#describing memes that don't exist is very difficult

[gryficowa]

Remember people, even if you like productions created by Jews, even if you like actors of Jewish origin, even if you have a few OCs who are Jews, the fact that you deny the actions of Jews from Israel and those who support them, will get you labeled an anti-Semite

Even if you react to anti-Semites in your country who use "Jew" as an insult, you will only get this label because you hate how they treat Palestinians

Even if you show your helplessness and throw off the entire burden, even if you deny that in your country only Jews are talked about as the only victims of the Holocaust (Because the rest is inconvenient for conservatives), people from another country who had the privilege to know about it without censorship pro-rightists will eat you for anti-Semitism

They will eat you for anti-Semitism because you don't understand why people who were a group of holocaust victims do the same thing that was done to people like them, which is more disgusting when you do the same thing that was done to people like you

You will be labeled an anti-Semite because you have ASD and have problems communicating your thoughts in a way that would make them sound attractive to neurotypicals, because they will not understand how difficult it is to describe what you feel and how you see it all, they do not care that it is a challenge for you , to describe it, they love to attack autistic people, as they showed on tik tok

No matter what you do, you will be labeled an anti-Semite, even if this label is untrue, because people have convinced themselves that if someone is a Jew, they are protected from the consequences of their actions, because any attempt to show that Jews from Israel and those who support this country ( Yes, there are Palestinians who are Jews, but they are victims of those Jews who are not), they are like Polish Christians who will call you a crystanophobe when you point out to them what they do in the name of their religion

If being against what Israel is doing is anti-Semitism, then it follows that it is the only good anti-Semitism, which shows the absurdity of it all

Because anti-Semitism is not supposed to be good, so it means that it is not anti-Semitism when you react to harm, being a Jew does not protect you from the consequences, and being a Christian does not protect you from being a hateful scumbag that attacks minorities for the very fact of existing

There is no alibi here, your arguments about being a victim of the Holocaust lose their validity when you are the perpetrator, and denying it shows how deep you are in it

Israel has been mistreating Palestinians for years, for years in my country I have seen memes about how this country segregates and other attempts to enslave these people, so no, being pro-Palestinians did not appear only after what happened between Israel and Hamas, it was this before, but people didn't know what to do, so they communicated their helplessness in memes

Only after the Israel-Hamas conflict did people gather to fight for the Palestinians, it was a motivation to end it, because they can no longer sit quietly, pretending that nothing is happening (Because Israel denies what it is doing and manipulates people)

They did not fight earlier because they were afraid of being labeled an anti-Semite, but they communicated it through memes so that everyone could find out what Israel is doing, it is a mistake to think that only after what happened between Israel and Hamas did people start to be in favor of the Palestinians, they were earlier, but they were simply afraid of this patch, because after what Twitter showed, it's easy to throw mud at someone when they defend those who are attacked (because unfortunately, society loves artificial enemies)

Let's stop calling it anti-Semitism, because we only do harm, because we create artificial protection for those people who are guilty, do we really want another Canada where people forgot about what the church did to the indigenous people? Because yes, they forgot about it too quickly, because you have to "Forgive", yes, the rape of children and everything they did, the church has been going unpunished for years and it pisses me off because once again everything is in favor of Christians

Using "Anti-Semitism" in this context is seriously disgusting and shows a big problem, because people do not want to admit that it is a group of people from a specific group that is doing something and it is worse because of the very context that this group had, and now it is denying it, that they are the bad guys, and they will call you anti-Semites and the like, to make you feel guilty for calling them out

The funny thing is that doing the same thing they do towards Islamists is no longer considered Islamophobia and racism, because they are a persecuted group, so they cannot be the bad guys in this story (Yes, it reminds me of Poles who deny that they do the same as those "Fascists" whom they hate because they support the insurgents, even when an insurgent tells them that they are fascists, yes, it happened, one insurgent called a certain man a fascist and she was criticized on the Internet, because the leftists manipulated her, because her age apparently affects how easy it is to manipulate her, and they were outraged at that she also called this man "Boor", because it's an insult, yes, this is the level of absurdity)

Well, I'm sorry, but the Israelis unknowingly turned anti-Semitism into something positive, which shows a big problem, because it didn't have a positive connotation and shouldn't have, but if it is used in such contexts, unfortunately, it will turn into something positive, that's only disturbing that the reaction to harming people causes that you are an anti-Semite in their eyes, this is seriously an absurdity that should not happen, instead of these terms being negative, they are starting to be reclaimed like the words "Nerd" or "Gay", if we don't stop this, this term will be reclaimed and become positive , and this is due to the lack of awareness of those who use it

The only way to prevent "Anti-Semitism" from becoming positive is not to use it in this context, because it will start to mean "Aversion to Jews who harm Palestinians" and I doubt that anyone would want this word with the connotation of history related to the Third Reich to suddenly become positive, no one wants that, but this term is starting to have this connotation precisely because of how many people from Israel use it, when someone defends the Palestinians and draws attention to how many victims Israel has, if they continue to use this term, I'm sorry, but the meaning it had will be distorted , this has already happened with "Fascism" and "Nazism", both no longer mean the same as they did years ago

Now "Fascism" does not mean the extreme right, and people from discriminated groups who fight for their rights, yes, you heard that right, in such a context you will hear this term, often use the word "Nazism" in the same context, do you seriously want anti-Semitism ended the same way as these two words that have had a negative connotation for years, and today they are a shell of what they were?

If you use anti-Semitism every time someone talks about Israel's crimes, then unfortunately this word will lose its original meaning, and I doubt that's what you want, for people to stop taking it seriously, this is how you kill the meaning of the word when you use it them in the wrong context, an example are the words used to describe people with intellectual disabilities, people took it and turned it into an insult, the same with autism, autistic people fight, but the question is whether it will be possible to recover autism in the same way as "Nerd" and "Gay" or "Queer ", because attention, a word in the wrong context loses its original meaning or becomes an insult, or it ceases to be serious like "Fascism" and "Nazism"

So yes, the greatest enemy of the word anti-Semitism are ironically the people to whom this word applies, because they change its context to be unpunished, unfortunately, one day this word will lose its meaning and will become nothing more than a word that is used as a cheap protection against consequences

Yes, I had to throw it away because it's absurd that you will be an anti-Semite when you draw attention to a problem that concerns a group of people, which actually hurts, even people like them, because they are of a different origin, and this is what is worse when a group that was persecuted, begins to do the same towards another person, it's like queer people who persecute people under the trans umbrella, they are from the same group but they still hurt others, it is more disgusting because of the context, they are victims of the same discrimination and yet they discriminate against their own people for being different from them, or people with ASD what other people with ASD attack because they don't hide, which supposedly causes that they are taken less seriously

We should talk about how many discriminated groups discriminate against other discriminated groups, but no, it's better to keep quiet about it, I'm aroace, and do you fucking know how queer people treat asexual and aroace people? Well, they tell them that they are not queer people and they want to push themselves into their group, of which they are supposedly not "part", the problem is, that they are queer, have their own flags, and yet are rejected for being "Not Queer Enough" or for being "Queerbaiting"

Being a discriminated group does not protect you, it only makes you a disgusting hypocrite from the perspective of other discriminated groups, because you accuse others of discrimination, and you are a discriminator yourself. Unfortunately, many people are afraid to talk about it because they will get a false label, and those who dare, will be attacked by people who do not want to see the problem in their own group, now combine this with Israel, the historical context and Palestine, it causes more disgust because of the context itself, the discriminated group (Jews) attack another group, and when someone stands up for the group they discriminate against, they will call him an anti-Semite, let's not be afraid to say that "Anti-Semitism" on their part causes the word to lose its meaning and all the seriousness it has had over the years

Let's stop treating discrimination from discriminated groups towards other discriminated groups as a taboo topic, because we only harm each other, because then we will go into the absurd that a Jew is an anti-Semite because he supports Palestine (And believe me, there are many Jews from outside Israel who support it), Yes, soon people from Israel will call Jews anti-Semites, it's only a matter of time

Bloody hell, in the comments they are already attacking Jews who support Palestine and calling them stupid because they support those who want to "Kill" them, do we need to say much about how people from Israel or for Israel are a big problem?

