If you're writing anything involving cons, scams, heists, or morally questionable characters who are very good at lying, here are some free resources I've been using for research. Saving you the "why is this in my search history" anxiety.
1. The FBI's Famous Cases & Criminals archive (fbi.gov/history/famous-cases) has detailed breakdowns of real fraud cases, Ponzi schemes, and confidence operations. The language they use is clinical and precise, which is perfect for getting the procedural details right.
2. The FTC Consumer Sentinel Network publishes annual reports on the most common fraud tactics in the US. Great for understanding how modern scams actually work and what makes people fall for them.
3. The Smithsonian's American Art Museum has a free digital collection of forgery case studies. If your character forges documents or art, this is gold.
4. Court Listener (courtlistener.com) is a free legal database where you can read actual court transcripts from fraud trials. Want to know how a real con artist talks under oath? This is where you find out.
5. The Internet Archive's collection of old newspaper crime sections. Search for "confidence man" or "swindle" in papers from the 1920s through 1960s and you'll find incredible real stories that would feel too dramatic for fiction.
Bonus: The Psychology of Fraud section on the Association for Psychological Science website has accessible articles about why people trust, how deception works cognitively, and what makes someone a convincing liar. Essential reading if you want your con artist characters to feel psychologically real.
Reblog to save for later. Your WIP will thank you.
"A man doesn't cry... A real man stands like a lion in the face of adversity. He doesn't wail like a woman…"
These were words his father had repeated to him since childhood, etched in his mind like an inscription, helping him overcome hardships, starting with his mother's early death, then his wife's deceit and exploitation, and finally his father's death a few months later.
But now…The situation is entirely different. His cousin and closest friend, no matter how much they fought, is not here. And there's not even a body that they can bury to give him the closure he desperately needs.
The bond between them transcends the simple blood tie shared by all families. When one laughs, the other, even if far away, joins in. When one cries, the other cries in return. Therefore, the intense cold that Ryomen feels now, engulfing his being, stems from the fact that his cousin's cold body lies somewhere. Out there.
Yuji patted him on the shoulder from behind, offering comfort as he said with deep sorrow, "It's alright, Ryomen... there's no point in us being here... Let the police do their work, and we do ours."
He nodded in agreement, then turned slowly, his eyes blazing with fury, the blood vessels in them clearly visible with intense anger, before saying in a terrifying tone, his face filled with menacing resolve, "I want to know who did this to him.”
────୨ৎ────────୨ৎ────────୨ৎ───❤︎ From chapter 2 'pretty when you cry', a jjk CEO au . Check the ao3 link for the whole story.❤︎
────୨ৎ────────୨ৎ────────୨ৎ───
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works
Decided to put higuruma x shoko in my jjk ceo au cause I'm a sucker for this ship
. ݁₊ ⊹ . ݁ ⟡ ݁ . ⊹ ₊ ݁.. ݁₊ ⊹ . ݁ ⟡ ݁ . ⊹ ₊ ݁.
She's laying asleep in his arms, oblivious to his suffering, while he's laying on burning embers, feeling the flames consuming him.
Things have always been complicated between Higuruma and Shoko. Both of them memorized the pattern by now. It would start with a mistake from either of them, the other one addresses it, a war of bad communication happens, then they end up burying it under the mat on top of every past mistake that had happened in their marriage.
Each time, they promise each other to solve it and actually talk about it, calmly, they end up becoming preoccupied with their endless work. Every argument that happened between them neither of them would win, but rather the physical attraction with every glance or fleeting touch. It was too strong to ignore or treat as something invisible and nonexistent.
He sighed in despair and ran his hand over his face several times, trying to find inner peace, before he finally stood up to get ready for the day.
She blinked several times with obvious annoyance at his constant movement around the room and the bed before finally giving in and opening her eyes wide.
Shoko sat up on the edge of the bed, propping her feet on the wooden floor below, watching him hurriedly put on his clothes. Whenever he remembered something, he'd grab it and toss it haphazardly into his bag.
After a few minutes, regaining her focus, she spoke, her voice still sleepy but laced with hints of disapproval "Hiromi... are you going out?"
"Oh... did you forget? I have that appointment I told you about last night... I need to be there early, just in case.” he replied indifferently, his hand still idly in his bag.
Despite her nod of agreement, he sensed the unease behind her veiled gaze. She has been glancing at him since she woke up, yet he decided to ignore her due to his limited time and continue what he was doing.
As for her, she closed her eyes for a moment in a daze before opening them again, speaking in an even tone. "Hiromi…about yesterday…”
He opened his mouth to reply, when his phone rang, announcing a call. He answered, his voice straining slightly, avoiding the gaze of the person standing before him, glaring at him with disappointment.
“what do you want, Megumi?”
"Good morning, higuruma. I wanted to let you know that I arrived early at the prosecutor's office as usual and found a murder case there with a woman accused." Megumi answered him hastily, explaining,
He listened intently, captivated by his words. After he finished, he asked curiously, "So, what's the story? Have you found anything yet?"
"Honestly, yes. Although I'm waiting to see what the final investigation reveals, it seems like a complex case.”
