#I should have just stuck with my cayenne

[phoenixiancrystallist]

Month 3, day 8, I hid the guide so I could see how things are working without it, and the answer is eyes are hard. So I'm going back to focusing on just one facial feature, in this case the mouth. Next I'll do the ears, and I'll finish the face off with the eyes. Gotta save the toughest bit for last!

After I'm done with the face as a whole, then I'll do the hair and zipper pulls, then I'll tie everything down and make it clean (and probably do a lot of fixing things when I do that), then color, and maybe some super simple shading. After that? Who knows! It's still a ways off, so I've got plenty of time to figure it out XD

[aesthetic-gamersnail]

General Thoughts and Feelings about Trolls Band Together (part 1)

So, I don't know if this counts as a review, this is going to be more my thoughts on the movie (what I liked, my nitpicks, my head canons and what I would like to see in the future). This will not be coherent, it is really going be just chaotic thoughts. But be warned, because spoilers will be mentioned here. Also, the quotes might not be 100 percent accurate since I am quoting them from my memory, so be warned about that too. Have fun:

I really liked the portrayal of Poppy's and Branch's relationship and their development, because they feel like an actual couple and they feel like super natural and comfortable with it? Like there is no awkwardness and no jealousy and they are confidently saying like 'yeah, this is my girlfriend/boyfriend', I loved to see it

Interesting to see that Branch is still struggling with expressing his feelings and emotions, but that he is working on it, and you can see genuine development from the previous two movies. He still tries to push people away when overwhelmed with emotions and he deals with abandonment issues, shown especially well in the scene when Poppy goes after him after the fight with his brothers and says that she will come with him but he says that what is the point, she is going to leave anyway like everyone else did. And Poppy tries to calm him down, which actually works and it shows that he is bettering himself in that and doesn't let himself be controlled by his frustration and anger anymore. Branch generally seems to feel more comfortable in his skin and seems to be happier, which is very nice to see. Nice development here

Poppy tries to be more understanding of Branch's emotions and feelings and she supports him throughout the whole movie, even after the fight she doesn't push him to go back to his brothers but instead comes with him. I really liked it and it was really sweet

'You are not a Branch anymore, you are a TRUNK. Still could lift you though.'

John scoops Branch up when he sees him the first time again and Branch reacts as well as you can imagine - like a cat stuck on a tree

Love how John arrives and scoops Branch up, Poppy is immediately like 'Get your hands off my boyfriend!'

'When I said before you should tell me about things, maybe you should have told me you have a BROTHER?' 'Former brother.' 'THAT IS NOT HOW DNA WORKS!'

'Sorry, he gets a little hangry if he didn't have breakfast.' 'I DID have breakfast. It was an avocado toast with two poached eggs and a little bit cayenne pepper for the kick and it was DELIGHTFUL!'

Bruce bolting towards Branch and hugging him was super cute

Bruce and his wife are soooo adorable, and he is such a dad and he cares so much about them, it's augh (also Branch smiled so happily when Bruce mentioned he was a dad, he was happy for his bro)

John in the movie was being really inconsiderate of his brother's feelings and thoughts and was just pushing them towards perfection and his ideals. He redeemed himself of course at the end, but he didn't apologize at all which I think was a pity (actually no one of the brother's apologized, except Clay at the end, which is actually really sad because I think Branch deserved an honest apology and EXPLANATION, but I will bounce back to Branch and his brothers in a bit)

Clay and Bruce being really casual with each other was nice to see, but also Clay being super happy to see Branch and smushing his face

Clay really speaks to me as a character because he shows that just because other people think you're fun doesn't mean you can't be serious, love that for him

Clay and Viva do not seem to be in a relationship which I think is actually quite nice to see two people co running a village who are platonic buddies, even though who knows what the future holds. Maybe they will become a couple (or are one) which would be cute too

The portrayal of Viva's trauma was super nice to see, it felt really genuine and I liked it a lot (like how she did not want to talk about it and made impulsive decisions based on her trauma and fear)

Poppy and Viva seem to have a fun dynamic going on, would love to see more of that in the future (especially also with Bridget, since she and Poppy are super close)

Peppy did not mention for 20 Years to his daughter that she had a sister and she might be dead? WHAT?

Viva and Branch have a interesting dynamic because they seem pretty alike, and I like how Branch tries to argue with her because he has been through the same thing

Branch was sometimes not wearing pants in the bunker, sooo, yeah. That's a fun fact from the movie

Bridget was just being a girlboss thoughout the movie

Gristle and Bridget on the verge of death being like 'Let's make out :)' (Gristle and Bridget, even though having short cameos, were very fun and cute when they were on screen)

Floyd saying to Veneer that just because someone is your family doesn't mean they can treat you like crap is such a reflection on his relationship with his brothers, omg

Floyd taught Crimp how to play the ukulele, awww

Continuation in part 2

[https-witch]

#1 Back to Sender or Cord Cutting?

I hesitated for a long time between these two rituals. My job makes me sick & I've tried to find a new one, without any luck. Crazy things have happened, forcing to stay at this same job. I feel held back, stuck, drowning in quicksand & I have no idea where this negative energy is coming from.

I was convinced I should do a Cord Cutting, but I couldn't completly cut ties with my job, leaving me broke. So I opted for a Back to Sender ritual to just get rid of anything tearing me down mentally.

I got this ritual from online ressources mixed with things I learnt along the way. It required these ingredients that I mixed in my pot, counter clockwise:

One black candle

A fireproof pot with a little bit of dirt in it (grounding & burrying properties)

Sage & black salt (cleansing & warding properties)

Chili powder & cayenne (hexing properties)

Dried orange bits (I used the leaves & the peel; protecting properties) (orange is a little like lemon, more earth-related. I like to work with it because I'm an earth sign)

Now the original spell would flip the candle around to turn the spell away, but I've always done Back to Senders with mirrors. The mirror was cleansed, before & after. I felt cleasing with smoke was traditional, but I've been enjoying sound cleansings lately. I put the candle in the middle of the pot, light it up, placed the mirror for the light to reflect and then meditated on the subject.

I thought about what it felt like being so stuck and what it would feel like to not be anymore. I could picture the energy going back to where it belonged. I thought about who could be sending negativity my way and my mind went to one person very quickly. I thought about how I forgave them and how we could both move on from these feelings and these experiences.

That's when I started coughing. Coughing so hard I almost threw up. I couldn't stop. I finally calmed down and was able to catch my breath. I felt as though the negativity had left my body and my space with one last bang.

This ritual was special to me because it had been a very long time since I was able to focus & meditate so easily. I cleansed my whole space and did the whole thing of casting a circle & everything. I was amazed at how well it worked.

I will post again soon on the aftermath of this spell.

Thank you to anyone reading this whole thing. I appreciate you.

[sam-and-dean-codependency]

Fever

Relationship(s): Dean Winchester & Sam Winchester

Tags/Warnings: Munchausen's by proxy, Sickfic, Sick Sam Winchester, Hex bags, Magic Sickness

Summary: Sam has been sick for weeks and he can't figure out why. Good thing Dean is there to take care of him.

Written for @whumptober Day 2: Thermometer

--------

Sam groaned and leaned over his sick bucket for another round of dry heaving.

He’d been sick for what felt like ages. It started with the flu, but once he started feeling better from that he caught some kind of stomach bug. Then he got something with a high fever. And now, he was stuck with whatever this was. He’d think it was another stomach bug except he hadn’t eaten anything but soup and crackers since this all started. It was like his immune system just went on vacation a few months ago.

He wished he knew what was wrong. He wanted to get better. He wanted to be able to leave his bed for more than a day and get back to work. Dean would never say it, but Sam knew he must be tired of taking care of him all the time. He must be just aching to get out and hunt or even just go to a bar for the night. Instead, he was stuck taking care of his sick little brother.

He groaned and hacked up more bile into the bucket.

“Throwin’ up again, Sammy?” Sam heard Dean pad into the room and slumped in relief. Dean’s cool hand felt his forehead and he pushed Sam back onto the bed. “Fever’s still going too. Any other symptoms I should know about?”

Sam thought then shook his head. “My throat isn’t sore anymore. That’s a plus.”

Dean hummed and stuck a thermometer in his mouth. “Still over a hundred. I wonder why it’s not going down….”

Sam felt another wave of nausea come up and tried to cough it down. “Maybe I’m not normal sick,” he muttered. “Maybe I got hit with a curse or somethin’....”

“Nope,” Dean said. “I already checked that. Asked Rowena too. Not even she found anything magicky about all this.”

“You did? When?”

“A few days ago. You were a little out of it; the fever was really high that day….”

Sam didn’t remember Rowena coming by. Of course, he wasn’t sure he remembered much of anything from that day. Except for throwing up maybe. “And she didn’t find anything weird?”

Dean shook his head. “Nope. No curses, no hex bags, no lingering spells, no after effects of anything…. You just got a weird sickness.”

Sam groaned. “So, no easy cure. Just… sweat it out.”

