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alkalinefrog · 3 years

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may I request your top 10 favorie lawlight fics ?? I’m really interested

AIGHT BUCKLE UP BUTTERCUP because I’ve got a lot of feelings about these! Also, people have been asking me for fics featuring:

Ryuk shenanigans

yagami sibling hijinks

whammy kids found family

----- from my bingo card I made a while back. Tbh, I put those on the list to try and manifest the energy into the universe hoping people would bring fics to ME about them lmao. I do have a couple that check the boxes though!

Also thank you to everyone who’s been recommending me fics!! You’ve all hit the nail on the head and sing straight to my heart! I’m just slow to make my way through them between work. <3

GOING UNDER THE CUT (rip mobile users)

Aight here we go, in no particular order:

“Change OR the one where L and Light get married” by @translightyagami (I’m so sorry I keep tagging you in these alsfjkalsfdj)

The one I never shut up about and am adapting part of into a comic because it’s just that GOOD. :’’’D Light and L get married in front of Watari and Light’s family back at the Whammy orphanage in England. A melancholy yet painfully sweet tale as Light and L reminisce on their history together while getting ready for the ceremony, and their first night together afterwards. Single-handedly sold me on Kira being intrinsically part of Light to boot.

“the forest holds strange creatures” by @translightyagami (I’m sorryyyyyyy I just love your stuff)

An AU where Light’s a paranormal researcher and L’s a reclusive cryptid living in the forest next to a small town. The writing has a fairytale feel to it, and the romance is so gentle. Light’s bunking at Whammy’s small little house, and Near and Mello are there as little kids pestering Light. It’s ADORABLE. Beyond Birthday also shows up in one of the extra chapters as a creepy cashier at a thrift shop for double the fun!

"Sickness” by BlueberryValentine (more fics on their fanfiction.net account!)

The ultimate hurt/comfort + fluff + angst with a happy ending fic. The first fic I read to get back into lawlight a couple months back! Canon divergence starting during the Yotsuba arc. Light is diagnosed with terminal brain cancer while still under investigation. L has to take care of him, and somewhere along the way they fall in love. It carved out a chunk of my heart but luckily filled it back up with a sweet sort of aching.

“Seeking His Hand” by magic__mind

Historical regency AU! L is a rich nobleman courting Light, a humble farm boy, for his hand in marriage. One of the most romantic pieces of literature that I have ever come across. The prose is pure poetry, and their love so pure! This one also has a special place in my heart for its portrayal of Misa! She’s A)a spy who helps L on his cases, B)totally removed from her co-dependence for Light, C)the bubbly badass she was always meant to be. 100/10 worth the read!

The “Resurrections” Series by Shadow_of_Quill

A modern Orpheus and Euridice story, wherein Light’s spirit leads L back from Hades while he’s still Kira. L is thereby present for the confrontation at the warehouse. Believing that any trace of Light is lost in the man, he executes him right then and there. However, this was a grave mistake, and Light’s soul won’t be as easily revived. (spoilers, they’re both fine in the end) ******* THIS ONE ALSO INCLUDES YAGAMI SIBLING HIJINKS. Sayu plays a HUGE role in bringing Light back!

“Is This The Way It Ends Now?” by Seastar98

The one that checks off ALL the above three boxes!! A “characters watch their own show” fic, wherein the gang receives a mysterious DVD in the middle of the Yotsuba arc. Horrified by what’s to come, Light and L work to make sure their future is brighter than the one they witness. They bring in all three heirs to watch with ‘em, everyone gets character development, and Sayu comes in like black panther in endgame yet again to bring Light back from the darkness! Ryuk pops up in the end and the epilogue and he’s great. The ultimate and most direct fix-it you’re ever gonna get.

“From the Same Star” by Nilahxapiel

This is my only pure “Ryuk Shenanigans” fic, and it’s really really sad :’’’D A short but sweet one-shot wherein Ryuk traverses multiple dimensions, dropping the Death Note at Light’s feet each time. Light and L were always fated to clash, and it’s just as heartbreaking every time.

“Primitive Liars” by Nilahxapiel

This one’s super popular in the fandom for a reason! The only omegaverse fic that I’ve liked! The A/B/O dynamics and their affect on society are super well developed, and the writer manages to keep L and Light very in character while still developing their budding romance in a believable way. This is an AU where somebody else is Kira, and Light’s genuinely helping L and the task force hunt him down. ***** Naomi Misora lives, the heirs come in, and Sayu actually hops aboard the task force!!! DUDE. BRILLIANT. I also just love the exploration of gender and identity that the author weaves in. Lots of LGBTQ rep!

“and indeed there will be time” by lawlietismyfavorite

The ultimate soulmate AU. People grow to be 18, then stop aging until they meet their one. L is the greatest detective of not only this century, but of six centuries. And then there's Light. (taken straight from the description!) The prose is absolutely breathtaking; like walking through a dream. Can not recommend this fic enough! It’s got my head up in the clouds and looking towards the stars!

