#is it time to get an ao3 account

[doonarose]

Right, so, Good Omens. Legit my favorite book, number one, since I was about 12 or 13 which was… some several years ago (I have tumblr Good Omens posts over ten years old! Gather round wee youngins). Loved the first season, did the book justice, love the actors, love neil, blah blah (a scattering of posts for this from four years ago). Closed circuit for me, though, no work to do, enjoyed, rewatched, enjoyed, left it be, waiting for season two (which I was reasonably convinced was an entirely bad idea, just like I’d been reasonably convinced a TV adaptation of the book was an entirely bad idea, and been happily wrong).

Second season – dunno what I was expecting – but it wasn’t that and I didn’t love it, I was a touch disappointed in it when I first finished it up, because I watched it distracted and having gotten up on the wrong side of the bed or whatever, but sometimes things take a while to settle and find their place in my brain.

We read a book called ‘I for Isobel’ in Year 11 of high school and I hated that book my first read -ranted about how rubbish a piece of literature it was – and my very wise English teacher gently promised she’d convince me otherwise. I still remember the earth-shattering shift in teenaged perception I experienced when I realized I could learn to love a piece of art I had adamantly despised and also, that it made perfect sense that a character such as Isobel could call herself a preposition and be equal parts right and wrong (I was also, most definitely, identifying as a preposition for a while there). Same with Pride and Prejudice, I hated that smug motherfucker and Elizabeth for losing her mind and fawning over him, a different English teacher again told me to sit with it, reread it, examine the angles. Both those books are still in my top ten.

And – don’t panic – at this point, of thinking and watching and thinking, I am enamoured with the second season of Good Omens. Different to season 1, and different to the book, but utterly gorgeous and complex, giddy and romantic and soft but infuriating. I mean, the season isn’t infuriating, in and of itself; it’s very good, except that it sets up our leads to be infuriating, and it does it on purpose and that is infuriating and boy, oh boy, do I love me a ‘shit communication’ trope. Even the dumb teenage humans are bad at communication trope (see: Glee) and the dumb alien and naïve human are bad at communication trope (see: Doctor Who), but, perhaps, especially, the intensely experienced, smart, worldly dumbass angel/demon duo are bad at communication trope. I can buy into the way that season ended in about two dozen different ways, but it certainly made sense to me. Some angles paint Aziraphale as a bit of a dumbass, a bit obtuse, a bit self-centred, and some paint Crowley as the poster-boy for self-sabotaging, woe-is-me, overly-willing martyr. Nothing deal-breakingly bad about those characters, just some very well-fleshed out, obvious flaws bubbling to the top.

So anyway, who the fuck is reading this? I’m writing it despite a ridiculously busy life just at this particular moment in time, because I miss writing. My whole job is writing. Emails, protocols, research proposals, reviews, scientific articles, and I’m just fine at that but Jesus Christ that shit isn’t character or place or emotionally anchored (it is 90% utter bullshit, honestly). We still teach the bloody undergrads to write past-tense, third person, passive voice for fuck’s sakes. We do an assignment where we take marks off for any sort of connotation-laden language and I lose my mind trying to explain to colleagues that their list of connotative words from the 1980s is no longer relevant. That six students choosing to call a particularly clingy amoeba ‘thirsty’ is very connotative and not at all scientific and actually, very much, hilarious.

I’ve known I miss writing for almost a decade. The fleet car I sometimes have to drive locked me out at a service station in the middle of nowhere for two hours. This happened several months ago and it triggered a medium-sized tantrum (for various other reasons) and I therapeutically wrote a 5600 word fictionalized (but honestly, very accurate and quite funny) account of the event. I sent that shit to my boss.    

Anyway, yes, I could write several, long, winding, satisfying fics to follow season two. But that sounds hard and like working in a vacuum and there’s so much source material to align with and so much fanon dissection ahead of me that instead, during all my long drives and boring seminars of the last ten days or so, I’ve been dipping into next kisses.

Because that kiss was rubbish (ohIlovedit). I have theories about that kiss that spin off into complex heaven and hell lore thinking and what all the nuance and foreshadowing mean, but I don’t, just now, have ten days to sit here and think and type (just about the kiss that I’m not at all convinced was primarily an actual kiss). So, I’ve just skipped season 3 (not a typo) and the whole second coming thing, and the whole them not being very happy with each other thing, and also, yes, them being woefully incompatible with each other (and the state of the universe) at the end of Season 1 and all through Season 2 and jumped to the end of Season 3.

