#but i think it would be really fun to reread with this comparison in mind like fully knowing that what they have is special in its own way

[formashimataichi]

had an epiphany today. i think chyrt is an icrk (bleach) analog 🧐

[13eyond13]

hi, not too long ago, i read death note one-shot 2020. i really enjoyed it, but i have a question. What would have happened if Minoru never died. Do you think Minoru and Near will have met each other. I hope you have a headcanons about them.

Hi! Thanks for the ask, it was fun to think about the 2020 one-shot again. I hadn't revisited it since it first came out, so I reread it again just now to have it fresh in my mind.

So I don't really think Minoru and Near likely would've met even if Minoru never died, because Minoru asked Ryuk to erase his memories and also made it really hard to trace everything back to him with how he planned the selling of the notebook. He didn't WANT to be tracked down by anybody, nor to remember what he had done, and Near said himself that it would be basically impossible for them to find him now after the transaction had taken place. The only clue L's team really had to go on after the auction finished was that A-Kira was probably one of the many hundreds of thousands of people under 60 years old who had a bank account with Yotsuba.

HOWEVER! I also do like the idea of Minoru and Near meeting each other, especially because Near expressed interest in meeting him due to his obvious intelligence and due to coming up with that kind of a plan with the notebook. And think it might have been fun to see how they got along.

("read more" cut because it's a bit long)

I also liked Minoru as a character quite a bit. He came off pretty chill and patient and peaceful and non-egotistical, but still pretty scheming and clever as a character as well. I also liked how he found a way to try to use it to benefit himself and his own country (I guess - it's up for interpretation, but that much money going to Japan would be "greasing the wheels" of the economy, as they said?). And to me he also seemed to be trying to entertain and placate Ryuk while also getting the notebook away from him and not actually using it himself to kill anybody. After all, Minoru really had no choice in the matter initially when Ryuk selected him for his next notebook owner, so he didn't ask to be put in that position, and he had all the history of what had happened before when Kira had the notebook to draw on. And Near points out that now that the world knows about Kira's power and its whereabouts that it will be a lot harder for it to be used sneakily by anybody, and perhaps that was something that Minoru had been anticipating too (I assume he had thought of many things like this before he chose this plan, seeing as he for some reason spends 2 entire years coming up with it).

Near in this one-shot is a bit of a question mark to me characterization-wise. He doesn't act a ton like Near did in the manga in my eyes, and comes off a bit more cynical and listless and self-centered than I thought he actually was back in the manga. He seems a bit less idealistic and less caring about the others around him to me in this one-shot, too; and I thought that the part where he says that he wants to meet A-Kira because he's smart sounds a lot more like something the original L would say than something Near would say. Much of the stuff that made his personality refreshing and unique to me in comparison to L just wasn't really that present in this one-shot for me. And I'm just not sure if that's because Ohba is intentionally writing him to have been changed by the Kira case and differently characterized now to how he wrote him in the manga, or what? Perhaps he is trying to show Near slowly becoming more like L over the years as he spends more time doing L's job? Or maybe I just interpreted Near's personality in the manga differently to how Ohba was actually conceptualizing him and writing him in the first place.

Anyway, whenever I imagine Near and Minoru meeting and interacting I tend to picture Minoru having a bit of a calming effect on Near for some reason, as Near comes off a bit depressed and cranky and lonely to me in the later one-shots. They're so far apart in age in canon and when Near first learns about A-Kira that I don't ship it, but I can imagine them getting along well as friends if they met (and if someone came up with an AU where they are closer together in age and/or both first met as adults that'd be fine for me shipping-wise as well). Maybe Near would do well to have a friend like Minoru who came off smart and relatable to him in an interesting way, and who also immediately understood that something like having the power of Kira handed to him wasn't automatic good news and didn't want to use it to kill anybody. Minoru could maybe be Near’s chill voice of reason when he gets a little too cynical and stubborn about things and get him out of the house a bit more, introduce him to some of the things the kids are into these days and see what he thinks about them. I feel like Near would maybe do well to not be so caught up in his role as L anymore as well, as it doesn't really seem to be agreeing with him that much later in life. I can picture them doing something fun and low stakes and nerdy together like hanging out at a board game cafe. Or maybe it'd even be nice to see them working together on L stuff, and maybe Near would be a happier person with an actual pal to hang out with.

[wanderingblindly]

I keep thinking about your portrayal of Lando in Impasse of Biting (and this is going to be very personal and possibly somewhat incorrect so feel free to skip it yk) and I've decided to just write my thesis on it because fuck it why not

the way you describe a scene is always just so. vivid to me. like all the details and the subtleties make it palpable, it all flows so naturally I've never had to think twice about what the scenery is or where/how the characters are physically because it just stays, and this story stuck with me with a level of detail not many have. full disclosure I did not reread the fic before writing this (to preserve sanity) so some details might be off regardless. anyways.

what immediately stands out about Lando is how alone he feels, that he's isolated on a much deeper level than just being introverted would get you. the way I think about this is basically: when you treat/perceive life as if it was happening TO you without having a say in it, in a way you're not living in the same world everyone else is. events in your life, the actions you take, maybe even the things you think or want don't feel like they're in your control, they're not really connected to you. and since you're obviously different than those around you in how you process basically everything you become painfully alone. ("fun" fact I wasn't really able to relate to basically any fictional character for a looooooong time. they had motives and reasons for their actions. I didn't feel I had anything to do with that.) it's like you're an observer of your own life, playing a passive role rather than being alive, you don't feel like a person at all sometimes (which is why I think Charles' proposition has such a grip on him. it's a promise to be seen, wanted, needed. to be a real person with a palpable effect on their surroundings, to fill out a place in the world. to be known)

the way Lando then broke free of that, stood up for himself (because he realised he deserved to and could just do that) meant, like, a lot to me. just seeing my own experience reflected back at me like that, and then seeing Lando overcoming it gave me a lot of,,, not really hope (thankfully I did already battle it out) but more like, reassurance that no matter what I would've gotten away from that mentality (eventually). that I would not have been stuck in my own mind for the rest of my life. we don't really find out in detail why Lando turned out like that, but I know why I did, and for a long time I felt like my life was taken away from me in a sense, I had to mourn that. and it took a lot out of me emotionally, and sometimes I'm still afraid I might slip back or that in some alternate universe I never made it out. seeing someone else go through something very similar and leaving that situation happy meant. more than I can describe tbh

altough Oscar's character had less of an effect on me (tbf there's not really a fair comparison to be made) there is still a lot to be said about his complete refusal to accept himself as he is, that he had to be shown that he CAN and deserves to be loved before he even considered letting himself take what he needs also resonated with me a lot. in my mind they connect through their respective superstitions of being loved (idk if that wording makes sense tbh you might have to read my mind here soz)

it also stood out to me how Lando irl was a very shy (and likely lonely) teenager, who would actually find his confidence and subsequently very lively personality later in life. which I think is less a consciously written parallel and more like a characteristic of him that's naturally adapted into a lot of rpf works (I still find it noteworthy tho). and I don't know how much you, the author, ever experienced that, but admittedly I am curious about it (and completely feel free to not answer that btw) never before in my life have I been able to talk to someone about this very specific type of loneliness and felt like they actually understood. like when I explain it logically everyone can imagine it, but I don't think you can truly get it unless you've been through it yourself, which thankfully not many have.

I'm not usually the type of person to cry reading fics no matter how deeply miserable they make me (ex: Casual by loquarocoeur. that fic ruined my life but I never truly felt like crying about it) EXCEPT for when they resonate with me on a personal level apparently because I quite literally cried myself to sleep after Impasse. like it GOT to me. I needed that I think, so above all thank you (as you can tell I've thought about this a totally normal and healthy amount, I also think it's important to let people know when they've had an impact on you so here we are) (even if I'm too much of a pussy to not do this out of anon lmao)

- anon with the "letting go" answer to the smut poll thing (getting such a positive response to that gave me the motivation to write this so like, keep being lovely c:) (and ps. I'm not gonna say sorry for sending you a literal essay because that would be lying and lying is bad but for the record, I did NOT intend for this to be nearly 1k words long and I completely understand if it was intimidating enough to be skipped or procrastinated)

(impasse of biting)

oh my god,,,, oh my god can I,,,,, can I kiss you on the forehead,,,,,, this is possibly the most beautiful ask I've ever received. And, despite you not having read it a second time, you are SO right on so many fronts. In fact, some of these points are almost word for word lifted from my rambling to the homies on discord during the writing/brainstorming process.

I hope you don't mind a small essay in response, ft. some screenshots (if I can find them).

the way you describe a scene is always just so. vivid to me. like all the details and the subtleties make it palpable

I've said it a million times, but this is always the highest praise imaginable to me. I never believed in settings/scene descriptions as my strongest point, especially considering my aphantasia. I'll go cry now.

when you treat/perceive life as if it was happening TO you without having a say in it, in a way you're not living in the same world everyone else is.

I swear I said nearly this exact thing, word for word, to someone while I was planning this fic. It's the one screenshot I can't find, and I'm pulling my hair out about it, but in short: Y E S. That's exactly the brand of loneliness I wanted to describe. Because Lando's issue isn't introversion, it's not that he can't put himself out there and be loud if he wants to, it's more so that any time he tried to in the past, it didn't... work. It was like everyone was operating on different assumptions than him, or getting different signals. And that repeated experience beat him down to the Lando we see in the fic.

It reminds me of this comment I made:

I wanted to emphasize the loneliness with this overarching sense of... helplessness. And that's the reason it was so painful to Lando at certain points in his life -- the perceived lack of agency.

(which is why I think Charles' proposition has such a grip on him. it's a promise to be seen, wanted, needed. to be a real person with a palpable effect on their surroundings, to fill out a place in the world. to be known)

You get it! You get it!!!!!!!! I was also thinking about why Lando would stay with Charles despite it not really getting better. Like, yes, the urge to be seen and wanted and needed would get him in his grip, but why would Lando stay? And I realized it all came back to the idea of apathy as a misrepresentation for acceptance:

for a long time I felt like my life was taken away from me in a sense, I had to mourn that.

First of all, I'm really really glad that you've gotten yourself to a better place in your life -- and I'm glad that reading this helped you feel seen and understood in your journey. This specific wording really resonated with the way I tried to show Lando's relationship to his lot in life; I wanted him to be angry because I wanted him to be grieving. I wanted him to be mad at himself for letting himself get to this point, and I wanted him to feel that ambiguous, hard-to-pinpoint anger that comes with mourning.

Him being mad at himself felt really key to his character development, because it exemplifies him taking control of his own life. By getting mad, by being ignited from the inside, we see that he realizes it was, to an extent, always in his control -- and he chose to let himself watch life happen. Obviously the reality may not have been that simple, but the mentality switch felt really vital to me.

in my mind they connect through their respective superstitions of being loved

I totally may be misunderstanding you here (sorry!), but I definitely see what you mean here -- and I agree! The fact that they both have equal but opposite... hang ups about love and life is part of what brings them together. Lando believes he's only good for giving and resents that, Oscar believes he's only designed to take, and he would rather die than give in to it. What I really loved about the resolution to this dynamic though, is that they didn't actually change -- Lando still gives, and Oscar still takes. But it's the connotation, the feeling behind the behavior, that shifts. They didn't have to change who they were, intrinsically, to find love that leaves them feeling safe.

