#[ would it ever actually happen probably not but this is my sandbox i can do what i want ]

[spitedriven]

a fic idea i have that i might write sometime is lucanis knowing there's no way he can ever let illario have any rank of meaning within the crows, which he knows is eating at his cousin. there's no way he can just invite him back either, there's too much bad blood between him and many of the other families. house dellamorte isn't strong enough to fight back yet, but the idea of his cousin rotting away--whether in prison or on the estate, it doesn't matter--eats at lucanis himself.

so he hires someone to break in and essentially steal illario away and fake his death, so he might have the chance at living a life free of the crows and getting to have the freedom he thinks illario craves.

but who would be brave enough to break into a crow stronghold, get illario out alive while also making it seem like he's dead, and then be able to set him up in a new city?

zevran arainai, that's who.

[paper-possum-party-pal]

Meet The Narrator!

And it appears that there are two other characters to unlock in this lineup!

I’ll give you all the lore for main tsp AU once I reveal the design for the final character, but for now you get to learn about my Narrator!

The Narrator is a being known as an Informis Voxumis that has spent years observing humanity. The Narrator and other beings like him do not have natural physical forms, they’re just a voice/consciousness stretched across planes of dimensions and reality. This existence intersecting these planes can allow them to build physical forms for themselves, but it’s incredibly difficult to do so considering the matter that needs to be pieced together in a functional manner. It’s a miracle that The Narrator would eventually manage to pull it off. Informis Voxumis, or ‘Voices’ for something simpler, existed across the galaxy since near the beginning of time, but their numbers have dwindled to the point that The Narrator and his two cohorts have only interacted with each other, and while there’s still probably more out there, it’s unli they’ll ever meet. There are two more Entities similar to the Informis Voxumis that are also watching over Earth and the three Voices, but that’s a story for another day.

The Narrator’s Bio!

(The Narrators fear and disdain for humanity is completely warranted. Not only are living things, to him, gross meat things that do awful gross stuff, but intelligent mortal beings are fully capable of killing or controlling the Informis Voxumis. How? Oh I definitely totally remember how and am certainly not stalling to tell you when I figure it out)

After spending years watching humanity The Narrator begins to grow bored, and while he’s weary about interacting with any aspect of Earth, he’s become insatiably curious. The Narrator gets the clever idea (in his opinion) to create a human and place it in a little sandbox he’s created to study the idiosyncrasies of humanity.

This is the start of The Parable.

Unfortunately for The Narrator, he doesn’t really know what he’s doing and while he thinks he’s making a completely original human, he’s actually plucked the recently deceased soul of one Stanley and has begun fiddling around with it. The original Stanley is mostly lost in this process, and beyond the few remanents left of Stanley, he is nothing more than a shell of what he once was, so at first he doesn’t really do much. The Narrator then has to tweak Stanley until he can move around, understand orders, etc. This creates a new Stanley with no memories of the past beyond what the Narrator has shoved into him for his character. This new Stanley starts out curious and optimistic, but you know how the story goes by now. He loses that optimism, starts doing everything he can to go against and irritate The Narrator, and they start butting heads. This begins their on again off again friendship and rivalry.

I’m still deciding when in the timeline it happens exactly, but The Narrator eventually makes his human form, partly to prove that he’s better than humanity and that he’d make a great human. Another repressed part of him did it because he was curious and lonely, and the most repressed part of him did it because he noticed how lonely, depressed, and touch starved Stanley was becoming. He doesn’t use it for a long time after making it, he hides it and doesn’t tell Stanley, but eventually he’s given the push he needed to try it out and finally greet Stanley in person.

He is immediately punched in the face.

Stanley doesn’t apologize, which is warranted, but that’s the moment they really start over and try to get along better.

That’s one(ish?) part done. Sorry if I’ve rambled on too much or if it’s disjointed. I’m honestly not used to writing things down like this and I needed to put what I had in my head out into the world. I’ll probably write a more comprehensive document or something, maybe answer questions, idk. It probably doesn’t help that there are certain aspects of this AU that I’m still trying to develop. I’ll need to make a separate things so I can make it clear exactly what’s going on with Stanley.

One final note, my Narrator does share a human name with one of @shinakazami1 Narrator’s from her lovely Ao3 fic “Destiny Surely Likes to Play Tricks” that she made with Taking_L’s. I wanted to make sure they got proper credit, and if you haven’t read it already, you really should! I’ll be posting a link to the fic separately since this post is already long enough.

Congrats if you managed to wade through my idea speghetti, good job! And thanks for all your lovely words in my last posts, it really makes my day!

The first image but without the character shadows

[tshortik]

Hiiiiiiiii 👀 👉👈 thats SUCH a cool redesign for Zariel, it got me so excited to DM a DiA campaign. Any tips for running it? I LOVE YOUR ART ITS SO AMAZING AND THE COLORS ARE SO PRETTY, THANK YOU FOR SHARING IT OKBYEE

Aww thank you so much! ❤❤❤ I LOVE Descent into Avernus, but my love is a complicated one. I do think it is a really good, albeit difficult module, to learn how to become a better DM, though... I will explain.

The lore in DiA is pretty flat and the campaign is pretty railroady by design. If you have a roleplay-heavy group, I think it is best to heavily alter the module and incorporate things in there, that are very relevant to your players. That is also its magic though, because you can make the conscious decision to just use DiA as a base and structure, that you then heavily alter. The premise of the main quest is cool and imo easy to follow, so taking that and shaping everything around it can be pretty neat. I don't think I would have learned as much as a DM, if I had just used a "perfect" module that already did everything for me. If that is not what one looks for though, that's also understandable.

Tips:

In DiA, the characters start in Baldur's Gate, which is imo the absolute worst decision I've ever seen. Elturel's fate is integral to the story, so I recommend having your PCs at least see what happens to Elturel. I recommend the oneshot The Fall of Elturel for that, where the PCs become witness to Elturel's fate from afar. It will also cover the low-level sessions in a neat way. Having at least one player character with a connection to that city also really helps. Otherwise, your PCs will just go "Oh wow how terrible. Anyway, I'm not from there anyway, don't know anyone from there, never been there, whatever lmao."

Some people cut out the Baldur's Gate part, but my group enjoyed that area a lot, so you can use it for roleplay-heavy sessions and fleshing out the lore. It is also a great sandbox to figure out how you as the DM will implement your characters goals and backstory into the plot, before venturing forth. Having a player character from Baldur's Gate or with a connection from there is also perfect. SPOILERS: Same thing with Candlekeep as well. It is a wicked cool location that is not explored in the module at all, but it might end up a very interesting mini arc for your PCs if you approach it on your own terms.

To flesh out the lore and make everything feel more lived in and logical (note: there are some very silly bits in the module, that would make a thoughtful player immediately go "that makes NO sense lol"), I recommend checking out the Alexandrian Remix. It can go on huge tangents that are unnecessary for your own means though, so don't feel like you have to stick to it 100%. It does have some really neat ideas and fixes for the lore though, and I have ended up using it more than the actual book lmao.

Avernus as a Sandbox is also great. In general, if you find a way to give your players choice in where they go in the Nine Hells, they will probably have a good time. I think they should def feel pressure and know of a goal, but also make sure that they have power over what road they take there, you know?

I mentioned Candlekeep – Elminster's Candlekeep Companion is also an amazing resource if you wanna flesh out that location. I have also heard of some people adding adventures from Candlekeep Mysteries in there, but I didn't do it myself cuz my players felt time pressure.

Contrast the evil, awful and depressing with moments that are nice and calm, even if it's just roleplay opportunities. Otherwise everything will feel like a drag. On the other hand, don't be afraid to then overwhelm your players by throwing a bit too much at them afterwards. High tensions and emotions are perfect for the setting imo, but you need to design it with ups and lows as to not overwhelm.

I have completely rewritten some of the Forgotten Realms lore, changed characters' genders and names and races in the book (Ravengard is a woman in my story, Reya is a dragonborn, etc.) especially about the deities. Don't be afraid to make the story your own. I also incorporated the player backstories heavily into the plot, which makes them sometimes go on completely homebrewed sidequests. Embrace that and don't be afraid of it!

Sometimes players also see connections where there are none, or they speculate about super wild stuff – and this might be controversial – but sometimes it is really neat to take some of those ideas (not all! otherwise there is no surprise) and make them actually relevant, even if they weren't before. If your players are engaged, that is always the best possible situation. Making some of their thoughts true can be on one hand extremely satisfying for them, and on the other hand they will make your own made-up-world much more interesting, because they collaborated unknowingly in making it so much richer and complex.

It really helps the flow of the campaign to have at least one PC that is: Morally dubious, or interested in deities, religion or lore. If not, you as the DM can attempt to make them more interested until they actually get to Avernus, through new goals or revelations. The themes of the Nine Hells have a lot to do with corruption and betrayal and emotions, so having characters with themes that go into that direction will make it easier to keep your players engaged.

This is my own opinion, but maybe play a couple devil npcs with this motto: There are certain good deeds only a devil can commit. Devils are the enemies, but they also have to become your allies. Your characters will be literally walking through a plane that is inhabited primarily by devils, and they will have to speak to some of them or parlay, if they don't want to be ripped to shreds immediately. Devils are smart and cunning, and many would prefer to talk it out, instead of risking their lives in the Nine Hells. This can also be an opportunity to explore corruption or redemption arcs, or to explore fiendish pacts. Both can flesh out the story tremendously. 👀

The setting gives you the opportunity to explore some esoteric and theological concepts. IF that is your jam (it is certainly mine), think about how you make that digestible to your players. They could find lore in a library, find strange ruins, meet a powerful deity, get visions by other deities, be manipulated by archdevils, etc. You don't have to leave it all as subtext, because devils and angels and otherwise literally become a central point of the campaign. Also don't be afraid to get weird about angels and devils. They are from a different plane – making them a little alien, letting them have absolutely wild opinions about the universe, not needing to fit them into our ideas of science – that is rly interesting stuff to explore as a PC and also DM. Resources (optional)

Flee Mortals by MCDM, Tome of Beasts (2023), Tome of Beasts 2, Creature Codex have really awesome monsters

Encounters in Avernus

The Encyclopedia of Demons & Demonology by Rosemary Ellen Guiley is a book that I own privately for some creative projects, but I got some neat inspiration from it for my campaign too!

