#brainstormed this back in 2018 but anyway have at it

[fairygeek777]

Can you tell us more about your Sailor Earth OC? 👀

Oh my goodness thank you for asking!!! I'm going to be greedy and use this as an info dump, hope that’s okay anon! 🙏

For starters, I should mention that Sailor Earth is a redesign/alternate fandom recycle of my main oc Genevieve Marena. She was originally created in 2018 for the Fairy Tail fandom and started with the name Hoseki Ishi. 

Gene's thing was always diamonds, gems and minerals. So when I became obsessed with- *ahem* I mean, Got into Sailor Moon, I could not resist the urge to draw her as Sailor Earth. I drew her within a month of reading and buying the first 2 volumes LOL. 

This is the art from August 1st 2022

Since then I fell utterly in love with Dream arc, Mamoru and any version of him, Elysion, the Golden Kingdom, Helios’ role as a guardian priest and literally anything related to the Earth as Naoko Takeuchi wrote of it.

I was also low-key upset about how 90s was treating Mamo and Usagi, so I ironically made her the senshi that defends the love of Serenity and Endymion and protects their happiness lol.

Thinking about her more seriously as I am now deeply attached to Sailor Moon, I have a working summary of how I imagine her.

I explored her various designs for the series back in Summer 2023 (again after finishing the manga) 

More recently, I've been brainstorming how to more efficiently include her in the Sailor Moon story. I've been doing light research on Mythology, becoming more familiar with Astrology and crystals. I was honestly struggling quite a bit when it became clear that Earth is almost excluded from Astrology. That is, it's not treated in the same respect as Mercury or Neptune etc. are. 

I also knew that I didn't want to make her a Princess, that would be like replacing Endymion as the heir to the planet. And I was not about to make her the child of NQ Serenity and King Endymion. So I thought I might make her somewhat like Chibi Moon. If there can be two Sailor Moon senshi, then I say, why not two Earth guardians? Then I noticed that Pink Moon is actually the term for April's full moon. So I thought I could do something with that to make my Sailor Earth stand out (since it is obviously a very unoriginal idea in the first place) but I have yet to find a similar thing for Earth. 

Basically Earth is much less interesting than literally any other heavenly body to astronomers and astrologists so I'm working with very little lol. 

Anyway, I decided she'd be an Elysion Priestess and that she was given the powers of a Sailor Senshi to protect the Earth and her prince. She goes to the surface and attends Rei’s school, T.A girls academy. 

More recently, I was watching Eternal for like the 1 millionth time and it has always bugged me that the 2 Maenads look like they are from the Moon.

They look more like Queen Serenity than someone from Earth.

So, no offense to Takeuchi my girl, but imma change that. Because unfortunately I feel like things from Silver Millenium like the Twin bun hair on these two overlap too much with what should be unique to Earth. (But that is a blog for another day, so I digress) The two Maenads are now Gaia and Terra. Gaia becomes Sailor Earth and goes to the surface as Hoseki Jinsei and her Lavender Earth Crystal forms.

See these two? One of ‘em is Gaia.

Also, since it is already shameless enough to make a Sailor Earth self insert, I'm inserting my late cat Flash and his name is Apollo because Moon kitties are from Mau therefore any planet can have one not just Moon senshi. But also cuz I miss the hell out of him and I can't look at Artemis without thinking about him.

As of right now, this is the general concept of my Sailor Earth:

Name: Gaia

Gender: female

Civilian Name: Hoseki Jinsei

Senshi name: Sailor Earth

Sailor Crystal: Lavender Earth Crystal

Family: Terra (sister?/mother?) Helios (brother)

Occupation: Elysion Priestess

Partner: Apollo (white kitty with heterochromia from Mau, Artemis' twin brother)

Again, thank you so much for giving me the chance to info dump :3

[wanderingmoonmen]

Hi! I just wanted to come here and gush about how much I love your half doomed and semi sweet series real quick! I binged it all in two days and you guys have done such a good work on it. I honestly think the first installment is probably one of my favorite pieces of fanfic ever just due to how great the mix of character interaction and action is within the fic. I also just adore how Mary is handled with James and how he realizes that Mary wouldn’t say a lot of the stuff his hallucinations are saying but also it’s still overwhelming and hurts despite this! I’ve also been enjoying the lot more day to day ness of the sequel fic too, where issues still come up but it’s also not, running from monsters all the time (unless those monsters are silent hill remnants/bad thoughts, sorry James!).

I don’t know if it’s ever detailed anywhere, but what exactly inspired you to write the sequel fic if you don’t mind me asking?

aaaaa this has been sitting in my inbox for a bit because I saw the nice words and it makes me melt into a puddle and I want to take time to properly answer your question. Thank you ❤️

I ended up writing way too much in my answer so the tldr; I have way too many thoughts and ideas and with @fly-rye 's encouragement and participation we're now in a place where there's a whole timeline and already drafted events still out there to do.

My ramblings and more detailed explanation under the cut

I think in the preface to Promise, or somewhere, I've said that literally all of this started as a joke. I'm also going to keep to my guns of coming up with it back in 2018 (albeit a joke that I kept to myself lmao). I had sort of kept my 'joke' meeting in some sort of filing cabinet in my mind. And honestly if @fly-rye wasn't a super cool and amazing friend and didn't indulge my bullshit we wouldn't be here (also I'm pretty sure that DBD audio of Leon sounding very......... y'know affected it too. I also started a playthrough of RE4 on Oculus at the same time. Also also this literally started I swear a couple months before remakes were formally announced.) ANYWAY this isn't an answer to your question, I just like rambling.

Now that sort of plays into what inspired the sequel, I think I am a 'too many thoughts head full' type of person and just have too much to say sometimes (and perhaps also too much imagination). I also like trying to explain things so the in-fiction lore makes sense (like... extensively thinking about how to actually for real explain how James got to Spain or What Is The Scientific Explanation For Silent Hill etc etc. I just like to make things Work in my head, idk how to explain it).

When Promise turned into a project, there was more serious thought into how their relationship worked and how to explain Leon's character changes in future media. Then it was a thought of 'how could things be better for the both of them?' Or 'what if they were allowed to heal and grow as people' and whatever else that can be narratively satisfying about seeing hurt people finding each other and helping each other.

Then that turns into 'let's put that thing into a situation.'

Which, of course, there are A Lot Of Situations considering Leon has... 4 movies and 1 game he's in after RE4.

There's also the interest of exploring the mechanics of Silent Hill and exploring how SH3/SH4 can become entangled with the mess.

There's then the flip side of the domestic life and living as """""normal"""""" people.

So to fill the gaps between Situations we've brainstormed a Lot of timeline stuff and certain relationship beats that should occur (yknow like their gay wedding, spoilers). I'm also trying to show how James integrates with the rest of the RE crew and with Harry and Heather.

So... Basically I've thought... a lot about how to make their ship and this universe integrate into all the canon events and have some random drafts for it (of course much credit goes to @fly-rye to a) indulging me b) getting sucked into this c) being super supportive d) brainstorming the Situations with me) because there's just so much potential!!

Now, this is kinda where I get stuck and why there hasn't been more posted, if you're wondering

I like to be thorough and in my head I think I need to explain and show character development in detail because, again, in my head, I think it'll then be viewed as 'bad' or idk, 'not well written' or 'not making sense' (as if any of this makes sense). So I feel like I need to show how these relationships develop so it's more convincing or whatever. I think about how some media is panned or criticized for bad relationship writing, ie 'we've been best friends for 10 years and he really helped me out, right bob?" Like who says that.

So in starting PE I wanted to try and thoroughly and logically explain how we get to the current point.

Obviously this is also literally fanfic and [insert meme here] it's my AU and I can do what I want [just tell you This Is How It Is]

But... I'm not great at writing fluff or character interaction stuff just for the sole purpose of development. I thrive on hurt/comfort and angst stuff (if that wasn't obvious) whereas trying to come up with story beats for a beach trip or something is much more difficult for me. So I've struggled to move forward because it's just not my forte and it takes practice and patience...

Unfortunately, I can be rather impatient.

It's really annoying when you're trying to be thorough! So even when I've got a plan, I just get annoyed with my writing because I just wanna get to the good stuff!!! Why can't I write this out faster!!!! I need to beam my thoughts into a document!!!

I keep on feeling like I'm making empty promises, but I do really wanna keep writing and posting. I am trying and I think about sitting down and writing a lot, but between all those other hangups and not having time, I just haven't.

I know a lot of this isn't exactly what you asked, but I hope it answers your question and then some. Thank you again for reaching out it means a lot to hear from readers!!!

[artificialwizard]

Venting and rambling about ai art discourse

Feel free to ignore this + this isnt an invitation to argue back and forth with me about ai

My tag system on main for years now has been

#art = abstract art

#representational art = all non-abstract art

( + #dreamscape = art that can't be neatly categorized as abstract or representational + art that reminds me of dreaming )

Bc at the time I created this tag system i was very fed up with abstract art and modern art being dismissed as Not Real Art by some assholes and i wanted to put abstract art first in my space and have representational art be the one that needs a descriptor to differentiate it from "normal"/"real" art

Currently holding myself back from doing something similar to be petty about the never ending ai art backlash/discourse

Haven't been posting my abstract art or ai art online much lately but i still make a lot of both (+ getting back into writing and prob won't be posting much of that either). Sharing art online, other than with close friends, seems like hell to me rn.

