#DID I EVEN ANSWER THIS CORRECTLY I DON'T UNDERSTAND HOW TUMBLR WORKS
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BRINGING DOWN OTHERS IS LOW VALUE
Today I had the joy of getting a message from a nice young lady who wanted to thank me for my advice and sweetly asked me if I wanted to be friends with her ❤️
This made me understand that having a platform may be a way to share our individual opinions but we should have in mind that, especially on Tumblr, many people come across our content and we have responsibility to correctly and ethically influence them by adding value to their lives.
So, I want to thank every single one of you for following me and sending sweet messages. All 1,205 of you. We are a small corner on the internet and I don't care about appearing "mysterious" and "unapproachable" to my digital friends.
If you have a question/a content suggestion or just want to say "Hi!" don't be shy and use my AMA or private messages. I'll try to answer to all of you.
Also, thank you for being patient with me as I'm finishing up with this exam season and have not posted anything in the past few days. A few of you reached out for tarot readings and a birth chart analysis and we got even closer, so thank you for trusting me with your time, money, hopes and wishes!
I asked the young lady if she wanted me to write a post about something specific or if she had any content suggestions. She told me that she wanted my opinion on "pick-me" girls who bring other women down. She added that it would be interesting to "know how do this girls think". Your wish is my command young lady!
Shall we start ?
After you queens... 👑
Have you noticed something? People who are high value and successful are always eager to extend their hand to other people full of passion and ambition. They become mentors and leaders for other women and men. They set the standard by example. Usually these people are kind hearted, yet know how and when to set boundaries.
All in all, they don't bring other people down, they build them up.
This women and men build ladders for others to climb at the top with them but they know, they have to protect themselves and their loved ones from vultures, because someone can bring you down even if you are thousand meters above them. They just have to pull the rug underneath your feet.
Someone who is high, won't try to lower someone else's value. Someone who is low is not accustomed to the loneliness of the top. They want to surround themselves with other low value individuals to feel powerful. That's the pack mentality and that's why mean girls/boys hang in crowds.
We all had that "friend". She was insecure but always downplayed. She was always jealous of other people and you could see it but you never thought she was jealous of you. Why would she be? When you talked about your crush/business idea/ambitions it was always : "Ew he is ugly.", "Who are you Elon Musk?", "A law degree? You don't even know how to think critically.".
That friend and you fell apart when you started investing in yourself, and that's when the veil fell off and you saw other girls like that.
The pick-me girls.
A couple days ago, I had a "History Of Economic Thought" exam (It's a very interesting topic to research and if a similar class is available to you, I suggest that you take it!). It was the last one I had to take in person.
I felt awful, anxious and tired. Two weeks of hard work, studying everyday, staying up till light came through the blinds and commuting two hours back and forth to and from school had made me emotionally and mentally tired. I needed some loving from my cat Mr. Mau and a toffee nut latte.
I did my 10k steps by the sea and decided to open up Pinterest and make myself feel a bit better. I searched up "fall aesthetic", "studying aesthetic", "toffee nut latte from Starbucks" etc.
Under a pin there was this comment by a girl calling all women who are "obsessed" with fall, Starbucks and cute photos of pumpkins, "silly a** basic white b*tches".
I then went on TikTok and came across a video of a woman who was being shamed for having a 35k engagement ring (you know which one I'm talking about, the one her man, an amazing king ate the interviewer up and left no crumbs). A woman had commented "she is a gold digger and when he cheats on her with a good woman she'll get what she deserves".
Excuse me what ? So a good woman is one who tries to please others by accepting less than she deserves. I'm not one who would want a 35k engagement ring, buy me a 3k one and 32k of gold for investment purposes, but if her men believed she deserved that, then so be it.
Why are you trying to get picked? Do you think men marry the good girl? Do you think any man who will only see you as an innocent, precious lovely angel will be able to take all of you?
These women are playing a dangerous game. They so badly want to get picked and mostly they get picked but for all the wrong reasons. They love how guys on podcasts praise them online for being "feminine". They love the attention of boys who find them cool.
Sweetheart, you need a man who will find your rage and your sweetness sacred.
You need parents who will understand that you have your own dreams, needs and that you are not just an extension of their egos.
These women and the so-called "good guys" (uhh don't let me get started on those") are sad inside. They would love to have your own wildness and freedom. They feel jealous that you are still that magical bitch holding your pumpkin spice latte with a fresh new set and while doing kick boxing on Wednesday afternoon.
Girls, watch some Legally Blonde. It's the literal blueprint 😉 It made me come to terms with my girly nature as a girl who grew up a tomboy.
You don't have to be just bubbly and feminine. You don't have to be just a dark feminine, femme fatale. You can be all of those things because we are multilayered beings. Lastly, we have the gift of metamorphosis. Don't be afraid to transform and break the mold.
#source:thesirencult#level up journey#leveling up#leverage#level up#divine feminine energy#feminine advice#feminine journey#dark feminine aesthetic#dark femininity#femme fatale#high value mindset#high value woman
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Hi, I’m a real new shiny here (on Tumblr, but also at drawing), and it’s the first time I ask anything, so I hope it’s ok. I must say first that I love the way you draw TCW characters (especially the clones)! 😍 I just came across this sketch you made on canvas (if I remember correctly) https://www.tumblr.com/thepatchycat/729224397978828800 and I was wondering, if you don’t mind sharing, how do you get the perfect white background on non-digital drawings? I currently use a scanner app on my sketches and the results are always inconsistent and far from that white… thanks a lot in advance!! 😊
Welcome to the Tumblr crew, shiny! ;) And thank you kindly!
So my dirty secret for that sketch is... it actually is completely digital! I drew it in a program called Rebelle 5, which is designed to mimic traditional canvas/paper and pencils/paints. I picked it up for super cheap during a huge sale last year, and it's a lot of fun; unfortunately, it's usually pretty expensive, as many art programs are. I highly recommend keeping an eye out for sales though if you ever get into digital drawing--and if you'd like a free program, the one I use most of the time is MediBang. But those programs are really mostly helpful for digital art, not so much for scanning actual pencil sketches.
While I tend to stick to digital drawing nowadays, I definitely feel you on the scan cleanliness issue; phone pictures and even proper printer scans tend to end up either kind of dirty or faded. The short answer is that I don't actually have an easy and effective solution, but there might be some things you can try depending on what you have available. I wouldn't be surprised if you've already explored more methods than I have, and there are definitely people with better ideas and more experience than me, but I'll share what I've tried.
Long(er)-winded rambling under the cut!
So, I currently have an unfinished piece sitting in my files that began as a traditional drawing, one that I want to keep all the pencil details for. Here's the sketchbook page, scanned using a household printer:
Not terrible, but it'd be nice to have clearer contrast between the lines and the background. In MediBang, I can adjust the contrast by going to Filter>Levels (or Ctrl+L), which gives me a little box that looks like this:
I don't technically know the nitty gritty of how it works, but by my understanding, the outer triangles for the input and output indicate the range boundaries. Adjusting the input--particularly the darker boundary--so that the output boundary exceeds it basically tells the program to make the darker parts even darker, resulting in this:
Better! As you can see, though, the darker parts of the background also show up a bit more. Rather than relying only on contrast adjustments, what I actually ended up doing was carefully erasing the background around the drawing after adding a plain white layer underneath, and also going over some of the lines digitally. I did this first in MediBang (the only art program I had when I started working on it), then transferred the file over to Rebelle.
MediBang (left) has the pure white background, while the Rebelle (right) canvas settings I chose are a little off-white and more textured, which I think blends a bit better with the texture and shading of the image. It's possible to add textures and the like in MediBang, too, but Rebelle has it built into its design, so it's a little easier to figure out there; I'll likely finish this piece in Rebelle (whenever I get back to doing so, haha), since the canvas and brush settings will be easier to match to the texture of everything that came directly from the drawing.
Most of this is much easier to do with a drawing tablet/pen, unless you're a wizard with a mouse. As for traditional means... the best suggestion I can come up with is to try inking sketches, or at least darkening them further with a pencil. The more contrast you can get between your lines and the background, the more easily you can digitally tease that contrast out even further. I think most photo editors have at least some contrast, color, and brightness adjusters, and probably more useful functions I don't even know about--it never hurts to mess around with any program's filters and settings to see what happens!
Good luck, and happy drawing! :D
#Patchy Babbles#Asks#I love getting asks so it's more than okay!#Sorry the answer is basically that that sketch is a lie haha#Someone on the internet has probably figured out more effective tricks but that someone is not me#Also your art looks super good!#You have a great eye for detail~
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Hiii can I ask you something?
haha it's fine not to answer (don't wanna impose)
But I've been following you for a while and first, I wanna say you're amazing, you really helped me going through my last semester bc I got really obsesed with lipxlip, and most of the fics were written by you and I kinda read between 2 to 4 per day to lift my spirts which really helped me to just go and go (I just saw you everywhere and I loved it to the point of just going to your profile and started reading since the oldest fics to try to not lose any)
And I sometimes read in your profile that you're also strugling (sorry if I get some English words wrong, but I wanna be the most sincere with my words by not going to the translator now) and mann I got to really hate some of the clients at your place, people suck, but you're doing your best and that's something that should be acknologed (be noticed, be understanded, be recognized as a person and not as a simple servant to serve their needs, a person with interests and fears and you know... just going through the day just like they are, like god... it's free to be empathetic to others)
I saw one of your posts where you talk about someone requesting fics or something (sorry not remeber the exact situation) but I wanna say that it's beautyful your own ideas and alternative universes and wathever was written (or could have, I still think that even those words that didn't get to be written are beautiful bc you thought of them and I hope they made you happy and made have you have fun just as it makes me happy and excited to read whatever you share with us -> your readers)
I don't want you to feel obligated to write just bc someone requested that of you, it's an activity that makes you have fun (and I think it makes you feel a lot of other things but I'm not a writer, and I respect you for that, bc feeling what the characters feel and understanding is not an easy task to acomplish, especially bc I think you portray them really well)
And bc I don't want a misunderstanding, you're amazing for who you are (whoever you are) not just bc you made the days of a stranger in the internet by writing fabulous stories, but bc you're a great person and don't ever let anyone tell you the oposite.
And haha man (I use man as a in a neutral gender), I don't think I have enough words to express myself (in English or in my native tongue) but I hope some of it gets to you, even if it's only a little.
Andd... haha sorry if I exctended too much, bc I feel like my question is too short for all this words and I sure will feel aukward later (not good with feelings and expresing myself) but can I ask how did you get started/found with lipxlip? And also yuumori?
Again, sorry if this is a weird ask, not really sure how it works but I think they're usually shorter 😅? I guess I just needed an excuse to say you all this. Again I don't wanna impose, you don't have to answer, I just hope you're fine and healthy and continue to be
Saludos. 😄
Pss: Last stage was incredible, and your last fanfic of them was also great (you've made me take notice of the little things that I didn't pay attention to, like that they really had bruises at that first concert of the MV and gave me an answer at why they were crying at their special place and that I didn't even notice at first that was their special place at first, and made me realize by your fanfics how important and big of a deal it's to share your safe place, which later develops in the safe place of yours and also that person you shared it with)
OKAY . WOW . SO
Anon I just want to preface this by saying not a whole lot makes me teary- gut wrenching fics, shows, movies, etc...many of them don't do anything for me aside from get a laugh out of me, but this comment I had to reread twice to make sure I was reading it correctly. I was just gonna fuck around on the writing part of Tumblr for the lols and I was super caught off guard. So congrats to that, you definitely made me tear up from this. It's definitely one of the sweetest things someone's ever said to me. 🥹💜
Also, thank you so much for reading my fics! Some are just silly little ideas I jotted down for the lols, and other ideas rotted my brain. I'm definitely more proud of some rather than others, but I'm glad you enjoyed them all(?) nonetheless!
For me, writing is both a form of escapism and a fun hobby that I've had since I was a little kid~ you know, in elementary we had like 20 vocab words per week and we had to either write them down + their definitions and use them in a sentence, write them all down 5 times, or write a short story including 10 of those words. You can probably see which one I went with~ but anyway, yeah, writing is really fun for me.
If it ever gets too stressful or I end up hating it, I end up abandoning the work, yet usually I can't find it in me to delete it. Sometimes I end up hating the work (multichaps, usually) only after its done but then it grows in popularity so I just kinda go "well, fuck it and fuck me, I guess?" and keep it. Other times, I go "well, this ending could have been better..." and then think of other ways I could have written it...
As for how I got into lipxlip??? I saw the thumbnail for Yume Fanfare, clicked, and it altered the course of my life. I started learning Japanese solely because of lxl, my dude. After that, though, I watched their other videos and kinda floated around a bit, and then the movie got announced and bam. I was sucked into the world of Honeyworks and they still keep an iron clad grip on me to this day...
Yuumori is an uninspiring story, really...sometimes I get trailers for anime on yt and I just so happen to get a yuumori trailer. I waited until it began airing, watched it, waited for part 2, watched it, then left it...and recently, I was vibin with a friend online and we were exchanging anime ops, and I remembered yuumori's first op and I was like. Damn this shit slaps!!! And I rewatched the show...and then they had an iron clad grip on me. So...saw trailer, watched it as it aired, forgot about it, then came back to it solely because of the opening lmaooooo.
