#i wrote a whole thing for 42 but i thought. Well. i can just put all my thoughts into this one line and it will say the exact same thing | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

boxwinebaddie · 3 months

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ngl you spoiling your fanfics on here instead of writing them is kind of a cop out :/

first of all,

congrats on being the second hate message i've ever gotten!

secondly?

Fuck You <3 :)

thirdly?

you can call me a looooot of things anon, but do not Ever!!!! EVER!!! call me lazy. you wrote me 27 words just now and i have written over 100k in under a year spanning over two extremely detailed multi chapter fanfictions...like? and that doesn't even include this tumblr which goes back 42 PAGES OF VERY LONG ASK MESSAGES.

most of them being extensively thought out lore and headcannons about two fictional boy best friends on a television show that is so unserious that over half of those hcs had to be crafted around straws and legitmized by hours/days/weeks/months of research by me???

because you guys send me "hi uncle nina, what is kyle's fav color?" and i could just send! it's blue <3 tysm for asking! :) but i Never answer my ask memes like that and again??? there is 42 pages of evidence to support that baby, so good luck fighting that fight! it's never just blue it's always Kyle's Favorite Color Is Blue BECAUSE and then i go on for several paragraphs about why kyle's favorite color is blue, i give you everything that i know about that subject. Everything.

like, i feel like some of the ask memes that i write are so detailed and extensive that they might be longer than one shots people are writing? this one about each boys favorite season was very labor intensive and i put it out in one day...uuuuugh!!! on the subject of one shots and actually writing? i licherally said i am still willing to do one shot requests or post pieces of things i had inspiration for? i just didn't want to promise you actual chapter updates because i didn't want to let you down??? like i specifically wanted to avoid this :(((

i'm actually writing the ask memes because i feel like it is the medium where i have the strongest chance at providing you with well written content, like, i could go back to updating but they would be rushed, poorly written and passionless. i put like...a lot of my heart into these.

and, my love, my hate, lmaooo, i could just not do that.

like, i legitimately have no reason to keep doing this.

i could delete this whole tumblr with 42 pages of content that i am sure people come back and reread because they ask me not to delete stuff and ask me where it went. i could also private both my fics on ao3 or i could delete them entirely...and it would be no sweat off my back, tbh. like i said, because my imposter syndrome is so bad and i was so stressed out writing my fics...i can't read them anymore. i am moderately embarassed by them and IF I HAD TIME...i would rewrite them. i would make them so much better...i wish i could.

because i DONT have time? i work a 7-3 job and i come home and answer these...i am exhausted and i answer these? and i do it because its fun yeah, but i do it because i care? about my work?

but i Specifically care about all of you. :((((

that's why this seriously hurts my fucking feelings and sucks? because the reason my fics stay up and the reason i answer these is because i love you very much and care about you getting the answers that you deserve and it makes me sad i can't write them better for u.

i write these answers because every single day, like, i shit you not, i got at least 8 asks yesterday about various things, you all take the time and share your hearts and minds with me. because i have angels in my ask box who write to me, who take the time to read my stuff and ask me questions about it, like...specifically rm?

which, not to toot my own horn baby, but it's a lot easier to get people to content about the regular ship in a fandom ( which is still not easy ) but i got multiple people invested in an AU FANFICTION with almost no cushion from the fandom, the only help i got/boost for exposure, is that i had clout from writing a different successful fanfic??? which i literally wrote anonymously? it was my first fanfic!!!!

fight me!!!! lol!!!!! show yourself, coward!!!! you charlatan!!!

tell me that you did the same, baby!!!! that's what i THOUGHT!!!

but yeah, i do this because i care about y'all and i care DEEPLY about the things that i write and that they are quality. for example, oh my god just talking about this makes me depressed...when i wrote rm4 WHICH I WROTE UNDER DURESS, EXTREME DURESS, both physical and mental? which...i loved rm4. almost all of those hcs and metaphorical things in there, i was very, very proud of.

anyways, i wrote like 16k and it was taking me Too Long in my fucked up girl brain to do it on my computer and because i was excited to get that chap you'd all been waiting for out to you and because for some reason i felt Obligated to work fast because of the stress of everyone waiting for my work, i, ON MY CELLPHONE, highlighted basically every single word, all 16k of them and meticulously formatted from like 7PM at night until 6AM in the morning the next day. i had THREE monster energies and i considered buying a 5hr energy AND POURING IT INTO A MONSTER ENERGY???? that is how fucked up my mind got trying to put out my fanfics and...

during the last 100 or so words...because i was so tired, i accidentally highlighted my whole chapter, finished formatting, felt super relieved when i clicked the Save button only to realize...

every single italics was gone.

every single one...italics i'd spent hours on...every single one was gone forever. i could not retrieve it. it was lost...all that work. :( and it's kind of embarassing, but i cried for a very long time about that. like i posted this chapter that i cared about and i was...super depressed. not even because i worked hard on formatting it for hours and all through the night ( which i have done for over 12 other chapters )

...but because i realized that you guys would be reading something with no italics. that you would be reading something that was not as good as it could have been. i was sad because you were going to read something that because you are so wonderful, i was sad to send you. i was so upset, actually, about you reading something subpar that i considered...reformatting the entire thing...i....this fucking sucks.

this makes me really sad. this makes me reeeeeally fucking sad lol. like to say i don't care about all of you? to call me lazy? say this is a cop out??? like oh my GODDDD????

i am a REAL person, you guys! i fucking exist outside of this blog? people who write fanfiction do it out of love. it's a labor of love, y'all. i have a real job. i do this for zero dollars and zero cents and i do it every single day like? fanfiction authors do not owe you anything.

but...i love you? lol? that is lame but i legitimately worry abt all of you. like even you weird, mean anon? because i assume even tho you sent hate mail you did it because you love my work? maybe? because you had to be upset enough about this, or enjoy my work enough, to be sad that you aren't getting more of it? which LITERALLY YES YOU ARE LIKE!!!! YOU ARE GETTING SO MUCH!!! we could have nothing.

i am not writing anymore because of how badly it effected my mental health -- also, very cool of you to punish me for the first time i was selfish and decided to be kind to myself....in months! <3 slay! but bc i care abt my story and you guys not getting left on a cliffhanger forever and ever, i decided that i would give you everything i have.

like just that part of the ravesey hate that i wrote yesterday...that is one of four parts...of two chapters. there is easily over ten chapters left that will probably be split up like that. nevermind pep where we have at least five chapters left...and you wanted me..to write like 17 chapters??? that would take me maybe all year??? wild??? like no!!! i'm not gonna do that!!! i don't even have to do this!!!! but i want to!!!

I FUCKING LOVE YOU GUYS LIKE ITS VERY LAME TO SPEAK TO ME LIKE THIS???? I HATE THIS!!! BOOOOOO!!! TOMATO!!!

idk...i guess i'm done now. not updating you on this blog, ofc, just with this ask message. which is not going to be the last one. i will keep updating the kind and lovely people on here who have been so wonderful to me and send me faithful, excited asks everyday. those people do not deserve to be punished because you decided you wanted to be an ahole in my askbox. i am not writing for you.

thank you for supporting my work. thank you for enjoying my updates on here which -- i have been doing this for monthes with no complaints and people send me more asks everyday, so i assume we all enjoy getting them in this format? even tho its off ao3? enough to have 42 pages of asks? also i have not written for months...this is not news, i think. we knew this was coming -- needless to say, i love you very much and i don't care if this is tiring. it is worth it for you.

to those who have been kind to me, thank you very much. i love you and i hope you heal. thank you for healing me.

and you, a-hole anon????

please check yourself.

both metaphorically and into a psychiatric hospital.

cheers! <3 mazel! :)

-uncle nina

#this made me #really fucking mad #but more than that it made me really sad #like i don't have to do this you guys #i seriously don't have to do this #i do this because i love you very much #and i think you deserve answers like i could close this blog and never ever post again and you would never get closure #but i don't want that because you send so many asks so clearly you want answers to stuff #and i have so many people who are so kind 99.9% of yall are so nice to me like my readers are so nice that i am in SHOCK #like i am so sad that you think i dont work hard like #i work very hard on these? they can take me 30 mins? 3 hours? weeks? like...UGH i am sooooo this fucking sucks guys #please don't treat me like this like i want to cry #this is very mean spirited and uncool #if you don't like the way i do my thing you can click off like?#there was no reason to send me this #idk i'm...this hurt my feelings lol please do not send another content creator something like this this is very foul #this is worse than when someone said are you ever updating #the :/ face was soooooo FIGHT ME IN THE STREET #YOU WONT!!! YOU WONT BITCH!!!

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blackberrywars · 1 year

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38, 41 (I’m always cruising for fic recs!) 42 & 48 ❤️

Thank you so much for playing!!! I appreciate the asks, and apologize for the amount of shit I about to write. I messaged you about losing this draft, but apparently tumblr just sent it to the bottom of my draft pile, so here we go! Putting it under a cut, because I went so overboard.

38: Did any of your fics get surprisingly popular (whatever that means to you)? Which ones? Why do you think they were so successful?

Alright, so this one is a little complicated. On the one hand, my most popular fic by far is Flint And Steel, but while the numbers definitely shocked me the most, it didn't surprise me. Most of my stuff is of side-pairings and f/f stuff, which isn't as popular in this fandom, so of course a fic with the big three of Jaskier, Geralt, and Yennefer is gonna get more traction in the form of shares and comments. The ones that surprised me though? The first two installments of my lady laiden smut series, Sweeter Than Pride and Collars of Many Kinds. Those two got awesome comments and bookmarks from people I didn't even recognize. And the sheer number of hits on them means there's definitely people re-visiting them, which is the highest kind of flattery on my smut fic.

41: Link a fic that made you think, “Wow, I want to write like that.”

I refuse to choose only one, so buckle up, you're getting six. Also, to everyone I @'d, I hope you don't mind, I can remove it if you prefer.

I Am Bound To You (With A Tie I Cannot Break) by @on-a-lucky-tide. He did a fucking incredible job at conveying very complicated emotions in actions, and made me cry for entirely too long. I want to develop this skill so badly.

A Beginners Guide to Exploiting the Kaedweni Tax Code For Fun and Profit by @heronfem. If you ever want a masterclass in translating characterization to a modern au, this is IT. It's a massive Laiden-centered project with the whole found family along for the ride, and they handle the large cast beautifully. I've never really done a modern AU, but if I do and it's half this good, I'll be thankful.

Lives in Legacy by @tantumuna. This fic is is not only long enough to make me pass out in envy, every word counts. It explores a truly dark omegaverse with Eskel and Geralt, and there aren't words to describe it. I felt truly indescribable amounts of pain while reading this, even during the healing, and I'm so glad to have done it.

Snow and Dirty Rain by ajfanfic. It's a lovely little series of 70s lesbians Geralt and Jaskier living through that era as queer women and adopting butch lesbian Ciri. It's just a wonderful, well-researched AU, and I want to emulate that kind of grounded world.

Worthy of the Honey-Comb by @castillon02. It's a portrait of Vesemir coming to terms with Kaer Morhen's destruction and having to step up for the remaining wolves and form a new image of what it means to be a wolf witcher. Combines flashback and present moment so well it makes me ache.

Ballads by @linearao3. This is not a witcher fic like the rest, but it is one of the best examples of synthesizing omegaverse into a book's canon. This made me feel so many things, and again, all the details and worldbuilding just make it spectacular.

42: Have you ever received a comment that particularly stood out to you for whatever reason?

My dear @hellinglasses has become a dear friend and has always been a wonderful cheerleader. Ever since the day she sent 9 comments on all my fics to my dry-as-the-desert inbox. Her efforts have helped me write so much more than I thought I could, and while I love going back to re-read them all, this one om Calm Before The Storm is probably one of my favorites.

This comment by Ledgea will forever hold a place in my heart, because it was the first comment I ever received, on the first fic I ever wrote. They made it into an amazing comment thread, and it was just so encouraging to me as a first-time writer. (EDIT: I put the wrong comment by mistake, because i was trying to limit myself)

48: What’s the last fic you read? Do you recommend it?

According to my history, the last fic i (re-re-re-re-)read was Cock in the Henhouse by the wonderful @halehathnofury. It's a hilarious, filthy Geralt x Eskel anthology, and I have entirely too many feelings about it. Excellent for a night when you just need to feel good all over.

#the witcher #berry's games #thank you for playing friend

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callmekasandra · 9 months

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Sometimes a guy just gets a little carried away and rewrites all of Christian mythology (as one does). I wrote it for myself and maybe to share with some close friends/family. But after I was done I thought maybe others who are also hurting & trying to understand our weird form of Christianity would like to hear this new mythology as well.

Please begin by considering the idea (even if you know it's bullshit) that perhaps God does not dictate scriptures the way some of us assume.

Consider instead that perhaps scriptures are written by people trying to understand what God is saying, but we aren't that good at listening and have a lot of our own bullshit that gets in the way. So our scriptures are a bit of a mess of our own personal and cultural stuff mixed up into whatever we thought we heard God saying.

The real sticky wicket of that kind of inspired scripture is to find the gold amongst all that dross.

And so we need to test our scriptures. Against who we know God to be and what God has revealed to us in our prophets, history, art, wisdom, etc that build upon what people previously learned of God in earlier attempts/generations.

But if we decide to look to our oldest scriptures when we didn't know God very well and were often far worse people than we are today (in all the things that really matter) and try to understand God using those as our TRUTH etched on stone tablets, through which we interpret all the newest stuff, we are putting the cart before the horse.

