#i tried to write on the template as if they were the ones filling it out lol

[nezierf]

welcome to "those suckers keep pining even after graduation"

[kwanisms]

Under the Cherry Tree — c.san

❀ ateez masterlist ❀

➮ bff!San × fem!Reader wc: 2.1k summary: Y/N has something important to tell her best friend San and asks him to meet her at their favorite cherry tree on campus. genres/themes/au: fluff; friends to lovers; non idol au, college au warnings: adult dialogue, female reader, slightly suggestive content, mention of alcohol consumption

permanent taglist: @yoonguurt @wonderfulshinee @candidupped @dejavernon @violagoth @tigermoonbiss @katsukis1wife @luvsooby @thesolarplanetarysystem @salty-for-suga @devilsmatches @dmnspiit @simeonswhore @yangracha @seonghwalover @atinypurr @aikyubi @labyrinthonmymind @bintificreads @toxic-babexe

ateez taglist: @2hodefender @cixrosie @pyeonghongrie-main @flowerboykun @sanjoongie @anyamaris @stardragongalaxy @kpop-stories-21 @wooyoungmybelovedhusband @mlysalt @cinnamoon-belle @briannabk22 @is4b3ll3s @hyukssunflower @vampiirose @0325tiny @ateezstanforever @justiny @jeongwangjessmina @lacie220900 @aaaaajonghooooo @dementedaly

join my taglists! Strikethrough means I cannot tag you. MINORS WILL BE BLACKLISTED & BLOCKED.

a/n: part of the 2023 Meet Me Under the Cherry Tree event for @cultofdionysusnet. I'm sorry this is so late. I meant to have this done and up way before the deadline for this event but other events wnd collabs got in the way and took up more of my time. Writing this one was easy. When the randomizer paired San with fluff, I knew I wanted him to be the reader's best friend. After that, it practically wrote itself lol thank you for reading and as always, this is a work of fiction and all characters are not reflective of their respective irl counterparts. for entertainment purposes only. banner and line breaks made by me. Creator reblog banner template by @cafekitsune. I do not allow reposts, translations, or continuations of my works. All my writings are ©️ kwanisms.

For most people, cherry blossoms signify the start of something new.

New beginnings.

For you, cherry blossoms have always made you think of your best friend.

Choi San had come into your life when you least expected it.

He’d been a stranger you ran into on the playground and again on the first day of junior high. He’d been an awkward, thin, shy, and quiet boy and to an extent, he still was.

Well, except for the thin part.

Late into senior high, San had filled out, spending more time at the gym than at home reading or playing video games with you. Not that you were complaining. San used his new found strength to keep unwanted attention off you.

Of course, it also meant he had a gaggle of giggling girls following him, constantly asking him out and to be their boyfriend. San never took any of it seriously. Always preferring to spend his free time either in the gym or with you, studying so you both could attend college together.

When graduation came, you were ecstatic to finally be free from the confines of high school and onto the upgrade that was higher education. Your parents hadn’t been on board with a co-ed dorm at first until San promised to keep an eye on you which was made even easier when you were assigned to the same floor but unfortunately not as roommates.

Your roommate ended up being a girl who you befriended well enough but she was no replacement for San. For you, no one could compare to your best friend. No one could ever replace him.

You soon learned that it wasn’t the case for him towards the end of your freshman year of college when San finally gave in to one of the girls in his class and agreed to go out with her.

One date turned into two and then into three and soon he was introducing you to his new girlfriend, Hanna. You tried to be happy for him, you really did. After all, college was all about new experiences, right?

That’s what you kept telling yourself as San spent more time with Hanna and less time with you. Your roommate, Bee, decided enough was enough and took you out with her one night. A very rare night out where you met the man you would both later dub as “trouble.”

Wooyoung was kind enough, albeit a bit loud and boisterous. He took an instant liking to you however he wasn’t the one who ended up turning your life upside down. That was Yeosang, Wooyoung’s best friend.

Yeosang was a lot like San in that he was quiet, a little shy, studious, loved to work out and always had a group of girls fawning over him. The only difference was where San was spending more time with Hanna, Yeosang, wanted to spend more time with you.

Winter break brought with it a visit back home where you spent a lot of time at home, seeing your family and only seeing San a couple of times. When you went back to school, it was like you and your best friend had become strangers. The movie nights you usually held in your dorm room had been replaced with date nights with Yeosang, your first official boyfriend.

The second semester brought with it Valentine’s season and with that, San got his first dose of heartbreak when Hanna broke up with him.

The night it happened, you woke up to your phone vibrating on your nightstand and that was the first time you spoke to San in months. You listened to him rant, cry, and vent until eventually you both fell asleep.

You weren’t sure how but San managed to reintegrate himself into your friend circle. He got on very well with Wooyoung surprisingly but the real issue was with Yeosang. The two, despite being so similar, did not get along at all.

You tried to keep the peace, mediating and keeping them physically separated when the circle was together. It became exhausting until you finally put your foot down, telling both of them to grow up and stop acting like babies.

San seemed to handle this as he normally would have but Yeosang didn’t handle it as well. A lot of fights were had between you and Yeosang and thus began the long, complicated on and off again relationship with him.

It was clear San didn’t like this but out of respect, he never said anything. For an entire year, Yeosang and you fought, broke up, made up, and got back together. It seemed like every two weeks, you were making up.

You’d be lying if the fights and breakups weren’t exhausting but the makeups always seemed worth it until the final explosive fight that ended things for good.

It was junior year at a house party at one of the frats. You were enjoying yourself, drinking and having a good time. You and Yeosang had just gotten back together and he promised for good this time. Your finals had gone well and you were riding on cloud nine. Nothing could have prepared you for what was to come.

Ever since your last makeup with your boyfriend, San had seemed distant and indifferent. Perhaps he was just upset that he hadn’t found anyone to occupy his free time like you had, or perhaps finals week hadn’t gone as well for him.

Whatever the case, he had been sulking all week and it was starting to get on your nerves. You had come with San and Bee and met up with Wooyoung and Yeosang and almost immediately, Yeosang had pulled you onto the dance floor.

Unbeknownst to you, San watched the two of you bitterly as he sipped on whatever punch the hosts had prepared. You weren’t sure how many cups he’d had but someone later told you about six.

When Yeo had disappeared to get drinks for the two of you, San made his move. He swooped in, pleading with you that he needed to talk to you. You could immediately tell he was drunk and had told him he needed to go home but he refused. He had to tell you something important before the moment slipped away forever.

It was then that San drunkenly blurted out that he was in love with you and had been for a while. It was the reason he and Hanna broke up. Uncertain what to say, you had told San that it wasn’t the time to discuss this but he insisted, saying he’d been in love with you since before college.

It was that moment that Yeosang overheard the conversation and decided to step in, telling San to back off. Drunk and fueled by his overconfidence, San blurted out that Yeosang was sleeping with another girl the whole time he and Y/N had been off and on again.

A scene had formed and soon it turned into a scuffle in which Wooyoung and one of the hosts who you later learned was named Changbin broke up the fight, pulling both men apart while Yeosang warned San to stay away from you.

Changbin managed to get San outside the party while Wooyoung managed to calm Yeosang down while you made your way to the bathroom, having had the drinks Yeosang got for you spilled all over you when San lunged at him.

Bee had spent part of the night helping you try to get the smell of booze out of your clothes but you knew the only way to really fix it was to go home and wash your clothes.

As you left the bathroom, you were confronted by a girl you’d seen a few times before. She confirmed San’s story that Yeosang had been sleeping around while you were off and on. She apologized, being under the impression that what you and Yeosang had was casual.

You decided to confront Yeosang and break up with him once and for all.

He put up more of a fight than you expected but when you left, pulling from his grip one last time, he seemed to get the message and let you go.

San remembered everything from that night from the fight to confessing to you. He promised that you didn’t need to reciprocate his feelings he simply wanted you to know how he felt and he wanted you to know the truth about Yeosang.

Your friend circle fell apart shortly after the party, Wooyoung being Young's friend after all. Bee stuck by your side as did San. You focused on your school, making time only for your friends between classes and studying.

It had been almost a year since the party.

You hurried down the steps, careful not to trip as you pulled out your phone and shot a quick text to your best friend.

You: the cherry blossoms are blooming

You sent the text and hurried across the lawn, ignoring the stares from your classmates as you did. Your phone vibrated in your hand and you came to a stop to read the text.

Sandwich 🥪: big deal? We see them every year Y/N

Big deal? It was a big deal! Since breaking up with Yeosang and focusing on yourself and repairing your friendship with San, you’d come to realize three things.

No matter what, your friends would always be there for you

Boys were icky and men weren’t any better

You were in love with your best friend.

You sighed heavily as you typed a quick response.

You: oh whatever sourpuss, just meet me there!

Sandwich 🥪: 🙄 aye aye captain 🫡

You pocket your phone and continued, running across the lawn huffing as you reached the top of the hill. On the other side stood the south lawn which was home to a cluster of cherry blossom trees which were in full bloom. Pinks, whites, and everything in between decorated the branches, the blossoms swaying gently in the breeze as you started down the hill.

Running downhill was much easier than uphill and you reached the cluster in record time, gazing up at the delicate flowers as you walked past many of your classmates as they took pictures of the trees and each other.

You continued walking until you reached the furthest tree. It was your favorite one. It had clearly been there longer than the others and was much larger. In fact, it was large for a cherry blossom tree to begin with. Blossom covered branches hung down, shielding the trunk from view.

Pushing one of the branches aside, your eyes widened as you took in the sight of your best friend standing under the tree, phone in his hands as he snapped a couple pictures. It only took a moment for him to notice you, quickly hiding his phone as you approached.

“You got here fast,” you said, slightly out of breath. San shrugged. “I’ve been here the whole time,” he admitted softly, pocketing his phone and moving to sit at the base of the trunk, setting his bag next to him.

You moved to sit beside him, shrugging your own bag off and setting it down before taking a seat beside him. You looked up at the blossoms blowing in the breeze, a smile on your face.

Next to you, San watched you with a fond smile. When you turned to look at him, he didn’t look away like he had over the past year. He held your gaze. “What?” you asked with a shrug. San shook his head but reached forward, picking up one of the blossoms that had fallen from the branches.

“Nothing,” he murmured, inspecting the flower before reaching up and swiftly tucking it behind your ear. Your cheeks burned as you glared up at him but he merely smiled back at you. “Pretty,” he said simply.

Your gaze softened before looking down at the ground. “Shut up,” you murmured before leaning into his side. San accepted the gesture, draping his arm over your shoulders. “You are,” he said simply. “Pretty,” he added.

“I’ve always thought so.”

Your cheeks burned even more. “So are you,” you whispered, hoping he wouldn’t hear you but when he shifted to look at you with wide eyes, you knew he’d heard you. His shocked expression morphed into a smirk. “You think I’m pretty!” he teased only to stop talking when you leaned in to kiss him quickly.

