#so its really fun to reread and keep getting more parts

[riverofrainbows]

The author of one of my favourite book series has been putting more and more trans people in his books, one was a delightful side character, one was a witness. And its always mentioned and shown theyre trans (like trying to talk to the suspects ex wife and finding the person a man), and then the protagonists always adjust so smoothly and like its perfectly normal, and i really really love it, it makes me smile the whole time. The author also makes sure to use their new pronouns a few times after the reveal.

#they're not perfect but pretty amazing and keep on getting better #the finale/figuring out the mystery us always with like oooh by the protagonist and then him not explaining and just acting on it #which makes rereading them really cool #there are also usually multiple things like this and various musings in a book where he doesnt show every single thought #so its really fun to reread and keep getting more parts #the protag also is a nerd which means nerd references and an architecture nerd (special interest?) which means little info dumps on #architecture for every place he goes which is delightful and really interesting and fun #own post #he will have Opinions ™ one different architecture styles lmao (and i agree fully on hating the open concept remodeling of old houses)

[angeart]

Tips for not getting stressed out from writing, coming to you live from someone who has done this for 18 years and got a degree in it:

- remember that you write for fun. This is the big one. You write because on some level you enjoy it. Sometimes you gotta lasso that abd reel it into your heart and hold it there so it stays.

- keep compliments close at hand. And i do mean this literally. I print out AO3 comments and friends compliments and keep them in a jar to pull them out at random when I need a little brain boost. I keep a folder of screenshots of nice things people have said on my pc.

- accept that not every day is going to work out. Even the best authors have days where the words wont work, days where they wont flow at all. Its okay to take a step back and not worry about it. Refer to my first tip: youre doing this for fun, you dont have to force yourself

- get silly with it. If youre really having a day where you want to write and its not working and its frustrating you but you cant put it down it is TIME for the sillies. Set a tiner. 5, 10 minutes. Write whatever comes to your brain. Fully turn your editor off. I get sentences like "And the doh turned blue and whacked rhe tennis ball with its tail into the bridge". Utter nonsense. It helps to get the wiggles out

- handwriting can also be helpful. I keep several journals, and glitter pens, and fun markers - sometimes doing the task physically instead of digitally helps to get the wriggles out.

- sometimes you have to accept an idea is not working. It takes experience to figure out when this is, but youll get there. Come at ideas from different angles, back out entirely and rewrite older scenes to make new scenes work.

I hope these help you!!!

thankyouuu for sharing these!!! <3

it's true that the positive comments are always a great motivation. maybe i need to start a collection for myself. indulge a little. (shut up the eternally dissatisfied part of my brain-)

i'm honestly struggling to find a balance between knowing i write for fun, and the pressure of it. (they're happening simultaneously, sometimes seemingly too closely intertwined.) but maybe one has more weight than the other, and i have to realise that only one of those should really hold any priority.

i'm very tired now, but i'll be rereading all these again later and letting them settle in gently. thank youu

#ange answers #writing tips #for staying safe and sane

[tswwwit]

(sorry, this got way long, and maybe a little sappy, but i didn't want to spam with multiple asks)

so i just finished reading the most recent chapter of the cultist reincarnation au, and i love it so so much.

my personal fave part is bills little rivalry with the mini bill plush. bill waited for so long to see his husband again, and this little plush is getting all of the affection bill wants, i love it. i hope dipper keeps it around after getting all his memories back, because it is a wonderful way to tease bill. just 'fine, i'll just go hug and kiss my new, better husband!' said as dipper walks off with mini bill just to annoy bill.

after reading that chapter i started rereading the entire familiar au (or like 95% of everything that was written for it including snippits, pov changes, and multipart stories, thanks to weirdeggi's masterpost) and its so so fun and interesting seeing bill go from a demonic jackass who barely tolerates his human, to seeing him put so much time, care, and patience into making sure the cultist reincarnation of dipper feels comfortable and relaxed around him. while seeing dipper go from timid and ignorant in the beginning to confident and knowledgeable with the ability to handle all of bills tricks easily.

it's just all so good and you write the characters so so well, i love them so much. i love seeing how much they've grown and drove each other insane/sane. the world building is so well done, especially with how the magic works and affects things. i've read these stories so many times over the years and as they come out, and each new one is always a delight. no pressure on you to rush of course, please take your time, but know that any new fic or chapter you post has at least one person eager to read and enjoy it.

(the rest of this is just going to be fun questions that popped up while rereading, no pressure on answering them, i just thought of them while reading and thought they'd be fun to ask and share)

I am curious about how bill views or thinks about his 'sickness' after the events of confessing it, and if that's different from several reincarnations later. cause i know in the bill v bill fic the other bill still calls it a sickness, and while i know our bill is happy as hell, i do wonder if he still thinks its a sickness or a curse, even if its the best thing to ever happen to him.

i'd also be interested to know if dipper ever makes friends with any demons, cause like i know in confessing it he meets pyronica and she reminds him of mabel, and he kinda got along with the spider centaur demon, but it would be neat to know if he ever makes actual friends with any demons, and if those friendships 1) make bill jealous 2) last over several reincarnations

speaking of the reincarnation, i'm curious when in their relationship that those two put that plan into action. like if it was still early into their relationship or if it was as dipper got older and his days got more numbered. i know bill thinks of it kind of early on while they're together, but that doesn't mean it's put into action right away.

it would be neat to see how all bills henchmen eventually see the whole bond too. i know in confessing it they see bill acting all weird with dipper, and how much his human affects bills mood, so im sure they know its better to have him around even if for a little while. but its fun to think that later down the line when the reincarnations pop up its viewed more as 'vacation time' when the henchmen don't have to take over reality and can relax while bills off smooching his mortal.

Thanks so much; I'm really glad you've enjoyed the fic! If it's been half as fun to read as it's been to write I'll have accomplished a ton.

Okay, onto the questions:

1: Bill likely still considers it a sort of sickness/curse, but like. Not a bad one, necessarily. While his relationship is way weird for a demon, that's actually great! He's the master of weirdness! If it weirds out other beings or confuses the hell out of them, that's proof that he's the best in the biz, baby. And he's very, very happy.

2: Dipper probably does make some demon friends/acquaintances. It's only natural after multiple lifetimes running in the same circles with eternal beings. Given a friendship in one lifetime, it's likely the demons' assumption that they'll just pick back up where they left off! Neat new body, how's it suiting you? (The familiarity weirds out Dipper incarnations until they get their memories back.)

I don't think Bill's jealous of them, though. Hanging out with buddies doesn't register as 'competition' for Dipper's affections, in the same way that Dipper's not jealous of the henchmaniacs.

3: I haven't decided exactly when they settle on the reincarnation thing, but likely it's after a near-death experience. Maybe even post-whump!

4: Speaking of those henchmen! They're eventually gonna get used to Bill being hitched. Not like they have a choice in the matter; Dipper's not going anywhere.

The new status quo is pretty weird, but they knew what they were getting into in regards to 'weird' - and frankly, Bill's in a vastly better mood whenever his husband's home. Something that puts the Boss in a cheerful Fun Times Interdimensional Crimes Party mood? When he gets pissy there's a human who deals with it, rather than Bill lashing out and picking on whoever's closest? Absolutely! They're all for it! Once those Big Upsides become apparent, they're gonna be pleased to see Dipper hanging around.

