#most of the snippets are going to be very vague btw

[mitchell-nihil]

November 2nd!!

So far I've written 2168 words today, bringing my total to 4088 words so far. I hope to write some more after I do this because I didn't want to update too late into the night.

I went with my friend to a doctors appointment and sat in the waiting room for about 40 minutes, so I wrote some of my words while I was in there. Nice experience, chill open area and soft chairs.

Today felt good! I haven't felt anything too bad yet, BUT I also already know quite well how the story starts. Around arc 4/10 is where I'm going to start tripping, but that's for me-in-one-week to worry about!

Todays snippet thingy:

“Yeah.” “Yeah? You mean— I am?” “Yeah. One of your parents cheated, probably.” “Uh, no, I— no I don’t know my dad. At all. It’s him, obviously, cause my moms not…” “Alright.”

NaNoWriMo 2023 Progress Thread!

Okay this'll be the actual post

This Nano I'm writing a sorta-planning sorta-novel thing for my WIP Blue Cataclysm. It's halfway between a book and a very detailed description of everything that happens.

I'm planning on doing the traditional 1667 words a day, 50k for the month challenge for NaNoWriMo. This thread will just be where I post how many words I got, how I felt about it and my favourite line/s I wrote that day!

November 1st, I've written 1715 words today, and I'm hoping to get some more words in after dinner!

I felt good about today, I tried a little idea of letting myself eat one m&m per 100 words and that somehow motivated me to get it all done. I'm going to try and make a ritual or something to get me into the mood for writing.

Today's snippet thingy:

He didn’t know what he was going to do to get information out of him, since he could tell by the state of Era’s neck that threatening to slit his throat had already been attempted, to no avail. If he wasn’t even willing to admit his own name under threat of death, what else was there to try?

(I swear the rest of BC isn't this dark it just starts off kinda intense)

[passengerprincipessa]

Hiii i’ve just binged all the afterburn snippets u posted (no idea why tumblr hid these from my timeline btw kinda mad about that) and im feeling feral! U don’t know just how excited i am for it!! It reminded me of learned behavior and honestly who cares about a uni degree and quizzes and shit when i could spend my time rereading and analysing every sentence in that masterpiece of literature!

I was just curious, since you’re a writer i look up to as one of the best in fandom space in general, what’s your writing process? Like do you just get a vague idea and build it up as you write with more vague ideas of how it’s supposed to go? Do you make a proper outline and plot out scenes and major plot points/character arcs? Like what is your writing/editing process?

I’m just curious to know tbh i myself have been writing in fandom for a few years now but i feel really stuck and frustrated where i am, so when i see writing as good as yours i am in awe and wanna like dissect ur brain (in not a creepy way i swear!)

Sorry for the long ask and you don’t have to answer but thank youuu for writing for this fandom <3

hi!! this ask is so lovely, i love talking about the writing process

for me, it really varies by fic. most of the time when i'm writing a short fic (capybara cupid, intricate rituals), i'll have a premise or a line of dialogue, and then i'll just see where the fic takes me. i don't have any outline or "plan" going in other than wanting to explore a particular concept or theme. i'll maybe do one edit for spelling mistakes/grammar and then hit post

with long fics, it's very different. i'll talk about afterburn just because that's the one that's freshest in my brain. i went in knowing i wanted to write about (1) oscar signing a long-term contract with mclaren and (2) lando leaving for ferrari right before 2028. i then sat with it and thought ok, why does lando leave. what happens over 2025-2027 that leads him to the point where he'd actually be ready to leave. and i started thinking through championships and races and oscar's characterization more, and then i started writing with a vague idea of the major "scenes." i knew abu dhabi 2026 and singapore 2027 was going to be big races right from the start. i knew something happened at zandvoort in 2027. but the specifics were sort of vague to me. once i start writing, usually, i get a much clearer idea of everyone's dynamics and how a particular scene will work. often i end up abandoning certain pieces of dialogue i'm really attached to just because once i actually start writing, the dialogue doesn't fit with the characterization. i'm extremely, extremely ruthless in cutting things i think aren't working

anyway, once i have like 60-70% of the fic done, i start going through and editing more substantively. i'll move scenes around, scrap scenes, add new ones where i think they're needed. i think it's really important to let go of things that feel "wrong" even if you like the writing or scene conceptually. just put it in another tab of your gdoc and save it there. you can come back to it later and maybe rework it into something that suits the fic

i also think it's really valuable to think about paring your writing back to its essentials. so often i see fics that are extremely long where essentially nothing happens. that's totally fine if that's what the author's going for, but i think trying to get your writing "punchier" is a good exercise in figuring out what words you "need" to tell a story. i was talking with a friend recently about how i try to stay away from metaphors and similes most of the time because i think it slows down pacing and often dips into cliché

so anyway, my writing process for long fics is: premise -> vague ideas of scenes -> start writing -> start writing a more detailed outline -> keep writing -> read through the fic to figure out if scenes are working/what needs to be deleted or added -> keep writing -> final edit

i hope this is helpful-ish!

[beeliiii]

Snippets

Hi, so these are little snippets of the brother's best friend au of Rex x Reader, Idk when you guys are actually getting a chapter (soon, like maybe tonight kind of soon), but here's things to read that I think are a little glimpse of the vibe going on rn. I'm not promising anything good btw ngl.

Tw: Talk of prostitution, vague rape(??) flashbacks (This is NOT reader), Qui Gon Jinn, alcohol, partying, idk frat basements, Pike (the frat)

#1. "Basement parties weren’t your favorites, but between this and a frat house, you were always going to pick a basement party."

There is a lot of partying in this fic, like most social gatherings are a party and everyone is turnt as fuck. Because listen it's college and trust me everyone is drunk 25/8 in college. And if they're not drunk they're high as shit, designated driver, or strung out on rich white frat boy coke. Sorry, I don't make the rules, also, never, ever, like literally ever go to a PIKE frat party. Every PIKE frat is like the literal 5th circle of Hell.

Edit: Idk why I capitalized every letter of Pike, I was high as shit doing this. But little story for y'all one of my friends' roommates got her debit card stolen by her pike frat boy and he took like 2k from her account, but instead of being like omg put him in jail! Like you would think, she instead asked for a restraining order, asked for the least amount of time (and asks us if we thought they could still link up during the three year period). Then to really top it off when presented with literal camera footage of his thievery she said "maybe that's a different guy" when nobody else could match that ugly mug of his.

#2. "These thoughts aside, Ahsoka blurted, “Skyguy’s got Senator Amidala’s number. Like her personal number.”

Idk how to describe it but annoying little sister Ahsoka is a beloved fixture for me. Unfortunately she gets dumped by a green terrorist and crashes out over it. Even more unfortunately Alpha-17 is the Principal of the high school. Even even more unfortunately the school contacts you and Anakin instead of your parents for matters concerning Ahsoka. Because in this AU Qui Gon is the literal worst (it's for the plot) and Shmi is insane due to being a sex slave for a very long time (more for the plot also more realistic??? Like I'm sorry but she was a literal slave duh she's got issues)

#3. I’m sorry she decided to diminish you so badly, and I’m sorry you didn’t knock her front teeth out.” Continuation of Ahsoka breakup

#4. "She remembered the colorful dots of paint decorating your faces, she remembered the jewelry made of handcrafted spun glass, jappor wood, and bones that you two decorated yourselves in."

I'm treating the sw community to culture in a fic because it sometimes feels like including any culture beyond Jedi/Sith/Mandolorian is a sin. I literally never see shit about heritages or anything like that. Also, there was def slave culture on Tatooine, I refuse to think Anakin just let all of that go when he joined the order.

#5. "You reach out, your intention obvious, but he gives in. Swaying slightly as you take your conjoined hands and raise it slightly while you spin beneath him, as if he’s spinning you. He reaches for you after, eyes lidded and turning glassy, he presses your body close to his, following your movement as you dance on him and the floor. You laugh, leaning into him despite how you toss your head back, and he keeps you afloat, hands never leaving your waist."

There is so much dancing? Drunk dancing especially. But you, the reader, are a party girl, and Rex isn't really into parties but he'd do anything to see you on the dance floor. He is down bad and it's kinda funny, except reader is almost worse, and you both are trying so very hard not to do too much but it's getting impossible to do that.

#6. "You turned then, plopping on the bed to strip your feet from your old socks and began to put on the new pair. Rex stepped forward, and you decidedly ignored that until he was there. He was there in front of you and looking down and god you could barely think. Rex ran his thumb over your lip, brows furrowed as he did before he dropped to his knees and took your foot, pulling the sock all the way on. It was your turn to frown a little, confused until he took your other foot to put your other sock on. When that was done he looked back up at you, and you couldn’t contain yourself anymore. You leaned forward, pressing a chaste kiss to him before pulling away, only for him to chase your lips, pulling you into a second kiss."

When I say stolen moments I mean it. You both are so obviously into each other it's borderline painful, especially with the softer moments with a craving for domesticity. The parties, the alcohol, that's all fun and good, but also the littler things??? Lord, he puts your socks on for you.

