#cedardivine

[waveridden]

3life martyn 33

sometimes, sometimes the only way out is through

[leonstamatis]

ao3 year in review is an awesome idea. 12, 22, 25?

oh thank you!! i cannot take full credit for it -- i am absolutely sure i've seen it around before -- but i'm glad you enjoy it!

12: What’s your most popular fic for the year? Is it your best one?

it is by far symbiosis, a character study based on the dnd movie. i think it is definitely one of my most successful studies this year, and there's a lot about it that i love. but it's not like. particularly innovative? so by one measure, it is the best! and by other metrics, perhaps not so much. i do love it though.

25: Free space: Recommend a fic!

i don't even watch the show, haven't since the first campaign, but i do think folks should read this critrole fic because it's perfect to me: when you're in trouble, go into your dance

22: Share a deleted scene, if you have one.

ooh lemme dig... i don't think i have a deleted scene from a current work, but i can give you one for an abandoned WIP:

Boston digs its nails into Layna, deeper and stronger than the teeth of the Hellmouth. It’s the first time, really, that she’s felt anything stronger than the tug of her home; if she’s honest about it, she’d never thought that kind of thing was possible.

She should know better. There’s always something stronger, something bigger, something that can carve your insides out and leave you feeling hollow.

Well. Maybe that’s a little too on the nose. Layna shakes her head at her own dramatics and focuses instead on the coffee in her hands, the person seated across the table from her in this very loud, very Boston cafe.

“It’s not so bad,” Moses Mason, formerly Simmons, formerly excellent actor, says. They smile in the sort of lopsided way Layna knows would make most people swoon. “The team is pretty insular, but if you’re patient…”

They wave a hand, as if that’s an adequate end to a sentence. Layna’s lips twist to one side of their own accord.

“Then they’ll get over the fact that I was never supposed to be here,” Layna finishes, “and that I am a constant reminder of a significant hit to both performance and morale?”

Moses’ smile doesn’t waver. “Sure, something like that.”

Layna sips her coffee. It’s too bitter, but she doesn’t have it in her to order another one. “You’re a terrible welcoming committee.”

“I’m the only welcoming committee,” Moses corrects.

“And?”

“And that means it doesn’t matter how good I am.”

They say it with a wink, like they’re letting Layna into some kind of secret. Maybe they are; Layna doesn’t have the lay of the land, here, not yet. Some other time, when she isn’t grieving, when she isn’t lost, when she isn’t absolutely furious at her circumstances, maybe she’ll be in on the joke. Maybe.

“My condolences to your captain,” Layna mutters into her drink.

Moses shrugs. “My condolences to you.”

There’s something there. Layna can see the spark of sincerity in the sentiment, like if Moses were just one or two degrees less relaxed there would be a genuine apology. She appreciates that they don’t go that far; she’s never been comfortable with pity.

And, as such, she is perfectly comfortable changing the subject, however clunky the transition may be. “Who should I be keeping an eye on around here, then? Any trouble?”

Moses shoots her a sharp grin, pretty and pointed. “Me, probably.”

“Oh, please.” Layna hides her own smile behind the rim of her mug. “I can handle you.”

“You sound pretty confident there, Hollywood.”

“I didn’t spend six years in the Hellmouth to fall victim to some big brown eyes and pretty flowers.”

“Aw,” Moses intones, dipping their chin down. “You think I’m pretty?”

Moses is a flirt. Layna knows it, and Moses knows it. The words are nothing; leaves floating on top of the current of a particularly quick stream. Easy to get distracted by, if she tries, but the thing is… The thing is, Layna’s been here a week, and she’s already seen who Moses tends to stare at during practice. It isn’t her.

So Layna meets the dipped chin, the artful pout, with a raised eyebrow. “Will a certain shortstop mind if I say yes?”

If it catches Moses off guard, they don’t show it. Instead, they shrug. They might be trying to force nonchalance, but then, they’ve got the training to pull it off. Layna narrows her eyes and looks for some kind of tell, a giveaway.

“I doubt it,” they say. They add a little flourish, even, flicking the hair and honeysuckle out of their – honestly, frustratingly pretty – big brown eyes.

“Hm.” Layna frowns. “Pity. Do you want him to?”

