#but yeah best advice is not limiting yourself to only new content
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I see that youve been a fan of magi for a long time, how do you cope with the lack of content and pretty much dead fandom? Ive been a long time fan or magi too and ive been trying to get my friends into magi.
Hi, Anon! I guess I have. It doesn't really feel like it though? I got into Magi early 2017 sometime and ran this blog for about 6 months or something until I vanished. This was meant to be my hyperfixation dump blog. The first one was Magi, and it... stayed Magi, lol.
This becomes very long but the tl;dr is Magi was more popular once upon a time and you can track down and return to older stuff with the lack of new content. And be honest to your friends about the ups and downs of what you like or what they could like about the series and keep conversations going with them.
At the time, I'll say Magi content was fairly active. The manga was ongoing but wrapping up, the main anime had ended but Adventures of Sinbad was only a year out or so. It wasn't anything to do with the series of why I left. More so I found new shiny things to focus on -- I had recently graduated college, yes, I'm old -- and fell out of love with tumblr more so than Magi and soon was not producing the content or consuming enough to stay interested in the series after it wrapped.
I'd love to give some great advice to stay interested in less popular series because I feel honored you asked. I can't claim to be good at it myself though. I got back into the series when I was sick late 2021 and binged everything. I re-watched the anime and then reread the manga when I got better.
You can try promoting it to your friends as good binge material. Magi does deal with themes you can sink your teeth into but it isn't super heavy. You don't realize how much you've gone through until you have.
I apologize for such a long answer. Let me try to get to your main point. I don't really think of it as something that's inactive or dead. The anime may be incomplete but the manga is done with. I don't think Ohtaka has much more to say on it, and that's why she has moved on to Orient. The series is wrapped- for better or worse. I'm not here to dissect how good or not the final arcs are. This is long enough and getting off topic XD. If you only have/can watch the anime then that's understandable. Accessibility and availability options are different for manga. For me, knowing the author has a complete version out there in some form and having access to it makes it easier. Content will come and go. Yes, I want more. I at least have a full course meal even if part of the dessert has disappeared into the ether.
Another thing that helps is that Magi is a young series. Not in the age range it appeals to but in how long it has been around. 14-15 years? Baby isn't old enough to drive in most places, lmao. The majority of fandoms I've been in are older or about as old as I am (30s). I am used to droughts in content and things coming in and out of popularity. Both in my ADHD-wired brain and by the fandom at large. I don't mean to say that younger fans are too fickle. As I said, I'm awful at it myself. There's a large gap of time (late 2017-2021) where my interests and priorities were elsewhere. I've only been active in the fandom for a few years at most.
I will say to help out try to explore the backlog of content if you have the chance and haven't already. New fan content may not be the most plentiful. Out of all the fandoms I follow the most relate to Magi and all of the tags are the quickest to breeze through what's new. It's sad. I haven't been active in this fandom for years, and there's stuff in its peak that I haven't gotten around to seeing that is still there for me to find. 14 years may not be that old in the grand scheme of things but that is still a long time for various fan art, fic, and other content to have been put up. If there's not enough new stuff to interest your friends, recommend older stuff you are aware of. Tumblr does not have the best search option and in my experience tags dry up after going back far enough even though I know older stuff exists. That is annoying and don't have a good counter on how to combat it.
Remember the old when you don't have enough new. Cycle through your favorite things at different intervals. Not for Magi specifically, but I reread some of my favorite fic that were over a decade old at the point of me discovering them. Now they're almost twice that age. One day go through one artist's backlog, then the next do someone else's, or read the fic that got you to love the fandom in the first place. If you get tired of older things or seen the same old too often- no worries! You can take a break or watch/read the series again (accessibility or availability again to be determined and yeah that majorly sucks). Scribble your own ideas down, regardless if you want to post them. Scratch that itch for you and no one else.
That is the best advice I can give. Try finding something else you haven't seen before or let yourself enjoy stuff you have. For your friends, this may sound counterintuitive but one thing I do when recommending stuff is give them a heads up as well on stuff they may not like. Like, mine is that I despise Aladdin being a little pervert. I've mentioned before how it turned me off the manga when I first picked it up at random. Don't try to catch them off guard by saying how wonderful something is and leaving out something that may turn them off. In my experience, that leads to annoyed friends. Give them the full picture, with spoilers being whatever you guys agree to, and let the strength of what you enjoy outweigh the caveats they have. Sometimes something is just not for them, and that is okay too. If they do start getting into Magi, keep the conversation up, ask them their favorite or least favorite thing, ship, how annoying and annoyingly charming Sinbad (or anyone) is, etc. Be someone to talk to about it even if they can't find new good shit to enjoy. Be that for each other. I dunno. I don't have friends irl who like Magi. If I did that's what'll I do. *shrug*
I am so sorry for the length and I don't feel as if I have been very helpful. I tried to edit it down and be as concise as I could. I can't do that on short notice or not being able to save drafts on asks. I hope this was a fun anecdotal read at least.
#magi#magi: the labyrinth of magic#magi labyrinth of magic#answered ask#lmao this ask coming in when i already had queued a post dreaming about season 3#clearly i'm more starved for content than i appear#but yeah best advice is not limiting yourself to only new content#idfk how to answer asks#i'm sorry anon i'm sending you lots of hearts <3 <3 <3#i answered this on my desktop so don't have access to emojis lol
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What is your writing advice for young people who want to write fanfiction and original stories in the near future?
If this is just Way Too Much, skip to the end (#16). My most important piece of advice is there. I also happen to think #5 is pretty good.
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1) Literally just write. Write whatever you want, and do a lot of it.
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2) You don’t have to post everything. In fact you don’t have to post anything. You can, don’t get me wrong, but it can be intimidating to sit down and think “I will now write something that other people will see and read and judge with their eyeballs.” Because that’s probably gonna lead to nerves and writer's block. Just write down the ideas that you have, the things you want to write, whatever’s in your brain that you want to explore and expand upon and make into something. And then if you want to, share it. Or don’t share it. I have plenty of half-baked ideas and documents and random story chapters and shit hidden away on my Google Drive that will never see the light of day, for a whole number of reasons. I wanted to write it but it wasn’t ~Spicy~ enough to warrant posting, or it’s only like an eighth of a good idea, or it’s like one scene with no story around it, or it’s just something incredibly self-indulgent I just wanted to write for my own enjoyment.
Point being, don’t write for other people. Don’t write so that other people can read it; write what you want, write for yourself, and then if you want to share it, do.
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3) You can pretty much ignore any and all of these for fanfiction. In fact, you can ignore pretty much any rules or guidelines you want for fanfiction. Fanfic is a sandbox. You don’t have to be a “professional writer” to post fic. No one expects you to be Stephen King or Margaret Atwood. Fanfic is just for playing in a fandom and having fun. If you wanna write a 50 chapter slow burn with very little plot aside from the OTP slowly getting to know each other, and no real stakes or central conflict, I guarantee people would read that. Really, fanfiction is the Old West of writing: lawless, wild, unpredictable, and free.
However, here are the rules you must follow:
-Separate your paragraphs. (I’m sure you know this already, but I’m gonna say it anyway just in case.) Do not post one big block of text. Make a paragraph break when someone new is talking, when the characters are in a new place, when a new event occurs that changes the scene, when a chunk of time has passed, and when there’s a major change in subject.
-I know it’s obvious, but... grammar, punctuation, and capitalization. They exist to make writing easy for readers to read, and more people will read your stuff if they don’t have to stop and try to figure out what you meant.
-Use tags and labels, as is possible with whatever site you’re using. Especially if you include possibly triggering content in your story. Again, I know it’s obvious, but it’s common courtesy. Bonus: tagging the themes and content of your story helps readers find it and read it :)
-If possible, limit the use of all-caps and exclamation marks / question marks. 99% of the time, one ! or one ? will do. If you overload the page with a lot of all-caps and long rows of exclamation marks or question marks, it hampers readability.
... That’s literally all I can think of. And, like I said, it’s all pretty basic stuff. You were probably rolling your eyes like, “Uh, yeah, Gwen, I know.” But that’s literally it. You can pretty much do whatever you want in fanfic.
That being said, here’s my advice for both fanfiction and original work...
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4) A quick and dirty rule for coming up with a plot, starting a story, keeping up pacing, or maintaining tension: figure out what dreams, desires, and goals are nearest and dearest to your main character’s heart (see #16). Then set up the main conflict to be directly in opposition to that goal. It doesn’t have to be in a tangible way, though it could be. But, if your main character wants more than anything to reach the ships on the southern coast of your world and sail to a new life, make sure the main conflict immediately prevents them from doing that - in fact, make sure to send them north. If your main character just wants to keep their loved ones safe, kidnap the loved ones. If your main character just wants to date their best-friend-turned-crush, make sure they think they have no chance - or, make them cocky about it, and make sure it makes Person B determined not to ever like them. You get it. Figure out what your character most wants, and then keep them from having that. Boom - your conflict now ties in with your character's motivation. It's like instant yeast for plots.
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5) If you’re anything like me, you want your first draft to be Good, despite all that advice about how the first draft doesn’t have to be good and it’s just to get words on the page, yadda yadda. And if you’re somewhat of a perfectionist (like myself), it’s easy to get stuck looking at a blank page because you don’t have The Perfect Words, and you want what you write to be Good the first time.
Here’s how I cheat that:
Instead of trying to write a Good First Draft from a blank page, hit the enter key a few times, skip a little down on the page, change your ink to red (or blue, or whatever - just something immediately identifiable as Not Black) and just thought vomit. Write whatever the hell you’re thinking, exactly as you think it. Don’t worry about it being readable, don’t worry about narrative flow for now, don’t worry about covering all the details, don’t worry about anything except either a) getting all the details of your idea out onto the page, whether that’s a lot or whether it’s just a sentence or two, or b) if you don’t have an idea yet, finding your way there.
Because this method is also very good for finding your way to ideas when you’re stuck in writer’s block.
Because of how human brains work, getting this stuff out onto the page - in all its messy, stream-of-consciousness glory - will likely spark more thoughts. As you write your original idea about the scene, it’ll likely spark more ideas. Creation begets creation. If you just start thought-vomiting your ideas onto the page, chances are you’ll think of more things as you go, and you’ll start filling out description or dialogue or tone or action or whatever, and pretty soon the scene starts writing itself.
Not sure where you’re going with the scene or which ideas you wanna use? Use a lot of ambivalent language in your “thought-vomit draft.” My pre-writing notes are chock-full of the words “maybe,” “perhaps,” and the phrases, “At some point...” and “...or something like that.” In this way, I don’t tie myself down to one idea; it’s just an idea, and I’m keeping it on the page in case I use it, but I might chuck it in the trash or change it or whatever.
And then, once your ideas for the scene (or story, or chapter, or whatever) are on the page, then go back to the top and start translating them into a “real” first draft. Use black ink, and start copy-pasting chunks of the thought-vomit up into the top part of the document and translating them into Draft 1. Separate out paragraphs where paragraph breaks should be. Add the correct punctuation and whatnot. Change “describe the lobby here - include potted plants, fancy carpet, blood stain, etc.” into an actual description of the lobby. Flesh it out, or condense, or whatever it needs. And if you’re still stuck, change back to red ink and ramble some more until you find a path that feels right, then plug that in. This keeps you from looking at a blank page, and it allows you to generate a kind of Draft 0.5, somewhere between a plan and a first draft.
You don’t have to use every idea. Like I said, jot down whatever comes to mind, put a “maybe” before or after it, and keep working. If the idea grabs you and you wanna keep expanding on it and exploring it, cool. If you just wanna jot it down so you don’t forget it and then move on, also cool. Red-ink draft / “thought-vomit draft” is your time to jump around in the timeline, add or finesse details at whatever point your brain moves to, etc. Don’t try to do it exactly in story order, because you will get tangential thoughts and ideas, and you will not remember to write them down five pages later when you finally get to taking notes on that scene. Trust me. On that note...
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6) Write everything down the moment you think of it. Seriously.
“I’ll remember it when I get around to writing that scene in a couple days / weeks / months (/years).”
You won’t.
Write it down.
Phone, journal, google docs - hell, my family regularly laughs at me for grabbing a napkin during dinner and scribbling thoughts down alongside pasta sauce stains.
And then, once you have it written down somewhere...
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7) Consolidate your writing ideas in one place.
Maybe this isn’t really your style, and that’s totally chill.
Buuuut, if you’re Type-A like me - or if you tend to be somewhat unorganized and you know you’ll lose track of your writing notes if they’re scattered across multiple notebooks, journals, napkins, phone notes, etc. - having one consolidated document of notes is a life saver. I keep mine on Google Docs so I can access it, add to it, and look through it for inspiration anywhere at any time. When I have one of those Shower Thoughts that I jot down on my phone or on a napkin during dinner, I set myself a reminder on my phone to type it up in my Story Ideas document later.
(Or, if the idea I had was for a story of mine that I’ve already started planning / drafting / whatever, I put it in the document for that story instead of the Big Random Story Ideas doc. You get it.)
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8) Have other ways to collect and save writing ideas, besides just writing stuff down. If you like Pinterest, make pinterest boards of your characters or stories or settings or whatever. If you’re big into playlists, make a playlist for your character / setting / story / etc. Or both. Or something else. I’m not good at drawing, but maybe you are, and maybe you like to draw your ideas. Whatever form it takes, having another way to save ideas and think about your stories is invaluable.
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9) Some writers can just start writing with no idea where the story is going, and they just kind of figure it out as they go. I envy those writers. And I do that sometimes for fanfiction, where the stakes are somewhat lower and the audience is reading more for scene-to-scene enjoyment (and to see their OTP kiss) than for a Driving And Compelling Narrative.
But here’s the thing: especially if you’re just kind of starting out, writing without some sort of plan is really, really hard, and will likely lead you into a slow, meandering narrative that will likely frustrate you.
Even if you think you’re someone that just can’t write with a plan (and again, I have the highest respect for pansters out there - I don’t know how you do it, you crazy bastards, but you keep doing you) - even if you think “I can’t work with plans, they’re too prescriptive, I just want to write and see what happens -”
Try at least making the most skeletal of plans.
Even if you have no clue what 90% of the story is, yet. That’s fine. But you need to have some idea of what you’re building to, even if that’s nothing more specific than a feeling, or a turning point for your character. Even if your entire plan for everything beyond Chapter 1 is, “At some point, Charlie needs to realize that Ed was lying to her.”
This is where those Draft 0.5 notes come in handy. Because, more than likely, working on your current scene that way will spark ideas for later scenes, which you can put down at the bottom of the document and save for when they become relevant. In my experience, the line between planning ahead and making a Draft 0.5 is exceptionally thin. One can quickly turn into the other.
If you’re really, really resistant to the idea of planning ahead, that’s okay. It’s not everybody’s style. But for the love of all that is holy, write down your ideas for future scenes, even if you’re a person that doesn’t like to plan and writes only in story order, because you will not remember that idea once you get to that scene.
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10) You don’t have to write in order.
Here’s the thing: I’m a person that can only do my Draft 1 in story order (meaning, chronological order). I just have to be in that flow; I need to write in story order for me to best channel where the character is at from scene to scene, both narratively and emotionally.
But my Thought Vomit Draft is another thing entirely. By using the brain hack of putting my notes in red (or another color, it doesn’t matter) and going down to the bottom of the document / page and taking notes there, and then integrating them into whatever plan I have, and then translating them into Draft 1 once I get there in the story - by doing that, I can get my good ideas onto the page (and expound upon them and let my muse carry me and ride that momentum while I’m in the moment of inspiration) without writing out of order.
Maybe that’s just me. But if you’re a person who really prefers to write in story order, that could be hugely helpful to you. It is to me.
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11) Emotion and motivation will do more for your story than technicalities of plot.
If your characters really care about something, and their journey through the (shaky or weak) plot is emotionally engaging, it will be a much more compelling story than a story with a “perfect” plot and unrelatable or unmotivated characters.
If your characters care about what they’re doing, and it means something to them, and their goals and actions are driven by dreams or fears or emotions that are integral to who they are, your audience will care too. If you have a perfectly crafted plot that hits all the right beats and has high stakes and fast pacing and drama - but your characters don’t connect with what’s happening in a way that’s deeply meaningful or emotional for them? You’re gonna have a hard time engaging readers.
When in doubt, prioritize character emotion and motivation over plot. Emotion is what drives story.
This power is highly exploitable. (Just look at pulp novels and shitty but entertaining movies.) You can even use it to glaze over plot holes or reinvigorate a limp narrative. Use it that way sparingly, though. It’s a band-aid, not a surgery.
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12) Evil villains are hard to write - mostly because there are very few truly evil people in the world. (There are a few. Billionaires and several big name politicians come to mind.) But by and large, there aren’t that many evil people. There are plenty of bad people, but bad people have some good in them, somewhere in there. Trying to write an evil villain is hard, because they often turn very cartoony.
Here’s a tip: it’s much easier to write antagonists who aren’t evil. Even if they’re bad people. Of course, there’s no reason you can’t write a villain that’s just truly evil - a serial killer, or an abuser, or a billionaire, or someone who legit just wants to hurt people or blow up the earth or stay in control of an oppressed population, or whatever. But chances are, it’s gonna be really hard to make them feel real, and even harder to create a plot around them that doesn’t feel forced or contrived.
Instead, try writing an antagonist / villain whose motivations and goals directly clash with your protagonist’s - but not because they want to take over the world or see people suffer. Write an antagonist who’s chaotic good, but whose perception of the situation is completely opposite from your hero’s. Write an antagonist whose only desire is to save people, and who will do anything to achieve that goal - anything. Write an antagonist who believes in the letter of the law, and will hinder and oppose the hero’s methods even if they agree with the hero’s motivation. Write an antagonist who got in way over their head and did some things they regret, and now they don’t know how to get out, and they’re doing their best but whatever they set in motion is too powerful for them to stop now.
