#true blorbos are really rare for me

[lilianade-comics]

I was gonna do a Meet the Artist to kick off 2023, but I realized this says infinitely more about me than any cutesy doodle + likes/dislikes list ever could

#true blorbos are really rare for me #i've genuinely only had two since the age of sixteen and they're IDENTICALLY DRESSED MORALLY QUESTIONABLE ANIMATED OLD MEN. #2022 was truly a year of learning about myself (help) #they're not even alike outside of appearance?? Vlad is like the Anti-Stan. #or is Stan the Anti-Vlad?? #idk but Stan would win in a fight. #not even joking. i know Vlad has ghost powers but he wouldn't even have the chance to open his mouth before Stan decks him. #Stan doesnt even know anything about Vlad beyond the fact that he's a billionaire and that's more than enough reason to punch hin #Vlad would wake up in the woods and realize Stan stole his wallet. he deserves this and you know it #danny phantom #gravity falls #vlad masters #stan pines

[cuddlytogas]

So I accidentally almost got into an argument on Twitter, and now I'm thinking about bad historical costuming tropes. Specifically, Action Hero Leather Pants.

See, I was light-heartedly pointing out the inaccuracies of the costumes in Black Sails, and someone came out of the woodwork to defend the show. The misunderstanding was that they thought I was dismissing the show just for its costumes, which I wasn't - I was simply pointing out that it can't entirely care about material history (meaning specifically physical objects/culture) if it treats its clothes like that.

But this person was slightly offended on behalf of their show - especially, quote, "And from a fan of OFMD, no less!" Which got me thinking - it's true! I can abide a lot more historical costuming inaccuracy from Our Flag than I can Black Sails or Vikings. And I don't think it's just because one has my blorbos in it. But really, when it comes down to it...

What is the difference between this and this?

Here's the thing. Leather pants in period dramas isn't new. You've got your Vikings, Tudors, Outlander, Pirates of the Caribbean, Once Upon a Time, Will, The Musketeers, even Shakespeare in Love - they love to shove people in leather and call it a day. But where does this come from?

Obviously we have the modern connotations. Modern leather clothes developed in a few subcultures: cowboys drew on Native American clothing. (Allegedly. This is a little beyond my purview, I haven't seen any solid evidence, and it sounds like the kind of fact that people repeat a lot but is based on an assumption. I wouldn't know, though.) Leather was used in some WWI and II uniforms.

But the big boom came in the mid-C20th in motorcycle, punk/goth, and gay subcultures, all intertwined with each other and the above. Motorcyclists wear leather as practical protective gear, and it gets picked up by rock and punk artists as a symbol of counterculture, and transferred to movie designs. It gets wrapped up in gay and kink communities, with even more countercultural and taboo meanings. By the late C20th, leather has entered mainstream fashion, but it still carries those references to goths, punks, BDSM, and motorbike gangs, to James Dean, Marlon Brando, and Mick Jagger. This is whence we get our Spikes and Dave Listers in 1980s/90s media, bad boys and working-class punks.

And some of the above "historical" design choices clearly build on these meanings. William Shakespeare is dressed in a black leather doublet to evoke the swaggering bad boy artist heartthrob, probably down on his luck. So is Kit Marlowe.

But the associations get a little fuzzier after that. Hook, with his eyeliner and jewellery, sure. King Henry, yeah, I see it. It's hideously ahistorical, but sure. But what about Jamie and Will and Ragnar, in their browns and shabby, battle-ready chic? Well, here we get the other strain of Bad Period Drama Leather.

See, designers like to point to history, but it's just not true. Leather armour, especially in the western/European world, is very, very rare, and not just because it decays faster than metal. (Yes, even in ancient Greece/Rome, despite many articles claiming that as the start of the leather armour trend!) It simply wasn't used a lot, because it's frankly useless at defending the body compared to metal. Leather was used as a backing for some splint armour pieces, and for belts, sheathes, and buckles, but it simply wasn't worn like the costumes above. It's heavy, uncomfortable, and hard to repair - it's simply not practical for a garment when you have perfectly comfortable, insulating, and widely available linen, wool, and cotton!

As far as I can see, the real influence on leather in period dramas is fantasy. Fantasy media has proliferated the idea of leather armour as the lightweight choice for rangers, elves, and rogues, a natural, quiet, flexible material, less flashy or restrictive than metal. And it is cheaper for a costume department to make, and easier for an actor to wear on set. It's in Dungeons and Dragons and Lord of the Rings, King Arthur, Runescape, and World of Warcraft.

And I think this is how we get to characters like Ragnar and Vane. This idea of leather as practical gear and light armour, it's fantasy, but it has this lineage, behind which sits cowboy chaps and bomber/flight jackets. It's usually brown compared to the punk bad boy's black, less shiny, and more often piecemeal or decorated. In fact, there's a great distinction between the two Period Leather Modes within the same piece of media: Robin Hood (2006)! Compare the brooding, fascist-coded villain Guy of Gisborne with the shabby, bow-wielding, forest-dwelling Robin:

So, back to the original question: What's the difference between Charles Vane in Black Sails, and Edward Teach in Our Flag Means Death?

Simply put, it's intention. There is nothing intentional about Vane's leather in Black Sails. It's not the only leather in the show, and it only says what all shabby period leather says, relying on the same tropes as fantasy armour: he's a bad boy and a fighter in workaday leather, poor, flexible, and practical. None of these connotations are based in reality or history, and they've been done countless times before. It's boring design, neither historically accurate nor particularly creative, but much the same as all the other shabby chic fighters on our screens. He has a broad lineage in Lord of the Rings and Pirates of the Caribbean and such, but that's it.

In Our Flag, however, the lineage is much, much more intentional. Ed is a direct homage to Mad Max, the costuming in which is both practical (Max is an ex-cop and road warrior), and draws on punk and kink designs to evoke a counterculture gone mad to the point of social breakdown, exploiting the thrill of the taboo to frighten and titillate the audience.

In particular, Ed is styled after Max in the second movie, having lost his family, been badly injured, and watched the world turn into an apocalypse. He's a broken man, withdrawn, violent, and deliberately cutting himself off from others to avoid getting hurt again. The plot of Mad Max 2 is him learning to open up and help others, making himself vulnerable to more loss, but more human in the process.

This ties directly into the themes of Our Flag - it's a deliberate intertext. Ed's emotional journey is also one from isolation and pain to vulnerability, community, and love. Mad Max (intentionally and unintentionally) explores themes of masculinity, violence, and power, while Max has become simplified in the popular imagination as a stoic, badass action hero rather than the more complex character he is, struggling with loss and humanity. Similarly, Our Flag explores masculinity, both textually (Stede is trying to build a less abusive pirate culture) and metatextually (the show champions complex, banal, and tender masculinities, especially when we're used to only seeing pirates in either gritty action movies or childish comedies).

Our Flag also draws on the specific countercultures of motorcycles, rockers, and gay/BDSM culture in its design and themes. Naturally, in such a queer show, one can't help but make the connection between leather pirates and leather daddies, and the design certainly nods at this, with its vests and studs. I always think about this guy, with his flat cap so reminiscient of gay leather fashions.

More overtly, though, Blackbeard and his crew are styled as both violent gangsters and countercultural rockstars. They rove the seas like a bikie gang, free and violent, and are seen as icons, bad boys and celebrities. Other pirates revere Blackbeard and wish they could be on his crew, while civilians are awed by his reputation, desperate for juicy, gory details.

This isn't all of why I like the costuming in Our Flag Means Death (especially season 1). Stede's outfits are by no means accurate, but they're a lot more accurate than most pirate media, and they're bright and colourful, with accurate and delightful silks, lace, velvets, and brocades, and lovely, puffy skirts on his jackets. Many of the Revenge crew wear recognisable sailor's trousers, and practical but bright, varied gear that easily conveys personality and flair. There is a surprising dedication to little details, like changing Ed's trousers to fall-fronts for a historical feel, Izzy's puffy sleeves, the handmade fringe on Lucius's red jacket, or the increasing absurdity of navy uniform cuffs between Nigel and Chauncey.

A really big one is the fact that they don't shy away from historical footwear! In almost every example above, we see the period drama's obsession with putting men in skinny jeans and bucket-top boots, but not only does Stede wear his little red-heeled shoes with stockings, but most of his crew, and the ordinary people of Barbados, wear low boots or pumps, and even rough, masculine characters like Pete wear knee breeches and bright colours. It's inaccurate, but at least it's a new kind of inaccuracy, that builds much more on actual historical fashions, and eschews the shortcuts of other, grittier period dramas in favour of colour and personality.

But also. At least it fucking says something with its leather.

