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anghraine · 11 days

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Okay, breaking my principles hiatus again for another fanfic rant despite my profound frustration w/ Tumblr currently:

I have another post and conversation on DW about this, but while pretty much my entire dash has zero patience with the overtly contemptuous Hot Fanfic Takes, I do pretty often see takes on Fanfiction's Limitations As A Form that are phrased more gently and/or academically but which rely on the same assumptions and make the same mistakes.

IMO even the gentlest, and/or most earnest, and/or most eruditely theorized takes on fanfiction as a form still suffer from one basic problem: the formal argument does not work.

I have never once seen a take on fanfiction as a form that could provide a coherent formal definition of what fanfiction is and what it is not (formal as in "related to its form" not as in "proper" or "stuffy"). Every argument I have ever seen on the strengths/weaknesses of fanfiction as a form vs original fiction relies to some extent on this lack of clarity.

Hence the inevitable "what about Shakespeare/Ovid/Wide Sargasso Sea/modern takes on ancient religious narratives/retold fairy tales/adaptation/expanded universes/etc" responses. The assumptions and assertions about fanfiction as a form in these arguments pretty much always should apply to other things based on the defining formal qualities of fanfic in these arguments ("fanfiction is fundamentally X because it re-purposes pre-existing characters and stories rather than inventing new ones" "fanfiction is fundamentally Y because it's often serialized" etc).

Yet the framing of the argument virtually always makes it clear that the generalizations about fanfic are not being applied to Real Literature. Nor can this argument account for original fics produced within a fandom context such as AO3 that are basically indistinguishable from fanfic in every way apart from lacking a canon source.

At the end of the day, I do not think fanfic is "the way it is" because of any fundamental formal qualities—after all, it shares these qualities with vast swaths of other human literature and art over thousands of years that most people would never consider fanfic. My view is that an argument about fanfic based purely on form must also apply to "non-fanfic" works that share the formal qualities brought up in the argument (these arguments never actually apply their theories to anything other than fanfic, though).

Alternately, the formal argument could provide a definition of fanfic (a formal one, not one based on judgment of merit or morality) that excludes these other kinds of works and genres. In that case, the argument would actually apply only to fanfic (as defined). But I have never seen this happen, either.

So ultimately, I think the whole formal argument about fanfic is unsalvageably flawed in practice.

Realistically, fanfiction is not the way it is because of something fundamentally derived from writing characters/settings etc you didn't originate (or serialization as some new-fangled form, lmao). Fanfiction as a category is an intrinsically modern concept resulting largely from similarly modern concepts of intellectual property and auteurship (legally and culturally) that have been so extremely normalized in many English-language media spaces (at the least) that many people do not realize these concepts are context-dependent and not universal truths.

Fanfic does not look like it does (or exist as a discrete category at all) without specifically modern legal practices (and assumptions about law that may or may not be true, like with many authorial & corporate attempts to use the possibility of legal threats to dictate terms of engagement w/ media to fandom, the Marion Zimmer Bradley myth, etc).

Fanfic does not look like it does without the broader fandom cultures and trends around it. It does not look like it does without the massive popularity of various romance genres and some very popular SF/F. It does not look like it does without any number of other social and cultural forces that are also extremely modern in the grand scheme of things.

The formal argument is just so completely ahistorical and obliviously presentist in its assumptions about art and generally incoherent that, sure, it's nicer when people present it politely, but it's still wrong.

#this is probably my most pretentious fanfiction defense squad post but it's difficult to express in other terms #like. people talking about ao3 house style (not always by name but clearly referring to it) as a result of fanfic as a form #and not the social/cultural effect of ao3 as a fandom space #you don't get ao3 house style without ao3 itself and you don't get ao3 without strikethrough and livejournal etc #and you don't get those without authors and corporations trying to exercise control over fic based on law (often us law) & myths about law #and you don't get those without distinctly modern concepts of intellectual property and copyright #none of those things have fuck all to do with form!#anghraine rants #fanfiction #general fanwank #long post #thinking about this partly because the softer & gentler versions of fanfic discourse keep crossing my dash #and partly because i've written like 30 pages about a playwright i adore who was just not very good at 'original fiction' as we'd define it #both his major works are ... glorified rpf in our context but splendid tragedies in his #and the idea of categorizing /anything/ in that era by originality of conception rather than comedy/tragedy/etc would be buckwild #ivory tower blogging #anghraine's meta

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wiley-treehouse-gardens · 2 months

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#crassula #ivory towers #succulent #succulents #garden #plants #plant blog #plant photography #original photography

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goombasinastack · 4 months

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splatoon 3 hot take turned impromptu essay

was stuck offline in splatoon 3 because internet was actin up and i realized how pretty the photomode splatoon 3 filters are compared to the actual game

i was taking photos on brinewater and thought. damn. this game looks fine but i miss how VIBRANT splatoon 1 was! i wish i could play sploon 3 with this photomode filter on all the time. and brinewater is the best map for this because of the sunset lighting! so i went to one of the worst offenders mapwise for general color—undertow spillway. it is a warm gray mess:

for someplace underground, it’s WAY too warm of a tone—even if there are skylights, they aren’t very well defined, as they’re off in the background—they’d be better with some light shafts to pop out more, imo.

so here’s undertow with photomode filter #6 (this would’ve been a video but tumblr limits to 1 video per post):

and i think this looks a lot nicer, colorwise! the icky warm gray is shifted to a soft pink—and while that’s still not in keeping with the lack of obvious skylights, it works better than warm gray.

so then i opened ibis x paint and got to work on a filter that would hopefully help elevate the entire game’s look:

on top is photomode filter #6, in the middle is the original screenshot, and on the bottom is my proposed filter.

i upped the contrast, brightness, and saturation a bit, then added a 5% pure magenta (#FF00FF) overlay layer on top of that. then i added a slight gaussian blur to emulate antialiasing, which nintendo refuses to do for some reason!

