#and there’s a section where I can write lil snippets of OC stuff

[area51-escapee]

Brainrot so severe I gave a pair of my oc’s one of those cutesy shipping names that would trip up someone not familiar with them just because it fit them so well I start giggling and kicking my feet when I think about it

[mallowstep]

I’m thinking about writing a short OC piece about Windclan and I’d love to see your notes about its culture and the hymns you’ve written so far, everything you’ve done for Windclan appreciation month has really inspired me :)

hello anon!

alright, first things first: please send me ur piece when ur done if you're comfortable doing so! i will publish it from you, or if you don't want to be associated with it in Any Way, i will also just read it and add it to the queue with no indication why it's there. or if you don't want me to share it at all, i'd still like to read it.

as for your ask,

hymns?

i'm working on it. however, underneath the read more, i'll include a few snippets for u.

culture

alright, i'm just going to post links with some commentary as i go. feel free to ask any more questions you have.

windclan (search) | windclan (tag) | wcam tag | five clans (narrative essays)

i would link the elders den, but there's no windclan stories in there ATM.

moving on, i'm just going to go through posts in reverse chronological order.

tallstar taking a mate admittedly, this is more about cats and sexuality than windclan, but i provide the commentary that windclan...has a particular view on sexuality and fluidity. one thing i haven't explored but should is the role visiting cats have in windclan.

whoops that's a code word, my plug for solacefruit has been activated. okay, as you may be aware, based on the fact that i have a whole tag for it, i'm obsessed with solacefruit. now, i love everything they do, but i would like to point you particularly to "make a mighty sound" for a fantastic exploration of this idea.

i don't want to spoil anything, but i do think windclan, and maybe cats as a whole, but windclan has a certain view towards relationships that very much breaks them into pieces. i'm a "love is a verb" person, so the idea that you can grow to love someone romantically by going through the actions of love makes sense. not to say you will, but you can.

(to be clear i'm not out advocating for arranged marriages just saying that they can work, they're not destined to be bad, and there's a difference between forced marriage and arranged marriage.)

anyway.

this was a lot of words to say, cats do not have a human (and particularly, western/american) understanding of relationships, which makes analyzing them in those terms difficult.

early hymn talk i'll probably say more below, but it is here.

general ibtwicm notes might get you into the headspace for some of my choices in ibtwicm.

i don't have a ton to say because this pretty much all holds, but uh, yeah.

poetry and language this isn't strictly about windclan, but it does explain some of what i think about when writing hymns.

obviously, i'm writing english translations, but these general themes are what i have in mind. it's also part of why i say i don't think i'll ever release a "full hymnal" for windclan, because i don't know if my weak worldbuilding heart could take it if i only had translations.

names part two very much not about windclan, but just some thoughts on names. as i've said before, i support all names and worldbuilding equally, but if you want my thoughts on names, go buckwild.

clan culture fic rec list just stuff i think does a good job, if you want other sources of inspiration.

general clan culture notes this is really old, but it mostly holds.

i've obviously expanded a lot on windclan since i wrote it, so shrug? idk man.

alright, i'm going to move into hymn discussion below the cut, but best of luck! and i hope u have a good time. it makes my brain shut down to read that i inspired you, straight up got brain juice pouring out of my ears, but i'm really, really happy to hear that.

windclan holds a special place in my heart. (i know my oc avatar is from skyclan shhh it's because of the backstory he sees ghosts.) but i grew up in this super sporty household as a lil asthmatic klutz, and running was a sport i couldn't mess up, so of course windclan appealed to me.

they're actually third on my list of favorite clans, but they. it's a special place in my heart that they hold, especially after reading dawn of the clans and moth flight's vision, where i got an asthmatic cat and an adhd cat, both in windclan.

god i should reread dotc it's good.

alright, here's the deal on hymns: i am not going to fight to get duets to post correctly. there's a 0% chance i can in tumblr's wonky ass new editor with no markdown, not to mention how difficult it would have been in the old editor. so i'm going to talk a lil about what i've got, and post some stanzas that i think don't get explored a lot in ibtwicm.

we're discussing these in the order that they go in. a reminder that these are all sections of one epic poem. that said, i don't know where the gaps are. like, i don't know what's between these, if that makes sense.

the wind

the wind, the very first hymn. this is an ode to, well, windclan. it's a song about everything that makes them them. it's filled with poetry about the wind, about the seasons, and it's just...well, it's a bit of a genesis, in a way.