[on-the-syed]

Spring Hues (4/16/25)

this one was painted for my dear partner tech's birthday. i kinda... waited way too long to start... but we clutched and got it done and that's all that matters. i have a few drafts and wips from along the way.

this was the very first scribble! i decided to draw a scene based on our most recent venture to the cherry blossom festival. it's SO pretty and smells sooo nice. it makes me happy to see so many different people from different countries and cultures enjoying nature like that. next year i should tally how many different languages i hear... that'd be cool. anyway:

at this point the only real color ideas i had were the green sky, tree, and the vague purple/blue blobs in the background there. the colors on the characters were added pretty arbitrarily and don't really mesh but that doesn't matter at this point. these days i find color to be the driving force for whether or not i finish a piece: if i don't have any good palette ideas it's reaaallyy hard to get things moving.

then i had two other thoughts: this year, we went to the festival at dusk and got to see the paper lanterns lit up. plus, the darker blue/green is tech's favorite color (especially when paired with pink) so i wanted to play with that more. i found this layer with the darker sky but it was quickly reworked. it's too yellow and de-saturated here.

alternate tree base color. the warmer pinks and orange tied the sky in better, in both the daylight and dusk drafts.

tying down a more final palette.the blobs on the right were my basis for tech's fav colors so i tried to play off of those. i also wanted to add kind of weird and different for the colors, so having the yellow sunset behind those aforementioned blue/purple blobs sounded fun. cool contrast. i kind of like how rough and primitive the buildings look in this one. i was also excited to do that painterly effect around the street lamp to indicate it's lit, but i just didn't have time to work it in properly. i also felt the characters were a bit too pink at this point.

around this point i also did a more structured sketch of the characters. i didn't really know how to intertwine their hands but i think this pose is cute, almost makes it look like they're mid conversation about something...

toning down the pink shading. i wanted the green/grey/blue shadows pulled from the sky (you can see a similar tone i worked from on the right again).

around this time i merged things and started to paint. this snippet is one of my favorites as far as palettes go; it just feels a lot different from what i might normally choose so it's interesting. i keep imagining the yellow as a goopy paint and i wanna eat it

RIP snuffer and sye: tree time! i think my lazy scribble rendering suits bark alright

(this is a flipped screen shot) rendering the sky and tree. i like slapping a few random accent colors into cloud scenes like this, but as i worked on the tree it just.. didn't look right. too busy, i guess? something about the tree colors were starting to not vibe with me too. i tried using a premade brush on the blossoms to save some time but it took more effort than it was worth and just didn't work with the rest of the painting style. go go gadget: 3 hours of boring blobby shape painting. i was worried about the tree looking too flat as well but once i added the branches poking out it felt better

more of the same. the sky continued to gnaw on me.

i recorded most of the rendering after the color tie-down (included below), and while rewatching i noticed that the simple early sky looked WAY better. so i painted a similar deal here. i also added stars poking through to say "hey this is at dusk btw it's almost night time". it was a nice way to pull in some of the pinks and greens from further down in the painting. it was also a good excuse to use pure white somewhere in the piece (the sparkly big stars). a little personal challenge i like to do is include pure black/white in drawings whenever i can, out of spite for the years spent not doing that. lukewarm art advice on the internet were engraved in younger me's brain and it led to the UGLIEST colors of all time for years. so doing that, plus throwing on whatever bright, weird colors i feel like, is kind of fun to explore now. i used pure black on the tree bark, for those keeping score at home

played around with color correcting the blossoms. the orange here does work better with the sky colors but it felt a little too orange. this process was very annoying because most everything was on one layer, and i already had to painstakingly paint around the tree to fix the sky.

more troubleshooting. this did prove to me that the original colors (left) needed to be toned down a bit. you can also see some of the foliage being rendered too: this is probably the part of the piece i'm most disappointed with. i wanted to properly draw more realistic plants and had even gathered a bunch of refs, but i just didn't have the time. the abstract shape-y plants are fine, but not what i really wanted going into this one.

beginning to render the characters. i HATED painting the bricks in this one. i just didn't have any great ideas for the colors and considered just lining it but could get it working. i tried giving it a slightly gritter texture. good enough. i also wanted to do more for the sidewalk but again, no time.

i ended up using the second draft colors for these guys much more than i expected. no time! i was doing this part an hour before bedtime the day before his bday! ahhhhhhhh!!!!! i had to finish it while clocked in and working the day of!

aaaand the final. i REALLY had to skimp on some details which i'm still bummed about. i just need to plan and time things better next time, but i did still have a few things i liked on it so it's okay. plus he liked it and that's what's important!

aaand here is a recording of the painting process. my favorite parts of the piece are colors (specifically the yellow sunset with the cityscape). my biggest let-downs are the lack of detailed plants and the rushed rendering on the characters. i really wanted to slap more color and detail on them but alas... i did learn some things so i'll take it :)

[vounoura]

Hello there! I realize that this is a shot in the dark, but are you by any chance the person that used to have a world building side-blog about Ceathin? I just had a bolt of memory about it and had to go searching through an old email to find any traces of it (i used to send you asks in 2018 about it). I have been missing that world dearly, and if you were at ALL willing I would be so so thankful if you would be willing to share any of that lore. If not, I completely understand, have a good day!

Hi! Not a long shot at all, yes that was me! The blog was mystilfyn, I still have it but it’s been locked for….I want to say four or five years.

Everything on that blog got extremely outdated about a year or two after I made it, and in a bad mental health episode I got a little paranoid about people seeing my personal work - I’m still a little skeevy about it today, to be completely honest, but the headworld itself is still going very strongly and has been for the last six to eight years or so. A lot of it has been scrapped and rebuilt iterations over the years, so while I’m extremely touched that you still remember it (I remember you, btw!! Hello!!) I’m not comfortable bringing the blog back atm bc it’s not an accurate representation of my work anymore, and it’s changed (and I’ve gotten much better at certain aspects, ie. conlanging) as I’ve grown up with it.

So while there’s not much I can bring back or show you, I can show you a snippet of grammar in my conlang document (in a perpetual state of unfinished):

(big thanks to the conlang reddit guide on active-stative languages I pulled a lot of the terminology from as well!)

and a couple pics / comms of one of my most beloved characters from there, Ryon•Kuráán•Valkaan ['ʁiʊn 'kuren vʊl'ka:n], long-murdered immortal bloodlord, godking and god of conquest;

and the first tab of my flight rising lair has vague snippets of lore since my main g1 project is headworld stuff!

Unfortunately bc 99% of my lore is kept in DMs with the friend I worldbuild / conlang with (you know who you are <3), I don’t have any central place I can point you to, but if you have specific questions I’m happy to answer them here!

[nani-nonny]

Tbh, never thought a new chapter would be dropped and you dropped it without any hints that there may be a new chapter soon xD tho it was a great surprise.

So we start off as Leonardo begin hungry and believe me, this so canon! After begin sick and in bef for days? You gotta go hungry at one point! And it made me giggle at how Mikey and them were doing the funny stare off contest xD

The moment Mikey left to get his family i knew his sandwich is as good as gone to F!Leo's stomach 😂 if i were him i would have enough shame to apologize or ask for somebody to make for me something 😭

And baby Lou under him begging for that lettuce was just heart melting 🥺🥺 i saw it and immediately went "JUST GIVE HER THE LETTUCE DAMN IT!!" Ahahaha!✨🤍

Finally after finishing the sandwich Mikey return to see what only left which it's bread crumbs and i can imagine Mikey doing this meme

And finally after so much prolonging things AFTER 9 chapters!!! F!Leo is gonna speak of everything and explain! (Btw, April entering the medbey with bag as her shield and pen as her weapon was silly if i were her i would have 3 pens and look like Wolforin😂)

And i wasn't wrong thinking after the explanation little Leo would be guilty (as he should/aff/p), after all he was the one who lost the key and almost get everyone in the same fate the elder had to go through. So it wasn't a surprise to see them all cry and hug each other for comfort (and for Donnie to slip out of the hug shirty because this isn't for his emotional bad boy image).

And here comes the moment "You ARE the father!!" I never thought you would use the "Maury show" as a reference 😂😂🤩 i personally love it and i also watched multiple videos of the show before.

And this... THUS shocked me

Leo was having the... You know *ahem* love making...

Also whoever said the 'Never speak to me again' is a pure asshole! Am glad they died in the war!! >:((

Then there's the big think about draxum (lol loved how he's trying to take care of him beauty) But seeing baby Lou knowing him is making me imagine F!Draxum begin so happy to have baby lou.

I don't know if i said this before (maybe i did in the very first ask that created baby tot and peepaws) but i feel draxum created baby lou because he couldn't be in the kids's lifes or be part of fatherhood because he started bonding for like what? a year? And then BAM! Apocalypse! Surely he wanted to take care of the baby tho i feel this wasn't the real reason... Maybe creating a real warrior to help winning the war (a side plan from F!Draxum he went with).

In my defense! The ���teaser” came out as snippets and vague posts about how the writing process was going hehe (I think the most recent “teaser” was a vague post about F!Leo spiraling lol) but I believe the best teaser was a vague post prior to posting the chapter about the word count going from 3.4k to 4.1k! (I don’t think you saw those hehe)

Anyways! Chapter review from sniper, yippee!!!

Poor Mikey lol all he wanted was a sandwich but instead he was shocked to see Leonardo’s awake and standing at the doorway with the baby and CJ just as surprised to see him

Baby Lou is hungry, growing little girlie! She wants what her papa is eating, especially because it must be good if he’s scarfing it down hahaha!

rip Mikey’s sandwich, it didn’t last a second with Leonardo lol

April ready to fight when the portal pops up makes me laugh, she knows hahaha! You can count on her to back you up

Poor Lil Leo, forced to realize he may be just as much as a jerk as his future self is, and maybe there wasn’t that big of a change. And maybe… just maybe… he wasn’t exactly right about Leonardo being a total assface. Lol

I thought about different ways Donnie would break it to Leonardo that the baby is indeed his, but this route was much funnier. And faster lol. And I think it’s very on brand for Donnie hahah! Maybe I’ll post a snippet of how it would have gone in a different route… i don’t know.

And I love the memes that come from the Maury show! Although, I’ve never watched an episode except for small clips. The cameramen run really fast haha!

