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hellonearthtoday · 1 day

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outsiders red dead AU I'm actually crazy about

here's johnny and pony in the au I literally beamed my vision onto my screen like no one's business. anyway AU rambling in the undercut. if you even care

OOOOKAY I'm seriously crazy about this. I need whoever's reading this to LOCK in. Gangs in red dead are just that, but the difference between theeir 1960s counterparts is that they're far less restricted. Because it's the 1800s.

There's a variety of gangs, but the Curtis gang are tighter knit and don't just let anyone join. And by that I mean they haven't opened applications in like 1 gazillion years because they all met when they were young so they're locked in 4 lyfe and don't really trust anyone else because it's actually crazy out here. everyone and their mama has a gun it's like 10x more dangerous to trust the wrong mf also because it's literally the 1800s everybody is wilding

Shepard's gang is also real here and they're a lot more fucked up and evil than Curtis's, but they're also just a lot, lot bigger and have a lot more mouths to feed.

misc facts I don't care to weave into something comprehensible:

- the gang forces Pony to wear his bandana near constantly because he's like the one member of the gang that doesn't have metaphorical chains around their wrists locking them into being an outlaw until they die

- Ponyboy and Johnny's horses, while more drawn to their owners, trust PB and Johnny an equal amount which means they can just switch horses whenever. It's free horse. The rest of the gangs horses are more accustomed to their one rider. Dallys' hates literally everyone. Even Dally. but he's a really good horse to have in a shootout, and Dally likes him.

- Soda loves his horse so bad and he refuses to take him on any real dangerous expeditions. He rides with Darry and his shire horse in those events

- Soda's horse is also the most pampered. And Extremely spoiled

- Two-bits horse has tried to eat his hat on more than five occasions

- Even though they seldom ever have access to one, Steve is a FREAK about automobiles. They're pretty new to the region but if there's ever a chance to get ahold of one in a heist Steve is risking it all to get his hands on one. Even if they don't keep it for long (because it's kind of inefficient in their situation) Steve just likes taking them apart and putting them back together

- Steve's horse hates anything with wheels. inconsolable

- Steve has to ride several paces ahead or behind whenever they're traveling with a wagon because of this. He tried getting another horse at one point, but Idiot (Accidentally named) the Horse wouldn't leave him alone and no other horse liked him.

- Ponyboy used to want to participate in more of the gangs work, but as he got older, the less it appealed to him. Even if he was raised on it

-The Curtis parents unfortunately died a little earlier in this. Darry was seventeen.

#the outsiders #ponyboy curtis #johnny cade #red dead outsiders au #hell on art

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thefourchimes · 2 days

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okay, just gonna say this now before i start this post: i have absolutely no problems with alternate universes, go ham with them, go wild, you can have fun, etcetc, they're called alternate universes for a reason, after all

however. HOWEVER.

i have a problem when people say something should have happened in canon, when canon itself disproves or goes against whatever these people want

the reason why im bringing this up?

the whole thing with how some people keep saying mirabel should have [insert the usual things people say here, hate, slap, punch, left, get revenge, etc, take your pick, there's unfortunately a lot to choose from] the family. in the canon movie.

again, i have no problem with alternate universes and seeing them in fanfics or whatever, you do you, could be interesting to see even

but when you start saying this should have happened in canon, its just. no. no.

god, it just frustrates me so much whenever i see these posts and comments, the ones that said she should have gone evil or villain or hate the family and all that stuff

because mirabel herself loves her family. she literally said it outright in the movie!!! its not in her personality and character to just go against them and hate them and want revenge. there will be hurt and hesitance and some resentment after everything she'd gone through, yes, but outright hate to the point where she'll hurt them?? absolutely not.

not with her character, her love and empathy and understanding, the traits we see her show in the movie.

like my friend once said: mirabel "he loved this family. i love this family. we all love this family" would NEVER hurt her family

say it louder for the people at the back!!

and thats not all i want to rant about tbh...the real kicker on this one?

whenever this statement is added on top of it all: "if i were mirabel—"

well, news flash people who keep saying these things, mirabel isnt you. mirabel is her own character who has her own experiences and her own feelings. maybe you'll be able to relate to her, especially with similar experiences, but that doesn't mean you can just copy and paste your own feelings onto her and say this is what she should have done in canon because thats what i would have done!!

we all project onto our favorite characters in various ways, which is completely fine, go at it and definitely not surprising for a story about family issues, but when you start to project so much that you throw away the character's actual personality and characterization in favor of said projection? yeah...no.

thats not mirabel madrigal anymore, that's a completely new character...or dare i say, a self-insert for some people... 💀:////

yeah, im just so frustrated with this AAAAAAA 😭

but anyway yes.

thats it, really. again, AUs are absolutely fine but if someone starts yapping about how canon should have [insert whatever those people keep saying here] instead while disregarding actual canon and proper characters and personalities, im going to become violent

anywho...thats my thoughts on this, went on a bit of a tangent but

yeah

anyway bye—

#encanto #mirabel madrigal #kept going through some comments and posts in the past and i felt violent #and decided to rant #uhhhh hope this makes sense #and that im not being insane or something #but yeah #whoop—#overthinking and doubting again but #i will prevail aaaaaaaaaaaaa #but anyway yes #this is all for the people who had comments on how “canon should have ended like this!!!”#im so done with them pls

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nin-carab-nidh-madt · 2 days

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I have thought on Jadzia Dax from Star Trek Deep Space 9.

