#but i've added an outline and also clouds

[somecunttookmyurl]

25% done

decided to change the background a bit after i'd already gotten this far, which necessitated cutting off + reworking the top corner but now back to full steam ahead

gonna pre-wind a bunch of yarn before i go to bed so i can crochet just so fast tomorrow because oh boy was that a costly time loss (but worth it)

[itwasntimethatdidit40]

A heart that hurts is a heart that works - Something Rotten sequel.

first part can be read here

Pairing: Dark!Joel Miller x afab!reader x Dark!Tess Servopoulos

Words count: 3829

Rating: Mature, absolutely NSFW and again, this shit is triggering. Please, read the tags carefully and if you're a minor don’t interact.

Tags/warning: This happens the morning immediately after the events of Something Rotten, pov second person, no use of y/n, DEAD DOVE DO NOT EAT, heavy degradation, angst, smut, DUB CON/NON CON, reader is barely described, she has breasts and vagina, no mention of her skin tone, she doesn’t blush, she has hair but it’s not described, it is mentioned that Joel's clothes are too big for her (pics are just for aesthetic and don’t represent reader), the only thing is that reader's father died of lung cancer (like mine), depressive thoughts, as said in the first part: reader is held prisoner by Joel and Tess, on her leg is carved the word “pet” (Tess did it), use of a knife, groping, a large amount of bites, mention of wounds, mention of bruises, no kindness whatsoever towards reader, Joel and Tess are both EVIL, fingering (Tess receiving), oral (Tess receiving) spitting, nipples sucking and biting (it's not my ff if there is no attention towards nipples OKAY), unprotected p in v (both f receiving, wrap it up IRL), pussy slapping, cum eating, Joel comes on reader’s face, pissing, a little more scissoring, a little bit of chocking, squirting, brief insert of reader's thoughts in italics… I think it’s all 😅 If I notice I've forgotten something important I'll add it right away.

A/N: Title comes from a Placebo song called Bright Lights. It seemed right to continue with them since "Something Rotten" is also one of their songs. Anyway, I leave you the entire playlist that I listened to while I was writing both this and the first part and again thank you very much to those who recommended songs to me ♥️

There is something of my experience and pain in this so please be particularly kind. English is not my first language and I have no beta, I apologize for any mistakes. I hope you enjoy it, thank you so much to anyone who reads it.

[I started a tag list, if you want to be added let me know, I never tag people because I don't want to impose anything on anyone but if you like it I'm happy too ♥️ ]

Archive tags: @pedrostories ♥️

Your mind is completely clouded. You open your eyes and for a moment you don’t remember where you are, you rub your eyes, feeling your aching body awaken, the pain of every joint coming back to you. You reach out and press a spot on your stiff neck, a stab of pain shooting up your brain like a gunshot and then sliding down your spine, making you grit your teeth to stifle a moan.

You shut your eyes as images of what happened flash before your eyes, a piercing pain taking over your head.

You don’t know how much time has passed but when you manage to sit up, biting the pain between your lips, you see a bright light coming in through the dirty window, a speck of dust stirring in the beam of light that illuminates the messy bed, the crumpled sheets and the two people lying on it. Tess is on her side, her arms folded, her hands resting on the pillow, near her head. There is always a kind of tension in her, you see it even when she is sleeping, in her huddled body that seems ready to attack and unleash its claws on anyone. She is wearing nothing but panties and Joel’s shirt left open, revealing the outline of her breasts. 

She should disgust you, but instead as soon as you see one of her nipples poking out from under her shirt salive pools into your mouth. You put a hand to your forehead, overwhelmed by yourself, by what you feel and by a shame that creeps up inside you and makes your temples throb.

This is so wrong. Yet you would like to lace your lips on that little button and suck it, if only she would let you do it, if only she would let you lie next to her gently, allowing you to be the good pet she expects you to be.

Shifting your gaze to Joel doesn't help soothe your twisted mind. He’s on the other side, lying on his back, in his boxers, your eyes wander on the defined muscles on his chest, the softness of his belly, and a strip of sunlight hitting his abdomen highlighting hair leading to his groin. 

He seems carved out of a block of marble, skimmed by scars, exuding power and sex, the tips of your fingers graze your swollen lips and you still feel his taste, the weight of his cock on your tongue, his relentless thrusts, his hungry eyes on you. 

They must have fallen asleep, which gave you some respite even if you don’t feel rested at all.

You look at your thigh and it's still there, the pulsing sign that you should leave, just run while you can, sneak out of this place quietly and look for somewhere to hide. But you feel like a mouse in a cage, your body not moving an inch. You’re still untied; it would take nothing to reach the door and close it behind you. But what if they woke up? If they felt the bed lighten with your weight? You know they'd have you back in an instant. 

Your brain, you can't decide whether very stupidly or very wisely, thinks that it is better not to make any risky moves to stay alive. 

Helpless and desperate you lie back on the bed staring at the ceiling, the silence broken only by Joel's soft snoring.

Your arms spread across the bed as you sink into your thoughts and your fingers casually graze the knife abandoned on the sheets. The coldness of the blade sends a chill down your spine.

You have to do something for yourself. At least try. You cannot be so spineless. You move one leg off the bed, your eyes fixed on your captors, seeming not to notice anything so you move the other leg as well, letting yourself slide cautiously along the edge of the bed, finally resting both feet on the floor. You pick up the closest garment you can find on the ground, it's a Joel T-shirt, wide and long enough to cover your butt. You just have to get up, you can do it. Leaning your weight on your legs feeling your knees crack in the effort, you wonder what in your body is not sore. You are on your feet. Joel and Tess are motionless in the same position as before. You walk on the floor resting your toe and then your heel, silent and terrified like a prey trying to evade before falling into the lion's jaws, hoping that the wood will not creak under your gait. You reach for the door. You almost make it. Just rest your hand on the handle and lower it. A moment and you're out of here. As soon as your hand touches the cold metal you hear a voice behind you, “Where do you think you're going?” 

You feel your heart falling out of your chest, freezing where you are, your eyes at the door, your breath getting heavy.

“Turn around”

You do it slowly, praying you don't feel a blow immediately afterward. Joel is standing in front of you. “Please” your voice is a barely audible whisper ”please.”

Joel reaches out, grabs you by the wrist “no fucking way” 

He doesn't add anything more, he takes you back to the bed, forcibly lays you down and lies on top of you. His eyes look at you fiercely, he drops down next to your ear “maybe I was wrong about you, you're not the good pet I thought you were. Let me teach you your priorities straight“ he growls, his voice low, sharp. 

His body weighs down on you, completely overpowering you, his legs blocking yours, his hands resting on the sheets on either side of your face. 

"I give you credit for that. You were brave to think you could sneak away. But also incredibly stupid." His voice vibrates close to your ear, it is eerily calm and controlled, sounding as if it came from the darkest part of him, straight from his gut.

A lump rises from the pit of your stomach to your throat, sickening. "I'm sorry," you stammer, Joel's eyes lighting up with that sinister hue you now know like the back of your hand. 

He retrieves the knife from above the bed and places the blade under the fabric of the T-shirt, cutting through the sleeves and tearing it from the neck to the hem, reducing it to a shred of fabric lying beneath you. You tremble when the icy blade touches your skin.

His boxer-covered erection presses against your thigh, against your wound. 

Again you wonder what substance your mind is now made of because feeling him against you, demanding, claiming your body, makes your pleasure slide down your legs. You can feel it on your skin, a shiver, a wetness, a trickle of you leaving you to become his. You mold under him, relaxing your muscles, ceasing to resist, submitting to his stern eyes nailing you to the bed. 

He takes your hands and intertwines them possessively with his own as his legs push between yours, forcefully spreading them apart.

He crawls on you like a rabid dog, inhaling your scent on your neck, down to your sternum, reaching your breast, licking the skin above your ribcage “You were Robert's, weren't you?” 

His teeth close on one of your nipples, biting it, your back arches pushing against his mouth, demanding more. “This? It's mine now.” he whispers in a rough voice ‘This is mine too.’ he adds, twisting the other nipple, he moves one hand to your mound, grabbing it ”What about this wet pussy? She's mine too. I own you now. Make sure you don’t forget that, you little cock slave”

And you feel it again. The desire coursing down your body, clinging to your nerves, flowing into the middle of your thighs. 

It lingers on you deeply. And you’re pleading at that. Before you sense your own voice saying it, like it doesn’t belong to you, coming out of someone’s else body “Please” you babble “please, more” as he run a single finger through your folds.

Everyone you knew died. Every person you loved is gone, ruined by the spreading epidemic. Except your father, who passed away a few years before the pandemic broke out, obliterated by lung cancer. You still remember his jagged, exhausted breathing getting more and more labored, small and thin, until it died out completely. You still remember the smell of the hospital room, the dimness, your gripped heart, your silent tears. It was something you never wanted to see, the moment when death takes someone.  It stays inside, digs deep into you, rattles in the walls of your brain until one day it subsides and remains a creeping awareness you have to live with. A brick in your pocket that will forever weigh of absence, of pain, of lack.

