#I really love how you’ve censored every name haha | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

azems-familiar · 3 years

Note

hello! are there any songs you associate with any of the kotor characters? (totally not asking bc my brain is hungry for animatic ideas haha,,)

OH BOY DO I HAVE SONGS

first things first, i will direct you to my twelve hour Revan playlist that i use for writing vibes, it's a mixture of vocal and instrumental and it has both a bunch of Revan songs for different eras of Revan, plus revalek songs, plus some revastila songs, plus some songs that just vibe.... it's good and most of the songs i'm about to highlight, if not all of them, are on there already.

NOW. HERE WE GO.

first things first, i need to introduce you to the title song for my mandalorian wars fic, oblivion by the aviators! god, this song doesn't fit all Revans perfectly, but it fits mine so well it was like it'd been written for her specifically, i swear. listening to the song was what inspired me to write the fic to begin with (and now i have a whole series oops). i mean, come on, look at the chorus:

Let the broken heroes rise Let the victors take their prize No one wins when justice dies War has let this age begin It's where we've gone and where they've been What a state that we're in Here in oblivion

can't look at that and tell me that isn't Jedi Knight Revan and the war that broke them.

next up!! liar by the arcadian wild, my beloved. this song is currently my top all time on spotify, closely followed by the song i'm going to rec after it and then achilles come down - and the fact that anything unseated achilles for the top spot should tell you something. (and if you don't know what achilles come down is look it up that one's on my playlist too.) this is a really good one for Revan's slow fall down, the corruption arc - again, all of the songs i'm mentioning really fit my own versions of the characters best, but they're just good in general. some of the lyrics i enjoy from this one:

hnext up, we have it all by pim stones. this particular one feels very revalek to me, early in the Sith years when they still maybe had good intentions, maybe after the war but before becoming Darth. there's this softer, almost desperate tone to the way the singer sings it that just hits me hard - this is the song i'm using as the title for my Sith years interlude fic! a lyric snippet:

All my life I've been heading for hell But never had I thought I'd drag you down as well I just couldn't resist what he was trying to sell

There's glory ahead but our love will be forgotten If my heart was still mine I would go to the bottom And apologise to you until the day it went rotten

next up we have the balancer's eye by lord huron, which is the song i named my series after (have you noticed a trend yet?). it's a very Revan vibe in general, and while i'm not as much of a fan of the style, the lyrics are really excellent!

Nothing's waiting for us in the great sky Life is equal to dust in the balancer's eye Now I know that I can't lift an old curse Tell me, how does a man change the universe?

Will I ever be forgiven for the crime of my life? Will it haunt me 'til I die?

mmm let's see what next. OH! go to war by nothing more. this is just straight up a Sith years song for revalek, whether you ship them or not - they were important to each other either way! ..... i am not going to tangent into yelling about revalek. that is not what this is for. anyway, the song itself is a) a banger and b) talking about love corrupting and falling apart and it just. it hits, man

Do we censor? Do we flow? Are we drunk on the chemicals? Every feeling in my bones Tells me to lash out and tell you to fuck off You've got my heart and I've got your soul But are we better off alone? With every battle we lose a little more Remember everything that we'd die for You are everything that I'd die for

oooh NEXT we have the song i was going to use for my Jaw Scene before i decided to write a full sith years fic. saints by echos is the song, and again, we've got Sith years Revan and Malak here (yes yes i have a type), the vibes of losing faith and anger and it blends really well with how Revan basically played off being a legendary figure to the Republic to fuel their war against it!

You were standing there like an angry god Counting out my sins just to cross them off Saying that my tongue was too loud to trust And that my blood couldn't keep you

My dear, you're not so innocent You're fooling Heaven's gates So you won't have to change You're no saint, you're no savior

mmmm okay the discord has informed me that ten (10) songs is the maximum i should do in one post so. i will only do four more. chrysalis - the last breath by delain is yet another Sith Revan and Malak song and honestly you can read it as a response to the song above, if you think of saints from Malak's pov and chrysalis from Revan's, they mesh really well together.

Hey, are you still mad? About the time We almost went too far I know your regrets In my defense; By now, it's just a scar That distracts you from Your broken heart Like you wanted it to do How do you feel? I don't... How do you know? You won't... To let go of you I will try Until my last breath How do you feel? I don't... How do you know? You won't... To let go I promise I will fight

next! for a complete change of pace, i have a revastila song for you - warrior by beth crowley. it somehow manages to capture exactly the dynamic i think of in my head when i think about Bastila, the uncertainty, the forbiddeness of it, but the way Revan ultimately strengthens her and she strengthens Revan

You fascinated me Cloaked in shadows and secrecy The beauty of a broken angel

I ventured carefully Afraid of what you thought I'd be But pretty soon, I was entangled

You take me by the hand I question who I am

uhhhhhh i am desperately trying to think of songs that aren't just about Revan but instead here i am with another Mandalorian Wars Revan song, what did we know by rachel rose mitchell! this song was introduced to me by the same friend who sent me oblivion, and it really captures the fall of the Mandalorian wars incredibly well imo - the way it started with righteousness but ended in pain (compassion leading to destruction and that's a ramble i'm not going on here either), and there's this line in there that i'm not including in my snippet that's what scares me more than anything / if we could choose the past / we'd probably choose the same and it's like. yes! that's it! i'm going to once again go insane over the scene in the Korriban tomb in kotor 2!!! knowing the price.... would you choose to do it all again........ aaaaaaaa

It's been so long since we began. It seems so long ago That in the name of loyalty We started on our own. Answering the call of a house we once called home, We knew that we were right. What did we know?

We swore that we understood this wasn't a game, But somehow we found ourselves fanning the flames. Those who cautioned and abandoned us, they were the same. I saw them turn away.

the final song i'm doing is the song i used when i wrote the Betrayal scene from Malak's pov, the little things give you away by linkin park. this one just. it vibes, it vibes hard, goes really into the actual grief of betrayal, and also has a super epic instrumental solo so there's that. as usual, lyric snippet:

Don't want to reach for me, do you? I mean nothing to you The little things give you away But now there will be no mistaking The levees are breaking

All you've ever wanted Was someone to truly look up to you And six feet under water, I do

All you've ever wanted Was someone to truly look up to you And six feet underground now I Now I do

god okay now that you're completely overwhelmed and never want to talk to me again....... i should've probably put this under a readmore but eh. thanks for the ask!

