#to communicate with each other pretty good)

[hcnnibal]

what are they like working together? are they good at pretending to be normal around other people? do they communicate well? Improvise?

we’ll get to see more of how they work together in chapter 4, but the way… they work together is the main reason theyre so bad at communicating w each other in their everyday lives

a1 is good at being normal. a2 is … very pretty.

[mcytshipsandmore]

Hear me out-

Bdubs, Etho, Joel, Lizzie, and Cleo.

Joel and Lizzie are married and are both polyamorous and in an open relationship.

This started when Lizzie realized, 'dang, I have a fiance, but my Fairy Fort ally turned nemesis is actually pretty hot.'

She and Cleo went on a few dates and hit it off, and Lizzie decided to talk to both of them at once, telling them that she thinks she might be polyamorous.

Joel understands, seeing as he's felt attraction to other people while in a relationship.

They come to an agreement that Joel and Cleo both are in relationships with Lizzie, but not with each other.

Bdubs has a crush on Etho that's obvious to everyone but Etho, and Joel wonders why he finds Etho romantically appealing.

Bdubs is worried Joel is going to steal Etho from him, so he spends a lot of time with him to recognize his motives.

During which he starts to realize that he isn't that bad. He's fairly attractive.

Etho is just going through gay panic in the background acknowledging that he has a type.

The idiots finally communicate and decide to try dating eachother and see how it goes.

The next time Joel sees Lizzie, he has a surprise: two new members of the polycule!

Lizzie just sighs and tells them if they ever break Joel's heart they'll have to answer to her and her scary girlfriend.

Cleo comes out of the other room and makes eye contact with Etho, it turns out they're exes!

Drama ensues, and so does confusion, as the other hermits try to figure out what is even happening in this relationship.

(Un-anoned because I have no shame)

you are brave and awesome for the unanon, for the ship, it is a work of art

I love reading everyone’s paragraphs 🩵they are so good ^^

We love polyamorous relationships-⭐️

[haveyoureadthisfanfic]

i see there's shipping discussion occurring in your ask box so i figure i'll throw in my two cents as well!

i used to be a REALLY heavy shipper, in exactly that shallow "reduce their personalities to the concept of kissing each other" way that tons of people are complaining about. i wouldn't get into ship wars or harass people or anything, but i was totally the kind of person who you couldn't just have a level character discussion with— because i would be pretty intent on just going through the motions with whatever best friend or acquaintance I'd decided they had a huge crush on.

by contrast now my biggest most important "ships" end up all being somewhere between 3-5 people with a lot of care put into the nuances of each connection on the relationship chart— i still refer to them as poly ships (as a shorthand mostly), but of the 3 to 10 different relationships between the characters, i usually only see a few of them as romantic or sexual, with the majority a lot closer to a found family or queerplatonic sort of vibe

honestly i think the biggest reason for the reductive style of shipping was that 1) i wasn't as skilled a writer then as i am now, so i wasn't really sure how to really retain all of the features of a character that i liked, and 2) i wanted the biggest feelings IMMEDIATELY and there's some kind of instant gratification to shipping where the end goal is for them to kiss and you can just draw/write/think about them kissing and you're done.

it's kind of like the instant ramen of fictional relationships to me. it's kind of "one size fits all", low writing skill requirement, low effort, really really fast and easy, and ultimately not really that rewarding at the end of it. and just like how real actual ramen exists separately from instant noodle cups, it IS possible to write a really amazing and beautiful and deep romantic ship fic that successfully plays off of the kinds of people these characters are, but ramen still isn't the end-all be-all of relationships! there are so many different hypothetical dishes that could be made with the same characters!

and my personal favorite is polyqueerplatonic ships for this very reason, because with just a few characters you can get a whole diverse array of interactions and dynamics!!

anyway tldr; i think romantic shipping is fun, and even "cheap" reductive romantic shipping can be fun, but (to return to my instant noodles metaphor) it would be reasonably upsetting to attend an awesome community potluck only to find like 90% cup noodles. and the people serving the cup noodles frown at you whenever you ask if anyone's serving like, gourmet spaghetti or dumplings or something.

so just know that if you're bringing your silly "ouhhh they should kiss" fan works to the fandom, you're appreciated and I'm glad you're having fun, and if you're bringing the super precisely thought-out nuanced relationship fan works to the fandom, you are ALSO so appreciated and additionally i really wish there were more of you in my own fandoms.

flashbacks to the time i looked up a ship that i THOUGHT was pretty popular but it only had like 230 works on AO3 at the time and basically all of them were romantic instead of my hyper-specific one-sided queerplatonic one-sided fully platonic thing i had pictured in my mind....

