#capitalism was a mistake etc.

[catty-words]

i’m not actually paying close attention to the industry so it’s entirely possible i’m reading recency into long-established trends, but. i hate the Recognizable-IPization of albums lately. artists can’t release a complete album and move on to their next project. noah kahan has released stick season twenty times. guts spilled. midnights til dawn edition. instead of dedicating time to writing the next full album, we get an already published album with a recognizable name + a handful of additional songs that were probably scrapped from the initial release for a reason all because it’ll sell well and keep the project in the public consciousness that much longer. (popular) art is forced stagnation for artists and music is now, as everything else, capital-C Content for capital-C Consumption. give me less, i’m begging.

[pepprs]

idk how to reconcile my new self with my old self. also i fucking hate waiting. GRAGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

[iloveyouitisruiningmylife]

the way my parents are terrified of me losing my head and crying at any time is so funny, like besties, i am your daughter, if im not an emotionally unstable adult like u would we even be related

[braxiatel]

Thinking about Grian from a shippy point of view, I think it’s really easy to misunderstand his character.

The thing is that when Grian likes someone he Likes them. Capital L.

Mumbo, Scar, BigB, etc. When he falls he falls hard and he becomes obsessed with the objects of his affection.

And here is where a lot of people get him wrong (and to be clear I’m thinking about this because I am trying to improve my characterisation of him and can see places where I’ve made this exact mistake in the past). The thing is, Grian is self aware and he is trying sooooooooooo so hard to appear Normal about the object(s) of his affection. At all times he is - if not physically then mentally - doodling his name next to his crush’s name surrounded by hearts, but he can’t have them knowing that. He would walk into hell for them but he Will complain about it the whole way. He will wither away without their attention, but will go no further than to coincidentally happen to do so in the place they are most likely to find him.

And that, I believe, is the crux of why getting his character right is difficult. He cares so deeply, leading some people to think that he is all lovey-dovey and not at all guarded with his emotions, but at the same time he is trying (albeit badly at times) to hide his affection, leading another camp of people to take him at face value and think he doesn’t care.

I don’t have much of a point other than how interesting it is, and perhaps a hope of seeing it featured more in fanon

[sweetestdesire]

THE ICE BREAKER

WARNINGS: extreme domination, mentions of alcohol consumption, etc. 18+ readers only

PAIRING(S): NHL hockey player!Rafe Cameron x Fem!Reader

SUMMARY: in which a night at the bar leads to a chance encounter.

AUTHOR’S NOTE: I think that this series will be my favorite one that I’ve created yet. I hope you angels enjoy part 1 for The Ice Breaker series!

The crowd leapt to its feet as Rafe Cameron soared into the Washington Capitals forward, sandwiching him between Rafe’s shoulder and the boards. The glass rocked and groaned above them. Rafe caught a glimpse of red jerseys beyond the glass before spinning and skating after the puck. The opposing player slumped to the ground, stunned but he gamely got to his feet again.

Instead of joining the scramble for the puck in the Capitals zone, the player headed for his bench. Rafe noted the absence of the forward with barely a glance, focusing his attention on clearing the zone. It was a frantic penalty kill and his heart was beating double time.

Here it comes, he thought as the frozen disc of rubber shot out from under his teammates' legs. With long strides, Rafe crossed the empty space. He swung his stick and lifted the puck into the air, sending it flying across the ice to the Capitals zone.

As he skated for the bench, Rafe glanced up at the big screen, grinning when he saw the last three seconds of the Capitals power play count down. Several of his teammates jumped over the boards, and the Carolina Hurricanes were back to full strength.

Rafe watched the action on ice as he reached for the water bottle, dousing his neck and then swallowing generous mouthfuls before setting it down again. There was another five minutes of play left in the second period and the Hurricanes and Capitals were tied with a goal apiece. The pace was furious, as it always was.

By the time the teams headed into their locker rooms for the second intermission, Rafe and the rest of the team felt confident.

"All right, everyone listen up!" The head coach barked as he walked into the room.

The intermission flew by and soon they were all heading back out to the ice. A quick glance at the large screen overhead told Rafe they had exactly ten minutes to figure it out. The Capitals were winning with a one point lead. Come on. Rafe slid his mask down into place again. One more goal, that's all they needed.

The game was harried for the last ten minutes, and there were scrambles at both ends. At long last, the buzzer sounded and it was over. Unfortunately for the Hurricanes, it wasn't their victory.

With a heavy sigh, Rafe skated off the ice with his team. In the locker room, the atmosphere was hushed. The guys on the team quietly went through the motions of changing, showering and packing their stuff up.

"Sorry we couldn't get it together in the end, man." Jordan Staal, sat down next to Rafe on the bus.

"Don't worry about it." Rafe didn't meet his teammate's eyes.

As the captain, he often felt responsible for the losses. His teammates, especially Jordan, did their best to get him to shake the disappointment and frustration following a loss.

"Come on, don't beat yourself up.” Jordan went on when he saw the frown on Rafe’s face. "It wasn't your fault."

Rafe merely shrugged. He knew he'd shake it off in time for the game but for now, he wanted to wallow in his mistake. It didn't take long for his teammates to pull him out of his funk. The bus ride to the airport was short and no one would let him just sit and rehash that game. Rafe was smiling as he boarded the plane with his teammates and laughing by the time he was buckled in.

Rafe never could stay serious and miserable over a loss for long. They had months before they needed to start panicking about a playoff spot. He shook off the last of his disappointment as the plane took off and he was in a better frame of mind in no time.

-

Rafe had been reluctant to go out with his teammates. In the end, Brent Burns convinced him that they needed a little stress relief after their loss to the Capitals the night before. They were back in North Carolina for a two week home stretch and he was glad for that at least. They didn't have another game until Sunday afternoon, so he had plenty of time to get over his disappointing loss in D.C.

"This place looks good.” Jordan suggested as they walked outside a stretch of restaurants and shops.

Rafe nodded and followed his teammates inside the bar. It was busy inside and most of the tables were taken. Luckily, as they walked further into the main room, a group of people were just leaving a table. Brent and Jordan headed right for it, claiming it before anyone else did. The other three followed close behind.

As Rafe took his coat off, he glanced around the busy bar. "I've never been here before."

The teammate on his left, Sebastian Aho, grinned. "It's a great place to meet chicks."

Rafe rolled his eyes as the other guys with them laughed. Along with Sebastian, Brent and Jordan, Derek Stepan had come out. Derek was the oldest out of the five of them, and married, but Rafe knew he liked to spend time with the team whenever he could. As for the rest of them, they were all single.

A waitress appeared at their table to take their drink orders. "What can I get for you guys?"

After she was gone again, the guys resumed their perusal of the bar.

"Busy tonight.” Derek commented as he relaxed back in his chair.

Rafe met his eyes with a smirk. Derek obviously wasn't on the lookout for a woman and took far too much enjoyment in watching the other guys scramble. Not that Rafe was the most active womanizer. He dated occasionally, but it was difficult to hold down a relationship while playing in the NHL.

The waitress returned to their table with their drinks and they clinked their bottles and glasses together in a salute. They fell into easy conversation, discussing the road games and their upcoming match-up against the Islanders on Sunday.

"There's a smokin' hot chick over in that booth.” Jordan said.

Brent turned his head to see where Jordan was looking. "Where?"

Rolling his eyes, Jordan shoved Brent’s shoulder. "Don't look so obvious, man. Jeez, no wonder you don't have a woman."

Rafe chuckled as he lifted his bottle of beer to his lips. He liked his teammates and enjoyed spending time with them. He just didn't understand their desire to date. Their careers didn't leave much time to woo a woman and if they did date, more often than not, the woman ended up feeling neglected by the players' constant absence. It was the few and the strong that stuck around long enough to marry a hockey player.

"She is cute.” Brent added. Rafe flicked his eyes to the his with a surprised glance. Brent met his gaze and shrugged. "What? She is."

"Cameron, come on.” Jordan scoffed. "Have a look. There, she's just standing up with one of her friends."

Rafe sighed, but turned his head to look. He saw a tall woman with long, light blonde hair and a shorter woman with short, brunette hair sliding out of a booth. Seated was a third woman, her face turned towards the table of hockey players.

Her eyes widened for a moment and she looked down, her lips moving as she spoke to her companions. Then, her friends disappeared into the crowd and Rafe listened as his teammates started talking again.

Except Rafe couldn't take his eyes off the woman left alone at the table. He was curious about why she'd remained at the table while her two companions left. She had her head bent over the table, barely looking up when the waitress stopped by to set a fresh drink down. Rafe could see her scribbling something and he smiled, wondering if she was writing on the table.

"Cameron? You with us, man?" Sebastian drew Rafe’s attention away from the lone woman in the booth.

Rafe looked back at his four companions. "What? Did I miss something?"

"Brent was suggesting a bet.” Jordan replied with an eye roll.

Rafe chuckled and downed the last of his beer. "A bet? Do I even want to know?"

It was Brent who answered. "Yes, because you're going to be in on it."

Rafe glanced again at the lonely woman in the booth before turning his focus to his teammates. "What's the bet?"

"That's the spirit!" Brent exclaimed and clapped Rafe on the shoulder. "Those two chicks went to the ladies room.” He said, jerking his chin in the direction of the booth.

"How do you know?" Rafe asked.

"I just know about these things. When they come back, they're going to come by our table."

Rafe shook his head and smiled. "I'm almost afraid to ask how you know that."

"I just do." Brent gave him a wide grin. "When they do, we're going to talk to them and one of us is going to go home with one of them."

Rafe’s eyebrows shot up almost to his hairline. "Are you serious? You want to make a bet on taking a woman home?"

"Why not? It's why we're here, isn't it?"

Derek held his hand up. "Uh, it's not why I'm here."

Brent shook his head at them. "You guys are so boring."

"Aren't you getting a little old for games like this, man?" Rafe asked as the waitress stopped by their table. They ordered another round of drinks.

"You're never too old.” Brent replied when the waitress was gone.

Rafe hadn't come out tonight with the intention of hooking up. That's not to say he wasn't willing if the opportunity presented itself. However, he wasn't about to make a bet just to create an opportunity. Unless it was the cute woman stopping by their table.

Rafe turned back around to look towards the booth. The woman was still there, still alone. She was no longer scribbling on her table, but she was frowning at something. Rafe made a decision.

"Well, if you guys are going to be making bets and keeping those women busy..." Rafe said as he slid off his chair. The waitress appeared just then with a tray of drinks. He thanked her and grabbed his beer. "I'm going to keep their friend company."

With that, he turned and walked towards the booth. Someone at his table whistled at him as he walked away and he grinned as he approached her.