and i wanna play splatoon like that! i miss the vibrancy and intricacy of splatoon 1…

incoming splatoon 1 essay‼️

not only were the colors eye-bleachingly bright, but the overall game feel was much more immersive—especially in ink physics. you could paint trees, and the ink would drip down through leaves as if it were rain… ink splatter would respond to the movements of platforms, keeping its intertia as it dripped! you could see the textures of surfaces through the ink, as if it were an actual liquid instead of a layer of thick oil. 3 doesn’t have any of those special touches.

there’s also the music… 1’s ost feels so much more WEIRD and experimental than the later games, and that really helps cement that this is not human society—this is a new thing—which tracks for splatoon 1, as it was so zany nobody had ever seen anything quite like it before! splatoon 2 follows this sheer melting-pot of brashness and creativity with evolving and varied styles—where once was punk and weird samples in Squid Squad is now groovy rock in Wet Floor, jazz in Ink Theory, and also whatever Sashi-Mori was. also i <3 chirpy chips. splatoon 3’s music goes back to that punk, but i feel that it loses some of the charm and creativity of the first two games. C-side is pure metal, and hardly uses any weird instruments. there have sparsely been other splatbands involved with regular battle music—Yoko&tgb call back to the jazz of Ink Theory which i love! Off the Hook’s new tracks delve into a new style in piano rock. but the main band kind of falls flat to me. :(

let’s talk stages. in splatoon 1, stages were wildly different from each other, including skateparks, construction sites, underpasses, malls, sewage plants, and other locals that are culturally underground. the rest of the trilogy moves away from this in a story standpoint, as ink battles evolve from punky, diy competitions into full-fledged championships in 2 and 3, with advancing battle infrastructure as time progresses. that’s fine, and honestly it’s cool to see that kind of worldbuilding! but in 1, each stage was designed about and influenced by the area it represented. Arowana Mall is a straight line with high vantage points on the second/third story because it’s a mall. Pirahna Pit features convenyor belts that shuffle refuse around because it’s a trash plant. Blackbelly Skatepark has so many hills and valleys because it’s a skatepark, for goodness sake. splatoon 3’s original stages have some of this charm, but it feels lost in ambiguity. why doesn’t Mincemeat Metalworks have small moving platforms on cranes or other heavy machinery? Idk, have some grates and one-way drops, and a car on a post. why isn’t there any water incorporated into the stage design of Brinewater Springs? Idk, have 2 paintable walls and a tetris piece. 3’s original stages have little to no connection between their locals and the geometry, which make it feel same-y compared to previous games.

maybe this is because of the inflexible philosophy of the designers—or their corporate oversight, maybe. for stages, you need to make a straight line or tetris piece with few routes to push, in an effort to promote the game’s main premise of Chaos. for music, you need to make punk songs that aren’t too weird so they don’t drive away the parents. maybe the little ink touches could have been missing because development was rushed?

i honestly dont know why it happened out this way—perhaps the splatoon team just needed more time to cook, in order to squeeze out that extra 20% of game feel? or maybe it was that speculated corporate oversight, i dunno. things WERE missing on launch—notable exceptions being X rank, online tableturf lobbies, and no more than three salmon run maps. i know we’ve yet to even get the DLC but for being about 75% of the way through the game’s content lifespan, but splatoon 3 feels incomplete. there have been improvements, yeah! i just wish there could’ve been more. i would rather have waited another year for splatoon 3 if it were polished that much better, y’know?

i honestly feel like splatoon 1 captured that creative, no-holds-barred mantle of Chaos better than 3 does. 3 feels… flanderized, in a way. the curse of trilogies, perhaps? writing about it more, it feels like not only have the in-game sports of turf war been ripped out of its seedy home and thrust into the spotlight, and gone “mainstream” (see: massive squidsport companies investing in multimillion battle lobbies with holograms and lockers [sunken scroll about that!], flying coffee machines that grant you brief invincibility, new rules and techniques that allow squid surges and rolls, etc.), but also the Real Life Physical Video Game Cartridge of Splatoon has been popularized massively with the sequels on the Switch. maybe i’m not missing the “vibrancy” of splatoon 1 when i look at the colors and photomode filters of splatoon 3, but instead the inherent punkiness and counterculture inspiration that i see in the original.

fuck capitalism, i guess!

#splatoon 3 #long post #i did not think i’d be writing an essay tonight #on SPLATOON no less. i feel like im on storming the ivory tower #thats a good blog site btw i love their stuff #but anyways... i was like 12 or 13 when i first got splatoon 1 #i was an orange n-zap/carbon roller (i forget which kit) main #i never played any of the splatfests but i imagine they were really fun!#my internet connection in the basement was never really that good so i never played much.... i never finished story mode until years later #this also means that i'm probably misremembering specific splatoon 1 tidbits. let me know if i messed anything up? or whatever you think lo #it's 2:11 am and i need to wake up early lmao #goodnight and thanks for reading

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aud-chron-images · 8 months

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#Monolith #Monolithic #Days to Remember #Closest Star #lens flare #photography on tumblr #original photography #snap shot #ivory tower #photo blog

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thiswaycomessomethingwicked · 10 months

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Oh the SHADE Ficino is throwing at Luigi Pulci in this letter to Lorenzo de’ Medici.

“The laws abhor infamous report and hate slanderers so much that they are particularly severe on those who speak foully, against even a foul man. ... But today I ask no such thing of the laws; for I do not wish the laws to be marshalled on my behalf against fleas, which will perish at the first onset of cold.

So let that little imp [Pulci] bite your Christian priests with impunity, as he was long ago allowed to bite Christ. Let the mob judge at random a teaching which is scarcely known even to the very few. Let little men, who have no sense, pass sentence as they please on my life, which is known to God alone. For these and similar matters I, like Socrates and Zeno, care nothing - or at most, like Aristotle and Theophrastus, very little. [...]”

he does the same in another letter to Guiliano de’ Medici:

“I am not surprised that that dog [Pulci] constantly snarls at me, for it is his custom to snarl at good men and men of learning, as it is his custom to snarl at the soul and at God. Indeed, he is so conditioned by his character and habit that he cannot help snarling. This does not matter to me, since he is the kind of man from whom slander is praise and praise is slander.

