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blogthebooklover · 4 months

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30 Things I Learned As An Adult

In honor of me turning 30 in January, I’ve decided to write out a list of 30 things I learned as an adult. Now, some of these worked for me through trial and error, while others did not.

1. Self Care Is Important

I cannot stress this enough. We all need to practice self care, to take time for ourselves. It takes baby steps to find a good self-care routine, and there’s plenty of online resources to find one to your tastes. Remember it is all about trial and error, and don’t worry about perfecting it right away. Research some different self care routines online as a starting point.

2. Read Books, Not Fanfiction

Okay, don’t get me wrong, I do love reading some good ole fanfiction, and current events. However, definitely pick up a book once in a while. Whether it’s a graphic novel, comics, manga, please develop a reading habit. It definitely helped me out a lot as a former college dropout, there are reading lists on sites like Goodreads, here on Tumblr, even colleges have lists what books students are required to read. And it does help with expanding your knowledge and vocabulary. As I’ve previously said, I’m a former college dropout who’s currently back in school, however, developing a healthy reading habit is what kept me grounded. If you need a starting point, I recommend reading a fiction book, preferably in the SciFi/Fantasy genre; or reread a book from your childhood. Also, PLEASE GET A LIBRARY CARD! You’ll definitely be saving a lot of money, and we need to support our public libraries now more than ever.

3. Say “No” More Often

If you don’t feel comfortable going out, or if your manager calls and asks to cover a shift, just say “no.” Remember, you have the power to set boundaries, especially with family, friends, and work. This correlates to number 1 on my list, self care is super important, and you cannot put your health at risk for anyone. I’m going to repeat that last part: SELF CARE IS SUPER IMPORTANT, AND YOU CANNOT PUT YOUR HEALTH AT RISK FOR ANYONE!

4. Register To Vote, And Vote In Every Election

With politics being so polarized and divisive in the past decade, and the upcoming 2024 US Presidential Election, please register to vote. And voter suppression has been very rampant in the past two, arguably three, decades. To anyone about to turn 18 here in the US, please register to vote ASAP! And vote in every goddamn election, both national and local. I seriously cannot stress this enough.

5. Eat Healthy, No Seriously

I love some fast food once in a while now, however, please take some time to learn about healthy eating. It will catch up with you in the future, and our US healthcare system is already fucked as all hell. I know the rising costs of everything, including food, is insane right now; but please keep informed about how to prepare good healthy food.

6. Take Breaks From Current Events, Social Media, and the Internet

This also correlates with number one. While it is very important to stay informed with what is happening in the world/country of origin; especially with the US Presidential Election year. Remember, it’s okay to take breaks from reading too much news, and scrolling through social media feeds. It really does have an effect on your mental health, and unfortunately too many people tend to fall down the conspiracy theory rabbit hole on all sides of the political spectrum. To the teenagers and young adults, take breaks and focus on your mental health and well-being. To the adults, read the previous sentence. With everything so polarizing, take care of yourself first.

7. High School Friends DO NOT LAST!

My friends from high school and early college years were definitely the “ride and die” type of friends, metaphorically speaking. If you have that one friend who was/is the “give the shirt off their back” type, check in on them once in a while. However, with the former, just move on. The friends I had in high school definitely had a lot of childhood trauma, and in one aspect, I’m glad that they were honest about it; it was/is a way to heal. However, any “friend” who just doesn’t want to better themselves and use you for any convenience, DUMP THEM AND CUT OFF ALL CONTACT! Remember just as you set boundaries with your toxic family members, and even for your job, you should do the same with friends.

8. Change Jobs, ASAP!

This is a very important one. I didn’t really have a job as a teenager, I wanted to enjoy being a kid for a little longer, however, I did have an occasional babysitting job. At 23 years old, I got a job at a fast food place. While I do appreciate part of the experience, like how to use the “customer service” voice, however, any red flags that pop up in your head, change jobs, ASAP! It was toxic, too political (for some weird reason) and a lot of drama (and not from the teenagers). The grocery store I work at now does have its busy times, however, it’s much more calmer, and I don’t see too many “Karen” types.

9. Declutter More Often

This is also a definite must as you get older. Whatever you don’t need anymore, donate them. Whatever is completely broken, throw it away! Whatever it is that is in good condition, sell it or maybe give it to someone as a birthday/holiday present. Any old makeup, throw it away! It’ll help reduce the amount of clutter and mess. If you need a starting point, I suggest the KonMari method. It really did help me out a lot.

10. Use A Planner

This is a life-and-time saver. Write down any appointments, cleaning days, paydays, bill charges, etc.; into a physical planner. If you’re in college, please use one! And write down any assignments to work on/turn in BEFORE the deadline. Also, anything important, put into your calendar app on your phone and laptop as a reminder.

11. Have A Skin Care Routine

Okay, I know having a skin care routine isn’t for everyone, and we all have different reactions to skin care products; however, don’t be afraid to experiment with a good skin care routine. In my early teen years, I used Proactiv skin care for my acne, and it helped out a lot. Remember: cleanse, tone, any serum of your choice, and moisturize. This also helps out if you don’t feel like jumping into the shower. Also, use sunscreen, seriously.

12. Don’t Get Married, Until You’re Ready

This is coming from someone who is single, lol. If you plan on getting married to your romantic partner, I’m proud of you! Marriage is about communication, being honest, and doing equal amount of work (finances, household chores, etc.) Save money if you’re planning for a wedding, or go to your local courthouse to get a marriage license if you don’t want the big, fancy reception.

13. Don’t Have Kids, Until You’re Ready

Again, this is coming from someone who is single and childless, lol. Having kids is a lot of work: physically, mentally, emotionally, and financially. Not everyone is capable of being a parent, and I have read PLENTY of posts on here and other websites about toxic parents/parenting styles. Take time and think about if you’re ready to become a parent.

14. Learn How To Budget Your Money

This is for anyone of any age out there. Please learn how to budget your spending. Look for stuff on sale or clearance, or cut back on certain types of spending. I know most people have no idea where to start, but there is! There’s some great websites and YouTube channels on how to budget your money. Another great tool to use are spreadsheets like Microsoft Excel or Google Sheets. I use a Google Sheet template to help track my spending and budget my finances. Also, if you have gift cards from your birthday/holidays/etc; definitely use them, you won't be breaking your bank account :). Also, definitely have some paper cash in your wallet for emergency use.

15. Open A Savings/Emergency Funds Account, ASAP!

This is a huge one to have as an adult, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. Anything left over from paying the bills, from a side hustle, or from your tax returns, put that into savings. Certain banks will also have the option of creating “financial goals” in savings accounts; so I highly recommend using that as well. This also correlates with number 14. If you’re interested, open two or three savings accounts, the last one should only be for emergency funds.

16. Get A Physical Hobby, AKA Exercise!

It doesn’t matter what type of exercise you do, please do it! And for anyone who is physically disabled, there are modified options provided on YouTube. We do lose certain motor functions as we age, so definitely pick an exercise that’s right for you, as they say. Even if it's just going outside for a walk for 30 minutes, please do some type of exercise.

17. Learn How To Meal Prep

It doesn’t have to be for every meal of every day, pick a meal you want to make and prepare ahead of time. And prepare that meal the day before, so it will be on hand when you leave your house. There are some great videos on YouTube, and some ideas from Pinterest if you need a starting point.

18. If You’re Able To, Go To The Dentist!

Seriously though, try and go for a checkup/teeth cleaning. You’re only given one set of teeth after all your baby teeth fall out, and you need to take good care of them. If you’re able to, or live near to one, local colleges have free cleanings through their dental training programs.

19. If Your Job Offers a 401K, GET ON IT NOW!

My old job at a fast food restaurant didn’t have retirement benefits, but my current grocery store job does. I jumped on it right away, even if it’s not the job I want right now. And it’s a good starting point to have some money saved up for retirement. If you leave the job that has a 401k, you can do what's called a rollover. This will put the money that was set into the first retirement fund into another one; you can do this with your bank or if your new job has a 401k.

20. If You Don’t Have Health Insurance, Sign Up With The State, or Through Your Job.

In my experience, I have insurance through the state at the moment. If your job offers health insurance as well, jump on it right away, even if it’s not the job you want, it’ll be a starting point that correlates with number 19.

21. It’s Okay To Not Go To College

This is coming from someone who was a college dropout at 19, and currently back in school. If you don’t feel ready to go to college, that’s okay too. College is very expensive, especially here in the US, and not everyone can get a scholarship, even if they did apply for a lot of them. Maybe get a part-time job or two (for some income), explore some hobbies you enjoy, and take some time to think about some goals.

22. If You’re In College, It’s Okay To Stay At Home

Again, coming from a former college dropout, I stayed at home while attending a nearby community college in another state. However, out-of-state tuition and housing is also very expensive. If you have a good relationship with your parents, and if you’re going to school in-state, talk to them about staying home while going to school. If you don’t, then talk to a trusted friend or family member about getting an apartment together that isn’t on-site housing while you’re attending school.

23. Watch Non-English Language Movies

If you’re a movie lover like me, take some time to watch some foreign language films once in a while; and I know we anime fans do, lol. To be honest, it does get very boring watching English language films all the time, whether from the States, England, or Canada. Watching foreign language movies will definitely help you to understand the world a lot better, if you don’t have the means for traveling yet; and they will help you to understand that no matter where we live, we all have similar issues, hopes, dreams, etc. If you need a starting point, I recommend any of the Studio Ghibli movies, I would start with Kiki’s Delivery Service; or Guillermo del Toro’s Pan’s Labyrinth.

24. SET BOUNDARIES

Remember: toxic family members and friends are not worth it. You are worthy and valid for love and respect. This correlates to number 7. This is also very useful in the workplace.

25. Express Yourself Through Fashion

Like everyone else, I feel most comfortable in jeans and a t-shirt myself; however sometimes I like to dress up just for fun, or to build up my self esteem and image. This also helps when learning to pair an accessory with an outfit. Play around with different color palettes and clothing styles, and find the one you feel the most “you.” For example, I’ve always looked my best in jewel tones and a cooler color palette. Read some fashion articles or watch some YouTube videos about how to pick out an outfit.

26. It Is Not Selfish To Prioritize Yourself

This correlates with number 3. I have noticed it’s mostly a Western/American/Christian culture norm, we’re always told to take care of others before taking care of ourselves; or we’re selfish for prioritizing ourselves over others. It is not selfish, it is part of self care. Again, this is tied in with number 24.

27. Failing and Making Mistakes Is Part of Growing

There is so much societal pressure on trying to be successful in life and work, especially in the Western/American hemisphere. However, making mistakes and failing at something is part of growing, and learning as an individual.

28. It's Okay to Not Have a Label to Define Yourself

Hear me out. I understand the use of labels in society and culture in general; everyone wants to belong somewhere and feel accepted. However, it is okay to not have a label to define who you are, and who you want/choose to be. Take all the time you need to figure out what's best for you. And sometimes people don't realize a label will fit them until they are much older in life. Or they couldn't at the time.

29. Don't Compare, You'll Get There

We are human, and we all have the tendency to compare ourselves to others. Unfortunately, this doesn't end after high school and college. And that needs to seriously change, especially in the Western/American hemisphere. Simply writing down "don't compare, you'll get there" is a great reminder to have for yourself. Everyone learns and grows at their own pace.

30. It Really Is The Little Things That Keep Us Going

When life seems to get too hard, it really is the little things that keep us going. Whether it is something as simple as someone holding a door open for you, or someone complimenting* you on your outfit or your work ethic; those moments are the ones that matter the most. Remember those moments, hold on to them.

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em-dash-press · 2 years

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Understanding Your Audience as a Writer in 3 Steps

Many writers think of characters, settings, plot points, or themes before they start writing. Although those are valid ways to launch a story, sometimes it’s also helpful to think about who you want to write for.

Understanding your audience is a significant factor in the success or strength of a story.

These are a few ways to start doing that more effectively.

Step 1: Define Your Audience

These are some factors to consider when determining who your audience is. Sometimes it helps to start with this process first to narrow down your creative ideas.

What Is Their Age?

Writing a story for elementary school students is very different than writing for middle-aged moms or college students. People value different perspectives and experiences at different ages.

You’ll have to reshape your themes and character arcs if you’re talking to different age groups. A middle schoolers can understand a short story or novel about loss, friendships, or finding your identity, but not the struggles of parenting or coping with the life changes that happen when you retire.

Conflict and genre will also change with your audience’s age. Think about who you want to write or create a particular story for. You’ll have a concrete place to start writing because you’ll know what your readers can handle and what they’ll be interested in.

Are They Previous Readers?

Maybe you mostly write fanfiction. Great! Maybe you’ve been published a few times by the same literary magazine. Awesome! You could post your stories on your tumblr and gain readers that way too. There’s also traditional and self publishing routes

If you’re lucky enough to have returning readers, you can also write just for them. What have they given positive or negative feedback about before? What stories/characters/themes made them return readers?

It’s important to note that you shouldn’t feel constricted to only ever write what other people want. However, if you’re in between WIPs and need some direction, this is a helpful way to get inspired.

What Other Demographics Do You Want to Connect With?

You could always write a story to reach new readers. Even if you don’t plan on publishing your work, you might give the story to a family member or friend who hasn’t read your stories before.

Think about your future reader’s other demographics. Those would be factors like their:

Race

Gender

Sexuality

Maritial status

Geographic location

Economic status

Political alignment

Writing a story about how Political Party A negatively affects your protagonists life could be an educational opportunity if your reader thinks Political Party A has never done anything wrong.

You might talk about the realities of experiencing a divorce for a reader who can’t fathom what that’s like.

Maybe your character come from a marginalized community and their story will represent real-life situations your reader hasn’t learned about.

Creative writing can be a tool to start meaningful conversations or open someone’s eyes.

But take this approach with caution—if your reader might react to a story in a volatile way, you may need to make a judgment call. Approaching those subjects creatively might not be the best way for them to receive that information.

Always do what’s best for your mental and physical well-being.

Step 2: Consider Your Audience’s Interests

The things your audience cares about will relate to their demographics and the other information above. They may also like subjects or stories closely related to yours, even if yours reveals something new or tries something different, craft-wise.

An example of this would be writing a story about Greek gods in the modern world that only reveal themselves to customer service workers. People probably haven’t read that before so they may not have a direct interest, but your story could still appeal to fans of Madeline Miller, Rick Riordan, and Jennifer Saint.

If you know what your readers are interested in/have read before, you can think about utilizing similar story elements in whatever your own work ends up being.

Step 3: Think About What Your Audience Wants to (or Needs to) Learn

I want to swing back around to informing your readers. You don’t always have to write about what they already know or have lived through. A massive benefit to reading is learning about other people’s lived experiences that are unlike your own.

Speaking as someone who grew up in a very sheltered household and community, my local library absolutely opened my eyes and taught me about what the real world was like for other people before I stepped into it (and got internet access).

Think about if you can write about a theme you’re uniquely qualified to be a voice on. Maybe you’ve witnessed things in your community that you want to write about because those types of events or conflicts may not get enough attention.

Even if you think your life experience is too different from anyone else’s, I promise that there’s something you can teach your audience. You just have to dig into what matters to you. What’s shaped you. What you wish people were more aware of.

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You won’t start every story with the same source of inspiration, so you may not need to think of your audience when starting every new manuscript either. However, if your writing has recently felt directionless, using these steps could help ground you before your next creative adventure.

#writing tips #writing advice #writeblr #writers of tumblr #writing #writing community #writing help #writing inspiration #writing thoughts #writing process

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feral-radfem · 1 year

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The het erotica anon here. Yeah thanks for your response. Now it makes sense the way you explain it. I find it refreshing to find similar minded women too. I had limited access to the internet due to my location and Tumblr used to be one of the many websites I didn't have access to until recently. I already have female friends who have stopped reading erotica like me for similar reasons, but because I couldn't connect to other OSA women around the globe, I thought maybe there is something wrong with mine and my friend's heterosexuality that made us not feel much towards works that we were supposed to like. I didn't feel the "submissive" tendencies towards men that these female characters have, and I always thought maybe there's something missing with me, or maybe I'll feel this way too when I grow up. ""Biology"". Whatever. Then it turns out I'm bi.

I agree with you that it's relieving to have access to like-minded women and learn that hey, no need to feel like there's something wrong with you. There are many women out there like you. etc etc. I'll show this response to my partner too, since she had the same thoughts as me.

No you're right. I worded it a bit weird but I don't think romance in general is bad, however the romance books written here are just conservative shitshows with abuse, rape, and murder handled terribly in them.

My mother likes the romance genre but she never buys local books because of how repulsive they are. That's why I spoke so aggressively of romance books, otherwise I haven't read non-native romance books to compare them with ours. And again, these are hetero romance books. I have not found any local romance books related to lesbian or gay love because that's illegal technically.

You're welcome. :)

There is nothing wrong with you or your friend for not feeling a desire to be submissive to men, that is not a desire naturally ingrained in women. Heterosexual, bisexual, or lesbian. We were not born to be below men, though there are plenty bio-essentialists who believe we were, there's no instinctual calling to serve men. I'm sorry either of you were made to feel that way. That is not right.

Oh no. I wasn't disagreeing with you just adding my own caveats. Anyone who read my response would understand that I wasn't equating the two. You know, Romance stories and erotica. I'm a little paranoid about being misunderstood on tumblr, since it happens so often lol. One I'm just not a particular fan of the other I think should be heavily regulated if not banned completely as obscenity and just wanted to make the distinction clear.