"Excuse me?"

She looked over, distracted, and blinked in surprise to see someone standing there. "Yeah?"

"Do you mind if I sit down?" Rafe asked.

The woman's eyes flicked over the thick crowd before coming back to his face. "Uh, my friends are supposed to be back in a minute." Her tone was apologetic, which gave Rafe hope.

He glanced over his shoulder. "Are those your friends?" Rafe asked, gesturing with one hand at the tall blonde and shorter brunette standing with his four teammates.

The woman's eyes followed his hand and widened when she saw them. She laughed and shook her head. "Yeah, those are my friends."

Rafe looked back at her and grinned when he saw how her pretty smile changed her entire look. He'd thought she was cute before, but now she was even more attractive. She blinked as she met his gaze.

"I think they might be a while.” Rafe said. "My friend, Jordan can be very persuasive."

"Oh, yeah?" She lifted her eyebrows. "Should I go over there and warn my friends?"

Rafe shook his head. "No. My friend Derek, the older one there? He'll keep Jordan in line."

"Good to know."

Rafe met her eyes again, still grinning. "So, do you mind if I sit down?"

"Not at all. Looks like I have no one rushing to join me."

He slid into the bench across from her. "I can't imagine why not."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, an attractive woman like you wouldn't be sitting alone for long."

She laughed. "As you've just shown me, I suppose."

"I suppose I have." He slightly leaned forward. "Can I tell you a secret?"

Her eyes widened and Rafe took a moment to appreciate the way they sparkled. She had the thickest, darkest lashes he'd ever seen on a woman.

"I love secrets.” She murmured as she leaned forward as well.

"I just didn't want to listen to my friend, Jordan trip over himself to impress another woman.” Rafe said, nodding his head in the direction of his table.

Together, he and the woman looked over at his table. They both grinned when they saw the four teammates and two women looking back at them. They all lifted their drinks in a silent salute before Rafe and his new companion started laughing.

"I'm Rafe.” He said, stretching a hand towards her.

"Y/N." She shook his hand.

"What brings you and your friends here tonight?"

"It's sort of my friend's birthday celebration.” Y/N replied. "The taller one. She turned twenty-one this week.”

Rafe lifted his eyebrows and sipped his beer. "No big party to celebrate?"

"No. We all go to North Carolina University and this was midterm week. Even if she'd wanted a big party, there would have been no one who would have come."

Rafe nodded as he glanced at the tall blonde again. She was leaning close to Jordan and Jordan had a big smile on his face as they talked. The shorter brunette woman appeared to be chatting with Brent while Sebastian and Derek held their own conversation.

Shaking his head, Rafe turned back to Y/N. "You go to NCU? What's your major?"

She grinned. "Math."

"Really? Wow, I don't think I've ever met someone who’s admitted to that."

Y/N laughed, the sound light and sexy as hell. Rafe shifted on his seat, surprised by his physical reaction. "I'm not surprised."

"What will you do when you're done? Become a government code breaker or something?" Rafe asked, genuinely curious. He leaned forward and rested his elbows on the table between them.

"I think I'll become a teacher.” Y/N told him with a shrug.

Her fingers moved on the table and Rafe glanced down to see a napkin covered with writing. No, not just writing but numbers and symbols.

"There are a few other options out there for a math major, but I don't think I'd want to join NASA or become an engineer or anything like that."

"Would you be happy teaching math?" Rafe shuddered inwardly at the thought. He'd barely made it through his math courses when he was in school. The thought of dealing with algebra and calculus for the rest of his life would be as horrible to him as blowing out a knee.

"I think so." Y/N gave him a relaxed smile. "I love math. It sounds dorky, I know, but I like that math is the same no matter where you are. And I love that every problem has a solution."

Rafe grinned at her description. She made mathematics sound romantic. He liked her already. Maybe she could come home with me and teach me about fractions, he thought with a wicked grin. Her smile faltered for a moment and she looked down, her lashes fanning against her cheek. Jesus. Rafe shifted again as his pants grew too tight all of a sudden.

"So what do you do, Rafe?" Y/N asked, looking up again. Her fingers were still nervously working the scribbled-on napkin.

"I'm a hockey player."

She smiled and her eyes widened. "Get out! Who do you play for?"

Rafe chuckled. It wasn't often that he wasn't recognized right away. That article in People magazine had given him a certain level of notoriety. "The Carolina Hurricanes."

"Really? That's so cool. I've never been to a game."

"So, you don't know any of the major players then?"

She chewed her lip as she considered. "I've heard some names. Ovechkin? Is he on your team?"

Rafe laughed and shook his head. "No. Ovie is usually doing his best to kill me."

Her eyes widened at his words. "Are you kidding?"

Shrugging, Rafe eyed her as he lifted his beer bottle to his lips. "Not really. I’m the team captain.”

"And the players on other teams try to kill you?"

"Figuratively speaking."

"Sounds intense." Y/N sounded like she was perhaps teasing him a little bit, but he didn't mind.

"It is.” Rafe agreed, no small note of pride in his voice.

She smiled. "I'd love to see a game one day. My friend follows some teams and talks about it sometimes."

"Maybe you should come for a game sometime."

"Yeah, right." Y/N settled back in her seat with a laugh. "In between school and all?"

"Sure."

Y/N narrowed her eyes at him, but her full lips were still curved upward at the corners in a playful smile. Rafe couldn't believe how she was turning him on with just a look. He was going to have a difficult time getting up without embarrassing himself; and by difficult, he meant hard.

"If I got you tickets to a game, would you come?" He blurted, before she said anything else.

Her eyes widened a fraction and her smile changed. "There’s a loaded question if I've ever heard one." Y/N paused while Rafe tried to think of something clever to say in response. She leaned forward and rested her forearms on the table. "What exactly are you offering?"

"Are you going to make me say it out loud?" Rafe managed to ask, not surprised when his voice came out sounding a little rougher than usual.

Y/N grinned and Rafe slipped out of the booth before he could overthink it. He moved to her side and held one hand out towards her. "You want to get out of here?"

She looked surprised as he moved, but the smile never left her face. Reaching out, she laid her smaller hand in his and he was about to help her to her feet when someone appeared at his elbow. Several someones, in fact.

"Rafe!" Jordan exclaimed. "Are you harassing this woman?"

Rafe stiffened and offered an apologetic look to Y/N before letting her hand go and turning around. Jordan stood there with Brent, Sebastian and Derek, as well as the two women, Y/N’s friends.

"Hey, Jordan." Rafe struggled to keep his voice even.

"Y/N, move over so we can all sit.” The blonde said, waving a hand in Y/N’s direction.

Rafe took note of the look on Y/N’s face and before anyone else could make things worse, he slipped into the seat beside her. Her eyes widened and she smiled weakly at him as they slid all the way over. Jordan sat down, somehow managing to turn and hold the blonde woman practically in his lap.

Across from them, Brent offered the inside seat to the brunette woman before sitting down and leaving Sebastian and Derek to decide who got to sit and who had to stand at the end of the table. Introductions were made all around and Rafe learned that the blonde was Maria, the birthday girl, and the short brunette was Lindsay, Y/N’s roommate.

Conversation was awkward for a moment and then Jordan said something that made everyone laugh. As everyone relaxed, Rafe turned his face to Y/N, squished against the wall.

"Are you alright?" Rafe asked, feeling terrible for all but pinning her beside him.

Y/N looked flustered, but nodded to his question. Rafe didn't quite believe her. Their legs were pressed together from hip to knee and, even though she was half-turned to face the table, she looked uncomfortable.

"Can I suggest a way to make us both more comfortable?" Rafe asked quietly.

Y/N offered him a smile and he grinned back. Shifting, he slid an arm behind her shoulders and reached for her leg with his other hand. Carefully, keeping his eyes on her face the entire time, he curled his fingers under her thigh and lifted her leg until it rested over the end of his knee. She sucked in a surprised breath and Rafe choked back an appreciative sound when her lips parted.

"Better?" Rafe asked in a low voice. As he spoke, he trailed his hand over her denim-clad thigh and winked when she stared at the touch.

"Oh, yes.” Y/N murmured, not looking away from his eyes.

Rafe wasn't sure how long they sat there, staring silently at each other, but Jordan’s harsh voice broke into their moment.

"Cameron." Jordan leaned forward until Rafe turned away from Y/N.

"Yeah?"

"You guys want a drink?"

Rafe glanced back down at Y/N. "What are you drinking?"

She gave a breathless little laugh and shook her head. "I think I'm done drinking for tonight."

"Nothing for us, man.” Rafe told his teammate. “Why aren't you drinking anymore?" He asked Y/N as conversation rose around them again.

She lifted one shoulder and her eyes widened in surprise when she felt the warmth of his touch there as well. "I like to be… sober when I go home at the end of the night."

Her hesitant words made Rafe wonder if she'd had some bad drinking experiences already. "Have there been times when you haven't gone home sober?"

"Plenty of times.” Y/N replied with a laugh. "And don't tell me the same thing hasn't happened to you.”

"Sure, when I was younger and before I reached the NHL.” He confessed with a grin. "I'm like you now; I like to know who I'm going home with."

Her jaw dropped as his implication sunk in. Her mouth worked soundlessly for a moment, as if she was trying to speak but couldn't find the words. Rafe flexed his fingers where they were resting on her thigh and was rewarded with a shiver from her.

"I didn't say that.” She managed at last.

"I know, but I did."

For another long moment, they stared at each other. Rafe was dimly aware of his hand stroking her thigh, going down to her knee and back up again, stopping just short of being vulgar. Her body was warm tucked up against him like she was and he shifted, wanting to feel more.

The rest of the bar faded into the background as they continued to look at each other. Rafe watched her eyes flicker back and forth across his face and he watched the way she nervously chewed on her lip or ran her tongue along the corners of her mouth. The way he was feeling at the moment, he'd embarrass them both by kissing her.

"How much longer do we have to stay here?" Rafe asked, no longer caring if he sounded too forward or eager.

"How long will it take you to get us out of this booth?" She replied.

Rafe laughed, closing his hand around hers and tugging her away from the table. The two paused near the door so they could both pull on their jackets. Then, he held the door open for her and hailed a taxi on the street outside.

Once in the back of the taxi, the driver turned to glance at them over his shoulder. "Where to?"

Rafe glanced down at Y/N, who just stared back at him. He smiled and she was dazzled by his handsome face, yet again. "Would you want to go to your place?"

Y/N blinked, taking a moment to absorb his words. "Uh, I'm not allowed to have guys in my dorm room." She looked away in embarrassment. "And I wouldn't do that to my roommate. We promised each other a long time ago to never bring guys back to our room."