Let him snarl in the company of the great and the humble, so long as it is publicly understood that his snarling gives no pleasure to the Medici.”

poor Ficino wouldn’t get as he asked, since Lorenzo was especially fond of Pulci and they wrote ribald poetry together, often mocking Ficino’s philosophy and Academy.

#I have conflicting feelings about Pulci #because I respect him as a poet of the working classes and common man who was lampooning the Ivory Towers (so to speak) at the same time #I love Ficino and feel like there were more assholish people to go after than him. Also Lorenzo - be nicer to Ficino. I know he tried #to tell you to leave off whoring and gambling and attend to matters of state with more diligence but was that bad advice?? no.#marsilio ficino #marsilio blogging #luigi pulci #Lorenzo de medici #early modern Florence #15th century #history

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ask-buddingflower · 2 years

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hi there I am a new student here and also am I wearing the wrong uniform? cause I see people wearing purple uniforms..

The gardener peeked up from tending to her flowers to the new girl and said "Hello, welcome to the Ivory tower boarding school! You must be the student Emily was talking about"

"Yes, you are wearing the wrong uniform but it's just your first day and we usually hang them out after being assigned dorms ¿Do you need me to acompany you to the check-in?" The gardener asked with a warm smile.

#[🌷] a friend!#[🎸] a friend ;; jane #[🏫] ivory tower boarding school #identity v ask blog #emma woods idv #idv gardener #idv rp #oc rp #roleplay

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gingerbreadmonsters · 1 year

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For the ask game, how about "ivory tower?"

romi's talking about this ask game (still open!)

the fairytale fic!! aahh thank you for your ask - we love a bit of vincent and lovely over here at gingerbreadmonsters dot com 🤩🤩🤩

the fic in question: ivory tower (spoilers for that under the cut!)

lovely and vincent's story has always been very fairytale-esque to me - their meeting at wonderworld, lovely's kidnapping and power reveal, the tragedy of the inversion and their turning...... plus the framing of vincent as the 'prince' of the solaire clan is so wonderful to me - i really wanted to see how far i could push that, and it was a great way of stretching my writing muscles trying to convert the existing redactedverse into something that could be understood in the context of a classical fairytale!!

(i do wish it wasn't in lcase - maybe one day i'll go back and fix that on ao3, but that'll take FOREVER and i don't really have the time rn lol)

originally, i wasn't going to mention the whole 'vincent's a vampire' thing in the fairytale context, but there wasn't really another way to really express lovely's sense of loss at losing their electro powers without superseding them with something different, hence the 'special sort of magic' that the solaires have ✌️✌️

switching between dialogue in the present day and the overarching, very stylised narration of the fairytale was REALLY fun - it was a good way to not only ground myself in canon, but also to do a bit of that zoomed-in, slice of life stuff that i think they deserve 🥰🥰 plus my absolute favourite bit from this fic is vincent's little monologue after the inversion (the bit that starts "lovely, i know you can't hear me.", to "i swear it on my life. every everlasting day of it.") hehe 💖💕

i love love LOVE to pop in little bits of background worldbuilding and random noodle incidents that i think add a little bit of flavour, and that tie together a bit of my cinematic universe - vincent's love of peach daiquiris comes back in get in, loser!, lovely's jam tarts come back in 五二零, and i'm very tempted to bring back the story about the time lovely "got a bit too excited about kissing him" some time in the future 🤩🤩🤩

i'm so so pleased with the SURGE = tower parallel - i think it's turned out really well, and it serves as a really nice landmark (in both the literal and metaphorical senses) for this fic and for vincent and lovely inside of it! overall, i love the tone of the narration and the way it flows, and they've suffered enough in canon, mr erik - if i want to give them a fairytale wedding then i will, dammit!!

#ooh a game!#redacted asmr #redacted audio #romi beloved <3 #thank you for the ask lovie!! 😍😍#vincent and lovely my deeply beloveds #ivory tower holds a very special place in my heart #so thank you for letting me ramble about it hehe #💕💕💕💕💕💕💕#ginger speaks to lovely blogs

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idv-ask-theguitarist · 2 years

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I found this in google and I try to download them but it never appear in the my gallery I keep doing that but I give up so screenshots and also I don't know who did the art? But it is amazing art and also they did beautiful on Emma! And also Jane wears the uniform well the purple uniform she does wear like all the rest of them but she still has little red tie and also she has the jacket on her waist wrapped around actually and also again she is getting along with Emma and she hopes she gets along with other people in this school

#Identity v #Identity v ask blog #Identity v ivory tower school #Identity v survivors

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wilburdehollin · 1 year

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wilbur if youve heard from nymph call me. and enough of these sad theatrics we're all bored with your fucking games. q.

Go and look for Nymph yourself, Big Q! You don't need me, remember?

#smoke puffs #What the hell are you doing at my doorstep bitching to me about my blog?#How is the view up in that ivory tower of yours?

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historianthesecond · 10 months

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Something to Remember (Until I See You Again)

I'm in my plotless fics phase, but hopefully soon I'll return with the ones I have ongoing :D

Nikolai Lantsov x Fem!Reader-----1.5K----- I'd say (N)SFW (check tags pls**)

Summary: When Nikolai is about to go on a business trip, he is decided to have a night to remember during his absence from his Queen.

Tags: Established Relationship| Fluff| Implied Smut** but I didn't write it sorry| Implied Breeding Kink I guess (?) yeah I'm becoming filthier in this blog too|

Nikolai walked with his hands filled with the remaining paperwork of the day, the bell tower chiming midnight, echoing in the almost empty hallways, the guards walking in pairs to go toward their watches, which he nodded silently as he passed by.