Write villains who are human. Write a killer who thought they were doing the right thing by taking their victim out of the equation, who vomits at the sight of the body and sobs over the grave they dig. Write a government leader who truly believes she’s doing what’s best for her people in the long-term, even if it might hurt them in the short term, and is willing to endure the hatred and belligerence of the masses if it means securing what she thinks is a better future for her people. Write a teenage bully that thinks they’re the one being picked on by the world, and they’re just fighting back, standing their ground. Write a scientist who will break any code of ethics and hurt anyone he needs to - in order to bring back his baby sister from the grave, because he promised her he’d protect her and he failed. Write an antagonist who is selfish and self-centered and capricious - because in order to survive they had to look out for Number One, and that habit ain’t about to break anytime soon.
Write villains who aren’t even villains. Write antagonists who oppose the hero because of moral differences. Write antagonists who are trying to do the right thing. Write antagonists who treat the heroes with kindness and dignity and respect and gentleness.
They don’t have to be good. They don’t have to be Misunderstood Sweethearts who “deserve” a redemption arc. They can be cruel and nasty and dismissive and callous and violent and etc. etc.
Just hesitate before you make them Evil-with-a-capital-E. Because evil is hard to write, and honestly, boring to read. Flawed human beings with goals and motivations that directly oppose the main characters’ are much easier to write and much more interesting to read.
Ask why. Why is your villain trying to take over the world? What does that even mean? Are they trying to create a Star-Trek-like post-capitalism utopia, but they know that won’t happen in a million lifetimes, so they’re trying to do it by force? Are they actually super in favor of human rights, but they got very impatient waiting for the world to do anything about poverty and war, so they decided to take it into their own hands? Are they determined to fix the world - no matter the cost? Are they terrified and overwhelmed, but committed to see it through to the end? Or - maybe they’re just doing it on a dare. Maybe they don’t really give a shit about world domination, they were just a mediocre rich white guy who decided to fuck around and find out, and now he’s kind of curious how far he can take this thing. And now he’s kind of an internationally-wanted criminal, so he’s kind of stuck living on his hidden private island in his multi-billion dollar secret base, strapping lasers to sharks’ heads for the hell of it. Gross, selfish, uncaring, and dangerous? For sure. Evil? Depends on your definition. See, now we’re getting somewhere.
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13) It’s tempting to let the plot control the characters. It’s easy to drop your characters into a situation and see how they react. But here’s the thing: that doesn’t drive plot. In fact, it bogs down pacing. Instead, try to build you plot off of your characters’ actions and decisions. Let your character build their own situation. Not to say it should go they way they wanted it to go; in fact, usually, their grand plans should go to hell very quickly. But having the characters take action and make decisions, and letting the plot develop based on that, is much easier to make compelling than making a rigid series of events and then trying to herd your characters into them.
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14) Having trouble justifying a character’s actions? Consider having them make the opposite decision, or having them approach the situation in a different way. For example: you need your character to go meet the bad guy, for plot reasons, even though there’s no way it’s not a trap. If the character goes, readers are gonna be groaning with their head in their hands, because c’mon man, that was really fucking stupid. But he’s gotta go, because the plot needs that. Two ways you might handle this: a) He knows it’s probably a trap. He decides not to go. The plot conspires to get him near the villain anyway. Or, b) He knows it’s a trap. But he needs to go, for (insert reasons here). So, he approaches it in an unexpected way. He brings backup, recruiting a side character we met earlier in the story. Or he arrives on the back of a dragon, because ain’t nobody gonna fuck with a dude on a dragon. Or he goes - early, and ambushes the villain. It may work, it may not. He may get himself kidnapped anyway. But it moves the plot along without having Stupid Hero Syndrome.
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15) This is a legit piece of advice: if all of this sounds overwhelming, literally just ignore it and write what you want. For real. Writing should be fun, and every single writer operates differently. If you’re sitting here like “I’m getting stressed just reading this,” just flip me a good-natured bird and get on with your life. I promise I won’t take it personally. Same goes for literally any other writing advice you see. Lots of rules and guidelines can very quickly make anything thoroughly un-fun. Just write. If you’re passionate about it and you do it for long enough, you’ll start figuring out the tips and tricks on your own.
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16) Here’s the best piece of advice I can give you: know your characters. More importantly, know what’s important to them. Build their personality and decisions off of that, and build your plot off of their decisions.
I see a lot of character building sheets that ask a shit-ton of questions like “What’s their most prized possession?” “Do they like their family?” “What’s their favorite food?”
And while these are good questions, my problem with this type of character building is that if you start there, with the little stuff, you’re building on nothing. IMO, to make a truly strong character (not strong like Inner Strength, strong like effective), you need a strong foundation.
Here are the things you must know about your character:
a) What are their greatest fears / deepest insecurities? And I don’t mean “wasps” or “heights.” I mean the deep shit. I mean fears like “living a meaningless life,” or “turning out just like their parents,” or “that no one will ever love them,” or “being powerless.” You may say, “But they’re really scared of wasps! They fall into a wasp nest when they were little and got stung so much they almost died!” Great! That’s a fantastic bit of backstory. They should absolutely be afraid of wasps, and that should absolutely be an impediment later in the story. But dig deeper. What about that event actually scarred them? Was it the helplessness? Stumbling around, swatting at the air, not being able to do a single thing to stop what was happening to them? Was it that they were alone, and no matter how loud they screamed, no one was coming? Was it the bodily horror of feeling themself turn into an inhuman creature as they swelled up from the stings, unable to move their fingers or face normally anymore?
And don’t forget insecurities, because those factor in, too. Are they deeply insecure about their identity? Do they believe, deep down, that they’re ugly? Did they grow up poor and they’ve always been really touchy about that? Why? Dig deep. Figure out what really, really bothers them.
b) What are their hopes and dreams? What do they truly want out of life? What do they consider the most valuable to their experience here in this thing called life? Is it the freedom to forge their own path and be independent? Is it the approval of their family or peers? Is it a home? Is it knowledge, or understanding? Spiritual fulfillment? Is it deeply important to them that they contribute to their community, or protect those they love? What do they need in order to feel truly and deeply fulfilled in life?
Figure out those two things (each one encompasses several things, btw, you don’t have to stop at just one for each), and then use that to inform how they behave and the types of decisions they make within the story.
It also informs character behavior and personality.
Let’s say we have a character who’s afraid of helplessness. They’re probably gonna be the person that always wants to do something, try something, no matter how hopeless the situation seems. They’d despise just sitting and waiting, probably, because it makes them feel powerless. They might even be the person that makes rash decisions and acts impulsively and puts themself in danger unnecessarily, because in their mind it’s better than being at the mercy of fate. This is one way you could use a character’s personality to inform their decisions, which in turn helps to inform plot.
Or, let’s say we have a character whose greatest fear is being left behind or forgotten. We may have a chatterbox on our hands. They might be obnoxious. They might love the spotlight, constantly vying for attention no matter the situation, because deep down they’re so afraid that they’d be forgotten otherwise. Or, it may go the opposite way. They may be so afraid of people leaving them that they’re terrified of bothering people. They don’t want to do anything that could annoy people, anything that might give people a reason to leave them. They might be exceedingly polite, quiet, accommodating. A push-over, really.
These are two nearly opposite types of personalities, both stemming from the same core fear/insecurity. You can go a lot of different ways with it. But if you build on that strong foundation, you’ll have a strong character, and a stronger plot.
Likewise, the structure of your story can and should inform the design of these character traits. If you need your characters to team up near the end, it may be impactful if you give your main character a deep fear of commitment, an insecurity about being unwanted or left behind, and make them highly value independence and freedom. That could make their team-up for the final battle very meaningful. Conversely, you can use your character’s deepest fears and desires to help design the plot. Is your character deeply insecure about voicing their opinions or taking a stand, because of trauma they faced in the past? Make them face that. Build that into the climactic third act. Give them the big inspirational speech where they stand up and talk about what they believe to be important, what they think the group should do. And then design that character arc to run through the story, giving you more handholds and stepping stones, more pieces of foundation on which to design the plot.
In this way, character should inform story as much as story informs character. It’s a feedback loop.
Bonus: if you build your character and your plot off of each other in this way, it automatically starts to build in the foundations of that emotional investment I mentioned earlier. If your character’s decisions are based on what they most want and do not want in life, you basically have your character motivation and stakes pre-built.
Note: you need to know these things about your villain, too.
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I’m genuinely sorry about the length of this, lmao. But you did ask.
Best of luck!
Edit: I forgot an important one:
17) Start when the scene starts and end when the scene ends.
What do I mean by that?
If your notes say “Danny asks Nicole out after school and majorly flubs it,” start the scene when Danny approaches Nicole after school. Better yet, cold-open the scene on “I was wondering if, you know, you’d wanna. You know. Hang out some time?”
Don’t start that morning when Danny goes to school, unless you’re gonna cover the school day in like one or two sentences. Don’t spend whole paragraphs going through the school day, unless it’s to cover other plot points first (in which case apply these same guidelines there), or if the paragraphs are there for a specific reason, like to illustrate how stressed he is and how it seems like every little thing is going wrong. Even then, trim the fat as much as possible. Expounding and describing everything Moment-to-moment is for the meat of the scenes, not the leading-up-to and coming-away-from.
Here’s my rule of thumb: study how and when movies cut from scene to scene. Movies have exceptionally strict, limited time for storytelling; they’re excellent examples of starting a scene when the plot point starts and ending when it’s over. If you can’t picture a movie showing everything you showed, start the scene later and end it earlier.
#asks#anon#writing advice#writing tips#writing#fanfic writing#fanfiction#character creation#plot development#character development#my advice#original writing
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so twitter is here now huh
welcome! twitter is hell so glad to have you guys. im doing the same thiing everyone else is doing, tumblr advice for new people under the cut, if you dont feel like reading it all the most important things are in bold (click keep reading):
- since its relevant, if a post is very long use one of those things ^ so that its more comfortable for people scrolling! its the one on the right below. theres no character limit on here so please use this when necessary lol
- reblogging stuff you like is important, especially art and writing! thats really the only way to push content on here and the like to rb ratio on mcytblr tends to be terrible so its very appreciated. if you REALLY like it you can leave nice comments in the reply section or in the tags as well! people appreciate them a lot :] if you want to rb something but dont want it appearing on your blog right now, theres a little arrow next to the post button and if you click on it, you’ll get the option to queue the post, meaning it appears on your blog later (you can adjust exactly when in the queue settings, found under the little profile icon)
- you can choose how private you want to be. ive seen so many people be like “dont say your name. dont say your age. dont make an intro post.” or “put your entire medical history in your carrd” but i feel like you can choose how you want to present yourself on here! you dont have to say anything about yourself if you want, or you can make a fun intro post/carrd with the things you like, or you can just say your name (or moniker), whether youre a minor or not, and pronouns, or anything else! its up to you, and here you dont really have to worry about getting doxxed so. obviously dont give out your address or anything but yeah :]
- ^kind of going off what i just said, if you want friends on here, you can make an intro/looking for mutuals post and put your interests in the tag section! thats how i found lots of my mutuals. honestly just use the tags in general, because its the only way to get your posts out there other than rbs and its much better than speaking into the void. dont put tags unrelated to the post itself though, people dont really like it. tumblr prioritizes the first 5 tags on a post ive heard, so be mindful of that, especially if youre an artist or writer!
- on the subject of tags, if youre going to critique a dsmp character, feel free to do so, just tag it appropriately! for example, if youre making a post that criticizes c!philza, tag it as #c!philza critical. also, please dont tag dsmp/mcyt posts as mine//craft or mine//blr (censoring it so it doesnt appear in the search), people who just want to hear about the game dont appreciate it. also, please dont tag or1gin smp (censoring again) for posts about the hybrid smp with tommy, ranboo, tubbo, etc because an active fandom already uses that tag, use osmp instead :]
- discourse isnt really common on here, but if youre going to talk about it, tag it as #discourse so that people can blacklist it. oh yeah i forgot to talk about that, you can blacklist tags in settings, which is great for triggers or anything you just dont want to see. id suggest blacklisting all forms of whatever the tag is (for example, dont just blacklist #tw gore, blacklist #gore tw, #gore cw, #cw gore, and #gore as well). lots of blogs (like mine) operate on an ask to tag basis, meaning that if you send them an ask asking to tag a specific thing, they will!
- speaking of asks, people love them! ive never met someone who doesnt like getting an ask, regardless of how random it is. if you like someones content or want to be their friend, feel free to send an ask, anonymous or not! i think this goes without saying but just in case, sending anon hate is heavily frowned upon, its kind of a pussy move as well tbh so dont do it
- other than the occasional weirdo mcytblr/dsmpblr is pretty chill, so try not to start fights in main tags for no reason lol please i dont want to have to migrate to linkedin or some shit. if you see something you dont like, the best move is to just block them and move on. literally just block anyone you dont like itll make everything so much more pleasant i promise. however if you do want to start a fight my asks are always open <3333
overall, just dont be an asshole and have fun!! here are some blogs id recommend following:
mine lol pls give me clout, @relaxxationattack, @cyani07, @night-and-dae, @otteritos, @esclapo, @periwinklemoonlight, @minecraftsz, @timedeo, @poorlydrawndsmp, @tittybitch, @lnniter, @girlbossinnit, @trickszie (if youre on here we’re mutuals and/or i think you’re really cool so hiiii)
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Zero To Play podcast episode: John Epler, Narrative Director at BioWare
In the most recent episode of Zero To Play podcast the guest was John Epler, Narrative Director on DA4. He talked about narrative games, how they fit inside an industry leaning towards games as a service, his experience being at BioWare for almost 14 years, and advice that he has for aspiring devs who want to create memorable, impactful and transformative moments in games.
The episode summary read as follows:
In this episode John brings his 13+ year experience being at BioWare and working on titles like Mass Effect & Dragon Age: Inquisition to explain how he believes storytelling will evolve and develop through the medium of games.
He shares some of his favorite moments and why he thinks games are the most powerful and interesting medium to be exploring in this generation.
It’s a good and interesting interview, so worth checking out if you can! You can listen to it here or on Spotify.
This post contains some notes on what was talked about in the episode, in case a text format is better for anyone (for example folks that can’t listen to it due to accessibility reasons). It’s under a cut due to length.
A bit of paraphrasing.
The average dev stays with a game company/studio for about 5 years. John joined BioWare right after the EA acquisition happened.
[on going into Trespasser] “Myself and the Lead Writer Patrick Weekes both knew that we needed to wrap up at least this part of the Inquisitor’s story, and set up where we want to go next with the franchise, with the IP. We learned a lot of lessons from DAI itself. DAI was a game with a lot of exploration and open-world content, and while we stand by that (I still think it was the right call for the game), one of the pieces of feedback we got from the fans was that they really wanted some more directed storytelling. Jaws of Hakkon was more of a continuation of open-world, more free-from exploration and free-form design. Trespasser was our opportunity to tell a story in a much more linear and focused way. [this way of telling stories] really does help to be able to create that sense of pacing and emotional escalation. It’s a lot harder to do that when you’re mixing up storybeats with big, wide open-worlds. Trespasser was a project where everyone was kind of in sync, we were all building [towards] the same thing.”
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“There were [story]beats [in Trespasser] that I don't think we would have been able to get away with in basegame DAI, one of those being the - quite frankly - incredibly lengthy conversation you have with Solas at the end. Because by this point we knew that if someone is playing this DLC then they are in it - they’ve been in it for the last two DLCs, they’ve played through the entire game, they want something incredibly story-focused. And we were able to really dive deep into that, some of the deep lore, some of the narrative. This was one of the only conversations that I’d worked on which, due to limitations of the engine, we actually had to break into two different conversation styles because it was so massive. We also got opportunities to do some fun callbacks. One of my favorite ones was one Patrick suggested which was, ‘What if I [didn’t like Solas much and] spent the entire basegame telling Solas I didn't want to hear anything he had to say?’ So we had the option that if you never chose ‘Investigate’ or a dialogue option that implied that you wanted to hear him blather on, there was one dialogue option that you could pick which was basically ‘Solas, when have I ever wanted to hear any of the shit you have to say?’ And it just kind of wrapped up the conversation super quickly, and Solas looked exasperated. It was fun because it’s not the kind of thing you can necessarily do in the main game, but in a DLC which is entirely for those core fans, you have a lot more options as to what you can do.”
John has an understanding of games as an interactive medium.
“Choice of combat, choice of mechanics, all of that does have an impact on the storytelling and on the narrative that you’re trying to put through. A lot of storytelling in games is trying to make sure that the - there’s a phrase, ludonarrative dissonance - [for example, say] I’m making a game where I’m trying to make the player feel powerful. How do you [do that?] [...] In games, this is kind of the challenge. Interactivity is so key to it. [...] It’s a lot harder [compared to characters in film] to put the player in a situation that they are going to lose, because as soon as you take away that autonomy, you’re taking away some of that interactivity. [...] If as a player I'm making you feel strong and powerful, and then I pull you into a cutscene and suddenly you’re losing the fight, you’re losing what’s going. That is a much different sensation, that is something movies can get away with that games can’t.”
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“What are [players/our audience] actually meaning when they say that they ‘want choice’? I think that in a lot of cases we conflate that with ‘Oh, they want to make a big decision that changes the world’. But in a lot of cases what players want is the game to react to what they’re doing and the choices that they’re making in a way that feels organic and natural. I think this is something CD Projekt Red and the Telltale games did really well - of making it clear when the game is actually going to pay attention to what you said or did, so that when you see it later you’re like ‘Oh right yeah, I made that choice, the game said it was going to remember it, and it remembered, this is cool’.
