#and trying to figure out tone based on how people talk. so i tend to add an excessively positive tone so that i don't come across as mean

[megumi-fm]

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[thecomfywriter]

How to Write Narration/Dialogue in a Child’s Perspective:

navigation post preorder my book! buy me a ko-fi? discord! ToV community!

Heyyo! Welcome to a new #thecomfywritertoolbox post! This question came up in discord (this is for you, @the-letterbox-archives) so I thought I’d write a post about it, since I haven’t done one of those in a while.

Before we get into it—as you can tell, I have a new blog post setup!!! I’m really happy with how it turned out, since i wanted to organize my posts better without having all the links bombarding the bottom. So yes, check out the links above ☝️

Now, without further ado… On writing children’s voices.

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Age and Developmental Stages:

Children have a very unique perspective in this world, especially since age and time in terms of childhood works completely different to how it works with adults. A two year age gap between a twelve-year-old and a fourteen-year-old can feel monumental due to the development, life stage, and experience each child has. Twelve-year-olds are still newbies in middle school, probably forking around with their friends, going to recess twice a day and needing to ask permission to get something out of their desk (this is based on the Canadian experience lol. Obviously, it differs between countries). Whereas fourteen-year-olds are freshman in high school. TOTALLY DIFFERENT.

so when writing from a child’s perspective, really consider their age as a determining factor.

a kid trying to fit into their new high school and impress their older classmates will talk far more differently than a preschooler, or a middle schooler.

Listen to audios with children of said demographic speaking:

You’ll notice children tend to have a different cadence and pattern of speech. They hesitate on some words, stutter on others, drift off into though mid-sentence, or jump ship and talk about something completely different. The younger they are, the smaller their attention span, and the more filterless they become, because younger children don’t yet have a grasp on social norms, so they’ll tend to speak their mind and ask more questions.

Another thing to consider here, however, is how they were raised. were they raised to be priss and proper, and speak without stuttering? Do they have a speech coach for that?

Questions to consider when addressing the cadence, tone, and patterns of speech of children:

Do they have a lisp that needs addressing?

Do they speak really quickly and forget to take pauses, meaning they have a lot of run on sentences?

Are they emotionally reactive and yell a lot, or switch between moods fairly quickly?

Vocab and grammar!!!

Again, this is highly dependent on the age demographic of your kid, but younger kids are shit at grammar!!! Especially the funky rules of irregular English verbs. It’s harder for a child, who is taught to recognize the conjugation patterns of ‘-ed’ to signal past tense, all of a sudden be told that saying “telled” is wrong. They might make mistakes like that until they are corrected otherwise.

But again, that’s for the younger kids.

Elementary school kids will chipper chapper with their friends and family a lot. They seek to impress most of the time. They’ll get excited over things they know really well and most kids giggle a lot/get excited when it comes to talk about them (some kids have social anxiety and won't, but instead go quiet). When I worked summer camp, the kids would always try to grab me and smile really bright whenever attention was on them and whatever they wanted to talk about. They made a lot of silly jokes, but acted mighty proud whenever people laughed at them. So they’d repeat the joke louder. Again. And again. And again.

It’s an age of asking approval from adults and peers. But also an age when the idea of authority inspires submission, because they regard those authority figures in a higher esteem. So the way an elementary kid will be boisterous and laugh amongst friends is probably not how they’ll talk to adults. Until that adult earns their trust, they might just shrink into themselves and be as small as possible.

Then you have the defiant age group. The preteens to teenagers. They have their own slang, oftentimes. A way to differentiate those from the “in-group” and those on the “out-group”. if the out-group uses their slang, “Eww… that’s so weird. Why are you talking like that? Look at her, she’s trying to be cool, oh my god. That’s so embarrassing.”

Yeah, this is the age where passive aggressive bullying is strong lmao.

Younger kids trying to be mean will be blunt with it: “Your mom smells like old socks!”

Older kids? Older kids will give you stank eyes, lock gazes with their friends, try to fight off a laugh, and then look back at you all sobered up. There’s more exclusivity at this age, but also a wider range of vocab. That vocab is used creatively, as a means to express oneself in a unique way, or as representative to the group they identify with. So bear that in mind.

And then you have young adults but womp womp this is about kids LMAO.

Perspective:

LASTLY… Consider perspective. How does a child see the world? Bright and colourful? Hopeful? Do they notice the butterflies that flutter across the sky, the ones that adults have gotten used to, so their eyes glaze over? Do they smile at every stranger because their parents taught them to always be kind? Do they spot an ice cream truck down the street and LOCK IN before proceeding to plead their parents for money to go buy some?

What are the things the child values? What are the things that they haven’t wrapped their head around yet? if you’re trying to write in the perspective of a child, these are the things to consider.

Oh yeah. Bonus point. Children gets embarrassed TEN TIMES easier than adults do. Specifically preteens and teenagers. Younger children are a bit more shameless, because again… No concept of social norms. But preteens have started to develop this shame and insecurity and MY GOD it burns.

So TLDR:

Consider age demographic (SPECIFIC AGE)

Consider grammar mistakes and vocabulary limitations

Differences in peer-peer interactions vs adult-child interactions

Consider perspective

Cadence, tone, and speech patterns

Watch videos and observe the way children speak in different contexts

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That’s all folks! Have a mighty bopping Saturday!

Happy Writing!

[sunriseverse]

For the ask game for fic writers: 2, 8, 10, 20, 27, 37, 45, 52, 55, 75, 88, 99

ah, sass, thank you! i love talking about writing :) this is going below the cut because it got long.

2. talk about a notable time a narrative or character has looked you dead in the eyes and said “fuck your plan, here’s what we’re actually doing.”

hm...................i was going to say that i don't usually have this problem and usually just run into the issue of my own mind refusing to write something that doesn't take into account the societal and cultural context i'm writing the characters in, but then i remembered the time i was writing god knows i can never get rid of habits and i was about halfway through, sleep deprived as fuck, and texted my friend in an exasperated, defeated tone, quote, "the show has repeatedly made me say “ugh fuck there’s a blowjob in my future isn’t there” which sounds wild out of context but the context is i think i can’t avoid writing them fucking in this fic". sometimes i cannot control the characters sometimes they really just want to have sex and i have to deal with this.

8. what’s your relationship with constructive criticism and feedback like? do you seek it out? how well do you take it?

if you try and give me "concrit" on my fanfic then i rip you to shreds in dms with my friends. i write to excise the spirit of creativity from where it's possessing my physical form, not to have people try and tell me how to "better" my writing. i'm aware my writing tends to have a lot of things people don't usually enjoy (heavily descriptive, emotion-focused, present tense, a more realistic approach to tropes or themes, etc) and i, frankly, don't care. my writing is for me; everyone else is just getting to enjoy it because i'm egotistical enough to post it. (that said, for my original writing i welcome concrit, because i actually have the intent of having them published. i just haven't managed to get around to finishing many original projects, historically.)

10. at what point in the process do you come up with titles, and how easy or hard is that for you?

i do not come up with titles until the moment i have to post to ao3. i hate coming up with titles and am very grateful when i figure out a lyric from a song or a line from a poem fits it. well..........usually, anyway. all my sunrise fics have had pre-planned titles—but, then again, sunrise is very much an outlier, so.

20. what is your favorite trope to write?

i don't think i've really had a defined trope across my writing the last few years? i guess if i had to choose one, probably the 5+1 format or derivations of it.

27. do you share rough drafts or do you wait until it’s all polished? 28. And who do you share them with?

for people to read my rough drafts i would have to have rough drafts. i genuinely don't give a fuck about "perfecting" a piece, whatever gets written the first time is what gets posted. could my writing be "better"? probably! do i care? no. i wouldn't say my writing is the best ever, but i personally like it and that's what matters. that said, i do send screenshots of sections i really like to my friends as i write, because i like making them yell at me.

37. when creating characters, what comes first: appearance, backstory, motivation, personality, something else?

this i guess only really applies to ocs; in that case, i usually come up with a character archetype, an archetype i'm trying to subvert, or an overarching narrative from which i can extrapolate characters. after that, i come up with names based on that, and then appearances are what i come up with last, usually.

45. name three of your favorite fanfic writers.

only three???? no. absolutely not. @lungache @butchybats @lucientelrunya @owengrose @lunarriviera @lunanoc and probably more whose urls i am forgetting.

52. how many unfinished ideas/stories are you working on at the same time?

oh god......................i have so many unfinished fics T^T i have ones that are unfinished but actively being worked on, unfinished but not actively being worked on but which i think about regularly, unfinished and i wish i could finish them but i just never have the time, unfinished because they were a joint project with a friend and then we never finished them and now we're both too busy and not in those fandoms anymore, and unfinished and rotting forever in the cabinet of abandoned wips.

55. do you have any abandoned WIP’s? What made you abandon them?

uhhhhh okay so. i have. a megop fic (transfomers aligned continuity, pre canon), another megop fic (also aligned continuity), a dc fic, and a gotham fic. the transformers fics would probably be most likely to be completed because i actually have detailed notes for them, the dc fic is dead in the water, and the gotham fic i would have to rewatch the show and i don't need to hurt myself like that again.

75. do you know how your story ends before you start writing?

yeah i need to know at least the basic narrative beats before i start writing. often this means me rambling at my friends in our dms to work out my ideas and the approach i want to take, but i can't start something without knowing how it ends because otherwise it'll never be finished.

88. if you could have another author write your wip for you (bc we all dream of this occasionally), who would it be?

hmmmmm i think i would make @xueyang write my mdzs fics because i think they could make them funny. and good. and also emotionally devastating. (hi mar i'm going to write that fic for you i Swear.)

99. was being a writer a dream of yours when you were little? or did it spring up when your older? or is it just a hobby? 

actually i never expected to become a writer, despite having been writing since i was a young child. i actually thought i wanted to be a fashion designer. which to be fair i guess kind of happened since i can't stop drawing outfit/character designs. but yeah i didn't expect to become a Writer the way that i am now. it's easily one of the foundational aspects of my life and daily routines, and i could not have expected that the first time i started writing.

[tedlebred]

if youre comfortable sharing, whats your rendering process? what are some ways you learned? your art is very yummy

HSHSHHSHS hello!!!!!!!!!! first off omg,,,, thank you so much,,,,🤭🤭

secondly!!!! heres my attempt at a rendering process explanation. uhm. warning ive never really been asked to explain it before please bare with me

BUT. here goes. this'll probably be ungodly long apologies

so when i render my biggest rule is basically Do Not Blend Ever. what i do is do my sketch, then flats, then basic placement of blush/shadows+darkest parts/etc and then i go in and just colourpick the inbetweens+place them between colours in small strokes until the changes in colour don't look too sharp/jarring

here's some examples of the process;;;

(still a wip but HSHSHHS) so i work on 3 layers primarily (sometimes i do the hair+items that cover the face on another layer, too, though they might end up getting merged):

^ with just the sketch layer n flats / and then with the render layer added

i go in with a bigger brush to block in colour variation on the face on the flats layer and then paint over that, as well as over the sketch, with smaller strokes on a render layer- i never do lineart lol, and any "lineart" thats visible is just the sketch peeking through. I try to rely on colour and shadow to create shapes and boundaries instead of lines though this isn’t a hard and fast rule.

i also try to stick to the same pallette the entire drawing- once the flats and shadows are first roughly blocked in all the other tones/midshades/colours are basically just inbetweens picked directly from the drawing. Just me zooming in real close till I can see the pixels and colour picking where they sort of mix. (any smaller shifts in hue/tones are just colours with saturation slightly turned up or down, usually) im also not sure if this helps but i use the Sol brush from the clip studio assets store for literally everything from sketch to render, which is basically just a slightly soft opacity brush which ive deluded myself into thinking helps give my art a softer look. idfk if it does or not.:)

I like to use really saturated blush and for shadows I usually use two base colours; a warmer one and a colder one- a warmer one for smaller shadows and shadows near light and then colder ones for planes more in darkness. Also, usually, at the very end of the drawing I’ll add a layer that’s just fully yellow with colour burn or linear burn or multiply turned on and the opacity turned low just to make everything warmer. (a little thing I like doing for shadows sometimes is never making them reach the edge of the plane; the actual edge is usually a slightly lighter shade and it sort of looks like stylised bounce light that would probably not be there but anyhoo)

but yeah,,,, Never Blend But Make It Look Almost Blended. I’ve been doing it forever,,,,,, and I really like the almost shiny feeling it gives things:)))

And where did I learn. Ough. A lot of what I do I figured out through trial and error and just drawing a bunch (IM SORRY THATS REALLY NOT HELPFUL) but some sources I looked towards were sinix design and bluebiscuits on YouTube!!!!! Sinix has a really good video on rendering skin which is where I sort of took my principles from and ran. And bluebiscuits was a huge inspiration for me when I started trying to render things beyond flats!!!!!!! They’re also where I found the sol brush, lol. Also just,,, the impressionist movement as a whole is a massive inspiration. The use of light and shapes to create form is just,,, omg. Especially Claude Monet in particular. (and for the basics of drawing I learnt from my aunt!)

and honestly, just observing people. A lot of the time when I’m watching a movie or on a walk or even just talking with someone I tend to start looking at their face, and the different planes, how light hits it and how shadow interacts with it, where the shadows are harsher/softer……….people are wild man

I really hope that made sense!!!!!! I’ve never tried explaining it before and honestly, I’m not even really sure how I do it. I just sorta. Switch off and start drawing, yk? BUT I HOPE IT HELPED!!!!🫶🫶💞💖

in case that was all utter nonsense here’s a speedpaint that’ll hopefully demonstrate my process;;

I also have straight up screen recordings of me drawing but. I don’t think anyone wants to sit though that

thank you for the ask!!!!!have a nice day/night and SORRY THAT ENDED UP THAT LONG

[pandorafallz]

Vampire AU | New histories and in sights

News of the spirit tree did spread between the camps in the few days that passed and Jake was well aware of those for it and those less willing to try it out and it became a discussion over the radio of who was going and when (based on Mo’at’s availability) and the aftermath of the connection which would upset the camp’s balance until people had adapted to the new connection.