Higuruma rubbed his forehead several times with his index finger, visibly exhausted, then said, ending the conversation, "Okay, head for my office with what you've got. I'll come as soon as possible so we can see what's going on."
He ended his urgent call and looked back at his wife with regret, saying softly after exhaling several times, "Shoko, please... let's forget everything that happened….I have to go now…”
“It's okay…go…I have to go to my clinic anyway” Shoko interrupted, her tone visibly tired.
“I promise that when I get back tonight we'll talk like any two civilized people, calmly... Okay?"
She sighed reluctantly, giving in without comment, so he approached her and planted a soft kiss on her lips before grabbing his bag and running out.
. ݁₊ ⊹ . ݁ ⟡ ݁ . ⊹ ₊ ݁.. ݁₊ ⊹ . ݁ ⟡ ݁ . ⊹ ₊ ݁
(this is from chapter 2, 'pretty when you cry' I'll leave the ao3 link if you want to check it out -> currently at 10k words but it's genuinely going to be huge)
⊹ ࣪ ˖Can we plz normalize spreading awareness about ai without hate??⊹ ࣪ ˖
Just to be clear I'm anti ai. I think it is a sickness to individualism and creativity which what basically makes us human in the first place.
But, it's crazy how I've seen some people insulting and talking condescendingly to the ones that use it.
No it is not okay to express hate in that form and we shouldn't ever justify any kind of hate no matter how much you want to defend that cause.
Otherwise, you're not defending a cause, you're simply grabbing at the first opportunity to say "I'm better than you"
You have to understand that ai is like the genie in the bottle, ofc people are gonna use it to feel a sense of accomplishment.
If you know a writer or artist that uses them, you should advise them or tell them about other sources that can help them accomplish what they want. NOT insulting them.
Our fanfiction preferences reflect psychological aspects of our identity!!
So, I know I haven't updated the current fics I'm writing for a while and I'm so sorry about that.
I've had this crazy hyperfixation just because I started overthinking what people would like and what's not.
Which brought me to the point where I'm massively consuming books about psychological concepts such as: emotional observation, social cognition, attachment theory, etc etc.
I'm starting to feel like fanfiction is not just a hobby, but a reflection of each one of our psychological needs.
Like for example, the way we choose specific formats (xreader, character x character, and so on) may actually say a lot about our personal emotional needs.
if someone enjoys reading 'self insertion', could be because they need a 'safe experimentation with romance' as if a need for wish fulfilment.
While people that constantly chooses a certain trope like 'found family' have a desire for belonging and so on.
I'm not exactly saying that our fanfiction preferences diagnose us, but they can act as mirrors.
Why I'm specifying fanfiction media instead of books in general is because we have the choice to be picky as hell. We click what we want and what we don't, so yeah at this point it's not just about reading a story.
We're basically customizing what we want according to our emotional desires.
Anyways, I want to write about this way way more. So tell me if you'd be interested to read about it.
Am I the only one who physically can't skip filler arcs?
I recently started watching Bleach and for some reason like 90% of the fandom acts like you're legally obligated to skip half the episodes.
Right now I'm in the Bount Arc and my friend keeps screaming at me to skip it.
Bro, I genuinely can't.
Matter of fact I think I'm actually enjoying it.
Like yeah, I get that the plot isn't some peak fiction masterpiece or whatever, but it's still fun to watch.
The way people talked about it had me expecting pure filler nonsense, random fanservice, and completely irrelevant episodes.
But there's actually a story, characters, worldbuilding, and stuff happening.
At this point I'm wondering if this is because JoJo's Bizarre Adventure has completely destroyed my sense of what's considered "normal," or if I'm just the type of person who enjoys literally anything no matter how ass it is.
I'm proudly the founder of the Atom Eve Hate Club.
Like seriously, she's one of the characters in the Invincible universe that deserves way more hate.
And no, I'm not even talking about how she somehow has one of the most broken powers in the universe and still manages to use them in the dumbest ways possible.
Nah.
This girl is sneaky as hell and has been circling around Mark since the beginning of the comics.
(I'm talking about comics not the animation)
Like bro is happily dating Amber Bennett, the relationship is actually going well, they're working things out, superhero life is doing its thing... and what does Eve do?
She starts dating William Clockwell (literally Mark's best friend) just so she can stay close to him.
Then she realizes William is kinda not it, dumps him, and moves to Africa.
A while later she calls Mark like, "Yo, bring Amber and come visit."
Amber, who actually sees what's going on, tells Mark, "Bro, Eve is definitely into you."
And Mark's like, "Nahhh, we're just friends."
Yeah, okay buddy.
Then when they're in Africa, Eve basically spends the whole time low-key trashing Amber and trying to plant ideas in Mark's head.
"She's not really like you."
"People like us shouldn't date normal people."
"That's why I left William."
"She'll never understand you the way I do."
"She'll never go through the stuff you go through."
"So... you guys fight a lot?"
"Everything good between you two?"
Like girl just say:
"Leave that girl and come date me already."
I've genuinely never seen levels of scheming and manipulation like Atom Eve's.
