#and yeah I have an outline but that's just the broad strokes

[amtrak12]

Someone remind me not to make decisions when I’m still catching up on sleep because I’ve spent 6 months writing this Lucifer fic in an echo chamber and I’m severely tempted to say fuck it and release chapter 1 into the wild.

[rodolfoparras]

I NEED Prices old man pussy on my face right now😩😩🤤🤤

- 🔪

It was a stupid idea but it was an idea nonetheless, having price sit on your face while fully clothed to prove he wouldn’t crush you with his weight.

It must’ve been one two or three too many drinks when you’d asked Price to sit on your face, which he’d only responded with a look as if you had killed someone right in front of him, which was ironic since that was what he did for living.

However he’d been quick to explain that he was too heavy, that he was bound to crush you with his weight and that you should just do things your usually way, with him spread out on your sheets and with you buried between his thighs.

Any other day you’d take him up on his offer but by that point you’d long forgotten about the act itself, too focused on the way he sees himself so being the person that you are with one too many drinks in your system you’d have him put his weight on your chest whilst the both of you were fully clothed just to prove that you could take it.

So here he is, with his weight pushing down on your chest, calves pressing at the side of your ribs and his hands fumbling around on your pecs to adjust himself

“See, told you that you had nothing to worry about,” you slurre out, bleary eyed and mindlessly caressing his thighs.

However he doesn’t respond, eyes looking anywhere else with his teeth sinking into his bottom lip, hands nervously fiddling on your chest.

“Hey, hey, we don’t have to do anything alright?” You say, snapping out of your drunken demeanor for a second “just wanted to show you I’m stronger than you think old man, you have nothing to worry about” you say, words coated in liquor as you flash him a reassuring smile.

“It’s not that” he croaks out, adam's Apple bobbing as he swallow hard, thighs squeezing the side of your ribs.

That’s when you finally get a whiff of his musky scent, eyes automatically falling to the spot between his legs, noticing the way the fabric outlines his cunt, with a small wet patch prominently showing on it.

“You- you aren’t wearing any underwear”

He doesn’t turn to meet your gaze but from where you lay you can see his face turn red, can hear the shaky breath escaping his lips, hands flailing in the air to explain himself. “I’m sorry I usually go commando -“

“Fuck it’s okay” you croak trying to ignore the way your cock twitches at the sight” it’s alright just - just relax yeah?” You say, your own hands shaking where they rest on his legs, as your pulse sounds through your ears. “Do you do you want to uh continue this? We don’t have-“

“I want to,” he says now meeting your gaze, and tone as firm as his words.

“Okay fuck okay” you say, laughing in disbelief and out of excitement, blood pooling to the lower half of your body as you squeeze at his thighs in reassurance.

“You’ll uhm you’ll have to move a bit closer, can’t really reach “ you say feeling heat creep up your own neck, ears and cheeks as the words tumble past your lips.

He doesn’t respond, head ducking down as he shuffles further up your chest.

You reach out with your hands to help him adjust himself so that you now can feel his heat licking at your cheeks, can almost see the way his pubic hair pokes out through the sinfully thin fabric, can almost taste him on your lips.

“Tell - tell me to stop whenever ” you croak out, before you’re cranking your neck up to lick stripe along his clothed cunt.

The slight hitch in his breath and the squeak of the wooden board is all you get in response to your question.

So you deliver another broad stroke and this time you earn a verbal response but instead of telling you to stop, you hear the words “please god please” tumbling past his lips.

And who are you to deny such a sweet request, you think to yourself as you crank your neck, swiping your tongue over his clothed clit and watching the way the fabric darkens more from your spit.

“Fuck” he squeaks put, hips bucking into your touch as he clutches onto the headboard for dear life.

However quickly your neck starts to ache from the awkward angle and you prompt the older man to sit on your face.

That’s when he freezes up again, familiar words slipping past his lips, I’m too heavy, I’ll crush you, but you're quick to shut him down with a slap to his thigh.

“If you think this attests my strength then I’m a little worried for your intelligence captain” you say with a chuckle which only earns you a slap to the head.

“Ouch! Okay I’m sorry” you say through a pained laugh “but really I can handle it”

The last bit of doubt trickles out his eyes, teeth releasing his worried bottom lip as he starts to lower himself down but you stop him with a hand to his hips.

“Clothes” is all you say and you see the look of realization flash across his face before he turns red as he quickly shuffles off his sweats, his lower half completely bare before he’s back to hovering over your face.

He’s about to say something, probably to state his worries once again but before he can do so you’re pulling him down onto your face, with your eager tongue pushing past his slick folds and tonguing his hole.

He doesn’t get a moment to breathe, doesn’t even get a moment to think about the thoughts that worried him previously, complety lost in the sensation of you relentlessly fucking your tongue into him.

It’s almost too much, it becomes too much when your lips mercilessly latch onto his clit, sucking eagerly at the numb til Price is sobbing, sweat trickling down his spine and hips clumsily grinding down onto your tongue.

He doesn’t even comprehend when he had started riding your face, uncaring of anything except for the fact that he’s inching closer to his release.

“Cu-cumming” he manages to squeak out before he comes undone with a cry, body shaking and headboard threatening to break under his hands.

Later when he’s laying on your chest, you got a smug look on your face as you say the words.

“Told you that you had nothing to worry about”

[rexxdjarin]

Open Up

Pairing: Arc Trooper Echo x f!Reader Summary: Echo likes to take things slow and help really open you up.😈 Rating: EXPLICIT 18+ Warnings: Indulgent foreplay with dirty talk and praise and encouragement and sweetness because oh he missed you so💕, fingering, relationship-y? I guess?, he's just so fucking sweet. Word Count: 1k notes: I saw a thing and could not get said thing out of my head and totally imagined echo doing this because he's indulgent and reverent and giving and sexy and we need to all be obsessed with him bc hes adorable. ok thanks :) also I am well aware the gif is TBB echo not arc trooper echo but this gif was too perfect for the scenario so I HAD to.

“C’mon, my sweet girl, open up…let me see you.” Echo coaxed as his hands drew up the soft tops of your wide thighs. You kneeled before him on your bunk sheets, looking up at the unmistakable doting brown eyes of your beloved boyfriend.

His eyes were fixated elsewhere, nudging the hem of your pretty pink lace negligee up just enough to reveal your center. Gloved hands coursed over your dark bare skin, fingertips grazing down your lower belly and leaving goosebumps in their wake. Knowing him, he’d had only one thing on his mind since he’d landed back home for a few weeks, which meant he’d had a lot of time to think about exactly how he wanted you.

