#idk if these are interesting. i'm also sorry for always writing the same few characters ;;

[kepnerandavery]

Bridgerton season 3 (part 1) review

Thoughts on polin this season:

I stand corrected, people. I loved Penelope and Colin this season. I found the writing of those two as individual characters and a couple (on the show) to be mediocre before, but my god, it's like they jumped straight out of the fourth book this season. It's like I finally got to meet book Penelope and Colin (especially Colin). And the chemistry of the leads really surprised me too. I don't know what was going on before this season, but they are great together now. The writing/portrayal of the personalities of the two characters and their connection was spot on, and I honestly have no notes. I wish they had kept this same essence since the beginning, but I get why they were saving this until their season. As I expected, the execution of the translation of this season and couple from the book to screen was the best out of all three seasons. I wish the past two couples got the same attention and treatment (specially kanthony), but alas, there's nothing to be done about that. RMB is my fourth favourite book in the series, but this season is honestly my favourite. The dialogue, costumes, locations, aesthetic of the sets, and even the silent moments between the leads were so poignant. And this season made it clear how a show having a female show-runner can impact it so positively.

Now, on to the other things:

I really liked how they handled Penelope and Eloise's friendship and its fallout this season. Their friendship was written more subtly and with care this season and resembled the one in the books for the first time ever for me. And how they both changed as individuals by the absence of the solace the two of them found in each other in the past as they stood against the confoundedness and cruelty of society was written so well.

Kanthony were adorable and really cute and it's such a shame that we got so few scenes of them. At least they are together and happy.

I hate how they keep making a mockery of Benedict's character. It's clear that he should have already met Sophie and gotten his story cause his character feels lost among everyone else, but the poor boy is still smiling, so that's something I guess. I just wish they would for once properly focus on his love for art and improvement of his talent instead of his little dalliances. It's almost like the writers think that he has no other values/interests beyond that. I feel like the writers are so much better at handling Eloise's character and preparing her for her season than they are at writing Ben's. For god's sake, they should at least give him a best friend, or further build his relationship with one of his siblings or Violet to give his character some substantiality.

Eloise was really great this season and seemed so much more mature and grounded. Her costumes were immaculate too. I just wish we had seen her bond with Francesca more cause they're really close in the books.

As for Francesca, I'm sorry, I didn't like how her character or story was written this season. She was never meant to be this.. idk... plain and quirky? (no one come at me cause I'm a book Fran apologist). After watching these four episodes I feel like Ruby had a better grasp on Francesca's character than Hannah does but it could also have something to do with the very bland writing. But then again, most of what we know of Fran is from WHWW and she is more mature in it, so like polin, her character could also get major development later on as she gets older. But I don't have high hopes for that. And dare I say, I also didn't like how John was written either. He was always way more confident and outgoing in my mind (I also expected them to cast an actor of a larger build and screen presence to play him). But I do see how this version of him suits the new version of Fran. But all in all, neither of them were this particular in my imagination. I hadn't had any hopes for the adaptation of Michael's character since last season came out, so this is literally the nail on that coffin for me. At this point, I'm very desensitised to being let down by this show and prefer to be pleasantly surprised, so who cares.

The soundtrack was great (though nothing can beat season one's in my opinion). But Snow On The Beach playing in episode four at the exact moment it did was really poignant and sweet so it's my favourite song they used this season (so far).

Favorite quote:

"Eros and Psyche battling it out." "What you are trying to say, Miss Cowper? Are they not old friends?" "The oldest of friends, really. Ever since the Featheringtons moved in across the street." "Across the street from the Bridgerton house?" 😭 (argghhh! why is that the cutest thing? whoever wrote that deserves a raise!!!)

Suffice to say, I'm very excited to see how the rest of the season is written. I hope they handle the whole LWD thing with care too.

[thecluelessdoctor]

whike I mentally prepare myself to make a whole damn comic, it's time I talk about the FNAf movie because fuck you I am going to write what I want

cw: spoilers for the FNAF movie!!

At base value, I loved it. I felt the pacing was a little slow, but I love it. From the little refs to the games, to the in general plot, it was just very enjoyable, even if most of the plot is just from the fact Vanessa didn't tell Mike wtf was going on.

NOW! let's talk technical!

For a pg-13, it was pretty good! I feel it matches the games really well! It's not too scary, but it can give you a startle, especially to any newbie! My mom was startled by the balloon boy lmao. Also it had blood so it's a plus.

The acting, dialogue, and overall set is really good. Scrumptious if I do say so myself.

I loved how the animatronics looked. Freddy and chica being my overall favorites. Idk they made my boy Bonnie blue so I had to take a few points. The cupcake running around was weirdly funny to me lol.

Now lemme touch on the plot!

I liked the plot! Like I said before, it was a LITTLE slow, but nothing too bad. I found it really interesting with what they did with Micheal and the whole dream thing.

And the idea that the children communicate in pictures rather than words hit me pretty hard, because that how I myself communicate. Although I can be.. pretty good with my words, drawing, and art as a whole is relatable to me, making Abby a really relatable character to me.

I really don't understand the hate for the movies bc it's not lore accurate. So what??? A lot of movies based on games don't! I mean- look at the Sonic the hedgehog movie!! Or the Mario movie! So your point is invalid. And also- I'm pretty sure this is a lot more entertaining than watching Micheal do five nights at Freddy's smhhh.

Though I'm sitting here in complete wonder bc like- WHO WAS THE 5TH KID?! WE SEE HER IN THE PICTURES!!! BUT- IS IT CASSIE?? OR CHARLIE MAYBE?! IDK

Also what happened to Derek I need to know.

Did he get turned into a animatronic what the fuck happened to him

Anyway

Let's talk about the cons of the movie.

I keep bringing this up, but the movie was slow. Not unbearably slow, but still slow.

Also, the whole aunt subplot- idk I felt it wasn't really needed except for the mat pat scene (he fucking embraced that scene it was great the theater I was in started cheering and I had to explain to my mom why everyone was so happy)

Also I felt the one major jumpscare we get, of foxy, was waisted. It looked like he was rolling into the security guard on roller blades. I would have liked it if maybe foxy like jumped at the guard or something. Idk just a me thing

I also feel the 'i always come back' line was rushed, same with shaggy's- sorry I mean WILLIAM'S death. It didn't really feel satisfying ig?

also, I felt that Vanessa was more of a plot device than a character. Because most of the plot literally is riding on the fact she doesn't tell Mike the truth.

But anyway

What would I rate this movie, and should you watch it?

I give it a 8/10. It's fun, and nostalgic for old FNaF fans, and a fun intro to new ones. Go check it out

[rawliverandgoronspice]

New anon. I've been a few reading your thoughts and general posts, and I really agree so strongly to many of them. Some of my biggest pet peeves in the story were really how weirdly disjointed it felt, with missing reasoning and foundation? If I may share my thoughts? I wish they had genuinely focused more on characters besides Zelda, because by the end of the storyline, and having watched all the tears, I was left more confused and empty, and not satisfied at all. Not to be rude to Zelda, but I really stopped caring about her because I was so hyperfocused on wanting to know more about the Zonai, Sonia, the Sages, and Ganondorf... and then nothing, well except two tears, and they gave almost no plot relevance? It was such a pity. The sages? Who? Why? How? Every sage showing the exact same memory with only a tiny bit of their personality sprinkled, but nothing about them as sages made me miffed. Ganondorf felt really like a missed opportunity, I think you, other anon's and everyone has already said it. In my words: Lost potential. I don't even need a big sobstory or anything, a monologue like in WW? Yeah he's angry that the Zonai are wasting their "god like powers" but WHY is he so angry about it? How are the lives of the Gerudo? Why are they split? Even if he was raised to crave power, just getting more of a look at why would have been nice. The Gerudo sage would have been a perfect candidate to get some explanation. (I'd have much preferred that over some of the more slice-of-life Zelda tears tbh.) I know it's called "The legend of ZELDA!" But I always took that to be more along the lines of "This is the legend of Zelda, but we (the player) see the legend from behind the scenes." Zelda being a major player and royalty would obviously be more interesting to in-universe historians, and easier to write down, with Link always just being "The hero clad in green!" But us, as the player, we see what really occurred, how the hero came to be, and that he's not "just a hero" but he's actually just a guy, who then takes up the mantle of hero. I just wasn't too invested in Zelda's story, especially since she's just background noise for a lot of the story. (Idk how to best word it, pardon me.)

Hello, thank you for the ask and sorry for taking so long to reply!!

Yeah, I mean I don't even think that Zelda got much opportunity to be a character either, despite her being the throughline for most of it. I don't feel like I learned anything new about her character that I didn't know from BotW, and some aspects developed in that game were gone entirely. As you said, she does feel like background noise, a witness to other people's story. Her nerdiness is set-up and then never really paid off (despite her and Mineru interacting), she gets no personal interaction with Ganondorf... I actually don't think they ever speak to one another directly, for the whole game????

Just went out to check that out and... Ganondorf says Zelda's name to her once, then Zelda asks him how he knows their name. That's it. That's the entire sum of their conversation in the entire game, and it happens in the first 5 opening minutes. Unless you count fake Zelda, but even then that would only be a single sentence, and honestly I don't think it counts?

The more I dig around and the more I'm truly baffled by some of the narrative choices made in this game. Like I want to be Normal about it again (and managing, slowly, just getting through the last asks) but.... honestly I don't understand what happened. The straight up refusal to build up any kind of actual dramatic tension between the leading trio is so baffling to me. Like, not to dip back into the TotK Rewrite Well, but: why didn't they fully commit to the OoT route, since they were already so far down, where Zelda is the only one to suss out Ganondorf is out to get them, and so the tension is concentrated between the two of them, where she tries to save Rauru and Sonia from his scheme but can't (which would also give weight to her sacrifice as she turns into a dragon)? Then you'd have an actual reason to feel invested in the plot and want to avenge her and those she cared about! Why are the stakes so split out between Rauru, Zelda and Mineru, to the point where nothing has any oomph and you, as Link, feel pretty much uninvolved in the entire situation?