Morgan, Bree, Kim, Jerome, Kendra, Ashley, Harper, Zane, Zeke, and Xavier were straight off the bat interested in connecting to Eywa (those with avatars would go there in human forms for their native bodies to adapt)

Eliza, Maria, Danielle, Kung, and Matthew all were disinterested in connection. The rest, Wei, Sean, Marcus, Will, Ming, and Austin were willing to connect but would wait until another time to do so, very casual about it. Nadine was the only one who wanted to go but was unwilling to enter the cave system to get there. Moran wanted to as well but had concerns with compatibility with his cranial implants that lived under his skin.

A mixed bag of cats but Jake was glad to see so many humans were willing to try it out and see. One day, those disinterested would connect. The hot springs were still a hit, despite the initial mood-killer but Jake had taken the time to visit again the next day (and to properly wash the human clothes from his camp) in a far better mood which really helped restore the caves for him.

Jake’s attention turned up to Ruby as her tail once again thumped irritably against his back occupied in gently spinning together at Hometree. The slight recoil was the only indication he was being softly struck since he was human today. “You okay, Ruby?” he decided to ask after the third time.

“Hm? Oh yes.” Ruby nodded. “It’s…nothing.” Her tone wavered a little.

Jake eyed her expression for a moment, noting the pull between her eyebrows and her… lack of concentration on her actual work as she spun her fibres. Working on auto.

“If you want to talk, I’m about or Mo’at. I heard she took Bree and Zeke down to the caves to connect to Eywa this morning and let them rest up quietly in her den.” Jake offered.

Ruby paused, expression turning frustrated. “I wish she allowed me to go down today.”

“You know why.” Jake said softly, “I’m… I know I don’t get why and I won’t ask but… I think Mo’at probably needs to understand why you need to feel Eywa’s love so intently.”

Uncertainty lingered in Ruby’s yellow eyes. “It’s… complicated.”

“I figured as much but… Mo’at is doing her best to try and help humans. She’d been helping Nadine with her PTSD from the wars and had been learning how humans interact by learning from us. She is the spiritual leader and a healer for a reason. She could help you if you let her. I can try if you want.”

Ruby chewed her lip for a moment before she set the spindle down and stared at him for a moment in quiet contemplation as she clearly weighed the options. “Zane’s at camp so… I can’t bring him along for emotional support. I can… I’m willing to trust you to not spill what I say to Mo’at, right?”

“You have my confidence,” Jake promised because… he hoped this was a good step for Ruby to evolve. To reach out to someone else and while he wasn’t the brightest person, he’d be someone that they could rely on.

Ruby nodded and gestured softly as a means of asking to pick him up. Jake nodded, raising his arms and settling his arm onto her shoulder and she grabbed his chair with her other hand.

Up the spiral, the den was quiet, the familiar bowls with fire in to light up the space, Mo’at was tending to Kim’s pregnant belly, carefully feeling the bump with expertise and Eliza was off to the side with a tablet and ultra-sound, examining what looked like a scan of the babies.

Bree was there, sitting up against the wall but drawing in her sketchbook a little listless but focused nonetheless. Zeke on the other hand was conked out asleep and it looked like someone had drawn a moustache and monocle on his mask. Probably Bree.

“<Your children feel healthy. Their tsalnu sacs seemed to have separated fully from each other which will is good. You’ll be able to birth them separately and safely. That is why your belly has grown a little.>” Mo’at spoke, sparing a second to the scan Eliza had to be certain.

Kim let out a sigh of relief. “<That’s a relief.>”

“<You’ll have a little over two months before you deliver.>” Mo’at carried on, “<It will be wise for you to move into Hometree for the duration of the tsalnu maturation before they’re fully birthed to the world. Since there are two, they’ll have to be delivered earlier than that of a single birth.>”

“<I’ll talk to my mate about it but we make no promises.>” Kim said, unsurprisingly before she sat up though she smiled softly as she saw them though it turned a little concerned. “You two okay?”

“I got a…private talk with Mo’at I think I… need to address,” Ruby said, nervously, her grip tightening a little around him like he was a teddy bear. “Preferably now, or I might chicken out.”

Bree paused a little, looking their way from her book “Let me get my ear pods.” She reached slowly for her bag and tugged it close, rummaging around before she pulled the little case out and set them into her ears before pulling out her tablet to start the music. Loud enough for them to just about hear it.

Kim sighed deeply, annoyed. “We’re kinda in the middle of a check-up, guys…”

“Sorry for the interruption, Kim, but… please give us at least twenty minutes, Kim.” Jake gave his campmate a solid look, feeling Ruby’s arm tighten more and she felt her reluctance return. “It’s important.”

Kim’s jaw tightened a little, lingering on him for a moment then up to Ruby. “Fine.”

“You can stay and listen if you want,” Ruby stated her tone a pitch higher. “It’s not a pleasant story.”

Kim shook her head, her hand coming to her belly with an annoyed sound. “One of my kids is pressing on my bladder. I think that’s telling me something.” She waved away Mo’at’s offer to help her onto her feet, pulling her loincloth straight, both front and back, and waddled out quickly.

Eliza, not saying anything set her tools away and also took her leave but no doubt would return when they were gone. She patted Ruby’s blue leg in passing.

Mo’at sighed softly but collected her tools together. “<I wish she’d allow herself to accept more help.>”

Jake snorted a little. “<She’s a stubborn person. It’s easier pulling teeth.>” He was gently set down a few feet from the Tsahìk onto Kim’s former mat, taking a moment to organise his limp legs before Ruby sat down a little beside him, dwarfing him easily as her long blue settled around him. Her fingers tapped along his shoulder absently for a moment.

“<So…>” Ruby hesitated. “<I… my childhood isn’t a good one. I’ve… never spoken to anyone about it properly except to Zane and it’s… why I can’t go back to Earth and why I want to keep connecting to Eywa. Jake said… you might be more understanding.>”

Mo’at finished setting her tools away, turning her attention fully to the gatherer. “<I know you mentioned to myself and Neytiri it wasn’t pleasant but I didn’t feel it was the time to ask for more. You do not have to mention more than you’re willing to share.>”

Ruby nodded, her ears shifting a little as she contemplated. “I… I know it’s something I need help with and I… don’t like asking for it. I’ve spent a while not emotionally relying on people around me. It’s easier for me.”

Mo’at nodded softly. “<You closed your heart.>”

Ruby nodded. “<I had to.>” She admitted. “<I… hours after I was born, my birth mother tried to dispose of me by abandoning me into a trash canister outside at night.>” Ruby’s ears pinned, pained as the words left her lips. “My own mother didn’t want me… and I don’t understand why she didn’t give me up at a hospital or… a fire station. She had nine months to do that or abort the pregnancy. Instead just… left me some random bin in nothing but a kitchen towel.”

Mo’at’s expression turned sorrowful. “<That is awful, I cannot imagine how painful it is for you to have gone through that. Children are a gift and should be treasured.>” She paused for a moment. “<May I ask, what is a> fire station?”

“Fire stations are facilities designated for fire control for the surrounding public.” Jake spoke softly to Mo’at softly “But they also provide public aid or a safe zone for adults or teen parents to leave their babies or children if they cannot look after them or have a reason to not keep them. Hospitals are medical areas. Any children abandoned after birth can be given up there safely and the child rehoused to a family willing to take them in.”

Mo’at nodded in soft understanding. “<I see.>”

“I would have been better if I had been given up somewhere safe.” Ruby shook her head. “I only survived the trash heap because I was found by a school kid when he was bin surfing for tech junk. He heard me crying and took me home with him in his backpack. His mom got the cops when she found out and I was put into a care system. No one wanted to adopt me.” Her hand moved, pulling her tail around to fiddle with the puff of hair at the end.

Jake reached forward, patting her knee but his heart also ached a little. He couldn’t fathom all of that and while she no doubt knew this all from second-hand, it didn’t erase anything or the turmoil that came with it. It still happened to her. The knowledge that hung over her head.

“I grew up in the system. Foster family to foster family. A few okay ones, a few shit ones who could barely afford to eat…” Her eyes looked far away, “I got to another foster family when I was ten. I thought they were going to be my family for good. Two parents, an older brother and sister, and their second cousin who became orphaned so he had to live with them. My… foster parents at that time were distant. Not there for anyone emotionally but I got on well with my new cousin, Marty, he was… a good guy.”

Jake distantly remembered his fate with a wince. A good guy was lured away and killed; only to be found six months later as bones.

Ruby’s face lost a lot of colour, her eyes brimming with unshed shed as she carried on without stopping. “When…I was fourteen, my foster brother… assaulted me in my room. Said it was okay because we weren’t blood-related and… he wanted to practise.”

Jake closed his eyes, his jaw clenching. Mo’at inhaled deeply but understood the implication, no doubt through Neytiri. It wouldn’t have been an easy conversation but necessary.

“I...I got the police involved, and got him jailed for it but… everyone at school found out what happened…the story got twisted by his friends. I got bullied and blamed for the assault and said that I ruined a good boy’s life and he had a good future ahead before I split. No one even considered what he had done to me or what scars he left on me. That he had ruined my life.” Ruby’s breath shook. “I got out after a year of saving up money. Some friend has a friend who I paid off to get me out. I… changed my name, new date of birth, and new identity codes for myself to have a life. Once I had all that I just… disappeared from that life. Shut away the feelings to concentrate on where I needed to be.”

“You became Ruby Carr, a brilliant scientist.” Jake offered quietly. “You made it all the way to Pandora.”

Ruby nodded airily. “I worked hard in the new school I enrolled in. Worked a side job to afford it and a place to sleep. The only meals I could eat were at school because those were free. I scraped by and got good grades. Got the RDA’s attention to get a scholarship to the sciences. When I was old enough, I signed up for their labs for a few years before I applied to come here and join the Avatar program when I was twenty-three. For a while, it was okay. I had no problems until I learned my former foster brother had joined a gang in prison. I always kept taps open on him as a precaution and… my fear wasn’t misplaced. His new friends had connections everywhere and he was able to find out my new identity and where I was. If I went back home, I’d lose the RDA protection and… I can’t return back. I know he’d come for me if given that chance. I couldn’t give him that chance.”

Mo’at leant down, her hand soft and slow as she touched the Dreamwalker’s face. “<He will not find you here, Rubycarr. You are safe with the people. You are safe with your friends.>”

Ruby stared at her for a long moment then broke her gaze. “I know that here.” She reached up and tapped her temple. “But not here.” She tapped over her heart. “<Eywa… she makes me feel safe and protected. Like a home I never had.>”

“<The great mother provides you with an ocean of unconditional love.” Mo’at dropped her hand to rest on her shoulder.. “<An ocean can be welcoming and beautiful under its surface but… sooner or later you have to resurface or you’ll down within and lose yourself.>”

“<But it’s the only way I can feel happy.>”

“<No, child.>” Mo’at shook her head. “<Happiness is around you and in arms reach. You’ve guarded your heart for so long that you do not see the walls you’ve put up. You look out, not inwards. Happiness is there. You have your friends now to help you. Zanemadaki, who you’re courting would no doubt help you.>”

Jake squeezed her knee softly, looking up to her softly. “<We’re all here to help. Messy feelings and all. Now is a time for healing and community.”

Ruby’s low ears perked up a little, her eyes still large and tearful. “Zay makes me happy. I know I love him.”

“Does he know?”

Ruby nodded softly. “<I told him after we started to date more seriously… I didn’t want to start with lies and… I didn’t want us to rush or anything. It took over a year of us dating before I invited him into a more… physical relationship. He waited until I was ready. Such a gentlemen>.” She smiled fondly. “<I know I can’t rely on a single person for it. Not fair on him but it’s just easier.>”

Mo’at remained quiet for a moment then sat back. “<You carry a massive burden from your past and it will take time for you to let those walls down and find the connections to others to bring you joy more naturally.>”

Ruby’s tail swished from her fingers, frowning softly. “<I don’t know how to really let people in>”

“<You can relearn. I still have much to do but I will spend some time at your camp tomorrow and start the process if you allow me.>” Mo’at offered.

The Dreamwalker’s head tilted before she hummed if a little reluctantly in consideration. It was probably a little overwhelming for her but he hoped she’d stick with it. She had a lot to give if she allowed it. It’d be great to see her open up as well but in all honesty, he was well aware how sparse he had been with his human defectors with his training.

Jake patted her leg, her head turning down at him. “It’s okay. Zane can be there as well if you need.” He assured. “She wouldn’t offer if she wasn’t able to do it. You’re not going to burden her.”

Ruby chewed her lip and then sighed deeply. “I… suppose. I… it’s... sounds like such a task.”

“You’re worth the trouble.” Jake said, “It won’t be easy for you but if you want to feel that connection and happiness, you need to put that work in as well.”

Ruby’s jaw tightened but she understood her part in it. “I know.” She released her breath, her hand coming to rub her face.

The mood was still a little… fragile with that all out in the open and he could tell Ruby wasn’t sure what to do now, so he decided to step in and crack that ice.

“If… you don’t mind me asking, what was your name before?”

Ruby let out a heavy sigh, her hand dropping down into her lap. “Nancy Bane.”

“Nancy?” he couldn’t help himself on the echo but… it was such an outdated name. It was rare on his side of the pond. The English, maybe, but they were a weird folk to keep those old names about still, like Margret or… Patricia.

