#this one's darker than I expected it to be

[afterglowsainz]

i'mgonnagetyouback | max verstappen

summary: after you and max broke up you released an album about it and when you go on tour, you didn't expected max to be there front row after being dragged by his new girlfriend's daughter

warnings: none

word count: 877

a/n: this is kinda told in max's pov (?, also heavily inspired on taylor's eras tour and i slightly changed the lyrics of the song to relate it a bit more to max

the tortured athletes department series

the lights were out in the stadium but there was barely any darkness. the lights of flashes from phones and twinkling colored light bracelets illuminated the allegiance stadium in las vegas, every person there waiting for the one and only y/n y/l/n.

if you would’ve told max months ago that he was gonna be at her ex-girlfriend’s sold out concert the same weekend he was racing in vegas, he would’ve laughed in your face. but here he was, waiting with the other 69,000 people for her to show up on stage and sing all her hit songs, including the ones that she wrote about him after their breakup.

he had to remind himself that the only reason he was doing this was because of his new girlfriend's daughter, who begged them for weeks to take her to y/n’s concert or she would simply die. she was y/n’s biggest fan because, of course, karma had to do that to max. so there he was, in the vip section of the stadium without y/n’s knowledge, next to his new girlfriend and her daughter.

the lights on the bracelets turned off and the stadium went a bit darker than before, announcing the start of the show. when a huge clock on the stage came up and it reached the number zero, y/n came out singing the first song of the concert and the crowd went wild. max was immediately mesmerized by her. she hadn’t changed much since they broke up, that much he noticed, and she was as beautiful as ever.

he had to control himself not to sing along to her songs to not give his girlfriend a bad impression, even though her daughter was singing all her songs by heart. he just nodded and move along with the rhythm, avoiding the gaze of his girlfriend who was very well aware of her boyfriends history with the singer on stage.

y/n was singing her most famous songs and a few that were more lowkey, and when they reached the acoustic set of the concert, she was carrying a wide smile while playing a few keys on the piano. max smiled at the sight of her.

“hello, vegas!” she shouted at the microphone, making the whole stadium scream. “welcome to the acoustic set.” she smiled. “i’ve been meaning to sing different surprise songs every night, some that i haven’t played in a while, some others brand new. this one particularly is from my new album, i hope you enjoy it.”

max stopped breathing for a second. it was very well known with the public that y/n’s new album was about their breakup and she hadn’t sung any of those songs until tonight. he didn’t know what to do with himself or how to behave, so he simply crossed his arms and stood a bit further into the vip section. in the location he was he had a perfect view of her, but she hadn’t seen him all night.

soon enough y/n start singing one of the songs from the new album that max new for a fact was about him. he hadn’t listen to the whole album because he just didn’t want to relieve the breakup. in his defense he did try to give it a listen, but it was just to overwhelming for him so he had to stop listening mid-album, but this one he knew.

Lilac short skirt / The one that fits me like skin

max submerged himself in the lyrics and y/n’s incredibly familiar voice. only now she wasn’t singing just for him, but for thousands of people.

Whether I'm gonna be your wife or / Gonna smash up your car, I / Haven't decided yet / But I'm gonna get you back

a rebel smile appeared on his face, incapable of hiding how much she meant to him, how much he had missed her. seeing her there, singing her heart out on stage for a crowd of people who were crazy about her, god, how could he lost her?

I can feel it comin', hummin' in the way you move / Push the reset button, we're becoming something new / Say you got somebody, I'll say, "I got someone too" / Even if it's handcuffed, I'm leaving here with you

the smile on her face while singing the song she wrote made his smile even greater. he didn’t know the song fully like his girlfriend’s daughter, but he knew; he lived it, just as much as she did. in that moment in time, he felt connected to her in a level that no one in the stadium was.

I hear the whispers in your eyes / I'll make you wanna think twice / You'll find that you were never not mine / I'm gonna get you back

when the song finished, the multitude exploited in praise and y/n’s smile grew on her face. max completely forgot about everyone else and joined the crowd, screaming for her and applauding. y/n stood up from the piano and did a small bow before leaving the stage for her next set of songs.

it was as clear as day for max and it struck him like lightning. he was gonna get her back.

[kamikazii]

───────⋆⋅☆⋅⋆───────

It’s always so fun teasing your fiancé, Nanami, as soon as he gets to work. The first text of the morning is you sending him a picture of yourself in his favorite lingerie, laying in your shared unmade bed, captioned with just how much you miss him already. It only took him a few minutes to read your message and conclude that today was going to be a long day. He texted back a simple ‘No teasing, please my love.’ But that didn’t stop you from trying to get under his skin. An hour later you were taking videos of yourself from all angles to send to him, slowly taking the lingerie off yourself and panning the camera to your cunt, which was getting wetter as seconds passed.

He couldn’t help but plead to any god listening to him that you’d keep sending more of yourself, tease him until he couldn’t take it anymore. Feeling his pant tighten and his cock throb was a tell tale sign that he’d need to bury himself inside of you soon. He tried to hide the blush on his cheeks from the others but he could hardly take it anymore.

Once afternoon rolled around he decided he couldn’t restrain himself any longer. Your phone started buzzing right as you turned your vibrator on, holding it to your aching clit. Nanami spoke quickly, his voice dripping in need and desire. He would be home shortly, he expected you to be ready to take him since that’s what you’ve wanted from him all day long. You made sure he heard what you were doing, moaning to him to hurry up and get home. He breathed out harshly, restraining a moan from his throat. Hanging up the phone with a quick ‘I love you.’, you played out scenarios in your head of what was going to happen when your dear fiancé came home. Images of him fucking you hard and raw filled your brain as you swirled your toy over your clit, drooling over the thought of him.

He got home faster than you thought he would, throwing his coat on the floor and pulling his tie loose, he looked at you with need. Nanami was usually more composed than this when you were about to have sex, but you really got under his skin. He was normally gentle, careful, and full of praises. But in this state he was not. He pulled his belt off in one fluid motion, striding towards you. The sight made you swallow in slight fear of your soon to be husband, his aura was darker than what it usually is. He grabbed your chin as he freed his achingly hard cock, it slapping his abdomen as he pulled it out. He looked down at you with such feral eyes, forcing your mouth open with his thumb he inched his red angry tip towards your tongue.

“This is what you’ve wanted all day, isn’t it? Why don’t you choke on him, yeah? My little slut. You put on such a little show for me, don’t be shy now.”

His voice was low and raspy, his words went straight to your dripping cunt. You took his fat head into your mouth, sucking on it lightly. He sighed out a deep breath, inching himself further into your mouth and down your throat. You looked so beautiful from this angle; choking on his cock, drool dripping from the corner of your mouth and a single tear rolling down your cheek from the stretch. He grabbed his phone from where is laid on the bed and took a picture of you choking on him, before throwing it back to where it was and returning his attention to you. He grabbed a small chunk of your hair and thrusted in and out of your throat, lewd squelches and moans leaving your mouth. He felt his orgasm building up, the knot is his stomach getting tighter and tighter.

He let go of your hair and pulled out of your mouth, he didn’t want to cum in your mouth, he wanted to bury himself so deep and release right into your womb. He pushed you onto your back onto the bed and promptly had you flip o your tummy and arch your back to him. He leaned close to your sopping pussy and licked a fat stripe up from your clit to your entrance, making you clench on nothing. He groaned at the sight, pumping his cock in his fist as he got it ready to stuff you. He grabbed your hip as he positioned himself to your entrance, slowly sinking in inch by inch.

