#and I miss writing and game nights

[anxiousbabybird]

Tentatively trying to come back on tumblr, I missed it here and today felt like coming home 💙

[one-of-us-must-be-crazy]

While you'd think the relationship would have moved at a truly glacial pace, once together, it's only eh....five or six months before Samuels comes back to their flat with an actual honest-to-god engagement ring. Logically, they're living together, they've exchanged words of intentions for this to be a long term relationship, so he figures he should do this the proper human way.

Unfortunately, Amanda balks at the concept of being/engaged/ because what the fuck, Chris, (not counting cryo) I haven't known you for a year yet??? Poor thing assumes her distaste is because he grossly misread their situation and his place in her life. She has to stress to him that it's not him, not the color of his blood ("Amy, it's not really blood,") just that its awfully fast. Its enough to calm him down but he's still embarrassed, and then the horror of having to return the ring occurs to him and--

"Why would you return it?"

"You said--"

"Hold on to it, for a little while." She never wanted to be anyone's wife, anyone's mother, anyone's possession...But if anyone on the planet would understand the hesitation she had with commitment, it would be the man she helped carve company logos out his fingerprints.

"Do you mean it?"

It breaks her heart, the way he's beaming at her like she actually accepted instead of requesting an extension, but his sheer /joy/ is infectious. He's like her, so very dry and to the point, their shared sense of humor is subtle, sarcastic, and often dark--yet she cracks, and she's giggling. Samuels can't laugh: almost no synthetic can by design, it's too complex of a biological process to bother mimicking but she knows if he could, he'd be joining her.

He over thinks how long "a while" is and goes through a monthly crisis, takes to carrying the ring in his coat, but never asking out of fear it hasn't been long enough. Amanda finds it there one day about four months later, while looking for a missing key. Christopher finds her sitting on the bedroom floor, glassy eyed, coat over her knees, twisting the ring around (of course it fits perfectly he probably laser measured her hands)

"If...you want, you can keep it on." Amanda nods slowly, the realization of the 'yes' sinking in belatedly she she has to stand shakily to hug him. Tightly.

[thetisming]

im actually really worried that im not that interested in &j anymore like ivd been having a hard time writing about it and talking about it online and i mean i talk about it a lot irl but idk like people have been knowing more than me and im starting to feel so incredibly inferior that it's hard for me to enjoy it

[memento-morri-writes]

badly summarized wip poll tag

I was tagged by the amazing @cherrybombfangirlwrites! Thanks, Anna!!

I'm going to tag @ink-fireplace-coffee @rose-bookblood @aritany @atomatowriter @andromedaexists and also make this an open tag! <3

[ruvviks]

– WIP CHOICE AWARDS.

TAGGED BY: @adelaidedrubman, thank you so much!! TAGGING: @reaperkiller, @aartyom, @swordcoasts, @faarkas, @morvaris, @shellibisshe, @strafethesesinners, @katsigian, @dickytwister, @devilbrakers, @aragorngf, @baldursgate2 and YOU! RULES: make a 24-hour poll with (the names of) your wips, let it run, then write one sentence for every vote the winner received!

[rowanisawriter]

1, 2, 12, 23!

hi bestie thank you!!

answering these weird writer asks here!

1. What font do you write in? Do you actually care or is that just the default setting?

whatever google docs uses! just checked and it's arial lol

2. If you had to give up your keyboard and write your stories exclusively by hand, could you do it? If you already write everything by hand, a) are you a wizard and b) pen or pencil?

i used to write by hand A LOT, i wrote novel length stories when i was a teenager by hand lol like a monster... but when i was pregnant my hands got fucked by carpal tunnel, which still flares randomly 3 years later, so without a keyboard or phone+accessibility keyboard, i wouldn't be able to write at all

