#which IS relevant to the story I swear lol

[shrekgogurt]

Well folks. I’m on my substitute teaching grind again this week! Scheduled each day up in hopes of getting some good writing done. I did on Monday! And then proceeded to finally start reading @ninemagicks Game/Set/Match yesterday and did that every bell so uhhhhhh. Today………..well ummmmm…..yeah today I worked on chapter graphics because I’m in big procrastination mode. I want to keep riding this wave of engagement (that sounds corporate gross) but I’m also very much in my head about delivering. I should probably channel this energy into writing the chapter since such pressure is Baz’s literal arc but uhhhhhhhh why do that when I could Simon avoid. I love being mentally well!

One might say I need to find my own bravado. (more under the cut)

lol the chapter title for 13 is bravado by lorde

ok anyway

“Work In Progress Wednesday” right? That means I can talk about the progress of every part of the process? Huh? Yeah? Are you gonna stop me? TRY! TRY TO STOP ME!

Aggression aside, let’s get into it.

As previously stated on Sunday, we find ourselves at intermission. But that’s just the theatrical way of slicing up the story. The fun thing about 24 chapters (I got rid of my originally planned intermission chapter because I didn’t want to write it anymore) is that math really loves the number 24. It’s scrumptious. Yummily divisible. Ergo, IKABIKAM also has/is/will be deliciously divided. Afterall, I do keep saying I’m cooking on it.

Now, to put @alexalexinii on blast (sorry for perceiving you), they wrote in the tags of a Chapter 12 reblog: #made me realise that this fic had proper arcs? And I grinned. I cackled. I rubbed my grubby little hands together at the top of my tower as I’ve been doing this whole time because oh ARCS???????? YOU WANT ARCS???????????? I’VE GOT ARCS LYING IN WAIT LIKE YOU WOULDN’T BELIEVE. (I love overselling myself.)

Allow me to let you in on some of the building blocks thus far.

Chapters 1, 2, 3: a complicated reunion which is shaky but ultimately sets up

Chapters 4, 5, 6: developing the friendship which is a crucial foundation for

Chapters 7, 8, 9: the gay (Baz’s increasingly more external “hi i’m gay”, Simon’s internal “oh wait me too”) which then explodes into

Chapters 10, 11, 12: all that political parent stuff that’s been hinted at in passing which is BIG relevant and incredibly intertwined in this tangled up mess that leads into the work of….

You get it. They’re mini trilogies. Don’t ask me about dividing the chapters into groups of four because I didn’t have that in mind while writing. I like threes better. Always have. Absolute banger of a prime number.

If you for some reason want to read more about the structure, I write a little more about it in this wipsday from when I was procrastinating 9.

Now, @cutestkilla keeps telling me I’m at the downward slope now but honestly delivering on what I’ve set up scares the shit out of me WAY more than the grunt work. I’m uhhhhh yeah. This is why I’m chronically unable to finish projects but by GOD I will finish this one. I swear by it.

So here are three sentences. You get to guess from who and when.

Loving him comes as naturally as breathing. It’s intuitive when I’m not thinking. Or rather, when I’m not panicking.

If you want to follow along with all the songs I’m hyperfixating on as inspiration I’ve been sharing them over on the “shrogurt” instagram. There’s nothing I love more than talking way too much about this damn fic. Thanks for reading!

And thank you for the tags today: @nausikaaa @facewithoutheart @hushed-chorus @artsyunderstudy @prettygoododds @emeryhall

Now tagging: @brilla-brilla-estrellita @captain-aralias @dani-vc @ebbpettier @excalisbury @facewithoutheart @fatalfangirl @hagnoart @iamamythologicalcreature @ileadacharmedlife @imagineacoolusername @ivelovedhimthroughworse @j-nipper-95 @larkral @letraspal @martsonmars @messofthejess @moodandmist @mooncello @nightimedreamersworld @onepintobean @palimpsessed @raenestee @rimeswithpurple @theearlgreymage @theimpossibledemon @thewholelemon @valeffelees @whogaveyoupermission @youarenevertooold @you-remind-me-of-the-babe

[evansbby]

*POYT 5 UPDATE* + some general chit chat lol

lmfao at the way I thought I could contain this beast of a fic under 30k words. I’m at 29k words rn and still have 1.5 scenes left to write plus the epilogue… so it’s safe to say it’ll be longer than 30k words.

Also if anything has made me doubt my writing, it’s this fic. I just… I want it to live up to expectations so bad that I keep going back and editing it. And that’s made me hate parts of it and I panic bc I don’t want to change it but then I do but then I don’t and I just… UGH! I just want to be 1000% happy with it but I feel like that’s impossible at this point.

One thing I hate about my writing is the way I just go on and on and there’s so much unnecessary preamble, so I always go back and try and edit all that out. Like delete all the random extra wording I use and just try and get to the point faster. But then even that’s hard bc every single thing I’ve written in poyt 5 is just so relevant to the story!

Now I have so many doubts bc maybe I should’ve split it into two parts, maybe I should’ve changed the plot and done it different and I just… IT’S TOO LATE TO CHANGE IT and honestly I’m happy with my original plot but I’m also scared of how it’ll be perceived. Bc I remember a few people were critical of the Bucky spin-off and like… with how much effort I’ve put into this 30+k fic, I think I’d actually cryyyy if people perceived it badly.

BUT THEN the rational part of my head is reassuring me that it’ll be fine… that I’ve genuinely worked so hard on it that it can’t actually be as bad as I sometimes think it is. Bc I’ll read it and not think it’s “epic” enough to be a fitting conclusion but like… this isn’t GOT we’re talking about it’s just POYT 🥲😂 and POYT isn’t meant to be epic, it’s meant to be heartwrenching and sad and emotional… which I think it is!!

Ultimately, I’ve stayed true to my original idea. Of course I’ve made minor changes along the way (plus one huge major change to the ending that I had originally envisioned but we’ll discuss that once the chapter is out heheh). BUT YEAH, this is all just mindless mind chatter and insecurities and I’m just writing it all down bc it’s better to get your feelings out isn’t it…

I guess my worst fear is people saying that the fic was draggy, that it got too tedious and long for them, that it got boring halfway through, that it wasn’t what they thought it was going to be, that I let them down, that i bit off more than I could chew and now I haven’t given them a satisfactory conclusion. And I honestly don’t know how I’d defend myself to all this criticism if I got it bc I genuinely tried my best.

But let’s also remember that I started writing this fic back in January. And other writers know that when we reread our work we always want to change it or tweak it or in hindsight we know we could’ve written it better. And I HAVE tweaked it since then and rewritten and edited and all that… but I’ve kept the plot bc I have faith in it… this is the story I want to tell.

And I realise that writing all this is kind of insane and I know people are side eying me and rolling their eyes but guys I’m just putting my emotions down and I’m genuinely scared. I’ve always said that whenever I post a new chapter of poyt, it’s insane the way my heart beats and my palms get sweaty like I SWEAR to you I have a whole ass panic attack each time I post but it’s always vindicated by the amazing feedback so it’s a win win

HONESLTG reading over this word vomit I feel like I sound insane but genuinely I’m just trying to get my thoughts down. I guess I’m just super insecure about this last chapter but honestly, anyone in my position would be?? Right??? I just hope you guys love it. And the characters are believable and you think the writing is good

Okay I’ll stop now byeee

[leeknowsnot]

rental romance (i.n x reader)

genre: fluff, retro setting: 80s warnings: none tbh, ok maybe a short mention of early pregnancy but it's not that major. it's not even relevant to the story lol

Series: Retro Series

hii!! this will be the first ever imagine that i'm posting for this blog. it will also be the first to the ot8 retro series that i'll be making so i hope you enjoy!!

note: idrk if i should add this as note but f/n stands for your friend's name ^^

links: chan minho changbin hyunjin han felix seungmin

The school bell rang, eliciting a cheer from almost every student, including you. It was the last day before summer vacation, and no one could wish for more than the last minute to end. As your professor waved her hand goodbye, wishing everyone a happy vacation with an amused smile on her face, you stretched out your arms and legs. 

You could swear you heard some pop, but you could never blame your body for not feeling stiff after sitting through five hours of unnecessary lecture about accidental summer pregnancy and foolish teenage adventures during summer. You knew it was just the faculty keeping out for you and the others—considering how someone had “accidents” during the school’s overnight camping trip a few months ago; they didn’t want a replay of that. 

You felt a tap on your shoulder, your friend’s grin beaming too close to your face once you turned your head. “Got any plans for summer?” she asked. 

You pursed your lips, jutting it in a manner that you always do whenever you think and shrug at her, “I don’t know. I’ll probably rent some VHS and catch up on some movies I haven’t seen ever since my brother broke the VCR. Dad got us a new one after his promotion last week.” 

You weren’t exactly the most adventurous person, but you weren’t anti-social either. You just preferred being alone most of the time with your movies, curled in a blanket in the living room, hogging the television set and feasting your eyes on some half-blurry movie that you have managed to get your hands on, keeping the entertainment all to yourself. Though sometimes, you’d end up engrossing the others at home with your endless list of movies to watch. Your choices were always what’s “in”; The Breakfast Club, Fright Night, Ghostbusters—you didn’t mind whatever genre it was. Except for one. Romance. 

You didn’t exactly hate romance, but you didn’t like it either. For you, watching Romance movies was... well, it was weird, and you’d rather not risk it and save yourself from the cringe. 

Taking your bag from your seat, you both headed out of the classroom, the chattering of other students livening the ever-so crowded hallway. Since today was the last day of the school year, it was denser than ever. 