Maybe someday i'll start posting my art again it just sucks that anytime i go on any social media from discord to youtube theres an 80% chance i see people shitting on the artistic mediums that i'm most passionate about

And its not like the ai hate train has slowed down the rancid attitudes around abstract art lol, not that I'd stop making AI art if abstract art was more respected

Abstract art is the easiest and most rewarding way for me to express myself creatively and it gels so well with my perfectionism issues bc perfection is Not the point (except when it is, but then its an artistic choice not a constant obligation for every piece). A piece about grief doesnt need to have perfect straight lines or symmetry, the art can be messy if it suits the tone I'm going for.

And AI image and music generation is very exciting to me! I've always been curious about what it would be like getting to see the creation of a new way of making art and its been very cool being able to somewhat follow AI innovations since 2018 and then get to experiment with it myself once more ai tools became accessible!!

Whether im the ai art im making is abstract or representational, i love not having full control over the result! I love bouncing ideas back and forth with the AI. I love having to combine my visual art skills and my language/description skills.

I use midjourney et al. the same way I'd make my OCs in dressup games while brainstorming ideas. Mindless doodling that can often lead to writers block breakthroughs.

I also use midjourney et al. to make quick vent art when I'm feeling strong emotions just like I'd do in my sketchbook or in my digital art apps.

And sometimes i'm using ai to spend hours trying to make something very specific i want to create.

Idk its all just tools to me. Midjourney. Paint Tool Sai. Pen and paper. I get the same joy/relief out of making art with all of the above

Im not aiming for fame or money, i make 0-200$ a year from art, usually 0. I just want to have a little corner of the internet to share my images and reach a handful of ppl who appreciate them and want to discuss abstract & ai art with me thats it. Im not coming for your art job, i dont allign myself with corporations aiming to further disadvantage workers in artistic industries or artists who freelance

Anyway reason #2 i slowed down on posting art is grief has been kicking my ass these past 4 years. Lots of deaths in the family + death of a friend. some relationships were fractured and im grieving those as well.

Reason #3 is started full time library job in november 🎉 its wonderful and its exhausting and im still finding my rythm after years of being chronically un(der)employed and/or in college, but hopefully once life settles down more ill have more and more time to spend on art and writing

Havent vent posted in ages and it feels weird doing it on one of my art blogs so im going to end this with two of my recent(ish) pieces on grief, first made in onelab (not ai, android art app i make 80% of my digital art in) and second in midjourney

Thanks if u read all/most/some of that :)

Think i just needed to be like "man this sucks" so i can move on to "anyway! Art time >:)"

[navidoll]

please tell me more about wheelchair adora

So originally I found wheelchair Adora from a friend's fanfic

^ go read its vry good and gay

Anyway

So in this fic Adora becomes wheelchair bound from the aftereffects of the Heart, her body had a lot of strain put on it and her legs burn and give out from under her every time she tries to stand up. So she has a lil wheelchair to help her get around.

I really liked this idea so I went along with it, but I wanted to put my own spin on it, so now because of this ask I brainstormed with my friends to figure out a way that Adora became disabled, in my own au.

-content warning for panic attack description-

(Set during early season 4) So sometime in Brightmoon, everything is all find and dandy at dinner, and Adora is just gobbling up her food like she hasn't eaten in 2 years, before she starts having a coughing fit. It gets the attention of everyone at the table and people start getting concerned, and Adora excuses herself to go to the bathroom, but before she makes it to the door she promptly collapses and passes out.

Everyone is obviously freaking out, so Glimmer teleports her friend to the infirmary, where Adora ends up staying the night. Adora wakes up in lots of pain (poor bb) and the doctors run all sorts of tests on her and find out that she's been poisoned.

When Glimmer hears about this, she's very angry and collects all the cooks in Brightmoon to ask who did it. And surprisingly, someone answers. One of the new chefs admits to poisoning Adora's food on purpose, and they are soon fired, after a long discussion on why what they did was wrong. The chef told Glimmer they believed that Adora was still loyal to the Horde, and was trying to off her by their own means.

Back to Adora, she's in the infirmary for a few days before she's allowed to go to her own room to continue her treatment. Bow and Glimmer try to do everything they can for their ill friend, including sleepovers, trying to find ways to cure her poison, and even try magical healing. But nothing works, it only serves to worsen Adora's condition.

It's been a week and Adora is deathly ill. The poison has been in her system for too long and it's taken a toll on her body. She has bad nightmares and bags under her eyes, she's barely eaten anything in the past week, the nagging paranoia in the back of her brain telling her that someone is out to kill her. It doesn't help her mental health. She can't walk without help, and her limbs shake involuntarily at times. She's on strict bedrest. She-Ra has been doing her best to take care of Adora when her friends aren't there. Opting to cuddling, getting her water, and helping her walk and eat, and even bathing together.

Its been a rough week. She-Ra's worry for her friend only grows the worse her condition becomes. Until one day, something inside her remembers. Memories are hard to come by, so when She-Ra remembers Madame Razz has all sorts of medicinal herbs, she makes the descision of going out by herself to retrieve some.

She leaves a sweet note next to Adora's bed saying 'I'll be back soon, sweetheart. Keep the bed warm for me until I get back! <3' (Have I mentioned they're like a couple and use terms of endearment? But its like 'platonic' flirting and bantering, totally just friends) Adora reads it and blushes at the pet name, and cuddles her handmade She-Ra plushie.

She-Ra visits Razz and pretty much cries because she hasn't seen her friend in so long. They have a nice long hug and catch up a bit before she mentiones that Adora's been poisoned and is dying. Razz says to not worry and goes to her little shelf and grabs a few jars and mixes a few ingredients up in her little mixing bowl. She puts the mixture in a little baggie and hands it to She-Ra and gives her a warm smile. She-Ra holds the bag like her life depends on it. After a little more talking She-Ra thanks Razz and leaves to go back to Brightmoon. After inspecting the contents in the bag she recognizes it as tea. An old recipe that even she doesn't know.

When She-Ra gets back to the bedroom she notices Adora had fallen back to sleep cuddling her She-Ra plushie looking absolutely exhausted. She can't help but feel adoration for this girl. After standing there for a little too long looking at Adora, she goes to the tea nook next to the bathroom, and prepares some hot water. She puts the ingredients from the bag into a small tea strainer, and waits for it to seep into the hot water.

When the tea is ready, she gently wakes up Adora, smiling at her and saying 'Good morning, sleepyhead.' Adora gives her a weak smile, before looking what's in She-Ra's hand. She-Ra helps her sit up so that Adora can drink the tea at a better angle. Adora wordlessly drinks the tea and notices it had a slight bitterness to it, but its overall flavor is delicious. They sit and chat for a little, and Adora ends up drinking all the tea. She already feels better than she has all week. This stuff must be magic, she concludes.

Her eyelids fall closed, and they stay that way for a few weeks. Adora had fallen into a coma. And it worried all her friends, and the alliance. Adora had always been a key member at meetings and missions, it was strange to have her presence not be there. While Glimmer and Bow and the others were out fighting the Horde, Adora was in the infirmary, recovering from the poison in her system.

She-Ra had been by her side the whole time. She had nothing else to do, but she wanted to stay by her side. It was her duty to protect Adora. Even if she feels like she failed on that part.

When Adora woke up, her entire body was sore, but she felt a lot better. Her muscles didn't move on their own, she could sit up on her own, except-

She couldn't feel her legs, they didn't respond to her.

Adora's chest felt tight, and she spiraled at the implication alone. What will she do now? Can she even fight like this? Will her friends hate her for being disabled? Will they leave her? It was all too much for her, and she hyperventilated and screamed her lungs out. She-Ra was there to bring her back to reality, and comfort her like no one else could.

It wasn't the end of the world for Adora, but the news that she had permanent nerve damage to her lower half meant that she would never be able to walk again. It changed her life completely.

She soon got a wheelchair and when Bow and Glimmer saw her, she cried on the spot. She felt like a failure and a burden. They both gave her a hug and reassured her that everything would be okay, and she believed them.

If only things got better from there.

Anyway! I hope u enjoyed this little story, I'm definently going to be exploring it more and drawing more Wheeldora. She is everything to me. She-Ra takes care of her whenever she can but not to a suffocating degree, Adora still has her independence.

[crush3dmary]

Question 10 for the fic writer’s ask :) I’m a sucker for behind the scenes content. For weltschmerz! And also #2 (for fic of ur choice!)

