#And I don't care about worldbuilding

[charulein]

After spending most of yesterday playing ffxiv with my free trial ending and all, I had decided to see how far in shadowbringers I can get and...

It's not looking good lads

Look, I love G'raha - I mean the Exarch, as much as anyone, right, but after sitting through what felt like hours of exposition and worldbuilding I was exhausted. Picking up Alisae was at least a little reprieve from all that, with more emotional beats to it, though of course the one character I actually start liking dies to show us what the deal with the sin eaters is...

Then came Alphinauds exhausting exposition bonanza, and at this point I just read the dialogues and clicked on to be done as fast as possible - Norvrandt isn't particularly pretty and extremely depressing, and the music too dissonant and eerie to want to listen to it longer than is absolutely necessary.

Then you get inside this filthy kingdom blablabla king bad blabla alphinaud sad blablabla

At least the dungeon broke up the tediousness. I think it was pretty decent, the battle music went off, and I can't help but adore the visual design of the Sin Eaters - eery and statue-like, with eyes of bleeding darkness. Since my friends weren't around, I did it with the npcs and I have my complaints, but that system isn't really all that relevant.

What is, is the fact that only the Warrior of Light can absorb the light aether, which makes sense with the Echo and all, and everyone acting... Surprised? Like, wasn't that supposed to be the working part of your plan? I also don't particularly like being called Warrior of Darkness, but alas, that's not too annoying in the big picture.

Amd then comes the part that will make or break this expac for me: my beloved Minfilia.

I really hated the matter of factly exposition on her, how she saved this sorry world and keeps suffering for it. Like, i think this would have been a lot more emotionally impactful to experience firsthand, and not for a boring npc to read from a book....... Another thing that riled me up immensely was the twins being more worried about Thancred reacting to the news about Minfilia than the WoL.

It was my impression that during ARR, Minfilia and the WoL grow close, Minfilia even choosing to confide in you personally time and time again - and all this gets ignored by the narrative. Oh the WoL doesn't care, oh the WoL got over it etc. Honestly, the scions don't quite care about Stubborn too much, compared to Aymeric or Hien...

Anyways, despite knowing that this isn't Yucca's Minfilia, I couldn't help but shed tears at the prospect of seeing her again. I really really miss her, and ffxiv just isn't the same with her absence... I know it's not her, but I hope that she can come back home to Eorzea with Yucca, that she can finally see her family again!!!

So yeah, so far I'm absolutely not impressed with Shadowbringers, but I'll continue once I resub in September, so let's see if the writing improves after this ambling introduction.

[thatdustybunny]

spy x family chapter discourse as of late...

[tumblweeds-omegaverse]

random omegaverse thought:

There must be people who experience specific instinct things with indifference or boredom.

Procreative cycle coming up? "Crap, I've got plans this weekend...stupid skip weeks."

Caught an intriguing scent while walking? "But I need to get to work! Shut up brain."

Had a snap response to a distressed sound? "Who was it?! ...right, it's my day off, I can go back to sleep."

Somebody growled at them? "Kid, I'm not a rival, that's my sibling."

Super cozy cuddle session happening nearby? "I'm gonna pass tonight guys, no social battery left, maybe next time."

Group of friends heading out to flirt and check out other singles? "I'm coming with you but only to make sure you all get home safe."

Setting where fated mates or soul bonds or permanent marks are a thing? "Meh. I don't really want one or care if I ever get one."

People in the actual omegaverse would get as bored of their stuff, as we do of ours, you know? It could be interesting to see that kind of vibe in fics. Biological demands faced with all the excitement of paying bills or doing laundry or tying your shoes.

Even if that kind of energy might not drive a plot, it could be interesting to have as a contrast to the people who do have big feelings about them - good or bad.

There's the friends who can't wait til they have a pack of their own, and the one friend who isn't against it but couldn't care less. There's the group in the office who are all about scent compatibility tests and figuring out one's best match and what sprays most highlight it, and the coworker who has no intentions on putting that much effort in. There are parents who hover and protect their offspring by scenting them multiple times a day, and others who don't see what the fuss is as long as it's done in the morning.

...also: packs with introverts who show care by giving each other space. So often, closeness is depicted through physical touch and tactile affection, but comfortable silence is meaningful too. Knowing people are near, but not having to interact until you're ready. Sitting in the same room doing different things, knowing that all it takes is a "hey, look at this" to share what you're up to. People understanding and accepting each other's differing or fluctuating needs for how and when to recharge. Seeing somebody reaching out or sharing space, beyond what's their norm, as a signal of the fact that they care.

