#which kind of fits with what Chuck guesses him to be

[ikkosu]

So you know when you wear shorts in summer in a car with a leather seat that your legs stick to it sometimes? I've actually almost fallen out of car bc of that. And because of this experience, may I request this happening to the reader with any autobot of your choice?

THROUGH the glaze of the windshield, traffic churns at a slow, steady pace. Pistons chuff, creak and groan; beaten down by the glare of the sun, little by little the mottled blurs of car start to file out.

Everytime, you think you're going to wrangle out of this hellhole — a wide gap-like opening, blaring out like the heavens for freedom — you find yourself stuck in another junction, relapsing in the same fucking problem.

Stuck in the same place. Between mesh metal of blistering, practically burning from the sun, hot cars.It also doesn't help how raw to the bone hot the weather is.

Heat is seething through the Aircon. You're practically drenched, and the discomfort of having an already wet shirt matted to your wet spine is exacerbated by the goddamn ire before your eyes.

There's a truck, in front of you.

A very old truck.

And, fast?

Not it's greatest virtue.

A lump of irritation bites its way through your teeth. The backside of the truck sputters with black fumes. You're about to relinquish the title of an honorable citizen, when the radio warbles with a staticky breedle.

"You're getting sweat all over the seats, pipsqueak." Comes his sardonic chuff. The insignia lits up with every sass induced spool of his words.

At that you lift up your thighs, a kind of schlap followed after as a result of very sweaty skin latching on leather.

"Suck it cop-bot," You pat the steering wheel. "That's what you get for having shitty air conditioning."

A growl revved up from the engine. The wheel whirls away from your touch three-sixty at max speed.

"You can't expect me to accept the blame, can I? When all there is out there under that— that blisteringly — whatever you call that slag of a weather, is hot fraggin' air."

You blink at the sudden venom in his tone. Prowl's usually, eh usually, the type to keep it down when he's about to lose it : a scowl and a sharp tongue is good enough for lacerating the source of his ire.

For him to snap? Yikes. That takes a lot. A hefty lot. Even with Smokescreen, concierge of shenanigans — worst he's got is a swift chuck to the brig and cleaning duty for a year. And, that's just with a scowl and a low, steady tone.

Guess Cybertronians aren't immune to hot days, either huh. Sun's that bad.

"Is it getting to you too, Prowler?"

"What do you think?" He bites back. "Look at the thermometer. It's exceeding above the usual range of what a normal temperature should be. It's draining up the power in my cooling fans which drains up my fuel, which drains up energon. Which, at this moment, is scarce."

"Hard times, Prowler." You shake your head solemnly. "Hard times."

"You don't get a say in this." He grits out.

The car leers forward with a sudden jerk and your forehead kisses the steering wheel. Not the flat surface where the insignia lies but the edge. You know, the round handle? Bubbles of pain shoot out from the spot and you groan.

"What?" You whined. "It's already hot enough with my ass sticking to your seat — you can't leave me with any more bruises worse than this, alright?"

"Then keep that mouth shut. Or I'm shutting it off for you."

" We're stuck in traffic, though." You grope the steering wheel, grinning at the irritated growl of an engine when he tries to steer it away.

"Will you cut it."

"Hunkering down on a quick brawl in the street doesn't really contribute to the whole," You waggle your hands. " bots in disguise, kind of thing. Not really your style. Doesn't fit you, prowler. Doesn't seem to fit the muse of a..." You trail off, playful and purposeful with your tone. "...law enforcer."

He's quiet for a moment.

"Oh, yeah?"

"Yeah."

"Yeah?"

"Uh huh."

He laughs : a quick sarcastic 'hah' and a chuff.

"Get out."

Yep. There, it is.

"Duly noted."

Your fingers wrangle the door knob. And, as soon as you struggle to pry it open you realize Prowl is keeping it locked.

"Where'd the angry coppa go?" You huffed.

"Oh, you'll see."

"Open the—huh?"

Your fingers grasps the open air, twitching around nothingness. The momentum propels you to slide off your sweat-lathered seat, lurching forward and face first into the hot, concrete road.

[breannasfluff]

What if... through time/portal shenanigans, Eldritch!Chain met Wing!Wild for a shift

Traveling through time? Check. Meeting alternate versions of a hero? Also check. Legend sits up in his bedroll and stares at Wild. Or…not-Wild. Not their creepy vibes Wild. No, this one is crouched by the fire, cooking what looks like bugs. Oh, and he’s got wings. Because yeah, that’s how this day is going to go.

Legend points, which is rude, but so is dealing with this so early in the morning. “Who are you?”

Not-Wild looks up and honest-to-Hylia chirps at him. Yeah. No. He’s not dealing with this alone. The vet leans across and whacks at Twilight’s bed roll. “Fix this!”

The rancher blinks slowly, entirely too comfortable. “Mornin’. Cub cookin?”

“He’s weird now. What did you do?”

“Me?” Twilight blinks again and sits up, turning to the fire. “Whadja–oh.”

“Yeah. Oh.”

They both stare at the not-Wild. The person? Bird? Avian? Ruffles feathers and fluffs his wings up around his ears at their stare.

Twilight cheats and slaps Time awake. “Somthin’s goin on.”

By the time the old man extracts himself from the bedding, everyone else is awake and staring as well. Time manages an impassive face pretty well, but his tells give him away. The vein next to his eye is twitching. 

“Good morning.”

Bird boy whistles again and looks at his pan. “Breakfast is almost ready.”

“Er, right.” Time shares a helpless glance with Twilight. Goddesses, they really make the vet do all the work, don’t they?

“Hey, kid. Where did you come from? Where’s our Wild?”

He cocks his head and flutters his wings. “I’m with you for now, I guess.”

“Who said?”

“Hylia.”

Well, shit. She would inflict some kind of dimensional weirdness on them. 

Wild gives the pan a shake and waves Four over. “Here. You can have half,” he stresses.

Four sidles closer, the wariness growing to confusion as, likely, he doesn’t feel the need to run for the hills. Then he glances in the pan. “Are those bugs?”

“Yeah. Got some nice crunchy bees.” The avian pops one in his mouth and crunches and oh–Legend would like his weird Wild back. Sure he eats animals whole but they aren’t…bugs. “I’ve got a nice big spider we can split, want some of the legs?”

Four blanches and skitters away to the other side of the clearing. Insane-Wild turns his attention on Warriors. “Catch!” Then he chucks something that smacks the captain in the face. Warriors shrieks and flails. The thing falls to the ground. Wild chatters in what must be disappointment. “That was good quality meat!”

“You threw it in my face!”

“Yeah?”

“I have meat juice. On my face.”

“...why didn’t you catch it?”

The captain joins Four on the other side of the clearing. Most of the others back up as well. 

Twilight makes the next move, coming to stand by Wing Boy. Wild sidles away. Twilight shuffles closer. The champion sidles away again. They continue the weird shuffle all the way around the fire as Wild’s wings get higher and higher. Finally, he gives a strange tsksksks and bites the rancher on the arm.

Now Twilight is yelping and hopping away. “What was that for!”

Wild eyes him, wings ruffled. “Too close. You know better.”

“Nah, I don’t!” He rubs his arm with a truly wounded like. Like a kicked puppy. Fitting, considering his transformation.

Sky steps into the fray, but his eyes are glued to the wings. “Is your nickname still Wild?” he asks, only he’s addressing the wingbone rather than the boy attached to it.

“...yeah.”

“Your wings are beautiful! They remind me of my loftwing.”

Wild loosens slightly, wings drooping. “Yeah, your loftwings are cool.”

The chosen hero, because he has rocks for brains, reaches out and pats some feathers. Wild shrieks and explodes off the ground. His wings kick up clouds of dust and he launches straight up, then flaps into a tree and balances on a branch, hissing down at them. Sky is left blinking in confusion, hand still outstretched. 

It takes a good ten minutes for Wild to flutter back down, during which the bugs have been moved out of sight and eggs and potatoes set to cooking in a new pan. 

Legend watches from the corner of his eye as Wild paces around the edge of the group, then zeroes in on where he sits with Hyrule. He gives a funny bird call and trots over, shoving his way between them. 

“Hey!” Hyrule moves entirely, annoyed at being ousted from his seat. Legend gets a face full of feathers which he doesn’t dare push away. 

The avian trills again, wings pulling in tighter.

“Wild,” Legend says, or tries, muffled by feathers. “We don’t know what you want.”

He chatters at them both. “Force of habit.”

“To steal seats?” Hyrule’s prickly, both because he hasn’t had his morning tea, and because his fae sensibilities have been offended.

“Not stealing.” Wild’s attention is caught by the bag at his feet and he dives for it.

“Hands off!” Time jumps for it as well and a wrestling match begins before Wild lets go of the bag. The old man falls back on his butt and masks spill everywhere. 

Everyone tenses as the fierce Deity mask lands in the dirt, but the avian ignores it to grab for a cow mask. He holds it up with a grin. “This is my favorite.”

