#i am surviving solely on fanfiction

[quotidian-oblivion]

Book recs!! ✨

Hi! So a bit ago, I met a lovely amazing anon on ao3 (who is a BLESSING compared to the other mean anons commenting out there, thanks Kat, you make mine and im pretty sure other author's days too). So we got into talking about books and I offered to make a list for her and post it on tumblr so other people too can scrounge through so here we are lmao.

I gathered this list from the personal notes I had made to myself to add these books to my bookshelf when i move out and also from another list i made for my little siblings because no way are they gonna not read the good stuff I found. It's like a rite of passage now.

Just a note: I don't read romance. But since books don't have the very convenient tags we get on ao3, I end up getting to romance-y parts. The only romance books I have read are middle school level romance lmao XD Nothing except kisses and stuff lol.

Let's go!

The Maze Runner series

Maze Runner

I love this book. This series. Ngl, one of the first books where I felt that heart-clenching feeling of hurt. Love the characters, the world-building was in the fandom for a brief while and I love the plot too. Better than the movie plot anyway XD

Mare Runner: Scorch Trials

Second book in the series, also very good. Literally an adventure. So many twists and turns. Once more, the characterization is also amazing!

Maze Runner: Death Cure

Third and last book in the series as a main. Heartbreaking. Did shed tears. Page 250 still kills me. O u ch.

The Fever Code

Also in the same series and OUCH. It's the characters before the whole drama happened and they're kids and higehrfwb 😭 No kidding I was squealing and nearly threw the book multiple times out of excitement. It solved a couple plotlines too. I adored it. Plus, it gave me some closure from the many many (inevitable) deaths.

Crank Palace

It's a novella, but clears the mysterious gap that was in the third book. Plus, it gives much much more closure but I'm still crying so do what you will with that information. I love the new "OC"s here too.

Trials of Apollo

The Hidden Oracle The Dark Prophecy The Burning Maze The Tyrant's Tomb The Tower of Nero

Listen- listen- I know this is kinda obvious and you might be asking "where's the rest of the pjo series?" but that's a given. My personal favorites are the pjo, hoo and toa series, but toa somehow spoke to me more because the main relationship wasn't a romantic one like all the other teen books I read. I also adore Apollo/Lester's character development? Like, at first he was this carefree god, then at the end of the series, he transformed into a person who cared so much and so deeply and was willing to die for others. That is peak character development and if I hadn't read toa, I would still be blundering around and confused with my multi-chap fics as to how characters actually develop. Because you can see that journey so clearly in toa.

Jinx series

Jinx: The Wizard's Apprentice Jinx's Magic Jinx's Fire

I love this series so much??? I am a sucker for fantasy novels and this was so so good. I love the storyline and-

AND I ESPECIALLY LOVE THE FOUND FAMILY ASPECT HERE. THIS. IS LITERALLY RELUCTANT MENTOR-FATHER AND HYPER AND KEEN MENTEE-SON. AHHH.

Anyway, this was my first found family novel. I loved the whole storyline too, this was also the series where I was first introduced to the concept of whump (without knowing what whump actually was).

The Mapmaker Chronicles

Race To The End Of The World Prisoner Of The Black Hawk Breath Of The Dragon

These were also some of the first whump books I read. And I especially loved this because the plot was it. A smartass scrawny boy who accidentally turned into a hero? Hmmm, I wonder who that reminds me of. (Tim Drake. It reminds of Tim Drake)

But the characters are also special to my heart. There is minimal romance in here. Any romance is to move the plot forward.

Also a mentor-mentee relationship here. Not so much found family to the heart seeing as the main character already has family back home, but the whole crew definitely is a family of their own. I especially adore Ash! Ahhh! She's lovely and amazing. Oh and Zain- *sighs* he is the perfect mentor figure to scrawny li'l Quinn. And the hateable characters are so perfectly hateable!! The author truly is talented at stories.

Although the second book could do with more whump

Nevermoor series

Nevermoor

This book was described in the reviews as "Harry Potter meets Alice in Wonderland" and it stayed true to its description. It had beautiful and amazing characters, and an evil-mentor & reluctant hero-mentee relationship (though not at first) and I am a sucker for that. Also, I just love the character herself. Morrigan is a very good and fleshed out character and I will love her forever.

Wundersmith

We explore more of the evil-mentor & reluctant hero-mentee relationship. But Jupiter, Morrigan's actual caretaker, is the PERFECT uncle/caretaker for her and he's so protective of her and i just-

*sobs* I stan.

Hollowpox

Here we discover some of that delicious power upgrades. I also love all the friends! HAWTHORNE IS MY FAVORITE AND WILL ALWAYS BE I LOVE HIM. Stunning characters here 💫 Also some wise comparison of the different isms and phobias (as in homophobia, racism etc.) here in terms of fantasy.

The Mysterious Benedict Society series

The Mysterious Benedict Society The Mysterious Benedict Society and The Perilous Journey The Mysterious Benedict Society and The Prisoner's Dilemma The Mysterious Benedict Society and The Riddle of Ages

This... was one of the first mystery books I had ever read (my actual first was Sherlock Holmes cuz I found it on my grandparents' bookshelf and read it cuz I had read every other book they owned which wasn't a lot). I thoroughly enjoyed the storyline. It was calm and just- a bunch of kids going on a perilous journey to solve a mystery to save the city. Those kind of vibes. But the vibes were so good. So enjoyable. Every time I hear about this series, I just sigh in contempt.

There are very, very interesting characters here too. The characters are what made the story so good. All of them have unique quirks which they use to crack clues and form conclusions and dive into actions. Such good characters. 10/10, honestly.

The Extraordinary Education of Nicholas Benedict

This is part of the Benedict society universe, but it takes place years before the main events. It has adventures of the leader of the group in the main series as a kid. This book has a special mention because the storyline was different to the style of the main series and it had tropes. Just- the friend and the character itself and- dnfhbevbiluw

Okay, I admit, Benedict here does remind me of Tim (my fav character in DC). Like y'know smol Tim with the camera? Those kind of vibes. Very strong vibes. I read this way before I discovered Tim even existed so maybe this book plays a part in my favorites?

Jessica Brody books

The fact that I put the actual author's name here should tell you something.

Addie Bell's Shortcut To Growing Up

This book... brought me to tears. This was the second book that prompted salt water to slip out of my tear ducts. It was a strange feeling. Cuz I was not used to crying for books and movies and shows.

The plot just hit hard. A 12-year-old Addie magically time-travels to when she's 16 and experiences life as a teenager. The plot gives more than you expect. There are boys, yes, but that is a side plot, not a main plot. Which is why I love the book so much. Addie wants to be one of the "girly" girls who talks about boys and stuff and goes to parties like her older sister, but then as she lives the life of a teenager more and more, she realizes just how much she lost. Friendships, family, her personality, her interests, herself.

The part that made me cry was her missing her sister. Cuz, well, I'm an older sister. And my sister who is the oldest after me has the same age difference as Addie and her older sister. It wasn't just her missing her sister in that scene, it was everything crashing down on her that moved me to tears. Amazing book. If anything, I recommend you either read this or 'Better You Than Me' if nothing in this list goes towards your liking.

Better You Than Me

This was the first book that made me cry. It has two characters, one in middle school, the other who is an actress, swap bodies. So the typical middle school kid gets to live as a famous actress, and the famous actress gets to live as a typical middle school kid. Of course, neither of them end up liking their new life very much, but that only teaches them two important messages: appreciation and communication. God, I learnt so much from this book. I was like 13 or something when I read it and it resonated within me enough to make me cry. I adore this. SO much.

I Speak Boy

I actually have a library-borrowed copy with me right now XD It's about a middle school girl, Emmy, being very confused with the opposite gender. (Very much hetero, no homo despite it being published in 2021). But, once again, the reason I love this book isn't cuz of the romance (though it is kinda satisfactory but also a bit cliché). It's how the main character realizes that boys aren't everything. Just like in 'Addie Bell's Shortcut To Growing Up'. It's a lot about friendship.

The reason why I like these books by Jessica Brody (I haven't read the others yet) is because of the Bechdel Test factor in it.

S. K. Ali books

Again you have another author's name. This time, it's Muslim fiction!

Love From A To Z

The first Muslim fiction book I've ever read. And yes, it is a romance book. But it does not have any touchy-touchy stuff (except in the Epilogue and a couple dream scenes, very vague though and only kissing). As in, the main characters follow mainstream Sunni procedures and do not touch each other as they're not married. Which just leaves room for a ton of emotional romance.

I adore this simply because I'm a Muslim Hijabi myself and I am very much biased.

It deals with so many aspects of romance though, like personality first, lust last, and whether they are the right fit or not and whether they actually like each other or the idea of each other and how families play into this and online hate and emotion control and of course, the marvels and oddities of life. It is packed with so much. And when I finished the book, I had a good long cry. This is the first book that made me cry the longest. Because- because I was starved for representation! And this book did it so well! I just- love this so much.

