#anyway. fanfic writers. the stuff you do is very good and cool and i love you. im sorry i dont know how to read
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A guide to John Finnemore (in particular his Double Acts) for the Good Omens S2 lovers, haters, and everyone in between (I promise, there's something for all of you!)
Found this in my drafts recently and honestly, I feel this is evergreen, so here y'all go:
As I mentioned semi-facetiously in my previous post, I don't care whether you loved or hated Good Omens S2- you're probably sleeping on John Finnemore. He's a super talented writer and while he's collaborated with other writers like Mitchell and Webb and Armando Iannucci before, I still think his best stuff is his solo stuff.
But where to start? Behold! I shall now recommend a different Double Act (that is, a different episode of his radio series of excellent half-hour two-hander comedies) for every kind of person who has reacted in literally any kind of way to Good Omens.
If you love stories about two people working on opposite sides in a conflict who over time break down each other's defenses to become valued friends despite the continued conflict between their sides, with some queer undertones: Unquestionably you want S2 E4, Penguin Diplomacy
If you loved Good Omens S2 because it's quiet, gentle, and romantic: S1 E6, Hot Desk
If you like quiet, gentle and romantic in principle but wish there was a bit more plot structure: Still Hot Desk
If you like quiet, gentle and romantic but watched Good Omens S2 and were like "this is quiet, gentle and romantic?!?!": DEFINITELY still Hot Desk
If you hate quiet, gentle and romantic and want something darker and more cynical: S1 E3, Red Handed
If you were meh on S2 but did find yourself enjoying the Job minisode: FREE ROLL! You can choose any Double Act at random and will probably enjoy it.
If you loved Good Omens S2 because you love characters who give off vibes of being dim yet helpful: Well, really you want to meet Arthur in Cabin Pressure, but from Double Acts you'll do great with S2 E5, Here's What We Do, and in a very different way S2 E2, Mercy Dash
If you loved Good Omens S2 because lesbians: S2 E3, The Rebel Alliance
If you like lesbians in theory but wish that Good Omens S2 had maybe sketched out theirs a bit more: Still try Rebel Alliance
If you were annoyed by the minisodes because there wasn't enough old-timey dialogue in the olden-day bits: S1 E4, The Goliath Window
If you like the Victorian minisode because you like the era: check out S2 E1, The Queen's Speech, which literally has Queen Victoria in it
If you think that Crowley making gentle fun of Aziraphale's magic tricks is entertaining: try S2 E6, The Wroxton Box
If you like relationship dynamics where one half is trying/pretending to be cool and the other one has absolutely no interest in it and likes the first half just how they are: try Here's What We Do
If you enjoy the whole corporate-nonsense aspect of Good Omens: give S1 E2, WYSINNWYG a whirl
If you think that one of the main flaws of S2 was that it didn't have Mr Young in it anymore: S1 E1, A Flock of Tigers
If you like Good Omens because you like fandom and fanfic: S1 E5, English for Pony Lovers
And, if you love the idea of a cliffhanger but also want the satisfaction of knowing there's an amazing ending coming: Wait on Double Acts and just listen to Cabin Pressure. And when you get to the end of Yverdon-les-Bains, before you move on to Zurich just take a moment to remember all of us who nearly died for two years waiting for the finale.
Anyway, happy listening!
#john finnemore#john finnemore's double acts#double acts#jfda#cabin pressure#good omens#good omens 2#good omens s2#good omens series 2#if anyone is wondering#my personal favorites are#penguin diplomacy#hot desk#and#goliath window#and i've mentioned many times that i have a soft spot for#here's what we do#both because i think it's super sweet and fun#and because i'm 99% sure that jf got the idea for a central plot point from dorothy sayers's superlative novel gaudy night
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Out of curiosity, when did the, 'fanfic doesn't need to adhere to canon, everything is valid and good, don't give concrit unless specifically asked for' attitude become the norm? Genuine question.
I was active in fandom back in the LJ days, when sporkings and comms viciously mocking Mary Sues were the norm, but then I sort fell out of fandom spaces for the past (checks notes) fifteen years holy shit. The current attitude seems diametrically opposed to what I remember fandom being like (kinda shitty, it was 'cool' to be an asshole back then), and I'm just curious as to when and how the shift happened. I mean, I assume it was a gradual thing, but is there anything in particular that stick out to you?
(Also, because tone doesn't convey very well through ask, and I don't want to leave you with a poor impression-- this is by no means a defence of the 2000s attitudes, nor an aspersion on the current ones. I'm genuinely only curious about the evolution from one to the other; I hope that comes across.)
Hi anon!
TL;DR because my response got LONG -> Anon this existed before Livejournal as an attitude, in fact modern fandom was literally born out of being not canon compliant (*waves aggressively to Spirk shippers*) and this existed on Livejorunal too and there have always been big pockets of fandom that really frowned on sporking even there, like that was not cool when I was on LJ, unless you were a certain age, or in certain spaces in fandom.
But also AO3 was its kind of final death knell re: making it cool to bully 13-16 yo writers (who were largely the victims of sporking) and killing dreams, which was born out of meta happening on LJ and in other places about like... not trying to make people miserable for writing a free fic out of the love in their heart that someone else didn't like or think was good enough.
Anyway, the longer version of this under the read more!
(For everyone else, welcome to some of the uglier aspects of 00s fandom!)
So there was actually criticism around all the stuff you mention 15-20 years ago as well. I was also on Livejournal during that time and there was a pretty big proportion of people in certain fandoms who recognised even then that like... setting up communities to mock say, Mary Sue writers, was actually a pretty weirdly cruel thing to do to people who were providing free labour and the literal only 'payment' they could get in a kind of energy exchange was people just not being complete dickheads to them.
So things were already changing, especially in many LJ communities and awards communities. There were a lot of big debates over whether concrit should be asked for, and a growing movement of authors who said they welcomed constructive criticism for example, instead of assuming it should automatically apply. There was also a lot of meta around the function of fanfiction and whether it should even be 'good' by published standards if the author was just doing it for themselves, and for fun (esp if they were just going to get punished for it by folks who were elitist, judgemental, grammar purists etc.)
Things really changed around the time of AO3 (2009-2010 - literally around 14~ years ago, you may have just missed the big change anon!), Strikethrough and the Dreamwidth exodus. There was a massive swing away from leaving concrit unless the author specifically asked for it, and fandom became a lot more generally able to recognise that a lot of labour goes into fanart and fanfiction and that paying with public criticism is shitty actually. Also people were just more able to recognise that like most fanfiction writers aren't trying to become professional writers and many don't want to be.
(I would actually say things changed around the time of fanfiction.net too - rude comments there were definitely noticed and could create some pretty forward 'hey why are you doing this on something you literally don't have to read' responses from fellow readers - idk what fic sites you were on. The small indie fic sites where you could often only comment via email for example, definitely drew a lot more critical attention than sites that tended to have public comments).
The 'fanfic doesn't need to adhere to canon' literally exists since the very first Spirk slash fic in modern fanfiction in the last few decades. Literally, as soon as you write Kirk/Spock, you're not adhering to canon. Our fanfiction 'ancestors' literally paved the way for a legacy which is about not adhering to canon in order to see the world/s and thing/s you want to see, be entertained by, by turned on by, or enjoy, from the very beginning. You may not have been in slash circles anon, but the foundation of queer same sex fanfic is in many ways the foundation of fandom. But yeah, this is literally where fanfiction started! As soon as you're shipping characters that aren't canon for fun (or for whatever reason), you're making it pretty clear that you want stories different to canon, and you have to change things to often keep those characters in-character.
So yeah! That's been there for decades. Idk what circles you were in on that front! While it was fairly common for a while to criticise characters for being OOC (Out of Character), imho, a lot of folks started to recognise that they literally weren't paying for what they were criticising, and they could just walk away and potentially not like...blast the fanfic. Some folks started to recognise more that people were writing with ESL, or were teenagers (some 40 yos in fandom realised they were mocking literal 15 year olds in their proto-podcasts and websites and realised actually that's just...mean? Really mean? Not the way to nurture new generations of fanfiction writers. Definitely in no way encouraging), or were writing for themselves, or writing for like one other person, or writing for fun, or writing for free, or writing for personal reasons etc.
'Don't Like Don't Read' wasn't just about political stuff, it was also about just walking away if you feel the urge to slam a fanfic in the comments.
I've been in fandom for around 2.5 decades anon, and there were so many spaces that were not actually as shitty or mean-spirited as the ones you were in? Or ones that at least had a lot of different thoughts etc. Like, sporking (mocking/bullying badfics and sometimes the folks who wrote them) was disapproved of by a lot of people in fandom even while sporking was at the height of its popularity (the Fanlore page goes into more detail about this). It might have just been the fandoms you were in, or the people you were hanging out with (and that might have been dependent on your age or just if you were around people who wanted to be 'cool' back then - in the same way that being an 'anti' is cool among certain crowds today. It's possible to spend years in certain crowds and never get an image of broader fandom for example - we can all end up in spaces like that! I know I have.)
When I started writing fanfiction (which no one will EVER find lmao), generally giving positive comments was normal. Constructive criticism was actually pretty rare and there were already fanfiction aggregate sites that generally disapproved of it in their Rules of Conduct. People were encouraging and polite. And this was around 20 years ago on Livejournal and private indie fanfiction websites.
I would actually say there was never exactly an evolution from 'one to the other' because like thousands of people in fandom already believed this and argued in defense of supporting fanfiction and transformative works via accepting that people are labouring for free and that not everyone wants to become a 'better writer' etc. - the meta was there on Livejournal in the 00s. There were communities where sporking was seen as hip/fun, and communities where it was literally banned or at the very least, super frowned upon.
There were meta fandom communities where sporking was the subject of discussion and you know eventually in a lot of those meta communities, that's where a lot of folks decided actually that calling out the fanfiction of 16 yos as 'cringe' or 'badly done' maybe said more about us as human beings and what we wanted fandom to be, than it did about the actual fanfic itself. By the time AO3 came around, people built it with this in mind.
To this day on AO3 it's mostly considered appropriate to say you want concrit in your author's notes, and to otherwise assume as a reader it's never welcome if it's unsolicited. That started during the LJ era. And it was talked about at great length. There's obviously going to be people who disagree! But for the most part I'm a big believer in compassion and 'not everyone is here for the same reason' and 'they literally gave this to us for free and it's meant to be fun' (like yourself! What we do/think/argue 10 years ago on LJ is sometimes different to what we do 10 years later lol, I used to be against trigger warnings pre-AO3! Times change a lot :D )
So yeah, this was definitely something that was around before you and I came to fandom, and it was something that continued to grow as an attitude during, until finally it kind of won out on AO3. But yeah fandom as we know it was born in people literally not being canon compliant to make some gay dreams come true (Spirk shippers bless them all), at a time when there was no representation.
Even in the earliest days of fandom where comments could only happen via email, one of the earliest phrases authors used were things like 'flames will be used to roast marshmallows.' For those reading who don't know, flames are hate comments, critical 'this fic is bad because' comments etc. Except you emailed them directly to the author, because there was no place for comments on a fic.
And this started because authors in part got death threats for writing gay stuff.