A lot of the lore in Dnd is very questionable, but especially in the older versions you can find some wild and creative shit (and also lots of problematic rubbish you can just filter out lmao) that is mentioned once and then never again. Little nuggets like that usually inspire me the most and a simple sentence can spawn an entire lore or mission idea for me. Some books that you might find interesting (try to find a pdf version online cuz they aren't printed anymore) are Fiendish Codex I: Hordes of the Abyss, Fiendish Codex II: Tyrants of the Nine Hells (3.5), Guide to Hell (2e), Manual of the Planes (3.5).

[vaperarmand]

this is such a fucking stupid question but. do you have any advice for developing a good understanding of characters? like i wish i could put those guys into situations but it's like there's a mental block and my mind goes blank as if they're Unfathomable Real People Who I Cannot Possibly Hope To Ever Understand.

no not a stupid question! actually a really good question. it's such a good question in fact that i don't have a simple answer so i'm going to. word vomit onto the page and hope something sticks. i ramble like crazy so have a read more :)

precursor: i have to note that i feel like armand and daniel are the two characters i've like. Understood. more than any other characters in my life. i think that's because i relate to them both in very distinct but separate ways (we'll discuss that later) but i think it's also because. part of anne rice's writing and the show's adaptation is so determined to break these characters down to their fundamental parts. that's kind of the thesis statement of the books, even, that when you live forever you're no longer a "product of your time" but rather just you, yourself, and you kind of have to spend the rest of your eternal life figuring out who that is. so that to me gives both a flexibility and a set of basic building blocks for each character that you can play with.

that being said, here are a couple of ways i maybe go about building understanding:

option 1: the projectorrrrr (this is me most of the time)

if you like looking at your character and going "ha ha i do that" then that's awesome. do that! figure out what parts you relate to and think, okay, if the vampire armand was me, how would he react to my coworker saying this. alternatively, if i was the vampire armand, would would i do if i'd just broken a 500 year vow to myself?

this is where, like, critical thinking comes into play of course, because you are not the vampire armand and the vampire armand is not you. but 1) you're allowed to play around in the sandbox and have fun without constantly going "He Would Not Fucking Say That" because uhhh. this is fandom and we are doing this for fun and 2) once you to get to the point where you're kindly going "He Would Not Fucking Say That" you can then be like oh! well what would he say? because the contrasts are often as fun to explore as the comparisons

option 2: that's my friend

i also think you genuinely can view characters as Real People — but you can hope to understand them!!! or at least you can understand Your view of them, which doesn't have to perfectly match mine or anyone else's view.

this is going to sound crazy and part of the reason why i feel like i don't have a good answer to your question, but genuinely my best writing happens when i uhhh. hear them speaking. in my mind. this is literally a developed skill because like 4-5 years ago i was terrible at writing dialogue and it frustrated me + i never had good ideas for fics because i just wanted to write meta posts. so i was like. i'm going to get good at writing dialogue if it kills me. imagine you're talking to them or they're talking to someone else. look up writing prompt sentences (like on roleplay blogs if nothing else) and think about how they'd respond. i'm at the point where i'll decide on a situation and will sit in silence for a minute, imagine them like dolls in my head, and go "SPEAK!" and wait to hear what they'll say.

my final tip is to please please remember if nothing else that this is supposed to be fun and that at the end of the day it is just playing with dolls online with your friends. you're allowed to be wrong. in fact you probably will be. but that's okay! you can start small and be wrong and as long as you're having fun and enjoying putting your characters in scenarios it's all worth it

[macrodosing]

yapping about yapping

u kno wat. I'm very much not a believer in radical self-disclosure nor cultivated mystique. if I believe anything about the internet it's that trying to consistently post with any particular ethos in mind makes fun time on the computer feel like homework. and is also a great way to stagnate as a person. I say things online that I often wouldn't in-person, both to sort through my feelings and sometimes just to see how I feel about having said them; and maybe by extension, how I might feel about someone else who had said them. but I also just as often say things I'd say anywhere if context called for it, I think. the 'online-only' stuff is generally very sincere and hopefully reflects consideration for their potential effects on any anonymous reader. however that does still require a certain lack of consequence that's increasingly reserved for only the most obscure users of any website. or maybe just as important as the obscurity is being withdrawn. hit and run posting. it relies on a relationship to the audience that keeps them functionally anonymous to you even if their info is there

I've probably told the story before about when I was 16 years old on here with ten thousand followers and was recognised on a bus, and it terrified me because of all the posts I'd felt free to make on that account about being unsure of my sexuality at the time. thank god even then I was too scared to speak openly about gender stuff lol. it was very easy as an australian to fall into the trap of thinking that classic, more open forum-style internet is only used by USamericans, and cultivated account feed-style internet (IG and FB) is where the locals are, and then gain a false sense of security in that separation. it's actually still far too easy for me to think that way considering everyone is on the internet in some capacity. every time I meet someone I get along with suspiciously quickly irl, it turns out they've had a tumblr. they always say they used to be on tumblr. they never say they are on tumblr. that's so crazy, me too

I remade about month after the bus thing, without telling any of my friends. which I'm only actually realising for the first time now might constitute the single biggest loss of friends I've ever experienced at once. and I was genuinely outgoing on that first account. and anyone who's ever had to remake from a big account loss before knows you never catch 'em all. especially if you decide "actually I'm going to reblog photos now instead of talking since half of this stuff would would get me kicked out of my friend group irl". I was literally on the bus to see my friends when I got recognised, I think that added to it. anyway, since then, I've remade and remade and remade and I've of course ended up with mutuals I've liked with each account, but I've always kept the follower count low and largely kept to myself, and that's allowed me to come and go without announcement and treat the dash as a largely sandbox environment in terms of experiment with thought. which is not to imply I've been conducting any groundbreaking thought experiments here lol. but there's a lot of sounding out of ideas to do as a trans woman and I've been grateful for the space I've had to do so, and to watch others do the same.

with ALL that being said. if I become familiar with some of you, as has been happening a bit more often recently, the audience stops being so anonymous. and if I were to commit to continuing to post as if no one I care about can see, that itself is a commitment to a certain ethos, and one which I think carries potential consequences for both them and me. there is, for example, a blog on here that I've seen post nothing but really unique, valuable insights about transmisogyny, but it's almost all they talk about, and it's genuinely depressing seeing even a flawless autopsy performed on the death of what may as well have been an important personal friendship of mine. we never followed each other so it doesn't matter, but this is the reason I don't follow them. I don't want to put an actual mutual in that position. with the kind of things I've talked about in the past, which have ventured into 'therapist office' content, I can frame it all as just sticking to my values, but at a certain point indifference becomes selfish, especially as you come to understand the local demographic

everyone has their own stuff with whom they're more selective in talking about. my account until now has served a pretty specific purpose of allowing me to say things that I don't have anyone to talk to about, but also stuff I don't have to talk to anyone about. meaning stuff I haven't reached conclusions about yet, but can freely air out and allow room for mistakes in my attempts to process them. so I guess I need to reassess the nature of what I share on my blog, or at least how I go about continuing to share what I do in a way that doesn't just lead to insincerity, or the kind of self-censorship that I otherwise don't think should be forced on anyone who strives for a certain degree of online/irl distinction, in principle. I think that should be a decision made by each person on a case-by-case basis of personal desire for opsec. and tighter opsec might be the decision I end up making I guess, idk yet. there are only so many options. and They're always watching anyway. but I certainly think I could stand to slow down for now; many things in my life are moving faster than my habits tend to

also, I've said a lot to couch this all in a way that signals a lot of 'concern for the other' here, and I do care, but honestly some part of this is also that if I become familiar with any of you then suddenly I feel Perceived in a way that I didn't feel I had to worry about before. maybe this is just a long way to say that I'm reckoning for the first time in a while with the idea that when you have people whose opinions matter to you, it matters what you say in front of them lol. trouble looms on the horizon for a yapper such as myself. how many times can I add "and a dark wind blows" to the end of my posts before I stop finding it funny

[wisteriagoesvroom]

hey :)) got any hopes for the race? who do you think is going to be in the top 3? (i'm just hoping for no in-team drama, but maybe that's bc i'm new lol) - @monegasquess

no in-team drama -> oh man @monegasquess you're gonna get me yapping. i feel like we've entered f1 at such a sanitised / different age to what it was before but there always was, is, and will be ✨drama ✨... what form it takes i don't know!

but it is certainly interesting compared to even 5 years ago how the public narratives have changed and how much teams (or maybe specifically ferrari and mclaren as examples) actively rely on happy-brotherly driver narratives to market the sport to new audiences (people like us) now. even with red bull i get the sense that the only reason we're not seeing inter-driver drama is because checo knows exactly where he stands and what is role in the team is, which is definitely interesting to watch. we are experiencing max in the kind of... moon waxing phase because he already has 3 WDCs but we're also seeing indications of how volatile he can get when there's a hint of challenge to getting him that WDC, like silverstone, austria, hungary. it seems like a very different type of drama to the danil/pierre/alex albon eras where they were younger drivers feeling like they had a lot to prove to each other as much as the team... but i digress.

where we're at in the season now makes for extremely compelling racing, especially given the almost clean sweep max made last year / what a friend of mine called "max's leisure sunday morning drive" to p1 every time lol. and this is not to downplay that he is a once in a generation driver who wrangles magic out of the car - due to a variety of reasons it hasn't been easy for him this year and that's what makes for great viewing too: added stakes.