Anyway, I hope this answered everything..??? Again, though, thank you so much for your kind words~ it meant a lot !
#I feel like im forgetting to add smthin hmmgg.....#o well#wow my response was long jdsjksahdjasda#im ngl I feel a bit shy posting all of this... hjdshs#I promise u tho anon I'm not nearly as interesting irl as I seem online im mean and antisocial asf :" I wanna retire early#become a millionaire eat hot chip and lie#anyway uhhh thanks again !????#anoask
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I was wondering how you felt about the centralization of fandom. I feel like now, I'm so used to hop on AO3 that as soon as I'm looking for something I might not find there, like meta, theories or simply fics for an older (related to AO3) fandom like Glee, I don't have a clue anymore where to look for them. I never used LiveJournal so I don't have the habit of checking it out. FFNET feels obsolete after spending so much time on AO3, and as for Tumblr... the search function is a mess (and I dislike the fact that so many people post fanfics directly in text posts, of course they do what they want but it's frustrating to search for like analysis or simple thoughts and only find docs).
Fanlore is often lacking (although I worked myself on filling some stuff a few times).
I was used to HP being my main fandom: it had its own very charming fan websites with tons of content that often still exist, but are different somehow.
So I guess my question is actually several questions:
- what do you think of fandom being generally more centralized nowadays
- where do you go if you seek stuff like writeups (AO3 allows them but doesn't feature so much of them, but I know the Glee fandom was THRIVING and full of stuff,I guess the waves of mass post deletions are part of the issue)?
- finally, how are you? 🤗 I'm always happy to see your posts on my dash even if my Glee hyperfixation has come and gone
Sorry, it may be a confusing post 😂 Too much stuff going on
Hmm - I guess I wonder what you mean by more centralized? Like that we find everything in one place? Do we find everything in one placed? I guess I'm a little confused (but I often am)
What do you mean by write ups? Do you mean things like meta and analysis? I just want to make sure I'm understanding correctly.
If I'm being honest, my relationship with media has changed and I'm not necessarily seeking out fandoms to engage with. (This is not a denouncement of fandom at all! Just that I'm busier and how I interact with things just is different now) I haven't hyperfixed on anything since Glee - and I'm okay with that.
I don't really know where people can go /now/ to dig into fandoms. I think Discord is one of the places - but you almost have to be engaged already and invited into one. I don't know where people are putting their thoughts and feelings these days.
For me - I listen to a lot of podcasts now (as well as YouTube) where I can hear people's takes on such things, but I can't necessarily engage with it (I mean, I suppose commenting is a thing but it's not my thing) and that seems to fulfill a lot of my desire to hear someone else's thoughts.
And, I mean, I've made a group of good friends on Tumblr that if I want a more personalized discussion on something I'll hit one of them up and spark a convo. (Of course I have people not on the internet with whom I do that, too.)
But I can see where it can be hard for someone who is just starting out on their fandom journey to find a place where they can really dig in with others. Tumblr would be nicer if it was more organized and if tagging did actually work.
And, you know, I kinda treat Tumblr like a journal - and just create my own content. I'm not necessarily writing for all of you, but to sort things out in my own mind. Having people read and enjoy my thoughts is just an added bonus. ;)
I'm not sure if I've answered or addressed all of your thoughts - but hopefully, some of that makes sense?
In the mean time, I am doing well. I'm in a better place personally, which is nice, because then I can get back to all the fun projects I enjoyed before the year of my mental health crisis. Hope you are well yourself! <3
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So, this is goodbye...
Yes, you assumed correctly. I'm leaving.
I have been seriously dreading making this post... and even now, typing it up, I still don't know exactly what it is I wanna say or how to say it.
I'm not leaving permanently so don't get too excited (sarcasm, ik u guys love me 😉). This is more of an "I'll see you later!" type of post.
Wait, so why are you leaving?
So, some of you may have noticed, I haven't posted for two Fridays in a row. That is because, I have been struggling with some extreme burnout.
When I started this account back in January, I was posting every day. Then I started to feel the effects of that, and I was posting every day except for Sunday. That did not last very long either and I eventually only posted on Tuesdays and Fridays (my designated days for Sam and Spencer). And now I'm here, only posting on Fridays because even twice a week was too much for me.
This is not at all what I wanted. I thought I was strong enough to get through this period and I thought I was going to be able to post weekly Spencer fics alongside SYGB. However, with the stress of constantly writing something for this account and prepping for college, I haven't even had time to step back and focus on the reason I started writing in the first place: to make the books and scripts that I needed when I was younger.
Therefore, for me to get back to making content for you guys, I think it would be best for me to take a break from posting on here and work on content that I am proud of and actually look forward to posting for you guys.
So... what about SYGB?
I have to be honest with you guys, SYGB isn't doing as well as I expected. It's one of those projects that I put my heart and soul into... and then it (for a lack of a better word) flopped. I'm sure my fellow writers will understand what I mean when I say that it's disheartening when you work on something that you love but it seems as though no one else loves it.
That being said, during this break, I am considering re-writing SYGB to make it something I am 100% proud to post and to make it something that I don't feel obligated to post—something that I absolutely can't wait to share with you guys!
So, how long will you be gone for?
To be honest, I don't know. Part of me wants to promise that I'll be back in a month or in two months or however long it'll take me to get my feet planted into college life. Part of me wants to promise that it'll be a short period of time.
However, with the current state of my mental health, I know that these will be empty promises.
However, I know that I'm not going to leave forever. This account and my fanfiction are things that are constantly on my mind. I think even in 10 years or maybe even in 20 years or however long it takes me to publish my books and/or become a screenwriter, I'll still look back to these days and recognize my roots as a writer.
That being said, I do have many works in progress that I look forward to posting... when the time is right. There are a couple writing contests that I am going to try my hardest to join before the deadline is up. There are multiple wips that I know you guys will love when they are absolutely perfect (in my mind's eye anyway).
So, I suppose my answer is... am I really leaving at all?
To make a long story short, I am still very much going to be on this app. I don't think I'll ever fully leave Tumblr. I still really love reading fics and checking in on my friends and making content for you guys.
That being said, I am going to end this with promises to continue posting, just not right now. My posts will be more sporadic, no more posting schedule unless I get back to a mental state where it will be OK for me.
I want to thank each and every single person who has supported me on this journey. One person I'd like to shout out in particular is @theghouligan. She's the person who encouraged me to start posting my fanfiction and she was the first person to support me taking this break (you can ask her, taking this break is not a spur of the moment decision).
If you've read this far, thank you. From the bottom of my heart, I love you and I appreciate you.
You guys probably know where this is going, but as I always say:
☆𝐓𝐑𝐄𝐀𝐓 𝐀𝐋𝐋 𝐏𝐄𝐎𝐏𝐋𝐄 𝐖𝐈𝐓𝐇 𝐊𝐈𝐍𝐃𝐍𝐄𝐒𝐒☆
general taglist: @1234-angelika @amythedoctor @lowsodiumfreaks67 @drayshadow @alexxavicry @nomajdetective @mrspeacem1nusone @cordyandbilliehavemyheart @kbakery @leigh70 @the-lucky-ones311 @mercuryvapours @danzalladaggers @darkloverfox @sammyrenae68 @cherrycandle @asgardprincess97 @gh0stgurl @esposadomd @randomwriter1021 @eddieharrington @lunar-affection @paintlavillered @jensensgirl @givemeth @lavhoes @rhyanishere @gal-obsessed-with-marvel @danielle143 @marsmallow433 @rexorangecouny @handsupforamiracle @criminalmindsandmarvel @mente-sindescanso @reveriemgg @spencer-reids-adventures @ah-blossom @encyclo-reid-ia @reidselle
#posting#posting schedule#posting update#update#updates#account update#writing update#goodbye#goodbye post#emmyfromowaw#emmy writes#ofwilliamandwalter#bet queue wanna love me now
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hi :))
i just read the invisible thread part 2, after reading part 1, only to remember everything. i feel very soft and full right now thanks to what you wrote and how you write. i already said something when i reblogged the first part, but i couldn't think of something specific to say about to second, so i just reblogged it too with my 5star tag and left it there. but i do want to say thank you. i am having a very rough week for personal reasons and overthinking and those kinds of things teens like me suffer so often these days, but this morning i was lying in bed with horrible cramps and i remembered you had posted the second part to invisible thread recently, so i was willing to read it.
and i did, ofc. but the thoughts i have rn are like -i would say philosophical haha. i think the way you write helps people to understand the way they feel. i mean, i had this feeling all the time, like i should be screenshoting everything or at least being able to have the capacity of highlight some quotes like i do when i am rrading a book with my post its and my markers. all you write is absolutely beautiful, but this work you did with invisible thread will always live in my heart in some sort of way.
i am a firmly believer that we shouldn't accept anything that we don't deserve, but sometimes is hard to understand what we deserve when we are very caught up in our minds. the way you described how not only minho but also yn cared for each other, and how they learnt to be better and grew as individuals is truly admirable, and i think everyone should have the chance to read this once in their lives in order to understand a lot of things about love, and human behavior. i don't know how to say it or if i am explaining myself correctly. and even if it seems like i am crazy or something because is just some writting that someone wrote for fun to post here in tumblr, i can assure you for me is not only that.
i am in a time of my life where i am supposed to build my future self, and things like this (and quotes and thoughts i found on pinterest haha) really help me to create a world of mine where it is okay with having a bad day, or not knowing what to feel, or craving a real romantic conexion, or spending a whole afternoon procrastinating just because i didn't feel like going out and socialise. i really identify with yn, and i look forward to finding the comfort and refuge that she found in minho someday. meanwhile, you inspire me to practise so i can, somehow, somewhere in the future, get to write something as beautiful and deep as this was.
sorry for the rambling, feel free to not share/answer this, and have a lovely morning/afternoon/night ❤️🩹
hiii my love, thank you so much for sending in such a sweet message 🥹 i hope you're feeling better these days and I'm so happy i.t brought you some comfort :")) this truly means the world to me like I can't believe you think so highly of something i wrote ☹️ it genuinely makes me the happiest and i still can't comprehend it fully, so thank you for telling me this <3
take it slow, don't rush yourself to have it all figured out, it takes time and you need to be patient and gentle with yourself throughout it, even if you make mistakes and bad decisions, this is the only way in which we grow,, if you're kind to yourself then at the end of the day, everything will be okay, promise <333
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Hiii,
may I request fot the villains of gotham hc? The request is:
How they would react if you you wanted a poly relationship with another villain (ex: black mask and joker)
Obv only if you're comfortable, I hope i did right requesting here, and that i did not write anything wrong
Ps. I'm new on tumblr and english is not my first language
Thx anyways and I love your writing<33
Okay I thought about this for a bit and I think I know what you're looking for...I hope I did this correctly. Your English is brilliant! Thank you so much ❤️
The Riddler: So just when he was comfortable in this new relationship and not watching you over his shoulder every dive minutes, he was made aware of a little issue. He doesn't know when you got all chummy with Jonathan Crane but he also doesn't want to know. So you want leave him for Jonathan CRANE? Wait you don't? What do you mean, you want both? Yes, its a thing but why do you need his brain when you already have Edward's supreme brain!? He's the better man! He isn't taking it too well. Hes quite possessive, once you have his heart, you're basically locked in. He isn't the type to share and in a world where he is superior, why would he be okay with sharing you? Although, that being said, atleast it was Jonathan, had you said someone like Harvey Dent, he would have went nuclear.
Scarecrow: He's kinda thinking you need your head examined. Maybe he needs his own, did you just say you wanted to be in a polygamous relationship with him and Edward Nygma? You're thinking of the right Edward right? The narcissistic one? Has a thing for questions marks and green? Oh you are. So who are you trying to torture, Jonathan or himself? Whilst he might be a little more open to the idea with time, he isn't thrilled that it's Edward Nygma. He understands Jonathan isn't exactly an open book- more welded shut- but does that really mean you have to bring Nygma into this? He's too much on quite literally anything. Perhaps you were the happy medium in this dynamic.
Two-Face: That conversation takes a turn because amidst the talk, Two-Face cut in. "Aren't we enough?" You thought he was referring to Harvey and answered easily. However as Two-Face questioned you further, you noticed that Two-Face's wording painted a different picture. That you were already being shared by two people, Harvey and Two-Face. "Wait that's not how that works!" Harvey cut in. "You don't even have a body!" "Of course I do, dumbass! What do you think you're standing in!?" This continued and you thought to yourself perhaps it was better to bring up Oswald some other time. Now you were thoroughly lost and didn't even know how Harvey actually felt about it polygamy.
Black Mask: Absolutely not. The Joker? Okay first of all, sweetness, you come in here asking him to share you but on top of that, you want him to share with the Joker? Are you high? Fully expect him to either check your eyes or flat out dismiss anything you had to say under the pretenses that you are high. There's no way you'd ask this sober. The clown? Pfft. Roman Sionis never shares with anyone and he'll be damned if he starts with the clown.
Penguin: Okay so it'll turn into a big old rivalry between Penguin and Two-Face but if it makes you happy...he will reluctantly accept this. The key to this working out is to maintain the amount of attention you always gave to Oswald. He works a lot as it is, so this should be easy to manage but he might get a little jealous every so often. So keep an eye on him and see how it goes?