So you know, from the very beginning, authors in fanfic have by and large had a very low tolerance for criticism / hate over something they're doing for free and making no profit out of, when they're changing/altering the canon as they please to create representation (or hotness lmao), that is literally a labour of love in a world of very little representation. From there, things have just grown. The whole 'flames will not be tolerated' existed even before Livejournal did.
Honestly there are still people who love sporking and you could probably find groups and Discords dedicated to that even now (actually you literally can, there's a Dreamwidth group for it), it's kind of wild but it started to get cool again. Just like 90s clothing :D (Which is also wild because I can just take that crap out of my closet and wear it again).
But yeah it also sounds like you may have been in some pretty crappy pockets of fandom! When I was on LJ in the 00s I avoided those places and still got to experience fandom across multiple fandoms (mostly NCIS, Captive Prince, HP, Profiler, The X-Files and some others) and communities.
I was super active in some fandom communities and saw a lot of meta happening, and my view during the early and late 00s was that sporking was largely pretty frowned upon after a very brief (like 3-6 month) era where it was cool for only some folks, and then everyone (including some - but not all - of those folks) was like 'heyyyyyyy hang on a minute.' It was something that the bullies did, and enjoyed, and otherwise folks kind of stayed away from it, especially once they learned people were becoming too scared to write fics, which is the inevitable outcome of mocking/bullying folks and fics that have been made purely out of love for something.
Like, publicly making a spectacle out of what a 13 yo (they were often teens - and it's kind of sad how many 40 yo women were doing the sporking :/ ) wrote out of love, just for fun/clout was not considered cool by everyone even back then, because like, a lot of us saw that as killing new generations of fandom (some folks who sporked considered it a win if a fic or account got deleted, this is not based behaviour), not actually creating good writing, internalised misogyny (Mary Sue hatred and self insert hatred), etc. It's hard to explain because I do really think we were in different corners of fandom at the time, but I don't know anyone personally from my time on Livejournal who actually liked sporking as an idea or enjoyed it or enjoyed listening to it or reading articles mocking fic.
I knew about it from very lively 'is this okay' 'actually no it's not even if it's just for fun this is trying to hurt people and saying 'it's just the fic' is not going to be the bandaid a teenager needs to understand why older folks (generally) in fandom are mocking them for being new at a skill' discussions on LJ in meta fandom communities. So this is how much I could be in fandom and not be a part of it and also have like a wildly different experience to your LJ experience!
I think if I'd been a teenager during that era it would have seemed a lot more appealing (in the same way that many teens are antis now before they grow out of it), and fuck it if I was a more bitter person who was just around people who liked to make fun of what other people created, perhaps I would have enjoyed it too, I can see a lot of reasons why a person would fall into that in LJ -> but I was an adult on LJ trying not to be mean to people or what they were creating, so yeah I was maybe just in very different spaces! (Don't get me wrong, I have my giant fucking character flaws, but I was very scared of people hating me so like I didn't want to do things that would make that happen, lol, and also I was scared to put up fic myself during the era of active sporking. I know for myself that sporkers didn't just scare away writers of 'badfic' - they...intimidated a LOT of people).
Before AO3 I was on FF.net, posting fics on LJ, posting on Schnoogle, gossamer, and a couple of other archives. So I don't think my experience was that 'narrow,' I just think I wasn't around like... anime at that time or other places where it might have been happening. I also avoided like...Draco/Malfoy where CC drama was happening and I know sporking was popular in that specific arena / pairing for a while as well (er, as well as anything to do with Mary Sues).
So yeah! That's about where that is. Generally gatekeeping fandom is just seen as not a great thing to do to people, and that creates other kind of beliefs that are generally upheld as being more inviting/nurturing. After all, if someone truly wants to get better at writing, they can ask, or do courses, but as we all know, everyone has to write some bad stuff to get good at it, but not everyone wants to be good. Folks are in fandom for different reasons. I'm rambling now so I'm going to finish my lunch! :D
#asks and answers#pia on fandom#pia on writing#god i do not miss sporking#but it's still happening tbh in some sections of the internet#and it always will!!!#there will always be fics that piss us off or that are just written painfully#generally speaking it's just encouraged to share that with afriend privately#instead of creating a website and recording an interview or discussion or slam#or writing an article for fandom to see#and using BNF energy to chase fic writers out of fandom#it's wild that it was actually around for as long as it was#on LJ#i feel like that was the mean-spirited click-bait era before click-bait then came around#anyway it's grown in popularity again because of Tiktok!#such is life :D
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What do you think about middle aged sunflower ????
Okay I'm going to pretend I'm normal and didn't just have a conversation about it yesterday within which I had to restrict myself because of Discord's stupid character limit
Anyway. Gonna talk about fanfics briefly, because fics tend to get more complex with characterization.
A while ago, I got really into Marvel, and for two months I did nearly nothing except read spideypool fanfic all day and night. If you know anything about these two (that isn't from the MCU) (I hate the MCU, I hate it so so much, this is not who Spidey fundamentally is, he is supposed to be a friendly neighborhood loner loser and you Cannot just give him an Iron Man suit and a mentorship with Stark and intergalactic missions at 16 or however old he is in those movies when the essence of the character is that he is an average struggling teenager who just happens to get superpowers and fucks up a lot at the beginning of his journey and mostly works alone and quit the fucking Avengers himself) (wow I started rambling sorry. Ignore that), you'll know that they are both around... 25-30ish, currently. Something like that. The only other fandom that I read as many fanfics of was Ace Attorney, where depending on the timeline, they can be from 23 to like, 35 with a kid. So I'd say me being so invested in a ship with 16 year-olds is... kind of an anomaly.
I don't usually like the coming-of-age, teenage love stuff, and I honestly have never found a single sunflower schoolfic I liked (except Spiral of course but even then they're in college) because all of them tend to... infantilize both Sunny and Basil at great length. And also tear down anything that makes them interesting characters. I think a lot of OMORI artists (that includes writers) are very afraid of doing anything substantial with teenagers, despite, you know, the actual plot of the game, and as a result, a lot of the time most fics where the characters aren't aged up tend to be... incredibly boring. Of course there are some that are good — exceptional even — but in the end all I can think of is the huge gap in... quality? that sounds wrong to say about a creative thing... interesting-ness, let's say (a very personal and subjective concept), when I stopped reading Marvel and went back to OMORI. I stopped reading fanfics altogether because I just couldn't find one I liked as much as the average Marvel fic that I hadn't already read.
Maybe it's a result of the writers themselves being young? I know OMORI's fanbase is generally a lot younger than Marvel's, so that could affect it. I mentioned schoolfics because there's a lot of them and because they were mentioned in my rant yesterday, but it's not really about the fact that they're schoolfics, it's about the fact that more often than not, the setting is the plot, and since it's just your average highschooler writing their favorite blorbos into their own environment and projecting (which is very cool btw, 99% of my own writing is projecting), the plot is... basically nonexistant. It's boring. It's boring and the characterization is usually dull. But even outside of schoolfics, I think I stopped trying to read fics that start with Sunny getting out of the hospital after the True Ending for the same reason : it's often plain and plotless and boring. And, fuck, my favorite books and mangas and such are slice of life, I'm all for mundane plots! But there's a difference between a mundane plot/realism and just no plot at all.
(This is not, like, an attack of OMORI writers who make schoolfics or fics that start with the above mentioned premise, btw, I want to make that very clear. It's very much a personal preference. I think it's boring because all of the fics I read in Marvel had a very unique plot/premise is my point. And also because the characters were a lot more mature and complex. Different strokes for different folks)
I think that's what I'm kind of sad about. OMORI characters tend to be complex and morally grey in their own way, and people tend to forget about that because they're teenagers and obviously no one can do no wrong before the ripe age of 18. Children are all innocent and therefore cannot be more morally complex than cinnamon roll soft boys/girls (looking pointedly at Sunny, Aubrey and Basil. But mostly Basil). Also, I think people tend to straight-up forget that 16 year-olds aren't, like, 10? Of course they're not going to be as mature as grown adults, especially Sunny OMORI, Dissociative Amnesia World Champion, but like... When I was 16 reading OMORI fanfics, half the time I was like "a 16 year-old would not fucking say that". But also generally more mature characters are inevitably more interesting to explore to me because I prefer more mature themes — I'm simply extremely upset at the fact that people don't explore the complexity that's already there when they're 16, including the very mature themes that are already there.
TL;DR: I love middle aged sunflower, I love middle aged ships in general ! In fact, I will tend to prefer sunflower when it's aged up.
(... I probably should've led with that.)
#rant#cough. that was one hell of a rant#sorry as i mentioned i literally talked (read: complained) about this to two different people in the last week#i'm kind of insane about sunflower. very deranged. i have many thoughts about them.#don't ask me about characterization because I will make a whole fucking essay#(((ask me about characterization please i will make a whole fucking essay)))#ask#xxl1ghtxx#i am so sorry I spent half an hour writing an answer that shouldve just been 'I like them! :D' with a doodle#unfortunately I am not normal about sunflower and their age.#I NEED TO STOP OR I'M GOING TO RAMBLE MORE IN THE TAGS. JESUS#omori
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A Match(a) Made in Heaven: a Pokémon Fanfic- Chapter 1
Hello everyone!
I posted this on Ao3 yesterday so I figured I should post it over here too.
About a month ago, I started talking about the potential of shipping Carmine and Penny with @forwortuntodawn. Penny calls her pretty, Carmine loves being called pretty; they'd both be snarky together; their personalities would balance each other out... there's so much to love about them! Eventually I dragged several other friends into the CarPen pit with me, and here we are.
An extra-special thank you to the aforementioned KC, my #1 Beta Bestie and COO of CarPen. Rarepair Hell's more like heaven with you.
Thank you also to two other dear friends, @smilelikeaknife and @litlyre, who along with KC are the KEWLest writer pals ever. You all give me something to strive for, and I admire you all so much! Thank you for all your encouragement and all the laughs. Just as before, this and all CarPen content is for you. 💖💖💖
I hope you take a chance on this pairing, reader. I promise I will do my best to make it worth the read!
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Title: A Match(a) Made in Heaven
Fandom: Pokémon Scarlet and Violet
Pairing(s): Carmine x Penny, Arven x Juliana
Wordcount for this chapter: 6,549
Summary: "Hey, Red-n'-Blue," she murmured out the side of her mouth, "am I crazy, or is Juli putting out mad vibes with the tall chef guy?"
The shorter girl's gray eyes looked up at her. An eyebrow stretched towards her multicolored bangs. "You ARE crazy if you think we're going to gossip about my friends before you even learn our names, Stretch."
Carmine ropes Penny into her plans to get Arven and Juliana together, but she might end up focused on more than just that relationship...
Carmine x Penny and Juliana x Arven!
Also available on: Ao3
Support me on: Patreon | Ko-fi
A Match(a) Made in Heaven
Chapter 1: A Pact
Despite what anyone else, especially her brother, might say, Carmine was totally a generous and thoughtful person.
No, really!
She carefully observed others to determine things about them—their emotional state, their likes and dislikes, where they'd come from, their social status, all that type of stuff. Sure, sometimes her observations included just asking other well-informed individuals about persons of interest, but that was its own kind of savvy too, wasn't it? You had to know who to ask, after all.
