#sarcastic commentary about the people of the past

[thedrawbacksofbeingmortal]

it's been six years since I started playing Fallout 4 and I still am just absolutely obsessed with MacCready. it's ridiculous. I open up his dialogue files to read his interactions with others and the scenery and immediately get a hit of dopamine. magical

[liaromancewriter]

Control What You Can Control

Premise: Ethan has second thoughts about a new phase in his life.

Book: Open Heart (post series) Pairing: Ethan Ramsey x F!MC (Cassie Valentine) Rating/Category: Teen. Fluff Words: 1,100

A/N: Late submission for @choicesflashfics week 58, prompt 2. I'm also using week 59, prompt 3.

The summer sun was high in the sky, its sharp rays shining through the treated glass ceiling. Where the city streets battled sweltering temperatures, the hospital atrium was a cool and bright hub of activity. Patients, visitors, nurses and doctors glided around each other like actors on a stage.

From his vantage point on the seventh-floor gallery, Ethan Ramsey watched the familiar scene unfold below. There was a time when he’d stand at the windows of his old office and gaze down at the emergency drop-off area. Sometimes, it was the only time he had to himself in the day to just think.

There was a simplicity to his life he missed now that he was chief of medicine. He missed working with patients most of all, solving the puzzle of what brought them to the hospital, that moment when a diagnosis just clicked.

Now, it was all over, he sighed morosely, tightly gripping the edge of the steel handrail. And he wished he could go back and do it all over again.

“You look like you’ve got the weight of the world on your shoulders, Chief. Having second thoughts about the wedding?”

Ethan rolled his eyes at the glib comment from Tobias Carrick, his former nemesis slash colleague slash occasional friend slash permanent pain in the ass.

“No, just contemplating how much lighter life would be without your unsolicited commentary,” Ethan shot back sarcastically.

He scowled at the other man over his shoulder. “It's like mental weightlifting, really, and more intense than any wedding jitters.”

“Who’s having wedding jitters?” Cassie Valentine asked absently, eyes on her phone as she joined them.

“Your fiancé,” Tobias smirked. “His sigh was ponderous enough to sink the Titanic. Might want to check if you can get your deposits back.”

Cassie’s gaze zigzagged between them before her green eyes narrowed suspiciously. “Tobias, are you riling Ethan up for no reason?”

“How could you ask me that?” Tobias feigned offense.

Ethan grinned when Cassie stared Tobias down, using her haughtiest and most severe expression. It was one he’d seen her use only when someone or something truly vexed her and reminded him of why people called the Valentines American royalty.

For once, Ethan was glad not to be on the receiving end of it.

Tobias held his palms up in a universal gesture for peace, but Ethan could see him sweating bullets. Served him right, he thought. Ethan grinned wickedly as the other man made some excuse and rushed off.

“Are you having second thoughts about the wedding?”

Ethan silently groaned at Cassie’s question. He looked away from his perusal of Carrick’s retreating back to find her watching him. She was more curious than concerned, and he figured that was a good sign.

“Not about the wedding, no,” he said, taking her hand in his. “I was just reflecting on this past year, everything that’s happened.”

Cassie peered into his eyes, and he knew she could read him like an open book. “You’re having second thoughts about your job.”

“Maybe.” Ethan shrugged. “I don’t know. I’m enjoying the challenge, finally having the power to change things from within. And god knows the residency program needs an upgrade. But…”

“You miss seeing patients, doing research,” she finished astutely.

“Yes,” Ethan admitted, leaning against the railing. “Oh, what the hell.” He crossed his arms defiantly. “I sometimes, very rarely, mind you,” he warned, “miss teaching interns too.”

Cassie burst into laughter, her eyes twinkling as she threw her head back in an uninhibited display of amusement. Her laugh was loud and contagious, making everyone’s head turn in curiosity.

“You miss interns,” Cassie gasped out the words, still chuckling. “That’s like the funniest thing I’ve ever heard!”

Her shoulders shook, and tears leaked from the corner of her eyes.

“It’s not that funny,” Ethan grumbled, somewhat annoyed by her reaction.

He shook his head and turned to walk away, but Cassie held up a hand to stop him.

“I’m sorry,” she said sincerely, lips upturned in a smile. “I shouldn’t have laughed. But, I’m trying to reconcile the man I met in intern year with the one standing before me.”

“That was then. This is now. People change,” Ethan muttered.

When Cassie threw him a disbelieving look, he unfolded his arms and rolled his eyes. “Okay, fine. I don’t actually miss interns.”

“Thank god.” Cassie leaned into him. “You had me going there for a second.” She slipped one arm around his back. “Seriously, though. My grandfather always taught us if we don’t like how something is, change it.”

“This is the same grandfather that threatened to cut you off when you applied to med school instead of joining the family business?” Ethan asked skeptically.

“Yes, but,” she said, waving her hand dismissively, “he’s right more often than he’s wrong. My point is, Ethan, it’s up to you to find a way to make the job your own.”

“What does that even mean?” he said, confused. The job was the job. He knew that going in.

“Take shifts in the community clinic, take over the care of your former patients, undertake a research study.” Cassie listed things off on her fingers. “You can be the chief of medicine and a doctor. Balance your workload by hiring a medical director to do the things you don’t enjoy or won’t have time for.”

Cassie pressed on when he remained silent. “Naveen chose you because you’re what Edenbrook needs, not because you’ll do the job like anyone else would.”

Ethan turned over her words in his head, thinking through the ramifications of changing things. It could be done, of course. There was at least one hospital that he knew of that did what Cassie was proposing. Maybe there were more?

“I need to think about this,” he said eventually. “That’s good advice, though.”

“Don’t sound so shocked,” Cassie laughed. “I’m the head of Edenbrook’s famed diagnostics team, after all, and pretty remarkable at diagnosing what’s wrong.”

“And so modest, too,” Ethan quipped, placing a swift kiss across her lips. “Thank you.”

“Someone brilliant once told me, ‘Control what you can control.’ Well, this is something you can control,” Cassie added when he smiled at hearing the familiar words.

He folded her in his embrace. “Brilliant, you said?”

“Handsome, too,” Cassie smirked. “Alas, his tongue can be acerbic, and he refuses to do dance challenges with me on TikTok.” She snickered. “But, I love him anyway.”

He lowered his head, lips hovering above hers, tantalizingly close. “Then it’s a good thing he loves you too.”

And then he kissed her.

-------------

All Fics & Edits: @bluebelle08 @coffeeheartaddict2 @crazy-loca-blog @headoverheelsforramsey @lucy-268 @jerzwriter @lady-calypso @mainstreetreader @peonierose @potionsprefect @queencarb @quixoticdreamer16 @rookiemartin @socalwriterbee @tessa-liam @trappedinfanfiction

Submissions: @choicesficwriterscreations @openheartfanfics

Ethan & Cassie only: @cariantha @custaroonie @youlookappropriate @zealouscanonindeer

[ravensandcrowsandowlsohmy]

I’ve been thinking about some stuff lately. I keep thinking “Anthony Lockwood and Kaz Brekker are almost the same,” but there’s been something I couldn’t put my finger on. I’ve considered that maybe Anthony is a mix of Kaz and Sherlock Holmes, but I don’t know enough about Holmes to say that.

But I just realized what it was. It wasn’t just the parallels between Kaz and Lockwood, it was also about Jesper, Inej, Lucy, and George. They were both (arguably) the main characters of their story. Lucy and Inej are both very talented girls that had people they loved cruelly pried out of their hands, and then ran away from the abusive place that they were staying. They then met their love interest with a traumatic past and abrasive nature, Anthony/Kaz. And at one point in time, both Anthony and Kaz insinuated that Lucy/Inej was only with them due to their skills. (The asset/investment moment.)

