Whoever said writing was fun was fucking with us

my attention is flimsy at best, call me anything you want I don't care

[demaparbat-hp]

ZK Week 2026: COURT (for Depiction)

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Arcane AU:

Enforcer Zuko Kasai has a very simple task: survive in the Undercity long enough to complete his mission, and do so without calling forth Councillor Ozai's wrath. Again.

The people of Zaun aren't making his job any easier. He sympathizes with their cause, he truly does, but if Katara blows up another factory, Zuko swears he'll jump off a bridge before Father's goons can get to him. How is he supposed to reclaim his status as the Kasai Heir in these conditions?

(The solution finds him when a strange kid with a connection to the Arcane drops on Katara and Sokka's doorstep. Naturally, it all goes downhill from there.)

.

Depiction AU:

Manipulation comes in the wording of things. It's easy to win an entire Court when empathy is turned into a weapon. Luckily for their mission, Katara—Master Waterbender, Tempest of the Fire Nation, Fiancée of the Crown Prince—has always been a people person.

Or: After their plans hit a dead end, Katara pretends to betray the Avatar in the Crystal Catacombs. Zuko returns to the Fire Nation with a waterbender by his side and Roku's headpiece on his head. While the Blue Spirit and the Painted Lady gather sensitive information and turn Hari Bulkan upside down, Crown Prince Zuko and Master Katara conquer the Court (and plan a successful coup).

[phoenixystix]

i concede that this is irrational but i hate piper and annabeth's friendship and it's one of my least favorite things about heroes of olympus.

for one, i think that in order to make this friendship seem stronger, a lot of annabeth's unique qualities and experiences are really downplayed. like she's telling piper in tlh that she knows what it's like to lose a boyfriend, and this is how we establish trust between these two characters. and right off the bat that's super annoying because annabeth's boyfriend is her best friend of five years who has vanished off the face of the planet and might be in imminent danger? and piper like, has a crush on a guy she never actually dated and doesn't know. like it’s kind of annabeth to have compassion for piper but as a reader i can’t help but feel like these situations are not even in the same universe. and piper's constant comparisons about her relationship to theirs makes this more annoying lol, like it would lead you to believe she actually doesn't know anything about percy and annabeth's relationship, especially since some of her perceptions of it are actually inaccurate (they’re so easy around each other, percy needs annabeth to rein him in). and what is infinitely more annoying is that it seems to take the narrative place of any other close female friendship annabeth could and should have—VERY annoying. we finally get into annabeth’s internal world and we don’t get to hear about her relationship with her siblings, with other campers that she has GROWN UP WITH. instead her apparent closest female friend is piper. like annabeth has gone through war with other girls at this camp lol, she probably has sisters (we wouldn’t know bc we only get malcolm by name!). it is totally fair to make close new friends and this happens all the time but it feels more like piper (and reyna for that matter) are shoehorned in to fill a void in annabeth’s life that by all accounts should not be there. to me it’s like if rick can be mindful that percy has other loved ones and still develop his familial relationship with hazel and frank, why couldn’t be bothered to do that with annabeth’s preexisting relationships? (and i am pretty sure that the reason is just he didn’t think about them bc annabeth has only existed in percy’s pov up until this point). i think annabeth bonding with piper over their dads being neglectful is very worthwhile, but it's given the least attention. and like what crumbs we do get to justify them being so close doesn’t even touch the most traumatic things annabeth has been through, like her mom disowning her (which she clearly hasn’t told piper about) or her relationship with luke (bc the conversation with aphrodite would indicate that piper has no idea about any of this). it just feels very onesided like in the worst possible way and to me comes across as piper just admiring annabeth a lot but not actually knowing anything about her or understanding what makes her tick.

and for two, i just find piper to be an incredibly poorly written character, she's very self-involved and it truly does feel like 98% of her narrative (at least in moa) deals with her romance with jason and like. we never get enough buildup in this series to actually care about them as a couple so i do find this writing flaw to be especially egregious. there are many, many interesting things about piper, like her relationship with her mom and her dad and her issues with identity, and i want to root for her to be a better character, but her narrative is just so lackluster that i don't. her powers are poorly delineated and advance way too quickly with no cost or sacrifice to her, and she only does the most minimal self-reflection about how to use them ethically. her narratives in moa are by far the most boring and you could skip most of her chapters without losing significant plot updates (eidolon fight and exorcism are actually the only chapters piper get that serve the overall plot of the book. the other ones are sidequests that literally only serve her). and i also think the things we're told are her strengths are actually things she's very bad at, like she's introduced to be empathetic and perceptive and she's demonstrably worse at those things than many of the other characters, or at the very least she's not any better at it.

