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dduane · 4 months

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From the Writing Advice dep't: A complicated ask, a serial answer (part 1)

Every now and then I get an ask in the box that's complex enough that it has to be taken apart and answered in pieces. Also, sometimes I get queries in that are painful enough (in varying ways) that I elect not to attribute them when answering. This one is both.

I read the ask (and reread it, and rereread it, four or five or six times after it came in, and a bunch more times while I was on my back this week being sick), and gradually came to realize that for it to be properly handled I had no choice but to break it into pieces for best management.

There are three main strands to the issues this ask brings up: motivation, growth as a writer, and coping with or succeeding despite the current state of the publishing industry.

So let's dig in. Here's the first part of the ask:

I know there's no One True Path, but I'm struggling with this, and I'm sure others are too, so I'll just ask it. I want to make a career out of writing, but with shrinking attention spans and so much content to mindlessly consume, how do you keep the motivation to write? My friends get mad at me for getting discouraged when not even they read my writing. They get mad and say, "write for yourself, not for the validation!"

Welp. (sigh)

First of all, I think your friends are absolutely right. But we'll come back to that.

You have to understand that as far as the Search for Motivation goes, I'm probably Spiders DD, the outlier who seriously should not have been counted. I have been motivated to write stuff pretty much nonstop since I was eight, and did my first novel in crayon in a school notebook. (It was one of the thick notebooks. The ones with the black and white marbled covers. Most of you who come of US schools know the kind.)

So I'm really the wrong person to be asking about this, especially since it's now nearly the Year of our (Wood!) Dragon 4722, which would make me nearly, uh, six Years of the Dragon old. And being of such age, and a career midlist genre writer, I have the same source of motivation as the vast majority of my similarly-aged colleagues: the need to write or starve. (There's an Irish saying perfectly descriptive of my situation: "Too old to dig ditches and too scared to rob banks." That's my situation exactly. There's nothing left for me to do but to write.) :)

...Anyway, it's kind of amazing how that kind of motivation'll focus your intention, and help you keep it in place, once you're been working with it for a while.

At the beginning of a career, though, things can look a lot different as you start getting a handle on exactly what it is you like to write and why you like writing it. And having another job to keep you afloat while you find your way is seriously a very good idea if you can manage it.

It sounds very much to me as if you're still in the early "finding your way" stages. This is a place that a lot of writers pass through, so don't be concerned. It's rare for sudden perfect motivation-to-write to crystallize out of nothing. And never forget, the word itself is based on old Latin roots for movement, and provokes the question, "Yeah, okay, but which way?" Movement without intended direction tends to turn into a lot of unfocused flailing, which looks good on Kermit, but not so much on the rest of us.

(inserting a cut here, because honestly, this is gonna go on a bit)

So you need to sit down and start asking questions—and answering them—so you can draw some kind of map. "I want to make a career out of writing"? Fine. What kind of writing? Fiction? Nonfiction? If fiction, what kind? What do you like to read? Why? Is that something you'd like to write? Why? Why not? If there's something else you'd rather be writing—what else? And why?

The more you ask the questions and answer them—"Keep asking the next question," Ted Sturgeon never used to stop saying—and the further along your investigations get, the more likely you are (as you get close to the answers that matter) to start getting the itch to write something, something in particular. This process may take a while, and the itch may take a good while to manifest. Don't be alarmed by that. The old saying is that the fire from Heaven won't descend until you've built the altar for it. And it may take a while piling the rocks up into the right shape. Don't hurry. If this is something you intend to spend a lifetime on, make sure the foundations are sound. The time taken will be worth it.

And BTW, do you intend that kind of length of commitment? If you're not sure, that's fine. But there's no one else to ask at this point who can give you meaningful answers. This is the time to get into it. Work out what "having a career in writing" looks like for you. Then start investigating to see whether your conception has any foundation in reality as a kind of lifestyle you actually have decent odds on achieving. (Again, I'm an outlier here. I'd been writing for pleasure for a long time before I had the good fortune to befriend an actual career writer, examine his habits [and those of other writers in the LA area] at close range, and realize that this line-of-work choice was actually something that could be successfully pulled off by mere mortals.) After investigation, this is a call that only you can make.