Time is still sputtering and Hyrule grabs some of the masks, passing them over. “You can’t just–take things!”

Bird boy blinks back, the picture of innocence. On the other side of the clearing, Twilight sulks. Warriors considers his scarf with misery; must have gotten meat juice on it. Sky’s wariness fades into resignation and he sits next to Four, who’s still a little peaky. 

This Wild inspires no strange feelings, but the absence of them is…disconcerting. It’s like a small piece of Legend’s awareness is missing; like he grew an inch without realizing. 

Wind, who was out collecting wood after his watch enters the clearing with a cheery smile. “Good morning! What did I miss?”

The champion perks up and taps his slate, pulling out a crab and tossing it at the sailor. The crab is, unfortunately, still alive. And angry at being thrown before breakfast–or to be breakfast. The crab attaches itself to Wind with vengeance. 

Wind starts screaming.

Legend closes his eyes to the chaos. Hylia, please give them their old Wild back. Nothing is worth this much chaos in the morning.

[sapphire-weapon]

Alot of people who defend Aeon use that one moment when Leon is on the back of the train and says he misses her to justify that there’s something there, but they also horrendously ignore the moment where he chucks her bracelet off the train 😭 maybe it’s just me but I want to ask you about your opinion of the implications of that scene

i mean the first implication is that Leon doesn't think that she's dead. knowing the kind of character that Leon is, a line like "I can't believe I actually miss her" wouldn't fit his personality if he genuinely thought that Ada was dead.

i can't believe i'm going to do this, but i guess i'm going to have to dissect the goddamn sentence because yeah that previous anon had aeon all over it, and these people are too stupid to live i swear to fuck

"I can't believe..."

i mean just look above. that's an expression of annoyance. Leon is annoyed not just at the situation but also at himself. it's not grief. it's not longing. it's not whimsy. he's fucking irritated.

"... I actually miss her."

the word "actually" there is another sign of annoyance. he knows he SHOULDN'T miss her. he knows intellectually that Ada fucked him over, and that pisses him off. but, against all logic and reason, Leon does miss Ada's presence, and he's fucking mad at himself for it.

this is not the expression of a man in love. this is the expression of a rookie cop who had come to admire someone who he thought was senior law enforcement but then wasn't. he's annoyed that he found things about her to like, because missing her means that he wants to go back to how things were before the truth came out --

-- and how were things before the truth came out? Leon was reliant on Ada. to be without her means that he has to be the one in charge making decisions and taking care of himself. he still wants her to be the authority, which makes him feel like he's learned nothing from this whole thing.

that's what he's fucking annoyed about. in a sense, Leon is griping about the fact that he has to grow up, while at the same time being pissed at himself over the fact that he hasn't grown up already.

this isn't a statement about Ada. it's a statement about himself.

and so when he throws the bracelet away, it's symbolic of him throwing his attachment to her away. it's him making the decision to grow up and leave her behind -- to leave any attachment to her memory behind in this city to get nuked with the rest of it.

AND SINCE WE'RE ALREADY TALKING ABOUT IT

his fucking smirk in RE4make -- i don't know how anyone reads that as love. literally just think about this a little bit as opposed to not at all. he smirks and then what? what does he do immediately following that? he pulls a fucking knife on her.

that's not an "oh the love of my life is here" smirk. that's an "oh she thinks she's got the drop on me but IT IS I WHO WILL GET THE DROP ON HER" smirk. jesus tapdancing christ.

and

AND

"she bites her lip when Leon calls her heartless"

DOES THIS LOOK LIKE AN "AROUSED" LIP BITE TO YOU

BECAUSE THAT LOOKS LIKE AN "I NEED TO BITE MY TONGUE BEFORE I RIP HIS THROAT OUT" LIP BITE TO ME

especially when you consider her very next line

and how sincerely fucking annoyed she sounds.

i swear to god there are some things i thought i'd never have to explain, and the normal human emotion of annoyance and/or frustration was fucking one of them.

these two are so incompatible in this version of the story. when the masks come off and they're both at the rawest versions of themselves, they piss each other the fuck off.

[localgremlinboy]

Holy rogues headcanons Batman we've reached a part 5! Thanks again to everyone who likes my silly ideas! Here’s some more!

[part 1] [part 2] [part 3] [part 4] [part 5] [part 6]

- Joker has a license but it's one of those joke chuck e cheese kids print out licenses 

- Harley has a “federal boobie inspector” badge, Ivy does not find it as hilarious as she does

- Joker makes his goons carry around headshots he can autograph and give out

- penguin writes "tweet tweet" with a penguin emoji on the end of all his tweets as a sign off. If it doesn't fit, he adds a second tweet to put in the sign off

- Oswald also is the kind of person who tweets goodnight and good morning to his followers. Twoface criticized him once for it and was blocked. Tbh Oswald blocks anyone who “harshes his space”

- Just to upset Riddler, Scarecrow talks about electronics like "the computer", "the internet", "the email". He'll be like "oh I guess I'll have to message you through the email" and Riddler has a meltdown

- Joker is constantly trying to start nicknames for himself that no one agrees to. The one name he gets off the ground gets credited to Batman

- At one point, all the rogues agree to doing a documentary series with a bunch of college film students (it's basically what we do in the shadows but with rogues). They frame it like, "a day in the life of *insert rogue here*. Twoface/Harvey's starts off with, "firstly, we'd like to clear up the rumor of any possible.. personal relationship with Bruce Wayne.." and as he starts rambling about how completely professional the rumor is, the camera zooms in on a half naked Bruce trying to sneak out of the back office window. Harley shows up in every episode via schengens and keeps waving at the camera. Scarecrow declines for his privacy but still ends up in most of Riddler's episode, judging him in the background and half of their interactions become meme clips and reaction gifs. Catwoman surprisingly agrees to let them follow her through a heist but she also takes the time to clear up the rumor that she has a friendship with Bruce Wayne, which is CLEARLY ridiculous according to her.. and the camera again zooms in on a cracked doorway that shows Bruce playing with her cats. When he notices the camera, he again tries to escape out the window and falls

- Scarecrow retweets Riddler memes

- Penguin consistently tries to go on podcasts and talkshows to prove he's not doing crimes and either accidentally admits to something way more illegal than what he's defending or he'll make an embarrassing meme out of himself trying to relate to youths

- Oswald also has a TikTok but it's the equivalent of older celebrities getting one. He has no idea what he's doing but he is trying SO hard! Selina is constantly goofing on his content hardcore on her account

- Ivy breaks into the botanical gardens & random establishments with plants to take care of them

- Riddler has travel boggle in his car

- Harley had a steampunk cosplay phase in early college and is super second hand embarrassed about it.. until she learns Ivy also had a steampunk cosplay phase and high key indulges her by putting on stupid sexy steampunk outfits

- Riddler orders a lot of late night Chinese food and the restaurant totally knows it's him but also like he never robs them & he's a good tipper. But he saves the fortune cookies for Harley, who eats them like chips when she visits. (she and Ivy come over to do puzzles with him and sometimes Scarecrow). But Riddler puts out a bowl of fortune cookies for her and she loves them so much

- Riddler is banned from several establishments because he refuses to apologize for various arguments

[gamesception]

Sception Reads Cass Cain #34

Robin (1993) #88 - May 2001 Story: Chuck Dixon & Scott Beatty Pencils: Pete Woods, Ink: Andrew Pepoy Letters: Willie Schubert, Colors: Noelle Giddings

Guest appearance again this week. A bit more of a notable one because as far as I know this is officially the first time Cass Cain and Stephanie Brown meet. Kind of more significant in retrospect than in the moment, as they don't exactly hit it off right away, but still.

So the basic setup is that Bruce has decided Stephanie isn't going to just go away and stop doing Spoiler stuff so he might as well take her on officially and train her, a decision spurred on by Tim working more and more on his own & not answering Bruce's calls. When Tim disappeared from the country completely without telling Bruce where he went Bruce turned to Stephanie to check up on him, in the process telling Steph Tim's secret identity, which iirc (my Robin knowledge is limited, I could have this wrong) previously Tim had used as the reason they couldn't be in a relationship. Like "I can't date you, you don't even know who I am, and I can't tell you that even though I want to because it might give away Batman's identity, which isn't my secret to share. Also my life is super dangerous, and Batman doesn't think you're ready, and as much as I like you I have to respect his professional opinion on this"

On the one hand it's dicky of Bruce to not respect Tim's privacy the way Tim respected his, but on the other hand Tim blowing up about it kind of implies that all those things he told steph were excuses, and the real reason he didn't want to date her was that he just wasn't that into her. Or maybe he was, but got mad at her for getting pregnant by someone else after he rejected her and now doesn't want to date her because of that? Did that happen already, or after this? Again, I don't know the details of Robin Lore, but reading just this issue and the previous one for background, Tim is absolutely the one who comes off as worse here between him and Bruce.

So anyway that's what's going on. Cass shows up in all of this when Bruce takes Stephanie to one of his training caves and has Cass demonstrate a training routine that Steph is struggling with.