“Yeah, and?” you replied, puffing your chest indignantly. “So what if I think you’re pretty? I think lots of people are pretty! I just happen to think you’re the prettiest and I’ve also always thought you were pretty and—”

Your rambling was cut short as San cupped your cheeks in his hands, pulling you into another kiss, this one much more tender and longer. When he finally pulled back he nuzzled his nose against yours.

“You think I’m prettier?” he asked, smiling when you nodded.

“Well, I think you’re the prettiest.”

[pileofsith]

Hello there (no pun intended),

I do not have any questions regarding the Grand Inquisitor/Nameless comic per se (which reminds me of the fact that I still need to leave a comment on Ao3), but I just wanted to say that you rewired my brain with the page on which Tion Medon talks about a young Grand Inquisitor being taken in by the Jedi without him knowing that the guy in front of him is actually the person in question (and the Grand Inquisitor looking kinda like a kicked puppy). I'm especially obsessed with the line "Very polite child, very sweet, but so very timid." due to the sharp contrast to who and what the Grand Inquisitor has become. 

On another note: I also love that one piece of yours that depicts the Grand Inquisitor scrambling on the floor, all bloodied up, after Darth Vader backhanded him as punishment for his failure on Lothal, because it just makes so much sense, especially after reading Charles Soule's Darth Vader series (2017). The way the Inquisitors are depicted as both abuser and abused in it is really fascinating, which makes me wonder whether Vader ever maimed the Grand Inquisitor like he did with the other Inquisitors. Do you have any thoughts on that? Also sorry if I'm assuming too much! You referenced the Grand Inquisitor's strained relationship with Jocasta Nu very early into the Grand Inquisitor/Nameless comic and since it was a bigger plot point in the Darth Vader series (2017), it felt like a natural conclusion. I'm currently trying to finish a little character study on the Grand Inquisitor, which is mainly based on that source, and your comic was a very big inspiration for me to even try writing down the first draft.

Either way, have a nice rest of the day! Can't wait to see more from you!

Hello! Huge thanks for your awesome ask and your kind words, made my day! Thank you for reading the comic!

And please do share what you'll create for your character study, I'd love to read it! :)

So: I have only read a few snippets from the comic series, but have definitely used them as a basis to expand on the Inquisitor's character - I'd love to read the whole thing, however, I don't know where to find it!

"The way the Inquisitors are depicted as both abuser and abused is really fascinating" <- This is 100% my opinion, too! I have a lot of thoughts about them that I have a hard time putting into words, but this really sums it up, thank you!

For my comic, I admit I am definitely woobifying him a bit, but I can't really help that when I write stuff about villains, I just tend to make everything three shades nicer than in the source material. :-/

But I do try to keep his main personality intact, I just glaze it over with a more sympathetic view than I expect a canon explanation could offer.

This is the pic you referred to, if anyone's wondering (it's super old but still checks out, lol):

I do not think Vader ever maimed him like the others, but I think he would have opportunities to casually injure or torture him, if he ever feels like it the Grand Inquisitor goes out of line. Having said that, I do think the Pau'an seems to be perpetually aware of the risks in working with Vader, as he does carefully defy some of Vader's decisions with a verbal objection, but he never tries to contradict him further if his input is dismissed.

My pet theory is that neither Reva nor the Grand Inquisitor were ever maimed as a lesson in loss because they had both already survived loss events that filled them with enough rage: for Reva, it's the massacre of her Temple friends. For the Grand Inquisitor, it's the end (betrayal?) of the Jedi Temple Guards he was dedicated to.

I also find it interesting how Vader reframes his own greatest "weakness" in Jedi terms - dealing healthily with loss - into a template for how to teach others how to turn into darksiders.

I generally think Vader treats imperial inquisitors similar to imperial officers - useful if competent, but ultimately expendable, and free to use as a squeaky toy to vent frustrations. For the Grand Inquisitor, since the Pau'an is really arrogant and thinks so highly of his own intellect, the most efficient way to put him in his place would be for Vader to flaunt his own Sith powers against the Pau'an's humble dependence on him, to deny him some knowledge or to humiliate/humble him in some way...

About "Very polite child, very sweet, but so very timid":

When Jocasta and the Grand Inquisitor fight in that comic, he says something along the lines of how he never felt he belonged among the Jedi. I thought that was a really good starting point to imagine his life decisions. What brought him from being wholly dedicated to protecting Jedi, to becoming a hunter of the very group he vowed to protect? It's such a contrast! There has to be some nice, meaty psychology there to dig into and explore.

I imagined him as a subconsciously lonely sort of child, being from a much longer-lived species than anyone else (and in an Order that values detachment, perhaps one would diagnose that as a problem), so that when he grew into a detached, bookish individual, he sought to gain belonging in the Temple Guard as a permanent fixture around which to base his whole life. But then the Jedi Order starts shaking at its foundations, and he wants to escape, but his particular ~*°special-secret-Force-magic°*~ vows to the Temple do not make it possible to just walk away like Ahsoka or Dooku did. And that leads to inner tensions and a pull to the Dark Side, eventually.

[hollowfaith]

Pick 2 in every section except Canon Muses and Fandoms (pick 1 from those) :3

Questions for the mun

this is long so imma cut it lol

BASICS x2 What caused you to start writing? What was your key point?

in 3rd grade we watched the cartoon movie version of the legend of sleepy hollow and had an assignment to write a summary of it. i was barely out of ESL at the time but thought it was a neat assignment (and prided myself on my memory for details) so i hecking did my best and wrote a long detailed one (with pictures because it was elementary school and you could illustrate your stuff) and for some reason my teacher and the principal were all happy about it and made a big deal complete with ceremony and applause and made me feel important and cool.

after that i was like "yeah! that was awesome. can't i write more stories like that even outside of school?" and thus it kicked off my journaling obsession besides writing diaries of my daily life. i did a lot of original fics and sailor moon/digimon-inspired stuff but when i found ff.net it was like discovering a whole new world where you could control the characters to do whatever you wanted (while staying IC, cause that was definitely part of the "rules" of the challenge) and that was amazing.

realizing writing meant i could take destiny into my own hands for these made-up blorbos was such a fun power trip. i have tried to use that power responsibly ever since.

Do you still write your first muse?

dahlia hawthorne was my first real muse on tumblr and i poke her now and then, but she seems content in her semi-retirement in my brain. sometimes she wakes up to snark people but she's enjoying her vacation in peace right now : )

CANON MUSES x1

Have you ever written a canon muse that you first thought of ‘meh’ when they appeared in their canon show/movie/book?

don't shoot me but before i wrote yagen toushirou for touken ranbu i was like "yeah yeah okay this is just a standard big brother x cool doctor type trope," i actually didn't even pick him up until i wanted to try someone new and my other friends (playing other swordboys at the time) suggested him

then i had to research him and really fell in love with the dichotomy of his character, about how he's very human with his brothers but also 100% a weapon and embraces that fact, about the juxtaposition of DUTY vs. FEELING and the HUMAN HEART vs. OBJECT/TOOL he's been balancing all his life on a very fine line (and does flawlessly, because he's yagen) and i was like, heck! this is gonna be so fun to RP and make him deal with stuff

tho most of the time i got into crack threads again and shipping with Fudou it was still very very fulfilling and im glad my friends convinced me to try him out :D

OCs x2

Do you have developed dynamics with the OC of another mun that has influenced your OC or Canon muse?

yeah I mean this guy wouldn't exist without Jade's Klaus u know? his template might've been taken from his faceclaim guy but the rest of him i molded to fit Jade's OC, specifically his personality and to an extent his looks. in some ways Klaus has everything Aurelius lacks and vice versa, they have this classic balancing scales thing going on that i like very much and try to fill intentionally.

i also wanna say Klaus is one of the few windows to Aurelius' genuine gentle/good side, the side he might have been all the time if his father didn't screw him up from birth (of course i can't say his dad is all to blame, but he sure takes 60~75% of the blame).

as for developed dynamics im guessing this is asking about interactions with another OC that influenced this one...why do i feel like they've all been humbling experiences... Issy has shown him some humans are worth treating with care, Constantine has demonstrated how not everyone takes his shit, Dar is there to inspire working business relationships while highlighting Aury's awkward aspects fitting in, Huey undos all the good work everyone else puts in by proving how crappy some humans act, etc.

idk how to answer that part aside from "they help subvert expectations, but i don't know if that's enough to actually change the way he acts" why did i pick this Q the second part's hard to answer hahah

Who was your first OC?

time to get embarrassing so my first OC with an actually established backstory and stuff was this girl with a randomnly generated Japanese name i thought was pretty (Saikoubi) for a digimon RP group

and i intentionally gave her a happy-go-lucky personality and positive outlook because looking at the rest of the applicants everyone was like either emo or orphaned or both and my 14-year-old self was like "well! how are we going to save the world as digidestined if we're sad all the time" and basically made her the complete opposite of everyone else

it was rad, people got to be edgy, she got to be sunny, we didn't really get past the first region between our threads before the group died down but i think we all had fun and that's what matters in the end xD

FANDOMS x1

What is your favorite fandom in which you write?

i still like touken ranbu but it's more fun to write (RP) that when other swordboys are around, plus the fandom's so saturated with new swordboys these days it's hard to keep up with latest lore stuff. i still try to write 1 fanfic for it in the annual xmas secret santa thing the english-speaking fans host, tho i'm very very slow these days

beyond that i've been dipping into FFXIV fic writing a few times but i haven't grasped the language of the world well enough yet so i'm not satisfied with my work ehhh it is what it is for now

SHIPS x2

Do you plot a ship or see where it goes?

it's more fun to see where a ship goes because i like unpredictability. like the unscripted stuff feels more genuine to me especially if it surprises me u know? i do acknowledge the value of a well-planned romance but in a fall first vs. fall harder relationship i'm definitely invested more in the "fall harder and beautifully in all the disastrous ways" kinda person

i think that's how my past ships have generally gone, finding a connection between 2 muses, expanding on it, referencing it, and then boom! one day you know so much more about the other muse and you're always thinking about them and wait, what, we're hanging out together? just the two of us? is this a DATE? kinda revelations are very fun

What are you looking for in a ship?

i enjoy ships with room to develop. like it's cute when they come together and are all kiss kiss/blush blush but the process to getting there is half the fun! and the pining. and maybe a little misunderstanding here and there.

uhhhh i guess what im saying is i like the journey to get to the ship even more than the ship itself sometimes

or if we're in a ship let's go crash the boat for fun!!

hehe drama

TUMBLR x2

What was your first blog / URL?

preciousdollie

if it sounds cringe it's feenie's fault he came up with the nickname...even announced it to everyone in court of all places

Do you still have your first blog / URL?

yeah the blog's still up tho the theme's so old it's a little broken. i basically keep all my RP blogs around for archive purposes, i like going back to read the stuff sometimes (also the reblogs of art and aesthetic posts are cute + good cause some tumblrs delete and you lose that post forever otherwise)

[mjulianwrites]

credit to @yvesdot for this template!