Parting your plush lips freshly bitten from passionate yet agonizingly slow kisses, you inhaled a soft gasp. His own drawing into a smug grin as he watched you react to his touch just as strongly as he’d imagined. You looked up at him through lust heavy lids and met his gaze, tracing down your own torso to outline the ghosts of his touches with your own. 

“Oh…Echo-” you practically squeaked, flipping up the dainty fabric to reveal what was between your spread legs. With two deft fingers you eased your outer folds apart and let your hips roll forward enticingly to meet his touch.

“There she is…good girl. Missing me, huh? Need me to take care of you?” Echo muttered, his darkened pupils locked with yours as he slipped off his gloves. One roughened palm massaged your inner thigh, carefully holding you open. He tipped forward to lock his lips with yours just enough to leave you breathless as he let his fingertips drag down your center.

You hummed your soft approval into his kiss, holding yourself open just as his middle finger dipped into your heat. He groaned lowly, breaking away from your mouth to silently curse whatever cruel circumstances or stars or gods would ever have him apart from you. The drenched slick between your thighs coated his single digit as he dragged it reverently along the length of you.

“Oh yeah, you did. Such a good girl with this dripping little pussy. All just cause you missed me. Need me to come home and touch you like this always.” He whispered, slipping in a second finger and using both to glide around the fluttering hole desperate for his entry. You keened for more, letting your hips buck forward into him lazily.

You gripped his wrist with your other hand, urging him for more and riding his fingers needily. “Of course I.. m-missed you, baby. No one else gets to touch me like this. Only you. I need you. Need you m-more.” You whimpered, his gentle stroking along your slippery folds sending shivers down your spine. 

“Awh, pretty baby, just a little more? You’re so fucking sweet. So beautiful opening up and letting me get such a good look at you.” He leaned back, brown eyes devouring the sight of you splayed out so salaciously before him. His gentle caresses quickened, twisting his wrist to allow his fingers to curve in and enter you abruptly.

You cried out sharply as his broad fingers breached your entrance and spread you apart on top of them. It took everything in your power not to snap your hips and ride his perfectly thick fingers the way he knew you wanted to. He craved patience, he wanted to take his time properly fucking the girl he loved and the faster you sped through it the sooner he’d be to leaving again. 

“Thank you…baby. Love it just like this. Take your time. I want you to feel how much I miss you. How wet I get waiting for you to come help me. My Echo.” you moaned softly, earning another weighted groan from him. 

His fingers curled into your front wall, making you buck your hips forward into his palm and brushing your clit just briefly. He chuckled with amusement, letting go of your other thigh to twist the width of his thumb in circles across your clit. You moaned louder, the twisting of his fingers inside combining with his featherlight touches on your clit bringing you rapidly close to your first orgasm. 

“Needy little thing. Stars you’re so tight, so soaked for me. Body looks so fucking good in this too. I want to fuck you so bad, but i’m going to take my time. Going to make this last so you feel the ache of me for days. Would you like that? Want me to fuck you until you’re sore? Tell me, cyar’ika. Let me hear your pretty voice again.” Echo rambled when he was turned on, his brain emptying weeks worth of lewd thoughts to the one person he could indulge in whenever he wanted.

“Yes, Echo. Fuck me. Fuck me, please. I can’t wait any longer for your cock. Now, baby. Please.” You begged, unhinging out of desperation as his endless looping circles had you balanced precariously on the edge. The familiar sizzling that had your body beginning to overheat spread through your limbs, numbing you of any other feeling but his fingers inside you.

“Hmmm my impatient little cyar’ika. I can feel how close you are. You need to let go. Soak my fingers so you can be nice and ready for my cock. I know you can do it. Cum for me, gorgeous. Just for me.” He encouraged, leaning his forehead on yours to watch your face contort in pleasure as the wave finally sucked you under.

With a high pitched whimper you came, fluttering around two of his fingers plunging in and out of your entrance and making a smug, satisfied chuckle rumble deep in his broad chest. A giddy smile drew across his dark features and he’d barely let you catch your breath before he was slicking his cock up with your leaking cum and notching himself at your entrance. “That’s my pretty girl. You ready for more?”

[suzukiblu]

Some polyam Core Four for @never-stop-reading. Specifically of the kinky porn variety 'cuz almost everything else I've got for them is either already posted or still in outline form, hah.

Well, I had some angst, admittedly? But I decided to go with the kinky porn instead, lol.

Kon can fly, so he doesn't really have to weigh all that much. 

So that's how he's currently completely wrapped around Bart and being held up in his arms like he doesn't weigh a thing at all so Bart can fuck him standing. Cassie can fly too, obviously, but she doesn't like being held up like that without an anchor point or any contact with the ground or at least a wall–it makes her feel unbalanced, distracted, vulnerable. 

Kon, apparently, really likes it. 

Well, he was born able to fly, so maybe that's part of that. For her, the ability was a later development. For Kon, it's as natural and normal as walking or running. 

Probably more so, actually. 

And the visual of Kon's whole big broad body being held up in Bart's lithe, narrow arms like that, of him deliberately making the effort to keep himself there, to keep himself on Bart's cock–well, she likes that. 

"Holy Hera," she mutters, and even the direct stimulation of Tim's dick pressing up just-right inside her and his hands on her hips pales a little in comparison to the show. 

Look, she's just the visual type, okay? 

"Don't take this the wrong way, but this feels kinda like I'm just using a toy, not holding a whole person," Bart says distractedly, his voice and hips both practically a blur. Cassie and Tim both bristle reflexively against each other, because that has got to be just about the stupidest possible thing he could've said to–

And Kon–bites his lip, a little, and shudders. 

"A–toy?" he repeats unevenly. 

"Oh," Bart says, freezing in place and then blinking lightning-fast a few dozen times, or maybe just once or twice. It's hard to tell, with Bart. "I mean, not like–well, yeah? I don't mean I think you're not a–" 

"It's okay if you do," Kon blurts, his face flushing. Cassie kind of forgets she was riding Tim's dick and nearly falls off him. Tim nearly falls off the couch, so at least she's not alone there. 

Bart's a lot faster on the uptake than any of the rest of them, though, so he just blinks one more time and then tilts his head. And then, casually–

"You would make a pretty good toy," he says. "We could pass you around a lot easier. And maybe you'd stop running off and getting lost on us all the time, too." 

"Ngh," Kon says, ducking his head as his face gets even redder. 

"I don't really have a toybox, though," Bart says absentmindedly. "Might just have to leave you in the bed when we weren't using you. But then you'd be easy-access anyway, so–"

"Bart," Kon chokes, and Cassie sees the very obvious way his whole body clenches up. 

"That setting's too tight. Go back to the last one," Bart says in that same casual, disaffected tone from before, and Kon makes a strangled noise and visibly forces himself to relax again, just barely trembling. 

"Well, this is a development," Cassie manages, which is more than Tim's apparently got; he's just staring. 