Which, yeah, I guess this is pretty badass or whatever,

But if this were a real life situation, Cass would have just decapitated like seven dudes. 100% fatality rate for the criminal dummies. You'd think Bruce would be a little less glowing in his praise over that, considering how much of his shitty behavior towards Cass started when he found out she might have (definitely did, but denial is a powerful drug) killed somebody.

Cass gives Steph the cold shoulder. Giving Dixon & Beatty the benefit of the doubt for a moment, this does fit very much into the recent evolution of Cass's character, becoming harder and harsher as she gets more isolated. She also may be picking up on and echoing Batman's lowish opinion of Stephanie as a vigilante / person, even if it has softened enough for the moment that he's willing to train her.

And it sets up for future interactions where Stephanie basically puts in the work to break through Cass's walls, despite her initial frosty attitude, to become the friend Cass needed when when she didn't have any others. The whole arc is honestly pretty touching and really speaks to Stephanie's character, and it isn't possible without this initial attitude from Cass.

....

On the other hand, this plays into an obnoxious trend of the entire bat family being written as incredibly rude and dickish towards Stephanie, in ways that very often feel completely out of character. Even (especially) Tim, her supposed love interest. Even Alfred!

Yes, calling Alfred 'the Butler' is rude, but Alfred was uncharacteristically rude and dismissive to her first in this scene.

And since it so often feels out of character, you get the impression that the people who actually hate Stephanie aren't the characters themselves, but rather the writers and editors at DC. That is eventually undeniably the case, once DiDio is in charge and War Games is happening.

But that's still 3 years away! I had to check, because the way the narrative is treating Stephanie right now, the way all the characters we're supposed to think are in the right here are treating her (Alfred, Tim, not Bruce), feels very much like the build up to War Games, with Stephanie finally getting a chance to shine and getting some respect from bruce, but with the overall narrative implying that's a bad thing somehow and that she isn't worthy, that despite all her work and earnest commitment she's somehow only coasting on hubris and setting herself up fro a fall, one that we as the audience are supposed to find, like, cathartic, or maybe at best tragic but in a cosmically justified sense that she brought on herself.

And it all kind of sucks, because no, she really doesn't deserve any of it. Or rather she hasn't been written to deserve any of it. The differences between her and Bruce's other sundry teen sidekicks and hangers on have overwhelmingly been in how others have been written as treating her, not the things she's been written as doing or in her personality or whatever.

I guess that's a free writer tip for you. If you want the reader to not like a character, write that character as doing or saying or thinking unlikable things, or acting for distasteful motives. Or give that character things they don't deserve or appreciate without having to work for them. Don't make them sweet and put-upon and have them try hard to do the right thing despite coming from a bad place and struggle to earn respect that others get for free only to have it denied to them anyway and then have all your main characters shit on them constantly for no reason or even explicitly for doing things that they all do and get rewarded for.

If you do all that, your readers will end up identifying with the character you want them to dislike and disliking the characters you want them to identify with.

EDIT: oh, I almost forgot, we do get this one cute 'proud papa' moment from Bruce:

Always nice to see those, especially amid all the less positive stuff going on with him and Cass right now.

[arcielee]

Interview With a Writer

Here is part 4 of my Interview With a Writer series. You can go to this post to review the other amazing authors I have spoken with ♥ Just a BTS of some of the talented minds on Tumblr and ao3.

Name:  f4ll-for-you

Story: The Intern

Paring: modern Aegon Targaryen x Reader

Rating/Warning: Sexual themes and substance abuse.

So, when did you start writing? If I’m honest, I’ve always loved writing, even when I was young I’d always write ‘fanfiction’ for stories I’d read myself, but I began writing for ‘readers’ when I was about fourteen. That was back in the boy band era, 5 seconds of summer days and none of it was good, and it’s all very much deleted now, luckily!

Everything I’d written since had been for myself, until house of the dragon came out. I mainly began writing because no one seemed to be creating any Aegon fics, and I desperately wanted one. 

I began writing on Wattpad, which is where my main (very badly written un-edited, first proper fic lives) and when I got back into tumblr, 6 years later, I found a wonderful community on there and began my modern Aegon fics.

Where did the plot for The Intern come from? Awkwardly, I’m not sure. I knew I wanted to write a modern Aegon fic. I’d seen a few ideas floating around where the family had a large successful company, that Aegon is meant to ‘inherit/work for’ so I guess I gained inspiration from that.

I wanted the reader to be someone in her own right, not just ‘Aegon's love interest’ so I tried to build up her character just as much as his. I also wanted to show how damaged Aegon was, and hint that there were reasons why she understood him. Maybe I’ll explain her backstory at some point, because I have it in my head.

Explain your interpretation of Aegon. What drives him? Why is he the way he is in The Intern? He’s damaged, that’s the main theme. He’s done something (we don’t know what, but I do hehe) that means his grandfather has forced him to work for the company and, obviously, he hates it. 

He uses his position to get girls, and continue to live his life as it was, if he can’t party at home, he will party there. It’s not until the reader comes along that he finally sees a girl for more than just sex. He likes the way she takes little interest in him, how she needs glasses to read, how she never stays at ‘after work drinks’ for more than an hour. 

I think he appreciates how she’s never looked at him as less than a person, which is what he’s used to from his family and the girls only want him for a reciprocated ‘quickie’. Whereas she actually sees him as her boss, not that he’s ever acted like one. 

My version of Aegon (this is gonna sound pretentious as fuck) has been defined by his faults for so long that he’s become them. The Aegon we meet at the beginning is a shell of the person he becomes once he befriends her.

Was there anything in specific that inspired your Reader portrayal? As I said earlier, I was determined to make her a main character, not a side character that Aegon desires (not that there’s anything wrong with that, I love those fics just as much). 

I’ve massively fallen for the ‘enemies to lovers’ style, which the intern very lightly touches on, shown in their boy/girl teasing and joking friendship they have at the beginning. I liked the idea of her being a girlboss, hard working, clever but mainly incredibly kind. I wanted to show her as a little bit damaged, through her understanding of Aegon and how gentle she is with him. She rarely pushes him into getting help when he clearly isn’t ready to. She loses her temper, yes, but I think there’s only one time where she fully asks him to get help throughout the story, even though she clearly wants him to.

Do you feel your Reader compliments Aegon well? I’d hope so, I wanted to to make them fit together, but also have their own ‘things’ they needed to do before they could fully be each others. I guess you could see it a bit like Chuck and Blair in Gossip Girl, but they weren’t an intentional inspiration, now I think of it.

They both had a lot on their plates, the reader stuck working her ass off and Aegon stuck between various girls legs…that sort of thing.

In my head, I think they compliment each other by being what the other needs. Aegon needs someone grounded, kind and gentle, but she’s also not a pushover. She’s not going to let him walk all over her. Whereas the reader needs Aegon to realise her life isn’t based around her career, that she can enjoy herself and fall in love and be a little bit reckless.

Is there any reflection of you, the author, in this story? Pretty much always the female character is a part of me, it’s kind of a way of you living the life you want to live, so why wouldn’t it be I guess? Also, I find comfort in writing about addiction/other themes because it’s kind of a way of dealing with my own experiences.

Do you think you will do a sequel or expand on this AU? I have one chapter left, the epilogue, where I will hopefully make everyone forgive me for the sad ending to part four! I’m now expanding on the Backstage one-shot, and rockstar Aegon.

[revasserium]

What do you do when your writing style changes? I'm trying not to fight it but I feel kind of disgusted 😅. I'm usually more detail oriented, thoughts from the character and observation and wanted to work on dialogue. Well now recently it's been more dialogue and less of the other stuff. I'm a bit more thankful because it brings the word count up but I feel like the less detail is making me seem more idk... Juvenile in my writing. I try to go back and add more but it just feels like it doesn't fit if I don't write it in the moment. I feel like maybe if I can just get in the zone of writing the details will come again.

Any advice?

"Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away." - Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

so first of all, don't feel like just because your writing is more sparse and more dialogue-oriented that it isn't good. there are countless examples of truly great writers who use that to their advantage -- just off the top of my head i've got haruki murakami and chuck palahniuk. george orwell too -- he's famous for saying something like "never use a long word when a short one will do" LMFAO which -- i mean, i def DO NOT live by those words but it seems to have worked out well for him

i guess for me, my writing style kind of changes depending on the story that wants to be told, and the story itself will kind of dictate how much or how little detail needs to be there.

i think my biggest piece of advice is to not stress too much about it -- writing style is a hugely personal and subjective thing; if ur current style is changing, then take it as a sign of you maturing as a writer, of you developing a different kind of voice.

if you've wanted to work on dialogue in the past, then embrace this new dialogue-driven style! lean in! sink your fingers into it and let it become you for a while; and think about it this way, the writing that you've produced in your past will always be yours. that style is still inside you somewhere. maybe the muse for it just got tired and another muse stepped up to take it's place so the first one can get a lil rest u__u

but if you really did want to get into the headspace of more descriptive writing, i usually watch slam poetry before i start writing or i read a lot of poetry or really poetic writing that's heavy on description and in the style that i'd want to write in :)

for good slam poets -- rudy francisco, sarah kay, phil kaye, clementine von radics; they're a few of my favs !

