#i was intending to rework this before posting it but actually i'm happy with it have at her

[tenearthquakes]

little maxiel werewolf zine dug out the archive

[st-highwind]

...so three (3) of you were nice to me and i blacked out and word vomited two documents of scene mapping and worldbuilding. my ideas are still jumbled, so here's what i have ambitions for as copy-pasted from ren and I's dms:

long post, all non-canon, lots of blabbering, but i'm happy about it below.

reworked dark crystals, new dungeons, and new archfiends! archfiend names are open to constructive criticism lol

- mist pass: the still-in-progress passage that workers of both baron and damcyan attempted to construct after the collapse of the mountains per Rydia's titan summon. soldiers and workers kept disappearing, so eventually damcyan and baron just quit sending people there and deemed the place cursed. time passed as cecil and the crew ventured to try and save more crystals, and holy elemental creatures began making their home there. this includes Seraphitz, archfiend of light, a creature in possession of the light crystal that was corrupted by its holy power.

- adamant mines: different from whatever was in tay bc screw tay. the crystal of energy is kept well hidden in the labyrinthine mines that connect to the underworld as a sort of back entrance. the adamant ore is difficult to harness amidst all the lightning-elemental monsters, thus the mines are largely abandoned. ghostly automatons trudge around poorly-lit tunnels with too many corners, all of which condense and lead to statigge (stati-jey), archfiend of thunder and guardian of the energy crystal.

- serpent's lair: a winding undersea shipyard (in an underwater passage connecting the overworld and underworld) littered with many a ship lost to the sea. it is suspected that this was cagnazzo's domain, forgone as he took control of baron under Golbezemus' command. the deeper the party travels, the colder the air grows and the more ice monsters begin appearing. ghiaccio, archfiend of ice, has seized control of the area and is not keen on trespassers.

- the sealed cave: it pretty well stays the way it is, except the demon wall boss happens on the way *to* the shadow crystal, the prize of the dungeon. after the crystal is acquired, the party is revitalized by the crystal (and are confused by such) only to find malnotte, archfiend of shadow, waiting for them outside where the demon wall was originally fought.

other ideas:

- the tower of zot is actually a dreadnought protected by heavy winds from barbariccia, which is why it can't be seen on the world map. when barbariccia destroys the place after her defeat, the dreadnought falls into the sea off the southern coast of troia. it can be explored as an optional dungeon later (ruins of zot).

- something new has to happen with mt hobbs. it's so big with so little significance. i need to concoct something to happen there.

- i also want to revise travel mechanisms. i now need something for underwater travel, or perhaps rydia and leviathan can work something out and he can big snake bus the party down to the ice dungeon or ruins of zot. chocobos imo are underutilized, esp the black chocobo, as well as the hovercraft from edward. we get not one not two but THREE airships and only three narrative-required deviations from airships to reach dungeons.

- the devil's road should not be a mini-dungeon like in tay, but instead function similarly to teleport in ff2: the party loses significant health after passing through. it's killed people before, those who passed through and didn't possess the vitality, and that's why it was sealed off.

- if anyone has an ffiv oc, please let me know!! i want to write them in!! i want to give more life to the villages and towns. i already intend to write in some friends here on ffiv tumblr as shopkeepers, innkeepers, or just townsfolk!! you wanna be a hummingway? be a hummingway!!! LMK!!!!!

this is only a few ideas i have. please let me know your thoughts!

[sancta-seraphina]

heyyy it's good to see you online more! do you have any news about holiest? looking forward to when it's back :)

Hi there anon c:

Admittedly right now my goal is finishing my last few posts for Angeltober! But then I do intend to focus on Holiest once more after my final illustration is complete.

I've posted before that I will be on the lookout for some beta readers soon, and I really hope to have ARCs available, although this is an entirely different method of publishing than how I originally went about it (so apologies if I stumble my way through it for the first novel).

While I have some tentative plans for the release, whether or not I actually manage to keep to my schedule (or if I will need to take my alternate schedule) will be determined entirely by the ballet company which still owns my soul and most of my time. But because I don't know if I'll be able to manage my current plans, I've not announced them yet, even if I'm starting to line things up.

