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davidmann95 · 2 years

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DC 5G - what we know, what we 'know', what's left

NOTE: This has been updated significantly since I initially posted it, with assorted chunks of information parceled out by Dan DiDio in a Word Balloon interview, labeled UPDATE, or a new slate of scoops dug up by - deep sigh - Bleeding Cool (who for all their rumormongering, provably had details on this given how early details of theirs eventually bore out in published comics), labeled UPDATE 2. Most of my fairly glowing opinions accompanying these details are from my original version of this pre-Dark Crisis; I put a very different 'up-to-date' response at the bottom. A bunch of the UPDATE 2 stuff also had titles attached, but they seem...placeholder-ey, so I'll ignore them.

With Dark Crisis approaching and my bitterness rising as it looks more and more like an off-ramp to the idea of a next-gen DCU than anything else - with titles like Son of Kal-El and I Am Batman completely fizzling out in the meantime while Wonder Girl goes under entirely - I've gone back to thinking about the original 5G plan. Those who follow me on Twitter know I've gone over the last couple years from 'hmm, I'm interested in Jon as Superman, but gosh that timeline is dumb' to a hardcore '5G WAS THE TRUTH AND THE WAY, THE MOMENT THE STOPPED CLOCK WAS RIGHT, DC WHAT IN GOD'S NAME HAVE YOU DONE' partisan, even if the timeline's still kinda dumb.

It was always going to alienate the existing fanbase: it's an approach that besides the face-value shakeup itself puts slow-burn soap development on the backburner in favor of moving fast and breaking things, and potentially results in your faves not graduating to the 'right' positions or ending up in the 'right' relationships to boot, plus a new generation of heroes composed in large part of original characters rather than those who 'earned it' via decades of mostly clinging to life in team books or guest appearances. My being way more interested in the potential of the vast revision of the archetypes and a proper injection of mythic sweep and enduring legacy into a shared universe ostensibly built on those is at the end of a day a difference of taste, but as for my arguments beyond that:

I don't think it can be reasonably argued that The Son of Superman and The Next Batman treated with seriousness wouldn't have been far more attention-getting to broader audiences (and a richer template for that sweet sweet IP farming DC publication now explicitly exists in service of) than rebooting the classic bunch for the 5th or 6th time.

The classic folks still would've been in Black Label and the like forever; yes, for the most part their classic-mold ongoing adventures would be over, but being extremely real most Batman stories would work pretty much the same with someone else under the cowl, and if there's something ala Tom King's Batman that's character-driven and demands space to breathe, it's been shown there's space for that outside of continuity with the likes of...sigh. White Knight.

DC having to ride or die by the new names as their headliners would have meant those characters wouldn't have had the opportunity to languish in genuinely crappy books the way they have - they would have had to immediately sell at least their new Justice League on the strength of their immediate quality with little pertinent backlog to lean on and basically no fallback option.

The loglines of characters built for those gigs tend to be a lot more straightforward than the baggage of folks who've been around for decades having been created to fulfill different functions.

Let's again be real, the significant majority of the existing readership would've sighed and still bought everything with the big names on the covers if not been actively hyped.

Anyway, with all that in mind and the likely-forsaken potential of the concept being a frequent topic of discussion with some friends of mine, I felt the urge to once again revive the Tumblr and put together a rough outline of what we know about the '5G' setup. From assorted scoops (mostly from Bleeding Cool, which I won't be linking to but demonstrated they knew at least the broad strokes of what was happening here), interviews, and indicators in comics that actually have been published, I wanted to see the shape of the baby thrown out with DiDio's bathwater. Starting someplace unexpected:

When I was first getting into comics, my dad informed me of a rumor he'd heard about that at the end of the new event comic Final Crisis, the Justice League was going to die and would become the NEW New Gods, with their sidekicks and children stepping up in their place, making it a truly 'final' crisis for the DCU as we knew it. While that didn't play out, apparently there was something to it: according to BC, this was in fact the big idea at one point, reportedly under the banner of 'The Fifth World' paying off some notions from Grant Morrison's JLA that were being revived in Final Crisis. This seems shocking given Dan DiDio's notorious antipathy towards the likes of Dick Grayson and Wally West, but his primary complaints about them - that Dick was forever stuck between his iconic past as Robin and grand future as Batman, he and Wally both breaking the DCU by their very existences in aging while their predecessors remain eternal - would have been solved by this shift. His old declaration that Nightwing could only survive Infinite Crisis if something was done to justify him makes a lot more sense if the gears had immediately started turning to make him Batman.

Along with Dick, and likely Cassie Sandsmark as Wonder Woman since Donna Troy had just filled that spot, with the benefit of hindsight it's clear the stage was being set for a new generation lineup: Bart Allen had become The Flash and even after his death was set up for an immediate resurrection, Kurt Busiek was establishing a new Aquaman, Jason Rusch and Jaime Reyes and Ryan Choi were the new Firestorm and Blue Beetle and Atom, Roy Harper had taken a seat in the JLA as Red Arrow, and Freddie Freeman was the new Captain Marvel, with Hal presumably sticking around as rep for the old guard given Johns had just returned him to glory. And right around the corner was Blackest Night to give the kids a trial by fire in the face of their zombie predecessors, with the get out of jail free card of the white rings to bring all the originals back at the end if this whole experiment immediately flopped.

Conner Kent as Superman was presumably going to be a crown jewel, with Chris Kent perhaps being set up as his Superboy with a background conceptually near-identical to Damian Wayne as the new Robin (scion of a major villain taken in by a Superdad, they're separated, by the time the kid makes it back dad is gone and a big brother has to step up). You've even got a big easy passing-of-the-torch moment at the end of Final Crisis with Clark giving up everything he has to activate the Miracle Machine - an odd non-sequitur with no consequences in the story as-is - and a final declaration 'look up in the sky' at an army of approaching Supermen Conner could well have been leading as his grand debut.

And there's a VERY interesting context if you consider what ultimately happened in place of The Fifth World in the form of the New 52 - a younger, cockier Superman who ends up dating a Wonder Woman who's now Zeus's kid. It seems some of the big ideas were still carried over, especially considering under Grant Morrison that new Superman in a t-shirt and jeans fights Luthor who considers him a lab specimen (alongside Brainiac, as Conner would in Johns and Manapul's brief Adventure Comics run in place of all this, and who Morrison reconceptualizes as a preservationist dedicated to holding a newly-changed world in amber), and then new equivalents and 'successors' to the likes of Mxyzptlk, the classic Phantom Zoners, Terra-Man, and the Kryptonite Man, culminating in a battle with a combination of Bizarro - the ultimate Superman clone - and Doomsday - the franchise-killer whose existence roundabout birthed Conner - for the right to the Superman brand. Was Morrison going to do Conner as Superman alongside Batman and Robin, and they repurposed those 'Superman 2' ideas along with that one All-Star spinoff to create their Action Comics run? Did they just hear that was the plan and kick around some ideas of how they'd handle it that were reused later? Or do those pieces mostly just fit because 'new era' ideas can make near-equal sense whether applied a reboot or a new guy in the cape?

(Perhaps a strike against coincidence: All-Star Superman ends with the conception of a test-tube child of Superman via what was once Cadmus, essentially Conner's origin. Morrison's gone on the record that Batman R.I.P. ends the way it does to provide an iconic 'death' for Bruce setting up Dick as the new guy for those who weren't reading Final Crisis; it seems at least a little bit possible that All-Star at the same time had a similar idea at the back of its mind if it wasn't outright geared to serve that purpose.)

UPDATE: DiDio confirmed Final Crisis was originally meant to lead into a next-gen relaunch, and also mentioned there were plans to pair this with an 'Ultimate'-style line still starring Clark, Bruce, and Diana, and that All-Star and Earth One lines were also both failed attempts at an Ultimate DC. Given the timing, it may be fair to assume that Earth One was initially intended to be paired with Fifth World, and why it was so quickly supplanted by the New 52 when its initial purpose was nullified; if nothing else, it'd explain why that ostensibly mass-market initiative had a nerd-ass name like Earth One.

An interesting bunch of notions, but let's go from the Fifth World to the Fifth Generation: between all the stuff I mentioned earlier there's actually a pretty clear picture of how 5G would've looked, at least concerning the big names.

Kal-El lands on Earth in 1938 as the kickoff to this world's history, though Wonder Woman emerges in 1939 as the first public superhero (shown by Snyder and Hitch in Wonder Woman #750); she leads the Justice Society of America until leaving man's world after the atomic bomb's dropped. Clark operates quietly in Smallville as Superboy, but he stops when the JSA disbands in 1955 in protest of HUAC wanting them to disclose their identities (though according to the solicit for the cancelled Generation One: Age of Mysteries there was a secret 'real' reason they disassembled; apparently a Golden Age hero would also become a great villain, and a secret deal of some sort would be struck to "keep the Wayne family dynasty alive" after Thomas and Martha's murders).

Clark is operating in secret as Superman by 1963 and meets JFK who encourages him to gather other heroes in service of a finer world (as seen in the opening of Superman and The Authority; as published after 5G was scrapped this was recontextualized as a time-travel adventure), with him and Batman both publicly debuting in 1965 and the Justice League of America forming soon after with a returned Wonder Woman. The events of 1965-1985 were meant to be depicted one year per issue in a 21-part series by Mark Russell which would later be heavily reimagined as Superman: Space Age.

Crisis on Infinite Earths occurs in 1985, and everything from then to Death Metal is largely the same, just over an elongated expanse of time and with a few irreconcilable continuity-specific bits like Superman/Wonder Woman excised. Apparently the assorted Crisis events cause years to be 'skipped', allowing key characters to retain some relative youth.

(The Other History of the DC Universe while not a 1:1 appears to have been constructed to roughly fit with this given John Ridley was ultimately a 5G architect, with the JLA emerging in the 70s or possibly 60s if you fudge the narration a bit and still going strong in 2010.)

By the present day, the bulk of the JLA have passed, retired, or otherwise stepped back; the Titans now fill the traditional 'old guard' slot.

The initial prompt offered by DiDio to creators was notoriously for an aged Clark to pursue a totalitarian path and assemble a new version of The Authority as his vanguard. Apparently that wasn't a hard-and-fast direction, as it was radically reconfigured by Grant Morrison into Superman and The Authority, which in the original 5G version would have ended with the revelation that Clark had somehow secretly been split into 'Red' and 'Blue' versions increasingly representing his dueling conservative and revolutionary instincts, with leftie Blue forming the team we currently see, and rightwing Red reforming the classic lineup swapping out Midnighter and Apollo with a likely unwitting Damian Wayne and Jon Kent.

When the dust settled and presumably a reconstituted Clark pursued his own adventures (UPDATE: DiDio noted Clark would continue losing his powers as his capacity as a 'solar battery' dimmed, grooming The Authority to take over for him completely), a 23 year old Jonathan would become the new main Superman, likely written by Matt Fraction according to a Word Balloon podcast, reportedly dating Jenny Sparks and Smallville acting as his 'Fortress' with the citizens working to maintain his privacy when visiting. Between being duped into following Red and under unknown circumstances bottling Metropolis he would likely be starting on the backfoot and needing to prove himself to the world as a worthy inheritor.

