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whumpqin · 3 years

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Quinn - Chapter 1 (This Wasn’t the Plan)

Hello all! It’s been a while since I’ve posted some of my own writing. I’ve decided to make a side story to Elisha, which is what this is! I hope yall are interested in some Quinn whump >:3c

Taglist: (considering this is a similar but also different series, I’m tagging Elisha’s people, but feel free to want to be removed from this taglist! I will make sure to make the difference.) @faewhump @galaxywhump @castielamigos-whump-side-blog @insanitywishes @burtlederp @whumpasaurus101 @simplygrimly (ask if you want tagged!)

CW: nonhuman whumpee, creepy whumper, muzzles, forced muzzling, fantasy racism, kidnapping, smoking, guns, briefly mentioned assassination attempt, manhandled, getting patted down, gut punching, drugging, needles

Word Count: 2,799

It’s a dull ringing that rouses him from his sleep - an annoying tone that he’d sworn to fix and still hasn’t gotten around to.

Quinn groans at the rude awakening, and rolls his head over to see why it was going off by planting his hand on his phone and dragging it closer. It reads unknown against a background of black. Despite the annoyance that makes his tail curl lazily in his bed, he still swipes his finger across the bottom to answer it, bringing it up to his ear.

“Hello?”

The other side of the line is quiet for a moment, before a gruff voice, a little lower than Quinn expects, speaks. “This number was provided in relation to contacting a ‘Quinn Devereux’. Is this who I’m speaking to?”

“This is he,” Quinn says, sliding his blankets off of him, confusion lighting his voice.

“I am calling on behalf of my employer, Mr. Delaney, who has arrived at the meeting place. Except, it does not appear that you are there. I do hope you plan to be on schedule, yes?”

Ah, hell.

Quinn sits up in the bed quickly as alarm saps all the weight from his body. “Uh, of course not! ‘Pologies, I was plannin’ on makin’ it a uh…” he pauses to bring his phone down and note the time, which is about ten ‘til nine. Shit, shit shit- “a little earlier than this. Same place, right? That old abandoned house?”

“Yes. Don’t be late, Quinn. We wouldn’t want this deal going south, now would we?”

“‘Course! I mean, I-'' The phone makes a beeping noise to indicate that the other side hung up, stopping Quinn in his tracks. He looks down at it to be sure, before heaving a large sigh. It’s going to be one of those days it seems.

He needs to work fast. Firstly Quinn rifles through his apartment for nice-ish looking clothes, and though he’s never bought a suit and swears that he’s not going to no matter how much his Ma tells him to, he finds one of the newer button-up shirts that he bought recently. He scans its surface in case it magically had gathered stains on it while sitting in his dresser drawer in exile, but considering he only wore it once for a job interview he figures it’ll do the trick. He slips it on and finds some day old jeans that don’t smell too awful before he takes a look at himself in the mirror.

He’s a little worse for wear, but at a quick glance it’s only those faint dark circles underneath his eyes that catches his attention the most. Quinn combs through his black hair with his fingers, flattening it to look more presentable while also unhooking strands that wrap around his antlers and the bright orange tag against his ear. He pauses there, looking himself up and down.

Bedraggled and half awake, in clothes that are only somewhat clean. Going to a shady place to make a shady deal on behalf of people he barely knows.

“You can do this,” he quietly tells his reflection as he leans against the sink. “Get in, get out, get paid. Get in, get out, get paid.”

He repeats the phrase a few more times, committing it to memory on his way out. He picks up the handwritten letter he’d left on the small table at the front door and stuffs it into his front pocket. Then Quinn grabs onto his muzzle, slipping the buckles around his antlers to fasten it loosely against his face.

As he walks out of his apartment and onto the street, he makes the mistake of checking his phone one he’s properly in the morning light. It reads five minutes before his meeting, and he still has a ways to walk yet. Quinn lets out an exasperated sigh, eyes falling upwards to the adjacent apartment complex. It’s there he notes some curtains quickly shutter closed. His eyes narrow.

There’s someone watching you. Real strange fellow, he remembers the considerate old lady from down the hall telling him.

Tell me something I don’t know, he had responded. Quinn wouldn’t be surprised if it turns out it was just his employer keeping a good and proper eye on information.

To make up for time, he runs. Quinn dips into the alleyways to escape the busy streets of the morning, taking a few turns that he’s become familiar with while walking through the streets. A couple turns here and there, and he exits out onto another main street very close to his destination. He counts himself lucky he remembers the address at all. It would have been embarrassing as hell to have to ask the guy on the phone where he was supposed to have this meeting in the first place.

Quinn jogs up to the specific house, noting the old “for sale” sign that doesn’t even have a number on it anymore. It’s a huge place, once a mansion that was abandoned a long time ago because of bad press or something. He’s never looked at it before; even looking as ruined as it is by time, the place is still out of his price range.

He knocks on the door politely, taking the small pause to smooth out his clothes in a last ditch effort to not look like he had just gotten up a little bit ago, and waits patiently. The door creaks open with several years’ old whine that makes him wince, squinting one eye while he notices a human, dressed in dark clothing with short brown hair and amber eyes, staring back at him. Due to the muzzle making him unable to speak, Quinn offers a small wave before hovering his pinkie over his mouth and thumb over his ear, then pointing to the man. The human offers no reaction, but merely steps to the side. He takes the cue and steps inside the house.

It’s not as majestic as he once thought it might be. It hasn’t been taken care of in ages; the wallpaper is peeling off of the walls and there are holes in the floor, and the more Quinn steps through the house and hears it creak in response to him the more he wonders if the whole thing is going to cave in on him. It’s practically a deathtrap at this point.

He tries to make his reservations known to the human with a pause, knitting his brows in an uncomfortable position as he shoots a glance back at him, but he doesn't get the message.

The human opens up an old door for him that Quinn peeks around. There’s another human sitting in a chair in the middle of the living room, his legs crossed as he reclines into his seat. There’s a cigarette in one hand trailing smoke into the air, filling the room with its scent. His dirty blonde hair was perfectly styled like his fancy suit, and the only thing that didn’t look put together was the rough stubble against his chin.

The man who greeted Quinn closes the door behind both of them and steps around, joining another man with different hair behind the reclining human’s chair. The human in the chair - the boss he’s supposed to speak to, he supposes, flicks out his left wrist to check his watch almost casually. Then, he looks to Quinn with that icy blue stare of his.

“Right on time, it seems,” he says. Quinn tries not to let the dual feelings of discomfort and relief wash over his face too plainly. The man motions to a table he hadn’t seen yet. “Please, take off that muzzle. We can’t talk business if, well, you can’t talk, now can we?”

At his behest, Quinn slides his fingers up to the buckles against his head to loosen them and pull the muzzle off of his face. As it’s drawn away he takes a moment to work his jaws, careful not to bare his teeth too much in the presence of other humans, just in case. Then he places the muzzle on the table.

“Thanks for that. Are you uh, Mr. Delaney?” Quinn asks.

“Yes. I believe you have a message for me?” Delaney sits up in his chair and takes a long drag of his cigarette.

“Uh, yes, I do, I-” As Quinn reaches into his pocket to pull out the letter he’d been given, both of the humans to Delaney’s left and right immediately pull out guns and aim them directly at him. His chest goes cold. “Whoa, whoa, I’m just pullin’ out a letter!”

Delaney brays out a chuckle, puffing out smoke like some sort of dragon. “You’ll have to forgive these two. A bit jumpy after the last attempt, especially with lone messengers like you. Can never be too careful. You understand, right?” His eyes are squinted from his friendly smile, but there’s an emptiness in them that makes Quinn uncomfortable. Moreso when he waves his free hand towards Quinn and tells the guards to, “search him.”

The two bodyguards step forward without putting their guns away. Quinn swallows and stays perfectly still just like his Pa always told him to, allowing the two to move his arms about and go through his pockets. It’s a bit awkwardly invasive with two sets of hands patting him down like they are, but he’d rather have his personal space invaded than, well, the other outcome. The guards dig into all of his pockets, pulling up his wallet and the letter that had come from Quinn’s employer.

The human who found the letter gives Quinn a side eye that makes him draw a blank in terms of words, before opening the letter himself. He draws out the paper that was carefully handwritten and placed, unfolding it like it was a bomb of some sort.

Quinn was watching him like a hawk, so much so that he didn’t notice the other human had stepped away and given his wallet to Delaney.

“So, Quinn, it seems. You’ll have to forgive me for not remembering, it’s hard to remember everyone’s name nowadays. What brings you to this type of work, huh?” Delaney went on, rifling through Quinn’s wallet with curiosity.

“Um, I-I needed the money,” he mutters, watching the bodyguards hand the letter off to Delaney. “For the record, my employer thought it’d look wrong to bring more people besides, well, me. Wants to be cordial an’ all.” It’s not really his message, but he can’t help but feel a bubbling nervous feeling in his stomach as Delaney reads the letter.

“You mean he doesn’t want to lose any more men, so he figured I’d take mercy on just the messenger,” Delaney cooly corrects.

“Well I’m not sure what my employer’d think, but I’d for sure want the messenger t’ be spared,” Quinn says in the attempt at a joke.

When no one in the room laughs, he curls his tail around his ankle.

Delaney huffs a small bit of laughter as he reaches the end of the letter, beginning to slowly rip it up into little pieces and shoving it into his nice suit. “Quinn, do you know what happens when you give someone an inch?”

“They take a mile?” He swallows as the human stands up from his chair and adjusts his cufflinks.

“Yes, good, at least you’re not totally brain dead like some I’ve seen. I’m not about to relent and give that man a fraction of space like he’s requesting. You of all people should know that this is my territory, right? Where I do my business?”

“Right, but-” His breath hitches when the guard next to him grabs onto his shoulders and holds him before he can step forward. “This agreement is so they won’t encroach, is all. Wouldn’t it’d be better to not have any more territory disputes?”

Delaney regards him for a moment, having to tilt his head upwards just slightly due to Quinn’s height. Then he smiles a bit more widely. “I don’t think we’ll be making a deal today. But… I think we’ll take care of it from here. When are you meeting with your employer again?”

“As, as soon as I can.” Quinn’s eyes frantically look around for an exit as the other bodyguard closes in. He needs to get out of here. Now. “I’ll uh, leave you to it then, I guess. Sorry we couldn’t come to some sorta agreement-”

“Let me at least escort you out. My treat,” Delaney offers with an extended hand towards the door.

“Um, I ‘preciate the offer, but, I actually have a uh, a few things to tend to after this, so-”

The bodyguard holding him delivers a solid blow to his middle, knocking the air out of him in one fell swoop. Quinn doubles over, held up only by the strong hands gripping onto his shirt now, gasping to fill his lungs quickly.

“Perhaps I wasn’t very clear. I wasn’t asking, Quinn.” Delaney tilts his head to the side to catch his eye. “I’m not about to let you blab about everything you saw here just yet. Need a few things in order, you know? I just need to know if you’re coming with me willingly, or if my men need to get involved.”

“Hold… hold on a minute now,” he says quickly and yet still breathless as the panic wells in his chest instead of the oxygen he desperately needed. “I’m, I’m just a messenger, I’m not- what-what are you doing?”

Delaney had sighed and looked to his other body guard while Quinn was talking. He points over to the muzzle lying on the table and flicks his hand. “Muzzle him. I don’t have time to deal with his blabbering.”

Quinn’s arms are wrestled behind him before he can realize. The bodyguard is stronger than he thought, and he holds him still long enough for the other one to draw close enough, muzzle in hand. He struggles, lifting his head out of their reach and kicking his legs out to delay the inevitable. One of them grabs his antlers, jerking his head downwards for long enough that they can wrap the buckles around his face. They’re affixed tightly against his face, muffling most of the panicked cries erupting from his throat beyond whines.

“Enough of that whining,” he hears from Delaney as a firm command. He glances over with terrified eyes to see him pull a phone out of his pocket. “I have to make a call. Oh, you two, make sure to get him comfortable in the trunk, will you?”

The two humans nod, and drag him out of the room. Quinn screams as best he can through his nose, kicking his legs and struggling to get away from them as best he can. One of them spits out a curse, unhooking the gun from their side.

