring and how much of it is just him wanting easy people to control and use. )
Karl talks about going “back to the grind” and George, somewhat cautiously, says that Karl should “just get out of here.” ( here being L’manberg )
George gets out of L’manberg but quickly hops back in to watch the discussion between the cabinet members but since he can’t hear anything he leaves- not wanting anything to do with a possible war.
( Which is probably what Dream wants George to do- stay out of it and let Dream handle it. )
Karl continues to vent about not being respected and George sympathetically listens
George stumbles upon the L’mantree, this prompts Karl to say “I’m not telling you to, because I’m the vice vice president and the only reason I’m letting this slip is because they’re being mean to me,... but that tree is very important to them I’m just saying.”
George comments about how interesting it would be if something were to happen to that tree. Karl eggs George on to do something but George gets distracted by Dream.
Karl gives George 24 blocks of obsidian, Karl continues to talk about how disrespectful it was of the others to not include him in the meeting.
Karl joins their call, promising to recount anything to George. George calls Karl his little spy.
( funny little moment: George kidnaps a L’manberg salmon and drops it on Quackity’s head. Your honor they are brothers! )
George joins the VC with the others: they discuss George’s home and if Tommy is guilty.
Dream and Tubbo go to talk in private.
George listens as the other cabinet members beg for Tommy to just tell the truth.
They all start leaving the call until it’s just George and Karl again
Interestingly Karl brings up supporting the idea of Quackity being VP in place of Tommy ( with Karl perhaps aware that because of the lack of respect the others have for him trying to make Quackity the VP instead would be more realistic )
George and Karl continue to bond over disliking Tommy.
Karl joins a VC and George soon follows but they’re immediately told by Tubbo to leave, this just frustrates them even more.
“I’m peeved George.” 
Karl encourages George to read his chat, who are telling George to burn down the tree.
George finds the ingredients to make a flint and steel in a nearby chest ( I don’t know if it was just a coincidence or if Dream or Karl placed those items in there. )
George decides against burning the tree and instead takes some of it hostage.
George and Karl are asked to join the VC and they all travel to the courthouse
I’ll cover the court stuff in more detail when I watch Tubbo and Tommy’s streams because it concerns them more and I don’t want to make this TOO long.
George listens as the cabinet continues to argue along the way, Niki and Ranboo join.
Pretty much everyone is vocally against Tommy, except for Ranboo who is mostly keeping to himself
George blocks tommy off with his obsidian. Karl and George play dumb about where the obsidian came from ( Though Karl might not have realized it was George who placed it or forgot that he gave him those blocks )
George jokes about Tommy already being done for with Quackity as his lawyer ( Your honor!! They are brothers!!)
Niki immediately tries to defend Ranboo when George brings up Chats claim of Ranboo being involved with the house burning. ( Sibling moment Pog <3 )
Tommy also defends Ranboo, and Tommy keeps defending him even after admitting to the crime.
( I’ll talk more about interesting Tommy stuff I noticed when I watch his stream )
Niki and Tommy vouch for Ranboo’s innocence and since Ranboo’s memory is apparently very spotty they all decide to let him go, except for George who wants them to review the footage ( Tommy’s vod I presume ) to see if Ran is truly innocent but George is ignored.
George tags along after the trial while the L’manberg cabinet continues their discussion.
George listens as Tommy talks about his goals to piss off Dream until he gets his discs back, the rest of the cabinet argue that his actions are irresponsible since as a member of the Government he represents all of L’manberg ( Though something tells me that even if Tommy wasn’t VP Dream, opportunist and conniver he is, still would’ve tried to make Tommy burning George’s house into a big deal since Tommy is still a L’manberg citizen. )
Dream shows up and Tommy chases after him, everyone follows in a panic.
Karl confronts Ranboo about him helping Tommy burn George’s cottage but let’s him off easy and tells Ran to apologize to George.
Ranboo apologizes even though he can’t remember doing it ( allegedly )
Niki is on Ranboo’s defense, she blames Tommy for being a bad influence on Ran.
Ranboo says “I never said that I couldn’t remember any of it- I just said that I have bad short term memory... “ he also tells George that the fire was an accident and that neither him or Tommy meant for it to spread.
Ranboo does also confirm that Tommy stole stuff and Ranboo did too but Ran put the stuff he stole back because he felt bad.
Ran says that he’s not good at standing up to people and George forgives him but George still wants his stuff back- Ranboo promises to try and help.
Ranboo questions the construction of the walls just because George’s house was burned.
George decides to interrogate Tommy and joins their call, he hears the cabinet argue about the discs ( I’ll cover this more in another post )
( This is when Tommy’s mom tells him about the dishes LOL )
Sapnap joins in confused and George tells him what happened alongside Karl.
Sapnap officially declares himself one of Gogy’s knights. For now George asks Sapnap to keep an eye on Tommy.
Sapnap gets anxious when Tommy and the rest start punching each other ( in reality they’re doing a handshake ) and protectively gets in front of Karl and George
“Dream’s not here, so I gotta protect you guys!” ( Just a nice little moment)
The cabinet go back into the Camarvan, the others watch from the top of the van. Ranboo and Niki decide to respect their privacy.
Sapnap is vocally on George’s side and against L’manberg
“These L’manbergians George, they should’ve learner their lesson the first time when we dealt with them.”
Niki takes offense to this
Karl reveals why he was on Schlatt’s side during the war “ I didn’t feel welcomed...” ( Interesting!! Not feeling welcomed was what caused Quackity to create Swag2020 and later join Schlatt!!!!!!)
Sapnap agrees that the L’manbergians don’t make people feel welcomed. Karl adds that even as vice vice president he still doesn’t feel welcomed since he’s not included in the meetings, Niki agrees that it’s pretty rude of them to do that to Karl.
( This might be important later on: Last night Puffy considered joining Dream but she doesn’t want to turn against Niki but Puffy might try to convince her to join Dream’s side- but I don’t think Niki would go without Ranboo and he needs to be a citizen to run in the next election.)
George and Sapnap agree that it’s wrong of them to not include Karl
Sapnap criticizes Tubbo for not keeping his people in check
Niki doesn’t defend Tubbo, instead she brings up how Ranboo is running for the next election ( interesting!!!!)
Sapnap calls Karl their “ambassador”
George wants to help Karl break down some of the walls around party island but decides to not get involved- Sapnap agrees once again brining up how the king mustn’t get involved and neither can Sapnap as a royal knight.
“I’m the kings right hand man- one of his right hand men. One of the knights, I represent the king.”
George warns Karl about Dream having the walls be in specific places for a reason and gets him to stop, the two are about to listen to some music before Dream whispers for George to come over to him.
Dream gives George the fish Quackity took for his pond in exchange for the parts of the L’mantree he took. At first George questions giving back the leaves but does so.
( In Tubbo’s stream I saw him give the pieces back to the L’manbergians as a show of good faith, but too me this rings more of Dream trying to make himself seem like a good guy to the other L’manbergians while he tries to make Tommy look worse. )
George goes back home to return his fish
Tommy gets blamed for damage done to Karl’s walkway ( I don’t know if he did that )
( George hears a Minecraft cat meow and meows back at it????? )
Tommy asks George for some leather and to two have a little spat, Tommy also remarks about how he hoped that him and Sapnap would be on better terms after Mars but it seems that ship has sailed- Sapnap is loyal to George first and foremost.
Karl’s loyalty to L’manberg has been deeply shaken, Sapnap apologizes to him.
George see’s the rebuilt L’mantree.
George and Sapnap try to cheer up Karl, encouraging his growing negative feelings towards L’manburg.
Quackity is concerned and joins the call after Karl drowns himself three times.
George and Sapnap take Karl back to his house and try to cheer him up with help from Quackity but Karl tries to drown himself again until George orders him as king to stop, threatening to never “pop-off” with him again if he keeps drowning himself
The group decide to have a serious conversation at party island
They all climb into the tree house to support Karl
Quackity promises to talk to Tubbo about Karl getting ignored.
Quackity mistakenly thinks that Karl kissed George (unless he’s talking about a different situation idk ). Quackity then hits George and the two start fighting before George orders Sapnap to get Quackity out of there.
Sapnap draws his bow ordering Quackity to leave while Karl begs them to stop fighting. Things get tense between the trio and Quackity asks if Sapnap still loves him. Sapnap says he does and that this is just a formality before George shoves him out of the tree accidentally killing Quackity.
Quackity says “he understands” to Karl and leaves.
( Damn, Gogy out here destroying relationships left and right! /lh )
Quackity comes back for his things and is asked to rejoin VC
More relationship drama ensues: Quackity is upset at Karl for not standing up for him when their other fiancé, Sapnap, pulled a bow on Quackity. Karl claims that he didn’t just stand there but Quackity moves on to Sapnap, asking for them to just leave Karl. George is confused.
Quackity asks for his “yeezys” back from Karl but George takes them, promising to give them back so long as Karl stops drowning himself
Karl says that’s he’s gonna be fine since Quackity promised to talk to Tubbo, the trio decide to make up to “ not make their wedding awkward”
Hbomb joins and George gives the boots back
(Sapnap clearly cares about both Karl and Quackity but in the end of the day his duties as a royal knight come first- things might get messy if another war starts up. )
( Edit: Addition to the above point, Quackity and Sapnap actually bring this up during Sapnaps 11/30 stream and my point is kind of reaffirmed but not quite in the way I expected. Sapnap listened to George because George is the king and he’s already seen what happens when you disobey the king; it’s certainly fear over respect in this case. He quickly shifts the topic to Karl after this- revealing that, while he still loves Karl, Sapnap views Karl as the “3rd wheel” of their relationship. Quackity basically agrees with this. Ouch. )
Alright back to serious stuff: George, Sapnap, and Karl speculate about what’s going to happen next. George still hasn’t gotten the stuff Tommy took from him back.
Hbomb suggests that George looks through Tommy’s stuff and see if any of his stolen goods are there, George agrees and goes but Sapnap has to leave, he tells George to be safe.
since George doesn’t remember what exactly Tommy took from him he decides to just take what he wants ( Hbomb noting about how that’s just the way this server works lol )
George takes useful stuff from Tommy, chat freaks out about how this could break George’s neutrality and Karl later asks if George was committing war crimes via stealing: George denies this.
Later George joins the VC with Tubbo and they start talking about making a chess tournament.
Some more little humorous moments happen- nothing really plot related I think. George plays chess with Fundy, Karl tries to make a rollercoaster in Philza’s house since he got rid of the school, a global warming arc is jokingly discussed, George tries to enforce some rules as king ( things like flight licenses, and shop permits. Nothing serious), I think George and Karl kiss in the kissing booth ( hard to tell with Minecraft; but George- I know it’s hard but please stop being such a darn homewrecker!! /Joking )
Also Jack briefly logs on but I don’t think he noticed the destruction to Manifold land yet ( He most definitely noticed during  Fundy’s stream today and is pissed )
Karl attacks Maid!Hbomb in church prime
George asks Hbomb to keep an eye Tommy, Hbomb continues to do cat maid things~ to George’s dismay
( George has never watched ATLA wtf )
Punz joins and George tells him about what happened. 
Later Punz confirms that he is one of George’s knights.
George considering granting Punz a flight license so long as he serves under him.
Punz comments on L’manburg’s loss in territory, George says it’s justified.
George, Punz, and Hbomb notice an odd cobblestone bridge structure in that starts around Hutt’s pizza and ends over L’manburg. Punz investigates it with the others. It ends right above the little town square area, with the Technoblade wanted posters.
Punz and George speculate the importance of the bridge and find out it’s a good ledge for jumping into a pool of water in the nation.
After a few awkward moments with Maid!Hbomb George and him considering making a deal: George would get one of Hbomb’s Pigstep discs in turn for renting a room out to Hbomb in George’s cottage. Nothing is set in stone yet and George decides to end his stream.
And that's about it! Thanks for reading!! I’ll try to cover the other streams ASAP.
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isidar-mithrim · 4 years ago
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Tag game
Thank you for the tag @fightfortherightsofhouseelves and @clarensjoy!! 
Also, I’ll take this opportunity to apologize for all the tag-chain/game I ignored lately! I’m quite busy this period and while I do still check tumblr almost daily – especially now that I can’t wait for new @giblimort‘s amazing portraits *_* – it’s more like a few-minute scroll in the homepage and maybe read the occasional ficlet so I might miss the tags or more probably I might be lazy about answering them ^^’ But it always makes me smile that someone thought of me, so be aware that it’s appreciated and it makes my day lighter <3 @narukoibito @sybill-the-seer @ballerinaroy and I’m surely forgetting someone ^^’
Fandoms: Harry Potter, the one and only ;)
Where you post: Tumblr and Ao3, but I also have an account on the italian fan fiction page EFP (but my last stories are missing and most of the old ones that I’ve translated needs to be changed/edited, so I would kinda beg any passing italians to read them in English or ask me what version I would suggest XD). And one on Wattpad that I haven’t updated in a long while...