UPDATE 2: Along with losing his powers, part of the impetus behind Superman's retirement per DiDio's original plan would be that after revealing his identity to the world, Clark would begin pressuring other members of the Justice League to engage in similar transparency, ultimately forming a divide that would lead to the end of the team (with Jon spending much of his time in the 31st century with the Legion to avoid the whole affair). He passes the mantle to Jon and retires with Lois to Africa (this was also a plot point in Future's End; I guess Dan had it in the back pocket for awhile for some reason?), but ends up performing covert superheroics that lead to The Authority's formation.

UPDATE 2: Jon's solo title would proceed as described, with his own 'neverending battle' to avert the destruction of the original Earth seen in the Legion's timeline. I also suspect Morrison's Red-and-Blue division was also an attempt at having a figure to take the blame for some actions covered further below.

As originally pitched by Tynion when his run was meant to lead into 5G, at the climax of Joker War the Clown Prince of Crime is shot and left in a permanent comatose state by Selina Kyle, ending her relationship with Bruce. Left with no resources, no Alfred, no Gordon, no arch-nemesis, and a Gotham being radically rebuilt in a new image, Bruce concludes the time of Batman is over and that he should find other ways to help the world with his remaining years, leaving Gotham (presumably this period was pitched for by Tom Taylor and later became The Detective with Andy Kubert) and asking his allies not to pick up his mantle. Damian would take his place at the throne of Leviathan in his own move to remake the world and become the 'Magneto' to Jon's 'Professor X', still cordial in respect to their past friendship but at the end of the day enemies. Jace - in early rumors (UPDATE: and according to DiDio) Luke, but John Ridley has said it was Jace for as long as he was onboard - becomes the next Batman, disdained by Damian for taking up the Batman mantle and on awkward terms with the new Superman. Tynion also had an idea for a 5G Joker title about a teenager radicalized by Joker's legacy that instead became Punchline.

UPDATE: DiDio confirmed that by the time everything fell through, the plan was instead for Joker to survive and kill Bane before revealing Batman's identity to the world after their final battle; Bruce is imprisoned because he's held partially culpable for Bane's death (he 'freezes' when Joker says he plans to do this, giving Joker a chance to escape, and he fears that since Bane killed Alfred he subconsciously allowed him to do it). Clark later breaks him out, eventually setting up a generational war between Clark and Bruce against Jon/Damian/Luke as the culmination of the initial 5 year roadmap for 5G.

UPDATE 2: Apparently the original plan was for Batman to straight-up agree to let Joker kill Bane, good lord. Guess the 'freezing' thing was a wiggle room compromise ala how Morrison handled Authority, though with...less panache. Anyway, Bruce makes amends with his family and closes up shop before retiring to England (a pitch for which was indeed the original kernel for the aforementioned Taylor/Kubert book).

UPDATE 2: Batman - definitely Luke Fox in the original plan, with concept art by Mikel Janin pictured above, meaning Ridley definitively wasn't there at inception - would have as noted fought Damian Wayne, and Tamara Fox would have discovered his identity and become Robin against his protests. After fighting a returned Joker Bruce's culpability in Bane's death would be discovered, and Bruce would have willingly turned himself in.

Regarding several of the other books: Green Lantern was to be written by Jeff Lemire, spearheading a 'horror line' for 5G and presumably starring Jo Mullein (UPDATE 2: it would have actually starred a 'main DCU' take on the necromancer Tangent Green Lantern, with Jo as the Lantern of the team Justice Alliance). Tim Sheridan would write a Nightwing/Oracle title and the new Flash book; the latter was reportedly the child of Captain Boomerang, so his ideas there were likely recycled into Bolt for his Titans Academy, the daughter of Australian criminals. Brian Bendis would be writing spy books and the Green Arrow ongoing according to a Word Balloon interview of his own. Phillip Kennedy Johnson was doing something for a 'space line'. UPDATE 2: Ram V and Mike Perkins' Swamp Thing was additionally part of 5G, and apparently Yara Flor was originally imagined as Wonder Woman.

Matt Fraction, Warren Ellis, and Chip Zdarsky were collectively working on a project involving the new Superman and Batman that ultimately fell through, whether as soon as Warren Ellis's involvement in any of DC's affairs was taken off the table, or if it would have proceeded without him but collapsed with the line. Presumably Zdarsky's end of it morphed in some fashion into Justice League: Last Ride, showing the sundowning days of the now-disbanded League.

(Pure personal speculation: the roughly contemporaneous The Batman's Grave when Ellis was part of the 5G braintrust may have been intended to provide a non-continuity perennial 'ending' to Bruce which would still leave him alive in accordance with his upcoming setup, same as All-Star would've provided a clean continuity-free transition point from Clark to Conner.)

UPDATE: This likely morphed into a weekly series described by DiDio by Fraction, Greg Rucka, Bendis, and Kelly Sue DeConnick charting the path of how the old guard stepped down (while still remaining alive and on the table) while the new generation emerged; his recollection was that this was titled something to the effect of Last Call, further suggesting Last Ride was a mutation of this book.

UPDATE 2: Alternatively, it may have been Changing of the Guard, an event parallel Last Call which would have shown the rise of the new generation of heroes, focusing on the new Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman.

UPDATE: DiDio noted that the G's were divided by central superhero team - Justice Society of America, Justice League of America, Justice League International, Justice League, and then the "new Justice series", suggesting the era's big superhero team would have a new title rather than being a new League.

UPDATE 2: The new team would have been known as the Justice Alliance, assembled by Superman and Batman in a World's Finest miniseries (I suppose another candidate for the Ellis/Fraction/Zdarsky project, though this seems to have been a little late in the game to have had a team assigned so early on) composed of Jon, Luke, Yara, Jo, and the aforementioned new Flash. Tim Sheridan would have either written this miniseries or Justice Alliance itself; the wording of the report is unclear.

UPDATE 2: Clark breaking Bruce out of jail - which apparently was just for the sake of breaking him out of jail? - would have noted led to a generational civil war triggering the endgame of the 5G plan roundabouts 2024. To help win Clark would undergo a process to restore his former powers, but this overload of his powers would place the entire Earth at risk as foretold in the Legion's history. With Bruce somehow sacrificing himself to save the world and both men dying, the future is changed, and Jon and Luke definitively the new Superman and Batman...unless it was decided in 2025 that the initiative wasn't working, with a 'back door' planted into this chain of events to instead reboot to a clean slate with Clark and Bruce and company back in their primes.

So your mileage will vary tremendously here, because even aside from the seismic nature of the shift everybody would find themselves pissed off by something or another in here, myself included ('everything counts' except Golden Age Superman? At least Clark’d be doing that kind of stuff in the present, but. Plus that's kind of a shame of a fate for Damian pending his inevitable face turn, though I haven’t liked much else with him since he was brought back and this could still at least be interesting. And, again, an exact timeline's pretty dopey and fruitlessly doomed to near-immediate expiration) - that's the nature of a big swing. But there's also stuff for everybody here: Superman gets a huge thematic tip of the hat to his nature as the first superhero while Wonder Woman is the public first to line up with the movies, the JSA have their role to make those fans happy, the Titans fulfill their promise as the inheritors, and again between the likes of that proto-Space Age book and Black Label miniseries there were still regularly going to be titles about the classic heroes at their peaks alongside their new adventures as elder statesmen. You have that deep history for the longtime fans, and a completely clean slate jumping-on point for anyone curious about headlines of NEW SUPERMAN NEW BATMAN THIS IS PROBABLY WHAT THE MOVIES ARE GONNA BE IN 10 YEARS, with easy-in loglines like "Just as the crown is passed the legacy of Superman is perhaps irreparably tarnished, can Lois and Clark's son Jon Kent overcome his initial stumbles and prove himself worthy of the greatest mantle of all?", "Even Bruce Wayne has given up on Batman...but one man hasn’t, and his ultimate rival is the seemingly destined Blood Heir", "The new Green Lantern found her footing patrolling a single world, but now she's thrown headlong into the most terrifying depths of the cosmos", "Can the ultimate Legacy Hero Dynasty be lived up to by the 'legacy' of one of its oldest enemies?" etc.

All-in-all: of course stuff was still gonna suck, his ultimate (good) brainstorm or not I’m sure DiDio was micromanaging it to hell and I imagine a lot of creators weren’t wild about the pitch “in a blitz of creative fervor unseen since the Silver Age create all our new headliners, who as directly derivative characters you won’t even collect royalties for”. But just in terms of what wound up on the stands each month I can't imagine it wouldn't have been so, so much better than Infinite Frontier's weightless lack of commitment in either direction where we have a new Superman, Batman, Wonder (Girl), Aquaman, and Green Lantern, but they're mostly in kind of subsidiary incidental roles while the classics still handle the big jobs until DC can decide for certain where it's going - the closest to full headliner status being Jon, who's basically holding down the fort while his dad's out of town, doing Regular Superman Stuff and fighting A Lex-Type Guy. I'm really, really hoping against hope that Dark Crisis is actually about letting the kids take center stage in a big way with a big push behind them and the old Justice League still sticking around but yielding at least a little bit of narrative authority, because the current neither fish nor fowl state of things can't continue, and snuffing this out altogether would be such a shame given I truly believe 5G was for all its flaws evident and inevitable DC's most interesting idea in years.

UPDATE: Final note, learned from that Bendis Word Balloon that the cancellation of 5G wasn't an editorial matter but due to shifting corporate priorities above everyone's heads.

UPDATE 2: Well, with a lot of this information, this whole thing pretty quickly goes from 'dammit why'd they have to screw the pooch here' to 'oh there's an excellent chance this would have exploded, huh'. After getting over the initial "JEEEEEEEESUS" reaction to, well, everything with Bruce and Clark, I still don't think it was necessarily 100% doomed, as there were clearly a whole lot of extremely talented creators involved to like with Authority reinterpret those marching orders - I can even imagine a way of doing that dopey Death of The World's Finest with some poetry and grace - but. Y'know. If the success of the plan requires a lot of brilliant people to turn it into something very different: not a great plan. Still would have been something compared to the proud nothing of the broad Infinite Frontier/Dawn of DC slate, and introduced exciting new ideas to be explored here and elsewhere over the longterm in many of the ways I suggested initially, but I can at least feel the relief of knowing that this wasn't some unprecedented moment of defeat being madly snatched unbidden from the jaws of victory.

Except for you, Matt Fraction Jon Kent Superman book. For you, I mourn to the end of time.

#DC 5G #DC: Future State #Final Crisis #Superman #Batman #Green Lantern #Flash #Conner Kent #Jon Kent #Jace Fox #Jo Mullein #Infinite Frontier #Dark Crisis #Luke Fox #DC Earth One #All Star DC #DC Comics #Opinion

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wtheckzukasubs · 1 year

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quick but late update

I feel I disappear, I don’t even know when was the last time I told you guys what is going on (in summary, nothing lol). As time passed, my backlog of subs decreased, so I don’t have anything ready for times like these when I know I’ve been away for too long.

(Warning for babbling)

And this is a happy thing, but a bunch of new translators have come up and subbed streams are often happening with works of those who prefer to leave their works to a more controlled environment. I get them. I used to feel frustrated some translations were nearly inaccessible to shy people like me, but the truth is that discord servers made it all easier, to a point I even wonder if in return my subs became less accessible, as you’d have to know how to rip your DVD or record from Sky Stage or find less licit copies and download them (by the way, you can use subs without ripping from your disc through some video players (I think VLC can do it now) but I recommend you do get the file on your computer for the disc to last longer), instead of just tuning it to the latest stream. But I can’t stream them for you, I’m very about that. It’s the main reason I make it clear anyone can stream using my subs as long as it’s not a paid event, I do want everyone to enjoy Takarazuka.