Romance books typically mirror the patriarchal ideal of romance for whatever culture they're being published in. Though due to the fact that we all live in patriotic societies I'm sure some of your leading books look very similar to some of ours. So this can definitely come in varying degrees depending on how normalized severe massaging is in any given culture. Male perversion doesn't vary that much in theme though, generally. If I'm being completely honest, most books, both of the romantic and erotic variety, that are homosexual oriented reflect the same patriarchal ideals as the heterosexual books. It's where we would have applied idea of heteronormative before the internet corrupted it and destroyed it like all other political jargon of the modern century.

However, my heart goes out to you for not being able to access any media legally that represents your lived experiences. It's ridiculously early where I am right now, but I hope the coming Day finds you well.

#lily responds #I know the US has horrible protections regarding SSA people but we are privileged in ways that we take for granted #radical feminism #radfems please touch #ask #terfs please interact #radical feminists please touch #radical feminist #radical feminist theory #radfem lesbian

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jadeglas · 1 year

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Ok, now that I've had a bit of time to get used to how Tumblr works again, I'm going to do a take 2 on my introduction, if no one minds too much. (mostly for clarification)

About Me

Name: Jade

Pronouns: she/her

ID: Pan Cis F (wife, mama, and storyteller)

Age: 30-something

Loves: music, stories, caffeine, warm carbs, alone time, cuddles, puns, crochet, folk lore, Minecraft, languages, and anthropology, in general

Currently learning: Spanish, my Instant Pot, healthy goal setting, and which style of outline can I actually stick to

Polarizing opinion: fan fiction is a useful tool for helping new writers develop their confidence and writing voice while also connecting with others about a topic(s) they are passionate about

My Street Cred

I love running and playing table top rpg's, especially D&D, World of Darkness, and Savage Worlds. I have LARPed, mostly WoD Vampire, but I haven't run one myself. I haven't run any games in a good while, but I mostly ran Fantasy and Modern Supernatural. My specialty was horror in either genre.

I grew up reading fantasy and science fiction and The Dark Tower by Stephen King (bc that series jumps all over the place, genre wise). I love Neil Gaiman, I've read up to book 30 something of the Animorphs (yes, the side-books, too), and, currently, my favorite book I've read as a "grown up" is Perfume: The Story of a Murderer, by Patrick Süskind. (it's also my favorite book-ti-film adaptation). My favorite scary movie is Paranormal Activity (I love a story that's not afraid to take it's time building suspense), but my favorite romance movie is still The Princess Bride.

The last time I was on Tumblr I was heavily involved in fandoms, (The Hobbit, Harry Potter, Sherlock, Overwatch) and I posted fanfiction... I can't say regularly (I'm very undisciplined), but I did post stories multiple times.

Undisciplined is a good word for my previous writing style. I would write when inspiration struck me, and I lived to world build, but I never outlined or put any effort into prewritting. It was common for me to abandon a current WIP when I found inspiration for a new story.

Currently

My WIP spans a novella (30k words) and 5 novels. (I know, ambitious, but this time I actually have a plan in place) They'll all be romance novels with secondary action story arcs and the paranormal premise is that a recent global event has resulted in some of the population becoming werewolves! I have an evil mega-corporation who will, of course, be using doing shady and dastardly things, but I'm still not sure how the couples of each book will be connected. Right now, I'm outlining everything and the novella is giving me the most trouble (I've never tried to tell a whole story with so few words!)

If this series does well, I think I'd like to do another series in the same world, but with Vampires (romance/power exchange/politics?) or Fae (romance/horror). (No supernatural creatures will ever scare me more than the Fae)

I have an idea for a smaller series? It would still be paranormal romance, but polyamorous, and each book would be the MC falling in love with a new person, while also navigating how to keep her relationships with her other lovers healthy and strong. It's mostly strong vibes, right now, though.

Tumblr

Like I said in my first introduction, I'm here to get my writing passion back and be a part of a community (friend me and I'll send you all the platonic love and support you can handle!). I'll have an author website some day, and possibly start an email list before that, but this is where I can be me and where I can connect with like-minded folks. That being said, inconsistency is a bitch of a habit to break, so I'm thinking I'll have a posting schedule where I'll post on a different topic each day of the week, and then I'll re log and react to posts whenever I can.

Right now, this is what I have in mind:

Monday-- Inspiration (music, pics, ideas)

Tuesday-- Updates (me, my WIP)

Wednesday-- Self Care (bc we all need it)

Thursday-- Recommendations (tools, hacks, and sites)

Friday-- Story/book reviews (that I'm reading)

I have a lot of family and family-in-law that lives nearby, so weekends get crazy sometimes, but weekdays I can do.

All this being said, inconsistency is in my nature, so don't be surprised if things change from time to time.

And so on

Feel free to message me or ask me questions! I'd love to hear about your current WIP, whether it's OC or not, or talk about world building. If you have a published story you think I might like, Is love to hear about that, too!

Thanks for being patient with me!

I'll post again tomorrow, so you take care of yourself.

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mcbangle · 1 year

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I posted 2,756 times in 2022

That's 657 more posts than 2021!

46 posts created (2%)

2,710 posts reblogged (98%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@bethanyactually

@believesinponds

@unpretty

@ivecarvedawoodenheart

@naryrising

I tagged 2,147 of my posts in 2022

Only 22% of my posts had no tags

#dracula daily - 259 posts

#snerk - 98 posts

#oooooh - 90 posts

#the owl house - 85 posts

#us politics - 56 posts

#check please - 37 posts

#psa - 34 posts

#star wars - 33 posts

#know your history - 31 posts

#toh spoilers - 31 posts

Longest Tag: 106 characters

#every now and then i remember huh. i could go to a movie if i wanted. i could call out of work if i wanted

My Top Posts in 2022:

[Jonathan Harker] has won all hearts by his sweetness and gentleness.

-Letter, Sister Agatha, Hospital of St. Joseph and Ste. Mary, Buda-Pesth, to Miss Wilhelmina Murray, 12 August, Dracula

He really has, hasn't he?

82 notes - Posted August 12, 2022

It continues to amaze me how many apparently fully-grown adults continue to struggle with the concept of “I am not the target audience of this piece of media, and that’s OK.”

I really do think it’s part of the same phenomenon of “The Kids Today are bad and wrong and foolish because they use technology that didn’t yet exist when I was a child and had different formative experiences from mine that shaped them in different ways.” They hate it when you point this out to them, though.

142 notes - Posted March 12, 2022

I’ve been numbly reading about the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision striking down NY’s concealed carry law and I’m just devastated. With all the news about the expected upcoming Roe v Wade decision this was not on my radar at all. It never once occurred to me that the Supreme Court with expand gun rights in this way and in the wake of so many horrific mass shootings.

There is something very wrong with my country, and I worry that we will be living with the repercussions for decades.

162 notes - Posted June 23, 2022

I'm so glad to hear that Lucy is feeling better! I, as a genre-savvy person, am sure that she will be perfectly fine tonight, will call Dr. Seward if she needs anything, and that absolutely nothing will go horribly wrong from here on out...

178 notes - Posted September 9, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

Everything I’ve learned about “Our Flag Means Death” from Tumblr

Without having seen an episode.

It looks good! I’d watch it if I had HBO Max, but I don’t, so.

Stede is a gentleman pirate who kind of looks like Aziraphale. I think he might not be very good at being a pirate, but his crew likes him anyway.

There is a sewing contest to make Stede’s flags. One of the flags has a cat on it?

Stede gets sick or injured or something and is laid up in bed.

Blackbeard, who is also called Ed and is played by Taika Waititi, visits Stede in his bedchamber.

Blackbeard wears all leather except for one arm which is sleeveless and covered in tattoos. Everyone, including the showrunners, agree that an all-leather outfit would be uncomfortable for a pirate of the Caribbean, but that the outfit nonetheless looks hot.

Blackbeard’s flag has a cool skeleton wearing a pirate hat and holding a spear. Early on, some fans were concerned that the flag was historically inaccurate because the real Blackbeard flag had a bleeding heart. This will be important later.

Blackbeard pokes around and looks at Stede’s stuff and is very intrigued.

At some point they try on each others’ clothes and at one point (possibly the same point??) they go to a fancy ball.

Their two crews are initially suspicious of this situation and each other but eventually they all become friends and/or fall in love except for one guy on Blackbeard’s crew who persistently Does Not Like Stede.

Speaking of the crew, one of them is nonbinary and initially wears a beard and fake nose but then they don’t, and eventually they fall in love with someone too.

At one point Blackbeard, Stede and another, foppish-looking crewmember go on some kind of expedition in the jungle. Blackbeard spends a lot of time making heart eyes at Stede and foppish-looking crewmember spends a lot of time observing Blackbeard’s heart eyes and at some point in that episode the foppish looking guy says “This is happening”.

I think foppish looking guy has a boyfriend too, or at least a love interest.

Blackbeard and Stede get captured by enemies and are made to lie facedown on the deck. Stede says something like “You came back!” and Blackbeard says something like “I never left” and then the camera pulls back and Blackbeard gently nudges Stede’s foot with his own.

Blackbeard shaves his beard off??

Ed and Stede are sitting on the beach. Ed tells Stede that Stede makes Ed happy. They kiss and then Stede tells Ed that Ed makes Stede happy. They make plans to run away together to China.

Then - tragedy strikes, I assume??? Something happens and evidently they do not run away to China together.

Ed gets drunk and wraps himself in a blanket (is it Stede’s blanket?) and sings, I think? And everyone feels sorry for him.

Stede goes back to his wife and kids, but they don’t actually want him around. Stede’s wife tries to kill him, and he leaves and gets on a boat to presumably become a pirate again and maybe find Ed?

But wait, what’s this? Blackbeard blackened his eyes and painted a beard on his face (?) and now he is Angry! And he abandons Stede’s crew on the tiniest island ever!

Close-up on Blackbeard’s flag, which now has a new panel sewn on of a bleeding heart, the same one that history buffs said was missing in the early episodes, symbolizing his broken heart, dun-dun-dunnnn!!!

How did I do?

182 notes - Posted April 1, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

#tumblr2022 #year in review #my 2022 tumblr year in review #your tumblr year in review

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thania-keiji-gf · 2 years

Text

— REQUEST GUIDE

Thania is here! Heyya ^.^

"So, i have the three most important things you need to know before sending a request to me. I'm glad if you want to read this. Please read until the end, okay! Thank you!"

The Most Important Rules

Please send the request with polite, humble, and positive words. Keep your attitude when request to me, because i didn't take your request if you send me a your request without those things

Please wait when you send a request to me. I'm a student and my life isn't about Tumblr everyday. I need the time to write your request. Also, because my English is not good enough—so i need time too for checking my writes (ex: there's grammar mistake or not) and i'm used to do that for three times before uploading my works.

Please understand, i have right to don't writes some request if i don't like the request (like the prompt or others). I won't forcing my self to write the things that i can't do and i don't like, it will make me feel lost confident and eventually the worst is writer's block

"small conversation or talks are welcome! i'm glad if you starting the request with little fun talk hehe."

Anothers Things — MUST READ

:🦊: what i'm writing for my works

anime only!

:🐺: especially

- Haikyuu!!

- Tokyo Revengers

- Boku No Hero Academia

"the anime i'm put in center of masterlist is fandom that i'm only writing for."

:🐱: characters

all of them.

:🦭: genre (s)

fluff, only FLUFF, AND MOSTLY FLUFF

i'm writing for comfort (genre) too. but sometimes it's maybe not good enough as fluff

crack, yeah i like crack a bit

humor, YES!

school-life? of course :D

"not others genre EXCEPT THOSE."

:🐸: types of works

scenarios, headcanons, prompt, stories, reactions

"i'm writing for long or short works. but if it's stories, i'm prefer to short stories."

:🦁: min and max amount of chara that can be requested

as much as i want (various characters)

minimum is two & maximum is four (all works except stories)

stories is only for one character

:🐥: i don't writes for

- suggestive, nsfw, adult content (i'm minors)

- angst

- established relationship, married life, having kids

:🐢: i'm only writing

FEM!READER x MALE!CHARA

FEM!CHARA x MALE!CHARA (occasionaly)

+ info (s) !

i'm used to use character's age in the anime (school student ages)

all characters in my works belong to their anime or manga creators

don't copy my works :(

"i'm still learning English, i'm sorry if there's some mistake. please correct me if i'm wrong, because it will help me so much to i did not do the same things in another works."

"anyway, no hate comments about my stories, okay?"

"y'all reblogs and like is always make my day brighter everyday. please support me always, luv!"

—thania, 2022.

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growup-gloup · 2 years

Text

I posted 632 times in 2021

117 posts created (19%)

515 posts reblogged (81%)

For every post I created, I reblogged 4.4 posts.

I added 565 tags in 2021

#carpe diem - 116 posts

#ama - 89 posts

#anonymous - 88 posts

#education - 56 posts

#relationships - 44 posts

#beauty - 38 posts

#socialize - 38 posts

#health - 34 posts

#style - 32 posts

#grounding box - 30 posts

Longest Tag: 62 characters

#last time i was the dad from cloudy with a chance of meatballs

My Top Posts in 2021

What are some ways to enjoy my own time without feeling like I need a S/O?

12 ways you can productively pass time and not be bored*

*that don't involve binge-watching on netflix or youtube

Learn a new skill

Start playing a new instrument

Learn a new language

Get a new hobby

Attend a course in an obscure niche topic

If you can’t pay for classes, then YouTube and Google are your best friends.

Play with your style and upgrade your wardrobe/hair

Spend time with friends and family. If that is not an option, then join different Facebook, Tumblr, or Discord groups for people in your area, or with interests similar to yours.

Follow your local bloggers and accounts; some of them are promoting free or cheap events around town, which is a great way to make new friends

Get a cookbook, and cook your way through it, one meal a day/week based on your schedule

Watch documentaries and listen to podcasts or audiobooks

Read, both fiction and non-fiction, especially in genres you don’t usually go for

Start a blog about a topic you’re really interested in. Not only will it keep you busy, but the research, the networking, and the travelling you may have to do for it can be an enriching experience

Basically, the best way to keep yourself busy and not feel lonely are things that only only feel good at the time, but enrich you enough that you feel good afterwards, and something productive came out of it. It doesn't mean watching Netflix or YouTube is the root of all evil. I love both of them, but the best things come in moderation. So yes, do that, and then try the aforementioned activities as well.

💋

Ko-Fi

198 notes • Posted 2021-05-27 04:59:36 GMT

How do I become more social if I don’t have much to say to anyone I feel like I’m boring what could I do ?

How to make yourself more interesting?

Read more books. Start with fiction and non-fiction in topics that interest you, and once you've got the hang of reading regularly, you can move onto other genres and topics that you may not be familiar with. If reading is too much, start with audiobooks. You can find a bunch on YouTube to start with.

Watch documentaries. Marathoning shows and movies are fun and can be great conversation topics, but watching documentaries on a variety of topics can help expand your worldview and knowledge. Watch documentaries on different cultures, points in history, animals, and even space. There is always something to learn and there are so many well-filmed documentaries that captivate you as well as any movie.

Listen to different music. People love to talk about their music preferences, and someone knowing your favorite songs is a love language of its own. Check out different genres. Every genre has the top artists that everyone knows and famous songs. Start with those, and if you're starting to enjoy the music, you can expand from there.

Stay up to date with current events. This applies universally but is especially important these days, as there is always something new happening and there everyone has an opinion on the situation. But tread this carefully. Not everyone wants to be constantly bombarded with horror stories on the news, and it's best to steer clear of politics. These conversations come up naturally, but it helps to know what's going on.

Travel more. Even if you don't have the budget to leave your city, there is still so much you can do within 20 km of where you live. There are new restaurants and hangout spots to try. Many public places are either free or have discounts on certain events. That's a great way to experience something and also an idea for a spontaneous hangout with friends.

All these things help expand your worldview and give you more to talk about when you are with a person. The more you've seen and experienced, the more you can talk about it, even if it is to say that you didn't enjoy it.

Once you get talking, you'll also get recommendations, or learn new things from the people you talk to. Take note of that too. Look into the things they recommend. Who doesn't love hearing "Hey, I checked out that book/show/song/place you were telling me about"? Either you enjoyed a new experience, or you have another topic to talk about next time.

If you're not comfortable talking about yourself, that's totally fine. You shouldn't be telling everyone you meet everything anyways. A little mystery is good. People love talking about themselves and their interests, so even if you don't know much about what they're talking about, asking good follow-up questions can keep them engaged in conversation and help you learn something new.

💋

211 notes • Posted 2021-08-27 06:18:05 GMT

Relationships 101

One of the most common questions I get asked about is relationships, and how to approach them. This is about to be one of the longest posts I have ever written, but trust me, you will be glad that you read it.

One of the first things you should do is do a little bit of self-evaluation. Be honest, but don’t be too critical. You are not as bad as you think you are, but at the same time, there is more you can do to take control of the situation than you think. Ask yourself the following questions:

What do you want from yourself? What does your ideal self and life look like? Where do you see yourself in five years? What can you do to get the life you want?

What makes you feel confident? Beautiful? Sensual? It doesn’t have to be the stereotypical ideas of beauty. This is about what YOU do and how it makes YOU feel. It’s personal and everyone will feel good in different ways. You need to know what makes YOU feel that way before you take in other people’s opinions about it.