She risked a glance up at Rafe and was surprised to see his understanding nod. He turned to the driver and gave him directions to another address. "Then I hope you don't mind coming with me to my place."

"Not at all.” Y/N murmured and watched him from the corner of her eye as Rafe settled against the back seat.

Y/N was still reeling from meeting this man. He'd appeared at her table in that crowded bar as if from thin air. Now, she was going home with some strange man for yet another one night stand and she didn't even have the exam-in-the-morning excuse.

Rafe was looking at her, a sexy, lop-sided smile curving his wide mouth. Her attraction to him had been immediate. She itched to run her fingers through his locks and push it back from where it fell across his forehead. His eyes, now shadowed by the dark interior of the taxi, were a brilliant blue color and they absolutely sparkled when he smiled at her.

"Where are you from?" The thought sprang to her lips before she could stop it.

His eyebrows lifted. "You really don't know who I am?”

Y/N shook her head. "I already told you I don't follow the NHL. I have some memories of watching with my dad when I was a kid, but nothing since I was eight."

Rafe chuckled. "Well, I've only been in the NHL for four years. I actually grew up here in Hickory, North Carolina.”

"How old are you?" Y/N was unable to keep her curiosity in check. He looked older than her, that much was obvious, but he had one of those faces that looked mature. She guessed he might be about twenty-four or twenty-five.

"I'm twenty-four. How old are you?"

Y/N exhaled, figuring it was fair. "I'm twenty-one. I'll be twenty-two in a couple months."

Rafe didn't say anything, just nodded and kept smiling at her. His focus on her was disconcerting and she tried to dismiss it as his nature. As he continued to study her, he leaned forward and slipped an arm behind her shoulders.

Y/N told herself not to tense up and relaxed against his side when he gave her a gentle tug. He brushed his fingers along the line of her jaw. She shivered, entranced by his blue eyes.

"I really want to kiss you.” Rafe whispered in a husky voice.

His unabashed confession made Y/N smile and she tipped her chin up in silent invitation.

"You would let me? Here?"

Blushing, Y/N lowered her eyes and glanced towards the driver. He was oblivious, humming along with the radio and tapping his fingers on the steering wheel.

“I don't think he'd mind.” She replied, surprising herself with her words.

Rafe grinned and his face lowered. Y/N held her breath in anticipation, her body warming with each passing second. Then his lips were on hers and she let her eyes slide shut. For a long moment, he just held his lips against her mouth, not pressing for more.

They parted for a second and Y/N blinked her eyes open as she drew in a breath. Rafe muttered something she didn't catch and moved his hand to cup the back of her head. He kissed her again, harder this time, his tongue pressing against the seam of her lips, asking for entrance. She didn't protest. She parted her lips as she lifted her hands to clutch his arms.

Rafe tilted her head back and thrust his tongue into her mouth. He tasted faintly of beer and his masculine scent flooded her senses. His kiss was skilled and she made a small sound that didn't register in her brain until later, when he was easing away from her.

He grinned as he stroked his thumb down her cheek and she managed a weak smile in response. "I really want to kiss you again.”

Y/N let out a breathless laugh and nodded. "I won't fight you."

Rafe leaned in and kissed her again. She sagged against him this time, clenching her hands into fists where she clutched his jacket. His hand moved around to hold her waist as he plunged his tongue into her mouth.

Holy shit. Y/N’s never met a guy who could kiss like this. She wasn't sure how long they made out in that taxi, but at some point, the driver gave a discreet cough and Rafe pulled back. They were both breathing hard and Y/N could already feel the tenderness in her lips.

"I think this is it.” The driver said and gestured with one hand to their right.

There was a large apartment building and Rafe leaned forward to check. He agreed and released Y/N so he could pull his wallet out to pay the driver. Then, he got out and held a hand down to help her to her feet.

Y/N didn't consider herself the type of woman to go home with a man she'd just met. She'd done it a few times in her past, she couldn't deny that; three times, in fact. Now, she was about to do it for the fourth time.

-

TAGLIST: @lovedetlost @valeriiecameron @outerbankspov @ailee-celeste @adventuresinobx @illicitfixations @pankowperfection @blueicequeen19 @maybankslover @penny4yourthoughts @variety-fangirl @fangirlwithlou @thecameronchronicles @lafantasiaworld @laineywilsons @glutenfreepeach @drewsuncrustables @dreamingwithrafe @mvybanks @obaex @mannstarkey @rafecluver @softcoremaybank

[txttletale]

I feel like a lot of people miss that the likeliest use cases for ai artwork (corporate illustrations, eye-catches for shitty mobile game, amazon book covers, etc) are already effectively algorithmically generated anyway - a human being still makes them, but the demand is set purely by capital and the specifics by the brownian motion of the marketplace, with no pairs of eyes involved especially caring as long as its occupying the place in which art is expected. I think people get caught up enough in a noticeable acceleration of commodified art that they mistake it for a whole new phenomenon.

absolutely 100%. i always come back to a very astute thing podcaster riley quinn said which is "if your job gets replaced by AI that means it was already being done by an AI" (ie, mindlessly and formulaicly)

[pigeonpeach]

How they would handle a drunk spouse

Warning! ALCOHOL!

Characters: Jean, Diluc, Dehya, Eula, Arlecchino, Navia, Shenhe

A/n: this is a draft that i just fixed up to post. I promise jean x reader will not be forgotten

Cw: fluff, alcoholism. No warnings aside from alcohol!

Jean

She knew Kaeya was a bad influence! Its not entirely his fault but she doesn’t have time to care about your mistake here. You can try to sweet talk her or be all cuddly but shes not holding back on you! You should’ve known better than to get this drunk if you didn’t want to make her worried sick! She goes into overdrive caring for you though. A bucket and water telling you to drink every drop. You aren’t going to bed until she’s sure you feel better because she doesn’t want to wake up to vomit everywhere. Also because you could choke on your own vomit. Its also to help lessen the hangover. Mondstadt is the drinking capital in Teyvat though so there’s definitely more tips she knows just by living there. Despite her being s but mean it does help when you are hungover and less dehydrated than you would’ve been. She made sure to leave you some painkillers and medication for you on the nightstand.

Diluc

“I told you so” kind guy. He’s probably a bit annoyed but that doesn’t mean he isn’t going to help. Although he can’t help but find it a little bit amusing the state you’re in. Just giggling and mumbling words. Its kind of cute. Unlike Jean his anger and annoyance lessens the more cuddly you get. His heart melting at the fact that you still seek him out in this inebriated state of yours. He’ll fix you something to sober you up real quick and hold your hair if you vomit. If you have to take a bath he will be there to make sure you don’t drown. Since he is a bartender he has the best knowledge of how to handle hangovers. Next time however you should be careful

Eula

She probably was drinking with you to be honest. But her liver is far stronger than you thought! Seeing you drunk out of your mind she will stop drinking for the night and take you home instead. A gentle bridal style while she takes caution to not upset your tummy. She gets you plenty of water to help sober you up for bed time. You will just have to go along with her word, she isnt entertaining any arguments or resistance from you now! She changes you out of your clothes, ties up your hair, etc. She makes sure you’re nice and cozy for the night before she takes care of herself.

Dehya

She can’t help but find it amusing watching you stumble about. She asks Lambad for some water but she holds it to you so you won’t drop it. She teases you about being a lightweight. But she isn’t finished drinking yet so just hold on! Once you fall over and pass out though she ditches that plan and instead carries you home. A bit difficult considering she too is tipsy but it helps that she’s strong and not nearly as drunk. Nonetheless she tucks you in and sleeps right next to you, making sure you’re pressed up against her so you can be nice and warm.

Arlecchino

She knew you would be a light weight. Just one shot of firewater and you’re out like a light, your head on her thigh as she was reading something. You seem too peaceful to move so she simply lets you stay there. Her hand rummaging through your hair every so often. Occasionally she glances to see your face and smiles. You’re cute like this. Next time she’ll make sure to dilute the firewater properly so she an enjoy your drunken state a little more.

Shenhe

She’s not sure what to do with you actually. Worried that you’ve hit your head she brings you to Bubu pharmacy, to which Baizhu has to explain the difference between a head injury and alcohol. But he sends her off with a few pain meds for you in the morning. She heeds his instructions well. Helping you settle in for a nice rest to sleep it off. She might have gone overboard though because she overdoes it with the blankets and water. But its still appreciated when you wake up with the worst hangover.

Beidou

You crash together. You fall asleep first, in her arms as she eventually falls asleep too , holding you close to her. Both drunk out of your minds you two end up asleep using a tarp as a blanket on the deck of the crux. The crew still mulling and celebrating their most recent success. The crew ends up having to lift you two back to your beds together because even unconscious would Beidou not let go of you. When you wake up she’s far better off than you as she teases you endlessly. Needless to say you two will be chugging water from here on out. At least until the next celebration. Lucky for you she keeps a stash of painkillers for her crew for this specific occasion.

Navia

A relentless teaser! How horrible! She ends up giggling watching you stumble and stutter. She can’t help it! You’re such a silly bean! Once you get sleepy is when she brings you home to rest. With her guards doing the heavy lifting of course. But she’ll do the bathing or changing herself with them casted out of the room. Afterwards she prepares herself for bed, snuggling against you.

In the morning she’ll make her guards get you painkillers and water.

[morallyinept]

hi can you recommend the best way to break into the fanfic world on here? i'm new, yay, and don't know how the tagging system or anything works

thank you in advance!!

Hello Lovely Non! 🖤

Oooh! Exciting!! YAY! 🎉🎉 Firstly, welcome, welcome. How wonderful it is that you wanna write and share something with us all, that's so cool! ✨️

Look, Dieter's excited too!

I suppose the best way to break in, is to take the leap. I know, groundbreaking advice Jett, right? Hehe! 😆

From experience, these are all things I've learnt and had guidance on myself during my time on wacky Tumblr, so here are my pearls of wisdom for ya...

So you've written the fic. WOO! 🎉 Now what? Well, firstly, have a treat. Some cake or vodka, or both. You've earned it. 🍰

Then, when you're no longer hungover and throwing up cake, do these things:

And make yourself a banging banner of some kind, or use a picture/GIF. I'm personally more likely to be drawn to a fic to read if there's a cool banner, or you've made a mood board or have a GIF. Kinda sets the tone, you know? We love a bit of the ol' aesthetic. Like a bookcover, we're immediately drawn in with our eyes. Be creative, go nuts. Use the free trial of Canva to go design crazy.

Check it through for grammar and spelling as much as you can.

