#but it's fun to flesh out my main characters stories

[mortporter]

NPCs

Helvetica cen Serif - Garlean conscript looking for the lost children of the family she long served. Also font pun.

Daranon Dallemont - Second son of a very minor noble Ishgard family, who'd rather tend to his studies than the family business.

The Mo Tribe - Two shattered branches of the already small tribe band together after the Empire is pushed out from Gyr Abania, intent on picking up the pieces and continuing their harsh way of life.

[dovewingkinnie]

genuinely so excited to share this new story im making but its gonna be a bit... must figure out The Lore a bit more

[dragontamer05]

No lie I can't recall the last time I did like just one long continuous thread.

Like sure still doing small side stuff, asks ect but just idk but also letting muses grow and develop through one long continuous - and not always having to say resort to completely dropping if whatever currently is going on has run its course and instead just time skip with it but let it keep going.

And I say this as some one who is also 100% happy to time skip and jump around.

And hey you want to go back in time and explore a scenario that could have happened earlier in their relationship / knowing each other

or jump forward to something way later or even just explore a what if scenario that doesn't have to happen but could depending how things go/ how we feel about it ect

Hell yah love it all - trying to have some time line consistency is good obviously and as long as we can agree on even a loose idea of How they got to Y or where X fits and what not then sure.

Am fine with even the longest of threads eventually getting a wrap up if things simply happen to feel right in the moment and is what gets decided, doesn't have to be an infinite thread - certainly not about to force one to go on if its reached a point it kinda feels dead but idk call me easily attached but there's sometimes where I can still find / feels like their might be still potential to be found in a thread and all it needs is a bit of tweaking.

The chapter came to an end but the book isn't over kinda thing. Maybe all it needs is a small time skip / scene change but there's still things to be explored within said plot/scenario / whatever is going on with the characters - that would still also work/fit within said thread instead of separating.

Similarly but kind of reverse is I am equally as happy generally to return to threads that were long previously dropped/abandoned. Whether cause someone wasn't feeling it any more or simply we ran into a writing wall and at the time were lost on how to continue it so was better not to force it. But if something new comes along be it from plotting / just newer interactions or simply with having time away from it whatever the reason if a spark suddenly arises and hey suddenly what if we connected - old thread to new idea - or any other reason to want to answer/continue go for it.

idk mostly I this is was just a really long rambly way of saying how I miss long threads. Short quick snippets are fun and fine but 9/10 I promise i am very much interested and fine with carrying a thread for as long and far as it'll go.

[wildflowercryptid]

wistfully thinking about my beloved delphox from my original x playthrough. if only you could've seen this, kuranosuke...

[hundredowls]

silly oc doodle..... ballroom yuri

[floorpancakes]

i refuse to let clamp off the hook for underutilising himawari's fucking fascinating character setup and traits but on a less serious level im obsessed with the concept of her as an instigator of chaos.

like she's way less airheaded than she seems and it doesn't come off like Default Airhead Girl Behaviour or even Default Girl Companion That Ships Her Friends primarily (like not as hard as some other series by comparison I mean she's very I KNOW WHAT YOU ARE by default) specifically she just seems like someone that thoroughly enjoys being a little shit in a sincere way and giggling at her dumbass friends and has a shade of high emotional intelligence about it all. like she's just girl of all time. she's i don't know where im going with this just take this low effort meme from when i watched the holic stage play on youtube this isn't a coherent thought it's like 2am ill come up with better thoughts later

[vonkarma2]

💋🍊⭐🌳💙🔮🌷 deep cut ocs! i'm intrigued

let’s pretend this didn’t take 80000 years Im so sorry I was really busy 

I’m defining “deep cut” here as like. Any character I have thats underdeveloped bc I have to add more to a lot of them. I’m also gna pick them randomly bc if I picked the best cha tra cuter for every question this would take even longer than it already has LMAO 

💋 How affectionate are they with their friends? Their family? Their romantic partner(s) (if they have any)? Are they more physical or emotional when it comes to displaying their affection? Why?

Tora (<long story short she’s an oneiroi which is like a dream demon) is overall a pretty serious person, especially when dreaming. She doesn’t feel as at home in the surreal landscape as most other oneiroi do, she likes to be in control of every situation. Because of this, it usually surprises her coworkers to know that she is very nice towards her family— she isn’t all that close with her parents, but she is with her grandparents and younger siblings, being the oldest of four. With people older than her, she more so tries to be kind and respectful rather than actively affectionate, she really wants to impress her parents and grandparents and make them proud. But with her siblings, she likes teasing them in like an older sister way, but she can also be very nice and encouraging. She’ll like affectionately put them in a headlock and things like that a lot of the time, she’s only like verbally nice to them when something is wrong and she’s trying to cheer them up. (For the record she is (the equivalent of) 28 but her siblings are significantly younger, they’re 16F, 12M, and 9M.)

She’s capable of acting this way around people she’s close to outside of her family, but due to her frigid disposition (distant at best when she’s not being overly confrontational), she doesn’t tend to make a lot of friends, and has an even more difficult time finding romantic partners since she hates small talk and appearing fake or insincere. She also tends to be openly critical of other people, even when she doesn’t know them that well.

🍊 What is your OC’s favourite meal? Snack? Dessert? Drink? Any reasons behind this besides liking how it tastes?

Nadia’s favorite meal is probably something like a specific flavor of cereal or something that she eats every single day. The type to have the same meal over and over again and not care. I don’t think she likes eating snacks in general. Dessert probably a milkshake, she likes sweet things in general but I think would prefer something you can just drink bc it is less trouble to eat and to clean up afterwards.

Drink hot chocolate or tea she likes both a lot she thinks hot drinks are calming. Obviously not coffee bc it has the opposite effect.

⭐ What is your OC afraid of? Any crippling phobias or some such? How do they act when scared and what helps them calm down? Does anyone ever find your OC scary? Why?

Victor is of course afraid of bodies of water due to the circumstances of his original death via drowning. I don’t want to go into every other thing he’s become afraid of due to the way his second life went before the story because it would be depressing, but like he doesn’t like being around unfamiliar adults basically and he is like shy and nervous around people in general. Unless if he thinks they’re much, much weaker than him and as such don’t pose any threat. This is why he was able to become friends with Joseph and Angel (<this is a joke because Victor is 15 Joseph is 13 and very sheltered at that but Angel is 19 and pretty physically strong so it is a joke at his expense. I should have just said that and not given any context these posts should make sense only to me)

When scared he’ll either like get angry and confrontational (if he’s around people he likes + doesn’t think he’s in actual danger) or like shut down completely like go very quiet and try not to be noticed. He can calm down by going to like he by himself or honestly just by having someone talk him down and reassure him. Not a stranger but someone he actually knows, even if he doesn’t believe them he’d like appreciate the effort. 