#answers #Cult Dipper with his memories back absolutely 100% will storm off when miffed to go kiss and cuddle his 'better husband' (Mini-Bill) #Bill then fumes and sulks at this horrible injustice #This was long in my response but hey! Sometimes you gotta write a lot #So glad that you're enjoying my work #I gotta write more now #Onward to the document #Unless I get sidetracked by Stardew again

[anbroids]

as homestuck gets older and becomes more and more of a period piece i think it’s really interesting to see how continuations and fanworks take different approaches to maintaining that or not.

and i don’t want to outright say one is superior to the other. i think if you can find ways to introduce aspects of more contemporary pop culture or politics or technology into homestuck as a framework and still make it an interesting intentional choice then that’s a big achievement and not something to be scoffed at just by virtue of it being divergent from homestuck proper.

i think in a lot of ways it can keep it fresh and add a layer of relatability to the fans that grew up on it. after all, i think hussie was intending to make (or perhaps just coincidentally happened to make) homestuck relatable to his particular demographic of young adults on the internet in the late 2000s / early 2010s. i think rereading homestuck in my 20s really solidified this to me that homestuck was not intended to be a story about kids for kids but rather a story for adults about childhood and growing up. it’s funny that it wasn’t more obvious to me back then, or maybe i did pick up on it but i just didn’t really think about it all that much? because it’s so obvious. there’s so much 80s and 90s kid nostalgia in it and the tropes that the characters portray were already outdated or at least didn’t even really exist like they used to by 2009. and in many ways the characters themselves outgrow their own tropes and then later acknowledge it in the work itself both as time progresses and the narrative develops into something more complex and the characters become increasingly multi-dimensional.

i guess it’s just an interesting question to me. is having content in a story that will indefinitely age the work a “good” or “bad” choice? and several years down the line, will we be able to tell what choices were intentionally made so that it would one day be reflective of the state of technology / political landscape / pop culture at the time?

artists who set out to make their work as timeless as possible do kind of miss out on the opportunity to be a time capsule later on. or just generally representative of the climate it was created in, which is something that i think a lot of us can both appreciate but also find pretty unsavory about homestuck proper (cough dancestors cough) but then can i really say i wish those unsavory parts of homestuck didn’t exist? idk. they aren’t fun to read but i like that they make me think critically about the flaws of that particular part of internet history.

politics aside i think the fact that there’s a homestuck panel that incorporates vine is so cool. because it sort of inadvertently swallowed up a piece of internet history that would come to disappear into its already massive time capsule of media and pop culture and hussie didn’t even know. it’s just cool to me idk.

at the same time i think younger artists and writers that really prioritize keeping homestuck grounded in its era of internet and even going so far as to honor the nostalgia of an older generation is something i really admire and appreciate. and this is something that is becoming more common as homestuck ages (and becomes more of a period piece etc etc). i often find myself at a crossroads between exploring contemporary elements in my work and trying to emulate homestuck’s original tone and time period for the sake of preserving that integrity. like man. i could go on about this for such a long time because i feel like it’s just a really interesting discussion to see what we weigh as a meaningful divergence and refreshing change from homestuck proper vs what compromises the (for lack of better phrasing lol) “feels like homestuck” factor.

i think the discussions about sexuality and gender identity towards the end of comic and then further in the epilogues is an obvious example of this. hussie didn’t necessarily shy away from nuances of gender and sexuality but he didn’t really address them outright with labels either for the majority of homestuck proper until the end when other writers got involved. in early act 6 dirk is explicitly stated as gay (insert disney diversity win meme blah blah blah) but the character himself, which i feel like is an interesting reflection of hussie and homestuck’s general feelings about the topic of identity and labels (if i may speculate lmao), considers the act of labeling his sexuality as sort of this out of date, irrelevant thing in the grand scheme of things. whether that be in reference to who he is or what’s going on in the comic or a more metanarrative choice of hussie’s. some people interpret this to be a kind of admission of shame or maybe dirk just being pretentious but i personally interpret this as hussie kind of just being like. i don’t really want to spend too much time Talking about characters being gay i just want them to exist in the story and Be Gay. similarly to how the trolls don’t have a concept of sexuality in the same way the human characters do. it gives hussie an opportunity to have characters do Objectively gay things, from the reader’s perspective, without having to spell out their relationships to their own sexualities by real societal standards in the work itself when he was clearly more interested and comfortable talking about the trolls’ relationships to their fictional societal ones. and i think as a writer i find that pretty fair. (and yeah yeah i know another aspect of dirk’s whole deal is that he’s from the future so of course he would say that / the trolls are from another planet and all of this is in comedic foil to john i am not a homosexual egbert as the protagonist but i digress. idk i’m really only speculating here and maybe projecting lol)

bc tbh i also kind of shudder at the thought of writing gay characters who are always expected to spell out their identities to the audience when i’d rather just have them Do Actual Gay Things. (using gay as an umbrella term for lgbt+ yada yada). personally i’d rather have a scene where a character binds their chest to reveal an aspect of their gender presentation rather than feel obligated to spell out their relationship to their identity in words and explicit labels and also describe exactly how they Feel About All That. not because i want to cop out on representation and have their identities be totally open to interpretation necessarily, but more-so because i think it becomes exhausting sometimes as a gay person myself to have to keep acknowledging a character’s State of Differentness as obviously as possible every time i put a gay person in a piece of art.

not that i don’t find narratives that exclusively or heavily talk about and center themselves around identity and being in a State of Differentness in very outright ways important. to me that’s something very different and meaningful in completely different ways that can’t be accurately compared here. there are plenty of homestuck fanworks that make discussions of gender and identity a large priority that i think are extremely meaningful and one of the biggest reasons why i came back to homestuck after all these years and still really love the community of artists and writers that engage with it in this way. i think it’s an extremely wonderful thing, especially because with the homestuck community so niche, it really feels like a group of people spreading art that is, by a large majority, by gay people and for gay people. but in narratives that are not specifically centered around that, or has not centered themselves about that previously (like homestuck several acts into the comic) i can totally see how it comes across as off-putting. i think sometimes there’s a slippery slope with bigger projects with a large audience where the existence of gay characters in the work start to read as teaching tools for non-[insert identity here] or virtue signaling. i.e. it stops feeling like media that the reader can identity with as a gay person and more like media that is trying to represent gayness “accurately and positively” for a straight reader (or perhaps a gay reader who is completely new to their identity and appreciate this kind of easy-to-swallow and comfortable introduction). i find that in cases like this, the “representation” more often than not falls into the pitfall of being extremely generalized and sterilized or even stereotypical. which is a whole conversation in itself. bc when an identity is always easy to digest and understand, it risks reducing this character to the identity itself. water is wet i guess lol. idk it’s just a tricky balance. but definitely something i think about a lot when i’m engaging with contemporary homestuck fanwork.

long aside but. all of this to say. i just find it interesting to see how homestuck, as a kind of specific multimedia form of art and storytelling online that seemed to set a new precedent for the webcomic format at large, has taken on a genre of its own like any piece of art does that is unique and off the beaten path in its execution. idk it just makes me think of art history in general. like it’s fascinating to me to see something like homestuck which was once very new and fresh to me become a piece of art that has aged enough to open discussion about approaching the framework of homestuck in either a traditional or contemporary way. as a continuation or a fanwork or an homage. i guess the only point i’m trying to make here is that i don’t think one is better than the other and there’s something i appreciate about both.

i feel like i’m kind of avoiding the elephant in the room here which is that there’s a lot of discussion going on right now about maintaining consistency with homestuck proper in the current continuation with homestuck2 and that’s sort of a whole other can of worms i don’t really want to get into. but i would like to acknowledge how interesting it is that these discussions really obviously highlight how fast memes get “stale” nowadays in the current state of social media and everything seems to exist in a perpetual state of blink-and-you-miss-it virality. i really sympathize with the homestuck2 team who i’m sure are feeling a huge amount of pressure to strike a balance between making something refreshing / relatable to the current homestuck audience and also maintaining the “feels like homestuck” factor. all the while attempting to fulfill as many reader wishes as possible within reason. (not to mention the standard of “reason” being extremely subjective) it’s not an easy thing to do and definitely a hugely different creative process than the one hussie went through during early homestuck days. each with their own complicated hoops to jump through in terms of Making Art People Will Engage With.

#don’t mind me just talking to myself #text

[itzalizeyyy]

A friendly reminder

just a friendly reminder that if you new to non-dualism, be PATIENT with yourself when learning it !!

I used to call it a concept/topic/belief, but I now see it as a lifestyle. Call it what you like ! but this lifestyle is extremely contradicting to what society taught you, and what you perceive to be as the truth.

Society says: “you have to work for your desires.”

Non-dualism says: “that some bs. You already ARE desire homie.”

Society: “this is your only life. Your only identity. Your only body.”

Non-dualism: “homie what. Awareness is my true identity. And I can experience anything because I am already everything.”

Etc etc.

So, to learn something..very different to what you are accustomed to…may take time. Which is 100% okay.

I learn to adapt to this lifestyle recently. It did not take me a long time because I was patient with myself. I did not read 100 non-dualism blogs in a short period. I took my time. I reread things. I even wrote some things in my own words to grasp it better. And I took what resonated. What I didn’t resonated or didn’t understand, I just set aside and went back to it later with a clearer mind. Because guys, don’t force yourself. Don’t shove information down your throats !! It will just lead to more overconsuming or overcomplicating

You as an awareness don’t need to understand anything at all. Its your ego that wants to understand because it the one that is confused. So, keep in mind, that all of this isn’t an obligation. You don’t need to force your ego to get it. Let this be a healthy journey to understand non-dualism, not a forceful one !

