#i've considered kaisa but i.

[deathdxnces]

my toxic trait is constantly wanting to pick up new muses

[phopollo]

Hi! I've been looking through your witch art (absolutely love it btw), I was wondering if you had any more character deets about Barb?

Ahhh, hi!!!

I'm so glad you're interested! I'm actually working on a vague introduction post for all of the characters from Hilda: Witches that I've created so far!

But yes, I can tell you a little bit about her!

Barb works at the Trollberg pet shop, but doesn't have a familiar

She's very active in the witch community, and being a part of it is very important to her!

Magic to her is like an extension of her being-- it's almost like a third arm to her. She uses it very regularly so she can accomplish more

Big time overachiever

She has a very strong set of like,,, rules and morals she lives by outside of the witches' code/rules

Shes a super chill person until it comes to Kaisa, who she considers both her rival and nemesis

Her rivalry with Kaisa is long lasting and well known about in the Witch community-- everyone knows about it (--except Kaisa--)

Mmmmbut I think that's about all I can say that's general about her before I start getting into things that aren't set in stone yet or get into character developement and plot things I want to share through actual storytelling!

Oh, and here's a little doodle of her I never shared when I was deciding what she did for a job, because I previously didn't have a reason to share it!

[kae-karo]

2023 fic roundup

phew!!! i wrote for four different fandoms this year, which is utterly wild to me given that most years i am writing for one or maybe two...but no, this year we went wild - bnha, genshin, trigun, and blue lock

so without further ado, my faves from each month:

jan 2023: i've made mistakes (but you were not one) - chaeya, i really hit my chaeya stride by this point and frankly i ADORED writing this fic, which was my first t4t chaeya fic !!!!

feb 2023: everything i ask for (and so much more) - chiluc, based on a scenario that my mom said she 'always wanted to see happen at a wedding' which rly made me laugh and thus i had to write it !!!

mar 2023: don't rush - kaeluc (and dilucest?), i just really enjoyed stretching my skills on this one in the vibes and also just. the mechanics of everything?

apr 2023: oh gods, there's two of them - cynonaribedo, which was just SO much fun after that event to consider how they'd interact and what shenanigans they'd get up to. also the smut was a fun challenge lmao

may 2023: don't be too good to me - vashwood, my first canon-universe fic for these silly guys that let me really explore the angst and also some of the lightheartedness

jun 2023: in your dreams - kaisagi !!!!! my first bllk fic!!! these two idiots make me feral !!!! they're so angsty and silly and i love them so much, i had a blast trying my hand at them!!

jul 2023: dark blue - kaisae, my last-minute final fic for kaisae july and the one that i reread and think about regularly lmao. one of my rare 2nd person pov fics, i had so much fun with teasing out all the imagery and emotions

aug 2023: but i'm losing blood and you're warm - bachisagi, currently my only bcis fic but my god was it SO fun to write, i loved getting to play in the horror genre a little and mixing that with romance and just UGH definitely up there as a fave

sept 2023: consumption - kaisagi, like what can i say except (pun intended) this premise consumed me so bad that i wrote it out of order bc i was so hooked on one particular scene. this whole story rly had me in a chokehold in the best way

oct 2023: pink light - ryusae, this is rly my favorite ryusae fic i've written to date. something about the premise and the gentleness and the second chances of it all just really got to me, i loved writing this so much

nov 2023: KNOCK.ME.OUT - ryurin, oh my god this fic....i reread this fic like every couple days for WEEKS after i finished writing it. more than i've reread any other fic, and purely out of a desire to just. live inside the story again. i loved it so much. up there with pink light as a fave for sure

dec 2023: tie me down (fuck me up) - saesagi, which like i feel like i went on a whole Journey abt saesagi within my brain and this is what came out. i rly enjoyed trying my hand at a new dynamic and taking sae out of his place of control for once !!!!

other stats + honorable mentions below the cut!