Now onto George and Jesper. This one may be a bit more of a stretch. Both George and Jesper at first glance seem to just be the best friends/brother figure of Anthony/Kaz. But they both have talents that got them onto the team (Jesper’s guns and George’s smarts). Out of the group, both George and Jesper seem to have the best backstories (even when that may not be true) and they both have a family member(s) that they could go back to if things went south, although it would be a shameful return. In addition, they both constantly provide sarcastic commentary on whatever the group is doing.

If I were to try to list all the similarities between Kaz and Anthony, it would take years. And the same thing goes for if I was trying to list the parallels of their group dynamics.

But maybe another day.

[fangshing]

Hello!

This a member of the TV Station trying to apologize to you. Originally, I was going to send you a direct message but you have all of my blogs blocked and I don't want to pull what Arty used to and make a blog just to message you. That's creepy.

I want to start off by saying I am genuinely very sorry for her harassing you in the past and while the entire situation seems like a joke, a horrible grab for attention or fake I promise you this is very much real it has been very much affecting my personal life and the investigation with Ezra.

Full disclosure; I don't know you. I never wanted your contact information or your Discord, people would usually just kind of relay others to me expect me to know what's going on but I really am trying my best to distance myself from the situation which is impossible when I'm the only person who's out in the open if that makes any sense.

Understandably I get why you wouldn't want to see what I post unless someone else's screenshotting it without my permission and posting it, both sides have done this and I don't appreciate it and I typically don't see it because I'm very rarely on Tumblr and if I do see someone reposting my stuff without asking (which I'm only paranoid about because one of Sunny's friends has edited my face white more than once) I can't do much to undo the action.

I can say I know that the blogs typically will reblog a post without any commentary because it was meant to go into drafts or something to be commented on later or archived on the internet archive or some other thing I really don't know and really don't care because this is dragging my entire reputation through the mud it's been making everything harder for every person in my life right now.

You have no reason to believe this is me and I don't really have any way to show except if I take a screenshot of this and post it which I probably will at some point, but I am deeply sorry for the harassment you've faced. You're welcome to DM me with any questions you have or for any explanations.

Two things we can say is that we don't have a fictive of Taylor's OC and Arty is a real person, her deadname is in Sunny's callout.

Ben

Since you're being polite and trying to clear the air, I'll refrain from being a sarcastic bitch in this post. I do not forgive you, but its nice that you felt the need to apologize.

That being said, I don't appreciate that you block-evaded, even if your intentions were good. I do not want to speak with you, Hau, or anyone else in the TV Station system. I have made that abundantly clear on several different occasions.

The thing with the archiving still puzzles me. Posts from people who are twice removed from the drama (that is, only involved because they are interacting with me) are being cataloged even if the post has absolutely nothing to do with you. Like, a post that was just lyrics from a nonsensical YouTube video was saved by one. Why?

This entire situation doesn't have to continue. You and your friends don't have to do this. There is nothing to gain from trying to defend your character online. Ultimately this hurts nobody but yourself. People have already made up their minds about you and no amount of convincing will get them to change their minds. They are inconsequential anyway; the likelihood of you ever meeting them in person is slim to none. Internet slap fights where someone is trying to protect their honor has never ended well and has always resulted in more trouble for them than if they let it go.

The nature of human beings is that people will always take offense to what you do, no matter what that may be. You don't have to acknowledge them or try to prove them wrong. Like I said above, its doubtful you will meet any of your online detractors, and even less likely that they'll know who you are if they do. The opinions of someone who is this unimportant doesn't have to matter. If you don't look at their accounts, you will never know what they said, and it can never hurt you.

You don't have to take my advice, but I thought I would at least offer my two cents instead of saying "lol fuck off" because that helps no one.

[thebeautyoffanfics]

helloooo how are you?i hope you’re fine!!can i request some headcanons/scenarios whit hanako,kou and tsukasa whit a s/o having a panic attack?

a/n: hello !! sorry for the (very very) late response !!!! 

warnings: anxiety / anxiety attacks

word count: 686

Hanako : 

Ohh, this guy… he’s not super great at comforting others.

So, when you sat down on the window seat, heart racing, hands shaking, Hanako was nearly clueless on how to help. Sure, he probably had one or two in the past, but that was himself- not his partner.

Despite his uncertainty and slight nervousness, Hanako wouldn’t leave your side unless you implied you wanted him too.

“It’s alright, (Y/N). Hey, here, is it okay if I touch your face?”

If you are alright with him touching your face, he’d quickly dampen a paper towel, and dot it over your face. As he does so, he’d let you hold his free hand if you needed, and would do his best to help you calm your breathing.

“Deep breaths, alright? Just copy me.”

“Focus on the rag, sweetie. Try and focus on the rag…” He’d say, holding the cool rag against the side of your face, hoping it might help ground you a bit.

Once you were calm, he’d continue to stay by your side, for once not talking your head off. He’d ask if you needed anything- offering water, to wash your face, alone time, or even to talk. No matter what you asked of him, he’d absolutely do his best to help!!

Kou Minamoto : 

Kou, I feel might be vaguely more experienced in this, especially if he knew you had panic attacks in the past (if you have).

Not to get into his mental health, but… with the roles he’s had to fill, and the things he’s been through, I wouldn’t be surprised if Kou occasionally had panic attacks himself. Thanks to this, even if he wasn’t aware that you’d have them, he’s at least done a bit of research on how to handle them.

The moment you felt the fear welling up in your chest, Kou was leading you away from any groups of people or things that could have potentially triggered it.

Once in a safe place, he’d ask if there was any way he could help. Based on your answer, he wouldn’t hesitate to do whatever you needed him to.

As long as you’re comfortable with it, he’s by your side the entire time, and will reassure you of that. 

Will try and count to 10 with you, in an attempt to help your breathing. While he does so, he’ll hold your hand, telling you you’re free to hold his hand tightly if you needed to. 

“Here, (Y/N),” He’d very gently hand you the sweatband from his wrist. “It’s got an interesting texture. What do you think it feels like…?”

Will gently talk to you, unless you want him to not talk, throughout the panic attack. For the most of it, he’ll be trying to help calm your breathing, but once you begin to stop hyperventilating he focuses on anything that might comfort or distract you. 

He doesn’t really speak to be heard, if that makes sense, but instead to let you know he’s there. Occasionally, he does throw in a “it’s alright, it won’t last long” and “good job, (Y/N). You’ve got this.” hoping that you at least hear those encouragements.

Tsukasa Yugi : 

Probably the worst of the 3 to have a panic attack around… /lh

Overall, he might be the least educated on panic attacks- much less, how to deal with them. So, he’ll rely on waiting for you to tell him how to help / what to do.

Pain in the neck though he is, he still will want to help his sweet partner. So, anything you ask, he does so with minimum / no rude or sarcastic commentary. 

“I’m here for you, (Y/N)!! Don’t worry, you’re safe,” He’d say, rubbing your back gently. 

Since, like I said, he isn’t very educated on panic attacks, he’ll mostly sit there and talk to you through it. He can’t give tips or guidance like the others, so it’ll mostly be about mundane things- but, it at least provides a bit of a distraction.

Once you calm down, he’ll smile at you, and kiss your face. “You did it, (Y/N)! You’re good now, cutie!!”

[smartycvnt]

Gentlemen Prefer Blondes

Title: Gentlemen Prefer Blondes Pairing: Claudio Castagnoli x Reader Prompt: 6. "Mine." + 27. "I'm being a good girl." "Yeah, then why do you sound like such a brat?" Minors DNI, 18+ Warnings: smut, dom Claudio, sub reader, breeding kink, internal cumshot R WC: 1412

The glitz and glamour of her older brother's party had Y/n in a very playful mood for the night. She had gotten all dressed up like a 1950s movie star, although her dress was a little more revealing than what people wore back then. She was sure to catch the eyes of many possible suitors at the party, but there was only one in particular she cared about. The goal was to spend the night with Claudio, and hopefully the party itself would keep Tony busy enough that he wouldn't notice his little sister sneaking off with the newfound father-figure of the Blackpool Combat Club. Y/n wasn't sure whether or not she could do damage control if Tony caught them together again.