“Shut the fuck up,” he hisses. “I’m not dealing with a spitfire devil today. I’ll just shoot you and get it over with. You want that?” Quinn breathes hard and shakes his head frantically. “Then fucking act like it.”

They pull him out of the house with little issue after that. Quinn’s tail coils, tightening painfully against his ankle as it worries at the fabric and skin, as they approach a dark car with tinted windows. One of the bodyguards walks to the other side and pulls out a few items from the front seat, and Quinn can hear the clinking of chain along with it.

He’s suddenly thrust forward, and his face impacts against the side of the car. His bright eyes go wide, searching frantically for what’s happening, and then he feels metal tightly wrap around both of his wrists. Then he is taken from the side of the car to its back, as one of the bodyguards opens up the trunk. Quinn jerks against the cuffs holding his hands together, frustrated and scared tears pricking at the corners of his eyes.

This can’t be happening, he thinks, looking at the interior of the trunk. His antlers are roughly grabbed again, dragging his head to the side. He can’t help but roll the thought around in his head, how this wasn’t supposed to be how it went, as something sharp sticks into the side of his neck. Quinn squirms, a muted whine slipping from his nose as a wave of dizziness hits him and his legs nearly buckle. The guards take the opportunity and throw him into the back of the trunk, and as Quinn lands with a harsh thud his vision blurs from the force of the impact.

“Get comfortable,” the one who cursed at him before remarks. “You’re gonna be with us for a while, I think.”

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olliya · 4 years

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How popular is MadaSaku in context of other Madara’s and Sakura’s ships? Part 2 - revamped

Thank you @purple-possibilities for your suggestions about searches of multi-words phrases on ff.net. Putting the phrase between quotation marks worked and I could include 4 additional phrases into searches for each ship!

Additionally, I noticed and error! Grrrr... Even though I took under consideration that Tobisaku may mean Tobirama x Sakura and Obito x Sakura, later on I switched from manual to automatic layout of formulas in my excel. And, of course, automatic layout had no clue about Obito/Tobi thing...

So, important errata: Tobirama had only 13 fics (as opposed to 31 which I reported) according to Ship Names Searches. I corrected it also in the original post.

I’m posting the improved version below, but for those who are not into reading this again: Including additional Ship Names in my search didn’t change much. Lee and Ino switched places 6th and 7th, Madara x OC ship gained a lot of entries, but not enough for a position change, and that’s basically it.

Finding the popularity of ships on ff.net is both easier and more complicated, depending how do you approach the problem.

Let’s break down the task into two parts.

Approach 1

FF.net has a Pairing Option that was introduced in October 2013. This function makes the names of characters appear in square bracket, for example: [Madara U., Sakura H.] indicating that those characters form a romantic pair in a given fic.

When using Filters (Figure 1.a.) after choosing the character of interest, one can tick the Pairing Option, and then browse (using up and down arrows) through all the characters of the fandom. The number of fics tagged with Pairing Option between the character of interest (here: Madara) and every character B (here: Sakura) appear on the bottom of the panel (Figure 1.b.).

Data gathered through browsing through all of the Naruto characters with Pairing Option On give unequivocal results. The only limitations of this method is the relatively late introduction time point of Pairing Option (introduced in 2013, while Naruto started publishing in 1999), and sometimes peculiar definitions of “Characters” on ff.net (example: Naruko as a separate character, “Team 7” as a “Character”).

Results for Madara and Sakura are presented below (Figures 2. and 3.) For clarity, ships with four or more fics are shown for Madara. In case of Sakura, all the ships with >4 fics in a graph would blur the picture. Therefore, her Top 20 ships are presented in Figure 3., and the rest is summarized in the Table 1. The analysis was performed on 22.10.2019.

However, ff.net was launched on 15.10.1998 (which precedes publication of Naruto by one year) so there is a 14 year-worth of fic creation when the Pairing Option wasn’t available. To get the complete overview of ship popularity it is necessary to include the body of work created in the earlier years of ff.net.

This issue was addressed through Approach 2.

Approach 2

During the period of 1998-2013 fics were labelled with ship names in the summaries, and readers would look for ships of interest typing ship name into the search box. During those times certain conventional phrases were coined for the ships, and putting those in the summary allowed potential readers to find the story. Searching ff.net using selected phrases and collecting the corresponding fic numbers gives insight into those part of fanworks. Employment of search engine is shown in Figure 4. on the example of phrase “madasaku”.

I performed searches for common ships, basing the list on the ships with 4 or more fics as found using Pairing Option (see: section above).

I searched for the phrases that were and still are still commonly used ship names in Naruto fandom.

In general, there are three common ways to indicate a ship:

a) Merger of names, usually using first two syllables of both names, usually (but not always) with male name being first part of the phrase. Example: madasaku, and (less commonly used) sakumada. For the M/M and F/F couples, both orders are used, and it is impossible to predict which form is more common. Example: sakuhina and hinasaku would be used with similar frequency. In case of names composed of two syllables or shorter, one syllable is often used.

b) Name_1xName_2 – complete names of characters separated by letter “x”, without spaces in between. There is no strict preference as to which name goes first more frequently, i.e. sakuraxmadara is equally plausible as madaraxsakura.

The same naming scheme exists also in a version with spaces (example: Madara x Sakura). Searching for such phrases (and all phrases including spaces) required putting the Ship Name between quotation marks (”Madara x Sakura”).

c) A combination of the above, i.e. shortened versions of names connected with an “x”; with spaces (example: mada x saku) and without spaces (madaxsaku - again searched using apostrophes)

Search engine of ff.net is case-insensitive, i.e. searching for “madasaku” will bring the same results as searching for “Madasaku” and “MadaSaku” (thank gods).

Naming convention that is common on AO3, i.e. separating character names with slash “/”, isn’t correctly recognized by search engine. If the phrase is written without usage of spaces (example: Madara/Sakura) the search results in list of fics containing “Madara” and “Sakura”, not necessary together (slash symbol gets ignored). When phrase “Madara/Sakura” is searched with quotation marks, slash still gets ignored and results include all entries with any symbol between the names. Therefore, the ship names weren’t included in this analysis.

Other potential ship names variations (using “*”, using “&”, and surely a multitude of others variants that I couldn’t think of) were not included due to their relative infrequency (and limits to my capacity and imagination).

For every ship included in the results of Approach 1 (total 43 searches for Sakura’s ships, and 12 searches for Madara’s ships), I searched for the following phrases (on example of MadaSaku ship):

madasaku

sakumada

madaraxsakura

sakuraxmadara

madaxsaku

sakuxmada

madara x sakura

sakura x madara

mada x saku

saku x mada

Certain ship names don’t follow the usual rules and/or required special treatment. For example, for the ship Gaara/Haruno Sakura the common name merger is GaaSaku (and not GaaraSaku). Tsunade/ Haruno Sakura is equally often (or rarely, because it is very rare) abbreviated to TsuSaku and Tsunasaku. Fics tagged with TobiSaku name merger may mean Senju Tobirama/Haruno Sakura as well as Tobi (Obito’s persona)/Haruno Sakura – in this case, fics were manually inspected, and assigned to correct categories. Ship with Naruko (which scored relatively high in Pairing Option analysis), was not possible to correctly assess, because the merger name “narusaku” is identical for the merger of Uzumaki Naruto/Haruno Sakura (for good reasons).

All the fics for given pair were summed up (i.e. for Uchiha Madara/Haruno Sakura ship the fic numbers retrieved through searches for “madasaku”, “sakumada”, “madaraxsakura”, “sakuraxmadara”, “madaxsaku”, “sakuxmada” “madara x sakura”, “sakura x madara”, “mada x saku” and “saku x mada” were added together). The obtained results will be referred to as those of “Ship Name” in this analysis.

Results for Madara and Sakura are presented below (Figures 5. and 6.). In case of Sakura, including all the examined ships in a graph would blur the picture. Therefore, her Top 20 ships are presented in Figure 6., and the rest is summarized in the Table 2. The analysis was performed on 22.10.2019. The additionally searches performed on 31.12.2019 did not take under consideration fics published after 22.10.2019, to reflect the state of fandom on the day of main analysis.

This list presented in Table 2 is not a comprehensive one. There are certainly more ships with >10 fics that were not included. One prominent, detected example is Chōji, who has 13 fics in as a ship partner of Sakura, but was not included in Table 2 because according to the Pairing Option he had no fics with Sakura.

Limitations of the method

Employed method depends on performing six independent searches and summing up the numbers from those searches. A fic tagged with more than one of the searched phrases will be counted multiple times. For example: if a fic contained phrases “MadaSaku” and “MadaraxSakura” in its summary, it was counted twice. In extreme case, one fic would generate ten data points: one real, and nine false.

Nevertheless, since the same treatment was applied to all the pairings, the errors should be distributed in the same way across all the ships. Therefore, even if the numerical values obtained through this analysis don’t necessarily correspond to reality, the results should reflect respective relations between the ships (i.e. “ranking” should be correct). This assumption is true however only if all the subdivisions of the fandom follow the same customs and tagging etiquette. I.e. if creators writing for SasuSaku followed a habit of including only one Ship Name in their summaries, while creators of MadaSaku tended to include multiple Ship Names, then my method of analysis would overestimate the significance of MadaSaku ship. However, I am not aware about such trends existing in Naruto fandom.

Additionally, Ship Name tagging system allows for tagging infinite number of ships in one fic, therefore certain fics have been counted multiple times.

Discussion

When considering fics tagged with Pairing Option, Sakura ranks as Madara’s second most popular ship partner, after Hashirama and before Tobirama. As on AO3, it is telling that a relatively “exotic” pairing with OC ranks 4th among Madara’s ships.

Madara is the 9th most popular ship partner of Sakura. Comparing and contrasting Sakura’s data between ff.net and AO3 would be an interesting analysis in its own right, but here I will only point out the switch of positions between Naruto and Kakashi as Sakura’s ship partners (Naruto is a strong 2nd on ff.net, while Kakashi takes this position on AO3); and relatively low, 7th place of Ino (strong 4th on AO3).

When taking into account data gathered though Ship Names Searches, Sakura ranks as Madara’s 2nd most popular ship partner (after Hashirama and before OC).

Madara, on the other hand is Sakura’s 15th most popular ship partner. Since Ship Names Searches results are mostly derived from fics published in earlier years in Naruto fandom, his lower place can be explained by his very late appearance in the franchise (on-panel in February 2008 - almost 9 years after Naruto started publishing and in person in the story in October 2011 - 12 years after begin of publishing).

Data gathered in this analysis present a unique opportunity for looking into the development of ship popularity over time.

Results from Pairing Option reflect mostly the state of fandom in years 2013-2019, while the results from Ship Names Search show the status from the earlier years. The exact division is however somewhat blurred as some fics published before October 2013 has been retroactively tagged using Pairing Option (even if the majority of older fics remain untagged). The reverse is also true – many fics published after introduction of Pairing Option, even as recently as end of 2019, fail to use it. Additionally, many fics are tagged using both systems: the Pairing Option and Ship Name in summary.

Nevertheless one can tentatively regard Pairing Option results as “new”, or “current” ones, while the ones coming from the Ship Names Searches as “older” ones.

Figure 7. presents position changes in Top 12 Madara’s ships. Ranking from Pairing Option analysis was regarded as current and compared to the “older” ranking composed from all the fics tagged with Ship Names (regardless their publishing date). A positive value in the Figure 7. indicates a gain of popularity, for example: Tobirama gained 2 positions among Madara’s ships when comparing the “current” and “older” results.

This analysis reveals that certain ships (with Tobirama, Naruto and Hinata) gained, while ships with OC and Itachi lost on popularity. Dramatic loss of Itachi ship popularity is very interesting and one can speculated that it could be caused by Tobi/Obito reveal.

The same analysis was performed for Sakura’s ships and is presented in Figure 8.