Joker: Very accepting of this, didn't need much convincing at all and you aren't entirely sure if that's because he wasn't listening or if it was because he didn't actually care what you did. He cackled at the mention of Roman Sionis but overall had very little to say than cracking a few jokes about Sionis and how the happy family not only has an addition, but also has become a tight squeeze. Maybe just take it and run with it?
#batman#batman villains#batman scenarios#request#the riddler#scarecrow#black mask#the joker#two face#penguin#edward nygma#jonathan crane#roman sionis#harvey dent#oswald cobblepot
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Hiii, can I ask you how we can protect our energies from evil eyes or bad energies? please, let me give you some context, my father has a brother who did a lot of bad things to my grandparents, especially to my grandpa to finally make him -> 💀 (I hope it explains), and right now, he is trying ti affect my family, even if we don't have that much contact with my dad, the information we have is that he is doing works to our family to be miserable and end -> 💀, cuz he wants all the inheritance my grandpa left. Those days, my family began to get sick and economically decline, idk what to do and I don't understand how a person can be so bad.
Sorry for the rant, and if you don't answer this kind of question, I'm sorry, and please ignore it. Thank you so muuuch! 💓, please, keep safe and happy
Hello anon. That’s a scary and horrible situation you are in, I am quite new in terms of of protecting one’s energy but from what I manage to know and succeed to understand :
Cut the ties with him… this way you’ll feel less overwhelmed by him. To do so you can light two candles, put a cord around them and let the fire burn the cord. Each candle representing someone. You can as well visualize yourself cutting the ties with him.
If you believe in a religious figure pray and fast. Meditation can help as well!
Visualization. In a place that makes you comfortable in the position you prefer and that eases your mind imagine a gate or a bubble or simply something that forbids people to reach you.
(I am not really fond of it but…) you can hex him in return of his attempts to destroy you and your family. Elaborate a routine with your guides/God and think of a punishment you could give him in return for his curses. It’s a protective-attacking method but by doing so you may have to go through something that won’t please you as hexing someone has a cost.
(Still not really into it but) there are some crystals known for their protective properties, carnalian if I remember correctly could be useful for it.
Some plants are also known to protect against evil eyes, my mom uses laurel leaves to protect my family. She puts it under my pillow, on the shooes’s soles, in the bags etc. I believe it works for some reason…
I heard black is the color of protection so wear something black (back to crystals as well).
Salt and encense are also tools that help to be protected against someone coming close to where you put salt (so for instance you poured salt at the front door, outside negativity is less likely to reach the house and people leaving there). Encense eases your mind and makes you feel protected.
Cultural ways of protecting your energy (so look out in your own background how to protect your energy).
So I just gave you what I know but I haven’t tried everything (I did ties cutting, visualization, used plants and did prayed). I am not into witchcraft and stick to light ways to protect my energy but use whatever works for you (or could work for you) and if ever, look around on Tumblr or even Reddit for tips about it. I would also suggest you to look for your answers with your ancestors/cultural knowledge. I am still learning how to master my energy’s protection so excuse me if my suggestions are not really helpful.
If some anons know better than I do and even can link to people that have more knowledge about the matter it would be really welcomed!
Note : I should add it here because it is not spoken often it seems but being protected doesn’t mean that you won’t be reachable. Think of a thief trying to rob a well protected house. They may or may not succeed to steal what they want but they will find their way somehow to at least steal the smallest thing or just entering the house (even when the alarm is ringing) before running away. It’s the same with energy : it will be harder and harder to reach you, to read you, to curse you etc. But it won’t stop anybody to trespass your limits and barriers, even with your guides protecting you.
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What happened between the creators of this AU? Was there drama and/or toxicity that broke down friendships?
Short answer:
Some Grade-A bullshit, and yes.
Long answer:
What happened was a million little things that escalated into not-so-little things, that escalated into very big things, that escalated into the complete destruction of my psyche and by extension this project. There's no single thing that tore it all apart, which is why it's so frustrating to talk about, even more so hearing other people get it all wrong.
I would be lying if I said if I wasn't partially responsible for what's happened, and I'm not going to lie to you. I've done more than enough of that.
I fucked up. I was an idiot. I did stupid and bad things I shouldn't have. If I had the power to go back in time, I would've done things differently.
I'm not exactly sure when things started to fall apart. It was like I was the frog in the pot being slowly boiled alive, not realizing how much danger I was in and how stupid I was being until it was too late.
Working on this AU, as much as I loved it and still love it, it drove me crazy. I mean, my mental health wasn't exactly the best going into it, but I've never felt so empty and angry like I did then, and yet it was the only thing keeping me going. I felt terrible when I wasn't working on it but when I was, I was stressed and frustrated. It was just this endless insanity spiral.
*sigh* I'm getting ahead of myself.
The people who worked on this AU are not bad people. I think it's important I preface with that. Some of them are far too gullible for their own good, but being stupid doesn't make you a bad person, it just means that nothing has taught you to be cautious yet. I don't have the highest opinions of some of them, but at the end of the day they're just that; opinions. There are no bad people, just hurt people that have far more reach and the potential to cause far more damage than they realize, just naïve people who have the misfortune of being an easy target and being naturally louder than everyone else, just broken people that need more than a few kind words to fix them, just misguided people that don't have enough experience points invested in their Wisdom stat to tell them when they're being played, just people that have good intentions and no idea how to use them, just people that are fundamentally incompatible.
For all of my frustrations, and as much as I'd like to, I can't bring myself to properly hate some of these people. Even when I've tried talking about this with folks who've got no context for any of it, I feel like I'm constantly trying to defend them despite how much the things they've done piss me off.
My only desire is that this story be told correctly. I hope you can understand how incredibly fucking obnoxious it is to see the people with the biggest microphones and the least amount of context spewing utter nonsense out of their mouths will full confidence despite having no goddamn idea what they're talking about.
Anyway... at the core of this, yes, it was broken friendships that forced the AU to be discontinued. I really don't want to use the term "toxic" though. I've noticed this trend of over-the-counter therapy buzzwords being tossed around in online spaces (Tumblr, Twitter and TikTok being by far the worst offenders) when they don't feel very applicable once you think about it for more than like 15 minutes. I've caught myself doing it more often too, now that this site and the people on it have sufficiently rotted my brain, but I'm trying to be better about it.
I keep getting sidetracked, but - while "Yeah, we stopped being friends so we stopped doing the AU too," isn't an incorrect assessment of the situation, I think it massively over simplifies what happened and understates how much it destroyed my sanity, which I might be okay with if it was just left at that and not turned into a slander campaign. Not to mention, it makes it really fucking easy for everyone else to completely ignore and lie about my side of the story, as if being the foreigner and the newbie didn't make that easy enough already.
Just about everything I could say "Yes" to has some sort of asterisk behind it. Context is king and summaries take away the context.
Yes, some of my so called friends tried to help me (not like I had much of choice in saying no despite my best efforts), except when I finally let my walls down a little and decided to trust someone, it blew up in my face! You know how much it sucks to tell someone "I really would rather not talk about this because the things I have to say are really fucked up, and you're not gonna wanna hear it despite how much you're begging for it," several fucking times, and when they insist over and over that they can handle it and it'll be okay Nugget, you can trust me, I won't tell anyone only for it to be painfully obvious that they can't handle it and you can't trust them once you finally cave in and start talking? You know how much it sucks to be poked at over and over and over again, and when you've had enough and finally snap people just think you're crazy? You know how much it sucks to be told to just talk it out over and over again despite it doing absolutely nothing and it all being a big waste of time? To be told that your words mean nothing and no matter how much you try all you ever do is fuck up and make things worse? Yeah, some help that was.
Yes, I posted DMs, only after I realized people were sharing mine, and only after I got banned from my own Discord server for shit that wasn't even true, and only after I found out that there was an entire sperate server made just to talk shit about me behind my back, and only after I got blacklisted on Tumblr by my mutuals because people were telling them a bunch of fucking lies, and only after my sister of all people got a message accusing me of plotting a murder, and only after my ex got recruited to participate in this pile of shit being thrown my way (God, what a terrible, disrespectful judgment of his character... he's my ex, not my nemesis, we're still friends and he loves and cares about me a lot, I cannot overstate how much that pissed me off), and only after I got accused of drawing sexual harassment of characters that weren't mine in a callout post filled to the brim with bullshit (totally untrue btw... still baffled as to where this claim came from), and only after every other possible avenue of defending myself and saying "Hey, actually that's bullshit and you know it," was taken away from me.
Yes, I have a venting side blog, WHICH THESE PEOPLE WERE BLOCKED FROM, and that has probably the worlds biggest disclaimer as a pinned post explaining the purpose of the blog, something that repeatedly gets swept under the rug every time it gets mentioned. I'm supposed to feel sorry because a bunch of people are nosey and like to jump to conclusions?? Give me a fucking break. I blocked about half a dozen people from my side blog a few months after I made it specifically because I knew exactly what kind of reaction it would garner if they new it existed. They can't handle me being a little upset on Discord, of course I knew that blog would make them lose their fucking minds! I mean this is the same group of people that struggle to say the word 'pregnant', my expectations weren't exactly the highest, that's why they were blocked! And as usual, my paranoia was completely correct! They found out about it and look what happened! Maybe if my fears weren't confirmed at every possible turn I wouldn't feel the need to be so reactive.
Yes, I keep chat logs, no, that is not what stalking means despite everyone's insistence on using that word. Information visible on your public internet profile is not stalking either. Neither is using Google Analytics, something available to literally every tumblr user for free on any of their blogs and something that is used by advertisers to be much nosier than I would ever need to be. I only started keeping chat logs because I had my suspicions that something funky was going on I wanted to keep receipts (and I'm a natural hoarder anyway... I don't like to delete stuff if I don't have to). I understand that it's a weird thing to do, but it's not fucking illegal to keep an offline copy of something you would have access to with an internet connection. This is a feature partially built into Discord, by the way (Though it's definitely easier and more inclusive with a third party application). In fact, most chat services will allow you to download a copy of your messages. If not the entire conversation, then at least the message you sent. Wild to me that people are totally unaware of how mush shit online gets tracked and recorded in some way shape or form, it's like the concept of a digital footprint does not exist in their minds at all.
Yes, I was not the best at managing this project and I've never denied this. I've apologized for it several times, and I tried my best to do better. I've apologized for things that weren't even my fault. I've said sorry so many times it doesn't even feel like a real word anymore. I do not have a time machine to fix every mistake I've made, so unless someone wants to give me a schematic for one, I kindly ask that you shut the fuck up. I beat myself up enough every time something goes wrong, I don't need everyone else to constantly tell me how shitty I am too.
I tried so hard to do a good job running this project despite it growing to be way bigger than I ever expected or intended it to be. I tried to take everyone's input into consideration, I tried to please as many people as I could.
You want more than just a cameo? Sure, you can make your own timeline, that sounds like fun. (x2)
You hate Connie and anything to do with her character? Sounds like you just wanna fuck Steven and you're jealous, especially considering the other people in this fandom you like to hang out with, but okay, I'll do my best to keep Connie x Steven out of as many channels as I can.
You say these two clowns are mean to you in your DMs and want me to fix it for you? Seems like personal beef you should be dealing with yourself, but since they're causing some problems in my server too let's try to talk to them and make it seem like I'm the one who's upset with them so you don't have to be the bad guy or have any sort of backbone (you can guess how well that went).
You're worried these side blogs have too many spoilers even if they're hidden? You think these posts shouldn't be on the main blog anymore? A completely valid concern, I'll delete them.
You think it's annoying to hear people talk about FNAF when you don't know about it (even though I've heard people talk about Deltarune for weeks despite not giving a singular shit about anything Undertale related)? Okay, I'll make some new channels just for you.
You say I don't give you enough credit for your work? Okay, that's fair, here's a special Discord role so people know that you've worked really hard and announcement to make it clear that's what it's for.
You don't think you're getting enough appreciation for working on these characters? Okay, you've done a lot for them, you can have them. I'll make sure everyone knows that you've done a lot of work on them, you can even review what I'm going to say about it before I make it public.
You don't wanna tell these other people working on the AU that they hurt your feelings 'cause you're too much of a pussy to do it yourself? Fine, I'll go ask them to apologize to you even though I don't really think they did anything wrong and were totally justified in being pissed at you.
You wanna spend an hour telling me how much of a piece of shit you think I am and how much I suck? Sure! Go right on ahead! I'll let you rant to your heart's content and I won't say a word.
You think I'm so terrible at running this project, you think I'm such horrible person, okay, fine! It's your problem now, you can have it! Have fun without me or any of my contributions!
Everyone kept pushing and pushing, kept testing me despite how much I warned them to stop, and when I can't take it any more and I'm absolutely sick of it and bite back, then they want to hide. Only then do they want it to stop, only then do they want to let go, sweep it under the rug, leave it all in the past. Only once they've got exactly what they fucking asked for do they realize the mistake they made. "Hey everybody, let's poke the bear and then act like it's crazy for growling at us!"