I don’t usually include my peepaws’ love lives so blatantly like (a)paf, mainly because I don’t really see them all that sexually active. Sometimes I like to think that, despite being absolute heartthrobs and “most wanted bachelors”, them being virgins makes it all the more funny. (That and I don’t have interest in writing sexual themes with the turtles… Bruce on the other hand /hj)

But in (a)paf’s case, I didn’t want anyone thinking he truly is a deadbeat dad who got knocked up and tosses a kid aside or, vice versa where he knocks someone else up and tosses a kid aside. He simply wasn’t aware of what Draxum was doing behind closed doors.

But aside from that, I think it’s nice that he got some experience in sex. He’s a big man, he can take part in carnal pleasures.

And about the person who said not to meet again… that was Leonardo. Lol. One night stand wasn’t as good as it could have been haha! On a side note, a lot of his one night stands were understandable agreements that no relation of any sort other than business was to be expected.

Anyways, again, Draxum deserves to feel pretty :) he got a face mask from April’s mom! He definitely wasn’t expecting any Hamato-related shenanigans, he just wanted a peaceful night to himself hahaha!

And Baby Lou so delighted to see Draxum? :(((( she’s such a cutie patootie :((((

And I like your theory! Totally understandable to think that! Now the real question is whether you’re right or not mwahahahaha! I wonder….

[clementines-writing-corner]

🚨new project just dropped *sighs in wip hell*

Hello friends!

So… if any of you happened to see that last post I reblogged (and had a peek at the tags) then you’ll have an idea about what this post is going to be about. Unfortunately, it will not be about my original high fantasy story project, as I had hoped last week. It is about something entirely different. Huzzah!! (I mean that in the most semi-sarcastic way possible– I am excited but also annoyed lol). 

I completed and turned in my first creative brief writing assignment for any of my writing classes this semester (and am currently halfway through my second for a different class) and, long story short, ended up getting kinda hooked on the story that happened to develop while I was writing. So… new project. Yay. ᕱ__ᕱ

For the assignment, I chose to try to combine two stories from the weekly writing prompts that we do for the class and imagine how the characters I created in them would interact with a slightly larger story rather than 2-3 pages of chicken scratch character development scenes. I ended up succeeding in this goal, one may even say superseding it, in fact. The plan was to write them into a short story with a little more plot. What ended up happening is that I created a whole new character, slapped them and one of the original characters in the middle of a huge plot, and wrote an entire chapter (+ some change) for a novel involving them. And not even like the first chapter of a novel. Noooooooo. I had to skip ahead and write like chapter 10 or something. 

So… (promise it’s the last time I’m doing that) yeah. That’s what has taken over my brain this week. An entirely new project. (I can never get anything actually done around here I swear!!) A couple more details about it before I give you a little taste of my draft because why not:

It will probably by a middle grade novel (unlike high fantasy project)

Speaking of – this story is definitely more low fantasy, as in it takes place in a version of our world in which magic exists (which will make it 10 million times easier to write because I wont be creating everything from scratch ha ha ᕱ__ᕱ)

It will take place in the modern day and age (perhaps like a few years old, but definitely after 2000)

Plot so far is vaguely based on the story of the snow queen by hans christian andersen (which is what disney's frozen is loosely based on btw)

The main character is around 12-13 years old (right now anyway)

And, as promised, a little snippet of this project. Let me know what y’all think!

**

A branch snapped to my left. 

My back straightened and I took a step towards Ms. Cattell, before slipping on a patch of wet leaves. I would have face-planted into the tree roots in front of me if Ms. Cattell hadn’t caught my arm. Her hands were very soft. How she got the few paces back to me so fast, I didn’t know. Magic?! My inner Paxton squealed. Shut up, my inner me shot back, not now Pax!

Crack! Another branch fell victim to whatever was creeping towards us.

My heart started pounding against my ribcage. I looked up at Ms. Cattell, my eyes wide and panicked, only to see a soft smile on her face as she stared off in the direction the sounds were coming from. As if feeling my gaze, she directed the smile down at me and patted my arm where she had grabbed it, before letting me go and crouching down, looking back into the forest and holding her arms out.

Suddenly, a blur of brownish-gray fluff hurtled out of the brambles and into Ms. Cattell’s open arms. She grinned down at the fluff, now cradled to her chest, before standing and turning her gaze back towards me, clicking her tongue. “Now Alvin, look what you’ve done!” Ms. Cattell gently scolded the fluff, still smiling. “You’ve frightened the poor dear. And after the day she’s had too, you should be ashamed of yourself!” 

**

But yeah. Like I said earlier, I’m pretty excited about this project. I haven’t been able to really develop another project in years since my mind has been stuck on my high fantasy story so for me to come up with a new project like this completely out of the blue (or so it seems) is actually really refreshing (if not really annoying because I wish high fantasy story stuff would come as easily). 

^ me @/myself right now (especially that eye twitch fr)

I will still most definitely be working on high fantasy stuff, do you worry, but occasionally this story might make an appearance as I continue to post on this blog. So… (ha ha I lied earlier) buckle up folks because, as it often does, my creative writing goals just got a bit messier lol. ᕱ__ᕱ

And whatever you're working on, don’t forget to cross your j’s and dot your t’s!

~Clementine J. Quincey 🪷

[hollywoodsargeant]

i have finally read chapter 10 (another amazing chapter btw!) and i have some a lot of thoughts about things (sorry if this is really long, i just have a lot of thoughts after the entire break up with both of them)

i still love the fact that the both of them are so, nonchalant i guess?, by the fact that they’ve fucked before when talking to their partners, oscar being my favourite in this (i’ve said this before but he has brushed off logan seeing his dick and him come as ‘a requirement’ and left it at that)

logan breaking up with mia isn’t unexpected tbh, i feel like he would know that he wasn’t exactly a fan of mia making a ‘giant’ deal over the jersey thing (i still don’t understand the deal about that as an aussie) and then bringing up the entire fucking oscar thing and her reaction to it (which i get it, i would be surprised if my boyfriend had sex with his supposed best friend). anyways i’m excited to see what happens next with logan (he gets his first boyfriend perhaps??? maybe he figures out aviation??? let’s see)

oscar also breaking up with ben wasn’t exactly something i was thinking of until i got to the entire talking about sex part, i felt like he was like ‘wtf man though we’re on the same field yet you’ve made out, and now you’re only telling me you had sex with your best friend??’ so i can feel for him and what he was feeling there. also i feel like oscar was going to say something to ben abt the entire logan calling him baby thing, especially when he called oscar baby in front of ben, which imo pushed ben over the edge there (perhaps that’s why ben wasn’t wanting to wait or whatever for the break up and just said it straight up)

i’m interested to see how both oscar and logan will react/what they’ll do about the entire college thing, from previous chapters we already know logan doesn’t want oscar to leave him, but could it end up being the other way? if he goes with aviation and goes out of state and oscar is the one that stays in?

anyways i’ve extended my thoughts a bit too much and def repeated a bunch but i’m just excited for the story and what will happen next, thank you so much for this chapter and great work as always!

THANK YOU!!! <3 and do not apologize for the long message i appreciate it somuch i love hearing your thoughts and responding to them it makes me veryhappy :)

see they are both well. not convinced that it's normal to have sex with your friend, they're aware that their friendship is pretty not-normal even if they are convinced it's just friendship, but they are both very content in the fact that they did that and as with most things - it just fell into place with them. i know i've referenced a timeline in the fic before as if everything they've ever done is stretched out on this massive straight line, and neither of them are all that fazed by any of it, because it's just them. so oscar is pretty much like Yeah. logan seeing me come is a requirement in logan having sex with me. casual as ever. and ben is like ??? babe wtf. not sure if this makes sense i am just spitting here

rest in pieces logan and mia </3 he did seriously think mia was being dramatic about the jersey thing and he always thought that he's just not stupid enough to tell his girlfriend she's being dramatic... i'll be real i don't totally understand the drama in it either and it's something i witnessed firsthand but. i thought it would be fun petty drama for the fic. and i am very excited for what does happen next with logan there's a thing i know i've referenced before in short snippets but either no one saw them or everyone forgot but i stopped directly referencing it on here so if anyone can find that. gold star

(sorry for vagueing)

obv i knew i wanted to break up oscar and ben soon but i wasn't really planning on doing it this chapter until i was like. Oh well i could make logan talk about his breakup and then oscar thinks about his own relationship et cetera. which is then what happened. rest in peace to those three drowned fruit flies when i start talking about bugs that's how you know it's time to pack it up... and rest in peace ben. he kind of exploded a bit. clearly there was a time when he was very casual about it but -- and i'm p sure i had oscar Wonder about this -- in my head ben did assume all the kissing logan stuff was more in the past than it actually was, like a figuring-themselves-out in middle school type thing. so he was cool kinda teasing about it and calling logan cute or whatever but when it became apparent it was something that was happening recently he didn't really like it. cue jealousy

college will be fun! they have to send out their applications soon! i feel like a lot of ch10 involved vague college talk but that is truly the experience of being a junior/senior in high school. it was like all i would talk about with my friends at the end there

sorry this answer is 10 billion years long actually in case you couldn't tell i thoroughly enjoy discussing this fic. my beloved fic <3

[thefuchsianeko]

More voice claims, and more characters this time around

I was gonna try to do all my Olivia characters I have so far, but a handful of them were proving difficult to figure out, so I decided to go with what I already had. If I can figure out the rest, I'll have a part two for this one.