One of the things that captured Carmine's interest the most lately was the romantic entanglements of her peers. She was a teenage girl and found such matters of the heart fascinating (It had nothing to do with "needing more hobbies" or being "too nosy for your own good, sis," thank you very much, Kieran. Hmph. As if he could talk, when his hobbies were 1) fanboying about an old legend, 2) obsessively training in Pokémon battles, and 3) there was no 3; that was the end of the list). And yeah, maybe sometimes she wished that the romantic drama involved her once in a while, but whatever. Being an observer was cool. Carmine was fine with just sitting on the sidelines. Absolutely. 100%.
It was fine, okay?!
Anyway, she'd recently met a girl from Paldea on a school trip. Juliana was her name. Short, dainty, shiny chestnut-colored hair, big sparkly cinnamon-brown eyes, perfect smile (not as perfect as her own, of course), magnetic personality. She was almost annoyingly cute, like a little mascot designed for people to immediately latch onto. Carmine had initially just thought of her as another lame outsider who'd come to goggle at their tiny backwater hometown. A good-for-nothing tourist.
Juliana had not been a good-for-nothing tourist.
Instead, she had been… probably the second genuine friend Carmine had ever had, after Amarys. She'd been Kiki's first genuine friend. Juliana had taken everything both siblings had thrown at her in stride, and still emerged from the mangled mess of misplaced resentment and jealousy and distrust as their ally and confidante. Though it pained Carmine to admit it, she owed much of her newfound understanding with her brother to Juliana.
(It pained her to admit it, and that was why Carmine had no intention of doing so to anyone but herself. Maybe Juliana, sometime, if Carmine was feeling generous; which, as we've established, was frequently, okay?)
The point was, Juliana was an almost impossibly good person and everyone liked her. Even Kieran had been irresistibly drawn into her thrall at first, totally infatuated within minutes of meeting her, despite Carmine's continual insistence that he not get suckered by anyone who pretended to be interested in lame ol' Mossui Town, talent in Pokémon battling notwithstanding. (Didn't he know that was how evil land development companies got their claws into vulnerable little rural towns, sending people out to get information from unsuspecting yokels before turning on them and erecting a mall or whatever?!) In this one particular instance, however, her caution had been unwarranted: Juliana really was the compassionate, pure-hearted little angel she appeared to be, except in battle, where she suddenly became a demon (or an ogre?) with an angel's face. Carmine had been forced to confront the fact that she had—inadvertently, mind—been keeping herself and her brother confined to their own little world, never letting anyone else get too close until Juliana waltzed in with that silly little cherubic smile of hers. She seemed to exist just to break them out of their shells, to get them to open their eyes to all the people and places they'd never cared to look at before.
It was because of this fresh perspective on things, this newly-discovered consideration for things outside her usual bubble, that Carmine came to be curious about Juliana's feelings.
At first, she was only interested because Kieran was all googly-eyed over her. She had to scope out anyone who might eventually become part of their family, right? She couldn't let anyone get all buddy-buddy with her brother if they were just going to break his heart.
(It turned out that her efforts to watch over the two of them, to protect her brother's feelings and safety, had only cemented Kieran getting his heart broken—though not for the reasons she feared.)
(Whatever, Carmine wasn't thinking about that right now. Not again.)
Juliana had treated her brother with kindness, acceptance, and good humor. She had always worn a gentle smile, and frequently asked Kieran what he wanted to do, where he wanted to go, what he thought about things.
Actually, she had been so considerate of Kiki that at times Carmine had found herself wondering whether Juliana had any thoughts or desires of her own.
This willingness to let others take the lead had nearly tricked Carmine into believing that Juliana was weak-willed, but it turned out that their new friend was merely one of those people that kept their own thoughts hidden for fear of hurting others.
Hmph. Like that ever turned out well.
(Carmine did not envy Juliana's selfless nature. Not one bit… that she would ever admit to out loud, anyway.)
Regardless, she had gleaned from her careful observation—and okay fine, consulting other people—that Juliana was not interested in Kiki. Not in a romantic context, anyway. She seemed to dote on him in an almost sisterly way, which Carmine tried not to be too offended by. Kiki already had the world's best sister, thank you very much. But she understood. Kieran had a way of making you want to protect him, take care of him, even when he was being an antisocial little jerk.
Or maybe that was just Carmine that felt that way, because it was Kiki.
Whatever; not important.
Where was she? Oh yeah. Juli friendzoning (brotherzoning?) Carmine's brother.
Though at first she had wondered what the hell Juliana's problem was in not responding to Kieran's obvious infatuation, Carmine was almost positive she knew the reason for it now:
Juliana was already in love with somebody.
For an annoyingly long time, she'd been stumped as to who the object of her friend's affections could be. Juli tended to treat everyone with the same level of friendliness and warmth, so it could have been anyone from back home in Paldea, or maybe one of her fellow students in the BB League Club, or perhaps even Carmine herself, if Juliana had had any taste.
(Okay, she at least knew it wasn't herself, but honestly, why not?! She was a catch, damn it!)
But as soon as Juli's closest friends from Paldea visited Kitakami—and, well, as soon as Carmine was no longer a mochi zombie—it had become pretty glaringly obvious who had captured her inscrutable Paldean pal's heart.
She lingered around him even when she didn't need to, sticking close at his side; glancing back at him when she got too far ahead; tucking her hair behind her ear as her warm brown eyes shyly flickered up to glimpse him. When he walked into a room, Carmine swore she could watch little flames spark to life in Juliana's eyes, see her smile spread like a spring bud opening its petals.
It would have been adorable, if it wasn't so hard to watch.
The guy—what was his name again? Carmine still hadn't committed it to memory—seemed just as enamored with Juliana. His gaze followed her as if magnetized whenever she moved around, wonder reflecting in his pretty turquoise eye, as if the short girl was an awe-inspiring sunset. He hovered around her like he was her guard dog, fixing an intimidating glare on anyone who dared get too close to his "little buddy," as he called her. He could have made a pretty good living as a bouncer or a bodyguard, with those muscular arms, wide shoulders supporting the most ridiculously oversized backpack Carmine had ever seen, and brooding expression that warned others to keep their distance… but it couldn't have been more clear that there was only one person he wanted to protect. He was gorgeous, honestly, but he seemed devoted to Juliana to the point where he could barely see anyone else, so he usually came off as surly and reserved unless she was around, at which point he pulled a complete 180 and became jovial and perfectly gentlemanly. What was his deal? Had Juli saved his life or something?
Despite his obvious admiration of her, he seemed content to just be near her, like she was the sun and he was a pathetic little weed growing by the side of the road. Juliana, similarly, seemed happy to just exist beside him. Evidently they weren't an item. Carmine wasn't even sure if either of them were aware that they looked at one another like the other person was an oasis in a desert.
She needed more context from someone who had been around them longer. Luckily, Juliana had brought two more of her female friends with her for this little visit, both of whom had also fallen victim to that renegade wannabe air-freshener's mind-control mochi.
The taller one was kind of intimidating. She had the reckless sort of hyperactive energy that Carmine was usually only used to seeing in wriggly Lillipup that hadn't been housetrained yet and knocked the fine china off the walls. She was friendly, but frankly, Carmine was afraid if she struck up a conversation with her, she would demand another 5 battles.
That left the other one—a small, scrawny girl with short, brightly-colored two-toned hair, enormous glasses, a frumpy gray sweater, and the cutest little Eevee backpack the world had ever known. She seemed quiet, her bespectacled eyes always moving over her surroundings like she was scanning them into a database. Or perhaps she was simply zoning out and was just very good at pretending otherwise. The few times Carmine had heard her speak, a rather posh Galarian accent had emerged, which had somewhat startled Carmine at first but now sort of fascinated her. Did she say so little because she was self-conscious about her accent, or did she just truly have little to say?
She intended to find out as she sidled up to her, her eyes still fixed on Juliana and What's-His-Face engaged in lively conversation. "Hey, Red-n'-Blue," she murmured out the side of her mouth, "am I crazy, or is Juli putting out mad vibes with the tall chef guy?"
The shorter girl's gray eyes looked up at her. An eyebrow stretched towards her multicolored bangs. "You are crazy if you think we're going to gossip about my friends before you even learn our names, Stretch," she said, and it kind of wasn't fair how her accent made everything she said sound more intelligent.
Carmine frowned. "Well, I bet you can't tell me mine either!"
The girl in the sweater shrugged, crossing her arms. "Make yourself more memorable, and then I'll consider it."
She scoffed, her temper beginning to flare already as she clenched a hand into a fist by her side. "How rude! Anyone would find a face like mine memorable!"
A smirk lifted one corner of the other girl's mouth. "Maybe the face you're making now, sure—talk about scary."
Carmine's mouth dropped open in shock, and then her other hand curled into a fist as well. "I—you—how dare you!" she sputtered. Her face was filling with indignant heat, but when her nails bit into her palms, the unexpected sensation worked to ground her. She'd just met this frumpy little runt; why was she letting her rile her up? She let her eyes fall closed, took a deep breath, and let it out before opening her eyes once more and staring right into those cold, appraising ones. "Yes, I agree, I'm so beautiful it can be scary," she fired back smoothly, tossing her hair over her shoulder. "But if it helps you remember me, fine. The name's Carmine." She threw out her best charming smile, the one she was fairly sure had stolen the hearts of many a wretched suitor that was simply too awed by her radiance to approach her. "Don't make me repeat it."
An intense thrill of satisfaction buzzed down her spine at the sight of those gray eyes widening behind the big round lenses, pale, slightly-sunken cheeks coloring slightly. "Hmph," was all the other girl said, though, as she averted her gaze and fiddled with the sleeves of her sweater. "I remembered your name anyway because your brother said it before, but whatever… guess your face is plenty memorable too."
Ha! It was big of her to admit it. "And you?" Carmine prompted, resting her hands on her hips.
The shorter girl locked eyes with her again, silent for a moment before thrusting out her hand. "Penny," she said, and Carmine read a challenge in the determined set of her mouth. "Better remember mine too, or I'm never telling you a thing about Arven."
Carmine was never one to back down from a challenge. "Nice to meet you, Penny," she purred as she squeezed Penny's hand. A grin crept across her face. "I have a feeling this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship…"
"I have a feeling I just made a pact with a demon," Penny replied mildly, but there was a smile growing on her face as well.
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Penny, Carmine would soon discover as they walked around the festival the next evening after making their little deal, was rather difficult to get information out of… unless you knew what to offer her in return.
Having used the rest of yesterday to talk to Penny about Kieran's and her own history with Juliana, she had decided that today she would focus on inquiring about Juliana's history with Arven. But she hadn't gotten any further than asking, "So like, what's their deal? How did they meet?" before Penny was raising an eyebrow at her, unimpressed.
"What, you want all this intel for free?" Her usual gray ensemble, which usually served to help her blend in, now stood out like a sore thumb amid all the festivalgoers in their traditional jinbei and sandals, but it was Penny's own fault for not accepting any of the clothes Carmine's grandparents had offered, in Carmine's opinion.