#asked and answered #my revan playlist #there is literally so much music on here #i make up animatics in my head so #you sent this ask in and i sent it to the discord like #what's up i'm about to overwhelm this poor person who just started following me #please don't regret interacting with me #oh i should probably tag this as #long post

8 notes · View notes

rendezvous-ramblings · 3 years

Note

Hi!! I hope that i'm not bothering you in any way, but i really need some advice from someone. Okay, so i have a crush on my 29-year-old physics teacher!! Quick description: he has curly hair and literally everybody LOVES him, he has been my teacher for 2 years. During this year i got to know him better and by that i mean we text on a regular basis, we talk about astrology, harry styles and taylor swift. i know the birthdate of his parents, and he knows the birthdate of mine, he learned the names of all of my cats and tells me in detail what i was doing when we had our first lesson together two years ago. basically, we tell each other almost everything. and we even held hands for a short amount of time.so when i tell you that i am close to this man i mean it HAHAHA. now we come to the shitty part, he has a girlfriend. (i wish both of them the best and i'm seriously very happy for him) but now i'm doubting everything. think of the song “you belong with me” by taylor swift like we both know so much about the other person and now i'm supposed to think that those things we share are normal and that it happens in every teacher student relationship? obviously, i'm not saying he has to be in love with me!!! but i need another point of view so long story short i want to know if you think that there is something teeny-tiny going on between us? maybe not romantically but like do you think he likes me or sees me as a friend? (i'm really sorry for the long message, i just haven’t been able to talk to anybody about this) (oh and a short FYI i'm from Europe, and we have school till July so i still see him every Monday) (oh and all of these things happen either during lunch break or after school cause i always talk to him and another physics teacher!!) thank you so much for taking your time and reading all of this nonsense<33

Hi,

No need to apologize this is what my ask box is for!

Okay, I hope you don't take any of this the wrong way because I am forming my opinion of the situation based on what you've briefly told me and I just want to look out for you. I think you should tread carefully with your tc in terms of the physical boundaries. I'm not sure if there's differences in terms of social acceptability or culture, but in the U.S. unless you're very young (e.g. help crossing the street on trips) there's not really an appropriate context where you would hold hands with a teacher. Of course the casual handshake, high five, or hug (during celebrations or milestones) are okay. I suppose it also really depends on your school culture as well though I would tread carefully as rumors can start with even the slightest of moments placed out of context.

I've also said before in other asks that when you're still a student to your tc it is definitely possible to form a friendship within the school/extracurricular setting, however, you can't really truly form a more mature friendship until post-graduation (that's still quite rare). Teachers frequently have to censor parts of their private life to balance their professional teaching persona. I think it's nice that your teacher has things in common that he could talk to you about and they're not very common topics for a guy to be up to speed on, haha. Again, everything is still very much restricted because of the age gap and the need to maintain professionalism. So, I would say yes you do have a friendship with your tc though I would be careful not to idealize your friendship to the extent where you feel like you know everything there is to know about him and vice versa. I'm sure there's probably things about yourself that you wouldn't share with him because of boundaries.

The two things that sort of flagged my attention was how you mentioned you both were texting more this year and how he somehow recalls everything you were doing during your first lesson together. I would try not to contact him unless it is strictly school/extracurricular related. I've never had a teacher's number as a contact unless it was for a trip and that was only reserved for emergencies. All the schools I've been to it is frowned upon to have contact with a teacher unless it is through a school email or some kind of platform maintained by the school. By conversing with him too often you might lose sight of the boundaries and vice versa. In terms of him recalling things you were doing during the first lesson I hope that's just attributed to his sharp memory and not for any untoward reasons? E cannot for the life of him recall much from when I was his student over five years ago. I hate to generalize but most men don't really pay meticulous attention to small details and overanalyze like we would.

My overall advice would be to remain mindful of boundaries and try to keep your feelings in check. After I kept my feelings in check with E it really helped our professional friendship. I was no longer overanalyzing our conversations or the moments that we shared. I was just able to appreciate them as they were. It definitely took a lot of self-control and reasoning with myself internally to calm down. I know how overwhelming crushes can get.

If you get the vibe that he likes you as a student and have a friendly relationship then that's likely what you have. Do be wary if you feel like your tc is inappropriately coming on to you (a proper teacher should never cross that line). I'd never encourage someone to hope for more while they're still a student or even right after graduation (like I said, you really need the boundaries/authority dynamic to disappear first). I essentially almost had to 'get to know' E all over again and some of the ideals I had of him did shatter, haha (nothing intolerable of course!).

6 notes · View notes

melforbes · 3 years

Text

seaglass blue annotations

hello! i just posted the last chapter and thought i’d put together some ~fun context~ for that fic. it got way way more attention than i ever expected and for something i feel i didn’t put that much effort into i think i did in the end put a lot of effort into it so i might as well talk about it and answer some potential questions.

my favorite book of all time is the sunlit night by rebecca dinerstein (yes, that one) and something i find really compelling about that book is how sparing the prose is, forcing the reader to fill in certain gaps, and i think having to fill in those gaps makes the book a really acquired taste with which either you love it or hate it and there’s not really an in-between

i also really adore how in that book the natural world backdrop comes to life, something i find really challenging to write. recently i even read into thin air, the book about the 1996 mount everest disaster, and even though the writing was superb, i still had to google what the hillary step was because i couldn’t picture it on my own. i don’t know how people write nature because to me it feels damn near impossible, but this sparing approach really worked, so i thought i might try it out. i tend to be longwinded (gestures vaguely at this post) and wanted to have certain parts of this be a lot smaller and more contained without negating impact. whether or not i made it work is anyone’s guess. definitely not my normal style, so to speak

based on the comments i’ve received i think this might be everyone’s favorite part. in my mind age of consent by new order was playing in the background. in pretty much every fic i have a scene like this one and all of them are based on the poem first base gold by rh*annon mcg*vin from her book branches (censored because she has a tumblr and i don’t want her seeing this haha)

i absolutely can’t do the poem justice by describing what it’s about, but the simplest, most basic interpretation of the poem is that there is no better place to kiss than right here, right now, because of the past. i really like that imagery and tend to use it a lot. she as a writer has been a big inspiration for me and if you’ve read my fic true minds i should add that the nonfiction inspiration for that was directly as a result of one of her youtube videos. i particularly love how the last paragraph (stanza? im not a poet) is one big run-on sentence that’s jovial and tongue-in-cheek and colloquial and straightforward. it feels triumphant in a quiet way to me and i love how it’s done. obviously my attempts at something similar are nowhere near as insightful, but still, the most basic image of this is that there is no better place to kiss, and that’s how i felt about the two of them finding pudding in the supermarket

this part is autobiographical; while writing this last year, i went through six months of intravenous drug treatment, a month and a half of which involved long days of doctor visits on every weekday. when you’re on stuff like that for a long time you end up with a central line for better access (potential plot hole in all of this: scully never had one) but for a month and a half i got poked almost every day and strangely enough it got harder over time. the first couple you never feel, but a week or two later you start flinching, and if the needle goes in the same vein each time, it hurts the more it gets prodded. i reached a point toward the end of the in-office visits in which i would bleed a lot every time i got poked, and i can’t watch anything like that happen to me so i was looking away each time, and when i felt that the nurse was done, i would look back over, and sometimes i would be looking down at a pool of blood that i hadn’t expected to see. it’s weird, you don’t actually feel yourself bleeding, i would’ve expected a hot bloody feeling but instead it felt like nothing. and when i say a pool i mean that it would drip down beneath my elbow, stain the sheet they’d put underneath, and i wouldn’t get all of it off until i showered. i didn’t necessarily find it scary, but it was surreal and kind of pulled me out of normalizing the experience i was having. for a very long time needing iv drugs was my greatest fear and i was surrounded by that then and fine, and then, there was blood all over my arm, and like, haha, this is actually not fine. you’d think something else would’ve been scarier, but it wasn’t. and now looking back at this paragraph i wish i’d edited it differently but hey that’s life