Before, you ask questions, I think it will be really helpful to remind yourself to be patient, to do your research, to find resources, and if still doesn’t click, then that is the reasonable and appropriate time to ask. Because I honestly feel like some of you guys aren’t putting in your part to learn. A lot of questions are repetitive..why? Because you guys aren’t reading the blogs. You guys aren’t being patient. You guys aren’t taking breaks in between. You guys may be over consuming.

Before you ask a blogger, ask yourself what you think. And think…maybe someone already answered this question so try to find it.

A lot of bloggers are very patient with you guys, but it will HELP you a lot to be patient with yourself as well. This may not be something you will understand overnight which is understandable. So don’t rush yourself.

I understand the biggest concern is “why am i not seeing my desires??” Because some of us just already wanna have our fun already, or wanna get tf out of our messed up circumstances, I get it. But being impatient, being desperate, will only make your desire seem far away when it isn’t.

Appreciated yourself guys. You being here, reading this, or trying to figure things out is a hella of a good start. And it something a lot of people wouldn’t be able to do due to their skepticism or their society conditioning that they weren’t able to break. You guys are taking the first step that a lot people wouldn’t be able to. You are a badass for that.

This is just me giving you a friendly reminder to take it easy, and hopefully to decrease frequent asked questions. I love to answer your asks, since it not only just helping you, but helping me too. But if you can answer your own ask, before you ask someone else, that is hella satisfying and it shows your understanding is improving !

Check out @4dbarbie-backup if you haven’t already !! Any question you can think of more than likely already been answered through a blog here.

Happy non-dualing !!

#nonduality #nondualism #non duality #non dualism #conciousness #observer

[veliseraptor]

February Reading Recap

Monsters: A Fan's Dilemma by Claire Dederer. I didn't find a whole lot new in this book, as far as thinking through questions of how to deal with art made by people who have done things or hold opinions that one finds morally reprehensible, but it was a well-written and thoughtful probing of the subject nonetheless. I really appreciated the fact that Dederer was comfortable (or, if not comfortable then at least accepting) of coming to a place with no easy answers. rea

Stars of Chaos: vol. 1 by Priest. I'm not sucked into this one yet, but I am intrigued by it enough that I'm going to keep reading. I haven't hooked into the main relationship, and it hasn't had the same level of delightful banter (at least, as yet) that I have enjoyed in other Priest novels I've read, but I do have volume 2 sitting on my shelf and I'm looking forward to reading it.

System Collapse by Martha Wells. I find that I've liked the early Murderbot books a lot more than the later ones, and this one unfortunately continued that trend. I don't think the series has overstayed its welcome for me yet - I'll probably continue to read it, at least for now - but I find myself losing interest.

Three Parts Dead by Max Gladstone. I said I was going to reread it and I did! And it didn't blow me away in quite the same way I remember it doing when I read it the first time around several years ago, but I still really enjoyed it, and I enjoyed it enough this time around (and was still compelled enough by the worldbuilding, which I do remember being a big part of what stood out to me), that I plan to reread the rest of the series as well. But while, again, it didn't blow me away the way I remember, I would say that I generally recommend it, particularly as a fantasy that is doing some things different.

Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation (Manhua): vol. 5 by Mo Xiang Tong Xiu. I am only and specifically reading the volumes of the manhua that have Yi City in it, so I'm pretty much exclusively assessing this based on my Yi City feelings. And while overall I feel like the art style isn't working for me in a way that is impacting my ability to really get into it there was at least one panel that really conveyed something and made me Feel Things, so it gets credit for that. I am enjoying the experience of doing Yi City in a whole new format, though, that's enjoyable for the sheer "getting to do Yi City, again, but in a different medium this time" reason.

We Are Satellites by Sarah Pinker. I read this book for a book club I'm in and I found it rather too didactic and the ending a little too pat. The family dynamics were strongly written and I sort of feel like Pinker could've written a stronger book that was just about a family without the part about New and Suspect Technology. I wouldn't even say that I necessarily disagree with the points I think she's making in this book, but I would say that it went a little too hard and a little too obviously on making those points.

Too Like the Lightning by Ada Palmer. I liked this one and particularly as of the last...idk, five pages or so, I'm so on board for what comes next. I am promised that it gets even weirder and given that it was already fairly weird...I'm fascinated by the worldbuilding here, and the conceit of the Enlightenment-style contrasted with the future setting is a fun one. I'm looking forward to more.

Ring by Koji Suzuki. I was neither scared by this book (though perhaps I was ruined by knowing the whole thing more or less beat for beat) and did not particularly enjoy the experience of reading it, and then the part where Sadako was revealed to be...genderweird? somehow? unclear to me what the author was going for exactly, sort of tanked it for me. I probably will not be reading the rest of the series unless I get truly desperate for horror to read.

Ashes of the Sun by Django Wexler. I don't know that I'd say this was the highest quality fantasy I've read recently but it might be the new-to-me one I've liked the best in a while. It was a lot of fun, very fast-moving, and I was intrigued enough by the entire set-up that I pretty much immediately put the second book on hold at the library after finishing this one. Maybe it's just been too long since I read a new-to-me fantasy book that really grabbed me, but I liked this one rather a lot and even if it was maybe more "fun" than "good" I'm still calling that enough to give this one a loose recommendation.

#reading recaps #sometimes i read things

[littlerosette]

Going through 2010s fan fiction is a minefield because half the time I’ll see authors notes where it’s very “ yeah I’m here for Peeta being an angel and Katniss is terrible”. And I’m here like you can’t write their dynamic correctly if you don’t see that Peeta is a little shit and that Katniss literally worships him in her mind and from when she realized he didn’t want to kill her to the hijacking, she was really nice to him and enjoyed being friends with him. She’s just stupid about emotions

My fun fact from rereading the books is that by counting length of time Peeta is the one who acts more moody towards her than she does to him. She’ll get snippy once in a while but he’s the one who initiates being cold and not talking to each other after the games and also the one who goes full Career after the Quell.

people are wayyyyyyy meaner to katniss than they rightly should be because of their sympathy for peeta. for one, i find that the outrage has to be based— in some part— to some level of misogyny because we expect women to treat men better than they treat women, and when they don’t, they’re crucified. think of how people treat skyler white or carmela soprano in comparison to their literal murdering, drug dealing, sociopathic husbands. a woman’s worse crime is to be uncomfortably human, with all of its implied anger and frustrations.

katniss is an uncomfortably human character. she’s moody and fiery and nasty and occasionally selfish. she’s also capable of great kindness and compassion. there were several points when i was reading where i wanted to be mad at her (like when peeta got hijacked) before i reminded myself that. yeah. what peeta is going through sucks. he also just strangled her so maybe she’s entitled to her anger😭 i feel like a lot of our perception of her is tied up in her self-loathing. it’s easier to see katniss as the “meaner” one because she sees herself as the “mean” one. mind you, this was a girl who took time out of her day to teach bonnie and twill how to hunt and gave them all her food because she was worried they wouldn’t survive. katniss is a wonderful person.

i wouldn’t say that peeta is moodier than her. i think peeta was entitled to his frustration after the first games to a certain extent. keep in mind he’s a teenage boy, so it’s inevitable that he’s gonna act like a sadsack after learning katniss’s feelings for him aren’t as clear cut as he wants them to be. but i do think he’s emotionally perceptive enough to have picked up that she was falling for him in the games, which is why he’s so shocked to learn that it was an act. katniss, though, is too emotionally stunted to realize that she was falling for him too which is why everything goes to shit between them for a while. to be fair to peeta, he was the first one to apologize and seek to repair the friendship. he was able to understand that he put an unfair burden on her when she was just trying to keep them both alive.

don’t take this to mean that i think he’s perfect!! peeta is a people-pleaser to the extreme, so i think a Lot of his easy going nature in the first two books has to do with that. peeta in mj (though hijacked) is probably him with his worst flaws bared. he’s violent and insecure and jealous and mean, and for once, he and katniss can see each other more honestly. he obviously would have never hurt her if he wasn’t hijacked, but i do think everything we see of him (minus the attempted killing of katniss) was him, just his ugliest bits.

all in all, people are too mean to katniss. people are too dismissive of peeta’s issues. and they are perfect for each other.

#asks #everlark

[chromotps]

Hello! Been in the OP fandom for more than a decade (i miss the days where ace/luffy were a normal ship) and finding fics have been difficult.

