#Though super intimidating

[two-reflections]

Writing Audit ✨

...I ended up signing up for the Salamanders Discord writing comp again. Idk why I did this to myself when I'm trying to finish my summer exchange project, but it's max 1500 words per story so I can probably do it in one night if I have to. The goal is for each competitor to create a short anthology of 4 stories in around 4 weeks. Our wider setting is a sector in the far western regions of Ultima Segmentum which is undergoing Ork and Chaos incursions and eventually gets crusaded by the Imperium. I've chosen a feral jungle world as my focus.

I already have ideas for the first story involving DAOT Archaeotech, feral Orks in limestone karst caves, and a Thousand Sons-affiliated exploratory force made up of non-marine sorcerors seeking out psychoactive plants for a particular Exalted Sorceror back on Sortiarius. (IYKYK) I'm planning for some background necron action too... But very much "blink and you'll miss it" for now.

I'll mainly be going for worldbuilding, focusing on how the planet changed over time. My hope is to bring the Salamanders in later once we hit the Crusade part of the story.

At least I can talk about this comp here, unlike my summer exchange work! Those ones are coming along bit by bit. I'm still a bit worried whether I'll manage to finish them, but since I pivoted to writing two pieces instead of one, it seems much more likely now. I know that sounds weird, but it'll make sense later.

List of my current projects under the Read More.

Summer Exchange Fic 1 - >500 words with no max, MUST be complete by August 11. Currently just over 500, expecting it to end up around 1500 words. Contains smut.

Salamanders Writing Comp - Part 1/4 due on August 8. 1500>[story]>800 words.

Summer Exchange Fic 2 - same rules and recip but expecting it to be around 10k words. Posting as a treat so I can upload unfinished chapters after the fact. Does not contain smut but IMO is the better story.

Salamander Slice of Life/Romance - been looking at this again, finally. I've been linking sections, hard but fun work. Need to add proper chapter divisions though, because certain sections are like 10k+ words long.

[Freelance project I'm considering picking up.] - Good for money, but would slow down all my other writing. Need to decide tonight, will probably start on this after August 15th

Of Steel and Flesh - Next chapter needs a lot of work, as most of them do considering they were written in Jan-Feb. I'd like to upload a chapter in August. It probably won't happen until much later in the month.

Adathan and Julen Sequel - Blood Angel/Imperial Fist Deathwatch smut. I did start writing this but I'm feeling a bit uninspired when it comes to smut at the moment. Need the right mood to hit me.

Techmarine university story - haven't worked in this in ages. Definitely on the back burner until after the exchange deadline, possibly until after the Salamanders comp too.

MMM August fic - this one's going to have to wait a few weeks, I'm absolutely swamped in other stuff.

Noise Marine This Is Spinal Tap parody - Look, it was a great idea, but I don't think I'm going to get this treat done before the exchange. So I'm posting it here. Please steal my idea, there is such a great prompt for it on the exchange.

[beatcroc]

there's no way the bathroom at peppino's pizza is actually that big but ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ . hey ummm anyway.... i care them...... anyway there's a lil ramble on my take on fake pep's like psyche or whatever in tags on the og post if ur into that kinda thing :y

hey! it's a series! fake peppino world tour: [noise] [noisette] [peppino]<- u are here [gustavo] [gerome] [noisette again]

[devilcatdarling]

I love it when ppl portray Hollow as the most touch starved depressive mess of a character with the biggest sweetheart energy and protective behavior over their siblings

...while simultaneously making them an absolute force of eldritch horror complete with claws, fangs, and all kinds of scary void creature fuel

They're horrifying when you gaze upon them and then just

Hornet: "This is my sibling. They want the Happy Meal with the pink stuffed kitten toy, please"

Hollow standing like a nightmare giraffe in the corner of the store nervously picking at their cloak as Hornet demands ransom in the price of one pink stuffed kitten toy

That's the good shit right there

[aroaceleovaldez]

finally finished my project of collecting voiceclaims that are as close as i can find for my hcs of the main HoO cast - just for funsies so it's not as perfect as I'd like but whatever, it was a neat exploration and exercise of me trying to think of literally any franchise for voice actors.