Although it could probably happen to them that they called a Jew an anti-Semite, because we live in a society and on the Internet where even a certain miraculous fanatic called me an ableist, because I don't like the trope of a disabled villain, so after that I expect everything

You know, some people don't say they are Jews and often don't look like the classic vision of a "Jew", so looking at the behavior of people from Israel and how they throw anti-Semitism left and right, I can't be 100% sure whether they didn't use it towards a person who is Jewish

So when we get to this situation, it will be quite meme due to the context, but okay, there was probably no such information, you just know how it works, since I, as a person with ASD, was called an ableist by a miracolous fanatic, nothing will surprise me anymore

But yes, this post was created after analyzing everything that is happening and how anti-Semitism is starting to lose its meaning depending on the context of who uses it, if we cannot criticize a group that harms, because it is hatred, it means that we have to allow it, because you can't say anything to not get patched? Or maybe we can finally stop using the term "Anti-Semitism" every time the context is about fucking genocide committed by a specific group? Anti-Semitism meant aversion to Jews based on myths and prejudices, not reactions to the fucking genocide on their part, because remember, being a discriminated group no longer protects you, when you discriminate and attack someone else in the same way as people like you (or yourself) were treated

Do you know when there was anti-Semitism? When there was a persecution against Jews because of the inventions of a crazy man himself, or when someone uses "Jew" as an insult, not when the truth is told that Jews are aggressors for Palestinians (Even information on the Internet says that Israel was created thanks to the help of USA in establishing a Jewish state, and a lot of hostility towards Palestinians comes from Jews, and you know what else? THE FUCKING STAR OF DAVID IS ON THE ISRAEL FLAG, IT'S RATHER A JEWISH SYMOBL, EVEN I GET IT)

So they give you a label of anti-Semitism because you criticize loudly that Jews are the aggressors in that country, although all the information says directly that the Jews from Israel are the aggressors, because note, as I mentioned, Israel was created as a Jewish state (the USA helped, unfortunately) and the conflict was related to Israel's prejudice against the Palestinians, people couldn't return home (Because they fled because of the war), and dear Israelis did not give them citizenship (I have a flashback from the story about Jews trapped at the border when the Third Reich took away their citizenship), yes, only a small part of people managed to return because they did not want any more, because the people of Israel had made up their minds, that these people are a threat to their country (Flashbacks from the Third Reich, oh boy), and that there has been segregation there for some time now (Unfortunately, I'm not the sharpest tool in the shed when it comes to remembering dates, seriously, dates were the nightmare of mine), i.e. checkpoints, displacements, cities as far away from the Israelis as possible (Oh, more historical flashbacks), it's so bad that many people have trouble getting to the hospital, and hospitals in Palestinian cities have problems with transportation and resources (Because Israel is as greedy as billionaires), so additional people on the conscience for Israelis, because there were women who gave birth in the car because the police didn't want to let them pass, many of them died, or she had a miscarriage, so yes, the Israelis are so good that they kill women and other people by preventing them from getting to the hospital (Because of the checkpoints, many people cannot travel by vehicle, so only on foot, so yes, we can guess how many additional deaths Israel has per conscience)

I'm disgusted that my country is friends with the USA (and takes its worst values ​​from it, Poland wasn't a saint, but since Poles had too much contact with the USA, miracles like "Blackface" made their way into Polish productions, damn it, even today you can come across this shit)

But back to Israel, let's stop using anti-Semitism, because if you had no qualms about attacking Russians (Even those who haven't lived in Russia for years), it's still stupid that the real perpetrators should be patted on the head and you have to defend them just because they are Jews (Which is such a weak defense it hurts)

Yes, I saw a lot of hatred towards Russians on Polish YouTube (Even being happy that someone died because he is Russian), and now I see more and more hatred towards Ukrainians (Poles call them animals and want them to get the fuck out, yes, that's the kind of shit that goes on he's screwing around), you don't worry about it, because they're not Jews, so you can't defend them, because yes Seriously, I see a lot of double standards on this topic

If being a Jew allows you to murder and segregate people, then I'm sorry, but it's better for you to be an anti-Semite than to be for you, because by defending evil and harm to people, we ourselves are complicit in all this, finally, after so many years, people are no longer afraid talk about what you are doing and the real victims have finally been heard,after so many deaths and all the pain, they are no longer indifferent, karma comes back to those who hurt them, so they try to use anti-Semitism as a shield, but in this way they kill what this word meant and with these words I can end it, it started with questioning it and it ended face problems, which are considered a taboo topic and how the shield we use stops meaning anything

[homestuckreplay]

Stuffed Grandpa Figurine: Only $413.99!!

(page 911-918)

The color scheme of the Harley fireplace and entryway is VERY interesting. Almost all furniture in the kids' houses is shown in black and white, so a colorful fireplace in itself means we're supposed to take note - and these specific gold/yellow and purple are associated with the luminous and ominous planets, respectively. In the top left above her fireplace looks like an ogre head of the type John just killed. Where exactly is Grandpa Harley exploring? Where is he getting these decoration ideas? Has he been to these planets somehow? Does he have an advanced agenda like uniting the planets or does he just think they look cool?

Jade's grandpa also collects globes, which are reasonable, tasteful and make sense based on his career, unlike some of his other interests. Although on the ground in the dark they are a little bit of a safety hazard. Less sensible are the suit of armor, mummy wearing a pirate hat, moose and Santa Claus sat on the couch.

This sequence is definitely set up to parallel Rose and her mom - on pages 231-232, Rose sneaks past a similarly-composed hallway where her mom stands in silhouette, and on page 389 we find out Strife between them is a daily occurrence. Jade talking about how predictable her grandpa is must be a nod to the reader, like she knows we've guessed the pattern.

When Grandpa Harley appears in silhouette, it's accompanied by a Sweet Bro and Hella Jeff quote. This only works for me because it feels like Jade's thoughts - he appears, just like she predicted, and while doing important sneaking work she accidentally thinks of a silly meme her friend made. That's very good. And he does look powerful, standing there tall with mustache stiff and fun held aloft lit by the roaring fire behind.

And then we get hit with a 3x triple psycheout combo.

Jade falls asleep at the exact moment of leaping across the divide, instead of successfully escaping like Rose.

The narration on page 917 and loading screen on page 918 outright tell us we're switching to Dave's perspective, but we suddenly cut back to Jade.

We begin what seems like a typical Strife between Jade and Grandpa, with an 'Aggrieve' option, except.... he's not responding. The man has zero reaction to being pelted with bullets. He's also standing on a plinth with his name on it, which is odd but I guess not impossible for somebody decorated and self-aggrandizing, but... IS THAT A LINE OF STITCHING GOING DOWN HIS FACE??

THIS OLD MAN IS STUFFED????

This changes everything. I genuinely feel blindsided by this development. I don't think this could have been predicted, no actual hints were dropped, but something did feel off about the way Jade talked about him. Like she was always using the same words to describe him and telling the same anecdotes, the way that someone might if they were pretending to know someone much better than they actually did. But I brushed it off and assumed he was just a predictable guy.

But this? I feel like throwing out everything I've assumed about Jade and starting again. Because there's no way 'talks about a stuffed figure like he's a Real Guy' isn't a defining character trait. I don't know whether this is the corpse of an actual human, like the ultimate big game trophy, or more of an animatronic situation. I don't know if Jade was actually raised by a grandfather or if this is a complete fabrication. I don't know if there are any other people in Jade's house. I don't know if she knows that this figure isn't actually alive.