"Y/n looks good tonight," Yuta said as Y/n walked past them. Claudio glanced up from the rim of his glass to watch as her hips swayed. She knew how to captivate audiences and capture her prey. The world of professional wrestling wasn't one she had ever really taken any insterest in, but she had proven to have a knack for it. Claudio knew the audiences loved having her on commentary or even in the ring to walk out the wrestlers who had become her public favorites.

"I'm surprised she didn't go with a Marilyn look," Bryan said as he watched Y/n staring down Claudio. All of the guys knew exactly what was going to happen, they just weren't sure when they'd have to make their leave. Seemingly unaware of the conversation surrounding him, Moxley waved at Y/n once he noticed that she was looking in their direction. Y/n quickly shot back the drink she had ordered herself at the bar and walked over to join the members of BCC.

"Hello boys," Y/n greeted teasingly. Her tone was playful and flirtatious, just enough that Yuta and Bryan could tell that they weren't supposed to be standing there anymore. Bryan tugged Yuta away, who grabbed Moxley before the man could say anything, leaving Claudio and Y/n alone. "Do you like my hair? I just dyed it earlier today."

"I thought gentlemen preferred blondes." Claudio glanced down at Y/n, hopeful that his joke had landed. Y/n flashed him a small smile as she grabbed onto his tie and pulled him down a bit.

"Well, tonight I'm hoping you'll be just as much of a gentleman as I am a blonde," Y/n told him. Claudio stood up to his full height and stiffened a little as she trailed her hand down his chest. "I'll be upstairs if you'd like to join me."

Claudio didn't have to be told twice. He followed Y/n upstairs, pushing past everybody who stood in his way. Y/n was just barely in the room long enough to lose her heels before Claudio came running in. The door hadn't even shut completely behind him by the time that he made his way over to Y/n. He scooped her up into his arms and placed her onto the bed. Y/n had expected him to join her, but instead Claudio pulled her onto her hands and knees in front of him.

"Aren't you scared of ripping my dress?" Y/n asked him. There was enough attitude in her voice for Claudio to know that Y/n wanted him to manhandle her and rip her probably very expensive dress to shreds. Instead, he just gave her a swat to the ass. "Hey, what was that for?"

"You're being a brat," Claudio explained. Y/n scoffed as she hopped off of the bed to stand in front of him.

"I'm being a good girl."

"Yeah, then why do you sound like such a brat?" Claudio's question was valid, even if Y/n didn't want to admit it. She could act up for an entire night and still insist that she wasn't being bratty. Claudio could usually deal with it, but tonight he wasn't willing to play her games. "If you want me tonight, you have to behave. Or at least show me how badly you want me first."

"I want you so badly Claudio, please," Y/n begged sarcastically. Claudio grabbed onto her jaw and forced her to look up at him. The flare of aggression in his eyes sparked an arousal so deep inside of Y/n that she didn't know it was there. She dropped down onto her knees and grabbed onto his waistband. "Please."

Claudio unbuckled his belt and let Y/n deal with his slacks. His pants dropped down and pooled around his ankles in front of his body. Y/n started on unbuttoning his shirt as Claudio ran his own hand over his bulge. He could feel himself hardening beneath his own hand. Y/n stood up again when she got to the top of his shirt and looked up at Claudio through her eyelashes. Claudio grabbed her by the cheeks and pulled her towards him, kissing her until both of them were gasping for breath.

"You're mine, all mine," Y/n mumbled as she pressed kisses to Claudio's chest. She continued to kiss further down his body, muttering "Mine" after each kiss. Claudio let her get him completely naked before he went back to her dress. The dress looked expensive, but the fabric tore like cheap paper. Y/n found herself leaning over his lap moments after her dress had been torn away from her body. Claudio rubbed his fingers over her entrance as she squirmed on his lap, desperate for more. "Please, I need you inside of me."

"Patience, I don't want to hurt you," Claudio told her. Y/n whined and continued to struggle a little as Claudio rubbed his fingers over her slit. He pushed her lips open a little and started to touch her a little more precisely, but it still obviously wasn't enough. Claudio took some pity on Y/n and slipped two of his fingers inside of her. Y/n immediately started to push back on them the best that she could in an attempt to fuck herself. "Get up."

Y/n moved quickly to follow his instructions. Claudio pulled Y/n back onto his lap, this time in a position where she could ride him. Claudio pulled Y/n down onto his cock slowly, allowing for her to feel each inch before adding more. Y/n bit her lip as the pleasant burn of being stretched spread throughout her entire body. Her head started to feel fuzzy, almost as if she had been drinking much more than she really had. The moans that she normally would have kept inside of herself for her own pride slipped past her lips, dancing across the skin of Claudio's neck and shoulder as Y/n tried burying her face to keep quiet.

Claudio held her tightly as he thrust his hips upwards. Y/n dug her nails into Claudio's back as she felt herself start to get closer. Claudio laced his finger into her hair and started to pull, completely messing up the elegeant updo she had been wearing to the party. Y/n's mouth fell open as she started to cum, not a care in her mind about how she was going to leave the party without making it obvious what they had been doing. Claudio kept his thrusts strong as Y/n started to cum. Y/n's body went limp in Claudio's arms and the mess of Y/n's arousal and Claudio's cum began to drip down onto both of their thighs.

"I don't want to be done with you, not yet," Y/n muttered as she lifted her head enough to rest her forehead against Claudio's. "I could stay in here all night with you. That's what I want."

"Well, you don't always get what you want," Claudio said as he moved Y/n off of his lap. She watched as he started to get himself redressed, and for a moment, all of her hopes for more of him went down the drain. "Get yourself cleaned up while I make the rounds downstairs. If you've done a good job, maybe I'll mess you up all over again. How does that sound?"

"Fucking perfect," Y/n said as she sat up on her knees. Claudio snuck himself out of the room while Y/n rushed to the bathroom to clean herself up before he got back to her.

[itsclydebitches]

thank you for acknowledging how messed up the jane/beard ending is. as an abuse survivor it's been pretty bad seeing the controlling relationship he's in be treated like a joke (and then apparently it's true love? the finale was a let down in many many ways) especially when Keeley's arc with Jack controlling her this season was (rightfully) played straight? it's just the larger trend of "abuse is bad but it's funny when it happens to a man" and i wish ted lasso had been better than that

Same, same, same, anon -- and I'm so sorry to hear you've had personal experience with that. But it's reassuring to likewise hear that that's in your past.

I got a comment on one of my posts (which I bring up because the author has already blocked me and it's proving to be a useful example for a lot of things I want to talk about) basically rolling their eyes and saying that Beard and Jane aren't real people, so it doesn't matter. Besides, he's the comic relief!

Meanwhile I'm like:

Yes, it's hilarious that Beard is committing himself to an abusive relationship, unable to break away despite recognizing at times precisely how harmful this is (and yes, I'm being sarcastic). I'd actually be less frustrated by this if Ted Lasso had treated it as a joke across the whole show because as awful as that is, at least it's a common and understandable (from an ignorance perspective) trend in media. But the number of times we had the text overtly commenting on how horrible Jane is tells us that the writers are well aware that they're writing an abusive relationship and that commentary likewise tells us that they wanted to do something with it, like Keeley got. They just inexplicably... didn't. Beard does not leave Jane, Jane does not undergo self-improvement and become a better person -- the route I would expect a show like Ted Lasso to take, especially with Season 3 throwing out curve balls like Jamie forgiving his dad -- and their marriage is not treated as the mistake it was, settling simply on a realistic tragedy. Even if that montage was just a dream Ted was having, the fact that he's likewise well aware of how bad they are for each other just maintains the strangeness of that choice. I could buy a picture perfect wedding fantasy from a character who doesn't know either of them well and assumes they're just quirky, but Ted knows precisely what Jane has been doing to Beard, he knows Beard's history of self-destructive behavior (better than anyone), and he's consistently been shown to be uncomfortable with their relationship, yet unwilling to speak up about it. That's another bit of tragedy to add to the pile: not allowing Ted to undergo the growth needed to speak up on his best friend's behalf. Beard has consistently called Ted out on his flaws across the show -- sometimes in a rather cruel manner -- and I had hoped that they'd reach a point where the roles were switched and Ted could provide Beard with some tough love in turn.