I don't know how much you, the author, ever experienced that, but admittedly I am curious about it

Hmmmmm I'm honestly not sure that I've felt this exact brand of loneliness before, but I used to frequently grapple with like... the fear that I was living life correctly, especially when I was younger. I lived a very straight and narrow life in high school, I didn't party in college, I didn't have my first partner until I was 23, etc etc. A lot of the milestones that felt really normal to my peers just... didn't happen to me.

It's all tied pretty intricately to my asexuality, I've realized, but I described my relationship to a lot of the world as feeling like a doll, or maybe a large scale art piece. I was admired a lot, aesthetically, but I didn't really exist in the same way that a lot of "women" (ish) did.

So, no. Probably not what you went through at all, but perhaps a different genre of it :) I just like thinking about emotions hahahaha. Though my DMs are always open if you'd like to talk more about this sort of thing, I contemplate it often <333

I quite literally cried myself to sleep after Impasse. like it GOT to me

This must have been kinda scary to admit, even on anon, but jesus christ THANK YOU. I never imagine any of my works like, resonating with people. Mattering at all, really. I still don't entirely believe that people read the nonsense I put out there. But god, this is like.... it. It's possibly all a casual writer could ever hope to achieve. Thank you again, I don't even have the words <3333333333333333333333

so like, keep being lovely c:

NO U!!!!!!!!!!!! MWUAH!!!!

[stardustdiiving]

I would read your zhongxiao codependent yuri Like, I do generally picture them as a vaguely father/son dynamic BUT THAT IS NOT CANON. It's just as much fun to view them through a romantic interpretation! Idk why people can't view the same characters in different kinds of relationships without being weird about it.

Anyway I love your vision and would love to hear more about it lakdjs

THANK U SO MUCH Im not sure if I’m gonna write zx in the future since I’ve tended to be shy about posting my stuff relating to them for over a yr now, but I did post this fic with them last year while trying to get a hold on how to write them (mind the tags it’s pure angst omg). I was too shy to tag it as ship since it didn’t feel shippy enough, which is kind of funny to me in hindsight bc I reread it and am like. Man I think only a zx shipper would write this NUFNVJVJV

Post got kind of lot Im gonna go on a tangent about them under the cut

Honestly my theory for why ppl r very set on the father/son interpretation is everyone’s immediate thought on to how to make the power imbalance between them seem less uncomfortable is to apply a parental interpretation to it. Which is fine ofc, I get it, but the way ppl push it as canon a lot kind of grates on me a little bc they’re usually incredibly passive aggressive and pushy even if u clearly designate ur post as ship OTL

Also not really a fan of the characterizations either since ppl tend to treat Xiao like a moody teenager Zhongli has to reel in (this is hilariously reminiscent of the post I made about how ppl handle scaramouche and nahida a bit ago haha). And idk I just feel kind of polarized about the headcanon overall bc I associate it with people being really uncomfortable and frustrating about zx

I just like how there’s sort of an imbalance to them, some zxs like them being more fluffy and functional but I sort of like it where it’s not like, entirely dysfunctional but I’m prioritizing a specific kind of character study over romance. This tends to be how a lot of my ships go ngl I just sometimes enjoy the intensity/intimacy of romantic feelings thrown into the mix if it makes it interesting but I’m not often interested in a lot of my ships following more standard romance plots(?) I guess? Unless it’s specific ones. Which sounds clinical when I put it like that but this is just bc I am very aromantic NHFBVJVJ

When I say codependency in zhongxiao honestly it’s sort of a theoretical(?) codependency—not sure how to word it? I think Xiao would be really fucked up if he didn’t have Zhongli in his life suddenly but I don’t think his relationship with getting attached to people invokes what people would majorly think of when they think of codependency in a ship I suppose. It’s moreso I just feel Xiao could be at his worst with dehumanizing himself in comparison to other people with Zhongli, because said mental state is driven by how he feels about debt, service, and duty which are very closely tied with devotion and how he would feel about someone he considers his god and leader, as well as someone who saved him

It’s fun this is paired with Zhongli who generally knows how to work with Xiao kind of understands the self destructive depth Xiao’s loyalty/devotion comes with. Also fun they have been around each other for a very long time and Xiao as one of the adepti is familiar with the past I think Zhongli appreciates having around. They work but it’s also a case where Zhongli is in such a position of power over Xiao its kind of very delicate situation that’s hard for both of them to navigate. Which is fun to explore. I esp love contrasting it with other Xiao pairings (actually i think i still have that xiaoven fic up on my ao3 where I tried to convey a specific interpretation of them in a similar exploration vein too)

I totally get why people wouldn’t like it (I feel a lot of my opinions on xiao ships just clash with a lot of fandom consensus so bad all the time And it’s just bc I’m like this I’m not even trying to be contrarian or anything. HELDINCJD) but I just tend to handle shipping in a specific way. It’s not I don’t enjoy fluffy or lighthearted zl and xiao stuff I actually enjoy it a lot I just like there being layers. This makes it feel more impactful when I think about how Zhongli looks out for Xiao in canon or how Xiao gets like textually flustered talking to him (lantern rite 2023 was so tailored to my tastes it’s not even funny)

[a-pepper-honey]

Granby or Rankin for the character asks? :)

Granby:

First impression: I can't remember and it's killing me :( Basically I read 2.5 Temeraire books 4 years ago and then completely forgot about the series until I gave it another chance. So when I reread HMD I already knew the dumbass lieutenant was actually Friendly and Nice and I didn't pay much attention to him :(

Impression now: He's like. That extrovert who adopts introverted kids in middle school. I am firmly convinced this is what happened with Tharkay offscreen. "Hi we are besties now :)" I absolutely adore him and he would be my fave character if fanon hadn't made his boyfriend..... *gestures vaguely at Little* like that.

Favorite moment: him falling off Temeraire's back in book 3 and then going "blimey. could I get some soup now?"

Idea for a story: dude I have so many. Uhhh that one angsty AU I wrote two paragraphs of in which Granby actually marries Anahuarque and Little comes to visit him after the war?

Unpopular opinion: Granby wears his hair short in most of canon and you cannot change my mind about this. (My deepest apologies to your long haired Granby design which I love anyway <3)

Favorite relationship: nghhhh I'm very torn between Granby/Little and Granby/Tharkay but Granby/Little might be the closest to my heart. I love them as lovers, as an angsty one-sided crush, as friends with benefits, as besties-who-used-to-fuck, as we-have-been-pining-continuously-for-twenty-years, as everything. This ship has so much potential!!

Favorite headcanon: Among all the numerous jewels and ridiculous gifts Iskierka showers him in, there ends up being one (ring? earring?) he actually finds acceptable and wears all the time <3

Rankin:

First impression: I was absolutely gobsmacked by this guy's rank because the French translation made his father a duke instead of an earl for some reason. "There's a lord just chilling in the Corps???"

Impression now: I hope he gets bitten by a venomous snake :))) (but also I think he's great as a what-could-have-been Laurence comparison)

Favorite moment: That one time Laurence pulled him off the floor one-handed and forced him to apologise to Levitas on his knees. Really, what else?

Idea for a story: I really think we need fic of Celeritas refusing to take him as his captain. The scorned feelings! The disgrace! The disappointment on both sides!

Unpopular opinion: my opinions aren't really unpopular lol. Uhh I've seen posts saying him and Caesar deserve each other. They're not wrong, Rankin and Caesar are a match made in heaven, but that's the whole problem: Rankin doesn't deserve a match made in heaven. Justice for Rankin (throw this guy in a pit)

Favorite relationship: there are like, 3 fics on ao3 for unrequited Rankin/Laurence. And. They're onto something. I swear they're onto something. (This is absolutely not canon to me but,,,,, fun to think about)

Favorite headcanon: post canon, Caesar keeps insisting that Rankin should let his hair grow. Rankin adamantly refuses for the sake of FashionTM, even though he literally lives across the world from Britain. Caesar just wants to see his luscious golden locks flowing in the wind :(

[apocalypticavolition]

Wheel of Time Season 2 Episodes 1 - 3 Thoughts

In my reread - which I won't be doing today, or probably any day that a show episode comes out in the immediate future - this is the part where I'd have some sort of snark warning about spoilers to shoo away the viewers who might not have blocked the relevant tags for some reason. This is about the show, but I will be discussing a few things that will be spoilers to show-watchers only - and if you haven't caught up at all then obviously I'll be spoiling the show.

After seeing Apple TV's Foundation blossom into this beautiful and entertaining show that had almost nothing to do with its source material, I figured I could come to Wheel of Time's second season with an open mind. And hey, episode 1 of the show made me think that we were over the rough part. Yeah, I had to meet its plot changes in the middle, but if I was willing to do that, the show seemed to promise that I would be rewarded. After the three episodes released so far, I'm not quite sure. I want to love the show, but I'm not a show lover.

And yeah, it starts with the opening. Jordan's world is one in which evil doesn't prosper and makes no illusions about being an alternate system of morality that good guys just besmirch because they're meanie pants. Having a little girl pet a rape-and-murder machine that's purring at the prospect of human contact isn't a great start for me, and frankly there's just something about Ishamael in this scene that feels like Nandor from What We Do in the Shadows, which isn't a worthwhile comparison.

Nor does the new show intro excite me. The previous season's over-focus on the Aes Sedai felt to me like a mistake overall but the concept of the opening sequence was still strong. I wanted to see it change and evolve over the course of the eight seasons, but now we're just given a few seconds of a snake devouring itself. It's a major step backwards.

But these are quibbles. I know they're quibbles. If they were the biggest kinds of complaints I had against the show I'd move on. Things get a lot stronger from there, showing us some great TV! Let's break it down:

Moiraine and Lan: Moiraine is not taking being shielded well. This is a legit reaction. Her misery is clear and the bath scene is a great contrast. Lan's attitude isn't much better. It's well-acted, well-set, and seeing changes like Verin being folded into Vandene is good! Like I said, I get that it's TV, I get that there have to be changes, and this little change works. Heck, Bayle Domon showing up works. He's fun, Moiraine fucking him over is fun, it's good TV. It's a little frustrating that we still don't know what the poem is (I mean, I know as a reader but still), but that's all in good fun.

But I do have problems with the division forming between Lan and Moiraine. Not that it's happening at all, under the circumstances it makes perfect sense. However, the characters and narratives taking the stance of, "Moiraine is suffering trauma so she's allowed to be as cold to her best friend of twenty years as possible and he just has to take it" does not work for me at all.

Then there's the Fade sequence. In the next episode, Lan will apologize for not sensing the Shadowspawn coming, which raises the question - why didn't Moiraine sense them coming? She's shielded, not severed. Why did the first Fade go down so easily? Why is Lan so terrible at fighting Fades when he spent his whole life training to do so? At least Verin saves the day. Really, Verin is awesome in general and I have no complaints, she's everything she should be for this adaptation.

And then comes the double dose of cruelty. First we get a summary of how Lan and Moiraine met, based on the New Spring novel, but we leave out the coolest part, which frankly only does Moiraine dirty. Though, they do Lan dirty too by making the sexual assault he suffered something to laugh about as a funny cultural affectation instead of the rape that it clearly was.