TANGENT ASIDE, my personal hopes for the race... from a mclaren pov....

obviously i'd like an oscar podium in spa (tho a win would be stellar). he's driving well and idk anything about the track conditions or whether they favour the car but consensus seems to be that the orange car is a rocketship whichever way you slice it, so. but also. maybe something people don't talk about as much is how much driver synergy is actually required - amongst the other engineering prowess obviously and huge credit to andrea and team here - to get the car developed to this point. lando and oscar are clearly very evenly matched in skill at the moment. to me, in an oversimplified way, lando has better tyre management, and oscar is better on attack. and also i am thinking about how andrea says it seems lando and oscar discuss the car amongst themselves before they deliver feedback so they are on the same page. so it'll be exciting to see them battle wheel to wheel more... and certainly not without drama.

there also was a really funny and accurate post about how mclaren's DNA has been kind of... repositioned publicly to be all chummy chummy but that's probably going to change if the two drivers ever end up fighting in earnest for a WDC. idk. there are a lot of unknowns. there are a lot of possibilities. there's a reason why fic is the fun sandbox to explore those because we also just never know what might happen with the reg changes by '26 which could toss mclaren all the way back to middle of the pack, it's incredibly hard to say.

one thing for sure though. is that until oscar gets his wdc (which in my biased but also strident opinion he will in his career)... i am unfortunately buckled tf up to watch lmao.

and the sport will change again with the arrival of new talent, new marketing, new audience acquisition, the direction that Liberty Media i.e. the owners want to take it (more street tracks...eugh brother eugh)... so who knows, genuinely.

anyway your ask about this particular race weekend turned into a much longer essay centred around my interest in oscar and the future of the sport sooooo uh yeah staying true to my rep as yappatron 3000 i guess. but with summer break coming up and new folks following the sport all the time, i thought it was worth chatting about!

thank you for the question!

[squirrelno2]

ok so Slick can’t be the only clone who ever thought like that. There’s millions of them and no group is a monolith, and the clones I write tend to run the gamut of possible feelings about the Jedi in general and the ones they know in particular but like. what about clones who feel betrayed by other clones, too?

someone who grows up hearing about how they’re all siblings, all fighting together for the same goal, how they can depend on each other - the stuff Domino struggled with in Clone Cadets, about not leaving a man behind, and then the very real fact that in the war we see, that isn’t actually how it goes. there are a lot of times where they have to leave clones behind, and other times where they didn’t necessarily have to but there was something else their leaders wanted to achieve more. (sometimes it’s tactically sound choices that are horrible to make, sometimes it’s like. anakin being anakin. clone wars as a show never really thought through its implications but you know what I look at something that’s not that deep and go “my house now” the nasty implications are my sandbox)

anyway made up a clone called Roadkill, as one does, and I’m thinking he’s very much like Slick. probably passes information to the Separatists. maybe he’s subtler than Slick or more sparing with details so his commanding officers never realise, maybe he just goes undiscovered bc he’s so far away from the chain of command that they don’t realise the bad luck is something more. because this is a clone who resents the Jedi, yes, and the Kaminoans, and the Senate, and sees them all as slavers equally deserving of his scorn, but also this is a clone who’s watched officers - clone officers who told him they were in this together! - walk away from clones they could have saved for the sake of the war. “it’s bigger than all of us” people tell Roadkill, but if they don’t have any personal loyalty Roadkill can see, why should he?

and then there’s Pip, who’s got the brotherhood brain in spades. He sees Roadkill, who never makes friends and who everyone agrees hates everyone, and goes “ok this is my new best friend, I can fix him” and has no idea that Roadkill is out here betraying him every day. it’s the sunshine-grumpy dynamic but the grumpy one genuinely hates it, and Pip is too hopeful and loving and forgiving to really get that Roadkill is doing everything he can to push Pip away. Pip keeps saving Roadkill’s life. He is the only one who puts effort into that, really, and he’s the first example Roadkill ever has of someone saying “no we need to go back for a clone” and maybe Roadkill does eventually soften but

I don’t think Pip ever fixes him. I could go the love conquers all route and have their friendship be the thing that makes Roadkill realise what he’s done is wrong, but also I’m feeling violent with my oc creation today and I think that Pip dies because of something Roadkill does. He never really looks at Pip as a friend, let alone a brother, and then after it happens he keeps catching himself looking for Pip because he knows Pip would have something to say. he can’t back out now from the life he’s made. the separatists have too much power over him. he won’t desert because if there’s one thing about his upbringing that stuck it’s the idea that all he’s good for is fighting.

so he just quietly keeps sending information that never really changes the outcome of the war anyway, until the day it stops mattering.

[capyquest-logs]

Daily Log #14

Two steps forwards, one step back.

10/9 and 10/10:

Weight-painted one capybara model

Created water material

So, I weight-painted a capy model! It was my first time ever doing that, and oh boy, what an experience it was. For some reason the weight paint kept shifting my model's topology in a way it wasn't supposed to. I didn't even know it wasn't supposed to happen until I asked my professor for help. So, in the next few days he's going to look at my files and see if he can help out. Thank you professor Ketty!

Here's a screenshot of all the action! Since the legs are so close together I'm having some issues. At least, that's what I think is causing the issues. We'll see!

So, now something that's actually been completely successful! WATER!

I wanted to find the perfect water material. And I'm very picky. So, it took me three tries to find the right one for me.

As a little disclaimer, I didn't create any aspect of any of the water materials. I'll try to find the creators of the tutorials I used (I should have saved them... oops) and I'll give huuuge props to the one that I ended up using because it's absolutely perfect! Well, huge props to all of them, actually. They're all awesome as hell. When I have some free time I'm going to study the node systems of all three, because it's honestly a magical mystery to me how they work.

The first one I tried (on the left) is admittedly gorgeous, and I almost settled for it. I used this tutorial by Stylized Station, and WOW are the colors nice! The only thing was, I felt it didn't match the rest of the environment very well, and I also felt like the water looked out-of-place, like a puddle more than a pond. There's no border, so it's just kind of sitting on top of the landscape. It would be perfect for larger bodies of water, though!

The second one I tried, with this tutorial by MrTriPie, didn't turn out as nice as the tutorial's results. It was more cartoon-y, which I was looking for, but it was a little too cartoon-y. I also added the clashing wave normals from the first material for some extra dimension, but it sort of flopped.

Then I found the most gorgeous, diverse, amazing texture I've ever seen, by Sandvector Studios.

WOAH.

And for reference, the ENTIRE 16-minute video is just demonstrating the different settings you can change. 16 freaking minutes! That is a crazy amount of parameters! It genuinely impresses and inspires me so much.

It looked like a great option, but this was a demonstration, not a tutorial, and the material is for sale. You can find it here, but unfortunately it's out of my budget. And probably a bit too dramatic for a small pond and a shallow hot spring. It makes for an absolutely amazing ocean or river, though! I hope to make materials this impressive someday.

But finally, I found the perfect tutorial for my needs. And like I said earlier, I have NO clue how most of it works. I am absolutely going to study it and break it down over the weekend. I found the tutorial here by Your Sandbox. It's absolutely perfect. Here's my result:

And with that, I'm done for the day!

[solibrie]

i know i'm writing 22c but i think constantly about what an actual jatp s2 would have looked like

like 22c is NOT what s2 would have looked like absolutely NOT. that is fully self indulgent wish fulfillment about julie and the boys being successful and only really having to deal with high school-level drama. it's a sandbox for me to have fun with my dolls

actual s2 would, like, contend with caleb, possession, a slow progression to the boys becoming fully corporeal, etc.

julie meets willie. she welcomes him into the fold. tbh i could also see willie joining the band in an attempt to fight back against caleb's hold on his soul. i think that would be fun and also serve to justify him coming to life at the end too LOL

i do think julie's rage could still be a cornerstone of the season, tho. like, caleb!nick deciding to pursue julie anyway (she's just playing hard to get!) and julie having to deal with that while the boys hunt down caleb. maybe even a confirmation that julie is legit magical/actually a witch would be on the table. the beginning of a carrie redemption arc

TBH i can see julie's theoretical magical awakening happening in a very katara-esque fashion where she's yelling at carrie and then BOOM her heightened emotions cause something crazy magical (like making the boys visible in that moment without music) and suddenly carrie Knows Something Is Up...

also idk how i feel about headcanons where bobby made a deal with caleb that ended up killing the boys. on one hand i prefer it to versions where bobby was ~coerced~ into his dishonesty. but on the other hand i think the... mundanity of the theft is what makes it so tragic? like, bobby CHOOSING to be an awful friend is way more compelling to me then wittle bobby shaw being forced to

that could probably be a fun plot point. like, the boys follow a thread implying bobby didn't mean to, he signed a predatory contract, etc etc etc but then they find out... no, he did that all on his own. it would be a scene that mirrors their anger at the theft in s1 but instead of fucking up they just warp back to julie and mourn the loss of their friendship and brotherhood

AND THEN HOW DOES ROSE TIE INTO IT! HOW DO WE GET CALEB OUT OF NICK! there are so many questions, so many possibilities...

i do know that in my mind, a proper final confrontation for the show as a whole (not just s2) would be julie having to choose between bringing her mom back or bringing back the boys. and julie picks the boys—not because she loves her mom any less, but because rose already got to live. the boys died before their lives could ever truly begin. and there's no guarantee that rose coming back would erase her sickness. what if she came back just to die again, just as quickly?

rose, in s1, is gone in ways that the boys really aren't. like, she doesn't have a ghost. she's gone. and i think that's actually really important? bc i do believe this show contends with real grief in a compelling way, and bringing EVERYONE back kind of... undercuts that. rose staying dead is important to the tone of the show and the message it wants to convey about loss

IDK THIS IS SO RAMBLY i have so many thoughts all of the time. sorry for having so much to say constantly. but imagine how i feel. this is just in my BRAIN

[cherokeegal1975]

Article below is what I wrote on my post on DeviantART for this game idea that I very much know isn't going to happen. I thought it might if I could find the right game developer that would be willing to work with me, but I quickly discovered that game developers do not like outside ideas, especially unsolicited ones. I can't do it myself partly because I can't afford the classes or the resources needed to get it done...and I'd probably need a team, which I'll never get. Also, I look at myself and realize that even though I'd enjoy games and probably do well in them, I write stories okay, but I don't have it in me to create challenges, different outcomes or puzzles. I'm not talented that way. Even so, it was a fun idea to think about. I look forward to putting this artwork into my art journal when I can afford to get it made.