[terrainofheartfelt]

Oooooh I’d love to hear some of your natessa thoughts! Your fic has been making me remember why I liked them so much

lmaooo whoops I started answering this immediately and then I had to do Work or something, and then time really got away from me BUT! here we are <333

it's reminded me too!! lol. but really spending time having to actually think about them and how they fit together has made me discover some stuff that I really love about their dynamic that maybe I felt, but was never cognizant enough to articulate it before.

for me, they hit something similar to date, but in a different way, and it's profound in a different kind of way, if that makes sense. which essentially boils down to this: Vanessa gives Nate the space and permission to take himself seriously, and Nate gives her the space and permission to take herself less seriously.

Leila's articulated this well before, how parallel their journeys end up being, not in literal circumstances, but in the emotional state they are in when they first connect. They've both grown up with parents who -- to varying degrees -- emotionally neglect their kids

obviously I would rate anne and howard archibald as Worse, but Vanessa must have decided to move back to New York and in with her sister for a reason, and I have to assume that at least one of those is that she felt unhappy and smothered and trapped by her parent's expectations, much like how Nate feels. but what's interesting is that they are outwardly on the opposite ends of the spectrum, like the vdb expectation was that Nate go to an Ivy at all costs, and Vanessa nearly didn't take the SAT because of her families opposition to privatized higher education. She tells Nate not going to college is the expectation of her parents.

I wouldn't say that the Abramses (and really we only meet Gabriella) are wrong for pointing out the system's faults, but from what we see, they put the onus of saving the world and being So Very Virtuous All the Time on Vanessa's shoulders, to the degree that she feels like a failure if she doesn't live up to those ideals. When Dan tells Gabriella "She loves you, she does, I just think she wishes you spent half the time listening to her that you do strangers" (I'm paraphrasing bc I don't feel like looking at the quote) It is a little bit of March Parents Syndrome, if that makes sense, they put so much time and energy into saving the world and assuming that their kids will be just fine that they kind of...fail to check in and make sure they're fine.

So Vanessa holds herself to this standard that she always be unassailable. and then we have Nate, who has all this pressure on him, but it isn't focused pressure, he doesn't have direction, and every time he makes an effort to find it, he's essentially told not to worry his pretty little head about it. the unspoken collective assumption is that he isn't smart enough or capable enough, so his parents and grandparents and blair and chuck all try to smooth his way at some point, probably not knowing that they're diminishing him. (I think you just said this to me in fic comments, but when chip says "your only problem is worrying whose hair is shinier.") Because he's beautiful, and not conventionally intelligent, Nate is written off, but Vanessa never does that.

and, while I was thinking about this response, I thought (yet again) of that speech serena gives in s4 when she's "trying to choose" between dan and nate, and she decides, "I guess I just need to find someone who gives me what I get from both of them." and the more I thought about it, I think that's Vanessa for Nate. Like Blair, she challenges him and brings him out of his intellectual comfort zone, and like Serena, she doesn't come to him with any expectations of The Great Golden Boy. He's just Nate with her. A good guy, but Vanessa doesn't have "good guy blinders" that keep her from calling him out when he needs it, just because he's relatively better than most men.

So, that is the core of what I really love about them. Vanessa challenges Nate, but not in a way that makes him feel small or stupid, like the VDBs do, but in a way that shows that she sees him and what he could be, and that he doesn't necessarily need to stay in the feedback loop he's known his whole life. And Vanessa, who is working so hard all of the time, Nate gives her permission to relax, to find joy without having to pick it apart for all its problems first. They complement and settle into each other in a way that I don't think any other partner they have in the show does.

[theribthatgrewback]

9, 11 and 13 :3

(ask game)

I assume you mostly want JtHM takes so I'll focus on those but since you didn't specify fandom I'll chuck in a couple others I feel strongly about if that's ok!

9. Worst part of canon

Johnny the Homicidal Maniac: This is tough, because I really like how everything was handled in the main story. I guess I personally found the doughboys slightly annoying, but at the same time, they served a crucial narrative purpose, so I really can't complain. Every (subjectively) """bad""" part of canon had a reason for being there, so I like every part for what it is. HOWEVER, if we're counting the spinoffs and the little "meanwhile" inserts, I really hated the like... vomit-porn aside thing in Squee. Though I guess hating it was the whole point, so like. mission accomplished? Also I don't really get Noodle Boy.

Adventure Time: Jake should have stayed blue. Explained here. I wrote the submission, hi.

Futurama: Multiple episodes. Neutopia weirdly ramped up everybody's misogyny beyond what's in-character in order to serve the "sexism is bad but gender is still part of the human experience and there will always be conflict" plot (which also is a weird gender-essentialism plotline anyway because like. The Fact That Gender Exists should not equal Conflict). Unnecessarily mean. Like I can see Bender doing that shit but there's no way that Farnsworth thinks that way. Unrelated to that one, Attack of the Killer App (origin of the "shut up and take my money" meme) leaned needlessly hard into gross-out humor. It just didn't fit the tone of the rest of the show.

Actually I'll be here all day if I list all my grievances so I'll cut this segment here.

11. Number of fandom-related words you've filtered

There's a lot of duplicates for The Same Thing Written Different Ways but if I count those as the same thing, 4. Across all fandoms. Though this blog hasn't been around long so this will probably expand in the future.

13. Worst blorbofication

(interpreting this as "wildly out of character to serve the 'comfort' of the person writing about them") Oh baby. I come from roleplay communities. I've seen shit that would make you sick. I've seen somebody play Fern (Adventure Time) Prismo (Adventure Time) and Kevin (Ben 10) all with the exact same personality. I've seen somebody Else who takes LITERALLY over 200 characters (in "no doubles" type places so now nobody else can use those characters), and also makes them all exactly the same... except for the added detail that This person talks like if a wiki page could make fart jokes. (Side note: I think that person also pretended to be three different people. Like there were three separate accounts with different names who all talked to each other, but they all wrote exactly the same way. And with exactly the same fart jokes. And they usually showed up at exactly the same time.) THE ONE SAVING GRACE of all this is that JtHM is obscure enough that I never saw Other People RP it in multifandom spaces, so it was spared this treatment. I have seen glimpses of how the fandom acts on tumblr though so:

JtHM: Nny. I really think Nny gets the worst of it. In canon, he's a very unlikeable person. That's part of why he's so interesting! He tries really hard to be nice to certain people, like to Squee, but he fails every time. He traumatizes that kid. He abuses animals. He's fatphobic. He blames addicts for their addictions. He trivializes the fight against racism (in a brief aside line at the cafe). He's all kinds of messy, awful things, and it's fascinating. It makes you want to pry his brain open and study him. Yet so much of the fanstuff you see of him files down his bad edges and just makes him "funny murder guy" at the cost of the nuances of his personality (this happened to Patrick Bateman too, as an aside). People are scared to confront that he's kind of a piece of shit, just because he's the Cool Protagonist.

[kopivie]

An idea for a creative writing prompt:

Describe what an emotion feel like, but physically. Describe their texture, their weight, their shape, their overall appearance. Is it heavy? Weightless? Does it have a smooth surface which you can see your reflection in, or is it dark and covered in spines? Is it a regular shape, or an oddly-shaped mass? Hot or cold? What would it feel like if you held it in your hands (if it’s small enough to fit in them, that is.)

I think it could be a fun way to visualise emotions and stretch descriptive language.

-🎻 anon

(this is gonna be something kinda out of the blue for an oc that i made -- her name is fushiguro harumi for a jjk fic i'm writing and i'm making a huge infodump post about her but lemme shut up and get to the prompt.)

Harumi doesn't recognize it when it taps the entrance to her heart the first time.

She's watching her brother chat with Nobara and the other second-years in the shade with her knees pulled close to her chest. The late summer sun beats down on her classmates and brother, yet she finds herself shivering. Nothing out of the ordinary.

The second time it makes itself known, she's just finished sparring with Panda. He's one of the students she will never quite get used to. Once he's won the spar, both Maki and Inumaki gravitate to his side to give him pointers, leaving her panting on the battlefield with her weapon in hand. Harumi's grip on the staff tightens and her breathing hitches, but she ignores it. The adrenaline will work its way out her system with time.

The third time Harumi feels it, she freezes. She's sitting with Megumi and Nobara, both of whom are completely quiet. "Y'know, I didn't know him all that well," Nobara mutters as she turns her voodoo doll over in her hand, "but I think he would've liked to train with us." She chuckles. "Maki-senpai would've laid him flat."

Megumi doesn't laugh outright — he stopped doing that six years ago — but he does snort. "Yeah," he mumbles in reply. "She would've."