So. Yeah. You could say there was some drama. And of course, now everyone likes to pretend it wasn't a big deal and wants to move on. Which, I guess for them, it wasn't a big fucking deal. This changes nothing for any of them! They can fuck up and destroy as much as they like and they never have to worry about a thing, 'cause everyone is still gonna love them no matter what and believe everything they say as long as they keep up the soft and innocent cry baby routine. Wonderful. I'm sooo happy for them.
Look, I'm not gonna pretend I'm the nicest person out there or that I'm perfectly innocent and I've never done anything wrong. I hurt people and I didn't run the project as well as I should have. But if you're going to tell this story, then for the love of fucking God, tell all of it. The idea that I was the only one fucking up is just wrong. The way people recite it makes it sound like I was a tyrannical, psychotic murderer the entire time for shits and giggles. Like I just enjoyed feeling like absolute shit and being slowly convinced over the course of a year that I'm horrible person and no amount of trying to be better is going to fix it, that do matter what I do I'll always be scary and a villain in their eyes, so why should I bother doing anything good? As if people fall apart and lose their minds for no reason besides they just want to, I guess. Yeah, that was so fun for me.
Though, to be fair, when I'm angry, I get very short-sighted and petty (which is why I try so hard not to be angry). That's what the venting blog is for. Things can get vitriolic on my venting blog... its my little corner of the internet where I can release some frustration in a place where people who know me irl wont be able to easily find it and in a way where I don't have to worry about offending somebody or being too dark or fucked up. Which is why it's a vent blog in the first place... one that I went through the effort of blocking people from and was intentionally very vague on... one that had basically zero interaction until after other people made a big fuss about it... and tbh, I'm not gonna try to explain away what's on it. My brain is fucked up sometimes and I'm not gonna lie about it. But I think it's a little unfair to judge someone's entire character off of how they are in their lowest, darkest moments. I happen to be willing to share a few of mine on that blog, and I don't think that's worth being lied about over.
//Tangent:
The concept of a venting blog is not some revolutionary new idea btw, I feel like it should be stated. If you've never explored Tumblr outside of the confines of whatever safe space you've made for yourself on your dash then maybe this idea might seem new to you, but there's thousands of venting and mental health blogs out there in a similar vein to my own. It's the reason I realized I could even make a blog like that — I went down the rabbit hole one incredibly depressed night and learned that, hey, there's other people on this site going through shit too, and they're willing to say the things I was far too scared to admit to myself. (At least, I was too scared at first. Now not so much.)
//End Tangent
If you wanna judge me then okay, but at the very least I think it'd be smart to look into things yourself instead of blindly believing what people tell you without question. You've got all the resources to come to your own conclusions. Walk the Line's Discord server and the Chaos Pit Discord server are archived and all their channels made public, along with all of these chat logs, this massive doc about two specific AU creators (that actually wasn't made by me if the typing style didn't make that obvious) and the old blog's archive.
Have fun diving further down this rabbit hole if you're really that curious, but I'm exhausted. Maybe you can do me a favor and make sure that people are spreading this part of the story so they have all of it.
#ask#tuxedogirl#meta#walk the line#walktheline au#steven universe#You could say I'm still a little bitter about it.
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Hello, I'm Sebastian.
This is my first time using Tumblr so if I make any mistakes please forgive me. I've read a lot of your OnS analysis posts and I really like them (although I'm not good at English so there are parts I don't quite understand).
I've always had a question about Shinya and I'd like to ask for your help: In the novel Ichinose Guren Resurrection at nineteen it is said that Guren used Seraph to revive his dead friends, but Shinya didn't was revived, the one who revived Shinya was Ferid Bathory (as far as I remember, Seraph only healed Shinya's body wounds, but even though the revival was complete, Shinya's heart still wouldn't beat). And if I remember correctly, in the novel Catastrophe at sixteen Mahiru it was said that the Seraph of the end experiment can only revive humans.
I also have these questions: Byakkomaru is Shinya's demon but has no intention with his desire, he protects Shinya again and again. Why did Byakkomaru do that? Byakkomaru clearly acts and speaks differently from other demons??? And in the novel Catastrophe at sixteen, Noya had to be scared of Shinya because even though he knows his desire, Noya still can't seduce Shinya and can't understand what Shinya is thinking. I also don't understand why Noya has to tremble in front of a human???
What are your thoughts on all of that? Have you ever doubted this? What do you think Shinya's true identity is? I've always had the feeling whether Shinya is a Seraph or not?
Thank you for reading this far. Sorry for any typos, I use GG translate. Wish you have a nice day
Hey Sebas chan! Thanks a lot for your kindness and so happy you enjoyed them dear! Don't worry about your English or mistakes in it at all that's fine!
What you asked is one of those serious and important questions need its special post but still I answer your questions all here!
Let's start then!
Actually I talked about these case before on my IG account but sure that was a long long ago when we were on chapters 83 and even less but yeah that was for a long ago and as I have for about more than 400 posts there then I can't find them that easily and so refer you to them now but maybe I will take a look at them and then share the links here but as I complained this before there yep just as you said there is something absolutely wrong about Shinya in this story.
First of all Shinya has blue eyes which kinda sounds to be a big and important factor in those having Mikaela's gene (like how Ashera, Krul and Crowley did have ones before turning to vampires and all) and then yep just as you said this is a major mystery in why Shinya didn't revive back then specially when we know that according to what Mahiru mentioned before her death, Seraph can only revive humans and so it didn't revive Shinya but that was Ferid who did that and what can be its reason? On that theory I shared long ago on my IG account I said that was because most probably Shinya has the seraph gene inside himself and wasn't even a normal human from the very start till even after his death something that may lead to a big plot in this story and that's the guess that as Shinya didn't revive by Seraph and that was Ferid who revived him, then there's a big possibly that the curse of Seraph doesn't work for him and if someday Shinya will find out the truth about his death he won't turn to ashes and so we can have this plot where Shinya will eventually find out the truth and then we can see his reaction too.
But there's also something else made me to wonder about Shinya too and that was the last chapter of Cat16 manga and this part:
I personally had forgot about this dialogue till when I again reread it here and wondered what Shinya really meant here.
As you can see here Shinya was kinda talking about future and the protagonists of main manga even Asami sensei filled the page with them too and I really advice you to read that part of manga too so can see that Kagami sensei kinda gave us some hints about how what Shinya was saying and acting kinda weird there and honestly I was confused too that why Shinya was saying such things? Like kinda he knew somethings before hand?This was just weird to me but maybe that wasn't something important so whatever....
About Byakkomaru, yeah dear anon I also talked about him before too and I was thinking the same too that Byakkomaru is different too but now that I think more I kinda think that he wasn't that different actually specially after how Asuramaru was acting towards Yuu too but sure later he betrayed him and so what if Byakkomaru too? So maybe Byakkomaru wasn't that different too but yeah still we need to wait and see more of him later.
No dear Noya didn't scare of Shinya but if you reread novel 4, you'll find out that Noya scared of what Shinya told him about the way they had found in order to restrain him and that's all.
And yeah finally as I said this is definitely something weird about Shinya in this story and that must be most probably something relating to that Mikaela's gene and all.
Offf! This turned out too long! But I hope I could give good and enough answers dear!
And again that's absolutely fine and your English was good enough too dear! Have a nice day too ^^
#owari no seraph#seraph of the end#catastrophe at 16#guren ichinose catastrophe at 16#ichinose guren catastrophe at 16#gurencatastropheat16#shinya hiragi#hiragi shinya#hiiragi shinya#shinya hiiragi#byakkomaru#noya#noya hienma#ferid bathory#icy answer#a & q
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I Know Places
Loki x Reader
1989, chapter 12
"And everyone was watching"
Summary: It's hard to find the one, but even if you do find him it's always going to be a daily struggle to make it work. Can you even make it work after he broke your heart? The answer to that is complicated, but it all started when you found each other again in the stark tower- and that's where our story begins.
Word count: 5,106
Warnings: an intense game of Uno, angst, fluff, Odin, and one perfect punch. Not in that order.
A/N: we are so close to the end! Thank you @chrissquares for the beautiful dividers! And thank you so much for @nacho-bucky for beta reading this for me!
No one is allowed to repost my writing or steal or copy my work! Reblog on tumblr is fine.
Series masterlist
Song on Spotify and YouTube
His hands were on your waistline yet again when you woke up. It has been this way ever since Bruce cleared you from the med bay. Loki refused to leave your side. Every time as you fell asleep you felt the tingles of Loki's magic, helping you calm your mind and dream peacefully. Loki had told you all about what happened, so once he managed to get through your powers he took it upon himself to make sure you sleep safe and sound. You didn't remember your dreams, yet whenever you woke up you could not feel more at peace. It had been far too long without Loki for you- it always was.
You slowly cracked your eyes open through the daylight, coming face to face with the trickster god sound asleep. You couldn't help the smile that took over you- he looked so young, so innocent, here sleeping next to you with a soft light casting shadows on his long lashes. You brushed a strand of hair from his face and when he stirred you turned around and backed into his embrace.
"Good morning, darling."
"Good morning, Loki." You hid your head into the soft pillow loving how it now smelt of him, taking his hand that was draped over you and lacing your fingers with his, tightening his hold on you.
Opening your eyes you looked at the small blaze that stayed seated on your bedside drawer.
"Oh shoot, we forgot to put the candles out last night." You looked around the room where candles were still lit up, giving the room a warm light besides the illumination from outside.
"Leave it, darling. Let's go back to sleep." He kissed the side of your neck, grunting when you got out of the bed, leaving him in the warm sheets. "You don't need to put them out."
"It's dangerous, Loki, it'll take just a moment."
You went around the room and put out the small fires along the way, one by one. You got to your dresser and blew on the candle softly before stepping away, and then you noticed it didn't die out. You blew on it again and yet it only swayed.
"I can't put this one out." You tried again.
"Maybe it doesn't want to, just leave it be." Loki groaned as he stretched in bed. "Leave it lit."
You huffed and blew on it again with more force, and the fragile little flame burnt out, leaving the room lit only by the outside rising sun.
Satisfied with yourself, you went back to the bed, and fell on top of Loki with a giggle.
"Okay, now we can rest."
•
The walls were filled with hushed chatter as Thor passed the gold filled halls. He went through the familiar corridors with his head held up high until the guards pushed open the door for him and he entered the throne room.
"My son, what have you come here to inform me?" Odin looked down upon the golden haired prince as he walked towards the stairs of the Allfather.
"Well Father, I'm sure you will be glad to hear that we managed to find Y/N and she is all better now." Thor smiled at his father before continuing, "We also found the missing weapons, but I'm afraid there are some bad news as well…"
"Well, get on with it."
"We figured out who was responsible for the missing weapons- apparently it was Lady Iyllir, Father."
"What? How preposterous. You can't expect me to believe that! The lady and her family are very well respected, and the young lady is to marry your brother soon!"
"During the battle we saw her there- she was threatening Y/N and others. Loki had to take her down." Thor tried explaining to his father, but it was of no use. "I saw it."
"You saw it? Are you certain Loki didn't just act without thinking?" Odin questioned his son, Thor just nodded, remembering how Loki had looked at you when you laid motionless as they took you back from the warehouse.
"I have no doubt that he thought it though, what was done was necessary and just."
Odin only hummed, considering his son's claims.
"It ended as it should have, and besides- we got everything back!" Thor laughed lightly, smiling at his father but it didn't last long.
"Not everything."
•
"As much as I love having you back, kid, I will have Steve ground you to your room if you do what you're about to do!" Tony threatened you and you bit your lip to hide your smile. You looked to Natasha in front of you, and to Loki next to you, before laying the card on the center of the table.
"Take four, Uno." You let the smirk take over your face.
"Gosh-darn it- fucking hell-" Tony grumbled as he took cards from the pile.
"Come on Tony leave her alone, her cards were just better than yours." Steve chuckled and looked over at you.
"Yeah Tony, I won fair and square." Loki smirked besides you and put a hand around your waist.
"No, I don't trust it." Tony pointed at Loki and then at you. "You helped her cheat, didn't you?"
"I don't know what you mean, Stark." Loki tilted his head a bit in a show of innocence, but Tony didn't have any of it. "Why would I interfere in the game?"
"You kids are in love, that gives you motive!"
"Perhaps, but alas you have no proof." You could feel him relax next to you as others laughed and some even threw cards around until you couldn't continue playing the game and instead you just talked about nothing in particular and ate snacks.
You looked around at all your friends with a small smile on your lips. It felt all too familiar and yet so foreign to you. You never thought you would have this, a family doesn't end in blood but it doesn't have to start there either. There, through the spies and geniuses, you found a place where you felt protected and happy- a safe haven. Maybe every bait and switch in the tapestry of your life was a work of art that was meant to bring you all the way here. It was almost perfect, you almost had everything you could wish for but you decided not to dwell on that now while Loki was smiling so openly and Steve was laughing alongside the group that gathered around you- surrounding you with warmth even December storms couldn't penetrate.
"Love," Loki called you in a quiet voice. You looked up at him. "What's going on in that pretty little head of yours?"
You almost winced at that, but you only shook your head.
"I'm just-" for luck of a better word, "home."