Dean shrugged. “Pretty much, yeah. But, hey, you’re in good hands.” He smirked. “Don’t worry, Sammy. I’ll take care of you until you’re all better. That’s my job, right?” He pet Sam’s shoulder. “I got you, little big man.”

Sam groaned and leaned over his sick bucket again. Dean rubbed his back in a soothing pattern until he’d emptied his guts. Again. How did he even have this much in him to throw up?

—--

Once Sam was sleeping with a cold compress and some “fever reducing syrup”, Dean quietly left the room, leaving the door cracked a bit. He smirked at the hex bag he’d collected from Sam’s room and used his lighter to burn it. No more nausea for Sammy. At least for now. Poor kid needed a break.

He went back to the kitchen to check on Sam’s next meal. Brown rice with a generous helping of cayenne. He could use a hex bag to keep the fever going if he really wanted but he liked the natural way of doing things. If Sam was still out of it later, he’d see about tricking Sam into a warm bath too.

Was it wrong of him to keep Sam sick like this for weeks? Sure, maybe. But so what? They’d saved the world so many times, they were probably still guaranteed a ticket upstairs no matter how much they sinned.

And maybe Dean wanted a little reward for all his hard work. Maybe Dean wanted to take a break from all the blood and gore and death and just have a little quality time with his brother. Sam would never rest or take a “we day” vacation for more than a few days- unless one of them was sick.

And Sam was just so damn soft when he was sick. Always calling out for Dean, all needy and clingy. Just like when he was little. Despite all the growing up he’s done since then, that was one habit he never managed to kick. Well, along with the bitch faces but those didn’t pop up when he was sick.

He whistled and declined yet another call from a hunter. He did feel a little bad about leaving other hunters high and dry. Maybe he’d give Sam a little break from the illness next week, just enough to get up and do some research- under Dean’s supervision, of course.

[riflebrass]

I made some jagerschnitzel tonight.

For the Jager sauce I started by chopping up a packet of pre-peeled garlic, 3 shallots, and 6 brown mushrooms. I fried them up in a little olive oil with 3tbsp of flour and about 1tbsp of beef base. The roux kinda stuck to the bottom of the sauce pan so I scraped it with a metal spoon to get it free. After cooking the roux for 5 minutes I mixed in about 1/2 cup of sour cream and mixed again then added about 2 cups of water. Honestly I didn't measure the water. I just poured some in and stirred it while bringing to a boil so that it would thicken. I probably should have done half a cup less but the sauce came out good anyway.

For the schnitzel itself I didn't really have a recipe for the seasoning so I kinda winged it. I started with thin sliced pork chops. You're supposed to start with a kotlet and hammer it thin but my down stairs neighbor doesn't like that. I made a flour dredge with garlic salt and some herbs to flavor. Stage 2 was a simple egg wash made with an egg beaten with some milk. Stage 3 was the breading itself. I used bread crumbs seasoned with more garlic salt, some garlic powder, black pepper, and cayenne pepper. I fried it in some avocado oil just a little above medium in a skillet. After pulling them out of the oil I set them on a cookie rack on top of a pan to drain the extra oil off while I fried the rest.

For the cauliflower I took a whole head, rinsed it, made a mix of olive oil, garlic salt, basil, and thyme. I poured it over the cauliflower then roasted it in the oven at 350. After about 45 minutes of roasting I popped it on the bottom rack, uncovered it, and broiled for 15 minutes. It still came out kinda crunchy. Should have given it longer.

The mashed potatoes were just some instant mix. Use some hot water, added a little extra butter, blah blah blah nothing impressive.

With the exception of the cauliflower the rest was really good.

[drpeppertummy]

woe tiny little story be upon ye. return of sunny & laurie following a tummy prompt activity with a friend

[unwilling stuffing, tummyache]

"Don't look at me like that. The deal was, if you fuck it up, you have to eat it."

Still, Sunny stared up at Laurie with big sad eyes, but she turned away, leaving him with his cayenne-laden mistake. His eyes slowly fell to the lasagna. Even if it tasted fine, it was still a full-size dish. He felt full already just looking at it. His stomach, not yet up to date on his perilous situation, growled loudly.

"Sounds like you're hungry," said Laurie, not bothering to hide her amusement. "Better get started. It's probably going to take a while."

"You suck," grumbled Sunny.

"Hey, you agreed to it. Not my fault you were messing around."

"I was not messing around! You were getting in the way!"

"I was not!"

"Yes you were!"

"Sunny, would you shut up and eat your lasagna?"

Sunny glared at her and picked up his fork. Stubborn as he was, he was a man of his word. Sighing, he stuck his fork into the dish and dug out a bite. The lasagna's one saving grace was that, aside from accidentally dumping a ton of cayenne into it, Sunny was a good cook. He was relieved to find, taking his first bite, that the heat wasn't unbearable, at least for now. It was still far hotter than it had any business being, however, and definitely not suitable for the party he and Laurie had been cooking for. The replacement was in the oven now, and it pained him to think that he'd be too full to have any by the time it was done.

He continued working on the lasagna while Laurie cleaned up, unsure whether he should pace himself or try to wolf it all down before the fullness set in. He decided to just eat and not think about it, just like he was trying not to think about the heat building on his tongue. He was, however, already finishing up what would have been the equivalent of a second piece, if he had been cutting them and not just eating straight out of the dish, and the growing fullness in his stomach would soon be impossible to ignore. Sunny was notorious for biting off more than he could chew--literally as often as figuratively--and he knew as well as anyone that the capacity of his stomach was underwhelming. He was already past where he would normally quit, and he still had a long way to go.

As Sunny paused between bites, a sharp hiccup shook his body. Laurie turned to look at him, surprised, and was unable to hold back a fit of laughter. Sunny shot her an angry look.

"I'm sorry," Laurie giggled, snorting. Sunny made a face at her and turned miserably back to his lasagna. He was almost a third of the way through it now and well beyond full. He hiccuped again. The harsh contraction of his stomach was not a welcome feeling. He groaned quietly and held his free hand against his belly, which was much rounder and firmer than it had been when he started. With a sigh, he stuck his fork back into the dish and kept going.

The overwhelming fullness had become impossible to ignore, and each bite pushed Sunny further into the realm of discomfort. He would have sworn he could feel his stomach stretching as he forced down the equivalent of a sixth serving. His belly felt unbelievably tight, and was sticking out far over his belt. Another hiccup jostled his stomach, dislodging a weak burp. It didn't provide much relief. He paused for a moment, leaning back in the chair, breathing slowly. He hiccuped. There was still a third of the lasagna left.

Cautiously rubbing his belly, Sunny leaned back toward the lasagna. He picked up another bite and carried on, more slowly than ever. Making himself chew and swallow was becoming increasingly difficult. He wasn't sure how much more he could take. His stomach was tight as a drum, stuffed nearly to bursting with heavy, cheesy pasta. Finally, as he raised the fork again to his mouth, he found himself unable to open up. He dropped it back into the dish and slumped back in his seat, holding his aching belly with both hands.

"I can't do it," he moaned, sounding utterly defeated and a little ashamed. Laurie turned to face him again, surprised at how far he'd gotten. Even in her frustration at having to start the lasagna over from scratch, she hadn't expected him to actually try and eat the whole thing. Only about a quarter of it remained, and the uncomfortable bulge of his bloated stomach was clear evidence that he hadn't just thrown the rest under the table.

"Jeez, Sunny," said Laurie, walking over to him. He thought he heard a twinge of guilt in her voice. The anger between the two of them had faded, and Laurie could barely remember what they'd even been arguing about while they were cooking that got things so heated. Sunny looked up at her, trying to look annoyed but instead just looking sad and exhausted. She sat down in the chair beside him and cautiously reached towards him, half expecting him to protest, but he neither moved nor argued as she placed her hand gently on his belly.

"I didn't think you were going to get that far," she said quietly. "I'm sorry, Sunny."

"I'm sorry too," he mumbled, eyes darting away from her. It wasn't something he said often, and Laurie was surprised to hear it. "Let's pair up with different people next time, alright?"

"Or we could just keep our tempers under control," suggested Laurie, rubbing his belly a little. Sunny returned his gaze to her, staring without a word. "Hm, no, you're right. Different partners next time."

[thethistlegirlwrites]

Accidentally falling asleep together and one washing the other’s hair for John and Robin, reading a book together for John and Emma (you know what book lol), and patching up a wound and/or caring for the other when they’re sick (possibly blood or bite withdrawals) for Sierra and Shane (why is this happening? How did this end up as anyone’s best option? Up to you!)

Thank you! 💚

Thanks for the asks! These got pretty long so I'm gonna stick them under a cut. Hope you enjoy the results!