But anyway. Once you've started experiencing the kind of motivation that comes of increased certainty about what you want to do and why, you'll find you're way less concerned about sourcing or supporting it externally. It tends to fuel itself. (As once it does descend, the fire from Heaven is tenacious stuff: more Greek than otherwise.)

But also: trying to designate outsourced exterior stimulants for motivation is a bad idea. The reason's simple: one day you'll need them and they won't be there. Conditions will have changed, or the outside-of-you sources into the hands of which you've resigned your motivational agency may not be available for one reason or another, temporarily or permanently... and then where are you? The concept's a nonstarter. If your motivation's acting up, you need to be looking inward, not outward, for ways to kickstart it. This is one of the most personal parts of the writing process. You need to own it.

(And yeah, even career writers' motivation slips sometimes: annoying career things happen, cyclic lows cut in at a bad time, you name it. Most of us work out ways to jar the motivation back into correct operation when it acts up. But for such corrections to work you must first know what it's like to generate or mine yours yourself... and you're still working on that. The methods you find to generate motivation toward doing the Work will also assist you in diagnosing it when it goes south, and putting it right again.)

Also: (sighing) Please let your friends off the hook as regards reading your material, and feedback. Your motivation to write should not be dependent on their feedback, and it's not a good idea to try to make friends feel responsible for keeping you on the creative track. Chief among reasons for this: they may not feel themselves up to the task of giving you the writing support you're apparently asking them for—possibly because they simply don't feel competent to. (This is where we could get into how I had to stop @petermorwood from rewriting his third novel for the third time due to conflicting notes from friends... but let's leave that for later.) At best you're possibly making your friends deeply uncomfortable. At worst, the pressure may damage the friendships.

Tl:dr; our friends may love us dearly, but that doesn't make them competent editors. If you're online, so are many writers' groups who'll welcome a new member who needs advice. Wait till you've got more data and clarity on your motivational issues, and then start shopping around for assistance that seems friendly and trustworthy.

And finally (for the moment), about other people's attention spans:

It'd be good if you can start training yourself away from the habit of worrying about those. For one thing, there's absolutely nothing you can do about them. You might as well worry about the 11-year sunspot cycle. The attention-span issue is just one more distraction from things you should usefully be thinking about. But also: A lot of what we hear about that situation strikes me as fearmongering (as, IIRC, it was supposed to cause the downfall of western civilization around the time I started writing for Scooby-Doo).

If you look around, you'll see that loads of people are willing to spend HUGE amounts of their attention on stuff they love. (I mean, have you been on AO3 lately? And we're just talking about free stuff, there. Lots of other people will do the same for traditionally published work, given the chance and the money.) Your job is to get on with writing, start putting what you're doing out there where people will have a chance to fall in love with it, and then deal with the consequences.

More of this next time. (And please bear with me, as I'm still not up to best operating speed after the last week's illness. I'll get to everything else you sent me, I promise.)

HTH!

#writing advice #masked ask #is that a term?#it is now #motivation in writing #motivational issues

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klaineharmony · 10 months

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You're back on today! I've missed seeing you here, my friend! I know life has you swamped, so I understand. But still - all the kermit flails and hugs for you being here even for a little while today.

Awwww, thank you, my friend! I've missed being here, too - and I am long overdue on a life update for my friends here. Life has indeed been absolutely crazy, to the point where I'm doing zero fandom things - and I admit, that's part of why I haven't been here. Not only the time factor, but also because I feel guilty for being so disengaged from fandom and all the things that we do. But I miss you all, very much! I'm going to try and be here more. I can't promise how consistent I will be about it, because life, but I want to know what's happening and what you all are doing, so I'm going to try and be better about checking in and being present. *HUGS* <333

#life of an academic #RL

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chromatic-lamina · 2 years

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empress—chapter 1059 spoilers

Great chapter, y'all!

