#i also tend to think of my writing as…pretty niche? if that makes sense??

[stargazer-dreamer]

three of my favorite works i posted in 2023:

erratum discussions. this is one of my favorite fics ive written in general, i love it so much. while i did finish and post it in 2023, i had also worked on it in 2022. it’s been with me for quite the while now, and every note and kudo and comment means so much to me…i have begun a sequel to this fic! but as i am a slow writer, i cannot promise it will come out any time soon. fun fact: this fic marks the second time spike references a specific mcr song, which has become A Thing for him in my writings, apparently.

frivolities. fun fact: both “erratum discussions” and “frivolities” are lyrics from the song reckless battery burns. “frivolities” comes before “erratum discussions,” and i started writing this one before erratum discussions, so it was only appropriate that i named it that way, in my mind. these two are brothers to me. but anyways, i didnt want to write anything for hawks. at all. in 2022, i posted one hawks imagine and i wanted that to be it…but i couldnt seem to stay away from the little bird <3

in comfort; let me rest my eyes closed. im not nice to spike on most days. but i decided to be for this one. i think the imagery and word choices turned out pretty good! i dont quite remember, but i believe i wrote this in a day or two—so it makes me happy it was pretty well received <3 fun fact for this one: the title takes lyrics from an english cover of the chainsaw man opening.

[baby-jaguar]

TF 141: Owl Hybrid HCS

Hi! I'm alive, just working on several things at once so my writing output is slow. This may be too niche but I've been thinking about this too much and wanted to share. Yes, I will be coming out with a Price x reader hybrid fic and this kinda sets the tone for it. I hope you enjoy!

A group of owls is called a parliament.

No warnings. There are some 141 x reader bits as well

PRICE: Blakiston’s Fish Owl

Price is a big bird, and is the largest in terms of body weight and wingspan comparisons. His wings take up a majority of his space when on the ground and in his human form. His feathers are monochromatic with brown and tan, his broad and ragged ear tufts start on his temple and hang slightly to the side- still perfectly seen and sticking out when he wears his boonie hat.

The scars on his neck mark a historic battle between him and a foe. His damage? His vocal chords.

This man has a deep hoot that now sounds like a scratchy croak most nights. He feels self-conscious about it after the damage that occurred but will use it to startle or scare enemies mostly. 

If you ask to hear his hoot he gets flustered.

Being the alpha predator, he is very territorial. Not so much over his nest or room, but rather his parliament. Over the others, he tends to take care of them as a stand-in father figure that none of them have. With his big form and feathers, you can find either of the sergeants nestled into his chest like the pillow Price is.

Playing with his ear tufts is a dangerous game, as your hand will either be pecked at or he’ll give you nesting eyes depending on his mood.

Loves fish, and will even eat it raw if his owl sense is craving it.

His species spends an unusual amount of time on the ground and prefers to travel as humans do when applicable. 

When fishing, he prefers to do so as his breed does. Dive in and catch the fish himself.

Likes to nest in tight spaces (that mimic hollow trees). Will make a fort between a plethora of cushions and blankets to hide within.

GHOST: Great Gray Owl

While Ghost is the largest member of 141, in his owl form, he almost doubles in size due to his plumage. The Great Gray has fluffy feathers and the longest tail, making him all the more threatening

He is not the type to build nests, but will often steal nests of others. He’s been found in Price’s nests when the Captain leaves for office work or has been known to crash into Soap's nest with no care to the men squawking

He’s vain to a fault. Will always preen himself in private, and the one time you pulled a cracked feather he immediately blushed snatched it from your hand, and left in a hurry to make sure there were no others

Once you got to really get close to him, he would let you do it for him.

Absolutely loses it when you call him pretty bird.

You also got him to parrot it back to you once and he almost cried with embarrassment.

Also has a deep hoot, but his come in shorter and quicker successions. 

These owls, much like Ghost, are hard to find. They tend to keep to themselves and blend into their surroundings by remaining still. There is minimal aggression in terms of territory, but when the 141 parliament is threatened, his talons are ready to maul.

SOAP: Barn Owl

Have you heard a Barn Owls call? It can get really annoying or is beyond terrifying.

Soap’s subspecies is the T. a. Guttata; He is large for his species while having grey and orange upperparts with an orange buff. He has speckling to his underpart feathers, and his face is white.

Will sometimes take naps in a roost of his choosing (supply closet, rafters of the gym) but does tend to make his own nest when needing a deep and comfortable sleep after a good meal or long mission. 

Makes a fuss when Ghost crashes his nest. He hisses and snaps his beak at the large hybrid but shuts up when he gets to nestle under his wings.

Soap bonded with Ghost over his species being known as the “Ghost Owl” to some, but also that they have a similar lay of face feathers.

Soap is a curious hybrid in nature, and not always defensive when a different species (or human) is interacting with 141. The first time he met you, his wings splayed out while he looked you over - too closely.

While looking at your dog tags (or any other jewelry) he accidentally beat his wing feathers on your face.

You lost your balance and spooked him, causing him to hiss at you. And beat you over the head with his wing, again.

He is very cuddly when on base, likes to be by your side, and at least has his wing draped on you if it's movie night.

GAZ: Great Horned Owl 

One of Gaz’s strong suits is his ability to camouflage. His feathers comprise a darker brown and even darker, complex markings across. He does have a patch of white feathers on his throat when fully shifted, and people make jokes that it's as if he wears a button-up shirt.

He has the classic owl hoot, and will often use it as comedic relief if a joke doesn't land. It is the most calming and subtle of the group, so he will often use it to find the other members while on base.

His eyes are big. Can give you the sweetest looks without saying anything, and is an absolute heartmelter when his tired eyes show in the daytime.

Like Price, he has tufts on the side of his head but are much smaller in comparison. They do as well peak out from under his cap.

He can adapt to the heat of the desert easily, and if in the Sonoran Desert again, he likes to sit in the sun to warm up.

Gaz does nest, but his is a bit wild and messy in terms of blankets and pillows strewn about when doing so. He doesn't need much, but when in his nesting season he can become aggressive and grumpy.

Price jokes that he can be like a parrot. Somewhat playful but has a tolerance when being preened at by the Captain himself.

Has nipped Price before.

Gaz keeps his talons well-maintained. He lost one in a fight before, and now takes excellent care of them. 

When he becomes fond of you, he will snag you by the arms and fly you in the air with him. Very cautious to not hurt you!

