Cat

@catbythefirelight on AO3 Multifandom but lately really into Heated Rivalry

[catbythefirelight]

Heated Rivalry Ep. 6 / Make it easy for you by catbythefirelight

[maaarine]

“My standard for verisimilitude is simple and I came to it when I started to write prose narrative: fuck the average reader. I was always told to write for the average reader in my newspaper life. The average reader, as they meant it, was some suburban white subscriber with two-point-whatever kids and three-point-whatever cars and a dog and a cat and lawn furniture. He knows nothing and he needs everything explained to him right away, so that exposition becomes this incredible, story-killing burden. Fuck him. Fuck him to hell.”

— David Simon (via quotesforintellectuals)

[myth-blossom]

Fanfic Writer Ask Game

These are always fun so I wanted to make one! Reblog this and let others send you an ask based on any of these emojis/questions:

❤️ What is your favorite line that you’ve written in a fic?

💥 What is one canon thing that you wish you could change?

✨️ Out of the comments you’ve received on your fics, what are two or three of your favorites?

👻 What is your wildest headcanon?

✍️ What’s your ideal writing setup?

🚀 Do you like to outline your fic first or create as you go?

🎁 Have a piece of a WIP you want to share?

🏷 Is there a tag you like to search for when looking for fanfics to read?

⏰️ Do you like to post fics on a schedule or at random?

👓 What helps you focus when you write?

💕 What is your favorite fic that you’ve written?

🐇 Do you write for yourself, for others, or both?

🥳 Why did you start writing fanfic?

🦋 Which character is your favorite to write?

🦈 Which character is the toughest to write?

🍬 Do you write for multiple fandoms? If yes, what is your favorite fic of yours for each fandom?

🌻 How often do you read your own fics?

📗 Do you want to write something outside of fanfiction? If so, what about?

🎬 If a movie or show were based on your fic, which fic would you choose and who would you fancast?

💭 What inspires you and your writing?

🧪 Do you research for your fics?

😎 What fics do you prefer on a scale of canon compliant to wildly original?

💎 Do you often write about a relationship or focus on an individual?

🔥 Have you included any sexy scenes in your fics? If yes, do you find them easy or difficult to write?

💘 Is it easier to write angst or fluff?

🚦What sort of endings do you prefer to write: ambiguous, bad, happily ever after, etc.?

💡How many WIPs do you currently have?

🔎 Does anyone beta read or edit your fics?

📚 Is there a fanfic or fanfic writer you recommend?

🤩 What led to your interest in the fandom?

🤖 Are non-fandom friends aware that you write fanfic?

💛 What is the most impactful lesson you’ve learned about writing?

👑 Do you like writing short fics or long fics?

🎯 Do you have a writing milestone you’re working towards?

🔮 Any advice for writers working through burnout or writer’s block?

🤔 Would you ever want to write something canon if you got the opportunity?

💌 Is there a favorite trope you like to write?

🎨 If someone were to make fanart of your work, what fic or scene would you hope to see?

[arya-jon]

every jonrya & ceslu parallel (8/?)

"You should look behind you, Lord Snow. The moon has kissed you and etched your shadow upon the ice twenty feet tall." Jon glanced over his shoulder. The shadow was there, just as she had said, etched in moonlight against the Wall. A girl in grey on a dying horse, he thought. Coming here, to you. Arya.

A Dance with Dragons, Jon VI

[princessrhcenyra]

I bore Viserys three Targaryens. But with the last, my last… I wanted him to be a Hightower.

[the--framed--maelstrom]

Properly written texts are like spiders’ webs: tight, concentric, transparent, well-spun and firm. They draw into themselves all the creatures of the air. Metaphors flitting hastily through them become their nourishing prey. Subject matter comes winging towards them. The soundness of a conception can be judged by whether it causes one quotation to summon another. Where thought has opened up one cell of reality, it should, without violence by the subject, penetrate the next. It proves its relation to the object as soon as other objects crystallize around it. In the light that it casts on its chosen substance, others begin to glow.

Theodor Adorno, Minima Moralia

[toiich]

Solitary Figure in a Theater - Edward Hopper, 1903

[enby-axels]

it is soooo fascinating to me that shane hollander's "hero arc" in TLG is just him being sanded him down into a blow-up sex doll for his white partner, as if before that he wasn't already an effeminized racial other with thin characterization outside of his relationship with ilya, as if he doesn't already have zero agency, as if he's not already a doll molded into sexual and non-sexual submission by the wills of the characters around him to subordinate his own interiority, as if the ottawa plan that he's being punished for wasn't made with ilya's career interests in mind, as if he's somehow forcing ilya to cut off his boston friends and stay in the closet and to pay for that he has to be outed over and over and over again and get over the threat of systemic homophobia. it's just such a fascinating contradiction because like... where do you go from there? how do you make that the feel-good romance it's supposed to be and not a psychological horror in which a character of color is stripped of his personhood which the text deems an audacious act of selfishness?