A moan of relief left the both of you as he buried himself to the hilt in your cunt, your gummy walls sucking him in and squeezing him. He pulled almost all the way out, leaving his tip in and slamming his hips to your ass, making a scream moan leave your throat. He grabbed your wrists and forced them behind your back to keep you in place as he found a harsh pace to pound into you. Moans and mewls left your pretty mouth as he relentlessly fucked you into the mattress, degraded praises leaving his throat as he moaned. He couldn’t get enough of you, the way you took him so well. You were such a little whore, his and only his little whore. Your pussy was his and only his, you were made just for him.

He pounded your spot until you were dripping cum all over his cock, begging and pleading that the overstimulation was too much. He ignored your pleas, fucking you harder than before to get you to shut up. The knot in his stomach was getting so tight he could feel it threaten to snap, his orgasm being right around the corner. One final thrust and he was spilling himself into you, hot white euphoria clouded his mind as he emptied his cum deep inside your pussy, filling you up to the brim. His chest heaved as he tried to catch his breath, letting go of your wrists he pressed small kisses to your back, circling his thumbs on your hips.

He slowly pulled out, your mixed releases spilling down your legs and his abdomen. He lowered himself to his back on the bed, pulling you to lay with him. You buried your face in the crook of his neck, taking in his masculine scent. You liked how rough he was with you, but also loved his soft side. He held you close to him, his calloused thumbs rubbing circles into your back. You laid in silence with him, listening to his heart thud, sleep threatening to take over after your workout. He smiled down at you, seeing the sleepiness in your eyes.

“Sleep my love, I’ll be here to clean you up when you wake.”

He whispered into your hair, pulling the covers over the both of you and holding you tighter.

───────⋆⋅☆⋅⋆───────

[hazshit-hotel-hater]

Niffty Redesign! (3/7)

Holy shit was not expecting to finish in the same day much less in like… under 4 hours??? IDK IM HAPPY WITH HER THOUGH!!!!

My biggest inspiration this time was lovebugs and specifically this LPS lovebug

Yes im colour picking Niffty from a littlest pet shop. Who is gonna stop me? Hasbro? They don’t even own LPS anymore!

Im making Niffty a bit tanner because while I see it a lot in other fandoms, I don’t ever see tan asian people in the Hazbin fandom, tbh this place seems like its allergic to melanin in general. There’s also a lot of stigmatisation around POC women in Hazbin like I’ve mentioned before. I plan on having Niffty deal with a decent chunk of stuff later on, a lot of it relating to obessions and romance and learning how to manage feelings like that and keep relationships with other people.

I wanted her socks to be cute but also held up by a garter belt so you can gather she’s got something going on. People seem to stray away from the topic of Niffty and sex or romance because they see her as a child or have infantalised her in some way. Yes ik I talk about this all the time but like GOD it pisses me off.

Her maid dress is actually a much darker shade of hot pink to the point its not really hot pink anymore but it is I promise

Niffty’s main sins are lust, wrath, and envy, seeing as she is a lovebug and also her current backstory is killing a lover out of jealousy. The redder pink parts are supposed to be a mix of lust and wrath so I hope that comes across well?

The same thing can be said about her clothes and all that. With her dress and the reddish hearts it’s supposed to be like “in one sin there’s another” but idk how well I pulled it off. The stitched up heart is also supposed to represent her hopeful/eventually redemption. I’d like to give Niffty more character than just “crazy small lady” so I’ll be trying to balance being somewhat like that with also being a bit sensible. I think it definitely could be done but I have doubts Viv will do much with it.

It really sucks that the POC characters and especially women they just get reduced to one or two traits and then thats it. Viv already is terrible at writing women and I think writing Niffty for her is just boring because, again, she cannot write women. 90% of this rewrite is me saving the women/hj

There will be more indepth Niffty content from me eventually, as of now this is my backbone for her design and overall story. Btw I think her rubber gloves are cute but make really annoying squeaking sounds 24/7. No idea if I’ll pull off another fast design like this, but we shall see!🐐

[lightandfellowship]

I want to point out some absolutely ingenious symbolism from KH3's ending.

The chess piece in the center of the frame is one of Eraqus' "white" pieces, specifically the one that represents Sora. This piece has silver detailing on it, and in fact the crown perched at the top of it is silver as well.

However, the crown isn't completely flat, it has a raised edge that travels right through the center of it, meaning that when the light hits it just right, one side ends up darker than the other. As you would expect, the dark side is facing Xehanort's side of the board, and the light side is facing Eraqus' side of the board.

However, when Xehanort flicks the chess piece and talks about how Eraqus is the one who will be chosen to defend the world, not Xehanort, the chess piece shifts slightly, just enough to make the light hit it differently as it faces Eraqus more. Now the crown is mostly lit up.

So what does this mean? Here's my interpretation: though this chess piece is normally supposed to represent Sora, in this particular instance it more broadly represents something like "the person who's worthy of Kingdom Hearts/the X-blade", "the person who's worthy of protecting the world", or perhaps even "the person who's the true Child of Destiny". (That's why Xehanort talks about somebody else being more deserving of the title/being chosen over him as the defender of the world.) (Also recall that Xehanort's Keyblade Armor in KHDR is adorned with the very same crown that's on Sora's chess piece, so Xehanort is associated with the symbol, too!)

The chess piece's initial position paints it as being equal parts dark and light, which matches Xehanort's philosophy of balance. When the chess piece shifts positions, it becomes more light than dark (though crucially, the left side is still ever-so-slightly darker than the right) and this represents Sora, the hero of light.

Alternatively, the dark/light split of the crown and the chess piece directly facing the camera with no biases toward either side of the board represents how it's initially unclear who the Child of Destiny is (a "hero" of darkness such as Xehanort, or a hero of light such as Sora?), and Xehanort being the one to push the chess piece towards Eraqus and the light while talking about not being a "chosen" one means that he realizes he isn't the Child of Destiny after all, and that Sora is.

Therefore this is all symbolic of Xehanort handing over the X-blade to Sora in the scene that directly follows this flashback, and subtly explains to us Xehanort's motivations for giving Sora the X-blade.

[shiki-jin]

YOUR CELESTIAL MAJESTY • SAGAU

(part 0 here)

was listening to TruE on loop while writing the last part of this, it's genuinely such a good song ugwvdya

also can you spot the contradiction ;D it's plot relevant i promise

not proofread, dont bully me ill write a thesis on why youre a meanie

—

you had long deleted genshin, since you had other things to do. you had wanted to go back to the game for a while now, now that you were less busy, but there was just one little problem.

it was now taking up nearly triple the amount of space that it was when you uninstalled it. around 300 whole gigabytes.

jesus christ, what phone can even handle this???

your phone, apparently. because as you opened the game to see if maybe a miracle would happen and that if maybe they would just, like, remove half of the things in the game, it just… kinda loaded?

no installing new files, no checking for anything, no nothing…. just an immediate pan to the gates of celestia.

you decided to check if it was the right genshin since this was just way too weird, but countering your judgement, every link you found led you to the same game, leading you to believe it not to be a bootleg or an illegal version.

guess i’ll trust it then.

you clicked on the gates which opened smoothly, and your screen turned white. then, the symbols of the seven elements appeared in gray.

and then the game just… opened. no loading time, once again. no getting stuck on the geo symbol, nothing. nada. just a smooth entrance into what you had to assume to be teyvat — but your surroundings didn't really support that claim.

the grass was brown and just looked off, the sky was gray. a darker shade than, say, mond’s walls, but it was like one of those game crashes.

well, except you could still move around.

you moved your current character around (the traveller? since when were they the only one in your team?) and decided to open the map after not figuring out where you could possibly be.

hold on, this is springvale? since when?

eveything looked dead, like it had been rotting for a century. you tried to ignore it though, and teleported to the inside of mondstadt. surely this was just some glitch, right? one that would fix itself if you teleported?

maybe the world loaded incorrectly, maybe the fact that nothing took time to load meant that it couldn't load, maybe this or that, maybe…

maybe this really was how the game looked normally. you hadn't done any quests though, so you wondered if it could be restored.

you took a screenshot of the your surroundings — the stone, worn down and dirty. the houses which looked to be in a horrible state, and… the npcs, all sickly and pale, like they were starving.

you went to reddit (yes, reddit), and posted the screenshot, asking if it was normal.

you closed the game and decided to take a nap, too tired to really deal with this shit any further.

while you slumbered, people replied to your post.

