#like literally posted that chapter and went ‘okay let’s read some stuff!!!!’

[hmsharmony]

*

[bellewintersroe]

Daniel Ricciardo x HornerDaughter! Reader

Part 14, here’s the LINK to part 13 warnings: mentions of hate, body insecurities, some bold ‘fans’ approach the couple on holiday and Daniel is a protective boyfriend. Mentions of smut at the end of the chapter, this will link onto part 15.

Danny’s hand gently nudged at the girls phone in her hand, setting it down on the table as he watched her with a sympathetic gaze. “It’s fine, Daniel.” The words fell off a sigh a little harsher than she intended. She knew that he knew exactly what she was reading through, all the dm’s all the posts, comments, stories, everything about her and Daniel together.

“It’s not.” The Australian gently spoke, taking her smaller hand within his. “Let’s just enjoy our last night, fuck whatever that’s saying. It’s not real life, baby.” At his words, she offered him a gentle smile, squeezing his hand in a hope he knew she didn’t mean to snap at him.

“Yeah… you’re right. I’m gonna miss being on holiday with you. I wish it wasn’t ending so soon.” “Well how about we go somewhere else? Just the two of us, maybe somewhere more relaxing.” The pair had joined numerous friends, attended festivals and drunk plenty. The idea of an intimate holiday with just the two of them felt needed.

“Relaxing… where are you thinking?” She narrowed her eyes.

“Somewhere hot… maybe we could flight right out. Italy?”

She let out a pretend moan at his words. “You read my mind, Ricciardo.”

“Maybe I just know you too well… Horner.” Daniel and y/n winced when he spoke her last name. “Ew, that reminds me of your-”

“-dad. I know. Don’t say that.” She finished his sentence, Daniel watched her with a sheepish smile, admiring the beautiful girl. “You’ve had a good time though? Despite all that stuff?”

“The best time.” She honestly nodded, hand squeezing his. “Thank you, Daniel.”

“No, no, don’t thank me. I’m just glad you came with me, it’s made my trip.” Flustered by his words y/n almost didn’t know how to respond, her smile wife and gaze nervously darting around the table. As soon as she went to respond, she was cut off.

“Daniel!! Is it okay if we can take a picture with you?” Both their heads snapped up to see two girls around y/n’s age stood directly in front of their table with their phones ready. Y/n was positive one of them was already filming.

“Uh, yeah, yeah, sure guys.” Daniel flashed her a look to which she smiled in response, hand slipping out of Daniel’s as she glanced back down, snacking on the few last chips on her plate.

What she didn’t expect was one of the fans to come around the back of her hair, barging into her and possibly the person behind her. There was no apology, she physically attempted to nudge the chair out of the way like there wasn’t a literal human being sat there. Daniel felt his mood sour as his eyes narrowed down to where she’d touched his girlfriend. “Woah, careful. There is somebody sat there.” He joked it off, but there was a hint of annoyance behind his voice, y/n could hear it. “Right.” The girl gasped it off, holding her phone up in front of their faces.

“Is she your girlfriend?” The other boldly asked. Y/n tilted her head ever so slightly. “Yeah.” Daniel nodded, with a smile. Neither of the girls said anything for a few moments.

“You can’t give him your number now, Carmen.” Both y/n and Daniel almost spluttered in surprise. “Oh, no, no.” Daniel, again, laughed it off, attempting to sit back down in his seat, thanking them.

“Could we make a couple videos with you.” The same girl then probed, banging into y/n’s chair again. “Uh- no. Can you watch her chair, please?”

“Not even one video?”

“Please, Daniel.” The two became borderline pleading. Y/n swear the awkwardness was just seeing through her bones, she could tell Daniel was just trying to finish the rest of his beer in peace.

“No, not today I’m sorry.” Both the girls seemed to turn sour, the same girl huffing and stomping back around Y/n’s chair again. This time her hip bumped into her back, and she didn’t think it was so unintentional.

She shot her a look of annoyance, one as if to tell her to back off. Never been good at biting her tongue in these situations, she was finding it really difficult.

“Nah, leave us alone now guys. You’ve bumped into her chair several times. Just let us eat here.” As pissed as Daniel was, he tried to make his voice sound less harsh than he intended it to.

“We came to see you, not her.” The girl who wasn’t doing all the thumping, Carmen, y/n remembered her name was, spoke as though it was obvious. Y/n giggled in response, but the amusement was short lived when noticing how pissed Daniel looked.

“Alright, we’re leaving. I don’t have any fuckin’ time for this.” Daniel took his girls hand. The two had already paid previously, but still she couldn’t help but feel the disappointment of leaving early.

“Daniel-” she went to mutter. The two girls went silent as he placed a gentle hand on her back, leading me away from the two.

“What the fuck.” One of them eventually muttered. “They can get fucked, let’s go.” Daniel muttered to the girl, nudging her ahead of him. When they got out of the restaurant she was stunned to see a few people lingering, perking their heads up and taking pictures when Daniel emerged. Y/n’s brows knotted and furrowed and head dropping instantly, although there wasn’t hoards of people, she didn’t expect to see people forming. The two girls she could shake off, so could Daniel, but now this? She could feel from his grasp he was growing tense.

She knew their motive. Normally they would let Daniel be, but word had spread where they were, and the pictures taken on the yacht probably influenced to take their own pictures, just to see what else they could get hold of from the budding relationship.

“C’mon.” Daniel sighed, gripping her hand tightly and leading the way. He was pretty quiet the whole way back to the hotel, apart from checking up on the younger girl every now and then. Y/n was more worried about him.

When they were comfortable, she knelt up behind the Australian on the bed. “You good?” Her hands over his shoulders whilst he sat on the edge of bed. He was texting somebody on his team, probably his friends, telling them to avoid that place at all costs. “Mmmh, I’m fine, baby.”

“You don’t sound it.” Daniel let out an inward sigh in response and dropped his phone to one side. “I’m just pissed.” He fell bad, head resting on her lap.

“I know what can help you with that.” She giggled. “No, I’m serious, y/n!” He nodded, rolling over to face her. “Im pissed.”

“Mhm, they were fuckin’ rude.” The girl replied, but her mind was beginning to float elsewhere as she played with the strap on her shoulder, teasing it down her tanned skin.

“Really fuckin’ rude, I didn’t even wanna hear anybody’s shit, they couldn’t have just been nice, you know? Could they? They had to fuckin’ ruin it.” He groaned, head dropping against her thighs. She hummed again, slipping the strap off, the other hand curling in his hair.

“If they were men that treat you like that I woulda fucked them up.”

“Oh yeah?” She laughed lightly, tongue pressed to her inner cheek. Daniel pressed a kiss unintentionally close to the inside of her thigh. “Uh huh.” He sighed.

“So protective.” She hummed as he glanced up to see both straps off her dress slipping off her shoulders. Just when she thought he got what she was hinting at, Daniel reached up and fixed them for her, thinking it was unintentional.

“Well yeah.” He shrugged, watching her move around the room and began to take off her jewellery. When she dropped an earring to the floor she purposefully bent all the way over to pick it up, revealing under her dress. Again, Daniel was blind to it and just thought of it as an accident.

“They must’ve told people we were in that specific place. You know?” He ranted as she hummed in response, slipping out of her dress.

“What’re you doing?” Daniel paused for a breath. “Getting dressed.” She shrugged like it was obvious. “Oh yeah. But, yeah, I don’t know, the fact they were all outside pissed me off more. I don’t care every now and then, I like speaking to people, but not when it’s invading my privacy- invading yours. Fuck, I got so angry.”

“I could tell.” She gently spoke, sitting down in the plush chair across from the bed he sat on. She was classed in only her underwear and heels, crossing her legs and leaning back in amusement. Although Daniel eyed her up and down, he still continued with his rambling.

“In fact, I’m gonna text fuckin’ Joe and everyone right now.” He reached back over for his phone. Y/n sighed. “Do you have to?”

“Yeah, I’ll be 2 minutes, sorry baby.” He hummed. She sighed, running her hand down her lace cladded bra.

“Can’t we do something… else?” The ache between her legs only grew when she lifted one onto the chair, spreading them slightly.

“Mmmh, what do you wanna do, baby?”

“Clearly you’re not interested.” She teased, lifting the other leg into the chair. Her fingers slipped over her core and Daniel froze.

“What’re you doing?”

“Something that you should be doing.” She moaned, swallowing with an inhale and exhale of pleasure as her fingers rubbed softly. Daniel swore he felt himself grow hard immediately. The sexual hold she had over him was unlike anything else, and when her hips gyrated slightly, he was startled into action.

“Fuck, c’mere.” Despite his words, he rushed to her, attempting to kiss her but she pulled her chin down slightly and let out a low moan instead. “No, you can watch instead.”

“Oh, you wanna be like that now, do you?” His arms rested on either side of the chair. “Yeah, it’s fun.” She giggled, pressing her finger to her clothed clit. The pressure was something she began yearning for.

“Not fun for me.” He shook his head, eyes falling down to where y/n pleasured herself slowly. “Sit back on the bed, Daniel.” She whispered, but he didn’t respond, he wanted to be in charge. He had so much anger bottled up, maybe he could release it in one way or another.

“No.” The Australian muttered, hand reaching out to hold her throat. Her breath hitched and a small smile grew on her face.

“Then fuck me, Danny, stop making me wait…”

————————————————————————

Taglist: @dinodumbass @mccall-muffin @allabouthappiness @benbarneslut @ricciardhoe-3 @headinthecloudssblog @f1wintermoon13 @hrlzy @topguncultleader @victoriaholland @thatsouthernblondewiththeass @j-cat @lovzmez @laneyspaulding19 @fanboyluvr

[kickbutts-singsongs]

I know no one asked, but I have exactly zero (0) people to talk about bkdk with irl so here you guys go

My BKDK Journey

Yes, this sounds stupid, but my god it’s been almost three years of an absolute rollercoaster of feelings and denials and tears and revelations…

and if you don’t mind, I’m gonna rant about it.

(not spoiler free)

_____

May 2021

To start off, i wasn’t always a bkdk shipper.

I shipped izu*cha at first (not saying it’s a bad ship btw; it’s actually quite cute. im just afraid people’ll be mad if I accidentally invade their tag lol), primarily because I assumed that would be the ship that became canon.

But also, my veryyyyy leasttttt favorite character… was Bakugou Katsuki.

When I tell you that I would’ve loved nothing more than to somehow spawn into the bnha universe and punch that brat in the face— AGHHHHHHHHHH

Now this wasn’t all his fault: A) I watched the dub first lol, and B) he reminded me of someone that i was not in a place to stand up to at the time, and his constant anger, yelling, and harsh treatment of Izuku—who i began to relate to—made me hateeee him.

There was a time when I literally said “if he died, I wouldn’t miss him.” <- this was later proven false lol

So, I was watching the anime dub with an absolute animosity for our resident deuteragonist, but on top of that…

I was watching it with a friend with a crunchyroll account who lived in another state that I was visiting and staying with for two weeks, so by the time i had to go back home, we’d only gotten up to the part where All Might was getting Inko’s permission to let Izuku stay at the UA dorms.

Anddddddd in my drive to consume more bnha once I got home, i somehow stumbled across an Instagram account that posted bnha sub episodes divided into parts,

but they only had season four and onwards.

Sooooo I never saw the second half of season three… more importantly,

I NEVER SAW DEKU VS KACCHAN 2!!!!!

(I will say that I had seen a couple photos/edits/etc, but I never knew what had been said, or why they fought)

_____

June 2021

At this point in time, I’d been exposed to a lot of the fandom. My fyp on both IG and Pinterest were filled to the brim with all things bnha (because this is what happens when one has a hyperfixation), so I saw a lot of stuff.

Especially fanart.

This is where I started learning about the different ships.

I saw a lot of the side character ships and thought they were adorable (kamijirou, todomomo, even kiribaku), but then I saw some with Izuku.

Izu*cha was a given for me. I didn’t think there was a single person that didn’t ship it. But then I started seeing fanart of ships like tododeku, shindeku, and bakudeku.

And my first reaction to finding out that people shipped my beautiful baby sunshine boi with the person who bullied him for years?????

HELLLLLLLLLLL NO

So with my (unknowingly) limited knowledge of their relationship, i was very much an anti (i never spoke out or anything, i just reallyyyy didn’t like the ship lol)

(And then, you know, I started to see all the bkdk hate online and kinda went “okay not touching that”)

But that began to change…

_____

August 2021

…after I saw a manga leak for the first time.

I was scrolling thru my feed and all of a sudden. BOOM!

I was like 😧

IS THAT IZUKU?????

And i looked in the comments and yes it was.

I checked out the page and found that they had an entire account of manga leaks and was so happy.

I quickly began to read from the very bottom of that account, and it started from right about where Izuku first began his vigilante arc (i had no idea how much was in between then and where I left off on the anime, but I was willing to read it lol)

And so I waited diligently for the leaks every week (a practice I have continued to uphold lol), until one day, i came across an untranslated series of panels from the latest chapter. I looked at it and it was of Katsuki and Izuku, facing each other in the rain (you know the one). I knew the leaks would be coming a day later, but I wanted to look through them anyways, so I did.

I didn’t understand a word they said, but the pictures and imagery of them as kids then middle schoolers then where they were now seemed so touching…

And then I came across a pair of kanji that I recognized.

I was like “wait WHAT???”

I zoomed in and went “that— isn’t that—? That’s part of Midoriya’s name, right???”

And then I was like “wait a second… omg that’s Izuku, isn’t it. That’s the freaking kanji for Izuku.”

And it was!!!!!

So inside I’m having a mini freakout cuz—

Bakugou just called him IZUKU

Fast forward to the next day, and I looked at the translated version, and found out that not only did he call him Izuku,

He

Freaking

APOLOGIZED

And I was like “huhhhhhhh”

What happened between now and the most recent anime episodes for this to occur???? For Bakugou to do a complete 180 and apologize????????

Well, I finally got my answers…

_____

November 2021

…when I started reading the manga.

I started from the beginning, cuz I wanted to see Horikoshi’s art style and the extra drawings and all the other stuff…

And when I tell you that Katsuki became a whole new character to me—

First, I read everything about early-on Bakugou— without hearing him yell in his dub voice—and realized “oh wow he really is just a kid with issues and a worldview that he’s now having to change.”

Then, I finally read what happened in that space between moving into the dorms and the beginning of season four (most importantly, DvK2).

Cried.

Then, oh then, I got up to where season five ended and the rest of the manga began.

. . .

Funny thing: back when I read the leaks to ch322, I remember thinking to myself, “huh. what did Bakugou mean by Shigaraki making swiss cheese outta him?”

😦

THE WAY I GASPED

AND THEN CRIED

OH MY FREAKING GOD

That was the moment where i truly ceased to hate Katsuki cuz holy character development batman

Then, of course, we see them in recovery

And then the vigilante arc and apology scene *sobs*

And then I was caught up.