Katakuri and Oven are fighting due to Caesar Clown's very dubious gas.

And it's reunion time! Some (many) of my favourite men in the same chapter (and I don't mean Lucky Roux).

Look how fine Marco is, and love that he's rubbing in the 15 6 year age difference between him and Shanks, and love the same-age (as Marco) fifty-year old Beck! (gonna get used to calling him Beck) not backing Shanks up. I love Marco. I love Beck. And I love Shanks, so all good.

Of course, there were a few incidental scenes in which Law and Marco appeared, and my fan fiction can fill in the rest, but I know a lot of us were jonesing for a 3 doctor scenario. At least Marco and Chopper worked in tandem (but the Smile victims? Now what?).

Guess Beck doesn't mind playing babysitter, OR it's not quite the role he has with Shanks (nudge, nudge, wink, wink).

There was the Ace remembrance scene and all (above), and of course it's important. Jinbe and Marco speaking as if two years ago was fifty, but shell shock is a lasting affliction.

And you thought that was interesting, but how about...

Boa Hancock!

and

Koby

and

Blackbeard! and what does his say above about this new pacifista (seraphim—great name)

That's what they managed to do with King's DNA, possibly? Vegapunk? Blackbeard's aware of the Lunarians, it seems, so I know there are some theories out there about Rocks D Xebec and Lunarians...and there are theories linking Blackbeard to Rocks as well. PX, or are all pacifistas with those initials (I see that they are. PX- and a new letter for whichever model). But that's not all. Very few can fight Teach's devil fruits (plural!) and

Boa finds herself in a pickle, BUT

never fear! Rayleigh is here! (Marco, Beck, Shanks and Rayleigh. Be still my beating heart). AND that's not all folks. This is the reveal of the century (or one of them)

Shakky was the former Amazon Lily empress and ex-captain of the Kuja pirates!!!! *Kermit flail*. I did not see that coming, but I'm sure some fanfiction writers somewhere did! Ahhh. Such good news, and I think with Oda feature prior generations so much, and them saying how tired they are and they can't fight any more (the men, anyway), that they're still sure to be around, even if Luffy & co play the main role. It is Luffy's story.

Man, I wanna see Shakky in action in the past. AND did you see this on Amazon Lily?

Luffy's got his own billboard, and Hancock's solution to everything is to marry him :-).

And lastly, this doesn't bode well:

Oof. No wonder they couldn't fight them originally.

and, the Rocky Port Incident. Ah, what happened? Blackbeard was there too, and Law, as we know.

Oh, and Koby got captured by Blackbeard (Rayleigh's negotiations), and Yamato is staying in Wano to take care of Momonosuke, kinda.

Great chapter especially for the peonies!

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amethystarrows · 9 months

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shopping is done! i can flop over and relax for a bit. i picked up a couple things while i was out last night, that'll be the first pic under the cut. the next three are things i got today. return of the happy cheese. (imagine kermit flails here. <3)

Kugisaki and Gwen keychains. Not even sorry. These were the only sizes the comic shop had of each, I ain't even mad.

Inumaki and Nanami clips that we picked up at tar-get today. I was sitting there with the second bag and I only see the top of the head I'm just "do we both get Inumaki??? NANAMIIIIINNNN" So I got three of my favorite JJK characters within two days, hell yeah.

And finally:

SHE WAS ON CLEARANCE, HOW COULD I NOT???? Shuri was too, but we both were like "we should only get one character." And this was the only one. There were like, three of Shuri.

Geeky shopping complete. I am content.