Ruby snorted, with a little more life to it. “I was never fond of the names. I always liked the gemstone ruby so it wasn’t hard to change it. I let the guy who changed my identity choose my last name. I didn’t care either way. A new name was a new name.”

“I’m included to agree. Ruby’s a far better name.” Jake agreed. “So, is there anything else you wish to discuss?”

Ruby paused, “Er… I may need some herbs to help with my human body. I’m… getting a little constipated and indigestion a lot more. Eliza’s meds are okay but harder to come by. I’d rather start moving onto more easy-to-come-by remedies and save her meds for more dire needs.”

Mo’at nodded, “I’ll find you something before you leave tonight.”

Ruby collected Jake back up as she took her leave, carrying him back down though she looked… more content, he noted, her posture far loosened up.

“What?” Ruby asked, setting his chair down.

“Have… Have I been too absent from people? Like, the humans?” Jake asked, sliding into his chair. “I know I speak to people when they come here and when we’re on the radios but… I feel like I’ve missed out on getting to know people more personally, you know?”

Ruby hummed shortly. “You’re a busy man when you’re in your avatar; Neytiri works you hard when training and you’re in your own bubble when you’re human here. I’ve always considered that to be your mental vacation from training.”

“You’re too kind,” Jake said, a little dissatisfied, shifting a leg to rest more naturally. “I need to do a lot more than be in my own bubble. Once training’s done, I’ll try and be about for you all. We should all go down to Homebase one night. I have a projector. Have a movie night?”

Ruby’s eyes lit up a little. “You have movies?”

“Shit tons. Haven’t watched too many since we’re out of here but I think it would be fun to have a weekly thing for us lot. Nadine can’t go in the caves but I’m sure we can get a few to watch with her as well at another camp.”

“Zeke’s a good option.”

“Ooh, Zeke watching a movie, oh that’ll be fantastic!” Jake realised; at least half the entertainment would be generated by the man’s verbal reaction alone. He had heard Bree had set the creepy puppet doll up in the shack module’s airlock in the mountains as a prank when they were still cutting the shacks up and everyone there knew when Zeke found it. He was kinda sad to have missed that.

Ruby laughed. “Yeah, he’s fun to watch a film with. I only had a few and we’ve watched them over a few times.”

“Next time, I’ll bring a tablet or maybe Morgan or someone can visit and drop off a tablet and you can download from there,” Jake promised, wheeling now back towards the spinners where he could see a few of the miners were set up with bead making he couldn’t help but notice now Marcus was about but looking a little distressed.

Ruby broke away to find Harper so Jake pushed on to Marcus’s side, sparing a look at his cause of concern.

Bead organisation.  There was a small pile of beads that were in one basket and often made by many hands and it was preferred to be separated by colour for artists to draw from when they continued their pieces more easily unless they made their own beads with specific purpose.

It was an easy task that children could do, toddlers even.

“You okay?” Jake asked.

Marcus let out a frustrated sigh. “I need to learn Na’vi. The lead guy put me on this and… I can’t do it.”

Jake looked at the beads and then at him before he realised why. “You’re colour blind, aren’t you?”

Marcus nodded slowly. “Tritan colour blindness. I don’t know how to tell them without them thinking I’m stupid or something. ”

“Ohh…” Jake spared a look around, “You got a tablet?”

“In my bag.”

“Can you get it? I assume you have a camera on it?”

Marcus nodded, relieved as he stood up and hurried to his bag set off by the side to be out of the way and return a moment later with it. Looking at it, he noticed it looked regular, but turning it on, he realised the screen was monochromatic. Black and white. Simple.

“Mind if I turn the colours on? I’ll turn it back once I’m done.” It felt polite to ask at the very least given it wasn’t his tablet.

“Okay?”

Jake nodded, relieved. “<Ten’nel, can you come here please?>” He called.

The Na’vi in question looked up from examining his apprentice’s work of small beads along a string before he got to his feet and came over.

“<Is he not done?>” Ten’nel asked eyes on the pot still. “<I thought he would have finished by now.>”

Jake clicked his tongue. “<Marcus here doesn’t know enough Na’vi to tell you that he had a visual disability. He cannot do this task.>

Ten’nel’s head turned to him sharply but he looked more serious now than before. “<A disability? Poor eyesight?>”

“<He cannot perceive certain colours. Humans call this colour blindness.>” Jake answered, he leaned over and took a photo of the beads Marcus had been set to do then moved to the editor to add a filter over it. “<Humans have a few variants of colour blindness depending on which colour rods in their eyes are affected. Some humans cannot see Red, yellow, Green or blue. In some cases, everything is grey, not colour at all. Marcus here, while he can see everything in clarity, he cannot see yellow or blue.>”

He held out the tablet for the bead maker to see, watching as the man’s eyes slid to the screen in fascination at the filter and then to the actual colours the real thing had beside it; comparing both.

“<The yellow is a pinkie-grey?>” Ten’nel’s voice was filled with genuine intrigue. “<Fascinating…>”

“<Is there a task Marcus can do here that doesn’t rely on colour?>

Ten’nel hummed in soft consideration, still looking between. “<He could remain to simply make the beads or assist with crafting of pieces>”

“You good to stick with just making beads?” Jake offered to Marcus, “Not a lot of colour work?”

“Hm, I might not stick with beads. It’ll pass the time for now but I’m still looking about for something that calls, you know.” Marcus stated, scratching his chin under his mask. “Maybe I’ll try the leather working route or spinners. Weaving is kinda of interesting but… too many colour-dependencies. I’d rather not need to check with people constantly on my own work.”

Jake hummed softly. “I suppose there’s still plenty of time to find out your thing.”

“<Is everything alright?>” Ten’nel asked.

“<Yes, just offering the suggestions for him.>” Jake answered before he looked up at Ten’nel for a moment before he looked down at the tablet. An idea sprung to mind. “<Can… Can I take a photo of you? I wish to see what he sees when he looks at Na’vi. He cannot see blue or yellow.>” And Na’vi were blue and yellow.

Ten’nel allowed him with a curious nod and Jake blinked at the result.

“Na’vi are green to you?” Well, not a deep overly green; they looked closer to turquoise than anything but still… and their eyes, like yellow beads, were grey but with a hint of pink to them. Any red naturally stood out, unchanged and very vibrant.

“Yeah?” Marcus snorted a little. “Like, I mostly know the difference between blue and greens based on shade intensity but it depends on the saturation levels the colour has.”

“How did you make it this far to Pandora with this colour blindness? I know they don’t discriminate based on disability but… you’re a geologist.” There had to be a story there.

“I signed up as a miner; to work in the mine but some of it was bull-shitting, white lies and help. Alejandra helped a little in adding symbols to colour systems when we were working.”

“Wait, you’re colour-blind?”

Jake’s head turned suddenly to see Kung standing a few metres away, a basket of fibres in her arms looking a little baffled and annoyed.

Marcus’s eyes widened a little before he sheepishly nodded.

Kung set the basket down, her hands coming to her hips. “Why didn’t you say anything? I would have been less of an asshole.”

“Because you would have moved me off elsewhere. I know I’m supposed to note that down for my superiors but you ran the mines by the book.” The blond said, gesturing up wildly before clambering to his feet. “I wanted to keep my job, Zee.”

Kung’s brow pulled in before she clicked her tongue, picked up her basket again and walked away without another word.

Marcus huffed, his hand coming to his face but was stopped by the mask. “Aye yai yai…”

Jake looked between the man and the leaving major. “You two got history?”

Marcus nodded. “We took to her bed a few times.” He answered, “I’ll… get back to work.” He decided, moving towards the maker’s side of the area.

-

Tsu’tey led the hunting party back with a glint of satisfaction at each of his student’s work. The human of the group, MingWu was a surprise; having to succeed with a clean kill. Ashleysloan wasn’t a surprise at all she had shot her yerik straight through the frontal eye and killed it instantly. Ka’ani and Saeyla had taken down the same prey but both shots were true.

Iknimaya would be granted to all accept MingWu, as a human could not bond with an Ikran. A known statement but he would need to confide with Mo’at and Eytukan to find an alternative rite of passage for the human that did not involve tsaheylu that would allow the woman to hunt freely as the people. Not all hunters had Ikran but often hunters had Pa’li to ride on to travel. She couldn’t even do that.

It was a little of a headache to think about but he had an idea.

At Hometree, his trainees separated after his word to other tasks as the afternoon was drawing in, Ka’ani leading the kills towards the butchers with Ashleysloan who requested some of the meat for her camp.

Tsu’tey eyes sought over the people, noting the humans, the small form of Jakesully by the weavers stood out by the yellow of his wheeled chair with some dissatisfaction. He moved his gaze on before he moved toward Eytukan who had returned as well with a high head but also was ascending up to the higher level.

Tsu’tey followed. “<I see you, Olo'eyktan>” He greeted politely to draw the clan leader’s attention.

“<I see you, Tsu’tey. How were your hunters??” Eytukan asked as he set his bow down on his personal rack.

“<True shots. MingWu included.>”

Eytukan hummed in surprise. “<The human, interesting.>”

“<MingWu has surprising dedication but due to her species, she cannot pass Iknimaya as an Ikran Makto without a tswin.>”

Eytukan led on towards the Tsahìk’s den, the sounds of her moving about unmistakable and her soft voice.

“<Have you considered options?>” Eytukan asked, pausing outside the den “<There are a few that aren’t easy or feasible for a human. They are tiny and weaver than a Na’vi.>”

“<The Great Hunt, three weeks away.>” Tsu’tey suggested. “<She will have to ride as a passenger onto a Pa’li but if she strikes true among the talioang migration, then that should be a tremendous task achieved much like Pa’li Makto.>”

Eytukan let out a considering hum. “<That’s a good suggestion for the human hunters. What of the Dreamwalkers?>”

“<Ashleysloan had defied all expectations and can put Manu to shame in skill. She would go far in the clan if she was not held back by being a Dreamwalker.>” A sad fact really. It didn’t go unmissed that she had the attention of a few men and women who valued skill and, even by Tsu’tey’s standards, her Dreamwalker did have an attractive face. However, the extra finger was still a firm reminder of what the woman was under the false skin.

“<You sound disappointed>” Eytukan chuckled.

Tsu’tey tittered a little, pursing his lips discontented. “<She doesn’t have my interest beyond that of a mentor to a student.>” He was to be mated with Neytiri and so, he had no reason to look elsewhere. A Dreamwalker was not a suitable mate to even consider, so he didn’t. But he could appreciate the work this Dreamwalker put in with the clan. Tolerantly, even. “<Why was Jakesully not in his Dreamwalker today? I expected him to join the group in the hunt>”

“<Neytiri will see his first successful hunt tomorrow.>,” Eytukan said, “<I believe today is his duty to care for his native body.>”

“<I look forward to her verdict.>” He paused, noting the slight tenseness in the Olo'eyktan’s posture. “<Was your hunt successful?>”

Eytukan hummed, turning discontent. “<I did not hunt for meat. I found bones of a Palulukan within a cave. Years old by the state of the bones but… signs of the Cold Ones. I heard rumour of these bones so I sought them out for truth>”

Tsu’tey felt his insides turn tense, cooling with a flicker of fear. These blood demons had killed a Palulukan? It took many warriors and many arrows to down a beast of death and often there were casualties. They were creatures of both fear and respect for a reason. “<Was… what signs did you see?>”

“<It’s neck was broken. Not cleanly. The… ribs show claw marks that have five fingers to them. It has one cleanly broken leg and smaller fractures along the rest of the legs. The cave itself bears claw marks of both kinds so it likely died within and with great ferocity.>” Eytukan let out a firm breath. “<This knowledge carries a heavy burden.>”

“<If a single one can kill a Palulukan…>” He didn’t finish. What hope did the people have against these creatures? Eytukan had been wise to not let these creatures be his focus but the more he heard, the more he knew how harder it would be to protect the people.

Eytukan’s hand reached out, grasping his arm intently. “<As fearful as we are, Cold Ones have sight of Eywa. As long as there is no provocation, we should not gain their attention.>”

“<Wise worlds, beloved.>” The Tsahìk’s words echoed out, reminding them both where they were.

Eytukan ducked into the den first, empty of people and humans and Mo’at was finishing up her organisation. The two leaders closed the distance, grasping each other and Eytukan touched her cheek with fondness and her head tilted into his touch.

“<How was your day?>” Eytukan asked. “<I heard you went down to the caves again, to the spiritual tree.>”

The spiritual tree, Tsu’tey had heard about that with the rest of the clan. One tree for the sky people and… it was still a little hard to believe that Eywa would create such a blessing with a species like the Skye people in mind but he was not the one to question the Great Mother. He hadn’t seen such a tree and didn’t have the intention to either.

“<Yes, two connected and have experienced their communion Eywa. I will be busy tending to their communions. Once Neytiri is free from training Jakesully, I will need her attendants to watch and take over the communion until all are connected. I still have our people to tend to. I fear I will be too pulled away from my duty here now that the tree is discovered and so readily available..>” Mo’at spoke, worried. “<the humans that are with us are… uncannily driven to connect. Some more than others.>”

“<Is that a trouble?>”

“<The more I hear of their life in their home world, the sadder I am for them and for all that they have gone through>” Mo’at sighed deeply. “<The social complexities are beyond simple navigation. Their destruction, their closed hearts and their need for walls to hide themselves. Some have not even experienced love from their own family. Like it is a foreign concept but is desperate to feel it like children begging for food>” Mo’at looked genuinely upset. “<If anything I have learned, there is no life on Earth; only survival.>”

“<That is a very… bold statement.>” Eytukan said.