The author has published a sequel, Love from Mecca to Medina, I have yet to read it because I'm waiting for it to be in a library. I prefer physical copy books.

Once Upon An Eid

Okay, this is very Muslim-based, but if you treat it like Muslim Christmas, everything becomes clear XD Also, Ali wrote only one story here. This book is actually a collection of stories by different Muslim authors. And each story is so special. Many people don't really know how Muslims celebrate Eid or why it's so special (besides spiritual reasons) and what it looks like. This paints an accurate picture. And it contains most, if not all, types of Muslims celebrating Eid. Sunni, Shia, refugee, African, American, revert/convert, South Asian etc. So really diverse.

Saints and Misfits Misfit In Love

Very much love-centred, but also has very vague mentions of sexual assault/rape/non-con. Yes, in a Muslim community. It exists. A lot actually. But it's hidden and hushed down. Disgustingly.

But the first book addresses it and how a Muslim girl battles it. She's in love with a white boy, yes, but she doesn't give in to her white boy desires. Neither does she fall to a non-white boy, at least not fully.

Which is why I recommend that if you're reading the first book, you definitely, definitely read the second one along with it. Because I felt even though the ending of the first book was satisfactory, it wasn't satisfactory to me. But the second book was! Because at the end of the second book, Janna (the main character), comes to the conclusion that boys aren't everything. And even though there is a very perfect boy that fancies her and she fancies him too, she takes a breath and says that she isn't too focused on that. And I adore that. But she only comes to that conclusion after falling in love with many, many, many boys. I did get a bit uncomfy cuz romance just in general makes me uncomfy, its a personal thing, but I kept reading it cuz... Muslim fiction! Anyway, good book series. But I like Love From A To Z better.

Now, those are... a lot of books. And a lot of me talking. And there are still so many more. So I'm just gonna go through some quick filtering and put the titles and authors of the other books here in dot points.

London Eye Mystery by Siobhan Dowd (my first novel, Kat knows about this lol)

Skyfire series by Michael Adams

NERDS series by Michael Buckley (it's an acronym that stands for National Espionage, Rescue, and Defense Society. It's weird but I laughed a lot so)

Murder Most Unladylike series by Robin Stevens

Mallory Towers series by Enid Blyton

Naughtiest Girl In The School series by Enid Blyton

Scarlet and Ivy series by Sophie Cleverly (fuck- I forgot to add this to the main list, but this book is hella hella good and I recommend it very much)

Bounce by Megan Shull (life lessons in here)

Sick Bay by Nova Weetman

The Adventurer's Guild series by Zack Loran Clark and Nick Eliopulos

Luck Uglies series by Paul Durham ("DADDY ISSUES!" screams Quo. "I love this book because I have daddy issues among other issues and that is all.")

Time Hunters by Chris Blake (it is very much a children's book, not even middle school, but I read it because it has an intriguing storyline and interesting historical facts that had me raising my hand in every history lesson)

There are no classic books here because that will need its own separate post.

And that's it! Thank you very much!

#book recs #book recommendations #booklr #bookworm #books #fiction book #fantasy books #mystery books #booknerd #new books #book review #books and reading #reading #quotidian convos #quotidian reads #but not so much now #cuz of fuckin. SCHOOL #i havent read a proper book in so long :'( #i am surviving solely on fanfiction #I MEAN that is great too truly #but im a bookworm and books are my escape #they are me #so im kinda missing books #fortunately #i have borrowed some old favorites #so i might get back into reading again #hopefully #muslim fiction #muslim fiction books #muslim books

[lastweeksshirttonight]

Lee is re-watching Sherlock for some fucking reason - Season One

I'm well aware that the crossover between "currently popular and loved British comedian in the US updates, thirst, and accoutrements" and "BBC show that went so off the rails that people now like to pretend Andrew Scott's breakout role was the Hot Priest in Fleabag" is limited, but weirdly, returning to Sherlock was one of the few things that was keeping my brain somewhat grounded and whirring during Work Hell.

We're in uncharted territory here. You're gonna learn a bit about the things I do when I'm not tracking John Oliver obsessively. I am nervous about this but hey, I'm guessing most of you knew I don't solely live and breathe John Oliver. (I know. I have multitudes. This is a shocking revelation. Please take time to process it.)

Firstly, a content note - there's going to be discussion about queerbaiting and queercoding villains, and the beginning of this goes into some of James Somerton's absolutely disgusting claims about the AIDS crisis. This post will only be focused on Season One, as that's all I've finished at this point.

Let's go.

(above image sourced from Writing Tips and Memes)

My sudden re-emergent hyperfixation started because of the hbomberguy takedown of James Somerton, weirdly. I don't follow many YouTubers - I like Bright Sun Films because he goes urban exploring, something I've always wanted to do but have never managed to make happen, and also Todd in the Shadows, whose Trainwreckords series is very well-done and expertly researched. Seeing that name, you might know where this is going. Todd dropped a video about James Somerton, who I had never fucking heard of and now wish I'd known about before, so I could scream bloody murder about what an absolute fuckwad he is.

(I don't want to get too in the weeds here, but the things James asserted about WWII, Nazis, and the AIDS crisis are so vehemently offensive that I'm still struggling with them. Claiming that only boring gays survived the AIDS crisis in particular is so vile that I have gotten anger flashes thinking about it almost daily since hearing it.)

Todd recommended watching all four hours of the hbomberguy plagiarism video, and I ran that in the background while working about two weeks ago. Eventually I had to stop doing that because the plagiarism revelations were so distracting and shocking. Todd's video was even more of a goddamn mindfuck, and even the smaller, less offensive things have taken up far too much space in my brain. Californians, does anyone at all deify Bob Iger??? Like... what the goddamn fuck??? Bob Iger????

After watching one hbomberguy video, the algorithm did its thing, and gave me a video called "Sherlock is Garbage and Here's Why". Posting it here for posterity:

Because my brain works in mysterious ways (-cough-ADHD-cough-), watching this... made me want to rewatch Sherlock.

I initially saw Sherlock for the first time thanks to someone I met in my last year of college, 2012. At the time, Michael (a nickname) was my neighbor in the dorms; over the past ten years, she's become one of my closest friends and a true rock in my life. One of the first things we bonded over that I introduced her to was the San Francisco Giants and the ghost I will always be chasing, Tim Lincecum; one of the first things we bonded over that she introduced me to was BBC Sherlock. The show was in the early months of its extended hiatus after Season Two, at the height of its fandom, and we were both completely obsessed. I read all the Doyle stories, took in a truly wild amount of fanfiction, wrote a not-very-popular AU fic, became part of a strange inter-dorm ARG based on Sherlock orchestrated by Michael... it consumed a huge part of our lives.

When Season 3 dropped, I almost stopped watching after "The Empty Hearse". I don't want to get into why it offended me so much before we get to a Season 3 post, but just know my enthusiasm severely dampened there. The rest of Season 3 I think of with blase emotions, especially the ending, which I found just dumb, save one part of it. I recall going to see The Abominable Bride in theatres with my mom (and maybe Michael?), and I think I liked it fine - aside, again, from the ending. But I had no interest in a Season Four, and when it dropped, Michael's long rambling phone calls describing the absolute shitstorm of a plot cemented that I was never going to watch it again.

Until now.

I definitely don't think the hbomberguy video is perfect. His insistence that Doyle canon never had Holmes pull answers to cases out of his ass is... something, lol, as is his opinion that changing the solution to certain puzzles in A Study in Pink disrespects the original canon. (Bro, these stories have been retold a bajillion times, they need to mix it up to keep it interesting.) But he put a finger on something that I'd wrestled with regarding Sherlock for a long time - that the show's writing often teased something big and new and conclusive in the horizon, but almost never delivered. That wasn't an issue in early days when there was less invested in an increasingly convoluted mythic story, or when they weren't fully blowing off the resolutions to cliffhangers, but the flaw in writing a story where you promise something huge on the horizon and never deliver should be obvious.

The first season doesn't trade much in that idea, and going back to it was something I found exceptionally enjoyable!

Before I watched:

I remembered bits and pieces of "A Study in Pink" and the whole plot in summary.

I truly didn't remember anything about "The Blind Banker" except that I found it fairly 'yellow peril'-y when I saw it in 2012.

I mixed up huge chunks of Season Two's "A Scandal in Belgravia" with "The Great Game" in my head and somehow forgot the main plot thrust was Moriarty kidnapping people and strapping bombs to them.

I genuinely forgot Sebastian Moran was a character basically hallucinated into existence by the fandom and didn't appear in the show at all until a brief appearance in Season Three.