After the story, he stays living in Zeolan, where most people are surprisingly ok with demons even after that whole incident— the culture has a lot of like respect for the dead or whatever and there aren’t any negative superstitions that people associate with demons at all. People would only be scared of him if they were 1) small children who didn’t know what a demon was/didnt fully understand the concept 2) particularly paranoid abt the whole world collapsing event happening again. Maybe if he went abroad to somewhere where they were more familiar with demons and seeing one was considered bad luck/a sign of death to come or something. Then they’d probably be scared of him. But ordinarily not really.

🌳 Compare your OC to themself from 10 years ago. How has their mental state changed since then, how have they aged and grown up? Would they say they’re in a better place than they were back then or do they need help? What advice would they give their younger self? What advice would their younger self give to them now?

When the story takes place, Anjara is I think 22 let’s just say so she’s still very young. She’d probably tell her younger self, like, where the vent is that she can use to escape the factory. She’d warn her about the fire. Honestly, in personality, she’s still pretty similar to how she was at 12– obviously she’s more mature than a literal child. But in terms of her priorities in life and like her worldview, she still wants the same thing, which is to help her family and keep them safe. Only now, they think she’s been dead for 8 years since she has no way to contact them. So she’s like obviously very distressed over that they meant the world to her and still do etc etc but she feels like she at least has a plan now so that helps like keep her going or whatever, whereas before she was acutely aware they could all die at any moment. So like she’s not really in a worse place mental health wise necessarily. She’s just more lonely. Her younger self would probably be nice to her and tell her not to give up, maybe also to try to find friends/allies to help her instead of going it alone. In the last she was more appreciative of other people whereas she’s more paranoid now.

💙 What did your OC want to be when they grew up and why? Did they have any lifelong dreams or ambitions they never got to work on or are they currently working to achieve this dream? Has their life taken a very unexpected turn and put all these plans on hold for a while or have they given up on any dreams?

Let’s do Remy’s backstory back when he was a little frog alien growing up in an evil generic sci fi empire, he dreamed of escaping and living far away from it on a nicer planet that wasn’t a police state and actively arbitrarily evil. Genuinely he just wanted to live a peaceful life, he thought of becoming like a farmer or something, but nothing specific necessarily. As he got older he became more jaded and not as interested in this idea, and became 1) resigned to a life of misery 2) more resentful of the empire, putting up mild resistance to it and eventually getting into enough trouble that he had to escape and accidentally crash landed on a planet as of yet untouched by the empire. However, it was touched by comically evil sci fi corporation and so he was forced to become a shill for them and also make mediocre pop music. He’s famous he has a lot of dedicated fans and a lot of people who hate him and he’s stuck supporting a sinister institution so essentially it is still the exact opposite of what he was hoping for. At this point he’s like mostly given up on his dream as impossible since he’s like a prisoner and there are no off planet ships how sad 😞✌️

🔮 Star gazing or cloud watching? Hand-holding or snuggles? Early mornings or late nights?

For this one I tried to think what character would prefer hand holding so that I wouldn’t have to write out the other answer but I couldn’t think of anyone. Fuck it Im doing Connor star gazing the one that’s not hand holding and late nights. Canon forever you’re welcome isaac

🌷 In what ways would your OC alter their body if they could? How would they do it using mundane means (hair dye, surgery, make-up?). What is their ideal look for themself?

Every single character I think of it’s either “they wouldn’t” or “they’re transgender” the only one this really applies to is Rocio and I refuse to cave and do her Ive talked abt her over and over again already. Ummm ok Henry would like to go back to being human, of course he’s used to living underwater by now and he doesn’t hate it or anything but he does resent it and at the end of the day he misses seeing the sun and the sky and breathing fresh air and et cetera. Obviously this is impossible to obtain via mundane means. Instead he compensates by wearing like a lot of jewelry accessories whatever he can find that he thinks looks nice. 

His ideal look for himself would be how his human self looked but with nicer hair and incredibly expensive clothing and taller and more conventionally attractive in every way. Also he’s from like the 1500s so he’s working by 1500s england standards. 

[bweirdart]

nearly oc-tober time again - time for some prompts for 2024

F.A.Q

do i have to draw?

not at all! you are free to participate with any medium that suits you... writing, artwork, free bases and templates, simple text posts, in-character-as-your-oc roleplay, whatever! (just no stealing or AI)

do i have to make new content?

nope! re-uploading old stuff that fits the prompts is allowed (and encouraged) ... old art that didn't get the appreciation it needed always deserves a chance to be shared again, it's a fun throwback!

do i have to post every day?

nope! only 10 days are mandatory (the ones in red with a star symbol) and everything else (yellow) is 100% optional! if you're busy or tired, please skip as many as you want

can i start early?

you can prep your posts in advance if you need to ... but please wait until the right day in october to share them!

can i re-upload your prompt list to another site?

i would prefer if you dont - i have accounts on most sites, so just reblog/retweet/share from me!

event tag?

#bweirdOCtober

have fun!

image desc/text version ↓under the cut↓ or on bweird.art/october

prompts:

WEEK 1: OC INTRODUCTIONS

⭐ 1: FAV OC

what makes them your fav?

2: NEW OC

how recently did you make them?

3: OLD OC

how long ago did you make them?

⭐ 4: UNDER-APPRECIATED OC

an oc you feel like you don't talk about enough, or you haven't fleshed out as much as you would like

5: RE-DESIGNED OC

an oc who has changed a lot (what changed about them?) or, if you haven't redesigned an oc: is there anything you might want to change about an existing oc?

WEEK 2: BUILDING BACKSTORY

⭐ 6: PAST

where is your oc from? what did they look like as a child?

7: LIKES

what do they like (and why?)

8: DISLIKES

what don't they like (and why?)

⭐ 9: RELATIONSHIPS

doesn't have to be romantic! can any kind of relationship (frienship, family, rivalry etc)

10: PERSONALITY

what are your oc's main personality traits

11: SYMBOLISM/THEMES

what represents your oc? is there a specific colour you associate them with, or a specific animal?