“<It rings true in my heart, my love. You should spend more time with the humans and see for yourself.>” Mo’at said. “<They need help but I cannot do it alone. The clan can guide these people to a better sense of self. To live beyond survival. To see the world in new life. I believe that is how we can achieve peace with the sky people.>”

Masterlist

[sweettjrose]

Detective Mickey Pilot P.3

Finally, Part 3 is done and I am really happy with how it came out. This is definitely a longer part, but I got it to end where I wanted. I also got to finally write for the character I am excited, and a bit nervous, to write for. I really hope I did him justice. I tried to match the tone and feel of the comics that portray him in a bit more of a serious through still playful light, but also some traits of my own. You'll see what I mean.

I will say though as expected this did end up being much longer than expected and I will have most likely 6 parts instead of 5. Which means I am about halfway done which is crazy to me. I don't think that should change, based on an outline I made, but it is still possible.

Again I am so thankful for all your support. I really appreciate your shares and likes (is that what they are called on Tumblr).

But without further ado, here is part 3 (This one didn't rhyme)

Previous Part: X

Next Part: X

Mickey couldn’t have been standing there for more than a couple of seconds, but to him it felt like hours. A lightning strikes from behind illuminating the large and imposing stature of the person in front of him. He tries his best to back away from the intimidating shadowy figure, as the wanted poster and the warnings surrounding it flash throughout his mind, he wasn't able to stop his mouth from sputtering “Y-you’re… Y-you’re…” “The Phantom Blot?'' the figure finished “Pleasure to meet you”. Mickey quickly felt the back of his foot touch the edge of the ledge, reminding himself that he is on the roof of this building. At night. Alone. With this guy. Crap. Mickey looks up at the towering figure again, not hiding any sense of fear. This man couldn’t have been that much taller than Goofy, but for some reason at this moment he felt 10 feet tall. During this, The Phantom Blot silently watches the little mouse carefully, noting every little move he makes. Though you couldn’t see his face, he appears quite amused and is relishing in the fear the mouse displays. Eventually, he decides to speak again.

He cheekily asks the mouse who he is and what he could be doing on this fine night. Mickey doesn’t respond as he still seems to be in shock at what is going on. The Blot chuckles to himself and jokes about how speechless the mouse is and how he tends to have that effect on people. He also remarks that the air is “quite thin” up here and perhaps the mouse may be more talkative on the ground. The Phantom Blot then leads Mickey to a pole and gestures for the mouse to go down first. Almost instinctively Mickey drops down the pole, before quickly realizing that this could be his best chance to escape. The second he reaches the bottom he does his best to bolt out of the alley… Only for his shirt collar to be caught by the Blot who chides him for attempting to escape before they finished their conversation. The Phantom Blot then drags him over to the trap with the camera, holding tightly onto Mickey’s collar. 

Assured that the mouse won’t try to escape again, he questions the mouse again, this time only asking for a name. A defeated Mickey Mouse answers him, stuttering out the response. The Blot makes a snide comment about Mouse being a common last name, before moving onto his next question asking what the mouse is doing. Mickey gives in and explains about how he was trying to capture a thief that was going around stealing cameras. The Phantom Blot seems to instantly notice the trap and pulls it apart, remarking about how the mouse should have used a different kind of knot if he really wanted to be effective and that he could do a better job at hiding it. He then easily picks up the camera and pockets it into his cloak. Further bringing shame to the mouse.

Afterwards, the Phantom Blot continues to prod for more information on why Mickey wanted to capture this thief, this time a bit more seriously and scary. Mickey quietly squeaks about how he works at the Mouseton Argus and how he was hoping to write a story about the crime. As he somberly answers the shadowy figure’s questions, trying to do his best to avoid his frightening eyes, Mickey can feel himself coming to terms with his fate. There is no way this man is just going to let him walk. There is a good chance he could die here. He could never see Pluto, Donald, Goofy, Felicity, Clarabelle, Horace, Morty, Ferdie and Min… Minnie. He never even got a chance to say goodbye to Minnie. All for some stupid story. What did he get himself into? The shadowy figure makes a comment about how it is odd that a couple of missing cheap cameras would be good enough for a story, but I guess everybody starts somewhere. He then really starts to look at the mouse, this time not just trying to observe his actions, but trying to read him, understand who he really is. The large man crouches in front of Mickey, meeting him eye to eye, this time gripping his large hands hard onto Mickey’s shoulder, instead of his collar. Mickey still tries to avoid eye contact, though finding it a bit more challenging. Once he got his fill, he gave a cruel laugh and smiled through his eyes, claiming he knows what really is going on here. 

The Phantom Blot starts explaining about how Mickey is someone who is not happy with their lot in life, an unimportant nobody who wants to move up the totem pole and get what they think they deserve. So he tried to do something brave and bold in hopes that it would help him stand out and rise to the top. But unfortunately this little fish is starting to see why they shouldn’t swim with the sharks, or in other words, the mouse bit off a bit more than he could chew. The Blot chuckles to himself as the mouse seems to take every word to heart and part of the fear he feels morphs into shame. The Blot continues that normally he would take great pleasure in teaching the little mouse a lesson, but it seems like he already learned it. You know, despite what others say, he isn’t really one for wanton violence, given his “soft-heart” and all that. Plus he just isn’t in the right mood and it isn’t fun, if he isn’t in the mood. So perhaps he may be willing to let the mouse go just this one time. Mickey’s ears perk up at this as he gives the cloaked man a confused look. The Blot continues his speech adding that the mouse doesn’t have to shower him with gratitude, that would be rather annoying, all he has to do is forget this whole situation and go back to his pathetic unimportant life where he belongs… And stay there. Besides, it isn’t like anyone would believe him anyways. 

Mickey, shocked at what he thinks the man is saying, tries to sputter out a response, but is quickly interrupted by the Phantom Blot adding that the mouse should take advantage of this rare moment of charity. Because if not… He grips harder on Mickey’s shoulder… Well let’s just say he has some traps he has been dying to try out and would love a lab rat. The Phantom Blot then loosens his grip on the mouse’s shoulder and starts to get up. Clearly getting ready to leave. Mickey still seems to be processing what is going on before instinctively yelling “Wait” at the shadowy figure. The man faces him one more time, his frightening eyes glowing as pure white as the full moon in the sky and his haunting deep black cloak vanishing in the shadows of the night. 

“It’s best to think of this as a bad dream. If you’re lucky… You’ll never have to see me again” 

and with lightning quick speed the man picks up the mouse by the front of his collar and tosses him against the alley wall knocking him out. Hearing the echoes of villainous laughter before it all fades to black.

Hours seem to have passed as the cool night starts to shift into a warm day. It seems like it did rain a little bit last night as the alley is drenched in water from the rain collectors on the nearby buildings. We then pan to Mickey who still seems to be knocked out between a couple of trash cans. Suddenly the leaf of a plant on top of a window sill fills up with enough water for it to unravel, dropping the water on Mickey’s head. This seems to wake him up as he spits out the water. He groggily looks around and tries to make sense of his surroundings. Where is he? How did he get here? Mickey tries his best to stand up, stretching as he didn’t exactly sleep in an ideal position. He feels around for his phone and finds it cracked with no battery. Despite his head hurting, he tries his best to think about what happened. He was looking for a specific missing camera. The Little Korker V39. He found one at Horace’s place. He used it to set up a trap. And then… horrifying white eyes flash through his mind… “a bad dream” rings in his ears... Did that really happen? Did he actually meet the Phantom Blot? THE Phantom Blot. Mickey sits down on a box as he tries to put his thoughts together. 

There is no way that could have actually been him. The Phantom Blot is a master criminal that deals in high end crime worth hundreds of millions of dollars all over the world. Why would he be in Mouseton taking cheap cameras? He holds his head again as another migrain pulses through. Perhaps he just fell and knocked himself out. He looks around and sees that the camera is gone from where he remembers placing it. He also notices that the trap he set was very carefully dismantled. All of the sudden memories of the cloaked figure pocketing the camera and taking apart the trap rush into his mind giving him another headache. Mickey tries his best to look around for any clues, any other signs that the Blot was here. Any proof that he didn’t just imagine it. But struggles to find anything of note. He stops. He takes a breath. He may not see anything physical. But. He can still feel it. The fear. The fear from the moment is still somehow fresh in his heart. And maybe that is proof enough.

Mickey looks at himself and realizes how soggy and dirty his clothes are. Well the best he can do is go home now. Pluto has been left alone for quite a while and he could use some cleaning up. He tries to remember where he parked, thankfully still finding his car there and drives off. Not being able to keep his mind off of whatever may have happened last night. Eventually he is able to get home. He feeds a very worried Pluto, and takes a shower wearing a new set of clean clothes. He looks at his now charged phone and sees a couple of messages from Minnie last night. The typical good night and good morning messages she always sends, and he usually sends back. He should probably call her soon, so she doesn’t worry. He then noticed the long long list of missed calls from his boss. He looks at the clock. Crap. Late Again. At that moment, the phone rings. It’s the Editor in Chief. He takes a deep breath and the answers. All he hears is five words “Come. To. My. Office. Now” before the other side hangs up. He sighs again, not looking forward to that.

We cut to Mickey already in the Editor in Chief’s office, honestly more tired than worried. The Editor (By the way I realized I never clarified what animal the Editor was because he ended up playing a bigger role than I expected. Let’s say a Hawk) paces in front of his desk with the fake Mickey that the real Mickey made yesterday sitting on top of it. He goes on about how Mickey has been late 3 times in a row, seems to be getting behind on his work, and even tried to use this thing, as he gestures to the fake Mickey, to get out of work. Mickey tries to pipe in only for the large bird person to continue. He says that he has been giving Mickey some slack out of respect for his sister and his previous good behavior, but is feeling his patience wearing thin. He then asks Mickey what could possibly be causing all this trouble. Mickey finally has some time to explain and tries to bring up the case about the missing cameras. However once he mentions the cameras the Editor stops him and laughs. Not a comical laugh, more of a frustrated one. He can’t believe that Mickey is causing all this trouble over a couple of missing cameras. Mickey tries to add that there is more to this and he just uncovered a big break in the case that could lead to the story of a lifetime. The Editor looks at him waiting for a response. But Mickey stops himself, realizing how crazy it would be to mention the Phantom Blot. He might as well say that Al Capone stole his socks. Plus he is still processing whether or not he actually met him or if it was a bad dream. Annoyed by the silence the Hawk sighs and says that he will give Mickey one more chance. But Mickey will need to drop whatever camera story he is looking into and to continue his normal work without complaint. Mickey wants to say something, but is unsure what he could even possibly say. The Editor tells him to get back to work and to get rid of this thing, as he points to the fake Mickey. Mickey complies and drags the fake version of him back to his desk. 

Mickey sulks over to his desk, thinking about his current situation. You know maybe it is a good thing to drop this whole camera fiasco. He’s at risk of losing his job, his body still aches from sleeping on the street, and it is just a couple of cheap cameras. But as he tries to open his laptop and go through emails, he can’t stop his mind from wandering. That had to be the Phantom Blot right? The memory is too fresh to feel like a dream. Plus where else did the camera go and who else dismantled his trap. This could explain how there were no traces left at the other locations. Without a thought he instantly starts searching up the Phantom Blot on the web and skims through articles about his thefts. Even seeing an article about a missing emerald. Aha! Apparently it is said that the Blot is said to be so skilled at theft that most people don’t even find out they were stolen from until years later, leaving absolutely no traces. Sometimes he leaves notes, but usually he will leave a fake in its place or even nothing at all. If he could steal gems from museums with the best security systems money can buy, he could totally steal cameras from a couple of pawn shops as if it were nothing. But now the question is why. The Phantom Blot deals tends to steal items that are worth millions. Why would a couple of cameras catch his interest? There has to be more here. Something that even a large enough villain as him would care about. Something truly wicked. Just as Mickey considered the possibilities one of his coworkers dropped a giant pile of paperwork at his desk and gave him humorous but confusing instructions on which ones to print copies of, which ones to staple, and which ones to scan. Oh yeah work… Well whatever the Phantom Blot is planning, he won’t be able to figure it out. He can’t risk his job. Plus even then what can he do… He’s just a Junior Assistant Photojournalist in Training… He’s just an unimportant nobody… He’s just a mouse.

At that moment his phone buzzes and he takes a quick look. It’s Horace. Horace messages him mentioning that he found something really important about the cameras. Mickey sighs, messaging back that he is dropping the case. He immediately heads over to the large amount of paperwork and tries to remember the confusing instructions. His phone buzzes again and he reads a message from Horace asking if he is sure. Mickey sighs again, and types that he is sure, heading back to the piles of paper. Before getting one more final buzz from Horace 

“K if that is what u want 👍”

... What he wants… What he wants… What… is he doing? Here he is just about to resign the rest of his life to boring paperwork, as if there isn’t an important mystery that needs to be solved. Mickey knows for sure that if he were to drop this case now he would regret every day since. He doesn’t even care about the story anymore. Something is not sitting right with him about this whole situation and he, Mickey T. Mouse, is going to be the one to find out why. He picks up his phone again and texts Horace that he changed his mind and will be stopping by after work. After that he proudly smiles, glad to feel his optimism come back and confident that he made the right choice.

