#i'm having a lot of emotions about this book and particularly about the language

[daughterofhecata]

I started reading On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous a few days ago, and thinking about it and its language, I'm coming, once again, up against the confines and limits of my own language.

German does not have "want", does not have "need" - we have "to want" and "to need" as verbs, yes, but not as nouns, not as feelings.

[vanessagillings]

Please talk about your favorite animated movies and what makes them special to you! I'm really curious about what you enjoyed about them both in the past and now?

haha, okay you asked!

I LOVE animated movies. My theory on this is that it took me a long time to emotionally relate to most media growing up, where I felt next to nothing watching most movies and shows as a young kid, and didn't relate to books until I was quite a lot older (I read picture books until I was around 10, and then suddenly in middle school, I hopped right to adult novels like 1984 and the entire Darkover series by Marion Zimmer Bradley, ha). But even before I emotionally related to fiction, I really enjoyed watching animation. It was nice to look at, and I enjoyed watching everything move and change. I grew up in the 90's where animated movies were largely 2D, and I spent hours watching and re-watching my favorite movies just studying how the characters moved -- it's definitely a lot of where I got my understanding of human expressions from. But I also think as I got older and started to relate more to fiction, animation was easier to parse emotionally than live action. The body language is clear. The stories are direct and not as forgiving of bad human behavior (I get frustrated sometimes with the defeatism in adult media, that assumes that People Just Act Badly, and that just needs to be accepted). Facial expressions are also exaggerated and more stylized -- think of a single arched eyebrow, for example, an expression that's commonly drawn to express one particular emotion in animation/illustration but which you next to never see on a real human face. My first introduction into serious reading was also manga -- a highly visual medium -- which uses a lot of the same tactics stylistically as western animation: big, expressive faces, bold gestures and big stories. Compare manga with western comics being printed at the time and it's even more obvious to me why I didn't particularly like comics until I was given manga as an option -- and thankfully I lived close to a kinokuniya, so I could spend all my allowance on untranslated books and magazines, which is also where I learned Japanese (もうたくさん忘れてしまいましたけど).

As far as my favorite movies? THAT IS SO HARD. The first animated movie that BLEW MY MIND was The Lion King. I saw it in theaters when I was eight and I was obsessed; it was definitely one of my first special interests. I know that entire movie line by line, frame by frame, and I had the stuffed animals and the trading cards and the clothes (man, was I teased for those clothes!). My other favorite movies as a kid were The Land Before Time, American Tale, and The Secret of NIMH (I was a big Don Bluth fan!) which have left deep impressions on how to approach storytelling for children; I warn you, I go hard on emotions for kids, because I needed that as a kid, and I know I'm not alone. Some of my other favorites are anything Miyazaki but especially Howl's Moving Castle (I relate to Sophie a lot), Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs (what I watch when I'm In A Mood), Ratatouille (a huge source of echolalia for my husband and me, we often detect nuttiness, let me tell you), Wallace and Gromit and Fantastic Mr Fox, which I watch every fall as an autumnal tradition. Even as an adult who likes live action, too, I still tend to like slightly over the top directors like Wes Anderson and Guy Ritchie, or movies that are highly cinematic like Road to Perdition, which is still one of my favorite films of all time.

In my opinion, animation is a super important medium outside of it being a very beautiful one. I truly believe it helped me access and understand emotion better as a child, and as an adult, it's a massive source of inspiration in my own work 💛

(Sorry for length, but you did ask!)

[ijustwanttoreadfanfiction]

Friendly Sex - Chapter 8 - The Visit

First of all, I want to apologise for the delay in posting. This chapter kicked my ass, I wanted to cover a lot of ground and this must be the 8th version but I'm still not 100% happy with it, had to happen at some point.

Secondly this covers topics that will likely be uncomfortable for some people, involving a manipulative step-parent and abandonment issues. If anyone needs to talk about this subject, my ask box is open.

Chapters warnings: MDI (18+ only), mentions of smut, explicit language, adult themes, drug use, abusive step-father, emotional manipulation.

----------------------------------------------------------------

Tuesday 20th May 1986

You’re holed up in the back of Eddie’s van, straddling his lap, furiously making out whilst Touch Too Much - AC/DC plays. It was a habit you had gotten into over the past few weeks, one of many habits actually. Eddie along with the rest of Corroded Coffin played a regular gig every Tuesday evening at The Hideout, you had found it was as good a place as any to hook up, particularly when the regular audience was made up of ten drunks and the bar staff. Eddie had threatened Gareth and Jeff into sworn silence about your sudden presence under pain of death, exile etc etc.

“I should be getting home soon.” You whisper against his lips, Eddie answers by holding your hips tighter, grinding you down harder.

“Five more minutes sweetheart.” He murmurs breathlessly, sucking at the sensitive spot on your neck, since that night at the trailer it's become something of a catchphrase for him; always wanting five more minutes between your thighs, five more minutes of fooling about in the Drama club costume closet, five more minutes of hammering into you.

“You’ve already had ten.” You sigh without any trace of reproach, grabbing his face to bring him back to your lips, feeling him grin.

“I’m just making the most of my time.” He says, kneading the flesh of your ass. “Seeing as you’re abandoning me this weekend.”

“I’m not abandoning you, I'm going to visit my mom, you know, the Queen of Abandonment.” You mumble, feeling your mood plummet as it had been prone to doing the last couple of days. Eddie had made a valiant effort in listening to and trying to soothe the various worries you had about your upcoming trip to Chicago, how it couldn’t be for anything good, having to spend time with Philip, watching the twins enjoying the life you once had before it was all messed up.  

“Hey,” Eddie cups your cheek. “It’s just for four days, you’ll be home again before you know it.”

You nod, fiddling with the black stone ring on his right hand, allowing yourself to be coddled as he presses a kiss to your forehead. 

“C’mon princess, let’s get you home.” He hums.

-------------------------------------------------------------------Wednesday 21st May 1986

Wednesday nights were Hellfire Club nights, with Eddie being decidedly occupied, you had invited Robin over to hang out and compare English notes before your final in a few weeks. Both of you laying on your bed, feet at opposite ends, heads meeting in the middle over a pile of paperwork. You heave a heavy sigh, correcting a sentence, trying to ignore the slight twinge in your back. Despite promising to get you home, you and Eddie had gotten carried away last night, which led to you bouncing on his dick in the driver’s seat of the van, the steering wheel as it turns out was not the most comfortable thing to lean against.

“So, you seeing Eddie later?” Robin asks nonchalantly, highlighting something in her book.

“No, tomorrow.” You reply, distracted by a tricky paragraph. 

At first it’s like white noise, a dull fuzzy sound filling your ears, but then her words and your admission sink in, turning so quickly to face her you crick your neck; she’s grinning wide enough that you think her cheeks might split.

“What?” You squeak, feeling all the colour drain from your face. “We’re not - how?” You feel sick.

“Got three words for you babe, closed circuit television.” She says like a cat that’s got the cream. “I saw you both on the security monitor when he came into the store a couple of weeks ago.”

Your heart was in your mouth, or your ass, one of the two. How could you have been so stupid? Keith had specifically had camera’s put in after the adult section was opened, which happens to be right next to the Sci-Fi shelves. 

“YOU’VE KNOWN FOR A COUPLE OF WEEKS?!” You shout incredulously before remembering your dad is downstairs, dropping your volume to a frantic hiss. “Oh my god Robin, why haven’t you said anything?!” You ask freaking out, hiding your head in your hands.

“I was waiting for the right time.” She reasons calmly like you’re discussing the weather, not your deepest darkest secret. “So what’s happening?”

“Nothing is happening, we kissed, once, that was it.” You say in complete denial.

“Bullshit, I saw you getting into his van the Saturday before last and on Monday you turned up to my practice smelling of weed with twigs in your hair and huge hickey.” She looks extremely pleased with herself, whilst you’re still trying to stop yourself from spiralling into a full blown panic attack. “So, are you together?” She asks.

“No.” You say shortly, huffing in annoyance when she gives you a look that screams ‘liar’. “I’m telling the truth Rob, we’re not together.”

“Soo, what then?” She presses, taking your hand in hers. “You can tell me, I won’t judge.”

You bite your lip, in the month you and Eddie had been hooking up it had often occurred to you that your agreement may become public knowledge, you’d had enough close shaves with the Principal Higgins/Fred Benson incident, and the first time Gareth walked in on you both the men’s room of The Hideout. But now it came to actually talking about it, you were terrified.

“It was the night of the party.” You mutter quietly. “I was upset about Steve, Eddie was out in the garden and we got talking, turns out he’s got it bad for Chrissy Cunningham.” 

Robin does a very poor job at hiding her amusement, but presses her lips into a tight line, gesturing for you to continue. 

“It’s your fault actually.” You jibe at her. “I told him that you thought I just needed to get laid in order to get over Steve, one thing led to another and we…” You trail off giving her a pointed look.

“You had sex in the garden?” She gasps.

“More like the street.” You wince at the confession, feeling your cheeks heat up.

“God damn.” She breathes. “Again not judging.” She adds quickly, holding her hands up in defence. 

“After that we sort of made a pact.” You say.

“What kind of pact?” Robin asks, she’s near shaking with curiosity, but you can tell she’s trying to keep a handle on it for your sake. 

“The kind of pact where we’ve been having lots of ‘casual’ sex.” You don’t know why you do air quotation marks around the word casual.

“And there I was thinking you were just using sex to pay for drugs.” She whispers, effectively stunned, you shove her insulted and you both burst into a fit of giggles. “So the mystery guy has been Eddie Munson the whole time?”

“Uh, huh.” You say, still giggling, some weird hysterical euphoria gripping you now you’ve told someone. You collapse back on the bed, Robin joining you so you’re staring up at the ceiling, holding hands like you did when you were little.

“Sorry I didn’t tell you sooner.” You sigh, giving her hand a squeeze. “I didn’t want you to think less of me.”

“Babe, I was in love with Tammy Thompson, a literal muppet. I could never think less of you.” She says, pressing your foreheads together with a soft smile. “So - is he good?”

You nod, exhaling heavily and she whistles.

"It's always the freaks." She laughs, sounding thoroughly impressed. 

You think about how much lighter you feel with Robin now in the picture, but the stress of keeping it a secret from the rest of Hawkins still lies heavy on your mind.