Do you have any luffy/ace fic recommendations? Wishing you a good night!

hello! I wish I had been around for early acelu days... I was reading OP fic back then, but it was mostly zo/san 😅. I get what you mean, it's tough to find stuff for them these days that's not just luffy-harem stuff (which is fine! just not what I'm looking for) or ooc

I prefer fics that are mostly sweet and not too angsty, so my list won't include some of the ones that are really bittersweet/dark/endgame-tragic, even though they're beautifully written. I'm sure if you ask another acelu fan, you'd get a completely different list... I'm just a big weenie! 😭😂

I'm also really disorganized, so I'm probably forgetting a bunch!!! I need to keep better bookmarks omg

SFW Fics:

spinning on that dizzy edge by to-a-merrier-world (wayward_wolves) fav fav fav (helps that this was sort of a gift? based on some art I drew;;? hhh i love it so much) A sweet!!! and playful, relaxed scene between Luffy and Ace—who's joined the Stawhats!

this short fic by 002yb a really lovely, atmospheric piece of writing about the boys just being cute and speaking through touch

forget me not by 002yb a touch more bittersweet, but I loved how insightful this little look at Ace's last night with Luffy in Goa was

to be deserving by 002yb (after acelu week I need to have a separate section for 002yb!! tbh consider this a blanket rec for all their fics) adorable!! very nuanced, quick look at some courtship (or lack thereof) (but hope for some in the future?) between ace and luffy in an omegaverse AU

Bridesmaid Blues by Anonymous so much fun!! a rom-com style take on Luffy and Ace eloping in canon. Hilarious, and just makes me adore all the characters even more

In Your Heart Shall Burn by kayura_sanada oh my god. so it's a fix-it fic that involves a mysterious mirror and wishes. the tone feels just like canon with maybe a hint more bittersweet hopefulness, and the heartfelt moments between ace and luffy in this MELTED ME INTO PIECES. this will be one of my forever favorites.

oxytocin by ruche Gen fic but the author has other great shippy acelu work; this one is, post-marineford-ace-lives scene with Ace being worried and grateful for Luffy... the characterization is amazing

Near Death Experiences by monch_monch (WIP) This is a reincarnation AU, and it's got one of my absolute favorite acelu scenes in one of its flashbacks... I love everything about this fic—the way the other characters are brought in, and how cute and heartfelt Ace and Luffy are... I can't compliment it enough

The Same As You by PeachyStud (WIP) (jksgfhd oops i put this is sfw when the latest chapters have some messing around in it, but... i'll just leave it here) This one's a very sweet and fun modern AU—I reread it when I just need some feel good acelu fluff.

Next Stop, Everywhere by NewWonder This fic is the 2nd part of an "Ace lives and sails with Luffy" series, but it's my favorite of the 3 parts because it focuses a lot on Ace getting to work through his heartache 😭

Together Again by Swinky Swanks (SpobSpucci) A sweet, short piece about when Ace visits Luffy in canon

I'll Always Want You by PeachyStud This is part 1 of another "Ace lives in canon" series—this fic focuses on Luffy asking Ace to join his crew during their 2 years training and is SO cute and lovely. Part 2 is also a treat (and rated M 👀)

Arrangements by Sully-van I feel a little crazy for including an FF.net story on here, but this little royalty/arranged marriage AU just made me smile.

Find the Hat by authenticaussie  funny, slightly bittersweet AU where luffy's a ghost in ace's university library. i know, unusual concept, but a quick, fun read

(Ir)Responsible by oumriel (WIP!!!!! probably permanently from the looks of things) okay I have to recommend this one—it's a modern AU with drama/slow burn, and some incredibly heart-warming moments and really interesting characterizations. it does end on a heart-breaking cliffhanger, but... acelu seems to be a little bit cursed with WIPs, in the end, haha

Sleeping Habits by RainyCatharsis surprisingly fluffy soulmate AU where a soulmate who's died stays in their partner's dreams until they're both ready to move on. short and sweet!

on brotherhood by LadyCrimsonAndBlack another gen fic; age-swap! older Luffy runs into Whitebeard and makes sure Ace is happy on his crew

Lock; Key by Anonymous (SFW.... for now. since there's only 1 chapter up) very interesting modern, omegaverse AU with cool worldbuilding

NSFW Fics:

Hatchling by Anonymous good old-fashioned "not too loud or dad will hear us" modern AU incest. haha. really, this one is a nice mix of cute and dirtyhot, with a looooot of teasing smug ace

and what do they say about dreams by ruche uhh. a smut fic that... focuses on Ace's narcolepsy? it's surprisingly cute and funny—mind the tags, but I really enjoyed it!

Tearjerker by necroesthe OKAY so I love a lot of Necro's acelu fics... They do tend to skew darker, so that's a good thing to remember if you go browsing. This fic, though, is an adorable and fun and hot modern AU, with Ace thinking Luffy looks cute when he cries.

for the asking by irrelevant  another modern AU, I love the relaxed dialogue and vibe of this one. There's something about Ace and Luffy acting like dumb brothers while also being devoted to each other that gets me every time.

You're Built from Motorcycle Exhaust, Cigarette Smoke, and Starlight by Novicecomics Modern AU, really atmospheric story about biker!Ace and Luffy going on a little adventure and being in love

born hungry by ruche hard to summarize... i guess, modern AU, drunk/troubled ace has surprisingly sweet sex with luffy. this author always captures such a like, darkly funny, wry attitude with ace, and their luffy is a treat. still good to check the tags!

the blood of my brother by fizzyren another maybe odd one. uh. short summary is, acelu period sex with trans luffy. i'm not usually into those kinds of fics but this one got me down, what can i say

Lake Pontchartrain by necroesthe definitely read the tags for some of these dead dove recs i'm sneaking in here. anyway uh. the first chapter in this is, modern au, preteen luffy catches ace watching porn aaaaand then there's fallout

Virtue by necroesthe ditto above w the tags. um. 15yo luffy wants to ride ace. i'll add, necro's darker fics are more psychological-hot to me than like, silly-yummy-smut hot? if that makes any sense haha

I'd also like to recommend my own Once Piece fics... I think they're all pretty sweet, and not too bad if I do say so myself. :3c

Anyway!! Hope this helps! And pls feel free to tell me your thoughts on any of em............. 👀

#acelu #you asked me a thing #i've read... a lot of fic for them at this point #i just wish there was more that explored their devotion and even like #obsession with each other #edit: updated 02-08-24! #i've also got a slight bone to pick #with any fic that characterizes ace as legitimately mean toward luffy once they're older than like. 12 #i mean. the man literally died to protect him. ffs

[ofliterarynature]

FEBRUARY 2024 WRAP UP

[loved liked ok nope dnf (reread) book club*]

The Djinn Waits a Hundred Years • The Memory Librarian • Pixels of You* • Arch-Enemies • Moby Dyke • Pip Bartlett’s Guide to Magical Creatures • A Sinister Revenge • Lud in the Mist • Crying in H Mart • Something Close to Magic • Hula • (Renegades) • The Divorce Colony • Foundryside • Earthlings • A Far Wilder Magic

total: 13 books (12 audiobook, 1 print)

Not as many books this month! And not just because February has fewer days, I was really in a funk this month and struggling to pay attention to my audiobooks (and enjoy them). You wouldn't think there's such a thing as too many books, but I think the overtime hours at work are hitting their peak mental health destruction. Here's to hoping things improve in March!

The Divorce Colony (4.5 stars) - genuinely can't believe this was my 3rd nonfic of the year already! I picked a print copy of this up at a library sale in December after hearing about divorce colonies in the early 20th century on a recent episode of the 99% Invisible podcast. Turns out this book was actually about the beginning of the moment that took place in Sioux Falls, South Dakota in the 1800's. Western states had shorter residency periods and less strict divorce laws, so women (and the occasional man) would travel west and live there for several months in order to obtain a divorce. This book tracks the movement through the stories of 4 of the more infamous cases to make the papers, and does an incredible job of weaving in the surrounding political and religious discussions. Would recommend, and has a great cover to boot!

Renegades (3 stars) - a reread, and for some reason it was torture. I originally read this back in 2018 and loved it, and wanted to tackle it again and actually finish the rest of the series. But I kept getting worked up and frustrated this time around! It kept trying to take itself seriously while also being very YA and kind of superhero-camp, and I was absolutely overthinking it lol. I found the strength to press on into book two, Archenemies (3.5 stars). I liked it a bit more! Something about it being new, the story being a bit more settled and maybe getting a better grasp on its message/politics, the characters growing more, me figuring out that I shouldn't listen to the audiobook for more than an hour or so at a time, lmao. Not great, but fun, and possibly worth reading? I'll keep y'all updated when I finish book 3.