(End of the babbling, hopefully, I shouldn’t have come here medicated...)

What I really wanted to post about are the updates:

I intend to adapt Tsuki no Hokage to the new Tsukigumi version as soon as it airs on Sky Stage (I don’t think we’ll get a Bluray of it any time soon as Paru and Ami have barely graduated from shinko). Let’s hope I’m still around!

Great Gatsby, thanks to everything that has been shared to me and even the help with the golf stuff, is almost done, there’s like twenty minutes left plus revising it, which I’m terrible doing... but you guys are used to the lack of quality by now.

I intend to sub Rain on Neptune if I can get the closed captions whenever it airs (just saw it won’t be in April, I’m hoping for May). And I also intend to sub Blackjack (maybe even do the original with Yan). I also wish I could find something I want to do other than the latest Tsukigumi shows, but I am supremely happy whenever the other shows get translated so I can just enjoy them subbed. This has allowed me to tackle on the works I’ve wanted to show my friends for years, but maybe I also got a bit lazy now the main ones are done (there’s Yukinojo, but I’m too much of a coward to attempt anything with the script).

And those are the news I had to tell!

#quick updates

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amstories · 1 year

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Newsletter #13: April 2023

Dear RNAs,

The first quarter of the year is through and yet we're still here. I commend you for surviving the first three months of 2023. Thank you for being with me as well.

For the next quarter, I'm bringing you both bad and good news. Let me start with the bad news first.

BAD NEWS: Unpublishing Stories

This is not a surprise anymore for those who listen to my voice messages in my Telegram channel but I'm here to formally announce that I will be unpublishing the following stories on Wattpad:

The Adventures of You and Me

Three, Two, One

Baby Boo

Rereading my first novel, The Adventures of You and Me, I realized I needed to edit a lot of it because it was too messy. Excellence and competence are few of the things I value the most and I wanted those to be shown in the works I share to the world. Although this story has helped me grow in my writing journey, I know that I could give Felicity and Ethan a better story now. Therefore, I decided to unpublish it on the last day of 2nd quarter (June 30, 2023) for me to be able to revise it.

It is important for me to revise this before I continue several of my writing projects since at least two series stem from this story. I hope you understand. No worries though! For sure, they will be back in no time.

As for my two one-shot entries for the Wattpad writing contests, I really had fun writing these down. Despite not winning the contests, I cherish these stories and characters. Now that the contests are finished, I think it's time for me to keep them to myself.

No need to be sad about it though, especially for those who enjoyed Baby Boo so much. The main reason why I'm unpublishing the one-shot version is that I'll be writing the novel version of it soon. As of today, I'm still currently planning it but you'll meet Barry, Farah, and Bonnie again in the future.

GOOD NEWS: Upcoming Merch

Enough of the bad news already because I'm excited to announce this upcoming merch. Now, some of you know this by now but for those who had no idea about this, I'm finally announcing that the pre-order period of my very first merch will be open on June. Pre-order period will last from June until July, while the payment period is until July.

To keep updated about my merch, you may follow me on Twitter (nagsusulatAM) and join my Telegram channel for announcements. Big thanks to Zi Ann (artsbyannz_) and Tonie (maisundaes) for bringing Jeremy and Jenica to life through these artworks.

FICLET FRIDAYS S04 QUARTER 2

It is my joy to tell you that I successfully finished the first quarter of the year with constant updates every Monday and ficlets every Friday. It has been challenging to keep up with the schedule but I did it nonetheless. To be honest, the scheduled postings has been helpful in keeping my accounts alive despite not being able to write anything offline.

Now that fluff bingo has ended, I'll be sharing to you guys some of the fanfictions I've written. You may expect fanfics about shirlengtearjerky's works, 2 Good 2 Be True, lumierezi's All The Magics We Made, and a few Filipino films. These creative works have made a great impact in my life, making me want to write more about them.

Please note that these characters are not mine and I highly recommend to read or watch the original material for you to enjoy reading these ficlets. Thank you!

And if you reach the end of this newsletter, know that I'm grateful for you. Words can't express my gratitude to each of you who continues to read and appreciate my stories. May these bring life to yours as they did to mine.

nagsusulat, AM

#announcements #amstories #04012023 #newsletters

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lemonade-if · 2 years

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Update 3/21/22

I'm 1.5 hours too late to meet my original 3/20 date but...here I am, as promised!

The past week was quite literally the busiest week I've ever had in my life, involving three all-nighters to wrap up work projects. Luckily, I was able to celebrate a wonderful birthday with my best friends on Saturday (JJK0 was incredible), and I spent today visiting my new house with Haru, which I'm in the process of moving to. No overtime this weekend! Nanami would be proud.

Since I couldn't do much throughout the week, I've spent the last 3 hours working on Chapter 1 and added a little over 2k more words. Specifically, I was able to complete all the branches for MC's first scene with Yosuke (his name seems to be coming up often this week, sorry 😂). I'm quite happy with it! Different aspects of his character comes through with different MCs, and I liked showing that in this scene, as basic of an interaction it was.

I added some fun mini surprises if your MC's chosen surname is 'Mutou' (the very unpopular math teacher) or 'Suzuki' (Nakamura-sensei's crush and the PE teacher). Of course, if your surname is Nakamura, your teacher will acknowledge that as well.

I edited my master post and RO posts (linked relevant asks, updates, etc) and did light revisions of a few older answers.

Finally, I added additional non-binary characters. If your MC is non-binary, you will have at least one additional non-binary companion, regardless of which club you join :- ) And while sports teams are gendered (figuring out the best way to navigate this troubled me for a long time), non-binary MCs will play in a mixed-gender sports team that includes boys, girls, and non-binary characters. Female and male MCs will play in all-girls and all-boys teams.

After this post, I'm gonna try to knock out a few of the quicker asks before I head to bed. By the way, I really enjoyed learning people's opinions regarding spoilers, so thank you for sharing! I think going forward, I'll answer asks with a "spoiler version" and a "non-spoiler version" so people can take their pick of which they prefer to read. My only concern with this is that cuts don't seem to always work on mobile...

Anyways, thank you so much, as always, for all the thought-provoking questions, fun questions, and kind comments, as well as your patience with my speed in responding to them! (´ ω `♡)

Today's long sneak peak is related to last time's-- just that this time, I'm tacking on a little bit extra from each choice's follow up. It is Yosuke-centric since his scene was the one I worked on so I apologize for that, but I hope some of you will enjoy regardless ( ´ ▿ ` )

His gaze flickers down to your hand before returning to your face, questioning you impassively. You suddenly realize that you're still touching him.

*choice

#"Ah, I didn't mean to...my bad." You smile sheepishly.

As you pull away, you notice his burgundy eyes lingering upon your face. You blink at him curiously.

"…"

For a moment, it seems as if he might say something to you, but the girls smother him with questions again so he turns away to face them instead. This time, it's your turn to contemplate him.

[i]Takanashi, was it?[/i]

You furrow your brows, scrutinizing his side profile as you try to search the depths of your memories. Something about him is incredibly familiar…have you met him before? [i]I guess that'd explain why he was staring at me…but then again, I'd stare too if some random stranger touched me without warning.[/i]

You shake your head. It's no good; you've encountered way too many faces and names over the years to recall individuals with clarity. Besides, being TDH (Tall, Dark, and Handsome) is hardly unique. His lookalikes are all over the media…[i]must be a false memory.[/i]

#Remove your hand and give a silent nod of apology.

Burgundy eyes meet yours. You stare back coolly, waiting to see if he might speak. For a moment, it almost seems like he will, but he's interrupted before he can.

"Takanashi-kun, when's your next basketball game?"

"We'll come to watch you again!!" The gaggle of girls cut in again, smothering the boy with more questions. He gives you one last look before turning away to face the others. Your eyes linger upon him.

[i]Takanashi, huh.[/i]

You can't shake off the nagging feeling that something about him is incredibly familiar…have you met before? [i]Not impossible. He was about to say something before the girls cut in.[/i]

In any case, there's no point agonizing over something you can't remember. Being TDH (Tall, Dark, and Handsome) is hardly unique, and you've encountered way too many faces and names over the years. It's not unnatural for him to resemble someone you might've encountered before, whether in the media or in a classroom.

#"S-sorry, sorry!!" you yelp, leaping backwards.

He doesn't say anything, so you clap your hands together in an attempt to emphasize your sincerity.

"…" Still nothing, though you're starting to feel self-conscious about his close examination of your face. [i]Uh…maybe he's mad? Or is he trying to remember what I look like so he can beat my ass at school tomorrow? Is he that type of guy?[/i]

You don't get to find out. Before he can say anything, the girls smother him with questions once more so he turns away to face them instead. You give a sigh of relief.

[i]Seems like I'm safe…Takanashi, was it?[/i]

You idly observe him as he converses with the girls. [i]Ha…"converses".[/i] More like the girls are firing question after question on top of each other as he stands there, absorbing the barrage. [i]He must either be incredibly patient or incredibly used to this.[/i] Probably a mix of both.

#Snatch your hand back with a gasp, absolutely mortified.

Burgundy eyes seek yours, but you avoid his gaze and stare down at the ground immediately. You don't dare to look up again. Your hand that touched him feels like it burns as badly as your face, and there's a knot in your throat that's both dry and acrid.

"Takanashi-kun, when's your next basketball game?"

"We'll come to watch you again!!" The gaggle of girls unintentionally save you by cutting in again, smothering the boy with more questions. You seize the opportunity to scurry quickly to the back of the group, as far away from everyone as you can. You hope that you'll never run into this boy ever again, for the next three years of school. [i]That's impossible, but, just maybe…or maybe I'll have to transfer again…[/i]

It's not long until you hear the boy pardon himself from the group to leave. You can hear his footsteps approaching—he'd inevitably pass you on his way to the elevator— and you tense in anticipation, trying to shrink yourself into invisibility.

To your horror, his white sneakers pause in front of you. You don't know what he's doing or what he expects from you. You're still staring at the green linoleum floor, after all.

"Are you okay?"

[i]...huh?[/i]

#"☆~" Wiggle your brows jokingly as you assess him for a reaction.

He…doesn't react. You're disappointed but not surprised. [i]This guy doesn't exactly look like the type who'd be fun at parties…though it sure seems like people want him there anyways. Benefits of having a nice face in a shallow world…well, that applies to me too.[/i] Undeterred, you grin and offer your hand for a handshake instead.

"${surname} ${name}. Pleasure to meet your acquaintance." Very much aware of his burgundy eyes lingering upon your face, you decide to make another quip. "If you like what you see, I'm open to being more than acquaintances, too."

"I'll keep it in mind," the boy replies dryly, clearly meaning none of it. You chuckle. [i]Well, at least he's not thoroughly boring.[/i]

#"There's a bug!" you shout, pointing at his torso to emphasize your lie.

The boy's aloof burgundy eyes indicate neither belief nor disbelief (and definitely neither shock nor fear.) You decide to double down on your act— you're in it too deep to back out now. Leaning in, you yank apart his blazer like curtains and pretend to inspect his shirt. Some of the girls behind you gasp, scandalized. He remains still, watching you blankly.

"I swear there was a bug," you reiterate, pretending to look around very seriously. "It was right around here…darn. I guess it's gone now."

"Hey!! What do you think you're doing to Takanashi-kun!?"