It's a warm, sated, luxurious place to inhabit (built on an imperfect foundation of Neil writing the way I think he will, I hope, I’ll beg). They’ll be safe, happy, and openly in love with each other (yes, of course they’ve said it, Season 3 is over so they can’t have not said it – you fool!) and they’ll be talking (#NinaMaggieWisdom). Admittedly they’ll still be pretty shit at the ‘safe’, ‘happy’ and ‘talking’ bits, but doing quite reasonable at the ‘openly being in love thing’, actually.   

And I can totally buy into the ‘angels have no genitals’ thinking or the ‘angels have no gender’ thinking or the ‘angels are asexual’ thinking, that all makes a great deal of sense to me and can be written well, and I can read and enjoy (and could certainly see Season 3 play out like any of these). But I know I would really, really, struggle with those characters (and dare I say, with those actors (stop it)) and my own brain wiring and projection, with trying to not make them romantic.

So I’ve started to mentally play it out romantically. And then tactile. Which became touch-starved, touch-desperate, and all ‘pleasures of the flesh’ and ‘enjoying the human things’. Which, yes, of course, became sexual (do you not know me at all?) but calm down, please (I’m talking to me, lbh).

Anyhow. Next kisses, because that first one shouldn’t count. The timings are malleable, the order of 3-7 are interchangeable. There’s structure and dialogue (and choreography!) for all of them.

The second time (aka the first time it’s overwhelmingly, categorically right, albeit still complicated, and not at all as straightforward as it should be).

The third time (aka not really the third time because they don’t – they can’t – because it’s extremely awkward and weird, maybe they’ll never do it again).

The fourth time (aka, the first time since it was awkward that it’s not awkward, thank goodness).

The eleventh time (aka it’s like in the movies, there’s a rainstorm and they get wet and have to take shelter under an awning, oh my).

The twenty first time (aka the time someone thinks this is an appropriate way to inform their neighbours).

The twenty-fifth time (aka the first time they do it without thinking about doing it).

The forty first time (aka actually this time a bit more than kissing and it’s all together too good for Crowley (it’s not what you think, honest)).

The seventy third time (aka actually this time quite a bit more than kissing and it’s all together too good for Aziraphale (it’s totally what you think)).

I’m dumping this here after a long, personal post, because that way I can delete it and almost no one will have seen it. But it reads too well behind my eyes to not share (but I’m still tagging it because I’m a mysterious enigma of a needy bitch). A lot of this I came up with while driving and I had to stop myself from pulling over on a highway to scribble things down and that felling is gorgeous and so missed. So, I’m holding onto it for tonight by releasing a little bit of it into an abandoned, dormant blog, that seems to have a bunch of ghosts around.

I have scrawled notes from yesterday’s symposium to transcribe and flesh out. And tomorrow I’m getting a new couch delivered.

[barblaz-arts]

this never fails to amuse me ngl

[fudgelling-away]

Valentine's gift for @amalia-uwu ♡ Enjoy!

A short ficlet (350 words) under the cut. SFW, but a bit suggestive because I just can't behave.

You wake up to the rustle of the bedsheets.

The cold, spring air somehow sneaked into your bedroom and filled your lungs.

Who has left the window open again?

Not you, that's for sure.

Frowning in discomfort, you curl up and realise that bony hands are wrapping a blanket around you. The phalanges click softly against each other as Sans pulls the blanket all the way up to your nose. Immediately you grab it with cold hands and hide your face in it.

"good morning, starlight…"

His deep voice, still groggy from sleep, encourages you to finally open your eyes. Sans lies back down with a sigh. You look at the beautiful crescents of his closed eyelids and watch his smile widen as you answer his greeting.

Even though you are freezing, you take your hand out of the blanket cocoon and reach to caress his round face.

How are his cheeks so soft?

"heh, i thought i was in trouble, but i see you coldn’t care less."

You sigh at the terrible pun and remind him that he's the one who is going to help you around if you catch a flu.

He chuckles in that special way which makes you roll your eyes and close them, because you know what's coming.