happy almost new year! 2022 was the first year in a very long time that i consistently wrote every month, so i'm excited to look back on it! my writing this year was dominated by my latest wip, next day after dawn, including both canonverse content and a lot of stupid au bullshit <3

details under the cut!

january

in january i was still very much in dearer than a friend mode after finishing the first draft in november, but with no progress to make on the book itself i ended up writing some speculative post-canon (and very non-canon) nonsense involving preston getting into a terrible terrible relationship with another man. this one was a collab with @inkgel for which we definitely wrote a sane and normal amount of content

It’s not that he intended for this to happen. But the truth has been bubbling up for so long now, and eroding him a little more each time it does, wearing away at whatever remains of his willpower, his sense of himself, his belief that he has anything left to lose. And he’s already damned. He knows that deep down. He could repent, he supposes. Maybe God would forgive him. But Val won’t. He doesn’t really see the point. And it’s because of that too. Because he’s alone now, in a way he never has been, never could have been for the past eleven years of his life, because he always had someone who was supposed to be his. He’s not sure how he’s supposed to forget it when it feels like a piece of him has been ripped out, leaving a gaping wound that throbs and bleeds and refuses even to begin to heal. So he has to find someone to fill it, even if they don’t fit quite right.

february

in february i was mostly focused on my classes, but that did involve reading paradise lost and briefly getting very fixated on eve. i wrote less than two pages of this, but i was having fun with some dialogue between eve and satan. it was interesting to try to figure out what the pov of someone so ignorant of the world might look like

“Are you an angel?” I ask. That creature that he is talking to as I am talking to you. I do not really know what an angel is. He would not let me listen with him so it could be explained to me. But I know that an angel is something greater than me, and you are greater than me, but you are not Him, so I think maybe that is right. “I was an angel,” you say. “Was?” “I don’t know if I can explain it to you.” I feel something when you say that, something that I have no name for, but I know it is something that is bad to feel. Frustration, I think. I am good at naming things. I am as good as him. Sometimes I wish that He had left some of the animals for me to name too, but that is something that is bad to wish.

march

in march i decided i needed to get out of endlessly spinning dtaf mode. i also read gtn and remembered how much i love ensemble casts. and lo and behold, next day after dawn was born. this was one of the very first scenes i wrote, between mona and her mother austra when mona is (spoilers) experiencing life threatening illness moments. their mother/daughter dynamic is everything to me

“Don’t lie,” she said, and tried not to think about the fact that she sounded more than a little like she was begging. “Don’t—Selene can’t lie for shit, and she told me everything was fine, but she probably just wanted to avoid a difficult conversation, probably thought it was for the best, because she’s an idiot, but if you lie—” The room felt suffocating, stuffy and overly hot. She was suddenly viscerally aware of the sticky dampness of sweat beneath her shirt, and that, somehow, was more overwhelming than the pain that spiderwebbed from her pounding head all the way down her back. Her mother was silent, her face still very nearly impassive, but there was something in the slight furrowing of her brows that Mona thought looked terribly sad. “Don’t you dare,” Mona said furiously. Her eyes were burning. She blinked hard to clear the definitely-not-tears forming there. “Don’t you dare act like I’m going to die.”

april

more ndad snippets! this was from the first full scene i finished, which ended up being prince cyrus' pov of the first night after the coup. he is so mentally ill

Cyrus thought that was a nice enough idea on paper, given the circumstances. But when it became clear that it involved putting on his least comfortable court clothes and shuffling into a musty, overly crowded hall where three scuffed tables and a dozen mismatched chairs had been pushed together in some imitation of a royal banquet, he very quickly began to have second thoughts. Cassandane tried to motion for him to sit at the head of the table when they came in. He sat just to the right of it instead, as he would have if he really had been at court. If the king had been here. But the fact that he wasn’t didn’t make it feel any more right to take his place. So Cyrus didn’t. No one else did either. The chair sat untouched at the front of the room, a ghost in an empty seat. Not a ghost, Cyrus tried to remind himself. Just not here. He would be back soon. They would all be back soon. He couldn’t handle thinking anything else.

may

ndad strikes again! this is going to be most of this. here we have the first darcy pov i wrote, featuring them being sent to woo princess cassandane for prince cyrus and falling head over heels in love with her themself. (take a shot every time someone in ndad has a line about being or not being their father's son)

“I am not a real princess,” she told them after a long moment. “But I am interested in becoming a queen.” She looked one already, Darcy thought. Her eyes were diamond hard, her jaw and cheekbones carved from marble. She could have knocked her father’s statue to the ground and stood on the pedestal in its place and put it to shame. She could have told them to do anything for her, and it wouldn’t have crossed their mind not to obey. She was all that a queen should be. And Darcy was what they should have been. They were not truly the King’s ambassador, nor the Prince’s surrogate. Their loyalty went only as far as their self-interest. They were not their father’s son. But they were, if nothing else, an excellent liar, which was why they could never fully explain the sudden urge they felt to tell her the truth.

june

in june i wrote a short story for a shakespeare-themed horror anthology! it did not get in, but this was my first shot at horror, so i had a ton of fun anyway. i'll probably post this one on ao3 soon -- it's fun little examination of the inherent freakiness of the ending of all's well that ends with, this time with 100% more black magic

Here’s my confession: I don’t love my wife.  Confession’s probably the wrong word though. Cause it’s not like I can tell anyone. Everyone around here thinks we got our perfect miracle of a storybook ending, so maybe I’m the one who’s wrong for not wanting it. Maybe I deserve this. My happily ever after. I don’t know how they believe it. Well, they believe it because I said it, I said I love Helen, and the lie came out smoother than it should have, given the circumstances, because God knows I’ve had too much practice. Maybe I sounded like I meant it. What I actually said was that I’d love her forever. I never said I was smart.

july

we're back in ndad land, and oh boy, this was a month. july was the first time i've ever beaten nanowrimo, fully unintentionally, simply because @wren-is-writing and i went fucking insane with the au fanfiction. but the piece that started it all was renan's backstory, aka renan's spiral into destroying every part of himself over his love for a terrible little boyboss war criminal (hi king cyrus). this is the first time the two of them meet, when cyrus is still in his rakish misbehaving prince era. brainworms are found in the gay old men

The others are already drinking deep again, eager to accept another newcomer into their circle for the night, but your mouth has gone dry. It’s almost hard to look at him. It’s harder to look anywhere else. He notices you staring. When he catches your eye, it makes your heart jump into your throat. “What?” he asks. “Something in my teeth?” You’re barely breathing. “Your Highness,” you manage, and you can’t read the look that crosses his face. Hebes slaps his hand down on the table so hard it makes your glass rattle, and lets out an incredulous, booming laugh. “Stars above, Renan, is that Prince Cyrus?” The boy next to you winks and flashes another incandescent grin. “Just call me Cy.”

august

and here we come to just a small selection of the insane au fanfiction wren and i engaged in. not ALL of it was about cyrenan, just most of it. here's some darcy and cassandane in the criminally extensive college au. darcy's pining, what else is new

It would happen, though, they told themself. It would happen eventually. Because she loved them, they were sure, even if neither of them had phrased it that way exactly. They’d as good as told each other more times than they could count. They had always worked that way, reading between the lines but knowing they were on the same page. “You’re brilliant, you know,” they murmured, dropping their voice so low they were sure only she could hear it. Just one more way of telling her. They knew she’d understand. “At dancing or in general?” “Both.” “I do know,” Cass replied. Her slow, curving smile made them flush too much to hide.  “I want to do this more often,” they whispered. They risked stroking their thumb lightly across her shoulder, a gesture they hoped was too small to catch. “I want to do this all the time.” Forever wasn’t a word they would pull out in public regardless of how softly they were speaking, but they were sure she got that too.

september

we're back to canonverse ndad, thank god. more backstories! this one chronicles austra's girlbossification, and this moment specifically is right after her daughter mona is born

She’s not going to make it. That’s the first thing the doctors tell you. It’s the first thing the Church proclaims on the matter too. You’re still confined to your hospital room. You can’t witness it pronounced in a chapel or read it in a star chart. You have to hear it from your husband’s mouth instead. His eyes are red. He’s been crying. You haven’t been. You’ll break down when there’s nothing left to fight for, not a moment sooner than that. Your daughter needs surgeries that haven’t been performed in a century. Your daughter has long brown eyelashes that flutter when you kiss her while she sleeps. Your husband tells you that her doom is written in the stars, and he says it like he thinks it’s true.

october

and i actually followed austra's backstory up with castor's, because apparently i spent some of this year being semi productive. castor's terrible little psyche revolves around the fact that his brother (everyone's favourite son) died when he was a teenager and he thinks it's his fault for not being a hardened soldier at 17. here he is trying to be a hardened soldier (it's not going well)

You’re not a natural. You’re not even a hard-won talent. Even when you’re not half sleepwalking, you’re slow, clumsy, unsure. Your sword arm grows sore after barely an hour. The straps of your armour chafe against the skin of your neck and leave it raw. You’ve tried your best, memorized a hundred manoeuvres in sparring sessions, but somehow you still freeze in the field. The first time an enemy makes a swipe for you, you run like a coward. By the fiftieth time, you’ve learned to stand your ground, but you don’t know if your allies feel the difference. At night, every comrade you couldn’t save has your brother’s face. He had scars when he—when you saw him the last time. A barely-there line through his eyebrow, another tiny one on his chin. Your father has the gouged-out pit in his left cheek, the mark that proves he is and isn’t invulnerable. Every time a blade flashes in your face, you wonder if you’ll end up with a matching one. It never happens, probably because you’re too quick to flinch back from the strikes that might get close enough. Your skin remains despicably pristine.

november

wow, a new wip? well maybe. this one is still in very early stages, but i got seized by brainworms consisting of "what if richard and bolingbroke from shakespeare's richard ii were lesbians (and not cousins) and fucking hated each other." also it's the 80s, i think. rielle is our larger than life femme richard who's never met an emotion she couldn't turn into a performance, and the narrator here is jack, butch bolingbroke, who has a lot of daddy issues and hates rielle so fucking much.