Harumi, who'd been scratching at the ground until now, goes still. Does she say anything? She didn't know the other first year all that well — she kind of hated him, actually. So she shouldn't say anything, right? But when Megumi looks so down, she can't just do nothing. Harumi starts to reach towards her little brother but he angles himself to face Nobara, and the two of them pick up conversation right away. With a strangely practiced ease.

By the time Harumi realizes what it is, she's lying on her back.

It circles her bed like a predator monitoring its prey. It's not unlike the time she spent in the disciplinary pit — she knows that it's there, but she's helpless against it. She remembers the sensations of being chucked into the pit after sparring sessions -- after beatings. The frigid stone floor damp with the blood of curses devouring one another; the hissing, growling, and snarling of curses lured to her location by the scent of fear and fresh blood; the taste of bile souring her tongue and rising to her mouth when she hears the ka-chunk! of the barricade being dropped on the door from the outside; the ripping and tearing of her vocal chords as she bawled and wailed for help, help, someone, anyone, please help. Maki, Megumi — Daddy — help me!

The beast circling her bed pounces and attacks her throat first. A smart move — meant to kill quickly, but if aimed correctly, meant to silence.

Harumi knows this feeling well. And though she may be in the safety and comfort of her own dorm room, though she may be safe from the curses that eagerly awaited her next arrival, she is just as alone now as she was back then.

(emotion: loneliness, i guess?)

[ghosts-of-love]

SONG ANALYSIS TIME :))) Changing it up a bit here in terms of characters. You're Not Welcome by Naethan Apollo is both Cap and Pat. (still mostly cap tho)

The first fuckin verse is...i mean

I don't start fights but I'll handle you just fine Usually I'm very kind to others But I won't think twice if you step to me or mine You're a slimy little motherfucker

If that ain't Pat punching Damien idfk what is. And yeah ofc the man can get a lil annoyed sometimes but the "Usually i'm very kind to others" is literally Pat. My man out here punching a mf for Cap like the fuckin king he is <3

First half of the chorus was basically everyone at the party towards Damien (although Fanny was the one to kick him out)

Uh oh, don't you know? You're not welcome 'round here I think you should go 'Fore you cause some drama

except of course...he causes drama >:(

Uh oh, don't you know? I'm the one you should fear Talk to me if you've got a problem

Pat once again going to punch Damian. And Fanny chucking him out. (legends <3)

And now we get to Cap :)

I can't believe you used to truly scare me

Ofc this would be after everything's happened and Cap has resolved some internal shit.

You were like a ghost story told to keep me wary But I never listened, no, I slept good 'til morning And when our paths finally crossed I didn't heed the warning

This I guess is more Cap continuing to sleep with the cunt despite the fact that part of him knew Damien didn't care about him. But it's not that same tone like in Honey (BTR).

Then push, push, push, push Yeah, you pushed me to the edge I used to dread the thought of falling quickly

The pushing to edge bit reminds me of Cap finding out Damian was married and also the way he treated Cap in bed when they were "together" just using him and shit. And then the last line, Cap's insecurity about finding someone good and falling for the wrong person. (screaming and crying why do you write such good angst)

But now, I just wish that you'd send me off that ledge So I can finally fucking take you with me

Probably Cap after the party when he leaves. All those emotions and he lashes out at his new friends even tho ofc it's Damien who riled him up. He probably woulda preferred going off at Damian than his friends but when you're in emotional turmoil you can do wack shit. (get this man therapy) And also the fact he didn't wanna cause more of a scene at the party than what was already happening. (the way he comforted kitty while he was literally being choked mygod) (charlie predicted fairy godmother cap)

Anyways yeah, Pat (and Fanny) featured in a song analysis :) God those first two lines are so Pat after punching Damien. As he should. King <3

Thank you for coming to my TEDTalk :)

(also i forget which but one of the 'TEDTalks' i typed out while tipsy at like 2:30am and i would've slept but i knew if i didn't send it then my ADHD ass would just be like...nahhhhh for the next several months. yeah. gonna go figure out which one it was rn)

broooo you KNOW I absolutely love your TEDTalks about song analysis!! everything fits so well with the scenes you're talking about (also I really enjoy the album cover art for the song!!)

I see the specific scenes and characters that you've noticed in Lost then Found but I would also like to raise you: Cap and Pat's early relationship/rivalry/whatever they've got going on in Adored. I just think it's got the right vibe of them driving each other absolutely crazy and also the wildly inaccurate view that they had of each other ("you were like a ghost story told to keep me wary"). It also works for Pat, "I'm usually very kind to others" 👀 because the running idea in Adored that Cap often comes back to is that Pat is So nice to everyone else but not him.

Once again, always love to read your analysis!! Thank you for sending this!! ❤️❤️

[pesterloglog]

Dave Strider, Davesprite

Act 5, page 2835-2837

DAVE: sup

DAVESPRITE: hey

DAVESPRITE: oh looks like you got caledfwlch

DAVESPRITE: you found that pretty fast

DAVE: is that how you pronounce that

DAVESPRITE: yeah i guess so

DAVESPRITE: i think its welsh

DAVE: what are welsh things doing in this game

DAVESPRITE: thats an awesome question

DAVE: fuck yeah it is

DAVE: is this thing as pointless as i think it is or do i need it for something

DAVESPRITE: tactically yeah its a downgrade since its what i used to make caledscratch which is obviously way better

DAVE: yeah thats what i figured

DAVESPRITE: caledscratch cycles the sword through its own timeline to points when its broken or nonbroken or old and rusted or recently forged etc

DAVESPRITE: and your snoop snowcone swords probably even better than that so yeah you got options

DAVE: fuck it ill just power through the rest of the game with the SORD.....

DAVESPRITE: hahahaha

DAVESPRITE: with unreal air as a mount fit for a true artifact knight

DAVE: yeah

DAVE: goddamn jpeg hero

DAVE: right here

DAVESPRITE: did that shit ever land or what

DAVE: dude its long gone

DAVE: up in skaia now or something

DAVE: thrashing ill grinds on clouds

DAVESPRITE: fuck

DAVESPRITE: top priority make more

DAVESPRITE: thats an order from your celestial fuckin spirit guide

DAVE: yeah you got it

DAVE: so why wasnt this legendary pos in the sylladex you gave me

DAVE: did you chuck it after you alchemized it

DAVE: should i just chuck it too

DAVESPRITE: it was stolen

DAVESPRITE: by one of hephaestus's minions

DAVE: hes the denizen right

DAVESPRITE: yeah lord of the forge

DAVE: isnt that like a greek god

DAVE: or roman or whatever

DAVE: what is greco roman shit doing in here you know what never mind

DAVESPRITE: yeah pretty much

DAVESPRITE: anyway he gets pissed off you broke it

DAVESPRITE: and he wants it back

DAVESPRITE: to do something important with it though not really sure what

DAVESPRITE: hes a pretty ornery dude

DAVESPRITE: kept raving about how he was waiting for the forge to come

DAVESPRITE: which he needs to complete his work

DAVESPRITE: but in my timeline the forge would never come

DAVESPRITE: so he was extra pissed off

DAVE: whats the forge

DAVESPRITE: volcano

DAVE: huh

DAVE: you mean jades volcano

DAVESPRITE: yup

DAVE: so do you know this stuff cause youre from the future or cause youre a sprite

DAVESPRITE: both

DAVESPRITE: theres all sorts of stuff i suddenly knew about the game when i became this orange feathery asshole

DAVE: so now youre like

DAVE: a wise feathery asshole

DAVESPRITE: i am fuckin filthy with wisdom its sick

DAVESPRITE: i mostly know stuff about your personal quest

DAVESPRITE: what used to be my quest but i guess i got to deal with not being alpha dave no more

DAVE: yeah i guess

DAVESPRITE: shrug

DAVESPRITE: its all good

DAVESPRITE: anyway that sword

DAVESPRITE: its important to getting your shit figured out

DAVESPRITE: you were supposed to break it to get it out of the thing

DAVESPRITE: like another personal sort of mythological milestone you were supposed to clear

DAVE: really

DAVE: there was no other way to get it out

DAVE: thats kind of retarded

DAVESPRITE: well i dont know

DAVESPRITE: maybe if john was to try with his pure heart and shit it woulda popped out like a champagne cork and fuckin hero confetti woulda blasted him in the face

DAVESPRITE: but you

DAVESPRITE: we

DAVESPRITE: we had to break it

DAVE: ok

DAVESPRITE: theres a lot more i know about your quest

DAVESPRITE: all tangled up in ridiculous riddles and bullshit enigmas

DAVESPRITE: and maybe its all a moot point anyway in this timeline who knows

DAVESPRITE: but i think ill spare you all that crap

DAVESPRITE: cause its kind of boring

DAVESPRITE: and youll find out anyway

DAVE: yeah

DAVE: that sounds about like something id do if i were you

DAVE: which i am

DAVE: so hey

DAVE: apparently im about to fall asleep

DAVESPRITE: oh yeah why

DAVESPRITE: rose beckoning you again

DAVE: yeah probably

DAVE: anyway monsters will show up soon and try to eat my sleeping corpse

DAVESPRITE: yeah they werent too happy with my reckless indiana jones bullshit either