“K” by Dlvvanzor

AU where Light’s a Whammy with the moniker ‘K.’ He and L grow up together along with kiddos covering the rest of the alphabet. A murder-mystery-thriller on top of the romance featuring Beyond Birthday as a main character! Light’s a pathological liar and L’s super into it. They’re the top students at Whammy’s and are tasked with solving a string of homicides happening RIGHT AT THE ORPHANAGE (guess who dunnit). It had me on the edge of my seat, and I binged the whole thing in two days.

i’mMMMM doing more than 10, this’ll just be my ultimate fic rec post 😂

“Change of Circumstances” by wordbombs

Another AU where Light’s a whammy! It’s just a one-shot though, but one of my all time faves!!! I’ve gone back and reread it so many times and drew some stuff for it a couple weeks back. Much more light-hearted than “K”, Light arrives at the orphanage at age four and meets an eleven year old L, and from there they grow up together and fall in love (the age difference is handled really well, L’s not physically present for a lot of Light’s childhood and they bond on a platonic level first). It’s one of the healthiest relationship dynamics that I’ve seen for these two, which is honestly such a breath of fresh air. Matt, Mello, and Near are there too in the background!

“Dial K for Kira” by @kiranatrix

“Light needs some easy money to finance his Kira plans, and notices there’s a big demand for Kira roleplay phone sex. So he figures, “Why not? Pretty sure I’ll be convincing.”He raises some fast cash and plans to shut the whole thing down and get back to writing names, until he gets a request from somebody who wants to “roleplay” as L....“

Taken straight from the description! It’s very VERY NSFW so be warned. I’m too shy to talk about it more alskfjdasldjf sorry BUT IT’S GREAT.

“Dance with Me” and “Birthday Note” by @dotti55fanfiction

These are both one-shots so I’m putting ‘em together! Absolutely adorable tooth-rotting fluff!! “Dance with Me” has Light and L going to a club, while “Birthday Note” features L trying to think of the best present for Light. The dictionary definition of “warm fuzzies.” (Dotti ilu, I still gotta find time to read your longer works)

“you’re a wasp nest” by raisuki (inthegripofahurricane)

Blind!Light AU! Light and L are both college students who meet when Sayu dares L to break into her house. Yagami sibling hijinksssss! Their quippy dialogue is adorable and it’s just a fun time watching them flirt.

“softly now” by smallestbird (jenwryn)

THANK YOU TO THE ANON WHO SENT ME THIS REC. The softest lawlight one-shot to finish off this list! Light and L share an intimate moment while painting their new apartment. The absolute JOY this fic radiates in a short 700 words!! Read it before bed for the sweetest dreams!

These are just my favourites, but read anything by any of these authors and you will not be disappointed! I might make a separate post later for soulmate AUs because... There’s just too many. :’D

-Alka

#Anonymous #ask #fic rec #lawlight #text #when you meet a work deadline and use the extra time to catch up on asks lol

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dreams-of-kalopsia · 4 years

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Fictober Prompt 21

“Change is annoyingly difficult.”

Voltron fanfiction (Plance)

No warnings apply.

Read it on AO3.

____

Part 1 (Pidge): Timing

Part 2 (Lance): Intuition

Part 3 (Colleen): Grounded

Part 4 (Hunk): Change

Hunk senses something wrong the moment he lays eyes on his best friend. Lance is sitting alone at their usual table, elbow propped and sulking face resting heavily on his fist. His other hand pokes at his food with a spork.

“Stop that,” Hunk scolds as he takes the seat across, carefully placing his lasagna-laden tray on the table.

Lance stops. But only to give him a sullen glance.

He shakes his head in annoyance. That’s when he sees the half-finished tray of food beside his friend’s. Everything clicks in his mind.

Pidge was called away again.

“Who was it this time?” he asks without preamble.

Lance’s answer is a grumbled “MFE pilots.”

“Aww man, again?” Hunk groans. “We don’t see Pidge her first week of being grounded. She gets a little leeway, and Sam, Matt, and Slav drag her around with them for days. They finish whatever they were doing, and the MFE Division takes her away—with me, because apparently they’re big fans of Voltron’s tech team, but that’s beside the point—and now the MFE pilots want something from her again?” He throws his hands up. “What about us? We haven’t hung out for weeks!” He then points at Pidge’s tray. “Pidge didn’t even enjoy her food long enough to realize I made it, in celebration of our supposed hang out day!”

Another grumble. The weak reaction aggravates Hunk, and he crosses his arms.

“You didn’t notice either, did you.” A statement because his friend clearly hasn’t. “I’ll assume it’s due to Pidge bailing out on us and not my culinary skills.”

No response other than louder stabby noises and a sulkier Lance.

“Ugh. I miss her!” he gripes. “Don’t you?”

A flash of regret crosses Lance’s face.

It’s a stark contrast to the confused, embarrassed blushes he’s had for the past two months or so. Hunk can’t remember exactly when he began seeing the expression, but he’s pretty sure he hasn’t seen it on his friend until around three weeks ago. At first, he thought it was because Allura’s been spending most of her time with Romelle and Coran in the hospital wing, waiting for the Altean pilot of that Komar-robeast to regain consciousness. He didn’t even connect anything when news of scary Mrs. Holt grounding the Green Paladin of Voltron first reached their ears. But after repeatedly watching Lance make that expression at every mention of Pidge, Hunk is now sure that it’s a Pidge issue his best friend is having.

And he thinks he has enough facts to put together to figure out what’s been happening with his friends.