Voice notes under the cut, copy-pasted from the video link:

(sorry if some are a lot shorter than the others, I have more to say about some of them than the rest... just know I stand by my choices for the most part lol)

Olivia Wolfgang - Tara Strong (Unikitty - UniKitty!): This was another one that in my mind was "specific yet vague" (still don't know if that phrase makes sense but), but I kind of figured it out? The thing with Olivia's voice is that I don't want it to be too annoying, but it still has to be the right amount of childish/excited. A lot of possible voices were either too high or babyish, or not childish enough. Since one of my biggest inspirations for her as a character was Spongebob (who is voiced by Tom Kenny), I supposed that a voice done by someone like Tara Strong could probably work, and I've found that her voice for Unikitty is the best example so far. However, one thing I need to mention is that I do imagine Olivia having a slight lisp. (Another one of her biggest inspirations is Larry the Cucumber from Veggie Tales, who has a lisp-- and if I were to direct someone voice-acting for Olivia, I'd probably tell them "like Larry the Cucumber but more girly," lol.)

Kevin Hyenadae - Dana Carvey (Garth Algar - Wayne's World): Garth has always been the voice I imagine for Kevin, again since Garth was a big inspiration for him. A very specific, awkward kind of voice. He sounds exactly like this tbh.

Dusty Carol - Tara Strong (Raven - Teen Titans): Another instance where I've always heard an OC this way (though I don't think Raven is much of an inspiration for Dusty's character beyond "both of these characters are goth-girls with purple in their colour-schemes."). A good balance of uninterested-goth who can still show positive emotions (there are plenty of examples of "goth-girl" voices that are way too monotone for my liking, at least in reference to my character.) Also don't get distracted by the fact that the examples I've used for both Olivia and Dusty are the same voice actress (Tara Strong), these are merely examples, rather than, "this is exactly the people I would cast if this was a cartoon with full voice-acting." It is kind of funny that they're the same actress here, though.

Audrey Hyenadae - Fryda Wolff (Penny Crygor - Warioware: Get It Together!): She should sound confident, maybe TOO confident. Very determined, too, and a little rough perhaps? But still young (she's 12c LOL.) I also considered Pepper Anne's voice for her, but I thought it sounded a little too old.

Parfait Brulee - Toni Barry (Snork Maiden - Moomin): Parfait's voice should be very light and delicate, kind of feminine and very nice. Not much else to say!

Laramie Lemon ("Lemon") - Melissa Altro (Pippi Longstocking - Pippi Longstocking (1998)): I'll be honest, I had a lot of trouble finding Lemon's voice claim. I knew she should sound real friendly, with an air of confidence. A real go-getter! But eventually I thought Pippi Longstocking's voice fit well enough. (Don't be surprised if one day I come back and change this one LMAO)

Tami Kachiyama - Michaela Dietz (Amethyst - Steven Universe): Kind of rough sounding, kind of rude but not too much. I think I've always imagined her sounding like Amethyst.

Ellie Gibson - Olivia Olson (Marceline - Adventure Time): She should sound really cool, and pretty chill. She knows what she's doing! Another one where I've always imagined her with this specific voice! I did consider Wendy's voice from Gravity Falls, but I found that it wasn't chill enough. (btw I could've included a snippet for singing, since Ellie is a musician who sings, but I decided I wanted more attention for a regular talking voice. You can look up any Marceline song from Adventure Time if you want an example.)

Conner Oakley - Rickie Sorensen (Arthur - The Sword In The Stone): Another one that was harder to figure out. But, I knew he should sound a little friendly and very kind, maybe a little awkward. There were a couple of voices I considered, but found they were a little too loud, or rough, etc. But I thought Arthur from Sword In The Stone was a pretty good fit! The only thing is that he should have a southern accent, too... But it's surprisingly difficult to find voices with American-Southern accents that aren't girls, rude-sounding, or fully-grown men lol. (I'll also tell you it was a bit hard to compile the voice lines for this one because Arthur has like three different voice actors in that movie lol, but I think I found lines from just the one va.)

Sally O'Dylan-Gaterson - Jo Firestone (Annie Fantasy - Teenage Euthanasia): Nerdy, nice, shy-sounding, with a bit of a lisp (though I don't have a preference on the severity of said lisp.) I also considered Gretchen from Disney's Recess, but she sounded too smart/sophisticated? Sally is nerdy, but not that much academically speaking.

Danny Squiggles - Arin Hanson (Max - Game Grumps' Sam & Max playthrough): Ok uhhhh this one's kind of funny. The idea for his voice was originally inspired by Jon Lovitz's Tommy Flanagan character from SNL (I know very niche lol), especially since he was partially inspired by that character. But, I thought that, while it would be EXTREMELY funny, I thought Danny should sound less like a fully-grown adult. Surprisingly, when I was casually watching Game Grumps' let's-play of Sam & Max, I found that the voice Arin did for Max let's play would fit pretty well. I also considered Meowth's voice, but he just sounds too much like a cat, yknow?

Margot Nodarobutte - Stephanie Anne Mills (Lindsay - Total Drama Island): Margot should sound like a girly-teenager. Kind of air-headed, too. But not too much? And not like a valley-girl. I thought Lindsay's voice fit those parameters well.

Chloe Lovebird - Colleen O'Shaughnessey (Crystal Flowers Snagrash - Psychonauts): Somehow it was hard to figure out Chloe's voice, but I got it eventually lol. She's gotta have a high voice, and she should sound pretty annoying. I mean, her annoyance-factor should rival Olivia's, lol. Very excitable. She's a parrot after all, lol.

Debbie Xander - Brittney Karbowski (Black Star - Soul Eater): Debbie is LOUD and ABRASIVE. She tends to yell. Very in-your-face, but not exactly mean. Also, I think she might sound a bit androgynous? Idk how many people would consider this particular voice androgynous-sounding, but eh.

Cammie Kharma - Lara Jill Miller (Libby Stein-Torres - The Ghost And Molly McGee): Cammie was another hard one, though I thought she should sound kind of nerdy and a bit upbeat. Also a slightly nasally voice would probably fit, what with her little horn-nose 'n all, lol. My first idea for the voice was actually Juniper Lee, but looking up the voice actress I found this role she did in The Ghost and Molly Mcgee, and thought the attitude of Libby's voice was a better fit.

Edward Tennyson - Todd Haberkorn (Death The Kid - Soul Eater): Ed's got that anime-type voice yknow. He takes everything too seriously and is pretty sophisticated. My first consideration for his voice was actually Haku from Spirited Away, but I thought that sounded TOO serious (though a very deadpan kind of voice could be pretty funny if executed right.) So I remembered Death the Kid from Soul Eater and thought that could work pretty well, though I might want him to sound a tiny-bit less goofy.

Liz Lawrence - Brigette Lundy-Paine (Billie Logan - Bill & Ted Face The Music): This was another hard voice to find, though I still had a good idea of what I wanted her to sound like. I wanted to find a Pauly Shore kind of voice, yknow? (I guess you'd call it a "stoner-type-of-voice" but that seems wrong to say about a 14-year-old LOL) Though most of those kinds of voices you find are boys. Some voices I found were just really chill, TOO chill and cool in fact. While thinking of Bill & Ted I remembered Face The Music and the fact that their kids in that movie were basically copies of them lol, and I thought Billie was a very good fit.

Vic Kilgore - Nathan Sharp (Damien LaVey - Monster Prom): Ok so my idea for Vic's voice was just, "like Nathan Explosion but a kid." Rough, and like... metal, I guess. But he's still an annoying kid. Thought Damien LaVey fit, although I think Vic wouldn't be so loud. (as a bonus, when Vic grows up he sounds more like Nathan Explosion lol)

[getouyuri]

YEAH THE HURT ASK WAS FROM ME :>

is it okay if I send a few different questions for the yakuza au at once? I’ll put them in separate asks but I wanted to ask you because I don’t wanna be annoying shhsbhshebdjahr

btw may we have some reader crumbs, I’d love to know more about all of them 🤲 ever since I read your snippet with her/them and oyabun gojo I’ve been lowkey in love with her/them. women in business >>>>

-🦊

SEND AS MANY AS U WANT LAY THEM ON MEEEE I LOVE TALKING ABOUT MY YAKUZA AU and I promise ur not annoying!! the fact that you have multiple is making me look at my phone like this 🥺

secretary!reader is soooooo. moans. we a bad bitch… ur so right women in business are the best and also they run the world, especially when they wear pencil skirts my GAWD. ok lore dropping on the readers a bit 😁

long answer as usual saury

• secretary!reader’s dad got deeply entangled in debt with the gojo-gumi so satoru’s dad, the former oyabun, saw an opportunity and made a deal; work for the gojo-gumi to pay off his debts, and the yakuza would leave his family unharmed. secretary!reader couldn’t stand this after about a year of this and marched into satoru’s office, who became oyabun in that timeframe, and demanded that he hire them as his new secretary. the debt shackled secretary!reader’s father to the yakuza until he & his family were released from it; secretary!reader now works for satoru because they want to, not because they have to.

secretary!reader is very sophisticated, calm, collected, and aloof on surface level. the kind of person you want in your corner. the kind of person that has everyone at hq turning to when they need help or need something done quickly and efficiently. don’t let secretary!reader’s coolness intimate you, though; they’re very friendly, witty, and sarcastic. super fun to talk, secretary!reader will run you in circles and have you laughing about it. very well-liked and extremely respected but lordddd don’t get on their bad side LMAO

• stripper!reader started working at hell’s paradise, a nightclub strictly for the yakuza and a neutral zone for all parties. its owned by gojo, who is a friend of secretary!reader. he personally helped get stripper!reader escape their awful Situation with their family, and in hell’s paradise, they’re well-protected. will leave other details regarding all of that situation vague for now… 🤫. stripper!reader is the most popular stripper in the joint and she’s like an older sister to many of the other girls working there.

stripper!reader is like a balm to many people’s wounds. she’s very empathetic and radiates big sister energy so many flock to huddle beneath her wings. fiercely protective of those that she trusts (and it’s rare that she truly trusts someone) and will put herself in harm’s way if it means she takes the brunt and her loved ones are spared. though stripper!reader makes it easy for those to open up to her and relax in her presence, her lips are firmly sealed regarding herself. extremely cautious and guarded individual. also pragmatic, down-to-earth, and not at all a dreamer; though stripper!reader pushes others to dream.

