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#I feel like absolute garbage all the time INCLUDING RIGHT NOW
misswoozi · 1 year
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Sometimes everything is terrible and you're so stressed and anxious all the time that you can't eat or sleep SO you need to use a fictional post-apocalyptic universe, a tall blonde billionaire and a non-canon WLW ship from a 14-year-old sitcom to get through the day lmaooo
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thegoldencontracts · 2 months
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May I request Ace, Deuce, and Riddle taking care of a Ramshackle Prefect reader who’s come down with the flu or something? (I hope requesting multiple characters at once is okay…)
Of course, multiple characters is okay! Thank you so much for requesting!
Sick Days
You're sick. Lovely. But at least your fellow schoolmates are there to make this a bit less awful.
Notes: Sickfic, my beloved, small fics for each character, reader has no pronouns, reader's face isn't mentioned to turn red, no size/hair type giveaways, etc, please tell me if I've added a description that makes the reader difficult to relate to!
You woke up feeling like absolute garbage. You felt hot and cold at the same time, your head hurt, and you were so, so dizzy.
There was a paw on your face. Grim.
"Myah, human, took you long enough!" he said. "Class already started, but the Great Grim stayed behind just for you!"
It took a second for his words to register.
What? Class already started? You're late, this is gonna be terrible, you're late, and-
"You're burnin' up!" Grim said, which was probably true, now that you thought about it. You didn't really feel like addressing his concerns.
Instead, you gave your own very intelligent input.
"Ugh."
"You should probably stay home, human. Get better, so you can get back to serving the Great Grim faster."
Even when he was concerned, Grim just had to be- well, Grim, didn't he? Whatever. You just wanted to sleep. You'd call in absent later, or whatever.
You went to sleep. Tried to, at least. It was half tossing and turning, a quarter trying to get comfortable in your blankets, an immeasurable amount of time sneezing and sniffling - Grim managed to get you a tissue box with his paws at some point and maybe one percent actual resting.
After what, according to the clock was a few hours worth of suffering, you heard a knock on your bedroom.
"Who is it?"
Ace Trappola
"Vil Schoenheit, duh." You were not letting Ace diss you while you were sick. Not a chance.
"Don't come in."
"Jeez," Ace said, seeming pretty concerned. "You sound awful. I'm coming in."
So kind, Ace. So kind. Truly, that man deserved an award for his raw tact.
The door slammed open, and you could see Ace's smug grin fall for a moment before coming back up.
"You got sick?" He said, giving you a once-over.
Obviously you were sick! What kind of question was that?
"No, I'm actually better than I've ever been," you said. "That's why I didn't come to school. To celebrate my raw level of health."
"Whatever. Can't blame you for that, but you're still and idiot for those thick blankets. You're supposed to lower your body temperature when you're sick; even Deuce knows that."
You weren't going to stand for this slander of your mutual friend - no matter how much those two tried to deny their friendship.
"Take back what you said about-"
"And get some food in your system! I'm getting you some soup."
Before you could even say anything, Ace was gone.
Was he- concerned about you? Actually, yeah, that was probably it. Ace was just built like that.
After a while, he was back, with a bowl of soup and a wet towel in hand.
"Trey, uh, had some soup leftover," he said, pressing the towel to your forehead. Cold. So cold. You wanted it off. "And the towel'll help get your temperature down. Don't take it off."
For all you made fun of Ace, he was actually so street-smart it was scary sometimes, and that included being able to read your thoughts.
"I won't," you said, more like mumbled, because your throat was so sore you'd think someone shoved a bunch of needles down it.
"You sound awful," he said with a snicker. "You need water. I'll go get it for you."
You didn't even mind the fact that he was making fun of you right now, you were just thankful for that sweet, sweet water. Your throat was dryer than the Sahara - which, funnily enough, didn't actually mean anything, since the Sahara didn't exist in Twisted Wonderland and was therefore just gibberish.
Lo and behold, he came back, carrying a thermos filled with water.
"Drink some," he said, holding the bottle up to your lips.
That gave you pause. What was next, him feeding you the soup?
Still, you needed the water, so you drank it without thinking.
It felt so good. Finally, rain in the Sahara!
You didn't have much time to rejoice before Ace held up a spoon of soup to your mouth.
"Say ah," he said, evidently very amused.
"I'm not a little kid, I can feed myself."
Ace just looked at you, unimpressed.
"Your hands're shaking so hard I can see them through the blankets," he said. "You're an idiot if you think your hands can take that soup anywhere but all over your blankets."
He was mean, but he was right. Curse him.
You opened your mouth, and he fed you a spoonful. This was how it went until the bowl was gone.
"You can leave now," you said.
"Nah," Ace replied. "You clearly need help getting better."
He was staying, wasn't he? And there was nothing you could do to change that. Whatever, maybe being babied wouldn't be so bad.
Besides, this was his own way of showing he cared, and it was one you didn't entirely mind. It'd be rude to push him away.
"Fine, fine," you said.
"Good."
And so, with Ace's help, getting better wasn't so bad.
A week later, however, Ace himself got sick. He really should've seen that coming.
"Here, say 'ah'."
"D-Don't feed me, idiot! I'm not a baby, I can do it myself."
How the turns had tabled.
Deuce Spade
"It's me, Deuce."
That was a relief.
"Come in," you said. "It's not locked."
The door opened, and you could make out the blue hair and black mark of none other than Deuce, one of your two friends from Heartslabyul - No matter how much Ace tried to deny he cared.
"You look terrible, Prefect," he said, and you knew he didn't mean to insult you, but it still hurt.
"I know," you said. "What'd you come here for?"
"You didn't come to class, so I was worried," Deuce said. "Now I know why. Anything I can do to make you feel better?"
There was one thing you wanted, more than anything.
"Water," you croaked out. "Please."
Right now, you and water were star-crossed lovers. Maybe Deuce could change that.
"Right away."
Deuce scurried out of the room, and, after a few, agonizing seconds, came back with your beloved water.
"Do you need help drinking?" he asked.
For a second, you thought that question was offensive. You could get it yourself. Then. you tried to reach for the bottle, and realized that his question was a very good one.
"Yep," you said, because your trembling hand were not bringing that bottle up to your mouth. The task just seemed daunting.
He put the bottle up to your mouth, and you drank up. Finally, your throat was parched. Relief.
"Anything else you need?" Deuce asked.
Although you didn't feel particularly nauseous right now, you weren't going to risk it with a meal. Right now, you just wanted someone to accompany you through your misery.
"Just stay with me," you asked. "You don't have to, I mean, I know you probably have a bunch of things to do, but-"
"No," Deuce said. "I'll stay with you. You're my friend, a-and, I want to do anything I can to make you feel any better."
He looked away.
"S-Sorry, I know how stupid that sounds," he said. You were going to correct his inaccurate statement.
"Deuce."
"Y-Yeah?"
"I'm pretty sure that's the nicest thing anyone's said to me."
"Thanks." Deuce scratched the back of his neck sheepishly. "Anyways, do you wanna know what stuff in class we learned so it's easier for you to catch up?"
You smiled.
"I would love that."
Deuce made that sick day so much better. Somehow, he didn't even get sick. You honestly envied that good immune system. It was good that he didn't suffer for trying to help you, though.
Riddle Rosehearts
"Prefect, I was informed that you were absent from class today. Do you have an explanation?"
"I'm sick," you said, miffed. Riddle was actually great to be around, but god, you didn't have the patience for getting lectured right now.
Silence. More silence. Sheepish scurrying.
After a while, you hear another knock.
"Prefect, it's me," Riddle said. "I would like to apologize for my discourteous behavior prior."
The door opened, and there was Riddle, carrying a bunch of stuff.
"Aagh," was your highly intelligent greeting.
Riddle walked up to you, getting out a towel. He cast a water spell on it.
"You look quite disheveled," he said, putting the now wet towel on your forehead. "I really do feel terrible about the way I addressed you earlier. Trey had some soup leftover, would you like some?"
You nodded. You wanted something warm right now, especially with the cold cloth on your head.
"I'll get it for you, then."
From his bag, he took out a canteen, a spoon, and a napkin. He was really well-prepared, wasn't he? That really wasn't a shock. This was Riddle, after all, top student and ultimate over-preparer - actually, maybe Azul or Jamil took the latter role. Nothing could beat seeing Azul's backup-backup plans for the serious affair of buying cheese from Sam's.
Riddle handed you the soup, waving his magic-pen.
Your hand weren't trembling anymore. Weird.
"That was me," Riddle said, noticing your confusion. "The spell will temporarily let you eat in comfort."
"Thanks," you said, taking a sip of the soup. It tasted so good to your empty stomach. The nausea'd worn off some time ago, and now you were left with the burning feeling of hunger. You scarfed down that soup in no time, leaving Riddle with a concerned look.
