#also…… if I…… theoretically…. linked to their fic…..would people read it…..?

[imogenkol]

SHIP: If I Had A Heart — Imogen Kol x Bix Caleen (star wars)

[template]

[the-moon-files]

Wait, quick idea! Twilight looks like the only hylian in his village because everyone else has round ears, so what if he wasn’t as surprised as the others to see their human companion so resilient, but still fairly impressed because of the fact that most if not all people in his village don’t put themselves in as drastic situations as the reader? Or is this just humans from our world?

get out of my head lmao /lh - you, me, and wayfayrr are actually the same person on diff accounts LMAO

im of the belief that (blame @wayfayrr, my beloved) that he knows of humans bc of some in his village but yeah, just not the type of human in drastic situations

(ALSO they wrote me a fun, long, glorious, male reader human space orc au fic for winning their raffle a bit ago, and it brings up their headcanon abt this and i Adore It actually, check it out here pls if u wanna know🤲)

(also if u see this wayfayrr, sorry for the ping, also should i be calling u moss? or wayfayrr?? idk which, i hope thats even ok to ask 😭 i assumed u would call my ass Moon)

Moon: Male-Masc Reader (he/him)

Orbit: short headcanons-ish, rambling mostly

Stars: Twilight Princess Link (Twi/Twilight), mentions of other Links

Comets & Meteors: CWs: none known, & TWs: none known.

Please comment if I missed any. /gen

to reiterate what i said up there, in case u skipped it for the bullet points,

i like the headcanon he knows humans, knows some of their quirks, and how they were the first ppl the other hylian villagers called on to help stuck cows or downed wagons, lots of heavy lifting stuff

but he really hasnt seen the extent of real humans, bc the humans who were in Ordon, well, they lived in hylian society,

why would they need the adrenaline to lift a car when hylians have set up whole tools and systems in all their towns to help lift just a full bucket of water out of the well??

not to mention, i think all the humans in his village were older adults? like at least not the age theyd be doing things like parkour or going to any trampoline parks type of age,

id imagine its more like stories talked about amongst hylians how hard humans can go, and even the humans themselves talked abt things like,

“well compared to u hylians, we have stomachs made of molten lava to you guys really, but we never have to use it, bc u know hylian food works just fine”

when Twi asked they would say stuff like that, but as soon as he saw ur human ass just picking wildflowers and berries off the side of the road to snack on? even random grasses/vines at some point (kudzu)?? easily eating Wild’s Dubious Food that's DEFINITELY got monster parts in it???! gnawing on the bone of a cucco and it just breaks??!!! and you look surprised too, thank fuck finally a normal reaction from u- oh my goddesses u were just curious (damn the elders were right abt human curiosity too) **and are now sucking out the marrow and eating the bone-!!!!!!!!!!!!

Twilight’s perspective of you is actually the equivalent of like, reading stories about vampires all ur life, then this new friend you made starts to get allergic to garlic, crave blood, has crazy strength and advanced senses, etc

and he’s just watching those honest-to-Hylia human mythological feats play out in real time in front of him, like he’s the only self-aware character in the story that immediately clocks the really obvious vampire as a vampire lmao

is the first to either 1. start choking on his laugh as he theoretically knows ur about to jump on the back of a lynel/hinox to ride it around and watch as the others come to the same conclusion OR 2. try to Stop you from jumping on said big monster in an attempt to ride it around bc he gets used to ur human BS quicker than the others and can see it coming a mile away now lol

very much so this meme:

(ur welcome i made it myself <3)

anyway id love to rant abt this dynamic

abt both Twi’s shock at you eating peppers like a god has come down from the sky to prove their immortality,

but also poor rancher esstientally humansitting you too lmao

the Chain/Time/Wars absolutely put him down as the resident human expert like: “ok he just drank like, 5? No- Four stop him from drinking more at least- (dual sighs). okay, 6 stamina potions, will that kill him??”

Twilight, saviour of Hyrule, of the Twili, Link from Twilight Princess himself,

has to keep a record book of all the new shit he’s heard/learned about humans in Ordon, what he has actively learned abt ur ass just fucking around and finding out, and the few bread crumbs of information u give him abt ur species

(that rlly just come off as kind of cryptid statements abt u/humanity, or don't apply in this scenario bc ur only comparison is Earth Rules, which honestly scare every single fucking one of them in the same way as walking on Ganon’s lawn or something, like straight up view ur home planet as enemy territory, the Amazon jungle, the Hyrule wilds if you will-)

Twilight also gets involuntarily volunteered for human-sitting duty too

tbh the only person Not allowed on human-sitting duty, when u guys go new areas esp, is Wild/Hyrule

you’d tell him you wanna get inside the guardian robot to operate it and ride it around and he’d probably be in shock you even fathomed something like that, yet also now EXTREMELY intrigued to watch it play out

(they’re both more of a “u wanna jump off a cliff?? that's actually crazy, wait for me please.” he seems to think he can somehow protect you if he joins you? its worked sometimes to be fair to him ¯\_ (ツ)_/¯ just not really conveniently when the rest of the Chain are around lmao)

☆

i live btw, ive been writing/updating fics along with life updates (moving states/new job/online class) so a few asks will hopefully be answered over here in the next 2ish weeks

no promises, my life is kinda girlbossing at the moment too close to the sun and i am Nervous abt disappointing u guys

i already feel like im disappointing my other blog bc i haven't posted in forever bc im writing a fic instead of asks during any free time i dedicate to writing for it so :/

pls excuse my super slowness like a package ur waiting for in the mail or smth type of slow

AGAIN thanks for the ask!! i hope this was at least entertaining to read as some addon to what u said, you guys have gotta check out some of wayfayrr’s stuff if ur into this, bc they're the only other place i can think of that's talked abt humans not just being the same as hylians

have a great week!!

Peace out hugs and chaos,

🌙

[anistarrose]

Lup's terms of endearment

[Plain text: "Lup's terms of endearment". End plain text.]

Lup is a character that it takes a lot of practice for me to write, but there's a particular calling card for Lup that jumps out both from her canon dialogue and from fanon, right? We all know it: Lup absolutely loves to call people "babe".

But... when I'm writing her, I also end up wondering if I'm overusing any given signature vocative, or other element of her speech. After all, fanfic writers, myself very much included, are always looking for quick effective ways to make characters sound like themselves — and in a case of a character like Lup, peppering in a "babe" often seems to work like a charm in terms of making her more Lup-like, especially if you're writing Blupjeans.

The thing about this vocative-centric, vocabulary-centric approach to character voice is that it can, at least theoretically, lead to us overdoing it, and overshooting how the amount that Lup would use "babe" in canon. Which isn't a big deal, it's just fic — but I'm very hyperfixated and I love Lup very much, so I wanted to break down a some of when, where, and why she uses "babe" and other terms of endearment, as well as other little nuances I noticed.

Continuing under the cut, but the tl;dr is: Lup absolutely calls people "babe" a lot, but it's not exclusively romantic, it can be either sincere or teasing in tone, and she tends to do so more as time goes on, not so much at the start of the century.

(Partially inspired by and overlapping with the contents of this post (link) by @keplercryptids!)

"Babe"

[Plaintext: "Babe". End plaintext.]

Lup (to Barry): Don’t blow yourself up, babe, I’m sure your beautiful body’s gonna get killed by the Hunger soon enough.

-Ep. 67: Story and Song Part 1.

Lup (to Barry): Babe, I love you more than life and undeath itself, but let’s get somewhere safe first, so we can really savor this tender reunion.

-Ep. 67: Story and Song Part 1.

Lup: Taako, Barry and I got this. You gotta keep trying babe, I know you can do this.

-Ep. 68: Story and Song Part 2.

Lup (to Barry): Hear that, babe? We're legends.

-Ep. 68: Story and Song Part 2.

Lup (to Barry): I’m about to smooch your fucking brains out, babe.

-Ep. 69: Story and Song Part 3.

Lup (to Barry, during heist planning): We’re good, babe.

-Live in Nashville!

The first thing that jumps out at me is how back-loaded, for lack of a better term, the use of "babe" is among all Lup's appearances. It's part of one of her most iconic lines from Story and Song, but she doesn't drop a single "babe" throughout the whole The Stolen Century! Go up and read those lines again — pre-Story and Song, there's not a single one!

I have a few conjectures here that might explain this. First, on a Doyalist level, one could attribute this to small sample size (Lup just doesn't have that much dialogue relative to her thematic presence), and/or to Griffin himself still feeling out her character in the first few episodes that she appeared in.

But on a Watsonian level: I'm purely speculating, but I wonder if it was a nickname she that first started using (or at least, using with regularity) for Barry at some point well into the establishment of their relationship, and from there, it bled out into platonic contexts too. Speaking of which, the fact that she predominantly uses it for Barry doesn't stop her from using it for Taako — in fact, though it only comes up once, it's in a very sincere moment of encouragement (as Taako struggles to transmute all of Phandalin into sapphire).

On that note, if there's anything I'll personally admit to wanting to see more of in fic, it's more of Lup using "babe" in platonic/familial contexts! It's hard to extrapolate from canon if this is a "just Taako" thing, an "any close platonic bond" thing, or an "anyone whatsoever" thing, but I just think it's so cute! (And I'd personally vibe check it as realistic for her to say to other IPRE crewmates, for example — but I'm possibly biased, as a Lup and Magnus friendship writer/enjoyer.)