i’d never really understood the purpose of religion as a self-driven part of life until i took anatomy in college. i was raised catholic and though culturally i understand having a religion and being raised with one, i’ve never really reached for religion when i wanted answers, and i haven’t personally understood why that’s someone’s first option. and i know there’s been plenty of commentary on the hypocrisy of dana scully as a catholic who believes in science, yada yada yada, i think everyone has read all of that by now. but what struck me while learning anatomy is that there is a kind of neuron we don’t know the function of. there are four kinds of neurons, and one of them is still a mystery to us. and then, there’s all of these different parts of human bodies that exist in a certain perfect way, but why do they exist like that? to support life, yes, but why is it that we can make comparisons? why were irises not the same color? and we name valves of the heart after religious figures. we are so hell-bent on meaning that something literal will never be enough. and all of that made me think that dana scully has god to fill in what science won’t answer, at least not yet. and there’s definitely a bigger conversation about science as denial of indigenous cultures that i am nowhere near qualified to start. after taking those classes, i think i would be more shocked if she wasn’t religious. you can ignore pretty much all of the paragraph above but it was important to me that at some point in this fic she willingly conceded that she didn’t know what would happen and that she didn’t have answers. with illness, there is no logic, there’s no thinking your way out of it, and i think that would plague her for a long time. to me, she only would accept her death when she could say she had no idea what would happen, she has no answers, there’s nothing filling in her gaps anymore, and she’s comfortable with that. and i put all of that in a paragraph about my thoughts on god because it made sense to me. there are times that just feel like you’re in a movie and there’s no one else you can say caused them. it’s not enough to build belief on but it’s enough to bring a certain kind of wonder. also one time my parents insisted on watching stripes because it was so funny and when watching it none of us found it funny at all and my parents grimaced and were like what were we on that made that good back in the day so that’s in here now haha

and now, the biggest question: does she die at the end? when i came up with the idea for this fic, i knew the beginning and ending but not the middle, and i posted this as a smaller project (ie: chapters below 3,000 words) while illness made my bigger projects harder to work on and essentially flew by the seat of my pants the whole time. i wrote the last line a long long time ago and have always seen the ending as written as the concrete ending. when i started writing this, i never intended for there to be a definitive answer to whether or not she dies. i like premature endings (the ending of girls burn brighter comes to mind) and i think that this works better without saying whether or not she lives. and i also have a hard time with giving a definitive answer because this fic very much is about death and having her die would, of course, be traumatic, but showing her living instead i think ruins any takeaways people could have. i’ve never had cancer but as a chronically ill person i think i can speak to how you never actually win with illness; the best you can do is tie, and sometimes, no matter how much effort you put in, you “lose” anyway, you lose spectacularly, and all of your effort was for nothing. i wholeheartedly believe that humans can’t emotionally or logically process natural disasters or illness, hence why much of the talk about illness in this is from mulder’s perspective as he experiences her terminal illness secondhand; that way, he doesn’t need to (but still likely will) find logic or reason or meaning for death from a terminal illness, so his discoveries and his coping mechanisms aren’t as urgently needed. had i written a chapter that describes how she lives, i think that the discussion of death in this would be voided altogether. and i also don’t believe the ending would be much different whether she lives or dies; there’s still the need for death acceptance and talking about dying, whether or not she lives, and none of the story in this fic would have happened had the characters known she would live. the whole point is not knowing.

for a little while i toyed with writing an unofficial sequel of sorts in which i spelled out what i think happens after the ending, but after realizing that that would end up being longer than the original fic and would also have some massive plot holes, i decided against it. i do have my own version and i don’t want to share that version because i never really intended for my version to be some kind of genuine sequel in which every question gets answered and everything is wrapped up and happy ever after and whatnot. it was just where my brain wandered in the same way it wanders when i watch an open-ended movie. all of that to say, if you think she lives, then she lives. if you think she dies, then she dies. it’s your decision. i’d much rather you choose than me. i never marked this as “major character” death on ao3 because, well, she doesn’t die in this fic. whether or not she dies after the fic ends, that’s for you to decide.

thank you for taking the time to read my writing. i never expected this to blow up (it blew up for me at least, for a while it was my most popular fic ever, with i think thousands more hits than anything else i’d written) and the response has been mind-boggling and wonderful. i don’t respond to comments often because it makes me feel like a pompous jerk (”thank you for enjoying this! i, too, enjoy this thing i have written! oh ho ho!” is how it sounds to me in my head, whereas when other writers respond to comments to me it just looks like thanks man have a good day, feel free to call me a weenie) but i’ve appreciated all of them very much. THANK YOU! i hope your new year is a Whole Lot Less Shit than 2020. i don’t plan on writing more msr because i don’t really have any ideas for them. thank you for making my last time special <3

20 notes · View notes

shinsorokiri · 4 years

Text

UA Idol | Chapter Two

Hitoshi Shinsou x Reader

Word Count: 1,539

Warnings: Language, big anxiety, hint at being used

A/N: I am so sorry I forgot to upload last week! It was my birthday last Saturday and... I had a good time haha. But here is chapter two! Okay, so the “original songs” aren’t actually originals, and I put the lyrics in the actual writing because I know that sometimes people can’t listen to the songs recommended for a fic, so yeah. The songs are “Seventeen (Reprise)” by Troye Sivan and “The District Sleeps Alone Tonight” by Birdy. If you wanted to listen while reading, that would be cool, but it’s not required! Either way I hope you enjoy!

UA Idol Masterlist

───────────────────────────────────

“Oh well aren’t you just the cutest little thing!”

“Midnight, please stop calling every single contestant cute.”

“Why don’t you beg me to Aizawa.”

“No.”

“I gotta agree with her on this one, Aizawa. She’s cute.”

“Hawks, could you at least try to be professional.”

“Ha! Funny! Hi there, chickadee!” Hawks winks, and you grin. “Hello.”

“Alright, so give us the run-down of everything, you know name, reason you’re here, all that. I’m sure you’re tired of being asked, but it would be nice if we knew,” Toshinori says, giving you a wide grin. He seems like the most levelheaded out of all of them, but you know just how goofy he can get. Especially when he’s egged on by Midnight and Hawks. “Ah, I’m (F/n) (L/n), I’m here because well, my roommate Mina talked me into it.”

“The girl we just saw?” “Yeah, she didn’t want to audition alone and she knows that I write songs, so she pushed me to audition, mostly because I’ve been kind of out of the music scene for a hot minute because my ex-boyfriend didn’t like that I did it, so this is like diving right back into. Headfirst. Without taking any diving classes,” you say, and Midnight cocks her head to the side. “Ex-boyfriend? Didn’t like that you did music? Why?”