HEY! Oh my gosh i actually did a huge twitter thread with Weltschmerz fun facts at one point, I had it linked in the fic itself but then realized... it was kind of spoilery for people who might not have made it to the end yet, so I took it out a while ago. Anyways, fun fact, the entire reason I started writing fic again was because I got the idea for Weltschmerz. I replayed symphonia with a group of my college friends and we went "wouldn't it be cool to see the game from the perspective of a declining Tethe'alla" and then I went "hmm... I used to write fanfiction in high school... could be fun to pick that up again..." and then me and my college friends brainstormed like, the entire fic. I wrote the first chapter in 2018 and it was. Not good, lol. I showed it to someone and they tore it apart (not in a bad way, it was just my first time writing anything but academic papers in years) and then life got busy and I picked it up again in 2020 and finished the whole thing in 6 months. I think there are things I would do differently now if I knew how much it was going to blow up, because I really just wrote it for me and my friends without much care as to what The Entire Tales Fandom was going to think, and let's just say not everyone liked it (I've been subtweeted by a couple popular people on twitter about how much they disliked the fic, but that's entirely another story) but I still look at it fondly after all these years as something I wrote for myself without caring about how 'cringe' it might be. I'm trying to bring that energy back to Philosophy, which is my current multichapter project, because I feel like I got pretty caught up in what other people might think of me with every upload, and that's no way to live.

Write for yourself, fuck the haters <3 At the end of the day, You Will Know Our Names, won't you? (okay, that's a vague at the people who subtweeted me, but it's funny)

[kwhayun]

hello everyone!!! introducing you to my second muse, seo hayun, who has been bothering me incessantly, especially since i applied for jinwoo first :/ luckily the admins allowed second charas early so i didn’t have to suppress him for 2 weeks.... anyways!!

you can find his profile here, and as usual, please do like this post and i’ll come to you (although probably from jinwoo’s dms, to keep everything organized for myself!!). 

more details about him under the cut!

about hayun!!! 

seo hayun—born in 1998, seoul native

he has a little sister, haeun, who is a freshman, and he’s the biggest idiot for her (aka he supports her wholeheartedly in everything)

entered kwu in march 2017

his academic standing is very complicated and he had to take some time off, so he’s technically 3rd year now

major in pre-medicine, studying on a tkd scholarship

lives on campus in ew1! 

from a middle-class family

taekwondo national representative, who has competed internationally on behalf of korea and won several golds

was preparing for the 2024 olympics as a representative from korea

former captain of the tkd team from sept 2020 until dec 2020

( tw // drunk driving, car accident, injuries ) in december 2020 he was the victim of a drunk driver and suffered injuries that had him hospitalized for 6 weeks and on home rest for months afterwards, particularly injuries to his spine and his back and waist ( end tw )

obviously had to take a break from taekwondo, which means he’s out of the olympics 

leave of absence in march 2021, started back in his classes part-time in sept 2021

he’s full time in classes since march 2022 but it’s been difficult and he still regularly attends a specific PT program

his scholarship is kind of on the line right now since it’s been nearly a year and a half and he hasn’t returned to the tkd team

he is still trying to train up to being able to do tkd again, because he loves it

4-dan black belt, he was planning to take the 5-dan exam over the winter holidays since he’d just turned 22, but obviously that was put on hold

might have to switch majors depending on his financial situation (medicine is more expensive than other colleges)

anyways overall he’s a surprisingly relaxed person

usually quick to forgive, and notably has already forgiven the person who caused his accident (pretty much to a fault)

he would rather put a conflict aside than be the one to cause trouble

too trusting and gullible!

also now part of kyungwon volunteering service because he can’t take part in anything else anymore

potential connections!!

anyone who joined kwu in march 2017

males who did military service from july 2017 to dec 2018?

pre-med majors or other people in the college of medicine

taekwondo team — he used to be the captain until the accident

people who followed his competitive journey — he’s been competing on behalf of korea since his teens and has won gold several times, so people in the field of tkd should know him!

he’s a seoul native, so people who also did tkd in childhood or went to school with him!

someone with parents/siblings who work at the hospital as a surgeon/nurse/physical therapist

someone whose parent is a renowned tkd trainer? or owns a dojo?

people who wondered why he suddenly disappeared from competition and/or school

hospital friends maybe?

he wears a brace for his back sometimes, maybe you see him struggling with reaching for something or standing on public transport and offer him help/a seat?

you don’t understand his reaction after the accident and don’t know how he can be so forgiving towards the person who ruined his life

you pity him for what he’s gone through (he doesn’t like this very much)

someone who takes advantage of his easy trust?

someone who thinks he’s just faking his injuries for attention

maybe you’re disappointed in how he’s no longer part of tkd and feel like he’s let you down somehow

i’m also always down to brainstorm! 

[heyimboredtalktome]

⛸️❄️FIGURE SKATER NICO HELL YEAH BITCHES❄️⛸️

He started at the age of four. So Maria had once taken Nico and Bianca on a trip to this place and near the hotel where they where staying there was frozen pond and people were allowed to skate on it. So teeny tiny Nico with his teeny tiny boots was having the time of his life on that pond. He was having so much fun and he caught the gist of it so quickly. He fell down, giggled, got up and fell down again. Maria was watching him and she smiled looking at her son and so when they went back, Maria signed him up for lessons, thinking that Nico would enjoy them.

He's got black skates, with like sorta pointy toes and literal gold blades (Victor and Johnny stans I see you). The blades are Imperial Gold and they were a gift from Reyna.

He does all of his jumps with his hands over his head,(the rippon variation, named after one of our favorite figure skating gays, Adam Rippon). So Rippons look like this:

Anyway that's Alina and she does Rippons on almost every jump she does. So that's what Nico does.They used to be really uncommon before the 2018 Olympics (after that everybody and their mamas were doing Rippons because-)

So Nico uses Rippons a lot.

He's got a signature combination and that's the quad lutz-triple loop.

His spins oh god he's one flexible boi, he's an amazing spinner and the speed of them is like mind-blowing, like so he does the hyperextened Biellman and that one that Kamila does:

He's so artistic, his PCS are always so high, it's as if he lays everything bare on the ice, his performances are enough to make people cry.

He's won a lot of competitions, so he won the Junior Worlds and the Junior Grand Prix Final, he was pretty much undefeated in his junior season. I'm still thinking about his senior career and I'm pretty sure it's gonna resemble Yuna Kim's except I won't let it end tragically like her's did (fuck u isu fuck u)

Okay so he's coached by a dead coach. Yep. During the Battle of the Labyrinth he'd got a zombie coach, who was really famous(like Tatiana Tarasova) when he was like, alive and so he was the one teaching Nico and jumps and spins.

His costumes are always amazing, he sometimes helps with the brainstorming process but like yes he's one well-dressed bish.

Taking inspiration from Yuna Kim and Aleksandra and Dmitrii, his most iconic program will be a James Bond themed free skate. Idk Nico and James Bond seems like an amazing combination.

There is a lake near camp and so Mr D freezes it during the summer so that he can train in camp, (because Mr D loves him and doesn't want him far away from camp)

Will accompanies him, almost always and Will's always like "How can you jump like that?" and Nico just smirks and does like a quad Lutz with five loop combos and Will's like quit showing off bish.

Nico loves to skate, he just feels free when he skates, he loves how fast and athletic it is while also being beautiful as fuck.

Nico does ballet because like literally every figure skater has trained in ballet at some point in there life and guess what, he's really good at that too.

Hades loves watching Nico while he competes, he literally watches every competition Nico competes in. Persephone too.

He's pretty famous, basically imagine the Winnie showers when Yuzu finishes, just change the Poohs with stuffed Koala bears.

Will wasn't that good at skating but after he started accompanying Nico, Nico taught him to skate too, so find them vibin and laughing on the ice, trying out like pairs lifts and stuff.

Will travels with him to competitions and stuff and sometimes it's Reyna.

Will has read so many articles about figure skaters coming down with anorexia and other eating disorders and thus being forced to retire and it absolutely terrifies him that something like that could happen to Nico. So he's always seeing whether or not Nico's having his meals on time or not and if he's healthy or not(and not starving like a certain coach forces her skaters to-)

I guess that's it! I'm a huge figure skating fan, I follow this sport....obsessively so like this was so much fun for me, I hope y'all liked this.

[riisinaakka-draws]

Part 4 of my old Black Sails scraps and doodles from 2016–2021. Not in any particular order.

And of course, please do not steal and repost elsewhere. But if you do get inspired, feel free to make your own interpretations! :D

This post contains chicken on Walrus doodles, lots of touching faces, mustache shenanigans and grooming, inktober plans, surprisingly many parental moments (?) etc.

Under the cut, because this is another very long post!

Old plans for the “chickens on the Walrus” serie (2016) inspired by [THIS]  @balloonstand​​’s post (s4 ideas) where The Walrus crew aquires lots of chickens and here are some scenes I imagined could further happen, lol.