Lastly on the topic of "babe," it comes up in a variety of contexts, but as alluded to above, it can be sincere or teasing — of which the teasing can, but doesn't necessarily, overlap with flirting.

Specifically, Lup uses "babe" twice while gently, lightheartedly questioning Barry's decisions or priorities, like his intent to blow himself up. It also comes up in teasing or flirtatious moments within emotionally charged moments, like the reunion, or when she gets her body back. It's just not exclusively used for deflating tension — see her sheer confidence in the "we're legends" line and how she revels in it, for example.

All in all, "babe" is clearly one of Lup's go-to all-purpose words, and I like that it shows her voice evolving over time, whether or not that was intentional by Griffin. "Babe" is by far the most worth analyzing of Lup's terms of endearment, but we'll also talk about:

"Dear"

[Plain text: "Dear". End plain text.]

Lup: We need to make sure our friends in the ethereal plane aren’t listening. Taako, could you do the honors and shoo them away? Taako: Go away! Lup: Dear, you need to Blink.

-Ep. 66, The Stolen Century Part 7.

Lup: Lucretia, dear, I’ve already forgotten about the whole thing. Oh, uh! [Smiling] Sorry, bad choice of words.

-Ep. 68, Story and Song Part 2.

With the obligatory caveat that we have an even smaller sample size here, it jumps out at me that Lup only ever uses "dear" in teasing contexts, reacting to mistakes both big and small. But it's also a word she uses to emphasize love and forgiveness — especially communicating that she won't breeze past a mistake like it didn't happen, but also isn't going to maintain hostility over it, which we see with Lucretia.

(You can even make an argument that Lup teasing Taako with a "dear" is at least a little tension-defusing too, because that scene happens in the leadup to Lup and Barry presenting the Relic plan. But it's less clear there if she's using it consciously with that purpose.)

Miscellaneous: "Honey," "Bud," "(My) Man"

[Plain text: "Miscellaneous". End plain text.]

Barry: I mean um… the Conservatories, I guess, for obvious reasons. Lup: Oh, oh sure, honey, that was a… that was a good one but, man, the food in Tesseralia though, like. It's hard to beat that.

-Ep. 66: The Stolen Century Part 6

Lup (to Magnus): What are you- why? [Laughs] We need to get- we need to- we gotta bounce. Look up. Look up, bud. It’s, it’s the Big H. It’s time to roll.

-Ep. 64: The Stolen Century Part 5.

Taako: Am I…? I’m not going to lose you again. Lup: Never. Never again, bud.

-Ep. 68, Story and Song Part 2.

Lup: So, uh, Davenport, bud, kinda curious why you’d, uh, decided to come back out here after you wrote us about all the ghost-based dangers you encountered, my man, didn’t you consider that we’d be coming to collect for, you know, the goddess of death?

-Live in San Francisco!

Now, a few more odds and ends for the sake of completeness! The first thing I noticed is that she calls Barry "honey" while teasing him a little bit, as they compare their favorite cycles (though I don't think she's necessarily lying, either) — overall very similar to how she uses "babe" in playful contexts sometimes, or how she uses "dear" with Taako or Lucretia.

"Bud" is for Taako, Magnus, and Davenport! Like "babe," it seems to be a very multi-purpose vocative — ranging from questioning her friends' judgment, all the way to deeply sincere moments. (Taako seems to bring out the sincerity more than anyone, unsurprisingly.)

Lastly, "Man" is used both as a general filler word/emphasizing word without necessarily filling in for a name or subject, or alternatively, transforms into "my man" exactly once when talking to Davenport. That one's interesting to me because "my man" is something associated a lot more with Taako — and specifically, used by Taako with people he likes and trusts (link), though it may or may not actually be a serious context.

Merle (giving Taako some shitty kelp shoes):  There’s a lot of give in kelp and if they’re too small, get ‘em wet and they’ll get bigger and these— These are for you. Taako (pretending he won't immediately cast Levitate on them): Oh, well, thank you, my man. These are just beautiful!

-Ep. 62: The Stolen Century Part 3.

Taako: Barry, I— You got all the time in the world, my man.

-Ep. 62: The Stolen Century Part 3.

To compare and contrast, Lup's only known "my man" is deployed against Davenport when she's kind of questioning his judgment, but he's obviously a person she likes. If you'll let me speculate, I wouldn't be shocked if Lup overheard Taako hit Davenport with plenty of "my man"-s over the course of the Stolen Century — just a guess, but it's something I'd really like to believe in, because the twins influencing each other's speaking styles is just so cute.

And that's all! This was an exercise I undertook to get better at writing Lup, but I always really intended to post it too, so I hope it was interesting and insightful — I knew it definitely left me with a new appreciation for how Lup's way of speaking evolves over time, in particular!

[evablueblanket]

Will you tell me about an LU character you love and why you love them? Please please please ramble on and on! It's my favorite! I get so many fun ideas when people gush about their favorites.

I (think) I've said this before, but I am not the most analytical/observ person ever so most of what I say is probably kinda shallow :') BUT THIS IS MY RAMBLE SO OH WELL

Okay so recently, I've been on a Warriors kick. I just super love how like, everyone portrays him! Most see him as big brother shaped, which I super love. His background is just so vastly different than every other Link, which serves as a very cool contrast imo

The way @somer-writes makes Twi and Wars idiodic brothers is like, my favorite ever. I love love love LOVE how he writes Wars and Twi it's so insane the comedy that unfolds when they're just messing around xD

Warriors has this air, this *vibe* which I'm just super drawn too, I think it's just how my personality vs his works (you could theoretically draw *some* parallels with Sokka from ATLA, at least the way they each hold themselves I'd say. Also big bro stuff) (ALSO how both of them are portrayed as 'smart', which is a trait I typically relate too in characters)

When I like a character though, it's more based on the different types of relationships everyone writes them as though, I'd say. Wars and Time and Wind have this super intriguing bond that I think is cool to see how everyone interprets it! For the most part people write them as they're all aware of the War of Ages and whatnot, which lead to some nice fluff and/or angst. But when there's some time paradoxes, it makes it every so more tragic and it's really interesting to see how that can get written. I recall a fic (I FORGOT THE TITLE AND THE AUTHOR NOO) where Wars was teaching Wind medic stuff, but it was like a year before Wind meets Wars in the war. So Wars is all "sob this is why Wind is such a good medic? *Bc I taught him?*" THIS IS SO COOL AND INTERESTING

Also when there's War of Ages fics that have Time/Mask being a stupid child (/aff) they're just super hilarious. There's a series out there that has the Fierce Deity (sorry forgot the author again xD) act as Wars parent figure/older brother figure and it's just really funny to me bc ofc Wars would be a stupid overworking idiot. Loser smh

Four is also another one of the sillies that live in my brain, and I kinda wish there were more fics on how they interact. Though, if I'm being real idk how they really would cause they don't really have the same synergy as any other Links. I just like my favorites to interact, but I super understand how they wouldn't ^^

Small side bit on serious Wars (the biggest example is "Call Them Brothers" by wutheringmights which I'm almost 100% certain you've read that already cause it's soooo long and it's SO GOOD AHH) and ugh I wish I could pay attention more to get every complexity that this Wars has but the brain kinda hates me. I think it makes a lot of sense for Wars to have a grittier characterization, war does that to people. The entire fic is so visceral to me, I just vividly remember reading the flashback section about the long winter, and I don't even know how to really describe it xD

Wars has such a broad range of emotion, if one were to put him under and microscope and study him there would be SO MUCH.

HAVE I TALKED ABOUT THE AESTHETIC

HES THE FUCKING PRETTY BOY OF THE GROUP AND THAT'S SO VALUBLE TO ME FOR NO REAL REASON

Ik Wild is seen as the one with like, outfits and Legend has his jewlery, BUT WARS HAS HIS FUCKING SCARF. THERES SO MANY POSTS ABOUT WARS AND HIS EMOTIONAL SUPPORT SCARF AND I AM SO FUCKING FOR IT YOU HAVE NO IDEA

THE SHADE OF BLUE IS AWESOME, ITS SO COOL, ITS SO COOL HES SO COOL RAHHHH

*oops tehe I rambled like a lot* ty for this opportunity :D I'm super glad I decided to type this on my laptop and not my phone xD

[shmowder]

It's 5 am (.... don't even ask, this certainly isn't the first time and it won't be the last 😅) so there isn't going to be a lot of substance here but PLAGUE DOCTOR READER HELL YES I am once again saying your knowledge of herbs is immense and your beak is huge. Even orderly reader could be something. They'd still get the cool bird costume!

"The herbbride x reader was because I wanted to smooch a herb bride pls let pls :"(((" Pathologic dating sim when!!!!

I think you have a point about detailed readers, and I'm not just saying that ^^ Especially in a longer fic, having a specific job and/or background can definitely help build the story and anchor the reader to the universe. The real problem for me arises when the reader's personality is well-defined for no reason (for instance, if the prompt is specifically about shy reader or bratty reader). Like I was once reading this random set of general headcanons and the reader was bold and sassy and rebellious and I was like who tf is this person. The more I attempt to describe this issue the more I realize it might just be a me problem :o)

Stopppp no bc I also thought the Big Vlad comment was kinda 👀 Then again, he called me a gullible kid in the same breath. Which is kind of accurate so I don't really mind.