Don’t get me wrong. My dad was an asshole. He was a dyed-in-the-wool red-blooded homo-hating bigot and I didn’t shed a tear at his funeral. But he was the kind of asshole where if I called my hair a pixie cut and ditched the Doc Martens for mascara when I came around for dinner, he’d happily keep paying my tuition. He’d even hug me, sometimes. Mostly after Mom died. Both arms around my shoulders, like he meant it. So I had my reasons, basically, for not wanting to publicly tell him to go fuck himself.  And even if I hadn’t, she was the last person I owed an explanation. Easy for her to say she’d cut off her parents in a heartbeat when she didn’t have any, just an inheritance ten times the size I was ever getting and a bunch of framed tabloids with pictures of a Rolls-Royce twisted around a lamp post and a cherub of a girl who knew, even at ten years old, how to cry pretty.

december

this past month i've been juggling grad school apps and finals and prepping for my thesis, so i haven't written a ton, but i went back to fun shakespeare fanfiction collabs with @inkgel for a bit! here's me attempting to write julius caesar pov `for our caesar/antony character study that we did after playing those characters on zoom (and playing them as in love, of course)

He could do the same with Antony. Antony wouldn’t make him ask twice for it—wouldn’t make him ask at all, probably, because he is always so delightfully quick to capitulate, all it would really take is a finger ghosted over those plush and slightly reddened lips. But Caesar doesn’t like him to be carved out of marble. He likes it when Antony stumbles, the laugh bubbling up from his throat loose and lazy, the perfect planes of his cheekbones marred with a ruddy flush. When Antony clings onto him, half for balance, half because he’s surely looking for any excuse to. When he hangs on several moments longer than he needs to, his pupils blown, his hair mussed not-quite-artfully, and kisses him with the heady scent of wine still on his breath. Perhaps sometimes he would deign to think he loved it, but it’s been years since that word has been his to offer. These days, it’s only for lesser men to give.

if you got this far, thank you so much for reading! see you all in 2023!!

[corbindavenport]

How I made my new personal website

I just finished making my new personal site, powered by the Eleventy static site generator, a custom template, and GitHub Actions. It’s fast, easy for me to maintain, and doesn’t cost me anything to host. Here’s how I made it.

My previous personal site was a static HTML site hosted on GitHub Pages, which I initially made in 2018 to replace my Blogger-based site (that’s a throwback!). I made the layout and site theme myself instead of using a heavier web framework, and I moved the blog section to Tumblr with a new blog.corbin.io domain. I later tried switching to WordPress managed hosting, but that costs more money, and I wasn’t a fan of most modern WordPress themes and how resource-heavy they were. WordPress is great for larger sites, but it was overkill for my simple personal site.

My ideal setup here would be a site that is easy to edit, gives me full control over the template, and (ideally) doesn’t require paid hosting. My first idea was moving the content to Markdown files, and then using GitHub’s Jekyll integration to generate a static site. Creating a Jekyll theme turned out to be a bit clunkier than I wanted, though, so I started looking at other static site generators.

I eventually discovered Eleventy, which doesn’t have the extensive feature set of Jekyll or some other static site generators, but it looked perfect for my project. It can generate sites from Markdown (or other data formats) using simple HTML templates, and I could keep using free GitHub Pages hosting. It’s also possible to create reusable widget components with contents, which can be filled in by the main Eleventy generation script. The official getting started guide was helpful.

The most clear way for me to talk about my process is just go through each of the files in the GitHub repository, so that’s what I’ll do!

The main pages

I wrote all the pages for the site, like the About page, in Markdown format. It’s mostly the same syntax that as GitHub, but with an added table at the top to define the page title, permalink, and template layout. This is a huge upgrade over my previous site, where I was writing the <head> and other shared elements in each page and tried to keep them synchronized.

Eleventy converts Markdown format to the equivalent standard HTML code when the site is generated. For example, “# Hello” becomes “<h1>Hello</h1>”. That makes styling the site with CSS in the layout template easy, and it’s great for accessibility. You can also put custom HTML content in the Markdown file and it will render as expected.

It’s much easier for me to make quick edits to Markdown files than raw HTML. I can even do it from the GitHub app on my phone.

The special pages

GitHub Pages allows you to create a custom 404 page, which appears to still work with custom site generators as long as the resulting file is called “404.md” or “404.html” in the main directory. I made one and set the permalink to “404.html” and it works as expected.

My earlier site had a few redirecting pages, mostly for blog posts that used to be on my main domain but were later moved to my blog. Those had to be in specific locations to work with my earlier site, cluttering up the site structure, but Eleventy gave me a much cleaner solution. I created a “redirects” folder for all of them, set the permalinks to the proper locations, and added an HTML redirect element to the Markdown file.

For example, I originally had a blog post at corbin.io/wikipedia-search-11. When I moved that blog post to my Tumblr blog, I had to create a redirect HTML file at that specific location (root/wikipedia-search-11/index.html), which then cluttered up the root directory of my code repository. With Eleventy, I can place the redirects anywhere I want and call the files anything I want. I made a page in my “redirects” directory with the permalink “wikipedia-search-11/index.html” and it worked exactly as expected.

The Node packages

Eleventy uses Node.js, so there’s a package.json file in the root directory that tells Node what packages are needed. Right now, my only dependencies are RSS parser (more on that later) and Eleventy. Running the setup command “npm install” installs those packages.

The layout theme

The layout theme is stored at _includes/layout.njk, though the file can be called anything. It contains everything around the main content, including the general HTML page structure, any links to JavaScript or CSS files, and so on.

My custom template is a minimalist one-column layout and some basic CSS. I went back and forth on possible site designs, including some more 90s-inspired layouts, but I ended up staying close to the old design. Some of the changes include a new navigation bar that changes size based on screen size (no hamburger menu!) and removing Google Fonts.

I also wanted to see if I could make my site render properly on older web browsers, because that’s a fun challenge. However, the Let’s Encrypt SSL certificate that GitHub sets up for my site uses the ISRG Root X1 root certificate, which isn’t available on most platforms and browsers released before the mid-2010s. Legacy web browsers can’t load the site in the first place, so there’s not much of a point in doing that testing. I did add some compatibility tweaks for earlier WebKit and Firefox browsers, though, and the site should work in Internet Explorer 8 and above.

The <head> section contains code for an Open Graph card, so linking any page on platforms like Slack, Facebook, Discord, and iMessage will create a rich preview. The image is set to my current Gravatar image, so if I decide to change my profile picture, it is automatically applied to my personal site at the same time as everything else connected to my Gravatar.

I also added link tags in the <head> for several RSS feeds, including the feed for my personal blog (which is on a Tumblr custom domain) and the RSS for my Tech Tales podcast. If someone puts my website into an RSS reader like Feedly or Inoreader, or they have a browser extension that shows any available RSS feeds, those feeds appear as subscription options.

Finally, I added verification code for the Mastodon social network as a hidden link at the bottom of the <body> section. That allows my site to appear as a verified link on my Mastodon profile.

The Eleventy script

The .eleventy.js file is where the magic happens: it’s the Node script that generates the site with all the custom configuration options. I added “passthroughs” for the media folder, robots.txt file, favicon file, and other resources that need to be copied to the generated site for everything to work.

This is also where I defined shortcodes that I use in some pages, which are reusable components that Eleventy can drop in during the generation process. For example, I have download buttons for browser extensions on my software page, and I didn’t want to manually define the same image and link structure over a dozen times. I defined a “downloadBtn” shortcode with arguments for the platform and URL, which generates a download link button with that data. I also made a shortcode for the HTML redirect for my redirect pages, and other functions I’m using on other pages.

I also created a “letterboxd” shortcode for displaying my recent Letterboxd reviews on my about page. You can use any Node code in this script, so I’m using the rss-parser Node library to download the RSS feed from my Letterboxd profile and parse it in HTML format with links. My custom “flickr” shortcode does the same for my recent Flickr images.

The GitHub Action

The final piece is the GitHub Action for building and deploying the website. It runs after each new commit and automatically once a day (so data used in the Letterboxd and Flickr shortcodes is fresh). The script checks out the repository code, installs all the NPM dependencies, runs Eleventy to generate the site, and then uploads the package to GitHub Pages.

With this integration, I can make changes to my site from anywhere, and then a minute or two later the changes are live on the site. The code repository isn’t even cluttered with the generated HTML files, since I added the “_site/” output directory to the gitignore file.

The end

I’m pretty happy with my new personal site. It’s fast to load, easy for me to edit from anywhere, and completely free to host. Since all the core content is server-side generated, it even works in text-based browsers like Lynx.

If you want to set up something similar, feel free to fork my site’s repository on GitHub.

[tastygoldentaters]

rant time about today's meeting:

I mentioned this before in DMs, but my current team at work feels a lot like Team 7 from Naruto, leading me to channel my inner Kakashi to wrangle those genin. So let me start by introducing the

dramatis personae:

Kakashi-sensei: me, their superior/leader and responsible for both the department and the professional development of staff. Very tired.

Sasuke: our oldest teacher, older than me both in age and company time, but less experienced than me and less qualified both professionally and academically. Believes herself superior to the rest of the team and is reluctant to follow instructions because she assumes she knows better.

Sakura: book-smart but insecure, compares herself to the other two and constantly feels like she's falling behind. Probably has a darker side but doesn't let it show.

Naruto: outstanding potential, self-sabotaged by her need to prove herself and get acknowledged by everyone else. Very childish, but has good intentions.

the mission:

By the end of the first semester, we're supposed to present the children's report cards, with an assessment of their development in class and a small text about each kid in a way that doesn't sugarcoat anything but is also respectful and appropriate.

I had previously presented the template for the report card, explaining item by item, and asked them to fill out a sample report card for the student each of them struggled the most with. They could ask me for help and work together to accomplish this, and present it to me today. My original plan was to use each report card to show how to write about the students, giving them an outline they could follow so they wouldn't struggle as much writing about our 200+ students.

what happened:

Sasuke decided to do everything on her own, without asking for help, and doing more than what she was asked. The end result was good - she really is a competent teacher - but she forgot to look underneath the underneath: there were details she needed to work on to avoid parental wrath (things I saw from miles away due to experience with dealing with parents and doing school admin work, things she has no experience with). She picked an autistic student as her sample report card, and left out key information about his development because she believed it wasn't necessary to explain his development since "his parents know he's autistic and don't expect more than that from him". I gave her some pointers, and she sulked and tried to argue because she "knew better" and it "wasn't necessary".

Sakura struggled with the assignment and didn't ask for help, hiding behind the other two. I told her I'd help her one on one later, because I'm not letting her fall behind but I understand she doesn't want to show the others she's struggling, and she doesn't trust me enough yet to know I won't judge her for struggling (but I do judge her for not admitting she needs help).

Naruto did a good job in filling out the report card, but chose the worst possible wording for the text about the student. She didn't say anything that wasn't true, but she was sloppy in her word choice and that would definitely bring upon us the wrath of the rich private school parents we're dealing with. I showed her how to refine her work, and she was motivated to try again, but made a comment about not being "naturally good at this" as I was. I had to tell her about how much work and practice I put into these skills, and that it seemed easy for me because I knew what I was doing and wasn't just winging it, but that I would show her how to get there.

Overall it was a good meeting, but I know it's going to take a lot of work to get these three to where I need them to be. I had two cans of Monster and now I need some blorbo smut to clear my head so I can go back to genin wrangling tomorrow.

[anotherfantasycardgame]

Blog Update #06 - March 28 2024 - Game Evolution, Game Aesthetics and Progress as a Designer

Last time in my blog I briefly mentioned how it took years to develop the "system" for playing Mirror's Game as it is played now. "It can really only be a culmination of playtesting and finding solutions. I guess back then I was more willing to throw away hours of work, or more willing to try things and fill in the gaps until something was whole."