#everyone say 'thank you togas' for not including a long tangent about evil rimmer in red dwarf 5x05 #Our Flag Means Death #Togas does meta #and yes these principles DO fall apart slightly in s2 and i DON'T like those costumes as much #don't get me wrong they're fun and gorgeous - but generally a bit less deep and more inaccurate. so. :( #I'm not sure this really says anything new about Our Flag but I just needed to get my thoughts out #i hate hate hate Gritty Period Drama costumes they're so boring and so ugly and so wrong #god bless OFMD for using more than 3 muted colours and actually putting men in heels (and not as a shorthand for rich/foppish villainy) <3 #looking at that Tudors still is insane like they really will go to any lengths to not make men feel like they've got bare legs XD #image descriptions in alt text #and yes i DID just sink about two hours into those so you'd better appreciate them

[sincerely-sofie]

Submission by @oblonger:

A short Mortality Exchange Au fic in which Twig leaves, and Celebi tries to convince her to stay. Written by that weird guy who really likes these blorbos for some reason.

Twig is walking on a rarely used trail in the forest. Arms folded across her chest. Celebi is flying close behind, as she has been all night. "We can figure this out Twig!" Celebi pleaded. Ever since she found out about Twig's plan, she stayed up all night, past when Twig was sure they would all be asleep, with every intention to convince her to stay. "I already told you! I can't, and I won't!" Twig spat. She was hoping that by playing into her evil nature that she would finally convince Celebi to leave her alone. Twig picked up her pace, going down each splitting path that was thinner than the last. "I've already hurt you guys enough! I don't need to keep doing it because I can't control these stupid powers!" Celebi flew up past Twig's shoulder to look at her directly. Twig kept her eyes locked to the ground. "From one legend to another Twig, I can tell you right now that it's going to take time to figure it out but I know you can! You've done hard things before, you can do this too!" Tears were beginning to form in Twig's eyes. "You don't give people nightmares just by being around them Celebi! You don't know what it's like!" Celebi steeled her expression "But I still had to practice with my powers! It didn't come as naturally as you assume it did!" Twig began to cry. Her arms tightened around her chest. "But you didn't hurt anyone without wanting to!" Celebi looked exasperated. "Twig, I looked into the future, I know for a fact that you can control your powers! all you have to do is trust me!" Trust her. A memory came flooding back.

(Twig found Kip writhing in pain as he slept. Another nightmare. Why was this happening? Darkrai was dead. This shouldn't be happening! Twig began to shake Kip. That worked before... Nothing. Tears silently began to run down Kip's cheeks. "No! Please!" Kip muttered. Twig shook him harder. Pleading for him to wake up. Calling out his name. The possibility that he would be in this nightmare forever crossed her mind. Twig began to cry. She began to beg for his awakening. "Please wake up!" Twig cried out. As though her plea was answered, Kip shot awake. Gasping for air. Twig gave him space to recuperate. Once Kip had finished, she pulled him into a hug. "Th-that nightmare was awful Twig. I-I thought I was dying." "I-I thought you wouldn't wake up." Kip and her cried on each other's shoulders. In that moment it all made sense. She knew why this was happening. This was her fault. This is happening to her friends as her punishment for killing Darkrai. This would keep happening to her friends if she stayed. She vowed then and there to leave that night, So this would never happen again.)

How could she trust Celebi if she couldn't even trust herself to not hurt them? She would never be able forgive herself if she let someone trust her again. It was too much for Twig to handle. Her tail flame was increasing in size. Tears of sorrow and terror and wrath were streaming down her face. Twig stopped walking and swung around face Celebi. "YOU'RE LYING!!!" Twig thundered with a force and volume previously unknown to her. No doubt a side effect of becoming a legend. The nearby branches shook as though blown by the wind, the sounds of the midnight forest went dead silent, and Celebi flew back a couple feet, with a look of abject horror across her face. "I Can't trust you Celebi!!" Twig yelled, the words felt vile. Like a deadly poison that kills everything it touches. She looked down at the ground. No longer able to look her friend in the eye. "You know what to say to get me to come back even though it's not true!" Twig gasped for air. It felt like she was being buried alive in sand. "I'm never coming back! And you better hope to Arceus it stays that way!" Twig hyperventilated for a some seconds before gathering the courage to finally look back up at Celebi. She hovered there. Speechless. She had an expression of pure heartache and fear,. Tears were rolling down her face. Twig regretted everything. She wanted to apologize. She wanted to take back all of her lies. She wanted to admit that Celebi was right, and that everything she said was true. She wanted to agree with her and go back home. With her friends. But those memories of seeing her friends in pain flashed in her mind. It was a miasma that haunted her. They suffered because of her, And they would continue suffering if she stayed. This is the only option. Twig wordlessly turned and began to run into the forest as fast as her legs could carry her. She couldn't stay here. Not anymore. Celebi's choked up voice projected into her mind "I know you don't mean it." Somehow, that hurt worse than any insult she could have ever said.

Twig didn't slow down. She didn't know how long she ran for. She continued running until her legs gave out from exhaustion. Twig sat up and wiped the tears from her eyes so she could see clearly. The sky was beginning to become brighter, she's in an unfamiliar part of the forest with no trail, And Celebi is nowhere to be found. Twig dragged herself under the nearest tree, curled up, and began weeping. She felt colder than usual.

—————

#submissions from cool peeps #mortality exchange au #the present is a gift fanart #(kinda) #stuff by sofie #(I’m adding this tag purely for the meme I included— #—the pain in this post is 100% from Oblonger and his 999k IQ brain) #pokemon mystery dungeon #pmd sky #pmd explorers #pmd eos #pmd #pmd2 #pokémon mystery dungeon #pmd celebi

[ash-and-starlight]

Ciao Ash I’ve been following your work super closely for a few years and I now feel like I can ask you this, especially since you seem to be so kind with everyone and always explain yourself so well!

I work in illustration and I’ve been drawing for 10 years. For the kind of illustration I do, I rarely have to draw characters. I can draw people, in a very detailed manner too (portraits and studies and such) but when it comes to incorporating characters in my illustration style, I just can’t seem to get it right. Especially with characters who don’t exist so if I want to do fanart, I always have to do it in a way that is not very coherent to my illustration style. Which is unfortunate since I’m in a lot of fandoms and would really like to make fanart I like.

I rely on references a lot, so if I have to draw someone who exists in my style, I struggle and study and put a lot of work and time in but then I’m mostly able to. But characters from fiction? Absolutely not. I especially struggle with consistency: the character always looks different every time I draw them, no matter how many notes on their physiognomy I make…the fact that’s not a real person I can copy the features of on paper really hinders my practice. I also struggle with immediacy and synthesis: since they never look the same I always end up over - characterizing them and that is the opposite of how I illustrate.

How were you able to maintain such a consistent and stable look to these characters? Is there something I don’t know of or that I haven’t been doing and that I should? You really inspire me and I admire your work SO much! It’s remarkable how you built such a recognizable look.

Ti prego aiutami sto diventando pazzo in culo se non risolvo questa cosa voglio disegnare i miei blorbi !!!!

All the love,

Elio

Ciaooo aaa ty for the nice wordsss :’))

and ok i will try to answer as best as i can bc i’m not a professional in the slightest and also i basically have the diametrically opposite problem as you 😭 90% of my art is blorbo oriented i’m a blorbo artist first human being second. but it’s not like i have the charisma uniqueness nerve and talent to stray much from that.

ANYWAY that being said i’m sorry to give you the Very Hated answer of “u just gotta practice” but i think that’s true! i think drawing characters outside of studies (which are always nice and good etc) might not be something you’re used to, and u just need to stretch your drawing muscles a bit in that direction too!! style and consistency are something that develop organically, so i’m sure that if you keep trying you’ll look at your art one day and be like “oh shit this works!”

Usually when i draw characters i’ve never drawn before i make little studies/portraits to figure out how to draw them (evidence 1/2/3/4) which i think could be a pretty low stake way for you to practice? like maybe you can start off with one referenced portrait and then try to draw the same face from other angles but without looking at that reference and just try to figure out what are the important features that make that face recognizable? Expression sheets are another way u could do this, and then you’d have a nice self made reference board for next time.

or you could start smaller and draw different shapes of eyes/noses/mouths etc to get the hang of it, and once you’re satisfied start building your character with the features you’ve drawn

lastly i cannot stress this enough draw that blorbo NOW!! get fucking obsessed with that freak!!! let them fuel you with the brainrotting blazing passion of 28473 suns and you’ll manage to draw a hundred beautiful faces without even noticing

spero che tu riesca a cavar fuori qualcosa di utile da questo sfaso 😭 in ogni caso sono sicura che riuscirai a disegnare i tuoi blorbini devi solo smadonnare un po’ quando necessario e andare avanti 💕

grazie mille ancoraaaa mwah

#GOOD LUCK WITH YOUR ART ENDEAVORS I HOPE U CAN FIND SOMETHING USEFUL IN THIS!! #ash replies

[wen-kexing-apologist]

Hello. For violence, number 12 & 13 please. Have a wonderful day! Rose💜

Hello Rose! Thank you for choosing violence today.