DAVE: yeah

DAVE: so thats where you come in

DAVESPRITE: i got your back dude dont worry

DAVE: ok

DAVE: guess ill make myself comfortable here

DAVESPRITE: when you wake up

DAVESPRITE: ill probably get going

DAVE: what do you mean

DAVESPRITE: ill just sort of

DAVESPRITE: release myself

DAVESPRITE: go do my own thing

DAVESPRITE: after this i dont think youll need me

DAVESPRITE: seems like youve got the stable time loop thing figured out already

DAVESPRITE: which means youll be alright

DAVESPRITE: future yous will get you out of trouble

DAVESPRITE: if youre gonna live up to the responsibility of eventually becoming them

DAVESPRITE: and by virtue of loop stability it sort of means you cant technically fuck up anymore

DAVESPRITE: but dont let that idea go to your head itll mess you up

DAVE: where will you go

DAVESPRITE: dunno

DAVESPRITE: fly around

DAVESPRITE: up away to the sun like a fucknig piece of gargbage

DAVESPRITE: see if i can catch up with bro maybe

DAVESPRITE: elusive bastard

DAVE: oh yeah

DAVE: where do you think he is

DAVE: what happened to him in your timeline

DAVESPRITE: who knows

DAVESPRITE: i completely lost track of him

DAVESPRITE: in that timeline and this one

DAVESPRITE: the dude is fucking inscrutable we both know that

DAVE: yeah

DAVE: ok good luck with that

DAVESPRITE: thanks man

[auldcowboysoul]

In Old Amarillo, 1951

Thoughts while watching through In Old Amarillo (1951) starring Roy Rogers, Trigger, Penny Edwards, and a few others. 

Folks, I witnessed something terrible today. I wish I'd never seen it. The first fight sequence between Roy Barcroft's character and Roy is all chopped up. It's a genuine crime to cut a Bill Whitney fight sequence, especially one with the top 'heavy' actor of this era of Roy's films. Very disheartening start to the Happy Trails Theater version of this film, which was the only one I could find available online.

My first time watching Pinky Lee. He made me accidentally snort very loudly with laughter in his first sequence with the character of Phillip Hill.

Speaking of Phillip, the actor does a great job making you despise him haha.

Watching the cowboys riding the range, I miss Trucolor. *crying baby noises* I've been watching through these later Roy Rogers Films, and the Trucolor ones are stunning. I wonder why this one wasn't made in color.

Peppy is wild, definitely the most crazy character I've watched Estellita Rodriguez play.

The missing scenes physically hurt the viewer. You feel the loss keenly. Another missing scene in the bar while Peppy holds Phil accountable and Roy and co. watch in amusement.

Missing scenes everywhereeeee. *More crying*

During the water tank chase sequence, Roy wears a checkered shirt that reminds me soooo much of his TV series outfit.

Dang, stunt doubles had to work triple time during that fight sequence on the runaway water tank. It's a pretty cool fight, and I'm newly appreciative since it doesn't seem chopped.

Pinky Lee is no longer appreciated. The opposite in fact. A Roy Rogers song was cut so that Pinky Lee could waste two minutes not even being funny.

A few people die terribly (fire, plane crash) in this one, and we see their shrouded bodies. That's pretty graphic for someone with my vivid imagination.

Okay, good news, the prayer meeting scene finally gives Roy a chance to sing with the Sons of the Pioneers. I love the prayer meeting idea and how Roy comes up with it with Granny. So true to the cultural ideals of the time and also Roy Rogers' personal ideals. Beautiful little addition to the plot.

Pinky Lee is partly forgiven, but it's Roy's line that makes me really laugh -- "Give me your hand, boy!" As he's exasperatedly going to turn Pinky Lee upside down again, so Pinky can give over accurate information, per his own request.

I like the action/background music in this one! From the very first opening sequence, it's alternately soulful and engaging! 

Watching Roy ride Trigger across the range at high speed = alllll the reasons why he was king of the cowboys. He could really ride and even someone like me who's never really ridden a horse could see the beauty in the way man and horse moved together. Both of them, just pure muscle and harmony.

Phil gets some guts and some morals, and apparently an iron hide. What point blank gunshot? Lol

Finally we get a real fistfight between Roy Rogers and Roy Barcroft! In the rain for bonus points. It's over pretty quickly. 

Roy looks positively gleeful chucking handfuls of rice at the newlywed Phil's head at the end. He's definitely aiming for Phil, and Pepita is spared.

Roy seems oblivious to Penny Edwards sweet little flirty smiles at the end. They don't seem romantically engaged at that point, maybe just ranch neighbors/friends. Kind of a weird vibe compared to the usual "cowboy hero saves the day AND gets the girl" but it fits this movie somehow.

Notes: Bullet is in this one! And Penny Edwards actually rides Buttermilk, the horse Dale rode in the Roy Rogers TV series! 

More notes: Penny Edwards' character is cool af. I can totally see a fictional future for her and Roy, since he will be around now as foreman of the H ranch. And Granny already loves Roy. So it's pretty much settled. 

There's some fun science-y stuff about rainmakers... I don't know how real it is/was, but it's interesting! I guess they wanted to give a modern twist to the old west.

Can we admire Roy's fancy fringe shirt in the end scene, please!! How does he make it look so good? Also, the way he runs across the horses to jump on Trigger and then ride off into the sage brush... so iconic!

Definitely one Roy Rogers you will enjoy, and wish you could enjoy more of. This is one that makes me pray to all the film gods that someone someday will magically find the full film, restore and digitize it, and then make it available online. Pleeeeeease. How do I start a petition?? 

[crotchety-old-blogger]

Which South Park Character Are You?

I have watched enough South Park to know which character I most identify with. And I think it's 90% Butters, and 10% Tweek. That's right—two characters, and here's why.

The reason for why I identify with Tweek is because of my mania and anxiety due to my bipolar disorder. Of course, coffee does not help. I find myself telling close friends things such as, "Oh, sweet Jeezus! I can't take this pressure!" usually when someone invites us to dinner, but there's no determined time. Or if I have to wait for a plumber sometime between 8am and God knows when. Then the anxiety spirals downward, and the pressure builds, and I start tweekin.

The most I identify with is Butters. No doubt, a lot of us do.

His parents are always blaming him for everything, even though Butters is 99.9% innocent in the incidents he finds himself in. His parents are abusive, not just to him, but to each other. Also, there's that one episode that was dedicated to Butters; we discover his old man has a secret life, and his mother is not a shining example of of a good parent either. At one point she attempted to drown her only son.

Butters constantly falls prey to bullies which causes us to empathize with him. This is not solely unique to me, a lot of children and teenagers in school are bullied. Going to social gathering was always unsettling for me because of having the fear of being made fun of for having a lisp.

Butters is sweet, polite, innocent, very naive, and rarely cusses. But when he has been pushed too far, he turns into Professor Chaos, his evil alter ego.

Though Professor Chaos strongly wants to live up to his name, the child Butters fails to execute his own schemes, reminding us and him that he is merely a child.

Reality came crashing ton like a ton of bricks when the boys played a bit too rough while playing ninjas, and a hira shuriken is chucked in Butters' eye.

In a group of friends doing an activity, someone always gets hurt, and that person is usually was me. Especially when I do this moronic thing called "thinking", and I attempt to help, repair or comfort. Somehow, it always backfires much like it does Butters. Like the sayings goes, "No good deed goes unpunished," and "the road to hell is paved with good intentions."

Butters' snazzy attire is similar to mine when I get gussied up, complete with a collared shirt, suspenders and a bowtie.

Like Butters I have the ardent desire—as many others do in real life—to fit in with a crowd, but never really finding a place.

Butters is always optimistic, thinking on the bright side even when the odds are against him—this is where Butters and I differ.

I cannot pull myself out of the darkness like Butters. Granted he is a fictional character, but there are people similar to Butters' with their optimistic personality.

When asked by the Goth children to go to the cemetery and write dark poems about how pointless life is, Butters response is logical and heartwarming:

"No thanks. I love life. Yeah, I'm sad. But at the same time I'm really happy that something can make me feel that sad. It makes me feel alive, y'know? It makes me feel human. The only way I can feel this sad now, is if I felt something really good before. So I have to take the bad with the good. So I guess what I'm feeling is like a beautiful sadness."

Butters is the shining beacon of hope and joy in South Park. He reminds us of what we were like as a child, or perhaps even now as an adult.

It was kind for you to spend some time with me and my article. Have a good rest of your day.

More memes and commentary will be arriving.

Which South Park character are you? Write me in telling who and why.

[pathsofoak]

I think I'm going to explicitly mention Thomas's age The Early Rise. There is a scene where Janson shows him his file, there is no reason why that wouldn't be in it, his mother willingly gave him up, they would have gotten those documents somewhere. Since Thomas basically turns away from WCKD on the basis that he's a child in the Night Winds, I think it would make sense.