"Kon–" he starts just barely warily, and Kon just shakes his head mutely. 

"The off button's 'friction', if you run out of battery for this," Bart says, stroking up the small of Kon's back. "Got it?" 

Kon nods, snapping his eyes shut, and still doesn't say a word. 

"Good toy," Bart says, and Kon shudders.

[nottskyler]

I’m really disappointed in the amount of history we get in the book of Helaman. I don’t know if it was caused by poor record keeping at the time (mildly supported by Christ telling them to add Samuel the Lamanite’s prophecy to the record) or if Mormon just didn’t think it important (supported by Helaman 3).

Because literally this is a period of time where race is a problem. Helaman 3:1–3 tried to claim there was nothing wrong and then all of a sudden a whole bunch of people who used to be comfortable with the Nephites move north and the majority of these people happen to be descendants of Laman (Helaman 3:12). Hmm, I think someone thought racism wasn’t contention and wasn’t actually a problem. I don’t think large groups suddenly up and migrate for fun. Did the Nephites enact a black priesthood ban or something? We don’t know except for the fact that Samuel the Lamanite’s prophecy was not considered important enough to record.

There is also the prosperity gospel that seemed to be mainstream enough that the record writer first said the Church had pride entering into its heart, only to remember that the organization is made up of people and they were truly the ones culpable (a truth we need in our “corporations are people too” era).

And even though Nephi and Lehi were the prophets and imprisoned, it was the dissenters and the Lamanites preaching to each other and the voice of presumably the Lord. Nephi and Lehi did nothing, which makes me wonder if the Lamanites and Nephite dissenters were the only ones being called to repentance that day. Especially since Nephi and Lehi went home and the Lamanites became more righteous even though the Nephites had their prophets back (because they were rejected by the people up north, you know the people who moved because of racism).

I’m fairly certain I’ve already expressed my disdain for Nephi praying on a public street and prophesying murder and how it doesn’t really feel legit. Also, he only goes on about stop seeking gain over everything else (while he can afford a garden next to a major road in a city) but Samuel goes on more than that and warns them about lifting up false prophets and following them while decrying true prophets as false (though Nephi does not seem to be included in this group so maybe he did repent). Nephi just doesn’t seem like a great prophet because of all these things.

So yeah, the best part of Helaman is always the prophecies of Samuel, but I’m wondering what we could’ve learned if we had better records of race and what actually caused the strife between the former Lamanites and the Nephites. If we were given insight as to what was convincing people to dissent (though most of the time this fact isn’t shared except when they want to have a king; we never learn why Alma the Younger and the sons of Mosiah dissented from the Church even) so we can better relate in our day.

But sometimes we are forced to learn the same lesson because people refuse to admit they had the same problem. We are forced to make mistakes that could’ve been prevented if previous generations were more willing to share their learning process. It’s just that I see an excellent lesson on race issues that we have needed forever but it is only a vague outline and so we have nothing.

Honestly, I feel the lack of repentance for the Priesthood and Temple ban is why the Church is going through something similar for LGBT people. Because we haven’t had a true change of heart in our doctrine that eradicates oppression. The Church still glories in being better than others through things we can’t control. Hopefully our history won’t be recorded with such broad strokes to hide our mistakes so that no one else has to go through a similar process of repeating these mistakes.

[delopsia]

del i fear ur untitled rhett fic might just wreck me. im a sucker for friends to lovers, and a whore for soulmates, and hanahaki disease is SO GOOD i dont read nearly enough fics about it!!! im frothing at the mouth climbing up the walls !!!!

You should have seen me while I was drafting the outline 😭 I was crawling through a list of AUs, writing down my favorites, and spent a full hour in misery, trying to narrow it down to just one. Behold, we have three! I hardly see anything with Hanahaki Disease anymore 😔this is my second time taking a swing at it; I had a draft in February, but it was dead in the water from the moment I finished the moodboard lmao.

The running title is currently "Every Storm (Runs Out of Rain)," but don't...don't hold me to that. I've been known to conjure up a new title within minutes of hitting post 😒

Here's another preview for ya 🤍

The last thing you expected was for Rhett to hop out in that unbuttoned flannel, broad chest on full display for all to see. The sleeve falls just far enough from his shoulder that you can see the scar hiding below his left collarbone. 

"Quite the festival outfit you've got," you chirp, dragging your eyes away from his bull tattoo and over to a nearby tree, feigning interest. The back of your throat is starting to tickle, lungs tight as you fend off the urge to cough. Not here, not here, not here.

He laughs, "What, y' don't think I look good like this?"

You do, but he doesn't need to know that. Not in the slightest. 

"Its...certainly a choice," faking a grimace, you turn your attention back to your car, slowly but surely growing cooler the longer it runs. A pleasure that Rhett and his broken air conditioning unit haven't known since last summer. 

You don't mind the idea of it staying broken if he keeps showing up at your house looking like this. Even if that does mean that you become his ride on the hotter days, fearing an onset of heat stroke. 

The passenger door is silent as he opens it. No longer squealing due to whatever he and Royal did to it last weekend. Being friends with a family of DIY ranchers has its perks. 

Thunk_

"Shit." 

You blink. Was that...?

Yeah. 

It was. 

As if last time wasn't enough of a lesson, Rhett's got his knees pinned up against your glovebox, the seat too far forward for him and his big body to fit. Though this time, he isn't hurriedly pawing at the seat levers like he'll die if he doesn't get any more space. Instead, he's resigned to a frown. More annoyed with himself than anything.

"You alright there?" 

Rhett's sigh is so heavy that his shoulders visibly deflate. "Yeah," reaching off to the side, pushing the seat back as far as it can go. "Humbled, but 'm alright."

[ask-the-guiding-light-cast]

And that's 2023 in the bag

Thank you to those continuing to support Path of Valor as it chugs along. An extra thanks to those who leave comments, whether it's on Thousand Roads, AO3, or FFN. It really does help more than you can know. Particularly because I'm... actually not entirely sure exactly how far into the fic we are. We've made good progress, yeah, and I have the broad strokes outlined. I'm just... not sure how many chapters that will translate into. Except that it's not a small number. Especially considering the fic gets 25-26 updates a year if all goes well.

I've resigned myself to the fact that this fic is just... not hitting for people like Guiding Light did. I can't catch lightning in a bottle a second time. Unfortunate. Especially since there's not a chance I'm writing anything else after this. This is my finale, swan song, etc.

The good news is I have a backlog of about 12 or 13 chapters drafted at this point. It's tough because it means I'm writing things knowing they won't be posted for, like, almost six months. But it's good because if my job gets super busy, I have this backlog to fall back on. But I very much need to finish this before residency ends. Which gives me... two and half years.