"That's rude!!" The boy straightens out his blazer as you receive a barrage of scoldings from your female companions, all of them equally determined to clarify their disapproval to remain in good standings with their object of affection. You groan internally, standing back up. [i]This is so troublesome. Why did he pick such a bad timing to come out the door…[/i]

#"That's- it's [i]your[/i] fault for coming out the door so suddenly, idiot!" you yell with a red-faced scowl.

The boy doesn't say anything and merely watches you with aloof burgundy eyes. Maybe he's confused by why he's getting scolded for simply walking out of a door. [i]T-That's not the point![/i] You don't know how else to redirect your overwhelming sense of embarrassment, so you decide to continue reprimanding him.

"I don't have a clue why the rest of them think you're such a hot shot, but you're mistaken if you think I'm the same. J-just so we're crystal clear, I wasn't trying to touch you, didn't want to touch you, and never want to touch you. Got it?"

"Got it." For some reason, you didn't expect him to respond, so the fact that he did makes you feel even more embarrassed than before. [i]Is he patronizing me!?[/i]

#Glower at him. "You're in my way."

He doesn't seem affected by your intimidating tone. You take a step forward; from the side, you hear one of the girls squeak his name with nervous concern. He neither acknowledges them nor steps back from you.

"I said," you repeat menacingly, right in his face, "you're in my way."

Burgundy eyes remain steadily locked on your own.

"You're in mine, too."

Your fists clench automatically. Part of you is already imagining how it'd feel to punch him in the face; the feeling only intensifies when he proceeds to sidestep you wordlessly and leave.

#LemonadeIF #updates #dev blog

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concerningwolves · 3 years

Text

When Dealing With Wolves \ Project Info

What if Little Red Riding-Hood's mother had reached out to the wolves in the woods? What hidden truths would she have found out there in those cool, green depths, where the earth itself sings and the trees know your name?

WDWW is my debut novel, coming in late 2021. It's a very loose retelling of Little Red Riding-Hood in a high fantasy world and features an autistic lead character, polyamorous families, a magic system inspired by yarn & fibre crafts, and strong fairytale/mythological vibes. Oh, and talking wolves. If you're curious, the first two chapters are available to read free [here].

OVERVIEW

GENRE: Epic/High fantasy

SUBGENRES: Mythopoeia; thriller

TARGET AUDIENCE: Adult

STATUS: Final revisions; self-publication prep

SERIES?: Yes – Book one. [Book two is The Kindness of Ravens; info on that WIP is here]

KEY THEMES & TROPES: Redemption & personal growth \ trauma & recovery \ magic & witchcraft \ found family \ the importance of compassion and empathy \ emotion-based magic \ fairytales \ mythological worldbuilding \ mystery & intrigue \ character-driven plot

SYNOPSIS

Ys is a wild and restless place, ruled by the ancient magics that lurk there. At its southernmost tip is the town of Erdansten, surrounded by fear and crumbling walls; to the north is Deothwicc, the forest of the Wolvenkind, dark and ancient. Between them lies a land marked by the ghosts of a history nobody can remember, rich with secrets that could tear apart everything the Kinds think they know.

[full synopsis, character overview and other info below the cut]

Rostfar is supposed to protect the people of Erdansten from the wolves and magic, a duty she takes seriously – despite being the very thing that her people fear. For years she has kept a tenuous balance between her duty and her own magic, clinging on to her secret with everything she has. She knows that the line she walks is a perilous one, but she can’t escape this lie she has built now. Not if doing so would tear apart her world and put her family in danger.

When her lover’s estranged brother arrives in Erdansten, however, the delicate balance she has maintained all her life is thrown into turmoil. Things from beyond the walls start to close in, attacking her people, and increasingly it seems that her only hope lies far to the north. In Deothwicc. But Rostfar’s absence from Erdansten sends the careful structure of power crumbling down, and those she has left behind must fight to maintain order as the worlds of wolves and humans collide.

CHARACTERS

► MAIN CHARACTERS

Rostfar → human || 36 || Arketh's mother, lover to Isha and Mati || autistic with a special interest in folklore, mythology and history || white; red hair, freckles, blue eyes; short and stocky build; small scar on her upper lip || As the Dannaskeld of Erdansten, it is Rostfar's job to oversee the security and defence of the town. It is difficult to protect people from magic, however, when you are the very thing they fear.

Arketh → Human || 4 || darker, copper-toned skin, auburn hair, brown eyes; small for her age; likes colourful clothes || autistic || daughter of Mati, Isha and Rostfar || Bright, curious, optimistic and wise beyond her four years, Arketh is well-loved in Erdansten. While her mother fears the magic that hounds them both, Arketh loves it – even as night-terrors and sleepwalking episodes threaten to expose her to the world.

Grae → wolf || grey-brown coat and brown eyes || has PTSD and depression || yearling || One of the youngest of the Deothwicc pack, Grae has grown up under the shadow of his litter-brother's death. While all the wolves around him seem content to live and move on, he has struggled in silence with an anger that now threatens to consume both himself and everyone he loves.

Aethren → human(?) || 18 || nonbinary || trainee hunter under Rostfar || white; black hair, grey eyes; gangly build || For all their skill at hunting and tracking, Aethren has never felt good enough. Never felt right. They're always too prickly, too surly, too quick to take offence. Nothing makes sense right now, but they're certain this new power uncoiling in the back of their head is only going to make matters much, much worse

Yrsa → wolf || reddish coat, amber-brown eyes; small and slight compared to most of her kind || Although Yrsa agrees that wolvenkind must stick close together to survive, she cannot help but feel curious about the odd, two-legged beings beyond the marshes and mountains. Her packmates call her naive, but Yrsa is sure there is something they could learn from the humans – and she is only too eager to prove her theories right.

► SECONDARY CHARACTERS

WDWW has a large supporting cast, but some of the foremost secondary characters are —

Isha → human || 33 || One of Arketh's fathers, in a triad with Rostfar and Mati || Copper-brown skin, darker than Arketh's, and close-shorn hair, brown eyes; very short and lean; calloused hands || blacksmith || trying to grow beyond the ghosts of his past

Mati → human || 37 || Arketh's other father, in a triad with Rostfar and Isha || Long brown hair and beard, green eyes; extremely tall and bulky build || always slightly scared of his own strength, so he never does anything fast || solid as rock with a warm, compassionate heart

Marken → human || 40 || Rostfar's best friend, Aethren's father || foremost healer in the Isles of Ys; nobody is quite sure where he learned such revolutionary medicine || grave and closed-off, he is often accused of aloofness, although anyone treated by him can see the deep compassion behind his eyes.

Natta → human || 36 || Rostfar's twin sister and Dannhren (head of the council) of Erdansten || cool-headed, driven and ambitious, with a bad habit of forgetting to share her emotions with the people she cares about

Kristan → human || 15 || Natta's son || Apprentice healer || Born with one arm || Both gullible and headstrong, Kristan's fear of the dark and the mysteries beyond the walls of Erdansten may prove to be his undoing. And the undoing of the town.

Myr → wolf || father of the Deothwicc pack || world-weary but determined to find a better future for his pack

Estene → wolf || mother of the Deothwicc pack || scarred deeply by the deaths of her last litter, Estene now believes that the only hope for her pack is to trust a human. Unfortunately, she is yet to meet a human who could be worthy of such trust.

Thrigg → no longer human || 200-ish? (She can't remember) || Thrigg longs to rejoin the world outside of the magic-bound city of Hrafnholm, but her longing is kept in check by her fear of what she will find.

► ANTAGONISTS

Faela → human || 42 || Isha's estranged half-brother || arrives in Erdansten in the dead of night, with old wounds on his body and deeper wounds in his psyche. Guilt surrounds him like a shroud.

Ethy → human || mid-late 60s || retired hunter who now tends to the half-tame ravens in Erdansten. She wields her love for the town like a weapon.

Unwolf and Other → no longer wolves || ?? || strangers from another land, wreathed always in a malicious, living fog that covers their tracks.

OTHER INFORMATION

► MISC. INFO

As of writing this post (17.03.2021), I have one (1) chapter of copy-edits left to revise.

I hope to have a solid release date for the novel by the end of April.

It will be self-published, with both ebook and print versions available.

► TAG LISTS & TRACKING

Taglist members will be tagged in important milestones/updates, and in longer excerpts from the book. If you'd like to be added, please reply to this post or tell me that you'd like to be added on the reblog (or send an ask if the askbox is open). You can ask me to take you off at any time :)

To keep track of the project progress or learn more about it, check out the #When Dealing With Wolves tag

► SUPPORT ME

I have a Patreon for my writing, with £1 and £5 tiers. You can also support me on Ko-Fi, where I cross-post monthly Patreon stuff, either through one-off tips or monthly support.

#writeblr #when dealing with wolves #writers on tumblr #writers of tumblr #high fantasy

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floreleine · 3 years

Text

That GM prequel fic - part 3: Florence's POV

Part 1 (Madeleine, <1k, G)

Part 2 (Scarlet, 1k, G)

Ships: Floreleine & ScarletMay

Hiding the entire fic under the readmore this time for Part 1+2 spoiler reasons! This one's also rated G (or T if we're going for swear words and alcohol consumption I guess), a little over 1k words.

There will be at least 1 more part of this, and then I might post a revised and possibly longer version to ao3.

Bc idk where to put this in the fic itself yet, quick setting overview: they're not sitting around a table but instead Florence and Madeleine are sitting on a small couch, Scarlet is next to Madeleine on a wobbly kitchen chair and Anna May is sitting opposite them on a barstool at the kitchen aisle.

That night, the librarians plus Scarlet (and minus Baby, who is sleeping in the next room under a security camera that both Madeleine and Scarlet insist on checking every other minute) are sitting in the kitchen together for dinner and a drink.

Or five drinks in Anna May's case, as she downs the first one in one go and hasn't let go of the Whiskey bottle since. Florence can't blame her, really - if Madeleine had run off with some guy, no matter how early in their relationship, only to return a year later with tears and a baby... She has no idea what she'd be doing right now.

Madeleine and Scarlet are talking about the child right now, sharing child-caring advice - Florence is fairly certain that Madeleine has her knowledge from books and only from books, but she seems to have picked out sound advice from all that she has read at least - and Florence has to smile fondly at how Madeleine is glowing at the prospect of having a child in the library.

Scarlet is careful in her replies, not wanting to commit to anything, her eyes shifting back to Anna May whenever she doesn't think that the others are looking.

'She's afraid she'll kick her out after all,' Florence thinks with a quiet sigh. 'Can't blame her, Anna knows how to hold a grudge, and with how she is drinking right now... It isn't her friendliest appearance'.

Still, she thinks that they will work it out. They better. It's been a while since she has seen Anna May have an emotional reaction to just about anything, and it can't be healthy to keep it all locked inside, pushing all chances of happiness away.

Madeleine must have heard her sigh, and she leans back against Florence's side. Florence squeezes her arm, content to have her by her side, glad that they, at least, don't have to worry about their relationship status. Being with Madeleine always relaxes her, makes her feel like everything is alright in the world.

Madeleine presses a kiss to her chin and, after checking that both Scarlet and Anna May are looking down at their glasses, nods in the direction of the door. 'Should we give those two some privacy?'

Florence tilts her head for a moment to consider, then shakes her head, nodding at Anna May, and Madeleine winces a little. Yes, Anna is barely keeping it together now, who knows what she may say or rather shout if they left them alone... Anna May should get a chance to cool down, before she ends up saying something she doesn't mean and would regret.

