#for context if you're curious and reading my tags

[midnightfrappe]

tfw you forget that you're made of metal and your coworker it's a weak human with a breakable head

plot twist he is actually trying to flirt

[channnel]

Since I posted my old drawing of mdhm (that and I haven't posted for a while), might as well post my very first drawing of it.

Featuring old art #2, Alan looked so different in my old art style, Claude doesn't have arms, and Jules looks like Jules.

[junktastic]

I had a drawing months back that went kinda viral I guess, and it getting out of my normal sphere of followers meant that I got to observe how folks far outside of my twitter sphere interact with twitter and others. For reference, I am talking about this image:

The context, besides getting to draw my friend Jenny, was that I saw a picture that was of an anime girl that said "lets be in our early 30s together" and I was like "haha, I will make my own version of this." Part of it was also that I think aging is fine, and we need to stop stressing so much over staying young. "Lets be in our mid-thirties together" is not a joke, I sincerely wanted this image to be warm and inviting, to maybe give people hope that there will be friends and people who love you once you get to that age. I never thought I was going to make it to 30, and I just turned 35 this year, and I'm the happiest I've ever been.

Some responses were obviously teens/early 20s people saying they don't want to get that old, which is whatever. When you're that young the dirty thirty sounds so ugly. No one cool is in their 30s! Well, if you ignore the people who make all the things they like. These responses I waved these off.

I saw the typical twitter experience replies of "this doesn't apply to me?" Ok bitch! Go make your own like I did! And show me when you do, I'd love to see it!

There was a handful of people who were saying "retweet to scare a twink" which I felt was kind of rude. Not to me, but to the twinks out there. Aging doesn't make you less of a twink.

Lots of people were sending it to their significant others or saying they hope to find someone to be in their mid-thirties with, which I love. :3 It makes me happy!

The one kind of response which is what I made this post for and I'm so sorry that I've been rambling, that I found weird was the people who will reply to just you. The OP. As if they are replying to everyone in the thread. I'm not talking about in QRTs, just straight in the replies. "Don't forget how tired she looks in this." Brother I drew the picture. I know. And ever since then I feel like, as someone who loves to read the replies on other people's tweets, I notice this a lot more often. Who are they talking to? Is this what people are referring to when they say "Main Character Syndrome?" Or should I be lumping these together with the "why isn't this about my exact personal life situation" people?

My fiancé says I'm thinking about this too hard (I got engaged last month btw), and he's probably right. I can't help but be curious about how other people choose to interact with the internet and images and people on it. And, I guess, am I supposed to reply? How should I feel about these. I guess I have to decide that on my own.

For the record, you are all very normal/understandable when it comes to what you guys tag my stuff with. That you love the girls (same!), that they're very gender (love this), or wow is this [insert fetish](not my intention but that's the internet). I feel like the slime girls get the "gender" comment the most and you are all so right for that. Every time I see people reblog my ocs I think "Thank you for loving [name]."

That's all! This was a pointless post but I'm unemployed right now so I have too much time to overthink things for no reason. How do YOU feel about how people interact with your posts? Are they weird? Or are they normal about it.

[lonelyroommp3]

*please read the explanations below the poll options before voting*

was thinking about this on my coach home and naturally had to make it into an overcomplicated poll

explanations, disclaimers, etc. under the cut:

until tumblr enables polls with infinite options there is no way for me to account for the entire breadth of human experience here. the categories provided and the examples thereof will not be, and are not intended to be, exhaustive. if you can't find the exact thing you do listed here or you think it falls into more than one category then please use your best judgement to select whatever answer is closest. only choose "something else not covered here" if there is actually nothing even close to what you do listed in the poll (and please elaborate in the tags if this is the case! i'm curious)

i really wanted to include "guy running alongside the moving vehicle you are in" but ran out of options. sorry

if you feel you do two or more of these things in equal measure just pick whatever one answer you want based on vibes

music video: anything you imagine as a standalone, prerecorded visual to accompany the music. this may feature musical performance elements, dance, a narrative, or any combination of the above. if you're imagining your little scene as if it's intended to be viewed on MTV, youtube, etc as the official visual complement to the music, it probably comes under this category

a music video mainly featuring somebody else: this could be you, your blorbos, your self insert OC, another artist you'd like to see cover the song, random actors/celebrities you would cast in the video, etc. whether they are performing the song within the video or not. if the bulk of the "running time" of your daydream is taken up by people who aren't the artist who originally performs the version of the song you're listening to, pick this one

a live performance: this could be in concert (whether a concert version that already exists e.g. imagining taylor swift's eras tour staging when you hear cruel summer, or a version you would like to see), at karaoke, at an open mic night, your acoustic cover that goes viral when you post it on youtube, busking on the street, performing to the other passengers on the bus, etc. could apply to dance as well as singing/music!

a diegetic use in narrative context: imagining the song being performed as a musical number by people in a story that exists beyond the scope of this one song in order to accompany or advance said story. this might be imagining the song being performed as one of many musical numbers in a stage or movie musical, or it could be a performance that takes place in universe (like the performances in glee, or scott pilgrim vs the world)

non diegetic narrative use: imagining the song as the soundtrack to a scene in a story that exists beyond the scope of this one song, but it is not being played/performed/heard by the people within the scene. for example, you imagine a fight scene in a movie taking place to this song, or perhaps it would play in the background during your OTP's first kiss if your favourite fanfiction was adapted into a netflix original tv series.

AMV/edit: a video compilation of existing* scenes from a piece of media, put together by a fan and set to music. (*existing might be taken loosely; e.g. you might be imagining an AMV of scenes from a book with no actual visual media adaptation. the main distinction is that here you are imagining the actual editing process of splicing scenes together as a fan project, as opposed to the music accompanying one continuous scene or sequence of scenes - which would come under "non diegetic narrative use" - or the clips being intended as the official visual accompaniment to a song, which would come under "music video".)

an abstract or lyric based visualiser: 2000s core windows media player visuals, a lyric video, anything that focuses more on objects, scenery, abstract patterns, words moreso than People/Fictional Characters/Animals/etc Doing Things To Music

[thebreakfastgenie]

this is one (1) redeemable voucher to complain about AO3's tagging system (if you like)

Thanks for the voucher!

I probably should have phrased that post differently because upon reflection what I hate is more downstream of AO3's tagging system. The system itself does what it's supposed to do: it organizes the archive. Of course, users get cutesy with it (and I'm guilty of this myself) and other users will use inaccurate tags on purpose to get more attention (this is not acceptable behavior), but neither of those things are the system's fault.

But because the tagging system is so robust and fics are tagged based on tropes, this culture has developed of hyper-curated, trope-based reading habits. This didn't exist before AO3 because it just wasn't possible to filter fics to that extent. Some of my favorite fic reading experiences have been fics that I stumbled across by mistake because I didn't know what they were or because I had to comb through broader categories.

And this is where I start sounding like Ted Gup. Ted Gup wrote this essay in the late 90s called The End of Serendipity about how computers being so efficient at retrieving information was going to bring about the end of people stumbling upon topics they wouldn't have otherwise explored. I had to read and respond to this essay in English class in middle school and I raked Ted Gup over the coals, because I was writing on my laptop with dozens of open tabs. I still think I was right to point out Ted Gup's failure to foresee the wiki walk, but now that I'm older and technology has developed more over the last fifteen years, I'm starting to think he had something of a point.

I was thinking about this in a fanfiction and fandom context because I recalled a post I reblogged recently saying (paraphrased) "I have nothing against shipping but some of you are too focused on shipping to the exclusion of everything else." I agree with that post, but for me part of the problem isn't even the focus on shipping, it's that the shipping content is often so formulaic. Fandom talks a big game about diversity and creativity in fanworks, but a lot of the actual output I see is incredibly formulaic. In my opinion that's related to the extreme focus on tropes. Tropes are great, but if you're only looking at fic as a list of tropes you're taking a very narrow view. I don't know what the direction of causality is here, if there even is one, but I think the tagging system and the way the tagging system is used facilitate this reductive trope-based outlook.

I'm from the fanfiction.net era and I find the character and relationship tagging on AO3 useful, but I don't really care for the additional tags. I had to train myself to even read them. I prefer to select fics based on titles and summaries, because those are created by the author. Obviously writing a summary is very different than writing a story (and in fact it's a different skill and it's hard!) but a summary is still written by the author, so it gives me some sense of their writing style. When authors actually include an excerpt in the summary it does that even more. Tags can be useful in conjunction with a summary, because well-selected tags make me curious how all the elements listed in the tags fit together. But I don't want to sort by Enemies to Lovers or whatever.

I don't expect everyone to read like I do, this is nothing more than one crank's ramblings about my personal dissatisfaction with the current state of fandom. Maybe it resonates with someone, and if it does they're welcome to reblog it, but I'm not trying to do social commentary here. Maybe it doesn't, and that's okay too.

I also don't know if the trope focus on booktok and in the traditional publishing world comes out of fanfiction or not but it's even more distressing to me there and I think it bothers me in the fanfiction sphere because of the possibility that fanfiction is contributing to that trend.