He one time made a nest high up in the rafters in the base but fell out of it and onto the ground when Ghost caught him sleeping.

~~~~~~

Cannot stop imagining Price's owl with a boonie hat on top. Like PLEASE. So cute and deadly.

[defilerwyrm]

Hey, trans guy here, and while I’m not personally interested in getting bottom surgery, I am interested in writing t4t erotica involving guys who have. Do you have any writing tips on that front or just stuff you wanna see from what I imagine is a pretty underserved niche?

Howdy and that’s awesome!

One thing that would be cool to see represented: not everyone who gets bottom surgery is a top! I’m sure not, though strangely my interest in playing that role has increased since I had the work done. You can be the biggest anal queen this side of Pornhub and still get bottom surgery. Only makes sense, right—if we can accept that having a dick doesn’t automatically make a cis man a top, the same is also true of trans men & transmascs.

Some things about a healed-up phallo dick from my experience, under a cut:

The head is VERY sensitive, and the base is very sensitive. Everything in between that has erotic sensation but in an “Mm that’s nice” kinda way until you add pressure too. Once it’s healed up, it is definitely possible to orgasm from stimulating it. How long that takes will vary, though. I was told it might be up to a year, but I have a crazy healing factor and had it back in like 2-3 months.

If you couldn’t successfully kill the hair follicles on a permanent basis via electrolysis and/or laser prior to surgery, there’ll be hair. (It’s not THAT weird. Plenty of cis men out there have hair on their shafts too!)

If you had a tattoo on your donor site, you’ve got a tattoo on your dick now, lol. It might be unrecognizable depending on where it was originally (especially on the inner wrist/forearm).

There’s a scar up the underside right in the middle and all around the base. The scar up the middle of your scrotum will look similar enough to the natural seam of an OEM scrotum that it’s not really notable.

The scrotum won’t have all the wrinkles an OEM one does at rest.

No foreskin, more’s the pity, but the head looks VERY much like a circumcised OEM penis once it’s healed.

Different donor sites tend to produce different results. The non-dominant forearm is preferred because they take a stretch of nerve with it and it’ll typically have the least subcutaneous fat, so you tend to get the best sensation and shape. With the back or thigh, bigger guys might end up with a Coke can cock, which cis men THINK they want but it’s a different story when it’s always that size.

Yep, it’s always the same size. Which means you’ve got something the size of an average-for-your-height erection at all times.

Without an implant, it’s quite floppy as you can imagine. If you manspread at all, you might have to shake a leg out when you stand up ‘cause your dick’ll go between your thighs, and you’ll notice real quick as soon as you start walking. Masturbation can be awkward depending on how you do it, but “double bagging” (wearing two condoms at once) will keep it stiff enough to top.

There are two types of implants you can get: a flexible rod made of silver encased in biostatic silicone that gets sutured to your pubic bone to make sure it stays in place (how metal is that?!), or an inflatable rod that has a pump & release in the scrotum. Look for “erectile dysfunction implant” if you’re researching these. With the former, you basically always have an erection, but it’s posable; not great if you wear a lot of Speedos, as my surgeon put it. With the latter, you choose when it stands up and when it lies down. These implants, along with testicular implants for those who get them, are always done at least 6-9 months after the initial surgery.

Recovery can be rough. I took 3 months off work and needed it. The first two and a half weeks were the worst because I had a suprapubic catheter in, and dear gods I hated being cathed. Felt like I had to pee at all times, even right after emptying the bag. Worth it, though, absolutely worth it.

If you do radial arm flap, you’ll end up with two scars aside from the ones on your groin: a rectangular graft that goes most of the way around (NOT all the way around; that leads to necrosis!) the forearm from the wrist to about halfway to the elbow; and a less-obvious rectangular scar shaped like an open book on the top of one thigh where they take a split-thickness (meaning, only part of the way down) skin donation for your arm graft. The graft is pretty obvious, especially if you’re chubby, but my leg scar is extremely subtle and continues to get fainter as my skin cycles itself out.

The graft will be forever hairless.

People will probably glance at the graft, and they might stare if they’re rude, but in the…what’s it been, almost two years I’ve had it, exactly one person has actually asked about it and that was when it was still fresh and extra gnarly-looking. I told her “It’s a graft, it’s not as bad as it looks” and there were no follow-up questions.

Because there’s nerve harvested from the inside of the forearm, sensation comes to the penis faster than it comes to the graft. The cut nerve DOES regrow! But for the first…I’d say 6-9 months? Ish? I could only feel pressure on the tissue UNDER the graft. Sensation is still duller there, but at this point I can feel temperature, moisture, and texture well enough.

Recovery includes physical therapy for the donor arm. The more you move that wrist early and consistently, the less stiff it will be when it heals. I’ll never be able to touch my thumb to my wrist again, but I also can’t do that on the right either now, so I think that’s more to do with my age than the surgery (I used to be a lot more hypermobile, but I am no longer a spring chicken).

Learning to pee standing up is a messy affair that involves cleaning the toilet and doing laundry a lot. Once you’ve got it down, though, it’s pretty awesome.

Chasers will now ghost me the instant they find out I am not biologically available to be their sexual experiment.

There are a LOT of other options for bottom surgery, but I only have passing familiarity with them based on hearing firsthand accounts and what I learned from my surgeon. Personally, I weighed meta vs phallo heavily; being able to get a natural erection with meta or Centurion was a very attractive prospect, but it just doesn’t produce a size that I would find satisfying in terms of my own self-image, so I went with phallo. There was never a question in my mind as to wanting vaginectomy with it. Beyond the unbelievable convenience of being able to pee standing up without an STP device, I fuckin’ HATED my front hole, and I REALLY hated being pressured about having things done to it (mostly by cis men, but not always) all the time.

[imabiscuitinthousandworlds]

hey can u tell me abt ball point pen history

OH BOY DO I EVER!!!

The first patent for ballpoint pens was granted in 1888. Specifically on the 30th of October, to one John J Loud. It was supposed to be able to write on coarser surfaces that a fountain pen could not.

However, this very first version of a ballpoint pen sucked balls. It was not a design that could not write on paper. At all. Also, the ink tended to either leak (in summer) or freeze (in winter) Mind, I only have one specific source on this model right now but. There's a reason they were yet to be used for a long time. Over the next couple decades, a few people tried to chime in with suggestions for improvement but Loud kept a tight wrap on those patents.

No profit was made from Loud's original version of a ballpoint pen. But, you know, technically it still existed.

Now, early 20th century. Enter László Biró, a newspaper editor who was frustrated about all the smudging ink from fountain pens and his dentist brother-with-chemical-knowledge György. Biró (already seeing the resemblance to some slang here) watched newspapers being printed and dry very, very quickly and went "actually, You Know What".

What they figured out was that to use ink that dries fast in a pen, you need a pen that prevents the ink from drying fast inside of said pen. Therefore, they spent Quite A While figuring out a mechanism to allow inkflow while preventing it from drying and clogging up inside. 1938, they filed for a British patent.

1941, the Biró brothers left Hungary due to its support of Hitler (based) and eventually settled in Argentina, where they founded/developed a new brand of ballpoint pens with their friend Juan Jorge Meyne and filed a new, better patent in 1943.

Now this is where things get messy and my sources differ sliiightly but considerably enough to be confusing.

One the one hand, you have two companies, Eversharp Co and Eberhard Faber Co teaming up to license this Birome pen in the USA.