The wind — like the rain, like the river — calls the name of each star in its breath. The wind — like the earth, like the stone — anchors us to our home. The wind — like the sun, like the sky — is knowable only by name.

i wanted to share this stanza because the last line doesn't show up in ibtwicm (at least so far, i cut the reference), and it really, really, makes a difference imo.

anyway, windclan is basically tying the wind in with every other fundamental part of their life here.

they are the wind, and that's that.

the hare

okay, this one has a line that comes up a lot in ch1, but i already talked about that, so instead, i'm going to talk about this stanza

Speak of the earth and the dens, and you will be answered: By the call of the howling gales, the open earth singing in response. But speak of that which grows above, of the grass and field, And you will be answered by the softness of the buds and the roots.

okay, we get deadfoot thinking about this when he's talking to yellowfang.

i like this stanza because it really tells us what the hare is about. now, hares are not something windclan catches. hares are huge, y'all, there's no way they take one down. i take liberties with ecology, but not that many.

(i.e., a team of cats definitely could take one down, but i know too much, and would prefer letting team hunting stay a plot thing, and not fundamentally alter the environment in the way it would.)

now anyway, all of these hymns come from the time of the tunnelers. and the point of this is, even though the work of tunnelers and moor runners is disconnected, they fundamentally affect each other.

a moor runner must trust the hollows of the earth beneath them won't collapse, and a tunneler must trust that the prey they chase up will be caught.

it's all very symbiotic and is, well, in a way, a love poem. plus i really like the line "the open earth singing in response"

of the warrens

so this has one line, one you might not even know is a hymn, in ch1, but i'll share the whole stanza.

And as for the subject of fallow fields: Fallowed fields make for hungry prey, Yet hungry prey makes desperate rabbits, Who leap into our claws.

and ig my big point is, the hymns are a cultural artifact. just like many of the rules in the old testament have to do with hygiene things being codified into religion, this whole hymn is about hunting advice.

the moon on the river

okay, out of all the hymns, this is the most complete, and because ashfoot and deadfoot sing it together, and deadfoot discusses it, i only have one stanza to share.

Under the coldness, you shine back at me, And I do everything to keep the clouds from threatening you.

now, this poem is about love, grief, and being separated. it's a particular kind of grief, and windclan discourages grief, so this is one of only a few ways to really, fully express it.

and this section, in particular, is about love in times of hardship.

i don't have. a lot to say here. but the way hardship changes how you love someone can be particular and intense.

(temporarily, this happens sometime before "Spare for my chosen few / All I have is given towards the distant ground.")

the gorse in the wind

oh shit! i have so fucking much to say okay first.

the series title does not come from this hymn.

second, this is a challenging hymn okay. fuck. i have so much to say. where to start so! moors are actually relatively wet. think british countryside, not, like, a cool desert.

this is something i always knew? i read the secret garden a lot as a kid. but. i've seen stuff about moors being dry, and it's just one of those things that really...starts to eat under your skin. anyway.

okay, so. gorse is a dry plant. it does not like rain. it grows in sandy soil, etc etc, and yet. aside from everything we know about gorse and warriors, it also grows in this moor. because i say so.

okay, so. so so so. the lines quotes here are really deceptive, and i bet no one understood why, and that makes me just a little sad, but i couldn't find a good way to explain it in text, so uh, yeah, anyway. there's an exchange between ashfoot and deadfoot: "THE GORSE: You called me the heather and I grew stronger. / THE WIND: I called you the heather and brought rain for you to grow."

so...so do you see? do you see the point? it's about communication, needs, challenging each other. fadskj;l i love this. okay, so. the point is that heather is fragile, soft, pretty, and gorse is the opposite. the part of the wind is trying to be kind and complimentary, but the gorse is saying, fuck that, you are not being kind to me by undercutting my strength.

anyway, this passage is sung by the gorse:

In what good company have I set down roots, That even through snow fall I flower. You called me the heather and yet I've weathered, Far more than your sweet-named love.

so uh, yeah, this adds context. gorse! gorse is a hardy plant that continues to flower basically all season round. it's cool. it's cool. gorse is super cool. fuuuck y'all it's such a small thing and i've contained talking about it until now, but now it's too much. the floodgates are open, and i thought about this small detail too much.

okay. deep breath. gorse is a really easy plant to grow, but it's still adapted for dry environments. so the "even through snow fall I flower" part is a little tongue in cheek: gorse itself will flower in the cold, but snow is a type of precipitation, which as we've covered, is not gorse friendly.

then we have some rhyming and puns in the next line, and finally, "yet I've weathered, / Far more than your sweet-named love." like. yes. love as a form of softness is not necessarily helpful.

i mean, consider the damaging "soft trans boi" problem. same energy.

right. okay. so we've got all that? now if you remember, this is sung when deadfoot thinks ashpaw doesn't respect him, and ashpaw says she'll sing with him if she can sing the gorse, so in essence, she's telling him...not to back off, per se, but that...she is the "hard part" of the relationship. like, okay, i refuse to even bring up gender roles in human relationships, but uh, her point is very much, "i am the gorse, and you are the wind," and it's a very monumental moment.