#▉ * i don't know how to shut up (ooc) |#▉ * FOOD CW |#▉ * FOOD TW |#(just to be safe)#▉ * LONG POST FOR TS |#(so much good stuff)#(and that's not even showing the comics my mom and dad got yesterday too)#(maybe i'll take pics of those later)#(for now you get my haul)

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whetstonefires · 4 years

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Mutants depowered by M-day can challenge Apocalypse to a death match to prove their resolve. After he beats them to death, they get fast tracked to resurrection with restored powers. It probably took a couple hours, he may not have told Tommy since resurrection is a state secret and also the ritual death in combat thing makes Krakoa look like a death cult so they don't talk about it too much.

what

QWHAT

WHAT THE FUCK to every single part of that

1) i know Apocalypse is a goddamn leading citizen of this lunatic enterprise but I can’t believe they’re trying to balance that with giving him the civic duty ‘violently kill citizens so they can earn the right to Correct Versions of their bodies’ like is this supposed to be a healthy outlet or

2) how is resurrection a state secret at this point the sheer number of dead mutants who are just, cruising. like they’ve always had a high resurrection rate as a community but

3) why would it being a state secret be relevant to not telling Tommy, he’s a mutant too right? i mean. or is he not anymore? considering that every iteration of his existence is due to Wanda’s reality-warping Her Dream Children into being and the instantiation that’s stuck coincided with M-Day and i think i heard Wanda turned out not to be a mutant after all? so maybe Billy and Tommy aren’t either?

4) X-Men retcons man

5) the idea that David might not have told Tommy. imagine that. imagine being like ‘i’m going away for the weekend honey. work reasons’ and then you go through the teleportal to the magic island where your pseudo-ethnic-society’s top supervillain consensually murders you

and then they have the sentient island-tree thing use this complicated system to build you a new body and they upload a copy of your memories into it and ig this draws in your soul (which is an official real measurable thing) too

and then you go home to the boyfriend you didn’t tell about your weekend plans to speed-run the cycle of samsara with all the cheatiest hacks enabled and just be like,

“‘sup babe, my superpowers that your mom deleted back when she bludgeoned you into existence came back.”

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opera25 · 2 years

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so this started as a small idea and it snowballed I'm very sorry and also this should probably be cw for unreality and maybe other things but I think unreality is the big one. so, without further ado, angsty sad times with ethubs in relation to the death coffee. (not sure how this turned out u r welcome to ignore it I will not take offense it's just a word vomit lol)

bdubs, the first time it happens says something along the lines of you almost died never do that again and etho thought it was a hyperbole he was fiiiiine bdubs was just overreacting but maybe he's reluctant to freak him out like that again. except that line, that barrier in the apartment tells him that maybe he doesn't matter to bdubs anymore. and the comfort of his sweet dreams warped into an cesspool of never-ending nightmares. and he doesn't want to sleep but it's so hard to stay awake when he'd gotten used to going to bed early and waking late and maybe he just needs something anything to get him through another sleepless night.

so maybe he get another one of those coffees. it didn't taste bad in the first place and it tastes even better now that he's desperate. he finishes it before he gets home.

it's fine. he can feel his heart beating out of his chest. he shifts in his seat and turns on hhis computer. panic rises within him.

it's fine. is bdubs home yet? even though they don't talk much anymore, he still likes to keep track of him. he might be out there, hurt, fighting for his life while ethos not around to help.

it's fine. he stumbles out of his room to face the cobblestone, marker?, something keeping him away from checking on him. he can't tell if the walls are drywall or snow anymore. his hands shake against it either way.

he's fine. he can't see bdubs anywhere from his side of the fort. "bdubs!" he calls. He'll come if he hears. they're best friends husbands. every breath he takes weighs him down more and more. he tries again. his knees buckle and he's on the floor, coughing as he feels bile rise in his throat.

Help, he cries. his vision blurs and mind fogs. he doesn't know how long he's been there when he feels warm arms gently tugging at his body, bringing him up and away from here.

*Breathes in*

*head in hands*

Anon, what in the world- When you said "A small idea and it snowballed" (lmao was that an intentional pun??) I was not expecting to literally get my heart ripped out. WHAT. I. I don't know what to say to this except I was the equivalent of that one kermit flailing his arms around the first 5 minutes after I read this

So now all of you reading this can suffer with me yayy <3

Also speaking of cw and tws! I should probably tag them from now on. Any suggestions for tw tags? Thank you!

#still head in hands #are you okay anon?#we re here for you #MLL #ope ask #tw unreality

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monstersandmaw · 2 years

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Hello from up north Ghosti! Hope the bad weather isn't hitting you too hard where you are.