And when you thought maybe you could make it, one day when the brick seemed lighter, pandemic came and your mother turned into a monster. From a fragile woman, still bent by your father's absence, to a ferocious beast with bloodshot eyes that tried to break your neck.

You had had to tear it down yourself, with your own strength, that thing your mother had turned into. And you couldn't explain it for days, or how you had done it, or what had happened. People were running around terrified, not knowing where to take refuge, not knowing if it would ever end. Until they came and loaded you onto trucks, promising to escort you to a safe area. What you were not told was that there was no solution, for some of you there was not even a place in the QZ. The epidemic took away not only the people you cared about but also your dreams, every hope you had for your future, every plan to become a good teacher, to accompany young minds in creating a better world. There is nothing left to create, only destruction.

You could have offered yourself as a teacher in the Qz but you had decided not to bow to a system that spread only government propaganda, instilling in kids that there was nothing else to believe in but FEDRA. 

And even in the face of desperation the cruelty had not stopped, some soldiers had tried to take you at night, traumatized and without strength, you had been saved only by the good heart of one of your neighbors who had defended you. You had jumped out of the truck, along with him and some other people, looking for an alternative that would never come. They had fallen like skittles, one after another. You were tired of seeing it, the cold hand of death reaching out to everyone around you. 

Your heart still aches horribly, but after all, a heart that hurts is a heart that works. And you're still alive. 

He takes the finger away and shoves it in his mouth, enjoying the taste of you and then he’s close to your ear again grazing you with his beard and graveling “I knew you were a little slut,” Joel's heavy breath warms your skin, driving your being back into your body. “When I'm done with you you'll want nothing more than to be my brainless whore”

You’re bucking your hips against him, mindlessly, while he takes your body with his mouth and hands, furiously licking, biting and groping your flesh, moving impatiently over you on the bed and waking Tess up. She takes a few seconds to focus, abruptly recovered from a deep sleep, but then you hear her dry voice, “oh, are you having fun without me?” 

Joel does not tell her that you tried to escape. which in itself is a miracle for you. He turns to her just a moment, leaving your nipple with a loud pop .

“Come” he tells her, and it's almost sweet. Almost. Tess comes crawling up on the bed like a feline and looks down at you, smiling cruelly. 

“Lie on top of her, make sure this bitch doesn't move” Tess nods, he makes room for her, and she crushes you with all her weight, her scarred back against your tits, as if you were a mat, clinging to your arms as Joel watches the scene smugly "Quite a picture" he growls.

He pulls down Tess's panties, tossing them aside. He does the same with his boxers.  “This is exactly what I want. Two pretty cunts all for me” 

He stoops to observe you both, his eyes roaming your sexes, his thumb touching you first, a creamy river in between your folds, and then Tess. She snorts “will you hurry up?”

“mmm you're not wet enough honey, but we can fix that”

“Honey”, you think he is the only person who can call Tess that. Anyone else would be out of balls in a heartbeat. 

He buries his face in her cunt and you feel Tess stiffen on top of you, her whole body reacting to the first touch of Joel's tongue. You seem to catch a glimpse of submerged fragility behind all that violence and resentment she always displays.

She grips your wrists in a vice as her hips rise toward Joel and a low, deep moan escapes from her throat. 

Joel's fingers run hard and calloused over your folds, collecting what drips from you and spreading it over Tess's pussy, mixing your essences, then returning to lick her. And you can feel her, crumbling on top of you, conceding willingly, every muscle in her asking for more.

Each lapping of Joel's tongue on her vibrates over your body like a wave, Tess's butt sliding over your folds, crawling over your clit, giving you reflex stimulation.

“Mmmm just like that, baby, that’s fucking good” 

She whines so sweetly under his ministration, an undertone so vulnerable and tender in her voice you almost think she turned into another person. And you are in the front row watching this, a silent witness to the other Tess, the one who still has a shred of humanity hidden within her.

It’s unique, you think, how sex with the right person, a person we care about, a person we share a path with, makes us. Defenseless, no mask to wear against the world. Even Tess, perhaps the coldest woman you’ve ever met. 

“Nice and drippy” Joel murmurs, nuzzling at Tess’s cunt “fucking gorgeous” 

He dips his nose in there, moving through her folds up to her clits, brushing the tip over it. “You smell so good, babe, such an nice mess for me to feast on” 

“Fuck” Tess gasps “just fuck me” 

“Yeah baby, I’m going to stretch you both so damn right” 

Tess rolls her eyes in twisted need, impatient like the bossy woman she still is and you whine like the shy mess that you are. 

So different and yet ready for the same cock. 

You noticed the way Joel’s voice soften when he speaks to Tess, the intimacy between them is palpable, in this moment you’re just an appendage. 

You want that desperately, belong to someone, to him, to her, to feel his voice and his whole body going unshielded for you. 

Joel spits into his palm and takes his cock in his fist, pumping it and then tapping the tip on her cunt, once, twice, three times, rubbing it on her folds, lubricating it with her juices, before getting it all the way inside her. Tess's body arches so desperately over yours, merging with Joel's as he begins to thrust inside her.

She thrashes on top of you, clinging to your forearms, pushing you back against the mattress, her hips swaying over yours again giving secondhand attention to your clit, now so swollen and needy that each thrust you emit a moan in sync with her, shyly participating in her pleasure. You bend your neck slightly to one side to look at Joel standing before you, bronze and sculptural, a cruel god who leaves you breathless. His chest glistens in the dim sunlight streaming in through the window, revealing tiny droplets of sweat beading on him, a grin painted on his face, brows furrowed, lost in Tess's wet walls, focused on pounding on her special spot again and again.

“You like that huh? You like this cock splitting you, yeah, I know you do, fuck you’re so drenched I could take a bath in it, all slippery and warm...mmm baby, just like that. Take it.”

He rests a hand on her belly to hold her more firmly, a sense of possession different from that manifested with you, purer and deeper, made up of silent, recurring gestures between them. It's as if you feel it all the way down into your stomach as he sinks into her, the forced closeness making you almost delirious, sensitive and wanting.

Tess is almost at her peak, sliding on you now unceasingly, her back kneading your breasts, up and down, your nipples impossibly hard against her skin, she stammers "there- there- I'm almost there- oh fuck"

"Not yet, baby, hold it back" he challenges her and she growls in disappointment and frustration, as he comes out of her. Joel brushes against you "it's time to put this slut in her place. You want it huh?" he roars as he looks at you "I can see it from here, you're flowing like a fucking river, clenching around nothing like a whore” 

His eyes sparkle with evil. He spits on your cunt, a glob of saliva right on your clit. He spreads it quickly over your entrance and thrusts into you unceremoniously, all the way down, in one breath-breaking stroke. "You're full now huh? Clench around my shaft, bitch” 

You feel your walls strangle his cock, eager to hold him inside, to belong to him, to be broken through. "Yes" you moan, not even sure why you had tried to run away from this anymore. Tess wouldn't even need to hold you with her whole body but you'll never say it, the way she bounces on top of you drives you crazy. You are back on the scene now, eager, drunk with a dark, all-consuming desire burning in your veins.

He grips your hips hard, digging his fingers into your thighs, going out and back in you harder, deeper each time, using your cunt as his personal toy, beating on your cervix as if he were to fill it with bruises. And you don't care, welcoming each thrust as if it were the last thing you will ever receive.

Your mouth proceeds alone, bellowing and wailing each moan like an off-key song you can't stop singing, irrepressible, obscene, feverish.

"You're tight for a whore, pet, but don't worry, I'll take care of it." Joel grunts, Tess echoes you, her harsh voice protesting uselessly to let her finish, her legs wrap around Joel's waist claiming him but he is focused on ruining you now with the cruel and unrelenting force he has not reserved for her.

Her nails sink into the skin of your arms, you feel them barely disconcerted by Joel's stabs but a tiny part of your brain knows they will leave more marks on you. 

There is nothing gentle about it, no attention, no care, just animalistic thrusts that make your body shake like an earthquake. 

You are less, obviously less, but you are still something.

Tess turns on you, looking into your eyes, lowering a hand to your clit, rubbing it furiously and then colliding it with her own, clit against clit, pressed together in sloppy kissing, hips rocking back and forth, sliding up to the point where Joel joins obscenely with you, seeking on her own the finish Joel has not yet given her by using your body.

“Oh fuck, yes,” she screeches, "here we go little slut, give it all to me" biting your skin on the marks Joel left, on your neck, on your tits, sucking your nipples between her lips, unrestrained. She's a wild amazon riding you, untamed, fierce and mean, teeth, tongue and hips demanding no permission and taking from your body what they want. 

And then again her hand descends between you to rub her clit as her knuckles press against yours, squirting letting out a guttural sound, flooding you, Joel's cock and the sheets. 

Joel growls at the vision “oh that’s fucking right, babe, yeah spurt all over me, FUCK, so good”

And you lose yourself, your sanity flying out the window with your attempts to escape, you are caged by Tess's body, hammered by Joel's cock, you feel their eyes on you looking fiercely, them calling you their slut again and again, that's all you can do. 