I'm currently rewatching the show (midway season 2), probably my 4th watch through over 8 years? My first time with slightly more youtube-essay-driven media analysis skills. I'm enjoying picking up on a lot more things than I used to but there's one thing that bugs me above all else.

Jadzia Dax doesn't really have a strongly defined character that shines through.

I've spent a while thinking about it. Obviously as a science officer its a little harder to tell stories the audience can understand and relate to compared to Odo's murder investigating or Sisko's exasperated diplomacy, but her stories have issues greater than that.

Both the stories centred on Dax, in season 1 where she stands trial for a crime supposedly committed by a former host, and in season 2 where someone tries to steal her symbiont, are about things that happen to Dax. Not the things Dax does. She is neither the perspective character through which we can see the world of Star Trek, with her own unique views and feelings, nor is she the one actively moving the plot forwards. She's either the victim who sacrifices herselr or quite literally refuses to do anything. Unfortunately this is quite a common failing of writing that's easy to fall into, writing about a character instead of the character making decisions that drive the plot. Its one that sci fi writing at the time seemed to do quite often with a lot (but not all) female characters. Ivanova and Talia from Babylon 5 fall victim to this too, especially in early seasons. In contrast, Major Kira, and even Ezri Dax later on have stronger characterisation and are the centre of their own stories.

I doubt this was intentional, its clear through the successes of writing other characters in the show that the writers, actors, and showrunners are trying to make everyone alive and meaningful, so what went wrong?

Looking at Jadzia Dax's character, I think what's clearly missing is a strong drive for her character. No real desires or vulnerabilities. No questions either. To provide constrasting examples:

Odo (who gets almost too much screen time in season 1) is clearly driven by a sense of justice no matter whatever starfleet rules say. He's in constant conflict with Quark, ever vigilant, somewhat isolated from other people. No one ever asks "Why does Odo do what he does?" His motivations are clear, and they even tie it up with an extra motive that's very plot relevant: the mystery of where he comes from. All things a single episode writer can use and explore.

Major Kira has her own conflict with starfleet, her desire to do right by her own people, to get justice for Bajor, and always stand up for the underdog which creates really good stories as she struggles with her own values and constantly has to make choices that affect the story.

Bashir wants acclaim, accomplishment, romance, and also for everyone to like him. Quark wants profit without putting himself at risk. O'Brien wants to just do his job and go home to his family. Sisko wants to hold everything together with the responsibility of peace and reason on his shoulders while singlehandedly raising his son. Jake wants community, friends, and freedom in his life. Funnily enough Ezri Dax has far better drive. Trying to figure out what she wants in life, handling this enormous change and overwhelming personality, and her own lack of confidence that she's useful to anyone sometimes. She grows and changes more over the course of a season than we ever see in early seasons Jadzia.

What does Jadzia Dax want?

I think in attempting to make a wise 300 year old person who's seen everything, they accidentally wrote themselves into a corner. Jadzia has no strong motivations to do much at all. She does fine as a secondary character, and I love how her friendship with Sisko plays out on screen, but beyond being surprisingly enlightened about a lot of things as the result of age and experience there's no drive there.

And so no drive or motivation, and no stories told from her perspective. We have ourselves a problem.

I thought for a while if I could find a solution to the issue rather than just offer criticism. I originally tried writing an outline for an episode. Jadzia would be a fantastic protagonist for any wacky sci fi short story concept that required a scientist to explore, such as time travel paradoxes, simulations, weird space anomolies that do "plot relevant thing" that she would be perfectly posed to actually explore instead of "technobabble and tap console" until the problem is solved.

Then I decided that all we really needed to have a framework any writer could use is to establish a strong character motivation for her. Here's my shot at it.

Jadzia Dax, in harmony with seven lifetimes of experience, is an extremely competent twenty seven year old woman. She can almost certainly do the job of anyone on the station better than they can. Fix a computer? Better than O'Brien can. First aid? She's there and solved the issue before Julian can get there. Solve a murder? A past host was an invesigator of course she can to Odo's chagrin. She has better ideas of what Sisko can do to bring the Bajorans towards the federation. Hell she's the best representative of federation values on that station and could constantly be presenting that of the story.

Dax struggles to hold herself back when she sees her friends failing at what she can solve the problem for them. She tries not to, that's what her training tells her to do. But out here on the edge of Federation space where there's constantly lives on the line? She finds herself interfering in other people's work more and more often. She just doesn't want it do be done wrong. She pushes herself hard to do too many jobs. She doesn't sleep or eat enough while telling everyone else to take care of themselves better. After a while people start relying on her. It turns from her helping to her having those responsibilities. Pilot. Diplomat. Linguist. Researcher. Mechanic. Leader. So much emotional support for her friends because everything they're suffering she's been through herself. It becomes too much for her and you could make the core of one story her just crashing. Learning how to balance her experience with giving room to other to shine through and solve their own problems, which they're very capable of doing. There's plenty more detail to elaborate on but I think this gives a core drive and conflict that lasts a character a couple of seasons at least to explore and grow through.

I happily invite thoughts as to whether my original observations are astute, or wether you think there aren't any problems with how Jadzia's passivity plays out in the show. If you think there are problems, do you think my perscribed solution helps fix them? How would you go about it?

#star trek #star trek ds9 #ds9 #jadzia dax #babylon 5 #writing

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happiness-of-the-pursuit · 2 days

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20 Questions for Fic Writers

Thanks to @kiwiana-writes for the tag!! I did this back in like... October, and a LOT has changed since then lol

How many works do you have on ao3?