“You’re asking some very personal questions, for a stranger I just met,” Moses muses.

They don’t sound angry; if Layna had to put a word to it, she’d call them curious. Good. She can work with that.

“Then don’t call me a stranger,” Layna huffs, leaning in until her hair slips past her shoulder and falls, just slightly, over her face. “Call me your co-conspirator. You can even call me your date, as long as you’re buying.”

Pointedly, Moses pulls their wallet out of their pocket and flags the waiter.

Layna wasn’t lying, either. She can handle a Moses Mason, and she can certainly handle a Jacob Haynes. If she plays her cards right, they’ll be sorted out by the end of next season. Maybe sooner. Sure, she shouldn’t be here; she’s an anomaly, a mistake, a reminder of plots gone wrong and the dead weight around every team’s neck.

But she’s pretty damn good at writing a love story. Here, at least, that should be worth something.

[thehallstara]

wip guessing game how about lack or less

ok this is like. a small snippet of a game/interactive fiction piece that i'm contemplating publishing serially?? BUT it's also part of a larger game i'm trying to get funding for atm and is abt a lot of things but essentially boils down to. jews in space

The secondary reason, I suspect, was the promise of safety, however false that may end up being. I go back and forth on it, myself; previous attempts similar to this have almost always failed in the long run, but even our own texts prescribe us to look forward. We can't discount a future that hasn't happened yet, even if millennia of epigenetic trauma tells us to, but we can't guarantee it either.  (Given what I've uncovered these past few years, I'm further soured on this point on principle, though I can't fault my parents nor my people for being compelled by it. But I have reason to believe AQA’s impetus to select the communities they did for the inaugural fleet was less than charitable. More on this later.)

[polkadotpatterson]

top five things YOU'VE written! and/or top five individual scenes :3

ouugghhh ok. don't think I can definitively pick out 5 scenes rn so here's 5 fics:

a voice in a dream whispered a name. It has a lot of words and a lot of love and I'm really proud of how it came out! blb-only is so fun to write.

Where You Belong is my currently-unfinished love letter to Pokemon Mystery Dungeon. It's the first time I really pushed my writing style to be more descriptive and do something particularly different, and I love the result (I just need to get back to actually writing it riv)

I am only 1/3 of The Salt but I still want to include it. Worldbuilding has never been my strength and this is the first time I've done worldbuilding I'm genuinely proud of.

if I was to pick one fic from my Dot series it would be... the still-unposted Dot and Workman Grand Siesta Fic :') it has undergone multiple drafts and is finally approaching Ready To Post. stay tuned

I would not say that The Phoenix (my Pokemon Crystal Nuzlocke) is one of the five BEST things I've written, as it definitely has flaws and there are things I would do differently if I wrote it today. But it's one of the things I've written that's most near and dear to my heart, and I'm proud of many aspects of it. This was where I really started to improve as a writer and develop my style, and most importantly it's just a very personal story about chronic illness and trauma and healing that I poured a lot of my heart into. I have somewhat complicated feelings about it but it was very much the story I needed to tell at the time.

[fabledivine]

before the storm these two and their story are co-owned with @cedardivine!!

[ohkaypoh]

YORK OUR DORK

[vault legends uniform design by cedardivine]

[lovelandfrogman]

ok.. i’m busy and also slightly burnt out so it’s blaseball art fight attack posting time B)

blasetober day 16: elip dean (an attack for @cedardivine !!)

i luv this design so much and i luv elip dean<33 as a coronation age tigers fan i was SO ready 2 blorbo this guy

[salthien]

the mediocre fall out boy 2023 rewrite of We Didn't Start the Fire reminded me that, inspired by @charaznablescanontoyota and together with @cedardivine , I wrote a Blaseball Discipline Era parody of We Didn't Start the Fire (with better line meter than Patrick Stump managed, I think). I never recorded it because I can't sing and don't have audio mixing skills but here's the lyric doc:

Please enjoy + feel free to record with my full blessing if you feel particularly inspired. I've just been leaving this rotting in my docs since Fall Ball and now I'm putting it out in the wild

[fawnnbinary]

Attack for @cedardivine!!!