We are even now being led somewhere by the Spirit of God. All of us. Through all of our terrible and beautiful religions. Holy Spirit is always speaking, even when we aren't paying attention. And bit by bit, all over the world, in almost all religions, for almost all of God's children, in whatever way they know God (even the Atheists!) have finally started to figure it out. Love!

The great commandment for civilization is not simply "abide by the rule of law".

The great commandment for civilization is to "abide by the rule of love". Love your neighbor as well as yourself.

And, to follow that law, you must love the things of God more than the World's power, wealth, social standing, or prestige. You need to do that before you can begin to figure out creative ways of loving and caring for yourself and your neighbors.

Even if you think God is imaginary or is a flying spaghetti monster, you still know the things of God vs the things of this World. And you don't need to mess that up with bad theology if you don't want to.

Love your neighbor and the things of God enough that you are willing to suffer the loss of the the World's power, wealth, social standing, or prestige in order to love them well and to stand up tall under the oppression of this World. Then do what you want as you continue to get to know and love your neighbor and God. (Obviously the things of this World is Power, Money, Culture, Systems, etc. and not Sex, Drugs, and Rock and Roll.)

(But it wouldn't be a bad idea to be humble enough to learn from each other.

If you want to know more about spiritual realities, goodness, and this amazing world, learn from your neighbors. Think about the story of the blind people trying to describe a whole elephant.

There are 8 Billion people on this planet and most of them are pretty decent people just trying to do their best, all things considered, to love their neighbors appropriate to their context and to live a decent life. I'll bet they have some cool new ways of understanding crap!)

So it turns out, after all of that, Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy was right and the answer to whole damn thing really is 42!

#42 #bullcrap #TGAK #Love #Bible #Scripture

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spicy-deluxe · 3 years

Text

Recording pt. I

Pt. 2

eren x reader

Camboy Eren and Horny Reader

Cw: smut, masturbation, cursing

Minors DNI

Word count: 963

A/N: This is my first official post for tumblr and I wrote this at 2 a.m. 💀. I will be writing a pt 2 of course. Please message me with any recommendations or requests as well. Have a good day and if nobody told you today, I love you ❤️

Finals week was wrapping up for this semester at your university. Taking 18 credit hours has not been an easy task but you were confident you would finish strong. Tonight you were completing an exam for statistics which was proving to be more of a challenge than expected.

11:42 p.m.

The exam had to be completed by 11:59 p.m. on the dot. Sweat beaded across your forehead as you scribbled and solved equations. The sounds of buttons be pushed on the calculator echoed off of your apartment walls as you hastily solved the problems on your screen.

11:56 p.m.

Frantically, you begin selecting answers to make sure the exam is completed in enough time. The exam automatically submits with the last few questions being blindly answered. After submission there is not an immediate grade and you knew that your bad time management would bite you in the butt. The anxiety of having a bad grade starts amping up.

Luckily for you, around midnight is when your favorite “show” comes on. You exit your online exam and click a link out of your favorites and there he is. The anonymous man that you watch faithfully that never fails to make you tingle between your legs.

After clearing off the bed, you prop your laptop next to you and get comfortable as you wait for the “show to start”.

Stargirl143: hi bby it’s good to see you again ❤️

You send the message into the chat. He smiles silently as he reads your message. You knew you were one of his favorite viewers as you were there almost every night if you weren’t busy. Your attention is caught once the no-face, unnamed man turned on his slow reverb at a low volume. It changes the mood and lets you know he’s getting started.

You watch him slowly rub his hands down his toned abdomen and down onto his clothed bulge. He brings his hand back up and repeats the motion a few times. You do the same to mimic the touch. You pull off your large t-shirt leaving you in your bra and sleep shorts. You rub your delicate hands past your belly button and back up, slowly grasping your right breast.

You watch the slow rising and fall of his chest as he breathes and continues with his sensual movements. He brings both hands down to the waistband of his underwear slowly pulling them down as his dick springs out against his lower abdomen. You quietly gasp because it has to be one of the most beautiful things you have seen and never disappoints.

You can see the slight precum leaking from his pink tip as he teases himself with light touches. He grabs the base of his dick and gives it a slight shake sending tingles down to your aching cunt. You pull off your shorts and slowly graze your hand over to feel how wet you were.

He starts to pump his dick and you hear slight moans coming from his mouth as his abdomen contracts to the pleasure. You bring your middle and ring finger to your clit and begin to rub small circles and begin to moan yourself.

“Fuck,” you hear him say softly as you increase your speed.

He cups his balls and begins to pick up the sped just a bit and let out louder sounds as his pleasure begins to build. You take your other hand and insert two fingers into your leaky cunt. The sound of his moans and the lewd squelching coming from you had your orgasm approaching rather quickly.

You can see his breathing begin to pick up tremendously as he speeds up his stroking. You close your eyes as your impending orgasm begins to take hold.

“Oh my god, f-fuckkk,” you hear and see his milky white cum shoot out onto his abdomen and down his fingers as he rubs out his orgasm.

You squeeze your eyes shut as your orgasm slams into you, heating your whole body and making your legs shake. You withdraw your fingers to see the sticky liquid coating your fingers and feel the wet spot beneath you on your sheets.

“Thanks for viewing tonight, I hope you all have a good night,” he says as he winks at the camera and end the stream.

You sigh as your post-orgasm clarity takes over as you hop out of bed and collect your sheets to put them in the wash.

After starting the load, you pull on a pair of leggings, a ragged t-shirt, and your slides. You grab your keys and head out for a late-night snack run. Turning the corner to the elevator of your apartment building you run into a man’s chest.

“Fuck- oh, I am so sorry,” you say as you take a step back and look up at the man.

He was beautiful. Green eyes looking down at you with a slight smirk on his face. He had his hair pulled back into a slightly loose bun and had on a tank with a pair of joggers and slides as well.

“It was my fault, I should have been paying attention,” he laughs.

“What’s your name?”, he asks.

“Y/N,” you quietly reply.

“I’m Eren, you have a beautiful name.”

You give him a small smile. “Thank you.”

You both stood there for a few seconds before you excused yourself and continued to walk to the elevator.

He stood back a bit watching you walk away, “Be safe and have a good night,” you hear him say.

You give him a shy “you too,” and step into the elevator. You lean against the elevator and think about how this simple interaction had you THIS flustered. A man you didn’t even know or have ever seen before - or so you thought.

#eren jaeger #eren yeager #eren x y/n #eren x reader #smut #finnabuss #first fic #camboy

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yunopouts · 3 years

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stars on the beach - k. doyoung

-> kim doyoung x reader

-> era: punch!

-> genre: crack, smut (barely)

-> w: smut, alcohol consumption, mentions of food, mentions of eating, swearing, mentions of shitting (SORRY I FELT THE NEED TO MENTION THIS) tell me if i've missed anything

-> taglist: @doieclayed @foreverdy @neomulucased @ncteaxhoe

-> network: @nct-frathouse

-> a/n: here's a shitty blurb that i speed wrote. it's not detailed- definitely is actually very shitty i don't know what happened lmao

Your head rolled back as he kissed down your neck, enjoying the way his hands acted as if your body was the most brittle thing on earth- one sliding down your side while his right hand focused on your chest. His thumb grazed your nipple, making you moan loudly.

“Like that?” he asked, thumb now pressing down on the bud. He let out an arrogant laugh at your whine, enjoying the torture he was putting you through. You gasped when he took your nipple in between his teeth, tongue poking at the tip before sucking on it whole.

“I want you inside.” your voice was strained when it came out.

“If you promise to scream my name so loud we get a complaint, then you’ve got yourself a deal.” His voice was velvet smooth, like the devil. “Can you do that, beautiful?” You nodded eagerly, badly needing him. “Good.” he chuckled, giving you a closed-mouth smile, blinking once at you before feeling your core. “God, you’re so fucking wet.”

As you were about to respond a vibrating noise came from your right, you both looked to the side table- where it was coming from. The man without a name looked back to you, his face now obscuring that you had been interrupted.

He opened his mouth to speak again but his voice was fading out and instead you heard a bang.

Snapping your eyes open at the sound of something hitting the floor, you sat up and looked around your room, searching for what had fallen. They were drawn to the phone that was vibrating on your carpet.

“What do you want, Mark?” You asked, picking up the call.

“Well hello to you too.” He chuckled

“You woke me up.” You grumbled. “Why are you even calling me at this ungodly hour?”

“Y/n, it's three thirty in the afternoon. You’re supposed to be here.”

“Where am I supposed to be? Need I remind you that it’s Saturday?”

“Need I remind you that you’re supposed to be at the house because you’re sleeping over?”

“Crap.” You cursed, scrambling to get out of bed.

“Watch your potty mouth, missy.” You could hear the stupid smirk he was wearing in that moment.

“Shut it, shit face.” You huffed. “I’ll see you in twenty.”

“That’s more like it. Bring your shit for tonight.”

“Watch your potty-” he cut you off as he hung up. You groaned, stalking over to the bathroom, you slumped down onto the counter, resting your head on your arms.

A vibration shot up your leg as someone sent you a text. You pulled your phone out of your pocket to check the notification— it was a text from mark.

lee [15:40] get off your counter and get ready, you turd.

you [15:41] tell the boys to clean the bathrooms or else i’ll give all of them swirlies after someone takes a dump

lee [15:42] we already did. and it won't be me getting a swirly cause i cleaned mine

you [15:43] tell hyuck to clean it again

lee [15:44] okay mom

you [15:45] don’t ever call me mom again unless you want me to shit on your pillow

read 15:45 pm

After getting ready you grabbed your duffle bag and ran to the front of your apartment, slipping on your shoes and speeding out the door. You were about to jog down the street all the way to the boys house, but stopped when there was a honk behind you.

You were about to tell them off when someone called your name, making you freeze in your tracks.

The voice from your dream.

“What are you doing? Get your ass in the car!” Mark yelled.

Slowly turning on your heel, you moved as slow as a turtle, not even daring to raise your gaze any higher— because if you did, you would be looking straight at the voice from your wet dream just an hour before.

“Hi Y/n,” the familiar velvety smooth voice cooed from the front seat.

“Hey.” you gulped, staring into the capturing eyes of the one person you were dreading to see.

Kim Doyoung.

“Oh fuck, my ass hurts.” Johnny groaned as he stretched his long limbs once he stepped out of his car after three hours of driving.

“Comere’ lemme massage it.” Jaehyun held out his hands, to which Johnny jokingly backed up, making Doyoung snort before he walked to the front door of the beach house.

You and Mark hopped out of the back after Jaehyun, and popped the trunk.

“What’s wrong with you?” Mark asked as the two of you unloaded the bags from the trunk of Johnny’s jeep. “You were silent the whole ride, what happened to you?”

“I had a sex dream…” you mumbled, yanking a bag out and swinging it over your shoulder.

“Okay, why would that impact-”

“About Doyoung.” the blond's eyes almost popped out of his head.

“You had a wet dream about- ow!” he winced, rubbing his arm after you punched it. “You had a wet dream about Doyoung?” Mark hissed. “What the fuck?”

“I know.” you whined, also confused as to why you had a lewd dream of Mark’s friend. “I don’t know what’s wrong.” Your head fell back in annoyance.

“What’s wrong?” A deep voice appeared beside you, making you flinch… hard. “Jeez, are you okay?” Jaehyun asked, steadying you out with both his hands on your biceps.

“She had a sensual dream about Doyoung.” Mark explained to the older boy and he gasped, eyes glowing.

“You’re so nasty.” He shimmied his shoulders, feigning a flirtatious tone. You rolled your eyes and groaned loudly.

“Would you guys please-”

“Who had a sensual dream about me?” Once again, you flinched, this time almost falling backwards after stepping on Mark’s foot— who was now yelling in pain.

“Mark did. He said he had a dream and he walked in on you rubbing one off.” Jaehyun lied straight through his teeth, but the man believed it, scrunching his nose.

“Oh, I thought you were talking about Y/n.” Jaehyun wheezed at the comment, nudging you in the ribs. Shooting him a look as you joined in, laughing awkwardly.

“Mark you dirty pig.” He sent you a glare before stabbing you with his own comeback.

“Well at least I didn’t have sex with my ex and moan Jaehyun’s name.”

“You did what?” The 97 liner looked down at you with an incredulous smirk before you turned to Mark, kissing your teeth.

“Shit.” The golden haired boy sprinted and you chased after him, Jaehyun following and taunting you from behind- leaving Doyoung standing alone, confused and surrounded by their luggages.

“Okay,” Taeyong clapped his hands and rubbed them together. “We need to figure out who is sleeping with who, and where. There are five bedrooms, so we can split equally.”

“Thank god.” Haechan mumbled. He had arrived earlier, along with Jungwoo, Yuta, Taeyong and Taeil, but they decided to wait for you to come to figure this out in a fair way. “I call Taeil!” He shouted, almost jumping out of his seat.

“I wanted Taeil.” Mark whined as he watched the younger boy sit in the eldests lap, wrapping his arms around his neck before sticking his tongue out at Mark.

“I’ll take Mark since y/n will kill him if she’s alone with him.” Yuta suggested, raising a hand.

“I can be with Taeyong;” Johnny hollered from the kitchen, grabbing a water bottle from the fridge.

“Woo.” Jaehyun patted the knees of the boy who was sitting in his lap.