[dredsina]

Ive said this before but swear the biggest skill to learn as an adult is how to resist high-pressure sales tactics. You do NOT have to answer questions with anything other than "Sorry I'm not interested." No matter how nice they are or no matter how many follow up questions they ask or even how agitated they get when you stand your ground. Just keep saying I'm not interested. Don't answer their questions. Don't give them an opening to try to push back on your reasons. Be a fucking brick wall of I'm not interested.

[sweaterkittensahoy]

When we bought our car, I told Sean to let me handle it. I walked in and said "We have X for a down payment and cannot pay more than Y in monthly payments." My Y number had some leeway, but I didn't mention that.

First thing the sales guy did after I laid down the rules was turn to Sean and go, "What's your number?" And Sean said. "Oh, no, you negotiate with Gayle."

So, strike one for the sales guy. Could not divide and conquer us by implying THE MAN would not surprised at what I laid down.

Sales guy then had to confer with his manager and left us at his desk for several minutes. I have a vague recollection (this was 16 years ago) of Sean and I amusing ourselves doing bits about the other people there to look at cars. I am sure we did not give off the stressed or nervous energy they were hoping for.

Guy comes back. His first offer is fifty dollars a month more than I told him we could pay. I looked at him and said "I gave you our upper limit."

"Well, but what's another 50 bucks a month?"

"Something I can't afford."

He didn't know what to do with my open and unashamed admittal that I had a budget because my money was finite.

He went back to talk to the manager again.

It took two more rounds of "I told you what I can afford" before he finally came back 20 bucks under what I'd stated as my max.

The trick to resisting high-stress sales tactics is doing the math at home, knowing exactly what you can afford, and then walking into the room and stating that number minus 15%. Then refusing to budge from that number. Never, ever, meet then where they want. Always meet them where you want. Because at the end of the day, you can walk away and go somewhere else and say "I told the people at Z what my terms were, and they refused to work with me. Here are my terms. Meet them, and you make a sale today."

[teachablr-moment]

I have been a salesperson. I tried very hard to make a living selling life insurance. I read all the books and failed many, many more times than I succeeded. In the end, I went into education, where the sales pitch is much more agreeable (do your homework and I'll give you a better grade).

Lemme tell you that sales people are like the fae folk in the old tales.

They are beholden to the magic number 3. Refuse a sales pitch three times and they are trained to give up. They are trained in many ways to "redirect a refusal", but three refusals means it's time for them to give up.

They cannot enter your home without your permission. But once given in any form, permission is tough to claw back.

They truly fear a failed deal. Sale folk feed on the magic of forging contracts. If they cannot meet their quota, they will starve.

Their deals are never symmetrical. Somehow, it's always weighted in their favor, usually in inscrutable ways.

[the-haiku-bot]

Lemme tell you that

sales people are like the fae

folk in the old tales.

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

[rosieandthemoon]

By Heather Roblin, the Daphne and Apollo sterling silver ring set.

[rosieandthemoon]

By Heather Roblin, the Daphne and Apollo sterling silver ring set.

[pmamtraveller]

The Pearl With The Girl Earring by Olaf Falafel

[amerlcanapparel-deactivated2020]

when she says she doesn’t send nudes

[straighthater]

when guys objectify women and expect them to send nudes

[timelordpillbug]

when someone asks you about your nuclear plans for russia

[hikingnerd]

When Russia sends you nudes

[dr-thackery]

[dismantlerepaired]

[ilovepretzelrods]

[thegingerbalrog]

[onwardwall]

[miss-jaxon-flaxon-waxon]

#what the fuck happened here

[her-eyes-dared-me-with-danger]

This is my favorite post in all of tumblr

[kyloschuyler]

reminder that this post is now illegal in Russia

[tree-of-blue-squirrel]

reblog it, because Russia can´t

[maradaisykat]

Thanks Obama 

[my-sisters-eyeball]

Wtf

[roomba-with-knives-taped-to-it]

When Russia makes this post illegal

[earthnicity]

I HAVE ONLY SEEN THIS IN SCREENSHOTS

[dovahdez]

I will reblog this every goddamn time I find it on my dash

[a-wondering-thought-deactivated]

I have a piece of tumblr history on my blog now

[hellsitegenetics]

String identified: atgctactttaatcaaaaattcaTattattatttgaagtcaacatTaaataattgaATCTgtgattaaacttg

Closest match: Bombyx mori BmN4 cell DNA, chromosome 24, sequence Common name: Domestic Silk Moth

(image source)

[willifolts]

When the domestic silk moth sends you nudes

[scp-threats-is-back]

Domestic silk moth is just being friendly

[yoink-a-doink]

Now the moth is banned in Russia

[fantasylover4538]

…well what the fuck is this

[kingofkaumidy2]

Art.