"Rob -" You say seriously. "-Steve can't find out. He'd kill Eddie." Robin bobs her head in solemn agreement, whilst making a movement across her mouth, an imaginary zip.

--------------------------------------------------------------

Thursday 22nd May 1986

You’re busy packing your gym bag ready for your flight tomorrow, when your bedroom landline rings, you grab the whole phone shoving the receiver between your shoulder and neck.

“Hello?”

“Hey princess.” Eddie’s voice crackles through the speaker, and you try to ignore the immediate smile that creeps across your face.

“Hi.” You reply, grabbing a few pairs of clean socks with your free hand. 

“Good day?” He asks, with a slight yawn.

“Eddie you literally saw me -” You check your watch, laughing “- four hours ago.”

“A lot can happen in four hours sweetheart -” He reasons and you can almost hear his devious grin. “- a person could get up to anything.”

“Oh yeah like what?” You goad, shoving your Hawkins High sweater into the bag. 

“Well, I for one have played guitar, made some Kraft Mac & Cheese and jerked off.” He says, sounding incredibly pleased with himself.

“Wow, that is impressive.” You deadpan.

“I know, I did have some difficulty with the jerking off though, nothing feels as good as your tight pussy anymore.” He teases, and even though you’re alone in the house you still get flustered, almost dropping the phone. 

“Ed’s you gotta stop.” You say sternly but the effect is lost when you start laughing again.

“What time is your flight again?” He asks, and you can tell from the change in his tone that he's trying to behave himself.

“3pm.” You sigh, chucking a pair of converse on top of the bag.

“It’ll be ok sweetheart.” He reassures you, before clearing his throat, devilish Eddie back in play. “Now get on the bed and talk dirty to me.”

____________________________________________________

Friday 23rd May 1986

You hate flying, and have always preferred to take the train but your mom doesn’t understand why you would want to take a five hour journey over a one hour journey. You stand awkwardly outside the main terminal at O’Hare, glancing at your watch every five minutes until you hear two little excited screams heading your way. The twins.

Your half brother and sister are on you before you can blink.

“Oh my god, look at you guys you’ve gotten so big!” You exclaim, lifting Heidi up as Paul clings to your legs. “Where’s Mommy?”

Paul points back in the direction they sprang from, your mom bustling along in high heels, hair perfectly coiffed. 

“Darling!” She calls happily, reaching you slightly out of breath, placing a quick kiss to your cheek. “You’re so pale!” She cries standing back to observe you.

“I’m fine Mom, there was just some turbulence when we were landing.” You sigh, hitching Heidi more securely to your hip as you pick your bag with some difficulty, Paul wanting to hold your hand at the same time. “No Phil?” You ask as you walk back towards her car, the kids chattering away over each other so you only pick up every other word.

“He got called into work, but he should be home for dinner this evening.” 

__________________________________________________

After a manic afternoon of playing with Heidi and Paul, you’re taking a break before dinner, reading 'The Colour Magic' as loaned to you by Eddie. Perched on the plastic wrapped sofa in the fussy living room you feel distinctly out of place, everything in your Mom’s house is pristine, coasters on every surface, fresh flowers adorning each room, shoes off at the door so as not to ruin the shag carpet, even the magazines in the rack were alphabetized. You imagined taking her round to Eddie’s, she’d probably faint.

You hear the kids suddenly shouting in excitement, obviously Philip is home, he rounds the door and you instinctively tense up, both of you looking at each other with open dislike.

"Hello Y/n, how was your trip?" He greets you stiffly, like there's a broom up his ass.

"Fine thank you, how was work?" You ask so overly polite you sound near robotic.

"Busy. Heidi tells me you gave her and Paul some candy?" It's so prompt and accusatory you're amazed he bothered even saying hello; a new record in his self-restraint at criticizing you. You mark your place carefully in the book before trusting yourself to respond.

"Just some Red Vines I had in my bag." You reply as measured as possible. 

"The children don't usually have candy, particularly not this close to dinnertime." He chastises, and you can tell he wants you to apologize, you can see it in his hard stare, the way his jaw ticks.

"My mom said it was fine." You say, rising to move past him.

"She was humouring you, next time respect our rules." He says bluntly, grabbing your bicep none too gently. "Every time you're here you cause trouble, my children do not need your bad influence."

You yank your arm out of his grasp, about to respond when a small voice interrupts.

"Mommy says dinner is ready " Paul mumbles, little face hovering by the doorway, his expression worried. You scoop him up, leaving the room and Phil at speed.

"C'mon Paulie, let's eat."

________________________________________________

You were rattled, Phil's grip still feeling like it's curled tightly around your arm, as your mom passes the salad bowl to you.

"Looks great Mom." You say looking at the food on your plate.

"Moussaka darling, Phil and I had it in Greece last year." She smiles blissfully at the memory. "I like to make it for special occasions, and what's more special than having you to stay." She reaches over to give your hand a quick squeeze.

"So Y/n, how are your studies?" Philip asks you, pouring himself a big glass of red wine, like he hadn’t physically restrained you ten minutes ago.

"I have two finals left and that's it." You say taking a sip of milk, thinking you'd much rather have the wine.

"And your college applications?" 

"I’m uh - taking a year or two out, save up some money, maybe travel for a bit…?” You hesitate, feeling diminished in his presence.

“That’s quite an ambitious plan, particularly on your salary I would imagine.” He says smarmily, and you feel your temper rise. “Or were you planning on asking your mother and I to fund you?”

“I don’t need your help, I save everything I make.” You spit out between clenched teeth.

“We know darling, Philip is just teasing you.” Your mum reassures but you can see the high flush of colour on her cheeks, a sign that she’s stressed.

“I actually thought I could come up a bit more often once I graduate, maybe once a month, give  you two a break from the kids, take them out to the cinema and things.” You say, speaking directly to your mom. Smiling as Heidi and Paul both gasp and bounce up and down excitedly in their seats at the prospect.

“Oh that’s very nice of you darling but -”

“- we won’t be here.” Philip’s voice cuts across your Mom’s like a knife.

“What do you mean?” You ask, your mom suddenly finding it difficult to meet your eyes.

“We’re moving sweetie.” She says quietly.

“To Sydney.” Philip chimes in, a broad smirk on his face.

“As in - Australia?” Your voice shakes as you look between them. “But, that’s so far away...” Your stomach drops in a sick swooping motion.

“It’s a big change, but an exciting one. Phil has a new job, and they’re paying almost double what he's on now.” Your mom says, trying to inject some excitement back into the room, but she falters under your tearful gaze.

“What about me?” You ask in a small voice.

“You’ll still be able to come out darling.” She soothes.

“Not to Australia, Mom! There's no way Dad can afford it.” You shout, feeling your chest rise and fall rapidly.

“We’ll pay you for you sweetie -.” 

“- no we won’t Evelyn, we agreed, she either pays her own way or she doesn’t come.” Philip snaps, the following silence suffocating around the small dining table.

“Did -did you agree to that?” You ask, your heart breaking into a million pieces, noticing Heidi was silently crying opposite you.

“Well not in so many words, we just thought, Philip suggested that maybe you could contribute something -'' She trails off, looking at Philip for support who simply sips his wine, looking impassive.

“Mom, how am I going to see you? The tickets will be close to a thousand dollars!” You cry, feeling like you’re ten all over again, begging her not to go.

“Well I guess you should start saving then.” Philip mocks and you feel yourself break, eight years of hatred pouring out. 

“You fucking asshole.” You snap, hands shaking as you kick your seat out from under you . “What? You weren’t happy enough that you took her from me the first time so now you’re going to take her to the other side of the world?!”

“You watch your mouth you little bitch.” He shouts back, slamming his fist into the table, Heidi and Paul both openly crying as your mom tries to soothe them.

“M-mom?!” You sob desperately needing her to back you up, but she doesn’t even look at you.

You rush away from them to the spare room locking the door, feeling like you’re going to pass out, choking on your tears. You grab the phone and dial.

____________________________________________________

Eddie was having an incredibly delightful evening, Wayne was working, he had left over lasagne, a couple of beers, a bong ready to go, the only thing missing was you.

He could have sworn while he was jerking off earlier that he could smell your perfume on his pillow and it had sent him wild, he wanted nothing more than to rail you into the mattress but you weren’t here, he wouldn’t see you until Tuesday at the earliest and it was torture.

He was just about to start watching The Shining when the phone rang, probably Reefer Rick wanting to offload some shit.

“Yeah?”

There was silence at first, enough that he was ready to hang up when he heard a tiny sniffle

“Eddie?” The panic that washed over him was instantaneous, hearing you call his name in a cracked voice.

“Sweetheart? What’s wrong?” He asks frantically, already tugging on a Reebok before remembering you were in Chicago.

“S-she’s - leaving me.” You cry, it sounds like you’re breaking your damn heart.

“Who?”

“My Mom.” You sob, Eddie can hear how hard you’re breathing, he’s worried you’re going to have a panic attack.

“Sweetheart, I need you to calm down for me, ok?” He paces on the threadbare carpet feeling completely useless as you just cry harder, little whimpering sounds escaping you.  “Can you take a deep breath in through your nose and out through your mouth, can you do that for me princess?”

He hears your breath stutter slightly, but then you inhale shakily.

“That’s it, in through your nose, and out through your mouth.” He finds himself doing it with you, the hand that’s not holding the phone rising up and down, it’s about another minute before Eddie feels that you’re stable enough to talk again.

“What’s happened baby?” He asks gently.

“They’re moving to Australia.” You say thickly. “Mom, the kids and Philip.” You spit the name out like it’s poison.

“Shit.” Eddie says heavily, and he’s irritated with himself that he can’t think of anything better to say. “I’m so sorry sweetheart.”

“She doesn’t love me.” You sound so sad, hating that he can’t wrap you up in his arms.

“Hey, that’s not true.” He insists.

“Then why does she find it so easy to keep leaving me?” You ask, voice cracking into tears once more.

“Because people do stupid hurtful shit princess, even to the ones we love.” Great he was sounding like a fucking hallmark card. 

“I just wanna go home.” You whimper. “Everything is so fucked up. I wish I'd never come here, I just wanna be home with you.” You say it so quietly that at first he thinks he’s misheard, but the way his heart stopped said differently. “I-I miss you Eds”

You can’t miss him, surely? What was there to miss? You guys had a good time, sure, but he didn’t give you anything that you couldn’t get elsewhere. You just wanted comfort, you were far from home, going through hell. You probably didn’t want to put your dad through it so you rang him, but you could have called Robin? Maybe even Harrington? He ignored the spike of jealousy at the thought of Steve comforting you instead of him.