What's your total ao3 word count?

299,988 (though this includes 110,000 from the co-written PJO AU and 2,000 words from Manu's fic that I podficced to)

What fandoms do you write for?

Only RWRB for now, though never say never to others. I recently read Check, Please! and I've had some thoughts, but I have far too many WIPs for RWRB to write them rn. Also I have some ideas for The Pairing, but again, I have... so many RWRB wips...

Top five fics by kudos:

Longer Than Most | 26K, trans Henry accidental pregnancy (also this is how I found out it had become my top kudos-ed fic AH)

The Super Six Take a Lie Detector Test | Vanity Fair | 7K, YouTube interview

Let Me inside (I Want to Get to Know You) | 6K, epistolary roommates

Claremont 2008 | 28K, canon divergence where Ellen gets elected in 2008, childhood friends to lovers

(Dil)Do It Yourself | 17K, meet cute at a DIY dildo workshop

Do you respond to comments?

I really try to. But. I have gotten quite behind recently. I would love to catch up but it's just a bit overwhelming at the moment.

What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

I don't really have any angsty endings?? but a fic @affectionatelyrs and I are working on is going to have an ambiguous ending and my joke is that someone should the version of it where things take the angsty route

What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

I mostly write happy endings, but I am going to say that Let Me inside (I Want to Get to Know You) is the happiest because it's kinda the tropiest

Do you get hate on fics?

Not hate, but I've gotten one or two weird comments, or comments asking about updates.

Do you write smut?

I do! (this is one of the things that's changed since the fall)

Craziest crossover:

The closest I've gotten to a crossover is the PJO AU, but that's not even an actual crossover.

Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Nope.

Have you ever had a fic translated?

Nope.

Have you ever co-written a fic before?

Yes!! Super Six and the Siren's Call with @inexplicablymine and @read-and-write- was the first, and then I wrote Let Me inside (I Want to Get to Know You) with @affectionatelyrs. I also did the podficcing of the voice notes for love has a voice (and it's yours) by Manu. I've also got a couple more projects coming up with Jamie also.

All time favorite ship?

Well that I've written for, FirstPrince :)

What's a wip you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

Unfortunately I don't know if I'll ever finish Baby's First Pride because I've grown a ton as a writer since then and I would want to redo the old chapters and that just isn't all the compelling to me anymore...

What are your writing strengths?

I fucking hate this question. But I am going with dialogue and humor (and humorous dialogue) which has been co-signed by others so I feel less weird about saying this.

What are your writing weaknesses?

I would like to be able to keep smut more concise at times, because it always turns into a Big Scene but it doesn't always need to be a Big Scene. And I've been trying to work on a particular style of writing which is a bit more uhhh snappy? I don't know how to describe it. But that's still a huge work in progress, because I always get more rambly than I want.

Thoughts on dialogue in another language?

I definitely try to include it for the characters in RWRB who speak other languages, and when I do I lean on my friends who speak those languages as a native speaker.

First fandom you wrote in?

Officially: RWRB. For myself: HP.

Favorite fic you've written?

Honestly it's always whatever I'm working on at the moment, which is a couple of WIPs: Fire Island WIP, Parasocial Relationship AU with @affectionatelyrs, and my Big Bang fic come to mind.

But really I want to know what y'all's favorite fic of mine is!!!!

I'll tag 20 people, sorry if anyone's done this recently, but in case anyone wants to go again: @mainstreamelectricalparade @14carrotghoul @anincompletelist @littlemisskittentoes @gay-flyboys

and @songliili @gayrootvegetable @leojfitz @welcometololaland @rmd-writes

and @bigassbowlingballhead @eusuntgratie @captainjunglegym @cactusdragon517 @cricketnationrise

and @violetbaudelaire-quagmire @bribumblebee @nocoastposts @magicandarchery @itsmaybitheway!!!

#20 questions for fic writers #tag game #happinessofthepursuit writes

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keikakudom · 2 days

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Is it wrong if I associate 'Love Like You' (Steven Universe) with RR! Staticapple/Appletv and/or Vox's relationship towards Charlie ?

Incidentally, Legally Blonde for Vox & Charlie - they even have Christian Borle, it's perfect!

WHEW, sorry for putting this question off for so long, I had to get the media dummies out of my head.

First off-- Like many Vox fans, I'm afflicted with Borleism, I can see a version(A lot of lyrical tuning, but the sentiment is there) of "Chip on My Shoulder" being applied to RR!AU Vox and Charlie.

But i'd love if it had a more reluctant twist to it, like Vox trying to cheer Charlie up after a huge setback in her efforts at redemption. In his own shitty way, like-- "yeah we Sinners fucking suck, what did you expect? But they're not impossible(read: gullible and easy to manipulate into doing what you want)...you could do it(not for me, duh. but you know. The OTHER Sinners.)!"

And then near the end of the song, it takes a sinister/selfish turn for Vox:

🎶First big inspection and she aced it, She's so close, I can taste it! I'm just *so* happy I could be there! 🎶

Now for 'Love Like You', this is a tricky one...

It's cute and works in a few regards, especially in the yearning for 'approval' sense. Unfortunately, my personal bias is to have Vox suffer, and this song is a little too...soft, hopeful, for my characterizations? I think he thinks he's beyond saving, which is why he feels very secure in his position relative to the Morningstars/at the resort.