I take a tumblr/social media break every so often (I love the rest time) but I have to say it is a genuine joy to log back on and read through your stories, new and old, after a few weeks away.

Gabe and Odessa? The storytelling, the characters, the good doggos, huge cuddly wolf-man, and your amazing scene-setting that puts me right in the forest with them *chef's kiss* Perfection!!

Alys and her dremora? Swoons!! I was not a skyrim person before, but you can bet I'm going to watch some playthroughs online after this. And your art *insert flailing kermit gif here*

And now a reblog of the Great Tea Debate (TM) with an addition from Shakespeare? I love it!!

Not to further said Debate, but I've got to ask, where did you get your kettle from? 52 seconds sounds pretty good compared to my battered, old, probably-needs-replacing, survived-two-house-moves kettle (just over 70s for a mugs worth of water).

That sounds too close to reigniting the Tea Debate (TM) so I'll switch it up a little - Cadbury or Galaxy?

Stay safe in the storm.

*salutes you with a mug of tea from up north*

We’re super duper far south, so it’s not due to hit us. Stay safe!!

I’m delighted to hear that you’re enjoying my main ‘on the go’ stories at the moment! Thank you so much! Thank you too for spending your precious social media time in my cosy library corner, reading my stories :)

Our kettle is over twelve years old, but it’s a Brita one I think. It belonged to Mr. Ghosti before we got together, and it’s just come along with us through our various moves as well! I’m not really a sweet-toothed person, so it’s Cadbury all the way for me (but not hot chocolate. I’m not really a hot chocolate person. If I do drink it though, it’s Galaxy, oddly enough).

*makes my strongest mug of tea hesitates to say Yorkshire Gold in case you’re from Lancashire... and salutes you back*

#storm corrie #uk weather #anon ask #northern anon

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thistle-and-thorn · 3 years

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no no no don't leave! I'm so intrigued. That is wild that people would accuse their friends but most especially their family, because familial shame was like a real fucking big deal so you'd think people wouldn't want any black marks next to their names. I want to learn everything about what happened.

OMG, you have opened Pandora’s Box. So, for any poor unfortunate souls who happen upon this, this is a post about why the Andover witch trials are the true weirdos of 17th-century New England and NOT Salem. I have very marginal expertise in this beyond my Feelings.

So, to start, we need to understand what the fuck was happening in MA at this time. To put it (over)simply, Massachusetts Bay Colony is a theocracy run by religious extremists. The myth we’re taught in school that the Puritans were fleeing England because the meanie Church of meanie England was mean. As an Anglican, I will say we’ve done some shit but not that. The Puritans had an extremely repressive and strict society that tolerated little to no deviation in their social and religious norms (RIP the Quakers <3). Protestants of this period also tended to be wealthier and more literate than their Catholic counterparts and so these suspicions and feuds were more frequently taken to court. ALSO, the European colonists were facing increasing pressure because the indigenous populations from the north and the west were regularly raiding and fighting with them (I’ll give you, like, three guesses as to why.) and like also climate change was happening and it sucked for crops.

So, you have this pressure cooker of a society under a lot of external stress with a long, well-recorded history (in court documents) of how much they Do Not Get Along. 1692 happens. A bunch of girls, like young people tend to do in pressure cookers of society under a lot of external stress, begin to act out. And the way they act out is, of course, to accuse people of being witches. (Haven’t we all felt the urge?) The state courts get involved and the hysteria spreads across the settlements of along the North Shore and into…ANDOVER. Now the other hysteria outbreaks tended to be smaller, shorter, and more contained than what happens in Salem. In Andover, however, more witches were accused than in any other New England town including Salem Village and Salem Town. Which is INSANE.