Tess pulls away from you, Joel holds you firmly by the hips, his face contorts into a grimace, he bites his lower lip as he thrusts himself possessively into you, reaches down and puts a hand around your neck, squeezing your pulse point, smiling cruelly as your air diminishes and your mind becomes rarefied “keep it up slut, milk me” and she scolds him “you can't cum inside her”.

“Fuck” he snorts "you're right". The grip on your neck loosens and you gasp, panting hard, trying to regain oxygen.

Joel slaps your pussy hard with his hand open, ordering: “on your knees, pet.”

You sit complacently on your lap on the bed, uncertain of what he wants to do. Tess is at your side, sneering. 

“Stick out your tongue for me.” He says harshly, Tess's hand bends your back, making you squat, waiting. 

“Good kitten” Joel grunts stroking his cock up and down, the angry red tip aimed at you. You don't realize it in time that long, thick, streaks of cum hit your face, your mouth, slide down your chin. You close your eyes just a moment before you feel his semen hit your eyelashes and run thickly down your cheek.

“Mmm now you look just like a proper slut” Tess giggles wickedly, then pauses "In fact no, we can do better". She grabs you by the arm, drags you naked as a maggot into the bathroom, and gets you on your knees inside the tub. “Hold still” she barks at you. You close your eyes, trembling, not knowing what to expect, until you feel something warm hit your forehead, run down your face, partially wash the cum off. An acrid, pungent smell makes its way into your nostrils. As soon as it reaches your lips you realize. 

You open your eyes, clouded by Tess's piss, her degrading gaze penetrating your bones along with Joel's laughter, standing in the bathroom enjoying the show. 

“Now you're perfect.”

tag list: @aurorawritestoescape , @baronessvonglitter

[wrathofrats]

I've been seeing the Swiss grabbing his crotch gifset going around again and the Swussy thoughts you posted and my brain can't help but try to combine those two ideas like I'm smashing two action figures together to make them kiss so here it is--

Swiss being in heat (or just being feral as usual) and unable to help himself and reaching down to press his fingers against his throbbing clit, feeling how wet he is. With how much he wiggles and moves during a Ritual his folds and puffy lips slip and slide together and he just can't help it after a while, just needs to touch and it's not like he forgets that he's literally in the middle of a Ritual, it's that he doesn't care.

And also because I can't help myself with Swissalps--Mountain seeing it and smelling him and it makes him break a pair of his sticks with how hard he grips them, especially when Swiss is all but humping the stage during Watcher in the Sky. He's gonna wreck that Swussy at the first opportunity he gets.

In hindsight Swiss should’ve known better.

The signs were there. Waking up in a cold sweat with his cheeks burning, a tugging feeling in his gut that could only be quelled by a hand roughly palming himself on top of his hotel comforter early in the morning. He chocked it up to the shitty hotel ac, barely blew into the room and during the dead of August the small breeze didn’t help much.

The main sign was when the feeling didn’t stop once he was packed up and back on the tour bus. Swiss sat in front of the vents with his face in the air, legs drawn up to his chest in a feeble attempt to stop the ache between his thighs. Too hot and too much. He elected to ignore it anyways.

Swiss should have thought ahead more when he had to change his underwear to put on his uniform. His own heady scent filling his nostrils as he pulled off his sweats, dragging the damp fabric down his legs. It should have been the main factor in trying to just breathe through the show, go through the motions without incident and once he was off the stage he could fall at mountain or rains feet and beg them for help, even if he was ignoring his own heat.

Heat clouded his mind, fingers slipping down and between his folds as he pulled off his underwear to change. In his brain the excuse was to clean up, to just see how wet he truly was, but the excuse falls apart as he brings his own fingers to his lips with a whimper.

Swiss was much too sensitive like this, just the act of sliding his fingers between himself with the intent of innocence had him bucking and his thighs shaking with want. He could feel his clit pulse as he reluctantly pulled his hand away from himself.

He just had to get through one show, and someone would help him.

The beginning of the show goes smoother than he thought, even if his head was clouded it served as a good distraction from how much he needed to be touched. Swiss went through the motions, some shimmies and shakes when he realized he had been lost in space for too long.

It only got worse the more he performed, the mic stand now being realized as an excellent form of friction along with his guitar. He could see a small darker outline on his stand as he pulled away from a particularly pointed thrust against it, his own slick seeping through his pants and leaving a damp spot on the metal.

He needs to touch, he needs something. He knows where he is, he knows he’s in the middle of a ritual but swiss can’t bring his foggy brain to care.

Mountain is the first to notice. Out of the corner of rain or dews eyes Swiss looked like he was acting normally, his usual antics that would get him a joke talking to by copia or another band member about being a whore. But this time? Mountain can see his mic stand shine in the light from behind him. Slick from where he grinded on it like he just couldn’t help himself.

He watches his hands move down his body, pretending like he’s performing even as the heel of his palm digs right into his cunt, no doubt adding pressure to his clit. It’s obscene, mountain has no clue how he gets away with it but god he’s glad he’s so far back behind his drums, any closer and the audience could probably hear him growling from underneath his mask.

The drumsticks in his hands crack, part of one going flying behind him as mountain continues to stare.

He’s going to ruin him.

[wildflowerteas]

20 questions for fic writers!

thank you to vik @minusboy for the tag <3 <3 <3 i missed seeing you on my dash.

how many works do you have on ao3?

. . . 2

what's your total ao3 word count?

503,872. (⊙ _ ⊙)

what fandoms do you write for?

just bsd! i try to work on original stuff in my down time, and I've considered writing for hannibal, sw, dune, etc... before however I've found i enjoy reading fics more for those fandoms.

what are your top five fics by kudos?

i don't have enough fics for this ;_; 1. when i awake 2. the second perspective

do you respond to comments? why or why not?

i try!! i have a huge backlog because i was gone for so long but i'm slowly slowly working through them ( 180+ )

what's the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

when i awake's ending is definitely bittersweet, but sometimes death really is just the ending that provides the best narrative fulfillment for a character. however considering the ending I have planned for tsp... ugh. i actually think when i awake might be angstier

what's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

see above.

do you get hate on fics?

apparently~ not much, though, thank god. i have seen people talk about my writing in passing on twitter when they didn't know it was me they were replying to, or they think i don't check the qrts on my posts, but it's mostly harmless stuff about my writing not matching their preferences which is alright <3

do you write smut?

yes, only very recently though

do you write crossovers?

i'm thinking about it... mostly because i think an altered carbon bsd au could go CRAZY

have you ever had a fic stolen?

no!

have you ever had a fic translated?

i've had people ask to! but nothing has come out of it just yet ( or maybe I haven't looked hard enough )

have you ever cowritten a fic before?

i'm hoping i can...i just have huge issues with creative control so it's going to be a big thing for me.

what's your all time favourite ship?

Hannigram or destiel

what's the wip you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

with the way things are going right now it might be TSP. but in all seriousness, there's a BEAST AU skk thing sitting in my drafts waiting for a better outline...and all I do is stare at it longingly. lots of little snippets of it exist in a nebulous plot cloud ( my notes app ) alongside the synopsis of a soukoku actors au

what are your writing strengths?

i think the thing i do best is probably symbolism or the like... bringing moments back full-circle, weaving bits of the real-life authors' or bsd canon and meta-canon into the fic is where i find myself most satisfied with what I've done. also--since TSP is so noir-inspired--adding references to some of my favorite films hehe.

what are your writing weaknesses?

i'm awful at dialogue ( banter ), action sequences, and planning.

thoughts on writing dialogue in another language for a fic?

i don't do it in languages i don't know unless i have a team of people willing to check it for me. i just write it in the same language as the rest of the fic and add a dialogue tag specifying it's being translated...

first fandom you wrote for?

you'll never find it but i did write destiel way back when

favourite fic you've ever written?

it WILL be TSP... when i finish it.

tags!!! no pressure to continue <3

@booksandpaperss @nyxi-pixie @saoirseyun <3

[perfectlysanexd]

How do you do your Final Fantasy edits?

The hard way, my friend. No AI is used here, I do it all by hand. 🥰 I assume you mean the screenshot manipulations I create? I'll try and give a simple summary... First, I boot up Remake on PC and use a "free camera" mod(you can find the links to the mods I use on my archive pages for manipulations, which is on my pinned post) to take a couple screenshots that I think will work well together. Sometimes I change my mind and choose a different one. It can be hard to match the camera angles and lighting, so sometimes I have to mess with that later, as well. But it's easier if they fit together from the beginning. We'll take my current WIP as an example. I started with these two screenshots:

I open them in the free program GIMP (GNU Image Manipulation Program), which anyone can download at gimp.org. Then the first thing I do is choose the base image. In this case, they're both facing the same way, so I choose to flip Sephiroth(you can't really do that with Cloud easily because of his earring, and his hair is less symmetrical). Since the camera was closer up on Cloud, and he's the smaller one, I usually choose Sephiroth's to be the base image. With that decided, I roughly cut Cloud from his background and paste him onto Sephiroth's image as a new layer. Then I position him, resize him, rotate him, whatever I need to do until he seems to be in the desired place, which ends up looking like this: (I ended up adding snow for this preview, so it would look more complete than it is when I showed it to my server, haha)

If you look at Cloud, you can still see a thick outline of his old background around his head. Once he's positioned properly, it's time to remove the rest of his background(I use a size 10 eraser with 100% hardness and zoom in about 5 times). Then I need to think about where they're connected, and how to make them look like they're touching, as well as layering to make them seem intertwined, as if they're truly occupying the same space together.