He looked at Tolya’s figure flanking the familiar double door of his bedroom.

“Is Leonid still not recovered from his cough?” He said, balancing the folders with one hand, trying to open the door. Tolya turned the handle for him.

"I'm afraid not. But I've arranged for Maxim to cover his place during our journey to Os Kervo. Daniil should be on his way to take over my post tonight.”

Nikolai nodded. “Very well, Tolya. You should go rest, too." They were going to leave before breakfast tomorrow, which meant that he wanted to pass some time with his Queen before he went on a business travel for some weeks. Alone.

He had pouted then, looking at you with his best puppy eyes, your body curled around his lap. "But my sweet, we haven't traveled together ever since our honeymoon."

“We shouldn’t let the capital alone if don’t need to,” you replied. “Besides, I can’t go anywhere until that new school is all built and running smoothly. Count Alekhin has taken a like to do things behind my back.”

"I knew I should've let his younger brother trample with his carriage," Nikolai sighed, disappointed.

“At least we know that Count Alekhin would say yes to anything over an empty bottle of brandy.” You shrugged. “I can’t say the same for the younger one. Besides,” you added, poking his right cheek. “We both know you wouldn’t focus on work if I were there.”

He couldn’t himself from winking. “Your wistfulness would never cease to amaze me, love.”

So it was decided then.

Tonight, his steps were muffled, careful that his new boots didn't squeak on the marble floor as he crossed the chamber toward the door past the living room. This time, he juggled with the papers and the doorknob, the lock clicking open.

The room was bathed in a dim hue of orange, ivory bedsheets tossed aside by your sleeping form as the lamp was next to your side of the bed, its glow casting halos around your hair, the left sleeve of your nightgown falling down your shoulders.

He felt his lips curving in a smile at the sight, part of him wishing he were a skillful painter to capture such a stunning moment for posterity.

Leaving the papers on the desk by the balcony, he carefully sat next to your figure, his weight dipping the mattress, which made your body slide closer.

You frowned at your sleep. Nikolai chuckled, passing his thumb in the soft curve of your cheek to ease your furrow.

Of course, you could recognize the way the brushed his fingers on your cheek every time he did it just to see your face flushed.

“Mm—my love?” you mumbled, leaning in closer to his touch.

“Are you dreaming about me, or did I just wake you up?”

You squinted your eyes at him, lips slightly swollen from sleeping. They were always very distracting. “It could be both.”

"Then why don't you share with your husband the tales of this dream, my love?" He said, leaning in closer to smell the lavender essence of the lotion you used at night, naughty lips finding their way up to your mouth from the curve of your shoulder. "Perhaps we could make it true?"

You squirmed in his embrace, tickles waking you up enough to see the pile of paperwork on his desk.

“Or perhaps I should help you with some paperwork before that,” you mumbled, his fingers tapping your hips in a pondering manner.

He took off his coat, the room feeling warmer than his office as the windows were closed.

“Maybe my queen could help me with something else,” he said innocently, though his eyes were twinkling with what only could be mischief. “What about giving me a very good memory to cherish while I’m on my trip?”

You felt your cheeks hot. “You’re incorrigible.”

"You like me that way, don't you?" You shrugged, kicking him playfully for you to step out of bed. He grabbed your leg, with you coming to the quick understanding that it was a foolish move the one you did. "Come on, don't be shy."

You shook your head, sending locks flying, brushing, and framing your neck. “No. You’re too cocky already.”

His laugh reverberated on your own chest from the proximity you were entangled into. “I suppose I’ll have to make you say it in another way,” he muttered, his hand gracing up your leg, disappearing into the skirt of the nightgown.

"Don't you have work to do first?" you nagged at him, though you couldn't hide the goosebumps traveling across your arms at his light touch. "I can help you, so you can have at least some hours of sleep tonight.”

His eyes lighten. “Is that a promise, my Queen?”

“We’ll see,” you said, your feet muffled against the carpet around the bed as you went to grab the paperwork. The windows had started to mist with the drizzle that started falling since lunchtime, the first sign of autumn’s arrival. “I do deserve some reward after I’ve aided you.”

When you returned to the coziness of the bed, Nikolai had already settled himself on your side of the bed, which only meant that he wanted you to sit on his lap, or against his back.

You looked at him, and he gazed at you back with a blank expression. "Yes, my love?" Instead of your warm weight, you put the cold folders and papers on his lap. "That's not fair."

"You get distracted too quickly," you reminded him because it wouldn't have been the first time he had presented crumpled paperwork in a morning meeting, hurriedly asking a notary to transcribe it again.

“It’s not my fault my wife’s captivating.”

“Oh,” you said, a hand on your chest, feigning to be offended. “Then it’s my fault.”

“Indeed is it, why are you so beautiful?”

You smiled, sliding onto his side of the bed; cold sheets welcoming you as you shifted closer to him, where the warm irradiated. "So I can do this without repercussion,” you muttered, blowing air into his ear as you went in to kiss the outline of his jaw.

"Now you're distracting me on purpose," Nikolai said, settling the paper he was trying to read back into his lap. "Such a naughty one you are, too."

“I’m not, I’m well-behaved, unlike my husband.”

He laughed, his left hand enveloping your waist to drag you so close he could embrace you, nuzzling his nose on your soft hair, his hot breath against your neck when he whispered your name as if it were the start of an enchantment. "You know exactly what you are doing. But it doesn't really matter, does it? You always make me feel this way," Nikolai said, his hands growing astray up and up your legs, the fabric of your skirt pushed upwards.

“N-Nikolai…” you said, your voice suddenly caught in your throat. “The… the work.”

“Not so cheeky now, are you, my sweet?” He said, his fingers playing with the fabric of your undergarments, his lips eagerly stealing a kiss from yours. “Luckily for you, I’m a great multitasker.”

“That is something that I highly doubt,” you muttered, already feeling your hips raising so he could slip the clothes off you.