But yeah, if you guys see me interacting more and spamming my own posts more, it's because I'm trying to rebuild my following due to my account switch, and also re-hype up the novels. I have multiple worldbuilding posts to release, but I would feel much better releasing them when Holiest can be read or preordered.

Holiest itself got almost entirely reworked, so I hope former readers won't be too disappointed about that. I think the novel is so much better now, but what do I know?

Happy that there are still people interested though. <3 And apologies that the re-release is taking so long.

[darkpoisonouslove]

🌈 ☔ :)

Why are you doing this to me? You know I don't write fluff and all the softness that I did have for my one project, I already posted. *cries*

Bad news - while going through my documents, I realized I've lost my outline for the SoL Valentine's day fic. I must have copy-pasted over it because I have a distinct memory of saving it in a document.

Good news though - before I realized this, I was just thinking that I would change most of it anyway.

More bad news - I did still intend to use a detail or two, which is why I started looking for the outline at all.

More good news - I think I have a screenshot of the part with those details.

Yet more bad news - I have to find it.

*sighs* The epic highs and tragic lows of an average day of my life. Could be worse, though. I could have gotten excited about the current version and wanted to finish it as it is.

🌈 Share something soft/fluffy from your WIP.

I hope you're happy with yourself. You've made me fill in some narrative to the dialogue in my outline for the sequel to Smolder because I had nothing else for this:

"I didn’t mean to shock you."

The words rang true enough despite the hint of smugness in Griffin's voice and the penetrating look in her eyes. If she could strip Marion bare with just her gaze, the thought of her hands doing the same left Marion shivering in anticipation.

She leaned in to avoid looking in the depths of Griffin's eyes lest she plunged in recklessly. The hitch in Griffin's breath when Marion's lips almost covered hers had her bite herself to keep from grinning like an idiot.

"Yes, you did." Trying for an authoritative tone was harder than she could ever remember it being.

"Maybe a little," Griffin agreed, the curve of her smirk carrying in her voice. She threaded a hand in Marion's curls to keep her so close that their breath mingled. "Can you blame me? I have a reputation to uphold. And a princess to keep up with."

Fire bloomed in her cheeks, her neck, her chest. She was all made of it, of the power innate to her, the essence of the whole world at her fingertips.

☔Is there a fic concept you have that you'd like to just explain and share because you're not sure you'll ever write it? If so, what is it?

Could I share several concepts that are in the early stages of development instead of one actually thought out fic idea? I don't really know what I want to do with these which makes them more at risk of not existing than ideas that I've taken in a direction I don't like and mean to rework. So here they are:

Kind of a role reversal Griffin x Marion AU where Marion died. She is brought back but that leaves her without the Dragon Fire so she's mad at Griffin for doing this to her only for Daphne to confess that it was her who brought her back. We've talked a lot about how Marion wouldn't have been able to give up her Dragon Fire the way Daphne did and I figured "What if nobody asked her? What if she didn't have a choice and was forced to live with the consequences?" I'm just so good to these characters. XD I don't know what exactly I want to do with it, however, so I've just jotted down the idea and buried it in my ideas doc.

I do also have thoughts for a sequel of The Last Dawn but they're all pretty directionless. Mostly I just want to explore further the idea that knowing when you'll lose someone poisons whatever time you have left with them because they've already got one foot in the grave and it's hard to enjoy the time you have left despite how hard you're grasping at it. I can't settle on the best way to examine that concept, though, so I don't even have a start on that one. I do want to do more with the idea of it being the last dawn for Marion as well even though she's still alive and add in something about that sentence where the sunrise is the shade of Griffin's eyes. There's a lot of angst to squeeze out from that but my thoughts are in absolute chaos.