My best guess at the moment is that the writers realized how little time they had compared to how much there still was to cover -- despite the claims that this would always be a three season show -- and they changed course as a result. There's no time to take them on one of the above journeys, so just play the relationship straight. Which, given my experience with some fandoms and their unwillingness to take into account anything but the most recent episode, Ted Lasso indeed might have been able to skate by on faulty memories/willful ignorance... if they hadn't tossed in another 'She tore up my passport! Isn't she a peach? :)' joke half an hour before we watched them get married.

[dni-archive-official]

Sincerely, what is the point of this? A lot of these are going to be super recognizable anyway and still supports people being weird about just screenshotting other people (Usually teens to be honest) as content. Not everything needs to be archived, especially when minors can grow out of stuff and opinions/beliefs change over time. Kids don't need archives haunting them forever.

the point is that DNIs are a unique look into the internet culture as a whole. i, the owner of this blog, find purity culture morbidly fascinating. people, both minors AND adults, have gotten increasingly comfortable with

sharing their boundaries. definitely a good thing!

being assholes to other people based on in/out-groups, specifically through the veil of anonymity

and i find it interesting to document the place where this is the most obvious, the DNI / BYF page.

dni-archive is an asshole. dni-archive knowingly uses their blog to bring attention to people they dont like. they do not remove derogatory comments.

i, hopefully, am not an asshole most of the time. i can be kind of rude, blunt, terse, and sarcastic, but i do not tolerate bullying of any kind. dni-archive bullies people.

there have been submissions sent to me which included commentary shaming the OOP of the dni for its contents. i delete any and all personal commentary which shows an obvious bias. generally if you want to submit something with commentary, keep it informative and clinical and keep your voice out of it.

look, anon, i get your concern. i have it too. thats why i run this blog the way i do, and its why ive stopped copying dni-archive's posts as i cant look through every single one of them and there are SO MANY and undoubtedly they dont hold themself to the same standards that i do. a few of the posts i did take had to be edited to take out personal information.

these arent entertainment. they arent memes or jokes (though some of them have jokes in them) or anything like that. i get the apprehension, seeing someone post a bunch of DNIs in the same place can make you think "oh god, theyre mocking people for their boundaries!" but no. anon, if you see anyone mocking any of these posts, TELL ME! show me specifically so i can snuff it out, i promise i will!

finally, i just have one last point. i do not archive identifying information as best as i can (and im willing to take corrections on that!). tell me. if someone sees a DNI on this blog that has no names, blog names, urls, links, how will they find the person who made that DNI? if someone recognizes it, then they already knew who made it. most DNI's are screenshots taken with the snipping tool because they cant be copy-pasted like images. how could you reverse image search a colorful screenshot of text? if the original OP came back as an adult and saw a DNI they made when they were, say, 14, they could either politely ask me to remove it (as anyone can, at any time), or just not tell anyone that it was them, and nobody would know. anon, this criticism seems unfounded to me.

[unreadpoppy]

song as old as rhyme - chapter 2

{Beauty and the Beast AU - Raphael x OC (Elize)}

chapter 1

Read on AO3

A/N: So here's chapter two and we are still setting up, so trust the process. Once again, i'm thanking my bestie @littlemoondarling for giving his insightful commentary ❤️ Anyways, enjoy the chapter!

Her prediction was right and her father had indeed woken up. He had his back towards her. Audifax was a tall and fat man, his white skin was tanned with how much out in the sun he usually was, and his short hair was almost all white, with a bald spot on the back. He was still in his night clothes and it appeared that he was setting the table. 

The moment Elize walked, Audifax turned around and was shocked to see the state his daughter was in.

“Elize! What happened?” He rushed to her, putting both hands in her face, examining her but she brushed him aside, walking past him to put the basket on the table.  

“I just took a fall while apple picking, father, but it will be fine.” She lied. Elize knew she didn’t have to lie, but at the moment, the girl did not want her father to get angry at others and do something stupid. He was an old man at this point, it wouldn’t do well to make him worry. 

He eyed her suspiciously but decided to let matters go. “If you say so… but if anything is troubling you, don’t be afraid to tell me.” Audifax walked towards her and kissed her head. She just hummed in agreement. 

“Well, I’ll change dresses and then we can eat.” Elize said and quickly made her way to her room, leaving her father to tend to the fruit. 

The moment she entered her room, she covered her mouth with her hand and allowed herself to fully cry for a minute. Her mind kept replaying the events of the day, only making her feel worse. She wished she could have standed up for herself but it seemed that in those sorts of situations, Elize would find herself lost, and then people would walk all over her. 

After some time, she finally calmed down and was able to put on new clothes, this time opting for a white shirt and some pants. She threw some water in her face, trying to clean some of the dirt, but knowing she would have to wash herself later. 

When she was done, Elize left her room and sat down on the table with her father. As always, three chairs were sat, even if only two were occupied. She stared at it as Audifax passed her the plate, where he had cut a few apple slices, already having taken out the seeds. 

They ate in silence and after finishing their meal, Audifax spoke. “What are your plans for the rest of the day?”

Elize relaxed in her chair. “I’m going to the river to wash our clothes and try to take a bath there as well, and then I’ll go to the library to help Mr. Antoine. Considering that that place is a mess, I can’t guarantee I’ll be back home in time for dinner.” 

Audifax chuckled. It wasn’t the first time that Elize was going to help the old librarian, and she always complained about how even before his injury the books would be poorly kept and just put in random shelves. Whoever Mr. Antoine hired as his assistants before were terrible at their job. 

“But what about you, father? Are you going to spend the rest of the day missing me?” She said sarcastically. 

He smiled. “No, because I actually have business to attend to. I will also probably miss dinner.”

Elize crossed her arms on the table as she leaned forward. “Business? Of what kind?”

“I’ll have a meeting with some important people at Sharess Caress.”

“Where is that?”

“Baldur’s Gate.”

Elize must have had a worried look on her face, as Audifax put his hand over hers. “Do not fret, child. I know that city is far from where we live, but I promise to be back in a weeks time.” She gave him a small tight smile and nodded. She believed - hoped - that her father was doing the right thing, even if something felt odd. The lack of specifications on the job worried her, but she felt it was better not to dig further. 

After they said their goodbyes, the day went as Elize had planned. Thankfully no one was around when she went to the river, and so she was able to once again enjoy some tranquility. She went back home to hang the clothes outside, to let them dry, and headed for the library. 

Mr. Antoine was a very old dwarven man, his hair all white and his beard almost as long as he was. The week prior, he had fallen from the stairs, while arranging some books, and so he employed Elize’s help while his leg got better. They got along easily because neither enjoyed talking for too long. 

Day became night and soon, Elize found herself back home and immediately went to bed. 

In her dreams, she had terrible visions. She saw a man, with four long horns and skin as red as a cherry, who sprouted long leathery wings. He sat on a chair that almost resembled a throne and in front of him, kneeling with his head down, was her father. The man snapped his fingers and her father let out a scream as he was engulfed in flames, disappearing from where he was. 