12. The unpopular character that you actually like and why more people should like them

Dynamite Chuchok. 

(I love you baby boy, don't you worry)

I do not understand why so many people hated that boy. I love me a happy!sad, and that boy was one of them. I loved how vibrant and open he was about his sexuality, with how vocal he was about his feelings for Fire, that boy is so so brave. He has suffered a lot, he has lost so much, and he refuses to live his life inauthentically. He knows when to push, when to back off, he knows where the boundaries are, where to take space, make space, give space, and he understands exactly why Fire is scared to come out to his Mom. I mean, Dynamite (and Prem) jeopardizes his friendship with Unky in order to keep his relationship with Fire secret and experiences the consequences of Unky being mad that Dynamite didn’t out Fire. 

It is very rare that I feel compelled to write posts about characters in order to defend them, but that is exactly what I was doing when I wrote this Dynamite body language post.

Also, because this is the Choose Violence Ask Game. I will throw out a hot take:

if Mark Pakin had played Dynamite and the character had been exactly the same, we would not have seen the level of hate for Dynamite we saw for Aungpao's Dynamite. So.

Other characters I love with my whole being but that seem to have some contentious relationships to fandom are: Sailom from Wedding Plan, Patts from La Pluie, and Teh from I Told Sunset About You and I Promised You The Moon.

13. Worst blorboficiation

First Kanaphan. 

Not a character I know, but it has to be said. 

I love that man, but holy shit we need to stop baby-girl-ifying him. And when I say ‘we’ here I don’t just mean BL fans. I mean GMMTB themselves. First is an incredible actor, but the writers and directors always end up babygirl-ifying his characters by the end of their shows. Let! That! Man! Act! 

He can cry so well, it’s true. I understand the desire to let him cry on camera. I understand that his face and those stupid big brown baby cow eyes make it really really easy for him to become blorbo-able but dear GOD I am BEGGING someone to LET THAT MAN HAVE A CONSISTENT CHARACTER. I love Akk, I love him, but the way they handled his character makes him mushy, Sand started out really sarcastic with a kind of take no bullshit attitude and then became this simp, Yok was a phenomenal little slut who FUCKED A FUCKING COP and then cried when the cop (surprise surprise) betrayed him. 

As a point of comparison, the first show I saw Khaotung in was The Eclipse, so you could color me surprised when he showed up all tiny and timid and kind in A Tale of 1000 Stars. Because Ayan was kinda an asshole the entire show. He had a very specific personality that was sustained throughout the show. First did not have the same luxury.

Make Me Choose Violence

#choose violence ask game #cooking crush #cooking crush the series #aungpao ochiris #first kanaphan

[docholligay]

Doc how do you feel about a Harry Potter-inspired YA book that really...wait! Where are you going?

I think the real bullshit tragedy of Harry Potter is: I truly and actually can really, really love magic shit. Magic, and the limits of it, and learning how to master it, these are all things that I can genuinely love. Part of the reason that I am so angry about my own personal True Blood, Shadow and Bone*, is that I LOVE the magic system as she is set up, I love the IDEA behind it, I love that the underpinnings of how they have set it against the Not!Europe at the edge of Not!WW1 is DRIPPING WITH POSSIBILITY.

But so much of this magical school/magic user/fantasy world shit is caught up in God's Specialist Boy Chosen One narratives, which are not interesting to me, an old woman who sees the world won and lost on the back of groups and teamwork. I am no longer fantasizing about being the Chosen One, I am fantasizing about a group of talented people who can communicate and compromise JUST well enough to keep the world going, because that is a fucking adult fantasy world, let me tell you.

It's that and it's Thing One and Thing Two falling in love and that's the central piece and there is no amount of QUILTBAG or racial or cultural identities you could put on Thing One and Thing Two that would make that compelling for me. Have you noticed in my writing there's very few meet-cute, how they got together stuff? It's not just that interesting to me. I like love! Romantic and platonic both! But what matters to me are what those relationships mean to us, and what they make us do, and how they move us in tension with our other ideals. I would much rather open with Fareeha Amari, married, somehow, though she has a clear stick up her sculpted ass, and over time, we see what it is Angela sees in her, what she saw in her when they DID meet, what there IS under all of it, but all of that is SO much more fun when I already know that she has brought the same level of intensity and devotion that she does for everything from military maneuvers to a trip to the grocery store.

But I LOVE magic, especially in less-magic contexts. So for example, I really, for a time, loved the Dresden Files before it really sharply fell off even as pulp. I would ADORE a grown up magical girl story that was really an urban fantasy type. I want Minako to be 23 and trying to make rent. Part of why Shadow and Bone (GOD I AM SO FUCKING MAD ABOUT THIS I BLAME YOU JEWLET) got to me is I loved that the magic users aren't an accepted part of life, that what they do is odd and awed. I have inserted my blorbos into it, of course I have. But yes, i love when the magic is grounded in the BOREDOM of a 'real' world instead of Lorde Filip DuKazmeri of the Throne of Blood and Tears riding in from Happenstance-upon-Milquetoast on his dragon with a Slintergast** at his hip.

ANYWAY, all this to say that when Harry fucking goddamn potter came around, so much magic that is based in 'reality' became patterned after that, and I'm just, so tired of reading it, and I'm so tired of the geegaws and easy morality because fantasy wants rto either be straight Up YA or teehee adult fiction that's mostly a cover for being YA gaymance, and so fantasy and I essentially broke up in like....2009? I want to say? Maybe 2010? Sometime around there, and I rarely drive past its house to see what's going on anymore, the well is fully poisoned now.

*the really bad Netflix television show that is also not good and I recommend to no one. I will not read the books, i have suffered enough.

**sword but like, real cool looking.

#goddamnit this is the only ask i got done #y'all I am not gonna lie this new schedule is brutal for me #I am struggling.

[lifesver]

GET TO KNOW THE MUN !

what made you pick up the muse you have ? : my friend typecasted my muse type when the victims concept art was announced. just immediately pointed out the horror jock like yep. that'll be the one u like. and then i played the tcsm beta back in may me and rae started wildly theorycrafting.... and well my demons have been winning since. i love a jock who is kind of fail but trying his best like you got me there.

is there anything you really enjoy writing ? : i'm a creep i'm a weirdo i love exploring horror and the many themes that can coexist in it. ig i like to kind of examine trauma and the healing process through the lens of the slasher genre, as well as where horror and love coincide as themes. i think there is underrepresentation in just....... letting slasher final kids have some kind of healing arc, or letting their story continue in general? seeing them before and after the things that happen to them? and i can't always do it but i do also like to kind of dive down into slasher horror and light gore and just practicing writing dynamic action scenes and what a character's thought process is like during those kinds of moments. i love an opportunity to be mean to my blorbo

is there anything you don't like to write ? : probably just anything needlessly like... melodramatic between characters? i have no interest in plots like genuine jealousy and love triangles and interpersonal shit like that, mostly because i write horror and there are so many more interesting things to focus on imo? and because not enough slasher content casts seem like they actually care about each other lmaooo. is this a callout post about gun.'s take on the friend group? perhaps.

how do you come up with your headcanons ? : dude i just receive the prophecies and act like im on twitter tossing my every stupid thought into the void.

do you write in silence or listen to music ? : tbh i usually write either in silence or in a deranged third way (writing between games of overwatch) my adhd sometimes demands that i am doing several things at the same time and sometimes i can sit down at the coffee shop put on some instrumentals and just slam some replies in

do you plan your replies or wing them ? : hmmm a bit of both? i usually have to start by winging it, which usually involves me dropping in whatever reaction dialogue immediately comes to me. kind of work around that, save and close the draft, and then think about the reply a bit until i eventually know where i'm going with it LOL

do you enjoy shipping ? : i do with friends! i'm not actually a huge like... ships person in a general fandom sense and i rarely feel any particular way until something is compelling to me in fanon, but i can ship most things if it's with a writing partner i like! simply ask rae we will be creating ships 0 people are thinking about shout out leland/connie tcsm tommy/jenny f13 and jake/adam dbd. i also usually go hard on the slowburn, and that's just like, personal comfort for getting to know my muse and my writing partner's muse, but also just think slowburn rules

what's your alias / name ? : kels.

zodiac sign ? : pisces sun, gemini moon, aries rising.