Leo got two cause I had trouble of finding good clips for the voiceclaim that's closers to my hcs for him (the second half of his section). Also got to play the fun game of digging through my art for decent doodles of each character.

Also fun fact, I am almost completely unfamiliar with 3 franchises in this video and was just digging for voice clips on youtube. Try to guess which ones.

[feroluce]

Thinking tonight about Caelus, and the nature of his loss and his grief after the Everything that went down in Penacony during 2.0.

Because Acheron, Black Swan, and Misha kind of knew of Firefly, they at least met her, but they didn't like really know her, and Caelus never even got the chance to introduce her to the rest of the Astral Express Crew. The only person who would have talked to her much was Sparkle, who is. Probably not really someone Caelus is interested in grieving with skznmsks

Anyway, all this to say, I like thinking about how alone poor Caelus is in his grief, because he was the only one who knew Firefly. He's the only one really mourning her. There's no one to talk about her with. There's no stories to trade or memories to reminisce with anyone over. It's not as though he knew her for long, but still. No one else knew her at all.

And I love the thought of all of this coming bubbling up, hot and acidic and bitter, during a conversation with Sampo, who Caelus just so happens to run into in the Golden Hour. Poor Sampo is kinda blindsided, he knew shit was going down in Penacony, but yeesh. And he just. Isn't quite sure what to say about it all, because he's never really encountered this before. His feelings about the Masked Fools are...a mixed bag, but he's been a part of them for a very long time, and when you're with a close organization like that, it's hard to feel alone, in grief or otherwise.

So Sampo sits there on their little bench that the two of them have occupied, and he thinks of his old friend April, how she'd died in his arms cackling and spitting her own blood after a heist gone wrong, and how after he'd dragged himself back to the World's End Tavern they'd all held a Fool's Funeral- which is basically just a big party where everyone gets really really drunk and reminisces and toasts the dead and celebrates their life.

He still thinks about her a lot, and he remembers how the time he'd most keenly felt her absence was on Jarilo-VI, the one place where he couldn't talk about her because he couldn't say anything to give himself away as an alien. The Fools still tell stories about her every time he goes back to the Tavern. His first toast of the night is always in her name. Even now, all these years after she'd died, Sampo is still learning new things about her. He's never had to grieve her alone.

Caelus doesn't have any of that.

He might never have that. As they speak, Caelus has no proof that Firefly was even her real name, or if she dreamt with her true appearance. He might not ever find out who she even was.

And just imagining that kind of loneliness hollows out a strange little pit, right behind his sternum, deep between his ribs.

So Sampo claps Caelus' shoulder and offers him a deal. Come find him outside of the dream. He knows a guy who can get them a lot of beer for really cheap-

("Is that guy you and your five finger discounts?" "Whatever do you mean, dear friend, I don't even know the meaning of the phrase, hehee.")

-and they can hole up in a bar or a hotel room or something, and get completely shitcanned. Tell him all about Firefly, tell him everything, and he'll tell Caelus about April and everyone else he's ever lost. Sampo will carry Caelus' memories of Firefly with him, and at least this way, Caelus will be a little less alone in remembering her. And the next time they cross paths, Sampo will be the one to bring her up, and to tell her stories, and Caelus can get to be the one listening. He won't have to be the only person to talk about her anymore.

Caelus rolls his eyes when Sampo avoids another remark about sticky fingers, but...ok, yeah. That sounds good. Nice, even. Thank you. Caelus bumps his shoulder against Sampo's. Sampo bumps back.

(They find each other again the next day, and true to their word, get themselves completely and utterly shitcanned. Caelus talks more than Sampo has ever heard him; every minute detail, every word choice, Firefly's every odd little mannerism and habit. Because Caelus wants to make sure this will outlive him, that even if the Stellaron dwelling within him finally burns him to a crisp and he really does up and kick the bucket, or even, godforbid, if he forgets, he wants to make sure someone remembers her. She deserved that.)