“Okay so that leaves Doyoung and Y/n.” Mark and Jaehyun both looked at you as if they knew something, because they did. “Y/n are you cool with that

“Y-yeah sure; it’s fine.”

“Are you sure? Cause I can just sleep on the couch.” Doyoung stepped in, to which you shook your head.

“No, no it’s really fine. I bet you Doyoung is a better roommate than all of you.” You stuck out your tongue at the others who were gasping dramatically. “Except for Taeil;” The eldest let out a teasing laugh before someone began speaking again.

“They get the master bedroom.” Jaehyun added and you froze, catching his and Mark’s growing smile.

“Did say masterb-”

“Master room;” Doyoung muttered in your ear. You nodded slowly as tingles went down your spine, sitting back against the couch with a soft ‘oh’ leaving your lips. “Thanks man,” you missed the wink he sent the plotting pair.

“Anything to spare ourselves from her cursing us for taking the comfortable bed.” Hyuck said.

“You know, you guys make me out to be some scary monster that will bite your head off.”

“You bit my arm when I took the last Nanaimo bar!” Mark argued.

“Because I said I didn’t have one! How do you bring someone, who’s never been there, to B.C and not let them try an authentic desert?” You fought back.

“That’s kind of cruel, Mark.” Jungwoo mumbled, the others agreeing with him.

“We were in Coquitlam for another three days, you could have gone to Nanaimo on your own!”

“You were going to let a foreigner travel two and a half hours by herself?” Doyoung’s voice raised as the rest of the boys began to scold him too.

“Shameful.” Taeyong shook his head. Mark got up with a huff and began stomping away. “Get back here you dimwit, we didn’t decide the rooms.”

“I’m gonna go unpack.” Doyoung followed Mark in standing up. “Wanna come?” He asked, holding out a hand.

“Sure.” You took it and the older boy helped you up, leading you to the second floor.

Only when you let go to sit on the bed did you realize that you were still holding on to Doyoungs hand when you reached the room. It was nice, had eggshell coloured walls— very much like a beach house. The bed was nice too, white sheets on a king size mattress that sat on a rustic looking post bed. Everything in the room was the same eggshell colour as the walls, and the handles and knobs matched the metal posts of the bed frame.

“Which side do you normally sleep on?” Doyoung asked as he unloaded some of his clothes into a drawer, pulling you out of your thoughts.

“I’m fine with any side.” you replied, hands running over the cool comforter.

“You sure you’re okay with sharing?” The boy turned to look at you, finding you with your back flat against the bed.

“We’re both adults.” Was all you said before he turned back, organizing his shirts as he let out a soft chuckle.

“Is it okay if I sleep on the right side, then?”

“Of course.”

“Cool, thank you.”

“No problem, Doyoung.”

You were about to start a different conversation to make yourself feel a bit more comfortable when Johnny appeared at your door.

“Beach in twenty?”

“It’s seven.” Doyoung stopped his movements and looked at the older boy.

“We’re going to a beach party.”

“Alcohol?” You strained your neck when peeked up at the older boy when he said ‘party’. Johnny laughed, nodding in response to your question.

“I’m a little tired from the drive, so I’m gonna pass.” Johnny nodded and left the room. Doyoung made his way to the bed, latching himself onto a bedpost. “Do you want me to get out?” you shook your head.

“I’m just gonna wear this.” the both of you laughed lightly. “You really not gonna go?” propping yourself up on your elbows, you cocked your head to the side. He pushed up the clear-frame glasses that sat perched on that perfect nose of his, smiling down softly at you.

“Nah, I think I’m just going to chill; I kinda wanna take a nap.” You hummed gratefully when he helped you up again.

Doyoung accidentally pulled you with too much force, forcing you to come crashing into his chest. He grunted as you stumbled back, the boy's arms wrapping around your waist. He was warm and he smelt like an enchanting fabric softener. You stayed that way for a few extra seconds, Doyoung wanting to stay in your grip, and you in his- but it all came to an end when a phone vibrated on the dresser.

You jolted back and picked up the phone, reading the message. “I-I’m gonna go.”

“Y-yeah, yeah. Um… have fun.”

“You too.” you replied awkwardly, practically running out the door.

“So, you have a boyfriend?” a random guy next to you raised a brow as he slurred his words.

“No,”

“Do you wanna-” “No, I don’t want to fuck you.” rolling your eyes, you turned on your heel and walked away, towards the group of boys that were on top of each other.

“Y/N!!!!” Haechan raised his hands in the air, spilling his tequila shot on Taeyongs head. “Oh whoops.” he sniggered.

“How’s your grinding going?” you asked, staring at the group of drunken friends- only one, Jungwoo, was completely sober.

“Only Jaehyun and Johnny have gotten somewhere.” Mark, who’s cheeks were a dark red, was pouting.

“As expected.” you sighed, sipping from your beer bottle. “Oh fuck, it’s already two.” you cursed, checking your phone before sliding it in your back pocket again. “I’m gonna go; don’t really want to be hit on by anyone anymore.”

They wished you farewell before you began your short journey back to the house. When you got to the front door, you kicked off your flip flops and entered. Quietly but quickly, you made it up the stairs and opened the door. You did a double take before your eyes zeroed in on the sight in front of you.

There you saw Doyoung, laying on the bed half naked, with his cock in hand, moaning your name. It would be a lie if you said it wasn’t hot- because it most definitely was, your heart might have even skipped a beat.

What are you, a pervert? You scolded yourself and tried to shut the door as discreetly as possible but he called your name again, this time, not in a moan- but in a calm manner.

“Stay.” his voice was raspy before it turned into a soft moan. Locking the room once you entered, you kept your back pressed to the cool wood of the door. “Come.” he ordered and like a trained dog, you obeyed, slowly making your way to the bed.

“Can I…” the words came out as a whisper, but he still heard and agreed.

His hand ghosted over yours, letting you take hold of his member, whimpering at your cold touch. You began by grazing your thumb over the slick slit, pressing down just enough for him to pinch your thigh in annoyance. Smiling, you began to work your wrist, moving your hand in swift motions so good it made Doyoung’s thighs shake.

“Fuck,” his noises left his mouth breathlessly as he bucked his hips into your fist. “Hmm, wait, stop.” you paused, body going still. “Strip, I wanna fuck you.”

You gasped at his words, but removed your clothing with his help. Doyoung held your waist as you mounted him with your knees on either side of his own torso. “Slowly;” he mumbled, bringing you down on his dick.

“Doyoung,” you sighed while he leaned forward to place his lips on yours. They were soft and supple, everything you’ve ever wanted in a pair of lips that had the job of kissing you. Once he bottomed out and made sure you were comfortable, Doyoung held your ass to guide you in moving up and down, all the while he pulled you in close so that his mouth could reach your nipple. Taking the bud in his mouth, his soft tongue grazed over it softly before sucking and pulling on it. Even though it was the simplest of actions, you were being so vocal- and Doyoung loved that. Your whines only egged him on, pushing you further, forcing you to cry out louder.

As your hips rolled with his, Doyoung became harsher with his thrusts, handling you like you were a toy- like you were as light as a feather.

“Not to sound like a creep, but I’ve dreamt of this moment.” he panted out as his cock hit a new length. “I’m pretty sure you have too, if I’m not mistaken.”

You couldn’t say a word, when you tried to, only a grunt of pleasure left you- making the boy under you chuckle. Almost screaming when his thumb reached your clit, rubbing intensely on the nub, like it was a mission of his, like his life depended on it. “Fuck, Doyoung… fuck, Doy-”

“Close?” he asked. He took you letting out a long whine as a hint and started thrusting faster and harder. “Don’t be shy baby,” he tugged you closer by his grip on the back of your neck. “Cum for me.” he whispered in your ear.

When your eyes rolled back, you saw stars; stars one the ceiling, stars on the beach, stars in his eyes- everywhere, there were stars everywhere.

When he felt his cock twitch, he stopped moving you- even though you were at the very end of your high. You watched for yourself- what Doyoung looks like when he comes, and you can now proudly say that it was the hottest thing you’d ever seen. With his lips slightly parted, head tilted back against the wall and fingers digging into your sides, he let go, ropes of white painting your walls.

A few minutes later, once you were clean and laying beside him, you mumbled to Doyoung, “You knew?” cheeks warm with embarrassment.

“Of course I knew, Mark would’ve acted the exact same way you did if he had a wet dream of me.” that didn’t make you feel better. “But, I also had one… of you.” he made sure to say.

“Was it good?”

“It was good, but not as good as this.” he smiled, pecking you softly on the lips.

#kim doyoung #doyoung #nct #nshitty frathouse #smut #doyoung smut #nct 127 #nct 127 smut #nct smut

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helnjk · 3 years

Text

Lost In The Night - D.M.

Draco Malfoy x fem!gryffindor!reader

Requested: yes

Ello! Hope your not too busy. If you could, could you write a prompt #42 and a prompt#46 together as in, in one story.. If you could that would be lovely and if you can't no worries! ♥️;

Hey if your requests are open could you do a prompt #42 & promot#46 for draco. Much appreciated!

“what the hell were you thinking?” “who hurt you?”

Word count: 2.2k

Warnings: Umbridge & her quill, blood, slight angst but with a happy ending!

Summary: Somehow, Umbridge finds a way to ruin everything. Luckily, Draco is there to pick up the pieces and hold you tight.

Prompts are in bold

---

Being in Gryffindor was great. Being a Gryffindor dating a Slytherin, not as great. Being a Gryffindor secretly dating a Slytherin who just so happened to be Draco Malfoy, a little complicated.

You couldn't pinpoint the exact moment you fell in love with Draco, but he chipped away at your armor little by little until he held your heart firmly in his hands.

You could tell that something was different about him around third year, he was less of an entitled prick and actually managed not to bother your housemates much that year. It seemed like he finally managed to get it in his head that he wasn’t any better than the rest of you, despite his pure bloodline.

It was fourth year that you had started actually paying some more attention to him. Your eyes automatically finding him whenever you were in the same room together. He noticed too, sending you discreet smirks that caused a flutter in your stomach. One day in Potions he decided to sit by you instead of his usual seat and you merely raised an eyebrow at him. That was when the note passing began.

Hogsmeade this weekend? He wrote down on a scrap piece of parchment beside his ingredients, pretending to take down notes on what was brewing in his cauldron.

You asking me out on a date, Malfoy? You wrote back, managing to slip it back to him while Snape had his back turned.

Possibly. Was his only reply.

It’s gonna take much more than that for me to say yes.

Neither of you could continue passing this note between yourselves as your attentions turned back to the complicated potions were brewing and Snape had begun making his rounds around the room.

It wasn’t unusual after that for you to find scraps of parchment shoved into your books or between your notes, all containing Draco’s distinct handwriting. The contents of the notes were never the same, sometimes he would tell you about his day, other times he would write down clever little jokes or interesting food combinations for you to try out. Soon, you had found yourself eagerly waiting for these little messages and tidbits of information about the blonde haired boy.

The Astronomy tower is my favorite place in the whole castle. It’s nice to just sit there and be with my thoughts.

The Giant Squid is a girl. Don’t ask how I know.

Next time you’re down in the kitchens, ask the house elves for some vanilla ice cream and a plate of fresh chips.

It wasn’t long before you finally agreed to go on that date to Hogsmeade.

After that, your feelings for Draco bloomed quite quickly. Discrete study sessions in the library lasted long into the night, little gifts would appear in your bag or on your bed when you would have a rough day, subtle touches were shared whenever you had class together. You two were never seen publicly displaying any kind of affection though, which made it seem like you guys weren’t exactly dating.

You were fine with that kind of set up, preferring to keep your love life private and away from prying eyes. It also helped filter out the gossip about you and the questions you knew your friends would ask if they knew. They thought your friendship with Draco was a little off-putting, but chose not to say anything because they saw how he was different from your first few years in Hogwarts.

Fifth year was a little more tricky to deal with since Umbridge was around and stomping around like she owned the place.

Tensions were high as she constantly berated and belittled Harry, calling him a liar and embarrassing him in front of everyone in class. You were friends with him, Ron, and Hermione and of course you knew the truth. It made your blood boil that she thought she could treat him, or any other student for that matter, like that.

Draco, on the other hand, chose to keep quiet and keep out of Umbridge’s way. He didn’t want to get on her bad side, understandably, since his father was so closely involved in the Ministry.

“The more you keep your head down, the better love,” He would say as you complained to him about how awful she could be to Harry during your study sessions at the library, “I know for a fact that she wouldn’t hesitate to make you use that damn quill too if you gave her any reason. I don’t want you going through that.”

For the most part, you listened to his advice.

One day, however, you were just so over everything Umbridge had to say. She had gotten a dig in at Harry and his “lies” one too many times during class and you had just lost it.

“Oh shut up,” You snapped out loud.

Hermione’s head snapped to yours as quickly as you had said it, eyes wide in panic. Even Harry, who was trying his hardest not to retaliate because of his already sore and cut hand, gave you a look that said don’t bother.

“Excuse me?” The toad dressed in pink sent you a sarcastic smile, “What did you just say?”

You felt Hermione grip your arm as if to say please don’t. You shook her off.

“I said, shut up.” You spoke clearly, “You have no right to be ridiculing, and frankly humiliating, someone who is just a student and a minor, especially when you’re in a position of authority.”

The whole room was silent. Usually those who got on Umbridge’s bad side were those who chose not to follow her stupid educational degrees, or who spoke of Voldemort’s return. No one had ever called her out so publicly and straight to her face.