F/N grimaced at you, one of her eyebrows raising. “Didn’t you tell me you didn’t like the lady owner at the store?” 

Your nose crinkled, unsure if it was because of the mixed smell of perfume and summer sweat from the other students in the hallway or at the owner of the VHS store you always talked—no, scratch that—complained to your friend about. You decided it was the latter. 

“I don’t have any choice F/N, that’s literally the only video rental store in town,” you said. 

“You’re right”, she gave you an expression of defeat. “You might as well date that old woman this summer, since you’ll be frequenting her shop.” 

“Ew, no. I’m not into older women,” you give her a shove on the shoulder, and she lets out a laugh. 

You both were cut off from your conversation when you heard a familiar honk by the street across the school entrance. F/N’s face fell, “Well, I guess I gotta go. Dad’s having his relatives visit tonight and we’re going to eat out at that same diner at the next town.” 

It was now your turn to return the favor and tease her back. “Hope you get flirted by that waiter again!” 

She let out a frustrated huff at you and rolled her eyes, to which you responded with a laugh. You heard another honk. 

“Ugh, fine I’m coming!” you heard her groan as she walked away from you and into her father’s car, waving one last time at you before they sped off—an inaudible sound of him scolding her for leaving the school grounds late, retreating as the car soon joined the sea of cars in the distance. 

⊹　　˖　　　　 ̟　　　⊹　　　˙

The distance from your school to the video rental shop wasn’t exactly far so you arrived only a couple of minutes later, on foot. 

As the usual bell from the small entrance door jingled at your entrance, the familiar smell of the store welcomed you. It was always a mixture of wet wood, dry cardboard, vinyl tapes, and the lady owner’s disturbingly fragrant perfume. However, her perfume wasn’t what trickled your nostrils, but a different perfume. It was musky, a bit fresh, you thought. Either way, it was different from what you were used to. 

When you turned into a corner and towards the counter, you expected to see the old woman rubbing on the back of some vinyl disc, as what she would always do each time you visit for a rental. But it was a different person behind the long wooden table this time. 

It was a guy, dressed in a white collared shirt that was tucked in his jeans, and a—what even is that. 

‘Is that a floral beach shirt on top?’ you laugh to yourself. You tried so hard not to chortle at his untimely choice of fashion while manning a store, but a snort escaped between your lips and caught his attention. 

He raises his eyebrows at you and smiles, “Welcome! Anything I can assist you with? We have some new arrivals from this morning’s delivery.” 

You could swear his eyes disappeared momentarily when he beamed at you. You cleared your throat, landing your eyes everywhere but him at embarrassment over the possibility that he could have caught you staring at him and silently ridiculing him for wearing a beach shirt outside of the beach. 

“I uh... I was just wondering where the owner was since I haven’t really seen you before,” you said, trying to talk your way out of being caught red-handed. 

“Oh, she’s not here. I’m the new store employee, it’s my first shift!” And he bought it with a smile. Well, he technically didn’t see you anyway since he was too busy updating the shop list, but you felt it was necessary to play safe anyway. 

You nodded your head, your mouth slightly agape as you silently mouthed a quiet hum. “I see...” 

At least I don’t have to deal with her cranky attitude anymore, you thought. 

He walked out from the back of the counter and towards you, his whole stature finally revealing itself as the counter was tall enough to cover below his chest. At the end of the lace that hung on his neck was an employee identification card and sure enough, he is an employee at the store, seeing that the logo was plastered beside his picture—in which you thought that the logo was unnecessarily huge. 

Yang Jeong In, it read. 

From up close, you thought that he was cute. Well, compared to those brutes and try-hards at your school anyway. He was slightly taller than you are too, and the whiffs of his perfume reached your nostrils more than it did earlier. 

“The new movie tapes are in that shelf over there,” he pointed with his thumb. 

You blinked, remembering the cassette that was inside your bag—the idea of possibly making a bad impression on the new employee not lost at the back of your brain. “Actually,” you paused, fishing your bag for the cassette tape. “I’m also here to return a movie I borrowed a couple of weeks ago.” 

You hand him the copy of The Outsiders that you had been meaning to return since two weeks ago. He returned to the back of the counter again, his face disappearing as he bowed his head down at whatever logbook he was writing in from earlier, leaving you to stare at a couple of his hair strands poking out from the prim wax finish that looked like it had been rushed upon application. 

“It’s uh... It’s past due,” you can hear him scratch his head. “For about almost a month now.” 

You let out a sheepish laugh, tapping on the strap of your bag. “Yeah, about that... I wanted to return it as soon as I finished it, but school was...” you trailed off. Yeah, not a very valid reason. 

You heard him tap the counter from behind twice before he poked his head out at you with a smile. “Okay, I’ll just fill this in,” he said before his face disappeared behind the counter again. 

You decided it was best not to question him anymore and took a walk around the store, running your fingers around some movie tapes and musing inside your head about what and what you have not yet watched. You stopped at a shelf where the employee said they had new arrivals. There were various titles that weren’t familiar indeed and you had the worst indecisive trait, so you lingered on your spot, staring at the multiple movies. 

“I recommend giving Gregory’s Girl a watch,” the new employee from behind you suddenly spoke. 

You jumped in surprise at his sudden presence, both hands clutched at your chest. It was now his turn to snort in amusement. You were too focused on eyeing the movies that you didn’t notice him leaving the counter and walking up behind you. 

“I’m not a fan of romance,” you blinked, recovering yourself from the untimely fright that he had given you. He tilted his head slightly, both eyebrows raised. 

“It’s both a combination of romance and comedy. It’s good,” he nods. “I’ve watched it for about five times myself.” 

You stood there, eyes switching from him to the paper cassette box stacked neatly amongst the other movies. You were contemplating whether to take Child’s Play or Gregory’s Girl, but you wanted a change of pace from your usual action and horror movies, so you thought that maybe it wouldn’t be too bad if you took his recommendation into consideration. 

“Fine, I’ll borrow that,” you finally gave up and he flashed another smile. Does he ever not smile? You think to yourself. Though, you didn’t exactly mind. It was cute refreshing to see rather than a certain woman in her late 50s, unleashing her bitterness over life at her own customers. 

He then took the tape and wrote something on his logbook before handing you the cassette in a plastic bag and stamping on your rental booklet that they use to keep track of each person’s rental history. 

You thanked him, slightly bowing your head before heading out of the door. 

It was your first time renting a romance movie. You thought to yourself, I’ll just watch the first few minutes then I’ll just rewatch Beetlejuice. 

Yeah, you’ll do that. 

⊹　　˖　　　　 ̟　　　⊹　　　˙

You have never been so wrong in your entire life. Here you are now, standing in front of the same counter, in the same shop the next day, with the same new employee. And he was trying his best not to give you the widest, smug grin while he took Gregory’s Girl from your hands. 

You rolled your eyes at him, “Okay fine, it was surprisingly good.” 

He gives you an exaggerated expression, “Surprisingly good? It’s great! It’s one of the best romcom movies I’ve ever seen. Well, after The Breakfast Club.” 

You held up a hand, “Wait, you like The Breakfast Club too?” 

“Of course, who doesn’t? And Fright Night.” 

“No way,” you rested your chin on top of the small table at the middle of the store while he placed the tape you rented back at the shelf. These were practically your favorites. “Don’t tell me you like Ghostbusters too.” 

He faced you, both eyebrows raised at you. “I love Ghostbusters! It’s an icon.” 

You gave him an amused expression, a smile on your face. Back at home and at school, you didn’t really have anyone else to share your enthusiasm over movies with. Not even your friend, since she had more interest in sports stuff. 

Then, he started humming a familiar tune. “If there’s something strange, In your neighborhood.” Your ears perked at that. 

“Oh my God,” you gasped. His head was bopping at the mutual tune that both of you had in your heads. 

“Who you gonna call?” he continued before finally turning to you. 

You laughed as you shook your head and your hand. “No way I’m singing with you.” 

He tilted his head again at you, an expecting expression on his lips. Eventually, you gave up. 

“GHOSTBUSTERS!” you both exclaim at the same time and laugh at the unison. 

You held your stomach from laughing too much. “Ohh, this is so much better than having that sulky old lady around!” 

You were laughing so much that you hadn’t realized you were the only left laughing. Until you did. When you recollected yourself, you saw him looking at you with wide eyes, hand covering his mouth. 

Oops, I think I thought out loud, you grimaced. 

“I... I mean—” 

“HAHAHAHAHA!!” He slowly burst out laughing. You were momentarily confused as to why he laughed at your sudden self-snitching, but he eventually spoke. “So I wasn’t the only one who thought that too? That the store owner was really sulky.” 

Suddenly, you were back on the same page as him again. “Exactly my point!! It’s like she’s got a grudge on the world or something.” 

⊹　　˖　　　　 ̟　　　⊹　　　˙

From that day on, you started coming a lot to the store. Well, not that you weren’t a frequent customer before, but the new guy made it more tolerable. You shared a lot of interests, had almost the same opinion on everything. Basically, you both were like fire and oil. You’ve become friends over the whole duration of your summer vacation. However, there was one problem. 

“Come on, Jeongin! This is the umpteenth romance movie you’ve recommended me, and it always gets sappier every time!” You grumbled with a contorted expression as you swiveled comfortably on his chair by the counter. 

He gave you a small laugh, eyes leaving yours. “No, they're not.” 

“Yes, they do!” 

“Nope.” 

“Yes.” 

“Nopee.” 

“Yes, they do. Oh my God!” 