In a way, it was like I was watching the show for the first time all over again. My partner also watched the first season with me, and it was interesting to get his thoughts on the show as we watched.

To start, his favorite character is Mycroft. Watching Season One, I had to agree that Mycroft has a depth of character that I'd forgotten about. Mark Gatiss plays him perfectly, aloof and smarter than you but unsure of how to deal with his natural feelings of concern and fear for his oft-spiraling, danger-seeking younger brother - and how those feelings magnify with the influence of extreme danger-seeker (at least in this season) John Watson. The show wants you to believe so badly that he's Moriarty in "A Study in Pink", which I don't think works even if you know he isn't Moriarty - there's a warmth to Gatiss' Mycroft that, even while he's doing incredibly ominous things like shutting off all cameras in a busy intersection, still comes through.

My favorite character is Moriarty. I haven't mentioned this very much here, because why would I, but my favorite character type in media is "theatrical abject shithead". It's why I cosplay Bakugo from My Hero Academia and loved everything about Akechi in Persona 5. Hell when I was a kid, I told teachers that when I grew up, I wanted to join Team Rocket. I love the theatrical shitheads. And boy, is Moriarty some sort of theatrical shithead. I don't DISAGREE with hbomberguy pointing out that, as written, Moriarty is a complete mess of a character, a queer-coded literal terrorist with no motivations besides "I did that because I'M CRAAAAZY!"... but he's my queer-coded literal terrorist, ok? I could write a whole paper on all the harmful stereotypes inhabiting this version of Moriarty... but I can't deny that the flamboyance and violence pulsing just beneath the surface of Andrew Scott's performance was the beating heart of that show for me. Sure, Sherlock and John, at least early on, were a compelling duo, but the show was at its best with Moriarty pulling strings for inexplicable reasons in the background. I love him.

(An aside: watching Sherlock made me remember how hilarious it was to see basically every major actor from the show in one of my favorite movies of all time, 1917, to the point that I actually kinda laughed in the theatre thinking about it.)

The entirety of the first season also is more devoted to actual crime-solving and detective work than I remembered the show being. I think that works strongly in its favor, and as I recall things from later seasons, drifting from that element definitely hampers the show greatly. In particular, while the lazy and uncomfortable Orientalism of "The Blind Banker" is still incredibly glaring, the actual mystery at the core of it is very excitingly tracked and easily followed while watching. The fact that John is treated like an equal (mostly) throughout only enhances my thoughts on that. "The Great Game" is a little more slapdash (and hurt by the fact that the entire Vermeer section would be solvable with a smartphone nowadays), but you can still make connections mentally with most of the cases and deduction/investigation is being shown logically. (hbomberguy cites the Golem as a problematic logical leap akin to some of Season Two's dumbest, and I can't agree. It's a reasonable suspension of disbelief to assume Sherlock knows about assassins and is followed by some more sensible investigation and inspection of the Golem's victim. The sequence of Sherlock fighting the Golem, however, is very, very silly.)

Related to that... the autopsy doctors on this show are fucking AWFUL at their jobs. Like straight-up negligently awful. How in the actual fuck did they not investigate the puncture marks on Connie Price's body? How did they not notice a highly distinctive heel tattoo on three recently-murdered corpses? Is Molly the only vaguely competent person in the mortuary? My partner and I were extremely amused that, while Lestrade and his police force are thankfully shown with much more intelligence than in other Holmes adaptations and BBC!Watson wouldn't think jam is a clue, the writers seem to have shunted the stupidity straight to the invisible autopsy doctors.

The first season also does a good job of making Sherlock seem like an overly intelligent if socially stunted human being, instead of the condescending prickish intellectual Ubermensch he ends up becoming as the show progresses. "A Study in Pink"'s ending being Sherlock throwing aside his deduction of the cabbie's killer when he realizes it's Watson, unconvincingly lying to Lestrade and insisting he's in shock before rejoining the other man and genuinely bonding with him, is remarkably compelling as fulfillment of a promise we get from Lestrade earlier in the episode - "Sherlock Holmes is a great man. One day he may even be a good one." My memory is admittedly faulty, but part of why "The Empty Hearse" turned me off so viscerally was Sherlock's (and to an extent, Mycroft's) insufferable growing smugness, particularly where explaining plans or mysteries to John. We get told often that Watson humanizes Sherlock and that the two have a strong bond throughout the series, but Sherlock gets much more dickish in general as the series progresses. One thing I do remember with stark clarity is that after being utterly chastised at a Christmas party in "A Scandal in Belgravia", Sherlock does visibly treat Molly MUCH better throughout the remainder of the show. So, uh, why did we lose that energy with the show's central pairing?

Speaking of the show's central pairing, the queerbaiting starts SO EARLY on this show. I want to make it clear that obviously the benefit of hindsight and knowledge of how the show ends really colors a lot about the Johnlock relationship now, and as a society, we're more aware of what queerbaiting is and what it looks like, which will obviously alter how I perceive these interactions now. I also want to make it clear that I never really shipped Johnlock outside of just kind of assuming that it would be canon because everyone seemed really convinced of it. (I was an absolute degenerate that shipped John with Moriarty. On top of enjoying theatrical disasters, I enjoy ships with an abundance of chaos and impossibility.) There's some biases at play here.

Even so, we are not far into the episode where John is protesting that obviously he needs a second bed in 221B to Mrs. Hudson, he's not gay! The scene in the restaurant has such an aggressively shippy energy to it (despite Watson's consistent denials) that I actively commented on it to my partner as it was happening, saying "the queerbaiting happens WAY SOONER than I thought!" It's distracting and has aged absolutely terribly. The worst by far is John quipping, after being removed from a bomb vest at a pool in "The Great Game", that people will talk because of Sherlock ripping his clothes off in a darkened swimming pool. Why is Watson's heterosexuality so fragile that he's thinking about gossip rags as he's actively recovering from a near-death experience?!

(Aside: I'm aware that last point is not as effective when you think about the fact that I shipped two characters whose sole canonical interaction was one man kidnapping and forcing the other into a bomb vest. In my defense, a) I love mess and b) John never quips about thinking people will talk because he got kidnapped.)

Moriarty's first appearance in "The Great Game" sees him as Molly's fake boyfriend slipping a phone number to Sherlock, which lead to my partner commenting about how distracting it also was, on top of the queerbaiting, that almost every single person on the show has some sort of deep metaphysical attraction to Sherlock. Those people aren't on the lighting and cinematography team for sure; Benedict Cumberbatch is lit ominously and sometimes demonically throughout the first season, highlighting his antihero and brusque nature effectively. But many, many characters in the show - just in season one, Molly, Moriarty, multiple characters of the day, the Cabbie, and John - are all drawn to Sherlock and his very special brain and his very sharp cheekbones. Signs of a big future problem come through in this way, where the show starts sidelining Watson as our central figure and puts Sherlock squarely at the center of everyone's universe and makes lesbians fall in love with him.

(My partner also laughed pretty hard at how obvious Moriarty's pratfalls were as Molly's boyfriend, noting that the show was pretty bad at hiding who Moriarty was every time it came up.)

Some of the seeds of Sherlock's destruction are sown in this first season, obviously. The big one I haven't touched on is the ending cliffhanger itself. Moriarty has John and Sherlock trapped in the pool, tens of sniper sights trained on them, and says that he can't let them escape. Amazing cliffhanger here! It is not fulfilled on at all, but because Andrew Scott can carry anything on his back (including Spectre, which I cannot start talking about because we'll be here all day), the scene doesn't feel like a total waste and makes you want to hang on to find out what happens later.

But there was so much here that was delightful. All the acting is uniformly excellent, and the overt physical tics that come to define Sherlock's mind palace and mental prowess being showcased are barely evident here. The actual detective work, like I said earlier, is really involving! I don't feel like I figured out the solutions for the mysteries I couldn't recall the answers for too easily and thought Sherlock's deductive reason largely followed and wasn't too obscure. I'm still such a sucker for the show's style - that opening credits sequence is so perfectly put together, the text messages that interact with the scene and at the time made this show feel so fresh and modern to me, filming the character's faces in taxis through panes of glass and obscuring material in "A Study in Pink" to give everything an obfuscating sheen... give me all of it.

The music, too, was something I'd forgotten about and truly ended up adoring. Taskmaster (and The Horne Section's score for it) really owes a debt to Michael Price and David Arnold. So much of Sherlock's score could probably be dropped straight into a Taskmaster episode and I would have to think pretty hard to notice a difference in the show's usual musical palette. I've been eyeballing the vinyl on eBay, to give you an idea of how much I love this score. "The Game is On" is a perfect piece of music, clockwork spinning noises emphasizing the jauntiness of Sherlock as he drags Watson on his latest case before sliding into the more subdued, vaguely ominous thrum of its second movement descending into the madness of the third part, violins shrieking as the action reaches its apex.