Okay, as someone who has tried their hand at writing slow burn in the past, I totally get the instant gratification thing. "You know when would be a good time for them to kiss? NOW"

I'd get frustrated at my own characters for not just making out already and I was the one writing them not making out lmao

[skele-bunny]

Please more era III Dew! Specifically more about just his relationships?

INHALE. EXHALE.

Sweetest thing. Loved his mates, all of them. Loved curling against their sides or snuggled deep against their chest. Loved acts of service wether massages, brushing hair, or simply doing things for them. He only asked for physical and verbal affection in return! That's all! Otherwise, one happy, little fish on your hands.

Since we did the first wave, I'll do a few of the others!

When Mist came around, Dew was awestruck. She presented herself strongly, confidence practically dripping, and Dew was already just staring hardcore. They couldn't meet each other just yet as Mist was an oceanic and he a fresh, but once they did? Ohh Dew was instantly showing his belly for him. Just like with Delta, they swam a lot!! Mist enjoyed just laying down, watching Dew swim above her and waving with such a pretty smile. Big! On! Hunting!! Mist had a bad habit when he was first summoned n trying to get used to topside of just showing from the lake, and spitting fish he caught onto Dew's lap. She'd just smile then leave and Dew was so not normal about it sjekdj

Ivy!!! Curious thing he was. Was sickly from the start, but Dew never minded. He'd peek in when Pebble let him, and pet under his chin and around his horns. Fed him soup so gently and helped administer his medication when no one else could. Ivy wasn't a talker and stayed verrryy quiet, but physical language was one of the ways he'd communicate. He'd grab Dew's hand suddenly and huff, shaking his head if Dew tried doing something Ivy was uncertain about. Squeezing him a tiny bit when Dew mentioned needing to get up/leave. Ivy really liked snuffling against Dew's gills and only his gills. Never really found out why!

Omega had been the one to teach Dew how to braid his hair, so it was only natural for Dew to show Zephyr!! Zephyr was the one to initiate a lot of things like cuddles, kisses, or intimacy. Once they got comfortable, they started being more bold. Blah blah pet play zephrit — WELL Master/Sub Zephdrop!! Lightly tapping Dew's leg with their cane to be discreet about a command, having Dew sit on their lap and be a good boy like he always is, even getting Dew a little locked anklet that only Zeph has the key to. Despite the dynamic, it was super soft! They both knew they couldn't super rough up each other, but still desired it. Too many times they'd be found with Zeph still in their chair asleep, with an equally asleep Dew on their lap. If you even tried waking one of them, they'd both be up and irritated and go back to bed.

[niffler-gold]

Gone and knackered my shoulder so of course my mind started whirling and had to write this short piece down.

Nothing sinister just a short injury fic concerning Alan.

Alan rubbed his shoulder, the pain slowly creeping in as the adrenaline slowly left. A few weeks prior he had pulled one of the muscles while playing a pretty furious game of badminton against Gordon. He asked Virgil to give it a quick once over to make sure it was only a pull which the medic had confirmed and continued on as normal with his duties. A little pull here and there and he was fine, well that was untill today.

He stepped into the shower and turned it as hot as it could go without burning his skin and let the water try to sooth the pain that was steadily raidiating from his dominant arms joint. The space rescue had gone on without a hitch. Everyone got out of the burning space station without so much as a scratch. Except when he had to manually hall a door open. He had felt his shoulder pop but thought nothing of it. But as the rescue wound down and he was sitting back down in the pilot seat of thunderbird 3 the pain started letting itself be known.

He figured he had just pulled the rest of the muscles in the shoulder since he had slightly weakened it with the first pull a few weeks ago. The shower didn't help. As he carefully pulled on his shirt he realised he was going to have to ask for an ice pack to try and relieve it.

He walked into the kitchen where the rest of his brothers were getting dinner ready. "Good job out there today al" Scott said with pride in his voice. "Practically text book" remarked Gordon. Virgil however was studying Alan as his hand was rubbing his shoulder. "That shoulder still bothering you" he enquired. "Yer I was actually gonna ask if I could have an ice pack for it" he replied letting his arms drop to his sides. "Alan sit down now" Virgil suddenly said concern filling his voice. Scott's and Gordon whipped round to stair at their younger brother. Nothing looked totally wrong. He wasn't pale or looked unwell but then they saw. His right arm looked longer than his left. "Gordon med scanner" ordered Virgil.