I'd like some of these questions to be answered before I think about What It All Means! But I am definitely thinking about loneliness, and comfort, and imaginary friends, and the ways people lie to themselves to cope with difficult situations. And I think what there four kids have in common is that they are the most unbelievably lonely people in existence.

That aside, page 918 functions like page 769, where pressing any keyboard button gives a different fun animation of Jade blasting her gun or playing her flute. The earlier page ended up as a 'psyche-out' as it wasn't Jade's true instrument (and therefore couldn't play a haunting refrain) so I wonder if the same is true for Grandpa not being Jade's true guardian and therefore not her true strife page. Jade is all about these sudden tricks and I can still believe that John, Rose and Dave could end up with a different fourth Sburb player.

These pages with their 30+ different keyboard-controlled animations are so cool - the amount of effort they take to make versus the amount they contribute to the story might be out of balance, but I still think they should be there. In a world where the characters are controlled by keyboards (via commands at a terminal or in the forum suggestion threads) it seems only fair that we also get a turn. Every time I have to press a key or click a button within a flash, I remember that my computer is a crucial part of the story.

> Jade: What the hell is going on.

[gartenofbanny]

Striker was one of my favorite antagonists in Helluva Boss. He's a (mostly) thought-out character with an understandable motivation, has a great personality, is a threat to IMP and Stolas, conflicts with Blitzo moreso than Moxxie, and his design is cool. Well when Western Energy was released, you can tell that Striker's character has been changed, and not for the better. While I still consider him my favorite antagonist (because he's the one with the most depth), I can't ignore the character change he had in Western Energy, and believe me they did change a lot about him. So this is going to be a simple comparison of both versions of Striker, some of the topics I'm going to be talking about are listed in this meme I made. Anyway, let's get started.

Show vs Tell

Helluva Boss has always had a show vs tell problem, but it was very apparent in Western Energy. For this example I'm going to bring up the Ballad of Striker.

The song is insanely catchy, but my problem is that they just describe traits or stuff about Striker that we already know about or we're going to know about later on. We know he's fast and strong and tall and mean because he already expressed those traits in Harvest Moon, we're told that he's the best assassin in the Ring of Wrath despite him failing to kill Stolas twice, they say that he's this famous assassin even the cacti know his name but Blitzo, Moxxie, nor Millie never heard of him before Harvest Moon and there was no foreshadowing that he even existed.

The only things we know that's new when it comes to Striker is that he likes to eat Pâté for lunch and he likes to ride on the choo-choo train. So yeah those are the only two new things we know about him, the rest of those traits don't make sense or were things we already knew and we have Harvest Moon Festival to thank for that.

Striker is fast because and strong and tall because he's Blitzo's physical equal and he overpowered Millie swiftly. He's mean because we've seen him insult and hate on Moxxie just because he's weak. None of that was told to us, it was shown.

So not only did the writers implement tell instead of show this song that's telling us all this stuff just regurgitating information that we already know or stuff that doesn't make any sense. It's just a catchy song with no meaning.

Striker also mentions that Demonic Royalty took away everything he had, but it's very vague and not even brought up again in the episode. Stolas doesn't even know what he's talking about and doesn't even care lmao. This could've been a good opportunity to flesh him out a little especially considering that he's the second major antagonist to make a second appearance as an antagonist.

Voice Acting

Now this is going to be a bit controversial, while I do like Edward Bosco's voice, Norman Reedus' voice acting is just on another level. Simply put it, Norman Reedus is a more experienced Actor than Ed Bosco because Norman has been in the game for well over 10 years at least. Edward Bosco from what I've seen only does voice acting for cartoons meanwhile Norman Reedus does both acting and voice acting and has been doing so since the 1990s.

Norman is just better, but that doesn't mean Edward Bosco is bad. I will say that Vivziepop should've had Edward Bosco voice Striker from the beginning because in all honesty, whenever I see or hear Striker I immediately think Norman Reedus until I remember Edward Bosco also voiced him. Having a big actor voice an antagonist leads to the audience identifying that antagonist as the actor.

And when that big voice actor gets replaced by a lesser experienced one it'll be difficult to fill those shoes, I'm not blaming Ed for this, moreso Vivziepop because I don't know why she decided to hire Norman fucking Reedus for this role and could've known that Norman Reedus most likely wouldn't be back for it.

Personality Change

So Striker has had a personality change in Western Energy, while remnants of his personality in Harvest Moon remained (like his hatred of Overlords & Demonic Royalty) there's more stuff that was added and removed that made his character a bit worse.

One of the things that they added to Striker was the fact that he has a statue of himself with a stick poking out between his legs. Obviously not going to share the image here because of reasons. While he was pretty narcissistic, it wasn't to the extent that he would literally make a fucking statue of himself with a hard-on. It's literally something Chaz would do and you all know my opinion about that guy. Not to mention it's yet another male character that's obsessed with dick so yeah.

Striker all of a sudden is also more sensitive to insults compared to his Harvest Moon version. He gets triggered whenever Stolas insulted him which is weird because before when he did get insulted he just didn't care and bit back with his own insults. Now he's just an angry goofball.

Striker gets disgusted to sexual remarks to the extent that he'll literally stop what he's doing. Whether it be stop torturing Stolas or stop choking out Moxxie because sexual jokes and cries are oh so disgusting to him. Remember when Blitzo essentially flirted with him in Harvest Moon and Striker didn't have a reaction to it? Yeah, me too.

This sensitivity to an extent also makes him less intimidating because now if you just insult Striker or say something dirty around him, he'll all of a sudden stop what he's doing to look at you disgustedly or gag. "Greatest Assassin in the Ring of Wrath", but he can't take insults or dirty jokes, fuck off with that.

Reckless Actions

Time to list Striker's reckless actions in a single episode alone

1. He attacked Stolas in public in a café where possible High Ranked Demons dine at

2. He has a wanted poster yet is in public

3. Is well known and possibly famous despite being called "The Greatest Assassin in the Ring of Wrath"

4. For some reason he lets imps be aware of his hideout which is what literally caused Moxxie and Millie to find him

While Striker in Harvest Moon was a bit reckless (Like why did he leave his door open to for Blitzo to find him assassinating Stolas and why was he immediately hostile towards Moxxie when Moxxie found his gun), but he wasn't reckless to this extent. I can also explain why Striker decided to snipe Stolas. It's because there were a bunch of Imps around and once Striker instantly kills Stolas it actually leaves a lot of suspects instead of one. And due to the fact that Imps are the bottom of the social hierarchy, it would lead to many members of Demonic Royalty just hating on Imps which can become a problem for Moxxie, Millie, and Blitzo because they are all affiliated with Stolas.

So if Striker just straight up killed Stolas in Harvest Moon, he probably won't face the consequences. That would be an interesting conflict, but it's definitely not gonna happen.

Conclusion

Anyway, Striker as an antagonist has really changed for the worst in Western Energy and it's such a shame because he was my favorite antagonist. He still is, but it's just not the Striker I liked. Oh well at least the DHORKS Agents are still around, hopefully Viv and her writing team don't fuck them up.

Thank you all for reading and I hope you all have a nice day! ❤️

[redd956]

Creative Nonfiction vs. Realism Fiction

Yes, yes, there is a major difference. In fact they are two distinct genres of writing with very different challenges and approaches unique to one another.

Realism (Realistic) Fiction

Realism Fiction is a fictional piece/story depicting itself in the real world without major fantasy elements. The characters often are human, the location is primarily Earth, and settings can (but don't always need to reflect) reflect a recent time period that the author is familiar with.

The narrative tends to follow characters created by the author to appeal to real-life standards, but not be actually existing people themselves. Most realism fiction strives to capture the real world, everyday life, and often societal problems, or pull closely from the author's real life experiences to tell a story.