Hula (5 stars) - incredible. Part generational family story, part history, part discussion of what it means to be Hawaiian, culturally and legally. Not always the easiest of reads, but it was so so worth it. It was also doing something very interesting with parts of the narration voiced by a collective "we" (culture/community?) that I would love to get a look at in print. Highly recommend, I'll definitely be getting myself a copy.

Something Close to Magic (4.5 stars) - an absolute delight! The Gail Carson Levine comp on this one is not entirely unearned, anyone who's a fan of fairy tale type fantasies will enjoy this, I had a great time! Very interestingly, it has characters who are in their mid to late teens, but is written in a way where they're still allowed to be young, to the point I'm surprised it didn't get shoehorned into MG instead of YA. If the author writes any more of these I'd be happy to read them.

Crying in H Mart (3.5 stars) - nonfic number 4! I'm sure everyone's heard of this one by now, which is why I finally picked it up. It's fine (which is why it got an extra .5 star), but on the scale of take it or leave it, I'd leave it. It just wasn't for me and I kind of wish I'd dnf'd it. A great cover though.

Lud-in-the-Mist (3.5 stars) - this one seems to be considered a sort of early precursor to fantasy and fairy tale type stories from the early 20th century, and I was eager to try it! While I definitely don't think it would feel out of place amongst it's more recent fellows (think the Last Unicorn, Robin McKinley, DWJ, etc), I absolutely could not get into it. Probably the chief recipient of "my brain doesn't want to cooperate, sorry," so maybe I'll give it another shot someday.

A Sinister Revenge (4 stars) - enjoyable as always! Not to hide this deep in my reviews or anything, but have the Emily Wilde people tried Veronica Speedwell yet?

Pip Bartlett's Guide to Magical Creatures (3 stars) - This one's been sitting unread on my shelf for a while, and since I was on a bit of a Maggie Stiefvater run, I figured it was perfect! Well. Unless you are like 7, this was so bad. Not good. Having previously read and not liked a book by Maggie's co-author Jackson Pearce, I think it would not be unreasonable for me to assume she did most of the writing while Maggie did the illustrations - if the audiobook had been any longer than 4 hours I'd have absolutely DNF'd it, and I have no intention of continuing the series.

Moby Dyke: An Obsessive Quest to Track Down the Last Remaining Lesbian Bars in the Country (4.5 stars) - part of me was wondering what I was doing trying this lol, not being someone who drinks or goes to bars, OR, as previously mentioned, is not the biggest fan of memoirs. It was not, as I hoped, also part research project, but it is a travelogue, and as a consequence has a strong narrative thread. It also has a lot of discussions about issues in the LGBTQ+ community, and overall I really liked it once I figured out what it was doing!

Pixels of You (3.5 stars) - a very short sapphic rivals-to friends-to lovers graphic novel about a human-form AI and a human with an android eye competing for a photography internship at an art gallery. The creators clearly put SO much thought into their characters and worldbuilding, but sadly there is nowhere near enough length here to do it all justice, and a number of elements felt very odd or under explored. The relationship parts are great! I just think this needed to be twice as long to really given everything its due, or maybe explored in prose instead.

The Memory Librarian (3.5 stars) - to start, I know nothing about the musical album this is related to, so I don't know how much that might have affected my reading. Overall I wasn't super impressed - when I discovered that the first story was cowritten by Alaya Dawn Johnson - no shade to her - I almost dropped it then, I just really didn't like her writing style in the one book I've read. But I stuck through it. Of the five stories, only one really stuck in my mind - Nevermind, cowritten by Danny Lore, which I could have read an entire novel about. I wish I could recommend it on its own, but overall I just don't quite understand the world Monae has created.

The Djinn Waits a Hundred Years (3.5 stars) - I probably should say more about the book, it was fine, I was surprised to find that it's set in relatively current day, I found myself a lot more interested in the second narrative about the house's history, which did make me cry a bit. Mostly though, I really just want to let you know how MUCH of a non-entity the djinn was in this story, I have no idea why it was there and why it was included in the title of the book. All the author had to do was make the house a little more sentient and haunted and it would be fine, idk. Read it if you want, but it's not one I would rec.

DNF'S

Foundryside - I was so ready. I had the first two audiobooks checked out, I had the third one on hold. I started this but oh, the writing. bleh. I was looking thought reviews and someone referred to it as something like "21st century internet speak." In a high fantasy novel. I noped out at just 10%.

Earthlings - I've considered the author's other book before but haven't read it, but thought maybe a sci-fic book would work better for me? The beginning was odd but not uninteresting, and I might have continued if it had stayed that way. But then the main character was in school(?) and her teacher started getting handsy after class and I wasn't invested enough to stick it out.

A Far Wilder Magic - the success of Something Close to Magic made me a little too hopeful I think, bc while I'm still a little leery around YA, I know people have liked this. And it sounded interesting, truly, and I love the cover. But first it was the religion stuff. And I didn't really like the characters. Then it's like, oh, this is the same plot as The Scorpio Races, but nowhere near it's quality in any shape or form. I decided to stop while I was ahead, before I started to actually dislike it. (anyway here's your PSA to go read The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater, I recommend doing it in October if you can).

#bec posts #book log #wrap up 2024 #books #booklr #book review #the divorce colony #april white #renegades #marissa meyer #hula #jasmine iolani hakes #something close to magic #crying in h mart #lud in the mist #veronica speedwell #pip bartlett #maggie stiefvater #moby dyke #pixels of you #the memory librarian #the djin waits a hundred years

[liapher]

Map of the World by @seperis

[Click on the pictures for better resolution.]

I read Map for the first time last year, and a couple months later decided to already reread it. The first time around, you're dropped into this story without knowing what's going on in terms of either the character dynamics or the setting, and it's like a puzzle you get to try to figure out. It's delightful! The second time around, you start out with a lot more puzzle pieces at hand (but absolutely not all of them yet!) and you manage to connect so many more dots. (I swore to myself to not go overboard and still ended up with a ten-way colour-coding system with stickers and writing margin notes. More recently, I decided to read all the comments on the Map AO3 pages, and they are so much fun to read! So many readers have shared really insightful observations, and the author has written a lot of very interesting replies as well. But having to switch back and forth between the story and the comment section is a bit of a bother, and I sensed an interesting typographical challenge, and that's how I found myself typesetting the fic again while adding foot- and margin notes to my heart's content. The book ended up being so long though that I decided to split it into two parts :-)

As for the cover of the first half: Each of the DTA fics introduces you---and the main characters---to a new, larger part of the world. In Map, the focus lies on Cas's cabin as the foundation for the relationship between the two main characters is laid, so Dean and the reader have to open the bead curtain together to get to that part of the story. If I ever get around to giving a similar treatment to the other fics in the series, the cover design would continue correspondingly: opening the gate to Chitaqua for Stars, entering Ichabod's main square for Lights, and stepping through one of the paintings in the white room for Game.

[Typesetting and crafting notes under the cut]

⁂

Typesetting

Okay so the thing is I love very involved typesetting. It's neat to look at, fun to plan (or as a reader, try to reverse engineer the typesetter's decisions), allows you to be a bit of a control freak about all details etc etc. The point of this typesetting project was to include lots and lots of commentary, so my priorities were:

maintain a clear visual distinction between the text and the comments

make the comments easy to read

keep the comments close to the lines they refer to

I used a combination of footnotes and margin notes to make the most of the available space. Margin notes are used whenever a comment is short enough; footnotes otherwise. Fortunately, I was able to typeset the text in such a way that there's no more than one new footnote per page, so I got away with just reusing the degree symbol ° to introduce footnotes and didn't have to work with a numbering system. Most margin notes refer to specific lines as well and here I got to add my favourite little typesetting detail: a manicule :) I based its design on this hand-drawn one.

Other notes: The longest comment is nearly 5 full pages long and is a comment thread about Dean not realizing how laundry works at Chitaqua lol.

I also wanted to prioritize reading comfort, so the margins are rather generous and based on the canons of page construction, and the leading is relatively generous: the body text is set in 11/14 and the comments in 8/12. The drawback is that this means I ended up with a lot more pages than planned (over six hundred). I also don't love that the baselines of the body text and the comments only line up every 6/7 lines, but every other leading option I tried out ended up making the text harder to read---can't have everything at once I guess.