Birthday? : march 20th!

favorite color ? : a sort of pastel pink-lilac

favorite song ? : feel that it must be go your own way / fleetwood mac

last movie you watched ? : oh jesus i fear it was hellraiser: revelations

last show you watched ? : icr if it was an episode of goosebumps or true detective tbh

last song you listened to ? : putting the dog to sleep by the antlers....

favorite food ? : veggie burritos probably. or honestly like. just a really good bagel cream cheese LMFAO

favorite season ? : spring (:

do you have a tumblr best friend ? : rae and i have been in and out of these trenches for years i fear

TAGGED BY : @solarisgod thank u!!! mwah mwah <3

TAGGING : all my fellas

#:3c #readmore'd bc it's kinda long

[jonathansknife]

More Mina!

I assume you mean more headcanons, in which case here you go! Ty for the ask!!!

Link to previous headcanons

She is around 21-22 years old during the events of the book (a baby :(.)

She feeds stray animals whenever she can.

She's a bit of a jealous person, but feels her jealousy is illogical and tries never to act on it. When Lucy got engaged to Arthur, despite how happy she was for them both, she got a bit sad and thought Lucy might tire of her once she was a married woman. She tried to hide her jealousy but it wasn't very hard for Lucy to suss out. Lucy had to gently remind her that she was already engaged to Jonathan. Mina was just like, “Yeah but that's Jonathan, he's one of us, he doesn't count.”

She, Jonathan and Lucy have all known each other their entire lives. As children they would all talk about getting married and Mina had a running joke of proposing to them both. But before she and Jonathan started courting in earnest, she secretly hoped he would marry Lucy because she couldn't imagine a lovelier couple.

She was very easily scared as a child but grew to love horror. Similarly, she cried often as a child but rarely does as an adult.

Elaborating on her OCD: she mainly has moral/scrupulosity obsessions but also has occasional episodes of distrusting her food, during which she sometimes spends several minutes inspecting each piece. This is especially the case after Dracula (not being able to taste or smell anything but rot doesn't help). Sometimes she worries that her food is contaminated with blood. For this reason, she prefers to make her own food.

Since she likes both fibercrafts and papercrafts, she really enjoys bookbinding. She also finds the process of gathering up a stack of information and binding it together satisfying on a conceptual level. She's probably made at least one fully bound copy of Dracula.

She likes rhythmic counting. She uses it as a calming technique.

She has relatively short hair (about shoulder length) because it was once cut off for purported health purposes (in the Victorian era this was a common treatment for brain fever among other things). She likes having it short.

She has creaky joints.

She enjoys really cursed food combinations that disturb the people around her. Again, especially true post Drac. I'm thinking instant ramen with chocolate syrup levels of cursed.

As a child she wanted to be a priest or an undertaker when she grew up.

Don't give her your pens and pencils if you don't like germs because they will end up in her mouth if she isn't paying attention.

Her hands are very sensitive after Dracula. She used to like when Jonathan squeezed her hands but after what happened she prefers to gently hold his hand or wrist. She often wears gloves.

She occasionally writes poetry. She especially likes sonnets.

She is not genuinely superstitious, but she, Lucy and Jonathan like to cycle through superstitions together to sort of test them out. They spend too much time in cemeteries to hold their breath the whole time, but they often hold it as they enter and leave so as not to spread the cemetery air. For a while they carried pigeon feathers because they were thought to hold off death. (This was generally thought to be a negative thing, prolonging the suffering of the dying, but they thought maybe they could “hack” the superstition and use it to their advantage.)

That's all I've got for now. If you wanted a different question answered regarding Mina (or any character), let me know! My askbox is always open and I love talking about my beloved blorbo <3

Send me character asks!

#tysm for the ask aaaa I love answering qs about Mina!!! #pls send more asks or tell me about your own hcs in my askbox #mina murray #mina harker #dracula #re: dracula #dracula daily

[eqt-95]

20 Questions More

A deeper and more detailed version of the 20 questions for AO3 fanfic writers. Thanks @fabulousglitch for the tag!!

1) How do you keep getting ideas for your ship/fandom?

The blorbos won't leave me alone.

2) Which authors inspire you in your fandom, and why are they so freakishly good?

There are too many to count. I was introduced to Supergirl through fanfic and the canon I know to be true has been built on the backs of hundreds of contributors. It wouldn't do anyone justice if I started a list because 1. it would become a monolith of names and 2. I would definitely miss one(s). If you're in this fandom, you've likely inspired me, and that counts both for written, gif-ed, and drawn works.

3) Aside from the characters of your main ship, who are the characters you love to write?

Alex, but I don't always get it right.

4) Are there pairings or tropes you know for sure you'd never write about? Which ones?

There is a lot I probably wouldn't do, but I also for sure never expected to write an F1 au, so...

5) What is your writing process and why is it cursed?

I can either sit down and crush 1-3k words or sit down and tweak the same seven sentences for two hours. There is rarely an in between.

6) What is your favorite part of your writing process?

Editing. Oh boy do I LOVE editing. Those opportunities for finessing and fine-tuning and tweaking are *mwah*

7) What’s the weirdest thing you’ve had to research for a fic?

This isn't weird but is more recent: I did a deep dive into star constellations for a throwaway line in 'new kind of romance'

8) Is there a particular writing rule you struggle with (grammar, spelling, tense, reality in general)?

This is a nonanswer, but I would love to expand my vocabulary. The thesaurus is my writing buddy, but there are very real moments where I pout and scowl and glare at the ceiling because I can't think of the word that I'm feeling.

9) What was your hardest scene to write so far and why?

Any sort of conflict/confession/confrontation is always really hard for me, but they're also maybe my favorite things to write. I want the characters to hash things out and be honest and vulnerable, and I think tackling big emotions is a delicate balance. I never want to sound too forceful, but I don't want to leave things unsaid, but I don't want anyone to do anything out of character, but i don't want to yadda yadda...

10) Have your characters ever done something you didn’t expect, changing your plot completely?

see: 'crisis of indulgence'

11) If you could converse with any of the characters, who would it be and why?

Lena; I think she'd be a lot of fun to debate/argue with (respectfully).

12) What are some of the tropes or themes that you find yourself returning to in your writing?

(so far) always a happy ending. the readers and these characters deserve it.

13) What's your most important resource as a writer?

Living experiences (which takes time!). I don't think I could write heartbreak without having experienced that guttural feeling of loss in the same way I don't think I could write about failure or anger or insecurity or love or laughter. I think reading and the act of writing every day are incredibly resourceful, but the act of my lived experiences and those feelings is something I draw from in everything I write.

14) Can you share some of your strategies for editing and revising your work?

I edit as I go which doesn't work for everyone; however, a super fun thing I've picked up in recent works is this: when going to do a final edit of a <insert: chapter, one-shot, etc>, I read the last few paragraphs first. That sets me up to know exactly what the chapter is aiming for: feelings, motivations, plot, etc. I then use that as the anchor for how I tweak/edit/add small details to the rest of the chapter during my final read-through. I find it helps flesh out the larger story with smaller details.

15) Which is worse: making the summary, picking the tags, or the anxiety when you post your fic?

none of the above really since nothing about posting is carved in stone. tags and summaries can always be tweaked.

16) How do you define success for your fanfic - hits? Kudos? Comments? Bookmarks? Or just if you like it?

If it's finished. Bonus points if people get something out of it, but the act of having written something feels like the biggest success.

17) Do you have a playlist for your favorite character/ship?

Not really. I have go-to soundtracks for 'writing vibes' but nothing project/ship dedicated. (though 'like we're made of glass' was definitely inspired by very specific songs)

18) If fan art was going to be made from your work, which fic would you pick and which fan artist would you like to create it?

Again there are too many jaw-droppingly talented artists in this fandom to choose just one. It would of course be a wild crazy honor to see a work inspired by one of my fics, but there's already so much in this fandom to be inspired by that it doesn't feel like a loss.

19) How many WIPs do you currently have?

*sighs* for supercorp? there are a few (five). but the one that has most of my creative down time is a supercorp wicked au i have wanted to write for years but only have the faintest wisps of an outline for.

20) What's your advice to new fanfic writers?

Do it, do it, do it!

But also, one of my favorite pieces of advice for ANY creative venture is from Marc Dalessio who made this super cool 'creative process' graph in 2010 and included this line to summarize it: The ability to see improves before technical skill, and we often have difficulty assessing honestly exactly how our work looks.

It helps during those ruts when I look at everything I've recently written/drawn/created and scrunch up my nose in snobbish disgust because it just means I'm growing in some new way and not that anything I'm doing is inherently bad.

- - - - -

tagging (respectfully and without pressure) @sideguitars @fazedlight @inkedroplets if you want some rapid-fire q's thrown your way. but also anyone who wants to take a swing, i'd be jazzed to read the different answers

#figured i'd fill this buddy out since i've got post-new romances time on my hands #fabulousglitch #ask game? #qs with quinn #ask me things!