Most popular one-shot: Well I’m not sure what defines “popular” here, so I’ll kinda cheat and check the Ao3 stats I think for the first time ever and give you:
one for “most hits”: Fantasies [NSFW and basically Hinny PWP, so maybe I shouldn’t be surprised it’s the one with most hits XD]
one for “most kudos”: Standing on tiptoe [whoa, hadn’t seen it coming!]
one for “most bookmarks”: Letters for beyond (featuring the Potters)
one for “most comment threads”: so there are 4 with the same number, two of them are the two above, and between the remaining two I’ll pick A new beginning, a post-war chat between Harry and Neville ^^
Most popular multi-chapter: among my only two proper multi chapters, of which one is incomplete so far and with just 2 chapter and the other is complete with just 3 short chapter (what an achievement XD), Better than fireworks  is the one among all of my stories, including one shots, with “most bookmark”, “most subscriptions” (by far) and also “most comments threads”: [all this support is absolutely amazing, but I admit also kinda make me feel guilty because it’s almost been a year since I posted it and promised to finish it, ups ^^’ And the ironic thing is that I still plan too. One day. Maybe XD]
But I’ll also cheat a little bit again, naming a4 one-shots series, “Have a biscuit”. If you like Neville and McGonagall, I’ll be honored if you’d give it a try ^^
Favourite story written so far: Ahhh that’s a tough one, I tend to be quite fond of my stories (yay for the modesty, lol – I swear that when I’m not that thrilled I always admit it, though XD)... Let’s say “As though by a mother” but I might give a different answer in a week XD
Fic you were nervous to post: I’m not sure I’m never actually “nervous” before posting (more like, afraid that the story won’t appreciated as a I hope/that it won’t interest people), but I guess I must have been a bit nervous before posting my first ever pic translated in English, which also happens to have a not-so-usual writing style: And yet it tastes good
How you choose your titles: Ahhhh, good question. I guess it depends. Tbh I’m not that good at titles, or sometime I have a (supposedly) great one in Italian that doesn’t really translate (or isn’t that good) in English or viceversa. [Example: the “Have a biscuit” serie has English titles that I like way better than the italians, but a story like “Souls of Ink”, while having a good ring in English, to me it’s way more powerful and poetic in Italian, “Anime d’inchiostro”].
Sometimes I don’t have a title until the end and I kinda throw something there, sometimes I have the title from the very beginning and it could be a big part in inspiring the story. I tend to use title that are neither too short nor too long, and I don’t usually use songs quotes or the like. Plus, I’m very happy if the words/phrasing of the title recur literally or metaphorically in the story! I also try to match the “feeling” of the title (and the summary) with the “feeling” of the story. Like, I’d go for a more poetic/dramatic one for an angst story, and for a more comedic-like one for something more fluffy or silly.
Complete: Well, that’s easy, since I mostly stay away from multi-chapters XD (and for good reasons – see above XD) All my one shots, and most of my “closed” series, as in, series that I imagined with a beginning and an end or something like that (so, series like “Next Generation” don’t really have a complete/incomplete status) 
In progress: Again “Better than Fireworks”, and I’ve also just realised that I’ve yet to finish translating (despite being at a decent point) the second and last chapter of “Of Matilda, war and Peace” [speaking about being bad a title, lol XD] Ups ^^’
Coming soon/Not yet started: ahhh coming soon probably nothing, ehm, but I’ve at least 4 one shots in the making and that I want to finish one day (most of them started months if not a years ago... I’ll list them below), plus the draft for the rest of Better than Fireworks, plus several random missing-moments or AUs ideas and a long Hinny post-war story started few years ago in Italian (roughly 100.000 written) that needs to be heavily rewritten, translated and possibly finished ^^ Same for a shorter bit of a Jily seventh-year story, if we have to say it all...
“Ghost of the past”, a Hinny one shot from Ginny’s pov with a difficult conversation – I’m very fond of this one, but I have to work on the second part/end. The first/main part is finished and even betaed by the amazing @narukoibito! <3
“Of those who stayed”, a silver trio one shot – again from Ginny’s pov – during DH, when they try to steal the sword. I’ve the first (long) chapter done and again, even betaed by the wonderful @floreatcastellumposts but knowing myself I want to finish it first. I might decide that it’s okay like this (in Italian I’ve already posted it a one shot), but since I had a sort of sequel in mind for now it’ll stay in my drafts ;)
“The man who lived” – This one is all in just Italian so far (I’m rewriting an old piece – I’d probably restart it directly in English now); again Ginny’s pov (wow, hadn’t realised it!), again DH, this time since she (in my head canon) realise Harry might have gone to Voldemort during the battle, until the end of the battle
A one shot that’s it’s a series of Hinny snippets about James Sirius Potter coming to life (from the very start). Old one written in Italian and never posted, that a again needs to be finished. Same for a collection of snippets around Hinny’s wedding (but this is “draftier”)
A one shot of Harry and the Potters waling Teddy at King Cross; I’ve just a very little bit of it written + most of the draft, and it would be the sequel of the one shot “What parents would want”
The random Missing Moments that I’ve have in mind are: a conversation between Bill and Ginny in the hospital wing in HBP, plus maybe a bit more from Ginny’s pov in that period (like going back home from Hogwarts); a conversation between Bill and Ron in DH, not sure if during Ron’s first or second stay and Shell Cottage; Hermione finding out about Arthur’s attack; Dumbledore taking Slughorn’s memory (when it happened, how he found out... I’ve several head canon about it!)
The random AUs moments (and I say moments just because I wouldn’t really be interested in writing a whole story, I only imagine few moments of it): Hermione brining Harry at the Burrow at Christmas after Godric’s Hollow, with is locket attached to his chest (I think I stole the idea from Flo’s!); the trio finding Ginny in the cell in Malfoy Manor as well; and some dumb “Lily and James are resurrected post DH” trash XD Oh, also a real muggle AU with Harry as a self-defence coach and Ginny as trainee!
Do you accept prompts? As you can imagine especially in this period I’m not very good at commitment ^^’, but if you have a specific idea and want to give it a try (maybe during the winter holidays?) I’d be honored, if not able to make any promises!
Upcoming works you’re most excited about: definitely “Ghost of the past”!
I’m tagging @ballerinaroy again, @remedial-potions, @thedistantdusk, @thebiwholived and whoever wants to join ^^
EDIT: Ehm I got caught up with the stats when I wrote this and without realizing it I put a multi chapter in the “Most popular one shot” section, lol XD Problem fixed ;)
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kaiowut99 · 4 years ago
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5D's Episode 27... with an “Uncut” Dub?! (Re-Edited 4Kids Dub/Japanese OST - Revised)
“A World Without Light -- The Dark Synchro Frozen Fitzgerald!”/”A Web of Deceit (Part 1)″
Everybody listen!
Took long enough to finish up and polish (partly because of work and activism life actually picking up a bit), but here’s a brand-new “dub-uncut” episode! With my first few takes in episodes 23-26 newly revised, I was looking forward to working on 27 and starting fresh again, lol. In case this is the first you’re hearing about my mini-project here, let’s get you up to speed:
So, the official Spanish YGO channel on YouTube flubbed a few uploads of the 5D’s dub such that they ended up uploading a few episodes of the English dub instead of the Latin American dub (21-29)–but with none of 4Kids’s background music! Which meant that I could swoop in and re-insert the original Japanese soundtrack (which I did by matching each track to how it was looped in the episode), but I wanted to do more by also tweaking the dub itself so that not only was it matching the original footage, but the dialogue was more in line with the original dialogue timing-wise (since I couldn’t salvage much of what they changed).  Hence, the “dubbed uncut” gimmick here.  To this end, I’ve also used dialogue from Duel Links where applicable, or even borrowed audio from other episodes with the vocals isolated to lend to that effect.
Check out the masterpost of episodes I’ve done here!
Check out this episode’s WIP videos! WIP #1     WIP #2     WIP #3   WIP #4   WIP #5
So, this one was fun to do particularly because overall, save for the, er... butchering that happened on explaining the Dark Synchro mechanic (4Kids wut) and the rewrite of Carly’s interaction with her Editor-in-Chief (and making Carly a “blogger” lol), the dialogue was already more or less in line with the Japanese version, which meant that I was more or less just removing a lot of the fluff as I added back the OST.  As I did in 22, 24, and 26, I added subs for the scenes where 4Kids rewrote things a bit too much for my taste (so, the scenes I mentioned above, but also the occasional line or a few), but of course these subs will be optional in the MKV I release on NAC for this.  I also added back some SFX and tried to remove the dub’s replacement SFX in most cases, though I had to swap out the SFX as Speed Warrior was tuning with Junk Synchron since 4Kids had a tendency to add some new one over the original SFX and made it too loud to work with the Yusei chant I put there.  And I translated the OP/ED credits in Last Train and CROSS GAME, revamping my singable lyrics a bit for Last Train while drafting new ones for CROSS GAME which I’ll post soon; you can see my Last Train translation in the second WIP video and CROSS GAME’s here. Full process breakdown below the cut.
Also, major thanks to yugidmx5 for providing A+ rips of the “The Day Begins/Tenpei” theme in the Carly/Angela scene, the “Vision of Tragedy” theme as Yusei and Ruka talk about the Satellite’s future, and the alternate “Dark Signers” tune which plays as we first see them and then again between the Dark Signer drones recruiting and Yusei chasing Dark-Signer!Dick down (before it transitions to the OST-released version once Yusei gets to the building under construction); I know that since these came out well, he’s working on better rips for some or most of the unreleased OST, so stay tuned there (I also drafted up a full version of the alternate DS theme, but had to get creative since they didn’t play all of it in this alternate style; will post soon).  And thanks to Tiny Spider Productions, who provided the “shock” SFX playing as Carly sees Yusei’s arm actually glowing in her car, some inspo here/there for dialogue fixes, and provided CurtisH from CastingCallClub’s recording he did voicing a line from Tanner translating the original line about the four Signers they know which 4Kids cut short.
I hope folks enjoy! Just breezing through 28 often for lines to use here, I can tell it’s going to be a headache because they did throw in a lot more jankiness in the dialogue... So, fun. 🙃 Once I handle finalizing my subs for GX 56 (and possibly 57 due to how long this took), I’ll start drafting it out; stay tuned~ 
(And if you're able to reblog for visibility, it’d be appreciated given Tumblr’s suckage with links 🙏🏽)
Breakdown, breakdown~
So, I used Duel Links audio for the twins to handle the Noteworthy/Showcased Cards bit (we’ll see if I still can in 28... And as the twins are voiced by Eileen Stevens in Duel Links but not yet in 5D’s [that happens in 65], bear with me lol), and I also translated the sign for this hardsub in Photoshop, masking in the Fitzgerald card and Rua and Ruka’s heads over it in Sony Vegas.  
Moving to the episode proper, a second was trimmed from the shot of the stadium in the TV Rally/co are using once it tunes in, and I couldn’t properly loop the “Yusei!” shouts to cover it, so I just filled in the audio with the crowd just cheering.  In the Carly/Angela scene, I removed Angela’s extra lines about her makeup and hair while Carly was getting ready, then tweaked Angela’s line on camera to remove her last name (which we never learn originally) and move her lines about “Fusei Yudo” winning to play sooner while removing Carly’s “one journalist to another” as she walks up to correct her (as this scene was rewritten, there are subs to show the original dialogue).  Looped chants of “Yusei!” to remove his internal “pointing out the obvious” monologue before the OP.
After the OP, I used the JP audio to keep the doctors moving Jack quiet (hopefully you don’t notice the chants changing lol), then as Yanagi runs over, I replaced his bit about Yusei having “a brand new enemy” in the media with “we should all get going” from 26.  The Godwin/Lazar scene stays the same since it was accurate, but I did have to put the end of Rex’s “that’s the only thing that matters” line on another track so Lazar’s gasp would play when it should (they added a second to his talking in the dub).  The Yusei/co scene in the tunnel stays mostly the same, just switched to the JP audio as the flashback to the Satellite vision happened, then as Yusei had a quick one before gasping, I recycled a gasp and a “hmm” from elsewhere to cover the commercial-inducing monologue they gave him in the dub.  For the press conference scene, I thought about removing the one “That’s right, Ted” reporter’s line since he’s quiet originally, but thought “whatever,” and then I spaced out Carly’s line as she reads her fortune to match her Japanese line’s pace and remove some of the fluff.  I switched to the JP audio after Carly asked about Yusei’s arm glowing to remove Rex’s comment over it, then stitched up a “Perhaps; still, I didn’t see that” mixing his line there with a “still” from 23.  Carly’s line as she’s excited about Goodwin dodging her question (originally just “I’ll keep moving forward too!” [she references her fortune a lot more]) was longer in the dub, so I cut out the “which means I’m onto something” for use later.  For Carly’s chat with her Editor-in-Chief, I included subs because of the rewrite, but I did shorten Carly’s line just before “bring some dirt and you might still have a job” which was lengthened by 4Kids.  Removed a lot of Carly’s fluff as she began to watch the Yusei duel footage via the JP audio, then stitched together “Goodwin tried to give me that bit but [the whole world will know what Goodwin’s trying to hide]”, the latter bit coming from Carly’s monologue as she’s running at the end of the ep, then switched to the JP audio to remove Carly’s fluff about living in her car.  Then, as we see the Dark Signers looming, because 4Kids removed the commercial break here, I kept only Demak and Kalin’s chuckling and Roman’s “lower the curtains” line over the desk shot, then looped some of his laughing from after the eyecatch to lead into it.
After the eyecatch, I made use of his “Goodwin assembled his Signers” bit, recycled a little chuckling, then cut Roman’s reference to Shakespeare to just the “tangled web” line (thanks to yugidmx5 also providing the SFX for this scene, I was able to move Roman’s laughing to play where it should after he releases his spiders).  Moving to Yanagi drawing the Crimson Dragon, I only kept his “saw it the once” line while using Japanese Rua and Ruka’s interested gasps to fill a fluff gap, then combined two bits of audio to get a [slightly] awkward “t[ail]” to fix 4Kids’s dumb error claiming he had the Head birthmark; accordingly, made Leo say “What about it?” instead of “What about the Head?”.  CurtisH’s line for Tanner comes in here, with a slight tweak or two to match the lip-flaps more, then JP audio as we see all the Signers so far to remove Leo’s dialogue.  Meanwhile, for Jack’s hospital scene, I translated the “No Visitors” sign Mikage walks past (along with fixing “Atlus” to “Atlas”).  The Dark Signer recruitment scene also gets some subs, then I used the JP audio from when we see Dark Signer!Dick walking to Yusei’s birthmark beginning to glow; yugidmx5 providing the SFX was a big help here, too.  Yusei runs out to chase Dick down, and then when he sees him inside the under-construction building, I took “Who are you” from later in the episode, but added a more question-ending “u?” to flesh the sound out a bit (since the line was “Who are you and what’s going on”).  I took “Fine, then” and “What are you planning to do to the Satellite” from 28 (which I’ll likely cut as it was added offscreen dialogue), and TSP provided a vocal-isolated cut of Dick’s line about his master (because 4Kids cut his shot short by a second or two and played it as the SFX for the zoomout as his Disk activated played).  