[takaraphoenix]

Camping & Bonding (Part 5)

Tags: m/m, Erica Lives, Boyd Lives, Jackson Doesn't Leave, Pack Mom Stiles, Pack Feels, True Mates, fluff, hurt/comfort, camping, mutual pining, m/f

Main Pairing: Derek/Stiles

Side Pairings: Scott/Allison, Boyd/Erica, Jackson/Lydia

Teen Wolf Characters: Mieczysław 'Stiles' Stilinski, Derek Hale, Erica Reyes, Vernon Boyd III, Isaac Lahey, Jackson Whittemore, Lydia Martin, Cora Hale, Scott McCall, Allison Argent

@writersmonth Prompts Part 5: glow + lake

Summary: Stiles thinks the pack should go camping, as a bonding exercise. Much to his surprise, Derek agrees with his plan. So the pack goes off into the mountains to camp together.

This Fic on AO3 | This Fic on FFNet

Stiles Summer Stories 2024

–

Part 5: The End

Going to bed that night was just a little more awkward than the night before, somehow. Snuggling with his crush was one thing, but snuggling with his new boyfriend of literally less than one day? Stiles was so flustered when he got changed, his eyes flitting over to Derek all the time.

"Stiles," Derek growled softly, near reassuring somehow. "It's okay. We're just… going to bed. If… If it makes you uncomfortable, we can sleep apart-"

"No," Stiles wiggled his nose, blushing even harder. "I do like the cuddling I just… I have never cuddled with a boyfriend before. Much less a mate."

A small noise came from Derek that sounded wondrous. "Okay. You know that we will figure all of this out together, right? I mean all of it. I don't exactly have a track-record of well-going, healthy relationships either so I don't have… that much more experience than you either, honestly…"

Stiles blinked as he took in how sheepish and awkward Derek looked. Sometimes, when Derek was being all growly, bossy and confident, it was easy to forget that Derek wasn't that much older than Stiles either and that he has had two relationships that had both ended in absolute disaster. Reaching out, Stiles rested his hand on Derek's, caressing it gently and squeezing it in reassurance.

"We'll figure it out together," Stiles grinned and pecked Derek's cheek.

He got a rare smile from Derek. The kind that made Stiles feel soft and like jelly. Heaving a sigh, Stiles collapsed against Derek's chest, forcing the werewolf down onto the ground – well, more like suggesting it and Derek went along with it to humor him.

"I love you," Derek's voice was muffled by Stiles' hair as he had his nose buried in it. "I never expected you, or anyone like you. But you are… my compliment."

"Shut up," Stiles' voice was muffled by Derek's chest.

He had his face buried in it, rubbing his nose along Derek's collarbone. Derek was his boyfriend now. Derek was his mate now. Stiles huffed out a small laugh that got him a curious noise from Derek. The Alpha's hands were running over Stiles' back, gentle and soothing.

"It's just…" Stiles tilted his head up to look at Derek. "I kind of did plan this camping trip to confront you about a few things, in a moment of peace like… right now. I have been growing more and more suspicious of the betas' behavior. How they listen to me, how they behave around me. I just… I really didn't see it, huh. I mean, I know about pack dynamics. I read up on them. I taught most of the betas about them. How did I not see that I'm the Alpha Mate."

"Because you didn't expect it?" Derek suggested after a moment. "You're good at picking up clues, most of the time you pick them up before you even know what they could mean. Your instincts are great. But you don't have all of the answers either, Stiles."

Stiles grumbled at that with a slight pout. "Still. I know what the Alpha Mate does. I should have been able to put the evidence into context."

"You're… cute… when you're frustrated," Derek grinned ever so slightly.

When Stiles glared at him, Derek kissed him so softly that it melted the glare. Derek was probably right. Stiles had not seen any reality where Derek might love him, much less him being Derek's mate and that was kind of the whole point of the Alpha Mate. Still, it bugged him that he didn't figure this out on his own. Curling together, Stiles got more comfortable on top of Derek's chest.

"Did you have any plans for tomorrow?" Derek asked after a stretch of silence.

"Mhmh," Stiles started to feel too sleepy for talking. "Swimming. Lake."

Derek huffed at the lack of sentences and pressed a kiss to the top of Stiles' head. Accepting that that was it for tonight. They both relaxed in each other's arms and drifted off to sleep.

/break\

After yet another successful breakfast, the pack headed toward the lake where the creek led to, all dressed in bathing suits and swim-trunks. Stiles could not take his eyes off of Derek. Shirtless Derek was one of his favorite things to look at. He licked his lips.

"You are disgusting, Stilinski," Jackson commented. "Stop drooling over our Alpha."

The comment was lacking any heat. If anything, the look on Jackson's face was more that of a kid who wanted his parents to stop the PDA, which just cracked Stiles up so hard. Just to piss the beta off, Stiles walked over to Derek and pulled him into a kiss, his hands sprawled out on Derek's chest. Erica was whistling in the background, Cora and Jackson were gagging.

"Your betas are a bunch of children," Stiles commented dryly. "You deserve it, for turning teenagers. I, however, truly do not deserve this."

Derek huffed out a laugh and wrapped his arms around Stiles' waist to keep him in place, keep him close. The weather today was surprisingly warm for an autumn day, which made it perfect. The first one to jump into the lake was Isaac, closely followed by the other boys and Erica. Lydia and Allison opted to sunbathe, now that there was some actual sun out. And Cora simply walked into the water instead of jumping off the cliff. Stiles sat down with Scott and Allison for a bit, watching how Derek went to jump in after his betas, after some teasing comments about a 'chicken Alpha'.

"You look happy," Allison smiled, nudging Stiles.

"I… am," Stiles whispered, his own smile very soft.

And it wasn't just about Derek. Yes, he loved Derek and he couldn't believe that Derek was his now, but it was about so much more. Being the squishy pack human had, at times, given him self-doubt. Sure, he contributed a lot with his research alone, but when it came to a physical fight? The werewolves always worried so much about keeping him and Lydia safe, it made him feel guilty. Lydia was taking self-defense lessons too, as tired of this as Stiles, and even Lydia had her Banshee powers to aid in a fight if push came to shove. The Alpha Mate though, that was… that was special. He had a special place in the pack, he wasn't just the human that needed protection.

"You look so pretty in that bikini," Scott had a dopey grin on his face as he walked over to them and collapsed right behind Allison, pulling her close. "This trip was an awesome idea."

Allison smiled and leaned back against her mate's chest, relaxing. "Yeah, it was."

Stiles preened a little at the praise of his idea. He relaxed and laid down, taking out the book he'd brought to read at the lake. At least until the betas grew more demanding and Isaac and Scott grabbed him by the wrists to pull him up and toward the lake. Stiles made half-hearted protests and let himself be pushed into the water. It was freezing cold and he shuddered and gasped when he resurfaced. A smile spread over his lips as he saw the entire pack in the water, playing and laughing. It made his heart feel weirdly full. They had each other, they were a pack, a real pack.

They stayed at the lake until it was late evening and the setting sun bathed the water in a soft orange glow that seemed to fit the autumn atmosphere. It was the perfect ending to their trip.

/break\

"This was fun," Boyd's voice was a soft whisper, his knee bumping against Stiles'. "We should do it more often, going on a camping trip somewhere. Maybe just weekends."

"Yeah," Stiles turned to grin at him. "Yeah, we should."

Erica was on Boyd's other side, having fallen asleep after dinner, leaning heavily against her mate. Boyd's arm was around her, holding her close and making sure she didn't fall over. They'd made dinner and eaten together and gathered around the bonfire one last time, all of them. Telling stories and laughing with each other and a part of Stiles didn't want it to end, ever. So the idea of doing it more often, yeah, he really liked that.

/break\

Very early the next morning, they packed everything up and filed back into the cars in the same constellations as they had driven there. There was so much comfort in the air as they drove home, everyone seemed more subdued than when they had arrived, but it was a comfortable kind.

"Good night, guys," Stiles grinned as he dropped Scott and Allison off.

Because Scott wanted to say proper goodbye to his mate so he decided to walk the rest of the way to his own home after getting some alone-time with Allison, after Stiles had once again so 'rudely' separated them to avoid lengthy make-out sessions. He'd already dropped Lydia off at home, meaning it was time to get home himself. He heaved a soft sigh when he noticed the lights were out and his dad's car wasn't there. Something about the past few days left him longing for company. It had been such a high to be with them all like that, the soft, warm sense of pack. To come home to a cold, empty house with nobody to talk to or be tactile with was… jarring.

Making his way upstairs, he sulked just a little bit. When he opened his bedroom door, he let out a startled screech at the moving shape on his bed. His heart was still hammering hard in his chest when he turned on the light. A glare etched into his features.

"Door! We have a door! Why do you-" Stiles huffed and threw his hands up. "Windows are not special werewolf doors, you are going to give me a heart-attack one of these days!"

Derek, sprawled out on his bed, looked mostly annoyed that Stiles had turned on the light. Rude asshole. Why did Stiles love this bastard. Glaring one last time, Stiles dumped his bag in a corner and the shrugged out of his jeans before collapsing on his bed, right next to Derek.

"Why are you even here?" Stiles asked softly. "We saw each other three hours ago."

"Mh," Derek looked displeased. "Went home. Bed too… not smelling like you."

Oh. Right. Mates that just got together. Wolves had a high draw to their mate and after having spent the last couple nights cuddled up to each other, it must be jarring for Derek to go back to his house that only moderately smelt like Stiles and his bedroom that absolutely did not smell like Stiles at all because Stiles had never been in there, he wasn't crazy enough to go into an unmated wolf's bedroom, he knew how territorial they were. A small smile spread over his lips as he realized his Sourwolf had been pining and had then decided to come to his house, because that was where all of that good Stiles scent was stored. Rubbing his cheek against Derek's, Stiles snuggled close.

