#me with an entire section for ocs but also ocs in other categories: people get exhausted trying to figure me out | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

liaromancewriter · 3 years

Text

Sibling Rivalry

Premise: Cassie and Max play Monopoly and things get intense very quickly, much to the dismay of their loved ones.

Book: Open Heart (post series) Pairings: Ethan Ramsey x F!MC (Cassie Valentine) and Sienna Trinh x M!OC (Max Valentine) Rating/Category: Teen. Fluff. Warning: Strong language Words: 2,290

A/N: This is a late submission to @choicesmonthlychallenge for the March Day 20 prompt: Siblings. I meant to post this a couple of days ago but time got away from me. Timeline wise, it’s set during the later section of Piece by Piece. of Enjoy!

The birthday cake had been a work of art, but with a baker as good as Sienna Valentine (née Trinh) they expected nothing else. It wasn’t just her skill (although it was certainly laudable) rather it was her ability to make the design and flavors personal that made the creation memorable.

And, making a birthday cake for her two favorite people in the world — her husband and her fellow dolphin — was as personal as it got. She had been pleased with not only the final result but also the appreciation from the siblings as they blew out the candles, cut the cake and forked up the first bite.

The Valentine Twins were celebrating their thirty-third birthday. Unlike previous years, they had opted to celebrate at home, just the immediate family, rather than go on one of their trips. Sienna knew that the reason was her advancing pregnancy, but both Max and Cassie had insisted it was what they wanted as well.

As a result, Cassie and her husband, Ethan Ramsey, had traveled down from Boston to spend two days at her parents’ home in Arlington. And even though she and Max lived across the river in Georgetown they decided to spend the night there as well, making it a family staycation slash sleepover.

Once the festivities were over, Sienna was glad to put up her swollen feet and rest her aching back on the comfortable couch in the family room. Eyes closed, she listened to the soothing voice of her husband and bestie reminisce about their childhood, smiling whenever she learned something new.

Her hands cradled her belly, keeping time with the somersaults little bean was performing until she saw the Monopoly board. And then she started praying.

Olivia Valentine was over the moon at having her entire family under one roof for once. It had been a long time since she’d celebrated her children’s birthday at home with a simple family dinner. It was common enough when they were younger, but in the last ten years or so they had eschewed birthday parties in favor of trips and experiences.

Dinner had been cleared and cake served for dessert in the family room. Olivia was about to suggest they have coffee and tea on the patio outside when she heard a single word that caused her heart to stop. Monopoly.

She reached for her husband’s hand, clasping it tightly in hers as she and Robert watched on with dread.

Cassie went to the closet in the corner where they kept gameboards and other entertainment paraphernalia. Olivia had hidden the property game way in the back, out of sight, but she should have known her daughter was too stubborn to give up after a quick search.

With a whoop of triumph, Cassie pulled out the game that had seen its fair share of overturned boards, lost game pieces, ripped up title deed cards and torn paper money taped back together. When they were younger, she and Robert were forced to buy a new set every other year.

She blamed the competitive Valentine genes. As easy going as her husband was in real life, he was a shark in the boardroom. And their children had taken after him so that game nights got very intense, very quickly.

Olivia sent a silent prayer of thanks that Sienna was already married to Max otherwise she might have second thoughts after tonight.

Ethan Ramsey could admit to feeling content as he took a sip of excellent scotch, the smokey flavor going down smooth with a pleasant aftertaste. He was kicked back in one of the armchairs by the fireplace, close enough to where Cassie was seated on the couch with her brother.

Sprawled side by side, their heads next to each other on the cushions, they talked about some of their more memorable birthday celebrations. They laughed, debated and disagreed on their recollections at times but were very much in sync, their unique bond shining through.

Ethan had never imagined that he would have a family except for his father and the handful of aunts and uncles and cousins sprinkled around New England that his dad stayed in touch with more than him. And now he had Cassie, and her family had adopted him as their own.

Lost in thought, he didn’t immediately notice the shift in the air but one glance at Sienna’s worried face as well as Olivia’s and he knew he had missed something major. He was about to ask what was wrong when Cassie returned with a box of Monopoly clutched in her hand.

He silently groaned and wondered if he was about to be pulled into an impromptu game night. While he didn’t mind the occasional poker game, childish board games were not for him. That was how he felt and his wife would just have to respect his decision and play without him.

A short while later, he surveyed the board and wondered if he’d ever be able to resist when Cassie turned on the charm, her green eyes sparkling as she convinced him of the merits of the game. He had reluctantly agreed when she said three players would be lopsided and four would make more sense.

In his eagerness to please her, he missed the sympathetic look that Sienna sent his way but not her dismayed sigh as she took her seat at the table. He chalked it down to her pregnancy, but he really should have known better given how well Sienna knew both Cassie and Max.

Ethan had always known Cassie was competitive when it came to sports and games but observing the siblings play Monopoly threw him for a loop. Sienna on the other hand was completely unfazed when every roll of the dice resulted in jeers or how landing on every property square felt like a skirmish.

And then the insults started flying.

“Don’t be asshole,” huffed Cassie when she landed on one of Max’s properties and he held out his hand with a smirk.

“Piggy bank feeling a little empty?” he taunted as she carefully counted her dwindling supply of cash.

“See if I visit when you go to jail for being a Class A jerk,” she grumbled, slapping the paper money in his hands.

And so it continued for the next few turns.

“Have you forgotten what I do for a living, scout?” sneered Max when Cassie complained loudly about yet another hotel he put up.

Two turns later, Max cursed out loud when he landed on New York Avenue where Cassie had recently built houses, after completing her purchase of the full block as well as the one adjacent to it, from Kentucky to Illinois avenues.

She didn’t even bother with a taunt, just put her hand out and said, “Give it up, Maximus.”

“Don’t be a bitch,” said her brother, handing over the rent money.

Another half an hour later, Ethan wondered if the twins would even notice if he suddenly walked away from the game. It was doubtful, he concluded, meeting Sienna’s commiserating look.

Soon it was her turn and Sienna rolled the dice, landing on Marvin Gardens, the exact property that Max had his sights on since he owned the first two in that block.

“Oh fuck,” she cried out before slapping a hand over her mouth, eyes wide in shock at the words that had escaped her lips.

She glanced at Max, saw the disappointment on his face at losing prime real estate, and handed over her money to Robert who had agreed to play banker and peacemaker. With a heavy sigh, she took the title deed and turned towards Max, card in hand.

“How much?” she asked.

“Fifteen percent over face value and I’ll give you a ten percent rebate the first time you come back,” he offered with a smirk in his sister’s direction.

“Hey!” protested Cassie. “That’s not fair. You can’t do that.”

“House rules say I can,” Max gloated before turning back to Sienna. “Well?”

“Ten percent rebate the first two visits on any of the properties on this block,” countered Sienna.

“Don’t do it, Sienna,” urged Cassie. “We don’t negotiate with sharks!”

Sienna just rolled her eyes. “You and I both know that he’s going to bankrupt me the first chance he gets and then I’ll have no choice but to mortgage or sell everything to him at a considerable loss.”

She narrowed her eyes as Max scratched his jaw while considering her offer but she knew that expression on his face and it was triumph. She quietly handed over the title deed after he nodded in agreement and they shook on it.

Cassie muttered “Traitor” under her breath while Max laughed maniacally at sealing the deal.

“I knew there was a reason I fell in love with you,” he crowed, leaning over to plant a smack on her lips; winking when Sienna shook her head in amused exasperation.

As luck would have it, Max was next and used his time and considerable fake resources to build hotels on Atlantic and Ventnor Avenues as well as Marvin Gardens.

As far as Ethan was concerned, it was a case of game imitating real life since Max had managed to build a hotel empire on at least one block on each side of the game board on top of owning all the utilities.

Cassie wasn’t too far behind, investing in all but one railroad, owning a chunk of west and east side properties as well as Boardwalk. She needed only Park Place to complete the set of prime real estate. Given her cash flow situation, Ethan wondered how she expected to build houses let alone luxury hotels, but she had certainly proved resourceful so far.

A few more rounds later, the game started to change direction.

“It’s going to take more than that to beat me, sis,” Max fumed after he had a few bad turns including two tax payments and a trip to jail, resulting in a victory dance from his sister.

But Cassie wasn’t concerned as she gyrated around the room until Ethan pulled her back down and handed her the dice, determined to finish the game before too much longer. At this stage, he and Sienna were superfluous but neither of them could walk away.

He would have stuck to his neutrality, but then he landed on Cassie’s coveted Park Place and understood exactly how Sienna had felt earlier. He didn’t even bother negotiating; just handed over the title deed to his beloved and saved himself the headache.

“Talk about playing favorites,” Max scoffed, not hiding his displeasure. “I thought you were smart, Ethan. She’s land rich, cash poor. You could have held her hostage or offered to buy Boardwalk and built your own hotels.”

“So not worth it,” was all Ethan said with a quick glance at Cassie.

The expression on her face confirmed his suspicions that she would have gone nuclear on him had he not given her what she wanted.

When Sienna declared bankruptcy a short while later, Ethan was positive it was a ploy to exit the game graciously. She was nowhere near the player her husband was, but neither was she that bad. The secret smile she exchanged with Robert as she handed over everything was all the proof he needed.

Taking Sienna’s cue, he started playing badly until he too was forced to concede, not that the remaining two players noticed as they battled over the mortgaged properties. Cassie didn’t even ask, she just grabbed Ethan’s discarded title deeds and added them to her pile before he’d cleared the table.

“That’s cheating,” Max objected, standing up to loom over the board as he looked over at his father. “Dad, she can’t just take Ethan’s properties.”

“Yes, I can,” countered Cassie, standing up to face off against her brother. “Virginia is an equitable property state. Whatever belonged to Ethan is now mine.”

“This isn’t divorce court, Cassie,” challenged Max, folding his arms across his chest, voice rising in frustration. “The man is bankrupt and gave up his properties. They go back to the communal pot to be purchased by whoever has the cash to pay off his mortgage. And guess what? You don’t have the cash.”

“I reject your premise!” said Cassie, also folding her arms across her chest as they squared off across the table.

“Fine,” hissed Max, reaching over into the bank. “I’m taking all of Sienna’s discarded properties then too.”

Before things could go from bad to worse, Olivia walked back into the room. She quickly took stock of the situation and shared a dismayed look with her husband who just shrugged his shoulders and walked away.

“That’s enough, you two,” she said coming to stand between them. “I’m declaring this round a draw. Now kiss and make up before I put you both in time out.”

Her aggrieved tone and the threat of a time out had Cassie and Max bending over in laughter. Still, they held out their hands, signaling a truce with a handshake.

“Good game, scout,” said Max, tugging Cassie into his arms for a hug.

“Likewise, Maximus,” said Cassie, chuckling when they turned, arm in arm, to survey the board and their spoils.

Ethan wasn’t sure what to make of it when the siblings packed up the game as if nothing had happened the last couple of hours. He looked down when Sienna nudged his arm, absently taking the cookie she handed him.

As he stood companionably with Sienna, nibbling on cookies and watching their respective spouses joke and laugh amiably while they complimented each other’s game play, Ethan wondered if there would ever come a time when Cassie Valentine wouldn’t perplex him.

@choicesficwriterscreations @openheartfanfics

Tagging in reblog

#ethan ramsey #ethan ramsey x mc #sienna trinh #sienna trinh x oc #open heart #open heart choices #open heart fanfics #choices monthly challenge #choices fic writers creations #cfwc fics of the week #open heart fanfiction

65 notes · View notes

forgotten-queers-event-week · 2 years

Text

Hey folks! Took a bit for me to get back around to this; I got a new job and then a rarepair week hit, but I'm back!

The interest check survey got 46 responses, and 36 of those were people indicating they would be interested in participating.

I'm going to answer a few of the questions I got in the final section, and I'll make a post with general information later today.

Questions and concerns presented in the interest check survey:

Does the work have to be posted on tumblr or can it be posted somewhere else?

I will be making an AO3 collection, so people will be able to post there as well. If you do not have a tumblr, I will reblog here to the event blog.

some hesitation about poly just from the number of threesome fics in fandom already - obianidala, bailbrehaobi, codexwan, etc. not entirely sure there's any solution for that, however, and it would be good to see less straight (hah) triad works

While Star Wars does have a relatively high amount of threesomes, I would argue that they are not actually polyamory, as often as not, just a threesome. It's also a fairly small fraction of the overall whole; Star Wars is just so big that even that small fraction feels like a lot.

I intend to keep the polyamory prompt.

Just general interest about the details of the event- dates, additional rules, etc. I like the overall concept but don’t particularly want to end up in a fandom war by accident (just a general Star Wars fandom observation, not an accusation of those proposing the event)

I will be addressing this later today! The primary rules will be no bashing, tag appropriately, and keep the prompts and theme in mind when writing.

I probably won't be able to do much creating until like may cause grad school is eating my brain

We are currently looking at late June.

day 3 might be better phrased as bisexual or bicurious?

Nope! Day three “it may be M/F, but that doesn’t make it straight” is meant to touch on all those 'straight couples' that get flack at pride parades, even though:

One or both is bi or pan

One or both is trans

One or both is ace/aro

Any variation that is not cishet, honestly

If I adjust phrasing, it will be to “it may be M/F, but that doesn’t make it cishet”

I'm gay but don't really relate to the other categories so I'm not sure how I'd participate without taking away the voices of others or creating for an experience that is not my own.

Create away! You don't need to be writing about the dark and heavy vagaries of a queer existence; a sketch of a character waving a pride flag counts!