“Detention for the rest of the week, Miss Y/L/N. For speaking out of turn,” Was all Umbridge said.

You rolled your eyes but stayed silent, heart hammering in your chest when the realization of what exactly detention with her meant. A puff of breath escaped your lips and your mind wandered for the rest of the period, none of your friends bothering to ask if you were okay, clearly seeing that you weren’t in the right headspace.

The first few days of detention, you didn’t tell Draco where you were going, just saying that you were busy those nights and couldn’t really spend as much time with him as you liked. He was skeptical, but understood nonetheless. Every night before you two split ways, you going to Umbridge’s office and him heading for the dungeons, he would gently kiss you on the lips and whisper a soft I love you.

Those little reassurances were what helped you power through every sting of the words “I will not speak out of turn” on the back of your hand. As each detention wore on, though, you could feel your strength wavering.

On Friday night, the last night of your detention, you walked into Umbridge’s office and every breath you took shook from nerves. Your hand hadn’t healed from the previous night and it was more than painful. It pulsed as you waited for her to give you the go signal to start writing, and four hours later, it was red and raw. Blood dripped down from the edges of the words that no doubt left a scar and you couldn’t help the tears as they escaped the corners of your eyes.

The moment you stepped through the threshold of her office and into the silent corridor, a sob escaped your lips. You couldn’t bear to go back to Gryffindor tower yet but it was way past curfew and you couldn’t be seen wandering around the corridors. That meant that you found yourself in an empty alcove, trying to contain your tears and murmur quick healing spells on your hand.

You felt like such a baby, letting that foul woman get the better of you, but there was no mistaking the damage she did on you, both physically and mentally.

“Y/N?” You heard someone whisper. You nearly jumped out of your skin, quickly wiping your eyes with your good hand and strategically hiding the other as you saw Draco at the end of the hallway.

“Draco,” You breathed, “What’re you doing out so late?”

“Prefect duties, it’s my turn to patrol tonight,” He said simply, “I could ask you the same thing, are you alright?”

A beat passed as you debated on what your answer should be.

“No, not really.” You replied weakly, knowing that he would see right past any form of lie or distraction you could create, eyes glancing at your bloodied hand.

He was quick to take notice too, “Who hurt you?” He said before rushed forward, gently cradling your injured hand in his.

“You can take a guess,” You muttered as his eyes scanned over the words etched onto the back of your hand.

“Oh darling,” He murmured, making his way into the alcove and gathering you up into his arms, “How did this happen? Why didn’t you tell me?”

You sighed into his chest, “You should’ve heard her! She was going on and on about how malicious and not right in the head she thought Harry was. I couldn’t just sit there and let her talk about him like that. You know that he’s telling the truth, he shouldn’t be singled out and punished for that! I called her out on it and she gave me detention the whole week.”

“What the hell were you thinking?” He asked more harshly than he intended and you felt like a toddler being scolded, “I told you that keeping your head down wouldn’t land you in situations like this.”

You knew he meant well and that he was just thinking of your happiness and safety, but with the rush of emotions running through you tonight, you didn’t want to be treated like a child. All you wanted was to be comforted and you had foolishly thought that Draco could give that to you.

“Oh sod off, Draco,” You huffed, pulling away from him and wincing as you lent on your injured hand, “I didn’t ask for a lecture, I’ve had my fill of that for today I would think.”

Tears had started to form in your eyes again as your frustration grew at your boyfriend. It had been a long night and this was not how you had seen it going when you spotted him down the hallway. You were about to move and make your way back to Gryffindor tower when you felt his hand softly grip your wrist.

“Hey, I’m sorry I snapped.” He said, wrapping an arm around your waist and pulling you back to his chest, “I just don’t like knowing that you got hurt when it could’ve been avoided.”

“I know,” You mumbled, still slightly put off at the boy whose arms enveloped you and whose scent was already calming you down.

Before you knew it, he was standing and sending you one of his trademark soft smiles that never failed to melt your heart.

“C’mon, you’re staying with me tonight.” He said, taking your uninjured hand in his and tugging slightly to get you to start moving.

“What if Umbridge catches us?” You asked, fear creeping in at the thought of more detentions being doled out to you. The thought of Draco having to go through it too made your stomach churn.

“She won’t.” He said confidently, “And if she does, I’m a prefect and she’s favors Slytherin anyway, I can tell her that I’m escorting you back to your dorm.”

The two of you walked silently hand-in-hand all the way to the slab of wall that indicated the Slytherin dorms. Draco gave you a large jumper to put on once you got to his dorm, as he went about getting ready for bed. The familiar scent of his cologne was enough to help you relax as you sank into the soft mattress and closed your eyes. Soon you felt the bed dip and Draco once again wrapped his arms around your waist.

A contented sigh escaped your lips as he peppered soft kisses along your neck and shoulder.

“I love you,” He mumbled against your shoulder, “You know that right?”

Turning to face him, you sent him a soft smile, “Yeah. I love you too.”

For a while, Draco was content leaning down and pecking your lips every so often. No words were spoken and none were needed as both of you basked in the presence of the other. After a while, your stomach grumbled as you hadn’t had much to eat before your detention with Umbridge. The nerves were too much for you to stomach anything substantial.

Draco shifted away slightly and asked, “Do you want me to go grab you something from the kitchens? I’m sure the house elves would be happy to whip something up for you.”

You only shuffled closer to him, letting his warmth wash over you, “I’m alright, I’d rather be with you anyway.”

He gave out a soft hum and pressed a kiss to your forehead, letting you know that he heard you. It wasn’t long until you drifted off to sleep in his arms.

#draco malfoy #draco malfoy imagines #draco malfoy imagine #draco malfoy fic #draco malfoy fics #draco malfoy x reader

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doctordiscord123 · 3 years

Text

My Favs of Ego Manor

1. Everyone Has Bad Days -- Man, I always gotta show love for the first....I wouldn’t be anywhere without it, and though it’s pretty venty, and I don’t really like the writing anymore, just.....I love the story. Love

5. Blind Love -- Any story about the Host and Dr. Iplier are up there on my list, simply because they were and still are so entertaining to write.....and I like the cheesy stuff, and just -- that one fucking line in this story (you know the one), God, still remains one of my favorite lines I’ve ever written ever XD

26. Yandere -- I’m still more impressed by the concept of this one more than anything, and I think it turned out really nicely for how batshit off the walls the idea was XD thank you 3:00am brain

29. Reunion -- If you love squishy, bittersweet Darkstache, this is def a fic you’ll enjoy XD I liked this one a lot, I thought it was nice....

32. To My Dear Host... -- Like I said, most stories about the Host end up way up there on my list XD I love this story, I think the drama’s nice, I think I executed it pretty well, and, yeah, I’m a sucker for angsty shit, and though this isn’t exactly medically accurate (tbh not a lot of my stuff is) I still think it’s nice :D

33. And Peggy -- Peggy my beloved <3

38. A Zoo Without Cages -- what an absolutely ridiculous, nutty mess. I fuckin’ love it.

40. Five Times the Egos Were Caught Sleeping -- I just love how squishy it is....

42. Metamorphosis -- YESSSSSSSSSSSSS THE GOOD SHIT RIGHT HERE, MAN I WAS PROUD OF THIS

47. A Broken Songbird Still Can Sing -- Silver doesn’t get enough content in this fandom, and I think this turned out super well :D of course, it plays into my personal favorite tropes so perhaps I’m biased but skdfjgn

57. Nightmarish Reality -- I cannot express how many times I read and reread this one over and over before it came out skdfjgn I love this fic, man is it dark as fuckin’ Hell but I am so proud

66. Desperation -- Oh boy. One of the most difficult things I’ve ever written, and it came out so well. The feedback on this one makes me cry every time I read the comments. I’m so glad it was received well, I put so much soul into it, and just....yeah

67. Shimmering Depths -- Merman Bim <3

71. May the Best Android Win -- Not enough people portray the androids as squishy and the deserve to be squishy. This story is ridiculous. Poly robots for the win

82. The Wedding -- THE WEDDING!!!!!!!! Another one I am so so so unbelievably proud of, and I’m so glad everyone loved it!!!! I still remember absolutely sobbing over writing the vows skdfjg

88. Kids in the Manor -- Not my most creative title (titles are not my strong suit) but!!!! This one turned out Hell cute, plus the little secret in there, just <3

96. The In-Between -- YESSSSSSS!!!!! God I love this fic, I worked super hard on it, and it came out so nice, just -- I love the Host so Goddamn much XD

102. Worst Date -- Listen. Listen. I have never before laughed so hard while writing a story skdjfgn this one was just so much fun for me to write, I think it’s great XD

106. Rampaging Chaos -- Jims my beloveds <3

111. The Past’s Reflection -- A lot of people had been asking about the DA for a long time, and finally, I wrote it!!! I think it came out super nice, I love how I wrote the DA, and how they interacted with Dark, the little splash of silly, I love it

115. The Writer and the Prophet -- :)

121. Happy Halloween! -- Also Google’s birthday, I just didn’t want to put the whole title. Anyway, fem!Dark my beloved <3 Also this is just straight up Hella cute sdkjfg

122. This is Halloween -- I struggled so hard with this story within a story idea skdjfgn but!!! I think it came out super neat, the Host is a bastard, more fem!Dark skdfjgn and super neat horror story!!!

127. Snark = Regret -- Dr. Iplier you stupid bastard. I do love this fic though sdkjfgn I don’t write the Host pissed off often but <3

132. The Streets -- My God. This took. fucking forever to Goddamn write, and yet it was so worth it skdfjgn it came out beautiful and I adore it to pieces

134. Adorable -- Squishy <3

144. A Gift to this World -- Squishy!!!! Not many Eric/Reynolds centric stories on this list, but I like this one :D

152. Egyptian God -- Oh I completely forgot about this one till I read the name. Oh wow. Wow. Yes. I adore this one.

154. Is That a Challenge? -- Illinois my beloved skdjg

156. Something’s Up with the Host -- Ah yes, my own silly self-indulgent birthday fic XD I loved writing this, it’s so cute

159. The Beginning of the End -- :)

172. Star-Crossed Roses -- This was....so unbelievably difficult to write. I was already deep into my burnout by the time this came out, I wrote it all the night before it was set to come out, I was worried I’d have to delay it, especially since I built up the wedding date so much, but it came out on time, it came out pretty good if I do say so, and I’m glad everyone enjoyed it. Still the last Ego Manor story to come out, and maybe one day I’ll get to finish this series out like I wanted, but for now....it’s good to end on something so delightful

#my writing

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romance-de-la-luna · 3 years

Text

This is too long to send as an ask, so I could send it as a message but it wouldn't be right if I didn't show off our friendship to everyone else on tumblr, would it? So I'm posting it instead xD

Here you go bestie: 80 things I love about you 💖

1) you make me insanely happy

2) talking to you makes me smile (every single time)

3) you're one of the sweetest humans ever

4) you're so funny!!!

5) you use a lot of emojis/exclamation marks when you're texting (and that reassures me because I do too)

6) I can always rely on you to freak out with me

7) you're so thoughtful

8) you're also very smart

9) you often get my friends references!!! And not many people do so I love you so much for that

10) you're beautiful

11) you're positive and enthusiastic

12) you always comment on my fics 🥺

13) YOU HUG ME CONSTANTLY

14) seriously you're such a lovely person

15) I feel like I've been missing you all my life

16) our conversations are the cutest

17) I love whenever you begin a text with 'story time'

18) you put up with me calling you franziska

19) you get annoyed when I call you franziska xD

20) you're an amazing writer

21) you're an incredible baker (who cares if I've never tried any of your food! I JUST KNOW)

22) you're the best sister in the world

23) you're a little bit crazy too

24) you're a good listener

25) you have a great taste in music

26) and TV shows

27) and movies

28) you make my day basically every single day

29) you're the only person in the world who makes me want to hug them literally ALL THE TIME

30) did I mention how gorgeous you are

31) I love how devoted you are to language learning

32) and your English is pretty much perfect (which I'm very grateful for)

33) BABY FRANZI

34) AND FRANZI AND DARIO AAAHHH

35) your accent (you had to know this was coming at some point xD)

36) your VOICE (I know you were expecting this too)

37) your hair

38) you help me annoy my brother by making him jealous of you 😈

39) you're basically a celebrity in our house now because I talk about you so much

40) you make me check my phone to see if you've messaged me at the most inconvenient times!! (in restaurants, when I'm about to go in the sea, on top of mountains... 😝)

41) your smileeeeee

42) your love for animals

43) your sense of humour

44) just your whole personality in general

45) you're just so nice all the time 😭

46) you're ALWAYS right

47) and you ALWAYS make irritatingly good points

48) you make me laugh every day

49) and you make me grin uncontrollably

50) you're a significant cause of my overuse of heart emojis

51) there aren't many people as kind and fun to be around as you

52) I trust you

53) you're such a good friend!

