#having fun writing for writings sake

[voxpraxis]

sorry but i’m tired of books/media with softcore trans guy protags who are wimpy and anxious and never stop thinking about how trans they are and have a flowery little romance with a guy who calls them cute. like that’s all good and fine but where are my trans guy protags who are straight up gross. evil. covered in dirt and blood all the time. give me a trans guy character who spits and kills people and fucks to the death and doesn’t give a shit about shit PLEASE i am begging you

[jonathanbyersphd]

Idk I'm not trying to be a hater but I just don't think that the parentified teenager dying is the BEST ending for his character

[funkytoes]

"is this movie featuring female empowerment roles ACTUALLY bad or are men just sexist" - me whenever a movie with unconventional and/or very powerful female leads gets super bad reviews from male movie critics and youtubers lol

[quantumshade]

gomez!master is by far the best one of nuwho and I will NOT hear otherwise. she feels so much like delgado!master in that her motivations are not exclusively world domination. even before her redemption arc in s10, she has a complex agenda of her own and sometimes that means her goals align with those of the doctor’s. i love seeing the master team up with companions it’s my absolute favorite thing. her dynamic with clara is absolutely fascinating and i find the “i want my friend back” motivation to be five million times more interesting than the “i want to Destroy You Forever” motivation or whatever it was that dhawan!master had going on

[raineandsky]

For Old Time's Sake

(part 1) (part 2)

“It’ll take a few days to ease the pain,” Skat says with a light smile. “A few weeks to heal entirely.”

Skat’s home—or so the prince assumes—is nothing like he’s used to. Wooden floors, slatted roof, bed of straw. Is this really how the majority live? How the hell do they do this? As much as the thought of home makes him sick, he does miss his luxurious quilts.

“Thank you,” the prince says not entirely genuinely. If the old knight has a time frame on his recovery, his chances of slipping away unnoticed are slim. Unfairly so. “I appreciate you not trying to sell me or anything.”

Skat laughs, the sound flattened by the dull walls. A laugh like that probably echoed in the walls of the castle, back in the day. “I still have to hold Gvette off yet,” he says brightly. He unrolls a slice of bandage, popping a bottle open from the bedside table. “She’ll warm up to you, though, I’ve no doubt.”

Gvette disappeared into the woods yesterday to wash the prince’s bloodstained clothes. Not voluntarily, mind—Skat had had to ask her to help several times before she begrudgingly grabbed them and made a show of dragging them along the floor on the way out.

The prince tries and fails to hold back a wince as Skat goes about carefully changing the bandage. The clean fabric, cooled by whatever the healing stuff is from that bottle, is what he imagines heaven must feel like. The old knight sighs in relief as he tosses the old bandage into the bin.

“Can’t help but ask, if you don’t mind it,” he starts slowly, “why’d you leave?”

The prince rolls the edge of the blanket between his fingers, his gaze fixed on the way it waves back and forth under his control like the ocean. “Why did you?”

There’s a moment of silence where the prince risks glancing up at Skat. He gives the boy a blank stare, blinking absently, before breaking into another laugh.

“Yeah, a’ight, touché.” He shakes his head, adjusting idly on his little bedside stool. “Don’t think you’d like my answer much, though.”

“I doubt you'd like mine either.”

“Well,” the man says with a grin, “how abouts this—I’ll tell you mine if you tell me yours. I assume we’re somewhat in the same boat to both be out here, huh?”

It makes sense. Whyever the old man is out here can’t be too different from the prince, right? They both ran from the throne. Both escaped into the wilderness. Both– well, whether Skat ended up in a bear trap as well is a mystery.

“I’ll admit, your father made some poor choices,” he continues. He snivels shortly, dropping his gaze to the floor by the bed. “I couldn’t find it within myself to support a king I didn’t share beliefs with. They were big differences too—it wasn’t just a disagreement on the colour of the curtains. I couldn’t work knowing that what I did brought about terrible things.”

The king isn’t known for his kindness. His entire family isn’t. The prince knows this the best of anyone.

“That’s me,” Skat says with a deep sigh, like it’s a relief to be off his chest. “Your turn, kid.”