Hopefully I can do it. I don't want to make promises. That's why everyone's support is more helpful than you realize. It's a strong motivator.

Anyway, here's to more craziness in 2024! You're not prepared for what's going to happen. >:3

[blankd]

MushRush SRPG Devlog Aug 10th, 2024

Time for the first update!

READ MORE to see: my production plan, why I'm calling this MushRush, what this week's Golden Duncecap moment was (and how I solved it), and some of THE scrungliest assets.

NOTE: I will be tagging all posts like this with the 'mushrush SRPG' tag, yes even after I figure out a real name for this project

PRODUCTION PLAN

This update will be lacking in screenshots as I was mostly fiddling with the SRPG Plugin suite, locking in a battle/events roadmap for the entirety of the game, and organizing my notes into something more concise. The battle roadmap outlined their purpose (narrative and/or mechanically), if they had something noteworthy in plot or flaovr, their objectives and their failstates, and a rough idea of what visual assets they might require.

There is roughly a total of 33 maps: so far 5 are core/mandatory, 6-7 are optional, the rest are progression. The distribution may change as production goes forward, and the map count may even decrease but I'm absolutely holding myself from exceeding that 33 number as this number does NOT include whatever magic I need to use for towns or 'cutscenes'.

Additionally, I'm holding off on ANY art assets, writing, and such, until the game has a solid mechanical skeleton to be played through. Since there are a maximum of 7 (8 technically, as its sometimes a Unit on the map but has no personality) party members, I'm optimistic about its implementation and testing. I'm also already planning to reuse/upcycle the enemies from Moon-Scarred appropriately. Waste not, want not!

PROJECT NAME/WHY MUSHRUSH?

it's not a spoiler to say this (as it's visually obvious within the first map), but you play as a cleric of a Divine Mushroom and will be carting it around to solve the Undead Problem. I'm fairly bad at titles, so while I know the name Mysilla is important, I can't figure out a snappy game title for it yet, so MushRush will keep things silly. 8)

THIS WEEK'S GOLDEN DUNCECAP MOMENT

The Issue: I encountered my first (and hopefully worst) instance of things breaking where I could not get my template map to run at all- it would completely skip showing the Pre-Battle (win/lose conditions, etc.), (functionally) skip the Battle Preparation Phase (couldn't place any units, but I could 'Start' the battle with 0 usable units) and then enter an infinite loop of the Turn Incrementing even though no Player OR Enemy Turns were occurring.

The problem was so severe and 'unsolvable' that even my basic ass debugging method of putting trigger text to tell me if/when the code was running, would not trigger. After a LONG journey of consulting the demo's documentation- even literally copying the eventing framework, nothing was working.

As I went to reset the Plugins, I noticed that they were in the incorrect order. For context: a (purposeful) function of RPGm is that Plugins have certain priorities and sometimes need a specific order, but when LOADING the plugins into RPGm, it's alphabetical in its folder (because how would IT know what order it's supposed to be in). I fucked up in that I had only remembered to put the core plugin at the top, but loaded the rest alphabetically because I was lazy and had just forgotten this BASIC FUNCTION.

Once the Plugins were organized into their correct order as intended by the Plugins' creator, everything worked as expected. So learn from my mistakes and never forget Rule 0 of RPGm use- check your goddamn Plugin Order FIRST!!

THE SCRUNGLES (aka a Most Unflattering Teaser of the Main Cast)

White = not-Halfling Cleric MC Orange = Dragon(born) Lady Paladin Grey = Orc Rogue Purple = Drow Barbarian Blue = not-Tiefling Sorcerer Red = Human Wizard (a HUMAN? MODS, BAN HER) Green = Goblin Ranger (even though in my notes I call her Druid, whoops!) Brown = yeah that's a cart, what of it

While the broad strokes of the characters are present/set (I'm still figuring out Rogue's clothing, oops), enough details can still change or will later be included to make them less boring, such as how Red/Wizard is an older lady, but there's no point to putting the wrinkles at this stage.

I hope you look forward to whenever I can post their 'talking' scene sprites to show off more of their designs! Thanks for reading~

[recurring-polynya]

How do you go about planning out your writing? Additionally, have you ever gone into something expecting one or two chapters and ending up with 10+?

There are two kinds of fanfic: some fanfics fit entirely in my head at once, and I can just write them out and do no planning whatsoever. This is the ideal state of writing, the dream. This is generally fics with <10k words, although Portions for Foxes (28k) was written in this manner, and my only excuse was that I was in the grips of hyperfixation.

This almost never happens to me anymore, so I gotta go down the other route, which is to plan everything out with my engineer brain. It goes like this:

I have an idea. Occasionally, the idea will be a very specific scene or a first chapter, and if it's very clear in my head, I may just let myself write it.

Otherwise, I spend a few hours to a few days free-thinking about the concept. What kind of story can I make out of it? What scenes does it include? Will it be fun to write? Do I get more excited the more I think about it, or does it feel like a pain? ->If it feels like a drag, I don't write it ->Sometimes there's just one scene or so that feels fun, so I just write that and throw it in my short story anthology

If it feels like it has legs, I start an outline. The outline must contain the story arc in broad strokes and it must contain a beginning, a conflict, a climax, and an ending before I start writing in earnest. Any time I have tried to start writing without these things, anguish has resulted.

I also often write down notes about character motivations and themes and other stuff I want to remember not to forgot, or that I can go back and look at when I feel like I've lost the thread. I keep all of this in a separate document from the main story, and over time, I also add stuff like links to useful websites, kanji for names of characters or places that I've picked out, useful facts, timelines, etc. Whenever I have a bit of writing I have to cut from the story, I save it and put it down at the bottom of the planning document under a section called DISCARD. Yeah, this is kind of a mess after a while.

Once I have this much, though, I start writing. As I am writing, I often get ideas for things to happen down the line, so I add them to outline. I try to start from the beginning of the fic and write continuously, until I get stuck or don't want to, and then I skip ahead to the next thing I feel like writing. When I run out of things I am excited to write, I refer to the outline, and fill out one of the bullets that I haven't done yet. This is sort of an iterative process of writing scenes and adding to the outline, and the fanfic goes from being a skeleton to getting gradually more fleshed out. Sometimes I write a scene and I'm not quite sure where it goes, so I guess.

(There are sometimes bad times, where I realize that my outline was a joke and my story is a mess and I roll around on the floor for a bit. After that, I do some combination of making new outlines and making new documents where I cut and paste the scenes from the old on in until they make sense. Usually this works eventually. Once, I had to do this, like, three times, and make a color-coded spreadsheet about it.)