Fact number one: Pidge likes Lance. She told Hunk herself.

Fact number two: She used Hunk’s cheesy, thoughtless pick-up line—a fact that will forever crack him up—on his best friend. Lance told him himself.

Fact number three: Lance also said that he’d tried asking Pidge about what she meant but ended up taking her to Varadero for sunset watching instead. How he managed to turn an impending serious talk into a day trip, Hunk will never know.

Fact number four: Pidge was grounded the day after and disappeared for a week.

Fact number five: She’s been spending less time with Hunk and Lance since her reappearance. Okay, no. For the benefit of the doubt, Hunk will allow that she’s become so busy she barely has time to hang out. That still implicates her because she doesn’t make time for them. She’s not the only busy Paladin on Earth, after all; if he and Lance can do it, she should’ve been able to do it, too. So the benefit of the doubt doesn’t work for her… well, benefit.

Sooo something happened in Varadero convincing Pidge that Lance rejected her, hence why she’s limiting her interactions with him without making it obvious that she is—which, contrary to what she believes, she’s being totally obvious about.

“I wasn’t rejected, Hunk. I just decided to give up on him,” Pidge said around a mouthful of peanut butter cookies he’d given as secret bribe, during one of their breaks from upgrading the MFE units last week.

Give up? On Lance? As if.

As if Hunk doesn’t catch the longing glances she’d send their friend when she thinks everyone’s too distracted to notice. As if she doesn’t stare after Lance with a regretful expression on her face the exact same way he sees Lance do.

Yeah.

He chomps grumpily on a heaping spork of lasagna.

As if.

Hunk hates that he’s the only one who notices stuff like this. He hates it. But what he hates more is his inability to leave ostensibly well enough alone once his gut tells him that something’s off. And what he hates most is his perceived, reluctant duty to be the voice of reason that points everything out to everyone else. Because that’s how he ends up standing right in the middle of things whether he likes it or not, how he unwittingly advertises himself as mediator when things turn out to be a full-blown conflict.

It’s exhausting sometimes. Getting to say ‘I told you so!’ loses its vindicating satisfaction when one gets to do it all the time. Still, bringing up an issue so the people involved can address and resolve it is an awkward task he’d willingly undertake if it means they’d all get along again.

But that’s the problem with the current thing he’s embroiled in. There’s no issue. No conflict, no falling-out, no friendship broken. Just Pidge dealing with rejection in the maturest manner Hunk has seen from her and Lance acting like he’s lost her even though she never left in the first place.

It’s like watching two people dance expertly around each other. Except one twirls in pirouettes of classical ballet, the other breaks it down with hip hop moves, and neither of them is aware of dancing at all. As a frustrated spectator on the sidelines, Hunk is honestly starting to worry that his motion sickness will return one of these days.

A resounding stabbing sound causes him to jerk his head up towards the source. He finds Lance staring out onto the hallway beyond the mess hall’s window, fingers frozen and tines of his spork impaling a slice of lasagna rather morbidly. Following his friend’s gaze leads Hunk’s eyes to Pidge, who’s talking animatedly with Nadia and James.

Oh boy. Great timing, Pidge.

She meets their gazes and sends them a genuine, apologetic look, but she doesn’t spare them a minute to give an actual apology. In three seconds, she’s walked past the windows, disappearing on them again. She makes it look so easy.

“Gotta admit, that one hurts a bit,” Hunk says with a wry smile. His best friend releases a miserable sigh at the same time. He turns back to Lance in surprise. “Chill, dude! It’s just one missed hang out day. No need to be that dejected.”

The stabby noises resume with increased force. He resumes eating his food.

“Look, you’re being dramatic. It’s not as bad as that time Eliza Moreno rejected you—no, no,” he corrects himself, “You didn’t really like her; you just liked flustering her. Okay, so not as bad as when Noelle Page dumped—”

“I dumped her.” Whoa, a response, albeit grumpy.

“Yeah?” Memories of that messy one-sided breakup resurface in his mind. “Yeah, right!” He slaps his forehead. “How could I forget! Remember how she waited crying outside our bunk room until you talked to her? Even our COs couldn’t take her away.”

Lance’s sulky frown deepens. “I don’t think anyone could forget.”

“So not as bad as when Mila Chen—”

“She was over me by the time I became fighter class.”

“Oh. What about when Sophie Carson—”

“Turned out to like Madison Boyer?”

“…That didn’t bother you? You were courting her for some time, right?”

“To help make Maddie jealous and confess to her.”

“Ooh. An ally, I see.” Hunk raises his cup to his friend, impressed by this inside info.

Lance just scoffs.

“Okay, wait. I’m sure about this: Jenny Shaybon. The only Jenny who ever mattered to you. You had a really good thing going on for over a year before she left the Garrison to chase her dreams.”

“We parted as friends.”

“You did?” Hunk pouts, then sighs. “So I guess it’s not as bad as when Allura and Lo—” Lance strikes the table with his palms.

“Why are you going through my romantic history, Hunk?” he demands, still miserable but now also fed up. “Just tell me what your point is.”

“My point is that you don’t have to feel as bad about a missed get-together as a failed relationship.”

