I think we should try taking a closer look at where she came from to understand what her state of mind was back then.
Susie isn’t from Hometown.
Wherever she was from, she was not treated well.
And, upon coming to Hometown…things weren’t much better.
In Hometown, Susie is
Chronically underfed
Likely homeless
Hated by most of her classmates
Close to being expelled and losing her last tether to a normal life
Susie was at the very, very end of her rope at the beginning of Chapter 1.
Keep reading
I despise Venion so much omg
BIG SPOILERS FOR LCF PT2 CHAPTER 102!!!!!!
The Soos are so fucking stupid I hate them so much..... THE RECENT CHAPTER????? hellooo????
Cale coughing up more blood than he ever has. Ever. Then proceeding to get hit with. the worst feeling of hunger he has ever been through and proceeding to shovel an apple pie in his mouth as quickly as he can.
THEN CJS BREAKING THROUGH THE ROOF. WHILE FIGHTING THE MURDER DEMON???????????????? Sui just being so goddamn done with him..... CJS just smiling and greeting Cale as if he hasn't seen him since HE DIED IN FRONT OF HIM (same thing happened with Sui these little shits...) and as if Cale isn't covered head to toe in his own blood and stuffing his face, as if he isn't fighting one of the most powerful people IN THIS WORLD??????
Cale is pretty shameless.
If he was told by the GoD that he could get 1 billion gallons if he kissed one of his companions, he wouldn’t blush. No. He would start bartering.
“Only a billion gallons? The Crown Prince has offered me more for less. You’re a god, live up to the name. 30 billion for a kiss on the cheek. I’ll even do a knuckle kiss for 20 billion if you feel cheap.”
The Sun God pitches in. “50 billion gallons for a kiss on the lips.”
Cale turns it down immediately. “You think my first kiss is only worth 50 billion gallons? You must think you’re funny. You couldn’t afford my first kiss with your whole religion.”
The GoD interrupts. “85 billion gallons and a heavenly item.”
He clicks his tongue, do they think he’s stupid? “A heavenly item would only draw more attention to me. I want to be a slacker. Use your head.”
Both gods curse. They can’t let him become a slacker, it would ruin everything.
After a minute of thinking, the GoD and the Sun God come to a conclusion. They’re going to cut their losses and take what they can get. “Okay, we’ll buy a kiss on the cheek for 30 billion gallons.”
Cale makes eye contact with them. “50 billion.”
The gods cry out in indignation, but Cale refuses to budge on this.
With a look of defeat, they split the cost and tell him to pick someone to kiss on the cheek.
He chooses Raon. The dragon is very happy with the sudden display of affection, and the gods curse the name Cale Henituse.
Some doodles as well!!
I was reading abralhugres ' "one last death" and "I'll save you when you're weak"
(Non-authors, please RB to signal boost to your author friends!)
An astute reader informed me this morning that one of my fics (Children of the Future Age) had been pirated and was being sold as a novel on Amazon:
(And they weren't even creative with their cover design. If you're going to pirate something that I spent a full year of my life writing, at least give me a pretty screenshot to brag about later. Seriously.)
I promptly filed a DMCA complaint to have it removed, but I checked out the company that put it up -- Plush Books -- and it looks like A LOT of their books are pirated fic. They are by no means the only ones doing this, either -- the fact that """publishers""" can download stories from AO3 in ebook format and then reupload them to Amazon in just a few clicks makes fic piracy a common problem. There are a whole host of reasons why letting this continue is bad -- including actual legal risk to fanfiction archives -- but basically:
You can search for your fics by title, or by text from the description (which is often just copied wholesale from AO3 as well). If you find that someone has stolen your work and is selling it as their own, you can lodge a DMCA complaint (Amazon.com/USA site; other countries have different systems). If you haven't done this before, it's easy! Here's a tutorial:
First, go to this form. You'll need to be signed into your Amazon account.
Select the radio buttons/dropdown options (shown below) to indicate that you are the legal Rights Owner, you have a copyright concern, and it is about a pirated product.
Enter the name of your story in the Name of Brand field.
In the Link to the Copyrighted Work box, enter a link to the story on AO3 or whatever site your work is posted on.
