#this was hard bc everything is kind of unfinished and i like to do look back and reflect codas lmao | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

xueyidweams · 12 days

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rambling once again (aventurine x cat-person gn!reader) (this kind of pattern is what I’m talking about.) (read more bc this became quite long, sorry!!!)

Aventurine in his life of working for the IPC has come across a lot of stealers or kids trying to find their food for the day. he usually gives them some money and send them on their way. however, he really didn’t expect for someone to try and rob him in Penacony, in the dreamscape no less. Somehow he didn’t sense the man hurling himself towards him and grunted in surprise as he was pushed down, before he could even open his eyes the man was off of him and running away with claw marks all over him.

dumbfounded, he gets up and looks around, only to find two cat eyes staring at him… except they weren’t a cat… well.. half cat half person? He thought the species went extinct long ago. though, you were living proof of the opposite. you helped him sit up, he felt your claws brush against his knuckles and you felt the coolness of his rings on your paw-hand. observing his every move with utmost attention, your feline eyes following his every mimic and body movement.

“well thank you kind stranger—“ you accidentally cut him off as you smell him closely and realize who he is, he smells just like those bastards from the IPC! way too rich to be true smelling! your ears curl backwards and you pull yourself away hastily as you run away from him. He blinks as he sees you run, so fast… is this why the IPC hunts you all down like you’re all one of a kind? He yells after you, “Hey wait! just listen to me, please!“ you look back at him, your teeth snared and your pupils as slanted as they can be, “leave me alone IPC scum!”

you turn a few corners and your eyes widen in horror to see a dead end… what the hell, you know this place like the back of your hand! did they build this just now or have you been hanging in the unfinished part for way too long? the hairs on your tail stand up and your ears curl back as you hear his footsteps, taking a step back your back meets the wall with an oomph.

“Hey look— don’t be so hostile, we don’t have to be enemies. you can trust me.” yeah right. with those eyes? they’re unnervingly pretty and somehow frightening. your gut is telling you to run but your heart is hammering way too fast in your chest and the sound is drowning out his voice and you feel like everything you’ve had to endure to not fall into IPC’s slimy hands again has all been for nothing and—

you feel a hand on your arm, you look up and meet his eyes. then you feel the warm tears staining your cheeks, your tail hugs your leg as your ears droop, “look. please don’t give me up to them, i’ll literally do anything. do you want any dirty work done? i can do it! please just leave me alone, i don’t want to go back i can’t go back!” you see his eyes… soften somehow. to him, you’re a stark reminder of who he was, maybe still is. the way you fight so hard to protect the most precious thing to you, your freedom reminds him so much of the unsavory memories that he doesn’t notice he is squeezing your arm a bit hard and some of the fur is stuck on his rings. you flinch and grimace and he untangles your fur from his rings, he pulls his hands off of you.

he coughs in his hand and looks at you once more, voice softer yet firm. “im not going to hurt you or give you up. that’s not my job anyways. i just wanted to thank you, for helping even though it could put me in serious hot water. cats hate water right?” you half rolls your eyes at his teasing remark, “yeah yeah pretty boy, cough up some cash if you want to thank me. thanks for not turning me in but empty sentiments won’t feed me when i have to wake up from this dream.”

he smiles and takes off the ring from his index finger, he looks at you, “can i hold your hand?” you feel a slight warmness spreading through your face and squint your eyes, “fine but don’t try anything funny!” he chuckles and takes your hand in his gently, “wouldn’t dream of it.” he slips the ring on your ring finger, winking at you. “you can sell this for at least five hundred thousand credits, plenty to eat hm?” you look at your finger, the ring and at him as your heart does summersaults in your ribcage. you’ve never… even as a tease you’ve never been flirted with this is—

he takes advantage of your stupor and strokes your shoulder, squeezes slightly and gives you a smile. “you haven’t seen me and i haven’t seen you, yes?” you nod, speechless but thankful. he turns around and you finally get your voice back, “wait!” he looks back, his eyes watching you with interest. he raises his eyebrows, “thank you. i dont know what else to say but i’ll never forget this. and i wasnt’… joking when i said i could do your dirty work. so if you need something and i can get it done, i’ll do it free of charge.” you manage to tumble out as your voice trembles a bit, still shocked. his smile returns, “I’ll think about it, maybe fate will make us cross paths again huh?” he gives a little wave and starts walking, “oh also, do take care of your fur, it’s rather soft.”

you look dumbfounded, your face morphing from surprised to angry to flustered but he has already left. you look at your ring finger again and play with the ring, maybe the aeons have pitied you now?

‘he’s really pretty…’

you think to yourself as you pocket the ring and think of all the fish, meat and bread you’re gonna eat. and maybe you’ll try that soul glad thing.

#should i continue this?#hsr aventurine #honkai star rail #aventurine #aventurine x male reader #aventurine x reader #hsr x reader #aventurine honkai star rail #honkai star rail x reader

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wangxianficfinder · 9 months

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Fic Finder

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1. hello im looking for a fic where wwx and lwj are married but wwx died. wwx is interred in lotus pier and wangxian's kids go to see him and ask him to wake up, iirc. also it seemed unfinished or part of a series bc at the time i read it, the fic ends with wwx still dead. thank you so much for all that you do i hope your dinners are always good ♥️

FOUND? A Baby Dragon's Guide To Seducing Your Huli Jing by sweetlolixo (M, 87k, wangxian, fantasy au, dragon LWJ, fox WWX, younger LWJ, older WWX, fluff, humor, happy ending, WIP)

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2. Hi! I want to ask about a fic I read some time ago.

It was about a Canon Divergence where WWX and the Wens disappeared and years later they come back. They have formed a new sect and were hidden in the Wen territory. And I remember they had as a kind of dome with a fog or something in the Wen territory. And something happens that WWX and the Wens has to return and at the beginning doesn't want to talk to LWJ and always the one that speaks for him is WQ.I hope you can help me find this fic, I'd love to read it again. Thank you for everything 🤗💜 @wangxiansgirl

FOUND! 💖 Echo, Murmur, Dream, Here by bluerainmist (M, 51k, wangxian, canon divergence, WWX survives, sect leader WWX, yiling wei sect au, slow burn, angst w/ happy ending, getting together, pining, love confessions, reunions, mind all the tags)

Not FOUND! Identity Porn AU by ShanaStoryteller

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3. Hi! I've just watched the trailer for the movie "red, white and royal blue" and I remembered reading a wangxian fic based on that novel too!! I cannot find it anymore tho? Does anyone remember that fic? Thank you all guys for your amazing support!! @jaecomments

FOUND! History, Huh? by BaconnEggs (M, 53k, WIP, WangXian, Modern AU, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, Fake/Pretend Relationship, RWARB AU basically, Modern Royalty, First Son, International Relations, Diplomacy, Multimedia, Miscommunication, Mischief, Royalty, First Kiss, Implied Sexual Content, Friends With Benefits, Oblivious, Sexuality Crisis, Non-Graphic Smut, Secret Relationship, Fade to Black, YZY is a Good Parent, WangXian Being WangXian, Chatting & Messaging, First Time, Twitter) could it be this one? i haven't read it but it's the only one i could find that fits.

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4. Hii! I'm looking for this fanfic where Wei ying got cursed or something like that. Because of that he can't see (and feel? hear?) Lan Zhan, Lan Sizhui, Lan Jingyi, Jiang Cheng (and Jin Ling?). To break the curse they have to admit their true feelings towards him and wei ying has to acknowledge and accept them. He thinks they all hate him, but that is obviously not the case ^^

I hope you can find it.

FOUND? See Me, Feel Me (Listening to You) by Ghost_Honey (T, 29k, wangxian, JC & WWX, LSZ & WWX, JL & WWX, LJY & WWX, WWX pov, WWX needs a hug, and gets several, WWX’s abysmal self-esteem, emotional healing, angst, curses, JC & WWX reconciliation, hurt/comfort, cuddling)

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5. Hi!!!! I'm looking for a texting fic, it's set in the regular mdzs verse (not modern, but like they just invented a version of texting) LXC is like a massive hoe in it. Please help, I'm getting desperate here, Thanks @sad-stucky-shipper-107

FOUND? Grandmaster of Meme-onic Cultivation by Hades_the_Blingking (T, 75k, LWJ/WWX/MXY, chat fic, canon compliant, memes, polyamory, not everyone dies au)

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6. Hey, I have been looking for this fic for a very very loooong time, and still unable to find it. I hope you can find it for me

Here is all the things that I remember of that fic:

- modern setting

-lwj is an actor or singer (not sure which one 🤔)

- established wwx/lwj-i think wwx is a reporter/paparazzi

-there is a part where other reports think that lwj is dating mianmian

That's all I can remember so far. Hope you can find it 🤞@mayavsworld

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7. Hi! Please help me find this fic. It was post canon. LJY night hunting with LSZ, but only LJY come back to Gusu with LSZ's head ribbon. WWX took the news hard that i think its mentioned that he fall sick after that. I think LWJ went to where the night hunt happened and kill the snake yao to at least find LSZ body to have a burial but come out empty. I think it was chaptered fic but im not sure. At near the end of the story, in LP, LSZ turn up and make JWY shocked. He than tells JWY that the snake yao didnt killed him and he get lost when he is trying to go home. Thats all i remember. Thank you! @idontknowwhattowriteforusername

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8. a fanfic where wei ying's parents aren't married and he gets turned into a slave @lydiablackrose

FOUND? To Be Known by kat8cha (M, 4k, LXC/JGY, pre-3zun, wangxian, mildly dubious consent, Captive Prince fusion, sex work, master/pet, something made them do it, non-con situation, emperor NMJ, WIP/discontinued)

FOUND? Leash the Wind by ladyshadowdrake (E, 71k, wangxian, LXC/JGY, NHS/JC, Captive Prince fusion, emperor LXC, fluff & angst, slow burn, dub con, extensive world building, WIP)

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9. Hey, I was hoping you could help me find a wanxian fic where wei wuxian gives himself to the Lans to be cleansed from resentful energy in exchange for the Wen's safety. The wens move to cloud recesses, I think. Lan wangji uses his qin to purge the resentment and unknowingly nearly kills wei wuxian. His body starts to deteriorate back to when he had injured himself in the fall to the burial mounds.

FOUND? decay by antebunny (G, 15k, WangXian, Canon Divergence, Angst, Misunderstandings, Miscommunication, Fix-It, Angst with a Happy Ending, the fluffiest ending, Hurt/Comfort)

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10. There’s a fic I can’t track down. It was a bottom Lan Wangji one. I think wwx had been fantasizing about oral sex for a while and I have a rather distinct memory of Lan Wangji sitting down next to him at his desk and sucking on his fingers. The situation may or may not have had something to do with some p0rn Huaisang sent them, my memory is very hazy :’D

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11. Hello! Jealous lwj au. Wen ning and wwx are friends. wwx loves making lwj jealous because he gets railed so hard when lwj is jealous and angy. then one time it got too much, wwx suggested hugging or doing something sketchy with wen ning during a party. wwx promised wn that it'll be the last time. then lwj saw it, but sadness was seen in his face not the usual anger that wwx wants from lwj. lwj runs away from the party and lwj throws their ring. then wwx ran after him crying begging. THANK YOU! @jamebyeol-blog

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12. hello!

there was a particular fic where wei wuxian learns how to weild his sword all over again and sword fights with lan wangji under the moonlight and lam wangji is extremely turned on by it.

wei wuxian tries to pick up sword fighting and challenges lan wangji

this and any other wangxian sword fighting fic works too!! @lalalalan

REC: 与其身后名 | immaculate by auberjing (E, 15k, wangxian, wuxia au, courtesan LWJ, angst w happy ending, revenge, pining, virgin LWJ, getting together, major illness, blood & injury, martial arts, cottagecore, ritual sex, alcohol, mutilation, near death experiences, recovery, implied/referenced torture, bottom LWJ)

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13. Hi, sorry to bother, I have two requests for finding a fic. I wanted to know if anyone remembers A) a fic where A Yuan goes with Wei Wuxian to Jin Ling's A one month celebration. This someone changes the way things go. B) Also another one where A Yuan shows up with Wei Wuxian when he's discussing the Wens being prisoners so people see that there are children in the prisoners camps!! Any story where A Yuan changes things for the better before Wei Wuxian's death. Thank you, be well @monicaop21

Hi, thanks for your help but is not the fic I'm looking for, I think it was complete and I do remember A-Yuan is in Koi Tower, he arrives with Wei Wuxian there. Be well!!