I watched Damsel and I definitely liked it more than most of the people that have watched it. The execution is poor but I liked the (heavy-handed) themes. Besides, Bulgarian folklore has several tales of women marrying a zmey, which is the Bulgarian version of a dragon. Naturally, my thought was an AU in which Griffin wants to marry the local dragon that's been terrorizing the area so she seeks him out. I don't want her to be a victim of trickery like in the movie so I was mostly imagining her negotiating marriage terms with Valtor but I simply do not know what I truly want from it on a story level so I've left it aside for now.

I have another thousand things that could probably fit here but I don't like the thought that I won't do anything with them so I won't talk about them.

[redflagshipwriter]

Writer goals: 💖, 🥳, 💥

💖 What is your primary writing goal for this year? My writing goal is actually for my original fiction. I have a few short stories on my Patreon that I didn't finish, ones I started years ago and lost momentum on. Now that I am a better writer in general and just plain better at finishing things, I intend to go back and check those off, so that I can mark them as finished in my directory. FWIW, at least the first two of the one-part stories in that post are free for anyone to read. There's a lot that's public on that account by now, but mostly it's fanfic for obvious reasons. Most of the original fic is behind the paywall because I need money to live. But like, there is a one dollar minimum. Part two of my goal is publishing. I actually haven't been published in print for a couple of years in any form, so I want to get back on that this year. I have a couple of novels halfway done that I want to finish as well. One is a YA fantasy book about a giant girl in a magical college, one is a romance. I've also submitted a short supernatural horror type story for publishing, so I'm crossing my fingers to hear back from that one soon. 🤞🏻 I also have an interactive story game in the works, but it's on temporary pause until I clear out a few other WIP. I love that one maybe best, though. It's a superhero genre story about a bad tempered mechanic who accidentally gets into vigilantism because she has a personal vendetta against a supervillain. There's a sort of prequel version you can fully play here, for free. I've reworked some things since making that, but I think it's still a fun little story. The fanfiction that I post on this account is basically brain candy and escapism for me, which is why there are no promises about scheduling. I will continue writing DC and Spiderman here when I need the serotonin, you know? This is what makes me most reliably happy lately.

🥳 How are you going to celebrate when you achieve one of your writing goals? I am going to eat tiramisu.

💥Is there a chapter, scene, or WIP you're most excited to write? Share a snippet or tell us about it! Literally right now today it's Reassembly, the Peter Parker-in-Gotham buddyfic. I had some truly terrible thoughts for how the situation can get much worse and dumber, as well as the drama going on in the background that Peter and Kon are way too hapless to notice. I am also thinking about a Snitches the Cat sequel, but I sort of want to end a few more of my WIP before I do that.

[undeniablyares]

Hi! If you don't mind me asking (and if you don't mind sharing, of course) could you tell us about your WIP People of the Sun? Not sure if there's a fic or if it's just an AU, but I really liked it!

Love your blog too! :)

Hi there, thank you so much for the kind words and for asking. I am always happy to talk about my WIPs and my writing process. :)

People of the Sun was written last year for the "Sun" prompt of AkaRen Week that our big discord server (the AkaRen Circus) hosted. Essentially, it was a short oneshot that I wrote from Akaza's 1st person POV as a telling of Akaza being turned into a human after Muzan's defeat and getting to live his mortal life as Rengoku's lover. It was honestly meant to just be some shameless smut of Akaza being obsessed with getting it on in public under the sunlight that he's never known, but somehow it became really soft and emotional while I was writing it. So much so, that I actually gave up during the final smut scene and it just became the boys giggling idiots and Akaza virtually confessing all the little things that he loves about Rengoku. I think it's so important to have any type of love and relationships where you can be silly, honest, and vulnerable with others, so I kept the story like that.

In rereading it recently, I decided that I could do better and started reworking the fic from Akaza's 3rd person POV instead, and adding scenes of him falling for Rengoku slowly before defecting and breaking his bond with Muzan just before the Infinity Castle arc. I'm still intending to keep it a oneshot, and am including the smut and confession scenes as they were, I just plan to make it much longer and significantly more emotional than my original version. The original version is still posted on my AO3 account if you haven't read it and are interested, but I will likely post over it once I'm done updating it soon. ^^'

[isaaclewis]

What is this for?