Stakeouts are some hunters' least favorite parts of the job, but John doesn't mind them. Not as long as he has a stash of cayenne pepper beef jerky and a good partner to wait out the night with. Being put up in an air conditioned motel room is preferable to sitting in the car, and less conspicuous. Especially when they're keeping tabs on a Red Cross blood donation center across the street that's been hit by vamp thieves three times in the past four months. The enhanced alarm system the agency installed last week (which in itself is part of what they're monitoring, vampire-detecting alarms are the latest hot commodity on the market and every company wants agencies testing theirs so they can put that on their promotions) is programmed to alert his and Robin's phones if it catches anything suspicious. But in John's opinion, there's still nothing like the good old human eye. He hears halting footsteps, and smells chicory and coffee, and then a warm mug is tapped against his shoulder. Robin joins him at the window, pulling up a chair and handing John his mug before curling in over his own. His broken foot is healing, but John wishes the accident hadn't happened in the first place. Being on stakeouts is much less enjoyable when the reason for them is having a partner on medical reassignment. Because God forbid Robin take actual time off like a normal human being to heal. John chuckles at that thought, earning him a confused look from Robin. "Is the coffee bad again?" "No. Just...thinking." "Should I be worried?" "Hey!" John says, cheerfully. "I'll have you know, my thinking has gotten me out of at least as much trouble as it's gotten me into." Robin chuckles, then takes a sip from his mug, hunching over it. John leans over to turn down the chattering AC unit under the window. It feels fine to him, better than the sweltering humidity outside, but Robin has never done well with cold. Not since Arion. John scoots his own chair a little closer to Robin's, and Robin leans in to rest against his shoulder, soaking up the body heat. John puts his free arm around him and continues sipping his coffee. At some point, Robin's breaths even and slow, and John sets down his own empty mug on the windowsill so he can gently take Robin's now-cold one before it falls and wakes the kid up. When the relief team appears at four am, John waves them over to the other side of the room, then closes his eyes. The only thing waiting for him back at the agency is a pile of unfinished paperwork and Maira's death glare. he's perfectly happy to wait here till sunrise.

...

"What is this stuff?" John asks, holding up a gummed together chunk of Robin's hair. "Pine sap." Robin shrugs. "There was a kitten stuck up there." "I'm surprised it's not stuck in your hair now. Half the rest of the tree is." John shakes his head. "How do I get this out?" "Try with the oil," Robin says, nodding slightly toward the kitchen cabinet the Rowan is opening. "If that doesn't get it, you could use alcohol." "So much for that bottle of whiskey I was planning on taking home, I guess." "Not that kind of alcohol!" Robin laughs. "I have rubbing alcohol in the house." John takes the olive oil bottle a branch of the Rowan is holding out to him. "Okay, well, we'll try this first." John works some of the oil into the most matted strands of Robin's hair. It works better than he expected.  The kitten responsible for the whole mess wanders into the kitchen, rubbing itself around John's legs and complaining at being ignored. "I'm working here," John says, shaking his head, but stops long enough to sort of awkwardly scoop the little pest up with his forearm to avoid covering it in oil, and set it in Robin's lap. The kitten settles into his legs, purring and kneading energetically. John winces, but Robin seems immune to the claws digging into his thigh. John shakes his head and continues working on the sap, until Robin stops petting the cat and looks up. "Um...he's got some sap in his fur too..." "Oh no. I draw the line at cats who try to bite my hand off when I touch them. He's all yours."

...

"Your great-great-whatever uncle was ridiculous," Emma says, absentmindedly petting Mr. Prickles where he's sitting on the arm of the couch. "Did he not think about the fact that there were people on the other side of that window?" "I mean, that side of my family does tend toward impulse decisions," John says, closing his battered, first edition, signed copy of Dracula and replacing it on the side table.  "Like letting a vampire stay in your apartment while her club-which-doubles-as-apartment is getting repaired from fire damage? Which, I might add, is indirectly your fault." "It wasn't even Robin this time!" "My insurance company is already upset about the last time." Emma allows Mr. Prickles to crawl up her arm and snuggle under her chin. "At least this time most of the damage was water after the sprinklers kicked in." John flips the book open again. "Funny story, I was reading this as a kid and left it outside on the porch rail overnight, and I thought Dad was going to tan my hide for letting the dew get it. Probably would have if it was our good copy. This was just an early training manual, more or less. Already had blood on it." "So what you're saying is, water damage is inevitable with you." "Pretty much," John grins. "So, where did I leave us?" "Your great-great-great uncle at the height of human stupidity firing his gun through a window to the inside, because he saw a bat." "If you still think that is the height of human stupidity, I guess I haven't been doing my job right." "Okay. The height of human stupidity is setting a vampire's club on fire on three separate occasions. And then inviting her to live in your apartment." "Yeah, you're probably right." John flips the page over. "Okay, here it is, the second stupidest moment in human history..."

...

"This su..." "Don't say it." Shay grumbles, curled in on himself in the corner of the cabin.  "Right." Sierra tugs the oversized sweatshirt sleeves down over her hands and clenches her fists in them so she's not tempted to scratch at the pinprick marks on her wrists.  She doesn't regret it. They had a cover to maintain. Getting the information they needed to take down the people behind an underground vamp-fighting ring was worth it.  That doesn't mean they're not both paying the price.  And maybe it's only fair that if Shay has to fight through blood withdrawals out here, she has to handle the bite version. She's chilled from the blood loss, but the vampire saliva in her blood is burning like a fever. She wants more, she needs that fiery high. She's heard that vamp venom makes most people feel blissed out and docile, but however it mixed with the adrenaline from the escape made her feel kind of like the world was slowing down and moving at a different pace. It felt good.  Now, it feels anything but. Shay makes a muffled sound from the other side of the room, and Sierra turns to see him with his face buried in a pillow. "You okay?" "Wh-oo-nk?" She doesn't need to hear the words to catch his meaning from his incredulous expression. "Sorry, stupid question." That seems to be the core of whatever it is they are. Stupid questions, questionable decisions, and messy aftermath.  She takes a step toward the window and then stumbles, catching herself on the back of a chair. The dizziness is kicking in in earnest. "Need the bed?" Shay asks. Apparently whatever urge to bite possessed him is gone, because he doesn't sound like there's a pillow in his mouth. "No, you will in a minute." This might be Sierra's first time dealing with a bite, but it's far from Shay's first experience of withdrawals. They'd discussed what he'd be likely to start feeling on the way out. And if he's right about timing, he's about to get hit with the worst of it. Which is going to be a serious problem. She needs synth-blood for him. Which they don't have.  Once she kicks her own withdrawals enough to drive safely, she can get somewhere with a signal and call for extraction. Pete's got to be worried sick, and he's probably already combing the Oregon wilderness for them. But until she feels like she's not going to swerve their stolen jeep into the nearest tree, they're stuck. "Then share." Shay pats the edge of the bed. "I've been sitting on it for an hour and it hasn't fallen apart. Can't say the same for that chair." Sierra looks down. She doesn't see anything wrong with the wicker-seated furniture, but Shay's hearing is dialed in well above hers. Any minor creak in the structure, and he'll know. "I don't think that's a good idea." He wants blood, she wants a bite. That close, they'll drive each other crazy.  "Nothing about us is ever a good idea." Sometimes she hates how perceptive and honest he is. She had to get partnered with an infuriatingly emotionally intelligent vampire who can also be as dumb as a rock.  "Fine. I guess if you bite me you can drive us to someplace with a signal." "That's the spirit." Shay smiles, a weak imitation of his usual one, which tells her how much pain he's already in, but he's trying. "Not that that's what I'm going to do." She wouldn't hate it. In fact, she'd appreciate it. But it would only be putting off the inevitable.  She sits down on the edge of the bed, hands clenched white-knuckled around the edge of the mattress, her pinky finger brushing up against his.  Sooner rather than later, he's going to get worse. But for now, she can offer this much. At least they can be miserable together.

Asks list here!

[mood2you]

Food!

I'm a day late writing this, but that's okay. It was a pretty balanced week. Of course I kept playing Pokemon even when I wasn't listening the the Interview with The Vampire audiobook (it is a good book, GoodReads tells me I've read it 4 times)

I'm stuck at Watson right now, but I'm really only playing to get to that punk that tells you all your stats like St. Peter "you battled 1014 times. you made 0 pokeblock. you used 100 potions" Interesting stats, mouthwatering. Speaking of Pokemon stats, this video has such a good punchline

It is 24 minutes long. SmithPlaysPokemon makes secrets/obscure things RBYCSG videos which are actually secrets to me, so I'm loving that. https://www.youtube.com/@smithplayspokemon

I got that nice Starbucks drink I mentioned, and today I'm having a smoothie bowl which is very sweet because I subbed half a banana for the almond milk, if it's in a bowl I want it thicker. It has avacado and spinach, but the main ingreditent is peaches. I imagine it's very healthy. It has a little matcha powder. Avacado is not my favorite, but I recognize it as a vegan staple and luxery good. Sometimes half an avacado can cost $3 at a restaurant. Chased it with a 50 cent slice of cake for lunch.

I also made a simple chicken sandwich, just grill the chicken with cinnamon, cumin, cayenne, salt and pepper, and mix 1/2 lemon (juice and zest) with sourcream, then slap it all together with lettuce, tomato and FRESH chibatta bread. My friend said she would buy it in a restuarant! I love cooking because it's so objective--it's either yummy or not, but cinnamon makes it kind of artistic. It feels so good and true and pride when people tell me it's good, you really can't argue.