Examples:

The Catcher in the Rye

Of Mice and Men

Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

To Kill A Mocking Bird

The Fault In Our Stars

Wonder

The Outsiders

Out of My Mind

Creative Nonfiction

Creative nonfiction are pieces and stories depicting real events most often from the author's perspective and style. Similar to realism fiction everything takes place in the real world, but instead each event is in relation to a real life moment. The author is working to capture life and the experience of living in order to tell a story. It could be exposing societal problems, trying to get a laugh, or explain a point the author is trying to make.

The characters tend to be existing people, or seemingly existing people. Personal voice plays a major role in the narration of creative nonfiction, and events described can be incredibly personal.

Creative nonfiction isn't always the author recounting memories or events of their own. They can also be recounting the tales of other people, depicting a current moment in real time, philosophizing, exploring a societal issue, twisting a bad event into a comedic one, turning simple living experiences into intriguing stories, or even well just churning out sheets and sheets of complaints.

Examples:

Night

Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings

Hiroshima

A Room of One's Own

The Fire Next Time

The Communist Manifesto

Some Notable Challenges

Authors are more limited in writing creative nonfiction as very little room is left open to make things up

Suspension of disbelief can be much more difficult to quell in realistic fiction, and author must pertain to realistic standards of life

As many creative nonfiction writers joke, it can be hard to write without pissing off those acquainted with the author IRL, as seen in memes about memoirs

Depicting someone realistically in realism fiction who doesn't match the author in demographic can be a challenge in on it's own, requiring a lot more research to go into realistic fiction.

[chainofclovers]

Please know it was very difficult to limit this to only three 😂

2, 22, 33 for the new fic ask game!

Thanks for the ask, friend!

2. Answered here.

22. What is it about watching the same two idiots falling in love over and over again?

Right???

I love that because this is an ask meme, this question isn't rhetorical! For me I think it's a combination of the way obsession works + brain chemicals + community. When I'm obsessed with something, I don't get tired of it for a long time, and reading/writing/thinking/talking about that topic in a creative community full of people also generating stuff along those same lines (but in unique ways!) just makes my brain happy. It's a pretty cool phenomenon.

I also think the benefits of repetition have something to do with it. Like there's that advice that if you want to be having more sex in your existing relationship, literally scheduling it or otherwise intentionally prioritizing it ends up creating the conditions in which you organically want more of it. Or if you're starting a new thing with exercise or eating certain kinds of food or incorporating a hobby into your routine, that routine starts to feel better the more you cultivate it. That + the aforementioned obsession stuff seems to really work in tandem.

33. Give your writing a compliment.

I think I'm good at concrete details, in terms of writing descriptions of what it feels like to interact with people-objects-weather-etc. I really love thinking through very specific sensations and trying to figure out how a given character would experience it and how to describe the concrete through the lens of their experience.

[hollowfaith]

1, 5, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12

QUESTIONS FOR MUN

1. Who has been your favorite muse to play?

ughhhh this is hard...im gonna cheat and go for nostalgia ok

although i think i missed the mark with her muse in some places i have a special fondness for dahlia hawthorne and her specific brand of caustic sarcasm.

i don't think i've ever come up with so many different creative insults during her runtime...also she had the neatest mix of relationships with random muses, not just in AA cast (tho i remember her tormenting at least 3 different feenies??) but beyond, notably izaya and edward cullen comes to mind.

i also really liked my run as kasen kanesada because he's a very lyrical sword (or at least works hard to cultivate that image) so i had to express that in writing and ended up having a lot of fun doing flowery replies and making up poetry and generally going big ham. (it did take a lot of mental energy though so i started losing steam later on.)

i remember he had a thread with FGO Shakespeare that was pretty nice cause we got to be nerdy and talk about eastern/western literature lolololol, then for his challenge he had to kill like 5 ppl in 24 hours so i actually got 5 volunteers to get decapitated and RP'd mini threads with them all, which was wild (and again a very, very random mix of muses including X-Files Fox Mulder)

i didn't RP OCs back then but i like them a lot now too! the lack of art is an unfortunate reality but the amount of customization you get in exchange...so powerful.

5. What is the most difficult thing about writing your current muse?

stupid guy won't just kiss klaus and marry him that would solve 99% of their problems hey klaus are u listening u need to seduce this idiot or something so his brain has nothing but u all day to keep him out of mischief hey hey klaus

ahem

also his unspoken obligation to be lawful good (in his POV) really limits his ability to "act out," so sometimes i need to find different ways to de-escalate situations before he hits moral event horizon. you know, flattery and adoration goes a long way in wrapping him around your finger, i'm surprised more people don't try (i guess they can't stand him long enough to get there lol)

7. Who was the very first muse you ever wrote?

i remember answering this question on another meme maybe...?

there's a more accurate answer now: pre-tumblr, i remember RPing a Lopmon on some digimon forum once upon a time. also remember the mod that was RPing with me called me out for "slight godmodding" because i was describing how my digimon was crossing a bridge and apparently that was taking things too much into my own hands LOLOL

8. Have you ever written a novel? If not, does it interest you?

i've started written novels but i haven't finished any except for like, a couple of original oneshots. technically Veoc is a supporting character/love interest (spoilers: he's not the canon pairing) in a sci-fi story where i have the general plot laid out but y'know, actually writing it is... *flops down*

9. Do you write fanfiction, or have you in the past?

i definitely wrote more in the past but i've slowed down to a trickle since then. uhhhh i want to start up again, maybe with drabbles/oneshots, but i need to catch up on canon first before i try to do the characters justice

10. Do you like stylized icons and formatted text or do you prefer to keep things simple?

god a part of me regrets giving Aury his fancy brackets b/c i have to copy/paste that thing in every reply

so yeah i am never doing that again i just wanna open up a post and type my reply and be done with it, bless.

same with icons as long as they show a face and expression (or even body part) im happy wheee i've got plots to write

11. When did you start roleplaying?

i can't remember...gotta be probably early to mid high school cause i didn't know RP existed back then

12. Have you roleplayed anywhere other than tumblr?

forums, emails, tried a LJ group but my app got rejected so i didn't even get in (ROFL), tumblr has been the most stable medium with most long-term interactions though

[bougainvillea-and-saltwater]

Hello, hii! 💖💖💖The drunken sailoress would like to know the answers for the following questions for the couple's ask!!

6. Who would ask the "would you love me if I were a worm?" question? How would their S/O answer?

8. Who is the big spoon? Little spoon?

11. Who is clingy?

22. What is something - either character - doesn't like about the other?

25. Do they have any pet names for one another?

33. Which one of them gives "that look" when they other is acting like a fool?

60. Are they willing to show PDA? If not, is there a reason?

62. How would outside characters describe their relationship?

74. Who's more likely to bail who out of jail? Would they give the other one shit for it?

85. Their S/O is tipsy. How do they handle it? (This is my favourite question hehehehhe)

97. How do they wake their S/O up? Is it difficult to rouse them?

Welcome, welcome! If the drunken sailor wants answers, then answers will be given! 💖💖💖

💕ask game💕

6. AH, THIS QUESTION WAS ONE OF MY FAVORITES. 😂

Look, you know Jia. You know her. She's an inquisitive little creature who likes dabbling with alchemy, eats the ingredients raw, just to see what they do, and has crafted a potion that instead of making her invisible, it made her clothes disappear. Of course she'd be the one who just goes, "Oh! That's a mushroom specimen I didn't know it existed... Let me just take a bite, just a tiny—", turns into a worm, and sends a message to Miraak to ask him if he'd love her that way. Miraak, who's familiar yet so done with her antics, simply answers: "Yes. What did you do."

8. Jia is relatively small in stature and even smaller next to Miraak—she's 165cm (thanks to her Imperial dad and the fact that she was born prematurely) and he's 203cm (Atmoran/Snow Elf heritage doesn't help when you don't want to end up like a giant). So, it can't really be otherwise: Jia is the little spoon, and Miraak is the big one! In the future, however, she'll spoon him herself, just for fun, and he likes it very much, it makes them both burst into laughter! Her feetsies don't even reach his ankles...🥺

11. OUGH, I found a Perfect Meme on Pinterest a few days ago regarding "clinginess", and it fits so much with those two!

yEAH, ANYWAY...

