#have to get up at 6am tomorrow

[changingplumbob]

Night time ramble time. What did I do today? Can't remember. No wait, ordered groceries. I woke up very tired but over the day that went away a bit and I was actually able to write a couple of parts for the Knightstones, I'll need to play with them before I can write anymore.

Also got a part sorted for Glenn, the intro of Henri. Officially on countdown for you meeting the twins as they'll be in his next post, I'm excited. I've got maybe one more part worth of screenshots and am thinking about which coven members we'll meet in game next. Plus I mean brainstorming how to slide in Silver since he's going to be very important.

I have a few Struck By Love posts I need to draft but golly, I'm terrible at cutting down on the cute. I apologize that the pace is much slower than I expected but in my defense I didn't expect Byron to be so cute. Oh that reminds me last night I had a nightmare that like 4 of my moots named baby sims Byron and I had a panic because I already have trouble keeping on top of all the sims called Atlas that appear on my dash, as well as several blonde sims that my face blindness has convinced me are the same sim.

[heartorbit]

i just wanted to draw the ave mujica outfits .

[theunmotivatedparable]

🢔 Click for better quality 🢖

Paratober day #9: Freedom.

Last one is rushed. I still like it. Two different types of freedom. Neither are ever good.

One is fleeting, forced and slips right through your fingertips. The other is lonely. Daunting.

Loneliness is a type of freedom. Stanley wants freedom from the Narrator. In a sense, the skip button gave him that freedom he craved. You'd think he got what he wanted. But this wasn't the type of freedom he wanted.

[dallonwrites]

my autistic ass when i would try to explain to my non-autistic writer friends how my ocs don’t just feel like characters/plot devices/narrative tools, they feel like fully fledged people that just live inside my brain who i just have access to for some reason and the stories i write are merely a snapshot into their fully fledged personhood/lives. and that that these feelings don’t mean i’m unaware of my role/agency/responsibility as the writer who has the final say in these characters and how they are written it just means that my writing process feels very intuitive and i can only describe it as “listening” and “getting to know” these people that just live inside my brain in a way that i don’t feel like i can completely elaborate on. and because of this i would actually consider these characters “real” in their own way because the impact and influence they have had on me as a person beyond just my writing is so real and not having them would feel like i’m missing a part of myself 

[malscare]

agitated and restless in like 200 different ways. maybe i go to bed early tn

[ourlittlesister2015]

Me trying to ignore im living in the worst 72 hours of my year: everything will be fine i have Edward Said, fanon and achille m'bembe by my side

[sleepvines]

it's late and im tired but my brother asked for tabletop advice so here, I'll just copy +paste it for you folks too.

DMing:

nudging rules is fine as a dm if it serves the story more strongly. better to leave the players wanting more and recounting an epic moment than "oh yeah the numbers didn't go your way so, TPK."

(supplemental: Party Kills can be great if done well. I recommend, if you really want to make players squirm in any game, pick them off one by one, and let some of them truly hope they'll survive. If they catch on that they're destined to die too soon (repetitive pattern of deaths etc), it might fall flat. Let them have small wins, find useful items, crawl their way up just enough to breathe a breath of fresh air...then hook em with the twist of their mortal end. Make it satisfying!)

Visualizing/designing a character, particularly as a player but this can work for NPCs and non-tabletop guys as well:

1. consider the class/background of your character. Where are they from? What do they do most of the time? What are they skilled at? These things inform what tools they carry and what they wear. What they find practical, and how willing they are to favor either practicality or fashion, etc.

2. consider the personality. how do they express themselves, if at all? Do they have colors they like? Sensibilities that remind them of home or someone they love, a patron, a creature? If your character grew up raising birds for example, maybe they wear feathers! Maybe they own a falconeer's glove. stuff like that

3. consider the character's goal(s). what do they Want, what are they Working towards, what is their Mission? maybe they might have a visual tell for that, like a curse they're wanting to get rid of or a weapon they're wielding that's meant to be delivered somewhere

[bibleofficial]

flying to spain only had 1 glass of wine & ive a layover in amsterdam on the way … but its fucking like 9hr layover on the way back from - at NIGHT 😭😭😭

[introverted-ghost]

Shoutout to my mom

[arinakaard]

i’d like to be more active on here but it’s like everyone isn’t active either bc we are all getting sick of this place/busy with life lol

[robinniko]

.