Using art as an outlet is more subjective

I'm doing yeehawgust! You can search it on tumblr to learn more. I'm also still working on Ozymanzous even though it's very stupid and I keep saying I should "just" finish Julia Play Ball. Very slow with Ozymanzous but I am chipping away at... the cover of the prologue which is, like everyone says of prologues, useless. But it will warm you up to see if you want to read it or NOT.

Weekend was good, hung out with family, gonna do it again. August is the time when everyone is in the same place.

I'm having fun reading nonfiction books, but I'm noticing they will make stupid generalizations about people that could never be true. "High taxes on hogs will make the Chinese peasants unwilling to work." Oh yeah? They'll just stop working? Is that the next chapter of the book or something? Oh, they didn't? Huh. I wonder if it has anything to do with what happens to people with no money?

And yes, a lot of Americans have left medicine in favor of prayer and borax, but what are their actual choices? Medicine or death. (Actually, I'm not finished with this one, and it has a chapter about bringing us back.) That's not a choice. I mean the Chinese peasants did revolt, and that has a cost (lives) which you just have to weigh against the conditions of the group. Can we please get universal healthcare, better conditions for workers, and them to actually fucking listen to their patients? I mean on simple things like not putting them on medicine they're allergic to for several days?

That's all I have time for! Oh wait, I'll put my SleepyReadathon updates in here:

If I don't post another one of these next week... yyyeah, I fell off.

[goron-king-darunia]

I posted 14,439 times in 2022

206 posts created (1%)

14,233 posts reblogged (99%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@actualaster

@biophilie

@fanotastic

@strange-aeons

@quezify

I tagged 14,425 of my posts in 2022

#lol - 2,300 posts

#mood - 1,066 posts

#pffft - 980 posts

#oof - 954 posts

#yep - 832 posts

#art - 753 posts

#omfg - 528 posts

#bless - 506 posts

#yeah - 477 posts

#cats - 378 posts

Longest Tag: 140 characters

#me looking at the future and wondering if the pandemic will be over before i'm 40 or if we'll all just be stuck in this regressed state unti

My Top Posts in 2022:

#5

Eggtober 23 A Cube of Egg Casserole (Featuring Bacon, Ham, and Tomato) Clip Studio Paint, Gouache Brush, Gouache Blender, and a new tool, the Pointillism Brush. 15 colors, 1 hour. This was a friend’s suggestion! I didn’t even know Egg Casserole was a thing, but now I want some! Basically a quiche with much less fuss. Speaking of Quiche, I do like my piece from yesterday a bit better today. Depresso Espresso makes things look worse than they are. But my mood improved a little today. I like the results on this much better too. I wanna bite into some nice, fluffy, spongy egg and get some yummy veggies (or, well, tomato is a fruit...) and meat and just... enjoy. Just a little eggy treat for me. As always, big thanks to @quezify for organizing Eggtober. And also for the very nice tags he leaves. Makes me feel better whether I’m in a bad mood or not. Big sweetheart energy. Huge positive force. Hard not to be in a better mood with all the nice things he says on my eggs and on other peoples’ eggs. 😊

76 notes - Posted October 24, 2022

#4

Eggtober 4 Eggs Benedict Clip Studio Paint, Gouache Brush, Dry Gouache Brush, Freckle brush for the pepper, and airbrush for the cayenne because it does good solid speckling. 16 colors. 1 hour. Tragic as it is when the egg arrives on your plate with the yolk already busted, I gotta admit that nothing beats the aesthetic of a yolk pouring out of a poached egg. I just prefer the satisfaction of biting into it myself and feeling the soft casing of cooked egg-white burst between my teeth and feel the warm fatty ooze of deliciously runny yolk engulf my tongue. Maybe that’s an overly erotic way to describe eating egg, but if any egg is like sex, it’s Eggs Benedict and I will die on that hill. Learning to draw the shiny surface of runny yolk and hollandaise sauce was a challenge and I think it needs a little polish, but it’s a warm up, and I’m sure to improve little by little with every egg. I was originally going to do a poached egg today and save Eggs Benedict for later, but someone drew a lovely poached egg the other day and I want to let them shine for a moment, especially since there are many ways to draw an egg, and if the base of this taught me anything, I should save a poached egg for a day where I have less time, because I got a very satisfying result drawing the egg on this one in just 10 minutes. (Not that I would mind posting the same sort of egg as someone else, I just like the challenge of drawing all different eggs and if I can let someone else shine for a day, then I will! It was a very lovely poached egg too!) But yeah, Eggs Benedict slaps and I think it’s the best way to have an egg, other than a poached egg in ramen, which is honestly a tie for me. Soft-boiled is traditional for ramen eggs, but nothing beats a poached egg to me, and whether it’s a topping for ramen or the star of this little breakfast treat, I’ll take a poached egg any day, any way. If you’ve never tried Eggs Benedict before, it’s well worth it! Honestly, thank you @quezify for organizing this little drawing challenge. Nothing like a daily warm up to get me in the mood for other drawing stuff I need to do, and eggs are just so nice to draw, and you can make them as easy or as challenging as you want for yourself and, no matter what, you still end up with a cute little bit of egg art at the end! I don’t know what it is about eggs, but I love them and I love art of them and they make me happy, so it’s lovely getting to see so many nice eggs from everyone, not just my favorite Egg Master.

93 notes - Posted October 4, 2022

#3

Eggtober 11

Tonkotsu Ramen (Featuring Ramen Egg, Enoki Mushrooms, Kikurage/Wood Ear Mushrooms, Chashu Pork, and Green Onion Garnish.) Clip Studio Paint, Gouache Brush, 20 colors, ~1 hour (I forgot to count, I got too into it.) Tonkotsu ramen has to be one of my favorite comfort foods, especially with all the good stuff you can put in it. I’m a sucker for mushrooms if you haven’t noticed. Love them almost as much as I love eggs. Strangely I’m a bit picky about pork, but chashu pork is always so tasty that I’ll just wolf it down. No picking around the fatty bits or picking it apart for fear of gristle. Just shove the little slabs of meat in my mouth and delight in all the flavor. Used the same technique as last time, which means a lot of the detail got covered. But it ALSO means less volleying between colors and a better end product in my opinion. Getting ahead and doing/posting this Eggtober item early today since I keep waking up late and getting to my egg art at midnight. So technically I did an egg, took a break, and then did another instead of going straight into other stuff. Honestly? A delightful way to spend my time. Once again, huge thanks to @quezify. Art is actually starting to be fun again. For the longest time I was so shy about it because none of my stuff measured up to my own expectations. But I’m honestly just... starting to love the process and the product again. The stress of it is just... melting off. I find myself EXCITED to draw a new egg every day. Best Inktober niche ever. All eggs. 😊

102 notes - Posted October 11, 2022

#2

Eggtober 13 Çilbir (Turkish Poached Eggs with Garlic Yogurt) Clip Studio Paint, Gouache Brush and Airbrush (for the paprika and chili flakes), 12 colors, 1 hour and 20 minutes. So when I was looking for egg references for my poached egg pieces, I stumbled across an absolutely dazzling dish that looked delectable. I’d never heard of it before. Now I really want to try it. Recipe (and the reference I loosely based this on) is linked in the title. Poached eggs, yogurt, paprika butter, dill, chili flakes, garlic... what’s not to like? (Catch me modifying the recipe though and just replacing the paprika with cayenne because I like it SPICY. Yes, I know there are spicy and smokey paprikas but shush. Cayenne is cheaper.) But yeah, I saw those dazzling eggs swimming in a buttery sauce on a plate of yogurt and just... had to draw it. I knew it was my destiny. You cannot put dill and yogurt on a plate with some eggs and some spicy sauce and not have me drooling. Took longer than usual because getting the translucency to carry through on that sauce WITHOUT just doing an adjustment layer and lowering the opacity was a challenge. A lot of the colors I used were for really subtle things and you can BARELY see the purple I used at the base of all that yogurt to build up the colors. Also, I think I’ve finally done one piece with every color of the rainbow as a background (The ROYGBIV Rainbow, that is.) The closest thing I had to yellow was a sort of beige-y color that I used as a background for my omelet. But now I have one that’s actually yellow. I think this was a perfect piece for it too. Contrast with the blue and purple in the yogurt shading and the bright reds in the paprika butter. Just the tiniest peek at the orange of the yolks ready to burst forth through those eggs. Big thanks as ever to @quezify who organized the best Inktober ever! Eggtober is the superior Inktober, fight me.