Now, Salem has been the focus of so much research that we have a pretty clear understanding of why it happened. In the 70s, Boyer & Nissenbaum basically solved the case in their book Salem Possessed and redefined how we think about the witch trials. The people who were being accused were in opposing parishes, in opposition with a controversial minister (father of one of the afflicted girls), or had a history of legal disputes with the people who were accusing them. How do we know this? Puritans and their love of bringing each other to court!!! Otherwise, they were outcasts. It’s terrible but logical. In Andover, it starts out this way, pressure cooker, hatred of outcasts, the kit and caboodle—the first woman who was accused brought smallpox to Andover when she first moved which made her seem cursed and then the second woman accused was a childless widow (because her daughter had been murdered). Now this is where things get whackadoodle dandy, that second woman accuses a woman named Martha Carrier of being “The Queen of Hell” and trying to build a devil’s colony in Massachusetts and says that she knows of 305 witches that Martha converted to the devil. (Where the fuck 305 comes from no one knows). Now, people are like, “Holy shit, there’s like 300 witches in Andover!” Andover is a community of 600. 50% of the people in a community are witches?!?!!?! Well, obviously, it’s Martha Carrier’s entire family and friends but then who else?

There’s tremendous pressure to accuse someone or confess or accuse someone after you’ve confessed to throw suspicion off of yourself and so the accusations fly in Andover—children, family members. There’s one notable case of a mother being accused by her pre-teen daughter. And these defy the patterns that happen in Salem—there are regional lines in Andover between the north (which after this, will become North Andover) and the south but they don’t matter here. Where in Salem, the accusations were contained to the west of the community, an equal amount of people are accused in north Andover and south Andover. It's estimated that 80% of Andover's population at some point were in court because of witch accusations. It’s also made worse, when the judges bring the Salem afflicted girls to Andover to hunt witches. Now, the girls don’t know shit about Andover and so, I think you could imagine a scenario where the accusations that they are making there are…more…random than in Salem.

What else is weird about Andover is that the people petition to end the witch hysteria. In Salem, petitions were made for individuals but in Andover, the town as a whole is like, “What the fuck is going on?” and they end it themselves instead of waiting for the governor to end it which is basically what happened in the rest of the colony. There's also a crazy minister in this, too, but I don't know much about him tbh except that he was like, *insert flailing Kermit gif* "THANK GOD A WITCH CRAZE WHAT I'VE ALWAYS WANTED."

Anyway. It’s much more interesting to me than Salem because for the three million books and movies made about Salem, Andover’s is a much more psychologically peculiar case and additionally, more significant in terms of the numbers of people imprisoned. But, I have to stop writing because my veggie burger’s burning.

#i would rec Unobscured as a good podcast about the trials #i also love salem #would not be mad about living there #except on halloween #fuck that shit

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musette22 · 3 years

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MINNIE!!!! I just read Coming Up Easy and i'm..... 😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍 *insert flailing kermit gif here* The slow burn was ERRRRRYTHANG, OMG. I AM S C R E A M I N G 💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖 THANK YOU FOR WATERING MY CROPS THIS DAY 💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕

VIX, MY SUNSHINE!!!!!! Aaaaahhh are you trying to make me die of heart-explosion syndrome???? Because if you are, you’re doing an amazing job of it 😭😭😭 I’M SO GLAD YOU LOVED IT, SWEETHEART 💕💕 That makes me so happy, you don’t even know 🥺 I know it’s all fluff no substance, but I figured lots of us needed that, at the end of this #$^&%*%@^# year, you know? Thanks for dropping by to scream about my fic, it’s my favourite thing and ily 🥰

#lovely people are lovely #my fic #my writing #minnie answers #fishcustardandclintbarton

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moonraccoon-exe · 7 years

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I think I'm gonna jump in the gladnis stories submissions ^^ So. Reincarnation AU. Gladio is a highschool teacher. He teaches history (many ppl think he teaches phys-ed due to his size but nope he's a history nerd). One day in a new school year one of the students in his class caught his attention. He's blond, wear glasses, has pretty green eyes, and scored the highest on the entrance exam. Maybe they don't remember much about Before, maybe they do. (Continued to part 2)

*RACCOON SCREAM*

YES

BRO

I AM- I DON’T EVEN KNOW WHERE TO- WHAT IS- AHAHAHA WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO ME THIS IS FANTASTIC OKAY I’M GOING TO -

