#Do I have a bunch of old ideas saved up in my drafts?

[rainyrambles-overcod]

Posted something like this on the last blog but,,

maybe a reader who works as an analyst or some kind of intelligence/surveillance for the cia under one Kate Laswell, who gets assigned to the 141 to go and work under her once more.

Whom, HOWEVER, despite being a bit of a computer geek/one smart individual,

is very much not afraid to absolutely fuck a bitch up you do work for Laswell for a reason, y’know-

We need more feral/fuck a bitch up readers out there, y’all ✊😪

[maxwell-grant]

Me, yesterday: Yeah you know, I like M.Bison but I'm really not a fan of him coming back, he's had his time already, he undermines a lot of current characters and storylines by coming back, we really don't need him again, it was always inevitable but I don't know man maybe oh my GOD is that the RAUL JULIA HORSE? 10/10 100/10 bring him back forever

Okay but more seriously: As one of the dead last characters I wanted to come back, the trailer had me totally flip on that stance. I mean yes it helps I'm a mark for the guy, it helps SF6 is infuriatingly good at character presentation even for characters I don't care for, but I actually think they found a very neat way to reintroduce Bison to the series this time around basically by doing to him what they did with Seth: Destroying and rebuilding him as a shell of his former self, with a whole new design, and thus a new personality and angle to approach him from, and in no position to be the Final Boss from the get-go (since it's not like they have much of a story to insert him in). But where as with Seth they leaned into the tragedy of it, Bison is now a ticking time bomb, a looming disaster waiting to happen, which fits him looking like a Horseman of Death.

It was pretty blatant even back in V that Bison was always going to come back, with Phantom Bison existing and Rose's prophecy and characters hallucinating him left and right and all the Shadaloo plot points in 6 spelling it outright. His iconic status aside, his return was telegraphed since forever, so I'm glad that they did it in a way that doesn't actually bring him back all the way to his usual self. Even putting him at the start of a new DLC Year, rather than building a big endgame show out of him like they did with Akuma, also goes a long way towards undercutting the idea that he's coming back to be the Final Boss again.

I'm really impressed with his new design because it is the perfected version of an idea they've been kicking around ever since the drafts for SFIV, that was Bison coming back all battered and torn and fucked-up. Much like older/bearded Ryu, it's an idea they saved into alternate costumes but now are finally willing to go through with as the direction for the character moving onwards. "From riches to rags" is the idea described, and they achieved it by flipping around the kind of old-school overlord he represents. Instead of General Washizaki/Yasunori Kato, he is now Raoh/Violence Jack, the ruler of the wastelands, galloping mightily onwards. (And given Ryu is based on Kenshiro, the biggest villain of this world being Raoh feels like a decision that was waiting to happen)

They've made it so they get to have it both ways: You can have M.Bison in the game looking like his old self with the classic costume, and he's here playable doing all the good Bison stuff and a bunch of new sick shit for you to love, but in the story/lore, he couldn't be further away from being like his old self, and now there is a big mystery box on what is gonna be his deal moving forward. Bison is so well-established to the playerbase that every little thing they do differently can mean something, not just in the design but also in smaller details like his light-blue flames that potentially indicate Soul Power (and that he uses to tame himself in his victory animation), or even the fact that he has visible pupils now.

I think a large part of the pushback against Bison has to do with him being so big in V's storyline and A Shadow Falls dissappointing, and the fear that they'll do it again now that he's back, but there isn't really a storyline for him. The World Tour story is set, the DLC characters add extra stuff to it but are mostly self-contained, I don't think Bison is set to bring another boring world domination plot with him this time around. It's unclear if he even wants it. I could be very wrong here, because I don't want another Bison Doomsday Plot either, I don't want another A Shadow Falls, but my interest is piqued because of how far he seems to be from doing that.

He doesn't know who or what he is, he is a homeless wanderer in Metro City, he is having a hard time keeping his power under control, and Shadaloo is currently warring between factions that want to bring him back and factions trying to ensure he stays dead, nevermind the fact that most if not all of the characters have moved past him (and Ryu still has the power to destroy him, and if Ryu isn't that much fessed up anymore about Akuma, he's definitely not gonna be that concerned about Bison), and the first thing he did when he came back was revive a horse from the dead.

I'm not gonna say this Bison is poised to turn a new leaf, but they did say he is "searching for an identity to make him smile".

Maybe the real world domination was the horses we befriended along the way.

[bomberqueen17]

trying something

OK so. I was working on a draft of the solarpunk tallships disaster bisexuals novel, and figured I'd just do whatever as long as I had some momentum, and the momentum ran out and now I've let it sit and looked at it and it's sort of coherent but. Now we're to the point where I know of old that I for sure could use some help on this thing. I can do a lot writing alone in the dark but I would like some company.

A bunch of lovely people had commented that they'd love to help, but it's lost in Tumblr notifications, and trying to go back and find that post and track down people is prohibitive. So, lol please clap, I realized I could make a Google form and get people to tell me who they are so I can keep track of who is reading, and what their email address is in the same place, and then i can give access to those people via email address which is more secure than the "anyone with the link" thing. And then I can kind of keep track of what's up! So I'm going to talk about that a bit more under the cut and then put in the link to the form for anybody who'd said they were interested in either beta-reading or cheer-reading or just in general being there so I can talk this out with other humans rather than trying to get my disinterested cat to have an opinion.

Ah writing this post made me think of one more good thing to include in a beta contact info form: warnings. I am a big fan of putting warnings/ratings on published fic but it's easy to forget about them in a beta doc, so I've put in a checkbox thing asking what people would like to be warned about. I made it required, too, but the answers aren't that important-- what's important is to consider it, and make it clear that it's something I'm open to discussing. Also the list on there is surely not comprehensive, but it's the idea that's important.

Anyhow.

This first one is specifically about the novel I have done a shitton of planning for, which is based in a solarpunk kind of worldbuilding situation I've worked in before, and features a young officer in a tall-ship-based naval power, and his geeky radio engineer genius wife who has rather taken over the first draft so far.

I have another one in the planning stages which is me filing the serial numbers off the more unhinged bits of my Fit For Pearls continuity but that one is still very tentative in development.

So if the idea of me doing an original novel is something you're into, but you're not quite there for the Tall Ships Disaster Bisexuals Vs A Bunch Of Solar Flares And Some Pirates, just wait and I'll do another one of these for Lesbian Queen of the World and her Competent Girlfriend attempt to rehabilitate a pathetic Warcrimes Meowmeow while saving the universe. But that one's on the backburner for just now.

Anyhow. Give me your email addresses if you meant it and I'll have a doc of the first couple chapters with notes about what I'm worried about to share soonish. I can't do outlining so I just need idea-rattling instead and I can only do so much rattling on my own, y'know?

Here is the Google Form, which I am also accepting feedback on, LOL. Let me know if you're interested in this!

[foggyfanfic]

Love and Fury Deleted Scenes

Since I'm done with the Love and Fury verse, I'm going to dump some of the deleted scenes on tumblr. You know that writing advice "Never delete anything, just put it aside in case you can use it later"? It's good advice and I made use of it, but now I have a bunch of unused scenes gathering cobwebs in my google docs. I'm proud of 'em so I want back up copies in case something happens to my docs, but none of these are developed enough to be their own story so I'm not going to post them to AO3. So! Tumblr!

This one was the first draft for Bruno admitting his feelings, it was going to be caused Sleepover and was about Pepa playing match maker in a way that was guaranteed to make Bruno miserable. I cut it because the playful mood didn't really match the rest of the third act of a story about rape culture. Warning: It is only half a chapter!

“Aren’t we a bit old for a sleepover?” Bruno griped, even as he helped put out the snacks, “We’re 26.”

“Mm-hm!” Pepa placed a bottle of tequila on the snack table, “And you would think a 26 year old man would be perfectly capable of asking out his crush, and yet, here we are, Sunday afternoon. Your crush is unasked.”

Bruno rolled his eyes and grumbled, but couldn’t exactly deny her allegations. He had indeed neglected to ask out Reina, despite having multiple chances to do so.