Elize woke up from her nightmare, sweating and with tears in her eyes. She tried to calm herself by thinking it was just a bad dream, but, as she noticed that it was already morning and there was no sign of Audifax in the house, she had a terrible sensation that something bad had happened. 

The week passed, and her father had yet to come back.

[fancyfade]

Are there any canon Damian and Babs interactions? I couldn’t find any. What‘s their dynamic like? Same goes for Babs and Tim

Babs and Tim is easier so I will start with them :P

I think this panel + commentary (link) in Showcase 94 showcases their dynamics well. Tim is an easy kid for babs to get along with. He appreciates her help and gets along with people she gets along with. He sometimes gets a little smug about her not knowing his identity at first, but that seems to be just a joking thing between them. They have a pretty good rapport and I can look up specific issues for them if u wish.

Babs is very protective of Tim, and she authorizes Huntress to use lethal force to rescue Tim in Joker's Last Laugh.

Damian is harder. Heads up: I will not be counting anything past 2011 because that is just no. I don't like how they handle her post new 52. So we've only got a few interactions to use.

In Batman: Streets of Gotham #6, Damian questions Babs' usage of resources (sending Huntress instead of him after Man-Bat) and Dick complains "This is what I have to put up with" and Babs generally agrees with him (He's a charmer all right).

In Batman and Robin 2009, Babs tries to prevent Steph from interacting with Dick and Damian in the field (and is justified in this as Steph accidentally freezes Damian immediately afterwards XD). In her internal monologue Babs is annoyed at Steph, but when she speaks out loud she seems to be defending steph and again is sarcastic w/ Dick about Damian ("Tell me you didn't enjoy the quiet ride home") and dick agrees with her ("I did"). dick refers to steph as reckless and babs refers to damian as murderous. but they do not interact directly much in this plotline, its more dick and babs talking ABOUT steph and damian.

in general babs seems like another adult who does not have a lot of patience for Damian in the 2009 era batfam, which is almost everyone in the batfam at that time. they do work together when they need to, damian will follow her orders (just while complaining about it) and get stuff done. And i don't think this is really unrealistic or OOC for babs.

First, as we've mentioned, nearly NO ONE in the batfam has much patience for Damian verbally at this time (including dick, as we've seen in all of these interactions Dick has either been instigating the "haha damian's insufferable" stuff or agreeing with it).

Secondly Babs is just not a person who has a lot of interpersonal patience or tact to begin with. She cares about people. A LOT. but she still messes up a lot, and she can get pretty brusque when she's stressed. I think that if she was put in a position where she HAD to interact with Damian more, she would be a little bit more understanding (b/c second chances are a big theme for her (trying to reform savant, link1, link2). But she doesn't have to be patient with Damian, because he's not her responsibility, and he's hard to get along with, so she doesn't.

I think they could have a lot of potentially interesting interactions, but most of them would be skill based (babs helping Damian with hacking, for example) and not very touchy feely. Neither of them are very touchy feely characters.

[asteria7fics]

I've got a few questions for ya! Where did you learn to write like you do? I read through your newest fic and I'm blown away from how could you write!

And the other question I have, do you ever get worried? I hurt my brain and went down the SP confession rabbit hole, and now I'm worried about my writing now. I'm afraid of falling into tropes and writing these characters to be one dimensioned. How do you get past that?

First of all, thank you!! I never really know how to react when people compliment my writing as a whole, because truthfully I’m still very insecure about the way I write! It really does help to hear that people enjoy my writing style! (,,> ᴗ <,,)

I have a couple of answers to your first question. Learning to write has been a weird process for me if I’m being honest. I’ve always been told that reading is the best way to learn, and while I think reading lots of different things is a huge factor in being able to write confidently, there’s really no substitute for actually doing the thing.

I’ve always loved storytelling, but only really began writing stories down in middle school. Then I started finding RP partners online, and spent several years writing all kinds of stories and absorbing tons of skills from those people.

I’ve also spent an embarrassing amount of time listening to people talk about writing. Story structure, character development, all that jazz. There are several really great YouTube channels that discuss different writing techniques that I’ve taken bits and pieces from throughout the years.

Writing style is a very personal thing though, and while I’ve learned a lot from the way other people write, I’ve also spent a lot of time experimenting with my own voice. I’ve drafted tons of unfinished projects just to see what perspectives I enjoy writing from the most, or what sort of narrative voice I prefer to have. As you may glean from both TSOB and EWILY, I tend to take on a sort of sarcastic tone as a narrator, and for the most part I do that because that’s just kind of how I talk! I’m a smart ass by nature I’m afraid, though I think it also works well in the context of the sillier stories I tend to tell with my SP inspired works.

To answer your second question, yes! I’m always worried that my interpretations of certain characters won’t be enjoyed by the greater fandom, especially as someone who tends to not really vibe with a lot of really popular head canons. My solution to that? I pretend not to care!

Seriously though, I have spent a truly, horribly embarrassing amount of time studying these characters. Between watching the show, playing the games, listening to the episode commentaries, watching character analysis videos on YouTube (I’m a Johnny2Cellos girly myself), and reading some really, really good fan fiction I have put in the time to feel at least a little bit confident in my characterization of the main four boys, and sometimes Butters.

The fun thing about SP is that even Those Bastards play pretty fast and loose with their characterization, though.

Characters like Cartman who tend to have very consistent traits are usually the easiest for me to write. When I ask myself the question “how would Cartman respond to this?” the answer is usually whatever the worst possible response I can think of would be. Then I dial it back a little bit because I’m not trying to get cancelled.

But characters like Stan or Kyle are a lot more fluid. Sometimes they care very deeply about things, sometimes they don’t give a single shit. Sometimes they support one another through everything, sometimes they’re very quick to part ways. Characters like this can be really challenging, especially when you have them alongside characters who are often so cartoonishly villainous like Cartman.

My best advice for writing any characters, but especially for these particular characters, is to lean into their positive traits and flaws equally.

Cartman is actually a great example of this. He’s bigoted, crass and quite frankly kind of terrifying if you think about the things he’s done for more than thirty seconds. But he’s also extremely creative, pretty smart when he wants to be and, in many instances, is shown to actually care about his friends. Balancing all of these traits can be challenging, but it can also result in a more fleshed out, well rounded character.

Another character I see a lot of discourse about is Butters. To avoid making him too ‘uwu sweet baby’, as I often see it said, I balance a few things with him. Yes, Butters is generally very kind and sensitive to others’ feelings, but he’s also extremely gullible and can be a real asshole when he’s around the wrong people for long enough.

Of course, you don’t need to take my advice as gospel. I’m someone who has tried to keep the characters pretty close to canon (less so in EWILY than I did in TSOB, truthfully), but I’ve seen many incredibly written, extremely interesting SP fics that throw much of canon in the trash. Do what feels right for you and helps you to express the kinds of stories you want to tell!

At the end of the day, if you write for you and you enjoy the content you’re creating, then it shouldn’t matter what anyone else thinks of the interpretations you make. I especially don’t take anything on confession blogs personally, because if one of my head canons really offends someone they can talk to me about it. (｡•̀ᴗ-)✧

Thank you so much for this ask! I had a lot of fun thinking about my own journey with writing these fics, and I hope some of my advice will be helpful for you! Much love, anon! ♡⸜(˶˃ ᵕ ˂˶)⸝♡

[rom-e-o]

There being a certain little old lady in Pip's Park. She's the oldest (like in her 100s), loved there the longest, and is cantankerous as all get out. She doesn't really get along with the neighbors; they all kinda just try to stay out of her way. They all warn the girls to stay away, especially because they're so young and this lady doesn't like young people. So the girls don't. At first. Then they notice this lady never has visitors; family doesn't appear to come, nobody stops at her place to see her, the nurses that come in to care for this lady change bi-weekly. So the girls decide to reach out and try.