Man that concept art of the Stamatins is cool. Andrey's animal being a shark is perfect; so is Capella+butterfly and Maria+cobra.

-

It makes me really happy to hear that these conversations are making the game more fun! I feel lucky to have found your blog, too. <3

Some random stuff I've been thinking about your BG3 blog for a few days, since I had another look at it recently. First of all the drabbles masterlist?? Holy shit you've written so much, it's amazing! I had only checked out your "my works" link before. Crybaby Tav my kindred spirit. And I'm obsessed with how organized everything is.

Your OC Sol is stunning!! I think it's so cute that you even have a section dedicated to other people's OCs. I've been trying on and off for a while to perfect my OC using the Sims 4. My favorite thing about the Sims 4 is as soon as I open the game I immediately forget what a human face is supposed to look like. Still, it's fun even though I'm not 100% satisfied yet.

🐿️ anon

or

Plague doctor Reader after some surgeon's grass potions are more effective at combating the plague than the leeches you've been administrating to the sick:

(they were expensive leeches) (it was your last jar too)

The fun a plague doctor reader would have in pathologic, it is literally plague utopia, isn't it? Daniil having to come to terms that someone like you holds the same authority and prestigious standing as someone like his will never not be hilarious.

Also, the mental image of plague-doctor!reader being"I'm a healer.... but" *relaods shotgun*

would the leeches work? theoretically they should since it was the earth blood which cured the illness. Which annoys Daniil even more that your barbaric and outdated methods are more effective than his pharmaceutical antibiotics but they're still less effective than Artemy's tinctures.

The executors or orderlies follow after the reader instead of the bachelor, akin to a bunch of small chicks trailing after their mother hen.

Daniil is mean and yells a lot. You're nice. They'd rather follow your orders instead.

Also the whole gothic look? The long beak, the anonymity of the mask, the black coat and gloves. It's just so intriguing, rumours about how you must look like under the mask keep spreading through out the town and people are getting more and more curious.

you're like a doctor doctor, not a philosophy doctor like Daniil or a priest surgeon like Artemy. You aren't afraid to go to extreme measures to cure this plague which is clearly the work of the devil. Carrying viles of acid around and managing to makeshift a small lab to conduct your experiments in, making various concoctions and trying them out on the helpless paitents. Some work, others melt their eyes off, it's still a work in progress.

-

About the Bg3 blog. lmao yeah I wrote so much, i even made some original characters like the loser high elf for the human kink thing. It was an amazing time, I hope i stay in the pathologic fandom for just as long and leave a similar legacy behind.

Thank you so much! Sol is my first ever OC, i love them more than the sun <3 I wanted to make an irredeemable unlovable character and shower them with absolute love and adoration.

Oh god crybaby!tav. Those were the good times. Like sure I enjoy being a strong and capable reader, but sometimes a reader who's helpless as a kitten and constantly tears up at the slightest misfortune is just so fun to write!

Clinging to whoever comes to save you, relying on them to solve your problems. Continously making bad choices or tripping, endangering yourself without realising it because you're just so oblivious and they need to rush in and immediately whisk you away because you just can't function on your own.

Keeping you under watch constantly. You're too air headed to realise how dire the situation is, too naive and trusting.

A reader like that would make Daniil's hair sprout grey, frustrating him endlessly as he has to urgently drop his responsibilities and run across the town because you wandered too far into the steppe to pick pretty flowers and now you're lost, cold and confused and sleezy men won't stop eyeing you.

Or an Artemy that doesn't believe it when you actually sat on his lap after he threw a teasing remark that you look like a lost pet sitting alone at the bar. Who is concerned that you're so willing to trust this hulking gaint surgeon who could break you in half. Who's brain can't function because you keep fidgeting on his lap, unawarly pressing yourself against him.

Alexander Saburov might just be the most fun out of these bunch to have a crybaby reader running to him at every minor problem or inconvenience. He's cooing at you while wiping your tears, asking what's wrong? He'll make it right, you're safe with him. His ego tiples in size the more you cling to his arm when walking in dangerous areas, his back straightness more as you refuse the help from any other person but him, even telling Victor Kain himself to not get near you because he scares you while hugging Alexander instead.

You'd send Yulia into an early grave, everyday is an almost heart attack with that woman who's trying her best. No matter how many lectures on safety or being independent she gives you, her words are too big for your brain and you zone out halfway through. Thinking that the worried expression on her face is super adorable, interrupting her speech with a kiss and making a fuse blow in her brain as she immediately forgets what she was speaking about. The usually collected Yulia, flustered and stuttering as you ask for more kisses.

-

Your comment about playing the sims made me actually choke with laughter I cannot coahxoqjkdkq I feel you. God I do.

[hadesknockedupintheunderworld]

Fic Rec Friday!!

No one said I couldn't do it more than once a day!

Todays other fic rec of the day is *drumroll* ...

problems for our future selves

By: @managician

Fandom: Sonic Prime

Ship: Sonic the Hedgehog/Nine the Fox

Rating: G

Chapters: 1/1

Words: 4,792

Link:

ㅤ

Now, you may already recognize this fic title as I have reblogged the official tumblr posting for this fic before and recommended it in the reblog tags.

While not necessarily tagged as such, I have always found this fic to be a bit of a refreshing character study. The author mixes predictions for what was the upcoming S2, self indulgence, and character interpretation in a fic that puts you inside the head of the character Nine. In this case, it explores his feelings and actions post S1 in regards to his goals, his situations, and how he feels about Sonic.

Even with the context of Sonic Prime S2 fresh on the mind, the fic reads as a plausible follow up to the ending of Season 1 if things were to go a bit differently. The interactions Nine has with Sonic, as well as the confusing nature of his feelings towards him, read very realistic to me in the context of the show, and as moments/topics that could theoretically be explored in such a setting. Nine is angry with Sonic, but also feels giddy when it comes to him. He needs Sonic alive if he is to be free from the council, doesn't care about him otherwise, right? And yet, he knows that he does. He feels that it would be easier for him if he did not care about Sonic, especially after how he's shaken up his life and left him behind, but he cannot help but care. He does not know how to feel about (or rather doesn't know if he can handle) the prospect of Sonic dying or the Chaos Council killing him, and yet also doesn't know what he will do if Sonic does come to save him.

As someone who'd hungered for some good Sonine or Nine character analysis around S2's release, this fic absolutely delivered, and it's one I still come back to and read quite a lot. Likewise, as someone who is aroaspec themselves but adores romance I love Sora's take on Sonine's relationship. Nine's confusion about his feelings come from a place of liking a person even though it feels like you shouldn't after everything, yes. Sure, it also comes from a place of inexperience in relationships. But to me it also depicts Nine in the position of not being able to place a relationship as purely platonic or romantic.

But anyways, I digress. This fic is sweet, a little angsty, and a bit bittersweet, and I'd recommend it for those who like stories regarding people trying to work out what a person means to them, and for those seeking Sonine in a canon context. This read is perfect for people who like to come away from a fic thinking about the implications of the characters' actions and taking another dive into their heads. It is also for those not afraid of reading something bittersweet, as the characters themselves aren't sure how to feel or how the future will turn out.

[aprillikesthings]

oh god oh god

HEY GUESS WHAT I'm down to the last two episodes of She-Ra in my rewatch

On a related note, should you desire to read them all starting from s1ep1 for some godforsaken reason, here's the link. Please be amused at my claims that I would not do this for every episode and my repeated attempts to cut back on how much I copy/paste dialogue and/or explain the entire plot instead of just making jokes and commentary

If, somehow, you are New Here, I've been rewatching all of the 2018 She-Ra, ostensibly for fic-writing reasons as I had forgotten huge quantities of the plot. I have since become deeply obsessed, as one does.

I make a lot of adult jokes, random asides, references to other things, commentary, and a lot of cursing and crying. I love Catradora and I love Catra especially and have a tendency to add a screenshot every time they so much as look at each other. It seems silly to warn for spoilers at this point, but yeah, this is a RE-watch. It's just that I forgot a lot of it because I watched it the first time as it was coming out (pun intended). The shit I did remember is so fucking random tho lol

The last time I tried to do a two-parter in one post the number of times I had to reblog it because tumblr only allows 30 images per post got real stupid, so while I do still assume I will have to reblog multiple times per episode, I'm doing each episode separately.

HERE WE GOOOOO

s5 ep12 Heart (pt 1)

jfc i'm full of adrenaline lol

Also I have a beer, it's a citrus IPA because I live in Portland and it's required by law

(not really I just genuinely like them. that and IPA's that taste like gnawing on a douglas fir. also fruit sours.)