• teacher!reader was raised in an orphanage alongside their childhood friend, orphanageworker!reader. they always felt like the odd one out despite being surrounded by so, so many kids that reflected teacher!reader’s own parental situation and current living situation. teacher!reader had friends going up, sure, but they felt oddly separated from the rest of the kids and struggled with feelings of inadequacy + insecurities that they weren’t Seen. teacher!reader was eventually adopted by a mundane but very kind family, and after graduating high school, threw themselves into the education field in college and eventually became a teacher.

teacher!reader, having felt like a ghost their whole childhood, endeavors to make sure that their friends and their high school students feel seen, heard, and taken seriously. teacher!reader is always the first to notice little details out in public. andddd they’re always the first to notice when someone is holding back their potential or retreating in on themselves in group activities. very much a team player and a motivator. they’re naturally doting and kind but can be strict and stern when need be. no-nonsense as hell.

• angels!reader is a living breathing firecracker that’s been dropped on earth like a bomb. as yuki’s younger sibling, they made damn sure that they were never considered ‘second best’ or the younger sibling that sat in the eldest’s shadow; angels!reader has always put the pedal to the metal and matched yuki stride for stride. the siblings grew up together beneath the guidance and care of their grandparents and they love them fiercely. angels!reader and yuki’s parents died in some sort of accident. when yuki and utahime later kicked up a seemingly simple group of biker girls, angels!reader was quick to join in and eventually became the third in command of sorts when the garuda’s angels were finally established as a syndicate.

angels!reader is very lax and easygoing, their posture loose but their smile knowing, almost dangerous. they’re cat-like in posture/how they carry themselves if that makes sense, even though they have more of a dog-like personality. angels!reader is a mix of hotheaded and calculated, as in they’ll act recklessly but it all plays out very cleanly as if premeditated because angels!reader cooks up a plan as they go. fairly independent but they don’t like being alone most of the time and are extroverted, very social. conversations with angels!reader are extremely fun and amusing cos they’re witty and just funny as fuck. the person you have a good time with no matter what

• otaku!reader is insaneeehrktjaje. super chill childhood, very average yet memorable school experience from elementary school to college and they made lots of friends, and landed themself a well-paying job after graduation (still haven’t on what). otaku!reader has always been super into games/anime (obsessively so) and is easily fascinated by things that catch their attention. there’s nothing really that stands out regarding their upbringing and whatnot, so otaku!reader may seem… plain

… until you take a look at their personality. otaku!reader is very bubbly and chatty, to the point that it’s hard for people to keep up with conversations with them. scatterbrained and a little all over the place but they’re fun. friendly. otaku!reader is extremely and inexplicably desensitized to violence and really bad shit. sukuna still can’t figure out wtf made them this way, nor can anyone else; because it’s not like he pulled an exposure therapy card and tortured a bunch of people in otaku!reader. they’re just like that. otaku!reader is fairly unhinged, finds the most odd things funny, and can be really manipulative. they don’t really need sukuna to fund their interests and hobbies because otaku!reader can pay for everything easily but they’re his sugar baby anyways.

• orphanageworker!reader was raised in an orphanage alongside their childhood friend, teacher!reader. she was always like the ring leader of the children there and looked out for everyone there, teacher!reader included; but even she couldn’t reach teacher!reader when they dug themselves deep mentally. orphanageworker!reader was favored by the adult staff and all the children could see it; it was a very competitive and uncomfortable environment. so she decided that when she grew up, she wanted to work in an orphanage with an actual healthy, safe environment, and she now works at an orphanage that is owned by a friend of hers.

orphanageworker!reader is a very sensitive, empathetic person that is so highly attuned to other’s emotions that it affects her down to her core. she’s a people-pleaser and tends to accidentally neglect their own health/needs in favor of supporting her friends or the children that she works with. orphanageworker!reader is a gentle, motherly figure that can turn vicious at the drop of a hat (typically when it comes to friends/loved ones); you do Nawt want to mess with her when she’s pissed. yuki personally funds the orphanage and is also orphanageworker!reader’s sugar mommy. but that aspect of their relationship less so about funds and moreso about yuki caring for and doting on orphanageworker!reader

[dinsfire24]

ok this idea has been cooking in my head for a while, but i had an idea for a ksmp character :D

btw if any of these ideas are ableist please let me know. this character and their arc have themes of chronic illness and disability. im basing some of their stuff on my own experiences with adhd, especially their frustration at their own abilities, but that doesnt exempt me from being ableist (esp with their physical problems)

warning for vague descriptions of decay and implied body horror

so this character's temporary name is amanita! (they/them) i came up with em after listening to that "there i am, there i am again" song a few too many times. also somewhat inspired by rot from rainworld :3

moving on from that, amanita is around... 12 years old, maybe? they're extremely friendly and usually quite caring. they always try to be optimistic and cheer others up, although they're actually terrified of the future. they love animals, but most animals and certain people (especially those with sharp senses of smell) are scared of them :(

they have some pretty severe memory issues bc their brain is. well. infested with skulk and warped fungus and void. their whole body is, really—they're the result of an experiment to try and combine these things, to see if anything good could come from it. now their body is decaying. they don't really remember what happened, but they still hate, hate, hate being touched. and they know that something is wrong with their body; they just can't pin down what.

they have a halting manner of speech, often repeating words or trailing off in the middle of sentences. they also tend to forget to finish their thought. on especially bad days they're almost impossible to understand, and they usually choose to stay quiet on those days. altho sometimes they forget that their speech isn't working and get very frustrated

i also think clown would be at least a little unsettled by them. he might recognize the skulk or the warped mushrooms, or he might even have heard of the experiments that caused this to happen. he'd think of them as sort of like a walking corpse. (which they would resent if they knew he thought that—they're not dead yet!!!) also their friendliness and memory issues might make them easier to manipulate, sadly

maddie might just be curious. amanita doesn't seem to be from the nether or the end, but they don't fit with what she knows about the overworld, either. and even though their memory is foggy, they have experience with some things she's never even heard of. she might be wary of them after the adventure in the deep dark, though

kab would definitely think they were cool as hell. i think she would also appreciate how friendly they were, but she would be VERY worried about their interactions with clown. she'd try to keep them away from him as much as she could.

i've only watched a few streams of s1, so my characterizations are a bit shaky and idk what the rest of the characters would think. but ye :D

a lil snippet of how they talk and act:

"Who are you?"

The kid grinned up at Kab. "Amanita! That's my name."

"And where did you come from?"

Amanita's enthusiasm dimmed a bit. "Don't remember," they replied quietly. "Not... It's not, uh..." Their eyes flickered around the town. "Can I stay?"

"I'll have to talk to Kab, but-" Pyro glanced at Rae. "Can you stay with them?"

She nodded. "Sure."

The kid plopped down on the floor as Pyro stepped away. "Who'sat?"

Rae brightened. "Kab is my best friend," she told them with a grin. "She's amazing."

"Best friend," they repeated. "I had a... Well, or something else. Where are they?"

Before Rae could figure out what to say to that, Amanita stood up. "Let's go find them. Your- Your Kab," they decided cheerfully.

[dontcallmecarrie]

I’m totally blanking about what “the incident from your latest snip is. Is it something you’ve already written about or are details to come or is this a Noodle Incident? (Thanks for sharing your writing with us, btw)

1) I am very glad you're liking it! Ngl, your engagement [by which I mean you the anon, and anyone reading this in general] has really helped with the creativity for this one, and as much as I jokingly complain about 'come on this wasn't even supposed to be the plot', I genuinely do enjoy seeing how a single question or whatnot can shape an AU when I have the time and energy for it.

2) If you're making a reference to this post, then the vagueness was intentional; it's what happens when I have a mostly-scattershot-thought-exercise-snippets that only later get compiled into something vaguely resembling a fic on AO3 in quasi-chronological order. Exhibit A: By Dawn's Early Light, my other "my brain went 'lol wouldn't it be cool/funny/interesting if x happened' and went with it" AU.

In this particular AU, I...basically took a woodchipper to the Fantastic Four movies [from 2005-7, which I last saw...over a decade ago now and wow I feel old] to make them vaguely fit into MCU canon, which in and of itself had been derailed long before the plot really had a chance to kick in.

To sum up: my deepest apologies for anyone who's here from the comics, because we're going several different levels of OOC here, probably. I tweaked Victor von Doom's motivation by a lot, because even though he's not romantically interested in Susan Storm in NHDD, well...he wouldn't be Victor von Doom if he didn't have a major beef with Reed Richards, now, would he?

.

By which I mean here, have another snippet [heads up for major angst and self-loathing]:

.

Victor von Doom felt...strange. Had been ever since they'd gotten back from the expedition, actually, which made absolutely no sense.

Medical'd already looked him over and said his vitals were looking good, by all rights he should have been free to go.

Well. Almost.

The radiation meant they were reluctant to let him leave, especially considering how the other members of the expedition were doing: Grimm was currently receiving intensive care after having received the worst of it, but Richards was also being monitored, and both Storms were also being poked and prodded after Susan had mentioned dizziness and her little brother had made the mistake of standing up too fast and nearly lost what little lunch he'd had.

...compared to that, Victor truly had won the lottery.