Inspecting changes in Sakura ships’ rankings allows for several interesting observations. Minato, Shisui, Madara and Sasori are among greater winners. It is symptomatic that all, except Sasori, are characters that appeared (or became relevant) later during the franchise. Among the characters losing in popularity as Sakura’s ship partners are members of Konoha Eleven (Lee, Kiba, Sai, Neji), an Akatsuki member (Deidara) and OC. It should also be noted that five top positions (Sasuke, Naruto, Kakashi, Itachi and Gaara) remained unchanged.

To further examine the “current” and “older” state of fandom, upon harvesting Ship Names data I sorted the fics according to publication date and took note of how many fics were published before and how many after 01.10.2013 (approximate date of introduction of Pairing Option tool).

If one repeats the analysis from Figures 7. and 8. considering only fics published before 01.10.2013 as “older” ones, the following pictures appears (Figure 9. and 10.):

Using this definition of “older” fics (i.e. fics tagged with Ship Names that were published until October 2013), the gain of popularity of Tobirama ship becomes even more evident (gain of 7 positions). Ships with Itachi (as in the previous analysis) and Sasuke (undetected in the previous analysis) lost on popularity.

Sakura ships’ dynamics according to this definition of “older” fics show even more pronounced positions’ gains of Minato and Shisui, but otherwise similar trends to previous analysis.

Analysis of ship popularity on ff.net is a challenging one, but since this platform was, and still is main archive for Naruto fandom (407 thousands fics vs 49 thousand on AO3) it is important to address this issue even if methodology is far from perfect.

I am open to all the comments, suggestions and hints, as the data collection was a major effort and I’m sure that this data can be used in many other different ways.

And, your feedback showed me that people are interested in such stuff. Thank you for this!!! I have at least three further ideas for analysis, and now, when I have some experience and first insight into data, it will be easier.

#multisaku #madasaku #fandom statistics #naruto stats

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stevieang · 5 years

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Life As You Know It

Pairing: Tony Stark x Fem!Reader Insert, college AU

Word Count: 3500

Warnings: High school clique drama, implied bullying, mean girls, boy/girl best friends, vague reference to death if you look sideways and upside down

Tags: @3dsaunt @andiyholly @averyrogers83 @babybluesunsets @bettercallsabs @brittyevans @brookebarnes @captain-rogers-beard @cecygee @csrfavs @docharleythegeekqueen @dorito-distractions @everythingisoverrated @fabicchi @fandomliane @favhearts @fictivefrolic @flawless-disaster @gifsbysimplysonia @hazeleyedgirl7 @hennessy0274-blog @inumorph @jaguars2007 @jaamesbbarnes @jamesbarnesappreciationsociety @janeyboo @joshburtonhellzyess @jouhainak @learisa @lemurian-starship @letsgetfuckingsuperwholocked @lilylovescomics @linesal @lojo83 @lookwhatyoumademequeue @lostinspace33 @madicardi @magellan-88 @mamapeterson @marvellouslyaveragesblog @me-a-hopeless-romantic @mentalfictionleftmyassbehind @meyoko10 @mindingmyownbusiness @minesig @mizzzpink @naritasamoosa @neverleturheartshow2 @nomadicpixel @ohwhatamessiam @part-time-patronus @patzammit @pinkieandthebrain1 @redqueen1221 @sebbytrash @sixweekcure4dreams @sgtjbuccky @sony-undead18 @star-spangled-man-with-a-plan @stark-spangled-banner-man @st-eve-barnes @stillherebiandabitch @sunriserose1023 @suz-123 @the-real-kellymonster @their-bibliophile @tutis24 @ultracolorfulnerdcollection @vinygurl @winterisakiller @winterismyfavoriteseason1945 @winters-beauty @yaykitty3

Summary: You and Tony Stark were best friends, your mothers were best friends, and you were always there for each other. You went to the same high school and attended college in the same town. Maria Stark loved you like her own, and knew that, given the right amount of time and opportunity, more could develop between you and her son. Would the two of you catch on?

A/N: Congratulations to @fanficfaerie for this follower milestone, it is so well deserved! Thank you for creating and running this Disney Song and Quote Challenge, I am sure it is time consuming and taxing in ways I can’t imagine. I appreciate the opportunity to participate, though I’m a tad nervous - I’ve never written Tony Stark before - hope this fits the bill!

Quote: “You are braver than you believe, stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think.” Winnie the Pooh

You were fuming. The good-girl, goodie-two-shoes rep that you so carefully cultivated with your teachers had always served you well. It was a complete act, but only your besties had any inkling. Until today, when the meanest of mean girls in your private school learned that you were responsible for a social media post detailing her daily atrocities. Your best friend Tony Stark helped you erase all traces of a digital fingerprint, but somehow, Christine found out and, after enlisting her parents’ help, had your ass hauled to the principal’s office.

As you listened to the adults yelling, lecturing, and threatening, all you could think of was the scene in “The Incredibles” when Dash’s teacher was trying to convince the principal to suspend him for putting a tack on his chair, to no avail. Except in your reality, there was no parent in the room to defend or punish you. Your parents were divorced, your Dad living on the other side of the country and your Mom, a pharmaceutical sales rep for a national company, always on the road. You had a good relationship with both your parents, but they were of the mind that the biggest part of their job was to instill solid moral character and independence from an early age. When you turned 16 and started driving, your mom made good on her plan to prepare you for adulthood. You had to complete all necessary home and school functions, maintain an acceptable GPA, incur no disciplinary problems, and communicate daily with her about the little and big things going on in your life. In exchange, you could come and go as you pleased, and have run of the house when she traveled, which was more often than not. Your living situation was the envy of the school. You weren’t about to do anything to mess it up, but today, it seemed you were on the fast-track to doing just that.

As your mom was out of town, the person they called, your guardian in absentia, was your Mom’s best friend since childhood, Maria Stark. Mrs. Stark was used to being called in to various offices of authority to answer for her son’s behavior, ego, or infractions. Tony started building internal combustion engines when he was 6, so high school was something he could have skipped altogether, but was forced upon him by his mother, to “foster social skills,” and help him get the “traditional teenage experience.” He was smarter than all his teachers and never let an opportunity pass where he could point that out. It was never well received. You two made a great “we don’t fit the mold and we love it” duo.

“Explain to me again why we’re here, sir, because I am at a loss to understand what rule this young lady has broken.” Maria was elegant, sophisticated and, in her own right, a very smart woman. When she asked a question, most likely she knew the answer; she was simply gathering information to support her argument against the unlucky person sitting across from her.

“Mrs. Stark, this young lady used social media to smear and defame the reputation of another student. As the school handbook states, this is grounds for detention and possibly suspension, as well as joint treatment sessions with the school counselor.” You leapt out of your chair, full of righteous teenage anger, intent on storming out. Maria’s hand on your arm and supportive gaze cooled your temper; she wasn’t going to let anyone steamroll you.

The next hour was spent determining what evidence, if any, conclusively linked you to the incident. Turns out, there was none, other than the suspicion of parents who were mortified that their daughter’s abhorrent behavior was now out in the world for anyone to see. You admitted to nothing, and though Christine’s face was chartreuse as the rapidly-growing Twitter feed was read aloud, there was nothing that pointed to you, other than the well-known fact that you hated the girl’s guts. It was the tragically classic scenario of a beautiful popular girl collecting herdmates to make fun of and torture girls like you, someone who didn’t fit nicely in any round holes. You left with a week’s worth of detention for the bogus crime of “lack of adherence to the school’s honor code” and a promise to clear your name when they found out you were innocent. After you filled him in, Tony shared your disbelief, and immediately started plotting.

You and he sat in the backseat while Maria drove home, spending the entire time texting with back and forth about ways to get even with the principal, to continue to make Christine’s life terrible, and to find out who suggested you were responsible.

“Hey, you two. I don’t know what you’re talking about, but I know it’s some kind of revenge plan. I won’t have that, Tony. I will not have you two digging yourself any deeper.”

Tony: My mom knows it was you?

You: I never said a word, but she’s not dumb.

Tony: No she’s not, but do you want to tell her?

You: u think I should?

Tony: I would.

You: You would put up a billboard on the highway to announce you did it. Not a great role model.

Tony: I’ll give you that.

“Ok, Mrs. Stark, no revenge. I promise.” You leaned forward to lay your hand on her shoulder. “Thank you so much for being there today. I’d probably be suspended if you hadn’t been.”

“Yes, you’re right, I’m sure. Let’s forget all this and have some dinner, shall we?”

The Starks employed a chef, but when Mr. Stark was traveling, Maria often chose to cook. Tony ate, but he preferred the company of metal and circuits to people, so he often brought his plate in his room. When you joined them, he was required to come to the table, and Maria always prepared something you both loved to eat. Tonight, it was vegetable and pasta salad with steak and potatoes, accompanied by calm and civilized conversation that focused on things other than what happened earlier in the day. You appreciated not having to rehash the event, again, not being judged. You looked at the mother and son sitting next to you and felt cared for, taken care of. It was nice to not be a grown-up for once.

Tony’s thoughts were multiplying on how to get back at that little bitch Christine and her circle of hags. He looked at you, his best friend, one of the few people in the world that cared about him without reservation or expectations. He looked at you, the girl who stood by him at every step, every failure, every success, who encouraged his work, appreciated his failures, and called him out on his bullshit at every opportunity. Senior year was in full swing and he knew he never wanted to be without you. He also knew your insecurities and that made his heart bend even more, because he had them, too.

Maria looked at you and her son and smiled. Your rapid-fire conversation was smart, witty, and, at times, vulgar, but with an undercurrent of true affection. When she and her best friend delivered what would be their only children within a month of each other, they made a promise to remain a part of each other’s lives. That promise had borne this friendship playing out at her dining room table. Tony looked at you adoringly, and you returned it with a gaze full of laughter and spark, two things that were necessary if you were going to ever be more than friends. Maria knew the ingredients for a great match were already there, all that was needed was time and opportunity, and there would be plenty of both.

Until there wasn’t.

After graduating from high school, you both attended college in Boston; Tony blowing shit up at M.I.T. and you diving head-first into your double-major at Boston College. He was famous before he arrived, but after? He was a magnet for all things flashy, fun, illegal, and new. He was surrounded wherever he went; inundated with phone numbers, obvious invitations to a variety of one-night stands, and so much debauchery and alcohol that the head of campus security told the president of MIT, who then called the big man, Howard. After the browbeating, the only change in his behavior was an improved ability to slide under the radar and avoid trouble. You only found out on the increasingly-rare occasion you texted each other.

You lived in separate apartments, attended different schools, pursued different fields of study. It was natural that you wouldn’t see each other as you once did. You shied away from the big loud crowds that were Tony’s new normal, and he couldn’t understand why you enjoyed spending quiet time with friends that weren’t him. The waning friendship hurt both of you, in ways the other didn’t recognize. Tony sought out the company of an unceasing string of one-night stands and you finally decided to open your heart to guys whose names weren’t always in the paper. Life went on, with a little less spark, less laughter, less heart. The holidays were fast approaching, and this time, they felt different; and not in a good way.

Thanksgiving break was a quick one, spent catching up with family and marshalling your energy to push through finals. For the first time in your memory, you did not want to go to the Stark’s home for the traditional day-after-Thanksgiving dinner, where everybody brought a dish of leftovers, the Stark’s added liquor and pizza, and you caught up for hours. You tried to get out of it, but it was non-negotiable, from your mother’s perspective. You planned on staying away from Tony, kissing Maria and Howard, and coming home with claims of a headache. After the party, the Moms talked and compared notes about how glum their children became at the mention of the other’s name. They each took it upon themselves to plant seeds that would ignite the feelings they knew you had for one another.

“Hey, Stark’s here for you.” You were on your bed, hair up, pencil through the elastic, piles of books and your laptop spread out everywhere. The sigh that escaped did not go unnoticed by the playboy who didn’t bother to wait for an invitation to enter your room.

“I heard that sigh and I resent it. What? No confetti? No nudity? What the hell? When did you turn into a grown-up?” You snorted, knowing this line of questioning was meant to either convince you to do something you didn’t want to, or to help assuage his guilt. “I grace you with my presence on a Friday night and this is what I find? The old lady librarian look?” It didn’t matter to him what you wore, anything you chose made his heart leap, but damned if he was going to let you know that.