They begin the duel, and here I just kept “What’s going on?” from the line I noted earlier, recycled some laughing from Dick to match the JP script, then shortened his line about their being offered up “by the light” to work with the new timing.  Dick begins his turn, but I recycled an “It’s my turn now” line from later for accuracy, then his setting-a-card line is cut short at his ending his turn as Yusei looks on.  Carly, driving nearby and seeing lights from the duel off in the distance, gets her reference to the Goodwin “sheen from Yusei’s Runner got in your eye” line that I cut replaced with the “I’m onto something” I noted before.  Yusei gets a recycled “It’s my move!” line from 24 to start his turn, tweaked to remove the drawing SFX that happens in it, then to remove a dub SFX I used a Duel Links line to fill out “I activate the Tuning [Spell Card]”.  “I summon Junk Synchron” comes from 24 (and “Level-2-or-below Monster from my Graveyard” comes from his Graceful Revival explanation in episode 3), then--thanks to Arian over on NAC reuploading some HQ dub episodes--a better-quality vocal rip of his “Level-3 Junk Synchron, tune with Level-2 Speed Warrior!” line from 87, along with a better-quality rip of his “From two come one” chant and “Form the road of light!” from Duel Links.  Yusei shouts “Battle!” from Duel Links, then I slowed down his line at “[Attack his Blizzard Li]zard” to end it there (and remove the “warm Satellite welcome” fluff).  As Blizzard Lizard’s effect activates, I combined an “I activate,” “Blizzard Lizard’s special ability,” and “now” for a better line than “Blizzard Lizard’s special ability is going on.” Yusei’s lines after being damaged and realizing he damaged Dick too are spaced out to match the JP script, then I borrowed Yusei’s line on setting two cards from episode 3.  Then, when Dick plays Ice Mirror, I stitched up an explanation (since the Card Interruption does it for him) combining Call of the Haunted’s explanation with a few other pieces of dialogue (thanks to TSP for the inspo).  I cut Dick’s “Now I’ll play” line there to remove the dub’s zooming-in SFX, and then made Dick’s line about his third Blizzard Lizard end right before the split-screen with all three of them to remove the dub’s split-screen SFX.  I thought about replacing Yusei’s “three’s a crowd” line with “What’s that all about” from later, but couldn’t figure out a way to fill the line in before that, so I left it, but didn’t let Dick acknowledge it by just recycling “With that done” to replace “Well, how about [I release]”, then after Yusei reacts to his Dark Tuner, I recycled some chuckling to match the JP script and trimmed his line about its “power to extinguish;” the Dark Synchro “explanation” gets some subs to actually explain it, then I looped Carly’s panting as she runs to cover the “Goodwin’s trying to hide” line I moved to earlier, and recycled/amplified Dick’s laughing at various points through the ep to remove Yusei’s episode-ending monologue.
In the preview, I just recycled Yusei’s “No way...” and “A Dark Synchro Summon?!” while borrowing Carly’s lines about the Dark Tuner from 28, then Yusei’s line about getting his answers to end it.  I had to speed up the OST version of the preview tune to match the pace here, then trimmed it and ended it with the JP audio for the quick fade-out.
/phew
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purplesurveys · 4 years ago
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918
Have a friends survey, because I’m really missing mine.
-- List 8 Friends of Either Gender --
1. Andrew 2. Jo 3. Aya 4. Gabie 5. Hannah 6. Angela 7. Laurice 8. Aliyah
Questions About These Friends
Does number 4 have a driver’s license? Yeah. I’m pretty sure we were part of the first few people in our high school batch who learned how to drive and get our licenses.
Can number 7 speak another language? Well yeah, she can speak Filipino. Everyone on the list can at least speak Filipino.
Does 2 know your parents well? Not so much. She knows the basic stuff about my parents that I tell everyone, like how my dad works abroad.
Have 3 and 5 been in the same room together? Multiple times, until Aya graduated. All three of us were in the same applicant batch in our org so we spent a loooot of time together.
Does 1 have similar music tastes to you? Broadly, yeah. I know we both like R&B and hip-hop but he’s faaaar more passionate about the genre and he’s a lot better at picking out artists and songs.
Has 6 ever stayed at your house? She’s visited a handful of times, but I prefer going to her house instead. I don’t really have a lot to offer here whereas we never run out of things to do at her place.
When did 3 last text you? If we are talking of strictly texts, November 2018. Aya was never a good replier on text lol. But my last notification of her in general was at 4 AM today, when she sent a meme to our friends’ group chat.
Does 5 have any pets? If so, what do they have? Nope. WELP I don’t know actually. She lives all the way in Bacolod so her home life doesn’t get raised much. I know she loves dogs though.
Does 7 live in the same town/city as you? Nah, she’s a south baby through and through.
Have you ever lent something important to 8? I’ve never even met her yet. We keep planning to especially since she works in Metro Manila now, but our schedules just never work out.
Can number 1 sing well? Yes. He’s done a lot of singing gigs and as far as I know he even put out an EP at one point. He has a sick stage name too.
Does 2 have any siblings? Nah, she’s an only child.
If 4 called you at 2 AM, what would your reaction be? Take it and assume she has trouble falling asleep.
Who is 8′s best friend? I’m not sure; I don’t know her all that well. I would assume it’s someone all the way in Mindanao, since that’s where she grew up and went to school and her whole life is there - she really only moved to Metro Manila for work. That’s why I feel for her sometimes and keep offering to meet up, so she can feel less lonely.
Does 6 have a favourite tv show? If so, what is it? She loooves watching TV series but I never knew what her favorite is. Good question, I’ll have to ask her this soon.
Who out of 5 and 7 knows you the best? I say they both know me on the same level but I think Laurice does slightly more. We’ve had deeper conversations, so it’s a safe guess.
Does 4 have a boyfriend/girlfriend? You are reading her answers right now. ;)
Does 2 have a career/knows what they want to be? Yes, she’s always wanted to be a journalist. She’s entering her senior year now and I’m really proud and super impressed with her for being able to keep up such a demanding, brutal passion; I was burned out from journ by freshman year. She even helps run a fact-checking website now :) It had just been a requirement in her class to come up with a fact-checking website but theirs got SO successful, racked up some awards, and now it’s still going.
Have you ever kissed 1? No. He’s like a brother to me and that just sounds like the weirdest scenario.
Does 3 have or want children? Yes. I know she wanted them when she was with Jo, but I’m not sure if she’s changed her mind lately.
Does 6 have any piercings or tattoos? Yep, on her ears.
Do your parents know 8? No. She’s an internet friend, so I never get to raise it in conversations. And I doubt they’ll be happy if they found out I made a friend on the interwebs anyway.
Which Number...
Have you had romantic feelings for? 4.
Have you told a secret to? 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6,7, 8. I’m pretty open with my secrets, as dumb as that sounds lol
Have you shared a bed with? 2, 3, 4, 6, 7.
Have you watched a movie with? I remember watching The Devil Wears Prada with 2 and 3. I’ve watched several movies with 4.
Have you seen cry? 2, 3, 4, 6.
Have seen you cry? 1, 4, 5. 5 hasn’t seen me cry but she has definitely heard me.
Have cooked you something? 6 and 7 :) They’re also the biggest mom friends on the list, so I’m not surprised.
Have a boyfriend/girlfriend? 1, 4, 6. I’m not sure if 2 and 3 are still together; we never get to update each other anymore. Have met your parents? 2, 3, 7 from a meeting we once held at my house. And 4 and 6, of course - they’re my mom’s favorites.
Have been to the same school/college as you? Everyone except 8.
About Number One What age are they? He turned 22 in June.
Have you met their parents? Never. He can’t give less of a shit about his dad so I don’t care for him, though. I know he’s super protective of his mom.
Have you ever been in a relationship with them? Not at all. He wouldn’t be my type, and like I said he’s a brother to me more than anything else.
Do they like most of your other friends? We mostly have mutual friends, so. I know he likes my best frieinds though - he was even the one who reminded me about putting Angela on my thesis acknowledgments.
How often do you two meet up and/or talk? Back in school we used to see each other around 1-2 days a week. He’s a little busier than I am since he takes side gigs, so he’s not in campus all the time.
When did you last argue? We’ve never fought but the last time I got quite upset with him was last December. We were rushing to get our thesis draft submitted on time and apparently he submitted the file to our professor’s VIBER. He for sure got an earful from me that day.
What is their favourite food? I’m not sure. He does tend to have unpopular food opinions so I wouldn’t be surprised if his favorite is not a common choice.
Where is their favourite place to be? On the basketball court or anywhere with Leigh, I’m guessing.
How many close friends do they have? I know of at least two - JM and Blanch. He is friendly and has an extensive circle though, so I’m sure I’m missing several other close friends of his.
Number Two What colour are their eyes? Dark brown.
Have they known you the longest? Not at all. I’ve only known her for three years.
Where were they born? I’m guessing it would either be Manila or Makati.
Why are they your number 2? She just fell on the second slot. I was trying to randomize my friends’ names and hers just turned out to be the second one I thought of.
Do they like children? I don’t know how she feels about them exactly but one thing I know is that she doesn’t hate kids, and we’ve had numerous conversations on what we’d do in certain scenarios involving kids. 
Would they beat you in a race? I think so. But then again I did track at one point, so I’m walking onto that contest already with an advantage.
When did you last spend time alone together? Ugh c’mon man, this question is just sad. Jo had been hanging out at Skywalk less and less ever since most of the people in our friend group graduated last school year, so our last real hangout was probably that time we slept over at Laurice’s in June 2019. We never hung out a lot after that, and of course the lockdown just killed any chances we had of doing so.
Do they have a pet peeve? What is it? She has a lot of pet peeves but I can’t place any of them at the moment.
Number Three What is their hair colour? Black, as do most Filipinos.
What is their job, if they have one? Last I heard she got a gig with a major broadcasting network. I think she’s a segment producer? Segment researcher? Something of the sort.
Do they have their own place? I don’t think so; not just yet.
How many brothers or sisters do they have? I know she has a sister. I’ve forgotten if she has a brother.
Have you ever done something illegal with them? Yes hahaha illegal in university terms, at least. When we had free time and we saw that no one was using one of the classrooms in the college, our friend group snuck inside and played The Devil Wears Prada on the projector. As the only goody-two-shoes in the group I was super uneasy the whole time, but literally no faculty or staff checked in on us for the entire film. That was the moment I knew I was no longer in private school, where everyone watched you like a hawk lol.
How old were you when you met each other? I was 19, she was 21.
Are they more sporty, arty or academic? ARTSY. She’s one of the best artists I’ve ever seen and she can absolutely fucking slay any editorial cartoon.
Have you ever travelled out of country with this person? Nope. I would love to.
Person Four Do they have a favourite musician? St. Vincent’s been her fave for the longest time.
Have you drank alcohol with this person? Many times. When I drink she’s usually around.
Are their parents together? Yes.
What do you enjoy doing with them? EATING OUT!!! I also love going to new places and museum strolling with her, but yeah nothing works for me better than food with my favorite person.
When is their birthday? June 5th.
Do they have long or short hair? Long.
Have you been to a concert with this person? Yes, when we went to (illegally) see Coldplay from the top of a parking lot. Still felt like we were part of the concert grounds though.
If you asked them to describe you, what do you think they would say? Determined, hates to lose, and annoyingly generous.
Person Five Where did you two meet? I met Hannah on our enrollment day for our sophomore year in college. She and Macy had transferred from UPLB to UPD and since Macy and I were already friends from high school, she introduced me to Hannah. Then we became a lot closer when it turned out we were both applying for the same org.
How long ago did they phone you? We both hate phone calls and we’d hate to call/be called.
Do they have a certain sport they play? I don’t think she’s very athletic herself, but she loves watching UAAP games and she has a particular affinity for volleyball.
What about them annoys you sometimes? I never found her annoying. I did notice that her one weakness as a co-worker is her fear of being assertive, putting her foot down, being confident to come up with her own steps on how to come up with steps towards a situation, that kind of stuff. She often wanted someone who she felt like was more knowledgeable to be by her side and make all the decisions. But I did see her bloom a bit after a few months, so I’m proud of the progress.
Are they ruled by their head or their heart? Heart.
Are they male or female? Female.
In what ways are they the opposite of you? She’s religious and she loves to sing and perform.
How many rooms do they have in their house? No clue; I’ve never been to her house. I’ve never even been to her city.
Person Six Can they play an instrument? I think she knows *a bit* of guitar. But she’s not crazy gifted when it comes to musical instruments, I know that much.
Are they close with their mother? VERY. And she has no reason not to be - her mom is the nicest and most compassionate person I’ve ever met. Always treated me like family.
Do you know any of their siblings well? She’s an only child.
How many times have you visited their house? Countless, especially in high school and in our first few years in college.
When did you last go out to eat together? Feb. It was one of the food stalls at The Palace and we needed to eat away all the alcohol lol.
Do they own a bike? I haven’t seen one in her place so I’m assuming no. Her neighborhood is not very bike-friendly to begin with, so it’s understandable.
Do they have a sweet, sour or salty tooth? She has a...green tooth? Hahahaha she likes eating healthily.
What music genre do they listen to most? Pop, pop rock, indie, indie rock.
Person Seven Would you ever consider dating this person? Probably not. She’s SO stable and happy; I’m still working on it. I wouldn’t want to dump my shit on her vibrant and bubbly outlook on life.