Random hc's in the tags they're just a thought dump

[helliontherapscallion]

Lost Time (The Ashes of Yourself Part 2)

Part 1     Part 3    Part 4

Spotify Playlist (collaborative)

Warnings: mentions of suicide attempts/ideation, swearing, daddy/abandonment issues

Word count: 3,879

You and Techno stared at each other for what seemed like an eternity, both of you not knowing what to say to each other. So much was left unsaid between you two throughout your childhoods and the past four years that you didn’t know where to even start. You supposed a simple ‘how are you?’ would suffice, but that’d be too simple, far too simple for not talking to each other in literal years. But you couldn’t just say ‘hey, I’m incredibly jealous that you are Dad’s favorite and I totally didn’t send you my suicide note that you may or may not have seen’, that’d be way too much trauma dumping for your taste. You couldn’t think of anything else to say, so you chose to sheepishly grin at him and awkwardly wave. 

“Heh uh, how’re you…?” Smooth, (y/n). Real smooth.

You watched as he furrowed his brows slightly before he hesitantly gave you a small wave with his gargantuan pink hand. “...I’m doin alright. You?”

“I’ve seen better days.”

“Right…”

An awkward silence fell over you two as you glanced down at your bloodied hands. “Sorry bout the blood. It won’t really stop until I stop moving.”

He shrugged, “that’s fine. I’ve bled everywhere in this house. Nothing that won’t come out.”

“Alright then.”

You wanted to crawl into a pit and just let yourself die, you hated this awkward atmosphere you created. Your mind scrambled to find something to say to the man other than a stupid ‘alright then’. You haven’t even seen him in four years, surely you would be able to find something to talk about. You were snapped out of your thoughts when you heard him clear his throat.

“I uh got some clothes for you. They’re Tommy’s old clothes from when he stayed with me during his exile. I don’t know if they’ll fit, but I’m guessing that they’re better than the wet ones you’re wearing.”

When he saw you wince when you tried to stand up, he rushed to your side and helped you stand up. You could feel the backs of your knees start to drip blood. “Do you have any spare lava?”

His hands paused on your upper arms, “yes, but why would you need it?”

“It kinda heals me. I mean, just enough that my skin stops cracking open and bleeding everywhere.”

“Why don’t we just take you to a lava lake in the Nether?”

You glanced out the window at the flurry of snowflakes falling to the ground and being whisked off to other places by the harsh wind. You shuttered, remembering what it felt like to be fully engulfed in water. “Water hurts. I don’t want to get burnt out again.”

“Right, I’ll go get a few buckets full. Stay here,” with that, he ushered you to sit in front of the fire once again and draped the large blanket over your shoulders again. You could hear him move to another room and rustle around what you presumed was a chest before you heard his heavy footsteps walking behind the couch. You could hear the billowing of the wind when he opened the door before it was cut off by the door closing. 

You leaned forward and put your hands in the fire, relishing in the feeling of the flames melting away the charred skin slightly. The flames licked and caressed your dark skin slowly giving you more feeling back in the damaged tissue. As you were turning your hands over the flames, you thought about your voluntary near death experience just about an hour before. 

The thought of the ocean finally taking you and dragging your charcoaled corpse into its depths never to be seen again was alluring. After feeling the intense pain and the suffocation that came with chucking yourself into the ocean when you’re part blaze was definitely a deterrent, but you just had to push through the pain. This was something you’d dreamt of doing since you were fifteen and you’d be damned if you were going to let pain stop you. 

You know you felt sort of… grateful that Philza saved you when you were laying on that beach, but now that you had time to reflect on what happened, you felt resentful that he did. Of course he’d take away the only good thing you had going on in your life, he was full of audacity and impudence when you were a kid. He hasn’t changed at all much to your disappointment. You shouldn’t have expected him to change in the first place, that was just something that you knew in the back of your mind would never happen. A large part of you craved his approval and affection, but you knew that wouldn’t happen. 

Your thoughts were cut off by someone pulling you back gently from the fire. “I got the lava. Uh, I can set up an area for you downstairs with netherrack.”

“No, you don’t have to, I just have to put it on my joints for a few minutes.”

“Don’t you want to, uh, fully cover yourself?”

“I can hold off until the snowstorm dies down. It’s nothing too major.” You dipped your hands into the large bucket of lava and sighed in relief, “that’s much better, thank you Technoblade.”

“It’s no problem, but you literally just almost died. How is that something that’s ‘not major’?”

“I’m used to… well, this,” you took a hand out of the lava and gestured to your stone covered arm. “It’s just more than I’m used to. Kinda uncomfortable, but I’ll live.”

“What do you mean you’re used to it? You don’t live by water do you?”

“Yeah, I live by the ocean so I’m bound to get a little charred. No big deal,” you took your hands out of the bucket, shook the excess lava off, and stuck your elbows in. You looked at your now dully glowing hand and wiggled your fingers. There were more blackened scars etched into your skin on your joints, but you didn’t care.

“Heh? Why the hell would you live by an ocean?” 

You wove your hands nonchalantly in the air, “I always liked how the water looked when the sun set. The way that the pinks and yellows would reflect and bounce off the waves? Breathtaking.” You also lived by the ocean so that you had an easy way out of living, but you weren’t about to tell him that. Too much trauma dumping.

“That’s the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard.” 

“Have you ever seen the sun setting over the ocean?” You rose a brow at the piglin hybrid sitting on the couch. 

“Well, no but-”

“Then you can’t knock it till you try it. I’ll take you to my old place after I can take a proper lava bath. You won’t regret it, promise.”

“Still, you’re literally made of fire. Look what happened to you… Er, speaking of, how’d this happen?” He looked you up and down inquisitively with his red eyes. 

You sighed as you took your elbows out of the lava and dipped your feet into the buckets. “...Do you still have your communicator?”

You watched as his floppy ear flicked and his eyebrow rose at you, “...Yes, but I only talk to Dad. Why, did you leave me a message?” Before he could stand up to grab his communicator, you stopped him with a hand on his shin. “No, I didn’t. I was just wondering.”

He didn’t look convinced, “...tell me what happened. Were you pushed?”

Your shoulders tensed up against your will before you forced them to relax. “I fell in, got too close to the edge.”

“You’re so lucky Dad was already at your house, you could’ve died. How could you be so careless?” 

You only responded with a blaze-like frustrated grunt that rumbled in the back of your throat and removed your feet from the buckets. Picking up one of the buckets, you took a swig of the lava. The viscous liquid crawled slowly down your throat and soothed your burned esophagus and stomach. Clearing your throat, you looked over to your estranged brother. He was looking at you with disgust, his snout scrunched up slightly and his mouth twisted into a grimace.

“What?” Your voice sounded less strained and scratchy. Overall, it felt better to speak.

“Your- your feet were just in there. That’s disgusting.”

You blew out a puff of smoke and watched as it drifted to the ceiling, “my feet were just in water, remember? They’re clean. And besides, I swallowed and inhaled a lot of water so I needed it. I mean, my lungs are still stone, but there’s nothing I can do about it except wait it out.”

“That’s still gross. Wait, can you not drink water?”

“No- well technically I can, but it hurts. Gimme one sec.”

He was quiet as he watched you take a deep breath and dunk your entire head into the lava bucket you weren’t drinking from. His youngest sibling was… strange, but he found that he enjoyed your company so far. The only company he’s had at his cabin recently was his brothers and dad, which burned him out slightly with their big personalities. You were as awkward as he was and that was refreshing. But he couldn’t help but feel guilty after hearing the majority of yours and Philza’s argument. Now that he thought back on his childhood, the majority of his memories were of him and Philza. He didn’t have many negative memories past his adoption, and that was because he spent all of his time adventuring with Philza. He did everything with his adoptive father and absolutely nothing with his siblings. He knew nothing about Wilbur, well Ghostbur now, or Tommy until they stayed with him during Tommy’s exile. He’s never talked to you or spent any time with you before, and he wanted to get to know who you were. He wanted to make up for lost time.

After you were under for a while, he started to worry that you drowned yourself. Just as he was about to pull your head out of the bucket with a hand close to your forehead, you slowly removed your head from the lava and held it over the bucket so that the excess would drip off from you. Panting slightly, you sat up fully and wiped your eyes clean of the lava. You could hear some rustling in front of you so you opened your eyes to see your brother holding out clothes to you. 

“Go change, I’ll make dinner. There’s a spare room upstairs, second door on the left. You can stay there for now.”

You hesitated before you took the clothes from him, “I… Thank you Techno.” You weren’t expecting him to be so kind to you, he was known as the blood god after all. He was ruthless when he battled, leaving thousands without families. You saw him a couple of times when you were younger coming home with Philza covered in blood with a malicious expression on his face. That always made you try to avoid him; not that you had any difficulty doing that, he was never home. 

He curtly nodded before he turned to walk into where you assumed was the kitchen. You trudged up the stairs and tiredly drug your feet down the hallway towards the second door on the left. When you opened the door, you were pleasantly surprised. You didn’t know what you were expecting to see, but it certainly wasn’t this. It was simplistic, yet it looked like a professional decorated it.

