kill the headlights

i’m north 27 • they/them • white mexican • TME

[andmaybegayer]

A firm, businesslike handjob

[professorsparklepants]

Role swap au where Zuko was the Avatar who got frozen for a hundred years, so when he’s rescued from the ice instead of a goofy twelve year old Katara catches this mysterious teenager with long hair and a cool scar and a fucking DRAGON

Katara: BOY???? HOT BOY?????? HOT TEENAGE BOY?????????

Zuko: *speaks*

Katara: nevermind I hate him

[brawltogethernow]

How does Aang factor into this? I ask because the more I think about it the more I want him to somehow be trying to capture the Avatar.

[professorsparklepants]

Aang is 112 years old, decided he was going to be Zuko’s airbending teacher, and refuses to take no for an answer

[brawltogethernow]

Aang: Aw, the new Avatar doesn’t want me. Aang: *gets out a weighted net* Time for Plan B then.

[professorsparklepants]

JDJSHJABDBFJSH

[brawltogethernow]

Look, you know how you keep a net from falling on you? YOU AIRBEND IT, SUCKA. Air comes right after fire in the cycle so it’s not like the guy has any other options. Do you want a flaming net falling on you? No? Then learn to airbend. Or this tiny old man will cart you away like a trussed turkey and lecture you about the power of laughter, going with the flow, opening your chakras, and other hippie shit.

[brawltogethernow]

Sokka, slouching against a fence, not moving: Oh nooooooo, that creepy old man stole the Avataaaaaaaaaar. Sokka, sitting down on the ground: We should dooooo something. Sokka, pulling out his lunch: Otherwise he might actually learn something. That would be teeeerrible. Katara, indignant rage coursing through her body: Sokka!!!!!!!! We have to go look for him!!!! Sokka: Might! Actually! Learn! Something! Katara! Katara: *wavers* Katara, also sitting down: We have to go look for him…. *gets out her own sandwich* But, maybe after lunch.

[professorsparklepants]

I love that this transforms Aang’s role in the full Team Avatar familial situation from the baby of the family to the Grandpa with weird hobbies

[wetwareproblem]

My brain, immediately after the “Aang won’t take no for an answer” post:

Aang: I’m gonna ride him! *jumps on Zuko’s shoulders*

[wetwareproblem]

Actually, I thought a bit more about this: If Aang is “grandpa figure who won’t fucking stop teaching Zuko to be a better and more spiritually fulfilled person,” then what is Iroh doing?

And then it hit me.

Iroh: *sitting in a teahouse at a paisho table* Iroh, deadpan: I must capture the last airbender.  Iroh: It is the only way to make sure the powe rof the Avatar won’t be turned on the Fire Nation. Iroh: Only then will I be redeemed in the eyes of the Fire Lord for my failure at Ba Sing Se. Iroh: … Iroh: Anyway, it’s your turn.

About half of the B plots are just Iroh finding new ways to feign incompetence and bad luck so that his political watchdog can’t prove that he’s letting Aang - and by extension Zuko - get away.

[wetwareproblem]

@ray10k

[dysperdis]

Sometimes Iroh plays paisho with Aang, whose entire disguise during these games consists of a painfully fake mustache.

[wetwareproblem]

AANG WAS THE OTHER PLAYER IN THAT SCENE OF COURSE IT’S PERFECT (the moustache is just a bit of Appa’s fur tied in a string)

[eternalgirlscout]

i think about this post all the time and if i may, i would like to suggest keeping the banished royalty angle for zuko.

he was the eldest son of fire lord sozin, who knew the avatar was the greatest threat to the fire nation, but also knew the new one would be a firebender and he couldn’t exactly merc his own people, now could he? but he always planned to order a convenient little assassination on whoever the new avatar turned out to be and in the meantime took out the air temples so that avatar couldn’t learn the next element in the cycle. of course, when it turns out to be his son, sozin, stellar dad that he is, thinks “if you want something done right” and shoots a fire blast at his firstborn.

zuko enters the avatar state, blows up half the palace, etc etc as one does, gets a nasty scar for his trouble, and escapes, hence why he was hanging out far enough south to necessitate katara and sokka cracking open a cold boy a century later.

all this is to say 1. i think it’s a good way to maintain zuko’s background and characterization in an au like this and 2. it leads to a secret second roleswap

because this makes zuko iroh’s uncle.

[bisexualbaker]

Reblogging again for Katara and Sokka cracking open a cold boy.

[barstoolblues]

high at trader joes buying all yellow groceries

[bonus-links]

dungeon meshi au doodles for fun bc I cannot be stopped

[dailycatsblog]

[cybermanes]

I’m at a hardcore show asking people why the guy on stage is yelling at us

[tlirsgender]

I'm not fond of the lgbt at this point like as a demographic white queers aren't any less likely to be racist than any other type of white people. Native queer people get fucking murdered and you can't talk about how their race is relevant, like you haven't been killing us for centuries. Happy pride month

[tlirsgender]

I could wax sociological about how homophobia and transphobia are entwined with white supremacy but none of you fucking listen when we try to tell you anything, you just dig your heels in when we try putting it gently & confirm us as savages when we get angry. I'm so beyond sick of your shit

[tlirsgender]

And I say Native *people* plural because this has happened before. This is what happens. You do this shit to Black people, too. Sometimes it's not about YOU it's about race first before anything else