“Aren’t we a little bit old to have a sleepover?” Julieta asked, as she entered Pepa’s room with arms full of cushions.

“We’re doing this as a personal favor to Bruno,” Pepa said, wrapping an arm around Bruno’s neck, “right Brunito?”

“Um.”

“How exactly is this a favor for Bruno?” Julieta asked, raising a pointed eyebrow at Bruno’s very apparent misery.

“It’s to help him get up the courage to-.”

“I love sleepovers!” Bruno shouted over Pepa, throwing up a couple of very unconvincing jazz hands, “A-And I never got to have my own sleepover because, you know, I have no friends. Or I didn’t. But now I do. Sooo sleepover… yay?”

Julieta looked from Bruno to Pepa, clearly unconvinced, Pepa grinned back, barely holding back a laugh and gestured at Bruno, “He loves sleepovers.”

“Pepa, are you bullying Bruno?”

“Sí.”

Julieta tapped her foot for a second, “Bruno, what will you give me if I put a stop to this?”

“Oh. Oh! Um, hold on, let me think-.”

“I’ll tell Mamá about that time Agustín saved me from puking on the Gúzmans if you let me do it,” Pepa held up a finger. It was a rather embarrassing memory, one she rather wouldn’t share, but it was exactly the sort of thing that would make their Mamá decide once and for all to give Agustín her blessing.

“Oooh, I like that,” Julieta turned back to Bruno, “counter offer?”

“Um, I… I can show Mamá a vision of you and Agustín getting married,” he tried, he figured at this point Julieta probably already knew marrying Agustín was an eventuality, she just needed help convincing their Mamá that Agustín wasn’t going anywhere.

“Hmm, not bad,” Julieta held her chin while she thought about it, “but, that means we’re getting married either way, and Pepa’s offer will make our lives easier in the long run, sooo… lo siento Bruno.”

“Damn!”

“Hah!”

There was a knock at the door, Pepa opened it to reveal their mother who greeted them with a skeptical, “Aren’t you three a bit old for a sleepover?”

“Sí Mamá! We are much, much too old,” Bruno leaned around Pepa, “imagine what’ll happen if people find out we were doing this, they would say… they would say ‘gosh, I had no idea the Madrigals were so childish’. Then they would lose all faith in us and the village would fall into chaos. Chaos! We must put a stop to this.”

Alma raised an eyebrow at him, then turned mildly to Pepa, “Are you doing this to torture your brother?”

“What?! No! Of course not,” Pepa shook her head, laughing the thought off. Alma looked thoroughly unconvinced.

Julieta jumped in with a gentle smile,  “It’s for Reina and Rosalie, they’ve both been so stressed out with that whole Cicero business. They need a night off, a night when they’re surrounded by friends and can sleep peacefully, without any fear.”

Bruno glared at Julieta, who shrugged back, unapologetic. 

“Ah, of course,” Alma nodded, she handed them the extra towels for their guests, “that is very kind of you three. Please, just keep the noise contained in this room, if you will.”

“We will Mamá,” Pepa promised, “good night.”

Their mother turned away and Pepa closed the door most of the way. She left it cracked open just a tiny bit so she could watch their Mamá walk down the hall to her own room. When she disappeared into her bedroom, Pepa waited until the count of 100 then rushed over to her window.

“Psst, Félix, Agustín,” she hissed into the tree line, almost immediately the two men materialized out of the woods, Pepa held up a thumb to them and they quickly disappeared around to the front of the house.

Bruno rolled his eyes and grumbled some more when the two men snuck into the room. They hadn’t asked whether or not Agustín and Félix could join in the festivities, mostly because it was assumed the answer was no. In fact, Mamá had been pretty clear that Bruno was not to sleep in Pepa’s room with the girls, so there was no way she would have signed off on having their boyfriends spend the night.

“This is fun,” Félix chuckled after he had greeted everybody, “haven’t snuck around like this since I was a kid.”

“Well, nostalgia is the whole point,” Pepa said, although Bruno was pretty sure everybody knew the actual point was to mess with him.

Agustín wrapped himself around Julieta and asked, “Are we going to play all the classic games too? It’s been a while since I played truth or dare.”

“If we do play truth or dare, nobody is allowed to dare Agustín to do anything athletic,” Julieta immediately said.

“Juli, we could dare him to take five steps and he might find some way to lose both his thumbs,” Pepa pointed out, then turned to Agustín, “no offense.”

He just shrugged, “You’re not wrong.”

“I just want to let you girls know, that if we’re not painting each other’s nails tonight, then I’m going home, right now,” Félix joked, stabbing the air with a finger.

The floorboards shook beneath them, then somebody knocked on Pepa’s door. Bruno felt his heart leap into his throat, as Pepa walked over to open it. When she pulled it open and invited Reina and Rosalie in, he was struck with the sudden temptation to run and hide.

Reina spotted him and immediately swept over to stand at his side, something that did nothing for his nerves.

“Hola you,” she bumped her shoulder against his, “long time no see.”

They had sat together in Church that day. Actually, Mamá had made a show of inviting Rosalie and Señora Ruiz to sit with their family in the front, and wherever Rosalie went, Reina followed. Padré had spent the entire sermon avoiding looking at their pew, something Reina had clearly noticed and had to visibly restrain herself from commenting on. She had taken Bruno’s hand and had squeezed it to keep herself in her seat.

He wouldn’t be able to tell you what that day’s sermon had been about to save his own life.

Although, he did know exactly when Padré had made eye contact with Rosalie, because in those moments Reina’s grip on his hand had become painful.

“H-Hola,” he greeted, chuckling nervously and rubbing his arm.

She placed her hand on his, the other loosely holding his bicep as she leaned in close to whisper, “So, is this whole thing so Pepa can mess with you? Should I come up with an excuse to get you out of here?”

His shoulders relaxed even while his heart beat harder.

“Sí- well, no. I mean, sí this whole thing is to embarrass me, but no, if we sneak away it’ll only get worse,” Bruno told her, then he darkly added, “Pepa has back up plans.”

Reina pulled back, sucking air in through her teeth, “Oof. Suddenly happy I’m an only child. Well- you know what I mean.”

Bruno glanced over at Pepa and was startled to realize that she and Rosalie were whispering to each other in much the same way Reina and Bruno had just been. Félix, Julieta, and Agustín watched on in amusement.

“Look,” he pointed it out to Reina, “I think Rosalie is in on it.”

“What?” she hissed, then, because Reina had very little shame she cried, “Rosalie! Are you betraying me?!”

“Sí,” Rosalie nodded, then held up a finger to her lips, “now hush, we’re scheming.”

Reina gasped dramatically, putting a hand to her heart, she turned to the peanut gallery and gestured sharply at Rosalie, “Can you believe this?”

“Tragic,” Agustín shook his head mournfully.

“The state of the world,” Julieta agreed.

“I should probably mention that I’m helping them too,” Félix said, shrugging.

“What?!” Bruno stood up straight, head whipping over to Pepa, “You told him?”

“He has eyes, Bruno,” Pepa retorted.

“That’s it, this means war,” Bruno declared, pointing one finger at the heavens.

“War!” Reina enthusiastically agreed, copying his gesture.

“Oh good,” Pepa smirked, “this will be more fun if you two put up a fight.”

“Oh, we’ll put up a fight alright!” Bruno narrowed his eyes at her as he slowly backed up further into the room, pulling Reina with him.

“What’s the plan?” she hissed, when they were far enough away.

“No idea,” he said, “you know any good pranks that won’t get us zapped with lightning?”

“You would know better than me where the zapping threshold is,” Reina pointed out, even as she examined their opponents, calculating.

“You know, you would think so, wouldn’t you,” Bruno chuckled ruefully, then shrugged, “but uh, somehow, I-I still haven’t figured out quite where the line is between, hilarious joke and um grievous insult.”

“Oh,” Reina frowned, “ok, then let’s go back to basics, divide and conquer.”

“Alright,” Bruno nodded along.