The bed looked incredibly comfortable and soft with a large white comforter draped over the top. At both sides of the headboard, twin chests sat underneath double hung windows with wooden frames that matched the spruce planks that made up the walls. You were sure that once the relentless snowstorm stopped you would be able to see a spruce forest in the distance. Lanterns hung at the far corners of the room opposite of where the bed sat. Glancing at the opposite wall, you saw a framed portrait of a nether fortress. You assumed that it was the nether fortress on the other side of his portal. If you squinted, you could see orange specks that you assumed were blazes. 

After you got dressed, you were pleasantly surprised to see that Tommy’s clothes fit you. Despite the slight bagginess of the pants and the sleeves of the jumper hanging halfway past your hands, they fit relatively well. Humming in satisfaction, you hung up your wet clothes to dry and made your way downstairs following the savory smell of cooking meat and potatoes. Your mouth watered at the smell, it’s been a while since you’ve eaten an actual meal. You’d just been surviving on an apple a day with the occasional potato when you had some leftover from making homemade vodka. 

You walked into the kitchen and looked at your brother standing at the stove, the stove looked miniscule compared to his seven and a half foot tall form. That man was a giant and you wouldn’t be lying if his height alone didn’t intimidate you slightly. If he wanted, he could grab your entire face with his hand. Various light pink scars decorated his muscular arms that poked out from the rolled up sleeves of his blouse. He wasn’t wearing his huge fluffy cloak, instead it was draped over the back of one of the chairs at the large wooden dining table. Every part of your body wanted to take it, wrap yourself up into a blaze hybrid burrito, and take the best nap you’ve ever had. His corseted form moved gracefully around the kitchen grabbing various spices and herbs. 

You saw his ears twitch before he moved his massive head  to look back at you, you could see the corners of his mouth quirk up ever so slightly. “They fit you, that’s good. Take a seat, dinner's almost ready.” With that, you took a seat at the table. You felt like a child again, the table was huge, the tabletop coming up to your lower chest. The table and chairs were made of what looked like dark oak wood. The wood was carved intricately with complex patterns etched into the frame and the back of the chairs. 

You eyed the cape draped over the chair next to you. It was a deep royal red with black speckled white fur lining the border of the fabric. If you looked closely, you could see that the pendant that connected the two ends was made of gold and had a diamond encrusted center. It looked incredibly soft, it would be so easy to just reach out with a finger to pet it. Your brother wouldn’t notice if you did it quick enough so that you could touch it before he turned around. When you gathered the courage to touch the cloak, you reached out with a slightly shaking hand to pet the fur, watching Technoblade the entire time. 

Everytime he would move to grab a spice, you would quickly retract your hand and try to act as innocent as possible only to try again after he didn’t turn around again. Just as you finally touched the fabric, you were in awe with how soft it was. It was like petting a newborn puppy but better. You truly couldn’t put into words how soft it was. 

You were snapped out of your trance by a small chuckle, “soft isn’t it?” You jumped, quickly retracting your hand and smacking your head against the back of your chair in the process. You could feel your cheeks heat up more than they usually did, you could see the glow of orange intensify at the bottom of your vision. Your brother was staring at you with amusement, his mouth quirked up in a small smile. He was carrying two plates full of steak and potatoes, putting one in front of you before walking to sit opposite of you. 

“Uh, yeah. It- it’s really soft.” 

“I got it from a nation thousands of blocks from here, it wasn’t easy to get. Those guards were not happy to see me stealing from their king.” He chuckled before he started to eat his food. 

“Is that where you got the crown too?”

“No, Dad got it for me as a going away present when I moved out… You’ve grown up so much since I’ve last seen you. I remember when you barely reached my waist and now you’re only about a foot and a half shorter than me.” 

“You’ve gotten taller also, more scars too.”

“You as well. Are all those from water?” 

“Yeah, it only scars when I crack the stone on my skin though.”

“Ouch. So like you get scars whenever you move?”

You shrugged, “basically.” Turning to your plate, you struggled with not wolfing down the entire thing in one go. You didn’t want to have your brother get the impression you had bad table manners. Wilbur raised you better than that. When you took a bite of the stake, you moaned slightly at the taste. Quickly swallowing your mouthful, you looked at your brother with wide eyes. “Ender Tech, where’d you learn to cook? It’s delicious.”

He gave you a small bashful smile and shrugged, “when you’ve been living alone for this long you pick up on a few things.”

“I’ve been living alone for about a year now and I still can’t cook.”

He raised an eyebrow at you, “well what do you eat then?”

“Just an apple a day, maybe a potato too if I have any to spare.”

He narrowed his eyes, “how the hell are you still alive? That’s hardly enough.”

You blankly stared at your plate, “I’ve been asking myself that everyday, things aren’t… amazing living alone. Uh, let’s talk about happier things. I wanna get to know you.”

He stared at you for a while before he sighed, “fine, but we’re talking about this later. How do you wanna go about getting to know each other?”

“It’s gonna be hard cuz we have like seventeen years to catch up on, but I think we can do it. Let’s… let’s play the favorites game. We take turns naming a category and we both say what our favorite thing in that is. I’ll start, what’s your favorite type of mythology? Like Greek, Egyptian, Norse…”

His eyes lit up at the mention of mythology, “I like Greek mythology. I can talk for hours about it.”

“Nice! I personally like Norse mythology better, we have to exchange myths sometime.”

“My turn, what’s your favorite myth?”

You matched his excitement, “I really like the Ragnarok myth. The fact that the gods know of their impending doom and destruction and are actively working towards it is- is just really intriguing. What’s yours?”

You both abandoned your meals as your conversation diverged into telling each other various myths from your respective favorite mythologies. Your favorite ones he told you were the tales of Orpheus and Eurydice, Persephone and Hades, and Psyche and Eros. You were a sucker for romance even if the thought of you being in a relationship was something you were uncomfortable thinking about. Romance stories just made you happy to see people finding comfort and fulfillment in each other. You told him more about Ragnarok, the creation of Mjolnir, and the murder of Baldur. 

Before you two knew it, hours passed by. Your untouched dinners grew cold and the clock struck midnight startling both of you out of your story telling. You both looked at the grandfather clock then back at each other in shock, “we’ve been talking for four hours Tech.”

“Yeah, we did. It- it was nice talking about mythology. Usually people get bored when I talk about it.”

You rolled your eyes, “Ender, I know. Why don’t they find it as interesting as we do? It’s been a while since I’ve had someone to talk to, it’s nice.”

“We better go to bed, we can just eat a bigger breakfast tomorrow before we take you to the Nether and your house. You probably want to sleep in your own bed.”

You laughed nervously, “yeah about that… I don’t really have a bed anymore. Or an actual house for that matter.”

“The fuck happened?”

“I may have burnt it down accidentally.”

He was silent for a bit before he looked at you suspiciously. “Are you gonna burn my house down?” And there’s the thing you hated most when you told people of your lineage and abilities. They always believe that you’re a being of destruction and inferno. They always grow to not trust you around them or their possessions fearing you would burn them to a crisp. You cursed your biological parents daily for giving you these genes.

You shrunk in on yourself slightly, “no, I’d never do that to you. I’m in control as long as I keep my emotions in check. Can’t get too excited, scared, or happy. I just can’t do anything extreme and my temperature stays low.” 

He grunted, nodding in satisfaction. “We probably should get to sleep soon if we wanna get stuff done before the family reunion.”

“I forgot about that… Have you met the kid Phil’s gonna adopt?”

He drew in a long breath into his nose and huffed it out of his mouth. “Yeah, his name’s Ranboo. And he’s actually only about half a year younger than you are. I don’t know how to feel about him yet, but he seems like he has good intentions.”

You drug a hand through the flames idly flickering on your head, “is Phil seriously gonna adopt another kid? I don’t think it’s a good idea for him.”

“That’s what I thought, I don’t need any more orphans running around here. You, Tommy, and Wilbur are more than enough. We can talk more about this in the morning.”

With that, you picked up your plates and took them to the kitchen. Before you could turn on the water faucet, a hand on your shoulder stopped you. “I’ll get it. You can’t be around this stuff.”

“A little water won’t hurt me. It’s the least I could do, you made dinner.” 

“A little water will hurt you. Go to bed, I’ll handle this. It’s only two dishes.”

You opened your mouth to argue with him, but it snapped shut as soon as he gave you a warning look. “Go to bed (y/n).”

“...Aright, thank you for doing that. I’ll see ya in the morning.”

He grunted as you walked out of the kitchen, up the stairs, and into the guest room. You walked straight to the bed and plopped down onto the surface. You felt sort of bad that you were rubbing soot off onto the white comforter from your still charcoaled skin, but it was nothing that you couldn’t clean in the morning. The bed was extremely comfortable, a stark contrast to your old one. Your old one had lumps and some exposed bedsprings sticking out of the fabric. With the weight of the heavy comforter and the plush mattress, you were out like a light.

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