I cut away some of Cloud's shirt, and the rest of that effect will come with shading later. If I wanted Cloud even closer, I would make a duplicate of Sephiroth and erase his background, so that his lock of hair would appear to go over Cloud's face. I could also make it semi-transparent, so you could see the outline of Cloud's face through his hair. You can see I have some small game defects to fix, such as Cloud's hair clipping through his ear. I leave those tiny details for later, typically. Sometimes, because of their height differences, I have to "rebuild" missing parts of them from scratch, such as I did for this other manipulation:

It's a delicate process that's mostly the clone tool(to keep the textures) and some freehand drawing, but I don't have an art tablet, so I use my mouse for everything, which can be quite challenging. I've had a lot of practice from translating doujinshi, where I'd erase the words, rebuild the missing part of the image, and then place the translated words over that spot.

In any case, I decided I wanted more out of this manipulation than just leaning against each other. I wanted Cloud to be reaching up towards Sephiroth, and perhaps for Sephiroth to be pulling him closer. To do that, I needed pictures of their hands/arms like so:

I've taken hundreds of shots, so I looked through what I had first, but it wasn't the right angle, or was the wrong outfit for Cloud, so...then you open up those images and cut out the parts you want. After that, you work on positioning and things like that again. I haven't finished with that part yet, so it looks a little awkward. (And when you're doing these kinds of things, color matching is very important, but that's a bit advanced.)

I'm not fully satisfied yet, so I'll probably remove the rest of the background from the arms and then mess with the placement. As for Sephiroth's hand, I intend to thread it in Cloud's hair, so Cloud will need to be duplicated in order to create that layering effect, as mentioned previously. Which should end up looking similar to this one:

(I had to draw in most of Cloud's hand because I didn't have the camera mod back then, and the Sephiroth shot was provided to me by Coeurlwhiskers.) After that, it's a matter of shadows and highlights, remaining details, and finishing up the colors, etc. It's a long and difficult process, and can take many hours to complete, depending on how ambitious I get with it. Most of that stuff would be a much longer tutorial, and I did used to do some actual artwork a long time ago, so I...kind of know what I'm doing?? I probably do a lot of stuff the hard way(like not using layer masks) because I just don't have the time to teach myself more than the basics. 😅I know it may seem daunting, but it's really fun! I hope I managed to answer your question properly. Feel free to ask follow ups~

[asukiess]

top five fics you've written!! <33

I feel like my favorite fic is always the last one I've posted.... I also feel like I have all this love for the fics I've NOT posted, because they aren't finished and therefore aren't realized/actualized yet >.<

anyway anyway..... out of what I've published, here are my top five:

the secrets we keep - I still think this holds up. I think it conveys adrien's emotion super well, that transient feeling of being lost as a teenager, especially when things aren't exactly adding up in Marinette/Ladybug's behavior under the surface. (I had more planned for this series: a brief look at Marinette's anxiety spiral one night that Adrien spends with her; a oneshot outlining a day in the summer that Adrien covets so much with the core four, and a Nathalie and Marinette conflict and Marinette's issues with the house; Felix stopping Adrien from spinning out of control and a adrifelibug moment; and a party thrown at their graduation. the marinette-anxiety one is mostly written and the adrien & felix & ladybug one is outlined to boot.) anyway, love this fic still and I think it's cohesive and tight and nicely written.

the light that throws itself on everything - I'm proud of myself for posting something new and esp. poetry when that's not like... my specialty. that ninth stanza is my fav <3

for the hope of it all - I think this is honestly some of my strongest writing! love them!!!!

a rose by any other name - this was. so so so fun. I'm still surprised it has so much attention when this was practically a made-up ship and OC and ahhhh. I think it's a cute story and the end scene is one of my favorites.

the clouds above (opened up) - I wrote this in one sitting and I remember being SO hyped for the special and remembering my own little emo phase and wanted to capture them as I saw them, before the special came out. I remember rereading it a ton in the following days.

[b-blushes]

As a quasi "goal" this year I want to let people know about the things that make me happy/joyful. So I think your blog is neat and I am especially obsessed with the bird and fish suncatchers you posted. Big inspo vibes there; and I'd love to know how you started making them :D Hope you have a good day~

ah that's so lovely, thank you! i think i've posted all of the suncatchers i've made now, but i have 2 more specific ones planned to make in the next couple of months >:3 they came about when i was thinking about christmas gifts to make for friends last year. in 2023 my friend @/hierophant-mean made me a digital drawing (and stickers from the drawing!) of a coelacanth (my beloved) for my birthday, and then in 2024 i made them a embroidered hoop based on the drawing for their birthday~ (their drawing has a coeacanth swimming through clouds, i called mine 'star eater)

i can't honestly remember how i jumped from this to the suncatchers! 2024 was really 'year of me adoring looking at fish' and atm i'm not really feeling drawing/adjacent techniques either traditionally or digitally, so i wanted to make something about them (fish) in a different medium for my friends. i have a couple of rainbow-maker window stickers, and several suncatcher crystals hung up in my kitchen, and i loooooooove when it's rainbow time!!!!! so i think i just connected the dots between components. also i was trying to make gifts out of things that i already had, and i had sooo many sequins left over from making the above hoop :P and lots of felt leftover from various felt projects in years previously (last year i made felt 'gingerbread house' style ornaments for christmas gifts), although I did end up buying some more of certain colours! first fish project i made/ first double fish project/ first 'fish-adjacent' project:

can't share the 'actual' first ornament fish project as it's yet to arrive at another friend's house, but second ornament fish-adjacent project:

it was really fun iterating on these, and on the process of making them! i digitally drew all the patterns myself from references, and it was tricky but fun to problem solve how many of each pattern piece i would need. it was also fun but challenging picking subjects - my criteria were things like - striking colours but with minimal patterning due to the limitations of adding small pieces in felt - challenging medium as it kind of. fluffs apart if you do too much to it? (also darker colours show more rainbow contrast with the iridescent sequins, but on lighter colours they have more of a 'scale' type effect, fish style) - distinctive outlines that make them pleasant overall shapes to look at - not too fiddly shaped due to aforementioned felt challenges - something that had a personal link to either me or the recipient, or symbolised something i wanted to say to that person (like, i wanted it to be something that felt like it came from me, so it was a bit more personal, even though either way i was making them from scratch! bonus if it was a thing that we both shared a memory of)

construction wise, i made the first (my pink trout-style fish who hangs in my kitchen window) by sewing the four base colours of felt onto a fabric backing in an embroidery hoop, then cutting them off the fabric, but this was not the ideal way of doing it. after completing it i noticed some things i wanted to improve on, such as no visible stitching on the back, fewer gaps between felt pieces, and an overall 'easier' process. that one took me a month to make, between - digitally drawing out the pattern - picking colours - figuring out how to cut and layer the felt pieces to create something that was a 'nice' thickness - figuring out the order that all the pieces needed to be assembled in - actually making the stripes fit together (drawing around pattern pieces on different pieces of felt inevitably meant they ended up slightly different shapes than a flat digital drawing) - working out how to attach the fins (and sew details through a single layer of felt without disintegrating it) - how to do a nice eye - how to construct the thread of star sequins that they hang on etc Once i'd completed that one though, i actually had something to work with and edit, both process wise and materials wise. I ended up discovering the existence of 'double sided interfacing' and learned how to use that as i went, making it much easier to add backs to everything to hide visible stitching, to cut out pattern pieces (you iron it to one thing, then iron that thing to another thing, so then the felt is a bit less susceptible to fraying when you cut it out) and to add small details (although i did add tiny stitches in colour-matched thread to most added parts to reinforce them, and also strategically placed the iridescent sequins so i could sew through multiple colour points to 'connect' them more where applicable)! At times it was veryyyy frustrating because i imagined them so the only person i could ask about the instructions was ME! and i had no clue what to do :P but it was also extremely satisfying solving the problems! in the end they were taking me a few days to make instead of a few weeks.

this was probably waaaay more detail than you wanted hahaha i know you said 'how you started making them' instead of 'how you make them' i'm just jazzed to talk about FISH PROJECT! :P thank you again for such a lovely message!

[the-music-maniac]

I have a fluffy FF7 fanfic idea (spoiler warning for the anime, My New Boss Is Goofy):

I've seen a lot of AGS and AGSZC posts on tumblr that outlines the possible hilarity of these idiots being a friend group, and something about Sephiroth's usual characterization in these posts (deadly competent in areas related to his job, hilarious when it comes to dealing with Normal Human things) reminds me of the characterization of Shirosaki from My New Boss is Goofy.

As a general summary for those who haven't seen this hilarious anime, it's about an office worker that switches jobs because his boss was mistreating him at his previous work. He's worried that the same thing will happen at his new job, but his boss's general silly mishaps/behavior quickly dispels his concerns, and he ends up building very close friendships with both his new boss and his coworkers.