“And why is that?” he asked in response, running his hand higher up, toward the hem of your underwear. “Do you think I’ll lose focus?”

The skin on your arms got covered in goosebumps, your breathing halting at an irregular pace as you felt the familiar knots of desire starting to build in your stomach.

“Maybe not you,” you muttered, huddling closer to him. "But… other people."

“Oh, is that the case?” He teased in a low voice, leaning in closer. “And who would these other people be, hmm?” Nikolai said, pressing a kiss on your cheek.

Despite his tone, his hands started to shake, his mind that before trying to focus on the work laid in front of him now was clouded with desire; his heart slamming against his ribcage, growing impatient as his body wanted to oblige to act.

You looked up at him, your eyes twinkling. “Why ask if you already know the answer,” you said, turning around on your knees to face him, to tangle your legs around his waist.

Nikolai put the papers in a messy pile on the nightstand. “I think my advisors would understand if I don’t finish reading these today.”

You climbed on his lap, hands playing with his hair. “Don’t worry. I’ll revise them first thing in the morning.” You looked right into his eyes, pupils blown out by desire and love.

You kissed him, taking in his essence to keep in your dearest memories until he returned home.

“I’m going to miss you,” you said between pants.

“Maybe you could even make me come back sooner,” he muttered, his breath moving the tiny hairs closer to your ear as his lips started descending toward your chest.

"Hmm?" you said, dumbfounded by his mischievous smile.

His hand rubbed your belly, the soft silk of your nightgown wrinkling between his fingers as he took it off you. “With the notice of the upcoming arrival of our first pup, of course.”

#nikolai lantsov x reader #nikolai lanstov x reader #shadow and bone x you #nikolai lanstov x you #nikolai lantsov imagine #nikolai lantsov x you #shadow and bone x reader #shadow and bone fanfiction

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hinganskies · 2 months

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Nagisa Kagamine ❤️‍🔥

Nagisa works as a bodyguard with a fiery disposition, a sharp tongue and an even sharper blade. She travels in search of knowledge and wisdom and loves a good meal with comrades.

Onyx 🪻

Onyx is mysterious and has not told anyone about her past or where she came from. Despite being intimidating with her sharp fangs and ability to tower over everyone, she’s a total sweetheart who loves to share sweets with her friends.

🌊🌊🌊🌊🌊🌊🌊🌊🌊🌊🌊🌊🌊🌊🌊🌊🌊

Hello my name is Saturn! Feel free to give me a follow if you’re interested in ffxiv related content! ✨❤️ I’m happy to follow back and reblog your ocs!!!

Before you follow, MY BLOG IS NOT SPOILER FREE

I do not tolerate bullying, harassment or stalking!

As stated above, if you find yourself blocked and don’t know why, it’s likely you engaged in hurtful behavior to me, a friend/acquaintance, or someone on my dash. Please be kind, we all have a right to be here. Conflict is a normal thing that happens with social interactions, but it is entirely up to you how you choose to engage with conflict. Please have respect for other’s boundaries and privacy. If someone blocks you or tells you to leave them alone, you leave them alone!

Character descriptions below:

Currently Nagisa works as a bodyguard/sellsword for multiple locations including the Namazu and Rads-at-Han. She is training in the art of the Samurai, as well as botany and alchemy. She is also a close friend and ally of Lord Hien as well as Lady Yugiri.

Nagisa’s place of birth is Sui-no-Sato, which lies beneath the Ruby Sea. Despite her kin’s efforts to shun the outside world, Nagisa’s passion and curiosity for the outside led her away from Othard entirely and towards a completely new world for a long time before returning. Her drive to learn about the world around her and to help others is often seen as a beacon of hope for her peers.

That being said, Nagisa has some very interesting characteristics about her including her viridescent skin dotted with ivory freckles and plentiful horns that protrude from her skull. These can be attributed to her being Au Ra Raen/Kojin. Growing up she knew she looked different from her peers and it was difficult for her to fit in a lot of the time. But she embraces her unique beauty and continues to pursue her dreams ❤️‍🔥

#ffxiv #nagisa kagamine #my oc #ffxiv gpose #ffxiv glamour #ffxiv spoilers #ffxiv screenies #au ra #raen #shb spoilers #ffxiv oc #ffxiv au ra #kojin

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anghraine · 9 months

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I got good news on the academic front yesterday, and although I'm a bit ".......?" about it, it's very cool.

So now I'm thinking about how much fun I had back in 2011 (when I was an undergrad!) writing a fic where a sketchy academic in the distant future hatches a theory that Darth Vader was .............. *drumroll* Anakin Skywalker.

But also, while her monograph is daring and there's some good evidence for it, a lot of this scholar's research is pretty shoddy. The fic is not the original scholar's take but a(n also dubious) critical anonymous review of it.

Then, in 2017 (this would be after I got my MA), I was prompted to write a sequel, I think by @beatrice-otter. I wrote and posted the sequel in which a third scholar, this one actually willing to give her name, has done research in Tatooine for several years and condemns the first scholar's total lack of engagement with Tatooinian sources or knowledge.

I doubt I'll write more of that specific verse, but re-reading is like ... hmm, my career path is not exactly a shocking revelation.

#i have a meeting later today about doing archival work and i just remembered the fic title. lol.#okay past elizabeth #anghraine babbles #ivory tower blogging #star wars #fic talk #fic talk: the vader archives

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wiley-treehouse-gardens · 8 months

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#crassula #crassulas #ivory towers #plant photography #plant blog #plants #succulent #succulents #garden #plant

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saintsenara · 7 months

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1,8,18,21,22

thank you very much for the ask, @ashesandhackles. let's see how these go down...