This question did make me listen to some SU songs again, and here's what I got for RR!AU:

"Escapism" - Vox

"That Distant Shore" - Lucifer to Vox (my personal favorite association from these, I think it matches the best as-is too)

"Peace and Love on the Planet Earth" - Charlie as Steven, Peridot as Vox. Substitute Earth for Hell-- not as literal, but in the sense that just because you're in Hell, doesn't stop you from relaxing and being a good person! (EDIT: Actually, I also kind of like 'Be Wherever You Are' for them too)

More about this ^ : I think it would be very funny to imagine a scenario in which Charlie had Vox take a "Vacation day"/join the resort residents to an outing(like a beach episode or something), to which Vox was against for a myriad of reasons, but he spent the entire day being distracted and annoyed at Charlie's positivity and/or being frustrated with how patient she was with other people, that by the end of the day he was refreshed and realized that he hadn't had a single dismal/spiraling thought.

Thank you for the ask <3

EDIT 2: Adding onto this cause holy fuck, imagine that the 'chip' on Charlie's shoulder is a double intendere for Vox's association with her redemption project---

#au: reset resort #ask #anon

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jesstasticvoyage · 11 months

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Book of Love (2022)

#book of love #sam claflin #Verónica Echegui #romantic comedy #romcom #this was such a cute movie #it doesn't get a lot of love which is unfortunate #chiseled jaw & dimples

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miabrown007 · 5 months

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the summer after finishing university in New York, Marinette gets invited to a camping trip with Alya and Nino and his best friend. which, honestly, is for the best. at least she has more time than the four years she's already had to figure out how to reach out to her one-time superhero partner, with whom she fell out of touch after the reveal.

only, it's Adrien Agreste waiting for them on the meeting point, beaming so hard at her that it's blatantly obvious they know each other well. in her panic, what is Marinette supposed to tell Alya and Nino to protect their identites, if not that they used to date?

(fake exes AU x there was only one tent)

#miraculous ladybug #writing prompt #ladynoir #adrinette #if you thought fake-dating was ridiculous enough get ready for: fake exes!!#Adrien is sunshine. his lady!! he's so happy to see her again!!! but also she did kind of ghost him for years is she mad at him?#Marinette is dying inside. maybe this would be easier if she ever fell out of love with Chat Noir and not just dated for sport during her B #Alya doesn't understand how could her best friend hide a relationship all throughout highschool but she wants to know all about it!#Nino's pretty sure Adrien is still in love with Nette which makes everything so much more complicated. couldn't they just stargaze in peace #I'm clearly having a lot of thoughts about it but I also do not think this is getting written unfortunately #poor boy sitting in my drafts for a year now. someone liberate him!!

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skitskatdacat63 · 2 months

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I don't know how I'd ever convey this in art but. Thinking very deeply about how in boy king au, a very crucial part of characterization is that Seb is a wolf in sheep(or lamb more specifically)'s clothing and Fernando is a sheep in wolf's clothing.

Seb is very unassuming, very delicate, seemingly very vulnerable and malleable. But, deep down, he can be very ruthless. It's in the the way he hesitantly declares war, with a spark in his eye and a suppressed smirk. In the way he challenges someone to a card game or a horse race, proclaiming that he's not great, but winning every round and prancing around the room and mentioning it ad infinitum. The way he's able to instantly turn the tide in a debate in one fell swoop. By showing all his cards constantly and letting himself be vulnerable, he's making himself invulnerable. No one would ever consider him to be able to make big moves, so he wins every single time, because no one even thinks to expect it from him.

Fernando on the other hand, is constantly committed to having a looming presence and harsh reputation, but deep down, he's soft. He knows what happens to people when they're vulnerable, and he's not going to let himself be taken advantage of. The way he keeps a brave face when being informed of the marriage proposal, but goes back to his room and cries. The way he proclaims that he was always going to be the rightful ruler of Spain, but confides to Flavio that he never thought there was any real chance of it ever happening. The way he takes himself so seriously in public, but inside feels so giddy whenever he can make someone laugh. Everything to him always feels unstable and ready to crumble at any moment, and he's not willing to contribute to that by letting himself relax.

I think thats why it's very difficult for them to get along at first, because they have completely different approaches to how they carry themselves and make their way through life. Seb is confused at Fernando because he feels that he's very bland and overly serious at first, but truthfully he's not really seeing the actual Fernando. And Fernando finds Seb to be naive and easily taken advantage of, but that's because he's never seen Seb at his most cruel. Seb really loves when he eventually gets to see Fernando being vulnerable, and Fernando really admires and respects Seb when he sees him being serious. I think it just takes a while for them to show the other their full and complete selves, even the parts they can sometimes be ashamed of. There's this very compelling dichotomy in Seb laying out all his cards, but still being very difficult to read, and Fernando keeping his cards to his chest, but his intentions often being easily seen through.