Alan sat down utterly confused by his brothers actions. Scott sat next to him while Virgil crouched in front. "Did something happen to your shoulder on the rescue" enquired Virgil. "Nothing of note I think. Oh I did have to manually open a door and it made a popping sound". Scott and Virgil looked at each other and did the weird eyebrow communication thing. "Can you not" pouted Alan knowing they were talking about him. "Got it" panted Gordon as he came back. "Right shirt off" said Scott lifting it carefully over his head. "Can someone tell me what's going on" remarked Alan. "I will as soon as the scan confirms my suspicions" said Virgil comfortingly.

The scan pinged after a few seconds. Virgil signed and let out a small groan. "Well what" demanded Alan. Scott turned to him, "Alan you've managed to dislocate your shoulder".

[chodzacaparodia]

Me, when characters who are practically meant for each other destroy their relationship by a misunderstanding they could have avoided if they’d just been honest with each other:

[trentcrimminallybeautiful]

i think the diamond dogs should play improv games just bc it would amuse me, an ex theater kid, specifically

[coriander-candlesticks]

I've felt like I should check in with Apollo the past few days and finally managed to clear enough space on my floor to feel alright with breaking out the tarot deck again so I did! Lit his candle, said as as formal a prayer as I could muster beforehand, asked Hermes to help with communication, the whole shebang. For further context: I've been wanting to ask Aphrodite something specific (also via tarot, it's the most grounding tool I've got) but I only have the one deck at the moment and, while I've used it to ask Hermes about things in tandem with Apollo, and Aphrodite introduced herself via it (with a card that also introduced Apollo), I wasn't sure if it would be cool for me to use it to ask her specifically something not in direct tandem with Apollo. I mentioned that in the prayer but also said that that might be a question for a different session, since trying to get an answer to that (on top of the general "hey how are we doing/do you have anything you want me to learn") might muddy my ability to understand the message.

Cue twelve cards falling out of my deck/poking out while I was shuffling. I usually pull ~3 cards on top of whatever falls out, but I ended up not feeling like it was needed. Seven of them fell out face-up, too.

Despite having some concerns about whether all of the cards were "supposed" to be pulled, it was pretty coherent! And covered quite a few things I've been thinking about recently, including sorting out anxiety vs a warning/displeasure, a follow-up of a card that was the focus of my last pull, and a reminder to look at outside/intellectual sources to combat the whatever-the-fuck-my-brain's-on. There were four cards that fell out face-up together in a pile: a card I associate with Apollo at the front and one associated with Artemis (the Moon) at the back, with cards related to unity & growth in the middle. I'd had a pretty bad experience attempting an offering to Artemis last month and have stepped back and avoided asking her for anything or specifically invoking her in prayers/offerings/etc. since (except for once when it involved a pregnant friend b/c it seemed odd and tbh a little disrespectful to ask Apollo for help and not her as well) because I took it as a sign that she didn't want me to work with her. I'm also aware, though, that that bad experience could have just been a meltdown/panic attack. Regardless of whether it was either of those two things, a "hey slow down" warning, or a combination, it was nice to have some clear reassurance & an official introduction. It's also significant, I think, that part of the Moon card's message is about not letting anxiety/"self-deception" (direct from the guide) cloud your intuition. I've been wanting to burn the candle I dedicated to her for a few days now- it's possible that was a sign from her as well.

As far as the deck-use question...the first card that fell out was the Empress (face-up, reversed). My initial thought was that it was a "no", but I decided to look at the meaning in case it wasn't that which was. probably a bad idea. It freaked me out a bit because I couldn't figure out what it was referring to. I ended up using my alphabet oracle tiles for a makeshift yes/no system after finishing with all the other cards and got clear confirmation that my instinct was, in fact, correct.

All in all it was really cool?? By far the most cards I've had in one pill iirc, and a good lesson in identifying how my intuition works.

[paisleywraith]

Touching.

[snickerdoodlles]

there's a lot of things people blame for why fandoms feel like ghost towns these days, but no one's really talked about the way discord's contributing to it

[lightblueminecraftorchid]

I love learning ASL it’s so good. Makes me happy to learn it. I’m so glad my university has classes for it with professors actually steeped in Deaf culture.