“Eddie, are you still there?” You sniffle. Shit, way to fucking go Munson, just give her the silent treatment whilst she’s pouring her heart out.

“Y-yeah, I'm here sweetheart… I miss you too.” He breathes, shaking the nervous energy out of his hands, he wants to expand, tell you how much he misses you when he hears a loud banging in the background and a muffled voice, possibly a man’s.

“Fuck off Philip I'm on the phone -” The banging continues, Eddie hears you grunt followed by a dull thud, he assumes you’ve thrown something against the door, followed by more muffled yells. “-yeah well you can bill me and upgrade your seats to first class you prick!” You shout back.

“Cunt.” You mumble, and Eddie can’t help but laugh, you let out a wry huff.

“Ed’s I'm gonna have to go.” You say, sounding miserable once more.

“Will you be ok?” He’s worried about how volatile Philip the Cunt was, ready to drive through the night to get you if wanted to.

“Yeah, I'm gonna run Phil’s phone bill up some more, call my Dad. Maybe get a flight back tonight.” You heave a sigh of exhaustion. 

“I’ll see you soon sweetheart.” He promises.

“Counting on it Munson.”

Taglist: @avalon-wolf @mystars123 @lolalanaie @eddiemunsonsgf2@eddieslildarling@bakugouswh0r3@sidthedollface2@81rain@blueberrylemontea-fanfic@winchester-angel@bimbobaggins69@tuskjohnny@fckyeahlames@thecomfortgoth@alanamarie@miarosso@ghosttownwherenoonegoes@somespicystuff@eddiethesexy @unfocused81 @1paire2vans @take-everything-you-can

[studies-in-the-art-of-deduction]

Don't know if you have before, but could you talk a bit about body language and deductions? Thank you

Hello! I think i've mentioned the subject before, but i've never talked about it in depth, mostly because i'm not particularly well versed in body language. I used to know people who also had blogs who were very knowledgeable in it, so if they become active again i'll make a post about it. That being said, as i've been writing this response i've had to be very careful to not get into any details i'm not sure about or give any advice that may be wrong. So i've decided to keep my response fairly vague while still giving as much advice as i can.

So body language falls into the non verbal communication side of deduction, along with microexpressions, and both should be treated similarly. Body language and facial expressions (and their corresponding microexpressions) are ways that our body has of relaying what we feel or think in any given moment, a lot of the time involuntarily, this means that like with every other language, we need to learn to not just read it, write it, and speak it, we also have to learn to interpret it. There's a plethora of books and resources out there that teach you how to read body language, what certain movements, poses, and reactions indicate about a person's state of mind, so i'm not gonna go into that here, actually it's probably the easiest part of deduction to find information on. What i am gonna touch on is what to then do with that raw information

Similar to all the other parts of deduction, once you interpret body language, get all the information you can about someone's reactions, state of mind, emotions, ideas, feelings, etc. you have to start asking yourself what this information means. Knowing that someone's uncomfortable is only useful if you know why, and that's where deduction comes in, sometimes it's as easy as noticing that the body language shifts once a certain person comes into the room, or a certain topic is mentioned, other times you have to do a bit more digging, after all that person who triggers body language that indicates discomfort may do so because they're someone's boss, or because they're their partner and they had a big fight recently, or because they've harassed the person in some way, or a plethora of other reasons.

Now how to do that is the hard part, i can't give any advice that's specific to body language, but i have talked about how to go deeper than the raw information you can observe about someone before, so i'll link those posts here. While i'm not well versed in body language it's not a big leap to assume that due to the nature of the advice i give in these posts, they could be applied to information gained through reading body language:

Deduction: Passive or Active

Changes and Deductions

Chess and Deduction

Binaries

I also recommend the book What EveryBODY is Saying by Joe Navarro, it's a very good resource to learn body language.

Hopefully this was useful! I encourage you to look more into body language and study it in tandem with deduction, maybe you can make your own posts explaining these topics!

[johannestevans]

Pirate Media Recommendations

Along with Ryann Fletcher, Kate Heartfield, Juliet Kemp, and F.D. Lee, I'm going to be on the Queer Pirates panel at 3pm this Friday at EasterCon 2023!

Our Flag Means Death and other pirates: a panel discussion including fandom and canon of Our Flag Means Death and other series such as Black Sails. This item will start around 15 minutes after advertised start time to minimise clash with the Opening Ceremony.

You can still sign up for virtual membership of EasterCon here if you'd like to attend online, as there are going to be a great many panels and discussions throughout the con, which are gonna be great.

Coming up to the panel, I thought I'd make a list of some of my favourite pirate and nautical media to point people to, as I'm probably going to mention a bunch of it on the panel and this is a particularly fierce interest of mine!

So for Our Flag Means Death, we know that it's an interpretation of the historical relationship between Edward Teach and Stede Bonnet as a romance - two other famously queer pirates were of course Anne Bonny and Mary/Mark Read. I'm personally super excited to see if these figures will feature in Our Flag Means Death S2.

Podcast Episodes & Videos:

Ching Shih: The Pirate Queen, from Puppet History

The True Story of a Pirate Queen, from Ruining History

A History of Gay Pirates with Rebecca Simon, on the PRIDE Podcast -

Sailing Through Queer Pirate History with Rebecca Simon, on the PRIDE Podcast

Pirate Queens with Rebecca Simon, on the PRIDE Podcast

Were Some Pirates Poofters?, from the History is Gay Podcast - Going through Anne Bonny, Mary Read, Calico Jack, and Pierre Bouspet.

Queerness in the Golden Age of Piracy, from Queer as Fact

Books & Essays:

FICTION: The Aubrey-Maturin Series, by Patrick O'Brian - The Aubreyad is not about pirates, but is a nautical-historical series of 20 books set in the 1800s. I love these books a lot, they're ridiculous and very homoerotic with a lot of background gay dynamics - you can absolutely infer a romance between Captain Jack Aubrey, a hot slab of beef, and his doctor, Stephen Maturin. They're funny and they're rich with nautical descriptions, really immersing you into the language and feel of the period and the sensation of being on these vessels. While I'm not holding these books up as a bastion of queerness compared to other texts, Maturin is a fervent abolitionist and despite being a member of Aubrey's crew is actually vehemently anti-colonialist in his views, and those discussions do play out on paper again and again. Because of their realism these books do kind of poke a hole in the naval officers being held up as inherently noble or honourable, and particularly regularly criticises the actions and ideas of the state.

FICTION: J.M. Barrie's Peter Pan - I love Peter Pan, and obviously I talk and blog about it a lot. What's particularly dear to my heart is the relationship between Hook and Smee, which is such an intimate marriage even though it's not explicitly described as such, and it makes me very emotional. This book was written at the beginning of the 20th century, and I do want to warn anyone before going in about the racism inherent - the text treats the existence of the Natives to Neverland as part of an "adventure", and there's also anti-Black racism toward many of Hook's crew, as well as the description of Hook himself as "swarthy" despite being a white Etonian. Peter Pan is a story about working class white children in London whose parents has dreams of them ascending to middle class, and the children's fears of growing up are heavily influenced by economic anxiety, but also they desire a return to a time when as young white kids "adventure" would have been more accessible to them, as is typical in the classic adventure novel.

FICTION: Peter Darling, by Austin Chant - The Lost Boys say that Peter Pan went back to England because of Wendy Darling, but Wendy is just an old life he left behind. Neverland is his real home. So when Peter returns to it after ten years in the real world, he’s surprised to find a Neverland that no longer seems to need him. The only person who truly missed Peter is Captain James Hook, who is delighted to have his old rival back. The oft-recommended trans man!Peter Pan/Hook romance novel. Please don't talk to me about this one as I haven't and can't read it for some personal trigger readings, but it's recommended all over and is well-loved for a reason!

FICTION: Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island - Treasure Island is of course, one of the archetypal adventure novels. What a lot of people might not know is that the TV series Black Sails is a prequel to Treasure Island! If you enjoyed Our Flag Means Death, you might be delighted to realise that the real life pirate Israel Hands features in Treasure Island, and fights with Jim Hawkins, the protagonist.

NON-FICTION: Sodomy and the Pirate Tradition: English Sea Rovers in the Seventeenth-Century Caribbean, by B.R. Burg - In Sodomy and the Pirate Tradition, historian B. R. Burg investigates the social and sexual world of these sea rovers, a tightly bound brotherhood of men engaged in almost constant warfare. What, he asks, did these men, often on the high seas for years at a time, do for sexual fulfillment? Buccaneer sexuality differed widely from that of other all- male institutions such as prisons, for it existed not within a regimented structure of rule, regulations, and oppressive supervision, but instead operated in a society in which widespread toleration of homosexuality was the norm and conditions encouraged its practice.

ESSAY: Our Flag Means Death and Queer Utopias at Sea, an essay by Seth LeJacq

TV Series:

Our Flag Means Death - Of course, duh! Our Flag Means Death, a queer romcom interpreting the historical relationship between Stede Bonnet, the Gentleman Pirate, and Edward Teach, Blackbeard, as a romance.

Black Sails - A "gritty" and brutal prequel to RL Stevenson's Treasure Island, exploring the tales of Long John Silver and how he came to be what he ultimately is in Treasure Island. There is a lot of gay shit in this and it's extremely anti-imperial in its outlook - with that said, I'm personally not a great fan of Black Sails to watch, for me personally it's either too upsetting or too dull to stick with, oscillating between the two extremes. If you haven't tried it and do want to, I do recommend sticking through at least the first season and seeing if you get into it! With that said, it's got particularly brutal onscreen treatment of its WOC, especially Max, a Black woman who is violently raped onscreen (as well as onscreen abuses of other women), and I would recommend treading with caution if this is something that will be difficult to watch.

Neverland - This miniseries is near and dear to my heart - it's not huge on the pirates, but it actually has Bob Hoskins reprising his 1991 role as Smee, and I find it to be an interesting and quite different exploration of the Peter Pan prequel that really explores class some. More importantly, it actually has Natives playing Natives, and features Q'orianka Kilcher as Aaya!