Around this time, I will usually make an additional, chapter-centric outline. This lists every scene in the fic, in order, with some formatting to show the ones that still need work, or haven't been written at all. I will write out word counts for each chapter (sometimes for each scene). I can now see the places where I need a connecting scene, and also how big/how much stuff is in each chapter. The scene at the end of a chapter connects to the next chapter in a different way than scene-to-scene. I sometimes use two or three rotating narrators, and this also helps me make sure the POVs are balanced.

I write all the scenes I didn't want to write earlier, but now I have momentum because I can see the end.

I finish the fanfic. Joy returns to the land.

As for the question about have you ever gone into something expecting one or two chapters and ending up with 10+, the answer is no, because, as you can see, my process is specifically designed to gate off that possibility from the beginning. My fanfics regularly overrun their predicted length by 25-40%, but the decision to write a short or a long one is always one I make consciously and with care.

[plothooksinc]

good time zone! ♻️?

It is an excellent time zone! I'm in the future, I have all your lottery numbers--

♻️A scrapped idea for your current WIP

This is EXTREMELY HARD TO ANSWER because I have many WIPs but most of them are absolutely in the beginning stages, and the one that is not is kind of a huge spoiler as to how the rest of the story will go. Literally "I was going to end it this way but now I'm going to end it this way just so I finish writing it before the year 2056." (Lookin' at you, Snowblind.) And by and large, I do not have a lot of ideas I end up scrapping for my WIPs! It's just not how I roll.

So instead, I will mention the bits for NRFTW that ended up on the cutting room floor. There were a lot of ways that the end could go re: Leo being as hurt as he was and not having access to medical care, all of them being pretty urgent. They all revolved around Draxum making a sacrifice to ensure he survived; as simple a one as Draxum offering himself up to Bishop in exchange for full hospital treatment and then freedom for Leo and his fam, which got scrapped because Bishop was going to offer that anyway. He's an asshole, but he does have some morals and a sense of some kind of "shit I owe you", so there you go. But the other idea was tapping into the earlier scene with Draxum and Mikey where Draxum told Mikey outright, "Healing has far too high a price," because to my worldbuilding healing magic couldn't spontaneously heal someone without extracting an equal price of lifeforce. When someone's on death's door you can't exactly extract more from them to fix their injuries, so the healer would have to pay up.

In short, to stop Leo from expiring in the warehouse, Draxum was gonna very much make that sacrifice - the goat's hundreds of years old, what's a year or two - and then basically go "if you tell him I will never forgive you B|", which sets up for him finding out in the sequel. (Yeah, he's gonna find out.)

Anyway, that also got scrapped for a couple reasons. Mainly, the warehouse scene was high stakes and tension enough as it was, and with lung injuries either Leo would last minutes or he would last hours, and well. I wanted him to last more than minutes. :/ I'm not that mean. So then I was like "hmm okay, well, I can still do that after the warehouse."

And I could. But. Pacing. We were winding down. The climax had come and gone. I just didn't have it in me to go "oh yeah and another thing" because it would be ridiculous at that point, and thus Leo just woke up an amount of time later after some touch and go health issues, and it gave me a window to quietly play with later.

BUT. ALSO.

My beta @shadowbends was very disappointed I didn't get to go through with it because she loved the idea (and so did I, I just didn't have space for it) and thus she wrote Don't Pay My Ransom, which is a fic that takes place during that recovery time, and thus I got to have my cake and eat it too. (And be thrilled reading Pi's writing all over again because she'd been gone from writing so long :c )

In short, I have very little that ends up on the cutting room floor! Often because any outlines I write are broad strokes; NRFTW's outline was more defined than any I've done because I'd been out of writing for so long and wasn't sure if I could do it without a solid direction to go, so it's more an exception in this case. <3

Thank you for the question!

Procrastination ask meme here.

[rewordthis]

Hazy Outlines: an impromptu Saturday art class

Saturday, friends!

Class is starting, even if there are still some things not running smoothly… I’m determined to do this anyway, so stick with me. Will overcome the obstacles together.

⚠️ (Apologising in advance because heavy text post with no pictures is boring af, but pics wouldn’t load for whatever reasons… Pff, bear with me, please. And if there’s anything you need to ask, please do! I’ll answer as quickly and as best to my ability! 🫠)

Now I’ll be handing out your first ever practical exercise fliers!

Well, technically not, since you’ll excuse me for making you go search for a square or rectangular box in your home... as this is going to be your assignment for the week. 😎

Yeah… you didn’t see that coming, I’m sure. Did I mention that this is a beginner’s exercises class?

I’ll need everyone participating in these classes to have a cube-like box or an object with 90° angles and straight corners and sides for this first exercise. It can be any material you got readily, any size (just… please not a trunk or something… 😑) a box of tissues would suffice. As long as it is square/rectangular with clean corners (not curved) and with no texture.

Well go on! Go bring it— I’m waiting…

You’ll have to place it in an angle and use a source of light coming from its left. You want it on the table while you sit down? You want it right in front of you, on your desk? You can put it on the damn floor for all I care— actually any weird angle will work better because the contrast will be greater… — all I’m asking, is you put it in perspective.

Now, all you’ll have to do is to decide on a spot to sit. But! Before we begin, I’d like to give some guidelines for the way we’ll work. Let’s go:

1. First of all, we will talk about the grip.

When you’ll be holding your pencil, you’ll have to keep it tilted in an angle. Not entirely parallel on the paper, but having the tip to be near-flat on it. For this, you’ll have to find a grip that allows your arm to move freely.

We won’t draw anything the way we write. Writing is a different function we do with our wrists (small clean lines) and drawing a whole other one we do with our entire arms (faint, broad lines).

Find how you are more comfortable holding the pencil without having your fingers brushing on the paper. Most of the times, the standard way is to use the whole grip to hold the pencil; this is the overhand grip but it needs a lot of time to get used to it and it’s better for fairly big areas. Another way is the loose grip. In loose grip, you hold your pencil way back (from the middle of it usually) and have the butt of the pencil resting on your hand like when you normally write. Personally I have a fairly different way of holding my pencil which heavily depends on the area I work in every occasion, but I just keep it from the butt and swing it when I need to do object placement etc. and then switch in a more steady grip as I add details.

Make lines on the paper. Try it out and see how it weights on the paper and your hand and see which grip feels more comfortable for you. Ideally you’d have to spent at least a couple days trying deferent grips in order to find what works for you. Don’t rush with this… it’s ok. The exercise is meant to be short so taking a few days off for this won’t have a negative impact. Quite the contrary, actually. 🤗

When you feel comfortable enough with your grip, make 6 boxes at one of your paper’s sides. Leave the first one blank. 👉 From boxes 2-6 fill the boxes with the pencils you have, starting from the bigger hardness. Aka, box 2: 2H hardness, 3: H hardness and so on. 👉 For the hardnesses you don’t have, use the closest hardness to fill, trying to keep deferent tones. For example; if you miss the 2H you’ll use the H with lighter strokes and then use it in its box adding one or two layers. Make sure there is a distinct deference in shade from box to box and keep the strokes facing the same direction. Think of it as the spectrum spread in shades of grey.