I'd say that they're both "clingy" to each other, in the sense that they feel "half" and "missing" when the other is not near... They won't openly admit it or create a fuss every time one is away from the other, or every time they just need their space alone, but they like it when the circumstances don't force them to stay apart for too long...🥰

22. This has been answered here! 👀

25. THANK YOU FOR THIS QUESTION, I LOVE IT! 🫂 😭

They have MANY pet names already, and the more time passes, the more they become creative with those (I HOPE I'M NOT FORGETTING SOMETHING HERE HELP—)

Jia calls Miraak "qostrun", which means 'thunderstorm' in Dovahzul, given his affinity for winter's magic, "iilahil", which means 'moonheart', because his face and hair are very pale (and also, Miraak's mother's sobriquet was 'Snowhart', so unconsciously Jia calls him with a similar nickname!), "lokzii" which means 'sky spirit' or what we'd call 'angel' in Christianity, given to how he looked like and what he did to revive her as a newborn, and both in the AU and in TPATD she'll end up calling him "Fen" or "Fenrir", which is his original birth name.

Miraak calls Jia "vahlokraan" in Dovahzul, and it can be read in two different ways: as vah and lokraan, 'spring-bird' or what we'd call 'swallow', and vahlok and raan, 'guardian animal' (the word raan seems to etymologically derive from rah, which means 'god' probably due to the Ancient Nords' animal totem worship, so it's more like 'guardian-god'). Miraak purposely means both senses! He also calls her "silsogaal", which means 'soul-gem' for Plot Significance™, "yolsil", 'fire-soul', "shulkun" and "shulselein", 'sunlight' and 'sun of [the] world' respectively, "silsesili", which means 'soul of my soul', and he will call her "Elettra" or "golsez" which means 'amber' in Dovahzul (just as the name Elettra does in Old Cyrodilic), by the end of the fic, where he claims her own birth name!

There is one more that I adore, but it's very spoiler-y, so I just gnaw my keyboard and wait...

33. I think the only look they'd give when the other starts acting like a fool is the look of approval! 😂 Both Miraak and Jia are very reserved and kind of formal, so letting go of that and acting a bit foolishly is always such a pleasant and unexpected occurrence—it means they're happy and free!

60. The truth is, they don't go too much PDA—Miraak is maybe more 'open' concerning displays of affection, with his expressions of love also exhibiting the true pride he feels for himself for being Jia's partner and his need to show it to the world. Jia is a bit more reserved than him in that aspect, so she'd show her affection when she had the privacy to do so—in her personal moments, she is very expressive in her love, though! Of course, if her counterpart is hurt or in danger or does something badass with his powers and turns her on? That's another topic...😇

62. Like worlds colliding into one, like one ray of light refracted by two mirrors, like ice and fire, but instead of the one element destroying the other, they actually fuel one another's power against every law, like an everlasting solar eclipse indicating that this impossible junction becomes possible for them. They look so much alike in everything they do, that those around them can really overlook how they differ physically and get confused, thinking they see the same person before them...👀

74. You know, this is a question that fits 100% the AU I'm preparing and less to TPATD-verse because Jia is a master thief and doesn't get easily caught while thieving, and Miraak, even though not vibing too well with the law, is too old and tired for getting himself into shenanigans. In the AU though, both Jia and Miraak are very likely to end up in jail together, and it is Jia who usually initiates the trouble, pulls poor Miraak with her, and they get into Situations... I imagine them being thrown into jail, Jia laughing her ass off and enjoying this, and Miraak chastising her for it, but damn would she ever listen to what he says...😂

85. They simply enjoy it, whether they're both tipsy or one of them! I mean, a flushed-faced, overly jolly, and free-of-inhibitions Jia or Miraak, where they do nothing but sing at the top of their lungs, use Throw Voice and mock people with it, switch languages mid-sentence and slur everything in the process, confess their most deep-seated feeling and then laugh it off and continue With Their Business, Miraak doing Dumb Shit with his frost magic (maybe building a palace and/or a snowman like Elsa from Frozen😂)—in fact, I'd love to see them both tipsy one day!

97. It isn't really difficult to rouse them, no! They're not usually heavy sleepers (and rarely need too much sleep, given their Dragonborn-ism), and I think this is understandable, especially for someone like Jia and Miraak who suffer from constant nightmares. They both like to wake up early in the morning—Jia has her routine of baking her pies and feeding her swallows, and Miraak loves to rouse before the sun dawns so that he can marvel at it peeping out the Throat of the World first things first before he goes along with his day...🥰

[valkyurii]

Is it just me or is the relationship between Malenia and Her Teacher, The blind swordsman not talked about Enough? The dude basically sealed away an outer god and when it showed back up in the body of a demigod child not only did he not kill her he took it upon himself to train her. Did they go on misadventures together? Did he show her the lake of rot underground? Do they still keep it touch lol? Their relationship is honestly underrated and it sucks we don’t know more about them

Hello anon, sorry for the late reply!

Yeah it is strange that we don’t know much about this guy. He must have been something though considering he was strong enough to banish and seal away an Outer God. I wonder how easy or difficult a feat that was to pull off? I’ve seen theories that he could have been one of the Nox which I find quite interesting, especially as the Nox Monk and Swordstress both use the same dodge and sidestep animations Malenia uses. I love the idea that he too would do that and she picked it up while training with him. I always imagine the two of them being a little like Syrio Forel and Arya Stark from Game of Thrones which I’m sure they took some inspiration from. After learning about him and the whole ‘water dancing’ thing it definitely stood out to me.

But something else I also wonder about is the God of Rot itself. Does it have a physical form? I mean I assume so, but I often wonder what it might look like. I’ve seen a few people depicting it as a giant scorpion creature before, mainly because of the Scorpion Stinger weapon found in the Grand Cloister. The description on the weapon certainly makes it sound that way at least.

So yeah, this guy battles a giant scorpion god and wins, sealing it away somewhere only for it to later return in the form of a curse within Malenia. And yet, like you said, he doesn’t kill her and instead chooses to helps her. Maybe he couldn’t bring himself to kill an innocent girl over something that’s not her fault and also out of her control, so instead he teaches her how to control her affliction.

I also wonder when they could have met? Malenia’s described as being a young girl in the Prosthesis-Wearer Heirloom description, so I’m guessing she was possibly in her teens. The timeline is, well, non-existent really so I would guess that she and Miquella were still living in Leyndell at that time. I’m not entirely sure when they left and moved to the Haligtree. So if she were living in the capital did he seek her out or was he summoned by Marika? Probably the former, but I do wonder if Marika and Radagon ever spoke with him at all. I know it’s popular among the fandom to think her parents don’t care about her, but memes aside I like to think they were at least doing something to try and help her.

The two of them may very well have travelled together a little. He could have taken her out to see the world and put her new skills to the test as part of her training. I'm not really sure if she's ever been to the Lake of Rot though, only because if the Outer God itself is buried down there somewhere then there's a chance Malenia being within close proximity could result in disaster. I don't fully understand the extent of the God of Rots influence on Malenia, but if there's a chance being close to it could have it take over and control her in some way then perhaps it would be better to keep her out of it's reach. I don’t know exactly the extent of it's influence on her like I said, but given that with each bloom Malenia loses part of herself, part of her identity, and starts to take on a new personality (the Goddess of Rot), and that she has to constantly fight off it’s presence, then I imagine if given half a chance it most likely would take control of her.