The prince opens his mouth, but words refuse to come out. It feels like he’s confessing some great sin to a priest—too much to the wrong person. Easy information to put in the wrong hands.

“It’s a’ight lad,” the old knight adds after a moment. His voice is soft, gentle. “I won’t tell a soul.”

That feeling, that lingering it’s dangerous to show dissent still rings at the back of the prince’s mind. But the man won’t tell anyone. Of course he won’t. They’re a world away from the dangers of the palace here.

So the prince sucks in a deep breath, steels his nerves, and recounts his story.

Taglist: @bushfairy

[cardierreh15]

IN OTHER NEWS …

Uhm, so that movie that’s coming out with Anne Hathaway— the writer of that movie originally wrote for the characters to be black— BITCH IM GAGGED!

I’m sorry— I may be married to one but listen I will neverrrrr, as a black writer/artist — will NEVER cater to a certain audience or demographic simply because I’m not meeting my sales criteria— where is your DIGNITY!?

Im not gonna do that to her ok? Thats not fair, ik how hard it is to be a black writer but thats just crazy to me! Also, the fucking publishers — count your mf days… I’m so sick of these bitches I stg.

[hella1975]

wondering why old ladies aren’t smiling at me around town as much this morning then remember im wearing hoops and a puffer jacket and generally look like a bitchy year 9 girl who’s about to punch someone

[see-arcane]

A Gothic Tale of Two Weird Old Men: Dracula, Van Helsing, Ignorance and Obedience

So, we’ve gotten to the garlic flowers. And the first point in the novel where, on my first read, I felt a tiny prickle of recognition and unease. This section in particular made a little exclamation point pop up over my head:

"Oh, Professor, I believe you are only putting up a joke on me. Why, these flowers are only common garlic."

To my surprise, Van Helsing rose up and said with all his sternness, his iron jaw set and his bushy eyebrows meeting:—

"No trifling with me! I never jest! There is grim purpose in all I do; and I warn you that you do not thwart me. Take care, for the sake of others if not for your own." Then seeing poor Lucy scared, as she might well be, he went on more gently: "Oh, little miss, my dear, do not fear me. I only do for your good; but there is much virtue to you in those so common flowers. See, I place them myself in your room. I make myself the wreath that you are to wear. But hush! no telling to others that make so inquisitive questions. We must obey, and silence is a part of obedience; and obedience is to bring you strong and well into loving arms that wait for you.”

Now, full stop, Abraham Van Helsing means well. He’s a heroic old dude driven by goodwill—and, we can assume later, perhaps a bit of personal history with this particular malady. We’re going to see in later chapters that he is absolutely down to fight for far more than just Lucy and his protégé’s sake. Better still, he provides a great foil against the common themes that so far endanger characters who get in Dracula’s path. Skeptics are endangered because they only acknowledge the truth of the bogeyman in their midst when it’s too late while the frightened believers are too paralyzed by the threat to make a move. Van Helsing combines the Scientific with the Mystic, acknowledges both as equally important, and uses them to his advantage.

Knowledge is power and all that. Dracula really does get away with most of the shit he does half the time because his victims don’t know what they’re dealing with. (The other half of the time, it’s because he’s just bulldozing through victims on a spree, RIP Demeter crew.)

The Count is usually the one holding all the cards and using his advantages to cause harm. Van Helsing brings his own intel and uses it to help to the best of his ability.

That being said?

(Mild spoilers below)

The first time I read through Dracula—and, honestly, every time since—I can’t help picking up on how precariously close Van Helsing treads to the Count’s M.O. of manipulation and Dramatic Withholding of Information with his young charges. Granted, I can let some of it slide via the, ‘But no one would believe me if I said it was a vampire! I had to keep quiet about my reasons!’ excuse.*

*(But, sir, could you not conjure up some convincing medical-sounding bullshit?? It’s the 1890s, they would have bought anything. In fact, why was it only down to you and Jack keeping watch, Dr. Drama? There’s a whole house staff here. Yes, fine, there’s Mom with her weakheartitis, but as long as you spin it as some minor irritation that needs checking in on for updates, it should be fine. And why does Lucy have to keep quiet about the flowers? Why can’t she say it’s for her sleep? Or her health? Or a good luck charm from the doctor, it would be Terribly Rude to Be Rid of Them (read: Against every Victorian bone in hers and Mama Westenra’s body to chuck them). Anyway.)