I made the connection cause I saw a 'what if Sephiroth got a cat' post, and was reminded of that one scene where Shirosaki ran into a cat - who got freaked out by him since he ALSO has cat-like eyes.

And the more I thought about it, the more I feel like Sephiroth in a modern, non-traumatic-backstory au might be quite similar to Shirosaki? He looks intimidating, has a general blank expression on his face, is pretty quiet, is smart and also super competent when it comes to doing his job but hilariously misunderstands social cues etc. resulting in slightly embarrassing and adorable mishaps, and he cares about people in a very subtle but supportive way. The only thing I would say is Sephiroth is a lot more sassy than Shirosaki. Also a lot more deadly than Shirosaki but again we chock that up to his traumatic backstory of being raised to be a living weapon.

Basically, what I'm saying is that I think it would be hilarious if there was a 'My New Boss is Goofy' au with AGSZC. Things would be slightly different since their personalities are not exactly the same, but I think it weirdly fits??

And while I also love the premise of them just doing normal jobs, I also think it would be really funny if it was set in a FF7-esque world but where like. They're almost like superheroes working for an organization - cause I do think the juxtaposition of an office comedy for people who still work with weaponry and fight 'bad guys' would be funny.

Cloud would be Momose - the MC and the person who was grievously mistreated by his former boss, is now nervous about his new job, with his new boss who has a very intimidating blank face and is really quiet and is clearly high up in the organization and he's seen him on tv and he's important and why is he not saying anything oh god -

Sephiroth: [accidentally sets Cloud's ID picture as his screensaver instead of sending it off to the security department for approval]

Sephiroth: [Gets startled by a bug despite being a literal supersoldier]

Sephiroth: [misunderstands Cloud holding his hand out for a pen and slowly grabs hold of it in a confused manner]

Sephiroth: [comes back from a mission with his hair poofed and tangled like a giant pom pom]

Sephiroth: [is truly and genuinely delighted every time he encounters pumpkin soup]

Sephiroth: [will undergo emotional damage over cats and how adorable they are]

Cloud:

Both Shirosaki and pre-nibelheim Seph cared a lot for the employees under their direction, so that's something that would shine through. And since I do adore Sephiroth's sass, I think Cloud could find both Sephiroth's goofs funny in itself, and also his sense of humour.

In addition, the whole Momose being inspired to apply for this company by an ad that Shirosaki had created is a good parallel to Cloud wanting to join Shinra because of Sephiroth. IT FITS. Except in this au it's less dark and propaganda-y.

And then I think Angeal would absolutely be Aoyama, seeing as Angeal is kind of the mom friend in the fandom and Aoyama is the...director?? Supervisor??? But instead of his whole thing of wanting someone to pay attention to him, it's him wanting people to listen to his lectures about honour.

Since I think that Genesis can be quite a volatile personality (affectionate) I don't think there actually is a character in My New Boss is Goofy that would fit him closely, so Imma just straight up insert him regardless lmao. He's part of the superhero team and he's a supervisor along with Sephiroth. He still has that rivalry going on with Sephiroth but it's a lot less antagonistic here, and I think their snarking would be the perfect time to show off Sephiroth and Genesis' legendary sass. In all other areas, they're mild mannered and polite, all bets are off when they're in the room together. I think Genesis would also find Sephiroth's fumbles endearing - since it's canon that in general the entire office enjoys Shirosaki's antics.

Zack I think fits as Kinjo since I think Kinjo also partly joined the company cause he saw Shirosaki's demeanour towards his employees - again a parallel of Zack being inspired by Sephiroth's hero propaganda, but Kinjo ends up under Aoyama's supervision, aka the mentorship with Angeal. He's also the only one that indulges Angeal's lectures on honour (despite his own dismay at the sheer length of those monologues lol). He has the same time of enthusiastic and interestingly calm/carefree demeanour as Kinjo, and it's in contrast with Cloud's more anxious type of demeanour that fits with Momose. Also since these two are the younger in the AGSZC group, I think it fits that they'd be under the supervision of Angeal and Sephiroth. Also Zack as someone out and openly bi like Kinjo is! Yes, I can see it.

Also since Shirosaki does have a cat and I think it's cute for Sephiroth to have a cat, this is an excellent course of action.

Regarding Sephiroth's family, since we DO see Shirosaki's family in the show, I think it would be adorable for Lucrecia to be in the role of the grandmother in my new boss is goofy (but as a mom instead) who has a wildly successful YouTube cooking Channel lmao, and for Aerith to be Shirosaki's (Sephiroth) big sister. I know she's younger than Seph in canon, but in this case - big sister that travels the world to do photography and is hella famous for it?? Hell yes. Their relationship would have a different vibe to the one Shirosaki has with his brother cause both Seph and Aerith are sassy lil shits, so I think that interaction would be quite fun to watch. Cloud's just sitting there looking back and forth like he's watching a tennis game.

Also, I do wanna say that I kind of ship Shirosaki and Momose, while I'm perfectly happy with them just being close friends, they would be literally adorable as romantic partners. They got super close super quickly, and I do think those themes were present in the show, seeing as how the previous bosses were abusive relationships that were paralleled with that of domestic partners to kinda drive home the point, and the show kept showing people misunderstanding Momose and Shirosaki's relationship. All this to say that you can absolutely view this as sefikura if you want to 👀👀 I think it would be cute. Especially during that period of time where Momose and Shirosaki are roommates, and Cloud gets to see Sephiroth with his hair all messy and in cozy oversized sweaters and shit??? And they have a cat that's literally a combo of both their names??????? AH.

Anyways - lol I half wanna write this fic and half wanna just sit back and wish it into existence, but these are my ideas!

[vacantgodling]

1, 3, 4, 8, 15 for the end of year ask game!! :3

hewwo thank you for the ask <3<3

1. what was your writing-highlight this year? what made it special and how will you reflect on it next year?

mentioned this in my writing in review for this year but finishing cage earlier this year really set me on a high note for the rest of the year. i really proved to myself that i can write 80k+ words in a single project; i can finish and fully flesh out a narrative, my dreams are achievable if i really put myself to it.

for a really long time i didn't think i could do it. there's a lot of reasons why i felt that way, but having people who kept up with every chapter, my partner and other friends like valen and multi listening to me rant ad nauseum about my ideas and thoughts, and giving myself permission to do something 'silly' turned out to be such a good decision. so i think next year i'm trying to take that energy into it. i'm writing for myself, my friends and my dick LMAO. but i'm also taking the strategies that i learned (ie: i need a long outline to finish something or i won't p much lol). so next year is really gonna be a planning year! i wanna have more outlines that i can go back and reread and become obsessed about sEUOSDJ

3. did you achieve everything you wanted to this year? if not, how will you go about it?

nah! but tbh i'm okay with it. getting distracted by other wips is just par for the course for me and my brain pfff so i'm not miffed that i got distracted by other things and paramour got put off to the side. i still think about paramour a LOT don't get me wrong; but khizzy and sjaak giving me brain rot is a welcome change.

i also could've never predicted i would get into conlanging--i barely knew what it was (outside of lotr really) but here i am a few months later with a whole baby language on my hands HAHA. i think i'm finally of the mindset that yeah writing is my life's purpose bc it would be meaningless without it, but its also a hobby and i wanna have fun with it <3

4. what is your favourite line you wrote this year?

this is so hard OSCJK thank god multiple people have asked this bc its definitely not just one. perusing through the things i wrote this year, i think one that stands out to me is from draft 3 of btaf (which is the actual Real Prose draft 1 attempt lol. its a whole tier system of me drawing this wip out) but its the first sentence kinda hits and i don't think i wanna change it cuz it sets the tone well:

The cruelest and craftiest of all the Devil’s handiwork—darkness—had descended upon and laid waste to the countryside.

something something, speaks of the savagery that is yet to be revealed later on, makes the wip super moody (the equivalent of the tried and true "dark and stormy night"), and alludes to the time period (cuz we're talking about the devil in deadass the first sentence PFF)

8. what are three things you're looking forward to next year?

i'm gonna be optimistic and say draft 2 (the elongated outline) of btaf will be done--i've been taking a break from it but multi's very sweet sweep of draft 1 has reinvigorated me with brain worms.

i also want to work more on he who smites the sun bc... khizzy beloved. and with that all of the wips from ph -> paramour i want to figure out how they're linked and their outlines etc

and then i think i'm just excited to just be more silly with what i write next year. i wanna get back into my art wips (tmc and broken clouds for instance) and write more smutty shenanigans with bruno and his mess. :D

15. time for shameless self-promotion! answer with a piece of writing you want others to see/read! (if you have nothing posted/published this year, any other year is fine too ^^)

this lore post about tcol which details MIZDARR and MUINENS's first meeting and how the harvest god KIBARUM was born. idk i really love the gods and mythos tcol has i should talk about it more. its not really writing writing but i want people to see it anyway :D

[henrysglock]

pls analyse these : https://x.com/Updates_SThings/status/1812222329570939220

Okay this is going to be a little long. That link will take anyone interested to the original tweet with the pictures of the posters.

First things first: There are a mix of real and not-real movies in those posters. Anything that says "A Hawkins picture production" was invented for the play, much like the "The Unearthly Visitors" print ad in the papers was also invented for Stranger Things.