Carmine scoffed at the other girl's audacity, frustrated at being shut down before she'd even gotten her first bit of information. She had brought a small drawstring money purse for the festival, of course, but she'd really been planning on using it for—hey wait a second, why was she even considering paying this twerp for answering such a basic question?! "I don't think this really counts as 'intel'!" she huffed, attempting to toss her hair before remembering that Grandma had put it in an updo for her. "I could just ask Juli about it for free!" Juliana was probably wandering from stall to stall with Arven right about now, actually, their hands close enough to touch, but neither of them daring to close the distance. Even the thought of it was irritating.
"Hmm, you could," said Penny, nodding with a half-smile like Carmine had just passed some sort of secret test. She plucked a bit of Carmine's cotton candy without asking, then popped it into her mouth and silently dared Carmine to comment on it with the quirk of an eyebrow. "So why don't you, then?"
Carmine contemplated that for a minute. While it was true she could hear this straight from the source, she had a sneaking suspicion that Juliana would become flustered and evasive if she tried to probe her for information about Arven. "Juli's the type to downplay her own victories and gas up everyone else's," she finally settled on, also taking a nibble of her fluffy pink festival food. "And Arven…" She snorted. "If I asked him, I'd probably just get a sermon about how great Juliana is."
Penny's eyes were glinting behind her glasses. "Wowww," she said, drawing out the word in a way that was simultaneously sarcastic and yet mildly impressed. "Maybe you do have more than two brain cells knocking around in that pretty head of yours."
"Hey!" said Carmine sharply, and then a moment later, more hesitantly, "You think my head is pretty?"
The other girl just stifled a laugh, which was vexing. It had been a legitimate question! "All right, Carmine," Penny said after stealing another bit of sugary fluff, "the truth is I wasn't around for when they met, so I only know what they've told me. What I can tell you about firsthand is the perilous adventure we all went on that brought the four of us together as friends, buuuut…" She peered around at all the festival stalls, her gaze landing on the shaved ice. "I'm feeling kinda parched since I'm not used to talking so much…" Shrewd gray eyes flickered up to meet hers, prompting.
Carmine sighed. "What flavor might quench your thirst?" she asked flatly.
"Raspberry, please," Penny chirped, a bit of a spring in her step as they made their way over to the shaved ice stand, Carmine pulling out her purse.
***
"That's… that's so sweet!" Carmine burst out after Penny concluded her story. She blamed the thickness in her throat on the sugary cherry syrup, hiding her sniffle by ducking her head to take another bite of the shaved ice. "I can't believe she was there for him when he had to say goodbye to the Professor… geez, I thought Kiki and I had issues about our parents, but at least they were all right while they were around…" She clamped her mouth shut as she realized she'd gotten a little personal there with no preamble, and glanced over at her companion to gauge her reaction. She'd found herself rambling a bit yesterday, too, come to think of it.
Just as before when Carmine had accidentally entered Backstory Mode, Penny's expression hadn't changed, mostly because she was still digging into her blue-raspberry ice with a gusto that would suggest her little plastic spoon was actually an icepick. "Meh. We've kind of all got family issues of varying types," she said once she'd dislodged a syrup-soaked chunk to fling into her mouth. "Crazy that Arven's involved a time machine and a scavenger hunt for magic plants though, I'll give him that."
Oh, and the plants…! Carmine's eyes prickled with emotion at the reminder of the supplemental information Penny had provided—the part about Juliana helping to restore Arven's beloved partner Pokémon, Mabosstiff, to full health after he'd been injured by one of those crazy violent Pokémon the Professor had brought to this time period. Carmine couldn't even imagine something like that happening to her precious Mightyena. The mere notion of it made her lip wobble.
Yes, she thought as she plunged her spoon into the red ice for another mouthful of fake-fruity deliciousness, if someone had helped her save her Pokémon and then journeyed with her to a lawless pit to confront her own family issues, Carmine would also be hopelessly devoted to whoever it was. Her heart would start up a beat like those taiko drums making a racket over there every time she saw them, too. Arven looking at Juliana like the sun shone out of her ass made a lot more sense now. By comparison, Kiki's fascination with her when they'd first met seemed shallow, almost fanciful. Kieran had seen in Juliana a hero from a storybook that he longed to emulate and look up to, not a real-life hero who would take him by the hand to save him personally. It was no wonder Juliana had scarcely noticed the awed looks from Carmine's brother, if she was already used to being looked at like Arven looked at her. "Okay, y'know what?" Carmine decided. "I'm officially on board. I'm getting those two together."
For a few seconds there was only faint crunching as Penny stared at her and devoured her shaved ice. She had a lot of nerve looking at Carmine like she was the silly little child, when Penny was the one who had blue syrup dripping down her chin. "You think you can do that, huh?" she deadpanned. "You got the knowledge and tools to back up that confidence, toots?"
"W-Well…" Carmine pursed her lips and frowned, quite certain no one had said the word toots since last century. "No, I guess I don't…" If she could just win Penny over, she might have a chance, though.
In a move perhaps influenced by the Big Sister Instinct left over from when Kiki had been a baby, Carmine impulsively grabbed Penny's chin and used one of the napkins in her lap to wipe away the dribbling syrup. "But I do have you!" she finished her earlier statement, putting on her world-class charming smile again.
Penny, who had completely frozen up like the ice still lingering in her paper cup at the unexpected contact, blinked widened eyes before quickly regaining her composure. "Hmph," she scoffed, turning her face away and muttering something that sounded like maybe sometime if you're lucky. The flickering orange light cast by the standing stone lanterns near them made her cheeks look as if they were glowing pink.
"What?" said Carmine, having been unable to hear her words well over the din of the festival.
"I said shipping my friends is yucky!" the shorter girl growled as she faced Carmine again. Actually, maybe it was more than the lighting—her whole face looked slightly pink.
Carmine tilted her head slightly, perplexed. She could have sworn those weren't the same words Penny had muttered, but oh well. It probably hadn't been anything important. Things other people said scarcely ever were.
"Anyway..." Penny tossed her empty shaved ice cup into the trash can next to their bench, and Carmine wrinkled her nose as the shorter girl proceeded to wipe her hands on her leggings rather than just using a napkin. "I'm surprised you're not angling for Juliana to date your brother, actually. Weren't you going on about how good of an influence she is on him yesterday?"
She blinked, surprised that Penny had actually been listening then. Carmine had indeed rambled on about that a bit while explaining what Juliana had done for her and her brother, but as Penny had been tapping away at her phone the whole time and only giving an occasional yeah and oh, mm-hmm, she'd thought it hadn't really sunk in. "Well, it's true that I thought she might be good for him at first," she admitted, poking at her melting cherry ice a little, "but now that I reflect on things a bit more, maybe what Kieran needed was just… support." Her shoulders slumped as guilt pressed down on her again. "Support I shoulda been better at givin' him in the first place, as his family." Her voice, which had accidentally slipped a little into the vernacular Kieran still spoke with, was quiet. "I was just lookin' for Juli to solve my problems," she finished in a murmur.
"Psh." Penny's scoff made her sit up ramrod straight again, head whipping over in indignation. The expression Carmine saw on the other girl's face wasn't disdain or mockery, however. There was a wry smile lifting one half of her mouth, and a complicated sort of furrow between her brows. "Welcome to the club," she said, and Carmine realized that the look on her face was the same one Kieran wore whenever he said things like All that stuff happened 'cause no matter how strong my team got, my heart stayed weak or I get why no one would wanna waste their time on me anymore... no one to blame but myself, I s’pose. It looked like regret. Self-deprecation.
Had Juliana played a part in saving all of her friends from themselves, Carmine wondered?
Before she could ask about it, though, Penny was shrugging, watching a little kid in an Eevee mask tear up the stairs despite his father's protests that he slow down. "Well, good on you for realizing it, at least," Penny said as her eyes followed the kid's movement. "Guess you're not the oblivious princess you seem to be."
"I seem like a princess?" Carmine's voice was hopeful.
Penny's gaze snapped to meet hers again in surprise, and this time when she laughed, she didn't stifle the joyful sound. Her eyes crinkled up, and the unguarded smile that broke her usual deadpan facade seemed to transform her. "How... how is that what you got out of that statement?" she asked incredulously, shaking her head as she almost doubled over.
She was laughing at Carmine. Carmine should have been outraged. But somehow, hearing Penny laugh felt like witnessing a rare natural phenomenon—like a rain shower in the sunlight, or something like that. She couldn't help but avert her eyes, confused at the strange bubbly feeling that had just sparked in her stomach. An answering smile crept across her face without her realizing it.
"Okay, Your Highness," Penny said, laughter still lingering on the edges of her words as she got to her feet. "This has been fun, but I've gotta get my hands on one of those masks now."
"What?" Carmine's eyebrows flew up in surprise. "I thought you didn't want to dress up for the festival!" And after she'd been offered the cutest jinbei, too!
"That was before I knew there was an Eevee mask." There was a particular sparkle in Penny's eyes that reminded Carmine of Kieran's whenever he used to get hyped up about the ogre legend (though she guessed she could no longer call it a legend). "I will obtain one of those masks or die trying," she declared solemnly.
"Did you not see how terrifying it looked on that kid?" Carmine pointed out, getting up as well and throwing out her empty shaved ice cup. "I get that you like Eevees, but you're gonna make kids scream if you walk around in that." Heck, Juliana's other Paldean friend, Nemona, had already frightened people earlier, barreling up to passersby to ask for Pokémon battles wearing that uncanny Pikachu mask she'd bought.
"It's the principle of the thing," Penny informed her with a shrug, jamming her hands in her sweater pocket. "I see Eevee things, I get Eevee things. Also, I want to get back at Nemona for that hideous Pikachu mask."
"Fair enough."
Penny hadn't invited Carmine to keep walking around the festival with her, but somehow that was how it turned out. They went from stall to stall, arms close enough to touch, but both of them comfortable enough to not worry about it.
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Carmine was used to being the one who could wheedle others into doing what she wanted. Once she figured out someone's weakness, it was only too easy to use it to her advantage. From the time she was a little girl, Carmine had become a master of sucking up to influential distant relatives who might throw some financial support her family's way; of flattering popular kids so they allowed her to hang around them and left her brother alone; of flirting with stupid teenaged tourists who were hoping to sucker an ignorant little country girl but ended up getting bled dry themselves instead. It had become somewhat more difficult the older she got—teens and adults were much harder to dupe than children, after all, and as cunning as she was, her wits regrettably almost never exceeded those of richer, more well-connected peers or socially-savvy adults—but for the most part, she was still fairly confident in her abilities.
With her newest acquaintance, though, she found that she had somehow become the sucker in this equation, continually promised juicy tidbits of information which were withheld from her until she provided some sort of compensation. She would have been angrier about it, if she wasn't so begrudgingly impressed. Penny wasn't even fake-nice about her demands like Carmine would have been—she would just hold out her hand and say, "What do you have to make it worth my while this time?"
Despite this, though, Carmine didn't dislike hanging around Penny during the 3 extra days the Paldean friends spent in Kitakami after the festival had concluded. Her snarky, quietly muttered remarks often made Carmine stifle snorts of laughter, she was surprisingly easy to talk to (if you didn't mind being looked at like you were an idiot), and she was content to let Carmine have all the attention in social situations if she could linger in the background. She'd also called Carmine pretty a few times, though she wasn't sure whether the other girl really meant it as a compliment or a mocking statement.