The old girl is plenty mean at first, just like they were warned. She makes some pretty hurtful comments to all the girls. But they keep trying because our girls don't give up easy. Eventually the lady warms up to them and they find out about her past. It's full of sadness and pain. She's all alone--lost everyone. She's got a great-niece that pays for her to be cared for, but they don't have any contact. From then on the girls make sure she's not lonely ever again. They visit her regularly, bring her to their house for new surroundings when the memories in her place seem to be weighing on her, take her on walks, reintroduce to the neighbors, take her on outings--she's still surprisingly spry for a centenarian. They discover more of her personality: She's sarcastic with dry and dark humor, she doesn't take shit, speaks her mind unapologetically. She's coarse and gruff and out of touch with normal people, but she's got a genuinely good heart and just struggles to show it in a positive way and has a hard time letting people get close enough to see because she's been burnt a lot. But she's not incapable of learning to be better, even at her age.

And, above all else, she really loves those silly, young girls. Especially those strange Yankees, because they're just like her. And they made her realize it's not just her against the world, and there is more out there in life than hurt, bitterness, and sorrow. Even at her age.

Ohhhh I adore this.

Especially her being so cranky and unapproachable, but then through kindness, she realizes she’s allowed to be kind. A part of her deep down probably feels like being kind means being vulnerable, and as an older woman, being ‘vulnerable’ is like a big smoke signal saying “Hey, take advantage of me!”

I love the girls changing her perspective and earning her trust, despite some harsh words the woman may issue at first. By the end of the first year, she’s giving them shit in a loving way. 😂

“You girls are sweet, but you drive me crazy. Never change.”

You know they have sleepovers at her place too, where they watch bad movies and she issues amazingly snarky commentary.

[elevatortheory]

barry being autistic is just really funny to me its like a joke but also the idea of him being real rep is very special to me too i have talked about this a lot SORRY i like discussing it . i like saying things . barry as an undiagnosed adult makes perfect sense because obviously john sr. and fuches would not know or understand any of that and would not bother to really look into it further than "hes shy" -> "hes depressed" . and also him being genuinely really dumb when the mainstream Consumerized autistic character has to be exctremely smart and catty and quick-witted and sarcastic . they have to still function in society and still be extremely intelligent to make up for it and theyre obsessed with science and cars and whatever the fuck . <- i know there are characters who arent like this in media but i specifically am talking about the MainStream CONSUMERIZED form of quirky cute uwu autism thats gotten popular the past few years . the kind where all you have to do is be a bit awkward and be a bit obsessed with something . while barry is sincerely dumb and doesnt understand simple questions and doesnt comprehend relationships and is so gullible and so stupid and the only "skill" he has that "makes up for it" is the skill that also results in him being alienated and In fact is a trait we as the viewer dislike him for . barry being awkward and nervous and oblivious is a very specific part of his personality most noticeable in s1 but as time goes on and he starts to seem more "normal" it can still be viewed as masking via the scenes where his "mask" (version of himself he tried to build) cracks and hes just as awkward and weird and oblivious again . his behavior from tricky legacies to the wizard is one specific moment of that to me . functionally hes a "savant" in that hes extremely dumb with one specific skill/interest that hes exceptionally talented/knowledgeable about. though i dont know if id consider that FULLY because he isnt like. his special interest isnt guns lol but he does have lots of odd little fixations and traits and those fixations are also heavily linked to his PTSD and father issues/abandonment issues and his need for validation . well anyways barry being very messy and fucked up and flawed and his mental illnesses/disorders contributing to it and they create lots of real long-term problems in his life which , though exaggerated or shown in different metaphorical ways, can be very accurate to what real people w/ those illnesses/disorders and even real veterans and survivors of war and stuff go through . but even then we get direct proof that barrys awkwardness and shyness wasnt caused BY the war or by john sr. or fuches because he was already like that as a child. and also i just like to use him as an example of how things can be canon by being inferrable and implied in the text without having to be directly stated . you make a character who is extremely awkward, terrible at relationships, cannot understand tone, rhetorical questions, or metaphors, who is extremely gullible to the point it gets him into serious trouble SEVERAL times , and who is finally again i keep bringing up the rain man comparison AGAIN he is compared to raymond from rain man, possibly the most well-known autistic character (and movie related to that) in america i would think . so like . at that point its canon without them having to explicitly state it at all . what was the point of this. oh barry is just good representation of a severely mentally ill person and a good commentary of how society and organizations can fail mentally ill people . and sally also i would like to talk about sally one day but i need to rewatch early s4 for that probably .... . i am very mentally ill and i like talking about how it can be shown in media (thumbs up emoji) . i dont know if any of these words form a coherent sentence

[shivasdarknight]

Hi, sorry for this but you are a writer, so umm.. I was hoping you could give me some tips/advice on how to write?

tbh the way I got into writing is a bit insane, but I do have some advice that can help. gonna put it under a cut just because it got kinda long

honest to god, one of the best pieces of advice is something you're already doing because reading can genuinely help you with becoming a better writer. stepping outside of your usual genres or authors can help expand your viewpoint and introduce you to more narrative styles so you can play around and see what works for you. eg. if you mostly read first person, give second person a shot. or if you're an omniscient third person, try limited third person. or even retrospective first person, because i often see people complain about first person pov when it's married with a present tense story. if you have a first person narrator talking about events in the past as if talking to you, or a journal it often takes an entirely different angle and it's something I've played with in Homestuck fics because that fandom tends to be more open to narrative experimentation. Writing is honestly a lot of looking at stuff you like (much like art) and smooshing it all together. Personally, I've gotten a lot of my writing style from stuff like The Locked Tomb, admittedly Lovecraft was foundational (but this is a great example of why to always remain critical considering his bullshit), so was Homestuck and Rick Riordan's stuff. I'm never trying to copy them wholesale, but I am looking at aspects I like - such as Riordan's humor intertwining with the narrative and narration, or the deeply unreliable narrators that Muir writes, or even how Homestuck balances purple prose with gut wrenching conciseness when it counts. A lot of modern day fast food fiction takes out a lot of the stuff that actually builds a story - pacing, playing with narration and technical writing - so you need to be conscious of what you're looking for in things. Often more established authors get to do weirder stuff than new authors, but don't discredit new ones because that would be leaving out folks like Xiran Jay Zhao and their phenomenal prose.

Another thing that helps greatly is reading writing critique. Video essays on books or even more critical thought pieces on writing, tropes, etc. can help you learn more about why something works. Lots of different channels on YouTube dedicated to dissecting media, absolutely recommend stuff like Hello Future Me, Overly Sarcastic Productions (real world ties + mythology, great basis to build things on), Zoe Bee (writer + commentary), Nerdwriter1 (media analysis + commentary), Just Write, and Tale Foundry. For adjacent suggestions that can help build up alternate perspectives that aren't directly about writing but are about critical thinking with stories (which is frankly an important skill to have), I definitely recommend Princess Weekes, Accented Cinema, Now You See It, Dominic Noble, The Storyteller, and Pop Culture Detective. A lot of this is discussing film (save Dominic Noble, who also talks about books a Lot), but the core essence of storytelling is helpful regardless of what angle it comes in - be it video game, movie, tv, or book reviews and analyses.

Actual writing. Varies on the person on if they do outlines or not and how, but I still recommend trying to do an outline when you're first starting out. One habit to immediately knock yourself out of is writing things chronologically. If you're working on a big piece and have more energy to write something in the middle? Put that in a new doc and leave a placeholder for where you're at. Legitimately, getting words on the paper is more important than those words being good. Because you can always come back and edit things to make sense.

Always edit what you write. I hate the "no beta we die like real men" attitude because people will dunk on editing but then praise stories for having "firm and satisfying" connections which can only really be built through editing. Your first draft is your rough idea. Your second one is when you read through and have it make sense. Three is making that make sense, and maybe 4 is more just grammar and spelling errors. Edit as many times necessary to make sure you like it.