12. If a genie offered you three writing wishes, what would they be? Btw if you wish for more wishes the genie turns all your current WIPs into Lorem Ipsum, I don’t make the rules

ummmmm 1) an extra few hours per day that don't exist for anyone else where i can write without anyone bothering me 2) augmented wrists so no more carpal tunnel 3) idk what else to wish for tbh lol maybe a truckload of money so i can quit my job and write for fun full time

23. Describe the physical environment in which you write. Be as detailed as possible. Tell me what’s around you as you work. Paint me a picture.

lol so usually i write on my phone in bed in the literal middle of the night when everyones asleep and no one is talking to me (the joys of parenthood). cat usually asleep at my feet, purring mixing with the sound machine spilling white noise out of baby's room, everything dark and quiet.

[yo9urt]

local man completely obliterated by strength of narrative and character writing in 2023 game of the year

[misclogarts]

i love how ellie is all "i want to create a world where you and your people can live in peace and safety" to miss lightkeeper and then she's all "the entire world can go to hell as long as i can keep you happy" to her like THEY ARE SO IN LOVE I AM ILL. I AM SO ILL.

[thecodeveronica]

You know, I'm gonna justify my decision to replay Code Veronica again rather than any of the many games in my backlog by saying it's research for fic writing

[timelessbian]

i haven't said it in a while bc i haven't written much of anything outside of the height of hyperfixation in like 4 years lmao but my inbox is always open to prompts!! can't promise i'll always fill them, but i'm slooowly dipping my toe back into writing for pleasure again and i'll take any inspo i can get rn lol

[rosesrotofficial]

the boss respawns like a familiar friend

it's my birthday today and all i can think about is dying mmo's that I used to play with my friends and we'd gather round the pixellated flames, sing a celebration, go on quests, speedrun bosses, grind for the 0.1% drop i wanted and that'd be my birthday gift.

i logged in today again and everything is dead: the pixel flames and pixel bosses are there but my friend list says "0 online". i grind out a boss kill and wait for a 0.1% drop I already have. the lands are barren. the boss respawns. i kill it again.

it's dying, not dead. the boss respawns: i kill it again. maybe they'll come back someday. the boss respawns: i kill it again. but i've moved on from this virtual wasteland: i'm only back for nostalgia's sake. 

i wonder where they are. i hope they're okay. happy birthday.

[aftonenterprise-moved]

remember when matpat was like "BY THE AMOUNT OF MINIMUM WAGE MIKE IS MAKING WE CAN DEDUCE THIS GAME TAKES PLACE IN 1987" youre fucking INSANE dude. THE CHECK LITERALLY SAID "20XX" ON IT

[chocolix76]

I really miss base game Sun and Moon. Base game Sun and Moon my loves I'm so sorry for abandoning you

[tokyocyborg]

Trista Mateer, Honeybee Poems

[savrenim]

trying to decide whether or not given the Potentially Imminent Collapse Of Tumblr I do what apparently a whole bunch of writers I know are doing and Make A Personal Public Discord

[loregoddess]

Frederica Aesfrost or Cordelia Glenbrook for the ask game?

Oh, I'll do both, they're both great!

First impression: For Frederica, it was something along the lines of "Oh, she seems cool, I bet I'll like her" when I was watching the early trailers. For Cordelia, after meeting her for the first time in the game I didn't...actually have much of an impression of her, she seemed very bland "youngest sister, most gentle-hearted princess" and nothing more (I was very wrong).

Impression now: Love them both lots! Frederica went well beyond whatever I was expecting of her characterization, she's really interesting and I love how she comes into her own and really starts standing up for herself and her ideals as the story progresses. And I was SO wrong about Cordelia, she's literally one of the most interesting and complex characters in a "royalty" role I've ever come across in fiction, and I love her so much for it. She's got an incredibly strong will, she's very intelligent, and she was actually shaping up to be a really extraordinary leader. I'm sad she gets sidelined in the story as soon as Roland's able to reclaim Glenbrook Castle, because she had all this budding potential to be one hell of a powerhouse of a character.