Do they prefer cats or dogs? Dog, I think. I don’t know for sure though. 
Are they or do they plan to go to college? To study what? Yes, she’s in her senior year now. She’s also taking up journalism – it’s how we met.
If they did something illegal, what would it be? I highly doubt that would ever happen lmao, she’s super nice and such a goody-two-shoes. If she got caught doing something illegal it’s 100% only because she was with someone who did the thing.
Have you ever shared a sundae with this person? Maybe once or twice.
is their hair dyed or natural? It’s all black now, but at one point she dyed it light brown.
Is this person sarcastic? She can be, especially with people she’s close to.
Is this person more likely to party or sit in and read a book? SIT IN AND READ A BOOK. Literally the most accurate option.
Person Eight Have you ever lied to this person? I probably have. We’ve only ever talked on social media, where it’s a lot easier to tell a tiny lie and get away with it.
Do you know where this person was born? Somewhere in Davao I’m assuming.
Do you know their middle name and do they know yours? We know each others’ second names because have them put out on Facebook; but not our middle names.
Do they have any special talents? If she does, I don’t know about them. She’s amazing at writing though.
What is their starsign? Whatever star sign falls on the first half of December.
What is the first thing you notice about this person? Ever since the time she tweeted that she doesn’t like smiling with her teeth, her smile has always been the first thing I’m drawn to. 
Have you ever had a big row with this person? Never.
Do you like the same types of movies as this person? Not really. We met because she was friends with my friends who liked the same things she did, but when it comes to us we couldn’t really be any more different.
Random Stuff
Which of these friends would you say you are the closest to? Gabie, of course.
Can you remember all of their birthdays? I’ll give it a shot. June 22, December 31, December 5, June 5, January 16, September 15, May 23...and Aliyah’s is in early December, I’m certain.
Is there anything you regret saying to any of them? I guess only towards Gab, because I’m closest with her and we’ve been through the most together.
Which one of these has been there for you the most? Angela.
Which one have you known the longest and the shortest amount of time? I’ve been aware of Gabie the longest (18 years); been friends with Angela the longest (15 years); and been friends with Andrew the shortest (about a year and a half).
If you needed a laugh, you'd call... I wouldn’t call my friends if I needed help...but if I needed a laugh I’d turn to Anj or Andrew.
If you needed advice, you'd call... Mmm I’d pick among Andrew, Aya, Gabie, Angela, and Laurice.
Which one does your parents like the most? ANGELAAAAAAAA. She’s That friend that I can name-drop when I’m asking for permission to go out, and once my mom hears that she’s going to be with me she usually won’t hesitate to say yes haha.
Is there any of these your parents dislike? They don’t dislike any of them but I have a feeling they’ll disapprove of the fact that I made an online friend in Aliyah, especially my mom.
Do any of them share the same initials? Andrew and Aliyah do.
You can invite one with you for a once in a lifetime trip, which one? Angela.
Something you'd like to say to one of them: I miss you. That applies to everyone.
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queenmylovely · 5 years ago
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Day One
Summary: Joe mazzello x fem!reader. We shot Live Aid day one. 
Word Count: 1.3k
Warnings: little bit of awkwardness, but just a meet-cute really
A/N: A little oneshot/meet-cute for a request I got! I was a dresser for a Midsummer at my uni last spring, so here’s me projecting lol. I tried to channel a shy person, lol jk it’s just how my awkward self would be. I hope you like what I wrote, and any feedback including likes, replies, and reblog are greatly appreciated!
Request: Happy Sunday! Can I please get something where joe meets a shy reader?
Perfect Performance, Masterlist
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gif by @ohaladdins
🎥🎥🎥
It’s assumed that everyone in the entertainment industry must be outgoing and very extroverted. But, as a seamstress and assistant to a costume designer, you luckily didn’t have to be as you were generally very shy.
When your boss, Julian, was chosen as the costume designer for the Queen biopic, Bohemian Rhapsody, you were super excited. Growing up, you had loved Queen and working in any sort of proximity to them would be a dream. Not to mention that most of your fashion sense revolved around the ‘70s and ‘80s in general. It was a perfect fit.
Julian started working on drafts and sketches as soon as he was hired and instructed you to shop for fabrics at antique stores and hole in the wall sewing shops. You gladly went about your tasks, buying things for the movie and maybe picking up some stuff for clothes you would make yourself, on your own dime of course.
Production started soon after, and you were making and tweaking racks and racks of original pieces, replicas, and antique finds. One day, you and the rest of the costume crew moved everything from Julian’s shop to the movie studio, and you knew that you were going to start fittings soon.
First up was the Live Aid scene, and you started dressing and doing fittings of extras. You had a short break while the 50 or so extras that your team had dressed were being blocked. Next, each of your team would be doing the first fitting for one of the actors that played the band members. You had been assigned to the one that was playing the bass player, an actor named Joe Mazzello.
While you were part of the industry, and certainly watched a lot of movies, you had never heard of any of the actors except for Rami Malek. And you only knew him from his parts in the Night at the Museum movies. You actually considered this a perk, since it meant you probably wouldn’t get starstruck while dressing them.
As you were re-tagging and hanging up some pieces that hadn’t been used, you heard footsteps walking into your work area. You turned around and saw a guy standing somewhat hesitantly at the edge, looking in. He was medium height with brownish-red hair, and green eyes with a slight glint in them.
“Oh, are you an extra? Am I early?” the guy asked you as he took in your appearance. You were wearing high-waisted light wash jean shorts with a red and white ringer shirt tucked into them. Looking down as he did, you smiled slightly to yourself. You supposed you did look like a lot of the extras you had dressed.
“No, um, I’m Y/N, your costume fitter. You’re right on time,” you reassured him, and he sighed in relief and came the rest of the way into your space.
“That’s good. I’m always worried I’m going to be late, so I end up being really early to things and sometimes that causes a problem,” he explained to you. You nodded back.
Walking over to the rack, you read the signs until you found the one that was labeled “Mazzello, J.” Pushing the other clothes aside, you grabbed his first outfit. It was a pink button down shirt with a wild pattern on it and light wash blue jeans. To be honest, it was something you definitely would pick out for yourself to wear. You handed them to him and pointed to the little changing area that had a curtain.
“You can change in there. Do you have an undershirt on?” you asked since he was wearing a sweater and you couldn’t tell.
“Yeah,” he replied, lifting the hem of his sweater slightly so you could see. It lifted his shirt with it and you caught a small glimpse of his stomach. You turned quickly to find your binder with your notes, trying to hide the blush that had instantly heated your cheeks.
“Okay, um, you should take that off too. John Deacon wasn’t wearing one during the show,” you told him as you checked your notes. You heard the scrape of the rings of the curtain on the rail and turned back around to wait. After a minute, he came back out. He was wearing the shirt buttoned to the top and tucked in tightly. You walked over to the shoe rack and grabbed the correct pair, handing them to him. As he pulled them on, you scrutinized the outfit to make sure everything was correct.
“So, do I look like him?” Joe said with a smile and quirked eyebrow.
“Very close,” you responded, turning back to your binder. You flipped to another page that had a picture of John Deacon in the same outfit and looked at the differences between Joe and John. Noticing what you were doing, Joe moved so that both he and the picture would be in you line of sight easily.
After seeing the main differences, you stepped over to Joe and began fixing them. As a seamstress and someone that had dressed many actors of all genders, one thing you weren’t afraid of doing was fixing someone’s clothes. You always made sure that the actors were comfortable, though, so you said a quiet “May I?” and waited for Joe to nod before you started.
First, you undid the very top button of the shirt and pulled the collar to open the shirt more. Next, you grabbed onto either side of the shirt next to Joe’s ribs and pulled up slightly so it would be a more loose and baggy tuck. Next, you knelt down to fix his shoes.
Out of habit, you assumed, Joe had pulled the pant legs down so they covered the top couple inches of the high-topped shoes. To fix this, you pulled up the pant legs so they bunched around the top of the shoe instead.
You stepped back and looked between him and the photo again and realized what you had forgotten. You reached into his ditty bag and pulled out a white belt. Joe took it from your outstretched hand with a smile and pulled it on.
Although you were used to helping people get dressed, him pulling on a belt was a strangely intimate moment that made heat flush your cheeks yet again. Since you were avoiding looking at his face, you missed the same heat color his cheeks a bright pink.
Once he was done, you took another look and said, almost to yourself, “Perfect.”
“I’m glad you think so,” he said and you looked up, not thinking he would reply. You made eye contact timidly, but he was smiling at you and that glint in his eyes was brighter than ever.
“They did a very good job when they casted you,” you told him quietly while averting your eyes, and he had to lean forward slightly to catch your words.
“Well, that’s mostly yet to be seen. Starting with Live Aid is the real test,” he joked, but he also seemed genuinely kind of nervous.
“I bet you’ll do great. They wouldn’t have cast you if they didn’t think you were up to the job. Plus, you’re practically a spitting image of him. Just on looks alone, you’re already doing a great job,” you told him, meeting his eyes with more confidence and offering a small smile.
Joe grinned back at you, glad for your words of encouragement, but waited to see if you wanted to continue the conversation since he could tell you were a little shy.
Just as you were working up the nerve to ask him a question, a PA stuck their head into your workspace to let Joe know that he was needed on set.
“I’d better be going. I’ll see you later; you’re my costume fitter all shoot, right?” he asked as he headed towards the exit.
You nodded in reply. He stopped in the doorway, giving you an infectious smile that you returned after a second.
“Good, I’m looking forward to being dressed by your capable hands,” he said with a wink before heading to set, leaving you with wide eyes, but a smile still on your face and a burst of giggles rising in your throat. This was going to be a wild ride. 
🎥🎥🎥
Taglist: @somekindof-cheese @gwilyoubemine@deacytits @supersonicfreddie @siriuslovesmarlene @bowiequeen @acdeaky @deakysgirl @sunflower-borhap-boys @deakyfordays @queensilveryrog @happy-at-home @ceruleanrainblues @briarrose26 
I just kinda created this taglist so if you would like to be taken off or added, just send me a message or ask!
Reminder that my requests are open! If you would like something in a sort of one shot format/length or blurb, etc. send it in! I’ll write for any of the Borhap or Queen boys (Freddie only platonically), Lucy, Patrick Murray, Gardner Langway and adult!Tim Murphy or possibly any of the other characters these people have played if I know enough about them!
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hobbitunderthemountain · 5 years ago
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ao3 tag game!
thanks @chibistarlyte!! (i mean you’re pretty much legally obligated to tag me in writing memes at this point xD) 
AO3 Name: ladyoakenshields Fandoms: The Hobbit, Star Wars, BNHA! I was a Hobbit only account until last year NO TWO YEARS AGO lmaooooo  Number of Fics: 13 (pUBLISHED, who knows how many i have sitting around in drafts lmao)
1. Fic you spent the most time on: Love Me For Eternity (started in September 2014 after HTTYD2 came out that summer LORD and it’s still a WIP. I WILL FINISH AT SOME POINT.) 
2. Fic you spent the least time on: Astromech Anxieties and Babysitting Business (1 whole month) mostly bc it was a sequel to my first published Star Wars fic and had a very specific goal in mind (let all the star wars found families bond~) 
3. Longest fic: Love Me For Eternity at 235k published (probably about sitting at 250k of stuff total.) 
4. Shortest fic: Well Past Breakfast at 1.8k (an excuse to write fluffy old married domestic Bagginshield relaxing AS THEY DESERVE in Rivendell. I love grumpy Thorin.) 
5. Most hits: BY FAR Love Me For Eternity only because it’s massive lmao.
6. Most kudos: Again.... Love Me For Eternity.
7. Most comment threads: ....Love Me For Eternity at 127 since it has 25 chapters atm and the longest going fic. Though shout out to Tourist Trap which is also a WIP but shorter at under 100k and only 17 (shorter) chapters and is sitting at 108 thread?? THAT’S PRETTY COOL I DIDN’T REALIZE HOW FCKIN WELL THAT FIC WAS DOING COMMENT-WISE COMPARED TO LMFE.
8. Fave fic you wrote: Again.... Love Me For Eternity just because of how massive it is, I’m proud of it. But AGAIN Tourist Trap comes in close second just because the sheeerr amount of self-indulgence. CRYPTIDS, FLUFF AND ACE RELATIONSHIPS, OH MY.
9. Fic you want to rewrite/expand on:
 like literally all of them
Love Me For Eternity - I have a sequel planned which I still want to do whether or not i’m 80 years old and there’s only .3 people left in the fandom
Tourist Trap I already have an epilogue oneshots planned
More in the Of Parenthood and Rebellions series because I haven’t written enough Rogue One Family with my Rebels/Skywalker family bonding. 
Double Date Verse bc @chibistarlyte​ and i have like at least 5 more ficlets in this verse planned out 
10. Share a bit of a WIP or share a story idea you’re planning:
Well I know not many people who follow me here are into bnha, but writing this bnha fic has taken over my life, so enjoy a snippet from my untitled krbk adoption fic where krbk end up adopting a little girl that Bakugou saved/didn’t have any family left?? this is before they make the decision and right after said incident (follow me @sunshineijirou for more bnha content lol)
“Koharu-chan, you have visitors,” Matsuda called. The girl looked up and smiled seeing Katsuki. 
“Hey, Koharu,” Katsuki smiled softly as he stepped forward to greet her. 
“Kats!” Koharu exclaimed, hurrying towards him and wrapped her arms around his leg. “You came back.” 
“I told you I would,” Katsuki chuckled. Koharu spotted Eijirou and shied away from him, hiding behind Katsuki. 
“Hey you’re okay,” Katsuki promised. “Eijirou was there when I saved you too, yeah?” Katsuki kneeled down. He reached around her and picked her up, resting her on his hip. 