And as for if they keep in touch, well I guess that depends on whether he’s still around. If he’s mortal then he could well be dead from old age by now. But then again I’m not really sure what the life span of some of these characters are. There are some who think Miquella and Malenia for instance are in their 20’s and then there are those who think they are a few centuries old, so I guess it’s all up for the individuals interpretation. Maybe he is still around and every year he stops by the Haligtree on the twins birthday to give them a gift, and like wise she sends him a card of Father’s Day because lord knows he was probably a better father to her than Radagon was lol

Overall though I do feel he is a little underrated and I would love to learn more about him. Who knows maybe in the future they will do a comic series much like they are doing for Bloodborne and he might feature in one. His story is definitely an interesting one and ties in directly with one of the main characters after all.

Thanks for the message anon, hope you are well and are having a nice day!

[smokeys-house]

Spoken natively by half a billion people across twenty-some countries, Spanish will hit you with some rich linguistic differences.

For starters, soft C (ce and ci) and Z in most of Spain including Madrid and therefore the standard in the country; gets pronounced as /θ/, same sound as the TH in English found in words like thinking.

However, on the Canary Islands and in the Americas, soft C and Z get pronounced just like /s/, this phenomena gets called "seseo." This is why everyone you know in real life pronounces it like that. This is the way I speak it and most Spanish speakers do.

Countries have lots of different ways to refer to things. In Spanish class we even had parts of the course dedicated to explore the dialect differences of other nations for enrichment I guess.

You are not bad at Spanish here, it's just that sometimes the different peoples will have a whole different word for the same thing.

Let's look at the three words you mentioned.

BEAN 🫘

I call it "frijol" but other derivate words people use to refer to such legume are frejol, fréjol, fríjol, frijón, frisol, frísol and frisuelo.

Argentina, Uruguay, Bolivia, Paraguay and Chile call it "poroto"; depending on where you are on Spain, it will be "judía", "alubia", "faba" or "habichuela"; and in Venezuela it's "caraota".

SANDWICH 🥪

From the English word, some people will call it "sándwich"; or more closely appealing to Spanish's phonotactics: "sánguche". Some people will pronounce it as if the word was "changüich".

The word "emparedado" also exists. Spain calls it "bocadillo" but that same word in other countries can refer to a snack or a packed lunch. In some other countries, if it's for example a ham sandwich they will call it "pan con jamón". Some people that clearly don't understand Mexican gastronomy will tell you in Mexico they call sandwiches "tortas" but that's only true if the bread is one of these:

Also "torta" means cake in other countries; I call cake "pastel", others will use "tarta".

COMPUTER 💻

The English word describes the machine was one that computes, a.k.a calculates. I call it "computadora" but on Chile and Colombia it is "computador."

However, in the 50's a French philospher thought such word was quite restrictive of what a computer can do, just not do math; a computer can organize and bring order. So the French created the word "ordinateur" and in Spain it's "ordenador."

Interesting how this is a 20th century technology word and we see a divide between Europe and the Americas. It reminds me of 📱🤳, in the U.K. and Spain it is "mobile" and "móvil"; and in the U.S. and Latin America it is "cellphone" and "celular."

Of course, teaching courses, media, dubbing, networks and international broadcasting will have to make a choice on what words to use. I have seen many memes of little kids using the words they see in dubbed cartoons that try to appeal to a neutral Spanish that is quite different from the vocabulary used in their environment. When Minecraft YouTubers from Spain became popular in the early to mid 2010's; the Latin American kids started to copy their vocabulary and swearing. There are dubbings that make little changes to create different versions for different countries, and there are others that heavily marinate the dialogues into a dialect and throw in references to appeal more to the audience [Like Shrek and Mexican Spanish]. The different dialects of Spanish bring curiosity and adoption of words, but also disharmony and judgement in the Spanish-speaking internet; it can be like war out there, also this is based on the rivalries you can sometimes see between the internet users of different countries (Argentina and Mexico is a heavy one).

Anyways back to Duolingo, when I used it for French I was mad the app marked wrong my answer because I said "frijoles" and not "porotos."

That's a lot of very good information! This is part of the reason it's so difficult to learn a language through an app. You miss out on the "why" of things 100% of the time but also most of the time you lose out on the option to ask questions. In Spanish class u can just raise ur hand and say I don't get it! What does this mean? But with an app u just gotta.. trust whatever the first 3 people that u can find in a google search. I'm mad duolingo decided to... do all that. Not because it was the best way to learn a language, but because it was very accessible as a free option and I was familiar with it. If I didn't work full time + could afford it I'd be taking actual lessons. But it seems I'm doomed to flail my way into learning with the options available to me asdfkskkcks thanks for all the info rye

[steelthroat]

for the fic writer ask meme:

2. a character whose POV you’re currently exploring

19. the most interesting topic you’ve researched for a fic

23. pick three keywords that describe your writing

Tyyy for the ask... I'd forgotten about this one ahahah

2:

Megatron, Optimus Prime, and soon also Rodimus. God Rodimus' one would be so easy if I didn't put him in the most difficult situations...

(Also I'd say the music trio counts too since "spin me like a record" follow all three of their povs... but Jazz's especially)

19: mh

Swinger's lifestyle: because if I was going to do something I didn't want to just write something based off very superficial knowledge on the matter... it was Interesting. Then I changed my mind and the fic never came to be (I forgot the plot)

What the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) did during WWII and the espionage during the Cold War...

"Is it deadly a shot on the shoulder?" The answer is, the shoulder is the best spot to be shot at for a writer because it can be both deadly and not deadly depending on the situation. So great!

A lot of stuff regarding sexuality and kinks I didn't even know existed... there's always something new to discover regarding this. I think it's the most interesting one because the topic can both be silly or incredibly delicate depending on the direction research takes.

23:

Looooooooooong sentences.

Sarcastic

Messy

I had trouble finding these words... I don't know how to describe my writing

[walkawaytall]

h, o, s, t

H: How would you describe your style?

Varied? Like, the style I'm most comfortable writing is actually not what I use the most. I'm most comfortable with the kind of emotional, introspective, present-tense type stuff you'll see with works like Reconstitution, Brief Shadow, and A Tolerable Sort of Hell, but it is difficult to maintain that style in longer, more narrative-heavy stories, so I adapt my style based on what I'm trying to accomplish. I suppose most of my stories are character-driven and many of them are heavy on the dialogue because I do like writing dialogue. But I can also think of a fair few that have virtually no dialogue, so...yeah, I guess character-driven is the main through line.

O: How do you begin a story–with the plot, or the characters?

It kind of depends on the project? I think most of my posted projects so far have been plot first, but I know Terrified Without You was more just me going, "I want to cram just so many dramatic tropes into one story in the most self-indulgent way possible" but it was going to be Han and Leia because that is literally the only ship I write about right now. So that one, I suppose, began with characters and a very vague concept and then developed as I wrote it.

S: Any fandom tropes you can’t resist?

I'm a sucker for hurt/comfort of just about any variety. And for Star Wars-specific tropes...I like any time the Rogues are acting completely out-of-pocket (usually just because Hoth is crazy-making) and I am very fond of nearly any interpretation of "Han and Leia definitely had something going on before The Empire Strikes Back and then something happened but it imploded somehow shortly before that movie picks up."

T: Any fandom tropes you can’t stand?

I wish the word "twincest" didn't exist. But also...okay, I don't mind misunderstanding tropes as long as the misunderstanding makes any kind of sense. But so many are just...someone refusing to explain something simple to the other person or someone refusing to allow the other person to explain or a misunderstanding that could be cleared up with a two-minute conversation and those I find more frustrating than fun or suspenseful. I just get annoyed by how horribly everyone is behaving rather than enjoying the story.

Thanks for asking!

Fanfic Ask Meme

[fontainebleau22]

For that meme with writing questions: 8, 13, 22, 39 and optionally 40?

Thanks so much for such great asks!