"If you want, I could come over tomorrow to roll around in your bed."

"Don't make fun of me, Stiles," Derek growled annoyed.

"I'm not. It's a genuine offer," Stiles chuckled. "I know about werewolf instincts. So, if you want me to make your room smell more like me, I could come over."

The Alpha blinked a couple times, staring at his mate. He made a pleased rumbling noise in his chest, nosing at Stiles' neck. Affectionate, giant puppy. Stiles huffed fondly, running his fingers through Derek's hair. This was definitely a side of the Alpha that he liked seeing.

"Thank you," Derek's voice sounded gruff and was muffled by the pillow as they were both squished into the bed. "I think this get-away was exactly what the pack needed."

A proud smile spread over Stiles' lips at that and he tightened his arms around the werewolf. "That's what the Alpha Mate does. Take care of the pack and help out their fearless, strong, capable leader."

Derek squinted at him. "There's sarcasm in there. It's subtle but I can still hear it."

Stiles smirked teasingly at Derek and kissed his boyfriend's cheek, because he now could kiss his boyfriend because Derek was his boyfriend. He tried not to gloat, but honestly, why shouldn't he. Closing his eyes, he nuzzled into Derek's chest and got more comfortable. He was glad that Derek had come here tonight because he hadn't wanted to be alone either.

~*~ The End ~*~

[heretherebedork]

Hi,

I have a question about your comments on Love Sea. Genuinely no hate, I’m just curious. Are you saying that, because we should have clear, enthusiastic consent 100% of the time in real life (which is obviously completely correct and I’m not disagreeing with that at all), we cannot/should not ever explore anything other than that in fiction? I’m not disagreeing that Mame romanticises a specific dynamic that includes ignoring ‘no’ in a way that would be completely wrong, immoral, and criminal, in real life, but this isn’t real life. If people enjoy that dynamic in fiction, and that is the dynamic Mame wants to write, and that viewers expect from her, isn’t that up to them? Even if they do also praise better representations of consent in other shows, isn’t it possible they enjoy seeing this dynamic explored, in fiction, but are also glad it’s not the only representation of consent out there and that there are also others that are closer to what would be appropriate in reality. It doesn’t have to be either/or, does it?

So. The answer to this is dear lord I didn't tag the show for a reason.

But also.

The answer to that is that sometimes it works. When Mut was carrying Rak into the sea and Rak was saying no and they were both laughing and it was fun and teasing? That was fine! That was a no that obviously wasn't meant as a serious no and was joking.

But when Mut was dragging him out to his motorbike and he was protesting the entire time and telling him he didn't want to go and didn't want to be there and to stop and Mut had to literally scare him to make him go with? That's not okay. Because that is literally takin g no means no and making it a joke.

The dynamic being explored here works in so many contexts without specifically making 'no means no' into a joke. There are so many ways that this kind of dynamic can work that doesn't have to specifically be 'man, isn't it romantic the way he ignored his no?'

I don't tag the show in my posts because I don't want to show up in the tag or bother people who enjoy this. I use specific tags to let people easily block my posts.

But the honest answer is that making it works and exploring the dynamic also includes acknowledging what you're exploring in the process. And neither MAME nor her fans are doing that. Typically fans write this off as romantic and sexy and not as anything they wouldn't want in real life. I've had people argue with me for literal pages about the diary reading scene in the Other Show and how it was so needed and romantic and just...

Look, I like codependency in fictional romances! It's not romantic in real life but I love it in fiction. It's one of my favorite tropes. I love Love Syndrome III and it's toxic as fuck. But that show knew it was toxic and fully embraced that it was toxic and didn't try to write that as the romance but rather as a fucked up relationship that was what the two leads wanted despite how toxic it was. And I loved it! A+!

The problem with exploring a dynamic without acknowledging that you're exploring the dynamic is that it turns no means no into a joke in the show and that's... that's just unpleasant.

People are free to explore things and enjoy things and I specifically don't tag my criticism with the show for that reason. But the problem is that people talk about how sexy all of this and enjoy it and will be very clear, just like MAME was last episode about 'people asked why characters do things' that what they want is... whatever that means, I guess?

I post criticism that is specifically tagged to let people avoid it because I want people to know what I think and that I do see these shows and can offer criticism but also that it's not for the fans of the show because it's specifically tagged for them to avoid.

[lucky-clover-gazette]

captive prince book 1 highlights & annotations

chapter 13 & final notes

indented text is from the book. some quotes have commentary, some do not. some comments are serious, and some are definitely not. most of them will only make sense to people who have read the series. and, like, there are spoilers. so please read the books first if you're interested!

also: part of the reason i'm doing such a close reading is to study cs pacat's style, especially in terms of how she does romance and erotica. there are "craft notes" that might seem weird, like i'm being redundant or restating something rather than analyzing, but those are more things that i want to remember/take away from the writing!

i'm going to tag these longer posts with "sam reads capri" in case anyone wants to read them all at once.

this is a google doc i wrote with overall content warnings for the captive prince series. it's not perfect, but i do think it's important to include.

It was true; it was somehow not even a surprise, more like a truth that had grown for some time on the edge of his awareness, now brought into sharp relief.

some damen brain insight! he’s not stupid or oblivious. he just ends up distracted, often, due to the more pressing things in front of him and/or subconscious avoidance.

‘You can’t go to Delfeur,’ Damen said. ‘It’s a death trap.’

YAYYYYYYYYYYYYYY damen doesn’t want laurent dead!!!! 🎉

‘Is your reputation so far in the dirt that you think the Council will choose your uncle for the throne anyway, unless you prove yourself?’ ‘You are right on the edge of what I will allow from you,’ said Laurent.

but he does allow SOMETHING, which is new

‘Take me with you to Delfeur,’ said Damen. ‘No.’ ‘Akielos is my country. Do you think I want her overrun by your uncle’s troops? I will do anything in my power to prevent war. Take me with you. You will need someone you can trust.’ Speaking those last words, he almost winced, immediately regretting them. Laurent had asked him for trust last night, and he had thrown the words back in his face. He would receive the same treatment. Laurent just gave him a blankly curious look. ‘Why would I need that?’

context: laurent is delusional about his capability to overcome near-insurmountable odds alone. this frustrates and concerns damen, and he isn’t able to let it go, even though he hates laurent. his values and honor come first. laurent is both confused and mildly amused by damen’s concern, because he doesn’t expect anyone—especially not damen—to actually care about his well-being.

Damen stared at him, suddenly aware that if he asked, ‘Do you think you can juggle attempts on your life, military command, and your uncle’s tricks and traps by yourself?’ the answer was going to be: Yes.

i love laurent. i love that his stubborn determination is very much a virtue, but also something that occasionally makes him act like a total idiot. and damen sees this, and understands this, for better and/or for worse.

‘He asked me to bed you, then report back to him.’ Damen was forthright. ‘Not in those words.’ ‘And your answer?’ That, unreasonably, annoyed him. ‘If I’d bedded you, you’d know it.’ There was a dangerous, narrow-eyed pause. Eventually: ‘Yes. Your style of grabbing your partner and kicking their legs open does stand out in the memory.’

the fact that laurent allowed this kind of banter to happen at all is kind of a big deal. he was definitely close to smacking damen about it, but went for a half-hearted insult instead. for laurent, that’s basically a white flag. and it’s even more meaningful, since the exchange was related to sex, which has proven to be a vulnerable topic.

‘My dear brute,’ said Laurent, ‘I want you to rot here.’

context: laurent is exhausted, stressed, and delusional about his immediate future. damen wants him to survive (for now), to see things realistically, and feel the urgency of his circumstances. i don’t think laurent cares if damen rots—he just wants him to stop saying true and helpful things.

also, this is just kind of a hot thing to say. something about the conflicting affection and contempt. i don’t know.

‘Are you that sure of yourself?’ Damen called after him. ‘I think if you could beat your uncle on your own, you would have done it already.’ Laurent stopped in the doorway. Damen saw the cupped yellow of his head, the straight line of his back and shoulders. But Laurent didn’t turn back to face him; the hesitation only lasted for a moment before he continued out the door.

he’s right! laurent knows he’s right! he’s just too proud and delusional to admit it!

probably because to laurent, admitting weakness only results in vulnerability and pain. he wouldn’t believe that anyone would actually want to offer him help without an ulterior motive. so his guard stays up, and he does what he needs to do alone.

Laurent was leaving tomorrow. Laurent, infuriating, intolerable Laurent, was pursuing the worst possible course, and there was nothing Damen could do to stop him.

“i hope she fries / i’m free if that bitch dies / i’d better help her out” (buffy the vampire slayer, once more with feeling)

It was easier to blame the death of a boy on mischance than that of a young man about to ascend to the throne. Damen could see no reason why boy-Laurent should have escaped that fate. Perhaps familial loyalty had held the Regent back . . . until Laurent had blossomed into poisonous maturity, sly-natured and unfit to rule.

context: the regent kept laurent alive as a child and teenager so he could [redacted] >:(

Laurent could inspire homicidal tendencies simply by breathing. Kastor, he thought, had no idea what lay across the border. Kastor had embraced an alliance with Vere. He was vulnerable, ill-equipped to fight a war, the bonds within his own country showing cracks to which a foreign power had only to apply pressure.

the dramatic irony here is insaaaaaaaane. damen your cognitive dissonance is showing

Did Laurent really believe he could do this alone? Laurent would need every weapon at his disposal in order to navigate this course alive. Yet Damen had not been able to persuade him of that. He was aware, not for the first time, of a fundamental inability to communicate with Laurent. It was not only that he was navigating a foreign language. It was as though Laurent was an entirely other species of animal.

romance is two strong-willed and competent people communicating despite the odds, becoming stronger and more competent together than they would be apart. also doing improv comedy to survive the horrors

He touched the starburst pattern at his shoulder. He was dressed in Laurent’s colours, and bearing his insignia. That was a strange feeling.

kinda hot. like the collar and cuffs, but they actually earned it.

submission vs. respect theme, etc.