How do you define love? How do you differentiate romantic love from platonic love? It’s okay if they are very similar. Many people cannot date someone they don’t consider a good friend. Others cannot imagine dating friends.

What makes you feel loved? Words of affirmation? Physical touch (not to be confused with sex)? When someone gives you gifts (not to be confused with pure materialism)? When you spend time with someone doing your own thing but in their company? When someone goes out of their way to do something for you?

What do you often do to show your love for others? Consider the same love languages mentioned above.

What does your ideal partner look like? What do they like to do? What are they like? This is helpful because if you know what you want, you won’t settle for less. It’s not foolproof and the first person you date after this won’t necessarily be your soulmate, but it can help you avoid settling for less than what you deserve and have fewer heartbreaks.

And possibly the most important one:

Are you mentally, physically, socially, and economically in the right place to be a good partner?

The immediate answer is yes for more people but just think about this first. I know our generation is very introverted, but if this pandemic taught us anything, it’s that we NEED love, be it familial, romantic, or platonic. That being said, just because you want a significant other really bad right now, doesn’t mean that it is the best thing for you at the moment. You should know your worth before you seek validation from anyone else.

A relationship is a two-way street. You may want the intimacy and someone who is there for you, but can you genuinely offer the same? Even in my own case, I want to be a good supportive partner, but right now, I need to focus on myself, and if I pursue a relationship right now, I would be balancing the two of us, and it wouldn’t be fair to either of us. That could be one of the reasons people choose to be in a polyamorous relationship, but that is just going off on a different tangent.

Sometimes, your partner’s goals and lifestyle may not align with yours. And that isn’t a bad thing. There is so much you can learn from your significant others that you never even would have thought of otherwise. But what you have to keep in mind is that there will be times that these differences may clash. You need to have some common ground. You both need to be willing to explore each other’s interests that have nothing to do with you. You both also need to accept that sometimes, the other person won’t be as into it as much as you are, but you both should respect each other’s interests regardless.

Another thing to keep in mind is that a good partner makes you want to be the best version of you that you can possibly be. They encourage you to try new things that will benefit you and they take joy in your success. They do not try to change you into their own idea of what a good partner should look like. They will not hold you back from achieving your dreams, and yes, sometimes those dreams can mean that your relationship is not the #1 priority. If your dream school is across the country, and they try to stop you from attending because that means you won’t be able to see each other every day, then that is a problem. A good partner would be willing to try long-distance, or if it isn’t possible, accept that this relationship has come to its natural end, which is fine, and you can part on good terms. Many people say that you can’t be friends with your exes, but it really depends on how much you respected each other during the relationship and after.

Once you consider all these factors, and if you think you are ready to be in a relationship, then you can start looking. Remember earlier on when we talked about knowing what you want? This is the time to apply it. You will likely receive dick messages and people who talk about sex in the first conversation. If sex isn’t the main thing you are looking for, then don’t respond. You are not obligated to respond to people who don’t give you basic respect. The same goes for any other boundary that they keep pushing after you have said that you aren’t comfortable.

With this pandemic, online dating might be the safest bet until everyone is vaccinated. Even if you meet someone in person, try to keep your interactions online so that both of you and your loved ones are safe. If you aren’t ready for dating apps, try online forums of communities you are genuinely interested in.

Depending on what kind of person you are looking for, you can go to certain places to attract them. If you want someone who is really into reading, your best bet would be to join a book club. If you are into sports, maybe attending games might get you talking with someone.

Make sure you are taking care of yourself. You don’t have to look like an Instagram model. In fact, that is an unrealistic standard and you definitely should not look like one. Even Instagram models don’t look like that 24/7. You don’t even have to wear makeup if you don’t want to. But you should be showering daily and brushing your teeth and make sure your hair, nails, and skin are taken care of.

You should also remember not to lose yourself in your relationship. Stay mindful of your goals and ambitions and keep working on them.

One last thing to remember is that growth is not linear, and other people’s milestones do not define you. Some people date a lot in their teens and then remain single in their twenties. Some people don’t date until their late twenties by then, they’ve got a better sense of self, and when they do date, they last pretty long. Some people choose not to date at all and are happiest while other people date casually all the time and are happiest. There is no one-size-fits-all, and there is no right age for a relationship.

💋

Ko-Fi

298 notes • Posted 2021-01-27 08:41:24 GMT

hello!! what are some skills i could develop to gain more independence? i don’t know like sewing and such, something useful (btw i love your blog <3)

10 Skills for Independence

Learning to sew, yes, because that definitely can help you in a pinch and can help you look better while saving money.

Change a car tire. Basically, everything on this channel, and this channel, while we’re at it.

Basic Budgeting and Personal Finance.

Cooking and Baking basics. I recommend Julia Child’s Mastering the Art of French Cooking and Kitchen Wisdom as cookbooks to start with.

Microsoft Office, which includes Excel, Outlook, and Access.

Public Speaking and Conversational Skills. Believe it or not, you can work on that even during lockdown when you aren’t speaking to as many people.

Hobby/Side Income Skill. This can be an art form, like drawing or music, or it could be something practical, like writing. Not only is this good for winding down, but you can also use it as a side hustle if you play your cards right.

Makeup Techniques, if you’re into makeup. Also other self-grooming activities like skincare and hair care.

A New Language. Obscure and ancient languages are cool for impressing people but common languages, like French, Spanish, Mandarin, Hindi, and so on are great for jobs as well. Bonus points if it’s sign language.

Driving, if you don’t have your license yet. If you do, you could always improve your skills, or pick up a new vehicle, like a stick shift or motorcycles.

This is, of course, a nonconclusive list. But it's a good place to start. Maybe one day, I can add a part 2 to this list.

💋

Ko-Fi

417 notes • Posted 2021-05-21 15:51:26 GMT

Image Text:

For all my black friends and their mothers, daughters, and sisters. Therapyforblackgirls.com has licensed black women providing therapy for black girls.

It has been a year since the #BlackLivesMatter protests really took charge all around the world. Since then, much has changed, but there is still a lot to fight for.

And black women, particularly black trans women, need more support. This is a great initiative both for black therapists psychologists but also for the countless of black women who need someone who understands their daily struggles before the trauma conversation even begins.

2990 notes • Posted 2021-06-03 16:22:57 GMT

Get your Tumblr 2021 Year in Review →

#my 2021 tumblr year in review #your tumblr year in review #mod stuff

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xiaonesis · 4 years

Text

left // Ushijima Wakatoshi x Fem!Reader

Repost! Cause my OG post got eaten by Tumblr and I can’t figure out why.

AO3 Version Here

Summary

Being born left-handed has brought a lot of challenges to Ushijima Wakatoshi’s life.

It has also given him the greatest blessing of all.

Pairing: Ushijima Wakatoshi x Fem!Reader

Genre: Fluff, Tooth-Rotting fluff // Warnings: None

Word Count: 3.5k+ words

Being born left-handed has brought a lot of challenges to Ushijima Wakatoshi’s life.

First, there was his mother and her side of the family.

They saw his left-handedness as an anomaly, something that needed to be fixed. A divergence.

Ushijima was young, but he heard their soft whispers in the gardens and halls of their family estate; his mother, grandmother, and aunts, sighing and bemoaning his difference.

That it is bad luck to be left-handed.

Second, the world is dominated by right-handed people.

And appropriately, a lot of things were made for their convenience in mind. Scissors, zippers, mouses, machines…a plethora of designs and systems were designed for the wielders of the right hand. Ever since he was old enough to start doing things on his own, Ushijima had to constantly learn and adapt over the many years of his life, well into his young adulthood and maybe even after, to things that were made for the ruling majority. Not the minority (anomalies, bad luck) like him.

There is always something new that will sprout, be invented with the march of time that only gets faster as Ushijima gets older.

Third, is the challenge of sitting at a dinner table.

Ushijima is aware that he is not the fastest in picking up social cues, but even he is not daft to the glaring lack of space between him and whoever had the misfortune to sit to his left. Even more so, or rather, especially, if they are one of the ruling majority, the wielders of the right hand.

And the chances of that were always high.

As Ushijima grew, this challenge grew with him and the changes in his body. The gap, that was almost conveniently spacious when he was but a boy, shrunk and closed as his widening shoulders and extending arms encroached on that once polite boundary.

Quick glances from his mother across the table and soft apologies to the person on his left increased in frequency over the years.

Tendou would sometimes joke that perhaps his left-handedness turned him into a social misfit and oddity, to the reprimands of Semi yelling at the redhead that Tendou, of all people, should not be saying that.

“Excuse me, is this seat taken?”

Ushijima was not shocked, but he was perturbed the first time he heard your voice speaking to him, drawing his attention to his left where you stood with your tray of food. Rarely did anyone outside of his team address him without falling over themselves stuttering or mumbling nervously.

“No.”

“Would you mind if I sat here then? The other seats are either packed or littered with crumbs, and I would like to keep the remains of someone’s meal off my belongings if possible.”

A quick glance around the crowded school cafeteria showed to Ushijima your exact dilemma, and the sight of spilled miso soup on one table made him answer.

“No.” He didn’t really care.

Your brows furrowed and the friendly smile that had been on your face faltered. “Uh-”

Oh, wait.

“You can sit.”

Your smile was back alongside a wave of relief that floated up with your previously fallen shoulders. “Thank you!”

When you slipped into the space to his left, Ushijima reflexively moved his arm, bringing his left elbow closer to his body.

It was a natural instinct by now, for him to preemptively make space for whoever sat to his left.

The seat to his right was open, and Ushijima being Ushijima didn’t bother too much with wondering or asking if you would be more comfortable sitting there instead, so that his long arms didn’t jab you every time one of you moved to bring food to your mouths. It didn’t occur to him right away that he could also have changed seats; he always sat here with Reon to his right and Tendou across from him with Semi next to him.

Ushijima only thought that maybe he should have moved, or at least mention the other open seat, when your right arm kept brushing his left whenever you reached for your glass, and his elbow poked you in your side for the nth time.

You flinched and giggled with a mouthful of food, spluttering an apology and that you were ticklish every time it happened.

Ushijima realized he never had anyone apologize to him at a dinner table of any kind before, not for the inevitable jabs his left-handedness would cause at least. Never mind laughing at him for it.

Ushijima also found out you talked a lot, and that you can carry on a conversation by yourself without much trouble. And he made the perfect wall for you to lob your words at.

By the time lunch was over, Ushijima knew almost everything about you. Or at least, enough to explain to his teammates who the girl sitting next to him at lunch was.

Yes, you’re the new transfer student from Tokyo due to your father’s work. Yes, you asked to sit next to him. No, he does not think you are a fan of his. No, you do not know that he is the captain of the volleyball team. No, he didn’t mention it, was there a need to? No, he does not know when your birthday is but he knows you have an elder sibling and that you love animals.

Ushijima would, later on, ask his teammates during practice why they were sitting at the table with the spilled miso soup instead of with him at their usual table.

A clean table.

“You looked like you were having fun talking to her so we thought we’d give you space!” Tendou grinned up at his friend. “Didn’t want to disturb you two and all. You guys looked so cozy~!”

Semi rolled his eyes. “It’s more accurate to say that she did most of the talking.”

Ushijima’s brows furrowed in confusion at his friends, particularly Tendou’s teasing smile. “It wasn’t cozy. My arm kept hitting her.”

“It looked like she was hitting on you a lot too~” Tendou quipped back without missing a beat, an underlying tease to his words.

Reon laughed at the deepening frown of confusion on Ushijima.

Of course their captain didn’t pick up on Tendou’s tease.

You continued to sit to his left during lunches.

Each time it happened, Ushijima would look around the cafeteria to see if there was yet another food spill or a sudden increase in student traffic, but the first time was also the last time.

Your arm kept brushing his and his elbows kept digging into your side. But the indignant stares and subtle complaints he had grown to expect never once came.

There were only smiles and laughter, and the occasional, “I’m ticklish!”

He never asked you if you wanted the seat to his right, where you will have more space from him, though the thought lingered in the early beginnings.

Over time, the thought never came to him again. Ushijima naturally thought it was because Reon had returned to take that seat to his right. The rest of his volleyball clubmates returned to the table as well, no longer sitting with spilled soup to the great relief of Semi.

You only began figuring out they were part of the prestigious Shiratorizawa volleyball club when their conversations always turned to focus on the sport, and Tendou finally revealed to you with much excitement that Ushijima is their captain.

Ushijima hadn’t noticed himself remaining conspicuously silent, nor the subtle shift of his left arm a little further away from you.

Many of those he met, and particularly in the school, treated him differently when they realized who he is; when they knew what sort of unattainable superstar of an entity they were speaking to.

Perhaps, even Ushijima himself had been conditioned to expect a different treatment because of this too.

(even if he could never put it into coherent words or conscious thought, somewhere deep inside, Ushijima knows he is human too)

But you continued on as you always had; knocking into his left-side every time you moved, laughing and failing somewhat horribly at covering your mouthful of food, and continued lobbing words at him.

“You’re the captain? Really? Wow! What is that like? So, I guess you’re really good? How high can you jump? Wait, how tall are you again? Is everyone on the team tall? What makes a good spike? What are the rules anyway? I only know you have to jump a lot and stuff. How often do you train?”

In fact, the words came at higher speeds and with increased fervor, a myriad of inquisitive questions about volleyball and what it is like to run a team of sweaty dorks, and Ushijima found himself focusing on your words as much as he would on a powerful spike hurtling towards him from the other side of the court:

With his full intent to receive and return them.

Ushijima never noticed Tendou quietly nudging Semi’s waist, their mouths in varying twists of surprise, at the sight of their captain slowly but surely speaking more to this person that was neither a fan nor a volleyball diehard.

“We have a game next weekend. You should come,” Ushijima cluelessly invited you and you naturally agreed with gusto.

That was the final blow for the Shiratorizawa volleyball club third-years (and soon after, the second and first years when the news traveled down the vine) to start tacitly rooting for the pair before them. It was the prestigious volleyball club’s first real ‘ship,’ and one that would continue to be myth whispered in the school halls long after they have graduated.

The team also officially dubbed any seat to Ushijima’s left as your official designated space.

(one lunchtime, Goshiki tried to sit there out of some strange desire to fight with the current Ace and subtly force you to sit to his left out of petty competitiveness, but he was promptly booted off by Shirabu. Something about “not getting in Ushijima-san’s way!”).

Ushijima noticed you always sat, or stood, to his left at everything very early on, lunch naturally included.

But it isn’t until months later, towards the end of the school year, that Ushijima finally realized his friends always pointedly left that space open for you.

It happened during one of his regular jogs with the chilly evening air breezing past his warm skin, when it clicked in his head from out of nowhere just as he was about to turn towards his dorm room, right by the school gym.

Ushijima looked to his left then (where you would always be), towards the school gym where he spent so many of his junior and high school days with his teammates and friends, practicing till the skin of their arms burned red; where they rested on benches as snacks were passed around amongst tired chatters; where they collectively completed their hundred serves doled out by Coach Washijo; where they changed with gossip passed between the louder members in the locker rooms.

The gym where he never would have spent so much time with his teammates and friends, if not for his father and his careful nurturing.

His father protected his left hand, called it his greatest power; but it became more than that, more than just a powerful cannon that blew his opponents away.

Ushijima felt the rarely used muscles of his cheeks lift.

♠♥♤♥♠

“Your handwriting is so neat.”

Ushijima stared at you squinting down at his permission slip where he had signed his name for the Coach. As always, you were sat to his left at the lunch table, the others still lining up for their food.

“Thanks.”

“I mean it!”

Your brows scrunched and you began fishing out your notebook from your school bag. Flipping it wide open, you showed your own handwriting to him.

“Look at mine!”

Ushijima took the notebook you all but shoved into his hands, examining your penmanship closely. He noted that you write with a pencil, compared to the rest of the student body that had a preference for pens.

Ushijima plainly and truthfully commented on it. “It’s smudged.”

“Exactly!” You exclaimed, taking your notebook back from him with a grimace.

“Switch to a pen. It wouldn’t smudge as much.”

A piece of logical and natural advice that is wholly Ushijima.

“Yeaaah, but the ink can still smudge! And I feel more comfortable with a pencil; I can erase my mistakes easily.” You pulled a face at your kanji notebook and Ushijima almost smiled at the sight; you had mentioned to him more than once that you hated kanji, that you didn’t do too well with it. The idea of telling you to work on your mistakes flitted past his mind but never left his mouth.

Ushijima watched as you flexed the fingers of your left hand with a look of wonder. “You’re so lucky you can write with your left hand! I wonder if it is too late for me to become ambidextrous…”

Ushijima blinked at your words in surprise.

“Why do you say that?”

Ushijima could easily think of all the inconvenient and inefficient reasons why him being left-handed had been challenging. The first time he used a computer mouse in elementary school was the worst, until he purchased one for left-handers. Ultimately, he finally discovered how to reroute the settings with the help of several friends (he never has been too technologically inclined).

“Your handwriting will never ever get smudged because we write from right to left!” You childishly sighed, flexing your left fingers once more.

You nudged into his side and patted his dominant hand with a smile as bright as day.

“Left-handers are so lucky.”

“You know, people nowadays write from left to right in Japanese too.” Tendou quipped as he slipped into the chair in front of the Ace.

“Yea but not always!” You protested.