8. If you had to write an entire story without either action or dialogue, which would you choose and how would it go?

I would choose without dialogue, but that's only because I think it's a pretty artificial distinction: there are so many ways to express someone's mindstate without actual dialogue. Perec, for instance, wrote an entire book (Un homme qui dort) in the second person, and Ducks, Newburyport (which I read recently but will admit I didn't finish) is entirely composed of thoughts flitting through the main character's mind. One of my favourite fics, A Chance to Try Bravery by owlet, has exactly one line of dialogue at the very beginning, but is otherwise made up entirely of Steve's thoughts.

13. What is a subject matter that is incredibly difficult for you write about? What is easy?

Death is something I find impossible to write about, as I don't need to borrow grief; I think what I find easy is the nuts-and-bolts of everyday life - I imagine what I write very vividly, so describing what's in a room is always rewarding.

22. How organized are you with your writing? Describe to me your organization method, if it exists. What tools do you use? Notebooks? Binders? Apps? The Cloud?

Lol! I write with a biro on lined file paper, and I keep the papers in a stack on my bookshelf! Once I've decided that a story has legs I type up a version on Word and print it out, then I edit it with a biro. And it lives on the stack too until it's done, then I recycle it. I do copy the files in Dropbox for safekeeping, but I don't write on a screen.

I'm very suspicious of writing apps like Scrivener because it seems to me that they encourage you to do a whole lot of other things rather than write.

39. What keeps you writing when you feel like giving up?

Um. It's the other way round for me, I never feel like giving up. Writing and the escapism it offers is the only thing that keeps me sane, so I would always rather be writing than living my often painful existence.

40. Please share a poem with me, I need it.

I've shared quite a few of my favourites on here before, but I'm not sure if I shared this, which really speaks to me.

11.00: Baldovan by Don Paterson.

Base Camp. Horizontal sleet. Two small boys have raised the steel flag of the 20 terminus:

me and Ross Mudie are going up the Hilltown for the first time ever on our own.

I’m weighing up my spending power: the shillings, tanners, black pennies, florins with bald kings,

the cold blazonry of a half-crown, threepenny bits like thick cogs, making them chank together in my pockets.

I plan to buy comics, sweeties, and magic tricks.

However, I am obscurely worried, as usual, over matters of procedure, the protocol of travel,

and keep asking Ross the same questions:

where we should sit, when to pull the bell, even

if we have enough money for the fare, whispering, Are ye sure? Are ye sure?

I cannot know the little good it will do me; the bus will let us down in another country

with the wrong streets and streets that suddenly forget their names at crossroads or in building-sites

and where no one will have heard of the sweets we ask for and the man will shake the coins from our fists onto the counter

and call for his wife to come through, come through and see this and if we ever make it home again, the bus

will draw into the charred wreck of itself and we will enter the land at the point we left off

only our voices sound funny and all the houses are gone and the rain tastes like kelly and black waves fold in

very slowly at the foot of Macalpine Road and our sisters and mothers are fifty years dead.

[emilianadarling]

For the ask meme: 13, 29, and 35, please!

Continuing to work through the submissions I got for the writer ask meme. :3

Weird Questions for Writers (because writers are weird)

13. What is a subject matter that is incredibly difficult for you write about? What is easy?

Oof. I suppose on the 'difficult' front, there's a spectrum between:

'difficult to write about but I still DO write about it', and

'so difficult to write about that I choose not to write about it, period'.

In the former category, we have *wince* things like trauma to hands and fingers, which is very deeply unpleasant to write about but I absolutely WILL and HAVE done it. It's aksjdhajksdhkjsahdj to write about for me personally, but I CAN soldier through.

For those of you who've read Until My Dying Breath from way back in 2011-2012, I quite literally had to write the 'Vampire!Kurt snaps a guy's wrists backward like twigs' scene with my eyes averted as I typed, my little 21-22 year old self going 'ahh' 'AHHH' out loud at the laptop screen as I did so, then went back and edited out all the typos another day once I'd had a chance to steel myself. I don't LIKE writing it, but I have and will again.

Then there is the 'so difficult to write about that I choose not to write about it, period' end of the spectrum, which is for me a more pernicious kind of difficulty. For me, that's things like partner betrayal, infidelity, certain fundamental betrayals between close family. I can feel out of my skin for days after encountering those elements in stories unexpectedly, and so it's just not a topic I have much desire to feature as central elements of my writing.

Obligatory 'writing battle scenes is also hard' note here lmao, but while it's true and they ARE, I think working through my battle scene anxieties by way of repeated exposure and beta reader/collaborator support.

29. Where do you draw your inspiration? What do you do when the inspiration well runs dry?

The first thing that came to mind are these passages from On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft by Stephen King:

"... good story ideas seem to come quite literally from nowhere, sailing at you right out of the empty sky: two previously unrelated ideas come together and make something new under the sun. Your job isn’t to find these ideas but to recognize them when they show up."[...]

"We are writers, and we never ask one another where we get our ideas; we know we don’t know."

This may not be everyone's experience, but there are elements that certainly echo my own. Sometimes it strikes all at once, a convergence of concepts into a story you want to read so badly you feel compelled to craft it into existence.

The next closest answer I can give is "other people's stories", because everything is a story and the world is a story and we all creatively stand on the shoulders of giants. We build upon the stories that fed us!!!

35. What’s your favorite writing rule to smash into smithereens?

Perhaps not into smithereens, but I do have a counterpoint to Orwell’s Rule: "never use a long word when a short word will do".

While the underlying sentiment is, for me, often supportable... in practice, my gut preference is to go with the word that describes the thing as precisely, evocatively, and accurately as possible. Often times, that's a shorter one; sometimes, it's a longer one.

There are some words out there that are apt as fuck. 'Load-bearing words', if you will. Describing Din's armor as "a metallurgical second skin" gave me bone-deep satisfaction during revisions. It just felt right, and I knew Caro would LOVE it once they did their beta reading pass... and they DID.

So -- short words are OFTEN better, in my eyes. But not always. Sometimes, a longer word will do.

[jomnki]

hi i draw stuff. im an animation student, who writes and animates and draws and does all sorts of crafts.

i think art in itself is a nuetral descriptive term used to described anything you made. your footprints in the sand is art, different flower cultivations are art, dog breeds are art, coding language is art, building is art, mechanics is art, cars are art, weapons are art, sharpened sticks are art, piled up rocks are art, your ironic photograph of a banana taped to a canvas is art. if it exists because someone made it, it's art. this also includes ai gen images which people have been really reactionary about (for good reason). the ai that was written is art, the coding of the machine that allows it to identify patterns in images so it could mush them together to form something uncanny is art. the issue with ai is the consumption of energy it takes (i think we've been charging ahead in tech advancements in everything bu t energy consumption) and the violation labour rights companies are drooling to commit. and these are issues you should be and are right to be upset about! the corporate commotion around ai is less about the artistry in coding the machine and more about "how much money can we make out of this". they don't really care about ai, they only care that it can make them money.

but genuinely, very genuinely. people will always value hand drawn art over ai generated artwork. even the twitter users you think represent the majority of the public consciousness. ai art is something people meme on, they laugh at it, and the people who actually celebrate it as a tool to one up traditional artists are the same people who have always underpaid workers. i think you c a n make interesting art with ai as a lone tool, though it'll always be on the abstract side. the evocativeness of the actual image will be dependent on what it ends up looking like. ai gen anime art will never be as enjoyable as the hand drawn variant because you know someone didn't sketch, colour it in, shade, and render etc. the ai version will always feel artificial, a mass of patterns designed to win you over. i understand there's an insecurity because the public of those who aren't artists only view art by the visual pleasantness, and really it's mostly only other artists who appreciate the minute human errors and and techniques. to utilise ai, you ne e d to lean into the uncanniness and plastic feel of it's products. you don't make it look as real or as genuine as possible. you can't try to mimic human touch where there isn't any. the issue is the twitter people using ai art don't actually care about actually making art. they have a delusion that art is this, immensely difficult thing that's only worth something if it's consumable. they like the clout, they like the feeling of being credited with making a visually impressive image. i am holding you by the shoulders and telling you i am not talking about ai users who prefer not to draw for various reasons and enjoy the process of making disturbing images that fully lean into being ai. i am not talking about disabled people who find awe in the machine. hell im not talking about the average person who generates spongebob with realistic muscles to masturbate to. i talk specifically about guys who pump out art for engagement and don't understand the enjoyment of creation. who just, disrespect artists who don't want their stuff to be machine learned (i think cooyright should explode and die but also it's incredibly fucking easy to respect someone's wishes of hey man im just a dude can you not use my stuff for this). the corporations who use it over real people who NEED MONEY TO LIVE OH MY GOD CCAN YOU OLEASE FUCKING PAY YOUR WORKERS.