The fluffy chicken and those rubber ones were a hot thing at the time, so I tried to incorporate them somehow xD Also I think only one person “got” my joke of “c*ck between his legs” but I guess it was also because I didn’t really draw a proper rooster... Here the chicken have occupied the cabin and are looking at maps:

Max trying to console Anne while Jack looks, snuggled in a hammock. This was right after the episode 7 of season 4 and I had no idea how things would go - but I wanted them to make amends :) I like this sketch more because the end result (2017) became quite murky and blurry :/ (I think my screen wasn’t calibrated properly, lol)

I drew this in 2016 and I remember how paranoid I was after the series ended (in 2017) because I was so afraid that some anti-silver people would be mad if they stumbled on this and didn’t read the caption properly and somehow took this like I was trying to replace Thomas (yeah I know I was overthinking things wayyy too much but things were quite heated after the finale).

But anyway, the sad hidden truth is that the ref for this was the moment when Flint is grieving Mr Gates in s1 and holding his body... and I drew this because I was just wishing there would be at least a hug in season 4 (because who else would be there to hug Flint now that Miranda was gone too? Well now we know!). Still wish there had been also a silverflint hug...

Now moving on!

“That’s my wee lad, Gimli.” (2017) This is one of the early drafts for Woodes Rogers and captain Berringer. Idk why, but I laughed when he was looking at that locket in the show and it reminded me of the Hobbit movie scene with Legolas and Glóin... Woodes regrets asking about the locket, lol. This was around the same time as the MaxAnneJack+hammock, because the lantern is very similar here. And I was drawing these right after the episodes.

Next, the grooming shop at the Nassau’s market (2019):

as you can see, the original sketch was mirrored. Another one, thinking about the values and adding Anne:

There were other versions too. One where Flint is twirling Thomas’ (?) new mustache and one where Flint is playing with Silver’s hair/mustache while they are in bed, one with Jack and his mustache and one where the Brothel Blackbeard, Silver (still clean faced bb) and Max have fun after the orgy with fake mustaches made of their long dark curly hair and Jack stumbles on them (shocked, when he wasn’t asked to join) - but the timelines were all over the place and one art was enough, lol. Although this idea grew into another piece with Flint, Thomas and Silver but I have not finished it yet.

This is original plan I had for the Abigail and Miranda piece (2018):

The ref was from the show but for some reason I ended up changing quite a lot. Although I like the colours and the ship in this one a bit more than the final result.

I just realised that this post has a lot of touching people’s faces! xD

As does this one too, lol. (finally posted the finished art in 2021)

The original working title was “PinkyChair” because the idea was that Flint was tied to the chair and Silver was teasing him, but Flint still managed to touch with his pinky, lol.

The parallels, lol ~ This is just a sketch with no further development. It had something to do with the funny pose when 1) Flint is fighting Teach on the beach and falls on his back, leg kicked straight up 2) and what if Silver used his peg leg as an extra blade when he and Flint were training.

Next, some plans for inktober 2017. I was planning to draw Anne and was trying to figure out which prompt would fit. I brainstormed almost all the prompts so I wouldn’t have to spend time thinking about them daily during the month, but never really got into it after all.

Some ideas I did use later, tho, like the De Groot and “SCREECH”:

Same batch, prompt “TRAIL” (Dooley and Flint carrying the treasure chest and Silver, Israel and company going after them). 

The next sketch is quite old (and never continued) and had something to do with the interview where Toby talked about eating his kids candies secretly or something? and how hard he found lying to his mom about things? I don’t quite remember anymore. But of course here’s a combination of Captain Flint and his mom, the dowager from Downton Abbey, heh.

Thank you for checking this out and I hope you had fun! <3

[asteristories]

Hi just wanted to ask what inspired you to write this wonderful story? I’m so in love with the plot and also the love interests 🥰

Hope you have an amazing day!!

Oh what a neat question! I know I've touched on this before but I don't mind answering it again!

So to summarize, Nevermoore was originally going to be a very specific and very self-indulgent au fanfic (...yes, I know 😅) of this piece of media I was interested by back in like, 2014/2015? It never really went anywhere, and beginnings of that story stayed in the rough drafting stage until around 2018 when I discovered IFs for the first time!

It was then I figured that I can repurpose that google document into creating an IF of my own! A lot of things had to be overhauled of course, like the characters and certain other aspects, but the main core of that au fanfic plot (a cursed town) remained. And to be honest, I don't think anyone in a million years can even guess where the original fanfic was supposed to be from anyways lol.

I began brainstorming Nevermoore in 2018/2019, and started writing and sharing it in early 2020. Then the rest is history! 😊

_____

Thank you for the ask and I hope you have an amazing day too!

[clevelandstate]

Film Students and Safe Sets

Written by Lauren Koleszar // The Vindicator

*This story has been edited slightly for length*

Film & Media Arts is one of the most hands-on majors at Cleveland State. It relies on massive collaboration and in-person filming that normally requires between ten and thirty cast and crew members for upperclassmen producing junior- and senior-level professional content. New COVID-19 guidelines require a “Safe Sets” certification, and students have been limited to crews of ten people or less on a set at one time. Camera departments that normally run on four to five students are being managed by two if they’re lucky. Students are choosing to produce scripts that need only a few actors and can be filmed at safe, easily accessible locations. Students are desperately working on pre-production and editing from home; and when on set, they’re filling multiple crew positions to make up for the absence of the much larger number of students who are normally able to work on one set together.

In spite of these challenges, film students at CSU are producing impressive creative content and becoming multi-faceted filmmakers as they take on many new responsibilities that are ultimately shaping them into better equipped professionals who will have a wide range of skills and experience.

We talked to film major Davis Chu, whose freshman year at CSU coincided with the opening of the university’s new film school in the fall of 2018. The initial lockdown hit during Davis’s second sophomore semester, and he took us through his personal experience and observation of the evolution of student filmmaking at CSU over the course of the last year.

LAUREN KOLESZAR: Elevator pitch. Who are you, what do you do and what interests you? DAVIS CHU: Hello there, my name is Davis. I’m a third-year film major, concentration in post-production, with a minor in graphic design. I am also in the Honors college. My passions include: writing, comedy, animation, editing, music, screenwriting, acting, and television. To clarify, when I say “television,” I mean watching it. Although I’m also working on an original pilot for school.

LK: Why are you studying film, and what are some of your favorite films, creatives or influences? DC: I think if life is a circus, then studying film is a trampoline. It may not have the safety net of other more stable fields, but it’s a great launching pad for someone who wants to pursue the arts. 

I’m a film major, but I don’t consume as much film as I do comedy and TV. My comedy influences include the Marx Brothers, Monty Python, Mel Brooks, Larry David, Dave Chappele, Ricky Gervais, Dana Carvey, Marc Maron, Conan O’Brien, John Mulaney, Sarah Silverman, Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert...

For TV shows: VEEP, Barry, Fleabag, Atlanta, Master of None, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Arrested Development, Succession, Girls, Seinfeld, Game of Thrones, Rick and Morty...

LK: Film is so hands-on, and most classes changed dramatically with the switch to Zoom. Describe the impact of the March 2020 lockdown on your film classes and projects. What kinds of things unique to film students had to change? DC: The period of January to March was a very slow, then exponential realization that the world was falling apart. I was supposed to edit a student short. My assistant editor was my dear friend Alex Maytin. They were yet to shoot, but the production was underway, and Alex and I were preparing to tackle the footage. It was an ambitious project and it honestly seemed monumental. Little did we know that the lockdown would dwarf our problems completely.

When school announced it was going virtual, Alex and I started brainstorming a potential remote workflow. He was gonna merge and organize the footage, mail it on a USB and I would edit. Like, we really thought the production was still happening. Needless to say, it didn’t.

Everyone in the school had to take on their own projects and oversee it from start to finish. People chose to make documentaries, short narrative films, I decided to make a small series of sketches titled Under Quarantine.

LK: What has filmmaking been like in the era of COVID-19? DC: I think the lasting impact on the film industry will be distribution. We were already moving in the direction of streaming services. But I think the presence of COVID-19 has accelerated the process. My prediction is that studios and creatives will probably lean away from film and into miniseries. I don’t really mind that. Storytelling is storytelling, whether it’s a 120-minute movie or a three-episode hour-long miniseries.

LK: How has your personal approach to creating and studying changed over the past year? DC: I’m definitely not alone in saying I’ve grown a lot in the past year. What changed the most is my approach to learning and creating. I’ve come to the conclusion that almost every skill is learnable. If you want to get good at something, all you have to do is take the time to do it. Last semester, I had a lot more time I could dedicate to my schoolwork (just by removing the time it takes to walk to and from class). I made some stuff I was really proud of. I found a love for animation. I think I have more patience for overcoming learning curves now.

LK: What has changed for the better? For the worse? DC: There are a couple super small silver linings if you look close enough. One of them is the accessibility and flexibility of education. For most of the classes I was taking, the transition was rather smooth. If I’m taking an animation class, and we’re all using our computers anyway, why don’t we take advantage of this great technology and just meet virtually?  

LK: How has the transition been for professors and faculty? In what ways have they helped make accommodations for students? DC: The professors have been incredibly accommodating. Earlier this semester, I tested positive for COVID and [it] wiped me out. I emailed all of my teachers and within a day, every one of them responded with empathy and get-well wishes. Through extensions and exemptions, I was able to catch up and now I’m back! It’s also cool that the faculty are conscious enough that not everyone has access to the same level of technology.