Favorite moment: Hmm, it's been a hot minute since I played TriStrat, so my memory of the story isn't as sharp, but I really enjoyed the scenes where Frederica fights against Thalas and Erika (in her route of Ch13, "Born of Strife and Sadness" specifically, although her battle dialogue with them in Roland's version "Time to Say Goodbye" is good as well). It marks an interesting turning point in her character growth, and it was really nice to see her finally oppose them without fear.

For Cordelia, I'd...have a harder time combing the wiki for the specific chapter, but all of her cutscenes from her father's death to Ch13, where we get to see how she starts to come up with a plan to retake Glenbrook, and how she's able to inspire Avlora to her side, those were really interesting scenes, and I had a new appreciation for her character after watching them because I simply wasn't expecting her to deal with the grief of loosing her entire family (as she didn't know Roland was still alive at this time) to be "well, I'm the only one left and I am Not going to take this lying down, I will be queen of my people in my own right". Just, mm, really interesting character growth, I would have loved to see the type of leader she would have become if things had gone differently.

Idea for a story: Well, I'm always interesting in post-game type narratives that explore how the characters and world begin to heal after all is said and done, and I think that type of story would be really interesting to explore for both Frederica and Cordelia, but in different ways. For Frederica, exploring how her life as the official Lady Wolffort is, and what work she does to help the Rosellen people after the war while also balancing her new married life would be really interesting.

For Cordelia, I think there's a lot of potential to explore the intricacies and power dynamics behind the scenes of Glenbrook's restoration, as I'm sure she ends up doing a lot of work to help Roland even if she isn't the official ruler (again, all that potential she showed as a leader, you can't tell me she doesn't take up some sort of important position in helping to lead the country)--all this while she also settles in to learning that Serenoa is her half-brother (I like to think she learns that at some point), and her life with Avlora as her knight, and just, stuff in general for her since she has a lot to recover from and grieving she can finally go through.

Unpopular opinion: I don't think I have any wildly unpopular opinions about Frederica. For Cordelia, I guess I'm not keen on the Cordelia x Avlora ship, I just...can't see it as romantic (and the age gap doesn't work for me, I'm fairly certain Avlora is in her thirties at the youngest due to in-game dialogue about when Svarog took her in), although I am partial the idea of the platonic knight-liege friendship between the two, but platonic stuff isn't as popular in most fandom spaces.

Favorite relationship: I'm really fond of Frederica's canon romance with Serenoa, like, normally I'm kinda neutral on canon romances, but the way this one was written was so, so good, and I loved seeing her interactions with the other House Wolffort members. I also like her friendship with Geela a lot.

For Cordelia, her familial relationship with Roland is very interesting (somewhat bittersweet at times), and I would have loved to see and know more about her relationship with Frani and their dad. As I mentioned above, I really like her friendship with Avlora, because it was so unexpected but it makes a sort of weird sense. Would have loved to see more of her interactions with the House Wolffort members, and also would have loved to see how she reacts to learning Serenoa is her half-brother and how that shapes her relationship with him and Frederica after the game's events.

Favorite headcanon: Hmmm, I don't have as many headcanons for TriStrat in general but, I guess for Frederica that in Benedict's ending she eventually ends up breaking away from and opposing Serenoa so she can take up defending the Roselle (probably sometime shortly after Benedict's death), and that in the Golden Ending she grows into an excellent leader for both the Wolffort Demense and Roselle people alongside Serenoa, and the two are fondly remembered by their people in histories later on.

For Cordelia, it would be that her capability and tact for government makes her vital to ensuring Roland's rule is successful in the Golden Ending, and also that she eventually becomes very close with Frederica and Serenoa after learning she's related to Serenoa (catching up on family time), enough that if the two ever had kids she'd be the favorite aunt (she'd be their only aunt technically, but she probably spoils them more than Roland would).