Like, sure the buildup to the final fight was amazing, the soundtrack is sooooo sososo good, the mood and ambiance is probably at its best, the fight itself is a little treat, but. I really felt like I was a Hyrule appointed cop having to walk into the freaky abandoned basement and yelling "sir I've been mandated by the royal family to formally ask you to stop dumping experimental chemicals into the sewers of the kingdom" to the local weirdo squatter in his broken hot tub, and then fighting about it.

But personal investment and stakes really didn't land for me. I was glad to see Ganondorf, tho I would have prefered him telling me anything other than generic anime villain stuff before repeatedly punting my face into the floor. But yeah. The story was disjointed, and it kept me from enjoying the extremely carefully crafted mechanics to their fullest capacity. :(

[nicosraf]

thank you for writing abm <3 are you writing lilith into a&m? i'm excited to see what you'll come up with

thank you for reading!! :) <3

No, Lilith isn't in A&M or in the trilogy at all. I'm sorry if that's disappointing but I have a few reasons:

Lilith is far more of a Jewish figure than a Christian one. I understand there's always an overlap, but in the case of Lilith, Lilith has never been a part of the Christian doctrine (as far as I know) and textual evidence for her is very small (the only line where "Lilith" appears in some translations doesn't make much sense and the Dead Sea Scrolls confirm that the line originally read "liliyyot"). Lilith only got adopted by Christians at around... the late 18th century? (for context, Paradise Lost was a century before that). Her initial conception and later development is very, very, tied to Jewish mythology.

One that note, the Christian Lilith is, often, an anti-Semitic caricature – her red hair, her association with blood-sucking and vampires and magic, her stealing babies, her trickery and vanity and greed. This is probably my biggest issue with writing her. I could change her appearance and personality but that still feels... icky to me. It's like reclaiming a character I am not the right person to reclaim.

Lilith creates 2 major theological issues – Issue 1: Why did God ask Lilith to be subservient to Adam? In the current Christian canon, God punishes Eve with subservience after the biting of the apple; this leads to all women suffering subservience; this, also, is part of the Christian doctrine of original sin yadda yadda. If God asked Lilith to be subservient to Adam (pre-fruit-eating).... then why did God do that? Why did God create inequality in the garden of paradise among the humans and based on what? Issue 2: Gender Issues. So one of the reasons Lilith has caught on is because God makes man and woman "twice" and people are looking for an answer for what that means. Basically, in Genesis, the first chapter reads: So God created mankind in his own image in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. (Genesis 1:27) However, the next chapter details Eve being "created" later after she is pulled out of Adam, either his rib or his side. So, some Christians have decided that there was simply an early woman who ran off. But I'm really caught up with the phrase "in the image of God" and "male and female" and the act of pulling Eve from Adam, splitting him. To me, this answers the question – the original Adam was male and female, in God's image. This is my preferred interpretation of the line – I think it's meaningful both to understanding gender in the Bible and to the idea of being made whole with another person; in Genesis 2:24, it reads: That is why a man leaves his father and mother and is united to his wife, and they become one flesh. It's the reuniting to become one flesh concept that really interests me. Lilith throws a wrench into this idea and turns the story into: God hated women from their inception and all humans descend from the good, submissive woman.

And, finally, ABM is mostly a Christian canon story – the Bible has an unexplained Satan, so I told a story about Satan, the Bible makes an unexplained reference to "the sons of God" in Genesis 6 (and elsewhere), so I'm telling a story about the Watchers. I always wanted the trilogy to play with canon, rather than take a step too far into occult/mythology. It's the same reason I didn't get into the hierarchy of angels (it's not biblical!) :')

Sorry for the long answer idk what came over me.

[neteyamb]

ashes to ashes: chapter seven

pairing: loak x f!omatikaya reader

summary: as a healer, y/n had taken an oath to treat every patient with their best interests in mind. this hadn’t been a problem, until loak’s petty injuries become a routine. she has to swallow her pride and feign concern, feign kindness, and face the ugly hate that has been brewing between them for years. 

tags: enemies to lovers, pining, best friend kiri, language, emotionally constipated loak, awkward loak, smut, they're literally obsessed with eachother, mentions of jealous loak if you read between the lines, mdni

word count: 3k

notes: since chapter one both characters have been written to be 19+ years of age. also this cold has me acting like a victorian child on my deathbed in the throes of a mild ailment. Also idk how to write smut so make of this what u will xoxo gossip girl

 ⁺˚*･༓☾ ☽༓･*˚⁺‧ ‧͙⁺˚*･༓☾ ☽༓･*˚⁺‧ ‧͙⁺˚*･༓☾ ☽༓･*˚⁺‧ ‧͙⁺˚*･

billie bossa nova

love when it makes you lose your bearings / it might be more of an obsession / you better lock your phone / and look at me when you're alone / won't take a lot to get you goin' / i'm sorry if it's torture though / that heavy breathin' on the floor / i’m yours, i'm yours 

nova – a star that suddenly increases its light output tremendously and then fades away to its former obscurity

you force your heart to steady, trying in vain to remain level-headed as loak’s breath fans your face. your eyes follow his lips as he speaks and stay trained on them well after they still. he smells faintly of pine and ember, and in that moment you were able to place why such a specific scent had always been your favourite. he had wedged his way into your life uncompromisingly, but you found yourself relying on him being there; right there, infront of you.

the adrenaline that had shot up his spine earlier was taken in stride, and he was drinking you in like you were the only person who could provide it. suddenly, he ripped his eyes off of you. this was becoming too friendly, too familiar, and it reminded him of the consequences. loak smiles halfheartedly and offers you a hand up, albeit a little more jumpy than he wished to present himself. 

the spar was repeated several times before kiri’s muted swears were heard through dense bush. “what the fuck, you guys? you missed lunch,” her voice stuttered when her eyes fell on your face. you were smiling and at ease. in loak’s presence. she was taken aback for a second before putting her hands on her hips, satisfied as if the good-natured environment was her doing. “and why are you in the middle of buttfuck nowhere? let’s go.” she made a mental note to prod you with questions later.

✶✶✶✶

over the next few days, loak and you fell into a pattern of early morning training sessions. the dawn crept into the sky just as the two of you crept into the forest, eyes still bleary and unfocused. maiya had caught onto the new trend, and secretly approved. she thought loak to be a good and upstanding boy; he was preparing you to heal navi warriors directly on the battlefield, which she couldn’t deny was a sorely missed position over the years. 

she smiled quietly to herself as you worked alongside her in the healing hut. you were covered in small scratches, but your shoulders were calm and you hummed a miscellaneous tune quietly to yourself. no more teeth grinding, no more shaky hands. still, she couldn't see the turmoil brewing in your chest all the same.

you were hunched over a small plate of teylu when loak shuffled into the hut, tinted rouge with spattered blood on his torso. he grunts a hello, making himself known to you and maiya. you frowned at his battered cheekbone, moving him towards the counter. he wasn’t speaking much, only leaning down to let you pat a wet cloth gently on his cheek. you often found yourself communicating wordlessly with him as of recent; it had proven itself handy when approaching a delicate pray. 

as you wipe the wound, you realize that the blood isn’t his own; there is no gash, no tear nor scratch in the flesh. loak’s eyes remain locked on the crowded counter. when his mouth is shut, he appears more reserved, unsure of himself. he felt almost ashamed to have found his way back to this place after so many nights spent with sweat slicking his back and heated pants leaving his mouth as a shaky hand found its way under his sheets, you in mind, but a few odd hours every morning just wasn’t cutting it anymore. he had always been greedy when it came to you. you don’t say anything about his undamaged skin, aware of maiya’s heavy eyes on the interaction.

her thin lips parted, despite the united prayers that they would remain shut. “you have become quite good friends. never thought i’d live to see the day,” she announced. you fight to keep your hands steady against his cheek as you reply, knowing she’d retaliate with examples if you didn’t. “i guess you could say that.” at this point it would be weird not to consider loak a friend, but the label rang sour in your ears, and when you agreed with her claim you could feel him bite his cheek. “i’m glad. you two were always so similar.” loak had never actually spoken all that much to maiya, but he got the sense that she knew more of him than he had willingly revealed. he was almost sure she was teasing him like one would a rabbit with a carrot.

after a few minutes of wiping away at unscathed skin, maiya exited the hut in search of her own lunch. loak knew you weren’t a fool, the blood obviously wasn’t his. he could see that you had noticed it the second you began treating him. he braced himself for you to snatch your cupped hands away from his face and confront him with sharp words, but even after she had left you made no move; instead clenching your jaw and quietly dipping the cloth in water as you continued to work. 

maybe he had gotten into a fight with someone who was left in worse condition, maybe he had been hunting, you didn’t know to whom the blood belonged. for now, you devoted your energy to ignoring the sticky warmth that was pooling in your abdomen at his proximity. progress had been made between loak and yourself over the week, and his steady breaths become more familiar than his unlevel, angry ones. as you wrung the cloth and brought it this time to loak’s chest, his ears fluttered and his breathing pattern became arbitrary. 

you straighten your back, realizing he was probably uncomfortable with how you had been hunched towards him. even after allowing him space, his face was a bit more flushed than usual. was he sick? you frowned, beginning to think that the bloody appearance was a red herring.

loak was not doing good. he made a mistake by coming here. really, he could have just washed himself off in half the time, but he wasn’t thinking with his head when he approached you. to be fair, he knew it was a slow day and it’s not like there were half-dead warriors lined up outside the hut, but he was in way over his head. it wasn’t necessarily intentional to get in a fight with that guy. he didn’t even know his name, only recognizing him as the injured navi from his last visit here. it was in poor taste, but he had hoped his natural recklessness would provide an excuse to visit you; it could’ve been read as an accident borne of poor depth perception. 

loak winced at the thought, it didn’t even sound convincing to him. at this, you backed up. “what, does it sting? because i know you’re not hurt.” point taken. “you caught me. it was a test,” he laughs dryly. you rest your weight back on the balls of your feet, huffing a small laugh. “wow, you’ve got the time for that? i haven’t been working you hard enough.” loak’s shoulders relax, now settling into the lazy conversation that he had gotten accustomed to having with you. he leans back on his hands, muscles shifting under his stomach. “hmm. you’ve gotta try harder than that, sevin.” the word slipped past his lips quicker than he could catch it, and his abs tensed in apprehension of your reaction. 

you squint a little at him before abruptly throwing your head back and barking a laugh. his throat bobs as he watches the gentle movements in your own, repressing the urge to touch it with either his mouth or hands. he can’t do it. he’s simply not brave enough. or stupid enough. loak neglects the want clenching in his chest, instead continuing the conversation until maiya returns with her own plate of teylu. 