452,082 words posted this year across 58 fics, 24 ships, and, as mentioned, four fandoms. ended up around 8.7k kudos + 81k hits

some honorable mention fics:

good directions - vashwood, and a fic concept i've been dying to write for ages, which just happened to work incredibly well with vashwood

kinda complicated - plantwood, which was really just an excuse to write so much porn for them lmao but i had a great time both with that and the complex dynamics between the three of them

a tentative ellipsis - kaisae, cause i can't say EVERY kaisae july fic, but this one also was such fun to think about and write, just like. the premise and the execution were so [shakes them in a pickle jar]

we both got stories (but they're not the same) - kaisae, this premise rly cracked me up i had SUCH fun writing it and getting a little silly with it lskdjfklsdjf especially with kaiser and all his denial

make me love like i want to - kaisae/ryusae, which honestly all manifested out of like. the one scene in the fic where sae writes not dead on his arm. and that ballooned into an entire almost 30k story about soulmates that ended up being unexpectedly cathartic

sometimes i wish she was you - tabieita, idk this one really got me??? i had a blast writing karasu's point of view and his manipulative little shit attitude lmao

[archivyrep]

Special collections are archives-lite

Cleo, Akila, and Brian see the few items in the library's special collections room which are presented by Khensu in an episode of Cleopatra in Space

There are are specific parts of libraries which don't fit the usual distinctions between archives and libraries. One of those parts are special collections, which generally keep personal papers and rare books, including thesis written by alumni. Access to materials in said library sections is similar to than in archives, but can be managed by archivists or librarians. As such, special collections, just like historical societies and rare books, can be considered archives-lite. [1]

Reprinted from my Wading Through the Cultural Stacks WordPress blog. Originally published on June 15, 2022.

There are a few examples of this in series I've watched and have explained on this blog. One of the first examples is the special collections room of the PYRAMID library in an episode of Cleopatra in Space, holding holograms, documents, and other research materials, making it a repository of sorts. It is more than a mini-archives, but can be seen as operating "in a library-archives space of sorts" as I wrote at the time. More directly than this is the special collections room of the Trolberg library in Hilda. I described the importance of the room to the episode as a whole, writing:

She [Samantha Cross] begins by noting how Hilda and Twig, her deerfox, Twig, find a secret special collections room in the Trolberg library, a room which is only seen one time in the series. While she notes that as a result the room is only seen in this episode it "doesn't make a huge impact on the story as a whole...Hilda photocopies a page of the book that she was reading when the Librarian confronted her in the special collections room, intending to help her friend, David, and her mom...After Hilda enters the secret/hidden special collections room, it is literally underground...Assuming she does not put the book back in the special collections room, this means that the librarian will have to re-shelve this, hinting at the work she will do off-screen...Is this librarian a lone arranger of the special collections room? Or does she have volunteers, unpaid interns, or other staff helping her? It is my hope that this librarian has paid staff helping her...Frida expresses her surprise that the special collections room existed, making it clear it really is hidden...Sadly, the librarian doesn't have a role in any other episodes and neither does this special collections room...

I expanded on this in a post in January of last year, where the protagonists go back into the special collections room. They use it to begin a trek through various secret rooms until they come across the librarian, Kaisa, who ends up being a witch. In the case of Hilda and Cleopatra in Space, there is no doubt there was some level of appraisal even though it not shown directly in either series.

As such, it is clear, that libraries can have archives of sorts within them, and in some cases (like with the Maryland State Archives) libraries can exist within archives. This can help patrons, and even those working in the library, providing with secondary sources to give context to the primary sources within the archives themselves.

© 2022 Burkely Hermann. All rights reserved.

Notes

[1] Samantha Cross noted this on her blog in explaining the  Springfield Historical Society in an episode of The Simpsons. Cross also writes about the importance of family records in an episode of Star Vs. The Forces of Evil, or the archives which revealed the truth in an episode of Justice League Legends, and the Hall of Records used by Lisa and Bart in an episode of The Simpsons.

[historyhermann]

Beauty, dress codes, and fashion: Examining twenty fictional White female librarians [Part 4]

Continued from part 3

Three screenshots of the unnamed librarian in the Totally Spies! episode. The last one is after she starts to become buff.

There are some exceptions, however. For instance, the librarian in Totally Spies episode ("Totally Switched"), who becomes "way buff," as I wrote about back in March when I rewatched the episode. She wears a blazer, a collared shirt, has on glasses, and has her hair in a bun. This similar to how The images of librarians in cinema 1917-1999 displays librarians, or smocks worn by New Zealand librarians into the 1980s, while some librarians adopted corporate uniforms or t-shirts. [20] This unnamed librarian, likely voiced by Janice Kawaye, has an even more professional outfit. She doesn't wear anything that invokes the problematic and is not a degrading sexy librarian stereotype. In her own way, she is classy and chic, or even cool. If she was an actual librarian, she would be among those which author and photographer Kyle Cassidy profiled in his 2014 photo-essay "This is What A Librarian Looks Like" for Slate magazine. [21]

Reprinted from my Pop Culture Library Review WordPress, where this post was published on Nov. 29, 2022.

