#i am also a hypocrite because while i did get my first tattoo six months after a breakup

[thepoisonroom]

I'm going through what might or might not be a breakup with a VERY long term relationship and my brain is telling me to self destruct and go buy a bunch of alcohol (I don't drink) and get a tattoo (I don't have any tattoos) so like how much do tattoos cost and should I get one

oh dude that's awful and i'm so sorry! i'm sending you good wishes and i hope you're able to take are of yourself no matter what happens. i think the instinct to avoid diving into drinking is a good one. i would highly rec doing what i did and just write down tattoo ideas here and there. then if you do break up maybe wait 3-5 months until you're out of the worst of it and get the tattoo as a symbolic first step in the fresh start you're making for yourself?

to answer your actual question, prices vary a lot depending on where you're located, if your artist charges hourly vs. a set price by size, if there's a shop minimum, etc. if i had to ballpark it i'd say a fairly simple palm sized tattoo is gonna be like $80-100 plus tip.

#my tattoos are by far the nicest and most expensive thing i own and for what #the second nicest is my duvet because midwestern winter isn't a fucking joke #i am also a hypocrite because while i did get my first tattoo six months after a breakup #after my last breakup i got like. a tattoo within the next month which was stupid #like it turned out really well but not my finest hour #anonymous #ask and receive #alcohol mention

[doorsclosingslowly]

@sl-walker asked: Literally ALL OF THEM for Riches and Wonders.

(first chunk of the answers is here, Riches is here)

6: What makes this fic special or different from all your other fics?

I spent six whole months on it, haha. Apparently, that’s 1/4 of the entire time I’ve been writing fanfic.

Also, Maul and Savage actually talk to each other occasionally instead of just making small gestures. It took so long for them to have an actual conversation. I very much appreciate how nonverbal their relationship is, but. It’s just. Please talk, dudes. The future prospect of writing Maul interacting with Talzin in a fic where he doesn’t know what she’s done to Savage would kill me

7: Where did the title come from? / 13: What music did you listen to, if any, to get in the mood for writing this story? Or if you didn't listen to anything, what do you think readers should listen to to accompany us while reading?

The title’s from one of my favourite songs by the Mountain Goats. Usually it takes a while until i’ve figured out which title I want, but Riches and Wonders was called that before I put down a single word, because I knew that this was the mood I wanted to match. The diffuse unease. This dynamic, which is genuinely affectionate but doesn’t, can’t, stop the discomfort because the discomfort is with yourself, was what I was writing about.

I don’t actually listen to music when I write, because I’m easily distractible and I want to be writing and not singing along. But there are a few songs I associate with the fic anyway. It probably means something that they are literally all my favourites probably that the thoughts I ended up putting into this story are thoughts I’ve been thinking about for a very long time

There is the actual song, Riches and Wonders, and I tried So Hard to match the mood of the fic with this song so:

You find shelter somewhere in me I find great comfort in you And I keep you safe from harm You hold me in your arms And I want to go home But I am home

Also You’re Tender and You’re Tired by Manic Street Preachers is a song that fits I think although I can never use any line from it as a title because it’s as good as writing “I love Savage SO MUCH someone please give him a hug” lol

But it’s too late to be real No time to be strong enough Memory has become pain

Rebuild the void with flowers Sad-eyed destruction built around sand and sea Yes, you can build yourself around Build yourself around me

Also some more Manics songs from This is My Truth onwards, Nicky Wire’s songs about loss and being lost are great. Not gonna make this too long, so Bobby Untitled (Bits of me don’t exist anymore / I can’t replace what’s been and gone) and You Will Always Be My Home (We will walk together / We will never part / We tattoo ourselves and each others’ hearts lol)

8: Did any real people or events inspire any part of it?

Terrible confession time: Yeah, me. Savage’s the least pre-defined POV character I’ve ever written (apart from Jess Pava, but that fic was outsider POV about Finn), everyone else has been a main character or Maul with his books and comics and decade of fanfic, and that’s how I prefer it, usually – I take as much characterization from canon as I can. I think trying to figure out someone else’s reasoning adds… edges? Like, decisions I wouldn’t have made about the character, and so they have parts that don’t quite fit or don’t fit in an obvious way that make them interesting, if that makes sense. (Runaways is also the first fic where I’ve made up OCs like Pranxoh and Socvumo that get a fair bit of page time, but I just don’t know enough about the EU to figure out which canon character would fit.)

So even though I’ve looked at Savage’s body language especially A Lot More than is entirely reasonable, there were many things I extrapolated or made up. Especially since I ended up focusing so much on how he thinks and not just how he acts. Some of his experiences and traits are adjacent enough to mine that I used myself as reference. So, between the relationship with his transformed body, the difficulties with expressing himself sometimes and the lack of assertiveness, Savage ended up with a lot of traits I don’t like about myself… (I am So Bad at words in real life, hence why I like text communication because the conversations move slower and I have time to think about the words I’m saying and the conversation doesn’t always move on without me, and probably also why I’m such a slow writer. And why going nonverbal is a recurrent theme in my fanfic lol) I don’t hate Savage for being like that but I never pretended not to be a hypocrite

The “We’re just having a friendly conversation OH SHIT” has happened to me, not a lot because I’m not that attractive or good at conversations with strangers but occasionally, and I do freeze up. The main result is usually that I just never reply. The thing after was a common nightmare, although I’m doing much better than Savage because I was a shut-in as a teenager who read a lot about feminism and consent and asexuality hahaha

9: Were there any alternate versions of this fic?

I spent a few days agonizing over whether I should divide it into three chapters (injury, picnic, Keeu/Sith conversation), three different fics or leave it as one, but in terms of what’s in it? I always knew the ‘mood’ I wanted, I knew that it was going to be about the coping mechanisms Savage and Maul have learned not fitting with their new life & about them awkwardly trying to be nice to each other… It was just a matter of figuring out how to get there.

#runaways 'verse #dimtraces makes things #sl-walker