Always work in broad strokes, then move in finer like with anything. Do a general idea for a story, then your main story beats, then how you connect them together, and then the nitty gritty of each. Keep lots of notes - do not rely on your head solely for everything - and just also be willing to let things go if they change.

What I tend to do when I write is I want a good flow. I often get that from reading my writing out loud to hear how it sounds, but I'm looking for a good beat to read along. Because even if the sentence is grammatically correct and structurally sound, it may not be very interesting to read. Like you could say someone feigned a polite expression to not let the other person know that they didn't feel comfortable with a topic, or you could go the angle I went with recently of "she painted herself an interested expression to wear as dread began to gnaw at her gut." Sometimes the more colorful or out there the language is, the better it sounds when you read it. Like instead of saying "that's just how things go for them" you could say, "but Fate had a funny way of making her disdain known for (X character)". And this is where reading other peoples' work comes in real handy because you can get a lot of examples of how people write things.

I also try and reflect themes of the story into the writing itself, like this section of a draft:

Still nothing.  Seemed he wasn’t going to bother with a glass, instead just ripping the top off of some bottle of gin and tipping it back with little regard for himself. Still that chronometer ticked on; still that taught tension like another arrow had been drawn.  A million and more things flooded Ysayle’s mind, itching to loose them at Estinien, yet found herself stuck in indecision as she stared daggers into him - ever her opposite as he just seemed despondent.  The gin bottle hit the extended shelf loudly; one hand a fist around the bottle, the other balled up on the surface - knuckles as white as bone. Still, Estinien said naught. Still, the chronometer ticked on. Still, Ysayle’s heart roared in her ears - poisonous words damming up her throat.

The theme of this story is avoiding the mistakes of the past. How things often can wind up cyclical, and the goal is to break from those cycles and repeats. So naturally, several points of the narration itself repeat itself. This isn't standard writing style, but it gets that point across by repeating "Still" as the scene crawls on. I also use a lot of alliteration in my writing because I personally find it fun? So "a maddening matter made most malign", for example.

It also helps to change up how you write or what descriptors you use based on the character whose head you're in, even if it's third person. Third person can have a voice and I often use it to speak aloud a character's thoughts instead of relying on italicized dialogue-thoughts. It makes the dialogue-thoughts appearing hit more when they do instead of just having to be subjected to internal ramblings constantly. Like in this fic I just published:

“...Can we talk about it on the morn?” “What for?” You don’t know what it is you ask of me. “Tired,” Estinien said with a shrug. “We’ve morning patrol, remember?”

Compared to this fic:

“Yes, confusingly.”  Her tone was flat as she leaned once again on Surkukteni’s shoulder, thankfully on the uninjured side.  “I fear I may have been wrong, though I truly doubt it.  To deny me twice, then throw a fit?  I wonder — why didn’t you go through with it?” Not even Surkukteni had that answer.  For the umpteenth time during that conversation, she refused to look at Her Darkness.  That desire — twisted and poisoned as it was — was one that still surfaced from time to time, yet like clockwork made her ill and was banished from her thoughts.  Why was that?  She felt scorned back then, wishing the universe would correct this error in sparing him but taking Ysayle — but was she not the one who helped save him?  Who helped tear those eyes from his armor?  She easily could — and had previously — bluffed that it was to destroy the eyes and be rid of the threat, but given her hesitancy now? Why?

All of Surkukteni's thoughts are condensed into the narration so that I can separate out her thought dialogue from idle musings since she - specifically - has a connection with something that can talk telepathically. This thing comments on the literal narration of the story, so when she's directly addressing this thing it's thought-dialogue. But her actual thoughts become narration to avoid spending too much time with that, as I find it's better used sparingly.

Motivation for writing is probably the hardest thing, and best I can advise is to get really into critiquing the stuff you like because you wind up finding a lot of material in fix-it stuff, or just wanting to see more of stuff like you. It's part of what drives my xiv stuff due to how they treat female characters, and I really just wanna see more sapphic bi4bi. So considering it's something I've been stuck in for a very long time now and really like the ambient lore and wish it would do better, it's fueling my desire to write. And from there, there are so many other angles to take - like building ocs, building lore. Finding a sandbox is genuinely one of the best ways to do it. Again, like. You'd be surprised at how much is there because of spite. LOTR has Eowyn because Tolkien didn't like that the "can be killed by no man" thing in Macbeth was resolved with a character born by c-section, so he instead wrote Eowyn, the woman who killed the Witch-King of Angmar. C.S. Lewis didn't like the fact that Tolkien believed that modern technology - or slightly less modern technology - didn't believe in fantasy and he explicitly cited lampposts. And this is why there's just a random light post in the middle of nowhere in the Narnia books.

Critique is good and healthy. I'm critical with the stuff I like and my own things so I can work on them and myself. It's fine to like something that you don't wholly agree with, especially if you're using it to inform how you build on it or build your own things. Like I dunno, I looked at Dante from Devil May Cry and went "what if he was trans" and now I've got Rhombi, a character who has stepped really far away from the OG Dante mould, but you can still see hints of it as I used what I wanted to see out of DMC to build this bisexual disaster of a guy. I was disappointed by Elsword not really committing to some of their character concepts, so I kinda just took Eve (and admittedly Add) and made them into Celes and Neilos and took them to their logical conclusions. All three of them were originally fantrolls at some point, so most of the heavy lifting was done when I was back in Homestuck and all I had to do was scrub the barcodes off of them to build them up in an original verse.

Chemistry is also crucial. If characters aren't vibing, move on. Do not force it. Good chemistry can save a bad story (eg. FFXV) and bad chemistry can ruin a good story. Often it's the characters that drive a story so you need to do a lot of plotting and planning. Most writing is honestly just planning before putting the words down.

And I'm very much so rambling by now but my main points are these (+ others I'm realizing while typing):

Plot a Lot and keep lots of notes, and also organize those notes. The contents don't have to be pretty, but you'll thank yourself in advance if you at least sort them by core idea

Getting words down is more important than getting them down correctly. You can always come back and edit it when you have an idea of how to make it work

You can always place a [insert scene here] tag so you can keep your flow and don't get caught on something.

You also don't have to write chronologically - you wanna write the big confession scene before the intro? do it! just jump right into it!

also don't be afraid to delete stuff or remove it from your draft. save things for later to see if they work elsewhere, because maybe it could be a better spinoff.

dont listen to the advice of "if it really matters, you'll remember it in the morning" that advice was given by neurotypicals who don't have memory issues. make notes of EVERYTHING and then delete the ones that don't work

sometimes writing by hand vs computer can really make a difference in how you think. handwriting is slower and makes you think about stuff, so you may want to keep journals for random snippets or ideas like how doodling is good for building up your habit of drawing

Outlines can help but how you outline is up to you. Try a few styles out and go with what works best.

I cannot stress enough that having something like a marker board to write out your broad stroke story ideas is really really nice

Broad strokes first, then narrow it further and further down. Don't get wrapped up in the nitty gritty details

Chemistry is crucial and can often save a piece you're not fully feeling.

Read your stuff out loud while editing because it can help point out stuff that's not jiving! I find it helps a lot with dialogue

Read a lot. Listen to critique. Be more critical. Also don't limit your idea of stories to just books - expand the media you consume and you'll find really interesting stories that can help with yours

Don't be afraid to use tropes, but also don't super rely on them to where you're just checking off boxes instead of coming up with natural scenarios built on chemistry (eg. having the nerdy goth girl is fine, but the way the trope ends in most media ("fixing" her or just having her be a quirky cynical critic) may not fit with your story and it may be better to see how the story plays out rather than forcing it into something it's not)

Iron Widow is a good example here: the relationship between Zetian and Yizhi is pre-established and comes off as sort of "boy next door" vibes, or at least the very dedicated childhood friend. It quickly becomes apparent that he's as much a co-conspirator in her plans as Shimin is. The guy can be ruthless when given the chance, and that's how Yizhi goes beyond the initial trope and defines himself outside of it. Same with the contextualization of Shimin's seeming "aggression" as the "bad boy" and figuring out where that problem/persona actually stems from, and then the shift of viewing it as less aggression and more retaliation and self preservation.

