Almosts

lineup of smiles and frowns 

Something about Mob Psycho 100 I truly adore is how beautiful and real the platonic love is. I know this has been said again and again but as a younger brother it just slaps me in the face sometimes. I feel like casual platonic intimacy between people who care about each other is so undervalued in media in general, and the way Mob loves people unabashedly and with open tenderness is so important to me.

His open adoration for Ritsu, despite the hurt underneath. My sister and I have hurt each other like breathing over the years, but there is no one on this Earth I would give my life to protect like her. No one else knows me like her. And I see that in Mob and Ritsu.

Mob’s deep love and appreciation for Reigen. The way Mob sees his own loneliness reflected back in Reigen. The way Reigen is the only person who can tell Mob it’s going to be okay and make him believe it. The way Mob collapsed into his arms when he said his family was okay, even when Reigen was lying through his teeth. Not even Dimple’s word was enough. He finally felt safe enough to sleep. How Mob disrupted and terrified an entire room of reporters on purpose, when he’s already scared of his powers, so Reigen wouldn’t have to look so sad and cornered and alone anymore. Remembering his birthday, even when they’d been apart for a long time. Reigen always crouching down, hand on his shoulder, eye-to-eye; mutual saviors. They both entered each other’s lives at the perfect time to say, “You’re going to be okay.”

Even Mob’s love for the ones who have hurt him. His unwavering resolve to help Toichiro Suzuki apologize to his wife and his son—to see them again, to make amends, to build a better life than the one that saw him wandering the world for years and years alone, looking for something more. To channel his vision and his drive into a future that Shou deserves. The way he embraced Serizawa when he felt his fear and his pain and welcomed him into a better life without a shadow looming over his shoulder, accepted him as a peer and a friend that he never had. How Shou burned down his house and nearly made him destroy the world in horrible grief for his family, but still he was roused with anger to defend him from his father’s hand. “I’m sure you have a lot going on. I mean, look at what your own father has done to you.” Look at what the pain has done to all of you. What has it done to me?

Mob and his heart full of love, and the story of how, eventually, that loving heart learns to love itself. God. Shit.

[I should probably start tagging my fanfic reviews as something lmao, gonna remember to do that tomorrow]

There’s this author in the Mob Psycho community that orphaned all their glorious terumob works (and perhaps more!!) so you wouldn’t be able to identify who wrote them anymore.

EXCEPT!! You can actually still somewhat identify this author and which fic they wrote by one prominent yet small detail!!

Source

This! That tiny *! It’s a reoccurring thing in all their works such as Tunnel Vision (one of my favorites, mind you) and Hiding His Horns. So you can easily tell they’re by the same person, and this is further proven by the writing style.

I don’t exactly know how to explain it, but the way the author writes their work in a steady rhythm is really comfortable to read. The way it’s all narrated sort of sounds like a thought process is going through your head the whole time.

Just thought I’d share this, because truth be told, I really want to find a way to collect all their old works into one place and read them all in one go. All their works are worth a read, each story bringing something new to the table, the same tale being spun differently each time it’s told again.

Wonderful, I love it.

Going to call this author Asterisk the next time I talk about their work.

the full set

and they were rivals

happy pride month i love the gay fandom

In the spirit of encouraging people to comment on fanfics while also making it easier to do so, I feel obliged to share a browser extension for ao3 that has quite literally revolutionized the comment game for me.

I present to you: the floating ao3 comment box!

From what I've seen, a big problem for many people is that once you reach the comments at the bottom of a fic, your memory of it miraculously disappears. Anything you wanted to say is stuck ten paragraphs ago, and you barely remember what you thought while reading. This fixes that!

I'll give a little explanation on the features and how it works, but if you want to skip all that, here's the link.

The extension is visible as a small blue box in the upper left corner.

(Side note: The green colouring is not from the extension, that's me.)

If you click on it, you open a comment box window at the bottom of your screen but not at the bottom of the fic. I opened my own fic for demonstrative purposes.

The website also gives explanations on how exactly it functions, but I'll summarize regardless.

insert selection -> if you highlight a sentence in the fic it will be added in italics to the comment box

add to comment box -> once you're done writing your comment, you click this button and the entire thing will automatically copied to the ao3 comment box

delete -> self explanatory

on mulitchapter fics, you will be given the option to either add the comment to just the current chapter or the entire fic

The best part? You can simply close the window the same way you opened it and your progress will automatically be saved. So you can open it, comment on a paragraph, and then close it and keep reading without having the box in your face.

Comments are what keep writers going, and as both a writer and a reader, I think it's such an easy way of showing support and enthusiasm.

My favorite Tolkien illustrations by Cor Blok in no particular order:

Bilbo and Gollum. Bilbo is the moon for some reason which is cool i guess

Smeagol and Deagol. I love the seaweed in the background, great attention to detail

Frodo serving Robin Hood-realness at his and Bilbo’s birthday party. Literally iconic

Isildur taking the ring from Sauron. Its great but I would like to see more of Sauron than just his hand, because I think he has the potential to look really cool

Pippin jumping into the bath at Crickhollow… no comment

Bilbo gives the Mithril coat to Frodo. Great poses, very stiff and awkward. I like it.