And it doesn't always mean completely changing the course of events. The Telltale writers, as they got on through the games, they realized that the better way to address choice - and something we’ve done too - is, if we make the game have three endings, four or five - like DAO had an absolute massive amount of ways that it could turn out. How do you pay that off if you want to do a sequel? There's basically two choices. One is that you make an incredibly short game because you have to account for these very different branches, OR you collapse them and say ‘Sorry, this is what we’re going with’. And I don't think either of those are necessarily satisfying. For me it’s about making the players feel like their time and the choices they made have been respected. More than anything else that's the key, it comes down to understanding your fanbase, what it is they’re looking for, what it is they’re asking for, because there is that desire for choice, reactivity, consequences. And it’s something that BioWare, that we’re especially sensitive to because it’s always been a big pillar of the games we make. It’s just about understanding what this actually means from a practical standpoint and how you execute on that in a way that makes your fans feel satisfied, while still not writing yourself an impossible check to cash, because, you know, you can react to anything, but if you have a game that ends in three separate ways, you have to go with one of those two options and neither of them is going to be intensely satisfying to the player.”
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“A phrase I’ve been using is, what I'm describing as - the half life of quantum. ‘Quantum’ is what we say when it could be like, one of six different things. The half life of this is how long before you actually resolve that down to a single point. Like, provide the player with that reactivity, but collapse those into a way that you can proceed forward. This is 100% a lesson learned from Dragon Age, for all the games. ‘Ok, what do we do with this? Holy shit, that is huge, how are we actually going to pay that off?’ Reactivity, but without putting yourself in an impossible-to-win situation [from a story/writing standpoint].”
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“More than anything else, the advice I would give [to aspiring devs] is, come up with some fundamental pillars of your story and of your design. There's a misunderstanding that we plan out the exact story for years in advance. We know what we want to get to, we kinda know how we’re going to get there, and a lot of it is just making sure that you have those pillars and those razors. So as you go through development and find, ‘Oh this piece is not working, this piece is clunking’, you’ll always have principles that you can go back to. What is important about this story? Does the piece that isn't working satisfy any of those things? If no, then we have to change it or get rid of it.”
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[more advice] “Don’t be afraid to fail (I say fail here as a good thing). Don't be afraid to put something out there and have it absolutely torn to shreds. Feedback is your best friend, having people that you trust to provide that feedback. If I were building a big epic narrative, a big epic franchise, [I’d advise that you] start with your principles and the core of what you want to do, and then just start putting out ideas. ‘Here’s my idea for this story’. It’s easier for me, I'm inheriting a lot of work that's already been done, a lot of ground that's already laid - I have a Lead Writer that has been doing this longer than I have, PW is fantastic. But for myself, it’s just been a lot of like, okay, taking this stuff that's already been built, and making sure that I know what we want to do with whatever the next project is. It sounds overly reductive and overly simplistic, but it really is about just having a really strong sense of what is important to your franchise, what’s important to your brand. If you’re coming up with a new IP, it’s a little trickier. You need to spend some time thinking: what’s the tone, what’s the setting, what kind of story do we want to tell.”
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[more advice] Don’t be afraid to heavily reference existing media [as actual razors, internally]. But that's not something you ever want to have go out to the public, because people go like ‘Oh, you’re just being derivative’. It’s like no, we’re just leaning on cultural touchstones that people know, so that when you’re communicating with people outside your discipline, or with people above you like executives, they can at least get a sense like, ‘Oh I kinda get what you’re doing, okay that makes sense’, versus ‘Let me first of all explain the entire history of the world’. My experience with executives is that they don't have time for that and justifiably so. But if I tell them we’re doing X but with Y and Z it’s like, ‘Ok cool, we get that’. [...] It’s a tiered approach. You have levels of detail that you provide to different people based on what they need to know. You yourself may need to know the history of these characters and how they relate to each other and the thousands of years of history for that, but the person building combat probably doesn't need all that detail and just needs to know ‘What am I working with, how do these characters fight.”
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“A razor is a statement that you use to slice away what doesn't fit. The narrative razor for Trespasser was, I can’t remember exactly, we were basically trying to go for the Avengers meets Indiana Jones, Winter Soldier. Avengers meets Winter Soldier. [a razor is] a statement that you take all the content [by], ‘Okay, does this actually fit this statement? No? Okay, get rid of it’. It’s about focusing your game. Cutting away the ideas that don't really fit is how you avoid scope-loading and people crunching, and how you keep your project focused.
Trespasser was an intensely-focused DLC, in that it focused on basically two main core things, Solas and the fate of the Inquisition. Everything kind of wrapped into those two razors. As we were going through content, we had stuff like - I said this at a GDC presentation in 2016 - the Qunari are farming lyrium to make Qunari templars. And then we looked at it like, how does that apply to either razor? It doesn't, it doesn't fit either one of them. So we simplified it to, ‘Okay, what actually makes this work in the context of what we’re building?’. [a razor is] a statement that you use to slice off what doesn't fit into the game that you’re building. It can be painful, but having strong razors means that it never comes across as a personal thing.”
Narrative does not mean story.
Two of his least favorite mechanics in games [not including Stalker and DayZ] are weight limits and weapon degradation.
On games as a service:
Interviewer/host: “Talking about games as a service, it’s definitely something that is talked about a lot in gaming in terms of the most successful games. With Dragon Age, putting DLCs out is kind of maybe that same influence, but games that are launched and then iterated on and updated and pushed with content every month, like Fortnite, Riot Games, League of Legends, Valorant etc, that's kind of I feel where the trend of games are trying to go and make the most of those interactions between other people, to make replayability possible and easier. How do you see narrative, do you see it being forgotten with this increase of games as a service? [...] Do you see that as a positive part of narrative in games or do you think there’s still work to be done in that space?”
John: “[...] The place we start to see some confusion, a lot of people think it’s one or the other, but to me, it’s another way, another option for telling stories that by their nature have to be different. I think that's where you need to be, again, very cognizant of what you’re building and of the genre you’re working in, because a story that works for a more traditional box product is not necessarily the kind of story that would work for a games as a service product. [...] Games as a service, understanding what the cadence is that you’re planning to deliver to and what kinds of stories best fit that cadence - some games are better at it than others.
One game that did a pretty decent job of it is Destiny 2, through patches. Final Fantasy 14 is another example, they do a lot of their storytelling between the big expansion releases as part of their free patches. They always know that they have - I think, five big patches? - between each expansion, and they’ve structured their stories to fit into that very specific five-act structure. If they tried to do it weekly or bi-weekly it would be a very different experience. I think there’s always room for narrative. It’s about knowing that there are different lessons to learn and not being afraid to learn those lessons, as opposed to trying to fit the traditional box product square-peg narrative into a live service round hole. And that’s why you need to have a strong vision and why you need to have somebody at the Director level who understands and plays the kinds of games that you’re building, so they kind of understand what works and what doesn't - ‘This type of story worked really well for this game, and I'm not saying you should copy it, but you should at least be willing to learn those lessons and not reinvent the wheel every time.’
We’ve been making games for a long time now, there’s lots of lessons to learn, we should be trying to learn from them and not trying to like, change everything every single time.”
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[on length of narrative] “In a lot of cases you know how long your game should be and the hardest part is sticking to that. [...] There is always a worry that fans are going to see a number and be like ‘That’s not big enough or that’s not long enough.’ I do think that there is sometimes a lack of confidence in what you're building, and a desire to make it shorter or longer, but I think at the core, the people building [a] game know how long it’s going to take to tell this story that they want to tell. I say this specifically for narrative, but even stuff like progression, you know how long you want it to take. For myself, I will always take a short but well-executed game over a long game that feels that it has a lot of [useless/boring] padding. It’s about identifying the kind of game you’re building. Open-world games are always going to be bigger and longer than more linear games. Being confident in that number and recognizing when you’re adding time and space for no other purpose than just to make that number on the back of the box longer [is important]. Fans don’t love that, they can see right through that.”
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“It was nice to see the amount of hard work that went into DAI rewarded by the press [with the Game of the Year award]. There are definitely parts of it that didn't land that we wish we could have done differently, but it was a project that felt like we were all pulling in the same direction and when we started getting that positive feedback, it was definitely a sense of relief. Especially because a lot of us had been on DA2, and while we were proud of that project, it obviously didn't get the reception that we wanted at that time.
[when they were watching DAI’s release and tracking its reception] We’re keeping a running tally, like ‘Okay, this is really looking like we did something special here’. I’m proud of every project that I’ve worked on but DAI is definitely one that I’m especially proud of.”
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“Part of the advantage to being at a company for as long as I have, I've worked with a lot of the other people [responsible for things in other departments like art, writing, audio etc], so while there is that anxiety like ‘I reeeally hope that this works out’, I know it’s going to, because I know that everyone who is doing these roles, like our Animation Director, our Audio Director, Levels, all those other people on the project know what they’re doing and they know their shit better than I could ever hope to. So I’m just kind of standing here like ‘Hey y’all this is what we need’, and it’s coming in. And when it does come in, when you see the pieces together - I think for myself, on DAI, the moment that I first finally started feeling like it was really all coming together was, one of our music designers, going into one of the moments at the end of Redcliffe, doing the music/audio pass, and me finally seeing this scene that I’d been staring at and banging my head against for months - turn into something that actually conveyed emotion, that actually was something that I was excited for our fans to get to see and get to experience. That’s always a special feeling.”
Cinematics is one of the last things to come in, which means that audio is always waiting for them to come in: “They always did an amazing job with very little time, I will never not praise our audio and music designers.”
“Patrick Weekes is the Lead Writer, which means ultimately PW is responsible for the writing side of the game. As Narrative Director, I’m there to offer, to basically take the vision of the project and interpret the part that focuses on narrative and then provide that to my team - because I work with writing, cinematics, level designers and everyone - I’m there to be like ‘Hey this is the narrative we want to achieve’, which sometimes involves getting involved in the story side of things. But a lot of that is PW’s job as Lead Writer, they’ve been doing it for a long time, they’ve been in the industry longer than I have. It’s a really good working relationship. We worked together when I was in cinematics and they were in writing, we worked together on the Iron Bull, then we were both leads on Trespasser, so we have a trust.
I think what’s been really helpful is that they know that if I tell them something’s not working, it’s not coming from ‘I wanna do it my way, you better just do it my way because I’m the boss’, it’s coming from ‘This is something I think we need to do for the project’. And vice versa, if they push back on me about something, I know it’s not coming from ‘Screw you I'm the Lead Writer, I make the decisions’, they’re saying it because this is an actual concern. I do writing, I’m a writer on the project too but I will fully admit PW is a way better writer than I am, so I'm comfortable leaning on them for that stuff, and then I’m the person who can provide that ‘Okay, we know that gameplay is providing this, we know levels is providing this, let’s shift the priorities'.
It’s also about knowing, being able to take that back from any one discipline and say ‘Okay, what is the right decision for the project as a whole’, and sometimes that means telling PW something that they may not think is their favorite thing to do, but they will listen because they trust me and I trust them. I don't know how it works at other studios, there are places where Narrative Director is also the Lead Writer, or where there is Narrative Director and Lead Writer is the highest authority on narrative that exists, but it’s worked for us again because we have that lengthy experience. It would be interesting to see how it would work if we didn’t know each other for a while before this. It’s largely a relationship of trusting each other to know our areas of expertise and also just understanding what’s important to the narrative vision of the project.”
When they did Tevinter Nights it was ‘extracurricular’ work: “It was fun, I got to do some writing, I got published, which was really fun”.
[source]
[☕ found this post or blog interesting or useful? my ko-fi is here if you feel inclined. thank you 🙏]
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Hey, I'm wondering if you have any advice on writing kink stuff? Basically, it feels like I'm writing the same story repeatedly. Coming up with stuffing scenarios that both make sense, and aren't just retreads, is really hard. It probably doesn't help that a) I don't have much writing experience, b) my interests are really narrow, and c) I have no imagination, lol. How do you keep stuff fun and interesting? (Jsyk, I sent this to Tiny as well, I love both your blogs 😊)
Hey, anon! Thank you so much, I’m so glad you enjoy my and Tiny’s content and I’m flattered to be asked for advice! ♡ I have a lot of thoughts about this, so I’ll do my best to boil them down into something useful.
^^
Since you mentioned being pretty new to writing, I broke up my advice into a few different “stages,” starting with things that are easy to implement and moving to things that might feel more manageable as you get more comfortable with writing. Under a cut because Real Heckin Long.
Stage One — Don’t Sweat It
This might sound corny and unhelpful, but I genuinely think that especially when you’re first starting out, it’s best not to put pressure on yourself to write the world’s most original stories. Write to please your inner fiend and nobody else! If repeated versions of the same story continue to light your fire, there’s no shame in embracing that.
Doing this will honestly help you with originality in the long-term anyway, because you’re giving yourself the freedom to learn more about what specifics you really enjoy in kink writing. Later on, you can use that knowledge to put new twists on those specifics and invent new scenarios.
Stage Two — Stuffing Scenario Cheat Sheet
I completely agree that believable stuffing scenarios are really difficult to invent. What’s realistic is a matter of opinion of course, but for me, this is a quick breakdown of logical reasons for a character to overeat. If you’re getting tired of using the same justification in your fics, try picking something new from this list:
Accidental stuffing:
Character is distracted by something during the meal
Character eats so fast they don’t realize when they’re full
Character has been hungry for awhile and overdoes it when they finally get to eat
Reluctant intentional stuffing (motivated by external circumstances):
Character feels social pressure to keep eating **
The food will go to waste otherwise **
Eating contests / challenges **
The character is trying to bulk up
Enthusiastic intentional stuffing (because the character wants to):
Character just enjoys the feeling of being full
Character and/or their partner(s) have a stuffing kink
Character has temporary access to good food and is indulging while they can
Fantasy Shenanigans:
Side effects of being a magical creature (e.g. a werewolf eating too much for their human form to handle, a vampire needing to feed all at once, etc.)
Magic that causes a character to overeat (e.g. enchanted food, curses, potions, etc.)
Magic that requires a full stomach and/or extra energy to work (e.g. my di-mage spell mechanics, the antidote in this fic of Tiny’s, etc.)
[free space because fantasy lets you set the boundaries of what’s realistic, so your imagination is really the limit!]
** If you’re aiming for realism, I would be careful of these scenarios. In my opinion, they can be done believably, but often are not. Some things I would look out for:
Most foods can easily be stored for later, so if you want to use the “avoiding waste” trope, make sure that you’re either in a setting without access to refrigeration or that the food is something that genuinely wouldn’t keep until the next day (or at least would be way less tasty after a night in the fridge.)
Social pressure works best in scenarios with people that the to-be-stuffed character 1) doesn’t know very well and 2) wants to impress or keep face around (e.g. formal events, business dinners, first dates that involve food, meeting their partner’s family, etc.)
Loving friends, family, and partners don’t pressure or guilt people into overeating! Characters stuffing themselves because their loved ones are really insistent that they have to taste-test everything or act so disappointed because they went to all this work on some extravagant feast always ring at best false and at worst abusive to me. What kind of loving relationship is it if you don’t feel safe to say “no thanks, I’m full?” That’s not to say social pressure with loved ones can’t be done well, but it usually indicates some kind of character flaw (i.e. an inability to say no and/or a steamroller-y personality) that in my opinion, has to be acknowledged by the fic’s end if you want the tone to stay light and fluffy.
Again, this may just be my opinion, but eating contests only come across as realistic with certain character personalities and in certain contexts. Like yeah, I can believe that a himbo with YouTuber Energy would take on a hot wing eating challenge in front of all his bros, but not so much that an otherwise self-respecting character would drop everything to eat themselves sick because a friend randomly challenged them.
Stage Three — Change Up Other Elements When Using Similar Tropes
Especially if you have narrow interests, it’s probably inevitable you’ll write same basic story structure over and over. I know I sure do! However, I would say that changing other elements of the narrative can give your writing an entirely different feel, turning it into a whole new story that will not feel like a simple retread to a reader.
One thing you can change up is setting. A lot of times kink writers will just plonk characters in the comfort of their own homes, which is valid — but setting hugely influences the atmosphere of a story, so the same Kink Plot will read really differently if it happens, say, at a campground or on a boat. Providing a rich setting can even become a feature of the kink itself. For example, setting your story at a lavish buffet could introduce an element of indulgence that hits you and/or readers differently than a story that involves casual takeout in the living room, even if the rest of the story is similar. Try bold settings! They’re fun!
Another element to vary is context. For example, the basic trope of “stress eating” would play out really differently if a character is about to go on an important mission vs. if they’re recovering from an emotionally difficult day; a story about about a character intentionally stuffing themselves will have a completely different flavor if they’ve been going hungry for awhile vs. they’ve been overeating all week; and so on.
Finally, consider changing up the focus. An easy way to do this is to switch up whether you’re writing from the POV of the stuffed character or a caretaker. You can also focus on different details of the stuffing — for example, lingering on how delicious the food looks and tastes vs. how the character feels as their stomach fills vs. physical details like whether they’re getting bloated or grumbly.
Stage Four — Connect to Character or Plot
The most surefire way to make kink stories distinct is to give the story an additional purpose besides just being kinky. This doesn’t have to be some big, extravagant plot (although it certainly can be) — it can be a simple as writing a kink story the way you usually would, and just finding something within it that you can use to reveal an aspect of your character.