[shower-thoughts-last-responder]

[sodom-hussein]

Old iconic tumblr posts gather gimmick blog comments the way DNA mutations accumulate over time

[starmaker-astral]

This is why I love tumblr

[demaparbat-hp]

ZK Week 2026: WARMTH (for Burnout)

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Burnout AU:

The Fire Prince is different than she remembers, barely an echo of himself. He moves as though he's treading deep waters. Sometimes, Katara feels like she's watching him through a fog.

After being exiled from the North for bloodbending an abuser—before facing Zhao and being thrown to the seas for Zuko to find—she'd heard the stories. Prince Zuko died as the Long Night began, caught in the explosion of the Yuurei. And yet, here he was, offering Katara passage to Omashu so she can reunite with her friends.

(Breathing in time with the fires of a ghost ship.)

.

Reverse AU:

“Years ago, a spirit showed me a reality in which I was meant to be the Avatar,” Zuko's airbending Master said. “Kyoshi died a century earlier and the Tribes didn't join forces to make the world their hunting ground. The Cycle itself was different, too—elemental opposites didn't succeed one another. It was so marvelous, yet so strange. However, this is our reality, and you're the Avatar.”

Placing a tile on the board, Aang continued, “Perhaps if water wasn't the next element in our Cycle you'd get a free pass, but we're not so lucky. Everyone's out to kill you so the next Avatar will be born in the Water Tribes. If that happens, the world is doomed. So you better get this exercise right, Zuko, or Princess Creepy-Yet-Pretty's going to catch you. And this time, I don't think she'll hold back."

[demaparbat-hp]

Maybe a bit of a warning before firebending, Itijuk?

[actual-changeling]

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.

[fanfic-lover-girl]

I need to try this! Currently, I copy the snippets I want to comment on in notepad or sticky notes on my computer but that is very tedious if I am on my phone. It's awful even on my laptop if the fic or chapter is super long. Thanks for sharing this OP!

[stahsm]

Overlock Stitch by @clothes_reetzy

[thatisuseful]

Damn, that's useful

[fluidstatick]

Finally a hand sewing tutorial on a hemline that isn't just the ladder stitch! the ladder stitch disappears when you tighten it, but it's not meant for hemlines because it breaks really easily! The overlock stitch is more stable, so it holds much longer, and it won't pucker or warp the fabric!

[putting-swears-back-in-images]

There is so much fucking rage in my fucking heart when I see people censor the swears

I saw someone censor their own fucking fanfic description on AO3!!! "[The characters] f*ck." DO THEY??? DO THEY?!?!??! HOW CAN I TRUST YOU TO WRITE THE FUCKING WHEN YOU DON'T EVEN DARE USE THE WORD.

Your blog soothes my rage. You make right what has gone wrong.

God fucking bless you.

Honestly yeah tho. That’s why I fucking do this. There is a lot of complying in advance I am seeing that we do not need to be doing at all.

Do not lay belly up and die. Say fuck like your life depends on it.

[the-haiku-bot]

Do not lay belly

up and die. Say fuck like your

life depends on it.

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

[pmamtraveller]

The Spectral Titans, by Anthony Machuca

[swordoffrivolousthings]

Just saw Spiderman Brand New Day and I really, really liked the movie. I think it's a great Spiderman movie, but I'll need some time to think if it also a great film and all on his own. Alos need some time with the ending.

[teekettle]

[ Live Example | My AO3 Skins ]

While AO3 has a way to click to see notes at the end, this tutorial is how you can not only have your viewers click to view certain notes, but also click back to where they had been reading before. We don’t even need to use a workskin for this, but just an implementation of simple anchor links. So whether you have a lot of references in your work or just want to let your inner Pratchett* loose, this is how you do it.