“He said it was childish and that I need to get a job that will actually provide for me, and since he was older than me, he thought he knew everything. And that’s how I ended up working at some boring ass retail job. Oh, sorry I just swore,” you say, covering your mouth with one hand, eyes wide. Luckily, they all (except for Aizawa, no one knows if he actually smiles since he’s never… done it) chuckle at your reaction. “Don’t worry, they can censor it in post-production,” Midnight says as she leans back in her chair. “I see you brought your own guitar, too! how wonderful! I can’t wait to hear what you’ll be singing for us!” Nori says, still smiling at you, and you feel your nerves slip away. Even though they’re literally legends, they’re actually nice. Wild.

“Speaking of, darling, what will you be singing for us?” Midnight asks and you bite your lip. “Well, actually I have an original that I wrote,” you say, and their interests are visibly all piqued by that. “What’s it called?”

“Seventeen.”

“Alright! Whenever you’re ready!”

You give them a small smile before beginning to strum your instrument, quickly changing between chords. You had a longer version to this song, but you were supposed to cut down the song you were auditioning with to a smaller portion. This was the original poem that you wrote and transformed into a song, so you decided to turn that into your audition. Maybe if you get through, you’ll be able to perform the full song.

“I got these beliefs that I think you wanna break,

Got something here to lose that I think you wanna take from me.

You tell me I’m asleep but I wanna be awake,

Got something here to lose that I know you wanna take.

And he said age is just a number, just like any other,

We can do whatever, do whatever you want.

Girl becomes woman now, can’t tell a man to slow down,

He’ll just do whatever do whatever he wants.

Here he comes,

Like he just walked out of a dream

Doesn’t care you’re seventeen

Or maybe he forgot what it means?

Oh, but here he comes.

Here he comes.”

Your playing is flawless, and your voice is on its A-Game today. You finish up the song, finally looking at the judges who are all just... staring at you? Intensely? Is… that bad…? Suddenly, Midnight speaks. “Do you play piano, too?”

“Uh, yeah. Not as well as guitar, but I’m okay at it...”

“Give us another song.”

“What?!”

“(Y/n), no songwriter who writes something like that only has one song. You definitely have another one,” Aizawa says, and you shrug, scratching the back of your neck. “I may have another one...”

“Please, play it for us!” Nori insists, enthusiastically banging on the table like your drunk friend who sees your waiter bringing their food. Ah. There’s the Toshinori Yagi everyone knows and loves. “If you insist,” you say, nervous, but excited to have the opportunity to perform another one of your songs. “What’s this one called?” Aizawa asks as you hand your guitar to a crew member, making your way over to the piano. “Uh… it’s called The District Sleeps Alone Tonight.”

“Interesting name,” Midnight says, grinning at you. “I’m warning you my piano skills are rusty, so this may be really bad,” you tell them, earning a chuckle from Hawks, Nori, and Midnight before you start to play a second song. You play the opening, beginning to sing.

“Smeared black ink.

Your face is ashen, and I'm barely listening,

To last demands.

I'm staring at the asphalt wondering,

What's buried underneath.

Where I am?

Where I am.

I'll wear my badge.

A vinyl sticker with big block letters adherent to my chest.

Tells your new friends,

I am a visitor here,

I am not permanent.

And the only thing,

Keeping me dry is.

Where I am; in this gaudy apartment complex,

Explaining that I am just visiting.

And I am finally seeing,

Why I was the one worth leaving.

D.C. sleeps alone tonight.

In this gaudy apartment complex,

Explaining that I am just visiting.

And I am finally seeing, why I was the one worth leaving.”

All of your songs are sad, but I mean. You’ve been through some shit. Of course, they’re going to be sad. You literally can’t think of the last time you wrote an actual happy love song. You’re always writing, but love is just a foreign concept to you at this point. At least the good parts of love. You were far too familiar with bad parts. You shorten this one as well, cutting it off smoothly. You didn’t play the piano half bad, which was a relief. You stand back up walking to where you were before taking your place at the piano, retrieving your guitar from the crew member. “Were those by chance both about this ex that you mentioned?” Hawks asks, and you nod. “Yeah, he gave me… quite the material to write about,” you say with a small laugh. Before you know it, Midnight has engulfed you in a hug. Damn, she smells good. Since you’re holding your guitar, you only use one arm to hug her back. How did you end up in this position? You never thought the Midnight would ever hug you. Honestly, one of the best feelings. Ever. She smiles at you, squeezing your shoulder before going back to her seat. Oh yeah, I guess both of those songs did kind of confirm some… not so good things about him. Well that makes sense now. “Well, chickadee, I don’t think I can actually judge you. You’re a better songwriter than I’ll ever be.”

“I’m sorry, what did you just say?”

“It hurts me to say it, it really does. But I’m being one hundred percent genuine with you.”

“Did you know you’re actually the first person to ever get his prideful ass to admit that he wasn’t as good at something as someone?” Aizawa says, and you just give a small smile. First, they ask you to sing another one of your original songs, and then Keigo Takami tells you you’re a better songwriter than him? This is all way too much. You expected them to like, maybe say your songs were okay but here you are, receiving extreme compliments. From your literal idols. You’re fine. It’s fine. This is cool. This is normal. “Seriously, though. Your song writing skills are on par with all of ours, if not even better. And your voice is one of the best we’ve heard in the competition so far. Top two material if you ask me. Good job,” Aizawa continues. Okay. No longer fine. This is not cool. This is crazy.

“Also, rusty on the piano my ass!” Midnight exclaims and you laugh. “I think I speak for all of us when I say yes. Anyone want to lie and say I’m wrong?” Nori asks, and your eyes go wide when none of them say anything. You even got Aizawa’s yes? He’s literally there to keep people in check, he barely ever says yes to anyone. And he was saying yes to you? Hawks holds out the ticket with a smirk, and you just stare at it with wide eyes. “Wait… really?”

“Yes, really! Now take it! We’ll see you in Hell Week,” Midnight says, and you walk forward, grabbing the ticket and thanking all of them. As you leave you hear murmurs from them, but only hushed words like “unbelievable” and “amazing.” You walk out of the doors, still shocked, honestly. The first person you see is Mina, and you slowly hold up your ticket. She literally, literally tackles you in a hug. She’s also kinda screaming. And Present Mic joins her. This is what purgatory is, isn’t it?

#shinsou x reader #hitoshi shinsou x reader #shinso x reader #hitoshi shinso x reader #my hero academia x reader #bnha x reader #boku no hero x reader #shinsou #hitoshi shinsou #shinso #hitoshi shinso #my hero academia #bnha #boku no hero academia #anime

53 notes · View notes

ckret2 · 4 years

Text

So I’ve got a Spotify playlist consisting of the compiled contents of 81 different Alastor-centric playlists, like I just copied the contents of every single playlist I could find with no cultivation, no filtering, and no censoring. The one limitation I put was no duplicates of the same song—although multiple versions of the same song off different albums was allowed.

And since then I’ve been listening to this all-packed-together playlist on shuffle. It’s brought up several comments/questions. Highlights include:

- To every single person that includes a romance song with lines like “baby you’re my angel” or the like: are you a Radiodust shipper actually referring to Angel, or are you a Charlastor shipper referring to Charlie’s “fallen angel” heritage?