"Are you not worried about vomiting?" he said.
You shook your head.
"I don't feel nauseous," you said. "Not now, at least."
That seemed to be a good enough answer for Riddle, who nodded.
"Is there anything else you'd like?"
"Can you help me catch up on the stuff I missed?"
"Of course," Riddle said, summoning a massive notebook. You gulped.
This was going to be a long day, wasn't it? Oh, well, at least it wouldn't be as bad as it would've been without Riddle.
Only three days after helping you get better, Riddle also got sick. You felt so bad, he was a stickler for attendance and now he was missing school because of you! You had to help him.
"I'm so, so sorry, Riddle, I swear!"
"You- achoo! H-Have nothing to- to be sorry for, Prefect."
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gffa · 9 months
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Okay, not to defend Gotham War or anything, but I think I'm talking myself into liking what I see it's trying to do. Starting with some great tags on this post:
#i get why people are hating on it i really really do. trust me#but TO BE FAIR... zdarsky has been making it overwhelmingly clear that bruce is SERIOUSLY unwell right now#like it's been nonstop Horrors for him for like. over a dozen issues straight. with no rest or time to process. and he doesn't have alfred#who was a HUGE part of his support system not to mention the finances etc etc#iirc there's even a panel that pretty much outright states that this is more of an issue of control than morality#and that includes the choosing sides thing like the batkids seem more concerned w how bruce is going off the fucking rails than#just the moral aspects#anyway (via @clownprince)
#Batman#Bruce Wayne#REAL#REAL REAL REAL#LIKE. Zur En Arrh is a LITERAL Defense Mechanism going Malignant at this point#Not only that but throughout Zdarsky's run there's been allusions to illnesses and Bruce Not Having A Good Time#Not Having a Good Time and Not Having Time At All to take stock of the sheer What The Fuck-ery that's been going on recently#Because it's been a CONSTANT steam of What The Fuck-ery nonstop#And the Worse is yet to come if one considers the future issues synopsis and the ''I am a Gun'' story by Zdarsky#(At most I'm a little bit concerned over how Zdarsky will try to wrap this up‚ but that's a normal concern especially about Comics)#(Especially Batman Comics considering how often Editorial likes to... do things) (via @kaosvrow)
I agree with so much of the criticism of Gotham War, especially that the arguments for or against Selina's plans are absolute garbage by characters who should be making better arguments and that the other characters are being used as bobbleheads instead of actually giving them their canon personalities--and, okay, I will also point out that in the VERY FIRST ISSUE, Selina's plan gets someone killed and so I'm willing to extend some grace that the story isn't trying to push forward that either way is actually right, I honestly don't think it's about that. I think it's a story about Bruce Wayne's mental state, because Zdarsky's been building this up for awhile now, like the issue immediately prior to Knight Terrors? Shows us Bruce's mental state is ALREADY absolute TRASH right then:
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Zur-En-Arrh was already leaking through the seams of his mind, he was already feeling the impending doom of everything he cared about being burned away, that his mind literally couldn't watch his kids being happy and together and getting along without feeling like it was all burning to ash.
And then Knight Terrors happened, which was one more thing digging hard, boney fingers into his trauma, and he handled it pretty well in the moment, but it's such a giant, non-stop pile of stress on a mind that is already damaged to hell and back because of his trauma.
Further, the very first issue of the Gotham War storyline? The very first panel, the one that sets up the stage of what's going to happen, makes a very clear point about how this is about Bruce fracturing:
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And then on the very next page, Zur-En-Arrh is literally stalking at the bars of the cage around Bruce's mind.
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And then Bruce wakes up and it's immediately more establishing just how worried everyone is about him because so much has been piled on lately:
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Bruce hides his missing hand from his family, just like he's trying to hide how scraped thin he is right now, and goes out on patrol.
Where his internal monologue is all about how defensive he feels lately, how he feels like the years are catching up to him, how nothing feels right but this, making it clear that Bruce is hanging onto Batman with a death grip because it's the only thing that feels stable to him right now.
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And all of this is in the first TEN PAGES of the first issue, this is our set-up, this is our foundation, this is what we're being given to understand what this story is about. Then Batman #137 happens and it's literally ALL ABOUT BRUCE'S MENTAL SPACE, that Selina's plan is the catalyst, not the driving point behind all of it. Again, I'm in 100% agreement that the Batkids are acting like cardboard cutouts because you will never get me to believe that they didn't notice crime going down or that they wouldn't be pointing out that Gotham's wealthy are just going to start making their security lethal in response or that the Court of Owls won't step in, that this is not a long term solution to giving these people lives beyond crime, or even that a lot of them should be agreeing with Bruce, that they don't get to decide who is an acceptable victim. But the story isn't really about changing up the way comics deal with crime, it's about even the Batkids are framing it in terms of how it's about Bruce. Jason is really the only one who seems onboard with trying out Selina's plan, but even his confrontation with Bruce isn't really about that, it's about all their baggage, their fight immediately becomes about how angry Jason is at the way Bruce has treated him. This fight isn't happening because Jason's a true believer in Selina's plan, it's happening because he's angry at Bruce and Bruce is in a shitty mental place, after all the non-stop horrors AND feeling like he's been betrayed by the kids who he thought understood that people being victims wasn't acceptable, and so he lashes out at Jason.
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When they fight, it's not because they're siding against Bruce, it's because he's become unstable and dangerous. The why of it doesn't matter, it's not about that.
(And I'm actually okay with the way that fight happened because I can buy that, for example, Cass might be holding back against him, she's a stronger fighter than he is, but he's being ruthless because of the state he's in, while she might be feeling more cautious.) When they fight, it's not because they're siding against Bruce, it's because he's become unstable and dangerous. The why of it doesn't matter, it's not about that. Even further, when Bruce fights against his kids, he's wrong and biased, especially in the fight with Dick, who he thinks has a sloppy offensive and doesn't know darkness like he does--to which Dick just immediately cracks him in the face because, yeah, Dick Grayson does know darkness and Bruce isn't as untouchable as he's trying to make himself seem (because being Batman is all he has right now).
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I think it's important that it's Dick who defies his expectations here, because this story is building off context of what happened between Selina and Bruce, that they were truly together for awhile, they were about to get married--Selina mentions that it the first issue, it's a major thorn in that conversation when she throws out how she doesn't believe that Gotham needs Batman anymore, it needs her.
She's giving him what he said he always wanted, she's giving him the thing that kept them apart, he should be happy, should they head to the church now? Saying that he won't because he wants to be Batman more than he wants to solve the city's problems.
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The failed wedding between them is important in part because of what Selina's saying here, illustrating that both of them are bringing a lot of baggage to the table but also because of what else happened during that storyline, why the context is so important. Because that storyline dovetailed into one about Bane wanting to take over Gotham and he needed Batman unstable and distracted, which was working after Selina left him at the altar, he was a mess. But you know what was saving him at the time, bringing him back from the ledge? THIS KID:
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Dick was the one poking and prodding at Bruce with jokes and warmth and care and it was working. He actually got Bruce to cry in front of him, to release some actual genuine emotion!
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Dick makes Bruce more emotionally stable, to the point that Bane had to hire KGBeast to shoot Dick in the head just because he was so good at stabilizing Bruce--this is also why Dick's the one who says he'll go talk Bruce down off his moral ledge in Batman #137.
So, it's Dick that has to be the one to defy his expectations in the fight, has to be the one who breaks through Bruce's offense and knocks him down in what feels like a betrayal even when it isn't, because this isn't a story about who's right and who's wrong, it's a story about Bruce isolating himself because he's mentally fractured to hell and back, because he's not trusting his kids, he's still hurt by Selina leaving him, he's still grieving Alfred's death, he's run ragged physically and emotionally and mentally by a series of exhausting horrors piled on him, he's lost his family's fortune, he's not even living in his own family home anymore. (I focus on Dick here as an illustration of tying this back to previous examples of Bruce crumbling and important context that the storyline is drawing on, but Gotham War isn't really specifically about Bruce and Dick's relationship, but more about Bruce's relationship with all his kids, like Tim and Jason and Damian all have equally important moments. But it's a very direct example of how his children are a huge part of his support system and draw him back from the ledge of being just Batman and back into being Bruce.) That's why the issue ends with Bruce getting the papers telling him that the bank sold Wayne Manor to Vandal Savage, because it's one more thing that's stripping Bruce Wayne away from the character, and leaving him with nothing but Batman and Zur-En-Arrh. Gotham War isn't actually a story about a war for Gotham. It's a story about Bruce Wayne going out of control and everything is written to serve that. The characters' fights are catalyzed by Selina's plans, but they quickly become about Bruce's relationship with the characters. The narrative makes heavy-handed points about Bruce feeling like he's losing his grip, that he's hallucinating and talking to himself, that he is extremely mentally unwell right now. Everything Zdarsky's been writing (like especially the "I Am a Gun" storyline right before Knight Terrors) has been building up to fracturing Bruce Wayne.