Around the same time, a bit later, some American fuckhead, also known as Milton Reynolds gets a hold of a Biró pen and gets a whiff of sales money immediately. He goes back to the US and starts his own company. This is Absolutely Not A Copyright Infringement since he's selling an altered copy only loosely based on those Birome pens. Definitely. Absolutely.

I mean, to be fair, it was in fact different enough to count as its own brand. And it skipped and leaked and did not live up to user expectations. But neither did Eversharp/Faber's pens, and both companies were constantly caught up in their beef that both companies went down like a lead balloon.

Eventually, Parker Pens got out the first proper design that, you know, actually worked as intended (and was, I think, actually licensed to Birome pens), and a little later Bich, then shortened to Bic, made a design that actually offered quite some precision. This was around the 1940s/1950s when ballpoint pens now finally, actually, permanently came in use (Bic around the 60s I believe) and I love them.

Keep in mind, though, I only used three sources, one of those Wikipedia, and picked through slight contradictions to figure out what makes sense and is the most likely, so take this with a grain of salt.

For the initial purposes of my research, however, this was more than sufficient. (I needed to know if I could have a character in the 30s click a pen. Since they were still pretty much not in use back then, she got to twirl a pencil instead. It was one tiny sentence.)

Thank you for asking! It's my favourite piece of niche knowledge to whip out at random and the only one I can support with dates and names, though I did have to read up on my bookmarked pages. I am waiting for the day when I finally play powerpoint karaoke and get the topic of ballpoint pens. Please let this happen, it would be so funny. Uno uno (<- prayer of my friend group).

[ohbother2]

hi! so like, i might try writing smut soon enough (because why the hell not amirite?) so like, is there any advice you could give me? like DOs and DONTs, tools that could be useful to avoid orthographic errors etc etc (im used to using chat GPT to look at my horribly, horribly written texts and correct them, but i've got a feeling it will straight up censor it, and english's not my first language, so anything that would make my dirty dirty texts into dirty clean text would be dope)

Hi!

I'm sorry but because you're an ageless blog I'm not going to give actual smut-writing advice, but ig it's okay to give general writing advice?

Just a reminder to everyone, if you're a minor please do not interact with me or my posts!

In all honesty I don't really know what I even do when I write, the words just sort of appear and I'm like 'yep, that works', but that's not the most useful advice, lol

I envision the story I want to read, and then I write it how I want to read it. I hope that makes sense

I guess my main advice would be to find your own niche, like, are you a dialogue or an 'action' based writer? Ofc it's good to be good at both but people have their own strong suits. For me, for example, I'm much better at descriptive writing than dialogue so that's what I focus most of my writing around

People also have their own unique styles and formatting to their writing - I feel as though mine is pretty distinctive with certain types of vocabulary and paragraph spacing/grammar/etc - so I guess it would be good to find a style that works good for you! For example, don't stick to lengthy paragraphs of immense detail if that doesn't come naturally to you, etc

My absolute top priority when writing is to not tell the readers what's going on, but to show it. Sometimes 'They felt X/Y/Z' is a useful tool for emphasising a particular point, but sometimes it detracts from the writing overall.

As an example: 'He felt as if his heart was going to burst from his chest...' (This can be good when used in the right moments, but if that's the only descriptor the writing loses a bit of life to it)

Compared to: 'His heart hammered painfully against his taut ribs as he gasped uselessly for breath...' (This is showing rather than just simply telling, and is how I personally prefer to write a majority of the time)

It's also important not to repeat yourself unnecessarily - it can be good to repeat when you're really trying to emphasise a point, but sometimes writing can stagnate and become less engaging? It's very difficult to find the right balance but it makes a world of difference to a piece of text

For dialogue (arguably my weakest skill) the best piece of advice is that you cannot write accurately how people in real life talk. When we talk we mostly fill out thoughts with nonsense and fluff out the main point - you can't write this because the readers will become disengaged. There's an important balance to find between being too formal for speech, maintaining the main point of the conversation, and ensuring the characters still sound like themselves. I tend to really try and put myself in the characters heads, think about what they'd actually say, and then 'translate' it into a written format that works whilst keeping that characters traits.

The way I 'learnt' to write was through reading, and I'd really recommend you read in your desired writing language (I'm guessing English from your ask) to see the typical structures and vocabulary of that language when written down. Direct translations don't always work, especially with literature, because there are phrases and sayings and common slights-of-tongue that are language specific, so I think it's really useful to get used to that language in its own written form, yk?

I forgot!! But it's also important not to tell your readers everything. Let them fill some gaps in on their own - they don't need to be told how a line of dialogue was said if it's obvious in the speech and context, and they don't always need to know how a character moved across a room or what their hands are doing 100% of the time. Sometimes the best parts of stories are the bits that go unsaid :)

Sorry, this is rambling and probably not very useful, but I've never given writing advice before.

Writing really is all down to the author finding their own 'voice' within their texts, and I'm sure you're writing will be great!!! I hope this helps! :))

[planefood]

i dont have anything specific to say but!!!!! your robots are sooo soo cool and i love hearing more about them, and id love to know more about the world around them!!!! whats the deal with their setting?

Oh wonderful I was just thinking about this and was considering of making my own separate text post but didn't quite know where to put my thoughts. I'm glad you like my characters :) This is another lengthy answer bare with me I hope you don't mind. SO I don't know if I've actually outright stated this in a more obvious way but all my characters (currently) live in in modern day Auckland, the largest city in my country. It just made sense from a population point of view since about half of our entire population is in that city that that's where most of the robots would be.

and a handy map of the North Island, Te Ika-a-Māui for you before we continue

Tandy lived in the South Waikato for a while before moving to Auckland. Lithium comes from Hamilton, Jay and Phillip both come from Wellington. Cathy comes from around the rural Taupo area. The rest of the (nz) robots are local Aucklanders. I won't go too in depth about city differences and stuff because I only think like... 5 of my followers are from here as well. I know people are definitely more interested in the more 'sci fi' elements of robots living alongside humans, which I'll get to in time, but Aotearoa being the setting for the story is actually pretty important, at the very least in a sentimental level for me and will greatly influence a lot of the writing as we go forward. I want to focus more on that element for this ask sorry if that's not what you were looking for. A little more about me, a huge reason why I put such strong emphasis on my characters living here when I notice other local artists my age don't really tend to do that, is I spent my formative years living in Tokyo, Japan before moving to Aotearoa in like 2008. You can imagine moving from somewhere with 13 odd million people living in it to a city with like a 40,000 population speaking a language I wasn't familiar with was a massive change for anyone let alone a young disabled kid. Originally I was pretty resentful of living here, people at school generally treated me poorly just for being autistic alone only adding with all the cultural and language differences that came from being overseas. If I had simply stayed in Japan in my mind everything would've turned out fine. Now as an adult I do still think about what I would've turned out like if I did stay in Japan, but I still wouldn't trade growing up here for