Again, Jeong In laughed at your expression and ruffled your hair. You saw his smile disappear and saw him avert his eyes away whenever your gazes meet but you tried not to read into that too much. He retracted back his hand awkwardly from your head and wiped it on his jeans. 

‘Weird idiot...’ You muttered inside your head. 

You both shared the silence for a while, and he had his back turned to you, but you could see his hands fumble with whatever they touch. “Jeongin, you okay?” 

“Yeah. I’m fine. Of course I am,” he replied immediately. Too immediate in fact. 

You blinked. Was he offended at what I said earlier? 

“Hey...” You muttered, “I didn’t... I didn’t really mean what I said earlier. They’re not entirely sappy. I just... You know I’m not a really big fan of romance so—” 

“Y/N,” he cut you off mid-sentence, a deep inhale following. 

“Yeah?” 

“I have... something to say to you,” his voice got weaker at the end, as if he suddenly had second thoughts of saying it midway, but you still heard it anyway. 

Your blinked. “Is there... something wrong?” 

It took him a short while, but he finally spoke again, his back still on you. “I love that you get cold when it’s 71 degrees out.” 

Your eyebrows furrowed. “Huh...?” 

“I love that it takes you an hour and a half to order a sandwich,” he continued, finally facing you this time, a serious expression on his face. “I love that you get a little crinkle above your nose when you’re looking at me like I’m nuts.” 

You blinked, crinkling your nose indeed but you knew where he was coming from. “Wait,” you chuckled. “Isn’t this Harry’s dialogue from When Harry met Sally?” 

“I love that after I spend the day with you, I can still smell your perfume on my clothes. And I love that you are the last person I want to talk to before I go to sleep at night.” 

You gave him an acknowledging nod, “I’ll give it to you, you really memorized the whole dialogue word per word.” 

As you gave him an amused smile, Jeong In stared at you for a short while before sighing and closing his eyes. “No, Y/N. This isn’t just me... reciting the movie dialogue out of nowhere.” 

He cautiously held your shoulder, his eyes boring themselves in your own hues. “I...” He looks down momentarily before his eyes are on yours again. “Look, I really like you, okay? Like, like you. These past weeks, I... I uh...” 

You were holding your breath. You were looking at him like a deer caught in headlights. Yet why did you look so beautiful in his eyes still? He sighed, hands releasing your shoulder as he hung his head a bit low. Jeong In shook his head. “It’s not supposed to be like this, I’m sorry. We’ve been friends for quite a while now and I...” He grumbled exasperatedly. 

“God why is it so hard to say. I even practiced at the mirror this morning,” he whispered in the last part. 

Though hesitant, you encouraged him to continue. In your sight, he was so cute right now. Was it your rationality speaking? No. You’ve always found Jeong In cute but you were too in denial to admit it. And now he was here, acting like a child, botching his own confession. 

Jeong In took a deep breath before finally looking you in the eyes again. “I like you, Y/N. You’re my friend, my best friend, my soulmate. And I’ve realized that during the days we’ve spent here in the store. It... may not be the best place to write our love story on but...” 

He looked away for a short while before holding your hand in his. “Will you write a sappy—the sappiest love story with me in this shabby old video rental store and be my girlfriend?” 

You almost laughed out loud but suppressed it with a snicker and nodded. “Yes. I’ll be your girlfriend.” 

You could see Jeong In almost turn from a smile into a crying happy face but then saw it turn into a horror expression. You furrowed your eyebrows. Well, that was three expressions in 10 seconds. 

You were about to joke about it, until you finally heard the reason as to why his expression changed so fast. 

“I am not paying you to flirt with a customer, Mr. Yang Jeong In,” the lady owner’s voice grimly rang from behind you. 

Oh, shit. 

i hope you like it!! i'm sorry if it still sounds a bit meh rn, it's been a long while since i wrote x reader fics like... it's literally been more than 10 years

anw, lmk if you want to be added to the taglist (or visit my pinned messages!)

[swordfright]

Tell me about Mags's story 🤣🤣🤣 LMAO (you said I could XD LOL)

Well well, if it isn't the consequences of my own posting my cringe oc art actions.

Magdalena is c!Quackity's daughter from one of the alternate endings of the Ouroboros universe. In classic c!Quackity fashion, nobody knows who her other bio parent is. Is she Wilbur's kid? Some people say she has his nose. Is she Sapnap's kid? Some folks swear she's got his eyes. The one person who maybe probably knows is Q, and he's not saying shit. He's decided to leave it ambiguous, leave a little mystery to capitalize on years later, perhaps. Besides, he figures Mags doesn't need to know. It's not like her other parent is in the picture, so it's not exactly relevant information. L + ratio + what the kid doesn't know won't hurt her. (And, to be fair, she's never asked.)

Quackity is kind of a shitty parent (as you might expect of someone as emotionally maladjusted as he is), but he does try. Mags grows up wanting for nothing. She's crazy spoiled. If she asks for a dollhouse for her birthday, Q has Foolish build her a life-sized barbie mansion. She and her dad have a pretty complicated relationship, but it's not a bad relationship. As she grows up, she gradually becomes aware that Quackity is not just raising a daughter, he's raising an investment. He tried to leave the country to c!Slime, and that didn't exactly work out, so Q went with the next best option: creating someone who could never leave him, never choose to opt out. Mags is not just a part of his legacy, she's going to be the recipient and defender of that legacy. Las Nevadas will be hers one day, so she'd better be ready. He wants to teach her to be ruthless. He wants to teach her to be strong. He wants to teach her to fight - physically, socially, mentally. In the end, he can't quite bring himself to teach her those things, but he tries his best to give her the tools she'll need to protect herself. She's his kid, after all, so she's going to have enemies.

In other words, Mags grows up carefree and happy - and also under a lot of pressure and incredibly lonely. It's a weird way to grow up, but it's not like she has anything else to compare it to. The only thing her father can't buy her is friends, which is why meeting Sigrid (another kid around her age!) is absolutely world-shattering.

[fireemblems24]

Golden Wildfire Ch 13

I am slowly making my way through these.

STORY

Guys, not going to lie. This backtracking is boring as fuck. But at least Claude keeps taking Ls.

I also can't fathom why you wouldn't just send some of your army. Like why all of them? Claude is an idiot for this.

But we all knew he was after his oh so potent counter argument vs Sylvain lamo.

Yeah, it's the same TWSITD stuff Edelgard backtracked for. How dull.

Haha, Shez can say she thinks it's the Knights of Serios and Claude's like "they're not that low." So then why are you so desperate to murder all of them?

They're nicer to Shez than the Black Eagles were though, where he practically got treated like a guilty enemy and threatened and interrogated. Still think AG is by far the best route for Shez, but I'm not biased at all lamo.

MAP/SIDE BATTLES

I don't think Linhardt wants to be here lol.

I liked Holst better when he was a meme mystery character. What they did with him is so dreadfully dull.

It's pretty rich to hear them judge people for attacking villages when they just did the exact same thing.

Cool to see Lysithea's past be relevant again.

This is the exact same thing as SB. I swear Claude always just gets railroaded into someone else's plot.

At least Claude realizes this happened because of the war instead of dodo bird Edelgard who thinks TWSITD doesn't want the Empire to unify everyone (which, they do so . . .)

SHEZ & HOLST A

Holst goofed up. Shez lecture him. They split up and head back.

Holst falls asleep waiting for Shez to get back.

Nothing interesting happens.

MARIANNE & LEONIE B

Leonie failed to catch something and runs into Marianne heading into the stables.

Guys, Leonie also eats the weeds.

They talk about a flower they both like that Leonie also picked just because she liked it. Marianne gets poetic about it.

Leonie gives it to Marianne, who wants to share it with everyone.

Leonie doesn't take Marianne literally when she claims the birds told her something.

LEONIE & HILDA B

Leonie tried perfume and Hilda's happy. It's one Hilda made herself.

If I hear "Eau de Leonie" one more time, I'll have heard it twice more than I want too.

Leonie rejects it. It's not for her. Hilda's not offended. Hilda just wanted Leonie to have something special.

Leonie compromises and says she'll just wear it on special occasions.

Hilda wants them to wear different scents that smell better when mixed together. They both talk about how weird that sounds, but Leonie's still game to try because she's a trooper.

HILDA & MARIANNE A

Really weird to see a support talk about how religious Marianne is in GW. Where she doesn't blink twice at the idea that Rhea is all that's wrong in the world and must die.

Marianne asks why Hilda's always so nice and brings up the first support. Which mentions Judith so ... awkward. My bad playing skills strike lamo.

Hilda thinks having Marianne around makes her life easier andis just "the best." Marihilda fans eating good.

Marianne always emotionally supports Hilda without even knowing it and makes Hilda feel warm inside.

It's a pretty sweet support all things told.

FINAL BATTLE

Okaaay, so this starts with them wanting to go see an opera. That's . . . . not how I thought this would start. Well, they're fighting the bandits. And their fans are playing soldier to fight bandits.

Is this . . . really what the main battle is about this chapter? Golden Wildfire really doesn't have anything to do, does it?

I spent hours fighting side battles and preparing units to basically have Dorothea's and Manuela's paralogue joke story end up the main battle. Wow.

They were really like, oh shit, GW has one less chapter. Oh, I know, let's have them fight bandits to protect opera singers and their delulu fans. Like, why.

Well, at the end it has some semblance of relevance by having TWSITD show up. But yeah . . .

No one got any answers (Shez and Lysithea, specifically)

Now Arval and Shez are in that weird space dimension.