✶✶✶✶

you were a little embarrassed how much loak’s nickname had an effect on you. it had caught you by surprise and played itself on repeat in your head of its own volition, heating your cheeks. as you walked alongside him under the sunrise, you were vigilant about maintaining a casual tone. still, you couldn’t help but stare at his back when he walked slightly ahead of you towards what had become your usual spot.

his braid swayed lightly with his steps, and his shoulders held a light sheen from the humidity of the woods. yes, he had kissed you before, but it was your understanding that it was to be mean. over the years you had found anger to be a natural pretense to excitement. it was as if the two of you had been egging eachother on until somebody broke, leaving the other to admit to defeat when giving in. the ultimate upper hand.

both of you had agreed it was a good morning for a spar. you found it to be a more natural way to work things out with eachother. neither of you acknowledged the fact that he was supposed to be teaching you how to hunt; you felt as if you were almost hunting eachother to a point that the lines had become blurred. and loak couldn’t deny your progress. after only a few attempts, you had him virtually smashed into the soft forest floor.

your knee was pressed into his chest and your hands were enclosed around each of his arms, comically petite against his biceps. he silently cursed himself for having taught you how to properly keep someone pinned down. his chin raised defiantly, eyes meeting your own vivid ones. your eyes looked completely predatorial, as they often did when you were sparring seriously with him. loak arched his back, commanding his head upwards as if he hadn’t just been completely demolished by you both in the lesson and in his scattered mind. 

you give yourself a minute for your breath to even out, keeping your eyes trained on him all the while. you felt particularly proud of yourself for finally being able to keep him flush against the dirt, and it left your bones jittery. your mind felt melted and far away from your body; you watched a seemingly different person slowly loosen their hold and trail their fingers on his cool skin only the few inches that an accidental brush could provide. your eyes were blown wide, pupils dilated on him. slowly, loak sat up, cautiously touching your hips with light hands and bringing you to rest on his lap. it took a monstrous amount of restraint to do so gently.

his fingertips itched towards your body, stuttering and unsure. he was holding his breath, expecting you to chastise him at any given moment while silently begging for your approval. you were beginning to understand his expression, blatantly wearing the same heated proclamation of yearning on your own face. your earlier confidence had quickly left you sober and vulnerable under his hungry eyes. you desperately grasp for a last-minute escape, heart twisting as he began rubbing circles into your hips. "loak. you're being mean," you whisper, almost so quietly that you weren't sure he had heard it. it wasn't fair, how he held your heart in his hands. he pressed his lips into a thin line, tucking a loose strand of hair behind your ear and following it with his eyes. "i'm not." so much time had been wasted fighting when it really just boiled down to a plea for the briefest touch.

he keeps his lips pursed, occupying himself with the hair he had just brushed out of your face. his eyes were locked on yours expectantly while his fingers fiddled with the ends. you tightly nod, once, and his restraint was gone. he sighs, shaky hands twisting into the hair at the base of your neck as he brings his lips up towards yours. his solid chest melted into your soft one, and he wasted no time before rolling his tongue into your mouth. you found yourself eager for his touch, bringing your hips down to move against his frantically while he bucked up with mirrored urgency. as his hands tugged at your hair and chestpiece, yours relentlessly clawed at his loincloth. this time, there were no conflicting thoughts in your mind, only a carnivorous want. hadn't you waited long enough?

loak let out a broken gasp in your ear as you removed him from his loincloth, gripping his base firmly before drifting upwards at an agonizingly slow pace, spreading precum over the tip of his cock. it was experimental, but you could gather that he appreciated it when his slender fingers began to stumble drunkenly against your breasts. loak's mind was in a frenzy, manically devouring your every action with a newfound alertness and obsessing over the feeling of your body against his. he didn't know it was possible to want something so bad.

this was sufficiently ruining every wet dream he had ever had of you. now that he had you here, very bluntly handling his cock between your thighs, he wasn't ever going to let you leave. it was overwhelming, and loak suddenly felt overheated under your warm body. he earnestly pushed you against the ground, now towering over your figure. his mind was on autopilot at the sight of your blownout lips and bare chest. "sevin, sevin, sevin," he growled against your neck, arms wrapped around your waist. "you're not getting away this time. please." he almost sounded like he was in pain, too lazy to remove his lips from your neck as he slurred the words. you caged his torso with your thighs, trying fruitlessly to meet his midsection again. you went to great lengths to pant out, "i wasn't–wasn't planning on it."

loak moaned lowly against your collarbone, the sound vibrating throughout your whole body. he licked a stripe from there to your right breast before sucking the budded nipple into his mouth, shamelessly rutting into the ground at your string of moans. he wasn't a gentleman about it; leaving spit and bite marks there before dragging his lips to your left. loak's heavy fingertips travelled down your stomach and pushed your loincloth forcefully to the side, pressing the pad of his thumb into your clit in taunting, slow circles. he couldn't deny himself the opportunity to watch your face. his eyes were dazed, but he swore he wouldn't forget the way your brows knitted and your lips parted as he brushed a finger against your entrance. loak let out a light breath, lips lilting into a cheeky smile before finding yours.

"keep your eyes open, sevin. or i'll stop." an obvious bluff, but you weren't willing to risk it. your lashes fluttered against his cheek as your slick tongue greeted his once more. you were both so drunk on eachother that the kiss was mostly just you moaning into eachother's mouths. despite his present euphoria, loak was not a patient man. he decided he had waited enough. he plunged two fingers inside of you, pumping slowly, dark eyes trained on your reaction. he knew you better than you had given him credit for; words were scarcely necessary, and piecing together a sentence right now seemed insurmountable.

his fingers were much longer and thicker than your own, and as he waited for you to adjust he pressed up against your walls with maddening pressure, tongue lazily licking into your mouth. you were essentially at your breaking point, and give always implied take. your hands blindly groped at his chest, indiscreetly tumbling downwards to his hips. given the awkward angle, you had to put all your strength into pulling him towards you. the swollen tip of his cock bumped against your inner thigh, and he detached his lips from yours with a string of saliva following along. "fuck!" he shouted, squeezing his eyes shut. he rested his forehead on your chest, groaning quietly and burying his fingers deeper in you. loak curled them upwards and began massaging the spot before adding a third one. in response, you dug your nails into his shoulders and came with his name on your lips like a prayer.

suddenly, loak ripped his fingers out of you, sliding them down to sloppily grip at your thigh for a moment to stabilize himself. he may have been seeing double at this point. you gasped at the emptiness, and your eyes began to swell with frustration. his shaky arms shielded your face from the forest, selfishly keeping you for his eyes only. loaks eyes were dark and devouring, and he clenched his jaw in an attempt to restrain himself from coming right in that moment. "i want all of you, y/n. let me have you." a wet laugh tumbled past your lips, hands moving upwards to rest on the nape of his neck. "rock my world." it wasn't perfect; your voice cracked from its seldom usage, and the joke was dry, but you were smiling all toothy at him and your honeyed eyes were filled with trust.

with little warning, loak pressed his entire cock into you, not stopping when he bottomed out. his hips were clumsy and stuttered, and the pace he had set was brutal, but it seemed to be right up your alley. your breasts jumped with each thrust, and he had a hard grip on your waist, pulling you down. it was unforgivable, how little you were able to control. half-conscious, you claw at his back and whined into his neck.

loak pressed into you four or five times before you were spent, and there were two more before he was in the same position. he frequented gorey battlefields, often stood between flying bullets and his own village, but to him the biggest challenge was ripping himself out of your heat before coming on your abdomen.

your glazed eyes cleared first, mind quickly catching up to what had happened in the past several minutes. when you gently brushed your fingertips against loak's ribs, he obediently turned to face you. you could see his brain shortcircuiting. and it was then that you decided you weren't that gracious of a woman. you were selfish, greedy, and uncharitable when it came to him.

"same time next week?"