anything. As I get older a lot of cultural influence from Japan slips out of my grasp, I stopped speaking Japanese having nobody else my age who spoke it to talk to and when more things started getting imported overseas to here when I thought I could maybe get that part of myself back it even just a little, it was picked and altered for a more western palette and that's for a country as influential as Japan. I don't want that happening again for the country I live in now. As the internet becomes more commonplace and more NZ artists take the stage they're really starting to appeal to an American audience. It makes sense, it's the majority of your audience. I'm essentially screaming into a void with us making up less than 1% of the world population. I want my art and stories to appeal to a wider audience as well but I don't want to tone down any aspects I feel are important. I'm starting to get sick of writing all my ocs in the states when it's so alien to me just cause it's seen as a blank slate. My story is about robots, yes but it's also about the experience of what it's like to grow up and live here. I want people to really view and experience it like I do whether they've lived here or not, which is super difficult. I have a perspective a lot of people don't and I really want to use that to my advantage. I want to talk about more in depth and more niche aspects of it on here, but I also want to avoid boring anyone or alienating people?

[tavina-writes]

Thanks to @thebiscuiteternal for tagging me! :D

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

I have 192 public works on AO3 at the moment, and a [redacted] amount unrevealed as part of various ongoing exchanges I'm writing for!

2. What's your total AO3 word count? 1,244,211

3. What fandoms do you write for? I think I mostly write for MDZS at the moment, but Naruto is the major fandom I've spent the past ten or so years in, so it's always going to be my favorite. I also write for ASOIAF, various book fandoms, various other cdramas...etc.

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

Oh dear.

A Bolt of Silk - Naruto - 2,180

Prophet - Naruto - 1,889

My Teeth In Your Heart - ASOIAF - 1,833

Time Travel Tandem - Naruto - 1,593

It's not time that passes - Naruto - 1,521

None of my MDZS fic makes the list but I think that's normal! I've only been in the fandom for a year and a half, and I mostly write niche stuff so this makes perfect sense to me!

5. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

I answer comments sometimes! With irregularity because "answering comments" gets filed in the "send emails" part of my brain and I spend a lot of my professional life sending emails so it's more difficult to reply to comments. I also get concerned when I don't have a lot of say in response to a comment because I'm afraid that I don't sound too enthused when I respond with "Thanks! I'm glad you liked it!" or maybe get too infodumpy with my responses to some questions. In short I think I psyche myself out of responding to comments and I'm trying to do better about it.

6. What is a fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

Hmmm this is a difficult one. I don't think I go for angsty endings as much as I go for like, hopeful or not utterly bleak ones? I think that the ending for An Inherited Creature where WZL and JYL are still married and still stuck in Nightless City might be the suckiest ending, though the ending of maybe I'd make it alive where YZY and Madam Jin are just on the cusp of marrying their canonical husbands is on a level of aaaa re: how we know this story ends.

7. What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

I DEFINITELY think this is A Bolt of Silk considering that right after the ending I wrote them a 6 chapter, 30k wedding epilogue where everything goes great!

8. Do you get hate on fics?

Man. I would say no except sometimes I can recount really terrible stories. Mostly I think I don't get hate because my readers tend to be very kind, but I have, gotten some pretty odd and preachy comments at times. Once notably, when someone told me that I shouldn't've translated the nobility titles for a certain fic and kept them in the original Chinese, and I was about to respond with "my brother in Christ, we are in a Naruto fic and I am already stretching canon like a rubber band. Lets not make readers learn SO MUCH NEW WORD?" Or that one time when someone didn't. Read my fic but wanted to shill theirs in to me in the comments of my fic. But it's mostly odd and mildly entitled rather than hate commenting.

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

I DO write smut! This is a new accomplishment, but I have skipped right to the sexy sexy noncon/dubcon object insertion porn instead of uhhh any of the tamer things in between that and "literary sex scene where everyone is miserable"

10. Do you write crossovers? What's the craziest one you've written?

I don't really write crossovers! I have a hard time figuring out how characters from one story would react to the characters of a different one. :(

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

A number of times yeah. It's bothered me before but like, mostly nowadays I'm just like "in the year of our lord 202X?????"

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

I have not! It sounds like it would be really flattering but also So Much Work since I write longfic so often.

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

I have occasionally but they've never really been posted. @autumnslantern very patiently listens to me yell about all of my fic ideas in her dms a lot though, which I consider vital to my writing process. Does that count as cowriting? :D

14. What's your all-time favorite ship?

Man this changes by day. I'm also a consummate multishipper so I can't say I have an all time favorite and more just yelling about "ISNT THIS NEAT?" about the niche thing I've discovered recently.

15. What's a wip you want to finish, but doubt you ever will?

God. I have no idea. If I've posted a wip I hope to finish it but I have no idea. Maybe some of my oldest Naruto works might never get done.

16. What are your writing strengths?

I like to think I handle emotionality, stories that occur over a long period of time, and atmosphere in a piece really well!

I also really like writing about grief and mourning, trauma, and trying to define ourselves inside difficult family histories. I enjoy writing about character histories, and how that informs their present, as well as complicated loyalties and internal conflict, but the jury's out on whether I can count those as strengths lol.

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

Man. Plot. Plot. Plot. The weakness is always the plot. I love a good parallel but a parallel is not a plot. Also at one point one of my fics was 30% man sitting sadly in a bathtub nearly dying by volume (like 3 out of 9 scenes in that fic was just this man having a bad time in a bathtub) and this is not a plot either lolll. I admire the people who can write a tightly plotted fic so much, godIwishthatwereme.jpeg. Also I'm perennially long-winded so I also think I struggle a lot with writing a 1.5k-2k fic where just, a snapshot happens. I love admiring other people's beautiful oneshots as well.

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language for a fic?

I don't tend to do this with dialogue though I'll include words from other languages depending. I feel like it's always so difficult to like, get the reader to know what you meant with [dialogue snippet in different language] but I've seen this handled really well in fic before so like, it does work!

19. First fandom you wrote for?

Oh definitely Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils by Jin Yong when we were in the pits of that 13 year translation of the work. I wrote like, speculative fic based on what we already had? But mostly scene snippets and outline ideas of what would happen instead of formal fic. None of that was ever published anywhere though. In terms of "Fandom Where I First Published Fic on the Internet" it's probably Katekyo Hitman Reborn I was really big on that fandom in 2014. You won't take me alive on where that fic is though lmao.

20. Favorite fic you've written?

In terms of best written and most beloved to me at the moment and also complete it's definitely but I'm not in charge of sorrow (so please don't ask me when). How will I ever get over NHS's post canon journey in that fic honestly.

uhhh let's see, @im-sublimey, @woobifiedvillain, @lgbtlunaverse, @cerusee and anyone else who sees this and wants to play? If you've been tagged in this game already sdjdgkah APOLOGIES.

[cy-cyborg]

hi! thank you for writing your posts about writing/drawing disabled characters and amputees. my ask might be kinda niche so if you don’t feel comfy answering i understand!!