You can always have someone beta read it for you. And look at your formatting to ensure you don't have massive spaces between your paragraphs etc... When I copy and paste into Tumblr, it screws up the formatting from Google docs, just to test my already thin thread of patience further, no doubt... 😑 It's not a massive deal, but I guess presentation is a hook in itself, right?

Beware of glitches when saving your drafts on Tumblr too. The app especially loves to auto-post it when you hit save, 🤬 so double check you're saving it in draft, not in post, before you're ready to post it to the world.

Everyone has their owns tastes and comforts when reading fic, and quite rightly so. Variety is the spice of life. 🌶 And look, you'll NEVER please everyone. So don't even try. But what is important is that you give the reader a choice to read it or not.

⚠️🚫🔞👉🏻👌🏻 Ensure you list any trigger warnings.

Look, there's this age old debate that continually surfaces on whether we should list every single trigger or warning in our fic, or should we just... not? 🤔

The simple answer is, it's up to you, ultimately. Not everyone does this or feels the need to do this. I mean, published books don't, right?

HOWEVERRRRR. And it's a capital letter however. There are so many people who won't want to read stories about certain topics. Age Gap, Anal, Noncon etc...

Kinda looks like a sandwich to me... I'm hungry 🥪

I personally won't release a fic without listing all the triggers as I don't want any of my readers to encounter something that could be triggering for them later on. Yes, to some degree it can give away "spoilers" but it's up to you as the writer ultimately about how much you want to give away. If you fic contains Age Gap, you can simply write "Age Gap."

Use the Read More/Keep Reading divider.

It looks like this on the app:

Some people write a paragraph or two before they place it on, others hide the whole fic and just leave the intro/warnings etc... on show. How you do it is up to you, but please, please use it!

Nobody likes to scroll through a whole chapter of 10k+ words trying to get to the next post... nobody. Cue ranty Anons in your mailbox if you don't. We've all been there and made that mistake. 😬

Plus, using this will also hide any explicit or triggering content from immediate view. People more than likely won't read your fic if you don't have one of these on it.

# Tagging

Tagging - to tag or not to tag?

Tagging is a massive topic, but essentially it boils down to two types of tagging.

Tagging using a # which is at the bottom of each of your posts, and tagging people in your posts by using the @ and then their username.

So say, for example, you've written a Joel Miller fic.

Oh, hey Joel... we're talking about you handsome, not to you.

You can tag it "joel miller" or "joel miller tlou" or "joel miller x reader" etc... People can follow the tag, so they'll see your work in it if they're following it.

If you search the tag on Tumblr it'll tell you how many people are following that tag too, so you'll know which ones are more popular and will be seen by the most eyes.

Currently (as of writing this response) the 'Joel Miller' tag has 225k followers! 👀 So if you write a Joel Miller fic, you deffo want one of your first 5 tags to be that one!

Someone's popular, eh Joel?

@ Tagging

He loves it really.

☝🏻Note that the first 5 tags you use are the ones that Tumblr actually uses to make your fic show up in those tags too. You can put up to 30 tags on a fic and yet Tumblr only counts the first 5. Dumb, I know. 🤦🏻‍♀️ The rest is just for your own use to find it again on your blog.

If you search your own blog using "Joel Miller" everything you've ever posted with Joel Miller will come up. So you can use your own tags or words for yourself too. I use "Jett's fic recs" for example, when I re-blog someone's fic so I can find it again.

⚠️ And you can use tags to highlight triggers too, for example you can write "tw blood" for a blood warning. (tw = trigger warning) People can block tags so certain things don't show up in their feed as a way of shielding themselves from content they don't want to see/read. So if I've blocked "tw blood" I won't ever see your fic, even with all the other tags you use.

So be mindful of how you tag, not only for yourself, but for others too.

And essentially tags are how some people choose to comment and interact with you. Some people write mini fics in the tags! It's really quite fun. Just remember, there's a limit of 30 tags per post and put your best 5 first.

You can also tag users! You can offer up a tag list to users who you think might be interested in reading your fic (feel free to tag me, I'd love to read it!) A lot of writers have a bunch of regular readers who they'll tag @ username on their works. They're called tag lists. Readers may reach out to you to ask to be tagged too.

There's no shame in hyping your own work - you wrote it, be proud of it! 🙌🏻

Others choose not to do this and instead create a side blog for notifications of their works. It's up to you how you choose to do this, but if you tag specific people, chances are they're going to read your work because they want to.

You can tag up to 50 users on a single post, I believe. (Or at least it's 50 users and 50 links when I do my fic rec lists) I think it varies if you're on app or desktop. Someone will correct me if I'm wrong... but there is deffo a limit.

Reblog your own work for time zones.

So, I'm in the UK and the majority of my followers are in the USA, so when I'm in bed snoozing away, they're awake and reading smut at work.... 😏 So I'll schedule my fic to release at various points in the day and night so everyone can see it on their feed.

Keep it circling too, I'll go back and re-blog older works when more people follow me so they don't miss out. And as a writer, you'll want people to love your older works as much as the new.

And finally, some basic etiquette...

Please don't be disheartened if your fic doesn't get the traction you want right away.

It does not mean that your writing isn't good. We all started in the fandom with 0 followers and 0 reblogs. Its important to remember to write, first and foremost, for your own enjoyment. The right people will find you and love your work, it just takes a bit of time.

You can jazz your fic up with dividers and GIFs. Just ensure you give credit by @ tagging the person who made the divider you're using, if you choose to use one, and use the GIF search function on Tumblr for your GIFs, as they auto tag and credit the creator of the GIF for you. And that way, everyone stays happy. ✌🏻

And finally...

Interact with your comments and reblogs. People took the time to read your work, even just a simple thank you back is always appreciated and well received.

Re-blog, re-blog, re-blog what you love!

The like button is for bookmarking only. It does absolutely nothing to make posts get seen like it does on other socials. Re-blogging is what gets yours and others work seen and put on people's feeds on Tumblr. If you want people to re-blog your own work, you'll need to give back and re-blog theirs too. Tumblr is all about sharing in the form of re-blogs.

Love you! 🖤

✨️HAVE FUN!✨️

I'm so excited you're here and can't wait to read your fics! 🤗

Apologies if any of this you may already know, I just wanted to share what I've learnt in abundance.

And if you have further questions, feel free to reach out. I'm no expert, but I'll try and help if I can.

And if anyone else has any tips/hints/advice etc... feel free to share in the comments.

[yourtongzhihazel]

modern conceptions of politics, especially in western liberal democracies exist in an extremely limited and extremely abstract framework which fails to adequately model or explain real material political-economy. The reason for this is simple: these models are not constructed based on scientific, materialist methods and real-world observations, but rather through ideas and concepts in an abstract world which is then brought down and plastered over a materialist world.

The classic "left-right" dichotomy commonly used today in political discussion has its origins in revolutionary france, where supporters of the new liberal order sat on the left of the assembly and supporters of the feudal order sat on the right. Today, this left-right dichotomy has taken on many different variations in definitions. Some say it compares groups which seek a bigger versus a smaller state. This interpretation, however, fails to model when the right wing advocates fore larger police and military, while the left does the opposite. Perhaps we mean something a little more concrete: more state intervention versus less state intervention. Yet this interpretation fails to explain when the right advocates for more state intervention in foreign policy or when fascists use the state to stabilize capitalist economies in crisis using the state. At the same time, it doesn't account for anarchists who wish to do away with the state entirely (more on this later). Liberal political science attempts to fix these contradictions by adding more axes, creating the popular "2-axis model". However, this model is equally as abstract and equally as useless as a model for political economy.

The 2-axis model adds the "libertarian-authoritarian" axis in order to attempt to rectify the simplicity of the left-right model. From the get-go, we can see it is already coated in liberal ideology, constructed in the abstract. The vague definitions of "authoritarian" fails to account for the fact that to do anything of meaning in the real world requires some level of authority, but I digress for now. One can easily dispel this model by simply pointing out that the "right-libertarian" quadrant, which advocates for the ability to own slaves and for privatized statehood, sits on the same side as proper anarchists, who advocate for the exact opposite. Similarly, principled communists, asked to take the "test" which accompanied this model, will solidly score in the "left-libertarian" quadrant. Here, many make the mistake of coming to the conclusion that the state socialists and the anarchists must have the same goals but different methods. This is only partially true. The truth is, the anarchist ideological framework is profoundly different from and antithetical to a Marxist framework, yielding important ideological differences which simply cannot be shown nor explained by the 2-axis model (more on this later as well).

The solution to these infantile models is not that they don't have enough complexity which adding more axes will surely solve. No! The solution is to build models of political-economy from a materialist and scientific observation of the world. You and all other people are material beings living in a material world. You have material needs, i.e. food, water, shelter, etc., which need to be addressed. Thus, society is organized around the productive forces which exist to satisfy these material needs. The productive forces within a society constitutes its mode of production; from primitive communism, to slave society, to feudalism, to capitalism, and beyond. A society's mode of production goes on to shape the ideas of that society which reinforce that particular mode of production. Therefore, ideology arises from the needs of satisfying material needs. In primitive communism, where there are no classes since every member of that society relies on each other for their continued survival, individualist ideology has no chance of flourishing because should you get to keep all your hunting and gathering to "punish the lazy and reward the producer", you may be well fed today and those "lazy people" will starve, but come a day where you miss a hunt or gather nothing, you will also come to pass and your ideology will pass with you. This is an example of how a society's mode of production reinforces its ideology, in this case, egalitarianism.

However, we do not live in primitive communism; we live in a class society. Classes exist in society as different groups of people who share their relationship to the means of production and share their material interests and arise as the productive forces of a society advances beyond that of the previous mode of production. Classes have distinct needs which sometimes run in conflict with the interests of other classes. As a society transitions between mods of production, the rising class prevails over the falling the class and takes the reign of political-economic power. In feudalism, the dying aristocratic and lord classes gave way in favor of the bourgeoisie as a class (of course, elements of feudalism such as monarchies and lords still exist in our modern society but the primary reigns of government, especially in bourgeoisie constructed liberal democracies lie in the hands of the bourgeoisie). Our modern world is society based on the capitalist mode of production with two main classes: the proletariat and the bourgeoisie; the former, which owns no means of production, and the latter who owns the means of production. These two classes exist in conflict with each other as each class has its own material needs. The proletariat aims to work as little as possible for as much compensation as possible. The bourgeoisie aims to extract as much labor as possible for as little compensation as possible from the proletarians. These interests are diametrically opposed to each other and can only be resolved through class warfare. The bourgeoisie employs the tools and institutions of the bourgeois state, which they constructed in the transition from feudalism to capitalism, and the proletarians engage in struggle via. strikes, unionization, boycott, and etc.. To justify these respective actions, the bourgeoisie has their own ideology, liberalism, and the proletarians have theirs as well, socialism. Bourgeoisie ideology, liberalism, has the enshrining of property rights as its foundational fact. From this, stems all other appendages of liberal ideology such as "universal rights and freedoms" and individualism (put a pin in this one). Proletarian ideology, socialism, has public ownership as its foundational fact. From here, all other branches of socialism stem.