Normally, with such a degree of pleasant surprise, I'd be eager to move forward to Season Two. Unfortunately, I know the first episode of Season Two is... a doozy. To say the least. A doozy that may get its own essay because of how doozy-ish it is.

In any case, I ended up really enjoying going back to Season One of Sherlock! Super down to talk further about the show, future write-ups, and my horrible taste in fictional ships and men - shoot me a message, reply to this post, wherever, I'll be here! <3

#not john oliver #bbc sherlock #sherlock bbc #Youtube #too long didn't read - the lee lastweeksshirttonight story #hbomberguy #todd in the shadows #fuck james somerton #3k words on a hyperfixation

[asimplearchivist]

(This has been sitting in my drafts long enough…my fear of mischaracterizing Astarion is lesser than the agitation of seeing this beast among my WIPs. @fangswbenefits I’m affectionately blaming you for giving me pale elf brain rot🫣)

Okay guys this may be a very niche concept that will appeal to maybe like two people total but it hasn’t left my mind since I mentioned the idea to a buddy of mine who convinced me to play bg3…(Cullen and Astarion have a lot of similarities, which I would love to elaborate on later, but…) hear me out—it could be a very interesting dynamic to play with in a crossover.

Headcanons under the cut:

I’m not usually one for crossovers unless they’re in self-contained within a fandom (like Pokémon or Dragon Age, for example—there’s a phenomenal fic called The Half-Life of Element Zero by @unhealthynpcobsession which is a DAI/MEA crossover and safely one of the only “cross-fandom” crossovers I genuinely enjoy and adore bc the story and concepts are contextually sound and professionally orchestrated), but I feel like the sheer numbers of DAI fanfiction that explore the concept of the Breach opening up portals into other worlds (namely our modern Earth, thus the Modern Girl in Thedas trope, my beloved) could include adjacent worlds. I believe I have seen Skyrim before, so why not Baldur’s Gate 3? (Now keep in mind I know next to nothing about BG3 bc I am newly introduced to its lore and everything but) I think one could easily get away with having Astarion somehow slip through the Breach, along with the Sole Survivor at the Conclave.

(Holy shit why did this turn out so fucking long?)

The Survivor wakes—chained, cold, and aching—in the cells beneath the chantry, interrogated by Cassandra and Leliana, and denies her involvement with the Temple’s destruction. Forced to cooperate with the Survivor due to their dire need for the Mark and its potential use related to the Rifts, Cassandra casts a scowl at Leliana. “I will escort the prisoner if you will deal with the pale elf.”

Leliana only responds mildly, “I will continue to deal with him as I have been for the last three days—as well as nurse the migraine that he has caused.”

The Survivor doesn’t meet this esteemed “pale elf” until the battle at the Temple, and she only sees him from afar—he accompanied Leliana’s men to deal with the array of Shades and Wraiths that speckled the cratered grounds while the rest picked away at gargantuan Pride. She notices he is masterfully skilled with his weapons, perhaps even peculiarly so—she also notices that he has far greater strength, agility, and stamina than the average elf, easily surpassing the abilities of his peers.

She doesn’t see him again until well after the dust has settled—the Breach has been patched, Haven is able to reassess themselves, and the new Inquisition begins to construct their foundation. The newly named Herald of Andraste attempts to escape it all, fleeing into the grounds beyond Haven’s gates under the guise of fulfilling favors and errands for the various supervisors in the village, and stumbles across an abandoned cabin in the forest—at least she thought it was abandoned, at first.

She’s rummaging through the things there, finds the passed healer’s notes, but the lightest creak of displaced wood behind her tips her off to the presence of another. She whirls, hand already flying to her weapon, and backs up against the table, sending things clattering to the floor. The pale elf stands there, smirking at her startle.

“Act all the victim when you intrude on my space,” he croons, tilting his head and tutting at her, “my, how manners seem hard to come by around here.”

“You’re that—” She stops, hesitates, starts again. “Sister Leliana mentioned you. You’re the only other one who survived the blast.”

“That is comparatively the least of my problems and only the beginning of my present predicament, yes.” His eyes—as brilliant a crimson as the blood that still crusts the wounds that litter her bruised, battered, borderline broken body—scan her form from top to bottom, pause on her bandaged hand, and return to meet her uneasy gaze with a considerate one of his own. “Although I’m afraid I can confidently say that I ended up with the better of the lots drawn between the two of us.” His expression relaxes, just a little, a thready furrow forming between his silverite brows. “Does that hurt?”

She clenches her fist and clenches her teeth. “It’s dismissible.”

“Considering I heard tell that it is in the process of consuming you, I would disagree—but, I digress!” He flashes her a toothy smirk. “I am just grateful that there are no longer demons spewing out of that torn arsehole in the sky.”

She stares at him for a long moment, uncertain what to say in response. She’s exhausted, sore, and reeling from the last week of utter unfortunate bullshit that had befallen her.

“You’re…rather tall, for an elf,” she finally says lamely.

His brows arch into his forehead in clear surprise before he tips his head back and laughs. It exposes his teeth, and…no, those were not fangs. It must have been a trick of the firelight.

“It does seem that my kindred, however distantly related they are, do not possess as generous of traits as I,” he chuckles, shaking his head. “All so thin and lithe and…well, diminutive…it’s truly a marvel how they’re able to get anything done without breaking their hollow little bones. It’s little wonder that they seem so afraid of everyone else around here.”

She frowns, echoing, “‘Distantly related’?” with some dubiousness.

“Oh, your lovely spymaster didn’t tell you? I’m shocked.” The stranger gestures to himself with his arms extended to either side. “You have my sincerest apologies, my dear, I haven’t even introduced myself—I complain of lack of manners, yet fail to offer them in due turn.” He dips at the waist briefly, eyes glittering through his frosty lashes. “My name is Astarion, and…to put it simply, I am not supposed to be here.”

“I imagine anyone is fortunate to have walked away from all that destruction unscathed,” she responds mildly, narrowing her eyes.

“How cute,” he simpers, straightening and bracing his hands on his hips. “I fail to possess sufficient enough knowledge of magic in order to explain how in the hells this happened, exactly, but I originate from a place called Faerûn—not your delightfully archaic ‘Thedas’.”

He goes on to ramble about his companions, at least two of whom would have been far better suited to hypothesize how to rectify this particular ‘magical’ predicament. He tells her about their unusual circumstances of being thrust together, forced to cooperate and work towards fixing their looming health issues and the threat that faces their world.

She studies him for a long moment after he finishes. “…It sounds as if you and I are trapped in similar problems,” she sighs, rubbing her face. “As incredible as this all sounds, I sincerely doubt such a story could be easily invented on the spot…so you have my sympathies. Do you think that you’ll be able to return home?”

“Sister Leliana introduced me to that lovely gentleman who dresses like a vagrant. Supposedly, he’s the resident authority on this…‘Fade magic’, as it were?” he surmises.

“So I’ve heard,” she responds.

“Yes, well, our conversation was cut rather short at the time due to him being rather persistent in keeping his eye on that little souvenir.”

She flexes her hand and glances away. She’s been doing her damnedest not to dwell on the burning in her palm, thank you very much, and she didn’t particularly want to discuss it, either.

“Nevertheless,” he continues lightly, although his tone tempers into something more neutral, “he promised that he would look into the issue.”

“That’s…that’s good,” she replies quietly. “I hope he finds a way to send you back.”

The pale elf tilts his head at her then, eyes contemplative when she looks back up. He offers her a thin-lipped smile—this one actually reaches his eyes, softening his angular features. “As much as I am grateful not to be in your position, I do apologize. It would seem that the weight of your new moniker is not one to be taken lightly.”

“It is what it is,” she grits out. “They will believe what they wish regardless of my input.”

“That doesn’t make it any easier.” He leans in, holding her stare. “…I think it best to remain nearby, for the time being. Sole survivors of a devastating explosion still under scrutiny by those newly in power ought to stick together, yes?”

She relaxes, just slightly. “As long as you’re not the one who caused all of this.”

His expression sobers enough that it jars her. “I am the least inclined to cause spontaneous combustion among my compatriots,” he tells her, attempting humor, but there’s something in his eyes that contrasts his words entirely—a lingering fear, apprehension, borderline horror, if she has to place a name on it. “But no. I did not. And I think I have a few choice words—and daggers—on reserve for whoever did cause all of this devastation. I never asked to be thrown into the middle of this refuse burn.”

“Neither did I.” She offers him a bow in return and gives him her name. “I would say it’s been pleasant to make your acquaintance, but…I think we both are allowed to say that we would rather not have met at all.”

“Agreed.” He stoops to pick up the papers Adan had sent her to find and hands them to her. “I trust I will see you again soon?”

“You do intend to stay?” she asks, brow furrowing as she tucks them into her pocket.