    I created a fake game play screen shot.  I can take credit for the horse and the dragon, both the full characters and the heads, but nothing else.  The rest I found online and made use of them like stickers.  I did add the text though.  Call me lazy if you will, but I just wanted to focus on drawing my characters and sharing my concept.  The game itself will never be made, I don't even know how to do such a thing, much less have the funds to buy the programs to make them.   The closest I can come is do a kind of writing game where I say "This thing is happening, if you choose to go left, click the #1 link, if you choose to go right choose the #2 link and keep reading."  I don't see myself doing that anytime soon...if at all.  It's an idea though.     Both the horse and the dragon are based on small plastic toys that I had as a child.  The drawings look a lot better than the original toys I lost so long ago.  Anyway, the basic game idea is that it's a story based, open world, lots of side quests, puzzles, useful collectibles, possibly a bit of a sandbox thing going on in it, with more than one possible ending.  Both animals can talk, both have abilities that compliment the other.  The main focus will be on content and though it doesn't have to be G-rated, it should not be focused mainly on violence or sexual themes.     So what do you think?  I know this isn't the most action packed scene in a game I've ever seen, but use your imagination, this is only one set in a huge world map.  I haven't thought too much on the story plot or anything, only the basic concepts of what I've learned from watching game playthroughs on YouTube.  I gradually learned what kinds of games I like and this one has everything I find fun and appealing in a video game...or so I imagine.     So, tell me what you think of my idea.  I really want to know.

    Update:   (This a journal entry from a few weeks ago, I've already figured out their names and I only added this on to help fill in some detail just in case someone actually wants to take my idea seriously...which I still know is about zero.) I know why a game developer wouldn't want to take my ideas and collaborate with me, they got too many of their own already and want nothing to do with outside help.  It's a shame too, I've got some good ones and just occurred to me that my pink dragon (I can't figure out a name and Rosie won't do because I've got a cat named Rosie here and I don't like to have more than one animal named the same thing even though my dragon isn't real.  Anyone have any suggestions?  Her name was Pink-yellow-blue, but that's a stupid name my child self came up with and I've long since out grown it.) might make a great avatar for a roll playing game in an open world kind of game.   Her abilities are human speech and intelligence, omnivorous, fire breathing, excellent senses of sight, smell and hearing. Very good at digging, powerful jumps, her tail is as prehensile as a monkey's so she can carry objects with it or help her to hang on to things like tree branches.  Her scales make her tough and fire resistant, excellent climbing capabilities, a really good swimmer and her fore feet work like hands.  She can also stand up and walk for short distances on her hind legs so she can use those hands.  She's the size of a large dog, so that means she can go into smaller places the bigger species of dragons can't.  Her only disadvantage is her lack of wings since her kind never had them in the first place.  Also, males have two small horns on their noses and her kind comes in all colors and patterns, so if they show up in the game, no two would look alike.  Her best friend is a black horse with four white socks, a white mark that starts on her forehead and runs all the way down her nose, a white mane and a white tail and silver eyes, who is just a sweet an intelligent horse in spite of her unusual coloring.  (Haven't drawn the horse yet, but I will.  I had almost forgotten that horse.  It's gone too, lost it long before I lost the dragon).  My character's home environment is a enchanted forest full of giant sentient trees that can change themselves to make hollows in their bases the dragons can use as homes.  The trees can also create mischief for the unwary traveler who disrespects them by shifting positions in such a way that the movement is never seen.  This movement can create false paths and get people hopelessly lost if they aren't careful.  This tendency can also aid my character in finding places if she asks them nicely to help her and most likely they will because their relationship with the tree dragons is a friendly one.   Maybe one of the game goals is to have my dragon go on an adventure to rescue her horse friend?  The game could have puzzles included as well as helpful companions that could come along as the game progresses.  I would like the game to have the best graphics.  I did down play the details on my dragon a bit because I wanted to hurry up and finish her.  I've been doing a lot of dragons lately and I've gotten tired of drawing more scales than I can count.  So I just did contours instead and only suggested that she's a scaled dragon.  She's got little lizard like scales except for the ones on her underside and I would love it if that would show up in the game when ever the camera got close enough to see them.   Well, anyway, I am aware that my chances of collaborating a gamer are slim to none, I'm still willing to try to put the suggestion out there just in case someone would take me up on my idea.  This dragon would do great as an avatar.  Not sure of the full plot, but those details could be worked out later by the developer. Also, I think the game controls should have the option to be made to work with a mouse so people on a tight budget don't have to buy a game controller so they can play the game on a laptop.

[2-d-rogue]

I hate, hate, HATED this game. Normally, even if a game is crap, I can find some silver lining in it, but in this case, no. There's next to nothing to like about this game. Between it's boring narrative, empty sandbox map, tedious semi-crafting system (you need to find parts in order to make useful items or build campfires/light fireplaces), and slow movement, this made for probably the most excruciatingly godawful experiences I've ever had.

I quite enjoy games where you're left on your own to explore an abandoned location and must investigate to discover the truth about what happened, and I saw how highly recommended this game was, so I thought this would be up my alley. Plus, snow forests are ripe for this type of genre. However, when I found myself going back and forth through long distances trying to figure out what to do, I quickly realized how dull and empty this whole map actually is. There's so much asset flip, that everything looks the same. Even the houses are just repaints of each other for the most part.

I can deal with a lot of bullshit tedium a game throws at me, especially if the story is engaging and builds to a solid payoff. But this game does not. In any way, shape, or form. The narrative is largely disconnected to each other that most of the stuff you discover about the characters is mostly irrelevant. And the ending of the game all simply happens abruptly, closing things off in a dull chase sequence.

There's a lot of awful jank, too. There's many occasions where the MC, Carl, simply will not interact with items unless you are in the perfect sweet spot. He also moves like ass, because he pauses in the middle of a jog every millisecond, making exploration slow to a crawl.

While the game can seem atmospheric because of being in isolation, the tension quickly fades when you realize you're never in any real danger. You'll usually deal with some wolves that can be run off easily by firing a shot into the air, or throwing them some meat. You'll run into them so infrequently though, that you won't even have to do that much. But seeing how cumbersome this game is, I welcome the fact that combat is scarce.

The music is also irritating. The little track on the radio was nice, but soon became annoying. And the theme that plays at Lamothe's garage gave me a friggen headache after a while.

And while the narrator was fine, he got on my nerves constantly reminding me about Carl getting cold. Which reminds me, the heat system is a nuisance, while the health and mental meters are borderline arbitrary. I barely had to worry about them at all. Again, kinda glad I didn't have to babysit Carl that much, though.

Then there’s the fact you can accidentally trigger the ending segment after examining just four certain objects, where you’ll be forced to continue exploring everything at night. When this first happened, I thought this was where things were going to get intense, but no. Nothing happens. It’s just the same thing, except now you’re in the dark, which makes things more arduous to explore around. Again, you’re never in any real danger save for the wolves you MIGHT encounter, and even if you do, they can be easily scared away, so the tension dies fast.

Then the game blocking you because you didn’t examine some document that you missed somewhere, and gives you a vague clue — that might not even be totally accurate — about where that might be, causing more frustration.

There's just so much about this game I despised, and it's sad because I feel like this game had great potential. Whatever this game tries to do, other games have done leagues better. (Call of the Sea, Myst, Silent Hill: Shattered Memories to name a few.)

It's not often I rate a game a "0", but I just couldn’t get any fun or enjoyment out of this game.

0/10. Complete dullfest with very little going for it. Was not worth two dollars.

Finished Kona. Blech.

[evevoli]

fnaf security breach au: gregory is the crying child reincarnated

i have been thinking abt this lil idea of mine almost nonstop for the past two weeks so i wanted to share it because it will not leave my head. it’s about what it says on the tin; the crying child (who will go by Evan in this au) reincarnates into gregory and doesn’t realize it at first feat. some Michael Afton Is Possessing Glamrock Freddy because i’m messed up

please enjoy!

to start, this AU takes place after the 3 star ending because oohe i have so many headcanons for that one and now i get to Use Them. to be clear in my version of this ending basically:

vanessa takes gregory (and by extension freddy) in after they leave the pizzaplex, mostly out of guilt and some sense of moral obligation.

she Just So Happens to have two bedrooms in her apartment because fiction is my sandbox and this is a utopian au where a 23 year old chuck e cheese employee is able to afford that alone

assuming she’s going to be fired anyway, vanessa engages in further Risk Behavior and goes back into the pizzaplex to fix freddy, putting his head back on, turning off his safe mode and getting him in somewhat of a working order. his shell still has several gaping holes in it but hey he has a working battery now don’t worry about it

she Does Not end up getting fired actually, because the same higher-ups that recommended her for her position in the first place despite lack of experience thought her too valuable to let go of for whatever probably-nefarious reason. i’m not saying this because i think it’s a reasonable amount of plot convenience; it just sounded fair considering what we already know about her.

