#how sid we get from that to ‘we are inseparable you are my sister and I will always stand by your side’ so fast

[entrancedsnow70]

Wow! That’s the worst they could have done that! Satisfying character arc who???

[viknaerth]

Flash Points Challenge 001

what are some of your favorite tropes? -  400 POINTS

This one I had to think on for a minute because I think with my writing I was very anti-tropes for a while. For me I love historicity, so best friendships and pre-established connections that blur lines or develop into something more intense are particularly special. I think that’s because there a never-ending depth to the relationship, it can always be delved into and picked apart. Aside from that in character building, I have a terrible love of anti-heroes. Good in their heart but not necessarily in their actions, I think that it paves the way for more opportunistic and exciting writing.   

do you have a favorite character you’ve written, in or outside of shiver? if so, what makes them your fave?  -  550 POINTS

This is tough because I’m not about to get into the laundry list but I have love for all the characters I’ve written and me being an actual old person of tumblr means there are actually a heap of them. I have to give love to my two kiddos here because I’m having such a good time writing them. Elyse’s dim mind and super bright personality is a duality I find a lot of joy in trying to portray because as with all of my onion children there's so much more than that. She’ll do anything for anyone and the way that I write her really does mean anything so it’s been interesting to see the lengths she’d go to. My darling Vik is a consistent expression of what the experience of loss looks like. Somehow, even when you lose everything that you hold dear the world keeps turning even though it shouldn’t. I like his candid way of approaching romance and the fact that he’s more poetry than person. And then a final shoutout to one of the last characters I played outside of Shiver because they’re on my mind and that’s Sid James, a traveling tattoo artist. No wild supernatural AU, just a grand love of art, aesthetics and self-acceptance. There have been a couple of iterations of her and they all managed to carry the same energy, the muse is strong with that one. 

do you prefer writing with small casts of characters or large ones? what are some of the pros and cons?  -  400 POINTS

Yes and yes? In my world small is say under 10 and then large would be 20+ and for me I’ve had positive and negative experiences with both. I think that overall I would say you have an easier time writing with fewer people as it forces you to make meaningful connections when plotting. Not saying it isn’t possible in a bigger group, people just have more options and the ways in which characters are linked can get spread think depending on the setting. I think for me the smaller cast wins out and the pros are certainly as I’ve said above and you get a chance to meet and engage with people outside of the rping space more frequently. With bigger groups it can be harder to stake a claim or make yourself heard in amongst everyone else. The cons of a small group is that dedication is required to make sure that it isn’t just 5 out of 10 keeping the dash moving and people leaving can have a greater effect on the whole look and feel of the rp. In a bigger cast of characters 2 people leaving, while it is a shame, maybe not alter the whole balance of the rp. As with anything it is a balancing act, for me whether there’s 4 or 40 people involved I just prefer to write with dedicated and creative writers.

what’s the most ridiculous thing you’ve ever done in the name of outlining/worldbuilding (timelines, research, maps, spreadsheets, etc.)? - 500 POINTS

Okay, listen, we’ve all been there: I could definitely admin an rp, in fact, I could definitely make an rp! 

It really isn’t as simple and shiny as everyone else makes it seem. I’ve made to completion 3 rps and plenty of others that never saw the light of day. That was mostly because the high concept was way outside my realm of knowledge or the intricacies grew to be too much. I know there’s little examples but I feel like I’ve done all of them. From a post-apocalypic rp that had it’s own barter systems, power hierarchy and fully scaled map that I made in PS. I recognised it was way too much way too late and I just didn’t do anything with it. Way too much research time spent on how society would societally and physically rebuild itself after a doomsday moment. 

share the last paragraph you wrote you’re most proud of. - 650 POINTS

Elyse:

Elyse had never looked anyone so deeply in the eye before, sure that she saw a whole world between her darkened iris’, unsure if she’d ever been so close to anyone. While ditzy she was never clumsy, too much restraint holding all of her muscles rigid to bump into someone like they did in the movies. Books would drop, both hunkering down, eyes meet and supposedly that was what attraction was. A succession of touches, glances and fumbled words. Neither of them had managed poetic verse, but they shared a glance that didn’t waver and their lips had brushed and could again according to Selene. Elyse’s doe eyes watched the woman in front of her so intently, just waiting for a cue or for her to make a move. She never believed she could be in control nor did it call to her. Her two sisters were the guiding forces, each had their own styles of giving direction. Elyse felt as though she’d been led to the center of the universe, stood in front of the only thing that mattered. The cracks in the pool tiles seemed to push themselves back together and the peeling paint on the motel’s rear curled back up into place. Everything was the most perfect version of itself and Elyse finally realized that while control wasn’t exactly her forte she did have to respond.