In some of them, you can see pretty blatant hallmarks of the show, like Project Rainbow featuring a direct quote from the opening scene of TFS as its tagline (with a smaller easter egg of the boy on the front resembling Will, which ties him to Project Rainbow and the Brenners), or Spider Attack featuring a literal image of the Creel house (with a smaller easter egg for Henry, mildly possessed, using a vision of spiders to scare Virginia when she threatened his friendship with Patty):

Ones like Curse of the Killer Fog, The Squawk, and Science Monster go a little more meta:

The Killer Fog is a reference to the Mindflayer's role in TFS on the obvious level, but it also has ties to Will casting fog cloud, as Mike mentioned in the Mindflayer Shed Scene. The Squawk, as I outlined here, ties TFS, Bob's Mindflayer-tracking device, and the WSQK radio station together. Science Monster is a little self-explanatory (See: Sullivan telling Owens it was men of science who created the problem in Hawkins, but also the fact that Henry supposedly "caught" the Mindflayer from a substance a scientist was trying to escape with, making him a science monster). That one is also reminiscent of Frankenstein in design.

However...they're not all fake.

These movies are real, and their plots are also easter eggs:

House on Haunted Hill is a classic whodunit, featuring an eccentric millionaire (Frederick Loren, played by Price) who brings in 5 guests to "survive" the supposedly haunted house for a $10k prize as entertainment for his fourth wife. He brings in a test pilot, a journalist, a psychiatrist specializing in hysteria, an employee at his company, and the owner of the house.

Long story short, the millionaire's wife was cheating on him with the psychiatrist, and she a) faked her own suicide, and b) attempted to orchestrate her husband's death so she could take off with David. Loren figured this plot out, and orchestrated both the psychiatrist's death and his wife's death.

I have a lot to say about this particularly in regards to Henry, Patty, and Brenner. I've talked before about Henry's status as the narrative Barbara Allen to Patty's narrative Witch Boy John, including Brenner's status as Marvin Hudgins, who Barbara unwilling cheats on John with. Seeing the central infidelity plotline in House on Haunted Hill specifically featuring a wife cheating on her husband with a doctor and the two of them planning to run off together, especially given all of Brenner's lines about treating Virginia's hysteria with sedatives vs Dr. Trent offering Nora a sedative:

(Something something, also, the ties between Virginia and Nora Walker from the movie Tommy (which Em has talked about in greater detail, you can find it in his pinned post).) and the fact that there aren't any other instances of genuine infidelity in TFS outside the weird triangle Henry, Brenner, and Patty have going on (even Karen kissing Bob was okayed by Ted, and Jopper never actually got together despite thinking about running away together). So when it comes to infidelity stuff...it's all about them.......it's kind of damning and cements in the coding I was already picking up on between Henry, Brenner and Patty as opposed to Barbara, Marvin, and John.

Moving on to The Wasp Woman, the synopsis is fairly simple. Starlin, who runs a cosmetics company, is aging. She seeks out a doctor working with wasp extract to help her regain her youth. She overdoses on the wasp extract and transforms into a sort of were-wasp.

I'd like to show some quotes that raise red flags for me:

Like the obvious stuff is the black widow thing, the "my boy"/"you think you can scare me, Henry?" stuff, and Starlin "changing" after overdosing on the extracts

But what's more interesting to me is this continued female-coding that Henry receives. He's the female black widow on-screen, and in TFS he's the queen wasp, all of which ties in with Patty's subtle lesbian coding, all of Henry's trans weirdness, and all of Henry's mother/pregnancy stuff specifically regarding the Mindflayer.

There's also the aspect of extracts making Starlin de-age, since we see this lack of aging in Brenner throughout the show.

One last aspect I find interesting:

"Filmed in Studioscope, Prints by Technicolor". While filming with technicolor largely died out in 1957, it continued to be used as a dye transfer process in film printing, hence Prints by Technicolor. However...Studioscope doesn't exist.

That's to be expected for the fake movies...but it also shows up on the poster for the real movies. It says that House on Haunted Hill was filmed in studioscope.

In the 1950s, the popular camera/film was superscope or cinemascope, relating to Super 35/35mm/2.35:1 filming:

This means while they're referencing real movies, the films themselves can't exist, because studioscope doesn't seem to have existed.

In short: It's all fake! Even the "real" stuff is wrong.

Also...either they're hinting at another universe where it was studioscope instead of the other two, or...

[parcy-anda-but-with-actual-posts]

Okay, so first time in a long time tackling a monthly challenge, I'll go ahead and make cumulative weekly posts here for Smaugust (2024). Just having fun, not trying to impress anyone, but I also want a convenient place to come back to it. =v=; General Warning: Creativity is not my strong suit, but I've tried not to be too predictable.

Day 1: Fruit — A scorpion pepper dragon. Peppers are fruits, technically, but I tried to mix it up by having this dragon be super chill, or at least lazy. It's content to be left to its naps as it overheats easily in its hot, arid environment, being more active at night, and even then, not too active. XD I can expand on lore for this, but keeping things simple for now.

Day 2: Ash — medieval/monk illustration inspired, apologies

For this one, I took a photo of the ash tree out front, and used its outline to create a cloud-breathing false hydra of sorts. Sad hypothetical story time: in reality, this is a mass of separate serpents all coiled up together and spewing thick vapors to obscure what lies at its center. These are the various children of an immortal great mother serpent, of whom all that remains is her head. They wouldn't leave her behind, and their home has decidedly not been safe since the incident; they carry her with them everywhere, hiding in misty places and masquerading as a large tree.

Day 3: Storm — I defaulted to scenic, because design on the word storm alone, I was really struggling with. Have a storm drake-like thing. ^^' I created pale yellow glows that shone through and lit up surrounding foliage as it stalks and prepares to attack something. I also let the colors that come to mind with dark clouds and stormy nights take this thing over completely. Fun experiment. C'X

Day 4+5: Fossil+Hybrid — this doesn't bode well, having to combine to make up for lost days this early. >v<; Here, though, have the unholy spawn of anatomically-somewhat-accurate Aerodactyl and the proportions and vibe of an Azhdarchid. I adore these pterosaurs on an aesthetic and imaginative level... would just about wet myself in fear if faced with one. Maybe someday I'll come back to prompts like this and actually put some respectable time into posing and rendering, but for now, just quick ideas for fun. :3

Day 6: Mist — WHOOPS, I missed one - adding this one in belatedly, but it was done on time... might have overlooked this because it really was thrown together in a hurry, and highly self-indulgent. Like, more than most of these. ^^' Have a cotton ball mass of dragon that curiously rolls up on little towns at pre-sunrise hours, especially at the base of mountains. It's a lazy and harmless enough creature, but it has a way of scaring little ones sh*tless, just the same. The sun rays coming through don't hurt it, luckily, but it does add to the "be not afraid" vibes. X'D

Day 7: Striped —Along with nostalgic inspiration of a friend's character, I based this one on a Cheshire Cat vibe, spiraling shapes vaguely snuck in. I'm still having much too much fun with the rough wash brush... but that's what I've decided to do this whole month, is have fun. ^^ Hopefully you're having a nice day!

Each week will be a different post, since the 30 image limit leaves us just shy of fitting the challenge into one post. >v<; See Week 2, if you like! (or Week 3, or 4, for that matter!)

[sanguinesorcery]

Starting to compile and rearrange subjects to discuss with the new lore rewrite. This is just the outline I'm working off of, I've been rearranging old text from the site to slot into place and rewrite so it's not as Weirdly Paced. Subjects are bound to change format, placement, or be added to or removed altogether.

The plan is to condense the amount of scattered text widgets into one, as well as write/develop/detail/reword a bunch of new or existing topics I never touched on. I want it to be the beast it was meant to be. I want people to walk into this place feeling like they are immersed into it from the start. This will help; it's been fifteen years, it's due for a monstrous overhaul on par with the Schwarzwald lore that inspired it. There's a surprise at the end of this rewrite, but I don't want to spoil it yet; a small handful of people know what it is though.

If there is a subject I missed or one you're curious about and don't see on the list, poke me and I'll slot it in somewhere it fits the flow to work on as I go. You can also ask about subjects already there, it helps me figure out what details need to be worked on!

Here's the outline so far:

INTRODUCTION

Summary

Geography

Locations of Note

SIDHE PEOPLE

Physiology

Basic Mindset

CULTURE

Social Structure

Social Aesthetic

Education System

MAGICK MECHANICS

Blood Magick

Vocal Magick

The Hivemind

PANTHEON [A Brief Overview]

Gods and Goddesses

The Clouded Isle

The Oracles

Faerie Culture

The Spirits

POLITICS

The Imperial Family

The Aeroglaive

The Inner Court

The Districts

Political Relations

INFRASTRUCTURE

Agriculture

Industry

Currency and Transfer Rates

MILITARY

Infantry

Artillery

Cavalry

Navy

NOTES ON THE EXPANDED EMPIRE

Expansion Rate

Expansion Practices

[cainluvr69]

Let Me Tell You The Story Of A Rainbow - Chapter 3

Previous Chapter

Heathcliff: Ah… It smells like the deep forest. It's a little nostalgic for me…

Mitile: I recognize the scent, too! It smells like when you lay down in a Southern meadow…

Rutile: I can smell flowers too, just faintly. …It's such a sweet, pleasant smell.