You stayed in the compound with the team for the weekend, the quiet outside and the trees helped all of you get some normalcy after everything that happened. You missed that.
It seemed like Loki understood you, he always did, as he kissed your forehead and brought you back to the conversation. It was almost weird seeing him exchanging non harmful snarky comments with Bucky, and somehow getting along with your newfound family, but you only took it with a smile, basking in the warm feeling as you caught Steve's eye and offered him a smile which he returned. You couldn't wish for anything better than this.
•
Loki has been called by Odin to a meeting, and so he reluctantly got out of your bed as daylight reached your window and was now walking into the palace. He was stopped in his tracks, however, by a shriek.
"You!" he turned to see Iyllir's mother pacing fast towards him with her husband trailing behind her. "You are a murderer, you killed our daughter and you dare walk here with pride? You are a disgusting vile frost giant-"
"If I were you, I would be careful with how you talk to your prince." He sharply replied. Loki didn't spare a thought about Iyllir's parents- or her demise at all, so it didn't occur to him that her parents would still be at the palace. "I understand your grief, I sincerely apologize for it, but your daughter was a traitor of Asgard and forced my hand. The deed was justified."
"You can say whatever you want, prince," Iyllir's father spat the word at him and he clenched his jaw, trying to keep his composure. "Our daughter only did it because of you! I heard the rumors, everyone knows about the Midgardian girl you chose over Iyllir! She was simply doing what had to be done to make you choose correctly!"
The yells started to draw the attention of the workers who were around the palace entrance, he could hear them whisper as they passed by. It's a scene that he is out here in clear sight with the mother and father of the girl he had killed.
"You are nothing but a cunning little fox, a pretend prince, thinking that a mortal could be with such a monster. Don't you know that their petty little lives are but a fraction of ours? Nothing can come out of it but you suffering- and I hope that you will suffer immensely." The once graceful lady was gritting her teeth now. "And as from what I know from Midgard, you can run but the hunters are always hunting for foxes like you."
Loki had had enough of it.
"If that is supposed to be a threat then it is a poor one," his voice was low now and he was satisfied with the way their eyes went wide and they took a step back when he took a step forward. "I suggest you leave Asgard, for good, before I show you what it is like to be hunted. You won't last long, I assure you of that, I will make sure you feel how insignificant you are that you think you can talk to me in such a way. Your daughter hurt the woman I love, and her death was quick but I promise it will not be the case with you if you even dare talk about my love in such a way."
He took pride at the fright in their eyes, the way they scrambled away into the nearest carriage.
Straightening his collar, his sharp glare silenced every whisper in the hallway as he made his way to Odin.
•
You stood in the kitchen, making a batch of pancakes when you saw Loki enter the kitchen. You walked to him with a smile.
"Loki! You're finally back, would you like some pancakes?" You leaned up to kiss him but you barely felt him return it. He seemed to be considering your offer for a bit too long, before he nodded.
"Of course, my love, I would love it." He smiled at you and it made you forget everything else, as well as the batch you had on the pan that was getting burned by the second. Loki scrunched his nose, "Why do I smell smoke?"
You spent the day with Loki, a lazy Saturday afternoon with your lover, a perfect day.
Loki didn't seem to talk much, he didn't have that usual spark in his eye that you always saw. But that was okay, you managed to bring it out of him, you always did.
Your lazy day got ruined when Natasha and Sam showed up at the entrance of the common room with a bucket full of filled out water balloons and a hefty amount of water guns.
"Grab your weapon of choice, Bucky started this so we are going hunting- and you are on our team."
You turned to Loki with a smile; maybe this will cheer him up.
"What do you say, trickster? Do you want to go hunting?" with a smirk Natasha threw a gun your way and Sam threw one towards Loki, as you got up you missed the ghostly look that crossed Loki's face.
Now, you were sure that Bucky and Steve started this as a friendly fight. But the two punks were now running away as the fight turned into a war.
"Come on now Y/N, won't you spare me?" Steve had a mischievous glint in his eyes that betrayed his words. You had him cornered as he had his hands held up at the loaded gun you were pointing at him. You disarmed him from his own water balloons.
"I'm sorry Cap, you started it." As you started spraying him with water he ducked to the side and grabbed water balloons.
"Run."
And run you did, you saw as others fought beside you, when you spotted Loki you grabbed his hand and took him with you. You sprayed water behind you when you tried to lose the ones who chased.
"Where are we running?"
"Come on, I know a place we won't be found!" you giggled when a balloon hit Loki and he glared at Steve who was right on your tail, grabbing your gun and aiming right at his face. At the shriek you heard you knew Loki hit his target.
You ran for the fences up ahead, yelling at Loki to jump right when you did.
"Love," he tried to keep up with you as you pulled him with you. "You have failed to tell me where we are going."
"You'll see! They can't track us here." you took a sharp turn when you reached the woods until you stopped in front of a big tree. You started climbing it and Loki followed until you got high enough that you saw above the other trees. There you decided to lean on the tree while sitting on a wide tree branch with Loki by your side.
Loki kissed the palm of your hand and no words were exchanged when you played with his hair and you watched the skies as they turned into a canvas of warmer shades of colours.
•
Days have passed as you went back to the tower and you found yourself waking up to a cold bed, and if Loki was there with you then he disappeared during the day with the same explanation, "I have a meeting in Asgard."
At what point does an explanation become an excuse?
One day you decided to distract yourself with cleaning your room, so you started with your dresser. Pulling out boxes of jewelry you went to open them and start sorting when you caught side of a green glimmer in the dead of the night just outside of your door and with sudden annoyance you threw the box you held back into the drawer then you closed it and got up from the floor.
"Hi love-" Loki started, smiling when he saw you again.
"Loki, tell me what's going on, you are gone so much lately!" He gave you a smile that you knew all too well.
"I told you-"
"No excuses! What's wrong up there in Asgard?" You sat on your bed and Loki stood in front of you, you tried to pull him to sit beside you but he didn't budge. You saw the resolve fall from his face and his sharp cheekbones only enhanced the somber look he had now.
"It seems that my brother has loose lips whenever he talks to my father, and some talks have spread."
"And what about it?" you tilted your head to the side and watched him as he tried to keep his composure; you saw the anger flash in his eyes but it wasn't directed at you.
"Well, it seems that my father is not pleased about everything that occurred."
"Of course he isn't, but I'm sure Thor made it better if anything!" you drew circles on his palms with your thumbs.
"No, he isn't pleased with what was taken from Asgard- he isn't pleased that a mortal has Asgardian powers," he clutched your hands in his when you started to let go. "He isn't pleased with you."
Now you were the crestfallen one. You tried not to get lost in your head.
"What does he want?" Loki knew you were trying to hide the fear that was sinking deep within you.
You adjusted the skirt of your dress, standing nervously in the middle of the room. You weren't really sure why you were feeling this anxious when you've seen Loki hundreds of times before, but now you knew why as you were straightening your dress you remembered that you bought it because of him- for him. The green of it reminded you of the shirt he often wears; when you complimented him he admitted to it being his favourite colour.
You hoped he would like it.
So yeah it was just another movie night with Loki, but it was the first one after you realized you were in love with him, after you actually let your feelings get inside your head and take over your actions.
The familiar gentle knock on the door startled you from the daze and you went to open the door to Loki.
There he stood in front of you in his green dress shirt- he always dressed like he was a royal going to a gala of some sort. And you loved it.
"Hi darling," Loki took a minute to look you over at the dress you wore. He had to tear his eyes away from your body to look into your eyes. "What are we watching this time?"
He smiled at you as he walked in and you willed yourself to act naturally- he was your best friend, nothing changed.
"I like the dress, you look marvelous in it." You decided to go to the kitchen to get some much needed water and snacks for the movie.
"Yes, thank you." You took pride at the steady voice you managed to voice out.
Loki stood there in the middle of the living room and admired the way your body looked as you wore his colours. He put his hand over the pocket of his pants, feeling the golden necklace he got you. In Asgard it would seem like courting- giving a lady a necklace such as this, but he hoped in Midgard it is regarded as something more casual. He wouldn't want to give away his own feelings that seemed to burst through. Loki knows he can be comfortable around you- you made him feel welcomed and loved. But this feeling is new to him, this feeling towards you was new as well.
He didn't know he was smiling until you walked up to him with a smile and his favourite snacks.
"Let's start!"
As the movie went on you felt more like yourself with him, the chemistry was still there just like he was still your best friend- your newfound feelings didn't change it and you were grateful for that.
"I could never be that," you said suddenly during the movie.
"What do you mean?" You had your legs curled under you as you sat on the couch next to Loki. You turned to him, setting your drink down.
"A hero." When he gave you a strange look you continued. "I know that magic doesn't exist, but everyone dream for it. And I know that everyone, me included, would want to enter that magical universe and get out of this mundane world- but in reality it is never what it seems like."
"But wouldn't you like magic?" Loki felt his heart drop at your words. "You love all of these movies and all of them have magic in them."
"I would love it! But think about it Loki, in reality it would be such a difficult life, even the characters there know it and we see it. So yeah I would love it, but I think it could never be peaceful and it would only end up hurting. So I can long for it, but I don't think I would like to have it," you explained and bit your lip before looking at him. "I'm happy right now."
You smiled at him and continued watching the movie. He decided it is probably better if he didn't give you the necklace tonight.
•
Whatever you imagined Asgard would be like after the countless stories Loki had told you- nothing could have prepared you for the extravagant sights of it. Golden arches and flush greenery everywhere you went. You knew Asgard was a place for the gods, it was a dreamland and yet still this was far from the capabilities of your mind.
The sights of it drew your attention from the reason you were coming here in the first place. That was until you felt Loki's hand squeeze your own, and you started to really notice your surroundings.
You heard the whispers of the Asgardian people as you passed by, standing between Thor and Loki. You saw the judgmental looks people sent your way when they saw Loki's hand was entwined with yours.
Then you saw the palace. If it were any other day, you could've pretended that you were there with Loki for a ball like the one you imagined so many times so long ago. But now you were filled with dread that you were certain you were going to throw up, and it wasn't because of the travel.
The travel was nice comparing to what you expected, a man named Heimdall greeted you and when you looked into his eyes you felt as if he could see through you, as if he knew everything about you. He was still nice to you, wishing you luck as you walked on the bridge towards the palace. You didn't know how he knew but you accepted the welcomed wish.
Loki and Thor were both quiet as you stepped through the guards and when you passed the gate chills went down your spine. You felt as if you were trapped in a box when they closed it behind you, like you just walked into a gilded cage.
You understood what Loki was always ranting to you about- it was stifling in here.
Loki guided you until the three of you reached dark yet golden doors that behind them you knew the Allfather sat. right before the doors opened you looked over at Loki and at the sight of his tense face and hollowed eyes you remembered it all: all the countless times Loki came home to you in distress and on the brink of crying, all those times you had to hold him until his mind finally let him sleep, all those times were you had to force Loki out of all the toxic self destructive thoughts that were planted in his head by his father.
You weren't as scared anymore when the doors opened and you walked forward, holding Loki's hand tightly.
You hated him from the minute you saw him. A king sat there on a throne, you didn't expect anything else but what caught your eye and fuelled your already blazing hatred were the stairs. The throne he was sitting on was placed on the top of a line of stairs that led up to him, letting him look down at anyone who entered the place. It disgusted you, but you had to keep your cool for now, for Loki.
You remembered everything that Loki and the team explained to you about what happened during all this time that the two of you were apart. And most of all you remembered your promise.
"Ah my children, you finally arrived." Odin said before looking at you. You refused to let him see your fear, so you straightened your back but still kept holding Loki's hand. "And are you the midgardian girl I have heard so much about, Y/N?"
You looked at Loki who squeezed your hand and gave you a small nod with a little smile.
"Yes, I am." You tucked your hair behind your ears before getting to what you really were here for. "I heard that you wanted to talk about my powers."
"Yes, my child. Come forward." He told you and you reluctantly let go of Loki's hand. Loki looked at his brother who seemed just as agitated as he was and that was already not a good sign. "I'm assuming you have been told already that by Loki's mistake you have received Asgardian powers. The kind of powers you have are of the ancient arts of Asgard."
"Okay, what about it? Loki protected me and I ended up getting these powers that I have learned to control over the years." you furrowed your brows at the information and tried to smile at your own claims, it had been difficult to process but you understood your powers better now.
"That is well, my child." Odin rested his hand on the armchair and leaned back with his staff. "But since these powers are Asgardian, a mortal should not have them. They shall be taken away from you."
"I beg your pardon?"
"What the fuck?" you and Loki spoke at the same time.
"Father, you cannot do this, she is more than worthy to carry these powers." Loki came forward to stand in front of you now, protective.
"I agree, Father the powers have chosen her. These types of ancient powers were supposed to kill a mere mortal but they didn't, that surely means something about her capabilities." Thor added and stepped forward too, putting a hand on your shoulder. You looked down as you got lost in thought before speaking up.
"How can you do it? Take my powers away, I mean." Loki turned to you but you kept your gaze on the floor.
"Well dear, I am the Allfather, ruler of Asgard and the 9 realms. I am capable of doing things you- a mere mortal, cannot comprehend. And about how I would go about it-"
"May I approach you, before you continue?" you then asked, and it took him a second to consider it before he nodded. What is the harm in a midgardian girl being by him? You shrugged Loki's hand off when he went to take your arm. He was downright scared by the look in your eyes.
