#i haven't retained anything from the plot

[boltlightning]

s2 of smash is such a mess BUT derek wills has achieved his full form of sprawling over every set like a misbehaved house cat making snide little comments and viciously mauling any enemy who comes near. nothing more. he is a man who only has emotions in weird puppy-eyed daydream sequences and that's how it should be. the show has finally realized i'm a simple woman and im only here to see jack davenport be hot and evil and inevitably ruin everything

[sessakag]

So I’m trying to get into sasunaruhina and I was wondering if you had any fic or blog recs? I’m primarily a Hinata and naruhina fan and often with the ship the vibes I get are sasunaru with Hinata on the side 😕. Since you’re also mainly a naruhina fan I thought you might have some suggestions.

I wouldn't say I'm a NaruHina fan, more of a NaruHina obsessed addict that lives and breathes NaruHina, lmao.

There aren't many true NaruHinaSasu fics I can in good conscience rec to you, (as in the endgame will be a throuple and there is equal love among all) because as you said, most are not really NaruHinaSasu fics, they're SasuNaru with Hinata on the side as garnish, if that, or SasuHina with Naruto as an optional side dish and I can't get down with any of those. Unfortunately there aren't enough fics to choose from in the first place as the NaruHinaSasu pairing is severely under-loved 😩it's something me, demonofthefridge and @opal-chan are trying to rectify though🤭As far as where to get started on this throuple, anything @opal-chan has written is a safe, true NaruHinaSasu throuple fic for sure. Stories written by me alone are also safe and will be equal affection when the throuple is established, and any angst or plot has been resolved. I have 4 upcoming NaruHinaSasu fics that will be posted soon. One of which will be ready by Wednesday of next week, so look out for those.

Now for a few recs! From Opal: Choices Follow Me

From Me: A Cure For Love Secrets of the Hidden Leaf You'll see another fic attached to me called A New Dream where I'm listed as co-writer with @mrs-messy, that one I'd say hold off on for right now. This is a re-write of a story @mrs-messy has already written out that wasn't a throuple. This second version is planned to be an equal throuple, but Mrs.Messy is more of a SasuNaru or SasuHina fan, so that plan may change depending on where she wants to take the endgame. This story was originally hers and I want her to be able to retain her creative liberties to take it where she needs to, so I can't mark that one as safe, so just a hold off on it until that one is a bit further into the trenches.

From Demonofthefridge: In Another Life

Just read this one today and it's quick, cute and I absolutely adore it. It gave me a NaruHinaSasu high school AU idea so there may be 5 throuple stories coming up: Reality Check

These I haven't had a chance to read since I spend most of my time writing, but they look promising and seem to be permanent throuple endgame. Can't vouch for them being safe though. The Beauty of Blue Bones All In The Eyes Butterfly Effect

Hope this helps! I'm getting ready to update A Cure For Love though, so feel free to start on that one sooner because it has definitely caught my eye and I'm already starting to obsess over it again, lol.

[misc-obeyme]

Forgetful MC

I wanted to try writing something in this style, as head canons with all the brothers. So here it is!

I am crazy forgetful, so I felt like writing how the bros would deal with an MC who is forgetful and/or absent minded. Maybe I'll do the dateables, too? Haven't decided yet.

GN!MC

Warnings: MC is forgetful. These are all things I personally struggle with, so it's pretty self indulgent. Tried to keep it gender neutral. Might be some ADHD symptoms too as I have that as well. Mentions of forgetting to eat. I think that's it though. Please let me know if I should add something here.

Lucifer

Gets annoyed with you at first. Why can’t you seem to keep track of things, MC? Important things are forgotten just as easily as unimportant ones and he doesn’t understand.

Eventually figures out that you can’t help it. It isn’t that you don’t care, it’s just that your brain doesn’t work that way.

Lucifer becomes your personal calendar. Starts sending you texts to remind you of important dates and upcoming meetings. Will send you a text the day before everyone’s birthday, even his and your own, just so you don’t forget.

Keeps a little basket that he puts all your forgotten items in when he finds them around the house. Gives them all back to you once a week. Secretly pleased at your delight when you find something in the pile you were looking for earlier.

Mammon

Figures out pretty quickly how absent minded you are. He’s always asking you if you’ve got your essentials - did you remember your D.D.D.? Got your textbooks, backpack/purse, etc? In the beginning, he complains about it a lot, but eventually it just becomes routine.

Brings extras of things to class and other places in case you do forget something. Need a pencil because you left yours on your desk back in the House of Lamentation? Left all your money sitting on your bed for some reason? He’s got you covered. You better be grateful, MC!

Reminds you of things you need when you go shopping. If you mentioned to him once that you need something, he’ll remember it even if it’s days later. You don’t need a shopping list, you’ve got Mammon.

Discovers that you will get lost easily because you can’t remember how to get places. He knows if you go somewhere new or somewhere you haven’t been to recently, chances are high that you’ll get lost. To prevent you from wandering aimlessly for hours, he won’t let you go anywhere alone.

Leviathan

Your forgetfulness becomes apparent to him when you can’t remember the plot of an anime you watched together a few weeks ago. It’s okay, MC, he’ll re-watch all the episodes with you to refresh your memory!

Anytime you spend hours in his room gaming or marathoning something, he checks to be sure you haven’t left anything behind when you finally leave. If you did, he will put the lost items in Lucifer’s basket.

Loves when you ask him a question about one of the items in his collection even if he’s already told you about it before. Levi is happy to tell you all about it as many times as you need!

Is a little baffled when you turn out to be really good at remembering specific things - like song lyrics, character relationships, and his personal opinions on different things. He finds it really endearing.

Satan

Realizes you have trouble remembering certain things right away. Figures out what you’re good at remembering and what you struggle with. He’s going to be your study buddy, MC. You need one to help make sure you remember the important things.

Due to studying with you, Satan knows that you’re not as forgetful as you seem. You actually retain information really well and have no problem with most tests.

Similar to how Levi figures out that you can’t remember anime plots, Satan discovers that you will forget the plots of novels, too. If you’re reading a series of novels together, he will give you summaries of the first books that you’ve already read. This way you don’t have to re-read the whole series when a new installment comes out.

He’s thrilled when you remember the name of every cat he’s ever introduced you to, whether it’s a Devildom stray or one that lives in a cat cafe.

Asmodeus

Of course Asmo is the one who realizes that you forget to take care of yourself. Takes the time to figure out your morning routine only to discover that there is no routine. Sometimes you remember to brush your hair, sometimes you don’t.

Things can’t go on like this, MC. He makes you a list of things you need to remember to do and tapes it to your bathroom mirror. There’s a morning and an evening edition. He’s lucky if you do a third of the list, but hey it’s better than the sporadic things you were doing before.

Will check your products to make sure you aren’t running low because you will forget to buy more before you run out. Will just buy the things you need for you while getting his own.

Regularly goes through your closet to rearrange your clothes. If you put clothes in the back of the closet, you forget they exist. He rotates them for you to keep your wardrobe fresh.

Beelzebub

And Beel is naturally the one who figures out that you sometimes forget to eat. He asks you regularly throughout the day if you’ve eaten anything recently. If you haven’t, he makes you come with him to find food.

Asks if you’ve eaten every morning before leaving the house because breakfast is the meal you seem to forget most often. Breakfast is important, MC.

Knows that sometimes you forget to do things like go outside or move around. Will make sure you go on a walk with him every day.

On days when you don’t have anything planned, Beel will take you out to eat because he knows that you’ll forget to eat at all if you don’t have a schedule of some kind. The instant he suggests it, you realize you’re starving and will agree immediately because wow you really need food this second you don’t care where he takes you.