12: FUTURE

what will your oc look like in the future? do they have any plans or goals?

WEEK 3: FUN + GAMES

⭐13: MEMES

do any memes remind you of your oc? are there memes your oc would find funny? maybe you want to redraw your oc as one?

14: WHO/WHAT INSPIRED YOUR OC

are there existing characters that your oc looks like? was your oc based on yourself? is your oc originally from a specific fandom?

15: MUSIC

share a character playlist, write a songfic, post lyrics that remind you of them, etc

⭐16: EYES CLOSED or NON DOMINANT HAND

draw a picture of your oc with your eyes closed or with your non domminant hand, write or type a paragraph about them without your eyes closed, etc ... have fun, and don't worry about it looking "bad" -it's meant to!!

17: DnD ALIGNMENT CHART

put all your ocs into a DnD alignment chart, or any other similar chart if you prefer

i've compiled a few templates on my site, but you can find more easily if you google "oc alignment chart"

⭐18: SWAP

swap something between your ocs - their role in the story, hairstyles, personalities, fashion taste, species ... whatever you want! how would this difference change them?

19: PALETTE CHALLENGES

draw your ocs with as many of these colour palettes as you want (or just skip if you don't draw/don't like doing these!)

hex codes for the colours:

palette 1 - #3C1E81 #6D1EA2 #B059E8 #FE0876 #FE5284 #FE7C96 #E0CFE3 #FFD5C3

palette 2 - #352823 #673F28 #AB541C #BA8233 #897128 #A68B2F #F7BF6A #DAC3A4

palette 3 - #A42E25 #D7412B #E47C29 #F7A233 #FCC02D #FCE4A6 #486548 #FEFDE8

palette 4 - #2F4769 #39597E #53779C #94D1E7 #AADDE7 #D48DB7 #D498B5 #D2BABA

WEEK 4: COMMUNITY

20-26: A WHOLE WEEK OF SOCIAL STUFF

if you don't have the time/energy to do every day this week, ⭐ day 23 is the only one marked as mandatory! you can skip the rest!

some ideas for what you could do: talk about a friend's oc you like, make gift art/writing of them, collabs, trades, reblog/appreciate ocs in the event tag, make interactions between your ocs and other people's

WEEK 5: HALLOWEEN

⭐27: FEARS

is your oc scared of anything? do they have any phobias? are they startled easily? would any of your ocs try to scare ppl on purpose?

28: MONSTER

what would your oc be if they were a monster (eg: werewolf, vampire, eldritch beast.. whatever) or, do you have an oc who is already a monster?

29: PUMPKIN CARVING

your ocs carving pumpkins, a drawing of a pumpkin carved to look like your oc ... or even carve it in real life!

30: GHOST

this can be literally a ghost, or a concept that haunts your oc! up to you!

⭐ 31: COSTUMES

what are your ocs wearing for halloween?

[popicoooo]

KotS | Elite | Grillans 3

Two days after kicking Merrian out of his home, Grillans mopes in his living room. His father brew foreign tea for him, a sweet berry taste, and draped several blankets across the couch for him. Grillans had tried to work yesterday, but when he accidentally broke one of his tools trying to scrape out barnacles his father gently suggested resting instead. Today, Grillans simply stares at the fireplace, letting the flame burn his retinas to burn his own memory.

Unfortunately for Grillans, the spirits will not let him cope unhealthily.

“So yer cuddled up in a mountain of blankets right now cause some western boy doesn’t wanna be yer friend.” Veida asks deadpan from her side of the table. Usually, this day of the month the two of them craft medicine for the village, Veida’s family are herbalists by trade and Grillans is the last living descendent of the village’s medicine witch, his grandmother. As such Grillans and Veida have been close since a very young age.

“It’s a lil’ more complicated than that…” Grillans mutters into the blanket around his chin. A valley of dried herbs, ground bone, and vialed blood between them and Grillans can still feel the disappointed look Veida gives him. Veida, a small girl with black curly hair and stone black eyes, is the closest thing Grillans has ever had to a friend. A bond deeper than friendship, as her mother also died while giving birth to her, and their fathers promptly adopting each other into their family in solidarity. Their souls could not be better crafted to find each other.

“If I knew you’d be moping about a boy,” Veida says like nothing worse could ever happen to her, “I wouldn’ta come. Since when do ya make friends anyway?”

“I don’t, apparently.” Grillans says self-deprecatingly. Veida sends a concerned look over the table. Grillans usually blisters or snipes back at her. She sighs and resumes grinding together ingredients.

“He meant that much to ya?” Veida asks gruffly. Never mistake Veida as an emotional healer.

“Yeah.” Grillans unwinds himself from his blankets to sip at his tea, long gone cold. “Didn’t realize he did until he told me I didn’t.” Veida frown, the kind that means Grillans said something hard for her to follow, but she sighs again and slides over her mortar. Grillans grabs it and runs his thumb along his canine hard enough to cut skin. He squeezes droplets of blood into the bowl while whispering to the boar spirit, but his heart is still distracted. Expectedly, the ingredients inside deteriorate into a tar-like sludge.

“Spirits be,” Veida swears, pouring the ruined medicine into a pot with similarly ruined medicine. “Old man Vladimir won’t be able to work at this rate.” Grillans licks his thumb until the bleeding stops, re-enveloping himself in his blankets. Wet prickles at his eye, a phantom heat rising at the dent in his head where the other eye should be. Tears of anger, both at himself and Merrian. Merrian, for being a selfish boy. Grillans himself, for ever believing a western businessman could be anything but.

Small calloused hands press at the sides of Grillans’ head. He opens his eyes to Veida leaning over him, looking damn near constipated at his display of emotion. She wipes her thumb at the corner of his eye and massages at his dent.

“Hopeless sot.” Veida mutters. Grillans laughs softly, letting her chide him as she soothes his skin. He leans into her hands gratefully, knowing that she doesn’t favor affection by touch but is humoring his grief. The tears end after a few sobs from Grillans and he smiles at Veida in thanks.

Grillans hears the door to the docks open, turning and expecting his father. Instead he sees Merrian, an unusually blank look on his face. His eyes are trained on where Veida holds his face, a dark look in them before meeting Grillans’ eye. Merrian breaks into a polite smile then.