At the time of writing this blog post, It has been about a year and a half since I designed what has become the default template for cards in Mirror's Game. The game has had many iterations over the years, but it seems that because so much has been done in the newest template that moving away from it would bring difficulties. Lets look at the frames and discuss the evolution of the game.

Frame 1 - Created in 2018

This is a bare bones frame because there was no intention to produce this game in any serious capacity. There was no art or anything. Looking at it now, it is a really amateurish concept. It was made in MS Paint to no specifications for any printer. There are some things to point out that stuck for many iterations, as well as things that had to change. Let's discuss the positives of the frame before the negatives. From the beginning I knew I'd want a frame that had some details overlap the black border of the card in some way, and it is hard to see even in this image but I cut out some of the black to subtly let the area for the card name box appear to be a layer above other things. It is a simple design trick. I also like the placement of the ATK and HP. I think this is the way Hearthstone lays out its ATK and HP, as well. I used Red for ATK and Green for HP. I like this decision but I'll mention why I wouldn't do this nowadays in a moment.

The negatives are pretty obvious if you're a game designer, or at least I think they should be if you want to produce a quality game. First of all, all the important info is poorly placed. If a right handed player had their cards fanned out in hand, there would be no way to easily discern what cards were worth playing. They'd have to meticulously comb through the cards, adding some friction to game play. I didn't have a reason for doing things the way I did besides I thought it looked nice, but sometimes you have to make compromises in design for function. Another major issue with the design is that the ATK and HP use two colors that are not easily visible if someone is colorblind. This can cause some confusion, and creates a problem rather than a solution when trying to simplify the legibility of the game. It was a failure in design overall.

In this first design, cards would cost stars (mana) and meter (life) to play. Meter was also a stat, not just a cost. Cards did as much damage to the opponent as they cost in meter. This system was not sustainable at all, because life was tied to play costs and power. This had to be reworked heavily. I was trying to create a system where any card was playable from the beginning, but There were too many costs involved and the power of cards was so high that a lot of choices started to make less sense over time, and the outcome of games was determined very quickly by opening hands. There was also no types for creature cards, and no spell cards. Everything was a generic creature that's strength was simply coming from the cards text. This would become difficult to work with really quickly, and I think a desire to make a simple game was too strong. I should've started with just a little more complexity. The next design tried to address some of these issues. My idea was to introduce "colors" for cards, so certain cards could interact with certain colors. I also changed the stars from 4 to 5 stars per turn, which has stuck since then. I began with four because I liked the implication of "2 stars is half my turn, 3 stars is more than half my turn." However it was a little bit difficult to play more than one card a turn. This also meant there was really just a few combinations of play per turn. a 1 and 3, a 2 and a 2, four 1s, or one 4. Changing this to five added so much room for design, while still keeping the idea that "3 stars are more than half your turn." Now players could get more creative with cards played together in a turn. This design was short lived, and all the issues of formatting remained. It took a long time for those to go away. The next template was the same just prettier, and the fourth one was on track to be a good design for once. The fourth design, It shared issues with the past designs, but finally at least the name of the card was in a good position. I decided to emulate Yu-Gi-Oh! (Something that should never be done.) and layed the star costs out instead of forming any sort of cluster. I used a gray border even, like YGO does. I put the battle stats all along the bottom like YGO as well. At the time, I wanted the style of the game to evoke a nostalgic style. Around the time I had made this design is when MetaZoo came along, and I completely scrapped any ideas of going for a nostalgic style. In practice, I didn't really care for it at all. As for mechanical improvements of this frame, I finally ditched the "colors" for creature types. It would also be the first time the game included "spell cards." or cards that didn't fight on the field. I made them playable once per turn, like Supporters in Pokemon and they have remained that way to this day. I decided to give every creature card two types, a primary type and secondary type like YGO. I even amde it so a card couldn't be two primary types. I did avoid repetitive types for the most part, except for some I felt justified in giving a similar subtype. For example, Mirror's Game has an Undead primary type and a Zombie subtype because I don't think those would be mutually exclusive. Like should a Vampire inherently be a Zombie? It's debatable. But what if I wanted to design a Fire Zombie or something? Some of the creature types in YGO are confusing, like Beast-Warriors not being Warriors. I tried to avoid these sorts of designs. Finally, the bottom two designs are where I think I got my sh*t together. I was looking at Japanese card games, and I found a game called Precious Memories. I realized that game had a lot of the things I needed for my game in their frame, so I used it as inspiration. I even named a card in the base set after the game as a means of "paying respects" to the game with the frame that showed me the light!

The first thing was that I gave up on trying to find a cute way to organize the stars on a card. It was never that easy to understand, and could lead to misconceptions from YGO players (these misconceptions ended up happening anyway, but at least I tried to minimize it!) So now the cost of a card was simply a number with a star beside it. Stars would go on to indicate costs of cards throughout. This time, I placed the cost in a legible spot, and made sure the most important creature stat was also visible when cards were fanned out by a right handed player. I think it took me so long to realize this because I am left handed. The name of cards were also right aligned so some of it could be read in this situation. In the fifth iteration I intended there to be an "orb" in the corner of the card like YGO and Pokemon to indicate the creature type, but this was scrapped by the sixth design. I looked at Precious Memories once again, and I decided on the gradient style for the name plate similar to that game. There is a lot more flashiness to the Japanese game, but I thought this looked really nice. Because the gradient was from the center of the plate, I decided to center the name of cards. The names aren't always perfectly centered, though. This is because sometimes it looks better if the name "plays" with the rest of the art somewhat. It's hardly noticeable. Another big change for the sixth frame was using royalty free fonts. I was accidentally using fonts I didn't know I didn't have the rights for in the past, whoops.

I don't know where else to mention this so, I'll mention the little dragon guy that surrounds the cost of creature cards. I wanted to create a generic "monster" to represent all monsters. It was a fantasy game from the start, so I decided on a dragon. I like it when games have creatures in them that aren't really creatures, like the substitute doll in Pokemon. I considered designing a new symbol for each different creature type, but once I designed a symbol for spell cards I decided that this ornamentation would work better as a symbol representing card type than for the creature type. This can be seen as a carry over from when the game was influenced by YGO. YGO uses the orange frame for any effect monster, then green for spells and purple for traps. We use Blue for spells, and red for the special "bound" creatures. Bound creatures were introduced much later, after the segmented life total was decided upon. The frame for this came after the dragon, I decided that an angry dragon would invoke that these cards are no regular creature. I also created a "sub cost" symbol just for bounds, that picture a stock breaking instead of just the star so players could easily tell the card was not normal. This was also in the fifth iteration of the game, but in that iteration the additional cost symbol was just as big as the main cost and i wanted to keep it open for possibly using to describe other additional costs. It would be sort of like how old MTG cards that had effects in the graveyard had a tombstone symbol. MTG seems to be really good at making minor changes to the template of a card to indicate minor mechanical differences of the card. MTG stands as a great source of inspiration for aspiring card game designers.

[anjanahalo]

Tried to write a thing of Tumblr length.

~*~

Connor gave up on shutting his eyes after the second time Superman got into his face about “not paying attention” during the lecture the older Kryptonian felt compelled to give after Superboy’s “brash” actions during the latest Young Justice mission. There were no other adult Justice League members to intervene and cut off what was becoming less of a critique and more of a rant. Green Arrow himself was isolated in the cockpit of the cargo plane Young Justice and Superman Road in as they crossed the middle of United States airspace back to Mount Justice, and attempts by Robin and Aqualad to mitigate Superman’s tirade fell on deaf ears. To cope, Connor decided he’d try the meditation techniques Black Canary taught him to actually meditate, but Superman refused to let him shut his eyes to do so. Instead, he stared into the middle distance and let his focus relax, making the Man in Blue a more ignorable Blur in Blue. He couldn’t help it. He’d had another nightmare the day before that kept him from sleeping, one filled with the same screams he remembered hearing while growing in his CADMUS pod. It’d help if he could talk to someone about it, sure, but he wasn’t going to talk to the Justice League about it considering how they mostly ignored him for being a clone. He certainly wasn’t going to talk to his genetic donor about it. He didn’t need more reason to want to cave Superman’s face in if he said or acted toward his unknown fellow clone the same way he did to Connor. He’d confessed to Me’Ghann about knowledge of a second clone one night when she refused to leave his room until she learned what made him awaken screaming, but he swore her to secrecy. If anyone was going to find his clone, practically his twin brother, it was him, the only one who had any clues to use, a sparse as they were. A too slow heart, only quickening to near normal during duress, the soft and shallow breaths, the screams of pain- Superboy’s eyes snapped open as he realized the most recent scream wasn’t a haunting memory. It was REAL and RIGHT THERE. He stood up fast enough to break the safety harness, startling everyone in the room, including Superman. He raced to the back of the plane and, after a quick glance to ensure his teammates were secured, opened the rear hatch. “Superboy, WHAT do you think you’re doing?!” Superman yelled over the growing sound of the wind. “Hey! What’s going on back there?” Green Arrow’s voice sounded over the intercoms.

“I’m going. You aren’t stopping me.” “What would possess you to jump out of a plane in the middle of nowhere?” “You wouldn’t care” Superman huffed as he stood over his clone, blocking the way. “Considering I am your appointed team advisor and guardian today, I believe I would.” Connor glared. He didn’t have time to convince Superman. Every second meant even more distance between himself and his goal. He settled for shock factor to buy time. “You already admitted to not caring about your first clone,” He stated, blue eyes staring straight into matching blue. “There’s no reason you’d care for a second.” It was only a moment of shock, but it was enough for Superboy to duck around his template and dive out the back of the plane, already angling his body to increase his speed and brace for impact without a parachute. Behind him, after he landed and created a crater in a soybean field, he heard the whoosh of several parachutes and the huff of bodies landing a half mile away. He turned and leapt toward the sound, where the rest of Young Justice stood, disentangling themselves from their landing gear. “So,” Robin said, approaching. “When were you planning to tell us about your long lost brother?” “Now,” Superboy said. “As long as you’re here to help me finally find him.” “Dude, you should have told us the rescue mission was half done!” Kid Flash whined. “You know we’re with you, dumbass,” Artemis smirked.

MeG’hann smiled, nodding. “I’m ready to link us up. Just tell us what to do.” “This is your mission,” Aqualad confirmed. “Alright,” Superboy said. “Gimme a minute.” He closed his eyes, focused, and picked out another scream. His heart tore to know his fellow clone was in pain, but it was that pain that gave them a chance to find him. “This way.” “Called up Batman for a ride,” Robin said. “So, how are we tracking your….brother?” “By his screams.” He stared impassively at the team’s shocked faces. “I only know part of the story. I never met him. I just know they hurt him, and I couldn’t trust anyone but myself to find him.” Superboy sighed. “I suppose you guys can help, if you want.”