We see Mickey as he drives up to the same apartments as before and knocks on the door to Horace house. Horace greets him, glad that he changed his mind. Horace starts to jump into a deep explanation as they head over to his room, before stopping and pulling something out of a box. It’s Ol’ Reliable. Excited Mickey takes the camera and jokes about how he’s surprised Horace didn’t sell it. Horace confirms that he wouldn’t sell anything that meaningful to a friend and even cleaned it up using a special camera cleaning technique he learned online. Mickey thanks him and puts the beloved camera around his neck. Horace then restarts his explanation. As he mentioned before, he decided to look more into these cameras to see what could make them so valuable, but had a hard time finding anything since they just seemed so generic. But when he decided to go to the library on a whim and check out some old newspapers, he ended up finding an article about the guy who apparently made the cameras. Horace then shows a photo of a middle aged dog along with a copy of a small news article. Horace explains that this is Jimmy Korker, who was an inventor of the Little Korker Cameras and owned the company who made them. He explains how the article mentioned how he got arrested, while at one of his mansions in Mouseton. Horace couldn’t find exactly what got him arrested, but saw that there were theories of terrorism or conspiracy in the article. Horace struggled to find much about the situation, even on the internet, outside of the fact that he likely wasn’t held for long and that Jimmy sold the company not too long after the date of the arrest. Horace also cheekily asks Mickey if he knows what was the last version of the camera sold before he left the company. Mickey responds with the Little Korker V39. And Horace winks. Bingo.

Mickey cheerily takes in this information, taking notes and thanking Horace for looking into this. He loves how thorough Horace can be when he really gets interested in a subject. Mickey wonders out loud if perhaps, whatever Jimmy Korker was arrested for could be connected to why the Phantom Blot wants the cameras. “The who?”... Oh right Horace doesn’t know yet. Taking a deep breath Mickey tries to explain what happened last night with his encounter with the Phantom Blot. As he explains, Horace's cheerful demeanor drops into a more horrified one. Afterwards, Horace asks if Mickey is sure that he met with THE Phantom Blot and not just misremembered. But Mickey confirms that it had to be the Blot. It is possible it could have been an impersonator or maybe just an illusion but, as memories of the cold white eyes pierce his mind… It felt too real. Horace takes a deep breath, still stunned about what he heard. He remarks that he used to do research on the Phantom Blot back when he was training to be the next Robin Hood. Mickey rolls his eyes, remembering all the broken windows he had to fix at his family’s house when Horace was “practicing”. Horace continues about how he tried to learn his tricks, so that he could use it for “good”, but the more and more he learned about this guy and what he was capable of. He knew that this wasn’t the right field for him. The dude’s a criminal genius and no one can even come close to what he can do. Horace then remarks that he is surprised that Mickey is still alive, as the Phantom Blot isn’t afraid to off anyone who gets in the way. Mickey adds that he does think it is odd, though noted that the Blot said he had a “soft-heart” though Mickey could tell he was joking. Horace wonders if maybe it is because the Phantom Blot doesn’t think Mickey would be able to do anything meaningful or useful and that killing him would be just a waste of time. Before realizing what he said to a slightly annoyed Mickey. 

Mickey then brings the topic back to the article and asks Horace if he happens to know where this mansion is. Horace looks up something on the computer and shows an abandoned mansion on a maps website (Think Google Maps). Great it is still there and looks to be abandoned. Mickey then remarks that his best chance to learn more about this “crime” is there. Thankfully he has tomorrow off, so he will have plenty of time to look at the place, without having to worry about going to work the next day. Horace also says that he will continue to look into this and see if he can find more information. Right before Mickey heads out, Horace wonders if he is going to wear a disguise. Mickey is confused at first about the need for a disguise, until Horace mentions that if this is connected to the cameras and the Phantom Blot, he may be in the area and may not be so kind if he recognizes him again. Mickey admits that Horace is right and asks if he has anything he can use. Horace pulls out an old box labeled “PATH TO BECOME FAMOUS ACTOR #4” and pulls out a top hat, a fake beard, some glasses, as well as some old looking clothes to go with it. They oddly enough fit Mickey well and Mickey thanks him before rushing off to the address of the old mansion.

When Mickey reaches the mansion the sun has already set and the moon is out. There doesn’t seem to be many buildings in this area due to the giant yards. The mouse heads out of his car to try and see if he can open the large gates that lead to the mansion. Surprisingly they are unlocked and he is able to open the gate with no problem. The mouse keeps himself alert, trying to notice anything that seems off in his surroundings. But currently all he can see are the lights of some night-time bikers trying to get some exercise. He dodges behind his car as they pass by. After they leave, seemingly unaware of the open gate, he quickly drives his car into the yard, closing the gate behind him and tries to find a place to park. Some place where someone wouldn’t find his car. He then sneaks over to the front door, as quietly as he can, keeping an eye on everything around him. He tries to see if the door is unlocked and to his surprise again it is also unlocked. One door unlocked is lucky. Two are suspicious.. He will have to be extra careful walking around this house, as he can’t really reschedule, despite the danger. He quickly sneaks in and pulls out a flashlight. The flashlight he brought is pretty dim, which was an annoyance whenever he went camping, but is perfect for sneaking. Gives just enough light to see, without giving his location away. He looks around at what is a mostly empty large room with a stray piece of furniture here and there as well as some frames with a picture of Jimmy Korker and what is likely his family. There is a staircase in the middle that leads up to two hallways each leading to the opposite side of the house. He looks to each side of the room that also has two giant doors leading to other rooms… Well guess he better start searching.

Mickey spends about an hour searching each room, being as quiet as well… A mouse. For a while he is unsure that he will be able to find anything, until he happens to gaze upon a portrait above an empty fireplace in one of the rooms. This portrait is odd as the other ones around were more serious and this one is more silly, with Jimmy Korker goofily holding up his hands like a hitchhiker pointing to the left. Mickey thought about the comics and cartoons he watched where usually this would lead to some kind of clue… Wait… What if. He looks to the left and notices that there appears to be a Knight in the left corner of the room who is looking to the center of the back room. Wait… Why is there a knight in an American mansion? Focus. Mickey then follows the trail and notices on the back wall there is another frame that is empty but on the top of the frame there is a duck character looking down and on the bottom there is a knob. He goes to the knob and turns it, which creates a loud noise behind him as he looks to see that the fireplace has swiveled around revealing a staircase. Hot Dog! Mickey immediately runs down the steps just as the fireplace continues to close again. He walks down the wooden steps, carefully to avoid any squeaky steps and avoid any traps that could be placed. 

When he gets to the bottom he sees a medium sized circle room that is covered with papers. Most of the papers seem to be hung up on the round walls. He instantly got out his camera and started to take as many pictures as he could, while also trying to get a sense of what they say. One thing that sticks out is an article that looks very similar to the one Horace found at the library. However he sees notes around it written in black ink, wondering about some kind of chemical that was being trafficked from Mouseton. Mickey then notices another picture which seems to be the blueprints for the Little Korker V39, however he notices a specific area that is highlighted to show a compartment within the camera. He looked around some more and then noticed a table. Surprised that he didn’t pick it up at first he sees what appears to be some kind of green liquid in a vial inside a glass case. Mickey instinctively tries to open the case, but unfortunately it seems to be locked and attached to the table which is also bolted to the ground. But maybe it was fortunately Mickey thought as he realized that he isn’t sure if the chemical may be radioactive. He gets ready to jump back, but notices a book on top of the table. This one has different handwriting than the others. 

As he reads through it, he starts to realize that this may be the journal of Jimmy Korker. Apparently he was supposed to send the last shipment, each shipment having 250 Little Korker V39 cameras, that will be sent to… Mickey can’t seem to read the location as it is scratched out. He says that this is the last set with the chemicals implanted in them and should also be the one that also includes the blueprints for… This also seems to be scratched out… in one of the cameras. However the FBI were hot on his trail and he had to send it through unusual means. Unfortunately this resulted in the shipment being lost and he still ended up getting arrested. Apparently this whole situation has put him through a lot of trouble and he had to pay a lot of money to avoid this getting out to the press. Though he couldn’t pay off one small local newspaper. But he wasn’t worried as nobody really reads their articles anyways. He says that all of this stress on his wife and son made him realize that he cares too much about them to continue this life of crime. So he has decided to sell his company and find some place off the map to live with them. 

So this is why the Phantom Blot wants these cameras so much, Mickey thought to himself. He must be trying to find the ones that still have the chemical in it. I bet they are worth a lot. He also looked over to the part about the blueprint, wondering if he is after that as well. As Mickey takes a picture of the page, trying to get it as readable as he can, he notices some loose papers sticking out of another page. He turns to that page to see designs of some kind of weird mechanism that seems to use the chemicals. This seems to be the same person who has written the notes on the wall, now that Mickey thinks about it, there is a big chance this is the Phantom Blot. Hmm… He is a pretty good artist. Mickey picks up that he seems to be trying to draw something based on the description in the book. But what is it, some kind of tool… toy… But then a sudden thought came to mind as he started to put the descriptions and the drawings together… Weapon. It’s a weapon. Mickey's heart sank as he came to this realization. If the Phantom Blot gets a hand on this weapon, who knows what he could do. He could try to extort entire countries out of their wealth out of fear for destruction. Or he could sell it to other villains who could use it for their own nefarious needs. So many innocent people could die. As Mickey started to put his thoughts together he realized he knew what he had to do. He has to do everything in his power to stop the Phantom Blot from finding this blueprint… That is if he hasn’t already. 

Taking some final pictures, Mickey tries to leave, but finds that a piece of paper has stuck to his hand. He pulls it off slowly revealing what appears to be a set of talleys. He counts the talleys to where there appears to be 237. Mickey quickly puts together that this is probably the amount of cameras that the Blot has already found. That leaves about 13 left. Mickey is impressed he managed to find so many, especially after such a long period of time, but then a sudden realization hit him. The paper with the talleys are still sticky. That means it is wet. That means it wasn’t written that long ago. He needs to get out of here. Now. Mickey tries his best to leave the room as he found it and quietly but quickly exits the mansion. On the way he starts to come up with a plan. Since he intentionally avoided taking any writings with him and placed everything just as he found it, the Phantom Blot wouldn’t know that he was here. But luckily with help from Ol’ Reliable, he has enough pictures that will be just the evidence he needs to get the police involved. If he can be quick enough, they should be able to sniff the place out before the Phantom Blot even gets a chance to take anything and run. With the whole force on his side they should have no issues getting the final 13 cameras, if they are still around, and hopefully find the blueprint before he even gets a chance. Hey, maybe they can even catch the Phantom Blot once and for all. Mickey laughs to himself in his head, that last one may be a stretch too far since the Blot has never been caught before, but you can always dream. Mickey honestly can’t stop smiling, excited that things seem to be really going his way. He didn’t even see that creep in the cloak at all tonight and he is so close to where he hid his car. So Close. Or at least he was… Until he felt a cold metal cylinder touch the back of his neck, causing him to freeze instantly.

“Where do you think you’re going?”

[zaphiyy207]

Rambling

You know, I would like to try and get out of my comfort. I have been rambling a lot to my friend (bless her for dealing with me) so here's me making blog, rambling about Kirby just to deal with me brain rotting about this pink puff game and its characters (mostly the RTDL Squad). I have a lot of headcanons and ideas that perhaps sharing with the community for shits and giggles is somewhat of a decent idea I suppose. Maybe it could be your entertainment who knows.

I'm focusing on speech pattern, because there's a lot of possibility on how they talk and speak, and I like trying to differentiate them in writing or just daydreaming them to pass the time

[Note: I am focusing on the main four. The others will be added soon once I've played more Kirby games.]

I'm also comparing them with the anime as it's the only media that they talked in full sentences (aside from Kirby and Bandana).

— King Dedede

(before FL) would have talk a lot and have a gruffier voice. Somewhat a little rough as it's coming from the base of the throat type of rough.

(After FL) He would have a slightly raspy voice due to him yelling and roaring a lot forcefully which strained his voice. Compared to the anime, I would see him speaking a little quieter and don't talk as much as his counterpart (to heal his voice).

He uses informal words where the g is silent despite being royalty, and have interesting combination of words that sounded strange to an outsider and yet make sense in Dreamland. (Native slangs in Dreamland, I haven't think much of an example) Despite the impolite or somewhat a little rude manner speech, his tone is upbeat which made him more friendly than menacing (despite his large figure)

He would have a slight hint of southern/texan accent and talks fast paced. I do hc that Dreamlanders have Japanese accent rather than English, not sure how to word it out.

— Bandana Waddle Dee

His voice would sounds somewhat a young teen (considering both Kirby and BWD are youngsters) so he'll sound like 13 - 15 at most? Since waddle dees have high pitch voices in FL and RTDL DX, his sentence sometimes ended up in a higher note. Bandana would stutter in his speech sometimes due to anxiety spikes or due to his tongue just stumbled (twisted?) which confused him on what he was about to say. Otherwise, he speaks fairly well. He's also silent and wouldn't say much during serious situations as he always zoned out and focused very much in battles or some serious situations that needed him to strategise.

Considering he spent a lot of time with Kirby, he adopted some of Kirby's speech mannerism with occasional hum in between to think of specific words or just occasional one liners like a joke (You know, like quoting a vine or something but it's an inside joke between the friends).

He also adopted some of Dedede's and Meta Knight's speech mannerism and accents during serious moments. It is quite subtle between the three, but if he's around the waddle dees, it's fairly obvious how different his accent and speech mannerism compared to the other waddle dees.

Bandana has slight bit of southern/texan and spanish. Though it's mostly Japanese (native accent of Dreamland)

— Kirby

Now this is mostly centering around hc of mine of both Kirby and Meta Knight

He has a bubbly voice, following the game voice clips of Kirby. which made him sounds younger than his supposed age range. Compared to his anime counterpart, he has a little deeper voice and accented.

Due to him being energetic, he tends to cut people off which he knows it's bad but he just can't help it. He tried to curb that habit from his friends reminding him or forcing himself to stop and apologized.

Kirby's speech mannerism is a little funny imo. He misused complicated words with meanings he thinks it meant even though it's actually very far off. Meta Knight and Bandana always corrected him afterwards. (He's very embarrassed). He's actually quite nice and polite. It's just that he's very blunt which made him sounded rude and kind of a 'kind' insult even though it's supposed to be a compliment.

