Oh, God. This was…so incredibly embarrassing. What sort of grown ass adult forgot their keys at home? What sort of grown adult got locked out of their own apartment? Definitely Magnus Bane, who tended to have poor luck most of the time, and if one believed in karma, it made no sense for all the good he did saving others. Alas, c’est la vie. Eyes making a slow and shy accent up to the other’s gaze, Magnus swallowed hard and nodded, blinking away the bit of daze he got whenever he looked at A.Lightwood.
“Yeah, hi, I’m okay,” He managed, head tilting extremely far back just so he could meet his eyes; sitting on the floor didn’t always have its advantages. Chewing on the inside of his cheek, Magnus heaved a sigh, “I kind of…locked myself out? And my brother isn’t answering, so I’m stuck out here. But don’t worry about me–I’m sure he’ll be home soon.” Magnus offered the other a smile.
Alec was never one to turn away when people needed help. And despite the words, he couldn’t help but be concerned for his neighbor. This was Magnus, if he wasn’t mistaken; the one he observed from afar and his siblings teased him about asking him out instead if watching. But Alec wasn’t sure if he was ready for that. He had to finish college so he could start his business and then he could worry about coming out.
“Well, it’s a little chilly, you can get sick if you stay out here too long.” He began. “There’s a guest room and a spare bathroom if you’d like to come in and stay warm?” He offered with a faint blush.
This is your reminder that if someone uses the words “that was a test/I was testing you/you passed” in reference to their weird behavior or to brush off a fight you had with them?
That’s a red flag.
RUN THE OTHER WAY.
If they do something that makes you angry and you react accordingly and they tell you “I was testing you to see how’d you react” they are PURPOSEFULLY baiting you.
If they allow you to think something awful is happening (usually like they are cheating) and you blow up about it and they say “I was checking to see if you are jealous” they are PURPOSEFULLY trying to push your buttons.
If they invade your privacy (checking your phone, sneaking on your computer) and say “I was testing you, you passed, there’s nothing on your phone” when you catch them, they are PURPOSEFULLY going out of their way to find something to pick a fight.
Healthy relationships do not involve partners that manufacture “tests” to check the other partners commitment.
Healthy relationships do not include pushing the other to the edge just to see what they will do.
Healthy relationships DO NOT INCLUDE excusing terrible behavior by saying “I was testing to see if you loved me”
Labeling actions as “this was me forcing you to prove you feel (this way) by making sure you will act the way I think you should” is manipulative at best and can very easy turn abusive in about a million different ways.
Fail their test. Walk away. Leave them to their toxicity.
It’s not worth it.
“Pop quizzes” are for school, not for relationships.
Somewhere along the way fanart become worth more than fanfic to fandom.
Artists have Patreon accounts where people pay real money to view their art early or to access special pictures like scraps or tutorials.
Whereas writers are expected to produce more and more, faster, for nothing in return. No one wants to see our “scraps” and writers who do provide Tips and Tricks often get crap for “policing” how people write.
And it falls into the prevailing notion that somehow writing is something easy, something anyone can do.
This isn’t an attack on fanartists. You deserve to receive some sort of compensation and accolades for your work. And so do fanauthors.
Writing fic is hard work. Yes, anyone can type out a story, same as anyone can pick up a pencil to draw, but what makes the difference, what makes a good piece is the experience and talent of an author. It’s all the stories no one saw, it’s all the writing books we’ve read, it’s the classes we have attended, all rolled into a package that works weeks, months, years to bring the fandom their fic. Yes we write for ourselves but we also write to contribute to fandom – just like artists do.
We’re just the same – artists and authors – and we deserve the same respect for our work.
It’s because everyone thinks they can write.
Publish a book. One of the first and most continuous comments you’ll hear whenever you tell anyone is: ‘Oh! I’ve been meaning to write a book!’. People use words to talk. Writing is just putting words down on paper. Logically, therefore, anyone that can talk, can write. Ta da! See? Writing is something even small children can do. Obviously it doesn’t take Real Skill.
Except all those people that will tell you they’ve been meaning to write a book? They never will. Because, fun fact – writing is hard. Writing is very hard. Its hard to sit down and focus your mind and string words together on paper in sentence after sentence after sentence. For hours. Days. Months. Until you finish your short story or poem or book. Its hard to take what’s in your mind and paint pictures of it but without using actual pictures. Its hard to come up with interesting ways to say things, with characters that matter to people. Plotting is hard. Multiple plots are harder. Multiple plots with multiple characters all using only words – not voice tone, not hand gestures, not pictures to help people understand what you’re saying – is hardest. Writing is not talking. Writing is, in a lot of ways, the stripped down version of talking because you have to do it all on paper without any noise or facial expressions to carry the words. Telling a story is time consuming and requires you to concentrate even when you’d rather not. It makes you pull out pieces of your soul and give them to other people, who are probably going to misunderstand them because they’re going to see them through their own soul’s view. But you still have to find a way to connect so that they’ll still care about what you’re telling them. And at the end of it – you’ll be exhausted and burned out and exhilarated and excited and scared and happy and sad and
someone is going to look at you and say:
‘oh! I’ve been meaning to write a book!’.
People know they’re not artists because they can pick up a pencil and quickly see that they don’t have the practice to draw. Everyone is a writer because writing is word art and everyone knows
The serum amplifies everything that is inside so good becomes great; bad becomes worse. This is why you were chosen. Because the strong man who has known power all his life may lose respect for that power but a weak man knows the value of strength and knows... compassion.
themusechronicles 