“If they suggest truth and dare, I can get Rosalie just as good as she can get me,” Reina bit her lip in thought, “what have you got on Pepa?”

“She has a fear of spiders.”

“I’m pretty sure bringing spiders into this would get us murdered, by more than just Pepa.”

“It’s a win-win.”

“Bruno,” she lightly shoved his shoulder, “stop trying to die or I’m joining their side!”

“Lo siento,” he held up his hands, “how about… how are you at drinking games?”

“Abysmal. I stopped drinking when Rosalie did, as a solidarity thing, and I realized I kind of hate being drunk,” she shrugged.

“Really? I didn’t know that. What about it do you hate?”

“I always get queasy really quick, kind of ruins the fun of being all loose and stuff,” she shook her head, “anyways, drinking games. How are you at that sort of thing?”

“Better than Pepa, she hates the taste, always folds first,” he said, “if we can get her in a competitive mood she’ll play whatever game we suggest, even if she knows she’ll lose.”

“Sounds like a plan,” Reina put her hand out and after a second Bruno realized he was supposed to put his hand on top of it. She counted to three then threw her hand up and Bruno copied her.

“You two are cute,” Pepa called over.

Bruno’s cheeks burned, ay dios, was he playing right into her hands?

“Damn straight,” Reina responded, grinning, “so, what’re we doing first?”

“Before you four get started,” Julieta cut in, holding up her hands, “can we please just sit for a little while and catch up? Maybe eat some of the dessert I made?”

“Oh, of course,” Rosalie agreed, before the other three combatants could throw themselves into the fight, “I have missed your cooking.”

“Thank you, you’re too kind,” Julieta smiled warmly at her, she led the way to the couches and they spent some time eating and talking about their week.

With seven of them trying to fit on two couches, it was a cramped affair, with Julieta sitting on Agustin’s lap, and Pepa eyeing Félix’s speculatively. Bruno was crammed between Reina and Rosalie, who spent an hour subtly crowding him into Reina’s space. He didn’t even notice she was doing it until Reina curled her legs up and they rested on his thigh.

He glanced at her to see if she noticed the contact, then felt silly, of course she noticed they were touching, it’d be hard to miss.

She didn’t seem to care however, and when Rosalie somehow managed to gain another inch, Reina had no problem wrapping an arm around him so he could lean on her.

Bruno gulped. Was there some way to alert her to their enemies’ objective without revealing his own feelings?

Rosalie stretched, and Bruno instinctively ducked closer to Reina to avoid her arms. When he looked straight across at Pepa she was hiding her smirk behind a cookie Julieta had made.

He glared at her.

A/N: Sorry about the abrupt end. I wrote and cut this before making Leandra her own OC (back when the entire story would have finished in twenty chapters), so she was still only reader insert Reina, and also a little more oblivious than she ended up being. She doesn't actually know what the goal of the game is, she's just happy to play on Bruno's team. It always hurts to cut scenes that are centered on the triplets acting like actual siblings, they are some of my favorite ones to reread, so this one is a major part of why I want to share these and have extra copies.

[andradrawsstuff]

Second chapter of my fic ✨

I’ve had this saved in my drafts for a few days and forgot to post it lmao

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 2: San Francisco

The screeching of train wheels echoed as they arrived at the Embarcadero and Stockton station that stood before pier 39. The scorching sun was already beaming through the windows of the train, creating a sauna for the animals inside. Kowalski carefully drove the train forward and pushed a bunch of colourful buttons, which he clearly installed at some point. The train’s wheels switched to tires one by one. Evidently, this was an upgrade that the penguins installed fairly recently, as this certainly wasn’t there before. Miraculously, the train could now be driven on regular roads.

“How close are we to our destination?” Asked Skipper

“Only a few minutes.” Replied Kowalski, who was once again pushing those colourful buttons.

A polite knock was heard at the door. It was Mason, holding what appeared to be an old discontinued Nokia Brick. It was 2008, after all. Phil tagged along behind him, presumably to translate the messages Mason was about to present.

“The park rangers have notified us.” Announced Mason. “We have the go, Great Meadow Park is ours for the week.”

“Great news, thanks Mason.” Greeted Skipper.

Phil shot him a disapproving look

“Uh, and you, Phil.” Skipper added nervously.

The now car-train hybrid cruised through traffic and finally came to a halt on the short cut grass of the park. The circus folk gathered their equipment and wasted no time, rushing to pitch their mile-high tent.

“Yay!” Cheered young Private. “We’re here!”

Rico trudged back to the boys with a pathetic-looking Julien attached to his leg, crying about his dance time being cut short.

“Relax, Ringtail.” Skipper reassured. “We’re here. Once the tent is set up, you can party all you want.”

“Ugh… fine.” He muttered. “You’re all boring.”

The king let go and hopped out of the train to greet his beloved Sonya. The penguins stood and watched for a few moments, analysing their strange relationship. Kowalski awkwardly broke the silence to eagerly debate the plan for his new invention.

“So…” He uttered. “About my new… idea, so to speak…”

“Spit it out Kowalski.” Boomed Skipper, starting to get impatient.

He stuttered. “Well… we may need more than just the-“ He sighs. “…elemental core…” He really disliked having to simplify scientific terms.

“Well, what else do you need?” Asked Skipper. “The entire state of Kentucky? Ooo, how about Ohio! Heard its real nice this time of year.” He mocked. The grumpy penguin seemed to regain some of his charm back, and sarcasm appeared to be the first step.

Kowalski wasn’t impressed. “No,” He stated. “But you do have a point… we could use some helping hands…”

“Where would we even find that?” Skipper asked. “Everyone’s busy setting up their beloved circus, no one has time!” He pointed out.

“Aha!” Kowalski exclaimed. He was climbing onto his high horse. “There is an aquarium down on Pier 39. I’d like to assume that they’d be willing to lend a helping hand, with the right payment…”

Kowalski appeared to have a suspiciously good idea of his plan and the general area, which piqued Skipper’s interest. He squinted as he studied his brother’s increasingly anxious face.

“Kowalski…” He interrogated. “Is this… core-thingy also in San Fransisco?” He shot him an “I figured you out” gaze.

“Well, ha-ha…” He nervously replied, his entire plan being dug out simultaneously. “Will you look at that, it IS!”

Skipper raised a brow. “Really?” His tone changed to a sarcastic one. “Have you been tracking it? Did you perhaps… plan this entire trip around that? Hm?”

“…Maybe…” Kowalski muttered.

Skipper noticed Kowalski’s shame, realising he shouldn’t have lashed out. “I’m not mad at your plan, Kowalski.” He sighed. “I’m annoyed because you hid it from us! Why? Did you think I’d say no?” He remarked.

Before Kowalski could say anything, the train shook as the animals tried to migrate all their equipment.

“Oh, for Pete’s sake!” Skipper facepalmed. “Alright, where is this thing?”

Kowalski answered almost too eagerly. “Funnily enough, it’s at the aquarium!” Skipper crossed his flippers and Kowalski cleared his throat, scratching the back of his neck in embarrassment.

Skipper shouted for Private and Rico, as they already trailed off during their argument, whilst Kowalski revealed a small kids car that he had started to fix up. Its bright pink paint adorned with yellow flower decals stood out against the dark brown background of the inside of the train. It had no number plate yet, since they were still looking for one. It was no Ferrari, by all means, but it got the job done for now. The group gathered round and Skipper briefed them before they set off on the mission. Now, all they needed to do was get there in one piece.

[riddles-n-games]

Chasing Ghosts

Pairing: N/A Summary: Rewrite of Ch. 21 in The Hawthorne Legacy featuring Avery and Oren. Length: Short Story Type: Rewrite

A/N: Hi guys! Here's an old draft of mine from my rewrite era that I finally decided to finish although I can assure you that it's not the only one I have left. There's a bunch to come and please comment or message me if you want to be put on a tag list for my future fics.

My head of security laid it out for me. "Tobias Hawthorne the Second. You think he's alive."

“I know he is.”