LK: Has there been anything you've learned or had the opportunity to experience because of the impact of COVID-19? Personal or film-related? DC: I don’t know how much of this is related to COVID-19 but I have been pretty introspective lately. I’ve been slowly coming to terms with the Asian-American experience and how race has affected me. With this topic in mind, I started writing a TV pilot for my class. I guess that is one of the benefits of being an arts major. Be it COVID-19 or racism or any problem, we have the luxury of being forced to process our emotions. 

LK: Finally, what inspires you and how do you work to overcome the weight of the pandemic on your college and creative experience? DC: I take everything one step at a time. And I try to remember that so long as I’m doing my part to keep other people safe, that’s all that really matters. Control what you can, set a good example for others, and let go of the rest. And creatively, so long as I have access to tools I can use to make stuff, I’m satisfied.

*To read this article in it’s original, full-length format or to check out other great Vindicator content, visit thevindi.com/post/film-students-and-safe-sets.

[duskholland]

can i ask you something/advice wise? do you have a writing plan? like for your series, how did you plan it out? -lani :)

okay so... planning the fame game was a very abstract process? I’ve been conceptualising and imagining a fake dating au since 2018, so I had a lot of different half-planned fics knocking around in my google docs. scattered bullet points, rough outlines, possible plot points, y’know? nothing concrete but wee ideas. I took a year out from writing and tumblr, but back in april (before I came back to tumblr !!!) I had a dream? and in my dream, I got the words ‘the fame game’. I woke up at 2am and scribbled it down on my notes app, went to sleep, forgot about it. then when I came back to tumblr and started going through my drafts and google drive, I found all these ideas, I found the note with the title, and it just....all came together. ANYWAY LONG STORY ASIDE — yes I have a writing plan. always, even for oneshots, but especially for a series. for fame game, as I said, I had a lot of scattered ideas, so I was able to pull them all together and cobble up something coherent from them. if I was starting from scratch, I’d look at prompt lists or brainstorm with a friend. with fame game, I bounced a lot of ideas off @mischiefandi and she even looked at my initial plot outline and gave me some advice, back before I even started writing it. so... long story short, the planning process for me is very much just the universe aligning 😂 lots of scattered ideas, that eventually come together to form something great :) 10/10 recommend a plan before taking on any sort of intense project!

[natesfm]

❛ ✶ ( DYLAN O'BRIEN , CIS MALE , HE / HIM ) . who the hell is blasting SUNFLOWER by POST MALONE & SWAE LEE at one in the morning ? nevermind , that’s just NATHAN “NATE” CARPENTER from 1515 . apparently , they are a TWENTY - FOUR year old LITTLE LEAGUE COACH from QUEENS, NEW YORK , and they’ve been living at the complex for FIVE YEARS . i heard they can be a bit - FIXATING , but they make up for it by being so + STALWART — which makes sense , considering that they are a ARIES ! when i think of them , i imagine WELL - WORN BASEBALL EQUIPMENT , SHELVES OVERFLOWING WITH FIRST PLACE TROPHIES , & NIKE SWEATPANTS WITH LOOSE HANDFULS OF SUNFLOWER SEEDS SPILLING OUT OF THE POCKETS . and of course , don’t forget to follow them at ( @TWENTYNATE ) ! ooc . sam , 23 , est , she / her .

hello everyone!  i’m sam and i’m super excited to introduce my muse! he’s a temporarily sidelined baseball player who’s currently coaching his childhood little league team. cue the 🥺 emojis there’s some info about him under the cut. if you choose to read, then please enjoy and feel free to message me if you would like to plot! 

STATS

FULL NAME: nathan gage carpenter. NICKNAMES: nate, penny. GENDER + PRONOUNS: cis male + he / him DOB + AGE: march 31st, 1996 + twenty - four ZODIAC: aries HOMETOWN: queens, new york ( queens village ) OCCUPATION: mlb player ( shortstop for the new york yankees, #28 ) little league coach FUN FACTS: he’s ambidextrous and has a pet cat named benny

HISTORY

nathan gage “nate” carpenter  was born and raised in queens, new york. his mother is an nyu - educated botanist who runs a popular gardening blog and his father owns and operates a sports bar in their neighborhood. he’s the eldest of two children as he has one younger sister who was adopted. 

he’s the paternal grandson of drillin’ duvall carpenter, a notable power hitter and hall of fame inductee who won three consecutive world series titles while playing for the oakland a's in the 70s, and the son of joziah “joe” carpenter, who played for the new york yankees and won four world series titles with the team — the most notable of these being his first in 1996, as it was also the year that his eldest child and only son was born. ( nate was just a few days shy of seven months old when he witnessed the game 6 victory at yankee stadium. ) 

his father officially retired from baseball in the year 2000. with most of his final earnings put into purchasing the family home and funding his new business venture ( opening up a sports bar in their queens village neighborhood ), it was a comfortable, but modest life from then on. nate was five years old when his parents adopted his sister, who would be the fourth and final addition to the family.

he was being taught how to swing a bat before he could even walk, but nate officially started playing baseball when his father signed him up for little league at the age of four, and he took to it immediately. he was good at it, his natural talent soon enhanced by skills achieved through lots of practice. as he grew up, baseball would go from a beloved hobby to his main focus, as well as his favorite thing in the world.

nate’s dad is the quintessential overbearing sports parent, except for the fact that he was never necessarily trying to live vicariously through his child. four - time world series champion joe carpenter didn’t feel unfulfilled ; he was training his son to carry on the family legacy just as his father had done with him. he meant well. he wanted to see nate succeed, but as a child on the receiving end of the relentless and often harsh criticism, nate couldn’t see that. their relationship would grow more and more strained with each passing year. 

from winning the little league world series to the 18u baseball world cup with the united states national team, his impeccable record + stats were garnering a lot of attention before he was even in high school. he received several scholarship offers and wound up at a posh private school in the area where he made the varsity baseball team as a freshman and became team captain as a junior. ( fun fact : he was also running back on his high school football team but he wasn’t as good at that. ) credited with leading the team to two championship wins during his captaincy, rumors were swirling as his graduation approached : talk of him being drafted by the mlb right out of high school and he was.

he was chosen as the first round draft pick of the new york yankees in the 2014 mlb draft. he chose to sign with the team right away instead of accepting one of the many offers he had received from universities all over the country, entering the minor leagues where he would be named an all - american athlete and continue adding big numbers to his record. 

he was called up to the yankees in 2018 and he was doing great ( although he could do without the constant comparisons to the other carpenter men of baseball ) … until about six months ago, aka when he tore his right ucl ( his elbow ) during spring training. with the injury, surgery, and healing time he would require, it was predicted that he would have to miss most of the season, which has rung true so far. the last six months have been the longest he’s gone without playing baseball since the age of four. he was crushed when he first received the diagnosis, but recently he’s become a lot more impatient and, most prominently, bored.

he needed something that would keep him occupied, but where he wouldn’t be risking undoing any of his healing, so he’s currently coaching his childhood little league team! he should be cleared to return to training soon, and he’s really looking forward to that, but he’s also worried that he’s really gonna miss coaching. :/

nate is married to desirae “dizzy” kim, who lives in his apartment with him. they’ve known each other their entire lives, starting out as best friends who literally lived right next door to each other and then later on developing into high school sweethearts. they’ve been exclusively dating since they were teenagers and finally got married right before moving to astoria, so a about five years ago. despite all of the time that they’ve known each other and been together, most people still think of the pair as being stuck in the honeymoon phase because they’re just so mushy and in love. their friends probably roll their eyes at them all the time, but then they’re also the go - to couple for relationship advice even though they’re not even really good at it.

PERSONALITY

do no harm but take no shit

he’s the go - to call when one of his friends needs help moving furniture or a ride home at two in the morning because he’s the kind of person who’s happy to help and who always follows through when he says that he’s going to do something.

HOWEVER, mistaking his kindness for weakness would be a huge error. he’s a little bit of a pushover, but take it too far and he’ll notice and he won’t just accept it.

the type of person to wake up at 5am to go for a run and just pop a dislocated bone back into place all by himself. he’s tougher than he seems and tougher than he thinks, so this injury situation has been really difficult for him.

kiiiinda socially awkward : baseball is his entire life so it’s basically all he knows how to talk about. he’s naturally shy and doesn’t tend to initiate conversations anyway, although when he is approached he’s always polite. 

once he befriends someone, he tends to instinctively take on a slightly playful, protective older brother role with them. 

WANTED CONNECTIONS 

his adoptive sister * wc on the main!

cousins ( most likely from nyc / the east coast, but otherwise anything goes for this! )

friends ( from childhood, unlikely, protective, drifted apart, etc )

someone he’s a good influence on

someone who tries to be a bad influence on him

fans

frenemies / former friends / enemies

these are just some base ideas and i’m definitely open to brainstorming!