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m3nt4llyr4v3d · 2 months
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Felix v Chloe
Lemme just say, I hate the way Felix is treated in the show and the fandom compared to Chloe
Somehow, someway, the characters can forgive Felix and even have him on the team at the end (?????), and all of his actions are completely absolved due to his backstory: “Oh he was just doing all that for his survival! He was just an awkward quirky guy with no social cues all along!”
But Chloe’s backstory even being brought up for an explanation is immediately shut down, it doesn’t excuse a single thing she’s done! Hell, it doesn’t even explain why she’s the way she is because Mylene has an absent mother and she turned out fine! Doesn’t matter that Mylene had a father that actually taught her how to act and didn’t just buy her love with constant gifts and abuses of power, there’s just no excuse!
Both act in their own self interest, turning to the villain to get something they want, but nonono, Felix, without apologizing once mind you, is redeemed and forgiven while Chloe gets sent off to NY with her mother! Everyone wins!
Not to mention Felix did arguably worse than Chloe
Felix was the one who actively made Hawkmoth more powerful by giving him the miraculous (not to mention giving HM the ring) while with Chloe, Hawkmoth got the miraculous on his own and she was just along for the ride basically. Then Felix came back and snapped away everyone. Chloe sent everyone away when she was akumatized as well, but at least we could see where they went and there wasn’t any confusion as to whether they got snapped to some pocket dimension or straight up disappeared. Oh, and she was akumatized by Gabriel who was literally manipulating her along with Tomoe and Lila at the time??
I feel like any arguments for Felix about worrying for his or Adrien’s safety, any excuses, should’ve been thrown out the window in the season 4 finale. After that point he had full control over himself and gave up Adrien’s free will, and he still came back to snap everyone away! Now, I would absolutely be fine with this (cept the Adrien part) I mean trauma with humans isn’t going to go away just like that even when there’s no immediate risk anymore (unless you get a girlfriend apparently). My issue with that is how this same sentiment isn’t given to Chloe whatsoever, her lash outs aren’t given any thought beyond “oh she’s evil for the sake of it”, ignoring how the trauma of her mother leaving her and treating her like garbage would still affect her, and it drives me up the wall
Not to mention the show actively tries to pretend that the adults surrounding Chloe’s life don’t have any influence on her whatsoever, even though they obviously do and Tomoe and Gabriel literally set her up as a scapegoat in this season. Somehow her father isn’t responsible whatsoever for the way she was raised, her mother leaving apparently didn’t even affect her behavior because we’re genuinely supposed to believe this teenager is just an evil person. Somehow the storyline of her being set up as a scapegoat by two grown ass adults is literally ignored by the narrative including some of the fans
Oh but Felix gets all the sympathy regardless of what he did
Right.
I wouldn’t hate Felix or his character direction so much if it wasn’t a direct slap to the face for Chloe, not to mention giving the Chloe stans fuel! I mean, it literally proved their point that Chloe deserved a redemption because full grown adults who’ve done worse and a guy who’s done nearly the same shit as her are forgiven and “redeemed”, ridiculous (I say that a lot huh)
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depressedhouseplant · 4 months
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🔞 Just Fucking Write 2k24 - Day 24 🔞
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Prompt: Yunho x Fem!Reader
Tags: You’re in public, fingering, accidental squirting
A/N: Since writing in second person makes me itch, here’s first person POV y/n. Narrator is female. If this is complete garbage it’s because I haven’t written y/n in about 20 years. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.
Yunho jerked his hand back like he’d been shocked when he accidentally touched my bare thigh.
“Are you okay?” I asked.
“I’m fine, why?” he adjusted the napkin in his lap and refused to look at me.
“Because you acted like I was gonna slap you or something for accidentally touching my leg,” I replied.
“Oh, well, you’ve never told me I can touch you,” he replied. I hated that I had to stifle a giggle.
“While I appreciate your concern over consent, I wouldn’t mind at all if you touched me,” I put his hand on my thigh. He carefully splayed his fingers, taking time to feel my skin under his hand.
“What if I touched you here?” he asked, moving his hand up my thigh to more sensitive areas.
“That’s fine,” I told him.
“And here,” he moved his hand even higher so his pinky grazed between my legs.
“You really want to do this here?” I asked, leaning closer to his face. It was loud in the room. There was nothing suspicious about the maid of honor leaning in to talk to the best man. We were friends, after all.
“The list of things I want to do to you would definitely exceed the amount of time we’ll be here,” he replied.
“What do you want to do to me right now?” I could feel myself getting wet and prayed it wasn’t getting all over my dress.
“Right now I want to put my fingers in your pussy and make you come, but you can’t let anyone know what’s going on,” he put his lips next to my ear. Chills ran down my spine. I had not expected that reply.
“Yes,” I agreed.
“Yes?” he prompted.
“Are you gonna make me say it?” I leaned back to look at him. He smirked at me. “Yes, I want you to finger me in public and I’m not allowed to give anything away.”
“That wasn’t so hard, was it?” he teased.
“Unlike your cock right now,” I glanced down and there was an obvious bulge in his lap.
“We’ll take care of that later,” he said as he moved his whole (giant) hand between my legs. “Already wet for me.”
“You make it easy,” I replied as he pushed my panties to the side and began grazing a finger over my folds. I never thought I was particularly sensitive, but even just a few touches was making me squirm.
“You’ve got to hold still. Can’t draw attention, remember?” he breathed in my ear. I nodded, afraid of what noise might come out if I opened my mouth. He eased one finger into my pussy and I had to bite my lip to keep from moaning. “How many do you think you can handle? My dick is definitely bigger than one of my fingers and I assume you’re going to want that later.”
“Three. Try three,” I breathed.
“That’s close enough,” he agreed. Before I could fully process anything, he was three fingers deep in my pussy with his thumb massaging my clit. I’d been fingered before, but never like this. Never by someone who knew how to find every spot that drove me closer to coming loud, hard, and fast. I chewed on my bottom lip to stay quiet and was grabbing the chair so hard that my knuckles were turning white. Granted I didn’t know much about Yunho’s sex life, somehow he’d learned how to drive someone absolutely insane using just his fingers.
“Getting close, aren’t you?” his breath was hot on my neck. I nodded, feeling my pussy contract around his fingers. “Should I finish you?”
“Please,” I whimpered.
“Since you said please,” he pressed hard against all my most sensitive spots at the same time and I came. At the same time, I felt like I pissed myself. Not a lot, but enough to be noticeable. That’s when the panic set in. I knew it was all over my dress. Goddamn my sister for choosing silk.
“It’s okay. You didn’t piss yourself. You just squirted. Definitely not enough to include actual piss,” Yunho said, still 3 fingers in me.
“What?” I asked.
“I saw you panic. You can piss yourself when you squirt, but you definitely didn’t. Trust me,” Yunho explained.
“I’m not sure I want to know how you know that,” I replied. He laughed and pulled his fingers out, wiping them on the napkin.
“I might have made a girl piss herself from coming. Or two,” he said. “And now you’re going to excuse yourself to your room and if anyone asks I’ll tell them you weren’t feeling well.”
“And then?” I asked.
“And when dinner is over I’m going to leave the first chance I get and fuck you like you deserve,” he grinned.
“Good plan,” I agreed. I got up and the chair had a large wet spot. “Dammit.”
“I’ll make sure no one sits there. See you soon, darling,” he said.
“Not soon enough,” I replied and quickly went up to my room. It was gonna be a long night.
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themetaphorgirl · 29 days
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where I've been
hello friends! it's me!
I know my presence has been really hit or miss over the past year and change. if you want the short version, life has just been really tough, but I'm at the point where I really want to feel like life feels more normal again, which includes writing and posting and being more active.
if you'd like the deluxe edition of what's been going on, I do feel like I want to share what's been happening. it's been really rough and the next steps are only going to be more difficult, so knowing I have friends rooting for me will really help.
you don't have to read if you don't want to, it's kind of a bummer! the biggest takeaway is that I've been going through a garbage time but I want to start writing regularly again, so hopefully you'll see a lot more of me moving forward.
everything else below the cut!
tw: pregnancy, pregnancy loss
okay so. y'all know I got married in December 2022 (and we are still very happily married!!). we've known from the getgo that we want a family, but hadn't quite pulled the trigger.
well, there was another situation that happened that made me realize that I really wanted to start trying now, but it also unlocked a really deep trauma. when I was 23 I was in a really horrible relationship, and I got pregnant. and I ended up miscarrying pretty early on. and I got zero support. that's the short version.