Kirby sometimes has a stroke and just said the most confusing abomination of a stroke sentence due to his brain mouth speaking faster than his brain could process, which the others looked at him after a few moments of silence like "what".

Kirby has Halcandra accent when he first came to Popstar and from influenced by Dream Friends, he now has mixed accents (like someone who learned English as their second language and has both UK and US accent). His accents also changed according to Dream Friends, like if he's with Taranza, he has more Florarian accent, if he's with the animal friends, he has more Japanese accent. His original accent comes out around Magolor and Meta Knight. Though his original accent also is slowly disappearing after living in Popstar for so long.

— Meta Knight

Compared to his anime counterpart (JP and ENG), he has deeper voice and slight spanish and Halcandra accent but more Japanese as he was on Popstar longer than Kirby. He also has change of speech mannerism between work mode and relax mode which isn't too noticeable.

Work mode has him talk in short and straight to the point. His tone is more apathetic and curt kind of way? Not with the intention of being rude but it's a way to get others to focus on their work and responsibilities. He has a lot of complicated and bigger words because all this time he reads the dictionary (/j). When he's under pressure, Halcandrian words slipped out and he just speak in full Halcandra which others just nodded along watching him rage for just a moment. This includes curse words. Meta Knight is also silent like BWD as he's also focusing on the fight which he zoned out sometimes.

Relax mode however has him talk more than usual which his tone is a little light, his body language is a little slack as well as his expression not narrowed or angry looking (Of course, it's not obvious because of the mask but the three noticed the difference right away). He still has the habit of brooding because he's workaholic.

He's also very blunt, a trait share with Kirby because of their origins (HC!!). Meta Knight served as Kirby's translator when the little Astral had a hard time explaining what words he wanted to say. He understood the struggle of learning a new language.

Meta Knight also has a stroke like Kirby which happened very rarely nowadays but it always happened when he woke up without a caffeine (hot choco) to kick start his brain or if he has little sleep due to overwork. It also includes Halcandrian slangs which Magolor cackled like a psychopath and Kirby just nodded along as he understood half of what he said.

And that's it, if you come this far consider me being very surprised because this is a way for me to just let out my brainrot moments. Will this turn into a series? Maybe, we'll see how it goes

What do you guys think? What is your view on how the four would speak?

[sugar-spice-everything-vice]

can u tell me more about how u think carl is autistic, i agree with you but i wanna hear more about it

oh i kinda wanna make a list of all the autistic traits Carl shows with references, but that might take a while. for now, here's some autistic traits Carl has, imo.

note: autism presents itself in lots of different ways in different people!

Carl is not the best with conversations; he isn't often shown initiating conversations; he can be a pretty quiet kid; but also when having a conversation he doesn't always know the "appropriate" way to respond; namely, he sometimes says things that other people find strange/unhinged/etc.

He totally struggles to understand social cues in general

Carl also isn't the type of person to do small talk; if he doesn't have something to say, he won't say anything; he doesn't try to fill the silence; not liking/doing small talk is a very common autistic trait

Carl struggles to explain/express himself something; arguably this could be because of his emotionally stunted development as his siblings also struggle in this area, but I think Carl struggles with this beyond emotions. I think sometimes it doesn't even occur to him that he should explain himself. Like when he was trying to catch the guy that stole the war medal.

And Carl struggles to ask for help from others; this is also arguably because of the environment he grew up in; but I think, unlike his siblings, for Carl it's less about not wanting to ask for help and more in the vein of it not being something that occurs to him; he just does things by himself, but if someone offered him help, he would take it.

Carl's face is often blank/unemotional

Carl struggles to understand people's tone like when they're joking + not understanding things like rhetorical questions

Carl has difficulty understanding how other people feel; he often needs direct communication

He has a lower than average need for social interaction; Carl has no issue with not having friends and spending time alone

He has trouble figuring out when someone wants him to do something if they don’t specifically tell him. When people give him vague statements or metaphors, he gets confused and struggles to read between the lines. (i.e. he doesn't understand when people are trying to make a pass at him unless they're being very direct)

I think he might mirror the speech of those around him which somewhat falls under this. But I think the White Boy Carl era could be seen as him mirroring the behavior and speech patterns of the people he spent a year in Juvie with rather than him trying to be someone he's not.

We don't necessarily see rigidity, inflexibility, and adherence to routines in younger Carl. But he thrives when given structure in military school and it's possible that this could be why.

His terrible sense of style can fall into this too as he tends to like wearing the same types of clothes and patterns.

I would say Carl's fixated interests are guns. Like Carl doesn't know about a lot of things he should but show him a gun and he can immediately name what kind of gun it is. I'd argue he has other interests like horror movies and fighting, but it's not to the same extent.

Having difficulty following conversations is something I could see Carl struggling with; but I don't have any specific thing to point to in regard to this.

Also; based on my own experience; I think it might be more common for autistic folks in the hood to react to certain things like sensory issues + social struggles with repression and aggression as opposed to compliance or reservedness which is what's usually shown in media. I have no proof of this. But it makes sense to me given how much more dangerous being different in the hood feels. It's also how me, my family, and people around me who I suspect might also be on the spectrum are so it's a hunch and maybe slightly projection.

also also - there's several mentions in the show of Carl having a low IQ; I just want to clarify that IQ and autism are completely different and unrelated things; but the fact that he scored low implies that he probably has something else in addition to ASD. I'm of the opinion that he also has a learning disability and maybe also ADHD.

In the case of ADHD, I also want to note that when someone has both ASD and ADHD, the symptoms do sometimes counteract each other and make certain traits less overt; for example, Autism means you have a need for structure, but ADHD means you struggle to maintain structure.

[metaphorical-goblin]

I’d love to know more about your process for writing Athena in the Junithena kiss thing you wrote! You have her tone and behaviours spot on. Do you have any tips for writing Athena in general?

Oh wow! This is such a kind ask; thank you anon! This'll be a bit of a long one...

So, to be completely honest, I don't think I've ever read a fic where Athena is the "main focus." That tends to be how I adopt most of my "characterizations:" community assimilation lol. When I got the ask, I had to sit down and sort of decide, based on what I remembered from playing the game, "okay, what are a few key things that make Athena a unique character?" I came up with a little list in my head:

Strength/Athleticism

Her particular sprite where she folds her arms and smiles

High-energy

Knows and actively uses several other languages

Absurdly excellent hearing

Therapist; can read other people's emotions incredibly well.

I did the same sort of thing with Juniper, though I did have to flex her out just a little! Then, I tried thinking of little tics or habits I could use to incorporate and show these things (running in place = athleticism, showing her "award-winning grin," being able to hear what the tour guide was talking about despite not joining the group, etc.).

As far as tone and language goes! I just kind of did what I normally do for that, which is a) trying to remember how they actually talk in the game and b) figuring out the best way to incorporate that into text. So, for example, whenever I write Miles, I always include a lot of filler words (hm, er, ah, etc.), ellipses, and em-dashes for "dramatic pauses," because Miles is the sort of guy to take a while to think about things and decide on his words. Athena, on the other hand, or at least for this fic, is portrayed as talking really quickly and giving a lot of clarification about things (which I did because of her job and her high energy levels). I also decided on a singular "filler word" ("you know") for her to use, which I thought helped reflect her age, since she is younger than the rest of the cast.

Thank you again for the ask! I hope that actually answered your question! This is actually a process I use for writing almost everyone I write fic about, though for characters I write a lot (like Miles, Phoenix, and Franziska) it's a little less "conscious." As far as "general tips" go... I think it's perfectly alright to give a little bit of yourself to any character you write! Yeah, we know Athena's strong and athletic and a therapist, but we don't know that her favorite mug is one that has bumblebees etched into the side, and that she's literally used it so much that the zoo logo that was printed on the side when she received it has long since washed off. It's a really easy and colorful way to add real humanity to your characters!

[basuralindo]

Chapter 10 of You'll Have Me Rise, You'll Have Me Fall is up!!

You can read it right here:

And there's some commentary in the notes but I have so many more thoughts and am gonna go on about them under the cut. Please read the chapter before looking through my commentary, but you're all welcome to interact about it on here

Okay, so, in roughly chronological order:

-Idk if the Jamil and Kalim stuff is coming off shippy, but that's not the intention. What I'm tryna present is the fact that they have no concept of boundaries with each other. Jamil was basically instructed, as a child, to look after this whole ass other child with way too little actual adult supervision, and it didn't go well.

-Jamil has a Very loose understanding of free will as is, considering his situation, and Snake Whisper has always been kinda just another tool used to desperately try to get through situations. The idea that forcing someone to not have nightmares without their knowledge or consent might be fucked up doesn't really cross his mind, because he's been doing it since they were little and Kalim always seems happier than when he's left to just deal with his own bad dreams.

-People tend to get stuck with the aftereffects of an intense trigger for quite a while after, and Jamil's behavior is definitely gonna be influenced more heavily by ptsd in the next few chapters.

-Yes, Jamil really is out here basically poledancing on that broom. Why? Because athletes are literally the least self aware people when it comes to doing weird shit with their bodies and I know this from so much personal experience. I also imagine that the brooms operate a lot based on the rider's clarity of intention. So Jamil being already very comfortable with heights because of playing on the carpet with Kalim as kids, and having pretty good focus with multitasking in general, he has very little issues with getting the broom to do what he wants. Meanwhile, Azul would be able to fly just fine, but he's so scared of heights he loses all sense of intention once he gets a couple feet off the ground

-✨Guess who never learnt what dyslexia is because royalty aren't supposed to have learning disorders!✨ Just wait till those two find out about adhd. (Also, major headcanon that Kalim self medicates with caffeine)

-Anyway THE TEXTING!! This is the part that I had no plans to write until going "wait, they should exchange numbers because duh" Then wrote the actual scene and went "wait omfg the teins would totally find that!" Anyway I'm glad I did because it was a lot of fun to write and finally breaks the ice between them all a little more. It ended up taking a lot longer than I'd expected to depict the sheer chaos of texting three people in the same room at the same time.

-I actually thought a lot about the texting patterns on this. Floyd writes in a hurry because his thoughts come and go so fast he just spits them out as they come, which results in spamming with a million short messages when he's actually in the mood to talk. He also canonly has this tendency to just say shit that makes sense in his head, where he has context, and doesn't get it when other people don't understand, so with texting that kinda comes out as not bothering with much punctuation to indicate tone because he knows what tone he's using and forgets that nobody else does. Azul on the other hand is suuuper neurotic about how he presents himself, and texting is no exception. Perfect diction, punctuation, etc. Uses autocorrect and then doublechecks the outocorrect. Jade figures Azul already put all the effort into establishing how to present himself flawlessly, and just imitates his style. (They're both wrong. Azul comes off like a car salesman, and Jade comes off like an alien impersonating a car salesman). I have a reason for this dynamic and I'm gonna go into it eventually in the fic. Jamil is just trying to spell things correctly and uses punctuation as normally as he can. He uses contractions and slangs even less over text because he's not confident in being able to spell less familiar words and doesn't wanna risk it. (He also uses contractions less in general around Azul because, while he tries to come off like he's mastered English around all his potentially hostile peers, Azul never mocks him for his speech so he's more comfortable about wording things awkwardly. Jamil hasn't noticed this consciously yet.)

-Jadeeeeee. This fic is slow burn in general, but it's definitely burning at different speeds for each of them, and Jamil/Jade is definitely the slowest. Neither of them are the kind to openly pursue someone without the other party initiating A Lot, and they're much more emotionally distant than Floyd or Azul. Also, Jade is territorial and Jamil is paranoid and it's gonna take a long time before they get anywhere near trusting each other. Despite that, they're finally starting to notice that they have some shit in common and actually enjoy talking to each other in all the convoluted mincy bullshit ways that nobody else wants to engage in.

-Yes, Jamil feels the need to conceal laughter and smiles even when he's alone in his room. No, he's not okay, but that's kind of the whole plot.

-Again, I just really enjoyed getting to write Jamil having a nice time?? Finally starting to think about the fact that he actually WANTS these guys in his life, for non-strategic purposes, just because they make him happier! I'm finally getting somewhere in this mess of my own making lmao

Anyway thanks for coming to my ted talk. I have a lot of feelings about these guys and I'm tempted to do more posts like this about previous chapters just so I can get myself to babble less in the fic notes

[midnightfangz]

Hello and welcome everyone to my newest project called Pluto reviews where I gush about the amazing fanfics my dear friends wrote <3

I've always (kind of?) wanted to do this for a pretty long time, but was too shy to actually write and post something, so I wanted to thank my very cool friend Nova (aka @min1nova) for asking me to review their fic called To the bone.

Without further ado, let's get to it :3c

Contents:

Introduction ✦ Story summary ✦ My thoughts ✦ Excerpts ✦

‧₊˚✩彡 Introduction

⤷ To the bone is a dark industrial fantasy fanfic based on the Hades video game from 2018. What is dark industrial fantasy, you ask? Imagine Andrzej Sapkowski's Witcher without the high fantasy elements-- heavily inspired by industrial towns in eastern Europe. The main pairing is Thanaots/Zagreus, but there's a smidge of Charon/Hermes in the background, if you're into that too. It is rated as mature, mostly because of its serious and grim nature. It currently has over 4k words, but I'm sure that's gonna change soon, since Nova has a few more chapters planned.

⤷ TW for the first chapter (as described by Nova): blood, mediocre surgery description, Thanatos with the usual amount of stick up his ass(!)

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‧₊˚✩彡 Story summary

⤷ Author's summary:

A small town enshrouded in the march of industrial abuse of the land is the home of many curious figures. Darkness is afoot, sons harbour secret enterprises and death is only a comforting constant here. The gloomy barista of a quiet cafeteria begins to unravel a mystery as an uneventful night turns into a rather harried operation.