As for Arven and Juliana, she couldn't find many opportunities to ask them questions about one another (plus Penny said she shouldn't bother them on their vacation, and well, that was valid, she supposed), and it was a bit difficult to observe them without making them suspicious (Penny had also called her a voyeur when she attempted to follow them, and had dragged her away with a strength Carmine hadn't known she had).
It was fine, though. Those two lovebirds were definitely going to get together, especially now that she had recruited one more Cupid (albeit a reluctant one)! Even when Carmine couldn't be there back in Paldea, Penny would keep her updated on any updates via messaging.
"You will keep me updated on any developments on the Juli-and-Arven thing, right?" Carmine pressed her partner in crime—matchmaking, she meant; her partner in matchmaking—as the 4 Paldean students waited at the bus stop for their ride to the airport. Carmine and Kieran had of course accompanied them to say goodbye.
Penny rolled her eyes and sighed. Her hair was still sticking up a little in the back, and there were circles under her eyes that stood out against her pale skin—evidently, she wasn't the best at waking up in the morning. Though the summertime insects cried out noisily and the birds cheeped in the trees, the early morning light was still a sleepy orange haze on the horizon. "Yeah, yeah. But you know it's not gonna happen faster with us scrutinizing it, right? The watched pot never boils and all that?"
"I've never heard that saying," said Carmine primly, lying through her teeth.
The shorter girl pushed up one side of her glasses to rub at her eye with the heel of her hand as she yawned, not even bothering to hide it. It reminded Carmine a little of how Ninetales yawned. "Well," said Penny when she could speak again, "thanks for hanging out with me during this visit, I guess, though I know you had ulterior motives." She fixed Carmine with a lopsided smile. "Despite the crappy cell service and you dragging me around to spy on my friends, I still had fun. I'll kinda miss it here."
Carmine abruptly realized that she had made a friend, completely by accident, and was now going to have to say goodbye to her.
"I… I'll miss having everyone here, too," she blurted, words clumsy with the unfamiliar sentiment. Her gaze dropped to the ground, and she felt fidgety all of a sudden. "But don't be a stranger, all right? You can message me—"
"—if there are any developments with those two; I know," Penny finished with another sigh.
"For any reason," Carmine corrected her firmly, taking a step closer. "You can message me whenever you want." She held out her hand like Penny had done not so long ago. "We're… we're friends now, right?"
Penny stared at Carmine's outstretched hand, eyebrows raised, and then lifted her eyes to lock onto Carmine's. What she saw must have reassured her, because a quiet smile stretched across her face, and she returned the handshake, her small hand cool against Carmine's. "Sure," she said. It might have sounded dismissive from someone else, but the warmth in that single word told Carmine that her acceptance was genuine.
Carmine grinned, joy sparking bright in her chest like a firecracker, as she squeezed her new friend's hand.
After Juliana had hugged Carmine and Kieran both about 3 more times, and goodbyes were exchanged all around, the bus arrived, and the 4 Paldean visitors were on their way.
"I'm surprised ya got so close with them, Sis," Kieran pointed out as they trekked back to Mossui Town from the bus stop. "You're usually so eager for outsiders to get out as soon as possible."
Carmine hummed, her eyes following the Yanma as they came to light gracefully on the standing pools of water in the rice paddies, only to flit away again moments later with a quiet buzz of their wings. "Maybe some outsiders aren't so bad. I wouldn't have minded if they'd stayed longer," she admitted.
Kieran gawped at her. "Wowzers," he breathed, almost tripping on a stone in the road. "Sounds like you're growin' up."
She reached her foot over to kick at his heel playfully. "I don't want to hear that from my little brother. And eyes on the road or you'll go toppling into a pit, dummy."
Kieran stuck out his tongue at her. "I'll just pull you in with me," he promised, and then took off at a jog ahead of her. "Race ya back to the house!"
She couldn't help but smile. Only a month ago or so, Kieran would never have let himself act so childishly. It felt like catching a glimpse of the little brother she'd known while they grew up, chasing each other around Kitakami Road with sticks, laughing and smiling despite the skinned knees and bandaged elbows and muddy shoes. "No fair; you got a head start!" she complained, breaking into a run to catch up.
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Her phone chimed, and Carmine immediately snatched it up to check it. As she'd suspected, it was a reply from Penny.
she's sitting across from him at lunch. but before u ask: no i don't think they're playing footsie
She suppressed a laugh and merely smiled, tapping out a reply: Well, maybe you should put the idea in their heads!
and how do u suggest i do that miss mind control?
Carmine let a snort escape at that before starting on another reply.
"Sis?"
Kieran's voice pulled her back down to earth from the little world she always went to when she was texting Penny. Her eyes found him, gazing at her perplexed from where he sat at his desk. Carmine was sprawled out across his bed, having come here to get some quiet study time since Kieran rarely had guests at his dorm room. "What?" she prompted him.
"I've been tryin' to get your attention for the last couple minutes," said Kieran, frowning at her. "Are you textin' that Eevee girl again?" He shook his head. "Seems like you're talkin' to her all day sometimes."
"Her name is Penny," Carmine sniffed, sitting up straighter and pointedly putting the phone aside, "and I do not text her all day." They’d have to be in the same time zone to do that, she reasoned to herself.
Kieran looked unconvinced. "Sure. Look, I'm glad ya have a friend an' all, but if you're just gonna sit there and text the whole time, why bother comin' to my room to do it?"
"Your room's quieter," she defended herself. "And is it so unusual that I would want to spend time with my precious baby brother?"
"Yes," Kieran deadpanned, raising his eyebrows. "Seems to me like you're just usin' me and Penny to procrastinate doin' any work."
She scoffed in feigned outrage, even though he'd partially hit the mark. "How rude!"
Privately, though, she was glad he hadn't caught on to her additional motive: keeping tabs on Kieran. Ever since he'd fallen into that self-destructive spiral of his last semester, she'd been trying to keep a closer watch on him when they returned to Blueberry Academy. She’d been haunted by the memory of being so powerless, and was determined to prevent it from ever happening again. Every now and then she was still plagued with nightmares about Kieran descending alone into a shadowy pit; Kieran's eyes, cold and devoid of light; Kieran's cheeks becoming more sunken and gaunt until his uncanny smile became that of a grinning skull's. She would wake up gasping, eyes sticky with unshed tears, a scream still caught in the back of her throat as fear and guilt clashed in her stomach.
She'd been so grateful for Juliana sticking her nose where it didn't belong back then. But there was a part of her that still felt… bitter. Wounded. Someone without any siblings had had to come along and do a better job of pulling Kieran's head out of his ass than she could, and as thankful as Carmine was that Juliana had been that someone, it had also left her with her pride as a big sister damaged.
Surprisingly, Penny had proven to be a great source of comfort in that regard. It turned out that she was a little sibling herself, and recently, whenever Carmine found herself worried about Kiki, she'd message Penny, who would usually tell her to stop hovering over him and let him make his own mistakes. She'd also advised just telling Kieran that she was concerned about him, but she couldn't do that, could she?
just be honest and tell him ur worried, Penny had said the last time Carmine consulted her about this. or if u can't do that, at least threaten to forcefeed him a vegetable. my big sis said that to me once. it was obnoxious but i guess the sentiment's appreciated, lol.
"I… want to make sure you're eating properly," she ventured, catching Kieran's attention before he went back to studying from his textbook. "You lost so much weight before, Kiki…"
Carmine caught the way her brother's eyes widened for a moment before he looked away, putting on a nonchalant face. "I eat fine," he grumbled, his cheeks coloring slightly. "And even if I didn't, what're you gonna do about it? You can't even make tea without Sinistcha's help…"
She jumped off the bed, catching Kiki in a headlock and grinding her knuckles into his dark hair with her other hand. "You've got a lotta nerve insulting your big sister like that! I can totally cook if I want to!"
"Agh, no, not the noogie!" Kieran squawked, flailing in her grip. "All right, fine, you can cook, geez!"
"You're darn right I can!" Satisfied, she released him, popping her hands on her hips. "But I don't feel like it, so I'm going to treat you to a meal instead. Feel free to tell me how generous I am."
Kieran sighed, but there was a reluctant smile on his face as he smoothed his hair back down. "You're a real piece of work, Sis," he said, but Carmine heard the gratitude hidden behind the complaint.
Well, either that, or Carmine was very good at only hearing what she wanted to hear. She'd been told things like that before.
She made a mental note to thank Penny for her advice as she and her brother made their way to the Cafeteria.
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Next time: Penny comes to Blueberry as a special coach, and both girls go to a party! I hope you'll look forward to it, and thank you for reading! 💕
#pokemon#pokemon scarlet and violet#pokemon sv#arviana#carpen#stuff i write#carmine#penny of team star#rival kieran#indigo disk#mochi madness
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Thoughts on sun/moon symbolism?
What a fascinating question to get with no context whatsoever! I have no idea how to answer it. Do you mean in general? In literature? In fandom? In The Old Guard in particular? Or just any thoughts I might happen to have lying around like spare change?
I'm going to go with the spare change approach.
First, a slight tangent: I got into the Old Guard fandom after having never been involved in fandom in more than a superficial way before. This means, for example, that I had no idea what the common fanfic tropes were. I'd see something and be like "my goodness! How creative! However did they think of that?" and it took a while to realize that's just, like, a thing that everyone knows about. "An AU in which one of them is a florist and the other a tattoo artist, that's interesting, I wonder what the draw was of those particular jobs..."
Anyway I saw a lot of sun/moon symbolism in art and fic, and sure, that makes sense, Joe calls Nicky "the moon when I'm lost in darkness," I dig it, it seems pretty popular. Then I joined tumblr (I started reading fic in summer 2020, joined a TOG Discord server in fall 2020, and didn't create a tumblr account until fall 2021. And I discovered that sun/moon symbolism is also a fandom thing, and people apply it to characters even when one of them doesn't call the other the moon. There was even a sun/moon character poll and I got very melodramatic about it just because it was a fun community bonding event.
But the thing is... after more than three years of TOG activity and especially after more than two years on tumblr and seeing how much of what happens in TOG happens elsewhere... I really don't have a whole lot of interest in tropes that tend to force characters into opposites/binaries. Joe = sun = warm, bright, passionate, loud, cheerful/ Nicky = moon = cool, pale, calm, quiet, inexpressive... they are so similar. They really really are. (They are also not the main characters and appear in a single two-hour movie, so most conclusions about their personalities and habits are extrapolated from very small details. Let's be honest, we've thought way more about this stuff than the writer and actors did and most of it is only one step above 'made up'.)
Also one of my pet peeves hates pet peeves is people trying to force these guys into some kind of weird heteronormative funhouse-mirror version of themselves that's just an awful tangle of misogyny and homophobia and racism. "Let's cast them as opposites" tends to overlap a little with this approach (so then you also get Joe = big, dominant, masculine, aggressive/ Nicky = small, submissive, feminine, meek) and that just makes me even more suspicious of the whole thing.