And then things go downhill. Book Moiraine might have been cruel in setting up the transfer of her bond to Lan, but she didn't make it happen right away and she didn't explicitly tell Lan she never thought of him as an equal. Her behavior is abhorrent and unheroic and while Moiraine's always been on the utilitarian side of things, this is just more than I'm willing to deal with. It also only makes Alanna feel skeevier as a character, which is impressive considering all the rest of the stuff she pulls. And that's it. They're gone - and frankly, for show Moiraine all I can say is "good riddance".

Wondergirls: Egwene is overall good, Nynaeve starts well enough. I don't really like Nynaeve's getting to skip the novice phase taken away from her - I feel that Rafe's love of Egwene consistently tears down the characters around her and now that she's chiding Nynaeve that she should be happy I feel very vindicated in this belief - but I can live with it. Nynaeve choosing to suffer rather than address her block is good. The Aes Sedai politicking about how to train Nynaeve and who should be her mentor is great! Egwene's jealousy is in-character.

Nynaeve training with Alanna's Warders though, while impressive, feels like mostly an excuse to give those two a few extra lines. And Alanna feels genuinely skeevy in this incarnation; I had thought her advice to Egwene was just inappropriate metaphor until the characters clarified, and at that point I'm just wondering why Alanna is supposed to be a positive representation of polyamory if she's clearly trying to groom Egwene on the side. Like, at least Liandrin being a bad mentor and person overall is clear from her interactions with Nynaeve. Of course, much less about Liandrin is clear in general. She steals medicine as if an Aes Sedai wouldn't be able to obtain such things without question)

And then we meet Elayne. Book Elayne is a sweetheart, only stuck-up in the most basic of ways (taught to walk around with her nose in the air). Show Elayne makes several faux pas and doesn't seem to present much reason for Egwene to want to be her friend. "I haven't seen a soul", she says, surrounded by servants. She says she spent six summers in Tar Valon but her attitude screams six summers in Seandar. Sheriam at least seems like she's gonna beat some sense into her, but I shouldn't be rooting for that outcome, should I?

Meanwhile, Nynaeve follows Liandrin out of the tower and discovers her dark secret, a son dying of old age. At first my associate and I thought it was all going to be some kind of ploy to impress Nynaeve and influence her ajah choice, but it's all legit. I thought that Liandrin having a son was fine, but my friend is less convinced and there's something to be said for that. Liandrin's attitude doesn't scream, "son she's outliving", and it adds to the sense of incoherence to her character.

Elayne just barely manages to recover as a character during the drinking sequence when she chews Egwene out, which also sets her up nicely for her bullshit. Not sure what I think about the convenient drama of Nynaeve overhearing Egwene bitching about her, but at least it kind of goes places. It helps explain why Nynaeve's so vehement about the testing, anyway.

Her testing is... where things start really going downhill. The beginning is fine (though the whole "attacked by bandits" thing doesn't work for me at all for the Two Rivers - not in the last season, not in this one), and the middle is a good adaptation, but then we hit the end. The fake out's good, but then... Ugh. In the books, Nynaeve wills the portal back, but that's not what happens here. Further, Liandrin's motivations remain incoherent: if she's a Darkfriend working to bring about these peoples' downfall, Nynaeve's death (a huge loss for the Light) shouldn't be something she's this upset about. Like yeah, corrupting her would be more fun, but a win's a win. But the Shadow doesn't want wins in this episode. It wants to lose as hard as it can.

Sheriam is also a bit odd here but since she may not know Liandrin is Black I can buy her behavior as being generally shitty while covering for herself. I mean, "your grief is your own" is so unnecessarily cruel that it's clear that she's Black. That said, not sure why she's discussing arches with the girls when my impression is that the test was supposed to be something of a secret until the novice was ready to advance. Nor do I think Elayne is done any favors with her absolutely hollow condolences - Sheriam was more believable as a sympathetic ear.

Egwene confronts Liandrin, which leads us to yet another situation where somebody on the Shadow could easily eliminate one of the five ta'veren but absolutely refuses to do so because... it wouldn't be sporting? She then tries to save Nynaeve while Elayne talks her out of it, but makes absolutely no difference whatsoever (ah well, at least she isn't personally responsible for bringing Nynaeve back). Then Nynaeve... does come back. For no apparent reason. Apparently every other woman who entered this segment just killed themselves after missing the first door out. At least book Nynaeve forces the arch to reappear - show Nynaeve only forces the scenario to stop being scary and the arch shows up anyway.

Perrin: I thought that Marcus was the weakest actor last season, and while he's grown quite a good deal, it also feels like he's been given the least to work with. He's with mostly new characters bar Loial, who doesn't get the love and attention he deserves. Everyone in his sequence exists to push him along, and he doesn't have much going on just yet as he's reacting to what goes down. I do like how they're representing his power, and again combining Elyas and Hurin is the right sort of choice for TV, but I feel like Perrin was meant to be bouncing off of at least Mat at this point. His writing is very on the nose when he and the Shienarians are burying the Darkfriends, it feels very much like we're just being told what he feels instead of being shown it.

But hey, while the woman in the house horror sequence was not remotely something Perrin went through, and it was pretty changed, I honestly didn't expect it to show up at all, so I'm calling that a win for him. It's well-acted too, he doesn't have too much dialogue telling us how he feels so it works. That said, his place in the world gets a lot less certain as we go on - I assumed he was in the east like the books, but he seems to have crossed thousands of miles to go west considering what happens. Why are the Seanchan here? Why is Perrin where they are? This isn't a coincidence, it's blatantly forced.

Also sorry not sorry but the damane outfit isn't dehumanizing like it should be, it's just dumb. The damane in Perrin's arc is, as far as I'm concerned, named Little Miss Binky. Speaking of LMB, it bothers me a bit that she can sense all these channeler women when in the books the testing required the use of the a'dam. This is a random-ass village, there shouldn't be two sparkers. And Uno should not be fucking dead and no amount of Suroth's nail batons is going to make it okay for me (okay actually there is an amount but the season isn't going to run that long so same thing).

We end Perrin's arc in these three episodes with him waking up in a carriage with Ishamael, being stabbed to death as part of the Shadow's plans to bring about-- No wait, that would be competent. Instead, Ishamael is super interested in Perrin's character development (why bro?) and lets Perrin escape with Elyas while the two ditch Loial (unforgivable).

Mat and Min: Being imprisoned at this point works based on where the story ended up, but Liandrin is just kind of a cipher throughout his story. She's clearly relishing the opportunity to be evil editing him out of the letters she reads, but this is about as evil as she gets beyond the wrongful imprisonment. Why does she give him cakes in the next episode? Why is he being kept alive for months on end? There's no clear motivation for her character - if she's being a villain, she should have offed him long ago. If she's following Tower procedure in some fashion, it should be clearer.

Mat manages to make contact with Min - no one noticed his efforts, which is fine, but it stretches credulity that none of Min's captors notice that her wall is suddenly damaged after this. They're great friends and I love this for what it is, or rather what it seems to be. It really helps their relationship - though not her characterization - that he's not interested in having her read his future. Shame, considering what she sees.

After some more time, Nynaeve's apparent death prompts Liandrin to set Mat free. He almost goes to help Egwene, but then decides to ditch her because fuck Mat's character, amirite? One actor ditched us so all Mats have to be shitty now even when it's a central facet of who he should be. Then he doubles back to Min - why is he doing things in this order, this is the least logical order - but it turns out that this whole thing is staged by Liandrin and that Min is working with her. What the actual fuck?

Rand: I'm not loving how little attention he gets in the first episode, but whatever. The main problem is that his motivations are obscured to us for such a long period, and we aren't really given a clue as to how he figured out this was an option in the first place. At first I simply thought it was weird that he'd go to Cairhien when he knows he's a time bomb and that being a nurse-type made sense considering his overall sense of altruism.

Really, most of the hospital stuff works in isolation. The soldier suffering from PTSD is a nice touch and it helps build up the Rand as Aiel foreshadowing that the show hasn't had much time to get to yet. I don't like that Rand is cheating on Lan with another teacher but TV shows I guess.

Then we jump into a darker Rand. He stalks the asshole orderly and assaults him, in part with the power (though this seems to be unwilling). I thought this might be madness coming on early, but the truth isn't much better. Of course, before we find it out we get to see Rand hook up with Lanfear. Book Rand was clearly compelled and overwhelmed by a hottie being interested in him, but this atmosphere is gone here as well. Rand took one look at the slippery slope and said, "Watch how fast I can get to the bottom!"

And meanwhile, Lanfear is bizarrely self-aware! "I pretend you're Lews Therin," she all but says. "Go ahead and think of other women while you're having sex with me, your crazy and obsessive stalker!" The Forsaken are cartoonishly evil people because only someone cartoonishly evil would sign up to work under Satan. They shouldn't try to argue that they're actually good guys and they shouldn't have healthy standards in their romantic relationships!

So Rand's secret plan was to get close to Logain, which just... Why is he here? He's a war criminal who had an army of loyal fanatics! Even with the severing, he's way too much of a risk to toss amid the general populace for exactly the reason we see: a young man who can channel goes to him to learn how to carry on his traditions! Logain being Rand's teacher might be a good way of combining book characters, and he's certainly an awesome actor, but there's not enough of this stuff.

Rand learns more about the hunt being called, which is just going to raise further questions. I will note "Queen of Illian" and thus have to ask: have they relocated Berelain in this show? Have they just gender-flipped the king? These books don't need gender flips like they seem to like doing with her and Farstrider.

Then Rand and Lanfear end up at a fancy party. There's no clear explanation for how they got in, nor why the royals would be confused about Rand and Lanfear's identities. She lives at the Foregate, people! He's renting a room! The foreign prince thing doesn't work in this context! Then Rand gets an awkwardly designed infodump about the cruelty of the royalty and the reveal that the Hunt is a fake. Presumably the whole thing is supposed to be a fake that isn't happening outside of Cairhien, but that's not actually clear - and after a long sequence of Rand's arc being well-written if objectionable for his hunting down a man and beating him half (?) to death to steal is job, it's just a low note.

But hey, we get to see Logain be psycho and Lanfear be psycho, so that's pretty fun. Not really sure where Logain's gotten the impression he's the descendant of a man that is most famous for having killed his entire family, but that's crazy for you I guess. Rand also burns down the inn, an incident which everyone treats as no big deal despite the general flammability of everything in the vicinity.

Closing Thoughts: The TL;DR of all of this is, "Just as I got comfy with it, it got weird." Rand is darker than he should be at this point, Mat continues to lack the loyalty that defines him, Moiraine is awful to Lan in ways that the narrative gives no hint it disagrees with and past and future sexual assault is on the table for him, Nynaeve loses the behavior that justifies her being special and just survives by fiat, Elayne is way too awkward and rude, and the Darkfriends pass up every opportunity to eliminate or properly capture Mat, Perrin, Egwene, and Nynaeve, all of whom should be high priority targets. This season started strongly and I hope it can recover from these hiccups, but I'm worried that little details will continue to fail to add up like this.