[julietwiskey1]

Have you ever thought of a Brave AU with Ursa and Azula?

I haven't. Or at least not until you sent this ask, which prompted me to watch Brave for the first time. It definitely would work well for an Azula and Ursa AU with some significant changes.

Assuming that you want it to be kept mostly Canon compliant and after the war when Ursa and Azula have found there place in the Fire Nation again it could be interesting. Though it could also work for a no war AU and stay more true to the original story.

For those who don't know in Brave Princess Merida is being set up for an arranged marriage by her Mother Queen Elinor. In all Merida and Elinor clash quite a bit over the Mother training her daughter to be the perfect lady and princess. A lot of demands and Merida is not that type of girl. She is tomboyish, would rather shoot arrows from a horse then command a room. Not wanting to go through with a wedding Merida is given spell by a witch to change her mother and therefore stop the wedding. But also changes her mother to a bear and the pair have to work together to change her back. Ultimately requiring them to repair their mother daughter bond. Just the type of thing that I love in my stories about Ursa and Azula.

So emotionally and story wise I would love to see Azula and Ursa experience something likes this. And come on, Ursa is just asking to be turned into a bear with her name. Ursa I think works quite well in the slot of Elinor, she wants the best for her daughter but making Azula the perfect princess is important. It also allows them to have tender moments like Merida and Elinor did.

The real issue with making this AU work is slotting Azula into the role of Merida. While they both are forced to be the perfect princess they react to the role in opposite ways. Merida chafes at the demands and requirements, outwardly rebels and seems to do a rather poor job. Azula excels at being the prefect princes and makes it look easy while enjoying it, but is also a rather submissive character to her father and mother. Azula also represents duty above own desires, the aspect of her character that makes me love character. And one that makes this AU difficult.

For Azula an arranged marriage isn't unexpected, but rather her duty to her nation. Such notions as a marriage of love probably wasn't a thing she grew up expecting or desiring. It just was never going to happen. And quite frankly I am the wrong person to talk to about "true love" and other such babble.

So I think changing the conditions Azula finds herself contacting a witch would change. Its most likely something that comes up in a moment of weakness and seeks her out, knows what she wants even if Azula would never indicate it. And in that weakness Azula takes the witch up on the offer and Ursa is turned into a bear. And the inciting incident is a lot more subtle then an arranged marriage, these character would be better served by it coming about by a ton of just inconveniences that build up unresolved.

The story would also change what needs to be fixed between Ursa and Azula. Most importantly its communication more than anything else. Why Azula used a spell wouldn't be anything she outright admits or says, at least not for awhile. It also requires Ursa to pause and push Azula to talk and to really listen to what Azula wants and the hints that she drops. For Ursa it would be putting together the clues to know and understand why her daughter is unhappy.

[rawliverandgoronspice]

.

not sure it's my post to make particularly, but I do fucking hate how the concept of white guilt gets weaponized within white people ingroups to throw at each other in order to goad each other into emotional passivity, detachement and inaction, it's just so extremely not what the concept is about initially and is actually still an extension of white guilt it turns out!!! as it's still reacting to that idea and concerned by trying to sever oneself from its perceived effects, regardless of what those are and what they do and what bigger picture they exist in!!!! anyway.

[kougaonn]

Although I wil say i don't quite get wh y ppl are yelling stsg parallels w this one. Itafushi and satosugu are similar in some ways sure but not like. huuugely hugely. just some situational similarities

[blindmagdalena]

Hi friend! Just wanted to say that I love your work and it’s really inspired me to write my own works. I’ve been struggling a lot with motivation, but your fics have really brought back that spark. So thank you <3

aw darling, this is so sweet! thank you so much. I fully understand the struggle. creativity and just the drive itself to write is something that waxes and wanes for me, and it’s always so frustrating when it fades off. but like the seasons, it always comes back around.

may your inspiration hit a spring surge!! 🖤

[airenyah]

so as i already mentioned, yesterday i sat my mom down for mafia the series and at first my mom said she wanted to go to bed fairly early tonight and didn't wanna watch more than one episode. we ended up watching two episodes after all. needless to say i WON'T be forcing mafia the series on my mom bc she WILL be watching all 10 episodes with me willingly. and happily so