⁺˚*･༓☾ ☽༓･*˚⁺‧ ‧͙⁺˚*･༓☾ ☽༓･*˚⁺‧ ‧͙⁺˚*･༓☾ ☽༓･*˚⁺‧ ‧͙⁺˚*･

notes: nobody read my diary this is private 📸📸📸📸

taglist: @weasleytwinwheezes @mrslandryy @amortencjja @tallulah477 @optimisticblazetrash

[riddlerosehearts]

Okay now EYE must ask you - how are you liking BG3??? How far are you?? Tell me about your Tav!!!! (Please and thank you <3)

hi!! 💖 i only started the game a few days ago and it was an impulse decision i made after having previously told a friend of mine that i definitely wanted to play it but that it'd probably take me a while to get around to it (and, because i thought i wouldn't play anytime soon i hadn't really been trying to avoid spoilers). but, i have the PC version and while it generally runs just fine, my computer is kind of slow and the game is so big that it took hours to download and install. so i kind of went ahead and started to come up with a whole character idea during that time LOL. sorry if my explanations of things get a bit too rambly/disorganized. i'm actually not very far in the game at all yet, i've been spending a ton of time doing stuff in the druids grove and i'm supposed to go find halsin but i haven't even gotten karlach in my party yet! i've recruited all the main companions except for her but i am excited to meet her. gonna put the rest of this under a cut for length.

my only background with DND is that i listened to the first campaign of the adventure zone and i've watched the legends of vox machina show. i also have a friend who's super into her own DND campaign and another friend who's told me a lot about dimension 20, specifically fantasy high--and i've considered trying it out for her but haven't gotten around to it yet! i think she actually told me the same thing about the episode lengths making it easier to get into than critical role, because i had tried critical role and it was just so long that i couldn't stick with it. but, yeah, i've also looked at the forgotten realms wiki a bit but i've never actually played DND. i have played skyrim and final fantasy 14 and some other similar RPGs with customizable blank-slate protagonists, and in those types of games i always have to make OCs to roleplay as--usually i'll think up a basic idea to start with and then flesh the character out as i get into the game. they're never really self-inserts but i do often project onto them a little.

so, in games like these my first character is usually an elf that specializes in elemental/destructive magic. idk why, that's just what i've always liked. in ff14 i started out as a black mage without knowing it was the hardest class to play LMAO. soooo i went into this planning to create a high elf sorcerer, but as i started writing out ideas and thinking about what to do, i ended up creating a half-high elf bard. they're transmasc/nonbinary and in my head they use he/they pronouns, but i picked the nb option in the character creator and that causes npcs to actually use they/them in dialogue which i think is so cool. i love that the character creator is so inclusive in regards to gender.

anyway, i named them elenion, which is something i took from the lord of the rings universe because i'm a huge nerd. in LOTR it's an elvish word that basically means "of the stars". here's a couple screenshots i took when i first started. let's just ignore the fact that this hairstyle clips into elf ears (and also that the face preset is from a mod i downloaded).

i didn't really give him a tragic backstory or even the most interesting story haha--i'm wanting to do something bigger and angstier with another character on a second playthrough when i'm more familiar with the lore and world of the game. and i'll probably also end up changing or expanding on some things about this character later, but for now i just kind of made a normal guy with normal problems. i had this idea that his father, a human who attracted the attention of a beautiful elf woman, was also a bard and was a very successful musician in his youth. so elenion has always shared his father's passion and dreamed of being like him, being able to effortlessly tell incredible tales and inspire crowds of people through song, but no matter how much he studies and practices he never feels good enough. if he seems confident it's usually just because he's gotten really good at faking it. he's also pretty reserved and often avoids having to talk about himself by asking a lot of questions. see, i kind of wanted to specifically find a way to not roleplay the usual sort of loud, flirty, goofy bard, lol. not that i dislike those kinds of characters or anything though!

however, bards are meant to be super charismatic, witty, and persuasive and of course the game strongly encourages that with the dialogue options and skill bonuses you get. so my way of explaining this is to have elenion be a bit like raine from the owl house, in that they may be shy, but they're very firm in their ideals and are no pushover when it comes to protecting themself or their allies. they're clever and have a snarky side to them, and they're genuinely friendly and caring in a way that gives them a sense of quiet charisma. which reminds me that one of the spells i gave them at the start was sleep, and it's made me imagine that when they were a kid they tried calming a crying baby by playing a lullaby on their lute and accidentally ended up casting their first spell.

oh, and, i also wasn't really sure at first where in the world i wanted elenion to come from but i decided on something pretty quickly after getting multiple of those dialogue options suggesting that the protagonist is baldurian! i pictured them growing up in a somewhat small town with their family but moving to baldur's gate as an adult, hoping that if they left the comfort of their home and started to journey out into the world a little they'd eventually find their spark and become the bard they wanted to be. unfortunately they've had little luck so far because even after all this time they can't see that maybe their whole fixation on trying to be just like their father and achieve the exact same kind of success that he had is holding them back. the fact that their father died the year after they moved away hasn't helped either. and now, in the middle of traveling to a historical site that they'd wanted to see in person and use as inspiration for a song, they've been abducted by mindflayers and are struggling with the massive upheaval that this has brought into their relatively mundane life.

so. yeah. my tav for this first playthrough may not be the most unique or exciting character but i like him! i like figuring out what kind of choices he'll make and thinking up new ideas for what he likes and how he sees the world. also, i find it funny how in your reply to my ask you said you thought you'd be into gale but then you fell for astarion--because i thought that i'd be all over the edgy, brooding, snarky vampire man, but it turns out gale is so charming and funny that i'm probably going to romance him first. i'm also pretty intrigued by shadowheart and wyll but i'm so early in the game that i can't even say who i think my overall favorite companion will be because they all seem so interesting!! even karlach despite the fact that i haven't actually met her yet, i've seen a bunch of cool gifsets of her and my brother told me he's been romancing her on his playthrough. i really need to go find her soon.

i'm sure you can tell from everything i wrote here that i am definitely enjoying the game LOL. i can already tell that there's just so many different things to do and see, that i will both need and want to do a lot of different playthroughs and that it's going to be something that sticks with me. nothing wrong with using guides and walkthroughs btw! i do it too because i'm worried about missing too many things and have the world's worst sense of direction even with a minimap. honestly i probably need to look up some guides for certain mechanics that i don't feel like i've really figured out yet. there's a sarcophagus trap in the ruins early in the game that got me SO stuck and got my whole party wiped and then i looked up a video and found out you could turn off the whole trap system by pushing a switch... i felt so stupid askjdfgf.

anyway, i think this got to be way too long of a reply so i will stop here! but if you ever wanna tell me more about your tav or anything definitely feel free to and i hope you're having an awesome day!

[merrycrisis-if]

reading the Qiu reunion while listening to a playlist with "Break my Heart Again" by FINNEAS was a risk I took and boy did it not pay off 🫠

I had barely recovered from hitting the bridge:

"So don't pretend that I'm the instigator You were the one, but you're born to say goodbye Kissed me half a decade later That same perfume, those same sad eyes"

as Qiu arrived to the party and then you hit me with

"You can see [them] wonder how much to ask for, and you find yourself wondering how much to give."

a few screens later and as cheesy as it sounds I genuinely needed to just stop and take a couple minutes to process the feelings it all brought up, especially as someone who lost a super important person in my life because I was a 'bad influence' (read: queer and helping her as she came to discover and accept she was as well despite an uber conservative christian upbringing).

And on that note if I could just ramble for a bit - Between Merry Crisis and CT:OS, I'm realizing that what I appreciate most about your writing is how real it feels. Like, in the niche of interactive fiction where most works are at least somewhat heightened, whether its the MC being a Chosen One, the setting being a heightened version of reality or outright fantasy, your writing is so grounded in reality that it almost feels biographical by comparison - and I mean that as a compliment I promise! It's just so real and relatable it feels almost nostalgic rather than escapist, which is something I think a *lot* of realistic fiction writers try to do, but so few can actually pull off in a way that feels genuine like yours do. Where most IF's leave me imagining what my MC's and their supporting casts would be up to after the final scene, yours always seem to leave me reflecting on my own past with how relatable your characters' experiences are.

Anyway idk if that actually makes any sense but thank you so much for the incredible update and I cannot wait for more <3

I am so AMAZED by the idea of you listening to that song while playing the update! Those lines are absolutely PERFECTLY IN SYNC. Crazy. I can only imagine how awesome that experience must've been!

Please keep telling me all the songs that you guys listen to as accompaniment to Merry Crisis, because it's so INTERESTING to know you guys' soundscapes/soundtracks to the game.

I'm sorry you had that experience of losing that really important person to you, and yes, it sounds a lot like what happened between Qiu and MC. It's so tough to be ditched by someone with an ultra conservative upbringing, but it also sucks to have gone through that kind of upbringing. If you're reading this and you belong to either of your groups, you have my love!!

And finally, thank you so much for your praise regarding Merry Crisis and CT:OS! It's really cool that you think they're both relatable and thought-provoking. I love that the IFs make you reflect on your own experiences. I do hope to reach a point in the writing that sparks readers to imagine what MC and the cast of characters get up to together off-screen as well though! :D

Sending you so many hugs.