[thedevotionaltour]

your posting about brat pack has got me so curious

ohhhh my feelings on bratpack are both So Complex and Extremely Easy. i'm gonna put this under the cut bc it accidentally got long. and then this got long too IM SORRY. this got so damn rambly. anyways. what i deem important i'll keep up here

summary of feelings: underground gritty take on superhero sidekick story contains both well done genuine critiques of the genre and its fans but i think has some contempt in there, too (but then again, who can blame a guy). offers interesting ideas. has some piss poor writing in there where occasionally trying to satirize something just makes it into exactly what it's trying to critique if not handled well. READ THE REVISED TPB INSTEAD OF THE SINGLE ISSUES AS THE REVISIONS MAKE THE STORY MORE IMPACTFUL and reminds us that capitalism is the upholder of evils. and lets itself breathe here and there a bit more and allows for more depth. though if you want to read both for comparison, i wouldn't advise against that-- rereading it in the tpb form as opposed to when i just read it as single issues helped me with some of the meh feelings i had about it.

it is also a comic i will absolutely say right now is NOT one i would recommend to everyone. at all. i'd say if you are not a fan of american underground comix, this may not be to your taste. but if you're willing, or enjoy edgier comics even with no underground experience, and enjoy comics that satirize the cape genre, it's worth giving it a go. and please keep in mind that not only is richard veitch's career from an undergound background, it is also the 90s. so it's good to keep that in mind, too.

also, important to note content warnings on the comic itself include homophobia, sexual abuse, racism, and misogyny. alongside other things, but i think those are the most important to be upfront on. this isn't a here and there thing with it-- they are major points through the whole story and will be carrying it along.

final important statement: i am so sad for all these children and wish the heroes would die.

and here is a link to the comic!

i think a good background context for this is to my understanding, it's was partially written as a response to the jason todd vote to kill hotline and how people acted about it afterwards. well, inspiration at least, not quite sure on the response part at all. im trying to vaguely remember things right now. the comic as a whole is satirical poking and prodding about it. for some further context, jason todd had only died two years ago when this began publication.

the comic is a very gritty, edgy superhero style story, talking about all the dark parts and the "you know, this wouldn't be all the fun in real life, now would it?" stuff. so these kids are going through the fucking ringer of abuse, life as child soldiers who are both idolized and despised by the public, and are seen as icons as opposed to people. and that it's adults who are putting children through this. you get the awesome reminder of it is not as easy to survive being blown up as dc and marvel may have you think just because you're the hero!

as mentioned before, it's a story that is a satirical and critical deconstruction of the superhero genre, sidekick and young hero groups in particular. author richard veitch's career started in underground comix and it shows through and through. i think it has a lot to offer in how it handles its critiques, how it points out the hypocrisy in the fan culture. it also has a lot of blunders with it too. sometimes when trying to satirize misogyny and homophobia within the fan culture and stories, it just winds up as actually misogynist and homophobic writing.

a lot of where my more negative feelings on it definitely lie in the realm of sometimes the line between crit/satire and then just contempt for the genre and its fans feel occasionally blurred. i think a lot of this comes from some parts of the writing i find really mishandled. a lot of my critical feelings also come from the aforementioned homophobia-- i have. many feelings on the character the mink. i think it is absolutely possible to write a gay sexual child abuser. i think it is very much possible to write a character like him, stereotypical flamboyancy and all. but i also think the caricature gets pushed too hard sometimes, and it leaves a very nasty taste in my mouth. i know exactly that this character and his sidekick are meant to be an exaggerated portrayal of the homophobic beliefs and gay interpretations surrounding batman and robin. knowing that fact and what it's meant to be does not make that better and mean it is done well. i think it could have been handled a lot better. maybe if i returned and reread after sitting with this comic for a while, my opinions would change. as of right now though, they remain... less than pleasant.

i am willing to hear someone out if they wanted to say, "eiffel, i think your feelings are truly more discomfort as opposed to veitch having handled this story point poorly, and here's why the writing with the mink is not actually as bad as it feels". but i will also say i dont think every second of it was bad. again, i think there are some interesting approaches here and there with it, and as a function overall in the group of heroes, none of them are any better than him. but it's. hooh. oh boy. oh boy. it's a lot. get ready for every stereotype about the flamboyant gay molester you could imagine.

mink is also not the only caricature here-- all of the heroes are meant to be some caricature taken to the extreme with the heroes they're meant to mock.

THAT BEING SAID I REALIZED I HAVENT ELABORATED ON LIKE. THE BASICS OF THE HEROES AND STUFF AND WHO THEY'RE PARODYING. It's obvious when reading but since I don't know if you'll read it, I'll say it here. Midnight Mink and Chippy are Batman and Robin, Moon Mistress and Luna are Wonder Woman and Wonder Girl, King Rad and Wild Boy are Green Arrow and Speedy, and Judge Jury is a combo of Captain America and Judge Dredd (and one more character?) while Kid Vicious is meant to be Bucky. The last one I couldn't figure out until TvTropes told me bc despite loving heroes my knowledge on many of them is highly limited to a few of them.

anyways, this is also where i really try to remember that veitch's background lies in underground comix, which are the most edgiest and pushing your boundaries comics you can come by. and it's also the 90s. oh god it's the 90s. it's the 90s in the way it's 2008 when the comic kick-ass was published. but i also think i can recognize when it's just me having to sit through some discomfort and when some stuff just becomes distasteful. i think he handles the other characters better, though. or maybe i just choke them down easier. again, i'm willing to hear someone out if they'll talk me through it in a convincing way.

however, my enjoyment of it comes from that i do enjoy a good darker hero story. i do! i will always prefer a hopeful for humanity and that's why it's worth is superhero comic, but that's mostly for actual hero comics in the genre that are not critiques or satires. when a comic lets it be known this is entirely its purpose, then it's better than guy who just hates hero wrote a superhero comic, for some reason. knowing veitch has a background in heroes is what makes some parts of this a bit easier to take in good faith, but like. i wouldn't be surprised if there was absolutely some contempt and bitterness interwoven into it, too.

i think the sidekicks are a really interesting cast, and i like them. my favorites are chippy (cody) and luna. my heart goes out to them sooooo much. everyone talks about how much they want mink to die for sexually abusing chippy but no one talks about how moon mistress was... also sexually abusing luna. 100%. not the same way as mink with chippy, clearly, but luna was absolutely 100% sexually exploited too. so i think moon mistress should die badly too.

with the revised tpb of brat pack, i think it's good how it shows what the actual driving force behind all the insane abuse these children go through; it's capitalism. the heroes sold their imagery to companies for money, and so they have to uphold it to continue their funding. their greed and selfishness is what causes harm.

it also goes into how vigilantes are highly conservative reactionary as a concept politically speaking. politics and superheroes are a long as fuck conversation with a lot to talk about, and im just not totally qualified for it, nor am i gonna go into it here. but it's less exploring the reactionary side of heroes as wooooaaaaah edgy looook at this guys the heroes are actually ~baaaad guuuys~ as too many people in non critical comics like to pull (and then do a piss poor job at it bc they dont understand what actually makes vigilantism bad as a real life thing. bc they arent trying to point out the actual bad politics of superheroes-- they just wanna see a good guy be a bad guy without further thought. but instead of just doing that, they want to think they're being oh so smart about it. so it sucks bad most of the time.), and i think it's honestly a more sincere approach that actually understands what it wants to say about that. because it understands capitalism as a system that upholds abhorrent abuses. and for all the shit i think it does wrong, i will say that veitch understands the phrase "abuse of power comes as no surprise" in this story.

anyways this is getting... really long! apologies! and it's super duper rambly for which i also apologize!! my feelings on brat pack are mixed, but i've come around to this comic way more the longer i've sat with it. it's not perfect, no comic is, but it is. definitely for a certain crowd. and i do, ultimately, consider myself part of that crowd, even if im certainly not envisioned in it most of the time. i'm also sorry if you were looking for way more stuff on the story as opposed to my feelings-- i feel like i can't give a lot on the story, especially bc i sometimes feel unsure how to explain without also spoiling too much and also i just cant remember a lot of what happened outside of some pretty key plot points. i've only read it twice, and it was like, twice in two days! like, in april.

overall brat pack does some things right, i think it does a lot of things wrong, but what makes it a comic i find worth reading is that it does offer some interesting ideas and approaches, and i think it has some neat characters. i think it falls in the realm of "mediocre story with insane potential will stay with you even more than a really fantastically written story you love". for me, at least. again, i don't think this comic. but there's a lot it could do better. and what it does do right (and honestly even what it does wrong) highly compels me.

... and i can't help but enjoy an edgy superhero satire.

[miguelhugger2099]

I've read through everything you've written over the last four days and I'm obsessed with how good you are. Your writing is so thoughtful, you always manage to keep it in-character, and your descriptions are so good! I've been thinking about giving writing a shot but nothing I come up with is even half as good as what you write. Do you have any advice or tips? You're practically professional level in quality, so I figure if anyone has the hook up on how to write better, it'd be you. Thank you for giving us readers so many wonderful pieces of writing. I hope for nothing but the best for you in all your endeavors in life. You're awesome.

p…professional quality is a bit of a stretch but thank u for the kind words😭🫶

comparison is the thief of joy my dear anonie. based on this ask alone i think you’d do just fine writing some of your own stuff :) it doesn’t hurt to start somewhere

and as for giving advice i’ll try !!

i really like being descriptive so for that, u want to know what’s happening and the personalities of the characters by how they interact with the room and other people. for me, i close my eyes or sit and think to feel myself in those scenes and figuring out all my senses in those moments,,, if that makes sense haha

if you want ur character to stay in character, i kinda act…like them ??? like i have my scene/scenario and i’ll be like ok how would he react to this? how would he look like? if he does this then what does it lead to? is that something they would say? type of stuff yknow ?

don’t be afraid to google synonyms and antonyms, metaphors/similies u can’t remember, certain eras in history or cultures, pop culture. sometimes i go on reddit to see if anyone has the same problem as me and sometimes i google fanfics of the things im writing if im feeling a block or i want an example/ inspiration :)

a lot of the times, i usually cut my story into parts so i’ll write down the part i have clear in my head and i’ll leave the hard part for last like transitions haha. but that’s what i do when writing seems overwhelming or so i don’t burn out and i want to write the thing i had in mind….if that makes sense haha

now that im rereading and rewriting this answer i think a lot of it is just imagination. i like being in the story whether its an x reader or not, so being as detailed as possible is uberrrr important to me to immerse myself in the story as much as i can.

but !!! at the end of the day that’s just me :3 take this advice with a grain of salt (im horrible at giving advice ;∇; ) as long as you write SOMETHING it’s good enough and ur on your way to be even better !!

good luck and remember to have fun writing !! 💕

[dire-kumori]

❤️ What is your favorite line that you’ve written in a fic?

👻 What is your wildest headcanon?

📚 Is there a fanfic or fanfic writer you recommend?

Fanfic Writer Ask Game

❤️ What is your favorite line that you’ve written in a fic?

Hmm... Good question XD. You know I am proud of my stories, but I have a hard time picking out individual lines I like best. But here are a few I like from Ever After (since that's the one I'm actively working on):

"The door slammed with the finality of a coffin lid."

(Maybe it's a touch cheesy, but I'm still happy with it.)

"Fredbear’s accusing black eyes bore into him from across the mattress, seeing straight through the lie he'd never voiced."

(This line didn't quite want to work at first and I was so happy when I finally felt like I got it right.)