My field of vision began to waver, as if it were trying to chase after the perfume in the air. Colors began to slowly, subtly paint themselves over the pages with the gentle hues and brushstrokes of watercolors. Those delicate colors painted themselves around us, embracing us in a painted forest, much like we'd been placed inside the bubble of a snow globe. The trees around us looked a bit strange, their silhouettes round and a little too perfect, like toys instead of the real thing, but that only added to their whimsical, magical cuteness. Even if they looked a little fake, there was still a definite kind of vitality in them.

Chloe: This is amazing… It's like we've walked right into the pages of the picture book!

Heathcliff: It's like we're being pulled into a fantasy world… This is the first time I've ever felt this way.

Shino: The fruit on those trees looks tasty. I've never seen fruit that looks like that before, but they look as nice and ripe as the real deal.

Riquet: These painted plants look like they're really swaying a bit in the breeze. It's like I could just reach out and touch them…

Riquet's eyes blazed brightly with wonder and excitement.

Akira: (A picture book that can make us smell the setting and feel the breeze on our skin… It's the wizard version of a pop-up book!)

Deep in the painted forest, I could see the shore of a lake. Its glassy surface rippled with the breeze, and in its clear waters were brightly colored fish I'd never seen before. Looking up, I could see a flock of birds with strikingly red beaks backed by pale pink clouds.

Akira: …It really feels like we're not in the manor anymore, but inside a wonderland somewhere far away. I can't believe this is all coming from a picture book…

The younger wizards and I weren't the only ones captivated by the wonderland around us. Even the elder wizards were wide-eyed in amazement at the illusion, blinking once, twice, three times and more at what they were seeing.

Snow & White: Woah…

Faust: This is…

Shylock: This is exquisite… Each delicate brushstroke was made with care. It's as if each and every one has a life of its own.

Shylock extended one of his hands out to the illusion. He playfully traced one of his long fingers over the outline of a tree, and it was like he was trying to grab smoke. The colors mixed and muddied as they dissolved under his touch.

Shylock: It has all the danger of a pure and innocent girl, with all the temptation of an overripe fruit hanging on the vine… Both curiously tantalizing and yet subtle in its presentation.

Mitile: Oh, look! Something fluffy hopped over there… Is it a rabbit?

Shino: Isn't that a cat? I think its ears are a little long for a cat, though.

Riquet: I think I saw something that looked like a frog with wings, too. See, they're jumping and splashing over here!

Chloe: They're super pretty, but they're also kind of weird…and creepy. But they're still so cute I want to keep watching them anyways! How strange!

Rutile: It's true…everywhere I look, I see something new that makes me gasp and my heart start pounding a little faster. I've never seen any of these plants and animals in any encyclopedia…

Faust: Perhaps they're all the artist's fantasy? …No, the details are too precise for that.

Heathcliff: Yeah. It's like they've seen them in real life before…

Figaro: Hmm…that's true.

Figaro put his hand to his chin, observing the scenery from a step behind the rest of us, and nodded. The wonderland around us was reflected in his eyes that have seen so much over the course of his long life.

Figaro: What's depicted here is most likely a landscape that only be seen in specific conditions, and these creatures are mythical beasts. Cryptids, if you like. It's not like I've seen them myself, but I'm pretty sure I remember seeing them in some ancient grimoires…

Snow: Indeed. These are fairies and spirits that live in remote and peaceful locations, where nature has gone untouched by humans and wizards alike.

White: And so they are phantoms: creatures that neither humans nor wizards can catch sight of so easily.

Akira: Phantoms…?

Snow: Though we call them phantoms, they do properly exist. Both the mythical beasts you see here, as well as this wondrous scenery. Even the two of us have seldom caught sight of them, and thus, they are "phantoms".

White: So while at first this picture book may appear to depict fantasy, it is actually showing us a place that truly exists.

Murr: It exists, but hasn't been seen. It hasn't been seen, but it's been drawn? What a captivating contradiction!

Heathcliff: A world that even Lords Snow and White are unfamiliar with… Did the author use some kind of special technique to find it?

Shino: She must be a pretty powerful wizard, then.

Figaro: That's definitely possible, but I'm not so sure. Seeing these beasties doesn't seem to have much of a connection to magical strength.

White: Correct. Rather than something as simple as magical power, a strong subconscious sensitivity to various phenomena is essential.

Snow: Another key point is whether or not the spirits of the land like you or not. Because of that, even we have not seen these beasts very often.

Akira: So it's not something you can see just by being strong or working hard.

Rutile: Is that really a world that can be illustrated as delicately detailed as this is, then…?

Snow: It's possible that this is simply the result of collecting literature from around the world detailing these creatures, but…

Shylock: Whatever the answer, this was still illustrated by a wizard with discerning tastes. I imagine she's lived a very long life.

Faust: Luca Carroll… It's strange that none of us have ever heard of her before.

Akira: Right, isn't this book not on sale yet?

Arthur: Correct. In fact, I heard that the person who discovered her talent was the exhibition sponsor's son. The art exhibition is going to be the first time her works are shown to the public, so she seems to be putting a lot of work into her preparations for it.

Cock Robin: They're going to be showing not only old and well known pieces, but also presenting new ones by various artists. It's the highlight of the exhibition!

Rutile: So this lovely little book is going to be shown alongside many other wonderful works… I definitely want to see everything they're going to be showing!

Shylock: Still, that a private event like this would be displaying the works of wizards… I'm amazed Lord Vincent allowed it, considering it's within Central Country and thus his jurisdiction.

Arthur: Special permission was granted, on the condition that the works be of good quality and not cause harm to others. While it's not a lot, there are going to be other magical works on display alongside Luca Carroll's book.

Figaro: Well, it's not like his Royal Highness, Prince Vincent dislikes all wizards. After all, everyone knows the name of the first king Alec Granvelle's friend, the holy wizard Faust.

Faust: Hmph. I wonder.

Snow: Regardless, the sponsor of the event is someone who both approaches wizards with open arms while also having a solid bit of political power.

White: It would be a good idea to approach him the same way.

Snow & White: Ohoho.

Mitile: This will be the first time I go to any kind of exhibition. We never had events this big back in the South, so I'm really looking forward to it!

Cock Robin: The exhibition will also feature paintings, sculptures, and rare gems, as well as items excavated from archeological sites. There are going to be antiquated weapons on display as well… Ancient weaponry is pretty rough and unrefined, but that's what makes it cool, right?

Riquet: Ancient weapons…

Mitile: Are you interested, Riquet?

Riquet: A little… But isn't having an interest in weaponry a barbaric thing?

Mitile: That's not true at all. Besides, being able to touch things people used in the distant past sort of makes it feel like you're peeking into their time.

Rutile: It'll feel like you're taking a trip through time, too. Let's look at all the cool weapons together!

Riquet: Okay!

Arthur: There are going to be mechanical pieces on display as well, like clockwork puppets and the like.

Heathcliff: Mechanical pieces…clockwork puppets…

Shino: You've got excitement written all over your face, Heath. Don't go taking them apart to see their guts when you find them.

Heathcliff: …I--I wasn't going to do that.

My wizards had been so tired, but now they were excitedly chatting together like it'd never happened. It was only natural that my lips curved into a smile as I watched them.

Akira: Seeing how excited everyone is to go is making me happy, too.

Arthur: Yes. Will you be attending as well, Master Sage?

Akira: Of course, I'm super excited, too! I've never had a chance to go to something like this before.

Arthur: Thank goodness! Seeing your smile puts my heart at ease, Master Sage.

Akira: The invitation is coming from someone who cares about us, after all. I hope that…all twenty-two of us will attend!

✦✧☾✧✦

Akira: …Whew.

I flopped onto my bed and sighed. I could smell the gentle scent of sunlight.

Akira: (I tried to extend an invitation to all of the wizards who hadn't been in the hall back then, but…)

I'd honestly been expecting it, but reactions varied, between showing interest to…showing zero interest.

Akira: (I didn't think everyone was going to just go "Okay, let's go!" But still…)

I rolled around on my bed, smacking my arms again the blankets, and then sighed and stared up at the ceiling.

Akira: The exhibition sounds fun…

Once the words left my mouth, I felt my heart realign itself, just a little.

Akira: (I feel like all of the Sage's wizards are getting along a lot better now, compared to when we all first met, at least.) (But…I don't think we all really understand each other just yet.)

The more I tried to find out about them, the further away they felt…but as soon as I stopped chasing them, it felt like I found them tucked in my coat pocket. It was like an odd game of hide-and-seek. This was true for wizards and humans, too. Understanding each other is a difficult thing.

Akira: But still…

I let the words pass my lips on purpose.

Akira: I really am so happy to know that there are people who want to express their gratitude to my wizards for all their hard work. And getting invited to a place that's going to have a lot of people, too… It'd be nice if this let more people be more accepting towards wizards.