Edelgard is requesting reinforcements at the school. Rhea might be there.

xxx

[literalite]

literally just me talking about edit stuff because im in a mood

these r what i would call like my base level of ingame edits (i dont reallyyyyyy count my cas screenshots as edits unless i spend an actual amount of time actually working on them rather than my usual blur+chromatic aberration+sharpen combo) theres usually very little? or like no actual basis in the characters "canon" or lore like its just done to make them look nice. right. or like its fun lighting practise for me really. theyre usually pretty simple in execution like in the two examples there its just plain yellow background for sunny and the neon cross for vin so i have to put a little extra oomf into it because the backgrounds are like not super detailed so theres less of an "interest" factor from that so the sims themselves have to look REALLY good to make up for it. the ones i end up happy with though usually look really dynamic so it balances out

so these are more sort of abstract edits to me bc they have a basis in the oc lore or themes or whatever and most of my ocs have at least one or two visual markers (in the examples lucari or even just ari specifically gets a fair amount of celestial/sky imagery, i handled the colours here a bit sloppily but its meant to be blue and purple which are ari and luca's text colours, heiya's emphasis being on her muscles and scars and the clouded solar eclipse, redacted gets a lot of water/reflective surfaces/birds/rainbow flares?? and also lightning but that isnt being used in this specific one and sunny gets a fair amount of fire/smoke stuff as well as emphasis on primary colours like his more blue toned edits r usually in his darker stages of his life while warmer yellows means more positive stuff, red usually is just for uhhh violence oriented stuff) and like none of these are Actually happening. right. redacted isnt actually ever in that position with that era of hair in the water with the birds and sunny was set on fire at 13 not as an adult and they certainly never had a portrait of his family like that. but its symbolic, it means Something even if you as the viewer doesnt know it yet 😅 or ever aha

OKAY LOL I PRESSED POST BY ACCIDENT LOL but these are my full lore edits or something likr theyre totally rooted in the background of the ocs. like these are scenes from their lives for real. obviously i fiddle with lighting angle composition a tinyyyy bit to make for a more pleasing or dynamic image at the end but if my ocs all got dedicated like. movies or shows these would be ripped straight from the scene. i take creative liberties with some stuff but in essence these could be story posts (like the 3rd example with idris/redacted is literally in the story itself in one of the posts) the difference is usually amount of images in the post and orientation of said image/s. to me an edit stops being an edit when it has more than likeeeeee 4 images and then i will usually keep that bulk all in landscape or maybe one as portrait for emphasis. edits will be 4 or less and mostly in portrait because i want the less images to take up more room on the dash. the backgrounds for these will usually be way more complex like ill build a mini set or use existing sets for each one. i just think that ingame edits have a lot more capability than you might think (u dont have to go into blender for every little thing promise 🙌🏼) its just like. u can do a lot with this game i swearrrrrr just treat it like an art medium. im serious

ALSO the song almost always is sooo relevant to the edit i swear its not enough to sound good. i have to be unwell about it as well and it has to make sense with what im showing u

ok thats my random unrequested ted talk for the day im going to go home now bye thank u for reading if u did that 😁

[idsfantasy]

hi, i've watched your channel on youtube a bit and accidentally found your tumblr scrolling through tags, neat lol. Anyway, I'm invested in the series but I don't think I'm invested enough to read the books, (this is leading into a question, I swear.) I just tend to take the word of people who have read them because idk if I'll ever read them for myself. I assume you've read them though, so I'm curious about something I keep seeing people refer to the mimic as "mimic 1 program" and mentioning there's more than one mimic. Is that true? With this series you never know which details might be shifted to fit a narrative, misinterpreted, or just misinformation. Is there multiple mimics, or just the one I've heard of most people think is the same mimic as the one in the games? The mimic who copied David and got completely beaten by the dad after his son died, etc. I know that part of the lore, that he started copying those violent behaviors, they tried to reprogram him to dismantle bots, etc. I'm just confused if there's another mimic we just haven't seen before, if the tigre rock storyteller thing is the same mimic or a mimic 2? 'Cause I feel like I've seen people mention mimic 1 and mimic 2 before. If there's any chance you can clear up confusion on this, thanks. I feel like I know the majority of the lore surrounding mimic from what I've heard, but this part of it confuses me.

So, technically there is one (1) actual Mimic robot still around as far as we know. There were Mimic lines made back in the day, but they were deactivated after the og started acting up. Either way there's only really one relevant Mimic robot.

The Mimic1 program is used all over the place for arcade games, AR games, VR games, as well as for running the Pizzaplex's story/character AI for a bit. The program is used in a lot of places, but it's still called the Mimic1 program.

[cooltrainererika]

Just watched the Hetalia musical!

It was fun, though I had no idea what was going on sometimes lol. It didn’t take itself completely seriously, and was good goofy fun.

If I had any complaints it would be the aforementioned at times confusing story. Or maybe that’s just because I couldn’t hear what everyone was singing half the time. The main story was about Japan being chosen to host an international festival, and trying to find what’s so unique about himself. And this somehow results in him falling back in time. There was this whole “Open the country, stop having it be closed” mini-arc that I didn’t know how it connected to the whole thing about Japan finding his uniqueness. They could have made it relevant; like maybe Japan has realized how unique he is and goes too far in the other direction, deciding that to preserve his culture he’s going to remain closed, and he has to learn that he needs his friends too, but from what I could gather that wasn’t what they were going for. Or maybe it was? Idk really.

Also man they flanderized Ame badly. He was a brute in this! Like he didn’t even care when Japan disappeared, WTF America??? That’s one of your best friends like??? Also Past!America was trying to prevent the Axis Stooges from returning to the present because… Reasons? Seriously Ame why are you such a jerk here?! Also I swear China was way more hyper in the opening scene than I’d ever expect him to be (Like there was a gag at the beginning where he and Italy were like “Uneasiness? Like the uneasiness of wanting to go to the bathroom oh no we forgot!” and run around goofily). Though that didn’t last long, and he appeared to act slightly like his old salty self, at least in the past, at least what I know of his old personality, after the fact. And Ned was way more cheerful, though that’s not a complaint. Also I kind of wish the JP fandom didn’t push the whole Axis thing still. …And they mistook tomatoes as being North American lmao. Those come from South America, writers!

As mentioned, the story was about Japan finding himself basically. It really was a story made for Japanese audiences and to pull at Japanese heartstrings lol. Also, the actors were really cute. Especially Japan and China. Man Japan was so smol. Though Ame and China’s voices were really jarring to me because wow they were low. Like I’m expecting them to be these tenors and then bam, I hear these goddamn baritone voices come out of their mouths. It’s not bad, just jarring and hard to get used to. Italy and Spain and England’s actors were clearly trying their best to match the anime though. And I remember saying Ame’s singing was… Eh in another Hetamyu clip I saw, but everyone was great here!

Also man the Netherlands fans were eating good tonight! On the other hand, as soon as the characters started talking about how “The world is uneasy recently” in the opening scene I immediately noticed the giant Russia-shaped hole in the cast. His lack of presence was pretty noticeable. Is it because of current events…?

I found it kind of funny that Past!China was like “You don’t have to copy me to the letter you know?” (and at one point quips something like “What is there to copy about me?”) because of how I write Imperial China and how Imperial China was in history, and I’m pretty sure it was the opposite in canon too lol. This was in response to how Japan basically goes the opposite direction of nationalism and is like “Being unique is too hard, imma copy China for the rest of my life”, which was also funny also because of how I write him (then again so was the entire central story of how he doesn’t know who he is and what’s so unique about himself).

But yeah it was a great time. Btw the climax involved past!China appearing out of nowhere and having an epic ping-pong battle with Japan. On Mt. Fuji. And Japan and the rest of the Axis trio are there because supposedly volcanic eruptions release enough energy to create wormholes. Because screw you it’s that type of show. I’m not complaining, that was awesome.

[bestangelofall]

who is Luv?

HER!!!!!!! (My favorite character ever. The specialest girl. My poor little meow meow who did nothing wrong ever. Doomed from the beginning. Not given many choices (or at all). Attack dog coded. Lucifer coded (but with a sad twist 😭). SO TRAGIC. Made the wrong choices when she could make choices (but could she ever, really, make choices?))

She's the "main villain" of the movie Blade Runner 2049:

But she's also a main character in the comic/graphic novel Blade Runner 2039, from where I got the panel above.

(the rest goes below the cut because it's a lot lol. I can ramble about this character a lot.)

I won't get too much into what her development or arc is in case you haven't watched the movie (it's a masterpiece, go watch it!!!! You don't even have to watch the first one, honestly (but I also recommend it if you like sci-fi)). WHAT I will tell you, though, is that she's a complicated, complex character, she's also *extremely* tragic. I am probably biased in thinking that she's the most tragic Blade Runner character (that's every character in a BR media ever but I digress), but oh well...

In more spoilerish details:

She's a replicants, a being without free will (but it's debatable just how much free will she has) who acts as the enforcer of the guy who fabricates the replicants.

She died for the cause of her creator without ever knowing that she was, in fact, alive.

So many of the themes that I love in fiction are relevant to her character, such as creator and creation conflict, what it means to be human, what it means to be real, free will, the themes that are typical of cyberpunk, among others.

She did some bad things... well, personally, I think there's only one real crime she committed out of her own free will (and even then, it's a complex subject lol), but she did some other things that we aren't sure what her agency in the whole thing was, so...