He was to serve and obey, as any man.

but NOT, notably, as a slave.

‘Sleeping in his tent?’ ‘Where else?’ He passed a hand over his face. Laurent had agreed to this?

i love how damen’s follow-up question isn’t necessarily, “do i agree with this?” but “how the fuck did LAURENT agree to this?”

After a long moment, Damen said, ‘Whatever else you think, I don’t share his bed.’ It was not a new insinuation. Damen wasn’t sure why it rankled so much now.

probably because there is something resembling mutual respect developing between damen and laurent, so the implication that their interactions are entirely sexual is offensive. submission vs. respect again!

‘If I’d sent them after you,’ said Laurent, ‘I would have told them you went out the only way you knew, through the courtyard off the northern training arena. Did you?’ ‘Yes,’ said Damen.

hot.

The pre-dawn light bleached Laurent’s hair from gold to something paler and finer; the bones of his face appeared as delicate as the calamus of a feather. He was relaxed against the doorway of the stables as though he’d been there quite a while, which would explain the colour of Jord’s face.

laurent lean #9. smug eavesdropping.

And he did not need gilt to be recognised under a parade standard, only the uncovered bright of his hair.

i’m counting this as damen likes blondes mention #6. implies that laurent is “parade standard” simply because of his pretty hair.

Laurent paced forward. His eyes passed over Damen in turn, displaying jagged distaste. Seeing him in armour seemed to have drawn something unpleasant from the depths. ‘Too civilised?’ ‘Hardly,’ said Laurent.

context: “i cannot fucking believe i’m dressing up my brother’s barbaric killer like a veretian and letting him join my traveling party”

‘What is he doing here?’ ‘Captaining the Guard.’ ‘What?’ ‘Yes, it’s an interesting arrangement, isn’t it?’ said Laurent.

oh, he’s SEETHING. humor as deflection.

‘You should throw him a pet to keep him off the men,’ said Jord. ‘No,’ said Laurent, after a moment. He said it thoughtfully.

context: mainly i think laurent knows that govart’s unsatisfied libido is likely to make him screw up. but also i’d like to believe that he’s just super over the pet stuff

Laurent took it without saying anything. He tucked it carefully into a fold of his riding clothes. Then after a moment, he reached out, and touched Nicaise’s chin with one knuckle. ‘You look better without all the paint,’ said Laurent.

oh he cares about this kid so much, and clearly values his gift. this is the most affectionate we’ve seen laurent in the entire book.

‘Do you think a compliment will impress me?’ said Nicaise. ‘It won’t. I get them all the time.’ ‘I know you do,’ said Laurent.

“so did i.”

‘I’m coming back,’ said Laurent. ‘Is that what you think?’

context: this is meant as a comfort to nicaise, but nicaise hears it as a threat.

neither of them believes that they would ever deserve or receive protection.

‘I’m coming back,’ said Laurent. ‘To keep me as a pet?’ said Nicaise. ‘You’d love that. To make me your servant.’ Dawn passed over the courtyard. Colours changed. A sparrow landed on one of the stable posts close by him, but lifted off again at the sound of one of the men dropping an armful of tack. ‘I would never ask you to do anything you found distasteful,’ said Laurent.

context: this is the truth.

It didn’t surprise Damen that Laurent was popular with the townspeople. He looked the part, all bright hair and astonishing profile. A golden prince was easy to love if you did not have to watch him picking wings off flies. Straight-backed and effortless in the saddle, he had an exquisite seat, when he was not killing his horse.

NICE VS. GOOD THEME! damen thinks that if the townspeople saw laurent as he does—a bitch—they would realize that he isn’t good. because he still believes, most of the time, that niceness equates to goodness. and so every pleasant quality laurent possesses—his appearance, his title, and his skills—is in opposition with his unpleasant behavior. laurent’s unpleasant actions and qualities are, simply, Not Good. and damen is too distracted by laurent’s more tasteful qualities to consider how his distasteful decisions could be more ethical than they appear (for example, mercy killing the horse his uncle poisoned).

inversely, we have damen and akielion slavery. damen knows the gentle submission of slaves in ios, and the way their masters “honor” them—in that, he sees goodness. but when he sees the cruel way veretians treat akielion slaves, he sees wrongness, which he then advocates against. but what he can’t see, is that “palatable slavery” (gag) is still slavery, and just as wrong in akielos as it is in vere. and it is just as evil of akielos to partake in the institution, if not more evil since it’s their institution in the first place, than whatever is going on in vere. 

damen has moral integrity. he has a mind and he uses it. but he also has a massive blind spot, because he believes that everyone else in the world is as honorable as he is.

laurent has the opposite blind spot. he doesn’t expect anyone to be honorable, ever. least of all his brother’s killer.

the two of them make a good team.

final notes

damen likes blondes mentions: 6

laurent leans: 9

(nice)

character elements to watch out for: 

laurent perspective context (knowing what i know, what sense can i make?)

laurent & nicaise

laurent coping mechanisms (pretending, delusion)

damen coping mechanisms (avoidance, distraction)

damen reconsidering the ethics of akielios

mutual moral arbitration

series themes: 

niceness vs. goodness

submission vs. respect - “there is no honour in obedience”

suffering alone vs. fighting together

pain and humor

honor and integrity

sex, power, innocence, violence

trauma, desire, consent

[alatismeni-theitsa]

I really really hope I don't end up coming off as rude in this, but I found your account from the Hades tag (the game--which I suppose I don't really have the same negative feelings for, both because I'm neither greek nor religious and thus am very disjointed from the frustrations expressed ) and seeing as the designs were the main talking point (I know I'm oversimplifying her I'm so sorry if this comes off as rude) I was curious as to what would be a respectful depiction of Greek mythology. Greek mythology has always been something I enjoyed reading about, but knowing that a lot of my exposure to it has been heavily westernize one way or another, I was wondering if I could ask for I guess more insight? I might not share the same feelings (due to again having grown up unreligious and thus trying to compare how I might feel if my own chinese mythology was given the hades treatment isn't exactly far becaue to me they really are just kinda like prompts in my mind--though I'm not sure how wrong it is for me to think like that) I do wish to understand it because your culture religion and mythology isn't a prop. It deserves the same respect every other culture/religion has/is getting. sorry for the lengthy ask, but it's perspectives like you're I want to hear more about though I've struggled to really open up to them because often time the discussions felt hostile (that said I am conflict adverse so this is probably a me problem.). On a final side note (and this is definitely where I am about to sound really stupid/bigoted but I really have to ask because my conscious will not leave me alone about it) but would it be ignorant for a person such as myself to find enjoyment from a game such as Hades less because of it's mythological roots though they are a factor and more for the story it's decided to tell (for what is honestly when I really do think about it) using the greek mythology "props"? Like enjoying it seperate from the source material?

Hello and apologies for taking so long to answer! Two consecutive hours where I exist undisturbed is very rare in my life during this period, so please, again, forgive me for replying a month later. 💜💜💜

A second anon question I got about the same issue:

I appreciate both of you for asking. Identifying the problem in the context of your situation, and what you don't know is a great step forward (and I am very sorry I wasn't able to respond to you earlier). For those who don't know, this blog, despite the salty content, is all about peaceful discussion and understanding.

I think answering the first anon ask will also cover the first. Let me start with one point and elaborate on the rest:

"On a final side note (and this is definitely where I am about to sound really stupid/bigoted but I really have to ask because my conscious will not leave me alone about it) but would it be ignorant for a person such as myself to find enjoyment from a game such as Hades less because of its mythological roots though they are a factor and more for the story it's decided to tell (for what is honestly when I really do think about it) using the greek mythology "props"? Like enjoying it separate from the source material?"

Neither I nor any other (sane) Greek would like to police people in a way of stopping their enjoyment of media. Like other Greeks, I have also played Hades and liked it. I believe we can enjoy the present media and still advocate for better media in the future. We can all be more aware, and push for gods and heroes to be treated like the cultural figures they are, and not as products of late-stage western capitalism.

Greek gods and heroes cannot be separated from their culture and still be the same since they no longer carry their stories or embody the same values. (This goes for every cultural figure.) What would be the point of Heracles if your only exposure to him was that "he is an ancient strong guy who kills monsters"? There is a whole story to him beyond that, what makes him "Heracles", a hero that Greeks hold as a symbol even in our days. Without his story, he's no different than an average modern American superhero.

To the first anon: If you were to explain any Chinese hero or deity to me, you would still need to explain all the "surrounding" elements, like the world domains, the monsters, what is "respectful" and what is "not respectful" to do within the context of the Chinese culture. You wouldn't just drop the figure in question and expect me to understand everything, right? And for this reason, I don't think it would be fair to this figure and the Chinese audiences to just drop this figure separated from Chinese culture in a super American setting. As you suspected, it would leave a bad taste in the mouth of religious and non-religious people who know this figure.

