hot guard summer

– OC HORROR TROPES.

TAGGED BY: @katsigian, @florbelles & @devilbrakers, thank you so much!! TAGGING: @aartyom, @reaperkiller, @faarkas, @cultistbase, @calenhads, @twinwitchbolt, @morvaris, @swordcoasts, @shellibisshe, @strafethesesinners, @adelaidedrubman, @henbased and YOU! – meiker / quiz

it is a different kind of communication, this sort of kissing, than language, and although it is very important — practically nobody would be in the world if it were not for kissing — it cannot last forever.

Directors cut on anything in ‘the wrath of the lamb’? 👀

ok this time I'm gonna get really vague since the wrath of the lamb is a collaboration between @vampdf and I, and I wanna stick to my parts so I'm not talking over him and also it's still very much in progress. I will say that perhaps unsurprisingly this sequence is mine:

"Oh but they're so difficult to take on my own, Armand. If I can't get the pills down fast enough they start to dissolve. I might gag. Maybe even vomit. Make a mess everywhere. We wouldn't want to disturb our friend like that now would we? Wouldn't that be a shame. Going and spoiling his appetite—" Armand’s chair scraped across the floor, tall shadow stretching across with it, already heading towards Nicki. "—after all the careful work you've put into bringing us together." Nicki eyed Louis with impish mirth. Louis watched Armand open the pill box and deposit the night's ration into his palm, rolling them over with his finger before bringing them to Nicki's mouth. Nicki parted his jaws obscenely, tongue lolling out to receive them on his tongue, eyes lazy and lidded as Armand tilted his head and brought the glass to his lips for him to drink. 

[...]

Nicki lacked machismo and raw anger but Louis could tell his arrival stirred something particularly biting his way. Even Armand seemed curiously on edge, the corners of his smile strained just a bit, the strong line of his shoulders held the slightest bit too tight. "Open." Armand pressed down with his thumb on Nicki's lower lip and he obediently lowered his jaw. Louis could see the very edge of Armand's thumbnail resting along the ridge of bottom teeth. The way the very tip of that tongue met it. "Roof of your mouth." Nicki's tongue rolled upwards for Armand to check underneath. "Good." 

Also if you've seen the pic I made related to the fic you might notice a similarity between Louis' appearance and Jacob's character in Slow Burn:

Louis in the fic is older than Louis when he was turned in the show and also has been through the wringer wrt managing family stuff and beyond without the help of vampirism to keep him looking sexy and fresh all the time.

(You cheated every time.)

In terms of Inquisitor stories I'm hoping that we potentially get someday, I'm looking forward to seeing how the Seventh Sister and Fifth Brother's dynamic got established. While we don't know much about them as a duo before rebels, it's been established that if they're in the same room, they're near each other (be it fighting or just in each other's presence), and they also hate the other's guts. We also know, based on their sparring together in Vader (2017) and their appearance in Rise of the Red Blade (also sparring together and/or Seventh heckling Fifth while around Iskat) that they've been at it since 19BBY and kept it up until 3BBY, which, especially considering the backstabby nature of the inquisitorius, is a long time!

I do ship them, so clearly my questions about/view of them has a bit of a romantic and/or sexual tinge to it, but even completely in the context of a platonic relationship, the question of why those two gravitate to each other fascinates me, given everything else we know about them as characters and how they interact with the other inquisitors.

There's quite a bit of evidence for this on Fifth's end—he doesn't take shit from Reva or Iskat, and the only inquisitor he shows true fealty/respect to is the Grand Inquisitor. Seventh, whether or not you take stock in the numerical rank system, doesn't outrank him, and she'll also openly confront him, so there are similarities among her, Reva, and Iskat in that none of the three of them are doormats. Notably, one could also assume Fifth's attitude skews a bit misogynistic, as he doesn't seem to have the same issues with Eighth or Tualon based on what little we get of those dynamics, but that's a different post.

We've gotten less of Seventh's dynamic with a variety of inquisitors given her comparative lack of content compared to him (not that I'm bitter), but she's clearly headstrong, smart, cruel, and isn't afraid to push others under the bus in order to gain the upper hand in a situation for revenge. Given all this, it's notable that despite their arguing, she consistently works with Fifth and spars with him (which, even Iskat notes that sparring with Seventh is sort of terrifying). Clearly, Seventh's willing to put up with him as much as he's willing to put up with her. Since she isn't that different from Reva and Iskat, all things considered, what was The Thing that did makes Seventh and Fifth tolerate, and even gravitate toward, each other?