I ended up, I guess for my own sanity, blocking it out. there's big gaps in my memory that just. don't exist. and for a long time I told myself it didn't happen. later, when I acknowledged that it did happen, I told myself that it was for the best, that I would have been a bad mother at that point in my life, that I would have had to maintain contact with my ex, that it just wasn't the right time and it was a good thing that I lost my baby.
the problem was I never grieved. I never healed. it was all just locked away and festering and killing me slowly.
so I ended up spending a good part of last year grieving and trying to deal with pain that I should have dealt with years ago. which...let me tell you, it's a rough process.
and at the same time, I realized that I wanted to start trying. my whole life I've wanted to be a mom. I've wanted five kids for as long as I can remember. Every time I pictured the future I pictured children. And I didn't want to wait anymore. which...is extra complicated to start that process when you're also in the midst of unpacking trauma.
and as you might have guessed...I'm not pregnant yet.
I'm very lucky that my work has a great medical program and they don't have waiting periods to see fertility specialists, so I started seeing doctors last April. And there's nothing wrong. I've done bloodwork, I've done ultrasounds, I've done so many tests, Shane has been tested. We've done three medicated cycles with trigger shots. They can't find anything wrong. They keep shrugging and saying that it's just the matter of the right time.
Unexplained infertility is a bitch.
It's so painful. It's so unfair. And because of my job I'm constantly doing orders for pregnancy announcements and gender reveals and baby's first Christmas. I cannot tell you how many times I've run to the bathroom to cry because I just can't handle being surrounded by reminders that I'm not anybody's mother yet.
I'm currently on cycle 17 of trying. which. that on its own hurts so much. s e v e n t e e n.
we have to hold off on starting the next steps because Shane lost his job (which is another absolutely insane stressor) but he's in a new job that he loves and pays better, and I'm getting a referral for a new clinic for a second opinion. but it looks like we're going to move forward with IVF.
I'm very very lucky that my work will pay for a significant amount towards IVF, but there's still payments we have to make, so we're working on getting our ducks in a row. and it's a terrifying prospect. medications and egg retrieval (my first surgery ever) and transfers. and the crippling fear that they won't get enough eggs or none of them will fertilize or the transfer won't be successful. it's eating me away. I've been feeling like such a shell of myself, every failed cycle feels like another piece of me has faded away.
right now I'm trying to focus on getting myself in as healthy as a place as possible, emotionally and physically, before we start procedures. am I still hoping that I'll get pregnant without IVF? oh, desperately. but at this point, nearly a year and a half into trying, this is probably going to be our best bet.
so moving forward, I'm hoping I can start doing things that make me happy again. I've spent most of the past year and a half being incredibly depressed and not really doing anything other than laying around in bed. I did discover Lockwood & Co thanks to Maeve, and that's helped so much because it gave me something new to think about and fixate on (and write for), but it's still been rough and sporadic. which, actually, is a good describer of how the past year has gone. I need to get back into living again.
in the meantime thank you for everybody who's checked in on me, especially QuiddoDitto. I haven't really had the energy to message back, but I've seen the comments and messages and it's meant so much to me while I slog through this.
hopefully things will get better soon! hopefully I start feeling like a person again! hopefully I'll be writing and posting regularly because I miss it!
and hopefully there'll be a baby in my arms soon.
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curator-on-ao3 · 7 months
Note
for the director's cut thing, i would LOVE to hear you talk about the light before dawn! (sorry if you've already done it lol) it's one of my absolute all time favourite pikeuna fics <3
Oh my gosh! Oh my gosh! Thank you so much, @belannaswlonkderfulworm!! ❤️ That’s so kind of you and deeply meaningful for me. 🥹
To explain: The Light Before Dawn lives in my heart. I started writing that multi-chap during Strange New Worlds’ first season and I think about it often with so much affection. I know fandom wisdom is people don’t like modern AUs, but I wanted to write it anyway. Something about that story just needed to be told.
I began by trying to figure out Una’s secret. I would have liked to have made her in the United States illegally, but then marriage could fix her problem and I didn’t want that pressure on her and Chris’ relationship. I also considered making Una trans, but I don’t feel qualified to write that experience. There was the option of making her a religious or ethnic minority, but then she would hopefully have a community and not be so alone. The idea of genetic engineering correlating to medical device implantation and ableism finally hit me and really resonated.
For Chris, my first idea was that he could be an equine therapist. But that didn’t work out geographically and, once I figured out Una’s secret, I also decided I didn’t want Chris in any kind of medical profession. (That’s why Joseph and Christine are barely in the story.) Making Chris a modern-day peacemaker seemed right.
Once I had the facts straight, the story had one rule — nothing bad could happen during the course of the narrative. This would be a story about emotional recovery from trauma. Even misunderstandings (like the one Una and La’an had) would be in the service of recovery. I feel like that came through, in part because one of the story bookmarks has the note “comfort in words.” I’ll tell you right now that there are times when I’ve had a shitty day, I look at or think about that bookmark and it helps me feel better that my words were able to comfort someone.
All that being said, there was so much I wanted to fit into that story and couldn’t:
I had this idea in my head that when Chris and Vina got divorced, Chris wore brown loafers with tassels to Family Court because he knew Vina hated those shoes … and he felt guilty at doing something so petty, but also free from trying to please her. As Chris made his way down the front steps of the court after the divorce was finalized, he nearly danced on the concrete with the shoes his wife — ex-wife — hated.
Speaking of Vina … there are songs on my fic playlist for Vina, a character who doesn’t even appear except for Chris mentioning her. But I have so many thoughts about Vina’s frustration with Chris, her pain at him pulling away from a life she thought was good. Vina, a financial planner, helps money make more money. She shops at chic stores and pays too much for haircuts. She moved to SoHo after the divorce and doesn’t really enjoy sex with her dates but does it to reassure herself that she’s “normal” and “fun” and “cool” because all of that is so desperately important to her. I hope she snaps out of her need to impress others, I really do, because Vina’s life could be better if she just lived it for herself.
I considered including that in the mornings when Chris’ light didn’t go on that he was at Judge Batel’s place feeling like absolute garbage. But then who discriminated against Una and cost Una her dream? It got too messy so I just left Batel out and I’m glad I did.
I was going to have the kitchen renovation company belong to Hemmer but when the show killed him, I nixed that.
At the last minute, I edited out a part where Una told Chris that when she was little and her parents would drive past the garbage dump, she would get scared they would drop her off there and leave her. But that was just too sad, even in the past.
In the universe of the story, Rukiya 100% lives to be an adult. There is no cygnokemia in New York City. After they read and run around at the park, Joseph and Rukiya go home to Debra and the family plays board games until it’s time for dinner.
In terms of good stuff, I’m really pleased with some of the details in that story — Una’s nail polish bottles, Chris’ Eagle Scout award (the highest award in Boy Scouts), those two discussing leaky scaffolding (a relatable New York City experience), the reveal of what happened to Gabriel Lorca. Also, I know I’m biased, but when Una set the stars at the planetarium to Mojave, California, so she could see what the sky looked like for Chris when he was a child at night, I think that’s so goddamn romantic of her.
I’m less pleased with my decision to have Una’s quick conversation in the mail room be with a nameless neighbor. My original thought was the neighbor could be any one of the Discovery women — Kat Cornwell, Michael Burnham, Phillipa Georgiou, etc. Meh. Then I wrote and deleted a whole section that made clear the neighbor was Christine Chapel. Maybe I should have kept that and removed the fleeting Chapel reference later. I’m not sure.
I stand by the Spirk joke at the end, though.
I also stand by Una not being a model patient. She’s mostly good about things, but she doesn’t always carry her card with her … just like a real person. And I am gleeful that Eagle Scout Mr. Moral Compass Christopher Pike uses the work printer for personal documents because, come on, we all do it.
Oof, I could keep talking about this story but I should stop. Thank you for this absolutely lovely opportunity, @belannaswlonkderfulworm, I’ve enjoyed every second of babbling about my beloved The Light Before Dawn. ❤️
Want more information about a fic I wrote? Send me an ask.
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makur0 · 2 years
Note
I am BEGGING for nsfw dom hiyori fic💔 my boy has no fics of him being dominant it's so sad HAHA. can you do dom!hiyori with a gn!reader? Like he gets whiny and pouty about the reader spending too much time with jun and so he, out of jealousy, starts giving off vaguely sexual hints to the reader that ends up in them getting into it once they get home. He ends up being a little mean and denies the reader an orgasm as a small punishment :((( can you include after care too<33? TYSM!
Pay attention to me!
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synopsis — tired of being thrown in the dirt, he decides to give off sultry hints to you to rile you up. of course it works, but you need to learn a little lesson… [hiyori tomoe x gn! reader]
content warnings — nsfw, mdni. dom! hiyori, semi-exhibitionism? (public teasing), face riding, orgasm denial, begging + teasing, jealous sex (in a way), crackfic at beginning
author’s note — I ABSOLUTELY ADORE HIYORI YALL DONT UNDERSTAND IT- ahem. but thank you for the req, i had so much fun!!
word count — 1118
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IT WAS NOT A GOOD HIYORI.