(note: i do not yet know how or if they are going to address burntrap still being in the basement. i like to think that with vanessa free and glitchtrap without a host to infect he’s just kinda stuck down there in his tube for the most part)

she manages to clear the murder virus infecting the other animatronics in the same trip and freddy is working and it’s all good so everyone is happy and well forever and nothing bad ever happens again yayy

so now freddy has a mostly-functioning body and he and gregory are living in vanessa’s apartment. gregory is reasonably distrusting of vanessa for a good while but stays because he literally has nowhere else to go and it’s so warm inside and there’s real food in the fridge, and maybe he cries a little sleeping in a bed for the first time in five years but shhh that’s a secret

they are a happy found family consisting of a traumatized college student, a traumatized feral orphan and a remarkably well-adjusted stolen pizza restaurant mascot and they all love each other :)

and now for the actual reincarnation thing i promised lmfao. big TW for child death, trauma, and psychological/memory/identity issues.

so a few weeks pass and our band of idiots has settled into their life together, figuring things out one day at a time, when gregory starts feeling weird.

every now and again he’ll catch flickers of memories belonging to someone else; an old house, a family he doesn’t know, a strange pizzeria he’s never been in. and if he concentrates he can still hear the cruel laughter of a teenager wearing a foxy mask. 

(wait, but who is foxy? why does he recognize him?)

it scares gregory; these... aren’t his memories, right? who is he? what’s happening to him? is he really gregory after all, or is he the evan afton these people in his mind keep calling out to? which of his memories are real and which aren’t? he must be losing his mind.

he tells freddy and vanessa about what’s been happening, and they both feel this... strange sense of familiarity. as if they know this child haunting him.

william would sometimes fill the silence in his and vanessa’s shared mind by talking about his family. it was all so twisted how he spoke, of course, so cold, but vanessa remembered every detail, remembered all he’d said on the fate of his youngest.

and freddy can almost picture the old foxy mask gregory tells him about. he can envision its owner’s face as clear as his own reflection, as if he were there, as if he’d been the one taunting that child, as if he’d known him better than anyone.

(and if he powers on one morning knowing how half-rotten skin feels when it’s set on fire, he tells no one.)

as gregory remembers his past life more and more, he subtly starts to change, becomes more skittish and prone to tears as the past weighs on him. a glamrock freddy plush he kidnapped from the pizzaplex becomes his best friend — him, someone much too old for stuffed animals, thank you — because he is so afraid and something about it is so familiar to him.

it grounds him when it becomes too much and freddy isn’t nearby to comfort him, until it almost starts to replace him, until freddy is almost unneeded.

(and of course there’s something... off about freddy, sometimes. it looks as though he has too many teeth, or that he’s just too tall, or maybe his gaze is too cold and stares right through him, and sometimes his eyes seem to glisten purple.)

(but... no, no, he loves freddy. freddy would never hurt him. freddy would never hurt anyone.)

[serendipitous-magic]

What is your writing advice for young people who want to write fanfiction and original stories in the near future?

If this is just Way Too Much, skip to the end (#16). My most important piece of advice is there. I also happen to think #5 is pretty good.

-_-_-_-

1) Literally just write. Write whatever you want, and do a lot of it.

_-_

2) You don’t have to post everything. In fact you don’t have to post anything. You can, don’t get me wrong, but it can be intimidating to sit down and think “I will now write something that other people will see and read and judge with their eyeballs.” Because that’s probably gonna lead to nerves and writer's block. Just write down the ideas that you have, the things you want to write, whatever’s in your brain that you want to explore and expand upon and make into something. And then if you want to, share it. Or don’t share it. I have plenty of half-baked ideas and documents and random story chapters and shit hidden away on my Google Drive that will never see the light of day, for a whole number of reasons. I wanted to write it but it wasn’t ~Spicy~ enough to warrant posting, or it’s only like an eighth of a good idea, or it’s like one scene with no story around it, or it’s just something incredibly self-indulgent I just wanted to write for my own enjoyment.

Point being, don’t write for other people. Don’t write so that other people can read it; write what you want, write for yourself, and then if you want to share it, do.

_-_

3) You can pretty much ignore any and all of these for fanfiction. In fact, you can ignore pretty much any rules or guidelines you want for fanfiction. Fanfic is a sandbox. You don’t have to be a “professional writer” to post fic. No one expects you to be Stephen King or Margaret Atwood. Fanfic is just for playing in a fandom and having fun. If you wanna write a 50 chapter slow burn with very little plot aside from the OTP slowly getting to know each other, and no real stakes or central conflict, I guarantee people would read that. Really, fanfiction is the Old West of writing: lawless, wild, unpredictable, and free.

However, here are the rules you must follow:

-Separate your paragraphs. (I’m sure you know this already, but I’m gonna say it anyway just in case.) Do not post one big block of text. Make a paragraph break when someone new is talking, when the characters are in a new place, when a new event occurs that changes the scene, when a chunk of time has passed, and when there’s a major change in subject.

-I know it’s obvious, but... grammar, punctuation, and capitalization. They exist to make writing easy for readers to read, and more people will read your stuff if they don’t have to stop and try to figure out what you meant.

-Use tags and labels, as is possible with whatever site you’re using. Especially if you include possibly triggering content in your story. Again, I know it’s obvious, but it’s common courtesy. Bonus: tagging the themes and content of your story helps readers find it and read it :)

-If possible, limit the use of all-caps and exclamation marks / question marks. 99% of the time, one ! or one ? will do. If you overload the page with a lot of all-caps and long rows of exclamation marks or question marks, it hampers readability.

... That’s literally all I can think of. And, like I said, it’s all pretty basic stuff. You were probably rolling your eyes like, “Uh, yeah, Gwen, I know.” But that’s literally it. You can pretty much do whatever you want in fanfic.

That being said, here’s my advice for both fanfiction and original work...

_-_

4) A quick and dirty rule for coming up with a plot, starting a story, keeping up pacing, or maintaining tension: figure out what dreams, desires, and goals are nearest and dearest to your main character’s heart (see #16). Then set up the main conflict to be directly in opposition to that goal. It doesn’t have to be in a tangible way, though it could be. But, if your main character wants more than anything to reach the ships on the southern coast of your world and sail to a new life, make sure the main conflict immediately prevents them from doing that - in fact, make sure to send them north. If your main character just wants to keep their loved ones safe, kidnap the loved ones. If your main character just wants to date their best-friend-turned-crush, make sure they think they have no chance - or, make them cocky about it, and make sure it makes Person B determined not to ever like them. You get it. Figure out what your character most wants, and then keep them from having that. Boom - your conflict now ties in with your character's motivation. It's like instant yeast for plots.

_-_

5) If you’re anything like me, you want your first draft to be Good, despite all that advice about how the first draft doesn’t have to be good and it’s just to get words on the page, yadda yadda. And if you’re somewhat of a perfectionist (like myself), it’s easy to get stuck looking at a blank page because you don’t have The Perfect Words, and you want what you write to be Good the first time.

Here’s how I cheat that:

Instead of trying to write a Good First Draft from a blank page, hit the enter key a few times, skip a little down on the page, change your ink to red (or blue, or whatever - just something immediately identifiable as Not Black) and just thought vomit. Write whatever the hell you’re thinking, exactly as you think it. Don’t worry about it being readable, don’t worry about narrative flow for now, don’t worry about covering all the details, don’t worry about anything except either a) getting all the details of your idea out onto the page, whether that’s a lot or whether it’s just a sentence or two, or b) if you don’t have an idea yet, finding your way there.

Because this method is also very good for finding your way to ideas when you’re stuck in writer’s block.

Because of how human brains work, getting this stuff out onto the page - in all its messy, stream-of-consciousness glory - will likely spark more thoughts. As you write your original idea about the scene, it’ll likely spark more ideas. Creation begets creation. If you just start thought-vomiting your ideas onto the page, chances are you’ll think of more things as you go, and you’ll start filling out description or dialogue or tone or action or whatever, and pretty soon the scene starts writing itself.

Not sure where you’re going with the scene or which ideas you wanna use? Use a lot of ambivalent language in your “thought-vomit draft.” My pre-writing notes are chock-full of the words “maybe,” “perhaps,” and the phrases, “At some point...” and “...or something like that.” In this way, I don’t tie myself down to one idea; it’s just an idea, and I’m keeping it on the page in case I use it, but I might chuck it in the trash or change it or whatever.

And then, once your ideas for the scene (or story, or chapter, or whatever) are on the page, then go back to the top and start translating them into a “real” first draft. Use black ink, and start copy-pasting chunks of the thought-vomit up into the top part of the document and translating them into Draft 1. Separate out paragraphs where paragraph breaks should be. Add the correct punctuation and whatnot. Change “describe the lobby here - include potted plants, fancy carpet, blood stain, etc.” into an actual description of the lobby. Flesh it out, or condense, or whatever it needs. And if you’re still stuck, change back to red ink and ramble some more until you find a path that feels right, then plug that in. This keeps you from looking at a blank page, and it allows you to generate a kind of Draft 0.5, somewhere between a plan and a first draft.

You don’t have to use every idea. Like I said, jot down whatever comes to mind, put a “maybe” before or after it, and keep working. If the idea grabs you and you wanna keep expanding on it and exploring it, cool. If you just wanna jot it down so you don’t forget it and then move on, also cool. Red-ink draft / “thought-vomit draft” is your time to jump around in the timeline, add or finesse details at whatever point your brain moves to, etc. Don’t try to do it exactly in story order, because you will get tangential thoughts and ideas, and you will not remember to write them down five pages later when you finally get to taking notes on that scene. Trust me. On that note...

_-_

6) Write everything down the moment you think of it. Seriously.

“I’ll remember it when I get around to writing that scene in a couple days / weeks / months (/years).”

You won’t.

Write it down.

Phone, journal, google docs - hell, my family regularly laughs at me for grabbing a napkin during dinner and scribbling thoughts down alongside pasta sauce stains.

And then, once you have it written down somewhere...

_-_

7) Consolidate your writing ideas in one place.

Maybe this isn’t really your style, and that’s totally chill.

Buuuut, if you’re Type-A like me - or if you tend to be somewhat unorganized and you know you’ll lose track of your writing notes if they’re scattered across multiple notebooks, journals, napkins, phone notes, etc. - having one consolidated document of notes is a life saver. I keep mine on Google Docs so I can access it, add to it, and look through it for inspiration anywhere at any time. When I have one of those Shower Thoughts that I jot down on my phone or on a napkin during dinner, I set myself a reminder on my phone to type it up in my Story Ideas document later.