“I’ve nowhere else to go,” he begins, “and fleeing from an investigation would provide rather damning evidence for the prosecution, even if misused. For now I’ll lend my particular set of skills and…services to this delightful little collection of vagabonds. I think you need all the help you can get, given that poor, overworked general of yours is relying on farmers and pilgrims to become your armed force.”

“I don’t speak on behalf of the others,” she says, “but I thank you. You’re greatly appreciated.”

“It’s my pleasure,” he purrs. “Now…do go get some rest, my dear. You look positively horrible for someone who has slept for nearly six days.”

His nonchalant sincerity startles a laugh out of her—the first in what felt like an age. He seems pleased to have done so. She departs the cabin feeling slightly less isolated than before.

#astarion ancunin #astarion #dragon age #dai #baldur's gate 3 #bg3 #headcanons #mine #reader insert #astarion/reader #astarion ancunin/reader #astarion x reader #astarion ancunin x reader #dragon age inquisition #fisara’s scrawlings #fisara’s codices

[windebris]

the mcyt gods of war

they dont really have names but for the purposes of this post ill go by The Blood God (technoblades god), The Red Kind (rens 3rd life possession arc), and The Brothers (aeor and exor from empires. yes ik theyre not war gods ill get to it)

in my mind, all mcyt gods of war come from the same source. think darkseid from dc comics; every darkseid is canonically Him, just different facets of the same guy. yes even the kids books and fanfiction.

so every blood god, war god, weapon related deity etc comes from the same source. violence is the same everywhere after all.

technoblades blood god is the most amorphous, i think. it latches onto a worthy soul from an early age, and this person becomes effectively the god themself. they are incredibly practiced in battle and they are Long-lived but do eventually die. theb the spirit of this worlds 'god' passes on to a new soul, another believer who has the capacity to take it a bit beyond whats sane. every blood god is different, some are kind and some frightenjng, some just and some cruel, but they all share the same ruthlessness and battle cry: blood for the blood god.

the red king is also more of a spirit than a being in that they have no physical form of their own, but they do have a personality that is all thwir own, so it can grow and change over time. they arent attached to a single person or follower, but are summoned via ritual or call from someone on the brink of death. the red king then takes over that persons body, helping them either achieve their goal or survive. the former works via contract and the latter via pure human will to survive merging with the red kings will to do the same. i subscribe to the hc from a popular hermitcraft fic (doc and ren otw to season 8) that the red king mellowed after he was summoned by ren because hed never been called to protect before, only hurt and target.

youll have to excuse my ignorance about these last two, im not as familiar w empires as i am hc and dsmp.

aeor and exor are twin gods, unlike the other war gods. i know theyre popularly headcanoned to be order and chaos, but id like to think of them as twin facets of war: cold and hot, calculated and passionate, frosted/hidden and blazing/seen. aeor became more favored in rivendell, and exor became more obvious as a result (to balance the forces) via xornoth becoming corrupted and the war being very obvious to citizens. i also think aeor being a war god makes my hc that scott grew antlers after becoming his champion make a lot of sense; sacrifices must be made for war, after all, and the pain of one man is nothing next to the suffering of a nation.

a common thread among the mcyt war gods is an affinity for temperature (all: blood god and the arctic, red kind and red winter, and aeor with scotts ice powers) and a motif with some warm blooded animal (this ones more shakey: techno being a pig is solely technos and not really the blood gods trait, same with the red king and ren-- the brothers being stags is the only solid connection).

this idea first came to fruition bc i thought it might be cool if rens red winter was the same frost that took over scott in empires; the same god ruining/saving their lives. technoblade came in because you cant really touch one blood god without mentioning the other, and well. here we are.

i imagine every blood god/paladin/host/etc has a passing familiarity with the others but not much else. enough know how to give a nod of respect, a sense that they are kin, but no names or specifics.

death, though, is the same for them all. she is kind, but she is unshakeable.

#mcyt #red king #third life smp #third life #blood for the blood god #technoblade #aeor #empires smp #empires s1 #empires scott #scott smajor #renthedog #rivendell #traffic smp #trafficblr

[princeescaluswords]

I don't necessarily want to give them fuel to the fire but, one of your hot takes has stayed with me for months now. And that is the argument that Deaton being a bad guy is very lazy and caricature-like. At least in the manner that they do it. And I've asked myself well what reason could he be a bad guy? And try as I might there is no reason I can come up with that doesn't instead make Derek the bad guy. Going off of Just Cannon Derek didn't make the best first impression on anyone until season 3. And my question is, if you choose to humor the matter, what reason would you give for Deaton that would actually make him the bad guy that would actually hold weight.

Well, first off, personally, I wouldn't. It might sound like an entertaining exercise, but nothing we do exists in a vacuum. There is no scenario I could conjure, even if I were a 100 times a better writer than I am (which wouldn't be hard), that wouldn't exist within the fandom context. It's inescapable, no matter how many people pretend otherwise, that the products of your mind are produced and received within an established cultural setting. For over a decade, a significant majority of this fandom has indulged in racist resentment toward a black male character because he exhibited the right to pursue his own agenda and maintain his own boundaries, and said agenda was centered on mentoring a Latino lead protagonist and not on any of the white male characters that they preferred. That Teen Wolf wrote Alan Deaton as possessing the same agency as white male characters is a crime for which it will never be forgiven, and even the seemingly innocent of act of imagining unwritten stories where he is the villain feeds this injustice. Period.

I will, however, talk about how it did not need to be this way. If all the stories written by the Teen Wolf fandom -- the ones labeled Untrustworthy Deaton, Dark Deaton, Evil Deaton and the many more which take that as a given but don't bother to give it a proper label -- had been written with the actual purpose of making Deaton a plausible villain and not to salve fandom's indignation, we could have a conversation about it. (I'm not saying that there isn't any well-written Villain Deaton stories, but I haven't found any yet) This is because transforming canon should be a source of endless variation, turning heroes into villains and vice versa, but that transformation, like everything else, can be perverted, especially if the goal is vengeance for an action that exists outside of the narrative itself.

To my mind, I find that transforming a benevolent character like Deaton into a villain requires a fanfiction author to pay attention to three characteristics. (Not strangely at all, I feel that these are important for an original villain as well.)

Motivation: Why does the villain do what they do? When I write, it helps me to think about it in two aspects -- their specific goal in the story and the character flaws that enable it. Teen Wolf was very good at showing both aspects. Peter Hale's specific goal was vengeance, first against the Argents and then against Scott McCall, enabled by his enormous sense of immoral entitlement. (That's why I don't buy his Season 6 rehabilitation, because while his specific goals changed, his entitlement did not vanish). Gerard wanted to survive his cancer and establish his legacy, enabled by his ruthless disregard for the actual benevolent purpose of his family. All of Teen Wolf's villains were memorable because attention was paid to motivation. A problem with the majority of Villain Deaton stories is that the author doesn't give a damn about why Deaton does what he does; he's a villain solely because the author wants him to be.

Threat: To be a villain, the character has to have the capability to succeed. They have to be more powerful, more cunning, or have a lot of people on their side. Stupid, inane bureaucrats can be villains, for example, because they can use the might of the law to get their way. It's the primary difference between antagonist and villain; Teen Wolf also takes care to establish the sense of threat. Season 2 Derek creates a trio of eager and sad child soldiers, punches through concrete, and stomps on Scott's throat with little difficulty. Matt controlled the kanima. Another problem with the majority of Villain Deaton stories is that Deaton is seldom an actual threat. Stiles is always smarter and/or more magically powerful; Peter and Derek are always able to tactically overwhelm him without much problem; Deaton's usually alone in his wickedness save for his moronic catspaw who is somehow the benefit of Deaton's schemes without actually being able to do anything. The authors aren't really interested in telling a story with tension so they don't give Deaton an opportunity to win; they're simply trying to justify the coming lynching (and yes, I use that word deliberately).

Consistency: The actions of the villain have to conform to both their motivations and their role. This seems simple, but a lot of authors are so eager to get their vengeance on a character in a television show that they just skip the part where they make the plot make sense. For example, so many times Villain Deaton is out to suppress Stiles's overwhelming magical heritage yet that author leaves the scene in Raving (1x08) intact, no matter how little sense that makes. Or Villain Deaton wants to destroy the Hale Pack, but left Peter unmolested in the hospital for six years, doesn't accuse Derek of kidnapping him in Night School (1x07), teaches Isaac a useful skill in Battlefield (2x11), and doesn't take the opportunity to finish Derek off in Fury (2x10).

I would be a lot more content with the Villain Deaton stories I have read if they would just pay attention to the actual transformation they claim is their goal. But they're not interested in turning one story into another. The author's goal is to express their racist frustration that a black authority figure denied white prioritization and focused on a Latino lead protagonist instead of a white male character. That's his crime, and these stories are here to deliver the proper label and the proper punishment.

