#fiction rambles

[e1dritchqueer]

As I play pathfinder more and more it's usage of alignment continues to fascinate me... Like in some of my fantasy games, if it's not mechanically bound, I tend to ignore alignment but here it's a very big game mechanic which I find very interesting.

Like it has me thinking alot about fantasy and how alignments are dealt with in that as a genre. Like what does lawful good mean if the systems and traditions around you are built off of blood and exploitation? Or ones that perpetuate violence? What does it mean when a god is lawful good yet it's patron worshippers are warriors? (Cough Iomedae)

Like where are the lines for "innocent life" drawn? And what determines who can be killed "without guilt or moral conscious" in that regard?

Like yes, this is literally a video game where fighting hordes of evil doers is part of the fiction but it has me thinking alot about the idea of "lawful good" and what that means from like.... A post modernist framework?

[aesethewitch]

When I was a kid, we moved into a house that had a huge lilac tree out front. It was mostly rotten, and it needed to be taken down before it fell. It took a while, but eventually, it was gone.

Mostly. A couple years later, little lilac babies popped out of the ground in its place. My mom was determined to get rid of them, because she'd planted a beautiful flower garden there, and the lilac trees would overshadow and kill the whole garden. I insisted on saving at least a few saplings. She said fine, but I had to dig them out and put them in pots myself.

So, I did. I spent days digging little lilac bushes out of the ground and putting them into pots. Some couldn't be saved, but some could. When all was said and done, I had five brand-new lilac saplings. Seven or eight years old, and it was my absolute pride and joy.

Three died due to sun scorching, severe drought that no amount of watering could save, and perhaps just being moved from their place in the ground. But two survived, and I was awfully proud of them! I'd go out and talk to them every single day. I watered them by hand and made sure they were fertilized properly. I learned all about their favored environments, and I was determined to make sure they lived.

One of my mom's friends saw what I was doing with the lilacs. She asked if she could have one to put in her backyard, and I agreed on the condition that she take very, very good care of it.

It's now fucking enormous. I'm talking ten feet tall and bursting with beautiful purple flowers every spring. My mom still gets updates each year as they start to bloom, which she forwards to me. And all I can think is, "That's my friend! Thriving some twenty years on, there it is."

The other tree nearly died, too. It lived in a pot for far, far too long. I wanted to plant it somewhere in my parents' yard, but my mom was reluctant. Eventually, we agreed to put it in the far back garden. It grew okay for many years, despite the shade, but in all these years, it's never bloomed.

Last year, the massive tree casting massive shadows over the lilac and the garden cracked in half and fell. It tumbled into the garden, crushing part of the nearby shed and destroying a few plants beneath it.

It missed my lilac by inches.

The clean-up is long done. The rest of the tree has been cut down, and my lilac has full sunlight for the first time in fifteen years. It won't bloom this year, I know. But it's got new shoots up. It's taller than ever. I spent half an hour a few weeks ago praising it for surviving all this time, dreaming about its future and telling it how I believe it'll become the tall beauty it's always been meant to be.

I think next year, I'll see flowers.

[the-ellia-west]

HOW TO WRITE ROMANTIC ATTRACTION FOR DUMMIES

For anyone who wants to learn, (especially aro/ACE, aspec, ect.)

Requested by the lovely @darkandstormydolls

Alrighty! Welcome back or welcome to my blog! I'm dipping my toes back into the category of posts that gained me my exposure!

So if you're here, you want to know how to write romantic attraction/romance!

Strap in and let's begin!

(Pls spread this to people you think would benefit from seeing it, or anyone who requested it bc I forgot, ANY ASPECS)

Step one -

Your characters must admire one another at the beginning, Romantic feelings usually do not present themselves as obvious until you really think them through, meaning your characters may not notice they have a crush until it's too late

These are general statistics and light stereotypes. So feel free to not use this tip:

Male characters usually tend to notice physical things first, like body shape, hair, skin, clothing, the way their lover moves, ect

And Female Characters Generally tend to notice more small things and personality-based traits first, like their lover's humor, speaking mannerisms, shifts in expression, ways they fidget, emotion in their voice, ect.

And someone who is in love will generally show more interest in this particular person's movements, actions, words, and anything in general.