13A)

Not FOUND I whatever you, I will stand by your side by Lizziewriter07 (M, 63k, WIP, WangXian, Canon Divergence, YLLZ WWX, BAMF WWX, BAMF LWJ, Burial Mounds Settlement Days, Slow Burn, Happy Ending, Canon JC, Bitter WWX, Cultivation world Bashing, dadxian, Sexual Tension, Pining, Protective LWJ, SongXiao Get a Happy Ending, Protective WQ)

Not FOUND! The Core Issue by Hauntcats (T, 21k, WangXian, Angst with a Happy Ending, Not JC Friendly, Canon Divergence)

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14. Looking for a fic that was on ao3. I remember there was two versions, one where WWX was a man and another where he was a woman and he decided to fake his death I think? And leave the cultivation world behind. He/she had twin sons that were A-Yuan and Jingyi I believe and then in the end LWJ who is the father of the twins but he doesn’t know it, fakes his death and finds them by an anonymous tip *cough cough* NHS who had tried to get WWX to rejoin the cultivation world earlier when NMJ died. @bigmeatycl0ws

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15. y’all are doing the gods work with this blog and this is coming from an atheist XD

anywho i’m looking for a specific fic (or was it series?) where the premise is the swords are spirits that can manifest in a human body. wwx is one such sword called suibian, as is lwj. the story starts (i think) with wwx being jc’s sword and they don’t really get along/harmonise (big surprise)

there’s some world building of a story of xxc being a self wielding sword and getting tricked by xy and either doing bad stuff and then dying or just dying.

uh it ends with wwx and lwj proving to the golden tower (the peeps that hold the swords because they’re too innocent or whatevs to be alone out in the wild) that they can handle their own. there’s a line in there about how they’re not self-wielding swords, but swords that wield each other.

wwx was previously lwj’s human under the name wwx something one or both of them forgot.

there’s some scene after about wwx meeting jc’s new sword and there being some antagonism between them (new sword throwing tantrum and wwx being chaotic but solving the problem as usual)???

think author said it was inspired slightly by touken ranbu? or some other sword person anime/game thing?

this is so detailed it’s bothering me so much but i can’t find it and i’m at the point where i’m doubting if it existed ;-; @tabbycallie

FOUND! swords, i guess by victortor (T, 26k, wangxian, swords au, asexual character, asexual LWJ)

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16. Please help me find a fic! I think it was a WWX's Parents Live fic, but I can't be sure. I remember that LQR had a good opinion of him at the start of the guest lectures. There's a scene where LQR is talking about talismans, and has WWX take out all of the talismans he has on him. WWX has a whole system set up for combat talismans in one sleeve and general use talismans in the other, and he lectures about their unique uses and value and a bunch of sect heirs get angry at him for showing them up, and I think there's a fight later? But I really don't remember much beyond that. @lewiscarrolatemybrain

FOUND! From the Warm Sun by sunshine_sparrow (T, 58k, WangXian, CSSR & WWX, CSSR & LQR, Discussion of Rape, Period-Typical Sexism, Mostly CQL but probably some MDZS too, CSSR Lives, Madam Lán Lives, Qingheng-jun lives, But WCZ Still Dies, Fix-It, Happy Ending, All Soft and Very Little Angst, the wens live, Yīn Iron, Good Person MY, Good Person LQR) The scene with the talismans is in chapter 4.

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17. Hello, thank you guys for all of your hard work! Don’t remember if this was book or cql canon but im looking for a fic where post WWX death lwj travels to another world where wwx is still alive during the cr lectures and older lwj, young WWX and young lwj end up sleeping together and then nhs comes and brings lwj back to their og world fulfill his grand plan

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18. Hi! I have already asked this before but i can't remember the title again. So i am asking for your help once again.

So like, the cultivation world needs yiling laozu's help and they tried to summon him using mo xuanyu but they failed since yl Iz appeared in his own original body and not in mxy. Anyway so history repeats itself, wwx knows everybody especially lan zhan cuz he his "friend" that time. They became curious about wwx, they found his journal and he kept talking about this certain friend eventually they found out the friend's name is lan zhan lan wangji. Time skip they found out that Iwj reincarnated, he looks exactly the same as wwx's friend. Lxc said it was impossible cuz all their ancestors died because of an explosion that was caused by wwx back in the day.

There is this spefic scene, wwx kept blaming himself because he was the reasom why Iz died, ok so Iz married a woman (arranged marriage) and had child with her, wy was heartbroken and told Iz that he has feelings for him, Iz also has feelings for him, so when Iz heard that the sects will have a siege in burial mounds he went there and protected wy then something happened and the surroundings explode.

Anyway, they have come to a conclusion that wy is an immortal, he took care of Iz's child, Iz reincarnated he fought really hard to keep his body and appearance the same @hellothere9597

I know I’ve read this one but I can’t remember the name and all the tags I think should be in there aren’t :’) ~Mod L

FOUND? Old Foreshadows by protos_metazu_ison (M, 15k, WangXian, YLLZ WWX, BAMF WWX, War, Universe Alteration, Sunshot Campaign, [Podfic] Old Foreshadows by Saint_tuesday)

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19. Ok I'm looking for a fic I read years ago where we have amateur porn channel, lwj is submissive full time and wwx calls him bunny, he's the Dom in the relationship but lwj is the top. It's all lwj pov and he's alone at home and horny but holding back bc he's not allowed to cum without permission even when he's alone. Idk I'm just needing some sub lwj in my life. Thanks so much!

FOUND? The impatient rabbit by BCat13 (E, 3k, WangXian, Somnophilia, BDSM, Dom WWX, Sub LWJ, top LWJ, Bottom WWX, Soft Dom WWX, Service Sub LWJ, Bunny LWJ, Emotionally overwhelmed LWJ, Breeding Kink, Exhibitionism, Art)

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20. hey! can anyone help me find this wangxian fic set in the burial mounds days where jgs (?) found this one artifact that would enable him to see inside of the burial mounds, called a meeting with all the sects and everyone saw that they were harmless or something among those lines, thanks!

FOUND? A Step in the Wrong Direction by pupeez4eva (Not rated, 4k, wangxian, canon divergence, humor, everyone realizes WWX and the wens are innocent, the Jins have a lot of answering to do, JGS pov)

FOUND? Through A Looking Glass by Purplepulu (Not rated, 21k, wangxian, canon divergence, Families of Choice, Wēn Remnants Live, Fix-It of Sorts, Creepy JGS, JZX Tries, Cultivators with One brain cell, Crack Treated Seriously, Humor, Angst w Happy Ending, Oblivious WWX, Pining LWJ, Matchmaker LXC, Mastermind NHS, Traumatized A-Yuan, Fluff, NMJ Lives, Soft NMJ, BAMF WWX, POV LXC, POV JGS, Protective JYL, JZN Being an Asshole, Everyone Lives au, Except for JZN, Good Sibling JC)

FOUND? Revealing Truth by DreamNightmare (G, 2k, WangXian, Canon Divergence, Fix-It)

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#wangxian #mdzs #wangxian fic finder #wangxian fic search #the untamed #wangxianficfinder #long post

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wooahaes · 2 years

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so this is love

pairing: non-idol!prince!vernon x fem!reader

prompt: disney cinderella au BABEYYYY this ones for ME bc i was sad

word count: 4.4k

warnings: abusive stepfamily since it’s a cinderella au. love at first sight, pretty much. fairy godparent!shua, seungkwan is a mouse, mingyu is a dog. jeonghan gets to be a horse. good for them. intentional lowercase + no proofreading.

daisy’s notes: ok pretend i didnt just spend the last two hours writing this when ihave a doctors appointment today. i wanna do a second part for this later btw thats a modern au which is part of the reason i used hansol instead of vernon. shh. just take love at first sight fic that i wrote to make myself feel better.

all you wanted was one night for yourself. one night to just go to the ball and maybe have the chance to see royalty for yourself.

the ball itself was meant to celebrate the king’s daughter’s birthday, and she wanted a masquerade with an open invitation to everyone in the kingdom (you’d always liked her: even if you knew there’d be guards everywhere to keep the royal family safe, she at least gave people the chance to come see them and escape their daily lives for once). your family--your step-mother and sisters--had given you your usual list of chores with another stacked atop it, and ever the diligent daughter, you took to working hard for the day. if you finished everything, you could go. that was the deal your step-mother had made you. your dress had been unfinished last you checked, and the later it became, the more likely you knew that you’d be left at home for another silly party of nobles.

then you returned to your bedroom at the top of the manor, downtrodden until the mice and birds you would talk to (they were much better company than your family, that was certain) had somehow managed to finish your dress for you. kindness truly would always be rewarded with kindness--that had been what your father said before his passing. the world needed more kind people, and you promised him you would always stay as warm and loving as he and your birth mother had been.

even when your dress was ripped to shreds, you kept your trembling fists at your side and retreated out into the remains your mother’s garden. all that was left were the food you’d grown there, pumpkins and tomatoes and the like, that you could use for meals now. you’d always missed the pretty flowers. but the carriage took off with your step-family inside, and you were left alone to sob to yourself.

you missed your parents. your mother would have gently stroked your hair and told you there’d always be another ball. your father would have stood up for you himself, like he always used to when your step-siblings stole your toys when you were children. then again, you wouldn’t even be outside crying. you’d be in that carriage, off to escape the dreary day to day life you knew. even if you were still running the house, your father would have granted you one night to yourself. you were positive of that.

“it’s just no use,” you sobbed aloud, face buried in your arms. your hair was in disarray, the fabric seemed far more itchy now than it’d been before. once you were calm, you’d change back into your everyday clothing and forget about all of this. “it’s just so pointless...”

“pointless?” a hand stroked your hair gently. “i don’t think so at all,” he said gently. “dreams are good, after all. you’ll be okay if you keep dreaming.”

“why should i?” you refuted, not caring to look up. “look where it got me...”

“dreaming made you into the person you are today,” he said. “and i think she’s stronger than this. chin up,” he chuckled. “i promise you’ll be fine.”

... who were you crying on, actually?

you drew back, looking up, only to gasp and recoil away at the face of a kind man with pretty, gentle brown eyes dressed in pale blue robes. “who are you? this is private land!” you pulled yourself together as best as you could, despite a tear-stained face and a stuffy nose. “i’ll...” you trailed off. no one human was home, but you had gyu. “i have a dog and he’ll bite.”

the man laughed at you, light and airy. “i know how this might look,” he stood, dusting himself off. “but i promise i’m only here to help you. after all... i wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for you dreaming.”

you stared at him. “so... i’m asleep?”

“not at all,” he said. “but we don’t have time to talk, do we? you want to go to the ball, don’t you?”

you nodded eagerly. “more than anything,” you said, and then looked down at the tattered remains of your dress. “but... i don’t have a way to go.”

he walked over to you, hands cupping your face. “it’ll be okay,” he said. “i’m here. consider me your fairy godparent, here to make your dream come true.”

... he could? you looked at him with hope in your eyes, and he pressed a gentle kiss onto the crown of your head.

“let’s see...” he paused, pulling a wand out of thin air. “you’ll need a carriage, won’t you? now let’s see...” he walked away from you, poking through the pumpkins. “you sing to them, don’t you?”

“i...” you felt your face heat up.

“i can tell,” he smiled. “how about this one?” he gently tapped one with his wand, and you gasped when it stirred from it’s position. the vines seemed to snap themselves from the ground as it pulled itself up with a lug, crawling away from where it’s once sat. it felt surreal to watch the vines extend, almost as though stretching from a long slumber, and barrel away.

with a wave of his wand, the man sent sparkles after it that spiraled around the pumpkin and made it grow larger with each bounding steps. vines curled into pure white wheels, the orange overtaken by white and gold. windows seemed to carve themselves out, disappearing into thin air as the muck inside of the pumpkin turned into soft curtains that were drawn.

it almost made you say something unladylike, that was certain. instead, you turned back to the other pumpkins, almost questioning whether they all had that potential.

“it takes a bit of magic,” he hummed, “those are still normal as something grown with love can be. now let’s see... we’ll need a driver, won’t we?”

you watched him turn his sights on gyu, who’d been sitting near the door, watching this whole thing go down. the dog perked his ears up when your fairy godparent met gaze with him. he walked over, giving the dog a gentle pat on the head.

“you’ll play your part, don’t worry,” he said reassuringly. “but for someone to drive the horses...” he turned his attention to hannie, your horse who’d been watching from a safe distance. “someone who knows the roads.”

with another wave of his wand, you watched as hannie was lifted with ease by magic. sure enough, he was transformed into a man who was easily lifted over and into the driver’s seat of your carriage. he gave you a smile and a wave after taking a moment to look over his body.

“and for horses...” he turned to where the mouse had been sitting with curious eyes. “you’ll do.”

another wave of the wand and you watched the four trying to scatter be turned into three horses of varying shades--and you saw your fourth, little kwannie, trying to dart away.

“oh, dear,” you said, hurrying over to gather him. he darted into your hands, squeaking quietly. “do you have to?”