Your glasses slipped off as you leaned forward, doubled over in laughter. “Guess so, T. There’s this thing most neurotypical humans do. It’s called “studying,” it’s in every college handbook ever printed, and if I don’t do it, I’m not going to Oxford.” Your undergraduate work had led you to your calling, Cognitive Neuroscience studies. Your entire life’s goal was to gain admission to the Wellcome Trust Doctoral Training Program in Neuroscience at Oxford, which meant every grade counted, every test and paper was important. You had no time to indulge in dinner out, let alone participate in the Unequivocally Unchecked Life of Tony Stark.

His facade fell, a bit, as he sat next to you and gently placed your glasses back on your nose. You immediately pushed them up to avoid his eyes, and pulled loose papers out from under his exceptionally toned butt. Not that you noticed. “C’mon, it’s Friday night, when’s the last time you left this apartment to do something other than study? I told our moms I would check in on you.”

“Ahhhh, so that’s why you’re here, Moms Mandate.” Your disappointment must have been evident, even to the oblivious Tony Stark.

“No. I’m here because I didn’t get to see you over Thanksgiving and I miss hanging out with someone who doesn’t kiss my ass. Though, if you wanted to kiss anything of mine, I would be more than open to that idea.” Tony rarely seemed awkward, he covered it so well with bravado that it took a trained eye to realize that insecurity bubbled close to the surface.

You surprised yourself, and him, when you slowly leaned forward and, at the last minute, kissed his forehead. His expression caused you to cry with laughter, again, as you hopped up and grabbed something to drink. A surge of pride filled you; you had unsettled the unflappable Tony Stark. “You can report back to the Moms that I am fine. Working very hard, achieving excellent grades, exhibiting an appropriate level of safety, enjoying my friends, and unsullied by neither man nor woman.” He sighed and dropped his head in disgust.

“That is the most depressing thing I’ve ever heard. C’mon, you’re coming with me, you are going to experience Boston nightlife and actually live the college dream.” He was clearly thrilled with the idea, but you put the brakes on his party train.

“Thank you for taking on the role of social protectorate, but I can’t. I am not going to engage with you about why and how, I just need you to trust that I cannot go out tonight.” His skepticism didn’t make you waver one bit.

“Ok, then tomorrow night, and I am not taking no for an answer. You are going to get all dolled up and enjoy a breathtakingly irresponsible night on the town. My treat.” Your heart flipped at the invitation, but it didn’t stop you from speaking your mind.

“As enticing as that invitation is, I do not want to be an anonymous member of the Tony Stark entourage. I can find my own fun, thanks.” You stood and opened the door, picking up additional reference materials and returning your attention to the task at hand. “Bye T, thanks for stopping by, say hi to your Mom for me. Please tell her I can’t wait to see her and your Dad at Christmas.”

Tony Stark was unaccustomed to being dismissed. He knew that other than his mother, you were the only person that could do it and cause him to pause and re-evaluate his behavior. As he left, he knew he had to prove to you that he was sincere, that he wanted to hang out with you, help you lighten up, and watch you enjoy yourself. You gasped and looked at him as he gently encircled your waist and hugged you.

“I miss you. I want to spend time with you. Please.” You froze in his arms, unable to process what was going on.

“Sure, T. Text me tomorrow and let me know what’s up. We can meet up somewhere, no problem.” Little did you know that Tony had much more in mind than a simple dinner.

You awoke to a confusing text.

Tony: When you read this, please head to the campus library and ask for the head librarian. She has something for you

You: Ummmmmm, ok?

You’d be lying if you didn’t admit you were a tiny bit fluttery that Tony had taken the time to think about you to this degree. You grabbed a bagel and your protein shake and headed over. You knew the head librarian, Ms. Williams, very well and she smiled upon seeing you.

“One moment, dear. I’ve got something for you.”

Follow this clue to the 8th floor. You will find an old friend waiting in the Children’s Literature section, with your next objective. You complied, searching for the provided shelf number when you arrived at the 8th floor.

You laughed as The Complete Tales of Winnie the Pooh came into view, with a Pooh and honey pot bookmark stuck in the pages. This book was a staple of your childhoods. Your mothers gave each other copies, read the stories to you every night, and your favorite quote was under your senior picture in the high school yearbook. Your excitement grew as you remembered how fun Tony could make the most mundane events. You also wondered how the hell he had time to do all this between last night and this morning.

The bookmark was tucked into the page with the quote, and you smiled at his sweetness. He knew how much it meant to you.

“You are braver than you believe, stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think.”

Did you think I could forget these words? They mean as much to me as they do to you. I wanted to remind you of how much you mean to me. There’s a surprise waiting for you at your apartment, where you’ll find the next clue.

You practically sprinted back home, gasping when you saw a beautiful soft yellow dress hanging on your closet door, with an appointment card to a very expensive salon on Newbury Street. You turned the card over and continued to smile - Tony had already paid for whatever you wanted done and had left a tip. He really could be thoughtful when he took the time.

It was early December, so you bundled up before heading out to your appointment. When you left, you could not believe the transformation.

You: Thanks Tony, I can’t believe you did all this.

Tony: For you? Of course. I’ll be by at 8pm. Can’t wait to see you.

That felt different. Your insides squished and squirmed - whether it was excitement or nerves, you weren’t sure. You dressed, beautified, and waited.

Tony: I hope you’re ready, beautiful. On my way.

Geez, he was laying it on thick. You laughed when he pulled up to your building in a regular old car he must have borrowed from someone’s father and jumped out to open your door. You had no idea why he would not drive one of his ridiculously flashy fleet. You were a huge Madonna fan in your younger years, and this struck you as the plot of her “Material Girl” video; was he trying to impress you by thinking he was just as “regular” as you were? Tony could never be described as “regular” or “average,” even if he didn’t have a dollar to his name.

Tony never really stopped. He momentarily paused, he changed his focus, but his brain, his body, his mouth were always in high gear. So when he got out of the car and saw you, it was a wholly different feeling. He had never seen you look so beautiful - the dress wrapped within your white winter coat, your cheeks pink from the cold, your hair beautifully styled. He hadn’t realized how long your hair had gotten and how much it changed your entire appearance.

“You look stunning. I did a very good job picking this out, didn’t I?” Now this was your best friend.

“Yes, Tony, you did an amazing job. I loved the clues, loved the book, loved everything. It made me realize how much I missed you.” You turned to him and asked him to stop. “How much I missed the real Tony Stark.” His eyes closed as you softly kissed his cheek and let your hand land on his.

“C’mon, time for me to show you off and ply you with insanely expensive drinks.” He kept his promise. The night was fun, like old times, but prettier and with alcohol. You talked about everything and nothing, filling each other in, sharing your hurts and stories and plans, and reveling in each other’s company. Neither of you wanted the night to end, so you invited him to your apartment for a nightcap. You were shocked when he refused.

“No thanks, I don’t think that’s a good idea.” Your eyes questioned and he saw the sting of rejection. He looked at you, held your hands, and pecked your lips with his. You stepped back, stunned. “You have no idea how much I want to, but I want to earn you, and I haven’t yet.”

“What does that mean? What are you trying to earn?”

“Someone I don’t deserve. You.” With another soft peck on the cheek, he was gone.

In the weeks leading up to Christmas break, you wondered if that night was a dream. You and Tony awkwardly texted a bit, but didn’t see much of each other in the mad rush of finals. After handing in your last project and dragging yourself to your apartment to make up as much lost sleep as possible, you were stunned out of your stupor by the sight of Tony waiting in front of your door.

“You’re done, right?” His tired smile mirrored your own.

“Yes, thank the Lord in Heaven and every deity known to modern man.”

“Good. I wanted to show you something I’ve been working on.” He stood and took out his phone, ready to press play when you put your hand over his.

“Tony can we go inside so I can sit down and maybe sleep for 2 days?” He barely heard you, his nerves clearly a distraction, but he nodded and sat next to you, relaxing when you lay your head on his shoulder.

He apologized for leaving you hanging since your night out, for not paying enough attention to you, for not showing you how much you meant to him. “My mom also slapped me once or twice to drive the point home that I’ve been a douchebag. I’m sorry.” He cued up the video on his phone and played it. The introduction included the theme song to the “Winnie the Pooh” movie and cut to your favorite quote. He took your silence for awe, then realized you were sleeping soundly.

As he tucked a blanket around you and kissed your forehead, he whispered, “You are the reason I am braver and stronger, and that’s because you’re smarter. I hope you hear me because I can’t imagine saying it out loud again.” You smiled to yourself as you snuggled under your covers and drifted off to sleep.

The End

#disneyquotechallenge #fanficfaeriechallenge #thank you #stevieang #tony stark #marvel au #best friends #fem reader #winnie the pooh

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ofindcmitability · 4 years

Note

🍁 EACH. ONE. OF. THEM.

WILLIAM FLYNN HALLIWELL

— wow so here we go. I remember very specifically. So my mom got the special Hulu to use the free trial and then cancel it so I watched the first two episodes of Deadly Class on it, then that night I watched the third episode when it aired after I watched The Magicians. I checked gif packs and yep I knew I wanted to do Benjamin Wadsworth. He, as my main, replaced by original version of Peyton Halliwell who I’d been struggling with forevers at that time. So originally I was thinking Henry Jr, but he’d been taken at the time. I’d also been obsessed with this fanfiction series (still am TBH it’s so fucking funny). This is the fic that made me say, I wanna do a damaged child taken in by a semi-adult. The semi-adult in the fic had been a teenager, so I thought of Mick who was playing Wyatt Halliwell and contacted her. ( Also a sidenote bc hilariously, the song came on. RWBY v6 had recently ended and the ending song NEVERMORE (which Will’s lyrics and title are from) started playing literally right now so thats funny ). Anyhow Mick was like SURE, and tbh the original connection idea was just through magic school but then it EVOLVED, I’m legit thinking thru the transcript of our conversation rn it’s wild??? Mick helped me choose darklighter-demon so this is fucking awesome ( go Mick!!! ) I LEGIT SENT THIS FROM THE FANFIC

“Hey, uh. Wyatt? I… I kind of failed my test today.”Wyatt grabbed the bottle of tequila that he insisted they didn’t own and poured it into his coffee. “I know, Will. I was there.” He sighed. Will slid the test across the table towards him and offered a wry smile. “My teacher said our parent or guardian needed to sign it if we failed.” He told him and Wyatt stared at him for a good two minutes before taking a long sip of the alcoholic coffee. He picked up the test and Will felt a stab of guilt for making the man look so goddamn tired. Maybe he should try a bit harder… Wyatt grabbed a pen and dramatically signed the test that he had graded earlier. “Get out of my face you evil, evil child.”

My goodness Mick and I fucking went at it over William Formally Flynn.

Mick, after I showed her Will’s intro which I spent two hours writing as I listened to the same exact song.

i like it when you hurt me.02/01/2019Oh my actual fucking good that breaks my heart.

Okay so next.

ASTER SILVERMIST

—- it’s weird bc I’m so horrible with chars Aster was literally brought in at a different era than William. Will has so many years on my others it’s fucking wild. Anyhow Imma just look at C and I’s transcripts bc I don’t remember how specific it went besides C posting Thomas Doherty’s FC as someone she was gonna do, and I knew I wanted to do Mitchell Hope post so I was like HEYYYYYY .