╰┈➤ lol me too anon, me too

╰┈➤ isn't the game closed or wtv? how'd you get this wtf

╰┈➤ they're trolling

╰┈➤ o makes sense oops

╰┈➤ So we’re all still mourning huh

╰┈➤ jokes aside that's a super impressive edit ngl

you remained unaware of the truth, but you'd find out soon enough.

actually, you'd find out now, apparently…

what the fuck?? why is my bed so hard now?

you groaned and forced your eyes open, seeing a dark, nearly black sky.

the only light was a single star, lingering right above you.

“since when was i outside...?"

a voice spoke to you, answering your question.

“you always have been, have you not? but would you like to head inside, my lord?”

... huh? i recognize that voice...

—

p.s. place your bets on who it is, i’m thinking of one specific character but if there's a fan fav i'll make it them instead since i haven't written anything beyond this point (⁠・⁠_⁠・⁠;⁠)

p.s.s. don't expect updates to this series too quickly, i wish i could write as quick as i think of ideas but sadly that's not the case orz

[tristitia]

Chiffon Skirt || Shoko Ieiri

— slice of life. angst. post breakup!au. 700+

5:30 is the time in the morning when you lay paralyzed in your bed, thinking about Shoko. Thinking about what she must be doing right now. Thinking, how many packs of cigarettes she must have smoked in the entire day and how many she's planning to smoke when the new sun will come bouncing outside her window that's always draped with the fabric from your white chiffon skirt that you forgot at her home last summer. It's funny how she made the curtain out of it. It's funny how she refused to take it down. But it's beautiful how she says she loves it the way light filters through it. Like the sun is a golden sea of water and we swam straight to the bottom of its heart. Her thin fingers against your cheek, always against your cheek. Cold like March. 

5:30 is the time in the morning when you lay curled up in your bed like a dead fetus, trying to cross the gap between past and present. Trying to remember how her hands used to feel like when they are wrapped around your body. When they used to touch the part of your back which you could never reach. "There's a scratch here." She would say, running her thumb over your spine. "Who's the one to blame?" You would huff, turning on your other side to face her smirking lips. It's stupid how she laughs. It's stupid how she rarely laughs. But it's beautiful how you would stop breathing whenever she does. Her dark eyes crinkled, barely noticeable. Her head unknowingly coming to find itself a space between your neck and shoulder. Her one hand in your hair, always in your hair. Soft like March. 

5:30 is exactly the same time in the morning when Shoko lays in bed, regretting her whole life. The horrendous darkness dancing shamelessly before her eyes. Love slipping through her ten, slender and cold fingers like the smoke from her cigarette. It's the first one in the morning. It isn't going to be the last even the dogs barking outside on the streets know. She couldn't stop herself from dreaming of you. You would come, wearing the same dress in which you left this apartment. Crying, sobbing. It's been four weeks. But she still could feel your knees prodding her back, your shallow breaths breaking through this grey silence hanging in the air. Would you still be here if she'll turn? Would you still be here if she'll call your name? Would you? 

She closed her eyes. It couldn't get anymore darker than this. But it did get wet, the edges of her lashes. Something slide down her nose, wet. Tears. It's ugly how she took you for granted. It's ugly how she acted so selfish. But it was downright mean when she said, "I think I'm tired of loving."

When you asked, "but why?" She said, "because people are not worth loving."  

"Even when it's me..." you tried to laugh, through the ocean slouching in your throat, expecting her to say something like, "except you, ofcourse..." But she didn't. She chose to break your heart instead. On the anniversary of being together for five years. Five damn years. Loving each other like dogs. Loving each other despite it all. She chose to break your heart.

5:30... is the time in the morning when you wake up crying. Thinking about Shoko. Thinking about her cigarettes, her greasy hair, her cold fingers, her dead eyes...

5:30 is exactly the same time when Shoko would change her side. Surprising herself with the fact that you're not here. Surprising herself by hugging the emptiness, trying to carve a way into it as if it's the space between your neck and shoulder. Her hands moving up. Her palms against your spine. Her fingers digging into your flesh. Her eyes shut close to the new sun crawling up at the window. The light slowly filtering through your white, chiffon skirt. It's cruel how it illuminates her loneliness. It's cruel how it reminds her of what she has lost...

*:･ﾟ✧ thank you so much for reading! I hope you liked it, I tried to write after a long pause of over 5 months

[lovezbrownies]

(MYandere! Superhero x GN!Reader)

Masterlist

(Decided to make an oc strictly non-sexual, so he is asexual, I noticed I've been making a lot of sexual fics lately and wanted to change it up :) have fun! Also made my posts prettier )

Synopsis: You don't check the news often enough, so when civilians were warned against walking near or through a certain area you were none the wiser... Giving your stalker a chance to save you from doom.

Luminary x Reader.

Warnings: Mentioned stalking, kidnapping, not edited at all :(.

You had a routine. Get up bright and early for your 7 AM office job, get to work, come home at 2 PM, relax for 2 or so hours, then go out for a short walk at the park near your apartment. You never really deviate from your usual walking pattern, yet today you felt adventurous– Ironic, of all days to be adventurous and wander off to a new path that same exact path ends up being infested with blood-lusted slime creatures from the dark abyss of this world.

Obviously you thought something was off but you just could not put your finger on it! Sure it was creepy how as you kept walking the area got quieter, lonelier, darker, but you just thought that there was some superhero nearby and everyone wanted a picture with them, that has happened before. Or maybe today just wasn’t your day, your natural ‘hey this feels dangerous let’s turn back’ system may be experiencing some difficulties… And now you find yourself running faster than you have ever run in your life. Leaping away from the hungry monsters attempting to catch you and devour you.

These slimy demons had popped up a few decades ago, a few years after the sudden appearance of super humans. No one knows where either came from, how they sprung, or the exact science behind their sudden appearance. But now they’re here, not a lot of people get blessed with super powers, and those who do immediately get enlisted, either by their own will or their parents force them to when they’re young. Some people don’t enlist even with superpowers, some people have such rare superpowers that they’re forced into the work field, those people mostly being healers and supernaturally intelligent people.

You were none of those, a normal average human, with a normal average job, and a normal average routine. And here you were, endangering your life, for your stupid physical health. Not like you’d have any of your physical health after this, you’re going to be in a monster’s stomach in about 5 minutes. You already were slowing down, the constant zig zagging decreasing your stamina fast. Looking back at the monsters chasing you.

What you didn’t expect was to stumble over an exposed cable, falling flat on your face, your ears start ringing, blocking out the noises of your own panting and whimpering as well as the monster's evil noises. You immediately huddled into the fetal position, as if it would minimize any of the tormenting pain you’ll be feeling soon but… nothing, no ripping of the skin, no crushing of the bones, no hearts being slowly devoured by evil monsters. None of it. 

Yet you kept your eyes clenched shut, maybe the monsters are confused with your stupidity that they just stood there processing before they finally have at it. Slowly the ringing in your ears subsided, and you heard nothing, no growling monsters or anything, nothing other than your own panting, as well as… footsteps? The sound of a sly chuckle startles you, causing you to crack open your eyes and you were greeted by the shining bright smile of the world famous superhero, Luminary.