it's anchored, i believe, in the other scenes, but this is a small thing that matters a lot to me.

like a lot.

okay, now that i've talked about like four lines for the length of this entire post, moving on.

the heather and earth

okay, this is the last hymn i have in concrete terms, and i cut a bit of it from the latest chapter, so yeah. it's also, uh, okay everything i have for it is only a line or two, but i wanted to share this closing line (sung together):

Sing a song of forgiveness, of growing together, and we will make madness, And madness from hence will everything beautiful grow.

and i just like these lines. they got cut, it was initially part of an exchange between ashfoot and deadfoot, but i can't share the part of it they talk about, because i'm reusing it for a later chapter and i'll 100% spoil shit if i try to talk about it.

but these lines? mmm they speak to me.

i don't have a ton to say about them, but i just. i like it.

if we apply the same ecology discussion from the gorse and the wind, we see heather is a plant that grows in acidic, infertile soil, and heath (which is not the same as a heather, but also kind of is) is a defining quality of heathland, which is...i'm not kidding, it's hot discourse about the difference between moorland and heathland.

i'm not getting involved, but my point is, if the gorse in the wind is a hymn about finding a working relationship, about mutual respect, etc., then the heather and earth is a hymn about working well together in a terrible situation.

god.

uh, wow! can you tell i like plants? because while parts of my ecology are dubious (see: everything regarding the rabbits in ch1), the plants part are well thought out. this shit is carefully detailed metaphor.

and that's why i won't be releasing a full hymnal. it's hard to as on top of this as i want to be. i'm not kidding, writing even four lines of a hymn usually takes me about twenty minutes, because i pull up a lot of research about how things work, how they interact with each other, etc., and then there's wordsmithing, cat worldview filter, etc.

but i hope this overview of what i've got is a good insight into my general thoughts. and i will eventually release more and more of the hymns i've got written.

[cassinixii]

Title: There are things you can do, detective, and things you can't. And that's where I come in. || Carousel of Horror: Round II Published: August 22, 2016 | 4:55pm Description:

Title: said by John Reese in POI 1x21, "Many Happy Returns" Tags: #RothensternContests #RothensternRound02 Mod(s): @/clarapond Song of the Round: Sucker for Pain by Lil Wayne, Wiz Khalifa, and Imagine Dragons with Logic & Ty Dolla $ign ft X Ambassadors Song Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-59jGD4WrmE Example Set: http://www.polyvore.com/cgi/set?id=205599146 // TBF Contest Link: ________________________________ Welcome back everyone! Congrats to all the winners of Round I. I've awarded points for everyone that either completed their set requirements, or opted to do everything, but the bonus story. Winners have also been awarded all their points.

As auditions are still open, you can still make shoutouts to make up for lost points. All teams are now open.

Also, as I really want everyone to collaborate and work together in this group, so I'm adding a little feature bit/requirement in the story section. Every round will have your OC's interacting, somehow, with the winning OC of the last round. Every interaction must be discussed with @bloodystilinski, the winner of the last round, as you'll need her approval before doing anything with her character.

The interactions do not have to be full blown conversations, it can be something light like ignoring each in the hallway to a full blown fist fight, whatever works best betwixt your two (or more) characters.

And now, onto Round II. ___ The Estate is having it's first resort activity, a garden party, on par with ones King Louis XIV held at Versailles. Surrounded by bottomless champagne and fine wine, and endless entrees, the guests have all been invited to explore and enjoy the lush and vast gardens of the Rothenstern Estate.

The event was going well, even Rika Rothenstern and Morena showed up to enjoy it, however, midway through, the water in the fountains suddenly turned red. Originally thought to be a prank, a quick examination by some investigators, namely Sasha Jager and DI Theo Thomas, reveal that it's blood. It's species and point of origin, however, yet to be determined.

In the ensuing panic, Theo and Sasha take immediate charge. Directing guests back to their rooms to avoid contaminating the crime scene, or in Sasha's words, getting in the way. A few listen, but of course, many stick around due their nosiness or own investigations.

Scene snippets and stuff from the NPC's: //coming soon// Map of the Estate's Gardens: http://www.polyvore.com/cgi/set?id=205747087 // TBF _________________ Set Requirements: [] at least one picture of your OC in black and white // 5 points [] an outfit your oc would wear (preferably appropriate for a garden party, but not if it doesn't fit your OC's personality) // 5 points [] include a frame // 5 points [] include a picture of a garden (preferably from the Würzburg Residence or the Palace of Versailles) // 5 points [] include a picture of Sasha Jager (Melanie Scrofano) and DI Theo Thomas (Måns Zelmerlöw) // 5 points

Bonus: [] Include 3 featured items // 5 points [] Include a food filler // 5 points

Story Requirements: [] Describe a few of your characters most significant relationships with others present at the estate. Who they hang out with or annoy the most during their stay. Can be either NPC's or other OC's (please include one of them in the bonus story, but it is not required) // 6 points [] How did your react to Sasha and Theo taking charge? // 2 points [] How does your OC interact with Riley Argent (@/bloodystilinski) // 2 points

Bonus: [] write the story // 15 points ____________________________ Total Points Available: 60 Total Points Earned: _____________ Group Members: {please tag everyone in the comments, and I apologize to those who dislike being tagged, but I wanted everyone to participate and work together in this group}

[buskidsburgade]

F and K (back at you!)