Literlally us:

satan with a keyboard07/29/2019CASUALLY DORPS INTO UR PM TO KNOW ABOUT UR THOMAS AND SEE IF U WANNA DO A CONNECTION WITH MY MITCHELLthe charizard of fkeke07/29/2019yes i want a connectioni am a slut for mitchell and thomas thanks to d2

But yes, I remember looking up fairy names and last names bc I wanted perty names, and us just fucking brainstorming like wild and then C coming us with everaster and damn we went AT IT

HENRIK MIKAELSON

I can’t go into someone’s DM to help me so this’ll come from memory. I know I wanted to do Brenton, and for a bit I was considering doing him as our then-Davina’s brother connection. But I ended up not doing it bc I had muse for someone else and I was at character limit at the time (crazy right??) anyhow so…. okay tbh I have no idea how my want for Brenton translated into him becoming Henrik Mikaelson bc he does not look like a Mikaelson. I know it def had to do with Titans s2 coming out and a huge influx of muse for Brenton. I think I wanted to do a canon which was where Henrik fit in but honestly I don’t remember and now I’m bothered by it lmao. I know I played Freya thrice before doing Henrik so maybe it was a want for a Mikaelson? I really really don’t know what the fuck happened there. But yes, and his backstory of being brought back in s2 of TO came from another rp I was in where I played Henrik with Robbie Kay and even thou it didn’t end up clicking right bc of the fc, I always fucking loved my initial idea of him having come back way back then. I think my want for him to work with kids and be a caretaker came from Dick and Rachel in Titans tbh skndkngf bc I loved that softness and I was thinking he could have a soft relationship with Hope too, I rmemeber thinking to myself I’d use their huggle gifs for them eventually lmfao. But yes honestly my memory is shit and dusty and while I rmemeber how other huge changes and plots came to be for him, his creation is a molted memory. TBH I’m really surprised no one’s ever yelled at me for how non-Mikaelson he looks/is.

PEYTON HALLIWELL

So, let’s pre-requisite this by reminding everyone I’ve played Peyton Halliwell twice before with a number of three FCs, maybe more that I’m forgetting too tbh. The ones I remember are Lili Reinhart, Ginny Gardner and Taylor Hickson. So what happened here was. Um. Okay tbh I don’t remember too much. My ultimate memory is in the form of me mentioning Natalia Dyer to Sam and him being like I FUCKING LOVE HER DO IT and honestly thats how that happened lmfao. Her personality stemmed from Natalia’s ton of guns gifs and I still haven’t actually done her intro RIP. But yeah, this is finally the Peyton I got right bc everyone actually likes her kdnkgngkng I think. But yes. There’s her origin story, Sam loving Natalia Dyer.

BARBARA FRIEDH

Barbara Gordan and Jane Levy. Babs is still fairly new, so I remember enough. I was in/still am in a Batfamily phase. So I was following the Titans tag and they showed a picture of Brenton and Jane in a movie together bc she’s the perfect Barbara Gordan and I just loved her Fc for the firs time, bc in the past I’d seen her and never felt anything. So I found out she had a good number of gif packs and they’re so pretty??? But I was so hesitant bc I didn’t have an idea for her and I didn’t wanna go in half cocked. So I had a gif of her in my drafts for weeks with the name Mar’i or Zoe beside it bc I couldnt think of ANYTHING. but then I was finally like, fuck it. and I wrote her intro somehow?? I rmemeber sitting there so usnure for such a while but then it started rolling and Victoria’s connection just fit. I wanted to name her Babs bc i fucking love the nickname Babs it’s so cute. I almost changed her name but Ace was a warrior for hte name Barbara so thus she became Barabara Friedh. Friedh, is a surname from the video game Lost Odyssey which I liked and yeee.

JACK KLINE

Okay so here’s the thing. Jack Kline is a soft soft sweet boy who has struggles with three dads and a major guilt complex. I loved him from his first episode. I was hesitant for a second tbh, bc I was like Maybe I shouldn’t. Cause it’d suck to take him on and drop him, or be really bad at him (jury’s still out on that one) but like. I have not felt such muse for a proper canon character in a hell of a long time. So I browsed through his edit tag and i just said, Okay so this is happening. I even ended up making a whole entire gif pack of him in one day yesterday bc resources r a Bich. But yes like. I love Jack a lot as a character. I feel like he made me enjoy Supernatural again bc I found his plotline so compelling and him to be such a good and earnest character who’s just trying so hard and that spoke to me.

But yeah, these are my bitches. Hope you’re happy Gaby.

#ooc #wow #length tw #troubleson #answered #munday

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data-monkey · 5 years

Text

AO3 stats project: tags

In this post, we'll discuss tags on the Archive of Our Own! Please note: because the works on the Archive include explicit material, some of the tags discussed in this post may not be appropriate for your workplace.

The Archive of Our Own has one of the best tagging systems around. You can read more about it here, here, here, or here. For our purposes, the important part is that users can tag their works however they want, and then a group of people called "tag wranglers" sort those tags, either adding them as synonyms of existing tags or creating new canonical versions for them. What I'll be showing here is the "canonical" version of the tags. For example, a work tagged "flufffffff" or "so fluffy!" would have those two tags assigned to the canonical tag "Fluff", so I will consider both of those tags as being "Fluff" to get the most accurate count.

The other important thing about AO3 tags is that they come in four flavors. The first one is "warnings", the content warnings required by the Archive (plus the default tag indicating you're abstaining from the warnings system). The second flavor is "Characters", tags describing the characters in the work. The third is "Relationships", tags describing the platonic or romantic relationships depicted in the work--typically, "X/Y" indicates a romantic and/or sexual relationship between characters X and Y, while "X&Y" means a platonic relationship, although this usage isn't universal and isn't enforced. The final category is "freeform", aka everything else.

Again, the tagging system is freeform and optional. In particular, I'll note that "character" tags and "relationship" tags don't necessarily imply each other: you can have a work tagged "Sherlock Holmes/John Watson" that only features Mycroft Holmes, or that features John and Sherlock but doesn't tag them as characters, only as the relationship. So remember that--while it's pretty good on average, because people tag their works so readers/viewers can find them--the number of uses of a character tag isn't the same as the number of works that feature that character, for example.

Okay! So what are the most popular freeform tags on the Archive? If you read a lot of fanfiction, I doubt you will be surprised by anything on this list. Left column is the top 15 tags by number of uses, while right column is the top 15 tags by the cumulative hit count on every work tagged with that tag.

Are these tags consistently popular over time? For reasons of space, I’ll just plot the top 10 by number of works:

If you look back at the works vs time plot in the second post, you'll see that yes, the shape of these trends is similar to the total number of works, so trends in fannish tastes haven’t changed much over the time the AO3 has been in existence. (These show a little more bumpiness because there are fewer works in each plot.) Some of these have gained a little more recent popularity vs earlier works--smut, fluff, and the two specific alternate universes are a little more weighted towards later times, while humor and general AUs are falling a little behind--but the differences aren’t as large as we saw for fandom trends in the previous post.

I'm sure you're curious about characters and relationships. Here are the top character tags, omitting the catchall character tags of “Original Character(s)”, “Original Male Character(s)”, “Original Female Character(s)”, and “Reader” (all of which would otherwise appear in the top 15). Also, remember this is missing some of the data from 2018 and 2019, as described in the first post, so BTS characters should probably be higher:

And here are the top relationship tags (again, excluding the catchall “Minor or Background Relationship(s)”):

And in particular, here are the top characters of color (excluding works with fictionalized race/ethnicity power systems--um, more than modern-day Western society’s power systems are made up--and characters from Voltron Legendary Defender, since I wasn’t able to find enough information on them):

Park Jimin (BTS)

Min Yoongi | Suga

Jeon Jungkook

Kim Taehyung | V

Kim Namjoon | Rm

Jung Hoseok | J-Hope

Kim Seokjin | Jin

Zayn Malik

Katsuki Yuuri

Sam Wilson (Marvel)

Magnus Bane

Nick Fury

Midoriya Izuku

Bakugou Katsuki

Erica Reyes

And here are the top relationships that are not M/M:

Evil Queen | Regina Mills/Emma Swan

Oliver Queen/Felicity Smoak

Bellamy Blake/Clarke Griffin

Clarke Griffin/Lexa

Clint Barton/Natasha Romanov

Pepper Potts/Tony Stark

Captain Hook | Killian Jones/Emma Swan

Kylo Ren/Rey

Hermione Granger/Ron Weasley

Kara Danvers/Lena Luthor

Sherlock Holmes/Molly Hooper

Belle/Rumplestiltskin | Mr. Gold

Allison Argent/Scott McCall

James Potter/Lily Evans Potter

Hermione Granger/Draco Malfoy

Here are the top ten freeform tags for the top ten fandoms. Different fandoms seem to produce different kinds of fanworks--which you'd expect, based on the variety in the source material.

AU = alternate universe, AU - CD = Alternate universe - canon divergence, AU - C/U = alternate universe - college/university, AU - HS = alternate universe - high school, BJs = blow jobs, ER = established relationship, H/C = hurt/comfort, PWP = plot what plot/porn without plot, RPF = real person fiction, SPN = supernatural.

Finally, for fun, here's the top 200 tags of all kinds, sorted against each other. You can find a lot of fun things on this list. Some of my favorites:

Supernatural is so big, and so focused on so few characters, that Dean Winchester is the sixth most popular tag on the entire AO3.

Clint Barton is way higher than I would have expected.

Sherlock Holmes is slightly less popular than anal sex.

Original female characters are more popular than anal sex.

Similarly, cuddling is more popular than A/B/O.

Harry Styles is less popular than 3/7ths of BTS (at least as of sometime in 2018); Louis Tomlinson barely tops Draco Malfoy.

Alcohol comes between Katsuki Yuuri and Viktor Nikiforov.

Leonard McCoy is below songfic. Please join me in picturing how pissed off he’d be.

The one-two punch of “Spanking” and “I’m Sorry” is pretty amusing.

If I had put up the top 201 tags, 200 and 201 would have been “Flirting” and “Murder”, so Hannibal is almost on this list.

Fluff

Angst

Alternate Universe

Romance

Hurt/Comfort

Dean Winchester

Humor

Established Relationship

Smut

Sam Winchester

Steve Rogers

Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence

Alternate Universe - Modern Setting

Tony Stark

Friendship

Original Female Character(s)

Anal Sex

Drabble

Original Characters

Sherlock Holmes

Fluff And Angst

Plot What Plot/Porn Without Plot

Castiel/Dean Winchester

One Shot

John Watson

Stiles Stilinski

Castiel

Harry Potter

Oral Sex

James "Bucky" Barnes

Natasha Romanov

Blow Jobs

Clint Barton

Emotional Hurt/Comfort

Drama

Derek Hale

Reader

Slow Burn

Original Male Character(s)

Sherlock Holmes/John Watson

First Time

Alternate Universe - College/University

Kissing

Derek Hale/Stiles Stilinski

First Kiss

Angst With A Happy Ending

Light Angst

Violence

Family

Park Jimin (BTS)

Min Yoongi | Suga

Jeon Jungkook

Crossover

Harry Styles

Crack

Friends To Lovers

Love

Fluff And Smut

Kim Taehyung | V

Louis Tomlinson

Other Additional Tags To Be Added

Draco Malfoy

Alternate Universe - High School

Explicit Sexual Content

Masturbation

Hermione Granger

Pining

Bruce Banner

Anal Fingering

Kim Namjoon | RM

Canon Compliant

Thor (Marvel)

Domestic Fluff

Jung Hoseok | J-Hope

Keith (Voltron)

Kim Seokjin | Jin

Depression

Character Death

Sexual Content

Happy Ending

Harry Styles/Louis Tomlinson

Canon-Typical Violence

James "Bucky" Barnes/Steve Rogers

Lance (Voltron)

Cuddling & Snuggling

Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics

Dirty Talk

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD

Post-Canon

Loki (Marvel)

Christmas

Hand Jobs

Scott Mccall

Niall Horan

Sex

Mycroft Holmes

Blood

Shiro (Voltron)

Liam Payne

Rimming

Rough Sex

Zayn Malik

Cute

Original Character(s)

Original Character

Castiel (Supernatural)

Dubious Consent

Phil Coulson

Severus Snape

Ron Weasley

Character Study

Mpreg

Lydia Martin

Explicit Language

Slash

Grief/Mourning

Polyamory

Future Fic

Draco Malfoy/Harry Potter

Minor Character Death

Greg Lestrade

Steve Rogers/Tony Stark

Peter Parker

Mutual Pining

Swearing

Eventual Smut

Sirius Black

Dom/Sub

Pre-Slash

Sad

Love Confessions

Unrequited Love

Alternate Universe - Soulmates

Remus Lupin

Dean Winchester/Sam Winchester

Falling In Love

Jealousy

Spanking

I'm Sorry

Pepper Potts

Death

Keith/Lance (Voltron)