#alan deaton #alan deaton defense squad #teen wolf fandom problems #fanfiction #fandom racism

[m0thisonfire]

Blog Masterlist and Rundown:

Where I reblog memes and art, and post my art and stories too-

—

Ao3 link- I post fanfiction on Tumblr from time to time, but you can find most of my stories on my Ao3 account!

Update: With people now feeding unfinished fics into Chatgpt, I’ve locked my works because I don’t want people stealing them. It breaks my heart to do so because I want people to be able to read my stories, but it’s hard enough for me to write. I can’t risk the possibility of people taking my unfinished stories and feeding it to the machine, if they haven’t already, which I genuinely hope hasn’t happened yet.

Update!: I have decided to unlock my works again!! I feel a majority better, and I don’t think any too unsavory will happen anymore!

—

Sideblogs:

cr0ssingmoth for all my Levi thirsting and Aot oc tormenting needs.

—

Tags and characters-

I mostly reblog memes and such, but you can find my art under the ‘m0th draws’ tag! My writing should be under ‘m0thwrites’ if you want to see some drabbles I haven’t posted to Ao3

The characters I mainly write for right now are from Tfa and a bit of Tfp, and that includes ocs and self inserts for them too!

The main s/i is Faux Pas, and is her main tag!

The lesser ones are listed under the name Grey! Tfa or Tfp Grey have their own little niche that pops up here and there, no definitive tag yet-

The two Tranformers that currently occupy my mind 24/7 are Prowl and Starscream, so expect to find *a lot* about them on this blog- and by alot, that includes a ship for them. You can find it under the Ninjastar tag!

The lesser known ocs I talk about once in a blue moon is Devanii Hellfrost and Sybil Jorther. The only lore you’re getting of those two is from tags and obscure Tumblr reblogs, but they’re here too

Another tag worth mentioning is the comms tag! Every now and then I get wonderful commissions that definitely need to be checked out! The artists are phenomenal and I do love the pieces they were kind enough to work on!

Status on asks-

Always open. I may take a while to respond due to work and gathering my courage, but I encourage questions and asks. Just expect awkward response in the beginning since, of course, I am not yet used to asks-

Current aus I have I feel are worth mentioning- (more likely to be added)

The Faux Pas au. Everything is the same except for the fact Faux Pas exists in the Tfaverse and is there to solely cause problems and go through problems.

Holoform/Humanformers au. Human Error if it actually happened, but Meltdown, Blackaracnia, and Soundwave are the main causes. All Cybertronians on earth turn into humans and is essentially a huge slice of life sitcom. Focused primarily around Starscream and his redemption arc.

Bounty-22 au. A work in progress, but Cybertronians and humans living in cowboy times. Prowl-centric in a way, him exploring the Wild West looking for vengeance and an artifact while traveling with an outlaw he doesn’t know is an outlaw. (The outlaw is Starscream, the best and worst liar in the west. I just really love Starscream, okay? But never fear, Lockdown plays a huge part in this au too. Because you can’t have cowboys without Lockdown.)

Zombies/Last of Us au. Yes, that’s right. Softbody robots and horrors beyond imagining. Another work in progress, but based around survival and zombies. No, none of the main cast die, I love them too much for that, they deserve their little community during the apocalypse.

Dead Space Au: A newly recruited Tfa Autobot Starscream replaces Isaac Clarke in the events of Dead Space. If you know Dead Space, you know he’s fucked mentally and physically. If you don’t know Dead Space, space zombies and serious fucked up shit. The Thing level horror. Know he is not coming out unscathed.

Tfa Ninjastar Twilight au: Exactly what it sounds like. The werewolves don’t exist here, and Starscream is the human in place of Bella. Takes no shit and runs most of the show because he’s Starscream. Meyer has no power here. I’m highjacking the lore and making all the characters suffer.

#blog masterlist #Enjoy your stay!!! <3

[phoenixislost]

Author Questions Tag

(Tagged by @lollybliz)

How many works do you have on Ao3? 1, and very soon will be 2.

What's your total Ao3 word count? 146,694

What fandoms do you write for? Genshin Impact, though I am also beginning to set some ideas aside for Honkai Star Rail, as well.

What are your top 5 fics by kudos? I only have one published on AO3 at the moment, so by default it is History, Repeating.

Do you respond to comments? Why or why not? I do! It brings me a lot of joy to see new comments on my writing and to get new feedback. The least I can do is thank someone for their compliments or join them in their misery over what stupid thing Character A has just done.

What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending? This one is not published, but my angstiest ending is in a Fallout 4, Paladin Danse/Male Sole Survivor fic. It starts off with the two of them getting into a serious argument, and then ends with one of them suffering near-fatal radiation poisoning.

What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending? For a published fic, this goes to History, Repeating by default. For unpublished fics, it would go to the sequel to my above-mentioned fic. The Sole Survivor... survives... again. (Ehe),

Do you get hate on fic? I was graced with one (1) very nasty and demanding person on History, Repeating early on, and ended up having to turn off anonymous comments because of it. Otherwise, nope!

Do you write smut? Not really, no. I write sexual themes and include sex scenes where they seem meaningful, but writing smut just isn't my cup of tea.

Do you write crossovers? I've not yet, and I usually avoid reading them, too. But I am currently considering a fusion AU for a fic in the future, if that counts.

Have you ever had a fic stolen? To my knowledge, no. The closest I've ever come to stolen writing was when I was in middle school and my friend wanted to write a story similar to mine.

Have you ever had a fic translated? Not to my knowledge, no. (Though I am happily open to it, as long as I am asked first)!

Have you ever co-written a fic before? Yes, and no. I've co-written fiction before, but not fanfic.

What's your all time favorite ship? I am a rampant multishipper in this fandom now, but my most comfy ship is Xiao/Aether.

What's a wip you want to finish but probably won't? I have a fic that I began writing a few years ago for the danganronpa fandom. It as a KomaHina fic set post-Danganronpa 3. Its premise turned out to be a bit of a prototype to what History, Repeating became, so chances are that I will never finish it.

What are your writing strengths? The most common compliment I get on my writing is on my visuals and descriptions, so I am inclined to say those are my strengths.

What are your writing weaknesses? I constantly worry about characterization and character motives. The last thing I want is to fall into fanon, rather than keep everyone as close to canon as I can get when it comes to fanfiction.

Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in a fic? I have done this myself in bits and pieces. To me, it matters about what is being used, how it's being used, and if it is researched properly. Have context in the exposition around it, give translations in the story (in not so many words), have a footnote for readers to reference.

First fandom you wrote for? Naruto! When I was but a wee babe. Followed closely by Death Note. SasoDei and LawLight (at the time we just called it LxLight), were Baby's First Ship.

Favorite fic you've written? Published? History, Repeating. Unpublished? The fic I am currently finishing.

I'm not too sure who to tag for this, (and I am frightfully anxious to bother anyone), so this is free to whoever wants to answer these! (And please, tag me if you do, I'd love to see your answers).

#writing #tag meme #lollybliz

[dreamqueenkala]

CHRYSALIS

There's an infinite set of paths laid out for us.

Each one carries it's own branches.

They shape us.

They guide us.

Our choices define our lives.

And sometimes the lives of others.

They deliver us on our journey through prosperity, suffering and survival.

We exist individually, but in the end we only thrive together.

Your choices will define this future.

My future.

Your actions could save or end lives.

This is our story to write together.

Be careful. Be wise. Be kind.

I don't want to die.

|•|•|•|•|•|•|•|

WARNING: DARK AND DESCRIPTIVE THEMES ARE INCLUDED IN THIS FANFICTION. There will be vividly descriptive gore, trauma, foul language and sexual implications present consistently within this novel. This book is for mature and adult audiences only. You have been warned.

VIEWER DISCRETION IS ADVISED

|•|•|•|•|•|•|•|

This is an Original Character story insert. It is my character. However, this is my first attempt at an interactive story so bare with me. Your choices will help shape my story. Some decisions will be made solely by me, but severely important decisions—ones that affect not only my character but the other canon characters—will be left up to you at the end of the chapter(if applicable). You readers will have 24 hours to vote. At the end of that time frame, I'll continue the next chapter.

In the event I do not receive enough votes or come across a tie, I will use a random chance spin wheel.

At the end of every choice-available chapter, I will post a poll link in the COMMENT SECTION BELOW THE CHAPTER. Within 24 hours, it will be deleted. A new poll will be posted for each chapter containing a path choice.

Alongside these choices, you also have the opportunity of failure. That's right. My character can die. Should you make a decision that ultimately leads to my death, you may be given another chance.

You have three chances. Fail all three, and I will die. The story will be over.

You decide if I live or die.