If you do want to work on something that is heavy or more complicated, there are plenty of queer people in fandom. You can probably find someone willing to help you brainstorm or look it over for major red flags.

With the event centered around queer characters - and I assume mostly being participated in by queer creators - I think it would be a good idea to have it in the event rules that aphobia/transphobia/etc must be tagged in fics. I'd also like to know if it's canon-only or if OCs would be allowed too, since that wasn't mentioned in the post. Either way, the idea sounds great and I'd love to participate.

Noted! Proper tagging etiquette is a big deal to me, and while I will allow wiggle room (e.g. if a person thinks it may bloat their tags to include everything, they can go with 'see author's note for warnings' and I will consider it due diligence), including proper warnings is a big deal.

I hadn't thought about OCs yet, but my instinct is that they can be included.

“Ace and aro spectrums” rather than “ace and aro spectrum (singular)” would be better since they are separate identities that don’t always overlap.

A good point! I'll adjust, going forward.

You had me at an ace day 🥺 also idk if I'd be able to participate in writing (deadlines for other projects in abroad for the first two weeks in June) but i would DEFINITELY consume content!!

As mentioned a little further up, we are now looking at late June.

This is an extremely weird thing to put in this box, but my friend sent the post about this challenge to me all pissy because "I don't know why poly people would be on here ahead of regular gay men and lesbians", and it made me, a genderfluid bi ace person, almost blind with rage. Thank you for making a space that specifically opens doors to identities that are less inherently known and understood in real life.

Absolutely baffling take from your friend, considering the theme is 'the queers we don't talk about,' so the entire point is to talk about stuff that is... not 'regular' gay men and lesbians. That. That's a bit of a red flag, oof.

I'm glad you're excited!

#star wars #the clone wars #star wars prequels #star wars rebels #star wars legends #star wars sequels #star wars original trilogy #star wars events #star wars event weeks #queer

28 notes · View notes

sierraraeck · 4 years

Text

Monday

BAU x OC Aundreya

Masterlist | Series Masterlist

Summary: Coming back to the BAU is a struggle for Aundreya, but a couple conversations with her teammates seems to make things a little bit better. Story twenty-one.

Category: Angst and fluff

Warnings: Cussing. Mentions of sex.

Word Count: 4.3k

I had not been reinstated. Yet. But I couldn’t blame them for it. I mean, I did take the fall for two murders, go to prison, get out of prison, take a bullet, become a fugitive, murder another, make a deal with a criminal (that luckily no one knew about), and then asked for my job back. It was reasonable that they were hesitant. However, if I wanted to save their lives, I was going to have to find some way back into the Bureau. Which meant leaving the ring, again.

“You cannot be serious!” Mateo yelled.

“I have no other choice!” I responded, tho ring my hands in the air. “I made a deal with DeLeon. This is how it has to be until I can finish this, and come back!”

“Who’s to say you’ll come back? You didn’t last time!”

He was right, of course. I only came back because I had nowhere else to turn. “Mateo-”

“Don’t start that with me. I thought I finally had you back, we all did, and you’re just going to leave again?” He was tugging at his hair and turning away from me. I came up from behind him and wrapped my arms around his strong middle. His posture was tense, but he let me do it.

“If it was up to me, I’d stay here with you. But I am not going to let DeLeon take everything from me. Including you,” I whispered.

“I just don’t want to lose you again,” Mateo confessed, his voice lowering as well.

I pressed a kiss to his shoulder. “I will check in with you when I can, but we all need to be careful right now. DeLeon always has other plans, and I will not let him get more than what we agreed upon.”

“We’ve got people looking for him, you know,” Mateo reminded me.

“I know. So does the FBI. Hopefully we can catch and kill him before he causes more chaos, but if not, you have to let me go through with this.”

“Fine. But make it quick because I’m going to miss you,” he said, a cheeky look on his face as he turned around to face me. He had one strong hand on my back and the other cupping my face. He pulled me in for a kiss, then leaned back on the disaster of a bed we’d just come from, pulling me with him.

“Mateo-” I sang.

“You have a little bit longer, don’t you?” he asked, grinning at me with those big doe eyes. How could I say no?

“Maybe just a few…” I trailed off. That was all he needed to hear.

# # # # # # # # # # # # #

I marched into the FBI headquarters, bee-lining it directly to Section Chief Strauss’ office. I adjusted my clothes and smoothed out any wrinkles in my shirt one last time before knocking and pushing open the door.

“Ms. Chambers,” Strauss unhappily greeted.

“Chief Strauss,” I followed suit. She motioned for me to sit down.

“I’ve been expecting you,” she stated cooly, “I knew it was only a matter of time before you made your way back here.”

“I did call,” I pointed out.

“Yes, and I told you no,” she retorted.

I smiled, “Then you know why I’m here.”

“And the answer’s still no.”

“That’s just not going to do it for me, Chief.” My eyes bore into hers as I continued, “I was wrongfully sent to prison, and then I helped out a federal case, two if you really think about it, and-”

“What about ‘no’ do you not understand?” Strauss leaned back in her chair, clasping her hands in front of her.

“I would argue that I was more of a risk the first time you hired me, but you still did it then. What’s preventing you from doing it now?” I raised my eyebrows.

“You confessed to murder.”

“I was charged with murder the first time.” I was hopeful that if I challenged her first decision, she’d be inclined to defend herself, therefore having to make the same decision twice.

“You put agents’ lives at risk.”

“I took a bullet for a civilian, and went into hiding in order to protect those same agents.”

“You got our best tech analyst, Penelope Garcia, shot,” Strauss reminded. I didn’t have anything to say to that.

I landed on, “I have been a loyal agent with the FBI for three years. Yes, I’ve been out for a while, but I am coming back for a reason. This is no different than the first time you hired me-”

She cut me off again, “Then I guess we shouldn’t have hired you the first time. Now get out of my office.”

I ran my tongue over my lips as I stood up and took a couple steps toward her office door. But I couldn’t leave. Lives depended on my ability to get my job back, so I had to keep trying. The diplomatic way didn’t work, so it was time for a different approach.

I walked back over to her desk and stood in front of her, “During the three years I was here, I helped close more high profile cases than ever before, some that weren’t even BAU cases. I understand that you have reservations about my abilities, but I was able to do that because of my skills and my connections. If I wanted to screw over the FBI, I would have done it by now, I have the resources. But I haven’t. Instead, my network of people and the BAU team all worked cohesively to help find me, so if they can do it, so can I, especially because I’ve actually worked with all of those people before. “

“Chambers, nothing you say-”

“All do respect, Chief Strauss, but I’m not finished,” I interrupted. “When I went to prison, you gave up on me entirely. Sure, Doctor Reid had been a part of the team longer than I had, but I was just as much a team member as he was, and I know for a fact, you allowed, no encouraged, the team to continue working to figure out the truth when it was him, but didn’t return the favor when it was me. You did nothing. More than that, you ordered them to let it go. Come to find out, I was just as much of a victim in that situation as any. I’m not saying I had a good reputation prior to that, but any semblance of trust the Bureau had in me was gone. I was on my own to get out, and continue fighting some of the most dangerous people this country has ever seen, by the end having to recover from more than ten injuries. So after taking away my reputation, my freedom, and nearly my life, the least you could do would be to reinstate me.”

Strauss just stared at me, then took a deep breath, “Fine. I’ll reinstate you. But not to the BAU.”

“I don’t accept that. I would like my exact job back,” I demanded. She opened her mouth to say something, but I kept talking, “And don’t worry about my behavior or ability to work with them in a cohesive manner. I don’t have a problem with them as long as they don’t have a problem with me.”

“So you’re not..?” Strauss trailed off.

It wasn’t like her, but I had a pretty good idea what she was getting at, and I wasn’t going to make it easy. I wanted to hear her say it. “What? What do you think I am?”

“Angry,” Strauss offered. “You have a history of getting angry and violently overreacting.”

“I was for a while,” I shrugged, “but I’m tired of being angry. It’s exhausting, wasting so much energy on being angry with each individual member. I had 22 months to be angry with them, most of which were spent in prison or on the run and I’m over it. I just want my job back.”

She sighed in defeat, “Fine. We’ll look into you getting back your-”

“I’d like to start Monday,” I said, leaning down and placing my fingertips on her desk. I flashed her a smile, but I’m sure she could tell it wasn’t exactly friendly.

“We’ll see you then, Agent Chambers.” I leaned back from her desk and walked out of her office without another word. It was Friday, so I still had the weekend, but I wanted to make one last stop on my way out.

I shoved open the door to the bat cave to see the exact site I knew would be waiting for me. The entire team, excluding Aaron, gathered around Penelope’s computer.

“I hope you enjoyed the show,” I deadpanned. They’d been watching me for nearly the entirety of the two years I’d been gone, surveilling me in prison, in the hospital, and when I was with DeLeon. I knew they’d still be watching me today.

They were frozen in their spots, and I had to wonder why they even came for me that day. It would have been so easy for them to ignore the feed and forget about me.

“Chambers, it’s not how it looks,” Morgan tried.

“I’m sure it’s not,” I squinted at him, and clicked my tongue. “I’m sure you weren’t so nervous about me coming back that you asked Garcia to run facial recognition on everyone who entered the BAU floor, and I’m sure you weren’t scared enough, for yourselves and Strauss, to set up a camera with audio in her office.”

“It’s not like we don’t trust you,” Prentiss piped in.

“It’s not like you do,” I incredulously quipped, “Or do you track every move of all the people you trust?” They just stood there staring at me, like I was a ticking time bomb. And maybe I was, but I decided to fill the silence, “I guess it doesn’t matter now, though. I’ll see you Monday?”

I got no response as I left the doorway and walked down the hall toward the elevator. Just before I got in, I turned to the security camera and winked.

# # # # # # # # # # # # #

It was the worst sort of deja vu, walking into the BAU headquarters on my ‘first day.’ I’d done this a total of three times: the first time I met them, when they pulled me out of prison to find Maeve, and now. I was tired of wondering, and then knowing, how the team was going to react to me. The first time, I tried to lie, which didn’t work out. The second time, I gave them exactly what they were expecting of me, a bitter and twisted version, which also didn’t work out. So this third time, I figured I’d give them the opposite of what they’d expect. Third time’s the charm, right?

But, it was a lot easier said than done. Pretending like I was cool headed and only here to do the job and get out was going to be hard, especially when I still did have so much anger. But I wasn’t lying when I told Strauss I was exhausted. Sure, the team had helped find me, but what else had they done? Given up on me, accused me, and still didn’t trust me? All of those thoughts were rattling in my head, and I ended up with a twisted mix of emotions, the two strongest being anger and a general sense of caring. How can you be so angry with someone, enough to want to turn your back on them, and also care about them so much that you make a deal with a criminal, your life on the line, in order to save them?

Now was not the time to contemplate that, because I was about to walk through those doors and return to the job I once had. The job that took me so long to earn, and so little to lose. I walked into the round table room where everyone was already waiting. Seriously, the worst deja vu.

Skipping the awkward greetings, I just asked, “What’d I miss?”

“You’re actually right on time,” Hotch assured. With that, Garcia launched into her briefing. It took all of my willpower not to add more than one thing to the conversation. I let them take the lead while I sat back and listened.

Hotch told us that we’d be leaving in 30, so everyone grabbed their bags and headed to the jet. I waited for the group of them to go ahead, and then planned to make the trip by myself. I was about to succeed in that plan, until Rossi slipped into the elevator with me. I didn’t even look over at him.

“You’re welcome, by the way,” he said. I turned my head toward him, brows furrowed. “For letting you crash at my place.”

I blew a small laugh out of my nose, “I knew I got the red and gold pillows mixed up.” He smiled and left it at that, which I was grateful for.

We boarded the jet together, and headed out across the country to catch another killer.

Halfway into the week, on our way back to the hotel, Morgan hung back from the group, which he never did, so I knew something was up. Glances were passed between Hotch, Rossi, and Morgan, so I knew that they had some idea what this was about, and I fought the urge to just run out of the precinct.

“I’ll walk you out?” Derek invited as he approached me.

“If you really want to end up in a parking lot alone with me again,” I joked, gesturing toward his face which once dawned a black eye courtesy of me. He smirked and nodded his head toward the door.

“You are a really strong fighter,” he commented. I rolled my eyes at him, but he stopped in his tracks to face me. “I mean it, Aundreya. In more ways than one.”

Something in his undertone led me to believe we weren’t talking about the same thing, and I didn’t know whether to say thank you and walk or to stay to see what else he had to say. My curiosity got the better of me and I asked, “What are you saying?”

“Walk with me,” was all he offered. I squinted at his back in confusion before following him. We were in a super small town near a desert, and he started heading out into the open sand, the exact opposite direction of our hotel. I stopped and he turned around to look at me. “What? Gang girl afraid of a little sand?”

I trekked toward him, “If you ever call me that again, you should be afraid of a lot more than just sand.”

We, dare I say hiked, out into the desert at nearly nine at night, with more moonlight than sunlight. I don’t know how he decided where to stop, but after about ten minutes of walking, he just sat down.

“Okay, what the actual hell, Derek?” I asked, standing in front of him.

“Just sit down, okay?” I did as he said, and took a seat in the cooling sand next to him. Whatever he was about to say, this had to’ve been the oddest place for him to pick. “I don’t think I’ve ever told you this, but when I was young, I used to go to this community center in my neighborhood. There was a man there who was in charge of the place, and for most of my childhood h-he, um…” he trailed off.

I could see it in his eyes and the way he swallowed while looking down, and I immediately recognized what it was. The shame carried by a victim. I sternly whispered, “Who?”