Start with an ordinary kink scenario and try to dive a little deeper. For example:
Say you want to write a story about stress eating. Okay — what is the character stressed about?
Maybe you come up with something relatively simple and generic, like school. Okay, what about this character makes them so likely to be stressed out by school? Are they a perfectionist? Are they facing a lot of pressure from their family? Do they have a goal that requires excellent grades? Have they struggled with this subject in the past?
Let’s say you decide to go with perfectionism. Now, what scenes can you use to show this struggle? And optionally, can you give the character some kind of resolution by the story’s end?
And there you go! Your fic now not only has kink, but also shows how your character reacts in a certain situation.
Character especially is a treasure trove of uniqueness, in my opinion, because well-developed characters react differently to the same scenario. Stories feel more original because even if a reader has read this exact same plot before, they will not have seen how this particular person handles it. So one of the best ways to make fics distinct is to spend time developing your characters!
If the goal is to simply write solid distinct kinky stories, trying to create detailed plot is more work with lower return than investing in your characters, if you ask me. You have to enjoy the process of creating plots itself for it to be worth it. If that’s something you’re interested in, I have a whole load more thoughts about that -- but since this is already incredibly long, I’ll save that for a separate ramble if anyone is specifically interested.
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I hope something in this huge infodump is helpful to you! Some of it may sound intimidating if you’re just starting out with kink writing, but it’s absolutely all something that can be worked up to. Please feel free to ask any follow-up questions if stuff I’ve written doesn’t make sense. Good luck with your writing, anon, and thanks for giving me an excuse to just go off. ^^’ ♡
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Hey Moon! ! I read your post about leaving cause writing really wasn't inspiring anymore, and I honestly couldn't agree more.
My secondary account (en-hale) is dedicated to writing nsfw content about Enhypen, but lately, I struggle to find motivation. I'm kind of the opposite of you though, I do like taking requests, and it's usually what inspires me to write something, however, lately, I've been in a bit of a slump. I've taken breaks here and there, I write something every now and then, but it's nothing like I used to do when I first made the account.
I think part of me wishes I didn't make en-hale a secondary account, and instead made it on a whole new account, cause there are just some things I want to do (for instance, like a post, comment, ask even on that account) but I can't, and that for real stresses me out. I also never get notified of anything on that account, only my primary account, so I can't get notified that someone sent in an ask until I go and check, and I think that has limited my ability to really interact with my followers. I want to make another account but I'm scared I'll lose pretty much everything I've built with that account if I do (like my followers which is pretty nice) Any advice on that? and any advice on getting out of this slump?
hi kay!! tried to keep this short and sweet, but ended up adding a read more anyways to keep it from clogging up people's dashes too much lmfao
i wish there was a one size fits all solution to things like this. writer's block, motivation, and inspiration are so ridiculously individualized and niche, it's hard to give advice about them. the things i do to work through them might not work for you and vice versa.
personally, for me, i decided to stop doing requests just because of my personal life. i'm a full time college student (with very heavy content classes this semester) and i work most of the week. i do find inspiration from requests, but making deadlines has never been a forte of mine. i feel stressed when i have requests sitting in my inbox and i feel bad when i don't get to them in a timely manner, so i eventually lose that intial inspiration to write requests.
but working out of a slump ... yeah that's difficult to give advice on because again, your specific writing process is unique to you, so what i do might not work for you. but i'll give you my personal little secrets on trying to work through motivation slumps anyways !!
honestly and truly, my first priority is to just take a break. when i struggle with roadblocks like this, it always stems from the fact that i'm just burnt out, so i step away and give myself some time to focus on other things. i spend a little more time on self-care, academics, and hobbies. i find that it's so much easier for me to feel motivated to do anything when i'm feeling better about myself!!
when it comes to inspiration, i draw ideas from so many different places! when i go on breaks (especially my current one), i tend to watch a lot of netflix, listen to a lot of music, and read a little. i end up coming up with some ideas based on the media i consume on these breaks (alice in borderland au soon?? who knows!) and that usually helps kickstart my inspiration to come up with more ideas.
my little things tend to be just that: little, simple. but the simple things can mean the biggest difference between motivation and lackthereof for me. i think the best general piece of advice i can offer (for anyone really) is try to find the source of your writer's block and how you can try and tackle it. nurturing and knowing yourself is so important.
i wish i had some advice about your account situation. you could make a new account, but there's no guarantee that your entire follower base would carry over. it's definitely a sticky situation to be in. when i was thinking about making a new blog, i just wanted to start completely over, new pen name and everything, focus my writing on svt (which i'm doing now anyways), but i wanted to try and fix what i felt is wrong with gyuphorias.
i think it really boils down to whether you think making a new account will benefit you or not. tumblr is so difficult to navigate sometimes, so not getting notifications from your secondary does not surprise me in the slightest. and if you really do feel like not getting those notifications as they come in is hurting your relationship with your followers, then it really is up to you on whether moving accounts is a good idea.
i don't know if any of this helps, but i hope it does, at least a little bit. i wish you all the luck in working through your slump!!
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Anon said: [Spoilers for non-manga readers] opinion on Baku's hero name?
Very Bakugou, honestly don’t mind it at all! Mostly just surprised it’s, like, legal in the bnha universe for heroes to call themselves stuff like explodo-kills (and also that there isn’t a character limit for hero names??) but that Bakugou would stick with it is pretty damn in character for him so I like it xD still, I’ll probably just call him Dynamight if I’ll ever need to use his hero name lmao
Anon said: not to be the most romantic sap but uh just a kiss by lady a is killin me
Nothing sappy about letting romantic songs get to you!!!! I say, as I’m constantly crying over romantic songs so this mindset benefits me as well lol
Anon said: i may or may not have stumbled across some of your older kiribaku art, the stuff with akane, and she's the best child oc tbh. i actually like her and i tend to not be a fan of child ocs but she's just the cutest darn thing 🥰
I’m so glad you like her!!!!! She was a lot of fun, what a good gremlin ;;;
Anon said: uve heard of dragon!kiri w his hair spikes up, now get ready for dragon!kiri w his hair dowm lookin like the softest boy
AW HECK I think I’ve drawn him in the past, actually!!!! Spike-haired Kiri will forever be my fav Kiri, but there’s just something about hair down Kiri isn’t it!! What a cute boy ;;;; all sharp edges and soft curves, what a lovely sight
Anon said: can i just say your itafushi art is so cute? these two already make me feel and then your art just (つω°̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥｀)
THANK YOU SO MUCH I really need to draw them more, don’t I! goge kinda monopolized my attention there, but the way itafushi makes me feel..........boy the way they make me feel ;;;;
Anon said: good day, poké au thought: 12 y/o bakugo somehow catches a dreepy as like his 2nd pokemon and never questions it
WHY NOT WHY NOT I have a whole team in my mind for the boy tbh but dreepy is so cute ;;;; and anyway, I like my poke!bakugou with as many dragon types as he could possibly get his hands on hahaha
Anon said: Please know that, amongst other factors, you were one of the maon reasons I stsrted Jujutsu Kaisen two days ago and there isnothing more to say except thank you and I'm absolutely in debt with you for that, thank you so much 😍
I’m so so SO glad you’re liking it!!!!!! It can get kinda heavy but it’s such a great story.... honestly I’d been wanting to start it since I saw the first pv for the anime all the way back last year but I was like, you know it’s a mappa anime! so I wanted to watch the anime as a new thing, cause I love mappa, but three episodes in I couldn’t hold back and just binged it. It’s kind of story that just makes you wanna drink it all in one go, isn’t it? so good so good
Anon said: makeup artist kirishima and model bakugo or makeup artist bakugo and model kirishima? :0c
Hmmmmmmmmmmmm can’t say I see either of them much into fashion tbh, but if I had to pick probably model Kiri and artist Baku? I just don’t think Baku would be able to stay still enough to get photographed, and he wouldn’t like the photographer bossing him around anyway, and catwalks would be impossible for him to stomach imho, he’s too restless for it! At least it’s the way I see it haha
Anon said: fdgdhdkfhdafs i had a thought, what if bakugo prefers dogs and kirishima prefers cats and when they meet each other and become friends it's like, "oh." because they have some striking similarities to their fave animals
That’s been my headcanon for a while now, actually!! I think for me it came from two characters in a manga I like that are a lot like a dog and a cat but have inverted fav animals and when I read about that I was like “oh, right, makes sense since they like each other” and then my brain turned it krbk because when does it not lmao
Anon said: your art is the soothing balm to my soul recently, thank you for posting so much beautiful content. i hope you have a lovely week. ♡
sob thank you so much, I’m glad my doodling can help you feel better ;; <3
Anon said: Friendly reminder anon from last time: that post I left last time I had only eaten 7 gingersnaps that day and hadn’t drank any water. So that encouraged me to actually self care. Thank you.
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! well I hope you’re taking care of yourself today too! And as fair trade, I’ll do the same myself! <3
Anon said: Hi! I'm an artist and I'm thinking of making a sideblog for my art. Do you have any tips?
Ah man, I’m sorry but I’m not the best person to ask this to! I started this sideblog cause I had too many followers on my main and I didn’t want my stuff to be seen by that many people at first, so whatever I did probably isn’t what you’re looking for :( but really there isn’t much to it, just post whatever you like to draw, tag it as best as you can (but remember that only the first five tags appear in the search page) and be patient, since whatever you do at first you won’t get much attention anyway - the only real advice I can give is to draw something that makes you happy and that you’d draw anyway even if no one were to see it, it’ll make keep posting despite a possible lack of activity a lot easier!
Anon said: Your goge art🥺🥺
I just love them so much ( TT’’’TT)9
Anon said: how the fuck have i not been following you? I remember seeing your bakushima art in the bnha tag and always thinking it's so cute. Now you're into JJK too??? and the satosugu art??? fuckin, diabetes incarnate. I love it. I love you. Your art 10/10. I'm tired lmao.
WELL thank you for the follow!! And for thinking my stuff is cute!!!!! I do my best with that, I want all the soft things for my favs 😌
Anon said: Are you gonna draw Gojou/Getou comic?? 👉🏻👈🏻 WOULD LOVE TO READ IT
you mean an actual doujin? I don’t think I will, sorry! I’m really no good at long projects orz but thank you so much for wishing to read something like that from me!!! ;A;
Anon said: Hello! YOUR ART IS SO FREAKING GORGEOUSSSS!!! I love them so much!! If I may ask you one question. Between Getou amd Gojou, who do you see as top/bottom? Just curious
THANK YOU!!!!! And I honestly don’t care as long as they’re happy and together!!! please let them be happy and together 🙏🙏🙏
Anon said: i want you to know!!! i followed you for your kiribaku art but!!! i love your art so much that idc what you post because it's all just!!!! incredible and wonderful and stunning!!!
THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!!!!!! this means a lot to me so seriously thank you so much!!!!
Anon said: d'you think bakugo has like headaches or migraines after training or battles because of how loud his quirk is? like, i listen to music slightly too loud and my head is sending me to hell. (unless you go with the hoh hc which is also 👌)
I like to think Baku’s body is attuned enough to his own quirk that he wouldn’t get drawbacks of the kind tbh, though that wouldn’t be a bad thought for when he just starts to increase the output/width and strength of his explosions............ well, I myself suffer from chronic headaches and migraines so I’m always up for projecting on my favs ngl lmao
Anon said: so like... dragon kirishima's eyes glow right? like, if we equate his dragon-ness to unbreakable his eyes glow? they also glow when he's half shifted? honestly i just live glowing eyes
Oh hell yeah I’m all for that, definitely definitely, I love glowing eyes with my whole heart and Kiri’s eyes in unbreakable are just so!!!!!! NGH *chef kiss* the more of unbreakable there is in his dragon form the happier I am ( TT^TT)9
Anon said: me, scrolling through your blog: ah shit guess im gonna have to start watching jjk
!!!!! hope it won’t hurt you too much, anon!!
Anon said: dragon!kiri and bakugo having a tug-of-war match over a piece of meat. both have it in their mouths. both are determined to win.
Kiri is turned into his dragon form and Baku still wins, hell yeah
Anon said: your satosugu is top tier!! it's hard to find stuff for them that isn't straight up angst so your art has been super cool and also very very cute!! (tho if you went with angst, it wouldn't be a bad thing obviously)
AH I’m so happy to hear you like them!!!! but also happy you wouldn’t mind angst, as I do like them the best happy and soft but my brain, my brain has been throwing sads my way for a while now 👀 I got some ideas
Anon said: What program/device do you use??
Easy Paint Tool SAI and a wacom intuos!! Though I got myself an ipad+procreate just yesterday and I’ve been messing around with it, let’s see how that one goes!
Anon said: *inahles* i am simping for mohawk man please tell me everything about your ocs immediately or i will detonate
THANK YOU FOR LIKING HIM HE’S CALLED DAVIDE Dav for short, he’s a cat of a man and a music instrument enthusiast (mostly string ones, but he’s very good with the piano as well) - he works in a music instruments store, and he’s a uni student majoring in philosphy! He doesn’t like bothersome things, he isn’t very good at taking anything seriously or putting effort in stuff, but he’s very chill to spend time with and generally a nice chat both if you want mindless thoughts or deep conversations (he’s a philosophy major after all). He can’t sing for shit, he’s got two cats (tago and schelly!), and he just wants a quiet life to laze around but all his friends are hurricanes in human bodies, but then again, he picked them himself so he can’t complain. He’s a good boy!! I’m planning a comic for him and his boy Ross >:]
#fran answers#SORRY FOR THE DELAY#i wish i could say i was busy but actually i just got distracted#ah also#jjk spoilers#cause my sis has a habit of readin my asks and she can't know about the otp just yet#lol#is the readmore for this showing? this is pretty damn long....#long post#just to be sure
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this is such a random question but i wanted some advice? how do you not let others people opinions affect you? i am on twitter (big mistake i know) and i get so upset over ppl actions and hypocrisy over things that i just want to call them out but it wouldn't do any good bc ppl are stubborn and double down when called out.
i wanna just not be on twitter anymore but i hate not knowing things in fandom, it feels like i always have to be up to date (and twitter is the fastest and also the translators are there) but i hate it bc knowing things is also what make me sad/mad.
UGH idk what to do, i guess i just lack the maturity? sigh i am sorry this is so random but i always see you as so mature that i wanted advice, to see if there is something i can do i guess?
hi there, friend! this is a complicated situation because you said you hate not knowing things in fandom which i totally understand, i’m a virgo, i Need to know things!! akdkskkd so i used to keep up with fandom news all the time.
but then i created a toxic headspace for myself, letting everything and everyone get to me to the point where my anxiety caused me to get physically sick (which still happens from time to time so i have to step back, focus on something else or i might get sucked into old bad habits again).
the only way i found to keep myself sane was staying away from all of that. because even if you’re a mature person who understands that people are different and sometimes toxic, this constant wave of information and being exposed to all kinds of people, they take a toll on you.
now i just occasionally check that bl update twitter account, my friends send me info from time to time, which helps, but that’s it.
i don’t go on twitter, i have many tags blocked on tumblr and i veeeery rarely check main tags, i prefer to check my friends’ blogs instead. the ones i know i can find good content without negative things.
and even then, sometimes i still need to vent about certain things and luckily i have a friend whose opinions are quite similar to mine, so we talk about things in this safe space that helps me feel better.
i may seem mature (it’s easy when i live in a bubble lmao) but i’m a lot like you, i internalize these bad things, especially because i hate putting them back into the world but then it causes ME to get sick.
so my advice would be: try to curate your experience as best as you can and create a safe space for yourself. blocking everyone that says things that bother you, checking only certain twitter accounts or just receiving notifications from them. avoid main tags, i know this is hard but those places are….. too much, and don’t read general comments because satan lives there aldkskkd just blatantly ignore them like lalalala i can’t read!!
and even then, it might still be a lot sometimes, so i suggest finding a friend whom you can talk about these things with, even the petty ones that annoy you. find someone who accepts all of your rage and ask them “hey can i vent with you today?” and go OFF about it (if they say yes, of course). i swear it makes ALL the difference because it’s too heavy of a burden to carry alone.
oh and find funny videos to watch when you’re feeling overwhelmed, they have to be completely unrelated to the things that are bothering you. i’m currently into watching reviews about bad christmas movies and i swear, they take your mind off things!
so yeah, it’d be stupid of me to come here and call you immature for feeling affected when in reality i’m the same and just happen to live in a bubble with my support system.
i don’t think this helps much because it limits your sources of information so you might not want to do it + creating a safe space and finding the right people is HARD, it’s not something that happens overnight but can i ask you to please try?
you can start slowly. block those people you want to call out if you haven’t yet, it’s therapeutic alsksksk and if you fail today, you can always start again tomorrow!
because you don’t deserve to suffer this much when all you’re doing is trying to have fun with your interests!
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LinkedUniverse Fanfiction Ch. 17: Swords, Shields, Arrows
Stop! You’ve Violated the Law!
So, you’ve stumbled upon this original post for my Linked Universe fanfiction. That’s okay, it happens to everyone. As of March 2021, I’ve uploaded the entirety of this fanfic to my Archive of Our Own page. Along with finally giving the story a name–Oops! All Links: A Linked Universe Story–I made substantial edits to some of the chapters. These range from minor stylistic revisions to fixing a gaping plot hole that kinda completely broke the character conflict in the earlier chapters. I also renamed and renumbered (but not reordered) the chapters. Specifically, this is now Chapter 19: Please, Don't Scare the Customers
The AO3 iterations of these chapters are the definitive versions. So, if you would like to read this fanfiction, please do so on AO3, right here. With this embedded link. Hehe. Geddit? Link?