Belphegor

Belphie doesn’t understand why all his brothers seem to think you’re forgetful. You always seem to know exactly where he left his pillow whenever he asks you. What are they even talking about, MC?

Reality is that your memory is incredibly selective and for some reason, you can never forget the location of a cow print pillow.

Pretty good at helping you to remember what you came into a random room for. If you pause after walking in and look confused, he'll ask you the right questions to get you to remember why you're there.

If Lucifer just put an item in your basket, he’ll take it out and leave it somewhere random. Has you hide in the room with him so you can giggle together when Lucifer finds the object and gets confused and/or irritated.

masterlist | part 2 with side characters | Thank you for reading!

[bookshelf-in-progress]

What the hey. I'll ask for some feedback right here on the blog.

I haven't touched my "Twelve Dancing Princesses" retelling in a while because I'm unsure about the style. When I was brainstorming a list of retelling possibilities, the first line of this one jumped out at me and made me start writing in a non-traditional point-of-view. I like the intimacy of it, but the story started expanding into more detail than I initially intended, so I'm not sure if it serves the story or just makes it more confusing. If you stumbled on a story written like this unawares, would it still make sense, etc.?

So I'm posting the first couple of scenes (2,400 words) to give you a taste of what it would be. It's still pretty rough, so there are some things about character and plot that don't make complete sense, but I could use some general feedback about readability. Is it worth continuing in this way or should I overhaul it to something more traditional? Is the story worth continuing at all? And so on.

(FYI: This is a retelling of the French version of the fairy tale, popularized by Andrew Lang, so all unique details come from that version).

Unseen: A Retelling of The Twelve Dancing Princesses

We go to the same garden every day, but you never see me. Why should you? You are the Princess Sonatina, youngest daughter of the greatest king on five continents, while I am only a gardener's assistant, with not even a surname of my own, except one that was given to me half as a taunt for my daydreaming ways. If you were ever to ask, I would tell you I answer to Michael Stargazer--but you never will think to ask, and I will never presume to speak.

Instead, I work silently in the gardens, while you wander past with your sisters--eleven of them, all unsurpassed in beauty of face and form and voice--laughing and chatting and singing snatches of songs. You are, all of you, more beautiful and vibrant than any of the flowers I tend, and I feel more alive just being near you.

Then the day comes when your morning songs are silent. You drag weary feet through the gardens, look blankly at the beauties of the world, lounge wearily along the edges of fountains and atop retaining walls. The rumor comes that every night, you are--all of you--wearing through your shoes.

Were I a prince, I would think no quest too perilous to save you from such sickness. I would climb a million trees in search of golden apples, cross storm-filled oceans in search of the Water of Life, work a dozen years at impossible tasks to find the key to ending your curse.

But I'm only a gardener, and nobody's son, so it falls to those with name and fortune to try their hands at saving you. The king has vowed that the man who finds the secret of where you go at night will win your hand in marriage, and there are many who are willing and worthy to try.

They are wonderful men--strong and handsome, noble and brave, with royal titles, vast holdings, great fortunes, and skills and talents that a simple gardener could never match. Any one of them would make a fine husband for a princess. Yet all of them, to a man, disappear within a day of taking up their task.

The rumors turn darker then, casting you not as victims but villains, luring men to their deaths with some dark magic of your own. Those who say such things did not see you in the gardens, or that would know that not one of you is capable of anything near what they accuse you of. Unfortunately, no one will ask a garden lad's thoughts, and I cannot speak unbidden unless I have proof.

So I go to the gardens and find two tiny rose trees. The head gardener tried to tear them out, in my first days at the palace, and I convinced him to let them live. I have watered them, fed them, saved them from disease and decay, told them stories of the princesses they serve. You have never seen them, I'm sure--you have never seen me--but though they are small, they are fine little plants, with dark, glossy green leaves, and little buds that seem always to be waiting for just the right time to bloom. An old woman told me once that they were wishing trees, planted in the earliest days of the kingdom's existence, and my service to them meant I had only to speak to them, and they would give me whatever I asked.

For myself, I want nothing--wishes too easily become the ruin of those who have them granted--but for you, I would dare all. I ask my two rose trees to make me not only unseen, but unseeable, able to follow wherever you go without detection.

The rose tree sprouts a single bloom, its petals so white and delicate they are almost transparent. When I pluck it from the bush, I disappear from sight. I place it in my buttonhole and move about the gardens, unseen by all who cross my path, even in the brightest sun.

That night, I follow you into the bedroom you share with your sisters, and I hide beneath the largest bed while the room above fills with the sounds of rustling dresses, clinking jewels, and girlish whispers. At last, your eldest sister Aria declares you dressed to perfection and calls for silence.

I creep out from under the bed and find you and your sisters dressed in ballroom finery--silks and satins and twelve pairs of perfectly-mended dancing shoes. I take my place just behind you, and find you more beautiful than ever in this moonlit room.

Aria pulls aside a tapestry, and the blank stone wall suddenly becomes an open doorway leading to a torchlit staircase. You all rush through in single file. I keep close at your heels, afraid that I'll be left behind unseen if I give the door a chance to close.

Aria stands back to hold open the tapestry. I rush past where she stands, afraid she'll follow too close and crash into my unseen form. In doing so, I trod too close to your skirt, and the fabric tears beneath my foot as you take your first steps down the stairs.

You shriek and grab hold of Lyra, standing just before you on the stairs. "Someone stood on my skirt!" you scream.

I hold myself flat against the damp stone wall, heart pounding so fast that I'm certain you hear me.

Aria breezes down the staircase, head held high, the crown princess rolling her eyes at her foolish juniors. "Don't be silly, Tina," Aria says. "I was nowhere near you on the stairs."

You protest that you felt someone on your skirt, but your cries for belief are drowned out by eleven dissenting voices, and they all continue down the staircase. You go only reluctantly, looking back at me--right through me--a thousand times as you go forth. Were it not for the weight of my mission, I would cast off the rose in the hope of a single moment when our eyes could truly meet.

After what seems like a million stairs, we emerge into an open clearing that would look like the outdoors if there was any sight of sky above. Trees tower over us with drops of silver on their branches, like rain upon the leaves. Further down the path is a gold-spattered orchard, each precious drop catching the soft white light that comes from I know not where. Even further beyond is a forest full of diamonds, every stone flashing rainbows that remind me of the fire in your eyes.

The forests are strange, but also strangely unsurprising--as though they've always been here, but simply unseen. Your sisters whisper of the night that this place was wished into existence--a place where they might revel in pure beauty and joy, away from the weighty eyes of the watchful world. But the forest, it seems, is only a prelude--the true marvel is far ahead. We emerge onto the shores of a shimmering lake--so vast, so deep, and so darkly blue that I can see neither the bottom nor the opposite shore. On an island in its center stands a castle so magnificent that it makes your father's palace seem like a paper toy. Its white, sculpted spires glitter with gems in a thousand colors, every brick spangled with precious stones. Its windows hold wonders caught in flawless stained glass. Music sweeter than any I've ever heard pours out its open doors, and the light from within forms a shining path across the lake--upon which float twelve sleek obsidian-colored boats.

Each boat has a boatman who rows swiftly toward the shore, and as they approach, I find that I know all the faces. Every one of these men is a prince who failed at finding your secret--or rather, they found it, and did not return. They are dressed in silks and velvets unlike any I've seen in the outer world, too rich for comprehension. As they slide up to the shore and each offer a place to one of you girls, they wear smiles that shine as bright as your own--but there is also something empty in their eyes.

You, as the youngest, take your place in the very last boat of all, piloted by a king's younger son whose sires have ruled half a continent for centuries. He smiles and bows as he takes you by the hand. The way your eyes light up make me wonder if I've seen what you look like in love.

The prince rows with arms strengthened by a warrior's skill--I doubt he's ever held a shovel in his life--but the other boats still outpace us by far.