Derek looked at me, “Carl Buford.” I could feel the heat rising to my cheeks as I stood up, storming away, “What are you doing?”

“I can find anyone,” I called back, nearly a threat. There’s not much I can do for him or for anyone else on the team right now, but this I can do. I can find that pathetic, sleezy, son of a-

“You won’t!” Derek yelled. I spun around to face him, realizing I’d traveled a healthy 50 feet from him. “He’s in prison!”

I sighed, crossing my arms. Of course he is. I marched back over to where Derek sat. When I was standing at his feet, he was looking up at me with curiosity. “You know, I’ve got people in prison, and with one phone call, I could have them-”

“Sit down, would you?” Derek cut me off. I took a deep breath, closing my eyes, trying to pull myself back together.

“Sorry.”

“Don’t be,” he cut me off.

My eyes locked on his. “I respect your strength for sharing this and being able to deal with the same type of people day in and day out.”

“Thanks,” he clenched his jaw, then continued, “One day, after nearly two decades, I finally got to put him away.” He put his hand on my shoulder, so I looked over at him. “Don’t give up hope, Aundreya. We will catch that son of bitch and bring him to justice, and if there’s anyone I know who can do that, it’s you.”

“Thank you, Derek,” I said, offering a small smile, “It means a lot.”

I moved to get up and walk away again, but Derek held me to my spot. A bit of a playful tone entered his voice when he asked, “Where do you think you’re going?”

“Uh, back to the hotel? It’s like four degrees out here.”

“It’s not that bad. Plus, it’s not like you’ll be sleeping,” he pointed out.

“That obvious, huh?” I asked. He tilted his head to the side as if to say that was the dumbest question I could’ve asked.

“After everything you’ve been through,” he shook his head, “I wouldn’t be surprised if you never slept again. Not like I ever thought you did to begin with. I mean, when Reid was in prison, did you sleep at all?”

“Not really. I usually don’t,” I shrugged.

We let the silence hang around us for a while before he laid back on the sand. “You know, when I couldn’t sleep, I used to just go outside and look up at the stars.”

I laid back with him, “Seriously?”

“Yeah, seriously. Something about it was comforting, you know? Knowing that there was so much more out there than just my neighborhood and the people I knew.” I understood that. Knowing that one day, you might be able to move on to bigger and better things than what you were going through, it was comforting. “How are you, really?”

“You just said it yourself, sleep deprived,” I only half-joked.

“You’re a lot more…” he struggled to find the right word, “Calm? Than I’d expect? I mean, yeah, sure, you’re a bit different, more on-edge and pissed off at us which I get, but overall you don’t seem that affected.”

“Yeah I should hope not. It’s not like that was my first time in a prison or my first time facing off against DeLeon. I can handle it pretty well by now. I’d honestly be more nervous had I been more affected.”

“That makes sense, but don’t discount whatever is giving you nightmares right now. Even if you’ve gone through it a hundred times, it will still haunt you, even if it’s just a little bit. Just make sure you’re managing that, and talking to people if you need to.”

I scoffed, “Yeah, I’ll make sure to talk to the team that has lost all hope in me.” I didn’t mean for it to sound that harsh, but I could see Derek flinch just slightly. He opened his mouth to say something, but I beat him to it. “I get it, though. I told a lot of lies, I wrecked a lot of things, and I’m sure you asked yourselves who was really to blame for all of this. Did Xena really deserve that? Was DeLeon really the bad guy, or just another poor soul with the misfortune of getting caught up in the Chambers tornado? Hell, I even wonder why you guys came for me sometimes.”

“Hey,” Derek jumped in very quickly, “Don’t ever doubt that. I know things are in a bad place, a lot of broken trust to go around, but don’t ever think that we’d just let you die. You still mean something to us. Some more than others.”

I knew who he was talking about and I wanted to laugh in his face. “Yeah, I’m sure I still mean a ton to the guy that doesn’t even want to be caught looking at me.”

“You do. You know, he spent every free moment he had trying to figure out what was up with you. He lost so much sleep over it that Hotch had to order him to drop it and take vacation time so he could rejuvenate.” My mouth fell agape, and my eyes went wide. “And before you ask, I’m dead serious.”

“How does Maeve feel about that, then? Especially now that I’m back?” I wondered.

“She’s supportive of him, of course,” of course, “but it isn’t paradise. We were all worried how it would be for them once they actually could see and spend time with each other. To me, it seems like all they have to connect on is their shared intellect.”

I opened and shut my mouth a couple times, trying to come with the right question. All I could land on was, “What do you think that means?”

“I think it means that things were great when all they had to talk about was genius stuff, but now that they’re together, there’s very little else going on, like no emotional or physical connection.”

I took this all in, and Derek let me, but then he asked, “But what about that Mateo character?”

I smiled a little, “What about him?” He raised his eyebrows at me. “He’s good. He and I had a thing before I joined the FBI, and we picked up right where we left off when I got back.”

“So…” Derek prompted.

“So things are good,” I bit my bottom lip and looked over at Derek.

He wiggled his eyebrows at me. “I met him, Aundreya. I looked that six foot four figure all the way up and down, and you’re telling me things are just good?”

I chuckled, “If you must know, the sex is amazing.” He laughed right along with me, but I finished with, “But we’re different people than we used to be. Yeah, we still have a really good relationship outside of the bedroom, but it’s just…”

“Different?” Derek helped. I nodded. He contemplated this for a moment and then followed with, “Why’d you come back?”

“I had to,” I answered, but I needed something more to convince him, “My ring is amazing, and I can still stay in contact with them from here, but I don’t really feel like I fit anywhere anymore. I don’t know, I guess I just thought that this was the one place where I knew for sure I was doing good, saving lives, and fighting people who deserved to be locked up. I guess I’m just searching for that feeling again.” It was meant to be a quick lie so that he’d believe my motives for coming back, but after I said it, I realized it wasn’t all that far from the truth.

He nodded, and then we spent the next half hour or so in silence, just staring at the stars out in the middle of the desert. Eventually, we packed up and headed back to the hotel, knowing that we still had a lot of work to do in the coming days.

# # # # # # # # # # # # #

We closed the case within the next two days, and were scheduled to leave the next morning. We collected our things and headed back to the hotel. Overall, the team was being civil with me. We came in, did our work, and then went our separate ways. I was okay with that. I had to be.

I crashed on the hotel bed the moment I shut the door behind me. No one was rooming with me, another thing I didn’t mind, and was about to change out of my clothes when I heard a knock at the door. I assumed it was either Hotch, Rossi, or Morgan, but when I opened it, it was a completely different mop of hair standing in front of me.

“Can I come in?” Spencer asked. I opened the door wider and stepped to the side, allowing him to brush by me. I shut the door and leaned my back against it, waiting for him to speak. He was standing fairly far away from me when he started, “I owe you an apology.” I just stared at him, so he took a deep breath and continued, “I haven’t been treating you fairly. A lot has happened recently, and instead of talking to you, I just avoided you, which was wrong of me. I know it’s going to take a lot for us to trust each other again, but you’ve already done so much for me, despite how awful I’ve been to you, and I need you to know that I appreciate you. Everything you’ve done for me, for Maeve, and for the rest of the team. I-”

“How is she, by the way?” I interjected. I don’t know what possessed me to ask, because I didn’t actually want to know, but after what I heard from Derek, I was interested in his answer.

“Oh, uh, she’s good,” he rushed. “How’s Mateo?”

I knew that was coming the moment I asked about Maeve, but I also wasn’t going to give him an in depth answer, “Good as well.”

We stood there awkwardly for a moment before Spencer cleared his throat, “Anyways, I just wanted to say thank you, I’m sorry, and I hope that we can try to just … work together like we used to?”

“Sure,” I nodded, “That would be good.”

The corners of his mouth curved up and he whispered a little ‘okay’ to himself, and then approached the door. I was still leaning against it, and I let him get all the way near me before I moved to the side. So he’s still willing to stand in close proximity to me. I wonder…

Right as he reached for the door handle, I did too, making sure our hands touched. He didn’t pull away, he didn’t even flinch, and we opened the door together.

We locked eyes for a second longer than we normally would have, maybe longer than we should have, but then I stepped back and said, “I’ll see you tomorrow?”

“Yeah, yes,” he stumbled on his words a little, “I’ll see you then.”

I gave him a tight-lipped smiled and he returned it, then we went to our respective rooms, wondering exactly what that all meant.

Series Taglist

@justanothetfangirl @kris-stuff @blameitonthenight21 @wooya1224 @unded-bride @swiftingday @dezzxmx

#aundreya chambers #criminal minds fanfic #bau x oc #spencer x oc #criminal minds #criminal minds fandom #cm #criminal minds fanfiction #bau #behavioral analysis unit #spencer reid #reid #derek morgan #morgan #david rossi #rossi #hotch #garcia #prentiss

12 notes · View notes

i-just-love-spop · 4 years

Note

8, 40, 48 and 78 for Scorfuma kids, please? :D sorry if it's too much tho :( (I love your oc's they're so cute 😔💖)

@leiazh Awww, thank you for loving my characters so much, that you do makes me so happy 😢💖

And it’s fine, always feel free to ask as many questions about them as you want, I had a lot of fun answering this one, so thank you! Just... be warned that the answer might take a while and also possibly be... really long 😅🤣

This whole thing is about 4.2k words long... whoops.

I answered the questions in order, the kids are sorted from oldest to youngest for each question (except for the twins who are the same age, nobody really knows who‘s older since they were born via c-section and their parents either didn’t ask or at least didn’t tell them [the kids don’t know which one of these is true], although Kohana does insist she’s the older twin).

I also didn’t include Frosta as a character in the ask for this one despite her being the oldest Scorfuma-kid, since she’s not my character and most of these questions wouldn’t have made much sense to answer for her anyway, since they get answered in the show, so it’s just the five kids that are actually my own characters.

Frosta does show up in some of the answers, though, obviously, along with Scorpia and Perfuma.

Also, please don’t take the way I sorted the “good” and “bad” traits too seriously – some of these would definitely be considered good or bad by most people, but other things like shyness aren’t really good or bad, they just can make your life more difficult in certain situations (which I say as a shy person) and I had to sort them into one of the categories somehow so I could include them at all.

I hope you have fun reading!

8. What are their good and bad traits?

Clover

Good traits

He tries to help his moms any way he can, both around the house and in the garden, and will do so without being asked to do it. He’s a very caring older brother that will gladly get up in the middle of the night if one of his younger siblings is upset and needs him, and he’ll also stay up late and read them to sleep when their moms are preoccupied. He’s really good at cooking and often does it for the whole family, and he’s also very creative and makes really beautiful flower arrangements. He rarely has any trouble focusing on what’s important, and he’s very enthusiastic about the things he loves, so much that it’s infectious.

Bad traits

He has trouble dealing with some of his insecurities and will lash out at others when he doesn’t know how else to handle them. He also worried about being a bother to other people when he’s upset and will often keep quiet about what’s making him sad or angry or scared rather than opening up about his emotions. He often comes off as cold to people that don’t know him very well because of this.

He also has a bit of an attitude around people he doesn’t like.

Thorn

Good traits

She always tries to take care of her friends and family and, if possible, keep them out of trouble, and she’d never say no if someone needs her help. For most people, it’s really hard to dislike her because she’s always friendly and polite and cares a lot about others, always tries to give the best advice she can and brings fresh food from the family garden everywhere. She’s really outgoing and has a relatively large friend group because of that.

Bad traits

She’s kind of naive, to a point where her desire to help others lands her in trouble every now and again because she ends up being exploited in one way or another – she doesn’t have a very good judge of character, and because of this, she has “friends” that just befriend her because she’s the crown princess, and she’s so excited to be making new friends that she doesn’t question their intentions very often, especially when she’s still a child.

It’s especially bad with a person she meets when she’s about ten, who she likes a lot, but who her parents are always kind of wary around – whenever that particular kid shows up around their house, things start disappearing, especially Thorn’s favorite toys.They eventually ask her about it, and she just says that her friend liked them so much that she gave them to the other kid, but the way she says it makes it pretty clear that she’s actually really unhappy about it and really misses her toys.

She’s actually kind of like Adora to a certain degree – she doesn’t take her own happiness into account that much and rather makes sure everyone else is happy first... but her family and her real friends always have her back and make sure she’s also having fun and feeling happy. Messing with her is not a very good idea, and if only for the relatively large Thorn-protect-squad.

Willow

Good traits

They’re really smart and pretty patient when it comes to learning new things, and they like trying out stuff they’ve never done before.

When it comes to their friends and loved ones, they show affection openly and often and even get pretty bubbly despite usually being so shy.

They’re also a really good listener and don’t back down when it comes to speaking up against someone who’s being mean to other people – they’re also extremely loyal. Their friend group isn’t huge, but if they befriend someone and that person makes them happy, they’ll go to the ends of the world for them, are extremely supportive of their goals and help them achieve them if they can.

Bad traits

They’re a... bit forgetful when it comes to certain stuff – especially things like watering plants, but also where they last put their things – including the tracker pad that’s literally in their hands when they start looking for it. They probably have the tidiest room in the entire house, and they still never freaking find anything.

They’re also really shy, so they don’t make friends very easily, and they also take criticism very personal despite not openly showing it a lot of times because they’re too embarrassed to – when someone tells them they think Willow is annoying or weird, they’re just going to keep quiet about it and then crawl into bed to cry when they get back home. They’re confident when it comes to protecting others, but they’re also really insecure when it comes to being criticized themselves.

If they’re genuinely hurt by someone, they can’t just laugh it off two days later... they take a long time to forgive others, especially if it’s people that know what they’re insecure about and still push their buttons anyway.