Speaking these fully-formed thoughts to my ceiling made my heart feel a little lighter. I'm sure I didn't just imagine that feeling.

Akira: Allllright…!

But as soon as I did a big stretch to try and wake myself back up… Suddenly there came a tapping, as of someone gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door.

Next Chapter

[thedemonscrawler]

gonna procrastinate on writing by talking about writing woo

So, fun fact! Permission Slip is usually being written on two different documents at once, which should be but are not actually identical? And neither of them match the actual AO3 version you guys read?

1st Draft

The first draft is written with a combination of OpenOffice and Google Docs.

(I'll get to why that says Mobile Copy in a sec)

The OpenOffice document is meant to be the Master Draft of the fic. It's the entire story so far-- outline, notes, all the chapters written and the bits of chapters we haven't gotten to yet.

Yeah, it's lengthy. The reason it says 'Active Version' is starting around Chapter 5, I began saving a copy of the document up to the most recent chapter finished.

This is because of how I write scenes out of order, and having an older draft lets me go back for things that got rewritten. It's also really neat to see how various ideas evolved over the story, or how old some of the scenes are.

OpenOffice has the Master Draft, not just because it can handle it, but so I can put my laptop into airplane mode and write offline if I really need to focus. But the story doesn't stay there!

If you've seen the snippets I've shared, you know that sometimes they're highlighted in grey, like this:

(yeah you enjoy that snippet from Chapter 15)

The grey highlights are a system to tell myself 'this is a section that needs to be copied over to the other document', almost always a section I have just written that session. Feels good to have a whole page in grey.

So from OpenOffice, the grey sections are copied over to GoogleDocs, and become the 2nd Draft.

2nd Draft

..okay, so there are actually TWO GoogleDoc copies of Permission Slip. One of them is a 'master' version, just like the Open Office file. The other is the Mobile version. The master version has all of the chapters and outline and stuff, while the Mobile copy only goes back one or two chapters prior to the current one. Why?

Cos it turns out that when a document gets to be around 110 pages long, Docs starts being a little bitch and lags real bad on mobile, or starts crashing. So the mobile version was made so I could type on my phone. Same deal, new sections are highlighted in grey and copied back to the OpenOffice version when I'm on the laptop again.

Since the GoogleDocs version can be worked on from multiple locations, it's the one that gets the most edits. If there are substantial changes made they'll be copied back to the OpenOffice document, but minor edits aren't as crucial, and there are some sections that are pretty different between the two now.

From the GoogleDocs version on to the final(ish) version:

3rd Draft

The AO3 version should match the GoogleDocs version, and for the most part it does-- but not always. That last minute readthrough to catch all the spaces added after italics is also a time for minor edits. Missing words, dialogue rewrites, etc. There's one chapter that had a chunk written in the editor, but unfortunately I can't remember which one it is now 8'D only that it's between chapters 9 and 12. Naturally the AO3 version is the one you guys get to see.

Uuuuh yeah so. Overcomplicated system, go!

Also if you want a word processor for free, I recommend LibreOffice! Its based on the same open source software as OpenOffice, only it's actually still being updated and stuff (I still use OO just cos it's what I have 8'D).

Unfortunately I have yet to find a word processing app with cloud-based storage that can be edited from multiple devices, so I can't replace GoogleDocs with something better.

[mako-designated-driver]

Codex Entry #85: On Skyhold

A page from an enchanter's journal, scorched to near-illegibility. The style is an old Fereldan dialect, circa mid to late Divine Age:

Experiments in ambient lingerings, first staging:

The question isn't "is it special?" The question is "how special?" We found relics, but there are always relics. Elves ranged far before their empire was crushed, but rarely did they return where they did not build. This place, they visited again and again. I see it in the fragments—clays from different nations, not just craftsmen. Styles from different centuries, not just clans. And yet no record of a ruin. The structures here are all Fereldan, with stone ferried up by a typical madman. Whatever was here, whatever natural spire, it was flattened for a floor. But I know the common shapes, and I will erect them as was custom. And we shall see what the elves wished to see.

The note below is in a different, uneducated hand:

I finish this for Master Ganot. His workings brought lightning. Much lightning. The rods are pools of metal now, and all his workings burned. Master was also struck. I write for him his last words because his fingers are ash and he did not live the night.

"The Veil is old here."

Excerpt added after leaving Skyhold and returning...

Skyhold has not just been claimed time and again, but sacked as well. We've managed to uncover some remnants, including a scratching under a pillar that mentions the name given by your witch. Old but still long after the place had been built over. But the author knew something of its first purpose, or at least, something of a legend.

Var'landivalis him sa'bellanaris san elgar

Melanada him sa'miras fena'taldin (word missing)

Nadasalin telrevas ne suli telsethenera

Tarasyl'an te'las vehn'ir abelath'vir (word missing)

Even with assistance from your elf, we managed only a partial translation. Elven is often a game of intents, not direct mapping of phonetic meaning. That means it's a mess.

Our belief transformed into everything. (assertation/problem? uncertain)

All time is transformed into the final/first death (uncertain),

Inevitable/threatened victory and horrible/promised freedom in the untorn veils, (uncertain)

Where the sky is held up/back, where the people give/gain love that is an apology/promise from/to....(missing subject, uncertain)

Mostly complete, as fragments go. The rhythm is strange, not like others I've recorded. Perhaps less a poem than a statement? The elven language does tend to meander.

—Notes from the archivist

Excerpt added after completing the main quest Here Lies the Abyss...

Possible references to Skyhold in the readings of the great library of Val Royeaux.

What follows are the names of the powers that may have held a fortress in the region. Unfortunately, time and records are such that for many, the name is all that is known, and some of those are merely as reference in other works. Your fortress is a vagabond, but years will do that to stone well made.

- The Tan Empire: Passing mention of an unseen trading partner occupying "where Hold the Sky" in the Rivaini Ballad of Kin'tam of Nol, thought fictional, date uncertain.

- Father of Rast: "...and that Fereldan built upon the Sky..." Mentioned as a possible destination of the spirit of the dead bann, a Fereldan lullaby dated to the Exalted Age.

- Lady Bander of She: Fereldan Highwayman banished in 4:83 Black, thought to use "a place in the clouds" as refuge.

- Spire: Orlesian tavern song mentioning "skyholde" by name as a fanciful utopia, but also claiming nugs with wings and a dragon that blows bubbles.

- Ti O'rn Vi: Possible etching of major Skyhold features, but no context available. Unknown language; the tile has never been translated. Pre-Glory?

- Tevinter carving: A broken relief that matches the outline of the main gate, but all possible scholarship suggests a structure outside Minrathous pre-Divine. Possible shared inspiration, but it is not known in what direction.

Study continues. We will apprise you of any other references of worth.

—From the office of Lord Ghippin, archivist of the University of Orlais, Val Royeaux

Excerpt added after completing the main quest Wicked Eyes and Wicked Hearts...

Inquisitor,

Your archivists have asked me how I came to know the name and location of Skyhold. To the latter, I may speak easily: when one walks in the Fade, any fortress that has seen enough battle shines as a beacon for spirits drawn to death and struggle, even after centuries of disuse.

As to the former, I myself cannot say for certain. The whispers of old memories carry a thousand such names upon their breath, and it is possible that this name belonged to some other keep in some other land. Still, it seems an auspicious name, for there is one peculiarity of language that your scholars seem to have missed. When the words reached my dreaming mind, Skyhold was not simply a fortress near the sky, nor was it some simplistic allusion to holding up the sky. Skyhold—Tarasyl'an te'las—was "the place where the sky was held back." Given your efforts against the Breach and our battle against a madman who seeks to assault the Black City in the Fade, I can only hope that the Inquisition's new stronghold lives up to its name.

Solas

[eilinelsghost]

3, 4, 18, 23?

From these fic writer asks. Still happily taking these!

3. how you feel about your current WIP

I'm actually feeling rather good about this one (Atandil 17)! I was very make-it-up-as-I-went for the last installment (within reason) and for this one I have a pretty solid outline of what beats to hit. Which always makes me feel like I have things a lot more in hand than when I have no idea where it will end up taking me.

4. a story idea you haven’t written yet

This Nerdanel and Finrod idea rotates constantly in my brain. I really hope this one materializes at some point.

18. if you keep them, share a deleted sentence or paragraph from a published fic

Here's one that never made its way into Children of the Sun:

“Balan, come sit beside me,” he said softly, then added quickly, “if thou wilt.” The other nodded and moved to join him upon the seat, awed by the intricacy of the design, the long cushions soft and welcoming. He looked for all the world like a skittish pup and Finrod tried not to let the amusement show on his face. Instead, he moved closer so his arm rested firmly against the other’s, but he did not take his hand. “There. Now I’ve some grounding.” He felt the other’s tension ease at the touch, but still a cloud of unease hovered between them. “Balan,” he said at last, turning his face toward him, “have I made thee a stranger by bringing thee here?”

23. pick three keywords that describe your writing

Oh goodness, this one is difficult. I'm so bad at keywords and also about being an objective perceiver of my own writing lol. Um....let's see....I've asked someone else about this because I was stressing too much on an answer and was informed that "contemplative, intricate, and dreamy" are the ones to go with here.