(Or, if the idea I had was for a story of mine that I’ve already started planning / drafting / whatever, I put it in the document for that story instead of the Big Random Story Ideas doc. You get it.)

_-_

8) Have other ways to collect and save writing ideas, besides just writing stuff down. If you like Pinterest, make pinterest boards of your characters or stories or settings or whatever. If you’re big into playlists, make a playlist for your character / setting / story / etc. Or both. Or something else. I’m not good at drawing, but maybe you are, and maybe you like to draw your ideas. Whatever form it takes, having another way to save ideas and think about your stories is invaluable.

_-_

9) Some writers can just start writing with no idea where the story is going, and they just kind of figure it out as they go. I envy those writers. And I do that sometimes for fanfiction, where the stakes are somewhat lower and the audience is reading more for scene-to-scene enjoyment (and to see their OTP kiss) than for a Driving And Compelling Narrative.

But here’s the thing: especially if you’re just kind of starting out, writing without some sort of plan is really, really hard, and will likely lead you into a slow, meandering narrative that will likely frustrate you.

Even if you think you’re someone that just can’t write with a plan (and again, I have the highest respect for pansters out there - I don’t know how you do it, you crazy bastards, but you keep doing you) - even if you think “I can’t work with plans, they’re too prescriptive, I just want to write and see what happens -”

Try at least making the most skeletal of plans.

Even if you have no clue what 90% of the story is, yet. That’s fine. But you need to have some idea of what you’re building to, even if that’s nothing more specific than a feeling, or a turning point for your character. Even if your entire plan for everything beyond Chapter 1 is, “At some point, Charlie needs to realize that Ed was lying to her.”

This is where those Draft 0.5 notes come in handy. Because, more than likely, working on your current scene that way will spark ideas for later scenes, which you can put down at the bottom of the document and save for when they become relevant. In my experience, the line between planning ahead and making a Draft 0.5 is exceptionally thin. One can quickly turn into the other.

If you’re really, really resistant to the idea of planning ahead, that’s okay. It’s not everybody’s style. But for the love of all that is holy, write down your ideas for future scenes, even if you’re a person that doesn’t like to plan and writes only in story order, because you will not remember that idea once you get to that scene.

_-_

10) You don’t have to write in order.

Here’s the thing: I’m a person that can only do my Draft 1 in story order (meaning, chronological order). I just have to be in that flow; I need to write in story order for me to best channel where the character is at from scene to scene, both narratively and emotionally.

But my Thought Vomit Draft is another thing entirely. By using the brain hack of putting my notes in red (or another color, it doesn’t matter) and going down to the bottom of the document / page and taking notes there, and then integrating them into whatever plan I have, and then translating them into Draft 1 once I get there in the story - by doing that, I can get my good ideas onto the page (and expound upon them and let my muse carry me and ride that momentum while I’m in the moment of inspiration) without writing out of order.

Maybe that’s just me. But if you’re a person who really prefers to write in story order, that could be hugely helpful to you. It is to me.

_-_

11) Emotion and motivation will do more for your story than technicalities of plot.

If your characters really care about something, and their journey through the (shaky or weak) plot is emotionally engaging, it will be a much more compelling story than a story with a “perfect” plot and unrelatable or unmotivated characters.

If your characters care about what they’re doing, and it means something to them, and their goals and actions are driven by dreams or fears or emotions that are integral to who they are, your audience will care too. If you have a perfectly crafted plot that hits all the right beats and has high stakes and fast pacing and drama - but your characters don’t connect with what’s happening in a way that’s deeply meaningful or emotional for them? You’re gonna have a hard time engaging readers.

When in doubt, prioritize character emotion and motivation over plot. Emotion is what drives story.

This power is highly exploitable. (Just look at pulp novels and shitty but entertaining movies.) You can even use it to glaze over plot holes or reinvigorate a limp narrative. Use it that way sparingly, though. It’s a band-aid, not a surgery. 

_-_

12) Evil villains are hard to write - mostly because there are very few truly evil people in the world. (There are a few. Billionaires and several big name politicians come to mind.) But by and large, there aren’t that many evil people. There are plenty of bad people, but bad people have some good in them, somewhere in there. Trying to write an evil villain is hard, because they often turn very cartoony.

Here’s a tip: it’s much easier to write antagonists who aren’t evil. Even if they’re bad people. Of course, there’s no reason you can’t write a villain that’s just truly evil - a serial killer, or an abuser, or a billionaire, or someone who legit just wants to hurt people or blow up the earth or stay in control of an oppressed population, or whatever. But chances are, it’s gonna be really hard to make them feel real, and even harder to create a plot around them that doesn’t feel forced or contrived.

Instead, try writing an antagonist / villain whose motivations and goals directly clash with your protagonist’s - but not because they want to take over the world or see people suffer. Write an antagonist who’s chaotic good, but whose perception of the situation is completely opposite from your hero’s. Write an antagonist whose only desire is to save people, and who will do anything to achieve that goal - anything. Write an antagonist who believes in the letter of the law, and will hinder and oppose the hero’s methods even if they agree with the hero’s motivation. Write an antagonist who got in way over their head and did some things they regret, and now they don’t know how to get out, and they’re doing their best but whatever they set in motion is too powerful for them to stop now.

Write villains who are human. Write a killer who thought they were doing the right thing by taking their victim out of the equation, who vomits at the sight of the body and sobs over the grave they dig. Write a government leader who truly believes she’s doing what’s best for her people in the long-term, even if it might hurt them in the short term, and is willing to endure the hatred and belligerence of the masses if it means securing what she thinks is a better future for her people. Write a teenage bully that thinks they’re the one being picked on by the world, and they’re just fighting back, standing their ground. Write a scientist who will break any code of ethics and hurt anyone he needs to - in order to bring back his baby sister from the grave, because he promised her he’d protect her and he failed. Write an antagonist who is selfish and self-centered and capricious - because in order to survive they had to look out for Number One, and that habit ain’t about to break anytime soon.

Write villains who aren’t even villains. Write antagonists who oppose the hero because of moral differences. Write antagonists who are trying to do the right thing. Write antagonists who treat the heroes with kindness and dignity and respect and gentleness.

They don’t have to be good. They don’t have to be Misunderstood Sweethearts who “deserve” a redemption arc. They can be cruel and nasty and dismissive and callous and violent and etc. etc.

Just hesitate before you make them Evil-with-a-capital-E. Because evil is hard to write, and honestly, boring to read. Flawed human beings with goals and motivations that directly oppose the main characters’ are much easier to write and much more interesting to read.

Ask why. Why is your villain trying to take over the world? What does that even mean? Are they trying to create a Star-Trek-like post-capitalism utopia, but they know that won’t happen in a million lifetimes, so they’re trying to do it by force? Are they actually super in favor of human rights, but they got very impatient waiting for the world to do anything about poverty and war, so they decided to take it into their own hands? Are they determined to fix the world - no matter the cost? Are they terrified and overwhelmed, but committed to see it through to the end? Or - maybe they’re just doing it on a dare. Maybe they don’t really give a shit about world domination, they were just a mediocre rich white guy who decided to fuck around and find out, and now he’s kind of curious how far he can take this thing. And now he’s kind of an internationally-wanted criminal, so he’s kind of stuck living on his hidden private island in his multi-billion dollar secret base, strapping lasers to sharks’ heads for the hell of it. Gross, selfish, uncaring, and dangerous? For sure. Evil? Depends on your definition. See, now we’re getting somewhere.

_-_

13) It’s tempting to let the plot control the characters. It’s easy to drop your characters into a situation and see how they react. But here’s the thing: that doesn’t drive plot. In fact, it bogs down pacing. Instead, try to build you plot off of your characters’ actions and decisions. Let your character build their own situation. Not to say it should go they way they wanted it to go; in fact, usually, their grand plans should go to hell very quickly. But having the characters take action and make decisions, and letting the plot develop based on that, is much easier to make compelling than making a rigid series of events and then trying to herd your characters into them.

_-_

14) Having trouble justifying a character’s actions? Consider having them make the opposite decision, or having them approach the situation in a different way. For example: you need your character to go meet the bad guy, for plot reasons, even though there’s no way it’s not a trap. If the character goes, readers are gonna be groaning with their head in their hands, because c’mon man, that was really fucking stupid. But he’s gotta go, because the plot needs that. Two ways you might handle this: a) He knows it’s probably a trap. He decides not to go. The plot conspires to get him near the villain anyway. Or, b) He knows it’s a trap. But he needs to go, for (insert reasons here). So, he approaches it in an unexpected way. He brings backup, recruiting a side character we met earlier in the story. Or he arrives on the back of a dragon, because ain’t nobody gonna fuck with a dude on a dragon. Or he goes - early, and ambushes the villain. It may work, it may not. He may get himself kidnapped anyway. But it moves the plot along without having Stupid Hero Syndrome.

_-_

15) This is a legit piece of advice: if all of this sounds overwhelming, literally just ignore it and write what you want. For real. Writing should be fun, and every single writer operates differently. If you’re sitting here like “I’m getting stressed just reading this,” just flip me a good-natured bird and get on with your life. I promise I won’t take it personally. Same goes for literally any other writing advice you see. Lots of rules and guidelines can very quickly make anything thoroughly un-fun. Just write. If you’re passionate about it and you do it for long enough, you’ll start figuring out the tips and tricks on your own.

_-_

16) Here’s the best piece of advice I can give you: know your characters. More importantly, know what’s important to them. Build their personality and decisions off of that, and build your plot off of their decisions.

I see a lot of character building sheets that ask a shit-ton of questions like “What’s their most prized possession?” “Do they like their family?” “What’s their favorite food?”

And while these are good questions, my problem with this type of character building is that if you start there, with the little stuff, you’re building on nothing. IMO, to make a truly strong character (not strong like Inner Strength, strong like effective), you need a strong foundation.