Spoilers

James T. Kirk

Hunk (Voltron)

Sans (Undertale)

Emma Swan

Gabriel (Supernatural)

Fluff And Humor

Magic

Torture

Alternate Universe - Human

Bruce Wayne

Isaac Lahey

Levi (Shingeki No Kyojin)

Eren Yeager

Clarke Griffin

Self-Harm

Slow Build

Victor Nikiforov

Alcohol

Katsuki Yuuri

Suicidal Thoughts

Implied Sexual Content

BDSM

Nightmares

Canonical Character Death

Action/Adventure

Sam Wilson (Marvel)

Developing Relationship

Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir/Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug

Bondage

Friendship/Love

Tooth-Rotting Fluff

Dark

Sheriff Stilinski

Mental Health Issues

Allison Argent

Reader-Insert

Slice Of Life

Allura (Voltron)

Kurt Hummel

Getting Together

Kidnapping

Katsuki Yuuri/Victor Nikiforov

Dick Grayson

Merlin (Merlin)

Panic Attacks

Heavy Angst

Comfort

Alec Lightwood

Pre-Canon

Ficlet

Kid Fic

Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir

Implied/Referenced Character Death

Songfic

Leonard Mccoy

First Meetings

Flirting

#fan stats #ao3 #fanstats

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sparxwrites · 6 years

Note

I've noticed recently that I've become accustomed to capitalising words for Emphasis, both in the absence of italics and in tandem with them. As a language nerd, what does this suggest of language mutation going forward?

this isn’t language mutation! at least, not in the way i suspect you mean it. it’s more of a linguistic adaptation to the inherent limitations of text-based communication - which is a bit of a mouthful, and a lot to unpack, so, let’s start with the basics:

in spoken english, we have words and grammar and sentences, the same as we have with internet english. however, we also have facial expressions, and body language, and hand gestures - and most relevantly here something called prosidy, which internet english is lacking (at least in the traditional sense). prosidy is the changes in pitch and volume of your voice when speaking. this gives rise to stress and intonation in speech, which serves several purposes - one is distinguishing between words (ie. record the object, and record the action), another is conveying emotion, and another is providing emphasis.

the last one is the primary purpose of both italics and initial capitalisation in internet english. since we can’t have prosidy over the internet via pitch and volume, we’ve adopted other methods.

words with the same spelling are usually disambiguated by context, so they’re not hugely relevant here, but there’s some interesting things going on with emotion and emphasis.

emotion is usually done with memes, emoticons, gifs, or other “verbal tags” - stuff like “/s” for sarcasm or “uwu” (which, interestingly, started off as a genuine expression of “i’m not mad at you!” and is now sarcastic and passive aggressive, so that’s a- lexical? possibly-lexical mutation there), or even acronyms like “tbh” and “lol” and “lmfao” which are now more often used to indicate the mood of a particular statement. for example: when was the last time you saw someone using lmfao to Actually Literally Mean “laughing my ass off”? now consider when the last time you saw someone using lmfao to mean “the previous statement is intended to be mildly humorous in a bleak and self-depreciating kind of way” was. think of the number of posts about “adults need to learn to text!” where people think their parents are angry because they ended a text in a full stop. think of all the wonderful variations on ellipses we have!! the way people use question marks as rhetorical devices, to indicate uncertainty in their statement, or to point out how obvious something is!! i love it. emotion tag-words are my favourite.

emphasis / stress is usually (or at least traditionally) done with italics in written english - it isn’t particularly a internet english thing, it’s been done by writers and comic book artists since well before the internet. this is part of what’s called prosodic stress in spoken english, and it’s used in a couple of different ways. aside from general the most relevant one here is to point out new information in a sentence (called focus in linguistics):

“However, it’s not enough to assume that turtles merely like the taste of pineapples. We must consider the possibility that turtles are deeply, sexually attracted to fruit.”

there’s also contrastive focus (a sub-type of focus, where the person you’re speaking to makes an assumption, and you’re contradicting / correcting them). wikipedia has some nice examples of how it’s often used both online and out loud:

I didn't take the test yesterday. (Somebody else did.)I didn't take the test yesterday. (I did not take it.)I didn't take the test yesterday. (I did something else with it.)I didn't take the test yesterday. (I took a different one.)I didn't take the test yesterday. (I took something else.)I didn't take the test yesterday. (I took it some other day.)

other things italics can do include indicating sarcasm (“Oh, of course, no one else has ever thought of this, because you’re so clever.”), and highlighting important/argument-relevant (“As I mentioned earlier: fish can feel love. This is just one reason amongst many, however, that fish-human marriage is undeniably ethically sound.”). i’m 90% sure that that latter one is probably also focus-related, but i don’t know enough about information structure generally to commit entirely to calling it focus - tbh, given how many different theories of focus there are, it may be focus under some theories, but not others (see also: that one theory on the wiki page where anything not given is focused, so if you’re specifically bringing up or reminding people of a relevant piece of information it’s probably not given and therefore focused). if the important / argument-relevant use is not focus-related, though, then it’s at least somehow related to information structure; perhaps italics are more generally useable to indicate something about information structure, without it specifically needing to be focus.

stress done with initial capitalisation, however, seems to be a little different - or at least, seems to occur in broader contexts than the one above. i suspect you could do an entire postgrad thesis on the similarities and differences between the two (and i also suspect that i don’t remember enough about syntax and phonology and information structure etc. to offer the best insight possible here), but let’s see if we can’t at least pick the differences apart a bit.

so! initial capitalisation can certainly be used in the same contexts as italics, for focusing new / relevant information and for contrastive focus. this evidenced by: (a) “omg, have u considered that turtles are Sexually Attracted To Fruit??” and “pls remember that Fish Can Feel Love” are both perfectly a-okay in internet english, and (b) by an edited version of the wikipedia examples:

I didn't take the test yesterday. (Somebody else did.)i Didn't take the test yesterday. (I did not take it.)i didn't Take the test yesterday. (I did something else with it.)i didn't take The test yesterday. (I took a different one.)i didn't take the Test yesterday. (I took something else.)i didn't take the test Yesterday. (I took it some other day.)

(initial capitalisation with “I” is always a little tricky (is it emphasis, or is it just normal capitalisation?), and in my expereince people tend to default to italics with it wherever possible for this reason. i’m also… unsure about how happy i am with the grammaticality (how “okay” a particular sentence is within a given language / dialect) of examples 4 & 5 (“The” and “Test”), but that might be because those two are a little unusual even with italics - “i didn’t take The Test today” looks much better, i think, and can mean both “i took a different one” and “i took something else”.)

however, it’s clear that initial capitalisation can occur in places where italicisation is either outright incorrect, or at least looks kind of weird:

[cute picture of a cat lying on its back, pulling a face, having knocked a plant pot off the table]

commenter A: “Why Do Cats Do These Things”

commenter B: “why do cats do these things”

commenter A’s statement is perfectly correct internet english; commenter B’s statement is just about interpretable, but quite clearly clumsy / not really acceptable in the opinion of most “native internet english speakers”. but why?? well, we’re clearly not focusing “do these things” (because it’s not really providing any information, it’s just sort of… pointing out that the cat in the picture is being weird and then asserting that this is prototypical cat behaviour. it’s trying to tap into a shared knowledge of “what cats do / are like” between “speaker” and reader), and though it’s somewhat humorous it’s not actually sarcastic, so italics are a no-go.

what commenter A is trying to do, however, is to indicate a specific usage / meaning of “do these things” via a specific “tone of voice”. commenter A is not just asking why cats behave specifically in this manner re: knocking pots off and pulling faces, they’re trying to indicate that they consider cats in general to act weirdly and look goofy; typing “why do cats do these things” would be mostly fine if you are indicating frustration / anger with a sudden plague of cats-knocking-off-plant-pots, but that’s not what commenter A is trying to communicate.

additionally, when i say “Why Do Cats Do These Things” out loud, there’s a specific tone of voice i use for it, that i suspect others do to - this kind of flat monotone, with a heavy weight on each word that’s not so much emphasis but a very careful over-pronunciation. it’s not quite emphasis, and definitely not focus-emphasis; it’s almost a comedy thing, or a joke; it’s drawing attention to a specific interpretation of this sentence that’s both humorous and typical within internet spaces; it’s indicating a kind of emotion (exasperation / affection / despair) more than anything.

some other examples of this, where capitalisation is a-okay but italics are somewhere between weird and entirely unacceptable:

“nah it’ll be fine, i’m Basically Immortal lol”

“getting run over would be Suboptimal”

“if word crashes and deletes this essay then, i swear to god, I’m Gonna Die”

“you’re a Terrible Human Being and i love it”

(if anyone can think of any examples where italics and capitalisation is okay, but are in the same style as the above, then let me know! or if people disagree with my analysis of what initial capitalisation sounds like out-loud. this sort of thing relies on native speaker judgements, usually, and although i am as close to a native internet english speaker as you’re gonna get, i’m only one person. other people may have other judgements.)

i suspect, from all of this, that the function of initial capitalisation is to indicate any kind of change in prosidy in the speaker’s voice (though primarily weird monotone), usually with an emphasis on a specific interpretation of the particular phrase that’s initially-capitalised. this is why it can be used for focus, and for sarcasm, and for more general emphasis the same way - but why it can also be used to represent a monotone (“I Would Prefer Not To”) in a way italics can’t, or to indicate that specific “you know what i’m talking about / i am referring to a concept we both share but that cannot be put into words” tone (“Why Are You Like This”), or that looping-up-and-down voice people use when they’re winding someone up (“I Am A Joy And A Delight, idk what you’re talking about :3ccc”).

italics can kind of be used for some of these, but only really as an extension of its function as an indicator of sarcasm - which means that italics are intelligible in that context, but just look weird, and like the person using them isn’t very fluent in internet english. that’s because initial caps don’t quite indicate sarcasm, though it occupies a similar teasing-dramatic tonal area; in some / most instances, initial caps seems to function similar to adding “lmfao” or “lol” onto the end, which suggests it’s also indicating a self-depreciating or bleak humour / drama to the sentence. initial caps seem to function, then, as a focus / emphasis device, but also as an emotion indicator, which is a sort of fascinating crossover of function - but very similarly to the way we see voice and prosidy being used for both focus / emphasis, and for conveying emotion.

so, you probably use italics + capitalisation in conjunction because you’re trying to convey two different things. for a sentence like “drinking three cups of coffee in a row is a terrible, awful, no good idea and oh my god Why Would You Do That”, the italics are conveying where you’re putting stress / emphasis in the sentence (on “oh my god why would you do that”). the initial capitalisation, however, is indicating that on top of emphasis, you’re saying “why would you do that” in a specifically unusual kind of prosidy, probably quite a flat and monotone one, and that it’s designed to be teasing / humorous.

i also suspect that italics + capitalisation can be used as a kind of “double emphasis”, or marking out an emphasised section within an already emphasised talking point. kind of the way bolding sometimes works?? (except the internet tends not to use bolding fsr, or only uses it for headings / as a way to highlight the most important sentences in a wall of information. it’s a structural-level organisational device, essentially.) so you can re-parse “it’s so important we feed cats and dogs different food, because cats are not dogs and have different dietary requirements!!!” as “[...], precisely because Cats Are Not Dogs and have different dietary requirements!!!”. in this instance, you’re emphasising that the reason for different treatment is that cats are not dogs and therefore have different dietary requirements, but also emphasising the fact in and of itself that cats are not dogs.