“don’t you want to help her?” your fairy godparent said to the mouse. “it’ll only be for tonight.”

kwannie squeaked again. “good,” the man said in response, palm exposed as the mouse scrawled into his hand. “thank you, little one.”

he set his hand back to the ground, mouse scurrying away as he cast another spell. soon enough he had joined the rest, neighing proudly at his new, large state. your stepmother’s cat should see him now--you’re sure the rotten old thing would be scared into taking the baths he loathed despite getting himself dirty so often.

“what else do we need...” he mused to himself. “how would you like to be a footman?” he turned back to gyu, who began wagging his tail as he perked up. “just the job for you, hm?”

he waved his wand once more, and you watched your loyal companion be turned into a tall man, dressed in fancy white clothing.

“oh, gyu,” you cooed, reaching up to straighten him out a little more. “you look wonderful!” kwannie let out a whiny, and you giggled to yourself as you stroked his mane. “you all do, silly.”

your fairy godparent turned back to you, chuckling quietly to himself. “i can see why they love you,” he said. “and now it’s your turn,” he said, walking over. “stand still for me, love.”

you did as he told you, watching as he took a few steps back. with a deep breath, you braced for the impact of a spell to hit you: and soon enough, it did. you felt your gown shift and change around you, snug and cozy as could be, and the slippers you’d been wearing shifted as well. you opened your eyes, looking down at the pretty white fabric that you now wore. you’d miss the dress you were wearing beforehand--before it was destroyed, at least--because it’d been in your favorite color, but this was beautiful in its own right. you twirled, skirt flaring out around you as you giggled to yourself and hurried to take a look at your reflection in the fountain.

“the slippers are a gift,” he told you. “i know you look wonderful, but you should go,” he gently pulled you away and toward the carriage. “have a good time, my love. the magic wears off at midnight,” he pressed another kiss onto the top of your head. “and one final thing...”

one gentle tap at your temple, and a mask appeared over your eyes.

“no one would have recognized you without it, but it is a masquerade ball,” he teased you gently. “can’t forget that, can we?”

you hugged him tight, feeling his warm arms wrap around you. “thank you so much,” you whispered.

“your welcome,” he said. “now off you go,” he helped you step up into the carriage.

you waved farewell to him as hannie set the horses off, gyu sitting across from you with the dopiest smile on his face. he looked at you as everyone else did: with the love of someone who’d been loved in turn, kindness in your actions against them. even when you had to scold him for chasing your stepmother’s awful cat around. with the horses at full gallop to get you to the ball on time, you merely sat back and watched the scenery. how long had it been since you’d gone into town not on business for your family? too long, certainly. you were living primarily supported by your father’s money, things he’d gained for being a war hero before his passing, but you were primarily in charge of all financials related to food. as frustrating as it was for your step-family to waste what they could, you made things work. maybe one day you’d come out into the town and visit the baker again. seokmin always had something sweet for you, free of charge because you’d helped him a few times out of your own need to care for people.

guards were lined up everywhere at the palace, and you didn’t blame the royal family for being cautious. gyu helped you out of the carriage, and you were left to wander up on your own since the party was already in full swing. a guard had pointed you in the right direction, though, the ballroom just up ahead. yet you were too fascinated by how luxurious life must be in the palace. you could hear names being read off in the distance, the royal family likely greeting the nobility of the kingdom. your step-sisters were likely among them. if you were lucky, you’d maybe catch a glimpse of the royal family. that’d be something you could gossip with the tailor’s son, minghao, about for weeks when you had to see him. no doubt one of your family would need something new, and his family always had the best work.

unknowingly to you, hansol had spotted you from within the ballroom. being forced to greet every single person that he knew was secretly vying for his hand was frustrating. yes, it was his sister’s celebration, but he overheard the way his parents were set on having every eligible maiden in the kingdom come. he was of marrying age, after all. to have him betrothed to someone noble would help strengthen their ties, even if he had this (perhaps foolish now, considering he was a prince) romantic idea of finding someone he could love. he stifled a yawn halfway through the list, apologetic in how rude the action would be. but it was all so dull, even with his sister gently teasing him. noblewoman after noblewoman bowing as low as they can, some explicitly trying to catch his gaze with low-cut dresses that felt far too scandalous to wear in front of royalty.

and yet there you were, wandering outside without a care in the world. the last name had been read off, the music already beginning to start up, and hansol excused himself to find you. he knew his father’s steward would have spotted him on his way over, and likely would have stopped him if he hadn’t politely ducked through the crowd fast enough to not be stopped.

“is this your first time in the castle?” he asked, and you gasped as you turned to face him. “i’m--sorry,” he chuckled, “you looked lost.”

“i’m just...” you looked around. “i suppose i am a little lost,” you giggled, genuine and adorable in your starstruck reaction.

“are you here for the princess?” he nodded toward the ballroom.

you smiled at him. “to celebrate her, yes. but i’m afraid i don’t see myself meeting her--or any of her family, for that matter.” you looked back inside. “i wouldn’t be so lucky.”

“would you?” he smiled. “why is that?”

“all i wanted is a nice night,” you admitted. “being able to celebrate the princess is wonderful, but i wouldn’t want to intrude on her or her family. i can’t imagine how much stress all of this must be. to invite everyone here?” you met his gaze. “and being responsible for greeting them? i can only imagine how hard it must be.”

hansol felt something in his chest stir at that. genuine compassion for another person, and you didn’t even seem to know who he was. “would you like to dance?” he extended his arm to you.

and oh, that pretty smile would make every single thing he dealt with tonight worth it. “i’d love to.”

hansol never believed in love at first sight. but guiding you back out into the ballroom, knowing that you had no clue who he was and were treating him lovely nonetheless... it made his heart skip a beat. holding you in his arms did, too. for the rest of the night, he didn’t need anyone else there. let his parents see you with him. their plan to use his sister’s party to find him a bride could be considered a success if you were truly the warm person you seemed to be.

“do you want to get out of here?” he asked you at one point, and you smiled at him. “yeah you do,” he chuckled, taking your gloved hand in his own. “let’s go.”

you were happy to escape with this stranger. he was no prince (although, truly, you thought he was better than a stuffy prince would be with that pretty twinkle in his eye as he stole away with you outside), but he was charming in his own right. he told you he loved music, speaking to you about the works of lee jihoon with unrivaled passion. no one else bothered you as the two of you listened to the distant sound of the string quartet inside. was it silly to be so fond of someone who was so kind to you already? perhaps so. but he was lovely. you wanted to dance with him again, and he was content to hold you close and gently hum along to the songs inside.

and perhaps it was silly, but when he drew back to look you in the eyes...

“may i kiss you?”

you wanted nothing more than that. his lips were about to brush yours when the clock struck, ringing out twelve times.

oh no. your timing was awful and you knew it, but you tore away from him. “oh--”

he stared at you, dumbfounded considering how close you’d been. “i’m sorry?”

“no! i just--” you took a breath. “i haven’t seen any of the royal family,” you said. “and my family is leaving soon, so i must go--”

“wait!”

you took off, slipping through the crowd as quickly as you could. you could hear your dashing stranger calling out for you to wait, to stop and talk to him, but all you could focus on was getting out. you descended each step as quick as you could, nearly tripping as one of your slippers came loose. with a gasp, you turned to try and grab it, only to see someone else rushing after you--the king’ steward, seungcheol, who had brought you the invitation in person. you abandoned it instead: it’d disappear in time, most likely, and you needed to get out now. gyu had helped you climb back into the carriage, horses taking off the moment the door was almost completely shut.

you breathed a sigh of relief. that had been close, and even though you knew your time was running short before the magic completely disappeared, you at least had a start back home. gyu perked up, and you realized you could hear horses as well.

had you done something wrong? you squeezed your eyes shut, praying that you hadn’t. all you did was dance the night away with a handsome stranger with a love for music. that wasn’t a crime, was it? you hadn’t even had your chance to see the prince or any of the rest of his family.

oh well. at least you had the memory of almost kissing that man. surely he was nobility in his own right. perhaps you’d get your chance to find him again someday when life treated you more kindly. even after your carriage fell apart, your horses and coachman and footsman all turned back into their normal form, you were happy. your dress had disappeared into the torn strands of fabric it’d been before, but it took barely taking a step for you to realize you still had your other slipper. you held it out for your little mice friends to climb into, kwannie looking up at you with a sniffing nose with joy in those little eyes.

“it was wonderful,” you told him. “let’s go home. stepmother won’t be home until the party ends, most likely.”

despite having to walk the rest of the way home barefoot, you were happy to recount the night to your companions. they held no responses save for the happy yip or whiny or squeak, but that didn’t stop you. you took care of what you could when you returned home, cleaning up the ripped fabric and spilled beads from your dress before returning to bed. you’d fall asleep happy that night, and you hoped you’d dream of pretty brown eyes and a completed kiss.

meanwhile, hansol was positive he felt something for you that he hadn’t felt for anyone else. and if his parents wanted him to marry soon, then so be it. but he’d only marry the girl who fit that slipper. it’d only meant to be his way of stalling, truly--if it fit someone else, he knew what you looked like... mostly. his sister apologized for choosing a masquerade before teasing that she never expected him to find his true love there.

and, of course, his parents both took the bait. seungcheol would be sent out to find the girl who fit that slipper, and hansol had his time to figure out what to do next. he’d given the description of what you looked like as best as he could. he’d find you again someday, even if all he could do was sit in the castle and wait.

you’d been excited when the news came, even if it had been through what your stepmother had been telling your stepsisters. the prince had been looking for someone who fit a glass slipper.

you’d been dancing with the prince.

the prince wanted you.

the dreamy look on your face had said everything, and despite the gut feeling you had to stay downstairs, to stay where you could stay free, you felt a need to change and be presentable for company. your stepmother locked you in your room despite your cries to reconsider, that you would make sure she was taken care of if the prince found you. she seemed convinced you’d leave and never look back. perhaps that was a sign that your kindness would never be met in turn, but that wouldn’t stop you from trying even after you heard her disappear down the stairs. there was no fairy godparent to save you from your tears then as you heard the horses whiny outside, the steward likely having arrived. even if you called to him, he wouldn’t hear you from your window. you almost wished you had the sheets to tie together to scale the outside wall.

so you pulled yourself together. this door was nothing compared to someone who wanted their happy ending. your stepmother had put you in this room when you were barely a teenager, letting you cope with everything that came with that by yourself. while she and your stepsisters lived their comfortable life downstairs, you happily put up with the draft and the dust and the rotten wood here and there. you’d do it again if it meant you could fight for this ending.

one instance of throwing yourself into the door hadn’t been enough, and neither had two. but you could hear the wood cracking, the metal of the door threatening to give way if you hit it one last time. so you did, shoulder slamming hard into it. you had to catch yourself on the railing, nearly crying out in victory. doing so much physical labor around the house had paid off in one way, hadn’t it? but you paused, turning to glance at yourself in your little mirror before taking a deep breath. you retrieved your glass slipper, tucking it away carefully as you descended the steps.

“are you sure you don’t have any other daughters?” you could hear the steward ask your stepmother. “the prince was insistent on every maiden, my lady.”

“please wait!” you called out, rushing down the steps. you met seungcheol’s gaze, taking just a moment to catch your breath now that he’d seen you.

“she’s just a servant girl,” your stepmother coldly said. “a child. she wouldn’t have been there last night. do not entertain her delusions--”

“the rules were every maiden,” he stayed firm, smiling at you. almost as if he knew it was you.

but fate wasn’t completely kind: your stepmother’s cat darted out in front of him, and you watched him gasp, losing grip on the slipper he carried. it flew through the air, landing on the ground and shattering into pieces. you could see his hopes shattering, too, as he panicked. you could see the anger in his face as he wanted to say something, to argue that her awful cat had done that on purpose.

“please don’t worry,” you told him as you made your way to the bottom of the steps. “you see... i have the other slipper,” you pulled it out, surprise evident on everyone’s faces. they’d been a gift, after all: gifts weren’t meant to be taken back.

hansol paced the corridor as he waited for you. they’d find you, wouldn’t they? even if he had to go out and search every house, he would find you and bring you back if you’d allow him. all he wanted was someone kind as you to stand at his side. he’d told his parents that you hadn’t recognized him as royalty and treated him lovingly--that meant something, hadn’t it? that you were so kind regardless of a person’s status? that was something he’d want in a queen, if he were to take the throne one day. if not a queen, then a wife. a partner in general, truly. seungcheol had promised him he’d do everything in his ability to find you, your description committed to memory. but as time ticked past, he grew more antsy.

the doors finally opened. the steward stepped in, announced your name, and he knew. he knew it was you before you even stepped in, that dreamy look in your eyes. others would have politely waited for him to summon them, or would have walked over politely and curtsied, but not you. he saw relief in your eyes as you rushed over to him, and he caught you in his arms and held you tight. not even a full day and he’d craved your embrace again.