Good luck, dear reader. My life is in your hands.

|•|•|•|•|•|•|•|

Current Status:

Laura Kearney has no relation to me.

Max Brinly has no relation to me.

Ryan Erzahler has no relation to me.

Jacob Custos has no relation to me.

Abigail Blyg has no relation to me.

Dylan Lenivy has no relation to me.

Emma Mountebank has no relation to me.

Kaitlyn Ka has no relation to me.

Nicholas Furcillo has no relation to me.

Travis Hackett has no relation to me.

Chris Hackett has no relation to me.

I am alive, sane and unharmed.

I have yet to have a clairvoyant vision.

No paths have branched.

#my stuff #fluff #fanfic #male oc #mxm #bxb #the quarry #the quarry fanfic #butterfly effect #apocalypticnova

[nekomacheercaptain]

what’s something that instantly reminds you of rosi? 🎤

At this point everything does :,)) He’s always lingering in my mind

Like I was taking a walk yesterday and discovered a shortcut and I thought “wow there’s a lot of mud here, Rosi would not survive this trail”

I can be in stores and see products / clothes I think he’d like and just smile before I realize HE’S NOT REAL 🧍‍♀️

Obviously hearts hahah literally his entire gimmick (my animal crossing character now solely wears black and red clothes and all the heart related things I can find)

I am a clumsy person myself and whenever I walk into walls or almost trip I always think how ridiculous we would look together

Whenever I see the butts of cigarettes stampled into the ground in random places - smokers are a huge turn-off for me, but One Piece men are obviously and exception to that rule haha

Whenever I dress myself I think about what his opinions would be or what compliments he would give (since I can’t hype myself up apparently)

Whenever I have to do anything for school I always imagine his support or him sitting and reading behind me while I do what I have to do. And since I prefer the headcanon about him knowing sign language, I use that as motivation for my study, because I use sign language (I am still only a learner and know very little). So I often imagine conversations with him in sign language, so now SIGN LANGUAGE has become something that makes me think of Rosi 🧍‍♀️

Rosinante affects my entire life by this point, and I feel like I’ve ranted long enough already so I should stop. But I’ll end it by saying that he’s my biggest comfort character (what a shock, I know) and he helps me through a lot, even if it’s just my imagination :,)) I guess it’s silly, but I have a lot of issues and not enough money for a therapist haha so I use fanfiction and fictional characters as a temporary fix

#again I could talk about this man for HOURS #I didn’t want to go into how I use him a therapist tbh I feel crazy when I admit it #my roommate just ‘uh it’s not normal to talk to yourself all the time’ #and Inwas like ‘But I’m talking to him 🤨’ #and I realized maybe it’s not normal to have hour long conversations with fictional characters and walk around your room for those hours #now I feel crazy oops #anyways #sorry for the long reply hahaha but to put it short EVERYTHING I do and see reminds me of him #he’s always there in front of me #cheer’s a simp #cheer’s thoughts #hooliescorner

[fablewritesnonsense]

Bothering you with questions and statements lmao <3

What inspired you to write Nuclear Family? I know my ensemble cast was born from the idea of all my SoleSu's interacting and devolved from there. Always been really curious about it!

I love being bothered to talk about Nuclear Family so thank you 😂

So it was initially inspired cause I saw someone talking about their AU where both their Sole and Nate survived the vault. And from there I basically decided I was going to write the most self-indulgent fanfiction i possibly could. I gave Gin and Richard pre-war ties to characters from the game because I thought it would be funny.

Gin became this spunky little spitfire because i figured she'd have to be to 1) have a fling at the park that led to marriage, and 2) to be able to survive the wasteland even after the shock of waking up 200 years in the future. And Richard was initially going to be a typical bigoted BOS soldier, which is why he was such a dick at the top of the fic.

But as I wrote and added characters from the wasteland, the story shifted and changed to explore different aspects of the world and the characters until i got to where I am now with the longest story I've ever written. And it's been a delight the whole time!

#thanks for asking! #fable writing stuff #nuclear family au #nuclear family

[apieters]

Writing Journal, 11 March 2024

I have finished outlining the back half of my fanfiction project, Swashbucklers of the Magic Kingdom.

The original plan was to tell the story in 13 installments. However, the second half of the story alone now has 11 planned segments that feel “right” to me and fleshes out my vision of the story. This means that my full story will be approximately 22 segments long, just shy of double the original length. While this is somewhat intimidating, it does give me more room to worldbuild, explore character relationships, and overall just have more fun telling the kinds of stories I would want to tell.

It’s also worth it because I don’t want to make the mistake that Game of Thrones made. Season 5 of 8 planned seasons felt to me, and to many other fans, like the midpoint of the story, not Season 4. In season 5, the story and character arcs kept “expanding,” each characters’ arc taking them further and further from the interactions and relationships established in season 1, and finally seemed to “peak,” with each character so isolated from all the other main characters that it just seemed logical that the plot would have to “contract” to bring these characters back into proximity with each other, but with more development under their belts. That “contraction,” however, only started in earnest around Season 6, which means that Game of Thrones felt rushed in the last two seasons. Everyone I’ve talked to has said that a 10-season run would have given the story enough room to have consistent pacing and given the writers enough time to develop more satisfying conclusion to the various character arcs. So as sole creator of my own story, I know what the midpoint is and will craft the story accordingly so that the pacing feels “right.”

More importantly, I now know what I need to set up, things that I did not set up during my initial “pantsing” draft. These include:

SETTING UP THE MAGIC SYSTEM!!!

Establishing a cast of supporting characters from Peter Pan, the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise, and The Three Musketeers (1993) who have reasons to help my main characters later.

Establishing how one of my characters can survive a gunshot wound.

Giving Kopa some basic fencing skills.

The motivations of the supporting villains.

All in all, I’m glad to have reached this milestone and am looking forward to plotting out the first half of the story.

#writing journal #swashbucklers of the magic kingdom

[imonthemoonitsmadeofcheese]

Though I don't ship it I'm impressed at how enthusiastic and productive you are with your writing. It's clear you love these characters a lot and have a lot to say about them. I wish I could have your level of energy!

I am new to fanfiction, Ao3, Tumblr, etc. but not new to writing. For me, writing productivity has always been a matter of momentum, and I have difficulty keeping to a daily writing habit, or, at least, I did until I finally gave in to my much-repressed self-indulgent desire to write for characters that are not mine but that I nevertheless love intensely, and then started posting it on Ao3.

But I do not think it is solely my love of the characters which is causing my mind to compulsively spew so much from my fingertips (although I do love them deeply and that was what started it). I think it is the validation I get from someone reading my things and telling me they liked them which gives me so much energy and enthusiasm and productivity. That is not something freely available to writers who are not writing on something like Ao3.

I still have my non-fanfiction writing, which I do work on and which once in a while, spaced years apart, someone might actually read, and even rarer still, like enough to tell me they enjoyed it. But Ao3 provides an avenue for connectivity with readers, and the ability for them to search for things they want and possibly even find a writer whose work they genuinely enjoy. My poor crumpled writing ego, parched and withered and shriveled from decades of little-to-no praise has now tasted the feast of what it is to find even one person who actually wants to read what I wrote and isn't just doing so under mild duress within a critique group for the transactional exchange of feedback from another writer on their own work.

I've built up a thick skin from hundreds of submission rejections, teaching myself to cherish the ones that have a morsel of a compliment rather than a completely automated response, clutching my tiny set of publications with shaking hands going 'at least the publisher read it and found it worthy enough,' even though two months later they went under and six months after that their website is gone, and the paperback anthology the story is in is out of print now and the six copies I have on my shelf, purchased for more than I was paid, are probably the only ones anyone ever kept, never mind read.

And yet, on Ao3, there are a dozen people who have subscribed to notifications when I post something so that they can come read it. I get told when someone leaves me kudos and get a rush of delight when I see the trail of them left as someone is reading along a series of my stories. And the comments… when someone liked a thing I did enough to say something about it… each one is kept and cherished. I read through them when I am sad, when I feel like nothing I do is good enough, when I question why I am writing at all. Each one is precious to me beyond what is rational.

I have been trained to subsist on nothing. I can do that. I have starved and still survived. But to receive such genuine appreciation and enjoyment of my things… it is delicious food and strong wine. I have gone so long without it that I am drunk on it now.

It is not productivity that I am engaged in with my writing on Ao3, it is revelry.

My lips are stained purple with berries. My head is light with joy. I am curled up under the table with a glass half-full in one hand, gnawing on a wheel of cheese in the other, laughing among readers and writers as we feed each other morsels of stories, singing drunkenly to anyone who will listen, and gasping in delight any time someone tells me they heard and liked my song.