Like Conner, Danny was a clone of Superman. However unlike Conner, Danny was not designed to replace him. Instead he was created as a test dummy. Day in and day out, he was subjected to various injections, toxins and experiments. All for the purpose of one day using them on the real deal. Danny quickly lost track of the days and the pain as he slipped into mental oblivion. That is until one day, his brother comes busting through a wall.

[kuwdora]

Witcher Commenting Event & Community Engagement

I haven’t been able to stop thinking about this post that @jackironsides reblogged a few days ago about the lack of engagement with fanworks.

Comments are great. Commenting can be hard (more on that later) but receiving them is great, right? We want to support each other as a community and continue to squee about our blorbos and meow meows together.

(nostalgia time) I come from the old livejournal days where it was usual to see conversations happening in comments for days or weeks on end, even on short fics. People writing ship manifestos, fannish newsletters, community recommendations and commenting on those too. People reccing fic and meta. Things just were a little easier to find and engage with. Things didn't get so lost in tags or in a discord server you didn't know exists.

I have been thinking about the ways we could be social and connect to each other again and comment more. I love the Witcher Flashfic discord server because there are “Live readings” that groups of people perform on your fic while your story is under anon for the week. It’s incredibly fun to both be the author watching this anonymously while people READ YOUR STORY IN REAL TIME (or during a backread). And it is SO MUCH FUN fun to read a story together and comment WITH PEOPLE. Riffing off your squee and comments about the style, the plot, the characters in a fic. It’s like a book club! It’s so much fun.

A DREAM:

So I got to thinking. What if we tried something something similar to discover, read, and comment on fanworks TOGETHER? I have this dream:

A Comment Crawl, a la pub crawl. Except instead of pubs, we are visiting fics and art and vids and everything else and leaving comments on it together. (Fanwork Crawl doesn’t roll off the tongue the same way, okay…!). Target all kinds of fanworks: fic with no comments, few comments or are older than 6 months. Fanart that only has reblogs but no one ever told the artist what they like about the piece, not even in tags. Etc. etc.

We could put up a list of fanworks that are recced/nominated based on a theme and give people that window of time to read and compose a comment. Then we go and drop our comments on the AO3, tumblr post/etc during a designated window of time. Build off each other’s squee in the comments like I KNOW we do in discord. Let the creators see our avalanche of love and squee together.

Commenting can be hard and stressful when you don’t know what to say or think or what the creator is looking for.

Maybe you don’t know how to comment on a fanwork you’re unfamiliar with because you’re not an artist or a vidder or cosplayer or don’t know how to show an author how much you enjoyed the story.

This can be taught! There’s even work that @longlivefeedback has done in 2018 where they created a COMMENT BUILDER TEMPLATE that we can modify for Witcher related squee. For your personalized squee. Remove that inhibition and hurdle to comment and show love for the things that you spend all that time reading, reblogging and dropping links in discord.

We can learn from writers and artists how any scrap of feedback is going to mean the WORLD to them. And we can learn how to make more technical comments on things, too!

I have created a survey to gauge interest in A Comment Crawl for Witcher fandom. Please fill it out here if this sounds like something you would like to participate in or help organizing. I would really love help on this if it’s something people want to try!!

SURVEY HERE

I also have a ton of ideas about how create engagement through writing recs lists and creating fannish teams to go on treasure hunts to go together and look for fanart, fic, fandom-inspired jewelry, gifsets/etc based on a theme and then write a recs list to the public community. Link/tag the creators so they know how much their work is being loved on by other people!!

Is this reccing thing something that sounds like it might be fun for you to participate in?? @fancakeofficial is a pan-fannish reccing community that sort of inspired me in my thinking in how great it would be to have more recs in Witcher fandom in a more centralized way. They have a presence on tumblr, twitter and dreamwidth and people have been submitting themed recs for years and it's definitely a community I go to when I am looking to see what other people liked and to find something new. And sometimes my stuff gets recced a decade after I made it! It's fucking WILD and amazing feeling!! I would love to see something like this for Witcher fandom if possible..

Truly, recs are like... comments and kudos turbocharged because someone went out of their way to tell other people why your fanwork is great and get more eyes and squee on it!!

There is so much excellent rare pair fic out there in Witcher fandom. There’s amazing character-driven stories and hidden gems in the juggernaut pairings. There’s some fucking incredible femslash out there, omfgggg. So many of these stories get lost amidst the volume of fanworks and don't get comments or squee and it's can be so lonely. There is SO MUCH INCREDIBLE ART AND VIDS AND COSPLAY and gosh, so much amazing creativity out there.

*takes a deep breath*

So yeah, I would like to try to figure out a way to bring people together and comment together and squee together that can happen more outside of discord where the creators can see, squee and even participate with us!!

Anyway. This is very rambly and I am probably forgetting a million details because my brain has been on fire because of 10,000 other things. BUT I am putting it out there!! Hoping some folks would like to hear me out and try something like this.

Signal boosting is greatly appreciated!! If we build it, will you come??? Leave me your details in the survey! Let me know what you think!!

P.S. If you are a rare pair writer there is another round of @witcherrarepaircommentexchange will be open for nominations again in November so PLEASE be sure to check that out!

Tagging people that I know have many more followers than I do who might have followers who could be interested...

@fangirleaconmigo @jackironsides @limerental @ghostinthelibrarywrites @bomberqueen17 @brighteyedjill @sargassostories

[pokegalla]

Hello!

I’m unsure of which AUs you write for, but can I request either Cross or Template!Error with who has a crush on the reader,

but the reader has an extremely deep voice (Corpse husband type of deep) and dress very dark and seem intimidating but they are actually really friendly and funny once someone talks to them?

Thank you!

- 🐨

Hello!

Sorry for the uncertainty. Allow me to explain! You see I know a LOT of AUs and I decided to not make a list because I thought it might be a bit much. That’s why I wouldn’t mind getting requests of any AU even with the possibility of not knowing it.

I get to learn a new AU and you get a character you love! A win-win deal I might say. So don’t be afraid to request even rare AUs! Now for your request, I’ll be doing both! (Template is definitely a rare one so how could I NOT write about him?!)

Enjoy!

Cross:

* At first he was cautious of you. Everything about you was intimidating from your looks to your voice. He would observe you and keep a distance.

* Eventually he’ll begin to pick up on your friendliness though. Like that one time Epic wanted to invite him for a game night and coincidentally he invited you as well. He learned of Epic’s plans to get him to get more comfortable around you. It almost backfired when you approached him but he immediately calmed down when you pass him a bag: Filled with Tacos.

* He started to warm up to you. Especially when Epic and you were having a mini meme war. He never laughed as hard as he did that night. In fact it was then he realized he might actually like you MORE then just a pal.

* This boi can’t hide the pinning on you. Seriously he leaves gifts, blushes a lot around you, even dropped a few flirts your way. But he denies it. BOI WHY IS YOU LYING-?

* He gets teased so much that if you didn’t figure it out before, you learned it cause Epic was hyping him up and Cross proudly said it out loud….while you were passing by. Whoops.

Mini story time!!!

You decided to visit Epic cause you found some limited time special edition cookies that looked soooooo awesome you just HAD to share it with him. You smile and wonder if maybe Cross was there as well. Now sure you are usually in your own little world but you’re not dense. You knew Cross seemed to have a little crush on you. You would be lying if you said you weren’t interested. He was very adorable when he was blushing and all embarrassed when Epic teased him. Maybe today you’ll tell him how you feel.

“C’mon Bruh! Say it with more bruh power!!!” Epic shouted. You sweat dropped. What are they up to?

“I….I-I like them….,” Cross muttered.

“Nah bruh! Say it with your chest!” Epic shouted as you appeared by the doorway.

“I LOVE THEM!!! I LOVE (Y/N)!!! AND IM FINALLY GONNA TELL THEM HOW I FEEL,” Cross shouted. Your eyes widen and a slight blush went across your face.

“Love you too, Crossy,” You spoke up. Cross turned around in shock. “Now c’mon and share some cookies with me.”

“Cooooooookies,” Epic shouted. He ran after you as you walked into the kitchen. Cross was still in shock.

But he chuckled and ran after you two, “Wait for me!” You three enjoy some cookies and Cross finally gave you a kiss.

Template:

* You low key scared the poor cinnamon roll. But he kept his confident hero persona up and greeted you with no hint of fear. (Minus some flinching and stuttering on some occasion).

* You felt bad as you noticed it and tried to get him to be more comfortable around you. You try not to tower over him, you speak softly but loud enough to be heard, and you get him gifts (usually Ink-related stuff). He notices your careful yet friendly actions and feels all warm inside from your attentiveness.

* You’ll notice his change in behavior when he gets comfortable with you: more energetic, always making sure you’re ok, and usually sticks by you more often. He even jokes about being your hero and to count on him to be protecting you. (My god he’s too cute-)

* What’s annoying is that he is kinda oblivious to his own pinning. He goes on and on about you without realizing it. Even PALE fricking figured it out. When he DOES realize it, he becomes really flustered. Ever had a fanboy? Well now you do. He just becomes EXTRA energetic and EXTRA protective of you.

* Sometimes it might be a bit much. So when you confront him, he accidentally blurts out his feelings. He becomes extremely flustered upon realizing what he just said…..lol aw poor guy.

Mini story time!!!

“I’m JUST saying I don’t need to be watched over all the time Template! I can handle myself,” You explained to him.

“B-But if something happened to you, I could never forgive myself,” Template explained.

You sigh, “I appreciate your concern but it’s not necessary. Like why are you so worried about me?”

“Because I love you (Y/n)! You’re so special to me and-,” He suddenly paused realizing what he said. You watched as his whole skull was completely flushed, “I-I mean….that’s not what I….”

Oooooooh you understood the problem. You were pleasantly surprised but it made sense of why he seemed so clingy nowadays. You approached him and gave a small kiss on his teeth.

“It’s ok….I love you too. Just please take it easy from now on ok?” You said.

“D-D-Does that mean w-w-we’re a couple now?!” He asked. You nodded making him jump for joy. “I promise I’ll do my best for you! And….alright I’ll stop worrying too much.”

You smile, “Thank you.”