Without giving too much away, I feel Stoker kind of tips Van Helsing’s charisma points a little too far over the edge in future scenes. Mixed up in a shitton of future The Power of Christ Compels You! overtones, there is a lot of frankly bonkers acting from the rest of the cast when it comes to interactions with/gratitude to Van Helsing for [REDACTED] reasons.

As in, characters are going to start kissing the ground this old man walks on. (metaphoric)

And kissing his hands. (Literal. Yes, Godfather style.)

Dracula was lucky to get flipped off by his Brides. Van Helsing will have these youths rally around him and Every Syllable He Breathes as if it were actual factual gospel (which some is, naturally). With a notable exception in a very livid Jonathan Harker when we get to [REDACTED]. Shout out once more to Bram Flakes for accidentally making this solicitor man Spicy+ after certain events.

Most of me wants to believe Van Helsing’s effect on the others is just Bramarama Stoker pouring all his personal fantasies of being the Lauded and Heroic Professor Doctorman (who happens to share his name, no big deal, ha ha) into this character while the others sing his praises.

But the lit critic in me sees an uncomfortable amount of parallels between Dracula’s casual arcane actions, gaslighting and coercing with Jonathan and Van Helsing’s likewise casual mysterious measures, corralling, directing, and borderline mesmerizing the rest of the cast to follow his lead exclusively, with or without offering the full details of the situation, as we see with Lucy. He’s a good man and an interesting character, but there are Some Scenes that make me wonder if he isn’t using some kind of lowkey hypnotism to make things run a little smoother in the vampire hunter brigade.

[clansunsharp]

since i cant put this in her bio on site: perenth's actual job title is Supreme Bitch

[good-beanswrites]

And here's one with Weak for Fuuta and Amane, for anon! I've recently been going crazy over some ideas from posts about Fuuta and food and he and Amane's relationship, and they came together perfectly with the prompt -- thank you for the request 👀👀👀

“Can you be quiet for one minute?” 

Fuuta spun around from where he’d been complaining loudly about the food, with his mouth full of it, to find Amane glaring from beside him.

“I’ll do whatever the hell I want,” he said through bites. He paused to swallow, though. And take a sip of his drink. And then forgot was he was talking about anyway.

Amane returned to mouthing a blessing over her food. The annoyance in her expression melted away to serenity as she brought her hands together. Fuuta watched as she drew herself up. Then she ate calmly. He could have crumbled in shame, right then, at the thought of this tiny kid holding up better than himself. 

She, too, had experienced the punishments that came with their verdict. Restraints pulled so tight it’s hard to breathe. Long nights of maddening voices and watchful eyes. The smaller meal portions leading to shaky limbs. Fuuta spent every meal inhaling as much as he could as soon as he could -- and here Amane sat as if she had a perfectly content stomach. Through everything, she maintained her strong gaze and commanding voice.

Fuuta reminded himself she did have a few advantages over him. She still had all her eyes and ribs intact, for one. It was difficult to give someone a convincing stinkeye with only one eye.

While he continued shoveling down his meal, he noticed her separating things on her plate. The meat in the corner went completely untouched. 

The aforementioned treatment had made him irritable -- more irritable than usual, that is -- and he jabbed his utensils at her. “Hey, we talked about this. Eat your fucking meat. I’ve been eating my vegetables, yeah?” Not that he wanted to. He would have eaten just about anything they put in front of him if it kept the gnawing hunger at bay.

“It’s against my beliefs,” she said simply. 

“I thought suicide was, too.”

She raised her chin. “I’ve known plenty who have fasted and become stronger for it. This is nothing drastic.”

Fuuta grit his teeth. He’d witnessed his fair share of internet-goers who acted cruel about another’s religion. He wasn’t about to join them in being some piece of shit who forced her to do something that was against her code. But there was no way he was going to sit around and watch her starve herself, either.

He couldn’t blame Amane for how harshly she’d refused help from the others -- they coddled her, encouraging her with sweet talk, or tried an insufferable stern parental tone. Fuuta wasn’t cut out for any of those methods, anyway. What he did know how to do, however, was make threats. 