There is some effort from Western media to incorporate these elements into their stories but it's done superficially through the classic Americanized lens. This doesn't allow the audience to feel these values and stories within a different context. The producers will do anything so (mainly Western) audiences don't feel alienated by exploring a foreign culture - but this entirely misses the point of exploring a foreign ancient culture.

I don't want to be entirely absolute here and say that no modernized depiction of these figures is good. It was even a fresh take a few years ago but now the market is so saturated with this presentation that even the audience who "loves Greek myth" is only exposed to this, and misses all the nuances of the ancient Greek context.

To its credit, the Hades game incorporated some ancient elements successfully (the gods offering their favor and getting vengeful when ignored, or having their own "human-like" interactions without getting reduced to the presentation of "petty humans"). This is more than what most westernized media has achieved but I still feel we only got crumbs compared to what we could have.

For me and some other Greeks, the game would be considerably elevated by the use of actual Greek culture, in addition to its cool story. By "actual Greek culture" I mean ways of interaction, clothes (not just the standard white chiton), music, etc. It looks like most western media fears that the Greek gods inside their culture will be "too foreign" for their audiences, which treats the audiences as if they're dumb and frustrates the already tired Greeks because god forbid we ever are "too foreign", "too unapproachable" to rich/western foreigners.

As always, depictions of heroes and gods from other cultures should be kept. The very recent phenomenon of westerners just deciding to "re-paint" the Greek gods Nordic pale or West African dark - according to their social sensitivities of the time - is a decision they took alone and without any consultation of Greeks. It's a decision that treats the Greek gods like props, as well, precisely because people of the original culture were never asked, and they are negative about this type of change. This decision was taken with the same brass the western colonizers used these same figures to set harmful standards for the colonized peoples and other nations they deemed "lesser", like the Greeks of their time themselves.

As we are not expected to change Maori, Chinese and Congolese gods' appearance (symbols, clothing, phenotype (or "race" as it is in some countries)) same goes for Greek gods. We grant all gods this standard because we recognize that they're - among other things - symbols of the overwhelming majority of the indigenous people of their land. Many USians mistakenly equate Greeks with the Western colonizers and the US culture, a thought that feeds their ownership attitude which I've spoken about many times in the past and i won't elaborate further on, for the sake of your sanity xD

Finally, if one struggles to place the Greek gods in the context of an actual religion, I think it would help them to read ancient hymns for the Greek gods (which are widely available online, in English at least) so they can see firsthand the veneration they were/are worth to their worshippers. Reading plays like the Bacchae or Alcestis, or parts of the Iliad and the Odyssey where the gods are present will show the magnanimity of the gods within the religion.

I'd also encourage them to recall examples of being present when their family or friends expressed veneration towards a deity (be it the God of Abrahamic religions, the Chinese pantheon, the Hindu pantheon, and so on) and try to imagine the same veneration towards the Greek gods. Studying Greek Orthodoxy is another way to understand this veneration. Since many ancient Greek elements remain in our Christianity, in it one can find many of the old type of respect. (Saint veneration replaced the deities' worship, the Greek type of offering worship, prayer to a home altar with offerings, road altars, funerary customs and processions, etc). If one is already familiar with Christianity this study would be a good middle step, in my opinion.

Having the context for each Greek myth figure one uses can be challenging but big studios should be able to hire specialists and offer proper representation. "They want the pie whole and the dog full", as we say here; they want quick profit with the least possible effort. They know that if they just name-drop some stuff western audiences will believe they have done deep research because previous media never invited them to engage deeply with the Greek heritage.

No culture is "uncomplex" and "easy to learn". Ancient Greek culture, like all, needs significant study to fully grasp. People should not expect to know it all after one Wikipedia reading. There's always more to learn and more context to be understood. The good news is that if you speak English and have an internet connection, translations and analyses of ancient Greek texts are super accessible to you.

It shouldn't be expected from all people to become experts but if one "loves Greek mythology" and their knowledge is PJO level, I am sorry but this person doesn't really know what they "love". A decent amount of study, at one's own pace, will enrich and deepen engagement with the Greek myths. Once you gain more knowledge, you understand why it's needed.

For the second anon's question, "What would be a proper representation of a Greek god", I have mostly answered it in the above paragraphs, but I would also like to add something culture-wise. Since the Greek gods in the media can exist in various eras, one should not divorce them from the Greek element. The Greek gods are an expression of the ancient Greek collective, therefore it wouldn't make sense for them to have lost all touch with Greek ways of thought and attitude. If they were Americans, they wouldn't be WASPs, or Native Americans or Black Americans. They would be more like First Gen Greek Americans. They would love (to a healthy degree) and mention their culture because that's where they came from and that's what they represent.

[thenamesblurrito]

assorted Transformers fics to rec (part two!)

first list here! have more fics i missed the first time or discovered since then or were recommended to me by others! if you decide to read these, i recommend leaving a comment if you can to encourage the writers and show some love! 🥰 note: the ones marked with * were ones i read a long time ago and did not reread before adding them to this list, so i am going off the good vibes in my memory

An Act of Revenge for Crimes Uncommitted

canon soup, incomplete, AO3. young Orion Pax wakes up mutilated, empurata'd, and his assailants punished him for the crimes of one Optimus Prime. ooooo this is kind of heartwrenching, truly intriguing and unjust and mmmmm drama. time travel, gore, mind the tags here, a fascinating look at a bad timeline! some of the functionism stuff in here actually helped inspire my own functionist setup in SNAP

Blackout and Reboot

canon soup, complete multichap, AO3. amnesia was not on the table when Thundercracker agreed to go undercover as a human. giant robot aliens weren't on the table when Marissa took it upon herself to help the weirdest guy she'd ever met. it's a match made in heaven. i love this fic okay it's got some fantastic wth moments and TC being TC and Marissa being awesome and just. i like it. the writing could use some technical polish but the action and plot concept are good, and the fun alien/human interactions are my jam. has a sequel i haven't read

Canonfodder*

TFP, incomplete, Spacebattles. a series of harrowing updates from a poor hapless nobody isekai'd into the body of a Vehicon on dead Cybertron, and all the nonsense that spirals from there. i like this one, the pacing can get a lil jagged and the technical skill of the writing is a bit off but that's often the nature of these forum fics, i didn't mind it. definitely love the inclusion of Kup, and space video games, and the limited but interesting choices the protag can make when presented with such a dismal situation makes for a very compelling, journal-style story. if you don't know how to navigate forum fics like this, just use the links in the first post to skip to each snippet

Catching Feelings

TFA, oneshot with sequel, AO3. Bumblebee and Charlie are clearly a Thing, so what's Optimus doing thinking about her so much? honestly i just like this ship concept especially in a TFA context, it's very cute and awwwww poor Op, sorry you're experiencing emotions!

Commonality and Misunderstandings

canon soup, incomplete, AO3. a collection of scenes showing just how humans and mecha can figure each other out, no matter how wide the cross-cultural divide. this is cute! i like the human OCs and the shenanigans. talks about gender perceptions, has some mech-preg mentions, and hits some good emotional moments

the consequences of being a vehicle on Earth - even if only as a part-timer

TFA, oneshot, AO3. out of everyone who has to deal with the legality of autonomous sentient vehicles, it's Fanzone. dear god, save him. a very funny little read that honestly addresses some things i constantly wonder about re: driving laws and the bots. nothing more tortuous than the DMV!

Curious Thing, Isn't It?

vaguely G1, oneshot, AO3. the Ark crew, freshly crashed on Earth and uncomprehending of English, discover one of the tiny squishy native inhabitants. a very cute little scene, i love the variety of reactions and how they treat the kid they found

A Fourth to Remember

G1, oneshot, AO3. it's the 4th of July, and Wheeljack has taken it upon himself to make a fireworks show. lovely little story of his typical nonsense taken large-scale, and some interesting culture collision too!

The Great Space Opera

IDW/TFP crossover, incomplete, AO3. Brainstorm does a whoopsie and uh oh, is that Team Prime in the Lost Light? only a little bit written but VERY fun and i love the mindbending reactions of Ratchet meeting Ratchet. the whole premise is just. mwah

Introduction to Cybertronian Biomechanics

canon soup, incomplete, AO3. a small collection of medical essays and articles detailing a breakdown of anatomy. really fascinating, very coherent explanation that manages to condense canon and fanon into something understandable, perhaps even plausible!

Liberty Island's Decisive Battle: Godzilla vs Trypticon!