"Why are you so slow tonight?" you ask him, half teasing, but with a trace of true annoyance.

"The boat is heavy," he says, "and I know not why."

You glance backward, toward where I sit in the stern, and again, I half-wish you could see me. But I let out a sigh of relief when you turn your eyes back toward the castle and give no further thought to unknowable truths.

We disembark on a dock just beneath the castle entrance, and in moments we are inside the palace of enchantment itself. This is a ballroom beyond what I could imagine--floors of marble streaked with gold and silver, towering windows displaying fantastical birds and beasts, spidery silver chandeliers holding thousands of brightly-lit candles, and at the far end of the room, tables tottering beneath food enough to feed an army, and half a nation besides.

But this splendor is nothing compared to the beauty of the music. It is like a living thing--vibrant, rapturous, all-consuming, pulling all into it like a roaring, flowing river, so the moment one steps through the door, there is nothing one can do but dance. Your prince pulls you into his arms, and your sisters' princes do the same, and soon you are swirling through that wondrous room, beauty and motion and life all brought to their fullness and put into perfect order.

All along the edges of that room are other faces--other princes who've failed at your father's quest--and they all take their turn in the dance. If I thought you alive in the gardens, you are a thousand times more vibrant now, laughing and dancing  so you glow with pure joy. These princes are your perfect partners, matching you with every step, reflecting the glow that you bring to the room. If I ever thought that I could take a place beside them, maybe win your father's wager and claim a princess for my bride, that spark is snuffed by the brightness of your blaze. You are ethereal, almost angelic, and could never be happy with one whose hands are stained from working with the common, solid Earth.

While the princes take their turns, you and your sisters dance without ceasing, and I no longer wonder how you could wear through your shoes in a single night. Those shoes are little more than tatters by the time the last note of the last dance plays, and the twelve of you trudge toward the boats to reach bed. Your princes are silent as they row the boats to the forested shore, and you, Sonantina, do not say a word about his slowness.

When you reach the banks, the prince bids you farewell, then all twelve of them row back to the palace, choosing to stay in the splendor rather than return to the pressures of their ordinary lives. After what I have seen, I cannot blame them for their choice.

But you and your sisters choose to return to your father. You trudge through the diamond, then gold, then silver-speckled forests, and as your sisters file one-by-one up the staircase, I realize that none of this fantastic tale will have a ring of truth unless I have something to bring as proof. I reach toward the nearest tree and snap off a slender branch. It disappears from sight as soon as I touch it to my clothes, but the sound of its breaking rings through that silent wood like a gunshot.

You jump at the sound, and are suddenly wide, wide awake.

"What was that?" you ask your sister.

Aria once again rolls her eyes. "Only an owl," she says. "You know it roosts in the castle at night."

The explanation does not please you, I can tell, but having no other, you fall silent and leave the silver woods behind.

When you are all safely asleep in bed, I slip unseen through the door and make my way invisibly to my small cot in the servants' quarters. When I lay on my bunk, I take off the rose, and my face reappears in the reflection off the washing bowl. I look as I did before I left, though infinitely wearier, and perhaps--though it might only be fancy--I carry something in my eyes of the enchantment of the night.

In my hands sits the branch I broke, its leaves as green, its silver dewdrops as solid, as they were in that fantastical land. I imagine myself taking it to the king at dawn, having triumphed where the sons of kings and emperors have failed.

Then I imagine the you and your sisters standing by. In a horrible flash, the daydream shatters, and I see myself for what I am--a sneak and a spook, who crept uninvited into a strange woman's room to steal evidence that would cut her off completely from the place she loves most in the world. If I have a role in this tale, it is as the villain, not the hero. I have triumphed in discovering the secret, but if I have any love in my heart for you, I cannot think of speaking.

After a short hour's sleep, I awake with the dawn, but I do not go to the king with what I've found.

Instead, I go to the head gardener and get myself assigned the task of bringing the twelve princesses their morning bouquets. I gather careful handfuls of daisies and larkspur and bind them together with handfuls of greenery. I hand them to your sisters one by one as they come bleary-eyed to your bedroom door. When you come to me, last of all, I make sure that your bouquet contains a single silver-spangled branch.

Then, at last, you see me.

[comrademonkee]

okay the monkees timeloop would go something like this: theyre filming an episode that they hate and they know will never air and its one of the most absurd theyve ever done and while the plot isn't very timeloopesque, a lot of the direction and the things that happen onset foreshadow what's about to happen. mike and peter are the only two who get stuck at first. theyre forced to relive the same of day of filming over and over . something something two musicians who didn't know what they were signing up for the most at war with the monkees phenomenon peter with his guilt abt being fake and his innate desire to make the monkees a real band and mike with his "im better than this shit" attitude and his strong belief that they will never be a real band . they try to tell micky and davy on multiple occasions but micky half believes them and davy is like stop fucking around and everything resets. they try again and micky believes them and he starts retaining his memories when it resets around and begins to experience the loop. mike and peter fight about telling davy because peter is certain the only way to break out is if davy joins them but mike is like no we gotta figure it out ourselves meanwhile micky is still recovering from a mental breakdown over this whole thing <- science nerd who doesn't believe in god or fate or any of that. eventually they tell davy. He's a) furious that he'd been excluded this whole time and b) shocked and amused that they hadn't figured out a solution already. peter starts to formulate the song do i have to do this all over again. mike/peter tensions are high throughout the whole thing but don't ever really get resolved. davy spends the whole loop bullying mike. micky eventually recovers and ends up having a ball on this bitch and leads them in finding the solution cos he eventually becomes the only one who's taking it seriously enough to fix it because peter has slightly given up and is on the verge of crying at various points. something happens that means they can finally break out but i haven't figured out what it will be yet. something kind of humiliating for them but also very heartfelt and by the end they're pretty close but it's bittersweet because it's implied that once they leave the set everything they went through together becomes a thing of the past and none of them know how to deal with it properly so while it has a lasting impact on their psyches and their relationships it doesn't actually fix anything . okay that's my vision thanks everyone for listening

[loquatenjoyer69]

Below are some ramblings about a panel from the Younger Cousin arc (chapters 113-116), so if you haven't read it and don't want to be spoiled (though I don't really discuss the plot), don't read this.

Okay I've been wanting to talk about this because ever since I read this it's been like circling like a record 'round the spindle of my mind, so to speak, lol. This is right after the bit that Joelle made a post about, which really sums up my thoughts about the mood of this entire exchange, pretty much. Especially "#THE. ABSOLUTE HANGDOGNESS. THE REFUSAL TO LOOK AT US [...] #'no i couldnt keep up my family's grudge against a family i also genuinely hate i didnt have the backbone u__________u'." But what really gets me about this particular line of Natori's is that he drops this right after having seemingly finished telling Natsume about his relationship to the Matoba clan. He's like "No, I don't have any beef with them now, I get job assignments from them even, etc etc. Well, now we've figured out the secret even though it took a while..." and then we get the above panel, which for me is a little difficult to translate naturally in English while still retaining the nuances which make it hit so hard to me, so I'll provide a very rough translation just so you can get the idea. The most surface level and clunky reading of what he's saying is basically

"Did you see something that seemed like this deserted house and the industry leader are opposed to each other?"

Obviously, he's talking about himself and the Matobas, but instead of saying it more directly, like 「私と的場一門」 ("me and the Matoba clan") or 「うちと的場一門」 ("me and the Matoba clan" but with a different pronoun that can refer to one's family), he uses さびれたうち to refer to himself and 業界最大手 to refer to the Matobas. 業界最大手 is pretty straightforward, it means the number one company in an industry basically. さびれたうち does mean abandoned or deserted house, but うち as you may have noticed can also be used as a first person pronoun (most commonly by women but it is used by men in certain situations, and both Matoba and Natori have used it). It refers to one's family or house, which is usually when Matoba and Natori will use it. When they're talking about their family or something like that, the text will read 的場 (Matoba) or 名取 (Natori) but the furigana will say うち. So here, Natori is using うち to refer to himself/the Natori family, but he's marking it as an abandoned house, in comparison to Matoba's industry leader.