So... yeah. Those are my thoughts. I will say we've gotten some lovely fan art out of it.
#the old guard#anon i hope you were prepared for this#but if you ask me a question and don't specify the context it'll probably end up at TOG
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Now that we're entering into 2024, I'm asking some artists and writers that I follow:
1) What is the one piece you're most proud of from this past year?
2) What are some pieces that you would have liked more people to see? If you can include links, I'd love to go check them out!
3) What were your top three favorite pieces (art, comics, fics, etc) that someone else has made this past year?
(As always, no pressure to respond! Feel free to just ignore, or let me know if you'd rather I not send you these kinds of asks in the future.)
Hihi!! I have a ton of unanswered asks but i wanted to do this one because it's really lovely :) thank you
(answers under the cut)
This is such a hard question! This year was full of art that made me really happy. If i had to pick ONE I think it would be this
I made it in three hours flat in a vc with my friends and honestly I'm very proud of it!! It feels like a culmination of all the exploration and studying I've been doing the past year.
Here's the post :D
2. I've made so much stuff that I just. want everyone to see, always. So here are some highlights!
Leo doodle
Random sunset experiment
My dragon oc <3
Leo, screaming (tw for messed up faces, noose, blood, general disturbing imagery)
mmmmmm drez
OC witch art!!! I'm so proud of this actually but pretty much nobody saw it :(
THIS DRAWING I SPENT EIGHT HOURS OH MY GOD
Those are the main ones I think
3. uueuueueueuue there have been SO MANY GOOD ONES. AAA
I really don't know what to put so I'm going to say any artwork by @/sanfezu (their art style is just my favourite thing ever), all of the artwork by any of my mutuals, and specifically this artwork by SamDoesArts. I think it is very cool.
Fanfics are a bit easier. There are a whole bunch of fics that I find super interesting! With a small warning to read tags, the ones that I found myself coming back to over and over were:
The Lemonade Leak
tied together through thorns and ribbons
Sewer Rat Disposables
Times Five
moral of the story
The Blood In My Veins
Where In the World Is Neon Leon?
Creation, Haunted and Holy
Power Up
Minor Interference
The Analogous Hues series
...I know that's a bit more than three but in my defense. Listen. There's so much good stuff out there!! I love it all!!
Anyways, Thank you for the ask <3 I had a lot of fun looking back over the last year.
#if i read as many books as I did fanfics i think i would be set for life.#i would simply have so much knowledge you don't even understand#ty for the ask!#i seriously recommend checking out the fanfics I've listed here (if the tags don't bother you at all)#they made me Feel Things
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What are your mutual awards?
i'm so sorry it took me so a while to get to this ㅠㅠ partly bc i suck at thinking of cutesy awards to hand to my mutuals but here we go anyway~
p.s. i'm an actual Sap that says way too much so i'm hiding all this under a cut 🧍♀️
@hwanghyunjinenthusiast — i'm giving you the #1 hypeman award bc you're always so supportive of all the writers in the community 💘 literally every time i see your feedback towards both mine and other ppl's fics i smile a little bc u'll always be part of the reason why people would want to stay and do what they love doing on this hellsite 😽
(i'll also hand you the homie award bc you put up with each and every one of my antics whether it's spite writing or my shenanigans with skz 🤩🤩 our moot means sooo much to me, i hope we remain pals for a long, long time 🛐)
@toruro — you get the social butterfly award bc you're very interactive and easygoing to speak with 🦋 it's always a neat and dandy day whenever i see mika toruro sliding into my inbox to ask about my day. you're the sweetest, always 💘
@multi-kpop-fanfics — you're more than worthy of the best supporter award 🥇 because you almost always read my stuff moments after i post em 😭 i'll also be handing you a phd in making me lose my mind because i have not forgotten that one time i binged through the zeta fic discography (that and i'm still suffering from irreversible psychic damage courtesy of half past five high🧍♀️)
@duhnova — you immediately get the enabler award bc we always egg each other on to spend exorbitant amounts of money for little kpop boys printed on paper 🤒 an additional would be the (talks a lot) (listens) award bc you're always there to hear out everything i air out under the sun 🥹🥹 i hope you know that i'll gladly do the same for you 💘💐
@sluttyminghao — definitely the top contender for the all in a day's work award bc damn ?? you're always so consistent with putting out content?! i will actually fight every single ingrate in your inbox with my bare hands bc it takes so much dedication to cater to all the reqs you receive 🥹
@junkissed — june junkissed gets the osmosis award bc i swear i didn't love jun as much as i do now that we're mutuals 🧍♀️ it's your effect, i believe
@cheolhub — you're getting the nation's sweetheart award bc everyone is absolutely enamored w you (myself included <3) both ur moots and anons would do anything for you i fear ! 💐💐
@gyukult — gyu deserves the holy shit how did we become friends award bc i still can't believe u're in my dms talking abt cute merch w me when i was Just losing my mind over ybny a few weeks ago ㅠㅠ
@rubyreduji — *hands you the life of the dash award* bc you always fill my dashboard with ur shenanigans (along w mika) nd it's nice seeing fellow writers just vibing~ i'd love to talk to you more 🤝🤝
(p.s. sheep in wolf's clothing did a number on my wellbeing so i hope you're ready to take responsibility for your actions)
@etherealyoungk — i would like to give you the refreshing award bc every time i see you on my dash, i just think oh it's skye, i hope they're having a nice day ^_^ bc ur vibe just generally puts me in a good mood for some reason ASKJDKA
@97-liners — i actually thought abt it for a while if i should tag you bc i didn't wanna seem overly familiar but i'm awarding you the funniest person to ever exist in caratblr award bc i eat up your text posts like i've got munchies 24/7 🧍♀️
(i've always been a liiittle reluctant to interact bc surprise i'm actually capable of being shy ! but i'm shooting my shot now bc you're cool and i really love how your humor translates to your writing as well 🥰)
i reaaally wanted to make this stuff w all my mutuals but the brain is Not braining so lmk if you'd like one nd i'll personally write you a love letter on top of the silly little award i'd give out 😽
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CIG my emojis are a little cooked because I'm an Android girlie BUT, I screenshot 4 below for you (if that's too many, don't feel as if you have to answer them all):
also please feel free to interpret the eggplant one as your favourite nsfw fic instead of the most popular if you wish!
💜💜💜💜
Thank you! 🥰
Sometimes I do drink and write, yes. Tbh, I typically have a great time writing while wine-drunk – and end up really liking what I’ve written. In a way, that worries me! I mean, who do I think I am? Bloody Charles Baudelaire? So I’m careful not to do it too often.
Spicy stuffs! Yes I do and I’m all for it. My personal fave is When Soulmates Swim. It’s set around season one so TK and Carlos are just getting to know each other, and I wanted to emphasise that their sexual connection is blowing their minds. While they’re doing it they’re like why is this so good??? What’s happening??? Why am I leaving the planet??? It was really fun to write them having great sex that was also clumsy and silly.
The WIP Flashback Fic started life as something very different. Gabriel being alive after season 4 was vital for the plot to work. I could have kept it going as an AU, but my heart just wasn’t in it. I scrapped about 20k and made lots of changes. I think Flashback Fic is my favourite thing I’ve written (and I can’t wait to share!), and it wouldn’t have been written without Gabriel dying…but I’ll always be sad that the show killed him off like they did anyway. Naughty show! (I love you 911LS come back!!!)
Lots of IRL people know I write fanfic! I’ve told: My mum: Hilariously supportive. I told her the show involves ‘a hot cop’ and she asked, “Do other people think the cop is hot as well?” and I said “Yes we are all in agreement about that.” She was pleased. My brother: A literary snob; a writer too. He was hilariously unsupportive at first, but then came around to the idea. The majority of my friends and my work team: All of them want me to link them to my Ao3 account, but I never ever will. Two lawyers at work who I happened to have a meeting with about half an hour after I found out I’d been plagiarised: I literally ended up taking legal advice. They were also very supportive while simultaneously bewildered. The deputy director of my work department because one of the lawyers got drunk and told her: Dep. Director said “well – your mistake was being so talented.” So, what I’ve learned is that people are actually very cool about it - or have been so far, anyway.
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🦋🌻💭📚💌
Thanks for the ask!
🦋 Which character is your favourite to write?
Joseph 100%. Normal over him. He's the main focus of almost if not all my fics regarding jjba. I want to branch out my fics. But he exists! Why write anything else when Joseph's there. So much to think about and delve into. I'm going to explode him in my mind <3
🌻 How often do you read your own fics?
...Not much, actually! Sometimes if I want to reread awesome comments I've gotten from readers I'll reread the fic (or part of it) so I can really love and appreciate the comment for loving and appreciating certain parts of the fic. I just. See all the flaws and things I could've made better after the fact so I just...don't. Can't feel bad about it if it's not there!
💭 What inspires you and your writing?
Dreams and life experiences! My dreams tend to be. Things for sure! So they're always a good thing to use to gain ideas for fics. My life has also been quite whacky! It gives me fic plot ideas too. And then sometimes it gives me ideas for stuff in a more workaround way. Like for example. I want to write a horror fic. I think about my biggest fears/the scariest things that have happened to me. I then write about those things! I understand why the things scare me/why the event was scary, and so I can effectively make a scary fic! And so forth for other things and situations.
📚 Is there a fanfic or fanfic writer you reccomend?
Obligatory @kirstenonic05 reccomendation. If I don't take the opportunity to hype up a mutual of mine and reccomend their stuff I experience rapid organ failure.
That out the way. I know you like Sonic and because this is an ask game I'd orient reccomendations towards your interests rather than a general scope. And I don't really look at Sonic fics too much because man is it hard to find something I want to read. Ough. So I...don't really have much to reccomend here! There was this one Sonic Unleashed rewrite fic though...I just can't remember the name...let me look for it. Ah! It's Where's the Beauty in this Beast? It's a very nice rewrite/take on Unleashed's plot. It's been updated since I last read it actually...oh my. I gotta go reread it damn I DIDN'T SUBSCRIBE TO THE FIC...DAMN... Anyways! The fic also explores what goes on with Shadow and GUN during Unleashed's events, and that's pretty neat! Always wondered how Shadow would be doing amidst all that.
💌 Is there a favourite trope you like to write?
Hmm...characters sharing a bed and sleeping together, I think! The intimacy is cool, allows for a lot of my thoughts on the characters to come out, it's a very vulnerable thing to do yk. I've written almost only ship stuff (most normal caejose enjoyer), but damn. I'm going to write sharing a bed and sleeping together and holding hands and that sort of stuff platonically. More of that sort of stuff needs to exist and I will provide it and NOBODY CAN STOP ME
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20 questions for fic writers!
tagged by @monstersinthecosmos
1. how many works do you have on ao3?
seven on the account that i use now! but i have another account i used in high school that has a few on it as well.
2. what’s your total Ao3 word count?
49,591
3. what fandoms do you write for?
currently it’s just TVC!
4. what are your top five fics by kudos?
june bride, red with need, save a horse, you come in so hard, and gold rush!
5. do you respond to comments?
yes! when my brain lets me open up emails i love responding!
6. what is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?
you come in so hard isn’t finished yet but when it is. oh boy. apologies in advance.