Oren was silent for a long moment. “Have I told you how I came to be in Mr. Hawthorne’s employ?”

I had no idea where that question had come from. “No.”

“I was career military, ages eighteen to thirty-two. I would have stayed in until I hit twenty years, but there was an incident.” The way Oren said the word incident sent ice down my spine. “Everyone in my unit was killed except me. By the time Mr. Hawthorne found me a year later, I was in bad shape.”

I couldn’t picture Oren out of control. “Why are you telling me this?”

“Because,” Oren said, “I need you to understand that I owe Mr. Hawthorne my life. He gave me a purpose. He dragged me back into the light. And the last thing he asked of me was that I stay on to head your security team.” Oren let that sink in.  “Whatever I have to do to keep you safe,” he continued, his voice low, “I will do it.”

“Do you think there’s a threat?” I asked him. “A real one? Are you worried about whoever left that heart?”

“I’m worried,” Oren replied, “about what you and the boys are doing. About the ghosts you’re digging up."

I scoffed at that and shook my head. “Speak of the ironies, Oren. Haven’t you concluded yet that the so-called “ghosts” we’re digging up are because of your former boss? Why do you think me and the brothers have been going at this for three weeks? Because Tobias requested it. You know what Xander’s clue was after the first game? Find Tobias Hawthorne the Second. Why would he want his own grandson who would be put in a perilous position to find his uncle if he didn’t want him to dig up said ghosts?”

He gave me a long hard look but stayed quiet. I continued, “You say that he saved your life and for that you owe him. So tell me why the same man just asked another to risk theirs?” I was scared for Xander. If Oren was right about one thing, this mission was a dangerous one. We were digging up the past and when that was a billionaire’s past, only God knew what that would bring up from the depths. Blackmail, shady dealings, dark web connections, the list went on. I shivered at the thought.

Oren sighed. “Mr. Hawthorne had a… particular way of doing things. They weren’t always savory. That extends to the way he raised them. The boys, as good as they are, never really learned not getting their way, at least in the case of his games.” 

I considered that. The brothers weren’t all bad and for all the assumptions I may have had about rich boys, they were the best bunch to be around. However, the amount of family drama they had clearly influenced certain behaviors and attitudes. “This is why I’m concerned for your safety. These boys, they’re grieving and while I’m sure this final hurrah of his helps them cope with his death, it’s not wise to pick up a cold case. Somebody could get involved that he crossed, that’s why we have the List. And furthermore, his son being alive could mean your ironclad status as heir could be very easily dismantled. Why risk it?”

Yes, why risk it all? I rolled the question around in my mind, thinking up the insinuations, the consequences, the pros, the answers we’d get if we solved it, the questions if we didn’t. But there was something more. “I have to know,” I whispered.

“What was that?” 

“I need to know. Oren…” I looked up and met his gaze. “I’m sorry.” I shuffled around the desk and made my way to the door.

“Where are you going?” he called after me. “Hey!”

“I’m sorry, Oren. I’m so sorry but I got to do this. I can’t give this up.” 

“Avery, explain what you’re thinking. What are you doin-” The last part of his question cut off as I found the nearest passage and the entrance turned back into the wall. I sighed and ran a hand through my hair. Then I reached for my phone and texted Jameson.

[incandescent-creativity]

Your blog summary says that you’re the “accidental creator of the comic sans WIP posts”, can you share the story? (Also is that the sort of slide show/powerpoint-style text posts people make of their ocs and wips?)

Yes, that’s exactly it!

It’s not exactly an original idea; I’ve seen that kind of goofy comic sans powerpoint format used before, most often in fandom circles (why this character is gay, why you should watch this show, etc).

But nobody was doing them about their wips, which is primarily what we talk about here on writeblr.

So one day in 2018, with the encouragement of my dear friend @mecharose , I threw together this post and put it up. To date, I think it’s still the post about my writing that has the most notes.

People thought it was great fun, and started making them for their own wips. It was honestly such a fun time; I’m really honored to have been a part of popularizing it around here.

I’ve since made similar posts for all my other wips, and so many other people have done the same! I saved everyone I see to read and comment on; I think I still have a bunch of my drafts that I should get to.

Maybe I’ll do that soon! It’s not the most efficient way to do things, because after I’ve saved them up, sometimes the stories have changed and I’m spreading old information, but I still enjoy doing it. These days, the ones I see usually say something along the lines of “I know this is a dead trend,” but I don’t consider it dead as long as I’m still here! It just takes me a second to get to them lol

[goron-king-darunia]

Annon-Guy: Everything okay?

Yeah, I'm doing pretty good. Catching up on Tumblr is really difficult though. Every time I take a break to do anything there are like 30000 posts to look at. I might just have to contend with the fact that there's no catching up. Internet FOMO. My brain keeps going "Well what if someone made a really funny post while I was away?!" And like... If it was really that funny it would come back around.

I still have no idea where that ask I answered went and I'm too burnt out still to try to retype it.

I am still cranking out fanfic and I am enjoying the 1.6 update of Stardew Valley though. And I made a yummy pasta dinner yesterday.

So overall I'm just... Tumblr exhausted. Everyone makes too many good posts all the time and the need/desire to tag all of them appropriately is massively kneecapping my ability to interact. Couple that with my IRL responsibilities of taking care of my Mom and handling my own adult life just means I spend my limited free time on meatspace tasks like knitting/crocheting and embroidery or on actually gaming or writing instead of my old routine which was... scrolling tumblr until I caught up for the day, usually dumping more than half of the posts in my drafts for future me, and then using whatever free time I have left to write or game. So I'm okay. But I think I'm honestly just... not going to be able to be available on Tumblr indefinitely. This legitimately might have to just be a hobby place now where I pop in to check up on friends, post notable things like finished projects, and then just dip out and ignore most posts. there's simply not enough time in my life to engage with all the fun things I want to.

But even though I'm a bit burnt out, I'm happy. I get to eat better food now that I cook more, I get to make more cool things now that I knit and crochet and embroider more. I get to handle more of my life which is honestly needlessly complicated (I will rage against taxes being obtuse on purpose forever), but it means I have more control over what happens which isn't much, but it helps me feel like a functional adult instead of a leaf in a stream. And I still have time for fun stuff. That fun stuff just... isn't on Tumblr so much.

All my fruitless efforts to "catch up" on here have done is just give me more drafts to dig through than I can manage and kept me away from doing more of the things I love.

So I'm going to try to do more targeted things on here. Post more original content, reblog a bit less, give up on catching up, and just try to give whatever energy I have on here to specific friends.

Feel free to keep sending me DotNW stuff. I almost always have energy for that. But I don't think I have the time and energy in me to go over a bunch of new things.

Physically I'm drained, mentally I'm fried. But it's okay. I think that I just have to let go and deal with the fact that having to step up and be an adult means I have to choose what's really important to me. And scrolling through memes on Tumblr is fun. But it's not fulfilling. I don't really want to spend 6 hours every day just catching up on what everyone else is sharing and then another 10 hours some other day scrolling through stuff I saved for later because I was too tired to read it the first time.

I want to spend more time creating my own things.

So I think from now on I'm just going to be extra picky about what I engage with on Tumblr, especially because engaging with stuff on here with only half my brain because I'm exhausted means I can only give half the attention to things that they deserve. I will try to post more of my own things so you know I'm still around and I will try to answer more often. But I think including Tumblr in my routine is no longer a sustainable thing.

It's like trying to live at a themepark. There's a lot of good stuff here, but very little of it helps me be the person I want to be. I don't want to just consume other people's content. I want to make stuff.

So I'll be around. But I think I'm going to start making really hard decisions about what I can and can't give attention to.

That said, seeing you build your own little community by hosting polls and engaging with other fandom blogs is really nice. I'm glad you're able to reach out and connect with so many new people. Tumblr is really great for that. I'm happy to be your DotNW contact, but I think I may have to trim down my engagement on Tumblr to just that. DotNW, maybe some legend of Zelda, maybe some cat memes and positivity. I'm going to trim away a lot of political stuff first and foremost because I'm pretty bad with that and I'm going to try to limit my meme engagement and long posts and see how that does. And if I need to trim down even more, then I will. But from now on, I think I just have to be decisive.