Here are the things you must know about your character:

a) What are their greatest fears / deepest insecurities? And I don’t mean “wasps” or “heights.” I mean the deep shit. I mean fears like “living a meaningless life,” or “turning out just like their parents,” or “that no one will ever love them,” or “being powerless.” You may say, “But they’re really scared of wasps! They fall into a wasp nest when they were little and got stung so much they almost died!” Great! That’s a fantastic bit of backstory. They should absolutely be afraid of wasps, and that should absolutely be an impediment later in the story. But dig deeper. What about that event actually scarred them? Was it the helplessness? Stumbling around, swatting at the air, not being able to do a single thing to stop what was happening to them? Was it that they were alone, and no matter how loud they screamed, no one was coming? Was it the bodily horror of feeling themself turn into an inhuman creature as they swelled up from the stings, unable to move their fingers or face normally anymore?

And don’t forget insecurities, because those factor in, too. Are they deeply insecure about their identity? Do they believe, deep down, that they’re ugly? Did they grow up poor and they’ve always been really touchy about that? Why? Dig deep. Figure out what really, really bothers them.

b) What are their hopes and dreams? What do they truly want out of life? What do they consider the most valuable to their experience here in this thing called life? Is it the freedom to forge their own path and be independent? Is it the approval of their family or peers? Is it a home? Is it knowledge, or understanding? Spiritual fulfillment? Is it deeply important to them that they contribute to their community, or protect those they love? What do they need in order to feel truly and deeply fulfilled in life?

Figure out those two things (each one encompasses several things, btw, you don’t have to stop at just one for each), and then use that to inform how they behave and the types of decisions they make within the story. 

It also informs character behavior and personality. 

Let’s say we have a character who’s afraid of helplessness. They’re probably gonna be the person that always wants to do something, try something, no matter how hopeless the situation seems. They’d despise just sitting and waiting, probably, because it makes them feel powerless. They might even be the person that makes rash decisions and acts impulsively and puts themself in danger unnecessarily, because in their mind it’s better than being at the mercy of fate. This is one way you could use a character’s personality to inform their decisions, which in turn helps to inform plot.

Or, let’s say we have a character whose greatest fear is being left behind or forgotten. We may have a chatterbox on our hands. They might be obnoxious. They might love the spotlight, constantly vying for attention no matter the situation, because deep down they’re so afraid that they’d be forgotten otherwise. Or, it may go the opposite way. They may be so afraid of people leaving them that they’re terrified of bothering people. They don’t want to do anything that could annoy people, anything that might give people a reason to leave them. They might be exceedingly polite, quiet, accommodating. A push-over, really.

These are two nearly opposite types of personalities, both stemming from the same core fear/insecurity. You can go a lot of different ways with it. But if you build on that strong foundation, you’ll have a strong character, and a stronger plot.

Likewise, the structure of your story can and should inform the design of these character traits. If you need your characters to team up near the end, it may be impactful if you give your main character a deep fear of commitment, an insecurity about being unwanted or left behind, and make them highly value independence and freedom. That could make their team-up for the final battle very meaningful. Conversely, you can use your character’s deepest fears and desires to help design the plot. Is your character deeply insecure about voicing their opinions or taking a stand, because of trauma they faced in the past? Make them face that. Build that into the climactic third act. Give them the big inspirational speech where they stand up and talk about what they believe to be important, what they think the group should do. And then design that character arc to run through the story, giving you more handholds and stepping stones, more pieces of foundation on which to design the plot.

In this way, character should inform story as much as story informs character. It’s a feedback loop.

Bonus: if you build your character and your plot off of each other in this way, it automatically starts to build in the foundations of that emotional investment I mentioned earlier. If your character’s decisions are based on what they most want and do not want in life, you basically have your character motivation and stakes pre-built.

Note: you need to know these things about your villain, too.

-_-_-

I’m genuinely sorry about the length of this, lmao. But you did ask.

Best of luck!

Edit: I forgot an important one:

17) Start when the scene starts and end when the scene ends.

What do I mean by that?

If your notes say “Danny asks Nicole out after school and majorly flubs it,” start the scene when Danny approaches Nicole after school. Better yet, cold-open the scene on “I was wondering if, you know, you’d wanna. You know. Hang out some time?”

Don’t start that morning when Danny goes to school, unless you’re gonna cover the school day in like one or two sentences. Don’t spend whole paragraphs going through the school day, unless it’s to cover other plot points first (in which case apply these same guidelines there), or if the paragraphs are there for a specific reason, like to illustrate how stressed he is and how it seems like every little thing is going wrong. Even then, trim the fat as much as possible. Expounding and describing everything Moment-to-moment is for the meat of the scenes, not the leading-up-to and coming-away-from.

Here’s my rule of thumb: study how and when movies cut from scene to scene. Movies have exceptionally strict, limited time for storytelling; they’re excellent examples of starting a scene when the plot point starts and ending when it’s over. If you can’t picture a movie showing everything you showed, start the scene later and end it earlier.

[august-ia]

There were very few things August wouldn't do for Yeosang- actually, he'd never come across a thought that would be a no-no to him because ever since they had practically played on the sandbox together, August felt like it was his life's mission to protect the cloudling and give him anything he could possibly wish for. Though, when it came to protecting someone, August barked at the wrong tree at times and his judgement wasn't always the best and simply put, if the two were kidnapped it would probably take time for the two of them to realise the seriousness of the situation rather than it being another fun adventure.

"We've barely had any time to gossip, I had to bring my A game to make it happen," the fairy joked in response, wrapping his arms around the other's shoulders as soon as he'd scooted over. It felt good to simply lay there for a moment. August had been under so much stress lately that it was a miracle he hadn't broken out with hives or grown a few grey hairs. While Yeosang was tucking himself under the fairy's chin, August made sure to give the top of his head the hardest kiss he could muster, his pecks always slightly on the more aggressive side. Although he knew how to be gentle too, oftentimes all the emotions within him burst out all at once and he acted accordingly.

As soon as he heard the word marriage, he groaned and let his head fall back on the pillow. "Yeah, I can't believe it either," he sounded far less enthusiastic than his friend did, staring at the beautifully painted ceiling while he held onto Yeosang. "Can you imagine that one evening Ethirdil and I headed to a party my parents were arranging, only for it to turn out to be our engagement party? Not a word to either one of us beforehand."

When he'd thought about his future engagement in the past, the first thing he'd of course hoped for was that he got to decide. His family never did, so onto the next hope he'd held onto. That at least he would be told who beforehand so he could adjust himself, perhaps even his expectations. All of that was out the window when they had been told on the spot. "It was a messy evening. We ditched the party at some point and my parents weren't very happy about it even if Ethir gave a good excuse," he didn't want to retell the entire story or just how heartbroken, upset, and absolutely wasted he'd been by the end of the evening. For now, that would do.

"You know my family is set on doing it the traditional way," his fingers brushed along Yeosang's shoulder soothingly, as if he was the one who needed it instead of August. When it was just the two of them though, he liked babying the other even if they were the same age. It made him feel important somehow when he got to take care of the cloudling. "I just- I don't know. I just want to get it over with. I want you there. I know Ethir wants to make it different, to make it ours. That's what he said. But it all feels silly to even think about.. It would just be the easiest to go with what they want."

Skincare & gossip ~ august & yeosang

[morgana-ren]

Nasty shiggy playing video games with his captive hc

Okay, you asked for it. I’m not responsible for what’s about to go down here. All the usual trigger warnings for dubcon and noncon ahead. You guys know the deal already. 

Alright, so for starters, we all know this dude is a total nerd. I know some folks don’t believe that he hangs around playing video games for hours on end pre-Kamino disaster, but for the sake of this ask and my lust, we’re going to pretend he does. 

Shigaraki is kind of a jack of all trades when it comes to gaming. His steam account has more games on it than he could possibly ever play in a lifetime, but he likes to have them regardless because he never knows where his whims are going to take him. He enjoys extreme turn based strategy for when he wants to feel intelligent (or smarter than other people at dominating), sandbox games for when he feels like running around and causing general mayhem, hack and slash for mindless slaughter, online for the rare times he feels like being cooperative, etc. Sometimes he plays those stupid shock value games that only exist to be controversial, sometimes he plays horror just to say ‘fuck you’ to the developer because he can sit through the whole thing with a straight face and steady 70 bpm. 

He’s good. He’s very good. He’s a quick thinker and gets the hang of things very quickly. There’s not very many games out there that he can’t beat with relative ease, and those ones are usually ones he just flat out doesn’t enjoy. 

When Shigaraki takes his beloved and spirits them away to his room, it’s very quickly apparent that he’s a nasty little gamer boy. If you’ve ever met a nasty little gamer boy, this adds a whole new level of terror to the “Oh God I’ve been kidnapped” factor by way of “Oh God I’ve been kidnapped by one of those guys”. 

Eventually he’s gunna get sick of you just sitting there watching him play (more accurately, desperately thinking of an escape plan while he clicks and taps away). He likes it at first because in a twisted way, he wants to impress you with his skill, but he’s a nasty little shithead who wants to watch you squirm, and the closer you are to him, the more you squirm. 

He’s not going to tease you, at least at first. He’s going to watch and see how quickly you can acclimate yourself to the situation.

 If you’re new to gaming or just don’t like it, prepare to be miserable. 

He’s a jerk. There’s no way around it. He’s going to throw you into the thick of things with your Level 1 character, not teach you shit about how to play, and when you inevitably die, he’s going to give you the side-eye and say “What do you want me to do about it? It’s not my fault you’re useless.” 

In that same breath, he won’t let you quit. He’s going to resurrect you, sure, but he’s going to make it very plain that you ‘owe’ him for every single gold he spends doing it before the level ends.

Eventually he’s going to grow bored of watching you frantically try and learn the keys and shortcuts and dying every 3 minutes like clockwork, so he’ll put on a training ground level for you.