2. Now, it’s time to do the placing.

Observe the object and let’s try to measure it. In order to do that, you’ll use the tip of your pencil.

When you measure, you generally need to find a shape that is obvious to pick up, so you won’t miss your measurement later on if you forget it. 👉 Are there specific proportions by the object itself that you can use to divide it? This is the most preferable way, because you’ll learn to understand shapes. 👉 But, maybe there are shadows that create a clear division on it. This comes in volumes. 🔸 In any way, what you’ll do is to align your pencil over that shape — starting with the tip and at the end of it placing your fingernail to hold its length. After that, you move your pencil on the same axis to see how many times that shape fits into the object. Start either by the Y or X axis and once you find how many times it fits, try to divide your paper and fit the object on it by putting light marks for every division part and keeping it as centered as possible. Then proceed to do the same on the other axis.

👉 While doing this, hold your paper upright in front of you.

👉 Now it’s the time to connect the marks. This is the tracing phase so make as light marks and lines as possible! And as mentioned, draw the lines from your shoulder and elbow— not your wrist. The lines need to be continuous and decisive.

👉 When you finish tracing the object try to see if any side is bigger/smaller than what you see in reality.

After this stage, we’ll do the outline which will not be much darker because you’ll have to correct anything that is off. It can’t be perfect from the beginning, so keep in mind that you may need to measure again. You just need to define the line a bit more than before but it can’t be too bold. Correct the lines and begin to trace the outline. After that you’ll put in the shadows.

When you think that this is as good a transfer and positioning you’ve made as possible, we’ll start the shading process.

For the shading you’ll use as a guide the boxes we made at the beginning…

3. How to shadow.

During this process you will start by the lighter shade which you will apply to the object. 👉 White parts (extreme brightness) will not be covered, so keep in mind to shade around that (there won’t be too many spots anyway) — you can always use the eraser if you go over something however, so fear not. 👉 Your first shade should be done in one direction. 🔺 Do NOT cross-hatch the shadows. They need to be smooth. 👉 Add the second layer of shadows with a small tilt of the tip towards a slightly different direction (clockwise or counter clockwise it doesn’t matter; we only need a change in degrees like the clock hands from 12 to 1 or 12 to 11); that’ll it be enough. 👉 Keep adding layers to your shadows by slightly adjusting the tip of the pencil until you reach the darkest shade (deep black shades will also be very small areas like the light ones).

Good job! You finished your first practical exercise. That wasn’t so bad now, was it?

🔹 This exercise is best done slowly, and by this I mean take your time with getting comfortable with the pencil and making smooth faded lines throughout the week. It shouldn’t take you more than an hour daily and mainly about 15— 20 minutes. The drawing itself should not take more than an hour. There are tutors that insist on practicing everyday and doing lots of practice and exercises… 😮‍💨 but you really don’t. Not yet. First you need to train your eyes and your hands into what drawing actually is and overdoing it in the beginning may lead to learning things incorrectly or feeling burned out.

Anyway…

You have the whole week to make your first attempt at drawing something as closely to the real thing as you can. Try to recreate everything you see. The lines, the planes, the shadows on it, the shadows behind the object (I’m asking for the immediate background of the object so try to put it in front of something that is as plane as possible). 👉 If the object has too many colours/designs etc, cover it with something as plain as possible like a cloth. This’ll make it a little harder to draw, but you don’t want to be confused by anything more than shadows, volumes and shapes just yet.

🔹 You’re allowed to use only ONE paper. If you have a tablet, you can use that, too. This is you learning the basics after all, so feel free to present both your attempts.

🔺Don’t exhaust yourself, though! Like I said, this is a 1hour☝️exercise tops!

Now the technical stuff:

How this is going to work: ▶️ first of all, take a picture of the object from the same angle you’re going to draw it, so I can evaluate your try and give you tips to work on the next assignment! I’m opting for a tailor-made tutorial because everybody is different. ▶️ Then by the end of the week post the photo and your finished piece (the digital, too; if you do that) with either the specific tag or a mention at me. I want to see what you made!

There are no bad tries here, only things we’re going to learn and mistakes we’re going to fix!

Now, sketch! That’s it. That’s the exercise. Simple, right? :)

[ivi-prism]

7, 14, 21!

[Ask game here]

7. How long does it take for you to go from an idea to an end product? (be it a drabble in tumblr or fully published multichapter fic in ao3)

Either one afternoon or *stares at calendar* more than three years apparently oups.

In paper really it is a question of days! I have the idea, throw the idea against a wall constantly and ask the idea questions until i have the broad strokes of a plot then i set those broad strokes in an outline (if it's very long and/or still not clear) and once its clear I get writing! (if i have the energy and time ;w;) so yeah if it is a simple idea that can be executed as a ficlet it can legit take just a couple of hours, while a multi-chapter saga with more worldbuilding will need a couple more time... and i may start writing it soon after but to fully bring it to completion it can take till the heat death of the universe because real life gets in between oups

14. Most fun and/or engaging character voice to write in?

Mr. Goodtimes has such a charming voice. I really like to have him say "rapscallions" and "meany bears" and then be all menacing and stuff. It's lovely really :D Technoblade it is always fun and a challenge to get the deadpan to deliver while also balancing the nerd and cool levels to him

And my fics probably have made it clear, that any villainous/morally grey Dream is fun. I don't think as much about the vocabulary or the particular way he talks but it's more about the fucking WILD turns taking place in his head and just balancing that trainwreck with a menacing and unpredictable factor. It's like doing cardio for me good exercise B)

21 .What cubito have you stared from afar like a weird bug and thought "If I knew what was up with you or your world I'd try writing for you"?

Definitely Empires False!

She is just sooooo *gestures to her* ya know? Especially with the implications and dynamics that spring up once Hermit False is brought nearby. Had i watched Empires and had i more energy to invest in writing I'd love to explore her.