[lachlann-macnab]

BDRP 2020 QUESTIONNAIRE

Your Name: Jean

Characters: Lachlann “Launchpad” MacNab

Pick one of your characters and talk about their growth. What about their story has surprised you? What are you proud of? How have they changed from their original inception to now?

Well, Launchpad is relatively new so he’s still pretty much the same as I envisioned him from the start-

-though I’ll admit that the idea of him having an enormous crush on Seamus/Scrooge was a surprise. I think it only took a couple of little chats with Sav and familiarizing myself with Seamus’ story for him to go “yes!! that’s the one I love!! let me at him!!”.

The funny thing is that it just kind of happened but also has a degree of canonicity to it; Granted, Ducktales ‘17 (the canon that got me into the Duckverse) didn’t delve a whole lot on the relationship those two have...but Ducktales ‘87 does and it’s fucking beautiful. 

But I didn’t know that! I was just familiar with the newest canon -exploring the relationship led me to the older canon and I absolutely love it! I love the way the older version of LP is equal parts silly and capable and I try my best to express that nice balance on my interpretation.

And I wouldn’t have found that sweet spot if it hadn’t been for Sav and Seamus!

Pick another character (or the same character if you only have one) and talk a little about where you WANT them to go. What are your plans for them going into the new year?

Oooh man, this is probably going to sound rude of me, but I want someone to call Launchpad out on his shit.

He is a happy-go-lucky man, he is positive, he does think the best of everyone right from the start, he is honest with that, but there’s also a degree of performativity to the way he interacts with people: he is a people pleaser and he’s also someone who avoids problems/confrotation when possible.

That leads to him having a hard time actually voicing what he thinks when things were serious. Launchpad will default to what he thinks is the most noble/the best option even if he actually hates it. He tries his best to be a reliable dude, but that pushes him to his limits every now and then -and he hates it, but will do it anyways.

I’d love for someone to notice that and point out his marthyr complex to him, or how hypocritical he can actually be when noone is looking. 

Jun did an amazing job at that, with the whole Moon Market incident and that is part of why I love his characterization and- I could rant about how Jun and LP are actually similar, yet different, but I won’t.

Someone please bitchslap my idiot son and tell him to be honest with his feelings, maybe get him to confront his feelings of inadequacy, maybe get him to actually face his problems instead of running away from them, kthanxs.

Pick a thread or a plot that you’re proud of and talk about why you loved it.

I have three threads I absolutely love, each for different reasons:

*Cleanliness is next to... with Jun: Jun called my idiot son out on his ‘noble man’ act. Jun was not impressed with his efforts and pushed him to an actual mini-meltdown because Launchpad didn’t know what to do or say to try and make things better: Launchpad is so used to having his way around people that the moment someone was inmune to all his tricks he...lost it. Big time. And I loved it.

*Untitled with Eilonwy: Both of them clicked instantly and- oh, man, I can’t really express what I feel about it, but:

Launchpad feels an actual, honest, connection to Eilonwy in various ways: both of them are a little bit weird, both of them are learning, both of them were kind of kicked out their comfort zones, both of them love adventure, both of them are fearless (in different ways), but there’s also a curious father-daughter dynamic to them. Eilonwy lacked not only a father figure but also a general actual caring adult one and I guess that’s part of what draws her to LP, while LP is a naturally caring man who also, (betweem the two of us), loves feeling like a good-ish role model instead of the dude people tell you to avoid because he’s an idiot, he loves looking out for people, he loves being understood -and Eilonwy, surprisingly, understands him without even trying. 

They are so very sweet, they just clicked and both of them learn new things with the other: both about themselves and the world. And I love it.    

*Dressed to the nines with Seamus: a.k.a “the one in which Sav let me go absolutely fucking ham”: It began with a chat about the need of gratious fanservice involving Seamus wearing (and getting out of) a suit -but soon became something else thanks to the Halloween task.

We soon got the ball rolling and Black Annis happened in a stupidly organic way (her very modus operandi, I discovered kind of late during the creation, ties way too well with the thread’s title itself and I’ll never get over it), and the mix of terror and action just naturally pushed the rest of the plot into the catharsis Seamus needed after all the stuff he’s been through.

The thread gave us the opportunity to write some mindless comedy, some yearning, some tenderness, plenty of gore, blood, trauma, legit PTSD, then back to tenderness and silliness -while also mentioning and showing a good deal of the things that have made Seamus the man he currently is, with the pretty and the ugly of it.  

I just think it was an amazing character exploration for both Seamus and Lachlann, and I enjoyed every bit of it. I love Sav’s writing, I love Seamus’ characterization, I love how naturally it all evolved, I love how Sav can casually bring something up while plotting and the thing just clicks into place, I love how we just kind of understand where things are going or where we want them to go. Sav’s just amazing at brainstorming and general writing and I feel really, really lucky to have the chance to write with her.

I have no choice but to stan, really.

 And I could go on and on about how the thread pushed both Seamus and Lachlann towards some big character development, but I really don’t want to rant -so I’ll leave it like this.

In terms of your own writing, identify 1-3 strengths and talk about why you think it’s one of your strengths.

Gee, that’s a difficult one. I guess my strongest suit as of now would be Launchpad’s voice as a character -and I’m not only talking about dialogue.

I think everyone that has read any of my threads has noticed by now that the flow of the narration is an extension of how Launchpad himself feels and thinks: it’s chaotic and emotional, it can get self-conscious and snarky when he, himself, can’t, it brings some exposition while not breaking the simple, chaotic rythm of Launchpad per-se.

In terms of your own writing, identify 1-3 areas of improvement.

This is way easier for me to pinpoint, hah! I definitely need to work on the length of my posts: I know seeing paragraphs upon paragraphs upon paragraphs can make people tired or make them feel intimidated to interact. 

I also need to work on organizing Launchpad’s chaotic thoughts. The narration does get long-winded and sometimes the progression from point A to point B is way too chaotic -so much so that actually erasing it all would make no impact on the overall narration. 

Pick one of your plots, or even just a character, and come up with a list of 3-5 “mentor texts” where you can look for inspiration or research, then write a short (2-4 sentences) why you picked those texts. 

Not texts per-se, but I think a good way to get a feel of Launchpad’s general vibe is to watch “Top Duck” from Ducktales ‘87 and/or “The Duck Knight Returns” and “Double-o-duck in: You only crash twice”; Those episodes do an amazing job in expressing his insecurities and passions.

Now, leaving the source material behind, I think a book he resonates with is “Oh, the Places You'll Go!” by Dr. Seuss -it’s fun, it’s simple and it has an overall heartwarming message: It kind of captures that sense of wonder, discovery and positivity Launchpad both has and wishes to offer other people. 

Another inspiration of sorts for Launchpad is Ferry’s “Parties are for losers” series: First of all, I’ll admit I’m a sucker for the Strugatsky brothers and СТАЛКЕР, so it’s no surprise I’m in love with Ferry’s interpretation of the story; I see a little bit of LP in KT’s story, but also in Yura’s and, surprisingly, in Olga’s. 

PAFL’s setting is different, yet similar, to the Soviet sci-fi original: it deals with some disenchantment, it’s far from idealistic, it’s rough, but it’s also full of wonder and adventure: there’s big risks, but there’s also a good deal of things that make things, if not better, a little bit less miserable for the characters -and sometimes that something that keeps them going is other’s presence. PAFL is, for me, the inspiration for adventures that aren’t always glamourous, simple, or happy, taken by characters that are far from perfect, that have the odds against them, that carry a whole lot of baggage and, yet, prevail.

And, finally, a last inspiration for Launchpad, my lovable idiot son, comes from probably the place one would expect the least: God of War (2018).

I’m also a sucker for God of War, sue me.  

I know it may seem bizare, but the message of the game just clicks with LP -and before you start wondering how in hell Kratos could possibly inspire Launchpad just let me tell you: he doesn’t. Because it’s not about Kratos I’m refering to when I talk about that story! I’m actually thinking of Mimir!

I love him so much.

Mimir’s role on the game is multifacetic: he brings exposition and ocasional comedic relief, sure, but I see him as the heart of the interactions between Kratos and Atreus (Kratos’ son, for those who may not know). Kratos is emotionally repressed and keeps to himself a lot while Atreus is a bundle of joy, energy, curiosity and someone that doesn’t think ‘because I say so’ is a valid answer to things; Kratos and Atreus clash during the first part of the game even when they love one another in their very particular ways.

In comes Mimir.

Mimir(’s head) joins the party and takes upon himself to act as a bridge between emotional distant father and young naive fearless son and...things start working for the three of them! Kratos starts understanding Atreus! Atreus slowly understands his father’s worries and needs! They begin the story as (almost) complete strangers but by the end they have an actual bond thanks to Mimir’s constant pushing and interventions: Mimir is soft with Atreus but bold with Kratos, the man knows when to joke and throw some riské comments for the chaos of it, but he’s also the first to offer words of comfort and understanding. 

The man becomes part of the family even when he isn’t related to them by blood, even going so far as to give a ‘no, take me instead!’ when presented with the opportunity by a pair of enemies, even when his whole story tells us that he thinks of the idea of dealing with those people (won’t say who, because spoilers) as worse than death -the man hates the mere idea of going back but doesn’t hesitate a second to offer himself as a sacrifice for his new family.