And don't get me wrong, I love the ambiguity of her character A LOT. It was what first made me get super interested in her in the first place (I am obsessed with the movie as a whole, it's just that I love her even more). Especially if you consider only what's in the movie, she can be given some different levels of agency that change how you see her choices. The script of the movie is a little bit less ambiguous (and makes her a little bit more villainous hehe).

And then you have the comics, specifically Blade Runner 2039, which tells a bit of her backstory and helps us understand what makes her the character we see in 2049. Personally, while I like the story of the comics, I also think they left a lot of potential unexplored regarding her character. Honestly, though I never expected to get more Luv material after 2049, so I am super happy with what I was given.

I love her bits of backstory in the comics. It honestly humanizes her more (which is also very interesting from a world building perspective) and yet at the same time, it makes me wonder "well, why did she get colder and more ruthless in the movie?" Those are questions that I may never get the answer to 😭

Anyway. Luv is a character from the movie Blade Runner 2049 and from the Comic/graphic novel Blade Runner 2039. And I love her :) I swear I am completely normal about her.

[randomnameless]

What are the odds of, 20 years from now, IS releasing a 3 Houses remake but with:

most of the “uwu” moments removed

Edelgard being constantly and explicitly portrayed as a villain with characters calling her out on her actions

Massively reduced recruitment options

deeper worldbuilding for Almyra and Adrestia

Claude explicitly adressing that Almyra's just as much at fault for it's bad relations with Fodlan as the other way around and swearing to work to get them to stop pillaging and taking child slaves

TWISTD not being so story-breakingly OP

CF not existing at all, or at least being rewritten from the ground up and being fully finished instead of a glorified reskin of another route

Dimitri's friends, especially Dedue, supporting him and being important for his character development instead of just Byleth

Byleth being fully-voiced and having a very clearly-defined personality and beliefs, being an Avatar only in the fact that the player can choose a different name for them but otherwise being a normal FE protagonist

Rhea's S-support being erased from existence, along with her getting new supports with her family and friends and more plot relevance post-timeskip

Sothis' S-support also being erased, especially if CF still exists, and having her be rewritten so that she only gets her memory back right before fusing with Byleth, apologizing to her children for leaving them alone again but refusing to let Byleth die, staying unambiguously dead for the rest of the game

I highly doubt any of this will ever happen, mind, but if it did, 3H might just jump multiple spots into being one of the best FE games lol

Oh, anon :(

I'm afraid this will never happen lol

FE16's main appeal is the uwu factor, you have to feel bad for Supreme Leader who is sekritly the red emperor, even if she does red emperor things.

That's the basis on which FE16 was built, a lot of parasocial pandering towards Supreme Leader, which will make the player feel "sad uwus" when they will have to fight her, always wondering if they couldn't have picked her route instead.

(I say "sad uwus" and not "feel bad", because Fates made the player feel bad, by having characters react to Corn's choice, and Corn, in turn, reaction to all the salt and shit thrown at their face, as the result of their actions).

And while we could think FE16 is also a story meant to challenge the players, and have them realise they're interacting with biased narrators so it's up to them to find the truth and make their own opinion about the world - imo this reading, while a thousand times more interesting than "uwu be sad uwu" is, imo, not the one the devs prioritized, hence the constant supply of Hresvelg Grey.

As I ultimately came to realise (when nopes was released lol), no Fodlan game can circle around and ignore the uwu factor. Uwuing about Earl Grey and always being a carpet to some lord characters is part of Fodlan's DNA - the faves will always take precedence over the world/lore's coherence.

Clout wonders about Fodlan's isolationism and if it has any relationship with Seiros's tenets? No one, not even Hilda, will tell him that Fodlan might not like its neighbours because said neighbours are always trying to invade them (as she could speak for Almyra). Leonie and Claude wonder if they will get some sort of retribution for saying out loudly they don't believe everything good in the world comes from Sothis... when the Alliance is later revealed to be a place where no one really gives a fuck about religion, and when no line, on-screen, has been thrown around that could justify their doubt and worries (not even a random NPC dissing people for being students in the officer's academy even if they are not particularly religious).

Supreme Leader is another can of tea lol, but you get the meaning.

This is also why, I believe, we will never get WoH meaningful content (and not Epi wanting to use the power of friendship to help his genociding fwends!) because we can't uwu about it -

Much like every story centered on the Lions (even if AM got the Parley scene...), a plot hax has to happen to make you forget everything about the red emperor emperoring because now she's a puppet and nothing has ever been her fault and what is even agency and accountability ?

So we got the general "good old academy days" that Engage tried to push, and the recent Heroes alts -to avoid talking about post TS Fodlan, because IS doesn't want to talk about post TS Fodlan.

I mean, if you're not in FE16 with the various "Rhea maybe BaD bcs Nader raids Fodlan every monday to show everyone how large his penis is" and unable to meaningfuly interact with that world, all the "Crust System + IdEaLs" nonsense just sound like Ashnard's battle convo, and while Almedha still seems to be fond of him, she's the only one on Tellius who still has positive feelings about Ashnard as a person.

Tl:Dr : Fodlan's DNA is "Supreme Leader uwu" + "Rhea BaD" + "don't ever question the characters and nod when they say something ridiculous".

If you remove even one of those core principles, FE16 crumbles, so at that point, it wouldn't be a remake that would be released, anon, but an entire AU to the game.

[i-did-not-mean-to]

20 Questions for Fic Writers

Ah, my dear @cilil has tagged me, and I'll try to do at least one Tumblr thing today. I had hoped that I'd have more time this weekend!!! This week was madness...I swear!

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

391 (and yes, I am one of those who put between 7 and 133 different ficlets into one work to keep the number of individual works down).

2. What’s your total AO3 word count?

1,800,713 (this does not include 2 longfics I've orphaned and several fics I've posted anonymously)

(but I've been writing since July 2021)

3. What fandoms do you write for?

Tolkien, roles played by Richard Armitage, roles played by Adam Brown, the odd Dean O'Gorman fic for @laurfilijames, 1 Lucifer fic...)

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

Tumblr Imagines (it's a collection of ficlets from when I started and has over 200k)

October 2022 Ficlet run (Yeah, as I said, I don't post all my fics separately)

Black (Local folkore meets The Hobbit retelling

Silm imagines and ficlets (Again, a 50k+ collection)

"The only way is up" or "thrice stuck" (Smutty dream sequence with Thorin)

These are mostly my first writings which had had time to amass some few kudos :D

5. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

Always!

It takes me a while sometimes, but I need people to know how much I love and appreciate their support! I love every comment, and I truly wish I was a little better at expressing myself when it comes to these things <3

6. What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

I honestly do not remember...Probably, Love letter to the man you've never got to be.

I usually don't do much angst 😇

7. What’s the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

Very hard to say because I don't finish too many of my long fics lol. I'd want to say Sticks and stones (Christmas Hallmark story)...it's just that kind of story.

My TRSBs are usually "Happy End given the circumstances" rather than all-out Happy End...lol

8. Do you get hate on fics?

Thus far, no.

I am not relevant or known enough to attract that kind of attention!

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

Me? No...(There have been spicy scenes in long fics, spicy fics, outrageous ficlets, Kinktober, Dead Dove December, MSV...Ok yeah, I do...and I do all of it. M/F, F/F, M/M, M/F/M...from vanilla to whips. You choose, I write)

10. Do you write crossovers? What’s the craziest one you’ve written?

I am an AU bitch. I've done a HP drabble once...Les Mis/LOTR for last year's Christmas event...it happens...

Right now? Twilight Crack parody for a good friend :D

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

I don't think so? Who would steal trash?

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

Nobody has ever approached me...

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

Yes...Once for last year's S&D, I am doing it now for the Calendar fic...I love collaboration, what can I say?

14. What’s your all time favourite ship?

Ship-ship? Russingon.

OC ship? Ori x OC

Rarepair? Nerdanel x Anairë

15. What’s a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

Black - It's one of my first fics...and I've never written that last chapter.

I am also known for having written chapters and chapters of other longfics but just...never posting them lol

16. What are your writing strengths?

I am fast, I am versatile, and I am willing to write almost any character, dynamic, ship, and genre. From tooth-rotting fluff to noncon. From very vanilla M/F meet-cute to kinky sex.

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

I am bad at punctuation. I rarely have an outline, I just write. I do not plan, I do not come up with complicated worldbuilding, I have exactly 0 HC documents.

I just write whatever comes to mind.

Moreover, I have a real problem with posting. I write A LOT more than I post...because I just can't motivate myself to reread LOL

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic?

I avoid even Tolkien's languages for fear of getting something wrong. I am fluent in at least 3 other languages, but I am not entirely sure whether there would ever be a place for them.

If I did that, I am afraid that it would become incomprehensible as the only one I wouldn't use is my mother tongue. It would sound a bit...magniloquent...

19. First fandom you wrote for?

Tolkien. Only fandom thus far...

20. Favourite fic you’ve written?

I don't know. Every so often, I write something I don't hate, but I can't remember right now loool

Open tag for everyone who hasn't done this yet :D

Tell me something about yourselves!

[galacticlamps]

I'm going to uno reverse card you and say: for the fic guessing game, 'light'?

lol that's fair

apparently I talk about light a lot (go figure) so have this one that happens to be in the middle of its story's 'Oh' moment:

But perhaps, somewhere along the line, Jamie had slipped, and now . . . well now, standing on the balcony of a palace on another planet, with the Doctor dipping his head nearer just to hide his eyes from the light - nearer, and not farther, which would've been just as easy - no, now he had to admit something was different. When it had changed or whether it hadn't at all and he'd simply been too fool to realize it before he couldn't say, and it didn't matter anyway - he knew it now, and that scared him.