Though Hunk’s tone is placating throughout his explanation, his best friend shoots him an affronted look. “First of all, my relationship with Allura hasn’t failed; it’s actually just about to start. Secondly, I don’t feel as bad about this as you think.”

“So stop looking like you do.” The words seem to strike Lance like a direct, physical hit, and Hunk has this acute feeling that he just said the wrong thing at the worst possible time.

But why?

Before Hunk can begin to figure out what he said wrong, Lance gathers his and Pidge’s trays and quietly stands up.

“Uhh, where are you going?”

“I’m heading back to my room. Sorry, Hunk. Let’s hang out another day.” Lance walks out of the mess hall without another word, head bowed and shoulders slumped.

“…Wow. Left behind twice today,” Hunk grouses once he’s alone. “Leave me a third time, why don’t you. I feel the love.” He chews angrily while preparing for another bite. “What was that for, anyway? I just pointed out what I see.”

Why’s Lance so touchy when it comes to Pidge? She may (pretend to) have given up on her feelings for him, but it’s not like she’ll ever give up on their friendship. Besides, it’s not like he knows about how she feels. Oblivious when it matters, that guy. And yet he acts all broody as if he’s the one who got—

A sudden idea skews Hunk’s perspective and with it his spork of lasagna. The chunk falls with a small splat on the table. The metallic clatter of spork hitting food tray follows soon after.

The way Lance acts whenever Pidge is mentioned…

It’s as if he’s the one who got rejected.

“Hoooly crow,” Hunk mutters to himself, palms finding their way to his temples. “What?!”

He knows not when the change in his friend happened, only that it did. He also knows that it complicates everything. It adds unannounced contraflow lanes to a one-way expressway. It flips the script on itself after getting flipped once already. It turns a straight line into a triangle.

And this change…

“…is annoyingly

difficult

.”

____

Thanks for reading! Names of Lance’s non-canon exes credited to @artemisarya. You’ve been a huge help! ^u^

#fictober19 #writings #voltron #plance #i mean #i know it's november #i'm so sorry

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kaydeefalls · 4 years

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3, 4, 15, 20, 44 (:

3. Least favorite part of writing.

When you're not in the zone at all, but have to force yourself through the boring bits and somehow make them not-boring to readers. I am PANTS at the boring middle bits. I hate them so much. But that's the only way to connect the dots between point A and point B. Sometimes I try skipping ahead and writing the scene I'm actually excited about first, but honestly, not often. I discover a LOT about a story as I write it, and jumping ahead tends make it harder for me to get there in the end. The big exception to this for me being 5 Things style fics, which is why I sometimes default to them when I've got a fic challenge deadline to deal with.4. Do you have writing habits or rituals?

I like knowing that I have a solid chunk of time carved out for writing. It's hard for me to write in short bursts -- I do better when I can settle in for uninterrupted hours on end. (Moving in with my partner really threw off my groove for a while there!) Apart from that, not really. Sometimes I like having quiet music on in the background -- I have like five specific albums on rotation in a playlist (mostly movie soundtracks -- Inception & Cloud Atlas are GREAT for this) that help me focus.15. Where does your inspiration come from?

No idea. Fic challenges like Yuletide help because they force me to come up with something -- I like prompts, they help me focus. Most of my X-Men fic have come out of prompts of some kind -- LJ kinkmemes, back when XMFC came out, or Secret Mutant. I've been on a Fusion AU kick for a while because I like the assembling-puzzle-pieces element of figuring out how one set of characters would fit into another fannish universe, and by putting them in place a plot will usually develop.20. Post a snippet of a WIP you’re working on.

Much to my own dismay, I am writing a Poe/Finn soulmark AU. In which it will apparently take 8k words of Poe Dameron backstory before we even get to the events of TFA. Snippet:

Poe's first real boyfriend, Niko, has a familial mark; it's refreshing to hook up with someone else who isn't waiting for any kind of Force-destined romance."It's all bantha shit anyway," Niko remarks once, when they're fooling around in Poe's bedroom. "I mean, the data clearly shows that something like a quarter to a third of all Forcemarks wind up being non-romantic in nature. Blood kin, or best friends, or whatnot. I read sometimes they're even between members of species that can't interbreed at all, though that's gotta be freaky as all get-out.""Oh, my papa knew someone like that once," Poe says idly. He traces invisible constellations across Niko's back. "His general back during the war. Han Solo."Niko frowns, propping himself up on one elbow. "I thought Solo was married to Leia Organa.""Yeah, but they aren't markmates, not according to my papa. Supposedly Solo shares a mark with his co-pilot. A Wookiee." Poe shrugs. "I mean, it just goes to show, like you said. Marks aren't the be-all and end-all.""No," Niko agrees, with a very particular grin. "So kriff 'em."

44. Best piece of feedback you’ve ever gotten.

I adore long, thoughtful comments, though I'm also the asshole who almost never leaves them on fic I read. So I'll just say that @turtletotem leaves the best comments, always.

Outside of writing, though? Best concrit I've ever received (from a stage manager I ASMed for): "Solve problems, don't create them." Applicable to fucking everything.