(Btw I finished the entire manga up ‘til ch334 in just over a week. I read for nine days straight. During the school year. My emotions were all over the place goodness gracious I could barely concentrate.)

So that’s how I went from being a Bakugou hater to going “you know what he’s a complex character and he’s slowly becoming a better person” and realizing that he was now one of my fav characters and therefore cursed to die but I’ll talk about that later

Was I now a bakudeku shipper?

Hah nope.

_____

December 2021

I began my dive into the true essence of any fandom: fanfiction.

Over the course of winter break, I had started off with fics that had no romantic pairing (I just wanted to see my boi Izuku), but then somehow stumbled across Mastermind: Strategist for Hire and then read the entirety of the For Want of a Nail series (shoutout to Clouds btw ❤️) cuz I was like “ok whew no bkdk fics” which was my mindset at the time.

But somehow (I can’t even remember how I found it) I came across a bkdk fic. It was called For Want of Izuku’s Toe Joint by Talavin (okay now that I think about it there’s probably a simple explanation lol).

I don’t quite know what compelled me to start reading it, but I did.

And I really liked it.

But not in the “I’ve been converted” kinda way.

It was like an “I shouldn’t be enjoying this why am I enjoying this?” kinda feeling. Like my head says no but my heart says yeah.

A really really really really guilty pleasure.

So, from that day on, whenever I came across any form of bkdk media, I would simultaneously feel discomfort and yet an odd sense of satisfaction.

A snippet of my daily life:

Me: *comes across bkdk fanart on pinterest*

Me: eww

Also me: *stares at it for like five minutes straight*

Me: who even likes this?

Also me: *saves pin to my mha board*

Me: not my ship

Also me: *scrolls down to more like this*

Bless my heart I was in such denial.

_____

July 2022

Bit of a timeskip, but nothing of note really happened in those last six months so here we go.

We’ve gotten to the point in the manga where the final arc is underway and Bakugou is about to KICK SOME BUTT

He’s revealed his Panser Strafe support item and I’m gushing about it to my friend (she kinda fell out of the fandom but still tolerated my rants bless her)

Oh, side note: it was then that I also expressed my concern for Bakugou’s “alive” status

Evidence:

For reference, some of my favorite characters are:

Beth March (Little Women)

John Reese (Person of Interest)

Joss Carter (Person of Interest)

Leonard Snart (Arrowverse)

Logan Echolls (Veronica Mars)

Fantine (Les Mis)

Eponine (Les Mis)

Jean Valjean (Les Mis)

Simon (Lord of the Flies)

Piggy (Lord of the Flies)

Grace Stone (Manifest)

Bubaigawara Jin — Twice (BNHA)

Wanna guess which of these guys died?

Trick question! It’s all of them (:

Yeah so anyways those following chapters really made me excited and nervous cuz YEAH KICK HIS ASS BAKUGOU but also IZUKUUUUU WE NEED YOU

hah hah.

_____

August 2022

Utterly gobsmacked. Cried. Disbelief. Horrified. Confusion. Anger. Went through the five stages of grief and then some.

Sometimes I hate being right 🥲

But the good thing that came from this was that my positive view of Katsuki only grew after seeing his utter faith in Izuku (and his thoughts being on him in his final moments???? 🥺🥺🥺)

And it was at this point in time where I could admit to myself “you know what? i see it. i see the appeal. i wouldn’t mind this actually becoming canon.”

Did I think that it would actually become canon?? No.

_____

September 2022

I don’t know how I thought Izuku was gonna react to seeing Katsuki’s body on the ground, but GOOD LORD IT WASNT THAT

Even sweet little blind me realized “oh wow he like really feels intense stuff for Katsuki huh”

(But some things I missed—cuz I was still a bit wired for izu*cha—were shigarakis implications “yeah u looooove the present I got u” and the freaking HEART that blackwhip caused??? when Izuku reeled himself back in???? like how did i miss that i read that chapter like fifteen times??)

So this is all to say that I’ve missed any and all actual bkdk hints up until this point. I finally lifted my head out of the izu*cha fog when…

_____

July 2023

…Ochako and Toga had their chat about romance.

The first actual hint was when Ochako had told Toga “I’ll give you my blood for the rest of my life.”

Little blind me became a bit less blind that day, cuz I was like “um. ochako? that— that sounded kinda like a proposal. like. a marriage proposal. ochako??”

And then those chapters just kept getting better!!

Bebe Ochako’s determination???

The Spirited Away moment?????

“I’m envious of your smile”????????

“YOU REALLY THINK IM CUTE?” “THE CUTEST IN THE WHOLE WORLD” LIKE 😭😭😭😭😭

For the first time, I was looking at the manga without the assumption that izu*cha would be endgame. And it only got better after I…

_____

August 2023

…got Tumblr!!!

Everything was downhill from here folks.

In the best possible way.

I came across some analyses of what was going on with togachako, and consequently led me to some bakudeku analyses. I read them and my goodness they made so much sense.

Like not even just personality-wise!! Those metas brought in actual things Horikoshi said about wanting to go outside the norms of shounen (and about not liking the Naruto ending 💀), and compared bkdk to tropes in different works of fiction, and even discussed how bkdk made sense narratively. They properly convinced me of the ship.

And then for good measure, I reread the manga in its entirety thru a bkdk filter, and lo and behold things took on new meanings and my eyes were opened.

I totally and irrevocably shipped them! And I actually thought they had a chance at being canon!!

(And then I binged so much bkdk fanfiction omg you wouldn’t BELIEVE like I read the ones with the highest kudos first and then just picked the biggest collections I could find and read down the line

It was like being on drugs like each fic gave me more dopamine than the last I was so happy oh my god)

_____

October 2023

And then finally, the day came.

The answer to “is bakugou alive yet?” became a yes.

We screamed. We cried. We jumped for joy. We told bakugou antis to suck it. But most of all, our bkdk hearts soared to see our boys make eye contact with each other for the first time in over a year 🥹

And from that moment on, I truly began to believe that bkdk would indeed become canon.

_____

And so, this concludes my 42672288 page rant about how I came to be a bkdk shipper.

Thank you for reading, and before I go, I want to ask:

How did you guys get into bkdk?

Did you convert over from izu*cha? Or perhaps tododeku? Or maybe kiribaku? Or are you one of the few who have shipped them since the beginning??

In any case, I’m happy you’re here. And while it may have taken me a couple years, I’m happy that I’m here too :)

(and thank you @animelover32456)

[philosophiums]

hi sam!! 1, 2, 6, 8, 12, 14, 15, 17, 18, 19, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 28, 30, 42, 43, 44, 45, 47, 50, 51, 55, 57, 66 (lmhs), 71, 72, 76, 78, 79 😊 i just love picking another writer's brain hehe

KSJDBVJKDFBV MARIAM IM CRYING HELP 😂 *cracks knuckles* okay let's gooooo 💜 (there's gonna be a read more somewhere)

questions from here!

1. Do you daydream a lot before you write, or go for it as soon as the ideas strike?

Truly depends on the length of the wip! For short stuff that I'm confident will be under 10k, I just go in swinging. For longer stuff, I'm daydreaming constantly, even during the writing process. When I had a desk job, I would spend Work Time thinking and then write stuff out in my notes app, but now that I operate a moving vehicle for 7+ hours a day, I just spend the majority of that time Daydreaming, Thinking, and Planning for LMHS.

2. Where do you get your fic ideas?

It's about a 60/40 split between original thoughts (as much as anyone can claim to truly have original creative thoughts that are 100% not inspired by anything else) and ideas that are based on or inspired by the premises of other fics or by fanart (sometimes not even from the same fandom).

6. What’s the last line you wrote?

From LMHS, last line of chapter 3: "Sun shining on their backs, sweet snacks in their stomachs, and laughter in the air, the three of them take off together, venturing once again deeper into Changyin’s busy streets."

8. Post an out-of-context spoiler from a wip.

Not written out yet so I can't post a snippet, but in LMHS, water is so important to Megumi's character, way beyond just bending.

12. Do you outline your fics?  If yes, how detailed are your outlines?  How far do you stray from them?

Sometimes! I did outline LMHS, though that was mostly an attempt on my part at keeping track of all the thoughts @hinamie and I were throwing at each other. It's not very detailed at all, just a bullet point list of things like "they travel to [location] - remember that [this character] is with them" or stuff like that. It's a guide for the like... movement™ of the fic, but less so the nitty gritty details, which I kind of enjoy discovering as I go (be it while I'm writing or while Hina and I are talking). But the last long fic I wrote (250k) did not have an outline. I just followed my heart and the vision I had of the end of the fic <3 The back half of that fic did have a canon timeline to follow, though, which made it easier.

14. What is your favorite location and position to write in?

SJKDBJKSDB I do about 95% of my writing in a big leather wingback armchair in my living room, usually with one leg hooked over an arm of the chair. The other 5% is bleary-eyed, 2am in bed, notes app, half-finished sentences with just the worst spelling you've ever seen.

15. What’s your favorite time to write?

It used to be between 1am and 3am, back when I was unemployed/working a job I didn't have to properly sleep for. Now, the only time I seem to be able to write is from about 8:30pm to 11pm. It takes me forever to unwind after coming home, so I can really only get myself to focus way at the end of the day. 100% if I went back to a desk job or stumbled into a pile of money that could let me stop working, I'd be right back to typing away well after midnight.

17. Do you have a writing routine?

Sit down > open word doc > reread last paragraph > dissociate > walk away > come back three hours later and write SKJDVBDKJBVJKDFBV

18. Do you enjoy research?  Which fic of yours required the most research?

I don't necessarily enjoy it, mostly because when I'm researching, I tend to get pulled down a rabbit hole of stuff I don't need to know and will never use. However, I do find that I end up doing impromptu "shotgun" research a lot while writing. Literally while writing the first chapter of LMHS, I had to pull up some research on trees just to make absolutely sure I was describing something correctly. It's 100% an inconsequential detail, but at least I know I wasn't pulling it completely out of thin air KSJVDBDKJVB I don't think I could honestly say which fic required the most research. If we include the amount of time I spent on the respective fandom wikis for character/canon details, then Swallow the Stars for sure. But if it's only for Other Stuff™, then I think they're all about equal.

19. Do you enjoy creating OCs or do you prefer to stick solely to canon characters?

I love making OCs in general, but not really for fanfic. I'll make an OC for an inconsequential side character no problem (did this a couple times in Swallow the Stars), but, for the most part, I prefer to stick to canon characters. I've never written a fic from the POV of an OC, and I doubt I ever will. I would much rather explore the dynamics between canon characters than insert a new main character into a story that already has one.

22. Do you title your fics before, during, or after the writing process?  How do you come up with titles?

Depends! I've done all three before SKJDVBDKJVBF Sometimes, a title comes to me right away, and I can sort of circle around it while I'm writing (this is more common for me with short fics). Sometimes, I get a few thousands words in, and have played with the themes long enough to have it just sort of come to me. Other times, I'm fully edited and just staring at the words begging a title to appear so I can post KSJDVBDKJFVBDFV LMHS had a title before I even started writing, because I wanted to have a title when I posted the fic announcement. As far as how I come up with them, I've pulled directly from words in the fic, I've gone on random quote generators and pulled from those, I've sat down and literally just strung words together based on a theme or a single specific word I wanted (LMHS, for instance, came from a desire to use the word "haunt"). It just kinda depends and is different for every fic!

23. Is writing the beginning, middle, or end of the story easiest? Hardest?

The beginning is easiest because it's fun character introductions and scene setting, not a lot of plot yet. The middle is by far the hardest because that's where the plot is beefiest and where a lot of the transition spaces are, and at the same time you're starting to gather up the threads you want to tie off at the end.

24. How do you choose whose POV to write in?

I choose based on whose thoughts I'm imagining most when I'm first thinking of the story! When I'm new to writing for a fandom, I will sometimes have to start a fic 2 or 3 times to find the voice that comes easiest to me, though. I have a tendency to lean towards the quieter characters, but that's not always true! For example, Andrew Minyard's POV is easier for me to write in, but I have more fun writing Neil, so I tend to gravitate towards Neil for AFTG fics.

25. What’s your favorite part of the writing process (worldbuilding, brainstorming/outlining, writing, editing, etc)?

World building my beloved..... I love coming up with Reasons for things that I want to happen, tying things into the setting and the history and making sure it works for the characters as well. The moment when everything connects is so magical.

26. What’s your least favorite part of the writing process?

Writing KJDBKJDFBVJKDBFV Words are just.... so hard 😭

28. What area of writing do you want to improve in?

Detailing! Descriptions! I am constantly fighting with myself over how much detail I actually need to include in my descriptions, because on some level, I want to describe it as much as I possibly can so that it can be envisioned easier, but on the flip side I know for a fact that no matter how much I describe something, no one will ever see it exactly the same way I do. And so then I pull back too far, I think, and keep my descriptions bare minimum, which I think is just as unhelpful. I need to work on finding a balance. Maybe metaphor can be my friend here.....

30. How much do you edit your fics?  Do you edit as you write or wait until you finish the first draft?

I usually go through for edits a minimum of two times and a maximum of 4 times. I always do an initial read-through for details that I missed or clarifications I need to make or continuity problems, stuff like that. Then I'll go through for grammar, punctuation, sentence structure, etc. If I end up rewriting a lot during that second edit, I'll go back through yet again just to double-check everything. And, more often than not, I do a last read-through right before I post. Though, inevitably, there's always something that I don't catch until it's already posted KJSBDVKDJBV

42. What’s your favorite title that you’ve come up with?

I'm really quite keen on Like the Moon Haunts the Sun !! It's longer than what I usually go for with titles, but it's sooooo thematically fitting and just really really pretty imo. But, This Is What Hollows holds a special place in my heart because it's a bit different and yet perfectly fitting for that fic. Plus, it was titled loooong before I came up with a way to include it in the actual writing of the fic, and I felt like an absolute genius when I managed to do that organically.

43. Is there a trope or idea that you’d really like to write but haven’t yet?

I have a world mostly built for a fantasy setting with dragon gods and stuff that I've planned out all the lore for and yet cannot for the life of me actually think up a plot that would be interesting to write SKJVBDJKVB I have characters, I have setting, I have themes, but a plot? Evading me. And it's been haunting me for like 7 years.

44. What is your favorite genre to write?

Urban fantasy 100%!! I love writing magic systems without having to do historical research SKJBDVKJDVB Also just the idea of magic in a place that we live in is so special to me like... there is magic everywhere in the world, but sometimes that magic really does come from a spell book like Yes Please.

45. What genre/trope do you tend to write the most?

Found family trope my beloved,,,,,,,, don't look too closely at it; it doesn't say anything about me as a person I Promise.

47. Is there a trope that you’ve written before but are now sick of?

Not a trope, but when I was younger and Working Through Some Shit, I included a, I guess, circumstance™ that I will not actually say (bc it's like. triggering) in just about every fic I wrote, but I'm past the point now (thank god) of needing to vent through it, so I truly don't think I'll ever include it in anything ever again.