[tlirsgender]

[ID: a reply from @pacificnorthwhore that reads, "I understand your point but damn this is an aggressive and hateful way to say it" /end ID]

Good cause I hate you but also let me redirect you back to that "not listening when we put it gently and confirming us as savages when we get angry" point

[storyweavingspider]

Wanna second this on the Black side. I’ve brought it up on here before but like this is how crackers reacted to me gently spoon-feeding them the most basic of Black transfeminism/intersectional theory, the kinda shit we get taught AS FUCKING KIDS for our own safety:

If a white can’t stand by us when we’re mad and (rightfully tbh) lashing out at them collectively for the oppression and suffering they stick us into, they DEFINITELY won’t stand by us the second shit gets hard. The trash is taking itself out but damn do I wish it wasn’t leaking all over the place and leaving us to clean up after it.

[tsulasgi]

Scrap basket!

Cherokee double wall - commercial round reed

You can tell I have a lot of pieces left over from working with strawberries and sunset colors. Reeds can take up a lot of space so im happy to put these to use!

[literary-illuminati]

It's very #problematic of me I'm sure but if they must do either I really desperately prefer authors coming up with fancy always-italicized elf words for being gay or trans than having preindustrial warrior aristocrats and barely-socialized monsters have a vocabulary that casually includes 'demisexual' and 'enby'.

This is only slightly a principled stance (queernorm fantasy worlds are very obviously not trying to have any sort of realistic political economy of gender, which I only slightly judge them for), mostly just painful aesthetic mismatch.

[koszmarnybudyn]

Portraits of Darkness Man and Bat Child.

[kaity--did]

can not recommend letting your child do a big scream when they are frustrated enough. Just straight up ask them like "hey do you need to do a big scream?" And if they say yes let cover your ears and say okay GO and let them scream because you know what eventually when you're really frustrated your little person with your face is gonna look at you with their ears covered and yell "HEY DO YOU NEED TA DO A BIG SCHREAM?!" and you can just... do a big scream and it won't scare them and you will feel better too

[a-thousand-pots]

I made something 🥰🎉🎉

Wayword — a daily word-ladder puzzle

Get from one word to another by adding, removing, or changing one letter at a time.

It has a daily mode that resets at UTC midnight. I’ve had fun with it with some friends - hopefully other people find it fun too :)

Lmk if you have any feedback

[jabberding0]

Claymation

[wafflewarrior111]

So... I found this and now it keeps coming to mind. You hear about "life-changing writing advice" all the time and usually its really not—but honestly this is it man.

I'm going to try it.

[missroserose]

I love the lawyer metaphor, because whenever I see “John knew that...” in prose writing I immediately think “how?  How does he know it?”  Interrogate your witnesses.  Cross-examine them.  Make them explain their reasoning.  It pays dividends.

[heck-in-a-handbasket]

All of this, but also feels/felt. My editor has forbidden me from using those and it’s forced me to stretch my skills.

[ineedthesons]

This is your "show not tell" advice explained!

[tarysande]

Editor here.

First, let me preface this with something very important: you can treat all of this advice as SECOND-DRAFT ADVICE. It is so much easier to rewrite this kind of stuff once you have words on the page. Telling yourself the first draft is totally appropriate and acceptable.

What we’re talking about here are FILTER WORDS (and to some degree verbs of being). Yes, “thought” words are included. But so are “heard, saw, looked, tasted, smelled” etc.—most words having to do with the senses.

This isn’t black and white advice; sometimes you’ll use these words and that’s okay. They’re not WRONG. They’re just weaker. And they’re weaker because they create distance between the reader and the experience of the character.*

If you want your reader to feel like they’re experiencing the story right alongside the character, you want to cut down on filter words.

*This is particularly important with first person and close third POVs. The reader always knows whose eyes they’re seeing through and thoughts they’re privy to. So you don’t need to tell them “I saw X.” Or “I heard X.” Or “I thought Y.” You can just jump into the action/observation as it’s happening.

This is also where you want to pay attention to verbs of being.

“It was rainy.” Versus: “The rain pounded against the roof.” Or “The rain howled like an injured animal.” Or “The rain tapped against the window like an anxious lover.” All of these are inviting the reader deeper into the experience of the story by using stronger verbs and similes. And, at the same time, they stir feelings (instead of TELLING feelings). And feelings keep your reader engaged. Engaged readers keep turning pages; engaged readers become FANS.

[the-haiku-bot]

This is also where

you want to pay attention

to verbs of being.

Beep boop! I look for accidental haiku posts. Sometimes I mess up.

[defilerwyrm]

The most valuable advice that Author Ex gave me through the years that we wrote together was this: the problem with all these filter words is that they create distance in the POV.

That means that when you read a line like

John saw that the curtains were open.

It immediately takes you OUT of the character's perspective and instead tells you what they experience as a secondhand observation.

You don't have to get fancy or purple with how you rephrase things like this. Not everything needs a ton of breathing room.

You wanna know what's perfectly impactful while keeping a tight POV?

The curtains were open.

Simple as that.

[plus-size-aesthetics]

Ester Manas at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Costume Exhibit, 2026

[winonaparadise]

✝️ transgender nun gives anti-s*icide ideation themed JOI ✝️

[wildflowerdaysi]