Vik:

His cheek and his precious hair graced by delicate fingers who had played his strings before. Vik felt like an instrument in her hands, known and appreciated. Impossible to some and unscrutable to most she elicited the finest melody out of him. It echoed love and support, a song for her alone. Their relationship so unique, a musician and their chosen companion were inseparable until the lowly tool fell into disrepair. Vik was broken in ways he didn’t understand entirely, a mix of trauma, loss and nowhere to call home. Could he play the same melodies? Were they sharp, or worse, were they flat? If she stayed then he supposed time would tell. But with his forehead pressed against hers, he forgot his worry. Vik looked into her eyes and remembered his place, holding no ability to judge who he’d become. She would always be enchanting and he only hoped that there was something left in him to offer her.

describe your current muse’s physical appearance using only one, over the top sentence. - 400 POINTS

y’all can guess whos who ok:

A sunshine smile knitted to soft lips, arms crossed over chest by way of keeping her pieces held as one; swaying as the breeze takes her. 

Tousled locks framed her marble features, canines bared in a daring grin and her eyes honed like a predator to prey with no malintent, instead just to offer a sweet and empty promise of love. 

if you had to write a novel about one of the characters in or outside of shiver, which character would you choose and why? - 600 POINTS

Tuffy, real tuff. 

I think no matter who I picked there would be a whole load of infringement on other people’s writing. Though I think that’s rping, it’s the coming together of pairings to create magic scenes and capture moments in a way that a single perspective could never. Elyse is a funny little one and I’m actually (omg spoiler) currently writing her actual history out as we speak. Then with Vik his history and coming to be where he is right now makes for a very cohesive and readable tale. Paired with an ideal partner, but she couldn’t love him back, he sought something different, the something different kidnapped and tortured him, he was sent away from his home, and then his love very much accidentally found him again in a new space and as a very different person than the one she once knew. It writes itself really. It would hit a lot of beats that it has to and has very classical romance tropes while being both modern and entirely high fantasy. 

The last thing Vik needs to hear is that he’s getting a biography tho to be fair. 

[aroacehogwarts]

Secrets Not Their Own

This is my White Dragon gift for @a-cat-and-a-world. I hope you enjoy!

- @jp-blindperson

~~***~~

Secrets Not Their Own

Fred and George were inseparable from birth. They were partners in mischief, sure, but they were also the only person the other could talk to sometimes. Oh, sure, it was fun to confuse people with the “No, silly, I’m George”’s and the “Just Kidding! I really am Fred”’s. But it meant that they didn’t really have anyone to talk to who knew them for who they were. So sometimes their parents or brothers or sister would be talking to one of them about something the other one needed to know and they’d have to break the news that “No, I really am Fred. No, I’m not joking this time. Yes I know we joke about this all the time, but this time I’m serious.” More than a few surprises got ruined this way and eventually the twins learned that some secrets could be shared with each other but not with other people. Eventually they learned how to make it look like there wasn’t a secret to hide.

It started out with little things at first. Things like, this is what I want to get your brother for Christmas or for his birthday. Things like “I really really wanna do this prank but you can’t tell your brother, okay?” Even things like the fact that Fred and George were two different people and not just a gestalt entity built for pranks and mischief and fun.

But as they got older the secrets got bigger. Secrets like how Bill didn’t think he wanted to stay in england after he graduated. Things like the fact that Charlie wanted to go study dragons in Romania because he understood dragons more than people. That Percy wanted so badly to please their parents, but woke up with panic attacks most nights because the path he had to walk was so narrow.

And then there were the secrets that were theirs, and only theirs.

The secret that they hated being seen as either one entity with two bodies or exact clones of each other. The secret that they really kind of hated keeping secrets for other people. The secret that as they grew older they didn’t seem to have the same interest in dating or kissing as other people their age.

This last one didn’t bother them very much until their sixth year when the Yule Ball made the rest of their classmates go absolutely mad. Girls were running around trying to get that certain boy’s attention. Boys were running around trying to make sure they had a date with someone so they wouldn’t be going alone. Eventually, Fred and George decided to ask Angelina and Alicia to go together as friends. They worked it out privately before Fred and George asked the girls publically.

It all worked out incredibly well. Angelina and Alicia understood that Fred and George only wanted to go as friends, and Fred and george understood that Angelina and Alicia were trying out dating but didn’t want anyone to know quite yet.

After the Yule ball things went back to normal for a bit. Fred and George went back to pranks; both playing them and creating new ones. Angelina and Alicia decided to go back to being friends for now but didn’t rule out a relationship just yet. And things were good for a while. But the ease with which their classmates fell in and out of love still weighed on their minds.