“Hi Koharu,” Eijirou said softly. “It’s okay, I’m a friend of Katsuki’s.”
“Shut up, Ei.” Bakugou rolled his eyes before turning to Koharu. “He’s not just a friend, he’s the love of my life.” 
“Dude, is that really what’s important right now?” Eijirou snorted. Koharu giggled to herself. 
“Well, I’m certainly not gonna lie to her,” Katsuki argued. “I mean of course you’re a friend but you’re not just a friend.” 
“Kats! I have more drawings for you!” Koharu interrupted them. 
“What? Okay, show me,” Katsuki let her down and she guided them both over to the table she was working. They both kneeled at the table as she began to talk Katsuki through her latest masterpieces. Once she had finished, she got out a new sheet of paper and handed it to Katsuki and then found another sheet to hand to Eijirou.
“You want us to draw?” Eijirou asked as he took the paper from Koharu. She nodded. 
“I’m not nearly as good as you are, though,” Katsuki told Koharu, chuckling to himself as he picked the right shade of orange from the crayons spread out on the table in front of him. 
“I have no artistic skill whatsoever,” Eijirou added, reaching for a red crayon. Katsuki snorted at Eijirou obvious choice in color. After coloring for a while Katsuki looked over to see what Eijirou was drawing.
“Dude, what is that?” Katsuki laughed
“Crimson Riot, of course!” Eijirou replied. Katsuki squinted at the drawing, trying to find the discernable features on the hero his boyfriend admired the most. “What did you draw?” Eijirou asked. 
“Me, blowing up some villains,” Katsuki grinned. “What do you think, Koharu?” He held the paper up for her to see with a proud smile.
“I like it! It could use more explosions here,” Koharu reached over Katsuki to draw on top of his drawing. Katsuki shifted and reached over to pull Koharu into his lap, barely breaking her concentration on her drawing. Eijirou looked over at them and smiled as Katsuki pointed out areas that needed more explosions and Koharu continued to add her scribbles to the pictures. 
Eventually, one of the caretakers came over and informed them that it was time for dinner and to wrap up their play time. 
“We should probably head out,” Katsuki sighed as Koharu began working on another drawing. 
“No, you should stay!” Koharu exclaimed “We’re not done drawing.” 
“Sorry, little dude,” Eijirou apologized. “We gotta get out of here.” 
“We’ll come visit again soon, okay?” Katsuki promised. 
“Okay,” Koharu nodded. She handed Katsuki his drawing he had done. 
“No, this one's for you. You drew me a picture last time. This time I drew you a picture, okay?” Katsuki told her. 
“Okay!” Koharu beamed, holding onto the piece of paper. “I’ll see you next time Katsuki!” Koharu smiled up at him. Katsuki smiled softly. 
“Are you gonna say goodbye to Eijirou?” Katsuki asked. 
“Mhm,” Koharu hummed. “Bye, Eijirou-san!” 
“It was really nice to meet you, Koharu,” Eijirou smiled in return. 
anddd i’m tagging... 
@lesbiankiliel, @lovelylilpup, @hoomhum, @emsiecat, @sarkastically​ AND ANYONE ELSE WHO WANTS TO DO THIS~
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deliasbabe · 5 years ago
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Fic Tag Game:
Might as well since I’m wasting time.
Author Name: Deliasbabe
Fandom You Write For: AHS mostly, but I have some Fosters, Studio 60 & Private Practice fics in the works
Where You Post: Tumblr, AO3, FanFiction.net, Wattpad
Most Popular One-Shot: Probably “Because I could never hold a perfect thing...”? I think that’s the biggest one??
Most Popular Multi-Chapter Story: “In Search of Silver Linings, We Discovered Gold.” As far as kudos/bookmarks go. “The Thing About Timing” is doing well too but it’s so long I think it scares people off, I already had like 40 chapters by the time I posted it to AO3.
Favourite Story You Wrote:  “The Thing About Timing” hands down. That’s my mf baby and I’m so proud of her.
Story You Were Nervous to Post: “Forget About Me, Darling”. I knew it was going to be a gut punch but I was also super proud of it. Also “Ghost of You (part 1)” because it’s sad af. I always get nervous posting straight angst.
How Do You Choose Your Titles: Mostly I do song titles because it’s easy. For my Elliott fics I actually came up with the title because the idea of time is recurrent throughout the story and plays a big part in the second and third book. Other ones I just make the title an important piece of dialogue.
How Many of Your Stories Are:
Complete: Lol like none? Actually one. A lot of my stories are “complete” (on tumblr) but I have ideas for expansions on them???
In-Progress: 30+. A lot of them are outlined but not written. I tend to write things all in one go so I have to be like in the right mindset Ig.
Coming soon: I have a Venable one that is 75% done, and the part 3 for the Billie song fic, plus I have part of the Billie flirting fic done. I’m just a mess ok?
Upcoming Story You’re Most Excited to Write: I have a Cordelia fic thats like kind of angsty but also cute that i drafted today. Idk if I’ll post it because it’s kind of personal but yea.
Do You Accept Prompts: Yea I do! Mostly for Sarah characters, but I’ll write for anyone who isn’t a real person and who I feel I can do justice to.
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littlecafe · 3 years ago
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my suband thoughts pt. 2
(me trying to make this post for the 3rd time now) i realized i wrote like a 10 page dissertation instead and i refuse to post all that so i’m just going to copy over a few and keep the rest in drafts for when i want to reference them later
i will include results and elimination spoilers in this post so if you want to avoid those then don’t read this one...i try to keep things spoiler free but i just. have things to say about the results specific to round 2 :-)
jtbc finally striking down accounts on twitter and instagram for posting suband content....i think tumblr is safe bc this website is dead so i’ll continue posting i guess??? they haven’t done anything to that one youtube that’s been posting all the performance videos too so who knows
should i start with more contestant based random thoughts first
i was scammed by jtbc teaser editor bc they used a clip of jeongho “singing” into the mic in their preview and i waited 2 whole episodes (his team performed last in round 2) for me to find out it was a autotuned mic and a vocoder HELP MEEEE SAKJFDSKF at that point literally i could only laugh 
but he plays contrabass? he actually majored in contrabass? or maybe that was his old major, he’s still in school atm since wonsang said they go to the same one but he had educational training on it which is really cool
wait a minute......now that i think about it, that same teaser clip also spoiled the result of yeji winning bc they showed us that she was sitting in the waiting room during eliminations even though they haven’t performed yet (which means we knew her team won AND they already showed us all the matchups before so we also knew who she beat) WHO WAS EDITING THIS LMAO and it wasn’t even a accidental leak like she was sitting in the background, it was literally her reaction as the main focus and everything omg
hwang inkyu hello??? he’s movning’s bassist and he has a combined total of maybe 3 lines of airtime so far i wish he’d speak more bc i was so scared he’d get his ass kicked off the show bc he wouldn’t have been able to make a lasting impression but thank god hwanglin picked him up and seems like he’s going to be moving on with his team in the next round too (good for them the stage was so good i wanted to post it but haven’t yet..)
i used to really like movning’s music but their music direction went into a style i don’t listen to much so i haven’t checked into them recently, tbh i didn’t even know they auditioned until i looked at the full list of contestants later because their stage was cut out and only inkyu made it in
park dawool and hwang hyunjo both have galaxy brains and i would trust them with my life - yea i will not elaborate much because this post is already long even after i shortened it bc i talk too much but hyunjo making entire ppt slides? to present her theories and ideas? yea she’s absolutely ready for everything, for real she’s carrying her teams to victory
leenzy’s 2nd round team was so strong that i thought she got to pick really early (since they showed us all the team formations before airing the actual performances with the behinds for pickings and stuff) but she was actually the 2nd to last pair?? so all that’s left is her > the guy she chose to be her opponent, and then the poor guy that gets to pick from the remaining 6 or so and the final team of the ones unchosen
i was really shocked to find out no one wanted nakyung and ahkyung when i thought they were some of the best :-( i really still can’t tell if the mixing of male and female was a good idea esp since it was so skewed male in the first place ugh in round 2 it seems like the girls are getting shafted???
out of the 6 girls (that can be picked since 3 are frontmen!), 3 of them were not picked up until basically the very end when you don’t really have many choices left...nakyung (guitar), ahkyung (drums), and sujin (vocals)...and they’re all really good?? sujin ended up on the second to last team (basically the last team if we’re being honest since the actual last team is sadly the band of leftovers) and i just don’t understand why they weren’t picked up earlier...i can understand sometimes vocalists can get shafted because the show starts out with a loooot of vocalists so it’s hard to find a place for all of them but guitar? drums? u can definitely pick them...there’s literally only 7 or so drummers to begin with and one has been glued to crackshot the entire time
before the season started i was already terrified that the girls might get shafted because jtbc didn’t want girls auditioning in the first place but it was fine in the first round but now the second round made me think about that again.....it’s worse when they spin the whole “yes!! all girl band!! girl power!!!” when the reality was they weren’t picked up this whole time. annoying.
but this blame has to be shouldered by jtbc bc they wanted to keep it all boys but bc of public reactions (rightfully so) they decided to let female contestants audition but then it turned out that they barely pass any female contestants so it’s still terrible?!! i’ll just write this up that teams are still trying to figure themselves out and work with different people for now....maybe i’m just worried for nothing
not to absolutely curse myself but i think most of my favorites might make it at least to round 4 and i feel like a decent amount will make it to semis so haha /knock on wood but i really hope this stays true...i just need nokdu to continue taking care of hyunsang and make city pop bops together because the judges seem to like that so far
i’m just worried about demian....the judges keep saying he’s improved so much but why do i feel like they will cut him as soon as they need to eliminate more people.....i’m not as worried about round 3 (unless his team falls on their face) but round 4 is where i’m really scared...it’s the last round before the real deal and in season 1 the round 4 eliminations hurt so bad...they cut like 9 people or something
i mean he has his own career as a soloist so he doesn’t need a band like some of the other contestants but i think he really enjoys being in a team with others, honestly i don’t even know if his company would allow for him to be in a side band? even if he were to make it? like mone made it but all their members had solo careers and with the rose and woosung having problems it must be way they just decided to stop after the show unlike the other semis teams purple rain, lucy (they did have a vocalist change since joohyuk stayed with his current band gift), aftermoon (but i guess their dj dropped out i don’t know what happend with dpole??), and of course the winners hoppipolla all continued making music together under the same name
honestly if he makes it past the judges i don’t even know if the public would vote for him, atm his popularity with the public seems nonexistent? lol but to be fair, for most contestants it’s like that, but i do wish he’d become more popular
actually should i be more worried for haeun...she plays classic guitar and usually they don’t like classic leaning instruments but she showed she can sing so i hope she gets to stay
there’s danny too but i think i have given up on him making it until the end, the only way is if he manages to stay on teams that win so he’ll never be up for elimination but i feel like they’re out to get him TT_TT
but i’ve condensed my solid favorites to just demian, yeji, haeun, and jeongho...maybe i’ll pick a 5th eventually but i still like everyone i put in my first post! i really want hyunsang to make it far though bc the vibraphone brings me so much joy so he can be honorary 5th for now
about eliminations though, right now the judges have eliminated less than last season which is odd for jtbc because i feel they keep to their formats almost exactly so now i’m just ?????? if there’s still more people currently....what is going to happen? are they going to make the judges cut more during rounds 3 and 4? or they trying to equalize the semifinals teams since last year some teams had 4 people while others had 5? are they going to do the unthinkable and give us more rounds or semifinal teams? (i wish) anyways kinda scared to see what round 3 eliminations bring now...
the actual eliminations have been mostly as expected for me, still sad but i guess since i sensed it coming it became more a feeling of like “it couldn’t be helped” and also early eliminations hurt less in general because you had less time to get to know the contestants which is why i’d rather they just eliminate now than later if they were going to do it anyways like pls spare me the pain (but this is selfish and contestants probably want to stay as long as possible)
one surprising one was ludi??? he’s a dj but he’s literally done nothing wrong so far i was just wtf??!! when they eliminated him like it felt out of nowhere.....i feel like djs have so much potential on this show because of all the sounds they have access too but i guess the judges aren’t found of edm noise
also demian nation we rise at dawn, when he said “i’m not okay” like- this song really meant a lot to him too i hate thisssss
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PLS I JUST WANT HIM TO WIN ONCE SO BADLY but next time, thanks to kfans detective work on the teaser, it looks like junseo (the smol piano child) picked him and jeongho to be on his team (maybe there’s a 4th member too??) and i am putting my faith into that team now pls help my winless boys
the fact that jeongho is winless is almost funny to me because it’s also obvious he’s a judges favorite but i mean that doesn’t translate to wins just i’m pretty sure he’ll make it to the end regardless (like bohoon the vocalist of purple rain lost all 3 /technically all 4/ rounds and still made it), he plays bass and no bassist has ever been eliminated on the show yet so cheers to that
round 4 was special since they switched over to a number format and no band versus band i don’t remember if the team with the top points were immune to elimination or not (or maybe just an unwritten rule bc why the heck would you do that to them after giving them the best score) but the rest of the teams were fair game - which is exactly why this elimination round is the scariest and not good for my heart especially after i had spent weeks watching them sing and have fun..........
ok now to complain about the judges AGAIN: why are the judges thoughts on what they want in a band so damn similar anyway?
i mentioned this in my first post already about how i dislike the judging atmosphere
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but now i actually see it...in the numbers...like s1 there was a bit more taste diversity within the judges but now i feel like i’m seeing a lot of 4:1 or 5:0 scores so i went to see the breakdown out of the 15 stages we had so far
5:0 score - 6
4:1 score - 7
3:2 score - 2
compared to s1 (out of 14 only because they edited out one pair of battles completely so we never knew their score...)