Overall I guess this isn't the most deep or crazy thing ever, but something about the way he chose to say it like that, like "Did you see anything that made it seem like this abandoned house (me) and the industry leader (the Matobas) are in opposition?" really highlights his mindset to me. Even though he's still determined to make his own way as an exorcist, he's painfully aware of this power differential, and maybe he feels some shame or conflict about the fact that he relies on the Matobas; he couldn't keep up the feud if he wanted to. It's not possible.

He says it with his back turned, and it just comes out; it feels like it's been weighing on him, and before Natsume can even say anything, he apologizes and is like "sorry, that was a weird thing to say." It really does feel like he had been holding it in and it just slipped out.

[theotherbackgrounder]

Ever After high Reboot-AU Q/A

So, if anyone has been paying attention lately, I have been playing around with an idea for a soft-reboot for the franchise. And honestly, I have thought it would be a good idea to have a little fun and expand on the ideas with a little "Ask me anything" kind of prompt. So I am opening it up. Ask me anything on my Reboot/Au.

What I have for my reboot/AU so far

EAH would have a movie that leads into the series

Reboot is still a sequel to the original.

The main characters of the movie are: Raven, Apple, Cerise, Faybelle, Kitty, Duchess

The movie would hit different episodes such as "Story of a Royal" "Story of a Rebel" "The cat who cried wolf" and some segments from "The storybook of legends" book.

After a while of hitting some of the same points, characters like Raven and Apple are feeling a sense of deja vu

It's revealed that the intuition of Deja Vu is correct, and they are indeed the same experience again. In fact it has been several times.

The main antagonist of the film is Duchess Swan. The dread of her future has gotten to her that when she discovered a magical book that could rewrite time, she, in her own fears, decides to reverse time and repeat her "Ever After High" days as she felt like those were the times when she was the happiest.

Is up to Raven, Apple, Cerise, Faybelle to save Duchess from her own self-destruction.

When Duchess realizes she no longer can keep doing what she is doing, she lets go of the power and allows the world around her to move forward.

Movie ends with all the main cast finding their own determination to follow their own path to find thier own happily ever after. Post-credit scene we see that magical book that Duchess tosses away and a familiar student hand picking it up.

Series itself still continues as it allows for characters to do their own thing and tell new stories. But the series also allows for the show to revist old plot-points and episodes and expand upon them.

The cast of characters can be changed in this new timeline can be changed to have "diverse cast" but with the acknowledgment that "first gen" EAH characters are their original selves. This can lead to internal conflict as character have to overcome existential dread that they aren't who themselves are to believe.

New Idea: Despite the repeat changes to the timeline, several characters haven't changed: The Wonderlandians, Cupid, and Ramona. and it seems that a couple of them have even retained their memories of the past timelines.

So, those are the basics. Give me any question you might have for the AU, or give me something that could help me expand upon the reboot.

[askfallenroyalty]

I have a political question: how come humans allow Monsters to retain absolutist rule? Surely, in the peace process one way or another they would've made them adopt at least some democracy (and it's not like they would be bad at it, if the scraps of information we have in Deltarune are anything to go by). And is there any plan on changing this in the redraw version?

I think that's a huge oversimplification and misses how even the UK, second biggest imperialist kingdom, still has royalty. (And they're not "just" figure heads, they still have power and waste tax payer money. Parasites)

Not going Deep into it but for example the US will aid against democracy if it benefits them. It's an established plot point that the reason humanity hasn't out right exploded monsterkind as capitalism is making a return and uses monsters for profit

Theres also missing context I haven't got to explore much of yet- humanity had a third world War and it was a near apocalyptic event. But its also been a while so modern tech has only advanced (handwaves) only by a few decades instead of the full 100 years. We'll see more of this with Raine+Franky and Billy+Ursus backstories.

This is mostly my way of overlooking the details of the future. Why don't they have flying cars and super advanced tech? Fucked up war. Climate Change? Fucked up war. Any country name changes? Fucked up war. I can keep it as earth but I can name drop fake country names so I don't have to talk about IRL politics

The hyper capitalism of modern times is returning and tech has only really recovered within the last couple decades. It's an active fight to keep human rights and more socialist practices. Asriel decided to lean into capitalism (learning in part from MTT’s success) because it's easier than opposing the world forces who are already predisposed to hate you because you're literally a non human race. Which I... get.... but it tangibly worsens monsterkind.

Raine will gradually push the capitalsim-to-survive narrative and embrace a different form of government that embraces the people

[sqlmn]

I'm just gonna... talk about OCs. A lot of text ahead (mostly under a read-more thing).

For a few of my OC plots, I just really like the characters and go "yeah okay AU time" and stick them in various situations and it helps me see what defining traits the characters retain. Like it's still them even with a job change or something.

For the "oops I fell in love" plot tag I use a lot, the main characters are Right and Brent. And they're just. Really awkward with a lot of personal struggles and are honestly just really good for each other. Then you get Chris who just gets along well with everyone (and is in a poly relationship in base-canon) and has a daughter. But while he is still friendly, I don't always picture him in a relationship shockingly. He always has his daughter though, she's very important. Then you get Karen, Paul, and now the bartender. Who I am never going to name it's literally just a thing now where he doesn't get named.

But like, looking at the base-canon: they (minus the daughter and bartender) all work as detectives or do desk-work/calls at the police station. Then there's the mafia AU in which almost nothing changes in setting except Brent is related to someone in the mafia and is sent to work with the police undercover and so he still has the same role at the station. He still accidentally falls in love with Right rather fast. And in the royalty AU Brent and his cousins are princes and Brent goes to stay with his cousins after some fighting breaks out near his home. So that's where he meets Right (and promptly falls in love). Then finally there is one I haven't drawn for: soulmate/reincarnation. I thought about it a lot though (and talked about it on discord a bit to a person or two...).

And honestly, I have been thinking about that one a bit more this evening. Basically, there are some beings who just get reborn. The live and die, get reborn, retain all memories of their past lives. Most of these souls are each other's soulmates. There's some that are tied to someone who doesn't remember the cycles. Then there are some that don't remember who are soul mates with others that don't remember. But because of this, after time, the idea of soul mates wanes as more and more people come around with no recollection of their past lives.

In this scenario, Brent retains all his memories from each cycle. The thing he struggles with more than having a soul mate that doesn't remember is that he doesn't feel the binding like most others do. He can't just look at someone and immediately know that's them, that's his soul mate. He doesn't feel a connection to people right away (and this is directly related to in base-canon where he suffered severe depression for most of his life and simply thought everyone felt numb to their surroundings so he never thought there was a problem). He also realizes after maaaaany lives, his soul mate tends to start off not liking him. Which is also discouraging and makes him stop trying to search. But when he begins work at the police station in that life cycle, he realizes Right doesn't like him. Which is fine, not everyone will like him but it also doesn't necessarily mean that's going to be his soulmate.

When Right stands up for him though to another coworker, Brent realizes 'ah, got it. there's the connection' but he knows that in this life Right is incredibly traumatized. So he decides to simply not mention anything about it. He just keeps working with him and finds himself somehow becoming friends with Right in Right's opinion. So when Paul demands Right and Karen join him for drinks, Right says Brent's gotta be included, too. Which Paul accepts cause he just wants to go stare at a bartender so whoever tags along is fine.