[mitziholder]

apologies for being weird and hogging your inbox like this but i LOVE your thoughts on fandom and i think very few people talk about it in a critical way without completely condemning the entire occupation. in my experience people (not just on this website but in general) tend to take a very black and white view of fandom/fic, probably because it can feel like a very personal thing for many; either they're 'normies' who think all fanworks are 'cringe' or they're the anything goes kind of person. radfems seem to me to be the only ppl who aren't overly defensive of the enterprise but can still enjoy fanworks critically. its nice to see women who aren't like. Fandom Moms talking about these things at length. i think you're one of the few people i've agreed with regarding this subject so far :/ your analyses are very much appreciated and i'd love to read more of what you think (especially regarding the point about navigating trauma). have a good day!

oh and also regarding the whole 'i want women to read better thing' ive always felt this idea that fandom culture is above criticism (or criticising it is inherently misogynistic) is in some ways an extension or at least related to the societal notion that women should be confined to the fluffy feeling aspects of writing and art and aren't as capable of intellectually engaging with things (and of course some 'criticisms' of fan culture ARE misogynistic but i'm not referring to those atm). and obviously there isn't anything inherently WRONG with silly fluff novels or romance (especially romance of course as one can certainly explore that subject in depth and i actually think there's a lack of well written romance out there) but it still feels like a limitation on female growth to normalise women ONLY reading fanfiction or even only certain brands of genre fiction i guess? and i find it sad that so many women seem to almost buy into that idea nowadays or shoot down any sort of criticism with the 'stop shaming female desire' catchphrase. and considering that there is still a dearth of well made original female work for women in pop culture (that act as cultural touchstones in the same way a lot of male works do) it's even more depressing that a lot of fanwork centers men. sorry if this comes off as insufferably pretentious lmao! i'm not even against fanwork i mean this is tumblr i still enjoy things but hopefully you know what i mean lol

like i mean. there's a reason why fanfiction is seen as primarily a female affair (even though a lot of the highly regarded published fanfics are by men. u know the neil gaiman stuff or whatever). its sort of a reassurance that women are 'limited' to writing fanworks. idk. i guess i want women to do better idk if im making any sense

ok, mandatory disclaimer that what I’m describing here is a series of trends, trends I’ve observed within fandom at large including both fanfiction readers/writers and fujos more broadly. obviously, not everyone who reads fanfic or yaoi is a woman (though the vast majority are). obviously, not every woman who reads fanfic or yaoi is a stunted teenager who refuses to engage with any other media. I will also admit that not every fanfic is jimin ABO. I don’t think that fanfic is inherently cringe or low-quality, and there are certainly a lot of respectable published works that have been created with other people’s characters or settings. but, as I’ve said, the vast majority of fanworks in the modern day are essentially pornographic mad libs. I find that disappointing. and there’s no reason it has to be this way… except for all the reasons I’ve outlined in my other posts.

things that are lazy and thoughtless and easy, that provide instant gratification, are generally more popular than things that are difficult or uncomfortable. clearly. but people who denounce all fanfic/fanfic writers and pigeonhole it as low-effort slop are not actually interested in helping the women who write it achieve their fullest potential, because they do not believe those women have any potential. it’s true that some criticisms of fan culture and fanworks are purely misogynistic… but I care about women’s voices, and I do want women to be able to express themselves. I’m not on a quest to stop women from writing or reading fanfic. I’ve been slightly flip about the subject, but truthfully, not everything that is “derivative” is bad, and there’s no reason that fanworks couldn’t be good. it’s just that the culture around them is so intensely sensitive - anti-“shaming” - that women are terrified of saying anything about the level of quality or the potentially harmful nature of most fanfiction because they don’t want to devalue media created by and for other women.

I think that’s a disservice to women as a whole. not everything we write is valuable. I’ve written plenty of crap in the pursuit of getting better - plenty of crap I currently disagree with. and if our work can’t withstand criticism - if we shut down immediately at any hint of a deeper, more unflattering analysis of what’s really going on… then what’s the point? what are we communicating? that female fantasies exist in a compartmentalized bubble far and away from our politics and intellectual pursuits? that we should be able to j/o to rape fantasies without question because it’s not that serious? that the personal is political, except for when it isn’t… and we should all be quiet and let women write whatever they want free of criticism lest we shame them so hard they go into hiding? my standards might be a tad high, but that is setting the bar… dangerously low. it’s also patronizing. since when has “just let women enjoy things!!” ever gotten us anywhere? since when has that been a cornerstone of feminist thought? is that really the best we can do? are we really so fragile?

I’ve seen a glut of posts about how useless and harmful constructive criticism supposedly is. the reasoning is always basically the same:

criticism is mean/toxic/discouraging

maybe I’m too hardened by countless death wishes I got on my old blog, but, in my experience, whenever I have something I want to say or a point I want to make, very little can keep me from doing so. I can’t imagine being so bothered by what random Internet people think. it’s important to remember that being able to determine what criticism is valuable is a skill in itself. disavowing criticism as a whole because some of it is “toxic”/discouraging is throwing the baby out with the bathwater.

criticism is pointless; perfection is unattainable

of course nothing is ever going to be perfect. but if that’s your attitude, why bother editing? (rhetorical question. some fanfic authors do post unedited works… just because they can.) hell, why write? why get up in the morning? why make your bed? why try anything new at all? it’s a completely absurd, defeatist attitude. like the first point, it also reeks of intellectual laziness and self-satisfaction.

you could just be nice and say what you liked instead because that’s helpful too

please don’t blow smoke up my ass. in editing, I want to fix things that don’t work and to trim the fat. is it “kind” or “helpful” to let me do something completely stupid because you’re too afraid of embarrassing or offending me to say as much? also, knowing what people like is useful in producing more of what people like - it doesn’t help me do anything new or different. there is nothing less helpful to me than saying “good job!” when I ask you to read my work. it’s certainly nice (as long as you actually read it), but it’s not helpful.

it’s published, the author is through with it, and they don’t want to touch it anymore

I plan to do everything I can to edit and improve my writing before the thing is drawn and published, but I’m sure some flaws will inevitably slip through the cracks. currently, I’m rewriting entire chapters from the beginning because they became incompatible with what I wanted out of the series as it progressed. considering that a lot of people write fanfic on a chapter-by-chapter basis with only a very vague trope-strung outline, I have to wonder why they’re so averse to major overhauls. sure, it’s not pleasant, but don’t you want your writing to be the best that it can be? what is the purpose of uploading it if you don’t want the thing to be responded to as it is, warts and all?

also, not all criticism is limited to the specific work it’s derived from; many things can be extrapolated to future works as well. how are we supposed to correct trends that could lead to a decrease in the quality of future works if we can’t even point them out?

fanfiction is a hobby, and hobbies should be fun

I’m not under the impression that I’ll ever be able to make a living from my writing. I do it as a “hobby” in my spare time simply for the fact that I need an outlet for my thoughts - I need to organize them in some way. writing is an art form that we use to communicate meaning and to make sense of the world around us. your goal as a writer may be to have fun, but it isn’t mine. overgeneralizing and building an entire subculture around the pursuit of mindless fun limits what fanfiction and amateur writing have the potential to be.

you could just go read something else that you like more

actually, no. I don’t like any of it. I’m sorry if saying that is offensive to the 38-year-old she/they whose blog post I grabbed this from. most fanfic is bad. I yearn for the exploration of topics that are categorically not explored in fanfic - because the scope of what fanfic is interested in is constantly narrowing, feeding on itself, like an ouroboros. this problem is only going to get worse over time. why wouldn’t I be bothered? why can’t I say it’s a shame?

mass media and tiktok are worse!

maybe, but so what? at least the majority of people who spend their time watching tiktok videos and bad TV don’t act like it’s a suitable replacement for real literature. and at least there aren’t tiktok compilations being listed on goodreads(?)

anyway, more to the point, fandom is full of technically competent writers. but if they continue to insulate themselves within fandom or fandom-adjacent offshoots, they will never be great writers, because great writing requires tight editing (the elimination of things that are pointless and redundant), syntactic fluency, organizational skills, and, most importantly, an individual voice - an artistic vision - interpreting individual ideas… things that are born of criticism and a diversity of influences that are not present or valued within fandom in its current state. great writing cannot be made in a vacuum. great writers don’t allow themselves to be broken or stifled by criticism they disagree with.

sure, no one has a responsibility to be a great writer, and mediocre writing isn’t a moral failure… but I’m certainly not going to be happy about it, especially when the prevailing attitude is “fanfic is art… but I make what I want for myself and sharing it with you is a privilege and therefore you can’t criticize it!” how boring! how utterly conceited! my god. throwing a temper tantrum because you’re not 100% in control of how others perceive or respond to your creation. put it in a diary and not on a public forum if that bothers you so much… (but then, of course, you couldn’t count kudos.)

I do have a plan to touch on some of my other gripes since you asked so nicely. but this response is, once again, getting too long, and those things have little to do with what I was complaining about here. I’ve got an outline for a post I’ll develop and publish later as a final note on this convo, since at that point I really will have said all that I have to say… thanks again for writing in :-)

[lesbianwithchainsaws]

Saw your recent post and this is a request for you to ramble about why you enjoy horror movies so much & which are your favourites & why. I love rambles.

Aaaaaaa this might be very long so just a warning in advance!!!

Okay so why I like horror: honestly I've always just loved horror. Like I remember as a kid being very fascinated by urban legends, and ghost stories and those totally-not-fake-totally-real videos and images of ghosts and other supernatural stuff. And over the years I just became obsessed with horror movies especially! But I think what really appeals to me about the genre is that anything can be made scary. Because really there is horror in everything imo. Even the most normal, mundane thing can be captured as the most terrifying thing in the world. And horror can also blend so well with other genres. Horror comedies are obviously very popular. So are dramas that have a lot of horror elements. Horror can be romantic, funny, action-filled, adventurous just as much as it can be scary. It's just such a joy to see all these different genres mixed together and to see how even the same or similar topics can be made in vastly different kinds of horror. Also like people will find the same thing scary for different reasons and in different ways, which is, again, what makes stuff like this so fascinating to see.

And another thing that appeals to me about horror is that horror reflects the society of the time it was made in really interesting ways, and can critique it in such interesting ways. Like nowadays there's quite a few horror movies about trauma and mental illness, and I think that reflects how nowadays those topics are more talked about so they're also portrayed more in horror, and shown how scary it can be to live with that. While in the past mental illness was used more as a way to demonise a character.

That's just the current day example, but every decade has had horror critiquing the way society is and showing the fears reflected at the time. Like, in the US, there was a rise in slasher movies/movies about serial killers after they were everywhere in the news. Or how in the 2000s there was a rise in brutality and gore because of 9/11 and the brutality of real life people kept seeing, which was reflected in the movies (I'm sorry this is more US centric. Unfortunately a lot of the horror movie stuff that is most available to me to read/watch tends to be more US centric). Of course this doesn't mean all horror movies do a good job at social critique, there are unfortunately a lot of horror movies that play into stereotypes. But a lot of them reflect something in society one way or another and I think horror is the most fascinating way to explore all these different themes!

Idk if that made any sense lmao.