50. How would you describe your writing style?

HHHHHHH I have no idea. I think I am incapable of looking at my writing objectively enough to describe it.

51. Does what you like to write differ from what you like to read?

Very much so! I love reading prose that is rich in metaphor and simile, but for the life of me I can't write like that. I don't have the gift of constantly being able to turn a phrase so beautifully, but god is it gorgeous to read.

55. Have you noticed any patterns in your fics?  Words/expressions that appear a lot, themes, common settings, etc?

I don't even want to think about the words and phrases I overuse because I'm sure there's plenty JSKDBVKJDFVB I do have a recurring theme of like... healing, though. This deep inner struggle of the characters to get to a better place is just... so important to me. I want them to heal, but more than that I want them to want to heal.

57. How conscious are you about including symbolism or foreshadowing in your fics?

I'm certainly conscious of it, but less so on the first draft. I think foreshadowing has a way of sneaking into my writing naturally (especially because I write chronologically), and then I can really hammer it in during the edit. Symbolism is purely being brought in during the first edit unless it's something so important that it was underlined a lot during the drafting/planning stage.

66. What’s a fun fact about LMHS?

It started as me just randomly thinking about ATLA and sending a question to Hina about what she thought the main trio's bending elements would be, and it just tumbled out of control from there SKJDVBDJKVFB

71. Do you spend more time reading or writing?

Writing, which is... saying something because I really don't spend a lot of time writing on a day-to-day basis. But I haven't read a published book in.... 4 years? And I don't read fanfic very often either, despite my bookmarks tab being overflowing with fics that I would like to read at some point. I just feel like I never have the time or energy to sit down and read.

72. What’s your favorite writing compliment you’ve gotten?

I have gotten a similar comment from multiple people that is about my characterization of canon characters within AUs and how it still feels like the canon characters but with realistic changes based on a different setting, and in fic writing I can't think of higher praise. Like... that's exactly what I want. I don't want the characters to be exactly the same as canon because their circumstances have changed, but I still want them to be recognizable. That's always what I'm striving for, and it makes me happy that people notice and think it's executed well enough to comment on.

76. How do you deal with writing pressure, whether internal or external?

Poorly KDEJVBKJDEFVBJKDFVBJF Really though, I struggle managing pressure when I'm writing. And it's always internal, because external pressure on fics just makes me petty since it's Free Labor, and people who complain about a slow upload schedule or whatever just make me Mad. But internal pressure is HHHHHHHHHH I am Going Through It with LMHS. I want it to live up to expectations, but I also want to finish it quickly, but I also want it to be lush and complete, and there's always this voice in my head telling me I'm not writing fast enough or good enough. Mostly I work past it by reminding myself that the time will pass anyway and that it's a miracle that I can even write ~1k words a day with how tired my job makes me. And on the days when that doesn't work, I have loud music KSJDVBDKJVBJDKFV

78. What motivates you during the writing process?

Up to the point where I start posting (for my last long fic, I was >100k in before I uploaded the first chapter), the motivation comes from a simple desire to write that particular story. For me, it can't come from anywhere else. If I don't want to write on a fic anymore and I haven't uploaded yet, I'll just stop. However, once I start posting, comments and general interaction with the fic gives me a huge bump in motivation. Engagement and talking about the story and the characters and the plot just makes me so excited to keep going so that I can drop the next plot twist or cliffhanger and read everyone's reactions. This time, for LMHS, I am very very lucky to have my own personal cheer squad of one (Hina) motivating me daily through memes and character discussion and new pieces of art and other various things <3

79. Do you have any writing advice you want to share?

The best actual constructive writing advice that I can give is: Do Not Edit Something Until You're Done. And yes, I mean the entire story - do not go back and reread/rewrite until you're done with it. Nothing will make your forward momentum disappear faster than going back to edit. If you're too hung up on details and perfection right away, you're never going to get done. You have to just write and accept that things will need to be reworked. Make notes for yourself on things to fix later or whatever, just do not scroll back up and start editing before you're done with something. It will only make you disappointed that where you pick up again isn't going to look as nice as what you just edited.

[king-paimon]

Houseki no Kuni Chapter 106 Thoughts: Bon Voyage...

Hello all. I hope these last few months have been kind to you in some way. These months have been... a lot. Some very good things happened, and some very bad. I wish we lived in a world were tragedies were just fiction, but that sadly isn't the case. I won't elaborate, but I promise, I'm okay. I just hope 2024 improves, though I know for many others, just hoping isn't enough.

I'm sorry for this late post. Once again, real life had me so distracted that I honestly forgot about Houseki no Kuni's chapter coming out this month. I only remembered when I saw activity around my older HnK posts.

Well, I finished reading the chapter and it was very beautiful and sad in different ways. I'll share more of my thoughts, though I don't think it'll be as long or detailed as my previous ones to be honest... Though I could be wrong! We'll see how it fairs. And who knows? Maybe I'll make another post to dissect this chapter further. But for now, I'll just write whatever comes to mind and try to make it as coherent as possible. I hope you like it. And as always, please feel free to share your own thoughts!

Here we go!

Thunderous Spectacle: The Final Journey

Once again, Ms. Haruko Ichikawa decided to flex her art skills by making beautiful, bombastic illustrations that encapsulates the chaos that is happening on Earth. And the ship departing looks straight out of a sci-fi movie; my mind went to Star Trek when I first saw those pages. Maybe Dune would be more appropriate; I actually don't know, I haven't read or watched Dune, though I hear it's very good.

I wish I had more to say about the visuals for this chapter, but I think they speak for themselves. I will say though...It's moments like this when I marvel... this was originally about a silly gem child trying to find their place in the world. And this is how their journey is finally coming to an end. Almost nothing is recognizable. This certainly was not how I thought this story, or specifically Phos' story, was going to unfold. I wonder if this was Haruko Ichikawa's plan from the beginning? Who can say...

Speaking of plans... Let's talk about Phos's and Eyeball's conversation.

Manipulation or Consideration: Humanity's Parting "Gift"

That was an interesting conversation Eyeball and Phos had when they were finishing up putting the little pebbles onto the ship. I think I remember stating in the last post how I thought it was odd that the Lunarians had this ship prepared for Phos. I'm glad this was somewhat addressed, but the conversation reveals that there was more behind this literal Deus ex Machina ship.

(I will never stop calling it that)

So if I'm understanding Eyeball's logic, Adamant and the Lunarians were considering Phos in the end? That after Phos fulfilled their last duties to the remnants of humanity that they'd be given the chance to leave the planet with whatever species came about before the planet died- Oh. Wait.

Wait.

Was this the thing that Adamant and Aechmea were alluding to back in chapter 96???

Oh my goodness, I think it was.

As I was typing this and going over some of the saved pages I had from the previous chapters, I saw the one with Euclase and I suddenly remembered their weird conversation with Adamant and Aechmea. I also remembered wondering what the heck they meant in the later chapters since their plan for Phos seemed to only be self serving.

HUH.

( Please let me know if I'm way off! For all I know, I could be making stuff up, but oh my goodness, when I made that connection AAaahh)

This was not how this portion was originally going to go, but there you go. I was going to talk about how twisted but not surprising how calculated everything was from the the Lunarians and the other ruminants of humanity's end. And I was also going to mention how the Doctor also fit into this since she was also calculated and manipulative in her own ways. Despite the different forms it takes, humanity didn't seem to change much in this world...

I was also going to originally say that the Deus ex machina ship feels like a backhanded "gift" for Phos, especially after everything that happened to them. And though I still feel that way, after thinking back to chapter 96, I'm now starting to see Phos's perspective of this gift. That despite everything that they put them through, Phos's former families still left this parting gift for them so they could live on elsewhere after they are long gone and when Phos was free from their duties. It's still a backhanded gift in my opinion, but it showed that they cared... at least a bit.

And the fact that their plan also included Eyeball is just wow. I do not blame his small, comedic outburst for that realization. He was manipulated too from the getgo!

At least in the end, Phos chose not to go into the ship. Phos intended to burn that bridge. Even though this thought was implanted by Sensei, Adamant, and the Lunarians, Phos still made that choice on their own and they are owning it. It's bittersweet, though, because regardless of whether or not they stayed or went, Phos's decisions were still a result of them being manipulated one way or another. Pretty much a lose-lose kind of situation, but at least the choice that Phos chose in the end still aligned with what they wanted in they end.

They are giving Eyeball and the little pebbles a chance for a fresh start while Phos can finally end the cycle... By taking humanity and himself to bitter end...

Or does he?

Goodnight, Phosphophyllite

The final farewell between Phos and Eyeball was touching. In a last minute decision to give Phos closure and in an act of true salvation, Eyeball took the last piece of Phos with him. The true remaining piece of Phosphophyllite. To me, this action felt more earnest and heartwarming than the Deus Ex Machina Ship (but that's just me).

What will happen with that piece of Phosphophyllite? Who knows? Maybe that piece will gain sentience and live a peaceful life with the pebbles? A life free of all the constraints as well as the freedoms that was intentionally and unintentionally reinforced within societies created by the former remnants of humanity? I suppose we'll have to wait and see.

As for the Phos that was left behind? The Phos that we've watch evolve from the beginning to end? They will finally rest.

They will finally, and truly be free.

(Albeit in a seemingly not so pleasant way?? Well, they weren't complaining so maybe the lava and other harsh elements isn't hurting them. I hope that's the case.)

I had the feeling that this chapter will be the last time we see Phos, or at least this version of Phos, and it would be a sad but proper send off.

But after seeing THIS at the end, I'm not so sure:

Of course Haruko Ichikawa decides to be cheeky with that little note. Ma'am. Why did you say this???

Is this her roundabout way of saying that Phos is kind of back to square 1? Of being the lonely, jobless Phos who no longer has a purpose and is left with nothing to do but "think." That's pretty funny/messed up joke if that's what she's hinting at.

But again, we'll have to wait and see.

WELP. That's all I have for you all. I hope you enjoyed my ramblings and I'd love to hear what you thought about this chapter. We're nearly at the end of this saga. We're are almost there...

Please be worth it.

[lexosaurus]

Hey, Lexx! Fic authors self rec! When you get this, reply with your favorite five fics that you've written, then pass on to at least five other writers. Let’s spread the self-love 💜

LEXIE THIS IS SO CUTE!

Okay I couldn't narrow it down so I'm adding a 6th fic akjnsdfksjnd. So here's my top 6 fics with some commentary because I'm extra af:

1: Everything Was White: After being accidentally revealed to the public and taken away by the government, Danny deals with the aftermath of his time with the GIW.

Yeah, this won't come as a surprise to many. This VERY angsty longfic sorta marked a turning point for me where I started taking writing more seriously, really looking at plot structures, doing research, interacting with other writers. I went into this with "I'll just do a twoshot cuz I suck and I'm not capable of writing much more," and seeing how far I've come in skill and confidence has honestly kept me totally enamored with this fic. I love that I can see my improvement as the fic's gone on. I've gone back and cleaned up the early chapters, and I can still see a distinct difference. Makes me very happy!

2: Morge: It was a beautiful day outside. The birds were singing, the flowers were blooming...a corpse was found in the woods.

This was my first Invisobang fic and also my first (and only? so far?) Outsider POV fic. I loved exploring the perspectives of Amity Park and Phantom from somewhat regular people who don't know much about ghosts. And, of course, writing Danny slowly losing it as the fic went on was a great bonus!

3: Transformation Troubles: A hit from one of Skulker's weapons leaves Danny temporarily unable to transform out of his ghost form. Unfortunately for him, he still has classes to attend.

This fic is just a vibe, honestly. It's a "guilty pleasure" category of DP fics that are few and far between (glitching powers, still has to go to class) but I absolutely inhale any chance I get to read one. College AU, post-reveal MY BELOVED real tea y'all. This basically came from me wanting a niche thing and going, "Fine, I'll write it myself!!"

4: and then he woke up: In his dreams, he woke up in his cell again.

This oneshot is similar to EWW where it's my take on what a realistic GIW recovery might look like. Aka, Danny Has A Bad Time. It's a very sad hurt/comfort fic, but I think it also represents a "level up" in my descriptions and pacing that I've been trying to employ more in recent fics.

5: Black and White Roses: When he died, he didn't get a memorial service. He didn't get the vigil, the flowers, the headstone. In fact, no one even found his body.

Dude idk man I just really love Valerie and Phantom's dynamic. Also, thought it'd be really interesting to write a full ghost AU fic, which it was, because as I was writing it I realized like hey, he'd have a corpse, and corpses are kinda freaky aren't they? Like how would you react if ur ghost friend was like "Hey yeah my corpse is over there." That'd be fucking nuts.

6: Birthmark: “No, it’s…” He trailed off, rubbing a hand over his face. His eyebrows were pinched and he looked almost sick. When he finally spoke, his voice was small. “They’re not tattoos.”

Lichtenberg HC my beloveddddd seriously I love it so much I am SO normal about it. That and Phantom and Valerie becoming friends fics. Literally so fucking normal guys. Just trust me bro.

Yeah 5 and 6 are so similar so I couldn't pick between them hahaha. But this is my current top fave fics!

I'm also REALLY excited to release all the stuff that I've been working on the past year this fall. Not tryna gas myself up here but I've been sitting on so much stuff since last NaNo and I'm just ahhhhh!

[1moreoffkeyanthem]

I want to quit a03 and just delete all my current fanfictions, i haven’t updated any of them in months. I’m tired lol. The main reason why is I haven’t been getting a lot of interactions on my recent stuff and Ik that’s not the point of writing fanfics but idk it’s a nice from motivation. I’m an attention whore, sue me.

What i’m asking i guess is how do u stay motivated??? I have a lot of ideas for things but no drive to make them a reality.

(You probably can tell who i am from this lol but its kinda embarrassing so i wanted to keep it anon)

Oh dude I absolutely get it, for real. While we ultimately write for ourselves, a lack of engagement is REALLY discouraging! I’ve said before that I went through a REAL mental struggle writing The Webs In The Rafters specifically, and that still stands. I had a lot of super nice commenters, and that helped a lot, but it was so, so, sucky to see no engagement other than the same six people. As grateful as I was for them, I really wanted more interaction. I’d see the comment count go up, but no new kudos, and I’d feel like I was failing.

I almost dropped that fic. The only reason I didn’t was my dearest boxwinebaddie regularly doing cartwheels in the comments and messaging me about the story. Encouragement from an author you admire helps SO MUCH and I want to be that person to someone someday!!! The community of ao3 can be toxic, for sure, but it’s so kickass to see the same handful of people in someone’s comms every time you read something from a certain writer!

And man, I am absolutely an attention whore. I thrive on attention. I may be an agoraphobic asshole with no friends other than my partner irl and I may literally panic so bad that I faint when I get spoken to, but we are HUMAN!!! Validation is fucking NICE!!! Being a person sucks absolute ass and confirmation that we’re doing something right helps a lot!