in the story im writing (its contemporary fantasy, like magic exists in a modern setting) one of my characters gets severely injured in a battle/monster attack and loses his leg above the knee. he’s not the protagonist but the close friend/love interest btw. a lot of the story takes place during after his injury heals and he starts using a prosthetic (there’s a time skip so we don’t see all of his healing journey but some of it will definitely be there).

his character arc isn’t really tied to his disability at all, its just there. he copes with it and moves on pretty easily. my protagonist, however, feels a lot of guilt over it because he got in the battle/attack because of her. a lot of her arc has to do with overcoming trauma because she got her sibling killed in a monster attack and feels a lot of guilt over it. a lot of that same guilt comes up because my protagonist and her li got in a fight about her keeping secrets from him and it resulted in the battle/attack that caused his amputation.

i want to emphasize in my writing that the protagonist isn’t guilty because he lost his leg — but that he got hurt at all. she was raised to protect people from monsters etc and she failed, and not only that but she failed her best friend. she doesn’t think of him as weaker for it once the initial wound heals, just guilty that he had to go through any pain at all. and i want to make sure that my writing doesn’t portray him as weaker because of this either. disability doesn’t make you weaker, it just means you have to adapt to situations a bit differently than another person might. my story includes a lot of fighting both physically and magically (though he isn’t a magic user) and he’s one of the most talented characters when it comes to fighting so i want to make sure that’s emphasized

im actually disabled myself, though my disability is very much invisible. so im still unsure of how to approach this because i want to be as respectful and realistic as possible. im sorry if my rambling didn’t make any sense, but if you’re able to give me any guidance at all (not just my specific ask, but anything else generally you haven’t covered in other posts yet) id greatly appreciate it :)

I am so sorry, I could have sworn I answered your question already but I think I just typed something out and forgot to post it lmao.

So what you described sounds fine to me, the only thing you need to be careful of is not going too far in the other direction and making the LI's amputation have no impact/too little impact. Disabilities like amputation are still disabling, they will have an impact and make some things harder, just not to the extent/not in the ways most people expect. It's about finding a balance!

On top of that, you also have to be mindful of how non-disabled people will read those interaction too. This goes against a lot of standard writing advice, but I've found, if you're going against a trope about disability specifically, becuase most people are so uneducated about the topic and yet have very strongly-held opinions anyway, you really have to spell things out lol. You might intend for it to be read as "she feels bad he was hurt at all/that she failed her job" but a lot of non-disabled readers do tend to add the "becuase he's disabled now and that means his life will be shit" onto it even if that's not at all what you were saying. It's very frustrating, and something that took me a really long time to learn how to avoid when I used to post my writing online lol. Beta readers and sensitivity readers are a good way to measure if you were clear enough there though.

and to be clear, not saying either of these things are something you're doing, just things to be cautious of.

[phefics]

🤎: describe yourself + i'll ship you with a character!!

Hi! I don’t normally ask anything because I’m a little shy and I’m mainly obsessed with thg right now so yeah 😭 but I figured I’d try this because I am honestly curious.

I’m an average-height woman with natural dirty blonde hair and green eyes. I have ADHD and anxiety/depression. I struggle fitting in and/or making friends. I’m very emotional, empathetic, and sweet. I have a strong sense of justice. I might be on the spectrum. I hate change. I need my daily nap or I’ll get grumpy or overtired. I have to cuddle something to sleep well. I’ve been told I’m pretty oblivious and naive. I’m book smart but not people smart. I also talk a lot and have a few niche interests that I’m very passionate about. I’m a hopeless romantic and also very expressive. I have no idea how to hide my genuine reactions to things and it’s very obvious just from looking at my facial expression what I’m thinking/feeling. I also like writing and acting and I’m in my element when working with language. I’m very loyal and a people pleaser. I also get overstimulated easily and struggle to figure out when/how long to talk for in social settings. And as you can see I tend to ramble 😭

Anyways, congrats on 1k followers and I hope you’re having a good day/night! 🥰💕

𝐨𝐩𝐡𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐚’𝐬 𝟏𝐤 𝐜𝐞𝐥𝐞𝐛𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 // hi, here you go!! tysm for the nice words

i ship you with peeta mellark — i think he would share your moral values and be extremely empathetic and loving towards you and any of your mental health struggles. he is very cuddly as well, so he would happily hold you while you slept. peeta is very good with people, so you two would balance each other out well in that sense. he is also a hopeless romantic and would absolutely spoil you, and he would gladly listen to talk as long as you wanted.

but, i could also see you with sejanus plinth. he also has a very strong sense of justice so you two would share similar core values and he has such strong empathy as well. he's very interested in learning about your interests and would listen intently as you spoke about your niche obsessions. he also loves linguistics and you two could nerd out about that!! despite his social standing, he isn't a fan of crowds or people either, so he would always find a way to escape the masses to be with you.

[yeetlegay]

So there are talks about Apo participating on a new project with “spare me your mercy” author (sammon) in case it’s a completely new story do you have any other actor/ actress that you would like to see him costar with ? I mean my obvious option is Mile bc their chemistry is so hard to find. That intense way of working together is not easily found (also I’m new to bl so idk any actors) but in case he is the only one chosen to work on the project. Who do you think could bring that same level of chemistry as MA has shown, do you think it could be replicated ?

I ask you this bc I’ve seen how partial you are in regards with MA a lot of people get triggered when we separate them. I mean if they continue acting they are bound to act with other ppl at some point, it’s just an innocent question. Like I said I would love to see MA at least in another series before they separate, that’s if they do.

I’m not really plugged into fandom space outside Tumblr so I might’ve just missed it, but this is the first I’ve heard about another project for Apo! I’ve been looking forward to seeing what he goes for next after the movie he’s doing with Mile.

As far as actors I’d like to see him work with, I honestly have no idea lol, partly because both Apo and Mile are a bit older than most of the BL actors, and quite honestly given how suffocating the shipping culture around BL acting pairs can be, I don’t think it makes sense for them to do more than 2-3 projects together if they want to grow as actors and avoid being basically boxed in career-wise. Disentangling themselves as a branded pair would likely entail stepping away from BL altogether imo, at least for a while until the craze dies down.

The closest comparison I can make for this kind of transition being done successfully is MaxTul, who are considered a BL pair but have managed to avoid a lot of the negative attention and toxic fan behavior that tends to come with that label. It’s partly because they’re from an earlier moment in BL when the industry was still new and relatively niche, but also because they have a pretty relaxed but aloof approach to self-promotion and fan expectations. No one thought they’d play opposite each other again after the TWM sequel, and they’re still this unicorn duo that gets everybody excited when they’re together, but their careers haven’t been held back because they don’t really let fans count on seeing them together again. We get what we get and we have to be satisfied with it basically 😂 Apo and Mile have been a LOT more in the spotlight from the jump though, so even if they started dialing back now it would be tough for them to find their footing career-wise.