“Did I come at a bad time?” Merrian asks, a playful lit to his words. He steps in and closes the door behind him, sliding up to the back of the couch and putting his chin in his hand. “You never told me you had a lady friend, friend.” Merrian whispers into Grillans ear, causing his to jump from his seat and Veida to stumble back from him.

“Why are ya ‘ere?” Grillans nearly yells, an odd cocktail of confusion, hate, and relief. Veida glares at Merrian, stepping around Grillan and putting her small frame between them. Merrian straightens to his full height, making Veida almost comically small.

“So yer this Merrian character?” Veida juts her chin.

“Guilty.” Merrian puts a hand on his chest. He glances at Grillans questioningly before continuing. “And you are?”

“None of ya business. Who said you were allowed back ‘ere?” Merrian raises his eyebrows slightly in surprise.

“Am… I not allowed?” Merrian looks at Grillans. Grillans tries to summon the feelings of anger that have kept him trapped these past days and comes up empty. He clears his throat.

“Nah, yer fine.” Grillans stutters. Veida whips around and looks at him in shock. She slaps his side and Grillans flinches.

“Don’t just let this bastard walk over ya!” Veida growls. Grillans knows she has a point, but seeing Merrian here sets him off kilter. His neatly brushed gold hair, mysterious green eyes, the soft peach of his lips…

“If I may,” Merrian coughs into his fist, “I came today to clear the air. I should’ve come earlier, I’m well aware, but my mother was quite cross when I was late to my coming of age ceremony.”

“Comin’ of age?” Grillans says before he can think. “Yer older than me?”

Merrian grins cheekily. “Am I now?”

“What’s this about an apology?” Veida interrupts. Merrian looks down at her like he forgot she was there.

“Yes, right. Grillans, my—“ Merrian closes his mouth sharply with a painful clack, Veida giving him a wildly disapproving look. “Excuse me, rather, Grillans, friend, I have reflected on my involvement with you over these last months and it has come to my attention that how I conduct myself has caused you undue harm. For that, I apologize and seek to amend our relationship.” Merrian finishes, head slightly bowed.

Grillans stares at him blankly. “Haw?”

“What kinda apology is that?” Veida practically shouts. “Ya barely said anythin! Damn westerners don’t even know how ta apologize right.”

“I don’t know what you mean, I quite clearly apologized.”

“Sure, but fer what?” Grillans says.

“For my conduct.” Merrian says firmly, an angry flush coming into his skin.

“I heard that part. What conduct?”

“Well, you know, my conduct!” Merrian sputters like it’s obvious. “Coming here every week, being overly familiar, invading personal space, the like!”

“The first thing ya did when ya came in was whisper inta Grilllans’ ear.” Veida says flatly. Both Grillans and Merrian flush. Merrian shoots her a glare.

“Yes, well, I apologize for that too!” Merrian waves his hand around like swatting at flies. He turns on his heel and starts to walk out.

Grillans quickly grabs for his arm. “Ya don’ need ta apologize fer bein’ friendly.” Merrian turns again to face him. The look of frustration on Merrian is unfamiliar to Grillans, the lines in his face foreign.

“Then why? Why cast me out?” Merrian’s eyes pierce Grillans. “No matter how I turn the events of that day over in my head that’s the only explanation I can find. We are business partners, and I over stepped my bounds. Truly, I apologize as the party with more power over our situation.”

“More power?” Grillans repeats incredulously. “It was never about power. Not ta me.” Grillans’ face twist with his emotions, the anger finally returning. “Ya, on th’ other ‘and, seems like that’s all that’s on yer mind. Was it always business?”

“What else can it be?” Merrian mutters. The air grows tense as the silence prolongs. Grillans’ tongue feels thick in his mouth, unused to these kind of conversations. What he wants is to forgive Merrian. Not because Merrian has really recognized what happened and wants to grow, but because Grillans wants him around. To think he’d feel this way about some western boy…

“We’re taught ‘round here that apologies are best done with actions.” Veida says to Merrian, who once again looks like he forgot she was here. She pointed to the table of medicine ingredients. “Sit.”

Merrian glances uncertainly at Grillans. Grillans just shrugs, gesturing for him to go ahead. He knows better than to fight Veida on anything. Merrian shuffles over and sits cris-cross, back perfectly straight. He looks ridiculous at the worn table’s head.

Veida rattles a bottle of rat ribs in front of Merrian’s face. “Yer gonna take five o’ these and grind em.” She slides over her mortar and pestle. Veida then wanders into Grillans’ kitchen and Merrian glances at Grillans with wide eyes. Grillans laughs, Merrian turning red and glares petulantly. The westerner glares at the mortar and pestle, then the bones, and counts out five. He lines them up, curving towards the ceiling, and grabs the pestle. Merrian then slams down the pestle long-ways and starts rolling it like he was making flat bread. Grillans rests a hand on Merrians arm, face slack-jaw and glazed over in disbelief. Grillans grabs the pestle from Merrian and scoops as much of the bone as he can in its mashed state, then, while looking Merrian solidly in the eyes, uses the pestle as their ancestors rightfully intended. Grillans sets the finished product in front of Merrian.

Merrian holds his face in his hands the moment Grillans breaks eye contact. He peaks out after a moment and mutters, “Is it too late to claim that was a western method?” A faint grin grows on his lips as Grillans shakes his head solemnly.

Veida comes back into the living room with an ornate white mortar and pestle, runes and grooves as familiar to Grillans as his own name. Veida gingerly sets Grillans’ grandmother’s mortar down with respect, whispering quietly so her soul continues to rest peacefully. Grillans does the same.

“It’s beautiful.” Merrian breathes like the words were pulled out from him. Compared to Veida’s plain stone pair, it does seem quite ostentatious. “Why haven’t I seen it before, friend?”

“It’s our families’.” Grillans says, not looking away from the mortar. He can faintly feel his grandmothers wrinkled hands on his shoulders, the faint metallic sent that always followed after her. “‘S a lil personal.” At this Grillans looks at Veida. It’s already shaky ground inviting Merrian into their village’s medical practices, him knowing so or not, but it’s another to show a blatantly traditional tool in front of an inlander. One wrong word could send the milita to their door with fiery intent.

Though he guesses his father striking a deal with a westerner held the same danger.