Anyway aome of my favourite horror movies and why:

My fav horror film of all time is The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974) I could straight up write a whole separate long post just about why I love this movie so much. But aaaah I've never seen a movie that does horror so well. Like I've seen 554 horror movies and this is still easily the scariest one I've seen. It captures the fear and tension of the whole situation so well. Its an isolated setting. The product design is honestly *chefs kiss*. And like this movie feels like a terrifying fever dream and looks exactly like it. I've only seen one other movie that manages to capture the nightmare fever dream feel to a similar extent, but the movie was literally meant to be a ripoff of Texas Chainsaw Massacre lmao (the movie is the original Toolbox Murders. It's not very good overall but imo that feeling I'd there. Though fun fact: the Toolbox Murders remake was directed by Tobe Hooper, who is the director of the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre. And I think that's hilarious since the original Toolbox Murders was a ripoff of his movie)

Another fav is Saw (2004). I can't even begin to describe why I adore Saw so much, but just look at it! The concept is cool and terrifying. And the movie is just damn impressive. Yeah you can tell it had a small budget and they shot the whole thing in like three weeks, but imo it's such a great and unique example of indie filmmaking. It also does a great job at making you care about the characters and so seeing all that happen to them is even more devastating. Also I would kill for Adam I can't even lie.

Honestly my "favourite horror movies" list has over 60 horror movies in there so I don't think I can ramble about every single one. But I'll ramble about what they're like at least.

A lot of my fav horror movies tend to fall in the slasher subgenre and honestly idk why. I just find slasher movies so fun to watch. They're so campy and ridiculous. But also when they're done super well, they make you abnormal forever btw

But also yeah I love psychological horror/horror with a much deeper meaning. I'd argue that every piece of art has a deeper meaning, even the shitty stuff, but there are movies that put in a bit more effort into it than others. And I do enjoy reading analysis of those movies and trying to think about them myself in that way. It's a really cool way pass time and to grow more insane about horror!!

Idk what else to say rn, but if you want to know more please ask. I love talking about horror literally whenever

[crystallinestars]

Hello again!

I do remember talking about shipping as activism a while back, though it's important to keep in mind I'm not from the USA, nor from any English speaking country, I just spend an egregious amount of time in English speaking communities haha

But yeah, I've noticed this trend where some subsections of the fandom will get super attached to their HCs / interpretations and actively preach about it like it's their god-given duty to make sure as many unfortunate souls become the next victims of their "rightful" wrath, basically becoming the blorbo police in a way. I do feel like this could be called activism: there's a lot of focus on identity and a thirst for representation in media so they latch onto the closest thing available (fandom) and engage in discourse. Maybe because many people feel powerless to make any meaningful change 'IRL'?

I was thinking about that (again) the other day and I found a few reasons why this 'activism' always bewilders me, especially with games like HSR or Genshin

1) I feel like there's a CRUCIAL difference to make between "this game / character or whatever is a source of comfort for me as a person with x identity" and "this game is actively and obviously trying to give us representation and you're a fool and probably a x-phobe not to see it". Call this "semantics" all you want, Words mean Things (wowzers), and it's just basic courtesy to communicate intent clearly, instead of always parroting the same 3 tiktok one-liners to sound witty. There's also a difference between headcanons, interpretation, subtext, etc.

2) We've already talked about this but for the love of god can we please please please stop arbitrarily categorizing behaviours, clothes, ways of speaking and so on as "OBVIOUSLY ROMANTIC IN NATURE" or whatever? I'm begging on my hands and knees, this is a very slippery slope. I understand making silly little jokes but past a certain point it's unclear whether or not people are serious about this.

3) This one is a bit different and not exactly limited to this subject but recently I've found myself getting slightly irritated whenever there are analyses / metas without sources, especially when said analyses aim at proving a point using specfic information. Blame it on the uni student in me who's had to write way too many stupid essays, but whenever I see claims like "x flower or whatever symbolises x thing in x culture, therefore it's proof that x thing in x media is x", even if the analysis is interesting, I always want to ask the person where they found that information, so I could educate myself on the subject. Maybe I'm a bit too pessimistic on this but part of me always feels like the person deliberately cherry-picked what suited their interpetation, especially if they later say things like "look it up yourself". Idk,I'd just like to see if these analyses are the product of a genuine research or if they just heard someone on Twitter say it and ran with it.

4) Tbh I find that the way Hoyoverse goes about things is not that different from the way kpop singers are told to act to appeal to the audience. I 100% agree with you when you say that "attractiveness" is one of the most important factors as to why some characters are ppopular. And since I get the same vibes between Hoyoverse and kpop, I'd say that latching onto something like that for representation is kinda setting yourself up for failure down the line. Like, I'm sorry but if tiny crumbs mostly born in the fandom are enough to quench your thirst for representation, then the bar is truly in hell

And Aventurine. Oh Aventurine. I hope I won't sound too angry when I say this but looord was the fandom annoying these past few updates. This is linked to point 2) but I HATED every second of it whenever I saw people say things like "omg Aventurine acted sleazy / told a man his marble bust is handsome, it's obviously proof he's gay and the biggest whore in all of HSR because no straight man would say that!!!!" 😐 I don't even care if people want to HCs him as gay (by all means, do whatever you'd like) but allow to present an alternative: you know what kind of man would speak like that? Someone who's overacting the harmful stereotypes associated with his tribe as a defense mechanism of sorts against the whole world. Kind of like "you want me to be the crafty, smooth-talking and capricious Avgin? That's what I'll show you". Idk, I feel like THAT'S a much more sensible reasoning than the hormones driven screeches aforementioned.

Like seriously, is it y'all's first time reading a story like that?? Some people took one look at the character with a suspicious tattoo on his neck that SUSPICIOUSLY looks like the word "slave" and decided he was the fuckboy trope. Then 2.1 came and they had the gall to be surprised pikachu face when it was revealed that "yeah this is really a slave brand and Aventurine is Not Doing Well Mentally" (I saw posts where people said they were surprised this character wasn't as smooth and flirty and whatever as they had thought, like do you want me to applaud you for thinking with your brain for the first time in months or what??)

Anyway, I apologize for the sudden anger, I needed to get this off my chest.

Regarding translation issues, I do know a few things about translation as a whole but this ask is already getting long so maybe I'll talk about this another time 😅

In the meantime, I'm happy to see you and all the others catching a win with the lack of Kaveh in the banner! I do hope it'll continue in the same direction in the future

Also, I've talked a lot on here so maybe I should choose an emoji to sign my asks? If it's not taken could I use this one 🪻?

Hello 🪻 anon! Long time no see ☺️

Wow, you're not from an English-speaking country? With how eloquent your English is and how knowledgeable you are about Western fandom issues, you had fooled me haha.

A lot of the sexuality gatekeeping and preaching about x character being ___ sexuality or ___ -coded is a form of activism, for sure. As I said before, Americans in particular have a tendency to drag politics into every aspect of their lives, even foreign entertainment.

It's hard to say why some people act like morality police when someone disagrees with their headcanons or interpretations. Perhaps it's as you say--they feel powerless to make a change in the real world. A part of me also thinks they're virtue signaling; meaning, they show support for various causes for the sake of looking like a good person in front of others.

Regarding your frustration with the lack of a reliable source in analysis posts, I would say you're right to be wary of how factual the posts actually are. People generally make such posts to give their headcanons more weight. Basically, trying to prove their headcanons are right/correct. Cherry-picking is to be expected of such posts. I'm sure there are some well-researched, factual posts presenting a good analysis, but I find that those are mainly present in lore discussions. Maybe I'm being too negative, but I honestly don't expect anything good from fandom anymore. I am too jaded.

Your 4th point though lmao. The bar truly is in hell 😂 I get that there isn't a lot of representation in media, much less good rep, but Mihoyo's games aren't it, man... there are better sources of rep that this.

THE AVENTURINE BIT! I feel you on that so much!!!! LORD.

Mischaracterization in the name of shipping is a staple of fandom culture at this point. Your analysis of Aventurine's behaviors is spot on, but people like to view character actions and words through shipping lenses to try and find any crumb to support their headcanons. It's more fun to paint everything a character does as further support for their ship/headcanon than it is to appreciate who the character actually is.

The way Aventurine (And Childe. They massacred my boy) was quickly reduced to a flirty fuckboy hurts me to this day. After 2.0 story quest, people quickly came to the conclusion he was some perverted playboy, and proceeded to treat him the way they usually treat characters under the fuckboy trope: depict him in abusive situations. I saw so much fanart of Aventurine being collared and leashed, of being beaten black and blue, yet look like he's enjoying it. He was treated like a masochistic punching bag. While I love me some art of characters being roughed up, it really didn't suit Aventurine. Especially not after we just learned he was a slave, his race was murdered, and the Avgin people are discriminated against based on harmful stereotypes. But people seemed to have missed that?

The surprise pikachu moment they had when 2.1 dropped had me sitting there like:

Really? It was hinted at back in 2.0 that his backstory was rough, so it was no surprise he carries a lot of trauma and isn't as confident and cocky as he makes himself out to be. However, it seems like people really didn't pick up on that, or didn't understand the gravity behind it all. It felt like they and I read entirely different stories.

Idk, it's probably moments like these why Genshin has Paimon 😐

The small Kaveh win we had was worthy of celebration, but Mihoyo will never let their favorite shippers starve. They're already over-analyzing the camera panning between Haitham and Kaveh in Cyno's quest, as well as Sethos's voiceline about them. They do not rest.

Apologies for going off on a tangent again. I'm so happy there's someone else who picked up on Aventurine's trauma since the very start of the story 😭 It really felt like I was the only one. Ever since meeting him, there was something about him that made me want to hug and comfort him, but seeing all the abusive art just felt bad. It's much better now, thankfully.

Anyways, thanks for stopping by! It's always fun to read your messages since you have a lot of great insights. Hope you have a great day/evening whever you are, 🪻 Anon!