“it’s you,” he said quietly. “good.”

“do you truly think you want me?”

“i don’t think,” he said. “i know,” he held your face in his hands. “may i kiss you?”

you smiled at him. you had time to get to know him properly, but if he was going to be this sweet to you... you had a feeling you’d love him. “yes.”

“are you going to run away this time?” he teased.

he loved the way you giggled at him in response. “would you chase me?”

“yes,” he said. “a thousand times over.”

you smiled at him once more and then leaned in to press your lips against his own. sealed with a kiss, you had found your happy ending with nothing but kindness in your heart and a blossoming love between the two of you. perhaps it was important to hold onto dreams: dreaming brought you joy, and that brought you to hansol. if you could go back and do everything over again, you would keep it the same if you could always have this ending. a happy ending in life wasn’t just that: it was the start of a life to be lived well and loved with every ounce of your being.

so hello, happy ending day one. you were ready to greet it.

#wooahaes.fic #seventeen imagine #seventeen x reader #seventeen x you #svt x reader #svt imagine #svt x you #vernon x reader #vernon x you #svt vernon x reader #svt vernon x you #chwe hansol x reader #chwe vernon x reader #chwe vernon x you #chwe hansol x you

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iraprince · 1 year

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hi ira, you're a big inspo for me! especially as a fellow adhd artist.. i often struggle with "letting go" sketches / leaving them be, i always end up focusing on each as if it has to become a full piece. i personally feel this is bc of my adhd and was wondering if you struggled with something similar, or had any advice on sketching?

thank you so much! and yeah, okay, let's chew on this one and see what we can come up with.

so i actually usually have the opposite problem: I can generate a bunch of loose sketches really quickly, but i have a really hard time buckling down and putting the focus in to take any of them all the way to being full pieces. i think sketching and leaving those sketches as-is comes easily to me because i enjoy it (as in i physically enjoy the feeling of drawing in a loose, gestural style, AND i aesthetically enjoy how unfinished sketches look), and i'm extremely accustomed to it (most workdays i start up by doing ~45-90 mins of sketches, usually a few digital pages worth). these things combine so that the habit of churning out a bunch of little images and then immediately moving on is something that's really natural to me.

HOWEVER i am def not just advising "sit yourself down and sketch for an hour and a half every day" with no other context; i think "draw every day" as ironclad advice is usually pretty clumsy and isn't always applicable to how people work best, or always effective against what actually trips people up with art stuff. i think a lot of this is abt getting mindset right!!! drilling and repetition is good later for building speed and confidence but it's not as useful until u've figured out the underlying struggle imo.

so, some thoughts:

do u keep going on the sketch bc u get distracted by the idea of the final piece, and u just get sucked in to progressing toward that? for me, sometimes i do nail a sketch and im like "ooh, i want to do something more with that!" — but because these sketches happen during my warmup time and i need to keep moving, i don't do it right away. i usually just make a note right on the canvas, or i copy/paste the sketch into a separate file to come back to later. if u get the urge to keep going on a piece bc u want it to have more, but what u Actually want is to do a few more sketches, consider scooting the sketch over into a wip file/folder/etc for later (if ur working digitally; set it aside in a physical wip folder if you're working traditionally).

do u keep going on the sketch bc ur insecure about the fact that it isn't polished, or bc u feel like it "needs" more to look good? u may be affected by The Spectre of Posting. something i have wrestled with constantly and that i think many artists wrestle with is that, even if we aren't having these thoughts consciously, whenever ur drawing there is kind of this little voice in the back of ur head that's like. "is this gonna be good enough to post. if it turns out crappy i won't want to post it and then i will have wasted all this time. will this flop? if i post this will it make me look like i'm bad at drawing? what if this isn't as good as the last thing i posted and then it looks like im getting worse" and on and on and fucking on. this is all fucking nonsense, but also it's really hard to break out of. try, as hard as you possibly can, to start becoming okay w the idea that not everything is for posting, and that if something doesn't turn out great or u don't necessarily want it to like Artistically Represent You then nobody ever has to see it, and i think u might find that a lot of the tense little subconscious urges and hangups and anxieties you have about your work will start to unravel. any statement abt your art that starts with "i feel like i need to...." or "i feel like i should...." is probably somehow tangled up with the idea of other peoples' eyes on your work, and as long as you're letting a vibe like that breathe down your neck, you really can't draw freely.

do you keep going on the sketch bc you just don't like the sketch and you think if you keep picking at it it will eventually get better? well — okay, sometimes you're right! sometimes picking at something endlessly is how u eventually get something really nice and fleshed out and cool looking. but also we are mortal creatures with a limited amount of time on this earth and i am assuming from the fact that u asked for advice that u want to create More drawings. so the only real advice for this category of sketch hangup is: dude, fuck it. make a bunch of bad sketches. do it on purpose, if that helps loosen you up! designate "fucked up stupid sketch day" and make a bunch of the most dogshit drawings you can muster. remember when earlier i said part of why this is easy for me is bc i do so MUCH of it? sometimes it's about volume. if every time u start on a sketch, it ends up being the only thing u pick at for the next few days, of COURSE it's going to start feeling super precious and high stakes to you. you're not being irrational for getting attached to stuff u spend time fussing over. but if u want to be LESS fussy and LESS attached, probably the fastest way is to just start making yourself churn a bunch of shit out, because if you've made TWELVE little sketches today who actually cares if four of them are dogshit. make MORE of them, and it becomes way less serious. u can use time limits to push yourself along, if that helps — an exercise i really like is putting my music on shuffle and then doing a bunch of little drawings where i work on each one for ONLY the duration of one song each. when the song ends, i stop working on the sketch i'm on and move on to a new one. and sometimes they're totally dogshit, because the best songs in the world are all sub 2mins! or draw yourself a bunch of very small rectangles on a sheet of paper and fit a bunch of little drawings into those. anything to help Shove u past the idea that a drawing has to, like, LOOK LIKE anything or be cute or appealing or look good in any capacity will help break up the apprehension u get about wanting sketches to come out a certain way.

i have talked ur ear off as always but i hope that some of this is helpful!! or if i totally missed the mark and none of this connects w u re: why u find this stuff challenging, pls feel free to send me another ask clarifying what u get stuck on and i'll see if i can think of any potential fixes :)

#resources #tutorials #nnmmot really but. yknow. just chucking all my advice in the same tags for browsing purposes

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wolfieworld · 1 year

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4/6 Diary: Dead Projects

it's hard to acknowledge why something isn't working when you're in the middle of it, sometimes it's hard to even know why. There's a few plots that have been in my brain for years that I've rewritten and rewritten and rewritten with little success. I think a big part of failed projects is actually over-estimating ones own capabilities, for example I plan out mechanics that I don't have the experience to achieve, or characterization too far from my own experience that its not fun to write. I often plan out stories that require a lot of research and I feel like I can't write until I know everything-therefore most writing doesn't get done and what does is full of holes. It's kind of embarrassing to look back at stuff and just think "I didn't know what I was talking about at all."

Sometimes shit just doesn't work out. In the words of Pretty Boy Detective Club giving up on a dream can be more beautiful than achieving the dream itself.

Probably 90% of everything I try doesn't work out and it's been on my mind lately that that's a good thing. Of course in an ideal world we learn from finished works bc there are things from those you can only learn by sharing with others and by wrapping up a story and by saying goodbye to your characters but there isn't such a thing as an ideal world and everything we do we learn from whether other people see it or not. There is something special you learn from unfinished projects, the types you choose to put down forever, which is you are forced to acknowledge precisely why it could not get done.

These are all images from 2 retired vn/comic projects.

These projects are prisons for some of my best and worst writing, full of ideas with no through-line or real objective, and no real thorough understanding of these characters who I loved just collections of feelings and images and facts I thought were cool.

What is improvement? I'm not a person who looks at my old art and feels like I've gotten better at drawing, and when I look back at old writing I only really get the sense that I've become less cringe but not become a better writer. I think improvement is more esoteric than becoming better at the skills you use to express, maybe it's just knowing yourself better and playing to your strengths, and crystalizing what you want to say (or finding it in the first place). Aesthetics form naturally from writing and drawings that plainly express what they need too and they are drawn like blood from stone from work that is trying its hardest to be clever.

Personally I find these digital pages from 2020(21?) to be better drawings than anything I've done in the last two years in a technical way but it doesn't matter, I couldn't finish it, and I didn't know the characters. It's just portfolio work, it took me months to do five of them. They're just "cool shots" even though I didn't know it at the time.

As I get further into working on Youth Who Was Killed I'm noticing that cutting corners produces better results, there's more emotion in sketches so why finish a drawing, why design a logo which I'm not good at when I can use a font, why color grade the images myself when limiting the palette to one or two or three colors provides an unmuddied result? This is the kind of laziness you would think would harm 'improvement' but I've found that too much brute force is a highway to burn out, and then you're not learning anything at all.

Making art is a war against human nature I think, cavemen definitely weren't built too instinctually develop a five year plan every new years. However it becomes like less of a war when you work with your nature rather than against it. Maybe. I don't know. I really hope I don't make a blog post two years from now about why I couldn't finish YWWK. If that happens blame ren'py.

i drew my ocs in funny t shirts for the first time in my life so maybe all that stuff i said about improvement being that you become less cringe is untrue, maybe you get more cringe. thats ok with me i guess.

#meow meow meow #youth who was killed #that feels like kind of a scary tag and maybe i should use the acronym i will decide later

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khonshuscondemned · 2 years

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HELP. rewatching ep 3 and. was reminded of this post . and there was a bit of going off that happened in the tags but they felt unfinished so now we’re diving in all over again.

so the part latched onto (this time) happens before khonshu tells marc to take the kid to the ledge- when Marc wakes up after having stabbed Goon #1 & #2 is already down for the count and turns and sees The Kid (Goon #3) and he . he has his little panicked moment (‘…wh-what..? -oh my god- oh, god- steven, what did you do??’) and steven tells him to sod off it wasn’t him (really, marc- you’re covered in someone else’s blood and you immediately think it’s steven who had anything to do with your little blackout??) - and then The Kid/Goon #3 groans, and he groans loud- too loudly to be ignored and it’s Back To The Grind. Marc puts his Khonshu hat back on , he turns around. His hand is clenched around the knife’s handle. his eyes are narrowed and his brows are drawn- he’s readying for the next fight.

And then he sees it’s The Kid. he sees the kid as a kid. not as Goon #3. suddenly the khonshu hat is almost flung free of his head- you can see it in Marc’s eyes, in the way his movements slow, in the way he recalibrates, the way he reevaluates his options bc . he doesn’t wanna hurt a kid. hell, tbh i don’t think marc wants to hurt anyone , anymore, i think he’s tired of the blood. (u really get a sense of Marc’s hesitation via the gifs in the ref’d post , it’s heartbreaking. but gratitude for gif-makers bc over-analysis of character expressions is a fond pastime while we wait for season 2 rip)

(also uh quick aside: khonshu says this line, something like ‘I know you enjoy the work I have for you’. this .. never sat right. maybe before- … maybe. but this marc spector? he doesn’t seem to enjoy this very much at all. not like, the way I think he enjoys existing with layla, or the way one would enjoy a picnic or catching sight of a wishing star or little things like that . but then again, i don’t think marc spector quite knows how to enjoy little things just yet- im not quite sure he understands that not everything comes with a price, and certainly not true joy. that kind of happiness can come free if you know where to look. ok tangent over)

Back to the scene, it’s about 9 mins in- Marc turns, sees it’s the kid. and he drops the fucking knife.

there have been a few in-depth watches of this scene before bc we had been curious as to the way Marc uses weapons (hint: he fucking doesn’t this man uses his fists and that’s it in this particular scene at least). not sure why we glossed over this bit or why it hits hard(er?) now, but. no wonder jake took over, of course jake would leave the kid alive- he does it for more reasons than we can count but for sure we know he keeps the kid alive cos he knows it would kill Marc to have blood of that sort join the stains in their bathroom sink ya know?

It’s just, ironic that Marc still. ends up with that kids death on his hands . that Marc. cant be trusted sometimes, not with hands Jake Lockley is more accustomed to. tsk. anyways - TLDR marc is tired of the bloodshed, jake has to take over and fill in a lot more now than perhaps ever before (and it’s not going unnoticed anymore) bc of it, and now Steven’s gotten mixed up in the mess and it’s. it’s killing me all over again . bc marc does literally everything he can to like. not hurt this kid. and he still ends up with three dead goons anyways. sigh.