Aster

Good traits

He cares a lot about his family, and always knows how to cheer his siblings and especially his twin up when they’re upset. He’s also not afraid to make mistakes and doesn’t get very nervous about giving a wrong answer when he’s asked things because for him, wrong answers only mean that you learn new things you didn’t know before. If he’s good at something that his friends can’t do, he often offers to teach them and would never brag about it. He’s also really good at playing the drums.

Bad traits

He’s extremely chaotic and can also get pretty loud. He also likes fighting – sometimes it’s just friendly wrestling with his sister, and that’s fine, but they might end up breaking some stuff when they wrestle, and after he connects to the Heart Blossom, he often underestimates his powers or uses them accidentally, which results in both huge chaos and often at least smaller injuries. After he learns to control his powers better, the number of injuries decreases, but the chaos remains, especially when he and Kohana start deliberate making their powers a part of their friendly but heated competitions. They once tore half of Catradora’s living room apart on semi-accident – Finn was very excited. He’s also not good at listening when people tell him what to do – his parents sometimes get through to him, and Frosta often does, but most people out of his family don’t.

Kohana

Good traits

She’s open-minded, more likely to listen to others than her brother is, and she has a pretty healthy sense of humor. She’s also the best fighter out of all the kids – she’s been taking lessons from Frosta, Lonnie and Catra respectively since she was about ten. She’s courageous and creative and if she’s certain someone’s apology is sincere, she’s pretty forgiving, even to people who have hurt her in the past and maybe don’t deserve it. She’s also trustworthy – if you tell her a secret, she’s going to take it to her grave. She also always takes her time to pick out heartfelt birthday gifts for the people she loves because while she’s not that good with words, she still likes finding ways to make their day.

Bad traits

She’s really, really impatient and gets bored and frustrated easily – if she doesn’t manage to succeed at something during the first or at least second attempt, she just gives up frustratedly and goes on to punch something to let out her frustration. She also gets jealous really easily, especially if people learn the things she can’t do really quickly.

Like her twin brother, she’s really into fighting for fun, and she also doesn’t really learn how to pick her fights for a while. Since she’s connected to the Black Garnet rather than the Heart Blossom, she also causes destruction way more easily than Aster does. She’s also more scary than her brother if she wants to be – think chipped-Scorpia level scary.

40. If I wanted to draw them, what would be distinct physical features that I would have to know to draw them correctly?

Clover

He has yellow skin, short teal hair that’s a bit curly, pink eyes, cyan wings – the left one is torn slightly at about 3/4 of the wing which is why that one is harder to move for him – and regular elven ears that are his skin color yellow outside and a darker yellow inside.

He’s the shortest Scorfuma-child except for Frosta, about one head shorter than Willow.

Also technically not a physical feature, but he rarely ever wears formfitting clothes.

Thorn

I posted a princess maker pic of her a while back (along with pics of some of my other next gen kids), but most distinctive physical features would be: Short curly white hair (about chin-length) with flowers in it, a red scorpion tail – which is actually her only Scorpioni-trait –, dark brown eyes and Perfuma’s skin-tone.

As an adult, she’s actually the second tallest of the kids, about as tall as Scorpia.

She’s the one that’s based off of Rae’s Scorfuma-child.

Willow

I also posted a princess maker pic of them when I made their bullet point list, but most distinctive physical features would be:

They have dark skin and dark brown eyes, freckles, curly black hair that almost reaches their shoulders, and their Scorpioni parts are black rather than red like Scorpia’s. They’re kind of short as a kid, but pretty tall as an adult – not quite as tall as Scorpia, but almost that tall, and also at least somewhat buff.

Also, I know this isn’t a physical feature, but they always walk around with that little flower trinket in their chest – Sagi has a similar one. He found it in a box when he was little and when Willow saw him with it, they promptly decided they wanted the same one, so their parents got them the same one. Neither Willow nor Sagi take them off very often, they actually still wear them well into adulthood.

Aster

He has freckles, dark brown eyes and extremely short white hair which you can see would probably be a lot more curly should he choose to grow it out. His skin-tone is somewhere in between Scorpia’s and Perfuma’s. He also has some red Scorpioni-features – the shoulders, the tail and the waist-parts.

He’s shorter than his twin sister Kohana for most of their childhood, but eventually outgrows her by about five inches when they‘re in their teens.

He’s also the only one of the kids that actually ends up being taller than Scorpia when he’s fully grown.

Kohana

She has dark brown eyes, Scorpia’s skin-tone and freckles, also long straight blond hair that she usually grows out to about waist-length and then wears in really any kind of plait, but most often a ponytail, but she cuts it off almost completely on a couple of different occasions throughout her life, mostly because it sometimes if it gets in her way or on her nerves all of a sudden.

She has pincers, as well as the knee and waist-Scorpioni-features.

She also has her ears pierced and likes wearing different kinds of colorful earrings from a pretty early age on, often even mismatching ones.

She’s relatively tall, give or take about as tall as Willow, maybe slightly taller, which makes her almost as tall as Scorpia.

And, again not a physical feature, but she also has either flowers or grass or both either on her clothes or in her hair at all possible times, varying from stuff like flower crowns and actual jewelry to just a grassy reminder on her shirt that she had another wrestling match with Aster in the garden.

48. What does their room look like?

Clover

His room is pretty tidy for the most part.

He has shelves filled with astronomy, gardening and cooking books that his siblings often lend and that are then never returned to him again – except for the cooking books because he’s made it very clear that he can’t cook as well as he usually does without them when too many of them disappeared that one time.

He also has a bunch of different CDs because he’s really into music – he can’t play any, but he really likes listening to it –, and he also has a couple really terrible old movies that he likes to make fun of with his parents and siblings, especially if one of them is having a bad day, as well as some children’s books that he often read to Willow and the twins when they were little and then kept because of the good memories.

He has a photo album where he keeps pictures of all his loved ones that he always keeps somewhere close to his bed, and an old baby blanket that he brought from the orphanage, which was the only memento he actually wanted to keep when it became clear that Scorpia and Perfuma would stay his moms for the rest of his life.

Thorn

Her room is very flowery, different potted plants standing on most of her wooden furniture as well as embroidered flowers on her white curtains.

The room is kind of tidy, but there’s a lot of notebooks and pens scattered all over it – she started keeping a diary pretty much since she first learned how to write, and she keeps all of them so she can look at her memories whenever she wants. When she’s a teen, she also picks up a habit of writing – sometimes stories, but more often, poems, which she keeps locked up in a treasure chest because she’s too shy to show them to anyone.

There’s a bunch of different genre novels on her shelf – she’s mostly into RomComs, stories about friendship and horror –, she also has a bright pink meditation mat that’s always lying on the floor in front of her bed for when she needs to relax, along with a tea set that her parents gifted her.

She also has a secret stash of sweets to make herself feel better whenever she’s upset that she keeps in a jewelry case with a false bottom in a drawer in her bedside table.

Willow

They have a bunch of cacti in their room, because they’re the only plant that Willow can actually have that they don’t accidentally end up killing after, like, a week of constantly forgetting to water them. Most of them are on their window sill. Their room is probably the tidiest in the entire house, including their parents’ bedroom. They have a calendar over their bed, a bunch of fluffy pillows and a mint-green blanket on their relatively large bed. They’re also the one that got to keep Scorpia’s little scorpion plushie – Frosta had it for a while after she was adopted, then Thorn until Scorpia and Perfuma adopted Clover, and then Willow got it. The twins each got their own separate plushie, so Willow ended up keeping this one, and it’s been sitting on top of their science book shelf since they turned twelve.

There’s a fluffy colorful carpet on the floor, and some equally colorful curtains to fit the picture, and a really bright nightlight on their bedside table that they‘re allowed to leave on day an night if they want to.

Willow also always has their swim gear somewhere in reach, which is probably the only thing in the room that they never end up searching for.

There’s also a bunch of different photos all around their room – family photos, and of their friends, mostly photos of Willow and Sagi and also some of them with Angie.

Aster and Kohana

They share a room for most of their childhood, so I’m going to do them together.

The fact that they share a room is mostly because it was just easier that way when they were little – they were offered to get separate rooms when they grew older, but they didn’t want to, and only actually end up getting separate rooms when they’re around fifteen years old.

These two are chaos incarnate, and so is their room. There’s books and toys all over the place, but despite that, both of them always know where everything is, surprisingly – and if one of them asks the other to hand them something, the other does it immediately without ever searching before. Their parents sometimes joke about how that’s their real magic skill rather than their connection to the Runestones.

There’s also a sword somewhere amidst the chaos that’s hopefully but probably not a toy that Frosta got them for one of their birthdays, as well as Aster’s ice skates and aways at least one canvas that Kohana starts painting on and then gives up on at least three times a week until she’s eventually satisfied and it gets hung up on the wall in the hallway or the dining room. Because of this, there’s also tons of art supplies scattered everywhere, and a huge red stain on the otherwise light brown carpet where she accidentally knocked over a cup of paint, tried to clean it up and just made everything worse. They sometimes joke about how someone that got on their nerves was murdered there.

There’s also a bunch of pictures on their wall.

They’re often just standing in the middle of their mess, painting and drumming, respectively.

78. If they had a nightmare, who would they run to?

Honestly, that really depends on who’s around in the scenario with most of them, but I’m just going to go with “if they could pick literally anyone”.

Clover

Perfuma, that’s not even a question. He’s thirteen when he’s adopted, so it’s not the kind of “mommy there’s a monster under my bed”-nightmares, but he does have some bad dreams about more serious topics – he doesn’t remember much about his biological parents, but sometimes he hears shouting at the back of his mind when he closes his eyes and wonders if it’s them, and sometimes he has dreams about being back at the orphanage with that one kid that bullied him.

He then knocks at his mothers’ bedroom door softly, enters and wakes Perfuma – she told him very early on that she doesn’t care how late it is, he’s always allowed to wake her or Scorpia if he needs them –, and when he wakes her up, the first time she does is leave the room with him to talk to him alone for a moment. She always asks if he wants her to wake up her other mom as well, and sometimes he does because sometimes the only thing he needs is to cuddle with his moms on the couch in peace until he calms down...

But especially shortly after the adoption, he don’t want to feel like a burden to his new adoptive parents, and it’s worse enough that he’s annoying one of them – he’s pretty afraid they’re just going to decide they don’t want him after all if he turns out to be too difficult of a child, because he has friends and acquaintances that were adopted and eventually cane back to the orphanage because the adoption didn’t work out –, and despite Scorpia being the softest, friendliest person he has ever met, he’s also kind of intimidated by her at first because she’s so tall and buff and he is a really short forest elf, which is why it’s a little easier for him to talk to just Perfuma about his nightmares at first. ...and he also gets a little overwhelmed with multiple people questioning why he’s feeling bad sometimes, even if they mean well, so sometimes one person works better for him.

Scorpia sometimes feels insecure about this, but really, she just wants her kid to be happy, and if her wife can help him more than she can, that’s fine, and she’s obviously not going to blame him for it or make him feel bad about it.

Perfuma always makes him tea if he wants one, and then they’ll just cuddle under a blanket on the couch, and if he wants to talk, she’s going to let him talk, but she’s also not going to force him to speak to her about things he’s not ready to talk about. Sometimes, she tells him stories from her childhood to show him he isn’t alone with at least some of his fears, but of course only if he wants her to. Sometimes she’ll just take him outside into the garden so he can get some fresh air and lay down in the grass to look up into the sky and at the stars – he’s really into astronomy, and if he can’t talk about what’s bothering him, telling her stories about different constellations always calms him down and makes him feel better, so she will gladly listen to that for several hours if that’s what he needs.

...that, and also sometimes he just needs to hear that mom will kick someone’s ass with flowers if they bother him again.

Clover and Perfuma grow really close pretty quickly if you couldn’t tell.

Thorn

When Thorn has a nightmares, she usually just wakes both of her moms when she’s little – this changes a bit as she grows older and realizes there’s different kinds of help she needs depending on how upset she is and what kind of nightmare she had. Sometimes meditating with Perfuma helps her calm down and feel better, sometimes she just need Scorpia’s hugs and some hot cocoa – but honestly, this can be applied to most situations when she’s upset, not necessarily just nightmares.

Sometimes, also just she really needs someone to talk to, and, depending on the topic, it’s easier to just talk to one of them instead of both because she knows which one of her moms will understand her fears better, but sometimes she also just needs both of them.

She rarely ever goes back to her own bed after a nightmare and instead just climbs into bed with her parents.

Sometimes, when they stay over at Bright Moon, she also goes to cuddle with Arrow when she’s scared because Arrow glows and that calms her down – and also, Arrow will absolutely stage a kitchen robbery for some sweets in the middle of the night just to cheer her up.

Willow

They connect with Scorpia very well very quickly, so usually it’s Scorpia that they run to after a nightmare for some late-night cuddling and the best, most beautiful singing in the world to put them back to sleep.

Willow rarely ever has any nightmares that they can put into words – they wake up terrified and shaking, but without an actual memory of what they’re so afraid of, so there’s usually not a lot of talking involved. Scorpia usually makes them some tea, then sings to them and leaves the lights on when her child falls back asleep so that they’re not as scared anymore when they wake up again. After particularly bad nightmares when Willow doesn’t want to sleep again at all, Scorpia usually just puts on a movie or two until eventually, their tiredness catches up to them and then Scorpia sleeps on the couch with her kid sleeping on her chest.

They also often wake up Thorn who allows them to sleep in her bed and then reads to Willow until they fall asleep. When it’s especially bad, she hands out some of her precious emergency candy to make them feel better.