*heavy breath*

First off, so GOOD you’ve jumped into the Gladnis story-sharing-with-Raccoon sort of thing. I often see you in my activity, but rarely speaking, so when your entries came in I was like “*insert gif of kermit flailing*, because it’s 1. someone I know, 2. A GODDAMN FANTASTIC SCENARIO, seriously, I don’t know what my favorite part of all this is, I am- *breathes* *fans self* I am so excited pajsdposdjf

Reincarnation. Finally, living peaceful, normal lives where nobody is majorly injured or traumatized. Getting the rest and the happy lives they deserve. Awmanyes :’)

Gladio as a history nerd, YES, PLEASE. I imagine he’s still a bookworm reading every damn second of life, so no wonder he’s a history nerd. I imagine him having lots of historic-novel themed books, aw. Also a teacher? YES PLEASE, UGH.

Aosjdspjfpsoojspfopsjdd

Imagine the first time Iggy and Gladio looked at each other.

Class starts, teacher comes in, he greets as chill and positive as always, leaves his bag at his chair, puts the hands on the desk, looks up to his class of this new year’s course and-

-there. In the first row. Sat on the very front, one of the many new kids. Must be fifteen, there were Gladio’s twenty three or twenty four (or were you imagining a larger age gap, friend?). He’s in the school uniform, but he makes it seem a thousand times more elegant than it is. But he added nothing to it; it’s just…the air to himself. The hair in a fringe that feels so familiar. And a pair of glasses, and…a few, subtle dots on the face, birthmarks, and…

Eyes. Green eyes. A special kind of green. Not particularly outstanding in beauty itself, not a strange or odd sort of green, it’s not the color, it’s the…aura in those eyes, something familiar and…

Ignis. This is Ignis.

Maybe it’s the first time Gladio remembers some glimpses of his past life, when he looks at Ignis and the glance triggers in him a couple memories. Glimpses of his past life, his role, his duty, his memories…and most of them, related to these very same green eyes. The same green eyes that he always loved. The same green eyes he saw vanish and die.

So, fleeting glimpses of his past life flashing before his eyes and recognition of the soul in this student, Gladio is currently in shock. All that he’s doing is stare eye widened and maybe even pale at this boy.

And this boy is staring back…with the same look of shock.

Eventually and forcing himself to stare away because he’s realizing he shut up mid sentence only to stare with a look that could be easily confused as horror at a student, Gladio continues his introductory speech, and when he reaches for the chalkboard to write his name, he hesitates because…

Gladiolus. That’s my name. But I am not- I’ve never known any Gladiolus…I’m trying to write my name, but I forgot it. All I want to write is Gladiolus, but why? That’s not my name. What is my name, how did I forget? Just write your goddamn name…

Imagine if both know and understand but none talks about it, precisely because they’re afraid of being triggered into romance with the age gap and roles and how inappropiate that would be. Like, both know there is a huge love inside each other, both know that their Person, their One, is this, so they’re scared that as soon as they touch the matter of their past lives they just let it go too far.

So they spend three years of high school in silence about it, and just enjoying to meet the new Them. Their present Them.

Ignis studying, a bit flustered each time he looks at his teacher and very guilty because he shouldn’t feel like that, Gladio teaching, feeling the same, but not making the situation awkward. Reining back their wants, but not forcing themselves to avoid each other. Just being friendly teacher-student with normality.

And then Ignis has to leave for university.

Aw man noooooo Iggy don’t leave(ಥ﹏ಥ) I mean, yes, it’s going to be very healthy for both to have a time to breathe and it’ll be amazing when Ignis comes back, but it must be a little sad for both to say Bye once school is over paojsdposjdf

I imagine an eighteen/nineteen y.o. Ignis standing in front of Gladio, and both are acting shy, not sure if this is the appropiate moment to say “Excuse me, I think I know you from my past life, do you remember too or is it just me?” But the moment never comes. Only awkward and sad goodbyes and thank yous.