Luminary– A man of unnaturally strong power, he was invincible, untouchable. You liked him enough for saving the city many times before but didn’t really idolize him, superhero or not he still was a human with human emotions, whatever people say about him online can still affect him. So you kept to yourself when it came to superhero affairs. But from the short snippets you’d see online you had a lot in common with him, shows, interests, hobbies. You always thought that it was all a carefully crafted lie to make him seem more relatable to the average plebeians, or whatever who knows.

You were star struck, ironically enough you wanted to act normal around him but you couldn’t even form words. Luminary’s shining smile still pointed towards you. He held out his hand, intending for you to grasp at it and use it to steady yourself up. “Hello there! I take it you haven’t seen the news this morning, huh? Haha! No worries, your trusty hero is always there to save you.” You just sat there gaping up at him, the personal embodiment of a star. 

Maybe it was the exhaustion, the shock, or the superhero in front of you, but you fainted, completely collapsed, thankfully you didn’t hit your head since you were already lying down.

Luminary had watched you run for your life from the creatures earlier. But he couldn’t care less of them, his eyes were on you, the person he’s had a crush on since the 11th grade, you never knew of his existence but he didn’t care, he’ll eventually weasel his way into your life but right now he’s content on stalking you. Or so he thought, until you endangered your life and almost got yourself killed when you tripped.

Seeing the once in a lifetime opportunity to weasel his way into your life. Luminary picked you right off the dirty ground, his heartbeat accelerating, every little part of you he touches feels like electricity. Years of one sided obsession and just now is he making contact with you, practically committing himself to abstinence just for you. Luminary felt like a schoolgirl as he giggled at the sight of you resting your head on his shoulder.   Luminary’s flight home was delightful, you smelt amazing, and you even snuggled into him in your sleep! He could just explode! Once he entered his humble abode, Luminary placed you on his bed, his eyes practically turning heart shaped at the thought of late night cuddles with you…

[houseofpendragons]

New Ideas for HOTD Fashion pt.4

This one’s a little different, considering we’re also going to include Alicent in this little change of costumes 😊

So exhibit A:

The Blue Dress and the Gold. How many times have we seen those now??? Time for a little change. Not only are these the outfits they were when Rhaenyra calls Alicent a WHORE💀 but it’s also the scene where it is revealed that Alicent will be betrothed to Viserys…not long after their appropriate period of grieving had ended.

I feel like Rhaenyra is not entirely out of her grieving period (bc why should she be) and it might be reflected in her clothes with darker tones. Now I don’t imagine her in complete darkness but with some gold peaking through around the sleeves and the neckline, not the complete gold that she wore in the beginning when she was but an innocent child but enough to show a start of an internal struggle. The bits of red could also be a show of her start into maturity and her beginning to take her role as heir more seriously. By having just small amounts of the gold and red that almost seems overshadowed by the seemingly Targaryen black could be a symbol of her standing on the line between her innocence and her duty, being tugged this way and that by her grief. Bc make no mistake she is still in grief, now not only for her mother but in the scene she begins to grieve the loss of Alicent as well. Now Alicent may not be dead but what Rhaenyra deems as her BEST FRIENDS betrayal is far worse than death in her eyes.

As for Alicent she is bordering on (forced) maturity. She’s been subtly flirting and playing the game of courtship, she’s been wearing more of her mothers dresses, but at the end of the day she’s just a little girl and she’s sad as hell and anxious and distraught in both scenes. That could be reflected in many ways, perhaps by her wearing another one of her mother’s dresses but perhaps one of a lighter color as Alicent clings to her innocence that is being stolen away. Green embroidery or a dark velvet green border as a symbol of marriage and motherhood creeping in at the seems to swallow her whole :

These dresses are exactly what I in-vision, the subtle symbolism you can find or weave into these dresses for the moment they are worn speaks volumes. When I see a costume I want it to reflect a character and what they’re going through, their personality, bc a lot of people express themselves through their clothes.

The jewelry would obviously have to change a bit, Rhaenyra was currently not wearing the necklace Daemon had gifted her after he stole Baelon’s egg, and Alicent needs a necklace as well.

For Rhaenyra’s necklace I would make it a combination of these two:

I like the gold as it matches her earrings, as does the rubies, but I also like the symbolism that could be created by adding the diamond as the final hanging gem. A diamond that reflects as it catches the light. Like tears shed and unshed that had and will soon fall down her cheeks.

And with Alicent, I’d expect the same symbolism. Blue fading to green, innocence fading to maturity, a candle turning into a blaze, a Lady becoming a Queen:

(And her earrings could be much the same, with one being a blue and one being a green)

And lastly the hairrr👩‍🦳

For Rhaenyra I imagine something like this:

Nothing too out there, but beautiful and fitting. It would keep it out of her face whilst still holding the beauty of the Targaryen braid and letting her hair flow down straight and free. Combination of kept and free. Rhaenyra has freedom, in her cage.

Alicent was a little more tricky bc I wanted something that was simple, not too regal yet, and still more of her usual style that we saw in her younger years. I stumbled on this:

I like the braided crown, a symbol of the future crown that will come to rest on her head as Queen. I also love that Helaena wears this in her hair, and I like that maybe she stole it from her mother bc she remembers her wearing her hair like that when she was younger. And whilst we have seen Alicent with a braided crown before, this one was more prominent and pulled more forward like an actual crown.

Alright that’s all I’ve got for the outfits in that real and deleted scene between Alicent and Rhaenyra. I’m sure I’ll find more I’d like to see a little differently. I know it won’t change the costumes but hey it’ll give me a little something more to picture in my mind

[sonkitty]

Crowley S2 Hair Post #19 Redone

(For reference: The Sideburns Scheme)

Crowley, Good Omens 2, Episode 2, The Clue, the pub

...

Introduction

This scene!!! Pay attention (if you like this kind of stuff). This one is important. This sideburns thing is a game, and this scene introduces us to one of the most difficult rules to grasp of that game (beyond "What is exactly is your point with all this, Crowley?").

...

Sideburns Check

The sideburns are longer than expected to be found in a human space. The pub is crowded with humans. If we've figured out the nature of the game by now, it has us on guard because the basic premise has been proximity to humans makes them shorter with time required from the car and distance required from the bookshop. No Gabriel is around to make them longer. We don't know how long Crowley drove before arriving, only assume that he did. We later learn he parked across the street from the pub instead of the coffee shop in this episode.

This length, as best I can tell, most closely resembles his sideburn length from being in Hell (which would then include before and after summoning but difficult to compare with much darker hair at night in the car). The left one is not as full in hair. The lighting of the scene favors Crowley's left side when he sits down at the table.

That sideburn length is a demon-space length, not a human-space length.

So, what happened?

This space's threshold is bigger than Crowley. There's more to it than being bigger, but we have to start there because of things that will happen later.

The pub's threshold starts with a door frame when entered. It has two wooden doors with windows. It also has a panel along the right door frame's right side. The panel does not end with a door. It ends with a post. Across from that post is yet another post on the wall.

The length between the door and this panel is the threshold. That's enough space to be bigger than Crowley. This bigger threshold has no roof.

Because the threshold has two doors and two different types of ends, it also has two lanes, one for each door. The right door has a lane from it to the end of the panel with a post. The left door has a lane from it to the post on the wall.

While we do not see Crowley's sideburn length before he entered, the camera zoom onto the pub sign actually does show us, below the sign, that only the right door is open inward to the space itself. That will be re-confirmed on exit.

Eventually, I figured out, and had to make the assumption from the clues, Crowley switched lanes on entry in this threshold that is bigger than him. Later on, with the music shop the story will show short sideburns before entering another bigger threshold.

I figure that's enough of a clue that the sideburns would have been short before entry here. Given the clues from this episode itself, Crowley drove for some time, and he had the plants with him in the car.