Which made sense in retrospect, having been the one to actually take cover in the most shielded area of the ship.

He let out a sharp breath, and couldn't help the smile.

He was alive, after an event that by all rights should have killed him.

.

Just a few hours of observation, and Victor was free to go.

He spent most of if sleeping, because for some reason, he felt...oddly tired. Adrenaline crash, probably, wouldn't be the first time.

Not by a long shot.

.

Victor woke up feeling a little jittery, but chalked it up to the events of the past week.

He should've known, then.

He'd never forgive himself, for not thinking to check, not bothering to ask—

.

Victor had a visitor.

His best friend, who'd flown over to visit him, and he— and he—

.

This was a nightmare.

No, this was Victor's worst nightmare.

.

Justin Hammer was lucky to have been able to receive prompt medical attention.

Was lucky, that they were able to restart his heart.

.

Victor von Doom was now the reason his best friend now had Lichtenberg figure in the shape of a hand, and he'd never forgive himself for it.

.

It's only later, that Victor finds out.

That he wasn't the only one who was affected.

And in that moment, as he watched the newly-dubbed Fantastic Four make the news, with the man responsible for this mess as their newly-declared leader, he felt a single moment of white-hot rage.

.

...and there you have it!

The Incident, which is how Justin refers to it, and has no hard feelings about.

For obvious reasons, Victor...has Issues™ because of it, since that's when he discovers his new powers. And unlike Johnny Storm, he can't turn them off, and no amount of experimenting has been able to do anything about it; if he loses his temper now, he can easily overload circuits and trigger a blackout, if he really wanted to.

It's not until Loki tells him that it's magic that he finally gets a clue as to how to control it.

[luci-cunt]

An incomprehensive guide to why you should read T.J Klune’s book Wolfsong

Mostly for my very best friend in the whole wide world: @moonsandstarsaregay <33 and with 100% too many AFtG references i’m sorry

*AHEM*

A plot summary: Ox has been told his whole life he’s slow and gonna get shit for it. He lives in a sleepy little nowhere town in Oregon and is perfectly content never leaving and working in the garage for the rest of his life. His dad sucks, his mom’s a gem, and one day the house that’s (almost) always been empty at the end of the street gets filled by a family that’s just a little on the wrong side of weird–the Bennetts. They all immediately fall in love with Ox because he’s literally the most perfect mc you’ll ever meet, and he learns that not everyone actually sucks he’s just been looking at the wrong people. 

And so what if they’re also a very powerful and well known werewolf pack–I mean WHATTTTTT

There’s monster fighting, drama, adventure, romance(*), adventure, angst (Oh GOD is there angst), badassary, and just so much good shit.

The Main Character:

I could talk just about how Ox is portrayed until the day I DIE. He doesn’t have an arc where he magically becomes ‘normal’ or anything, instead he just surrounds himself with people that treat him better and finds that he doesn’t need to change. He has a heart of gold and does kind things just because he is kind. He’s the definition of a soft giant, and again, the book starts and he’s roughly 10ish (with flashbacks to younger) and it ends with him in his late 20s early 30s so he definitely grows and matures but he doesn’t change because he doesn’t NEED to. 

[More reasons to read + warnings/ disclaimers + a snippet below cut so I don’t bother y’all with a hella long post XD

You should probs read the warnings before you read the book just FYI]

Writing Style: If the style of the Knife of Never Letting Go intrigued you but you couldn’t get past the first chapter then this is the book for you. Ox is a bit simple–In the best way possible–and the book is from his perspective. His thoughts are stated outright and he takes most things people say very literally. This doesn’t change and that’s the best part. I LOVE this about it and I was TERRIFIED that Klune was going to write Ox in this style for only the first couple chapters and then suddenly switch to him being some snarky genius, but he doesn’t!!! Honestly idk how to describe it, you’ve just got to read it. 

If that doesn’t convince you: 

- First of all, werewolves, who doesn’t love em?

- Second of all gays, like, everyone, no one is straight. That one side character who shows up once? Yeah, no, she shows up twice and the second time she has a girlfriend. The main characters? All gay, and if they aren’t gay in this book they will be in the next one. 

- FOUND FAMILY

- It’s basically AFtG but gayer and softer? but not?? 

- Very realistic characters, they make stupid mistakes and people react accordingly

- Kelly and Carter and literally the best things in the world I would fucking murder for both of them and I’m pretty sure Kelly is confirmed by the author to be ace (btw they aren’t twins so you can’t even accuse me of being in love with every blond and kinda tragic set of twins I come across fuck off XD)

- OX STATES VERY BLATANTLY THAT HE IS BISEXUAL

- Very endearing coming out scenes

- Gordo Livingstone is perfect in just about every way and he’s also like if Neil and Seth were combined and grew up to be Wymack. ajsdf;lk just a dumbass gay trying really hard to be a good dad while also vehemently denying it. (Oh and yeah he literally had a boyfriend who he’s currently pissed at so)

- MC is not a genius and that’s not treated like a bad thing

- Please just read it I need more people to scream about it with me

Some warnings:

- it’s werewolves, there’s gore, obsessive use of the word “alpha” and lots of wolf-ish tendencies. Most of it comes across as fucking adorable, but ngl, sometimes it’s just a tad weird. 

- people have v tragic backstories. None of it is worse than AFtG but it’s still very intense, more on the side of gore/ violence/ some torture than heavy non/con but there’s some mentions of that. (More vague allusions/ threats rather than graphic scenes don’t worry)

- *the only thing that really wigged me out about these books is the fact that the main couple have a 6 year age difference. Any way you spin that it’s weird, but I think it was handled as well as you can??? (idk man I’m still wigged out about that even tho they don’t actually DO anything until both of them are in their twenties but STILL)

- it is VERY angsty. I mean, the soft moments are SICKENINGLY soft and there’s some of the best comedy/ cute shit I’ve ever seen but–god the ouch stuff HURTS. If you don’t want to cry over a book I wouldn’t recommend reading this.

In conclusion:

If you wanted LGBT adventure content here it is!!! I mean, if it’s the sex scenes you’re about (or against XD) there’s only really two, one is the epilogue and one is about 2/3rds through the book but from what other people who actually understand sex say it’s NICE XDD also just a very nice character moment? I didn’t read all of it but from what I read it was v nice, they’re wholesome and stupid, I love them. 

I actually really liked the romance? It’s v realistic and got the vibe of “neither of us have good self-confidence but I will DIE proving to you that you’re worth the entire world.” There’s very, very sappy and drawn out declarations of love, it’s adorable, sometimes a little weird (looking at you Joe), but altogether wholesome. There’s also a wee bit of possessiveness but it’s mostly(?) treated as the “uuuuhhhh, that’s not gonna go over well you need to chill” trait it should be.

It’s intense, and the last time I physically could not stop reading and stayed up all night just to finish a book was AFtG so... 

It is quite a bit longer than AFtG tho, like, it took me the same amount of time to read just Wolfsong that I read all three of the AFtG books in. Sometimes it drags a little, especially in the middle, but it’s all worth it. Also if you don’t like drawn out “you will apologize on my terms because you fucked up on yours” kinda things I don’t think this is for you. 

I loved it, the characters are to die for and the villains make my blood boil. I cried, and laughed and sobbed and screamed. 12/10

Here’s a lil bit to give you a taste:

Here’s a link to the Goodreads page if you want more details 

And here’s a link to where you can buy the book ;) 

[lesbeet]

not to be a nerd but i accidentally just wrote a whole impromptu essay about editing ndjsdksksk im throwing it under a cut bc it's fucking inane and really long but honestly... i just want other people to become as passionate about editing as i am lmaooooo

i also recommend 2 books in the post so if anything at least check those out!

quality books about editing... *chef's kiss* a lot of the basic ones (including blog posts online n such) are geared towards beginners and end up repeating the same info/advice, much of it either oversimplified or misrepresented tbh. but i read one yesterday and i'm reading another one right now that really convey this passion for editing + consideration for it as its own sort of art and i just!!

it's such a weird thing to be passionate about lmao but i AM and i've spent a lot of time the past year or so consciously honing my craft (ik i mention this like 4 times a week i'm just really proud of how much i've learned and improved) and kind of like. solidifying my instincts into conscious choices i guess?

and these GOOD editing books have both a) taught me new information and/or presented familiar information through a new perspective that helped me understand something differently or in more depth, and b) validated or even just put into words certain preferences or techniques that i've developed on my own, that i don't normally see on those more basic lists i mentioned

btw the book i finished yesterday is self-editing for fiction writers: how to edit yourself into print by renni brown and dave king, and the one i'm reading currently is the artful edit: on the practice of editing yourself by susan bell.

the former was pretty sharp and straightforward. the authors demonstrated some of their points directly in the text, which was usually funny enough that i would show certain quotes to my sister without context

("Just think about how much power a single obscenity can have if it’s the only one in the whole fucking book." <- (it was)

"Frequent italics have come to signal weak writing. So you should never resort to them unless they are the only practical choice, as with the kind of self-conscious internal dialogue shown above or an occasional emphasis."

or, my favorite: "There are a few stylistic devices that are so “tacky” they should be used very sparingly, if at all. First on the list is emphasis quotes, as in the quotes around the word “tacky” in the preceding sentence. The only time you need to use them is to show you are referring to the word itself, as in the quotes around the word “tacky” in the preceding sentence. Read it again; it all makes sense.")