some fans try to grapple with this contradiction by interpreting him as a homophobic or otherwise bigoted dudebro who needed to be narratively forcefemmed by the league's homophobia and ilya's magical healing white cock. i find this deeply dissatisfying because it's propelled by a reactionary impulse to justify the text's central (racist) conceit and, where it does seek to challenge the racial fetishization, it does so by reinforcing the implicit supremacy of hegemonic masculinity. canon shane is effeminized, fetishized, underwritten, and a frequent victim of his peers' bigotry, so fans respond by transforming him into a more masculine and bigoted character. his white hockey player counterparts who textually conform to the sport's gender roles in contrast with shane and have implications of being racist—scott travelled to "exotic" places to sleep with men, ryan and ilya both fetishize their respective partner's race—are excised of these complications to explore how they heroically overcome their white supremacist patriarchal sports culture.

both the books and the fandom actualize the occident through construction of the inferior orient. canon shane is repeatedly targeted by racially charged homophobia purely so the books can explore how this impacts the feelings of white gay characters. fanon shane is distorted into a perpetrator whose selfish cowardice foils his white counterparts' bravery. canon shane strives to be an unselfish lover to his female partners against every gay instinct in his body and pushes back at hayden for saying jackie got "fixed." fanon shane is a misogynistic creep, while ilya who canonically ignores shane's protests in bed without prior negotiation (the most egregious example that comes to mind is in chapter 27 of the long game, while cliff is right outside their hotel room) is reconfigured into a consent king who drinks his respect women juice in lieu of challenging the implications of this romance genre convention. canon shane worries about his former training mate who is an openly gay speed skater and thinks whichever nhl players comes out first would be "brave" but is reluctant to be that person due to the disproportionate harassment he already faces. fanon shane is judging other gay characters for being out and putting themselves at risk, while white characters are enthusiastic allies. canon shane wants to be more in tune with queer culture and be less ashamed of his queerness, and he admires characters like max and leah and fabian whom he is in community with. fanon shane rejects community and solidarity and has to be coaxed into being an ally by the white characters around him

i could keep listing examples but then i'd be here all day :/ and to be clear, i'm not saying shane is perfect or that there's no problematic subtext in his narration that should be challenged. because there is. rather, i'm questioning the fandom's impulses in regards to which characters are afforded grace and their presumption that adding texture to a fetishized, dehumanized character requires making said character conform more strictly to the culture they're excluded from. personally, i find it far more transgressive and meaningful to empathetically explore the ways in which that character is textually subjugated and in doing so disrupt the implicit hierarchies, but what do i know

[normalbrothers]

christa wolf, cassandra (tr. jan van heurck)

[jaeausten]

I'd rather try a cigarette...

[francoisarnaudsource]

Someone's Daughter (2026) | dir. Wiebke von Carolsfeld

↳ François Arnaud as Paul

[mybloodstream-caffeine]

Okay okay it's late I can post a sneaky dark fic premise shush nobody say anything SHUSH!!!

Basically, kidnapper au where Ilya holds Shane hostage at his own cottage. Shane is initially tied up and bound BUT he gradually gains certain "privileges" as time goes on and he behaves - bathroom, showers (all escorted and supervised), no manacles while he sleeps, longer chains so he can move around, even leisure activities later down the line. The only constant is he stays blindfolded the entire time and Ilya never speaks.

Eventually, the sensory deprivation makes Shane wholly dependent on Ilya as his sole source of companionship, specifically Ilya's touch because it's the only point of human contact he has. Shane becomes so reliant on Ilya that eventually the worst punishment Ilya can dole out is just,,, leaving him alone. Shane is always so desperately panicked when Ilya returns, so so grateful, big heaving sobs as he clings to Ilya, as he begs him not to do it ever again, he'll take any other punishment, he'd rather be beaten or starved, he'd let Ilya break his legs, burn him, choke him, anything ANYTHING but being left alone in the dark and the quiet,,,

They're also fucking the entire time, so. The Stockholm syndrome sets in QUICK.