As if on cue, Anna May throws back the rest of the Whiskey in her glass in one gulp and loudly brings it down on the kitchen counter as if to dispel the silence that has fallen.

"Fuck."

Madeleine looks like she wants to remind her about cursing with children in the house again, but Florence squeezes her arm to stop her. They don't need to irritate Anna May even more right now.

"I'm sorry," Scarlet says immediately. Florence doesn't think that she is apologizing for anything in particular, just for the situation in general, for present and past.

Anna May gets up and turns around, putting her glass in the sink and turning on the water, but then just leaning against it with her hands holding onto the metal edge and her knuckles turning white.

Florence is trying to decide whether to step in or not when Scarlet speaks up again in a shaky voice. "I can - I can leave, I don't have to -" she gets up, clearly ready to bolt, and Anna May flinches, but she doesn't turn back around.

"No-one's" leaving, Florence says at the same time as Madeleine says "No, don't be silly!" They share a smile, and then Madeleine squeezes her hand before getting up and walking over to Madeleine. "Come on, let me show you everything. You can sleep in the room with Samantha, me and Florence aren't really using it much anyway."

Florence watches them go with a soft smile. Madeleine always knows what to do, what to say. She's so grateful to have her.

Once the other two have left, Florence goes up to Anna May and slams the still-running tap down, making her jump.

"Stop wasting water and get a hold of yourself, Anna!"

Anna May whirls around, clearly ready to fight, but Florence just throws her a deadpan look and she deflates.

"Fuck, I don't know what to do." She slurs her words a little, but not as much as Florence would have expected after that much alcohol.

"Right now? You are going to drink some water so you will not be terribly hungover tomorrow. And tomorrow, you have got to think about whether you want that woman and her kid to stick around or not."

Anna May flinches a little, but when Florence sighs and pours her a glass of water, she takes it without protest and gulps most of it down in one go.

"I dun' want her to leave," she then murmurs, staring down at the glass in her hands. "She left me once, I don't want her to leave me again."

Florence sighs and pulls her into a hug. "Bloody hell, Anna, why did you never say anything? You must have been fucking heartbroken, and all you told us was that you gave dating one last chance."

Anna May half-laughs, half-sobs and clings to Florence like a lifeline. "Don't know. Didn't want to be weak. Didn't want it to be real."

"Oh, Anna," Florence sighs and squeezes her tightly. Then she takes a step back and fixes her with a hard look. "You've got to tell her that, you know that, Anna May? She is going to run away just to give you space while you are not talking to her because you're afraid she might run anyway."

Anna May sighs and grimaces a little, but nods. "I - tomorrow. I'll tell her tomorrow, before I can chicken out." she sighs. "I mean, it's not like I know whether she'd want to - whether she still-" she sighs. "She only left me because he didn't want to share, but maybe by now she's just over me."

Florence shrugs. "I can't look in her head, Anna, but from the way she looks at you... I think you guys will figure it out."

Anna May nods uncertainty, then frowns again. "And you'd be fine with it, if she's staying here... Indefinitely? I mean, she has a - kid -" she adds with a somewhat perplexed expression on her face, making Florence laugh. She's half of a mind to say 'congrats, you're a step-mom!' but stops herself at the last second. There will be time for that kind of joke when the peace between Anna May and that Scarlet isn't quite so fragile anymore. "Exactly," she instead replies. "So you know Madeleine will be mad at you forever if you let them get away."

Anna May snorts. "She did seem quite... taken by the kid."

Florence nods, frowning a little herself now. "She's always wanted kids, she just accepted that it isn't sensible in our line of work, and that I am not interested in them anyway. Seeing her with Samantha, now I'm wondering..."

"You did nothing wrong," Anna May reassures her. "And fuck, can you imagine having two kids around? It will be bad enough, trying to protect the one from everybody."

Florence sighs and nods. "I suppose. But I'm sure we'll manage. ...are you going to be alright now, or do I have to hide the Whiskey?"

"I'm not a drunk," Anna May replies a little offended, and Florence grins.

"I know you're not, but you sure made a great impression of one earlier!"

Anna May groans, and then she turns back to the counter to refill her waterglass. "Fuck, I'll be so dead tomorrow."

"Sleep in, then. Me 'n Madeleine will make sure Scarlet won't take off before you're awake and had your talk with her."

Anna May nods sharply. Florence smiles and squeezes her arm. "Well, get some sleep. I'll check on Scarlet and Madeleine."

Anna May nods again, and Florence sees her lean back against the counter with a deep sigh while she is leaving the kitchen. She really hopes that Anna May will take her advice to heart. Some heartbreak can't be avoided- but the one between her and Scarlet doesn't seem quite so inevitable.

Part 4

@phoenixhalliwell @thesevenwondersofawitch another update, hope you liked it!

If anyone else wants to be tagged for this series, lmk! Not tagging my usual GM tag list in every fic update as that would just be spammy.

Taking prompts!

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star-anise · 4 years

Text

An ask I got recently:

hi so i’m a transmed and i’m not sure if you’ll answer this because of that but i saw your post about transmedicalism and was wondering if you could expand on that? you seem like a genuinely kind and judgement-free person, thank you darling x

My response:

Heh, you call me “judgement-free” and ask for my opinion on a topic I’ve formed a lot of judgments about… I get it though, I’m not into attacking people for what they believe so much as providing FACTS. As a cis queer, my insight into transmedicalism isn’t really about the innate experience of trans-ness so much as using my education and professional experience to talk about social science research, diagnostic systems, and public health policy.

This ended up really long, so the tl;dr is, I think transmedicalism as I understand it:

Misunderstands why and how the DSM’s Gender Dysphoria diagnosis was written,

Treats the medical establishment with a level of trust and credibility it doesn’t deserve, at a time when LGBT+ people, especially trans people, need to be informed and vigilant critics of it, and

Approaches the problem of limited resources in an ass-backwards way that I think will end up hurting the trans community in the long run.

TW: Transphobia; homophobia; suicide; institutionalization; torture; electroshock therapy; child abuse; incidental mentions of pedophilia.

So first off I’m guessing you mean this post, about not trusting the medical establishment to tell you who you are? That’s what I’m trying to elaborate on here.

I have to admit, when you say “I’m a transmedicalist” that tells me very little about you, because on Tumblr the term seems to encompass a dizzying array of perspectives. Some transmedicalists believe in what seems to me the oldschool version of “The only TRUE trans people suffer agonizing dysphoria that can only be fixed with surgery and hormones, everyone else is an evil pretender stealing resources and can FUCK RIGHT OFF” and others are like, um… “I have total love and respect for nonbinary and nondysphoric trans people! I qualify for a DSM diagnosis of dysphoria but that doesn’t make me inherently better or more trans than anyone else.”

Which is very confusing to me because according to everything I’ve learned, the latter opinion is not transmedicalism. It’s just… a view of transness that acknowledges current diagnostic labels and scientific research. It’s what most people who support trans rights and do not identify as transmedicalists believe. But I kind of get the impression that Tumblr transmedicalism has expanded well past its original mandate, to the point that if a lot of “transmedicalists” saw the movement’s original positions they’d go “Whoa that’s way too strict and doesn’t help our community, I want nothing to do with it.”.

Okay so. Elaborating on the stuff I can comment on.

1. DSM what?

The American Psychiatric Association publishes a big thick book called The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, called the DSM for short. This is the “Bible of psychiatry”, North America’s definitive listing of mental disorders and conditions. It receives significant revision and updates roughly every 10-15 years; it was last updated in 2013, meaning it will likely get updated sometime between 2023 and 2028.

The DSM lists hundreds of “codes”, each of which indicates a specific kind of mental disorder. For example, 296.23 is “Major depressive disorder, Single episode, Severe,” and 300.02 is “Generalized anxiety disorder.” These codes have information on how common the condition is, how it’s diagnosed, and what kind of treatment is appropriate for it.

Diagnostic codes are the key to health professionals getting paid. If there isn’t a code for it, we can’t get paid for it, and therefore we have very few resources to treat it with. The people who actually pay for healthcare–usually insurance companies or government agencies–decide how much they will pay for each code item to be treated. They’ll pay for, say, three sessions of group therapy for mild depression (296.21), or they’ll pay for more expensive private therapy if it’s moderate (296.22); they’ll pay for the cheap kind of drug if you have severe depression (296.23), but to get the more expensive drug, you need to have depression with psychotic features (296.24).

Healthcare companies, especially in the USA where the system is very very broken and the DSM is written, are cheap bastards. If they can find an excuse not to fund some treatment, they’ll use it. “We think this person who lost their job and can’t get off the couch should pay this $1000 bill for therapy,” they’ll say. “After all, they were diagnosed as code 296.21, and then saw a private therapist for five sessions, when we only allow three sessions of group therapy, and you’re saying they haven’t had enough treatment yet?”

A lot of the advocacy work mental health professionals do is trying to get the big funding bodies to pay us adequately for the work we do. (This is a much easier process in countries with single-payer healthcare, where this negotiation only needs to be done with a single entity. In the USA, it needs to be done with every single health insurance company in existence, as well as the government, sometimes differently in every single state, and then again on a case-by-case basis as well.) Healthcare providers have to argue that three sessions of group therapy isn’t enough, that Medicaid needs to pay therapists more per hour than it costs those therapists to rent a room to practice in, or else therapists would lose money by seeing Medicaid clients. DSM codes exist a tiny bit to let us communicate with each other about the people we treat, and a huge amount to let us get paid. The fact that their existence lets people make sense of their own experiences and find a community with people who share common experiences and interests with them is a very minor side benefit the DSM’s authors really don’t keep in mind when they update and revise different diagnoses.

So when it comes to convincing insurance companies to pay for treatment, humanitarian reasons like “they’ll be very unhappy without it” tend not to work. The best argument we have for them paying for psychological treatment is that it’s economical: that if they don’t pay for it now, they’ll have to pay even more later. If they refuse to pay, let’s say, $2000 to treat mild depression when someone loses their job, and either refuse treatment or stick the person with the bill, then that person’s life might spiral out of control–they might, let’s say, run low on money, get evicted from their apartment, develop severe depression, attempt suicide, and end up in hospital needing to be medically resuscitated and then put in an inpatient psych ward for a month. The insurance company then faces the prospect of having to pay, let’s say, $100,000 for all that treatment. At which point somebody clever goes, “Huh, so it would have been cheaper to just… pay the original $2000 instead so they could bounce back, get a new job, and not need any of this treatment later.”

Trans healthcare can be kind of expensive, since it often involves counselling, years of hormone therapy, medical garments, and multiple surgeries. Health insurance companies hate paying for anything, and have traditionally wanted not to cover any of this. “This is ridiculous!” they said. “These are elective cosmetic treatments, it’s not like they’re dying of cancer, these people can pay the same rate for breast enhancements or testosterone injections as anyone else.”

So when the APA Task Force on Gender Identity Disorder (a task force comprised, as far as I can tell, entirely of cis people) sat down to plan for the 2013 update of the DSM, one of their biggest goals was: Treatment recommendations. Create a diagnosis which they could effectively use to advocate that insurance companies fund gender transition. Like when you go back and read the documents from their meetings in 2008 and 2011, their big thing is “create a diagnosis that can be used to form treatment recommendations.” So that’s what they did; in 2013 they made the GD diagnosis, and in 2014 the Affordable Care Act required insurers to provide treatment for it.