The only advice I have on staying motivated: I’m just fuckin insane. And I’ve said before that the ONLY reason I started writing was bc I had an extremely specific set of tags I wanted to see. I wanted to see more style injury recovery and at the time, a lot of the style fics out there were literally just boring high school aus or Stan being suicidal and I was like helll no let’s switch it up! So I assumed my mission of renovating that ship tag. I wanted sot style h/c with an ungodly amount of comfort? I was gonna have to write it. And that expanded to all aus. I developed the OrangeJuiceVerse specifically with the message of healing as the central theme. And it means so much to me. What I’m getting at is that your work really does have to have something there that’s important to you. If it’s just all random drama with no reconciliation, it’ll be really draining on you and fall flat in your mentality surrounding it.

Another thing is: if you don’t feel like updating, DONT! It’s fanfiction. It’s something you’re putting on the Internet for free. If you aren’t 100% happy with a chapter, there is no obligation to post it! Also, if you aren’t feeling up to working on a wip, mentally or physically, you don’t have to! Come back to it when you are!

On obligation, something I struggle with is my own self imposed habit of daily updates on multichapters. I usually go really wild when I start a new au, and I’ll write for it every day. But for instance, right now, it’s been a couple since I’ve posted a new chap on In The Truly Gruesome. And I have felt some guilt about that, bc I’ve sort of garnered this reputation as someone who updates frequently on multichaps, but I haven’t been feeling so great, so writing isn’t my top priority. A couple lines here and there are what I can manage, and that’s okay! Again, it’s fanfiction. Ultimately, it matters to us as the author, the story can mean the world to us, but we shouldn’t feel obligated to update, because above all we are PEOPLE with LIVES!!!

It’s also important to remember not to treat ao3 as social media. Yes it’s kickass to form a community of like minded authors who all support each others stuff, but it isn’t something that should be expected. And I CANNOT stress enough how important it is not to feel obligated to work on something just bc someone wants you too. I’m a hypocrite, yeah, considering I had no intention of continuing my TFBW oneshot “We Did It We Are A Good Team” until I had someone commenting on my unrelated works asking for a second chapter. I don’t regret writing ch 2, btw, like im really happy with it, but I did cave under pressure to some degree. And that’s not something we should do when writing. Write for YOURSELF and (unless you’re doing an ask book or something) NO ONE ELSE!!!

That’s what I got my dude. If you feel strongly about what you’re writing, by all means write it. If you don’t, don’t feel obligated. I hope this helped!

[sheisntyouspam]

yeah so i was gonna post this on my laptop but oh well

I FINISHED THE BOOK IM CRYING IT WAS SO GOOD 5 STARS 5 STARS

chapter 47 to end (whywhywhy (spoilers??))

okay so i know i’ve been very on off about liz’s character but it’s just cause she’s so flipping complicated 😭

like we keep seeing glimpses of little liz and I LIVED FOR THOSE

but anywho all ended well so it was good

IM ACTUALLY SO DEAD WES’ CONFESSION WAS DOING THINGS TO ME

LIZ IS SO MUCH STRONGER THAN I AM CAUSE I WOULD HAVE FORGAVE HIM IN A HEART BEAT

also it was so so sad to see liz being so stubborn (or whatever call it what you want) when wes was so trying so so hard

i felt him bro i felt him

i’m gonna miss these characters so much

we got some baileycharlie

AFAMAOA CUTIESSS

ALSO I LOVE CLARK NOW??

HE IS NUMBER ONE LIZWES SHIPPER AND WES STAN

HES SO FUNNY AND CUTE AND ANSIWBSBSMW

LIKE GOD BLESS YOU CLARK

anyways

i think we should move onto the DEEP STUFF

(i’m so childish please murder me)

THE DEEP STUFF:

one of the reason why i liked this book so much - yes i’m going to say the exact same thing i said in all the other reviews - is cause it was SO REAL

some people are complaining that ‘oh wes with the scooters was so childish’ ‘oh wes saying song lyrics is so weird’ it’s not cause it was RAW AND REAL

it was silly and that made it so real

anyways

that wasn’t actually the deep stuff

please read on-

another thing that made it so real was the whole concept of it

there was this one line liz had that went smth like ‘you can everything at one point and nothing the next’

i felt that

the way that friendships and relationships can just flip out of the blue

the way that wes was trying so so hard but wasn’t getting the same effort from liz (no hate NO HATE i’m just saying)

the way liz wanted to forgive him again but she had a fear of the past repeating itself

the miscommunication

ofc everyone hates the miscommunication trope (if you dont okay ??) but the miscommunication also made this book so real and raw

they both thought the other person hated them

they both made assumptions

it was quite literally heart shattering

depressing as it is i cried so much cause i related (literally currently going through the end of a friendship haha (let’s pretend i didn’t say that x))

at least they got a happy ending though

okay bye thanks for coming to my tedtalk

[jamesunderwater]

do u (or any of ur wonderful writing community) have any advice for someone that has a fic idea that seems likely to be multi chapter but they've never written anything before?

Hi anon!! I'm so honored to have been sent this, and I'm excited to hear what my fellow writers have to say about it! Anyone have thoughts? Tagging a few of you: @mvnvgedmischief @abihastastybeans @athenasparrow @charmsandtealeaves @annabtg @practicecourts

Here's my advice as someone who literally stumbled into their first multi-chap fic:

figure out the ultimate story you're trying to tell. what are the main themes? what is the ultimate point of the story? it's so easy to lose momentum, especially for your first multi-chap. I think it helps a lot to know the "why" of your story so that when you get to the tough chapters, you have a strong reason to push through

create an outline. i know outlines aren't for everyone, but GOD it has been helpful for me. idk where you're at in your idea formulation, but i know in the past my ideas have been like...snatches of scenes, a general concept of the overall story - but it's lacked the specific content of the full story, and that's really tripped me up when it came to writing. with dead to me, i wrote a rough outline for every single chapter, so i knew how i was going to get from a to d to n to z instead of just being like "well, i know what a is. i know what d is. i know what n is. that's enough!" nahhh man you gotta figure out at least roughly what b and c and e anddddd etc. are gonna be too. the outline has changed and lengthened as i went, but honestly, it's still stayed pretty true to the skeleton i created at the start.

my beta reader gave me the suggestion to write out important scenes in the story from throughout it, to help me get a sense of what i needed to happen in between those scenes to get to those points. like for me, the absolute hardest part of a multi-chap so far has been making sure that the characterization stays consistent and makes sense as we go along. esp cause there is so much character development happening, it has to make sense, and that happens a lot in those in-between chapters. so it's good to have a sense of those BIG moments to help yourself stay on track for how you're getting your characters (thematically, character-wise, logistically) to those moments. [i hope that made sense]

find someone to read it over for you/be your beta! it's SOOOO helpful having someone to bounce ideas off of, and if you're completely new to writing, i'm guessing you might benefit from having just a general editor to point out grammatical things or ways the writing could be clearer.

be nice to yourself, take it slow if you need to. everyone handles posting differently - some people like to write the whole fic first, some people (like me) prefer to go chapter by chapter because having people comment and be reading along with it gives you momentum to finish. but i would say, if you are going to go with that second option, consider writing a good bit of the story before posting the first chapter. like give yourself some time to write until you get stuck - that will help you find some of the kinks in the story, figure out how to navigate there being holes in the narrative, maybe tighten up your outline, etc. and also gives you time to get the chapters edited by someone.

okay that's a LOT of practical advice, i hope you find it helpful <3 otherwise i'd just say, it's REALLY fucking exciting to be writing your first multi-chap, AND to be starting to write at all!!! have fun with it, get lost in the excitement, let yourself really enjoy your characters and the world YOU'RE developing. it's so fucking cool to be a writer!!! and all of the stuff i mentioned is part of being a writer, so like...soak it up?? and know that you DON'T have to do it perfectly to be a writer, or to enjoy the process. it's your first time writing and first time doing a multi-chap - literally all of this is an opportunity to learn and also have fun, so I hope you do that and don't get too caught up in the weight of feeling like you have to finish it in x amount of time or that it has to be perfect.

you're so cool for doing this!! and i hope that in some way you share your work with me/this community, cause I would love to see it and be cheering you on <3 i'm cheering you on regardless though!!!!!

[bunny584]

IM OKAY

This is gonna be long, bear with me

Come sit with me, Bunbun, I brought hot cocoa (and also liquor if you need it)

First of all, thank you. I don't think I say it enough, but thank you, thank you, thank you. If it wasn't for you, I don't think I would have gotten into writing JJK stuff nearly as quickly as I did. Your writing continues to get me all fluffy and happy, and encourages me to keep writing

There's something about like...medical angst that's just different. I dunno how to put it. Maybe I get edgy sometimes and get the urge to write my own medical angst, but I'm always so nervous about getting it wrong, so I'm definitely delighted to see how you do it. Especially considering your knowledge! I do my best to research and understand, but it's still one of those things that makes me a bit nervous as I don't want to represent anything incorrectly

Next

I don't think that different forms of grief are shown a lot, one of which includes sex, so I'm happy to see a new depiction of grief in a story. Especially coming from you! I admire you a lot for a bunch of reasons ❤️ it always fascinates me to see how the thoughts of other people process and appear on paper (or text), and I get so damn giddy when you post a new update (or in general) because it's, like...there's one of my fav authors! You make me fangirl, damnit.

This whole chapter was just a wild ride, from the boys struggling, like Satoru taking it out on Sugaru (pls give the man some extra love and kisses :( ) to just the whole chaos, to Mama Darling, TO THE FUCKIN PREGNANCY REVEAL?? THEN THE LOSS???? AAAAAA THAT HIT LIKE A SUCKER PUNCH, the boys were SO close to being papas :c </3 hhhhhhhh your writing is so good but FUCK I weep for each baby involved, literal and emotional </3 I know I gotta be patient but I can’t wait for them to get back on that baby-making grind. I’ll be a good girl, I swear, so I’ll dream whilst I wait for another gift from you

Next next

Whenever I think about posting my stories, I get nervous because I'm a shy, praise-whore of a bean, but it's also because I wanna make a good impression on someone who I love and look up to reading my stuff. Like, "this author is so good, I hope they like my writing, too," type of deal. I'm bad at articulating my own feelings BFKFBFKDN I’m so antsy about you reading my fic because I want you to like it aaaaaaa (mildly related, I did a TINY rewrite of the pianist!Satoru fic to make it better, and by tiny I mean that I just went back in with a thesaurus lmao)

Lastly! 

I'm okay! I'm a strong girl, I got this, I CAN DO IT FOR YOU

AND I DID!

I can do it for your writing because it's worth it! Plus, crying can be very cathartic! I very much approve of using writing/reading as an emotional outlet to vent out one's feelings and get that sweet, sweet catharsis. The only part I don't like about crying is how stuffy my nose gets. I'm unable to blow my nose because it plugs my ears hardcore which drives me insane and makes me dizzy, but otherwise it can be so freeing. Even if the heart hurts, I know you have the power to mend the cracks and breaks with lacquer and gold dust

It makes me happy that you consider my heart, by the way ❤️ don't be afraid to write whatever your heart desires, even if it hurts! I know we'll be here for each other through and through to heal our souls 

(P.S. you're beautiful, both inside and out ❤️ yellow suits you, like the sun 💛)

BABY!!!!! My sweet girl. I was waiting for when you’d forgive me enough for that hell of a chapter I promise heaven is coming soon.

Okay, let’s talk about it.

1. Hi, you don’t ever have to thank me for writing. Your loyal readership, constant support, and incredible, insightful comments are thanks enough. You are one of my favorites, I do hope I’ve made it abundantly clear.

2. Medical angst is god tier. Its raw. Its omnipresent. With your technical writing skill you’d carry it out, flawlessly.

3. You always make me blush like a fool when you compliment my work in ways I don’t deserve 😭😭😭 I’ve already warned you! Affection means I fall first and hard and that’s a natural disaster for all parties involved??? In all seriousness, the way you respond to my words on paper is…probably one of the most beautiful things to come out of this hobby I picked up last October.

4. You are insanely talented. Tether me is incredible. My commentary is in my drafts because I wrote as I read. You’ll be receiving a full, unhinged review tomorrow. And to this day, Pianist! Satoru takes the cake for my favorite take on that boy.

5. I know you’re strong. And you can take what I dish out. It doesn’t stop the pause I have before I hit publish 😅 there are a few of you. With pretty, pretty tender souls that I know have put me in time out at least a time or two with the recent infusion of angst/hurt. Quietly I wonder if you guys will come back to me. I’ve been lucky so far that you always do.

Whew, getting me a lil emotional. To my curly haired soulmate - I adore you, thank you for being here and being you 💕

[frizzybizzy-21]

Reality (Atsumu Miya x Reader Timeskip!)

Chapter 2

Chapter 1 and Prologue

Reader is fab btw!!!

A/n: I'm sorry if I'm late to posting, and sorry if I'm mis charactering the characters! I'm going to work on that!

After a weird or interesting night, you heard your alarm go off. You let it ring for a minute or two before you finally turned it off. You saw that the time read 9:35 am. You sighed, rubbing your eyes as you finally got up from your bed. You walked out of your room and to the bathroom. As you reached the bathroom, you noticed that something was off, ‘what the hell…’. When you turned on the light, you immediately noticed that it was a mess. ‘How hard is it to put your stuff away?’. You saw hair gel and towels everywhere. Well, not literally, but it was surprising how fast your roommate made everything so messy.

You sighed to yourself. You hated seeing things messy, so you cleaned it up. Even though you haven’t met your roommate, you were kinda annoyed already. But, then again, what if he was in a rush. After cleaning the sink and putting the towels in the dirty basket, you started doing your morning routine as you would normally do. You weren’t in a rush today, all you were going to do was get things for your apartment. So, you didn’t cut things short like you did last night.

After you were done, you went back to your room and changed out of your pajamas. Once you were done, you grabbed your keys and headed out of your apartment. When you reached the elevator, you went on your phone to look up places where you could get all of the items you needed. Before heading out of the elevator, you found some places that had all the things you needed to buy.

Once you got out of the elevator, you started to head out of the apartment while looking at your phone to see the directions. Thankfully the place that you needed to go was at a mall so, you hoped that most of your stuff would be there. After 20 minutes of walking, you had reached the mall. You walked in not really knowing where was what. You walked around until you saw a map of the mall. You walked to the map, but once your eyes scanned it, they were opened wide as well.

‘Shit, this mall is bigger than I thought it was.’ you took off the shocked look on your face. You looked through the map to pinpoint where the places you needed to go. You first wanted to go get cleaning supplies because after seeing what happened today, you knew that you would be needing them. You looked at the map and saw that the place you needed to go was all the way to the other side of the mall, ‘Great…these past two days have been a workout.’

You sighed annoyed about the store being on the other side of the mall. You started to head to the escalators, knowing that it would make the trip easier for you. After a few missed turns and going down an elevator instead of going up, you finally made it to the front of the store. As you were about to finally walk in, your phone started to ring. You checked your phone and saw that it was Tendou.

“Hello?”