This blog is intended to be a space where I can post half-formed ideas. I have reams and reams of notes in my Evernote (along with other writings scattered across a few blogs, forums and online communities) going back years.

Most are not publishable in the sense that I'd want to advertise them to the whole world; but most are still publishable in the more limited sense that I see no need to keep them private, and I'm happy to have them available in a public place for anyone who is curious.

I have procrastinated on "serious writing" (or at least "serious public writing") for years, so maybe this experiment will help me get into a more regular rhythm of writing, releasing and reworking* and enable me to build up momentum to tackle more serious writing projects.

*(see here: https://www.ribbonfarm.com/2011/08/19/the-calculus-of-grit/)

It still feels slightly scary, like exposing pieces of my naked soul for the sight of the whole world.

=== To kick things off, here is an excerpt from one of my recent Evernotes, titled simply: "Writing 7th June 2023".

Context: I write many such philosophical notes-to-self; some of my more recent notes have been "pre-publishable" as I get back into an ambitious frame of mind and begin mapping out my future goals and objectives. This one is a set of integrated observations regarding several topics of interest.

===

Writing 7th June 2023

Rationality is the key. The people who have caused me the most grievous problems in my life were not, are not, rational. They did not actually know; they operated by gut instinct and intuition. *In certain domains*, their instincts may have been correct more often than not. But they could not validate them, could not prove them, could not distinguish cases where they led to truth, and cases where they led to falsehood.

Rationality is virtue. Virtue is strength. True strength integrates mental and physical strength; it is intelligence applied to action. Rationality, the systematic connection of one’s mind to reality, is the root of productivity, the reorganisation of the physical universe to create beneficial structures. Productivity, so understood, is the root of all success, wealth, and the progress of civilisation. If thought, production, and wealth are properly defined, then irrational beings cannot think, produce, or make use of wealth. Their minds are not connected to reality, they cannot create beneficial structures, and they cannot make use of these structures when they are brought into existence.

Properly understood, there is no breach between technological and intellectual work. Engineering is applied research; research is abstract engineering. This holds as true for research in the humanities as in the physical sciences. The humanities, properly understand, as the rational study of man and society, produce the knowledge that is integral to the creation of beneficial structures.

This insight was not clear to me eight years ago, and this was the root of my struggles. Had these insights been clear, my path forwards would have been clear. With these insights in mind, I could very quickly evaluate any system or structure, and determine whether it served my rational values. I could have explored the entire planet to find rational systems that would have served my immediate needs (reliable income, personal freedom, and the foundation for personal sovereignty and the realisation of my highest ambitions).

=== One small note & observation: I made one minor change to this before publishing it. In my private notes, the phrase "the people who have caused me the most grievous problems" was instead a different, shorter phrase, which revealed too much "shadow energy".

But the edited version is in fact closer to my actual thinking: my stated beliefs now more closely track my actual beliefs. My private notes do not necessarily reveal my "hidden, true self" -- not in this case, or in general. Writing things up for public consumption necessitates at least some reflection; experiencing a "sensed awareness" of the potential eyes on these words leads to a sharper awareness of the incongruences between my private and public personas, my inner and outer worlds.

Or, more simply. My private notes don't necessarily "reveal the truth"; the anticipation of hitting "publish" pushes me to pull out any lingering "lies-to-self".

[artsybi]

[image ID in image description/alt text. also forgive me, i've never written an image ID before]

i have been Thinking Thoughts about matt murdock in this chili's tonight

i made a post abt falling in love with the concept of matt with scarring over his eyes from the accident that blinded him, and i decided to actually draw out my design for him. i did intend for his glasses to cover the scarring a bit better so i might rework that a little, but i'm actually really happy with how this piece came out!