#meanwhile everyone else: what is this weird fucked up mating ritual they are participating in #though i think its very interesting how their motivations differ #seb wants to lull people into a false sense of security(and also really just likes to be his complete unadulterated self)#and fernando is guarding himself because he doesn't want to get hurt #and i think seb convinces Fernando that its okay to be openly soft and yourself :) not eveyrone is out to get you #and fernando teaches seb hey maybe dont invite this obvious assassin to your chambers?????#i think seb also has insecurites but Fernando's are just more easy to explain bcs hes in a much more difficult situation #at the end of the day both of them are putting on facades in some way #(i think seb likes to be himself but also does feel really hurt when people dont think he has the capacity or ability to rule effectively)#(he likes to be kind and playful and doesnt want to obscure that part of himself. but hes aware it can hurt his image unfortunately)#also lol the way i characterize fernando is very historically accurate btw #bcs the spanish court tradition was basically to be above it all and be a lofty unobtainable figure if that makes sense #yknow having just this insane level of confidence and infallible image of yourself as the ruler #the guy seb is based on really bought into that idea but i dont think it really suits seb so yeah #seb I think is very much a unique figure that others have a lot of trouble reading him and his intentions. which is great!#AAAAAHHH MAN FELT REALLY GOOD TO WRITE ALL THAT OUT !!!!!!!!!#i love writing their characterization so fucking much you dont understand #its nice to put it in words like this bcs yknow i dont rly enjoy actual writing. but this i enjoy greatly #hope this is compelling to more than just me hahaha #boy king au #catie.rambling.txt #vettonso

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lieutenantselnia · 25 days

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Current mood <3

#I love himmm💘💘💘#my pretty man I just want to cradle his face in my hands and kiss him dizzy😭#not to brag but I just really like how he turned out in that drawing😭 I hope I can get him to look as handsome when I draw him again #which might unfortunately not be too soon because I really need to sit my ass down and work on my thesis💀#I think I really need to commission art of Heinz in my semi-realistic design at some point🥺#I wanna see how other ppl draw him (and he doesn't get a lot of fanart anyway regardless of artstyle or design)#tho if things go well I might actually get a part-time job in the next months so I'll have regular income to buy pretty art of him hehe💕#I get pocket money but I just tend to feel bad about spending too much instead of saving it #even though my parents tell me I should sometimes just treat myself if I really want something lol as long as I'm doing it responsibly #but I'm not sure if buying drawings of some hot cartoon dude would fall under responsible lol #f/o: 🚂#2nd dimension doofenshmirtz #f/o appreciation #f/o gush #self ship #self ship gush #selnia talks

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aeide-thea · 10 months

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god i know that complaining abt fic which most of you haven't read, and which i won't, for politeness' sake, identify in this post, is a great way to come across as both dickish and boring—

but i've been rereading a very long, very satisfyingly plotty series that's a fandom darling and the thing is, when you read like 400k of an author's work at once it really starts to become painfully apparent what their priorities are, by which i mean two things:

holy shit they're obsessed with 'what if strong powerful men who could hurt you didn't (but did hurt Bad Guys) (and it was sexy of them),' which leads into

holy shit they do not appear to have thought through the implications of saying 'i will have my heroes take over the same power structures that have enabled abuse, make no real changes to those structures other than swapping out the leadership, and then claim that everything is wonderful now bc Good Men Are In Charge'??

like. i don't necessarily need every passing fantasy to present me with a coherent, revolutionary system of politics and ethics—sometimes things are just fun and sexy and not especially Examined and that's fine!—but by the time someone's written literally almost half a million words, and done a lot of worldbuilding while they were at it, i am going to start squinting if they seem to think a Good Man can e.g. become an emperor by killing off the leadership of multiple countries and installing puppet kings loyal to him and still remain a Good Man, even if the justification was that the original leadership was maltreating its citizens and deserved to be extrajudicially executed. like. this shit was a bad, autocratic move when the US did it in real life and it's still bad now that you're having our mutual blorbo do it in fiction! and that's not even getting into the whole thing where like. they've got servants who the Good Man and his friends ""treat well"" but who very much remain second-class citizens in terms of how the story actually frames them and their concerns. [this was also a huge issue i had with foz m*adows' most recent book—everyone wants to write about fantasy nobles but they also want to make them good people and it's like. honestly i think it might be better to get comfortable writing about flawed people, but also—if your aristos aren't treating their servants like equals and your text isn't either, you haven't actually cracked the Moral Aristo paradox, sorry!] like, there's nothing that says your story has to depict a fully Healed World, nor should there be! but it's troubling if you seem to be convinced you've written one (and have your wide-eyed love interests constantly marveling at it!) when you very patently haven't.

#in all honesty—i've framed a lot of this as political/ethical critique‚ and like‚ it IS‚ but also—#i'm just really frustrated because like. the whole 'what if people were shockingly nice to you' thing feels like it SHOULD be better for me #but in actual fact i find myself totally turning up my nose at it and i can't totally work out why #i mean i guess part of it is that this author's Traumatized Love Interests are always really innocent victims #which i can't identify with emotionally because i feel like a piece of shit #so i need a story that's more like 'person who's been told they were a monster for so long they believe it gets convinced they aren't'#'(lovingly and sexily)'#but also i think a lot of it just. isn't subtle enough. like i need to have to put pieces together so i'm implicated in my own catharsis #being constantly told 'wow it's so amazing i'm not being abused by this person who COULD abuse me!! that's so sexy of them!'#is just. not doing it for me. like. 'not abusive' is not actually sexy to me‚ unfortunately. i need some character traits.#and unfortunately the ones this author tosses in for flavor ALSO don't convince me #because they never actually manifest in the story. it's like 'oh this character is so prickly—but never actually offends the LI.'#'oh this other character is so gruff—but the LI understands that about them from day one and doesn't take it personally.'#like. if the hero's 'flaws' don't actually cause any problems—they aren't flaws #anyway. i've definitely complained about this exact series multiple times on here at this point #but that's the thing—it's compelling enough i keep going back to it‚ so i get extra-frustrated by its flaws #whereas like. there's a lot of stuff that's much worse that i've been much less frustrated by #because i never had any particular hopes for it #anyway. thx for yr patience in this fully self-inflicted Trying Time‚ lmao #i guess this can get filed under #bookblogging