-

And just for kicks, under the cut I'm gonna put a longer excerpt from a totally different fic that came up while I was ctrl+f-ing 'light' in my wips - mainly because it happens to be part of a scene from a longish 'the Doctor & Jamie reunite with Zoe in 6b' story which is nowhere near completion, but feels relevant given the boxset Big Finish released last week (not that I've gotten a chance to listen to it yet, but still).

Zoe sat across from Jamie, her elbows on the table, her chin resting atop her hands - but she wasn't relaxed. She stared at him intently, and actually narrowed her eyes as he watched.

"What?" he asked, already defensive, and following through on an old self-conscious instinct, wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. With no mirror in sight, he looked to the Doctor to check if he'd somehow gotten something on his face already, but he looked just as baffled. Zoe hadn't broken her concentration yet.

"I'm trying to figure out if I'm older than you," she announced, still deep in thought.

"Ah--" the Doctor began, grinning wickedly, but whether he was going to answer her or merely tease they never found out, because Jamie shot an arm out lightning quick, as if to hold him back.

"No' so fast, you. Let the girl work it out."

He finished chewing and settled himself squarely in front of her for inspection. She continued to stare. "Y'know, I'm surprised you're having such trouble telling," he taunted. "After all, how old are you now?"

She opened her mouth at first to protest that she was under no obligation to announce her own age while he continued to keep his secret, but she still thought she might figure it out - and if she couldn't, she at least had the Doctor to rely on to make Jamie tell the truth.

So she shrugged. "I'm 41. But everyone here thinks I'm 39. I was born 39 years ago, of course, but counting chronologically from the time I left the Wheel with you in the Tardis, I aged two years before the Time Lords returned me to my own time. That was twenty-one years ago, now," she added, unable to judge if the faint waver of wistfulness in her voice was truly audible, or if it was just her own imagination. Thankfully, neither of them pressed her on it.

"Well, y'see, Zoe," Jamie began slowly, still chewing his last mouthful after she finished her explanation and sat waiting calmly for his reply. The Doctor leaned forward too, seemingly intrigued, though it must only have been to see what answer Jamie would try. "I was born in 1724," he paused and washed down his food with a swig from his glass, and for a moment Zoe had the grace to assume he was just working through his calculations, as she had done. "So I'm pretty sure I'm older than you," he finished, setting the glass back down on the table triumphantly.

All at once she felt a young girl again, a devilish light in her eyes. She wanted to jump across the table and tackle him - but that wasn't what Madam Presidents did. "Why, you--"

"They don't traditionally swear at their guests either, Ms. Heriot."

She turned on the Doctor, shocked. "You read my mind," she began, more impressed than accusatory, but he did at least have the decency to look sheepish.

He coughed politely. "Only to, ah, verify your math. And I'm sure you could feel my presence there, if you think about it."

"I could but I didn't know that's what it was. You've gotten so much better at it."

"Had to," he said simply, and shrugged, his eyes downcast.

Well, there was more to that, clearly, she thought, filing his deliberately nonchalant expression away for closer inspection later - but for now she was not about to be deterred. She snapped her eyes and her attention both back to Jamie.

"Still, we both know the Doctor obviously continues to value honesty and accuracy, so surely he'll tell me how old you are, even if you won't."

"Not if I ask him not to - right, Doctor?"

"Well . . . " he began, noncommittally drawing the word out so long that Zoe actually had time to wonder what his plan was for once he ran out of vowel. Jamie looked so genuinely horrified it was downright comical, and she had to force herself not to laugh at the absurdity of it all.

"We're married, Doctor," he reminded him, indignant.

"Oh, but it's Zoe," he complained, sounding every bit the petulant child she remembered he could be, all those years ago. "And as far as I can remember, none of the ceremonies we ever partook in had anything in the vows about obeying. Although I might be wrong . . ." he added under his breath, scratching his head.

"Charming," Jamie grumbled.

"Well, when we've had as many weddings as we have it can be quite a lot to keep straight in your head. You know, I sometimes wonder if we might qualify for some kind of an all-time record. If we hadn't the need to be covert about so many of them, of course."

"Stop that!" she snapped, and the Doctor turned back to her, the picture of confused innocence.

"Stop what?"

"You're trying to help him without helping him, just by distracting me. Naturally, I want to hear everything about all these weddings of yours, and I will see to it that you'll be having another one while you're here, like it or not--"

"Yes ma'am," Jamie quipped, mock-serious.

"--But first, I am going to find out how old you are, James Robert McCrimmon, and if you force me to use your husband to do it, then that decision is on you."

Jamie mopped his face with his napkin and came out of it smiling. He stretched and dropped an arm around the Doctor's shoulders, perfectly relaxed. Already, Zoe felt her heart sink, but she was careful to keep her composure.

"I'm only pullin' your leg. I'm 44."

"What, really? And you expect me to just believe that?" She raised an eyebrow in challenge but then glanced at the Doctor to confirm, and when he nodded she allowed her facade to crumble, rolling her eyes. Of course she had known when she'd first laid eyes on them that they'd be cutting it close, but Jamie still had quite a bit of that boyishness about him that had made it frustrating enough being his junior the first time around, and she really thought she might genuinely have enjoyed being just a hair older than him, for a change. After all, if you had to be ripped apart from your family and sent to separate timezones to live out your lives forever wishing for an improbable reunion, it might as well be good for something. But Jamie was far too smug looking now to be pretending, and Zoe knew it. "Oh, some people have all the luck," she groaned, dropping her arms and collapsing back dejectedly against her seat.

"Aye," Jamie said, leaning in over the table to follow her, "and some people live 22 years on Earth before they meet a time traveler, then spend 5 years with him before his people erase their memory and send them home to live another 5 before he's allowed to come pick them up again, and then force the pair of 'em to've spent 12 years so far working for them. Some people, eh?" he finished hotly, swiping his glass off the table again and raising it to his mouth in one fluid motion to take a long drink. But even so, his face was not so totally obscured from view that Zoe couldn't make out the amused curl at the corner of his lips, and when she caught his gaze again the glimmer in his eye was all fondness, just as it was with Doctor's and, she knew, her own.

Yes, no matter the circumstances, it was certainly good to see them again.

[aimfor-theheart]

i do think sukuna × gojo was foreshadowed since the 'i'd win' talk with yuuji, but it was só poorly executed :/ gojo didn't even weaken him, sukuna didn't use his true forma against the strongest and is now using against kashimo ffs. its hard not to be disappointed

anon i think i am going to respectfully disagree. i don’t think foreshadowing is a very blunt and frank conversation about if gojo or sukuna would win in a fight, especially if gojo’s answer is “i’d win.” especially because following that, there’s no mention or imagery of it?

(and honestly maybe i’m misremembering! maybe there is way more parallels to gojo and sukuna than what i recall.)

i guess if gojo and sukuna were constantly seen together, likened, or beside one another. if the story followed either of their arcs/either of their arcs followed a similar path or connections could be drawn, i’d consider it more foreshadowing for sure.

(and like i said, maybe i just don’t remember! if you have other moments, id love to hear them! i haven’t read jjk’s earlier stuff in a very long time!!)

i think you can defs argue it is! i think i just personally disagree, which is a-okay!

i guess i think foreshadowing is more subtle. or not even ab subtlety always? i think it’s not usually hitting the nail on the head (i.e. talking about a fight that is likely to occur in the future anyways/a relevant topic of discussion). it’s usually foreshadowed in like…more creative ways? imagery, metaphors, historical events, etc.

i’d consider megumi and gojo’s conversation about their clans in the past foreshadowing. i’d also consider sukuna’s mysterious interest in megumi foreshadowing.

i’d consider maki and mei’s dynamic/flashback foreshadowing for how they end up.

i’d also say maki not having any cursed energy and swearing to prove the zenin’s wrong is foreshowing.

i’d consider nanami almost dying at the hands of mahito in the beginning of the series foreshadowing.

i THOUGHT nobara’s fight with mahito where we learn her technique touches the soul, would be foreshadowing for aiding yuuji with sukuna.

i also feel like i remember seeing a post about nobara’s eye being foreshadowed through imagery/the way she’s drawn/etc.

but regardless, i agree, it’s handled extremely poorly!!! it’s honestly just disrespectful atp lol. to have gojo in the prison realm for so long, bring him out, and kill him as if he hasn’t been named the strongest the entire series lol. and if that wasn’t….the whole point w his character-? it’s just silly. disappointing.

[monstersinthecosmos]

do you have any tips on editing longer fic? Your writing always flows so well and is so well put together. How do you work out what stays/goes/gets expanded without getting overwhelmed?

!! that's such a nice thing to say, thank you!

(this is going to be long LOL - TLDR break everything you do into tiny unthreatening tasks)

Writing is weird bc like, everyone works differently and my process is tailor-made to my own needs and might not work for you but I'm happy to share how I do it!!!!!!!

First of all, my writing process is like cultivated from misc writing advice combined with misc ADHD adulting advice. The foundation of my writing advice comes from Stephen King's book On Writing which I just super recommend even if you're not a fan of his because he really talks about the necessity of treating writing like a commitment of time, and how to create discipline around making time to write. I don't think getting snobby about prose and making rules about like what to do and what not to do with your actual words is helpful at all, but treating writing like something I have to make time for and approaching it with task orientation in mind is the only way I get anything done. 😂

So for editing, and for writing too, my ADHD approach is that I always need to look at a project in terms of small manageable goals. This is like some brain trickery stuff when it comes to your reward system and ability to stay motivated. Some people are better at this than others and some people are ADHD messes like myself. 😂 So for me I know that I have to approach any project as a series of small tasks or else I get overwhelmed and lose the motivation. This is as true for writing as it is about cleaning my house, it's the same principle. (I really also suggest @unfuckyourhabitat for all these same ideas when it comes to housekeeping LOL. My writing routine is a combination of Stephen King & UFYH.)