131 notes - Posted October 13, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

Eggtober 2 Deviled Eggs.  I had more time today so I spent a little longer on this one. Clip Studio Paint, Gouache brush and a Freckle Brush pen for the paprika. 7 colors, 40 minutes. Last time @quezify accused me (affectionately) for coming in hard for their style by drawing a fried egg on green. And honestly, yeah. I can only hope to be as versatile and talented at egg drawings as the resident egg master. Fried eggs on a pretty green just look very nice. But I promised myself I would draw loads of different eggs, not just the fried eggs I love so much from quezify. And as much as I adore that shade of green, I also promise I won’t use it for EVERY piece, even though I love how it looks with the white of an egg and the yellow of a yolk. Again, this is a pretty new style experiment for me to not use lineart at all and paint like I would with straight paints. I’m not well-practiced in shading, not since I had to do it for art classes 10 years ago, but for a style of egg that demands shading to look good here with the piped in egg yolk mixture, I think I did well with the shading! Eggs are definitely a fun warm-up. A delicious feast for the eyes as well as the mouth.

135 notes - Posted October 2, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

[bomberqueen17]

alive

i am alive, i promise, sorry it’s been all queue of late

i made 28 quarts of chicken stock today-- well, packaged it-- actually i made it too, we’d cut the chickens up yesterday and stuck the stock pot in the walk-in cooler overnight but today i put the water in and plonked it on the stove, an enormous stock pot, and simmered it all day while we cut up the rest of the chickens. (yesterday’s chickens we cut up were for sausage, today’s were for sale as parts.) tomorrow we’re ostensibly making the sausage, we’ll see how that goes.

since CSA is over, Farmsister was available to help us today-- but just like last time she helped us, mostly what we needed her to do was to take everything out of the upright freezer in the commercial kitchen and find other places for it to go, which was a heroic undertaking and took her like two hours. it was a lot. she had to restock the farm store just to make room. so it was good, things are beautifully restocked, everything is organized and beautiful, but like, good lord, at what cost.

anyway i just stuck 28 quarts of chicken stock in there so tomorrow we’re gonna have to ask her to do it again, but i believe in her.

i have done like. zero writing this week. lots of 10+ hour days of work, so. oh the insulation in my cabin has been great though. i know it’s november now so i should expect it to be chilly but it’s been like-- warmish during the days mostly, and then in the evening it’s fine and i have actually woken up too hot and sweating twice in the last few days because i was still wearing pajamas and dressing my bed like i expected it to be in the mid-40s in the room where i’m sleeping and... well it’s not.

there’s a mouse making so much fucking noise though, and i haven’t been sleeping well because the fucker like, pitter-patters around the room while i’m trying to sleep. he’s louder because he has to rustle in through the insulation. the roof edging isn’t on properly yet so i cant’ exclude him. so a side project is that i’ve had cayenne steeping in water most of the week, and today i set it up with coffee filters and rubber bands over the mouths of jars, and filtered it into a spray bottle, and i’ve just sprayed cayenne water all along the bottom of the insulation where he’s been coming in. (I know because i can hear him and also see him.) so we’ll see how much noise he makes tonight. i don’t know that cayenne will actually deter him.

anyway i’m gonna have my queue post this tomorrow morning so idk, i’ll hopefully know by then. but i’m so tired, using the queue gives me a minute to proofread and then if i wake up in the middle of the night like “i used that word wrong” i have time to look again when i wake up.

i have so many writing projects underway and no time to work on them. i spent a bunch of time today while i was packaging cold dead raw meat thinking about various projects. it was a nice escape.

here is a surprise snippet from a background bit i’m working on, going slightly back in time to before Ciri re-established the Upper Aedirn Free State, featuring a new OC i’m going to make room for-- a very elderly elf named Faerveren who has aged out of the concept of gender, to give us some unexpected backstory.

Faerveren leaned in the doorway, giving the dh’oine who had so rudely knocked a once-over. He was tall, handsome, self-assured, though he looked a little tired and travel-worn, and the haughty arrogance of his expression was covering a bit of uncertainty. 

“I’m looking for Caerulia Fitzhugh,” he said. 

“I bet you are,” Faerveren said. “Since she lives here.” Faerveren xerself hadn’t lived here terribly long. The Fitzhughs had kindly offered xer a place to stay after xe had come to them injured and ill after the battle for the city. Many elves had needed treatment, but only Faerveren had merited the permanent invitation. Perhaps because the Fitzhughs could appreciate xer age. It was restful, being among others with a similar perspective on the passage of time. 

Faerveren watched the dh’oine’s expression go through disbelief into indignance, and relented slightly. “Are you here on behalf of someone who is sick?”

“No,” he said, frowning, “I need her help.” His frown deepened. “I believe it is not a matter that your kind could understand, elder brother.” He used an Aen Seidhe term, showing that he wasn’t entirely ignorant. 

“Ah,” Faerveren said, “I’m no one’s brother. But I see, you are not the dh’oine you look.” Neither were the Fitzhughs. This was vampire business, then. Another of the reasons Faerveren had been invited to stay was likely the complete lack of reaction xe’d had to the revelation that both Fitzhughs were bruxae. But Faerveren’s people had lived in peace with higher vampires, never their prey and never their antagonists, so it hadn’t been alarming to figure it out. It wasn’t as though they were particularly secretive about it. They tended not to shift or fly where anyone could see them, but Caerulia had a habit of gliding around without touching the ground because of an old foot injury, and nobody seemed to notice. The dwarves of Vergen were singularly unconcerned about vampires as well. 

“No,” the man said. “Can you tell her, Dettlaff is here? She knows me, though it has been years since we spoke.”

Faerveren sighed. “Perhaps you should come in and sit down,” xe said.

[bitsy83]

Sick Day (Bruno and Elena dabble)

In honor of my dear fellow Brunoholic, @prophetic-hijinks, _who is currently going through Covid, I thought she could use a little cheering up with this idea I came up with today. Speedy recovery, hon!

(A tad NSFW near the end, but nothing past a PG rating, honestly. Enjoy!)

*********

Elena HATED being sick! It was right up there with hecklers at her performances and stuck-up women who looked down on her for being a lounge singer. She first noticed she was coming down with something when she was sent home during rehearsal for warbling off key. Not only did she have a frog in her throat; she had the whole stinking pond!

It just kept going downhill from there. Her head got stuffed up, her nose ran like a faucet, every inch of her ached, and she couldn't go five minutes without coughing. She groaned as she took another tentative sip of her lemon and cayenne tea (a remedy given to her by one of the nuns who raised her). The herbal elixir seemed to clear her sinuses and soothe her throat for a few moments at a time, but the relief was always short-lived.

Pulling the blankets closer to her body, she braced herself for another coughing fit. She always found it ironic that someone running a fever could still have chills. While she had no appetite, she would've given anything for a hot bowl of chicken soup. Or a hot toddy, whatever did the trick. Unfortunately, she was so fatigued that anytime she got up to go into the kitchen, she'd get dizzy and slump back down into bed.

"That settles it," she grumbled, running her well-used tissue under her nose. "I'm dying..."

Just then, a knock was heard at the front door.

"Whaa..." slurred Elena, struggling to get herself out of bed and see who was visiting her. It was a miracle she didn't topple down the stairs with how dizzy she felt. Did Hugo stop by to check on her? Maybe it was Tito looking for a place to hide while the cops were looking for him? Or some door-to-door salesman with an overly expensive vacuum that he would insist a "lovely lady" like herself desperately needed. (If it were a salesman, she had a nose full of snot waiting to fire).

"Who is it?" she wearily croaked, doing her best to look through the peephole.

"E-Elena?" said a familiar voice on the other side. "It's me, Bruno. Did I come at a bad time?"

Elena gasped. "Bruno?!? W-what are you *cough* doing here?"

Without fully unlocking the door, Elena opened it just enough to see none other than Bruno Madrigal standing sheepishly outside the door. He wore one of his button-down green shirts decorated with hourglasses, brown slacks with sandals, and his hair pulled back in a ponytail (which she always loved). He was holding a colorful bouquet of flowers and had a brown knapsack slung across his chest.

Bruno seemed a bit surprised by Elena's question. "I, uh...weren't we supposed to meet this weekend?"

Elena knew they had made plans weeks ago to spend the weekend together in the city. Surely, it wasn't that time already? She went to look at her calendar sitting next to her coatrack. She groaned, running her hands through her hair. It was that time already! How could she have let that slip her mind?

""Bruno," she moaned as she went back to the door, still keeping it mostly locked. "Bruno, I'm so so sorry, but I can't have any visitors right now."

Fortunately, Bruno didn't look disappointed, but highly concerned. "Oh Elena! Mi Elena perfecta, what's wrong?"

"I...I...ACHOO!" was all she could utter. Elena slammed the door and block the sneeze, which immediately sent her into a coughing fit. She sank to her knees and tried to compose herself enough to speak to Bruno again. She was so exhausted she couldn't find the strength to get back to her feet.

Just then, the mail slot popped open and she bent down to see Bruno's beautiful hazel eyes looking back at her, filled with loved and compassion.

"Uh...a little under the weather?" he chuckled.

"That's putting it lightly," she sneered. "Bruno, sweetie, you should just head back home. I don't want you wasting your weekend with a plague victim."

"Actually, I think I have something that might help," said Bruno, then closed the small metal door.