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moregraceful · 1 year

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read your miro/luka edm fic and then proceeded to think about it. deeply. in church. i'm feeling extremely haunted and i would love to know more about how you came up with THAT. my jaw kept dropping further and further until i could unhinge it and swallow my fist whole. at the end my heart was racing j was like ohhhh. i don't even follow the dallas stars. i only barely know luka doncic from his allstars video where he sinks a half court shot and then proceeds to look incredibly in love with the dude trying to hold him back. also from his spanish interviews. have they interacted at all. where did you pull this from. why them out of all the people. follow up question how do i inject this in my veins.

Okay, first of all anon I am in love with you for thinking so deeply about this story. In 2020 I suffered extreme lockdown brain damage and got extremely into European EDM and when I saw that tweet for the first time, it stuck with me. I've been pondering that story since LITERALLY the NHL/NBA bubble playoffs. I could say so much more about it.

Second of all, strap in. I lost my mind reading this ask and blacked out while writing this primer up. I had to write this in google docs bc I was afraid my browser would crash and it's literally 1.3k. I also don’t 100% understand how European basketball leagues work, so some of Luka’s origin story might be wrong or inelegantly phrased. If any European basketball fans want to chime in and correct me, please do.

MIRO AND LUKA: ROOKIE RESPECT, A PRIMER

The year is 2017. The Dallas Stars have the third overall pick in the NHL draft. Miro Heiskanen, a mild-mannered and mature but intense Finnish defensemen, is considered one of the top European prospects and the top European defenseman in the entire draft. He goes 3OA to the Stars, who are beginning to build up what the media goes on to call their Finnish mafia (due to the amount of Finns on team) and also needed a defenseman. Miro signs a three year entry level contract shortly after the draft and is loaned to his home team in Liiga (Finnish hockey league), HIFK, for the season. He is 18 years old.

Meanwhile, Luka Dončić, who has been in the Spanish basketball trenches since he was 13, is tearing Liga ACB (the top basketball division in Spain) and EuroLeague (the top European basketball league) as an eighteen year old with Real Madrid in the 2017-2018 season. He guides Real Madrid to the EuroLeague finals and wins EuroLeague MVP. At the end of the season, he is drafted by the Atlanta Hawks third overall. He is immediately traded to the Dallas Mavericks in exchange for draft rights to Trae Young and a future 1rd pick. The Mavs wanted him, but drafted later in the 2018 draft and knew they didn’t have a chance in hell of getting him. So they traded for him. He is, at the time, tall, still a little gangly, and often emotional.

In 2018, Luka and Miro begin their rookie seasons in Dallas. They are both very, very good. Miro and the Stars make the playoffs in Miro’s first season. Luka and the Mavs do not, but Luka smashes the shit out of several rookie scoring records and is voted Rookie of the Year. Miro goes to the NHL All-Star Game in San Jose, the sole representative for the Stars. Luka narrowly misses being selected for the NBA All-Star Game in Charlotte, but finishes second in fan voting after LeBron James. Miro finishes fourth in voting for the Calder in 2018 (the NHL’s rookie of the year award) and they both, of course, make the All-Rookie Teams in their respective leagues.

If the parallel careers in their first gd season do not make you crazy, these tweets, in which they are wearing each other jerseys, will.

“Luka showing some love to @/HeiskanenMiro” can you let me live? Please?

Critical to this is that these are not even the jerseys that they swapped. Oh yes: they exchanged jerseys their rookie year. The Stars and the Mavs share an arena and their PR teams are no fools; when your city has two of the top rookies in their leagues, you lean the fuck in. They exchanged jerseys while Miro looks the most awkward he has ever looked in his life and Luka looks like a normal human being. And then their team makes them do photoshoots in entirely different jerseys. Rookie. Respect.

And that’s just their first season! The Stars lose in the second round of the playoffs, but they come tearing back the next season in 2019-2020. The Mavs do too. In their respective league playoff bubbles (NBA in Walt Disney World, Florida, the Stars in Edmonton, Alberta), they both break MORE scoring records as young phenoms. The Mavs ultimately do not make it out of the first round and the Stars lose in their final round, but there’s no doubt that the city has something special.

Meanwhile, COVID. The 2020-2021 NHL season is a fucking nightmare for a lot of teams, particularly the Stars, who got hit with COVID multiple times, and ultimately fail to make the playoffs. I frankly was only watching games during the NBA 2020-2021 season and not following narratives, so I don’t know if the Mavs were dealing with COVID to the extent the Stars were. The Mavs did make the playoffs, but lose again in the first round.

Summer of 2021. Miro is at the end of his ELC in the NHL. Luka is eligible for a rookie extension in the NBA. (I understand NBA contracts even less than I understand NHL contracts, so ask someone else about this details of this.) Both the Mavs and the Stars are prepared to break the fucking bank for these players. Guess what Luka and Miro do.

Miro signs an eight year contract with the Stars in July 2021.

Luka signs a five year contract with the Mavs in August 2021.

BRO THEY’RE SPENDING THE NEXT HALF-DECADE IN THE SAME ARENA. THEY’RE SPENDING THE NEXT HALF-DECADE IN DALLAS TOGETHER. When I say I lost my mind….!!!