Even if Amane didn’t fear death, he knew there was one situation she would do absolutely anything to avoid. 

“Oi, if you get any weaker, Shidou’s gonna step in.” Her frown twitched. “He’s already harassed me and Mahiru about our meals. He saw my hand shake one time and hasn't stopped hounding me about it since. The minute he can tell you’re not eating enough, he’ll be all over you. And let me tell you, you’re not very subtle about it.” 

The final statement came out with more bite than intended. Maybe he was bitter that she was at least more subtle than him. Maybe he thought it was fucked up the way she, too, had grown visibly weaker. Maybe he was just hungry and tired of talking. He attacked another mouthful of food. 

Amane was searching her plate as if the answer could be found there. There was a long silence as she contemplated. Fuuta had thought he’d won until she shook her head. “No. I can’t.”

He rolled his eyes and head in an over dramatic show of exasperation. “So stubborn!”  When he was done chewing, he picked up his plate. “Fine.” He gathered up all that was left, dumping it onto hers with a flick. 

A fire ignited in her gaze. She shoved the dish away. “I’m not some weak child to be pitied.”

“Wha–? It’s not pity!”

“You think I’m weak.”

“I think you’re hungry!”

“You don’t know anything!”

Mikoto passed by, chuckling as they raised their voices. “Look at you two hotheaded kids. Do I need to break it up?”

“Go away!” they chorused.

“Alright, sheesh…” He kept walking, leaving the pair to stew in silence. 

Fuuta didn’t have it in him to fight today. He was tired. He ached all over. If she wasn’t going to appreciate his help, so be it. He was starting to get used to his good intentions being taken the wrong way. It looked like he was just the weak one, after all. He grabbed his empty plate and stood to leave.

“Fuuta.” Amane took a deep breath. “I am hungry.” She gestured for him to come back. Then she moved the meat from her plate onto his.

He eyed the offering, hoping his expression didn’t betray how desperately he wanted to scoff it down. “I’m not some asshole who’s gonna take your food.”

“You’re not taking it. I’m giving it. I would have thrown it out otherwise.” Amane picked up some of the vegetables. “In return, I will eat this. We both must stay strong for the ordeals ahead.”

After a moment of hesitation, Fuuta sat back down. He took a bite. Neither said a proper thank you. Neither needed one.

He glanced to Amane with a smirk. “Good. This way, we’ll both keep that geezer Shidou away.”

It was only for a moment, but for the first time since the second trial began, Fuuta could have sworn her lips slipped into a small smile. 

[honeydots]

I would like some teasers about that Xander - Soleil father-daughter support fic please 💖

HEHEHE that'd be my pleasure~~!! i'll put a couple things under the cut c:

the fanart nattie drew for me is from their c-support!! the gist of it is that xander's employing a similar punishment to soleil as he did to laslow for excessive flirting :3 but as they're working in xander's office, they both end up falling asleep, hence the little scene in the art <3

the rest of the support is about soleil lying through her teeth about how she totally isn't flirting anymore so she doesn't get in trouble again, and xander completely seeing through her lie and doing a dad-thing of trying to make her come clean herself instead of directly calling her out !!

[buriedabove]

not a long while ago,  i posted about wanting to explore dynamics more and build more long-lasting connections between the muses,  but as of late there’s also been another related thing circulating inside my head,  which is the topic of romantic shipping.  i always say i’m open to considering those and people should always feel free to approach me about it and then we can discuss whether it makes sense or not,  though something i’m not particularly a fan of is devoiding a dynamic between characters for the sake of shipping.  romance is not my priority and even when it happens,  most of the time those relationships still will be difficult because this is how i write and interpret leon and his approach towards it.  all i’m asking for is some more depth.  otherwise,  simply speaking,  it’s hard for me to stay excited or interested.

[absolute-flaming-trash]

For those of you who don't know what a groan stick noise is

[cosmoknightchaos]

(coughs conspicuously). um. 🌹. for Sky. This is for science purposes. ahem.

🌹(Rose): What does your oc find attractive in other people? Are these traits found in their friends and/or romantic partners? Are they found in themselves?