But anyway, Apo obviously has incredible chemistry with Mile so of course I’d love like 20 more shows with them, but chemistry is as much about hard work/effort as it is about natural compatibility. I think it’s a bit of a disservice to Apo (and Mile!) to use KP as a yardstick against which the rest of their careers should be measured, if that makes sense. They’re both talented, skilled professionals and at the end of the day, if the people they work with are too, good chemistry won’t be an issue imo. And they deserve to stretch their abilities and work with new people on new projects, however much pressure I’m sure there is from a subset of fans for them to just keep making projects together until they retire lol. Ultimately they’re just people doing their jobs like anyone else. It’s not for me or anyone else to dictate how they choose to do them.

If it interests you, I did write an incredibly lengthy post about celebrity culture and shipping, informed by my sociology background, which you’re welcome to read. Despite the stupendous amounts of Apo and Mile pics on my phone, I actually don’t really keep up with them on social media so the above is all based on what I know from Tumblr, asks/DMs I get, and educated guesses about the state of affairs in the wider fandom (aka Twitter, an even eviler bird app than Duolingo).

[oddishblossom]

Tag People You Wanna Get to Know Better

Tagged by the wonderful and lovely @lans-rabbit-glade 😊💖! Thanks for tagging me izzy! I loved reading your answers :)

Relationship Status: It’s just me here (single pringle)

Favorite Colors: Pink & Red

Song Stuck in My Head: Do I Wanna Know by Arctic Monkeys… I’ve listened to that song probably a million times and I’m still not tired of it nor will I ever be 💖. I’m definitely not looping it for writing inspiration or anything (also izzy I see your song choice and I am tempted to roast you for being a mobile gamer 😜)

Last Thing You Googled: “There’d Better Be a Mirrorball.” I was looking up song lyrics (I listen to other artists besides arctic monkeys, I swear 😅)

Time: 11:47 PM when I’m writing this. But I usually queue most of my posts so it’ll be 10 AM when I’m posting this :3

Dream Trip: Hmmm, idk. I’m not much of an explorer lol. Maybe Japan or New Zealand? Just to say that I’ve been there before. Honestly, as long as I can go either shopping or to an amusement park I’ll be happy as a clam.

Last Thing You Read: It’s rare, but sometimes I want to read a cute high school AU with a love triangle. So the last thing I read was a tyrus fanfic called Of Course by CaithyCat & imnotanauthor. I’ve been rewatching Andi Mack, an old comfort show of mine. I know it’s a disney show “for kids” but sometimes I just feel like watching disney or nickelodeon shows ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Also this one in particular I started watching when I was bedridden for a month so it’s very dear to me :)

Last Book You Enjoyed Reading: Believe it or not, I actually read a paperback book last week. I was looking for a quote, so I opened my volume 2 of *cough* Scum Villain’s Self Saving System *cough*. And then I found the quote. And then I just kept reading until I was halfway through volume 3 and it was like 3 in the morning. Seriously, that book makes my brain go a little bonkers. The scene where Shen Qingqiu tries to hide Luo Binghe from Zhuzhi Lang nearly made me cry from laughing too hard.

Last Book You Hated Reading: Excluding fanfics, I can’t think of one… Maybe Tokyo Ghoul/:re back in 2017? I remember really hating that manga. Honestly, I’m really picky when choosing something to read so the stories I end up disliking I tend to just drop them and then completely forget they ever existed.

Favorite Thing to Cook/Bake: I’m kind of a terrible chef ngl. But the reviews are in and I make a pretty stellar spaghetti. Whenever my niece visits, she always asks me if I can make her my spaghetti because it’s way better than any she’s ever had. Getting that kid to eat anything is a struggle, so I’m really glad that she not only eats my food, she asks for seconds.

Favorite Craft to Do in Your Free Time: When I think of the word “crafts”, I imagine, like, art projects made by hand, so I’m not sure I can include writing and gif-making on this one. So excluding those, does drawing count? Even before I got a drawing tablet, I used to doodle all the time even on scraps of paper. I’m not really good at it, but it’s always been something I do just to kinda get my brain to chill.

Most Niche Dislike: Hmm. You know, it’s funny that you mentioned nail polish, izzy, because the first thing that popped into my head was long nails. I have tried to be that girl who gets a full set at the nail salon and I never did it again because the sound of my nails clacking against things bugged me. Like, I can’t even stand the feel of my own natural nails when they’re the slightest bit too long lol.

Opinion on Circuses: Never been to one. But, clowns slightly freak me out so I don’t have the best opinion of their home turfs.

Do You Have Any Sense of Direction: I’d say I do. Or maybe I think I do by association? My parents both have a pretty bad sense of direction and I used to help them a lot by printing out maps and searching for streets in relation to where we were. One of my older brothers used to always assign me as designated navigator because I’m good at keeping an eye on where we are and how to get back on track should we get lost

I liked this tag game! It was fun and refreshing. Gonna tag a couple of you, but please no pressure to respond! Only if you feel like making one 😊 @bioerin @kimievii @koujaaku @ashinlae @wallynorthbynorthwest @fluffyrabbitofdoom @apocalyptickoala @theraincanttouchus @mdzs-rabbithole + anyone who sees this and wants to make one 💖

[mabeysomeclasspecting]

beans i just came across this blog and its pretty fuckin sick!! i'm super super interested in classpects but i've never been able to pin down my own, so i figured i'd send something in! 8D what are your interests/hobbies? i'm sort of all over the place. i take on interests randomly, picking things up and dropping them just a quickly. mainly i just collect miscellaneous knowledge about anything and everything. i like learning random shit and i'll go down random rabbit holes for hours and hours at a time. i have favorites, though - specifically zoology, marine biology, cultural and biological anthropology, paleontology, and ancient history. within those i have even more specific niches that i enjoy, like deep sea invertebrates and early hominids. the weirder something is, the more i like to learn about it. i have an affection for the bizarre. i also have normal people hobbies, mostly art. i've been drawing for most of my life and it's something that i really enjoy. something that i enjoy just as much is writing, and i think i'm probably better at that. i also love everything related to music, although i'm not super great with any instruments. i have a long history of making up stories for potential comics/novels/etc and fleshing them out, only to never do anything with them.

i also enjoy creating things and consuming things related to whatever media i've latched onto. right now, it's homestuck.

how do you see yourself? that's sort of a hard question. i have really severe identity problems, and i always have, to the point where i think i might have some kind of dissociative issue. i have issues with myself and how i feel about things, but i usually just try not to think or talk about it, because it makes things easier. i've found myself very hard to understand, but i try to know myself well enough to know the source of my problems so i can solve them. i know myself well enough to deal with myself. overall, i just think i'm some guy. i don't have particularly bad self esteem, nor am i particularly narcissistic (i think). i am, however, very hard on myself, and can be destructively perfectionistic. how do others see you? from what i can gather, i can be disconcerting to people. i say and do things that people don't get, i make jokes that people don't seem to get, and something about my general demeanor seems to throw people off. i've been informed that i can come across as narcissistic because of my tendency to A. use reverse self-deprecation humor (i.e saying i'm the best at something) and B. correct people incredibly frequently. i speak with a very even tone, bordering on deadpan, and it's hard to tell when i'm being sarcastic, so my jokes are often taken seriously. i also just have a weird sense of humor that doesn't bode well with some people, i guess. besides that, i have a distinctive way of speaking that tends to throw people off-kilter. at my school, i'm known to be two things - intelligent and very mentally-ill. that's most of what informs people's view on me. i'd imagine strangers see me a bit differently, because i am naturally almost freakishly polite to people i don't know. but i know the most about the people i go to school with.