((And it takes quite a while, after that. Caelus doesn't see Sampo again until after everything has settled down. On his last day in Penacony, he finds the guy slinking out of a seedy back alley and all but runs right into him. Sampo happily leads him to some dive bar in an even seedier back alley that Caelus has never even heard of, and Sampo raises his glass. "To Firefly! Who sounds like she probably would have hated me at first, but I would have liked to have met her anyway."

And Caelus stares at him, almost looking startled, long enough that Sampo worries that he's read him wrong and brought this up too soon. He's halfway into planning how to talk himself out of this situation when Caelus finally throws back his head back and laughs, tells him that yeah, Firefly would have politely called him out on every lie he told, and all their conversations would take twice as long with the way Sampo is so full of shit.

And he can see it, the same way he watches and sees through everyone, that Caelus' eyes have a tightness to them, his knuckles are nearly white around the handle of his mug. But he smiles. He hits his glass against Sampo's far too hard and throws it back and gets foam everywhere like he does every time they drink because the guy's about as elegant as a raging bull, but those things don't lessen the genuineness of his smile.

The grief is there, but so is the elation, and those emotions aren't a sliding scale between one or the other. It is all of both and both at once, and that's what contents Sampo enough to throw his own mug back when Caelus makes a toast of his own, "to April!!".))

[desertduality]

Made this for myself so I could make sure things matched up when writing the next chapters but I thought I’d put it here in case anyone was interested :]

[witsserviceablesubstitute]

Do you ever wonder what it'll be like to see Lanfear, Moghedien, and Graendal in the same shot? Beautiful evil ladies, the most powerful villains of their Age.

But also a Ride or Die romantic (stalker) in love with every iteration of the same man, an obsessive submissive lesbian with a giant crush (failgirl), and the ultimate bisexual Pleasure Domme of Moghedien's dreams (who's only terrifyingly focused and competent when a bit bored of languishing).

[genekies]

tag vent

[noctisvixen]

I'm debating if I want to get into writing Hermitcraft fics to post on AO3.

Like, I write Hermitcraft fics for myself, they're super unpolished and 90% are abandoned because I know I don't have to finish them and I wanna do a different prompt. Though 7/10, I return to the older ones to add a little more to it because *brain rot*.

But like... What if I did write with the intention to post?? I have AUs that are story exclusive, where they aren't flippin animals. It'd be fun and then at least my AO3 account wouldn't just be blank.

[not-poignant]

The question 'which of my original stories is least likely to be booted from a distributor (like Amazon) for its highly questionable content' is like...a tough one, because I inevitably end up with something like 'oh what about The Wildness Within? That's pretty tame and- OH THE INCEST' and it's like...

Oof okay try again.

[v-anrouge]

was that selfish of me to do

[heartbeetz]

I NEED to get back into oc f/os. I just remembered my old casino themed anthro shark guy. He never got a solid enough ref sheet (or lore, really) for me to feel comfortable making him one of my f/os but maybe I should remedy that at some point. Big Jack.........

[dandyshucks]

please excuse the weird amount of blank space but tumblr's image cropping is conspiring against me

ANYWAYS YAY WOMEN - silly Plumes sketches bc I haven't drawn her very much and she's such a cool character !!! i was originally just going to do a couple headshots but then i just ... kept going w the first LOL

junebug would be super intimidated by her at first, but slowly over time they'd be able to be more normal around her LOL I don't think they ever get over their intimidation and awe entirely but that's alright fhdsgjkl

[b-blushes]

we did it! we made it through saturday! i'm really proud of thinking of drawing in my sketchbook and listening to a podcast while i was waiting for my rescheduled messed up appointment because to be honest i was Doing Bad and like. that was such a positive choice to make and i felt better! good job to me!

[cacklingstranger]

Suletta: *timidly does something brave*

[shadowglens]

cress is overall a very intimidating and intense person, and yet also often finds herself prone to being manipulated