When Crowley and Aziraphale are shown walking in, Aziraphale is closer to the panel and the post there. Meanwhile, Crowley is to Aziraphale's left and walking along a rug. That's the indication Crowley's in the left lane while Aziraphale is in the right lane.

That's the trick for this bigger threshold: "switched lanes".

When Crowley exits, he sticks to the lane by the panel and door that will make them short. If it makes any difference—and it probably does given how particular the game is—the door that is open, is open inward toward the space of the threshold instead of outward toward the street.

The blocking and framing of both Crowley and Aziraphale on exit may further contribute. Aziraphale's head is shown as being to Crowley's right, then blocks Crowley's face, then is shown to Crowley's left as Aziraphale himself is shown near and eventually in front of the doorknob. He then moves to Crowley's right again after Aziraphale himself has cleared the way out of the door frame.

A possible factor I don't understand is that Crowley parked his car near the pub instead of the coffee shop that particular episode.

I will go over this part of The Bigger Thresholds Trick a little more in the Earthly Objects section.

...

Brighter Red Streak Check

Crowley's hair is notably more saturated from the last scene in the car, so the streak can be hard to find just because of that. The streak starts a little further to his left of where we often see it starting above the center of his left eye. Now it starts more at his left end of his left eye. Instead of going upward from that center, it ventures to Crowley's right, then still managing to actually be above the center of his left eye.

...

Hairstyle Changes

Even through the sideburns, the left one has less hair than before, matching more like Crowley's being summoned to Hell.

The biggest difference at first glance is the saturation. The story has hinted that the Bentley, when isolated, may generally make the hair darker as it is, even if Crowley hasn't zapped red lightning out of himself.

Otherwise, the actual shape is quite similar from the last present day scene. Styles change even during scenes. One I am able to find and check swoops in on both sides, just like in the car, with possibly being a little more centered in how the sides curve out from the top. From the front, there is a slight tilt to the right. The curving hair also looks more smooth.

...

Earthly Objects

(For reference: Earthly Objects)

We have arrived at our third Threshold Trick!

Here are some GIFs to start us off:

This one is The Bigger Thresholds Trick. In addition to being the third to start overall, it's the second Complex Threshold Trick to start. It will be the first Threshold Trick to conclude in episode 6, making it the second to conclude overall.

This Threshold Trick is the second one I found though it is the one anyone studying the sideburns is likely to start to sense first. That's primarily because there are so many humans yet the sideburns are long.

The first one I really found was The Door Trick, and I do think the game is designed that way on purpose. That way, an audience player circles back after finding The Pocket Trick to play the intense Rainbow Connection portion—among other things—to solve The Door Trick further with its connection to The Door Catch.

All the same, with The Door Trick in mind, that meant I should take a good, long hard look at the thresholds and overall spaces throughout the story.

I kept looking at this pub's space. There had to be something special about the place. Was it with where Mr. Brown was when? Was it with how a car outside the pub moved as Crowley moved?

It was the threshold!

The threshold is bigger than Crowley. That explained this one but not the music shop since I hadn't figured out that one's threshold was bigger too. An audience player is unlikely to realize the Heaven elevator is one of the three until figuring out the music shop's threshold is also bigger than Crowley but has a different solution for the trick ("never let go of the door").

This pub visit is the Double of The Bigger Thresholds Trick. The visual marker for the Double is the two posts to mark the end of each lane for the bigger threshold.

How do pockets work with this one? Besides a certain pocket touch that will happen during the scene itself, probably something to do with the shadows. My play isn't good enough to determine more than that at this time. Crowley's leg shadows are making a pocket on the rug itself and a human's back of their jacket at some point. The pocket disappears over the course of the entry. Shadows and backs are really important later for The Door Trick and The Door Catch.

On exit, Aziraphale's head switch, switches the pockets Crowley is in. First, Crowley is pocketed between Aziraphale and a human wearing a hat. After the switch, Crowley is pocketed between the entry's left door and Aziraphale. Then, in turn, Aziraphale ends up pocketed between Crowley's actual head and the shadow of his own head that ends up on the entry's right door frame.

What does it all mean besides general trickery? You got me. Still, they're doing stuff. I've said I think Crowley is the top tier—the best—player of the game. I think Aziraphale is probably second best. As good as Crowley is, he can't do these more advanced moves for The Bigger Thresholds Trick without an assistant at the level of Aziraphale and later Muriel.

Crowley trusting Muriel is one of the special traits about this Threshold Trick. It starts with recognizing that Aziraphale is acting as the assistant the first two times, then really shines through once a player understands how important pockets are and what Muriel is doing for the third bigger threshold.

Anyway, let's set the threshold trickery aside and take a look at what actually happens during the visit to the pub. Then we still have to pay attention to the pockets a little more.

I'm not going to name each set as a set since I'm not sure. But there are multiple sets in this scene.

The walk on the rug is its own earthly object touch.

Crowley saying, "Ah, we're going to the pub," is like a "Hello".

Aziraphale is doing a self-touch with his hands.

Crowley asks a question, "What's wrong with the coffee shop?"

When Aziraphale touches Crowley's chest, I think that counts as an acceptable touch since Crowley makes no visible effort to deny it. Supernatural beings are allowed reciprocal touches between each other. As in, when Gabriel hugged Aziraphale in episode 1, Aziraphale didn't hug him back but also had an uneasy look on his face. That ensured no point for that touch. Crowley doesn't touch Aziraphale back here, but that's not what's expected from the nature of the touch. At the very least, he doesn't pull away. The scene establishes it is Aziraphale who removes the hand at some point with a human obscuring the removal of the touch when that happens.

Aziraphale has a miracle touch on the two humans he gets to leave. His vendetta against the backs of chairs is active here, so the story cuts away when he actually sits down. This vendetta is possibly related to how utterly important Aziraphale's back is during The Door Catch and using the shadows of the green leaves on his coat to maintain the Rainbow Connection at Green.

Crowley's arm on the counter while ordering the drinks is another touch for him. The human he speaks to is holding a rag or towel. Crowley uses the name, "Lady Bracknell" He makes a brief pocket with his left arm, and it's the most clear shot of his watch during the visit.

Mr. Brown is holding both a newspaper and a cup when he arrives. He says, "Mr. Fell!" so that's a name.

Aziraphale looks him over, sees the earthly object touches, and replies with, "Oh...Hello".

Mr. Brown introduces himself by name and is shown seating himself. We'll cover him more later in the story commentary.

There is a question from Aziraphale with, "I did?"

When Crowley arrives at the table, he sets Aziraphale's glass down on the table. He already has his own glass of whiskey. He uses a pocket touch and greets Mr. Brown with a "Hello". The pocket touch is the four fingers of his right hand going into the pocket while keeping the thumb outside the pocket. The result of this touch is the most familiar form of the pocket touches in The Pocket Trick. Only the Double doesn't use it. The Door Trick uses the result of this form too. Those touches never show the fingers going in.

Now something important here that happens—and I've never named it in my pocket posts because I've never figured it out—is that Crowley smiles during this pocket touch.

For every touch in The Pocket Trick, he is not smiling when the pocket touch is on screen. The same goes for The Door Trick, where he is standing extremely still. One of the reasons I think this smiling and lacking smiling is important is the ending credits. It stands out that Aziraphale visibly smiles before he and Crowley are blurred away from being seen in the credits.

It also stands out that Crowley doesn't smile. On its own, that gives me a sense of unease and discomfort.

With the game, I have to consider he might not be smiling because he is still following some advanced pocket trickery rules. Even though he doesn't smile, the lighting lights him up enough that if you take your eyes off Aziraphale long enough and look at Crowley instead, you can see that he has a self-made pocket of hair containing part of the edge of the roof briefly. There actually is a second even smaller self-made pocket of hair. Look for it about when "Health" is near Crowley's shoulder.