LOL I was so anxious I looked away from this post and consumed most of my beer this is gonna be hilarious

ALSO my goal is to finish these two episodes before the Easter Vigil service tomorrow night at 8pm

Theoretically I should be able to watch two episodes of TV in a day and a half, right? AHAHA

Bow should play Wonderwall

she always looks so soft with her hair down

but also having that thing just floating in front of your chest like that has gotta feel weird

ON A RELATED NOTE I know I made the joke in the last episode about how many people have the failsafe as a tattoo but the PROBLEM is that now I literally LIVE with a tattoo artist whose work I like--I already have two tattoos they've done, here and here, and the temptation is extremely high?? but I don't have any other obvious fandom-related tattoos (unless you count the title of a Björk song) so it feels weird to start with this one???? Like I don't have any LoTR or BBC Sherlock or SU or K/DA tattoos (to list off a bunch of fandoms I was devastatingly obsessed with at the time) so getting one for THIS fandom feels kinda weird. But like, also, if I got it kinda small on one wrist it would look kinda cool and be a nice loud DID U KNOW I'M GAY kinda thing. Gyahhh.

She's struggling to do She-Ra, and I'm sitting here YELLING because IT'S BECAUSE CATRA LEFT and UGH I want to murder Shadow Weaver

(eyyyy I won't have to, ha ha oh god)

Oh she manages to transform anyway. Without making any noise or glowing lights, just pop, She-Ra

awwww but also lol

related aside but like, every culture that figured out bows and arrows invented at least one kind of string instrument. Literally archers just fidgeting with their bows and going "oh this makes a nice sound, what if I put more strings on this thing." So many different places and cultures invented things like a guitar or like a harp or like a violin. But also I want to know who the FUCK figured out the hurdy-gurdy??? oh my god I just looked up the hurdy-gurdy and I'm cracking up because one of the earliest depictions of it is from the 1100's, in the Santiago de Compostela cathedral. A place I have been. Because I did the Camino last year.

oh right plot

I would like to take a moment and be grateful for the people who put together the transcripts on the fandom wiki for saving me typing up long bits of lore-heavy dialogue

She-Ra: "Prime is getting closer every day to figuring out how to access the Heart of Etheria. If he succeeds, he can use it to destroy worlds, galaxies, maybe even the entire universe. The Failsafe is our only chance at stopping him."

"His hold over them grows stronger every day they're chipped. If we don't free them now, we might lose them forever. Prime holds every advantage in this fight. He'll be ready for us. But we have a plan. Entrapta?" Entrapta: "I finally succeeded in cracking Prime's signal pattern. If I get access to his Spire network, I can use it to broadcast a jamming frequency that will disable all of the chips on Etheria, freeing everyone at once!" She-Ra: I need you all to get Entrapta to the Spire and keep Prime's forces distracted while she jams the signal."

"We're going to make sure that Prime can never hurt anyone ever again. We're ending this today. For good."

oh lord so Shadow Weaver is still there, sulking and looking away, and she looks over at her and starts almost losing She-Ra and being Adora again

have I mentioned how much I hate Shadow Weaver >:(

Adora goes outside...and looks around. I know who she's looking for. *sobs into a pillow*

NO. she's LOOKING for her GIRLFRIEND

I made that joke and then Glimmer literally says "Any sign of Catra?" I have to remember that at this point in the story literally everyone knows how in love they both are. Except them. Of course.

Adora: "She's not coming back." ;_;

Adora: I mean you don't have to come with me this could be dangerous Bow: the fuck are you talking about of course we're going

And she turns into She-Ra again, roll intro

Okay so they go to the Crystal Castle thing where Light Hope was

it doesn't look so good

but also that's creepy

anyway they tell the hologram (not Light Hope, the other one) that they're looking for the Heart of Etheria and that they're Friends of Mara. She-Ra gets scanned and then a door opens into a passageway. Bow and Glimmer take her hands and they walk into the hall but:

she's still looking for someone

I have to deal with another episode and change of her looking for Catra ghghggh this hurts meeeee

OH SO OF COURSE they literally switch to showing us Catra

bahaha okay so she sits up and looks behind her kind of sadly, and Melog just skids to a stop so hard they throw Catra off

And Melog looks at Catra like she's fucking nuts. Catra's like, wtf is wrong with you??? and Melog looks back like BITCH WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU??? Catra what did you think was going to happen when you got a therapy animal that can literally read your moods. Melog knows you're being a dumbass and has NO reason to pretend to believe your surface "I don't give a shit" act!!

Melog does airplane ears at that. And then just pounces Catra.

Time for pressure! Just like a real therapy animal. Big weighted blanket!

oh shit I forgot about this bit

Catra just immediately starts crying.

Catra: "You saw what happened! Adora chose Shadow Weaver, okay? Not me!"

*sobs into hands* you useless fucking dumbass that is your abysmally low self-esteem talking literally every living semi-sentient thing in the galaxy knows Adora's in love with you EXCEPT YOU

I can get frustrated with AU fics where these two both pull this "but what if she doesn't like me back" thing for ages while everyone around them is face-palming in frustration, but like. You have to admit. It's accurate to canon.

(It's also accurate to lesbians in general, lbh. Either fucking on the first date or doing the "but what if she's not into me" thing for months-to-years. Sometimes both, including in some of the fics I've written, heyooooo.)

Melog purrs and licks her face. A clone approaches and they both go invisible and then follow it.

MEANWHILE

the rest of the rebellion is attacking Horde Prime's ship thing

Wrong Hordak helps Entrapta get into the spire. The whole point of this fight (which I didn't bother screenshotting lol) is to give Entrapta time to disconnect everyone's chips from Horde Prime.

Lol once inside Entrapta does another one of those "holy shit this stuff looks so cool...OMG FOCUS" things

Back at the Crystal Castle Glimmers like "omg are you scared" and She-Ra says "No, I just hope this works." Liar.

Bow: "It'll be okay. And when we get back, it'll be a whole new world."

this poor girl. she's so heartbroken.

(meanwhile the plot of my fic-in-progress is literally them breaking up. (not forever.) but it's hilarious of me to get SO UPSET over this scene when I'm going to force them to repeat it. like it's a mutual decision in my fic but it doesn't make it hurt any less.)

PFFT I unpaused it, and IMMEDIATELY:

I just said OH SHIT out loud lol

oh god I saw someone talking about this in a youtube video right around when I started my rewatch

It's a hologram, she's not actually there. And Catra goes through multiple other ages, including her kid self, being chipped on Horde Prime's ship, when they were Horde cadets, etc; before going back to looking like she does now.

Adora's sharp little gasp of shock here

Adora goes to touch Catra's hand and the hologram disappears

(good lord she's beautiful here)

And I think I agree with the youtube video: Adora knew she was upset about Catra running off, but this is the moment she specifically realizes she's in love, and it breaks her heart into tiny pieces.

(Hah, I actually say a very similar thing in part of my fic that they mention in the video--that previous to this, she refused to let herself want this or even think about it. "I didn't even realize this was something I could want.")

BUT ALSO so like is this a remnant of Light Hope's programming that tortured them with childhood flashbacks in season one (in order to drive them apart) or what

LOL NO

I know I made this joke before but I'm suing Nate for emotional damages

She-Ra: "We need to be careful. It looks like this place can still project memories."

oof

A still-invisible Catra follows the clone to where Horde Prime's ship is and is visibly terrified and shaking. A clone who might be Hordak turns around with that white in his eyes that means Prime is using him to see, and Catra just tries to be quiet and not move but she's obviously triggered, and I mean that in the literal PTSD sense.

Horde Prime (via Hordak?): "My brothers. The time has come at last. No longer shall She-Ra stand in my way."

oh okay so Horde Prime's actual ship is still in space (just orbiting Etheria I assume) and the planet-side thing is him speaking through one of the clones via the hive mind.

"Begin the acquisition process!"

are they just gonna straight-up drill into it?

apparently yes

the whole area lights up with that sickening green light, including all the lines that characters kept noticing on the ground that looked like some combo of circuit boards and First Ones' writing.

meanwhile, Adora keeps slipping out of being She-Ra for split seconds and is clearly stressing The Fuck Out and possibly walking in the wrong direction in her distress, only to walk into another memory/hologram.

And I've predictably hit the image limit, but 13:30 to go which is better than last night pfft okay gonna reblog

[eikaprime]

I know I should have asked this ages ago but, what does Lucky actually look like? (both before and after her tentacles were cut) I've looked through your fic a few times (Still the best thing I've ever read btw) but I'm still unsure

Her ink's a light blue, specifically robin's egg blue, but I'm not gonna fuss about finding that specific ink color for ya. She changes it as she needs to, like most inklings.

For most of the series, she uses one of the default inkling styles, specifically the one known as 'wave': long on one side, short on the other. (Images from the Splatoon Wiki, <https://splatoonwiki.org/wiki/Player_Settings#Hairstyle> )

After her somewhat disastrous tentacut's fixed a little, her tentacles don't have rounded ends or suckers (not enough time/ink to shape the ends properly for one) and the ends just brush the tops of her ears; by the end of (Un)Lucky they may reach the bottoms of her ears.

Height, she starts the series about 4'11 and ends it maybe at 5'1 (two inches over 11 months, still the shortest NSS member). Weight's never given, but she is a serious athlete who plays turf and rank for 8 hours 5 days a week without any problems (and plays more than 8 hours if there's no one there to stop her. And plays less than 8 hours on Mondays, when she also has patrol. And saw a private trainer January-May). She also shows a tendency to cut back on food to save money in early fics, and not eat much to be polite (Lucky Charm, first meeting with the Sepias) or occasionally be denied food as a punishment when at home. With all that, she's probably a muscular twig. Add in how much dodge-rolling and speedwork she does, she must have a build very similar to a professional gymnast.