Note: My screen name on AO3 is FrancisDuFresne. Yes, that is me. I am not plagiarizing myself.
Anyway, for posterity’s sake, the rest of the original post is below the cut.
In this continuation of my @linkeduniverse fan narrative, Wild and Four go on their own errand to find weapons to replace the resident amnesiac's busted sword and unwieldy Stalfos shield.
Word Count: 1482
Twilight and Wind had already left Madame Viliafore’s shop by the time Four and Wild had located an armorer. The town of Selggog was even busier in the late morning than it had been the previous evening. The sights and smells bombarded the two young heroes. Wild glanced down at his companion. The Hero of the Four Sword had to walk more briskly to keep pace with him, on account of him being a good deal shorter.
Four had planned to help Wild pick out new weapons once they had found an armorer. That was the main reason Warriors sent the two together. The moment they’d entered the store, however, Wild gravitated toward the higher-end swords. He picked a sword, tossed it between his hands, twirled it, shook his head, and chose a different one.
Four looked at the shopkeeper as Wild repeated this routine. The burly man behind the counter eyed the young knight warily. Four guessed his customers didn’t often test his weapons inside the store, if at all. Wild slowed his motions. He grasped the hilt of the sword he had been swinging with both hands, lowering it from above his head. When his hands were at waist-height, he stood still a moment. He took a deep breath.
The shorter of the Links watched in anticipation. The taller released his left hand’s grip and picked up the sword’s scabbard, then fit the blade easily into its place. He looked at Four and nodded. He strode to the shields, grasped an iron heater shield about half his height, fitted it on his left arm, and shook it a few times. He shook his head and tried a few more.
Wild stared at one shield for a moment before tilting his head to one side. He suddenly took off at a jog toward the opposite wall. He jumped, threw the shield to the ground, landed on it, and skidded a meter before he hopped off again. The shopkeeper had had enough. “Hey!” he growled, crossing his arms. “This isn’t a soldier’s barracks, kid. You’re scaring my customers!”
The young hero picked up the shield and checked the face of it for scratches. Content to find none, he faced Four and nodded again. Then he cast a glance around the shop. The Links were the only customers to be seen. The two of them exchanged a quizzical look. Wild turned to the shopkeeper. “Sorry, sir,” he said, “I’ve found what I want.”
The Links strode to the counter. Four passed a shelf with bundles of ten arrows each. He grabbed all fifteen of them. They placed their selection before the shopkeeper. The man scrutinized them. “What are two kids like you going to do with a knight’s weapons and my entire stock of arrows?” he asked.
Four looked up and stared the man in the eyes. He knew he was only fifteen but still didn’t like being called a kid. “There are actually nine of us,” he explained with a very slight edge to his voice. “We’re travelling a long way. Between monsters and bandits, the roads are dangerous.”
A few seconds passed before the shopkeeper cracked a grin and let out a bout of hearty laughter. Before either Link could recover from his confusion, the man planted his palms on the counter and continued. “Hell, whatever you say. So long as you’ve got the rupees, you’ve got the weapons. Let’s see… two hundred for the sword, three hundred for the shield, and three-sixty for the arrows… that comes out to eight hundred sixty.”
The Links winced at the number. Four shot a glare at Wild. Wild shrugged. He didn’t want to show how embarrassed he was that they were dropping five hundred rupees just because he needed new weapons. Thinking back to his conversation with Sky and Hyrule the previous night, he decided to try haggling. The young knight imitated Hyrule and put a forearm on the counter. He looked the man in the eyes. “Four hundred,” he declared boldly. Four saw the mistake immediately and shook his head.
The shopkeeper laughed even harder than before. Wild’s half-baked cocky expression faded. “Oh, boy,” the man said when he calmed down, “I know what you’re trying here, kid. Word of advice, huh? Never insult someone by offering less than half the starting price.”
Wild gulped. “I… um…”
“Save your breath, I can tell you have no clue what you’re doing. Let’s say seven hundred and call it even.”
Eager to avoid any more awkwardness, Wild just nodded. Four opened his wallet and withdrew three silver rupees, four purple, seven red, nine blue, and fifteen green. After placing them on the counter, he looked back in his wallet to find it almost empty. He sighed then stuffed the arrows in his pouch. Wild grabbed his weapons and the young adventurers went to leave the store. Four shot off a quick “thank you” before the door closed behind them.
Wild quickly fastened his new sword and shield to his baldric. “Right,” he started, “now to the café.”
Four sighed again. “You’re lucky that guy’s well-humored. That could have gone really badly.”
“How was I supposed to know what to offer?”
They started walking. “I dunno, but definitely not less than half.”
Wild’s shoulders slumped. "The Captain is gonna be on my hide for weeks.”
Four gently nudged his partner’s hip. “Don’t worry about it, he’ll probably appreciate that you picked such quality weapons. I saw the way you tested each sword. Where’d you learn that?”
“Part of knighthood is being able to choose the equipment that will keep you and your wards safe.” Wild went silent a moment. He remembered how the Master Sword had nearly fallen apart from the abuse of the Calamity. “When I’m out in the wilds, I take what I can get. Give me a choice and I’ll take the best I can find.”
“You didn’t pick the most expensive ones, though,” Four pointed out.
“I didn’t like the most expensive ones. This one,” he tapped the pommel above his right shoulder, “was weighted and sized the best for me. I know my abilities and my limitations. I can kill with virtually anything you give me, Four. Still, my own skill only carries me so far. My gear needs to pick up the slack. As the knight sworn to protect the princess of Hyrule, I’m most valuable when I’m at my most lethal.”
Four had to give it to him, that was solid reasoning. When he himself had forged the Four Sword, he put care into every strike on red-hot metal. In a way, he viewed the sword more as a piece of art than an instrument of violence. Wild had a point, though: Before everything else, a sword is meant to kill. Still, something bothered Four about his partner’s phrasing.
“Wild, your value isn’t just in your ability to slay evil,” Four said, careful to avoid the word kill. Wild looked down to his companion. Four couldn’t identify his expression, so he continued: “I don’t think you give yourself enough credit. You’re kind, caring, and humble to a fault. You had the weight of the world thrust on your shoulders, and nearly died protecting the princess. You lost your memory, but you still soldiered on and saved Hyrule. And you were able to wield the Master Sword, which is a testament to the purity of your soul.”
The shortest Link looked skyward and smiled. “Just look at all of us Links. We share a love for life and a sense of justice that drives us to protect the light. That’s what binds us, what summons us whenever Hyrule needs us most. I’d bet all four of my lives that we aren’t the only Links there have been or ever will be.”
A few seconds passed. Four glanced at Wild. The Hylian Champion seemed lost in thought, as if he were walking on autopilot. The young smithy had had to make sense of four fragmented personalities to achieve his full potential. He still couldn’t make sense of Wild sometimes. He figured, as the other Links had, that Wild came out of his adventure the most psychologically damaged of all of them—even more than Time.
Wild was shocked out of his reverie by a little girl shoving past him trying to chase her friends. The sights and sounds of Selggog rushed back to him. He stopped walking and shook his head to clear it. Four waited a few paces ahead. “Sorry, were you saying something?” Wild asked, still a little dazed.
Four walked back, reached up to put his hand on his friend’s shoulder, and smiled. “Not really, no. Let’s head back to the café and meet up with the others. They probably picked out some good food.”
“Yeah, sounds good. I’m down for a second breakfast.”
“Hah, you always are.”
#linked universe#linkeduniverse#my own#my writing#fanfic#zelda#the legend of zelda#creator content#linked universe fanfiction#swords shields arrows
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season 6 thoughts
hey quick question why the FUCK did you start with that
like on the one hand i’m glad that now i know what happened right after the end of “that’s too much man!”. on the other hand… ow
the mountain bojack climbs is called “metaphor mountain” God bless Lisa Hanawalt
i LOVE the way the episodes are framed… like you get one flashback to bojack drinking and you think that was the first time then it’s like NOPE he was even younger
CINDY CRAWFISH AKSHDJDSF
AND BABY BOJACK SNUGGLING UP TO HIS MOTHER… TRYING TO FEEL AN EMBRACE SHE WOULD NEVER GIVE… CATCH ME CRYING IN THE CLUB
WHO THE FUCK CAME UP WITH THIS NEW INTRO
AND THE WAY IT HAS ALL THOSE FLASHBACK SCENES BUT IT STILL ENDS WITH HIM FALLING INTO THE POOL AND DIANE AND PEANUTBUTTER CHECKING TO SEE IF HES OK AND THEN HES JSUT LOUNGING IN HIS APPLE SHORTS;;; it’s just,, he’s going back home in the end, going back to the place where he started, as if everything will go back to the way it was before and he’ll find himself stuck in the same cycles he tried so hard to escape… all im saying is, i dont think this season is gonna end well
and how it dwells on his past, everything he did wrong, all the most heartwrenching moments, and there aren’t any changes to the intro (as far as i could tell) until episode 8… nothing changes if all you do is look back.
I am LOVING the Mr. Peanutbutter we’re getting this season. I was never really attached to him before; it’s not that I hated him, just that I liked all the other main characters better. and now that they’ve had him do something really bad and reckon with that,, he’s plumbing new depths, exploring those dark places, questioning if he’s truly as happy as he says he is
and bonding with bojack??? who would have guessed
bojack keeps giving advice that is, at best, the kind he doesn’t follow himself, and at worst, bringing others down into the well of self-pity that he’s been stuck in the whole series
Someone give Princess Carolyn a break…
SHE NAMED HER DAUGHTER RUTHIE IM CRYING
Guy seems like a cool guy but I feel like they’re setting him up to seem nice so that it’s more surprising when it’s revealed he’s not. I’m probably being too suspicious, but also we don’t know much of the details about his divorce, do we? Lakeith Stanfield's great tho
EPISODE 4 WAS COMEDY GOLD
The return of Queefburglar69
I WANNA WRAP PICKLES UP IN A BLANKET LIKE A BURRITO AND TELL HER EVERYTHINGS OKAY
Oh man Pickles talking about how her subscribers will always be there for her… like… it’s not one person, it’s a cloud of people, the contents and shape of which changes, might even be completely different and unrecognizable from one year to the next, but they’re all still there as this nebulous support system. and it reminded me of what bojack said to young sarah lynn about how her fans are the only things she can count on
Todd is babey.
Also him wearing the ace colors under his hoodie!!
I knew Diane’s rationale for going to chicago was bullshit. she said it makes her feel good, but “it doesn’t matter where you are, it’s who you are,” and she still dwells on her bad feelings and hates herself just as much in chicago as she did in LA. moving somewhere else isn’t necessarily gonna change those tendencies, she has to work on it herself.
OH MAN AND WHEN BOJACK GETS DR CHAMP DRUNK AGAIN… THROWING THE BOTTLE OUT THE WINDOW WAS A WAY TO AVOID RUINING ANOTHER LIFE AND HE ENDS UP DOING THE EXACT THING HE HOPED HE WOULD NEVER DO AGAIN
was honestly kinda hoping that Dr Champ was just pretending he got drunk to show how bad bojack could get if he relapsed but at the end when he was like “stay…” that’s how i knew that shit was real.
todd is so fucking stupid i love him
ngl am kinda disappointed that todd’s confirmed white, cause i’ve kinda been picturing him as latino for a long time and i know rbw said he doesn’t want to alienate latino viewers who relate to todd. but it makes a lot of sense, cause he always gets away with stupid shit and gets to the top of things without even having to try just because he knows a guy. and maybe the reason he’s so positive all the time is because it’s so easy for him to be, he never has to worry about shit bc of the privilege his whiteness affords him. also I love that we got to learn more about his backstory
THE CONTRAST BTWN “all the shitty things I did that I can barely even remember because I was high or drunk or it was thirty years ago” and “I remember everything. I’m sober now.” !!!!!!!!!!!!!
sharona sounds like a cross btwn princess carolyn and margo martindale
I have… mixed feelings about the haircut
Oh man Mr. Peanutbutter had a moment… he finally got that crossover episode… I was kinda hoping for a joke that went “Mr. Peanutbutter and BoJack Horseman in the same room? What is this, Philbert?” or “What is this, a short-lived show on a streaming network that got canceled because the star got addicted to painkillers and strangled his costar in a drugged haze?” but this is SO MUCH BETTER. I've never seen him cry before and the way he reacts to himself crying suggests that maybe he’s never cried before at all, and that’s why he just keeps laughing, almost like it’s forced, cause this is supposed to be his happiest moment and it’s not supposed to make him so sad. fucking,, character development
and the cold open of ep 8… you can forgive yourself and move on from your past wrongs but it doesn’t erase the things you did, the effects they have on people, and the trauma they’ve suffered. and then like, how can you forgive yourself if they never forgive you? how do you maintain that balance? why should you move forward if they can’t?
its weird to have an episode consisting entirely of guest stars but it also illustrates the extensive world they’ve built and i applaud that… also where the fuck is ana spanakopita
GINA RETURNS!!! HELL YEAH
her quote about not wanting to be defined by what bojack did to her has always stuck with me, and i feel like now, that quote has sort of come true. like, her saying that made us avoid reducing her to what happened to her, and thats why i wanted to see her come back this season, hopefully moving past it. but she can’t. it traumatized her. and everyone can see the effects of it but she feels like she can’t come forward, cause if she does she’ll be punished. shit like that changes you.
and it’s another instance on the show where someone chooses to advance their career & preserve their reputation over doing the right thing (like what bojack does with herb & sharona), but bojack does it out of self-interest, and gina does it so she doesn’t have to relive her trauma every time she gets interviewed or recognized by a fan. but even when she keeps quiet about it she’s still reliving her trauma
noah fence but what a waste of the once-per-season fuck word. youre really gonna use it in an episode IN WHICH BOJACK DOES NOT EVEN APPEAR, and not only that, but RECYCLE AN OLD SENTENCE FROM A PREVIOUS EPISODE
netflix places no limits on a show’s use of the fuck word (i think), so… fingers crossed for something better in the second part?
OH MY GOD PETE REPEAT INTRODUCED HIMSELF AS PETER ITS ALMOST LIKE HES TRYING TO FORGET THAT TIME & THAT PERSON HE WAS (im probably reading into it too much, I’m sure it’s mostly so we wouldn’t figure out who it was immediately. maybe im just like the kid with the coffee cup.)
and just… ppl describe this show as “family guy or the simpsons except the protagonist faces consequences for his actions” but bojack has gotten away with everything.
you ever just like… you ever watch a scene and feel the cliffhanger vibes creeping up and you just know it’s gonna end there and leave you unsatisfied and begging for more but at the same time that’s what makes it such a good place to end it. that was me with this. (and also the ending of undone)
the thing about this show is, it illustrates what it’s like to be a toxic person. and sure, he has it hard, but the show never asserts that he has it any worse than his victims, even if bojack himself does so. and he only does it so he can feel better about himself. he deserves a reckoning, he needs to pay for his bad deeds. but then, when you know what made him this way and what goes on inside his mind and that he wants to get better, it makes you feel for him, and forces you to ask if he deserves to get better and forgive himself and move forward. but even if he does, it doesn’t change the things he did. it doesn’t fix the lives he’s ruined.
anyway sound off if you think bojack’s gonna die at the end. hopefully not by suicide
#long post#bojack horseman#diane nguyen#todd chavez#princess carolyn#mr. peanutbutter#pickles aplenty#pete repeat#bojack horseman season 6 spoilers#doctor champ#sarah lynn#gina cazador#horsin' around#mr. peanutbutter's house#netflix#raphael bob-waksberg#lisa hanawalt#phoebe talks#mine
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How do you keep a relationship fresh and fun? I want someone that still acts like things feel “new” and continue being cutesy and flirty even years after being a couple! How do you find the person who is going to do that?
Every person is different, and frankly, the expectation that things are going to feel fresh and new forever is a very high bar to meet. That's not to say that you shouldn't give up on this goal, and that's it's impossible to achieve. There are lots of people who are creative in that way to be able to maintain that "just like new" feeling for a very long time.
But what's really important to understand is that is a characteristic of personality and of ingenuity rather than a quality that you can just look for. Like, bro, I'm fucking boring. If you were going to date me, you'd be sorely disappointed with me keeping things lively. Yeah, I tend to be flirty and affectionate, yeah I like to do dates and stuff. But I'm lazy and boring too, and I like my routines, so I'm a very unexciting person to date. That's my vibe.
Everyone's vibe is different. So if you're looking for a fresh and spontaneous vibe, you're going to have to find someone who is fresh and spontaneous. That's a test of you finding the right person that you're really compatible with; there is no advice to give there beyond good luck!
The other thing to remember is that if you're looking for a real, good, long-lasting relationship with someone... I hate to break it to you, but people are really fucking boring. Eventually you're going to run out of things to talk about, you'll have done most of the cool stuff you can do, and all that stuff. Eventually, every relationship will get boring and will not feel fresh. And then a new challenge arises: are you going to be okay with that reality? Are you going to be able to settle down when you finally reach that point of total routine? Or does that idea scare you? If so, that's a thing to think about, because maybe you're not prepared for a really long-term relationship, and should find people who are more interested in shorter term things that feel genuine and fun rather than something more committed that may eventually be a burden to you.
_________
Okay, but this is still kind of dodging the question right? I said it's possible to pull this off, so HOW is it possible to pull this off? What tangible things can you actually do?