Crowley closes his eyes, re-opens his eyes, and then narrows his eyes with a look toward Aziraphale's side of the screen. He does these things before he is blurred and faded from view.

Are these good things or bad things? Well, if the credits scrolling over Crowley are any indication, they are good things because "Good Omens" appears over Crowley's shot twice.

Still, Season 3 isn't going to start off saying everything is fine, never mind, no problems, or whatever. The emotions during the argument were tense and presumably real.

Another reason I consider the smiling important is that my absolute favorite smile of Crowley's in the entirety of Good Omens 2 is when he is standing with his back to the edge of the elevator doors in Heaven. Those are different pocket circumstances compared to what's in The Pocket Trick and The Door Trick. He has the thumbs and thumb joints of the Tied Hands pocketed in his vest, his actual hands not pocketed, and his back to the edges of where two doors—pocket doors—meet. Pocket doors are sliding doors, and elevator doors slide. So, for some reason, that set of circumstances allows him a smile.

Alright, so back to the pub scene.

Mr. Brown uses Aziraphale's "Mr. Fell" name when talking to Crowley.

When Aziraphale drinks, he's shown from the back, shown from the front, and shown from the back. His fingers obscure much of the drink itself and are enough so that a touch would be more credited toward the cup itself. If he gets any credit for the drink, it's from the three different shots of him drinking, I would guess. He's shown finishing off the drink before leaving the table

Various names and questions continue during the conversation. Both do self-touches at times, and sometimes Crowley's touch on his glass of whiskey is seen.

Crowley is shown drinking the whiskey just before getting up to leave. He ensures the index fingertip and middle fingertip are shown on the glass but not the tips for the other digits. The thumb is obscured by the glass itself. Like the coffee in episode 1, that's probably Crowley's way of preferring credit for the drink than for the touch on the glass.

For paying attention to the pockets, there is of course the pocket touch Crowley did when talking to Mr. Brown. He actually moves the thumb tip on the pocket a bit after Mr. Brown talks to him and before sitting down.

It doesn't look like a big deal on its own, but it's happening in the first touch of The Bigger Thresholds Trick and in the episode where The Pocket Trick officially starts. So, it's probably some silly prerequisite to The Pocket Trick itself while ensuring a pocket touch of some of a hand is going into a pocket during this particular touch in The Bigger Thresholds Trick. The CMC right thumb joint touches the jacket's edge in the process. The metacarpophalangeal joint is touching the belt loop. Plus, there's that smile. The music shop will get The Pocket Trick's Double where thumbs go into pants pockets instead of fingers. Heaven will get the Tied Hands with their thumb joints and thumbs pocketed into the vest.

When Aziraphale sits down, there is a human to his right with their hand in a pocket. That pocket touch is still active when Crowley arrives and makes his pocket touch. The scene cuts to Mr. Brown, then back to Crowley. The nearby human no longer has their pocket touch active. That's also when Crowley's thumb tip does its little movement on the pants.

When Crowley brings up the idea of a sudden rainstorm, he makes a pocket between his right index finger and thumb. As he talks about realizing "they were made for each other," his elbow can be seen touching his jacket. From there, I can then notice a pocket exists between the jacket sleeve, jacket torso, and arm chair for what's not touching the jacket.

The Tied Hands are quite shiny and pretty in the scene overall. A tassel is touching the Belt Head before Crowley says, "We've got a real problem..." Once Crowley starts talking about the 1810 Clerkenwell Diamond robbery, the tie strands can be seen touching each other on the vest while they have a pocket formed between them on the shirt. They'll show up as touching each other in more cuts after that point.

Once Crowley is seated, the lighting favors his left. Sometimes to his right is a smaller light that can be found, and sometimes to his left a set of more lights from a chandelier can be found as a potential overhead light, or set of overhead lights. Aziraphale actually also gets a possible overhead light, or set overhead lights from a chandelier, to, to his right. These things don't strike as big of a deal is as the one I commented on for the miracle to hide Gabriel, but so long as I'm looking and found them, I'm passing it along.

Various light reflections appear in Crowley's sunglasses, sometimes with a greenish tent. Even the window frames here get a moment of reflection, before Crowley turns his head and says, "Why?" I'll repeat that I think these reflections are clues about The Window Trick as the last Threshold Trick of the season.

...

For my tangential reading in my desperate attempt to improve my play, I've actually been re-reading the Good Omens book since it was published in 1989, which is the same year Guards! Guards! was published.

The word "imagination" is used plenty of times, and using one's imagination is certainly a requirement of Earthly Objects, especially once you find The Pocket Trick.

I picked up The Sandman Volume 3 from the library so will start on it soon.

...

Story Commentary

The pub is one of two human-specific locations that make it quite difficult to develop theories like the one about the connection and the other about the existence of a supernatural zone. See the main Sideburns Scheme post if you don't know what I mean by either of those things.

The music shop is the other human-specific location.

Before figuring out the thresholds, the main common thread found between them that is not the longer sideburns or the pocket touches, is that both locations have an encounter with a human who remembers a meeting from some years ago and say as much to Aziraphale. Here, the wording is "several"; Mr. Arnold will specify "ten". The encounter also brings up lights. This one refers to "winter street lights". Mr. Arnold in the music shop will mention "Christmas lights".

The special encounter here is Mr. Brown.

He has memories that do not match Aziraphale's and leads into Mr. Brown setting Aziraphale up to host the upcoming Thursday night meeting (which will become the ball).

The general issues are as follows:

1. Mr. Brown expects Aziraphale to know him. Aziraphale does not recognize him. Mr. Brown gives his name.

2. Mr. Brown claims to have met Aziraphale at a shopkeepers and street traders meeting several years ago. Aziraphale politely says, "Of course," but looks like he is just trying to be polite.

3. Mr. Brown claims that Aziraphale said he would be delighted to host a meeting. By then, Aziraphale is truly caught off guard. "I did?"

4. Aziraphale is hesitant and does not say he's looking forward to hosting this meeting. He is preparing to say that he can't and is busy or something along those lines. When Crowley arrives with drinks, Mr. Brown disregards Aziraphale's manner entirely and tells Crowley that Aziraphale was saying how much he's looking forward to hosting the meeting. This remark could certainly be a presumptuous lie on Mr. Brown's part, to just get what he wants, but it is suspicious with everything else above.

My initial sense is that Mr. Brown has fake memories from the Metatron, but the encounter with Mr. Arnold in the music shop later seems far more deliberate on the part of Crowley and Aziraphale.

In this one, in the pub, Crowley is busy getting drinks and away for much of when Mr. Brown recounts his memory. However, Crowley is still being read as in the threshold space as a demon no matter where he is in the pub, so how much does this distance matter?

Anyway, longer sideburns and memory stuff happened in the same scene. This factor is noted but still not really understood by me.

...

One of the odd little clues from the story about a possible book with humans who have a fake dimension to them is how some of the names are, like so: Mr. Arnold, Mr. Brown, Mrs. Cheng.

These names are more clear if watching the show with the official subtitles.

My point is that the group goes A, B, C. It doesn't apply to all humans of course, but I noticed.

...

The pub and music shop have strong contrasts between each other, when it comes to the nature of the space. The pub is a large space compared to the smaller music shop. There are a lot more humans here in the pub and just the one human, Mr. Arnold, in the music shop.

...

Still, no one is shown paying with money for anything in the present day. If it were to happen anywhere, you'd think it would be here.

...

Aziraphale uses Gabriel's name in conversation here despite his caution of using the "Jim" name in the bookshop space. He'll say Gabriel's name again later this episode out on the street near the car.

...

Regarding the drinking of alcohol, The Magic Trick You Didn't See theory has a part that I think is worth considering, so please do look it over if you're interested. It's about suspecting the Metatron disapproves of alcohol, and that's one of the clues he's messing with Aziraphale's memories. You can find it under the header, The Devil's Drink.