#ask me anything #Anonymous

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gingerwerk · 5 years

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so since ive been really busy with school lately and will continue to be really busy for like three more weeks and tbh, don’t know when i’ll get around to updating, so here’s a sizable chunk from chapter 16 ✌️

“Shouldn’t you be up to your ears in textbooks or something right now?” Eugene asked Wednesday afternoon, his phone wedged between his right ear and his shoulder as he quickly rearranged one of the displays.

“Yeah but I figured maybe it’d be good to take a break and see what you were up to,” Sidney responded from the other side of the phone. “Clearly it was a mistake.”

“Well, we all make those,” Eugene mumbled as carefully removed his phone from its position.

“What are you up to, Eugene?” Sidney persisted genuinely. “It’s been a minute.”

“Uh, well my old C.O. is back in town so we’ve been busy helping him reno his family house this week,” Eugene explained as he moved around the shop, gently spritzing the flowers with his spray bottle.

“Oh yeah?”

“Yeah. I’m helping him landscape his backyard. The other guys are helping tear down wall paper, repaint rooms, get rid of old furniture,” Eugene continued casually. “All hands on deck kinda situation.”

“Sounds like a lot of work.”

“I guess but it’s not bad,” he said, shrugging. “We work for a couple hours and then it’s mostly us all hanging out. Even when we’re working it’s kinda like we’re just goofing off.”

“So is that why you’ve been ignoring your mom’s phone calls again?” Sidney asked, his tone light but Eugene could tell that there was something harder.

“Yeah, Sid, I’ve been busy,” he said honestly. “I was doing yard work and was away from my phone yesterday when she called.”

“So busy you couldn’t call her back?”

“It was late by the time we were finished I didn’t wanna be rude,” Eugene said, a little less honestly; it was still only the early evening when Eugene noticed the missed call from his mother.

“Couldn’t call her back today?”

“It’s on my to-do list, okay? And why’re you on my case about this?” Eugene snapped.

“Because I ran into her at the grocery store last night and she yelled at me again to tell you to call her. Made it sound like it’s my fault you won’t pick up,” Sidney retorted. “Like you can only answer two peoples phone calls and you’ve chosen your dad and me.”

Eugene didn’t immediately respond because honestly, Sidney wasn’t wrong. When it came to Mobile, he really only made an effort to keep up communication with his father and his friend, and even then the lines were a little strained at times.

“I’m sorry,” he apologized softly.

“If you’re actually sorry you’ll pick up the phone the next time she calls,” Sidney countered firmly. “Honestly, do you know how awkward it is to have the Mrs. Sledge chew you out in the middle of a Whole Foods?”

“Funny enough, Sid, I can imagine what that’s like,” he said with a hollow smile as he set the spray bottle down on the front counter.

“Yeah, well, let me know the next time it happens and then your wife hears about it before you even get home,” Sidney muttered.

“You see, that’s why I left Mobile,” Eugene said smugly, leaning against the counter. “Too many people knowing everyone’s business.”

“Uh, huh, sure,” Sidney mumbled. “Call her.”

“I will, promise,” he sighed. “Once my CO’s outta town I’ll have more time to chat.”

“I’ll take your word for it.”

After the two friends said their goodbyes, Eugene returned to his work and was just finishing up his last needed task of the day when Bill entered the shop.

“Delivery’s go alright then?” Eugene asked.

“Oh, yeah, more than alright,” he responded with a grin as he pulled out a wrinkled twenty-dollar bill from his pocket. “Ms. Sullivan’s tip is gonna buy me some drinks tonight.”

Ms. Sullivan was a regular of theirs- or, to be more accurate, her daughter was the regular. Every other week since they opened, Ms. Sullivan’s daughter, who lived out of state, ordered a dozen flowers to be sent to her mother, who was pushing eighty and lived by herself a block away from the shop. Every time Eugene delivered flowers to her, she always tried to lure him inside with tea or homemade cookies, which he always politely declined. Bill, however, had no such qualms.

“What’d you have to do to get that outta her?”

“Only turn up the old Bill Leyden charm,” Bill answered cockily, still smiling at the note.

“You don’t have charm,” Eugene said flatly. “Or shame apparently.”

“And here I was about to split my spoil with you,” he said with fake hurt in his voice.

“I’m not too heartbroken about it,” he before he began walking to the back office to grab the sweater he had needed this morning. “Besides, I’m heading over to Andy’s for a bit,” he added as he returned to the front of the shop.

“Thought you guys finished the backyard yesterday.”

“We did but I gotta go over some last minute things with Flo for her renewal,” he explained.

“Alright, well, see ya later, boss. Don’t work yourself too hard.”

“I won’t,” he said before he exited the shop and headed up towards the apartments.

Eugene ran inside his apartment briefly to grab the notebook he had Flo’s flower information in before he exited. Pausing only to lock the door, Eugene turned, went to take a step towards the stairs, but stopped when he found Snafu standing at the top of them.

“Oh, hey,” Eugene greeted him, feeling the momentary jump of his stomach.

“Where you runnin’ off to in such a hurry?” Snafu asked as he continued to block the top of the stairs.

“Going to Andy’s. Gotta do some last minute preparations with Flo,” he answered, gesturing to the notebook in hand for added explanation. “Trying to catch the next train over.”

“... I could give ya a lift,” Snafu offered after a beat.

“What?”