1) Date nights. This is kinda obvious, but dates never get old. The key to fun date nights into the future is making sure they are diverse. The first time you kiss at the movies or go on a fancy dinner date, it's a novelty; the 50th time you do it, it's just another time at the movies or at another restaurant. And while there's no shame if that's what you are into, if you want freshness, then you gotta mix it up. Make sure your dates are doing different things in different places. Go to different restaurants. Bonus points, get super dolled up for it, like dresses and heels and suit jackets with a tie. Go to unique locations, like rock climbing, or swimming, or an arcade. Go on long drives. This can be scaled up all the way to road trips or vacations with your significant other. The point is, if you're bored of the same ol', same ol' style of date, the only thing limiting you is your imagination. I saw this cute tiktok about a couple who played Super Smash Brothers in their car, and winner of the round got to pick where they got to go to a restaurant. The more creative you get, the more fun it stays.
2) Be silly. Lots of people, especially younger people, take relationships WAY too seriously. I know I did, and I know most people writing into me do too. But the reality is, being in a relationship is like having a best friend who you do naughty stuff with sometimes (if you're into that). So treat them like a best friend. Do stuff with them like you would with your best friend. Play pranks, goof off, do nothing, karaoke night for no reason, sleepover in the living room. Just have fun. That fun attitude will leak into everything, and not only will it make your relationship as a whole better and more happy, but it'll keep things from feeling like you're doing this epic event in both of your lives and instead that you're just having a great time with someone you care about.
3) Value experiences. Here comes the cringey millennial with the generic advice, EXPERIENCES WOW. But seriously, scientific research shows that our dumb monkey brains value experiences over products. Everyone is different of course. But your brain is more likely to find happiness in that trip to the Grand Canyon over that iPad you bought, even if you use the iPad every day and go to the Grand Canyon only once. So, knowing this, put that same emphasis into your relationship. This is why continuing to go on dates in a committed relationship is so nice, because it diversifies the likelihood that you have unique experiences that make you happy. Doing things actively that don't rely on physical stuff, but instead, are events in your life, can make your entire relationship as a whole feel wholesome and nicer.
4) Learn each others love languages. Love languages are a little cheesy, but there is value in figuring them out. There are a few different versions of it out there. But the simple Love Language quiz thing is usually sufficient for this. Figure out what you like if you don't already know, figure out what your partner likes, and then double down on those.
https://www.5lovelanguages.com/quizzes/
Here's my chart! Very instantly, looking at my results, you know EXACTLY what not to do: DO NOT GIVE ME GIFTS. I hate receiving gifts - it means you spent money, if I don't like the gift I feel like a burden, and if I do like the gift I feel like I took away from something nice you could have gotten for yourself. Meanwhile, I'm pretty evenly split between all of the other styles of loving. So a partner who wants to make me happy can use any of those methods!
What does all this actually relate to with regards to the source question being asked: keeping relationships fun and fresh? Because if you know what your partner likes, what you like, and how you both can meet in the middle, you will know exactly how to bond with each other when interacting with each other. I'm very touch focused, so if you really want to make my day, give me kissies or hugs, or stuff like that goes a very long way, and will be more meaningful. Having those closer bonds can help you feel more contented in everyday interactions.
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Klainetober day 27
Prompt 27: Candy Corn
Summary: Quinn hosts a party, Kurt pines for his best friend, and Lauren is right afterall
Notes: If I wrote glee, this would probably be somewhere in season 2, I guess.
AO3
Kurt was thankful he wasn’t hosting this party. When Quinn volunteered her empty house for a Halloween Bash, he was relieved. Not that Burt and Carole wouldn’t have let the New Directions spend a night watching scary movies in the basement (they absolutely would have) but because Kurt and Finn won’t be on clean-up duty for once. He was also excited for Puck’s promise of alcohol. Though Kurt had bad experiences in the past with drinking he was determined to give it a second chance and limit his intake this time. He would pace himself and hope to God he wouldn’t embarrass himself...again.
Some of the glee club was doing shots (Brittany, Santana, Puck, and Artie) but most were content with the apple cider and caramel vodka mixture Quinn and Mercedes had made. In fact, they enjoyed it so much, the two girls were in the kitchen stirring up a second batch. Having volunteered to be a designated driver, Finn was content with his handful of candy corn.
Unsurprisingly, Rachel had brought her karaoke machine and attempted to convince Finn to sing a spooky duet with her. Except, she was slurring her words and kept saying “spoopy.”
Mike and Tina were half-dancing and half-making out in the center of the living room. Sam was in deep conversation with Blaine and a few other Warblers about the latest Star Wars film.
Lauren came over to where Kurt was standing by the food table.
“Why so glum?” she asked, nudging his shoulder.
“I’m not glum.”
“Are you just a sad drunk cause I don’t need any crybabies tonight?”
Kurt remembered Finn telling him Lauren was an angry drunk. She had torn Puckerman a new one at their last drunk get together.
“No crybabies here,” he swore, “just wishful daydreams.”
His eyes wandered back to Sam and Blaine. They were sitting awfully close together. If Kurt didn’t already attempt to hit on Sam, he’d assume Blaine was interested in the blond. Unfortunately, for both himself and Blaine, Sam was very straight (or so he claimed, Kurt still thought no straight man would bleach his hair) and dating Quinn.
“Lingering feelings?” Lauren questioned, following Kurt’s gaze.
“For Sam?” Kurt clarified. “No, I’m definitely over that crush. It was headed nowhere just like all my other ones.”
“Eh, boys suck anyway. Who needs ‘em?”
Kurt grabbed a soft pretzel and bit off a piece.
Lauren kept talking, “You really have no type then.”
“Excuse me?”
“You’re excused.” Lauren took a sip of her cider from an orange solo cup. “From Gigantor to Southern Surfer to Curly Q. You’ve got me stumped, do they have anything in common?”
“Being nice to me, I suppose,” Kurt told her. “Finn eventually helped with the bullying, Sam was willing to sing a duet with me until Finn warned me not to, and Blaine is like my best friend.”
“You need higher standards, Hummel.” Lauren shook her head. “You can’t just fall in love with nice guys. You need someone who actually cares about you. Who loves you.”
Even tipsy, Lauren gave good advice.
“That’s the thing, I think maybe…” Kurt trailed off.
The front door burst open and in came the remaining Cheerios and football players. Behind them, half of the McKinley population.
“I don’t care what anyone says, there’s gotta be more than one gay at McKinley. You and I, Hummel, are about to find him.”
For the next hour or so, Lauren dragged Kurt around the house and made obscene comments about the party-goers. Kurt’s pretty unwilling to talk to any boy Lauren deems “team gay.” Not because he doesn’t trust her input, he does, it’s just Kurt doesn’t want just any boy, he wants Blaine. They ultimately end up in the living room again and Kurt is back to trying not to be caught watching his crush.
Only Sam is still on the couch talking to Blaine.
“If I get blondie to leave, will you swear to jump in there and talk to him?”
“He’s my best friend. I don’t have trouble talking to him,” Kurt told her.
“Liar. If you didn’t have issues talking, you’d be dating.”
Without another word, Lauren gets Sam away from Blaine. Kurt doesn’t want to know what she said to make him jump up like that but he’s glad for the opportunity. Even though he didn’t really promise Lauren anything he jumps into Sam’s vacated spot on the couch.
“Hi Kurt, enjoying yourself? I feel like I haven’t seen you all night.”
“I was with Lauren,” he explained, “she was attempting to find another gay boy who goes to McKinley to prove me wrong.”
Before they get past how-do-you-dos, Sam is standing on top of a table shouting “Cops!”
At first, Kurt is confused by this but then it all clicks and he understands.
“We gotta go,” Kurt said, grabbing Blaine’s hand.
In no state to drive and thankful Finn had parked a couple of blocks away, Kurt dragged Blaine out the back door and ran. When it came to underaged high school parties, shouting ‘cops’ was like someone shouting fire. That is to say: chaos.
Once the house was no longer in sight, the boys walked to a nearby park to catch their breath.
“Who knew McKinley’s parties were so exciting?” Blaine said.
“I certainly wouldn’t,” Kurt replied. “I thought Quinn was limiting it to glee people.”
“Sam told me she’s already prepping for prom queen. Something about throwing good parties and earning favor with the popular kids.”
Kurt nodded. That sounded like Quinn. Unforgettable parties were a great way to be remembered.
Blaine took a seat on one of the swings. “What were you saying back at the house about finding another gay boy?”
“Oh.” Kurt hoped the cold would explain his red cheeks and sat on the swing next to Blaine. “I told Lauren there’s no other out gay kids at McKinley, it’s just me.”
“And?”
“Pretty sure, I’m still right. We were unsuccessful.”
“Not for long,” Blaine said.
Kurt whipped his head around. “What do you mean?”
“I’m transferring so I guess the out gay population just doubled.”
“Why?” Kurt blurted out. “I mean, you are?”
“Yeah, um, my mom’s had enough of my dad’s BS so we’re moving to Lima. I want to live with her so that means leaving Dalton.”
“Well, I’m sad that you have to leave the Warblers but I’m also glad you’ll be with me. At McKinley that is.”
Blaine ducked his head and chuckled.
“You being at McKinley is definitely a bonus.”
Kurt shyly smiled back at his friend.
“So, I don’t want to make things weird but I feel there’s an opportunity here. I was talking to Wes and Sam earlier and they agreed there’s really nothing stopping me from asking now.”
“Curiosity peaked,” Kurt replied.
“Just promise you’ll say no if you don’t want to. We can completely forget I even asked at all if that’s what you want.”
“Okay…”
Blaine rubbed his hands on his jeans.
“Can I kiss you?”
Kurt’s eyes widened a bit before he started looking around in confusion trying to process this new development. Only in a few of his daydreams did Blaine return his feelings. Was this actually happening? Or was some sort of witchcraft at play?
He must’ve nodded his head because Blaine stood up from the swing.
“You’re sure?” he asked, leaning in.
“Yeah.”
Kurt met him halfway. He wants to say it was a perfect first kiss but it wasn’t. No fireworks, nothing like that, and Kurt had no idea what to do with his hands. Would Blaine feel weird if he ran his fingers through his curls? Should Kurt hold his waist?
It was also brief. A few seconds of lips touching. Chaste and sweet but not mind blowing.
“I really like you, Kurt,” Blaine told him. “Are you busy tomorrow?”
“I’m not busy.”
“Have dinner with me?”
“I’d like that.”
Blaine smiled and sat back down on his swing.
“And Blaine,” Kurt said. “I really like you too.”
At school on Monday, Blaine’s first day and Kurt’s first day with a boyfriend, Lauren met Kurt at his locker.
“Heard there’s a new kid.”
“Yeah, there is,” he confirmed.
“Guess I was right after all,” she replied.
Kurt tilted his head, confused.
“There is more than one out gay kid in McKinley. You can thank me for telling Sam the cops were coming later.”
With that, she walked away leaving Kurt staring after her with his jaw open.
“Hey you,” Blaine said, leaning against the lockets. “What’s going on?”
“Lauren Zizes is not a force to be reckoned with, Blaine,” Kurt told him, shutting his locker. “Don’t test her.”
“Noted. Walk me to class?”
“It would be my pleasure.”
If their hands brushed together a little too long as they walked in the hallway, no one said a thing.
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Maison des cartes - The Hierophant
Witch!Dami x Gender Neutral Reader
Word Count: 3.7k
Contents: magic, kidnapping, a cage, being held captive
Previous | Next
~
tradition
conformity
~
A suffocating blackness rushed in around you in an instant. You gasped for air in what felt like the vacuum of space as you felt something around your waist pulling you through the nothingness, eyes shutting against the darkness, not making any difference as you did. Your head felt light and woozy as your consciousness slipped away and a distant voice said “help her.”
You had no memory of hitting the ground. The only thing that let you know you did was the dull pain in your back and the back of your head and the fact that you were lying down. Your disoriented mind reached for any details to help you as your eyes fluttered open and you furrowed your brows, eyes bleary in the sunlight streaming in the window.
“I-I’m so sorry!” You forced your eyes open as fear shot through your heart at the unfamiliar voice. Your vision was blurred but you made out the shape of a young woman leaning over you. Closer in your vision swam her hand, offering it to you to help you up. You took it cautiously, trying to make sense of where you were and what was happening.
“What happened?” you mumbled, getting up slowly and rubbing the back of your head. The woman ushered you to a comfy chair and helped you sit down.
“I-I think the potion caused you to faint,” she fretted.
“The… potion…” How you hadn’t seen it until now you had no clue but there was very clearly a large, bubbling cauldron in the center of the room. You blinked at it, your foggy head still confused. You knew you had been in the abandoned house and the door was stuck. You remembered fog. How did you get here? Why did she have such a large cooking pot?
“Yes, it really wasn’t supposed to do that at all. God I’m so bad at this,” she muttered, heading to her shelf where a number of bottles with brightly coloured liquids sat. You watched groggily as she pulled on a certain small bottle and the shelf shifted, revealing a space in a wall behind where she grabbed another potion before returning to you.
“Here,” she handed it to you. “Drink this.”
You stared at the little bottle, thick looking dark green liquid was swirling slowly inside, as if moving of its own volition. A grimace tugged at your lips as you imagined what it could taste like, trying to figure out what it was, as the woman fidgeted in front of you.
“I-It’ll help… w-with the pain I mean,” you looked up at her and she gazed at you nervously. “It- It’ll make you feel better.”
You barely had any idea what was going on but you felt it was probably your best option. You didn’t know if you should trust her or not but what other choice did you have? None of this made any sense to you and your confusion still clouded your mind as you pulled out the stopper and took a swig.
The liquid tasted foul but that wasn’t what made you throw the bottle. The feeling, like a tingling or prickling as it slid down your throat, almost like it had a mind of its own, was what caused you to throw the bottle. You couldn’t manage a scream past the thick liquid as you choked it down and a warm feeling started to melt over your body.
The woman yelled something in a strange language and the bottle stopped in midair, slowly changing course and floating into her hand. As the drink went down you began to cough, barely even noticing how your pain had vanished as she rushed to give you water but you scrambled back in the chair, watching her with frightened eyes.
“Please,” she whispered. “Please just take it, it’s just water; it’ll make you feel better.”
“I-I what-”
“Shhh,” she hushed you. “Please just drink the water. I promise I’ll-” The woman froze and you heard the sounds of footsteps coming closer.
“No,” she whimpered. She grabbed you forcefully and pulled you towards what looked like a cage. “Just, sit in there and be quiet, even pretend to sleep. Just- don’t draw attention to yourself I promise I’ll let you out again.”
You didn’t have much time to react as she was pushing you into the cage, your brain clearing bit by bit and your heart starting to race. You looked back at her as she locked it and looked at you sadly. “Please,” she hissed. “Just pretend to sleep please I know you’re scared.”
You nodded slowly, holding in any and all sounds as she drew away, moving the shelves until they were in their original position. As someone knocked on the door you laid down and closed your eyes, figuring her advice was the only advice you had. You breathed slowly as you laid on the hard ground, listening intently and keeping your face even.
The door creaked open and you heard a rough, man’s voice. “What’s with all the noise?”
“They passed out from the potion,” the woman said nonchalantly. “I haven't got the formula right yet.”
“You’re not going to wake them up and try again? They can take it.”
“That’s not why I left them,” she snapped. “What’s the point? I need to make adjustments, might as well let them stay knocked out until I need them. This way they’re quiet.”
The man hummed. “Yeah, I guess so. Just don’t make such a racket.”
“Of course,” she said cooly. “Now can I work?”
The man let out a grunt as he stalked out of the room. You stayed frozen in your spot until you heard the woman fiddling with the lock and you warily looked up at her.
“You can come out now, I-I’m really sorry about that.”
“What? Why did-?”
“Here,” she said, a little shaky herself as she helped you out of the cage and back into the chair. “I’ll explain, just rest for a moment.”
You nodded slowly as she hurried around the room, trying to calm your heart and process what you’d heard, trying to make sense of it all. The woman seemed to boil a kettle with her hands before pouring you a cup of tea and rushing it over to you. You accepted it gratefully and she pulled up a chair to sit with you.
“I’m sorry about this,” she worried. “I wish I could do more for you.”
“I’m still confused as to how I got here,” you mumbled.
“I…” she bit down on her lip, seeming to think for a moment. “You don’t have magic, correct?”
“Not as far as I know,” you mumbled, taking a shaky sip of your tea that tasted much better than the potion.
The woman fiddled with her cup. “Then they would have told you nothing. You’re…” she hesitated. “Ah, a test subject.”
You froze and stared at her with wide eyes and she babbled on quickly. “T-Try not to worry. I want to keep you safe. I-I just need t-to, keep lying to them.”
“Wh-Who?”
“My family,” she muttered. “We’re all- I- Oh! I-I’m sorry I’m Yoobin, or Dami, whichever really. I- We all have magic but… they- they aren’t nice to people without magic.”
You just stared at her, trying to absorb all the things she said.
“You’re here so we can create new spells a-and, uh, I guess you know already. Th-That potion might have knocked out some of your memory though. I’m going to try and keep you with me. You’re one of the only ones here right now but I need you the most anyway and the others…” She trailed off.
“I can’t leave,” you said quietly.
“I’m going to try,” her eyes flickered towards the door. “M-Maybe.”
“Maybe?” you questioned.
“It’s- I can’t just go. We… We do things a certain way here and even this,” she motioned between the two of you. “Isn’t allowed.”
You sat quietly for a moment, thinking. “You’re not even supposed to make health potions are you?”
She shook her head. “They can’t know. If they found out what I actually make…”
“You need to leave too,” you said, perking up.
“N-No, no they would find me. I’ll be good to you here, I promise.”
You reached forward and took Yoobin’s hands shakily. “What do you need to do, to run away and not be found?”
“I-I- I’m not sure… u-um some potions a-and cloaking spells. But-”
You shook your head. “We’re doing it.”