[crimeronan]

hey! if it’s not too much trouble, can you explain your writing process? i’m thinking of writing some fanfic but idk where/how to start. do you usually come up with a whole story outline beforehand?

oh gosh, i think my Entire Writing Process is probably too involved/technical to detail fully here (i'm not trying to be pretentious -- it's just that writing is my IRL career & my personal creative projects are built on many many many years of previous trial and error) but! i can certainly explain how i start

usually my fic ideas begin with either one key moment or one key premise. like, my raven cycle vampire AU was all started from the mental image of a starving vampire adam going after ronan and having to stop himself in a parallel to something that happens in the books; my owl house hunting palismen divergent AU was started from seeing how popular "[x character] just straight-up kidnaps hunter" content was n going.... hmm... what if i did that..... except at the messiest possible point in the timeline for it. HELL YEAH LET'S GO!!

i usually know the basic shape of the story before i start writing but it often changes while i write. like, the owl house fic was supposed to be two chapters and now it's looking like it'll be at least 11 or 12.

i think the best advice i can give you if you're getting into writing fic is: write stories that you LIKE writing.

not just stories that you're excited to share and get feedback on, but that you actually enjoy putting on paper. it takes a long long time to write and written works will never get as much engagement as art, so you gotta like the storytelling itself or you'll get discouraged and quit.

write about the characters you like interacting in ways you like and doing things you like, and let the rest just kinda fall into place as it does! the reason i get so technical about my own process is because that's what i enjoy, but it 100% is not for everyone. in fact it's not for most people.

i guess the only other technical note i can give is that i try to keep my concepts as contained and manageable as i can, because then i'm more likely to finish them. i look at the zoomed-in details first instead of a huge broad strokes big picture. like, i can make an entire oneshot out of how a group of characters platonically share a bed for a night. bc it's small and contained but there are a lot of details to play with!

but again, your mileage may vary -- everyone comes up with their own stories differently & executes them differently too. so i really think it's about writing whatever makes your brain go !!!! and not worrying too much about it!

[glassautomaton]

Hi there Glass! Me again, yes, the pest in your askbox..

Today, I come bearing questions (and concepts) about this specific line in your sandbox!

I am very interested in the Thorn and was wondering if you could explain how your Thorn works? That and how it would effect Iris?

Also!

I've been thinking about this for some days now, and yesterday I mocked up some Thorn infected Iris drawings for fun! You were the one who gave me the idea, so I'll share the drawings with you! :]

Small explanation for these: I'm just going to explain how everything works in my design. Feel free to add on or critique me or whatever you wish.

In the early stages of Iris being assimilated with the Thorn, her veins start running black, it's not super obvious at first, it just gathers around scars, and her hands, but it isn't a lot.

As time goes on, it grows, veins become darker, then some discoloration on her scars as they begin to rapidly change to black as well.

Then, the thorns push up from her skin. They accumulate with stress, but there are specific ones that can't just be picked out of her skin. (Like the ones lining her spine, the ones on her shoulders, the ones slowly coming out of her forehead, and I am guessing there is maybe a center one, the specific piece of the thorn that assimulated with Iris in the first place, but I don't think that would push up from her skin for atleast a while.)

(Also, yes, I know horns are a little out there, but one, it's fun. Two, I think it ties in nicely with all the religious imagery that seems to follow Iris as a character. Three, it looks badass.)

Anyway! Yeah, feel free to spill your thoughts on that, as for how all of this is happening? I'm not very good with anomalous biology, so I'm not sure I have a specific explanation. Feel free to add on to the design or try and make an anomalous system for it. At the end of the day, this is for fun!

Thanks for reading one of my various rambles! Enjoy the rest of your day, my friend! :]

I’ll start off with saying that while, as I’ve said, I don’t really have an issue with anyone poking around my sandbox, I wouldn’t necessarily recommend it. The outline you’re taking that from was made mostly to help me get my thoughts in order, and I don’t update it with everything I consider changing. A lot of what’s on there is just stuff I’ll possibly include or things I’ve thought about but not decided on. All of which is to say everything there is subject to change and I wouldn’t take it as the end-all-be-all Devil’s Advocate Bible. If you want to snoop around to take a look at the brainstorming process or cut content (Voices Carry was originally going to be very different and probably much worse), then go ahead.

As for your actual questions, I’ll put them under a cut because they’re spoilers and also possibly subject to change as I said above.

Now, for the Bloom, I’m afraid this answer might disappoint, but I don’t want to say anything definitive in my series. Some of the remaining authors for Resurrection are still planning on bringing the mainline canon back, and I don’t want to step on their toes when it comes to what seems like the main mystery of the series.

I can tell you how I was thinking of making it function in broad strokes, though. It’s basically a conflux like we see in Voices Carry with perfect efficiency, and processes reality through itself, making sure anything it processes is close enough to how it should be that reality itself doesn’t collapse in on itself. Like a very coarse brush moving through the threads of reality, it makes sure they’re at least somewhat straight. Not perfectly, it doesn’t have to and that would be much more difficult, but good enough to where it doesn’t knot up and become a horrific mess.

It got corrupted in Incident Zero, like a compute you don’t shut off for too long. Too many small things adding up until a straw breaks the camel’s back, and the comb itself becomes knotted up, except the comb was also inextricably linked to the hair as well. After it was destroyed, its splinters retained its capability but lacked and force or programming telling them what to do, leaving them mostly inert.

I know this might stray from other stuff with the Bloom, but as I said, I might tweak this in the future as I brainstorm. I also didn’t touch on who/what created it and how, as I don’t want to tread on any toes.

As for the second half of your ask, this is probably where the “I only wrote this for myself and maybe people I would be able to immediately clear things up to” comes in, as the term “assimilation” isn’t really clear at all. I’ll say that I do like the design though, always a fan of that type of gradual corruption. However, when it comes to Iris, my thinking is that if she comes off as scary it should be for what she does rather than how she looks.

So, as for what assimilation actually means I’m this context, I was planning on having an example of that earlier on in the storyline, very shortly after Lily is introduced. Infovores process, assimilate, and spit out all kinds of information, and this extends to more than just memories of images. I was going to have Iris and Lily kill something called a Hymn Weaver, which is a follower of something close to a god who uses song and dance, or at least things that look and sound similar to it, to maintain reality from the spaces in between universes. The need arms to do this, and lots of them, so they sort of graft various arms onto themselves, but the arms aren’t physical. They Weavers assimilate the information that makes them up, like a psychic footprint, and call them up when they need to. So, assimilation is more along the lines of an Inforvore processing all the information that makes something up and being able to use it in other ways. Lily’s extremely proficient at information processing and assimilation, but can’t actually force changes on reality like Iris can.

Fun fact, the Hymn Weavers’ god, the High Weaver, is a mass of so many limbs from all manner of things that whatever it used to be beneath all of them has been long forgotten. It’s part of the “Triumvirate” mentioned in 6907. I actually have a lot more lore of what was mentioned in there, but a) that’s not the point of this ask, though I’d be more than happy to talk about it and b) I don’t think my SCPs have nearly as much of a following as my tales.

Hopefully that gets everything. And this is all sort of a peek pegging the curtain here, and things aren’t final or explained as well as they would be otherwise in an actual article. If you’ve got any questions, as always, let me know.