Movies:

Love, Death, & Robots: Bad Travelling (2022) - This is a short film that's part of the LD&R series, and it's really good nautical horror. That's all there is to it.

Master and Commander (2003) - Taika Waititi said this movie is his favourite romance movie, and he's so fucking right. Anyway, this movie is based off the first five of Patrick O'Brian's Aubreyad, and it's so loving and so gay.

Treasure Planet (2002) - There are so many adaptations of Treasure Island, but this is my favourite every single time, it's just so well-done, it's so full of care, it really captures the wonder and excitement of sailing and the sense of freedom, and honestly? Jim Hawkins is sooooo transmasculine, he even has an ugly shitty mullet haircut and a little gold earring, he is the blueprint, he is perfect. If piracy in space tickles your fancy, I also might recommend Space Pirate Captain Harlock (2013).

Pirates of the Carribean: The Black Pearl (2003), Dead Man's Chest (2006), and At World's End (2007) - Listen. Are there technically other POTC movies? Yes. Should you watch them? Oh, fuck no. I have seen On Stranger Tides and Dead Men Tell No Tales/Salazar's Revenge and let me tell you: you do not have to, you do not need to, and you do not want to. On Stranger Tides tried to tell me that Hector Barbossa fell in love with a woman. My man. Hector Barbossa. A woman!? Please! Anyway, I grew up on these movies and unfortunately they are overwhelmingly and unrealistically white - there are some really cool characters of colour and I especially love Tia Dalma. Remember not to watch these movies legally, by the way - watch them on an old cheap DVD or do some piracy yourself. Fuck Johnny Depp.

The Pirates of Penzance (1983) - This is an adaptation of the Gilbert and Sullivan opera, and it is so over the top, so ridiculous, so much fucking fun. Kevin Kline has some of the sexiest fits in this movie and so much thick, thatched chest hair, and the music is good, many of the jokes still land, and it's just fun.

Peter Pan (2003) - Don't watch the Disney Peter Pan. Never watch it, it's garbage, it's ugly, it invented a bunch of anti-Native racism that isn't in the already racist original text, and you know, fuck Disney. Is the 2003 Peter Pan perfect? No. But is it better? Yes. Jason Isaacs is so hot as Hook, and while I am not the biggest fan of PJ Hogan's take on the book that's all about Wendy wanting to fuck her own dad on top of cutting the Hook/Smee dynamic back significantly, the Neverland aesthetics and the silly piratical ones are a lot of fun.

Hook (1991) - Spielberg's sequel to Peter Pan is glorious for one reason and one reason only: Dustin Hoffman and Bob Hoskins were like, "hey, these two dudes are married. They're old queens in love!" and they played it like that, and they were so fucking right. Hoffman's Hook is so queer and so effete and so incredibly mentally ill and he is the biggest mood throughout, as is Smee trying to keep them both alive. I adore this movie to death, I really do.

Down Periscope (1996) - Okay. So. This movie is a little bit different. It's not set in the Golden Age of Piracy or even just after it - it's set in the 1990s, and is about a Yank Naval Captain doing wargames with other members of the navy. With that said, it's got a lot of pirate hijinks and a lot of found family dynamics with a lot of freaks and neurodivergents packing the crew - note that there's some misogynistic harassment in this for the only female crew member, but she's one of my favourite characters and she's so much fun, much like the rest of the crew. Listen. The captain has a tattoo on his dick. They all dress up as pirates while making one of their crew members walk the plank. Their ending credits feature the cast dancing and singing along with the Village People, to the iconic gay anthem, In The Navy. It's good, I swear.

And I've tried a bunch of pirate videogames, but none of them has measured up to Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag. Unfortunately, this game is an Assassin's Creed game and all the AC plot stuff sucks, because that's what AC games are for.

When it's not doing their terrible meta plot in the "real world", though, this game has such excellent gameplay, it's great fun, and the soundtrack is tremendous. Even if you don't play the game, absolutely consider giving the sound track a listen, because it's just great!

An old album I would recommend is also the Robert Shaw Chorale Sea Shanties one! It's from 1960, and they do some really fun arrangements of different sea shanties - their Drunken Sailor is one of my absolute favourites!

If you'd like to see a different take on the sea shanties and would still love some more space piracy, I would also recommend Once Upon A Time (in Space), by the Mechanisms!

My Stuff

And separate to the general rec list above, here's some of my work that's relevant to my takes on queer pirates, and why I'm on the panel:

Communicating Want, by me, DictionaryWrites - 75k, rated E, Frenchie/Izzy. Izzy's just so buttoned-up, how is Lucius supposed to resist the urge to seduce him? It doesn't go well. Just a silly thing exploring sexual trauma and stuff with Izzy Hands! Love that bitch.

Our Flag Means Death S01 E01: Close Textual Analysis — Examining OFMD E1: Pilot in close detail and liveblogging/analysing the text. On Medium / / On Patreon.

Gerald Poole and the Pirates - A distinctly queer adventure full of internal conflict ensues when a gentleman and a sailor are captured by pirates. Read on Medium: Part I / / Part II / / Part III / / Part IV / / Buy as an eBook on SmashWords, $2.99 / Buy as an eBook from Amazon.

The Coffin at Sea — 400w. A vessel picks up a coffin afloat at sea. On Medium / / On Patreon.

The Pirate Accountant — 4.5k, rated M, MB. A quartermaster works up the nerve to finally mount a seduction on their accountant. Dark humour and biting banter throughout, between an exceedingly cautious and paranoid accountant and the quartermaster who’s finally worked up the courage to ask him out. On Medium / / On Patreon.

Saint Jude’s Kitchen — 20k, Rated M, MB. After an injury stops him working, a failing deckhand gets a new lease on life. Themes around cooking and nurturing, identity and sense of self, and complex family dynamics. Adapted from a TweetFic. On Medium / / On Patreon.

[firehananas]

About M!Kana and his potential fathers

While a lot complain it was boring to read the same dialogues over and over, I found some interest in it because yeah, it's the same but... not quite.

So, I'll try to make a recap (but only with the 1stGen because... eh, I'm not a fan of marrying the 2Gen especially in this game and they doesn't interested me that much honestly)

This differences are mostly based on the rank B and a bit of A of Kana and Kana's father. Depending of who is his father, Kana doesn't do the same chores, some have an extended dialogue about his mother and some show more insecurity than the others (sometimes it's follow in the rank A).

For the chores, Kana will always help the archers first. For the lunch, he'll either chop meat bear (the favorite of his mother) or vegetables. Also, while the majority of the Kana tend the horses, a minority give his mother her books and maps for war strategy.

I class to simplify for me the start of the extended dialogue as "honesty" because Kana'll admit Corrin didn't exactly thanks him but rather told him he did a "good work". Following it, he may adds her smile was sad (and sometimes start doubting about her sincerity and thus if he was really being helpful). Same for honesty, I tag it "emotional intelligence" to simplify.

Last, the insecurity is a little more subjective, but I mostly count when Kana expressed self-doubt and when I could found the video if he looked particularly distress.

So. For it to be clear, I'll name the father directly rather than writing Father!Kana everytime because it'll be very mouthful.

CHORES

Vegetables or Meat : All of them cooked meat excepted for Silas, Shura, Saizo, Odin and Izana.

Horses or Maps : All of them tend the horses excepted for Shura, Odin and Izana who give the maps.

HONESTY :

Silas, Shura, Saizo, Azama, Odin, Izana and Gunter are the ones being honest.

Between them, Silas, Saizo, Odin, Izana and Gunter are "emotionally mature".

INSECURITY :

The most insecure : Shura and Odin

Insecure : Silas, Saizo, Izana and Gunter

Show some insecurities : Jakob, Azama, Xander, Yukimura and Fuga

No insecurity (and tend to be cocky) : All the others

I wanted also to add if Kana was being formal with his dad or if at least his dad was being formal, but it seems to be a specificity in my language and it doesn't really show in English (Kana always call his fathers 'papa'). For example, I know that in the translation I've got, most of the commoner fathers are formal with their son while most of the royalty/lord doesn't bother.

Anyway, regarding the results :

Odin have the most customized of all the Kana's dialogues, following by Izana and then Shura. Azama is pretty unique too.

Corrinsexual fathers have an insecure Kana (all of them show some insecurities, 4/5 show are rather important and one of them have a very poor self esteem).

Surprisingly, the strategists of the army (Takumi, Yukimura and Leo) doesn't give their son the love of maps.

Other :

Odin is the only dad to lost against Kana in rank B

Izana is the only dad to accept the sleepover with his family immediately

There is some other minor variants (Kana saying "I did" vs "We do!" when talking about the results and same when they talk about the sleepover, either saying "you want me to be happy, yes?" vs "us".) I'm not sure if I'll do it.

I can make some theories on why some are like that, but others does questioned me. I'm very surprise most of the main male characters have very little variants (the most importante one being Xander's one). I'll give my theory and interpretation on another post

[lifmera]

Hi! I know you're probably really busy, but I would like to request a hazbin hotel and helluva boss matchup please :)

For the personality traits, I'm an INTP-T with the amazing 98% introverted score Other traits: •autistic, prolly ADHD too •doesn't like physical touch unless either I initiate it or it's a person I'm comfortable with •really picky eater •eats like once in 5 hours •likes to stay up late and sleep in •curses like a sailor •likes to draw •rants about hyperfixations a lot (mainly dragons) •doesn't really talk much until I get to know someone better •gets easily overstimulated •If I'm comfortable with someone I'm a chaotic gremlin

female aroace with the desire to date (prefers women over men, mostly because men are stupid) •doesn't drink, smoke or anything •loves reading (especially fantasy books) •procrastinates profesionally •can speak two languages •is done with everyone and everything 99% of the time •loves tea if it has a lot of sugar in it •massive sweet tooth •loves salty things •puns are the best (dad jokes all the way) Physical traits: •Long, straight golden-brown hair thst tends to get real greasy real fast TwT •rather tall for my age •skinny af •green eyes •likes to keep hair loose

Hi!! Of course!!

I’ve decided to pair you with…. EMILY & OCTAVIA!!!

EMILY!!

Although Emily is 100% a hugger- she knows when to respect boundaries!! She’ll only hug you if you ask her :)

She’ll make sure you get your proper nutrition in a meal!!

Definitely an early bird!! But she would love to see your sleeping face in the morning!!