You went up the stairs towards the almighty Allfather and when you were on his level, he leaned forward in the chair awaiting what you had to say to him.
"While you are all that, I am Y/N, a human girl from earth and-" you smiled at him before taking your fist and colliding it with his cheek, making him throw his head back in the process. The look of fury didn't startle you when you met his gaze. "I'm sorry, but I made a promise a long time ago, Your Highness." You bowed your head and walked back down the stairs to Loki, who seemed to be at war between a prideful smile and fear for your safety.
"How dare you, you cannot do such a thing-" Odin stood up with his staff ready.
"Can't I?" you tilted your head at him as you stood next to Loki. "I didn't use my powers like I so easily could, because I didn't want to. So do continue what you said."
"Are you mad?" Loki whisper yelled in your ear.
"Quite possibly." You turned to kiss his cheek and found that hidden mischief in his eyes that you loved so.
"Father, please forgive her, I am certain the lady was just upset about the new information."
"Oh no I wholeheartedly meant that." Thor gave you an exasperated look before Odin dismissed him.
"Well as a matter of fact, extracting the powers away from you will involve a very deep process since the powers are so attached to you and your mind. Extracting those means also extracting all the memories of everything your powers have touched or affected- as well as their source."
You did not appreciate the satisfied look he had on when your own face fell as you took in his words. You couldn't be comforted by Loki who you knew would have detected a lie if Odin had uttered it as a form of revenge and pettiness.
You knew that there was no choice as far as Odin was concerned, but you knew Loki and you could feel his brilliant mind spinning around seeking a way out for you, he may have let Odin hurt him but hurting you is crossing a line no one will come back alive from.
So you did have a choice in fact, but given the opportunity you never thought you'd have, the answer wasn't hard to pick.
"Okay." You heard your own voice pick the path you will walk on, your voice was quiet but you knew they all heard you clearly.
"Y/N!" Loki turned to you and you did too. "You don't have to do this, don't think that because he says so I will let it happen when you don't want it!"
"I want it, Loki."
"You what?" he was taken aback- his eyes were studying you now, calculating an explanation.
"These powers Loki, they are not good."
"No, don't say that, don't let him convince you that something about yourself is bad- Norns, darling nothing about you in bad."
He cupped your cheek, trying to get you to understand. But he didn't understand what you were saying. Your eyes turned glossy with unshed tears.
"It's horrible, these powers are evil- I don't want them anymore." You searched his blue eyes but all you got was resistance."I felt them Loki, I felt them and they hurt. I want them gone, and now I have a way to do it."
"No, love can't you see? I've been trying to tell you this from the beginning- Your powers don't only cause harm. They can also heal and calm people down, they can do good- you are good."
"I've been there Loki- inside my mind, and all these powers are just dark. They hurt me, I don't want them anymore. I don't want it, they are staining me like blood on my hands- I don't want to carry this around anymore." You put your head in the crook of his neck, seeking comfort in his touch.
Loki froze in place at your words, they broke his heart because of the way you felt, but you also broke his heart because if you choose to lose your powers then…
Next thing you knew Loki moved away from you and walked out of the door before you could chase after him.
"Loki!"
•
Tags: @ayybtch @buckys-other-punk @chaoticpete @madcrazy50 @mishkatelwarriorgoddess @the-departed-potato @rogerrhqpsody @onceupona-happilyeverafter-love @percabethismyotp14
#my writing#i know places#1989#loki x reader#loki#loki laufeyson x reader#loki laufeyson#loki odinson x reader#loki odinson#fluff#angst#loki series#tom hiddleston#taylor swift#1989 taylor's version#loki fluff#loki angst#loki imagine#loki fanfic#fanfiction#marvel#mcu
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Really curious on your thoughts on the gif “flops” and such, mind explaining? 😂😂
Okay so. I've touched on some of this while answering other asks but I'll lay out all thoughts here. We'll try to connect them but no promises lol.
So if I understand correctly what tumblr means by flops in general, it's when a post, in this case gifset doesn't get many notes. It's all relative, but say I have a general idea of how many notes Glee gifsets usually get, depending on the ch/ship. And then I put a lot of effort into a set, as I do with most of them, but it ends up getting like a third of the notes other sets do, at best. We'd call that a flop, right?
I don't measure it like that; in fact, I don't really measure it? Of course we all want our work to be acknowledged and even appreciated, of course. Fandom content creators do their thing for fun but a crucial part of fandom at large is the engagement with others. It's just, the way I'd measure it is not by number of notes because honestly, that means little nowadays. I think the Glee fandom is actually better when it comes to like-reblog ratios than a lot of others, maybe because it's small and generally consists of "older" tumblr users (i.e. in their twenties rather than teens). But on tumblr at large the like-reblog ratios are whack. Likes don't do anything on this site, and crucially from my perspective they don't say much. Sure, a like is appreciated but like I touched on yesterday, I'm here for the tags. I'm here for people reblogging and sharing their thoughts. Okay, you liked or maybe even reblogged, bestie, but what did you think?
So, in my eyes, a set flops when I get little to no fun tags that tell me what people thought. I could get hundreds of likes and I'm not saying that'd be nothing, but honestly it wouldn't be much. And especially with the kind of sets I like to do, where I try to either tell a story or build a theme, I really really like hearing what people say. So some might consider 10 notes, 5 reblogs and 3 of which have fun tags a flop, but I'd genuinely take that over 100 likes and no fun-tagged reblogs. It's not that black and white, people can also comment in the notes or send messages, but tumblr is built around the reblog system so that's what primarily matters to me.
That's one side of it. But with all that said, I also kinda just move on the next day, anyway? For example, I posted this set yesterday. After like two hours I was already content in the knowledge that it wasn't a flop because I got cool tags from people and was happy with that response. Today, I was already working on a new one and though notifications about this one do feel nice, I think that initial wave of reblogs already passed and I don't mind much, either. Even if, say, it "flopped" by my own standards of tags, I still would have moved on today because I just have too many ideas to focus on how one I've already posted is doing.
I suppose that's a novelty thing, too. I spend so much time on some gifsets but then time really passes quickly and with such a small fandom, there's not much to expect in terms of how long it will be making the rounds for. And because I have other ones to get to, I don't mind. So even if I don't get those fun tags and by most definitions a set flops, I do feel kinda bummed about it for a time but that time is usually a day, max.
Maybe it's different in big, "new" fandoms. I'm sure it is at least slightly. And maybe people who are more active on other social media platforms, unlike I am, feel differently. I'm sure others appreciate likes more than I do but I just can't help but think that a) they don't do much on tumblr and b) they don't tell me what a person thinks. And honestly if I could I'd make creators less afraid of flops. Not that it isn't an understandable reaction, but when we put too much into this idea of flops (and slays? I guess?) it stops being fun. And I'd like this to be fun, so I allow a newly posted set that half a day and move on.
Idk if these are the thoughts you expected haha, and sorry about the delay but hopefully I could offer some food for thought.
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Somebody to die for.
Finan x OC; The Old Guard inspired Alternative Universe
Summary : Victoria’s life is rather simple until she has a car accident from which she ends up miraculously unscathed. A series of weird events animates her daily life, everything seemingly bringing her to a strange man. Until this very man knocks at her door.
Spotify Playlist • Masterlist
A/N : Happy Sihtric Saturday, and a Sihtric moodboard to go with it! I am so sorry i disappeared from Tumblr! I posted on Ao3 the chapter and totally forgot to do it here and then kept pushing back the moment because of work... Sorry again and here is the chapter!
Warnings : death, blood, violence... A lot of ugly things lmaoo
Chapter 12 : I'll find you here inside the dark
The sound of the rain falling on the car’s roof makes Vicky grow impatient. They are parked in front of the building serving as the foundation headquarters in Munich for thirty minutes now, waiting for one of the employees she has drawn to potentially come out of it. Victoria is pretty sure that they aren’t keeping Finan here, nor doing all their experiments she has been seeing through Sihtric’s memories, giving her shivers, but somewhere more isolated. But obviously she wasn’t able to locate the place with Sophie and so they turned to a more lopsided plan: following one of the employees who would hopefully get there.
“We’re going to spend the night here.” She sighs, sinking in the backseat.
“It’s not even midday.” Osferth replies, staring at her in the rearview mirror.
“With that shitty weather it feels like it.” She childishly replies, her only way to fight her frustration.
For three days she has been seeing Finan in her dreams weak and tortured. She knows Sihtric is using him to make her come by herself and Finan pretends to hold on not wanting to alert her. It makes her heart squeeze to see that he is protecting her despite his own suffering. It reminds her of his promise and how he truly meant it.
“Là!” Sophie suddenly says, pointing at a man with a long coat and brown curls. “It’s one the scientists, no?”
Vicky narrows her eyes and leans forward, her hand gripping the passenger seat. “It does look like him.” She confirms, her gaze following him as he stops next to a car.
“Then we follow him.” Osferth declared, starting the car once the man had driven away.
Vicky sits back correctly in her seat, heaving a sigh of relief. If they want to be sure to take them by surprise, they have to find out where they are before the end of the day and not give Sihtric the chance to possibly know where they are. The whole drive, Vicky kept her eyes covered to not give the Dane any clue of where they were.
Osferth keeps a good distance between them and the man’s car to not be noticed. Though, when they are out of the city, the monk fears that they start to be too obvious, so when the man turns at a crossing, Osferth drives straight and they use Sophie’s phone to search what Vicky could describe as a mansion in the area. When they find what looks like one, the monk parks the car at a reasonable distance and they get out of it. He opens the trunk and unzips a bag in which they have hidden guns. Osferth hands her the one Finan has kept from the attack in London. She observes the weapon between her hands. She has never used one like this before, only the old rifle, and she is now wondering if she’ll be able to use it. But most of all, will she be able to kill someone if she has to?
“Vicky?” Osferth's voice brings her back to reality as he is now handing her a magazine for her Colt. “It's just in case, you won't have to use it if it goes as planned.”
She takes it and puts it in her pocket. “But you will?” She asks him.
Osferth hesitates, his fingers tightening around his own revolver. He doesn't have to speak for her to understand that it doesn't please him more than her to have blood on his hands, but they have to. He shakes his head, instructs Sophie to wait here in the car and to not hesitate to leave if things go wrong. She reluctantly accepts his last demand before pulling him down in a kiss.
“Fais attention.” She whispers to him. (Be careful)
He smiles at her. “Promis.” (Promised)
Then she turns around to take Vicky in her arms. “You too, be careful.”
Victoria nods the most confidently she could, but her hands are shaking. Sophie waves them goodbye as they start to walk away in the forest. Osferth is silent beside her and she can almost hear her heart beating hard, her guts twisting in her stomach. She's about to do the bravest, or maybe craziest, thing she has done in her entire life, something she has only seen in movies until now. And if in theaters it generally are the good guys that win at the end, she doubts reality to be so kind.
After several minutes walking between the trees, they finally perceive the mansion. They crouch behind a bush at the end of the forest to observe the area. The building is huge, three floors and a basement Vicky remembers from her dreams, where Finan should be.
“First we free Finan.” Osferth says, making Vicky look at him. “Then, Sihtric. With luck he'll find us first.”
“Alright, but how do we get in?”
“By force.” He answers staring back at the building.
“Alright.” She says after a heartbeat, they are so close now.
“Let's go then.”
Osferth stands up and walks toward the mansion, Vicky close behind him. They cross no one until they step in the hall, the man they have followed to come here. He stares at them with wide eyes, about to ask them what they are doing here but Osferth pulls out his gun. The man drops his pile of documents to raise his hands in sign of peace.
“Bringen Sie uns zu Ihrem Gefangenen und wir werden Ihnen nicht wehtun.” Osferth explains to him, turning the barrel of his gun peacefully. (Take us to your prisoner and we won't hurt you)
Vicky looks everywhere at once, scared that someone else arrives while the man hesitates. But he finally agrees and Osferth kindly smiles at him when he takes the lead toward the basement. He hides his gun in the inner pocket of his coat but stays close behind their now hostage. They take a long corridor, Vicky's breath becoming more and more erratic at each step. This plan can fail in a thousand different ways and she seems to keep discovering a new one the closer they are from their goal. Feeling her anxiety, her friend briefly glances at her.
“Everything will be fine.” He reassures while the man struggles with his keys.
“Sie werden Sie erwischen.” He stammers, looking at them however with more confidence. “Es sind überall Kameras, jemand wird es schnell genug bemerken.” (You're going to be caught. // There are cameras everywhere, someone will know soon enough.)
“Machen Sie sich um uns keine Sorgen.” Osferth replies but the German keeps staring at him, this time more defiant. (Don't worry for us)
He suddenly turns around and raises his fist wrapped around the carabiner to try to hit Osferth in the face. Vicky doesn't have the time to warn the monk that he has already moved aside grabbing his wrist and pushing him against a wall. She closes her eyes when she notices that the monk pulls out his gun and jumps at the shooting sound resounding. Her heart beats even faster in her chest and she dares not opening her eyes.