#sorry to go insane over the same things all over again but hey !! this time im forcing it on everyone #not just going over and over it in the brain ksjfkfhskff #moon knight tag but make it like. feral #moon knight #moon knight meta #(ish?)#scheduling this post for l8rs g8rs #so i don’t hafta think abt it any more lmao

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giuliano-fan-account · 11 months

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happy pride mont

Well I guess I could share some drawings since usually I just dogpile everything I want to say into 1 post and don’t necessarily have room for the art which is sad.

So I decided for pride month I’ll just dogpile some of my art that I haven’t shown here relating to my favorites from hxh kind of being like those 60 color packs of crayons.

I draw kind of like a crazy guy and I have a fair bit of art so I’ll make a cut off line to not clog...

Btw so I dont jumpscare you the art is of Izunavi and Giuliano, Shalnark and Chrollo, & Muherr and hehe a not canon character (In that order)

Hehe i just have some portraits of Izu for fun here not necessarily ship or anything related but I just wanted to share them Since I made them a while ago and he looks very nice:

Ok but it gets a little gay here so urm: Happy pride moth:

I made this one because I wanted them to have a happy life that I knew they could never have!!!!!!

I made this one because THEY BOTH LOOKED SO GOOFY IN THAT ONE PANEL THAT I HAD TO REMAKE IT I COULDNT DO IT

just a funny little drawing for fun that I stayed up a little too late making 1 time because these guys just kind of carry me away..

On valentines day I was having a rlly bad time a really bad day and everything and then I made these guys and everything was better

MS PAINT BRO

I made this one in ms paint and it makes me so happy man... I have it as my background screen on my computer rn i didn’t intend for this drawing to bang so hard but also I kind of drew it intending for it to be like the only house that’s not on fire yet because that’s a song that’s perfect for these guys hear me out

I made that one at like 2 am and yes it was to this song and to me it is objectively about these guys

I guess it could be a projection bc i just wanted to squeeze that guy bc hes just so funny and silly and I love these guys and giuliano is just like me for real so it’s fine

I care about them a lot man I even made an article on the shipping wiki for them because I uhhh I uh help I urm

I have... another one that I ALSO made an article for... and it brings me extreme distress as well as extreme joy

we have our 2nd place to Shalkuro :100:

I have a lot of art for it I’ll make a post for it one day I swear and it will be insane in length because I really need help man ... If izugiuli is my comfort ship this is the REASON why I need comfort

proceeds to show harmless nice little drawings:

I saw that trend everywhere so this is a rlly recent drawing but I made them with the barbie and ken because I... well come on... its literally perfect okay

gooberish little drawing because i was bored

THIS WAS A REDRAW OF A GOOFY GARTIC PHONE DRAWING MY FRIEND MADE SO THATS WHY IT LOOKS KIND OF STRANGE I tried my best to replicate the essence

shalkuro as teens ig comfort (I relentlessly got called gay for this one Stop jules bullying 2023)

Im a little crazy so maybe I did make another omori hxh au and a lot of it is Shalnark in the au or Shalnark and Chrollo

Redraw of the sticker because hehe

THIS IS BASED OFF OF AN UNFINISHED FIC I HAVE thats not necessarily ship related but also is but also you can interpret it any way you want and imo it’s so cute

I’ll finish it one day.

Another ms paint art but it’s inspired off of bad apple for actually no reason other than that I think it would look cool and I went through 5 stages of hell trying to draw this but I made it out fine

God I want to talk so much about Shalkuro since Shalnark is ALSO just like me for real and I actually haven’t before on this account and it’s kind of my soundboard for talking abt whatever relating to hxh but I really think I should save it for a post of it’s own..

Anyways onto the next one its a little funny thing

I shipped my self insert with Muherr as a joke ok but now its kinda funny and I like it and I actually rlly like these drawings i made for it

dont ask why he looks drunk its a long story

I had to make this it was honestly too funny for me not too and I love it so much EXCEPT for the fact that I realized that my self insert looks so much like pariston in here

Im supposed to have dark hair but I just didnt feel like coloring it in there bc the lineart looked good enough to me

but yeah muherr x jules otp forever /j

hapy pride month whoever or whatever you are whether your gay or not!!!!

dont forget to have fun and be a kind neighborly person like me

#izugiuli #izunavi x giuliano #izunavi #hxh #hunter x hunter #fanart #pride month #giuliano hxh #juliano hxh #shalnark #chrollo #shalnark x chrollo #shalkuro #kuroshal #muherr hxh #canon x self insert #lol

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heliianth · 6 months

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I'm not the same asker, but may I inquire about the opinions on Sonic you think are unpopular? If you're uncomfortable still then... What do you think of Silver haha

im not uncomfortable per se, just dont want to rain on other peoples parade. i usually make characterization posts looking for feedback and similar viewpoints, and bc i know my sonic opinions are unpopular at least from what i can see i wont receive that so it makes this subject offputting for me. but u asked so i shall deliver

im not a huge fan of the interpretation that sonic internalizes or suppresses everything, or considers his "hero role" restrictive or burdensome in the sense that he cant show weakness, etc... maybe im just an adventurehead and new games have more basis for this interpretation, but it kind of feels like the fandom exaggerating traits in order to make sonic an interesting pov character when hes really not meant to be...? thats not to say sonic isnt interesting in general, but i dont think hes equipped for carrying a narrative by himself so usually people try to give him some deeper traumatic internal world to explore when i personally dont think its there, lol. ive said before that i think the most interesting sonic stories to me arent really about Him so much as his effect on other characters and thats why im so mehhh abt this take.

thats not to say sonic doesnt withhold information about himself. in sa2 he very blatantly lies to amy about his thoughts and oftentimes tries to keep others out of harms way by doing stuff himself. but i dont think this is martyrdom or needing to "fulfill his role as a hero" so much as him just feeling some responsibility as, for a while, the oldest kid in the friend group. he doesnt consider himself a hero but hes aware that younger characters, like amy and tails, look up to him so he doesnt want to talk to them like he would a peer. he is generally more serious with characters like knuckles who are around his same age and do not hold him to this pedestal. we see as tails and amy grow he begins to be more relaxed and less "big kid needing to remember his audience" now that they arent as young or star-struck.

splitting up this paragraph to avoid more wall of text but in regards to this ^^^ i also think most of it is just that... hes a private guy. he doesnt particularly want ppl to know whats going on in his brain all the time, has a personal space bubble, doesnt hang around the public often and lots of times doesnt talk much in very social situations. tho i wont knock ppl for trying to find a deeper more psychological reason for it, i dont personally think there is one... hes just an introverted dude. some ppl just dont like talking abt themselves and get awkward abt it.

also what i think of silver? not sure. i think he has good potential... but sonic teams fear of 06 after it flopped so hard didnt let him grow to meet it. i think his arc in that game was unfinished and suffered from the timeline reset. but i also dont remember lots from his story, so i may have to revisit it. i like him in those early days like in rivals, but im afraid to say i dont find him very fascinating nowadays :( sorry! i get why others do tho

#heliianswers #sorry for being such an essay andy today LOL

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flowerslut · 10 months

Text

random/general/personal fanfic rambling + whining beneath the cut ♡

sometimes I think to myself: "lmfao I have such a tiny audience!!" but not in a self-deprecating 'oh woe is me no one reads my stuff' way. more like a "hell yeah I can do and say whatever the fuck I want because no one is looking in this direction anyways" which is just.... so nice???? and not entirely true but true enough that twilight has been my most peaceful fandom experience in a long time (despite still being Hated by certain fandom niches lmfaoo 😘)

like I often forget that the twilight fic I write has the least amount of interaction overall in comparison to literally Every Other Fandom i've ever been in. which is SO funny. even my unfinished dbz fic from forever ago has more hits than most of my twilight fic combined (the curse of being a jalice girlie 💔) which is also lowkey nice as hell because I don't have bratty teenagers and weird middle aged men in my comments/reviews/ask box bitching that "SaSuke wOULD NEVER—" and I can live in relative peace now 😌

but then that post saying "post the difference in hits between your most and least viewed fics" gets put on my dash again and I spend at least 20 minutes each time looking for someone with a comparable difference (SOMEONE TO RELATE TO YOU KNOW?) and out of the 5 or 6 times I've done this I've found ONE person. ONE!!! which just reminds me of how often I forget that although I can be a rando who flies under the radar here in twilight I will Not Be Afforded that luxury when I eventually go back to n*ruto. just look at how comical it is to look at my goddamn ff stats page. and yes, these two are listed right next to each other bc it's an alphabetized list, which just further emphasizes the absurdity in my different fandom 'audiences':

(it goes 'Word Count' -> 'Chapters' -> 'Reviews' -> 'Hits')

so its a weird feeling to be in a more niche, smaller fandom (largely by choice) and then seeing people constantly bitch and fucking moan about how their content doesn't get the hits it used to. or how they wish their numbers were higher. and instead of being like "these are personal, internal issues I must work on" they're like "ITS NOT ABOUT NUMBERS ITS ABOUT RESPECT" while they're BITCHING about wanting their numbers higher????? like bitch make it make sense! just say you're vain and want more hits/kudos! this is the worst part of being a part of the larger tumblr fic writer community because it's so insufferable to see

like yknow those popular posts that go around saying "Ummmm it's an UNSPOKEN RULE and always HAS been to ALWAYS leave a kudos and ALWAYS leave a comment even if you didn't enjoy the fic 😌💅" it makes me want to laugh in their faces. because I don't know what delusional circles you run in to think you're entitled to what you deem is 'adequate attention'?

"but fic writers spend hundreds, sometimes thousands of hours on—" and no one is making them do that. fic writing is a hobby.

"it's discouraging to get no engagement on fic—" then reexamine why you're writing and maybe take a break from the internet

"some fic writers are trying to establish an audience so when they switch to ofic or traditional publishing it'll be easier—" if this is a strategic business choice then either get into a bigger ship or fandom (hp/marvel/etc) or change your strategy dude because this is not going to work the way you think it will

"seeing so few kudos/hits makes me want to delete everything some days—" again: reexamine why you write fic. if you're doing it for external validation then there's a bigger issue at play here. if no engagement affects your mental health you really need to take a step back

and I will always understand wanting acknowledgement for the hard work content creators do. it feels really nice to get a kind comment or a bunch of favorites/kudos/whatever. but the tumblr-popularized mindset of "your readers OWE you for what you've provided for them" has skewed so far off from the original "fandom is a community" and into a weird "fandom has a hierarchy that we are attempting to enforce" mindset and I can't fucking stand it dude!!!!!

I wouldn't consider myself a fandom veteran because there are so many people who have been around far longer than I and who have seen some worse shit than I have, but over the past ~17 years that I've spent in online fandom spaces (and ~15 as a fanfic writer) the worst part of creating in fandom isn't that "kids these days are soooo entitled" or "noBoDy kNowS HOw tO CoMmEnT ANYmoRE" its that capitalism has warped everyones fucking mindsets!! now that content creation can be monetized people are viewing the content they create as things they can charge this weird 'social currency' for if they can't exchange it for actual currency (which you can't with most fan content).

you don't get to demand that people owe you interaction for you providing a service that you were not required to provide anyways. this banker ass capitalistic republican ass energy makes me wanna scream. and like, if you DO do this (we've all read a fic on FF.net where an authors note says "no more chapters until I get at least 5 reviews!!") then stop trying to moralize it and pretend that people who DONT comment are not doing what is required of them. which, is nothing. nothing is required of them.

tldr; anyways I always feel weird about my experience in fandom and as a fanfic writer bc I don't know where my peers are who can relate to my strange experience but who also don't subscribe to this bullshit "readers OWE the writers" mindset that's becoming aggressively popularized. either encourage friendly engagement with people's content or shut up. no more of this bs "fic writers Deserve More because I'm mad my highly-niche 7k pwp only got 18 kudos" bullshit

okay love u all happy friday bye bye can't wait to work on prompts for u guys this weekend ♡♡♡♡♡

#more and more and more the tumblr fanfic community at large makes me wanna gouge my own eyes out. it's so annoying #as someone who has once received the engagement some of these people are bitching about Wanting bc they feel they Deserve it #you getting more kudos/comments/reviews/favorites isn't going to fix your wack ass energy and weird sense of entitlement???#sure you dont OWE them fic but they also dont OWE you engagement #anyways this went from fun observation to bitchfest in t-minus 5 minutes so like. oops. time to get back to schoolwork.#actually where is scarlett. scarlett where are you. I feel like you can relate to this one

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arcadian-vampire · 1 year

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Do you have an info or art about the other characters involved with Kalamari??? Esp Glass since you mentioned them directly!!! OwO

Okay SO I do have a few things!! Most of these are old and a lil messy/outdated, so I'm really hoping to whip out a bunch of new stuff soon, but!! I'm gonna put everything under a ReadMore link again bc boy I have things to say and none of it is organized or really coherent so good luck (and also I am still shy)