And I've decided the best use of my time is much less Tumblr.

I'll still be around, but it's definitely going to be sporadic. Doesn't mean we're not friends. Just means I'll get to all the fun things you want to share in a much longer timeframe.

I hope you are well, too. I think this is just one of those things where I have to completely transform my life. It's not bad. It's just different. I'm still doing all the things I love. I'm just putting more effort into the things that I love more.

Sorry for the long post. I think this is as "back" on Tumblr as I can be.

Thank you for loving me and sharing your joy of gaming with me! Even if I can't be on Tumblr as much, I will try to make space for you in my life!

[weirdversethestrange]

More cut content (and unreleased content) for Nova’s story on TikTok

General cut content (Can go for all Chapters/ Old and unused ideas)

Originally for the first season, Nova was going to hug Polterglitch at him appearing, but instead go through him since Polterglitch was well…a ghost. I did not add this in since at the time, I did not have to skill to really draw that. (If Nova’s series was ever remade, then maybe.)

There were going to be more dream sequences throughout the series, meaning more interactions with Nightmare and Nova, possibly Dream at some point. This was once again, a very early draft and never published or drawn, just more of a simple idea that I thought would have been fun but decided not to include since there were already 2 dream sequences including Nightmare and I wanted to save future ones for more impactful bits of the story like Nova talking with Destiny of Dream discovering Nova’s true identity through the other’s mind.

This is a very and I mean VERY old concept for Nova’s series. Nova was originally going to have more orange and green than yellow and purple. Yeah, it was…a very strange combination that did not look very good when testing it out, especially mixing it with other colors that I wanted to be on him. When purple and yellow finally were chosen, I was very happy about it. Hilariously enough, I did not realize he had printer ink colors as his pallet until I started doing research into color theory.

More cut bits from Before Polterglitch existed

So, this would still be around the time Nightmare would have been considered Nova’s main lover interest. The story itself was more melancholy and slow paced. Originally I wanted the audience to feel the slow progression of Nova’s glitching and him slowly forgetting things from his timeline before things would be erased and have him as the new destroyer. Nightmare would originally have him to feed off of the sadness but of course, seeing that even in his glitchy state, Nova/Outer was still willing to listen to his problems, heck he even would listen to the qualms and struggles his team would often go through. He was still Outer despite everything…despite him slowly forgetting himself. (This can still be used as a storyline, it’s just very much a more darker and sadder storyline than what we are familiar with for the version of Nova we know.)

Nova was originally going to be the same height as a typical sans, (so around 4’3 or taller). But I wanted to make things a little funny for Ink and have an enemy of his be at least one inch taller, so that is why Nova is 3’9.

When coming up with Polterglitch’s name and design, I basically started going through a bunch of old drawings I had of ghosts and spirits I did, most were cartoonish of course, but eventually I just drew Error with torn clothing and went off from there before finally creating what Polterglitch looks like now. I wanted him to have a look that made it look like he was a real struggle for Fate to take down while at the same time have that fatigued and battle worn look for Error. I contemplated about putting ink smears on him to represent Ink’s participation in Error’s defeat but decided against it since it would’ve added too many small details and may look a little odd to have little blocks of pixels while also having Ink blobs float around him.

Cut Content Regarding Blue

Blue was originally going to join Nova and Polterglitch after he left the star sanses for similar reasons in the series, but slight differences. One difference being that he had been noticing more red strings oddly appearing around the Star Sanses base.

Blue actually would have gotten his injured eye socket from Dream as an accident by the other firing an arrow meaning to hit Nova instead.

There would have definitely been a lot more bickering between Polterglitch and Blue while Nova was usually going to be the peacemaker. I remember I had a scene planned in my head where Blue and Polterglitch were going to argue when Blue would bring up his time in the anti void when Error took him and how he nearly became a glitch in the process, (referencing Blueberror’s story a bit) of course this would have caused Nova to be very confused and start asking Polterglitch all sorts of questions about what Blue was talking about. I remember the script or idea going something like this

(Blue= Blue, Purple= Polterglitch, Pink= Nova)

“Oh of course you avoid the blame for that! You never say you’re sorry for shit you caused!”

“Because I didn’t have a choice! Fate made me do it! I didn’t want to cause that damage!”

“Guys please- can we not?”

“Fate this, Fate that. It’s always Fate’s fault to you! What about that time you kidnapped me from my home?! Was that Fate’s doing as well?!”

A small pause would occur between the three, Nova would look over to Polterglitch to his left, confused by Blue’s accusation. Polterglitch’s expression would have been darkened or covered in shadow.

“What is he…talking about?”

“…”

“Error…?”

Polterglitch would be shown flinching or curling his hands into fists, still not making direct eye contact with Blue or Nova. Blue on the other hand would become baffled before anger would cross his face again.

“You haven’t told him? He doesn’t know?! GO ON! TELL HIM THE FUCKING TRUTH!”

(End of script from what I can recall)

Cut Content from Star Bound and Void Embrace

Bird was originally going to be the one to be killed instead of Razz.

Nova was going to be trapped in Nightmare’s castle for longer than what is shown in the series. He was basically gonna go through Hell in the dreamscape due to Nightmare. Didn’t include that since that may have been too much for the series and also the fact that Polterglitch and Wine knows where the castle is located.

Originally, Polterglitch may have actually (and probably accidentally) Killed Horror or Killer. Decided not to do that cause then Dust would have probably turned against the group. It was just going to show that despite Polterglitch being a ghost, he is still a lethal and deadly foe.

404 was going to tell more of Fate and Destiny’s past, showing flashbacks and his own multiverse before it was destroyed by his own hands under Fate’s control. I decided not to since it was too much exposition in one scene. I wanted that to be revealed slowly or at least have it revealed once Destiny came into play or towards the end of the series.

Nova was going to have one more design change, but I never drew it, so it got cut. Later on I did draw it and that became Canon Nova’s design.

Romance scene between Polterglitch and Nova during Swapfell. We were going to spend more time in that universe, kind of a way to allow the two to rest and also build more up around their relationship from it going from friendship to relationship. This again would’ve taken up a lot of time and also I wanted the audience to kind of have fun or fill in the blanks of how Outer and Errro first became friends with little sprinkles and tidbits of information here and there.

More funny moments were going to be shown between Blue, Fatal, and Fresh. I really wanted to work with those three a lot more as a group since they seemed so silly, but at the time, I couldn’t think of anything for them. If I ever do rewrite (or possibly animate) Nova’s story, I would probably show more of that group’s dynamic.

Cut content for Nebula Tranquility

404 was originally going to help Bird and Dust with the strings after noticing that there were more of them. I decided against the idea once the thought occurred to me that Nova needed a way to stop a Fate possessed Polterglitch. Thought it would have been fitting for the mentor to help his two students.

Razz was going to make a small appearance to Mal, kinda like a motivation or flashback sequence for him. Fate probably would have used that against Mal while he was tied up in strings for that short period of time. I thought it might’ve been better to just use the bandanna though that Mal got from Razz to kind of portray that even after death, Razz was still helping his fellow universe, even if it was to block an amputated limb from bleeding.

I was considering putting Destiny as another ghost or voice Nova would hear during his final battle.

I was going to have OuterTale stay originally and just have Nova gone, but then I thought it would have been interesting for the whole au to disappear because of Fate’s imprisonment. Almost like it’s the multiverse’s natural way of making sure if a powerful entity is trapped, they remain trapped. I had 404 mention this as to partly what happened to his multiverse once Destiny was trapped, that a very important timeline to him had vanished due to Destiny being trapped by Fate there.

I originally wanted Nova’s final battle to be animated, but after some mulling over the last animated project I did on the series and how long that took, once again, I decided not to.

Upcoming ideas for Cosmic Epilogue (Don’t read if you don’t want spoilers)

Error will be visited by Destiny in a dream. They will take on Nova’s form, much like how they took on Error’s form when visiting Nova in a dream.