[choose violence ask game here]

1. who is the character everyone gets wrong?

the last time i answered this question i said sirius - both fanon sirius and dark!sirius - and i stand by it, so this time, let's say... dumbledore.

and, actually, i think this for many of the same reasons which inspired my sirius answer. i really dislike dumbledore bashing, since it’s so frequently based in a complete misunderstanding of his character and the role he serves within the series’ narrative conventions - above all, the fact that the omniscient vibe he gives off in books 1-6 is not actually omniscience at all, as book 7 reveals; dumbledore doesn’t know that sirius is innocent, or that moody is barty crouch jr., or that kreacher is passing information to voldemort, because he’s just a human being. far too many criticisms of dumbledore don’t take this into account, ascribing to malice what is clearly just fallibility.

but, with this said, i dislike the anti-bashing turn in dumbledore-centric fics just as much, because many of these pair the idea that dumbledore is fallible (good and correct) with the idea that he is - for want of a better term - harry-ish. and this is just as bad a misreading of the character. dumbledore is not impulsive or reckless or radical - he holds radical views, but he does nothing to actually advance them in society (this is a man who is at the heart of the establishment for half a century, who does nothing with that power to dismantle the oppressive social structures which drive wizarding politics and prop up blood-supremacy). dumbledore is a hypocrite - he’s happy to be depended on by fudge, he is appalled that fudge might depend on lucius malfoy. dumbledore lives in an ivory tower. dumbledore projects his shame and self-loathing onto others in a way which is detrimental to their own happiness. and so on.

none of these things preclude dumbledore being courageous, but his ‘gryffindor courage’ is remarkably un-gryffindorish, and a lot of pro-dumbledore writing is surprisingly unwilling to confront this.

[also, there’s the other layer of pro-dumbledore writing i dislike - when authors make him hyper-whimsical. the man is stylish, rather than dressed like he ran into a charity shop and fell over. his sweet tooth is an incidental detail - and a trait which harry also shares - rather than his entire personality. he is not dithering and indecisive - he is a creature of inaction, but he tends to have settled on a single ‘right’ course very quickly in his mind. he is not silly. he is not a blushing fool in his relationships - all evidence is that he had just as much power over grindelwald as grindelwald had over him. he is not particularly emotionally demonstrative. he is physically strong. he is taller than voldemort. and, crucially, his mask of benign good humour is fake. all of his ‘whimsical’ traits are part of the act, the real dumbledore is ruthless and damaged and a nerd who loves reading and it’s iconic. let him be that way.]

8. what is the common fandom opinion that everyone is wrong about?

there is no such thing as canon compliance.

by which i mean that ‘canon compliant’ is a useful tag to have on ao3 as an indicator of chronology - it’s a good shorthand for ‘the people who die in the series will die in this fic too’, ‘the main events which happen in the books will be mentioned here’, and so on. but i’m not sure that i think it goes beyond that.

and the reason for that, is that i have never seen anything which purports to be canon compliant beyond chronology - including my own work - which actually is.

there are several reasons for this:

the first is something which, if you’ve read other posts on this blog, you will know is a common refrain of mine - that the series is bound by specific genre conventions. if authors are transferring the action into a genre different from the ones the series makes use of, they are not writing something which is canon compliant, but canon coherent.

the second is that if authors are filling in gaps which are missing from the series - above all, the marauders-era or post-war-pre-epilogue timeline - they are doing something which is materially no different from writing a non-canon ship. i.e. writing exactly what they want. if your fic is crammed with original characters, or your marauders listen to cool muggle music, or you’ve spent more than twenty seconds thinking about the wizarding political or legal system then i love that for you - this is good and everyone should do it. but it’s not canon compliant. it’s canon coherent.

the third - and undoubtedly most controversial - is that you cannot write something canon compliant and hold the principle that the author is dead. because we know exactly how jkr thinks that canon should be interpreted, and this is often in ways which are - to borrow a phrase from ursula le guin - rather ethically mean-spirited. jkr’s views on fairness, violence, class, motherhood, love, and - of course - gender weave themselves into the narrative in ways which cannot simply be written off as ‘oh, it’s just harry’s perspective.’

i believe we have a moral imperative to know what she thinks and to interrogate the ways in which this appears in the canon text. i also think - obviously - that we don’t have to agree with what she thinks in order to write things which feel close to canon. and i don’t agree with her - not only when it comes to her views on trans people, which are actively harmful - but also when it comes to things like the fact that she’s clearly someone who’s rather vindictive, but who believes that this vindictiveness is really a strong sense of fairness (look, for example, at the dichotomy between how the text presents violence against people it thinks ‘deserve’ it - harry using the cruciatus curse on amycus carrow being a great example, neither harry, nor mcgonagall, nor the narrative give a fuck - and those it thinks don't). or the fact that her own experience of both motherhood and daughterhood - an experience which was clearly very traumatic for her (her mother died of multiple sclerosis, her first husband was violent towards her, she has an extremely difficult relationship with her father) - drives the series’ prioritisation of sacrificial motherhood, criticism towards mothers who don’t make their children the focus of their entire world, and certain coolness towards fathers (especially absentee ones - who will be blamed by the narrative for being murdered by their own sons). or the fact that she has extremely narrow views on cisgender women, even before her views on trans women are taken into account, which turn up again and again in how female characters we are not supposed to be sympathetic towards are written.

i am not, of course, suggesting that writing a fic which is heavily based in canon means that an author supports jkr’s views. what i am saying instead is that fics which engage with questions such as how harry understands violence against the bad guys in ways which go beyond ‘lol, lmao’ or which write lavender as a person whose fondness for stereotypical femininity doesn’t make her insubstantial or which point out that the narrative blaming merope gaunt for dying directly justifies everything voldemort believes are canon coherent.

and, actually, i think that this broader term - canon coherent - is a better one to talk about the non-chronological aspects of canon compliance. because the dividing line between canon compliant fics and canon divergent ones is incredibly arbitrary, and often doesn’t take into account how close to canon the writing in otherwise canon divergent stories often is. after all, if someone writes a story in which harry feels exactly like his canon self, except that the romantic partner he ends up with isn’t ginny, that is arguably more canon compliant than a piece of happy-ever-after hinny in which ginny is a doormat who gives up her career to be harry’s bang maid and harry speaks like he’s had twenty years of therapy. but only one of these pieces will be welcomed onto canon compliant rec-lists and into canon compliant discussion spaces.