and like i said, i also learned some new ideas or techniques (or they articulated vague ideas i already had but struggled to put into practice), AND they mentioned some suggestions that ive literally never seen anyone else bring up (not to say no one has! just that ive never seen it, and ive seen a lot in terms of writing tips, advice, best practices, etc) that ive already sort of established in my own writing

for example they went into pretty fine detail about dialogue mechanics, more than i usually see, and in talking about the pacing and proportion of "beats" and dialogue in a given scene, they explicitly suggested that, if a character speaks more than a sentence or two and you plan on giving them some sort of dialogue tag or an action to perform as a beat, the tag or action should be placed at one of the earliest (if not the first) natural pauses in the dialogue, so as not to distance the character too far from the dialogue -- bc otherwise the reader ends up getting all of the dialogue information first, and then has to go back and retroactively insert the character, or what they're doing, or the way they look/sound while they're giving their little speech

and like this was something ive figured out on my own, mostly bc it jarred me out of something i was reading enough times (probably in fic tbh) that i started noticing it, and realized that it's something i do naturally, kind of to anchor the character to the dialogue mechanic to make sure it makes sense with the actual dialogue

so like. ok here's an example i just randomly pulled from the song of achilles (it was available on scribd so i just looked for a spot that worked to illustrate my point djsmsks)

the actual quote is written effectively, but here's a less effective version first:

“Perhaps I would, but I see no reason to kill him. He’s done nothing to me," Achilles answered coolly.

see and even with such a short snippet it's so much smoother and more vivid just by moving the dialogue tag, not adding or cutting a word:

“Perhaps I would, but I see no reason to kill him.” Achilles answered coolly. “He’s done nothing to me.”

the rhythm of it is better, and the beat that the dialogue tag creates functions as a natural dramatic pause before achilles delivers an incredibly poignant line, both within the immediate context of the scene and because we as the readers can recognize it as foreshadowing. plus, it flows smoothly because that beat was inserted where the dialogue already contained a natural pause, just bc that's how people speak. if you read both versions aloud, they both make sense, but the second version (the original used in the novel) accounts for the rhythm of dialogue, the way people tend to process information as they read, AND the greater context of the story, and as a result packs significantly more purpose, information, and effect into the same exact set of words

and THAT, folks, is the kind of editing minutia i can literally sit and hyperfocus on for hours without noticing. anyway it's a good book lmao

the one i'm reading now is a lot more about the cognitive process/es of editing, so there's less concrete and specific advice (so far, anyway) and more discussion about different mental approaches to editing, as well as tips and tools for making a firm distinction between your writer brain and your editor brain, which is something i struggle with

but there have been so many good quotes that ive highlighted! a lot of just like. reminders and things to think about, and also just lovely articulations of things id thought of or come to understand in much more vague ways.

scribd won't let me copy/paste this one bc it's a document copy and not an actual ebook, but this passage is talking about how the simple act of showing a piece of writing to someone else for the very first time can spark a sudden shift in perspective on the work, bc you'll (or at least i) frantically try to re-read it through their eyes and end up noticing a bunch of new errors -

or she talked about the perils of constant re-reading in the middle of writing a draft, which is something i struggle with a LOT, both bc i'm a perfectionist and bc i prefer editing to writing so i sit and edit when i'm procrastinating doing the actual hard work of writing lmao

it's just this side of fake deep tbh but i so rarely see editing discussed like this--as a mixture of art and science, a collaboration between instinct and technique, that really requires "both sides of the brain" to be done well.

and because of the way my own brain works, activities that require such a balanced concentration of creativity and logic really appeal to me. even though ive seen a lot of people (even professional writers) who frame it as the creative art of writing vs the logical discipline of editing. but i think that's such a misleading way of thinking about it, because writing and editing both require creativity and logic -- just different kinds! (not to mention that the line between writing and editing, while mostly clear, can get a little blurry from up close)

but like...all stories have an inner logic to them, even if the writer hasn't explicitly or consciously planned it, and even if the logic is faulty in places in the first couple of drafts. when you're sitting and daydreaming about your story, especially if you're trying to figure out how to bridge the gap between two points or scenes (or, how to write a sequence of events that presents as a logical, inevitable progression of cause and effect), the voice in your head that evaluates an idea and decides to 1) go with it, 2) scrap it, 3) tweak it until it works, or 4) hold onto it in case you want it later? that's your logic! if an idea feels wrong, or like it just doesn't work, it's probably because some part of you is detecting a conflict between some part of the idea and the overall logic of your story. every decision you make as you write is formed by and checked against your own experiential logic, and also by the internal logic of your story, which is far less developed (or at least, one would hope), and therefore more prone to the occasional laspe

but while ive seen a number of articles that discuss the logic of writing, i don't see people gushing as much about the art of editing and it's such a shame

the inner editor is so often characterized as the responsible parent to the writer's carefree child, or a relentless critic of the writer's unselfconscious, unpolished drivel

and it's like... maybe you just hate thinking critically about your work! maybe you view it that way because you're imposing external standards too fiercely onto your writing, and it's sucked the joy out of shaping and sculpting your words until they sing. maybe you prefer to conceive of your writing as divine communication, the process of which must remain unencumbered by lessons learned through experience or the vulnerability of self-reflection, until the buzzkill inner editor shows up with all those "rules" and "conventions" that only matter if you're trying to get published

and like obviously the market doesn't dictate which conventions are worth following, but the majority of widely-agreed-upon writing standards, especially those aimed at beginners, (and most especially those regarding style, as opposed to story structure) have to do with the effectiveness and efficiency of prose, and, in addition to often serving as a shorthand for distinguishing an amateur from a pro, overall help to increase poignancy and clarity, which is crucial no matter the genre or type of writing. and even if you personally believe otherwise, it's better to understand the conventions so you can break them with real purpose.

so editing shouldn't be about trying to shove your pristine artistic masterpiece into a conventional mold, it should be about using the creative instincts of your ear and your logic and experience-based understanding of writing as a craft to hone your words until you've told your story as effectively as possible

thank u for coming to my ted talk ✌️

[belphegor1982]

AND ALSO THAT TIME YOU KILLED PHIL

I’m never gonna live that one down, am I :D Okay, let’s go.

He always says it, and Lawrence always shrugs. It’s almost becomean in-joke now.

The prompt was “You don’t have to stay”, and I have no idea why my mind conjured the image of Spy (at the end of a long, eventful life) in a hospital bed saying this to Sniper. But once it took hold it wouldn’t let go. And, y’know, for all that I love writing humour, banter, and/or fluff, sometimes I just have to let rip with the brutal down-to-earth feels. Like when I wrote If.

Of the two of them, it’s hard to say who hates hospitals the most,so Philippe is always grateful when Lawrence comes to visit. Usuallyhe comes alone, but sometimes one of his grandnephews or nieces comeswith him, Lizzie’s and Christian’s kids and grandkids, of course! and the conversation is livelier and dwells less on thepast, which is just as well. Their past is splattered with litres andlitres of blood, half of it their own.

Spy is French and, I suspect, remains French in certain aspects of his life. Hence the using “litres” instead of “galleons”. Also, while the premise of TF2 is “a bunch of cheerful dumb psychos who can’t die killing each other for a paycheck” - classic video game fare, and goofy as hell - the implications are interesting. By “implications” I mean “possible PTSD” and by “interesting” I mean “fun to explore through writing/torturing characters”, naturally.

Does killing people for a living make you a murderer when said deadpeople keep coming back for more the very next day? Philippe haspondered this more often than not, these past few years. Sometimes,instead of asking himself, he asks Lawrence, because he’s the onlyone left he can ask, but Lawrence has no answer of his own.

See what I mean about the premise? Hence my taking crack seriously. It’s a reasonably good question, too - it makes you an assassin, but does it make you a murderer if you know the people you keep killing keep coming back?

(They’re not the last ones left, but it certainly feels like it.Scout’s in Boston and Miss Pauling lives in Louisiana and theyhardly see each other any more. Sometimes they Skype. Ever sincePhilippe checked into the hospital he’s refused to do anything morethan chat, though.)

TF2 is set in the 1960s/early 1970s. That means this snippet is set in the late 2000s/early 2010s. Notice how Scout and Pauling are the youngest? This is why they’re the only ones left. And the reason why Spy doesn’t want to Skype since he’s checked into the hospital is because he’s wasting away, knows he’s not coming out alive, and refuses to appear as weak/leave a bad impression of him in their memories. Or, how vanity can make you sad instead of making you want to roll your eyes. (but you do anyway.)

* * *

“You don’t have to stay, you know.”

“That’s all right, I don’t have anywhere else I need to be tillsixteen hundred.”

Sniper spends a lot of time in that hospital.

They still use military time. It reminds them of the bad old days andthe way Soldier – ironically enough – never got the hang of it.

Don’t tell me Jane Doe would understand military time :D was he even in the military in the first place? Also, this is just funny to me, because in France we use a version of that to tell the time. 1PM is “13 heures”, 8PM is “20 heures” (but midnight is “minuit”).

Philippe still uses the metric system in his head, come to think ofit.

As I said, for some things he remains 100% French.

When it comes to plunging your knife into someone’s back with theintention of causing as much damage as possible, a centimetre willalways be more precise than an inch.

…and that’s also a factor.

* * *

Philippe stays at the hospital. Lawrence stays at his side.

He brings him news of his nephews and nieces (Lizzie’s andChristian’s kids) and their children, and it’s a treat, watchinghim awkwardly sliding the photos on his phones with his huge, bonyfingers. He loves technology – has a ridiculous amount of apps onhis phone – but the emphasis on touch screens lately annoys him.

I didn’t want to go the obvious route and make old!Lawrence a grumpy curmudgeon with no technological skills. But I liked the idea of him being grumpy because his fingers are getting a little stiff with age and he prefers buttons to touch screens. My dad is the same, btw.

Philippe hasn’t touched his own phone in a couple of days. Justpicking it up seemed like too much of an effort.