I've never given Lucky a set skin color. I do picture her as light skinned, but that's at least in part because I live in Whitey White land and am 100% aware I don't know enough about other cultures or what life looks like with another skin color to be comfortable having a Main Character with those challenges. Research, empathy, and hope is enough for secondary characters and background, but I'm well aware I've got prejudices I don't even know about and I'm not inflicting them on the world by mistake.

Now for the complicated part.

For those who aren't aware, Lucky is more than half (more than 3/4) flying squid. In my world, that means she gets flaps. In squid form, those are on her head, positioned similarly to Real Life flying squid's flaps, and she can move them mostly at will to serve as rudders, extra fins, or otherwise assist her. This is part of why she's such a great athlete (though she wouldn't be half as great without all that practice). In kid form, though, they're on her neck. Which brings about some issues.

I picture them somewhat similar to bat wings, but with pure muscle where the bones would be; this allows additional flexibility. They're also attached at the neck at a slight angle, so if they were to flap, they'd propel her forwards/slightly upwards, and a breeze would go behind her/downwards.Here, have some bad art:

In kid form, they wouldn't do that much to help her, though at that size she could theoretically wrap them around a can of soda to carry things. They can give her a bit of extra speed/precision with turns, though. More commonly, since they're not completely under her control--and tend to stiffen or move because of her emotions--they can cause... problems. They cross behind the neck in the back, probably ending roughly where a human's shoulderblades would be. Have more bad art:

There's a reason she tore that turtleneck Callie got her in The Twelve Days Of Squidmas. And why she's very careful with shirts in general. Skin and muscle and ink, plus surprise, does a number on fabric when it moves fast.

In any case, I hope this helps. I've gotten some amazing fanart from people, but I won't link any of it because they didn't say I could, so you get to suffer through my art skills instead.

[hua-fei-hua]

sometimes i see posts w/people begging ao3 authors to anon or orphan works instead of deleting them, and like, i get the sentiment, i really do, but i think that there's a bit of nuance to each of these three acts that should be considered a bit more.

all three are a method of disassociating a work to your name, obviously, but orphaning is the only method that permanently revokes an author's agency over the work. deleting is the only method that revokes the reader's right to public access. anonymity is the midway point between these, but i think i can understand why one might choose to delete or orphan instead.

a while back, i was poking around livejournal, and i saw a link to a fic rec on ffn, but when i followed the link, the work had been deleted. through the wayback machine, i found the author n read the explanation on their profile: essentially, while the work had been extremely popular, they felt that it no longer represented the kind of stories they wanted to tell, especially since looking back, a lot of their jokes were in poor taste, and the thought of leaving that up for other people to find was not one they liked. so they deleted it.

a lot of readers also seem to lean on the argument, "there will always be people to whom your work has meant the world; please don't delete it (as it hurts those people)." it seems to hang on the assumption that the author is deleting out of shame, external pressure, or just hatred for their own work, and that they should remember that art has value beyond their own perception. and also don't hurt the readers as collateral.

but sometimes, as dick of a move as it is, the point of taking a fic down is to send a "fuck you" to the readers, because it is a sign of the author's ultimate agency over a fic. one could theoretically place their work into an unrevealed collection and achieve the same effect, and i know that's a thing that happens too, but the point is that the author has control over their own work, and that includes taking it down on their own terms.

my impression of why we have orphaning is bc ao3 was made in a different time, when being in fandom and writing gay porn abt fictional characters could get people fired from jobs and everything, and sometimes, due to wank, people would receive threats on their job based off the fic they wrote. people used to delete out of fear, even though they didn't want to actually take their fic away from the fan community, so ao3 gave us orphaning to remove all association and link back to the author while keeping the work up for others to read or enjoy.

of course people use it for other purposes now, too. sometimes you change fandoms, and the old one was cringe, or problematic, or you just want to start over for other reasons, and you orphan all your prior works. sometimes you have a wip that lost its spark, or has served its purpose to you creatively despite never being finished. to the orphanage with it! basically, my impression of orphaning is that it's for letting go (or preventing your own real-life murder).

anonymity is offered as a solution to those who wish to remain in control of their works whilst also dissociating their name, and that is very much a good solution for people who want to leave up their things but are anxious about orphaning.

but more than that, anonymity offers protection for people with a history of being harassed, yet wish to continue publishing. it offers the ability to thank those who leave appreciation on your works. it lets you surprise people with gifts when you're shy. hell, it can even help with an obsession with hits and kudos, since you have to jump through a few extra hoops to see your stats instead of it being right on your author page.

i guess the point is, these things can broadly overlap when it comes to "what to do with this fic i wrote but don't want on my profile anymore", but there's nuance to each one, and if an author wants to delete a fic bc it best fits their situation, then we should accept that, mourn our losses, and move on.

[mannatea]

The World Could Be Beautiful, a Tales of Symphonia ‘fic (Chapter 10)

Word Count: 55,229 Summary: After a chance encounter in Izoold, Raine and Regal both get a lot more than they bargained for. (A one-night stand 'fic with consequences.) Chapter Summary: Raine asks a theoretical question of Regal; Lloyd and Colette discuss their exsphere journey with Raine. Pairing/Characters: Regal/Raine, Genis, George, Lloyd, Colette, and assorted OCs as the story requires. Zelos shows up later. Warnings: Blanket warnings for the entire fic: pregnancy (and all that comes with it), discussion/mention of abortion, power imbalance, fantasy racism. Rating: Explicit. (No sex in this chapter.) Genre: Romance/angst/friendship vibes.

The title is the link to Ao3 for Chapter 10! (This is the halfway point in the story!)

Notes (to be read after the chapter) under a cut:

I've always been a bit fascinated with Raine's relationship with Iselia. I feel like it's a place Genis could call home, despite the turbulence of the game, but with Raine's long history of being unwanted and unwelcome it's hard for me to imagine she ever truly feels like she can go back there. I think logically she knows it would be okay, but she can't untangle the way she feels about it.

There's something to be dissected here about how she stayed there way longer than she intended to, and cannot separate that she lived her life there was a lie and any goodwill or comfort received while she was there was sort of...based on the lie and not the reality.

That said, it was the safest she was ever allowed to feel, so it's not hard to think she's sometimes a bit homesick for it, or at least for the kind of life she wished she could have led there.

In this "thought experiment" she posits, Regal mentions that he would have known immediately she was not an elf, and I stole that from the OVA because I love it (and for no other reason). I really liked that detail—that he would know and respect that it was a secret she kept to protect herself and her brother.

--

Lloyd and Colette's journey to find the exspheres and destroy them/render them unusable comes with some interesting conundrums: what do they do when they come across someone who needs their exsphere? When should they shift their focus from mass exsphere sales/production issues to The Individual, and how do you convince other people to give up their exsphere when you yourself are wearing one?

Raine's understanding of the old man Lloyd and Colette talk about comes from a short period in her life where she and young Genis happened upon an abandoned little farmstead and lived there for some months. There was a garden and, in similar fashion to the old man, she tried to protect it so that she and Genis would have food...but she was 14 and there wasn't much she could do against grown adults (who were probably also hungry and wanted that food).

She didn't die but she knows it wasn't because she picked herself up by the bootstraps or anything; she just got lucky.

She never had a lot of opportunity to be kind to others, having never had much excess, but I like the idea of her being able to see Lloyd and Colette try to make the world kinder.

--

LLOYD'S POEM. Shut up don't touch me don't look at me. I crafted this idea so carefully. I imagine Lloyd was a bit of a goof in class, trying to "not take assignments seriously" but this almost always backfired on him because Raine could still see the potential there.

And I think Lloyd is best at art and expression through art forms! ;)

Anyway when I was in middle school we had to do a writing assignment where the story had to start with "Almost" (and then an event), and I tried to be cheeky about it and wrote a story called "Almost Mowed Over" (about a blade of grass who narrowly avoids being mowed over LOL) because I thought the assignment was so dumb. Then my ass got picked to compete in Power of the Pen? So. I was channeling that energy here. LOL

But in a more wholesome way!

--

COLETTE AND REGAL. COLETTE AND REGAL. I love their friendship! Sometimes Colette can be a bit silly and goofy but I love the idea of her getting to live for herself and growing and maturing because of that.

I don't know what people expected from a girl who thought she was going to die at 16. If she took things too seriously she'd just be depressed all the time. I love her silly side. But I also wanted to explore how she and Lloyd might struggle sometimes with nightmares and other problems. Normally they talk to one another about these things, but I firmly believe everyone needs friends who exist outside of their romantic relationship, so Colette leans a little on Regal here...and finds the knowledge that he also struggles with this to some degree to be cathartic. Like, oh, it's not just us! We're not alone!

[randomidiocyncrazies]

N P T Y!

thanks for the ask! i kinda went ham on the AU question lol

N - Name three things you wish you saw more of in your main fandom (or a fandom of choice).

oof this is hard! the thing is. i'm an extremely fickle mistress, so i don't really have a 'main' fandom? also i think most of what i want from fandom is extremely generic (more gen fic, more femslash, more AUs with interesting worldbuilding, more rarepairs etc etc) and most of my specific comments are aimed more at the source material than at the fandom

(that said, if anyone writes political intrigue and/or the mundane stuff of nation building about the Kree/Skrull Alliance please please please link! there's so much story potential there..............)