Obviously, I have my own ideas for why (up to and including "they want to jump each other's bones about it"), but in terms of guessing what canon may do? I'd estimate that when the two first meet (and they're probably among the earliest to do so/the earlier initiates), Seventh takes Fifth's surliness less personally than the other inquisitors and makes it more into banter, keeps pushing him back. This pisses him off, but the fact that she doesn't back down draws him in, both as a rival and otherwise. Given the fact that he's dyed-in-the-wool committed to the inquisitor cause and less fazed about evildoing, her propensity for cruel and unusual violence may not bother him as much as it would the others. The two of them coming as a set may be process of elimination as much as it is being drawn to the other, honestly.

This bit also didn't really fit anywhere else, but what cements their dynamic as different to me is something I noticed while watching Rebels, where despite the fact that Seventh almost always takes point on missions (and in notable contrast to owk, he usually lets her), the two have what seems to be an unspoken agreement that Fifth is the one interacting with imperial leadership and Vader. By the end, they clearly know each other, even through pointed barbs.

would love some director's commentary on basically any part of Carthaginians you'd like to talk about, but my favourite part was the second last chapter/the siege itself and I'd love to know how you worked out what trajectory to take the characters on through all the historical records. would also love to know more of your thoughts on Yusuf and Nico's backstory and families, if you have thoughts!

Thanks! <3 All right, Carthaginians, let's go.

The siege - or, more specifically, the final Fall of Carthage - was definitely what came first in terms of planning out this fic. When I first had the idea of writing Joe & Nicky's backstory further back in history, the Punic Wars were a logical setting to start with due to simple geography - Carthage being in modern day Tunisia, and Rome being, well, Rome.

So as with any vague idea, I started with a wikipedia deep dive, kind of assuming that I'd stick to the general canon template of them killing each other for the first time in battle and then becoming lovers afterward. But I immediately stumbled across the fact that Carthage's final stand, after the city had surrendered, consisted of about 900 Roman defectors in the Temple of Eshmoun setting the temple on fire around them rather than allowing Rome to execute them. Which. So that was obviously going to Nicky's arc. Which meant he would have to defect to Carthage much earlier on. Which meant I could give him and Joe a much richer relationship build over the course of the war itself. At that point, there was no question that their first deaths would be more of a suicide pact due to having no other options. I thought about having them, IDK, leap off the temple roof together or something, but nah, it felt much stronger to have them kill each other directly, as per canon, but with a complete subversion of what got them to that point.

I wrote chronologically and posted as I went, but it definitely helped going in to know exactly where they had to end up. For example, I deliberately seeded their exact dialogue together in the temple at the end of the siege as lines in their very first idle political debate in Rome in chapter one, so that Nicky could do a complete 180 on his initial stance in the debate by the end.

Embarrassingly, while that was all planned out from the beginning, I was WELL into the middle of the fic before realizing that, uh, Eshmoun is literally the god of healing. I mean, I knew that from the start, but I literally had my own personal OH DUH moment that they would be dying and resurrecting for the first time in the temple of the god of healing, and would OF COURSE think that Eshmoun himself had literally healed them due to their sacrifice on his own figurative altar. So that was an incredibly lucky piece of historical fact to tie into the immortality narrative.

In terms of their family backstories there - I think Yusuf's is about as fleshed out in the fic as it's going to be, it's all his POV and I included all the family info/dynamics I'd thought about. Nicky's didn't get as much detail in the fic, since we're never in his head and he didn't talk about it as much, but his family was the rough equivalent of landed gentry back in Genua - relatively high status for his own tribe, but doesn't mean much to the Roman Republic as a whole. They were granted Roman citizenship when the Genuates allied with Rome, and Nicky received a formal education, but their family wealth took a huge hit during the second Punic War (when Carthage sacked the city) and never really recovered, which is why Nicky left to join the Roman army and make his own fortune. I think he's not the oldest of his siblings - not the one expected to inherit and carry on the family legacy - but probably the second son, with several younger siblings in the mix as well. He has a strained relationship with his father and a better one with his mother, who I imagine died before he left home. He misses his younger sibs, who he helped raise, but never returns to Genua in their lifetimes.