“EVAN!” Elizabeth screeched, wiping the sand from her face and hair. “YOU GOOBER!”

(I just really had fun writing Ev and Liz being happy, goofy kids and I can actually hear Elizabeth's little girl scream every time I reread that line.)

“JESUS BLOODY FUCK-!”

(I sent this to my friend with limited context. He told me it made him giggle. It still makes me giggle.)

👻 What is your wildest headcanon?

I dunno if I have any 'wild' headcanons. I mean the FNAF fandom is pretty much held together by the popsicle sticks and glue that are crazy headcanons. Mine seem pretty tame by comparison.

A headcanon I do have that I haven't really done much with is that Mike actually has a different mother than the twins (and yeah, I do headcanon Ev and Liz as twins). In my version of events, Will had a drunken one night stand with Mike's mom when he was either still engaged to or newly married to Evan's and Elizabeth's mom. It did cause some tension, but ultimately Will managed to convince his wife to stay with him. However, she made it 100% clear from the get go that she wasn't interested in raising another woman's child. Will said that he was okay with that, but he had the presumptuous idea that she would change her mind because Michael is his son, his DNA, and she loves him so how could she not love his offspring as well? They fought about this expectation a lot and eventually the tension boiled over. William blamed Michael for the marriage dissolving, but since Michael grew up thinking that Will's wife was his mom, he never realized the true reason. Growing up, Michael assumed she left because of his bad behavior as a kid.

📚 Is there a fanfic or fanfic writer you recommend?

@lonelyfreddles

You know what's funny is when I got that first comment from Kats on my fic, I'd already read and loved By Cain's Own Hand, and I had a mini freak out that Kats liked MY writing. Pretty much everything Kats writes breaks my heart in the best possible way.

@cloudwhisper23

Who's written some incredible fics based off of Kats' Silent Protector AU and my Paradoxical Reaper AU. I really love how they adopted those ideas and made them their own!

@honey-bunnysaurus

Okay, so they aren't fanfics, but Honey has written some REALLY cool ideas for the Lonely Children AU which I love to read over and again! I especially love this short snapshot they've written in their reblog of the Lonely Children thread.

YOU!

I'm still vibrating with excitement over those short WIPs you tagged me in and I'll probably pass out from excitement when you post the final product!

I've had a lot of fun coming over to the FNAF fandom. In a short amount of time I've met a lot of really creative and cool people, including a few I haven't mentioned here.

And now for some non-FNAF fic:

@bakumeowkatsuki

My friend Rosi who I met in another fandom. Even though I'm not so active in the BNHA fandom anymore, I still have a soft spot for the crack ship Rosi and I came up with together and the fics they've written for that fic. Rosi does a lot of short and sweet fics and if you're into Ensemble Stars!, Critical Role, or Persona 4, I'd recommend you find them on AO3 (roserosa).

As for some of my favorite fics (not counting those written by the authors above):

Forever A Lost Boy At Last

at least we're together this time!

Dissatisfaction Brought it Back

Encore!

and

Friends, Family, and Frights!

[esta-elavaris]

Would we ever get some idea of what the Boromir fic would be like? Totally fine if not! I’m just really excited to read your next (fandom!) work and would love to pick your brain about it. I love LOTR a lot :)

Otherwise excited to read your novel at some point! Is there a summary available yet?

Without getting into specifics (because I don’t want to spoil anything) — So I really don’t want to just write CTW 2.0 as far as that’s concerned, so it won’t be a “modern girl in X” scenario again, but I just can’t think of a scenario where they would bring a woman along with the Fellowship unless she had some sort of “knowledge” or ability that might help them that they really couldn’t do without, and I ended up thinking I spent so long with CTW talking about how there were rumours that Theo was a witch/her even pretending to actually be a witch, that it would be fun if this OC actually had those abilities. She won’t be a super ridiculously overpowered OFC who could like, take on Gandalf and Saruman in a 2v1 fist fight, if anything she’d be a witch in the sense that people today are considered witches, with a lot of it lying in things like basic knowledge of herbal remedies (which also has potential in like, the different races would have different attitudes to her - the Elves would just consider her well-versed in her herbology, maybe even in some cases being a wee bit condescending towards the “visions” she has, but more superstitious folk might be much more distrustful, especially given the state of the world during the story), just with certain gifts being a bit more tangible, but still up for debate enough that people who don’t want to believe her will easily be able to write her off as just “addled” in the mind.

Also considering a lot of my OCs up ‘til now have been pretty assertive characters, this one is going to be a bit more quiet and subdued in comparison, partially because I have an idea of how she’d bond with Boromir that way, and also because I don’t want to just write different flavours of the same OC over and over. Not necessarily a doormat, but she couldn’t go into a dinner party and banter back and forth with Groves etc. like Theo could.

Nothing is set in stone just yet though - it’s been a hot minute since I reread the books, so I’m going to need to do that before I even think about drafting things to make sure everything checks out and that where I diverge I’m doing so mindfully rather than out of sheer dumbassery, so these are just the bones rn. I’ll probably end up leaning more towards the movieverse with a healthy dose of mindfulness/awareness towards the books, just because the movies are so much easier to emulate and play off of while the books are, uh, terrifying as far as fanfic goes.

Aaaand as for the novel, I can’t get into much as far as it’s concerned right now, I play that shit ridiculously close to my chest just because it’s how I’ve always been with that one. But it’s high fantasy, a lot of it is inspired by the Vikings and paganism in general, it has some Tolkien influences (because it’s impossible to write fantasy without that at this point let’s be real), as well as some tinges of Skyrim and ASOIAF, but I’m pretty happy to say that it definitely feels like a whole thing in and of its own rather than just a mash-up of the greatest hits. It’s also has pirates pretty heavily featured. There were a few aspects of CTW where I was basically test-driving some of the stuff that’s going to go into the novel to see how people would respond to it, and the results bode well!

[mochiwrites]

hi I read the last life au update when I woke up from a nap so even now I'm still tired but I wanna show support here anyways( and maybe comment when everything that happened in the fic comes crashing at me) and say that that fic was so good it really cemented that last life is so different from 3rd life so if you think about it yeah giving lives shouldn't make sense to Grian but everyone else knows you can give your life to someone and also Grian shouldn't be with Scar in this world unless they fall under certain situations so its confusing for absolutely everyone

also Grian doesnt know you can give lives while Scar has been scammed a life by the other him first day in the Server makes me go wild I got a headache (/nsrs I'm fine it's mild) and I expected a reaction but I am VERY willing to wait a while it only makes my mind go a little more isane

great fic, hope to read more, going a bit insane but having fun, I will reread later when I actually wake up from being tired ehehe

-🎵

DBFBFBFHF IF THIS ISNT A MOOD

but god yeah, I really love this chapter for a few different reasons but the life exchange really makes it all so ????

it’s a subtle way of pointing out how different third life and last life are without being in your face about it. and because we’re mainly in grian’s perspective, we’re seeing the world through his eyes and he’s constantly drawing comparisons to things he already knows so that he can stay alive and keep scar alive.

and then introduce the system of giving lives???? and of course grian would be confused and he’d write it off as nonsense. because as far as he knows, that isn’t possible. but then he’s watching scar’s eyes turn yellow and that. That isn’t possible. it shouldn’t be.

we are Definitely tackling more of that in the next chapter >:3c we’ve got some good reactions coming hehehe I’m excited

[4filen0tfound4]

hey can you do a character analysis/comparison on zonic and shard to find out what silver likes in his men

Cries. They’re both stupid guys who piss her off idk. Real analysis tho

Ok Ok so Shard and Zonic have completely different origins. One was created purely to cause chaos and the other was created purely for order and stability.

However, they’re both Sonic. Yet how they view that is also entirely different. Ever since Shard was just “Metal Sonic” his entire purpose was not only to live up to him (power wise), but to best him. After he was rebuilt, he wanted nothing more but to live up to Sonic. Sure he could match with him power wise, but he couldn’t just copy and paste his exact personality and friend groups. I think his entire arc was him becoming his own person and realizing he’s more than just Metal or Sonic. With Zonic, he knows he’s just like Sonic, and even believes that he can beat him if he really needed to. Due to his origins, he feels superior to Sonic, while Shard looks down on his origins as it’s the exact cause of his insecurities. I believe, despite these differences, their core values and personalities are very similar. Zonic puts up this serious front for the sake of a mission, but it barely lasts that long. They’re both so. GOOFY. They make terrible puns nobody laughs at besides themselves and can act cheeky if they believe they’re better than whoever they’re being cheeky with. They’re also quick to act. Like a pathetic wet cat. The moment their insecurities are exposed and if there’s a doubt in their mind they fumble. I think it affects Zonic more than Shard, because he’s so used to being so sure of himself that if something goes wrong, it messes him up like crazy. Thissss is what also affects how they interact with Sonic. Despite his superiority complex, Zonic is really dependent on Sonic. This can stem off of his own fears that are now eased when he works along Sonic, or just the fact that Sonic is from the Prime Zone and without Sonic there’s literally no. Purpose for him. No matter what, Sonic is the OG and Zonic is the copy. His entire world is structured after Sonic’s and made to protect and defend Sonic’s. Shard has the exact same dilemma concerning Sonic, but it’s now taken from a more personal level (which I rlly enjoy and makes the comparison more fun) His interactions after he was rebuilt started out tense, but through the development of friendship and his displays of kindness, he was able to become Sonic’s friend. I’m not gonna say Zonic and Sonic didn’t develop a friendship bc they definitely did, but Sonic put trust in Zonic *after* Zonic revealed he was him. It was more like a “I have to trust you bc you are me even tho I can’t always agree with you” then develop a friendship rather than “You have to earn my trust because I never had any for you in the first place” like it was for Shard

BUT WHATEVER WHO CARES AB SONIC LETS TALK AB SILVER !!! Shard and Silver had more of a one sided enemy thing going on. Silver wasn’t there to make friends, but ended up making friends anyway because idk this is sonic the hedgehog. They were very. Brash and rude to each other, but Shard was clearly having fun teasing and messing with Silv while Silv was debating on killing him like half the time (I’m getting lazy just reread the wiki page like the rest of us) Because Zonic fucking DIED and every zone was erased besides the prime zone (which was a fucking LIE bc of the silver age and like several other issues but whatever) Silv and Zonic never interacted howeverrrr it’s easy to predict how they’ll interact. Silv, unless told that he could trust him in the beginning and that they need to work together, would be hostile and probably bite him ngl. Zonic, esp after the Silver Age, would probably arrest Silver. This would cause Silver to be on edge and they would probably fight a lot. Zonic would win but not rlly bc Silver doesn’t stop fighting that’s like his thing. I still think that although their fights would like strain their relationship, they would end up becoming allies due to having a similar goal and a similar way to attain it. Also thank god Silver is finally partnered with someone who wouldn’t blink if told he needs to kill someone in order to maintain order. They both have the same job and morals, so if they ever got over their differences then they would probably make a good team. So um TLDR Silver likes guys that he hates and finds annoying and only get in her way, only to find out it’s a good kind of annoying and they can rlly be her friends. They’re just like me fr

[braxiatel]

Writer’s Round-Up 2022

I made a post following this writer’s meme on New Year’s Eve last year, so I thought I would repeat it for comparison. It isn’t one you need to be tagged in to do, nor do you need to tag others if you do it.