Step 2 -

The character will show more interest in sharing their love language with their lover/crush

Physical touch - People with physical touch love languages may want to hold hands, cuddle, hug, or just lean on their crush whenever they are close to them moreso than they want to with others

Gift giving - Gift givers will want to get more gifts more often for their crush, probably thinking of them whenever they see little trinkets or wanting to get them big gifts for special occasions or signs of appreciation

Acts of Service - Acts of service people will offer to do extra favors and a bunch of extra stuff they don't have to do twice as much as normal

Words of Affirmation - Flattery, they will generally flood their crush with kind words and compliments

Quality time - Quality time people will want to spend time with their crush at almost every turn, and when they want company, will turn to their crush first

Step 3 -

After a while, these urges while become very prominent and more noticeable to the person having them

They may find themselves fantasizing about their crush or having them show up in their thoughts more and more, feeling nicer and happier when they're around, or when they're thinking about them

Smiling when they think about them, cutsey little fluff thingies like that

A crush is essentially: I want to date that, I want to be near that always, I want to marry that, I want that to snuggle me (or other love languages)

Or in simpler terms: if that asked me out, I would say yes (or at least want to say yes if your character is in denial)

Step 4 -

The character's urges to be close to this person grows strong enough that they do smth about it, whether prompted by another character. Or they just don't know I how to not anymore (like when you wanna eat candy and you don't want to, but you do anyway bc I JUST NEED THE CHOCOLATE OKAY?)

(Or for Aro/Ace, garlic bread)

People who are in love are generally very prone to be all dreamy and poetic and VERY EXTREMELY BIASED towards their crush

Then Yada Yada they kiss & shit

You're welcome, BYEEEEEEEE 👋

Happy writing!

Love you! Thanks for reading, And Ghost Tumblr Mother says go drink some water and have a snack, you've earned it, and you are beautiful <333

Have a good day! :]

@blue-kyber @thisisntrocket @cosmolumine @i-do-anything-but-write @paeliae-occasionally

@supercimi @the-letterbox-archives @sunglasses-in-the-bentley @vyuntspakhkite-l-darling @artsandstoriesandstuff

@corinneglass @wyked-ao3 @urnumber1star

[lazylittledragon]

ok someone please correct me if i'm wrong but am i weird for thinking those 'audiobooks don't count as reading' posts are ableist as fuck????

[chronicowboy]

[kynibyou]

if you think it feels embarrassing or cringe to get excited and giddy about ur f/os… you shouldn’t, because ACTUALLY— i saw ur f/o giggling and kicking their feet while looking at pictures of you SO…

[risetherivermoon]

i dont really like it when people dumb down Curly's characterization to just the guy enabling Jimmy. I get that that makes it easier to not like him, so that's why a lot of people do that, because they feel guilty about sympathizing with someone who's done smth fucked up like that, but i really don't think it's giving Curly the justice he deserves.

regardless of if you like him as a person or not, Curly is still a victim and he suffered greatly at Jimmy's hand. Just because he did something fucked up doesn't make him a 'monster' (sorry because i saw someone say that he looks like a monster post-crash and thats sticking with me because why TF are we saying disabled burn victims look like LITERAL MONSTERS- yall use some common sense I BEG)

Dumbing down characters is what fandom does best, but i think it particularly irks me in Mouthwashing because of the nature of the story. Jimmy already thinks of the rest of the crew poorly and doesn't see them for how they really are, we don't need to be doing that too.

I also feel like people don't really recognize the fact Jimmy manipulates and abuses Curly too, even before the crash. What Curly did was fucked up but for the love, don't dumb him down to just this one thing he did.

[screwpinecaprice]

Just a silly guy, with silly silly thoughts.

@glowweek Day 2

Casual | Surprise

A casual surprise?😬😬😬

[e1dritchqueer]

the fearful intimacy of the pilot bonded with its mech...

the knowledge that either one could destroy and hurt the other... that if this doesn't work out, you both are harmed

like it is an equal exchange of vulnerability, one finds themself within the guts of a war machine, one that could very well kill them, while the other gives up control and autonomy to be piloted by someone who is not them

both run the risk of harming the other, and of themself, yet engage in this fearful intimacy to survive

[elexuscal]

the longer i stay in fandom, the longer i think a huge amount of bad takes and discourse come from an... abundance of identifying with a character

to be clear, i don't think it's bad to identify with a character. far from it! i think that's part of what makes fiction so powerful.

and it's only logical people often attach to a blorbo because they're just like me, for real. a person will see some element of themselves-- their race, their gender, their sexuality, their hobbies, their family life, their specific flavour of neurodivergence-- and something just resonates. it gives them a way to explore and name this important part of themselves, a part they maybe didn't even know existed before it.

and everything is well and good until some split between them and the character shows up

because of course, no character, except an explicit self-insert written by yourself, will ever be a perfect 1:1 for your own experiences. so sooner or later-- maybe in canon, maybe in a fanwork-- your blorbo diverges from your lived experience in a huge way.