[opens-up-4-nobody]

:-P

[raspberryjellybrains]

Something I find interesting as I delve deeper into different mediums of The Sandman is the way that Dream's appearance is used as a literary device. I don't remember whether I've discussed it here or not, but throughout the comics, his outfits serve as an indicator of his outward emotions and attitude while the style of the artist is often used to depict some aspect of his internal, unspoken emotional turmoil/peace. This carries over to the audiobook, though without the graphic aspect inherent to the original medium, it manifests in an interesting way through narration and further solidifies this interpretation of significance.

I had to start on Volume II for *cough* reasons, and the usage of detail is quite similar to other works by Gaiman, in that they are only included where it is important. He doesn't hit you over the head with scenery at every chance, it's carefully slotted into the scene at the points where it is most necessary and poignant, with the depth of these descriptions being directly tied to the importance that you, the listener, understand. We only hear that the random park is peaceful in the soundscaping because the park itself serves no purpose beyond that, but we get a couple paragraphs of description of Hell because it is vitally important we understand the scale and intensity of the horrors found there; setting is only acknowledged when it contributes to the narrative. This is echoed in The Sandman: Annotated, where we get some notes in the script regarding artistic choices—many of which are gestural, some of which are very detailed so that the artist may understand from this where their (and by extension the reader's) attentions must be drawn, which provides a sort of visual pacing.

To draw my point in a bit, Dream's castle follows this rule as an extension of his will and selfhood. It changes often to reflect what facet of himself he wants to convey outward most directly; appearing first as a rather low set, art nouveau affair with perhaps a silly bit of phallic imagery, then a gothic castle atop a mountain, most clearly establishing things when he puts it at the needlepoint top of a physically impossible peak covered in turrets and rooflines which jab into the air forbiddingly during Season of Mists as he contemplates the Key. When Dream is settled, the Dreaming is as well, when he is tumultuous, such follows. We don't get blow by blow descriptions, only when it is necessary.

Now that the visual language has been established and connected (insofar as I really can with the allotted mental energy for a tumblr post, however much of a passion project this may be, I am tired), it can be connected to Dream himself. His character design is very intentional, it reflects the post-punk, modernist take on its themes through his incredibly goth Look—he has the big, messy hair and impossibly white skin, dark clothes and dramatic fashion sensibilities—but beyond that, it reflects what feeling we are supposed to get from him. Morpheus' sense of self is ridiculously deeply tied to expectaction and perception of others, his entire personhood is based on what they expect. Despite this, to his infinite chagrin it seems, he has a personal identity sitting at his core that we see in his "natural" versus "put on" appearance (for lack of better terms): he's quiet and withdrawn but highly passionate and caring with all of the expected emotional regulation issues we would expect of someone with these temperaments they desperately repress; What he can control (clothes and hair) are utilized similarly to the castle, conveying his outward intention—think his driving outfit in Brief Lives versus his family dinner outfit in Season of Mists versus his final outfit in the Kindly Ones—where the things he cannot consciously seem to control are disguised by him, but utilized by art or narration to make a statement on his surroundings and feelings—think again of those outfits, of what his behavior means through that lens, what is conveyed through detail and silhouette.

What these more consistent physical attributes say is quite interesting, and quite revealing: Dream is not that scary. Sure his eyes will make you feel like you've stared down the cosmos and felt god touch your soul, but beyond that? Really? He's just a dude. A beautiful and strange one, but really nothing especially imposing. He's tall, but that effect is sort of diminished by his slight build. His face is angular and ethereal, but often careworn or haggard as well in a way I would compare to a very old and very poorly maintained stone statue. What this means to me is that Dream was never meant to be this frightening and imposing figure, that this was a choice made by the active individual we know exists because he is the one telling us about this all! A choice against his own nature that is concealed as often, swiftly, and mistakenly as his internal nature. This is, to conclude my point, supported by where these aspect of his appearance are given weight through art and narration. We only hear about his stature when he's sad or scared, only hear about his inhumanly pale skin when faced against the more beautiful aspects of personhood or mortality, only hear about his eyes when he uses them to scare or comfort.

These details of appearance are as woven into the narrative as any plot point, and used as any theme; which makes sense, he is the Prince of Stories afterall.

[abba-enthusiast]

Son of a bitch just put your shoes on the fucning shoe rack

[auphelia]

...

[lab-gr0wn-lambs]

Hahaha why can't I sleep anymore lol. Lmao.