Aligned/Godzilla crossover, oneshot, AO3. when Trypticon is resurrected by dark energon and heads towards New York, Fowler remembers a certain other giant lizard monster that might be able to help. Rescue Bots cameo, Miko gets to speak Japanese, Godzilla is awesome, this is just the fic ever

Malto Family Search & Rescue

ES, oneshot, AO3. a Decepticon named Thundercracker shows up at the Malto home in the middle of the night to beg a vital favor: help find his lost dog! SUCH a cute and good and wonderful little fic that fits right in to canon!! i love TC and i love the Malto family interactions and just. oogh lovely little fic. has sequels that i am saving for a rainy day pick me up

marriages of convenience (and the inconvenience of explaining them)

IDW, oneshot, AO3. Minimus is a widower. this fun fact is dropped rather unceremoniously. the painful awkwardness is marvelously in character, there are feelings and funnies and an uncomfortably heartfelt discussion about this matter-of-fact revelation that manages to characterize each of them so well, especially Minimus

Murder Mystery Night

IDW, oneshot, AO3. it's NIGHTBEAT'S NIGHT, BABY! lovely little mystery following around the Lost Light's greatest detective when a fun game night is abruptly shut down by a real actual murder! can Nightbeat find the killer in time?

nothing is more sacred than any other thing

vaguely G1, oneshot, AO3. Skyfire is a nerdy scientist with nerdy friends, which means most shenanigans surrounding him are nerdy. very cute and fun little fic about friends and mushrooms and Starscream being duped! first in a series of oneshots that i haven't gotten around to reading yet but look equally lovely

Objectification

G1, oneshot, AO3. a human and a Cybertronian have very different opinions on who exactly the victim is in an oversexualized music video. stupid funny and good, just the way i like it! last line kills me

Optimus Prime is Destined to Die!!

canon soup AU, incomplete, AO3. poor little Orion is isekai'd into a Cybertronian fantasy light novel as one of the soon-to-die forgettable side characters: the cold prince Optimus Prime. supposed to be MegOp but that hasn't really shown up yet. fantastic premise i leapt at immediately, with interesting royal politics and classic isekai tropey vibes. it's a little slow in places from a lot of (warranted!) purple prose introspection, but i find it cool enough to read through and follow poor Orion adjusting to his new existence!

Return Me to the Stars

TFA AU, incomplete, AO3. when a near-dead little Prime is picked up by the Nemesis, it sparks a lot of shenanigans, mysteries, and interesting political developments, all thanks to Optimus being Optimus. i really love the way this fic is developing, with a terrified Autobot in enemy territory doing the best he can, an expanded cast of Decepticons, a lot of fun worldbuilding, and very engaging and dynamic interactions. features a good bit of whump for our tough lil Prime. tagged as MegOP which is still slowly developing, pretty realistically taking their time to find some kind of even footing without breaking their characterization which i greatly appreciate! the writing itself could use some spellchecking but the plot and pacing are very engaging nonetheless

Scaredy-Car

G1, oneshot, AO3. i love a good comedic misunderstanding and boy the assumptions people are making about Breakdown are WHOOF. kinda cracky, a smidgeon dirty, and just the right amount of loserness that is the entirety of the Decepticon army

The Season of the Smallest Stars

sorta IDW/Stardew Valley crossover?, incomplete, AO3. you weren't expecting a small troop of adorable little robots to help you with your farmwork. a very soft cute little fic, i love it!!! never played SV but it's easy enough to follow along anyway, and i love the cute beeping Lost Light bots helping out our farmer

Second Star From Morning

technically IDW, incomplete, AO3. only a little bit written but SELF INSERT BABYYYYYYYYY gotta love it when your protagonists are aware that this is in fact a fictional character! the panic, the questions, the wahuh?? captivating premise, i hope the author comes back to it someday

Skywarp And The Wonders Of The Unnatural World

G1, oneshot, AO3. their summary sums it up best: "The Elite Trine have a very serious and mature debate on the existence of mythical creatures." extremely funny to me, i LOVE when they're stupid and petty and catty and silly!! Skywarp is so dumb i love him so much

Small Problems*

G1, ongoing series, AO3. average human Crystal finds some shrunken Autobots lost in the big city, and her life only gets weirder from there. an OC-centric series that--spoilers for later in the series--may have been one of the original "human turned into Transformer" fics! the whole series goes from sweet and funny to heartwrenching and angsty, with a lot of in between. i love the OC and sympathize with the horrible things she ends up going through, and also the heights to which she rises! slowburn Prowl/OC, with a bit of love triangle with Jazz in there too (funfact this was the second ever piece of media in which i encountered Blurr)

Sparkless

TFP, incomplete, AO3. a Vehicon left behind finds itself fixed up by a human, and might just gain some personhood along the way. a VERY sweet little story oogh i love this Vehicon!! poor thing i want to give them hot chocolate and a blankie. it's a lovely story with an intriguing premise

Stop Me*

TFP, incomplete (but with over 200 chapters), FFN. Starscream nearly dies at the claws of the Predacons... and then he's alive again, in the past, as if none of that ever happened. a rather (in?)famous fic in the fandom, i've found, although when i first read it i didn't know that. a very interesting take on a Starscream redemption AU, paired with some fascinating outlier power moments! a little bit wooby about Screamer (maybe a lot wooby?), a lot of whump, a lot of emotion, maybe some hints of StarOP idk if that's become an actual ship since i last checked. ymmv on this one depending on your Starscream opinions but i was hooked for the whole time for sure! i need to catch up, it's technically still updating. also the author has another, shorter, complete Starscream redemption fic which i also enjoyed, check that out too

A Streetcar Named Traitor

G1, oneshot, AO3. Megatron doesn't take Starscream's defection well and Optimus has had enough. very stupid, very funny, makes me cackle as Megsy gets dunked on

Sudden Active Development... I certainly feel SAD at the moment*

TFP, incomplete, Spacebattles. another isekai forum fic, this time somebody gets dropped into the body of Nemesis Prime and has to deal with running around as an Optimus lookalike! i like the misunderstandings and the process of adapting to a strange new body. some stilted dialogue, and it gets a little weird about gender perception but i can gloss over that. ramps up with more canon characters, a sprinkling of OCs, and completely taking canon off the rails within the last few posts! this one has threadmarks for easy navigation

Turning Points*

vaguely G1 AU, incomplete, FFN. Prowl was one of the most brilliant tacticians among the Decepticons, and then they destroyed his home. it's gonna be a long climb into the good graces of the Autobots for this defector. an absolutely fantastic character driven piece with a brilliant premise, i love how Prowl is written. and the politics of defecting and dealing with a security hazard, mmmmm good!

An Uneasy Partnership*

sorta G1/Armada/canon soup?, ongoing series, FFN. Alexis keeps an unruly Starscream in her barn. this can only go well. this series is WILD, it escalates and gets worse and then better and then worse again, you root for Screamer and then you hate him, poor Alexis is on a constant horrid rollercoaster but hey, (spoilers), she gets a cool robot body and also a tyrant king boyfriend out of it??? but man is it a long, manipulative, whumpy road to get there. the powerplays and emotional turmoil in their dynamic just keep going and it's fascinating, although probably not for you if you don't like bad power imbalances. it's the end of the world as we know it and whatever comes on the other end is going to be only as good as you make of it. i think this series may also be sort of (in)famous in the fandom? idk i don't pay attention that well

Untitled

IDW, drabble, tumblr. in an unexpected meetcute, Minimus finds himself rescuing Rung. honestly it's just a quick little concept of a conversation but it has captivated me and i'm obsessed with it

[diiwata]

talk abt the bkg one to me PLEASE kt was the thing that drew me in to your fic

"the big one" -> my hc natural disaster of district 4!

aka: my interpretation of how district 4 got to rebel and finnick got reaped via a super big earthquake.

DISCLAIMER: hey gang, this is just MY hc and there are barely canon facts here, so don't go rambling in my inbox about how i'm wrong, please. this is all for funsies and to fill in the blanks of my fic b/c suzanne gave us quite the blank slate for d4! if you wanna add earthquakes into your own personal hcs and fics, feel free to! i don't own this hc, i think... well, i definitely don't own earthquakes!

index (hope you guys enjoy my titles):

THE FAULT (LINES) IN OUR STARS: some context for california's earthquakes

CAUGHT LACKING: "the big one" and the capitol's subpar response

THE LOVERS-TO-EXES ARC: district 4's break up with the capitol

A FINNICK-NOMENON: the 65th and 70th hunger games

anywho, thanks letting my ramble, anon. yay!!! now that ik you're reading crtfy, i'm soooo curious as to who you are, but i'll respect your decision to stay anonymous <3 as mr. worldwide says, dale!

THE FAULT (LINES) IN OUR STARS: some context for california's earthquakes

to start off, "the big one" is an actual phrase used to describe the major earthquakes in california that happen every 100-250 years according to experts. this is a state in the us that's filled with fault lines. however, little quakes show up every now and then. many people are quite unfazed by them since they're pretty small and don't disrupt every day life very often.

from here on out, i will refer to the big one as TBO to be quicker!

this video shows an earthquake from 1989. it had a magnitude of 6.9-7.2 and lasted 10-15 seconds (according to google). TBOs go up to 7.8 and above (again, according to google), so they pale in comparison to the devastation d4 experiences in my fic.

CAUGHT LACKING: "the big one" and the capitol's subpar response

i imagine TBO taking place -- in my fic, at least -- 2 years before finnick's games. in my fic, TBO happens a month or two before the games. during this, the career academy was finding eligible careers (avg age of 18) to volunteer for that year's reaping.

when TBO occurred, many buildings and homes were hit. among these was the career academy. the death toll would be pretty high, and i imagine only a few careers survived. a fire might've started as a result of broken wires and spilled oils. i don't want to make this more tragic than it already is (and yet i'm doing it), but earthquakes can also cause tsunamis... so... i dunno if you wanna add that into your own interpretations of d4, but there's that.

basically, this is REALLY tragic, right but what does the capitol ask in response?

"so... can y'all still fish, or--"

and of course they fish! they're scared of the consequences that they'll face. the capitol already sends the bare minimum of aid, a couple packages of food, and shoves cameras in their faces for their performative charity. what happens if they go against the capitol at their most vulnerable?

furthermore, aid only went to the merchant class and those who only lived by the fisheries. poor urban areas barely get any recognition, so they suffered the most from TBO.