[charaznablescanontoyota]

i am pretending @cedardivine tagged me for wip wsunday because i have an hour to kill (anything that comes in beyond then ill answer when i get home)

RULES: make a new post with the names of all the files in your WIP folder, regardless of how non-descriptive or ridiculous. Let people send you an ask with the title that most intrigues them, and then post a little snippet or tell them something about it!

im leaving out ones that are just outlines or im not planning on finishing. also some of these are finished but unpublished so they're hanging out in my wip folder lol

you're the phantom, i'm the fan

this is not your year

prompt bingo

night market

high tide, low tide

skillet on the stove, such a temptation

nighthawks

the first annual stephen king protagonist convention

i will tagggggg @polyboros @impernaway @waveridden and @leonstamatis!

[waveridden]

treebark week ? gimme

ashdlkfshfs obvs it is for the upcoming @treebarkweek (week after next) i have two finished pieces in that doc and a beginning of another in the scratch doc

here's a random bit that i like. preview time

He takes the seat next to Ren, leaning in but leaving a healthy amount of space. He offers a hand, and Ren leans towards it, lets Martyn cup his cheek. He covers Martyn’s hand with his own, and then — then presses a kiss to the inside of Martyn’s wrist, so soft that Martyn thinks he must be imagining it. “Please,” Ren murmurs at last, and Martyn can’t help but clutch at him, has to stop himself from digging his fingers into Ren’s cheek. “Please, even if you can’t understand, believe me. I would have a crumbled kingdom with you before an intact one without.” Martyn swallows hard. It’s illogic at its finest. It doesn’t make sense. “I believe you,” he says anyways, and lets his king hold him as close as he dares.

[leonstamatis]

top five lyrics or potential titles for fics/pieces that you haven't used yet. alternatively, if it's easier, top five titles you *have* used!

oh i got you. i have a list of unused titles:

on the hands of death (and how to dodge them) — just too similar to a couple other titles i have used, so while i like it, it’ll never go to anything

derring-dos and dissolutions — this is such a specific-ass word combo. literally nothing i write is gonna fit that. but i hold onto it.

your heart to heaven (a knife in the back) — hadestown lyric. a little too lengthy and literal for my tastes, generally!

what a wolf whistle attracts — this is a bastardized dessa lyric bc i’m a parody of myself. it’s, again, too wordy, and cutting it down to this makes it lose some of its impact. but I think about it a LOT.

volta — this is both because i studied poetry once upon a time and like the term itself and because it’s one of my favorite crane wives songs. I had a fic idea for it once but it didn’t pan out. one of these days, maybe, I’ll find a new one.

as for favorite song lyrics that are NOT fic titles, i’d point you to dry the river’s “shallow bed” album, specifically the acoustic version. every song there has about five or six lyrics that knock me flat on the ground. specifically, weights and measures, new ceremony, Bible Belt, and the chambers and the valves.

[thehallstara]

all your titles fascinate me forever, i think you have some of the best title work in fandom i've ever seen. give me something for no postage required? <:)

aw ty that makes me v 🥺 bc I get self consciousness with how many song lyrics I use ngl

no postage required is actually a kind-of-sequel to the end is near that I was working on for last months bitsy jam and didn't end up making– though I'd still like to!!! Like the end is near, it's not explicitly about blaseball and so I was refraining like. actually referencing stuff but it's written from the perspective of a val games stuck in the vault post-blb in a final letter to pedro davids. I'll finish it one day.

an excerpt:

I think of you most days– a thousand tiny stars in that constellation. it's all in the small things; burning hands from washing dishes too hot, early mornings in the garden– I planted nestursums in your honour. i keep chamomile in the cupboard in the impossible hope that one day I might find you there, waiting.

[polkadotpatterson]

trick or treat!

Hi have some Tigers-themed rambling! If I'm ever going to just sit down and write a fic about a player outside the Talkers, it would be Dunlap Figueroa and the whole Fifth Base Situation. I'm sure you have wayyyy more thoughts about this than I do but I like to rotate xem in my head sometimes. How do they go from someone who's always been so fiercely devoted to their team to the point of fighting feedback just to keep pitching for the Tigers, to willingly grabbing the fifth base and getting the heck out of there?