It really wasn’t.
“Jun, look at this!”
“Oh my gosh, Jun, watch!”
“Jun, Jun, Junnnn~”
Hiyori had graciously let you tag along on Jun and his’ weekly shopping spree because he wanted to spend time with you. But by the looks of it, and much to his irritation, you were attached to Jun’s hip for at least an hour now. 
Jun-kun was supposed to be the third wheel, not him. It wasn’t fair.
“Ne ne~ [name]-kun,” Hiyori jumped in between you two, his bright smile trying to hide his increasing attitude. “How about we go check out this new clothes shop I found? I bet there’s a lot of cute things for you and I!”
You brightened, opening your mouth to respond, but a loud growl interrupted you. 
Jun coughed loudly, mortified. “I- ahem, sorry.”
“Are you hungry?” You said, turning away from Hiyori as he gazed at you forlornly. “It is around lunchtime... how ‘bout this, let’s go get something to eat, and then we’ll continue shopping!”
Pay attention to me! Not him! Not Jun-kun!
“No no no,” Jun rushed, his eyes flitting to a quiet Hiyori. “I- I’ll get something myself, why don’t you and Oshii-san check out that store?”
“I’m hungry too!” You chirped, hooking his arm with yours and marching away. “Now off we go!”
Jun desperately glanced back at the other, his throat drying as his gaze looked dark and hurt, his lips in a pout. This really wasn’t going to end well, wasn’t it...
The male was dangerously quiet at the cafe, only speaking when spoken to. Jun was just waiting for him to explode, but on the other hand you didn’t seem to care, happily eating your lunch with Jun.
Unbeknownst to you, Hiyori was trying to find a way to regret ignoring him. Because how dare you don’t pay attention to him, one of the best and prettiest idols? How dare you make him feel insecure, unwanted? And how dare you hang out with Jun, right in front of him? For sure, he was going to make you pay.
“Oh and then one time...” You chuckled, grasping your drink. “There was- huh? Hiyori?”
He had gotten up and made his way over to you, lightly grinning. “Oh, don’t mind me, [name], I’m just going to be a good boyfriend and throw out your trash~”
Your breath hitched. He had leaned right over your shoulder, his lips grazing your ear as he grabbed your garbage from the table. Poor Jun, he almost choked on his drink watching this. Nope, not today-
Hiyori stood back up straight, throwing you a knowing smirk as he pranced away.
“Bro,” Jun said, his sandwich halfway to his mouth. “Not in front of my lunch.”
You forced out a laugh, but soon slouched over, your eyes wide. “I- there’s no way he did it on purpose, right?”
“You haven’t been hanging out with him all day,” He reasoned. “Of course Oshii-san gets jealous. You should know this by now.”
Shit. You should.
You had to cut the conversation as Hiyori came back, your face still flushed as he sat down next to you.
“Well!” He clapped his hands together. “Shall we get going?”
You were a complete mess. And he was relentless.
Subtle groping, breathing down your neck, even flashing you when he tried on clothes- you were reduced into a red, blushing mess. The more you grew quiet, the more vocal Hiyori was, even going as far as to ask you: “Oh, my dear [name], what’s the matter? Do you have a fever?”
The trio walked out of their last store for the day, the green-haired male looking triumphant, Jun looking done with life, and you contemplating your life choices.
Hiyori giggled. “Oops, sorry. I just saw something I liked in that lingerie store, so I had to check it out! Sorry, Jun-kun~”
“It’s fine,” the said idol grumbled, struggling with the bags. “Can we just- go home now?”
“Of course!” He chirped. “If you don’t mind, though, me and [name] are going to head back to their apartment. Can you-”
“Yep, yes, absolutely,” With renewed energy Jun grabbed all the bags, sending you a ‘good luck’ face before pacing away from the two of you.
Great. You turned to Hiyori with a knowing expression, him himself giving you a shit-eating grin. 
“Oh, my dear [name],” He purred, petting your hair. “You really fucked it up this time, haven’t you?”
You sighed shakily. “Yup.”
---
Eh, fucking up had its perks.
“Y-yes!” You moaned out, grabbing his hair and pushing your ass further into his face. “More, please-!”
Hiyori hummed loudly, his violet eyes staring straight at you as he devoured your sex. Perfect, it was absolutely perfect. As soon as you two stepped into your apartment you were all over him, begging for him to touch you. Your hair askew, your eyes unfocused, and your cheeks a strawberry red, how could he say no to such a cute thing like you?
Such a little slut, he thought, his eyes narrowing at your panting figure above him. Thinking that they can get away with this... they really think I’m helping them, heh.
A sharp gasp left you, your hips jerking as you grew close to your orgasm. “-yori, Hiyori, I’m-m close~!”
You shoved your ass closer to him, but much to your surprise he turned his head sideways, his hands pushing at your thighs as he ripped his mouth away from you. “Mm?!”
He spat into your thighs, looking back up at you. “You really thought that I would let you orgasm? Little whore~ thinking that you can take whatever you want...”
“Please!” You begged, frantically threading your fingers through his hair. “I’m sorry- sorry! I should have b-been paying more attention to you, I know! Just please, I wanna come, I wanna come!”
Hiyori stared at you with narrowed purple eyes, humming against your shaking leg. “...At least you admit your faults. Well then~”
He dove right back into you, sucking more harshly on you. Immediately you screamed out in pleasure, your back arching as you collapsed in a mind-numbing orgasm. Hiyori continued to ravish you, only stopping as you tugged on his hair a bit too roughly.
You let out a shaky breath, slouching over as he encased you in a tight hug.
“Oh, my precious little bean,” He drawled, pressing kisses against your now-drowsy face. “I’m sorry for that~ just make sure that I’m the most important to you in your eyes, alright?”
“Alright...” You mumbled, pressing your face against his chest. Hiyori chuckled, rubbing your back tenderly as both of you drifted off into sleep.
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secretgamergirl · 6 months
Text
A Teachable Moment
So I hopped into some freshly minted Discord server, maybe a month ago, and the norms of it still haven't settled into place. It's open to the public and focused on a game, so there's a bit of a mixed crowd, let's say, and prior to the incident I'm setting up the backstory for, there hasn't really been a test of their ability to moderate their damn public spaces.
Also when I say there's a mixed crowd I mean there's both a good number of trans women (because if you are making a deep game for a niche audience, we're gonna make up a shockingly high percentage of that audience every time), and a few right-wing extremists doing their best to "hide their power levels" (because if you create and promote literally any sort of social space, they WILL show up to test for whether local conditions are suitable enough to build a nest). In the early days of things they mostly kept their masks on aside from using the nazi frog as a reaction image to things (which IS something everyone should have a zero tolerance policy towards, but I feel like I need to know someone fairly well before I can explain that one), and their eyes lighting up when they see the server rules include "no politics" (a perfectly fine policy to have but you need to understand that if you post it you WILL have to constantly ban nazis who think you're using "politics" like they do- a euphemism for all the people they want dead).
Anyway, there's a few people on my radar here, but everyone's been civil enough, and it's a pretty relaxed vibe. Pretty quiet. Mostly just icebreaker talk. The most prolific poster is this one guy who saw there was a pet photo channel and just kinda sat down and made a point of posting several images a day to it, of a particularly uncommon sort of cute pet. Naturally this lead some people to ask some follow-up questions about whether these are his and how long he's had them, and this yielded the pretty damn weird in retrospect response that no, he has no pets at all, but would like one of these some day.
Now, this isn't at all the main thrust of this, and I wouldn't like, start keeping vigil for this as a sign of troublemakers, but a thing that undercover bigots do all the time as can be seen here is set up in a community and just kinda spam harmless generic platitudes and such to try and establish themselves as a known chill person. This goes double for anywhere that has a general public/trusted community members split. Never just go by "well he seems pretty chill" for giving people access to more private spaces, they can wait as long as they need, generally, as long as they don't have to improvise a normal person response to a situation where bigotry is in play.
Anyway, getting to the main event, a few days ago in this server, someone posted some cute little comic which... you know let me just find it.
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Clever little subversion there. Got a polite chuckle out of the bulk of those paying attention, but seeing a nice wholesome bit of trans positivity incensed pet-poster guy, who immediately shouts "I've seen another version of that comic!" and posts a variation I am absolutely not going to share where the girl in the last panel is dead.
That is as clear cut of a do not pass go, do not collect $200, ban that piece of garbage permanently without a word and delete the post as soon as you can before anyone has to see that sort of hate directed at them offense in absolutely any community. Even moreso in this case as in the time it took a moderator to notice, this creep was going full mask off and responding to everyone's horrified reactions with grotesque anti-trans propaganda of a particularly hardcore "my other hangouts have openly posted swastikas" variety.