“He isn't dead, Victoria.” Osferth says after she hears him taking the keys from the man. She opens her eyelids and he is handing her the rattling of keys. From the corner of her vision she perceives the man, bleeding out but still bleeding as he lays unconscious. “You go downstairs to fetch Finan. I stay here to cover you.”
“I thought you were fetching Sihtric?” She frowns at him, taking the keys.
He briefly looks to the other side of the corridor. “The sound will have alerted others, it's better to keep the way clear. And Sihtric might stand with them.”
Vicky takes a deep breath and nods before opening the door, calming the shake of her hands. She turns for one last approving sign of her friend before climbing down the stairs appearing behind the door. She runs, careful not to stumble and fall, but she can't prevent the want for everything to be over. When she reaches the end of the stairs, she hears footsteps approaching and when two armed men appear right in front of her, she's paralyzed. They bark something in German at her and as she doesn't answer, they point their guns at her. The one on the left shoots her in the middle without more hesitation. The strength with which the bullet hits her makes her stumble and fall back, gasping for air and of surprise.
She feels the panic running in her veins, the pain growing in her stomach as the men approach her. But slowly, the ache eases and she calms down, searching for a way to get away from this situation. She remembers how Finan killed the men in her flat and decides that it might be her best solution. She slows her breath and closes her eyes, pretending to be unconscious. One of the men kneels at her side and starts to go through the pockets of her jacket while the other speaks something in a walkie-talkie. Victoria tightens her grip on the carabiner and then throws her fist in the man's jaw.
The shock of pain knocks him and he falls next to her. She sits up, wincing at the still sharp pain in her stomach and meets the other's wide eyes. He shouts at her and before he can shoot her again she grabs her Colt. Without thinking, not even taking the time to aim, she pulls the trigger and hits the man in the thigh. She watches the man fall to his knees, crying out in pain, not realizing what she just did.
She shakes her head and leans over the knocked man to take the keys hanging on his belt. She then stands back on her feet, following the path Sihtric did in her dreams until she finally recognizes Finan's cell's door. She heaves a relieved sigh and unlocks the cell before pulling the door open. Her breath runs short when she finds Finan sitting in a dark corner, his head falling forward.
“Finan?” She calls him as she steps carefully towards him.
He doesn't react, even when she kneels in front of him. She studies him briefly, his clothes are dirty and torn in parts, his hair is messy and his beard has grown out of control. She slides her hands behind his ears, her thumbs grazing over his cheeks, to lift his head.
“Finan, come on, wake up.” She says as he still doesn’t react. She nervously looks behind her shoulder, fearing that men could arrive. She shakes his shoulder with one hand but nothing again. “Come on, we have to leave.” She urges him before resting her forehead against his, feeling his slow and difficult breath on her face. “Please, I need you.” She begs him.
She looks up to the ceiling when she hears agitation upstairs. She swears, realizing they have no more time. She gives up the kind way and decides to wake him up, so she slaps him across the face.
“Wake up!” She shouts at him, her voice startling him along with the blow.
Finan opens his eyes abruptly, gasping for air and raising his hands to push her away instinctively but she moves faster than him and grabs his wrists. He stares at her in the dark, narrowing his eyes until he succeeds to recognize her.
“Vicky?” He whispers, his voice hoarse.
She smiles tenderly at him, brushing back the hair falling over his forehead. “It’s me.”
He huffs, though it sounds more like a sob as he leans forward to bury his face in her neck. She holds him tight, enjoying their reunion despite the urgency of the moment. Feeling his weight in her arms, even if his state is still worrying her, warms her heart with relief.
“We have to go.” She says, moving away but keeping her hands on his shoulder. “Can you stand?”
When Finan nods she stands up and stretches her hand to help him, though he still has to lean against the wall to succeed. His legs shake a little but he gives her a lopsided smile as if everything is fine. It isn’t, but Vicky knows they don’t have another choice anyway. She grabs his hand to wrap his arm around her shoulders while her own encircles his waist. They slowly walk out of the cell, Finan’s body heavier against hers at each pace. When they reach the stairs, she notices how his gaze hovers over the two unconscious men before falling on her. She pinches her lips, not proud of it but it was necessary.
“Osferth waits for us upstairs. He covers us.” She explains to him before they start to climb the stairs.
When they finally are on the first floor, the fight’s noises have faded and only a few unconscious or dead men lay on the ground. She bites her lips nervously, not seeing Osferth. He might have left to find Sihtric after all so she doesn’t sink in more worry and keeps walking, careful to avoid the bodies on the floor. When they reach the end of the corridor, the monk appears in front of them, breathless and covered with blood.
“Oh Christ.” He whispers when he studies Finan still held by Vicky.
He moves to take her place which she gratefully gives him. “You haven’t found Sihtric?”
“I did, but he lost me.” He admits.
“But I have to meet him!” She protests, raising her hands annoyingly.
“I know.” Osferth affirms to try to calm her. “But we have to leave before reinforcements arrive.”
Victoria grips her hair nervously, hesitating between following Osferth’s command or running on her own after Sihtric. But Sihtric is a warrior as good as her two friends and she’s far from overcoming them even in training. If the Dane captures her, all of this would have been for nothing. She sighs and reluctantly accepts to leave. She takes the lead of their escape, her Colt lifted at eye level, ready to shoot whoever would present themselves. There’s a heavy silence in the mansion as they head to the front door and the same expending on the outside. It doesn’t reassure Vicky who keeps looking around until they are in the forest. When they are far away, they allow themselves a break, especially for the Irishman. He leaves Osferth’s side to lean against a tree, his fingers curling on the bark as he throws up the little content of his stomach, exhausted by the effort. Vicky comes to rub his back kindly while he takes back his breath and composure, chewing her inner cheek in worry.
“Sophie is waiting for us in the car, it’s not far.”
“Alright.” He mutters, straightening his back. The concerned look that they both give him doesn’t go unnoticed to Finan. “I’ll be fine.” He assures them, waving a hand.
Vicky and Osferth don’t object, even if they doubt the truthfulness of Finan’s affirmation, they don’t have any other choice than continue to walk. It obviously takes them much more time to join the car, both of them supporting the Irishman and it’s a real relief when they finally see the car with Sophie waiting outside. She immediately runs to them to check if they are all fine.
“Bordel, are you all alright?” She asks them, her eyes however lingering on the man between them, grimacing slightly.
Osferth grabs her arm tenderly, his thumb rubbing the fabric of her jacket. “We are, but the further we are from here, the better it will be.”
She nods and they all take place in the car, taking back the road quickly. All the pressure on Vicky’s shoulders seem to disappear as she stares at the landscape outside, leaving her totally drained of energy. She briefly thinks of the two men she fought in the basement, her guts squeezing at the idea that they could be dead by now, because of her, but the thought fades as soon as she turns her head to Finan. He has already fallen back to sleep his cheek pressed against the window. She knows they are still in danger as she failed to meet Sihtric, but right now she can’t help but feel like nothing more can happen to them.
Tag : @for-bebbanburg @osferth @maggiescarborough @finansarms @dumbledoreisnotmyhubby @solinarimoon
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I wanna know why you only ever write for female readers? Ones that blush a lot too? POC don't blush and you should know better the way you write erases lgbtq and POC
You know, I really didn’t know how to respond to this at first. I mean, I was angry, sure. Upset that this might be what people thought of my writing...but that was this morning, when I first saw the message.
I took the whole day off writing to cool myself off, didn’t wanna reply thoughtlessly and land myself in shit. I tend to get worked up really easily, something I’m working on actually. Self-improvement and whatnot.
And let me tell you, after an entire fucking day thinking about how I should respond without cursing you out, because maybe. Just MAYBE you were trying to do some kind of good deed? I dunno, don’t really care either.
Also, just gonna chuck it under a “keep reading” because this gets LONG. I have some opinions I’d like the sender of this anon to read but I’d hate to clog up people’s dash.
Now, to get on with my answer because hell, I suppose I should address the question. When I started a blog called Kinky Academia a couple years ago now, way back before I left, I had someone say something similar to you regarding the whole “POC don’t blush” and now I can confidently claim: bullshit.
Absolute fucking bullshit.
I actually remember a lot of the advice I was given way back then because it had genuinely upset me that I wasn’t writing correctly when mentioning the whole blushing ordeal. It’s something that I enjoy adding in my scenarios because people blush for MANY different reasons. Anger, embarrassment and the obvious reason, attraction.
So, taking in a lot of the advice that was sent to me through that blog, I immediately cast out the way I wrote people blushing. There was no more “your cheeks turned a crimson red” or pink, or whatever the fuck I wrote back then.
Instead, I write things along the lines of “your face heated up” or “You could feel your cheeks burning with embarrassment”
Shit. Like. That.
To include people no matter what colour they are, mostly because I don’t give a crap what colour skin you have. Unless it’s sunburn...cause, y’know, sunburn sucks and I’d hate to accidentally touch someone with sunburn. I live in Australia, sunburn sucks fucking arse!
Anyway, moving on with my point. Which was that everyone can blush you absolute twat. Might not be as noticeable but most people can feel when their faces heat up, because humans are amazing and can feel temperatures and shit like that. Cool, right?
So that’s gonna put a screeching holt to the whole “POC don’t blush” bullshit you were spouting.
Now, as for why I write for female readers? Because it makes me comfortable. That okay with you?
I would like to clarify that though because it almost sounds really bad and I don’t mean it in a bad way. I don’t care if you’re a member of the LGBTQ+ community, it’s not my business who you fall in love with or how you identify. Okay? If you wanna fall in love with someone, by all means do so. Find that special someone and love them with everything you have, be happy!
When I say it makes me comfortable to write for female readers, I mean that as a female, it’s easier for me to write for female characters. When I’m writing, the words I write? The scenes I describe? I can picture it all in my head, plays like a movie usually.
It’s impossible for me to write for a trans person because I don’t know how they feel things, what would trigger them, the methods they go through for their um process? I hope that’s the right word...oh, no, transition sorry! The methods that they go through for their transition.
I have absolutely zero fucking clue about all that and while I could go to members of the LGBTQ+ community and ask them about it so that I know, so that I could write it. I don’t feel right doing that.
Life is a bitch, it’s hard and it can be painful and it is absolutely none of my business what a person has done to get where they are currently. So yeah, rather than run around asking people about their personal business and life experiences, I stick to what I feel comfortable writing.
I write female reader scenarios that generally end up getting dicked down some way or another. I even do my best not to specify eye colour, hair length, what size the reader is (though I’m always happy to write for any kind of body type if it’s specified. No hate, I’m a big girl.)
Basically what I’m trying to say is that you can either enjoy my writing or hate it...and if you hate it, then you should really just move on to another blog rather than come hassle me about shit that I don’t think you fully grasp.
Because if you did fully understand what you said to me, I don’t think you would have sent it. It was crude, misinformed and frankly, not something I deserved to have sent to me? All I do is write scenarios and post about my collections, nothing terrible. I’m not spouting off hate for these communities, I’m not causing anyone any trouble; I’m just having some fun on Tumblr and AO3.
I would appreciate it if you backed the fuck off.
🥃 AO3 🥃
Cheeky Kitsune 🦊💋
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@angstymdzsthoughts because tumblr still won't lemme reblog correctly
---
"He was such a tiny baby. Almost a month early and had trouble breathing. He was nearly half a year old before we felt safe letting him breathe the cold, mountain air for more than a few minutes at a time. I hated how my parents all paid him so much mind and I hated how he could break all our hearts in one fell swoop. They had already had one stillborn, I didn't think their hearts could take another dead child. So I swaddled him and prayed for him, and, lo and behold, he lived. He made it past his first year, then his second. And before I knew it, I was a man grown and he was a healthy brat with no breathing troubles to speak of and playing in the snow right where you're kneeling."
Nie Mingjue had never been a man of words. Jin Guangyao hadn't known he had this kind of eloquence in him, especially given the smell of alcohol permeating the room.
It felt like a funeral rite coming from the man seated above him.
Jin Guangyao swallowed nervously and shifted on his knees, not daring to move from his prostrate position on the ground. He had no doubt in his mind that he was no match for his eldest brother, however inebriated the man may be. Escape was futile, begging for mercy was his only hope. Slim hope that it was.
Suddenly, something heavy pressed down on Jin Guangyao's lowered head. Nie Mingjue's boot. Lan Xichen made an aborted move to help before squaring his features and stepping down.
"DaGe, we need him," was all the protest Lan Xichen put up. Guangyao felt his heart and eyes sting at the indifference from the First Jade.
The boot pressed heavier against the back of Guangyao's head, grinding his forehead into the ground hard. He grit his teeth against the pain and bore it in silence, not wanting his pathetic whimpers to set the man off. Nie Mingjue's emotions were already on high alert. Not that he could be blamed, Guangyao supposed. Even with Lan Xichen playing Clarity for two and a half weeks for him non-stop, there was a lot of damage to undo if he did say so himself. And besides that...
Nie Mingjue picked up where he left off.
"He was still so tiny when I became his guardian. He hugged me at the funeral and told me he wasn't gonna let me go too. I told him that I'd be around to watch out for him."
Nie Mingjue stopped short and choked on his breath. The body standing on Guangyao shook and trembled--yet another display of emotion Jin Guangyao hadn't previously believed Nie Mingjue to be capable of.