“I was gonna head over there in a bit,” Snafu explained, dropping his gaze as he finally moved away from the stairs. “Hillbilly called and asked if I’d be able to lend them my truck for the evening, somethin’ ‘bout a fire pit. But if you gimme a minute I’ll save you a train ride.”

“Sure,” Eugene decided after a slight pause, fidgeting with the notebook in his hand.

“Good,” Snafu said, a slight smile coming to his face. “I’ll be out in five.”

Surprisingly, true to his word, Snafu was back out on the balcony in just under five minutes, dressed in the slightly dirty work clothes he had worn earlier in the week, a fresh cigarette placed firmly between this lips. Snafu paused briefly to light his cigarette before he looked to Eugene and jerked his head towards the stairs. Eugene followed him.

Pulling out onto the street a minute later found them almost immediately stuck in the typical level of hellish congestion that was Boston traffic. Snafu, never one to get anywhere in a hurry, settled into his seat and turned up the car radio slightly while he smoked his cigarette.

“At this rate the train would’ve been faster,” Eugene admitted tiredly as they inched along the street.

“You can still get out and catch that train if you want,” Snafu suggested cheekily before the traffic momentarily cleared up and he was able to roll forwards.

Eugene turned his head and watched as Snafu blew out a cloud of smoke and flicked his cigarette bud out the window. With the bright, spring sun shining down on Snafu, tan skin glowing warmly, the usually harsh lines of his tattoos looking somehow softer than usual-

“What?” Snafu asked, breaking Eugene out of his head with a jolt. “Tryna get pointers on how to actually drive?”

Eugene scowled as he turned away, eyes focusing on the traffic in front of them; he could still see Snafu’s shit eating grin out of the corner of his eyes.

“I’m not that bad,” he countered with a huff. “You just wanna blow shit out of proportion.”

“Me, Burgie, and Leyden all blowing it out of proportion?” he asked cockily.

“Yeah, cus you’re all assholes,” Eugene muttered flatly as he turned his head to stare out the passengers window; Snafu chuckled.

“Well how ‘bout this? When we get to Ack Ack’s, we have him and Eddie get in and you take my truck for a spin round the block; think they gonna just be ‘assholes’ when they tell you that you drive like shit too?”

Recognizing Snafu had him cornered, Eugene turned and glared at him, his scowl only deepening when Snafu burst out into a fit of laughter.

“Fuck you, Snafu,” Eugene muttered.

In response, Snafu turned his head away from the road in front of him and grinned at Eugene, an unexpected softness present in his eyes that made Eugene’s irritation disappear for a brief second.

“Call me a bad driver… maybe you focus more on driving and not heckling me,” Eugene mumbled as he felt his heart rate increase slightly.

“Good drivers can multitask, Sledgehammer,” he said, turning back forward before he added. “Ya know, maybe one day I could try my hand at teaching, give you some decent driving lessons.”

“I think I’ll pass thanks,” Eugene responded flatly.

“Suit yourself,” he said, grin still wide on his face.

#flowers and tattoos au #yeah uh. sorry but i had really bad writters block and then also realized that it was almost the end of the semester #and i needed to do a million things #and now i feel like i only have to do like a hundred things but still gotta get through the next three week s #hopefully will be able to write this chap quickly after the semester is over so you guys arent waiting too long :/#kelly writes

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jeanjauthor · 5 years

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Writers? This is the artistic version of a short story.

Artists...?

...WHY??

So...many...questions.

A lot of this breaks what writers call “the willing suspension of disbelief.” It’s where the audience is willing to overlook implausible things in order to keep following the story. At some point their credibility has a limit, a breaking point where their ability to suspend and ignore their disbelief will snap, like hanging a thread from the ceiling, and then putting too much weight on it.

Some of these weighty questions include:

Why is she "standing" like that? She looks like she's sitting on an invisible stool!

Why is her cloak/sheet still bound up like that if she's been fighting long enough to get her sword bloodied?

Why is she so pristine when the wyrm corpse is clearly freshly arterially injured??

Why does she have no shoes and pristine feet when she’s clearly touching a bloody corpse?

Why is the tag end of her cloak/sheet...thing...whipped up under one leg and over the other when she’s been chopping up a monster and now has to fight another one?

Again, why is she so clean??

There are so many WTF questions...

What is she sitting on?

If she’s not sitting on anything, how is she supporting her weight in that position?

She’s not being supported by her feet, that’s for sure--is she seriously en pointe with her left foot (the one on our right, visually)?

And the one on the left (her right foot), if it’s resting at a 45-ish degree angle on a corpse so freshly butchered it’s still spurting, how is it she’s able to keep it in place when it should be slipping out from under her by all the laws of squshy meaty blood-filled things?

Where is the missing V shaped wedge of that tail? Look at the angles on those two cut ends; there is clearly a whole big fat wedge of flesh that is missing! If there wasn’t, that tail would literally have been an L shaped structure with the cut angling on the diagonal down into the corner, and that is just disturbing to contemplate...

...Where are the arm bones in those dragon-wings?? Seriously, that is disturbing, seeing the thin metacarpals and phalanges (the “finger bones” of wings if you look at wings as nothing more than elongated & weirdly angled hands) ...but not the arm bones...so where are they??