Find something you do really want to write about, like filling a void in a piece of media you like or doing a take on media that made you mad or disappointed. Jane Eyre is technically fanfiction because the author wanted to see more of Jane and didn't get that. The Divine Comedy is self insert fanfiction of Dante Alighieri as he does worldbuilding with Christian mythos regarding heaven and hell. The Riordan verse is his interest in mythology crossed with a desire to give his son a protag that was like him (specifically ADHD and dyslexic), which then became wanting to let kids see themselves in the different halfbloods in the series.

There's a lot of ways you can get started writing, but the best way is to just write goofy stuff for yourself. Get out stuff that may look bad at first, but you go back and read it and critique it. Just getting yourself into the habit of writing helps a lot, because again: it matters less about the quality, and more getting it on the page and actually having something. You can always fine-tune writing, after all.

My first FFXIV fic isn't actually even published. It was just me writing something rambly about my Warrior of Light when I was starting to figure her character out. It looks nothing like what I'm doing now in part because that fanfiction became a launching point for me to work on others. I've got a lot of drafts that will never see the light of day because these were proto-concepts that became the stuff I wound up publishing. It's fine to have drafts that remain drafts because you can take that as practice, and practice is good. Anything that you write has value because you can use it to let your technical writing skills mature.

Also, don't be afraid to look for help. There are beta services on tumblr (or at least used to be when I was a teenager), plenty of writing guides or places set up to ask questions, plenty of youtubers that give prompts for you to work with. The hardest part is always getting started. But once you get past the awkwardness of the start, everything just falls into place and gets easier the longer you go at it.

You definitely have the desire for it because I've seen your very deep love of literature through the Bi-Library, so you can definitely become a strong writer if you put your mind to it 🫶 Find something to fix or address, and that usually is what gets the ball rolling. Worldbuilding is fun and can lead to something, but you can't have a well built world without a story to explore it.

Characters drive story, story is how you explore themes and the world itself, and the world itself is built on your experiences and interests. Embrace the fact that this is coming from your lens and experiences, because no media is truly void of the author and its other creators. Embrace that fact and use it as an extension of yourself. But really, just write. Literally anything. Just get into the habit of writing, and it'll progress from there!

[adelaidedrubman]

wip wednesday!

tagged over the past week or so by @schoute @poeti-kat @starsandskies @marivenah and @purplehairsecretlair for wip day, and now that we’ve circled back around to a wednesday i’m finally doing it! sending fresh tags to everyone above if you have new stuff, and to @florbelles @henbased @heroofpenamstan @blackreaches @belorage @strafethesesinners @ishwaris @derelictheretic @dihardys @beautiful-delirium @stacispratt @confidentandgood @shallow-gravy @vasiktomis @the-delicate-disaster @snake-in-the-garden @bluemojave and anyone i might be forgetting!

bit from wildfire chapter 15, below cut for major spoilers... finally getting something i think we’ve all been waiting for for a long time now ;)

“Well I guess I’m real fucking sorry I didn’t pay appropriate goddamn respects to your inanimate fuckin’ bar,” Jestiny replied, words seeming to sting her tongue with her own surplus of bitterness now leaking out.

“Rook, I know that you don’t mean to —”

“She’s speaking her piece.”

“But I care because I’m interested in getting our living and breathing people back from him, and bringing ’em back to somewhere they can halfway survive,” she shot back in completion, ignoring Jerome’s increasingly concerned expression.

Mary May scoffed, rolling her eyes to shoot a disbelieving look to the Pastor, as if waiting for him to join her in offense, then narrowing her eyelids and looking back towards Jestiny.

“What do you think we’ve all been doing?” she asked, puff of air falling from her nostrils. “Everywhere?” she added, slanting brows down further. “Why are you only interested in the ones you gotta storm up to John Seed personally to get?” she demanded, voice rising with the queries, before she undercut it with a slight chuckle. “Do you just miss him that bad or something?”

“Oh, fuck off,” she spat back, gripping a hand against the ledge of the bar. “Yeah, Mary May, I miss being around the guy hunting me down and threatening to lob my skin off. Was hoping we could have a nice picnic by the water while I’m there. Maybe a sleepover! Braid each other’s hair, paint each other’s nails. Talk about boys,” she chimed sarcastically, craning out her neck to thrust her head forward, into the woman’s space. “It’s not my fucking fault he’s obsessed with me,” she hissed. “And it’s sure as shit not my fault I’m the only one around here bothering to dedicate an ounce of fucking attention to figuring out what he’s up to.”

“Come the fuck off it with that shit too,” Mary May responded, snarling her lip and stretching her own neck forward to meet her. “Always in here ranting and raving about how you know him…”

“Well I fucking do!”

“For fuck’s sake Rook, do you think you’re the first person he’s tried to play the obsessive little mind games with?!” she asked, before Jessie could say more. “You’re not! You’re just the first person sad and sorry enough to actually wanna play back!” she shouted, looking her up and down with an expression of disgust that appeared earnest enough to make Jestiny’s stomach churn.

“Whoa now —”

“He tried pulling the same shit with me, too. And tore my family apart doing it. Took everything but this place from me,” the bartender ignored Jerome to continue, breath falling hot against Jestiny’s face as she shouted. “Or, since buildings don’t matter to you, and you’re so concerned with people all of a sudden, how about you take a drive down the road a bit and ask Nick and Kim Rye about all the shit he’s put them through?” she asked, raising her brows. “Been obsessed with getting his hands on ’em both for years,” she elaborated, before Jessie could inquire. “Fucking came in and stole the shit folks gave ’em at their baby shower a few weeks ago, Rook. Just shit we were giving them for their kid. What brilliant fucking reasoning can you figure behind that?”

Jestiny flared her nostrils, drawing in a deep breath.

jerome in the background trying to radio out a distress signal to dutch:

(also normally never add commentary but for anyone unfamiliar with the deets on jestiny’s canon she’s being a giant liar here and has 100% earned the mary may callout)

[colubrina]

Wait, Abraxas is definitely present at the Death Eater meetings when they’re trying to sort out just what’s going on with Hermione, but he does precisely jack to help them figure it out. He’s there, sprawled out in a chair and sipping his whiskey and providing sarcastic commentary, but he does absolutely nothing to help them. Picture it: Avery is passionately providing his theory and his evidence, Mulciber is loudly arguing against it because he thinks that theory is ridiculous, the others are all getting drawn into the argument and are now presenting their own theories, and Abraxas knows that Rosier is the only one correct (Rosier’s theory is indeed time-traveler that Tom for some reason decided to put in the past before dragging her back. Everyone else thinks Rosier is full of it) but Abraxas is just egging on the argument because this is some prime entertainment. Abraxas drawls out “Rosier, I know what I’m asking might be impossible, but try not to be stupid for 10 seconds” and Rosier very nearly hexes him (if the Death Eaters ever learn the truth and learn Abraxas did indeed know the truth practically the entire time, Rosier does indeed hex him before Abraxas says that Hermione’s rather fond of him and does Rosier really want to upset a pregnant and hormonal Hermione by hurting her beloved cousin; Rosier thinks about Hermione repeatedly attacking Dolohov with a variety of spells, considers how Tom would react to someone upsetting his wife, and sadly puts his wand away)

Abraxas probably has the best time fucking with everyone and not telling anyone anything.

(Also, as I cannot mention often enough, you are amazing and I adore you and these asks. This fic is SO old, and I’m just thrilled people still think about it and read it and like it)