Of the librarians I've named in this article, arguably the unnamed librarians in Rugrats, Uncle Grandpa, DC Super Hero Girls, and Kick Buttoswki all could be considered spinster librarians of some type, using the definition Snoek-Brown outlines. The same could be said for Violet Stanhhope, Mrs. Higgins, Rita Book, Miss Dickens, Ms. Hatchet, Mrs. Shusher, and Ms. L. Contrasting this would be Kaisa, Gabrielle, Marion the Librarian, Amity, Mo, Myra, Sabine, Desiree, Sara, Sarah, and even the unnamed librarians in Martin Mystery, Steven Universe, and Totally Spies!, who are all information providers. Most extreme is Francis Clara Censordoll, who is not anti-social, a failure, naughty, comic relief, or liberated. She is the librarian-censor. Some might say she is the anti-librarian since she stands against everything that librarians seem to stand for. However, as Matthew Noe, the ALA GNCRT President, pointed out in March, it is going to be hard "to put a stop to this massive censorship lobby harassing libraries and schools when we can't even convince all library workers to stop doing censorship."

On a stylistic note, some of these librarians have an aristocratic style, along with avant-garde and celtic styles. I haven't seen any librarians with art deco, art nouveau, beach bum, beatnik, biker, black loli, babushka bois, bohemian, equestrian, flapper, heavy metal, hippie, hipster, punk, retro / vintage, surf, to name a few styles. Characters like Malkuth in the Library Of Ruina, a simulation game that followed the 2008 game Lobotomy Corporation would fall into the aristocratic and possibly avant-garde styles. I also haven't seen any military librarians. The closest I've come to that are the characters in Library War. Such librarians would likely be bound, if they were in the U.S., by very specific grooming and personal appearance standards. [22]

Those librarians who work in public spaces, especially, would likely be pushed to accept the idea that you need to "dress for success" either with business casual or casual attire which is "smart." This would be reinforced by the common perception in Western society that conflates appearance and health, affecting women, and leading to potential harm. This is made worse by the fact that unattractiveness leads to negative judgment from people. Such negativity can cause isolation, dieting, and emotional distress. Appearance, for humans, is "one of the most direct sources of information about other people." In workplaces, there are additional stresses, like so-called "common standards of professional appearance," which look down upon those with visible piercing and tattoos. This is obviously interlinked with the "societally sanctioned standards of appearance." [23]

There are many librarian styles. Whether they are depicted in pop culture matters since real-life librarians exist and embody those styles. Furthermore, whether librarian styles in real-life translate over to pop culture, in animation, anime, comics, or elsewhere, is anyone's guess.

© 2022 Burkely Hermann. All rights reserved.

Notes

[20] "Library fashion slideshow," New Zealand History, Ministry for Culture and Heritage, accessed Mar. 22, 2022; The Sassy Librarian has a tag on their website with stylish librarian outfits; Roberta, "Rounding Up," The Chic Librarian, Oct. 18, 2013. Wikihow has a whole article entitled "How to Wear the Sexy Librarian Look" in which they describe it as "playing on the idea of a quiet library with a quiet librarian" with clothes like: "partially unbuttoned shirts, dark stockings, sexy heels, and red lipstick." A perfect example of this is a cutaway gag of a librarian in a Family Guy episode where the librarian tries to act sexy but the man looks away.

[21] Kyle Cassidy, "About," This is What a Librarian Looks Like, accessed Mar. 22, 2022; Jordan G. Teicher, "This Is What a Librarian Looks Like," Slate, Feb. 11, 2014. There is also a Tumblr which ran from 2010 to 2020 which smashed stereotypes about what librarians wear, called "Librarian Wardrobe."

[22] "Personal Appearance: Beards and mustaches in the US Navy," Naval History and Heritage Command, May 7, 1963; Devon Suits, "Army announces new grooming, appearance standards," Army News Service, Jan. 28, 2021.