[and it’s worth mentioning that plenty of canon compliant only spaces do allow flexibility - above all in being open to interpretations of characters such as james, harry, and hermione in which they are not white. this is good and they should continue to do this, but we can go further, especially in accepting queer interpretations of the main characters into canon compliant discussion.]

i also think - and i’m aware this may sound cruel - that thinking in terms of canon coherence, rather than compliance and divergence, would be good for everybody’s ego. i can acknowledge that plenty of people who diverge from canon can be dicks about it - and i think that the criticism people who prefer the canon endgame ships often get for being ‘boring’ (and, in the case of ships such as remadora, ‘homophobic’) is bullshit - but the canon compliant girlies (gender neutral) are, in many cases, no better. it is not harder to write something ‘canon compliant’ - not least because, as discussed, you’re not - and it is not evidence of an author engaging more seriously with the text and its themes. there is a tendency i have noticed in the fandom spaces i inhabit, many of which feature people whose preference is for the canon ships etc., for non canon pairings to be treated as - essentially - crack ships, especially in stories which are light or whimsical in tone. but when i say that writing on tomarry or snarry or snack or snapemort or drarry or riddledore or wolfstar or what have you can deliver characterisation and worldbuilding and narrative construction which feels infinitely more plausible than many ‘canon compliant’ pieces of writing, i mean this entirely seriously.

and i think it would be good if the dividing line which leads many people to say ‘i don’t read canon divergent fics’ or ‘i don’t read canon compliant fics’ was instead blended into a preference for fics which are canon coherent or otherwise. we would all learn something.

18. it’s absolutely criminal that the fandom has been sleeping on…

delphini.

another reason why canon coherence over canon compliance is valuable is it means that one can pretend the cursed child doesn’t exist.

but i would like to make a case for the fact that delphini as a concept (so, nothing like the way she’s written in that play…) makes sense and is a character i’d like to see added to more stuff. she works within both voldemort and bellatrix’s canonical arcs, she gives rodolphus something to do post-war after he spends canon being futile, imagine how funny it would be if teddy had a crush on her, george-michael and maeby style (truly les cousins dangereux), imagine how funny it would be if she is the spitting image of her muggle grandfather and her dad’s having a crisis every time he sees her, imagine her trying to parent trap voldemort and bellatrix into actually falling in love…

you can do serious things with her too - in fact, i have - but, as someone who thinks anything is improved by someone spindly and vaguely sinister, i think she’s a hoot and she deserves to turn up in more things.

21: what part of canon do you think is overhyped?

my eyes were bone dry when dobby-ex-machina died.

22: what is your favourite part of canon, which everyone else ignores?

that harry is a luxury boy. let my man buy his solid gold cauldron, hagrid, don’t be a narc.

[in general, i don't love versions of harry which show him as really abstemious or austere - he's pretty careless with his possessions and he doesn't regard the expensive things he owns as something to be unusually protective over. in his adulthood, he's 100% making sure his shed is stocked with the best brooms on the market and buying himself a little treat whenever he's feeling spenny.]

#choose violence ask game #albus dumbledore #is chill and i'll defend him #canon compliant #is bullshit #delphini riddle #is real #all the takes this morning #asks answered

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hana-no-seiiki · 1 year

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YANDERE ! ORIGINAL CHARACTER PROFILE : MORI BAN

PROFILE STATUS: UNEDITED

Elements of this Character Profile is STC.

Keep in mind that all my OCs in this blog are from a shared universe and that the story/character elements might change as I work on the series. Some works here are also non-canonical to the character, and as such may contain a different plot/setting/character backstory entirely.

GENERIC INFORMATION:

NAME: MORI BAN

ALIASES: BOSS, BOSS MAN, THE DELINQUENT, WIFEY, STALKER, ALBINO LION, FAILURE, MOP HAIR, MULLET MAN

GENDER: MALE

SEX: TRANS-MASC

PRONOUNS: HE/HIM

BLOOD TYPE: AB

AGE: 21 (As of 1896)

BIRTHDAY: AUGUST 28 1875

HEIGHT: 6’8” (203cm)

WEIGHT: 250 lb (113kg)

HAIR COLOR: PALE TURQUOISE

EYE COLOR: MAGENTA

SKIN COLOR: IVORY

RELATIVES : The Ban Clan

— Ban Gabrielle (Descendant)

— 11 Siblings

— Parents

OCCUPATION: MILITARY STUDENT (formerly), REGULAR STUDENT.

Featured In:

Tumblr Works / As a Yandere Character :

— Hairpin | Popped

— 1K Celebration | Underwear

(note that the earlier stories are separate from his actual lore and are the connected at all to the comics he’ll feature in nor his backstory in the overview)

Comic Series :

— Make Money Not Love!

— Midnight Darling

OVERVIEW

Main Storyline ( In the Comics ) :

Mori comes from an extremely poor background. He’s the 8th out of all 12 siblings, and was only ever given attention to due to his hair and eye color presumably given to him by Celestial Tower [more on that in future, will link a separate post explaining the Tower].

As such he was forced into school despite wanting to help out by working instead. He’s faced with great pressure to graduate and eventually join the new Reconnaissance of the Otherworld • Special Unit ( RO•SU ロ•ス ). However, his mana was found out to be corrupted and he’s quickly dispatched (killed) on site.

He is reborn many centuries earlier as a delinquent, back before the Celestial Tower’s appearance. His arc on the comic “Make Money Not Love” is about his struggles with finances and the expectations of an Asian society that places value on monetary success.

Mori is abnormally tall. He used to be AMAB in his original timeline and his height (along with his hair and eye color) carried over despite the new biological sex. His height is presumed to also have come from the Celestial Tower since such an incredible height is rare not just from his family but the country he lived in.