i also also suspect that, when we just need one form of emphasis and are choosing whether to use italics or initial capitalisation, we consider the context of our writing. in this “essay”, i’ve mostly used italics - they’re a little more “formal” as far as internet language goes (so, not very formal at all, but still more standard than initial caps), they’re more semantically accessible (i.e. if non-tumblr people find this essay, whereas they might be able to proactively work out what initial caps are intended to convey from context, they’ll probably intuitively understand the use of italics here), and they’re more visually accessible / they disrupt the visual flow of the text less. when i’m talking with friends (especially on platforms like skype and discord and tumblr messenger which, if they support italics at all, do so in a “non-intuitive” way, i.e. not using ctrl+i like word processing software does), in shorter / less formal settings, where the visual flow of the sentence is part of the meaning / emotion of the sentence in and of itself (how long are the sentences? do you use full stops? do you capitalise the beginnings of sentences? do you send each sentence as a new message? on a new line? how many dots do you use for ellipses? keysmashes? ?!??!??!?!?!?!!!! ?), i tend to use initial caps.

so tl;dr: italics seem to be primarily used to indicate focus - you’re pointing out a new or specifically relevant piece of information, or you’re correcting / denying a piece of information that your conversational partner has provided (or perhaps being sarcastic). initial capitalisation can Also/also be used for this purpose, but is additionally used to represent Any/any kind of change in prosidy that would occur if you spoke the sentence aloud (since we also mess about with intonation for other reasons beside focus). ...i sincerely hope someone has done / is doing / will do a thesis on this bc honestly this probably has some fascinating implications for information structure or prosidy or Something/something tbh.

regarding the “mutations” comment: these sorts of internet english quirks are not language mutations, per se, because we already have features for distinguishing this kind of thing in spoken english - and also because a lot of this stuff is what we call paralinguistic phenomena, which means that sarcasm and emphasis etc. communicate something, but it’s not actually strictly part of the language itself. it just adds an extra layer of meaning on top of the stuff being conveyed by the actual words.

instead, they’re adaptations of our orthographic (writing) system to cope with the increasing demands of written/internet english to convey these sorts of things. online, we don’t have people’s prosidy and their body language / expressions to read, so we need altered orthography or other visual indicators to ensure that people correctly understand the intent and mood behind your communication, not just the raw word-content of it. that’s why internet english has developed these quirks. essentially: our communication has always had these paralinguistic phenomena, these ways to convey emotion and emphasis; we’re just finding different ways of expressing them in response to environmental restrictions, i.e. the fact we’re all increasingly communicating via text on a regular, intensive basis. historically, we’ve primarily communicated verbally, so it’s not developed due to lack of need - but the internet has has created a heavily-used, text-primary environment, so now we do need it, and we’re collaboratively creating it as a result because humans (especially young humans) are excellent language innovators. it’s pretty neat!!

(as an interesting aside, i suspect that there’s also an element of in-grouping going on here. people want to mark out the community belong to, the people they’ve chosen as their “tribe” - irl, we do this via slang, and accents, and sometimes through certain types of wordplay or forms of prosidy / gesture etc. obviously, online, we can have slang (think about how often you’ve seen someone on tumblr say “top kek”, versus how ubiquitous that phrase is on reddit), but accents are a little harder. so we instead develop different ways of typing, different ways we use italics or capitalisation or emotes. some of this depends on platform constraints - if your community’s site doesn’t allow bold/italics, or automatically converts emotes into weird yellow smileys, you’re gonna have to develop workarounds for that - but some of it is us going “these are my people, and i can tell because we talk differently, and we’re Not Like You People”. this is why it can sometimes be linguistically disorienting going onto a different platform; i often find posters’ “tone” on reddit hard to read, because they seem to signal emotion differently to on tumblr!!

this may, perhaps, also be a reason why we’ve ended up with both capitalisation and italics - if one social group developed italics as emphasis, and a second social group (perhaps on a platform without capacity for italics) developed capitalisation as emphasis, and then the two groups merged or interacted, you’re gonna get this linguistic transference where the groups adopt one another’s styles without dropping their own original style. and then- voila! both italics and capitalisation for emphasis. but because language often tends towards getting rid of redundancy, the two styles specified out into having slightly different connotations / occuring in slightly different pragmatic environments. or, perhaps, the capitalisation style was always broader than italics, and there’s not been any change yet to reduce redundancy, but there will be in the future. who knows!)

(as a second interesting aside, all of this is probably partly why autistic people often report online friendships being easier / report preferring textual communication to face-to-face. whereas expressions and prosidy can be exceptionally difficult to learn to read if they’re not instinctual - think of the infinite variations of muscle contraction and relaxation in the face! the number of different pitches and volumes and patterns we can make with our voice! they’re very difficult to categorise because they overlap a lot and tend to gradient into one another - these kinds of “emotional tags” are usually quite easy and clear-cut. “/s” indicates sarcasm every time it is used, entirely unambiguously. stuff like “lol” or “tbh” are a little more ambiguous, but even then, they have a more limited set of emotional contexts that they’re used in than, say, the corners of your lips moving upwards. gifs and memes are even better; if they don’t outright say what they mean on the gif or in the meme, there’s entire websites dedicated to cataloguing and explaining memes should you be unclear of the usage.

additionally, internet environments can be a little more forgiving wrt people not picking up on tone, or using an incorrect / weird tone, when conversing; it’s hard to display tone online, and even allistic people (especially internet newbies or older people) struggle with it, so tonal faux pas or misunderstandings are a little more expected (and therefore forgiven) than irl.)

#lyinginbedmon #ask #linguistics #i am So Sorry this is like 3k but it got a little out of hand #there's a bunch of other stuff i could probably say on the topic too but like........ 3k is Enough #also if anyone has any native speaker judgements to offer #or someone w more information structure experience wants to correct me #Please God Do So i am very happy to hear others' opinions on this #i'm just spitballing here mostly

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pooklet · 6 years

Text

unaesthetic asks (anon edition)

i usually use a psd for asks to make them look nice and transparent and number them but tbh it’s just keeping me from answering asks quickly, having to shift layers around and stuff. so this is me literally cutting and pasting the text of some asks into a text post instead, sry.

if i did not answer yr thing here i lost/never got the ask, need a separate post to answer it (community lot anon), or worked myself into an anxious lather when i did not have an immediate response at the ready and fled into the woods to hide inside an old damp log and mutate slowly into a creature composed entirely of moss.

1) hey friend i think i can actually help with this one! slig did my poor lover for momma lisa, and has a few of my other skins linked to different body meshes in this tag here. @asimplevampire also did rehash for androgyny. those are the two i know off the top of my head but if anyone else knows any others pls reply to this post!

i don’t personally make showerproof skintones for body meshes because i a) am lazy and b) don’t usually take pics of my sims in the shower or naked in general so the occasional floating head just gives me a lil chortle when it does happen.

2) yis, it is the second to last one in this post by @magpieplayssims with a bunch of face masks piled on.

3) i use a personal edit of gunmod’s 3.1 A camera which alters the, like, central pivot axis so i can swing the camera underground into any basements i might be using. as a result, whenever i load the lot, it starts me off zoomed inside the floor, you just gotta zoom out with the scroll wheel to get above ground and it works normally from there. i haven’t figured out how to mitigate this while still being able to access underground rooms. which is why my edit never got its own post, but i did share it here.

4) nah, not really. i mean i have an outdated one at the back of my catalogue but my face is boring to me cuz i see it every day n stuff & i’m less and less interested in making human features now that custom sliders have let me go absolutely mad with power.

5) ye sorry i put that on my to-do list and promptly forgot about it cuz my brain seems to think that putting something on a list means it’s done forever now!!!! but now it’s actually done and i’m fixing the other links too.

6) yr phone is a craven liar and i will not stand for this libel. earlier today i was genuinely bewildered by a discussion about channing tatum cuz i thought his name was tatum channing. i sat there for minutes, convinced that there were two guys in hollywood one named channing tatum and the other named tatum channing and wondering if that ever got confusing for them.

7) u would be surprised, friend! my memory is a lawless wasteland but i do not end up chatting back and forth w/ many ppl b/c i am a seething pit of social anxiety. if we talked, like, more than twice, i probs remember u!

8) omg i was about to be like “nah i never made nosemasks for those” but that is a fucking lie of the highest caliber, i totally did make one (1) set and then forgot entirely about it. i will post them with the next batch of bodyshop content which should be Shortly (and if i don’t just yell @ me and i’ll just lazily put them on sfs and link them in a reply).

also thank u anon i am glad u like my content! :D

9) omg thank u so much anon that is so sweet of u to say!! truly i don’t feel like i have accomplished a whole lot beyond managing to snag @resurrection-failed but that is definitely the Best thing i could accomplish so i am 100% fine w/ that

10) oh ts4. i want to play it real bad but i have discovered that playing games that are still being updated and could break at any moment due to a new patch or ep gives me hives. esp when it’s sims games b/c those are held together exclusively w/ wishes and prayers as it is. they’re like the bottom panel of an expanding brain meme on spaghetti coding. at least when the game is Done there nothing else for EA to break (... right?). plus i only have base+pets and no money to throw at the other expansions so i could maybe download 1/10th of the cc available out there ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

but i am excited to be late af to the party. lemme tell u. thank u for saying such nice things, anon!! i hope u have a good day also. like, lots of ‘em.

11) hey anon! it’s built into tumblr’s text editor. u type the text first, highlight it, and click on the fourth button that looks like a slouchy figure 8 to insert yr link. i’m not sure if it’s the same on mobile, tho, cuz the tumblr mobile app is self-elected torture.

12) i do not right now but i can make one. idk if it would interest you but i am also doing a big ol’ blend of the hq eyes and wifezaya’s favorite ephemera mist eyes and will make a default version of those too when they are done.

13) nah i am still using my v3 texture for straight hairs and for waves or natural hair i just use nouk’s originals. i’m old-fashioned and boring. if u need help w/ making yr own, tho, i would suggest checking out @furbyq’s tutorial here!

14) hey friend! i did have plans to do that, in that vague way where i have plans to do many things but most of the time end up taking a five-hour nap under a cat instead or watchin game grumps. luckily, @digitalangels is a doll and did it for me so consider this my official endorsement. i am pooklet and i approve this action.

15) hey anon. when did i call it that?? i think usually i just call it marriage or equal marriage if i need to specify (or gay marriage if i’m feelin Spicy cuz nonbinary-for-nonbinary is pretty gay). if i did say same-sex it was probs w/ implied air-quotes since that was the term du jour when we got married, which was 3+ years before the supreme court mandate, when it was only legal in some places and everyone was still ‘‘‘‘debating’’’’ the ‘‘‘‘issue’’’’ of queers gettin all married.

16) i been gatherin’ links for u anon but lemme look around a lil more. i will either give this its own post or add it as its own section in the resource post that is like .... five years overdue. meanwhile if anyone reading this has anything they either know is made for dark skin or works well universally or knows of a list like this that already exists, i would appreciate links!