Veida simply shrugs him off and starts grinding down bramble. I guess they’re making another pass at old man Vladimir’s atrophy medicine. Grillans’ family mortar sings as the pestle runs along the bowl, nostalgic to Grillans. It’s not the same when his father uses the mortar for their meals, the medicinal way of grinding like the boar themselves is hopping around.

“Beautiful, sonorous, and practical.” Merrian says, one again in awe of the mortar. He looks at Grillans with a twinkle in his eye, the former already puffed up with pride. “Something westerners should learn from, surely?”

“Gimme yers.” Veida says, already grabbing the edge of her mortar. She looks in and swirls the ground up bone. “Not bad,” she mutters noncommittally, pouring it into the larger mortar and mixing. She then slides the bowl to Grillans. He stares at the bowl a moment before glancing at Merrian. He’s sitting still for the most part, the picture of nonchalantness. But his hands fidget, a subtle reminder of the first time, and only time, Grillans ever fragrantly conducted magic with Merrian’s knowledge. The memory brings the faint pain of countless cuts.

Grillans takes a deep breath, sighs, then brings his thumb up to cut.

Grillans can feel Merrian’s eyes on him as he squeezes drops of blood into his family mortar. When he speaks to the boar spirit this time, the magic catches. Not just the aftertaste that comes with their spirit, but this time there’s the pressure Grillans remembers his grandmother pressed into him when he was young and just learning. A tell begetting her pride in his power. In a blink, the mess of ingredients turn into a vibrant red liquid.

“Finally!” Veida snatched the mortar back from Grillans, pouring the medicine into a new vials. She then pointed at new ingredients for Merrian to grind, snapping amounts and instructions for grinding motions. While Merrian would go through the motions, he didn’t seem to listen intently. He worked absentmindedly, at least one eye on Grillans, especially when Grillans did magic.

Focused. Absent minded. Commenting or just glancing. Intent, or curious? Grillans cannot tell and will not ask.

[writingforlosers]

Easy and Fun Character Exercises!

Alright, so i've been having a lot of fun with character exercises lately and thought i'd share some of my tips!

Write a scene from each main characters perspective, even if the story only has one perspective. This really helps to get into your characters thought process and see what their motivations are, what people they gravitate towards, and if they're an optimist/pessimist/realist, etc.

Write a dream sequence or scene where the main character's worst fear happens. I've done this with almost all wips i write because it really fleshes out your character to have fears. I usually do three fears: one future fear, (not being remembered, losing a loved one, never travelling the world) one common fear, (spiders, heights, public speaking) and then one "person" fear, like if a person did this to them they would be scared, (yelling, vulnerability, grabbing their hand)

Make your characters have connections. This can be two main characters secretly being ex-lovers, or one of the characters having a younger sister who comes in handy halfway through the story. Things like this that are infrequently brought up and then suddenly come to full effect are reall fun to read and realize!

let me know if you guys would like to hear more, and ask me any questions you'd like advice or tips about! I am in no way an expert, but I do really enjoy writing and love helping others. :)

[zephyrchama]

ZephyrChama's Obey Me! Masterpost

Updated October 7th, 2024.

Hi! I'm zephyrchama. I don't read much fanfic but it seemed fun and I wanted to try getting closer to the fandom, so I started writing Obey Me stuff as a self indulgent treat. As this is a side blog that I never expected to get followers, I can't follow or like anybody's posts or send asks from it, only with my main blog. I've also started writing some Twisted Wonderland stuff on another blog.

More info about me can be found at the bottom of this post.

You can find almost everything I've written in these links, sorted from shortest content to longest. Though, it is possible I've missed a few stories.

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Headcanons

Self explanatory, these are headcanons! My shortest posts, some are even just a sentence long.

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Longer Headcanons and Super Short Writings

This is for more fleshed out ideas: headcanons that are 2 paragraphs and longer or really short stories/ideas.

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Short Stories / Detailed Headcanon Lists

These are posts with multiple paragraphs. Detailed headcanon lists with at least a paragraph per character and fics that aren't a page long.

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Fics

Full one shot stories.

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Ask Requests

Obey Me! posts that are submitted requests.

My ask box is always open and I"m happy to receive requests! Please know that it may take me literal ages to respond as there is a large backlog, but I earnestly think about every submission and greatly appreciate each ask. If you praise me, I'm probably going to hoard the ask and smile and giggle every time I see it.

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Series

Multi-part fanfics. Usually one segment for each character or segments that can be read as one-shots but are part of a bigger tale.

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More about me!

I've been playing Obey Me! since literally the day the OG was released. I am a hardcore cosplayer so whenever a convention is coming up this blog will get slow as I focus on sewing. I'm close to 30 years old. I'm ace, so this blog has suggestive content but won't really get more intense than that. Everything on this blog is SFW. I have an A03 account courtesy of a friend who referred me, but it's pretty barren and mostly used to cross post more popular stories. Anything explicit I write will go on the AO3 with proper tags.

My asks are open but expect a really slow response because I am so shy hkgahkj. I take requests but no guarantee I'll write them, or it may take several months. I don't do much proofreading at all so I'm very open to constructive critique, if you see a typo please let me know! Thanks for reading.

[writingquestionsanswered]

Hi! Could you talk more about "character development exercises", please?:]

Character Development Exercises

Character development exercises are writing exercises you can do to help you explore and develop your characters. This isn't a required part of writing or character development, but many writers find it helpful. Here are some that I like to do when I'm struggling to get to know a character:

Character Interview - imagine that you’ve pulled your character out of a story into the room and now have the opportunity to interview them. What questions would you ask them? What do you want to know about them that you don’t already know? What do you think the reader would want to know? What might be pertinent to the story that you haven’t thought about yet?

TV Crew follow around - Imagine you’ve dropped an invisible TV crew into your story’s world to follow your character around through an average day (even if it's anachronistic). Follow them from the moment they wake up until the moment they go to bed that night. What are they like when they wake up? What is their morning routine? What do they eat for breakfast? How do they get ready? What do they do throughout the day? Who do they interact with? What else do they eat and drink? What do they do for fun or relaxation? How to they make money or meet their basic needs? What is their bedtime routine like?

Letters or Journal Entries - Look at your character's back story, off-screen events, etc. and find something for your character to write about in a journal entry or a letter to another character. What would they say about this event? How does it make them feel? What do they think about it?

Use Your Character in a Writing Prompt - Look at some writing prompts and do one using your character as the main character. You can keep it within your story's world or plop them into a whole different world. Whatever works for you and your story. This is about getting to know this character in a different context than the events of your story provides.