Total Word Count:

I have published a total of 68,570 words! Compared to 2021’s 31,021 that’s 2.2x as much!

New Things This Year:

There’s three main things that come to mind.

I started writing Hermitcraft/Life series fic!

I made some new writing friends I think deserve a shoutout. First @stitchthesewords and @atherix, and more recently @sparksnevadas and @mochiwrites. I love their works and admire each of them for their craft and their style of writing, so making their acquaintance has been lovely.

Finally I have rediscovered the joy in writing. Last year is struggled so much with anxiety about writing and publishing fic, to the point that it was preventing me from writing. I think I am a lot more confident in my own ability now, and more importantly I’ve become more comfortable with my own shortcomings. All writers have room to improve, and the best way to do that is by writing. If it is too frustrating I stop, and if not I write it as well as I can and accept that my writing is best when I am enjoying the process.

Fic I spent the most time on:

Could I Be The Sky for sure. I spent about four months working on it, and I am so proud of how far I came through the process of writing it. As such I think the story gets stronger the further you read, and the third chapter + the epilogue are by far my favourites.

Favourite thing I wrote:

Hmm. See, the thing is, I like a lot of what I wrote.

Other than CIBTS, which means a lot to me for a lot of reasons, I think the answer has to be one of the Equinox AU fics. However, because they are all part of one story I struggle to pick one. Possibly the latest, In the Darkness You Reap, or maybe the one before that Harbour Me, Guide Me Home

I also really enjoyed writing "We Double as a Drama Troupe" not least for the excuse to use a little bit of the 0.5 theatre degree I earned before dropping out of university. I think it’s funny, and that I got the characters pretty spot on.

Favourite thing I read:

Oh there’s so many. Genuinely.

I read less Warcraft fanfiction now than I did last year, but I still just want to give a shoutout to that fandom for the amazingly high level of writing quality. I specifically want to list @khadgarfield’s Convergence. I love the language it uses, especially for descriptions. In fact I think of it often while writing myself.

Another favourite was @milo-hypno’s Aftershocks of Divinity. This fic… wow, this fic. I don’t think I will ever read another romance/slowburn fic and not compare it to this. The way Aftershocks of Divinity treats the subject of love, of recovery, is genuine and poetic enough that it brought my to tears even as I was reading it for the third time - and it is one of those where rereading it adds to the story.

And lastly, I would be remiss not to mention the Midnight series by @atherix. Oh Midnight. I don’t even know where to start listing all the things I love about it. Atherix, friend, you are the master of world building and foreshadowing. Midnight is fun to read because it rewards paying attention to details. Oh, and then there’s the characterisation, of course. It has that perfect mix of accurate to canon and sensible in the context of the AU it is set within. This one is a masterclass in slowburn as well, and were it a little less late I would dig out a screenshot of me messaging the group chat full of people who do not read Hermitcraft fic, letting them know that the OT3 from the fic series I keep talking about finally got together.

Writing goals for next year:

There’s projects I want to start working on and ones I want to keep working on. Equinox and Kingdom of Boatem AU are the main two, but they aren’t necessarily a goal.

I think most of all I just want to keep working towards writing being something that brings me joy and creative satisfaction. I’ve come so far in 2022, I want to keep up that good work.

-

Finally, something I couldn’t fit in anywhere else. I have to give a massive shoutout to @loombarrow for all of your help with writing through the year. Love you, friend!

[xxwritemeastoryxx]

WIP Purge

Where my untouched and forgotten work in progress goes to the trash bin. But before they meet their demise, I figured I'd show you what is being tossed and give my thoughts on them before they never see the sunshine again.

However, if in the future a part of me feels like I can go back to it, this is the post where it will be saved. Unless tumblr eats my tags and I never find it again after this is posted.

ANYWAYS! From what I can tell, no major warnings are needed for what is below the cut. Please note that this is in fact a very long post filled with commentary that is either ramblings, me occasionly giving thoughts in bold mid wip to address things, and so on.

This is mostly for you guys to see what could have been as well as some comedy. If you have any thoughts on these, please feel free to comment on them. I really want to know what you guys think.

Have fun! And thank you for participating in this purge.

Eyes On Me

If I'm not mistaken this had been a request that just fell through the cracks before I had my breakdown. This one was from when I first started attempting to write for MCU characters. I tried going back and rereading and replanning this fic, but everything I tried to do didn't work. So it sat there unfinished. Maybe one day I'll come back and give Druig another try.

I need you to come back to me.

The words may have been rushed and loud to anyone that had been close by but to Y/N she couldn’t even hear them. Her mind blocking out the words in one way or another. Images flashed before her eyes. Ones that she’d hardly recognized but felt oh so familiar to her.

I don’t want to hurt you. Come back.

The words were muffled in comparison to the chaos that echoed within Y/N’s ears. The screams of the scared and injured only gripped the hold on Y/N tighter that it felt like she couldn’t breathe. Death and destruction louder than the calming words that were being attempted to bring her back from the madness that was consuming her.

What Y/N didn’t know was (What didn't she know?!?! Cause I sure as hell don't remember lmao. )

“She’s struggling.” He said as he shook his head. “One moment she’s fine and she can fight it off, but in the next it’s like-” He couldn’t find the right words to explain the battle Y/N would lose with herself. Druig’s mind only comes up with the smallest comparison to Thena that very night in Tenochtitlan.

“As if she is stuck in between the past and the present.” Gilgamesh said with a nod in understanding. “You grow worried with how long she’ll be able to fight it off before you’re fighting her to come back to you.” His eyes landed on Thena as she brought a glass up to her lips and took a drink. “Some days it is as easy as telling her a few words, and other days it takes a while to break through to her.”

They both watched as Y/N and Thena began to toss their heads back in laughter at whatever was said in their conversation. The details were unknown to the men, but it was something that had actually brought a smile to both of their faces. The two women had been close before they all had gone their separate ways.

Thena only ever laughed that hard when Y/N was around. And it was only ever Thena that could ever get Y/N to be still for longer than five minutes. Though over time Y/N had been able to adapt and be content with boredom, it was then that both Druig and Gilgamesh had seen how calm Y/N was.

“What caused it?” Gilgamesh asked a moment later.

“We take trips when she needs them.” Druig began. “Staying in one spot gets to her at times. She chose the destination not knowing what to expect, it had been centuries since she had last visited. When we arrived, we were met with war among the civilians. She killed ten humans before I was able to get through to her.”

I REALLY REALLY loved the relationship between the reader and Thena. I really wanted that sibling relationship between them, and it just sucks that my brain refuses to make this fic work.

—--------

Untitled Shower Thoughts

Legit, if you looked at the doc name it's what the name of it is. I had an idea mid-shower for this particular scene but for the life of me, I cannot remember what it was for. But it was going to be angsty apparently. I don't even know what character was supposed to be used for this one either.

"What changed?"

There was a time that I felt peace with you by my side. I never went without and you showed me what it was like to be loved. But it wasn't me who changed. " She shook her head slightly. "You left. Maybe not physically but you weren't here with me. Together, I longed for the peace we had, the longing hurt. And the days you were on a mission, I felt peace."

For a moment she believed that as she said the words there would be some kind of ache in her chest. Some guilt at falling out of love for him. Some anger at him for leaving as he always did, even when she asked him to stay. All she felt was as if she was talking to an old friend she hadn't seen in a while. He may not have admitted to himself, but Y/N knew he has left long before she even began to feel lonely.

—--------

ONLY WITH YOU

All I know was this was supposed to be a request that I couldn't bring myself to finish before I did a 'reset.' It was going to be one of those 'Everyone lives in the Avengers Tower' fics and I cant remember what it was that made me not want to finish it. Maybe it was the fact that in my notes for this, that this was supposed to be tooth rotting fluff and the tooth rotting stuff I couldn't get my brain to focus on.

When Y/N first officially met Loki, she had just returned from a mission she had been on for the last few weeks. Just like many had, she had witnessed the events of New York first hand. While she hadn’t fought him face to face like some of the others, she had been happy to see the man in cuffs and being taken back to Asgard. And when the news began to spread that the Asgardian would be returning to New York, she was against it. An agreement had been made and she wasn’t the only one who shared the same views.

By the time she returned, the team had already gone through the motions of being on standby for Loki’s arrival. He and Thor had taken up residency on one of the floors of Avengers Tower for a whole week before Y/N returned. And when she met the God of Mischief….

{Insert details things} (What details cause none of it is happening)

In the end, Y/N left with tears of frustration in her eyes. Minutes after leaving the room she volunteered herself for the next mission even though she had just gotten back. Anything to put some space between them after an interaction like that one.

Months had come and gone with Y/N doing what she could to avoid Loki. While at first it had been out of anger and hatred, now it had been mostly for the sake of giving him whatever space he needed. To allow him to adjust to a life not only on Earth, but working to be a part of the Avengers.

Y/N knew this wasn’t easy for anyone. Not when there was an occasional throwing New York in Loki’s face from time to time. Most of the Avengers were on high alert with Loki around. And when he was put on missions, chaos usually ensued when some of them felt as though they couldn’t turn their backs on him. Even Y/N had been guilty of doing the same when they first started going on missions together.

It wasn’t until their next mission together that something seemed to change between the two.

When Y/N woke up in the med bay, she wasn't surprised to see the familiar faces of Natasha or even Steve talking as they sat beside her bed. What she had been surprised by was Loki standing by the entryway to her little sectioned off room. There was a look of relief on his face as he watched her eyes open and watched as her eyes focused on him. He gave her a slight nod of his head before turning and walking away.

“How long have I been out?” She asked a moment later as she ran her hand along her forehead. There was an echo of an ache that was currently making it’s presence known the longer she was awake.

“Almost two weeks.” Steve said as he leaned forward in his chair.

“We weren’t sure how much longer we could take you not being around.” Natasha said jokingly as she laid out the blanket on top of Y/N. “Some more than others couldn’t leave your side.”

“That someone being you?” Y/N asked as she looked over at Natasha with a small smile pulling at her lips.

Natasha chuckled. “Someone actually has me beat.” She noted before looking towards the entryway.

While Loki wasn’t there anymore, Y/N knew exactly who Natasha had been talking about. If she hadn’t seen Loki there when she first woke up, she wasn’t sure if she’d believe what Natasha was telling her.

Y/N’s eyebrow raised slightly. “Really?”

“He only leaves your side when someone else comes to visit you.” Steve added. “I’ll admit when he carried you in, we weren’t exactly accepting of the idea.”

“We had no idea what was going on after your coms went out

I really wish I had finished this one. But I also think the lack of interaction with my Loki fics just depresses me and I think that's a reason that I've kind of stopped writing things for him. Bummer I know.

—---------

Untitled Elijah Fluff

Apparently I can't finish the fluffy things my brain tries to come up with.

For the first time in quite some time, things had been quiet. Threats didn’t come and go as frequently or there was no need to be constantly looking over their shoulders for something that may or may not be coming after them. And for once The Mikaelson family could easily let their guard down and actually enjoy life.

Klaus, Hope and Hayley had found themselves on a family trip across Europe. All of it as educational as they could make it while letting Hope take in other parts of the world. A chance for her to grow and learn things that only HaYley or Klaus could teach her as the hybrids they were.