I've got my two protagonists, Iso (I-20) and Aerani--

[These are Old outfit designs, I redesigned them sorta recently but haven't finished a drawing of them, sobs] I first drew Aerani in like, 2016 I think? and Iso followed not long after! Iso is a bunny chimera, so he's got big silly ears, wahoo. Chimeras have identification codes to keep track of like, when they were created, and Iso's is I-20: Chimera Generation I, Specimen Number 20. Aerani gave him the nickname Iso <3

Here was Iso in like. 2017? 2018? idk but it was ages ago. He's changed quite a bit, mostly bc I would Constantly misplace sketchbooks and Constantly forget exactly what things looked like lksad;f

This era of my art was so cute,, I wanna draw hair more like that again tbh

Here's a semi-recent doodle wip of their new outfits, hoorayyy. Don't mind how unfinished it is and my silly notes all over the place. I'm gonna just redraw this at some point bc my art has improved since then aklsdjf;lskdk

Comfy boys!! Iso's clothing is always kinda ill-fitting bc he Hates skintight stuff, and he is gonna lose those cute slouchy boots SO fast bc I'm gonna drop him in the desert. Woe, sand be upon ye

Iso used to live in a mansion w a rich guy that was Kind Of A Dick, until that guy's daughter-- Iso's childhood best friend-- snapped and killed her dad w a fireplace poker. I haven't drawn her yet and honestly How Dare I. I wanna draw her making flower crowns w Iso

I was Nervous about jumping straight into making smth about them, because I feel like I need wayyyy more practice to be able to tell the story I really wanna tell, so I ended up scooping up my dorky purple merchant Kalamari like 'you know what sure, you can be the protagonist of my practice project and it will be Silly As Hell'. I call my main Eventual Goal 'Quote Unquote Quest', so Kalamari's adventure I'm calling 'Quote Unquote Quest Negative One', since it becomes before the main thing! Aerani will be in that practice project as a side character, bc he's Glass's little brother, but Iso won't be

Also, please witness Aerani's pet, a squishy jello-like blob he calls a frog. It is absolutely not a frog. It sits on his head a lot and makes squeaky lil noises

Here's another chimera! She's much older than Iso, from gen F! The only one left from gen F actually. She calls herself Fa, and she doesn't like to talk, she just hangs out by a pond all day to watch the fish

This is OLD so I'm def gonna redraw it soon, but here's one of my antagonists! They by the name Scratch, and they're sort of. the opposite of Kalamari. I have So Much I wanna draw abt them omg,,

While I do like their color palette, I'm gonnadesign one to match. everyone else. The colors I wanna use for this project (that might eventually change ofc) are brown, orange, golden yellow, magenta, a slightly more purple magenta, violet, indigo, and blueee, with Very Dark Blue and Very Light versions of the other colors for lines and junk. Basically Kalamari Colors ft. some extras to spice things up, since my silly littol practice project revolves around her and how he sees the world:

Everything is very saturated of course bc I'm. cannot and will not use desaturated colors. It's kind of like my chunky lineart-- I can try So Hard to make it thin, but that just doesn't look right to me and as I work woopsie everything is thick and I'm dying

AND FINALLY. MESSY SKETCHY WIP OF GAY PEOPLE IN MY ART PROGRAM

Glass and Kalamari!!!!!!! I hadn't drawn Glass yet and I'm crying bc she's turning out so cute. sobs. I was working on this before I realized oh shit yeah the oc tournament is posting Kalamari tomorrow, and I had to stop to go finish up my other art + my oc sideblog bc I wanted that to all be ready to go

#pikaposts #alo(e) art #quote unquote quest #slides facefirst down the stairs. thank you for attending my chaotic infodump. don't ask me how long i spent writing it #i wonder what it's like to be a person that can write a simple post in a reasonable amount of time. must be wild.#what do y'all do w all that free time #anyway i need to practice drawing more i am Dying

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gurugirl · 12 days

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I was recommended to read your masterlist because they said you write dark Harry but I started with the handyman and that was not dark at all! But I did love it! So then I started reading through and I’m confused and not really finding dark Harry? Which titles are dark Harry? Hope this doesn’t sound rude I’m just kind of dumb and having a hard time figuring it out 😛

Oh! Well I do have some dark fics but most really are not dark overall! When I first started the blog I did more dark than I do now. My current works are not really that dark.

I just want to reiterate!! (Bc you’re not the only one who’s said something similar) Some ppl really think I mostly do dark and taboo but I do lots of sweet fluff too 😩 Like I don’t stick to one genre! I do a little of everything!

Okay!! To your question… lol!

My darkest fics are ghost!harry (in my au masterlist) The Doctor and the Psychopath (in my blurbs and one shots masterlist) and Mint Chocolate Chip (in my au masterlist and short series masterlist). I also have an unfinished fic in my Long Series masterlist called Tales From the Modern Incubus. And then I’ve got a decent amount of taboo but too many to list out lol!

In reality most of my masterlist is not dark at all so that might why you had trouble finding what you were looking for. I hope you enjoy my love! Thank you for being here and reading 🖤

Xoxo

#ask

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rainypebble07 · 1 year

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i hope you're feeling better now but i just saw your post from the other day and i sure do have Things to put in your askbox so

hello hi tell me about your writing process ! and i mean literally any part of it, literally any Thing, i'm just kind of curious because i really love what you write and my wips generally stay unfinished no matter how much i like the idea so i'm also kinda just curious how you manage to Get It Done yk?

no pressure at all i was just wondering

(Dude, I wrote too much. Sorry. i love to speak. I was excited I got an ask)

Hi! Yes! I'm feeling a little better now, still kinda sick, but so it goes. And that's so sweet of you! I'm glad you like my writing!

Writing Process? Oh boy, this is gonna be so disappointing. Most of the stories I've written come to me at random moments and over the course of a few days I'll make up this weird elaborate plot in my head until I get to the point where I'm like 'ok, this need to be a fic'.

I usually use two documents while writing something. I've got a layout (that's where I pull the crazy planning posts from) and the actual story(where I get the out-of-context stuff). I write down everything I want to happen in the layout document and add as much to it as I see fit (this can include really anything from specific conversations I want to really generic plot points) as well as block out chapters and after I'm finished with that, it usually just looks like a weirdly formatted poem or something. I never use spellcheck or anything on that either and I use such casual language, so it always looks like something I wrote while blackout drunk, but I love it nonetheless. Here's the first chapter of "Mike Wheeler's Ultimate Guide to the Undead"'s outline for example:

As you can see, it's a mess, but I love it. And somehow I got the first chapter out of this.

The point of that is pretty much it's an outline, but it's also kind of fun since it's so casual, so I've found it helps to motivate me to write new parts of the story bc I'm engaged by the strange wording I use on the outline. I also use this doc for title planning and other stuff I have to figure out beforehand. For example, I wrote the poem in Shady Business on an outline doc.

I then transfer this over to the story doc in an actual storytelling format. Most of my writing comes out of absolutely nowhere and idk what to say about it. I'll word-vomit for about ten minutes and get a page, look at it, and go 'oh hey, why isn't that horrible?'. I'm also super conversational in my writing, which helps it flow better. I always thought that made my writing hard to read, but a lot of people have actually said they like my writing style so I guess it's not that bad! I just treat it as if I'm telling the story over a cup of coffee. As for representing the character well (because they are real characters), I just try to get into their mindset as much as possible. I don't really have any specific way I do that, though. I recently had to create a fake "Am I the Asshole" post for Mike so I could try to understand his feelings on something better within myself (made it on the outline doc!).

After the initial word vomit of a chapter, I'll go back and read it over, adding or taking away what I see fit and fixing initial spelling mistakes and making sure it reads well. I don't have a beta reader (I wish I did), so I've gotta just assume it's readable and go with it. After the initial fixes, I'll read it over again just to make sure. I only fix all the spelling mistakes by the time I go to publish because I use Grammarly on the Ao3 post thing lol. By that point, it's only like 4 mistakes left anyway (and the stuff Grammarly says is incorrect but I don't care bc it sounds good and I can do what I want).

I also highlight my little outline as I go (usually in green bc byler brainrot, you can see it in the image) and it helps me visualize my progress and keep going!

But, yeah. That's pretty much the entire process and I have no better explanation than it's simply a dumpster fire of improv and weird pieces of moment I have glued together in my brain. It's arts and crafts, at the best, but somehow I pull it together and create a story!

As for motivation, most of it's four things. One, the anticipation of writing scenes I really want to. Two, telling myself I'm gonna get fun comments and reading old comments (I thrive off of positive feedback from poeple). Three, a specialized playlist for the fic. I make playlists for my stories with songs I like that fit the overall vibe and sometimes I get inspiration from them and it gives me new ideas. And four, probably the most important, I just really like writing. It's my favorite things ever to just put words on a page and make a story out of it. It's so fun and so cool and so magical and I love it.

And that's about it. The end. That's my writing process. It doesn't really make much sense, but I guess it works, so it works for me! If you're looking to improve your own completion rate, I mean, maybe try some of it, but it's really a personal preference. You've gotta do tril and error. And I've really gotta work on slowing down anyway because I can totally rush writing a fic and end up making it a lot less than it could have been if I took more time. And If you're not feeling motivated to write, don't force it. Seriously. Things like I suggested totally help me keep up with it, but what I hate more than anything is stuff I wrote when I didn't want to write. It's just... uninspired.

Okay! Thank you so much for asking that! Hopefully this long rant of nonsense (omg like my writing) answered your question! Sorry I wrote an essay!

#fanfic #byler fanfic #wip stuff #writing #byler #AN ASK #IM SO HAPPY #(if you couldn't tell)

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king-star · 3 years

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hii! can you please make a natasha x reader fic where they both have been dating for a while and it's natasha's birthday and the reader surprises her with a brand new suit that she made herself and nat cries bc she never got a meaningful gift and the reader also surprises her with cake and more romantic gifts. you could make the reader tony's sister so it would make more sense that she's good at making suits but you don't have to!! thank you sm i need sum cute natty 😫

Birthday Suit

Warning: Use of the pet name Sunflower,

Match: Natasha Romanoff x Reader

Genre: Fluff

A/N: So this one was fun. I hate my birthday but this actually was cute. I’m trying a new way of presenting the dialogue. aesthetically it looks better but I’m not sure how it reads. I've seen other authors do the dialogue on completely seperate lines so just lmk if this is good.

Word Count: ~2.5 k

Summary: It’s Natasha's birthday, and despite her acting like she hates it you shower her with love.

The smell of cooking cake fills the compound. Even from the workshop, where you are, the sweet scent permeates the air. You have been baking for long enough to know what that smell means, the cake is almost done.

You check the clock on the wall. 2:44. Nat would be home at 5.

“Shit. I need to get this done,”

You shake your head and set down your wire cutters. The list of everything you need to get done before she arrives rolls through your mind.

It was her birthday. She didn’t know her actual birthday so years ago she made one up. The chosen date was a closely guarded secret she only shared with those she trusted most. For the most part the assassin didn’t even celebrate. When you had asked a week prior what she wanted to do she had brushed you off claiming,

“I don’t really care. As long as I get to be with my love.”

She had kissed you, hoping the kiss would fog your mind from any further planning. Unfortunately for her you were a big schemer, always going as big as you could for your friend’s birthdays.

You walked out of the workshop, making one last longing look at her unfinished gift on your messy work table. No one was around today. The one Saturday everyone had off a month. Natasha had gone shopping with Wanda, a plan conncocted to give you plenty of time to get everything ready.

“Friday do you mind turing the oven off?”

you asked the A.I. as you headed down the hallway.

“Of course Agent Y/L/N,”

entering the kitchen you picked up a discarded list of everything that needed to be done. Two items were crossed off “Bake the cake, movie fort.” The unmarked items looked at you teasingly and you felt anxiety rise in your chest. What if you didn’t get everything done and this birthday made Natasha hate birthdays even more? You shook your head trying to chase off the thoughts and went to the oven.

“One perfectly baked chocolate cake coming up,”

grabbing an oven mitt you pulled the cake out of the oven and placed it on the counter. Carefully you coerced the cake from the pan and set it on the cooling rack.

Back when Wanda and you ventured into the baking realm you had begged Tony to put in a floor to ceiling blast chiller. The kind that was always on baking competitions. He reluctantly agreed, with the price of always having to give him a taste of your creations. The freezer was immensely helpful in tight circumstances. You were more than grateful for it now.

You set your cake into the freezer and went to the pantry to pull out all the ingredients you needed for icing. You poured the powdered sugar and placed the butter into the bowl. When you turned on the mixer a cloud of sugary powder exploded in the kitchen. You blinked and licked your lips. Bringing a hand up to wipe your face, you laughed hard. Sugar covered the entire counter and floor beneath you, not to mention your already grease stained clothes.