[misery-has-no-company-now]

Speaking of torturing blorbos, do have any spare angsty NY and/or Loui hc’s :3

(It’s fine if not-)

Why yes, of course I do! 

So I’ve already said that England was a bitch to New York, right? Well, so were the Netherlands. Good old Holland gave Yorkie his abandonment issues by sending him off to England when he didn’t want to “bear the burden of another overseas territory” (his words not mine, kill him not me <3) so decided to leave him with England. The Netherlands is also responsible for his daddy issues thanks to having given up New York to the English in exchange for the Island of Run in eastern Indonesia because he thought it’ll be “worth more” than New York was (true story, the Dutch gave up NY in return for an island where nutmeg could grow - because that was very rare back then apparently) which made New York think that even his father didn’t want him and would willingly give him away the moment he found a good opportunity to do so. The Netherlands is kind of like those parents who decide to have another child because they clearly don't like the one(s) they have right now.

And what does this leave Yorkie with? Why a bunch of issues, of course? *Slaps him with daddy issues + abandonment issues + attachment issues* He often used to feel very upset over the fact that his dad left him, or rather threw him away; and until he had children of his own (I headcannon the cities as either the children or the siblings of the states) and Father’s Day became a different thing and busier for him, he used to cry over the fact that he didn’t have a father since his didn’t want to keep him around and would sooner give him off to someone looking for more child soldiers to have in his army (Englanddd)

Thanks to all this he’s also always extremely scared that if he “messes up” again, then the people who he loves and cares for won’t like him anymore - and he thinks that they will then realise that he’s too much trouble for him so leave him just like the Netherlands did, or worse, hurt him like England did. He also can’t stand a loved one being mad at him for any reason at all, so this makes him a people-pleaser at times (but only to the ones he loves of course, because you know - the Northeast).

And you know how people have flight or freeze responses? Well, firstly I think he’d be a strong freeze in danger type of person; but depending on what the ‘danger’ is I also guess that he’d be the type to fawn - like you know, if the presumed ‘danger’ is something like a loved one being angry at him; in which case he just tries to appease them and often goes over the top in trying to make them happy again, even if they weren’t that mad in the first place. 

And now, for Loui. Oh Loui. Pauvre ti bête, sha. So while it is true that he does see spirits a lot, he is sometimes unable to see if he is imagining/hallucinating them or if they’re actually real, so he’ll hurt himself in some way to try and see which it is. He uses pain to ground himself, kind of like an unhealthy coping mechanism. Often he takes this to extremes and this results in a lot of bleeding wounds, some which cut deep. Trimming his fingernails and keeping him away from sharp objects and all doesn’t really help because sometimes when he gets too emotional, his magic works on its own and hurts him resulting in injuries he cannot heal properly. 

He also feels guilty very easily, even for things which are not necessarily his fault (like if his people did something terrible that he had no say in, he’d still feel like he was to blame for it because it was his people doing it in the first place) despite all the time he spends playing pranks with Florida. Sometimes he picks on these old wounds of his as a ‘reminder’ to himself of what happens when he does something wrong, or just to punish himself without adding further injuries that could hurt other people. 

*slams him with alcoholism as a coping mechanism* (and once again, it’s unhealthy, of course)

He often feels bad about using his magic, especially since Mass and Maine don’t anymore because of the Witch Trials that happened. He saw Mass get persecuted in one of those (and take the brunt of his accidental use of magic in public) once and he lost most of the joy he used to feel in performing magic. He beats himself up over Mass having gotten hurt because of him too, though both Mass and Maine tell him that it’s not his fault. 

Papa France is an ass and both Maine and Maine are geographically far away, though they do often meet with each other, so he sometimes feels a bit lonely and misses talking to someone older in his family who can give him advice and all that when he needs it. But he hangs out with a lot of people so he doesn’t feel this way that much these days. However, earlier when he barely talked to anyone else, he was rather lonely. 

And this one is courtesy of France too. Loue sometimes also feels terrible for, as France claims, “butchering the French language” with his Cajun French, and these taunts of France make it hard for him to be as proud of his culture as he should be - but his friends and family are helping him work on that.

So um...I've got a lot more of these, but that's all for now because I think I should stop here. Let me know if you want more.

#Btw I'm so so sorry for this long wait. #I'm just getting around to answering all the asks I have in my inbox now #welcome to the table #wttt #wttt louisiana #wttt new york #wttt england #wttt france

[phaerlax]

you as the WolfBoyGuy and me as someone who has just recently seen the puppy light, do you have any tips or what you'd consider Required Reading to get a good grip on writing wolf boys? moreso karu than garu just because i personally have a hard time writing dudes with as much bluster and "doesn't tend to default to conventionally agreed on niceties". i have (admittedly mild) torments I'd like to put him through >_>

Anon is asking me about blorbo... I have been training for this for so long... behold now the ramblings of a man possessed by two wolves. I'll talk a bit about how I approach writing Karu and then include some curated recs.

It took me some time to really get going on wolfboy fics; I also found it challenging to handle Karu's characterization. Two big reasons why:

Tsunderes are just difficult to do if you're grounded in realism. It's a very 'anime' archetype and people don't behave quite like that. This makes it harder to naturally reach for reasonable/appropriate responses when putting the character in situations. The big want/think/say/do splits can also complicate straightforward scenarios (e.g. the character wants something and does what he needs to do in order to get it. This path is often closed to the tsundere).

The game gives little insight into Karu's inner world. NU: Carnival is very dialogue-heavy in its narrative. When we do get introspection, it's often Eiden-focused. This means we basically never get to see the thought process that leads Karu to act this way or that, except in the rare instances in which he talks to himself (like in some H scenes when he goes "ugh it feels so good but-").

The style that I ended up developing for my angry wolf boy writings follows these principles:

Keep him silly. This is because I fundamentally see Karu as a comical character. Yeah, his personality can be traced back to traumas and there's a lot of interesting stuff to explore in that regard, but I am not personally interested in that tbh. The reason I love him is the wacky nonsense and ridiculous behavior that we see in the game. It was at first sight for me. I didn't need depth and I still don't XD Any advice and references I provide are skewed by that. I have a preference for almost never taking him seriously.

Mind his 'narrativization' tendencies. Karu is comically very enamored by the idea/narrative that he's a mighty warrior with many great skills who will conquer humanity and who should be respected and served. On some level, he knows this isn't entirely true, so he will sometimes (try to) avoid situations that would bring attention to his shortcomings. But most often he's trying to prove himself and get others to share his narrative. When something or someone reinforces the narrative, he gets proud, pleased or happy-flustered. When something or someone goes against the narrative, he gets annoyed and angry-flustered. He is very good at ignoring reality, however. Even though he'll seemingly take exception to every little slight, he moves on very quickly and pretends nothing happened. And though he's stubborn, he's also willing to surrender, cut his losses and 'try another day' when he's foiled.

Mix his narrativization with the narration a lot. This kind of free indirect discourse is just my style in general, but with Karu I find myself using it more intensely, to such an extent that the narration can get quite dialogue-like in how it expresses his thoughts. When I want to portray a 'tsundere stumble' moment, I sometimes make the narration interrupt itself as Karu consciously aborts a line of thinking that would lead him to unacceptable conclusions.

Let him just be rude for no reason and with little consequence. Karu's default way of addressing and dealing with people (other than Kuya) is rudeness. At best, he attempts some form of condescension in which the reason he's doing something 'nice' is because you're so weak and he's so awesome or whatever. Most characters seem to simply not mind his behavior and, again, it's usually played for laughs anyway.

Bibliography of Karu Studies

Keep in mind that many Karu fics are kuyaru, and Karu in kuyaru is quite different from the core of the character, since he's uniquely eager to please Kuya. Still, even kuyarus can have some nice insight.

who let the dogs out has a lot of juicy Karu inner conflict, and it even explores the ways in which such hangups make him outwardly grumpier. Due to kuyaru, it ultimately leads him to a place of submission, but his initial thoughts are very in-character.

Baser Instincts is a kuyaru in which Kuya gets to see the pups in a new light, because they help him in a difficult situation. It's another great source of inspiration for Karu struggling to express his feelings.

Bow Down! explores how he might react to Eiden letting him top, in a very true-to-character way.

Lonely at the Top is Karu/Dante, which means you get to see Karu at his prickliest and most insufferable, and how that can be managed.

A Matter of Pride is a good example of the 'concessions' dynamic that can be done in Eiden/Karu.

Goshujin-Ai is an older Karu/Yakumo and a good example of Karu feeling comfortable and doing the 'attempts at condescension' thing I mentioned before.

Slave number one, rub my chest again is me speculating on what it might look like for Karu to ask Eiden to do things to him and try to control sex.