Sounds nice, right? He’s trying? He’s not. 

He’s going to pull you over into his chair and situate you on his lap nice and inappropriate. His legs spread just so, your ass pressed firm against the crotch of his jeans so that every single time you jostle even a little bit, you can feel exactly why he wanted you there. You’re separated from his hardening cock by literally less than a centimeter of threadbare fabric and he wants you to know that. 

As you try and focus on learning just what in the hell it is you’re supposed to be doing, he’s going to be whispering in your ear the whole time, chest flush against your back and occasionally rutting his lower body into you under the guise of ‘readjusting’. 

“That’s right.” “Just like that.” “Good girl.” “Do it faster.” “See what happens when you listen to me?” “Don’t stop doing that.” “See? Isn’t this fun?” “Keep doing that and you just might live through this.”

Loading screens become the bane of your existence because not only can you see your pathetic, flushed face, but you can see the way he’s leering from behind you. That manic face of his, heavy lidded, mouth agape, eyes glazed, reeking of licentiousness and the barely corralled urge to bend you over the desk. It’s only a matter of time and you know that, but that doesn’t mean you need the reminder.

It doesn’t really matter how good your clumsy little fingers get at the controls. He’s going to belittle you regardless. Anytime you get remotely comfortable with what you’re doing, he’s going to drag you into harder and harder areas just to watch you drown in inexperience. 

Eventually he’s going to get bored of torturing you and watching you fail. As funny as it is to see how stressed out you get trying like hell to keep your head above water with him, he hasn’t forgotten the main reason be brought you here. 

He’ll pull you off his gaming chair and chuck you onto his bed, leering over you and taunting you with that playful lilt to his tone. 

“You suck at video games. Maybe you’d be better at something else.”

He’s in for a surprise if you’re a gamer yourself, though you are arguably no better off with him even if you are. 

It’s a bit of a shock to him when you take immediately to the controls like you already know what you’re doing. If you’re feeling bold, you can ask if he’ll allow you to import your character so you don’t have to start from scratch, but chances are he’s not that generous. 

Still, you’re good enough at what you’re doing to be able to keep up with him so long as you let him do most of the tanking on heavy hitter enemies. He leaves behind the powerful armor and you’re grateful, even if you know it’s not because he wants you to have it but more because he doesn’t need it himself. 

Believe it or not, he’s actually pretty psyched to have someone to play with at first. He certainly wasn’t expecting to be pleasantly surprised by kidnapping someone who is equally skilled in gaming, but it’s nice that he has something in common with you other than wanting to fuck you into the mattress. He can’t do that all the time so it’s good to know there will be something he can enjoy during the down time. 

Eventually he’s going to kick things up a notch and fight you one on one. You have pretty much no chance at winning against him with his hyper-powered character versus your brand new one, but you’ll put up one hell of a fight.

“Hey, you’re pretty good at that.” “Skilled at it huh? You probably have a lot of practice.” “Don’t let me get you on your back, now.” “Stop struggling.” “Aw, are you gunna cry?” “You look good beneath me.” “Don’t make me put you in your place.” “The way you’re playing, I’m starting to think you like it when I dominate you.” 

It’s inevitable that you’ll lose. Truth be told, you could play a lot better without his thinly veiled suggestive remarks, and you’re certain he knows that. He doesn’t miss the look on your face, filing it away for later. 

After he’s beaten you down enough, he’s going to just watch you play with unnerving intensity. It’s hard to focus when you can literally almost feel him ogling you, but you do your best. Though even as his cock is straining against his jeans, he’s still an insufferable know-it-all at gaming. You’re not sure which is more unnerving: the fact that he’s constantly bashing your build and belittling your strategy, or the fact he’s completely shameless in being openly lewd when he does it. 

Still, Tomura is a man of action, and sitting and watching doesn’t do much for him. After a bit, he’ll tell you to log out and pat the seat beside him on the messy bed. Stall all you want, but eventually you will end up doing what he wants, and you know as well as he does what’s coming next, and if you didn’t, the fact he’s undoing his zipper with that heinous smile spreading across his face would clue you in real fast. 

“You’re pretty good at games. That’s good. But I wanna see if you’re as good at other things now.”

[essayofthoughts]

7, 13, 35, 39? :D

7. Any worldbuilding you’re particularly proud of?

So back in the days before everyone decided the entirety of Harry Potter was as shit as it's creator* I actually used to run a HP headcanon blog, specifically one where I noodled out ideas about the flora and fauna of the magical world. I had a lot of fun with @themonsterblogofmonsters and while I probably won't be going back to it for some time - Hello CritRole pit! - I do still enjoy the sheer amount of sandbox space available in it.

Consequently some of my favourite worldbuilding I've done in fic form is probably The Banker or the Ban? Goblin Professions in Magical Europe, done for the Worldbuilding Exchange 2021. I wanted to try to dig into the racism and xenophobia of the magical world and to use some of the analogues and allegories of canon to further expand on it, to show how such things might occur in the world, sometimes mirroring known historical events, and to criticise such behaviour.

* I will be clear: JKR is a piece of shit. HP itself is flawed but worth criticising on its own merits, not being lumped in with its radicalised, shitty creator. I have seen a great deal of criticism that comes solely from a basis of wanting to believe it was always bad and that JKR was always bad and I dislike things that pretend that radicalisation isn't something that can happen to anyone - even you, reading this.

13. Are there any tropes you used to like but don’t anymore?

To write? Not that I can think of. To read? I definitely gained an ever-increasing dislike for slash fandom and went from tolerant of A/B/O to often quite skeeved out by some of it. There's a lot of misogyny and even racism often built into the way people who preferentially ship non-canon (usually white) gay ships and it often results in the villainising or fridging of existing canon female or POC love interests - this was especially bad in the Sherlock fandom; I recall reading one fic, absolutely excellent characterisation, beautifully written... but which introduced the character of Mary Morstan before her debut in the BBC Sherlock canon solely to make her a deceptive serial cheater so that John would be morally justified in getting with Sherlock.

After that I found that I just couldn't enjoy slashfic anymore - so often it ends up being at best dismissive of canon love interests and at worse actively malicious towards them, often drastically mischaracterising them.

I am someone who cannot stand purposefully, knowingly deceptive or dishonest presentations of things - and I consider the purposeful, malicious mischaracterisation of a character to be a similar brand of dishonesty.

Also just... the insistence of shipping your two (again, usually white) male faves together, often using the excuse of "But the female characters aren't as fleshed out!" - my dude, nor is that one guy mentioned in a throwaway comment by another character and yet fandom's so willing to give one-off male characters rich backstories and inner lives and just refuses to do that for the female ones. For the trans ones. For the characters of colour. It hacks me off and it's just fucking lazy.

And that's why I generally don't read slash anymore.

35. What aspects of your writing are completely unlike your real life?

I mean, I ran monsterblog for... several years, but my niche interest is Archaeology not Biology. As for actual fic... while I have codependent tendencies I'm pretty strict about managing those these days and I've certainly never been as codependent as certain characters I've written. And unlike Percy in Ghost Cass, I do not have the disembodied voice of one of my siblings in my head. I don't go adventuring like VM, and I am someone who Does Not Like travelling, especially long distances or overseas - I'm terrified of getting lost or running out of funds somewhere I don't speak the language.

Otherwise... I don't know? I often use things I've noted in my own life to help flesh out the world - the way that a valley can spread out down below you, golden fields split by green hedgerows, the way the cold wind can bite at your face, the soft cut of salt in the air when you're near the coast, the way birdsong can trill through the air. And with characters - quirks of eyebrows, the way a mouth twists, certain aspects of posture and movement.

I like using these little things I note day to day to help ground a story in a sense of reality, like the way a grounding touch can draw you out of your own thoughts. The point is to take something fantastical and bring it back to something the reader can easily understand and grasp - can relate to. That way, no matter how outlandish a thing one writes about - facing the bright, burning fireball of a dragon's breath, lets say - can be given a sense of reality by a reminder of the acrid scent of burning hair, the way the fire fills one's whole vision, the raw sting that lingers on the skin like lasting sunburn.

It makes the fantastical real.

39. Is any aspect of your writing process inspired by other writers or people? If so, who?

So back when I was in the MCU fandom, I used to write a lot of Maximoff twins fics. Like a lot. Like over 200 lots.

And most of these were oneshots. Some of these were way-overlong oneshots (looking at you, Crimson Peak AU) but still - they were oneshots. And I got in the habit of writing these in a vignette style, small snippet scenes, capsule moments that gave an idea of the overall story while still being only a few thousand words, if that. Each of the sections was marked by a lower-case numeral and there could be as few as five and as many as... I think I got up to 100 in the Crimson Peak AU.

I stole this way of doing vignette fics wholecloth from the wonderful @cosmonauthill. They used it as a way of doing simple fics for a prompt game and I found it so helpful for actually finishing fics, because I could just organise snapshot scenes into rough order and not write the dull in-betweens. I'm also very envious of Niamh's ability to very deftly create an atmosphere or a visual image of a written scene and emulating what they've managed to do in some of their fics has definitely pushed me to improve.

I also attribute a lot of my... I don't know... particular way of thinking about things, and how I try to empathise with and even write characters I don't like and struggle with to @tobermoriansass, who taught me to more carefully think about alternate perspectives and where they originate from, even if I don't agree with them, and a lot of my specific thoughts about Campaign 1 and certain notes I'll repeatedly bring up in fics are absolutely due to discussions I had with @chamerionwrites as I was watching the Campaign. Chamerion has a very measured way of explaining their thoughts that really helps to understand how they got there and why they think they make sense and I generally find that more compelling than other arguments.

And also, through all of these, it's pushed me to want to make sure that even when you disagree with a character's choice you still understand where they're coming from. Niamh's ability to deftly set the atmosphere and Mike's to present the perspective and Chamerion's to put it all together coherently - knowing all three of them has pushed me to improve in these ways due to these things I admire deeply about all of them.