"He was still so tiny when I buried him..."
Out of the corner of his eye he saw Er-Ge step over, presumably to provide comfort and stable qi, to soothe the overflow of grief. It didn't work.
"I am the oldest!" Nie Mingjue roared with a sob, shaking Xichen off, "I am the oldest son, I was-was the older brother! I am larger and stronger and I was meant to use that to protect my sect, my family, my brother! So, Jin Guangyao!"
Guangyao couldn't help the scream of pain when the boot lifted up only to come crashing back down on his head, stomping him into the unforgiving Qinghe dirt.
"Tell me why I am here alone! Tell me why I am the last Nie! Tell me why I am alive and Huaisang is dead!"
With every demand, he stomped down harder and harder until Jin Guangyao was certain his face had made a true imprint in the semi-frozen ground.
"Tell me why I heard my brother wheeze out his dying breath when he stopped having breathing problems when he was five."
Jin Guangyao could only whimper, face too far into the ground to give a proper reply. This was unfair! What did this monster expect him to say?! He already knew all the answers, why torture him? He knew for whom Guangyao had done this, it wasn't like it was all his fault!
"Tell me why I'm here and he's not."
Finally, Nie Mingjue picked his foot up and stepped back. Guangyao couldn't help it--he whipped his head up, forgoing decorum, and took in large gulps of air while cursing Nie Mingjue's brute force out in the safety of his own mind.
Lan Xichen watched as Jin Guangyao became angrier and angrier. Er-Ge watched his twisted face judgementally, as if he knew what he was thinking and it disgusted him.
"You don't think this is your fault," he accused, "You truly believe you're a victim, don't you?"
Jin Guanyao's heart dropped at the tone Lan Xichen took.
"Er-Ge, if you could just hear me out--"
"I cannot. I have heard enough out of you these past few weeks. All we are here to do is ask one question, was your father involved? Did he sanction this?"
Jin Guangyao nodded eagerly. This was what he needed! An opening to explain!
"Yes! It was all my father! I was but a tool! Please, my brothers, you have to believe me!"
Lan Xichen closed his eyes and sighed. Disappointment was painful thing to see marring his features.
"You plan on dying like a lying dog, huh? Not even going to spare some dignity in death?"
Nie Mingjue drew Baxia and began stalking towards his two sworn brothers as he spoke. "We know your moronic father couldn't have come up with this intricate of a plan. We know you've been playing with Qi since the day Xichen taught you that song! We checked the damage to my core and estimated the timeframe!"
Nie Mingjue stopped right in front of Jin Guangyao.
"Tell the truth. Did your father get involved?" His grip on Baxia tightened.
"Y-yes. He knew and-and he encouraged it," Guangyao choked out. If he couldn't lie his way out compeltely then he could at least make sure his father took equal heat. His sworn brothers were righteous men, they'd never be able to justify killing him if there was another who commited the same crime. That would be unfair!
"And has he done other things in the same vein?" Nie Mingjue demanded.
Jin Guangyao bit his lip. His hesitation pissed Nie Mingjue off.
"SPEAK!"
Jin Guangyao jumped in fright.
"Of all of all the times to decide to protect others, it's now?!" Nie Mingjue growled, rolling his eyes, "Do you have any idea how fast and how gleefully your father sold you to me?!"
Jin Guangyao's blood ran cold. "W-what?"
Nie Mingjue scoffed and replied, "You're just Meng Yao again technically. Tomorrow your father said he intends to strip you of your name officially and have you striken from the records."
"He's all yours, the evil lout. Do as you wish, take your vengeance," Nie Mingjue said in a poor imitation of Jin Guangshan, distaste for the man rolling off of him in waves. Meng Yao suddenly felt sick.
"My father sanctioned everything," Meng Yao stated. Little by little the whole story came out. His father's ambitions, his lies, his machinations, his work camps the truth about Wei Wuxian and the siege, and how he had his willing, naive son doing all the heavylifting. Meng Yao carefully skimmed around the parts where he, technically, came up with some of the ideas and crafted those plans. These two... they wouldn't understand his reasons. They wouldn't understand how much his father's spproval meant to someone as lowly as him. He couldn't risk telling them the whole truth. But the sneer on Nie Mingjue's face and the bitter dissappointment on Lan Xichen's whenever his story hit a purposeful hole made him feel that perhaps they could somehow see through him now.
When Meng Yao finished his tale, he looked up just in time to see the other two share a nod. Then, to his shock, Nie Mingjue sheathed his saber and handed him a glass of water.
"Drink it."
Meng Yao did so obediently . He felt his body start tingling with mild numbness immediately. Since when did Nie Mingjue drug people?!
"Xichen insisted, to help you stay alive. I would have just snapped them and let you suffer all the pain of it."
Perhaps it was the drugs but Meng Yao could swear he was missing something important. Before he could try to figure it out, Shuoyue's sheath slip between his lips.
"Bite down," Lan Xichen commanded sounding resolute but... sad?
It wasn't until Nie Mingjue grabbed his lower leg and started twisting experimentally that Meng Yao began to understand.
"We need you to help us get your father," Lan Xichen said, grabbing Meng Yao as he started to struggle, " But we can't trust you. You cannot be allowed to run free after what you've done.... We'll need to take an arm too. You're too dangerous."
"This is for Huaisang, for my baby brother who I'll never see walk again. I hope the medicine hasn't kicked in completely, Meng Yao. I want you to remember this."
"Wait! Please!"
SNAP
#3zun#nie mingjue#jin guangyao#lan xichen#nie huaisang#my fic#my writing#nmj#nhs#lxc#jgy#meng yao#lan huan#the venerated triad#venerated triad#nie bros#nie brothers#mdzs fic#mdzs ficlet#mdzs#mo dao su zhi#the grandmaster of demonic cultivation#grandmaster of demonic cultivation#gdc#my au#mdzs au#canon divergent au#founder of diabloism#the untamed#tw violence
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Fantasy tropes to avoid (and ideas to reinvent them)
Hello aspiring writers of Tumblr! How is it going?
This is my first post on here and I decided to dedicate it not only to the genre I am writing in, fantasy, but also to a crucial topic, which relates and affects every genre in different ways.
TROPES.
It's lazy to build stories on something that has already been written a million times before. I don't like tropes at all as a reader. If I wanted to read the same stereotyped story all over again I would just stick to the previous book I have read with that same plot, so I would also spare myself the trouble of learning the unpronounceable names of these new stereotyped characters.
On the other hand, as a writer it might be tempting to give in and use tropes. "Why not? After all everybody uses them and I am already SO busy writing the actual chapters of my story."
I tell you what: every time a trope threatens to slide into your story, crush the page and throw it across the room, yelling:
Seriously, though: tropes are just general, undeveloped ideas. That's what you need to do, develop them. In this way only will you ever be able to unleash their hidden potential.
Without further ado, may I present you three of the most common fantasy tropes and hints to reimagine them.
*Keep in mind that this is only my personal view on the subject and you can either agree or disagree with it.
1. The chosen one
This one is the most obvious one and I am also quite sure that you expected to find it on the list. Interesting, Watson: I guess that it makes this article stereotyped too…
Well we all know those characters. Those characters that were meant to be the one. The prophecies had spoken about them long before they were even born. They might as well be the only one capable of using magic or wielding a certain weapon. This character is either the only one who pushes forward the storyline or that one protagonist who does everything except choosing anything actively in the plot. There is no in between. Either way, they only possess notable qualities. Of course there is no trace of flaws. I mean, they are the hero.
Have a side-kick (or co-protagonist) be the chosen one instead
A great idea, if you really want to insert this trope in your story, is to use it to your advantage and surprise the reader with it. Who could ever expect that the protagonist was actually never the chosen one? Or that another character is the chosen one from the start?
To see this trope well recreated I recommend watching the BBC TV series "Merlin" in which a young sorcerer, Merlin himself, must help the future heir to the throne, the prince Arthur Pendragon, to fulfill his destiny and become the greatest king who has ever lived. Arthur has no clue of what has been foretold, nor that he even is at the centre of a prophecy. All of Merlin and Arthur's choices will determine either the glorious success or the tragic failure of the quest; all of this while Merlin hides his powers from Arthur and everyone else as magic is condemned in Camelot.
2. Overused fantasy Races
...which translates mostly into putting Elves, Dwarves, Trolls, dragons and any of the Tolkenian elements and creatures in your own story. Now, don't get me wrong. Tolkien is one of my favourite authors, hence I am always captivated by those fantasy novels that display these Races in their stories. But I don't want to read a copy, I want to read your own masterpiece.
That's exactly why you should:
Redesign the well-known fantasy Races and adapt them to your world and to your theme or just create brand new ones
Personally, I absolutely LOVE to craft new fantasy Races. I believe that it adds depth and realism to the world-building (which does not consist only of geography). Each civilisation brings their culture, their traditions to your story and that's what makes a world truly breathe. In my opinion, the purpose of fantasy is not to focus just on the epic deeds narrated or on endless battles enriched with magic and legends, though those are very important part of this genre and they must be just as equally developed. The reason why I write fantasy is to spread awareness around the vast variety of themes that coexist in our society nowadays, in the first place global warming, the racism that still today people experience, LGBTQ characters which are often unrepresented both in literary fiction and TV. What better genre than fantasy is there to represent diversity and multiculturalism? On these latter points I will never not be thanking and loving the works of Steven Erikson which are part of the high-fantasy series "Malazan Book of the Fallen". Diversity and the brand new variety of intriguing Races are a huge part of what makes Malazan such an awesome fantasy series. I refer to Steven Erikson as the main inspiration of my writing and I recommend you to give a try to his books, if you have the chance. I warn you though, that it is not any light or easy reading.
The other option might be to reinvent the well-known Races. Tolkien himself did not "invent" the Elves of Middle Earth, rather he made a legend of his own after having studied the myths and ballads of ancient civilities. Then he developed their language, their history and their culture as if they were a real existing population. Every single aspect of Tolkien's worldbuilding can be read in his Silmarillion. I think it is a must-read for anyone who is looking forward to reinvent the traditional fantasy Races or just to know more about them.
3. Unfailing magic systems
Magic can be anything you want. That doesn't mean, however, that it should be your escape point: stuff in your story should happen because of your characters, not only because of magic as it is simpler to put it that way. A magic system should be rational and engaging. The reader needs to be able to understand exactly how, when and why does magic work in your world. No, the answer should not be "because it's fantasy."
Set rules, limits and costs to the magic in your world
How do character gain magic abilities? Is magic accessible to everyone or is it elitist? Is it taught in specialised schools or is it something that resonates from within? Are wizards free to practice magic or is it banned? Or maybe are there only specific areas of magic that are prohibited? What is its source? Does magic come from higher beings or are spells more powerful the stronger the mage's will? Does magic need a catalyst (such as a talisman, a weapon etc.) to be casted? If not, do wizard recite spells? Do they need to trace specific symbols? Otherwise is it necessary to make specific hand gestures in order to release their powers? Does it exist only one system for all mages to use or are there multiple kinds? Last but not least, what are magic users in your world called? It's all up to you to decide. Ask questions and let each question lead you to another one. You need to know exactly how your magic system works and so does the reader.
What I love about crafting magic systems is the freedom to establish the boundaries and the natural laws that apply to your world, as magic is a huge part of the story if you're writing fantasy. Well, this could also lead to another question: is your world actually ruled by magic forces or do magic abilities have just a marginal role in the world building?
Remember that magic should not be used as an excuse to fill eventual plot holes in your story. Your magic system should function correctly and it should always stay true to itself. In other words, it must be believable.
And I can hear you thinking "but it‘s magic!"
Then guess what? You need to make the readers believe that magic is real!
First of all, set the rules, the limits and the costs that apply to your system. Having done that, you'll have finished most of the work that concerns the use of magic in your world. Most, not all. If you are a bit of a perfectionist like I am, consider the importance of developing your system furthermore by asking yourself questions, such as the one I have written above.
Rules: decide what makes your system work and what magic can be casted for.
Limits: decide what kind of tasks your magic system cannot perform.
Costs: decide from what kind of source is magic obtained from and, literally, what does it cost to mages to obtain their magic from this source (as Rumpelstiltskin of OUAT wisely says: "all magic comes with a price.")
The most excellent and well-rounded magic systems I have ever come across are the ones created by Brandon Sanderson in this "Mistborn" trilogy: allomancy, feruchemy and hemalurgy. All three magic system permit the magicians to use a wide range of abilities based on the metals they can "burn". Magic originates in the Shards and from Preservation and Ruin, two god-like beings. If you're already interested, I definitely recommend you to check Sanderson's novels out: they are a useful resource of inspiration.
I hope this post has somehow given you the inspiration to go and write right now.
If you have questions about some of the points or requests for the next articles, don't be shy and send me a message! I will try to cover your topic as soon as possible and as best as I can (and I will also tag your profile, if you agree).
Thank you all for your attention. Bisous^^
#books#fantasy#writing#steven erikson#malazan book of the fallen#bbc merlin#mistborn#brandon sanderson#tolkien#silmarillion#fantasy tropes#writing advice#chosen one#magic system#fantasy races
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