Aoajpojsdf when Iggy comes back AWYES

“Sorry I’m old”

“No, you’re perfect. I’m glad I can see you now.”

*raccoon has heart attack*

*raccoon dies*

That bit killed me. Murdered me. And I happily accept this death because YES. Aoja aaaahahahaaa *ugly sobbing*

Poor Gladio, must see Ignis in the freshest of youths, and must feel old in comparison. It’s not like he’s sixty, but compared to young Ignis, so new, skin so clear, body almost new…gods. Gladio must feel rough and not as soft and not as this and not as that.

And then Iggy comes in, to take his hand, to caress his face, to kiss his shoulder, and make him feel gorgeous. As gorgeous as he really is.

[[ EDIT: I JUST-

UNDERSTOOD

Ignis is asking him if THIS is how he used to look like in their previous lives, because

Older!Ignis literally had no idea how Older Gladio looked like, he was blinded much longer before he could see that version of him, so he never saw him, apodjposfjs

I am

I JUST UNDERSTOOD THIS IS IGNIS ASKING IF THIS IS HOW PAST GLADIO LOOKED LIKE (fuckingdammit I coulda have understood sooner was english my first language, sorry!!!) AND FINDING HIM GORGEOUS AND I’M-

this is ending me ;A; ]]

I love that young Ignis here is taking the first step. That makes it so honest; it’s not the older man lying eyes on a much younger one to take to bed, this is the older man lying eyes on a much younger one with sincere feelings, but a bit scared of his reaction, only to find out the younger one likes him back the same way, feels the same way, and asks him not to the bed, but to a date.

Imagine all their love life afterwards apjsdpodjfdsopfj ;A;

All the dates. The funny pillow fights. Young Ignis in his lap, curled against him to sleep, while Gladio reads. Holding hands. Evrything, ohmygod.

IMAGINE IF WHEN THEY WERE GLADIO AND IGNIS THEY NEVER HAD A CHANCE.

Like, life at the Citadel had it rough on them, and while they did were in a relationship, it eventually died because of Gladio being expected to marry someone that could give him a blood Amicitia, because of Ignis’ decision on just getting away to stop feeling pain because he knows their love is just a passing thing until Gladio has to marry somebody else, then dying during WoR, then while they’re free to get back together after Noct’s sacrifice because the Amicitia’s duty died with the king, but the world was cruel and, by that time, Gladio had already married, so they never told each other “I still love you” in all those years of darkness, nor in all the years afterwards, nor in that life-

*breathes*

-and NOW they…they….they get their chance. Finally, after literally a lifetime, they get to be together. Finally. Fucking finally, after so long. After waiting for a lifetime. After looking at each other from the distance for decades.

But now….in a life free of harm and dangers, they get to finally live the lives they wanted and were previously denied. (ಥ﹏ಥ)

*uncontrollable sobbing*

AND THE GANG REUNITES.

Aopjdsjfsfp, with how close they were in their previous lives, Noctis and Ignis MUST be school partners.

Imagine it was Noct who helped him study for the entrance exam. Scared bullies off. Showed him around school…and was who convinced him to sign into history class with some certaint eacher.

And imagine if he meets Prompto’s new life at university thanks to some scenario like, he’s going around campus, trying to find his way, and a guy bumps into him because he was walking backwards, and this guy, a little clumsy, starts apologizing and

“I wasn’t seeing, I’m sorry! I was so distracted trying to find the best angle for a photo and- hahaha, sorry, buddy! What is your-…”

And, after some moments of staring, both yelp each other’s name out. They just recognized each other.

AW MAN YESSSSSS

I AM SO IN LOVE WITH THIS, I DON’T KNOW WHAT TO DO WITH MY HANDS, THEY’RE TICKLING AND MY HEART IS DOING THIS “shshshshsh” STRANGE THING AND I AM SO HAPPY

THANK YOU FOR SHARING, THIS IS SO PRETTY, asjdspdfjsodpfjsf, if you’ve got more I’d gladly read you!! ( ´ ▽ ` ).｡ｏ♡

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