(two versions bc i want to show off the scarring in full, and also bc i've found a way to draw his eyes that i REALLY love 💖)

[ali3nboyfriend]

I've recently been asked to do a role play by someone who likes the same show as I do. I've never done one before and I'm kind of nervous. Do you have any tips for first time role players?

it’s been a while since I was a first timer myself, I started roleplaying on the Neopets forums when i was about… ten or eleven? and I’m twenty-five now, so it’s been a hot minute and the Neopets forums were a much different beast than Tumblr, DM, or Discord roleplays nowadays.

but i can def give you some basic tips that i know now, and i hope they help!

first off, communicate with your partner. this is like, given in any situation where you’re working with someone else, but it’s an important step a lot of people overlook.

when you first start out, there’s some things you’ll wanna establish: who are you both playing? what’s the mood of the roleplay, is it fluffy, angsty, hurt/comfort, maybe on the saucier side? shippy at all, totally platonic, or you’ll see where things go when they get there? what do you both want out of this? do you have any ideas for plots, do you want to plot at all, or would you both prefer to just wing it? 

when it comes to roleplaying, a lot of people’s writing preferences tend to align with the things they like to read (particularly in fanfic). not always! i, for example, like to read eldritch horror, but i hate the idea of actually writing it. but! i do love to read stuff with a happy ending with my favorite characters, and because i like consuming that sort of content, i won’t write anything with a “bad end”. if you already write as a hobby, figuring out your roleplaying preferences should be fairly easy – you already have a good general idea of what you like to do.

once you’ve figured out what sort of stuff you would like to write, set boundaries. what won’t you write? any particular ships with your characters of choice you refuse to do? any ship dynamics? genres, scenarios, anything triggering or squicky you just hate seeing? are you like me and you won’t write sad endings or character death, or you’d hate for your partner to write character death with you? make sure you both have those understandings set, and it’s okay if you don’t know something will upset you until it happens – just make sure you tell your partner when that DOES happen. and if your partner tells you “this makes me uncomfortable,” then you stop, and you either rework it or you do a different scene. no exceptions.

another good thing to decide is what length are writing at here? do you want full paragraphs? if yes, smaller ones, or bigger? are we doing one-liners or just dialogue replies? none of these are inherently better or worse or “lazier” than the others, and do not EVER let anyone tell you otherwise – it’s STRICTLY about your preferences and what kind of energy you have for that sort of thing.

between me (cayde) and my partner faye (ikora)

short dialogue roleplay and one-liners can be just as fun, character-developing, and rewarding as long paragraphs.

between me (theo) and my partners, faye (julia) and sprite (keylime)

between me (cayde) and my partner faye (ikora)

or it can be just as silly.

there’s a couple pieces of etiquette that all good roleplayers follow:

do not “power play”. if your character couldn’t feasibly know something, then they don’t know it. if they couldn’t feasibly do something, then they can’t do it. and even if your character is super powerful compared to your partner’s character, always give your partner’s character a chance to shine – don’t hog the limelight.it’s less fun to play with a partner that’s not giving you an equal share of the story.

do not “god mod” or “god mode”. god modding is the act of taking control of the other player’s character or otherwise saying that things just happen without consulting the other roleplayer. don’t do this. always leave their character’s actions up to them.this also includes always allowing your partner’s character a chance to react or even feasibly STOP any actions your character might be making. for example:DO NOT: “He grabbed him by the collar and slung him with all his might at the nearest shelf of cereal. He smiled as he watched it topple over, falling onto his enemy below.”that kind of thing is fine in regular writing, when you’re the only one contributing. it’s less okay in roleplay, unless you’ve specifically asked your partner, “hey can my guy throw yours into a shelf?”DO: “He grabbed for his collar, rage in his eyes. The moment he could, he was going to send that man directly into the nearest cereal shelf.”this 1) allows the other character to react and maybe dodge, if that’s what they want to do, and 2) gives the other roleplayer a clear understanding of what you intend for your character to do once that collar is grabbed, so they can decide if dodging is on the agenda.it’s just fairer that way!

finally, i know i’ve written a lot and this post is fairly long, but at the end of the day, roleplaying’s just a For Fun hobby that should always be treated as such. if you’re not having fun, it’s a-okay to either put it down or try coming at it a different way. if your partner judges you for that, they’re not worth your time. period, end of story.

never let anyone make you feel like roleplaying is a job, or a chore. it is not your job. you’re NEVER obligated to continue with it if you’re not having fun.