Due to the value put on his looks (i.e. hair and eye-color) he abhors people touching him. Afraid that even the slightest change, or damage would affect his value as a person. Even in fights he makes sure that neither gets in harms way.

As a Yandere (for x you/reader people):

Now as a Yandere, Mori is extremely materialistic. Whether consciously or unconsciously, he likes when he’s given objects of value. He’s also extremely masochistic, as he likes to get into fights or annoy people for the sake of attention.

Mori has extremely low self esteem. The slightest bit of kindness will have him falling, but that feeling is usually fleeting unless the other person maintains their affection towards him.

If you’re to be his darling, you’d need to be extremely patient or at least be resistant to teasing. He can’t help it, he does it out of love, you see?

His ideal darling would be the type to be rude when it comes to words but soft when it comes to actions. A tsundere one might say. He’s also into the cool, collected types (but it would be even better if they insulted or beat him up once in a while)

His worse match would be a shy, demure, compliant darling. He enjoys challenges, thrills. His previous life basically wired him to enjoy hardships. If the Darling gave into him easily he’d find them boring.

Is probably the only yandere I’ll ever write that’s okay with being cucked. Might even like it a little too much.

Mussy.

Sub leaning switch.

[to be added upon]

GALLERY:

[to be added upon]

©️ hana.no.seiiki | yun. please do not redistribute, repost, translate this written / painted work without credit or permission.

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reimenaashelyee · 1 year

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This is maybe not so important to announce but it's going to affect my online activity/webcomic updates, so here it is:

I am going back to school and pursuing a Masters in Arts Management until 2025

If you recall, I have spoken several times in my blog about my past life in academia, the quarter-life crisis that resulted from it (not the full story), and the occasional spasm of desiring institutional recognition.

I am willingly! voluntarily! going back through the gates of the ivory tower.

For the past few years now, I’ve been slowly crabwalking towards an administrative, organisational, educational/resource-providing, leadership-type role in my areas of work (comics, writing, illustration, commercial art).

I hinted about somewhat being sick of the physical and emotional investment of comics-making trapping me to the same four-walls. The 2-ish years of hard commitment that each graphic novel demands is something that I don’t mind doing, especially for a story I truly believe in. However, I cannot keep doing this consecutively. For two years, I keep having visions of myself in my late-fifties asking me, now, if this is all worth it: to devote all this time to make comics that people like, but to not have a life lived? I am thinking of those mangaka who spend all their time breathing eating knowing only comics, and then suddenly, dying with not much to show except their impressive body of work. Did they see enough of the world? Did they eat enough good food? Have they discovered all their non-comics passions? I certainly don’t want my ghost to ask the same questions when she sees my body.

In a way I’ve sort of outgrown that shine of comics as a full-time job: ironically, in my success at producing audience/market-friendly work in exchange for financial support, I do not have time at all to pursue experimental, personal play and art that truly speaks to me. I’m also facing the reality that, as much as I enjoy working in traditional publishing, I am running out of ideas. I only have 2 to 3 more stories left in me for young adult/middle grade graphic novels. After that? I don’t know…

(Unless the new graphic novel imprints are suddenly hungry for adult work. Because, boy, do I have ten billion ideas.)

Anyway, the situation is that the majority of the graphic novel space in traditional publishing is still cashing in on the boom for middle-grade/young adult stories, with no long-sighted consideration for catering to those readers who will eventually, definitely grow up into adults. Meanwhile, I am running out of kids stories and am desperate to make bloody, complicated work (the kind of stuff I was already making pre-success and am still making), and to disentangle the actual act of creating from income-making. Not in the sense that I don’t want money at all from my comics; just that I don’t want comics to be my primary source of income anymore. And personally… I just want more time to live and be offline.

So this is the emotional aspect that’s been motivating my crabwalking. Still, if that was not a factor, this was always going to be the natural progression of my career anyway.

Like, considering that I began my career as co-founder of a regional comics network and my life-long practice of creating resources, it’s not that surprising. Even when I formally officialised my career in 2018 as a Traditionally Published, Professional Comics Creator in the Mid-list, I was also engaging in the administrative with my dayjob at Hiveworks, in addition to the aforementioned regional comics network UNNAMED, and now, the Cartoonist Cooperative. I continually make resources and facilitate them. The dayjob is expanding to include even larger responsibilities (it’s not really company-related, just a consulting thing we’re doing with a giant entity).

Clearly, the horizontal pivoting has gotten to the point where that aspect is becoming the majority of my practice, into something that I actually want to form the bulk of my career and the foundation of my 30s era. It’s happening at the same time as my desire to withdraw from the cycle of commercial production to focus on what I call studio/residency work aka sketching and making my webcomics.

So yeah, I’ve decided to formalise the other half of what I am already doing, since in this universe one can’t get a job in corporate/NGO/NPO art administration without a degree – despite years of experience and evidence of extremely specialised skills that don’t exist in a university course but are valuable on the ground (do they teach comics crowdfunding and webcomics marketing/production in tertiary?). And I do intend to go somewhat corporate, even if it’s as someone who runs a literary festival or artist residency. Because I actually find pleasure in doing all that admin juggling. I like helping artists pursue their practice. It engages a side of my brain that is understimulated since I stopped academia.

I went to the Orientation session on Thursday. It had been exactly 8 years since I last did an Orientation for school; I am no longer a wide-eyed doe so the entire time I was barrelling through the throngs of baby undergraduates and sitting through the talks with laser-focused practicality (putting aside the nice-sounding speeches for the actual hard facts of where stuff is and who to contact; though the speeches were quite thoughtful).

Anyway,

anyway…

This is a long-winded post to break the Jinx and say I am officially pursuing my Masters in Arts Management. Two years of this. Who knows what may happen?

Hopefully I will come out with better experiences this round, since this would be the first time that I chose a course not out of anxiety for the unknown, but because I very much know what I want based on experience actually working in industry.

#long post #yeah the inevitable has happened #I am studying...again

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