So, having said that:

The way my brain works (and a lot of people's brains, maybe yours too!) is that if you try to do something and fail, you lose motivation to try again. In terms of house cleaning, if you say "I will clean my entire house today" and you don't finish, you feel bad that you fucked up. But if you set a small manageable goal like "I will clean my kitchen today" and reach it, you can then continue "I will clean my bathroom now!" and work you way down the list. Writing is the same for me. I create loose outlines for myself and think "I can just write this one scene for now" and then I don't get bogged down by the huge task ahead of me.

For editing, it can be: "I can edit the first 500 words today". It really depends what feels most comfortable for you, but don't think about the entire story as a marathon you have to get through. Even if it's "I will edit for a half hour and then take a break." Break it into pieces.

It took me a long time to get in the habit of writing outlines (this is relevant to editing too, I swear) because I felt very constrained by them, so it took some practice to figure out how to write ones that worked for me. I need enough guidance to feel like I've broken the story into small pieces, but with enough space that if I change my mind about something I have the freedom to rearrange. And to your question about what stays and goes, a lot of this work gets done in the outline. Sometimes if I come up with ideas or the story becomes more clear once I'm writing it and if I think of something I want to add, I can like put it in my outline notes to make sure to weave it in later, and if it's something I have to go back to add to/remove a part I wrote already, I make a note in my editing notes to do it later so I don't forget. (As an example, I'm writing a hurt/comfort fic right now with some caretaking stuff and in the moment I'm like "I want to make sure she comes off extra pathetic and helpless" so I made a note for myself when I edit to make sure I emphasize that she's limping.)

I know you asked about editing but for me it's all the same process LOL so I'm talking about writing a little bit, too. One of Stephen King's methods that I adopted (which is also the NaNo model) is to just GET THE FIRST DRAFT DONE. King will write a whole manuscript and then he sets it aside for a few months to let his brain reset, and then he rereads it and starts making notes with a clear mind. I don't do that, I usually edit immediately when I finish something LOL but I do try to finish the first draft completely before I start editing. This took a ton of practice because I used to always tinker with the earlier part of the story instead of writing MORE and as a result I never used to finish anything 😂 but I worked really hard to break that habit. But outlining and writing copious notes in my outline actually helps the editing process a lot for me. I tend to write very slow but in the end when it's time to edit I've gotten a lot of it out the way I want it the first time.

Another method thing I want to mention regarding outlines & notes, the way I write (for ADHD purposes LOL) is I always keep my outline at the bottom of the body of text, just at the bottom of the screen.

(I write with Scrivener which is a whole other thing but I'm on my work PC so accept a Word screenshot. SCRIVENER IS GREAT FOR ALL OF THIS BTW, ASK ME AGAIN LATER.)

So basically at all times, I can glance to the bottom of the page and remember what's the next point I'm supposed to be getting to. I try to break these into the smallest points possible for the sake of small manageable goals. For example, breaking it into those small points instead of "Basement scene" lmao. Like I'm talking, really small. Joke small. Treat yourself like a toddler.

And then beneath the outline I'll have editing notes like

Make sure you mentioned x y z enough times

Check if whatever scene is too repetitive bc you wound up saying it again later

That way if I think of something I can just park it in those notes as a reminder to look for later, without getting distracted from moving the story forward and continuing to add to it.

But I'd say in general like writing an outline and having notes & guidelines for myself really cuts down on any heavy restructuring when I'm editing. I don't edit huge things unless I really change my mind about something. And that does happen! But idk it feels fun I think. I don't get discouraged because I get excited that it's going to make the story better.

ANYWAY I APOLOGIZE I SAID ALL THAT STUFF ABOUT WRITING & EDITING BUT my actual process that works for me when I am ready to edit:

Full screen (this is great with Scrivener bc it's actually full screen)

Change the font/font size; your eyeballs are going to be really used to looking at your page and we all experience that brain thing of missing small typos because they blend in. Changing the font just causes us to look a little harder.

Both of these are visual methods which work for me because I'm a visual writer; if you are visually impaired the screen reader is awesome for listening for typos. If you're paranoid about typos I would listen to the screen reader read the story back to you, too, it always catches more stuff for me.

If you're full screened and can't see your notes, open notes on your phone or even write some by hand. The phone can be hit or miss if you need to not distract yourself, but it doesn't distract me when I'm editing to have my notes app open on my phone. This helps for the reminders I make myself but also as I'm reading I can ask questions like "Did I answer this question later?" and that helps to remind me to come back to it.

Sometimes I read out loud because it can help hear weird cadence stuff but with long fics my throat hurts by the end so I don't always do this. =P

If there's a specific thing you're self conscious about, make an extra run through for just THAT THING so that you can focus on it and not be worrying about anything else. I suggest this for people who are worried about errant limbs during sex scenes, for example LOL. Like reread the sex part by itself without looking for any other mistakes to look for continuity on all the positions and where everyone's hands are, etc.

I always run it through Google Docs spell check too before I post it because it's got a really good spell/grammar check. I break grammar rules all the time but it's pretty smart at noticing when something is actually a mistake.

I sometimes run it through Hemingway Editor but I don't take all of its advice. If you've never used it it's a tool that highlights how often you're using adverbs, passive phrasing, or over-complex sentences. This is going to go back to what I said before about how I treat writing advice as a discipline and it's not really about prose, so I don't necessarily buy into these rules about what makes writing bad LOL but I do like to skim over to see if I'm like being too repetitive or if something can be punchier. A lot of times I can write something completely incoherent and not notice because it's my own voice so this kinda checks me on that. It can be helpful but don't let it discourage you because you'll post your story in and it'll tell you you're stupid. 😂

AND THEN WHEN IT'S ON AO3 I READ IT ONE MORE TIME because I'm really self conscious and I feel like on AO3 it's finally *finished* but then I find 100 more typos bc the pressure of it being public gives me hyper awareness.

Okay I mean, this is a lot of steps, but. I think like, for me, the hard part is the writing and I baby myself through it the best I can, and then when I'm editing I'm just trying to read my story and see where I can fix it up a little. I'm not a heavy editor so I don't get too bogged down in the edits.

I'm not sure if this answered your question or if it helps but that's pretty much how it works for me. As far as like what stays & goes etc I really just feel like at all times I'm asking myself like "Why is this important to the story? What does this add to the story? How does this change the character?" etc so I'm constantly rearranging the outline. But I do most of that work in the outline so when I edit it's not really a big problem. Scrivener does have a side-to-side page view (you could also do this with two gdocs or Word windows or whatever you're using but I'm gonna just plug Scriv all the time) so times when I have had to restructure something I'd open them side by side and tinker with it that way so I could see what I was doing. But most of the work I do when I'm editing is checking for typos and like making sure I'm not repeating words too much. It can happen in the moment when I'm writing and in the zone because I'm not paying attention and I don't notice until I reread.

It could be something like "He turned his face and felt the warmth on his face." LOL SO MANY FACES. So you fix it to "He turned his head and felt the warmth on his cheek." That's getting into prose advice again and I don't want to tell anyone how to write, but that's the kind of editing I do. I'm just polishing stuff really.

Also, I personally don't use beta readers for my own fanfics, A LA MATER LOL, but if it helps maybe ask a friend to beta read for you. Then you're not doing the editing anyway. :) I know a lot of fic writers who won't share ANYTHING that hasn't been beta'd and if that removes some of your stress you could try it!

SORRY FOR THE ESSAY i hope you can use something here LOL. Please ask questions any time I love to write and I am here to help!

[aworldforastage]

A second subjective list of favorite danmei's I read in 2022

I Can Do It :: 我行让我来[电竞] 酱子贝

This Prince has Something To Say :: 孤有话说 楚寒衣青

The Legitimate Son’s Dilemmas :: 嫡子为难 石头与水

Woke up and Heard I Was Married :: 一觉醒来听说我结婚了 木瓜黄

After Dawn :: 黎明之后 冰块儿

Heart Eyes :: 心眼 北南

Cherish :: 钟情 静水边

Floating Dreams :: 浮生梦 白芥子

PUBG Online Romance of the Century :: PUBG世纪网恋 酱子贝

I Ship My Adversary X Me :: 我嗑了对家X我的CP PEPA 

Compared to my other list, this list contains some lesser-known titles and titles I read later in the year. They had something about them that made me start reading and not wanting to put them down.

I know it’s March but I swear I started this list back when I could reasonably hope to publish it before Chinese New Year, then Lantern Festival, and um… 

I Can Do It :: 我行让我来[电竞] 酱子贝 – [Esports] I had to look up quite a bit of LOL references for this novel, but it says something about its quality that made me want to do the research! The story follows Jian Rong, a mouthy LOL live-streamer who gets recruited into his idol’s professional team. For me, it combines the comedy of having a snarky troll protagonist with the passionate energy of Esports. The Gong is around five years older than the shou, who turns 18 just before they start a relationship; but the sense of the age gap is quite strong between them. The key source of angst in this novel is the stress of injury and retirement for the more mature players, but the story’s keeps a mostly positive and upbeat focus is Jian Rong’s growth in professional gaming (and his cool, handsome boyfriend). 