Aster and Kohana

Since Aster and Kohana share a room, the first person they usually wake is each other – sometimes deliberately, and sometimes accidentally, either by waking up screaming or by turning on the light.

After that, who they run to depends which one of them had the nightmare – if possible, they both like to wake Frosta who will definitely beat up any possible monster under their beds.

Other than that, Aster usually wakes Clover who takes their minds off things by either going downstate with them for a midnight snack that they prepare together, or by reading funny stories to them where the hero always wins and defeats the bad guys – he then convinces them that the stories about the good guys winning are way too scary for any possible monsters in their room and that they’ve long fled by the time the story ends, but also offers to read another one, then another and another of they’re not completely convinced. This goes on until they fall asleep, and sometimes Clover doesn’t even make it back to bed and just falls asleep in a chair in between their beds while he’s reading.

Kohana on the other hand usually wakes Scorpia, especially after she’s learned to control her magic more, so her mom can help her practice her magic outside to take her mind off things and help her feel stronger. Aster often joins in on the training as well, and then they end up being so exhausted that not only do they fall back asleep when Scorpia puts them back to bed afterwards and sings them to sleep, but they also sleep in in the morning – which rarely ever happens to any of the kids, but especially not to those two with their seemingly endless amount of energy.

—

Here are the questions again if anyone wants to ask anything else.

#scorfuma #scorpia #perfuma #spop #she-ra #scorfuma kids #she ra #she-ra oc #my ocs #spop Clover #spop Thorn #spop Willow #spop Aster #spop Kohana #answered #spop next gen

11 notes · View notes

oc-rehab-centre · 5 years

Text

[HNK OC Review] Sapphire

Hey there guys, gals and other gendered pals! This account has been rather quiet as of late, wouldn’t you say? A shame indeed, although we received our first public OC review request today. While the user would prefer to be left anonymous on this post, this review is available for you and them to read through. So sit down, relax and let’s do a quick review of this Houseki No Kuni OC!

Part 1 - Biography Analysis

+ some quick words in advance!

What there was to read of Sapphire’s bio was admittedly scarce. The amount of information chalked up to about 1 page and just over 500 words. While shorter character biographies are quicker to read and easier to get through - I’m a firm believer that when it comes to telling your OC’s story and telling us about them, more is always great! I would definitely suggest adding more to this bio and there are several templates for OC bios available on platforms like DeviantART and Amino.

Also, apologies if I’m mistaken, but it looks as if this and the other piece of Sapphire sent to me were created in an avatar/anime dress-up game. I’d advise instead of doing this, perhaps drawing your OC yourself or requesting/commissioning artwork from an artist instead. It just adds something more original and personal to your art and OC, plus there’s more creativity that way!

Name: Sapphire Nicknames: Saphy, the Blue Angel, Jewel

There is already a canon “Sapphire” in the Houseki No Kuni universe. However, this isn’t a huge problem. Perhaps add a colour, shade or type into her name to distinguish her from the canon character. For example, there are various diamonds in Houseki No Kuni: Diamond, Yellow Diamond and Red Diamond. Perhaps you can distinguish your Sapphire from the canon “Sapphire”. Below is a picture of some shades of sapphire and I think “Cornflower” or “Kashmir” might fit your character the best.

Credit: SpiralMuse.org

As for your character’s nicknames, perhaps add some more context, like:

Who refers to Sapphire by these names?

How did she earn these nicknames?

Does she like these nicknames?

I believe doing so would add some more dimension to your character. It would show the reader how she fits into the universe and can even allow them to determine things about their character before even reading through the entire bio. Also, I don’t think that the Gems would know what an “angel” is, given they don’t seem to have much of a grasp on human religion albeit mythological creatures stemming from these religions.

Age: Between 200-250 years old

Species: Sapphire

While I can’t say a straight-up “no” to this being an answer to this question, sapphire wouldn’t qualify as your character’s species. For this category, I’d suggest writing “Gem” or “The Bone”, as those are the most common names for the species’ of the crystalline characters in Houseki No Kuni. My apologies, just a nitpick!

Strength: 9

Sexual Orientation: Straight

Appearance: Sapphire is a blue gem with long flowing hair tied up in a ponytail. Everyone likes Sapphire’s hair because it is very sparkly and shimmers a lot in battle, making them hard to miss when they fight the Lunarians. Sapphire’s eyes are also blue. Sapphire has markings on her face which appear when she’s very angry at the Lunarians, and they don’t go away until Rutile comes to calm her down. Sapphire doesn’t like these markings but Sensei says that they make her special, but it doesn’t make her like them any more though. Sapphire has large wings made out of wax and pieces of silver that were made by Rutile, which she uses to fly and cut through her enemies with.

To begin this, in the two images that I was sent with this biography, there is very little consistency in the design, which I reckon is because the customization options varied between the two used games/apps(?). Nothing hints to this character having a wardrobe of outfits and I believe that more care should’ve gone into at least ensuring the design didn’t change so drastically and like this. Like I said, drawing it yourself or asking for art from another person can make a larger difference than you may think!

Now as for what is stated here in this portion of the bio, it is admittedly very cluttered and rather disorganized. The sentence structures are rather awkward in nature and seem to jump from one topic to the other. (eg. Rutile calming her down and Sensei’s opinion on her markings.) A few pieces of this information could definitely be removed from the “appearance” section and placed into another, like “personality” or “relationships”. Please stay true to the fact that this is an “appearance” description and not a description of everything under the sun.

There is a strong emphasis on Sapphire’s beauty and strength in this portion, which is alright, although it comes off as just slightly conceited. (Though I think I’m alone on that stance, nor was mentioning that opinion truly important lmao.) I have a slight problem with her two most apparent traits, I will confess. Sapphire’s facial markings and wings.

What struck me as odd about the facial markings is that such things have never been seen in the canonverse, it just seems so alien and frankly unnecessary. The markings are cited as only showing up when she is angry and sound as though they serve no sense or purpose other than displaying this single fact. While there is a potential for some interesting OC lore, I would personally suggest removing this feature unless you have a logical way of explaining their presence on her face/body.

The gems also wear thick coats of powder across their bodies, remember? If these markings were anywhere, I imagine they’d exist within/on Sapphire’s crystalline body and would struggle to show up through this powder... This concept is just very confusing and I can’t think of any logical reasons/examples to give you that would make them work.

Now for the wings, it’s obvious that this was inspired by the Greek tale of Icarus. I personally think that your concept is interesting but it brings up many questions, both for the sake of character-building and well, science.

Why would Rutile create Sapphire a set of wings? How come none of the other Gems get their own wings? Did it take Sapphire time to learn how to use their new wings? In Houseki No Kuni, the laws of physics are constantly defied, but seeing a character flying with wings made from a metal that is 655 lb per cubic foot seems like science the creators wouldn’t push against... Ahem, anyways, I believe these are questions you should explore if you plan on keeping the implemented features there.

Personality: Sapphire is an emotionless character who is very strong and works alone whenever she can. She thinks that she is too dangerous to work alongside other Gems because she could hurt them when she gets angry or made in battle. This is why Sapphire asks to work alone. Sapphire also wants to protect her friends very much and that’s why she’s always so angry at the Lunarians for taking away the other Gems. Sapphire also competes a lot with Phos because they’re both strong Gems only Sapphire is more loyal and useful to Sensei more than Phos was. Sapphire also doesn’t like Padparashadda very much because Padparashada isn’t helpful to Sensei either when he’s asleep all the time, and because he makes Rutile really upset which Sapphire doesn’t like.

Emotionless, hm? Given the fact that she supposedly have markings that trigger as a result of an emotion (anger), I would hardly go to say she’s emotionless. In this paragraph, she’s listed as: angry, protective, competitive, loyal and passionate - all of which are emotions.

Just like in the “appearances section”, there is information in this paragraph that would fit better elsewhere, like her relationships with the listed characters, whose affinity and history with are never explained in this bio.

I think that there are definitely more traits you could add to Sapphire’s personality. She is rather simplistic and I believe there is a lot of potential for her to be much more. Perhaps read about sapphires and find out what they symbolize for some inspiration or even randomly generate personality traits/attributes in online generators! Spice things up a little, make this OC more personal, make them feel more real.

Likes: Sensei, killing Lunarians, blue roses, King, her wings, being strong, the night time Dislikes: Phos, Padparashadda, when the lunarians get away, seeing broken gems, getting very angry

Powers: She has wings that let her fly and attack the Lunarians in order to make sure they cannot return back to the moon. Sapphire is stronger than Phos

Another useless piece of info, but you’ve spelt Padparadscha wrong a number of times. It’s not so hard to do a quick spellcheck! I probably sound like a broken record, but the wings continue not to make much sense to me, and I think you need to revisit the concept a little more. Given how you explained them, they sound very very powerful, seemingly strong without consequence. Also, the fact that Sapphire is stronger than Phos would be more believable and intriguing if Sapphire had clearer motifs and a more developed personality.

Her likes and dislikes are rather generic, which admittedly broke my interest a little. I’d suggest adding some likes and dislikes that reflect Sapphire’s character a little better than her love for murdering the Moon People.

The characters she likes and dislikes also may leave the reader curious. Though you went into slight detail about why Sapphire and Phosphophyllite aren’t besties, seeing more info on relationship with Sensei, Padpa and the aforementioned Rutile would be great.

Backstory: Sapphire was born on the Cord Shore and taken to the school by Sensei. Sapphire liked to cling to Sensei because she saw him as a father and always wanted to please him. When Sapphire was growing up, Sensei could tell that she was powerful when he saw Sapphire’s markings, which showed up when she got mad after seeing some gems return to the building broken by the Lunarians. Sensei let Sapphire fight earlier because he knew she could protect the gems with her hardness and her ability. One day, Sapphire was in battle but the Lunarians escaped too quickly, making her very angry. Rutile gave Sapphire a gift which was a set of wings made out of wax and silver so that the Lunarians could never escape her again. Sapphire’s wings were so powerful she didn’t have to use a sword anymore and could take down even more Lunarians every day with only her wings.

*inhales*

Oh boy.

Ok, uh, I feel as though Sapphire’s backstory makes her seem like a very very special snowflake - something you should never strive for with a character. Sensei and Rutile both seem to be out of character, as both seem to feed Sapphire what she wants with a silver spoon... She seems like a bratty chosen one and I can’t say this backstory will sit well with everyone.

There’s so little here that it makes me question a lot, and it frustrates me that’s there isn’t more to justify the choices and thoughts of Sensei and Rutile. Why did Sensei see such potential in Sapphire? Why would Rutile craft wings for Sapphire? Why did Sapphire get away with working alone?

There’s just so much left unanswered and unexplained... Please, if you ever decide to work on this, please add more and fill in these enormous holes. Adding a timeline would help with the pacing because when all of this is happening and at what ages Sapphire was when these events happened isn’t specified, adding to the confusion.

Fun Fact

Sapphire has never gotten broken before but she is curious about what it feels like.

Sapphire wraps herself in her wings when she sleeps.

Haha that first piece of trivia is rather cute. It reminds me of being young, seeing a friend with a cast and wondering what it feels like to break an arm or a leg. I think that’s really cute! The second - well, you already know my stance on the wings ^^’

Notes + Summary

If there is one thing that always sucks about fandom OCs, it’s that the fandoms always impose restrictions on creativity. In the case of Sapphire, I feel that a lot of the creative choices would definitely work to her benefit, but in the world of Houseki No Kuni, several aspects of her character feel unnatural and vague.

Anyways, here’s a reiteration of my main points from this review.

Please add more to this bio! There wasn’t a whole lot of information in this bio, certainly not enough for Sapphire to be considered a fleshed out OC. As a result of how short this bio is, there are a lot of holes and a lot left unexplained. There is a lot of potential for this OC to be bettered by filling in those holes wisely! You can look online for a template to find section headings you’re missing, like: relationships, statistics, etc.

Getting your own images would be pretty great! Artists are always better than doll maker games!

Altering her name just a little by a colour prefix (eg. “Cornflower Sapphire”, “Kashmir Sapphire”, etc.) would differentiate her from the canon blue Sapphire.

The removal or better explaining of the facial markings and wings would definitely be beneficial if you want to make her fit better into the series.

Sapphire is written like a special snowflake, she’s practically written like a protagonist and seems to directly challenge Phos. Perhaps tone down the amount of special features she has, there’s nothing wrong with being just average. Sometimes, looking and behaving like a wallflower can make an OC better?

Explaining Sapphire’s connections with her peers in greater detail would be beneficial, considering they seem to baby her a fair bit.

Overall, I’d give Sapphire an overall rating of 3.5/10. There just wasn’t a whole lot to work off of from this bio and what’s there is admittedly not superb. I hope this doesn’t discourage you from creating OCs and encourages you to make some changes to Sapphire. As I said, I see a lot of potential in her, as long as you fill in those holes in her bio and correct what is flawed in a way that makes sense and seems natural.

That’s all for this review, Ciao!

#OC Review #Houseki No Kuni OC #Land of the Lustrous OC

12 notes · View notes

freevoidman · 5 years

Note

My G, why does the floridian hurricane in porg’s shitshow of a fic upset you so much?

@sui-senka just pinging ya bc you replied and I figured you wouldn’t want to miss my response.

OKAY so the very short answer is she doesn’t know shit (unsurprising, but still) and clearly didn’t do any research about hurricanes, hurricane procedures, hurricane safety, or… literally anything, considering that a lot of her self-written Vergil backstory hinges on a hurricane separating him and his “lover,” making him unaware of Nero’s existence.