Ushijima didn’t have much to say, nor did he really pay attention, to yours’ and Tendou’s fresh debate about the Japanese writing system that quickly descended into an argument about potentially discriminating remarks against right-handed people versus simply complimenting someone’s left-handed writing prowess.

He merely looked down at his left hand, chopstick held neatly between his fingers, laid next to your right arm on the table (it was then he remembered his mother telling him many, many years ago that being left-handed is bad luck).

The spoon you held fell lax and clattered onto your plate the further your intense debate with Tendou escalated.

Your right-hand suddenly slapped the table, nearly knicking Ushijima’s chopsticks and the back of his hand.

Semi, who just joined the table, said something to you about being careful and not being rude but Ushijima didn’t mind. He didn’t tell Semi that, of course; he thought his silence was enough of a tell.

Ushijima lifted his hand to continue with his meal just as yours reached for your bowl of soup. And for a moment so quick, the skin of your hand brushed across the back of his.

It was a moment, a time, an instant, so small and quick and insignificant but it was enough to make Ushijima think.

Perhaps being left-handed isn’t as inconvenient or as unlucky as he thought.

♠♥♤♥♠

“Toshi! I’m so sorry, did you wait long?”

“No, I just arrived.”

You grinned up at him sheepishly, round cheeks pink and flushed from your light run up to him despite the cold weather.

His brows lightened at the view of your smile, to which the corners of your lips lifted even further with two little dots. To anyone else, Ushijima would have looked as expressionless and blank as a piece of printing paper but to you who knows every little shift of his facial tells by now, that slight lift of his brow was a very good sign: Ushijima is relaxed and content; happy.

“Thank god! We’re still going to be a bit early for the reunion party with the others but I was so worried I made you wait! It’s cold out today.”

“Do you need a heating pad? I brought one for you.”

You giggled but shook your head no, cheeks flushing redder at his sweet gesture. “Nope, don’t need it because you’re here now~! You’re my personal heater!”

Ah, that’s right. That he is, as you often tell him ever since the two of you began dating.

So as your personal heater, Ushijima lifted his right-hand for you to take, noting your favorite drink curled around your own right-hand.

A pout crossed your lips, and the drink was swiftly traded into your other hand. Shuffling to his left-side, you slipped your right-hand into his left, with yet another cheeky grin, and a song in your voice.

“It’s more comfortable this way~”

This time, a smile accompanied the soft lift of his brow; a content, happy smile.

His hand, larger than yours by far, gently squeezed yours, eliciting a serene hum from you as you snuggled into his side. The cozy heat that always coursed through his body seeped into yours despite the layers of clothing.

And though you claimed to be cold and that you will steal all his body heat, Ushijima has never felt warmer than he does now.

“It certainly is.”

♠♥♤♥♠

Ushijima stood straight, and maybe even a little tense, as he stood before the man who would bind you and him together forever, for a second time.

His mother insisted on a traditional wedding, naturally. That had taken place just a week ago for his and your family members, and a handful of select close friends in attendance.

This one though is for all of both your friends combined (and family members that wish to attend your union to him a second time).

It was a strange thing in his traditional family to have a church wedding; different really, but here he is, standing to your right and you to his left, as you always have.

You had always dreamt of wearing the white dress and walking down the aisle. So even though you said you were fine with having a traditional wedding, who was Ushijima to deny you your wishes and dreams?

When he finally got down on his knees before you and your eyes sparkled like raining stars, Ushijima had silently promised himself, and you, that he will give you everything that you deserved.

He promised it to the ring and stone that shone in his left hand as he raised it, slipping it perfectly onto the fourth finger of your left hand, that he will make you as happy as you made him.

Happier, even.

Now, as he felt your fingers sneakily tickle the back of his left hand whilst the faux-looking priest spoke, Ushijima definitely did not mind the extra hit his bank account has taken to have a second wedding.

Not when it felt so right, so perfect, to have you here by his left side once again, with you looking ethereal in your simple white dress as you did during the first wedding in your grand and equally white shirokakeshita kimono.

You look beautiful in white.

Ushijima doubts he will ever get tired of being wedded to you, and he might already be saving for another wedding for your 20th anniversary.

His left hand slipped into your right, slowly turning you so that you fully faced him.

Whatever small tension he might have had prior slipped away, dispersing into the air alongside the breath that left him at the sight of you, blushing exactly like a bride.

He felt your hand squeeze his left.

“I do.”

♠♥♤♥♠

Being born left-handed has brought a lot of blessings to Ushijima Wakatoshi’s life.

First, it expanded his horizons in volleyball.

Under the caring and dedicated protection of his father, being left-handed became one of his most powerful weapons. It blasted wide open walls that seek to deter him, carving out the path to victory for him and his team, over and over. It held the firepower that turns an unassuming ball into a spinning bullet of pure speed and power.

But that was not the only thing it expanded for Ushijima.

It gave him his friends, especially Tendou, his best friend.

It also gave him years worth of memories and experiences that shaped him into the person he is, that he will be, as he moves towards the world stage to represent his country in the Olympics.

Second, his writing never got smudged. Never.

And third…

In his childhood, he thought of his left-handedness as something he had to be careful of whenever he sat with his family and others at the dinner table.

Now, your right-hand constantly knocked into his as you ate, with words of compliments for his grandmother’s cooking spilling from your mouth during New Year’s Eve, and Ushijima thinks that there will never be a day where he will get tired of it.

(The third is the greatest blessing that being left-handed has brought to Ushijima’s life.)

His left hand is the hand that bears the golden band that told the world with a quiet power, a power much like Ushijima himself, unashamed and unabashed, that he is yours and you are his.

And Ushijima feels blessed.

If you enjoyed this, please do check out my Haikyuu Reverse Harem Series, Ghosts We See, and other works 🥰 and mayhaps spare a reblog please? <33

#haikyuucreations #ushijima x reader #ushijima wakatoshi x reader #ushijima wakatoshi #haikyuu x reader #haikyuu captains x reader #haikyuu captains #tendou satori #shiratorizawa #semi eita #haikyuu imagines #haikyuu fanfiction #haikyuu #ushiwaka

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here4theheartbreak · 2 years

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All I Want for Christmas Ch.8 (Final) - A Christmas Miracle(ksj+pjm)

AO3 Link Here!

Relationships: Jimin x Seokjin Genre: angst, fluff, smut Rating: Explicit Chapter Word Count: ~3.8k

All Fic Tags: Angst, Fluff, Smut, Holidays, Small Towns, Homophobia, Angst with a Happy Endings, Past Relationships, Bullying, Attempted Infidelity, Homophobic Slurs, Bad Parenting, Discussion of Divorce, Rough, Face-Fucking, Dirty Talk, Spanking, Bottom!Jin, Top!Jimin, Happy Ending

Summary: Seokjin returns to his small hometown after a decade, hoping for a Hallmark holiday romance. He learns he didn’t have to go so far from home for it.

A/N: Sorry for the lack of a header image on these chapters; Tumblr has decided to rename itself Karen and get a shitty dye job - it will only let the post appear in tags if I don’t have an image.

A/N 2: This fic is also written for @thebtswritersclub December Project - it was an ornament style project in which a particular word needed to be used in both the title and the fic itself; my word was “Christmas”.

Jin woke early on Christmas morning, laughing a little to himself when he realized it was snowing lightly. How cliché – a Christmas dusting in a tiny little town. Hallmark movie material indeed. He headed into the kitchen, pecking his mother’s cheek and nodding to his father.

“When do we head in to start?” He asked, leaning on the counter as he sipped the coffee Jihae offered.

“Probably about an hour. Honestly, you don’t really need to come until later. A lot of what I’ll be doing is just running around and picking up finished things from others. I won’t need help until we start really setting up the area in the park.”

Every year the town did a Christmas tree lighting in the park. Prior to the lighting, there was always a large tent set up, filled with goodies and gifts, treats, and other things from the town, a community gift exchange, as it were.

“Well, then give me a list of folks to gather stuff from,” Jin suggested. “You know the ones that won’t kick me out on sight, and it’ll still shorten your running around.”

She sighed, brows furrowed. “You were never so helpful as a child.”

Jin grinned. “Took me a few years. I’ve gotta make up for giving you all those grey hairs.”

She gasped, swatting Jin in the belly as he laughed.

In the end, Jin did win, earning a list of shops and addresses that he was supposed to go gather items from. With only one car they decided to split the lists by blocks, so each of them could finish all the gathering in a certain block area before moving on, to make it less difficult to carry things.

The air was cold enough that Jin could see his breath, but not biting. The snow had stopped for the moment, but the clouds looked ready to open for another dusting at any moment. Jin moved steadily through the list, taking a few moments to chat politely with those that wanted to, but keeping a good pace. He knew from past experience that the tent always took a while to set up, even after gathering all the items.

First block, second, third – the two knocked them out easily. The car was getting full, but Jin figured they could manage the last few without too much difficulty. He was rounding the corner to head to the craft store when he heard his name being called.

Jin stopped, turning to search for the voice.

“Hey, Kim Seokjin!”

Much to Jin’s surprise, Eunyoung was hurrying across the street. His chest clenched at the sight of her, remembering how they’d left things. He tucked away the list and smiled as she approached, trying to remain neutral.

“Eunyoung. How’ve you been?”

She nodded and smiled, but it faded quickly into a frown and she shook her head. “Not great.”

Jin’s neutral smile drooped. “I’m sorry… Jaeho…”

She nodded.

“Look, Eunyoung, I know you want me to stay away, but I just wanted to apologize. I didn’t—”

Eunyoung grimaced and went forward. She slammed into Jin hard, hugging him tightly and silencing him mid-sentence.

“I—” He hugged back after a moment, confused, but happy that she opted for a hug instead of a slap, at the very least.

She stepped back after a moment. “I was a bitch.”

“What?”

“When you told me about Jaeho. I lashed out and it wasn’t fair to you. I was being a bitch because I was hurt.”

“No… Eunyoung, you had every right.”

“No, I didn’t. My choices were my own. Blaming you for them… That isn’t right. You were always there for me. And I was upset when you left, I felt abandoned. But honestly… Thinking on it, even if you had offered to take me, I wouldn’t have said yes. It would’ve made no difference. I was cruel to take out my anger on you.”

Jin smiled weakly. He reached up, stroking her cheek. “Apology accepted. But really, I get it. I should have reached out more, again, tried harder. I’m sorry we lost touch, and I’m sorry I wasn’t there. I wish I could’ve been. Even if you don’t blame me, I know my actions did influence this all.”

“Maybe.” She shrugged. “But it doesn’t really matter. You kept yourself safe. You did what you had to. Hating you over that is as cruel as any of the times Jaeho beat on you.”

Jin sighed. “What are you going to do? About him?”

She shrugged. “I don’t know. I confronted him. About the situation. About what he did. He tried to start drama at the factory over it.”

Jin chuckled. “I know, my dad came home and went after me for it.”

“I’m sorry,” she grimaced. “I shouldn’t have said anything…”

“No. God, no. Don’t ever apologize for that. Eunyoung, you have a right to speak up, you have a voice. Never stay silent when someone’s hurting you.”

“I want to leave him,” she admitted. “He’s not good to the kids and he’s barely tolerable for me. Lately I’ve been finding every excuse I can to stay out on Mr. Oh’s farm with my father… I told him about what Jaeho did. Of course he didn’t believe me.” She rolled her eyes. “Assumed you started it.”

Jin snorted. “Not surprised.”

“Me neither.” She sighed heavily. “But if I leave…” She drifted off.

“What about going back to school?” Jin offered. “You always loved math, what about an accounting degree, or something that you can put to use right away in a lot of jobs?”

“I have no money saved. And if I do leave him…” She shrugged. “I don’t know that I’d win much besides my clothes and my kids.”

“The house is yours, isn’t it?”

“Sure, but it’s my father’s, technically. And he’s not going to side with me.”

“There’s scholarships, loans that you can take out. It’s what I did.”

“I’m a bit old, aren’t I?”

“Not even close, I have a friend six years older than us who’s just starting school.”

“The kids?”

“There’s plenty of great programs in the city,” Jin said. “Online school for you, after school programs for the kids. I’m not telling you to divorce him, or to move to the city, but I’m just throwing suggestions.”

Eunyoung smiled softly, shaking her head. “I hate it.”

“Hate what?”

“This. Us. If things had been different… If we’d been… Compatible. I could’ve ended up with a sweet guy like you… Instead I settled for Jae.”

“Dating or not, Eunyoung…” Jin took her hands. “I’m not gonna run off again.”

“Oh, sure, you’re gonna leave your job and come here to live?”

Jin chuckled. “No, I’m going home in a few days. But what I mean… Is coming here was good for me. I fixed a lot that I’d left bad, and I learned some new things. I don’t see myself staying away too long.”

“Yeah? Only eight years instead of ten?”

Jin chuckled. “I’m planning on coming back this summer actually. A short visit. To pick up Jinki and Daeun’s kid.”

“Why?” She asked, her brows furrowing.

Jin shrugged. “Kid loves dance. My company does a camp for kids, it’s a month in the summer, sort of a music camp. I’m gonna sponsor their kiddo this year. So I have to come up and get them, and drop them off after. And who knows, maybe I’ll come up more often.”

Eunyoung chuckled. “You having a preteen for a whole month?”

“Why is everyone shocked by that?” Jin asked, exasperated. She laughed this time, shaking her head.

“I think it sounds cute. It’ll be fun.”

“I hope so. But what I’m saying is… I’ll be here more often. And when I’m not here… You have my number. If you need someone to talk to, I’m a call or a text away. If you need a place to crash in the city, I am more than happy to help. My apartment is small and if you choose to come while their kiddo’s there I can’t guarantee you’ll have much room, but,” he chuckled, “my door’s always open. And if you do decide to leave Jaeho… I can help you find a good lawyer, get what you deserve. I can work to help you get set up elsewhere too. Another town, the city… We can figure it out.”

Eunyoung’s expression softened as Jin spoke. She nodded, a small smile curving her mouth. “Even after I was so mean… You’d do all that?”

“I don’t think you were mean,” Jin said. “You were hurting. There was a wound that was ten years old that I ripped open this month, and then I dropped a bomb on your lap. You were upset, and you were hurt, and you reacted. It hurt, but… I’m not mad over it, and I understand it. And even if you were being mean… I love you, Eunyoung. I always have. Maybe not in the way that everyone wished, but… I care deeply for you. I want you happy and safe.”

She nodded, her chin wrinkling a little. Jin could see her eyes glazing a bit and knew she was trying not to cry.

He leaned forward, pressing a kiss to the corner of her mouth. “Don’t cry, it’s Christmas,” he said softly.

“Careful, someone’s gonna assume I’m having an affair with the city boy,” she teased.

“Oh yes, as if my inability to get an erection for a girl isn’t already printed in the town archives,” Jin joked, grinning when she laughed.

“What are you doing now?” Jin asked.

“I was looking for you. I went to your house but your Dad said you were in town helping your Mom with the event.”

“Yeah, gotta get the rest of the stuff. Wanna join me for a bit?”

Eunyoung chewed her lip, glancing around. “Can’t hurt,” she said. “My kids are with their grandpa until the event, then we’ll all come.”

“Where’s Jae?” Jin asked carefully. They began walking toward the craft shop.

“At home, I’d guess.” She chuckled. “I haven’t seen him for a few days… And I don’t particularly want to.”

“Probably for the best,” Jin admitted. He knocked on the door of the shop and waited, waving at the owner when she peeked out of the window.

The two worked together to get the last of Jin’s list done. As they placed the final box in the car, Eunyoung sighed. “I should go back, hang out with my kiddos and Dad for a while.”

“I’ll see you tonight,” Jin said.

“Yeah. Call me before you leave, okay? I wanna say bye.”

Jin nodded. He hugged Eunyoung tightly. “Thank you for finding me. For talking to me.” He said softly.

“I couldn’t leave things like that. It wasn’t fair.”

“Keep me posted too. On what you decide with Jae. No matter what, I’ll do what I can to help.”

“I appreciate that.” She leaned up, pecking Jin on the cheek. “Merry Christmas, Jin.”

“Same to you, Eunyoung.”

He watched her walk away before heading down the street to find his mother and help her.

Jin worked the rest of the afternoon helping his mother set up the tent. There were a few other townsfolk that popped in to help, but the mother and son duo managed most of it, finishing just in time for folks to start showing up. The sun began to set without Jin noticing; he was too busy helping folks as he could and organizing the tent as the groups came and went. Though the town was small, this event was the largest of the winter, and near everyone came to it, so it felt like a lot.

Jinki’s family came by toward evening, and Jin earned another hug from Jia. She held out her arms. “Like it?” She asked, showing off her coat. It was a light pink puffer jacket with a rich purple faux fur hood.

“It looks warm,” Jin said. “It suits you.” She beamed.

“Dad got it for me for Christmas.”

Jin met Jinki’s gaze and smirked. “I wonder if he had some help.”

“Dad’s secret,” Jinki joked.

Jia pulled at Jin until he leaned down a bit. “I told them last night,” she whispered. “About starting… Puberty. We’re moving my appointment up a little… I think we’ll start medicine in January.”

Jin grinned. “Excellent. I hope it goes smoothly.” He squeezed her shoulder. “Keep me updated.”

“I will.”

“Merry Christmas, kiddo.”

She grinned and headed off, waving to a boy across the park before rushing over to him. Daeun hugged Jin tightly. “In case we don’t see you before you go. Thank you, we’ll keep in touch.”