Warden slander wolf Commander is probably a good example of the 'fine I give up but I'll get you next time' potential of Karu, as well as the kind of bleed-heavy narration I talked about.

Master, do you have another wolf besides me?! delves into Karu's potential for jealousy as a way of expressing affection. It's pretty canon-compliant because most of it is adapted from NEON Carnival.

There are many other fics in the Karufic Archive, but I think the ones above are among the best for the purposes of thinking about the writing.

Please feel free to talk to me non-anonymously if you ever want to discuss wolf boy content! As you can see I am cursed with thoughts and need places to put them. I'm also always very happy to do anything that I can to shepherd and sponsor GaruKaru content; if you go ahead with your impulse to write about them (please do) and want a beta reader, don't hesitate to ask~

#nu carnival #nu carnival fanfic #nu carnival karu

[dalishthunder]

nanders bby I hate to be the one who tells u this, but most of us don't follow u because ur normal about fucking robots lmaooo (aka never apologize for experiencing earnest joy over a blorbo 😁)

Hahahahahaha true enough! I shall give you all a taste of what I am working on:

“Didn’t your mother ever teach you about how, uh, if- if you don’t have anything nice to say then you shouldn’t say anything at all?”

In hindsight, perhaps that moment had been the beginning of his downfall.

Your voice had wobbled. Fear.

But still, you had run to stand between him and the human, arms outstretched as though to protect him. “Don’t come any closer or I’ll… I’ll….”

“You’ll what?” The other human had sneered, still advancing.

You looked around, and he half expected you to run after being called out. But instead you reached into your bag and pulled something out, “Pepper Spray Attack!”

Spritzing the bottle right into his would-be assailants eyes, you then proceeded to knee them in the groin. They doubled over, coughing and groaning.

“Son of a bitch!”

“Yeah! You are! Get outta here!” You sprayed more pepper spray after them, and they ran, cursing all the way.

However, it seemed as though you had not taken into account the wind direction, because as you turned to face him, tears streamed from your reddened, swollen eyes.

“Are you alright?” You’d asked as though you weren’t the one with liquid streaming from your orifices. “They didn’t hurt you, right?”

It was almost… touching.

…. Almost.

“D-do you need me to get you to a-”

He interrupted your fumbling, “No, I am… fine.”

“Okay good, I heard them hollering, and I ran as fast as I could, but I saw them throw that bottle and I wasn’t sure if um… if you’d been hurt.” You winced and gave an awkward laugh, rubbing at your eyes with a sleeve. “Shit this hurts…. Sorry, I miscalculated when I sprayed. I’d offer to buy you a cup of coffee as like… recompense for all the shit you had to deal with tonight, but something tells me that wouldn’t work out as well as I had hoped.”

It was a breath before he spoke.

“I appreciate your intentions, it is rare to find a helpful human.”

Your face fell. “Oh, sorry…. Do you need me to walk you home or to wherever you’re going?”

“That shouldn’t be necessary.”

“O-oh, right. Well, um,” You wiped at your eyes again before holding out your hand and saying your name.

He stared at your hand for a moment, before shaking it, “You may call me Ramattra.”

You smiled, lips parting over your teeth, “Ramattra…. That’s a really beautiful name.”

No… perhaps that had been the moment that began his downfall.

“Thank you. Yours is pleasant as well.”

Your smile widened, “Thanks.”

“Perhaps,” He murmured, “Accompaniment to the subway would not be unwelcome.”

After all, who would believe the Shepard of Null Sector would be caught walking with a human. It was utilitarian… nothing more.

You wiped at your eyes again with a curse, “Then consider yourself accompanied!”

He placed a hand on your shoulder to guide you with your weeping eyes.

Mercy for the merciful.

You inquired about his day, whether he was from the town or just visiting, it was… refreshing and uncommon to speak with a human who treated him like someone with a soul; Someone worth knowing. He was under no illusion that just because one human practiced kindness, albeit clumsily, that that nullified the atrocities humanity continued to commit.

But as you dutifully waited with him for the train, and bid him farewell when he boarded it, part of him couldn’t help but feel… cautiously optimistic that one day a future of peace would be possible.

Brother Zenyatta would have liked you.

It did not change his resolve.

#odt #thunderous applesauce #dalish mail #ramattra

[umilily]

Since I can't draw for shit, I sadly can't make one of those yearly lookbacks, but there's something else I'd like to put out there as a sort of year-in-review (and to celebrate a little):

Once more – true to my brand – I managed to time things so spectacularly that I’m proud (?) to say that today is actually my one-year anniversary of posting fic. To be fair, I doubt that this will become an international holiday like any other minor ones going on atm, but nevertheless I just wanted to take a moment to write down some thoughts on that (because ah, yes, of course, more rambling from me), even if it’s just for myself to look back on both an occasionally very unusual, weird year.

No pressure to read or digest any of this, I think the only thing I really want to say to anyone who’s bothered reading this far (both this post and the things posted over the last year) is a huge thanks. If you had told me last December that a decision made while under the heavy influence of Ibuprofen and caffeine to combat one of the nastiest colds I ever had, would snowball into a year filled with kind words from strangers and new friends, I would have probably written you off as a fever dream. Oddly enough, it wasn’t, so somehow now I’m here writing this post that already feels too pompous, but that I can’t help wanting to type out regardless.

My own corner of the vast internet unexpectedly became a lot more populated than I’ve ever known it to be. Which feels hilariously ironic when I think about that at the same time, living abroad essentially nuked my social life with friends and family many hours away. But even if I still am very much reclusive – a rare encounter I suppose – and have only talked to very few people who hang around here, I’m still so very grateful for all the kind words from everyone found for me and my writing. Thank you all for keeping me company through me essentially just going “fuck it we ball” continuously.

The last year had some stretches that have been exhausting and rough and I think sticking with something self-indulgent and light-hearted kept me from going nuts at times. I’m not the type to make new years resolutions and when last year I told people that mine was “Doing things poorly”, it likely was the most confusing one they heard so far. For me personally, it was the best one out there, so I will be renewing that and (as proudly as possible) continue to do things poorly in 2024 as well. If people stick around for a laugh or two, I will take it as the highest praise and compliment.

On a more personal front, there is a good chance that I will start working full-time within the next year, so I also just wanted to take this chance for a little heads-up. If I end up disappearing for longer than what you’re used to from me being chronically online, it’s probably because I managed to fool people into hiring me and sadly not because I finally made the smart decision to become a hermit in the woods or retire to the seaside. (Or well, I might end up reacting the exact opposite. Because when have I ever made responsible, adult decisions regarding how to spend my free time? Who needs sleep when you can contemplate the enigmatic, inner machinations of your blorbo’s mind on the topic of coffee or Ikea furniture?) I will do my very best to be as consistent as possible, because even if I do get busy, writing has been something that brought me much more joy than I could have anticipated, and I would like to keep that going.

With that, I think I’m finally done and all that’s left for me to do is saying thanks again and wishing you all a relaxing holiday season and a good start into the new year! <3

#lily talks #pls don't mind me being sappy for a bit #i'll be back to my scheduled silly posting asap

[forerussake]

Twenty questions for fic writers

I was tagged by the wonderful @elenothar! Thankssss❤️

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

45

2. What's your total AO3 word count?

456.761

3. What fandoms do you write for?

I've written for a bunch of fandoms over the years. Currently I'm most active in Guardian and adjacent fandoms, but I think I could and would still write for pretty much everything I've written for in the past. So the full list would be Guardian, the Silmarillion, QZGS, MDZS/CQL, YYM, the Rebel, DMBJ, and some RPF :D

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

Counting the promises as yet unbroken (165)

A ballad of burning lungs and bated breath (125)

A hand within a hand (holding light) (120)

Kaleidoscope (114)

Crowded full of parting's feeling (99)

5. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

I try to always respond to comments, bc i myself really like it when an author responds to my comments, so I would be a hypocrite not to do it myself. But also I kind of enjoy that interaction. Especially if ppl have commented on specific lines or on the themes. Sometimes commenters have insights about my fics that even I didn't have myself while writing, and I like to let them know their thoughts were appreciated :)

6. What is a fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

Well, I am an angst writer, but I often try to make the endings of my fics at least a bit hopeful :/// I think the angstiest ending to a finished fic would have to go to either Crowded full of parting's feeling, which ends with LXC being (for the first time in his life) truly and utterly alone. Kind of a bummer. Or perhaps the easy part, which ends with ZYL crying himself to sleep on the kitchen floor.

7. What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

As I said, I try to make my endings hopeful, if not truly happy, but there are a few true happy endings to my fics! I think my RPF pieces tend to be the happiest bc I am slightly less likely to put these guys through the wringer the way I do with my truly fictional blorbos. I think the happiest however is homecoming, which ends with WJX finally coming out as trans and being her best and truest self.