54) you're the kind of friend that you really hope you stay friends with all your life

55) we're like joey and chandler (and wynonna and waverly but I'll have to wait until you've seen wynonna earp for you to understand that)

56) I'm HONOURED to have met you

57) I feel so close to you even though we've never met

58) you always know exactly what to say

59) your enthusiasm when I'm writing my fics 🥰

60) your OBSESSION with Harry Potter

61) I was friends with Harry-Potter-obsessed people for ages and they couldn't convince me to read it no matter how hard they tried, and now here we are

62) I don't think you give yourself nearly enough credit for how awesome you are (but you SHOULD)

63) and I don't think you understand how lucky everyone is who has ever met you

64) your dancing skills are... *chef's kiss*

65) and YOUR SINGING 😍😍😍

66) you know when you're reading a really cute fluffy fic and you have to stop for a second because it's TOO ADORABLE AND YOU JUST CAN'T?? Well I often have to do that when I'm talking to you because I just 😭 love you SO MUCH that sometimes my heart can't take it

67) you make my life happier

68) since I wrote the thing about you basically being a celebrity in our house, it's now got to the point where my parents ask how's franzi every time I'm on my phone 😂

69) ((hehe)) BLESS THE UNIVERSE FOR CREATING YOU

70) there are very few people like you

71) I'm gonna tell you you're beautiful again (and I will keep on telling you until one day you believe me 😉 and then I'll keep telling you after that anyway)

72) you're more fun to talk to than most people

73) okay, I almost started crying when I was writing this TWICE because I was overwhelmed by how grateful I am to know you, but it's fine 😭 it's under control now

74) I text you more than I text all my irl friends put together and that's probably not a good thing but ohhh welllll nevermindddd it's fineeee

75) everyone who's never met you or talked to you is missing out in life and I FEEL SO BAD FOR THEM (you might think I'm exaggerating but NO IT'S TRUE!!! Imagine living life without EVER talking to franziska... How do people do it??!!)

76) a few months ago I had an online friend who I vowed was the best online friend I've ever had and will ever have, and then you came along and ruined that, so thank you 🙄🤗❤️ I really hate breaking promises, FRANZISKA

77) if you think I say nice things to you all the time, you have no idea how many nice things I think about you but don't tell you

78) I keep imagining what it would be like to meet you in real life

79) I'm thinking I'll just end up hugging you for like an hour 🙈 or more..... okay definitely more..... people would just stare at us and wonder what's wrong with us... it would be amazing

80) I love how easy it was to make this list xD (I'm probably gonna keep adding to it so consider this part one)

However, this list doesn't even begin to cover how amazing you are. Your brilliant FEEBLE mind cannot comprehend how much I love you 🥰 but I hope this makes you happy sorella maggiore

#I'm force-feeding you 80 compliments and you will accept them all #franzi ilysm you make me so happy and idk what i'd do without you you're amazing

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facets-and-rainbows · 4 years

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Blue Exorcist 10th anniversary book Q&A session

The 10th anniversary book has a section where Katoh answers 100 questions submitted by fans on Twitter, so here they are translated/paraphrased! May contain manga spoilers up to the recent flashback arc, so be warned.

(Note that I’m playing it very fast and loose here because there are A HUNDRED OF THEM, so not exact wordings, but it should capture the gist. Lemme know if there are any you want elaborated on)

1. Katoh likes the feel of traditional drawing more than digital but is impressed with how far digital has come

2. Meph THOROUGHLY ABUSES spacetime to watch all his shows and ensure that he gets all the merch he wants

3. Did the girls take all of Yukio’s school uniform buttons in middle school? Yes, they did (apparently it’s like A Thing for girls to ask for a button from their crush at middle school graduation, based on some sad movie from the 60s where a guy who got drafted as a kamikaze pilot gave a girl one of his uniform buttons to remember him by)

4. Rin's tail is about a meter long

5. There are tons of servants working at Mephisto's mansion. Belial is in charge of them

6. Katoh borrows from all sorts of neat real locations when making settings

7. Katoh identifies with pretty much all the characters the most! Except Lucifer.

8. Demon designs she's proud of include the impure king and hachirou, pretty much anything that was the main one in an arc

9. Katoh lists a bunch of her favorite musical artists/music she’s listening to recently: King Gnu, Official Hige Dandism, Kenshi Yonezu, BAD HOP, Sakanaction, Keyakizaka 46, Hypnosis Mic, Aimer, B’Z, Queen Bee.

10. Awww the rabbit manga that characters are often reading isn't just Robo to Usakichi, it's an even older one that she drew as a little kid

11. She likes industrial style interior designs

12. Rin and Yukio alternated who got the top bunk growing up, because they couldn't agree on it lol

13. Katoh cares a whole lot about panel layouts and speech bubble positions, might even be her favorite part of the process (it shows!)

4. Katoh does NOT have a mashou, lol

15. Rin has probably been practicing in secret so he can learn to carry stuff with his tail

16. Izumo probably got into shojo manga around 1st grade, her mom had some around the house

17. Specialty dishes: Rin - lots of stuff but especially nabe Yuri - stuff you can throw together quickly Shiro - stuff he learned from Yuri and/or cookbooks, alongside teaching Rin Yukio - Does. Not. Cook.

18. Can't pick a favorite place she's been on research, but there's no place like Japan

19. Kinzou's band isn't currently meeting because demons, but he's probably still thinking of new songs

20. Hardest characters to draw: anyone with detailed flowing hair. Hardest to write for: Lightning and Gedouin. She had to go read books about serial killers specifically for material for Gedouin, lol

21. Suguro actually gets a dorm room to himself, though allegedly Yukio is technically assigned as his roommate, lol. Didn't end up that way what with Yukio being a teacher and also Rin’s whole...situation

22. Shiemi makes some of her own hair accessories! Cute

23. Katoh doesn't mind if you include stuff with fan letters but check with the editor first

24. Time for making each chapter: Planning/storyboarding: 1-5 days. Sketching: 3-5 days. Drawing/inking: the rest. Just...the rest of the time

25. Neither Suguro nor Izumo have dated before and neither is currently dating. But that's probably just because things were hectic for them! It could happen

26. Yukio breaks 5 or 6 pairs of glasses a year, someone get this kid a strap or something

27. How many spare glasses does Yukio have? Check the fanbook lol it's in there (dang it Katoh)

28. The demon she wants us to pay the most attention to is Lucifer. Because plot.

29. What's under the Order's big meeting table? It's a BOTTOMLESS PIT and if you fall in it you DIE that's what makes it COOL (laughs)

30. What are the job requirements for the angelic legion? Literally just Arthur liking you and inviting you to join

31. She WANTS to do more character profiles but just hasn't gotten to it

32. Rin's tail feels like a cat tail, texture wise

33. The "red Assiah fire" is literally just actual fire nothing special

34. Rin's current hair color is light blue fading to white at the ends

35. Thoughts on Rin's growth: she likes that he stays positive in awful situations and she also thinks it's very main character of him to face the past instead of avoiding it

36. Mephisto didn't purposely surround Rin with stuffed animals when he woke up after going crispy. Mephisto's bed is just Like That

37. Kurikara was based on a cool sword she found in a sword book, but that one was technically just a ceremonial sword. The symbol on it us a Sanskrit letter kaan (sp?) associated with Fudou Myouou

38. Kuro can communicate with normal cats and hangs out with them often

39. Sometimes Shiemi's skirt is extra fancy around the hem what's up with that? Apparently it's an optional accessory that comes with the skirts help I haven't noticed this and don't know any fashion terms in any language

40. When coloring, Katoh always tries to have an overall theme in mind ("emphasis on blue" etc) so it comes together in the end

41. Yes the twins are genetically related to Shiro because of Goro (she says they're like his nephews but I say GENETICALLY at least they'd be indistinguishable from his children)

42. Strongest mom of all the strong moms around here? Yuri! Did you SEE her give birth??

43. Are you careful about your own health Katoh-sensei? Not particularly! Her mom has had to bring her food at work sometimes! Don't do this at home kids

44. At the dating events Shura goes to, does she drink cocktails in moderation? Yeah, she probably downplays her normal drinking habits at these things. But normally she's down for just about any kind of drink

45. Lucifer just really likes oysters okay

46. How many pages of manga does Katoh draw in a day? If she's being good about self-care: three. Maximum number ever: TEN

47. Mephisto is one of those folks who can eat like a garbage compactor and never gain weight. Possibly because his body resists that sort of change the same way it resists aging etc

48. First food Rin cooked: fish burger type patty. Yukio's favorite things Rin cooks: fish simmered in soy sauce, yellowtail with daikon radish. It's fish all the way down

49: Did Rin ever get more monthly allowance from Mephisto? It doubled! He gets TWO 2000 yen bills now (rip) [T/N: That's uh, that's USD $37.26 a month or 33.10 euro]

50. Why isn't Rin more popular with the girls? He gets nervous talking to them, plus he's too oblivious to notice even if he DID have some fans

51. Why change Suguro's hair? She gets bored with keeping everything the same, and she wanted a visual representation that he was getting serious and going into kind of a training arc

52. Things Katoh pays extra attention to when drawing: trying to capture the feel of whatever she's drawing (like "that looks warm and soft" or "I bet that guy stinks" cough Lightning cough)

53: Does Rin take after Yuri more? (He's got her eyes!) Katoh tried to draw Yuri so she looks like both twins. Personality, too - Yukio has her smarts and Rin has her optimism

54: Do you ever wanna be like Mephisto? Well she'd like to be able to get away with just ANYTHING EVER, but no, let's not be like Mephisto

55. Konekomaru not only carries around a cat toy in case he meets any cats, he MAKES cat toys to carry around based on what he thinks the cats would like

56. How'd you come up with Shima? Go read the fan book!

57. Do the kids have Twitter/Instagram accounts? Rin - probably not. Konekomaru might be on some social media. Paku and Izumo are totally on instagram

58. Is there something Rin makes that you wish you could try? All of it! That's the whole idea! He's good at cooking!

59. Will we ever have a (G-rated) reveal of what ALL of Mamushi and her family's tattoos look like? Maybe! She'll think about it

60. Does Arthur have a repertoire of different hairstyles? Not really, he just puts some of it up on the top. Heck he might even have people to do that for him

61. If you wrote a shojo manga what would it be about? She'd have to do a lot of research before even coming up with a story, since there are so many style differences between the genres aside from just the subject

62. The other two of Mephisto's top 3 favorite foods: Cup ramen and....f-fried bubblegum?? Is that a THING???

63. Where do you start when drawing a character? Usually the outline of their face but if it's a complex pose/composition she'll start with whatever's in the foreground (like hands)

64. If Katoh could have a familiar, what demon would she choose? Mephisto. As the all-powerful author, she might actually be able to command him as a familiar!

66. If you swapped Yukio and Rin's relationship around what would change? not much, you'd pretty much have Rin going to the Illuminati and Yukio going to the past

67. Top 3 foods/souvenirs to try in Kyushu? Well she doesn't know what’s good CURRENTLY but when she was there she always used to like burdock tempura udon, hakata torimon (a kind of manju with white bean paste inside), and Chikae style cod roe. today I learned Katoh went to high school in Kyushu

68. Katoh listens to music a lot while she's storyboarding, then when she and the assistants are all drawing and inking they put various videos/movies and stuff on in the background

69. For all his hitting on girls, is Shima actually popular with the ladies at all? He's got enough girls in his life that he probably COULD find a girlfriend if he really wanted, but the double agent thing tends to get in the way. He still wouldn't be as popular as Yukio though (side thought/translator’s note: Shima would be proud of being number 69.)

70. Katoh has the ending planned out in a big-picture way, but there are still a few details here and there that she's fretting over

71. It's cute when the boys put their ties over their shoulders when they're working on something! Where'd that come from? She just figured a tie might get in the way and that seemed like a realistic way to get it out of the way

72. Looks like Yukio is getting some facial hair! What about Rin? They're both about the age for it, but maybe Rin can't grow a beard yet. Maybe a little peach fuzz here and there

73. Katoh's favorite blue exorcist merch? There were some exorcist licenses a while back, and the exorcist pins. Basically it's really cool that these little accessories she drew ACTUALLY EXIST NOW, LIKE YOU CAN HOLD THEM IN YOUR HANDS

74. Okay realtalk how long do we have left, I don't want the series to end yet? We're solidly in the second half by now but it's not, like, ABOUT to end yet

75. Katoh would be a Knight meister, based on what characters she likes to play in games and such

76. How many people in the whole exorcism cram school? More than you think! She doesn't give a number but apparently licensed exorcists also attend classes for new meisters, etc, so there's a wide age range attending

77. How's Arthur feel about, like, studying Taming on the way to becoming Paladin? He's at least mostly accepted that you have to use demons to fight demons effectively

78. Konekomaru started wearing glasses in his first year of middle school, so like 7th grade (more recent than I thought!) He has one spare pair, in contrast to Yukio lol

79. Katoh's current obsessions? Ghost/scary stories! She's even been going to live readings of them recently

80. Media Katoh consumes for inspiration? A wide range of foreign teen drama, horror/suspense, shojo manga, light novels, anime, etc. Special focus on things where two boys are in conflict or there are brothers involved

81. If they weren't exorcists what jobs would they have? Rin - chef. Yukio - doctor. Shiemi - uh, florist?

82. Inspiration for the design of True Cross Town? Katoh and her assistants gathered up a bunch of references, picked out stuff they felt matched the tone, and mashed them all up together

83. Did you use any references etc for the school/exorcist uniforms? She says she probably should have but she just kind of made them up before publication

84. Favorite part of drawing? For color pages, picking out a color scheme. For black and white, drawing in all the little details (though she doesn't always get time to lately)

85. Once again confirms the demon kings' weird hair is a representation of their horns. ADDS THAT PEOPLE WHO CAN'T SEE DEMONS CAN'T SEE THE WEIRD HAIR