“Wow, is my little sibling doing coke in here? And without me!”

a snarky voice sounded from across the room. You opened your eyes and squinted at your older brother with a scrunched nose.

“Can it Tony,”

You growled, grabbing a towel and wiping yourself off the counter. Tony laughed at you and opened the freezer to look at what sweet treats awaited him tonight.

“A cake? Are we celebrating?”

He laughed and made a teasing face. You rolled your eyes and called out to Friday.

“Can you order me four containers of icing from the store to be delivered?”

“You got it!”

her chipper accented voice came over the audio. You threw the towel in the sink and landed a punch in Tony’s arm as you left to go change.

“You better not eat any of that cake until Nat has had at least one slice. I know where you keep those rare magic cards you think no one knows about and I will not hesitate to cut them all in half,”

He looked at you in shock. Whether it was because you knew about the secret stash or because you would dare cut them you weren’t sure. The only way to get Tony mad was to go for something he couldn’t replace with money.

“YOU WOULDN'T FUCKING DARE,”

You run away as he climbs out of his chair and chases after you. You run into your room and lay on the door to push back a Tony who was only a few steps behind you. When you finally force the door into the frame you turn the lock and fall to the floor laughing.

Angry mumbling came from the other side. Tony pounded on the door twice before, defeated. walking away. After catching your breath you pulled your sugar stained clothes off and changed into the outfit you’d set aside that morning.

“Y/N the man just arrived with the icing,”

Friday called out to your room and you nodded.

“Thank you Friday. Have him set the bags in the kitchen,”

Friday hummed in agreement. You stood up and looked in the mirror checking yourself out. When you were satisfied with the look you unlocked the door and turned to the right. You really needed to finish Natasha’s present. You wouldn’t even have time to test it properly. You really hoped the phrase “it’s the thought that counts,” was true. Her gift could be something that got you endless kisses or a real crash and burn.

Making it to the lab you set your hand on your head and groaned. You really hoped it worked. It was so pretty. You grabbed the wrapping paper and box and set it in with a kiss.

“Natty, I hope you like it,”

The gift finished the fort built, and cake baked, there was only one thing left to do, ice the damn cake. You could bake sure, but only Wanda ever mastered the art of making it look beautiful.

When you made it to the kitchen Tony was nowhere in sight and a plastic bag with what you assumed was icing was set on the counter. You pulled out a butter knife and dug in, hoping this looked somewhat edible. Wanda was the one who was skilled at decorating. You could make the elaborate pastry chef treats, but you could never handle the finer details of making it look pretty.

You were in the workshop when Friday alerted you that Wanda and Natasha were home. A feeling similar to anxiety or excitement fluttered in your chest. This was the first time you’d celebrated her birthday with your girlfriend. You wanted her to like birthdays again. To feel as special and loved as you can pour out for her.

“Thank you Friday. Please tell them I’m in the workshop and will be heading to the game room shortly,”

You set down the gauntlet you’d been fixing while waiting for them and brushed off your outfit. Your eyes searched over the shirt for stains, and when you were satisfied you were clean you headed to your “party”.

Wanda was the first to come in. She threw her hands to her face and “oood” and “aweeed” over the spread you had out.

“Y/N your cake! it’s…. adorable,”

you punched her in the shoulder with a frown. She fell over laughing.

“I TRIED! and I’m sure it tastes amazing.”

you crossed your arms and pouted. She sat back up still laughing and patted your back.

“She’ll love it Y/N. Even if it had ‘fuck you Nat’ written on top she’d love it,”

you smiled at the complement and stopped pouting. You were explaining the technology behind Nat’s present when the woman of the hour finally walked in.

“What is all this? Are y’all having a party? and didn’t invite me,”

she sat down next to you intertwining your fingers with hers and kissing your shoulder. You smiled as the excitement anxiety mix returned.

“Actually…. it’s for you,”

You smiled and kissed her hands. She looked genuinely surprised. You really hoped the feeling was happy excitement.

“oh- Y/N y-you remembered? and you didn’t have to do any of this. I thought I told you i didn’t care to celebrate,”

you felt Wanda stand up to leave with a pat on your shoulder. You smiled up at her and turned back to Natasha.

“I know I know, but I wanted to do something special. You love me so well and work so hard all the time. You deserve a day that’s unapologetically about you,”

You knew if Natasha didn’t have such complete control of her emotions she would be crying. The agape mouth gave that away. You smiled and leaned forward pulling her into a deep, intimate kiss. Feeling her smile against your lips you pulled away and leaned your forehead against hers.

“I love you Natashka. I will do anything to make you feel like Queen of the world,”

with that she started crying. You frowned and wiped away the tears.

“I really hope those are happy tears,”

she nodded quickly and smiled, sniffling a little.

“Very very happy tears. happy ‘I don’t know what on Earth i did to deserve you’ tears,”

“It is I who does not deserve you. The Great Black Widow. I’m just here to make you smile, it’s my life goal,”

you bowed as much as you could sitting down. Placing a peck on her lips you turned back to the presents and pointed.

“Which one should we open first?”

she pondered and then picked up a small box. Nimble fingers unwrapped the box and pulled out a Ring. You had managed to get her size weeks earlier fitting one of your own on her finger when hanging out. She looked at the little silver band with a carved sunflower at the head. A smile bloomed across her face and she hugged you.

“Oh my goodness Y/N, it’s so pretty…,”

she slid it onto her fingers, finding the one it fit best and stared at it. You hugged her shoulder and kissed her cheek.

“Well, you are my sunflower. It’s just a reminder when we are away,”

Her eyes lit up at the nickname. It wasn’t as common for you to use it as baby or sweetheart, but sunflower had always been her favourite.

She looked at the other boxes realising they were also for her. You picked up the next box, a medium sized one and handed it to her. You were saving the biggest for last.

She was just in awe and set it down before unwrapping it. Her hands snaked around your waist and pulled you flush to her. Her soft lips pressed kisses to your jaw and she set her head on your shoulder.

“Thank you so much Y/N, I- no one has done something like this for me ever,”

She hugged you tight again and then let go picking back up the present. You nodded and kissed her head. Pushing some hair out of her face you stroked her hair softly. Her hands once again unwrapped the gift. She squeaked at the sight of the book underneath the paper.

Natasha never got to read much on her own accord growing up. The red room picked out books for her education but never anything she would actually enjoy. Long ago Natasha had told you the first book she read after getting out of the red room was Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and since then she adored the book. You had found, and paid for with Tony’s credit card, a first edition of the book. The auction was rough but you needed that book for Natasha.

Natasha stared at the book once, again jaw hanging open. She wiped her hands on her pants before handingly the book with utmost care. She flipped it over and ran her fingertips over the indented letters and gold illustration on the front.

“Y-you like it? I know you said you like Alice in Wonderland. It’s uh… actually a first edition copy. Tony was about ready to kill me when he saw me pay for the bid,”

You laughed nervously. She turned the book around again and then set it on the coffee table. She tackled you and pushed you back on the couch kissing all over your face. You yelped in surprise then grabbed her hips, catching her lips and kissing her roughly. She melted into the kiss but you pulled away.

“As much as I love this Natty, let’s open your last gift and eat some cake,”

You sat up and pulled her so she was in your lap. You placed a soft kiss to the back of her neck as she reached for the last gift. It was heavy but the assassin had no trouble lifting it.

“After that we can makeout in the fort I made. yeah?”

You wrapped your arms around her waist and pulled her close to you, rubbing circles on her thigh. She laughed and nodded, blushing profusely.

“I like that idea Y/N,”

She opened the box and pulled out the gift you put months of effort into. This time her reaction wasn’t as instantaneous. You helped her pull all the pieces out and set it on the coffee table. She looked at it slightly perplexed.

“I’m sorry… I’m not exactly sure what it is,”

She pouted and looked at you. You smiled and nodded knowing she wouldn’t. You set it out so she could see all the parts.

“Well… uh it’s a new suit. You always say that you don’t like how tight and revealing your other ones are so I kinda beefed this one up so it focuses on functionality,”

She nodded along as you explained. A look of understanding crossed her face as she pulled at the sleeves.

“ohhhhhhhh. That makes so much sense. I- Y/N what the fuck. I can’t express it enough. You are the best, you listened to me and used it to give me the best gifts i’ve ever gotten. You are the most thoughtful partner,”

You beamed. The feeling you knew she was struggling to express, it was exactly what you’d wanted her to feel. Loved, heard, appreciated, and cared for.

“I’m glad sunflower. That’s what I wanted. To make you feel as good as you deserve. D-do you mind if I tell you a bit about the features? I didn’t have time to test some of them so I will need to do that before you take it into combat,”

She nodded and slid off your lap to look at you. You patted her legs and squeezed then held at the sleeve first.

“Well of course it wouldn’t be a suit for the Black widow without gauntlets. These can change through three different modes for different levels and types of stuns also a laser if you need that for aiming,”

You flipped on the laser and pointed it at a pot then turned it back off.

“Also I made it so the suit can suction to your body but be limp to put it on. a lot easier to slip on ya know. And there is mobile but thick padding on all major points of contact for falling. Shoulders, hips, elbows, knees, the like.”

Natasha ran her hands over the surprisingly thin padding and smiled.

“Wow baby that’s… amazing,”

You nodded and picked up the bag attached to the back.

“And uh there’s a parachute built in as well as pockets up the legs, arms and boots so you don’t have to have the belts. They are sorta magnetic so you can like open them easily but when they are closed everything stays in. OH AND THE BOOTS,”

You started to ramble on about the energy absorbing boots you worked with Shuri on that would allow Nat to drop from double the height of a normal human with no damage to her knees or feet. Nat just stared at you hungirly.

“Hey baby, I seriously appreciate the gift. It’s honestly the best thing I've ever gotten. Why don’t we try it out tomorrow and you can show me EVERYTHING. For now we can… sit in the fort like you said,”

She had a cocky smile and you blushed at her antics. You nodded quickly, cutting off your rambling. Her hands found your waist and she pulled you off the couch and into the pillow fort you had built.

“I uh- got a movie for us to watch. Do you want to?”

She nodded and smiled. A look that very much meant “Yes. That's sweet, but I doubt we will be watching it.” You pulled her into your lap, setting your hands on her waist. She draped hers over your shoulders and rubbed light circles on the back of your neck. You leaned forward and trapped her lips in a kiss. Soft but full of passion.

The rest of that night was spent watching the movie and kissing. When you finally remembered the cake a slice had been taken out of it, with

“You were busy with Romanoff so I took what I was owed. The package has been moved, try getting me now little sibling.”

On a sticky note beside it. Natasha had laughed, unsure exactly what had happened but sure it was a story she would much enjoy hearing.

She had moaned over how good the cake was after laughing at how “Adorably” it was decorated.

“So Nat… did I make this birthday worth celebrating?”

She smiled wide and nodded.

“Yes Y/N, if every birthday was like this I would never want to stop celebrating.”

Tag List:

@xburningbluex @zoeyserpentluck @iamgaiiiuwu @natasharomanoffswife @fleurlovesbucky @fayhar @ymzki-haruki @lostandsearching

Natasha Tag list:

@basiclesbianbitch @stephanieromanoff @sapphicshots @madamevirgo @choni-trimberly@wlwlovesreading @i-just-like-storage @screamsin-gay @ymzki-haruki

#black widow x reader #black widow x y/n #black widow fluff #natasha romanoff x reader #natasha romanoff x y/n #natasha romanoff fluff #black widow #natasha romanoff #black widow fanfic #natasha romanoff fanfic #avengers #mcu #marvel #my fic #king-star

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oakskull · 3 years

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Guess who finished this illustration set,,

MEEEEEEE!!!

It's Cogchamp fnf sprites!!! I would have made a mod but unfortunately I don't have the right software to do so

Featuring such characters as

Tutorial Fox

5up.xtml

Brother Dearest

Tub and Crumb

Prime Bell

Um sir.

and last but not least, Sammy wants murder

These are weeks 1-4, and week 5 will be in a separate post bc of image limit(derogatory) and I worked really hard on this!! (more thoughts and stuff under the cut, I got kind of rambly haha)

It was super fun to draw in this style and I feel like I learned a lot about shading and shapes (shoes especially) by trying to recreate the style of a professional artist. I think I'll do more exercises like this in the future, just to keep learning!! Also obligatory reminder that these drawings are referenced HEAVILY from the original game sprites. I was trying to draw the cog champers(and dream) like they would be a mod for the game, so the poses and style are extremely similar if not the same. If I were to redo these illustrations I might put more personality and originality into the poses, but I didn't actually study the style at all before creating the first illustration (fundy, the one I posted here is actually a redraw to make him higher quality, the original was too small)

So yeah, over all, this was super fun and I'd definitely do it again. Maybe I'll redraw some of these in the future to be more creative, you can tell which ones I drew later on bc of the variety in poses and expressions, I was a lot more comfortable with the style (tho I did keep my own eyes and mouth style bc expressions are something thats really important to my style and I didn't want to feel like I was just like,, tracing) Sorry for rambling so long, I'll put this under a cut for all the people who just want to see pretty art.