“Of course.” He kissed her cheek. He squeezed Jinki’s hand when he extended it.

“Thank you,” Jinki said. “I’m glad you’re back in our lives.”

“So am I,” Jin agreed honestly. He watched them walk off for a moment before his attention was taken by Mr. Ahn, who’d come by to ask a question.

The crowded thinned out to the point that Jin was able to combine the remaining items on to one table as the sun fully dropped. The moonlight glinting off the snow gave a soft glow to everything, and the streetlights cast even more. The residents were beginning to gather around the tree, soft Christmas music playing through some speakers that had been set up around it.

Jin circled around the table, scanning the darkened area for his parents.

“Hey city stranger.”

The voice hit like a bucket of ice water. Jin froze. He stared straight ahead, almost afraid to turn around. He could have been imagining it, he supposed… He’d been busy all day, hadn’t eaten much… But he could feel someone staring.

Jin turned around slowly. It was no hallucination. Jimin stood a few feet away. He was wearing an expensive looking peacoat and black jeans tucked into boots. His hair was covered with a warm winter hat, and his hands were tucked into his pockets. Cheeks ruddy with the cold, Jin could see his breath escaping in little puffs through his slightly parted lips.

Jin set his jaw, the pain of the week prior ripping his through his stomach once more.

Jimin smiled, but it faded when Jin didn’t react. “I fucked up,” Jimin said softly, just loud enough for Jin to hear.

Jin remained silent. He tucked his own hands into his coat pockets.

Jimin looked down. He sighed, his shoulders rising and falling. He looked back up at Jin. “I’m sorry I ran.”

Jin clenched his teeth. “Fine. Apology accepted.” He turned on his heel, heading toward the crowd. He heard crunching snow and Jimin’s hand wrapped around his arm, yanking him back. Jin wrenched his arm free and spun around, much closer to Jimin than he thought. “What do you want?” He hissed.

Jimin flinched, looking up at him. “I want to explain.”

“You already did. In your letter.”

“No. I—” Jimin sighed. “I thought I did. I thought I was doing the right thing. I was a coward. I was scared of hurting you, and I—”

“You weren’t scared of hurting me,” Jin hissed. “If you had been you would’ve told me to my face the problem, instead of leaving me a note and scurrying back to the city with your tail between your legs. You were protecting yourself.”

“Fine.” Jimin nodded. “That’s fair. And I thought I was. I’ve never done… Relationships. I’ve never been asked to. So when you did I—I froze. I figured I wasn’t capable of it. So I freaked and I ran.”

“Yeah, I noticed. Still doesn’t explain why you came back. You got what you wanted already.”

Jimin blinked, a startled pain crossing his features momentarily. “What I wanted? What do you think… What do you think I wanted, Jin?”

“You got the contracts. You got a piece of ass. Everything a young city professional needs to be happy.”

Jimin winced again, looking down. “Also a fair accusation. But it’s not true.” He sighed. “Please, let me talk… You can be mad, but… Please hear me out.”

Jin nodded, crossing his arms.

“I did go back to the city planning to try and forget about you. I thought it was what was right. What worked. You and I were in different places. You wanted long term and a calm happiness and I’m… Just so much. A big ball of chaos. I… I don’t do calm or stable, and I never have. I didn’t think it was for me. But this past week, I… Every day I spent most of the day thinking about you. But not just… You. About what you’d said. About how that could feel. I’d go to sleep imagining what it’d be like to wake up next to the same person every day. Come home and go on dates with just one person, telling stories and remembering important events and birthdays and…” He sighed softly. “I’ve never had that, and I didn’t think I wanted it. When I thought about it that night, it scared me. But as it kept… Sitting in my mind I started to long for it. And I started to long for you. I didn’t realize how… Fucking head over heels I am for you, or how fast it happened.”

Jimin sniffled. He pulled a hand from his pocket and wiped the corner of his eye, blinking quickly. “I knew I’d fucked up. About halfway through the week. I knew it, and I… I wanted to text or call. But I knew that I’d hurt you. So I tried to stay away. But it’s just… Eating me up inside and I needed to see you again. I needed to tell you I was wrong, and I’m sorry for what I did.”

Jimin met Jin’s gaze, his eyes wet. Jin felt his heart clench a little, his expression softening a bit. He was still upset, but Jimin was being genuine. That meant something, at least.

“I don’t expect you to agree to try dating me seriously again. I know I may have lost that gift and I wouldn’t blame you at all. But I… I’m hoping that I can earn your trust and forgiveness and that… Maybe we can at least be friends.”

Jin sighed. He didn’t know exactly how to answer. Jimin’s words tossed in his mind like a small tidal wave, warring with the pain of the letter and the hurt he’d felt over the week.

“They’re going to light the tree soon,” Jin said softly. “Come watch it with me.”

He set his hand on Jimin’s shoulder and guided him over toward the crowd. They stood at the back of it, close enough to see, but not close enough to be easily overheard.

Jin could feel Jimin staring at him as they stood side by side. He remained silent though, and for that Jin was grateful. He needed some time to process and to think. His heart was screaming one thing, his mind was screaming another. Two warring sides, and he wasn’t sure which one to follow.

Finally, he looked at Jimin. “You hurt me a lot. What you did.”

Jimin nodded.

“I wish you’d just talked to me. Let me know how you were feeling. I could have talked it through with you, and we could have decided to take it slower, or maybe to just be friends… If you’d talked, it would have saved both of us from this week’s heartache.”

Jimin nodded again, closing his eyes.

“I fell hard for you too, Jimin. Harder than I have for anyone in a very long time. When I let you have sex with me, it wasn’t a casual whim, I… I did feel something.”

“Do you still?” Jimin whispered, meeting his gaze.

“I—” Jin froze. Jimin’s shoulders sank.

“Or is it just pain now?” He whispered.

“There’s hurt,” Jin agreed. “But… I can’t say I don’t… It’d be a lie. I do still feel something for you. I wouldn’t be so hurt if I didn’t. I’m scared you’ll hurt me again.”

“I understand. I can say I won’t but… We both know it’s easy to say things and do something else.”

“It is.” Jin nodded. “And it’s easy to make mistakes. Sometimes big ones, some small… We all fuck up. It’s how we grow. You learned that a boring, stable life might not be so bad after all.”

Jimin smiled softly and nodded. “It sounds nice, actually,” he confessed, looking down.

“People grow and change… If this trip has taught me anything it’s that. So holding a grudge for a mistake that someone’s learned from is… Unfair, I think.”

Jimin looked over again. “Does that mean… You’ll give me another chance?”

Jin pursed his lips a moment. “We’ll take it slow. I don’t expect a marriage license and a shared apartment in the first week. Dates… Some nights together. Some days hanging out… Stability and… Dating with the intent of long term, if it works. That’s a good place to start.”

Jimin’s mouth curved upward into a tentative smile.

Suddenly, the park was lit with a rainbow of lights. Jin looked up, seeing the large tree decorated with baubles and strings of light, shining brightly. He smiled softly. “That’s so much more beautiful than I remember.” He whispered.

“It’s stunning,” Jimin agreed. “I’m glad I got to see it… This stuff doesn’t happen in the city.”

Jin looked at Jimin, reaching over and taking his hand. He twined their fingers together. Jimin’s face was lit up by the lights of the tree, and the chatter of the townsfolk was growing as they milled around it. It wouldn’t be long before they were noticed.

“A good place to start?” Jin said again, leaving it a question. Jimin nodded.

“I think that’s an excellent place to start.”

Jin smiled softly. “I’m sorry we fought,” he said.

“Me too. I’ll work harder to talk to you… I won’t run.”

“Please don’t,” Jin whispered. He touched Jimin’s cheek gently. “Just trust me, okay? We can get through things.”

Jimin smiled softly. “I trust you.”

Their lips met tentatively at first, but deepened naturally. Jin pulled Jimin a little closer, wrapping an arm around his middle as they kissed under the Christmas lights.

It wasn’t exactly the Hallmark romance that he’d gone to his hometown wishing for. There was no reformed school bully or magically handsome classmate. But there was a big city businessman, stuck in a small town for the holidays with lessons to be learned about love. No, it wasn’t a cliché trope. It was better. He won the heart of the handsome stranger… And learned that he already had everything else he needed, right at home.

#thebtswritersclub #networkbangtan #bangtanarmynet #jinmin #jimin x seokjin #seokjin x jimin #mywriting

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rallamajoop · 3 years

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The Witcher: The Games vs the Books part 2 – Characters and Accents

So, I've already talked at length about the relationship between the Witcher books and games, but how well they captured individual characters is its whole own subject – and you’d better believe I have enough thoughts on it for a whole extra post.

Andrej Sapkowski's skill for creating vivid and engaging characters really is so much of what brings the books to life, and no matter how much work an adaptation might put into worldbuilding and plot, it's the characters you've really got to nail to get the long-time fans on board. Especially when you’ve done what the games have, framing themselves as a direct continuation of Sapkowski's story. Nothing invites comparison to your source material like basically forcing fans to read the original novels to understand even half the backstory alluded to in-game.

So how did they do? I can only offer my opinion – characterisation is necessarily going to be a lot more subjective than just telling you what plot points the games contradicted outright – but like any fan, I have opinions in plenty.

Of the main cast, I feel Yennefer is the character they've captured the best. They've done just as well with some supporting players – I have no real complaints about Dijkstra or Phillipa, for example, who are favourites of mine in both games and books. For the main players though, Geralt and Regis seem to be the ones who's differences I'm most inclined to forgive, whereas I don't feel like they've done Ciri justice at all. Book!Geralt is much less of a smartarse, for one thing, whereas Book!Ciri is much more of one. But if we're talking about the differences, I’m afraid we really need to start with Dandelion.

Dandelion

For all the genuinely good work the games do with characters, old and new, I don't think I can overstate what a disservice the they've done Dandelion, who I could not stand in TW3, but is now one of my favourite book!verse characters. Alas, Dandelion is a prime example of something the Witcher games really don't do well: camp. Being the archtypical bard, Dandelion is about as flamboyant as any enthusiastically-heterosexual man can be: you should be able to spot this guy by body language alone, he should be flouncing around and he should talk like a spoiled noble auditioning for Shakespeare. Book!Dandelion is over-the-top and ridiculous and just so much fun, and I loved him well before I'd even really gotten into the rest of the books around him.

Here's just a bit of dialogue from one of his first appearances, to give you a sense of how he and Geralt play off each other.

The bard seized the fingerboard of his lute and plucked the strings vigorously. ‘How would you prefer it, in verse or in normal speech?’ ‘Normal speech.’ ‘As you please,’ Dandelion said, not putting his lute down. ‘Listen then, noble gentlemen, to what occurred a week ago near the free town of Barefield. ‘Twas thus, that at the crack of dawn, when the rising sun had barely tinged pink the shrouds of mist hanging pendent above the meadows—’ ‘It was supposed to be normal speech,’ Geralt reminded him. ‘Isn’t it? Very well, very well. I understand. Concise, without metaphors. A dragon alighted on the pastures outside Barefield.’

Though TW3's Dandelion certainly looks the part, you have to go hunting through art from the Gwent cards to find much that comes close to really capturing his personality (see left pic below – though even there, a Dandelion who'd voluntarily break his treasured lute is a very hard sell). Though a lot of fanart does better (right-below – credit goes to Tatiana Ortaliz).

But as poorly as the games capture his flamboyance, they're not that much better when it comes to taking him seriously. TW3 left me thinking he was all talk and no substance; the books make abundantly clear that he really is renowned enough to be welcome in courts across the continent. Though he often overestimates what he can talk himself out of, he isn’t stupid either: he's lectured at Oxenfurt, spied for Dijkstra, and then there are the moments where the frivolous playboy mask slips and you realise he's sometimes much better at understanding people and relationships than Geralt will ever be (which is honestly kind of funny considering how many of Dandelion’s relationships end with plates being thrown at him from an upper story). He's not at all above mocking Geralt when he deserves it either (and especially his personal and relationship issues) – Geralt will happily mock him right back.

We never do learn how they became friends (I'm pretty sure the incident listed in the wiki is just the date of their first expedition together, not their first meeting), but Geralt just doesn't form lasting friendships or romances with anyone he can't have an intelligent conversation with. And Dandelion is a damn good friend to Geralt – one who, despite being a helpless, squishy little bard, will keep Geralt's secrets under torture, or will follow him into Nilfgaard in the middle of a war simply because you don't let a friend make a trip like that alone. (Seriously, I don’t ship it nearly as much as some, but hot damn there is some material in here if you do.) In short, it's basically inconceivable that he'd leave an amnesic Geralt wandering around Vizima alone, as he does in the first Witcher game – which is the kind of thing I can mostly forgive as a gameplay conceit, only it doesn’t really get better from there.

He’s also supposed to be blond, something I don’t think is technically specified until fairly late in the novels, but 100% what I’d been picturing since his first description as a man in a colourful bonnet with cornflower-blue eyes (let’s face it: Dandelion’s hair isn’t the only thing about him that screams ‘blond’). It’s a shame no-one from the games to the show to the novels’ cover artists seem to have noticed – but at least there are some fanartists out there who were paying attention (credit for these goes to Asphaloth, Ghostcupdraws, Hvit-ravn (tumblr deleted), 94355 and itsmespicaa).

As for the games? Well, I cannot speak to how Dandelion came across in the original Polish, but I think it speaks worlds about the priorities of the English version that they didn’t even bother to cast someone with a halfway-decent singing voice as their master bard. There are isolated moments of dialogue that come close to sounding like book!Dandelion– mostly in Witcher 2, which comes closer to capturing the spirit of the books than either 1 or 3, or his attempts to convince his captor he's a disguised noble when you rescue him TW3 – but his voice actor is just painfully ill-suited to the role.

Geralt

Geralt fares much better than Dandelion, though he’s still a little hard to square with the Geralt of the books. Book!Geralt spends a lot more time sulking, just to begin with: he sulks because his job is complicated and gets him no respect, and because the world is unjust and unfair – and, most of all, he sulks because Yennefer has dumped him again. He also gets mocked for sulking, and usually deserves it. Book!Geralt is generally a lot more taciturn and a less prone to making smart comments just to have something to say – arguably because in book!Geralt's world, making smart comments often ends at the gallows, or at least with some corrupt official making your life much harder. Book!Geralt's world kind of sucks, and he's just got to put up with it.

As much as he often plays into the expectations of being an uneducated monster hunter, he's also got a more of an intellectual streak than you’d guess. He may prefer to stay out of politics (because damnit, his job is to save people from monsters, not people who are monsters), but he attended school at Nenneke's temple and has even taken classes at Oxenfurt academy, and there's a lot of thoughtful nuance to his opinions – his speech to Ciri about why he can't in good conscience take a stronger stance against the Scoiata'el contains a wealth of historical perspective, just for one example. Even his smart comments tend to be, well, somewhat smarter in the books.

Book!Geralt’s explicitly a lot younger than Yennefer – around 50 is the usual estimate, falling far short of the 100-ish the games suggest (the scandal of having a man fall for – gasp! – an older woman clearly didn’t bother Sapkowski one bit). You don’t see nearly as much "I'm getting too old for this" from book!Geralt, who's really not that old by witcher standards, and is apparently still hunting monsters long into his future. I'm also a little annoyed by the way they play off his hatred of portals like he's a grumpy old man who doesn't like mobile phones, when his distrust originally came from having seen the gruesome deaths that result when portals go wrong. This is not to say Book!Geralt lacks other ordinary human flaws, however – twice in the last two books of the main saga, he gets severely sidetracked after his ego gets the better of him (in the adulation he receives after being knighted, then after arriving in Toussaint), and it's quite some time before he properly gets back on track for that whole rescuing-Ciri thing again. He’s also pretty hopeless when it comes to romance and relationships – breaking things off gracefully is really not in his skillset.

So why does game!Geralt not bother me more? Well, he's the main player character of a game franchise, and one who has to carry the experience largely solo. Some adjustments for genre are pretty much inevitable in that position. He's certainly fared better than Meve, for example, who's been softened far more from her book characterisation for her PC role in Thronebreaker. Then there's the whole amnesia thing – it's easy to believe that sort of experience would change a man – and if he doesn't sulk so much as he used to, maybe he's grown up a bit. Geralt's also in many ways the straight-man of Sapkowski's Witcher universe – there largely as the reliable centre for other, louder personalities to play off. But I expect the real bottom line here is that I do still like game!Geralt enough to forgive him a lot of what he lacks.

The books never do describe Geralt as being very attractive – something book-based fanart often tries to reflect. The point has been made before that the rather-alien-looking Geralt of the first game (left pic above) is probably a lot closer to his book-description. However, the main distinguishing factor you’ll see in book-based fanart is probably the ubiquitous headband, which genuinely is what book!Geralt wears to make his hair behave (the example on the right above comes from Diana Novich).

All that said, if Sapkowski really wants me to believe that nearly so many women are eager to jump into bed with him, I’m going to have to shallowly assume our witnesses are unreliable on this front, and Geralt is at least as attractive as Witcher 3′s take on him. Nothing else makes sense. *g*

Regis

Regis varies mostly in that book!Regis is a lot more smug, sometimes verging on obnoxious – and a lot keener to make fun of Geralt (who generally deserves it). But then, Regis is old and wise and superpowered enough to dance rings around most everyone else – can you blame him? By Blood and Wine, Regis' overconfidence has been recently smacked down hard after his near-death-experience at the hands of Vilgefortz, and that kind of thing could knock some chips off anyone's shoulder. Throw in the fact that with Dettlaff, we have a situation not even Regis could make light of, and the changes to game!Regis make a certain amount of sense.