I decided to not include any headers and footers since I think they'd only have made the page appear more crammed without actually adding a lot of useful information. Instead, the page numbers are in the margins, sharing a baseline with the topmost line of text. The beginning of each chapter and/or day is still easy to find since those black tab-like day number indicators extend all the way to the fore-edge:

2. The text block

I wanted these books to have a nice 2:3 (14 cm × 21 cm) page ratio, which meant I needed to trim the fore edge. I had a bit of a paper trimming disaster with another book last week, but for these books I found a method that worked better for me: Use the blade of the cutter to line up the end of the ruler with the spine of the signature at the head of the page, use the cutter to make a tiny cut at the 14 cm mark, repeat at the bottom of the page, and then use the marks you made as a guideline for where to place the ruler to actually cut away the edge.

This is the first time I sewed a book on tapes. I didn't have bona fide bookbinding tape and just used some leftover non-stretchy woven cotton tape (width: 1.5 cm) I had lying around. I followed the video tutorial by DAS. I don't have a sewing frame, but the tape was fairly stiff, so just letting about 2 cm of the tape protrude at the top worked like a charm.

3. Headbands

I followed the two-colour headband instructions by DAS and used a leather band with a diameter of ~1.5 mm as well as some three-ply thread that I got by separating a six-ply embroidery thread. This worked pretty well---the stiff leather band was easier to work with than the shoelace I used last time (mostly because of its even circumference). The slightly tricky thing about the embroidery thread is that the different strands sometimes try to bunch up on top of one another instead of lying flat, but I'm happy with the results. Per headband, the ideal length to work with for this kind of thread and a text block spine width of 23--25 mm was ~30 cm for the green one and ~55 cm for the blue one.

After finishing the headbands, I glued some (80 GSM) paper to the spine---but only between the tapes, to sliightly even out that difference.

4. The case

I followed DAS's video on the square back bradel binding.

The straightforward case:

Front & back: 216 mm x 140 mm

Spine: 23 mm (text block) / 26 mm (case)

Hinge: 7 mm

For the cloth-to-paper ratio of the half binding, I just picked what looked good rather than following the general ratio recommendations. Before gluing on the paper, I used a blue pen to make a couple subtle marks on the bookcloth, which helped a lot while trying to quickly place the paper.

To case in the book, I found it easiest to add a little glue to the spine edge of the back cover, put in the text block and do some quick readjustments, shut the book, let it dry for a few minutes, and then paste down the rest of the back endpaper (maybe in two or three more goes---add glue to the next couple cm, go wild with the bonefolder, repeat). Add glue to all of the front endpaper, shut the book, open it again, go wild with the bonefolder to smooth everything out, done.

For the wrap-around case, I ended up just winging it. It's mostly a square back bradel binding though.

Front, left: 216 mm × 102 mm (at the top)

Back: 216 mm × 145 mm

Spine: 25 mm (text block) / 28 mm (case)

Fore-edge piece: 19 mm

Front, right: 42 mm

The fore-edge piece is thinner than the spine piece since, unlike the latter, it's directly wedged between two pieces of bookboard, and the text block is thicker at the spine than at the fore-edge. I had initially tried making the spine and the wrap-around section level, but that looked a bit silly since you could see the gap between the text block and the right part of the cover.

For the wrap-around part, I glued the back, the fore-edge piece, and the right part of the front cover to a piece of paper (80 GSM), with one board width (2 mm) in between. In retrospect, I should've maybe added 0.5 mm to the hinge between the fore-edge piece and the front so it shuts more easily.

To secure the leather straps with the clasp, I cut two grooves into the bookboard: (Ignore that I obviously only thought of that after I'd already glued the bookcloth to the board, and also ignore the remnants of some paper that are glued to the right edge of the back cover...)

I cut out a couple small bookcloth triangles and used them to fill in the gaps along the back of the curved edge.

I painted on the cover design with some acrylic paint---super fiddly and it took forever, and unfortunately I only did it after casing in the book---before would've been easier. Oh well! I used a pencil to draw guide lines; fortunately it can just be erased from the cloth without leaving a mark or damaging the (dried) paint. (I tried this out on a scrap piece of bookcloth beforehand.)

⁂

In conclusion:

DTA, my beloved

Comments, my beloved

Involved typesetting and crafting projects, my beloved

#down to agincourt #dta #bookbinding #book design #mission update #crafts tag #this was so much work but i'm so happy with how it turned out :)

[fearowkenya]

Digimon Survive Week Day 1: A New World

Winds of Change - Chapter 7: Winds of Change - Part One

“Most everything we know about ourselves and our world—it tends to be based on gut instinct,” Dracmon continues with a huff. “Anything else is whatever partial information we’ve managed to glean and put together on our own. Sometimes it’s both, and sometimes the damn pieces are upside down or backwards.

“That sounds like…” Shuuji can’t even begin to wrap his mind around it. He supposes that’s exactly the problem. “…a very confusing way to live.”

“It’s all we really know,” says Dracmon plainly, “Bits and pieces, scattered between memory and instinct. But even though I don’t know what goes where or which way’s up, I’ve still got a bit of a sense of what it’s all supposed to look like, somehow.”

Desperate to not be left in the dark, Shuuji seeks answers. But those answers only raise more questions, and it turns out that there's so much about this world that he does not understand—far more than he could have ever possibly imagined.

@surviveweek WOW DIGISURVIVE WEEK!!! it's my first time participating. it felt a little like... cheating, maybe, to post a chapter of a fic i was already working on, but it turns out the prompt for day 1 fit this chapter pretty well.

as usual, link is in the source so that tumblr doesnt kick me from the tags, and extended post-chapter notes are under the cut!!!

part of me is really glad i split this chapter in half. like i said, the original edit would have been close to 10k words, and there are so many ups and downs in the combined chapter that i was giving myself whiplash rereading it. the good news is, the second part is already mostly edited, and with it being survive week, i am going to try my best to accelerate the rest of the editing and get at least chapter 8 out this week.

i got really lucky that today's theme for survive week matched up with today's chapter. i was really struggling with how to interpret "a new world", because that's the entire game, isn't it? how was i going to choose just 1 thing about this new world to talk about? ultimately, the way i interpreted the prompt was in the realization that shuuji has, that this world is confusing not just for himself, but for the creatures that call it home. from the way dracmon describes it, it's just as harsh and dangerous to the kemonogami as it is to the humans.

on the topic of dracmon--he's my favorite to write. back when i was outlining this fic, it was already solidly in place that dracmon would be doing a lot of heavy-lifting in terms of lore. why dracmon? i'll keep that to myself for now. all in good time (:

i had such a fantastic time writing shuuji and dracmon interacting. on one hand, he's good at recognizing shuuji's sudden bursts of anxiety - kaito's anxiety manifests in a way that is much more explosive and angry than shuuji's, but it's still a powerful emotion that he's dealt with before. that said, obviously the way dracmon navigates kaito's emotions is not going to fit shuuji, and it was fun writing dracmon trying to get a feel for what kind of response does or does not work for him.

i also think lopmon would be SOOOOO INTERESTING as kaito's partner. you've got this timid little guy who is SO completely different from kaito, but would be able to tell that there's a gentle side to him that's buried super deep down. kaito would absolutely frighten him with his outbursts, though, and i wonder if seeing the direct consequences of his anger would help him understand its full impact. on a more cheerful note, i think kaito would not know what to do when lopmon says saccharine, kind things about him that are undeniably true, and i think that this would be very cute!!! it's almost as confrontational as the way dracmon interacts with kaito - lopmon wouldn't be snarky or bluntly honest with kaito the way dracmon is, but i think the sweet, innocent flavor of honesty that lopmon would use instead would hit him just as hard. much to think about.

this is going to be a much shorter extended authors notes this time, because the bulk of what i have to say is about lore stuff, and the rest of that is in part 2.

my answers for reader questions!

do you think dracmon is the most knowledgeable of the main digis about how the kemonogami world works?

as i mentioned on ao3, my answer is no, but i won't say why. however! i CAN say that i think the kind of knowledge varies super widely from digi to digi. dracmon may know a lot about what happens when digimon get destroyed, but i dont think he's got the more, social, i guess??? knowledge that agumon has, where he seems really familiar so many other digimon, knowing them by name despite never having met them before.

what do you think the superpower pineapple tastes like?

i think it never tastes the same! one could be sweet and another could be salty, but it's always really good. the texture is like chewing on drywall though.

thanks for reading!! hopefully i'll have part 2 up in the next few days. i'll have to check the prompt list for survive week to see if anything fits… if not.. well, since it's mostly edited, i'll try to get it posted early anyway.