~
Your ability to help Yoobin was limited to be sure. You had no magical powers whatsoever and she’d warned you against touching anything unless she told you to. You were glad that she kept you near her so much. You barely had any contact with the rest of her family but they were still around from time to time to see what she was doing and as much as you hated going in the cage, and sometimes staying long when they wanted to stay with her, spying or snooping on her work, you were grateful that they left without paying you much attention.
You did hate sleeping and you barely slept much at night. She’d apologized to you every night as she took you to what felt like jail cells, locking you up near some other non magical people who looked to be in worse shape than you were. You knew if the family started to suspect too much it would ruin all the preparation.
You still didn’t like being in the cells though. You wanted to help the others but none of you talked and you had a feeling they’d been told not to. You were always worried that someone else would come and grab you before Yoobin did. She was late to bring you to bed and early to pick you up but it wasn’t like everyone was on a strict schedule and today, like every other morning, you sat anxiously waiting for her to come.
Heavy footsteps echoed from down the hallway and you heard a whimper from a nearby cell. You squeezed yourself back on the hard bed, hoping that whoever it was wouldn’t notice you, would pass you by. Was it bad to wish that? If that harm didn’t come to you it came to someone else.
“Well well,” the voice you recognized, even if you had never looked at his face before. His frame was large but he was well put together. His hands were casually resting in his pockets and his slicked back hair, like the sly smile on his face, made your stomach turn. “Yoobin’s late today.”
You sucked back your reactions as his hands started to fiddle with the lock. You knew he could undo it with magic so why he was bothering to use his hands you didn’t know, maybe just to prolong the moment. You had a feeling he enjoyed fear.
“You know it’s first come first serve,” he drawled. “The early bird gets the worm.”
The door swung open and you felt yourself standing against your own will before something invisible grabbed you around the throat and dragged you closer. You grasped at the nothingness around your own neck, gasping as he chuckled and pulled you against him.
“And you are a worm,” he murmured. “But a good one, if Yoobin’s keeping you all to herself. Let’s see what all the fuss is about, shall we?”
“Let them go.” You couldn’t turn to see Yoobin but you could hear her icy, low tone.
“Finders keepers,” he drawled, staring down the hallway with you in tow, still gasping for air.
You felt Yoobin’s hand grab you. “They stay with me,” she said evenly.
“You can have one of the others,” sneered. “I want to see what about them has you all excited.”
In an instant air rushed into your needy lungs and you gasped, Yoobin catching you as the man went flying. He landed with a loud crash at the far end of the hall.
“What the hell do you need them for that badly?” he growled.
“You know my experiments take days. They’re delicate and even your stupid spell could have messed them up you absolute imbecil. Don’t touch them again.”
Yoobin grabbed your wrist and dragged you behind her, moving at a brisk pace down the hallway. She squeezed it tight as a warning not to talk or in fear that he would follow. Either way you stayed silent as you made your way to her room, too shaken to collect your thoughts.
~
Yoobin helped you out of the cage, still listening intently to make sure the hallway was really empty for another moment before setting you in the chair. You quietly took the tray with willow sticks again and began carefully striping them with your shaky hands.
“They’re suspicious.” She mumbled
“Yep,” you said quietly.
“I’m sorry,” she mumbled. “They usually leave you alone when you’re in there…”
They usually did. It had taken all of Yoobin’s protests to keep them from pulling you out to “have some fun” as they put it. They questioned why they couldn’t and complained that Yoobin was always testing things that were too delicate and that surely one little jinx, a few spells, a hex, wouldn’t hurt.
Well wouldn’t hurt her project anyway.
You had done your best to stay steady, to not show them too much emotion like she’d told you but you were sure they could see the fear in your eyes and it had only made them want to mess with you more. You had a feeling she nearly threw them out with magic but as you had gathered that was also not allowed and she had already been in trouble for doing it before.
“It has to be soon,” she said nervously. “If we wait too long…”
You weren’t sure what she was thinking, but you agreed. There were definitely more and them and you shuddered to think what they would do with both of you if they figured out your plans or caught you. She’d drawn up the plans for rescuing the others and to escape, how to get out undetected and with the last potion brewing, you knew your time was wearing thin.
“Three days,” she said, and her voice sounded more terrified than you’d ever heard it. “The potion will be done in two, that gives me time to bottle it and pack things.”
You nodded numbly. “Three days.”
~
You wouldn’t be sleeping tonight. Even if it were a regular night you wouldn’t sleep. You were wide awake, anxious and nervous about the plan. You knew the others in the house slept, but some might be awake, they had odd schedules. Others didn’t trust Yoobin. You knew her plan was to stay up late in her study and wave off anyone who tried to get her to sleep, insisting she was on the verge of a breakthrough with her sleeping potion.
You didn’t know if they had left her alone. No one had come down to the cells and you figured no one would now. It had to be beyond midnight now, with a new moon tonight there was little light to see by and it only had you lost in your thoughts even more. This place seemed surreal to you, like some long dream, but it felt all too real. You’d managed to get caught up in this scheme but you had no clue if it was what you meant to do.
A very quiet set of footsteps came down the hallway and you strained your eyes, looking for a figure in the dark, and holding your gasp when moments after the footsteps stopped the door to the cell swung open and Yoobin’s head popped out of thin air. Her hand joined her, floating in space and she beckoned to you and you tiptoed out of the cell.
Yoobin was silent and you were sure even in the low light pale as she pressed a key into your hand and motioned to one of the other cells. You followed her lead opening it and shaking awake the girl inside. She took in a breath to scream but you covered her mouth quickly.
“We’re escaping,” you whispered.
The girl nodded and followed close to you as Yoobin motioned to you to open one more cell. You did as you were told. The boy inside was wide awake and already standing at the bars. He looked young and you wondered how old he must be. The second you released him he dashed across the hall and wrapped his arms around another girl who looked just like him. The two cried quietly and you thought they must be siblings as Yoobin let out the last person and turned to all of you, pulling a stopper out of a potion bottle, handing it to you first.
“Drink this,” she whispered. “It’ll make you invisible.” The others looked wary but you drank the liquid readily, sweet and strangely warm as it travelled down your throat before your body faded into the shadows. The others slowly took turns drinking and one by one disappeared as Yoobin cast incantations over you to quiet your footsteps.
“I’ll lead,” she said. “Follow my feet. If I stop, you stop. Okay?” Yoobin took a deep breath before covering herself. Her feet were the only things even a little visible as she made her way down the hall.
The basements were quiet and dark. The air seemed to chill you, though maybe that was just your fear. You worried that the others were left behind but you had to trust they would follow. You heard Yoobin’s quiet whisper, telling you all to remain silent at all times before turning a corner.
The house seemed like a maze but Yoobin knew it well, leading you until you came to a large staircase. The house above seemed just as dark and she led the group silently up, charming the door to move silently as she let you all out into the house and started down hallways.
Light from rooms cast shadows as she moved you through what must have been servants quarters. The hallways were narrow and long and only the slight sight of feet let you know that you weren’t wandering aimlessly on your own. Every little sound made you jump and you swallowed down every single fear that rose inside of you, hoping that this would work.
You were sure you heard a floorboard creak under one of you. Yoobin’s feet didn’t stop, and neither did yours until a door just up ahead swung open and Yoobin’s heels disappeared.
One of the men you had only seen once stepped out of the room, his eyes scanning the hallway slowly. You held your breath, afraid to move even a hair for fear that he would know, that he would hear or see something.
You suddenly wondered what could make the potion wear off.
The man raised his hand and opened his mouth but at the same time, some things seemed to fall within his study.
“Damn poltergeist,” he muttered before stalking back into his room.
Yoobin’s feet reappeared and you followed them. The corridors turned quiet and darker as you moved to the outer edge of the house. Floors creaked but no one seemed to hear, too far from where people were sleeping or working late into the night.
You had no idea how long it was that you moved but you were still surprised when she opened a door and the cool night breeze hit you. Yoobin’s head appeared and she motioned to move, quietly asking if everyone was out before closing the door behind you all. You stood in the dark and watched anxiously as she cast a spell on the door. You knew she had to erase traces of what you’d done, how you’d left.
“We’re not done yet,” she mumbled. “Follow me.” Yoobin’s head was uncovered as she led you through the dew-wet grass and into the forests. She said they weren’t the safest but they were the easiest option to get away before you could really travel.
As you trekked through the forest and the sun started to peek over the horizon the potion began to wear off. You managed to see outlines of the others and then see their faces properly. It was a relief to see no one was lost and Yoobin smiled back at the group with relief as you kept moving, her casting incantations every so often to hide your footprints. No doubt they would have realized by now that you were gone, and for as tired as you were you were happy to be away from the house, though the thought in your mind of how to get home was still there.
As day fully broke and sunlight poured over the land you chattered with the others, a sense of joy over all of you as Yoobin led you up a hill overlooking a village. She stopped at the top and reached into her bag, pulling out an old hat and placing it on the ground.
“This will take us somewhere far away,” she said. “We’ll be safe, just give me a moment.” You watched her as he cast the spells she needed before standing and stepping towards you.
“You know I couldn’t have done it without you.” she said.
“You did all the work!” you said “I-I just-”
Yoobin shook her head. “I never would have been brave enough. I would have given up without you there.” She hugged you. “Thank you.”
You couldn’t help hugging her back. “Thank you, too.”
When she pulled back she sniffled slightly before turning to the hat. “Okay, everyone take hold to it.” You all did as she said, the last pair of hands grabbing the hat and wind suddenly whipping around you, making it harder and harder to breath as you lost all sense of land under you. Your head felt dizzy and your eyes slid closed as your fingers slipped from the hat.
~
rebellion
~
“God,” you muttered, sitting up from the floor. You rubbed the back of your head as you looked around, your eyes recognizing the dark living room. The card caught your eye and you let out a strangled yelp as it turned 180 degrees before disappearing in a puff of smoke. In its place a torn piece of sheet music sat as the smoke cleared and you cautiously took it between your fingers as you stood up.
Masterlist
#i cannot believe#i am actually posting this#and making the moodboard#i know that the other parts have like#2 notes#but that's okay im excited anyway#maison des cartes#dreamcatcher imagines#dami imagines#yoobin imagines#yubin imagines#lee yoobin imagines#lee yubin imagines
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how to have healthy relationship w/social media?? like should i just open it on sats and sun to reduce slacking off/mindlessly scrolling waiting to be stimulized?
for context: i don't use social media to follow friends/dare i say infloowenslurs, just using it to look at art, reblog poems or follow writing/creative accounts but i still feel like i spent a majority of my time looking at my phone rather than actually reading and yeah... any advice??
I feel like this is the question of the century and one I both feel qualified and unqualified to answer. First off, I think you need to congratulate yourself and acknowledge the boundary you’ve set. I think it’s admirable to be able to limit your social media consumption to the weekends so that your own, present life takes precedence. I don’t have that level of self discipline and I wish that was something I could implement in my own life. I’ve found the first step to having a “healthy relationship” with something is acknowledging the progress and effort you’ve already put in before planning further ahead. If we can’t appreciate the small steps then it’s always going to be hard to move forward without the reward of our own approval and appreciation.
I think the next step after that is to figure out what about your social media habits feel unhealthy. For me personally, while I don’t enjoy the majority of social media platforms like pinterst and tumblr are very addictive to me because I love the simple pleasure of sorting visual images in a way that is both appealing and explanatory. It’s also an excuse for me to appreciate art rather then create. The thing I don’t like about social media is it makes me complacent in my own power of creation so the way I combat that is making time to create things and share them which lessens my desire to compensate for not doing that with other people’s work. It’s not that social media is the problem, it’s the way that it limits me from my own life that is the issue.
Since you already have such a rigid schedule of when you do/do not allow it in your life it seems like your problem isn’t that its a “time waster” but that you feel like your time could be better spent reading traditionally. However, consider this: you are reading! one of the best things about this platform is it exposes you to bit size, easily consumable content. You can read seventy poems, fourteen essays, countless dissections of popular media, and impactful quotes without having to make any effort in curation. What about that is “lesser” than traditional reading? I would encourage you to honor what you read, write down the poems that made an impact on you, do your own dissection on things you observed and make it just as meaningful as time spent with a “real” book. Something I like to do is if I read something that really settled with me I’ll find the author on zlibrary (free database for millions of books/essays) and read that book as I scroll through social media. That way I feel like I’m actually doing something with my time and whenever I need a “mental” break from scrolling I can do something that feels more fulfilling.
Social media doesn’t have to be something negative or wasteful. You can make anything useful and growth oriented depending on how you engage with it. Since you don’t use it for the social aspect of it (again, admirable!) you should appreciate the academic usefulness of it. You are leaving every weekend with new ideas, new perceptions, new people that have entered your mind. Instead of feeling like they aren’t as useful as other activities, view them as essential new parts of your life. If you find value in everything you do then nothing lacks value.
Also, airplane mode. I didn’t have access to a phone for a few months last year and I went on a lot of walks and errands and learned to enjoy time without it. Go on a walk without a phone, spend time with a friend without a phone. Humans lived without them for most of our time on this earth, maybe you’re just feeling too unnecessarily attached to it. Now that the weather is warming up maybe you can set aside time each week to read outside at a park or some other place where you can both social distance and appreciate nature. The part of your brain that is asking to be present and fully possessed probably just wants the easy, natural existence that is living only having to think about yourself and your direction. I hope that helped. Best of luck!
#mailbox#anoncore#great question really made me think about how I actually deal with the issue of social media#you really do seem like you have a better handle on it then your giving yourself credit for though!#I feel like I should have a tag for advice#Anonymous
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The Black Suits song ranking
Happy (late) Black Suits Day (eighteenth of September) y'all! Not that anyone asked but I have decided on my personal Black Suits song ranking. As always, I am very correct with my Joe Iconis music takes and will accept no criticism. Also I'm talking about 2013 here. Love yourself (and the work) and listen to 2013 instead of 2012 for better audio quality and a tighter book.
Spirit Song - I don't think anyone is surprised this is my top ranked song lol. "A melody only exists when someone hears, and the number one thing that I've learned through all my years. The fans and the family make the music strong, and the cheering is just as important as the song!" As Will describes it, it's a love letter to audiences (hey, that's me!) and when I listen to this song I'm always reminded of how much Joe believes in the message of this song, that the audience is part of the show.
Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang - [Joe Iconis voice] the language of the show. A lot of this list was influenced by not only how much I liked the song but by how well the songs functioned as extensions/expansions of the scene and the believability of that character singing the song. To me Bangx5 is one of the ultimate examples of this. The lyrics "there's a heavy metal hole where a soul used to be" like that's SO teenage angst and overdramatic just like Chris is supposed to be in this moment. I remember when I first heard the song I was like "is that it? Simple repeated [I am ___] lyrics for your act 1 finale? Seems a bit underwhelming even if it musically goes hard" but then after like another listen through of the show or so I realized that was the intention. When you're seventeen or so and you feel like your world is crashing down around you, sometimes the only way you can articulate it is "I am white boy rage, I am in a cage, I am bang bang bang bang bang bang bang." You are bang, you are loud crashing noises, your emotions are too loud and intense to be described with your limited vocabulary but you try anyways and fail. I love the contrast of the lyrics "I am chew my pens" and "I am hurt my friends" right next to each other. And the harmony at the end? Chefs fucking kiss.
Amphibian - This song is so goddamn fun. Like honestly. That’s it. Nato is chilling by himself and makes up a song about himself and his frog and it’s the best goddamn time in the show. You really get the feeling like these characters are actually friends. I love the “idiot” Nato vs “smart” Brandon. The “who cares about Beethoven. It’s a movie about a dog” joke never fails to make me laugh. When Brandon is expecting a regular bridge to the song and Nato whips out the falsetto and he goes “oh my God” like. Peak comedy here. And also Will Roland doing That? I’m in awe. Like this is what The Black Suits (the band) is, friends hanging out and having fun with music, that makes the next scene when the band formally break up so sad.
It's All Good - “So we’re cool and whatever?” It’s such a teenage boy thing to say. Like you want to acknowledge that you guys have been through something but at the same time you want to undercut it so you don’t run the risk of seeming too openly emotional. I’m also only very slightly bitter about that review that was like “oh wait so the only stakes of this show is the battle of the bands?” Like hello? Did you not see the show or listen to a single second of the finale? It’s about the way these characters communicate in their kinda inadequate ways and how they use music to express themselves. In a way it’s classic, cliche musical theater 101, with the characters unable to say what they feel with plain English so they resort to music, but of course with a Joe Iconis twist. The stakes aren’t the fucking battle of the band, it’s the friendship between the boys. It’s literally so obvious I want to scream. Anyways this song is fantastic way to end the show.
Car Ride To Long Beach - That's right. Car Ride To Long Beach is 5th place. I'm only very slightly bitter about the review that was like "is fried chicken REALLY the deciding factor in going on a drug run?" And by slightly bitter I mean this person goes on the list of people I want to beat up for being so fucking wrong about a Joe show. No, you fucking fool, that's not actually the deciding factor. She's at least on the fence, if not already secretly decided yes, about it from the moment he asks. It's about the company, it's about the road trip, it's about breaking the rules after having been "good" for so long. I am so adamant that this song is about desire and thrill and guilt and wanting to be seen for who you are and not just John saying obscene things. Like take the dialogue exchange right before she finally vocally says yes. "What do I look like right now?" "Uh. You look like... Lisa?" "... Alright let's go." Like tell me that does not drive you fucking crazy after Lisa's constant questions about others perception of her and trying to figure out who she is herself. Car Ride To Long Beach is good you guys are just mean.