From these classes in conflict, we can zoom in and see variations among them and in ideology to conform to their sub-class's material interests. Those of the national bourgeoisie stand to gain from tariffs and protectionism and push for these policies, while those of finance capital, who stand to gain from imperialism stand against them. Despite this, again, their primary condition of maintaining private property remain. Similarly, differing material needs within the proletariat lead to differing ideological trends within it. Those workers who are well paid and stand to gain from having a larger slice of the settler-colonial, imperialist pie will flock to bourgeois parliamentarism in order to achieve more concessions from the bourgeoisie, rather than seek total liberation of the proletariat. On the other hand, those who are brutalized by the those same systems both at home and abroad flock to the ideology of liberation: scientific socialism. From this material basis of ideology, we can see that a rudimentary form of "left-right" short-handing can be drawn: the left favors the ascending class, while the right favors the declining class. However, that is as far as the usefulness of "left vs right" extend.

Discussion on anarchism below the cut.

There are many commentators who ascribe to certain ideologies the descriptor of "more-left", "more-right", etc.. (including myself!). But this is not a strictly coherent model with rigid definitions. Indeed, when interrogating this line of thinking, it is hard, if not impossible, to settle on a definition of "left" versus "right". This is part of the problem laid out and explained previously. Part of its incoherence is its abstract nature; that it presumes that there is an infinite plane of ideology that has something more left of communism and then something more left than that. How is left-rightedness determined? Also entirely abstract. In the anarchist case, they ground their definition on equality vs hierarchy. However, as we shall see, this is shaky ground at best to build their framework on and indeed, we shall also see that its ideological roots are deeply intertwined with liberalism and all its ills.

The anarchist framework of analysis is immaterial and undialectical, in fact historically, they have discarded and reviled the scientific methodology laid out by Marx, Engels, and others, instead choosing to take up analysis rooted deeply in liberalism. Correspondingly, anarchism is a deeply individualistic ideology. We can see this through the anarchist view on "hierarchy" as a major ill against socialism. The concept of "hierarchy" is an abstract concept which is built, not on how people relate to the means of production, but rather of people's relation to each other through idealistic means of authority and power (of course, these things have materialist roots which is why we can point out how these structures exist in society, however, they do not exist as distinct subjects in a vacuum but are rather byproducts of class relations). Thus, the anarchist outlook is the liberation of the individual in order to liberate the masses, a fundamentally different outlook to the Marxists, who's motto is the liberation of the masses for the individual (put a pin in this too).

Anarchism also employs a moralistic outlook which is divorced from material reality. Is something "good" or "bad"? Is it unjust? These are the questions which concerns anarchism. Hierarchy is bad; authority is bad; the socialist revolution is good and therefore it will happen (favoring spontaneity over mass planning and organizing). However, dialectics tells us this is a fundamentally idealistic way of thinking. Capitalism is "good" in so far as it moves human society past feudalism but "bad" in so far as it now holds back socialism; the 8 hour work day is "good" in so far as it gives relief to the working class but "bad" in that it strengthens wage labor. Everything in life is ever changing and composed of forces in contradiction with each other and whose resolution moves the world forward thus we cannot then fully discard nor fully adopt something but rather have to support the "good" aspects and reject the "bad".

One of the greatest differences between the anarchist and Marxist framework of analysis is of class, or rather, the lack of class analysis in anarchism. Because of anarchism's individualist and liberal roots, it does not analyze society with a class analysis based on material needs. Instead, it relies largely on individual action rather than class action to achieve its goals. Thus, though it empowers the individual anarchist to employ direct action, it can lead to dangerous adventurism. It encourages mutual aid and other horizontal power structures but which lacks coherence in organizational power and fails to be effective in larger scales. It is deeply ironic for anarchism to put such weight on individual action which then burdens it with its reliance on spontaneity as its primary organizational force.

All of these positions (and more) point to the anarchist framework as outwardly socialist but inwardly liberal and which feeds into the primary point of contention between Marxists and anarchists: the state. By applying the moniker of "hierarchy" and "authority" onto every state which ignores the material differences and qualities of a state, the anarchist automatically discards the greatest tool of class warfare. Indeed, this reluctance to use tactics branded as "hierarchical", "unjust", "authoritarian" contributes to its certain failure at the hands of a counter-revolutionary force which has no qualms about the employment of the tool of state.

So why is it that anarchism is so popular in the west and so rare in the global south and among poc? There's many factors to this answer, all of them rooted in material conditions and ideological superstructure. The west, as the seat of imperialist capitalist power, has enforced hundreds of years of bourgeois ideology on its masses. As a result, its entire political ecosystem is dominated almost entirely by liberalism. Thus, those living in the west cannot help but be shaped by their political-economic conditions into adopting liberalism in some shape or form. Despite the prevalence of bourgeois ideology, people know that there's something wrong with the capitalist mode of production because liberals can say "things are great", "society is improving" all they want, but it doesn't change the fact that people go hungry and homeless. So what happens? You have people, workers or even petite bourgeois, who see their social being shaped by their material conditions, yet which still hold onto the liberal superstructure. Thus to resolve this contradiction, they have formed or joined the ideology which best fits their political-economy as a mix of socialism and liberalism: anarchism. This is not helped by the utter lack of class consciousness and working class organization in the west. As Lenin noted in 1901, "anarchism is the product of despair".

SN:AZ45

AN: As long as this post it, I think it probably goes without saying that I have left out a lot and jumped around in spots. For example, covering what dialectical and historical materialism should merit its own explainer. This is not an attack on individual anarchists, of whom I've had plenty of great organizational experience with; it is solely an attack on the ideological foundations of anarchism and its incompatibility with Marxism.

[a-really-bad-decision]

I don’t really give two wet farts in a hurricane about the fallout show or what it means for new vegas and west coast lore, but I do largely agree that bethesda deciding to nuke shady sands is indicative of their lazy writing habits and inability to engage with the structural critiques found in the source material. And I don't really think "well the ncr was close to collapsing anyways" is a valid answer to that criticism either.

Like. Fundamentally I don’t have any issues with the ncr being in shambles. Maybe the timeline is a bit more accelerated than I’d like, but we all know the ncr was already in trouble when we saw it in new vegas. They were corrupt (both abroad and at home), overextended, teetering on bankruptcy, and facing a food shortage in the coming decades. Not only was the writing on the wall, but the ncr as a faction was a blatant, textual reflection of america, both in universe and out: it's innate imperialist tendencies, it's unceasing, unsustainable consumption of natural resources, the problems inherent in viewing itself as a "civilizing force", etc. etc. etc. And I think for those criticisms to have any bite, the ncr needs to fall, (or change, or course correct). Otherwise, it goes against the entire thesis that new vegas was putting forth about retreading the mistakes of the old world. The game isn't subtle about this, and replaying it in 2024 really only drives those points home further.

But the show didn't do that. It didn't engage in any of what new vegas was trying to say with the ncr's storyline. And it wasn't like there were no satisfactory ways they could have explored the ncr's weakening or collapse either. Hell, in an ideal world, they'd have even gone about it realistically, and acknowledged that the fall of a nation is rarely due to any one problem, but rather a myriad of factors slowly gumming up the mechanisms in tandem until the system can no longer sustain itself.

Instead, they decided to nuke the capital of the ncr and call it a day, because... well I can't say for sure. I wasn't in the writer's room.

Maybe it's because the ncr’s problems are an intentional mirror of America’s problems, and bethesda as a company isn’t willing to engage with that at the risk of alienating the viewers and/or shareholders. Maybe they thought a realistic exploration of the ncr's shortcomings would be boring, compared the flash of nuclear destruction. Maybe they just genuinely thought it was an interesting way to dispose of the faction.

But I think claiming that anyone who take issue with how the show handled the ncr are frothing new vegas apologists who're unable to handle the changes being made to their precious, perfect, canon is kinda disingenuous. Change is inevitable - that's a rather important theme the game touches on. But if bethesda is going to make those changes, they should actually put some thought into what the original lore was saying, and how the changes they're implementing improve or comment on it, that's all.

[i-am-dulaman]

petition for that long rant on revolutions here, i really enjoyed the way you laid out your facts and explained the first rant and am not too good at reading theory myself (i am still trying tho) thanks!!

Okay okay so the problem with revolutions is they get messy. Real messy. You get counter-revolutionaries, moderates, extremists, loyalists, and everything in between. One revolution turns into 5, and even if your side wins, its almost guaranteed to have been tainted some way or another along the way.

Take the first french revolution. It started as civil unrest, the estates general initially called for reform of the french state into a constitutional monarchy similar to Britain. Even king louis XVI was in support of this. But extremists wanting a republic and counter-revolutionaries wanting absolute monarchy clashed and things became more and more chaotic and violent. Eventually the extremists won, the jacobin reign of terror ensued, and 10s of thousands of people were executed. Now don't get me wrong, i am all for executing monarchs and feudal lords, but look what happened a few years later; Napoleon used the political instability to declare himself emperor, a few more years later his empire had crumbled, and the monarchy was back with Louis XVIII.

Or take the 1979 iranian revolution. It started as protests against pahlavi, who was an authoritarian head of state and an American pawn. As the protests turned into civil resistance and guerilla warfare it took on many different forms. There were secularists vs islamic extremists. There were democrats vs theocrats vs monarchists. Etc. Through all the chaos, Khomeini seized power, held a fake referendum, and declared himself supreme leader and enforced many strict laws, particularly on women who previously had close to equal rights. Many of the millions of women involved in the revolution later said they felt bettayed by the end result.

Or the Russian Revolution. It started as protests, military strikes, and civil unrest during WW1 directed at the tsar. He stepped down in 1917 and handed power over to the Duma, the russian parliament. This new provisionary government initially had the support of soviet councils, including socialist groups like the menshiviks. But they made the major mistake of deciding to continue the war. Lenins bolsheviks were originally a very tiny group on the fringes of russian politics, but they were the loudest supporters of peace, so they gained support and organised militias into an army and thus began the russian civil war. Lenin won and followed through on his promise to end the war against germany, but its a bit ironic that they fought a civil war, that killed about 10 million people, just to end another war.