#digimon survive #digimon survive week #survive week #shuuji kayama #kayama shuuji #dracmon #digimon

[idoodlestuffsometimes]

Brother's Keeper AU:

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: How did Caleb live so long? How can he still be here after 400 years?

A: Belos wanted him to stick around and so he made it happen. As for specifics: *shrugs* your guess is as good as mine! This is something I've preferred to leave up to the readers. I will simply confirm that he isn't hiding any goop powers or OP palisman-given magical abilities. He is, for all intents and purposes, a regular human who is somehow really, really old.

Q: If Caleb is still alive, where did Hunter come from?

A: The full story here hasn't been told yet, but you may notice Caleb is missing quite a few bones...

Q: Caleb's ears are pointed! Did Belos cut them??

A: Correct

Q: Does Caleb know about the Collector/the basilisks/Belos' plans?

A: Probably! He's been Belos' sounding board for 400 years. Access to things that could "further corrupt him" or provide him a tool for escape, however, are off limits, so there are many things, like the Collector, that he's heard about but never seen for himself.

Q: Where's Flapjack/Amity/Darius/etc?

A: This is basically a canon divergence. If you haven't seen a particular character, it's safe to assume for now that they're up to whatever they were doing in canon.

Q: I don't get it. Why is Caleb insane?

A: I suggest you reread the first few story posts, my friend! You have fallen for Belos' lies.

Q: Do you have a posting schedule? When will the next part come out?

A: There is no posting schedule. I draw (mostly but not always) traditionally in my free time, for the fun of telling a cool story, and some posts are longer than others. That means the timing of the next post depends on how long it is, how much time I have, and whether or not I'm at home with access to my scanner. Sometimes this means I post quickly. Sometimes it means you'll see me next month. Sorry about that.

Just know that if I know there's going to be an extended wait, especially one where I'm not actively working on the next drawing, I will make an announcement about it. If you haven't seen an update in a while but I also haven't said anything, it's almost definitely because I'm actively chipping away at a part of the story that's taking me longer.

Q: Why do some of the story posts have a letter after the number? Are these less important than the regular story posts? Can I skip them?

A: No, I Do Not Recommend skipping them! They are just as important as the others. They have a letter on the end because they were added later and I use letters as a way to avoid renumbering everything. If you see story posts labeled something like "3, 3A, 4", they are meant to be read the same as you would if they were "3, 4, 5".

Q: Can I make art/fic/cosplay of this au?

A: Knock yourself out! If you post it somewhere, please include credit, but otherwise I don't mind, and actually love seeing what you do with it! If it's NSFW though, please keep it in appropriate spaces with proper warnings.

Q: Wait there's fic/fanart?? Can I see?

A: If you look through the tag on my blog "BK fridge gallery" you can browse any content shared with me that I've reblogged. :) People are free not to share it with me too though, and there are some I don't reblog, especially if its gorey or suggestive, so you might be able to find a bit more elsewhere under the Brother's Keeper AU name if you look for it.

You may also notice I have a featured tag called "BK Soundtrack." That's for songs that people have suggested to go with the AU. You are welcome to browse or suggest songs of your own ;)

Q: :( I sent an ask but you didn't answer. Did you get it?

A: Probably, yes. Sometimes it takes me a few days to get to it. However, if it was theorizing about future plot points, I may actually be holding onto it with plans to answer at a more appropriate time. I like to keep many of my plans for the story close to the chest, so don't be surprised if your theory ask disappears only to show up many months later when the story has progressed to a point where I can give you a more in depth answer.

#Brother's Keeper AU #doodletext #putting this together for the repeat questions! Will add to the master post later.

[komaneko-kun]

what is liu yao about

(i can see you like it a lot so pls do not hold back if you want to rant. 2 sentences is also fine. but a rant is also cool)

aaaa ty you have no idea how much it means i don't get to talk about my blorbos often T-T ok so, i already answered an ask about liu yao but this time i'm gonna talk more about the story without spoiling too much

liu yao is a xianxia novel of how five children, Cheng Qian (the main protagonist, san-shixiong), Yan Zhengming (the da-shixiong), Li Yun (er-shixiong), Han Yuan (si-shixiong) and Han Tan/Shuikeng (shimei) are given a home and are taught cultivation by their shifu, Han Muchun, they face difficult challenges through their lives as they try to restore the Fuyao Mountain Sect and protect the family they built together, they're faced with ghosts from their own sect's past and its history that they yet have to learn. philosophy and taoist elements are DEEPLY ingrained in the story and the growth of the characters as people is linked to their growth as cultivators.

I think one of liu yao's strongests points is the theme of found family, you get to see the bond between characters grow, these kids go from finding each other annoying and insufferable to risking their lives to protect them and being willing to do anything for them (and somehow still finding each other annoying)

it's also great in questioning concepts about xianxia and cultivation in general, what does it mean for a person to go through such great lengths to achieve immortality, the way sects work and how much prejudice some of them can carry, if one should really prioritize cultivation and ascension over everything etc.

some people say they're not interested in liu yao because it has little romance but i disagree completely, there is plenty of romance but it's more slow burn and shown more through actions! the love is there and very clear, there's so much yearning, mutual overprotectiveness, funny misunderstandings bc cheng qian is oblivious and yan zhengming is a mess with his feelings (he's so terrible at hiding his feelings that if he isn't giving the others second-hand embarrasment they're making fun of him without mercy lol)

it's very heartwarming, funny and angsty at the same time, the lore is so interesting and i keep rereading my favorite parts over and over, you really grow attached to the characters and only wish the best for them aaaa i rly hope you can give it a read some time and find out for yourself how much more amazing it is!

#liu yao #i got to talk abt liu yao twice today woah #my autistic heart is so full #六爻priest #六爻 #xianxia #danmei

[newfrontierbackstage]

1,000 views Milestone and more

Hello everyone. Today I have come to talk about the most important milestone the fic has ever reached. A little bit ago, New Frontier reached 1k views on Ao3 and it honestly made me so proud, happy and satisfied with seeing such a number, even after months of hiatus and inactivity. The support that this fic has received is... honestly something I never expected.

If I may go off character for a bit, I want to tell you guys a few guys. I created this fic just for myself, for my own sake and to show the fandom some cool stuff, some action and my type of writing that I tend to like and go for. The first version was very much a showcase of inexperience and lack of understanding for a lot of things when it came to writing, but it was still the most fun I had writing the fic.

Then I went to reread what I had created and written... I started to see the cracks, to see that what I had put on the paper just wasn't as amazing as I first thought it was. So with that in mind, I decided to start going back and rewrite previous chapters, as it felt necessary and I felt it could elevate the story to higher levels and although that was pretty fun at first, it started to drain me pretty bad in the lenghtier chapters. It started to feel like a job.

The chapters have absolutely improved and I feel the fic's direction is in a much better spot, but I had to fight myself to get the motivation to keep going. Being honest, I was very much considering the possibility of dropping the fic on its entirety. as it truly felt that draining and boring to write. I wasn't doing new stuff, I was just rewriting older stuff and noticing my many mistakes!

My friends like CharmmyColour and LonelyLittleShips adviced me to write other parts of the story that were more exciting or thrilling. I honestly didn't think that was going to work out and I still tried to write through Chapter's 5 and 6 with a pessimistic and saddened state of mind.

That was until GoldenTulipLynx (my current cowriter) came into my life a year ago. We started to discuss more of the fic and he actively encouraged me more and more to write a few months ago. He told me to do so at least once a week to get some progress done and I did. It wasn't a perfect process, but it definitely led me to write more. Then he suggested me to write something exciting and for the first time, I actually listened to that advice and...

It worked. It gave me my inspiration back somewhat and it made me want to get writing more and more. If it wasn't for his inspiration and also the encouragement from my other friends, I may have cancelled the fic as a whole, so for that I'm truly grateful to them.

What I'm also grateful for is have fans and followers that have been patient, loyal and comprehensive towards the fic's state and progress. This took so long because I wanted to give you guys something worthy of that much of a wait and also have fun while doing so.