Social Worker - Another example of an incredibly fitting character song. The refusal and reluctance of a teenage boy to admit that he actually needs or gets mental health help. I love the music-ification of a panic attack as loud drums and electric guitar. "I don't really go to the social worker," he says, as he goes to the social worker. It’s truly hilariously, heartbreakingly fitting for his character.
The Answer - When that Things To Ruin reviewer said Joe is a master of putting commonly shared moments to music no one else has done before, they were right. Who HASN’T taken a test and failed it so utterly they started questioning their entire life and worried for their future before? I love the repeated lyric questions like John is sitting there reading the question over and over trying to figure out what the answer is. I love the synthy keyboard. Fantastic choice @ Charlie Rosen.
Band-Aids and Cigarettes - Oh this song is so good I feel guilty about putting it at 8. It’s like honestly heartbreaking, not being able to give what the other person needs and being aware of it. And the unconventionality of it being sung by the mentor character instead of a love interest or something.
The Feeling (Part 1 and 2) - Yeah I’m combining them into one song and also assuming the entire beach/Chris & Mrs. Werring conversation is part of the song, too, with the interlude of the “I just want something good to happens.” This song is a jam, plain and simple. I love the absolutely terrible advice that Mrs. Werring gives Chris. “You got to push all your worries inside of yourself, and then they’ll mix creating a combustible boom.” Awful! But Annie Golden sings it so well. And it makes Band-Aids and Cigarettes later that much more sad. In part 2, I love how interconnected the two conversations are. “Just breathe them in -> I love the beach.” The synchronous “I don’t even remember why I liked him/her in the first place.” The score here having the Spirit Song melody. Also now feels like a good time to bring up my Lisa Bred is nonbinary headcanon (though it’s practically textual canon) with “I’m not a girl, I’m a song.” Like that right there, she literally states she’s not a girl, and that’s just the most obvious part. Twice before now, she’s asked people about how they perceive her (“what do I look like right now?” “my girlfriend?” / “Lisa”) and her arc in this show up to this point is discovering more about herself and trying new things. She’s aware of societal gender norms (“isn’t that what boyfriend girlfriends are supposed to do?”) and how she doesn’t really fit in with them. She’s experimenting with expressing herself (dyeing her hair blue, photography). Like it’s all right there. I don’t know if Joe was intentionally writing a nonbinary character figuring herself out but that’s what I get when I read the text straight. In Lisa’s mind, John is one of the gateways to trying new things (“you give me this feeling”) and then that blends right into the rest of The Feeling and it’s so fucking GOOD. I love this song.
Blue Hair - The OG Joe Iconis viral song! I love the music song of this song so much, specifically the guitar/piano riff. I love the multiple sources of motivation of doing it, from actually wanting to try something different, to getting a reaction from Chris and John, even if she denies that last part. And then again at the end of the song with her self-awareness. She’s doing something to stand out/express herself! I love it.
Nato's Song - A six minute clusterfuck of a song and it’s beautiful. Sticking to the actual Nato stuff right now, I think it’s a pretty clever way of passing time and seeing how it’s affecting him and everyone else in the show. With the interspersed content of other characters, it really is the musical equivalent of a film montage. I love seeing Chris’ further breakdown in the form of voicemails to his dad. The music of Blue Hair, Old Records, and Rather Be coming back is fucking great. Everyone is just struggling in this song and it’s great.
Rock 'N Roll Band (Reprise) - I love this re-introduction song so much and the differences between it and the original. I love the chaoticness of the solos all going at the same time. I love the cut Geek Rock Garage King still making in into the show as Brandon’s bridge and how out of place it is with the rest of the song musically but yet it’s still in it. I love the a capella break with Mrs. Werring cheering them on.
Old Records - The fact that John plays the guitar as Chris sings it for someone to hear is so good. When he gets affirmation that John likes the song, he continues. And it’s only after being called out about his writing revealing things about him that Chris feels bad about the song again and claims that they were just dummy lyrics. Once John leaves the backing music comes back on like glockenspiel or something and I love the lightness of it combined with the electric guitar that comes in after.
Black Suit On - I know we’re at like 3/4ths through but I honestly love this song. I love all the songs so much. This ranking honestly barely matters because I love all the songs in this show. I love the (unrealistic) idea of finally being able to be your best self, of all your problems going away, if only something symbolic but ultimately inconsequential thing were to happen. It’s about the (shared) vision for a different future than the one you’re currently living! (By the way I am so haunted by Jen Tepper saying this song was actually about LIHN. Like does anyone know what that means? Do I fundamentally misunderstand this song or LIHN? I don’t get the connection.)
Lisa - Once again, the relatability. Who hasn’t felt like they were good enough for another person? I love the specificity of the AOL verse. It’s so late 2000s. And the rest of the lyrics are so angsty and overdramatic as John is. Specifically in the context of the show this song really hurts after Lisa tells him she can’t fix whatever issues are wrong with him.
Rock 'N Roll Band - I love how the entire song is so what teenagers going through school, waiting for life to change, and seeking refuge in the only place where they feel like they are important and can be themselves. I love all their intros. I love Brandon going way too hard on the drums. “I’m gonna scream and shout, knock you out. I’m gonna conquer the world, get the girl. I’m gonna get some respect, finally connect. When I take a stand, with my rock ‘n roll band.” The extreme vividness of the type of stuck they feel here is so good and it’s a good summary of the show.
Pop Tarts - I love that this song is still called Pop Tarts despite all references to it having been removed except for one dialogue. I love the section of Chris’ vision for the band. The pre-reprise of the beginning of It’s All Good with “we’re cool and whatever?” and all of them joining in and getting on the same page. We love some boys just absolutely barely capable of communicating with each other with words.
Song In My Head/Only Person In The World - The absolute irony and poetry of John singing “I’m the only person in the world” and Chris singing about how everyone is gone when this is a duet. It’s literally so fucking good. When they both sing “I’m the only person in the world” at the same time? Are you kidding me? And this song is ranked 18th? Truly every song in this show is top tier.
Rather Be - This song is rather on the nose in its message, everyone would rather be at band rehearsal. It’s a solid song that helps us get into each of their characters more (“rather be where my buddies / now the same bands / and tolerate my drum fills” / “where my brothas like that I’m weird / and ask to see my squid impression” / “because we’ve only got a little while to get fantastic and get some style / if we do it soon then I won’t have to go to college” / “christ I’d rather be anywhere / but sitting trapped here taking this asshole test”). I love it when characters in shows all have different reasons for singing the same lines.
McFly Is Looking For A Drummer - Rip to this song, being ranked last. It’s not that I don’t like it because I actually do. Again, I just love all the songs in this show. He’s trying to communicate in his own way, which happens to be in music references, but that’s not how other people around him understand, and so he sees this opportunity to be with people who are more like him, but then he he gets scared that he wouldn’t fit in the way he hopes he would, which would be even worse than where he’s currently at where he knows that they don’t quite get him but are his friends anyways. I love that one moment where he drops out singing. It’s very reminiscent of in Michael In The Bathroom when you expect him to sing the title words but he doesn’t, so your brain fills it in for you. It functions a bit differently than that moment does in BMC though. I think in this song it’s the comparison of how he’s currently treated with the possibility of what McFly represents, that he could have the exact opposite experience there, that he’s imagining all the possibilities in that moment. Lol, ranked 20 and I still have so many things to say about this song.
#teresa talks#the black suits#tbs#my posts#long post#i s2g i am so goddamn full of joe iconis lore and thoughts about his shows that it's Concerning#also lisa is nonbinary like that literally Is the surface level reading of the text i cant believe no one ever talks about that#by the way im being sarcastic about Being Right on all my takes if you cant tell except the one about car ride to long beach im dead fucking#serious about that one. insult this song and ill end you#and i choose to read the 'punk-y not lesbian-y' line as in de-bi-al (in bi denial)#and for real start listening to 2013 over 2012 i promise the ben platt isnt worth all that much#i am Struggling on this post sorry if u keep seeing me post it and delete it lol#this one stays up for real tho idc if theres any problems with it#edit: motherfucker it doesnt show up in the black suits tag lol#also i dont go on stan twitter if nonbinary lisa is a stale take im sorry ive never seen it here tho
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Hey, it's me again, I hope you are still open for requests! You said I could ask for Mic content and, if I still can, what about some DadMic headcanons, with his own child and/or an adopted one?! Which one you prefer is fine! I hope you are doing well and thank you for the opportunity you gave me! Take care 💗
A/N: Hey you!! Thank you for requesting, it means a lot that you like my present mic work. And yes, you most definitely can have some DadMic headcanons. If you have any more requests just let me know. I did hours worth of homework and it deleted so i’m kind of like forget school and imma become a professional headcanon writer so honestly hit me up with as much stuff you want :)))))))
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(i kind of wrote this like you are in the ages of like 6-10 so just keep that in mind)
-I feel he would have his child out of wedlock, maybe when he was younger out partying things got a little crazy then bam, next thing he knows he has a child with no mom and no idea what to do.
-cAlLs AizAwa
-No but He’s a great Dad honestly, although he's clueless sometimes, he tends to figures things out fairly quickly
- At first it was really hard for him since he had this baby, a new hero career, and the whole world trashing on him, he totally broke down a few times and wanted to give up. BUt aizawa and his other friends helped him through and encouraged him
-You’re his little sunshine and HE LOVeS yoU tO death
-calls you literally any pet name that is very soft and cute and innocent
-He buys evErything for you, i swear! If you just look at something for more than two seconds, it’s in his cart and he’s buying it for you
-”dad you don-”
-”shh pumpkin, let daddy buy it for you.”
-your room is filled with what every girl wants to have
-He learns to do your hair, no matter the texture or thickness or length, he’ll watch youtube videos and figure it out
-he lets you do his hair as well, braiding it, curling it whatever, he’s totally fine with it. JuSt DoNt CUt iT
-New school year and you need new clothes?? Yeah over 1,000 dollars worth of stuff brought.
-speaking of school, sometimes you get comments and stuff from teachers or students because you might not look like him or because you don’t know who your mom is, ect.
-At first when you were younger, it didn’t hurt you, you couldn’t understand that anyways, but as you started to get older it affected you more and more until one day you came home crying to present, and it literally breaks his heart
-”Daddy, why isn’t my skin as light as yours, and my hair isn’t as thin? The other kids make fun of me for it...it really hurts me. And WHere is mom? Does she not love us? You’re really sweet i don’t know why she doesn’t want to be with you…”
-”why are you asking this?”
-”The kids and teachers at school…”
-RAGE MODE ACTIVATED
-He literally storms down to your school and demands that the questions and comments stop or he’s going to press charges
-Never ever was asked about any of those things again...well, more or less, sometimes you hear teachers or students whispering or makings sly comments but you chose to ignore those things
-”DONT YOU EVER TALK TO ME OR MY LITTLE CUTIE PIE EVER AGAIN.”
-HUGs!! He hugs you like all the time everyday when he sees you. Like it’s his way it’s saying i love you although he screams that to you all the time
-”Y/N MY LITTLE GIRL,” *jump hugs* “I LOOOOOOOVveevVVEVVEvevV Ee YOuuUUUUUUOoUUUU”
- PROTECCS YOU AT ALL COSTS
-Like when the world found out that he had a kid, and he was still kind of a kid himself with a just starting a career, he kind of got shitted on a whole lot...by everyone and the press is always writing stories and stuff so when you were old enough to read or understand some stuff he’d often keep TV off or keep you away from the press and media although that became harder when you had to go outside and go to school but as much as he can limit that crazy stuff you see, he’ll do it.
-He makes sure you can defend yourself and as soon as you get your quirk, he’s training you. He will never push mega hard however he makes sure that the training is vigorous enough that when danger comes...you’re ready
-Being a pro hero’s child can mean you’re in a lot of danger, people want to kill or kidnap you to hurt the hero so he’s constantly worries and on you about safety
-If your quirk is similar to his, skskkdnjsk he literally will SCREEEEEEEE, he thinks it’s so awesome you have a quirk like his and he will make sure that the both of you will annoy Aizawa
-As much as Hizashi spoils you, you had to grow up a whole lot quickly. Even though he’s an underground hero and kinda works on his on time, his job is still quite demanding and he has to be gone a lot so that means you need to learn how to cook, clean, do your homework, etc. on your own so if anything happens (god forbid) you know how to take care of yourself. when you were younger tho he’d have a babysitter/nanny to look and take care of you while he’s at work
-Although when he is home he cooks and does all of that stuff. HE'S A REALLY GOOD COOK??????? Like seriously and don’t let me get started on the pastries he makes...mmmm yummm…
-only burnt down the kitchen once...Don’t tell Aizawa plez ;-;
-He actually feels very very bad about leaving you at home a lot with responsibility, he’s all about fun and really just being a kid so he always apologizes to you and plans something super fun when he’s off of work. Like laser tag, going out for ice cream, or just building forts at home. He makes sure you have a balance
-He might’ve brought you a puppy so you would have a friend, you let him name the puppy and now you have a “Mr.Ruffkins” running around your house
-He let’s you have girls night which is basically just you and him and sometimes a friend, and you guys just paint each other nails, put bows in each others hair, all the girly stuff, and just talk about anything.
-It’s his way i guess to make up for the mother-daughter time you don’t have in your life
-Cute picnics at the park with a bunch of snacks and you guys will just feed the little duckies and animals
-Brings you around his agency or to his radio show all the time, like everyone that works there knows and loves you a whole lot. You even have a mini cute pink desk with a name tag on it.
-You have a little segment on his show called “LittleMic and PresentMic” and you guys just talk about crazy weird stuff and reach out to single Dads who are also raising up kids. It’s super cute i swear.
-Aizawa is your tired uncle that says he hates coming over but he comes over like everyday and eats all your food while watching TV on the couch
-He’s the best uncle though but he’s super blunt. So sometimes you go to him for advice or just to talk. He adores you though and checks on you while DadMic is at work or something.
-Aizawa call you “Kiddo” or “littleMic” or just “y/n”
-Present lets you pick out his new tattoos, and one time he let you draw one….now he has a crooked purple butterfly on his arm...it’s all good tho
-Father daughter danceeeeee ya ya ya! You guys bring the moves and the music to the dance floor like get out the mf way swines.
-He picked out your dress and you picked out his suit, he even let you do a little man bun
-sometimes when you guys are just chilling at home, you will play some of your favorite classics, and you will step on his feet and he’ll dance, you guess may have fell like twice.
-speaking of music and dancing, he will turn up all of the pop jams that you love (slipping some of his rock n’ roll faves) THROW candy all through out the house and both of you are dancing in weird costumes while singing
-”I LOOOOOOOOvvEEEE ROcKKK N ROLLLLL SO PUT ANOTHER DIME IN THE JUKE BOX bAE bEEEEEEBHEDB”
-You are very much involved in music and he showed you how to make your own mixtapes, playlists, and how to DJ on your own
-piggy back rideeeesss yuuuuhhhhh. When you’re feeling sad he randomly picks you up, twirls you onto his back and runs around the house yells
-”WOOOOOSSSHHHHHH MEGA JET FLYING A SAD PASSENGER, MOVE OUT OF THE WAY WOOOOOSSHHHSHSH”
-Usually does this until you’re laughing and playing along with him
-”KrrSHH THIS IS FLIGHTER PILOT Y/N WITH MY TRUSTY JET YAMADA ON MY WAY TO DESTROY THE ENEMY PLANE, ANyoNE copPY?”
-one time you like dressed up like him for halloween and it was lit. hair somehow slicked up, black leather jacket and some headphones...wooo child you looked cool
-”PRESENT MIC MAY I GET YOUR AUTOGRAPH???”
-”nO PapArazzi PleAse”
-I feel as though you’d be bilingual, Japanese and English. I feel at home it’ll lean more towards English although there’s a hint of Japanese in there
-He rarely gets mad at you but if he did, it’s probably because you put yourself in danger or something of that sorts
-If you cannot sleep, he’ll let you sleep with him and he’ll have blue clues playing in the bakground to help “sooth you” (he enjoys that show very much”
-”THE CLUE IS RIGHT THERE BLUEEEE”
-”dad? I-”
-Tells you stories about his high school/early life and gives you advice
-”in conclusion do not throw a pumpkin at a security guard or you might get hurt...okay love bug?”
-The sweetest thing ever, like he randomly makes weird faces or says random things to make you laugh
-Forehead kisses or little cheek kisses
-Twirls you around and says “Ah my little princess looks lovely today”
-OMG TICKLE FIGHTS I SWEAR YOU’RE GASPING FOR AIR SOMEONE HELP YOU BUT LIKE ITS FUN
-You help him choose outfits when he’s indecisive
-”take away the scarf and go with the graphic tee and maybe the black boots instead of the red ones”
-”Look at my child, a fashion Icon.”
-He let you decorate the house so now there’s glitter, pink stuff, rainbows and sparkles all around the house but it’s super cute.
-Many cute photos of you guys in macaroni picture frames.
-HE TAKES PICTURES OF EVERYTHING LIKE STACKS OF PHOTOS SMHHH TAKE THE CAMERA AWAAAAYYYYY
-Being Present’s Child would be super cute and mega fun. He’s one of the most interactive loving dads out there, you would never feel lost or lonely for a second. Seriously he is the dad that we all wanted/ needed as a kid lmao.
#bnha#BNHA Headcanons#present mic#present mic x reader#hizashi yamada x reader#hizashi yamada#x reader#10/10 would recommend#would include#dad mic#dating senarios#dating#my hero academia#oneshot#Headcanon#headcanons#headcanon meme#bnha teachers#bnha deku#bnha all might#deku#mha x reader#mha#izuku midoriya#bakugou headcanons#shoto aizawa#mr aizawa#bnha aizawa#All Might#anime
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