[anemia-rp]

Through his half closed glossy eyes, Xuan gazes down at Teru for a moment with a smile. "You are not flawed, my love. You are perfection embodied in my eyes." Another soft kiss planted on his neck, Xuan's lips now brushing slowly onto the warm skin as he goes down onto the incubus's collarbone, towards his chest, leaving more kisses here and there. "Mmm... At least I can rest assured that you won't break my delicate heart. No no no, I am more than certain that my love will take good care of it!~" The beautiful young mob pulls back once more, staring down at Teru and the new love bites he's left onto his caramel tinted skin, the bright purplish red of their hue contrasting with the dark black lines of the younger's tattoos. As if impressed by his own work, Xuan then starts tracing the outline of the tattoo covering Teru's chest with his delicate fingers. "I think you are just as beautiful if not more so than me." The smile turns into a delighted grin playing at Xuan's pretty pink lips.

"I don't know how much of a magician I am, since I'm pretty sure the stiffness of your pretty 'wand' isn't the result of a spell, but that of your undying love for me.~" Xuan strokes him a few more times before finally making up his mind that tonight he's feeling like trying something new he hasn't tried before. "Mmm... In fact, I'd even say you're not just hard, but rightfully as hard as a rock, baby!~" Not breaking their eye contact, Xuan then reaches for the nightstand drawer, rummaging in it for the lube bottle, before finally finding and retrieving it successfully. "You're going to make your Master feel so good tonight! You should be proud of you, angel!~ You're a very verrry good boy!~" More praise words pour out just like the lube pours now onto Xuan's hand, coating his palm with its sticky viscosity. The raven haired then starts applying it onto Teru's manhood, making sure he doesn't leave an inch of his cock unlubbed, before doing pretty much the same to his own behind. Once done, Xuan then uses his hands propped onto Teru's abdomen for more stability and positions himself above the incubus's erection. Closing his eyes and taking in a deep breath, Xuan then starts sitting down on him, allowing Teru to enter him little by little, stretching him out and filling him up. "F-Fuck..." He moans softly, his voice shaky, as he tries adjusting to that new feeling and Teru's size.

"Perfection meets perfection then. 'Cause you're just as fucking perfect as me." The pure affection he feels for the other glints in his eyes, just like his desire. The reassuring words and the sweet kisses being spread on his upper body will make it easy to him to ease into all this and offer Xuan a new pleasure. He can imagine how beautiful he must look like with the other's marks on his skin, but for now it's only for Xuan's eyes to admire it. Admire /him/. His chest lifts and lowers visibly when he receives not only touches but gets worshipped. "Master." His long fingers glide through the other's wonderful hair. "All that makes me wanna give you everything I can even more." He sighs infatuatedly, wrapping one of the raven strands around his index finger. "And yeah. Fuck yeah, you're right. Must be the magic of love then." Biting his lower lip and having his eyes rolling back he smirks dreamily, enjoying all this lovely talk as much as the dirtier nuances. "Hell yeah. My dick's all yours, do with it whatever you wanna do." Being praised he closes his eyes and nods, whined cutely. The noise however becomes a little shaky when Xuan starts massaging him down there. He's sensitive a lot to those touches from his beloved, and he enjoys it a lot to be spoiled like this. Being ready to provide Xuan one of the biggest pleasures. Watching him out of halfway closed eyes, the long lashes drawing some light shadows onto his broad cheek bones. He doesn't want to miss one second of the sight being about to present itself right above his lap now. He doesn't have the smallest dick in the world, that's for sure so it won't become too easy to take him, but they will make it work. And once he feels how his tip breaks Xuan's muscle and soon glides in this wonderful heat, being sucked in by it, he moans breathily, fully bewildered about this special sensation they share for the first time. And his arousal increases even more when he can tell that Xuan enjoys it, too. He grabs the sheets tightly with both hands, trying hard not to cum too soon. He wants to grant Xuan quite some time to have his fun.

@phoenix-of-jade

[staringdownabarrel]

I've just finished The King's Buccaneer by Raymond E. Feist, and by now, people should know what the drill is with this shit.

Truth be told, this is a pretty good representation of what I wish Prince of the Blood had been like. Yes, it's very much still a side story in the greater scheme of the series, but it also manages to effectively set up a lot of what happens in the Serpentwar saga. It also avoids being a laundry list of everything I've ever taken issue with in regards to Feist's writing.

I think the big reason why The King's Buccaneer works and Prince of the Blood didn't ultimately boils down to two things. One is the aforementioned thing: it sets up a lot of what's to come over the next few books. Some of this is stuff that was initially introduced in A Darkness at Sethanon (Pantathians were at the battles at Armengar and Sethanon), but some of it is stuff that's been building up in the background since Magician (Amos initially saw the map of Novindus at Macros the Black's island).

The other thing is that it manages to keep the more swashbuckling elements in play. Raymond E. Feist tends to be at his best when he focuses on that, and this book is basically 620 pages of it. Yeah, Prince of the Blood had some of that too, but it wasn't really as interesting and I think it got brought down by everything it did wrong.

Plus, I think it's more noticeable here because The King's Buccaneer easily could have succumbed to middle book syndrome. While it was setting up stuff for the next book and it acknowledged that's what it was doing, it also wasn't solely focused on that. It didn't allow the fact that it was setting the stage for what come next to override the story it was telling. This is notable because this is a problem Feist has in some of his other books.

I think this book is also better at setting up stuff later on. Admittedly, this is the first time I've read these books in ~10 years so there is a lot of stuff I've straight up forgotten, but I don't really remember Borric and Erland being characterised as troublemakers having that much of a bearing on their later appearances. Even the goodwill they earn from the monarchy in the Empire of Great Kesh ends up being walked back at the end of the Serpentwar saga.

What comes up in The King's Buccaneer does have that lasting impact, however. Being able to sail to Novindus becomes a cornerstone going forward. Even Nicholas' appointment as a naval officer has an impact, because the next time he appears, he's an admiral.

My only major gripe with this book (aside from the usual Feist problems outlined in my previous posts) is that this one points an arrow at some of the issues with his worldbuilding abilities. When he conceptualises a foreign culture that's meant to be very different from the Kingdom, they're either a warrior culture (the Tsurani, some of the Keshian cultures) or they're a hunter culture (true-blood Keshians). The people of Novindus continue this pattern.

In this case, it does sorta have to be that way for narrative purposes. There has to be some cultural reason why so many of them would be willing to go to war against a people in a land they're barely aware of. I still feel like this is reflective of a broader issue with Feist's writing though, and that's that he struggles to conceptualise a lot of the cultures in his world beyond these very broad strokes.

Still, overall, this one was decent. It's not the best book he's written, but it's still the best of the two Krondor's Sons books.