7. what is the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?
what if i said gold rush. it’s a happy ending to ME.
8. do you get hate on fics?
no! not yet anyways. i was really nervous when i posted my first marimand fic bc i know the climate isn’t.. great. when it comes to that ship. but no i can’t say i have! which is good bc i’d probably cry lol.
9. do you write smut? if so, what kind?
i mostly write smut hshshs. mainly stuff like breeding kink and/or omegaverse. imagine coming from the fandom that invented the omegaverse to here. i was scandalized to say the least. so i became the omegaverse i wanted to see in the fandom 😌
10. do you write crossovers? what’s the craziest one you've written?
so full disclaimer i was deep in the superwholock trenches back in the day. so ofc i’ve written that. as for fics i’ve actually posted. well. the crucial thing to note is that back when hannibal was still airing it was very common to see crossovers between various characters played by mads and hugh. there was a popular ship referred to as “space dogs” which was a popular crossover ship. i wrote an omegaverse au of it (naturally) and i still, TO THIS DAY, get kudos on it.
11. have you ever had a fic stolen?
not to my knowledge!
12. have you ever had a fic translated?
the aforementioned space dogs omegaverse fic was actually translated into spanish years after it was published! it made me so emotional that someone cared enough to want it translated 🥹
13. have you ever co-written a fic before?
no! but @waffles-for-brunch and i keep talking about how we’re gonna write a destiel fic together someday. we had an amnesia fic plotted out and more recently a genderswap fic. i so graciously offered to write the lesbian sex for it.
14. what’s your favorite all time ship?
no ship will ever be destiel i’m sorry.
15. what’s a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will?
this one genuinely makes me so sad but i have a supernatural rewrite where mary never resurrects john thus sam and dean are never born and so ruby has to groom mary to be the lucifer vessel and it fucks SO hard. it’s so fucking cool. but i doubt it will ever be finished bc A) it needs to be So Long and B) literally nobody else would care for it except for me. but like. i put so much time and effort into plotting it out. and what’s written so far is So Good.
16. what are your writing strengths?
i think i write good smut! lol but also i’ve been told i have good little descriptors that pack a lot of punch? idk.
17. what are your writing weaknesses?
i don’t think i’m very good at pacing. you come in so hard is the longest fic i’ve ever written and it feels like such a mess hshshshs. also i NEVER feel confident in my dialogue.
18. thoughts on writing dialogue in another language?
/holds up google translate with tears in my eyes/ this is all i got
19. first fandom you wrote for?
i wrote twilight fic when i was just a wee lass, before i even knew what fanfic was. the first fandom i purposefully wrote fic for, after learning properly what it was, is supernatural femslash. to no one’s surprise.
20. favorite fic you’ve written?
i have an unpublished annamary fic that’s collecting dust in my drafts that is genuinely the best thing i’ve ever written. in my opinion. and i always think about posting the first chapter bc like, it deserves to be seen bc i think it’s really good. but i’m not planning on finishing it anytime soon so idk if i wanna drop it and dip. but like. you guys don’t understand how proud i am of it. ITS GOOD.
tagging: @waffles-for-brunch @fofoqueirah @cinnamonclove @aunteat @butchybats & whoever else hasn’t done it but wants to!
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author ask tag game
tagged by @scribbling-stardust! you can find her post here. putting this whole thing under the cut because boy is it Long. as for the tag... uh whoever I've tagged below who wants to hop in ig (no pressure tho!!)
What is the main lesson of your story (e.g. kindness, diversity, anti-war), and why did you choose it?
Honestly my themes kind of grow from the story instead of the other way around, but overall I'd say it's something along the lines of discrimination and how dangerous hate can be. (<< sounds cool, has no idea how she's going to actually write this) But I will say there's a lot of like - mini themes in it too, because each character has their own issues and needs to learn different things to grow. Stuff about communication, about self-care, about finding yourself, about courage, etc etc. Very scattered, ik.
What did you use as inspiration for your worldbuilding (like real-life cultures, animals, famous media, websites, etc.)?
I'd say there's a lot of like?? Mythological creatures?? Y'know the classics like vampires and werewolves and selkies and what not. And then I just. Turn it all on its head. All the myths of them still exist in-universe - they're just wildly inaccurate because humans have been passing the stories down for decades. In actuality, Beasts are much more different.
(Also and this is rather embarrassing to admit, but I've been stealing aHeM taking inspiration for characters from all of the media I've been watching. Which is. Mostly anime. Plus some worldbuilding details from fanfic aus I've thought up.)
What is your MC trying to achieve, and what are you, the writer, trying to achieve with them? Do you want to inspire others, teach forgiveness, help readers grow as a person?
Honestly? I have no idea. As of now, he's mostly trying to survive. I think the issue with Crys is that largely he's not someone who actually has a goal he wants to achieve?? The growth he experiences is not a thing he really decides he wants, but more something he needs, which the narrative basically has to drag him into. As for me... mostly I just want to write my stories and have them reach someone somewhere. It's probably the same for a lot of us who share those stories.
How many chapters is your story going to have?
No idea. 40-something?? 50??? I always underestimate my end wordcount and my chapters vary wildly in length.
Is it fanfiction or original content? Where do you plan to post it?
Original content!! I've been thinking about tweaking some stuff in Crow Wings (book 1) after I've finished first drafting Witch's Book (book 2), then I'll probably throw it up on ao3 and maybe simultaneously post it here.
When and why did you start writing?
Sometime when I was a kid I think?? I'm pretty sure I was vaguely upset and bored and then I just picked up a pencil and started going at it. It was titled 'Survival' and it was basically a ripoff of I Am Number Four, littered with grammar and spelling mistakes, and all the cringefail, mary sue tropes small me could think up. I kid you not, the main character was named Emma, she had blond hair and blue eyes, and she was so good at fighting she was better at it then boys, even. Gasp!! Color me surprised!!!!!
Anyway I still have it with me due to nostalgia reasons but it is hidden in my drawer under my bed where the light of day will never reach. Don't judge me, I was like nine.
Do you have any words of engagement for fellow writers of Writeblr? What other writers of Tumblr do you follow?
We're all friends here and we're all still learning, so don't be afraid to share your work!! Something you feel might not be "good enough" is a story someone out there will love - and take it from a person with low self-confidence, your writing's often not as bad as you think! :D (also c'mon. it can't be worse than what nine-year-old me thought up.)
As for writers... well I am following a lot of people but I'm just gonna tag a few of my mutuals. There's @lyssa-ink (my first ever writeblr mutual!!! she does fantasy with a lot of immortals, fae and court politics), and also @reneesbooks (go check out lacuna. birdie is adorable and jack is so funny to me). Also @macabremoons (vampires. lots of vampires. also super fun to talk to!!!), @sidhewrites (love graveyard lesbians. kaz is an absolute disaster and lucy is just so!!!), and @loopyhoopywrites (the Ex-Quest is peak comedy. every excerpt I read leaves me wheezing). I don't talk as much with @space-writes, @e-klair, @sapphos-scientist or @squarebracket-trick, but they're all lovely, talented writers and I really appreciate that they let me yell about Beast at them!!! There's also @scribbling-stardust (one of my most recent moots. her oc dahlia and my oc dahlia are literally twins. it's hilarious). Lastly, closing off with @allianaavelinjackson, who isn't very active on tumblr but is nonetheless always available to brainstorm (read: listen to me go insane) over Beast. Love ya <3
#this has gotten insanely long#if I forgot any of you I am so sorry#writeblr#my posts#tag game#beast#wip: beast#I feel like this last part is basically a repeat of the writeblr positivity tag but!!! reminding yall once again that you are awesome!!!!
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Bro, I just discorved your "Hands that hurt" fic and deadass read through it the whole night until I noticed it was already day 💀 like man did I srs love the conflict, and tension between Arthur Y/n! Tbh, I'm glad that I got in the right time for you to be writing the fic or rather rewriting it which im also excited for what new you could bring. That reminds that I do have some suggestions and maybe critique so I hope don't come off rude.
1. I would LOVE to see more about Y/N and Arthur's relationship from when they were young, especially with meeting John and the others thought out the years. It doesn't need to be completely the whole past event but perhaps important ones like the whole Mary and Arthur drama, Y/n going through how she feels about Arthur, and even Eliza and Issac event. This would not only would make us to get better eye to how Arthur and Y/n went from X to Y but feel us even more sad for Y/N who wanted to be with Arthur but couldn't. Although I know that would crave more creative for you to bear on how to write these events so dont stress yourself about it if you can't.
2. It would be cool if we could explore more about Y/N, especially with her wants, motive, belief and even more flaws that stand her out. I already love Y/N as she is though, I think the mildly annoying thing I had with her is how passive she is sometimes. MC don't need to be always active but seeing how she can only nod, agree or disagree, and not say anything. Now I know that Y/N is reader insert so I can understand why she is like this, but having her to talk up on others flaws when nobody can't, being a leader when she don't notice, showing us more how she struggle being the only women in man work where she is daily discriminated by other men and high society women. I could go on about that but it would be very long so.
I think that's it for what I can think of but I just want to say that I really love your story and looking forward more in the future hopefully! I clearly care about fanfic writers on wanting to improve to be better since I believe that even a fanfic can change a person's life better! Your fanfic don't need to be that of course, as long you have a good character with good development and everything else then your good!
Anon, you don’t know how happy it is to see that someone is still reading Hands That Hurt. I’m incredibly touched and honestly almost feel like crying lol
I appreciate your feedback and luckily since I was planning on rewriting the entire thing, I will most likely end up changing some of the stuff you talked about. I will end up making a post on the actual story to announce it will be rewritten and with the intended changes I want to make
This was my first actual real attempt at writing a fanfiction that had multiple chapters so there will be a lot of things and mistakes that I wish weren’t in there lol
1. I did end up wanting to do more with them as younger but it just never panned out to being like that, however I do believe now that I’ve had time to sit on it and time to overlook what I’ve written I might try to add small little snippets in there unless it fucks with the pacing
2. The reader, or “Y/n” (this might change) since it follows the main storyline of the game pretty closely wasn’t supposed to technically be the main character, you were supposed to be an onlooker to the story that unfolds in mind which was just a thing I was trying to experiment with however now that you’ve pointed it out I do understand where you’re coming from and will most likely change that as well. I kept the reader mostly a blank slate because it is a reader insert and I didn’t want to end up making it an OC when it’s not supposed to be, so that’s why it mainly feels like you are passive in the story.
I’ve learned more through writing other fics that it’s okay to give a little something more to the reader insert since it is interactive fiction and that’s just how it is.