Keep reading

[seaacearts]

percy with slit pupils mermaid style send post

[demigodseameg16]

Bonus: The pupils go extra round (aka baby seal mode) when he is around one person, Annabeth, so that's what she's immune to what other known as "Percy's baby seal face" in which he subconsciously pulls out when he's begging or pleading with someone. (Other demigods in the seven+ who can sort of resist this are Reyna, Thalia and Grover. Reyna because she's used to her dogs puppy eyes, Thalia because she grew up with Jason's puppy dog eyes and Annabeth's babydoll eyes, and Grover? Baby goat eyes versus Baby seal eyes, it cancels each other out. Used together however~) Sally is also immune to this but that's because she raised him. She knows his tricks. (She's really hoping Estelle doesn't inherit the baby seal eyes because even if Estelle is mortal, she doesn't think the world can survive another one of her children having that ability.) Paul is more immune than the mortal because he is a teacher but he will fall for the seal eyes sometimes, all while sighing and making a big deal out of it (in reality he was going to let Percy do what he wanted to do he just wanted to see if he was going to pull out the eyes because it fascinates Paul.) Poseidon? Percy is his literal copy and paste, he gets those eyes from him. Is he immune to them? No (See: Percy sitting on his father's throne on Olympus and Poseidon not smiting him and going from 'immortal rage voice' to 'dearest son of mine why are you on papa's seat.') They do have friendly staring contests though (it's a tie.) Tyson? It cancels out because Tyson doesn't have the slit mermaid pupil, he has just one giant baby seal eye and Percy is weak against his baby brother. Amphititrite? She's married to Poseidon so she's immune to her husband's eyes, no matter how much she loves him, (her step son however, she says he can't fool her, but if Percy suddenly notices during his stay at the undersea palace extra cookies and an extra plate of food for him and Amphititrite not looking when Percy is obviously sneaking out against curfew to go help sea animals in trouble, well, that's her business, isn't it.)

Combined with the fact that his eyes change color to match the closest body of water, and glow, whether it be in the dark or when he's using his powers, or if there's bioluminescence near by, it is no wonder Chiron has gone over many injury reports from the infirmary because "Camper took one look into Percy Jackson's eyes and incident happened."

[egrisian-medea]

So far, I have only read the first book of PJO, but I have a critique to make about the way Camp HalfBlood works and how it treats the unclaimed kids.

Because we’re told to us that they go to Hermes’ cabin because he “defends hospitality” or some shyt like that.

Trans. by Google cause I’m lazy:

“You’re still being determined,” Luke explained patiently. “They don’t know which cabin to assign you to, so for now, this one is yours.” Cabin 11 welcomes all newcomers, all visitors. It’s only natural that we welcome you, because Hermes is the god of travelers.

Trans now yes by me:

That’s why you’re here, you, enjoying the hospitality of Cabin 11.

Hermes IS a god of hospitality, but we’re also told that Hermes’ cabin is one of the most populated cabins (and I don’t know if Rick meant to include the unclaimed children in this or not, but very probably not).

Trans.:

The teams were announced. Athena had allied herself with Apollo and Hermes, the two most numerous huts.

And my point is… if without the unclaimed children, the Hermes cabin is already big enough, how full is it WITH the unclaimed children? Percy himself complains about it.

Trans.

Inside, it was full of girls and boys, which were more than the beds available. On the floor there were sleeping bags, spread around everywhere. It looked like a gym where the Red Cross had decided to use as an evacuation center.

And

“Why do I have to install in Cabin 11? Why do we have to be so crowded? There are many beds.”

Yes, the book itself says it bad, but there was a very easy solution for this in CHB, that would’ve probably saved many kids from being nearly asphixiated and it’s using ZEUS’ cabin.

Hermes IS a god of hospitality, but the main god of that is Zeus. And I feel like this is unecessary villanization of Zeus. He is also the god of oaths, and he would NOT have slept with anyone, so the kids would’ve probably been able to sleep in beds.

Perhaps they could’ve also used the Artemis cabin for little girls. Artemis PROTECTS little girls, and since her cabin is empty, what problem would there’ve been? Artemis is a virgin goddess, but not anti-motherhood. Hera’s cabin too, but for a bit older ones.

All these cabins are empty. They could’ve been used in order to give the unclaimed children space and comfort, and in a way that didn’t contradict mythology and makes sense.

But no, Rick just wanted to villanize Hera and Zeus and make Artemis some “feminist queen, no motherhood shyt”, completly ignoring that those gods have very important domains tied to children and/or hospitality.

If Riordancerse books are books to learn about mythology, then Rick should’ve shown the actual domains and personalities of the gods. But no, he just satisfied himself by making them have these cartoonish, stereotypical attitudes.