...

I enjoy the conversation overall in the pub. I know they aren't supposed to be messing with humans in the way they end up doing, but I still find it really sweet how Crowley reacts to the idea of helping two people fall in love. He is quite likely referring to his own experience.

I also love his reaction to Jane Austen, both as he remembers her and the news to him that she wrote novels.

Basically, I love Crowley here. I love him so much.

...

That's it for this post. Sometimes I edit my posts, FYI.

...

Main post:

The Sideburns Scheme

...

Past version of this post:

Post #18 (the pub)

The numbering no longer matches because I went ahead and covered the first minisode scene with Crowley this time around. I'm almost caught up to where I left off before I put this project mostly on hold to study Earthly Objects. Only one more to go!

[steddieunderdogfics]

This week’s writer spotlight feature is:  MuseumGiftShopEraser! They have 9 works on AO3 in the Stranger Things Fandom, and 6 of those are in the Steddie tag!

Our anonymous nominator recommends the following works by @museumgiftshoperaser:

Paint the Devil on the Wall

Conversations About Love

Now I'm A Stranger

An Exercise In Denial

Baby, You Were Meant To Follow Me

Her fics are BEAUTIFUL. When I first read Paint the Devil on the Wall I was so obsessed I immediately recced the fic to everyone I knew who would be vaguely interested in a steddie fic. -- anonymous

Below the cut, @museumgiftshoperaser answered some questions about their writing process and some of their recommended work!

Why do you write Steddie?

I stumbled into it immediately after season 4 came out. I’ve felt very attached to Steve as a character from the beginning of the show and I think I was subconsciously waiting for someone to pair him up with. I think they’re both such great characters to explore themes of dealing with expectation (either by conforming, or fighting against it) and that’s something I always love to write about.

What’s your favorite trope to READ?

Absolute sucker for fake dating. Can’t get enough of it.

What’s your favorite trope to WRITE?

Enemies to lovers! Though now that I’m looking through my AO3 I haven’t actually written that much of it. It doesn’t have to be very intense enemies, though. I just like it when characters don’t immediately get along.

What’s your favorite Steddie fic?

My brain has been forever rewired by took you for a working boy by pukner. It’s such a gentle, nuanced queer story. It feels vulnerable to me in a way that really only fanfiction can be. Can I sneak in another one?? Because everyone should also absolutely read the shame is on the other side by scoops_ahoy. It taps into this very specific kind of queer compartmentalizing, that I’ve never seen written this well. It broke my heart and patched it right back up.

Is there a trope you’re excited to explore in a future work but haven’t yet?

I’ve been stupidly busy with my masters lately so there’s probably not a lot of writing on my horizon. I do have a wip called Doll that I’m slowly chipping away at. It’s a little darker than stuff I’ve written before. I know ‘dark’ isn’t really a trope, but I’m excited to see if I can push these characters a little further. 

What is your writing process like?

Absolute chaos. I write non-chronologically, without an outline, all in the same document. I keep writing snippets and scenes until the whole thing slowly comes together. 

Do you have any writing quirks?

Italicizing words for emphasis. I love it so much, you can rip it from my cold dead hands. It accidentally makes its way into my academic writing for my degree sometimes which is a little embarrassing, but I just love the flair of it. 

Do you prefer posting when you’ve finished writing or on a schedule?

I don’t really do schedules, it doesn’t work for me at all. I try to make sure I have a decent amount of the story written before I start posting to give me a bit of a head start, but forcing myself to finish something by a certain date is a surefire way to kill my motivation.

Which fic are you most proud of?

Probably Paint the Devil on the Wall. It was the first time I’d written the entire story before I started posting so it went through way more rounds of editing than normal. I think you can really tell. It’s also the longest story I’ve ever written (in general, even outside of fanfic). The whole project gave me a lot of confidence as a writer.

How did you get the idea for Paint the Devil on the Wall?

I knew I wanted to participate in the Bigbang and the deadline was coming up, but I still didn’t have an idea. I decided to work backwards and try to think of something that would be fun for the artist(s) to draw. I had a vision of Eddie wearing dungarees without a shirt, absolutely covered in paint and I knew I had to write something to make it happen. I set the story in 80s New York because neo expressionism is really the only kind of art I could see Eddie making. I think it suits him very well. I do actually have a background in art, though! I’m currently getting my MFA, but I’ve worked full time as an artist for several years before that. I had a lot of fun working my passion for art (and all those art history classes I had to take) into the fic.

When writing Paint the Devil on the Wall, what was something you didn’t expect?

All of Steve’s character, to be honest. The fic is written from Eddie’s POV and for a large part of it he has a very hard time figuring out what Steve’s deal is. Right alongside him, I also had an incredibly hard time figuring out his character. It wasn’t until I was working on the final chapter that he finally clicked for me. I realized very late, just like Eddie, that Steve liked him from the very beginning. Most of the enemies to lovers premise was all in Eddie’s head.

What inspired Now I'm a Stranger?

Oh boy, that was forever ago! I remember I started writing it while I was camping with friends because I liked having something to do after everyone went to bed at night. I think I had the idea for that very first scene where Steve doesn’t remember Eddie and it all sort of spiraled from there.

What was your favorite part to write from An Exercise in Denial?

That was the very first fic I wrote, right after season 4 came out! I’ve never written something that fast, I think the whole thing took me less than a week. My favorite part was probably Robin being completely exasperated with both of them. They’re such complete idiots in that fic.

How do/did you feel writing Baby, You Were Meant To Follow Me?

Ahhh… I never got around to finishing that one. I probably never will, to be honest. I wrote the first two parts quite quickly and then the idea I had for the plot spiraled out of control and I realized I didn’t actually feel like writing the rest of it. There were going to be a lot of misunderstandings and I learned that I find that an incredibly frustrating trope to write (when done for drama at least. For comedy, I’m a sucker for misunderstandings.) So I guess I felt a little in over my head.

What was the most difficult part of writing Conversations About Love?

The ending! That fic is so incredibly personal to me and I knew from the beginning that I wanted it to have a very sappy, happy ending. It was important to me to write an aromantic character getting everything they wanted, but I realized as I was writing it that I don’t actually fully know what that means. So it took a bit more soul searching than fics typically do, but it was very much worth it. 

Do you have a favorite scene and/or line from any of your fics?

I still think the short little prologue for Paint the Devil on the Wall is the best thing I’ve written. “You don’t draw on things that aren’t yours, baby” is probably the best summary I have for that story.

Do you have any upcoming projects or fics you’d like to share/promote?

Not really!

Thank you to our author, @museumgiftshoperaser, and our anonymous nominator! See more of @museumgiftshoperaser works featured on our page throughout the day!

Writer’s Spotlight is every Wednesday! Want to nominate an author? You can nominate them here!

[gotstabbedbyapen]

Headcanons for Hera’s relationships and dynamics with the second gen Olympians?

Sure thing! There are some HCs where Hera might be painted in a bad light, but rest assured that I have no ill-thought of her. They are simply how I think she and some of the second-generation Olympians view each other.

Hera gets along with Athena and Persephone the most. Not only because these two were born before her marriage to Zeus so she doesn't hate them, but they also hold positions that can be near or equal to her (Athena is the unofficial heir and Persephone is Queen of the Underworld)

Hera and Athena have no problem becoming allies in the Trojan War. If it weren't for Zeus' No Intervention policy, Hera's power and Athena's wisdom combined would make the Greeks win easily.

They also watched over Jason and the Argonauts together, helping them in every way in their journey. But in the end, Athena had to talk Hera out of her fury when Jason cheated on his wife so the Queen wouldn't smite Jason herself.