Her ignorance about hurricanes and the damage they can cause is practically inexcusable, considering most anything can be googled nowadays, so this had no reason to be as shit as Porg made it. This absolutely infuriates me, considering that I have lived through hurricanes, specifically, one of the worst hurricanes to hit the northeastern US.

The LONG ANSWER will be under the cut because, i’mma be real with you anon, I’m gonna tear apart Porg’s shit, and I get real mad.

Alright, so, in Porg’s fic, this bullshit comes at the end of her segment about her OC and Vergil, and why Vergil knows that he had sex with someone, but was unaware his child was alive. About seven months into OC’s pregnancy Hurricane Hugo (or, at the very least, a hurricane with matching strength TO Hugo) hits wherever she and Vergil are, they got separated during the storm, and then never reconnected. Her OC then gave birth to Nero and died during a demon attack, but Nero was not killed, and was taken off the mainland to Fortuna.

Before continuing, here are some important things to remember!

Porg has stated in her fic she placed Fortuna around the Florida Keys

She specifically cites Hurricane Hugo as the hurricane that hits and separates Vergil and her OC. She also cites this happening in the year 1989 (the same year Hugo happened). Remember this setting.

Nero’s mother is SEVEN MONTHS PREGNANT when this hurricane hits.

Nero has to be young enough to have no memories of his mother. At most, I’d say he would be a year old, and at the youngest I’d say 2 months, because he’d have to survive for at least a few hours after his mother died before people found him.

Okay? Okay.

So, for the first point of stupidity, there is absolutely no reason why Vergil and her OC should have become separated. I’m not reading off her fic directly, but I’m pretty sure that she never cited a specific reason as to why, just that they did.

During hurricanes, you get the fuck away from the coastline if you can because flooding can and absolutely will happen, and then you stay indoors. You do not go outside unless you absolutely have to, especially at night when you can’t see. The windspeed for a Category 1 hurricane, the lowest you can go before it’s classified as a tropical/severe storm, is 74 mph (119 kmph) and can cause damage to houses and cause branches or poorly rooted trees to fall. You can lose power, but it’d only be for a couple days at most.

Hurricane Hugo (or her imaginary hurricane, which would have the same strength and occur at the same time) was a Category 3. Category 3 hurricanes have the lowest wind speed at 111 mph (178 kmph). Whereas Category 1 hurricanes can do some damage, mostly through negligence or very rare circumstances, Category 3′s can rip trees out of the ground, cause serious flooding, can damage most well-built houses. It’s not fun, and picture of areas devastated by hurricanes are brutal.

So Vergil, who is a decently smart sentient being, and her OC should have NEVER gone outside, let alone be away from each other. A seven month pregnant woman would ABSOLUTELY NOT BE OUTSIDE IN A CATEGORY 3 HURRICANE. I can understand them not wanting to move away from a coastline, or abandoning their house, as they possibly would’ve had nothing to come back to, but there is NO reason why they would get separated in 1989 after a category 3. If anything, this should’ve brought them closer together.

And yet, somehow they do! And they never reconnect? How??? Porg states that this is all happening in southeastern US–there is no way any seven month woman would be able to travel far enough on her own, more than likely without a car, and be able to care for herself. Granted, Porg made her OC a full devil, but even a full devil would definitely struggle at 7 months pregnant with a baby coming in the future.

Now, I’m going to be honest, this was all the minor stuff. Now here’s where I get mad.

When people find Nero, Porg states in her fic that instead of taking an infant to the hospital, they instead take him to an orphanage on Fortuna. Remember, this is at the very least four months after a Category 3 Hurricane hit, and at most, 16 months.

Now, I live on Long Island. For those unaware, back in 2012, we had a hurricane hit us. That was Hurricane Sandy, which was a Category 1 when it hit. People here acted with confidence–it’s only a Category 1, it’s not that strong, we’ll all be fine!–and didn’t prepare properly for it.

This was one of the deadliest hurricanes of 2012. It was a Category 1.

I lived through that, and it wasn’t pleasant to say the least. I was one of the lucky folks that lived far enough away from the coast that there wasn’t any serious flooding, but even then it was rough. I was sitting on my couch looking out the window when a giant portion of a tree that had been eaten away by bugs broke off from the trunk and smashed into our front yard, only about fifteen feet away from where I was sitting. If the tree had been leaning more towards us, or the wind was blowing just strong enough, it could’ve crashed into the room and crushed me. When my dad went out to walk our dogs that night (and at this point, we’d lost power) one of those poorly-rooted trees fell over. It was pitch black outside, with heavy rain and wind making it impossible to see more than five feet in front of you. We didn’t know if he was alive, because we also didn’t know which tree fell or where he was, and we couldn’t hear each other over the wind.

And I know plenty of people that lived in worse places that didn’t leave, and they got even more fucked over in that first week. The only reason why my neighborhood got power back within a week was because we were right by two schools (my elementary and high school, ironically enough). I know people that had to go twice as long without. Some had to wait a full month because of downed trees and severe damage to the breakers in their neighborhoods.

And again–my street, my neighborhood, most of the people in my school? We were lucky, because a majority of the school body and staff lived inland. People got fucked over for YEARS after Sandy, especially those that lived on the coastline and straight up couldn’t leave, even if they wanted. Their homes were flooded, they lost thousand of dollars having to repair the damages, lost countless memories following the damages in the aftermath. This was happening more than a year after a Category 1 hurricane hit an island.

So the fact that Porg, in her godly wisdom, could go “yeah, baby Nero wasn’t taken to any place that could give him substantial care, but was instead given to an orphanage on a tiny island that was hit by a Category 3 hurricane” completely infuriates me. She did zero research, other than finding a natural disaster that happened somewhere she was familiar with, around the time when she oh-so grandly puts Devil May Cry 3, to “pull at the audience’s heart strings” is not only moronic, but completely ignorant to real people who have suffered in the aftermath of hurricanes.

There is a sentence–just as barebones as the rest of her shit writing–that describes the aftermath. That’s it. And as an added kick, Vergil doesn’t care about it, or how his lover is missing in the aftermath, even though Porg wrote him as someone who cared about her OC very, very much.

(This is arguably the most in character she gets with Vergil, by the way.)

It is entirely possible that, after a Category 3 like Hugo, that Fortuna would be fucking wrecked in the aftermath, especially if it was in the direct path, and especially where Porg put it. Fortuna is an isolated island with no obvious connection to a mainland (at least, established in the games, i haven’t read the novels). Put that next to Florida, which is well-known for getting hurricanes and tropical storms pretty regularly, and I don’t know how the fuck it would be standing, let alone in a state where it could accept an infant.

I think that stupid section was the part where I really, really hated what I was reading. In an age where the internet, where google, where there’s plenty of resources and first-hand accounts talking about hurricanes, the damage they can cause, and the aftermath of said natural disasters, Porg did nothing more than look up a Hurricane that happened around 1989 and slapped into her fic with nothing more behind it than a plot point that made zero fucking sense.

Oh, by the way? All that information I looked up about hurricane windspeed, about when Sandy and Hugo hit? It took me less than a minute to look up and fact-check myself. Porg, learn how to fucking google simple shit before you puke up your regurgitated bullshit.

#thephantomporg84 #derelict-stranger #the Ficcening #sorry this is just a kinda personal issue for me #Anonymous #it prob SHOULDN'T bother me as much #but it's still soooo fucking stupid #it's the pure embodiment of 'even if you don't know shit about dmc'#'if i tell you about THIS part you'll know it's shit and you shouldn't read'#like... i hate making comparisons here but it feels like what Onision pulled in his first book

7 notes · View notes

emiliachrstine · 5 years

Note

Alright girly I went to a talk today from an author who came to my school and it was about getting stuck in your writing & why it happens/how you can fix it and I swear the entire time I was thinking of you because you say you've lost your muse for stories and that you have no energy to write for your babies (even if you're doing okay now, it's good advice for the future) and I hate to see you struggling like that so get ready because I am gonna learn you the things I learned today ~ 🕸 (1)

Writer’s block doesn’t exist, this author says. There are two reasons people get stuck: psychological and craft. Psychological reasons are like negative thoughts (not believing in yourself, someone saying your writing sucks), thinking you have nothing original to say, dealing with perfectionism/short attention span, that kind of stuff. Craft reasons are problems with the story itself. The most important thing to do is to figure out to what extent you’re blocked for both categories

You have to remember with short attention span (getting bored with a story) that you’re constantly changing as you’re writing the story, so sometimes your story needs to change too. She used the metaphor of soup. When you sit down to make soup, you gather all your ingredients and place them on the counter. Sometimes you gotta add some more spices into your soup to rekindle your interest in that (damn good, I might add) soup.

Almost every writer can quote word for word their worst reviews, but not their best. Why? Because bad reviews take up so much space in your brain. So just knowing that negative thoughts take up more space in your brain can be helpful because it helps you focus on the good and letting that outweigh the bad. She suggested keeping every encouragement, every positive note or comment on your writing, because if you don’t, you’ll forget them and the bad stuff will take over your brain space

Now, the bad comments. Picture whatever that faceless anonymous person said to you (or the negative things you keep telling yourself). Picture a rat saying that stuff. Then picture yourself picking up that stupid rat and dropping it in a jar. Do that with every single rat that you find. When the jar is full, lock it tight and throw it in a lake, and let it sink to the bottom with all the bad comments and negative, self-deprecating thoughts, never to be seen or heard again.

Perfectionism. We all deal with it. Go on YouTube and look for a high-speed video of someone painting. They don’t start in a corner and paint a meticulous portion, then move to the next. They start with rough sketches, broad strokes in the middle of the canvas, then add the details. They keep going with the rough parts, they don’t stop there. You have to start bad and go over it and refine it before you can reach the “perfect” point you think you have to be at in the beginning.

Perfectionism has no seat at the table when you’re starting your story. It’s wonderful during revision and editing, but it should not be the driving force behind your writing. Also, if you worry that your ideas or words aren’t original enough, it’s okay. Originality will come through as you go, you can write your way there. It’s in the details, which you add after you lay down your foundation, your broad strokes in the middle of the canvas.

Now for the craft reasons you can get stuck in the middle of the story. It’s worth noting that you can’t solve these issues until you quiet down the negative voices of the psychological issues. Usually people get about a quarter of the way through a story before they hit a wall. From there you can either embrace the wall and take that time to think about the structure and architecture of your story, the shape of the whole thing, or you can back up and look at it.

You can only see so much of your story on your tiny computer screen. Sometimes you need to back up and look at the whole thing to see why you might be hitting that wall. You could draw out the rising action and climax and such. You could print out the whole story and look at it on your floor. Whatever it is, take a step away from the tiny section that’s been a pain in your ass and remember to look at the big picture.

Also, when you make a situation urgent enough, when you give the characters what they want just out of reach, it lends to the story momentum. Watch any movie and pause it with 20 minutes left. If the movie ended there, would you be satisfied with the ending, or would it tick you off because there’s still unresolved problems? If you’re stuck, ask if you’re bored because you haven’t given your characters high enough stakes. When they know what they want, you’ll know what happens next.

Wow that was a lot of asks. Sorry if that was too much information or if I overstepped at all. I did it out of love, I swear. It just kills me to see you and other authors struggling with something that should be fun and stress-free. I also just really appreciated the talk today and I wanted to share it because it’s really good advice that I also need to remember in the future. So those are your very long Positivity Asks™️ for tonight. Much love, sweet Emilia.

Okay I know this is quite a bit, but I feel like everyone should read this. I’ve just been reading these messages in my inbox over and over again, and honestly it really made me sit back and think. I started to think which of these could be the reason why my muse is just dying. I think trying to be a perfectionist and crafting is part of the issue, but I believe the biggest one is thinking that my writing is…well, crap. I read all of these amazing fanfics and am just floored by the talent people on here possess. And it does make me look at my own writing and I cringe. I often feel like my writing is poor, that my storylines/ocs are convoluted or just dumb. That my writing style isn’t strong enough to produce a good story. And, if I can be completely honest, that’s part of the reason why I don’t read a lot of fanfiction anymore. Because I know that I’ll eventually compare my writing to theirs and get so discouraged. It’s so stupid, trust me I know and I am trying my absolute best to grow out of that mindset. But it’s really hard. Especially when I struggle with reviews (that’s a whole other conversation I’m not in the mood to have right now). I’ve been coming up with more ideas to put into Renegades and it does get me insanely excited. But the minute I go to write more, I immediately go back into that mindset of not being good enough. That my words won’t convey what I’m trying to put out properly. It’s just a vicious cycle and I hate it.

But thank you nonnie for sending me these messages. It really has given me a lot to think about. I’ve been slowly chipping away at the next chapter for Renegades and I am hoping that this will give me some sort of boost! The fact that you even took the time to send me all of these messages really means a lot!! THANK YOU!!

#answered #my mysterious anon #let's see if I can go write more #long post for ts #long post //#Anonymous

3 notes · View notes

writer-and-artist27 · 7 years

Text

10Q x a billion

Tagged by: @owlsofstarlight

Put under the cut for the sake of not being long.

1. What’s one genre you really love the idea of, but are disappointed when you go to read/watch it?

Romance, because so many harem shows and so on just make it way too dramatic and painful to get through. Aside from Cardcaptor Sakura and stories like @langwrites‘ Catch Your Breath, which did amazing Slow Burn, I rarely go into Romance genre stuff.

2. Feelings about fire in general? (where my fellow pyros?)

Neutral. As long as it can help keep the house warm and cook food, I’m good.

3. Which of your OCs is the kinkiest?

In terms of hints/innuendos? Hikari, since she does tease Judai on occasion when they’re alone. Of course, this happens when Tomoko is not around. Hisako does troll Tomoko a little bit herself, but not in that category since sex-related stuff is very iffy for Tomo in general.