And, damn, that’s what I base my interpretation of Launchpad on. He’s not a part of the family per-se but he constantly acts as a bridge between the youngest and more idealistic parts of it and the jaded, older, tired one; He’s happy to be comedic relief but will also sit and give anyone a pep talk when absolutely necessary -he knows his limitations but keeps trying and offering his best for those he cares about. He tries to be the heart.

I’m emotional about a disembodied head, don’t touch me. Play God of War (2018), it’s fucking amazing.

And now, a wishlist!: 

I’m...actually up for everything and anything, really. I’d love some adventures, but I also love the more mundane interactions, I love the heavier topics but also the silly moments. 

I guess, as I said before, the one thing I’d really love is for someone to push Launchpad to be honest about his feelings. Also a plot about him either considering to or actually flying again -those, however, will happen in due time and I have no rush to make ‘em.

Why do you RP?

Short explanation?: I love writing and reading.

Longer explanation?: I love writing and reading, I love complex characterizations, I love exploring new ideas and seeing how little plot bunnies become full fledged plots and/or character explorations or bring some character development, I love how that creates a domino effect with the rest of the cast. I love to see things happen: I love watching from afar as other’s characters learn lessons, create and conect-

-also, I write and read all day, everyday: that’s my job. I do script revisionism and organizational comunication. During work hours I have to check the flow of words, tones, and overall intentions; I have to do my best to make sure someone’s idea fits the box, but RPing gives me the opportunity to take the box and toss it out of the window. RPing gives me the chance to write freely, to write silly, to be imperfect and not worry about going from A to B or dealing with a checklist or tones, intentions or other’s ideas. 

It’s just freeing. And that’s why I do (and love) it.

[ev--writes]

GRACE // wip intro

Hello tumblr!

GRACE is my primary novel, and it has a special place in my heart and a VERY long history. 

The History:

It all began in April 2016, when I jotted a note in my notebook, about the relationship between two childhood best friends after one of them dies. Nothing really came from it until two years later, in spring of 2018. I reimagined the original sketch of the story and tried to write the entire novel in a week (yeah, I know). Unsurprisingly, that didn’t work. 

After another reimagination, I wrote a draft for the July Camp NaNo that same year. While that version was the best yet, it was technically incomplete, so instead of editing it, I restarted it again for NaNoWriMo 2018. And yet again, it didn’t work.

Then for a while, I put the book on the shelf (I’ll talk about that in a bit). I was never super solid with that decision, so when one day in spring 2019 I was reminiscing about the book, the solution to my problem quite literally fell into my lap: I needed to change the title. I changed the title to GRACE, which led to idea after idea, a process that’s lasted for almost a year. Now I finally feel happy about the direction of the story. The only reason I haven’t jumped into this project already is that I’m trying to get some older projects wrapped up first. 

The Struggle:

A lot of things went into my decision to temporarily shelf this story, but one of the biggest was my anxiety about being accused of self-insertion. It’s not something that I normally worry about, but of all of my stories, this book is the closest to my actual life. The story is own voices (masc gay female, religous elements, etc), which is all fine and dandy, but a major element of the plot sorta happened to me? I don’t really want to get into the details, but it’s why this book has sat in brainstorming limbo for almost a year. I’m still a little nervous about it, but I’m confident enough in the changes I’ve made that I don’t really think anyone is going to care (people probably wouldn’t have cared anyway, but yaknow). 

The Story Now:

This logline is the same as the one that appeared in my master wip intro, but in case you haven’t seen it, the plot goes like this:“After the death of her childhood best friend and long time crush Vicky, Robin is invited to spend the summer with her estranged father, his new husband, and her young half-sister at their Maine summer cabin. As her relationships with her father’s family and a fellow vacationing teen Claire grow, her relationships with her remaining friends and mother back home begin to fracture.”

Setting

Most of the book happens in a made up tourist town in Maine, but parts take place in New Hampshire. Setting isn’t super important to the overall story, but I feel like New England needs more setting rep. 

Characters

These are my children. Feel free to tag yourself:

Robin

- Butch lesbian

- Cranky

- Lil self centered

- Artsy

Vicky

- Gorgeous

- Catholic girl

- Perfect? (no lol)

Liam

- All the respect women juice

- Supportive bestie 

- Dad friend

Olivia

- Kind of a bitch? 

- Dedicated worker 

- Wicked smart

  Claire

- Artsy aesthetic

- Ray of sunshine

- A party girl in another life

 Keith

- Trying his best but doesn't really know what he’s doing

- Grilling

Tony

- Patience incarnated  

- Way smarter than you might think

Grace

- Baby (well, 2)

- The family princess

The Future:

I’m currently planning on writing this for this year’s July Camp NaNo, but that could definitely change, as I’m not sure about how busy I’ll be in July.

In the meantime, I’m going to be posting pride aesthetics using the characters from this story this week for Violet Vineyard, so keep an eye out for those.

[pseudofaux]

Author (!) Interview

Thank you for the tags, @alloveroliver and @otonymous!

Name: pseu (I lowercase it on purpose, but it doesn’t bug me if you treat it as a proper name/capitalize!)

Fandoms: Now: SLBP (lingering-- I love some of the characters too much to quit!), Cybird’s Ikémen series, FE3H. I’m also reading STUPID amounts of BTS stories lately, those writers are amazing! Looking forward to: Hopefully getting back into The Arcana when some of the routes conclude. I started TAISHO x ALICE recently and I’d love to write stories for that and some of the other otome I’ve enjoyed. And like so many other writers, some original projects. :)

Where You Post: pseu slings and gift stories are here on tumblr, and everything pre-dumblr. Longer/refined pieces on Ao3. Many, many things languish in my google docs or emails I’ve sent myself and don’t get posted. 🤦🏻‍♀️

Most Popular One-Shot:  Not what I thought it would be! Here it is Venture (Kanetsugu/MC). On Ao3 it’s Something Blue, IkéSen Masamune/MC. I tried really hard last year to edit Something Blue to bring it up to where my writing is now, but couldn’t get through it. Learned my lesson in letting things be. 🤷🏻‍♀️

Most Popular Multi-Chapter Story: Real (ao3 / tumblr), which is Shigezane/[named] MC. Another one I feel compelled to edit, because I would change a lot about it if I were writing it today. But I also cherish it for what it is.

Favorite Story You Wrote: Oooooh! Hard! I think from last year that is Frost-Edged Fire, a “what happened” story for Sansa post-GoT. I like the way it reads, it felt good to make, and the response has been positive somewhere where I didn’t have my name to stand on, so I feel very satisfied with that one. I also really like one of the pieces I wrote for an Arcana zine coming out this year. :)

Story You Were Nervous to Post: I swing back and forth between “what happens, happens, I’ve written what I felt l needed to” and “PLEASE LET PEOPLE NOT HATE THIS sob sob sob”. I remember when I was working on Real I was trying to let go of some of my own standards for MAKE IT MAKE SENSE BACK FIVE GENERATIONS, so I was scared people would pick it apart even though it was such a soft, smooshy story and such a soft, smooshy thing to write. It still makes me feel vulnerable! I had my first run in with an anti in 2018 and for a while that shook me. I didn’t change what I wrote after that, but the experience was so jarring and gross I was tense.

How You Choose Your Titles: I like sideways titles, in the way of allusions and references. I usually choose single words that are either meant to encapsulate the tone or primary action of a story, or a word or short snip from a phrase, which I hope a reader will read in full in their head even though part of it isn’t there. But I understand that once something is out there, it’s really up to the reader to make of text and title what they will! That or phrases in French I try to make myself but often have to run by a native speaker to make sure they mean what I think they do (often: not quite).

Completed: I have no idea. The pseu slings bump the number way up, it’s probably around 150 total? For non-snippets, around 50? (Ao3 has 53 works, some of which have multiple sections)

Incomplete: I have an idea, and it is mortifying. There are some things I’ve written a little bit for but I know I won’t go back to and sometimes I think about putting them up as free prompts for others. Things I’m really trying on? 7. Given up but not ready to say so... 15ish? More I’m forgetting?

Do You Outline? Sorta! I start with the scene or scenes that motivate me to write in the first place, and then I have to outline to connect them. They are not usually the beginning or end because life is not fair and those parts are really hard.

Coming Soon/Not Yet Started: More IkéVamp! More parts in at last (MLQC). More FE3H! Maybe this will be the year I finally write the Isshiki-sempai story I’ve had floating in my head for Shokugeki no Soma. WHO KNOWS?! (I do. I won’t.)

Do You Accept Prompts? Sometimes! I love doing pseu slings twice a year (once in March and the other later in the year for a follower milestone or something). tbh it can be incredibly freeing, motivating, and feel-goody to write what I know someone has asked for-- connecting to requests and filling them feels wonderful and I have less time to dither or gather rosebuds or whatever, so it’s productive. I think some of my best work is writing that others have requested. 