Then the bar. And Brent immediately groans inwardly because he might not be able to identify his soul mate on sight but he can identify other's that retain their memories. And of COURSE one of the bartenders makes knowing eye contact and smiles pleasantly. So as Right, Paul, and Karen go sit, Brent says he'll join them in a minute and approaches the guy who continues to smile.

"Not often someone like us walks in here," the guy says which Brent notices is vague on purpose. Not really advertising the 'I remember my past lives' deal. Got it. So they talk very briefly and Brent learns that the bartender is soul mates with Paul who, like Right, has no memory of his past lives. And Brent asks about if it bothers the man at all and he laughs and is like "of course not! I think it's fun to see what my soul mate is like every time. The fact they don't remember what happened before just means they have an unbiased opinion on their current life. And that's exciting. Buuuut while I find him pouting adorable, I find he's cuter when he's happy. So please give him this" and just hands Brent a card with his number handwritten on it.

And Brent is like "have you had this all night in case he showed up" and the bartender is very serious as he says "I have had it and thrown it away and rewritten it for two weeks because I don't know how to time it right. So you're the perfect catalyst" and Brent leaves it at that with a new perspective to the fact only he remembers for himself and Right.

But throughout the different universes I shove them into, I really just grow so fond of how Right and Brent are good for each other. And then in contrast to them slowly warming up to each other and having a sudden realization of 'oh no I love this man', you have Paul and the bartender (or gardener in the royalty AU). Those two are literally just horny on main for each other no matter what. It's really fun??? To just think about them? I love them all so much and they're all just good people trying to survive and do their best when together.

And since I mostly talked about JUST the guys here I'm giving a slight bit of info on Karen now.

In base-canon, she's the same role as Brent at the station. She mostly keeps things organized but is very good on the phone with people. In the mafia AU, she's still there but she's the one that shows Brent the ropes. And she is Brent's first "friend" in that AU and takes a whole lotta pride in that. In the royalty AU, she isn't a knight or a royal. She's more of a medic that visits the castle to check on the knights. (and in the mafia AU she does help patch Right up and shows medical competency there) In the reincarnation AU... I don't really have much planned for her yet. She's one of the few in the cast that doesn't have a romantic relationship with anyone so she's mostly there to support her friends.

So basically, hi I love my OCs a whole lot and there is way too much side story info for non-canon events.

[sungpeach]

n a v i g a t i o n

hi yall i'm demi (26, they/she, pacific) and this is sung! feel free to give this a like or dm me on discord at demi6468 if you'd like to plot

if you're wondering if i'm the demi you know... probably. it's been a while since i've done tumblr rp so pls bear w me. this barbie is also a shawol so expect constant references in and out of character. that said, more sung info (sungfo, if u will) below:

-----

background:

grew up poor but then listened to paris hilton and just stopped being poor (or, as history will say, his parents' restaurant business blew up)

moved around quite a bit in older child/tween years as the business grew

was an idol fan from a young age, but the 'rents wanted sung as their business successor

sucks 4 them sung became a trainee anyway. was set for debut after a couple years but that fell through, then the company started treating him as a model instead of an idol and it wore him down and he left

took on military service

didn't give up on his dream tho, joined another company after coming back and worked as a back up dancer for a fallback

tldr for the ending survival show > temporary group > disbandment > solo

personality:

vitamin, sunshine, kind, sweet, polite, hopeless romantic, hard working, determined, introspective, dreamer, overthinker, judgmental, gives himself very good advice but very seldom follows it, can be a bit manipulative (though he doesn't think he is)

he's a pisces, for context on all the above. also a crybaby. cries for happiness, sadness, anything in between

sung's idol self and true self aren't particularly different, idol sung is just more careful/shows negative traits less. he has a pretty good reputation, and a lot of his Brand relies on being likable

the biggest actual difference is sung's a raging homo, which ofc isn't public knowledge

introverted extrovert. most would class him as an extrovert, but he really needs the time to have a cool down period

plots:

sung loves to read, so fellow readers are an easy connection

cares Very Much about music and dance. while he's a known kpop gg stan, he has a decent range of taste in music. over his idol career, he's developed a strong love for songwriting and choreographing to where at this point he's not particularly interested in releasing anything his hands Haven't touched. this is a great place for other diehards/creatives to connect, but also where sung's negative traits could come out. he could be quick to judge someone's commitment level and react poorly due to it

it'd be Lovely to fill the role of a choreographer that sung really respects and has a close relationship with. preferably not an idol for this one, but they would be the person who co-choreographed and starred in sung's move! i see this relationship as one where their passions about dance line up very well and it was an instant connection. they could have worked together at other points as well, like choreographing for bsides for his first solo concert

that said, would also love other dancers that he keeps on retainer for releases and performances! as he cares so much about his ~art~ he really wants to keep those he feels align with his work. so the same faces pop up a lot. he's very loyal and gives flowers (mostly metaphorical but literal too) to all staff and crew, whether they're on stage with him or not

also loves romantic dramas. he's less knowledgable in other fields (least knowledgable in horror) but still partakes. he's just more likely to sims 4 get famous scream and faint over a romance actor

any athletes i am so sorry to tell u this gayby has no clue who you are

other survival group members! idt i'll make it an official wanted ad since i left everything so vague, but there are so many directions for that. i also Headcanon jsj (the temp group) to being a pseudo sibling group with rhiannon and yebin's viv:id 🤓

i'd love for another vivid member to come and be the feat on sung's song be your enemy! yebin was karina in want and rhi was seulgi on heart stop so it'd be fun to continue the trend

another negative place to come from could be just catching sung on a bad day back when he was pushed as a model in his og company. he was very worn out, discouraged, and idk teen hormones im sure didn't make it easier. on the flip side, someone supporting him then would be lovely

the easiest way to tick sung off without much effort has to do with politeness. he gives a lot more grace to foreigners, but really doesn't stand for it from born koreans

i mention negative ideas most since those are hardest for nice muses BUT in gen, sung is kind of a 'friend of the industry' guy. though, especially when he was younger, he had a hard time picking up on cues from people that they didn't want to be friends. he's pretty full on and touchy straight away. loves him a little cuddle

with romance, he's a chronic falling in love with friends-er. but he's also a True hopeless romantic so a guy says smth nice to him once and he walks away with a little bit of a crush 9/10 times. doesn't tend to go for his best interests, so negative romantic r/s are welcome too (past or present)

also he had a gf sometime when he was around 16-18, so that could be fun to play with!

[ventismacchiato]

As of late, there are many fanfictions on Tumblr and the number is growing by the minute, but despite this, one continues to shine brighter than the others. "Just Playing the Part!'' by Ventismacchiato, or Kai, is the most mercilessly beautiful and tear-striking SMAU on the entire app, in the best way possible. Of course, there are many other SMAUs that are equally good, but there is something truly unique in the components that go into JPTP which makes it the best of the bunch.

The first of these components is how the characters present their own individual personalities. They are not wildly out of character, instead they are tweaked so perfectly that they retain the canon personality they have while still fitting perfectly into the modern plot of the SMAU. For example, the emojis used by Scaramouche fit into his dismissive and always annoyed character. He is often seen using emojis that express irritation, as well as sarcasm towards his friends. Naturally, his thoughts do come out in his private account, but even then, it's something that would naturally happen, he is not immune to panicking or being visually upset over a situation. Through this technique, characters written feel very realistic and relatable. To note, this characterization does not only stay true with the main characters. You also have side characters that stay true to canon, one of these being Lisa, who is just as persuasive and flirty as she is in the game. This is proven by many facts, like how the entire arc with the handcuffs is something she would do, using weird techniques that do actually efficiently work. Haypasia too, she was obsessed with Scaramouche from the start and right up until the end, until she received a restraining order, that is. This act of writing characters who don't drift too far off canon but are just enough to feel genuine is a very reliable technique used to create engagement experienced by the reader.