A lot of trans people weren’t happy with the DSM task force’s decisions, such as the choice to keep “Transvestic Fetishism,” which is basically the autogynephilia theory, and just rename it “Transvestic Disorder”. The creation of the Gender Dysphoria diagnosis, basically, was designed to force the preventive care argument. They didn’t think they could win on trans healthcare being a necessity because healthcare is a human right, so they went with: Trans people have a very high suicide rate, and one way to bring it down is to help them transition. One of the major predictors of suicidality is dysphoria. The more dysphoric someone is, the more likely they are to attempt suicide (source). Therefore, health insurers should fund treatment for gender dysphoria because it was cheaper than paying for emergency room admissions and inpatient psychiatric hospitalizations.

I have spoken to trans scientists about what research exists, and my understanding is: The dysphoria/no dysphoria split is not actually validated in the science. That is, when you research trans people, there is not some huge gaping difference between the experiences, or brains, of people With Dysphoria, and people Without Dysphoria. Mostly, scientists haven’t even thought it was an important distinction to study. The diagnosis wasn’t reflecting a strong theme in the research about trans experiences; that research showed that trans people with all levels of dysphoria were helped with medical transition. The biggest difference is just that dysphoria is a stronger risk factor for suicide. Experiencing transphobia is another strong risk factor, but that’s harder to measure in a doctor’s office, so dysphoria it was.

(I’ve seen some transmedicalists claim that dysphoria’s major feature is incongruence, not distress. And I’ll just say, uh… in psychology, “dysphoria” is the opposite of of “euphoria”, literally means “excessive pain”, and is used in many disorders to describe a deep-seated sense of distress and wrongness. As a mental health professional, I just can’t imagine most of my colleagues agreeing that something can be called “dysphoria” if the person doesn’t feel real distress about it. If you want a diagnosis that doesn’t demand dysphoria, you’d need Gender Incongruence in the upcoming version of the ICD-11, which is the primary diagnostic system used in Europe, published by the World Health Organization.)

2. Doctors are not magic

Medicine is a science, and science is a system of knowledge based on having an idea, testing it against reality, and revising that knowledge in light of what you learned. We’re learning and growing all the time.

I don’t know if this sounds painfully obvious or totally groundbreaking, but: Basically all medical research is done by people who don’t have the condition they’re writing about. Psychology has a strong historical bias against believing the personal testimonies of people with conditions that have been deemed mental disorders, so researchers who have experienced the disorder they’re writing about have often had to hide that fact, like Kay Redfield Jamison hiding that she had bipolar disorder until she became a world-renowned expert on it, or Marsha Linehan hiding that she had borderline personality disorder until she pioneered the treatment that could effectively cure it. Often, having a condition was seen as proof you couldn’t actually have a truthful and objective experience of it.

So what I’m trying to say is: The “gender dysphoria” diagnosis was written and debated, so far as I can tell, by entirely cis committee members. The vast majority of psychological and psychiatric research about LGBT+ people is written by cisgender heterosexual scientists. Most clinical and scientific writing has been outsider scientists looking at people they have enormous power over and making decisions about their basic existence with very little accountability.

And to show you how far we’ve come, I want to show you part of the DSM as it was from 1952 to 1973. It shows you just why so many older LGBT+ people find it deeply ironic that now the DSM is being held up as definitive of trans experience:

302 Sexual Deviation This category is for individuals whose sexual interests are directed primarily toward objects other than people of the opposite sex, toward sexual acts not usually associated with coitus, or towards coitus performed under bizarre circumstances as in necrophilia, pedophilia, sexual sadism, and fetishism. Even though many find their practices distasteful, they remain unable to substitute normal sexual behavior for them. This diagnosis is not appropriate for individuals who perform deviant sexual acts because normal sexual objects are not available to them.

302.0 Homosexuality 302.1 Fetishism 302.2 Pedophilia 302.2 Transvestitism […]

Yes, really. That is how psychiatry viewed us. At a time when research from other fields, like psychology and sociology, were showing that this view was completely unsupported by evidence, psychiatry thought LGBT+ people were fundamentally disordered, criminal, and incapable of prosocial behaviour.

My favourite retelling of the decades of activism it took LGBT+ people and allies to get the DSM to change is from a friend who did her master’s thesis on the topic, because she leaves in the clown suits and gay bars, which really shows how scientific and dignified the process was. The long story short is: It took over 20 years of lobbying by LGBT+ people who were sick and tired of being locked up in mental institutions and subjected to treatments like electroshock training, as well as by LGBT+ social scientists, clinicians, and psychiatrists, to get homosexuality declassified as a mental illness. And that was homosexuality; the push to change how trans people were listed in the DSM is very recent, as seen in the latest version listing “Transvestic Disorder”, a description very few trans people ever use for themselves.

Here are a few more examples of how people with a condition have had to take an active part in the science about them:

When HIV/AIDS appeared in the USA, the government didn’t care why drug addicts and gay people were dying mysteriously. Hospitals refused to treat people with this mysterious new disease. AIDS patients had to fight to get any funding put into what AIDS is, how it spreads, or how it could be treated; they also had to campaign to change the massive public prejudice against them, so they could be treated, housed, and allowed to live. Here’s an article on the activist tactics they used. If you want an intro to the fight (or at least, white peoples’ experience of it), you could look into the movies How to Survive a Plague, And the Band Played On, and The Normal Heart.

Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS) is a little-understood disease that causes debilitating exhaustion. It’s found twice as often in women as men. Doctors understand very little about what it is or why it happens, and patients with CFS are often written off a lazy hypochondriacs who just don’t want to try hard. There are basically no known treatments. In 2011, a British study said that an effective treatment for CFS was “graded exercise”, a program where people did slowly increasing levels of physical activity. This flew in the face of what people with CFS knew to be true: That their disease caused them to get much worse after they exercised. That for them, being forced to do ever-increasing exercise was basically tantamount to torture, so it was very concerning that health authorities and insurance companies began requiring that they undergo graded exercise treatment (and parents with children with CFS had to put their children through this treatment, or lose custody for “medical neglect”). So they investigated the study, found that it was seriously flawed, got many health authorities to reverse their position on graded exercise, and have made strides into pointing researchers to looking into biological causes of their illness.

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a rare but debilitating disease that isn’t researched much, because it affects such a small portion of the population. The ALS community realized that if they wanted better treatment, they would need to raise the money for research themselves. In 2014 they organized a viral “ice bucket challenge” to get people to donate to their cause, and raised $115 million, enough to make significant advances in understanding ALS and getting closer to a cure.

A common treatment for Autism is Applied Behaviour Analysis (ABA), which is designed to encourage “desired” behaviours and discourage “undesired” ones. The problem is, the treatment targets behaviour an Autistic person’s parents and teachers consider desirable or undesirable, without consideration that some “undesired” behaviours (like stimming) are fundamental and necessary to the wellbeing of Autistic people. Furthermore, the treatment involves punishing Autistic children for failure to behave as expected–in traditional ABA, by witholding rewards or praise until they stop, or in more extreme cases, by subjecting them to literal electric shocks to punish them. (In that last case, they’ve been ordered to stop using the shock devices by August 31, 2020. That only took YEARS.) Autistic people have had to campaign loud and long to say that different treatment strategies should be researched and used, especially on Autistic children.

So I mean… I get that the medical model can provide an element of validation and social acceptance. It can feel really good to have people in white coats back you up and say you’re the real deal. But if you get in touch with most LGBT+ and transgender groups, they’d say that there’s still a lot of work to be done when it comes to researching trans issues and getting scientific and governmental authorities to recognize your rights to social acceptance and medical treatment.

Within a few years, the definition you’re resting on will turn to sand beneath your feet. The Great DSM Machine will begin whirring into life pretty soon and considering what revisions it has to make. You’ll have an opportunity to make your voice heard and to push for real change. So… do you want to be part of that process of pushing trans rights forward, or do you just want to feel loss because they’re changing your strict definition of who’s valid and who’s not?

3. Scarcity is not a law of physics

One of the major arguments I see transmedicalists push is that there’s only a limited number of surgeries or hormone prescriptions available, so it’s not okay for a non-dysphoric person to “steal” the resources that another trans person might need more. This makes sense in a limited kind of way; it’s a good way to operate if, say, you’re sharing a pizza for lunch and deciding whether to give the last slice to someone who’s hungry and hasn’t eaten, or someone who’s already full.

When you start to back up and look at really big and complex systems–basically anything as big, or bigger, than a school board or a hospital or a municipal government–it’s not a helpful lens anymore. Because the most important thing about social institutions is that they can change. We can make them change. And the most important factor in how much the world changes is how many people demand that it change.

I’ve talked about this before when it comes to homeless shelters, and how the absolute worst thing they can have are empty beds. I used to work in women’s shelters, which came about when second-wave feminists started seriously looking at the problem of domestic violence in the 1960s and 70s, It was an issue male-dominated governments and healthcare systems hadn’t taken seriously before, but feminists started heck and did research and staged demonstrations and basically demanded that organizations that worked for the “public benefit” reduce the number of women being killed by their husbands. Their research showed that the leading cause of death in those cases were when women tried to leave and their partners tried to kill them, so the most obvious solution was to give them someplace safe to go where their partners couldn’t find them. Therefore the solution became: Women’s shelters. When feminists committed to founding and running these shelters, local governments could be talked into giving them money to keep them running.

(Men’s rights activists, the misogynist kind, like to whine about “why aren’t there men’s shelters?” and the very simple answer is: Because you didn’t fight for them, you teatowels. Whether a movement gets resources and funding is hugely a reflection of how many people have said, “This needs resources and funding! Look, I’m writing a cheque! Everyone, throw money at this!” In other news, The BC Society for Male Survivors of Sexual Abuse does great work. People should throw money at them.)

When the system in power knows there are resources it wants and doesn’t have, it finds a way to make them appear. For example, in Canada, the government knows that it doesn’t have enough trained professionals living in its far North, where the population is scarce and not very many people want to live. Doctors and teachers would prefer to live in the southern cities. But because it’s committed to Northern schools and hospitals, they create incentives. For example, the government offers to pay off the student loans of teachers or health professionals who agree to work for a few years in Northern communities.

Part of why trans healthcare resources are so scarce is that for a long time, trans people were considered too small a part of the population to care about. Like, “Trans people exist, but we won’t have to deal with them.” Older estimates said 0.4% of the population was trans, which meant a city of 100,000 people would have 400 trans people. A single family doctor can have 2000 or 3000 clients, so the city could have maybe 1 or 2 doctors who really “got” trans issues, and all the trans people would tell each other to only go see those doctors because all the rest were assholes. And the cracks in the system didn’t really seem serious. A couple hundred dissatisfied people not getting the healthcare they needed? Meh! Hospital administrators had more to worry about!

But the trans population is growing. A recent poll of Generation Z said 2.6% of middle schoolers in Minnesota were some kind of trans. which is 2,600 per 100,000. That’s enough to make hospitals think that maybe the next endocrinologist or OB/GYN they hire should have some training in treating trans people. That’s enough to make a health authority think that maybe the state should open up a new gender confirmation surgery clinic, since demand is rising so much.

Or well, I mean. Hospitals have a lot on their minds. This might not occur to them as their top priority. They’d probably think of it a lot sooner if a bunch of those trans people sent them letters or took out a billboard or showed up by the dozens at a public meeting to say, “Hello, there are a fuckload of us. Budget accordingly. We want to see your projected numbers for the next five years.”