Upcoming Story You Are Most Excited to Write: 

More of aesthetes, belligerents, contortionists (IkéSen Yoshimoto/MC).

♥️ ASH EXTRAS! ♥️

What do you use to edit?: Just me! I’m not flawless, but I trust myself more than any automatic service. I consciously choose to ignore several best practices when writing anyway. When I’m not as confident as I would like to be about something new, I may ask someone I trust in fandom to look it over as a one-time thing.

Writing setup: This is my desk right now! That’s a draft of this post on my laptop screen.

I need silence and steady lighting to write, so I set up my ~space~ in our basement. When I get a better desk chair and my cozy chair in here for brainstorming, it will be heaven! 🥰 Need: better record storage, more bookshelves, to paint, a rug instead of one of those Barnes & Noble quote blankets on the floor...

Do you use a beta reader? No. I love the just-right feeling of a good collaboration with (or being!) a beta reader, I’ve had it and it is magic! But it has proven incredibly difficult to find anyone who can be trustworthy long term + available. + interested. adflkjsf

Where do you get your writing inspiration?: Nature, conflict, and consuming other media. Museum trips. New foods. Sometimes dreams!

Can we get a quote from an upcoming WIP?:

Every lord of Kasugayama (even the lord of Kasugayama) had given her fine thread and cloth. It was Yoshimoto who made a quiet gift of needles before she could attempt to find them herself. They were in a slender little canister, painted blue and cream and gold, and when he placed it in her palm goosebumps bloomed over her arms and legs. One of his hands held hers from below and the other lingered on the other side of the needlecase, close enough for warmth, close enough that she felt like a carefully-captured butterfly. A part of her soul waited to be appraised and wished she had wings.

If you see this and you wanna do it, please do, and please tag me so I can see! I’d love to know more about your process.

[thetunewillcome]

stargazing

Summer Omens: Day 30 (on AO3 here if you prefer)

That night in 2010, Aziraphale watched them study the stars from across the garden.

“Wha’s that?”

“You’d call that the Big Dipper,” Nanny answered, following Warlock’s pointed finger up to the sky, “but here, we call it the Plough.”

“That?”

“That’s Arcturus.  See how bright it is?”

“Where is it?”

Nanny gave him a smile and shifted him to her other hip.  Wishing he could walk over and join them, knowing he shouldn’t, Aziraphale leaned forward in the chair outside the door of his quarters.  They had to pretend – couldn’t be seen together too often, even just by Warlock, or word would spread through the staff and, the next thing they knew, their jobs would be on the line – but Crowley had taken to finding creative excuses to spend time in the gardens with the child.  Even though it meant enduring yet another level of surveillance, he would not have traded the chance to see her every day for the world: and he shouldn’t have to, if all went as planned.

“Arcturus is up in the sky, dear.  Far, far away from Earth.  Though not as far as many of the other stars.”

“We go?”

She laughed, and across the darkened field, Aziraphale laughed, too.  “Go to the stars?”  He could have sworn her eyes flickered over to his face.  Her smile held back secrets.  “We’d need very strong wings for that, my love.”  She pulled him closer to her.  “Time for bed.  Perhaps you can dream yourself up a pair.”  She lingered a moment, taking one last look at the night sky before heading back toward the house.

As the shadows swallowed her figure, he thought: if there were a place where no one was watching, where no one cared how close they stood or how often they talked or how brightly his eyes lit up when Crowley entered any room, perhaps that place was somewhere off among the stars.  Perhaps, some day, they’d go dare to go there.

-

That night in 2018, Aziraphale stood a foot from him on his balcony, head tilted up.  Clouds whispered their way across the night sky, thin enough that the stars could peek through them.  “You should try to sleep,” he said gently.  Even he felt tired from the whirlwind of the past few days.  “Don’t need to deprive yourself on my account.”

“I could never sleep like this.  Too wired.”  Crowley rubbed his eyes, smearing the soot that had stuck to his face.  Aziraphale wanted to miracle his skin clean with a touch of his fingertips, but he doubted Crowley would let him.  “And it’s almost morning anyway.”

Was it really?  In the night’s fatigued silences and wild brainstorming, in between the practices and briefings – “Beez hates it when I make small talk”; “Gabriel will have heard about the possession by now, no need to hide it”; “the one with the scaly fish face is Dagon" – he had completely lost track of the time.  He checked his pocket watch: 4:37.  He knew he should suggest they switch corporations once more, go their separate ways before the sunrise, but he so desperately wanted to remain in Crowley’s orbit that he couldn’t force out the words.  “Aren’t the stars lovely tonight?” he managed instead.

Something sharp (anger or regret or pain, he couldn’t tell) flashed in Crowley’s eyes.  Afraid it would return and settle there, Aziraphale turned his gaze to the sky, nerves ragged, heart beating too fast.  The sky was beginning to lighten; it was almost time.  Will this even work?  The stars blinked silently, offering no wisdom or comfort.  One cluster of them, he wasn’t sure which, must be Alpha Centauri.  If we make it through whatever they have planned for us, he promised Crowley silently, you’ll see why staying put was worth it.  And I’ll spend eternity apologizing for not trusting you enough to go anyway, the second you asked me to.

“We should get a move on,” Crowley said, holding out his hand.  “Ready?”

With a fragile smile, he answered, “as I’ll ever be,” and grasped Crowley’s hand.

-

That night in 2029, Aziraphale laid next to him, hand in his hand, fingers laced together.  Around them, crickets sang and the cool night wind rustled the branches of their orchard.  They had reached the tipping point of August, when the world teeters between seasons, warning you to breathe in and savor the last floral wisps of summertime before they fade to fallen leaves.

“Six!” he called excitedly, pointing at the trail of a shooting star.

“Missed it,” Crowley grumbled.  “I’m beginning to think you’re stretching the truth.”

“You’re the one who turned it into a competition, dear.  I’d be perfectly content sharing the stars with you.”

“But where’s the fun in that?”

“Sharing is fun.”

“Winning is fun.”

Aziraphale rolled his eyes, knowing it was far too dark for Crowley to notice.  “And what does the winner get as his reward?”

“Dunno.  Whatever he wants?  Four!” he shouted, making Aziraphale flinch.  “Sorry,” he laughed.  “I’m catching up.  Watch out.”

Turning his attention back to the sky, he wondered what he’d request when he won.  Whatever he wants.  Studying the stars in their garden, with Crowley’s shoulder pressed against his, he searched for something he wanted that he didn’t already possess and came up stunningly empty.  

Not too long ago, he had seen betrayal and rejection – “we can run away together” – written in these stars, been haunted by what he had done.  Tonight, he read only tranquility in their gentle blinking.  Twice now, they had fought to keep this peaceful world.  The second time, they had fought as one, wiser and stronger than before.  Twice, they had won.  For any mistakes Aziraphale had made in their past, he knew he was forgiven. ��He glanced down at his reminder of this gift: the golden band on his finger.

“I thought we were supposed to share everything now,” he said playfully.  “That’s what Anathema and Newt promised in their vows, remember?”

“You want to share everything, do you?  Your quill collection?”

He hesitated.  “If you’re careful, I don’t see why not.”

“And your jumpers?”

“Well… They wouldn’t fit you properly.  And they’re not–”

“And your books?  Even the first editions?”

“Alright.”  Crowley’s shoulders shook from muffled laughter.  A grin spread across his face.  “Fine, forget it.  You called my bluff.  You know me too well, I’m afraid.”

“Nah, just the right amount to– Five!”

“And seven!  I saw it too.”

“You did not.”

Aziraphale rolled onto his side and stared down at Crowley.  “I most definitely did.”

“Cheater,” Crowley said as he lifted his head up for a kiss.  “If you win, what’ll you ask for?”

“Anything I want?”

Crowley nodded.

“I already have everything I could ever want,” he said softly.  “I have you.”  He watched his words sink in, the way Crowley still looked surprised by them despite all the ways Aziraphale had confessed his love over the years, and then he leaned down and kissed him tenderly.  He ran his fingers through long red curls.  “I mean it.”

“But that’s no fun,” Crowley whispered with a smirk.

“Fine.  I want you to figure out where that awful draft in our bedroom comes from and make it stop.  Is that more fun for you?”

Grabbing a fistful of his shirt, Crowley pulled him close.  “I take it back.  I’m your prize.  All you could ever want.  Such a sweet sentiment.”

“Now you’re just avoiding–”  He was interrupted by Crowley’s lips on his.

Above them, the stars burned and died and burst to life light-years away from where they lay.  Another shooting star streaked across the sky, but neither of them noticed.  On that late-summer night, as fireflies danced in the garden around them, Crowley and Aziraphale turned their attention away from the escape of the heavens, toward one another and the life they had made together, right there on Earth.

(Previous days: sand / ice cream / burn / camp / grass / pride / bloom / sunset / freckles / sweat / festival / snooze / lavender / lightning / relax / garden / road trip / berries / independence / solstice / trail / melting / firefly / petrichor / ice / dandelion / marshmallow / swim / fireworks)