Here, people did delete the profoundly offensive comic, but then, to be blunt, otherwise handled this like a kindergarten teacher seeing a kid grab the blocks another kid was playing with and just nonchalantly explaining some basic manners. First off, nobody goes that hard on hate speech accidentally, and more importantly, showing a lack of willingness to dole out any real consequences for such an open act of hate has an emboldening effect. Sure enough the other sleeper agents present jumped up to try and push things farther, encouraging them to also remove the comic above, ban any mention of trans people, and jump the gun with prepared responses that don't work in context (you call everyone you don't like a nazi! Both sides are wrong! etc.).
I came pretty close to just quitting the server on response to that, but stuck it out a bit to double check if this wasn't just one particularly green mod trying to put the fire out before double checking if that's ban worthy when someone else was awake, or if I needed to explain the code-talk in the following conversation, or hell, if they just need more mods. I'm decidedly overqualified for that sort of thing.
Anyway, moderation policy handled that poorly... and to be clear, I'm not pinning that on any one person, basically everyone who ends up in a position of authority has a gut instinct to moderate as laxly as possible and needs some real training, reading, or tragic experience to learn how vital a firm swift hand is if you don't want people like this to show up and drive everyone else away. Especially not going to put this on the one green volunteer awake at 4 AM or whatever.
Still, the ball was dropped here, and I was pleasantly surprised to see how the rest of the community stepped up to hold their ground. Over the next couple of days, people just started casually dropping every cute trans positive thing they had handy in there, agreeing with each other that it was all nice and sweet. This both reestablished that chat as a relatively safe place to exist with a kind general vibe, and really got under the skin of these mask off nazis who started throwing tantrums. Apparently they just started privately messaging the mods to flag every single wholesome little image or comic as offensive to the point where people higher up the food chain came in, did some more serious reprimanding, and added an explicit policy against transphobia to their TOS... and threatened to ban these people if they pull this crap again.
Now, that increased firmness plus the community in general making it pretty damn clear they don't tolerate hate does seem to have scared the bigots into hiding (the one guy made this pathetic desperate effort to retake power by threatening to stop posting the animal pictures... that he's just pulling out of an image search, it was pretty funny), but... they're still there. The people they were threatening both broadly and as specific individuals still have to be careful not to share anything these scumbags can screencap and weaponize against them, and I'm sure at some time in the future when it's clear there's no mods awake they're going to pipe back up to do as much damage as they can in a blaze of glory if spying on all the queer people doesn't pay out for them, so while it is nice to see how just actively rejecting this sort of ideology can at least temporarily shut this crap down even without people in authority taking real action, I want to reiterate what responsibilities those in authority are neglecting here.
As a moderator of literally any sort of space, your basic duties are to keep things safe and to keep things civil. Those are two separate duties. Don't ever try and merge them together, and don't ever forget that safety must always take priority over civility.
If you see a situation where people are just getting randomly heated and angry over something inconsequential (happens a lot), yes, by all means, try to just deescalate things by stepping through just taking a stern tone, formal warnings, timeouts, 3 strike rules, temporary bans, etc. These are situations where we can hope that people who otherwise get along just let their emotions get out of hand and will hopefully shake hands and make up after having some time to cool off.
If on the other hand you see a situation where someone is threatening/antagonizing/intimidating someone else, especially in a case like this where the reason is transparently that the offender is a bigot who genuinely wishes harm or death on the target, there are no steps to escalate through. You remove the dangerous person from the community immediately, no exceptions, no warnings, no escalating response scale. That nazi posting crap about trans women in nooses, Jews in ovens, black people holding spears, women being raped etc. is not a friend having a rough day. There can be no reconcilliation no matter how much time you give. You just have a predator here to whittle your community down, and a vulnerable person who needs you to reassure them that they are safe in your community. The only option that should be on the table is the permanent zero appeals ban, and you should have no hesitation in deploying it.
Oh and here's the part where I remember that I am going to lose my home by the end of the year if I don't ask people to throw more money at me (this is a link). I hate doing this, but my other options for income went up in flames so completely I don't even know how to start to rebuild.
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linesonscreens · 5 months
Text
Let's Read Peanuts (Yes, all of it) - February 1953
There are lots of great strips I just don't have room to comment on. I strongly encourage everybody to read the full month at the official GoComics page. Today's month starts HERE.
Feb 5, 1953
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Today: “Last night on the internet I read an AI-generated Sonic The Hedgehog erotic fanfic with ten million views”
Feb 6, 1953
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I know that those are supposed to be weird thought balloons but it looks like Snoopy just talks now.
Feb 11, 1953
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Bah, what's this nonsense? Schroeder never complained!
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Feb 14, 1953
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First Valentine comic? Maybe?? I really should have made a list of things to look out for when I started. -_-'
Feb 17, 1953
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OK, so apparently “Ivanhoe” was a novel written in 1819 by Walter Scott. It's been adapted several times in various formats including an early 1940's comic book and a 1952 live action film.
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Film trailer here.
I'd link to the comic but ~for some reason~ nobody bothered to scan and upload a 80+ year old comic nobody's ever hear of onto the internet. Rude!
Feb 21, 1953
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Paperboy comics continue to be good.
Feb 27, 1953
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Time is a flat circle.
Thoughts:
Apparently the only way to read that Ivanhoe comic (that I've been able to find) is to buy a physical copy off of eBay somewhere and consume it the old-fashioned way. Which is kind of a shame, right? I mean, would it have been especially good or noteworthy? Probably not, but reading a few issues would have been a fun way to get a peek into Schulz's mind and get a feel for the comics he was influenced by.
This kind of thing actually bothers me quite a bit and it's a topic that's been on my mind a lot lately. Think about it like this. Ctrl+Alt+Del is not a particularly good webcomic, but think about how many loss.jpg references have been made in various forms of media over the last couple decades that would simply stop making sense if the original comic were to become inaccessible.
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All media is connected. Artists are constantly drawing inspiration from and commenting on works that came before and understanding these influences is a key part of decoding any given work. This is true not only for popular media that everybody agrees is good but also for the absolute garbage that may have been your favorite creator's guilty pleasure. It ALL matters, and it should ALL be available for anybody who's interested. Which is why it makes me irrationally angry when I'm reminded that access to older media can be such a huge crapshoot.
Anyways, I guess my call to action is to... upload more old comics? Sure let's go with that. Maybe support some of the groups archiving old stuff while you're at it. Art is cool, and we should be doing more to let people actually see it.
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jetgirl1832 · 5 months
Text
20 Questions More
This is a deeper and more detailed version of the 20 questions for AO3 fanfic writers. @nottawriter hit me with a tag, I have been attacked lol.
1) How do you keep getting ideas for your ship / fandom? A dash of shower thoughts, with a pinch of I watched a movie and couldn't help but think... Yes, that will work. They often feel like the come from nowhere.
2) Which authors inspire you in your fandom, and why are they so freakishly good? That's not fair how dare you ask me this!!!! Uhhh I'm mostly reading Supercorp stuff these days sooo... @jazzfordshire, @mycatismyeditor, @fazedlight, @innamorament0, @scribblingpunk, @fyonahmacnally to name a few. AAAAND my co-author and a vast array of things @tomatopudding! Why? Idk, I just get drawn a lot to these works and think they're lovely, and I love their depictions of these characters I love.... with @tomatopudding we just vibe very well, sharing the same five brain cells helps.
3) Aside from the characters of your main ship, who are the characters you love to write? If we're talking Supergirl... That's so hard, but I might have to say Brainy and Nia if really pressed... and Alex. I really enjoy Alex.
Otherwise, my other faves include all of the Les Amis from Les Miserables (if you know you know), specifically Courfeyrac and Marius and their hilarious dynamic. Other faves include Eliza Schuyler-Hamilton, Eponine Thenardier and... This could go on for a very long time, are you sure you have time?
4) Are there pairings or tropes you know for sure you’d never write about? Which ones? Not putting Kara and Lena together just makes me sad... So Supercorp ftw all the way, they are my top (I am a lot more amenable in other fandoms I've written for)
Tropes... I'm unlikely to do Omega-verse, I haven't done it and I can't see myself starting even if I sometimes read it.
5) What is your writing process and why is it cursed?
When I worked in retail I wrote on stupid little scraps and probably lost about 75% of them. Sometimes the method is hand writing, and then typing and making edits during that process as well. The handwritten can vary drastically from the typed draft lol.
I tend to fly by the seat of my pants unless someone is keeping me in line. I'm pretty darn chaotic.
I doubt myself a lot, so I always think whatever I write is garbage no matter how much proof there is that's not true. Also, sometimes I get burnt out, or my muse dies and then I feel terrible. Yay.