In 2021-2022, the Stars come back from their COVID hell season and make the playoffs again, but lose in the first round. The Mavs lose in the Western Conference Finals, but hell, the fact that they made it to the WCF? Crucial. To be honest I was not watching much basketball OR hockey that season, so that whole season for both teams is kind of my lost year. (Well. Lost years for all teams in all leagues. I watched the NHL and NBA playoffs because the Dubs are my hometown team and I love the Avs, and this paid off well for me, but during regular season, I think I watched like three NHL games and two NBA games all season.) I don’t really know how the narrative has developed since then. I don’t know if the parallels in their careers have continued to be crazy-making.

I do know that Luka is having an insane year this season; every time I get notification from theScore, I go, how the fuck…?? And a quick glance at hockey-reference tells me that in 34 games this season, so far Miro has matched last year’s goals and is well on his way to making up the difference in assists. Miro had a rough year last year because he had mono and a hand injury, but he seems well-poised to come back strong this year. I don’t know what Luka is doing, but he is insane.

And I mean, that’s the story so far: parallel careers, parallel stories. Both 3OA, both rookie phenoms, both of them being cornerstone pieces of their franchises going forward into the future while still nascent in their careers, and just very, very good players. It’s early in their careers in the States, we have to remember that, and I am sure things could (and maybe have! Again I have been a little checked out of both sports and particularly both teams the past couple years) continue to develop and evolve in bonkers ways. How long will they stay in Dallas? How long will their careers last? How long will their lives intersect by the simple fact of a city and an arena? It makes me wild to think about. Cross-sports romances are so undervalued in sports rpf fandoms and when the narrative hits just right? Let’s fucking go.

There are exactly two fics on AO3 under their tag, both of them by the Stars RPF GOAT Nadler, and one podfic of Nadler’s work. They are both excellent fics and the podfic is quite good as well. I think about wunderkinder all the time and wish desperately for a follow up, and the PWP is just straight up good shit. And maybe someday I’m going to have a mental breakdown and finish the fake dating/mutual pining fic I started last year with them, but in the meantime, we have their IRL narrative. Fated by sports, love in the face of it all. When the narrative is right? It is so right.

Thank you for coming to my tedtalk!!!!

#they also both own pomeranians which is. SO good for me personally #superstars with fluffy purse dogs? you love to see it #miro owns two pomeranians named max and leo and luka's pomeranian is named hugo (luka has two other normal sized dogs)#i didn't put it in the post bc it doesn't have to do with their stories but it is VERY important to me #also this primer does not get into their personalities as i don't feel qualified to speak on luka's personality however i do feel that #there is a lot you can do with a large emotional european basketball player and a quiet and intense european hockey player in america #the differences in how the two leagues encourage/discourage personalities for their superstars would be juicy to dig into #this took two hours to write lol i hope someone reads this #ok i gotta get going with my day!! love you anon thank you for asking!!!#putting this under:#unfortunate birdcage fanfictions #but it's not fanfic. it's real. it's all real. every word.#ROOKIE RESPECT. LOVE COMMA LUKA

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morelikebaldursgay · 5 months

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FUCK Shadowheart kind of falls in love with the PC regardless of romance triggering as long as you get her approval high enough doesn't it. I'm sorry sweetheart next playthrough.

#I'm genuinely sad because she and Dirge (my dark urge who's in the screenshot) have a really interesting dynamic #(Both interpersonal and as foils) and it makes perfect sense for them to fall in love given their personalities.#And I do think that Dirge is also a little in love with Shadowheart #But unfortunately Dirge would literally never enter a relationship with Shadowheart because #A) they're afraid of getting betrayed by someone they trust so they dont want to be intimate with someone they trust #B) they are afraid of betraying the ones that trust them so they dont want to be intimate with someone who actually cares about them #And C) they think shes way way too good for them and deserves better #(All of these reasons are also a lot of why they initially start a relationship with Astarion--#They know he's trying to manipulate them/doesn't care about them #So there's no trust on either side to be betrayed #And they don't think they deserve any better than someone who transparently doesn't give a shit about them.#Although they do think that they are a worse person than he is.#Its truly shocking that their relationship becomes healthy and mutually supportive + beneficial in Act 2 (which is also when Dirge starts #Losing romantic interest in Shadowheart I think?). Also I like to imagine that Shadowheart and Lae'zel enter a relationship at around then)#Bg3 #shadowheart hallowleaf #feel free to ignore my tag rant I just love talking about my OCs

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ranvwoop · 11 months

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my funny little ocs have planted themselves in my brain again. they mean everything to me and i Member this now..

#vwoop.noises #UNFORTUNATELY. i am so shy So sorry if you've ever asked me anything ever #what if there was a little magic guy. And he was in gay love #i also get to think about my little soft magic system. It exists. It's a lot about politics #There's a magic lawyer. There isn't enough of a stable system for magic cops. too many jurisdictional issues #there's not rlly a central governing body at all. There isn't a strong culture + its not Necessarily lineage based #and like. one group can't be sure they're the only group. There are learning institutions but they're relatively independant #I think that they have some sort of Magic Energy Detection to mitigate people trying to explode the entire world with their mind or smth #And that's why that doesn't happen. Which I guess are magic cops but I'm not entirely sure how it works. Regardless I'm writing some #exposition dialogue for funsies and I am Soo :]#(They are also. very important. In gay love)#still incredibly invested in my other ocs and aldo the ljtle guys but. you know #I have so many hands