86. Now that Yukio's at the Illuminati, where's he gonna get his Jump SQ and spare glasses? Well he probably never planned to stay for long, but hey it's a big ship and they might have an optometrist and/or newsstand there

87. Do you base the demon characters on any references etc? Not really, she just gets a general idea of popular demon designs and then makes up her own in her own style

88. Merchandise Katoh personally wants to have made: stuff that an adult could just use in their day to day life. Also, it's not gonna happen, but if her favorite figure brand made AoEx figures she could die happy

89. If Beelzebub's host body was a beautiful woman, how would Shima react? Would the womanizing win out over the bug phobia? Katoh replies that Shima would probably just faint from being near a girl that pretty, before the bugs even got involved

90. Will the twins ever get to smile and eat dinner together again?? We'll just have to wait and see!

91. What do you check at a "scenario check"? what's a scenario check man I dunno They check for people being out of character or the setting feeling off. They had a lot of these checks for the anime, but they also do them for the drama CD, games, and all that other stuff where multiple authors are involved

92. Why does Shura use baldy as an insult for people who are clearly not bald? She feels like they have some kind of metaphorical, mental kind of "baldness" and she's calling them out on it. Whatever that means

93. After Blue Exorcist ends, what do you want to draw next? She has SO MANY IDEAS, SO MANY

94. Did Katoh make up the Shinto chants that, for example, Izumo used against Gedouin? They're assembled from bits of actual Shinto prayers according to what feels right in the scene

95. Yukio reads the Jump SQ, right, and, just hear me out here, he likes gag manga, right? Does this mean he reads Salaryman Yukio? It's something he would read, but let's say that in the AoEx universe there's just a very similar manga that he finds oddly relatable

96. What do Yukio and Shima do in their free time on the Dominus Liminus? oh my god you guys this ship has so many amenities. Yukio probably spends time reading in the library, which they totally have. There's also, like, a gym, and a movie theater, and a THEATER theater, all of which are free. Shima probably hangs out at the pool (!) and goes to the movies, and hits on illuminati girls, lol

97. Easiest character to draw? The ones with boring simple hair, lol. Lightning gets an honorable mention for ALSO not having eyes in most shots, but Rin wins--he was specifically designed to be easy for Katoh to draw because that's what you want in your main character

98. How do demons understand gender? They just possess whatever feels like the best match to how they feel in Gehenna, whether that's a man, or a woman, or a rat, or whatever

99. Where do you start when you're coming up with a story? She starts with character design and how the characters relate to each other. Currently she's just continuing an existing story, so she works on splitting up the overall plot into episodes and fleshing it out with scenes and information about characters

100. When do you feel most happy? She honestly feels like she lives a very happy life overall. Mentions noticing a lot of little things, like how nice her cats' heads smell when she cuddles them or taking a nice cold refreshing drink of water. There's happiness in everything. aww.

#blue exorcist #interview #Ao no Exorcist #translation

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reynie-muldoons · 3 years

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'The Art of Conveyance and Round-Trippery' Liveblog!

Sorry this is a few days late!! I moved across the country this weekend, we drove like 13 hours within 2 days and we did a lot of heavy lifting. I'm exhausted, but the boxes are slowly emptying and I've been wanting to watch this episode so gd bad, so LESGO

Over halfway through the season!!!! That's absolutely surreal

1:11 oooh they're getting their royal fitting

1:22 LMAOO WTF 😂😂 Princess Diaries vibes

1:42 ✨CONFIDENCE✨

1:52 Alfonse is a perfect name for that guy HAHA

2:05 Nathaniel, my guy, you've made some points

2:11 "do you feel your power?" POWER RANGERS, GO

2:24 no no hesitation just prolly thinkin bout how he was caught cheatin

2:39 "can you not allow yourselves luxury?" okay fr I feel that I get Nice Things Guilt(tm) too easily

2:52 dayummmm let's talk about Sticky being a hat stall between Hufflepuff and Gryffindor, mans is brave as fuck under extreme pressure and loyal to the point of putting himself on the line

3:15 bro Sticky getting some recognition. Love to see it, he deserves it

3:19 "is that a coincidence? Or written in the stars?" IS DR. CURTAIN CATCHING ON THAT THEY KNEW EACH OTHER BEFORE OR LIKEEEE

3:49 WHAT WORD AROUND CAMPUS 😭😭😭 MY BOYS ARE NOT A MISTAKE HOW DARE YOU

4:09 why doess the action of Dr. Curtain putting the sash on them seem so nefarious

4:36 I dont really understand the whole pastel yellow, blue, and pink palette of the school but the boys both look pretty okay in their vest-sash getup

4:42 THE OPENINGGGGG. This shit slaps.

5:41 Kate and Constance look so fucking cute in that shot, dont ask me why but hnnggggg

5:54 sash rope 😂😭 kate, honey, that's a reach

6:09 it might feel buttery, but, my guy, it also looks buttery. It's literally the color of butter. Get yourself some crisco

6:24 I find it kinda interesting that they made up new riddles for the show, I'm almost positive that that one wasn't in the book. Correct me if I'm wrong though

7:03 "I'm not gonna apologize for knowing things" the sass. the ✨confidence✨. living for it

7:03 If they build on that it sets Sticky up really nicely for the arc in the second book where he starts to show off a little

7:15 tiny Constance who is constantly dressed in pink with cute little braids is the perfect medium for the most morbid comments 😂😂

7:55 Martina's hot in her uniform. Can't prove me wrong.

8:15 why does that make me sad 🥺 eat with your friendssss. iirc they only talked about eating at the Messenger table in the books

8:26 dipshits forgot their lunches. Seems Constance is holding the communal braincell atm

8:50 anyone have Guiness on speed dial? Reynie and Sticky have a submission for them

9:25 oh hello this was alluded to in the preview!!! Morse code is compromised, rip

10:05 so are Jackson and Jillson stuck with night guard duty all the time?? They've been outside at night a lot

10:18 ahhhhhh the little blinkie light, stopppp

10:25 MILLIGANNNNN!!!

10:25 so is this the point where he starts staying on the island with them????

10:39 so are they just like "fuck it we'll do it right before sundown" ???? Like Jackson and Jillson are still gonna be on the lookout, they aren't gonna chill just because it's not fully dark

10:50 did the kids.....just not tell them that Mr. Bloom was on the island 😂 nice oversight guys

11:05 MADGE TIME MADGE TIME

11:05 remind me to tell you guys a story about Madge, I may or may not have done something irl a few years ago that would make y'all proud 😂😂😂

11:16 idk why but it makes me so happy that they kept Madge as a peregrine falcon

11:37 Rhonda, my love, you have my heart in your hands

11:46 roll credits

12:05 THE HEAD SHAKE HAHAHAH

12:06 Awww man, I was so excited for Milligan to be on the island .-. He must have been scoping out the inlet

12:07 "they're quite regal" A. I read the subtitles as "legal" the first time and that's somehow really in character for him, and B. IS MILLIGAN GOING TO NAME HER???!? HER MAJESTY???? PLEASE I WOULD LOVE THAT SO MUCH

12:15 his grimace KILLS ME

12:17 the hard cut from Nicholas in a brown setting and brown suit to Nathaniel in a blue setting and blue suit was lowkey striking

12:36 are they looking up Morse code 😳 can you imagine if they wrote down the message and are now decoding it

12:41 omfg all that for a HAT 🙃 I feel stupid

12:51 two things: 1. Those walls are atrocious, and 2. Yeah, talk about Morse code in a louder voice Connie girl, you're just in a public hallway

13:03 I'm sorry but those orange pillar things are not the vibe

13:03 the golden gate bridge called, they want their arches back

13:10 please let Kate climb the tower before the end of season 1. please.

13:22 y'all are about to be flying something else 😎

13:33 cleansing breaths

13:47 OH HELLO MESSENGER DUTY ALREADY??

14:06 what the heck is that teal pole for 😭😭

14:12 blindfold timeeee

I'm so sorry but I'm exhausted, it's 11:30 pm on Sunday night right now, I'll finish this episode tomorrow morning after I get some sleepies

Good morningggg lesgetatit

14:50 "vomit of metal" ashhdjdjd

15:16 a wild Martina appears!

15:36 and if you folks look to your left, you'll see a wild Constance being the voice of reason once again

15:57 "lose the bucket" "I'm not gonna do that" HELL YEAH KATE

16:07 I get not having the bucket on the court lolol, I thought Martina was telling Kate to lose the bucket in general. Like, yeah, good luck convincing her to so that

16:35 show!Kate is much angrier than book!Kate and I'm still deciding how I feel about that. The Kate we've known from the books is a sunshine baby with looots of repressed trauma.

17:03 ......what is that. why is that.

17:11 WAIT IS THAT SUPPOSED TO BE REYNIE AHEHDJDJD

17:15 HI MADGE

17:41 the grand swell in the music makes me think it's going to go comically wrong

17:51 she's majestic because she's a queen 🥺

18:03 LMAO CALLED IT

18:14 Rhonda and Number Two getting at each other is such a sisterly thing to do 😂😂😂

18:37 ohhhhh? Someone's approaching? Miss Perumal perhaps????

18:45 YEAHHHHH BABY

18:50 PROTECTIVE MOM COMIN IN HOT!!!

19:22 THEYRE SO PRECIOUS 😭😭😭😭 I feel like I've been subconsciously starved for her and Mr. Benedict's interactions

19:36 died at that line in the one trailer

20:00 so Miss Perumal pulled a Sherlock Holmes. Love that for her

20:20 Cheri Tupintown??? Of all the aliases they could pick, Cheri Tupintown???

20:33 "Power in Truth Inc" that HAS to be something Rhonda came up with

21:01 you can literally watch Mr. Benedict realize that this is a woman not to be fucked with and he is CORRECT

21:23 "he's fine. Perfectly fine." At this, Mr. Benedict's pants caught aflame.

21:52 something about Constance sitting in on practice!!! It scratches an itch!!!!

22:19 "incorporate the helix. Live in the helix." Lord Helix is pleased with this offering.

22:26 so what I'm hearing is Kate is going to blow up on Constance for messing with the bucket

23:13 unrelated but Jillson'a shoes are cute

23:29 why does this room give off Johnny Depp's willy wonka vibes

24:13 that looks like a chair from a doctor's office waiting room 😭

25:29 they do be egg heads tho

26:02 baby girl, I have no idea why you're crying at weird art but let me dry your tears 🥺🥺

26:50 SHE FOUND ITTTT

27:27 okay Indiana Jones, go off

27:46 why did that kinda sound like Miss Perumal

28:43 the return of everyone's favorite, "enjoyable"

29:05 not that I'm not loving the ice breaker questions and the one-sided conversation, but I'm not loving it

29:22 oh so we're getting right into it aren't we

29:54 his eyes being open again makes this infinitely creepier

30:36 "where's your proof?" Miss Perumal doesnt fuck around!!!

31:29 you're telling me Constance has been there all day?? And Kate went to find her???? 🥺

31:58 oh so we're getting right to it then?? Kate addressing her independence and trust issues arc????

33:29 NEWS!!!!

33:49 CONSTANCE RIDING PIGGYBACK!!!!!!

34:04 okay, so they opened the murder hole, what are they gonna do now

34:59 Italian? 🤨 m'sir that is so fancy

34:59 fun story I learned Italian diction in college, so I know a little bit

35:16 "take your time" the whisperer says, immediately repeating the prompt to get the answer sooner

35:31 theeeeere it is

35:46 SOMETHING ABOUT THE WHISPERER SAYING "YOU ARE HOME" 😭😭😭 the show really played up the cult shit!!

36:02 Kate being protective of Constance 🥺

36:20 ohhh shit is it time for Connie girl to have double Reynie? Double Sticky?

36:36 STICKY

36:52 "what kind of nonsense?" HAVE THEY NOT ASKED THAT BEFORE THIS?????

37:14 "and your tiny brain can somehow pick it up!!" KATE STOP 😂😂😂

37:16 "I knew you had to be special in some way." WE DONT HAVE TIME TO UNPACK ALL OF THAT

37:51 she's right, this is disregard for their safety. The show made Mr. Benedict and his team a lot more back-alley and dishonest, and Miss Perumal has every reason to be pissed

38:30 oh good they finally remembered he has narcolepsy

39:38 and the best mom award goes to:

40:38 I was gonna say that this hallway is how I imagined the KEEP in riddle of ages but then I remembered that (spoilers) the Institute is the KEEP

40:46 oh, hello propoganda

41:10 that's the other person Rhonda couldn't contact, along with Mr. Bloom. This has to be the brainsweeping process

41:22 yeppppp

41:44 this dark doctor's office theme gives me horror movie vibes

42:22 ohhhh, so that's how they replaced that scene where the four of them jump in a crate to hide and Sticky drops his glasses in the open

42:47 and so we've come to the part of the story where Sticky and Reynie become infinitely more conflicted

42:47 and since we've reached that point..... can we have the white knight scene? Pretty please? Please Disney I'm begging you-

43:12 so Reynie just figured that out without Constance? :/

44:03 love the manipulation

44:31 I'm sorry, the farm?

44:35 farm and forest????

45:16 "the Emergency has served its purpose" 😳 well okay then murder man

45:39 "one thought, one purpose" the hive mind rises once more

45:48 LOVE THE MANIPULATION

46:07 "what have you done to earn anyone's trust?" VALID

46:26 "please do!" WHY AM I EMOTIONAL

47:06 "we still have the falcon" that you do 😂

47:19 AYYY HERE WE GO!!! Time for Milligan to stay on the island??