So...yeah! I spent all year with the world of this fic in my head, it's been hard to let go of it. Thank you for asking!

For the director's cut, even though I don't really know what a director's cut is, I wanted to know about "All the stars I cannot see" because I love soulmates aus but they tend to be all really similar and I loved how you spun the feelings about having a soulmate

I HAVE A LOT OF FEELINGS ABOUT THIS FIC THANK YOU FOR ASKING

Re: why it might not feel like a normal soulmate AU

That's probably because it actually wasn't one originally! I had written and outlined a good portion of the fic, but I just couldn't find the... oomf. That last little detail that would make it all fall into place. I kept asking: What is it that brings them back together after Charles breaks it off??

And then I saw the prompt list for Lestappen week and realized that I could spin the prompt into a "reluctant soulmate" idea!!!! Everything fell into place from there -- Charles, sick of feeling like a burden to everyone fate brought into his life, and Max, believing that fate will only do him harm.

Other insider information about the story:

I originally wanted to have an underlying motif of "Native vs Learned Language" tied throughout it, but I couldn't quite get the storyline to move in a way that worked out.

I chose to have only Max and Jos communicate in Dutch because it both showed a familial tie and highlighted how talking with Jos isolated Max (since no one else around them speaks it). I then wanted to have a culminating moment where Max put his foot down and fought back against Jos exclusively in English, as a metaphorical end to their father/son relationship. I have an excerpt of the planned scene below!

"Get out of my room.” Max spoke lowly, his eyes turned towards the floor and his feet together.  “Wat zei je zojuist tegen me?” The anger in Jos’s voice was clear, nearly shaking with it as he stepped deeper into Max’s small driver room.  Max spoke Dutch privately with family. “Get out of my room.” Max repeated, glaring up through his lashes and separating his feet – strengthening his stance. “I said, get the fuck out of my room.” He spoke English for work.

I ended up replacing this climactic route with the quali crash/concussion/Charles's panicked confession :)

Overall, I was heavily inspired by the song GODDAMMITALL. I listened to it on repeat the entire time I wrote this piece, as I tend to do. It's really where I got the idea of Max feeling fundamentally broken, unlovable in a cosmic sense. It's also where I found some of the imagery that kicked this fic off (the childhood rooftop scene, specifically).

This was an insanely long "behind the scenes" peak, but thank you again for asking!!!!!

Can we get sources(which ep was the comment from) for each ethocomment?

Only if possible ofc

i typically take screenshots as i watch episodes and then upload ones that are interesting enough to me later all in bulk, sometimes months and months after, so i will never source each comment as it's uploaded.

however, if you're ever curious where a particular comment came from, i'm happy to try and dig it up because i do remember usually either the approximate part of a series a comment was taken from, there's an obvious to me visual clue in the episode screenshot, or the comment is about a specific moment that i can find. so folks are welcome to ask! i'd say i could find about 50% of eps in a short time and the odds go way up if it was posted recently, so.

GREETINGS FROM MOHANI 🌞

the Gangdromeda may be on a scientific expedition on an unexplored planet but that doesn't mean they can't enjoy the scenery, right? 😌

andromeda rogue wip intro | art tag | instagram

⭐star⭐

For your whumptober fills in general- how did you go about planning what to write for the month? Did you have certain goals for word count?

Then more specifically- anything you can share about ‘i say I don’t care, I say that im fine’?

Thank you friend!

So whenever the prompts dropped the end of August, I filed them all into a google doc and just wrote notes of ideas for each. Some ideas I already had, like Jamie hiding in injury when Zava was there so he didn't lose more ground and then saw the "suppressed suffering" and thought, perfect! I just went through each day, jotting down quick ideas that came from the prompts.

Some came easier than others, like swooning, okay concussion, and thermometer would be a sick fic. I made a google sheet with each day once I decided on the general idea. I tried to vary the actual injuries/whump. Some prompts I thought I would use and didn't, like broken, I thought, oh easy, broken bone, but I don't think I even used it even though it probably would have worked for a lot. Someone asked for some Roy whump, so I tried to include him in it.

My original idea was to do a single story for 31 days. I had no goal for word count. My problem is I am unable to tell a short story a lot. I can't keep my thoughts clear and concise when an event like an injury happens. I tend to want to go on longer with recovery, etc. So I ran out of steam trying to write 31 entries. I wrote wherever the plot bunnies took me originally, and as I got closer, I realized I needed to buckle down because I wanted to post these in order. So, I had to adjust some into multi-chapter stories and move around certain things.