8. Do you get hate on fics?

Not yet??? Hopefully it stays that way! I do write RPF though, so I'm very ready for one of the crazy antis to one day drop into my inbox calling me all sorts of nasty things for *looks at writing scribbled on hand* having the audacity to put characters in fictional situations that don't hurt the real ppl that inspired these characters in any way??? yeah :PPP

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

Occasionally, when the muse strikes! But my ace brain finds it quite difficult. My mind tends to trail off and scatter all over the place when I get to the actual smut, and I have a hard time reeling it back in. As a result my smutty fics often get needlessly long xD and they also get a little kinky bc my brain tries to come up with ways to stay engaged in its own writing xD I like testing the limits of how poetic I can be about smut scenes.

10. Do you write crossovers? What's the craziest one you've written?

Almost never. I rarely enjoy reading them unless they are very well done, so I don't generally think of writing them. The only consistent exception to this rule is all the weilan derivative fics! I love those very much, even if I don't always know the characters. So i've written one of those myself: no shame in having loved, a crossover between the Rebel and Detective L, which takes Luo Fei's perspective at snapshots in the Rebel canon, reflecting on everything that Lin Nansheng learns, loses, and cannot seem to stop giving away. It's a sad one, but with a slightly hopeful ending :)

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not that I know of? I don't think I'm big enough in any fandom for anyone to consider stealing my work.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

Nope, but I have had one podficced :D

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

I have not. On the one hand I think I'd love to try one day, but I'm also very particular about certain things and I fear I might get antsy. I love brainstorming about fic though! Some of my best ideas have come from talking to people.

14. What's your all-time favorite ship?

Uhm Weilan I think? I'm not really in fandom for the shipping.

15. What's a wip you want to finish, but doubt you ever will?

ohh hard one. I have three, if I may:

And miles to go (before I sleep): it's a story that's still very dear to me, but it's been so long since I started it that I think I'd need to rewrite the whole thing, bc I've gotten better at writing in the meantime and the style of any new chapter wouldn't match the first ones.

First gradually, and then all at once: I wrote all of this in a single week, and then uni got in the way, and then my hyperfixation on YYM ended and since then the fic's been stuck in unfortunate limbo :(((( I really want to finish it but I need the muse to guide me

Tryptich: not yet posted, but fully planned. It's one of the toughest, angstiest, most cathartic fic plots I have ever come up with, and I really want to write it because it is such a meaningful story about mental health and loss and recovery, but it's also YYM fandom, and as established above I need to regain that hyperfixation for this to move anywhere :(((( or just have a lot of free time on my hands where I can write both the guardian fic stuck in my brain and this.

16. What are your writing strengths?

uuhm, I think atmosphere/scene setting, structure, and character study/reflection.

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

dialogue tags (bane of my existence). I also think my work can sometimes drag on, I use too many words sometimes. Also I feel like I can be kind of a one trick pony xD I repeat a lot of similar lines and dramatic build-up between stories.

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language for a fic?

Can be great when other ppl do it. If it's a language I can read a little bit that's nice , otherwise including a translation at the bottom helps. I'd definitely never write dialogue in a language I'm not fluent in. That being said, I do pay a lot of attention to what language my characters are 'actually' speaking, even if I present their dialogue to my readers in English. For example if would write a phrase like "he pauses to breathe between all three syllables" (which sucks as a line, but bear with me), in an English-language fic where the characters would canonically be speaking Mandarin Chinese, then I would make sure the line that character said would actually contain 3 syllables in both English and Chinese. I do a lot of that kind of reasoning in my head. "If this line, reflecting on dialogue spoken in Y language, was transposed directly into language X that the characters are really supposed to be speaking, would the line still work like this?" if the answer there is no, then I will either change the line, or change the English dialogue until I have something that reflects what I imagine the characters would say in their native language in the way I need!

19. First fandom you wrote for?

Tolkien!

20. Favorite fic you've written?

HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO CHOOSE??? it's probably either a hand within a hand (holding light) or kaleidoscope.

Thanks again, this was fun!!!

tagging: @pangzi @programmedradly @lunarriviera @lucientelrunya @mjsakurea @lynne-monstr @dual-domination @aredhel-of-doylkien @thedaughterofshadows if you want to :)

#tagged #my writing

[batrachised]

Extremely important question: at any point in time, have you ever had a fan cast for Walter Blythe? Or even just a face cast? As someone who has despaired of ever picking a suitable Emily or Dean, I’m curious about your success with your own LMM blorbo.

~@no-where-new-hero

This is definitely a question near and dear to my heart, which makes it all the more frustrating that I do not have much of an answer (gnashing my teeth over the lack of satisfying lm montgomery film adaptations rn). Most especially bc, imo, fancasts are fun, but I've always had a problem with them in that they rely on already famous actors - a very limited pool to pick from, thus landing on the emily and dean problem. I'm also somewhat biased in that the vast majority of time I tend to prefer unknown actors for roles because once someone gets famous enough, all I can see is the actor playing a role, not the role itself (rare is the actor transformative enough to make me forget I saw a buzzfeed article about them two weeks back). All this to say, if you're reading this hollywood-powers-that-be, please make a true to the book lm montgomery movie, i''m desperate.

I think we've discussed in the past that this photo has extreme Rilla vibes to me (Walter, Shirley, and Jem); I think Colin Morgan can pull off the otherworldly elf fey vibes Walter has going on, shown by Merlin.

Genuinely, though, I feel like with LM Montgomery characters, it's less about the physical characteristics (besides key markers ie red hair being the obvious one) and more about bodying the soul of the character. The actress of Mrs. Lynde from the 1980s show didn't really match the physical description in the book, but she embodied the spirit of Mrs. Lynde so effectively it didn't matter. Imo unless it's really egregious (idk, not giving Anne red hair, making Leslie plain, ungnoming Barney), a range of actors could match a single character. Megan Follows looks entirely different from BBC's Anne, but both of them flesh out Anne extremely well. Meanwhile, the Anne with an E cast doesn't really read like the characters at all to me despite matching the physical descriptions, because they're so far removed from the books.

Your mention of Emily and Dean has me scratching my head over that, because I think that would be difficult. Because I read the Bantam books at a formative age, the illustration of Emily on the front is exactly how I pictured Emily, which makes it difficult to select someone who looks different. There's the actual casting of Emily and Dean from the tv show (I took the image from this gifset), neither of which I really liked, although i do find it interesting how they played up his priest name with his costume.

This just making me want a faithful to the books Emily of New Moon TV series STAT where I can see how a professional would choose to bring the characters to life....sigh.

#also fancasts always land on people who look like models #i like people who have more of a homespun quality for lm montgomery shows #less of a glossy barbie/ken one #i have such a specific image of dean in my head too and i am cursing my lack of drawing skills right about now #lm montgomery

[multi-fan-dom-madness]

OC: Mei Desyk SFW Alphabet

a little bit of a late entry for OC Sunday, but I am vibrating out of my skin with excitement over this OC, and have been since I created her

so without further ado, here is the SFW alphabet for Mei Desyk, a human woman who lives on Coruscant as a regular ol' mechanic and who happens to fall into a complicated relationship with Sawbones, CMO for the Wolfpack (and wonderful OC of @wizardofrozz to whom I am so grateful for, for letting me love on her blorbo with mine)

NSFW alphabet

A - Affection (how affectionate are they? How do they show affection?) 

Her top two love languages are words of affirmation and physical touch. If she’s not telling you how she feels, she’s giving you a hug or even just a comforting hand on the shoulder. She is cognizant that words and touch aren’t everyone’s thing, though, so she tries to get her affection across in other ways. (Keeping certain foods/drinks stocked, etc.)

B - Best friend (what would they be like as a best friend? How would the friendship start?) 

Mei as a best friend is your #1 ride or die, no questions asked. If you’ve stuck around long enough to be considered trustworthy and also have earned hers, it’ll take an act of the Maker herself to change that. Mei’s current best friend, Selene, she met by accident—in line at the grocery store, some asshole tried to bully Selene and Mei rocked his shit without even knowing this woman. Cue friendship of the century. 

C - Cuddles (do they like to cuddle? How would they cuddle?) 

Loves cuddles; does not like asking for cuddles, particularly when she needs them most. 

D - Domestic (Do they want to settle down? How are they at cooking and cleaning?)

Mei has...complicated feelings about settling down. She can keep a house in order, with only minimal struggle—her dad made sure she could live independently and not have to be dependent on a partner. That doesn’t mean she likes doing those things, and doesn’t want to be stuck doing them for someone else forever. But with the right partner, she could see herself settling down, sure. 

E - Ending (if they had to break up with their partner, how would they do it?) 