47:49 ohhhh Constance, casual telepath strikes again

48:16 "stop it, Kate!" OOOOHHHHH

48:53 that line ("it would be nice to be unburdened") would be funny as shit if not for the fact that Constance is a telepath unbeknownst to herself and can both subconsciously perceive people's thoughts and hear the subliminal messages

49:20 HI MRS. PERUMAL!!!

49:25 wow, she's really going through with it 😳 not that I doubted her, but still, that's dedication

49:39 OH SHIT

50:17 oh, so he's an asshole to SQ too. Got it. Torches and pitchforks? Ready to kick his ass?

50:40 "for the moment, anyway" FUCKIN WHAT

This episode was really good!!! They covered a LOT. I hope Miss Perumal comes back to the group and talks about her findings, I hope Milligan goes to get the kids and they tell him no, and I hope they get that classic 4-person Society brainstorming and binding time that hits that sweet spot

#mbs disney+#mbs liveblog #the art of conveyance and round trippery #the mysterious benedict society #charity's talkies

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trulycertain · 3 years

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fic writer interview

Tagged by @skogrr Thank you very much! It's a while since I've done one of these, and I've missed them.

Name: Tru/"Oi you" Fandoms (that I write for): Dragon Age, mostly. Still the fandom of my heart. Mass Effect, Deus Ex... uh, accidentally GreedFall? I don't know how or when that happened. Two-shot: Hmm... The actual last two-shot I wrote was Terms & Conditions, a very silly Dorian/Inquisitor modern AU where Gal is the guy Dorian hires to stop his late father's house falling apart. Recently? I suspect that's going to be Driftwood, which can stand on its own as a sort of weird post-canon first-meeting AU, but is trying to tempt me to continue it. (Vasco ends up going looking for Tír Fradí, which has disappeared - and finds it. He also finds De Sardet as a highly avoidant tree god of the island, post-Bad Ending, who transformed against her will. And he ends up falling in love with her anyway.) Weird tree gods! Pining by literal pine! An eventual happy ending! More grumpy commentary by Vasco!

Most popular multi-chapter: Either An Unquenchable Flame or Distraction, probably - both juggernaut pairings, the former close to the game's release and the latter with some fancy forbidden romance, so not so surprising. But surprisingly, Prague, 10:42 PM has done really well, considering it's for a small fandom (Deus Ex) and a rarepair age/rank-difference pairing that I thought would be a one-off experiment? I get it, guys. I like sad repressed stoics too.

Actual worst part of writing: Editing - which can be fun, but that "over and over" stage when you're about to post, especially in a longfic if you fear you've lost the spirit of the thing and the character voices and you can't see the wood for the trees. And when I have to remove a whole scene which Jenga-unbalances the fic, and then I have to redux from the top. Basically, most things to do with pacing. How you choose your titles: I like double-meanings and one word titles. If that fails: quote from a song. If that fails: quote from poetry, but very rarely. Do you outline: Only a little. A bulletpointed list of events or noted-down major lines of dialogue, that's usually it.

Ideas I probably won’t get around to but wouldn’t it be nice: Uh... oh god. I blame so many people for some of these.

Post-Destroy ending where John is attempting to build a shed on Rannoch because that's the kind of thing retired people do, right? and Tali is far better at it than him, and it's just... disgusting fluff.

Actually, just reduxing the early John/Tali stuff with a bit more nuance and a stronger style.

Eva and Kaidan, and their mutually wary first meeting. ("Wow, that's a lot of pomade." "Wow, that's a lot of death-glare.")

AU where Gal and Dorian never met in DAI, and after everything went down, Gal tried to fade into the shadows and leave. He ended up working in Tevinter as an occasional informant/odd-jobs guy the way he was pre-Inquisition. He ends up being a gardener for a bitter, wry magister who seems to hate the entire Magisterium, has recently lost his father to political scheming and murder, and wants to take down the entirety of the remaining Venatori with one staff and maybe his teeth if he has to (hi, Dorian). But first, Dorian's going to drink his own body weight in whiskey and be a recluse for a while and start thinking about time magic again. Gal is trying to keep his head down and should definitely not be falling in love with said magister. Who's someday going to end up at one of the more southerly ports, come across a statue of the great Inquisitor, and go, Oh.

Stuff on Jensen's PT and rebuilding himself post-augs. More of Proprioception, basically.

Mer-AU where Marie De Sardet is still a diplomat attempting to make new connections, just not a human one, and it's a disaster. An awkward disaster. Highlights include her being framed as the beast trying to drown their best captain; her attempting to wobble about on brand-new legs and Vasco's coat while everyone assumes the dear captain has had a few too many; her asking Vasco if his "fascinating markings" glow; them getting into a duel, and her (fondly) getting punted off the side of the ship going "Woo-hoo." OK, I wrote a bit of that, but only a 1k doodle I'll probably never return to.

Non-Naut court AU where Marie gets promised to Bastien D'Arcy, because he's a bit of a layabout but he's also rich, popular at court, and amenable to bribe - [cough] suggestion, and the D'Arcys have prominent trading links with the Alliance. Instead she falls for his far less of a social butterfly, tired, worried-numbers-guy brother Léandre, who's pretty damn uncomfortable around Nauts because he's well aware he nearly got sold to them and he is not the favourite.

Straight-up role-reversal AU (another thing where I've put down 1k that I'll probably never return to), where Marie's Naut name is Paz, and she's a fed-up second-mate who's tired of noble idiots and feels a little strange and conflicted about her mark (and has context for it, because they make frequent crossings to Tír Fradí). Also a little more jaded, without the love of her mother, and not nearly as much of a tryhard as Vasco in canon; she ended up here because she had nowhere else to go and the Nauts were like "Ooh, free kid," and she's well aware. She gets stuck escorting the D'Arcy brothers to Tír Fradí for their new venture and is not looking forward to it. Except one of them is intensely bright and wry and keeps asking questions about the ship and noticing shit he is definitely not meant to notice, and they keep ending up in strange conversations, even if he seems really, really wary and uncomfortable about Nauts.

Some vague stuff about Vasco's thoughts on Jonas and that whole side quest, considering he's also a sea-given and implies sea-given take some shit in the Nauts, and also how damn difficult it must be watching a sea-given's parents endeavour to get their kid back when he knows full well his didn't do that for him.

Actually, just more Vasco POV in general, even though he's damn hard to nail down. I've written much pining for him from Marie's perspective, and I'd like to try things from the opposite. This guy's idea of wooing someone perfectly normally is to panic and then recite Baroque poetry. You know he's sappy as hell in the privacy of his own head, even if he's trying not to be.

Jean and Síora having the "I'm a sad healer who just lost my mother and I'm trying so hard not to crumble under the weight of assisting the leader" mutual talk way too late at night around the campfire and maybe him crying on her shoulder a little, with mutual kindness and the beginnings of attraction, and her finally getting past his jokey-smug facade to understand him.

More stuff about Jean's past in general, and how he wanted to be a doctor before he was dragged away from it by looking after Constantin and being nobility.

Síora and Eseld and the ways they changed over the years; something like an exploration of grief and growing her own will and the ways they very differently view the renaigse. Also maybe more about the en ol menawi magic, if I can worldbuild well enough?

I'd also love to do a GreedFall soulmark AU - it's generally not my kind of trope, I'm not into biological determinism type tropes - just because names and aliases and assumed identities are such a mess in GreedFall and it's a repeated plot point. That said, I feel like it's been done so beautifully in this fandom before that I wouldn't have much to add.

Callouts @ me: So. Many. Commas. So much over-explaining everything. If they get out of the car, your readers do not need a five-page manual of "and then he undid his seatbelt and leaned over to grasp the door handle, and then pulled it, and then stepped a foot out before he almost thought better of it - but no, he was going to get out of this car. The other foot joined the first, and he nearly banged his head on the doorframe."

Best writing traits: People say I have a head for finding small-but-important moments. I'm also told I write likeable protags. People have more than once said my writing makes them feel safe or makes them smile, and I really couldn't ask for more than that. I'll take those.

Spicy tangential opinion: I don't think I have any, really? Oh god, that makes me sound so very boring. Oh! Um. There should be more tree body horror in fandom. And body horror in general. *thumbsup*

No pressure tagging: @artemis-crimson, @eridanidreams,@rainypixel, @aphreal42.

#tru talks #memes #long post

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chesapeakestripper · 4 years

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I did it! I made a rough floor plan of the parts of the umbrella academy that we get to see. no basement yet because it’s just two rooms, really; Pogo’s bedroom and the kitchen/dining room. Thought process and analysis from painstaikingly going through several episodes and rewatching the same 10 seconds of staircases below the cut. Also, for now I’ve only marked doors that were visible at some point, but there are most likely a lot more doors and walls in spaces we just never got to see.

First floor:

Second floor:

Third floor:

entrance hall and living room were easy, we saw those rooms about a million times, i don’t think i need to explain them.

then we have the part with the children’s bedrooms. I know we all saw the big cut through the house while everyone is dancing, which places these rooms on the second floor and also directly next to entry hall. I firmly believe they just put the rooms together in a way that was convenient for them for the following reasons:

windows are a thing. no matter how hard i tried i could not give the rooms the windows that they have when putting them where they would be if allison’s and Luther’s rooms were where they showed them

the red stairs on the first floor in that shot would end in luther’s room

also the red stairs are on the same floor as the bedrooms and only go up, not down

they fucked up the sides and switched Allison’s and Luther’s rooms

in s1e02 when vanya walks through the house. she goes through a hole in the wall on the second floor, on the plans i made it’s the ‘door’ in the bottom right corner. she ends up on the green stair case and walks up to five’s room. in the episode where klaus gets kidnapped, Diego enters the same green stairs the same way and then walks down to get to the bedrooms

the red stairs only go up, not down, which is a typical first floor thing

Theeeen i just had to watch and rewatch all the scenes with the bedrooms to figure out how they go together. again, biggest issue where the windows, there’s a lot of them in weird places; my solution was to add a lightwell behind the bathroom. another solution would be makind the hallway between the entry hall and the green stairs longer and adding a proper courtyard, maybe even THE courtyard. I decided against that because diego gets from the bedrooms back to the main hall really fucking fast when he’s running from Chacha and Hazel.

there’s a hallway that just goes somewhere, but we don’t know where, but it could be another staircase - based on the fact that diego comes down the green stairs and then walks around a few corners first instead of just emerging through the hole in the wall opposite of the bathroom that leads to the green stairs. when i noticed that hole and the stairs behind it i had a small aneurysm because i had placed the green stairs somewhere in the hallway next to the bathroom before. it is very much a possibilities that there’s two sets of green stairs, which would change everything, but we see a good chunk of that hallway ending in very dark doors in Diego’s fight with Hazel and Chacha. Also i was already two days into making this plan when i noticed that maybe there’s two very similar looking but not identical green staircases so i decided to say fuck it and just work under the assumption that there’s only one.

the one thing i sort of kept from the dancing scene is Grace’ second kitchen on the 1st floor. I assume that it is where i wrote it down based on the window and the direction it was facing in that shot as well as the fact that it’s supposedly right next to the green stairs.

on the second floor I put Reginald’s Office, the adjanctant living room and hallway we see in Allison’s flashback in ep1 and the tiny room and different hallway behind it where it is because while it could technically be anywhere in the whole block, 42 bedroom 19 bathroom hargreeves estate it looks too fucking similar to the entry hall and living room to be far away from that part of the houses imo. also whenever someone goes there or comes from there they get their through the 2nd floor part of the entry hall so it’s heavily implied to be on the 2nd floor. i figured out the placement by making sure that all the windows are on an outside wall and not hitting any established walls, stairs or lightwells. it’s not more than an educated guess, really, but it fit there rather well.

then we have five’s room in the attic. we can see that that’s where it is when Vanya looks for him in ep2(?). we can also see the green stairs again, as wel as enough windows to know which way it’s facing. considering that ben had to sleep somewhere and there’s no more doors downstairs i guess his room could be the one next to five’s.

I think that the spot in the attic where Allison likes to sit when she’s upset may be where i put it because if I’m upset i wouldn’t want to run through an enormous house, but walking up the red stairs twice to get there seems doable. the other thing that we know is in an attic is reginald’s bedroom and the surveillance room, because both have a roof pitch. while the surveillance room could arguably be anywhere in the multiple buildings reginald’s bedroom would fit beautifully over his office both for his convenience and because he has a protruding window in it just like his office does.

if you have any questions feel free to ask! I’ll try to answer them

#the umbrella academy #tua #ua #umbrella academy #umbrella academy floor plan

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theredbeggar · 3 years

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On “The Devil’s Picturebook”, by Paul Huson

I haven’t really shared anything at all about this book since I’ve been caught up in between my daily life and it’s ever constant responsibilities, but I’m nearly through it (reading through his words on the Major Arcana) and wow I’m in love.

It doesn’t subscribe to your usual Tarot book that gives you words of encouragement, some definitions, and so on, but instead dives into several historical facts that have surrounded the Tarot for centuries along with giving my little occultist heart food for thought amongst its thought provoking connections between the cards and witchcraft, folklore, and even giving a few spells and charms to boot. This book came before Huson’s Mystical Origins of the Tarot (which I need to re-read, I loved it the first time around but failed to make any proper notes so I can’t remember much on it at the moment), so it’s not as fully fleshed out as that one, but even so there’s a lot to gain from The Devil’s Picturebook.