As for the rest of the Mikaelsons, they stayed put in New Orleans in hopes of making the city better. A chance to unite the factions and make the city thrive in a way that it never had before. And it was working for the most part. Even they knew that not everything would run smoothly while attempting to make things better.Nothing ever more than they could handle in the process. Not when the leaders of the factions were moving to make the same peace the Mikaelsons wanted.

Y/N and Elijah had been lounging in the study. Each of them with a book in their hands. While Elijah was catching up on his reading, Y/N had been reading a grimoire that had been passed down to her. It had been the first time she had actually sat down and went through it.

There was a time Y/N had believed her family had lost the grimoire years before she had become of age. After facing their last threat, Y/N found it among the ruins of her family home. It took her some time before she actually decided to crack open the book and peek at the pages. But once she had, she didn’t regret it.

The pages had been filled with spells and details that she hadn’t believed were possible. Spells such as these ones should be hoped to keep out of the wrong hands. And as she flipped through the pages, she would seal the page with a spell making it only visible to those with the best intentions of using the spell.

But in the last hour, her eyes had been glued to a spell that occupied one of the pages. The design on the page had been intricate. Words covered the page in a language she wasn’t sure she could even pronounce, let alone read in that moment. But it was the images that were drawn on the page that held her attention.

Vines grew up along the page towards the top of it. A handful of seeds drawn as if it had been the one to drop the seeds into the ground that allowed the vines to grow and thrive. Intertwined in the vines had a few different images of life.

Y/N stared at the spell in front of her. She must have read and reread it several times since she had found it. Her eyebrows furrowed as she translated on the page for the millionth time trying to make sure she had in fact translated the spell correctly.

With each word that came out the same each time, excitement rose within her. For each word that had gotten her mind to click in the correct order, it made her heart race. And when she got to the very last word, a gasp passed her lips at the realization of what she found.

"What is it?" Elijah asked from across the room.

He had been watching her for the last several minutes. He had watched as she had been so focused on the page in front of her that she hadn't even heard him speak to her moments before. With every tilt of her head and every purse of her lips as she worked on it.

Y/N's head shot up at his words. The first time she registered his voice in a while. She could see the curious look on Elijah's face and all she could do was smile at him. She couldn't even make the words form that were wanting to be said. She didn't know how to say them without getting anyone's hopes up.

Not with this. Not with the potential to bring a new life into the world. Where loopholes can be had. Someone in her family was crazy enough to do it. She just needed someone other than the love of her life to be the first one to hear it.

She gave him a smile as she got up from her seat, the book closing with her pointer finger holding its place. She walked over to him, before leaning in and giving him a kiss on the cheek.

"I promise to explain later." She said before standing straight. "I just need to talk to your sister before anything."

"Freya isn't here." He said with a raised brow as he watched her begin to turn and walk out of their study.

"I never said I needed Freya." She said as she looked over her shoulder at him before leaving the room altogether.

Elijah shook his head and chuckled as he heard her feet pick up as she rushed to find Rebekah. As she did, there was a flicker of hope that ignited within him. If this was the spell he believed it to be, things would surely change around there for the better.

—---

Enchanted

This fic had notes to be a song fic to Taylor Swift. But I have no idea where the hell I was going with this fic. I think reader was supposed to have her memories compelled away and the familiarity of things was supposed to trigger something to remembering her first night meeting Elijah. But once again, I can't get my brain to want to come back to this one.

"You seem rather uninterested to be here." The voice was familiar in a way that Y/N couldn't help but turn around rather quickly, her drink almost spilling over the rim as she turned.

The moment she had turned, there was no recognition of the person who spoke moments before. Even as her eyes wandered over the man before her in the three-piece suit. His brown eyes took in her appearance just as she had, but there was a gleam in his eyes that had screamed at Y/N that he was familiar with her. As if he knew her more intimately than she believed.

She quickly shook the thoughts from her head, before giving him a small smile. "Unfortunately any time I'm dragged to an event such as this one, I tend to grow bored with it halfway through the night. Attend one and you've seen all of them."

That caused a small smirk to pull at the man's lips. The smirk itself had caused something to stir within Y/N, but the source of it all was still buried deep within her. Something that she was questioning more as the minutes passed.

"And what of our hosts?" He asked curiously as he tucked one hand into his pant’s pocket. "I'm sure they'd be worried if a benefactor such as yourself was uninterested in this get-together."

"The Salvatores have the city's best interest at heart." Y/N knew that was a lie. She knew that it was the farthest from the truth. That this party was nothing more than to reach into the deep pockets of the benefactors of the city to ensure their organization was continuously thriving. "My continuous contributions don't mean they are aiming to please their guests once boredom strikes."

The smirk tugged at his lips for another brief moment before it left his lips altogether. The way her heartbeat had quickened had told him she was lying. Even if it was the tiniest of lies, he rather enjoyed that she even disliked the Salvatores' actions in their business.

"What if I could persuade you to turn your contributions to another organization that pull\ their efforts towards what the vampires of the community actually want?" His eyes never left hers as he said the words.

As she took in the words, they held familiarity, as if they had this exact conversation before. A small smirk had pulled at her lips. "And how do you intend to persuade me?"

He chuckled before his attention had been caught by the change of music playing. He tilted his head towards the dance floor before holding his hand out to her. Her eyebrow raised as she observed his hand.

"Give me this dance to provide all the information you need to make a decision. And if you decide to hear more, we can take our conversation elsewhere."

After a moment, she nodded her head before placing her hand in his. "One dance. You better start talking."

A small smirk pulled at the corner of his lips as he began to lead her towards the dancefloor. Once a spot had been occupied, he spun Y/N before bringing her towards him and taking her free hand.

—-----

Untitled Mafia based Series

Let me tell you. I really wanted to dive into another Series with Elijah. But the amount of Series I had going on with that man was bad at the time. So I kind of put it on the back burner and then it never got finished. Maybe one day.

Y/N’s fingers were quickly tapping away on her keyboard. Her eyes watched as each word formed on the screen, making sure there had been no mistakes. The sooner she got this story done, the sooner she could leave the office and go pick up Elijah from the airport. While his flight wasn't due to land for several hours, she was anxious and excited for him to come home.

(Insert the shit ton of space that was in between things)

Y/N leaned against the door frame looking into the study. She watched as Elijah read a book as he sat in his favorite chair. A smile played on her lips just watching him sitting there. They had been through a lot recently and seeing him relaxed for the first time in a while was a nice sight. “Hey.” She said to get his attention.

Elijah looked up from the book, a smile growing on his face as he saw her. “Hey.” He responded back. He closed his book and placed it on the stand by his chair before standing up. “Is everything alright?”

She smiled and entered the room walking towards him. “Everything is fine.” She said with a nod as she stopped right in front of him. “Actually I'd say everything is perfect.” She placed her hand on his cheek. “You are home, we are safe, and we are together.”

Even though Y/N's words made him smile. She was wrong. There was still plenty of dangers that lurked in the shadows. Many of them were on the brink of making their moves and Elijah knew it was only a matter of time before he had to leave Y/N again. In fact it was just a few short days away. A sigh passed his lips as he ran his hand through her hair. “I won't be home for long.” He admitted.

“But your brother can handle this.” Y/N said shaking her head. “You just got back.” Her voice broke at the end.

“I know I did.” Elijah said knowing that his departure would make things worse for Y/N. “But Klaus isn't going to be able to do this on his own.”

Y/N shook her head again as tears began to fill her eyes. “I can't bare the thought of you being shot at again. You were supposed to come home and stay home.”

“I have to do this, Y/N/N” He said placing his hands on her cheeks hoping he could get her to understand. “This is the last time. We take out the Salvatores once and for all and then we will be able to live in peace.”

“What's to stop anyone from picking up where they left off?” Y/N asked worried. “Nothing will change if you do this.”

“Nothing will change if we don't do anything.” Elijah shook his head. “It won't stop. They killed Henrik and attempted to kill me all because Klaus went after one of their properties. What will happen if we leave them be?” Elijah couldn't even think of the possibilities but her had to get Y/N to understand. “If we don't do this now, what is to stop them from coming after the rest of my siblings or even you?” He shook the images from his head as he moved one hand away from her cheek. “I wouldn't be able to live with myself if anything happened to you.”

Y/N looked down at her feet for a moment before looking back at him. She didn't want to tell him like this. She didn't want to say it just because he was leaving but he needed to know. “It wouldn't just be me anymore that you'd have to worry about.”

“What do you mean?” Elijah asked with a raised brow.

“I hoped that I'd be able to tell you with us celebrating you were home and staying home,” she sighed slightly. “but you need to know before you leave again. I'm pregnant.”

-_-_-_

“Y/N is pregnant?” Klaus asked as he looked at Elijah.

Elijah nodded. “She was hoping to tell me with a private celebration that I'd be staying home. Instead we started arguing and in the middle of it, she told me.”

“And you wish to be with her instead of being here.” Klaus noted.

“Of course I would.” Elijah said with a nod. “She kept it to herself for a month while I had been recovering in hopes that after everything I had been through it would help keep me from coming back “

“And yet you wanted to come back and help me handle things.” Klaus sighed. “You do realize if they find out about her pregnancy they could use that against us.”

“You think I don't know that? That is all I have thought about since she had told me. Word of this gets to them and it will be her they take next. This child is the next generation for us.”

“An heir to our Kingdom.” Klaus noted. “The Salvatores won't take kindly knowing that.”

“Precisely why I asked her to go stay with her parents. If she is out of the country until this over she'll be safe.”

Klaus shook his head. “Sending her to England doesn't make this go away.”

“No but keeping her out of their grasps for now is all I need.

_-_-_-_-_-_

“How is that wife of yours?” Damon asked as he sat across from Elijah. “I heard she was in England. Is there already trouble in paradise?’

“She is visiting family.” Elijah noted. “We are fine. I would have joined her on her visit but there was business to attend to.”

“Right.” Damon said as he smirked a little. “I only ask because my cousin saw her out while she was visiting as well.” The words alone had caused Elijah to stiffen. “She seemed rather upset about something. not to mention my cousin also mentioned she saw Y/N and her mother walk into a maternity store.”

“You know women these days.” Klaus said hoping to give Elijah a moment to collect his thoughts before doing something he'd regret. “They like to imagine what it would be like by walking through stores.”

My notes had a lot of details. Such as how this would begin along with how Elijah had gotten injured. Yet any time I went back an read through to try and get my brain going, nothing helped.

---------

KLAUS SOULMATE AU

First of all I have no idea how this one hasn't been done, because I absolutely love soulmate AUs. And this is whereit makes me a bit sad that I couldn't finish this one.

"It's her isn't it?" Rebekah said as she came to stand beside Klaus.

Klaus had never taken his eyes off of the woman. His head nodded in confirmation. "It is."

"Then why aren't you down there introducing yourself to her?" She asked. "The last time she had been reincarnated you let her go without so much as a word to her."

Klaus looked over at his sister. "And she lived a long and happy life. The first one she's had in all of the times she'd been reborn. I can't risk it."

"We will keep her safe." Rebekah tried. She knew how much Klaus had wanted to be with his soulmate. But the world was cruel in the ways that Klaus had lost her time and time again.

"Have you forgotten that it always by yours or even our brothers' hands that she dies?" His eyes narrowed at her before returning to looking down at the street.