4. What is the one thing you most want a fan to say someday?

“Could I draw fanart for you?” or “I was hoping if I could write a fanfic of your fanfic?”

I’d be squealing all day if that happened.

5. Which OC do you think readers will like the most?

From personal opinion? Tomoko, Hisako, and Hikari, since those three ladies stand out so much in CP and in S&S. From what I’ve seen of FFN reviews though, Hikari’s the Ensemble Darkhorse, and that’s awesome.

6. Were your OCs born naturally, with pharmaceutical assistance, or via c section?

Aside from Hisako, because Nobody status for Tomoko, all my OCs were born naturally. I honestly think Judai was the only one that came from c-section, because his mother (and in turn, Tomoko’s paternal grandmother) suffered from some health problems. I can’t expand on it aside from that because I haven’t exactly thought about Judai’s parents. For as long as Judai himself knew, he was an orphan.

7. What is the single emotion that is the absolute hardest for you to write? (loneliness, loss, hopelessness, joy, etc)

Seething anger to the point of extreme action. I can get close with my empathy and sympathy to many different emotions, but anger in that level (where a character might even kill or something) is something I can’t imagine. Nor the simple mess that is Orochimaru’s craftiness, because all he is in my head is a pedophile snake that deserves to die.

8. If your OC were a cookie, what sort of cookie would they be?

Tomoko would be a sweet red velvet cookie. Hikari would be macademia nuts, Judai a chocolate chip protein cookie (because ninja status), and Hisako would be peanuts and M&Ms.

Tomoya, on the other hand, I see being birthday cake, because she’s still figuring out who she is past her assigned male gender.

The Hitoshi family would all be oatmeal cookies that got badly burnt in the oven. :d

9. How important do you think it is to describe a character’s appearance?

Pretty important, but not so much to where you dedicate entire pages to them. The reader should get an idea of how they look, but also leave some room for interpretation/fanart opportunities. Hence why when I do describe appearances in writing, they’re simple and sweet so that art has a leeway to come in.

10. And, spitballing off that, which OC do you think is the prettiest?

Right now? Hikari, since she can rock almost any outfit. Also helped by how she makes her own clothes. Tomoko is still growing, but she’ll get there.

11. Your absolute most evil OC is startled by a toaster popping. What happens next?

Mamoru (the original Drunk Guy) would kinda smash it with an alcohol bottle. Only for Natsumi to go on and yell at him because that was still a perfectly okay toaster. Satoru would be rolling his eyes and heading out the window to avoid another argument on his parents’ parts.

12. One of your OCs is in a Disney animated movie. What’s the “big” song of that movie? (Pocahontas’ was “Colors of the wind,” Aladdin was “A Whole New World,” Hercules was “Zero to Hero” etc.)

If it was Tomoko, the song would be Let’s Just Live from RWBY Volume 4. Simple as that.

For Hisako, it’ll be Neon, also from RWBY, this time being Volume 3.

For Hikari, it would probably be Taylor Davis’s violin cover of My Heart Will Go On from Titanic.

Judai naturally gets Teardrop by BOWL.

Tomoya would probably get something like Mirror Mirror, Part 2 from RWBY Volume 3.

13. Do you think having to write while stuck out in the wilderness by yourself (in a heated cabin, food and water but no wifi, tv, or phone service) would help or hurt?

I think it would help for a while, since I get peace and quiet, not to mention my laptop already having offline editing accessible. But after a few weeks, I would just get worried about how to get back to my family, since I’m still living with them and I love them very much.

Leo and Josh would probably be the first ones to blow a gasket out of worry about me, aside from my Mom and Dad.

14. You have written or thought about writing dirty fanfiction. What is it?

…Really? You’re asking this? From the sex-repulsed, demiromantic?

Well, I thought of fanfics where an adult Tomoko and Kakashi went and did it, but got too much second-hand embarrassment to even think of writing. I’m not even going to bring Kei into this, because Lang kinda had to witness my reaction to the revelation of Kei and Kakashi’s relationship going sexual by OSF firsthand last year, and it’s sorta painful to look back on because getting triggered sucks.

15. Someone offers you thirty million dollars to ghostwrite a book about how Hell is real and all dogs go there, good or bad. Do you do it?

Nope. My uncle has a sweet Corgi dog by the name of Yuko, and I do not want to think about a story where all dogs go to Hell. Yuko deserves better, and I can get the money elsewhere. If anything, I’d just point at that person with a blank face, say, “You’re just a scam,” and walk off.

16. You will automatically get a million dollar contract for anything you write, but it has to be at least five thousand words long AND you can only use as many letters of the alphabet as complete pullups you can do. How does that work out?

I’d have to exercise more, because I do more push-ups and rollerblading than pull-ups. So no. I’d prefer writing for fun, not for the money.

17. Your dog turns into a person and writes a book about your lives together, and it gets turned into a movie. During the premiere of the movie, your dog turns to you and tells you that Hell is a place of our own making. What kind of popcorn do you order?

I would order a medium popcorn with extra butter. And I don’t think I should worry about the dog part since I actually don’t have a dog. The only dog I interact with is the aforementioned Yuko, and she’s too sweet to say something like that.

18. What’s a genre of fiction you don’t think you’d ever get the hang of writing?

Smut, because sex-repulsed demiromantic here. And any despair-inflicting stuff since I know fluff runs in my veins so much better, hence why I’m still surprised about the Danganronpa crossover that’s been going in my head. Hell, the things my head has come up with for S&S Tomoko past the Memory Arc have been less than cheery, and I have to thank Lang and by extension, Os and Abalisk for getting me out of that mindset many times, because the things she has coming up hurt.

19. How similar is your story world to the Earth we live on?

Aside from the ninja and feudal Japan-like aspects, pretty similar. The only thing Tomoko misses is freedom of speech and democracy, because despite America’s flaws, it did allow Vy’s parents to immigrate and find better lives to meet each other.

20. What inspired any of your WIPs?

Catch Your Breath. I’ve said it enough already, and owe Lang many things.

21. What song best explains the squad in your WIP?

Let’s Just Live from RWBY. Because it’s the main theme for CP in my opinion, and going onto S&S, the message of moving forward is something I think everyone in the squad tries to aspire towards.

22. Do you use Pinterest for your characters/stories?

I have a Pinterest account, but I don’t use it. It’s kinda clunky, and Tumblr and FFN has been shown to be better in my opinion.

23. Do you have an Asshole character?

The entire Hitoshi Family. Even if Satoru hasn’t shown up in S&S (because all the flack surrounding him in his initial arc in CP was bad enough), the family’s bad.

24. What superhero is similar to or is idolized by your OCs?

I feel like Tomoko would idolize Starfire and Wonder Woman, since both had to deal with coming to new worlds and adjusting to life with new people. Not sure on the others though. Judai might sympathize with Batman, but aside from that, I’m blanking.

25. Do your protagonist and antagonist get along?

Nope. Tomoko would probably want to yell her head off at Madara for being so stupid in her opinion, and grab her Wayfinder to slash Black Zetsu with. Hisako agrees with the Zetsu sentiment, but would probably want to kill Madara more than yell at him.

Danzo on the other hand, is someone Tomoko and Hisako haven’t exactly encountered. Judai, though, would want that bastard as far away from his family as possible, since Danzo has offered Judai a place in ROOT back before he met Hikari. It was not pretty, to put it lightly.

26. How many of your current WIPs do you plan to publish, if you are publishing?

I’ve published most if not all of my WIPs on FFN. I don’t know about cross-posting on AO3, since it’s a pain in the butt, but yeah. The Danganronpa thing should come out when I get more chapters of S&S done, and when I finish the anime.

27. Is there a song that inspires you to write, or inspired any of your WIPs?

Let’s Just Live comes up yet again in this long post, but I also have to credit many of Kyle Landry’s piano covers of Kingdom Hearts, because his work on the already great soundtrack gave me the idea to make Tomoko into a pianist in the first place.

28. What trends do your OCs use/wear/etc.?

Anime-inspired kimono stuff. And casual, comfy wear that’s simple and pleasing.

29. Do you listen to music or ambiance while you write? Or just silence? If it’s music, what genre?

When I need to write somber moments, I use silence while sitting in a corner of my room. For everything else, I bring up piano music to keep up the theme of CP having piano themes.

30. Are any of your characters sassy?

All of them can be sassy in some ways, but the people that really dominate the “sassy” category have to be Hikari, Tomoya, and Hisako. Those three can really rip into someone if they want to.

31. How did you come up with the idea for your current WIP?

For CP? The simple question of, “What if Kakashi had a best friend from the near beginning?”

For S&S, though? “How would things be better or worse for Kei if she met Tomoko and they worked together?”

32. How long have you been working on your current WIP?

CP: a little over a year.

S&S: nearing a year, since its first anniversary is coming up in 2 months.

33. Are you planning to publish your current WIP?

Uh, they’re already up on FFN if that’s what you mean. Because honestly, I don’t see myself writing past fanfiction.

34. If your MCs were youtubers, what kind would they be? (ex. vlogger, artuber. booktuber, comedy, etc.)

Tomoko would be like Kyle Landry in putting up various piano covers of the songs she finds.

Hisako would be half comedy, half vlogger/booktuber as she comments on the many things she sees in Tomoko’s head and through Tomoko’s eyes. The booktuber part comes from Hisako’s home being Tomoko’s mental library, so she might be reviewing the books/memories that come her way while in front of the camera.

Hikari would probably be another musician, teaming up with Judai on occasion to be like the real life Videri String Quartet, only as a duo because they both handle stringed instruments.

Tomoya would probably put up piano covers like Tomoko, but also film advice videos for those who are trying to transition like she is.

35. What season do you associate with each of your characters, and why?

Hikari is spring, since she brings along the most cheeriness in the house when Tomoko can’t.

Tomoko is autumn, since she picks up the pieces after summer passes.

Tomoya is winter, since she’s still unsure about herself and trying to find her way in the world.

Hisako and Judai both share summer, since they can be pretty hot-headed when it comes to people they care about.

36. Is there one scene that you are particularly excited to write, or had a lot of fun writing?

In terms of scenes I’m excited to write:

CP has me waiting for Kakashi’s ANBU arc to come by, since Tomoko and Kakashi are already in a relationship at this point, and I’ll be able to flesh out both civilian and ninja sides since the two are going to be kinda separated as a result of ANBU forcing Kakashi to get his own apartment in the ninja barracks for security purposes.

For S&S, I’m looking forward to the Commencement and Memory Arcs, since October Tenth and Sorayama were two events that really impacted Kei’s life originally in CYB. Tomoko being there will lead to significantly different emotional aftermaths, so exploring that has me shaking in my shoes (in the good way).

In terms of scenes that I had fun writing…

CP had Kakashi buying his signature outfit for Kannabi in Chapter 42, because Tomoko (the innocent dork) is finally starting to recognize for real that she loves her best friend and honestly doesn’t want him to die while in the field. Also for Hikari being that fashion badass that I wanted her to be.

S&S had Tomoko’s bulging duffle bag of things in Chapter 16, since that was something I had in mind since the beginning of the brainstorming stages for the story, because Kei’s shown that she can be reckless already. Our civilian pianist, on the other hand, takes things to a completely different level, and I’m kinda sad no one commented more on that scene in the reviews anyways.

37. What would the ship name be for your favorite romantic pairing in your WIP?

For CP? KakaTomo, taking the first 2 syllables from Kakashi and Tomoko’s names to get this.

For S&S? It’s a crack and sunk ship at this point, but KeiTomo kinda grew on me since writing S&S. More so since Tomoko has been shown in S&S to be very dedicated to Kei in a way that’s different from her CP counterpart’s love for Kakashi. It would’ve been pretty interesting to explore, but talks with Lang confirmed it wouldn’t exactly work (as KeiRin shippers from CYB can probably attest to), but thoughts of it are cute to think on.

38. Are you a planner, or a pantser, or in the middle?

In the middle. I plan, but also leave enough holes for the characters to fill in with their actions.

39. What’s your favorite detail that you put into your worldbuilding?

All the family relations between the characters and how a simple network of loved ones can easily make so many changes in the Narutoverse. I’m still happy about how everyone on FFN was so receptive to the CP version of Kannabi, because that was planned from the very beginning of the story. To know that all the build-up, family and fluff moments and all, showed the natural progression of how a canon-doomed mission turned into one that was mostly heartwarming and partly bittersweet.

40. How long are your chapters, usually?

From 5k to 10k words on average. The most I’ve done, I think, is 14k words.

41. If you could meet one of your characters, who would it be?

Tomoko, since I’d be able to assure her that everything will be okay and that she doesn’t have to worry too much.

42. If you could meet any fictional character (not yours), who would it be?

Kei, since Kei’s a dork, and I think I’d be able to get her to relax a bit more by introducing all of RWBY to her and updating her on what’s happened since her past self’s death.

43. Which character is the most fun to write?

Hisako, because she’s a nicer version of Monokuma. She can say so many things that Tomoko just doesn’t say, and without any consequences.

44. Which character is the most painful to write?

To be honest, Judai, since I’m still lurking on his Interlude that expands his backstory leading up to Tomoko’s birth, and trying to make all the Yugioh GX elements transition into Naruto-terms hasn’t been easy.

45. What are some of your favorite tropes?

You Are Better Than You Think You Are, You Are Not Alone, Glomp, and True Companions.

46. What genre is your favorite to read? What genre do you usually write?

Hurt/Comfort as well as a good Mystery mixed with Fantasy are my favorites to read. For genres I write, it’s obviously Friendship, Hurt/Comfort, and Fluff.