6) What is your favorite part of your writing process? Falling down rabbit holes, looking into fun topics. Likely ending up on a government watch list for the stuff I've searched up over the years
7) What’s the weirdest thing you’ve had to research for a fic? Uhhh.... hmm. I have no idea what the weirdest is lol. Cause it's on my mind, probably looking up what types of wood are easiest to chop, and why. (There is definitely weirder, but I don't remember right now).
8) Is there a particular writing rule you struggle with (grammar, spelling, tense, reality in general)? Commas. They hate me, and I hate them.
9) What was your hardest scene to write so far and why? Oof. Uhhh... This is so hard! Honestly there is a lot of stuff in my co-written very long series Hamilton Family Album that was *a lot* between research and feels.
Especially when you're co-author hits you with unexpected feels out of nowhere that you weren't anticipating (YOU KNOW WHAT YOU DID).
10) Have your characters ever done something you didn’t expect, changing your plot completely? Of course, they have. It happens all the time.
11) If you could converse with any of the characters, who would it be and why? Ohhh... Hands down Kara and Lena, I wish they could be my friends and we could hang out. Why? I think that they are absolutely incredible, wonderful and I could just sing their praises for ever.
12) What are some of the tropes or themes that you find yourself returning to in your writing? Oooo, I'm a sucker for fluffy romances, and I've been dabbling in smut recently. Other themes for me can be like found family is a really popular one for me.
Since I've written both a lot of Les Mis and Hamilton stuff (among other similar things) I've done a lot of "Modern AU's" as well, which are uhhh varied to say the least. If I can treat anything they way the treat most Shakespeare pieces these days I do it.
13) What’s your most important resource as a writer? Asking for help! Soundboarding with other writers, I love doing it. It helps me make sense of my ideas... Or decide they're maybe too out there (almost never lol)
14) Can you share some of your strategies for editing and revising your work? Reading it out loud, I have a hard time noticing errors otherwise. Asking someone you trust to look it over as well, take your time and double and triple check if you're unsure about something.
15) Which is worse: making the summary, picking the tags, or the anxiety when you post your fic? D. All of the Above
16) How do you define success for your fanfic - hits? Kudos? Comments? Bookmarks? Or just if you like it? I try to just write for myself, usually because I haven't seen something like it and think it should exist. I do really enjoy getting comments if only because I'm always curious to hear what readers think about my work.
17) Do you have a playlist for your favorite character / ship? I don't, and if I did it would be odd... I'm the most massive theater nerd. I do have songs that I think fit the vibes, and some shows I listen to have more apt things than others. Or if it's Les Mis it's the whole dang album lol.
Supercorp things if anyone is curious (and wondering how odd it could get): Mercury Rising from Lizzie, Come Home With Me, Anyway the Wind Blows, Wait for Me and Wedding Song from Hadestown, In A Crowd of Thousands from Anastasia, Origin of Love from Hedwig and the Angry Inch. Maybe I introduced you to something fun today.
18) If fan art was going to be made from your work, which fic would you pick and which fan artist would you like to create it? Oh dear... I don't know. The thing I'd love to see art for isn't up yet and I just think it would be fun but it will be called What Was I Made For... And we're gonna leave at that for now.
19) How many WIPs do you currently have? I'm finishing up You've Got New Followers (One chapter left!), I think three other WIP's (two more plotted than others) and my WIP for May-Hem... So five?
20) What’s your advice to new fanfic writers? Don't be afraid just because you've never done it before. That's why fanfic is amazing. You can do what you want and in reality no one can stop you, just make sure you're having fun.
My fics: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JetGirl1832/works?page=1
Tagging but no pressure: @tomatopudding and @innamorament0
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opinated-user · 1 year
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Lily, yet again, doubles down on her fucking transphobia. She said, yet again, that even though only women are allowed to be sith, trans men and nonbinary people are allowed to stay as long as they were "women before."
Does she not fucking understand that 1) that would be really uncomfortable and probably dyphoric for the nonbinary person or trans man to be in a space that is only for women, and 2) trans men are men, nonbinary people are not "woman lite."
If you're going to have a space for only women, then make it a space for only women. All that says to me is that she does not see people as the identity they are, she only sees them as what they were before.
it is transphobia, but this transphobia is based in pure gender essentialism. the only difference is that now the gender essentialism includes trans women and categorically erases transmasc/afab non binary people out of the equation, so it's still just the same garbage that terf spews every time they complain about trans people speaking with a different coat of fake progressive paint on top. this is extra insulting because do you know how many terf there are out there that will emphatically say that they don't exclude trans people because they make a space for trans men? using this same logic, that the fact trans men could share some traits makes terfs thinks that inherently they belong in the same side. literally reducing them to their anatomy as an inherent proof of goodness. LO's idea is also inherently contradictory. being a woman makes someone purer and more trustworthy, the right kind of people to handle the only authority on the entire galaxy, and being a woman is not tied to biology, so of course trans women can enter... except when they're not a woman but they still had the expected body at some point, then they also count because it turns out that womanhood is tied to biology after all? which is it then? it doesn't matter because this is inherently sexist. benevolent sexism (that which makes women look as inherently good and purer) is still another way to deshumanize a person. i don't use this word often, but this absolutely feels like fetishistic fuel.
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morallyinept · 4 months
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Hi Jett! Hope you are well. :) 
I just wanted to let you know that I really appreciate how inclusive your writing is. (tw: depression) As someone who has gained weight in the past two years because of my horrible depression, it is sometimes difficult to find fanfics that include all body types (I’m just now starting to get used to my current body and most days I still feel like absolute garbage, tbh). I stopped reading fics when my depression got bad and just recently returned to reading them again. I am so glad that there are writers like you on this platform who make all kinds of readers feel desirable and lovable.
I adore you and your writing so much! ❤️
Hey Lovely! 🖤
I'm not too shabby, ta. Hope you're doing good, bub. 🤘🏻
Aww thank you, I try to be as inclusive as I can because I believe fanfic is for everyone to enjoy, and I have plans to include more different reader types in the future too.
And you know what, I totally relate, Non. Hoo boy, do I feel ya. 🫣 I've not had such a good time lately myself with a back issue (oh the perks of ageing... I'm not an actor, and my back is killing me! 😩) that's caused me to gain some weight too, and it's hard to accept sometimes, isn't it? Our brain does this terrible thing of convincing us that we're unacceptable or undeserving of love and affection because we have a few more inches of skin, or our butts and tums are a little wobblier... I don't know whether it's through the media or this self imposed expectation on how we "think we should look" on the outside, but I know for a fact you're beautiful, just as you are.
And I know, I know; that's easy for me to say, right? But honestly, I can tell that about you from the fact you took the time to write me something as lovely, honest and kind as your message. And that my friend, comes from an utterly beautiful place.
Try not to be so hard on yourself, bub. You're doing great, even if you don't think you are or have been. You're amazing. And I'm really happy you're able to enjoy reading again, and that I can contribute to that in some small way. 😊 I really appreciate that, more than you could ever know. 🖤
And you're deffo desirable and lovable. Make no mistake about that. 🥰
Love you so much! 🖤
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simmonsized · 10 months
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Idk about other people but I’m always a slut for that old man and I think you got amazing taste so pls rec anything you like anywhere
I think you will find that my taste is actually kind of garbage but like, in a fun way that makes you go "wow really???" rather than being so embarrassed for me that you can never look at me again. of course that would be fine too haha you know, don't yuck my yum etc but I will try to put together my unfuckable old man rec list right here, right now, and we can all just live with that
(mostly because titling a post makes me cringe it's too much attention, and I'm a stereotype)
These come from a section of my actual Fic Rec List, which is massive (by my standards), lives in a googly doc, and is much more embarrassing. this list generally won't include any ship stuff and if it does, i will say so. mind any and all tags.