Elena shook her head. "Bruno, what I need right now is a coffin because I'm pretty sure I'm on death's door." Normally, Elena wasn't always so morbid with her humor, but being sick brought the worst out in her.

The mail slot opened up again and this time, a small arepa was sticking out of it. "Here," said Bruno. "Take this! It'll do the trick."

If Elena hadn't already been breathing through her mouth, her jaw would've dropped. "Bruno, I'm really not that hungry..."

"Just eat it!" Bruno insisted. "Trust me on this, please!"

Elena was too tired to argue, so she weakly accepted the offering. She took a bite out of the doughy snack, fighting the pain in her throat as she swallowed. She was really hoping she wouldn't add vomiting to the list of symptoms.

And then, something extraordinary happened. She...started feeling better. First, her throat was no longer scratchy or sore. Her body aches faded into nothing. Not only did her nose stop running, but her sinus cavity completely cleared! She felt life seeping back into her system as each sickly symptom vanished. Before she knew it, she felt perfectly normal, as if she hadn't spent the last 24-hours planning her funeral!

But how was this possible? She looked down at the arepa Bruno had given her. It tasted fine, even if it was a bit stale. Nothing seemed different about it, yet taking one bite seemed to reinvigorate her entirely.

"Elena? Did it work?" Bruno called. "Did you eat the arepa?"

Scrambling to her feet, Elena leapt up and quickly unhooked the locks. She flung open the door to see a startled-then-pleased Bruno.

"Bruno!" she exclaimed, pointing to the food. "H-how!?!"

Bruno chuckled, letting himself in. "You can thank Julieta for that."

"But how did you know I was sick?"

"I didn't. Juli always packs me a few of those before I come to the city. She makes sure there's enough for both of us in case we need them."

Bruno then held out the exotic bouquet to Elena who accepted them graciously. "Isabela is responsible for these. She suggested I give you a cactus, but there was no way I was carrying one of those on the bus."

Elena felt her eyes water and this time, it wasn't from being sick. She threw her arms around Bruno's neck, planting to large kisses on his cheek. "If you aren't just what the doctor ordered!"

Bruno just giggled and returned the hug.

Elena then saw herself in the mirror hanging in the foyer. While she was now perfectly healthy, her hair looked like a rat's nest and her dressing gown and robe were as wrinkled as an old lady.

"Ugh, look at me," she said, fussing with herself. "I look like what the cat dragged in and the dog chewed up! If you give me about twenty minutes, I'll get cleaned up and then we can go get some lunch. My treat, of course. Be right back!"

Just as she was about to head upstairs, Bruno gently snatched her wrist, pulling her back. "Now now, hold on!" he said coyly, "I, uh, don't think you're fully healed."

"I-I'm not?"

"Oh no. There's a good chance those nasty germs are still lurking inside you somewhere." Before Elena could object, Bruno scooped her up into his arms and waggled his eyebrows at her mischievously. "I think...we need to get you right to bed."

Elena giggled and cocked an eyebrow. "Well, now that you mention it..." She gave a small fake cough, then fondled with Bruno's shirt collar. "You know, I have some ointment upstairs to rub on my chest. Helps with the coughs. Mind giving me a hand with that...doctor?"

She grinned as Bruno shuddered happily. "Absolutely." He then leaned in and kissed her lips softly.

"Don't worry, mi vida," he said softly. "I'll take care of you."

"You always do..." Elena sighed dreamily and rested her head on his shoulder as he carried her to the bedroom.

[old-archivist]

Talking About Plants and Crops In Thedas, How Non-European They Actually Are...

Okay, so yeah. I want to talk about this since I’ve seeing them a lot in the tags and also just in the Dragon Age fandom in general. A few have pointed out that corn (maize) and tomatoes are from the Americas (north and south).

I would like to add that some additional plants from the Americas:

Allspice, potatoes, squash, sunflowers, peanuts, bell peppers, cayenne (Antivan Pepper in Thedas), chili pepper, peppers, passion fruit, black walnut, cocoa/chocolate, vanilla, prickly pear/cactus pear, hawthorn berry, cosmos, marigolds, white water lilies, sweet onion, winterberry, frangipanis, and several types of beans (pinto, black, bush, navy, kidney, scarlet runner, and lima beans to be specific - Thedas is not too specific about beans). Along with several varieties (not all varieties though) of the following are native to the Americas: amaranth, cotton, wisteria, wild rice, strawberry, blueberry, blackberry, cranberry, elderberry, raspberry, plum, and cherry.

While collecting the flora and fauna, as well as food, it has become so abundantly clear that not only does Thedas have a whole lot of plants from the Americas but Asia, Africa, and the Middle East as well.  (Before anyone says anything, yes, I am aware the Middle East is already considered part of Asia.)

Asian and Middle Eastern plants:

Radishes (china), rice, jasmine (Himalayas and China), water lilies, wisteria (several varieties), citron, coconut (particularly Indo-Malaya), cucumber (India), dates (Iraq), lettuce (though it was primarily cultivated in Egypt), eggplant (India), figs (Asiatic Turkey and Northern India), oranges, peach, pomegranate, spinach, turnip, bay leaves, ginger, star anise, almonds, cotton (some varieties), lotus (India and China), cardamom (south India), cinnamon, clove, licorice, mace (Indonesia), nutmeg (Indonesia), peppercorn (India), saffron, and the bradford pear.

African plants:

Coffee, acacia, melons, calla lilies, cotton (some varieties), and mustard.

I cannot stress enough how non-European centric Thedas is in regards to the plants and by extension the food they could end up creating. I really look forward to seeing it more in future installments of media as we’ve started seeing. But it has always boggled my mind when we see how European-centric the Free Marches are. I feel like they should be more of a blend of Antiva, Nevarra, Tevinter, and Southern Thedas/Orlais in the various city states instead of the staunch European foods we see. I would love to include Rivain, but we don’t really know the trade relationship Rivain has with the other countries outside of Varric’s beet plantation.

That said, I am in no way saying Thedas isn’t built off of the idea of a fantasy Europe, especially when they have fantasy French, Welsh accents, and a fantasy Italy that has the flavoring of Spanish accents and some words. But I find it so odd (I say odd but I mean boring and predictable) that they predominantly stuck with mostly US, Britain, French, and a sprinkling of Scandinavian, Italian, and German food in southern Thedas. So... I’ve branched out a lot to include other cuisines based on cultures that share similar climates, and I’m excited to share that with all of you later this week. I’m also going to make a master list of flora and fauna so it’s somewhere outside of the wiki Fauna and Flora page.

[winterhawk-olympic-bang]

Emotive Writing

Guest Poster: @thepartyresponsible​

Emotive writing is about making people Feel Things. People use this all the time to sell you stuff, but we’re out here giving emotions away for free. Here are a few tips and tricks I’ve found to make people feel the most emotions.

Word choice:

This is the most straightforward part of emotive writing. Your word choices add an extra layer of complexity to your message. You aren’t just telling readers what happened; you’re signaling to them how they should feel. Most writers do this unconsciously, but being deliberate can make it especially effective.

Here’s a non-emotive, just-the-facts sentence: The soldier lifted his weapon and turned toward the enemy.

Here’s the same sentence reworked to make you care a bit more: The exhausted soldier raised his broken shield and faced the invading army.

The actions here are fundamentally the same, but exhausted and broken invoke sympathy while invading skews negative.

The words you choose are sign posts for the reader. They indicate how to interpret the story and help your readers orient themselves and form expectations. Subtly building expectation is important because, while surprise can be effective, shock is generally numbing and confusion tends to be irritating, so word choice helps you frame things and guide your reader along.

One of the keys here is to attempt some subtlety. If every sentence about your protagonist reads like an ad campaign (effervescent, brilliant, impervious) and every sentence about your antagonist reads like a political diatribe (cruel, spineless, malicious), you’re probably overusing your sign posts. People want to know who to root for, but too much emotive language can make them feel manipulated.

Think of word choice like adding spices to food. If you put oats in boiling water, you’re making oatmeal, and the spices you use won’t change that. But if you throw in some honey and cinnamon, I know we’re headed somewhere wholesome. If you sprinkle in little discordant notes of garlic powder and cayenne, what we’re cooking is a tragedy. And if you upend an entire bottle of cinnamon, a quarter cup of nutmeg, and toss in seventeen whole cloves, I am not staying for breakfast.

Narrative distance:

Narrative or psychic distance is the space between the reader and the character, usually navigated by the intermediary figure of the narrator. Your narrator can be an omniscient figure that knows the thoughts, feelings, and intentions of every character in the world. Or your narrator could be sitting on the shoulder of your main character, close enough to hear their thoughts and know their story but not so close that they speak with the character’s voice. Or your narrator could be your character.

If you want to ramp up emotion, you usually want a narrator who is very close to one character (or, alternatively, to separate characters in turn). But you don’t have to stay at one distance for the whole story, and, just like word choice, shifts in narrative distance can be helpful indicators to your reader about the story and the characters.