5:0 score - 2
4:1 score - 6
3:2 score - 6
looking at that...it makes me feel sad....especially in the early 2 rounds it must be demoralizing to keep getting met with 5:0 loss and to be very honest and in s1 the number of 5:0 did increase in round 3 but that was when more teams started to figure themselves out so it makes sense that some would start pulling ahead
i’m really tired of listening to the judges agreeing with each other all the time, it makes it seem like the vision they have for the band was already set from day 1 unlike in s1 where everyone went in with no expectations because it was a brand new program, zero expectations, zero fans, just some kids wanting to make music and that’s what it should be like....music shouldn’t be limiting like this, the judges seem a little closed minded and now i’m 100% sure they have certain band styles in mind (i don’t know if it’s the judges only or if it’s jtbc producers too that’s causing this)
and i see other ifans saying this exact same thing on twitter now too so it’s not just me that picked up on this so safe to say we can’t all be extremely sensitive right
like the contradictory comments -
dongheon’s 2nd round team was told their original song was great and lovely but they brought nothing new to the table and that it was too standard, “just like any other rock/rock ballad song” when i thought the leenzy’s team (the one they went up against) also had a pretty standard? pop rock song? absolutely nothing wrong with it either, even the judges said that the song was not complicated at all but complimented them on their “band feel” so i guess as long as they enjoyed the vibe of the team and it suited the type of band style they have in mind it’s suddenly fine to make a simple song
i’m not saying her song was worse than his (i enjoyed both and seeing original songs performed make me very happy), i’m just a little confused at the judges comments for them both especially when one performed after the other, you really don’t see the bias in your words?
dawool was told his song composition in the first stage was a little too...nuanced(?) and that they wish he could just keep thing simpler even though he thought he toned down already and kept things simple, so round 2 he decided to just work with someone that makes mainstream music (davii) to fulfil what the judges want
seulong’s 2nd round team decided to go heavier on the instrumental side because they figured they didn’t want to go head to head with one of the favorite vocalists of the show (sorry yeji, ur my queen but ur also the judges’ queen too :---( ) but got criticized for a similar reason...yoo heeyeol saying that their composition was “fun for the brain” but if he were thinking about the general public he doesn’t think they would like this type of music, literally saying that the general public do not have the music knowledge or brain capacity to understand all the skill based playing going on musically and so won’t enjoy it because it wouldn’t appeal to their hearts................(ok sure call us dumb it’s true but won’t appeal to our hearts? music can sound intricate and fun? we can enjoy some funky strings guitar riffs without actually knowing all the details ya know)
they also kept telling them (seulong’s team) “oh i loved this” “i wish there was a band like this” “very cool” and gave them no votes??? if you wish a band like this exist then why? would? you? not? vote? for them??? like i can’t tell if those were consolation comments or what 
man judges rant ended up being long asf and i’m usually not affected by them and what they say but i was already feeling an odd vibe from the beginning and now seeing 5:0 after 5:0 after 5:0 really did it for me
overall, a not very fun post to read through it’s just more ranting than anything....i’m dying for a big pop off performance so i can successfully gauge the public opinion so far but i’ll refrain from posting my guess until at least the end of round 3, also i believe the team vibe usually outweighs solo popularity but we don’t know any teams yet (at least i can’t guess anyone yet like i could in s1) so we will still have to see!!
i’m pretty sure only i would look and read through these long ass posts of mine lol but if anyone makes it this far i hope you enjoy my crazy ramblings and see you in my suband thoughts pt.3 
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coffeeandcalligraphy · 3 years ago
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Please tell us more about Seventh Virtue–we need more? Also what was your general thought process for writing this right now?
Hello!! Seventh Virtue is the fantastical version of the Fostered series (which I’ve been writing for many years as you probably already know)! I came up with the initial idea for this project back in the summer of 2019, but knew I’d probably never write it because at the time, I couldn’t see myself writing beyond literary fiction (and also: I know nothing about fantasy :)) in fact I think I’ve only ever read 3 fantasy books from the same series and that was years ago)!
This led to why I’m writing it right now, actually! Earlier this week, my sister and I binge watched Shadow and Bone and it reminded me of this project (which I’d called Fostered But It’s Magic haha). I couldn’t help but delve more and more into the project as the days progressed, and so I decided I’d try to draft it. I actually tried to draft this project once before as a screenplay because I thought it’d translate better to screen, but gave up FAST when I realized I am terrible at screenwriting! With this in mind, I knew I wanted to write this project, but I’m also impatient, and know I want to write more things this summer. TBH, I didn’t want to spend the rest of my vacation writing another Fostered book (I planned to write something outside of this universe but apparently it doesn’t want me to??) so yesterday at 1AM, I came up with a very... stupid idea to write 10k words in one day.
I made this decision strictly for anxiety exposure. I’m exporting the vlog where I chat about this experience so I won’t delve too much into it. TL;DR: I wrote 11k words yesterday, and finished the first chapter (almost done the second).
So what’s the book about?? Honestly, it’s pretty loose right now. This is the pitch I wrote way back in 2019, which is more or less accurate:
After being tormented by nightmares of his ex lover, which result in violent hot flashes and an inability to keep up a job, Harrison seeks a magical intervention. When the clairvoyant he hopes will cure his strange ailment turns out to be a con woman—and his old friend, Reeve—he is thrown back into the past and forced to rekindle relationships he thought he’d left behind.
The main thing that’s surprised me since drafting is how contemporary this world is?? Despite being literally fantasy, this setting is the most contemporary-aligned compared to the rest of the series. Fostered book 1-6 take place in a sort of dystopia (which gets softer and softer as the books continue), whereas Moth Work and Feeding Habits take place in older-contemporary times (2006)! This book on the other hand I could certainly see taking place in some sort of alternate 2019 (because we :) cannot include the pandemic years :)). It’s also magnificently funny?? I feel really blessed to have just decided to write this book. I know about 10% of what is going on at all times, but it’s so fun to draft!
Something I didn’t expect initially was how big a presence Foster would have in this book! I kind of :) forgot about Foster in Moth Work/Feeding Habits (so sorry he is still an icon), and while I knew he’d be Harrison’s roommate, I kind of assumed he’d be a side character?? But no, he said, I am reclaiming my “Main Cast” title and you can do nothing to stop me. For the majority of what I’ve written, Harrison and Foster are living in the past. This is because Foster can ~time travel, but is incredibly ethical and sustainable, so he refuses to actually change the past/do anything that would affect the present/future. After a hex goes wrong and results in Harrison’s mother getting into an accident and eventually disappearing, Harrison’s life is in literal shambles. Tormented by nightmares and hot flashes, he is NOT living his best life. To cope, Foster agrees to take them back to the past where he can relive the last 5 days before his mother’s accident, thinking they will only stay there for that one week. But when they’ve repeated the same week dozens of time, Foster ups the pressure on Harrison to give him the okay to head back to the present. And when these “hot flashes”/nightmares get even worse, Foster tells Harrison about a “healer” who cured his broken wrist (so he could plant his tomatoes lol), Harrison concedes and they finally head back to present day so he too can visit this woman, who is actually their old friend, Reeve.
This book is SO angsty and hilarious! I think my favourite thing about it is that I get to write Lonan and Harrison falling in love again lol, which I didn’t exactly get to experience in the conventional way (the first time around). By the time we meet Lonan (who is introduced in book 2), he and Harrison already have a pretty complex relationship. This relationship gets even more tangled in book 3, and book 5 is where we get to see the first glimpses of a romance. Somewhere in this timeline, between books 3-5, they ~fell in love, but I don’t know when! I think most of that occurred off the page, so even I don’t know. What’s so fun is now I get to glimpse into that a little bit more. Their relationship is my favourite thing and always has been, about this entire series, so I’m so stoked to finally get to dabble with it from the beginning. All I really know at the moment is that they meet because Lonan catches Harrison being a thief lol so, so much fun tension already to work with!
I’m not sure if I’ll finish this, mostly because the prospect of writing an 80k novel sort of terrifies me?? The project is almost 12k at the moment, and we really have only scratched the very surface, so we’ll see! I haven’t written genre fiction in so long and I’m adoring this! It’s also so much less strenuous than writing literary lols so perfect because I’m still a little wiped out after my semester ended!
Here’s an excerpt when Harrison meets up with Reeve for the first time:
The shop’s name is The Lark’s Lagoon. When he enters, a string of freshwater shells clatter, like bells would. She is not at the table like she was in the past, so he putters around the shop. Some of the things she sells are silly. Plastic mood rings that are clearly heat activated and more suited for a child but marketed to women in their thirties. Ping pong balls with the inscription enchanted aims. Snowglobes with a miniature witch figurine who says I’ll tell your fortune when you shake it.
“That’s a bestseller.” Her voice comes so suddenly that Harrison drops the globe. It shatters across the floor in a glittery bundle. “So you’re going to need to pay for that.”
Harrison describing Lonan lol:
Harrison hated him. He was cute, but Harrison hated him.
Harrison chilling in his timeloop where he can’t be seen:
It’s harder avoiding birds than he thinks. Every time one spots him, his body lurches, magnetized in the direction of the apartment. If it weren’t for the trees he latches onto along the way, he’d already be back at the brownstone listening to Foster lecture him on not being seen and not exploiting his magic. So he becomes more careful. Checks every direction—up down, left, right, diagonally, whatever—until he is certain no one can see him.
Some Stressed Foster dialogue lol I love him protect him at all costs:
“How many times have I told you that you cannot be seen in the timeloop? I woke up with a migraine five minutes ago and when I went to find you, realized you’d slipped out. Do you know how my brain feels when you stretch the timeloop like that? It feels like someone’s cracking it. My brain, a walnut. You, a nutcracker. Not to mention, you didn’t even leave a note. What if you were robbed? Or murdered? What if they dismembered you and I had no idea?
so that’s this project! don’t see any reason to stop writing it, so I’ll make an update on it soon! :) let me know if you have any more q’s!
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raeofalbion · 7 years ago
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Writing Pet Peeves
Someone asked about this a while back—the ask is gone but I think I’m ready to give my opinion on this. I wasn’t sure if they meant writing pet peeves as a writer or writing pet peeves as a reader, so I’m going to separate this into two sections and try to answer to the best of my ability. If you‘re easily angered by people bitching about things that annoy them, you might not want to read this. Also, as a disclaimer, I will not be calling anyone out by name. Just because that’s not how I do things. I might curse a bit, though. It’s also really long, so look under the cut.
Writing Pet Peeves As A Writer (in no particular order)
- When The Words Won’t Do The Thing
I’m pretty sure every writer has dealt with this. You’ve got this beautiful, perfect scene in your head and everything down to the last detail is perfect and you can picture it and you know it’s within your ability to write…and the words suddenly don’t come out right. They just…aren’t correct. The feeling’s gone and the details are off and nothing is coming out like it’s supposed to. You still have this perfect picture of the scene in your head, but it won’t come out into your paper. Why won’t you do the thing, words? What is your problem? Why have you forsaken me? WOOOOOOOOOOORDDDS?!?!?!
- Asshole Readers (Most Of Which You’re Not Allowed To Call Assholes Without Losing A Reader)
I feel like asshole readers fall into two categories and both are a pain for different reasons and I’ve got stories to go along with both.
So, first category: the outright asshole. I don’t mean the trolls who get off on being a dick, I mean the ones come at you, spouting venom, and acting like all their hateful words are supposed to, somehow, “help” you. For instance, waaaaay back (like 6 years ago) when I posted the first, not very good, draft of MoI I got a PM from a guy who had read through chapter 14 (about 60,000 words) and said “I’ve read through what you have posted and I feel like I wasted my time because you’re not putting any sex in. This is really bad. If you don’t have any sex in the story, it’s not a good story. Your writing would be so much better with sex in it. You should write a story with me because I write great sex scenes and you’ll learn something.” -very deep sigh- I could rant for hours about this guy, and how his response to my “thanks but no thanks” was even worse, but I will spare all of you from it. This, paraphrased as it is, speaks for itself I think. Please keep in mind that that draft was only on FFN…which doesn’t allow explicit smut and will delete fics with detailed making out. Now allow the soul crushing “you’ve gotta be fucking kidding me” feeling to grow. Please.
Second category: the “I’m not sure if you are purposefully being an asshole or not” asshole. This reader approaches as a fan, seems delighted to be in touch with you, and then…something happens. And you’re not certain if it’s a calculated thing or if they were just careless with their words and you’re over invested in your work, but it fucks you up nonetheless and, every time you think about it, it upsets you again. Usually, this seems to happen with readers being like “have you considered writing -insert thing here-? I think you’d be really good at it” and you consider it and decide “yeah, this would be fun to write”. So you write the fic, you post it, you tell the person “hey, I wrote the thing you suggested” and they just…never get back to you? Ever? And, if the fic is pretty niche and not something a lot of people are interested in, that kinda makes it even worse? Because, now, you’ve got this fic hanging around that no one likes and was written for a ghost that might exist but maybe you dreamed the entire fucking convo and now what the hell do you do with it? Was it intentional? Was it not? This is like conspiracy theory level paranoia-inducing stuff.
Continuing on from the second one, just…watch your words when you’re talking about a writer’s work. You might not have meant to insult my work, but I cannot read your thoughts through a computer screen. A while back I was approached about MoI (that fic has so many crazy stories attached to it) and, as anyone who has read it knows: the pair is a bi dude and a bi chick and they are bad at emotions. So this reader and I are chatting and they’re really nice and we end up chatting on and off for over a week…and then I bring up that I’m really proud of myself for recently getting better at writing romance and displaying it physically, which will be really useful in the fic’s sequels…to which they replied “well, I’m gay so I don’t care about stuff like that LOL” and changed the subject. Maybe it was a joke? Maybe it was a “I’m just reading for the story and not the romance”? But it really bothered me. This is gonna sound dumb, but I think about it almost every day and it’s been about a year since then. And every time someone reads without commenting or without liking it or I post something for someone that gets ignored, all I can think of is “I don’t care”. I’m not saying this to make you feel sorry for me or to be dramatic, just to warn you: never tell a writer—or anyone with a very specific interest that means a lot to them—that you don’t care. Even as a joke. It’s cruel and that’s the one thing that will stick with them even if they meet other people who love their writing or the thing they’re interested in. Anytime they’re snubbed or someone reacts unenthusiastically, all they will think is that it’s another person saying “I don’t care”. And, if they already have a hard time trusting people, this is going to fuck up relationships with other people, too. Just…think before you say something. You don’t know what harm you could do by being careless.