Thank you for asking about, i say i don't care, i say that I'm fine, because it is one of my favorites.

it wasn't one I really had the thought of until the day of, actually. The prompts for the day were "recording", "made to watch", and "it should've been me". None of those I really vibed with, so I was planning to use one of the alternate ones in it's place. But then I was inspired by The Good Place storyline with Eleanor's Mom, how she struggles with thinking if her Mom could change this whole time, why was she not the one she changed for? And suddenly, it should've been me, made sense.

I struggled with a reason why James suddenly was sober over a year after last seeing his son. So this seemed as good a reason as any, and wanted to explore more with Jamie of his relationship with his father because I am of the strong belief that sober does not equal a good person. So I wanted to have Jamie not only find out someone else is the reason he's sober, but James still not truly changed. And then, of course, Jamie feels guilty about being jealous of someone he's never meant but also genuinely fearful for the child.

I am also obsessed with the notion of Jamie taking people's advice, but it's like a game of telephone where it's just slightly distorted. As fucked as Ted's advice to Jamie was in Mom City, I do think he meant Jamie should forgive his father for his own benefit (Ted having never forgiven his own father, etc.). Jamie wants to be accountable like Keeley told him to, but he never expects anyone to be accountable to him. And he takes accountability for things that really aren't his fault (being hacked). And I also think Higgins' advice is swirling around in that pretty head of his as well to forgive his father for who he isn't. So he's gotten all this advice meant to make him a better man, and he's trying, he's really trying, and all the advice is in a blender together and Jamie's drinking it down, combined in ways it wasn't intended. And also, Jamie forgets how he deserves to be treated, or thinks he doesn't deserve to be treated well.

I was also listening to a lot of Olivia Rodrigo's album, specifically The Grudge, where I got the title from, and it's just perfect for Jamie and his Dad. Some lyrics:

"It takes strength to forgive, but I don't feel strong."

"I fantasize about a time you were a little fucking sorry."

"I know in my heart, hurt people hurt people, and we both drew blood but man those cuts were never equal."

"How could anybody do the things you did so easily?"

"You know I can't let it go; I've tried, I've tried, I've tried."

"You built me up to watch me fall"

"I try to be tough, I try to be mean, But even after all this, you're still everything to me"

"And I doubt you ever think about the damage that you did."

"I hear your voice every time I think I'm not enough."

More clothing studies, this time from my fic Axis. I was aiming for authenticity while also trying to have each of their personalities show a little bit in their clothing choices. Two for Nicky, to show his layers.

They demoted the person who posted that WIP of an adopt that got anonymously preclaimed. I really do not think that the mods or the owners know what they're doing... They should have rules set for this type of thing me thinks. Do not post this if it isn't anonymous!

ミ★

having to do lgbtq training knowing it simply will not click for some of my coworkers on this the month of pride is actually biphobic and i should be exempt

16, 26, 36!

16.) Ever had someone make fanart, edits, podfic to your fic?

I have had some people make fanart for my fics! Since I consider direct feedback/recognition to be the most rewarding part of writing, there is truly nothing in the world better than receiving artwork of scenes that you yourself crafted! Most of these were only posted on discord servers, although you can find a piece of art my friend Amphibizzy drew of a scene from The Moon is Down on here.

Also @slugs-at-midnight have you tried uploading that animation you made of the first entry in Dedusmuln Uncharted on here? The world needs to see your masterpiece!

26.) Last sentence you've written

At their wit’s end, the Lodger bared their teeth and hissed at the twisted specter, only to jump back towards the ladder and barely escape as it lunged at them.

...As you can see here, the Lodger is going to be so fucking done with everyone's shit in Ch. 5 XD

36.) Standard author's note?

Paragraphs

there's just something about the way Ursula K Le Guin describes Genly Ai as having sat down at her desk. also yknow that E. M. Forster quote about Maurice and Alec still roaming the greenwood. And the way Guillermo Del Toro talks about how Edith is one of his favorite characters in the Crimson Peak director's commentary, right up there with the way Mike Flanagan talks about being so fond of Nellie in Haunting of Hill House, and something something i AM a little obsessed with the way writers talk about their characters