⤷ My summary:

The story focuses on a young man named Thanatos, who is trying to make a living as a coffee shop owner in a small mining town called Grobniki. One evening, a heavily wounded man passes out on the doorstep of his establishment and Thanatos decides to take him in and patch him up.

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‧₊˚✩彡 My thoughts

⤷ I might be slightly biased since I got this was a very, very cool story gifted to me by Nova, however! Nova's writing style is so fucking good I simply must promote it whenever I can :3c

⤷ I absolutely love how Nova manages to nail the characterisation no matter the tone she sets for her story. Not only that, the characterisation makes sense within her story. Take Thanatos, for example. He's deadly serious (pun intended) and takes his job very seriously in the game, so it makes sense he would be the same in To the bone. Nova, however takes it to a next level-- we get Thanatos who's kinda scary and is absolutely terrible at social interactions, despite a coffee shop owner. Never would I have thought that Than would choose to talk to people as a job, but holy shit Nova pulls it off so well. And Zagreus-- my god Zagreus!! He's still the talkative, flighty himbo we see in the game, but you can feel he's hiding something behind that smug smile of his. Not gonna lie, when I first read his lines, I could hear his voice saying them.

⤷ Also the general vibe of the story is?? so good?? Nova's fics tend to gravitate towards grittier, more serious aesthetics and I'm all here for it.

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‧₊˚✩彡 Excerpts

And lastly, here are my favourite parts from the first chapter, It begins in the darkness:

The doctor’s son had indeed ventured to open a business of his own. His greyish, darker skin would gleam in the lamplight and contrasted sharply with his ashy platinum hair, hands working deftly and his stride quick as he prepared the orders. Amongst those could be a strange liquid, dark as the night, imported from the imposing, large city so far beyond their reach. The bitter end, a name that caused many a chuckle, was not well visited in the evening, but more and more of the workforce would make their way to the shop in the morning, nursing a cup of the death that served them, even if the only deadly thing about it was the amounts of precious sugar deposited in each and every cup quickly drained before a long day of hard labour and shallow breaths.

⤷ hrrghrgrgh you have. no idea. how much I love Nova's worldbuilding and scene descriptions i mean are you seeing this??? I swear to god they're hogging all that talent it's not fair

“Dear bartender, I would like a small cup of your darkest, with two spoons of sugar please!” The postman all but draped himself over the counter every morning, quite dramatically so. It would be the same every morning, before he ran all the way to the larger town down the river to pick up the post, and in the afternoon he would distribute it among the townsfolk, in their little letterboxes. 

⤷ HERMES IS MY FAVOURITE LITTLE FELLA AND NOVA WRITES HIM SO WELL

“–and then I nearly fell down the bridge, and I saw them all! The fish you were speaking of, I knew it was bad, but not nearly as I saw it, oh the stench!” The postman had seated himself across the fisherman–if one could call the draping that he always tended to do just that–and spoke animatedly. A strange companionship the two nursed over drinks, but Thanatos found himself just a tiny bit envious between the laughter that bounced off the floorboards and the easy way in which they seemed to understand each other, even if they didn’t quite speak each other’s language.

⤷ woe! background charon/hermes be upon ye! (foaming at the mouth they make me so ill in the best way possible)

Thanatos would like to claim that he was not so different from these townsfolk, but that was not entirely true. It took him some time, when he’d been younger, to learn to discern. The vacant eyes were not so different from the vacancy that could dwell in the mind sometimes, after all. Pale skin could glitter so sickly, when one happened to be a patient of his loving mother. 

⤷ i need to print this out and shove it in my mouth this is so fucking good oh my god

After thorough inspection, Thanatos did not find any more grave injuries that needed immediate attention, other than a clean rag over the numerous scrapes that mapped a concerning picture for the observer. The bruises that would certainly grow darker soon, the pale, sweaty skin stretched over a body that would fail the host soon if the wound wasn’t closed soon. When he checked for a pulse, despite the assurance that the body was still breathing, rapidly, there seemed to be next to none. He frowned. 

⤷ another banger paragraph that makes me want to jump up and down while screaming like an ape because i can't handle how beautiful Nova's writing style is

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Anyways, that's all I have for today!

What did you think? Would you like me to continue doing reviews like this? Or better, would you like me to read YOUR fic and do a review of it?

(youtuber voice) let me know what you think in the comments! Until next time!

Yours truly,

Pluto aka midnightfangz <3

[ruinaimagines]

Any silly little Xiao headcanons? It doesn’t have to be anything specific I just really love reading your work. You’re very very talented ^^

Thank you! And yes you may. Xiao is just so pretty.. Sorry for my absence! As I said, I've been dealing with medical stuff. At long last I got a diagnosis! Sadly it’s something chronic BUT there’s treatment so looking forward to that. 

Xiao General Headcanons:

To people who do not know her well, Xiao can come off as very distant and calloused. This especially tends to be people’s first interpretation of her when they meet her while working. A Liu Association Director as unmovable and determined as can be.

She doesn't want to come off as rude though. Direct, maybe, but appreciative. She is aware of her reputation and to make up for this, especially in everyday settings, she tries to be as respectful as possible.

But because of her tone this can come across as forceful in a way. Not because it’s fake, but like it’s more a command than anything. When she says to the grocery clerk, “Have a good day.��� It doesn’t sound like a suggestion, it sounds like her saying “You WILL have a good day.”

Very passive aggressive in an accidental way. This is especially represented in last minute sticky notes scrambled out for other Liu Association members to see. She worries that people will take it in the wrong way, but instead her subordinates just find it funny.

Struggles with figuring out how technology works. Not in the grandma way, but in a way that makes things a bit more difficult if she’s out of her comfort zone. She’ll continue trying to fix things herself though until someone steps in or she finds a solution.

I feel like if she’s guiding or teaching someone it would have to be through physically showing whatever it is. It’s not that she can’t explain what they need to do, but when she does it’s often very complex and not very processible information. She is aware of this, so she tries to help others through other ways.

Avoids people she knows if she sees them in public, especially if they’re from work. It isn’t as though she doesn’t like them or talking to them, it’s just that it's in a different setting and formality and she has no clue what to expect. She often has a goal in mind for what she’s doing when she’s out of the house and she doesn’t want to be sidetracked.

I feel like Xiao would like going to concerts. The kind with bright colorful lights and where everyone is just enjoying themselves alongside the music. She goes there for the atmosphere. You hardly ever have so many strangers just so loose and relaxed in the city, it’s a nice change of pace. 

Speaking of said concerts, she doesn’t really go based on what artist is playing, just whatever will be the funnest. Because of this, she ends up experiencing all types of genres than she didn’t even know before. Some of the songs she in particular ends up liking 100% get played in the car, and often people are very surprised with her music taste.

Doesn’t really have a sense of style. Now hear me out, this does not mean she dresses bad or looks bad in any means, we all know that’s not true. However, her closet is just filled with the same colored clothes (typically black or gray) with little variation. You got the 4 suits, and maybe some sweaters, but that’s about it.

She’s a morning person and doesn’t really like taking naps, but has grown really efficient at them. Being in the Liu association especially when it comes to tough combat situations means that getting rest can be quite difficult most of the time, so she’s learned how to very quickly fall asleep.

A light sleeper when she’s napping as one would need to be in potentially dangerous situations, or in areas where you might be needed to immediately jump into responding. It’s never a satisfying or fulfilling sleep though.

She has a huge collection of various board games that are shoved away in a cabinet in her house. Every time there is a mission that causes her to relocate to some place temporarily, in free time she’ll visit any stores that sell any physical games.

Often she’ll leave particular ones she thinks have an interesting concept at work for employees to play if they’re interested. Sometimes being an association member means working a lot of overtime, so at the very least they have some type of entertainment.

Always has to have something to do, very much always on the go. If there isn’t something planned or an idea she has in mind, she feels lazy. This helps keep her energy levels high. That said, has a low social battery, so much of what she does are tasks on her own, or with people she is close with.

Unfortunately this can come with some additional stress, even though she considers the pros better than the cons. She’s actually pretty good with finding ways with managing this though, and often sets up regular meetings with an acupuncturist whom she finds helps with her mood.

Regularly keeps her workplace stocked with caffeine for her and other people. Whether it’s through tea, coffee, or some other drink it will honestly be more difficult to find something that is uncaffeinated. Anyone is open to helping themselves.

She feels really bad when she has to bring bad news to her colleagues, and will attempt to tread carefully when breaking it to them. There’s a lot in her head she’d like to say, but she just can’t really find the words to say them. I think those that are often working with her know the sorrow she feels, they can see it in her eyes.

When holidays come around in the office she doesn’t participate too much in them. You can typically find her sitting to herself, maybe with Lowell. That said, there is one thing that has become absolute tradition: she brings the food. Something about the way she bakes treats is iconic amongst the Liu South Section.

Whenever it’s someone’s birthday she gets a card for them and leaves a little note. As she isn’t the best with expression, the note isn’t really special, but what is are the small doodles she often leaves behind. They aren’t particularly good but that’s what makes them adored and loved.

She doesn’t actually understand why her little drawings have become such a favorable thing among her colleagues. She’s not really an artist and she did them in like a couple minutes, yet here they are showing off to each other their cards.

Wants to get better at cooking, for as good as she is at baking and decorating, making actual meals.. Well she can make food of the same type. Xiao just doesn’t really have experience in making other types of food, and she wants to expand that skill.

Really loves knitted stuff in particular?? Something about it is cozy. In winter especially there are often a lot of knitted plushies like deers and she has to resist the urge to buy them, because she knows she won’t be able to stop once she starts.

[canmom]

I'm sorry, looks like my tone didn't come across the way I wanted. I just felt slightly uncomfortable when, in a review where you deservedly pointed out how some jokes in Adventure Time repeat tropes that hurt trans women, fat people, disabled people etc. you yourself made jokes that repeat tropes that hurt adopted siblings.

Hi anon. I did get a bit defensive, definitely. Let me give you a more genuine answer.

So yeah, textually Finn and Jake are adoptive siblings. This is so far mostly played for humour - Jake's dad is a very silly caricature of a father, the rest of his family have not yet been introduced at this point (I don't think we've met Jerome) - but I think it's absolutely fair to say the dynamic they're going for with Jake's relationship to Finn is 'cool older brother'. It is kind of a failing of media literacy that I didn't pick up on that, thinking of them more as 'bros' in the figurative sense (very close friends). And I can see how that could make joking about Finn and Jake's relationship feel tasteless.

We could talk about the thin line between fictional portrayals of close sibling relationships and romantic ones (c.f. Azula bedroom scene). Bearing in mind that we're talking here about a cartoon boy and a cartoon dog - Finn and Jake are symbols. They invoke various associations based on the needs of the narrative. Trying to read it based on real human relationships is at some point going to founder against the fact that nothing about this show makes sense in 21st century human terms.

So I was reacting to a story about two boys who live together in a treehouse, do everything together such that they're basically treated as a unit, and constantly display a great deal of emotional sensitivity towards each other, which often draws parallels between their relationship and established romantic ones (for example, the gladiator episode, or the 'do the thing I like' in S4E16). Notably they don't really tend to show Jake in a 'sibling who takes on parental role' light either. I certainly don't think the show intends a romantic reading as the primary one by any means lmao, the way the show indicates romantic relationships is not subtle, but I found it amusing that it gives grounds for that reading at all.

But like sure. I don't mean to treat adoptive relationships dismissively. They are precisely as meaningful as 'blood' relationships and I'll keep in mind that it's an incest joke if I ever feel like making that kind of joke again. (which I probably will, because that just makes it funnier.)

That said, I do think the narrow focus on 'social justice' criticism as my only approach, particularly in the 2018-era liveblogs was... a limiting frame, to put it mildly. It's not that I think I was wrong, exactly, to find things like the early Ice King plots tedious. Princess Bubblegum for example becomes a much more interesting character once they start playing up the sinister, tyrannical angle and drop the 'love interest' frame.

But there's more going in this work of animation on that it would have been interesting to talk about. And having seen the alternative in the painfully didactic cartoons that have become the norm... well, I regret worrying so much about frigging Adventure Time of all things lol

[hangon-silvergirl]

🌿🕯️💌💞✨

Thank you! 😊❤️

🌿how does creating make you feel?

Every emotion under the sun. Sometimes I'm spamming @majicmarker passages like a gleeful little gremlin, while other times I'm beating my head against the floor, or screaming into pillows. There's nothing more satisfying then when it all comes together though, and you're proud of the summation of all that blood, sweat, and tears, and you get to yeet the emotional weight of it out into the universe.

🕯️was there a fic that was really hard on you to write, or took you to a place you didn't think it would take you?

Marigold has been my biggest struggle, and that's largely because I keep second guessing the story I set out to tell. I tend to stick more to silly and funny takes, quick and dumb, and while there's humor in Marigold, it's a lot more serious in tone and intent, which has been a challenge.

💌share something with us about an up-and-coming work (WIP) that has you excited!

I'm writing a one-shot called keggers & synth-pop that's just a short scene (based on one of the prompts I asked for a few weeks back). I like the normalcy in slice-of-life for Hellcheer; that more typical teenage experience, which this is. It's not very long, so I'm not going to post any snippets, but I will say that the thought came to be because I was fixating for like a month on trying to figure out how to get Eddie to sit and wobble around on an upturned bucket.

💞what's the most important part of a story for you? the plot, the characters, the worldbuilding, the technical stuff (grammar etc), the figurative language

The vibe and the pacing. Whatever I'm trying to emulate or convey, I want the progression to flow sensibly and for that immersive reference to come across without squinting. I spend so much time just editing and editing and editing the structure of thoughts and mechanics and transitions. I feel like I'm doing Mad Libs. And I think characterization goes hand-in-hand with the vibe. The spirit's gotta be there, or the ass'll fall out of the whole thing.