Hera was Persephone's mentor, teaching her about queenship. Girl was a farmer goddess one day and suddenly became a queen in the next so she had no idea how to be royalty. Hera had to guide her step by step in how to run a kingdom.

Hera was extremely pissed at Hades for abducting Persephone. Sure, there marriage was legit according to law, but she was angry at him as a protector of women.

The only thing more complicated than topology mathematics is Hera and Ares' relationship.

Ares' loyalty to his mother was predominant, but not unchallenged. The two most significant times Ares actively defied Hera were engaging in adultery with Aphrodite and supported the Trojans. Hera was seething when her son was against her, but also heart-broken.

Hera loves Ares and expects a lot from him, but her son is like a reflection of her and Zeus' darker side. Seeing his rage in the battlefield reminds Hera of her own wrathfulness that she doesn't like to admit.

But that doesn't mean Hera have nothing to be proud of with her son. Ares never settled down in marriage, but he is respectful of his lovers and holds all of his children dear. Hera finds condolence that despite her never being the best mother, Ares doesn't pass down the generational trauma.

Hera and Hephaestus' relationship isn't as complicated... but it runs cold. Aside from Hephaestus' revenge on Hera with a magic throne and Hera approved Hephaestus' divorce with Aphrodite, they didn't talk much anymore.

Although Hera had stopped persecuting Artemis and Apollo since they'd became Olympians, she still jabbed them every once in a while. The twins will ignore most of the time until she mentions Leto.

Hera hated how Zeus spoiled Artemis and let her get away with things. She deemed his favoritism will make Artemis disrespect the law and cause more ruckus.

If Zeus couldn't do it, then as the head matriarch, Hera would be the one keep the wild girl Artemis in line. The Trojan War thing is an example.

The first major milestone for Hera and Apollo's relationship improvement is when they eat one peaceful lettuce meal together. No jabbing, no snarking, just crunching lettuce. It was then Hera found Apollo's presence to be more tolerable.

When Hebe was born, the Olympians who had tensed relationship with Hera took it as a chance to make peace with her by providing magnificent gifts for the girl.

I assume Hebe cried a lot when she was born, and she suddenly won't stop crying during her presenting party. When the other gods failed to calm her down with their gifts, Apollo soothed Hebe with his music. This earned him the true respect of Hera.

Although Hera is more accepting toward Hermes than Zeus' other illegitimate children, she still side-glanced him for dating Iris, her handmaiden.

Dionysus had to run away from Hera most of his childhood. When Dionysus became an Olympian, Hera ceased fire like with the twins, but peace wasn't truly restored until much later.

When Dionysus married Ariadne, Hera finally softened when she saw how much he loved and upheld his wife. Just be loyal to your spouse and the Queen of Olympus will spare you.

[satoumafuyuss]

shes just like me fr 💚

[flowersheep]

// prime defenders s2 ep 31-33 spoilers (vaguely)

Finished s2 ep 33

Choices were.... definitely made...

was not expecting will's character arc to go that direction but maybe I just overlooked something vital

[derangedthots]

I was so surprised to read on here and the notes left on your fics that you have yet to read Fire and Blood because your characterization of Jacaerys is so book canon rather than show canon (which is very insulting to Jacaerys, we are all very lucky that Harry is stunning).

I believe your characterization of Aemond is show only right ? probably a good think, cause to be honest there’s nothing worth ish in book canon Aemond, except for: delusions, misogyny (his obsession with Rhaenyra’s vagina is ugh get a job) and cruelty.

f&b is high on my reading list bc honestly as good of a summarizing job the wiki does, it's not the same as having the whole thing for reference, but i wanna wait until i have a print copy of it just bc i feel like trying to read it online would give me a headache/make me feel like i'm reading another thing for uni (which means i'd end up zoning out on principle).

i'm glad my characterization of jace seems so in line with his book version tho!! i do adore harry's portrayal, it's not as good as what george's written of course but that's on the fault of the show writers/directors than harry himself, and i try to blend show!jace into my characterization as well. that being said, since we're still only on s1 of hotd and even that has given us confusing/contradicting/downright illogical writing choices, it just makes more sense to lean more towards how jace is described in the book. also just, book!jace is so endlessly compelling?? his clear love for his family, his devotion to rhaenyra and their cause, his ability to lead, his cunning+dutiful nature, but also his fierceness and fire (him calling vhagar a hoary old bitch is so personal to me LMAO), his relationship with the dragonseeds, the ultimate tragedy of his life fjsks i could go on and on. the fact that george gives him so many admirable traits while leaving a lot open for interpretation (since f&b isn't written with their povs like asoiaf) also just makes my job as a writer even more fun bc there's so much room to play.

anyway onto the part of your ask that's harder for me to respond to (tbh can it still be called an ask if it's not even really a question? idkidk it's in my askbox so i'm gonna refer to it as such lol)

aemond's characterization is a more complicated affair for me bc while i am heavily leaning into his show characterization (like harry, ewan offers such a stunning portrayal), i also?? don't wanna run the risk of defanging him? from what i've seen of book!aemond, like you mention he def reads as creepy+dirtbaggy (his incredibly gendered fixation on rhaenyra truly makes me want to yak) and while ctf!aemond isn't quite so unbearable, he's also not too saintlike either. bc FMF and CTF are both written from jace's pov, there's a lot that isn't being shown in general but especially with what's going on inside aemond's head and well... let's just say aemond's thought processes aren't all that pretty. in a way, bc of how FMF and CTF are told through jace's eyes and jace already has a lot on his plate to deal with, there's a lot of things he isn't noticing and certain assumptions he makes that aren't as reliable as he thinks.

still, there's a very clear line btwn aegon and aemond in my head while i'm writing (i thought i'd clear this up bc i don't wanna worry anybody and make CTF!aemond seem unlikeable and therefore uninteresting as the male lead). it's just that one of aemond's big appeals to me is how dangerous he is and how, unlike daemon, it's much easier for him to fall on the dark side of the spectrum rather than true gray. he's wrestling with a lot of demons, some he'll win against and some he'll lose, but i believe it was @everythingstucky who once aptly likened my writing of CTF jacemond as jace saying "i can fix him but i won't, if he knows better he'll do it himself and aemond knows better" and to this day, i stick by this description. ultimately, for all his flaws, my characterization of him is steeped in hope for more.

there's a lot of growing aemond's doing offscreen, and a lot of growing he'll be doing with jace, so even though i might not end up writing him as charitably as some people want, i love his character bc he has such a generous capacity for both light and dark. him canonically being kind of a loser for me just means that when he finally does learn, and things do go his way, it feels all the more earned and you can get a sense of pride abt how far he's come/improved

this was all very long and rambly of me but i hope my message came through anyway. and if it didn't, i'm always happy to clarify (barring of course, any spoilers😉)💕💕

[iamthescalesofjustice]

idk if anyone has done this before but da2 au where you think at first its a both twins lived au and then find out bethany died and thats actually non-warden amell posing as her. something something escaped with jowan maybe, found her relatives in lothering, sought refuge with them and when bethany ended up dying it was way lower profile for amell to take the place of her cousin than try to get in to kirkwall with them as a non-immediate family member (especially given that leandra is publicly coming in as an amell and theres a resemblance and its known revka had mage kids taken to the circle and im sure theres a bulletin out or whatever for an escaped apostate matching amells description). points if people comment on how ‘bethany’ clearly takes after her mother. leandra is not normal about it. aveline knew the real bethany at least in passing bc of living in the same town and treats this as a reason for her distrust of hawke and co and one of the reason she sabotages carvers application with the guard. 

[youssefguedira]

blinked. 3 hrs later i had this. enjoy

Rating: Teen

Summary:

When he is eight or nine years old - he's not sure exactly, and he's learned by now that asking won't get him anywhere, either - he is given a sword for the first time.