* * *

“You don’t have to stay.”

Hey, notice how the last time this sentence pops up it’s just a little different? :3

“Keep that up, spook, and I’ll end up believin’ I’minterrupting something each time I come in. Is it that red-hairednurse, ya know, the one with the freckles?”

I purposely didn’t specify the gender of the nurse. That’s because 1) I like the idea of Phil being bi and 2) at the time I wasn’t 100% sure - and didn’t want to decide for the readers, Chaos in particular - whether he and Law were a couple or really close friends. That’s for you to decide. They 100% are each other’s family, though.

Lawrence’s voice is low on purpose, even as he’s gently ribbinghim. Philippe murmurs because his chest feels like a slab ofconcrete.

Or a slab of stone. Like the kind they put on people’s graves.

What can I say? I love wordplay. In this instance it’s effective.

“No.”

“Ah well. Thought he liked ya. I was all ready to get jealous andeverythin’, too.”

He’s ribbing him, of course, as Phil is a little too far gone for Lawrence to get jealous - but again, I deliberately kept the nature of their relationship vague.

Lawrence’s slight smile – the sort that says ‘Come on, playalong’ – is warm and gentle, and it makes Philippe almost not saywhat he means to say.

Almost.

Okay, truth: this was the point I knew death was imminent. 

“Lawrence…”

Even whispering is an effort. Putain de cigarettes.

“Fucking cigarettes”. I usually put translations when I write in other languages but I thought this one was obvious enough.

“Yeah?”

“Could you… look away, please? For a… moment.”

There’s a French series called Lazy Company, about a handful of idiots through the Battle of Normandy; it’s three seasons of 10 episodes and while hilarious is a big case of Cerebus Syndrome and mood whiplash. In one of the last episodes, one of the main characters is shot and another character is there for them, but the dying character asks them to look away as he dies. It’s not for the same reasons at all, but it was such a powerful moment that it stayed with me a long time, and was still on my mind when I wrote this.

Lawrence says nothing, but his eyes narrow.

“It’s just… I need… intimacy.” Suddenly he’s not sureit’s the right word. He’s been speaking almost exclusivelyEnglish for over fifty or sixty years; words usually flow withoutthinking. But right now he has thrown his whole body into the laststruggle, and it’s an effort that dwarfs all others, including thesearch for vocabulary.

Do you know the worst part of being bilingual? You end up searching for words in both languages, especially when you’re tired. Incidentally, I love writing characters who speak more than one language, especially if they live in an environment where they have to speak a second language.

Lawrence still squints at him silently, as though he’s waiting foran explanation. Philippe isn’t sure he’ll hear the end.

“T—thank you. For staying. Thank you. But…”

They’ve dealt death so many times, the two of them; they’ve diedso many times, too, whether in the heat and chaos of battle or curledup on themselves, bleeding to death in a corner. They’ve never diedalone. There’s always been someone – the enemy standing overthem, allies running towards them in a last ditch attempt at rescue,their comrades’ and the Administrator’s voice in their earpieces…

Again, crack taken seriously. Usually in fiction, dying alone is about the worst fate a dying character can meet: there’s just something about facing that pain and that terrifying unknown without the comfort of a fellow human being that’s heartbreaking. But when your life used to be death, repeatedly, with someone ALWAYS watching you or listening to you… Well, I thought Phil might see dying without someone else’s eyes on him for once as going out with dignity.

And then there is the other sort of death that Philippe saw wellbefore that, the slow death of the human mind as he strugglednot to turn into a living shadow because it was just one step awayfrom the corpses the SS guards cleared off the ground as though theywere refuse.

Look, Em, I don’t know when you got the idea that Spy was a death camp survivor, but you pulled it off magnificently and when I think of TF2 it’s your version that comes to my mind first. So - Phil has seen that kind of impersonal, industrial death (mental and physical) before the violent, repeated kind of his chosen profession. I used the reminder to segue into the next idea:

Philippe has never seen death as being dignified and intimate. He’sseen way too much of it for that. But if this is to be the end, he’llbe damned if he doesn’t do this on his own terms.

And that’s what this is about. Dying with dignity, side by side with a friend who doesn’t think any less of you for not fighting one more minute and allows you the respect of not prying while staying and holding your hand.

Lawrence stares at him, waiting for the rest of the sentence. ButPhilippe is struggling for breath now, not vocabulary. So Lawrencenods slowly, takes his limp, emaciated hand in his own, big andgangly and calloused, and resolutely turns his head right, towardsthe window.

It’s not a bad sight.

I’m usually pretty uptight about third-person limited PoVs, and only switch PoVs after a dash or something else that makes it clear you’re seeing the action through the eyes of a different character. In this instance, though, I didn’t, and made the switch from Phil’s to Law’s mind just as Phil passes away.

Philippe’s hand twitches at some point. Lawrence waits a littlebefore looking down again.

Then he reaches out and slowly, gently, closes the half-open eyes.

The reason I didn’t write tears was because I thought I didn’t need to. Which also means you’re free to imagine whatever you want. Is Lawrence crying? Will he cry later, when it sinks in? Yes.

Whew, this was A Lot to revisit :D

[stevie-baby]

Oh pleaseeee share your dreams, i got curious :(

Okay, so before I start I’m gonna drop a little disclaimer: I kinda believe in the idea of soulmates (platonic and romantic). I’m still pretty skeptical but I sort of buy into it a little, ya know? That’s very contradictory of me, but I need to let y’all know that before I get into this so I don’t sound completely insane and delusional. Now, on to the interesting part (I’m putting it under cut-off)…

I’ve had dreams since I was really little (like 6 or 7) about another life. In the dreams I was myself, but I didn’t really look like me. Ya know? I was a grown woman and I was dressed like a hippie (very different from the second grader who lived in hoodies and plaid shorts that I was in real life). There was also a man in a lot of these dreams. He was an eccentric singer with curly brown hair who also wore outdated clothing. I never really saw his face or heard his name, but I did know his name started with a J. The dreams were usually about watching him perform in clubs or other venues. Sometimes we would just be in our little apartment, reveling in some good ol’ domestic bliss. Anytime I looked at J I felt this intense love and pride and that feeling only got stronger as I got older. He was my everything; my sun, moon, and stars (he sure was a star and I know that the only time he ever got bashful was when I would remind him how spectacular he was). The love was mutual. J was always doing these grand romantic gestures and calling me sickeningly-sweet pet names. He was also very prophetic, he’d talk about how the universe brought us together and how I came to him when he needed inspiration most. That specific dream, when we were sitting on our balcony and he told me I was his muse, that dream fucked me up. I woke up crying, wondering where J was. It was all too real.

So to summarize the content of the dreams: I was the girlfriend of this singer, we were very much in love, and I assumed it was the 60s or 70s based on how we and the people around us were dressed. It was weird. The dreams didn’t come to me as often in high school, I don’t think I had another dream about my “other life” or J from the age of 13 until I was about 16. In that time I’d started to develop my style, I tended to dress more boho and I got really into older music. I also started to physically look more like I did in my dreams, but I didn’t realize that until I dreamt about the other life again. It was near the end of junior year (the beginning of 2017) when I had another dream. This time I felt different, I didn’t feel like the person I was in the dream was different from the person I was in real life. I almost thought it wasn’t another dream about the other life… until I saw J. Like I said, I had kinda forgotten about the other life, but as soon as I saw J (who I was still face-blind to) all of the emotions came flooding back. We chatted for a long time and before I woke up he leaned in and said “I’ll see you soon mama” …Do you see where this is going yet? 

Well, about a month after that dream I heard Greta Van Fleet for the first time. I thought they were pretty cool and their music was really good. Like I said in the tags of that one post, Flower Power completely kicked me in the chest when I heard it for the first time. It is such a beautiful song. The tears would not stop and honestly, I thought I was just crying because my hormones were all out of whack and I was Going Through Some Things™ at the time. That still very well could have been the case. I could definitely feel something magical(?) about the band, but I didn’t immediately connect the dreams with them. 

When I first got into GVF, I was sooo into Sammy boy. He is my type, or at least what I’m typically attracted to just alternate timeline versions of myself if I’m being honest. Also, Josh was cute but I didn’t immediately think of J. At the time, Josh had the undercut and rat tail and his wardrobe wasn’t as outlandish. I tried to put off actually getting into the band for so long. Like, I listened to their music and I also vaguely knew names and faces (I knew Sam’s at least) but I hadn’t watched any videos of them off stage. I was like “I don’t know if I have the emotional capacity to be obsessed with another band”. So when I finally cracked and watched an interview of theirs? Whew, my subconscious was going OFF. It was the beginning of 2018, I had known of the band for about a year (I had also tried to get tickets to see them in LA, but alas my parents said no. The first of many attempts to see this band. Still haven’t seen them btw). Josh had grown out his hair a bit by then and when I heard him talk, my brain just kind of shut down and said “that’s my sun, moon, and stars right there”.

The latest weird coincidence between the dream realm and GVF was when they released Always There. I was diligently trying not to listen to the snippets of the song or look at the lyrics that were floating around because I wanted to experience it when it was released. Alright, so I was enjoying another dream with J and toward the end of it he just said “soon” and I was sooooo confused. The next day I went on Tumblr and saw that everyone was saying that the band was releasing a new song that night. When I finally listened to the song I couldn’ t help but wonder if that was the “soon” that J was referring to. This is a kind of lazy connection, but I mean the song is about a woman in a dream.

Could my brain be projecting these weird dreams I’ve had onto this poor unsuspecting singer? Maybe. Probably. Do I think that Josh Kiszka is 100%, undoubtedly my soulmate? No, but it’s always fun to entertain the idea. I’m just saying there’s a lot of coincidences.