[sing-you-fools]

oh yay! my Character Sketch template alone is almost 1400 words, and that's not filled out, and it has a bunch of links at the bottom with more personality questions because i realized at some point that i'd lose my mind if i tried to include every potentially interesting question.

the next most complex template i have is for Species, and that's only 300 something words.

someday i'll have a website and maybe i'll get all these uploaded so people can use them, and maybe even a tutorial for how i like to use them.

one piece of advice is that the program Scrivener is freaking amazing if you're going to be filling out stuff like this. you build the template in one specific templates folder, and then when you create a new subdocument, you have the option for it to start from one of your templates. it had a character and setting template included and i decided very quickly that they were insufficient for the scale i was imagining and got to work on my own. but overall if you've got the $60 (one-time fee, they even gave people with the first version free download codes when they released a new one), it's so so worth it for long form writing. plus no weird AI spellcheck* fucking up your perfectly normal sentences

you mentioned your character sheet having the fields "what kind of story do they think they're in" and "what role do they think they're playing in it"

i think this is awesome!

what else is on your character sheet?

oh my gosh. i was in the middle of answering this when i went to check something and clicked a link without realizing it was a tumblr link. it's gone. and. well. i'm sure you were not expecting as MUCH answer as i was putting there, anyway, so maybe it's for the best.

my character and worldbuilding sheets have an unhinged level of detail, because i use them not as a "fill this whole thing out before you get started" tool but as an "organize the information you include and thoughts you have so you can reference them later" tool, because (1) audhd and (2) i'm hoping the book i'm working on is the first in a huge expansive world that i'll still be playing in when i'm 70.

the character sheet is broken down into Basics, Role in the Story, Appearance, Communication, Backstory, Family,* Relationships, Personality and Psychology, Just for Fun, and Other (which is just a spot for if i need it, it doesn’t have any questions or prompts). and each of those has a ton of questions (except Other, as established in the previous parenthetical aside).

it's hard to say what i have in there that's the most important, or my favorite, or whatever, because it all depends very much on the character's answer. for example, most of my characters don't think they're in a story at all, they would say "this is my real life what are you talking about i'm not playing a role i'm trying to get to tomorrow," which means the questions you mentioned aren't all that fun for them, but they become very fun for a couple i'm writing, because Nat thinks he's living his best gay musical romcom life and Zari is convinced down to his bones that he's a lead in a deeply tragic romance - in reality, they're more like Merry and Pippin, and if they'd stop for a brief reality check maybe they'd reconsider picking up the Palantir.

these questions fall under "Role in the Story," which also contains fun gems like: personal goal, interpersonal goal, and team goals, because i get annoyed at character sheets that act like people just have one goal. and the full list of D&D skills and sets, even though i've never played D&D, because they seem useful. it also has "how much do they know about what's happening?" and "are they having a good time?" as some more example questions.

i have a lot in the sheet that would probably seem repetitive, but having similar questions in different categories means i think about them differently. i have "health" under Basics, for example, and that means if someone's using a cane it'll probably get mentioned there. but i also have "medical devices and mobility aids" under Appearance, because it tells me one thing that House has a bad leg because of muscle death and uses a cane, and another thing that the cane has flames up it and a skull handle and he uses it wrong. (if i'm misremembering House's cane please don't come for me it's been over a decade since i saw an episode of that show he's just still the most recognizable character i could think of with a mobility aid which is kind of sad)

possibly my favorite part of my character builder is this:

a cartoon by Tom Gauld (@myjetpack). it's right in the middle of my "personality and psychology" section. it's important for me to define what my characters do and don't know about because otherwise i end up with them knowing everything, and that's so boring. this comic just perfectly broke it down for my brain, so i plopped it in.

and a lot of my favorite questions focus on the contradictions and tensions and perception gaps inherent in being a person. what do they hate about the people they love, or love about the people they hate? what do they bring to their relationships, and what do they think they bring? what do strangers/authority figures/children/etc think of them, and what do they think people think of them? what's their biggest flaw and what do they think is their biggest flaw?

i could honestly go on forever about these; in fact i think this is still shorter than my answer that got deleted. so i'm going to cut myself off, but i'm happy to share more about them, and someday i may even post them for anyone else who might want them. i want to use them a bit first, though, to see what can be fine-tuned. in addition to character sheets, i've got sheets for Setting, Species, Religion, Nation, Magic System, Subculture (any group smaller than religion/nation/species that might have its own culture), and Scene (less worldbuilding, more to keep the details and goal of a scene straight in my own head, but still). these are all significantly less detailed than the Character one, but significantly more detailed than any one site i could find included when i was searching. and all my sheets, questions and prompts are gathered and compiled from all over the internet; i would not be able to provide sources because i did not bother to record them.

[aitarose]

MORE THAN A WOMAN (J. KIRSTEIN) ⤷ pairing: jean kirstein x fem!reader

synopsis: in which you and jean put on your own private concert whilst making breakfast. (bringing this tiktok headcanon to life)

word count: 0.5k

genre: mornings with jean, established relationship, fluff, casual writing

notes: i keep seeing this tiktok headcanon of jean singing ‘more than a woman’ and i can’t stop thinking about it—so, this is me indulging in my needs :)

“c’mon, baby! dance with me!”

jean’s voice boomed through the steaming air that had been wafting in your small kitchen, trying his best to be heard over the music playing from your bluetooth speaker—it being on maximum volume for the ‘concert effect’ that he so insisted be enact whilst you tried your best to put together a filling breakfast. 

his face was slightly red, the blood rushing up his neck in the midst of his little dance—the color contrasting his white t-shirt, cotton fabric getting caught at his waist, just above the drawstrings of his grey sweatpants. he looked manic, absolutely out of his mind—yet, he still managed to appear as handsome as ever.

“what’s the hold up?” he pouted, shaking his shoulders in an approach—reaching out with open arms and hugging you from behind. his chest was warm, the heat of your shared comforter still encased within its seams—the two of you having just rolled out of bed. “breakfast can wait, beautiful.”

you sighed, leaning against his body as he swayed the two of you back and forth—his large hand reaching upwards and tipping your chin to his lips, soft hums escaping you in utter bliss. his mouth moved against your’s in gentle motions, jean pulling away before it could become anything but scarce. 

“this one’s my favorite!” a shout of glee deafened your left ear as your boyfriend parted from your embrace—choosing, instead, to spin your in loose circles beneath the height of his arm. “more than a woman!” he sang along, nodding his head to the tune with a surprisingly on-key singing voice. “more than a woman to me!”

laughter blasted from the depths of your throat, igniting a small coughing fit with how hoarse your morning voice naturally was. moments like this were common with jean, him always wanting to live life to the absolute fullest—whether that was in absurd life-threatening ways or just simple peppered kisses to your nose. 

with the heat of your bodies moving together, the wind seemed to move on command—all of the natural air from the outdoors pouring in from the open windows, blowing your sheer white curtains inwards and into the living room in billowing clouds of shimmering sunlight. 

it felt as if you were on cloud-9. everything you could ever need was right in front of you—your only necessity being jean—because if you were being honest, he really was the only person who could single handedly brighten your day with one action. today’s chosen action being a spontaneous dance party smack-dab in between your island and stove. 

“more than a woman!” he sang once again, biting his lip as he mouthed the words—spinning you tight to his chest, nestling his head in the crook of your neck. you could feel his lips curve into a smile against your skin—lazy kisses trailing up your collar to your cheeks, stopping right behind your ear.

jean sighed, still swaying the both of you to the upbeat tune—the sound of your giggles being music to his ears, more enlightening than the song itself. with a split-second thought, he turned you to face him, nearly causing you to loose balance in the process—and leaned inwards, pressing a lingering kiss to your long awaiting lips. 

“i love you.” he breathed out, grinning in response to you as you locked your wrists around his neck—a pink flush blossoming over his skin as you guided him back down, one kiss being too little. you could never have enough of him. 

“i love you too, weirdo.”

aitarose do not copy, claim, or mimic my writing, works, themes, copy and paste my words, or headers and tags as your own. do not use my blog as a template for your own, or base your theme on mine.

[msaholidayspirits]

MSA Holiday Spirits

A Gift Exchange for the Mystery Skulls Animated fandom!

Welcome to the 5th Annual Holiday Spirits! Gift givers will be randomly assigned to others, and gifts will be exchanged on Christmas day. Gifts can be big or small! The most important thing is to have fun!

How to join:

Submit a completed participant form as a Submission or Ask! The participant form is below the read-more on the post!

(if you choose to enter by sending an ask, Please send an IM to verify yours was received! if formatted incorrectly, asks do not show up, and there’s been past issues with that!)

Submissions will close after November 14th.

Assignments will be given throughout the 15th and 16th of November. If you haven’t received yours by the 20th, please send us a note! If this changes at all I will make a post!

Rules and Participant template below the cut!

Rules:

Gifts are due the 25th. Do not post them before then. If you wont be home that day, you can schedule it ahead of time so that it will post on that day!

On the 25th post your gift and don’t forget to @tag your giftee! Also put it in the event tag, #MSAholidayspirits2021 so that I can see and reblog the wonderful gifts you all make!

This is a family friendly event, so no gore or NSFW is permitted. Do not use the event tag for art depicting that.

Please don’t reveal yourself to your giftee until the 25th. We want this to be a surprise!

If you have to back out of the event, let us know ASAP so we can find a back-up! Also if your gift will be late, please let us know, as well as your giftee on the 25th!

If after the 25th you have not received your gift or heard from your gifter, send me a message. I will get in contact with them and if they can’t complete it, we will find a backup or make you something ourselves. No one is getting left out.

While I will be as understanding as possible, if you drop out and do not message this blog or your giftee and I cannot get in contact after the deadline even after several tries, your name will be marked down, and I will be wary of you joining holiday spirits again. Life happens, but if you cannot participate, it is only fair to let others know. Dropping out wordlessly not affects you, but the person you were meant to make a gift for!

Participant form:

This form is what you will copy/paste into the submission box and fill out!

Url: The tumblr blog you want to use for the exchange. This is the one that the gift will be tagged with. Please pick ONE blog. DO NOT sign up multiple times with different blogs.

Other blogs(optional): Other blogs you think might help your gift giver get to know you. (MSA side-blogs or rps blogs for example)

Wishlist: Things that you would like to see in your gift like fave Ships/OTPs, AUs or maybe fan content for something you’ve already made. Fics or fanart for example. If you have a link to content you’ve created please put that here. Simple prompts like “fluff” work too.

Dislikes: Things you absolutely do not want to see on your gift. Notps, squicks and triggers or even something as simple a color you really hate.

Gift Skills: What are your skills/talents that you will most likely use to make your gift? It can be any media! Writing, drawing, music, vocals, anything you want!

Other(optional): Anything else you think we should know

Backup: If some other participants back out, would you be willing to help make backup gifts so that no one gets left out?

Gifting Nopes: If you would be unable to create a gift for someone else dealing with a certain element, then here is where you would state that. This will likely be the same as your dislikes, but if there’s some aspects people might not think of, they can go here. It could be something as small as a discomfort writing a specific character, or not wanting to draw an animal character, even if you don’t dislike them.

If you have any questions, or if we’ve forgotten something, please send a message! We want this to go as smooth and enjoyably as possible.

Thanks for reading and have fun!

[crispyjenkins]

Can we get a fic where Jaster somehow gets sent to the future or something and him reacting to the clones? (Being pissed off that his ad would do something like this to these poor kids/ just reacting to them?)

(this one was so. fecking. hard. to write, i’ve been struggling with it for weeks, but i’m glad i did, because this is by far the best version i made of it. it’s interesting in how much my opinion of jango’s decision to be the template has changed since i first got this ask, and i was definitely coming at it with this post in mind for their characterisations here.

i love hondo. so you get hondo knowing jaster from pre-civil war days, and i don’t care if canon disagrees: hondo ohnaka has been terroising house mereel for three generations.

also i’ve already had a few people donate to my ko-fi and i’m completely floored by your kindness and generosity, and i sat down with this fill knowing i wanted to get it out as soon as possible. i sincerely love you all, i hope you’re all healthy and being as safe as possible.)