On a more art related note, you may have noticed that Dream is Pico, you may be thinking "but dream isn't on Cogchamp" and you're Right. I didn't know what else to do okay? He's fundy's Ex so it kind of fits??? I dunno man, I gave him a more steam punk mask but kept the majority of his design similar to my normal dream design, so as to keep the Dream vibe. Yknow where he's always just a green blob? It kinda slaps tbh, branding is important.

Also regarding Prime Bell, again, I didn't know what else to do, I was thinking of doing something with the egg, but that's not on cogchamp (thank goodness) so I needed something else. I decided that the only like, tangentially related thing I could do was make an Evil prime bell, based on how Sam steals it idk maybe in this world its always the demon thing and is kinda like the ring from lord of the rings, where once you have it you can't give it up. In any case designing Prime Bell took a while (plus some help from Yipcord and Chaos Crew thx guys ❤ and specifically @valpurgatory who is what inspired me to personify the Prime Bell in the first place with their turn everything into a women philosophy (I @ed him so you can check out his blog he slaps. She's like the go to for saving women from Wilbur Soot's dirty mits)) but drawing it was surprisingly quick, mostly due to the fact that I figured out how to easily recreate the texture on the Lemon Monster's body. I did no shading bc that's what the Lemon monster looks like, and it kind of hurt bc it just looks kind of unfinished to me,,, I had some trouble with the week 5 design for Prime Bell bc I didn't want to abandon my first idea. I probably should have and would have gotten a better result, but I can't be bothered tbh. This is the 3rd day I'm working on this project (these were surprisingly quick the churn out, probably bc I was having a blast) and I simply do not want to alter anything. My idea was good but the execution didn't pan out. What am I saying the week 5 prime bell design isn't even on this post sjjdjsks

Anyway, go check out fnf(Friday Night Funkin) it's a rhythm game, it's free and the OST Slaps. I'd also highly recommend listening to the Whitty mod songs and the Neo mod songs,,,, good good music.

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mcmansionhell · 4 years

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Coronagrifting: A Design Phenomenon

We now interrupt our regularly scheduled content to bring you a critical essay on the design world. I promise you that this will also be funny.

This morning, the design website Dezeen tweeted a link to one of its articles, depicting a plexiglass coronavirus shield that could be suspended above dining areas, with the caption “Reader comment: ‘Dezeen, please stop promoting this stupidity.’”

This, of course, filled many design people, including myself, with a kind of malicious glee. The tweet seemed to show that the website’s editorial (or at least social media) staff retained within themselves a scintilla of self-awareness regarding the spread a new kind of virus in its own right: cheap mockups of COVID-related design “solutions” filling the endlessly scrollable feeds of PR-beholden design websites such as Dezeen, ArchDaily, and designboom. I call this phenomenon: Coronagrifting.

I’ll go into detail about what I mean by this, but first, I would like to presenet some (highly condensed) history.

From Paper Architecture to PR-chitecture

Back in the headier days of architecture in the 1960s and 70s, a number of architectural avant gardes (such as Superstudio and Archizoom in Italy and Archigram in the UK) ceased producing, well, buildings, in favor of what critics came to regard as “paper architecture.” This “paper architecture” included everything from sprawling diagrams of megastructures, including cities that “walked” or “never stopped” - to playfully erotic collages involving Chicago’s Marina City. Occasionally, these theoretical and aesthetic explorations were accompanied by real-world productions of “anti-design” furniture that may or may not have involved foam fingers.

Archigram’s Walking City (1964). Source.

Paper architecture, of course, still exists, but its original radical, critical, playful, (and, yes, even erotic) elements were shed when the last of the ultra-modernists were swallowed up by the emerging aesthetic hegemony of Postmodernism (which was much less invested in theoretical and aesthetic futurism) in the early 1980s. What remained were merely images, the production and consumption of which has only increased as the design world shifted away from print and towards the rapidly produced, easily digestible content of the internet and social media.

Architect Bjarke Ingels’s “Oceanix” - a mockup of an ecomodernist, luxury city designed in response to rising sea levels from climate change. The city will never be built, and its critical interrogation amounts only to “city with solar panels that floats bc climate change is Serious” - but it did get Ingels and his firm, BIG, a TED talk and circulation on all of the hottest blogs and websites. Meanwhile, Ingels has been in business talks with the right-wing climate change denialist president of Brazil, Jair Bolsonaro. (Image via designboom)

Design websites are increasingly dominated by text and mockups from the desks of a firm’s public relations departments, facilitating a transition from the paper-architecture-imaginary to what I have begun calling “PR-chitecture.” In short, PR-chitecture is architecture and design content that has been dreamed up from scratch to look good on instagram feeds or, more simply, for clicks. It is only within this substance-less, critically lapsed media landscape that Coronagrifting can prosper.

Coronagrifting: An Evolution

As of this writing, the two greatest offenders of Coronagrifting are Dezeen, which has devoted an entire section of its website to the virus (itself offering twelve pages of content since February alone) and designboom, whose coronavirus tag contains no fewer than 159 articles.

Certainly, a small handful of these stories demonstrate useful solutions to COVID-related problems (such as this one from designboom about a student who created a mask prototype that would allow D/deaf and hard of hearing people to read lips) most of the prototypes and the articles about them are, for a lack of a better word, insipid.

But where, you may ask, did it all start?

One of the easiest (and, therefore, one of the earliest) Coronagrifts involves “new innovative, health-centric designs tackling problems at the intersection of wearables and personal mobility,” which is PR-chitecture speak for “body shields and masks.”

Wearables and Post-ables

The first example came from Chinese architect Sun Dayong, back at the end of February 2020, when the virus was still isolated in China. Dayong submitted to Dezeen a prototype of a full mask and body-shield that “would protect a wearer during a coronavirus outbreak by using UV light to sterilise itself.” The project was titled “Be a Bat Man.” No, I am not making this up.

Screenshot of Dayong’s “Be a Batman” as seen on the Dezeen website.

Soon after, every artist, architect, designer, and sharp-eyed PR rep at firms and companies only tangentially related to design realized that, with the small investment of a Photoshop mockup and some B-minus marketing text, they too could end up on the front page of these websites boasting a large social media following and an air of legitimacy in the field.

By April, companies like Apple and Nike were promising the use of existing facilities for producing or supplying an arms race’s worth of slick-tech face coverings. Starchitecture’s perennial PR-churners like Foster + Partners and Bjarke Ingels were repping “3D-printed face shields”, while other, lesser firms promised wearable vaporware like “grapheme filters,” branded “skincare LED masks for encouraging self-development” and “solar powered bubble shields.”

While the mask Coronagrift continues to this day, the Coronagrifting phenomenon had, by early March, moved to other domains of design.

Consider the barrage of asinine PR fluff that is the “Public Service Announcement” and by Public Service Announcement, I mean “A Designer Has Done Something Cute to Capitalize on Information Meant to Save Lives.”

Some of the earliest offenders include cutesy posters featuring flags in the shape of houses, ostensibly encouraging people to “stay home;” a designer building a pyramid out of pillows ostensibly encouraging people to “stay home”; and Banksy making “lockdown artwork” that involved covering his bathroom in images of rats ostensibly encouraging people to “stay home.”

Lol. Screenshot from Dezeen.

You may be asking, “What’s the harm in all this, really, if it projects a good message?” And the answer is that people are plenty well encouraged to stay home due to the rampant spread of a deadly virus at the urging of the world’s health authorities, and that these tone-deaf art world creeps are using such a crisis for shameless self promotion and the generation of clicks and income, while providing little to no material benefit to those at risk and on the frontlines.

Of course, like the mask coronagrift, the Public Service Announcement coronagrift continues to this very day.

The final iteration of Post-able and Wearable Coronagrifting genres are what I call “Passive Aggressive Social Distancing Initiatives” or PASDIs. Many of the first PASDIs were themselves PSAs and art grifts, my favorite of which being the designboom post titled “social distancing applied to iconic album covers like the beatle’s abbey road.” As you can see, we’re dealing with extremely deep stuff here.

However, an even earlier and, in many ways more prescient and lucrative grift involves “social distancing wearables.” This can easily be summarized by the first example of this phenomenon, published March 19th, 2020 on designboom:

Never wasting a single moment to capitalize on collective despair, all manner of brands have seized on the social distancing wearable trend, which, again, can best be seen in the last example of the phenomenon, published May 22nd, 2020 on designboom:

We truly, truly live in Hell.

Which brings us, of course, to living.

“Architectural Interventions” for a “Post-COVID World”

As soon as it became clear around late March and early April that the coronavirus (and its implications) would be sticking around longer than a few months, the architectural solutions to the problem came pouring in. These, like the virus itself, started at the scale of the individual and have since grown to the scale of the city. (Whether or not they will soon encompass the entire world remains to be seen.)

The architectural Coronagrift began with accessories (like the designboom article about 3D-printed door-openers that enable one to open a door with one’s elbow, and the Dezeen article about a different 3D-printed door-opener that enables one to open a door with one’s elbow) which, in turn, evolved into “work from home” furniture (”Stykka designs cardboard #StayTheF***Home Desk for people working from home during self-isolation”) which, in turn, evolved into pop-up vaporware architecture for first responders (”opposite office proposes to turn berlin's brandenburg airport into COVID-19 'superhospital'”), which, in turn evolved into proposals for entire buildings (”studio prototype designs prefabricated 'vital house' to combat COVID-19″); which, finally, in turn evolved into “urban solutions” aimed at changing the city itself (a great article summarizing and criticizing said urban solutions was recently written by Curbed’s Alissa Walker).

There is something truly chilling about an architecture firm, in order to profit from attention seized by a global pandemic, logging on to their computers, opening photoshop, and drafting up some lazy, ineffectual, unsanitary mockup featuring figures in hazmat suits carrying a dying patient (macabrely set in an unfinished airport construction site) as a real, tangible solution to the problem of overcrowded hospitals; submitting it to their PR desk for copy, and sending it out to blogs and websites for clicks, knowing full well that the sole purpose of doing so consists of the hope that maybe someone with lots of money looking to commission health-related interiors will remember that one time there was a glossy airport hospital rendering on designboom and hire them.

Enough, already.

Frankly, after an endless barrage of cyberpunk mask designs, social distancing burger king crowns, foot-triggered crosswalk beg buttons that completely ignore accessibility concerns such as those of wheelchair users, cutesy “stay home uwu” projects from well-to-do art celebrities (who are certainly not suffering too greatly from the economic ramifications of this pandemic), I, like the reader featured in the Dezeen Tweet at the beginning of this post, have simply had enough of this bullshit.

What’s most astounding to me about all of this (but especially about #brand crap like the burger king crowns) is that it is taken completely seriously by design establishments that, despite being under the purview of PR firms, should frankly know better. I’m sure that Bjarke Ingels and Burger King aren’t nearly as affected by the pandemic as those who have lost money, jobs, stability, homes, and even their lives at the hands of COVID-19 and the criminally inept national and international response to it. On the other hand, I’m sure that architects and designers are hard up for cash at a time when nobody is building and buying anything, and, as a result, many see resulting to PR-chitecture as one of the only solutions to financial problems.

However, I’m also extremely sure that there are interventions that can be made at the social, political, and organizational level, such as campaigning for paid sick leave, organizing against layoffs and for decent severance or an expansion of public assistance, or generally fighting the rapidly accelerating encroachment of work into all aspects of everyday life – that would bring much more good and, dare I say, progress into the world than a cardboard desk captioned with the hashtag #StaytheF***Home.

Hence, I’ve spent most of my Saturday penning this article on my blog, McMansion Hell. I’ve chosen to run this here because I myself have lost work as a freelance writer, and the gutting of publications down to a handful of editors means that, were I to publish this story on another platform, it would have resulted in at least a few more weeks worth of inflatable, wearable, plexiglass-laden Coronagrifting, something my sanity simply can no longer withstand.

So please, Dezeen, designboom, others – I love that you keep daily tabs on what architects and designers are up to, a resource myself and other critics and design writers find invaluable – however, I am begging, begging you to start having some discretion with regards to the proposals submitted to you as “news” or “solutions” by brands and firms, and the cynical, ulterior motives behind them. If you’re looking for a guide on how to screen such content, please scroll up to the beginning of this page.

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#architecture #design #coronavirus #dezeen #designboom #capitalism

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