Moreover, this perfect use of personality along with writing style also creates a huge amount of empathy and attachment towards all aspects of the story, making it a joy to read. Every post is filled with immersing content with so much effort put into it, so that when you find small details such as the 69 reference in almost every post with a like or retweet count, it's all the more fun. Though, there are not only details like these throughout the series. Many of the chapters have details in a unique writing form that makes you feel a genuine rush of emotions, a highlight of these times being the carnival chapter. The well known and well famed line, "You aren't sure who starts to fall first."(Chapter 27) leaves a lasting impression, something the reader will think about for nearly eons to come. On chapters that might feel a little more subtle, or filler like, this writing style effect never wavers. For instance, the chapters that have Scaramouche cooking food for Y/N don't say anything too specific about how it builds up their relationship or how romantic it feels, but you can easily infer the underlying emotions. When Y/N tries their best to help him cook, or the fact that Scaramouche goes out of his way in the first place to prepare food for Y/N makes the reader feel the same exact subtle romantic tension experienced by the two main characters. They are growing further in their love for each other, and as redundant as the saying "show not tell" is, this technique is a perfect display of showing the characters head over heels mindset when they haven't even realized it themselves yet.

With all this in consideration, along with more details unspoken (for example, the amount of inclusivity through the entire series for both ethnicity and gender), Just Playing the Part is the best SMAU on Tumblr. In my heavily biased opinion, at least, and I'd like to see you prove me wrong. This series has been through thick and thin, and I'm so happy to see it come to such a perfect close. I don't think anyone could have asked for a better Scaramouche SMAU and I have not a doubt in my mind that we will be here, rereading this series for years to come. Kai deserves C6 R5 for crafting this beautiful piece of art.

Signing off, Vil.

P.S I'm sorry it took so long I wanted to make it as good as possible, it's still not entirely up to par for my satisfaction but at least it's done <3

i read this when i got out of the shower and had a stupid smile on my face when i realized what it was I FEEL LIKE AN ENGLISH TEACHER RN OMG THIS IS SO SO SWEET AND IK HOW MUCH EFFORT U PUT INTO THIS AND I APPRECIATE IT SO SO MUCH

you thinking my characterization fits makes me so happy i was rlly worried about transferring their personalities to a modern setting and i’m so glad u think i did it well with all the characters and it wasn’t too convoluted

IM HAPPY U THINK THE HANDCUFF AND HAYPASIA ARC WAS TRUE TO CANON AHHH ILY /p

pls i was adding the 69 likes and shit to keep me entertained throughout the editing process i’m happy u found it endearing and immersive omg 💓💓AHH THE CARNIVAL CHAPTER WAS MY FAVE TO WRITE I LOVE THE ENVIRONMENT OF AMUSEMENT PARKS ITS SO FUN TO WRITE ABOUT ALL THE GAMES AND RIDES AND SMELLS LIKE THE POPCORN N SHIT sensory overload >>

i’m flattered u enjoyed the filler as well i was hoping it wasn’t too boring 😪 have to add it so the slow burn pacing is good and steady and i’m happy my efforts weren’t wasted

omggg yw for the inclusivity 🥹 i hate seeing fics where they say it’s gn reader then obviously make it veer off towards a gender and it ruins the experience 😭 or when they reader is obviously white like COME ON NOW

“the best smau” vil brb im gonna cry i feel like i have a lot to live up to with btl now 😭🫶

A+ this was written professionally and ily for noticing all my little details and taking the time to WRITE ME A FUCKING ESSAY WTF/pos i’m gonna be giggling about this all week

[pens-swords-stuff]

Hi Naiad

Do you have a separate space for character notes? When you think of something or come up with something during an ask game, do you just stick it in there? Are your characters something you develop in pockets or do they just come together with the plot?

Hi Sleepy!

Now that you mention it, I don't think I actually keep a space for character notes.

I come from a forum roleplaying background, so I'll usually put together some sort of character sheet for my characters. This usually helps me solidify their concept, and it's a lot of fun making it look pretty — sometimes this happens in a formatted/decorated word document, but I've recently been coding character sheets on my private forum.

I guess if I need to note something down, I'll put it somewhere around there? I tend to retain information about my characters really well though, so I haven't really felt a need to do that. The notes that I usually take are either plot-based realizations, or scenes that randomly start to write themselves in my mind.

I also don't ever really come up with something during an ask game. The sort of questions that people tend to ask during ask games don't really align with the way that I do character development, and I find them sort of irrelevant for my process. (To be clear, nothing wrong with those questions! Super excited that other people like them, but most of them are just not for me).

I'm a character-driven writer, so my characters make the plot. I might have a general idea of the beats, where I want them to go or the themes I want to write, but everything else is very much led by my characters. So it's important for me to nail down their character and how they write as the first part of my writing process because I won't have anything else until then. Once they're developed enough and I have a good grasp on their voice, that's when the first draft begins for me.

Thank you so much for asking, Sleepy! I always love questions about my writing process, and I'm very excited that you asked. I'd love to hear more about your process too.

[angelsanarchy]

Alone Together - Eddie/OC One-Shot Series Prt 4

Prt 1 - Prt 2 - Prt 3

I was now on Ms. Kelly's weekly schedule which meant my free periods had to be spent on campus. The only place I could find actual peace and quiet was the drama clubs storage room behind the theater. I was told that it wasn't being used until after school so I was in the clear.

The room itself was spacious, full of props, old wardrobe, and lightening equipment. It was also home to the Hellfire Club that sat directly in the middle of the room covered in the clubs banner and game board. I made sure not to disturb anything and find a nice table in the back corner out of the way that still had a decent amount of light.

I had made it a habit to spend most of my free periods here and sometimes lunch whenever I just wanted to be alone and do some drawings. Today was different. I hadn't expected to come in hearing someone mumbling to themselves at the Hellfire table. The closer I got the more I realized it was Eddie. He was writing in a thick binder and focusing on the words in whatever book he was reading from. I don't know that I've ever seen him look so focused on something.

"Those little shits wont see it coming." He laughed to himself chewing on the top of his pen before jotting more notes.

"Hail Lord Vecna." I growled stepping out from the curtain and Eddie jumped back from the table.

"JESUS CHRIST!" Eddie almost rolled his chair backwards but grabbed the lip of the table to stop himself from falling. I covered my mouth laughing as he gathered his barrings.

"Dani, what the hell?! You scared the shit out of me." He put his hand over his heart and tried to catch his breath.

"I'd say I'm sorry but that was priceless. That made my whole day." Eddie straightened himself out and walked around the table towards me.

"Now I'm just going to get you back twice as hard." Eddie threatened playfully.

"Wow you would take the chance of startling the girl with the breathing problems? I didn't take you for a murdered, Munson." He rolled his eyes at me and sit on the edge of the table in front of me.

"What brings you to my lair?" He asked with a smile.

"I've been using the space for my free period. Ms. Patsy said as long as I didn't disturb your club stuff, it wouldn't be a problem. I promise I haven't touched anything Hellfire related." I put my hand up and Eddie laughed.

"She had mentioned someone was coming in here but I didn't realize it was you. I suppose you get a free pass since you're cute...devious but cute." He crossed his arms over his chest and I stepped away to drop my books down at the desk I had been working on.

"Do you mind if I keep working over here? I mean I promise not to listen to you talk to yourself as you plot the torture of children." Eddie waved his arm over the table.

"Hey you are more than welcome to hang out in my kingdom. Just don't tell those little sheep what's in store for them. I love a good surprise." I rolled my eyes as I opened my sketchbook and turned the desk lamp on but before Eddie sat down he popped back over his black binder.