I do feel it's a bit of a shame that the vocal direction didn't work just a little bit harder to capture some of Regis' smugger side, or emphasise that his long-winded philosophising on human behaviour is supposed to sound a bit pretentious. This is actually something I suspect they were going for a few times in the script, but which didn't come through in the dialogue quite the way it was meant to. Still, again, I'm sure I'm biased by the fact that I like game!Regis far too much to find much fault in what they've done with him. They've done a lovely job capturing his friendship with Geralt too.

Looks-wise, there's a tendency in book-based art to portray Regis with long hair (even some pre-Blood-and-Wine Gwent art did so – see the two pics on the left above, from Gwent and early B&W concepts. The right-most pic is cover art from the books). I couldn't rightly tell you where long-haired-Regis comes from, though – perhaps it's described more explicitly in the original Polish, or perhaps it comes up in passing in some passage I've forgotten, though it may just as well just be a fannish meme.

The books do describe him as looking rather like a tax collector, slim, middle-aged, with an aquiline nose, prone to wearing black, and his hair as 'greying' or 'grey streaked', so presumably somewhat younger-looking than the game would have it. The hammer-horror-esque sideburns are likewise a game-verse addition, though I do like the look they went with – it's distinct from Geralt in a way that making him another long-grey-haired man wouldn't have been, and that's probably the point.

Being the hopeless Regis fan I am, I have quite the folder full of different fanart takes on book!Regis, so have a selection – art here is by gellihana-art, justanor, greysmartwolf, Nastyaskaya, NatalyLanier, beidak, natalliel, ellaine and afternoon63. For what it’s worth, I feel beidak’s (bottom pic, second from the left) comes the closest to what I’d have pictured personally, based on how he’s first described.

Ciri

I find it much harder to rationalise the changes to game!Ciri, who I didn't exactly dislike, but found stuck too close to the role of generic-macguffin-girl-who-just-wants-to-be-normal to be very interesting. Having read the books, not only do I much prefer book!Ciri, I'm not sure I can emphasize enough how much the game did NOT prepare me for utter gauntlet of whump and misery that girl survives in the last four titles. Book!Ciri is a character who works for me mostly because of the same flaws the game mostly strips her free of – TW3 makes some token noise about how you can't tell her what to do, but she’s an utter little royal brat when we first meet book!Ciri, and it’s so much of what brings her to life. She throws herself into her witcher training with the enthusiasm of a kid going completely native, but still revels in getting to be girly for a change when Triss first arrives at Kaer Morhen. She hates Yennefer at first, but soon bonds with her just as strongly as she ever did with Geralt, picking up some of Yennfer’s haughty mannerisms along the way. And then she gets thrown through a portal and lost in the distant wilderness, and the whole world comes down on her head.

The build up to the first time Ciri actually has to kill someone is intense... and things only get worse from there. Steadily. For another couple of novels at a stretch. Seriously, a major caveat that pretty much has to go into any rec for these books (and I will absolutely rec these books) is that Ciri's story gets heavy. So heavy one finds oneself using phrases like, "that time that one guy died of his wounds on top of her while semi-consensually feeling her up was honestly one of the less traumatic incidents in the period."

By the end of the novels, Ciri has nearly died of thirst, been beaten, tied up, dragged around the country as a prisoner, run with bandits and killed innocent people for the fun of it, done fantasy-cocaine and got a tattoo, fought off more than one attempted rape, been drugged, lain for multiple nights next to an impotent elf who completely fails to impregnate her, watched the bodies of her friends and girlfriend being mutilated in front of her, and did I mention where she got that scar? She has survived hell, and it is absolutely a testament to her own strength that she somehow comes through it and puts herself back together at the end. When Geralt finally arrives to rescue her, what matters most isn't that her ordeal is over, but that she finally knows she hasn’t been abandoned by everyone who’d ever loved her after all.

The Ciri of the books is fierce and wild and arrogant, but she's learned her morals from the best, and she holds onto them until she can't, then picks them back up again when she can, and above all she survives. For all that her story turns arguably too much of the last two books into a slog of misery, oh boy does it pay off at the end. And that's probably about as much as I can say about her Big Moment in the last book without spoiling too much, so suffice to say that by the end of the saga, Geralt has pretty much become a supporting character in Ciri's story, not the other way around. (Seriously, you’d be surprised how few chapters of the last two books he’s actually in.)

Finding art which captures the aspects of Ciri’s character and history which are missing from the game has turned out to be pretty hard, though the fanart above from her bandit phase takes a decent crack at it (credit to Loles Romero and NastyaSkaya). I do rather like that one shot of her on horseback beside her girlfriend too, which comes from Denis Gordeev’s illustrations for the novels (below).

How much of this does TW3 get across with her portrayal in the game? Well, she's still pretty headstrong, I guess. And they let you give a 'sorry, I like girls' answer in one bit of dialogue, so they remembered her girlfriend existed. That's nice. But game!Ciri still has a kind of wide-eyed innocence that book!Ciri lost years ago, while book!Ciri is a little force of nature in ways the games hardly even hint at, and that's a really shameful loss.

You'd think, with a character so young, it ought to be easier to imagine she's simply grown up since we saw her last, but so much of what's changed about Ciri feels like a step back rather than forwards. I can shrug off Geralt and Regis' differences and still enjoy their game-verse-selves, but Ciri leaves me genuinely disappointed.

I’d say the official art that comes closest to capturing book!Ciri is that one portrait of her as a very grumpy young child (right above). Some of the early concept art (left above) feels a little more like it has her attitude, though she’s rather too yellow-blonde – not to mention too pretty. I think it also bears pointing out that Ciri isn’t really supposed to be the kind of beauty she is in the game – even before she gets what’s meant to be a seriously ugly and disfiguring scar. (Fanart below by justanor and bobolip)

But of course, the male gamer fanbase can’t be expected to give a fuck about a girl they wouldn’t want to fuck, so game!Ciri must be generically gorgeous. Le sigh.

Triss

I suppose I should at least touch on Triss, too, though she's a very odd case. She's so out of character in the first Witcher game that I am wryly amused that the biggest thing they arguably do get right is that taking advantage of Geralt the moment he showed up with amnesia is... pretty well in-character for her (look, I gotta be honest here, I'm not much of a fan of Triss in any of her incarnations).

The second game does a much better job with her – she actually feels like book!Triss, she has some good dialogue, we're finally dealing with some of her conflicted loyalties to the Lodge and to Geralt – though by the third, her characterisation has been so softened into “the nice one” that none of that potentially meaty conflict is ever resolved, or even really mentioned. Perhaps there's more buried in the Triss-romance path, which I've never bothered with, but the writers seem to have just given up on dealing with anything that might make her look less than wholly sympathetic. Heck, we hardly even get a clear statement about why she and Geralt broke up between Witchers 2 and 3.

Even speaking as such a not-a-fan of Triss, I promise there is more they could've done with the character the books give us. There's her ongoing trauma in from the Battle of Sodden, where she was injured so badly she was memorialised as one the dead: the 14th of the hill. There's her furious impatience with the neutrality of both the witchers and the Lodge: Triss has fought and died for a cause, and is ready to do so again. The second game sort of gets into this, but by and large, the games really aren't up to tackling the moral complexity of having such a theoretically-sympathetic character as Triss, who was still broadly willing to go along with the Lodge's plans to pair Ciri off and get her pregnant as soon as possible – her own wishes be damned. No, instead, Triss has conveniently left the Lodge before the rest of them go spiraling into abject villainy in the second game, clearing all that messy grey stuff out of the conflict.

Of course, the really big unresolved plot point still hanging over book!Triss is how badly she needs to terms with the fact Geralt's just Not That Into Her, and never has been – but since the games want Triss to be a serious romantic option, that's definitely not getting the resolution it could've used.

Book!Triss also pointedly avoids any outfit with a plunging neckline because her chest is covered with the ugly scars she received in the Battle of Sodden, something the games did not have the guts to reproduce. In a more confusing note, the books do consistently describe her hair as 'chestnut', which we'd usually think of as meaning 'brown' – though it turns out the games actually may not have been wrong to make her a redhead, since in Poland 'chestnut hair' apparently mean dark red hair (google some pictures of actual chestnuts, and you'll see why). Still, the firy-red-haired Triss of TW3 who wears nothing but plunging necklines remains a bit of a stretch, however you slice it. Once again, TW2 gets her best (and I must say, gave her the nicest outfit) – though even here she's conspicuously unscarred in all her sex scenes.

(Leftmost pic above is official Witcher 2 art, whereas Triss-with-scars fanart comes to us – once again – from nastyaskaya)

Shani

Shani sort of falls into a similar category as Triss as someone who isn't terribly well-served by any of her appearances, given that both exist in the first game largely to compete for Geralt's attentions. But I can't honestly say I find Shani’s portrayal in the Hearts of Stone expansion to be much better – the degree to which either version exists solely to fall all over Geralt is a bit painful, especially given that their relationship in the books is limited to a single, undramatic hook-up. Book!Shani really only appears in a couple of chapters: we meet her as a medical student friend of Dandelion's, who's been surreptitiously selling pilfered university supplies to fund her degree, then later see her again in the final book, where she proves herself as a battlefield medic during the climactic Battle of Brenna. She's pragmatic to a fault, and I really can't see her as the type who needs Geralt to point out to her that her patient is dead, for example, or who'd subject a guy with Geralt's problems to such an extended feelings-dump as you'll get out of her during the wedding.

Shani is a reasonably logical book-character to bring back, if only because she’s one of those who explicitly survives the ending, but for my money, "serious contender for Geralt's affections" is just not a role she works in.

Anna Henrietta

The duchess of Toussaint, Anna Henrietta, is another case who differs more from her book counterpart than you might think. In the books, the duchess is by far the least competent of the (pleasantly many and) various female leaders and rulers we meet – she comes across as rather young and naive, and every bit as absurd as everyone else in the ridiculous fairy-tale duchy she rules. She is, for example, most displeased to learn that Nilfgaard's war against the north is ongoing (something her courtiers have carefully avoided mentioning in her presence), because she'd long since sent the Emperor a stern note demanding he brought it to an end. She promptly has one of her ministers sent to the tower for misinforming her, and demands the others prepare an even sterner note for the emperor, which will surely do the job.

After Dandelion (inevitably) cheats on her, she has him repeatedly sent to the gallows, only to change her mind and send him a reprieve at the very last minute each time. Picture yourself a much younger and prettier version of the Queen of Hearts from Alice in Wonderland, and you've about got her general vibe.

Blood and Wine sort of waves at this part of her character when she first speaks about Dandelion, and again in suggesting there's a widespread feeling she lacks compassion, and once more as she proves utterly immovable on the subject of her sister. But the generally sensible and insightful woman you deal with for most of the main story is a far cry from her book-verse characterisation. That’s a bit of a shame, because I feel like there's a lot more they could have done to blend the two versions of her. Still, it’s hard to argue the duchess we get suits the story being told around her.

Other characters

Much as I love Yennefer, Dijkstra and Phillipa, I don't really have much more to say about them because I feel the games have done such a good job. The Yennefer of the books gets to show a lot more depth and complexity simply because she has more scenes and more space in which to do so, but when ‘there isn’t more of her’ is your biggest complaint, the game is officially doing pretty well. I could certainly gripe her about how “dresses in black and white” seems to have been taken as “dresses in black with maybe a trace of white trim”, or how Yennefer and Triss seem to be the only sorceresses in the world capable of wearing pants, when Phillipa (just for one) is in sensible men’s clothing the very first time we meet her, but that’s getting into serious nitpicking territory.

(Not that Yen can’t look amazing in outfits with more white – art by Emily Caroll, theclashofqueens, BarbaraRosiak, and cosplay by greatqueenlina)

Vesimir, Lambert and Eskel, Geralt's fellow witchers from the School of the Wolf, fall into a similar category for me – though we spend far less time with them in the books, everything we see of them in the games feels like a fairly logical extension of their book-roles. Vesimir is somewhat over-played as the old fogey, and his death is painfully cliched, but the impact on the characters and Kaer Morhen still hits home – and the games do some especially great work expanding Lambert into a much more complex character. To my mind, the only shame is that more of the book-original characters didn't get the same treatment.

Who have I missed? There's Avallac'h, of course, but I think I've got him pretty well covered by that last post. Zoltan, perhaps inevitably, has had his personality largely flattened into 'generic dwarf', with nothing better to do than hang around Geralt and Dandelion. You wouldn't know Book!Zoltan was apparently incapable of turning away women and children in need, for example – even human women and children with the chronic inability to say thankyou for his help. Or that he eventually admits to Geralt that the luggage he and his friends are carrying comes from a decidedly unsavoury source for such a supposedly charitable, upstanding guy. Yes, even Zoltan gets to be a morally complicated character in the books – who knew?

Speaking of dwarves, pleased as I am that Yarpen Zigren gets remembered in TW2, he's an odd one to talk about, since even in the books, he appears to have had a substantial personality transplant between his two main appearances. Yarpen’s a largely comedic figure in The Bounds of Reason short story, where he cheerfully admits to having considered letting his men knock down a particularly pompous aristocrat and piss all over him to teach him a lesson, but he’s evolved into a studious voice of reason against the scoiata'el by Blood of Elves. TW2 doesn't do a particularly good job of capturing either version, which I suspect probably bothered me more than most people – I liked the later book-incarnation of Yarpen immensely (and not even just because he's one of few ever to really call Triss out on just how much she needs to stop misreading Geralt's friendship as anything more than it is). His chapter in Blood of Elves packs a hell of a punch.

On the subject of accents

I do have to wonder if I'd have warmed up to characters like Triss, Shani and Dandelion (or even Letho) more if they'd only had halfway decent voice actors. It's not just that none are exactly leading the talent at the acting part of the job, it's that their American accents stick out in TW3 like a sore thumb.

Geralt mostly gets away his own US accent by dint of being the very first character we meet, so we've gotten used to the way he talks long before we notice how he stands out – hell, maybe that's just how they talk down in Rivia (hilariously, book!Geralt eventually reveals he's not even from Rivia, but simply picked the place and taught himself the accent so he could feel a bit less like the abandoned foundling he is, which only gives us yet more excuse for why his accent might sound a bit weird). More importantly, Geralt is meant to stand out, to be the outsider wherever he goes, so having him sound like no-one else fits the character.

But neither Triss or Dandelion are "of Rivia", and by the time they show up we've had dozens of hours in a game where literally everyone else sounds British, or Scottish, or Irish, or vaguely-eastern-European in the case of the Nilfgaardians. So why do these weirdos sound like no-one else on the continent?

The short answer seems to be that every character with an American accent in TW3 is someone who had an American accent in at least one of the previous games, which were way looser with their casting and had enough incidental American accents around that they didn't stand out. Clearly, by TW3, consistency with prior games has been prioritised over consistency with literally anything else we’re hearing.

Gaetan is an exception to the rule as the only new character (at least that I caught) with an American accent – presumably because between Geralt, Eskel, Lambert, Berengar, and Letho (and cohorts), some sort of 'witchers have American accents' rule has been pretty well established (another random American-accented witcher shows up in Thronebreaker, just to underline the point). We're going to mostly ignore Jad Karadin here, since his British accent is presumably a recent affectation to go with his new identity, and so makes sense.

This still doesn't really work though, since Letho’s school is all the way down in Nilfgaard (land of the Eastern European accents), while the oldest witcher from Kaer Morhen (Vesimir) is the one guy with a British accent. He sounds nothing like any of his students, despite the fact he's logically the guy they ought to have learned their accents from. So the logic falls in a heap however you slice it, and I'm thrown right out of the game.

With TW3 as your intro to the series, it feels almost as if characters like Triss and Dandelion have been assigned American accents because they're just too important to be saddled with the same pedestrian British accents as everyone else, which did nothing to endear them to me. The only one I eventually warmed up to was Lambert, and then only because he's just such a bitter asshole that he eventually goes full circle and comes out the other side (somewhere around when you've heard his miserable backstory, then gotten drunk together and told him how much you love him, man). Gaetan similarly snuck in under the same clause – American accents clearly work better for me in this series when attached to characters you're supposed to find pretty insufferable on first impressions.

Some final notes

To conclude, it seems only fair to throw in a quick nod to some of the more memorable book-characters who don't appear in the games. Neither Mother Nenneke (Geralt's sort-of-surrogate mother) or Vissena (Geralt's biological mother) ever appear either, alas – Vissena doesn't even merit so much as a Gwent card, which seems quite the wasted opportunity.

Milva, Cahir and Angouleme – the three remaining companions of Geralt’s who died alongside Regis but who were not so easily resurrected – naturally don’t appear. But nor are even really mentioned in all the games, which seems rather less than they deserve after giving their lives to Geralt's cause.

Cahir and Angouleme do at least have pretty badass Gwent cards to their names, though I am properly offended that Milva (who has the dubious honour of being my very favourite book character who doesn't ever appear in the games) is stuck with a card of her freaking death scene – which not only gets the scene wrong (believe me, there was no grimacing and gripping the arrow buried shallowly in her chest for poor Milva), but doesn't even bother to get her hair the right colour, for fuck’s sake. Basically, Milva was a stone cold badass and absolutely deserves better. #justice4milva

One can only guess how I'd have felt about some of these characters had I read the books before playing the games – I am obviously biased towards forgiving changes to characters whom I liked in their game incarnations, regardless of how they compare. Still, I think it does speak wonders that there still all these characters who suddenly made sense only after I'd met them in the books.