A sudden, dramatic shift in narrative distance is quite jarring, like a sudden zoom-in during a movie. It can be effective, but it’ll lose its punch if it’s overused. Generally, if you want to shift narrative distance, you should build to it slowly. Here’s an example of shifting from a distant third person to a closer third person:

They wake the Soldier because the archer is missing. He has a habit of slipping his lead, disappearing post-mission. The chase grew tedious years ago, but the Soldier runs it just the same. He’ll do as he’s told. But it bothers him, when he lets it. The why.

Why does he do this? the Soldier wonders, when he shouldn’t, when it isn’t his place. Where is he going? he thinks, when he can’t stop himself. Who is he running to? But he tries to think nothing at all.

Another trick of narrative distance is to suddenly pull back to show a character who’s been compromised, shocked, or deeply hurt by something. Imagine spending a long time in a close Bucky perspective, hearing his thoughts, and then being abruptly walloped across the face with: The machine went quiet, and the Soldier opened his eyes. Zooming out can emphasize what’s been lost. Because you aren’t just taking the soul of Bucky Barnes right out of him, you’re also taking that closeness away from the reader. You’re silencing the voice they’ve been listening to.

Whether you zoom in or out during highly emotional moments depends on what you’re trying to accomplish and also on who’s involved.  Some characters have loud, messy emotions that will get louder when they’re hurt. Some characters will freeze over and push a narrator further away. You can use narrative distance to show a character slowly opening up or suddenly slamming a door. But you need the reader to have a solid understanding of the character in order to follow what the shift means, which leads to the next component.

Know your characters:

So, here’s the thing. You gotta Velveteen Rabbit this. Every character is Tinker Bell. If you stop believing, they die.

If you want people to care about these characters, you have to treat them like living, breathing, fully feeling people. They have favorite colors. They have phobias. They have Friday night plans and blisters from new shoes and sesame seeds stuck in their teeth. They have superstitions and secrets. You don’t need to know all of these facts, but you should try to give the impression that someone could know them. The more real your characters are, the more we’re going to care about them.

Since this is fanfiction, you start with a receptive audience. Your readers are fond of these characters. Figure out why. Figure out which parts of the character you can relate to and dig in until you feel like you can understand the parts of them you can’t relate to.

Try to collect things that make you feel close to that character. I always have music playing when I’m writing, so I make playlists for characters and playlists for stories. If I feel like I’m losing a character, I’ll go back to their playlist. But you could also use Pinterest boards, reread favorite fics or comics, rewatch movies or fanvids, or spend an unreasonable amount of time researching bows and tactical knives. Whatever works!

Also, remember, your characters don’t know what story they’re in. They don’t know it’s going to end well (or terribly). Maintain that tension, because that’s where the emotions are. When you watch a good horror movie, you’re not really scared of the monster. You’re scared for the characters, because they don’t know if they’re going to survive.

Emotions come from the characters. That’s why it’s still sad that Tony Stark dies, no matter how many times you watch it happen. Tony Stark was brave and flawed and usually right and often sarcastic, and it hurts to watch him die because that’s a full, unique human we’re losing. We know him well enough to know he’s choosing to sacrifice himself and why he made that choice and who will mourn him.

Know your characters, and let them be messy and weird and wrong and hopeful and cantankerous and unique. Fear is relatable, flaws are relatable, and awkward, ungainly, stubborn progress is relatable. Just remember what it is that makes their progress their progress because, if you can swap Dominic Toretto in for Ted Lasso and have the exact same story, you’ve probably lost your characters.

Plan your emotional trajectory:

Okay, time to get a bit technical. This is for people who like to plan. For those terrifying, godlike writers who just sit down and write, this might not be helpful. For my fellow planners:

There’s a theory (which you can get a general overview about here or, if you’re very into data, right here) that there are six core emotional trajectories in narratives:

1)      Rags to riches (rise)

2)      Riches to rags (fall)

3)      Man in a hole (fall then rise)

4)      Icarus (rise then fall)

5)      Cinderella (rise then fall then rise)

6)      Oedipus (fall then rise then fall)

Since rise and fall can mean different things, I find it helpful to combine these building blocks with emotional axes, which you can find some examples of here.

So, basically, for my winterhawk baseball au Got a Heart in Me, I Swear, I planned to follow the “man in a hole” trajectory (fall then rise) along the anxiety-confidence emotional axis with some bleedover from the humiliation-pride axis. Which basically means Clint started comfortable enough, nosedived deep into anxiety and humiliation, and then slowly built his way to confidence over the rest of the fic.

If the listed axes don’t appeal to you, you can very easily create your own. Just think of an emotion, identify what links it to its inverse, and then list the related emotions between the two opposites. Disgust and adoration are opposites, but they’re linked by attention, right? You can’t ignore something you find disgusting or adorable. So, here’s an example emotional axis you could follow: Disgust – Resentment – Obsession – Fascination – Reverence – Adoration. Enemies to lovers, anyone?

Emotional axes help provide a natural framework for your character’s emotional trajectory. They can be subtle; you don’t have to start on one end of the spectrum and go all the way to the other. A story that moves just a step or two on an emotional axis can be incredibly compelling. That small progress from discomfort to hope can hit really hard if the progress feels fought-for and earned and real.

Tips for writing emotions:

·         Get physical: If you want to show an emotion instead of telling it, describe its impacts on the body. Most characters won’t think I’m embarrassed. They’ll feel a drop in their stomach like someone cut the elevator cables and a hot stinging in their face like they’ve been slapped by some disappointed version of themselves. The more visceral your descriptions, the more the reader will feel them. If you want your reader to feast on feelings, you have to set the table.

·         Dramatic zoom: When something very intense happens, shift the narrative distance. In or out is fine, but a sudden, dramatic event should result in a sudden, dramatic change in focus. Characters might hyperfocus on their physical bodies (the mechanics of breathing, the ringing in their ears, the mad animal urge toward flight) or they might be kicked so far out of their own heads that they feel like they’re dreaming or watching the scene play out from overhead. This distance is useful for two reasons: it feels real, and it allows readers to absorb the situation in pieces, without being overwhelmed by it.

·         Unreliable narrator: Some emotions can be so charged that people don’t want to own them, like grief, shame, jealousy, rage, lust, and guilt. Characters might unconsciously misrepresent these to themselves as something else. A grieving mother might insist she’s tired. A rehabilitated assassin who’s fallen in love with an absolute dork might tell himself he’s just tracking a target. Everyone knows what it’s like to lie to themselves, so this makes characters relatable. And, also, everyone likes being in on a secret, so, sometimes, this is just fun.

·         Face the monsters: We’re often conditioned not to dwell on unpleasant things, which is part of why it can be powerful to examine them in stories. From small things like inglorious emotional states (envy, cowardice, resentment) to character flaws (recklessness, withdrawal, arrogance) to personal tragedies (loss, betrayal, abandonment), the negative parts of human emotional life pack quite a punch. Acknowledge them. Not only are they relatable experiences, but redemption and recovery arcs are some of the most compelling stories we have.

[phantoms-lair]

Mystery March 12: Friend

Another post epilogue bit from Roll of the Dice

~

“Thank you for watching Cayenne, dear.” Mrs. Pepper took the baby back from Lewis.

“She’s not a problem at all.” Lewis smiled at his littlest sister.

“Wait til she’s a toddler,” Mrs. Pepper said dryly. “All the preparations for your sisters big slumber party are almost done.”

“I’ve never had one myself.” Lewis admitted. “But you guys certainly went all out.”

“Maybe you should.” Mrs. Pepper suggested. “Since the house is being invaded by little girls, why don’t you spend the night at Arthur’s?”

Lewis froze internally. At Arthurs, which also meant at Lance’s. “I’ll...um, I’ll think about it.” he said, then went up to his room.

He turned on his radio, and attempted to drown out his thoughts in the techno music.

It’s down to you. It’s down to me. Did you ever think that I’d become someone you’d call YOUR ENEMY

Lewis slammed the radio off and buried his face in his pillow.

A small knock came from the door. “Lewis can I come in?”

He really wanted to say no but…”Come in.”

Mr. Pepper came through the door. “Lewis are you okay?”

“I’m fine,” he said into his pillow.

“I somehow doubt that very much.” Mr. Pepper sat on the bed next to him. “Is there something going on between you and Arthur?”

“No.”

“You and Lance?” The full body shudder gave it away. “Do you want to talk about it?”

Lewis sighed and propped his head up. He probably had to say something at this point. “I knew Lance, before. We were in the same class in school.”

“You were classmates?” Mr Pepper prodded gently.

A part of Lewis wanted to leave it at that, but he knew if he did they’d never understand. “He was my best friend.”

“And now suddenly he’s in his forties and raising a kid the same age as you.” Mr. Pepper deduced. “And it’s awkward.”

Lewis nodded. That was enough to explain it, he didn’t have to say any more. “I blamed him.” The words tumbled from his mouth before he could stop them.