Purely for science, ey?

Okay first of all before I actually answer this question. Sky's stance on romance as a concept is something I've been trying to figure out since her creation. I don't know how this part of her brain works. It is truly a mystery (<-Aroace who doesn't understand romance in the slightest)

From a platonic standpoint, Sky's looking for people who are similar to her. She likes having friends who see the world the same way she does. For as kind and understanding as she is, Sky's a low-empathy person. She struggles to see things from anything but her perspective- a perspective based more in facts and logic than emotions- and so she automatically likes people who agree with her more. I also believe, because of that, Sky likes folks who are less emotionally conflicted. Which isn't to say she can't handle emotional situations I say as I nervously glance at Act 5 but they're not her favourite thing. She's a reasonable person and she likes reasonable people.

From a romantic standpoint, I cannot stress enough how the stars fucking aligned with Skaide.

Sky is, first of all, really weird when it comes to her romantic orientation. She's probably asexual/demiromantic/panromantic, but I don't know for sure. I know that she experiences both infatuation and romantic interest, very easily confuses the two, and doesn't know the difference between a romantic and a platonic relationship. Sky's in love with the idea of romance more than she is in love, and it makes for incredibly doomed yuri potential.

On the rare occasion she does catch genuine romantic feelings, her type is similar to her platonic type, with a few key differences. Since Sky has a fairly big "stage presence", she leans more towards less-noticeable people. Folks who don't make as grand of an entrance or don't speak quite as loud. Sky has a strong personality and having a more mellow partner evens it out a bit.

All of the words I know of to describe this next bit have negative connotations and that sucks because it's not what I want but I don't know what else to use. Sky likes folks who are opinionated and stubborn. Not in a loud way, but people who have their minds set. Who know what they want. Who aren't very conflicted. Or, who don't seem to be very conflicted. Folks who appear to have their issues under control. Even if said opinions don't fully align with Sky's, as long as they're not in direct opposition, she's willing to adapt her view to match which is a side effect of infatuation, where you want to change yourself to seem more appealing to your person of interest.

I'm going to be honest. I had a whole paragraph written here about how Sky's low-empathy view effects relationships that tied into the Skaide Breakup Arc and why Sky and Jaide are a doomed relationship and I reread it several times and you know what? It was very much out of character. Sky is, despite the low-empathy, very much capable of handling emotional situations and we see that on full display in Act 5. Sure, it's not her best skill, but she is willing to face that issue head-on and try her best to help. So I can confidently say that a lot of Sky's previous romantic experiences, especially the Skaide RP, were just a side effect of me not knowing how to characterize her yet.

But on that note, I still stand by my original comment from months ago that Skaide is a doomed yuri relationship. And I think that all boils down to the fact that, with Sky's low-empathy and experience in emotional conflict, she is a thousand times better at handling platonic experiences than romantic. She is good with having friends and dealing with those issues, but when it comes to romance, she has no fucking clue what to do. It is an unexplored part of her life, and in an attempt to make sense of it, she will always default to treating it like another friendship, regardless of how much she loves the other person. Skaide was doomed from the start because Sky has such a different view on what a romantic relationship is than Jaide does and those views probably aren't going to align. Ever. Skaide is always going to end in them remaining friends because that's the type of relationship Sky is comfortable having.

Now, is there a chance that, somewhere down the line, Sky realizes she loves Jaide enough to try and change that view? Hell yeah. But that's going to come after a lot of conflict and struggle and uncomfortableness. Because, in order for them to become a romantic relationship, Sky has to do the one thing she cannot stand and ignore her logic, ignore the reasoning she always fell back on, and use her emotions to change as a person. And then maybe there's a chance things will work out.

I'd like to finish this off by saying Sky is still in the development stage as a character. I have no idea if any of this will still be true in a couple months' time- Act 5 is Sky's act and I fully believe she's not going to escape development hell until it is finished. But I do know that this is where her character stands right now, and I have a good feeling that it won't change too much over the next few months.

[pandaemoanium]

thank you old gamefaqs walkthroughs i love you old gamefaqs walkthroughs

[the-casbah-way]

consumed by the urge to write jedtavius fic even though my exams are in a week