Im not saying any of these results were either bad or good. They all have nuance and its all subjective. But the point i am trying to make is that they get messy. The initial goals will always be twisted.

France wanted a constitutional monarchy, they got an autocratic emporer.

Iran wanted democracy and an end to American influence, and well they ended american influence alright but also got a totalitarian theocrat.

Russia wanted an end to world war 1 and got one of the bloodiest civil wars in history.

I cant think of a single revolution in history that achieved the goals it set out to achieve.

But again, im not saying this is necessarily a bad thing, just a warning against revolutionary rhetoric and criticisms of reformism. Sometimes revolution is the only option, when you're faced with an authoritarian government diametrically opposed to change, then a revolution may be worth the risk. But it is a risk.

But if you live in a democracy, claiming revolution is the only way is actively choosing both bloodshed and the risk of things going horribly wrong over the choice of peaceful reform.

So when i go online in some leftist spaces and see people claiming revolution in America or UK or wherever is the only way out of capitalism I cant help but feel angry.

I know our democracy is flawed, and reform is slow and can even go backwards, but we owe it to all the people who would die in a revolution to try reform first.

I know socialist reform is especially hard in our flawed democracy where capitalists own the media, but if we can't convince enough people to vote for socialist reform what hope do we have of convincing enough people to join a socialist revolution. Socialism is supposed to be for the people, but how can you claim your revolution is for the people if you can't even get the support of the people?

So what I'm trying to say is; if youre one of those leftists that are sitting around waiting for the glorious revolution, doing nothing but posting rhetoric online - at least try doing something else while you wait. Join your labour union, recruit your coworkers, get involved in your local socialist parties, call your local representatives (city council, senator, governor, member of parliament, whatever) and make your opinions known, push them further left, and keep pushing.

[trashmoutth]

When I see you again (Fred Weasley x Reader)

PARTS 1. 2. female!reader, Gryffindor!reader Summary: It takes place during the Second Wizarding War, months after Bill and Fleur’s wedding. Reader is on the run after her family has been caught by the Snatchers. Loosely following cannon. Pairing: Fred Weasley x reader (mentioned) Characters: Dean Thomas, Fred Weasley (mentioned),George Weasley (mentioned), Ted Tonks (mentioned), Dirk Cresswell (mentioned) Warnings: war, mentions of death, angst, swearing, english is not my first language so there might be grammatical mistakes, capital letters, etc.

—

During the next couple of days there was a strange feeling of excitement in the air. For the first time in a while, you felt like there was something to hope for, like you had a goal. The sudden burst of adrenaline in your veins had you wandering around this old house of yours all day and all night. It was driving Dean crazy, but you didn’t care. He showed you how to replay old PotterWatch recordings, so you had them playing in the background through the day while searching through your grandma’s old books in hopes of finding something helpful.

Dean was being as supportive as he could’ve been, considering he was also aching to get in touch with his parents and sisters, however, he was reluctant to get his hopes up. You didn’t have the same problem. It wasn’t a choice for you.

“I’d tell her that her family is alive and well and desperate for news of her whereabouts. As are quite frankly, all of us here at the PotterWatch”.

When you weren’t replaying the recording, you were replaying those words in your head.

You had to find a way.

There was another resident in the house who didn’t seem to be too keen on contacting the wizarding world. A goblin named Ricbert. He was badly injured and spent most of the time resting. You couldn’t blame him for not wanting to risk exposure, not after Dean has told you everything they had to go through to get to a safe house. They were travelling with Ted Tonks, Dirk Cresswell and another goblin named Gornuk. They crossed miles and miles being actively hunted by the Snatchers and Death Eaters. Gornuk has split himself while apparating in a hurry and got captured. Dirk went after him while urging the others to run away, but Ted Tonks would not leave anyone behind. Unfortunately, that resulted in Dean and Ricbert having to fend for themselves.

Listening to that story made you shiver. But if anything, it made you even more determined to stop running and hiding. It wasn’t even just about seeing your family and friends again. It wasn’t just about Fred either. People were fighting for their lives! You couldn’t stay put! You had to do something!

When you weren’t practicing defensive spells, you spent your time obsessively collecting herbs and brewing healing remedies for Ricbert. It made you feel a bit better, being useful to someone. You were trying out all kinds of recipes you thought might come in handy.

You made a batch of Polyjuice Potion, Cure for boils, Antidote to Common Poisons, Antidote to Uncommon Poisons. You even tried to make Felix Felicis, but the ingredients for it were way too hard to find even in regular circumstances.

You were brewing so much that Dean eventually had to take you by the hand and force you to sit down and take a break.

“If Snape could see me now!”, you said with a tired smile.

Dean chuckled.

“He’d probably put you in detention for working too hard”.

“Ah, yes! Did you know he actually did do that to me once?”

“What, really?”

“Yeah… I wrote an essay in my third year that was accidentally a little too good. He accused me of using a magical quill and put me in detention”, you rolled your eyes.

“Blimey, what a git!”

“Well, I’ll tell you what, I’ve never tried to work too hard on my homework again!”, you laughed.

It was nice talking to Dean, the two of you became fast friends during your stay in the house. You gave each other space through the day, but in the evenings, you would sit down and enjoy each other’s company. Just like you were back in the Gryffindor common room, chatting about muggle films and sports. You found your grandparents’ stash of Firewhiskey and Nettlewine, so you’d light the fireplace and open a bottle. Ricbert also joined you on occasion.

You tried not to talk too much about PotterWatch, even though that was all you wanted to talk about, and tried avoiding mentioning Fred and George’s name completely. At least until you’ve figured out the way to find them. On the first night, you and Dean went through all the options of how to get in touch with someone from your world. Floo powder was out of question. So was sending and owl, obviously. Most importantly, even if you did find a way to send anyone a message, you wouldn’t know where to send it. Apparating to any location was an unnecessary risk, especially now that you seemed to be perfectly safe and sound for the first time in months. Not to mention the fact that you didn’t want to put Ricbert in danger just because, as he so delicately put one evening,

“You heard your boyfriend mention your name on a radio two weeks ago”.

The word “boyfriend” stupidly made your heart flutter. It wasn’t, strictly speaking, true, but you didn’t correct him. Dean didn’t question it either at the time. However, that evening, after a few glasses of Nettlewine, his curiosity got the best of him.

“So…”, he started, “You and Weasley, eh?”

“Huh?”

“You and Fred Weasley? You’re like… an item, right?”

“What makes you say that?”, you feigned surprise.

He raised his eyebrows and smirked at you.

“Oh, please!”

“No! We are just friends”, you tried to protest, but a small smile escaped your lips and betrayed you.

“Sure you are!”, Dean chuckled, “I also fall asleep every night while listening to recordings of my friend’s voices on the radio”.

“Well maybe you should, it’s very calming”, you teased.

“Besides”, you continued, “How do you know it’s not Georgie I’m listening for?”

“Oh”, he laughed, “You’re right, my apologies”.

“Why do you think they call him Tentacula?”.

He snorted and threw a pillow at you.

“Don’t put images in my head!”

“Well, you’re the one who started this conversation!”, you threw the pillow back at him.

He groaned.

“I was just being nosy, I didn’t want the details!”

“Curiosity killed the hippogriff!”

“Also…”, Dean continued, “Ginny mentioned something to me back when we were dating…”

Your heart jumped in your chest.

“About what?”, you asked as calmly as possible.

“You know… about you and Weasley… Fred, I mean”.

“What did she say?”

Dean looked at you sternly as if what he was about to say is very serious indeed, but then his face stretched into a wide grin, and he burst out laughing.

“Nothing! I just wanted to see your reaction!”

You groaned.

“Oi, Thomas, that was really low!”

“Sorry, better work on your poker face Y/LN!”, he teased you.

You rolled your eyes.

“Well, it’s not like it matters anyway. I mean… who knows if I’ll ever see him again”, your voice suddenly turned sad.

Dean’s expression softened.

“You’ll see him”, he said.

You looked at him with teary eyes and gently smiled with gratitude.

“You think so?”, you asked quietly, before you could stop yourself.

“Yes”, he replied, “We’ll find a way. But then you have to do it”.

���Do what?”

“Shoot your shot”, he said and threw a pillow at you again.

...

You’ve spent the next couple of days trying to figure out how to bring up your newest plan of sending a message to Fred and George. It seemed like a good plan; the only problem was the fact that you had no idea how to execute it.

“Dean…”, you started one afternoon.

“Yes?”, he asked.

“I’ve figured it out”, you said slowly.

“You have?”, he jumped in excitement.

“Yes… sort of”.

“What does that mean?”

“Well…”, you started, “There might be a way to send someone a message without having to know exactly where they are, I think… but it requires a really powerful witch or wizard to do so”.

“I’m not worried about that part!”, he winked at you.

You laughed bitterly.

“I don’t know, mate. I’ve never been able to do it before… that’s why I didn’t bring it up until now”.

“What is it?”, his voice suddenly got a bit more serious.

You took a deep breath.

“The thing is… you can send someone a message using the Patronus charm”.

“You can?”, he asked in a surprise.

“Yes”, you replied, “I’ve seen it”.

The image of a silver, gleaming lynx with a voice of Kingsley Shacklebolt suddenly entered your mind.

“Well, that’s… good news, right?”, Dean asked.

You sighed.

“Yes… and no”.

“What do you mean?”

“I mean… I’ve never been able to produce a corporal Patronus before… and even if I did it, I have no idea how to get it to send someone a message!”, you said, with slight frustration in your voice.

“Oh…”, Dean said.

“Can you produce it?”

He shook his head.

“No… never been able to”.

“Well… that’s why I didn’t say anything until now… but it seems like it might be the only option we have left”.

He looked at you in disbelief.

“What kind of option is that? We’d have to become able to produce a corporal Patronus, and then we’d also have to somehow figure out a way to make it reach someone else for us… it would take us weeks, months, maybe even years!”

“You have somewhere to be?”, you asked sarcastically.

He sighed.

“No…”

“Well, then… unless you can come up with a better plan, I suggest you roll up your sleeves and start practicing the charm!”, you said in a tone of voice that reminded you a bit of Professor McGonagall.

A similar thought has clearly crossed Dean’s mind, because he smirked at you and said,

“Yes, professor!”

You softened your expression and smiled at him.

The following couple of days were spent by your useless attempts to preform the Patronus charm. When you weren’t whispering, mumbling, or screaming:

“Expecto Patronum!”

you were cooped up in your room, reading your grandmas old books, trying to find anything at all about the Patronus charm. It was hopeless.