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vamptastic · 1 year

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cant watch anything with ben shapiro in it partially because his gay ass pisses me off and partially because i am psychosexually obsessed with him and see him as a sort of evil shadow self

#i fucking wish i could debate people and make fun of tiktoks for a living #unfortunately i actually enjoy a fair debate and do not want to profit off of taking advantage of unwitting college students #or sell out my own culture/religion for a paycheck #i honest to god think he doesn't believe most of the shit he says it just makes him money #and makes him feel like a big smart man #i also love feeling like a big smart man but if i don't do something meaningful with my big smarts i will kill myself #+ im a communist. and bi. and trans. thus our lives have gone in different directions #...but yeah im jewish and talk fast and love debate and a similar level of repressed fagginess to him so i get compared to him a lot #which has imbued me with the desire to fix him by any means necessary. me. shapiro. locked room. no weapons. lubrication. fact checker.#he'll come out a changed man ill tell you that #first time i relayed this to ramón he said more like changed woman and it's still one of my top ten ramón funny moments

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keets-writing-corner · 3 months

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Thinking a LOT about Lucifer in the latest Hazbin episode. Idk what I was expecting but not this??

As I was watching my immediate thought was just "huh... Lucifer is kinda of weird..." but as the episode went on I realized the issue

the dude is off the chain depressed, like he says it as a joke but holy cow it is SO BAD

He's manically just creating rubber ducks cuz his daughter really like it that one time but it's empty, it's never good enough but he keeps doing it, maybe cuz he doesn't know how to pass the time otherwise.

like I get the feeling he HAS better things he SHOULD be doing than making rubber duck after rubber duck. At first I was like, "Bruh why isn't the king of hell doing anything?" aaaaand then it became clear...

The dude is disassociating so bad he can barely hold a conversation let alone remember information. He clearly WANTS to, he wants to be involved with his daughter so bad, he wants to care about the things she's doing so bad, but his depression keeps interfering. It's like he can only hear every other word and he grasps onto the ones he does hear semi-out of context. Like you can see every time he catches something that he hadn't before and he just "well shit I didn't catch that part"

and that's why he reacts so weird when people talk to him. He is struggling so bad to engage with the conversation he's only getting 50% of it

does that look like the face of a man who knows what the hell the conversation is even about??? he is STRUGGLING

like Charlie spent so long telling him about the hotel, and he STILL didn't understand what she wanted. Yeah it comes off as ditzy but literally I've been in that position where your brain just "nope, not doing this right now" and nerfs your conversation comprehension. So as someone who's BEEN in that position, to me it feels exactly like what he's dealing with. He's sorta engaged with the conversation, but only as much as his brain will allow

For example, when I'm dealing with this, this is what someone talking to me feels like this where the crossed out parts are what I missed and bold is what I catch, "Hey! You know I was thinking for dinner we could either make some chicken with rice? But if you don't feel like cooking, pasta is super easy and you love that right? What do you want to do?" you can kinda get that someone is trying to talk to you about dinner, and towards the end you get the impression that they asked something that needs your input so you can decently put 2 and 2 together and try and pass off, but crucial bits were left out, I would have no idea that either chicken or pasta is in the conversation only having heard "rice". When someone is just talking at me, I can decently pass off as being engaged but the second I'm required to participate in the conversation I'm screwed. Seem familiar? At which point I have 2 options, try to give a bullshit answer, or admit that I missed what they were saying and ask them to repeat

Lucifer, unfortunately, is trying so damn hard to hide that he's dealing with like 24/7 dissociation, so he can't admit that he's missing entire chunks of the conversation, hence his really weird replies. He does eventually get the full picture and then he and Charlie start having the real conversation

Also, the Alastor/Lucifer rivalry was hilarious but also really indicative of more of what Lucifer is dealing with

Alastor is, unfortunately, really good at picking up people's insecurities, and thanks to Charlie's description earlier and watching Lucifer clearly trying to overcompensate, he immediately picks up on the fact that Lucifer KNOWS he struggles to be a good dad (we know cuz it's cuz of the depression, hard to be engaged when your brain keeps turning off) and decides to rub salt in the wound by pretending he's been acting as a surrogate father to Charlie. Now why Alastor decided to pick a fight with the king of hell is beyond me, I do not understand Alastor (and I LIKE IT) (maybe it's cuz Alastor thinks he's hot shit and was expecting Lucifer to at least have heard of him but Lucifer just treats him like a nobody? who knows)(why would Lucifer listen to radio anyways when he can't even pay attention to a conversation it'd just be white noise)

But yeah I just was expecting someone who oozed either charisma or presence and instead I got a depressed dad who's dissociating so bad he can barely function and be present in his life. The only thing it seems he CAN do is make rubber ducks cuz his daughter really liked it that one time

Idk Lucifer is tragic to me. Whatever the full details of what heavan did to him absolutely broke him and he can't deal with it. He's aware of it, and he doesn't know how to fix it, so he tries to over compensate and sorta makes an ass out of himself but no one says or does anything cuz this guy is supposed to be THE king of hell

Suddenly it's making a lot more sense why he just rolls over and lets heaven do what it wants and even told Charlie to go in his place the start of the show. He's not in any headspace to hold a basic conversation let alone negotiate! He didn't even know who Alastor was, he's been so out of touch

idk I like him, he seems sweet, I hope Charlie brings some light back into his life. He really needs to get out of that rubber duck room

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