#writing #ao3

[fuzzydreamin]

My Original Characters

✝ Alberta "Lyonheart" Jefferson

Tag oc: alberta jefferson - playlist - images - pinterest Lone Wanderer and protagonist of 'Icarus into Acheron', a Fallout 3 fanfiction I am working on. They also show up in my Fallout 4 fanfiction. ✝ Prefers being called just 'Al' or other nicknames over 'Alberta'. ✝ Uses She and They pronouns equally.

✪ Nora Diane Sosu

Tag oc: nora sosu - playlist - images - pinterest Sole Survivor and protagonist of 'Give Me Sanctuary', a fanfiction I am working on.

🎖 Nate Sosu

(No image yet)

Tag oc: nate sosu - playlist - images - pinterest Nora's husband. He is dead as of canon, having been killed by Kellogg, but he still has a personality and backstory, and is alive in some AU's.

☣ Calamity

(No image yet)

Tag oc: calamity - playlist - images - pinterest Nate's cousin. A pre-war ghoul. He does not show up in either of my main stories, but may show up in later ones.

🏕 Jack

(No image yet)

Tag oc: jack - playlist - images - pinterest Fallout 76 - Dweller from Vault 76. He is a pre-war entrant, having gone in at the age of 19 when the bombs dropped. His talents lie in wilderness survival and biology. He gains several Appalachian mutations that change him physically.

#this is under construction #fuzzy.oc #oc: nora sosu #oc: alberta jefferson

[fagito420]

The last time I logged into this site, I was inundated with toxic culture. There was no space for me. My Tumblr famous ex got me out of jail by raising money on this site in 2012. It was toxic then, and it is toxic now. thanks for paying my bail tho.

I used to run message boards in the mid 2000s and it was no different. I had a friend group of other POC from the US and UK along with white Europeans who felt that white Americans were totally nutso. We used to engage in flame wars. Some of us wrote fanfiction and people would get into drag-out fights on LiveJournal (remember that?). People act like ship wars are new. I hate when people compare things to their ship getting crapped on to a hate crime.

It makes me mad that there are so many people on all platforms who act like they are woke or inclusive when in reality the cottagecore only hang with the cottagecore, the queens with the queens, the granola lesbians with granola lesbians, and ACAB white-guilty queers with other guilty white queers.

As a young queer coming from a rural environment, I felt like I did not belong. I come from a place where the indigenous drag queen is the community and white people were extremely distrusted. When I moved to the city I felt as if I was out of my element..I am Mexican American and white but still. It was as if I was going to be brainwashed into a community where you HAD to dye your hair. You HAD to pierce your face. You HAD to spew the Ideology of the Day and the correct terminology in order to have clout in the queer community.

I met people whose sole personality was Activism. I was just a trans person of color trying to live my life. Their world did not match mine. I was in the world dealing with machismo culture and my safety DEPENDING ON passing. I could not just dye my hair black and take my piercings out. I actually had to work harder than the cis men at my jobs and I didn't have the clout or resources to get a nonprofit job or a "queer friendly" job. I was working in Dollar Stores, Casinos, Bars and Hotels.

My survival mechanisms were taught to me by older Mexican American cis men. It can come across as threatening due to prejudice between white queers and the Hispanic community here. I would not expect them to understand. However they were out there proselytizing how much the lives of trans people of color mattered.

It is hard to feel like you matter when you don't belong to a clique. I felt so isolated. I was already culture shocked after moving to a place that had 60% white people as opposed to only 10%. I know I am not Native American but it still messes with my head.

So why can't you just wear what you want, believe what you want, cook what you want, and so on?

while I feel so many people use Tumblr as a way to find themselves, especially young people, it is the same toxic environment the internet has always been. You HAVE to check the bingo boxes. You HAVE to wear Birkenstocks and use the newest lingo else you're transphobic. You can't be masc and abused in a relationship according to Tumblr woke ideology.

and so here is my safe lil corner, where I can be myself. Nice to meet you. I am a person as are you, and you are beautiful no matter your identity.

I have a stalker and the activists don't care. I have been fired from many jobs for being trans and they don't care. They pick the loudest white person who dyes their hair and pierces their face. However all they do is hurt the causes they say they support by silencing POC . The ramifications and consequences are far greater for us than they are for them. white people like keeping up with the Joneses

And I thought white people were better than that. But I guess all the mockery they got from my small town (yes even you radical leftists) is well deserved.

I don't get on social media much anymore and my life is better for it. This blog is a placeholder for when I have to log in, in order to see something. I don't give a single shit.

And maybe if y'all are so socially awkward it wouldn't hurt to SOCIALIZE with people who aren't like yourself. The internet is an echo chamber full of lambés and yes-men. either they're gonna follow you blindly, or slam you like they would never slam someone in person. I get the aggression, really I do. I spent my time getting incel blogs ToSsed in the mid 2000s and trolling Stormfront. However the thing everyone wants on the internet is attention.

Imagine if a hateful person wasnt sucked up to. Imagine if they got told tf off publicly and humiliated publicly. From a trumper to an ACAB white clique leader activist. Imagine if someone had the guts to take them out back and kick their ass. You know, like real life. Which you know these people are scared to do.

I never realized that having some fucking CAJONES would be seen as problematic.

My ex used autism as an excuse to spread gossip about me under the guise of being an open book. Self diagnosis is great and all and our criminal justice system is garbage but if you have worked in criminal law, public defenders will always do the mental illness defense. it doesn't matter whether they are Actually Guilty or not.

If someone can create a plausible paper trail documenting said mental illness, then someone can get away with the excuse. I get that self diagnosis is what a lot of people do. We know our bodies more than anything else. however when it is an excuse to be an asshole, then I lose all my sympathy. Insanity please, lol lol lol

#toxic tumblr #Toxic queer community #toxic behavior #Subtle racism #Xenophobia #Cliques

[mouthfulloftoothpasterry]

pls pls pls i NEED eddie munson piss kink fics in my life i am solely surviving on your account rn !! 😭😭

I actually don’t read much fanfiction 🥲 so I might be the only one who writes it for Eddie LMFAOOOOO no, I doubt that

But, I always have it tagged “Eddie Munson piss kink” so click on the tag, click “search all of tumblr” at the very top, and hopefully you find more than just my account!!

[yoonia]

❥ 2021 overview to insight on 2022 ❥

2021 has been a huge rollercoaster ride, honestly. 

Started the year with facing work problems, followed with getting on and off the job due to lockdown and almost depending solely on fic commissions to survive (seriously, I can’t thank you guys enough for this), to dealing with my cat who got terribly sick, and things just continued on with a bunch of family drama, challenges in work life and private life (in my relationship–yes, I almost broke up with my boyfriend of 5 years–and family problems), facing health problems, and basically just facing my life in general *sobs* it’s amazing how I survived at all. 

Aside from everything though, I managed to focus on the small things that made me happy and went through a major breakthrough in my writing journey. Let me tell you, 2021 was wild! 

❥ A quick recap of my year in 2021:  Words that I have written all year ⇢ 579,241 words What I have released/worked on all year ⇢ 14 one-shot fics, 4 ongoing series, 3 finished series, 3 NaNoWriMo projects, 2 writing collabs, 1 network project, 1 podcast, 4 unfinished fics currently waiting on my WIP list.

So, now that 2021 has ended, let’s look at 2022. Do I have hopes for the next year? Absolutely. Have I made plans? Yes, I do. I have a bunch of plans made, and I’m about to share them with you. 

❥ What do I have in plans for 2022?  For starters, I will still be writing. But I have also realised that it would be necessary for me to get more organised this year to make sure that I will be able to branch out a little and move forward to something more serious while making sure that I won’t be leaving any unfinished business with my readers. 

❥ What am I going to do to make this happen? First, my blog will be going through a few changes. Giving my blog a new look is something that I’ve been wanting to do, and since I’m also planning to start organising everything–from my old works and new, and my upcoming WIPs–I figured that this period of time will be the perfect time to do so. 

Second, a few unfinished series will return, either being continued or getting revamped. As always, my posting schedule will be available once I’ve gotten my schedules settled. In the meantime, my writing journal and WIP trackers are now available on my Patreon. 

Third, I might be limiting my projects each month to focus on since I will be working on my novel as well. The pre-release versions of my original work will be available on Patreon, together with a few teasers for my other future works, both fanfiction and non-fanfiction wise. As I have mentioned, I already feel like it is finally time for me to branch out and to get more serious in terms of writing, and I guess it’s time to start now. 

That’s all I can share with you for now. I don’t want to get ahead of myself since the year is just beginning, but I do hope that the upcoming year would bring better things for us all and I hope that I can show you guys a better version of myself as well. 

Thank you, again, for staying with me for the past year and for bearing it with me through my inconsistencies in running my blog. Let’s think of only the good things to look forward to in 2022. 

Love you all!!!

Xoxo, Dia ♥

#happy new year 2022 #love letter from Dia