In the Additional Information box, explain that you are the author of the work and it is being sold without your permission. That's all you really need. If you want, you can include additional information that might be helpful in establishing the validity of your claim, but you don't have to go into great detail. You can simply write something like this:
I am the author of this work, which is being sold by [publisher] without my permission. I originally published this story in [date/year] on [name of site], and have provided a link to the original above. On request, I can provide documentation proving that I am the owner of the account that originally posted this story.
In the ASIN/ISBN-10 field, copy and paste the ID number from the pirated copy's URL. You'll find this ten-digit number in the Amazon URL after the word "product," as in the screenshot below. (If the URL extends beyond this number, you can ignore everything from the question mark on.) Once this number has been added, Amazon will pull the product information automatically and add it to the complaint form, so you can check the listing title and make sure it's correct.
Finally, add your contact information to the relevant fields, check the "I have read and accept the statements" box, and then click Submit. You should receive an email confirmation that Amazon has received the form.
Please share this information with your writer friends, keep an eye out for/report pirated works, and help us keep fanfiction free and legally protected!
NOTE: All of the above also applies to Amazon products featuring stolen artwork, etc., so fan artists should check too!
Writing great chemistry can be challenging. If you’re not super inspired, sometimes the connection between your characters feels like it’s missing something.
Here are a few steps you can consider when you want to write some steamy romantic chemistry and can’t figure out what’s blocking your creativity.
Tropes have a bad reputation, but they can be excellent tools when you’re planning or daydreaming about a story. Giving the romance a name also assigns a purpose, which takes care of half the hard plotting work.
You can always read about love tropes to get inspired and think about which might apply to the characters or plot points you have in mind, like:
Friends to lovers
Enemies to lovers
First love
The love triangle
Stuck together
Forbidden love
Multiple chance love
Fake lovers turned soulmates
There are tooooons of other tropes in the link above, but you get the idea. Name the love you’re writing about and it will feel more concrete in your brain.
You should always spend time developing your characters individually, but it’s easy to skip this part. You might jump into writing the story because you have a scene idea. Then the romance feels flat.
The good news is you can always go back and make your characters more real. Give them each their own Word or Google doc and use character templates or questions to develop them.
You should remember to do this for every character involved in the relationship as well. Sometimes love happens between two people who live nearby and other times it happens by:
Being in a throuple
Being in a polyamorous relationship
Being the only one in love (the other person never finds out or doesn’t feel it back, ever)
There are so many other ways to experience love too. Don’t leave out anyone involved in the developing relationship or writing your story will feel like driving a car with only three inflated tires.
Whenever your characters get to talk, what’s at risk? This doesn’t have to always be something life changing or scary. Sometimes it might be one character risking how the other perceives them by revealing an interest or new fact about themselves.
What’s developing in each conversation? What’s being said through their body language? Are they learning if they share the same sense of humor or value the same foundational beliefs? Real-life conversations don’t always have a point, but they do in romantic stories.
Body language begins long before things get sexy between your characers (if they ever do). It’s their fingertips touching under the table, the missed glance at the bus stop, the casual shoulder bump while walking down the street.
It’s flushed cheeks, a jealous heart skipping a beat, being tongue tied because one character can’t admit their feelings yet.
If a scene or conversation feels lacking, analyze what your characters are saying through their body language. It could be the thing your scene is missing.
No love story is perfect, but that doesn’t mean your characters have to experience earth shattering pain either.
Make one laugh so hard that they snort and feel embarrassed so the other can say how much they love that person’s laugh. Make miscommunication happen so they can make up or take a break.
People grow through their flaws and mistakes. Relationships get stronger or weaker when they learn things that are different about them or that they don’t like about each other.
When you’re getting to know someone, you bond over the things you’re both interested in. That’s also a key part of falling in love. Have your characters fall in intellectual love by sharing those activities, talking about their favorite subjects, or raving over their passions. They could even teach each other through this moment, which could make them fall harder in love.
You learn a lot about someone when they’re around friends, acquaintances, and strangers. The chemistry between your characters may fall flat if they’re only ever around each other.
Write scenes so they’re around more people and get to learn who they are in public. They’ll learn crucial factors like the other person’s ambition, shyness, humor, confidence, and if they’re a social butterfly or wallflower.
Will those moments make your characters be proud to stand next to each other or will it reveal something that makes them second guess everything?
And of course, you can never forget to use sensory details when describing the physical reaction of chemistry. Whether they’re sharing a glance or jumping into bed, the reader feels the intensity of the moment through their five senses—taste, touch, sight, sound, and smell.