[weywyrdsis]

Hello friend,

I don't know if you're active anymore, but I recently read your 2016 Liberty's Kids fanfiction on Ao3 on a dare from some friends to read the only non explicit m/m libertys kids fic. While it was begun as a joke, we find ourselves quite invested, and I was wondering if you would consider updating, or at least telling us what was going to happen next. Thank you very much.

A fan.

I gotta admit, I woke up to this and ran through several emotions from confusion that someone was reading that fic, mild terror that someone found my old writing, and joy that someone enjoyed my writing so much. You are right, I'm not super active on tumblr, though it's mostly bc I am...something of a lurker. About everything. The fact that you were able to track me down here I gotta say I'm actually impressed considering my digital footprint is p small and that's mostly accidental. The last time I posted on that AO3 account was I think a few years ago and I'd mostly abandoned it to the fates too, this tumblr just happens to be a attached to my main. Now I've got a whole different AO3 with different fandoms (not even the ones here I primarily write DA, SWTOR and admittedly very gay CON fics...). I still have access to that one bc I refuse to get rid of literally any accounts.

That being said: I cannot explain how much I absolutely giggled at the fact that in being dared to read the only non-explicit m/m fic for Liberty's Kids you were forced to read was the one with Extremely Graphic Depictions of Violence, Blood and Bodily injury. And, in all honesty, it probably would have gotten explicit at some point, likely not graphically so, since I was writing All In Red and Blue in highschool but depending on when I finished it and where it went. The one thing I actually don't know if I have access to is the google drive with the draft for it or outline. I'm sure you saw in the tags a whole ass OC that was to be a big part of that story who just never shows up bc I'm...terrible at updating and the only person who really wanted updates at the time was my now fiance who we just brainstormed the plot for together and then I never finished it. There's a large part of me that has always wanted to go back and rework that fic and come up with an actual plot for it, but idk if you and your friends would want to wait for me to attempt that lol.

But to truly answer your question, the short answer is: it didn't really have a plan or plot. The long answer is: I intended it to be extremely whumpy, before I knew what whump was. I had a vague outline of where I wanted it to go, with Bryan ending up being unable to return to England, stuck in a war that he can't fight in, and looking for somewhere to make a home. Eventually that was where William would come in (the oc per the tags) and there was going to be plenty of physical and emotional pain and healing including Bryan trying to let go of the events with Tom that he never had any control over or choice in, to be happy. With a large dollop of survivors guilt and finding the balance of grief and letting himself...well live. In all honestly, I'm not sure I could've written it all to be as good as I wanted back then, considering the difficult subject matter, but I wouldn't mind giving it a shot now.

I think, were I to take a stab at it now, I'd probably go with something a little less straight-forwardly hurt/comfort. The same overall aesthetic and ideas would apply, but I would probably change it to have an actual plot after the first chapter and half a second chapter that's sitting in my drafts. The easy answer would be to have him join up with the main cast and carry out the plot of the show, of course, but tbh I'd have to go watch the show again and I'm not super interested in trying to match styles with a children's show to that degree? Although a gritty rewrite of Liberty's Kids would be pretty great... Regardless, I think unlike my original plan, I'd force Bryan to get involved in the conflict again for some extra oomph. I'm not even sure I'd go for a second romance now, although I would make it considerably more slow-burn and chaste than what I was planning like 6 years ago.

I'm sure you weren't expecting such a long response to this question, but no ones asked about that fic in years and your ask gave me a lot of nostalgia and feelings. I would definitely consider reworking it and making an actual plot for it, if ya'll are really that invested. I'm also very curious if you or your friends had any thoughts as to where you wanted it to go, if you'd be willing to tell me lol. Idk, thank you for tracking me down, this was a really nice little smack in the face of nostalgia