[ewanmitchellcrumbs]

Fuckass Bob here, straight stunting and offering the requested writing review 💅🏻 (Full disclosure I don’t read anything that doesn’t have a happy ending, I don’t read series til they’re done, I’m an Aemond whore first and foremost.)

Anywho. I really like your writing and one of the things I like so much about it is that you can take really similar asks and give a wide range of returns for them. You’ve got a bunch of asks for BJs or butt stuff or praise kinks or brat taming etc and each piece you write feels different, even though the characters are (usually) the same and the premise is so similar. It really scratches the “I loved this, now I want to rewatch it with the camera angle 15° off” vibe that I often get with fanfic. I love my tropes and characters and stories about them and I’ll finish one and throw it on the ground and scream ANOTHER (read: reblog and like it and scream ANOTHER) and when I read your stuff the similar prompts scratch the same itch but I don’t feel like I’m just rereading the og fic.

Idk man whenever I see your request/WIP list I get super excited about how you’ll do the Aemond stuff and then when I get to sit down and read it I’m always blown away.

Also, as someone who does love her bazillion word fics, I like the length of your prompt responses. They’re perfectly bite sized I can sit down and read and it doesn’t feel daunting or like I’ve opened my tumblr for nothing. The length is perfect: dick length joke and whatnot

-FAB

This is very sweet of you, thank you so much!

I am trying to move away from the shorter length fics, and people who closely follow my work will likely see the shift in terms of word count. I am generally quite satisfied with the trajectory my writing has taken, but have never asked for feedback before, so I am interested in hearing people's honest opinions of what they like and don't care so much for in my prose!

The drabbles and smut requests were produced during some of my unhappiest times in fandom. With people that were churning out four or five fics a day and maintaining an incredibly solid chokehold on all of the tags, it felt really pressurised and like if I didn't keep up then my work would be forgotten. It was horrible.

That pressure has eased immensely in the last few months, and I have reached a space where I am (most of the time) relatively unbothered by what others are doing around me. It's been so nice to adopt a more relaxed approach and take my time with my writing, so that I'm producing stories that I would genuinely be happy to read myself.

Sorry for the ramble!

[elegyofthemoon]

im posting this before i forget and also sorta leave for the night cuz i gotta sleep a little early

• Posted stuff today ☺️

• I decided to do a bit of the writing tag game on my other account and it is WILD to see just how much i wrote the past few months??? im kinda proud tbh. I may be a little discouraged from posting these days but it's honestly really nice to see myself posting as much as I do - and esp to see how much ive written during all this time. this is aside from all the logs i do bc thatd just add further to my word count, but hdhfjdjd really despite the horrors, i'll always have writing. or well, writing's just been such a huge part of my life that if i cannot write then I'm not myself anymore. njdjrjd and my friend nick has mentioned this too that i dont seem like myself if i dont have a wip and all that jfjdndd

• i hate to say the rafayel birthday event made me embarrassingly happy but it really did 🙈

• speedwriting a fic. much shorter than something i wrote earlier but like !! idk i havent felt that surge of inspiration that was fun lmao wish that happened more often

• getting another message from a job i applied to that might be interested in hiring me. the positive is this ones a little more interesting than the one i did a recent interview with but same general position. still very 👀

• my friend finished london holiday and might start second key real soon and im so fucking sorry to him about the person i'l turn into when he starts liveblogging at me about it BUT ALSO im actually really happy and excited about it .3.

• OH FOUND OUT THAT MY SISTER WILL BE HOME EVEN FOR THE LITTLE BIT WHEN I GET BACK!! i thought i'd miss n entirely when she's back which made me sad but she'll be there for at least a day when she's back so !! i will beat my jet lag to hang out with her if i have to >:(

• n sending me something that reminded them of me was really sweet 🥹 it made me very happy tbh jfnfnddjj i was kinda shocked

•also saw new artist drawing characters from anti entropy that genuinely made me very happy 🥹🥹

• ngl thinking about tomorrow after the exam has me excited. i still have one more exam to go, but for once, i feel excited by the idea of saying goodbye. i dont really care anymore how i do for either exams, but it's one more step out of this life and one more step into the new one. i think thats exciting and im excited for it. i wish i could say the same about doing the practical exam but that one i just know ill go home dreading so ✌🏼 but tomorrow! lets have fun after the exam and visit the bakery ive been wanting to go to and finally get that silly plush ive been eyeing 🤧 let's give this life a nice farewell and send off before i go

[jamesunderwater]

having an anon friend always seems like so much fun and i’m somehow jealous of you.

my fave time of day: my favourite time of day is definitely just before the sun sets. like when the sun looks so much bigger and the sky is a bunch of different colours, that’s my favourite time. (it’s also the time i go home everyday so maybe it’s also the fact that it’s home time).

my favourite character: alaska young. the book version though. there was something about “looking for alaska” that hooked me in at a young age and i’ve never quite been the same since.

one fact: i failed high school english. most of my friends see me as highly literate so when i tell them i actually failed english (it’s my first language too) it always comes as a big shock.

now my questions for you: what’s your favourite holiday? if you could have any fast food brand available to you at a moments notice, what would it be? if you had to describe yourself using two colours, which would they be? 🩶

friend anon!!! despite my considerable neglect of our friendship, i want you to know that replying to your asks was literally on my to-do list for months. i hope that this feels like a compliment -- i only write out "reply to so and so" and "text so and so" when i really care xD

okay if you came off anon though OR figured out how to stealthily leave a message about wanting a friend anon (idk how you'd do that, but worth a try lol) maybe YOU could have a friend anon too. i need to be someone's friend anon, actually. it's such a sweet feeling to make someone feel seen like that, to make someone smile by showing them people care and are interested in them as a person. thanks for being the kind of cool person who does that! <3 i hope you get a friend anon, you deserve one too.

ohhh, that moment before the sun sets is such a beautiful one!! i'm curious what your landscape is like when you're heading home each day -- are you seeing this sky against a city backdrop? an expanse of fields? suburban streets lined with houses? a mountain with houses scattered all down it? the sea or other waterscape? i must know.

haha i am excited that you ended up choosing a character i actually know! fun fact, when i was in high school, my childhood best friend and i reconnected and we always had a kind of ethereal bond. one day we were sitting in her car in a cemetery and decided we wanted to rename ourselves based on our truer nature, but decided we should name each other. i actually named her Alaska, because she so, so reminded me of Alaska from that book. she was just (still is, even now)...unearthly in some ways. magic kind of poured out of every part of her. she ended up changing her name to Alaska really everywhere, truly went by the name for years. I think she only recently started going by her birth name again. (she named me Luna, if you're wondering, and what a compliment, to be compared to the moon in any sense)

i hope it's not rude to say, but i love your one fact? cause fuck school. it is so not a measure of our actual intelligence or proclivities. kinda love that you prove that with that story -- though i am sorry you had that experience, because I'm sure it was very stressful.

okay, i probably already apologized for this, but like.......sorry again for having absolutely no capacity for short replies. i don't really know how people don't comment on every little thing like this? hopefully you don't hate it!

favorite holiday: generally speaking, Christmas. Huge fan of Halloween as well. but the last few years Christmas has been very quiet for me, and while I haven't hated that, it just isn't exactly the holiday it used to be. So you know what? In this moment, I think my answer might be New Year's Eve instead. for several years now I've spent that day in reflection, and journaled for hours at night about the previous year or years, hopes for the new year, all of that. I love it. and I love that, unlike other holidays, I don't really feel the need or even desire to be with others that day -- so the fact that I'm usually not doesn't feel strange or like something i need to fix.

fast food brand: i don't really eat fast food much, or eat out that often at all. but despite the fact that i hardly ever eat red meat, for some reason my brain has associated "i did a hard thing and now i deserve heavy-calorie, easy meal" with Five Guys. which is basically really expensive, wonderfully greasy burgers, and i always feel like shit afterward, but there you have it.

two colors: oh how i love this question... it's hard not to jump to my favorite colors, but that's not what you're asking here. i'm so curious what my friends would say 😆 but me? i think i would say the golden yellow of ginkgo leaves in fall. and... mm, yeah, the dark green of a spruce tree (i looked some up, and i think the black hills spruce tree is the best representation of the green i mean).

<3333 thank you for these questions and the wonderful conversation, friend anon. i hope you had the loveliest of holidays and this week is restful for you.

[luminalightsverse]

Okay what the hell happened while I was asleep?

I just read the message from the Ahsoka Mun giving me back my account because she doesn't want to play her anymore because we are "way to fucked up" for her and "no one understands her and her jokes or what she writes."

I mean yeah I had a few discussions with her too because of the way she treated Oona like she's completely incompetent and stupid. At least I felt that way.

But now it's all of us who are against her and I'm so confused because I had the feeling all of you welcomed her very well in our group just like you did with me and all those post I have seen didn't seemed to be a problem except that one post with Vader that went a bit to far in my opinion... But this was again more on her side. She was the one provoking him while he tried to reconcile and to get out of this situation.

I can understand that the way we are doing our rp with so many people, so many different timelines and somewhat of AU versions of the characters can be confusing and overwelming for some. Sometimes it's also confusing for me when for example I see Vader is suddenly no longer the big bad but good and helpful (no offense I find this idea really interesting), but that wasn't the biggest problem for Mun. Apparently we were all incredibly mean to her, have conspired against her and everyone only complains to her about how and what she writes.

She even delted her tumblr account with which she reached out to me to join us.... Or she bloged me idk.

I know it's none of my business what you wrote with her but I kinda feel responsible here because this was formerly my account and I brought her into the group giving the role and the account to her. I'm just really confused because this is coming so suddenly. So I guess something big happened last night while I was asleep or something idk.