P - Invent a random AU for any fandom (we always need more ideas).

okay so i LOVE most AUs, but my favorite are well-done roleswaps (by which i mean the characters' core personalities are intact, it's just that their circumstances have changed). I mean... i still lowkey think about the Persona 4 adult investigation team AU a friend and I talked about almost 10 years ago lol

(oh! speaking of the Persona franchise, i've always kind of wondered what would happen if P4 protag moved to Sumaru City after P4 and gets Jun Kashihara from Persona 2 as his homeroom teacher, and one way or another accidentally triggers a way for Nyarlathotep to return (most likely with P4 protag coming into contact with Tatsuya by chance through Jun)—after all, the theme of Persona 4 is to lift the fog of deceit, but not all truths should be remembered... though I guess this isn't really AU since it could theoretically happen as long as you handwave the mechanics about how personas/Nyarly and Philemon work)

my other pet AU is the Appmon Utena AU because narratives about roles and agency fascinate me! (appmon and utena endgame spoilers in linked posts)

as for something that I'm mostly making up right now........... uhhhh Loveless AU for Oda and Aoki from 2.43 Seiin High School Men's Volleyball Team, but only about the concept of Fighter-Sacrifice pairs and not... everything else (I have not read Loveless but it's got A Reputation)—mostly because i think it'd be so interesting if their pair name is "Selfless", seeing as Oda tends to think of himself as selfish in the novel, while Aoki's speech about "no need to thank me, I'm doing this because of ulterior motives" and his utter devotion to Oda's cause makes me kiiinda feral. (and from what little i understand about the general power dynamics of Fighters and Sacrifices, i think it makes sense for Oda to be the Sacrifice and Aoki the Fighter? idk)

i haven't thought of why they're marked, since they're meant to be Just Some Guys in 2.43 (i.e. not one of the star players on the team)

T - Do you have any hard and fast headcanons that you will die defending? 

i'm not willing to die on this hill, but i have this entire elaborate headcanon about Euanthe from Counter/WEIGHT having a dead fiance and them being essentially an anti-stratus due to the programming language disconnect between the Divines and the Apostolisian mechs. both are just something i pulled completely out of my ass tho (note: Twilight Mirage is the last sci-fi season from friends at the table that i've completed)

as for something i'm slightly more willing to die defending: Yukiko and Chie from Persona 4 lived on takeout for like 4 months after they got their own place, before grudgingly learning how to cook at the Inaba community center (also Yosuke heckles them about it and sends shitty pics of his humble homemade dishes at ridiculous hours to taunt them about it—at least, that's how they interpret his gesture

and i mean. they aren't entirely wrong about that.)

Y - What are your secondhand fandoms (i.e., fandoms you aren’t in personally but are tangentially familiar with because your friends/people on your dash are in them)?

oh boy most popular media is like that for me... i feel like ORV is one of these even though i did read some of it? (and i mean. i do plan on reading past ch 75 of ORV one of these days.) i've heard stuff about SVSSS (about a rarepair/side character) and the Owl House seems interesting from the general impression i get from my dash

I guess i also. learned about SPN on tumblr (and know more than I want to, even though in the grand scheme of things it's not much at all)

[ask prompts here!]

[edoro]

Questions for fic writers: 9, 16, 26, 41

9. How do you find new fic to read? - every day, several times a day, i check my ao3 dashboard to see if i got any new comments, and then i hit the Hunter | The Golden Guard (The Owl House) tag and see if any new Hunter fics have been posted that i want to read.

sometimes people will recommend me fics that do not specifically involve him as a tagged character, and every so often i venture out of my current fandom fixation into a new one, but i pretty much always have a particular character or grouping of characters that i want to read about, so i primarily sort by character tags.

16. What’s an AU you would love to read (or have read and loved)? - i really love the Tag Team TOH au, and in general the entire concept of "what if Belos ended up getting Luz before Eda did?"

TOH specifically is also a canon that i think makes for a fascinating adaptation into a more mundane realistic setting - i also really love the fic Clawthorne's Landing, which is a mundane human au where Hunter runs away from his abusive uncle and ends up working at a farm run by Lilith in exchange for room and board. it's such a specialized little look into the author's personal area of experience and i love when aus show me a new way of looking at the world that i haven't experienced before!

i also theoretically enjoy the idea of like, social worker aus, where characters end up encountering Hunter specifically bc he gets removed from his uncle's custody due to various horrific abuses, but i have yet to find one that i actually like reading in practice.

i would also absolutely LOVE to see some kind of au where somehow Belos ends up dying before the Day of Unity and Hunter ends up on the throne, because i love me some tasty political intrigue. i want the full ASOIAF treatment here.

26. Would you rather write a fic that had no dialogue or one that was only dialogue? - oh, probably no dialogue. it's entirely possible i have WRITTEN fics with no dialogue? actually, Become Ungovernable comes pretty close because the only dialogue in it is a brief flashback to the canon scene that happens immediately before the fic starts.

but yeah i'd definitely find it much easier to write environmental descriptions or meandering internal monologue rather than all dialogue.

41. Link a fic that made you think, “Wow, I want to write like that.” - oooh gosh well tbqh every time i read a well-written fic i have a minor crisis of feeling like because that isn't my personal exact style, I Must Be Doing It Wrong, but!

The_Resurrection_3D has written a handful of TOH fics which are all my favorite entries in the "wow, there is something Fucking Wrong with Philip Wittebane" genre, and i love his style a lot. it's poetically gorgeous and communicates quite a lot with relatively few words (a thing i am very much not capable of lmao) and i also really admire the way he plays with style and structure and format.

i also really love the fic what we are is the sum of a thousand lies because of, specifically, how absolutely fucking funny it is, while still feeling very in-character. written humor can be hard! i like to think i'm funny but that's really up to peer review, right? anyway though, the sort of wryly understated ridiculousness of the entire situation and the verbal exchanges here, contrasting with but never undermining or overshadowing the emotional impact of the situation itself, are just very good and something i definitely strive for myself.

[cheeriecherry]

more characters maybe + potentially moving blogs

If I were to expand the five somethings prompts to other characters as well, who would you guys most want to read about?

This is theoretical though. I’m only considering expanding the character list to Beyond Just Viktor, but if I can get a feel for who you guys might want to request, then I can potentially do some deep dives into character studies.

News: I am slowly recovering from illness, and slowly working on fics!

About the ‘moving blogs’ thing. So this blog where I post all my fics is a Side Blog - meaning I can’t reply to any of you guys when you leave cute messages on my fics. But I really really want to! I want to engage with this sweet little community we’ve got, but I’m Chronically Nervous about people knowing who I actually am.

I have my face and name on my main blog, and so many random posts, old stuff, and people I know in real life. I know we’re all weird little goblins here on this site, and I love that for us; I also still struggle with letting people see my ‘cringe’ interests - they’re not cringe, I’m just absolutely terrified of judgement, and that’s another reason why I like having a separate fic blog. I’m able to sort of like, I dunno, compartmentalize my stress?

Fandom is stressful, and I have -in the past- had interactions with some not so nice people. And I love writing, but I also fear being judged for my creations, even though they’re just harmless fun. Having a separate space for my fics, and working under an alias, allows me to do the writing I enjoy without taking personally any snide remarks that might come.

All this to say: people scare me and I want some anonymity while still being able to engage with you guys and do some goofs.

So again this is still something I’m only considering, but would you guys be cool with this blog moving over to another account? Not closing, or deleting anything, just. Reposting everything over in one big go (or several small goes), leaving links to the new blog, and basically letting cobwebs collect on the current blog.

Thank you all for taking the time to read!

[liminalpsych-in-teyvat]

Notes for A Matter of Duty - Chapter 5: The night wind's sigh

Thoma's Vision quest has the quote: "Ten years ago, when the Yashiro Commission's Kamisato Clan was losing its power. Kamisato Ayato, who was embroiled in the dispute over the succession rights of the clan due to the death of both parents…"

The Hiiragi family (Kanjou Commission) and the Kujou family (Tenryou Commission) have subordinate clans who assist them in their Commission work. That's called out specifically in Ayato's story quest and in Raiden's story quest. Theoretically, the Kamisato family also has subordinate clans (the Kaedehara Clan was one such family), but none of them are named. The only NPC serving the Yashiro Commission who has a family name is Madarame Hyakubei (the one in the Kamisato Estate who handles reputation quests).

So I had to make up some more subordinate families, and some relatives, because otherwise who else would be a candidate for succession of the Kamisato Clan? We only know about Ayato and Ayaka and their deceased parents; no other relatives are mentioned.

Hopefully the political infodump wasn't too tedious! I will now return to your regularly scheduled porn in Chapter 6.

No research links this time, because it was all just me poring through the Genshin wiki. For hours.

Summary of the fic itself with content warnings, tags, etc so you can decide if you want to read it or not before you click on the link.

A Matter of Duty

"Back then, I had no choice but to accept the position I was in. While I desperately looked around for powerful supporters, I endured smear campaigns and attempts to exploit me. I had no other choice… I didn't mind what became of me, but my family… No one can ever be allowed to trample over my precious family."

How Ayato secured powerful supporters, endured exploitation, and weathered the storm of the years following the death of his parents… and how Thoma helped him contend with a bunch of self-serving, degenerate public officials.