Even if only for Dandelion and Ciri, I can only dream of seeing a bit more of the book-original characterisations make it into the collective fannish consciousness. There's nothing wrong with getting into the canon purely based on the show or the games, but having read Sapkowski's novels, it's no longer any mystery how they spawned this massive franchise. That the saga wasn’t even fully available in English until well after Witcher 3 was released – a solid couple of decades late, and long after it had already been translated into Russian, French, German, Spanish and more – is a real shame. For once, it’s us in the anglophone world who’ve been missing out: these books deserve so much more than to be thought of as a footnote to the games or the show.

#Dandelion #Witcher novels #Jaskier #Ciri #Regis #Geralt of Rivia #meta #The Witcher #long post is even longer this time #I blame everyone who gave me such lovely feedback on that last post *g*

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whaleofatjme1920 · 2 years

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Hello hii, I'm new to Tumblr and I hope your still open for these Creepypasta match-ups ? (Sorry for the burden if not)

-So hiii I'm 18 years old, I identify myself as a woman I guess ? But I use any pronouns. I am 5'3ft, chubby, have curly hair, I wear a lot of baggy clothes but i would LOVE dressing in a Grunge Fairycore style :') I'm Pansexual and an Aries. (Also I'm french)

-I am an INTP, I like making my friends laugh, sarcastic, caring, loyal, I know how to keep a secret very well, and a good liar(only for good reasons tho) Also can't take a compliment about my physique 😃👍🏼

-My hobbies are Drawing, playing video games and watching videos, and calling my friendsss. My favorite artists are Ashnikko, Melanie Martinez, Yungblud, Doja cat

-I am in a Superior Art School, I don't know if it has a different name in English, it's big and looks like a castle ( I LOVE IT) and it has a library right next to it so that when there's a break we can study there :D I basically learn how to draw more realistic and all

-Im following the MCU movies (and series on Disney+), My favorite shows are Brooklyn 99, Community and Hellbound. My favorite movies genre are Horror, Action and Comedy.

-My love language is touch and quality time :D

-Random facts abt me: I would LOVE to live in a farm or in the forest next to a lake, I already have a dog I REALLY REALLY want a cat.

-And lastly, I am French, and in France the age to be able to drink is 18 so I'm not doing anything illegal I promise :D so my favorite alcohol is Red Wine and Mojito

Thanks if you're going to answer this ! And I apologize my bad English or if I said anything useless or not enough. :D Hope you have a good day/night ! <3

Your matchup is... Masky!

[Disclaimer, if you're coming from the tags, this is part of a special event I am holding from November 17th to the 21st where I am accepting matchups from all fandoms I currently write for. Feel free to check out my 1K celebration masterlist here for rules during the window this event is open! If it's past the 21st midnight USA central time, do NOT send me a matchup. I will have to politely turn you down. Sorry </3]

Nsfw below

In General

Hm, well, after seeing your kinks?? This is Masky territory.

Things He Likes About You

SO, your personality really meshes well with him. And he loves that you can make him laugh. Tim doesn't always smile as much as he should, but you always make him light up. He thinks you're incredible at art and likes watching you play video games because he's only somewhat decent at them. I do think Tim has a love of Doja Cat so like--. Is proud of you for being in art school, and finds it cool that it looks like a huge castle. He likes MCU, it's one of his only loves outside of the proxy life so ofc, the two of you need to watch like, Loki, and other cool things. He likes your choice in TV shows too. Touch and quality time?? Those line up SO WELL with him. Living on a farm or a forest?? This screams domestic to me. I also think that Tim, who doesn't understand anything about languages, likes that you're French and speak with a French accent. He thinks it's pretty.

You Two a a Couple & NSFW

Alright, late night binging TV shows or marvel movies is definitely a thing the two of you need to do. He can kinda draw,,,? So like, little art dates or something that I think are really cute. The two of you are constantly laughing with each other, always lost in good conversation. I can also see the two of you listening to fun songs in the car together as well. Get him into Melanie Martinez, that woul be super fun. Tim tells you so many of his secrets, the ones that won't get you in trouble because he cares about you. He forgets to take care of himself as well, so like, you two might need to be reminded to have some time to himself. He's going to compliment you-- that's a given. Ofc the two of you are going to need to do the wholesome touches. Tim loves to hold you, press kisses to the crown of your head - like he's a bit touch starved. He wants to live out in the forest somewhere tbh. Will get you a cat. Kinda cottagecore vibes if I'm being honest.

SO, I saw your kinks. Tim is really good at praise, like really good. His hands are pretty big and strong too so choking is a yes. Idk if he necessarily has a mommy kink?? But there's definitely the possibility to kick start that. You can get him to sub though as long as you kinda make him be a sub. He likes being a bit of a brat.

Closing Thoughts/Other Things

Hi love bug, here's your matchup! I think you and Tim would be great together. Hope you enjoyed.

#nsft #minors dni #masky x reader #masky x reader #masky headcanon #creepypasta masky #creepypasta scenarios #creepypasta x reader #creepypasta #creepypasta matchup

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pantstomatch · 3 years

Note

I love your writing, and (the cliche, it burns) one day I'd like to publish too. But a lot of things have changed since the last time I was confident in trying to do this, and I wondered if you would talk about the process (getting an agent, that sort of thing) if you're comfortable and have the time. It's also cool if you privately respond, if you'd prefer, I'm just trying to figure out how to get started again? And so many tips are "publish on Amazon!"

Thank you!!!! Okay, so here’s the thing. I’m probably not the best person to ask about this, because I’m actually really bad at being published, but I can tell you some stuff that I’ve learned? That might be helpful? I ended up being long-winded, so (if tumblr works right here) everything is under the cut...

1. Querying!

So in general, querying sucks balls. Like… it’s probably the worst thing you’ll ever have to do. You’re gonna want to research what agents are looking for the kind of stuff you want to write or have written. Some are looking for certain genres or what they think is marketable, and you want to send your query to someone who’s open to what you have, or it’s a waste. Most likely the agency website or the agents “I’m looking for…” page or whatever will give you specific instructions on what to include in your query email - how the subject should be written, what they’re looking for, how many pages of your manuscript they want to see, how to attach it to the email and in what form, and if they want a synopsis of your novel. Some agents use Query Manager, which is basically a form you fill out and attach all the things they want, and you can go back in and edit it and it’s a nice way to keep track of your query. Next, they’re gonna (hopefully; some just never respond) either say no thank you very politely, or ask you for the full manuscript. Most of these agents will also give you a general timeline for a response, and if they’re open to a nudge from you or not. After that, they’ll either say no to the full manuscript, or welcome you aboard!

Most places allow you to send multiple queries out for the same work, meaning they’re not “exclusive,” except within their own agency. If they ask for a full manuscript, but before they get back to you, another agent has snapped you up, they’ll want you to let them know so they don’t waste their time on it. Occasionally, if they want to see your full manuscript, they’ll ask for you to not send the full manuscript to someone else until they’re done, or for you to tell them if someone else is looking at the full manuscript. You can also change your mind! You can email them and let them know you’ve decided to pull the novel out of consideration, maybe if you think it needs more editing.

I have never successfully queried. I found the whole thing demoralizing, and I did my first contract on my own, without an agent. This is something I don’t recommend because I had to figure out a lot of confusing shit on my own that I still don’t fully understand. And it also made me doubt my writing after the fact, because agents don’t give a shit if you’re already published, they’re focused solely on whatever you’re presenting them with. And then after that, I figured if I got another book out of my current editor, would I want to present that to the people who already didn’t like my writing? I have an agent for another project I’m working on, and the only reason I have her is because someone introduced us and told her I desperately needed help.

1a. So you found the agent(s) you think you like!

Other than the instructions/guidelines written out by the agency/agents that you’re interested in, you’re gonna need the most complete and fully edited version of your novel in hand. If they ask for your full manuscript, you absolutely should not say it’s not done. Make sure it’s finished, and preferably edited, before you send your query in. If they ask for a synopsis, hard pass. Ha ha ha, just kidding. No, really, arguably, this is going to be the hardest thing to write. A synopsis will suck your soul out of your body and make you weep blood. The only thing worse than querying is writing a synopsis for that query. I have never written a synopsis that I didn’t think was utter shit. I hate them.

Querytracker is a cool place to look up agents that you want to query and see how responsive (and nice) they are. It took me a little bit to figure out the abbreviations, though.

2. Pick your genre carefully

Unless you are a best selling author, they are never ever ever going to let you change genres. I mean, maybe if you wrote under a different name. Maybe. But they’ve bought your book based on how they think it will sell, and they’re going to want to sell you, too, and genre jumping is usually a no-go. This is, basically, one of the biggest things I hate, and one of the greatest things I love about fanfiction, that I can write whatever the fuck I feel like writing. So, you know, make sure you really really really want to write about what your first book is going to be about, because you’re going to be writing about that forever. And I don’t mean just YA vs New Adult vs Adult, although you need to take that into account too. I mean if you’re writing about high school regular kids, you probably can’t write about supernatural high school kids. You can’t write about high school kids in space. You can only write about regular high school kids. So.. think sci -fi vs fantasy vs historical vs contemporary, etc.

3. I hope you don’t hate people!

Do you want to go to a bookstore and talk in front of a crowd? Do you want to go to cons and network with other authors? Do you want to call up publications and volunteer for interviews? Do you want to talk about your books with strangers? Because I sure don’t. Publishing houses do the bare minimum of publicity for you for your book. First book, they’ll probably help set up some store signings. Going forward, if you weren’t proactive the first time around, they’re probably not going to do anything. If you’ve got some really good advance reviews, they’ll do ads. They’ll probably do the rote social media posts. But basically, you’re going to have to advocate for your book. You’re going to have to create your own brand. You’re going to have to make swag and send it out, call up bookstores, post constantly about it on twitter, buddy up to other authors, go places where you can network. And I will tell you that all of that is my nightmare. I don’t want to do any of that. I don’t like meeting new people. I had several panic attacks leading up my book signing, and the book signing itself was pretty bad. I’m just… not good with people. And, honestly, at my age, I don’t want to be any better. All it does is give me stress and hives, and to get over that I’d really really have to want to do it.

4. Personal perks?

Editors! I’ve worked with two awesome editors, and it’s amazing having someone to tell you how to fix things in a way that makes sense. By far, one of the only perks of being published for me. I absolutely don’t know for sure, but I always got the feeling that they expected more push back from me with their suggestions, but nope. I was open to everything, and that’s probably why the books worked so well, because editors absolutely know what they’re doing and only want what’s best for the book.

Holding a solid book of my work! Always awesome to hold that first book in your hands, with the beautiful cover work and everything. The fact that other people can read it and know it was me who wrote those words only counters that by about a half.

Money! Advances vary drastically, but, listen, the money kind of made the panic attacks worth it. A little.

5. Advances and royalties

The things I’ve read about advances is that too little, and you might think they have less confidence in you, and too much and you’re panicking about selling, because if you don’t earn out your advance, there’s a chance they won’t want to invest in you in the future. Generally, the way they work is they offer you a contract with the amount they are willing to “advance” you. This is basically saying, we think this book will give us this amount of money, and this is your share of that amount of money. You earn this out with royalties. When you sign the contract, you will get a certain amount of money, usually half of your offered advance. When you deliver the finished manuscript, after your editor and you have gone over it and it’s been approved, you’ll get the other half. A two book deal would be split into 4 parts, and you’d get the first 2 parts for signing the contract (1/4th for each book), the next part for the first finished manuscript, and then the last part for the second finished manuscript, generally after the first book is already published. After that, you won’t see any money until your royalties reach the amount they already paid you in advance. Unless otherwise negotiated, you’d get a royalty check twice a year. Your earnings from January to July would be sent to you in October, and your earnings for July to December would be sent to you in April. Since any books sold to bookstores and online stores can be returned to the publisher if unsold, they will usually “hold back” a certain amount at first, to make sure you’re really earning that royalty. Royalty statements themselves are a hot mess and I’ve never been able to read them, which is also a good reason to have an agent. An agent will get your money sent to them, make sure it’s the correct amount, take their cut, and then send you a check from them.

6. Self publishing

Okay, I know nothing about self publishing, but I don’t think there’s anything wrong with it if you have the right support system (ie editors). If you’re going to have to do a lot of the marketing yourself anyway, I don’t see how this is much different. Biggest thing would be the upfront cost, and making sure you make that cost worth it. Independent author S Usher Evans has some good advice for self publishing - Sush’s worked very hard at it, and started her own publishing company. Also, @qwanderer might be a good resource, I think they use Lulu, which is a really cool self publishing site.

Uhhhh, so that’s a lot of info and also not a lot of info, so please feel free to ask me anything else, and I really hope I haven’t made this harder for you to get started ha ha ha. I think the best thing to do is to figure out what you want to write and write it and just… go from there. If you really love what you have, someone else is going to love it, too.

And if anyone’s had a different experience or thinks I got something wrong or has more/better advice for @heyninja, let me know!

#heyninja #replies #publishing advice #my two cents #writing

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ggukjinn · 4 years

Note

Heyo, good to hear from you again! I'd like a fluff request for Skinny!Daniel Park interning at animal shelter with y/n. While washing the dogs, y/n trips on the water hose landing in Daniel's lap getting them both wet. Have fun with the concept!

Webtoon Masterlist | Masterlist/Rules

CHARACTER :: Webtoon, Lookism, Daniel Park

GENRE :: fluff

PROMPT :: request above

NOTE :: hi there, so here’s a redo of your request, again I apologize! I made this long, hope you like it! Also I meant to publish this on Friday but Tumblr didn’t let me because originally the pictures were gifs and it didn’t want to work well so I deleted them and made them into images. So again! Hope you like them.

You were excited for today. Not only were you going to be going back to your favorite place. You were also going to bring your crush. Sure you may have brought your friends before like Mira and Zach (but Zach only came to impress Mira and like being a good friend/person you are you agreed for him to come along) , Vasco, Jace, even Jay came.

But today was different you were going to be bringing your crush, Daniel, with you at the place you were interning at. At a local pet sanctuary.

It was special to you because one, you were going to see all the animals you’ve helped rescued from the streets, and two, you were bringing Daniel with you to have a secretive date. Of course only you knew it was a date.

You and Daniel both agreed on meeting with each other after school by the gates. Usually you and Daniel would both walk out of class together. but since today you didn’t attend school you would be meeting each other by the gates.

This reason was due to your family coming over from Busan to come and visit you for a short vacation and to see what you’ve been up to. So you took the day out of school and helped them move in where you were staying at. Of course they didn’t like it one bit but you persuaded them into allowing it slide.

Of course you were going to ask Mira on what you guys learned that day.

After helping your family settle in and leaving them be alone a bit, you sent Daniel a text message, hopefully he received it during his lunch time.

Once you’ve finished messaging Daniel and checked that you’ve informed him of everything that he needed to know for tomorrow you quickly went back to attend your family and all of there needs til it was time to leave to your imaginary date place where you intern at.

Once the time has passed and you’ve seen that it was time when all of the classes were ending for the day, you sent a text message to Daniel letting him know you’ve arrived and because you didn’t see him by the gates where you both agreed to meet up and you wanted to make sure he knew you were there.

After you waited patiently, hopefully he received your message and knew you were here and not thinking that you ditched him.

After waiting for him for a few minutes you saw him walking alongside Duke and saw they were talking together. Once Daniel looked up and saw where you were standing at he said his goodbyes to Duke and walked where you were standing by.

“I’m sorry if I made you wait here for awhile.”

“Not at all, you probably got held up with something. Don’t apologize I’m not mad.” You said waving off Daniel’s apology.

You weren’t the type to accept his apology unless he did something that really deemed your apology.

You guys started talking on the way there. It would range from what happened to school today, by him telling you what happened between each person in class, all the way to videos he saw on his social media timeline.

Even all the way by you telling him about your day and how your family drained your life away by there relentless questions about your life.

To others around you it would look like a perfect healthy relationship between both pairs. Seeing as everyone saw how polite you’d two would be, both hearing what the other has to say before making any comments.

There were some funny moments where girls would look at there boyfriend and ask them,

“Why can’t you be more nicer? Like those two over there?”

Of course you and Daniel would pretend like nothing ever really happened while laughing at there comments.

Of course even as you two would enjoy your time together you both arrived to your destination.

You were happy to show Daniel that this is where all of your enjoyment comes from. You’d hope the he too would also enjoy it here.

“Welcome to my puppy paradise.” You said opening the door to Daniel.

Upon entering Daniel could see all types of animals in here. All ranging from reptiles all the way to the four furry leggeded puppies. All types of animals were here.

“We’ll follow me I’ll take you to the staff room where we’ll be able to change into our uniform then we’ll meet out boss where she’ll further discuss on everything we’ll need to do.”

Daniel nodded to your words and followed you to where the staff room was. From there he was given all of the equipment and uniform needed.

First was to change into a t-shirt promoting the place, then was a apron in which interns and workers would put there supplies in the pockets.

From nail clippers, hairbrushes, collars, etc.

Once he was finished changing and put his stuff into a empty lockeroom.