- One of you included an entire creepypasta story about the devil talking a man into killing his ex-wife and her lover as part of a 500-step-long plan to conceive the Antichrist and I’m not quite sure why it was on an Alastor playlist but I appreciate the characterization of the devil in it. I guess a creepypasta is kind of a radioplay of sorts? Maybe more Alastor playlists should just have random radioplays mixed in.

- To the person who included half a Kidz Bop album on their Alastor playlist: I’m not judging, I just wanna know why. I want to understand. I really want to understand.

- I respect all you people that included song covers by Scott Bradlee’s Postmodern Jukebox and I understand where you’re coming from, but like, if you’re not familiar with music genres from before 1990, I suggest you look up which genre a given PMJ cover is trying to emulate, because if you’re stuffing PMJ covers on a playlist specifically to make them “sound like” Alastor’s era or because you’re going for “songs Alastor would like because they sound like what he’s used to,” then a PMJ cover that makes a 1990s song sound like a 1970s song isn’t quite in the right neighborhood.

- There are different philosophies that go into making a character playlist. Some go “the genre has to fit the character’s era and/or personal tastes, whether or not the lyrics do.” Some go “the lyrics have to fit the character, genre be damned.” Some go “these songs were big/popular when I was into this character so that’s what I associated with them.” Some go “these songs are really out there for the canon character but fit my headcanons.” Some people may have totally different criteria I haven’t even thought of! Anyway the point is: when you mix over eighty playlists together, you get every single playlist-making philosophy mixed together, and it’s an exciting experience to listen to.

- And on that note: every single genre on the planet is on this playlist. We’ve got Britney Spears, we’ve got Vocaloid, we’ve got Thomas Sanders (we’ve got a LOT of Thomas Sanders), we’ve got My Chemical Romance, Two Steps from Hell, Barry Manilow, Oingo Boingo, Within Temptation, Madonna, Kesha, Hans Zimmer, ... we’ve got the poppiest pop, emo, metal, electronic, folk, rap, rock, movie soundtracks, TV soundtracks, classical, disco, country, KPop, Carrie Underwood, every single decade for the last 150 years... and I’m deliberately leaving out all the jazz, swing, electroswing, and musicals, because those are a given for Alastor. Obviously those ones dominate the playlist but it’s amazing how much variety there is outside them.

- I’m frankly amazed by how much of this playlist is Thomas Sanders and Bendy and the Ink Machine. Like. It’s a notable quantity.

- That said, actually the playlist doesn’t quite include every single genre. Like, for example: I can tell y’all want to lean into Alastor’s New Orleanian/Louisianan/Creole roots from how many songs I’ve seen that include words like voodoo, Creole, New Orleans, bayou, uhhhh The Princess & the Frog, etc... And yet aside from a few New Orleanian jazz artists so far I have crossed paths with very little Louisianan music compared to, say... Undertale songs. So here. Start with some Cajun, try some Mardi Gras songs, I’m not totally sure how much of this playlist is “actually from Louisiana” and how much is “other people making songs that they think are Louisianan” but try this one anyway, and once you’ve oriented yourself a bit dig in here. I wanna see ten Alastor playlists with one song that includes “Zydeco” in the title or album name, stat. Sure, we know Alastor’s all jazz and swing and musicals, but I sure don’t listen to only three genres, you probably don’t listen to only three genres, and Mr. Radio Guy Whose Public Title Includes The Word “Radio” Who Likes Bursting Spontaneously Into Musical Numbers probably listens to more genres than you and me combined, and those genres probably started with what was local & accessible & common around where he grew up.

- Then again I haven’t listened to this whole playlist yet, sometimes I put it on shuffle and sometimes I put it in alphabetical order to try to slowly work through it from top to bottom (I’ve made it mostly through the C’s) so maybe y’all hid the Cajun & Creole music down in the D’s. But lemme say this: while randomly shuffling through the playlist, I’ve randomly run into multiple Irish drinking songs & shanties, and randomly run into zero zydeco, so like from those of you who follow the “music that sounds like what the character listens to” philosophy of playlist-making, non-jazz Louisianan music could use a lil more representation. If there’s room for twenty-six Billie Eilish songs there’s room for one BeauSoleil song. (I’m partial to “L’ouragon,” but you do you)

- Somewhere in this massive mixed playlist there are three parody medleys of Disney songs rewritten to be like “here are grimdark edgy lyrics about all of the terrible real-world things happening to the cultures depicted in these Disney movies!” and like, okay, I can see why that merits inclusion in an Alastor playlist, his big moment in the pilot was “take an optimistic song worthy of a Disney princess and rewrite it with grimdark edgy lyrics,” but those three songs still annoy the hell out of me because the specific way they frame the concept of their songs is that Disney movies/songs are “full of lies” and these songs reveal the lies. And then it’s things like... “Aladdin got captured and interrogated by the CIA,” which is definitely a thing that happened to a character living in an ambiguous time period that predates the existence of the United States, much less the CIA, much less the CIA’s meddling in the middle east, by several centuries. Disney was definitely lying about the reality of Aladdin’s day-to-day existence by not depicting American imperialism that predates America. Or “the characters in The Princess & the Frog have to deal with the fallout of Hurricane Katrina,” like, yeah, Disney sure is pulling the wool over our eyes by dishonestly denying the devastating consequences the 2005 hurricane had on 1920s New Orleans. Listen the lyrics are clever and all the things they discuss are real salient social issues but it still drives me nuts that the songs are framed like they’re revealing “lies” being told when half of the movies are taking place in (fantasy versions of!) time periods or locations where the issues they’re discussing didn’t apply, if they’d just framed that one line differently— Okay, okay, I’m finished, I’m done, I’ve got it out of my system

- Every single love song makes me go “are you imagining this song with a ship (and if so which ship) or do you just think Alastor would be into this song?” The question goes double for songs from the 20s/30s, because the odds that they added it to their playlist just because they think Alastor would like the song increases.

- On the other hand, if whoever added “A Formidable Marinade” isn’t a Charlastor shipper I will eat my hat. Also nice work on the gory cannibalism sex song.

- Every once in a while I’ll run into a song that makes me go, now how the heck did you end up on an Alastor playlist? Does this song line up with someone’s very specific headcanons and/or fanfic plot? Do they think Alastor would like this song? Did they happen to like the song and like Alastor at the same time and so they associate them with each other? Examples: “I Got You (I Feel Good)”, “iRobot” (is it the emotionlessness of being post-death?? do they headcanon that he’s got radio hardware replacing his guts?? is it a post-breakup ship song??), “Greensleves”, “Barbra Streisand” (the song, not the singer), “Jolene,” “The Last Steampunk Waltz,” “Seven Nights in Eire,” “Cruel Angel’s Thesis,” and the person who included half a Kidz Bop album, please, I just wanna talk—

- Every time I hear a song that includes the words “hell,” “sinner,” “smile,” or “radio,” I go, “Haha. Nice.”

- An incomplete list of songs that amused me for how on point they are: “Hotel California” (how often do you have a fandom where “Hotel California” is actually very blatantly fitting without having to twist through an extended & convoluted metaphorical interpretation?), “The Hunting Song,” “The Axeman’s Jazz,” and “Time Again”

- I sort of hate whoever put “Circus” by Britney Spears in their playlist and made me realize that lyrically it’s a perfect Alastor song because it is.