17) I KNOW THAT’S YOU, AZAYA

#anonymous #pooklet replies #wcif #pazooka #pooklet irl #sims 2 #ts2 #also if u got cakebread wcifs plssss ask me on dreamwidth #in the post in question #with a link to the picture

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thisisapileofgarbage · 7 years

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Thanks the for tag @freshsliceoffriedgold Rules: copy this post into a new text post, remove my answers and put in yours, when you are done tag up to ten people and also tag the person who tagged you. A- Age: 17 B- Biggest fear: I'm so weak I'm afraid of lots of things. Im even afraid of people. I guess my biggest fear(or at least the one i hate the most) then is being judged/ hated by them. C- Current time: 9:30 pm D- Drink you last had: apple juice.Honestly, I just drank a sip of water but lets go with the juice. E- Every day starts with: lying in bed for way too long. F- Favourite song: Im so bad at picking favorite anything, oh god. Ive also been listening to like the same couple of bands and albums for a while now. At the moment I’m really into Pink Floyd, The Who, I've also been listening to a lot of The Doors, others... sorry I love a lot of stuff as a whole, can't just pick one song! G- Ghosts are they real: its not really something I've thought hard about, but I'm not one to really dismiss stuff right away. They could exist in some form, one I certainly don't have specifics on. I- In love with : Ive really come to appreciate the couple of my friends who seem to care about me for some reason. I feel like I'm such a bad and boring friend yet they haven't ditched me yet. I mean, they say they like me? Also, my cat, who is so lovely and adorable. K- Killed someone: No. I'm not even going to put anything witty. L- Last time you cried: I'm a baby and cry a lot, i think it was last Saturday. M- Middle name: something generic like Lynn or whatever i can't even fucking spell it. N- Number of siblings: two older sisters O- One wish: like i said, i wish i were a better friend. I just have so many insecurities, and I'm so awkward it just ruins everything. P- Person you last called/texted: Probably my mom, I don't talk to many people at all. Q- Questions you are always asked: Thankfully I've not gotten this in a while but i always use to get “what grade are you in??” paired with “ you're short lol!!!!” because I'm small and look younger than i am. I can still feel it though. R- Reasons to smile: Really I have no school next week except one test, and then Im finally getting my fucking braces off my teeth next week. I've had them forever because my teeth suck. S- Song last sang: I often mumble along to whatever song happens to be on, Im bad at singing not just because of my voice but its oddly difficult for me to remember lyrics, even if i listen to the song a lot. Im not sure the specific song, probably a Doors song because i was listening to them earlier. T- Time you woke up: usually at 7 am for school, but 9am this morning, school was delayed because of weather. U- Underwear colour: blue V- Vacation destination: anywhere away from where i live right now to be honest. Though since i live in the US and I've yet to really leave the continent, Europe would be cool. W- Worst habit: Always being off in my own thoughts, procrastination(guess what I've got shit to do even now yay), never getting enough sleep(though sometimes i have genuine trouble falling asleep), being insecure and afraid of everything, being too quiet, (writing too much) probably something I'm forgetting I'm kind of a mess. X- X-Rays you’ve had: Just for teeth stuff i think. Y- Your favourite food: i don't eat anything really exciting ever. Ill have to say any sort of dessert or sweets. I like cake, chocolate, you know the basics. Z- Zodiac sign: I think Scorpio?

ummm yeah i don't know anyone so I can’t really tag, sorry.

#ew i hate myself #i #sorry i wanted to do this but i don't know anyone hope thats okay #and i always write too much au fuck #ignore me

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seedaylight · 7 years

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rules: copy this post into a new text post, remove my answers and put in yours, and when you are done tag people and also tag the person who tagged you… and most importantly, have fun!

tagged by: @artemiskid u rock i hope you see a lot of dogs today

tagging: @tylorswft @hermionegrangern @agentcarteur @iwishyouwouid @therebelalliance @yuriplisetskys @philtatcs @carmillakarmstein + anyone who wants to do this (just say i’m the one who tagged you)

you don’t have to do this if you don’t want to!!

a - age: 16 b - biggest fear: i have lots.... but i can never actually think of anything im sorry i just find out im scared when like the time comes or when its 4 in the morning and contemplating abt life and all that c - current time: 11:53pm d - drink you last had: water ?? e - every day starts with: opening my eyes obvi.... f - favorite song: right now, stay - mayday parade, castle on the hill - ed sheeran, ophelia - the lumineers g - ghosts, are they real: maybe?? h - hometown: laguna, philippines i - in love with: DOGS and like everyone in rogue one j - jealous of: people who have at least some part of their lives planned out already like how 2 b u po k - killed someone: i don’t recall killing anyone l - last time you cried: 5am today because of a movie lmao..... m - middle name: claire n - number of siblings: two brothers, one sister o - one wish: pls stop the terrible things happening in the world p - person you last called/texted: my mom texted me to go to sleep 43 mins ago and i replied “ok” im sorry mom im still awake q - questions you’re always asked: "okay ka lang ba??” (are you okay) in a really concerned tone because 1) i look dead half the time 2) film and tv shows and books make me cry a lot r - reasons to smile: google earth is always taking pics s - song last sang: the one that got away - katy perry (stop judging me it’s bc of spotify) t - time you woke up: 2pm u - underwear color: blue v - vacation destination: p much anywhere as long as im with gr8 people w - worst habit: probably staying up late until sunrise to do things when i clearly could have done them earlier x - x-rays you’ve had: the basic ones u need for like med certificates ?? y - your favorite food: anything filipinos have for breakfast honestly.... it’s always lit z - zodiac sign: pisces

ya i know some of my answers are like josef’s but like,... we are literally the same person..... she was just born a day before i was

#txt #long post #me

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allenvooreef · 5 years

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Year three of daily drawing - my experiences

Read about my first year HERE and my second year HERE

Wow! Three full years of daily drawing, all done. When I started out I didn’t even think I’d make it past the first week. I’m still baffled, to be honest. Time to look back on this third year, and on the challenge as a whole. I have a LOT of thoughts, let’s see if I can make some sense of them under the cut.

What was the plan? At the end of last year, I said this about my plans for 2018:

Do more studies, for real this time. I’ll be keeping a tally in my bullet journal of value, anatomy, landscape, portrait and material studies and aim to do at least twenty of each this year. Aside from that, I’m actually pretty happy with how my developement has been going this past year so I aim to just keep that up. I want to do at least one more year of dailies, because I just really like the number three and it means I’ll have over a thousand total.

And how did that work out? Well, I made my study goal! 100 total, and 20 in each listed category. Though, as expected, I ended up making the bulk of them in the last two months to catch up. I think I learned a lot from doing those, but looking back, I feel like I only scratched the surface. See the way studies work is you copy first, then try to reproduce it without reference, then implement the techniques in an original artwork. I stopped at copying, meaning I learned about a third of what I could have if I had taken a bit more time.

Something else I wanted to work on in 2018 was to stop letting these dailies cut into my sleep time. I set a timer on my phone for 8pm everyday to remind me to start drawing, and used my bullet journal to keep track of all the days I was in bed before midnight. While it definitely didn’t work *all* the time, I do feel like it made a significant difference. The feeling I got everytime I was in a late train home from band rehearsal and I realized I’d already made my daily earlier that day was priceless.

Time to quit? I already predicted I’d probably want to stop after my third year. Turns out that once I’d formed that thought in my mind, I suddenly started to *really* feel like quitting. I mean, I wasn’t about to quit before I’d reached the three year mark, I’m way too stubborn for that, but I did notice a significant drop in my motivation around April. I had an increasingly hard time coming up with things to draw, often lacked the mental energy for more ‘finished’ looking sketches, and overall started to feel like it was a chore instead of something I enjoyed. Near the end of the year I often spent over an hour just hovering my pen over my tablet before actually drawing anything. A sure sign that this challenge was no longer serving its purpose and it was time to stop.

Besides that, this year also brought along some pretty big life events for me, meaning I had little to no brain space and energy to spare for art for a while. Though forcing myself to draw through that exhaustion wasn’t fun, I’m relieved to notice that it didn’t kill my love for creating. If anything, it fueled my longing to make more elaborate artworks, to spend more than just an hour on something, to allow myself to let something sit for a few days before returning to it.

An unexpected obstacle was a sudden bug in Photoshop, or my tablet, or both, that messed with my pen pressure. Meaning that for every 10 pen strokes I did, about 8 or 9 would come out as gross hard-angled black blobs. I have no idea what triggered this, and still no idea how to fix it (I use a pirated version of Photoshop so I can’t update it), so it meant that every drawing took at least twice the effort since I now spent over half my time ctrl+z ing until I could draw the line I intended. Seeing as my motivation was already dwindling, this certainly didn’t help in keeping these dailies fun to make.

Am I happy with the things I drew? Looking back on the things I drew in 2018, I think I’ve further solidified my workflow, having a clear preferred method of sketching and coloring. I sometimes tried turning off the line layers to see if it could work without, which was fun to see, but overall I think I stayed inside my comfort zone a lot (except for the studies). I don’t think I mind, though. Now that I know how I like to work, I can do it much more efficiently than I could before, and that’s a valuable time saver. I also focused on making my drawings look a bit less flat, approaching it as three-dimensional shapes rather than lines. There’s still a lot more work to be done in this department, but I’m happy with the steps I’ve taken so far!

What did I set out to learn, and did I? For 2018 specifically, it was ‘to make great strides in my mastery of anatomy, value, materials, portraits and landscapes’. As stated above, I feel like I haven’t nearly learned enough from the studies I did. Making these studies did give me more experience in a painterly workflow, and I noticed my eye for value and color getting sharper over time, but to really make the kind of progress I’d been looking for I’ll have to go the extra mile. Maybe I’ll get around to that now that I don’t feel obligated to post it all.

What did I learn that I didn’t expect to? That even when I’d made a habit out of daily drawing, I can’t and shouldn’t go on forever. I thought the reason I’d quit eventually would be because I’d simply be bored with it. I don’t think I expected to have as much trouble finding the energy to keep it up, nor did I realize the time spent on these dailies meant less time spent on larger artworks.

Looking back on the challenge as a whole:

What did I set out to learn, and did I?

1. To get over my fear of creating bad art I obviously didn’t 100% shake that feeling, but then again I’m starting to feel like I shouldn’t aim for that. As long as it’s not holding me back anymore, that bit of frustration when something doesn’t work as well as I hoped it would is the thing that’s going to drive me to keep improving. And looking back on how utterly stuck I was before starting this challenge, I’d say this goal has definitely been achieved. Now, I know creating something imperfect is always better than creating nothing at all, and I’ve also experienced that a lot of the time things work out better than I’d feared.

2. To make better art Oh that definitely happened. I’ve improved way more in these past three years than in the three years before that. Some of the dailies I made in an hour are better than the artworks I’d spend multiple days on back then. As intended, the sheer amount of practice resulted in a better eye for cohesive proportions, and it allowed me to finally get comfortable with a certain style. Even though in hindsight I could have done way more to improve through this challenge, I’m very happy with the skill upgrade it did bring.

What did I learn that I didn’t expect to?

1. That I can actually do this It sounds silly, but trust me when I say I never *ever* actually believed I was going to last for longer than a week. I always thought I wasn’t the type of person who could keep up with resolutions. What I learned is that apparently I *am* stubborn enough to keep up with challenges, as long as I feel like I have something to prove to myself. And as long as I’m the one who set the rules. That way I can’t complain about them, after all! ;)

2. To be self-indulgent There was a clear shift somewhere halfway through the challenge where I realized I had been holding off on drawing too much of the same thing, because I felt like my followers would be fed up with it. I felt like I wasn’t ‘legit’ when I was only drawing fan art. I realized that was holding me back, because now I was spending time and energy on figuring out the proper subject for my dailies before even putting pen to paper! The moment I let go of those expectations, and allowed myself to be as self-indulgent with my drawings as I’d like, my art improved. As did my love for art, and the response I got from you!

Plans for 2019

I figured it was best for me not to jump right into a new challenge after this, so I’ve been spending my time just recharging. As I write this, it’s been 13 days since my last daily, and I haven’t felt the need to draw since. I’m taking it slow, getting a feel for where I stand now and what I’d like to learn next. I treated myself to a Schoolism subscription during their Winter Sale, meaning I have access to amazing course material all year, and I can’t wait to see how that will help me grow.

I look forward to making sketches without ‘having to’ post them. Meaning I can copy art by other artists to learn from them without plagiarizing. Meaning I can decide to continue a sketch the next day, with fresh eyes.

One thing I will still consistently do, is make a monthly Patreon illustration. I’ve rearranged the reward tiers to make the most out of the time I have, and I look forward to keep creating and improving with the help of my lovely Patrons.

I’m making a booklet with all the dailies in it, as well as some more in-depth reflection and tips & tricks. Partly because some of you expressed interest, and partly because I feel like it’s important for me to have a physical thing to show for all my efforts. I’ll let you know as soon as pre-orders open!

Right, I think that was about it! If you’re considering a daily drawing challenge and are wondering if it’s for you, feel free to message me if you have questions! If you decide to do daily drawings because of me (which is just... wow), I’d love it if you tagged me in one so I can check them out!

I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart for sticking with me through this challenge! Your enthusiasm encouraged me to keep going, and seeing your tags and comments in the mornings was one of the highlights of my day.

I’ll leave you with some links:

Check out every single daily in my daily drawing tag

If you’d like, you can support and be involved in my art journey through my Patreon

If this information was in any way useful to you, or you’d just like to make my day, you can buy me a coffee

Find me on twitter and instagram too!

#eef talks #daily drawing #i'm still baffled honestly #I hope this is useful to someone

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