I think this is why shipping culture in particular gets so toxic. While it is by no means the only way to indulge with shipping, a significant portion is 'if i was in that character's shoes, i would choose X'. the fight becomes for your own self-identity.

but this gets expanded in other ways. a character who is revealed to be black when the majority of the fandom had just assumed they were white. or revealed to be queer, or maybe the 'wrong' flavour of queer. or fuck, even some more innocuous part of their backstory, one that's nonetheless so meaningful for SOMEONE, but now it feels like the story is saying, fuck you, we're doing something else

i don't know. i just feel acknowledging this perceived-attack-on-identity helps me understand why people react it what seems to be such outsized way to canon and fanworks alike.

at the same time, i think it's a really important thing to check in yourself.

it's nice, to see a character who you identify with. who resonates with for being like you. but it's also nice to acknowledge and appreciate the way characters are not like you at All. how great it is to get insight into this totally different lived experience. and to muse on how wonderful that recognition might be for someone who does have that background.

[glader-heaven]

Seeing hate on the Percy Jackson series to me is SOOO funny.

‘There’s too much plot armour’ ‘the characters are so two dimensional’ my friends THEYRE BOOKS FOR 12 YEAR OLDS 😭😭😭 ‘they don’t follow Greek mythology at all’ they’re literally FICTION books why would they need to be accurate 😭😭 are we seriously expecting books about demigods and Olympus in manhattan to be 100% accurate to Greek mythology

They are silly fiction books for children of course they’re not complex. I think people forget that 😭😭

[suiana]

(yandere! fictional character x gn! cosplayer reader) (reader is refuses to acknowledge yan and where he originally came from 💀)

"that's a nice cosplay! where'd you get that wig from?"

"this is not a wig."

"what?"

he tugs at his hair harshly, bending down slightly so you can see his roots. you stare in shock, eyes wide open as you marvel in delight. woah! his cosplay was so realistic!

"see? not a wig."

"oh... nice dye job then!"

"this is my natural hair."

he retorts, standing back upright as you maintain eye contact with him. you tear your gaze away from him, taking in his body and features as you tilt your head at him slightly. huh... now that you're actually looking at him... his cosplay looks a little too realistic... there's no way..?

"you're so cool! you're like, that one character from that one anime i really love-"

"maybe cause i am? i'm here to see you actually...."

you shake your head at him, wagging a finger as you chuckle slightly. it was such a sight for everyone to see. a "delusional" cosplayer and a cosplayer who rejects everything that said delusional cosplayer said.

"haha! you're so in character! if i were a little more dumb i would've believed you!"

you then pat him on the back before waving goodbye at him. the convention was still on-going and you had lots left to do! you must bid farewell to him even if you wanted to chat more. what an interesting fella he is! does he really think he's a fictional character that came into your world just to see you?

"see ya! hope you enjoy the rest of the con! wait, can i have a pic first though?"

you hold your phone, looking up at him expectantly. his beautiful features stare down at you before he sighs, nodding as he poses for the camera.

you cheer, getting your phone in position before flinching as you feel him stand way too close for comfort. ah well... it's only for a while anyways. you'll just let this one pass...

"thank you! see ya!"

you then skip away, wanting to enjoy the rest of the con as you leave the mysterious cosplayer all alone. what a funny guy! he was so in character and he said he was here for you! how cute!

unfortunately it was not cute at all for him.

damn it, he thinks. he grits his teeth as he rubs the bridge of his nose in frustration. you're just so... infuriating at times. how could he make you believe that he's real?

and that's when it hit him. he could just kill everyone in this convention until you acknowledge him! what a wonderful idea! he then stretches, warming up his body as he grins to himself.

he can't wait to see that look on your face when you realize that he's the real deal!

[infamous-if]

anon closed for reasons you can probably guess haha! left the non-anonymous inbox open for errors or general concerns! ill prob open it again in a month or so ! thank u thank u

[kynibyou]

does anyone else have other people’s selfships so ingrained in ur brain that every time you consume content or happen upon their f/o, you automatically go “oh that’s oomf’s partner!”

[nerdwhoauthorinserts]

You ever just-... end up having to pause the source your F/O is in because you just get so overwhelmed with 'Oh my god, they're so pretty!' thoughts, or similar ones?

[mxltifxnd0m]

i need fictional men so bad i fear im unwell