- *scrolls past six versions of “I’m Always Chasing Rainbows”* Haha. Nice.

- *scrolls past five versions of “It Don’t Mean A Thing (If It Ain’t Got That Swing)”* Haha. Nice.

- *scrolls past a song from Bambi* Haha. Nice.

- *scrolls past five versions of “You’re Never Fully Dressed Without A Smile”* Haha. Nice.

- *scrolls past eleven versions of “Sing Sing Sing”* Haha. Nice.

- What’s with those of y’all putting steampunk songs in Alastor playlists? Listen, listen: steampunk vibes are for Sir Pentious. Swing vibes are for Alastor. Don’t cross the streams. Take your steampunk songs and make Sir Pentious playlists with them. He could use more playlists.

- The playlist includes 39 songs that include “smile” somewhere in the title.

#hazbin hotel #alastor #(how do i tag this. meta on meta? fanmix playlists are inherently meta already but like)#meta

43 notes · View notes

franeridart · 7 years

Note

This might be too much to ask but I broke my laptop and only have access to mobile and I'm dying to know what I'm actually missing but I can't check would you be able to describe it? Sorry I know this is annoying ignore it if it's too much trouble

It’s not annoying so don’t worry about it, but my posts should all be visible, now? At least my app doesn’t give me the option to request a review anymore… if you can’t see them still they’re all (aside from the one I posted earlier) backed up on my wordpress blog! You can see them from there without me needing to describe them~

Anon said:Franeri-san what dimensions do you usually use for your canvas? When I draw I end up making the canvas too small, so when i zoom in to make details it becomes pixelated. But I also don’t need my canvas too big because I won’t be able to proportion it;; it’s a visual thing… Ah I’m rambling sorry

I use a 6000pxx5000px with a 4px brush, usually, but I really rarely use it all, mostly it’s just like, corners of the whole thing. I tend to draw a lot of things on the same canvas before switching to a new one - that said, personally I can’t draw properly if I don’t zoom in above 100% (usually I work at 150% or 200%, more for details) so I’m really not the right person to ask this haha

Anon said:I saw that profanity is now being blocked more heavily by safe search so our good, good but foul mouthed Baku may be the reason your stuff is hidden. You’ve probably already heard this but I thought I’d let you know~

Rip so I heard orz though let’s not give our Baku all the fault here, I swear a lot by myself too haha I’m my own ruin, seems like - thank you for taking your time to share the info, anyway!!

Anon said:I’m really happy about your blog not being censored seriously. CAUSE YOU MAKE WONDERFUL DRAWINGS THAT FILL MY HEART AND I WAS STARTING TO PANICK. Keep up the good work~. 🖤

And I’m really happy you can properly see my blog, you sweet sweet cute and adorable anon!!!!!!!!!! *O*

Anon said:Hello! First, I love your art and your headcanons and stories! I am in love with bakushima half because of you, you beautiful tart. Second, about Bakugo’s laugh, holy crikey, of course he’s loud and explosive. The boy is a ball of stress and anger and when he laughs for real, it’s rare and takes effort. But like, can you just imagine when his explodo-kill mask cracks his face turns red because he doesn’t want to laugh. But THEN he barks out a laugh and everybody’s stunned and then he just SNORTS

YES!!!!!!! Oh my god yes that’s an hc I have he definitely, definitely snorts when he tries to hold back his laughter it’s so effin adorable I die every day a lot bless that kid

Anon said:Who tops of in your opinion in Bakushima?👀

Maybe either, maybe neither, depends on many things but mostly on how I don’t ever ask myself this question for any of my ships so I got no answer for it at all ever - instead we should ask ourselves the important questions, like who opens the water bottles between them (Kirishima when Bakugou’s palms get too sweaty and Bakugou’s forever resentful about it), who kicks when they sleep and who always ends up sleeping on the floor because of it (Bakugou’s the restless sleeper, poor Kirishima), who takes way too damn long in the bathroom goddamnit Kirishima get out of there already I swear to go——-

Anon said:your blog makes me really happy just keep doing you you’re like the best thing

Thank you so much holy smokes!!!!!!!!!! *O*

Anon said:wait wait wait wait! is Bakugou the one teaching Shark Kirishima sign language?? then does that mean Kirishima learned to sign ‘I love you’ from Bakugou!? (Q/)////(\Q)

They’re learning together!! They have an online dictionary and follow online courses, so Kirishima kind of looked it up for himself at first - he was signing it as love instead of really like thoug, which made Bakugou indecently flustered so in the end, yes, he was the one to teach him how to properly sign it :D

Anon said:Will you still be updating this blog?

Sure will! The wordpress one is just a backup thing!

Anon said:wait so question: in the mer au, does kiri know jsl from before? because the way he reacted to bakugou first attempting to sign at him looked like he recognized it but you said they both had to learn? does he react like that because he recognizes it as bakugou actively trying to communicate? (btw this au is So Good i love how kaminari is just “why are you like this” at kiri but his Gay Ass cant be swayed)

I’m glad you like it!!!!! And nope Kiri didn’t know jsl from before, but mers do have something similar to a sign language (there’s deaf and mute merpeople too, after all) so he recognized it as Bakugou going “I want to talk to you and this is the best way to” - also, he’d never seen a tablet before and Bakugou was showing him an explosion on it to make him understand and instead he went “what is this SORCERY” and got excited about a gif. Good, pure kid. I had no clue how to add that in the comic in a fast way tho so let’s leave it at him being happy they found a possible way to communicate haha

Anon said:Hi Fran!!! Hace you reas the theoriws aboyo kiri o kaminari Boeing traitors? Si you know where they came up? I’m lil bit lost even tho I’m up with the man lmao ALSO pls more maki-chan

So pretty much at some point in the middle of a meeting Present Mic mentioned how there probably was a traitor between them that kept on feeding the villains infos about UA, and the fandom of course got interested in that!! Who could it be? They started thinking it through and for some reason the theories that ended up being more popular are about it being either Kaminari, Kirishima or Hagakure - I don’t think any of these are true, but if you google search “kaminari traitor theory” or the same with the other two names you should easily find the posts explaining the theories and where they come from, if you’re interested!

Anon said:omg fran i haven’t watched/read bnha but still solely bc of your art i am IN LOVE with kirishima. he’s such a pure being I feel like crying every time i see him??? like i just watched the first opening of the anime and you bet i watched the 5 seconds kirishima gets over and over. like all the bnha kids seem great. i am somehow extremely motivated to read bnha now thanks to your art. BUT OH MY GOD KIRISHIMA I LOVE HIM SO MUCH WHAT EVEN

You picked the best fave you could ever pick, anon!!! Kirishima is the BESTEST boy, purest and brightest and energetic and actual sunshine and also super strong and resilient and kind of an ass now and again but in a good way he’s GREAT I’m IN LOVE with him good job your intuition is perfect

Anon said:THE MER AU WAS THE CUTEST THING EVER I LOVE SHARK KIRISHIMA AND THE TAGS ALL GAVE ME LIFE

GLAD YOU LIKED IT OMG!!!!!!!