To be honest, when she gets excited shes probably also a chaotic gremlin, but she also knows how to handle a situation so it wont get out of hand.

She’ll love you any way you are :)

She’ll help find some books for you two!! If anything she’ll recommend books she’s read.

Cause she’s an angel i personally think she’s able to understand every language- so she thinks it’s awesome to hear you speak in other languages!!

She also has a massive sweet tooth, cus you both are sweeties!! But she’ll make sure to manage it so you don’t get cavities!!

Although I feel like she wouldn’t understand dad jokes. She’d cock her head to the side like .. “?…. OOOHHHH…”

FIRST TIME WRITING FOR OCTAVIA!! BUT YOU FIT HER SO WELL.

Huge on physical touch. She appreciates it especially when she’s emotional, but she doesn’t like it if you guys aren’t close enough.

Although she isn’t particularly picky, she’d probably eat what you couldn’t!!

She can sleep whenever, but I personally believe she likes to stay up a lot of the time to go stargazing, so she’d love it if you joined her!!

Also curses like a sailor, she thinks it’s funny when you both do it together. (She cusses her mom and dad out)

She loves to listen about your hyper fixations, it helps her get away from the problems of her family.

She’s also an introvert pretty much. But once you two get to know each other, I don’t think you could separate!!

50/50 on reading. Picked up both parent’s reading. She only likes to read about what interest’s her- and when it really does she wont be able to put it down. She would have shelves just about that one topic!!

I also believe she would know a few languages since shes a goetia!! Would LOVE to speak to you in different languages because she finds it romantic.

Also done with everyone. Constantly. You, Octavia and Loona would all be best friends.