Alt+R to Quick Reblog on Desktop, Hold the Reblog Symbol to Quick Reblog on Mobile

  “Oh, Jango? We keep him here.” —Lama Su, AotC

-

  By some will of the Ka’ra, it’s Boba that finds him.

  The possibility of dying in his ad’s arms hadn’t exactly crossed Jaster’s mind until it happened, like a nightmare he had never even had. For the first time since the Fett farm burned, Jaster cursed the Ka’ra, and he curses them again when he wakes up not marching* to the stars, but standing knee-deep in the snows of Galidraan

  And the Ka’ra make sure he knows it’s Galidraan though he had never been there, just as he somehow knows Jango is long-since dead. That he is a dislocated bone in the universe, snapped out of time and place and thrown into a future where Jango’s face stares at him from a body that is not his.

  “Oh,” the teen with Jango’s nose says, the snow coming all the way up to their thighs, and they don't look dressed nearly warm enough for this biome. “Did Hondo send you?”

  Jaster blinks at them. “Did...? No, ad’ika, I have not spoken to Hondo in many years.” Maybe he shouldn’t be surprised Hondo is even still alive, Maker knows Jaster’s tried to kill him enough times himself, but if the number of years since his death on Korda Six is as many as he thinks it is, surely someone would have shot him by now.

  The teen doesn’t wear beskar’gam —it’s unlikely they’re even old enough to— but the style of the armor they do wear cannot be inspired by anything else, just reminiscent enough of evaar’gam that Jaster can’t help comparing every little detail about them with the faded image of Jango in his mind.

  “Then who the kriff are you?” They eye Jaster warily, left hand twitching towards the vibroblade at their hip.

  Promising to strangle every one of the Ka’ra when he can finally march away, and throwing the last of his caution down to the snow between them, Jaster simply says, “Jaster Mereel.”

  Impossibly, though maybe not entirely, not-Jango doesn’t laugh at him, or call him crazy, or even try to shoot him with the rifle slung over their shoulder. No, they straighten to their full height, and—

  And swear so colorfully in Huttese that Jaster knows this hell-child has absolutely been raised by Hondo Ohnaka.

-

  Boba takes him to the ruins of Kamino first, where the kriffing Sith Empire has destroyed another one of his people’s homes. 

  The growth labs were all blown into the ocean by imperial ilk soon after the formation of the empire, but the barracks and some of the training rooms still stand above the waves. In the ship he says belonged to Jango, Boba steers them to a dilapidated landing pad, controlling the Slave I (Maker, had Jaster really left Jango to that fate?) far too easily through the rubble for this to be his first time to return, and Jaster tries not to think about what that means.

  Walking the dark, grimy white halls, seeing the narrow bunks and bare req rooms, he then tries not to think about a child being raised in such a place, about hundreds of thousands of children being raised in such a place. How had Jango... chosen this for them?

  “I only have his stories,” Boba tells him quietly, when he shows Jaster the tiny apartment the Kaminoans had given them to “keep Jango close”. It’s bigger than most captain’s cabins, to be sure, but it is just as plain and white as the rest of the facility. “But he couldn’t even get one hundred Mandalorians to come and train the... clones.” He shuffles his feet uncomfortably as Jaster looks into the cupboard-sized kitchen and tries not to break down at the package of Mandalorian chiles rotted away on the counter. “Everyone else was New Mandalorian or Death Watch.”

  “And the rest... they fell at the Battle of Galidraan?”

“Buir always called it a massacre,” he looks away. “Only a handful of the Cuy’val Dar even considered themselves True Mandalorians, buir was there when the Jedi killed the rest.”

  Jaster inhales deeply, takes a few moments to steady himself, and is sickeningly, horrifyingly relieved. By the Maker, but knowing Jango had had no one left before his Kamino contract, that not even Skirata followed the codex anymore, that Jango had only taken the job after forcing Tyranus to give him an unaltered clone, makes Jaster guilty for having doubted his foundling. It doesn’t excuse anything, of course, but knowing Jango had done it all for aliit, well, it does make it easier to swallow.

  Boba leads him back out of the apartment, he had already stripped it of anything important years ago, and they don’t stick around after reboarding the Slave I. Only after they’re out of atmosphere with hyperspace coordinates for Tatooine in the astronav system does Boba join Jaster in the tiny galley with a bottle of tihaar that Jaster should probably reprimand him for, but won’t.

  “He tried to pretend he didn’t care, about the others,” Boba says and doesn’t even bother to find them glasses, “I think some days he even believed it.”

  “He always was stubborn as a rancor.”

  Boba takes a long pull from the bottle before passing it across the table. “Tyranus scared the shit out of me back then, he was too... put together, too fancy. Buir didn’t like him, I don’t know why he even did the tryout for him, the pay wasn’t even that great?”

  Rubbing his left eye until he sees stars, Jaster stares down into the bottle until he can come up with a way to explain core Mandalorian beliefs to a child that had barely a decade of living as one before that, too, had been taken from him. “If Jang’ika took that job intending to come out on the other side, I’ll kiss whatever Vizsla is left.”

  Boba’s mouth twists and he kicks his heels against the floor, not waiting for Jaster to hand it to him to grab the tihaar back. “Buir was an idiot,” he says, like the solve to a simple math problem, and Jaster can’t but agree.

  He sighs. “Unfortunately, he probably got that from somewhere.”

  “I mean, at least Montross didn’t live long enough to end up as the template? Kriffing fuck, can you imagine if the Jedi had had to work with that shabuir’s clones?”

  “Maybe the war would have ended sooner,” he muses and accepts the bottle, “surely this Emperor would have tired of his face much sooner than Jango’s.”

  “Or the Coruscant Guard would have shivved Palpatine in his sleep and tried to take over the Republic; what’s one betrayal of your leader to another?”

  “Then I’d like to think Jango would put him, them, in their place for a third time.”

  Snorting, Boba pushes to his feet to, presumably, check on the autopilot. “If buir would have even let it get that far, then I’ll kiss Vizsla.”

-

  “Old friend!” Hondo shouts as soon as he sees them, and Jaster winces, nursing his first hangover since his twenties.

  “Ohnaka,” he returns, and pretends he doesn’t notice the subtle way Boba brightens as Hondo comes to clap them both on the shoulders.

  The old pirate just chuckles and starts to steer them both back across the hangar bay to his latest junk ship. “I heard you died, Mand’alor,” he says casually, like the title isn’t cursed to the ka’ra and back, like it hadn’t been three decades since anyone had dared call someone from his house such a thing so sincerely.

  “I did.”

  “I found him on Galidraan,” Boba offers. “Is that why you told me to go?”

  Hondo scoffs, and Jaster would say he was flustered if he didn’t know him better. “No, I told you to go because Aurra had a job for you, that you seem to have forgotten about in your haste to bring my long lost best friend back to me.”

  Boba scowls. “Aurra wasn’t at the meeting place, laandur, it was a kriffing mynock chase and you know it.”

  Jaster side eyes his old “friend”, and wonders again about his preternatural... luck in all things pirate-related, despite being a boisterous mess of a man most of the time. If this Aurra had even been on the planet when Boba got there, Jaster will kiss Vizsla twice. 

-

Mando’a: Ka'ra — an ancient Mandalorian story, ruling council of fallen kings, “stars” ad — “child”, gender neutral 'ika — diminutive suffix, similar to the suffix “ita/o” in Spanish. generally used only by close family and friends beskar'gam — Armour made of beskar, “Mandalorian Iron” that was actually probably a steel alloy evaar'gam — lit. “youth armour”, fan name for the interim armour/garb Mandalorians would have worn before building their kit of beskar’gam buir — “parent”, gender neutral  Cuy'val Dar — “Those who no longer exist”, group of 75 Mando’ade and 25 others put together by Jango to train the clones aliit — “clan”, “family” tihaar — Mandalorian strong clear spirit made from fruit shabuir —  an extreme insult, mostly accepted in fandom to be an insult of an individual’s ability to parent (from buir), which is an intrinsic part of Mandalorian psyche and identity  laandur — used here as “weak”, “pathetic”, but is usually used as “delicate”, “fragile”

*in reference to the Mando’a word for the dead/deceased “taab'echaaj'la”, or “marched far away”, best explained in the Mando’a tribute to dead comrades, “not gone, merely marching far away”. 

[cabbxges-and-kings]

Directions: Fill out the below sheet for your muse, then tag anyone you think may wish to play. Repost, don’t reblog!

* 𝐀𝐁𝐑𝐀𝐇𝐀𝐌 𝐖𝐎𝐎𝐃𝐇𝐔𝐋𝐋

TAGGED BY: stole it from this other blog so I can talk about this gremlin

TAGGING: steal it from me

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ABE: So I don’t hate any of the characters I write. If I actually hated them, I couldn’t write them. Abe is probably one of my more disagreed muses (in terms of the mun’s feelings) and I’m purely interested in him because of all the potential he had and the fact I’m trying to figure someone so opposite of me and anyone I write. So that’s why I put 1/2 mark on the dislike box because it’s only half true.

I think if we saw a more historically accurate Abe to how he really was like, it would’ve been more interesting and made Abe a more likeable character. The Abe we see in t.urn seems almost the complete opposite of the rather paranoid, faithful, vengeful, and family-oriented man we see through his letters. I like the whole complex relationship with Richard at time and thinking deeply about why Abe does the things he does (his whole strained past, not having the life he wished he could have had, the more improved but still strained marriage with Mary towards the end of the show). I like these factors but I think the writers were way more sympathetic and favorable of Abe than the fans were and they kept trying to get the fans to see that. (And the weird comedic twist to Abe. The warm egg part is iconic but the whole “I have to go take a shit” is kinda weird to me lmao). They tried to make Abe more likeable there but it didn’t work for me. I really wish turn writers honed in more on the “intelligent” side of Abe that we see as he acts as a lawyer and pinning Rogers as Samuel Culper. I don’t mind Abe as the main character and obviously a lot of screen time is good for my writing of him, but idk I felt like the writers really wanted the audience to like him and a majority of us didn’t like him as much as the other characters. I kinda wish that they were okay with a dislikeable protagonist. I wish they did more with how Thomas, his brother, death affected him and how he got PTSD from his time as a spy and his time in the Sugar House (especially with his time in the British Army, with all of those beds and crowded spaces). That would’ve given Abe more complexity that the writers attempted to do with him (that really fell flat imo). Regardless, I am still into Abe and into exploring him as a character, through ships, dynamics, plots, etc, etc. Like most of my muses, I find songs that suit them and it helps me get into the mood to write them. (I put overrated in terms of the writers’ positive opinion of him, not the fandom’s opinion because he’s a heavily disliked character fandom-wise).