You feel him lean closer to you. Warm breath on your face. Sharp nasal ridge poking your nose.

"i could tell you a joke about the flu… but you are not going to get it.

Despite your sincere efforts, you snort with laughter, less because of what he said but more because of how he said it. So happy and giggly. Ridiculously adorable.

Groaning with fake annoyance, you lift your blanket and pull him flush against you, enveloping you both with the fluffy fabric. You keep your embrace tight as he playfully tries to wriggle out of it.

He stops the moment you kiss his forehead and murmur something in a quiet voice. He listens. With your hand on his back you feel his ribcage expanding as he inhales deeply. Magic warms up his bones.

[naswoop]

Brief interlude between isat fanarts to draw @dekupalace's In Stars and Time au because I am utterly obsessed <-(said while vibrating with excitement)

Lil bonus pencil sketch under the cut

[abarelysapientpairofshoes]

[anto-pops]

you don't have to post this.

I'm just happy you nodded to how destructive that blog is. I'm glad to see some resistance to that blogs fucking existence.

I'm sorry anto. Parts of me is happy you've slightly moved on from HL just so that hopefully didn't barb you as bad as I'm sure "bitch of the blog" wanted it to.

Yes she self-submitted it. She does that with all her worst ones. It's for attention - and blatantly visible in her discord servers. Do not take it to heart.

I will post this because if you and I feel similarly about it, there’s bound to be others.

I’ll say it with my whole chest: that entire blog is a joke and an excuse for insecure, mean spirited people to harp on others. I blocked the entire page basically right at the beginning when I started seeing it pop up in my feed, but from what I gathered when my attention was dragged there by the anons in my own inbox, it’s full of people who:

A. Hate the game and all the characters

B. Are jealous of other creators and their success

C. Are too lazy to write their own stories yet have the gall to criticize other writers’ work

The fucking audacity to make a blog like that and defend the blatant bullying with “well we’re allowed to dislike things and have our own opinions” is so unbelievably lazy it’s not even funny. Nevermind the fact that there’s nothing anonymous about half the asks there— I could clearly tell who certain asks were referring to. Maybe the whole thing started with a few harmless polls (which is what I saw at the start) but it’s transformed into something so nasty that to defend it just leaves a sour taste in my mouth. Fuck that blog and fuck the people who feed into the toxicity.

[neomel]

:) surprise

HEX VALUE, my piece for the 2024 Sonic the Hedgehog Big Bang, is out!!!

I've kept it a secret until now, and it's all new territory for me - but this is a huge fic putting a bunch of ideas about Sonic lore I've had swirling in my head to paper at last. Sonic Forces, IDW, Shadow, and most importantly - Omega!!

A huge thanks to the artists that I collaborated with for this, @elsannej and @premeditatedshitbag , as well as to @sthbigbang for putting this whole thing together!!

[battleslippers]

Going through Outsiders FFN is such a weird experience because I'll be looking through authors and fics and usually find a lot of people mentioned in eachother's works, giving the impression of an incredibly tight-nit community, yet today I don't think it's nearly as active. This likely sounds melodramatic, but it really does make me a little sad when I think about it, even though I wasn't around for a majority of FFN. If an author's catalogue went on for long enough you'd see people go from college student, to graduate, to mother of two, etc, etc. These glimpses turn out to be so jarring to me because then I remember they last posted years, maybe more than a decade ago. It's a massive time capsule that sort of feels you're walking alongside these people as you go through their writing when in reality you're only walking alongside some sort of apparition of the past.

[destiny-in-the-universe]

remember that angst idea? yeah- I decided to share it anyway!

So, because I made a c.AI bot for my own personal uses- I was hit with a very wild idea of my own design… it’s sort of, well, set in the past using an alternate universe. The starring main duo are the First Ninja who will be getting a name soon and Human! Nomicon (for the sake of the au, they’re brothers! whether this is ‘canon’ to my lore is up for debate) - there is also an alternative version with Rei Izumi but we’ll talk about that one separately!