She’s rarely the one doing the ending; but if she has to, it’s in person, it’s informative (because she’s all too often left with questions after being broken up with), and it’s quick. 

F - Fiance(e) (how do they feel about commitment? How quick would they want to get married?) 

Commitment is a stickier question for Mei. She knows she can be...a lot, and that she’s not always the easiest to be with due to her tendencies to act up and to get tunnel vision. So a long-term, committed relationship has to be with someone who can handle her worst and appreciate her best.

G - Gentle (how gentle are they, both physically and emotionally?) 

She tends to be on the gentler side, especially emotionally. Perhaps it’s from being parentified at an early age and now, as an adult, having to watch her only parent slowly disappear under dementia, she really just wants her emotions to be treated as kindly as she handles others’. Physically though? She can handle her own hand-to-hand, if needed. 

H - Hugs (do they like hugs? How often do they do it? What are their hugs like?) 

Like with cuddles, Mei loves hugs. But she doesn’t have many people she is comfortable hugging: her dad, her best friend, and a long-term partner. When she does give hugs, they’re always warm and tight: you know exactly how much she cares every time her arms are around you. 

I - I love you (how fast do they say the L-word?)

She feels love for partners before she says it. Partly because she’s been burned in the past, she’s hesitant to be so open so quickly about her true feelings, so most of the time she waits for the other person to reach that point and initiate that conversation. (Until she meets someone cough Sawbones cough who is worse about feelings than she is, and then she’s first to say it.) 

J - Jealousy (how jealous do they get? What do they do when they’re jealous)

Mei can get pretty jealous, especially early on in relationships where they’ve not had many substantive conversations about what the relationship’s boundaries are, but she oscillates between acting petty about it and just letting it bottle up. But once the relationship is secure and she knows nothing is going to shake it, the things that used to make her jealous slide right off. 

K - Kisses (what are their kisses like? Where do they like to kiss you? Where do they like to be kissed?) 

Mei’s kisses are like fresh, cool water: you want to feel it everywhere. Her favorite spot to be kissed by a partner that isn’t her lips is her forehead. Her favorite spot to kiss partners tends to either be hands or shoulders. 

L - Little ones (how are they around children?)

Despite being an only child, Mei helped babysit some neighborhood kids when she was growing up, so she at least knows how kids work (attention spans, developmental stages, etc.). But now as an adult, who hasn’t interacted with kids much beyond making faces at them in line at the market, she’s a little rusty. However, she’s got a naturally caring streak, and would be great with kids given time. 

M - Morning (How are mornings spent with them?) 

Very much not a morning person, but she gets up early anyway to avoid seeing people at work for as long as possible. She tends to be the first person to the garage, so has become de facto MOD until the actual boss shows up. This also means that, most of the time, her schedule is self-set and there’s very few times where she’s at work past about 3pm (while her coworkers are there until 5 or later). On days off, she sleeps in as much as she can, burrowing into the covers or into the heat of her partner’s body. 

N - Night (How are nights spent with them?)

There was a period of Mei’s life where she spent every single night out, but she’s tired of that. These days, she’ll go out occasionally, but most nights she’s either spending time at her father’s, or at home watching some brainless holodrama while she cleans. If her partner is there, she spends most of the time with or around them; reading, fiddling with her bass guitar, etc. 

O - Open (When would they start revealing things about themselves? Do they say everything all at once or wait a while to reveal things slowly?)

Mei is not very open thanks to some very unfortunate early relationships where she said too much too soon. She’s fine sharing superficial details—how work was, latest gossip at work or with her friends, what she did over the weekend—but the meaningful stuff? The stuff she thinks about when she should be listening to the weekly debrief at work? Nah, you gotta work for that.

P - Patience (how easily angered are they?) 

Mei is...relatively patient. She jumps to conclusions often, which gets her in trouble when she snaps without needing to. But when it comes to actual anger? There’s only a few things that make her upset quickly and without fail. 1) Question her intelligence. This stems from some very bad experiences going to school as an individual with dyscalculia, especially when she expressed interest in mechanics. 2) Tell her how she should feel. Nothing will make her balk quite like saying “you should be grateful for what you have” because it invalidates what she’s actually feeling, and her dad certainly didn’t raise a woman willing to be talked over about her own feelings. 

Q - Quizzes (how much would they remember about you? Do they remember every detail you mention in passing, or do they kind of forget everything?) 

Somewhere in the middle. She’ll remember very obscure shit—if she sees you make a face after trying a new latte, she’ll make sure she never buys it for you and steers you away from that choice later on. But sometimes the bigger details slip through the cracks (birthdays, etc.). Doesn’t mean she doesn’t care; dates especially just have a hard time sticking in her brain.

R - Remember (what is their favorite moment in your relationship?)

She has two: one that’s genuinely sweet, and one that just makes her smile every time she thinks of it. 

Sweet- Well, it’s sweet in a very Sawbones way. She’d sliced her hand while at work, and her boss at the time (who was a raging dickwad) refused to let her go get medical care “because it doesn’t look that bad, and we’re behind schedule as it is.” So she sent a frantic text to Saw to help, that she couldn’t sew the wound up on her own (it was on her dominant hand). And he came, no questions asked. Patched her up in silence, and when he tied off the last stitch, he looked up at her through his eyelashes, and she knew right there that she trusted this man with her life. 

Smile- She bought buttplugs for her and for Sawbones, and they just happened to match (she totally didn’t get matching ones on purpose because she thought it was funny). When she brought them home and presented them to him, he laughed for several minutes on end, full on belly laughing, bent at the waist, couldn’t catch his breath kind of laughter. It’s a fond memory, and one that she thinks of often. 

S - Security (how protective are they? How would they protect you? How would they like to be protected?) 

Very protective, and becomes more so as her jealousy wanes. To her, there’s a difference. Jealousy feels hot and uncomfortable; protectiveness is cold and justified. Most of her partners have been folks she feels like she needs to protect, whether because she was the physically larger, more emotionally intelligent, more streetwise individual, or because she was their domme and that was her role. When she protects people, Mei has perfected the ice cold glare that says, Fuck around and find out, I dare you. She’s not afraid to swing at strangers. When she’s being protected, she wants essentially the same level of hotheadedness and devotedness. Sawbones literally fist-fighting an entire group because one of them grabbed her ass? She’d combust on the spot.

T - Try (how much effort would they put into dates, anniversaries, gifts, everyday tasks?) 

It depends on the partner. With most previous partners, she puts in about as much effort as she expects back, which is a decent amount. Maybe 60% effort? But when it comes to Sawbones, I think she puts in more effort at the beginning than he does, and she’s okay with that because she knows it’s a process for him. 

U - Ugly (what would be some bad habits of theirs?) 

She can become very dominated by her emotions, especially her desires, and it shuts off her rational brain. To the point that she can and has hurt the people she’s in relationships with because she pushes too far. In a word, “selfish” is how she describes this habit. 

V - Vanity (how concerned are they with their looks?) 

Moderate amount. It’s never bothered her if her friends get more attention at certain bars or anything, because her dad also raised her to put more self-worth in her abilities than her body. But when in a relationship, she does care (and likes to hear about) how much her partner finds her attractive. 

W - Whole (would they feel incomplete without you?)

Nah, she knows her worth.

X - Xtra (a random headcanon for them) 

When she focuses on something really hard, her tongue sticks out between her teeth and lips.

Y - Yuck (what are some things they wouldn’t like, either in general or in a partner?)

She’s not the neatest person, but she does like to keep an orderly house, so someone super disorganized or who doesn’t clean up after themselves is a no-go for her. (Please don’t perceive the pile of scrap metal she swears she’ll use someday.) She also cannot stand mouth-breathers (during the day; sleeping she’s like a rock and doesn’t care) or open-mouth chewers. 

Z - Zzz (what is a sleep habit of theirs?)

She sleeps on her front, one leg hiked up, and she’s a relatively deep sleeper. Takes a fair bit of effort to wake her up. This means that when she moves around in the night (which happens—she’s been known to crowd onto her partner’s side of the bed seeking cuddles in her sleep), her partner has a hard time getting her to move away or get up.

Forever Ragu: @dystopicjumpsuit @clonemedickix @littlemissmanga @wolffegirlsunite @anxiouspineapple99 @wings-and-beskar @sinfulsalutations @523rdrebel @sunshinesdaydream @moonlightwarriorqueen @sev-on-kamino @starrylothcat @deejadabbles @starqueensthings @mandos-mind-trick @idontgetanysleep @eyeluvmusic21 @wizardofrozz @mythical-illustrator @sleepycreativewriter @bobaprint @dickarchivist @a-single-tulip (if you want to be tagged in my OC posts, fill out my tag form here!)

#oc sundays #oc: Mei Desyk #star wars oc #my ocs #my blorbos #it's gonna be mei