This section is titled: The Redemption Narrative (lol)
1. Empty Nester - egomaniac (THE WHOLE REASON I MADE A NEW LIST. BRO AND NANNA!!!!!!!!!!!! also bro/grandpa, aka “he fucks that old man”, but not the most important part to me, because as good and tragic and hurtful as their relationship is in this fic, it is dwarfed, to me, by the kindness shared between Nanna and Bro, which once again, to me, is the Crown Jewel of the whole story. PLEASE read this please if u have time A++ endorsement)
2. dualshock desertbloom (the whole fucking series. i hardly need to say why, you should just know by now. i call dd dirkfic, because it is The Dirkfic, u know??)- geometrician (🔶)
3. sun’s angle - dellaluce (they can orphan it all they want but i never forget. very old, but never GETS old, u feel)
4. Hexadyne Meetings - Saesama (the rarity of bro and nanna fics could absolutely destroy me but i really like the interactions between all of the guardians in this one)
5. Flop, Flutter - cthchewy (technicality, big nasty soulless bro yikes sorry)
6. The Estrangement Thing - NoBrandHero (there’s a theme here listen to me don’t be doubtful it’s worth the trouble, there is brojohn in there, which is not my thing at all, but it is NOT relevant to what i like about this fic, and i think if u read it, u will realize that immediately lol (*i am not including second best even though that fic is literally my favorite ds fic ever because it is NOT bro centric))
7. cold front off the pacific - drow_sy (i actually read this bc geometrician bookmarked it lol but it punches down on u and i like that)
8. insect clockwork - SORD (aka, if it was written pre-2013, i’ve read it)
9. Flashing Lights and Raisins - RadioMoth (the strider manpain tag exists for a reason)
10. Hide - Plajus (OG post-sburb type shit. we love to see it)
11. Blackout - lantadyme (bro strider sick fic. Wrow. old shit. I don’t even know how i have held onto these for this many years.)
Things that don't quite fit into the category necessarily but It's MY List Not Yours:
12. signs at sundown - geometrician (I don't need to say it, do I? I think we understand, I do think that. Imagine being canon together with you favorite author. Imagine it. Wow.)
13. No Homo - Laurasauras (bro/dennis. yes, dennis from gamebro. yes, it's good i've said it before i'll say it again. i'm into it, i think you should be too.)
14. flash - problemsloth (this shit is just. absolute chef's kiss to me. i don't know how else to explain it. young bro. he's perfect, and perfectly dreadful)
15. play ball! - spacepuck (this is a johndave fic but it has this very stressful atmosphere around bro and dave that kinda fucks me up and also, delights me beyond reason. it tastes like summer to me. sandlot lookin ass. an old favorite)
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jamiesfootball · 1 month
Text
Tagged by @jamietarttsnorthernattitude and @asteria-argo
1. How many works do you have on AO3?
8
2. What's your total AO3 word count?
191,977
3. What fandoms do you write for?
Ted Lasso is the main one right now
4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?
A German, a Russian, and an American Walk into a Bar (The Man From U.N.C.L.E. (2015))
oh god, you're gonna get it (you have not been given love) (Ted Lasso (TV))
The Garrison Reserve (The Musketeers (2014))
The Dick String Incident (Ted Lasso (TV))
somebody's hands who felt like mine (Ted Lasso (TV))
5. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?
Yes, though I am woefully behind
6. What's the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?
It's a toss up between right next to the heart of me and somebody's hands who felt like mine. I think the first one is technically the sharper angst, but it at least has a sequel in the works to make things a little better. The second one is a softer whump, but open-ended and with no follow up planned.
7. What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?
In terms of fics that have actually ended, A German, a Russian, and an American Walk into a Bar wins by a mile
8. Do you get hate on fics?
Not yet???
9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind?
Yes. Whatever kind. If I am feeling inspired by a thought, I'm gonna write it.
10. Do you write crossovers? What's the craziest one you've written?
I've written AUs but no straight-up crossovers yet, though I've lazily batted a few around in a sort of 'what if x met y' sort of way
11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?
Not to my knowledge
12. Have you ever had a fic translated?
No
13. Have you ever co-written a fic before?
Yes, A German, a Russian, and an American Walk into a Bar and The Garrison Reserve were both co-written
14. What's your all-time favourite ship?
Right now it's Jamie/Whump
15. What's a WIP you want to finish, but doubt you ever will?
It's not that I won't finish The Garrison Reserve (literally the last chapter is half written), but finishing it is going to mean a rewatch because I have straight up forgotten half the side characters' names
16. What are your writing strengths?
Maybe descriptions? Also my willingness to try to tell a joke
17. What are your writing weaknesses?
This is one I try very very hard to edit out, but I am literally the worst at writing my thoughts down out-of-order or forgetting to finish a thought entirely. Oh, and dialogue. It either comes naturally or I am forging that garbage with a hammer.
18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language for a fic?
I think there is a time for using another language in-text and a time when simply implying the other language or leaning on the perspective of a character who doesn't speak the other language is the correct decision.
That said I am currently writing a story about Dani and Jamie which involves some Spanish dialogue, but I feel fairly good about it because 1) when in doubt, I can (and do) just quote my mom, 2) if it sounds too simplified / non-colloquial I can always make the excuse that Dani, like my mom, doesn't want to confuse Jamie while he's learning, 3) any mistake I make could easily be a mistake that Jamie would make anyways. Wins all around!
Somewhat related, there was an absolutely fantastic Sherlock (BBC) fic back in the day (which was sadly removed from AO3) told from John's point of view where Sherlock decided he would go about his day in Italian. It included Italian dialogue that you could hover over for the translation, but the thrust of the fic was John playing along with his best guess of what was being said. The result was a fic that concurrently told two entwined stories by emphasizing two different povs by giving the audience the choice to ignore one in favor of experiences the other one first with no subtitles. It was very cool.
19. First fandom you wrote for?
a two-page handwritten DBZ fanfic when I was 11.
20. Favourite fic you've ever written?
oh god, you're gonna get it (you have not been given love)
tagging: @sighonaraa and @altschmerzes because I've not seen either of you yet
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zyrafowe-sny · 9 months
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What should you do if you feel like loser and absolute waste of space and garbage in the writing community? Like everyone hate you (all the talented well known people at least), your ideas suck, you'll never be popular or get request or anything like that and you'll never have the same amount of friends or support or love as others because you're stupid and annoying and your writing suck and everyone hate you and nothing you do matter? Like you'll never be successful or reach mile stone no matter how much you try like you had opportunity to but you screw it up because you stupid and annoying and dumb and now it's too late?
Hi Anon,
I don't really feel qualified to respond, but I'm going to give it a go anyway and hope that any of this is helpful.
The "writing community" is anyone who wants to try their hand at writing. It includes both the second grader putting together a handmade book during rainy day recess and the award-winning, bestselling professional author. There's no cap to the number of writers. There's no such thing as a waste of space.
"Hate" seems like an awfully strong word. I know it's frustrating when fics don't get the engagement that you want - and don't get attention from people you admire - but sometimes fics have a niche audience and sometimes people are busy. Personally, I've had stretches when I just can't read much at all or only very specific things (like stuff under 3k and nothing too intellectual). Reasons include: life being busy, general executive dysfunction, (rare) stretches when I am super-focused on writing, not wanting to read things too similar to what I'm working on, etc. For several months I just felt overwhelmed by the thought of leaving thoughtful comments and that tricked me into just not reading at all (don't be like me).
Popularity is... complicated. "Success" is complicated. If you're just looking at kudos... a not insignificant chunk is being in the right fandom at the right time (while also writing what lots of people are interested in). Here's a good overview about writing for kudos and how that doesn't relate to quality. You can have super-interesting ideas, but sometimes those ideas have a small audience (and that's ok if that's the story that speaks to you!). Honestly, I think all writers need to write at least one super-niche fic to readjust expectations about AO3 stats.
As for requests... Not all writers like getting them and not all readers like making requests? If I see that someone shared a prompt list ask game post, I'll send an ask, but that's usually it.
As for getting support... sometimes it can come from outside your fandom and from Internet strangers (or real life people in writing groups). I've been trying out this WIP Wednesday game because I wanted some encouragement to make progress, and a good chunk of people who nudge me to write don't follow me and won't ever read the final fic.
As for writing quality... That's also complicated. For one, people have different tastes (my eyes start to glaze over during long fight scenes or long descriptions, but other people eat that up). There are seemingly more-objective criteria (spelling, grammar, etc), BUT: people's knowledge of "the rules" isn't static and can be improved, sometimes it's fine to ignore "the rules" for style, lots of non-native English speakers write fanfic and that can lead to some charming (if less standard) writing, and one of the joys of fanfic is that it doesn't have to follow the norms of published fiction. If there is something that you want to work on in your own writing (for example, description and plot don't come easily to me), there are ways to practice. But only if you want to. Only if it's part of the fun. (Fun doesn't always mean easy.)
As for milestones... I don't know what milestones you're going for, but word count is the one most in your control. Getting that up isn't trivial, but the important thing is to keep chugging along.
I *know* it's hard not to obsess over AO3 stats or compare yourself to other people. I *know*. But try to remember that it's not a race or a competition. Writing is supposed to be fun (as much as writers like to complain about it sometimes). It's fine to want validation and encouragement, but stressing too much about the numbers/how much engagement you're getting can suck all the fun out of the process.
And it's never, ever too late. I took a loooong break from creative writing and sometimes I regret that, but I had other life experiences during that hiatus that help inform my writing now. We write when we have stories to tell and the life circumstances that let the words come out.
I don't know if any of my rambling was useful, but I wish you all the best, Anon. Take care and be kind to yourself. No one else can tell the same story that you can.
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