...Now this isn’t to say the picture is all bad! The concept is actually a neat idea, looking like a cross of Lord of the Rings meets all those hedonistic Renaissance paintings of the Ancient Greek mythos. And it would be 100% correct to mix mythos like this, as the Renaissance painters were doing that all over the place, mixing Greek mythos symbology into Biblical art, and vice versa (all of which was fan art, btw).

The streaky effect of the Nazgûl is wonderful, though I’d like to see a bit more tattering (along the same diagonal upper left to lower right lines) on that right side of the Ringwraith fellow, there.

The Ringrwraith even seems to be bending the airwaves around and above him, with the effects of the clouds sort of streaking in toward that bright spot in the sky above and behind. It makes it look like the halo is sucking in all the Light before fleeing into the West, or trying to suck the Nazgûl off the face of the planet to hopefully disinterate its evilness out of existence...

The bright part of the sky also kind of looks like dragonbreath fire, even though the Fell Beasts that the Nazgûl rode upon aren’t evern mentioned (as far as I can recall) as being able to breathe fire like dragons. So that’s another point of coolness.

I have no idea what’s going on anatomy-wise of the presumed fallen and chopped up Fell Beast, but at least some effort has been made to provide it with a (weird) internal structure. If it really is a Fell Beast and not meant to be a dragon or a wyrm, then I can accept the odd anatomy and darkness of the...I’m not sure if those are bones, but I’m presuming that it has some bones in its tail, and if it’s a foul abomination style creation, I can accept the creator had no clue.

I do like the crispness of the woman in focus versus the Nazgûl who is equally clearly not in focus.

Certainly the woman definitely looks like a Renaissance painting of a Greek Mythos Action Sequence! She’s in a classic serene, poised action pose that no doubt has some sort of supporting stool & armature behind and under the original model for her to rest her arms upon.

The symbology of Shield Maiden of Rohan certainly gets the first two components of that descriptor down visually: for the first part, she has a shield (lovely round thing, very Classic Greek Hero With Spiffy Expensive Metal Shield), and she definitely is using it to shield herself from something. (Plus the sword.) The other part of the symbology is the “modesty sheet drape” under one thigh (gotta show off them nekkid thighs, Renaissance foiks!!) and up over the other, between the legs, blocking off any view of or access to the mons pubis...aka, shielding her maidenly modesty.

However, there is zero sign she’s from Rohan, because there’s zero symbolism representing Rohirrim culture...and the key element to Renaissance pictures of various cultures’ mythos were that they were rich with symbolism. The Rohirrim, the Riders of Rohan, were emphasized over and over as horse people.

Tolkienn also cribbed the Scandinavian culture for his descriptions of them (I suspect the Golden Hordes of the Russian Steppes, heavily influenced by the Rus folks who were Scandinavians who had moved east and mingled with the Mongolian Empire remnants who a little earlier had moved west. The Greeks knew of the Scandinavian peoples (no, really, they knew of them! Electricity is actually just the Latin word elektron (which comes from a similar-sounding Greek word I’m not going to bother to spell correctly), which meant amber, as in the petrified pine pitch being shipped down through Europe from the Baltic Sea in the far north, which is surrounded by Scandinavian countries.

Yet there’s no signs or symbols of Scandinavia about her, no knotwork animals, no amber, just pale blonde hair (which frankly could be representative of the British Isles or partial albinoism)... So while there’s a lovely Greek Mythos in Renaissance Paintings feel to her...it falls short of being a true copy/homage, which is unfortunate. It could’ve been so easily fixed, too, with a bit of knotwork braiding painted onto the cloak/sheet thing.

I will say that the folds of that sheet are spectacularly well painted, lovely depth and dimensionality to them!

Same goes for the condours of her body, and the tail of the wyrm. I fully believe these are three dimensional objects!

The lighting is beautifully done. Admittedly if the light is coming from that glowy bit of the sky behind the Nazgûl, she should be in shadow...except he’s a Ringwraith, and it’s 100% acceptable for light to go through him, since according to cannon, they’re not fully corporeal. This is a “plot” point where fans who know the lore are more than willing to suspend disbelief.

I’m not a rabid Tolkienn fan by any means, but I do know enough to accept that Ringwraiths are wraiths, and not fully of the physical realm. Plus, Greek Mythos Heroes in Renaissance paintings are supposed to be Bathed In The Light Of Holy Goodness, sort of an inner aura spiritual goodness radiance-effect, I guess...? Either way, it’s symbolism, it indicates visually that the Light (Good) will shine through upon Heroes (& Heroines) when they are being their Most Heroic...and it’s very well done.

(...Another question if that’s her helm on the ground, where is the rest of her armor? Where are her clothes?? Or is this meant to parody the “sword and magic helmet!!” trope and the helmet was providing all her armor and clothes up until the point she removes it to reveal she’s a nekkid Not A Man? And really, are Nazgûl so far removed from their mortal lives that they need nakedness to be able to tell males from females of their own species...?)

If this were a story, it would be a crossover fanfic with awesome potential...but it falls a little short of what’s needed to successfully suspend the reader/viewer’s disbelief.