"What a second...when you came in, you said Hail Lord Vecna...how did you-"

"Oh I flipped through a D&D guidebook when I was in the bookstore the other day. I've spent most of my free periods in here and I got curious. He seemed to be the big bad. I know I'd be terrified of him." Eddie's eyebrows went up.

"Really? Most people just chalk the club up to what they hear in the media. If you're curious enough to learn, I'd love to teach you. That's if you don't mind being looped in with the school freak." Eddie offered.

"I'll consider the offer." From what I looked through that guidebook, D&D was a lot to teach anyone. I don't know if my brain could even retain that much information but I did genuinely enjoy these run-ins with Eddie.

"I mean you would have to refer to me as Dungeon Master but-" Eddie teased. I belted out a laugh.

"Hey those are the rules. They don't call me a freak for no reason." He added. That was an identifier that Eddie used so freely, I wonder if he took it as an insult.

There was a brief silence that started to settle between us but I couldn't leave it up in the air.

"You cut the sleeves off the dress coat." Eddie lifted his gaze up to me once more.

"You wore a black jean vest over top of the cut up dress coat and it had these silver studs on the shoulders." He watched my face closely.

"The dress pants were probably too small but the combat boots you wore with them pulled the outfit together. Your hair was buzzed so you could really see your face, I think you even had a little bit of eye liner on because I remember how dark your eyes looked." Eddie stood up, face softening the more I rambled.

"You stood almost behind the bleachers but not quite under them. I remember seeing the lights shinning off the disco ball onto the studs of your shoulders like you were a warrior stuck in the wrong time period." I finally snapped out of the memory and met his gaze which had seemed to be studying me.

"You were right. I'm not blind. I see you too, Eddie. Different doesn't make you a freak. It makes you an original and if I'm being honest, I think the hair suits you much better." A smile spread across Eddie's face and a blush rose in the tops of his cheeks. He was speechless. He cleared his throat and I looked back down at my sketchbook trying to have the upper hand but once he sat back in his chair, I dared a glance and met his eyes again.

I made a mental note to make Eddie smile more often.

[loregoddess]

10, 12, 14, 33(and if yes 34) and 35!

10. Who is your favorite royal? Gosh, it's hard to choose, bc I actually like all of them a whole lot for different reasons, and also used every single royal as part of my main team for my first playthrough. So I'm cheating and saying all of them.

12. Who is your favorite retainer? Again, it's...hard to choose just one. Party bc the entire cast of Engage is so, so good and this is the first time I haven't been neutral or disfavorable towards at least one playable character for a FE game. I guess if I were to choose just one retainers per royal, I'd go with Clanne and Framme (bc there's only one "royal" for Lythos), Etie and Chloe, Amber and Citrinne, Zelkov and Rosado, and Pandreo and Panette...and Mauvier for being Veyle's only retainer.

14. Who is your favorite recruitable character of the ‘other’ category? Aside from Veyle who feels a bit too plot-important to slot into an "other category", probably Yunaka. She's such an interesting and fun character!

33/34. Did you give the Pact Ring to anyone? If so, who was the first person you gave it to? Pandreo, his supports with Alear are really sweet and I just love the two as a pair. Which is funny since I'm usually pretty neutral towards or just uninterested in most "avatar" pairings. Something about how well Alear's characterization and writing are handled I guess.

35. Spoiler slot! Talk about whatever spoilery thing you want and how you feel about it. (Ask this one at your own risk.) Hmm, I've vaguely mentioned this before but I find a lot of the recurring themes in Engage really fascinating, especially bc I actually think the story is one of the most well-written for a FE game I've yet seen, but like, how well the themes of the story echo through every part of it. I'm not gonna write an actual analysis essay or anything, but I wanna chat about the theme of identity and self a bit, bc it's like, amazing how interwoven that theme is into the fabric of the story. (under the cut bc spoilers, and of course, length)

So obviously there's Alear, whose entire arc is sort of "becoming the divine dragon", but like, it's also interesting to note that, as we see in the one cutscene where Past Alear gets zapped through the heart by Sombron and is "dying" in Lumera's arms, Alear says they want to be a good dragon, rather than a divine dragon per se. Which is a fascinating distinction bc like, while early game Alear comes to associate fell dragons as being "bad" and diving dragons as being "good" (though late-game Alear knows this isn't true), the story goes out of its way to show the audience that fell does not equal bad and divine does not equal good, since Veyle's true nature is incredibly kind, and even with all her divine power Lumera's still able to be brought back as a corrupted and twisted to try and kill her own child. So when Alear has the crisis about actually being a fell dragon, all their friends backing them up and talking Alear down from fleeing isn't just a really good bit of team dynamic writing, the scene also reaffirms the idea that it's not about whether Alear is fell or divine, but rather that Alear is actively choosing to do good and has, in that way, actively become the "good dragon" they wanted to be a thousand years earlier.

I feel like this sense of struggle between "who the character was and who they want to be" is echoed in a few other characters as well. The most obvious is Yunaka, who is at the active transition point between being an assassin and trying to be...well, literally anything else, but she's notably trying to become a better person. And we get to see her right in the messy part of trying to become someone she's never been but wants to be, where she doesn't know how "normal" people talk and act so she's trying out everything to see what fits in. And the neat thing is that she runs into Alear and friends who all just, more or less, accept Yunaka at face value. Alfred makes a point of telling her he doesn't care about her past and refuses to pry (although given that he's hiding secrets about his illness, is this even really surprising that he'd afford Yunaka the same privacy he wants for himself?), Alear also has no issues trusting Yunaka, and when Citrinne (who was deeply suspicious of Yunaka) learns all of Yunaka's story, Citrinne also moves to accept that Yunaka truly isn't an assassin anymore and is making strides to be someone better.

Everyone being so willing to accept and work with Yunaka really sets the narrative stage for the Elusian characters to switch sides and join the team, and even for Veyle and Mauvier to switch sides, bc we already know that Alear is willing to work with people who've done bad things in the past if they're willing to work towards being better and doing good (and this is, of course, also a major part of Alear's character arc, having gone from Sombron's pawn to actively fighting him).

It's just neat! I dunno, it's really interesting to see one type of character arc or narrative theme show up in so many different areas and reinforce the overall narrative. There's other characters who fit into this theme in some way or another (Panette going from being the fantasy equivalent of a biker thug to the prim and proper retainer, Kagetsu being a runaway prince, Amber trying so hard to become a hero of legend). But like, yeah! It's very, very good writing. I don't think most people give Engage the credit is deserves for it's writing bc it's actually so, so good.

[coffeeandcalligraphy]

Hi Rachel! Hope things are going well for you! I was wondering, since this is a frequent topic on your blog/channel, how do you still enjoy your work while letting go of perfectionism? Enjoying what I write is super important to my process and with keeping me going, but the constant over-worrying and embarrassment of what I put down really slows me down and leaves me feeling terrible lol... I know I need to learn to think differently of my own work but I’m a bit uncertain of where to start and what else I could try and appreciate instead. Sorry if this is too vague or broad of a question! No pressure to come up with a solid, one answer or anything. Just hearing your thoughts/experiences would be helpful!

This is a really, really good question! I wrote THIS ask that sort of addresses this too, if you haven't already seen it!

I think at the end of the day, loving your writing despite perfectionism all comes down to graceful self-compassion. Not every day is going to be perfect. Sometimes I still hate my writing (me! right! now!), and it's good to know that ahead of time. If I'm aware I'm not always going to like my work (which is realistic for me), I can then also tell myself that it doesn't make sense to harp too long on things I don't like when my opinion will inevitably change.

Some days it's really about gritting your teeth and pretending you like the work (also! me! right! now!). Find words or lines or images you like and focus your energy there!