Probably more savory than out of the other two!! She’d indulge in it though, and would give you some sweets she’d find in a bakery :)

~~~~~~~~~

HOPE YOU ENJOY IT ML!!! SO SORRY IT TOOK SO LONG….

[shoko-komi]

The Komi Report - Communication 431

This week in Komi Can't Communicate:

An alchemical elixir...

...and a settled score.

Read It: Mangareader Mangakakalot Viz Media (North America Exclusive) Mangadex (Dead, but there’s the backlog. And Spanish language updates, if you can read Spanish)

Oda has a knack for taking one-note characters and surprising you with moments of genuine pathos. He shifts the perspective, or the tone, or shines a light on them just so to reveal hidden depths.

In the last two chapters Fuki received that treatment. Fuki was introduced (Communication 325: Classmates) in the first crop of Year 3 classmates as "guy who's clumsy" and, although funny, seemed destined (to me) to be one those characters who exists to fill out a crowd and appear occasionally for variations of their one joke. An important kind of character, but not particularly interesting.

But then when the time was right, Oda took us inside Fuki's head and the joke became an intimate struggle; a boy's furious battle against the limitations of his own body, and the shame he lays on himself.

Oda didn't give Fuki any new traits. He just changed the perspective a little, and now you're feeling emotional about "guy who's clumsy". It's a simple trick used to great effect; one that Oda uses often (with Ogiya and Emoyama in recent times. Although they each received more substantial development). In a series that, by necessity, has a LOT of characters, you have to be efficient in the way you use them without sacrificing the quality of the storytelling. In my opinion, Oda handles his small army of a cast exceedingly well.

Makeru Yadano was introduced aaaalllllll the way back in Communication 20: Fitness Test and became Komi's 4th (FOURTH) friend. She's as venerable as it gets.

Yadano's trait is that she's fiercely competitive, and the joke is that she always loses (or is trying to sell an absurd food that no one wants to eat. Benujit Spopo my beloved). I love Yadano, and now, after 411 chapters since she first appeared, we've gotten a look into her heart...

but first!

This guy is an alchemist? Some kind of potion-brewing wizard??

Don't ever let Komi take a chemistry class this girl will drink the experiments. This girl is thirsty for brews and concoctions. She walks up to snake-oil salesmen and orders 12 shots.

Alright I love this guy. He decanted some monster energy into a test tube and acted mysterious about it because everyone at Itan is a drama dork

Brief Kawai appearance I can't let her go without saying hello

I'm going to use Netsuno's appearance as a reason to bring up how Oda never forgets a character!!! Even a character like "lady who really needs a tissue" has reappeared multiple times (in outstanding chapters, no less). In this instance we see Netsuno and Komi training together and without it being said outright you can imagine that they've been going for runs regularly even after Netsuno graduated.

What makes Komi's world feel so lively is how inhabited it feels. Komi doesn't add someone to her Book of Friends and then forget about them, they actually become friends who stay in touch. Anywho... it's about time I got to the main event.

This is exactly what I was hoping for after that serious look on her face at the end of Com 430.

You take the character, you take the joke, you twist them around a little. For the first time, Yadano is being honest with herself and with us.

"I'll pretend to be frustrated"? Was it a mask the whole time??? A defense mechanism to disguise her crumbling self esteem????? You take the character... you twist them... twist them... twist...

...and suddenly they aren't so comical anymore. They're human.

The way the tension builds is phenomenal. For the first time you think she might actually pull it off... and you want her to!! Maybe I'm just a drama dork myself... but I felt so in this moment.

A brief aside to note this little Hiki moment Oda slipped in. Love this.

And then the tension's relieved with a gag asjdnoasjdnoas. Of course Yadano didn't win. I wanted her to, I thought maybe she might, but of course she didn't. A victory here would have undermined the sad beauty of the struggle.

Everything about this race sequence is incredible to me. Part of Komi's trouble with connecting to people has always been her inability to work out what other people are thinking or feeling. Which is part of why Tadano was/is the perfect person to help her; empathy being his superpower and all. So Komi here realizing what Yadano needs, or rather, doesn't need from her is a show of... growth? Maturation? I'm not sure what. But it's interesting.

Phew!!! I love this chapter!! And I've said a lot more in this Komi Report than usual! In the past I've mostly made my goofs and said little more, but recently I resolved to have a go at expressing all my various serious thoughts. The nature and structure of The Komi Report is sort of a living thing. That's how I roll... 😎

See you next week!

[leofrith]

[20 Question Fic Writer Tag]

Tagged by @aeide and @ainulindaelynn 💖 I did this one a few months ago but a few answers have changed since then so I'll update those. 😊

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

Six now! Four one-shots, a short-ish multi-chapter which was supposed to be a one-shot that got away from me, and my longfic which at this point I should have just waited to post but am definitely still chipping away at.

2. What’s your total AO3 word count?

33,030 which is almost double my count from a few months ago. Woaaaaaaaaahhhh

3. What fandoms do you write for?

Still Assassin's Creed, now dipping into Baldur's Gate 3 as well.

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

Still the same five fics in the same order but with slightly different numbers:

Hideaway - 149

Bright Skies - 139

Press On, Move Along - 94

Out of the Cold - 43

Honor Bound - 29

5. Do you respond to comments?

Yes! Always.

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

Still Press On, Move Along.

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

Still Hideaway.

8. Do you get hate on fics?

Still hate-free, for now.

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

Sure do 💀 and I've posted some of it since the last time I did this. I think the only way I can really describe it is emotionally-charged, because if I'm going to horny jail it will at the very least be in service of some kind of character development. 😭

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

Still occasionally poke away at the AC x Star Wars AU, but I'm not super invested in it right now. But I'm sure that will change as soon as a new Star Wars thing comes out. Since I last did this I also went digging through the depths of my writing folder and found a Walking Dead x MCU crossover that I must have started when I was like 14 years old. Absolute fucking horror show that I am so very thankful I never wrote enough to post. 🤡

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Still no, as far as I'm aware.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

Nope!

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

No, except for yelling back and forth about ideas with friends. I would probably be open to it but also maybe not because I know I am extremely unreliable.

14. What’s your all time favorite ship?

Saying "all-time" favourite feels a bit much, but as far as mental real estate and also just sheer number of words written, Leovor far surpasses any other ship I've been into. 🧍🏻‍♀️

15. What’s a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

Since I did that ask game a few weeks ago, the Inquisitor Ahsoka/Rex starting a clone rebellion/post TCW AU has been on my mind. But I know that, realistically speaking, I'm unlikely to ever be invested enough to actually sit down and write it.

16. What are your writing strengths?

I'm trying to make a point to read more fiction and while it's possible that the few books I've read thus far lately just haven't been particularly good, it's certainly made me way more confident in my ability to write dialogue that feels like it would be spoken by real live humans and not aliens pretending to be humans. Similar deal with internal monologues. I'm convinced that none of these authors read their work aloud.

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

Still generally the same—overthinking comma usage, editing while I write and therefore being very slow, going back and forth between being stuck because I didn't plan enough and feeling stifled because I planned too much. Etc etc.

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

I try to avoid it as much as possible, with the exception being words or phrases that are used a lot in canon.

19. First fandom you wrote for?

Still Marvel :(

20. Favourite fic you’ve written?

Honor Bound is still my baby, but I didn't expect to actually like A Different Kind of Solace as much as I do, mostly because I didn't really go into writing it expecting to hit the emotional notes that it does. Also still Out of the Cold. There are some banger lines there.

Not tagging anyone because this one has gone around a few times recently but if you want to do it, you're welcome to pretend I tagged you. 😌

[theplaguewriter]

Hello! Could I humbly request a fluff alphabet for diluc from genshin impact🫣👉👈

Hello, sorry for the wait!! I hope you like these. It was a lot of fun to write them. I'm sorry for the colour and music ask..I don't know much music..and the colour confused me XD Nonetheless, please enjoy my little Plagueling

Diluc SFW Alphabet

Affection - What do they do to show affection?

Diluc will involve you. Be it the winery or his Darknight responsibilities he will want you by his side and he will always appreciate your input. It’s like a work version of quality time, which is also how he shows his affection. He wants you to be around as much as possible, without it being overbearing to either of you. In the evening, when you two lounge in front of the fireplace to read or just relax, he will gently stroke your hair, shoulder or knee…depending on how you two are places on or around the couch. 

Beauty - What do they admire about their s/o? What do they think is beautiful about them?

He loves your smile the most. Not the polite one or the one you use for pictures. He prefers the smile that you can’t stop, when you’re incredibly happy or found something so funny you couldn’t stop yourself from laughing. He’s never seen a more beautiful smile. He also admires how you are able to press on despite any challenges. Even if things get rough, you pull through and he can’t help himself but admire and envy that strength you have. 

Cuddles - How do they like to hug their s/o? Can include a visual.

Diluc’s hugs are reserved for emotional moments and the confines of your home. But when they happen they are so warm and comforting. He will wrap his arms below yours around your back, one hand on your neck, the other on the middle of your back. He will hold on to you as long as you, or he, needs him to. 

Discrete - What’s their opinion on PDA?

Diluc does not enjoy PDA. He will hold your hand while the two of you walk through Mondstadt or the surroundings, but he is not the one to initiate a makeout session in front of the entire town. That being stated, he will not outright push you away either. He will kiss you hello and goodbye, but he will prefer to keep them short and sweet. His hand will linger a second longer on your cheek before letting you go/asking about your day.

Everything- You are my _____. (Ex. World, Life, etc.)

“You are my sunshine.” It may come off as cheesy, and he will not call you this in front of others, as he feels a little embarrassed to be seen this vulnerable. But you really are, you brighten up his days. When he has a bad day, remembering his father, or having a particularly nasty encounter with the knights, it’s you that warms him up, emotionally. You’ll be there and he will almost forget anything has happened. You’re soothing his soul, like sunshine after the rainy season. 

Family - Do they want a family?

Diluc would not mind either way. Right now, having children is not his priority, and he feels if he wants some, he still has enough time later. At the same time, the thought of never having kids does not bother him either. It’s not really anything that is rooted in self-doubt, he just doesn’t mind. If his partner voices the wish to have or not have them, he would simply adapt. 

Gifts - What types of gifts do they give their s/o?

Diluc’s love language is gift giving, alongside quality time. He will give you mostly practical things, he will make sure that you never lack anything you need. His gift giving is not the over the top sort, it may be subtle to a lot of people who don’t know him very well. Diluc will make sure you always have enough food, that you have new clothes when your old ones are too adventure-worn. He will occasionally spoil you with a book, artifact or board game he knows you’ve been wanting for a while. He will absolutely show off how filthy rich he is for special occasions though, lavish gifts or trips for your anniversary just because he can, hehe. 

Hands - Do they like holding hands? Can include a visual.

He actually does. It is comforting and he can do it in public without getting shy/embarrassed. Diluc’s grip is more on the firm side, but not bone crushing. He’ll mainly just interlace your fingers but sometimes when you are upset he will do the little thumb stroke thing to soothe you. 

Injury - What do they do if their s/o gets hurt?

If you had an accident, while training or traveling, just generally something that is to be blamed on clumsiness or just a simple plain accident. He will tease you, and others may find it too harsh. Of course, while making fun of you he will tend to any injuries you have. If you two are alone, you will even get to see him grin and laugh, making you forget any pain you may have felt. 

If someone hurt you however, bless their soul because Diluc is coming for their ass, and not in the fun way. His priority will be to make sure you are fine, tend to any injuries and tuck you into bed with a hot tea in the mansion. Then he will go out and hunt down whoever laid their hands on you. He will beat them up depending on the degree of your injury, the worse off you are, the worse it will be for your attacker. He cannot stand the thought of losing you too, so this really sends him into a panic. He might want to try and hide that from you, but you know him. Which is usually why you comply with letting him deal with the attacker, he needs to let the anxiety out.  

Jealousy - Do they get jealous easily? How do they deal with it?

Diluc isn’t the type to be overly jealous, he is quite secure in the relationship you have and does not perceive other people hitting on you as a threat. However, he has his limit. If this person is very persistent, he may doubt some things. He will at first try to just ignore the feelings bubbling in his chest and try to distract himself with work. If it goes on for even longer, he will ask to speak with you about it. Diluc tries to be calm and rational, but he fails. His disdain for the other person is incredibly obvious, as if it was a knight of Favonius. 

Kisses - Are they a good kisser? What was the first kiss like?

He is not the best kisser in the world, but also not the worst. A nice middle ground, which mainly comes from the fact that he is quite awkward with physical affection. But no need to worry, it’s only the first few times. Diluc will learn and adapt to your kissing style quite fast, making the kisses more and more enjoyable as they come. The first time he kissed you, was after a date. He’d lost count how many there had been, but seeing you sit there in the pale moonlight, while Mondstadt was quieting down for the night, and feeling the gentle breeze, it just flipped a switch. He took your hand, leaning closer, and asking if he could kiss you. Unromantic? No, because the way he asked was incredibly soft. His voice was quiet and holding back, there was no hint of his usual standoffish or cold demeanor. His eyes were focused on yours, not daring to look at your lips yet, lest he loses control and just goes for it. The look he gave you was a mix between a silent plea and determination. When you agreed, you saw his lips part, and if you had looked really really hard, you could see the faint pink tint right above his cheekbones. 