[genericpuff]

people kicking and screaming about the cultural worldbuilding in Dawntrail:

people who aren't white redditors:

[x-lee-cya]

here, take a casino cups au/fic idea (bc i have WAY too many wips in my ellipsus drafts rn 2 make another one):

in the isles, the age of legal majority, is, for reasons that only God truly knows*, 26. due to this, the fact cuphead and mugman, a pair of 18 year olds with a very, very dead legal guardian, are living alone is… troublesome (and that's not even getting inta the fact that they're working a job, and while that ALONE wouldn't be illegal, the fact that they're doing it to keep themselves from bein' caught by CPS most definitely IS. Why else d'you think they're working at a place they died at likely over a hundred times?—it's LITERALLY the only job that'd take 'em, bc every other one called cps on them when their old bosses inevitably figured out they were 17 / 18; devildice, however, just don't fucking care about the fact they're 18, on the run from cps, and technically currently using the identities/credentials of their very, very DEAD bio-parents to get food & yk, Live Life Like A Fucking Normal Person so long as they do their jobs well. sure, it means they have to periodically dye their hair (humanised au my beloved) dark brown, and sure, it means they have to hide their straws & their tails & their ears & just themselves entirely, but it's better then bein' stuck with some random stranger they don't even know. fuck's sake, they fought the devil and WON, if any pair of so-called "kids" deserve to be able to live like a normal person, it's them.***)

so, of course, once devil & dice find out 'bout this little problem of the siblings' after they start workin' at the casino, the next obvious solution (not, it's batshit inSAN- gets shot) to this problem is for the siblings to let devildice. adopt. them.

for some godforsaken reason, the siblings, when devildice proposes this solution, simply look at each other, have a silent conversation that lasts about, oh, 4-5 minutes, and then "oh, fuckit, it'll solve our problem, and it's not like we ACTUALLY consider our the two idiots our fam'ly, so why not?"

but then. then the siblings start to consider devildice family. and that's when things start getting complicated

* (the reason is because inkwellians, unlike normal humans, don't truly mentally mature 'til they reach the age of 31 (bc God's a control freak, inkwellians are his favourite subspecies of humankind, & so He projects that need for control LITERALLY onto the way they grow and mature 'n such 'n such) but having 26 as the legal majority was already very much pushing it w the way the OutsidersTM's law-makers and governors were eyeing them, so 26 it stayed.)**

** fun fact! the whole "aren't truly mentally mature 'til they're 31" thing? doesn't apply to cups 'n mugs, bc they're descendants of the calix animi, to whom God allowed a biiit more leeway w the whole "bullshit biological / mental maturation" thing. shortly put, it means that they would actually be completely mentally mature at age 24ish, but THEY don't know that. no one, in fact, but their ma and elder kettle 'n chalice did. :3

*** (can you tell they have parental / daddy / mommy issues? can you?)

[aroaessidhe]

2024 reads / storygraph

Road To Ruin

start of a postapocalyptic fantasy series set in an Asian-inspired desert world plagued by dangerous storms

follows a courier who transports romantic letters between a prince and princess, who helps the princess escape across the wastes towards the prince’s safe haven

but they’re pursued by bounty hunters, and accidentally uncover some ancient secrets. and also she’s in love with both of them

dinosaurs, magical motorbikes,

bi MC, start of polyam triad

[silverware-is-interesting]

WOE! object show doodles be upon ye!

idk some doodles and some ss redraws of object shows i enjoy

[nyc-pizza-rat]

i love when spn writers come up w a fun way to raise the stakes and change how things work on the show w like v little to almost no consideration for how their new additions to the lore recontextualize previous assumptions because like the whole s13/s15 heaven/angels multiplicity thing implies still that there was only one chuck... and only one amara? so how many archangels were involved in putting her away? or is there an inflection/divergence point from where chuck split existence into multiple so that from there and on there were many archangels but before that there were only few four? how cognizant of all of this was metatron, or was he never privy to that? how privy was zachariah? were the end and the french mistake alternate timelines or simply pocket universes like the ones gabriel made for changing channels? how many gabriels ran away from home? all of them? did any stay? was there a lucifer that never fell? was there a cain that never raised his weapon? how long did every other castiel that listened to his orders even live?