“Hey, N/n! Are you finally settled in your new place already?”

“Mhmmm, I just need a few things and that’s it! By the way, I have two questions. First, do you think I should get lights to put up on my walls? I can’t decide. And two, what time is it for you? Shouldn’t it be morning?”

“That’s awesome! And yes you should get lights. You’ll be matching with me! And yes, it's morning, I’m pulling an all-nighter!”

“Okay, just tell me know when you change your light color so we can match all the time! But, don’t you have work?" You knew Tendou had energy to pull two all-nighters, but you being you, you had to make sure he didn’t do that. And you also knew that you two would forget to tell each other when to change your colors to match.

“Oh nooo! Something happened in the kitchen at work. Something about the ovens not working. Either way, it’s no biggie!”

“Good, I don’t want me and Ushijima hearing that you got fired, which I know won’t ever happen. But still, you should go to sleep.”

“Okay, fine. But, can I send you my new chocolate? I promise to put extra dry ice this time!” you heard Tendou laugh on the other side of the phone, remembering the time he shipped you chocolate, but when you got it, everything was melted and a bit moldy to say the least.

“Yes, Satori. But, you have to send me two boxes. One of your news ones and the other one you gave me back in January. I really liked that one!”

“Right away, ma'am! It will be to you shortly!”

“Thank you, Satori! Anyway, I have to go buy things now. Bye, you better sleep soon!”

“Yes, N/n. B-bye!”, you hung up the phone and chuckled. You can tell that Tendou rolled his eyes at you in the last part while grinding his teeth. Either way, you both knew that he was going to sleep anyway. Once you hung up, you checked the time, it read 11:30 am. You had about an hour or an hour and half to get everything you needed. You put your phone away and started to walk in the store. You sorta blanked out when you got into the store. After realizing that you had just paid, you went on to the next store which led to you blanking out again.

Time skip!!! Brought to you by me not really wanting to write the whole mall scene:(

After going to 4 different stores and secretly going to the bookstore, you finished shopping. While you were in the book store, you planned to go to your apartment, leave everything and go get take out afterwards. Going along with that plan, you headed out of the mall and started walking. You hated yourself for getting a lot of things, it would make the walk to your apartment hell for sure.

You walked your way to your apartment, not really trying to remember the fact you were caring so much stuff. After a brutal 17 minute walk back from the mall, you had finally reached the front of your apartment building. When you got inside, you heard someone coming towards you. You turned your head to see that it was the receptionist from yesterday.

“Excuse me, do you need help with that?” you wanted to take the offer, but you felt awkward because you just met him yesterday. Well, kinda met yesterday if you really think about it. Anyway, you kindly declined the offer. He smiled at you, waving at you bye before leaving. You went back to walking to the elevator. When you reached the elevator, you waited not that long until it finally opened. Once you stepped inside the elevator, you placed most of your bags down. You sighed to yourself, you really couldn’t wait to place everything in your kitchen, rest a little, and go out to eat after.

When you felt the elevator come to a stop, you picked everything up and started to speed walk to your front down. When you were in front of your front you placed everything down and reached for your keys. When you found them, you wasted no time putting the key into the keyhole. When you turned your key, you pushed the door open. You quickly took off your shoes and placed everything on the kitchen floor.

‘Finally…’, you went to your room to change into sweatpants, it was 1:02 pm and you felt out of it by now. When you finished changing, you went to the bathroom really quick before heading out of your front door. Once you were outside, you again looked up on your phone a place to go take takeout before getting into the elevator. You found a place where the food there wasn’t so expensive, so you decided to go there. If the food wasn’t good, it would be fine. Food was food in your eyes.

But even though the food was cheap, the walk was longer than the ones you had to take. When you got in and out of the elevator, you started your 30 minute walk to the restaurant. While you were walking, you didn’t realize that you had your earphones on you. It was a good time to listen to some music while walking a 30 minute walk. You pressed play on your playlist and heard your favorite song start to play.

You hummed along to some parts of the song, but it sadly ended within a few minutes. You hit skip to the next song that played. You didn’t really enjoy the songs that were currently playing, but you knew that you had to stop on at least one. After a few clicks, you stopped at one that was somewhat good. You honestly need to add more good songs to your playlist…

Time skip!!! Brought to you by haikyuu timeskip being animated in the next movies!!!!

The walk wasn’t as long as you thought it would be. It was actually a 20 minute walk. You took off your earphones before putting them away. You walked into the restaurant while around. You saw that there was a pretty long line, so you decided to sit down and look at the menu so when you were finished, the line would be gone or be shorter. While you took a seat at a nearby table, you kept hearing people coming in the restaurant. You quickly scanned the menu and found what you wanted.

As you were walking to the line, two guys had walked in and gone to the line first. One had dyed blonde hair, and the other had gray dyed hair. But it seemed like it was starting to fade out. You didn’t mind that they had gone first, the line only had five people in it, so it really wasn’t a big deal to you. When you got in line behind the two guys, you couldn’t help but hear both of them arguing to each other. You tried not to pry, but it was funny to see two people fighting in public when it’s a dumb topic.

“Hurry up and pick something! We’re almost in the front!”

“Shut up! I don’t want to regret what I get. And there’s three people in front of us!”

“Just hurry up! I want to eat already!”

“That’s not how it works, dumbass. The line has to hurry up, not me.”

“Whatever…”

You tried not to laugh at the guy with blonde hair. He seemed like he didn’t want to be with the guy next to him anymore. You covered your hand a bit looking down so it didn’t seem like you were trying to laugh. But when you looked up, you saw that the guy with gray hair looked back to look at you. You stood there dumbfound. You slowly took your hand off your hand and stood there, trying not to make eye contact.

Without you knowing, the guy smirked at you and turned to the guy next to him, “Even the girl behind us finds me funny and not ya.” You were again shocked by this. You didn’t want to be dragged into their fight. All you did was laugh, and all you wanted to do was order your food and get out of there already. You took a glance at them, you gave them a shocked look, not because of the fact they were both looking at you, but the fact that they were twins. You’ve only seen 2 twins in your life, but they weren’t identical twins though.

You looked away from them, you could still feel their eyes on you, but by the time you were about to check if they were still looking at you, they were already at the first of the line ordering. While they were ordering, you said your order in your head, practicing a few times. By the time the two guys had finished ordering, you were ready to order with your money ready too.

You said thank you to the worker after you finished ordering. You checked what number you were and saw that you were number 14. You had heard that number 10 was called, so you didn’t have to wait that long for your number to be called. For the meantime, you sat down at a table for two, drinking your drink that you ordered while going on your phone. After a good 10 minutes, you hadn’t heard your order number being called yet. You brushed it off, you didn’t want to be a bother to the workers. What if they haven’t finished making it and you go over and complain for no reason?

You continued to be on your phone for about another 10 minutes. 20 minutes you have waited in total and you still haven't been called to get your food. You knew you didn’t like complaining about small things like this, but at this point in time, you were really hungry. You grabbed your stuff, slowly walking to the worker who was just done taking someone else’s order. As you reached the front, you asked where your food was.

“Hi, sorry to be a bother, but I’ve been waiting awhile for my food and I haven’t heard my number being called.”, the worker excused themself, going to another worker and talking to them. When you looked at the workers, it seemed like they knew where it was. Which, of course, took away some of your worries. When the worker came back, they asked if your order number was 13. You told them no, that it was actually number 14. They looked at you confused, they then told you that number 14 was already taken. ‘Great, someone took my order instead.’

The worker asked if they could make you another order, which you declined kindly. But good thing you did decline because as you were about to leave, the two guys, well twins were back. They had a small white bag that seemed like it was their food, but it also seemed like it would be for one person only. You watched as they were talking to a worker pointing around. The worker pointed at you, making the twins look your way. They started to walk to you, one twin looking mad and the other looking a bit nervous.

You didn’t want to seem like you already knew what was happening, so you turned a bit to the right not looking their way. When they reached you, they tapped on your shoulder, you turned around seeing that the twin with gray hair reached out to you handing you the bag of food while bowing. “I’m really sorry that we– he took your food.” you saw that he was rubbing the back of his head while trying to smile. As you were trying to say something, the other twin cut you off.

“It’s no big–”

“I’m really sorry! Our order number was 13 and I thought our’s was up next because I heard 12 so I just thought that 13 was next, but it was actually yours!”, you wanted him to be quiet, some people looked at the three of you, wondering what was happening. You could tell by the way the blonde guy was apologizing, bowing, that his brother had given him a hard time with this whole situation.

“Oh! No no! It’s fine, I really didn’t mind at all! You didn’t have to say all of that.”, you gave the poor guy an awkward smile while waving it off because it really wasn’t a big deal. You kept trying to get him to stand straight, but he didn’t budge. You looked at his brother, looking at him for help. He sighed to himself before coughing out loud. His brother straight up immediately, glaring at him a bit. The brother just smirked at him.

“Again, we’re sorry for the inconvenience. Here you go.” The gray haired twin gave you the food, bowing once again. “Thank you, I really appreciate it.” You smiled at them before you left the restaurant. While you were walking back home, something about them seemed familiar. You swear you’ve heard them before, but you didn’t know where. You shook the thought off of your head. You pulled out your earphones, wanting to listen to music on the way back, before placing both in your ear.

Time skip!!! Sorry for another time skip:(

What seemed like 5 minutes, which was actually 15, you reached the front of the doors of your apartment building. You quickly made your way through people, made your way in and out of the elevator, and finally reached the front door of your apartment. You pulled out your keys, and put them in the keyhole. You turned the knob while pushing the door open. You got in taking off your shoes before closing the door and running to the kitchen table.

You hopped in a chair before placing the white bag of food on the table. You ripped the big one in half, wasting no time in opening the take out box. Once you had opened the take out, it was gone within a goof 10 minutes. Normally you were a somewhat slow eater. But right now, you haven't eaten in 3 hours. After you were done, you threw away all of your trash and went to your room.

Once you went to your room, you flopped in your bed. You have nothing to do really, so all you did to pass time was check out the new books you had bought. You read about a few papers of each book, and they all seemed to be good. After reading, you realized that you started university. You got your backpack to see if you had everything you needed for tomorrow. You checked everything off a list, it seemed that everything was in the backpack that you needed, so you put it away for now.

You checked the time and it was about 3:45 pm. You groaned, you didn’t really know what to do with all this time. You thought of ways to pass the time, but you landed on just going to check out the university you’re going to. You didn’t change, but you did put on a sweater. You only grabbed your phone, you didn’t plan on doing anything but look around. You’ve already spent too much money already. You walked out of your front door. You walked in the elevator for about the 50th time day which you were honestly getting tired of. The elevator brought you to the lobby where you saw that the mean looking lady was there again. You walked out while texting your parents. They’ve been asking about how it’s been so far. You texted them everything was okay and that you were excited for your soon university life. (that doesn’t really sound right, tbh)

It didn’t take long before you arrived at the university. You walked around, looking at the view from certain areas of the school. The sunset looked beautiful from one area in particular. From one hill at the edge of the hill, you could see the city pretty well. You got your phone and took a photo for Oikawa. You knew that he loved sunsets, so this would be the perfect opportunity to show off a sunset that you knew he would love.

After sending it to Oikawa, you kept looking around. It had been an hour that you’ve been walking around. You decided that you would stick around for 30 minutes more before it would go dark. While you were enjoying your last few minutes, you found a bench near the entrance. You sat down, inhaling all the air you could. These moments mattered to you, you were enjoying the last few moments of being relaxed before you were going to stress once tomorrow started. You relaxed every bit you could. Maybe this year you would find something you would enjoy for the rest of your life. That’s been a struggle you’ve had since the start of highschool. No matter how hard Tendou and Oikawa tried to find things for you, you still didn’t enjoy any of it.

You stood up from the bench, walking out of the campus. You thought about what you were going to do this year. You loved a lot of things, but you didn't love them enough to do it for the rest of your life. You’re taking the first steps to trying to find something you love by picking a major that you found interesting. You also took up a photography class, only because you had to pick a class that had nothing to do with your major. So maybe that would be something you would like. You kept walking your way to your apartment, still thinking in deep thought. But you took a quick second to check what time it was. It was about 5:45 pm, you planned to shower after getting to your apartment and the rest you hadn’t planned yet. After checking the time, you went back into thought. You found this the best way to get your mind to unfocus, to think about stuff you never thought about in a while.

Your thoughts kept running through your head, and that final thought was ending when you realized you opened the door to the lobby. You walked in, greeted the receptionist and went off to your normal route. After getting out of the elevator, you walked to your door, unlocked it and walked in. You took off your shoes and hung up your keys on a little key holder that you bought that day at the mall. You walked to your room, going straight to your drawers to find a pair of pajamas and a pair of underwear and a bra. Once you found the pairs, you went to your closet and got two towels. After finding everything, you walked to the bathroom, got in and locked the door.

Last time skip!!! After a shower…

Once you finished, you wrapped your hair and your body in the towels. You cleaned your ears before changing in the bathroom. You normally change in your room, but after finding out that your roommate is a guy, you wouldn’t want to risk having an awkward situation right now. You placed your shirt finally before opening the door to let some of the steam out. You walked out, turning off the light and leaving the door open. You got back into your room, closing the door behind you and flopping on your bed once again. You didn’t really want to do anything, to be honest. So you went on your phone and texted Oikawa and Tendou to see if any of them would answer or would be awake right now.

While you were waiting for them to reply, you went on instagram to see if anything was new for anyone. You show that Iwa was out of town, you didn’t realize how many followers you had until you checked his profile. But looking at it more, you saw that it was mostly women, which you didn’t see why not. You continued to stay on instagram, but while you were on it, you again realized that you still haven’t seen your roommate yet–

The front door opens, ‘Omg, is this finally it? How do I even talk to him?’ you thought of ways to talk to him, but when you were still thinking, you heard his room door close. You could also hear him sing which was also kinda funny. You didn’t really want to embarrass him, but your eye caught something on your nightstand. It was the papers the receptionist had given you, the one you both had to sign. You got up from your bed while grabbing the papers and a pen as well. You opened your door quietly, not trying to make it noticeable that you were here. Well, he probably did since your light was on. You knocked two times, you didn’t really know what to think of right now.

You waited for a few minutes. You rocked back and forward, trying to not get so nervous. You heard the door open, and you couldn’t believe who it was. ‘Is that…the guy that took my food?’, you really wanted to laugh, but not in the way you think. You only wanted to laugh because this has never happened to you and this probably never has happened for him either. You both looked at each other, he had the same look on his face as you. You wanted to break the silence but you forgot what you were going to say. ‘Come on, just say something!’

“Hi! Um, sorry to interrupt, but um I need you to sign these papers. You just have to write here,”, you show him where to sign. He just nodded at you and grabbed the paper. You handed him the pen too, almost forgetting it. As he grabbed the pen, he placed the paper on his door. He then took off the cap of the pen and placed the cap in his mouth before signing the papers, flipping each one to sign. After he was, he took the cap out of his mouth and placed it back on the pen and handed it to you. “Here…”, that’s all he said while he gave you the papers back.