Love - When did they know that they loved their s/o?

Diluc realized he loved you, when he complained to Adelaide about needing your input on a certain issue at the winery. When she asked why your opinion would be needed, since you are not part of the family or work there. Diluc was dumbfounded. It got him thinking why he needed you around so much, why he always valued your thoughts and sought you out after a long day. Long story short, it took him completely by surprise. 

Memory - Do they want to get married? What would the marriage be like?

He does want to get married, like the family thing it’s not a very high priority right now. However, unlike the issue with kids, this is something he’d actually really want. He will not force you, of course if you hate the idea of marriage, there will be none. It’s just something he always imagined, coming home to his wife/husband/spouse, sharing everything, being able to say that even by law he is yours, and you are his. In his mind the marriage wouldn’t be that much different from the relationship you have now, he already shares everything with you and you with him. It’s more the idea of being bound together for the rest of your lives that makes his heart pound. Nicknames - What do they call their s/o?

Diluc isn’t really one for pet names…out loud. Most of the time he will call you by your first name, especially when you are around other people. When it’s just the two of you, he will stick to the more classic ones: love, dear, if he wants to make fun of you or tease you he will throw in a babe. 

Orange - What color reminds them of their s/o?

Teal

Proposal - How did they propose?

He would approach the proposal in a classic way, dinner at your favourite restaurant, yes even if that is in Sumeru, he will get you your favourite flowers, or any that you really like if you don’t have a favourite and he will pop the question at the end of the night, just before dessert. He will gather information about what ring to get you over months. Always disguising his questions. “Ah, Jean had a new gold necklace. I don’t think gold suits her that much, she’s more of a silver type. What do you think?” and then he casually bounces the question on your preference. And he will make sure they’re spaced out enough so you (hopefully) don’t connect them.

Quirk - Some random ability they have that’s beneficial in a relationship.

He knows every time, without fail, when your social energy is drained, or when you’re overwhelmed. Diluc will proceed to remove you from the scene, so you can take a breather, he doesn’t mind being the “bad guy” in that situation. This applies to himself too, if his presence is too much, he will tell you that he’s gonna give you all the time and space you need. He will let you know where he’ll be if you need him. He will also make sure to keep his tone soft and comforting, so that it doesn’t come across ass judgemental. 

Romance - How romantic are they? What would they do to make their s/o happy? Cliché or rather creative?

Diluc wants to be romantic, he really does. He just comes up short in the idea department. Given how he’s grown to be, he has a bit of trouble with social interactions, which also applies to your relationship. He will get better as the time goes on, but his romantic plans are usually quite textbook. He tries his best. 

Supportive - Are they helping their s/o achieve their goals? Do they believe in them?

Yes. Diluc will support you, no matter what your goal is. However, he won’t blow sugar up your ass. If your steps or immediate goals are unrealistic, he will tell you. He’ll try to come up with a solution together with you as well, but he will be firm and harsh when it’s needed. He believes, though, that his s/o can achieve basically anything, and that he’s just there to cheer them on and sometimes give them nudges. 

Time - What are their future plans?

Growing old with you. He wants to retire at some point and travel through Teyvat with you. Just him as Diluc. Not the Dawn Winery owner or the Darknight Hero. Just him and you, seeing the world and not needing to worry about anything at all.

Understanding - How good do they know their partner? Are they empathetic?

Usually, Diluc is very understanding. He tends to approach almost everything rationally, the exception being the knights and Kaeya. And after all the time you two spend together, he knows you in and out. He knows all the little signs, if you’re happy, excited, sad or overwhelmed, Diluc can usually read it pretty well. Sometimes he has a little trouble rationally understanding some of your struggles, but he would never belittle you. He’s got the spirit, he’s just a bit confused. He will be there for you regardless if he can understand your struggle or not. 

Value - How important is the relationship to them? What is it’s worth in comparison to other things in their life?

It may not seem so, but Diluc puts you above everything when it comes to it. If he had to choose, he would choose you. Now, on the daily, sometimes he has to put the winery before lunch with you. Or he’ll come home later than he said because  of some Darknight business, but he will always make it up to you. And in serious issues, say you’re injured or in need of help, he will choose you first, no matter what that means for his other dealings. 

Wild Card - A random Fluff Headcanon.

In his sleep Diluc touches butts with you. He’s not very cuddly, because it gets too hot, too uncomfy, hair everywhere. But he has to have his butt pressed against yours, or he won’t have a restful sleep.

Xylophone - What song describes their relationship with their s/o?

I am sorry, I don’t know much music…so I will skip X in these requests..

Yearning - How will they cope when they’re missing their partner?

He will be okay for about three days. Then he drowns himself in work, winery or hero business, anything to keep his brain occupied. He’ll take on extra work, and even tour the surroundings of Mondstadt at night, just so he doesn’t have to think about the fact that you’re not home. 

Zebra - Do they want a pet? What kind?

I can see Diluc as a cat person, even multiple. He’d especially like a pet if he and his s/o decide to not have kids. That way they wouldn’t even have to worry about allergies and such, they could just get cats if they wanted to. 

[the---hermit]

A Certain Hunger by Chelsea G. Summers

This book has been all over internet for the past few months, and since I don't read a lot of contemporary novels I felt this book could be the perfect way to comfortably read something different. In fact the themes and general vibe of the novel are much closer to what I would normally read. This novel is a first person narration of a food critic who turned out to be a cannibal. She murdered and ate several ex partners, and in the novel we get to see how she did it and why. This book is included in several unhinged women main characters lists,and it totallt fits in. I can see how it got so famous, because aside from the more horror-ish vibe of the story there's a lot of sections in which our main character shares her thoughts on femininity and how being a woman is generally perceved as well as how society tells you to act as a woman. There's some really interesting and nice passages on the topic, and overall I really liked the way this character is totally opposed to the classic female representation in litterature. I'm going to say something insane but bare with me for a second and you'll see where I am going. In classic Italian litterature I have always particularly enjoyed Boccaccio because other than proving that medieval litterature can be fun he did something extraordinary: he humanized female figures in litterature. Previousl the model of women in litterature was an angelic idea, then this guy came along and reminded everyone that women are humans have desires and believe it or not they can feel a varied range of emotions and enjoy sex. I feel like A Certain Hunger is a book that instead reminds the reader that women can be violent and feel anger, or even commit these kind of crimes withour an emotional explaination like revenge. There's a couple of specific passages in the book where the author addresses this topic directly and those were some of the best parts. The plot is overall good, you follow with interest because the narrating voice is really captivating.

There is one main thing I did not like and that I have complained about on goodreads as well because it really ruined the experience for me. The book has a lot of sections that take place in Italy (it was very fun and interesting to see Italy and Italians from the point of view of someone outside of our culture to be honest, and it really added something to te experience for me). To make things more elevated and since the main character supposedly speaks Italian and has a lot of interactions with Italian people there are many words and phrases written in Italian. Those were not at all checked by someone who activly speaks the language before publishing the book. If it were just a couple of sentences it wouldn't have been too much of an issue, but since it was so present it was very annoying to read cause it was avoidable quite easily. There's typos that change the meaning of sentences, wrong adjectives, and sentences that look translated by google translate. These phrases feel wrong because they were translated directly from English, meaning they either do not make sense or sound like stuff people would never say out loud. I understand that for an English speaker that cannot speak Italian this complaint is useless, but believe me it made the reading experience so frustrating. What leaves me shocked is that the cultural aspects were mostly accurate (shout out to the full page in which the main character complains about how Trenitalia is totally unreliable, it was as hilirious as it was accurate), so I really don't understand how this can live with all the language mistakes in the book. This is my only complaint for the novel to be honest, if it had been edited by an active speaker the reading experience would have been so much better. With this being said it's not a bad book, and it's worth reading for the themes I talked about. As an horror/thriller book it wasn't too disturbing, there were a couple more graphic scenes, but I feel like it could have been much worse. If you want to read if maybe check the trigger warnings but I think it's quite appoachable.

I read this book for the studyblr w/ knives horror reading challenge for the body horror prompt.

[saintsenara]

BROOOOOOOOOO. (sorry if the following is cringe, i am a little drunk at a party but i saw your ask about favourite stories. and now I'm in the loo for a second typing up this reply)

so. scylla and charybdis is a MASTERPIECE and I will review it soon.

the shack at the end of the lane makes me SOB.

sparkling cyanide is a work on language and the meaning of freedom of rare beauty (and also. how. in very few words you say the world)

your latest on merope (i won't even try to write the name from memory) but it made me UGLY CRY. that "I'm mucky" stuck in my brain and now i am severely emotional just thinking about it fuck my makeup.

bookbinding is a masterpiece of a romcom and inhuman resources made me squeal (too much time with roddy's missus lol, and my poor roddie getting his arm bitten by an inferius my poor baby)

death eaters in paradise is my most re-read out of yours (I ADORE IT)- then again, roddy slander which i cannot tolerate but there's lots of lucius slander too and CAGA makes me giggle every time i read it (and also the poor bell boy, and druella is a bitch and the gaudy cocktails and oh my god i love your writing so much)

i haven't read everlasting ink yet but as soon as i review all the others i will get to it, you deserve it.

all of this being said. my favourites of yours? atramentum. and other women and of purer blood. i. love. them. think about them maybe once a day each, every day. love them. you deserve 29307945 views and kudos. and a kiss. and one of my martinis❤️

oh darling. i hope your hangover wasn't too awful after this. not least because i'm chuckling.

and also preening, because i love attention and the opportunity to talk about myself. although not to repeat myself - i've talked about some of these already: scylla and charybdis here, the shack at the end of the lane here, sparkling cyanide here, bookbinding here, inhuman resources here, and other women and of purer blood here.

of the others...

we can't discuss bó na leath adhairce without having the song on in the background.

as i've said elsewhere, merope gaunt has become one of my favourite characters to explore this year, in particular because she provides an excellent insight in how the series thinks about things like motherhood, desire, love, and death.

in this piece, she is the lens through which we can examine how the series thinks about a theme which is surprisingly prominent in it, given that it's a story about a not-particularly-observant teenage boy: beauty.

the harry potter series is suspicious both of those who are unnaturally beautiful and those who are unnaturally lacking in beauty. harry is a physical everyman - neither too good-looking nor identifiably unattractive - and the female characters the book likes, especially ginny and hermione, are hot enough that we know they're not bad or unsympathetic people (not like ugly old rita skeeter, or pansy parkinson, or moaning myrtle, or dolores umbridge) but also not so hot that they need to be considered bad in a different way (like fleur, until the point she proves she has inner beauty too and ginny and molly accept her...)

this isn't only a spectrum reserved for the female characters (lockhart gets the fleur treatment - the idea that being good-looking or vain is indicative of some deeper moral weakness; peter pettigrew is unattractive as well as a cunt), but it intersects with one of the series' main gendered aspects: that stereotypically feminine interests are silly, and that women who wish to be considered substantial in some way don't care about them.

the main example of this is, of course, the difference between lavender and hermione. the one is silly, giggly, and girly, the other is clever, sensible, and authentic. the one is the sort of girl you have a fling with, the other is the woman you marry.

merope is an ugly character - and, therefore, one which the narrative is not particularly sympathetic towards - but her ugliness also comes accompanied by a jealous desire for beauty she cannot attain, in the forms of tom riddle sr. and his pretty girlfriend, cecilia. neither of these two are shown to be nice or sympathetic people either (tom sr. is a dick in his only canon appearance, and the narrative emphasises at other points that the riddles are rude and unpopular). merope and tom exist, then, at the two extremes of attractiveness which the series regards as negative.

but merope is also someone whose life is unrelentingly miserable. in the fact that it is devoid of beauty, it is also devoid of comfort, pleasure, safety, opportunity and so on. much as the series is critical of love that is not sacrificial, it is critical of covetousness, frivolity, or silliness. but these things are not simply morally neutral, but morally good. and a girl who is clearly - if we read between the lines of canon - the subject of degrading and violent abuse at the hands of her male relatives should be able to find comfort in the pretty ephemera of womanhood. sometimes a lipstick is a lipstick and a unicorn is a unicorn. sometimes they're a lifeline.

death (eaters) in paradise and atramentum come together (bellatrix: i'm listening), because the latter is in very many sense the serious version of the former.

my justification for why bellamort are a good couple is consistent across things that i write with them in: that he is one of the only men in her life who sees her as a real person, and who understands her desire to escape the rigid conventions of her gender and social class; that she understands his need for love and attention, and that she is far more sympathetic to his childhood trauma than he is willing to admit. the idea that this is the only authentic relationship in either of their lives is one i sincerely believe in, in contrast to the assumption from outside the ship that they can have nothing in common or that there is no honesty there.