To be fair, you managed to produce a glowing, silver shield that danced around the room, but there was no sign of fur, tail, claws, hooves, or anything like that. It was driving you mad, which, obviously, wasn’t helpful while trying to focus on your happiest memories.

One evening, as you were lying in your bed and rewinding old recordings of PotterWatch, a shocking realisation suddenly hit you.

Of course you would not be able to create a Patronus, you didn’t have a memory that was strong enough! All your happiest thoughts were somehow tainted by the fact that you were here, locked inside a safe house, completely isolated from the people that you loved the most. But if you could do it… If you could be strong enough to perform the spell…

You didn’t have a happiest memory because all of them were set in the future! And you held the power to make them into reality!

It was a paradoxical thought, but the realisation made your heart fill up with hope, and perhaps, that could be enough to summon a Patronus!

You jumped out of the bed, in a sudden rush of adrenaline, and raised your wand.

You closed your eyes.

What would make you happy? What is the happiest thing you can think of at this very moment?

An image of your parents glimmered in your mind. They were smiling at you while embracing you into a tight hug.

Then another image appeared. Your friends! George Weasley gifting you one of his infectious smiles and congratulating you on a spell well-done! Lee Jordan, shaking your hand and kissing your cheeks.

A small grin appeared on your lips.

It was working!

Then, you saw his face. Fred.

His flaming red locks and glistening eyes. He reached his hands towards you and pulled you in his arms. You knew his scent all too well. He smelled of cinnamon and fireworks. He didn’t say anything to you, and you didn’t say anything to him. You just stood there, embracing. No words were needed.

You felt your heart swell up as happy tears started to fill your eyes. You took a deep breath.

You were almost there!

You raised your wand higher and pictured yourself as exactly the person you wanted to be in this very moment. You were strong enough to summon a Patronus. You were clever enough to reach your friends. You were brave enough to protect Ricbert and Dean. You could do it! You just had to believe in it!

“Excpecto Patronum”, you whispered.

A beam of silver light shot out of your wand. It seemed to be forming into a shape.

Was that a claw? Or maybe antlers?

The beautiful silver light blazing from your wand gave you more confidence, so you repeated, this time more loudly and more clearly,

“Excpecto Patronum!”

This time the light started to form into a shape a lot more distinctively. You watched in an awe as you tried to figure out what animal in reminded you of, still focusing hard on your happy thoughts.

The silver light fell apart once again, but you didn’t get discouraged. You were certain this time you’d do it. You took a deep breath and pictured Fred’s smiling face. His eyes. His voice. His laughter… You’ll see him again! You will! You were so close…

“EXPECTO PATRONUM!”, you yelled out.

The light shooting out of your wand was almost blinding this time. You squinted as you watched it prance around the room, forming into a shape of a beautiful, silvery creature. After it made a circle around the room it stopped right in front of you, looking at you with its intelligent, glowing eyes. You gasped in awe and reached for it to touch it. You recognized it instantly.

It was a (your Patronus).

You did it!

The realisation made a surge of euphoric sensation shoot through your body.

You fucking did it!

You started laughing. You wanted to call for Dean, but you were worried the animal would disappear if you did that. So, instead, you just stood there, trying to get your brain to start working again. As soon as it did, another thought has crossed your mind.

What now?

That’s right! Summoning a Patronus was only a part of the problem. As happy as you were to have succeeded, you still didn’t know how to fulfil the other part.

What if I just… ask?

it was a silly thought. And yet…

It couldn’t hurt!

You struggled for a moment to find your voice. Your Patronus was still looking at you. It seemed like it already knew what you were about to do.

“Can you… help me?”, you heard yourself say stupidly.

The Patronus blinked.

“I need to send a message… to Fred Weasley. He’s… my best friend. Perhaps you already know that…?”

The animal didn’t move or react in any way that would make it seem like it understood you. You groaned in frustration.

“Well, it was worth a shot”, you mumbled.

The frustration in your voice made the Patronus start to slowly fade out. It made you panic for a moment, but then you let it go.

If you could summon it once, you can do it again!

However, the Patronus didn’t disappear, you realized a second later. Instead, it turned itself into a tiny, floating ball of light that began slowly approaching you. Just when you thought it was about to stop, it went straight inside your neck and nested itself at the bottom of your throat.

“What the…”, you spoke in a surprise.

And then you froze in shock. You could hear your own voice, just like it was magically enhanced by Sonorous. However, you had a strange feeling that if anyone else was around you, they would only see you open your mouth and silently move it like a fish.

“Did I… do it?”, you asked.

You were still hearing your own voice inside your head. That must be it! It must be working!

“Fred…”, you started, “If you can hear me… if this reaches you somehow… I’m safe. I’m in a safe location. I can’t tell you exactly where it is, it’s heavily protected…”.

You thought for a moment about what you should and shouldn’t say. You didn’t want to compromise anyone’s safety if this message was heard by someone else.

“If you can reach my parents, would you tell them I’m okay?”, you asked.

There were so many things that you dreamt about saying to him if you got the chance, and now… it felt like there was nothing on your mind.

“Oh, I’m with Dean Thomas!”, you remembered suddenly, “He’s safe too… we’re with a goblin named Ricbert… Fred…”.

You took a deep breath.

“If you can… try to find me… please”.

Just when you started thinking about how silly that sounded, the ball of light nested in your throat flew out. It reached the middle of the room and slowly transformed back into its corporal form. The beautiful, shimmering animal stood before you once again, only this time there was a little ball of light flickering in its neck. You realised, in amazement, that that was your voice.

“Find Fred Weasley… please”, you said pleadingly.

The Patronus blinked at you once again, like it perfectly understood the assignment you just gave it, and slowly began to fade out.

For a second or two you did not move. You were still a bit unsure that what you just saw really happened. You wanted to call Dean and tell him all about it, but before you could do that, you felt yourself slowly sinking into bed. You were exhausted.

You didn’t know for sure how long you slept. Was it five hours or five minutes. You only knew that in one moment your eyes were shut and you were sleeping, and in another something in the room has made you groan out in frustration.

Did somebody turn on the light?

“Turn… it… off…”, you mumbled as you tried to cover your closed eyes with a pillow.

But it felt like the light was burning through the pillowcase. You threw the pillow away and sat up straight, like someone had just pinched you.

Your eyes widened in shock. Something was in the room with you. Through the haze of sleepiness, it looked like another glowing ball of light, only this ball was a lot larger than the one you had summoned. It made a few circles around the room before it finally settled and landed at the top of the pillow you just threw away. It was a bird. A magpie. A glowing, silvery magpie! It was spreading its shimmering wings and looking at you like it wanted your undivided attention.

Another Patronus, you realised.

Your mouth had gone dry from suspense. Then, the bird opened its silver beak and spoke in the voice of Fred Weasley,

“Y/N? Is that really you?”

Your heart stopped.

—

[owlpellet]

If not for the 3 paged book, what details on the image itself gave it away?

Let's look at it! For those who missed it, this is the image in question:

we already have a bad habit of disconnecting this sort of over the top high fantasy work from its creators (Angus McBride, Dave Mattingly, etc), which makes it easy to pass around in a memetic manner and kind of forget it's art in the first place. We tend to think of it almost as clipart, something generic, thomas kincade for people who play d&d. this makes it easily replicable and ripe for misuse, because people are less likely to seek out the source for something that already feels familiar and ubiquitous-- surely this is just public domain stuff, right?

Well, of course not. These days its easier than ever to just slap in a prompt that gives you something ALMOST familiar but not able to be meaningfully reverse searched, and that's how you end up with the current crisis on print sites and sellers like craggyscorner dot com, from where this image comes.

So how can you tell the familiar from the outright false? Some of the other images on the site this is from have better examples, but I'll stick with this one. Here are a few things to spot!

1.) I'll get the meaty, weird hand out of the way first. Hands aren't a reliable tell every time, but the fucked-up little thumb makes this one nice and obvious for us.

2.) There is hair randomly visible despite his being hooded; the ripples of the fabric and the hair also seem to merge.

3.) The columns do not match in pattern or width, nor do the capitals on them make any sense. The brickwork also follows no pattern-- mistakes not made by someone of this ostensible rendering skill.

4.) His knees extend way, way far out from his body and he appears to have three of them.

5.) This is a big one: AI struggles with defining edges on things, and often contours edges of background items to warp and match ones in the foreground-- think of how edited instagram photos warp bricks behind the subject. The visual is similar to that. This can be seen to a lesser degree in many places on the image, such as the book by the hand, or the bricks along his backside.

6.) Escher architecture. Again, not a professional mistake.

7.) ?????? He does not appear to have feet. The image politely fudges itself behind the text.

8.) Lastly, the robes are just a mess. AI doesn't really understand seams, or layers, or really how clothes work at all, which is how he ends up with what appears to be two hoods and a chiffon wrap around his waist. The folds and shadows are busy enough to be believable at a glance but they hide that nothing appears to look.... correct.

Also just for fun I tried to do my most charitable drawover of his anatomy. Yeah.

Can you spot more problems? You probably can.

[royalberryriku]

Some Thoughts on the 'Writing Process'™

So I see a lot of writers struggle with these very specific things, AKA:

The Staring at the Blank Page Thing where you struggle to come up with ideas, words, etc

The Word Counting Counting where you cannot stop counting your word count

The 'Can Someone ELSE Proofread This Because I Don't Want to Read It' dilemma

The 'How Do I STOP Hating Everything I Write' issue which also leads into the 'How Do I Stop Scrapping Everything' issue

And finally the 'I DONT WANT TO WRITE I WANT TO IMAGINE IT INSTEAD' problem

There are various things that can make writing hard, but I have had some thoughts! And maybe they might just be useful.

So for Issue Number 1, I've found that, if you want to write, NEVER do it before you already have the ideas. Looking at a blank page just makes it harder. You get bored and that makes writing feel boring. Of course, this is all just my opinion, maybe this actually works for you. BUT! In my own personal experience, I find that actually LIMITING how often I open my document helps a bunch. No matter how much you wanna write, there's no point torturing yourself over how little you're doing and shaming or pressuring yourself to get it done. Punishing yourself is just gonna kill your inspiration and, obviously, you're not going to want to write if you now associate it with punishment for not writing. It's a cycle of just being mean to yourself. Well, don't wanna be unproductive? As silly and counterproductive as it sounds; self care is the answer which I've found that actually works.