✨What's a fic you've posted you wish you could breathe life into again and have people talking about it? (or simply a fic you wish got more credit)

Probably For Luck, which is D&D-inspired. It features the ST teen characters as members of a mercenary adventuring group, and reimagines Chrissy as an eladrin (extraplanar elf) druid, and Eddie as a tiefling bard. There is a major character death, so perhaps that also puts folks off, but in D&D there are ways around the permanence of that.

Fic Writer Asks.

[ladygoofball]

Acknowledgement and Accountability on Social Media

Jesus christ, if I don't post I get a whole fucking mess of regrets about how I don't have a therapist right now. I'm working on it! If anyone would let me just go for a fucking walk without someone trying to steal my fucking identity or some shit.

Do I condone abuse because I talk about the ways I was hurt in the past and see ways that I could be hurt in the present? FUCK NO!!!!!!

I am vehemently against any form of harassment or threats and I've been writing like I'm making a lot of threats. This is why I am trying to be on my phone less, and on here less often, because I need to stop the acknowledgement part of my healing journey and start with the actual healing parts.

This is why! I don't post about being vulnerable!!!! I'm trying to just get some new books to figure out what stories my white ass upbringing shielded me from and every time I inch towards something and try to confirm that on different platforms I have different players trying to get me to engage with their sick shit. /genuine

I've been sitting on my ass for too long to even pretend like I could be talking to any of those people, for the record. I know that. Why do you think my mouth is running this much lmfao

I am just trying to let people know that the work that they are doing is inspiring people across generations and that is something that only video games can offer people.

In the states, there are no national efforts to keep video games catalogued and playable and have some form of discussion around the cultural impact that these games have on our Real World.

That is a mistake, because we all have libraries of games that we can't play anymore because the system is "outdated". Artisans and Craftsmen of ancient times would be SICK if they saw how much wasted materials we have in America.

If I blocked artists that actually want to connect with me? My bad! I've been a bit liberal with the block button. Happy to correct it, but not for a while.

I have been working TIRELESSLY for the past 7 months now trying to get my skills back up

i n d e p e n d e n t l y do you know what that means?

That was a quote, and you will need to look that artist up. I won't do that work for you. It's white people's responsibility to lift up our communities and our neighbors to make amends for how much blood is on our ancestral hands. My roots are tainted with so much blood and I am trying to pay my respects to the people who are making these communities function by enjoying the gifts nature has to offer. My family was part of the catholics that invaded canada in the 15/1600s. By the 1700s They came down into the States then traced back to the World's Fair in the 1800s and have not left this place ever since.

Knowing that much history? IS THE DEFINITION of privilege. I know this. I do not want to uplift white voices over any other voice. I am just demonstrating that I have been shielded from the ability to reconnect and I needed new book recommendations. /genuine

Do I want to inconvenience a bunch of people in the industries I have been trying to work in just because I needed a new book? Of course not! I just have loud ass opinions! This tends to make communities I try to fit into feel like they have to "test" my fortitude as a personality. Please fucking stop/genuine.

You have no idea who the fuck I am based on reading my words, I am a master at tone shifting. I am not trying to co-opt anyone's shit, I am trying to advocate for those stories to be on the center stage. My favorite classes in college were always the Director's classes. I can't help being like that wherever I go, but life is not a bunch of pieces that I can put together and create an image. I know that, and being removed from everything and barking orders hardly makes me look like an adult. I'm far from a perfect person, actually. But I don't owe anyone a complete version of who I am online.

The truth is: I am just terrified of making a mistake because the amount of projection that happens whenever I start to step into the stage because I have little doe eyes on the way up is INSANE.

I "gamble" on my own life because I am tired of putting my time and energy into things that refuse to acknowledge me at all. I have been catfished, frauded, defamed, dragged to fucking shit just because I sound annoying or rub someone the wrong way SINCE I was born thank you very much. I am thrilled that I can finally trust my gut to tell me that I am doing something right, and I know that might just be a sign of needing to sit down and eat something.

It's created by the shit that you go out and actually do.

"That was so aggressive! We are just expressing concern for you! Stop fighting everyone!" If I had a therapist, I would be able to work this out offline. Assholes /tongue-and-cheeky

When I hear people ask "Why the fuck are you like this?" I get defensive because I have always been harassed, since I was a child. Does that make me not accountable for the shit I'm doing? Nope!

It just means: I am acknowledging where I am in my current healing journey for the public record, since I have fucked up a lot on here and need to do some back tracking. Minors are the ones who should be protected from these kinds of words over anyone else, and that is really the main reason why I am such a fierce advocate for these stronger boundaries among adults.

If we can't demonstrate better, how can children grow up and be better?

Do I condone abuse because I talk about the ways I was hurt in the past and see ways that I could be hurt in the present? FUCK NO!!!!!! I am vehemently against any form of harassment or threats and I've been writing like I'm making a lot of threats. This is why I am trying to be on my phone less, and on here less often, because I need to stop the acknowledgement part of my healing journey and start with the actual healing parts. I have activated some kind of military encoding trauma where my little spy brain is looking for clues wherever I go because I don't know where to put my trust anymore. I can't keep holding all of it by myself. I am asking for help, and I have received an overwhelming response.

Being unable to articulate that does not mean I do not see it /genuine

I am walking in nature more often, since I have little control over my immediate environment when I am not mentally stable. This results in really ugly behavior to my animals who love me and who I love unconditionally. I know that they deserve better, and I am so much better after the hell that was Pisces season concluded. That was thanks to visiting the cemetery more often and releasing my ghosts. The only beings I have ever tried to improve myself for are my familiars. That's just witchcraft 101.

The amount of shit that keeps fucking happening after I so much as step out of my house is what causes me to stop wanting to leave. The city is too loud, my headphones stopped connecting to my phone cuz apple doesn't make a regular aux chord headphone jack and the adapter I had to buy for mine broke. It makes me paranoid, but having podcasts encouraging me to go out in nature has been so fucking helpful. I missed spending time with myself and enjoying it. I've been trying to just live that up and post about it but my words are being interpreted in all different kinds of ways just because I'm fat as fuck right now. /genuine

The nature preserves around me are starting to feel a bit small, and I know that means it is time to answer the call to travel. How can someone travel with no job and no money? /genuine because I don't have all the answers, for the fucking record.

Do I need to stop whining online? Absolutely. And asking myself questions that are easy to answer isn't to say I know best, either. Fucks sake.

[fozmeadows]

race & culture in fandom

For the past decade, English language fanwriting culture post the days of LiveJournal and Strikethrough has been hugely shaped by a handful of megafandoms that exploded across AO3 and tumblr – I’m talking Supernatural, Teen Wolf, Dr Who, the MCU, Harry Potter, Star Wars, BBC Sherlock – which have all been overwhelmingly white. I don’t mean in terms of the fans themselves, although whiteness also figures prominently in said fandoms: I mean that the source materials themselves feature very few POC, and the ones who are there tended to be done dirty by the creators.

Periodically, this has led POC in fandom to point out, extremely reasonably, that even where non-white characters do get central roles in various media properties, they’re often overlooked by fandom at large, such that the popular focus stays primarily on the white characters. Sometimes this happened (it was argued) because the POC characters were secondary to begin with and as such attracted less fan devotion (although this has never stopped fandoms from picking a random white gremlin from the background cast and elevating them to the status of Fave); at other times, however, there has been a clear trend of sidelining POC leads in favour of white alternatives (as per Finn, Poe and Rose Tico being edged out in Star Wars shipping by Hux, Kylo and Rey). I mention this, not to demonize individuals whose preferred ships happen to involve white characters, but to point out the collective impact these trends can have on POC in fandom spaces: it’s not bad to ship what you ship, but that doesn’t mean there’s no utility in analysing what’s popular and why through a racial lens.

All this being so, it feels increasingly salient that fanwriting culture as exists right now developed under the influence and in the shadow of these white-dominated fandoms – specifically, the taboo against criticizing or critiquing fics for any reason. Certainly, there’s a hell of a lot of value to Don’t Like, Don’t Read as a general policy, especially when it comes to the darker, kinkier side of ficwriting, and whether the context is professional or recreational, offering someone direct, unsolicited feedback on their writing style is a dick move. But on the flipside, the anti-criticism culture in fanwriting has consistently worked against fans of colour who speak out about racist tropes, fan ignorance and hurtful portrayals of living cultures. Voicing anything negative about works created for free is seen as violating a core rule of ficwriting culture – but as that culture has been foundationally shaped by white fandoms, white characters and, overwhelmingly, white ideas about what’s allowed and what isn’t, we ought to consider that all critical contexts are not created equal.

Right now, the rise of C-drama (and K-drama, and J-drama) fandoms is seeing a surge of white creators – myself included – writing fics for fandoms in which no white people exist, and where the cultural context which informs the canon is different to western norms. Which isn’t to say that no popular fandoms focused on POC have existed before now – K-pop RPF and anime fandoms, for example, have been big for a while. But with the success of The Untamed, more western fans are investing in stories whose plots, references, characterization and settings are so fundamentally rooted in real Chinese history and living Chinese culture that it’s not really possible to write around it. And yet, inevitably, too many in fandom are trying to do just that, treating respect for Chinese culture or an attempt to understand it as optional extras – because surely, fandom shouldn’t feel like work. If you’re writing something for free, on your own time, for your own pleasure, why should anyone else get to demand that you research the subject matter first?

Because it matters, is the short answer. Because race and culture are not made-up things like lightsabers and werewolves that you can alter, mock or misunderstand without the risk of hurting or marginalizing actual real people – and because, quite frankly, we already know that fandom is capable of drawing lines in the sand where it chooses. When Brony culture first reared its head (hah), the online fandom for My Little Pony – which, like the other fandoms we’re discussing here, is overwhelmingly female – was initially welcoming. It felt like progress, that so many straight men could identify with such a feminine show; a potential sign that maybe, we were finally leaving the era of mainstream hypermasculine fandom bullshit behind, at least in this one arena. And then, in pretty much the blink of an eye, things got overwhelmingly bad. Artists drawing hardcorn porn didn’t tag their works as adult, leading to those images flooding the public search results for a children’s show. Women were edged out of their own spaces. Bronies got aggressive, posting harsh, ugly criticism of artists whose gijinka interpretations of the Mane Six as humans were deemed insufficiently fuckable.

The resulting fandom conflict was deeply unpleasant, but in the end, the verdict was laid down loud and clear: if you cannot comport yourself like a decent fucking person – if your base mode of engagement within a fandom is to coopt it from the original audience and declare it newly cool only because you’re into it now; if you do not, at the very least, attempt to understand and respect the original context so as to engage appropriately (in this case, by acknowledging that the media you’re consuming was foundational to many women who were there before you and is still consumed by minors, and tagging your goddamn porn) – then the rest of fandom will treat you like a social biohazard, and rightly so.

Here’s the thing, fellow white people: when it comes to C-drama fandoms and other non-white, non-western properties? We are the Bronies.

Not, I hasten to add, in terms of toxic fuckery – though if we don’t get our collective shit together, I’m not taking that darkest timeline off the table. What I mean is that, by virtue of the whiteminding which, both consciously and unconsciously, has shaped current fan culture, particularly in terms of ficwriting conventions, we’re collectively acting as though we’re the primary audience for narratives that weren’t actually made with us in mind, being hostile dicks to Chinese and Chinese diaspora fans when they take the time to point out what we’re getting wrong. We’re bristling because we’ve conceived of ficwriting as a place wherein No Criticism Occurs without questioning how this culture, while valuable in some respects, also serves to uphold, excuse and perpetuate microaggresions and other forms of racism, lashing out or falling back on passive aggression when POC, quite understandably, talk about how they’re sick and tired of our bullshit.

An analogy: one of the most helpful and important tags on AO3 is the one for homophobia, not just because it allows readers to brace for or opt out of reading content they might find distressing, but because it lets the reader know that the writer knows what homophobia is, and is employing it deliberately. When this concept is tagged, I – like many others – often feel more able to read about it than I do when it crops up in untagged works of commercial fiction, film or TV, because I don’t have to worry that the author thinks what they’re depicting is okay. I can say definitively, “yes, the author knows this is messed up, but has elected to tell a messed up story, a fact that will be obvious to anyone who reads this,” instead of worrying that someone will see a fucked up story blind and think “oh, I guess that’s fine.” The contextual framing matters, is the point – which is why it’s so jarring and unpleasant on those rare occasions when I do stumble on a fic whose author has legitimately mistaken homophobic microaggressions for cute banter. This is why, in a ficwriting culture that otherwise aggressively dislikes criticism, the request to tag for a certain thing – while still sometimes fraught – is generally permitted: it helps everyone to have a good time and to curate their fan experience appropriately.

But when white and/or western fans fail to educate ourselves about race, culture and the history of other countries and proceed to deploy that ignorance in our writing, we’re not tagging for racism as a thing we’ve explored deliberately; we’re just being ignorant at best and hateful at worst, which means fans of colour don’t know to avoid or brace for the content of those works until they get hit in the face with microaggresions and/or outright racism. Instead, the burden is placed on them to navigate a minefield not of their creation: which fans can be trusted to write respectfully? Who, if they make an error, will listen and apologise if the error is explained? Who, if lived experience, personal translations or cultural insights are shared, can be counted on to acknowledge those contributions rather than taking sole credit? Too often, fans of colour are being made to feel like guests in their own house, while white fans act like a tone-policing HOA.

Point being: fandom and ficwriting cultures as they currently exist badly need to confront the implicit acceptance of racism and cultural bias that underlies a lot of community rules about engagement and criticism, and that needs to start with white and western fans. We don’t want to be the new Bronies, guys. We need to do better.