When you’re doing that kind of work, suddenly it hurts your cause to limit your number of concerned parties. Sure, limited focus groups or steering committees can have limited membership, but when you put their ideas into action, to protest something or lobby for political change, you need numbers. If you want to show that you’re a big and important group that systems should definitely pay attention to, you don’t just need every trans or GNC or NB person who’s got free time to devote to your campaign, you also need every cis ally who can pad out numbers or lick envelopes or hand out water bottles or slip you insider information about the agenda at the next board meeting. You need bodies, time, and money, and you get them best by being inclusive about who’s in your party. Heck, if it would benefit your cause to team up with the local breast cancer group because trans women and cis women who have had mastectomies both have an interest in asking a hospital to have a doctor on staff who knows how to put a set of tits together, then there are strong reasons to do it.

Basically: All the time any marginalized group spends fighting over scraps is generally time we could spend demanding that the people handing out the food give us another plate. If you don’t think you’re getting enough, the best answer isn’t to knock it out of somebody’s hands, but to get together to say, “HEY! WE’RE NOT GETTING ENOUGH!”

That kind of work is complicated and difficult! It’s definitely much harder than yelling at someone on Tumblr for not being trans enough. But if you do any level of getting involved with activist groups that fight for real systemic change, whether that’s following your local Pride Centre on Twitter or throwing $5 at a trans advocacy group or writing your elected representative about the need for more trans health resources, you’re pushing forward lasting change that will help everyone.

#staranise original #transmedicalism tw #transphobia tw #homophobia tw #my problems with sj let me show you them

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r6shippingdelivery · 3 years

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headcannons for hobbies? Like what they do on their off time?

Hi nonnie! I actually did a Hobbies HC for “all” ops a long time ago. But seeing that was before the expanded bios, and it only reached up to Gridlock and Mozzie, I’d say it’s time for an updated version, don’t you say?

Some of the answers are unchanged from the old post, because I already nailed it or the new info didn’t disprove my ideas. But I had to revise a lot of the answers I gave the first time around! In order to find their hobbies and/or get a glimpse of their lives beyond Rainbow and what they might like, I read all the bios, and looked up concept art, and elites, and past battlepass content, etc. And when none of that was enough, I just went with my gut instinct 😂 Thank you to @grain-crain-drain, @dagoth-menthol & @todragonsart for bouncing ideas with me when I was stuck! 💕

Hobbies Headcanons for ALL ops (up to Neon Dawn)

FBI

- Ash: According to her savta, shooting things is not a hobby, but Ash disagrees. And since according to her expanded bio she knows Hebrew, Arabic, English, French and Greek, I’m willing to bet she enjoys learning languages as well. - Thermite: He grew up on a ranch and loves riding. He’s also taken an interest in improving gadgets it seems, so my old proposal that he dabbles in forging/smithing stuff seems plausible. And based on this concept art, demolition derbies attending and maybe even competing himself too? - Pulse: He’s interested in a variety of topics and goes through phases of intense, nearly obsessive focus, until something else captures his attention. He still has a lingering fondness for building muscle cars, since it was something he used to do with his father. And like Thermite and Hibana, it seems he might enjoy demolition derbies. - Castle: He’s a language nerd, studying/reading/practicing new languages is his hobby for sure. Since the expanded bio says he rescues abused dogs, I don’t think it would be far fetched he volunteered at animal shelters too.

SAS

- Thatcher: Aside from repairing his boat, The Iron Maggie, he also enjoys fishing. He used to do that with his dad & brothers, and tried to take the rest of the SAS fishing as a bonding experience. It didn’t go very well - Sledge: He plays rugby, and has an inexplicable fondness of trying the wildest ideas that tend to end with something broken, be it one of his bones or a structure or wall (just read his extended psychological profile and you’ll see, lmao) - Smoke: Boxing, it helps him focus all his chaotic energy. And chemistry in general, it’s not just a hobby but a passion of his. - Mute: he enjoys tinkering with stuff, taking it apart and then putting it back together in a different way, just to see if he can improve it or make it work in his own way. Flying drones plays perfectly into that, with the added bonus of being able to do the flying part just for fun too.

GIGN

- Montagne: His main passion is working with people, teaching and mentoring others, and therefore when he’s not on duty, his main passtime still is mingling with people and getting to know them. I could see him making overtures with Castle, interested in the American and fascinated by his knowledge of various languages, an area Monty feels insecure about due to only knowing French and English. - Twitch: Engineering, robotics and developing an empathic AI is her life.Twitch is a workaholic passionate about those topics. She also greatly enjoys traveling and, according to her expanded bio, people watching. - Doc: He surely had some hobby at one point, but he can’t remember it, or the last time he had free time for it. Doc is also a workaholic, although one that loves to complain about it. - Rook: Apparently he’s passionate about cycling, auto racing, and rock concerts. Mainly cycling though, since he dropped out of university to cycle around France.

Spetsnaz

- Tachanka: He collects and repairs old weapons. Mostly soviet, but he has some interesting pieces from other countries too. And he dances surprisingly well. - Kapkan: Aside from a certain interest in psychology, his main hobby is hunting, of course. But he also whittles and carves wooden figurines. - Glaz: Quite obviously, painting. He’s an artist, and quite a good one. He also likes playing cards, especially poker. - Fuze: He builds new weapon prototypes for fun. And tests them, if he can convince Six of it. He also likes to bake from time to time, a skill he learnt thanks to his grandma - and because he has a sweet tooth.

GSG9

- Jäger: Planes. Model planes, repairing old WWI & II planes, you name it. And watching copious amounts of documentaries. - Bandit: His bike is his main hobby, both taking care of it and riding it. He also likes playing pool; and, if pranking people counts as a hobby, that’s his oldest one, dating from when he was a kid. - Blitz: He was and still is an athlete at heart, and Blitz loves running. - IQ: In order to disconnect from engineering pursuits, she indulges in rock climbing, spelunking, and writing science fiction stories.

JTF2

- Buck: He crafts mechanical puzzles, and enjoys all kinds of physical activity that can take place outdoors. - Frost: She just loves being surrounded by nature, and often goes mountain climbing or diving.

SEAL

- Valkyrie: Swimming and diving, of course! She wanted to be a professional swimmer, but now it’s just a hobby. And apparently she enrolled for a helicopter pilot license, and language classes. - Blackbeard: According to the expanded bios, he likes sailing and even participated in a championship. And since he climbed Mount Everest, it’s safe to say he also likes mountain climbing.

BOPE

- Capitao: He loves football, playing or watching it, doesn’t matter, he’s all for it. - Caveira: Spends a lot of time practicing Jiu Jitsu, in the gym and also on unofficial tournaments.

SAT

- Hibana: For her it’s traditional Japanese archery (Kyūdō). And probably demolition derbies too accounting that concept art from before with Thermite and Pulse. - Echo: According to the expanded bio, he has few interests outside work, but I always imagined he’d be into gaming and e-sports. Hacking too, and that’s a direct influence from Dokkaebi.

GEO

- Jackal: He plays the acoustic guitar/spanish guitar, and sings too. And now we also know he volunteers with at-risk youth. - Mira: Fixing cars is second nature to her, and thanks to her expanded bio we know she also does metal sculptures that incorporate used mechanical parts.

SDU

- Ying: Extreme driving, which can sometimes trigger her PTSD, and traveling. Especially exploring cities by randomly jumping in public transport and just going anywhere. - Lesion: He is also one to volunteer in underprivileged areas (like Junk Bay, where he grew up), and clearing mines and other unexploded devices. I also imagine him with a certain gusto for playing blackjack.

GROM

- Zofia: If obsessing about her father’s supposed suicide and the oddities surrounding it, and desperately trying to reconnect with her sister count as hobbies, sure, she has those. - Ela: She’s also an artist, one with a very particular vision that some have called narcissistic. Apparently she also does some “freelance” volunteer work, roaming the streets at night and offering help/comfort, or a willing ear to the people she meets.

707SMB

- Vigil: He likes to take walks around the forest, just aimless exploring and marvelling at nature and any animals he might come across. Often listens to relaxing music while doing so, and he might pick a pretty rock here and there to bring home. - Dokkaebi: Hacking is her hobby, of course. She also has several social media profiles and is an active member in a couple of hacking forums. As per a previous battlepass, I believe she enjoys mountain trekking too. And dancing to electro beat, due to her elite.

CBRN

- Lion: His rebel years left him with an appreciation for rock music and a dream to be in a group. Lion still plays the electric guitar, when he’s not off volunteering at the local church. - Finka: Pushed by her parents from a young age to try different sports, just like her siblings, she eventually discovered a strong love for fencing and ice-skating.

GIS

- Maestro: Cooking, and boxing, an interest he shares with Smoke. But mostly cooking. - Alibi: She’s also a marksman, engages Ash in friendly shooting competitions.

GSUTR

- Clash: She’s very involved in different activist causes, mostly surrounding racial issues and inequality. - Maverick: Photography, mostly nature or candid shots of his fellow operators. I also think he likes horses and riding. And Buzkashi of course, but he hasn’t played since he left Kabul.

GIGR

- Kaid: Playing chess, he’s a good strategist and it shows. And while dozing off with a cat on his lap is not a hobby, he also loves that. - Nomad: Traveling to all sorts of remote locations, she’s an explorer with a thirst to prove herself. She also keeps a travel journal, which includes maps and some drawings of the places she’s seen.

SASR

- Mozzie: Dirt biking, of course. The more dangerous the jumps and stunts are, the more he likes it. He knows his limits and works to surpass them. - Gridlock: Robotics. She still wants to compete again in robot championships, just like she and Mozzie did so many years ago. She would consider that fixing cars and vehicles has become more part of her job than a hobby, but still loves it too.

Phantom Sight

- Nokk: Fencing, as evidenced by some of her concept art, she participated in fencing tournaments. - Warden: He knows appearances are important, and he cultivated a very specific image, so he likes to take care of that, be it by buying luxury or antique cars, or designer suits, etc.

Ember Rise

- Amaru: Archeology and exploring the Amazon jungle is her passion. It used to be her whole life and job, but since she joined Rainbow, she’s been busy with training and missions, yet she never lost her love for adventure, history and protecting her country’s cultural artifacts. - Goyo: He’s a really good chess player, and enjoys other games where he either has to think, or his usual poker face and calm demeanor can throw his opponents off.

Shifting Tides

- Kali: When she’s not writing reports about her underlings progress, or making lists about who should be ascended/rewarded, who needs to be punished or chastised, etc, she’ll be doing yoga, since it helps her focus. Or hardcore pilates when she needs to burn away some frustration first. - Wamai: Diving and being underwater in general, be it on his special immersion tanks or on the actual sea, it doesn’t matter. He finds it calming (and he’s addicted to the anoxia sensation)

Void Edge

- Iana: Space exploration fascinates her, and she’s always trying to learn everything she can about the cosmos, watching documentaries and conducting her own in-depth research. - Oryx: Wrestling helps him hone his physical prowess, and it’s also a measured outlet for his deep seated rage. He also greatly enjoys reading poetry.

Steel Wave

- Melusi: She’s committed to the conservation cause, which stems from both her love of wildlife and nature, and her protective instincts. She likes to explore too, although she’s not driven by a will to prove herself or reach certain goals, but simply for the joy of seeing natural spaces. - Ace: Social Media. He’s obsessed with his public image and popularity. While he travels quite a bit, it seems he does it more to share new and exciting selfies on Instagram than for the pleasure of visiting new places.