This actually leads into Issue Number 2. I think these probably stem from the same issue; punishing yourself for not producing. Again, punishing yourself and shaming yourself into just staring at a blank screen or staring at how little the word count is or how much you have to go until your goal is just going to kill your inspiration and make you bored. Shaming doesn't get you to write more, or faster or suddenly become more productive. Believe it or not? Self care and making it fun is what makes a fun story come to life. You're not just writing a block of text that's a recount to sell in this capitalist hellhole (I mean you are but that doesn't mean the process has to be bound by capitalism because FUCK CAPITALISM), you're writing a story you wanna tell; focus on the story before the method and don't punish yourself for it not just magically appearing. These things take time, they take trial, error, mistakes and various drafts, but FIRST? They take those little moments where you just daydream scenes and the imagination you have to exist at all. Focus first on the story and your own health and the rest will come, slowly but surely. Anyway that was a lot of words to essentially just say; don't look at the word count, focus on the story and the length will follow regardless. It's fine to check and obviously, you'll just have to at some point. But please please try and do what you can to avoid checking, even use a different method. I use page count because it's so varied and inaccurate that it actually doesn't matter and just tricks my brain into using that to see my very general progress and makes it seem bigger than it actually is. It also can just be easier to check at a glance if I want to make sure the structure of each chapter is more or less consistent enough.

Issue Number 3 is tricky, mostly because once you've made something, it can be legitimately very boring to reread everything you JUST wrote. For me, I'm sort of chaotic in that I reread as I go or do it very randomly and rewrite as I come up with things. The good thing is though that what you write isn't set in stone. It's malleable and fluid. I always have a cut and paste section on my computer where I just... cut and page and rearrange things as I think of it. I don't worry about "oh but what if I mess up" because you're ALWAYS gonna mess up! That's actually one of the cool things about writing, you CAN mess up and go back and reread it eventually to make it work a bit better after all the other chaotic going-back-and-fixing-things. Which brings me to my main point (especially if you don't want to replicate my chaoticness) I try to leave proofreading itself as much as I can for the end of it all. As in, I just let myself write, yes rearranging and going back whenever I want, but never throwing anything OUT, never scrapping the whole document because it's gonna have bits you might reuse. And more to the point, it gives you a lose skeleton to base your next draft on. It's more work but I find it really reassuring in that you don't judge every little thing as you go, but just say "meh, fuck it!" and write whatever works, then rewrite it in a separate document all over again, never deleting the last one so you can copy and page whatever you liked from the first draft, or second, or third, and use each mistake and flaw. Recycling is good folks, even just in writing. Or... at least it is for me. If this doesn't work for you, it doesn't work for you, but this is just what helps me so maybe it might help you too.

This also goes into Issue Number 4. Honestly, you're never gonna not be your biggest critic. But! You can at least make your work feel a bit more positive and go in with a "eh who cares?" mindset into writing. It may not erase the "wow this is hot garbage" feeling, but it'll feel a bit more like "well this is MY hot garbage and I don't care if it's bad or good, because at least it was fun". Plus, like I said; recycling is very good. The best way to force yourself not to hate something is to get really damn used to it, AKA, never getting rid of it. Which is hard, I know. Especially if you just really freaking hate it. And, well, it's not like I'm saying you should keep absolutely every little thing, I don't want you all to get clutter and folders upon folders of stuff you won't use...buuut I am saying it helps to keep things and get comfortable in your own messiness and imperfection. It starts to feel normal at least, or for me it does, and slowly you kind of just...accept it. Also, making fun little things to enjoy your ideas away from your writing itself. If you draw? Make fanart. Maybe even make AUs in your head. Maybe make some mood boards. HYPE YOURSELF UP! Or as best you can at least, and never force things. If you aren't feeling this particular story right now? Move on to another project and yes having WIPs can be annoying but sometimes it's necessary. Again, these are all just my opinions and stuff I do when I struggle with these; I'm not commanding anyone to do anything and as always, maybe this won't work for you personally. But hey, doesn't hurt to give it a try first and see if it works, or maybe something else will. Whatever the case, this is just my own two cents.

And finally, Number 5. Honestly? This isn't so much as issue in and of itself as much as just an issue of prioritisation. Imagination is the most important part of even coming up with a story to begin with and, honestly, imagining scenes can really help build a mental image of what you want to describe and how things look and feel. One thing, a little cheat code you could say, that I've found is melding daydreaming with research. Which makes absolutely no sense since this is the most funnest part with the most boring part of writing, but hey, it works surprisingly well I assure you. So here's the setup I have; no doc (except for if I really need to jot down some notes), then images that remind me of my work (Pinterest boards maybe, a few mood boards, etc), then the research. I go between each of these; daydreaming. The result? I imagine scenes with the research I want; motifs that work with themes, imagery to use in scenes, what architecture works, what the weapons look like. Then, before I even write, I go back and still daydream WITH what I've researched and it sticks in my mind way better than even the notes I've made. Speaking of, with notes, I like to doodle in the margins of them, make them fun, highlight with fun colours. Sometimes? Research, note taking and writing doesn't have to be work in and of itself, sometimes it can be fun and a little quest of your own. Sometimes making writing and research feel like you're daydreaming can make all the difference between begrudgingly slugging through a chapter, or just having fun writing a new scene you just imagined and that starts to form into something new and exciting.

TLDR: Make writing fun! Like Mary Poppins once said; "a spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down". Sometimes it's actually better to make the work into a treat instead of using a treat as a bribe or punishing yourself. In fact, making any part of the process into a punishment for not working just makes everything harder.

ALSO! Just in general, take breaks! It's easy to forget what you're doing (especially once it becomes fun) and forget to take care of yourself both physically and mentally. Too much time looking at a screen (or even just a page) can be straining! Remember to eat! Remember to drink water and sleep! Get up and walk around if you can, go to the bathroom and maybe even go for a little walk outside and get some Vitamin D if you're able to. Remember to maybe take a few days away from writing so you can come at it again with a refreshed mind and new perspective, sometimes you can get boggled down and start getting too focused on one little thing. It's good to let yourself have half an hour, an hour or even a few days to just refresh and go out and get new inspiration just from living. Sometimes the key to writing and ideas is to just stop writing for a bit and to just take a breath.

[leewritestoomuch]

I’m sorry for all the requests but Dr.stone brain rot is killing me 😭:

May I order a headcanon (once facking again) where their s/o’s family was extremely poor in the past, so when Ryusui made currency they spent the least amount of money, rarely eating out of habit and trying to not make the same mistake their family did before?

If there was a Tsukasa part I believe that would only fuel his anger more for the rich and greedy ngl 😭

Anyways, if you do my request once again. Thank you from the absolute bottom of my heart! And remember to always take care of yourself pookie <3

- Sincerely, 🍙 Anon

Reader’s Family was Poor in the Past

Hi!!! Thank you for the request! :) and do remember to take care of yourself too! Sorry this is so late to when you sent this in 😭 there is so much in my inbox, I jump around.

I chose Senku, Gen, Tsukasa, and Ryusui for this.

Senku Ishigami

He wasn’t too concerned with what everybody was doing, but your behavior doesn’t go unnoticed.

He watched as you picked through almost thousands of drago and only spent a few, and it almost seemed like you were scared to.

Ryusui had practically thrown drago at you because you were nearby and he complimented you and gave you plenty of money, so why were you spending SO cautiously like you were down to nickels and dimes? (I know nothing about Yen so I don’t know if there is an expression equivalent in Japanese)

You have nothing to really save the money for, so why were you debating so hard over spending it on a shirt. You wanted the shirt, didn’t you?

Eventually, he’d found out from somebody that knew you that your family was poor. He had thought something like that must have been the case, but now he knows for sure.

He’d likely encourage you to spend a bit more. Either that, or he’d bluntly tell you there is no reason to keep the money so close to you anymore.

Gen Asagiri

If he had that much money, he’d be blowing it.

You had thousands of drago that Ryusui had just handed you. And you were clutching onto it like you’d be robbed of it and be left for dead without it if you loosen up just a little.

You hesitated to get cotton candy, despite how much you said you missed the taste.

He watched you and soon noticed your behavior was like those who were less fortunate to have to ration to survive.

You didn’t need to do that here, the money isn’t that important. At the end of the day, the hunters in the kingdom of science would bring home food rather people paid them for the meat or not.

The community doesn’t run off of money, so your behavior is unnecessary. So he’d probably talk you out of it.

He’d come stand beside you, talking to you softly.

“Money isn’t that important here. You don’t need it to pay for a house. And the beasts of people we have here do the hunting for us, and never once have they asked for money. Nor would they deny you food if you couldn’t pay. You can save some… but maybe spend half? Plus…” he leans in to whisper, “Ryusui would gladly pay for you if it ever came to it. I’m sure a man like him will never run out of money.”

Tsukasa Shishio

Dragos have been around for a while, but you’re still clutching onto them like it’s life or death.

Francois doesn’t make you pay them for food. The hunters (him, Hyoga, etc) don’t make you pay them for meat or anything.

So your behavior has got to be engraved into you.

He might be on the side of kingdom of science, but deep down, this rise of currency and capitalism bothers him.

watching you struggle to let go of money makes him angry.

The world they used to live in had brought you to this point, and that pisses him off.

He knows what that’s like. He fought for money. He became famous for money. All for money for Mirai. Just so his sister would live.

He had to pay people to keep his sister alive.

And old men paid for the rights to land and he had no grounds to even do anything about getting beat down by one for picking seashells. That man OWNED those seashells.

He doesn’t know exactly what you went through, but he’s got an idea.

He doesn’t say much, but he makes sure to give you plenty of food and he’ll buy things for you and give them to you.

Honestly he’s so sweet.

Ryusui Nanami

Spend money, get bitches. Yk. (This man would hate the word bitches for sure. But I had to say this. Like side note, but he’s an advocate for the word to be offensive when leaving a man’s mouth)

Ryusui gave you thousands of drago and stepped back. He expected you to spend it, give to the economy, etc.

But you held onto it like you were gonna need it soon.

He doesn’t really know what that’s like. He’s always had lots of money.

Well, once he had a smaller allowance, but even that would be a lot to most other people. He doesn’t realize this so much, not until he sees you.

He’s confused at first.

What else is there to do in life than get all that one wants when they want it? Get your money up, keep your money up, spend your money up. Yk. The 3 pillars to life. (This is not what they are)

He gives you more money.

But you try to deny it.

He insists. Then he watches you clutch onto it like you’ll need it all in an hour.

He probably goes over to encourage you. Telling you to see things how he sees it.

And then you probably explain why you just can’t. You’re scared you’ll end up like your family was as a kid.

He begins to see what you mean, and he’ll probably spend some money on you.

“Don’t be scared. There isn’t anything to worry about money about here. Even if everything had a cost soon, I’d pay for whatever you needed. And all these people would surely do you a favor even if.”