“For-?” Mr. Pepper asked gently. “I thought he’d abandoned me. He talked me into going somewhere I didn’t want to go, then I passed out and when I woke back up he was gone.” And there was no way he was saying that he woke up dead with his body on the floor. “At first I thought he’d gone to get help, so I waited, but he never came back. And I found out I couldn’t leave and I was stuck there alone and I blamed him.”

“Eventually Arthur and Vivi came, and I thought he was Lance after having a growth spurt and I was so mad that he’d left me trapped for long enough to have one and -”

“And you had no idea how much time had really passed.” Mr. Pepper finished.

And I took it out on Arthur and forced him to get involved in a cursed game that’s the reason he’s disabled now. Lewis locked his jaw shut, forbidding those words from passing his lips.

“I was a real assh-a real jerk to him when I ran into him again.” Lewis corrected himself. No cursing where little ears might hear. “I told him I hated him and that it was his fault and he probably hates me now and wishes Arthur wasn’t friends with me.”

Mr. Pepper sighed and ran his fingers through Lewis’s hair. “Lewis, I can guarantee Lance doesn’t hate you.”

“You don’t know that.” Lewis muttered.

“I do. Because he was also trying to adopt you, though the courts ruled in our favor. They do tend to prefer couples over single parents.” Also it was thought Lance had enough on his plate helping his current kid with a brand new disability. “And when they did Lance visited us and told us in no uncertain terms what would happen if we mistreated you and that he would be watching.”

“He threatened you?” Lewis asked aghast.

Mr. Pepper nodded. “I’ve heard some stories about the woman who ran a foster home here in the nineties, so I can’t blame him. But it’s obvious he still cares very deeply for you.”

“He shouldn’t. I was horrible to him. And to Arthur when I thought he was him.”

“Lewis, Lance is an adult. More to the point he’s an adult who raised a kid who had every reason to be very angry at the world. You think he’s never seen that kind of behavior before? You think Arthur never lashed out at him over his own hurts?”

“Arthur loves Lance!” Lewis argued.

“And so do you. Deep down you still think of him as your friend, otherwise you wouldn’t be feeling so guilty about being angry at him. Likewise, while he can’t be the friend he was to you, he still remembers you as his best friend. And probably feels just as guilty.”

“If Arthur hadn’t found me, he’d still have both arms.”

“And if Lance truly felt you were responsible for that, believe me, we’d all know.” Mr. Pepper chuckled. “Ask Arthur what happened the last time a kid bullied him for being an orphan. Lance is highly protective over him. Which means he doesn’t see you as a threat to Arthur, and considering along with Vivi, Arthur considers you his best friend, I don’t think Arthur blames you either.”

“He should.” Lewis muttered into his pillow.

“Lewis, I think the only one blaming you here is you. You have new friends and an old friend who still cares for you very much. That being said, it’s alright if you’re not ready to face Lance or your past together. You’ve had to process a lot in a very short amount of time. You can take your time.”

Time. Something Lewis didn’t have the best relationship with. Still, now with the game behind him. He could take it at the normal rate. “Thanks Dad.”

Mr. Pepper smiled brightly at the title. “You’re welcome son.”

[kirinda-ondo]

⚡️ Tomor?

Ah, Tomor, my favorite chucklefuck~

1. Tomor, like his friends, was also originally going to be a girl (do not ask me why this keeps happening I have no idea), but this lasted for all of about like 2.5 drawings before he decided "fuck that actually." That said, his personality and design were virtually unchanged, as someone who was kind of a rough, but well-meaning jerk (as a kid, anyway. He's much more of a jerk nowadays lmao). I ended up introducing him into OC plots way late in the game, but he's actually existed since pretty early on, with only the vaguest references being made to him because I didn't want to fully commit to an entire OC yet.

2. I named him Tomor after the Albanian god, Baba Tomor (or Father Tomor). Unlike his friends, however, he has no real connection to the deity he was named after, and the name was mostly picked for vibes. Vibes, and the fact that like how his namesake is the father of all gods, our Tomor is kind of the origin of everyone else's brain problems (minus Cayenne) without necessarily meaning to be. He was actually the first one to incorrectly assume Bragi's intentions, which then led to the horrible miscommunication that ended up fucking up both Bragi and Aneas up for most of their lives, and was the one that made the half-hearted suggestion for Aneas to stick his name in the lottery to become basically a minor god. ("Haha the chances are so unlikely but wouldn't it be funny if you won?" He did win and it was not nearly as funny as either of them thought--)

3. He has a really immature personality, and even more immature sense of humor, believing peanus weenus is the height of all comedy, but he's actually surprisingly far more intelligent than even he gives himself credit for. He enjoys books and is actually very well-read, on top of being generally clever and and good at seeing through other people's bullshit. He just never bothered to apply himself and instead uses his brain power for shitty jokes and being kind of a bully, whoops. He's very much based on the kind of asshole I was when I was like.... 12-13 lmao.

4. Despite his overall chill, "whatever" kind of demeanor, he's surprisingly conservative and judgemental. He has some old-fashioned and very rigid ideas of how he thinks things should be, and does not approve of his friends' far more unconventional life choices (like marrying a demon, or being so buddy-buddy with mortals). He's also the sort of person who's very much stuck in the past and wants to refit things to the way they used to be without accepting or understanding that people can in fact change and want different things at different points in time.

5. He can take insults and teasing just as well as he dishes them out, so it takes a lot to really get under his skin, but he has one major weakness and that is a horrible alien girl belonging to my other friend. She's the type of person that likes to be the most tragic person in the room because she loves the attention. He knows she's not even half as tragic as she claims and thus roasts the shit out of her, which then feeds into her victim complex, which then feeds into him wanting to roast her more, and it's kind of a horrible dynamic between horrible people but he's kind of into it even if he hasn't quite figured it out himself (and even if it goes against his staunch "don't get attached to mortals" policy) ajksfdklskjlf. Will this change his views any, or will he find a way to justify it? Absolutely yet to be seen lmao.

[skys-unused-main]

Next gen character Christmas headcanons:

That I spent entirely too much time on

The whole extended Weasley family meets at the burrow

this includes the Lovegoods, the Longbottoms (Neville, Hannah, Frank, and Alice (Frank and Alice are twins)), the Dursley’s (Dudley’s daughter Dawn is a witch), the Malfoy’s, Arron Finnigan Thomas (she’s friends with Roxanne and Frank’s girlfriend), Eliza and Liam Flint-Wood (Eliza is Roxanne’s friend and Liam is friends with James and Fred’s boyfriend), Raymond ‘Ray’ Nott (Roxanne’s boyfriend), Brooklyn Walters (Dominique’s muggle girlfriend who knows about magic), and May Harris (Lily’s girlfriend) sorry about all my OCs but I had to say who they are

The kids have a huge snowball fight

They all build snow forts and divid into teams

Albus, Scorpius, Rose, Dawn, Molly, Brook, and Dominique’s team almost always wins

James who like his name sake has been trying to get his crush to go out with him since first year asks out Eliza Flintwood and she throws snow in his face but later kisses him under the mistletoe

Albus and Scorpius cuddle by the fire while drinking hot coco

And Hugo keeps saying their dating even though they keep saying they’re just friends

James, Liam, Fred, and Frank live up to their title as this generations pranksters and switch out the nutmeg with Cayenne pepper which definitely does not taste good on egg nog

Lily hangs mistletoe everywhere and enchantes it so if two people are under it they have to kiss

Ron is highly amused when Draco and Harry get caught

Dominique and Molly teach Brooklyn how to catch gnomes so they can stun one for the tree

Mrs. Weasley made a sweater for everyone and they are all wearing them she did however refuse to for fill Charlie’s request for her to make one for a dragon

Hugo, Lorcan, Lysander, and Louis sneak down to the muggle village and cut down a tree and tell everyone it was from a tree stand on the side of the road

George keeps glaring at Ray and Liam because he ‘isn’t sure is her trusts them dating his kids’ and Angelina tells him to ‘shut up and trust their kids chose well’

Dawn keeps having to explain magic stuff to her parents who don’t understand why the plant in the corner of the yard tries to attack people and why the dishes wash themselves

Victoire, Teddy, and Lucy have to stop Lily from going sledding off the roof and trying to use a cushioning charm teddy didn’t actually help he thought it would be fun

They had an adults vs kids quidditch match

The adults won and Dominique said it was unfair because the adults has 3 pro players (Ginny, Marcus, and Oliver) and 2 that could have gone pro (Harry and Charlie)

James jokingly sent an invite and sweater to Mcgonagall because she’s basically family and was shocked when she showed up

Lily greatly enjoys making gagging noises and pretending to vomit when ever Hugo and Lorcan are being too affectionate

Louis almost broke his neck trying to get a quaffle that got stuck in a tree and Lorcan, Hugo, and Lysander just watched and quietly made jokes about how he should use magic

For secret Santa Ron got Harry and got him a pigeon since Albus told him Harry’s scared of them Harry was not amused

Thanks for reading this I enjoy writing it. If anyone wants to know more about my OCs just ask!