THE LOVERS-TO-EXES ARC: district 4's break-up with the capitol

their treatment from the capitol is a reason they get disillusioned by them and why they are one of the first to rebel. at their weakest, the capitol only cared about whether or not production continued.

just like the other career districts, i believe district four was as heavily propagandized as one and two. just because they produced the "nice" victors like mags, finnick, and annie doesn't mean that they didn't train as hard or fight as roughly! as @anniecrest4 said in this post (hope you don't mind the tag, i simply love this post), people want their children to live! everyone is desperate and you can't blame them!

a betrayal as big as district four's, a career district, can only be caused by a bigger betrayal from the capitol.

the careers, i believe, also had a change of heart. the surviving ones didn't volunteer because they've seen so. much. death. peers? dead. family? dead. loved ones? dead. them? well, they sure hope not! not any time soon. so, they don't volunteer. TBO showed that nothing in life is guaranteed. your life, especially in panem, is not guaranteed. and sure, they feel selfish. the district probably thinks they're selfish, too. but can't they'd rather be that than selfless and dead. just this once they don't sacrifice their time and effort to join the fight to an early grave.

so d4 became a laughingstock of the career districts when they sent their first reaped kids (in a while) to the arena. their reputation in the capitol plummeted within a span of two years. that was until finnick was reaped, of course.

A FINNICKNINOMINON: the 65th and the 70th hunger games

obviously, i just set up the entire reason finnick was reaped, but i also believe that he was a career-in-training! this would explain how he was able to win the games: through basic training. of course, he got extra help from the trident, but i think his performance gave d4 the incentive to return the career training.

they saw his potential. their hope for a better turn-out for their district was high with finnick. he must've understood the trust they put in him, and he surely would've felt the pressure. if he won the games, the capitol would pay attention to their cries for help.

and if they kept winning, then maybe, they can finally have some semblance of their livelihoods back.

so, slowly but surely, they tried to get the career academy back up and running, but with a different intent: to train kids for when they get reaped OR for older kids to volunteer and save the younger kids from getting reaped. they don't want the weak and vulnerable to be punched down further anymore. volunteers will die with honor. not for the capitol, but for their district.

enter annamarie cresta in the 70th hunger games: the first female career since "the big one".

aaaand that's it! i hope you enjoy. sorry if this is longer than you thought it'd be, but this hc has several layers to it and i wanted to cover all bases. lmk what you think!

[foone]

Please don’t feel obligated to reply because this might be a touchy issue, but i see on one of your posts that you hate Hacker News. I just discovered HN a few months ago and have been enjoying it, but as a fellow trans person i’m curious if they’ve been transphobic or the like (based on the context of your comment) and if i should stay away

OKAY SO here's thing thing: as a reader, HN is... fine. They're not great. They have a history of sexism in what posts get boosted and a history of various shades of transphobia in the comments, but that's not particularly unusual as far as internet forums go. Reddit is much the same, for example.

My problems with HN are related to getting posted there. The way the site works when you're reading it and when you're getting posted there are very different. More explanation under the readmore since this got long. (warning: some talk of transphobia and doxxing)

The site is not avoidable. Back when I was still on twitter, getting posted on HN meant your notifications were useless for a week, because they are scraped by endless bots trying to farm for likes and reblogs, and every single one of them ends up tagging you. And even now when I'm off twitter, getting posted there means you still get informed that you've been posted there, by well-meaning people who know you hate it, or are just innocently commentating on how it's neat to see you on HN. Or hey, in the latest iteration, you find out because your askbox is now full of slurs (and not just the ones you'd expect!). Basically, it is impossible to be submitted to HN and not know about it.

And then it gets worse because it's now a known fact that I don't like being on HN. Meaning every time I AM on HN, it turns into a big debate in the comments about why I don't like HN, why I post the way I do, and people arguing with the explanation of my opinion. I'm not even there, and people are mad at the phantom of me for not doing things in the way they like.

Because how I post is part of what they always get mad at me about. I have severe ADHD: This is a well known fact about me, I post about it a lot. It means that I used to post on twitter a lot, because twitter was (at the time) one of the only sites I could post on at all: The way it makes you chop up your line of thinking into small chunks, each of which is small enough that I can focus on it. I've since managed to handle tumblr-posting, and I occasionally post on mastodon now, but for most of the time that I was posted on HN, I was posting this way, only on twitter, in long threads where I don't think much ahead or do editing/revisions BECAUSE I CAN'T.

And here's the thing about people who prefer more "traditional" geek news sites like HN: A lot of them are there because they hate the bite-size nature of sites like twitter and tiktok. And they are Not Happy with people submitting twitter threads to HN: They hate that kind of formatting of content, and announce that fact, loudly.

And then people in the comments point out that I have ADHD and can't post in the style they'd prefer (long well-edited blog posts), and then it turns into an argument there, often with people happily brining up their opinions on whether ADHD is "real" or things like that. Again, I'm getting argued about without being there to defend myself.

And this is where it gets transphobic, through the indirect route of sexism: Someone says something innocent but vaguely dickish like "well he should just hire someone to rewrite all his twitter posts as blog posts!" (like they think I am doing this as a job and can afford to pay an editor, rather than just some weirdo who rants because that's what they do). They assume I'm a man, because most of the people who get posted on HN (and especially the ones who get upvoted) are. They just assume everyone without an Obviously Female Name and a profile picture that's a photo of a smiling woman is male, and honestly they're probably right most of the time, because that's just how the gender balance on HN ends up working.

And then someone points out I use they/them pronouns, and it just goes to shit. You get people yelling that it's not their job to figure out the pronouns of everyone they're talking about, like it's a perfectly normal thing to just assume everyone is male, you get people arguing about how "he" used to be the gender neutral pronoun, you get people arguing that singular-they is ungrammatical, you get people taking offense at the very idea of they/them pronouns because "you can't force everyone to follow your religion" (as apparently either trans or non-binary is a religion now (well, I am a pope)), and then a bunch of "[post flagged]" and you can only speculate about how bad THOSE posts were, if so much other transphobia is still sitting in the comments, untouched by the supposed moderators who are supposed to delete it.

You get people calling you mentally ill, and then getting in arguments about how they mean YOU SPECIFICALLY for the crime of "wanting to not be posted on HN", and not all trans people. Because apparently the HN rules are fine with you saying "this specific trans person is mentally ill and should be locked up" as long as you don't imply that your statements also apply to trans people in general.

And then you get hate in your contact forms for days because people realize you're not active on the HN comments and need to bring the "fight" to you directly.

And frankly, this whole mess is made worse by the site's userbase treating it as a joke or something easily fixable. Like, aside from making my pronouns "obvious" (I'm not sure how, exactly? it's already in all my profiles) which wouldn't help, they want me to just move to a different site, one where I can easily block incoming links by their referrer? They always point to JWZ's blog as an example of this, but he's hosting his posts on his own site. He fundamentally is doing something very different than I am, and I really shouldn't have to CHANGE WHAT SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORMS I USE just because they're being a butt.

And treating it like a joke? oy vey! I once posted a rant on tumblr about WHY EXACTLY I don't like getting posted on HN, and guess what happened next? SOMEONE POSTED THAT THREAD ON HN.

They also have a history of getting mad at me for not wanting to be posted on HN, like it's prima-dona behavior or "egotistical". Like I should be just happy that my stuff got posted there, something that has only ever brought negative attention. I think maybe they assume I'm doing this as a job, and every time they link to my stuff, I make a bunch of money? That's not the case. I don't make any money from them. I don't have ads. This isn't my job. (Fun fact: I know at least one person who has their blog set up to show ads only when HN links to their content, and not otherwise)

I really don't know why they think it's egotistical of me to not want to get harassed, dismissed, and spammed by their site and their users. It's almost like they think it's me posting my content on HN myself, which I would never do because it doesn't aid me in any way. If I was making content for them, I would make sure it gets posted there. I'm not, so I don't. I post for the sites I post on. I could blog in a way they'd like and then post it to HN if I wanted to. I don't. I choose to tweet (in the past) or post on tumblr or post on mastodon, because I'm posting for those specific communities.

And the thing about it is that all these points are, to some extent, obvious. And people know them. Maybe not the people posting the most unthinking takes on HN, but others will point them out. So this just contributes to any HN thread on my posts turning into a big argument.

And there's always people going "WELL JUST DON'T READ THE POSTS ABOUT YOU" as if that's a reasonable option. first of all, I can't be ignorant about them, as mentioned before they kick down my door and go HEY FOONE YOU'RE ON HACKERNEWS. But more importantly, I'm trans. Do you know what happens if enough people get mad at you online? They start posting your home address, phone number, and pictures of your face and relatives. I have to stay at least SLIGHTLY aware of how the discussion on me is going, or I'll be completely surprised when someone shows up at my house with a gun. (This isn't hyperbole: I have gotten doxxed before because I made a twitter thread that got the wrong people a little too mad at me)

Anyway I've talked to the admins of the site and they have basically refused to do anything about it. They admit that they can block my posts from showing up on the site, but they don't want to because people enjoy my content. My wishes don't matter.