Why is it important to do a better job next time, to get these details a little more accurate? Because most Tolkienn fans I know are rabid about it, & willing to nitpick any mistakes or inaccuracies. Cast your minds back to the huge raging fandom debates around the Lord of the Rings trilogy movies about whether or not Peter Jackson & co were “butchering the mythos” of Middle Earth.

Also...I’m trying to figure out how the Nazgûl is standing, and on what if he is indeed standing, though perhaps he’s actually astride the fallen Fell Beast, and simply swung himself around while she was chopping off & somehow disintegrating that V-shaped wedge of wrymtail? I can suspend some of my disbelief for that, though it does add to the overall strain of that willing suspension, and obviously there were too many other issues that ended up snapping it.)

As an editor, if this were a story, I’d be telling the artist to fix the wing bones, to give the woman some shining chain armor with a Rohirrim tabard, or boiled leather armor and tabard--at the very least a tabard with the Rohirrim symbols on it!!. I’d also at the very least slap some Scandinavian knotwork on it, if not the actual Horse of Rohan. (I’d also suggest using the accepted colors for the Rohirrim banner, green and gold, though I might keep the majority of the tabard white and just have a gold-and-green knotwork horse centered on the chest, or something.)

I’d also request there be more chunks of hacked-off tail all over. (Bonus points if one of them looks like The Lonely Mountain! lol...)

Plus, I’d give her at least a tiny bit of blood spatters around her boots and on her thighs & a little on the lower tabard, to show she’s been fighting in battle all along. However, I’d actually hesitate to put the spatters any higher than belt-line at most (and definitely do something different than that cloak/sheet thing).

Why would I hesitate to get the chest area bloody? Because of the symbolism.

Renaissance paintings had blood & gore, but only up to a point. She’s the heroic figure who slays the 3rd Biggest Nasty of the entire trilogy (#1: Sauron, #2 Saruman, #3 chief king of the Ringwraiths, the one she stabs in the face-hole), so she needs the symbolism of still being Clean And Pure Of Heart, aka no muss, mud, tatters, or blood in the torso (chest / heart) area.

In fact, if you just replaced the cloak/sheet thingy with just a tabard (a white one with a little knotwork on it, and put Grecian sandals on her feet...that would seriously fix a lot in this image. You’d still get to paint the glorious three dimensional folds arrowing down between her thighs, “shielding her modesty.” and you could put some of the symbols of Rohan on the tabard (horse, knotwork, etc) to make her more clearly the Shield Maiden of Rohan, and not just a shield maiden, while still retaining that Greek Mythos feel.

(Plus, you could have a bit of Side Boob showing on the side closest to the viewer to make it clear She Is No Man, and still avoid the blasted censorship issues rampant in modern society, particularly on this site these days.)

...Definitely fix the dragon wing armbones with a bit of shadowing to remove the fact they look like they’re translucent with nothing along the upper/leading edge... ‘cause once unseen, I cannot un-see-it, and it’s creepy as-is... >.>*

I love the color palette. It’s very dusky, as in nearing-sunset-dusk, with lots of earth tones. It looks a bit dirty in its hues (as tragically poised battlefields should), and yet it has kind of a “Romanticism golden afternoon light” quality to it. These are all colors that I 100% believe Renaissance painters had access to and would’ve used. Excellent choices!

At a quick glance, it’s a good painting. When you look at it a little closer, however... the contrast between all the high quality stuff (lighting, three-dimensionality, focus versus unfocus, at least half the necessary symbolism is there, etc, etc) and the lower quality stuff (oy that lack of proper dragonwing armbones, etc) means it’s really not quite the artist’s best work, and it could be so, so very much better. Why?

Composition is as important as technical performance.

Seriously, the way she’s painted is gloriously done...except for her positioning. The dragon wings (I haven’t even touched on the odd angles of the metacarpal bones on the left-side one, just the right one, which is well done for the “finger bones” but there’s no way it should be pointing up lke that), those wings are too anatomically implausible, though I’ll admit they’re more about visual framing than being actual key features.

And lastly, if you’re going for a glorious Greek Mythos Renaissance Painting look to the art...go the whole hog. Paint it like it’s Second Breakfast, Elevenses, Lunch, Dinner, Tiffin, Tea, Supper & Midnight Snack all rolled into one.

Hell, paint a Loyal Dog (a staple of Renaissance symbolism), put it down at her feet (to represent the hobbit Merry, who was with her on her quests), and give it a little Rohirrim helmet and/or tabard! Go the whole distance with this. I truly believe this artist has that kind of quality in them!

If they did, I do believe all the old Renaissance Masters would totally thumbs-up this painting, if those flaws were fixed and the symbolism ramped up to at least a 9, if not necessarily a 10, rather than just doodling around down near a 5 or 6.

If this were a story and I was the editor for it (and presuming this was done on a tablet / computer, since if it’s an actual painting, that’s harder to fix), I’d definitely strongly suggest the revisions and rewrites listed above. And then I’d pimp the hell outta this painting.

(Oh, and to fix the weird positioning of her body, I’d give her a Radiant Aura Of Goodness with some golden streaks of light or something angling out at all directions, so it looks like she’s kinda floating, rather than wondering if she’s “suspended” by secretly sitting on a stick or a tail spike or something. That would help strengthen my suspension...as in the suspension of my disbelief.)

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