Once Error wakes up from his sleep, he will be getting a call from 404 about something in Swapfell that he needs to see. (Brining back why Mal needed to talk to Error)

Error starts roaming the multiverse quickly after seeing what was going on in Swapfell.

He finds…OuterTale…

(That will be all for this post. I will update more once the series is completed. I’m excited to be finally done with this nearly four year project)

[kosher-martian]

The NATO-fication of Christmas, I guess

A few disclaimers:

I'm only giving myself about 90 minutes to write this because I have work to do, so if it seems like a bunch of disorganized ideas that need further revision, it's because this really needed a second draft.

No, I'm not one of those "Russia is fighting wokeism" guys.

No, I'm not one of those "Putin is going to rebuild the Sovi-YEET Union" guys.

No, I'm not a "we need a preemptive strike on all the BRICS countries" guy.

I'm not your strawman. I'm arguably not even the best person to talk about this. I'm just your friendly neighborhood Jewish muppet.

This is about US culture. This is about the fragile American psyche. But most importantly, this is about movies... funny pictures... I'm talkin' about the silver screen, y'all.

I'm sure some jackass with a substack will stumble across this later and articulate it better than I have (or given that I'm not terribly original and nearly two weeks late, they already arrived at the same conclusion), but can we talk about the NATO-fication of Christmas movies?

This is actually NOT a response to that weird Russian commercial where the Russian military shot a SAM at Santa, but a response to being forced to watch Red One, that weird Xmas movie with The Rock with a friend who has great taste in bad movies.

The plot, which I will be relaying to you in breathless post-9/11 terms to better illustrate my point, is that our beloved Commander in Christmas Cheer (Santa) has been kidnapped by dangerous foreign adversary Gryla the scary Russian-coded terrorist Christmas Witch. Side note... Christians, is this a real thing? Is Gryla a made up character for this film or does she have a place in somebody's folklore? Never heard of this particular character before.

In order to secure the battlespace save Christmas, retired operator and current Secret Service agent ELF (North Pole Security) agent The Rock must leverage the military power of NATO MORA (the Mythological Oversight and Restoration Authority), team up with a unpatriotic Christmas-hating soy lib smirking rapscallion scumbag hacker, and win the hearts and minds of moderate Syrian rebel Krampus. I've heard of this character before! Thanks American Dad. Along the way, we also teach that smirking rapscallion scumbag hacker the true meaning of patriotism and securing American interests abroad Family and Christmas.

On its own, this just seems like an adorably stupid action movie with a Christmas theme. And yes, that's exactly what it is in isolation, but I want to also loop in another Xmas film which is also a weirdly militarized take on the Santa mythos: 2011's Arthur Christmas.

That movie, which came out a shocking 13 years ago (G-d I'm old), is the Tony Blair to Red One's Bush.

It's take on the Santa mythos is militarized sure, but also mixes in some aspects of the British Royal family (the role of Santa being passed from father to son, the idea of delivering presents as a sort of national service to the country and a rite of passage to "earn" the position of Santa, and also lovable failsons).

The movie does make sure we don't forget the awesome power of the Military Industrial Complex by having Santa's sleigh shot down by a real life military drone and all, but really this movie is more about whether we lost sight of the military objective and now we're just causing mass suffering in this totally cooked up boondoggle out here in the desert sands the true meaning of Christmas: the oil the joy of gift giving.

Look, I'm being a bit of a cynical jerk here and applying my own post-9/11 brain worms (of which I have sooooo many) to these movies, but would you really argue against my theory when we have at least two films forging a somewhat consistent new Santa mythos with:

Advanced military technology (both)

General military vibes (both)

No seriously, why on Earth are these movies with elves and candy canes trying to evoke the imagery of Black Hawk Down?

A clandestine international deep state Christmas conspiracy (Red One)

Arms dealers / data brokers (Red One... admittedly I did not get into this in the retelling of the plot, but yeah there is a Nick Kroll character who is a gross dark web data broker... in a movie about Santa)

A weird reverence for and mild fetishization of the nigh-impossible logistical undertaking of delivering presents across the globe (Both, but more so in Arthur Christmas)

Missiles (both)... why are there missiles!?!

A General Atomics MQ-1 Predator drone (Arthur Christmas)

Santa (and other characters) wearing military-reminiscent / tacticool clothing (Both but I mean c'mon, in Arthur Christmas the older brother is wearing red and green camouflage. Why does the Christmas-equivalent of the Prince of Wales need camouflage!?!)

Wait... hold on. I forgot about those cartoons Disney did about the SEAL team elves... Prep & Landing.

When did it come out? Wait there are THREE of these? Yep. One in 2009, one in 2010, one in 2011, and according to the Wikipedia page for the last one they will release a fourth one of these later in 2025. So actually the NATO-fication of Christmas movies has been going on since 2009!?! Christians, you have some splainin' to do!

So what is the root cause?

Is it some vast deep state conspiracy over the last 15 years (or 16 by the time the latest entry in the Prep & Landing cinematic universe is released) to have filmmakers acclimatize the general public to auctioning off Xmas to the Military Industrial Complex?

Is it part of the broader trend (starting, I would argue, with the X-Men movies or if not that DEFINITELY Batman Begins) to take the fantastical & fun and try to explain them away in gritty "realistic" terms (Because wake up, kids! 9/11 happened and now we can't have fun in a post-9/11 world.)? I mean for Pete's sake Christopher Nolan turned the Batmobile into a tank (though I guess you can technically blame Dark Knight Returns and Not-Batman Fights Al Qaeda author Frank Miller for that one).

Is it just that filmmakers are unusually fascinated with the idea of an immortal (or not-so immortal as hinted by Arthur Christmas) ghillie suit-clad gift-giving wizard and his army of night vision goggle-wearing elven operators bringing peace, freedom, and security to a chimney near you (sponsored by Boeing, Lockheed-Martin, Northrop-Grumman, and Raytheon)?

I don't know. My 90 minutes are up (actually at this point I spent 2 hours on this).

Just something to think about.

[pigswithwings]

i'm really interested in poetry but im not sure how to start writing it, do you have any tips for someone new to writing poetry?

i don't know how to write poetry either ummm. here's just what i do for writing in general.

i usually take small ideas such as: i know this old story and i want to retell it. i want to write something like it's a diary in a horror movie. i want to write like it's a letter to someone. i want to talk about a fictional animal. i want to describe this daydream that i just had. and then i start describing the scene. how do i feel about it? of course the regular adjectives (sad / happy / angry / loving) are there to encompass it, but i like to avoid that stuff. i try to not use things like "i feel" and instead just go into a bunch of detail to put someone in a scene.

for example: you can say "they love each other", but i like describing what they do. do they know each other's voices very well? how well? can you envision a moment in which they do this? do they miss each other? what can demonstrate this - how would i demonstrate this?

you can say "it feels like my heart is being wrenched out". and it is true. but i like to branch out into other ways to say it. you can try a gorier side of describing it - when a real heart is wrenched out, what happens? what does it smell like? what would you hear? what happens to someone's pulse? something about Show, Not Tell.

also i write kind of short. instead of saying the obvious i try letting people imagine it because it is more fun that way. i write a scene or a very visceral /compelling line and then i let it go. sometimes i feel like my writing is very weak but it does work

another thing - i do what's easier. it takes time to develop a certain way to say things, why not just take a story trope and write about it as practice? i wrote about theseus and the minotaur because i knew a bit about the story and because i very much admire the one post about icarus. so the theseus post was sort of a study of that. i tend to write in very short bursts without saving my drafts, usually just finding an idea and putting down / picking up my phone over the course of some time. i always keep the post / document / whatever I'm writing on open so i can remember the mood i am going for. i try not to get too long and i try not to make things too hard to read. i write about familiar things because i can remember them easier. i come back to old writing sometimes and try to make it better, my friends do this too.

i don't know if this is the advice you are looking for so this is the last thing i will say: you can do it. this is just how I write. i like to think that the sentiment of my writing resembles my inspirations, but truly everyone will describe a scene differently. it's cool to see new perspectives. you can do it

[ohmypawsandwhiskers]

Fic authors self rec! When you get this, reply with your favorite five fics that you've written, then pass on to at least five other writers. Spread the self-love ❤️

Oh my goodness! I love this idea! Thank you for the message!