[23] "Dress for Success," Harvard University Facility of Arts and Sciences, Office of Career Services, accessed Mar. 22, 2022; Helen Monks, Leesa Costello, Julie Dare, and Elizabeth Reid Boyd (2021), "'We’re Continually Comparing Ourselves to Something': Navigating Body Image, Media, and Social Media Ideals at the Nexus of Appearance, Health, and Wellness" [Abstract], Sex Roles, 84, 221-237; Atefeh Yazdanparast Ardestani, "The Quest for Perfect Appearance: an Examination of the Role of Objective Self-awareness Theory and Emotions" [Summary], Aug. 2012, UNT Digital Library; D.J. Williams., Jeremy Thomas, and Candace Christensen, "'You Need to Cover Your Tattoos!': Reconsidering Standards of Professional Appearance in Social Work" [Abstract], Social Work, Volume 59, Issue 4, October 2014, Pages 373–375; Leslie J. Heinberg, J. Kevin Thompson, and Susan Stormer, "Development and validation of the sociocultural attitudes towards appearance questionnaire" [Abstract], International Journal of Eating Disorders, Jan. 1995; Oleg O. Bilukha and Virginia Utermohlen, "Internalization of Western standards of appearance, body dissatisfaction and dieting in urban educated Ukrainian females" [Abstract], European Eating Disorders Review, Dec. 21, 2001.

[wilderlingdev]

devlog #04 - setting expectations about interactive fiction (or at least *my* interactive fiction)

hello, everyone! welcome to the fourth devoh for briarheart! last devlog i mentioned i wanted to have the first chapter figured out before february 10th and i'm glad to say i did it! i know everything that must happen in the first chapter - now i just need to, you know, write it.

but being sick threw me for a loop. i still don't feel 100%. i'm pretty sure it wasn't/isn't COVID, but boy is it kicking my ass. that plus losing my job on monday put me on a Mood. i already knew my job wouldn't last long (let's just say the company was a bit of a mess; my whole squad got fired, which was more or less what everyone was expecting) but it still sucks. i'm currently interviewing for new jobs and things are going well, so hopefully my jobless state won't last long (or at all. tomorrow is my last day at old job, tomorrow i've got a second interview for another company, maybe they will hire me *fingers crossed*).

setting expectations about interactive fiction

lastly, i've been seeing some discussion around certain topics in the IF community that have me thinking about briarheart and the story i want to tell with this project. i feel like disclosing a bit about myself is necessary here: i'm a nonbinary person who is in the ace and aro spectrums. i've been writing since i can remember (as in, when i was 10 i spent my time writing terrible tolkien copycat stories) and over the years the lack of representation for aro/ace, nonbinary and latinx (especially brazilian) people bothered me a lot. so my writing eventually shifted to reflect this desire to see more people like me in the stories i loved. this always meant regular novels, not IF games, and those novels (thankfully) never saw the light of day (they were, hm, bad), but their themes also reflected this: they were more about platonic love than romantic love, even (maybe especially) when they included strong romantic subplots. that's just how i work now! after a lifetime suffering through romantic subplots i couldn't see myself in (and i do love some romance, don't get me wrong) i was all about writing the romance that suited me better, the platonic relationships that i found truly fulfilling.

this didn't change when i decided to try my hand at interactive fiction. i mentioned this a few times here on the blog, but briarheart focuses a lot on platonic love and how complex it can be. it's no coincidence that most main characters are on the mc's family - their mother, stepfather, father, siblings. it's also the reason i never used "RO" in the game's intro post to refer to nima, ves and kaisa. they are romantic options, of course, but that's not all they are. they are queerplatonic partner options. they are friendship options. you probably can go all the way to having them be your rival options for all i know. romance was never the focus for their relationship with the mc.

however, i'm not ignorant of the conventions of interactive fiction. i know most people expect even adventure, fantasy and mystery games to focus on romance. that's not necessarily a bad thing, but it does restrict the types of story most people are willing to write. we writers are very much starved for interaction with our readers. i don't think i'm ruffling any feathers when i say that. it's normal. we want to share our things with the world. if we didn't care about people reading/playing it, we wouldn't go out of our way to do our absolute best about sharing it. so if you deviate too much from what is considered expected, you might end up hitting jackpot (turns out a lot of people wanted it, and no one was providing it!) or just fade into obscurity. so it's safer to write more within said conventions.

when i first came up with briarheart, i toyed with a main cast member that would be available only as a qpr or as a friend. i ended up scraping them (they never went past "maybe this bunch of tropes could be a character???") in favor of having three main cast members available as romantic parters, qprs and as friends. safer, less risky. but i think about that almost-character a lot.

convetions/tropes are not bad.

i feel like it's important to say that too. i follow a lot of romance authors and every once in a while someone will turn up talking about, gasp, what if the main pairing didn't up together in a romance book?! and most romance readers and writers roll their eyes. that wouldn't be a romance book, they say, and they are right. you can do a lot of stuff with romance books, go through a bunch of different genres, tones and writing styles, but the happily ever after/happy for now is universal. that's a convention of the genre. and it's a good one.

but conventions can be bad and even harmful. see "there must always be romance" or "romance options must be sexually available to mc at some point, even if it's implied/off-page". people can be real assholes about ace ROs. i don't believe it's bad to not want to romance an ace RO, to be clear, but it really depends on the reasons. an ace RO does not mean a RO that doesn't want to have sex, for example. being ace says absolutely nothing about your sexual life. so going "NOPE" as soon as a RO is revealed to be ace is... interesting, to say the least.