Anon said:I love all your art, but especially all your self indulgent stuff bc first off HELLS YEAH DO THE STUFF THAT MAKES YOU HAPPY and another is it feels like self indulgent stuff for me but I’m not the one making the thing… So like… It’s Good™ BUT YEAH ANYWAYS I LOVE YOUR ART AND YOU AND YOUR ART MAKES ME HAPPY TBH I HOPE YOU’RE HAVING A LOVELY DAY

AAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH THANK YOU SO MUCH also this is super nice to know because sometimes being self-indulgent is all I can manage to do haha r i p but at least now I’ll know you, for one, will like it!!! That’s nice!!!!!!

Anon said:If you were ever bored and wanted to do more of your mershark au thing I wouldn’t be mad at all ! 😝 your art is so cute and easily recognizable and I really enjoy it! Stay beautiful lovely Fran!

!!!!!!!!!!!!! thank you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And I really, really think I will!!!!!!!! :D

Anon said:I bet if denki tried to do the “if i jump at ______ they will most certainly catch me” with bakugou, bakugou would just let him fall

Oh my god no Bakugou’s reflexes and instincts are too fast and automatic the actual reaction at seeing someone run and jump at him would be without thinking trying to explodo-kill them don’t jump at him Kaminariiiii

Anon said: What to you think of a school dance bnha concept thing???

I read a bakushima about it once and I DIED so actually A++++ great perfect amazing concept I love it

Anon said:I gotta know,what do you think of the “Dabi is Todoroki Shouto’s brother” theory? i personally feel like that 1’s the most likely theory to become a legit thing but im curious

I talked about this on my main just the other day!! And added something about it earlier through another ask! But generally I think it’s believable, and I wouldn’t mind it being true :D

Anon said:But, what are your feelings about this chapters? And Kirishima? God, I love him even more and want him to be happy, but Im also dying to know what happened to him in his past!!

I CRIED I love that boy so much I swear it’s getting ridiculous I’m so so proud of him and how far he’s come and I just want him to be happy??? I do want to know his past tho!!! I’ve just been asking for this for, like, eight months!! I hope next one will be the one I’ll finally learn about my child tbh ;–;

Anon said:Fran you should totally do bnha and haikyuu calendars

………………..boi that sounds like a lot of work, anon. Like, it’s an interesting idea, but also my lazy ass is telling me no way no what the heck go to sleep instead r i p

Anon said:Have you ever thought of an eraser mic fusion?

I’ve drawn it already!!

Anon said:fran i?? i love the way you draw smiles?? idk i was just going through your art and i realized that holy SHIT i really love the way you draw smiles. like each smile is different and has its own specialty. esp bakugo’s smile I LOVE HOW YOU DRAW HIS SMILE!! like usually it’s not really noticeable but then there’s that slight quirk of his mouth (see what i did there?) and it’s so perfect. idk dude i just REALLY LOVE THE WAY YOU DRAW SMILES

THIS IS SUCH A CUTE ASK I DON’T KNOW HOW TO ANSWER HELP ME !!!!!!!!!!!!!! thank you????? so much??????? I’m glad you like them cause honestly I love drawing people smiling and laughing, it makes my heart smile too~

Anon said:Theres a bnhaStuck blog in the works ;)

That’s? Nice! I guess!! I hope whoever’s working on it will have fun with it!!

Anon said:Fran this last BNHA chapter hurt so bad. And then I saw your mer-Kiri and it cheered me up!

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I’m glad I could cheer you up cause honestly I felt that pain a whole damn lot too ;A; let’s hope Kiri won’t have to suffer much more in this arc #sob

Anon said:im crying fran, my hard bby kiri in the latest chap,,, my baby boi, i know that i wanted to know more abt him but,, keep my baby safe pls oh goodness gracious… (and as usual ur bootiful art keeps me alive)

I mean nearly all the character arcs we got are damn sad so it was obvious Kiri’s was going to be too, but still ;A; don’t make him suffer too bad Hori I beg u ;A;

Anon said:*takes deep breath* I FUCKING LOVE YOU SO MUCH THANK YOU FOR MAKING QUALITY ART OF MY FAVOURITE SHIPS YOU ARE SUCH AN AMAZING PERSON AND YOUR ART IS VERY PRETTY AND I JUST WANTED TO THANK YOU FOR EXISTING IN GENERAL BYe

THANK!!!!!!!!!!!!!! YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! SO MUCH OH MY GOD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! AAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Anon said:!!!!!!FRAN!!!!!! YOUR MER!KIRI AU!!!!!!!! AHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :D I’m glad you enjoy it!!!!!!

Anon said:I love your work 😍. You are the only one who makes comics About my favourite ships. I check your web everyday If you post something new. My fav ships are I.waoi, bok.uroo and bak.ushima. Love your work 🙂

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh thank you!!!! holy smokes!!!!!

Anon said:Do you have an OC for Boku no Hero Academy?

The closest things to bnha ocs I have are the fusions, right now, but there’s a couple of asks in my inbox about a bkkr kid… soon……..

Anon said:Quick question, I want to read haikyuu, I’ve watched the anime already and I was wondering how close the anime follows the manga, like how bnha is basically identical, is it the same? Or is there a bit of difference *^*

I’m SO SORRY THIS TOOK ME FOREVER TO ANSWER - I bet you already found your answer elsewhere, but anyway the anime is pretty much exactly the same as the manga!!

Anon said:Back on the topic of hq!!! I find it funny how people ask about bok.uroo so much as if you dont like them anymore when they’re literally still your header, like if you didn’t care for them they’d think you’d change it to bakushima or something

I’ve literally thought about changing my header so often but then I look at it and I’m like….. my kids………… I can’t do this………………. not yet…………………. same for my icon tbh haha I love them too much rip

Anon said:Okay but what if Kirishima makes a really stupid pun and Bakugou just turns away with a curse and he’s just covering his mouth and quietly giggling into his hand because even he can’t believe he found that funny, and that is SHAMEFUL. And Sero in the distance is just looking at him, all disappointed. Quietly judging the fact that Kirishima and Bakugou are practically meant for one another.

You wanna know the best thing the absolute best thing? My very first bnha comic was something eerily similar to the first part of this ask! Only Bakugou was the one to accidentally make a pun - I’d link it but honestly my style was ridiculous back then so not happening, just know that I’m 100% sure that post is the reason why I keep on drawing bnha comics about puns, my very first post set the path for all the others to come hah a curse I don’t actually mind

Anon said:are you planning on starting another series? like the bokuroteru tattoo shop au you did (it was real dandy and rad) it was what made me find your blog, so i was wondering if you have any future plans for anything similar. i really like your blog lots, i hope you have a nice day!

Right now I don’t actually have any idea orderly enought to make a proper series out of it, rip - maybe in the future, tho! That one comic was fun to make, after all!! And thank you!!!!!!!!

Anon said:IM HARDCORE IN LOVE WITH TODOSHIMA THANKYOU SO MUCH FOR RUINING MY LIFE❤️❤️

I’M GLAD YOU LIKED HIM OH M Y GODS!!!!