Here’s honestly my thoughts for the entire AU- (buckle in and hold on to your seatbelt, y’all! This one’s going to be a doozy-)

🗡️ The First Ninja and Nomi are the sole survivors of the Norisu Clan. Ever since the demise of their siblings- they have attempted to continue tradition. The First Ninja is now the sole protector of Norrisville (even though the Sorcerer has been dealt with, he can’t find it in himself to stop-). On the other hand, Nomi is still young and becomes a scribe but he also has ninja training

🗡️ Nomi becomes more reserved than he was previously. He can’t bring himself not to focus on his own studies

🗡️ The First Ninja also begins to act differently- (he still remembers the destruction and the fire, the screams as he was forced to helplessly watch)

🗡️ Somewhere down the line, Finja and Nomi decide to begin working on the NinjaNomicon - to create a tome to store the teachings and wisdom of the Ninja; for the future holder of the mantle

🗡️ Unfortunately- someone else becomes power-hungry and Finja is sent out to deal with the problem, undergoing a mission while Nomi continues staying in Norrisville but things inevitably… go south

🗡️ Due to still cartoon-based logic- and because this is angst- the Sorcerer manages to be freed from his prison and captures the First Ninja. He holds him hostage inside the depths of an underground cave, determined to make him suffer before killing him

🗡️ One of Finja’s allies manages to report to Nomi who immediately jumps ship at rescuing his brother- no matter what happens, Nomi is not about to let his brother die at the hands of the Sorcerer

🗡️ After a lot of searching- Nomi manages to find the cave and sneaks inside, startled to see his older brother weakened and bound by enchanted chains. (He does not take this well, at all-)

🗡️ Having learned magic, Nomi is desperate to cast a counter-spell but before he can fully free his brother- the Sorcerer and Nomi are now locked in a duel. The problem is Nomi’s not mastered his abilities yet- as he is a teenager and still learning

🗡️ Nomi is slowly weakening against the Sorcerer but he’s fueled by the determination to protect his brother and in a sudden act of rage- he manages to knock the Sorcerer back and due to the power of ‘I said so’ - the Sorcerer is sealed away back in his prison but Nomi is exhausted and barely manages to stay upright

🗡️ Unfortunately, Finja is also immensely weak- bruised and battered- and they hardly have the energy to do much. I’m going to ignore what actually happened with the c.AI and say either Rei shows up to get them out of there before they inevitably pass out or Nomi uses the last bit of his strength to escape the cave with Finja

🗡️ I’m not entirely sure what happens after this but let’s just say that the recovery period happens and eventually they manage to complete the NinjaNomicon and well, I do have a bad ending version for this because I’m mean but at the same time, if things play out well, everything goes back to normal

This is still being fleshed out! Nothing is concrete for the time being! I might honestly turn this into yet another fanfiction- I have constant brainrot and far too many WIP’s this is a problem, holy shit

This is for my own angst reasons

[spaciebabie]

im locking the porn fic folks. for my arts safety 😭

[skibasyndrome]

I have the willpower of a TODDLER

[boleynqueenes]

nowe thus in chronological order (so far)...IF anyone cares <3

December 1518

December 1525

1526 (short excerpt), 2

January 1526 (short excerpt)

February 1526 (short excerpt)

March 1526

December 1526

1527 (short excerpt)

March 1528 + March 1528

October 1528

December 1528

Late 1530 (short excerpt)

Late 1530 (short excerpt, 2)

February 1531

February 1533

October 1533 (short excerpt)

February 1534 (short excerpt, before 'read more')

Summer 1534 + short excerpt (reblog, 2nd one)

September 1534 + September 1534

December 1534 (excerpt, to be added to its own chapter)

July 1535 (short excerpt)

And then the 1535 scenes (thus far) are the only ones which are traditionally linear, so I'll leave those be for now...

[jjolteon]

I feel bad that I couldn't keep watching journeys past the episode of Clemont's return, as happy as i am that he returned at all. i just think it should have went a little differently. Ash should have tackled that gym leader with a hug TRUST ME. Clemont should have got emotional right there. Clemont should've had a wobbly smile on his face, tearing up (as a parallel to when he did in "clemont's got a secret") and ash shouldve been awkward yet somehow outgoing about it because hes not good with sentimental stuff and

[fitpacs]

,

[catos-wound]

in an idiot writers rut (haha) where i have no inspiration. but i can feel it in my belly. does anyone wanna give me ideas on what to write

[bellamyblakru]

im trying twitter again if anyone wants to be mutuals there or something idk how it works