The woman had stopped at booth with dozens of boquets of flowers. Klaus watched as her eyes looked over the arrangements before a small smile pulled at her lips. Klaus knew exactly what her favorite and a small smile of his own formed as he watched her grab them and pay the vendor.

"This time will be different." She said placing her hand on Klaus's shoulder. "We wont interfere, we wont even speak with her."

"The last time that happened, our brother used her to prove a point." Klaus noted, not taking his eyes off the woman.

"Kol is in a different country, he wouldn't be able to play his games." She wanted to try anything. They were all fortunate to have their soulmates in their life, except for Klaus.

"No." He shook his head. "She'll live a full life this time around just as she had previously."

_____

Untitled Crossover fic

I always love challenges, trust me, I really do and I was ready to take this one full on. But I couldn't figure out how to make this one work. And that also makes me sad. So have a bit of a fic that would have been interesting but will never happen.

Her heart felt like it was hitting aginst her ribs as it beat quickly. The blade of the knife only centimeters away from her neck. Dean hesitating the moment she stepped in the way. She watched as her brother glared at her.

"What the hell are you doing?" Dean's voice raised as he dropped his arm, ensuring the knife was away from her.

"Stopping you." She said as heart calmed in the slightest. But she didn't dare relax. Not right now, not when she needed to make things better.

"Move, Y/N." His voice held finality. He had expected his sister to move out of the way and let him finish this. The fact that she had stepped in moments before his blade would have come in contact with the vampire's neck made his blood boil.

She was protecting the vampire that stood behind her. And it proved to him every horrible thought that had been going through his mind the last several weeks when he couldn't get ahold of her. How vague she was on the phone when she finally did answer.

Y/N should have known better. She knew she shouldn't have kept this from any of them for so long. She should have been honest from the beginning. Not the quick and vague text she sent to her brothers or the vague answers she gave Elijah about her family. But she had pictured doing things differently and this wasn't it.

"I'm not moving." She said as she stayed in her place. Even as Elijah attempted to pull her a step or two back to give the hunter some space, she refused to move. "Let it go, Dean. There's no one to fight here"

Even as she said the words, her eyes shifted over to Sam who had just entered the room. There was a look of confusion on his face as he took in the situation.

"You should listen to her." Elijah's voice was calm. If anything, Y/N could pick up on the slight annoyance in his words.

_____

Untitled Bucky fic

Yeah I have no idea where this one was going. I don't even know what the whole plot was for this. My notes have nothing.

"Trouble in Paradise?"

Y/N shook her head quickly and looked over at Sam. "Um, quite possibly. Bucky has been-" She let out a sigh. "He's closed himself off again and I can't seem to get him to open up this time."

_______

Untitled who knows what.

My brain comes up with ideas but there's some pieces missing apparently because IDK who the reader is gonna be pissed at in this one.

“You don’t get to tell me what to do anymore.” Y/N’s voice raised a little more as she raised her finger towards him. “I made the decision to do this. Maybe next time you’ll actually listen to me.”

Thank you for reading the purge. Remember any comments or thoughts on this would be welcomed. Would you have read these fics? Was I crazy for even thinking of the idea? Or are we glad this is going into the trash?

[antiloreolympus]

10 Anti LO Asks

(Note: All of these asks are before episode 206 (Season 2 finale) so some may be dated.) 1. [spoilers for the most recent lore Olympus epsiode] if I wasn’t already a LO hater this episode would have been the final nail in the coffin. WHY is kronos, the ancient extremely powerful titan that rules over TIME ITSELF (and most likely the final boss), drooling over oh-so-beautiful Mary Sue Persephone like a dime a dozen perv? It’s such blatant fanfic writing and it makes him so much less intimidating as a villain. seriously what the fuck. literal wattpad moment.

2. having your favorite god show up in lo is the worst feeling in the world 

3. I truly love your thoughts on lore Olympus, I wish RS, instead of making a love/romance story, that she would have made a story based on the actual myths themselves yet make it her own “style”. Greek myths were there to teach lessons. For example, Zeus was loved by the people of Greece but was described as a asshole and cheater never getting a fair punishment for his actions. This was a way to teach the people about unfair power dynamics. RS could have made a story about this, she could have has us hate the characters at first but then, have them grow on us as we go through certain myths, having the characters grow throughout the story. Sorry- I’m rambling but that’s my take on it…

4. Eris from Billy and Mandy has superior charisma and powers change my mind

5. Honestly I’m pretty sure I saw that this is LOs last season so I’d thought I’d read up on it, because even if somethings bad I can usually still read it normally without being invested, but reading Persephones parts are unbearable. It’s so cringy and weird to me. I didn’t really notice that much but then you throw in other characters like Zeus and the most recent goddess shown and they’re so much better. I was really into Zeus’ story but it ended way too short. Maybe it’s just because I’m more into reading stories that have a established bad character and then the story goes on to explain what happened to make them bad, but it’s so much more interesting to me to see Zeus grow up unaware of who he was, raised by by nymphs of all things and try to piece together how he got were he is. The fact he was raised by nymphs but they’re treated as lesser than In the future is so interesting to me. I want more of his story because even if we know how the current Zeus is, the progression of his more meek kind character raised by women nymphs into self absorbed king who doesn’t treat women as people is way more interesting. Idk it just helped me realize how plain and boring Persephone’s story is in comparison when it shouldn’t be.

6. minthe in lore olympus >>>>>>>> hades and persephone in lore olympus

7. I actually really liked Persephone in the beginning of Lore Olympus. She, along with the slightly cool art style, were the reason I even read as far as I did. I thought she was a cool character with a fun personality in the beginning.

I never particularly liked Hades, but I thought he had potential. I thought he was an interesting character and was excited to see him develop.

I never ended up getting that far in, because I often put stuff down and don’t come back because I have a bad memory. But then I read some more about it, and was happy with my decision to stop. I am really disappointed with how the story went. I really liked the characters and their potential in the beginning.

8. I didn’t realize how much the quality of the comic has dropped until I decided to reread the first couple of episodes. Some character’s personalities have completely changed (for the worse..), the writing quality/dialogue is very bad in comparison, and the art quality has dropped tremendously. Not to mention the plot has completely changed. It’s a shame WT forced RS to make LO so long, I think a lot of the issues it has right now wouldn’t be present if the comic was much shorter. 

9. Idk if you still answer anons or anything but it is so funny to me that LO fans (particularly the ones who fastpass) are starting to turn on the comic. I've seen a lot of fans saying they haven't been happy with where the story is going/pacing/things like that. They're especially upset that webtoons is now charging 7 coins vs 5 coins for fastpass. Idk it's just funny to me. These are people who would like fight to the death any time someone dared to criticize Smythe and now they're like wait this actually isn't that good. Oh how the turn tables. 

10. I just started LO again and remembered how engaging it was at the beginning and how each character was unique in a sense. Now it is just a shell of what it was used to and feels like second rate fabrication. Honestly even Zeus became the character that make the most sense and he’s supposed to be the problematic one… He’s honestly the only one criticizing Persephone at this moment and I need that fresh perspective 

[here2bbtstrash]

freaky ideas you say mwahahhaha 😩😩😩😩

okokokok, so

i’m thinking something along the lines of maybe toxic/gaslight king taehyung like a real kinda nate jacobs kind of situation (not tooo crazy like nate but just the manipulative part) but he’s that ex you love bumping into while drunk or horny bc he’s an amaaaazing lay but he always pulls u back in to fall for him but u know he’s bad and he knows he’s bad, he just knows he take steal you from any man

welp this was fun 🥴 i literally refuse to reread this so sorry if it's trash or riddled with errors lmaoooo hope u enjoy tho !!!

send me more freaky ideas!!!!!

pairing: taehyung x reader wordcount: 737 (look mom i did a real drabble!!!!) contains: tae is legit toxic, reader is too lmao, drunk hookups, a literal dick-measuring contest, taeCONDAAAAA, unprotected sex, don't ever let any man talk to you like this y'all i'm so srs

“What the fuck?”

You sit up so quickly that your tits bounce painfully with no shirt or bra to hold them steady. The alcohol numbing your mind puts you on a five-second delay to process what’s happening: first, the realization that you should probably attempt to hide your naked body; second, the realization that your ex has just walked in on you fucking someone else.

This would be a problem for anyone. But it is especially a problem when your ex is Kim Taehyung.

“I thought you locked the door,” your hookup– you have admittedly completely forgotten his name– grunts as he scrambles to cover his bare ass.

You thought you did too, but honestly, you are not in your right fucking mind right now. You definitely remember spinning the lock ninety degrees, but as you think back on it, you may have spun it back the other way when you were trying to figure the thing out.

Too drunk to remember how doors work means way too fucking drunk to be around Taehyung. There’s a reason your friends made you change his contact name to ⛔️⛔️DO NOT FUCKING DO IT DRUNK BITCH⛔️⛔️.

You’ve been good. Two months without Tae might be your new record.

When he tilts his head to the side with that cocky-ass look on his face, you just know you’re not making it another hour. “You really are up here letting somebody else take what’s mine.” Oh, you hate him so much. You need him to split you open.

“Who the fuck is this?” Your hookup sputters, eyes darting between you. “You have a boyfriend?”

“Ex,” you say simply. You haven’t moved from the position you were in when he was fucking you- on your back on the bed, legs spread, propped up on your elbows.

“Get the fuck out of here, dude,” he says to Tae, and he’s angry enough now to have abandoned any attempts to not be fully naked in front of a stranger. You have to smack a hand over your mouth to stifle your laugh. Taehyung looks equally amused, pressing his lips together as his eyes jump from the guy to you and back again.

“How about we let her compare then? Make her own choice?”

Tae is already in motion before your hookup has any time to process his words. His hands move quickly to the button of his slacks– he can never wear fucking normal pants, always has to dress like the lead character in a romance movie despite having the personality of an actual demon– popping it open, unzipping his fly, and pushing both pants and briefs down his hips in one fast, confident motion.

You unabashedly lick your lips at the sight and sound of his dick smacking hard against his stomach. Damn, did it get bigger?

Your hookup is laughable by comparison, and you know that’s exactly the point. Length, girth, curve, veins, overall prettiness: Tae has him beat, easily, in every category.

You should know. His dick has single-handedly ruined your life.

The poor guy’s eyes jump from Tae’s dick to his own several times in succession, and he clearly doesn’t want to stare long enough to feel gay, but you can tell he’s amazed. It is really the only possible reaction.

“And this is just a semi, king.” Taehyung spits the final word for emphasis.

All pretense is gone now: you both know that he doesn’t have to stand there and pretend to wait for you to make your choice. It’s been made since the second he walked in. “If you’ll excuse me,” he says with a final nod to the guy, and then his knees are sinking into the mattress between your legs.

“Fuck, Taehyung,” you hiss as he pushes all the way in. The pain of the stretch is no match for the pleasure of his cock filling you entirely, and your walls grip him so tight that you can feel every twitch and throb of him inside you. All your senses are dulled in comparison; you only vaguely process the sound of the door slamming shut.

“Maybe I should cut you off more often,” he groans in your ear as he grinds into you, thick head rolling over your g-spot in languid strokes that make you see stars. “You get so fucking tight. How about I remind you who this pussy belongs to?”

You already know it’s his.