The fellowship. This one is a classic.

Gandalf and the balrog. Amazing

Boromir trying to take the ring from Frodo. I love the way he reaches for his sword, it looks very natural

Merry and Pippin and Treebeard. I like his legs and the fact that it looks like he’s wearing shorts.

How To Fucking Write: a guide by fairyhaos

[masterlist]

this post details:

DIALOGUING INTERESTINGLY

hi gays and gals! the first post on starting and pacing a story did really well, so "how to fucking write" is back, with yet more advice and tips for everyone ^^ please feel free to let me know if there's something you want me talk about, because i'll be more than willing to see if i can help. also a reminder that i have a taglist for this series as well, and please reblog if you find this helpful :)

# - HOW TO DIALOGUE.

.. bullet point one : grammar

okay guys, as a native english speaker, i'll be the first to tell you that this language fucking sucks in terms of its grammar, but when it comes to dialogue, understanding how it works even to some extent will help you branch out and vary the way you write dialogue, which makes it so much more interesting.

with dialogue tags (said, asked, etc) if the punctuation mark in the dialogue is not a ! or ? then it should be a comma.

example : [junhui + castle]

as you can see in the first line, a comma is used rather than a full stop, because the sentence hasn't been finished yet. there's a dialogue tag, ('you correct'), that comes after it. and since the pronoun 'you' isn't a proper noun (i.e. a name) then it shouldn't be capitalised, because, again, the sentence hasn't been finished.

with action tags however, (he smiled, he stood up, etc) then it should be a full stop.

example : [i just made one up bc i don't use this a lot lmao]

"I disagree." He stood up, and walked over to close the door. "This isn't safe. You shouldn't go alone."

and now, since there is a full stop, it indicates that the speech is a sentence all by itself. that means the next word ('He') ought to be capitalised.

but the key part when grammar-ing dialogue in order to make it interesting depends on where you put the action and grammar tags.

if you constantly have lines that are just:

"dialogue," he said.

"dialogue," she said.

"dialogue but a bit longer," he said.

... then it can get repetitive, and annoying. by varying your dialogue structure, it can create more interesting dialogue.

example : [minghao + password]

there's a variety of dialogue and action tags being used with each line of dialogue, preventing everything from sounding too repetitive.

the first line starts with a normal sentence, and an action tag. the second is a standalone line of dialogue with no tags. the second has the action tag in the middle of the dialogue. and the last has a dialogue tag in the middle of the dialogue.

by varying the ways in which you write your dialogue, it makes everything a lot more interesting.

.. bullet point two : verbs and adverbs

the easiest way to make dialogue interesting, though, is to use fancy words.

this can be by replacing 'said' with a range of other dialogue tags (see this really comprehensive list for a whole variety of different words), but i'd advise against overusing these. 'said' is your friend! it's the invisible dialogue tag, helps your reader read through your dialogue in comfort, but of course, if you wanna add a nuanced way of describing the dialogue, then replacing 'said' is the easiest way to make your dialogue interesting.

but don't overuse these. for me, i'd focus on action tags and adverbs.

use interesting adverbs that add description to how a character is saying something can go miles. and using action tags that break through what could have been a long section of characters just talking? it helps so much.

i'd recommend having onelook thesaurus open as you write. you don't have to type in just words: phrases, the overall vibes of the word you're thinking of, all of that can be typed into the thesaurus and they'll provide you with pretty good results each time.

it also really helps when you've forgotten a word and can only remember vague bits of what the word should feel like.

.. bullet point three : voices

the best way, however, is ultimately to create a character. write a personality for them, bring them to life, think about the way in which they would talk and then put that down onto paper.

it's difficult, perhaps the most difficult to do, because it's also so tricky to advise someone on how to do this. it's all about the character you want to create, the personality you envision for them, and the only person who can fully write that is you.

however, i would find a few 'ticks' of theirs and use them as indicators in your writing.

for example, in my seoksoo long fic, seokmin's tick is that he always "chirps" what he's saying. and beams. a lot. this identifies his character, makes him unique(ish), and establishes his personality and differs him to the other characters.

but ultimately, it comes down to word choices, when you're writing a character voice.

like, your character describing something with elegant, floral language vs them going "this is so pretty". or perhaps making them stumble over their words when they're panicked vs them simply just going silent when they're flustered.

it's about being specific. about making choices with your words that would have english teachers analyse and unpick your writing, hundreds of years later.

(even if it's fanfic. especially if it's fanfic: because who knows how many fans may join your fandom in the next few years?)

... and that's it ! if anyone has anything else they want advice on (how to structure, how to write dialogue, how to plan etc) then just shoot me an ask, because i'd love to help however i can :)

tagging (comment/send ask to be added!): @selenicives @stqrrgirle @weird-bookworm @eternalgyu @blue-jisungs (tough luck guys btw but youre gonna be tagged in this entire series ehehehe)

‘Blue Velvet’, acrylic on panel, by Andrew Valko (2008)