“Thank you.”, that’s all you said, but in return, he just said, “Mhmmm,”. He closed the door on your face. You sighed, you didn’t want to be mean and bang on his door and yell at him for closing the door on you. So you just walked to your front door, deciding to go drop off the papers before you later forget. But unbeknownst to you, he closed the door, and slapped himself from embarrassment. And he also called his twin brother so he could rant about it before it got too late to do so. Maybe tomorrow you’ll have luck talking to him and actually introducing each other properly.

Word count: 4406

Side note: I'm going to change something. Y/n actually takes a bit off of school, but they start school again at 23.

[monstersinthecosmos]

Hi! I have a bit of an odd question. Do you think it’s possible to read your VC fics having zero familiarity with the source material? More accurately, how can I get acquainted enough with what’s canonically relevant in order to be able to read them? I am a long time fan of alllll your Sheith fics and have read them all so many times I can’t even count anymore. I saw you mention some similarities between Keith and Armand (?) in a comment and Immediately tried reading your latest VC fic but it went right over my head 😭. I can’t put into words how much I appreciate your writing - and how read to filth *I* feel when reading your stuff LOL - so I won’t try, but I hope you can tell it’s a lot. My latest rereading binge was set off when I saw you post about the new chapter of ttsr! on twitter and I lostttt it, I literally think about that fic every day (if you can give me any teasers at all about the next chapter, I will die and hopefully resuscitate when it’s posted). In any case, in the meantime, I’d love to read your other works. Any tips would be much appreciated. Either way, thank you so much for all you’ve already put out there. <3

dfasdhkgj oh my gosh WHAT A QUESTION AND IT'S SOMETHING IVE THOUGHT ABOUT SO MANY FUCKIN TIMES !! You're not even the first to ask! And I've answered in both directions because I've had VC people read my Sheith fics!!! OH LORD OKAY LISTEN LET'S HAVE A SEAT FOR A MINUTE. (Also thank you so much omg 🥹🥹🥹)

Okay to break this down!!! My main two ships I’ve posted about are either Armand/Daniel or Marius/Armand and they can BOTH be Sheith analogs imo, especially because I think Sheith fandom is SO fic heavy and we have so many sort of like established tropes and fanon for the way people approach Shiro! 

But starting with Armand on his own, here’s what you need to know:  He’s 500 years old but he was turned when he was 17! He’s always going to look like he did when he was 17 in 1497!!!!! He’s from the RENAISSANCE BAYBEE!!! But he grew up spending a lot of time in a monastery and he was ABDUCTED when he was like 14ish and SEX TRAFFICKED! And then he’s found & rescued by a vampire named Marius, who’s like 1500 years old and very lonely and looking for a companion! Marius is convinced that it will backfire if he tries to turn any old rando into a vampire and what he really needs is like a BLANK SLATE that he can groom for vampirism. When he finds Armand, Armand is so fucking traumatized that he doesn’t remember how to talk, doesn’t remember where he’s from, has no memory of being trafficked, etc. Marius is also feeling traumatized so he feels a connection to this person and decides THIS IS THE ONE and he takes care of him for a few years and winds up turning him. (They have a lot of sex and stuff it’s wild.) I actually wrote an AU based on it for Sheith one time on Twitter so this might also explain it!!!

((I'M EXTREMELY SILLY BC I ALSO SHARED THE ART BUT WITH RED HAIR TO BE ARMAND HAHAH))

Then blah blah a lot of traumatic shit happens, they get separated, they don’t see each other until the 1980s lol. Armand also spends like 300 years in a cult. And in the 1970s he meets DANIEL! And if you are aware the first book of this series is called INTERVIEW WITH THE VAMPIRE, Daniel is the interviewer! He’s the one who interviewed the vampire!!!! And Armand STALKS HIM LMFAO and threatens him and they play a cat and mouse game. But then they start getting used to each other and kinda enjoy seeing each other and they wind up being lovers. This goes on for like TWELVE YEARS during which time Daniel is like slowly killing himself with alcohol because he wants to be a vampire so bad and Armand refuses to turn him. Eventually Daniel is like dying of liver failure or whatever and Armand turns him because he can’t handle the thought of losing him.

What I think Armand has REALLY IN COMMON with Keith and why they’re fun to write about is that like

- They’re both orphans and their experiences being orphaned and losing people at young ages really dictates a lot of their behavior and how they treat others. I think a ton of Keith’s characterization comes down to his abandonment issues and for Armand it’s the same. There’s some added drama with Armand because he’s a vampire so like, he’s so convinced that vampires can’t have meaningful relationships with their makers (because of his own maker) that he can’t bear to turn Daniel. It’s a lot like how Keith, in his human version, can’t get close to people and doesn’t even try to. Even looking like the entire time he’s with Voltron he really never bonds with anybody,  even way later in canon when he admits he doesn’t think any of them are friends. AND HOW HE FUCKIN HAS NO ISSUE LEAVING THE TEAM TO JOIN THE BLADES BECAUSE HE’S NEVER FELT SUPPORTED BY ANYBODY EXCEPT SHIRO? 

- I think also that Keith deliberately makes himself unpleasant to people (ie: immediately stealing Shiro’s car) so that he can have some control over people coming in and out of his life. Like, if he pushes them away first they can’t leave him. And like with Armand, his cult years remind me of this too. Like in VC there’s a LOT of Catholicism in the themes of the writing and Armand was very religious when he was alive, and then he winds up indoctrinated by this cult. He spends 300 years living in filth, in rags, under a cemetery, not allowing himself any type of creature comforts because the cult believes that vampires are a tool of the Devil. In VC there’s a lot of themes of like, abstinence/absolution/penance and so I think there’s some thematic resonance here when it comes to like, forcing yourself to be uncomfortable because you think you deserve to be. And also just like, after a life of abandonment and trauma picking SOMETHING to have control over, even if it's not healthy.

- A huge theme in VC is also the concept of the vampire as the outsider, which is how the author intended it. So like all the ways vampires are on the outside of society or humanity is always kind of infused to the stories and I think same can be said for Keith being Galra!!!!! And in VC there’s always this thing about how like, the vampires all do terrible things and the stories still ask us to love them, and I think the vampires always eventually are just asking to be loved! They’re all just looking for love !!! And I MEAN. I MEAN???? KEITH????? 

- On a shallow note, smol angry bby lol 

- This is completely headcanon territory but I think they each have the same AUTISM CODING; both fandoms notice this lol. Just that they’re like, KINDA WEIRD AND PRICKLY? Don’t always understand social customs, often deadpan!  <3 Armand has a lot of sensory stuff in canon and I think we see this a TON in Sheith fic even though it’s never said specifically on the show that Keith probably gets sensory overload from his Galra traits.

So when it comes to fics, what I love about this is that like I’m sure you’ve noticed like there’s such a WIDE SPECTRUM of Sheith fic because they are so wholesome and support each other so much and are just such a beautiful ship? But then they also fit all the like smut tropes LMFAO like the size difference, the mentor/mentee, Shiro being daddy af, etc. So I think like if you were to read either of these VC ships you could sort of imagine a Sheith analog to make it make sense, whether you want it to be loving or if you just want NASTY DISRESPECTFUL SEX.  

Marius/Armand is a bit like canon Sheith in that there’s the age difference, the size difference, and it’s teacher/student. As an AU you can say: Shiro is an ancient lonely vampire who purchases a trafficked boy to be his apprentice. 

The catch here is like! Marius is a really polarizing character in VC fandom because he can be kind of an arrogant prick sometimes LOL. And he’s very obsessed with like, being patient and wise, and he tries REALLY HARD to be patient and wise but he’s actually kind of petty and has a temper. In a lot of ways, Shiro reminds me of like everything Marius WISHES he was. And like both characters are so obsessed with the concept of PATIENCE, even though Shiro is a bit better at it.

And Marius was ALSO abducted by DRUIDS 😭😩😩😩! Weird coincidence! But Marius was turned because he was taken hostage by some druids and forced into like a Wicker Man religious ritual where he was sacrificed to a vampire and turned against his will and he's real salty about it. IT JUST FEELS A LOT LIKE WHAT HAPPENED TO SHIRO, RIGHT? Except Shiro is like a modern person who knows how to do therapy or something.

So I think Marius/Armand fics could also fit the kinda Dark!Shiro trope that a lot of Sheith fics have. Like if you picture how Rifa or Aphor have written dark!Shiro LOL or even like how people characterize Kuron sometimes. Like, still Shiro, but, kind of a dark undercurrent happening. 

The other catch is that Armand and Marius get separated because they get their house raided by the cult (the one that eventually indoctrinates Armand) and they burnt the house down and it’s traumatic for everybody; Marius is severely injured and has to go into hiding for like 100 years to recover, and by the time he finds Armand again he just sees that he’s fully engaged with this cult and he decides to leave him alone and doesn’t risk trying to rescue him because he thinks Armand has like, found his place with them and he can't risk betrayal/rejection.

And like, this is never exactly in canon, but I just think it has so much to do with Why Armand is Like That, and why he has all these Daddy/Maker Issues, and 500 years later it’s why he’s so squeamish about turning Daniel and just cannot do it. 

SO I WOULD POSIT THAT THIS IS LIKE, THE DARK ALTERNATE UNIVERSE OF WHAT WOULD HAPPEN IF SHIRO ACTUALLY GAVE UP ON KEITH?????? Like Keith would be fucking crushed, he’d never be okay again !!! 😭😭😭

But having said that, depending what era a fic is set in, Marius/Armand PRE-DISASTER is very much Sheith when it comes to like Daddy & Mentor stuff and that type of vibe. ALSO, IN CANON, A LARGE CHUNK OF THEIR TIME TOGETHER IN THE BOOK IS THEM HAVING BDSM LOL. So there’s that. 

Now! Armand/Daniel, on the other hand!!! imo fits really nicely into like Sheith fic tropes/fanon like FERAL KEITH and DISASTER GAY SHIRO. So the AU would be this: Shiro is a nerdy journalist trying to publish a book about vampires, and Keith is a weird creepy vampire who stalks and fucks with him for years until they start liking each other, Keith becomes his sugar daddy, Keith likes to watch him fuck people and they cry a lot because Keith doesn’t think they can be together and he loves Shiro so much he refuses to CURSE him with vampirism because he thinks of it as a CURSE! They do a lot of kinky stuff and need each other but also sort of resent each other.

And in this situation! The thing about it is that in VC canon, Daniel is the person who HEALS Armand the most!! He learns how to be a person again because he has Daniel!!!! AND SO I JUST THINK THIS TOO IS LIKE, SHIRO IS THE ONLY PERSON KEITH CAN BE HIMSELF AROUND, THE ONLY PERSON HE CAN BE VULNERABLE WITH, THE PERSON WHO GIVES HIM STRENGTH AND HELPS HIM BECOME A BETTER MAN!!!! And in some ways I think Daniel is that to Armand, as well, even if it’s in a real fucked up toxic kinda way because of all the stalking and alcohol abuse and whatnot LOL but I think imagining Disaster Gay Shiro can sorta give you a primer! It kinda reminds of that Sochi fic where Keith is a vampire ??? The “You need to eat something” and he hands Shiro a fucking TOMATO?? That fic LOL. 

Another way I would TLDR this is like, with the dynamic you want, do you want Vampire!Keith with Human!Shiro (Armand/Daniel) or Vampire!Shiro with Human!Keith (Marius/Armand) ? It changes the power dynamic significantly. I think again within the spectrum of Sheith fanon and the huge culture of fanfics we’ve written that there’s so much space for both to fit as Sheith, like if you want feisty feral Keith or if you want like vulnerable uwu bby Keith. LOL. 

One last thing that I think is important to mention LOL is that in the VC lore, the vampires are asexual! Once they become vampires, drinking blood is like THEIR WORLD and it’s so much better than sexual gratification that they lose interest in sex. A lot of VC fic doesn’t honor this but I fucking adore it as an asexual, so if you do decide to check any of my fics out they're gonna be fooling around and not often penetrative sex, because that’s how it is in canon! The vampires will still play with their food and sorta get their pets off but they don’t actually stick it in LOL. 

So I talked a lot, I’m not really sure if this answers your question LMAOOOO. If you did try to read any of my VC fics I think this kinda gives you a primer for the relationship dynamics even if misc canon events get dropped or hinted at that might be out of context. I’m always very happy to answer questions if something doesn’t make sense!

Regarding my most recent fic, what I think you’d need to know if you want to take a shot:

It takes place around part of the book where Marius and Armand have a huge fight that ends in a BDSM scene of Marius whipping him and Armand crying and stuff and then getting off lol and then they go out to a banquet and Marius kills a bunch of dudes in front of him, and all the dudes are saying lewd shit to Armand about what they want to do with him and how they want to fuck him and etc. 

For Armand & Daniel’s canon, one of the things that happens is that Armand makes Daniel fuck people while he watches, so I decided to ask like, what if this habit is something he LEARNED from Marius, and so I decided to write a fic about Marius watching people fuck Armand after the banquet incident.

Marius has sort of a group home for boys he rescues (but Armand is his fav that he’s grooming lol) so there’s a few mentions of that, and one of the boys is called Riccardo and he’s Armand’s best friend! You’ll also see a namedrop of someone called Bianca who’s this local woman that Marius is in love with lol. 

In the fic there’s also some fuckery like name drops of Andrei (Armand’s given name that he doesn’t even remember) and Ivan (his father that he also doesn’t remember) and there’s a scene with “THE PARENTS” aka Akasha and Enkil. And blah blah LONG STORY LMAO but Marius takes care of The Parents, and they’re like the first ever vampires who are so old as fuck and bored that they’re just catatonic in a shrine where he keeps them safe. And he goes to check on them and stuff and he wants Akasha’s approval so bad and wants her to give him a sign that he should turn Armand and she just is hardcore ignoring him and he’s upset lol. 

Also if this helps to know, Armand’s name is Amadeo if you see that in fics. Same guy! He changes his name to Armand later when he’s a vampire.

If you check out any Armand/Daniel fics they’re a lot more straightforward, I mostly just write porn about them LOL!!!!!! The book kinda glosses over the twelve years that Armand stalked & then bedded Daniel so my fics are just like trying to think about more details about what went on or think about individual incidents that might have happened. 

So yeah! 

THIS POST IS A MESS, I HOPE IT MAKES SENSE LOLLLLLLLLLL 

I got into VC when I was like 12 years old so it was such a blueprint for me for stuff I like and Marius has always been my favorite character so I think it’s got a lot to do with why I like Shiro so much. And Sheith fandom is such a strong community of writers and I feel like I’ve really thrived there as a fic writer, but I still make time to write about VC because it’s like my main home that I’ll never be able to get over. And I could talk about this all fucking day, I am a disaster!!! 

Anyway thank you so much, this was such a nice thing to say. :D Please talk to me about Sheith and vampires any time and if you do decide to read any vampire fics you can always ask if the details are confusing! But no pressure at all man sometimes like I just do NOT get other ships LOL. Like there are authors I love to death and it’s like I’m reading another language if I try to check out their other fics. 