One of the mistakes I made when first endeavoring on my writing self-love journey was making goals that were too big. I remember when I wrote Moth Work, the goal was "let's just dump all my shit writing here and see where that goes" and where that went was me developing severe perfectionism LOL. I then went alllll the way to other extreme and was like "okay well let me make all this writing perfect" which is literally an impossible task! Eventually I found the middle.

Now, I'm able to write something like Seventh Virtue and be like "ah yes, let me dump all my shit writing here" because the project also demands different things. For MW, it made no sense to ask myself of that when a HUGE part of what I enjoyed about writing that book was the actual prose itself (I mean makes sense, it's literary fiction). For SV, the prose is important, but not THE most important thing, so my goal of "don't care what happens I just want to have fun" is more feasible within those genre constraints.

So perhaps look at the project you're writing & see where you can create a realistic goal for yourself? I find asking what I like about the project helps inform those goals. So as I said, I liked the pretty prose in MW, so I wanted to retain that. The goal then became, "alright, I'll draft what I can in the moment, and I'll accept that at points, I'm not going to feel comfortable and I will feel cringe and I will feel embarrassed. But after my drafting session, I'll come back and tinker with the draft if needed" (this is actually how I'm currently writing BODY BACK haha).

For Seventh Virtue, I'm quite sensitive to the plot being causally warranted, so the goal is "okay, I'll try to draft each scene from the previous so a firmer causal chain is created, but I will miss scenes, write scenes that aren't needed, etc, and that's fine because I can address that later."

When I realized I could tailor my goal for the specific project, things really opened up for me because it showed me I didn't need to stick to one writing process. On here, y'all get basically first draft Seventh Virtue (99% of it hasn't been touched since coming out of my brain), but get a franken first draft-ish (sometimes 2nd or 3rd) of BB because I cycle through phrasings in my mind while I write (which I don't do in SV LOL). Those are two different drafting processes, so they deserve two different goals so I can better enjoy them.

Also I would say... don't be afraid of discomfort. Writing is so uncomfortable sometimes. I mean look at me in 2020--I HATEEDDD MW! And now it's like... the best thing I've ever written, IMO. We're not objective critics of our own work when we go into it hating it so much (or being embarrassed/ashamed by it, etc, whatever emotion fits your current situation). So that shows us the feelings we're having are feelings, not facts. And feelings are good to have! But they don't have to dictate everything forever. Feel them, and then *try* to accept them and move on. That might not be easy, but the more you do it, the easier it becomes.

I used to STRESS so much when a sentence/scene/paragraph wasn't working. Is that how I explain the 30-60k of each novel I cut between 2018-2020? Yep! Now I stress a little less. And I hardly cut things until I get to the actual revision process (~2k/project).

Okay finally, I've been meaning to use this analogy and this is the perfect timing for it. I've been learning the fun fingerstyle guitar in Jeff Buckley's version of Corpus Christie Carol for almost two months now. When I first started learning that song, LOL, I couldn't play ANYYYY of it. It confused me. I was frustrated. But, I genuinely knew that if I kept practicing, it'd sound 100% better a couple months from now. And now I can almost play it well haha.

It's funny how writers (me included!) forget that practice and failing and sounding bad and writing nonsense is a very important part of the process, but how in other art forms, it's just a given. My brother is an incredible musician and I would never expect him to play a riff perfectly on the first go when he's only heard it once or twice. When he makes mistakes when playing, I either don't notice at all or don't care because it's a given. I just KNOW that as a musician, if I keep practicing, I'll eventually get it (and I almost always do--in some cases, it's too hard and I quit, and that's fine to do too).

I'm actually learning a new song on guitar rn, I'll record it and put it in a video as a visual haha. The amount of times you play the exact same note over and over again... The amount of times you KNOW you're playing the wrong thing but keep playing it wrong anyway because it hasn't quite clicked... It's all part of it! I still enjoy that practice, because it's fun! We can apply that to writing too.

[spaceorphanssecondbreakfastclub]

SO's Bookclub : The Ghosts of Now

Title: The Ghosts of Now Author: Joan Lowery Nixon Genre: YA Mystery

Goodreads Summary: It's Friday night and Angie Dupree is alone in the house when the phone rings. "Your brother is dead," whispers a voice. At the hospital, Angie finds Jeremy in a coma from which he may never recover. Angie is on her own trying to piece together the events of that horrifying night. Her family is new to town. What could Jeremy possibly have discovered that led him so deeply into danger? Angie won't rest until she finds out. But she doesn't know someone is ready to do anything to stop her...

Review: These books are like crack. I can see why I ate them up as a young teen.

A few things to note before I dig in - Something I haven't mentioned, but each book has its own font attached to it - the title and chapter headers are very different from each other. It's not until the 90s reprints do the covers become homogenized. But the original fonts (definitely created in the time periods they were published) are retained. I think it's a cool detail - since it adds to the flavor of the book. Also - I've been seeking out the original covers of these books, they are all these 70s/80s pulp fiction kind of style. The one for this particular book is extra creepy. The girl on the cover is hauntingly disturbing.

Back to the actual review... I don't know if JLN got a new editor, or if she suddenly just became a better writer, but this book's writing is vastly better than the previous ones. (The previous book was decent - but there were still some awkward passages.) There isn't as much erroneous details, and the dialogue, which had been somewhat cringey in the previous books, is much better.

I'd kind of wonder if she used a ghost writer if it weren't for the fact that her usual tropes are very much in tact - some even exaggerated due to the specific story she's telling.

So - Angie is a California girl with her dad in the oil business - and they've moved out to Texas. It's funny - when I was younger, I never really noticed all of these books being set in Texas - but this one takes it to really stereotypical levels to emphasize the point that Angie is an outsider. The whole crux of the plot is that a small town kind of bands together to protect their own at the sacrifice of a young kid who just kinda happened to be caught up in the wrong type of thing.

And, actually, it's not bad. There are some definite creepy parts to the novel (when they're checking out the abandoned house, the tension is deliciously good). And the whole premise that this town has secrets leaves you feeling very uncomfortable in a very believable way (says a person who felt like an outsider coming into small town life).

While the story isn't bad, some of the characterization still is. The main character, Angie, does some things that just make you feel incredibly uncomfortable with second hand embarrassment. She crosses a lot of lines, and while she's right to call certain things out, the way she does it is so awkward that it's really hard to read. She's also very irritatingly stubborn in her approach - and while you can give her a pass for being a teen in the 80s, sometimes it's frustrating watching her not take an easier path to achieve her ultimate goal in who put her brother in the coma.

The other characters, too, aren't really that interesting. Angie has a boyfriend, like, right off the bat when she moves in, but he's a little bland, and really lacking any motivation as to why they connect. She makes a few friends - but they're so inconsequential to the story they might as well not be there. And everyone else is suspicious and terrible - which makes the book kind of go in the direction you most expect it to.

There's also a family drama element going on, too. The dad is a workaholic asshole, who seems to think mental health is not something to concern one's self with. While Angie's mom is slowly becoming an alcoholic because she hates that she's forced to move around so much due to her husband's job. The whole point is the theme of 'ghosts' and that they're not a family, just ghosts of who they should be -- and Angie's brother ending up in a coma kind of wakes them all up from it. I've never been one for family dramas in general, but questionable mental health comments aside, it's not that bad.

I should also mention that the book holds up relatively well, except for when it is blatantly 80s. At one point, Angie exclaims that she much prefers disco over country-western, which really gave me a laugh.

I'll also say that the ending just... isn't worth the tension the rest of the book brings. It feels somewhat anticlimactic and almost silly. It's kind of like JLN had to take it down because it was a teen book or something.

Overall, it is one of the better novels I've read so far, though.

Rating: 3 stars