but i try to be unassuming and not to cause any problems. i'm pretty passive, generally speaking, and i take things as they come without much issue. i go out of my way to be nice and help strangers when i can, but other than that, i don't usually talk to people i don't know. i'm kind of introverted and very awkward.

however, because of my habit to bottle up my emotions, i can be made to snap very hard when provoked, entering basically a blind rage. when i'm in a fit of anger, i can be incredibly verbally aggressive, and i will usually make a genuine attempt to hurt the feelings of/be an asshole to the person i'm angry at.

how do you interact with your friends? i don't like being serious in group conversations, or with the vast majority of people, so i'm something of a jester to most of my friends. there are very few times and situations where my true feelings, untainted by jokes and irony, get to leak through and i'll have an honest conversation. even rarer is any displays of vulnerability on my part, as that's something that makes me deeply uncomfortable. my friends are the only people who get to see the extent of my bizarre sense of humor, and will get subjected to it on the reg.

any kind of emotional vulnerability scares the fucking beans out of me, and i do not like being genuine. i cover all of my truths and traumas in seven layers of jokes and apathy and irony so no one realizes how much it actually hurts me, and so i can talk about it without being reminded of how much it hurts. yknow, stridercore.

i'll also express my opinions on people and things to my friends, which i usually don't do unless in a neutered way. i can come across as a little two-faced because of the fact that i act cordial to everyone, including people i really don't like, and have a habit of (for lack of a better word) hating on.

i care about everyone, but i care about my friends a lot. i'll offer to help them in any way i can, if there's anything i can do. i'm the friend who always pays for their friends when going out to eat. i like doing things for the people i care about. sometimes my insistence on helping comes across as smothering, and i can get kind of nosy sometimes, both of which i can acknowledge as flaws of mine.

unfortunately, whenever i'm emotionally distressed or just stressed in any way, i'll start isolating from my friends because of how much my negative emotions drain my social battery. i also have a tendency to get so absorbed in my own activities and projects that i ignore most stuff going on, so i can go long periods without saying much to my friends.

what's important to you? even though i pride myself on caring about others, at the end of the day, i care the most about staying alive and well, and staying sane. i have been severely mentally ill for most of my life, and i've been many horrifically low points. i began the process of recovery pretty recently, and ever since, i've developed a fear of relapsing into my old mental state and something horrible happening. all i want, at the end of the day - is to stay alive, keep my mind, and be as happy as i can in the world i live in.

describe the ideal you, what kind of person do you strive to be? someone who can make people happy. i love making people happy, i really really do. i'd want to grow into a stable person with an interesting life, sure, but above all else - i want to be someone who matters to people. i want to be a positive part of someone's life. that's mostly it. if i could do that, i'd be happy.

sorry for how horribly long this is, i'm fucking terribly long-winded. have a great day!! sign off - 8)

Hello! I'm glad you like my stuff :)

Aspects: Life, Doom, Time

Classes: Knight, Sylph, Heir

In order, I'd say you're either a Knight of Life, Sylph of Doom, or Heir of Time! Plenty of options for you to play around with, so hopefully one one them feels right

Hope this helps!

[kookieswan]

💝 and 🎈 :D

💝 what’s a fic that god a different response than you were expecting?

Red Light for sure. I was certain that it would be relatively niche since it has pretty intense horror themed but a lot of people seem to like it! It’s honestly been one of my favorites to update as well, my own story has me enthralled lmao

Also kind of Nocturne? Lots of people like the fish man. I feel like I should do something with it this month since it is MerMay heh.

🎈describe your style as a writer; is it fixed? does it change?

It really depends on what I’m writing/the series I’m writing for. I think my general layout remains the same for how I like to structure paragraphs, dialogue, etc. but sometimes I take some liberties lol. I tend to go out of the box when I want it to make more of an impact. An example of this would be single line of text or dialogue to really make a point I suppose. Idk if that make sense but yeah.

Sorry for the late response 😩

[memento-morri-writes]

Get To Know Me Better Tag

I was tagged by the lovely @inkingfireplace !! Thank you!!

Relationship Status:

Very, very single, and totally okay with that. (Aro-spec ace over here)

Favorite Colors:

Black, crimson red, royal blue, and navy blue. (Basically black and blue.)

Favorite Food:

Uhh... bread and cheese in some form or another. Pasta, quesadillas, pizza, grilled cheese, etc. I really love my carbs.

Song Stuck In My Head:

Grip by Bastille and SEEB

Last Thing You Googled:

Bus fare cost for the city buses in my uni town. (I've had a very hectic day, and also apparently lost my bus pass at some point.)

Time:

2:31 pm

Dream Trip:

Italy!! The more historic areas the better!! I was supposed to go in 2020, but then COVID happened, and it never wound up happening. Although, I also would love to go to Scotland someday.

Last Thing You Read:

A Gathering of Shadows by V.E. Schwab if we're talking books. Otherwise, tumblr posts, hahaha.

Last Thing You Enjoyed Reading:

A Gathering of Shadows. I very rarely read books I don't enjoy. I can usually tell based on reviews and summaries if they're my thing or not, so I usually like what I pick up, or at the very least am pretty neutral about it. The only books I've ever strongly disliked were ones other people made me read.

Favorite Thing To Cook/Bake:

So, I can barely cook, and I can't bake to save my life, so I'm gonna say quesadillas. I make pretty good ones, if I do say so myself. (Ofc, if you don't like them to be super buttery, you might not agree...) I really like it when my mom bakes brownies, though!!

Favorite Craft To Do In Your Freetime:

I don't really do many crafts?? I write in my free time, and I play video games on occasion, but I don't really do crafts.

Most Niche Dislike:

People using the shortened versions of idioms that mean the exact opposite of what the originals mean. I won't get into it here, cause it would be a really long rant, but the one that really pisses me off is "Blood is thicker than water." since the OG phrase is "The blood of the covenant is thicker than the water of the womb." (You did say niche, lmao.)

Opinion on Circuses:

I don't really have one?? I don't know that I've ever been to one. But I think that acrobats are insanely talented and awesome, however, the biggest issue with circuses tends to be improper care of their animals, so....

Do You Have a Good Sense of Direction?

Yes. Even when in a basement with no windows, I can point people in the direction of the nearest bus stop, their next class, etc. Although, considering the first week of classes, my friends pointed the exact opposite direction of the dining hall at least 3 times, I guess even if I couldn't do it underground, I'd still be better than average.

Alright, I'm going to tag @kapenkoiwrites @andromedatalksaboutstuff @the-finch-address @fiercely-raging-writer @honeysaige @mr-writes @pinespittinink and uhh.. that's it, I think.

[williszhang]

Memes* cause depression

*well, internet scrolling in general, which are basically memes or meme-adjacent.

During company layoffs, I went two straight weeks looking at nothing but internal memes. They were really helpful in processing the feelings of hurt and shock.

Memes with my colleagues straddle an interesting spectrum. It's "connection" with a real collective community, but the collective is across 200K employees.

Extrapolate that to an entire internet "community" and you have the state of today's media. For all the split-second entertainment that's out there, I rarely laugh. That's true unfortunately not just with internet browsing, but with life and with people too.

Is it just me? Are we not having as many belly laughs with people as with past times?

I could be conflating a number of other true things: adult friendships don't tend to be as deep as those from youth,   raising a kid is a perpetual beatdown, pandemic disconnection, desensitization from working in a frenetic environment,