- Lying About Fic Trades
Usually, when you think of a fic trade, you think of two writers writing something for each other, but there is another kind, as well. This is when two writers like each other’s work and really need an outside opinion on their work and so they swap fics with the purpose of the other looking for errors and things to fix to help each other out. And this is what I’m referring to. When people are honest about wanting to do them, it’s really nice. You both get interesting opinions and thoughts you might not usually get if you only have one usual beta reader (like me). What pisses me off is when people claim to want to do this, but really have no intention of reading your work and are just using you as a beta reader. What’s funny is, I love beta reading and will totally help you out if you’re up front about what you want and I have time. You don’t have to lie to me and make me no longer want to be your friend just because you didn’t feel comfortable asking for editing help.
- Review/Like Karma
I just…really don’t like when people come up to me and are like “I reviewed and faved your fic five seconds ago so why haven’t you done the same for me yet?” Chances are, if you give me a fave/kudos and/or a review, I will immediately check out your profile to both see what fics you have and if you have anything interesting in your favourites. If one of your fics catches my eye, I’ll read it and react as I feel is appropriate. You don’t need to harass me into reading your story. If I’ve read it and am not responding, it’s because I’m not into it and I don’t want to be rude OR I don’t have the spoons for interaction today. If you harass me, 90% chance I will not read your fics unless by accident. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Don’t be a dick.
- “Do You Have A Book Done Yet? One Of You Own Ideas?  When Are You Going To Get Published And Be Like JK Rowling?”
Okay, I lied, I am calling someone out by name: I’m calling out my entire immediate family (with the exception of one person, who’s on Tumblr, and doesn’t do this). That up there are direct quotes. I get these at least once a month, mostly from my immediate family and it is one of the worst feelings? I always have a lot of projects going on because I can’t stand to be not working on something. So the constant “are you finished with something? Are you gonna get published soon?” is really stressful. Like…how am I supposed to keep a level head and put out a good product if I’m sitting here, feeling like a failure and like I’m disappointing people for not getting published? My relationship with my original stories are really rocky. I can’t just work on them if I’m not in the right headspace…how the fuck am I supposed to get there if I’m sitting there stressed about not just being published but being successfully published? First off, JK Rowling’s dividends are an outlier, not the norm. Most writers live below the poverty line because 1) you get very little from being published unless you are very, very lucky and 2) people seem to think it’s okay to pirate books instead of buying them which is literally killing well established series. Yes, folks, it’s not publishers killing long-standing series, it’s dicks who think “stealing is acceptable because I can’t afford this luxury item at this second and I declare that I should have it so fuck the creator getting the money they need to live”. Secondly, “one of your own ideas” is quite possibly the worst way to describe original fiction. You think I didn’t sit here, plotting out every fucking chapter of this novel-length fanfic? You think this isn’t my story, my baby, my writing, my ideas? GTFO. Get out of my house. Unfollow me now. I work on this fanfic more than most writers work on their originals in one day. This is my story as much as any original story is. You do not get to disrespect my work just because someone else wrote the original world first. I am done with this bullshit.
Anyway. Moving on before I start challenging people to fights….
Writing Pet Peeves As A Reader (in order from least to worst)
- Sloppiness
I’m sure someone’s going to read that and be like “Rae, wtf? That’s rude” but I don’t mean “you’ve worked on this fic for months and have 1 (one) typo in 30k words and now I will never read your work again”. I mean, like,  “you worked on this chapter for an hour, didn’t spell check it, the paragraphs are all smooshed together so no one can read a damn thing, and there isn’t a single consistent detail in this entire fic”. Usually, I’m very forgiving when it comes to errors (unless I’m editing them), but…like…please run this through spell checker? Check to make sure your paragraphs are spaced apart? Do not post 5 minutes after you finished writing the chapter? Seriously, the best thing you can do for a story after finishing it is to set it aside for a while and not touch it. You’ll pick up all the stuff you learned from writing the later bits and be able to make the earlier chapters look lovely will make the readers happy.
(Note: I’m only aiming this at people for whom English is their first language.)
- “This Thing Is Bad But I’m Gonna Write It Like It’s Good And No One Will Notice It’s Bad, Right?”
This happens so often and I just…ugh. It seems like the main theme people use in this is the “person A raped person B and person B got off so it wasn’t really rape” or “person A and person B barely know each other, person A tries to seduce person B and person B resists. Person A rapes them. Somehow this turns into a romance and they live happily ever after”. And the writer never addresses that this is not right. Never. This sends such a bad message to people. It’s telling people that “it’s okay if you’re raped, your rapist loves you and this wasn’t a traumatic experience at all because they did it because they love you so much”. This isn’t true. Writing about a terrible thing and not addressing how terrible it is doesn’t somehow make it a good thing. Nor does it take away the fact that someone was suffering and you ignored it.
- The Writer Is So Meek How Are They Posting This??? (Someone Get A Blankie And Something Nice To Drink And Give Them A Hug.)
This isn’t something that makes me mad at the writer, it makes me mad at their readers. I have met so many good writers who have been so badly bullied and cut down by their so-called fans that they are just…how do they have the willpower to post? Writers who are so talented, but are so afraid of going against a single thing their fans say that they never can reach their full potential because their readers won’t let them. How do you do that to a person? How can you act so abusive and not realise that your behaviour is toxic and oppressive? You’re hurting someone who just wants to make you happy and…for what? To have say over what they post? It’s disgusting. If you do this, you should be ashamed of yourself.
- That Point Where Greed And Lack Of Care For The Material Meet And Somehow Coalesced Into A Single Shitty Book
And now we reach the point where I will drop your story in a fuckin’ heart beat if you do this. This one is more common in published work based on other media (ie books for video games/movies). I hate, hate, buying a novel and realising, not even a chapter in, that the writer isn’t interested in their characters or the world or anything. The novel has the consistency problems I would usually be okay with forgiving in an online fic, but is presenting it snobbishly and makes it clearly known this is just a cheap grab for money they don’t even seem to want. No love for the writing, no interest in their work, and all I can think is: why are you writing this? You don’t want to be writing this any more than I want to be reading it. And the book is never good. Never. It’s just…bad all around.
- Pretentiousness And Assholery
Have you ever gone onto a fic that was really hyped and well-received and you were excited to read, only to realise the writer’s an elitist prick that is using the space intended for sharing their work to scream incoherently for pages about how much of a better writer they are than the canon writers and how they’re going to fix the canon writers’ fuck ups and “look at how great I am” that, by the time you got to the end of their pages of bitching and the beginning of their fic, you want to just throw your computer/phone/tablet out a window? And then you realise, at the bottom of the chapter, they have another author’s note of equal length? Better yet, have you ever looked up reviews for a novel only to see the writer screaming at fans in response to every negative review like a small child not getting the toy they wanted? Do yourselves a favour: don’t bother with these people. They are the absolute worst and don’t give a fuck about anything but their ego and how much you can boost it. They aren’t worth it. I have dropped so many writers for this, it’s not even funny. It’s one of the few things I just...can’t separate the writer and their work over.
Bonus: Censorship From The Fans
I’m going to preface this by, once again, stating that censorship does not include wanting things to be tagged correctly. Censorship is someone with power saying “I don’t like this thing and no one else should, either”. Censorship of literature is anyone with any kind of power (and, if you have followers on social media you are in this group) saying “I don’t like this book because I: a) don’t agree with its message, b) don’t like the writer, or c) didn’t read it but thought the summary sounded sketchy and am deciding I know more than the writer. And, any one of you that reads this or enjoys this is to be shamed and humiliated and abused along with the writer for the rest of time.” Which, maybe you’re not saying word for word, but that’s essentially what you’re promoting. If you have a following, you have a large group of people that is looking to you. How you act influences them. If you sit here, shaming people for their books, then you are an asshole. If you projecting to your followers that they should shame everyone who likes that book, you are even worse. What you post, what you write, what you encourage others to do, that is on your hands. You are responsible for any harm that comes from that. And censoring media to the point where people are receiving death threats over it is disgusting. And if that shit’s being started because you started it, you need to stop and take a look at yourself. No one should be getting death threats over a fucking book. (If you’re interested in seeing a video relating to this topic, you might want to look here: Link )
Thank you for listening to me ramble, to anyone who has made it this far. If you have any thoughts, anything you want to add or debate, feel free to respond. Thanks for your time.
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sssoto · 7 years ago
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Creator’s update #2
Hey guys! I’m back with another update to keep y’all posted on what I’ve been up to (= I’m getting this up a week later than I wanted to, but hey, what can ya do. It’s still very much up to date, I just didn’t have the time to get this typed up last week, buuuut making up for that now!
Mood: Juuuuuust chillin’~
Music I’ve been digging recently:
This is basically just gonna be a looooong list of Selena Gomez, because dammit I’m into her music right now. The girl is gorgeous and I’ve always liked her music, but I used to be more into her old stuff, and now I’m just living for all the songs I didn’t listen to as much from the time she released her Stars Dance album and onwards. These are just a select few of the songs I’ve been listening to on repeat for the past week or so lol.
Selena Gomez - Fetish (ft Gucci Mane)
Selena Gomez - The Heart Wants What It Wants
Selena Gomez - Do It
Selena Gomez - Me & the Rhythm
Selena Gomez - Me & My Girls
Selena Gomez - Nobody
Selena Gomez - Save the Day
Selena Gomez - Like a Champion
Writing
So I DID ACTUALLY DO SOME WRITING THESE PAST FEW WEEKS OMG.
I finished editing an entire scene I’d been struggling with for the looooongest time (and now I’m having trouble with the next scene, sigh you just can’t win). For that scene, I had to rearrange three different scenes and combine them into one in a way which made sense, and geez it wasn’t fun. The real struggle is finding out what to keep and what to cut, right? I dunno ‘bout you guys, but I’m very reluctant to cut anything until I’m sure I don’t wanna use any of the prose somewhere else.
The light came to me late one night (as it usually does) when this random line popped in my head as I was mulling over what to name my second chapter. Okay, backtrack, I title my chapters, and ever since I started revisions and essentially condensed the first four chapters down to three, I couldn’t figure out what to name the second chapter. The other two chapters could easily just take on the titles they had previously, but the structure and overall focal point of the second chapter had changed so much that I needed to rethink the title (at least if I wanted it to be a good title lol). So chapter 2 was untitled until just recently, when this line came to me and finally made me decide on a name: The Find. A find in this sense refers to an archaeological discovery (my main characters study and work in the archaeological field), and you might see how it plays into the chapter in my excerpt later this post. But yeah, this line came to me, and along with that came the realisation that I could move a whole paragraph from the scene I was revising in chapter 3 to chapter 2, since that paragraph was oriented in a pretty similar fashion to what I was going for with that new line. Does any of this make sense? My thought process is a little strange lmao.
Anyway, so knowing what I needed to do with chapter 2 gave me the push I needed to move on with that scene I struggled with in chapter 3, and I finally managed to restructure all the bits and pieces of those scenes I had to combine. It became much easier because I’d moved an entire paragraph that didn’t really fit in that scene anyway to a place where it was much better suited lol. Since the new dialogue was already written out, it was pretty straightforward to draft new narrative to go with it after I had reassembled the pieces (though I’m sure it’s all veeeeery rough cuz I’ve not given it a proper read through yet).
It all worked out in the end, and I’m so happy I made that progress wee! And I think I know what to do with the next scene, so it’s just about kicking my ass into gear lol (special thanks to @coffeeandcalligraphy who helped me brainstorm for this scene, ugh bless my friends). I already knew the next scene needed to be edited a lot, because basically the entire thing was just filler. The first half was a way too long narrative summary with a bunch of unnecessary detail which could be condensed significantly, and the next half was a scene also way too long for the purpose it served, and to make matters worse, it also introduced a bunch of pointless characters that never show up again, so the scene just feels kinda forced. I’ve done some trimming on the narrative summary, and I’ve cut out the scene that follows, so what I need to do next is add some details that pertain to the timeline and illness change (if you read my last post, you might recall me mentioning that I was doing these revisions in the first place because I aged my characters up and changed the illness of my MC’s sister), and then I’m gonna draft a new much shorter scene that’ll serve the same purpose the previous scene did, but without so much pointless, contrived detail, and without friggin’ introducing new characters that’ll never appear again, my god Soto what were you thinking.
But you know what, I shouldn’t be so hard on myself. I’ve made an important discovery during these edits, which I discussed with @shaelinwrites, who herself was recently stuck in revision hell with her manuscript I’m Fine, and we both agreed; it’s honestly much easier to draft new, better prose than trying to elevate very old less mature prose. As I’m revising these chapters, I sometimes get the feeling that my prose isn’t very complex or sophisticated, but then when I get to draft completely new lines or even paragraphs, I wonder how the new words seem so much better than the old ones. Then I look back at the date and remember that these chapters I’m revising were written in friggin’ 2014. It’s no wonder the prose ain’t that sophisticated lmao. It’s hard work improving something which at its core is less refined!
With that said, I think it’s time for some excerpts. I didn’t show any last time since I hadn’t been working much on my writing recently, but this time I have stuff to show!
Excerpt:
He seemed a hidden gem waiting to be uncovered, layered deep in the crusts of his own humility and class, a rare find with all the potential it entailed – academical and monetary.