And finally, re: teasers………….  flattery will get you everywhere, my friend:

“Oh,” Keith says. His temple grinds against the wall as he turns, trying to roll the stiffness out of his shoulders. And if Shiro is going to pretend to be collected, Keith can do that, too. He can be embarrassed that Kolivan walked in on him getting his ass beat later, but he can play it cool. “Hey.”

Shiro’s eyebrow quirks and he motions towards his upper lip, some attempt to be subtle and polite, but Kolivan speaks over it.

“You’re bleeding,” he says. His arms are folded behind his back and he stands straight up, yellow eyes taking stock of him, of the bots, of the mess in the room. 

Keith sniffles. He tastes the blood in the back of his throat. The tip of his nose tingles again and he tugs at the bottom hem of his t-shirt to wipe his face. Cold air hits his exposed belly, and Shiro’s smell gets stronger as he wipes his nose. Less diluted by metalic hint of his own blood. When he looks back up at them, the reality settles in. And Shiro looks small next to Kolivan, but the two of them together make Keith feel like a complete child.

Shiro’s fingers fidget against his helmet some more, and he glances up at Kolivan, watching him for a moment even as he speaks to Keith.

“We just wanted to... check on you,” he says. Keith wonders what Shiro would’ve said if they were alone. And wonder if the adrenaline slowly creeping out of his body would leave him feeling this vulnerable all of a sudden. He turns away from them, finds his discarded baton on the floor and puts it away as an excuse to busy himself. 

“I’m gonna go to the med bay,” he says, to spare Shiro the awkwardness of having to tell him to. He wipes his nose on the back of his hand and peeks at the red smear left behind. He tries to blow his nose on the hem of his shirt, not caring that he’s being disgusting. When he looks back up, Shiro’s face is that same diplomatic-neutral, doing his best not to respond. 

Being around Kolivan isn’t like being around the Paladins, though. Not like Shiro has to pretend Keith isn’t his favorite. Kolivan had called Shiro his mate last night. 

Keith hadn’t told Shiro that, though. Hasn’t seen him alone since. He wonders what Shiro and Kolivan have been talking about. What went on when they watched Keith get brutalized for hours. 

He’s still trying to be professional, though. Maybe he’s being submissive to Koilvan. Trying to show they’re not too horny to function in a fucking war. 

Your mate. Hah. Keith had been too tired to worry about it at the time. Now, he looks back and forth between them, rolling the word over and over in his head. What a strange thing to say.

The silence is awkward, and he wipes his hands on the tops of his thighs. His pajama bottoms still, and he realizes he’s not wearing shoes. He should leave, and has the excuse to, but the two of them are shoulder to shoulder in front of the door. 

“AI is never going to teach you,” Kolivan says. It’s simple, the way he speaks. The pitch of his voice crawls across Keith’s skin. “This program is not smart enough.”

Heat rises in his face. He rubs at his nose again, fidgeting, tasting the blood as it drips down the back of his throat. 

Before he can think of anything to say, Shiro is smiling, gesturing. “It’s good for keeping everyone in shape. The weapons programs help teach them proper form.”

“The whole team does this?” Kolivan asks.

Shiro looks from Kolivan to Keith, then back. Keith sniffles again and pinches at his nostrils.

“We have team exercises,” Shiro says. “Keith puts in some extra time on his own.”

Kolivan’s eyes sweep over the room. It twinges in Keith’s stomach, wondering if Shiro can tell where Kolivan is looking. He has to ask later, when they’re alone. But there’s that eerie feeling that Keith gets, in his spine, that he can read Kolivan’s eyes, even without pupils. It makes him wonder what Kolivan even sees. How he sees. 

And the idea of it dawns on him, the possibility peeling back and back that maybe one day he’ll be able to ask Kolivan about it. When they’re alone.

For a moment his mouth feels dry. He looks between the two of them again and it sets in that… he’s different now. 

Not just literally, like he’s an alien. Besides, he was an alien the whole fucking time and just didn’t know it. No, it’s the knowledge of it. Today is the first day he knows it. And it’s never going to be the same after this. Not really.

Being out here is fucked up. Getting involved was an accident. But. He’s here now. And here’s Kolivan, and Keith can ask him questions, and get to know the others. 

Shiro sneaks him a look, while Kolivan is inspecting the weapons rack. It’s an Are you okay? kind of look. 

Keith chuckles. He grabs a water as he starts heading towards the door. Claps Shiro on the arm as he passes by.

Who the fuck knows anymore. 

🫡

[letstrywritingmaybe]

On the agenda for today: send out love letters cause I owe comments, irl stuff (I really need to do laundry…), read my library book, listen to the new twenty one pilots album cause I’ve been slacking, watch hockey (fuck the rangers all my homies hate the rangers. But also why is Krieder not the captain??? That man bleeds Rangers blue!), I’ve already replied to comments and wrote the next chapter of the fake dating fic so I guess any other writing will be considered a bonus to me… oh wait, I should work on CoAi week. Damn it. Okay yeah I’m not getting everything I want done today. My main priority should be CoAi week but realistically I need more fluff in my life

Update: love letters sent <3 hockey watched *sigh fuck the rangers but Wennberg is a cutie. Started my book and laundry! Now onto baseball and finishing irl things and maybe some writing. Idk I’m not really feeling any pull but we’ll see. I’m reading Rebecca, I think Tay read it? I think I saw a tumblr post about how she did or maybe it was in the long pond doc? Idk but yeah already I’m like girlie this is not it. You deserve a nice romance, you’re so young, I don’t mind age gaps but she hasn’t seen the world and gotten to experience so many things and to just settle down like this? And yeah he didn’t even say he loves you! What are you doing!! Omm I’m reading and filling myself with dread over this poor girl. I’ve only just begun and already I’m like you deserve better. I think I’m projecting my feelings for my queen onto her even though I don’t think Shiho is anything like her. Idk I’m feeling like I need to write now, but what idk, I just need to escape and I suppose that’s fitting given the book I’m reading

Update 2: Not to be annoying, (I always am) but I had some banger ideas with my year of the otp prompts. Like I would read most of these as actual fics. Which I mean I’m self indulgent so duh but damn. Since idk what to write I was hoping by I could expand on one of those verse but it’s not what I want to write. I’m feeling sorta royal verse vibes but more so in the arranged marriage scene? But not for shinshi like they’re betrothed to others but they meet and a whirlwind romance ensues and fuck it lets get married and deal with the fallout later. Yeah that’s what I’m feeling right now. Like two rebellious kids who are sick of being responsible, who cares about consequences and scandals? They know what they feel now and they’re going to go after it even though every one tells them it’s a mistake and when reality hits it does feel like it’s a mistake but then… they’re alone and all the doubts disappear

Update 3: I’ve gotten zero writing done but I went back through the year of the otp prompts and my American football AU still gets me!!! That is the absolute most self indulgent thing I’ve ever written and I love it! Literally I know no one else gives one single fuck but I love that verse! It is so me coded, rereading it I was like Omm yes football!! Dude I kinda miss when I had month projects like that cause they were so soft but also some were super challenging cause I don’t vibe with certain ideas. Like the shift shaper one? But that one was so freaking soft and they were so hopeless for each other. The bond between the moms and shinshi too like I can’t. More fics that mention familial relationships too please! But for real how did I manage to do that? I sometimes wonder how I can turn any situation into fluff? And maybe that’s why I made things super difficult with the fake dating verse. But also I didn’t do my usual here’s a massive dump of fluff to make up for the angst…. Maybe I should write an extra? I mean I thought about writing their rated moments as an extra already but I think we need to see their soft moments too. Idk. I hate when I feel like I kinda wanna write but then I also don’t? It’s very annoying

[blog-of-scraps]

Looking Way to Hard at the Front Cover

Okay so in the first draft of this post I, uh.

Wrote too much. So this will be the much abridged version.

This is just a fun little exercise to start off with and hopefully some of the ideas here we’ll see later on throughout the book. I don’t anticipate there will be too much in here that will actually come to fruition, but hey. If house of leaves gets to play with paratext, so do I.

Opening the book, the first thing to discuss is that the front cover is bigger on the inside than the outside. I went ahead and measured the outside and inside cover to see if any interesting numbers would appear but sadly not.

This however, is the beginning of what I imagine will be a pretty important idea in the book as a whole; the parallels between the book, House of Leaves, and the house on Ash Tree Lane. There are a couple more we’ll discuss, but this one is the most obvious. The book is bigger on the inside than the outside just like the house. One of my predictions is that “House of Leaves” refers to both the eponymous house and the book. While it isn’t super clear why exactly the house is referred to as “House of Leaves” yet, the book is quite literally a house of leaves. It houses leaves of paper. While I don’t have much to say on what these parallels are trying to say yet, it is one of the lenses I intend to look at while reading, so I figure it’s worth mentioning now.

Let’s take a look at the picture first.

Okay. This is a lot of stuff. Let’s focus on the most important.

Pills:

There are four types of pills in this shot, but the identifiable ones are a blue and white capsule and a pill that just says PM. Using Drugs.com, they appear to both be the same medicine:

Now are the pills an exact match? No. Most notably the round PM pill is missing the Tylenol labeling

Even if I got the pills right thought, it’s likely that the cover designer just used what they had on hand. But let’s go with the interpretation that these drugs are what they seem for now. Not only is writing the book causing physical pain to the author but perhaps insomnia as well to the point they’re taking multiple drugs in hopes of trying to deal with it.

Tape Measures:

This is literally only important because it vindicates my measurement of the inside cover. This one is important for pride alone. 

Ground-Air Emergency Code:

From what I can tell the ground air emergency code is almost exactly what it sounds like. Stranded and need to communicate with your rescuer? Draw these symbols big on the ground!

So why are they in House of Leaves? While the house is big, I don’t think it’s expansive enough to warrant Ground-to-Air communication. My guess is that if you’re going to explore a labyrinth it’s nice to know where you’ve been and which passages are dead ends. While I don’t imagine there’s a lot of metaphorical significance to these symbols, we’ll still have to keep an eye out for them to see if/how they actually occur.

Film:

We see three photos in the top left corner, labeled 192-194. In them there’s two people appearing to be on some sort of exploration, maybe the Navidson Expedition? Also of note in 193, there’s something white right next to the character in the blue clothes. To me it looks like words but that doesn’t make sense. Whatever it is, it’s gone in 194. Underneath that is text that if I had to guess goes along with the clips.

SINCE WHEN DID […] | ARE [...] ME?

Looking closer we can make out a little bit more.

SINCE WHEN DID [...] A GUN? | ARE YOU KIDDING ME? THIS [...]

This might potentially be transcribed dialogue from the scene. I think whatever journey they’re going on one of them is scared enough to bring a gun. And by the silver bullet next to the photos, it has the author scared enough too.

Note #372(#392?) Chapter XII

Note #372 Chapter XII:

Perhaps I will alter the whole thing.[*] Kill both children. Murder is a better word. Chad scrambling to escape, almost making it to the front door where Karen waits, until a corner in the foyer suddenly leaps forward and hews the boy in half. At the same time Navidson, by the kitchen, reaches for Daiay [(Daisy?)], [...] arrive a fraction of a second too late, his fingers [fin]ding air, his eyes scratching after Daisy as she [...] to her death. Let both parents experience that [... th]eir narcissism find a new object to wither by. [Drown th]em in infanticide. Drown them in blood.

{* Ghost . ME gost, gast fr. CE gast; kin to OHG geist spirit (also Flem. gheest, this meanings [sic.]. ‘principle of life’) and slat hedager; Pre-Teutonic ghoizdo-zhury, anger; cognate [...] in [...] rage, Goth [...] to terrify; outside Text.}

[...] to primary sense “to wound, tear; pull to pisces [sic.]”

The footnote writer is making edits to the Navidson texts. This decision is interesting in a couple ways. Firstly, there’s the verbiage used. Murder implies the footnote writer has an active role in the death of the children.

Second, in altering the story, they also alter the house. The way Chad dies is that the foyer changes, which cuts him in half. This continues parallels between the book and the house– changing the story physically changes the house. It also shows that the footnote writer has a level of indirect control over the house. Thematically this is almost certainly important. Not only does someone have control over the house but a reveal that two major character deaths seemingly never happen in the actual story but instead were added in by the footnote writer? Commenting on a book changes its meaning? Adding to a text alters it and makes it new?

Third, if this is a murder, what’s the motive? Why alter the story? There’s the part after both Chad and Daisy’s death where the footnote writer talks about Karen and Navidson in a malicious way but why? Does that malice motivate altering the story?

Fourth, what’s the deal with red text? Why do they give us the etymology of “ghost” for this passage? Underneath the words “Drown them in blood.” There is the circled phrase “one after the other” in yet another font and color. Are they trying to insinuate that the footnote writer is possessed and that presumably the phrase “one after the other” is the ghost “whispering” to the footnote writer? Further, there’s the words “outside Text” pointing at the word “thing” Are they trying to imply that whatever the footnote writer is trying to alter is outside the text? Or are they trying to just imply that what occurs in the footnote is outside the text and didn’t happen?

Whatever it is, we’ll have to keep an eye on the footnote writer. Given that they’ve shown willingness to alter one event of the text there’s no telling what else they might alter.

red:

Namely, there’s a shit ton of it already.There’s the big “red” in the corner and also the picture is dripping with blood. Someone has quite literally put their blood, (and likely) sweat, and tears into this book. And given the footnote, the house will be no stranger to it either. It’s not clear what exactly either means yet but I’ll be looking out for both.

Stamps:

The stamps in the bottom of the page are these

Edgar Allen Poe stamps, originally released in 1949. These do seem relevant besides just being an anachronism. You see there is an Edgar Allen Poe story that also has red and blood as prominent images: the Masque of Red Death. For the sake of conciseness I won’t recount the story but I will be quoting from it and you can read it here.

There are a number of similarities that are worth highlighting if simply just to showcase potential references. There’s the maze-like house the story takes place

“… The apartments were so irregularly disposed that the vision embraced but little more than one at a time. There was a sharp turn at every twenty or thirty yards, and at each turn a novel effect.”

The house is also sealed, preventing entrance, but also preventing escape.

“...They resolved to leave means neither of ingress or egress to the sudden impulses of despair from without or of frenzy from within.”

Finally there’s the blood imagery. We’ve seen a couple examples in House of Leaves and the Masque of the Red Death is no stranger either. The final chamber is just covered with blood imagery, and so too is the red death.

“Blood was its [Avatar] and its seal — the redness and the horror of blood.”

Given the subject matter and the Edgar Allen Poe stamp this seems to me to be a very pointed nod at this story, which makes me wonder if it will appear again somehow. We already know there’s something alive in the house, could it’s role be similar to the mysterious stranger?

Finally we can actually start reading… the inside cover.