He walked out once he finished changing and saw you waiting for him yet again. Once he saw that you noticed him you both walked toward, where he supposed thought was the bosses office.

Once entering he saw a elder woman there. He saw you approach the said woman and greet her with great respect.

“Thank you for coming for today.” The elderly said greeting Daniel.

Daniel returned the greeting while showing her the ultimate respect since she was older than him.

“So today what you guys will be doing is taking care of all the dogs. From the newborns all the way towards the oldest dogs. You’ll even care for the dogs coming in for schedule appointments. Do be careful because they can be a handful.” She did explaining everything to both of the young teens in her presence.

Both of them nodded towards the elderly woman. And once she dismissed them Daniel followed you once again to where they both were stationed.

“Okay so here we are. In that room is where all of the new born puppies are born, all of those puppies are also with there mom so you’ll have to be careful when approaching them.” Daniel paid extra attention.

But of course like always that’d never work out and he’d get distracted by you, looking at you, having the expression of a young boy daydreaming of all the expensive gifts he’ll earn.

“Daniel did you get all of that I just told you?” You said waving a hand in his face.

Daniel nodded quickly embarrassed by how he got distracted once again. Daniel wouldn’t lie if he didn’t say you were pretty. And now with this new place you’ve introduced him too he’s even more pleased with you and how you are as a person.

Daniel got straight to work, he started by caring for every single mother who’s given birth to litters of puppies and to those who were also pregnant that needed to be tended to. Of course it wasn’t easy for Daniel.

This was his first time.

There were times where he made very obvious mistakes and where he had to call in you for help.

Which left him into a state of embarrassment seeing as you’d laugh at his mistakes and tease him. You’d sometimes go even far as ruffling his hair to get him even more embarrassed.

But of course you’d help Daniel.

There were many times that Daniel stopped and wondered.

How you be if it was him in his other body? Would you still love and appreciate him the same? Would you still act like this? Would you treat him differently?

But what Daniel doesn’t know is that you love everyone the same. Even if you don’t know them.

All people need love and support. If there fluffy or skinny. If there dark or light. Everyone need all the love they can.

Daniel thought of all the positive outcomes of if you did accept him in his other body. And if you did.

Daniel will risk everything for you. He’s that committed for you if you accept his other body.

Daniel heard the sound of a bell and your voice talking. He peeled out and saw you grabbing onto the leash of two huskies both appearing to be in there teenage years. All big and fluffy.

Daniel saw you walking towards him.

“So this is the only appointment for today. The other one was canceled and rescheduled for another day.” Daniel nodded and grabbed one of the dogs leashes and walked right behind you.

Once you got to the needed station and showed Daniel the ropes and how to work things out you and him both washed the two dogs in a silence. All that was heard was the other workers in there other departments working with there respective animals.

“Hey I have a question.” Daniel said to you while multitasking.

“Yeah what is it?”

“How would you feel about overweight people?” Daniel said dropping the much needed question. Seeing as it was bothering him. Wanting to know the answer to his most undying question.

“Honestly,” you said thinking about it real hard. Seeing as you lived in a society where people where very judgmental about who you hanged out with and how you looked when you hung out with that so person. This caused you to remember all of your previous so called friends who would have friends overweight but slander there name when they weren't around.

Thinking back all you felt was sadness. You didn't see anything wrong with them or how they seemed to look. They were just humans so why should we treat them any different

“Honestly, they really don't bother me.” you said thinking about the times you’ve hung out someone who looked different than you. “Everyone has there own unique towards them and what they look, and honestly that’s what all makes them different. If we were all to look the same. All trying to look same where would be the fun in that, all we do is compete with each other by trying to look the same.” You said towards Daniel while rinsing the soap off of the little puppy your currently washing while making sure you left no suds

“Why are you asking? Is everything alright.” You said with worry while looking at him. “Has someone bullied you?” you said looking at him having a worried expression.

This caused Daniel to look shocked, hearing your response and then seeing you worried for him. This made him happy, seeing and hearing you be so welcoming towards those who looked way different. This made Daniel happy.

This made him happy at the fact that you’re accepting towards everyone and that you don’t have a negative opinion on those different.

“I’m sorry I probably worried you didn’t I? I was just wondering, I’ve meet people like you, who’s acted so nice and warm but once they’ve seen someone who looks way different them them they have a quick change in there personality they go treating those around them so awful. Thats why. I’m sorry if I offended you in any way.” Daniel said stopping what he was doing and looked down instead of looking up toward your eyes.

You looked towards Daniel completely understanding where he’s coming from. You walked towards Daniel and grabbed his face making you look towards him. You understand his worries. Only looking out for those who’s been wronged by the society.

“There’s really nothing that would ever change my mind. Everyone is special in their own ways.” you said looking up towards Daniel’s eyes. “Would you still feel the same if I ever looked any different than you?” Daniel asked you returning the look right back at you.

“It doesn't matter if you were shorter than me, the same height as me, if you looked over weight than me, if you foreign or not, the fact that your personality is the most amazing thing is what really matters to me the most.” you said with your utmost sincerity looking into Daniels eyes hoping he’d believe you.

No words would ever explain how Daniel was currently feeling at this moment. He was feeling like a god, he was extremely happy that he’s found someone like you, who would love him even if he was in his other body. He was so happy.

Daniel couldn't hold it back, it was slowly eating at him to not ask you. He needed to ask you no matter what, before someone else did.

“Do you wanna go out with me?” Daniel said looking straight into your eyes.

You were caught off guard from his question. You accidentally let out a what from your surprised voice.

“I’m sorry but I had to ask you, I can’t stand not being able to ask you. Just thinking of someone else asking you before I could or someone taking you before I could tell you on how I feel makes me feel jealous.” he said asking you, telling you on how he truly feels about you, while opening up towards you.

Before Daniel can go on and explain you more and more on how much he wants to be with you.

You’ve gotten on your tippy toes and kissed his cheek. “I would love to go out with you.” you said smiling towards him.

This stun him in his spot, you let out a giggle at his reaction. You turned your attention back to what you were doing. “C’mon babe, we’ve got work to do.” You said laughing at him teasing him more before returning back to what you were doing.

Daniel never let his smile go, feeling happy that you’ve said yes, being in this whole fantasy and imagining the future dates Daniel didn’t properly close the door, leaving the door to the pen open.

This open the puppy curiosity seeing as the door was different than from

“No stop!” You said yelling running after the dogs that got loose from his cage and started to run around the place, this caused all of the other puppies that were drying to get excited and jump around which caused the door to get loose and open.

This then made all puppies leave there pens and run around chasing each other while barking up a storm.

You started to panic even more, chasing all of them trying to get them into there respective pens. This caused Daniel to stop washing the puppy he was washing and go and help you.

What he didn’t know was that he forgot to turn off the hose. Which left the puppy he was washing to jump out of the wash tub, while dragging the hose with him.

This caused a chain reaction.

The hose started swerving crazy on the ground while spraying water at anything it got near it.

This caused all of the dogs to go hide from the water.

Which caught both of yours and Daniels attention.

You stopped cashing the dogs in attempt to go turn off the hose. Not caring if you got wet in the process. Daniel did the same by going after you.

After reaching the washing tub you finally turned off the water looking around seeing everything a mess, all the loose puppies soaking wet with also the same situation with both you and Daniel.

You let out a sigh of relief seeing all of the chaos calm down and seeing all the puppies become calm and no running around jumping everywhere. You turned to Daniel laughing at this whole situation.

Both of you did while looking around at the messy place.

You went to walk over to Daniel but by not minding where you were going you accidentally tripped on the wet hoses.

Daniel immediately rushed to help you make sure you didn’t fall and hurt yourself.

You being scared you grabbed the nearest thing to you to help loosen the fall.

Opening your eyes, first thing you’ve noticed was hair and automatically you’ve seen was Daniel on the floor and you sitting on his lap.

You being worried about his well being you grabbed his face and made him look up at you. “Hey are you okay?” You said looking into his eyes.

Daniel looked up towards your eyes. Taking his time to look around at his situation. What caught his eye was the fact that you were sitting on stop of him with no regards at all.

This caused Daniel to turn red like a crazy man.

Noticing on how red he was you also turn to fully realize even though you knew what you were on, to fully and clearly see that you were sitting on Daniels lap.

You as well turning into a blushing mess with this. You removed your hands off his face but made no attempt in moving yourself off of his lap.

Continuously muttering words that were incomplete or too quiet to hear.

What made the situation worse was when your boss walked into the room and seeing on how messy this place was.

“What has happened here?!” The elderly lady said looking at the mess in the puppy room. She fully examined the room then turned to both you and Daniel, both extremely red at what you guys were doing.

Using this to her advantage since she finally found a good situation to tease you after a awhile.

“Y/N I know your excited that your boyfriend is here but please keep this in your guys room you don’t want anyone to come in and see you guys making the next generation.” She said teasing you while walking outside while shaking her head. While making no attempt to hide her obviously smirk on her face.

You both got even more red in your faces while trying to make excuses, but it was all for nothing seeing as she wasn’t there anymore.

After a while of calming down you and Daniel immediately got to fixing all of the puppies and getting them back to how they were originally were before the time they were picked up.

While also making sure the room was clean and dry.

After this you and Daniel has finally been able to go home. You both walked hand in hand. Having Daniel drop you off home while pecking you on the forehead. You having a smile all through the day.

Right before you went to bed you heard your phone buzz. Reading the message that was sent to you you let out a loud squeal letting your dead asleep family know of your excited moment which caused them all to tell you to shut up and go to sleep.

#masterlist #webtoon masterlist #webtoon #webtoon lookism #webtoon daniel park #webtoon lookism daniel park #lookism #lookism daniel park #lookism daniel #lookism daniel x reader #lookism x reader #lookism daniel park x reader #daniel x reader #daniel park x reader #daniel park #x reader #x reader request #request #webtoon x reader

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lilydalexf · 4 years

Photo

Old School X is a project interviewing X-Files fanfic authors who were posting fic during the original run of the show. New interviews are posted every Tuesday.

Interview with VivWiley

VivWiley has X-Files stories at more archives than I could list, but you can find the biggest collection (30 stories) at AO3. She's been prolific and around the fandom for a long time. I've recced some of my favorites of her stories here before, including Autumn's Threshold and Equilibrium. Big thanks to VivWiley for doing this interview.

Does it surprise you that people are still interested in reading your X-Files fanfics and others that were posted during the original run of the show (1993-2002)?

It does and it doesn’t. As someone who is always discovering new shows and new fandoms, I know that one of the first things I do is go hunting for the related fic. I love the ways that fanfic can fill in missing gaps, give us other POVs, and just generally help us see characters that we love (or are growing to love) in new lights. The X-Files, in particular, left so many freaking plot holes and jumps in logic, that I suppose it’s logical that people newly discovering TXF would gravitate to the fic.

What do you think of when you think about your X-Files fandom experience? What did you take away from it?

First, I should say that my “fandom” experience was really limited to the fanfic for TXF. I didn’t get involved in discussions about the actors, the show runners, etc. Nor did I go to any of the conventions. But, from the fanfic experience, I remain astonished by how many smart, funny, wonderful women I met (sorry, guys, I know you were out there, but I mostly didn’t get to know you), and how many of them are still close friends. My life would be infinitely less interesting and rich without all those friendships.

I also took away from that experience a confidence in my own creativity that I didn’t previously have. I have done a great deal of professional writing throughout my career – policies, reports, protocols – but TXF fic writing allowed me to exercise a whole other part of my brain and heart. It was fun and also felt like another way of learning and building a skill set I’d lacked.

Finally, I say that it was an early exposure for me to both the good and ill that online communities can foster. There so many amazing acts of kindness and support. One of my friends organized the Beta Readers Circle, a group of volunteer fic editors who would read and help you with stories on everything from grammar to “is this character acting in character” questions. I both used and volunteered with the BRC. On the flip side, some of the discussion threads on the email lists could get a bit ugly. Forerunner to the comment threads on today’s posts. So, humanity in a nutshell, right?

Social media didn't really exist during the show's original run. How were you most involved with the X-Files online (atxc, message board, email mailing list, etc.)?

I initially discovered XF fic through a Washington Post article that was trying to drum up interest in the World Wide Web (as it was then talked about). Every week, they featured a list of “hey you might find this cool/interesting” sites, and one week one of the sites they listed was the Gossamer archive. I dove in and emerged utterly hooked. I also discovered one of the early fic mailing lists (the name of which now escapes me), and from there I began sending feedback, which allowed me to start building relationships with authors, etc. I later joined other mailing lists like Scullyfic, Sparky’s Doghouse, etc. I never connected with atxc or the message boards, really.

What was it that got you hooked on the X-Files as a show?

The characters! Particularly Scully, at first. It was clear from almost the beginning that the “story arc” (or the notion that there actually was an arc) was pure fiction, but I loved the relationships between the characters, the nuances that so many of them had, and the interplay of the notion of skeptic-believer could have. And, of course, later on, Skinner was a personal favorite. [Lilydale note: VivWiley wrote a number of really great fics featuring Skinner.]

What is your relationship like now to X-Files fandom?

In many ways I think about TXF and TXF fandom in the same way I think about fond memories from high school or college. Something that helped shape who I am today, in ways that aren’t always straight-forwardly apparent. I still don’t really get involved (or care TBH) about the lives of the actors, the politics of the show construction, etc. I keep in touch with a large number of fandom alumni, and we will still occasionally reference the show, but our real-life connections have long-since overtaken TXF as our common denominator.

Were you involved with any fandoms after the X-Files? If so, what was it like compared to X-Files?

I read and wrote in several other fandoms post-XF, but nothing ever grabbed me in the same way, and I certainly never found the kind of real community that I did through XF.

Who are some of your favorite fictional characters? Why?

I think I’m drawn to characters who are human – flawed, nuanced, neither purely good nor purely evil – and who are ultimately driven by higher principle or purpose, even as they make mistakes along the way. From early days, King Arthur was a particular favorite, as are Raederle from the Riddle Master of Hed series (Patricia McKillip), Sam Vines (Terry Pratchett’s Discworld series), and Codi Noline (Animal Dreams, Barbara Kingsolver).

Do you ever still watch The X-Files or think about Mulder and Scully?

I did watch the most recent reboot/seasons of XF (and try not to think of them too much as I don’t need that kind of stress). I do think about Mulder, Scully and Skinner on occasion. Sometimes when the news reports something particularly weird or absurd, I wonder how Mulder and Scully would react to that, or amuse myself by thinking about how Skinner would be clenching his jaw and subtly undermining the current misuse of federal law enforcement resources.

Do you ever still read X-Files fic? Fic in another fandom?

I still read a lot of fic. I kind of cycle through fandoms. I read a lot of Marvel stuff, but have gone through other fic cycles. I tend to find an author I like and then follow them into other fandoms. That is, if I can find characters and stories in those fandoms that call to me.

Do you have any favorite X-Files fanfic stories or authors?

I’m a really old school XF ficcer, so some of the folks who drew me into the genre were writers like Madeleine Partous, Parrotfish, Meredith, MustangSally, Rivka, etc.

There are so, so many other writers and authors I could mention, so I think I’ll just stick to some of my early favs.

What is your favorite of your own fics, X-Files and/or otherwise?

In XF, my favorite is Equilibrium. It was the most plotting I’d done, and one where I wrote from several POVs and where I had to really let the characters tell the story. In order to avoid spoilers, I’ll just say that there was a moment where a character did something I thought was really stupid, and I actually quit writing the story for about a week during which I argued with the character. Then I had to go back and just let the story unfold. It’s the only time I’ve ever actually shed tears while writing a scene, but at the end of the day (end of the story?) it was the correct decision for the story I was writing.

Of other fandoms in which I’ve written, I think Fieldstripping (Farscape) and Gravity is not Responsible for your Fall (Firefly/Serenity) are ones where I felt I got it most “right.”

Do you think you'll ever write another X-Files story? Or dust off and post an oldie that for whatever reason never made it online?

I actually have a long Skinner-related story that I’ve been threatening to write for about 10 years. I have it 80% outlined and a very clear picture of the first and last scenes…. I just need to find the energy and focus to sit down and start writing. I think I finally tracked down all my old fic and it’s posted up to AO3.

What's the story behind your pen name?

Which one? Ha! I’ve had a few. Viv Wiley is a weird one – it just sort of came to me while driving one day. Not entirely sure where it came from, just settled into my brain while at a stoplight in Northern Virginia (where I was living at the time). I ultimately consolidated all my fic under that name.

Do your friends and family know about your fic and, if so, what have been their reactions?

Some friends and family know. I’m judicious in who I tell. I think people find it surprising, and of course, up until 5 years ago or so, I’d have to explain what fanfic is to most folks. Now it’s so mainstream that I think if I were to tell someone new about it they wouldn’t be that surprised.

Is there a place online (tumblr, twitter, AO3, etc.) where people can find you and/or your stories now?

Everything is on AO3 under VivWiley

Is there anything else you'd like to share with fans of X-Files fic?

At the end of the day, what I care about is stories. I think about the Doctor Who quote: We’re all stories in the end, just make it a good one. I am so grateful for all the nooks, crannies, and giant chasms of plot holes that the XF writers left for us to fill in. Through that filling in, I discovered so many other wonderful stories, and wonderful writers and people.

(Posted by Lilydale on September 8, 2020)

#new post #old school x #xfiles fanfic #xf fanfic #vivwiley #xf fanfic author interviews

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