This was the line I talked about which basically solved all my problems for me lol bless this line. And bless @shaelinwrites who convinced me to get rid of an unnecessary word, THANK YOU GIRL, I WAS DUMB, YOU WERE RIGHT, THE WEASEL WORD HAD TO GO.
Excerpt:
They arrived in Naples, grandest seaport of the Mediterranean, without incident. The capital of the Sicilies was a majestic sight when approached from the sea, rather alien with its numerous colourful structures raised on slanting green hillsides amongst sprouting palms, so very different from the grey, uniform London back across the English Channel.
Just some description; looking at pictures of Naples helped a lot for this lmao. I’m still not entirely happy with it, it needs a good clean up and stuff. Buuuuuut you know what, it’s progress, and that’s all that matters right now!
Chapters edited: 2/16
Current total word count: Around 123k (I’ll give a more precise number when I’ve gathered all my chapters in one document)
Current total chapter count: 16
Look at the lovely progress on chapter 3 since last update <3
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Art
So honestly I don’t have a lot of WIPs to show in the art department this time around, because a) I’ve mostly been finishing up the sketches I showed last time, and b) the new stuff I’ve started are secret projects I’d rather not reveal yet. So don’t blame it on inproductivity! d:
Like I said, I’ve finished some of the WIPs I talked about last time, and even better, I’ve posted them as well, so you can go and take a look at the final product: the Disney portraits, and my portraits of the Armstrong siblings.
And with that said, can we just marvel at this improvement?
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Sometimes it can feel like you’re never getting anywhere, and that’s when it’s important to gaze back at your journey and see how far you’ve come. I’m certainly pretty happy with how my skills have developed in the past two years! I want to do more “draw it again” pieces in the future so I can track my own development n.n
The only thing I feel I can show a WIP of (that I’ve not already shown, anyway) is this character portrait I’m working on for Serena. Used my girl Selena Gomez as reference cuz she’s the best face claim for Serena I’ve come across <3 It’s actually this portrait’s fault that I got into this entire Selena Gomez groove, and oh how grateful I am for it because Selena Gomez slaaaaaays.
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I’m not entirely sure I’m gonna keep the portrait like this for her official character portrait though, because I feel it’s a little risqué~ for a Victorian portrait LOL. I mean, slay that hair, Serena, you know ya sexy af, but gotta stay in character with your setting, yanno? Lmao I dunno, I need to rethink it a bit, but regardless I’m digging the sketch thus far!
I think the next thing I’m working on will be lining and colouring Owen’s portrait, and then I also have all these secret things in the works that I wanna make progress on so I can reveal them. Aside from this, I’ve been hard at work on setting up commissions, and I’ll soon make an announcement, so keep an eye out for that if you’re interested in getting a portrait done by me!
Youtube
It’s been a month since last update, and I upload new videos every Friday, which means I’ve got new videos to announce to y’all! So if any of you like kpop, vocal covers, or speedpaints, here’s where you should look :D
I’ve actually gotten pretty good at this Youtube thing (thanks to the scheduling feature, it saves lives), so my uploads are fairly consistent. I upload every Friday; every other week it’s a vocal cover (usually kpop, but not exclusively), and the other week it’s a speedpaint, so *hint hint* you should subscribe if you haven’t already *hint hint*. I’ll soon run out of covers to upload though, so I should record some more... Ahem.
Anyway, here’s the most recent one I uploaded. The song is a bit obscure if you’re not a dedicated 4minute fan, but it’s one of my favourites!
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And my second cover can’t be embedded due to copyright, but I’ll leave a link for it here so you can check it out! It’s for the song So Good by Kara. The acapella for this one was super fun to record what with all the harmonies and background vocals and stuff.
And of course, I uploaded a few speedpaints as well! There are actually four up on my channel now because one of the speedpaints was split into two parts to prevent a 45 min video lol. So if any of you are interested in seeing my process, check them out! The first one was a birthday gift I made for the amazing @juliajm15 back in March <3
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And the second, split into two parts (lineart and colour), is one I find particularly interesting since it’s more elaborate. I really do like how the colouring came out for this piece!
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So yaaassss, remember to subscribe if you’re into this sort of stuff!
Bonus: Fanart feature!
So you guys, I have some really amazing friends who make some really amazing fanart for me, and I must share.
Where to even begin? I seriously get all teary-eyed when someone takes the time to make something because they enjoyed my story and characters so much *cries*. If you’ve been following me for a while, you’ve probably seen me gush about all the amazing artwork @juliajm15 has done for me over the past couple years, but I wanna shine some light on two of my other good friends and loyal supporters who made some incredible and thoughtful tributes to my little labour of love!
First up are some amazing edits as well as a drawing done by Rachel over at @coffeeandcalligraphy.
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This pretty thing is a fan book cover Rachel made for my first book, Memoirs! I love the aesthetic of the title so much, and there’s some actual symbolism in there with how she chose to colour coordinate the elements; green for Daniel, red for Serena. Just knowing how much thought and care she put into it makes my sentimental little heart swell <3
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These two edits are just GORGEOUS. Once again done by Rachel, she made this for my birthday last year <3
For the first one, she used lyrics from Elton John’s Daniel because I’d mentioned that this song was the perfect message for Hazel to give Daniel, and the little doll reading the book is sooooo adorable because Daniel and Hazel have this thing with reading fairytales together *cries* and then it’s wearing a white nightgown too, which is basically what Hazel always wears since she’s confined to her bed!
For the edit beneath, she picked an actual quote said by Serena to Daniel, and the summer aesthetic with the greeneries and the flower in the background to symbolise the summers they spent together, bah it’s too much! The care and thought put into this makes me emotional all over again, and these edits are just so lovely!!
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And last one: my darling, Daniel! Rachel actually made this for our friendship anniversary a short while ago, and I still feel bad that I didn’t think to make anything for her lmao. She used the ref I found for Daniel, and his face honestly is just so friggin’ adorable, and then she used a quote from Renaissance to go along with it! I seriously have the best and most thoughtful friends in the entire world, like wow.
Another one of my friends who’s been giving me a bunch of cute fanart lately is @sarahkelsiwrites! Just take a look at this adorable drawing she did of Hazel:
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Hazel is a very beloved character, but she doesn’t get nearly as much love in terms of artwork as my other characters, so it’s always so nice when someone remembers her <3
And okay, but this one kills me:
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I literally screamed when she sent me this. LOOK AT HIS TATS HAHAHAHAH. So for some context, basically @coffeeandcalligraphy has a weird fetish for angst, and we started talking about how our characters have different kinds of angst. I started calling her characters angsters, because they angst like it’s cool to angst, aka gangster, aka angster. Rachel then said that Daniel’s angst is elegant, which turned into a really lame pun, and the rest is history...
Long story short, don’t mess with E. Angst’s tea, yo. Much British, very angst.
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And the last one and I DIE CUZ MY BBY LOOKS SO HANDSOME <3 <3 <3 So Sarah brooded that somehow, everytime she tries to draw a girl, it turns into Daniel, but yanno... Can’t complain.
LOOK AT THE SMOOTH LINEART THO. I couldn’t draw smooth lineart for the life of me until I’d had my graphic tablet for like two years. Ugh I love how Danny looks here, his expression is so perfect! Thank you so much @sarahkelsiwrites and @coffeeandcalligraphy for the amazing gifts, I feel so blessed to have such generous, thoughtful and talented friends! <3
So that was all for this time around; I hope you enjoyed seeing what I’ve been working on! I’ll be back soon to summarize my progress on all my projects again, so until next time, folks!
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flowerconcept-blog · 7 years ago
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omg the ravi neighbor au was so good ^^ can you do a hyuk neighbor au?? thanks so much *~*
i did this so fast cuz i was hit with a flash of inspiration!!! thank you for the request i’m glad u liked the ravi one!!! it’s a lil shorter but i hope this is good too💝💕💘💗💞💛💖
neighbor!hyuk
as well as being next door neighbors, you and hyuk go to the same university
you greet each other when you happen to be in the elevator or hall at the same time, but other than that you really don’t know much about him other than the fact that he’s tall, he’s handsome, nd you’re in the same year at the university
which you only know because he likes to wear the dumb sweatshirt you got for free at orientation that you would never ever ever wear outside your apartment
and he’s LOUD!!!!your bedrooms are right next to each other and he’s always making noise but it’s more the fault of the thin walls that you can hear him and less the fault of hyuk…….. it still annoys u though
hyuk’s a confusing person, he seems like he’d be a gamer who doesn’t work hard at school when you first look at him with his round glasses and his big sweatshirts, but he’s majoring in management w/ a minor in compsci and is one of the top students in his major and minor
plus he works as an IT support for the school, so during his shifts calls might go through to him and he gets to deal with confused uni students who don’t know what to do when their laptop updates
his roommate hongbin is like “why don’t u just quit dude” and hyuk is like ….. the $$$$$$$ lmao duh
you’re kind of…………….really bad with computers………. like really…… pretty bad…….. and you usually don’t fuck up too badly but one night you’re running on 2 hours of sleep and you’re finishing up your 20 page paper that’s 20% of your final grade and just as you go to submit the final draft 15 minutes before the deadline
your computer. dies………….
and you……… you are going to scream …../// or cry…….. whichever comes first…… because when you press the power button it doesn’t FUCKING power up
basically your body goes into auto-pilot as you pull up the IT support phone number and call them and when you hear a voice(admittedly a nice voice that you feel like you’ve heard before) say hello you just go “please help>…….”
and hyuk where he’s sitting a room away from u is like ***sigh*** “did u try turning it off and back on again” but finally your situation sinks in and you go off autopilot and you’re like “my computer died and this paper is due in 13 minutes and i have the document saved on google drive im not that much of an idiot but i need to submit it because my professor’s terrifying and it won’t turn back on please help”
hyuk hears the desperation in your voice and for once he actually feels bad for the person on the other end of the phone call so he logs out of the game he’s playing on his computer and is like “where’s the closest library to you?” and ur like
“i live off campus the closest internet cafe is like 15 minutes away i don’t have time and my roommate isn’t home!!! i gotta revive this stupid! laptop!” and you’re glaring at your laptop and raising your voice
in fact …… you’re raising your voice enough that hyuk realizes he’s hearing you over the phone AND through the wall between your bedrooms …… and he also puts 2+2 together and realizes he recognizes the voice as his neighbor’s
so hes like … think fast hyuk think fast and goes “i know this is weird but where do you live i promise i’m not a serial killer, i think you’re my neighbor” and you go “HYUK?????” and hes like “yeah lol come over i can’t kill you cause my roomie’s here and you can use my computer to submit your essay”
you don’t know why you’re so surprised but you are honestly on the brink of tears
so when you knock on the door and it opens you follow him blindly to his room (which is neater than you expected, although not super neat) and he sort of takes your shoulders and plops you down in his office chair and is like “go”
it’s practically a dream and when you click submit with ONE minute left before submissions close you jump out of your seat and tackle hug hyuk on instinct
hyuks like uhhh whoa but also definitely wraps his arms around you before he gets the chance to make it weird, because you looked weirdly attractive in just your big comfy pjs and you smell nice and clean
this sounds dramatic but honestly you feel god in that chili’s that night……… and that god was hyuk
after the intense submission hyuk is like “u want some coffee or something” and ur like “no more coffee for the rest of my life” and he’s like “cool how about some ice cream”
and well the two of you eat the remainders of hongbin’s cookie dough ice cream and you don’t regret it
you realize that you’ve been misjudging hyuk this whole time because he’s really funny and his smile is really nice and you rant for 15 minutes about your evil professor and he doesn’t shut you up once, just listens
maybe it’s just cause you’re sleep deprived and he saved your ass but as he tells you about this one theater kid who COULD NOT figure out powerpoint .,,…,,..,…,,… he looks really really cute
and any other day maybe you would push that away but it’s not any other day and you are REALLY sleep deprived and you’ve got some sugar in you and you’re ready to do something really dumb, so you gear yourself up and when hyuk’s done with his story you lean over and plant one on him hehe
one being a kiss
he blinks for a second and u almost think you fucked up but then he smirk-grins and before you know it he’s kissing you senseless until you hear hongbin clear his throat and you pull apart, hyuk looking a tiny bit too smug as he apologizes to his roommate
that night u leave with his number …… and also a hickey
and as soon as you get back to your apartment hyuk texts u like “miss you already ;)” and then “also bring your laptop over tomorrow i’ll fix it” (you can’t decide which one is more of a sext)
at first you were worried that it would be a fling but you fall into a routine fast and soon hyuk is introducing you to his friends as his s/o and you aren’t even blinking
when one of you is studying too hard (or playing video games……..) and not picking up the phone the other knocks on your joint wall and you two develop a code ;( like morse code but your own special language
one time hyuk knocks two times loudly and two times quickly and u text him cause ??? you don’t know what that code means and he’s like it means i want to fuck u……! scandalous
you still would never be caught dead wearing the dumb school sweatshirt hyuk likes so much but when the two of you are hanging out you looooove to wear it because it smells like him and is almost as soft as his big bear hugs
and it drives him crazy he loves u in his clothes/leaving you with hickeys etc it’s kind of the more teenaged boy side of him coming out but he loves knowing that you are his (and he is yours)
ALWAYS puts things out of your reach in your OWN DAMN apartment and it pisses you off SO MUCH but he WILL NOT STOP
is unexpectedly romantic and will take you out on fun dates to the arcade and stuff, but really his ultimate date is having u in his arms, after the first time you nap together he declares that he can’t sleep as well without you in his arms and you roll your eyes but sleepovers become a pretty regular occurrence
fights happen but they’re always super short and dumb and mostly because both of you are hard-headed in your own ways, but one of you always caves and apologizes and it ends up with you curled up together watching bad space documentaries on youtube
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