I know a lot of it depends on how you interpret the alting, and imo this is a case where you can do more interesting things with "they're still the same person from this universe but they've been Changed". What if an actrex suddenly ends up with stage fright and bad pitching and the crushing self-doubt that comes with it? What if the whole team is crumbling around you, all your friends are leaving one way or another, and you can't even fall back on the things you've always been good at?

How can you fight to stay in a place when it no longer feels the same, especially when you don't feel the same either? You don't even know who you are anymore. You can't even play the role of someone who has it all together, so you stop trying. You grab the fifth base and you run, hoping you can find some answers, and yourself, somewhere else.

[fabledivine]

supervillain hana & her pet guy soda belongs to @cedardivine as always <3

[callibones]

UM HI HI HI ITS ME. 🩸🟪 AND I JUST WANTED TO TELL YOU I AM VERY SORRY!!!

this week ive been exceptionally busy. a lot of stuff has been piling up for me with university and work and it didnt really give me a lot of time to look at tumblr OR read the fics! ill get to them! i didnt forget i swear ive just been EXHAUSTED this message is just being pulled out of my ass since i didnt expect to write to you today so i dont have any topics planned to ask you about. i didnt wanna take the time to think of something because i didnt want it to seem like i was ignoring your poast (despite the fact you wouldve never known if i had seen it or not .. but MENTALLY i'd feel bad, you know?) but uh. yeah

i don't know how people talk. um. how are you? has your week been particularly busy? what DO you do outside of tumblogging actually .. im curious

OH AND ALSO i very much appreciate the backstory info you gave me on callibones. i MIGHT take inspiration from it for my fanart? maybee? and uh i will send that to you SOON! very soon. i guess in the meantime id just wanna polish it more before sending it to someone out of like. principle?

i looked through your friends blog.. i like the concept of a blood bag person thing. there were probably better ways of saying that but IDK!! once again though i think it is Extremely Drawable so i have a small request ..

and regarding CALCIFER .. i think i would appreciate a deity to deity chat. or an potential acolyte to deity chat or I Mean Ha Ha. and those pronouns are Pretty Cool if i do say so myself! im worried directly sending in an ask would be strange so since you said you were friends with them can you parrot my question? i rlly wanna know whether drawing fanart of their OC is okay. sorry what else. im going to try and plan my next correspondence out ASAP so ill probably go through the cedardivine post before the post you made with a ton of fics? just because the list is shorter. idk what ill do after that--maybe ill rank them or something and you can tell me how wrong my opinion is or something Haha! just kidding im always right. i create new truths as we speak. as im typing this im overwriting just a little bit more of the world's knowledge. im just cool and awesome like that. theres nothing else i can think of at the moment to ask you.. OH UM when you mentioned callyris i realized "hey wait dont i know a blog called that" and Look Who It Was! so thats neat i also think i found another blog that may be under your posession but i dont think i can ask about it at the front desk.. so when i message you in some other manner ill probably ask you about that! who knows i might even be Completely Wrong

well anyways sorry for the delay. it will probably take a while longer for me to compose my thoughts so the delay will continue but. idk. i hope this message isnt TOO INCOHERENT but again i am not proofreading at all for this one.

also im definitely using gooby forever now. thats great. what a peculiar phrase.

GOOBY!!!!

hi hi hi hi! i took a million years to get back to this so NEVER apologize or rush about sending me things. anon asks r a tough way to communicate cause i dont got an online indicator for u so i just gotta guess... and u dont got a notification for me! i hope u see this even tho its been a bit.

ive been busy too cause university's also piling up for ME. i'm gonna respond to this one first, and then i'll take a crack at your mysterious coded message! and then i have to do a million homework because grad school. outside of tumblogging im trying to destroy the world with the infinite power amulet, so i'm majoring in general supervillainy! and also urban planning

for the blood bag: @rigormarcy LOVES fanart. marcy, if u see this, respond with your ref, 'cause you have a super drawable OC! the fans wanna draw u so bad. So Bad.

u found another blog that might b me? omg.... here. how bout this. send me an ask with just the name and i wont publish the response. if youre REALLY curious. but youre probably right, because i invented every blog on tumblr GOOBY