YEARS AGO, WHEN HOUSE OF LEAVES was first being passed around, it was nothing more than a badly bundled heap of paper, parts of which would occasionally surface on the internet

^_^ hi!

No one could have anticipated the small but devoted following this terrifying story would soon command. Starting with an odd assortment of marginalized youth…

I think the association with marginalized youth is interesting. What about this story resonates? Also The word choice with talking about older generations is interesting. It’s not reconnection but instead it makes me think of older generations forcing themselves back into their children’s lives.

Of course, neither Pulitzer Prize-winning photojournalist Will Navidson nor his companion Karen Green …

We’ve seen those names before! Using this information we can even guess and say that the person in the blue sweater is Will Navidson (due the camera around their neck). We don’t know who green sweater is or who actually took the picture, but small victories I guess. This gives us some interesting characterization of Will, assuming that is him. We see that he has his back turned to darkness, presumably deeper into the house. This shows off a bit of hubris, and potentially gives the footnote writer a motive? Navidson got too comfortable in the house so the footnote writer “humbled” him. We’ll have to see.

And that’s pretty much everything of note I can glean out of the front cover of House of Leaves.

Y’know, they say a picture is worth 1819 words.

I guess they were right.

Next post we’ll actually read the book that this liveblog is about I promise.

[buckys-little-belle]

Okie I just had a thought about bub and sir. It isn't related to the parts you've written or the next so I hope it's ok if I mention it if not totally disregard this ask I'm sorry if it bothers you.

I was just daydreaming today and was thinking about bub giving sir a little tour of where she lives, and she's so proud because sje made it her own and pretty and cute. And maybe she'd even introduce him to each stuffie they come across throughout the house and stuff.

Cafe BigNSmall - Bucky Barnes (Headcannon (Chapter One/Two)

Bub’s Stuffie Show And Tell

Bucky x Little!Fem!Reader

Warnings - NONE! Literally just fluff, like so much it might hurt!

Please know i’m totally up for any Bub and Mr suggestions! I’m really loving writing for them right now so if anyone has any ideas let me know!!

Note - I have a whole idea about when Bucky sees Bub’s apartment for the first time so I changed up the idea a bit! But we all know Bucky is head over heels for Bub and would sit through hours of her talking about random things so this is just him being an idiot in love … as he should be

Note Two - I’m thinking this fits between the first and second part! Thats what I feel would work because I don’t think it would fit in the future with what I have planned.

Note Three - This is a part of a series I have on my masterlist! You don’t need to read the parts to necessarily understand this blurb!

SFW - My account is SFW, please keep all interactions with this post and my blog SFW

- - - - - -

“What’s in your backpack bub?” Bucky asked, Bub staring at him wide eyed from her booth seat.

“‘m jus some things.” She mumbled shyly, slowly sinking back into her seat.

“What things?” Bucky asked calmly, a soft smile on his face.

“You hab to pinky promise to not make fun of me, okay Mr?”

“I would never make fun of you bub!” Bucky reassured her.

Quickly bub pulled her bag onto the table from its resting spot beside her. She zipped open the front pocket and pulled out a small zip up bag, one she had clearly sewn herself, the fabric printed with small frogs and plants. “Um i keep little tings in here.” She said as she opened the bag, pulling out chapstick, keys, and some tic tacs. “Do you want one?” she asked, holding out the tic tac container towards him.

“I’m okay, but thank you bub, thats very kind of you.” Bucky was taking notes in his head what flavour the tic tacs and chapstick were, he would keep those notes for a later date in case she needed something and went to him for help.

“m’kay” Bub answered, quickly opening the big pouch and snuggling the bag a little closer to her body. “Um, well dis is my frog.” Y/n mumbled, her voice barley above a whisper as she placed the frog onto the table. Her eyes avoiding Bucky’s at all costs, expecting him to laugh at her.

Instead Bucky picked the frog up and looked at him. “He’s very cute, whats his name?”

Y/n’s eyes shot up in shock, a shy smile creeping on to her face. “‘m his name is ‘green bean’”

Bucky chuckled, “Thats adorable” He breathed. “Where did you get his cute little outfit?” He asked, surprised that the sweater and overalls fit him perfectly.

“I made dem.” Bub exclaimed, her grip was still tight on the backpack but she finally feeling a little more comfortable about the situation. “I knitted da sweater, and da overalls I made him so he could hab some like mine!”

Bucky’s smile grew ten times bigger, he was proud of and shocked at Y/n’s crafting abilities, loving that she took time to do things that allowed positive distraction.

Y/n reached back into her bag and pulled out a grey lump, quickly turning it towards Bucky to show off the elephant. “Dis is ellie!” Y/n beamed, her smile so wide and eyes full of joy. “She is da best, very soft, you should feel!” She babbled, pushing the elephant towards Bucky.

Before he could comment how how soft the elephant really was she pulled out a green dinosaur, Bucky slowly realized just how big her bag was, she had already pulled out her colouring book and crayons when she first got here. “My grandpa got me dis dino, his name is dan, after my grandpa. Dan da dino” She said proudly.

“You’ve got lots of stuffies bub.” Bucky laughed. The frog sat against his chest and the table, the elephant held in his arm and the dinosaur now sat in front of him.

“‘m almost finished!” Bub persisted, her hands quickly dipping pack into her bag, this time to grab a sweet purple bunny. “Dis is purple grape!”

Bucky chuckled. “Purple grape?” He questioned.

“Yah, I wan to get all da bunnies, dey come in different colours and I wan to name dem after fruits!” Y/n reasoned, her arms wrapping around the bunny’s body.

“What other colours do you have?” Bucky asked, curious.

“Jus dis one, I really like da blue one, I would call him blueberry!” Y/n giggled. “Dey are all so cute!”

“They are bub, so cute.” Bucky said, by “They” he meant “You”, he wanted to tell bub she was adorable, but he didn’t want to push anything. Now all he had to do was try and figure out where she gets her stuffed animals. As Bub continued to ramble on about her stuffies she had at home he moved the ones in his arms around to find the tags, hopeful that he could get Bub her blueberry.

[starglitterz]

cynosure. (viii)

─── chapter 8 ! ~ this is how to be a heartbreaker.

summary; you and xiao are genmates under the famed streamer company genshin impact. the chemistry between the two of you is undeniable, and your fanbases absolutely love your collaborations. but when you both start meeting up offline more and more, your connection starts to deepen past just harmless flirting and playful banter. with these real feelings starting to affect both your job and reputation online, how will you two react when your relationship becomes the internet’s cynosure?

a/n: HI I MISSED CYNOSURE SM I JUST TOOK AGES TO WRITE THIS BC OF IRL STUFF AKJWDKJSD BUT IM BACK NOW YEAHHHH aLSO this is quite a long chapter, so strap in for a rollercoaster ride >:) !!!!

as always, reading order is; 1 2 3 4

warnings; angst, hate comments, threatening

previous.┃masterlist.┃next.

please reblog ! it helps a lot :)

youtube !

@.kunikuzushi's latest video is #15 on trending; XIAO AND Y/N AREN'T AS PERFECT AS YOU THINK - HERE'S WHY!

without wasting time on clickbait rubbish, let's get right into the video. we all know the internet's current favourite 'it-couple', aka xiao and y/n from genshin impact's liyue third generation. however, i'm here to tell you why they are the most awful and toxic pairing to exist in the streamer fandom, and i've literally been shipped with tartaglia. speaking of which, go check out my other video on why his views have been declining recently! but anyways, before we delve into the deeper stuff, don't forget to hit the subscribe button and click on the bell to get notified whenever i post new videos - you wouldn't want to miss any, would you?

well, now that that's over... i'll start off by saying to please not send hate to any parties involved in this video. kidding! i genuinely could not care less whether you do or don't. as long as you don't say it's from me, you're in the clear, and that's just because i seriously don't want to get demonetised again.

i'd also like to mention that i'm a pretty diehard fan of xiao. that's a lie, i'd never heard of him before he was hired by genshin. but! i did some digging, with some assistance from my talented friend who prefers to be known only as 'the crimson witch', and found his past life. if you're unfamiliar with streamer terms, that's just slang for a persona a streamer used to play before they either retired or signed up to a company. i doubt any of you know who xiao used to be, as it's considered bad taste to doxx a streamer's previous character, but fun fact; i don't give a [####]! ah [####], now i've got to cut that out so i can still get ad revenue.

xiao's former life was as none other than part of the five famed yakshas! this is basically his tragic backstory, which then led to him signing up for genshin and being catapulted into worldwide fame and fortune; jeez xiao, save some main character moments for the rest of us! he used to go by alatus, and in case you don't know what happened to the yakshas, here's a quick summary. while they were famous for creating content as a group, one of the girls was accused of having a relationship, and the internet went wild. i'm talking mass unsubscribing, hate comments, dislike bombing - and not just on her account, on all five of their accounts and their shared account. things only got more heated when a respected updates channel, guess who? if you guessed yours truly, you're absolutely right! if you guessed anyone else... why are you even here? anyway, i posted a huge video about it, which actually kickstarted my career, and well, basically ruined theirs.

the entire internet hopped on a giant bandwagon of hating on them until finally, the group could no longer tolerate it, and the five yakshas were disbanded. nobody knew what had become of each of them, at least until now! i've solved the grand mystery of who xiao is, and now i'll get into why he shouldn't be with y/n.

first off, i pity xiao, okay? i made that video for clout and it actually worked, i didn't expect the yakshas to dissolve because of it. and so i want what's best for xiao, because he deserves some happiness after such a terrible sobstory. therefore, i believe that he shouldn't be with y/n at all! how long have we known her? only around a couple months, which as confirmed by venti's interview, is the same amount of time xiao's known her. yet in that short duration, y/n's been proven countless times to be a terrific flirt, constantly buttering up others in collabs with stupid pick-up lines and flirty expressions. honestly, the second-hand embarrassment i get from some of her videos is almost overwhelming. xiao, meanwhile, is the polar opposite; he's quiet, reserved, and barely does collaborations. y/n is hanging onto genshin impact by the skin of her teeth with the collabs, while xiao can hold his own in terms of content. at least his is watchable and doesn't make me want to bang my head against the wall.

xiao deserves better, because even if he's mooning after y/n, she doesn't even bother giving him a second glance. she treats him the same way she treats everyone else, like objects - another reason why you shouldn't support her. xiao is probably pretending to like her, which is understandable considering how many views their collabs get. human fall flat, valorant, gartic phone with the entire third gen, it's all great business sense, really. people are suckers for the grumpy boy sunshine girl trope, and they know that and make the best use of it. it's just a ploy to get more money from you, both from ads and superchat donations.

overall, xiao and y/n suck together, mainly because of how their relationship is obviously being faked for views. however, it seems like xiao might actually be catching feelings, which is also horrible because he deserves someone more caring and loving than the playful and childish y/n. especially after his backstory, that boy must have severe trust issues, so it's better for him to be saved from this before things get messed up and he ends up heartbroken.

that's it from me, scaramouche, hope you enjoyed the video!

twitter !

groupchat !

phone call !

outgoing call to y/n at 6.14 p.m.

xiao: y/n, are you with hu tao and yanfei now? are you safe?

y/n: hi xiao... yeah i'm with them at the mall. i'm waiting for them outside wanwen bookhouse, and then we're going to xinyue kiosk for dinner before heading home.

xiao: thank the archons, i was so scared for you. i was seriously contemplating driving out to help you somehow but i had no clue how. i was worried my presence might... exacerbate the situation.

y/n: aw xiao, thanks for being so caring. it's fine though, i'm still in one piece!

xiao: but that's the problem, y/n. it isn't fine.

y/n: what are you talking about?

xiao: it isn't fine that you were threatened with a knife outside a grocery store! by one of my fans, which makes it worse!

y/n: xiao, i told you it's okay. things like this happen when you're famous.

xiao: that doesn't make it right and you know it. this wouldn't even have happened if i didn't interact with you.

y/n: xiao, you can't blame yourself for your fans' actions. you don't control them, they're functional humans who make their own choices.

xiao: either way, the fact remains that you nearly got hurt because of me.

y/n: how is it because of you?!

xiao: my fans got jealous because i've been spending so much time with you, so they nearly attacked you! the blame can't fall on anyone else for that besides me.

y/n: and what about the fan? isn't it their fault?

xiao: yes, obviously it is. but we don't know who it is and i doubt we ever will. as an influencer, this is exactly why i'm supposed to stay away from problems like these.

y/n: problems like these? and what do you mean by that, xiao?

xiao: this entire thing between us!

y/n: you're saying all the time we spent together was just 'a problem' to you?

xiao: no! i mean- yes, but not in that way.

y/n: in what other way could that mean, xiao?

xiao: i mean that i enjoyed hanging out with you! i like you, y/n. a lot more than i should considering our jobs.

y/n: well i like you too, xiao! so who cares about that?! our fans, the good ones at least, will be over the moon if we become official.

xiao: and what about the bad ones? whatever happened today to you could happen ten times worse and next time you might not be so lucky.

y/n: that's a risk i'm willing to take.

xiao: i don't want you to be at risk! i can't let it happen again.

y/n: let what happen again?

xiao: nothing. look, y/n, i'm really sorry, but we've got to end this.

y/n: xiao, come on-

xiao: no. i need you to be safe and okay, even if that means distancing myself from you. i can't lose another person i care about.

y/n: by doing this, you're already losing me. please, xiao, just try to-

xiao: i'm sorry, y/n. it's for the best. i'm cancelling the collab we were supposed to have next week, and i'm not going to be interacting with you on social media or real life. at least not until this entire mess is sorted out, i can't endanger you further.

y/n: we can make this work, xiao, please.

xiao: goodbye, y/n.

call cut at 6.37 p.m.

twitter !

a/n; scaramouche is so fun to write for gn JKDAKWJDKJAS,,, also angst moment 😍HAHAHA i promised angst and here is the delivery, i hope u all enjoyed it! i, personally, am absolutely DEVASTATED over the end of xiaoyn 😞 but i'd love to hear yalls theories for what will happen next, especially since we've still got a ton of chapters left LOL ok anyways im too tired to write more for this a/n except im sorry for the long wait between chapters ! school is kicking my ass 😭 but ily all take care mwah !

taglist; @noirkkat @bookuya @ohmykazuha @glazelilyy @oreoz-unfortunately @tiny-aroace @xiaophobic @test-tube @jiinghe @storytravelled @mirikusashes @ben6ett @oliviasslut @bluexiao @lunachelly @aelatus @mimion @akiiyukii @angelhxneyy @give-xiao-almond-tofu @abyssheart @xuanya @normalisthenewnorm @viagiraffe @fuhuashandholder @astersg4rden @nachotrash @childe-support @cynokine @axerrri @ventirain @kait-is-always-late @hushyouu @celestair @rim0na @indecisivehusky @nurserinnn @ariesreii @saving-for-xiao @hellokittykuroo @auradragon199 @xiaoszn @liarchive @almondto-fu @berryqueue @chichikoi @yunaholics @yoimimi @http-mewchuu

general masterlist.

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