Create a Character Mood Board/Aesthetic - Mood boards go a long way in mentally fleshing out a character for me. Being able to have a visual representation of their style, their vibe, things that are important to them, etc. really turns them into real people in my mind.

Create a Playlist for Your Character - I think playlists can also be a really great way to mentally flesh out a character in your mind. Sometimes, just having a particular song or a playlist of songs that makes you think of them gives them some dimension they wouldn't otherwise have.

Happy writing!

•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

I’ve been writing seriously for over 30 years and love to share what I’ve learned. Have a writing question? My inbox is always open!

♦ Questions that violate my ask policies will be deleted! ♦ Please see my master list of top posts before asking ♦ Learn more about WQA here

[writers-potion]

Can you please give me tips on how to develop a magic system? If you've already written the tips, just send me a link to the post. Here's what I have so far:

There are seven forces of magic, namely, Passion, Desire, Joy, Hope, Trust, Clarity, and Love. To use magic, you must channel at least two of the forces. I don't really have anything beyond that.

How can I flesh this out?

Questions For Developing A Magic System

Hello! Thanks for the question. Here are some related posts to your question: Magic System Ideas, Writing Magic Systems, Writing Magicians - the basics

That said, I’ll flesh out some of my ideas based on the information given in your question. Here are some questions you can use to make the magic system specific:

What is the effect of the magic? Generally, magic will either be destructive or constructive or both. Is the purpose of your magic to make a person feel the corresponding emotions? 

Does one person have only one type of magic, forcing your characters to work together?

Also consider how you’re going to differentiate the different type of magic – through the use of color, the physical appearances of the different types of magicians, different symbols, different ways of activation, etc. 

Do the different type of magic users like or dislike each other in general? 

Can this magic be learned, or must one be born into it? 

If the magic must be learnt > competitive schooling/training for aspiration magicians, unlocking different “levels” of a type of magic, is it common or rare or people to be able to use 

If the magic is born into > discrimination between magical vs. non-magical people, conflict between “superior” and “non-superior” forms of magic, etc. 

I think a magic system (apart from being a part of worldbuilding) must provide the basis for interesting conflict. Think about how you can make use of the characteristics of your magic system to pull the plot through a main conflict and back to resolution. 

For example, 

There are “good” combinations of the seven magical forces and “bad” combinations that would cancel each other out…or worse. Magicians with different types of magic either alley with each other or have long-standing beef based on how “friendly” their magic forces are to one another. 

The seven types of magic are tiered. Some magicians monopolize power and inherit it throughout generations – until the hero comes along. 

Enemies-to-lovers dynamic where the hero and heroin have to work together because they’d be useless on their own. 

You can also consider what your magic system means for us in the real world. All of your magic types are emotions. Is the ultimate moral of the story that we must be willing to embrace conflicting emotions rather than just chasing happiness? Or that every one of these is equally valuable? 

Magic systems can be satirical.

Magic systems can be a twisted version of a real-life social/governmental/corporate system, often to critique the real world.

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* . ───

💎If you like my blog, buy me a coffee☕ and find me on instagram! Also, join my Tumblr writing community for some more fun.

💎Before you ask, check out my masterpost part 1 and part 2 

[alwaysakin]

The Vampire Diaries Universe Fic Recs

Once again putting my unhealthy amount of fanfic knowledge to good use. Here's my list (non-exhaustive) of the best vampire diaries & originals fanfics. Includes Klaroline, Bamon, Kolvina, and more.

Bamon Fics

Before I Take My Flesh Away by Orig1n - the fic where Bonnie and Damon are comically bonded, and she hops around in his timeline pre (and during) the series. Tragically unfinished, but completely incredible! Kudos for developing Stefan and Damon as brothers and making me not hate Lily Salvatore. Also love the Arthurian lore.

if you love me (don't let go) by sarcastic_fina - this is a heartbreaking deconstruction of Bonnie and her victim mentality, and shows the strength of not only her romantic relationship with Damon, but her friendships with Caroline, Matt, and Tyler. So sad, but so good!

Bloodstone by cactusfinch - Bonnie time travels to 1864 (with all the problems entailed). Her relationship with Damon is done well here, and her friendship (sort of!) with Katherine is fun as hell.

rest for the wicked (hope for the weary) by castelia - Damon and Bonnie go on a road trip together after the prison word. I am a sucker for mutual pining, and this fic does it so well!

Fifty-Five Years by turningofflights - written from Elena's perspective, after she reads Bonnie's diary entries and learns how Bonnie and Damon fell in love. A bittersweet, believable love story for Bonnie and Damon.

Other Bonnie Bennett Ship Fics

The Edge of Night by Szajnie - a crossover between season 3 of the Originals and season 7 of the Vampire Diaries, where Bonnie goes to New Orleans. She's absolutely in her element here as the most powerful New Orleans witch, takes the supernatural world by storm, and everyone has a happier ending because of it (including her!). Absolutely love her friendships with Davina, Vincent, and Freya, and shout-out for being the only fic to make me care about Cami! Truly, this is great. The NOLA gang is the family Bonnie deserves, and the Bonnie/Klaus is so believable.

Kai Parket Screwed Us (Until Bonnie Bennett Screwed Him) by hysteriaww - exactly what it sounds like. Bonnie shows up to help Josie and Lizzie deal with the prison world and her and Kai's insane relationship weirds everyone out. Deals with the Gemini Coven in a really interesting way. Hilarious, and with mild Damon and Alaric bashing. BonKai.

Season One, Epsidoes One-Three by BorgiaBabe - a rewrite of the first three episodes of TVD with Bonnie as a proper main character. Her love interest is a softer Kai, and it's great! Bonnie really deserves better.

the night light hits off, turning kisses to bites by donutworry - an insane, dark, twisted Bonnie and Kai romance, where they're the only ones in the prison world from the start. I absolutely love the Gemini Coven lore in this fic.

Klaroline Fics

Make them bow by for_darkness_shows_the_stars - Klaus appears in season 1 of the vampire diaries. it's Klaroline, but still super gen, and all the characters get their own compelling arcs in it. Especially love the way Elena and Stefan are written.

One of A Kind, Two of a Kind, or the Three Musketeers by Phandancee74 - Caroline is an ancient nymph who was erased from memory by Malivore. She still helps the Mystic Falls gang out (and her relationship with Bonnie is great)! The Klaus/Caroline is angsty and lovely.