both of these pieces have that idea of authenticity - of something real existing underneath pretty set-dressing - as a key theme, alongside the idea that voldemort admires anyone who is interested in making their own life.

atramentum is obviously the sadder of the two, looking as it does at the comfort bellatrix finds in a draughty attic bedroom as the dark lord prepares to go to the potters.

death (eaters) in paradise features bellamort on a package holiday in marbella. and true, we do have to say rip to the bell-boy, killed in the service of trying to wingman for the dark lord.

everlasting ink deals, of course, with what bellamort leave to the world.

i'm a delphini stan account (let me live!), and i think she's a hugely interesting cipher for all sorts of people's neuroses. normally in my writing, those people are her father and her father's various boyfriends, but here it's harry and ginny.

hinny's divergent relationships with lord voldemort (harry loves the hot one, who's also an orphan; he's the one that ruined ginny's life! the snake-faced one literally doesn't realise ginny exists; he's the spectre haunting harry's entire world!) is one of the reasons i don't think they're a particularly good or interesting couple, but here they're dealing with their own baggage and making it work.

with the help of an only mildly sinister toddler, who has big brown eyes, the ability to speak to snakes, and a love of custard she certainly didn't get from bellatrix...

delphini grows up to be a hot slut with a foul mouth. ginny's influence, i'm sure.

[now, for a little sneak peek...]

it is true that poor, useless rodolphus isn't having a great time in my stuff, i'll admit to it. (although i do think he'll put in a better showing in scylla and charybdis than he has in many other things, not least because the main character assassination happening there is to regulus.)

the issue, i fear, is that he doesn't have much interest in witches. maybe he and bella both like tall, thin men with blood on their hands? or maybe roddy's more inclined towards a ginger - we'll have to see if the tawdry little romance he'll be having with percy weasley as per a prompt i'm filling for rare pair fest will make him any cheerier...

[unclevladscorner]

I have to reassess my feelings on Cemetery Boys

I want to be clear- I had a really difficult time reading this book. It was not fun, nor was it particularly enjoyable for me. Reading it touched a raw emotional nerve in me, and I had such a wildly different experience with it from most other transmasculine people that I do not relate to the attachment many feel for the book.

But the thing is I could not seem to explain why, exactly. The book is not bad. The language is a little plainer than I'd like normally. The story is also not bad. I could see the ending from a long ways off, but I'm also almost 40 and this is a YA book.

I thought it might be my age. I'm older and I didn't start my transition until I was 30. But I think I have to admit that it was that I saw my own very raw younger self reflected in Julian so nearly completely it hit on some difficult to feel emotions about what it was like to be a queer kid.

Julian isn't just literally invisible- he's metaphorically invisible in his own life. Abandoned, half neglected and living with behavioral issues, this kid is completely feral. His friends are his family, and he would literally die for them.

I know him and his life because; in spite of our racial and geographical differences, it was my own life. The mechanic father and brother, the mother who abandoned them? Yup, my life too.

Yadirel has it much easier in comparison to Julian and he is blissfully unaware of it. His situation isn't particularly easy or even much more comfortable, but his awkward family is stable and at a better place to work with him. Yadirel's family isn't always sensitive to his needs; nor are they always supportive, but they do love him.

The reaction I had was so raw, so emotional, and so hard to explain that I really hated the experience for a long time. I finished the book a year ago, and I still chafe a little when it comes up.

At the end of the day, Yadirel's life just wasn't my life, his experiences as a trans person are nothing like my own, and that's why I didn't really relate.

That being said, a younger trans person showing agency with his own life resonates very strongly with a lot of trans people. That's a good thing! The book touched a lot of other transmasculine people in ways that has been deeply important for them.

I'd still recommend this book to people who are just discovering their transness or queerness. I think it can be a good place for some people to start, even if I wasn't that person myself.

[sarcasticsciencefictionwriter]

@electricrogue tagged me, thanks so much! :D

(About half way through doing this, I realized I was tagged before, but I'm not wasting the time this took. 😂)

1. How many fics do you have on AO3?

106 :)

2. What's your total AO3 word count?

533,416 :0

3. What fandoms do you write for?

Sanctuary and Stargate SG-1.

4. What are your top five fics by kudos?

Those are all SG-1 fics, Sanctuary just doesn't have the numbers.

Commute (Sam/Jack, SG-1) - 85

In-Between (Sam/Jack, SG-1) - 70

One Snow Day (Sam/Jack, SG-1) - 65

Two Kinds of Sparks (Sam/Jack, SG-1) - 65

One Rainy Day (Sam/Jack, SG-1) - 58

5. Do you respond to comments?

Yep! Sometimes it might take me a day or two because I want to be able to respond to them properly!

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

Oof. Um.... look, a lot of them have angsty-ish endings.

The Last of the Tau'ri (Stargate SG-1) probably has the angstiest ending because it is an apocalpyse and child-death story.

Five Times James Watson Was a Father and One Time He Wasn't may count as well. (It ended with the time he wasn't)

7. What is the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

Uh..... I have no clue.

Yeah, sorry, can't answer this one with any confidence. :(

8. Do you get hate on fics?

No, other than being told how I didn't stick canon in the manner that I should and I deserve the criticism.

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

I don't. I'm not comfortable enough to do that (yet) and I can assure you that no one would want me to either.

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

Stargate SG-1/Sanctuary/The Aviary.

'Bird Cage' is a crossover using the characters from SG-1 and Sanctuary in a world taken from the book The Aviary. Earth is the pleasure planet of the Goa'uld and human women are the main commodity.

Sam ends up in a 'museum' of girls, run by John Druitt and Jack follows her to try and save her. Along the way, they pick of the help of various characters (including Nikola Tesla).

It's not done because of computer problems and will be a five-part series.

It's kind of wild and pretty dark.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not that I know of.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

Nope.

13. Have you ever co-written a fic?

No, but I would like to! Technically writing a Supernatural/Hannibal crossover over with tina-mairin-goldstein, but....I'm not really into it? And I was only recruited to right the Supernatural bits.

14. What's your all time favorite ship?

Helen/John. 😅 (Helen/Nikola is close, I promise)

16. What are your writing strengths?

Foreshadowing and tension, along with dialogue.

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

Emotion, descriptions. Particularly emotional description.

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language?

I'm all for it, but I only speak English, so I'm a little hesitant on doing it for fear of it being messed up. I do put some words in Serbian for Nikola, but so far that's just sprinkles here and there.

19. First fandom you wrote for?

Warrior cats when I was maybe twelve, but that was never published and shall never curse the internet with its presence.

20. Favorite fic you've written?

Enigmatic Confections (Helen/Nikola). I've fallen in love with it far more than I thought I would.

(Also The Abnormal X-File)

Since I was tagged before and I think never everyone else was... No pressure tagging @theleotorrio , @crazymcwritesalot , @misscrazyfangirl321, and @tina-mairin-goldstein

[superman--yoosung]

Hello, are Mystic Messenger matchups still open? If they are, can I request one?

My gender preference is male (for preferred age, they should be an adult.)

I go by she/her pronouns.

Likes - books, music, plushies, nature, animals, writing, art

Dislikes - being interrupted, unsolicited advice, impatience

Personality + Beliefs:

I'd describe myself as reserved, patient, humorous.

Also, quiet, sensitive and a hopeless romantic.

To strangers, I seem shy or aloof.

My friends would describe me as trustworthy, kind, smart.

For my beliefs, I believe that dreams can come true if much effort is put into them.

Flaw:

Occasionally, I overthink or feel insecure. I'm also a bit forgetful.

Additional info:

• There's a mole (birthmark) on both of my legs.

• My love language is acts of service.

Thanks!

You got yours in on time, don't worry!

Your Mystic Messenger matchup is...........................

V !!

"They say a picture is worth a thousand words, old friend... But it's quite clear what three you meant for her with this painting, V."

The RFA and you went through a lot during your time as a 'game tester,' to put it mildly. But what the other members are certain of is the impression you left upon them all, and how you managed to pry open the heart of their most elusive member: V.

And to that member in question, it is clear that you are the better person. Had you never shown up in his life, he might never have had the opportunity to grow and heal.

Fun details:

You and V will often spend weekends quietly enjoying the things you love in each other's company. That means snuggling on the couch together while reading books, or listening to your favorite songs while impromptu painting together. Sometimes you'll be writing late into the night, and V will lovingly tuck a blanket over your shoulders and fetch you a drink of your choosing to make sure you're hydrated.

You are both highly sensitive souls, and very attuned to those around you and their emotions. Because of this, you two rarely fight - you're just too good at reading each other that you'll address any issues almost immediately as they appear. You (moreso than V, though he does as well) recognize the value in being honest about how you both feel, so you'll always be willing and able to find a happy medium.

On that note, your fellow RFA members will love that sensitive quality about you. Yoosung and Zen will often seek you out for solace, while Jumin and Jaehee will appreciate your tact and patience. Even Seven will feel comfortable bringing his more serious thoughts to you because you genuinely listen and empathize.

You and V are both hopeless romantics. Once you understand each other's love languages, you will enjoy showering your partner with love in that manner. For V, this means doing lots of little and large things for you in your day-to-day lives: he'll do whatever household chore you like least, he'll always make sure you have enough spare change before leaving the house, he'll fluff your favorite pillow/plushie, and he'll always make sure your bookshelves are kept tidy and you have a bookmark where you last left off reading. He is prone to showering you in praise, too, though if that isn't to your liking he will learn to tone it down with time.

You are not a muse to him as Rika once was, but V nonetheless draws great inspiration from you. Expect many paintings to be inspired by interactions you've had, or for portraits of you to be made depicting moments of your existence that struck him as particularly breathtaking. The fact that you ever doubt yourself breaks his heart; in moments where he notices your insecurities rising up, he will gently remind you of how courageous and kind and stunningly beautiful you are.

Since you tend to forget things from time to time, V will make a habit of leaving notes around the house for you, and messaging you throughout the day to remind you. This is a thoughtful gesture done with only the best of intentions in mind. If you tend to find the notes too clutter-ey, he'll make do with the messenger app. Sometimes he won't DM you and will accidentally post a reminder in the groupchat, which will lead to one of two things: 1) the other RFA members remarking at what a caring couple you two make, or 2) Yoosung or Zen bemoaning their single status, leading inevitably to group teasing of them.

V truly treasures every second he can get with you. Once his healing journey is done and he returns to your side, expect him to not waste a single moment of it from thereon out. He will enjoy being in your presence, even if there's no benefit to his being there besides being able to bask in you. But just as frequently, you two will have pleasant, wonderfully thoughtful conversations - about anything and everything and nothing. You've both been through a lot, so now you get to take things at a slower pace.

Jihyun is forever grateful that you stood by him through this ordeal - from Magenta to his recovery. With your support, he found a new meaning to life for himself, and a reason to look forward to hopeful tomorrows. He'd rather not pick one feature about you to love above the others. After all, he's only going to find something else to love about you tomorrow, and who's to say that new concept or iteration of you won't become his favorite next? From the smallest things - how you bite your lower lip, the curve of your lips as you smile - to the grand scope - your quiet determination, the way you managed to hold the RFA and him together during crisis - are all things he treasures deeply; and he looks forward to the new discoveries waiting around the bend of your shared journey together.

~~I hope you liked this! I also considered Saeran for you, but I thought V might resonate more with your interests. They're bith sensitive individuals, so you could honestly work well with either of them!

[16magnolias]

15 Questions

Tagged by @aeshnalacrymosa and @waitingonavision. Thanks for the tags! 🙂

1. Were you named after anybody?

Yes! I am named after the actress who played the main character in the adaptation of my mom’s favorite book. I also have the same middle name as my mom.

2. When was the last time you cried?

I tear up almost daily at little things my kids say or do that make me happy. I’m an emotional person lol. The last time I really heavily cried was a few weeks ago at a funeral.

3. Do you have kids?

Yes! ❤

4. Do you use sarcasm a lot?

Yes. It’s my husband's love language, lol, so I have to be fluent. I try not to be sarcastic online though because it's hard to discern tone and intention over text alone.

5. What sports do you play/have played?

I...have never actually played sports outside of PE in school. 😅 I’m not a particularly atheltic person. I do enjoy biking and hiking and swimming!

6. What's the first thing you notice about someone?

Usually some combination of hands, eyes, and smile.

7. Eye color?

Blue-green.

8. Scary movies or happy endings?

Happy endings. I'm a wimp and can't handle most scary movies.

9. Any special talents?

I love to write! I’m also very good at organizing lesson plans, schedules/calendars, and events.

10. Where were you born?

USA

11. What are your hobbies?

Reading, writing, camping, listening to music, playing piano, sharing my favorite childhood movies/tv shows/books/music with my kids

12. Do you have any pets?

No. My husband and kids are allergic and have asthma so no pets. But we love on our neighbor and our family members pets!

13. How tall are you?

5'3"

14. Favorite subject in school?

Math. I loved that every problem was like a puzzle to solve that had one right answer. I love reading, but I hated having to analyze the stories.

15. Dream job?

I had my dream job before having kids. I worked in the library at an elementary/primary school. I helped kids find books they loved and ran book fairs and had all the fun of teaching with no testing and no grades. I didn't know it was my dream job until I actually did it, but after my first few weeks I knew I'd never find a job I enjoyed more than that one. ❤

Tagging (no pressure): @usedtobeguest123 @impossiblefangirl0632 @optimistic-violinist @wildlyironicbee @ramblesanddragons @orchidlatte @chipmunkfanno1love @22heartsongs, @empty-cryptid,