#so many damn asks in this one #GAH i need to answer them more often my pAL S #anyway it's #seriously late im going to sleep now #that one drawing i mentioned will have to wait for tomorrow #anonymous

62 notes · View notes

wolfie-dragon-rider · 7 years

Note

Hi! 2,3 and 13 on the Meme for Fic Writers? :D

Thank you so much for asking! Questions are from here.

2) Is there a trope you’ve yet to try your hand at, but really want to?

Not really. I like my hurt/comfort angsty things I write. Though maybe there is something, but I’m not sure if there’s a name for this. But I once considered writing a silly lighthearted Modern AU Hiccstrid fic, with them being in college, and I was planning to basically have Hiccup do a Computer Science major, and then have every chapter start off with a... term or concept from CS, as it relates to his relationship woes. Such as “Complexity theory is about determining the complexity of problems. The more time or effort it takes to find a solution to a problem, the higher its complexity. Much research in CS is about finding faster algorithms for problems, and thus reducing their complexity.

Hiccup considered the problem 'Figuring out what girls think' to have an extremely high complexity, requiring an amount of research generally rewarded with a Nobel Prize.”

I once read a fic (unfortunately I can’t remember what it was called) which did such a thing for physics terms, and I thought it was cute and funny. Maybe one day I’ll write it.

3) Is there a trope you wouldn’t touch with a ten foot pole?

There are of course always the problematic tropes that I don’t want to get involved with, but one that is common in the HTTYD fandom that I hate, is the “Name kid after dead relative/lover/friend/pet/whatever” trope. I know, I know, sacrilege, but I just don’t like Hiccstrid naming their kid Finn or Stoick or something like that. I personally feel it’s a bit creepy. The kid is unique, a new person. It shouldn’t be a... replacement of the dead person. And I know it’s typically not meant to be, but to me that’s what it feels like. “We lost Stoick but we have a new Stoick now”. The baby is not a new Stoick, he’s a new person who is different from Stoick.

13) What’s the best writing advice you’ve ever come across?

I think I benefited a lot from Kurt Vonnegut’s 8 rules of writing. This is probably getting a bit long, so I’ll post them all here and write down my thoughts about them below the cut:

Use the time of a total stranger in such a way that he or she will not feel the time was wasted.I tend to interpret this in two ways. One, keep it short. Don’t waste the reader’s time with endless description of things that don’t matter, sideplots that go nowhere, or strange observations. Two, be upfront with your intentions. Don’t start a story that appears to start as a fluffy coffeeshop AU but halfway through suddenly turns into some kind of Hunger Games horror dystopia. The reader who probably followed the story for fluff will feel cheated, and the horror fan has to slog through chapters of other stuff, and you’ve wasted their time.

Give the reader at least one character he or she can root for.The worst thing a reader can feel towards your characters is not hate or disgust. It’s indifference. It’s “I don’t care what happens to any of these people, so why should I keep reading?” Make sure the audience wants the protagonist to succeed. Wants them to overcome their troubles. Make sure the audience feels like the character has not been treated right, and deserves justice.

Every character should want something, even if it is only a glass of water.I find this incredibly good advice to keep in mind when writing side or background characters. Let’s say your characters are taking a cab. Remember that the cab driver is a person too. They have a name, and goals. They want to go home on time. They want to listen to their favorite radio channel. They want the characters to not be so loud. They want their kids to go to a school as good as the protagonist is going through. And sure, the audience doesn’t need to know their life story, far from it. But it can make your world feel so much more alive if the characters’ loud conversation is interrupted by the driver turning the volume of his music up. It allows you to show how your protagonist will react to this. Are they empathetic? Insulted? Maybe they love the music and start a conversation with the driver. Another point where this rule applies is for villains. Keep in mind that even though your villains do horrible things, they do them because they want to accomplish something.

Every sentence must do one of two things — reveal character or advance the action.I used to have my own addendum to this rule: Worldbuilding should also be a valid use for a sentence, I thought. But slowly I realized that it’s already in the other two things. Worldbuilding is cool, but I think that ultimately it should be subservient to the plot and characters. Especially when you’re looking through the eyes of a character, every sentence you write is what the character sees. And what the see, how they see it, how they respond, that shows character. What you show and how you show it reveals more about the plot and character than the world itself.

Start as close to the end as possible.A remarkably simple rule, yet incredibly right. When starting a story, or editing it, always ask for the first couple of chapters “Are these necessary?” Interesting stories, no matter their genre, tend to start the same way: There is a status quo that is broken. Frodo’s calm life in the Shire is interrupted by his uncle’s birthday party and the magical ring he gets after it. The Dursleys’ perfectly normal life is interrupted when a magical boy is left on their doorstep. A friend disappears. A lover is murdered. Status Quo is broken: The world is not as it should be anymore, and the protagonist has to set it right. Another way to rephrase this rule is to say: Begin at the very start of your story, then simply throw everything away until something happens that the reader has to know. Delete until you’re forced to summarize the deleted events in the rest of your story. Because if the reader didn’t need to know it, they shouldn’t have to read it.

Be a sadist. Now matter how sweet and innocent your leading characters, make awful things happen to them — in order that the reader may see what they are made of.I love this rule. Not because I’m a sadist personally, heck, it hurts me when I write such horrible things. But because indeed, we don’t see the true strength of a character until they’re in their lowest point and they still don’t give up. Throw them over the edge of the cliff, and only then can you see them truly soar. You want your readers to wonder how in the world the character could ever overcome these hurdles. This quote from Lord of the Rings seems appropriate: It's like in the great stories Mr. Frodo. The ones that really mattered. Full of darkness and danger they were, and sometimes you didn't want to know the end. Because how could the end be happy? How could the world go back to the way it was when so much bad happened? And then, when the reader is wondering that, you make your character soar. They get back up, keep on fighting, and your audience will cheer and yell and cry in relief.

Write to please just one person. If you open a window and make love to the world, so to speak, your story will get pneumonia.This rule pretty much speaks for itself. There will always always always be people who don’t like what you write. Who don’t like the genre you write. Who don’t like the character you write. Screw those people.

Give your readers as much information as possible as soon as possible. To heck with suspense. Readers should have such complete understanding of what is going on, where and why, that they could finish the story themselves, should cockroaches eat the last few pages.I should emphasize here that these are rules originally intended for short stories, but I agree with the rule in general regardless. I hate it when stories do this thing, which I call ‘the 4th wall censor’, where something important is referred to vaguely even though everybody in the room knows about it, simply because the audience doesn’t know. This is also the hallmark of a good detective or thriller story. Your twist or reveal shouldn’t depend on keeping something hidden from the audience. The signs should be there all along, in foreshadowing and offhand remarks that combine into a great picture once you realize it. Not the “Haha, turns out that the crime scene contained this vital clue that wasn’t mentioned before!”. Of course, there are circumstances where you want suspence or unreliable narration, but always ask yourself if it’s actually necessary. If the entire suspense is born from intentional miscommunication between you and the reader, then maybe the book wasn’t that clever to begin with.Probably way more than you wanted to know, but I hope you learned something!

#asks #writing #writing is hard #tropes

3 notes · View notes