#have a bit of

[marlynnofmany]

Courtship Behaviors

(Happy early Valentine’s Day! I wrote this to share with some specific writer friends. It’s short. Enjoy.)

~~~

The space station marketplace was bustling with crowds and conversation, but when a voice spoke from behind me, I was pretty sure the question was for me.

“Can I ask you something?” said the nervous voice.

I turned to see a feathery alien of a species I hadn’t met yet, looking like a flustered eagle — or no, more like a secretary bird. Those were the long-legged ones that kicked snakes, right? This one had shiny white feathers with a pearlescent shimmer, and some very anxious body language.

“Sure,” I said, prepared for anything. Was this a question about the courier ship I’d come in on? A question about Earthlings? Something for me specifically?

Option B.

“Do humans do mating dances?” the bird asked in a rush.

“Uh, sort of,” I said, thinking quickly. “We have dances with a lot of people together, and courting couples might use it as an excuse to show off or get close to one another.”

“But not individual dances?” the bird asked, fidgeting with clawed hands. Those claws were painted with what looked like human nail polish. Awfully similar to the color my cousin was fond of, called “Pinking Of You.”

“Maybe sometimes,” I said. “Why do you ask?”

Pearl-white feathers ruffled into an endearing puffball. “My advances are being ignored,” the alien admitted. “I’m starting to doubt whether my human even realizes. We’ve been working together for many cycles now, and I like to think we know each other well, but…” The alien drifted off into a plaintive chirp.

“Has the human done anything that looked like courtship gestures to you?” I asked.

“Maybe? I don’t know? I thought the food-sharing was just kindness, but it’s become a regular thing, and surely asking to wear one of my shed feathers as a decoration is significant, right? I don’t know anymore.”

“Wait,” I said. “Is this the human with blue hair that I just saw over that way? The one buying a feather-care kit and a necklace with a heart-shaped pendant?”

The birdlike alien stilled, feathers smoothing out. “Heart-shaped?”

“Like this,” I said, tracing the shape in the air. “It’s a sign of love.”

“It is??” Feathers fluttered everywhere as the alien hopped in place. “Is that why — I had no idea!”

“Go talk to your human,” I said. “Maybe you can eat food and go dancing together.”

“I will! Thank you!” The bird pranced off, jumping to see over the crowd like an excited teenager.

I thought about calling out directions to the nearest dance club, since this space station had some great ones, but it occurred to me that the human probably knew. And they could find out together.

~~~

Ongoing backstory adventures of the main character in this book. Very long and storied adventures.

[paintedcrows]

They do this every year...

Happy 25th to Dipdop and Lebam!! and Happy 17th to Hatsune Miku!! 🎉🎉

(comic continued: The M&M stands for...)

[yeepof]

I understand that tall men are our POV characters, but surely being like a foot taller than everyone around them would have some occasional consequences

[butchfalin]

the funniest meltdown ive ever had was in college when i got so overstimulated that i could Not speak, including over text. one of my friends was trying to talk me through it but i was solely using emojis because they were easier than trying to come up with words so he started using primarily emojis as well just to make things feel balanced. this was not the Most effective strategy... until. he tried to ask me "you okay?" but the way he chose to do that was by sending "👉🏼👌🏼❓" and i was so shocked by suddenly being asked if i was dtf that i was like WHAT???? WHAT DID YOU JUST SAY TO ME?????????? and thus was verbal again

[tr-shb-g]

"never too late to be who you might have been" by sara yukiko mon | still from i saw the tv glow, "there is still time"

[marinsawakening]

My biggest tip for fanfic writers is this: if you get a character's mannerisms and speech pattern down, you can make them do pretty much whatever you want and it'll feel in character.

Logic: Characters, just like real people, are mallable. There is typically very little that's so truly, heinously out of character that you absolutely cannot make it work under any circumstance. In addition, most fans are also willing to accept characterization stretches if it makes the fic work. Yeah, we all know the villain and the hero wouldn't cuddle for warmth in canon. But if they did do that, how would they do it?

What counts is often not so much 'would the character do this?' and more 'if the character did do this, how would they do it?' If you get 'how' part right, your readers will probably be willing to buy the rest, because it will still feel like their favourite character. But if it doesn't feel like the character anymore, why are they even reading the fic?

Worry less about whether a character would do something, and more about how they'd sound while doing it.

[rotshop]

thank you princess celestia

[michameinmicha]

Stumbled upon this random ship (in a fandom im not active in myself) that has like 150 works on ao3 which are all from just two people gifting each other fics about this pairing back and forth and theyve been doing it for 3 years... i think thats true love probably

[runawaymarbles]

The thing I keep coming back to, with all the *gestures expansively* is that real life doesn't have peaceful epilogues.

Every single win has to be defended. Forever. I'm sorry. It sucks. The Nazis lost until they stopped losing. The US had abortion rights, and then 50 years later it didn't. Empires fall, and then they invade other countries again. Oppressive regimes are overthrown and replaced with other oppressive regimes. You will never finish the work etc etc etc. Which is why it's so fucking important to be able to acknowledge and celebrate progress, when it happens. The people who came before you didn't put in all that work for nothing, and you aren't, either. You can't save it all for the Ultimate Victory because there is never going to be an Ultimate Victory. There's no such thing as a time when everything is good, and ours shall not be the commune of Heaven.

[justicewasserved]

tma is a show which spends the first 100 episodes going "look at these monsters. aren't they fucked up. yeah and they're all so happy being monsters who hurt people monstrously" and then the protagonist who you've spent hours listening to at this point becomes one of those fucked up monsters, forcing you to either dismiss him as evil or you have to fully change how you view all the previous monsters. and then they spend the next 100 episodes dealing with that

[deaddriv]

Translated with permission!!

Here's the author's Twitter (achu_0u0) and the original post!

Note from author: Wouldn't it be hard for half-foots to go to the movie theater?

[hinamie]

mentor

[seagiri]

today in: i'm not a comic artist

[lavendervalleyexpress]

In Deadpool & Wolverine, one of the Deadpool Corps members is dressed up as Hugh Jackman’s character from The Greatest Showman. This implies that there is an alternate universe where Wade has to sing The Other Side with Logan, to convince him to join the X-Men. In this essay I will-

[crowkip]

yeehaw, baby!

[foolsocracy]

this is actually so funny. imagining garth quipping and contributing to the conversation in his head cause he forgot the rest of the teen titans can't pick up on his telepathy