Well whatever happened I really don't want to lose Ahsoka in our RP so I will continue the blog. I will figure something out how to manage all those accounts. I found about the tip that if I use multiple browsers like chrome, firefox etc. and the incognito mode of them I can be online with multiple characters at once so switching will be easier for me.

Still it would be awesome if we find someone else who writes as Ahsoka because I always feel so strange writing with myself and Ahsoka is one of Oona's best friends. They grew up together and see each other as sisters, they talk and do much stuff together so yeah....

I have no idea what else to say. Except I'm really sorry for the trouble and drama again. It feels like this week I'm just causing problems here even if I know nothing of this is really my fault let alone was in my power to control it at all...

I also kinda have this feeling, what ever happened, it was mostly her fault because of the way she always reacted when I told her to stop treating Oona like that. She was always immediately offended and went into attack mode telling me she would treat Oona like everyone else although it definitely wasn't the same.

Like yeah it's okay for me to treat Oona like a child and to try to keep her out of danger etc. as long as people don't forget she's still a jedi learner and not completely helpless even if she's clumsy. But not the way Ahsoka's Mun did. Oona isn't stupid. She's just naive and quickly confused who often underestimates herself. Same with Calico who also isn't stupid just way to impulsive and too convinced of her abilities. Both are children who are tyring to understand the world and what's happening around them on their own way while they're also trying to learn to control all those feelings they have.

(@jiabeewrites @kaijusplotch @ct3113official @striker-reckoning @emperor-sheev-palpatine @its-cody-not-kote @commanderwolffekoon @smolbendyhorn @aesira-of-orion @oldmanwithashield)

[bemtevis]

Istg at this point I'm just going to rewrite tlh out of spite for how awful cc treated them

James all of the sudden is this asshole who we barely ever seen reading AND WHERE DID HIS CUTE GLASSES GO😭😭

Christopher gets like zero acknowledgment even tho at the academy Thomas and Matthew were constantly backing him up(and sure we see this in chot but after ignoring him for two books and then killing him with zero grief :/)

Matthew...I actually don't have an issue with Matthew BECAUSE WE NEVER SEE HIS POINT OF VIEW, and I also feel his character might be the most realistic to the situation aside from Alastair and Grace

Thomas...she literally gave all his creativity to James. He writes poems and songs?? Where did that go?? We also never see him read or spend any actual page time with his family for more than a passing sentence

Jesse was fine ig until that scene with Grace...it's giving the Matthew and Alastair scene at the end of choi

Ari felt in character but I wish we could have seen more of her growth that wasn't just coming out and moving out

Anna is probably the one I'm the most upset about though because like, she was so nice in her original short story. And now she's just this straight up bitch who takes women's virginity for fun? CECILY AND GABRIEL'S DAUGHTER? I think fucking not.

And I hate that everyone moved past how creepy Charles dating Alastair and Ari was like, dude was a whole ass ADULT with a JOB preying on barely 16 year olds(we all know he waited for Alastair to turn 16 for consent laws😒)

And also why are all of the tid parents not present in their kids lives??? Tid and gotsm will, tessa, gabriel, cecily, sophie, and gideon would NEVER. And about the fairchild twins, I fucking hate that she did that. They already fucked matthew up by forcing him to either raise himself in order to take care of his dad or was babysat by the herondales, and he's probably going to be forced to take care of the twins too(yet another math/alas parallel)

Sorry for the rant I just have so many angry feelings about cc as a fellow author rn, like how fo you fuck up your own characters THAT badly-

oh pls do, I'm sure whatever you come up with will be better than canon

I mean he was kind of an asshole beforehand but I figured it was because of the gracelet and all, but his behavior barely changed after it was off! it was so pointless

JUSTICE FOR CHRISTOPHER! he was done so dirty! cc tells us the merry thieves love each other like brothers but then one of them dies and they barely grieve! show not tell, it's one of the first things you should learn as a writer

while I'm sure I would've glazed over most of them, I'm sure having matthew's pov would add a lot to the story. instead, his development is seen only through other people's povs and it falls flat, imo.

something I noticed while reading was that if it was one of thomas' povs, it would be about thomastair. I don't recall any instance in which it isn't. there was the night at matthew's flat, but that ended up being thomastair as well. we barely see him interact with his friends or family or hear about his interests and dreams! cc had something great with him and she threw it away, and for WHAT!

Idk why cc bothered to write james and jesse and everyone being so mad at grace, only for there to be only a few paragraphs in the epilogue about her forgiveness. it was such a cop out, tbh.

same as with thomas, all of ari's povs were about her love interest, except for the first one maybe. look, I know there is a huge cast of characters and it's hard to balance it all out, but cc's books are so filled with amatonormativity that it's hard not to see the pattern.

the thing with anna is that in chot, she feels more like what she should've been. same with matthew imo. they're flawed characters, yes, and don't always make the best decisions, but they're closer to what the narrative wanted me to believe from the start. I loved eet anna, but chog came and ruined her! then cc tried to retcon it, Ig, and it was such an abrupt change that it felt off putting!

yeah yeah absolutely! I've said this before, but the problem with charles wasn't that he was closeted! it was his weird predatory behavior, and that was completely unaddressed. he, like anna and matthew and grace, had his arc rushed so the consequences of cc's writing couldn't catch up with her, but WE READ THE BOOKS! we know he's fucking creepy!

tbh if you told me all of the parents were trapped in a bubble for most of this trilogy, I would believe you. they were not present at all. gideon and gabriel lost their kids to their own sister, and they don't even process it. same with sophie and cecily. it's like they don't even exist.

dw about it! sorry for the equally long, if not longer, rant lol. completely agree; cc's great at creating great concepts then not knowing how to execute them at all. it's so sad

[pastelwell]

You write really good tomgreg fics but what Tomgreg fics are your favourite? Always interested to know what authors are enjoying, as sometimes, even with ao3's filters, there's a lot of fics to choose from - kind of like asking a bookstore employee to help me choose but for fic 🤣

I love this analogy so much, I will hereby do my best!

So, my terrible confession is I don't read a lot of fic, I am so super fussy, and I haven't deep-dived the tomgreg tag all that much. I am very lucky, though, in that I have many friends with splendid taste, so a lot of the below were recommended to me in the first place. It's nice that I now get to recommend them onwards.

It does mean, though, that the fics I rec may end up being, like... The super popular fics everyone has already read haha. But we shall see. (ETA: oh my god this got so huge, I'm so sorry).

~

Apple Tree Metaphor (Rating: E) - rulebreakingmoth Honorary mention, I know EVERYONE has read this fic, but to me it is just the fic of all time. One of the first tomgreg fics I ever read, and I read it every day for about two weeks upon discovery. Something about it just really spoke to me, I can't describe it. It's very accomplished and I still return to it even now. Such a classic.

From Ithica, with love (Rating: G) - windlefin I adore this fic. It's Shiv POV and a little glimpse into tomgreg life post-Shivorce. It is absolutely just... The warmest thing, I adoreeee seeing the life T&G have built for themselves in this universe, it is absolutely dripping with love, charm and character, but very true to each character. Seeing it through Shiv's eyes is just the icing on the cake.

The Allomancy Series (Rating: E) - princemousetrap A big investment, in terms of reading/wordcount, but SO worth every moment you pour into it, I cannot stress that enough. I think it's another one of those iconic series' that everyone has already read, but I had to put it in bc it's so un-put-downable. Beautifully written and so much warmth (can you tell I love warmth?)

A look from you and I would fall from grace (Rating: M) - brandyalexanders Gorgeous quick(ish) read that's so unexpectedly romantic and sexy. I return to this one a fair amount, it's suuuch an enjoyable read and idk, it just feels cosy to me. I love the dialogue and I can see it all so perfectly in my head.

Domus Aurea (Rating: E) - rubyduck This one is very new but I LOVED it, it's Tom & Greg how I love to read/write them - desperately in love and desperately horny (lol). Delicious tension, delicious kissing, delicious getting together fic. The whole thing is just yummy. Plus Tom buys Greg a crazy expensive watch and even that in itself is satisfying to me.

White Truffle (Rating: T) - neglectedtuesday This author has done a fair few AUs, this is the newest one and ohhhh I loved it. In this world, Tom is a food critic and Greg is a photographer. Something soooo perfect about it, really charming fic, really sexy, too. I also recommend (by the same author) the Academic Credential series where Tom is a Professor. It's soo tasty, so hot, and such a perfect take. Both worlds you can really entrench yourself in.

Prompts on tumblr by ezlebe (Rating: Unrated) - ezlebe I am a big ezlebe fan and I enjoy everything she does both here and over on AO3. There are a couple that spring to mind that I wanted to rec. The first one is the one about sand mites lol. Idk, I recommend it to everyone, it feels so warm to me, there is such an atmosphere throughout the whole thing. Nothing really happens, but everything happens. Plus I am a bit weak for Tom taking care of Greg. The other is the one where Greg has a cat. Sounds bonkers but you muuust trust me, it's so cute and charming. The dialogue is fun and it's just an all round enjoyable read. Big big fan.

no other shelter (Rating: E) - champagnedproblems & lanceslot This is unfinished BUT there's no cliffhanger and it works perfectly as a oneshot. This is another one of those desperately horny desperately needy DESPERATE DESPERATE vibe fics that makes your heart race. I mean, you know me by now, I am all about desperate horniness and this has it in spades, it's very tasty. I also love detention by the same authors. Just as steamy and hot, but like.. Angrier and dirtier. So good.

Summer daze (Rating: G) - regent This is just one of those fics that makes you feel warm and cosy and nice. I am so weak for glimpses into establish tomgreg domestic life, and this is suuuch a nice little window into that world. Really comforting and lovely.

Ohhh you know what, I could go on forever, I do have a few more but fear I've already gone on way too long here - let me know if you’d like some more. Alternatively, if there's anything YOU love and wanna rec me, please do, I always read fics that are recced to me x