[mybloodstream-caffeine]

And okay the sensory deprivation is so so important to me. Because Ilya never talks, but Shane slooowly comes to know Ilya's sounds regardless: his grunts of exertion when he's pinning Shane down,,, his harsh panting breaths after a particularly brutal punishment,,, his moans of pleasure when he's inside Shane,,, his derisive little exhalations at Shane's eventual pleading,,, his rolling warm laughter,,, the slow cadence of his breaths during slumber,,,

And then there's the way he smells, the way he tastes,,, the precise texture of his palms, his skin,,, every raised mole, every hair,,, Shane learns it all by heart

[mybloodstream-caffeine]

@sapphyshipseverything absolutely NAILING the core appeal of the sensory deprivation aspect of this au:

this au was made in a lab for me you have no idea!!!!!! I’m also thinking that the sensory deprivation really helps to make Shane even more submissive and desperate to please. Because he gets so little sensory input and so few indications of Ilya’s pleasure/displeasure with him, every tiny scrap of information is blown up to epic proportions in his mind, every bit of feedback feeling like a life or death situation. Like now the quietest, bitten back moan Ilya makes as he pushes inside Shane makes him feel victorious, the slight exhale of breath through his nose when he’s displeased makes him feel suicidal, the sound of Ilya’s hand as it slaps his face feels like relief, because he’s still worthy of being corrected. He grows to hate his own sounds because they drown that feedback out, begs for a gag because he wants to be able to hear Ilya better, kisses his feet in relief when he lets him wear one. (I think if Ilya did decide to talk or let him see him, he would go catatonic for a bit, not just because of the reveal but because being able to see Ilya’s reactions would feel like seeing God. Worshippers aren’t supposed to actually meet their gods, they’re supposed to infer their moods from obscure and confusing signs in the world around them)

[fuckrozanov]

something about the most erotic part of what they do being the ways shane’s body can accommodate ilya’s. finding new limits to push. reaching back when ilya fits a thumb in alongside his cock and being shocked by the stretch. four fingers in his mouth and the threat of a whole fist and ilya looking at him like he can’t believe he’s real. he already knew he could take a hit but this is the first time he’s wanted to lean into one. his body always being a machine and a product but with ilya he actually gets to live inside it, to find out how much it can want, how much it can feel, how much pleasure it can give and take.

[fuckrozanov]

he can be clay again…….

[artemisinfurs-deactivated1986426]

“Grammar is a piano I play by ear, since I seem to have been out of school the year the rules were mentioned. All I know about grammar is its infinite power. To shift the structure of a sentence alters the meaning of that sentence, as definitely and inflexibly as the position of a camera alters the meaning of the object photographed. Many people know about camera angles now, but not so many know about sentences. The arrangement of the words matters, and the arrangement you want can be found in the picture in your mind. The picture dictates the arrangement. The picture dictates whether this will be a sentence with or without clauses, a sentence that ends hard or a dying-fall sentence, long or short, active or passive. The picture tells you how to arrange the words and the arrangement of the words tells you, or tells me, what’s going on in the picture.”

— Joan Didion, Why I Write (via troykelleher3)

[creamsiclemelt]

Heated Rivalry | Episode 2 | Olympians

[totilyapowerexshane]

no it’s really that serious because he was treated like he was worthless, lazy, broken, weak by the people who were supposed to love him his whole life. and they took advantage of him and made him feel powerless, stripped him of his agency so they could burn through everything he gave them for years. and then he met shane who said no, you’re not lazy, no, you’re not weak, no you’re not broken. and even if you can’t control everything you can control me. you’re already powerful and strong and i want you to make me weak so you can feel stronger. you’re driven and disciplined but if you want to be lazy i will wait on you like a servant to his king. like a dog to its owner. you don’t have to lift a finger if you dont want. you can have anything you want. i see you in all your glory and i will worship you. i see your shortcomings as you see mine and i will love you for all of it.

[allstarrocks]

i wish vegas bathroom wasnt so early in their hook up era a more seasoned ilya wouldve known he couldve made shane get on his knees on that dirty bathroom floor and beg to suck ilyas dick

[allstarrocks]

its like, "maybe ask nicely"

and shane tries, he even tries to ask nicer and then ilya is humming in disapproval, touching his face and saying 'it would be nicer if u asked on your knees, yes?'

and shanes already gone, its muscle memory to get down on his knees for ilya at this point, he finds himself sinking down, tuxedo pants hitting the tile thats probably decently maintained but feels filthy to him now, because ilya said it was filthy, and thats playing in his mind and he barely manages out another plea for ilya to suck his dick, bc he was told to, and ilya laughs

'that is what you want?'

'uh, what? yes. Please.'

'you are the one on your knees, are you sure?' and ilya cups the side of his head and shane is swaying, barely succeeding in his effort to resist diving face first into ilyas crotch 'maybe you do want to suck my dick? you will still have to ask for it.'

and this position is all reflex for shane, hes salivating at the thought, fears of humiliation gone in favor of his desperate need to be good and he says 'please, rozanov? please can i suck your dick?'

And ilyas hand curls into a fist, gripping his hair unkindly and pulling his head back to look at his face, shane is flushed cheeks hooded eyes labored breaths, ilya is smiling, 'no.'