but let me just stick to my thesis a little longer. First, what am I calling a "meme," and why do they make us depressed? A meme (picture, short video skit, stupid Tweet™️) is basically an attempt through media to get a "Oh I know that feeling!" It's creating a "connection," and the more niche the reference the greater the payoff, e.g., in order from basic to niche: SAT -> 90skids4lyfe -> depression/anxiety/introvert/antisocial -> grad school memes with relatable themes -> NUMTOT -> MD is a cult Not a State -> Super Secret DMV bboy page. Honestly for every human experience, and I mean *every*, we've created some media.

But here's the thing. I think connection is zero-sum. At the core of it, memes create connection to a nebulous internet entity, which thus disconnects us more and more with our real counterparts. We strip ourselves the opportunity to laugh with real friends, because would-be funny convos are constantly scuttled with our mental "oh I've seen this line of humor already in a meme." I sense this constantly in my interactions. People including myself have a hard time laughing from true novelty, because there is none.

And it's even more negative than zero-sum. The meme reduces the dimensions and dignity of the human experience it's making fun of. Tokenizes and trivializes. Ironically, the more nuanced ("niche") the meme is the more the tokenization effect. Because of this, I draw a line at Christian memes. Under no circumstances I'll entertain Christian memes. That's the last thing in my life I need trivializing.

As self-proclaimed Nostalgia King, I think about how life was in the 2000s. Even though we had internet, its use was so different. We still used Facebook to catch up with real people in our lives, not random impersonal internet personalities. AIM chat was in its heyday. We connected with real folks. 

Will I stop with memes? Maybe! I unfollowed a bunch of meme accounts by the end of writing this. Out of all my social contexts, I think I have pretty good laughs with bboys. The meme skills of the community are so poor it's actually a net-benefit. It also helps you're inherently vulnerable and silly when participating. A lot of the things discussed here are themes from the book "You Are Not Your Own" by Alan Noble. Excellent read, seriously cut me on specific modern problems that older religious figures don't have insight into (a la memes, porn, and smartphones).

[disregardcanon]

hello everyone! this is the end of year writing meme i always do. if you would like to do it, please tag me! i’d love to see your results

Total Stories Written: 12 stories

Total Words Written: 81,878 Average Words Per Story: 6,700 Shortest Story: Hunting for Belonging at 2,161 Longest: i’m not counting hell is for children because it’s a short story collection, so the longest is Are You There, Mom? It’s Me, Luz at 12,208

Looking back, did you write more fic than you thought you would this year, less, or about what you’d predicted? Less, but I always write less than I predict. I judge myself vs my lonely college years where I had very little to do most of the time, which makes a writer prolific

What pairing/genre/fandom did you write most?

pairing: lumity

genre: kid fic, actually. with the encanto fic about isabela as a child, the amity as a child fic, the sokka imperialism au, the luz noceda kid fic and then hell is for children, a collection of tma horror domains featuring kids... yeah. i just wrote a lot about kids

fandom: the owl house

What pairing/genre/fandom did you write that you would never have predicted in January? well, i wrote a fic focused on luz noceda getting her first period and i think that would have surprised me

Did you take any writing risks this year? hell is for children has been a pretty big writing risk in general. “children in fear domains” is a niche concept enough that even though i have some people who REALLY like it, it’s still not by any means popular. i’m sure it’s also given me a strange reputation in the tma fandom

Do you have any fanfic or general writing goals for the new year?

i plan to keep working on the owl house persuasion au that i’ve written 15k or so for, and continue pushing myself into more original fiction. From the past year of writing, what was your…

Best story of this year: Are You There Mom? It’s Me, Luz this one has the most meat to it, the best sense of place, and the strongest narrative and thematic cohesion. it was also a BIG RISK so the fact that anyone enjoyed it at all was a nice bonus

Personal favorite: The Many Copies of Caleb Wittebane I just really enjoy this one. Writing it made me feel like the old days when a story would claw its way out of my head and then i’d be left holding the confusing, fucked up bag

Most under-appreciated: Welcome to the Family (Whether You Like it or Not) this is the second part of what i dubbed my “sokka imperialism au” and it takes a LOT of work and mental fortitude to write. while there are a few people eagerly awaiting the next installment (which is coming! i promise!) it still has under 25 kudos. which. oof. it’s hard with a project that takes this much effort

Most fun to write: home of... what? this is an owl house lumity fic where witches reproduce differently than humans and it inspired the idea for the period fic. it’s mainly about amity being BAFFLED by humans and the two being cute and gay, and let me tell you: that’s a joy to write 

Story with the single sexiest moment: i didn’t write a single sexy scene that i posted this year. oof

Most challenging to write: sokka imperialism au

Biggest disappointment: a ghost and a crow while i’m pleased with how this turned out, the original plan when i started it last january was to write a STORY and not “inej and kaz and jesper character study and some worldbuilding”. i’m pleased with what i got but disappointed that it wasn’t more

Favorite character to write: edalyn clawthorne. i only wrote her for one fic i posted (and a few that i didn’t) but she’s such a joy. i love that weird owl milf

Favorite opening lines: The first time that Phillip makes a grimwalker of his brother, it dies before it ever takes a breath- screaming itself to death in the darkness.The second time, it fully forms and does, actually, take a breath. And then it dies. The Many Copies of Caleb Wittebane

Luz tends to play by herself during recess. This isn’t as much because Luz doesn’t like playing with other kids as because other kids don’t like playing with her.  Are You There Mom? It’s Me, Luz.

Lizzie Lee is the only child of a single father. Smart as a whip, independent, and precocious. Curious. She wants to know everything. hell is for children chapter 4, a lotta true crime

Favorite closing lines:

Terry and Claudia are happy: just two dorky teenagers in love. They have a marvelous quest between them full of magic, mystery, and a chance at restoring Claudia's loving father. The one who accepts Claudia, even the bits of her that neither of their cultures like.

Viren's awakening will tear them from this lovely dream of theirs, and the journey to his full resurrection may shatter it entirely. But the love that was shared will still matter, will always matter, even if it's left in the ruins of pain. 

a little grace for the human race 

Mom can make her feel bad and dad can ignore her on and off, but they can never use someone else against her again. Just as long as she keeps up her appearances. 

Things will be alright. They have to be. Her siblings are illusionist prodigies, after all. Amity can learn a thing or two from them.

This Family is an Abomination

“That’s adorable,” Jesper coos, leaning up against the wall. 

“Don’t call the Wraith adorable,” Kaz orders, “you’ll lose me valuable credibility."  

“Adorable,” Jesper coos, quieter this time.

Other favorite lines:

a ghost and a crow 

“Alright, back on topic,” her mother says. Camila Noceda has always been good at reining in a conversation when it got too off topic. “I’m going to go order the pizza. Is a pepperoni and an… anchovies and pineapple alright?” She shudders as she says Amity’s preferred pizza toppings. 

“It’s not that bad,” Luz assures her, “we had something that tasted like that a lot on the Boiling Isles!” Luz will be eating the pepperoni, of course, but food from the Boiling Isles isn’t horrible . Most of it doesn't even give her food poisoning! 

“I will never understand witch food,” her mami mutters, shaking her head as she turns towards her room.

Good Enough for Someone 

"Amity-" Her face is turning red in anger now- scrunching up like a craisin.

"But he doesn't have to do anything to make up for it? Really? Kidnap people? Threaten to kill them? It doesn't even matter! Everyone loves the Golden Guard!" Amity is gasping for breath by the time that she's finished her rant.

everyone’s a bit of a fixer upper