Characters also don’t have to have all five senses to be the protagonist or love interest in a romantic story. The number isn’t important—it’s how you use the ways your character interacts with the world.
-----
Anyone can write great romantic chemistry by structuring their love story with essential elements like these. Read more romance books or short stories too! You’ll learn as you read and write future relationships more effortlessly.
Rereading Trash of the Count’s Family has really given me insight into the perspectives of the people around him. The first time is like walking in blind, because Cale describes their expressions and actions- but the narrative doesn’t dive into their emotions or past, so we’re left in the dark for why their expressions and actions are significant.
Very happy about finally understanding the depth of these characters, and the hidden meaning to Cales actions and how it affects them.
Krs!cale came from a world where food was scarce and you'd probably die if you're picky...
Imagine everyone just shouting in shock when he drops a cookie and immediately squats down, looks at it for 2 seconds, and then pops it into his mouth.
After that??? They watch him like hawks because he's basically a toddler putting random things into his mouth... Like you can't tell me his old habits wouldn't kick in sometimes and he wouldn't dig up some random wild carrot or smth and just smack some dirt off before taking a bite. Ron would literally have to take it away.. and you know the little kid thing where the parents dust the dirt off the kids hands and stuff?? That.
Cale: I don't get why you guys are so against leaving me alone??? I'm grown .
Also Cale: (eating random bread off the ground)
Beacrox just , having a mental break down over how dirty it is and how many germs Cale must've ingested ...
I wanna write this fkdkfkdlg
Okay hear me out.
You know how react fics are actually thinly veiled excuses to show off what an awesome person Cale is? What if we twist that around a little bit?
So everything's the same at first glance, right? Literally everyone and their mother is here (kidding, just the most important ppl), and this host comes up.
(Or the unseen organizer, depending on whether or not you like a host OC here)
But.......
This host/organizer hates Cale. Like, despises him. Probably a Sealed God's follower or smth the like. They can't just make something out of nothing and put untrue bullshits on the screen, but they sure as hell can cut things around to paint Cale in the worst light possible.
Like, him being a transmigrator, him being happy at his "stolen" identity, him going around and scamming people, him using his knowledge to manipulate ppl around him, him generally acting even remotely "villainous".
No heroics to be found, just a video reel of Cale acting trashy.
Cale, at first, would be scared. He would be terrified, really. But as the video went on and he caught onto the malice directed at him, he calms right down, because that's who Cale is.
He would then spend the rest of the time prying the host/organizer's identity out of them, and plan an appropriate payback for this invasion of privacy.
Hell, at some point, he even nods in agreement, because, yeah, he's a trash, and it's about time everyone wakes up and notices that!
The rest of the participants, though, while may be confused at first, take one look at the badly edited slander on the screen, and collectively goes "Bullshit!"
Cale stealing og!Cale's identity? Kim Rok Soo, the og!Cale, smiles at the screen nastily.
Cale planning on using Choi Han? Choi Han wants to say that he doesn't have to stab his heart to kill a bastard.
Cale scamming Whipper? Harol lays out the enormous help Cale had given them, and that at one point, Cale was fighting for Whipper more than Whipper was fighting for itself (a la Whipper King, the bastard)
Cale scamming the Jungle? Litana raises the issue of Cale waking up from fainting, goes straight to save the Jungle and then fainting again.
Cale scamming Alberu? Alberu dignifiedly says that it's a partnership, and that it's his money, his choice.
Cale being implied saying he's ignoring the atrocities in front of him? Everyone snorts because they all know that immediately after that, Cale has bled to put a stop to all of those acts.
Cale saying he's not getting involved with that? On rolls her eyes: "So he said. Like a liar."
Basically, I just want a bastard who tries so hard to discredit Cale in his ppl's eyes only for Cale to nod along like he agrees with it and for the rest to become even more sympathetic to Young Master Cale who has such a soft heart who keeps getting himself hurt to save them all-
Cale: See, I am a tr-
Everyone: A HERO!!! OUR HERO!!!! OUR LORD AND SAVIOR!!! OUR GUIDING LIGHT FROM ANOTHER WORLD, THE CHOSEN OF THE GODS-
tldr: Cale suffered from Emotional Damages, but not the kind the host/organizer wants :)))))))))))))))