all in all, it's kind of sad seeing corps all go in on ai as an easy money making scheme. just like disney pumping out as many superhero movies as possible--i think we should see it as someone's creation once again being exploited to be a consumable entertainment thing to make billionaires richer. i think whoever is responsible for machine learning in the first place, liked coding it. i think they enjoyed creating the machine. i think they believed that it would be used as a source for good. i think the people who finally got it to spit out something nice were ecstatic and so happy that something they made worked. and now, it's just being used for money. like animation is, like all the clay pottery, plastic modelled toys and plushies in stores, like the graphic design for advertisements. like video games being pumped out every year, like the clothes you wear, their seams sown by underpaid workers. like the shitty cars with the battery draining cheap display screens and bumpers too big to see kids crossing the road. like the cheap mass produced furniture that will not last a year. exploiting art for profit is something that happens to every new thing that comes out, and it always has victims to cause just to make a few people a few hundred euros richer. and it's also happening to ai too, because ai is also art.

[abyssembraced]

Fire Emblem?

Send me a fandom and I'll tell you my blorbos!

Blorbo: If you want me to stick to Awakening, since that's where Robin's from, then that'd be Lucina! I love her. My daughter <3 (because I married Chrom lmao). I made her absolutely busted in FE Heroes too, though I haven't actually played that in a while.

Though technically Lucina's my second favourite Fire Emblem character overall. First place actually goes to Edelgard! That's My Wife right there. My beloved. I like the other house leaders too, but,,, El <3

...But once again, as much as I love these girls, sadly I don't think I could write them well. But maybe. They're on the list of characters I would consider adding if I ever added another Fire Emblem muse here, just because I love them, but I'd definitely have to replay their respective games first.

Skrunkly: Uhhhhh. So the funny thing is, I usually really like the characters that tend to be described as "pure" or "cinnamon rolls", and just overall those who would fit into this category well, but for some reason with Fire Emblem, I just don't get as attached to them? So I dunno who I'd say for Awakening specifically, but at least for Three Houses I do like Ashe?

Scrimblo Bimblo: Could Henry count as underrated? Probably not, huh. I think he's pretty popular. But I do like him a lot! My funny murder crow guy. And Owain... Probably also doesn't count here, huh. Not sure how popular he is among the fandom, but like. With his appearances in Fates and Warriors, the games themselves sure give him a lot of love. But he's also really funny, and one of my other favourites from Awakening. So... I dunno!

Ashe could probably also fall in this category, since when it comes to the Blue Lions I think most people tend to focus on Dimitri, Felix, and Sylvain (and Ingrid and Dedue?) more than anyone else. But that would be reusing characters, so. hhhhhhh dgdhshf

Glup Shitto: So like. I thought this was gonna be a difficult question but then I remembered. Nobody fucking played Echoes. I feel like anyone from there is free game except for Alm and Celica ashshdfh. So! I remember liking Mae quite a bit, but I think my favourite from there was Conrad! I remember him being really sweet

Too bad I haven't played any of the Japan-exclusive games to have some really obscure favourites asdghsf. I do wanna play Genealogy someday though, if a fan translation exists

Poor Little Meow Meow: I don't like reusing characters for these but. C'mon. I don't think there's an FE character out there that's more controversial than Edelgard von Hresvelg lmao. I have absolutely zero interest in dealing with any of the Discourse, so all I will say is: we love Edelgard in this house. This is an Edelgard Appreciation Zone, or at the very least an Edelgard Tolerating Zone if you personally dislike her.

That said, I also wanna give a shoutout to Takumi from Fates, because I adore him too and still stand by him being one of the better things to come out of Fates. He's a bit of an ass to Corrin at the start, sure, but like. I feel like that's kinda justified?? He doesn't remember Corrin like Hinoka and Ryoma do, so from his perspective some random stranger from the country they are currently at war with has just waltzed in and is basically being treated like a god when they very well could be an enemy spy. And iirc, he does want to accept Corrin and get to know them? But he's smart, and remains wary until Corrin does choose his family's side.

...The Blame Takumi memes are still funny though, I won't lie dghdsf. I started with Conquest, so those memes are actually what led me to look into him more when I got around to playing Birthright

Horse Plinko: Y'know what. Lorenz. Is that unfair to say, given that I never did get around to playing the Golden Deer route? Yeah, kinda. Am I gonna say it anyway, because I'm not sure who else to say? Haha yea

I guess Takumi can get a little bit of bullying for being a grump, but only affectionately, because I still care him and he deserves a hug

Eeby Deeby: Validar and Thales are the easy options, yes, along with all the other villains, but like. Fuck em lmao

[ladymirdan]

It has become a meme to hate on the guy. He did a couple of whack and over-the-top codices (and like 20 good ones), but he is very much getting the “star wars fan treatment” if you know what I mean (harassed, doxed, threats, etc) for not conforming to the headcanons of nazis.

I am absolutely okay with people saying, “his writing isn't to my taste”, but that isn't the jargon used.

When I first heard of him it was so increadibly vitriolic, “he ruined 40k forever and deserves to be fired/die” kind of stuff and I got curious what he did and went on a deep dive. And found pretty much nothing. I read almost everything that had his name on it, and it was just ordinary 40k stuff.

He describes Calgar as an absolute badass that can kick everyone's ass, and they will thank him for it. But how is that different from how, for example, fan-favourite Sigismund is described?

Even the 5th edition Space Marine codex that he gets the most flak for is usually because of bad rules and imbalance stuff, but the thing is, he isn't a rule writer. That was Alessio Cavatore (I haven't heard much bad said about Alessio at all, on the contrary he has pretty a pretty good reputation from what ive heard) but these people never bother with facts. They found their target and have kept harrasing him ever since.

I don't know Mat personally, he might be a dick for all I know (he seems really nice on Twitter tho). But I have heard so many of his colleagues praise him and say how knowledgeable he is about the lore and how he happily would share that knowledge. And I trust those people way more then some rando with a grudge online.

God im such a fucking nerd. But long story short, I get a bellyache when I see people treat creators like shit. It doesn't sit right with me. Creating is really difficult. Weaving new stories out of a convoluted mess of existing lore to create something everyone is happy with, is near impossible.

There are Black Library authors I cringe when I read, so I just pick something else. I dont send them hatemail and threats. So when I see people kick on others who have already gotten so much flack, for literal decades, I know that I don't want them in my hobby space.

So I didn't take my own advice and started playing chess with the pigeons.

And my ultimate litmus test for a 40k player once again proved to work. I didnt even have to bring it up (they alway do that themselves).

And that is their opinion on Mat Ward.

This test has never failed me. He is the alt-right 40k boogieman, they haaaate him with a passion for some reason, but they never know anything about him. He has literally written the most popular characters in all of 40k and is responsible for a shit ton of 40k computer games and he incidentally is the reason why they don't print the name of the writer (guess the fuck why. *hint they send Ward actual death threats for changing the lore).

It has gotten to a point that I just block people talking shit about Ward after one warning. Because people who have this opinion has gotten it somewhere. Usually from hanging out with guys like this who think representation ruins the hobby.

I still have to make that “Why people are wrong about Mat Ward and he deserves better”-post/vid.