Some of the spreads he gives in the book are: a nice variation of the past/present/future spread; one that goes in depth with the Celtic Cross and ways to read it; and a few others that give you an outlook of the week, month, or overall life of the querent. However, some spreads are different than the ones I’ve seen in other books (and online), showing you techniques that work by laying the cards and them being read seamlessly and together rather than abscribing each position a specific question. And I LOVED that. It feels more sensical to the Tarot’s symbolism and overall way of being. It doesn’t restrict it to answer to a specific format, instead giving it a more comfortable space to work with that allows it to speak volumes rather than simple sentences or paragraphs. They’re by no means beginner workings, he says so a few times not to start right away with the more complicated spreads if you’re a beginner. They call out more to your intuition and knowledge of the cards more so than strict definitions and go up to 42, or 66, or even the use of the entire deck (Le Grand Jeu, I’m looking at you. And the Pyramid.). How is that not exciting? It sounds like an amazing way to see how each and every card can exist in a spectrum rather than a fixed position, and I’m just— gods, I love them. I haven’t given them a try just yet, need a willing subject to come forth and allow me to explore their world through my cards, but I am so excited to try every single one he wrote out.

Besides this, what also makes it stand out is how he connects a lot of the tarot’s Trumps to Orphic Dyonisus’s myth, as well as bringing in the other Greek gods to paint a really unique picture of this curious pack of cards. It took me by surprise, honestly, because a lot of the things he explains are things I had yet to learn or familiarize myself with, but all in all I REALLY love this look into the tarot.

I won’t say much more because otherwise I’ll start sharing screenshoots and entire passages, and if any of this caught your attention you’d be better off actually getting the book and reading it rather than relying on some tumblr blog to put out bite sized pieces of it. It’s just a good book. I’m really enjoying it, and I can confidently say that I’ll have loved the time I gave it to read through once I’m done. It’s a good change of pace that ties the Tarot with occult roots rather than those of shadow work, self improvement, or simply its divination factor and gives it a whole other level I like.

#Paul huson #the devil’s picturebook #tarot #tarot book #book #reading list #witchblr #witchcraft #witch #occult #occultism #occult book

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writing-in-the-tiny-house · 3 years

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The Gift of Beta Readers

The Gift of Alpha Readers

If you wish to become a patron of Writing in the Tiny House podcast, please visit www.patreon.com/writinginthetinyhouse today!

The following is a transcript of this episode. For the complete transcript, please visit the show’s website.

[00:00:00] So you did it guys. You have written the next best thing and you are so eager to get this out into the world that you have revised it, you have combed through it, and you have all of these things ready, but nobody has read it yet. So what do you do next? Well, let's find out today on Writing and the Tiny House.

[00:00:26] Hello. Hello. Hello. And welcome back to the show. Welcome to Writing in the Tiny House. I am your host Devin Davis, and I am the guy in the tiny house who is here to show you, you busy adults working a nine to five like me, that it is completely possible for you to write that work of fiction that you have always wanted to do.

[00:01:06] And you should. I just recorded 20 minutes of audio and didn't actually record any of it. So we're starting over and it's fine. Because now I get to say the things that I didn't save very well the first time, and it's okay to start over. We're still learning some of this new recording equipment and that's okay too.

[00:01:26] But many of you know, because I announced in last week's episode that I have been working on some smaller things as a way to get my writing more available, to get my writing into the hands of people who are eager to read it and to do it faster than I could do if I were to just write a book just because the time to produce a book is much longer and there are a million different ways to share your writing with other people.

[00:01:57] So I have been working on some smaller things and I am working on them in conjunction with Krissy Barton from Little Syllables Editing. She is going to be the editor on call or whatever, the editor in this whole project of writing a collection of short stories or novelettes. And so with this, I am writing these smaller works, and I'm going to be releasing them on a schedule, provided all of this works out okay. Right now we are on track with this first thing. And so I expect everything to be okay. And I think that this is something that we can reproduce right now. All of this is tentative stuff though. Like this is not gospel truth yet, but in doing these shorter things, I still need to go through the different steps of writing and revising and cleaning up these smaller works of fiction as I would have to do with a book.

[00:03:07] But because the thing is shorter, all of those steps don't take as long to do, which is kind of cool. It's fun to blaze through some of these different steps a little faster, and to get that progress done faster, to arrive there more quickly. And with this, I also hope to have myself on a regular releasing schedule, which means that there is kind of a stopwatch going for each of these projects.

[00:03:35] And for this first one, I am hoping more than anything. And I am taking a leap announcing this on the podcast that this will be ready for sale by the end of October. I'm going to post it on amazon.com and it will be available to purchase there. It'll be affordable. Don't worry about that. But I wanted so badly to share my writing and I think that I'm going to do it.

[00:04:00] So what I'm doing is this collection of short stories ties into the larger books that I am also in the middle of that I have set aside for the moment. So the world that all those things take place in these smaller short stories will tie into that same world. And this collection is called Tales from Vlaydor, and this is Installment One, which is entitled Brigitte.

[00:04:29] And so, yeah, so we did it. We've written a manuscript. We've gotten, you know, a few revisions under our belts, but if you are like me, perhaps you don't outline things very well. I surely don't, I don't like to outline. I like to write and then make huge revisions to what I've written because I don't like to outline, but for this first installment, I did not get any feedback to begin with on the story itself. I wanted to sit down, I wanted to write the story, revise a couple of things just because I wanted to present it in a good way to a small group of people. So I sat down. I wrote the thing. I revised it a couple times. I sent it through Pro Writing Aid, which by the way, Pro Writing Aid is amazing.

[00:05:19] Especially if you are using Scrivener as your word processor, because it integrates into Scrivener. It was the easiest thing to do. I recommend sending anything you are working on through Pro Writing aid before you let anybody read it, just because the edits were easy to do. And because Pro Writing Aid made it easier to read.

[00:05:42] Everybody seemed to have a better time. Pro Writing Aid does not replace a professional editor, but it is a very good tool to use along the way. So I wrote the thing, I sent it through Pro Writing Aid, and then I gathered in a way, a group of people that I would want to get feedback on this first draft, I guess we can call it a first draft. On this first revision, I guess.

[00:06:09] And this is what we do, this is how we approach this. So I needed to get feedback because first of all, I needed to know if this was a story that anybody wanted to read. I wanted to know also if this was a story that people would be willing to buy, and I needed to know if after reading this, they would be interested in reading more.

[00:06:35] And if the results were such that, no, this story idea is not a good idea. You need to switch to something else. I didn't want to spend so much time and energy on something that nobody would want. And so I would sooner scrap the whole idea and start a fresh with a new story idea rather than try to simply make something work.

[00:07:04] And so, because I'm writing to market because I want this to be sold. And so I want there to be a certain audience appeal. I wanted to make sure that I was on track and on base with the very foundation of this story. So that's what I did first. And I recommend you doing the same thing with your shorter works of fiction also, or with your novels.

[00:07:29] So here's the deal. I'm sure that you have heard the term beta readers a million different times if you are engaged in the writer, community. Beta readers are basically the people who are doing product testing for your book. They get your book and you need to know that the book is working for them as books need to work for readers. Does it keep their attention? Is it easy to read? Is it entertaining? Can they keep track of characters? Can they keep track of places? Do they have a good experience? Are they surprised during the surprising parts? Are they scared during the scary parts, all those things.

[00:08:10] That is what beta reading is for, but there's a big step before that. Some people call it alpha readers. Some people call it, I don't know other stuff, but. I had this concept and I needed to make sure that the concept was okay. So I selected a few of my close friends and another person that I'll get into in order to share ideas.

[00:08:36] So I wrote this novelette called Brigitte. It is about 9,000 words long, and I included just some questions at the end as a prompt, as a way to help people give feedback. And I recommend that you do the same. In a novel I recommend actually that you include things like that in sections of the book, rather than just a big, long list at the end of the book, just as a way to get the gears moving so that people can be inspired or understand how to give feedback, just because, especially in this most recent round of feedback, I have found that so many people read just to be entertained and they don't read critically. And that is fine. And so the little bit of help for that is really good for them. And it's good. It's good to hear all sorts of feedback. I've also found that for many people. So with this story, the vast majority of the feedback was positive.

[00:09:45] People liked the story. It was pretty middle of the road, which is okay. But people liked the story. They thought that it was easy to read. It was easy to get to the end. They weren't confused by people or names or places. And so I took that as a good affirmation or confirmation that I was on the right track with this, and I should move forward.

[00:10:14] And that is great. With many of the people though, the feedback was simply, Hey, this is great. I like it. I would want to read more of things like this. And that feedback is valuable for a specific reason. If that is all they're saying, this is great. I want to read more. While that feedback is not going to help you iron out the kinks and dings and dents in your manuscript. And it's not necessarily going to help you with your craft. It can show you that producing work like this. There are people who want to support your craft. And that is very valuable. So even though the tools aren't there, even though the feedback isn't there to help you get better as a writer, it is really cool to know that people are there to support you as a writer.

[00:11:12] And like I said, that is valuable too. However, with a lot of people, they responded to the questions. And I liked that and I took notes and I paid attention. With those questions though, I found that with many of them, I didn't require seven people to answer each of those questions just because the same answers for many of those questions ended up showing up like seven different times.

[00:11:41] That's okay. We live and we learn. However, there were a couple peers a couple people that read it, took notes, re-read it. And then had a really long conversation with me about how it went about, what was working and what wasn't working. And I'll come back to that in just a second, just because people who are willing to put that type of attention and energy into my work, those are people that I hold near and dear. I mean, everybody who is supporting my work is held near and dear, but those are the people that I will go to with the first ideas, with the baby ideas that I need to grow from, the really underdeveloped things that need to grow that are still vulnerable and still scary and still underdeveloped. And working together we're able to come up with some cooler things for the next revision of this story.

[00:12:47] With this, and I recommend this thing until the day I die. It is important to send your work, especially if you are writing to market, it is important to send your work to someone you don't know, or to many people that you don't know.

[00:13:02] When you are ready for that, you will know. I sent this first revision. I will likely try to find another person that I don't know to read this after this next round of revisions, but here's the reason why. The feedback that a stranger gives you is really hard to take, but it is super honest and it's usually really direct and it's really easy to understand, and that matters my friends.

[00:13:30] These people are not preserving a friendship. And so there is no holding back when it comes to what isn't working, what is confusing, what seems silly, but seems banale or stupid. I mean, what other words did this nice person include? But the points that this person brought to my attention were good points. It was clear that I had not conveyed so much of this story clearly.

[00:14:01] And like I said, because we weren't already friends, there was no reason to pretend like we were friends and try to sugarcoat anything. Most of the stuff that this person told me was really good and really valuable feedback. And so what I was able to do is take the key points from her feed back and talk about them with these other friends who were interested in helping me develop the story.

[00:14:29] So they didn't have to worry about stepping on eggshells. They didn't have to worry about offending. I got to say, oh, this other lady said this and this and this. And they're like, oh yeah, I guess that makes sense. And then we were able to discuss together ways to make it better. So with these conversations, some people tend to kind of freak out about it because they don't know how to have a critique conversation. So with these conversations, it is you and somebody else. And maybe a third person who are trying to improve a specific work. They're trying to make things better. If you or someone is coming to the table just in the attitude of saying this sucks. You need to leave it alone. You need to throw it away.

[00:15:16] Then you're not going to have this conversation with that person, but everybody has the common goal and the common understanding that this work is not finished and we are joining forces to make it better. The way that this conversation unfolds is much of the time the person will have notes. The person will have some ideas, but they don't really know how to get started about it just because Cohesion and hoping that everything links together and thoughts and different things like that.

[00:15:50] But this conversation is not going to be a dissertation. This conversation is not going to be like baring of souls. This conversation is largely brainstorming, which means a lot of the ideas and a lot of the topics don't have to mesh in the most beautiful way throughout the conversation. It's okay to jump from topic to topic.

[00:16:15] It's okay to say, oh, are we done with this? Because on the next page, this completely different problem is there. Let's talk about that now. And through those, I had two friends who were very interested in helping me improve this work of fiction. And that is exactly how the conversation went. They put aside an hour, we had a phone call and we talked about all the things that didn't work.

[00:16:42] And we talked about the things that this stranger critique partner brought to my attention, and we were able to iron out things and bring up some different ideas and some different approaches that I should try to incorporate into the next revision of this work. And that happened to me twice and it was beautiful and I felt enriched at the end and they were excited that they were included with this.

[00:17:11] And it was a really good thing. So I guess the takeaway here is when you are searching for feedback, it is important to help by supplying a list of questions. If it's a person who's already experienced with giving feedback, they likely won't pay much attention to those questions, but a lot of people don't read fiction critically.

[00:17:35] And so they they may need a little help with that. And that's great. Also, if you find those friends who are so engaged and so interested in helping you develop your craft, make sure to keep them near and dear. Take care of those friends. And lastly, If you have the people who say this is good, I want to read more, and then don't say much more than that. That means that you're on the right track and that what you have written is good. And while it may not improve your craft, it shows that there are people in the world who want to support your craft. So that's the quick take home for today.

[00:18:24] Thank you so much for tuning in and listening to this episode. If you wish to become a patron of this writing in the tiny house podcast, go topatreon.com/writinginthetinyhouse. And I will have links to that in the show notes of this episode. Go ahead and follow me on Instagram. My handle is @authordevindavis and on Twitter my handle is@authordevind. And have fun writing. We will see you next time guys. Bye.

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