Alright, let's see...

Of Devils and Monsters (Attack on Titan; Erwin x OC) Status: In Progress (7/??) This has to be my first one up, because it's one that has my full attention and entire heart!

Summary: Fate brings two old friends together again and sets them on the path to truth. In a last ditch effort to save her own skin, Lozen Daniella Pierce reaches out to an old friend in hopes of gaining her freedom. In doing so, she and Erwin Smith find themselves thrust on a path to truth- the truth behind the walls, behind secret organizations, and the truth of who they turned into. Rating will go up, but I am setting it at M for now. Eventual Levi x OC in later chapters.

Read it here on Ao3! I will probably start cross-posting to tumblr for non-Ao3 users in the near future due to the change in privacy settings because AI and bots are big bags of wet and smelly socks.

2. If It's True (Dragon Age: Inquisition; Solas x OC) Status: In progress, but on hold for the time being This is another one of my babies near and dear to my heart that I plan on picking up soon once I replay DAI.

Summary: Before the veil was erected, the Elvhenan empire was a sight to behold, with towering cities of crystal and gold, plenty of resources to go around, and Elves and Spirits lived in harmony. But there was a dark underbelly rarely acknowledged- at least until Solas encounters a woman who changes his views of his beloved people and puts him on the path to ending the tyranny of the Evanuris.

Read it here on Ao3! Again, if people are interested, I can cross-post here.

The next are drabbles I have posted to reddit in the past for the Dragon Age OC from #2, taking point post-veil. I haven't posted them on tumblr or Ao3- I don't believe, so I can link them below. Please excuse the summaries! I am not great with coming up with them on the fly.

3. Prompt 4: Something that was lost but now regained, regret, a wish, a window, touch. (Nehna x Solas)

Summary: Nehna decides on how to tell Solas that she recovered parts of her memories- parts in which she knew him.

Read it here!

4. Out of Time (Dragon Age)

A bunch of Halloween prompts thrown together for another round of Nehna and Solas!

Summary: In a brief reprieve from war, while she is hiding out from the Evanuris, Nehna awakes to a nightmare

Read it here!

5. Smoke, Gun Fire, and a Sense of Deja-vu (Mass Effect; Garrus x OC)

Summary: As Kei and her team work against the clock to save the colonists of Horizon, she struggles to separate past from present.

I will put this one below a read more, since it's not officially shared anywhere else besides discord, I believe. It will be part of a story or series of one-shots I eventually share, but for now, it remains in my drafts!

2170

Acrid odor assaulted her senses as Makeda pulled her friend along through the burning prefab building, hard spilling out of the corners of her eyes as smoke stung her eyes. Gunfire and screams took over any thought as instinct kicked in- where that instinct came from, she had no idea, but Makeda wasn’t about to question it now.

“What the hell is going on?” Cindy screamed as they scrambled over rubble. 

“Why would I know? Just run!” Just as they rounded the corner, they were met with a beeping followed by a force that sent the pair flying.

Present 

“Shepard! Shepard! Kei-” A hand pulled her down beside a hedge as a cutting beam narrowly missed her left ear as  she was brought back. Horizon, the Collectors. Abducted colonists. Everything was a blur since they touched down.

Specks of blue cleared the fog from her brain just enough for her to pick up on the worried twitch of mandibles. “We’re pinned down, Shep. Any ideas?” 

Kei peered over the barrier to be greeted by a line of husks ambling beside a praetorian. She took a shot at one of the mindless puppets before taking cover. It crumbled to the ground, twitching just a moment before it went completely still. “What’s the heat clip situation?” Kei asked as she summoned her drone to distract the enemies. With a beep and a whirl, as if it was assenting to unspoken orders, it was off, zooming the crowded field to distract their enemies for a moment. 

“Would advise using abilities as much as possible until another cache,” came Mordin’s voice over comms. “Did find particle beam dropped by assassin drone- could be useful against biotic barrier of the praetorian.” His efficiency with words always brought a smile to her face in the heat of battle. 

“Right, Garrus, cover me. Mordin, get that gun prepped.”

2170

“Mark, get down,” Cindy hissed from their hiding spot under the rubble, trying to get their classmate to hide from sight. Her voice didn’t carry over the conflict around them, and Mark fell right before their eyes. Before Cindy could scream, Makeda covered her mouth. 

“You want them to find us?” Makeda whispered, trying her best to stop her voice from shaking. “We need to keep moving. If we make it to my place, we can at least defend ourselves.” 

Silent tears streaked through the ash on her friends face as she nodded. 

“At least he can be a distraction. We need to move, and quickly.” Without waiting for an answer, Makeda began to belly crawl from under the fallen wall. The Batarians wouldn’t get her or her family. 

Present

The vibration radiating from the particle beam made the aiming difficult as Makeda tried to balance not dropping the damned thing while evading the constant stream of deadly energy from the last remaining enemy. In her periphery, she saw Mordin and Garrus alternating their shots in an attempt give her a break from the seemingly singular focus of the Praetorian. For a brief moment, the enemy’s beam was interrupted, giving her time to duck behind a crate and quickly catch her breath.  “I think we have it,” she yelled. “Just one final push. When it’s back in the air, I’ll take down its biotic barrier with a taste of its own medicine, and then Mordin and Garrus, throw everything you’ve got at it.”

2170

The ground beneath her shook as the bombardment against her house continued. Cindy’s body remained unmoving from it’s fetal position- any sign of life had left hours ago. It had been a mistake coming here to try and find her family. All that had greeted them was an empty house, already rifled through for any supplies or survivors. 

Crisp air and soot made her eyes water.

Makeda hugged her knees into her chest, rocking back and forth as though it would be the only thing keeping the sobs at bay.  Should she wait or continue in hopes of finding her family?

Present

Makeda lept from cover sending the remaining power of the gun careening into the floating creature. One final push. That was all it took until the creature shuddered and then evaporated into dust. Feeling uneasy, Makeda’s legs gave away beneath her, and she welcomed the thud of reality. The visions would stop. 

‘They will, won’t they?’

Footsteps from either side of her came running up to her position as Mordin began applying medi-gel to the burns sustained from the Praetorian’s beam. She welcomed the cold the medicine brought in hopes it would just serve as additional grounding to reality. 

“Good call on the Collector’s gun, Mordin,” Makeda said, and her eyes flickered over to Garrus, hoping he didn’t catch the waiver in her voice. 

Mordin went to respond, but was interrupted by the cowardly colonist they had run into hurling curses and insults their way. Garrus helped her to feet and tried to keep a steadying talon on her shoulder to be brushed off as Makeda rounded on the mechanic. 

“What the hell did you want us to do, huh? Most of the colonists were gone by the time we made a dent in their forces. I wanted to save them as much as you did-”

“Bullshit! Why would you care about a bunch of colonists out in the sticks?”

A voice stopped all of them in their tracks. “Show some reverence, Trevor, you’re standing in the presence of a ghost.”

That voice. She knew that voice. 

All anger dissipated as she turned to see the one face she needed to see. Needed to know was alright. “Kaidan!”

[linksondreamhomes]

Hello everyone! It's been a while.

So. I still have a bunch of houses saved in drafts I never posted because I never made their blueprint. I'm the kind of ADHD that I struggle to do anything ever unless I'm actively hyperfixating on it in the moment, and also my life has been rather hectic so I've reached the conclusion that I have no idea when I will ever find the time and energy to make said blueprints.

I know I designed my original blueprint system to be easy to rearrange into something usable, but I didn't figure out until I was decently far along that I had done the measurements incorrectly, so I spent twice as long driving myself nuts trying to make it look right each time. I really don't have the energy or motivation to remake the whole thing right now when the whole point of the project was I was doing it for fun.