And how, after much stilted fumbling and well-intended sacrifice, they learned the truth of one another's hearts.

Note: Mind the tags. More specific content warnings will be given at the beginning of each chapter, and the story tags will be updated as needed. All characters involved in any sex scenes are adults.

Rating: Explicit. It's porn with plot. Porn as a vehicle for plot, or plot as a vehicle for porn, you can interpret it either way. (I prefer: porn and plot as a vehicle for ~feels~)

Tags that I'm not actually turning into tags here, but it gives you an idea of what you're in for: Kamisato Ayato/Thoma (Genshin Impact), dubious consent but not between Ayato and Thoma, slow burn, sex ed, first time, self-sacrifice, humiliation, exhibitionism, oral sex, anal sex, bdsm, bad bdsm etiquette, rough sex, breath play, impact play, bondage, service kink, abuse, sadism, codependency, shame, guilt, jealousy, possessiveness, trauma, ptsd, dissociation, political sex work, or sex work for political maneuvering, or political survival sex work if that’s a thing, exploitation, blackmail, political machinations, political intrigue, no aftercare, maybe someday some aftercare, hurt/comfort, mostly hurt for a long time but eventually comfort, oblivious disaster gays, for such socially savvy people they are terrible at personal relationships, dominant Ayato, submissive Thoma, top Ayato, bottom Thoma, Ayato is incredibly parentified, Thoma has no sense of self-preservation, self-sacrifice isn't a contest but don't tell Ayato and Thoma that, it's like the snipe-the-check game at restaurants but with sex and politics, Kushiel's Impact, no really this was in my drafts for the longest time as Kusheline Thomato Fic, everyone's an adult in this timeline except Ayaka, she gets protected at all costs, original characters out of necessity, finding appropriate existing Inazuma npcs for some of these roles was impossible, no beta we die like ayato's parents

Full fic: https://archiveofourown.org/works/47604337?view_full_work=true

Chapter 5: The night wind's sigh: Thoma gives his report, learns more about the political situation, and finally puts together some painful puzzle pieces.

Chapter contains: allusions to sex work, vague allusions to past dubious consent, hangover, arguing, angst, and politics. (Relatively mild chapter, really, compared to the others.)

[nicsnort]

Gravita Anima (part 68)

Nightcrawler/Fem!OC/Quicksilver Long-form romance and drama fic. All chapters have been posted on Ao3.

Intro (with link to Ao3 story) First Previous

The X-men were assembled in the war room. Lucy stood off to the side, knowing this was about Elle’s father. She stood next to Hank. Outside of the room lingered Pietro -- a detail that Xavier, Wolverine, Beast, and Jean picked up on, but all giving it a moment to see what might happen.

Xavier explained the background of the story before launching into the plan. “The man has requested dinner with Eleanor with the threat of placing several people hostage. The idea is that we will rent out the restaurant as best as we can to limit civilians. Kurt located a restaurant, Toloache. De La Rocha is a strong empath, so Jean and I will renew mental shields. We need to incapacitate this man before he can attempt anything. Given that there is a risk that we may be turned against one another unwillingly…” 

Elle listened to Xavier explain the situation. To have someone else describe what was going on in such a formal manner was strange. She answered a couple of questions but mostly just stood there with the X-men giving her glances every so often. It was almost obvious what was on Scott’s mind. ‘I told you it was dangerous’ ‘You should have expected something like this’ but at the very least, with this being a mission, he was taking it seriously.

“Will the mental shields actually help,” Rogue asked. “You said Kurt was taken over easily, and he had shields in place.”

“He wasn’t expecting a mental attack, and with the boost that the Professor just gave him, even to me, his emotions are harder to read,” Elle told her, squeezing Kurt’s hand unconsciously. “I was also able to bring him back, force out Manuel’s control by restoring his emotional signature...theoretically, I could do it for any of you, but I would need to learn your emotions much better...the way that Manuel took control of Kurt was by taking everything away. Very different from how I can control people. At the very least, we will be able to tell who is controlled because they will act like a zombie.”

The X-men listened to her nodding. “Does that mean you will be hanging around for a few days,” Hank inquired.

“I will try.” Elle bit her lower lip in thought. “I don’t want him showing up to interrupt my daily life. I have work.”

“And him showing up shouldn’t have to interrupt your life,” Xavier told her. “When do you have off next?”

“Tomorrow, so I could spend the night and tomorrow getting to know everyone better. I have Monday off as well; we could try to schedule the time then.”

Xavier gave a nod. “Then that is what we will do. Why don’t you spend a few hours with each of the X-men? I believe Kitty and Rogue are making dinner tonight; perhaps you could join them in the kitchen.”

“Yeah, we’re doing up spaghetti and meatballs,” Kitty told her. “We were about to start before the Professor called us down.”

“Sounds great,” Elle told them. She looked around the room to see if there were any more comments. Making eye contact with Lucy, she gave a small smile. Perhaps, Lucy would join her in the kitchen. 

Lucy squeezed Hank’s arm and started after the girls. Rogue and Kitty started to walk upstairs with Elle and Lucy in tow. When they got to the kitchen, Lucy sighed. “Damn, I forgot we’re a school...no wine.” She rested her hip against the counter as Kitty went back to boiling water, and Rogue went to get the pasta out of the cabinets. “I could just visit De La Rocha at night and put a stop to all of this,” she suggested.

Elle stood against the opposite counter to Lucy, closer to where Kitty was working on boiling a massive pot of water. Kitty and Rogue would be easy to learn. Kitty was bubbly and bright; Rogue was smooth and deep. At Lucy’s suggestion, Elle chuckled just a bit. “I don’t think that would really help but thank you. I mean, sure, you could mentally destroy him, but I can’t ask you to do that. What would happen if he ever recovered? He’d come back with a vengeance...and I am not going to let you kill him if that is what you were suggesting.”

Running her hands through her hair, Elle sighed. “No, I need to deal with him myself. I need to show the Brotherhood, show Magneto, that his attempts of revenge and punishing me are worthless. And I need Manuel to deliver that message to Frost as well.”

Lucy gave a half-nod. “I mean, I suppose a man of his type might be able to get enough psychological treatment to gain his mind back.” Still, she knew entirely what Elle meant. Magneto was a man of symbols, and Elle putting De La Rocha in his place needed to happen. She opened a cabinet and pulled out some oregano, garlic salt, and pepper under Kitty’s direction. She glanced back at Elle at her remark and smiled a little.

Rogue walked between them, carrying several jars of pasta sauce for heating. “Move a bit, will ya’,” she said to Elle, shooing her down the counter a bit. “Y’all don’t want me brushing you by accident…”

Elle moved away a few inches to give Rogue plenty of room to stir. She looked back at Lucy and smiled. “So, I saw Hank’s interview. It's official, a second school.”

“Yes...he did fantastically, but he always does with public speaking.” It was on the tip of Lucy’s tongue to tell her friend what happened with Trish, but she would wait until they were alone. No need to alter the girls’ perspective of her so soon. “We can’t go back on our word now! He really wants to do this...with me. I found a spot. I just need to buy it, get it inspected, and start the building. PR is never too early.”

She walked over and stood next to Elle, lowering her voice. She was pretty sure neither Rogue nor Kitty -- one of whom was literally waist-deep in the fridge without opening it -- could hear murmurs. “Elle, don’t say anything, but...I’ve decided. I’m going to buy a ring and propose to Hank in the near future.”

“WHAT?!” Elle immediately shouted at the news, a huge excited grin on her face. With an excited grimace, she looked over at Rogue and Kitty...the former who had hit her head looking up at the shout. “Sorry,” Elle called out to them before looking back at Lucy with a giggle. “What? Really? Like how soon? A few days? A couple of weeks? Details girl!”

Rogue gave a suspicious look at the two, knowing that a secret with that reaction was worth knowing. She opened up the jars of pasta to warm up but stayed close. Lucy blushed and gave a nervous giggle herself. “I haven’t figured that part out yet. The whole...Trish incident needs to die down a bit first. Hopefully, in a few weeks. But...I thought perhaps we would go out to his favorite restaurant and...you know. You don’t think it’s too soon?” 

“Too soon for what, sugar?” Rogue inquired as she rinsed out the jar. 

“The second school.” Lucy lied smoothly. “To start taking applications before the building is even built.” 

Kitty broke the pasta and tossed it into the boiling water. “Is it going to be a prep school or a place for those in need?” 

“Need, of course. You’re right; it’s silly. So, anyway, Elle, uh, I’ll let you get to know these two.” She walked to the fridge, knowing she would only dig her grave deeper if she kept talking. 

Too soon? Elle had her opinion on that. Yes. They had only been dating for a few weeks and had known each other for a few months. If Kurt proposed to her so soon...Elle was suddenly distracted by that idea and only managed to give Lucy a small wave goodbye. Kurt proposing? With all the joking - hopefully joking - talk of a wedding ceremony, Elle couldn’t help but imagine it. Kurt and her shared a love for the classics. It would be a grand gesture from him, right? With music and flowers, he’d be wearing a suit and her the loveliest dress...the perfect end to a perfect date.

Rogue gave a skeptical look to Lucy as she left but nodded, sprinkling some of the spices into the sauce. “So how’s it work? You just...hang out with us? Or do you do something like the Professor does?”