Calling on a Friend by Phandancee74 - 5 year old Josie gets Klaus's number. Shenanigans ensue. Short and cute as hell.

Sanctuary in their Hearts by thatsanotherlovestory - Caroline leaves before the season 8 wedding, and heads to New Orleans with Klaus. A fun story, but still so sad Bonnie didn't get her happy ending in it. The twins are so cute in this.

Let's do the Time Loop again! by kcatdino - on the night of the sacrifice, both Klaus and Caroline get stuck in a time loop. It's so funny to watch them get more and more deranged.

sweet present of the present by VintageLilac - it's Caroline, not Rebekah, who raises Hope while New Orleans is at war. I absolutely love Katherine in this fic, and though Hayley gets the short end of the stick it's written quite well.

The Wolf by Yokan - a witch version of Caroline is the one pregnant with Klaus's baby in the originals. And while season 1 doesn't change a lot because of it, the later one's definitely do! I love the Klaus and Caroline relationship, and Caroline & Elijah friendship.

Elena Gilbert-Centric Fic

The stars were brightly shining by adlyb - a fic where Elena is pregnant with Klaus's baby. It's so hard to describe! A little twisted, a little sweet, and a thorough depiction of Elena's mental state.

The Forgotten by MissNMikaelson - Elena time travels and gets dropped in the middle of Klaus and Kol's war in New Orleans, circa 1914. The flashback scenes in the fic are great! Eventual Kol/Elena.

blame it on the stardust by allwritenow - the fic that looks into if Elena's doppelganger nature affected her more. And a truly beautiful Caroline, Bonnie, and Elena friendship.

Off by a Single Degree by Tarroko - when Elena's phone dies, Damon walks her home and never compels away her memories, and her parents never die. This softer, sweeter Elena is so believable, and I love the way canon immediately shifts. Amazing development of her parents, Anna, and Enzo. Delena.

Katherine Pierce Centric Fic

afflictions eclipsed by glory by passionesque - in 1864, right after the fire in Mystic Falls, Elijah finds Katherine. They team up together against Klaus. This deals with Katherine's trauma and cunning so well! A slow build to Elijah/Katherine, involving him acknowledging his faults.

General Mystic Falls Gang Fics

in another life (i would let you go) by sarcastic_fina - Elena wakes up in a world where she isn't the doppelganger and no one knows her. An interesting deconstruction of the affects she's had on her friends.. Manages to be both Elena-bashing and sympathetic at the same time. Minor Steroline and Bamon.

Originals Family Feels

It All Comes Crumbling Down by AlwaysAkin - can I do a self-rec? I'm doing a self-rec. Hope is born a century earlier, and grows up in New Orleans with the Mikaelsons. I'm particularly proud of my Hope-Marcel bond and young!Hope voice in this one.

A Twist Through Time by fandom_lover_101 - Hope is sent back in time to the Vampire Diaries season 3. She messes everything up. Absolutely love the slow Hope & Klaus relationship built here, and her friendship with Elena is cute too. Minor Klaroline, Delena, and Handon.

Always & Tomorrow by Viretta - another tragically unfinished fic. Set after Hope jumps into Malivore in Legacies, it involves the dead Mikaelsons being resurrected, and the kids from the Salvatore School travelling to New Orleans (with a newly activated tribrid Hope). This is a Mikaelson family story in the bloodiest, best way. Has Handon and Klaroline in addition to the canon originals couples.

if no one in the entire world cared about you (did you really exist at all?) by nevermore_evermore - Elijah is erased from the minds of everyone he loves. Kol is (eventually) there to help him through it. An interesting take on Elijah's place in the family.

A Million Mistakes by mon-amour-eternel - a fic where Caroline is also an original, and her and Klaus are Marcel's parents. Sadly unfinished, especially considering the rarity of Marcel-centric fic!

But Stand Brave, Life-Liver by crownjrose - A Hayley-centric fic! Her foster parents come to New Orleans and see the way her life turned out. Interesting closure for Hayley, and a sweet Klaus/Hayley relationship.

Kolvina Fic

(finally) you and me are the lucky ones by yorkes - a long one-shot where Kol and Davina are soulmates. It's cute as hell! And Kol and Davina really grow into each other in this one.

The Vixen and the Fox by BlueBooThalassophile - be warned, this read is long as hell. But it's also great. Davina time travels to the Vampire Diaries season 4, gets involved in the fight against Silas, and everything goes sideways immediately. Love Davina's friendship with Hayley and bond with Marcel in this one. Every character in both shows appears in this one.

[rubberduckyrye]

You know I've seen quite a few people say they're wanting to make v3 rewrites lately--and as someone who is actively working on one by myself, I feel like I should give some advice. I know I'm nowhere NEAR done with Twins AU, but I've made a ridiculous amount of progress and I think these things have greatly helped me out personally

So here are my tips for making a V3 rewrite and actually making it stick/not to burn out before the first chapter!

This is important. Don't try to please everyone. You will never please everyone. Write this for yourself, and you will find an audience. People can and will hate your fic no matter what you do. Don't try to please them, they are not your target audience-- so Write this story for, first and foremost, yourself. It'll feel so much more rewarding if you do I promise.

V3's main theme is extremely muddied due to how the narrative was and how open ended the game was left, and from my own research, no one can agree on what V3 was trying to say about truth and lies, or Reality and Fiction. If you want to rewrite this story, you're going to need to narrow down what you want your rewrite to say about the themes presented.

PLAN THE EVIDENCE AND MURDERS AS THOROUGHLY AS YOU CAN. I think not knowing what I was going to do for the cases and trials really scared me for the longest time until I essentially sat myself down and fleshed out all of the cases for Twins AU. Make evidence lists, do research on how your murder cases might go, the works. It's a lot of work but I personally followed this post and also made an evidence list to help me out plot out the murders for Twins AU. This is also a great way to flesh out your protagonist as well, since you get to explore their note-taking style and what kind of language they'd use for taking notes and if they have opinions about certain things.

Write a summary of each character in the story. DR games have a big cast and V3 has an even BIGGER cast than usual, so it's good to write down summaries for all of the characters. I also suggest really studying each character too, even if you plan on changing a character to better suit your tastes (or to get rid of offensive material.... looking at you Angie) you still want to keep the core of their character intact for fans of that character.