!!!!!!!!! EX-FUCKING-ACTLYYYYYYYY

i literally have been thinking about this for the past hour!!! the first version of the post I made was literally just about dean in supernatural being the only one who ever even met cas/got to know him. but then i was like wellllll. that puts too much distance between parallel worlds and it would require me to utilise actual braincells to disentangle all that and I am having A Day™ and can't do it. so i changed it but YOU KNOW!!! EXACTLY!!! what does it mean that there is only one chuck but multiple lucifers??? are there multiple hells??? what about purgatory???

FASCINATING how the worldbuilding on supernatural is soooo stupid and so compelling at the same time I love thinking about it!!!

[elbiotipo]

Sorry, I won't reply to that person anymore, but imagine how much that helped to my current headache.

[deoidesign]

Can you make a tutorial on how you world build and make ocs? I can't seem to make any people in my brain, but then when I try to come up with environments jobs, beliefs and little details to slowly come up with someone, I think: well I don't really know how people have influenced the world- it's a weird loop

To be honest, I don't think I can! Writing is an extremely personal process. The way I write is directly related to how I process things, what I find important in stories, years of my own analysis of my and other's writing, etc... The way you write will be unique to you, as well. But I can explain how I personally think of it.

The short answer:

Write. Write anything and everything, it's a tool to explore your ideas. Analyze your own writing, and write more. Then, as you discover which ideas you want to develop, write more to explore them more. You won't know what you want otherwise!

The long answer:

I think this kind of loop is common. It's easy to feel like everything needs to be done "at once," because our job as writers is to make elements logically fit with each other for our readers. But as you've discovered, developing multiple elements simultaneously isn't really possible, or at least is extremely difficult.

Personally, when I think of writing, I break it into three major elements; characters, world, and plot. As much as possible every scene explores one or more of these, and as much as possible these three things tie back into what I personally consider most important: theme.

Everything I do is in service of the themes I want to present. Without them my events feel aimless. It can take a while to discover them, but they're the core of my work. You will have to discover what you feel is the core of yours. Analyzing other media helps with this too.

Concepts in your brain exist in a state of infinite potential. But when you start writing you have to start making choices, which removes potential as you move forward... But you have to move forward anyways. If there's ideas you want to explore later, you can always explore them later.

What this ends up meaning, to answer your question, is that I don't think of my characters as "people in my brain" or my worlds as something people have influenced... Not at their core, at least. They are tools that I use to represent specific ideas. Obviously they're also my blorbos, but mostly they're serving a specific narrative purpose.

So above all else... Write. Write, and discover what you're writing about, and then start over and write with that in mind. Keep doing this. But you have to write!

[longagoitwastuesday]

I keep thinking that this Gojo is just like Sukuna. I truly don't see much of a difference between them beyond the human/curse point of view

[the-way-astray]

why don’t you like grizel?

super subjective reasons

she is such a hyper girlboss. like to an extent that goes even farther beyond shannon's typical. she's a classic case of shannon's tendency to write girlbosses instead of good female characters. (yes i know della is like this too but it's hard to find a female character that isn't like this in kotlc and i have made up lore for della so. lmfao.) also she insults an entire gender and god i despise men vs. women writing it makes me cringe out of my soul because it's either misogynistic or it's used to try to create a cool girlboss character (of which grizel happens to be the second) and it never works. i stand by the idea that true feminist narratives don't need to rub their feminism in your face with men vs. women writing but i digress. also this happens in legacy. like okay i thought the sexism was gone with the first few books but i guess it's still here okay i see how it is

her introduction to the series very much reads like shannon realized sandor had been around for like three books (technically two) and we still knew little to nothing about him besides the fact that he's a tough goblin warrior. so she gave him a love interest to try to "humanize" him, so to speak. grizel exists entirely to be sandor's girlfriend. it annoys me greatly. she is not a character by herself. seriously. name a characteristic or piece of lore of hers that isn't encapsulated by "she flirts with sandor and also makes the occasional snarky comeback". and shannon could, you know. we know that she was offered a position in the queen's guard but turned it down for a lost cities job because sandor was there. do you see what i mean. this could be an interesting piece of lore but instead shannon uses it to make her character revolve entirely around sandor. it annoys me so so so so bad. she's like ro in that sense, except instead of her only personality trait being "sokeefe shipper that occasionally snarks about the lost cities/sparkles", it's "sandor's girlfriend that occasionally makes a snarky comeback generally" idk it's just not something that appeals to me personally . . . the bodyguards in general are not very fleshed out but grizel annoys me the most because she's in the story enough to be fleshed out and yet she is not

so to put it together we have a hyper girlboss in the place of an actually well written female character who revolves entirely around a man . . . she's kind of an encapsulation of my main problem with most of the female characters in kotlc (della included . . . with her i just make up my own lore so i like her more but canon della leaves a lot to be desired)

[icewindandboringhorror]

I'm so heavily anti-advertising that all pitches sound goofy silly to me/I can never take them seriously, so I have no idea how I'll manage to to advertise my game even if I do finally finish it soon-ish lol...