Shadow Legacy

- Zero: He knits and crochets, it’s an engaging hobby that helps him clear his mind, plus he enjoys making stuff too. Not many people know about this side of him though.

Neon Dawn

- Aruni: She and Hero, her giant pouched rat, volunteer on landmine detection and removal efforts. She also likes to travel extensively, and has done so in the company of Twitch and Nomad.

#rainbow 6 siege #r6s #rainbow six siege #rainbow 6 #headcanons #Anonymous

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wtheckzukasubs · 11 months

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Quick Updates

I haven’t been posting updates, have I?

I do love writing these posts though lol

- I’ve updated the subs for Caleb Hunt and Buenos Aires (the BD version), so if you haven’t watched them yet, make sure to have the latest. (I’m almost always too lazy for revising after posting, but I do try to do it sometimes lol)

- I’ve finished the subs for Outen no Mon (thank you a lot the two kind souls who shared their file and script!), but I do tend to take my time to do the final revision... you can just ask me the unrevised version if you can’t wait to watch it!

- We’re collabing with Hibiscus for the subs of Junjou from last year, we’ll be doing both Hozumi Mahiro’s and Ichinose Kouki’s versions.

- The plan is to work on Rain on Neptune, crossing fingers to get the closed caption but I might just do it by ear if that’s not possible

Life has been hard and I have no idea of anything anymore, so it’s been wonderful to just submerge in subbing. Thank you everyone for the material you’ve been sharing.

#quick updates

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amstories · 2 years

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Newsletter #8: July 2022

We're halfway to 2022 already. Looks like we've made it! Have a cake for yourself.

Grabe, ang daming nangyari ngayong taon! And that was just the first half of it. Last January, I posted my writing goals in our Discord server. This July, I would like to go back to it and see if I have any progress or what. My long-term goals that I set for this year were as follows:

improve my writing

write more stories

Join me as I find out if I have any progress this year!

COMPLETED WORKS as of July 2022

I started this year by publishing every single chapter I have written for my very first novella, 576 Hours With You. I finished publishing them all last January 21, 2022, including its special chapter. It's also my very first story that was related to my profession.

Last January 9, 2022, I also tried to join Wattpad Romance PH's writing contest, "Begin With The End." Given their prompt, I was able to craft Three, Two, One as my entry in the writing contest. Unfortunately, I didn't win but it was definitely a good writing exercise for me.

After that, I realized that all of the stories I will be publishing this year will be fluff. First time ko yatang hindi magpo-post ng angst stories this year. Brownout (Lights Off) is one of my old one-shots that I have rewritten. Admittingly, this revised version is a lot better than my first draft. I reposted this last February 13, 2022 to celebrate the love month.

Continuing the reposting of my old one-shots, OFF LIMITS was back last March 12, 2022. Among my old one-shots that I have rewritten, this might be my personal favorite because of the academic rivals to lovers trope.

Celebrating April Fools' Day on the 1st of April 2022, I have republished my one-shot collection about this particular holiday, April Fools' Day. My previous drafts had a lot of insensitive jokes and pranks so I really had to edit it.

During this mid-year, I decided to document the statistics of my stories as early as now so I could compare it to my statistics at the end of the year. Again, thank you so much for showing your support to me. I will forever be grateful for each one of you.

GOALS AND PROGRESS

So to answer my question earlier, have I really had any progress with my goals at the beginning of the year?

Have I improved my writing? I may have no concrete basis or criteria for this but I would like to think that I did improve my writing. Considering that I have revised a lot of my old writing, I think I have grown as a writer. I learned how to be sensitive about the things I'm writing.

Have I written more stories? Last year, I finished writing 5 stories. This year, I have published 5 stories as well. I cannot say I have achieved this already but we'll get there.

Trust me when I say it does not end here because I still have the next six months to tell more stories! For the next few months of 2022, if you are in my Telegram channel, you already know that I have plotted my schedule for the entire year already. This means that I already have prepared a lot of contents to share with you guys!

WHAT TO EXPECT

For the next six months of 2022, here are the things you must look forward to in AM Stories!

💉MedTech Love Stories Collaboration

This July, I will be posting my collaboration story with my fellow medtech students/writer, namely Gwayne (Queen_Wrecker), Jes (dyesiology), Day (daybiasca), and Jewel (guaninejwl). I will be posting updates everyday until the last chapter. I hope you check out my collaborators' stories as well.

Teaser will be out later at 7:00 PM. Watch out!

💗Backread: KISH

I know I have unpublished this story last year but I'm already bringing it back! YAAAY! For this story, I will be publishing 5 parts of it every Wednesday, which I would like to call Backread Wednesdays. The updates for this story will start on September 7. Abangan!

That will be all for today's video! Kung nakarating kayo rito, maraming salamat sa pagbabasa ng kadaldalan ko. See you in my next newsletter, I guess?

nagsusulat, AM

#announcements #amstories #07012022

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dettiot · 4 years

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Star Wars Fic Masterlist

I’ll be updating this as I write more Star Wars fic, since a galaxy far, far away has eaten my brain. :-)

Also feel free to visit me on AO3!

Anidala

Male Solidarity: Leia brings Han home.

Sick Day: Padme takes care of a sick Anakin.

Communication: Anakin discovers how extraordinary his children are.

You’re My Only Hope: Obi-Wan has to save Anakin.

Bathtime: Padme and Anakin, on their honeymoon, in a tub.

The Sleeping Senator: A Sleeping Beauty AU.

“How much does it hurt?”

It’s late at night on Coruscant.

Padme Amidala knew there was no reason to be scared of flying.

Don’t Freak Out: a gender-swapped Chuck AU

We Are Gathered Together: Padme’s thoughts during Leia’s wedding.

“My torso isn’t exactly a pillow you know.”

“I had an important appointment later but… you only live once. I can cancel.”

Happy Fifth Anniversary

Out of the Mouths of Babes

It’s very early in the morning.

grown more beautiful

Ceasefire

the festival of light

in the wee small hours of the morning

peut-être vu

“They’re just so small,” Anakin whispered, holding Luke and Leia in his arms.

Anidala in High School AU

of flower crowns and family

we’re having a heat wave

election night

love and politics the credit drops settling the matter shopping trip talking to the future brother-in-law

late-night interruption another late-night interruption a new late-night interruption

late-night interruption: an expanded and revised version of the ficlet. (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7) (8) (9) (10) (11)

a mama meltdown

hope in each other

Ahsoka walks in on Anakin and Padme kissing

cuddling

R2′s holofootage of Anakin and Padme’s wedding lets the tooka out of the bag

beauty and the beast

Han asks the Skywalkers for permission to marry Leia

the king and his bodyguards

nightmares about shaaks

Padme is kidnapped

Anakin doesn’t like that Padme got kidnapped

can’t you see?

For Want of a Lightsaber (1)

sleeping in

grocery shopping

Padme is a criminal--kinda

Unexpected Knowledge

The Skywalker Twins Run Wild

Space Disneyland

the meaning of safety

love and coffee, served hot

Anakin’s strange punishments

Padme is a librarian and Anakin is a library menace

Cutting Edge AU

Obitine

On the Run: A duchess and a Padawan. One: The first meeting. Two: A moment in the dark. Three: Almost close enough. Four: A breaking point. Five: A decision is made.

“I can’t love you.”

“Hi, I’ve been subtle at hinting that I want your attention all day and you haven’t noticed once and now I’m pissed.”

a bright sun

Opposing Counsel Case Law Statute of Limitations Amicus Curiae Cause of Action Precedent De Novo Discovery Moot Proof of Claim Habeas Corpus

Obi-Wan is not nearly as fluent in Mando’a as you’d think

watching the sunsrise

Of All the Spice Joints in the Galaxy . . .

Satine said the word

Changes The twins miss the parents they’ve never met

Space horses

Anidala & Obitine

better late than never

dinner with the family

double date

Now is the Month of Maying

Obi-Wan’s surprise Life Day party

Living Every Day

Luke/Mara

Snippet 1: From a fic that may or may not happen . . . a conversation between Han and Luke about Mara. Snippet 2: Luke talking to Mara and Karrde about his plan. From the same fic that may or may not happen.

“You’re the only one who gets to call me that, you know.”

Luke and Mara watches security drone footage of Anakin and Padme

Luke tells Padme that he and Mara are dating

telling the master

“Dad! Ben took my X-Wing model!”

an unwanted invitation

the extended family

Luke and Mara celebrate Beru’s third birthday

Gen

Luke Skywalker is six years old.

Mara meets Talon Karrde

“Get away from here.”

family bonding

graduation

a grief shared

battle brothers

Luke and the Tooka

mirror images

under the trees

birthday holo call

brunch with the in-laws

morning at Varykino

heads-up display

the twins prepare a surprise

the disaster lineage vs. the coolaster lineage

An Ahsoka and Anakin hug

heart-to-heart

Padme and Luke are sick Anakin is worried

Anakin visits Leia late at night, post-The Last Jedi

Padme & Ahsoka bonding

do droids dream of electric nerfs?

News of the Galaxy How our faves deal with the holopress.

One: Duchess Satine appears on Rotation. Pre-Clone Wars. Two: Senator Amidala participates in a debate about the Military Creation Act. Three: General Anakin Skywalker cooks on the Raché Ré Show.

Anidala Week 2020

the secrets of the heart: written for Day 2: Canon Divergence or Favorite Canon Work. After Padme helps present the Declaration of 2000′s petition to Palpatine, she is threatened with arrest and Anakin helps her flee Coruscant.

Tam Lin: written for Day 3: Fairy Tale or Mythology. Recently returned to Scotland, Padme meets a strange man in the wood.

Bench Trial: written for Day 4: Modern AU or Fusion/Alternate Fandom. Padme and Anakin meet within my Opposing Counsel Obitine lawyer AU.

love or a cough: written for Day 5: Favorite Quote or Song-Inspired. Padme thinks about her love for Anakin.

Anakin vs. the Feelings: written for Day 7: Free Day. More of my gender-swapped Chuck AU, this time from Anakin’s POV.

Days of Love: A collection of romance ficlets written and posted in February

jedis don’t do surprises (Luke/Mara, post-Thrawn duology)

it seemed like a good idea at the time (Anidala, The Mummy AU)

steeped with love (Obitine, year on the run)

there was only one bunk (Han/Leia, pre-Empire Strikes Back)

id’s nod a colb (Anidala)

the town on the prairie (Obitine, Anidala, historical AU)

double date (Luke/Mara, Han/Leia)

love washed clean (Anidala, mid-Revenge of the Sith)

the prince heir part 1 || part 2 (Luke/Mara, The Princess Bride AU)

early morning with leaders of the Rebellion (Anidala, Anakin doesn’t fall AU)

father sometimes knows best (Han/Leia)

a quarrel between friends (not lovers) (Obitine, set pre-Voyage of Temptation)

sons of old friends (Luke/Mara, Obitine)

a pet-friendly fencing salle (Anidala, Obitine)

ROTS Vader vs. ROTJ Vader (Anidala)

plans for the future (Anidala)

sometimes you don’t have to decide (Din/Luke, Luke/Mara)

love despite exhaustion (Han/Leia)

the fly on the wall (Obitine)

the red carpet (Anidala)

#anidala #obitine #luke/mara #star wars #fic list #my fic #padme amidala #anakin skywalker #obi-wan kenobi #satine kryze #luke skywalker #mara jade #leia organa #han solo #han/leia

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