This Prince has Something To Say :: 孤有话说 楚寒衣青 - [NOT TRANSLATED] [historical, political, wuxia] – This novel is split down the middle across two genres. The first part is a political intrigue in which the crown prince Xiao Jianshen (gong) tries to consolidate power in a (hilariously) hectic imperial court, while the second part is a wuxia tale in which a sect master Fu Tinghuan (shou) sorts out his old jianghu rivalries. They cross into each other’s worlds for their own objectives, but also fall in love. Fu Tinghuan’s vulnerabilities in love are heart wrenching, especially considering his backstory. Xiao Jianshen reads like he is on the ace spectrum; his love seems a lot more reserved in comparison, but from his POV he is as devoted to Fu Tinghuan as he possibly could be and isn't attracted to anyone else. The novel is also focused on the Gong’s POV, which is typical for this author. 

The Legitimate Son’s Dilemmas :: 嫡子为难 石头与水 – [NOT TRANSLATED] [historical, transmigration, “household drama” aka 宅斗] – Though this story is technically a danmei, only 2% of the text is relevant to romance. It isn’t even a true HE (Maybe OE? It’s HE in the sequel), and it’s realistically cynical in that both the protagonist and love interest marry (and consummates their marriages with) multiple women. Protagonist Feng Mingzhan is in a very awkward position as the sole legitimate “di” Son of the Emperor’s brother, but seemingly born mute so unsuitable to inherit his father’s title. To appease the Emperor, Mingzhan’s father sends him to the capital as a political hostage. This enrages Mingzhan (who is actually a transmigrator) and prompts him to seriously compete to become the heir with his more favored half-brothers. The political maneuvering is fun enough to keep me going, and it’s also an interesting examination in the kind of familial relationships and dynamics that can be formed (and destroyed or rebuilt) under such a social context. But honestly don’t read this for the romance. 

Woke up and Heard I Was Married :: 一觉醒来听说我结婚了 木瓜黄 – [celebrities/actors, system, mystery] – This is a story in which the main characters are celebrity actors, but they are actually solving mysteries, mostly at the direction of a system inside the protagonist that doesn’t do much of anything else. The protagonist is smart but lazy, appears very uninterested in the world around him, but wouldn’t shy away from doing the right thing when it counts. His older love interest is doting and suave, (and light spoiler: also rich enough to buy them out of most problems). Despite its lighthearted tone and premise, the “cases” veers into surprisingly deep and dark themes like homophobia, cyber-bullying, and the human cost of such cruelties. I generally like mysteries and procedural novels, but I never thought I could somehow enjoy them with an entertainment-industry context, which gives such themes a much-needed touch of lightness. 

After Dawn :: 黎明之后 冰块儿 –[celebrities, reconciliation, rival families] – This story looks like it’s trying to max out dog blood tropes that can be fit into one novel: there’s misunderstandings, a returning ex, ‘indecent proposals’, framed for a crime, inter-family rivalry, a sex tape, bastard sons competing for recognition and wealth, (quite a few very steamy scenes,) and so on … but fundamentally it’s two people meeting again after years, and reconciling after several rounds of misunderstandings. It’s very angsty in the process, but rationally you just really just want to grab and shake these two characters because they keep on saying just enough of the wrong things to make their misunderstanding worse. Perfect read for when you want to take your heart on a ride with good old-fashioned melodrama, and perfect demo for how NOT to communicate in a relationship. 

Heart Eyes :: 心眼 北南 –  [NOT TRANSLATED][reconciliation, (eventual) step brothers, hurt/comfort, slice-of-life ] Liang Cheng enters Qiao Yuanlin’s life three times, as a stranger who saves his life during a cardiac event when he was 13, as a mysterious tenant living in his grandmother’s extra room when he was 16, and as his step-mother’s son six years later. However, there is another hidden thread connecting their histories together.  In many ways, this is a coming-of-age story for Qiao Yuanlin, who is born with a serious congenital heart defect that has permeated every aspect of his life. Still, he manages a very realistic blend of good nature, naivete, and bratty-ness as he moves through adolescence and young adulthood, and together with Liang Cheng, learn to confront and move beyond the hard patches in their histories towards something better. It also has the most satisfying hurt-comfort-recovery arc I have ever read thanks to Qiao Yuanlin's heart.

Cherish :: 钟情 静水边 – [NOT TRANSLATED][guides and sentinels, sci-fi, space opera] – In a interstellar society with Sentinels and Guides, a weak Guide who doesn’t even have a familiar accidentally encounters and hits it off with the the most powerful Sentinel in the world, the Emperor, and is then pulled into the schemes in elite politics. I really enjoyed the novel for it’s fast pacing, because it’s not often that I find myself really drawn into a novel halfway into the first chapter. I feel like it leaves much to be desired as a sci-fi because it only very, very superficially address the social and political implications of the setting (and events of the plot).  However, the story is a very fun ride, and is full of funny details like the Emperor’s familiar being a dragon with the “heart of a teenage girl” who would like pink rhinestones on EVERYTHING, thank you very much. 

Floating Dream :: 浮生梦 白芥子 – [NOT TRANSLATED][historical, political intrigue, mpreg, meta] – It’s kind of cheating to put this one here, since this is an AU the author created for her two other stories in a shared universe. The premise is that men can carry children if they take a special potion. In the first story, Crown Prince Zhu Yunjing is framed for a crime, deposed and sentenced to death. He escapes the capital with the father of his unborn child, and builds a life with the man whom he once thought of as a rival and one night stand. In the second story, his younger brother Fifth Prince Zhu Yunxuan becomes the emperor by making a deal with a powerful court official, and their tenuous relationship deteriorates rapidly as he takes the throne as their power dynamics grow more complex. In this AU, the Crown Prince manages to save himself from being deposed; his own situation becomes less desperate, and he is also able to stick around and look out for his little brother, who doesn't need to end up in complicated political bargains. In the net, everyone seems to have it a easier in this version of events, though the Crown Prince’s love interest needing to wait longer for the prince to work out his feelings, and their lively and mischievous son needs to learn to turn down his nature since he is now the crown prince.

PUBG Online Romance of the Century :: PUBG世纪网恋 酱子贝-- [online gaming, live-streaming, past trauma] – Conglomerate CEO Yi Chen accidentally becomes the first viewer of Yu Yan, a new PUBG live-streamer on his platform. As Yu Yan navigates this new career to pull himself up from lackluster living conditions, he takes generous viewer and noob player “Yi” under his wing in the game as a part of his streams, unaware that this is the platform CEO “learning about his business”. Out of the four gaming-themed novels I read from this author, this is by far the least lighthearted and most involved with game play, though thankfully Yi Chen is also a new player that needed noob-friendly “tutorials” from Yu Yan. While the premise sets up a struggling protagonist and a rich love interest, Yu Yan still forges his own path, moves on from his trauma and flourishes on his own terms, while Yi Chen has his own baggage to resolve. The ending is happy but more hopeful, and leaves you feeling like these characters will grow into better and happier people. 

I Ship My Adversary X Me :: 我嗑了对家X我的CP PEPA – [idols and celebrities, humor, fandoms] A hilarious story in which C-list idol actor Wei Yanzi stumbles into the fandom of his ship with his rumored adversary, B-list actor Gu Yiliang. When the shippers are the only ones imagining their idol as a loving and loved little angel, Yanyan decides to join them and actively produce “candies” to feed their content. Gu Yiliang ends up with some very confusing signals from his co-worker but chooses the “generous” approach, and somehow this ends up as an epic loves story. This story is written in a brisk style, first person pov, full of internet and meme references, but if you can handle the style it will be a fast-paced funny read. Things that would hint at major angst in other works ends up being a laugh that gets breezed through. If you ever liked idols, this work will be a blast regardless of you are a solo or CP fan.

[brionysea]

6, 15, 20

6. Are there any fanfics from others you reread all the time?

honestly, this was a lot more applicable when i was super into the umbrella academy in 2019 (when it was still good) (who said that?), but for more current picks:

wither on the shore by Scarlet_Ribbons (batman comics) - the depiction of the perspective character going into shock is so so so incredibly skillfully done and impactful and wouldn't leave my head for DAYS after i first read this fic

Choke On Your Own Ashes by Haicrescendo (avatar: the last airbender)

Left to Rot by Mic_Olivyn (stranger things)

i swear i read some fics that don't (accurately) sound so gloomy lol

15. How do you come up with chapters for your fics/chapters?

my titles tends to be a common word or phrase that fits the situation, like go with grace or fight or flight or dreamcatcher. sometimes i use a central phrase from the fic itself (small measure of freedom) or summarise the overall idea the story is built around (the first law). all real examples!

i try not to do song lyric titles anymore, because they feel very unsatisfying compared to coming up with something myself, but the last time i was struggling to title a fic (which was about sleep deprivation), i went through my relevant blorbo playlist and saw a song titled "ain't no rest for the wicked," and i was like "oh yeah, there is no rest for the wicked!" and then i titled the fic no rest for the wicked. it even fit my common phrases thing!

tldr; i let my subconscious work its magic and/or i look in ordinary/mundane places for inspiration

20. What's a favourite title for a fic you've written?

no good deed. it works on a metatextual level of my constantly thinking "no, really, in stranger things no good deed goes unpunished, especially not at the end of a season. that's the rule. people usually die for pulling heroic acts like this, so why was mike able to burn the tunnels with no apparent consequences? why is me making him face consequences here a novelty? suspicious."

thanks for the ask! - fan fic writers asks