And anyway the epilogue is that this has mostly worked out by now. I stopped posting on twitter, not because HN was pushing me to a site where I could better control my post's reach, but because Elon destroyed it. I'm posting longer-form content now, not because my ADHD got better, but because years of training myself to write this way has made it so that I can handle writing as if I was on twitter-like sites, without the enforced restrictions of them.

And I have countermeasures against HN now. Offensive and defensive ones. I'm a little less likely to be posting Cool Tech Stuff here on tumblr now (because every time this happens it severely dampens my enthusiasm for the subject), but I'm a lot less worried that something I post will end up on HN now, as I have options. (I don't want to go into them because HN being HN, they might take preemptive counter-countermeasures to try to disarm them).

Anyway, tl;dr: it's okay if you like reading the site. my problems with it are with getting submitted there, not with reading it. As long as you don't submit my content there, that's 100% okay with me.

[yoursassybookwormfriend]

For context, this is a Nevermoor fandom poll on whether or not you're ok with spoilers from people in the fandom who have read Silverborn once it comes out. Please put your thoughts down below, I'd love to hear them!

My thoughts under the cut:

Personally, I made this poll because I'm a bit conflicted over whether or not I want to see spoilers before I read Silverborn, once it comes out (I live in the US, so I definitely won't get it first). On one hand, I'd love to have an unspoiled (besides snippets and things) read of Silverborn, so I can experience all of the twists firsthand. But on the other hand, I also want to experience all of the fanart, fanfics, analyses, and commentaries in real time, I don't want to miss anything!

Again, please reblog and share your thoughts!

[virginoftherocks]

An introduction?

Of course, how could I forget? I'm Yusuke Kitagawa, a second year at Kosei High’s fine arts division. I am 17 years old and pride myself on being a passionate artist. That's all, thank you for your time.

— Sincerely, K. Yusuke

[ ooc: hi! runner of the rp blog here (kemi, she/him!) to tell you that this is — well — an rp/askblog! im musing yusuke kitagawa from persona 5 royal / persona 5 strikers / persona 5 tactica. i will be making little doodles for some asks!

if youre curious about the context of a post, it'll usually say what kind of post it is in the tags. for example, #kitarp is for roleplay responses whereas #kitaanswers is for responding to asks. ooc posts will always start with ooc. if something's open rp, it will be tagged that way. however, feel free to reply to all blog posts still in character! and feel free to have ooc interactions with me! ♡

i am open to anything (non 18+) in rp! this includes ships! a few favs of mine are shukita (protagonist + yusuke), sumikita (sumire + yusuke), yusuharu (haru + yusuke), and makokita (makoto + yusuke) but im okay with anything legal! feel free to do ship related rps! or any request for that matter — i’ll reply to almost everything! pleeeasee magically appear in my ask box! pinky promise i don't bite! ]

[ some extra stuff!!

- i personally interpret yusuke as transmasc bigender and bisexual. however this doesn't need to be brought up in rp! feel free to just use masc terms on my yusuke!

- i can be very shy eueueuue and i might not often start roleplays despite following your rp blog.. nothing to do with you im just.. scared..

- i will totally do AU’s, though bear with me there, and any canon-divergence roleplay!

- i miiightt take a second to respond as i can lose motivation quite quickly and gain it back just as fast... i do very much apologize for this and i will always try to reply within at least 2 days.

- you can always end a roleplay if you've lost interest/motivation, just please reblog saying you're ending it or dm me! though in all honesty if you didn't reply in over a week i wouldn't bring it up i’d just assume it dropped! ^_^ ]

[ thanks for reading! ᡣ𐭩 ]

[foursaints]

Hello!

I'm usually a lurker on here, but I adore ur blog in epic (the Greek kind) quantities. I would like to consume it whole on a rainy day in a dim but warmly lighted cafe with a coffee and cigarettes, to stare into the abyss thinking about non-existent people and with no further obligations in the day (provided that the hems of my pants didn't get wet).

Since I'm already here, I thought I would share a few inquiries.

Firstly, can u elaborate on the Barty being from Dubrovnik thing? Seeing that somewhere in the tags was an absolute jumpscare (Croatia mentioned RAAA🦅🦅🦅). Not to say that I can't see it necessarily, it was just so funny to me and I am curious as to what aspects of your Barty made u associate him with Dubrovnik in some way.

Secondly, do you think that at some point the Rosier twins might have had a form of idioglossia and/or Cryptophasia? Recently, I fell into a rabbit hole of twin case studies (I highly recommend looking up the case of Poto and Cabengo and June and Jennifer Gibbons if you're interested) and I couldn't help but think of your portreyal of the twins.

I definitely see that happening and lingering throughout their adolescent years, especially if they have been neglected and left to their own devices and each other for most of their childhood and if they suffered from additional trauma.

Anyways, sorry for the long ask!

Hope u have a good day. <3

Hello!! never apologize for a long ask this was downright enchanting to read..

firstly i have zero connection to the balkans. barty just doesn’t feel italian to me whatsoever and i love the idea of him being yugoslavic in canon-era. i picked croatia bc of the traditional tattoos lmfao but!! croat followers weigh in

the twins having idioglossia/cryptophagia (their own secret language) is very canon to me, and i think it’s most interesting in the context of magic and spell creation. they’re both inventors, and their private language is part of that.

i believe they grew up inventing spells in a language only the two of them shared, and that magic was stronger but more unpredictable & volatile. they move away from it with schooling, but it comes out in moments of distress

pandora was using their language to spellcast when she blew herself up, and evan was using their language to spellcast when he took moody’s nose

[fictionkinfessions]

Anonymous asked: its the anon that wanted incest tagged https://www.tumblr.com/fictionkinfessions/760240297418588160/appreciation-for-andrewandy-graves-because-hes this one, sorry! and thank you.

this is a long post with additional anon ask responses.

Man. If that's incestuous, a lot of posts under the 'chara love' tag will be needing the incest cw tag.

Don't take this the wrong way. Incest is problematic and triggering and I do take tagging it seriously. But not everything is incestuous by default. We do need to account for alternate canons, platonicly intended sentiment, that in sme context people do not mean incestuous over / under tones even if they have an incestuous canon, and many other countless possibilities. And yes, I'm aware of the source material having incestuous overtones.

That said, the linked confession does not read as incest at all. I'm not going to tag it as incest for two reasons.

One) The op has confirmed none of that was intended as romantic or sexual, despite having an incestuous canon. A lot of other people, whether or not they have incestuous canons, often say the same or similar things. I think it would be hurtful and harmful to many people if we always interpret 'i love my sibling' as incestuous and not default platonic.

Two) I don't want to dilute the purpose of content warning tags. Meaning if a confession does not have explicit or implicit themes or topics, I will not use a content warning tag. That also means I will not blanket CW tag for sources. For example, if Supernatural has violence, blood, and murder, I'm not going to tag every Supernatural source confession with those tags. Otherwise it would become a useless tool to hide triggering content.

Considering I'm familiar enough with the name to tag the source, and that the op has a custom tag, perhaps blacklist one or both if it's a trigger for you.

Anonymous asked: I'm not the anon who asked, but the most recent Ashley Graves ask is this: https://fictionkinfessions.tumblr.com/post/760240297418588160/appreciation-for-andrewandy-graves-because-hes

I'm curious if the anon asking for a TW is OP of the ask or not? Because this ask doesn't seem to say anything inherently incestuous. If it is, sorry for my misinterpretation. But the only thing I could see as romantic in this ask is "taking me to prom," which siblings do sometimes platonically. The intent could be romantic, but imo, it's not INHERENTLY. And If OP meant it that way, I'm really not judging them for expressing how they feel. That's what the blog is for. But, if someone else is trying to take ANY expression of affection that way, just because of the source, then though those implications ARE in the text at some points, I still find it a bit unfair (especially on a kin blog).

So sorry if this is worded horribly or something, I am a little tipsy. And sorry if this sounds slightly personal, I am an Andrew.

Anonymous asked: ACTUALLY, if the last ask (about the Ashley Graves ask) went through, ignore everything I just said. I am drunk and thought I was being helpful, but I'm probably actually just complaining, lol.

Not the anon who asked for a TW on this post, but here is the link: /post/760240297418588160/appreciation-for-andrewandy-graves-because-hes

All I'll say is, I'm not actually sure whether this seems inherently romantic/incestous to me, but I have in fact been wrong before, and trust ur judgement MPC /gen

-Andrew

I'm neurodivergent so maybe I too am reading it poorly. But none of that confession sounded incestuous. It just sounded like a person grateful for an ally during a traumatic childhood.

Anonymous asked: Reply to https://www.tumblr.com/fictionkinfessions/760375296515014656/mpc-can-you-tag-the-most-recent-ashley-graves?source=share

Okay, Anon, are you the same person who asked to tag incest for the post about my memory about going to the mall with Andrew?

Do you think me saying "I love you, you're an amazing brother" is incest? Damn, I can't appreciate my brother for being a good brother, can I? Or was it the fact I mentioned he took me to prom in my canon?

Do you just think everything I say about Andrew is romantically/sexually charged?

-Ashley Graves (who is now just completely pissed off)

MPC, I'm sorry for this mess. If you can't post this reply, just please let Anon know to better themselves and understand actual relationships 🤦🏻‍♀️

Clearly you can't, I guess. I can appreciate being told when I miss tagging something because I don't know the source or I miss subtext because I'm neurodivergent and don't understand the person. But like. Kinda weird they saw that and thought incest. I'm sure it's because of the source material, but still. Idk. That wasn't incestuous.

Connie / mod party cat