47. Earbuds or headphones?

If given an absolute choice, earbuds because portability, but both are fine.

48. What made you want to write what it is you’re currently writing?/ What was that first spark of an idea?

As I’ve said many times before, Catch Your Breath from Lang. The next spark was actually Inoue Shiori by Hermionechan90, since her take on civilians and their relationship with ninja got me thinking.

49. What are your project’s main themes or undertones? (Yes, I do really like this question)

“Keep Moving Forward for Yourself and the People that Care for You.”

“Don’t give into your own doubts — use them as a motivation to improve yourself.”

Also, quoting Madoka from the last episode of the TV series:

“If someone tells me it’s wrong to hope, I will tell them that they’re wrong every time.”

50. Which of your characters do you relate to the most, or has the most of ‘you’ worked into them? And what aspect of you is this? (If you’re comfortable with sharing).

Tomoko obviously has the most of “me” worked into her, because of her status as an SI-OC. The biggest aspect though? Her heart, emotions, and desire to help others. That’s something I still share with her greatly, despite maturing, so seeing her grow as been a wonderful thing to witness.

51. What are the main points of inspiration/original concepts or aesthetics behind your main characters?

There’s a reason why I keep turning back to Let’s Just Live, because it shows just how much aesthetic these characters take from the song and in turn RWBY. You shouldn’t give up just yet, even when life is unfair. You have to keep moving forward, because the ones who have passed on and loved you would’ve wanted you to. If you can’t live for yourself, live for the people that are still alive and that still love you. That’s why I believe Chapter 13 of CP and Chapter 9 of S&S are still so powerful, because it’s something that Sakumo and everyone else needed to hear, and why it still stays despite all this conflict.

52. What’s your favorite quote from your project so far?

From Tomoko herself:

“Don’t take the coward’s way out. Face your pain, your mistakes, head on, and recognize what happened. You can’t change the past, but you can change the present. The future. Don’t start to cherish something when it’s long gone. Recognize what you have now, and treasure it with your life. Remember all the positive moments you’ve had, all the people you’ve loved, and just live. Don’t fear loss or pain. Take it in, endure it, and use it to help others. Because in the end, life is a gift, but short, and with the world the way it is, wouldn’t it be better to impart love and care to our loved ones before the inevitable?”

53. What’s your favorite book and why?

Don’t know if I have one aside from manga and fanfiction.

54. Do the books you like/ genre you read influence your writing style at all?

Yep. Cardcaptor Sakura was all about fluff and positive relationships, for one thing. I can’t list more off the top of my head right now, but that’s a big one.

55. Do you have a weird writer thing? Like a habit or obsession or something that’s just generally unusual when it comes to scribbling words?

Sometimes, when I’m really stressed, I just put on my headphones and pull up hairbrushing ASMR videos, because the sound of hairbrushing is surprisingly relaxing and nice when I need to get into the right working-mood.

56. Are you a hand-writer or a screen-typer?

Screen-typer.

57. What’s your favourite character from a text you’ve been forced to study and why?

Surprisingly, even though I haven’t finished the book yet, Werther from Goethe’s The Sorrows of Werther stands out, because he’s the first male protagonist I’ve seen in historical texts that is so emotional and open, and considering how my HUM professor likens his development to that of the Romanticism Movement that I already unconsciously took from, all the right bells were hit.

Tagging: No one. Whoever wants to do this, go ahead! Just pick 10 from the questions up above. :)

#owlsofstarlight #i got tagged #tag game #writing #thanks for tagging me #long post #oh gosh #this is really long #hoshino tomoko #hoshino hikari #hoshino tomoya #yuki judai #hisako #civilian pianist #the sea and stars #oc asks #tw: sex mentions

6 notes · View notes

ofsa · 7 years

Text

In which OFSA kinda sorta switches fandoms and tries to explain it all

So most of this is super duper rambly, and if you don't want to read this entire thing, long story short, is I'm jumping ship fandom wise and this blog is going to start reflecting that.

A lot of you guys have probably noticed that I don't really post anything here anymore-- at least a lot less anime gifs and a lot more original stuff like fanfiction and art. But I can't write and draw as fast as I can reblog, so that's why I've basically disappeared off of Tumblr's radar. Well, there's a reason for that.

I started this blog off as exclusively an anime blog. I remember when I first started this, I was super into the seasonal anime stuff (right around that time that Tokyo ghoul and Zankyou no Terror were premiering) and tumblr was sort of like that output for that episodical excitement.

I also remember that I was quickly unfollowing anything that wasn't anime, as I felt that, at the time, it unnecessarily cluttered up my dashboard.

So I guess you're wondering where all this is going. Well, I'm jumping ships.

I don't even remember the last time I watched a full season of anime. It might have been... Shokugeki no Soma? I actually can't even think of it. I've basically fallen off the radar for anime. So that leads us to the larger question: What replaced anime for me?

I've realized that I've turned into complete and utter kpop trash. But it's not even just a general kpop thing-- its very specifically BTS. So I'm going from the world of weeaboo to ARMY land.

There's also the large question of why I didn't simply jump blogs, and keep this one like a sort of graveyard. And I really can't come up with any rational reason other than I'm simply attached. I don't want to throw this all away. OFSA is my handle for EVERYTHING online. And I don't want to get rid of that. So it felt wrong making a new blog for kpop.

I wrote all this out for two reasons: Firstly as an announcement. I didn't want people wondering who the heck this ofsa is and why they're posting WINGS theories six months too late to these people that are most definitely not two dimensional. But more importantly, I posted this because I feel like I owe the very small amount of followers I have an explanation for why I jumped ship, and this is my apology.

Past this is just me rambling some more about the reasoning for everything and how this even came about in the first place.

My journey into kpop wasn't even on purpose. I was browsing Archive for some reading one night, and decided to try a different fandom on-- specifically kpop. At the time, I was reading mainly CanonxOC pairings, and while Archive is much less abundant with OC firs than fanfiction.net, that was the only site I knew of that had a kpop category.

So I went about my happy way, sorted by kudos and tags containing OC with F/M pairing only, and clicked sort.

It just so happened that the first story that popped up was a BTS story under the name of "To Sleep Perchance to Dream" which was a Taehyung/OC piece. I was happy with any Kpop group, and this story just happened to be the first one that wasn't in second person.

So I read the story. It was nice and fluffy and made me all nice and happy, but it wasn't like the stars aligned and I realized that I was going to completely drop anime forever. I think I tried to find some more OC stories for BTS but wasn't happy with he quality, so I didn't bother.

Well, that was the starting point. It wasn't like I stopped reading anything else. I still read Pokémon and Tokyo Ghoul and tons of other fandoms. But Kpop had popped onto my radar.

I dont even remember when I started listening to it on YouTube. I had already been exposed to it thanks to FBE and youtubers react to kpop, but I had never actively searched it out.

Enter a website called reddit, and a smaller section of reddit, /r/fanfiction. Different fanfiction authors go there to discuss various things, and I vividly remember one of the fairly common posts mentioning a website called asianfanfics.

I recognized that any website called that was guaranteed to be as big of a mess as Wattpad, but I was curious. And I wanted another BTS fic.

Curiosity killed the cat.

It wasn't even like I had struck gold or anything. The first story I read wasn't even BTS, it was EXO. I could barely keep all the characters straight, and the writing was only barely above Wattpad in terms of quality, but it had definitely reignited my interest.

Short disclaimer here: I really don't like asianfanfics. It requires users to make accounts, and oftentimes, authors would require you to "subscribe" to stories to read the full chapter. And that's basically a personal offense in my book, but that's another post for another day. But beggars can't be choosers.

I read a variety of stories on there, mostly gang AU's because it surely beat slice of life, and read a wide variety of stories. They were still barley decent as far as my standards went, but I had already lowered my standards.

Sometime during this whole thing, I got a very dangerous mind set: I can do better than that.

Which really began the decent into kpop. I already had a very clear image in my head at the story. I just had to chose my fandom, which at that time, was BTS. And then the research. OH the research. The story I had/have planned follows the life of the idols. So I had to start learning about them in anyway that I could (and considering I couldn't put a name to a single face in BTS, it was going to take a while.)

So I dived headfirst into the fandom. Bangtang Bombs, reviews, theories, oh lord it was so much. And it still is.

That's where I am now: watching BTS crack videos and slowly planning out this monstrosity of a story. Thanks if you made it this far, and I'll see you guys in the world of kpop.

#ofsa personal #sorry to everyone #I'm not gonna blame you if you unfollow me #have fun with kpop #to those of you who are staying

2 notes · View notes

simplyoriginalcharacters · 8 years

Text

The Bystander

So, I’ve been trying to write a story with a narrator, but the story spans many generations and so the narrator must either be immortal or have time powers. As you know, it is extremely hard to make an OC with time powers not be a Mary Sue. So…. help. Please.

Saying “she” because in appearance, she resembles a girl, but falls more under the “it” category.

Name: Her real name has been lost in time, but do to the nature of her job, she is known by “The Narrator” or “The Bystander.”

Appearance: White long, flowy hair. Pale skin, and grey eyes. Completely devoid of most color. However, doesn’t really resemble a “human”. She appears slightly…off, as if she isn’t human, but not completely alien. Because she doesn’t have the same ‘feeling’ as a human, a person wouldn’t feel entirely safe near her. Also, nobody could physically fall in love with her, as the human race is only able to fall in love with other humans. (Thanks, biology!)

Things to Know:

Doesn’t age. Is biologically immortal and can control time in her realm.

Is stuck in an layered version of reality. She can see, hear, and live as if she was in the real world, yet nothing there is affected by her actions. So no communication, or action. This is where the alias “The Bystander” comes fro; she can only watch human history from the sidelines, yet can’t influence it in anyway.

Personality:

Strength: She is calm, cool and collected.

Weakness: She is apathetic, shy, and has no social skills what-so-ever (not like she’ll need them).

Weakness > Strength.

Overall, she is calm and doesn’t display emotions, but doesn’t really have them due to being in isolation for eons and seeing countless wars, battles, and bloodshed.

Backstory:

Her sole purpose, ever since she popped into existence, was to record history. She writes everything that will ever happen, has tapped, or is happening due to her time powers. The book i am writing takes place in one small chapter of the chronicles she has devoted all of eternity writing.

Setting:

This takes place in a world, similar to our own, but magic is available to only a few people, and those few people are sometimes persecuted because of magic. The time is the Medieval Era, so regular humans have lances, armor, and castles (but not proper hygiene). During this time, people were bloodthirsty, and this creates more tension between people with magic and no magic. People with magic are very limited to certain types, whether it be a certain element (ice), a skill (cooking), or a transformation (pig).

Hi there! You may not be aware of this, but we don't use the term "Mary Sue" on SOC - we don't find it helpful to either readers or writers, since what exactly makes a Sue a Sue can be pretty subjective. Instead, I'll be focusing on how to make this character feel interesting and fresh to your readers.

One of the first things that jumped out of this profile at me was this sentence: "Also, nobody could physically fall in love with her, as the human race is only able to fall in love with other humans." This may simply be an attempt on your end to tell me that this is how you've decided it works in your setting, but I can't be sure of that. In reality, human beings fall in love with non-human entities all the time - with animals and books and views and concepts without physical form and all sorts of other things - and love is not "physical". Lust is a physical reaction; love is mental and emotional. To reduce love to a mere physical reaction is to imply that, for example, asexuals can't fall in love because they don't experience physical attraction, and I think you can see that that's just ridiculous. You may want to alter your wording here to make your meaning more clear.

Your appearance section other than that, though, has a good foundation but is actually pretty vague. It's clear that you know the basics, but I'd like to see some more specific information here, particularly about the ways in which this character seems "off" to other humans. Are her teeth just a little too sharp? Her ears a little too pointed or perhaps nonexistant? Do her cheekbones slant at an unnatural angle? Tell me something interesting about what this character actually looks like so that I can get a real picture in my head. Telling me how people react to her is fine, but telling me why they react that way is better.

Her personality section is similarly lacking. There's no real detail here. I don't get any idea of who this character is as a person. Anyone could be described as "cool and collected". Anyone could be described as "apathetic, shy, and [having] no social skills what-so-ever". Tell me what makes those traits apply to THIS character and what makes her interesting enough for me to want to read about her. There's no personality in your personality section, and that's a huge issue, because personality is what makes us care about a character's story. You can find a lot more information about fleshing this section out in our SOC Originals, especially under the 5WH series.

The backstory continues to show the same problem. There's a foundation here, but there's no real information in it. Does this character have feelings? Does she ever want to get involved and get frustrated because she can't? Does she, I don't know, sometimes get really interested in the doings of a particular person for no apparently reason and follow their life through history, and if so, does she get sad when they die? Does she ever check up on their descendants? How has she been changed by the things she's seen, if she has been changed? How has she been affected? At which points did she most wish she could step in? How does she feel about her lot in life? There are so many interesting things you could be doing in this section, and you're not doing any of them. Change that!

Last, but not least, you would most likely be surprised as how clean people were in the Medieval Era. It may not be what we'd consider "proper" hygiene, but do your research and you will find some really interesting cultural norms surrounding personal cleanliness, especially when it comes to daily routines.

Overall, your worst enemy in this profile is a lack of detail. You've got a good skeleton, but it's time to put some meat on those bones! Think outside the box and I really do believe that this could be a fascinating character. She has a lot of potential, and you need to tap into that and express it in your work. If you ever decide to revise and resubmit, I'd be happy to take another look, but until then, good luck!

-Kyo

#OC Critique #General Help #submission

3 notes · View notes