So! I have decided I'm going to queue up the remaining houses that I have, and post then as just the video. I might draw someone of them out on paper since it's something I could do quickly, but if I do I will probably post them in a reblog or edit.

I apologize for the inconvenience! I made this blog not just to post what I came up with but to give people the chance to build it themselves, and it kinda fails in the second half by just posting them without the blueprint. I figured it's better to post the video than just leaving them to rot in my drafts though.

With that said, while I cannot promise when I will return to build new houses, I do in fact own a switch capture card now, and I could always record instruction videos on how to build the old houses as well as new ones. Hopefully one day I will find the time and energy to do so.

EDIT: I did in fact build some new houses! People seem to be liking them so I've started fiddling around in the game again. I already have some new ones added to the queue.

Still not sure on when I will have the time to make tutorials, but hopefully I will in the summer. I forgot how much fun it was messing around with this game, it's kinda like a combination of the Sims 4 and legos to me.

[circle-bircle]

purging a bunch of stuff from my drive... gosh there are still a lot of things i want to write but it's hard to tell what's there when some of my file names are "gh384t90g8h" or "2" as i look through the drive i will put in this readmore any cool ideas i come across (mostly ff some fe and gbf and will sort them by fandom if ur into it)

please know i am deleting all of these drafts as i go along so if you want me to post snippets of what i have tell me in like 3 days before they are permanently deleted

fic titled "virgin in the dynamo" where i make vigorous reference to henry adams in my ff2 emperor redemption fic... well ok then!

doc called "BACK ON MY BULLSHIT" is an isekai for ff2. i've written a few of those but i haven't liked how any of them have turned out. idea for another day

more emperor fics; i have some where y/n gets fired as a servant, some reverse isekai drafts, and i have about a good long chunk of drafting for another vampire au where (spoiler alert) the emperor is not a nice guy and murders a bunch of people in the first chapter. the drafts are still there but i just don't know where to take the fic in the last stretch.

another emperor fic but this time it's an arranged marriage au (y/n is a noble of altair and i take the book canon and shake it vigorously)

edward chris von muir reverse isekai - i remember writing this. some really bad irl stuff happened and edward was the character i wrote a fuckton of to cheer me up. i'd still like to write it properly. in another fic i wrote an arranged marriage au and i still think i could write it and it'd be fun

doc titled "k"; rewrite of an old fic with zidane & kuja with the in veno veritas vibes... i'd like to post it but it's not done so it won't get posted

i write a 210 fic in firion's pov where tidus gets lost and firion comes to help him. hehe!

more tidus ideas; one of them was where y/n was a nurse taking care of tidus, another idea that i still might write where y/n is a total stalker of tidus and makes him love them... i still want to write that.

seymour fic with another isekai... circle be creative sometimes smh!

some gorefic of ravus nox fleuret... i really don't talk about ffxv but ravus is one of my favs i think he's so cool

"2" is a fe15 gray high school au. it's goofy i guess

more kurth ideas; i wrote a dreamsharing fic with him as well as a timeloop? i could have SWORN i published the timeloop fic but i don't think i did. i got 4k words into the draft. whatever, down the trash it goes!

doc titled "UNKIE JANNIE" where janaff takes care of a wounded shinon...

i've written a janaff/reader and a janaff/reader/ulki but not an ulki/reader. none of the ideas i have have been any good though and i still feel like they're not cute enough.

"the ranch fic" where shinon fucks a bottle of ranch. nsfw but an ex-friend did it out of curiosity and then he told me not to tell anyone but then he aired my dirty laundry so i air his dirty laundry back.

more in lewd news for shinon/janaff i tried to write a motivation chapter 2 but i never could decide on what shinon was going to do. i had a couple ideas, like shinon and janaff meeting up and fucking or continuing their parasocial relationship. in my latest drafts of it shinon was going to doxx janaff and say the most egregious sort of stuff before going back to his NEET ways (now without a purpose because janaff would be disinterested) but i couldn't make it as sexy as the first chapter so i just didn't finish it

nordion vampireverse multichap fic titled "diarmuid chomps" where it's not actually about diarmuid at all and febail gets really sexy and saves y/n from the evil vampires... i wrote that fic twice but neither are any good. idea for another time

speaking about nordion vamps, doc titled "sex sex sex sex sex sex" where the vamps get down and dirty with y/n. OTL i want to post it but it's incompleted as FUCK so it won't see the light of day ever

kempf mermaid au i would have posted for mermay if i knew how to write it. but every draft i did just wasn't right and i think fe is too technologically historic(?) for what i want to happen so i might write it with some other fandom instead

found my resume! been lookin 4 that

a kyd wykkyd fic... i had a moment

did i ever post a grimnir fic about hanahaki? i've written it a couple times but i don't think i liked any one of the drafts i wrote. an idea for another day!

there's also a lobelia fic where the captain goes to try and find him a hobby that isn't death related. music didn't work and at the end of the draft djeeta is trying word searches and crossword puzzles. i guess miscellaneous stuff, i wrote more lobelia fluff that wasn't published soo

i feel like i kept up deleting stuff so there is not much else. but that's all!!!!

[mayordea]

i wanted to get back into the old “gray painting -> EZ color overlay” style just for the silly! also wanted to get into the groove of posting more wips here :D cuz i really need to stop caring about aesthetics and whatnot on my page. dumping more info/previous drafts under a cut tho teehee

anyway i’m painting god mode mariyam from qualia automata again because i still have some art ideas for it 😊 i originally wanted to do a more dynamic pose as well as combine their original monochromatic design, but it just didn’t pan out as i desired. so i’m taking a much more simplistic and plain approach and focusing more on colors and textures once i get to that phase. i should try dynamic posing more tho…. maybe another day 😅

might as well share my old passes actually. again, wanna be more open w what i share here. cuz i think wips and scrapped ideas are cool! 🥺

left: original plan. very much improvised the pose because i have effectively given up on using pose apps to help (magic poser is unfortunately a shell of its former self 😔). i’m pretty satisfied with it from that standpoint, but idk it was just not clicking with me. the glitch transition could have been better executed to save but idk. it’s chillin in the bin for now

right: after i was kinda meh on the initial pass i tried sketching around with the design. i had another one but it was just a bunch of vague lines so wasn’t really worth sharing haha

this is probs gonna take a while (usually my approach with doing mono values first is to do all the rendering in that pass before applying colors to the whole painting. it’s flawed but it’s gotten the job done for me in the past) but i’m willing to stick it out >:3 cuz i like where it’s going so far

[royalphantompain]

I'm posting some info about one of my characters because as much as I love my four main guys, I want to talk about some of my other guys as well.

So when I got her, I was originally going to make her one of the main characters of a story (That may have took some inspiration off of Pokémon Mystery Dungeons) where she works as a sweet but skittish mail carrier and she meets a weird lost canine and they partner up with each other and go on a bunch of wacky adventures together. I would share the backstory I did make for her, but I may still use a big chunk of that for her, but an idea I'd scrap is that after dying, she was reborn into a puppy again and only has a few faint memories from her past life. (And in the old version of her, that's why she was a demon despite never doing anything wrong in her life)

But uhh, what if she wasn't reborn into a sweet, kind soul, and instead, she was a bit of an evil gaslighting gatekeeping girlboss? You know I have another character partly dead and partly plush! Maybe Pandora sees the similarities they share :>

But also her name for a while was Real Life to match the name of the character she was supposed to be partners with, Death Wish, who I completely changed because she was too similar to Charming (Mostly in backstory but also a decent amount in personality but Charming is better) and I'll probably name her something different because now she's the shy one. But also, I want to save the name Real Life and Death Wish for another duo.

So yeah, the reason why I decided to change her and her partner was because it was way too similar to my main original story, Second Draft. Actually, this one was supposed to have that name, but Second Draft just fit the name of the other story more since a lot of writing and art is involved.

Her and the character who was originally supposed to be her partner will probably never interact now, but they are in the same universe.