Anyway! I just wanted to acknowledge your points but thank you so much for letting me know you read the story and enjoyed it. I hope to get into rewriting it (and finishing it) soon
#hands that hurt#rdr2#rdr2 fanfic#arthur morgan x reader#arthur morgan x you#arthur morgan x y/n#red dead redemption arthur#red dead redemption 2#red dead redemption x reader#red dead redeption 2#arthur morgan x female reader#arthur morgan
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HAPPY BIRTHDAY FOLAN!!!
i'm so so so glad we became mutuals, interacting with you is always a highlight of my day whether we're cracking jokes, bouncing off ideas with each other, scheming the return of the x-terminators, spreading the illyatticus agenda, or stanning our beloved silly magical blondies with convulated backstories and excellent designs.
i discovered dazzler during a very dark time in my life and she brings me so much joy, and i never thought that appreciating her would lead me to meeting some of the coolest people i wouldn't trade anything in the world for. you're so brilliant in every way that it's incredible and deserves more recognition; atticus and your fanfics live in my mind rent free. you're also very kind and sweet, and you have great vibes.
and your taste? immaculate. magik stans are always a green flag, and i love the music recs you gave me. thanks for being you, you!
many happy returns of the day. i know we met quite recently but i'm so happy and thankful to have you in my life, friend 🩵
SANS MY GOD IM GOING TO CRY
im so glad i met you too! i genuinely had no idea that when i yelled out into the void for recommendations for comics about the x-terminator ladies i would A. get this deep into comics and B. meet some of the absolute coolest people in the world. I re-discovered comics and illyana at a weird time last year and the joy i've derived out of interacting with you and the others has genuinely made my life so much better.
I'm still so amazed and grateful that someone else feels literally any attachment to my silly ocxcanon ship, and im always so happy when you come in with these amazing ideas for them with all the affection you give to actual characters and ships. nothing staves off the potential feelings of cringe than having another super cool person be just as into it. (I am not joking when I say you may blow up my inbox with illyatticus/atti & dazzler friendship stuff whenever, or just ideas! you're a good writer and i like hearing them!)
so the point is thank you sans, i really appreciate it!
(anyway i will now return to your regularly scheduled illyana 'magik' rapsutin/ alison 'dazzler' blaire brainrot by spending today rereading x-terminators and new mutants. I'd say i would do it by thinking about illyana constantly, but i already do)
#im writing this at 4am so if this incoherent im sorry#folansstuff rambles#asks#sans#rep-meow-taytion
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(hi I know you don’t know who I am, but I love your fic “Chaos For The Fly”.) sorry for this long thingy.
Hello, I’ve been reading your fanfic “Chaos for the Fly” I’m sure you’ve heard of it, Yeah?
Ok, good.
Well, I’m just over a chapter into writing my very first, ever (soon to be) posted fanfiction, and I was wondering something.
Feel free to say no, I won’t be upset… much.
But, I would very much like to “borrow” several of your OCs from Chaos. I just feel as though they are cannon to me and any OC that I come up with, would just be a pale, poor imitation of your characters. I mean, granted, they would still be pale, poor imitations of your work. Regardless of if you let me use them or not.
Like I said, feel free to say no, they are your creations and you did the work. All I would be doing is copying your homework but changing it enough that the teacher (readers) can’t tell that I copied off of you.
For real though, I wouldn’t be copying them verbatim. I’ll be altering the story to fit mine, but for the most part I plan to use most of their beforehand lives in the same manor that you did. Obviously, some of it will be different, and the writing will be astronomically worse, compared to your writing.
I will also be changing most of everything that happened after the new semester begins. But they will still be the same characters, for the most part and was wondering if I could use them.
Again, say no if you want. I haven’t actually gotten to the point in the story that I wanted to write them in.
So, don’t think I’ve already written stuff with them in it, and that you don’t want me to scrap what I have. I haven’t written anything with them yet, except for concepts and ideas for the story as a whole.
Also, obviously I will give you credit, for the use of the characters. I’m not that heartless. I will link your fic several, several times throughout my fic. And I will state in several chapter notes that I got permission from you.
Anyway, thank you for the fantastic fanfiction. I blame you for the heartache that’ll come with writing fanfiction and actually posting it. And have a nice flight.
List of characters I would like to use: Dr. Josephine Zypher (of course), Her girlfriend Emiliana Girard (that was how it was spelled right?), the snakes Altair and possibly Gus Gus (can’t not have them), Dr. Kerrigan Gallor/bug man, and And Josephine’s Grandfather Dr. Hugh Zypher. I might also use Mr. Harlow, but I haven’t decided yet.
(PS. I’m only halfway done with Chaos, but I just had so many ideas that I wanted to start writing. So for the future, if someone says I’m copying your fic, it’s cause I probably wrote it before finishing chaos. I will state that much while posting my fic, but it may come up idk. Also, I’m trying to find the time in my days to write and read. But so far, I suck at time management.)
(PPS. I totally didn’t create a whole AO3 account, tumblr account, and Reddit account just because of your fic Chaos inspiring me to finally kick my butt into gear and actually start writing some stuff AND posting them. Instead of just writing crap and keeping it to myself for years and years. TYSM love your work. ❤️)
Wenclair for life!
I’m always content to encourage other writers and say that I am cool to share the toys in the sandbox. I’m glad that I have inspired you to write. First and foremost, I would hope that whoever is borrowing my original characters is not making any sort of profit from their writing, as I firmly do not believe in charging readers for fan works (ko-fi, a patreon or commissions for fic).
However, I’m not sure why you would want to borrow my OCs if you want to change them around? At that point, wouldn’t you just want to develop your own original characters if the ones I created aren’t going to serve your writing needs? I really don’t know why you’d want to use someone else’s OC and make it your own version of that original character when you could just make your own OC.
I also really don’t think you should just write a copy-change of someone else’s fic that you are planning to post? Like if you’re doing that to practice writing and keeping it in your own space, that’s one thing, but I think it’s pretty bold to copy-change and post someone else’s work with your own spin on what is already a fan work. I’m not sure I understand this.
I ultimately don’t care. I won't read something featuring my OCs that I didn’t write, and don’t promote works that I don’t read so...whatever happens, I honestly probably won’t see it unless someone brings it to my attention.
I'm glad my fic has inspired you to write, and wish you well in that endeavor!
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HI IMO I SEE UR ONLINE + PLANNING 2 SEND THE BOOK ASK THEREFORE I MUST TRY AND BEAT U TO THE PUNCH HI <3 how did your June reads go!! I see you gave ur Bear thoughts already (haven't watched yet but will return 2 it once I do), but other than that, do you have anything else on your Summer Watch radar?
beating you to the punch does make me giggle i'm sorry babe! june was an interesting reading month! answering early as i'm busy the next couple days and i love sitting down to give my full attention to the
june book wrap up
bonjour tristesse & a certain smile by francois sagan
french coquette-like teenage girls in ""relationships"" with older men, hurting the people around them? snooze! just really disinterested in the story here, and not blown away by the writing sorry
(abandoning the music links i did well to last 5 months but. yeah :))
the atlas six by olivie blake
lol. fanfic writers entering the traditional publishing space would be fine if they remembered that they have to develop characters from scratch. so much telling! not half enough showing to pay off. too large of a cast to be introduced at once and some of it felt so juvenile. i think this is YA though so like. quirky indie romance lead, brooding angry guy 1, nonemphathetic guy 2, egomaniac 3, sad distrustful person. the magic system was so boring to me it was grounded in way too much science for me to find it interesting. do readers really need to know the metaphysics behind being able to see time? no! actually i'd have liked to know something about someone that wasn't "x is like this". yeah a lot to say here.
the country life by rachel cusk
i had to return to a control point of a good book. lovely. Cusk can do it all for me and i think the woman escapes from her city life to fumble around in the country is the perfect subject matter for her. full of so much whimsy, a lot of heart and interesting characters! made me laugh and feel and reading this is in similar weather conditions just added to the sense of delirium towards the end of the book
diary of a film by niven govinden
my kind of book! film maestro travels to italy for a film festival, meets a woman and a story that sticks in his head and is overcome with the desire to commit this to screen. related to this so much, that kind of being swept up in an idea and the urge to put your all into it. had a real slowness to it, too, made a lot of the conversations feel so tender and from a real place of love. great read :)
my father's diet by adrian nathan west
so glad i saw this in a bookshop i wouldn't have come across this otherwise! so cool! if music was a book. i listened to air's moon safari that really contributed to the middle america shopping mall in the 80s vibe. sleepy town kind of feeling. anyways, i tore through this book what it had to say on turning to a physical extreme to make sense of feeling inferior internally. fraught, disjointed parental relationships. bodybuilding! i'd recommend in a heartbeat
i'm currently reading the thief's journal by jean genet and have been for about a week or so. after finishing my father's diet and my general uptick in reading i thought i'd increase my reading goal, but this is going to take me a while to read. it's hard but it's worthwhile.
i haven't really considered much summer watching tbh i'm trying to be outside and doing stuff and going places as much as i possibly can this summer and if i'm ever at home long enough to put a show on it's been reality tv lately. just a girl out in the world this summer!
next read will be #3 in the neapolitan quartet because i remember reading the first this time last year and they're such summer books to me. this feels very long! love the opportunity to wax lyrical <3
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How does one begin writing, particularly a fanfic? Do you have most of the story already written before you begin posting chapters? How do you find someone to help read/edit what you write?
I’ve read so many of the OFMD fanfics, and yours have blown me away. I’ve got the seeds of a story in my mind, but no clue whether I have the ability to make it into something actually resembling a story - particularly one worth reading. I would love to know if you have any tips or resources!!
hi! so uh. this is a loaded question, but first things first, let me talk a little bit about the gardener vs. architect approach to writing. a gardener is someone who simply plants the seeds and waits for something to grow out of them - you might have a vague idea, you might even want to see a certain result, but you don't always end up with what you started with. the flowers might turn out a different color, some might die, some new unexpected ones might grow. the resulting garden will be beautiful either way. in other words, the story WILL happen somehow, but who's to say how it's gonna look exactly?
the architect, on the other hand, lays down a blueprint. you don't start building a house until you've got everything figured out perfectly. you don't start writing a story until you've got heaps of notes, until you know the scenes you want to lay down, until you plan for every contingency.
I myself am firmly the former. all my biggest longfics, and aftercare is no exception, started with a vague idea, oh hey this might be cool, and then grew and grew and grew from there until I had to take some hedge trimmers to them (only I never did. letting my stories get out of hand is like my trademark at this point).
to that effect, I don't do a whole lot of editing, aside from the perfunctory grammar and flow stuff. my notes are a jumbled mess that I keep adding onto as the story grows. I haven't had a beta in years, because hell, I hardly know where the story's going, how's someone else gonna pick up on anything?? I kid, I kid. finding a good beta can be good for solving that age-old issue of does this story even make sense to someone who isn't me.
the one thing I always, always, always have is an ending. it usually comes to me within the first few chapters, sometimes at the very beginning of the story, and it gives me something to strive towards.
so anyway, I'd try to figure out what works for you, first. do you need to do a lot of planning, or do you want to just wing it? try it out. when it comes to putting the actual words down, it's... I suspect the process is different for everybody. some days, it flows so easily, some days, it's like pulling teeth. a great, grand book on this subject is called bird by bird by anne lamott - it describes the process of taking really really small steps to achieve great things, so in our world, writing a tiny little bit to write something big. the author also has so many great insights on writing in general, big big big rec.
this got wordy, because, again, a gardener writer over here, but I hope it provided some measure of an answer to your questions. best of luck with your writing! writing ten words a day counts! or a thousand! or just your notes that don't make sense to anyone else but you! the actual story is just the finished product after hours and hours of writing work that never sees the light of day! good luck!
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