F: Share a snippet from one of your favorite dialogue scenes you’ve written and explain why you’re proud of it.

So I spent way too long trying to figure this out and I have two favorites and they’re both May because May is my strength and my everything. 

From Shed Your Shadow, Watch it Rise, 

“The world doesn’t like women who aren’t softand happy,” [May] says. “People, men especially, are going to tell you youranger is ugly. Screw them. They don’t get to decide that. They’ll say yourferal. They’ll say there’s something wrong with you. There. Is. Nothing. Wrong.With. You.”

This just. Is a very important message to me, and writing it in May’s voice, so succinct and powerful and certain, like it made me feel like I drank a redbull or something just writing it. 

From Through Chaos as it Swirls in which Jemma is having a somewhat public anxiety attack and Bobbi and Fitz, trying to help, are not helping. 

“When she says ‘don’t’’, don’t.” May says itcalmly, but her words are made of steel.

“We were just -”

“I was trying to -”

“When she says don’t” May says over them. “Don’t.”

I love this because May protecting any of her kids is life, esp. Jem, but this is also an important line to me because the way Jemma processes emotions (with space) I don’t think is explaiined very well and she just so badly needs someone to be her advocate here and also just we need posters I think of Melinda May saying “When she says don’t, don’t.” I need that poster anyway. 

K: What is the angstiest thing you’ve ever come up with?

Oh my dude, what a dangerous question. I am the Queen of Angst just ask @fitzsimmonsaf what we’ve been talking about tonight. The short answer is you probably don’t want to know, but my headcannons for Jemma’s adolescence are pretty angsty. Putting ‘em below the cut for triggers.

Warnings for oc character death, depression, and suicidal ideation.

Starting with this fic here where she’s in a car accident and her brother dies, I headcannon that she struggled a lot with guilt and depression and did not exactly have a great relationship with her mother for various reasons, all of this culminating in a somewhat intoxicated Bobbi Morse pulling her off a bridge when she’s seventeen (not that Bobbi knows who she is, even when they meet again). 

also that time i decided to start a 10k word fic about a Fitzsimmons baby being born three months premature and emergency c-sections and stuff so keep an eye out for that

Bonus: the real answer to both these questions is the drabble below, which is set in a future @fitzsimmonsaf and I have put so much time into it is essentially it’s own fandom built just for the two of us, but the dialogue put something very important into words for me. 

This features 23-year-old Noah Fitzsimmons and Lily Johnson, Daisy’s telekenetic inhuman daughter, and Noah has inherrited his mother’s struggle with depression. 

…

“No - no!” Lily flicks her wrist and the door slams shut before Noah can slink back out. “You don’t get to run away from me anymore. That’s stopping now.”

She sets her jaw, ready for a fight, but to her surprise, Noah just lets his breath out in a heavy gust and sinks to the floor. After a moment, Lily lets her hand fall and joins him.

“We’re not doing this anymore,” she tells him. “You’re going to talk to me because you’re my best friend. We’re best friends and we talk about everything and whatever is going on in your head right now, I can take it.”

When he stays silent, Lily pokes his shoulder.

“Go on. Tell me something. Anything.”

Noah lets his head fall back against the door with a dull thud.

“I’m tired Lil,” he says quietly, and he sounds it. She’s never heard him sound so weary. “You really want to know what’s going on inside my head? It’s a fight. It’s the same fight, all day long, every day. I get a glass of water and it’s a fight not to drop the glass and pocket a shard. I take a shower and it’s a fight to not want to bash my head against the tiles. And Peggy can hold my hand and Mom can sit up with me all night, but it doesn’t matter because I’m the only one who can fight that battle, and… I just don’t know if I have any more fight left in me.”

Lily wants to wrap her arms around him and anchor him here. She wants to give in to the lump in her throat and cry. She wants to tell him how much losing him would kill her. But he already knows that. So instead she lays her cheek against his shoulder and plays with the curls sticking out from under his baseball cap and says, “then borrow some of mine.”

“What?”

“I’ve got plenty of fight. Too much, Ace would say. Especially when it comes to you. So if I can’t do it for you, borrow my fight and keep going. Take as much as you need, just keep fighting, okay?”

His hand finds hers at his shoulder. “Okay.”