I really wanted this message to be special, as I felt the ocassion was the perfect time to do so. Truly, thank you guys. Thank you for still being here and I hope you look forward to what else I have cooking up.

And because I knew this was such a special ocassion/milestone, I also wanted to give you guys something exceptional, so with that in mind... I commissioned some art for New Frontier as a treat for you guys, one that displays Cavendish with his rifle in a wonderful forest, one that's going to be the usual hangout spot for him and Dakota.

This is my gift to you, everyone. Hope you have a good day/afternoon/evening/night and I'll see y'all down the trail!

With love: hypersonicJD

Edit: I have removed the background of this piece as I have found out it was been AI generated. I do not condone anything AI generated and thus, the commissioner's credits have been removed as well and I would like everyone to reblog this new version of this post.

#milo murphy's law #au #space western #balthazar cavendish #fanfic #new frontier #mml #space cowboys #a new frontier #1k views #Ao3 milestone #sci-fi forest

[wander-wren]

wrt to the “adam shouldve been a visionary” dreamer trilogy/greywaren post i’ve seen a few times (possibly reblogged?)….well, maybe, but also no.

it’s not that i don’t have my own gripes with tdt (namely, yes, not enough adam), but i just…i can’t get behind visionary adam. not canon visionary, anyway.

like. you’re telling me ronan “the choice was death or hurting adam, which wasnt a choice at all” lynch would have handled it with ANY amount of grace if adam “i will be your hands. i will be your eyes” parrish was given the ultimatum “hurt others every time you have a vision and live, or turn the visions inward and quickly die horribly”??? no!!

and maybe in this alternate version of tdt that’s the whole point, yknow. if that’s what you want, ABSOLUTELY go ahead, dream on about it, write the fic, send it to me i’d love to see. etc etc etc

but the point of the dreamer trilogy is that it’s about ronan. so if we’re keeping with that vision (ha), and with the basic premise of the series, then no, i don’t think visionary adam is a good idea.

which begs the question…what WOULD i have adam do?

[disclaimer i read each book as they came out and havent done full rereads since so my memory is spotty, pls correct anything i get wrong]

in all honesty i would keep call down the hawk essentially as it is bc i think it was good. it takes place during november, no? so potentially add in/exchange a shorter adam moment for thanksgiving break. he can help scry and figure out psychic things and be distrustful of bryde.

have winter break be during part of mister impossible. seriously where are adam’s school breaks lmao. adam is relentlessly practical and cares about ronan and he should be here to sow doubt and try to curb some of ronan’s more ecoterrorist tendencies. ronan can sneak around and hide from him and there can be tension and worry and anger. but also a lot of good pynch feelings still, ofc, bc its Them.

but don’t worry! they can still have a big fight/falling out over the ley lines/bryde/the ecoterrorism before adam leaves for school again. as silly as it is that ronan freaked out over an unread text when adam was literally napping, maybe this time it’s deliberate. or maybe adam really was napping again, or driving, or whatever. the rest of mister impossible can play out from there, or a condensed/reshuffled version of it to accommodate adam being there for a while.

greywaren can start the same, but for the love of god let ronan get out faster it is HIS BOOK. i do like henessey helping him do that i think its an important part of her character, and adam’s part in all that was very good and angsty so i wouldnt change it, but i would have it happen in the first half. ronan and adam make up and go off to do whatever was happening by the end of greywaren tbh i got confused. or something totally different! who knows.

also i just want to see adam interact with the actual visionaries and with carmen and henessey more and with bryde i think it would be very cool. very fun.

i also think gansey/blue/henry shouldve shown up literally ever at all but idk how they fit in so shh

#wren wrambles #the raven cycle #the dreamer trilogy #greywaren #call down the hawk #mister impossible #ronan lynch #adam parrish #pynch #i love maggie and i think she does Lots Of POVs And Happenings well ie in the raven king #but like #greywaren just felt like too much to me a little bit #i feel like there were too many things where i was like ‘wait why is this here did we Need another plot thread mstief’ #or ‘wait can we. can we explain/explore/elaborate on that? no? oh. okay then’ #but i digress #i do appreciate that this is ronan’s story and it’s important to his arc that he make mistakes and figure shit out on his own #or with henessey #something something its a metaphor. barely. its fairly literal #yknow when you grow up and go to college or a job or whatever and you dont have your hs friends around 24/7 #and you have to figure out who you are without them #for better or for worse. and you still love them but. theyre not There. you have to find new people and a new You #right? right #adam is important and should be there more bc hes Dating Ronan but i am also perfectly fine with them being separate a fair amount #i feel like you could do even more with this but tbh its almost 5am and i havent slept bc i was going to #but i had to write this down #so its not exactly perfectly thought out

[starfxkr]

https://www.tumblr.com/starfxkr/746621640732000256/moony-do-you-have-a-favourite-sofia-coppola?source=share

well! now i wanna know what's your t20 for books omg

and ugh yes virgin suicides was such a love for me to for similarish reason(s) - the lisbon sisters were very frozen in time/spiritually paralyzed to me. it acc reminds me sm of kirsten dunst in interview with a vampire n how paralyzed claudia felt by being unable to age

oh n i just googled jesus saves n it sounds up my alley i wanna read it sometime but how graphic would you say it is?

no i get it - like i do get the appeal of whiplash n there are parts of it i like (like the driving scene LOL)

but anyways pope rly is pretentious if perfect blue is his fav of the bunch omg i love him. now i feel like he'd make fun of me for preferring black swan over it n telling me it's just a perfect blue rip-off n accusing me of only liking it bc mila n natalie get freaky in it 😭

-🐰

okay top to books!!!! just to keep it simple lol my top 5 will be in order after that its just me throwing em in there.

sula - toni morrison. favorite book of all time I have multiple copies of it and it's the absolute best story of female friendship imo and as a midwestern black girl I really resonated in ways I don't always resonate with books about southern black culture. sula mae peace was a low down diabolical woman and I love her

jesus saves - darcey steinke. this book is pretty graphic esp the scenes with sandy and her kidnapper. the dual povs are great and its one of the bleakest novels ive ever had the pleasure of reading. I was sat in shock when I finished

little birds - anais nin. my fav erotica book I like this more than delta of venus and there's actually a picture I took of the book thats popular on Pinterest and goes viral on tumblr/twitter all the time LOL. a major comfort read during one of the worst years of my life.

the moth diaries - rachel klein. read it last year it was such a good introspective work that honestly the vampirism felt both secondary and integral to the narrators plight like you can see her sanity slip over time and yet tou sit there wishing either shes right so she can have at least one thing to grasp onto or wishing she was wrong so she can feel some peace.

chouette - claire oshetsky. MY FAVVVVV BOOK ON MOTHERHOOD its magical realism and you can read it as an allegory or read it as literal which is what I prefer to do. a quick read but its so touching in its strangeness.

lolita - vladimir nabokov. technically a top 5 but its a book thats so integral to me that I can't properly rank. the way he played with words and the depth of the book is just unparalleled. I reread it once a year and although I love the 97 film it cannot come close to the book. its filled with such lush visuals and such sensuous language I get into discourse about it all the time because people either hate it due to misconceptions or they love it but feel guilty so they have to virtue signal in the most obnoxious ways. im a separate third thing.

the discomfort of evening - marieke lucas rijneveld. this is what lapvona wanted to be…it was dark and uncomfortable at many times and you feel just as isolated as the characters in some ways it feels like if the vvitch happened in more modern times with how the family dealt with grief and death in a small religious community it was kinda gross at times tol.

earthlings - sayaka murata. another very gross book and I would go into this carefully bc its very explicitly about csa. the main character was a wonderful depiction of how parental neglect, sexual abuse and trauma can leave a person stunted and how they can end up in very unsavory circumstances. the ending was wild.

nausea - jean paul sarte. my first "philosophical" book and it really....hit kinda close but it became a comforting read. I was coming off my Hell Year and I was still dealing with a lot of depression and just emptiness and that book encapsulated a lot of my emotions.

the nun - denis diderot. one of the funniest books ever im not playing. its about a young girl who becomes a nun because shes a child of adultery in the 18th century and her life just gets worse and worse as random shit keeps happening to her. it has homoeroticism and blasphemy and was conceived as a prank where diderot wrote letters as the MC. once you get into the language its such a crazy ride.

pope is a satoshi kon stan down so he feels very strongly about his work being ripped off by aronofsky!!! he argues about black swan being a lesser film all the time but I would say paprika is his fav

#✨.txt #pope heyward prompt #🐰 anon