“Hey, George?”

“Yeah, Fred?”

“You ever wonder if, maybe, we’re a little bit, different than everyone else?”

“Don’t have to wonder, Fred. I already know we’re much more handsome and charming than other wixen.”

Fred laughed before becoming serious again. “No, I mean, you saw how pretty much everyone else who went to the Yule Ball was about trying to get dates right?”

George was silent for a moment before saying, “Yeah. But not everyone right?”

“No,” Fred replied thoughtfully, “But everyone who didn’t go mad over finding a date either already had one, didn’t want one, or didn’t want to go.”

“Yeah, you’re right. Hell, even some of the third years went a bit crazy looking for dates.”

“Yeah.”

The twins sat in silence for a few minutes before Fred murmured, “Do you think we should talk to someone about this?”

George thought for a moment before he replied. “No, I don’t think we should talk to anybody about this. Not yet anyway.”

“Are you suggesting we go to the library first?” his twin asked with a wry twist to his lips.

“Yeah. Yeah I am. Who Knows? Maybe they’ll have something.”

“Let’s go then.”

Contrary to popular belief, the twins spent quite a bit of time in the library. Certainly not as much as Hermione or even the average Ravenclaw, but enough time to make a truce of sorts with Mme. Pence. If they didn’t pull any pranks in the library, Mme. Pence would help them find what they were looking for as long as it wasn’t in the Restricted Section; this was a deal she usually only made with Ravenclaws. So when they got to the library all the twins had to do was give Mme. Pence a general idea of what they were looking for and she was able to point them to a section of books containing books about different kinds of love among other things.

They read until curfew and then checked out the books they hadn’t gotten through. They read through those books within the next few days, but none of them had the answers the twins were looking for.

“Everything seems to circle back around to romance and romantic love.” George said as he put down the last book.

“I know.” Fred said as he ran a frustrated hand through his hair. “Even the books that claim to be about platonic relationships value them less than romantic ones.”

“Yeah.”

Five days after the twins visited the library they came back to return the books they had checked out and to look for any they may have missed. But there wasn’t anything there they hadn’t already read. But as they left they ran into a small, blonde girl in ravenclaw robes who seemed to be going toward the same section they were leaving.

“Hey!” The twins chorused.

“Oh hello,” the girl sid dreamily. “You’re Ginny’s brothers aren’t you?”

“Why yes–”

“We most certainly are.”

“But who are you?”

“Oh, sorry, I’m Luna Lovegood.”

“Pleased to meet you!”

“Can we be of service–”

“On this fine day?”

The girl watched them with a serene smile on her face as they talked.

“Actually, yes, I think you can help me.”

“Oh?”

“You were the ones who checked out these books last, weren’t you?”

“Yes.” the twins chorused, intrigued.

“Well,” the girl, Luna, fidgeted, “I was just wondering. Did you find anything useful in them? I mean, you’re probably here for the same reason I am. Because, there was a huge infestation of nargles around the Yule Ball. Nearly everyone got infested. I was safe because of my necklace, but you two didn’t seem affected and the only thing that keeps the nargles away is a necklace like mine. So I thought maybe it wasn’t the necklace keeping them away. So I came here because the nargles always make people act ridiculous and romantic and I’ve never felt that way and I was just wanting to find answers. And i guess now I was just wondering… since you’re here… Have you ever felt that way? I’m sorry if that’s rude, but you’ve never had a nargle infestation as long as I’ve seen you so I was just wondering if my what I think about them is true or not.” Luna had grown less and less dreamy and increasingly more anxious as she went on and now stood in tense anticipation.

The twins took a moment to think.

“Well, Ms. Lovegood,” George began.

“We can’t say we’ve ever heard of nargles,” Fred continued.

“But we can say we’ve never felt the kind of love or infatuation or obsession with romance as other people.”

“And to answer your first question; no, there weren’t any useful answers in those books.”

“Oh,” Luna said sounding slightly disappointed. “So, it’s not my necklace keeping the nargles away after all?” She brightened then. “But I’m not alone in feeling this way?”

“No.” Fred smiled.

“You’re not alone.”

“And neither, it seems–”

“Are we.”

Some secrets the twins still had to keep to themselves. The fact that they were planning on starting a joke shop after school instead of going into the ministry. The fact that they didn’t really care about their N.E.W.T. scores or feel that they would be useful in real life. The fact that, despite this, they were actually good at most practical magic.

But they were starting to realize that some secrets they thought were theirs alone could be shared.

They may not have found answers this go around but they may have made a new friend and found common ground somewhere they had never expected to find it.