Speaking of characters, make sure to try and remember to write each one as a human being, even if they aren't human (Kiibo for example). Develop them, give them quirks and flaws, motivations and wants and desires and dreams. Even if you hate a character, doing this much character study will help you keep them in character and keep their motivations reasonable and understandable.

If you don't have a good grasp on a character, study harder. Don't go looking for other people's interpretations or try to be a crowd pleaser. Make your own interpretation, and that interpretation becomes special to your rewrite.

If you plan on changing a character, for the love of GOD do your research first. Don't go accidentally making Angie into a worse racist caricature of Pacific Islanders Please and Thank You. Actually, just do a ton of research in subject you think might be relevant to a character or the plot--like Gonta and how ableism prevails in his story. Like how Shuichi has anxiety up the wazoo and how Maki has learned helplessness. Study and research hard.

Pace yourself--I don't think people realize how GIANT a V3 rewrite project is--remember that this game is extremely long and you cannot write this in a single month. Once all of your planning is done, write a reasonable amount for it each day. For me, I'm able to crank out 2k a day because I type absurdly fast, but most people would probably want to start at maybe 500 words a day.

If you're not having fun, step back. You might be burnt out and need a break, or maybe the scene you're writing is just not working. Take time to assess your own feelings and do what is appropriate to resolve them.

Don't feel too discouraged if you need to rewrite a whole scene--it happens to the best of us and sometimes things are just not working. It's not lost progress to retry--consider the scene you are replacing as a rough draft you need to remake. I've had to erase huge 1k chunks due to this.

Reward yourself for big accomplishments! When I finished the prologue, I threw myself and my editor ( @trans-shuichisaihara ) a pizza party, and I plan on doing something like that again, albeit probably cheaper. Reward yourself for huge milestones! Hell, I owe myself at least one treat for two chapters I've written, but tbh I've been having so much fun just writing that doing so is rewarding within itself. That doesn't mean external factors can't help, so if you finish a chapter and you're proud of it, buy yourself a treat for working so hard!

If you got a friend who likes editing/beta reading, invite them to beta read for you! They can help you find errors and typos that you might've missed. If you plan on editing your fic, I highly recommend reading your writing out loud to help you find weird sentence structures and awkward phrases. This should have the bonus of making it easier for people who use screen readers/just prefer audiobooks to enjoy your fic as well!

EDIT! Here are two more:

It's okay to be scared writing something new! Getting out of your comfort zone is going to happen with a giant story like this, and maybe you're going to flop at the best parts. That's perfectly fine!!! You can always edit it later--or even just call it "good enough" and move on! This is fanfic for fun, not a professional project you're making money off of. It's okay if things are less than ideal and incredible imperfect. An imperfect story is at least written. That's better than not writing it at all.

For the love of everything that is holy, remember that the characters should be people--and remember that their talents do not make up their entire personality. Their talents should not solely dictate what they wear, how they act, or the worst offender in this fandom--how their executions go. When writing a character Execution, think instead of what would be the worst way for that character to die--that is to say, what would bring them the most despair upon their death. DR1 and DRV3's executions all play with the despair of the blackened in each execution (with DR2 being noted to heavily miss the mark and to be the set of executions that are the most disappointing to Kodaka, from what I've been told.) So if you're stuck on writing a new Execution, try to think about what each execution from DR1 and DRV3 does to play with the despair of the blackened. What about their executions are giving them despair in their final moments? Do they at all relate to their talents, or are they completely separate from their talent? Study them, and you'll be able to use that information to write your own unique executions that are miles better than most of the fan made executions out there.

And I think that's my advice for now! Happy writing, everyone!

[darqx]

What are your best tips for making an OC? (IT'S ME AGAIN MUAHAHAHAHA)

I actually have some tips over here for fleshing out a character! :) Well it's more for fleshing out a character physically but the tips can be applied to general creation. Here are some more that might be helpful to think about:

🤯 ACTUALLY, DONT THINK TOO MUCH

This might seem like contradictory advice (because wait don't you HAVE to know everything about your charac?? Eh???) but what I mean by this is; if you have to really force something onto a character then it wasn't for that character to begin with. This applies to anything - names, likes, actions etc. The more you force, the more stiff and unnatural your charac is going to be, because at that point they will be less of an organic charac and more of a personal dress up doll you keep throwing things at. You and your audience are going to notice this.

Let things come naturally, if possible. If you have a thought and you're like "actually yes this is so my charac", that's exactly the type of feeling towards details you are aiming for.

📝 If you're feeling like something DOESN'T work, put it on the backburner and come back to it later to see how you feel about it. If you're still 🫤 about it then it's most likely not for that charac.

📷 KEEP IT REAL

I mentioned this in my other post and I'm going to mention it again because it is actually the best tip - pretend they are an actual person. What is important to them as AN ACTUAL PERSON? What would AN ACTUAL PERSON WITH THEIR PERSONALITY do in [x] situation? How would you describe this ACTUAL PERSON THAT YOU KNOW? You don't need an entire checklist but you should at least know the general gist of them.

When you do this, you naturally flesh out your charac and make them believable. You're also more likely to avoid the pitfall a lot of creators tend to trip into which is THIS TRAIT = ENTIRE PERSONALITY*.

*This means that a creator takes ONE element of their character and...makes it the entire character. For eg if the charac is gay, then everything else about the charac becomes secondary to the fact the charac is gay. This makes for very flat characs, as the thought process behind them then becomes "what would a GAY character do?" as opposed to "what would THIS character do?". Ideal for if you're legit trying to create an extremely tropey charac though I guess...

📝 Write elevator pitches for your characs and story. Elevator pitches distill the main essence of your characs and/or story into one succinct sentence.

💭 PICK A FEELING

If you're really stuck when developing your charac, it can be helpful to think about how you want your audience to perceive them, and how they need to be in order to achieve those feelings. The key concept of this tip is that you need to step back and look at your character from an audience viewpoint, and not from your own "this is my baby" rose-tinted lenses. Are you portraying your quirky character as fun and quirky to the audience or are you portraying them as annoying? Is your sassy character actually cool and sassy or are you portraying them as a raging jerkass bitch?

This helps in balancing your character so that you don't accidentally make a "likeable" protagonist that people actually hate or antagonists that are simply straw men.

📝 Get honest feedback from your friends about the kind of personality etc they think your character has. Does it correlate with your view/your intended perception of them?