Rogue’s question pulled Elle from her daydream. There was a soft blush on her face as she answered. “Well, I just sort of picked up on Kurt’s and...other peoples,” she wasn’t about to say, Pietro, “just by being around them. I figure if I concentrate on learning yours, it will work well enough?” Elle shrugged. “What does the professor do?”

“He puts his hands on either side of your head and enters your mind,” Kitty replied.

“Oh, okay, yes, I saw him doing that to put the shield inside my mother’s mind...I could try that if one of you doesn’t mind being a guinea pig.”

Kitty and Rogue looked at each other, and Kitty nodded. “Alright, Rogue, keep an eye on the pasta.”

They sat in two of the kitchen chairs while Rogue looked on. Elle held her hands up to either side of Kitty’s head and concentrated...nothing. She wasn’t sure what to do. Both Frost and Xavier had done mental exercises with her. Frost brought Elle inside that mind space, but...what did she need? What would help her learn? She imagined herself going into Kitty’s mind, connecting with it. No. Not just her mind, her soul, her being.

Unconsciously Elle began to filter Kitty through a range of emotions. Flipping back and forth quickly, seeing how her base emotions responded. In Elle’s mind’s eye, two golden strings - just like those that connected her to the people she had controlled - entered Kitty’s head at the temples. The threads moved across her emotional soul, mapping it. Fear.

Elle pulled out instantly, opening her eyes to see Kitty silently crying with a look of fear on her face. “I’m sorry,” she said immediately. “I’m so sorry.”

“It’s okay,” Kitty sniffed. “It was an experiment...Rogue chocolate?”

“Of course, Kitty,” Rogue replied, getting some chocolate out of the ceiling. “I don’t think that is going to work for the rest of us.” She told Elle.

Elle nodded hurriedly in agreement. “Certainly, I don’t even know what I was doing. I shouldn’t have tried. I’m just...I’ll leave you guys alone for a bit.” With that, Elle hurried out of the kitchen. She needed some air.

~~~

The late summer air was cool on Elle’s face. Autumn was on its way. The tourist season would be ending, but the school season would be starting. Yet, Elle may not even be a guide soon. Outside of the manor, Elle walked away from the school towards the edge of the forest, where there were a few benches. Sitting down, she looked around over the grounds.

Closing her eyes, Elle let the breeze blow over her face. It was nice. It took her mind off what just happened. She wasn’t even sure what she had done. What she unintentionally did to Kitty seemed far more invasive than controlling someone. Yet, Elle had no idea what she could have done. Why did her powers have to be so frightening and awful? Why did she have to hurt someone every time she discovered a new power?

“Anima.”

Elle wasn’t aware of Wanda near her until the other woman spoke. Opening her eyes, Elle looked over the red-clad woman. “My name is Elle, Wanda,” she told her friend. Friend? Could she still call the woman a friend? “But if Anima is easier for you…” Elle sighed deeply before giving a tired smile. “How can I help you?”

It could have been in Wanda’s nature to be waspish, to remark that at least the woman’s names stayed true despite everything. She didn’t, though. It wasn’t a time to fight; though she hadn’t completely forgiven her for what happened, she knew her brother had done plenty already. 

“So your father has found you, all because of my father.” It was an observation, neutral. 

Elle felt the automatic prickliness and defensiveness from Wanda at her words. Yet, she also felt Wanda force the emotions back, overcoming her initial reaction. That was good? Yes, that was a good sign. “It seems so,” Elle replied, leaning back against the bench. “I didn’t care to know about him before, and now I wish I didn’t…” 

A mixture of emotions crossed Elle’s face as she looked at Wanda. Regret, guilt, but also hope and friendliness. “...I am sorry, you know, about hurting him and you.”

Wanda looked closely at Elle. “It would have been different if you hadn’t joined us with the intention to deceive. If you joined us wanting to join, and then changed your mind…but you knew what you were doing when you befriended us...and got Pietro to like you.” In other words, her apology wasn’t accepted. 

Elle’s actions had caused quite a stir. It prompted Pietro to finally acknowledge that their father was selfish and horrible as a father -- demanding and awe-inspiring as a leader -- which Wanda was glad for to some degree. Certainly, the Brotherhood was more home to her than the X-men, but that, she hoped, would change with time. It had crossed both her mind and Pietro’s when they first left on just...existing on their own. They had before when they were younger, when their mother was sick then when Magneto was too distracted to care for them. But it was different back then. Mutants were more under the radar. And now? It was dangerous to be alone.

At Wanda’s words, Elle’s shoulders slumped just a bit. Of course. No forgiveness yet. Perhaps ever. She had hurt Wanda’s brother. She had hurt Pietro. The sting must be far too fresh to contemplate it...but then again. Maybe forgiveness wasn’t necessary. Elle was never going to forgive Pietro for what he did with Michael, but she was willing to work with him. She was willing to support him and Wanda in front of the X-men. Perhaps there was hope for her and Wanda’s friendship. Perhaps even hope for a pleasant relationship with Pietro.

“You all will be risking your lives trying to take him down. Any friend of Frost’s is a worthy and dangerous opponent.” As if Elle didn’t know that already. “I say this, not because of whatever ‘friendship’ we have left, but because...if we’re going to be part of this group...genuinely part of this group...we’re willing to help out.”

This prospect was bolstered further by Wanda’s next words. The friendship they had left? She and Pietro wanted to be a part of helping her? Helping the X-men? A gentle and hopeful smile grew on Elle’s face. “So we have a possible friendship left,” Elle asked before continuing. “I would be glad to have you both along. I will talk to Xavier about it.”

Elle remembered that Xavier had said they wouldn’t be joining in on missions right away. But this was her problem; surely she should have a say in the matter of who helped.

Wanda gave a short nod. She suspected Xavier would see its wisdom, particularly if the man didn’t know that Wanda and Pietro had left the Brotherhood. And, if anything, if Pietro wanted to help...he’d help. He wouldn’t let anyone stand in his way. Even if his intent was...gray.

“Keep us posted.” Wanda walked away, back through the gardens to find a spot that felt right so she could finish her book. It was much more comfortable out here than inside. She had said her piece. She was confident, like her brother, that they would be involved somehow. 

Elle wanted to speak to Wanda some more. She wanted to know what really happened when Pietro was kicked out of the Brotherhood. She wanted to speak about the book series they both liked. She wanted to know if Wanda had known or even knew what Pietro did with Micheal. Elle just wanted her friend back...but no. What Wanda said was a reminder: Elle shouldn’t have been friends with her in the first place. She should have foregone making personal connections, especially the ones with Pietro. So Elle let her leave.

Breathing in slowly, Elle focused her thoughts. Right now, it wasn’t about her relationship with the twins. It was about stopping Manuel and protecting her mother. Getting off the bench she headed back inside to talk to Xavier about the twins joining the mission.

___

Next

Fanfic Masterlist

[thatlittledandere]

For the character ask game: Yu Narukami and/or Kanji Tatsumi

There is no "or"

send a character

Yu Narukami

How I feel about this character

The Yu that exists in my head at this point is only distantly related to any canon iteration but man I like that goober.

All the people I ship romantically with this character

Yochuke <3<3<3 Adacky :3 Pretty much any Yu ship can be sold to me tbh he just goes well together with so many people. Power of bonds <3 Best girl Hisano x Yu fanfic when

My non-romantic OTP for this character

I would feel insanely guilty if I named any IT member over the others so Nanako ofc <3 God I am so weak to overbearing, protective older siblings. Yu sees his own past loneliness in Nanako and goes Not On My Watch he went and fixed her (/j)

My unpopular opinion about this character

Yu in the anime, Yu in Dancing and Arena (and BBtag) and Souji in the manga are like different characters, not to mention the stage play and whatever we get out of the silent protagonist in the game, so I think it's pretty useless to argue about what Yu is "canonically". He loves his family and friends, that's consistent. He is what you want him to be pretty much. I have my own set ways but I'm not too picky about how others depict him, I've read some very different Yus. Sometimes he's even been an asshole. That's fun <3

Is FFN still up I could try to find that one unfortunate post-ghosting-breakup Sounao fic.

One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon.

Better dialogue options for Naoto's social link good god I do not want to say any of that

Kanji Tatsumi

How I feel about this character

It is CRIMINAL that my heart decides my favorite characters indtead of my brain because Kanji is best boy. Good guy. Solid dude. Great chum.

All the people I ship romantically with this character

Naoto mainly <3<3 Soukan can be good too but I'm not too actively into it for obvious reasons. Yosuke preventing the NICE gays from getting together in peace smh 🙄

My non-romantic OTP for this character

Yu and Rise <3<3 Yu is just good for everyone and I lovve the theoretical first-year solidarity that the trio has in my head and briefly in P4D featuring Teddie who I forgot exists again godd dammit.

My unpopular opinion about this character

I don't really have any? Kanji is bi or pan but even that is popular enough despite being contested.

One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon.

It's gonna be about Naoto again they have good moments but I'm always in need of more Kannao where Naoto is nice or appreciative to Kanji. Like it happens but it could happen MORE lol. ALSO ALSO ALSO CAN HE PEEEASE GET FRIENDS WHOARE NICE ABOUT HIS HOBBIES!!! "Sure you're a weirdo and a creep but we can still hang" DOESN'T COUNT