[nellasbookplanet]

Okay I have finally finished watching the c3 finale in its entirety (it's SO LONG you guys) and I know I critique and mayhaps even complain a lot but I love this show. Something magical about seeing the stories and parties of ten years and three campaigns coming together, but also the guests throughout c3 getting their moments at the table, the joy of the cast being palpable (their response to that nat 20 had me sharing their excitement even if I maybe wanted to see a god or two get eaten (looking at you Asmodeus and Lolth)). And like, yeah the plot and ending have their weak points but I was at the absolute edge of my seat for that first half of them working to convince the gods and save Ashton, a huge grin on my face for great chunks of the episode, and I really do like where Bells Hells as characters ended up, as well as the peaks into VM and the m9. And yes I have my reservations about the Vaxleth thing but also the feeling of it all in the cast softens it.

If I had to sum up my feelings on the campaign as a whole, it's a fun ride with a lot of really good bits and very cool & creative characters and super unique lore and wordbuilding and SO MUCH ambition (and I always appreciate ambition over playing it safe), but if you try to think too hard about it it kind of falls apart a little bit. Actual play popcorn entertainment. I've had a good time and hope the rest of you did too. Now: on to exu Divergence!

[danieyells]

Revisiting more non-ghoul anomalous persons on campus(although I do think there'd be something to Moby being the only one. . . .)

I remember posting about a Gorgon and I think maybe she would do well as like. A Darkwick General nurse. Because DG is an inpatient facility, they don't do outpatient work. So if she, as somebody who is able to curse people(or, well, it really depends on how much of one's body has turned to stone if it's an illness or a curse,) were to take an interest in long term curse care, I think that would make sense right?

And then I thought of another OC. . .a minotaur who teaches(or is currently substituting for the person who normally teaches) Enigmatology. . .obviously she specializes in anomalous mazes and escape rooms that use anomalies and the like.

I just. Want to explore the idea of anomalous peoples being integrated into society or into the Institute and its staff. Because while I'm sure Moby is a rare case, I'd like to think there are at least a handful of others. The Anomalous Investigation Institute is everywhere in the world after all.

I imagine none of them are particularly well regarded, especially by the general students. Understandably this makes them keep to themselves more to avoid abuse(and avoid causing a scene or inconveniencing others or risking things being turned around on them) which tends to reflect poorly on them because people don't see or understand what they're going through or think that if there was a problem they'd get help from Darkwick or the Institute(of course this is discouraged--don't wanna ruin the lives of students who have so much ahead of them or who will contribute to the world and Institute at large! Unlike them who, as anomalies, simply aren't allowed to be in public at all which makes them less valuable. . .even among the Institute in many places around the world the prejudice against anomalies being 'people' is strong)

But they're passionate about what they do! And about a future where maybe anomalous societies/peoples can at least be somewhat apart of the world--even if they have to be hidden away they could at least be part of the Institute and make things better for anomalies and people and maybe someday there could be a world where they all live in harmony, as one. Maybe they don't all believe that but doing something for everybody's lives is good right?

I also like to think there's a school-like facility for young anomalous persons taken in by the Institute to be raised/trained/taught to be contributing members of human society [in the background because they obviously can't just be out there]. And maybe one of them could be a Darkwick student. And this is the first time they're among humans meant to be their 'peers' and kind of among human society and it's all very nerve-wracking especially when they aren't treated well. . .but they still try and fit in and contribute and such.

I just think there's a potential for exploration there. Of person-like anomalies and how they exist within the microsociety of the Institute's network.

(also all of them are scared of Towa--because anomalies are often afraid of Towa--and Taiga--because he just looks at them and gets hungry lol.)

[1nk-ling]

Next oc colledtion: Jan. He's a surface Alien. They're not quite sure why he can breathe yet.

I like drawing him in hoodies. Even though he never gets t wear them in cannon.

He likes crabs a lot if that wasn't clear. Or anything he thinks is pretty, really.

He's just a little guy.

But if he did get to live a happy normal life like I will absolutely not be allowing, he'd grow up to be a zoologist.

That's the villain, Neo ^ He also apreciates beautiful things. And easily manipulated minds.