"nope" is a fair response to "john doe is an ace character and is repulsed by sex/does not want to engage in it"- maybe your player character finds sex to be really important in a relationship, maybe it's even part of their arc, etc, etc, etc. everyone has their needs and john doe's need to not be in a relationship that doesn't include sex isn't more important than your mc's need to be in a relationship that includes sex. in real life, assuming no one is a jerk, that would be the moment mc and john doe agree to go their separate ways. maybe they would even remain friends! who knows. but we all know it doesn't work like that in IFs.

(i also think there's something to be said about stepping outside your comfort zone in a - fake! made up! - relationship about - fake! made up!!! - characters. maybe in real life you wouldn't be happy in a relationship with a sex-repulsed character - not even necessarily an ace character! - but this is fiction. it's okay to try out something new).

(saying that, i also believe people should be a bit less entitled. the author of an ace char - who is many, many times ace themselves - doesn't need to hear about how disappointed you are that a character is ace and/or sex-repulsed. be kind, y'all. you don't know many times an ace author got told they'd perfect/worth it if they just had sex/wasn't ace and that shit hurts. we don't need to hear it when we taking the frankly terrifying step of writing about our own identities. you can just realize something is not for you and move on, i promise).

(no, trying to convince an author to make a character not ace and/or not sex-repulsed is not a fair criticism or suggestion. move on, my dudes).

"the romance will be healthy and their ROs will match your player character perfectly" is an implicit rule for interactive fiction, and is mostly a good one, i think. i'm not sure how i would feel if a RO i was particularly invested in turned out to be an asshole without warning. authors are careful to establish which ROs you can romance as soon as humanely possible: maybe they make their gender selectable to fit your mc's sexuality, maybe they say in the intro post/beginning of the game "jane is a lesbian", so you won't try to romance her with a male mc, etc, etc, etc. it's a bit like a contract: the author makes it clear which ROs can be romanced by whom from the get go, so once you are romancing them there is no surprise; they are always a perfect match. that's a way to set expectations.

but what happens in situations like, well, most of the tumblr interactive fiction community? most games are being written as their chapters are released. things can change. the author can change. their ideas, opinions and tastes can change. there is a chance said expectations might end up broken, that the players will be annoyed by it and that general unpleasantness will ensue. but changing things about a WIP is completely and utterly normal. in fact, i'd say it's a healthy thing, an expected thing.

setting expectations for my work

i can't speak for anyone but myself, so this is an expectation i will try to set up for my wips from now on, including briarheart: THINGS WILL CHANGE. maybe a character's personality will change; maybe their sexuality and/or gender will change; maybe their role in the story will change. this is a work in progress, it's my first interactive fiction game and i'm doing what i think is best. most of the time i'm just flailing around hoping stuff will work out. i'm working my ass off to deliver a good story and a good game, don't get me wrong, but this is a WIP and will continue to be a WIP until it is finished (duh).

and also, something important that sometimes people forget: it's a free game. most games here are free or have super long demos that are free. most of the time you are consuming media for free, with authors posting their ko-fi or patreons on the side, but making the whole ass game free. it's important to remember that, too.

now, i don't think people should be assholes to authors of paid games (lol. no. really. don't) but it takes some serious entitlement to be mad about a RO not being exactly how you thought (or even were promised - most games here are wips, remember!) they would be in a free game.

so yeah! things about briarheart will change, probably. a big one is ves, who i've been thinking about more and more as the story develops in my brain. i've decided he's not a cis man at all!! in fact, my first thought was to have him realize that during the story and have it be part of his arc. but well. remember those conventions? so that's another expectation i feel i need to set right now: ves is not cis. he's nonbinary. he just doesn't fully realize it yet.

i think that's all i have to say for now. i haven't even touched on the expectation that authors should tell their nonbinary character's assigned gender, which is, uh, not cool and not something i will ever answer (unless it's something like ves' case - a character who is introduced as cis, thinks they are cis, and realize during the story that they are not).

in summary, briarheart:

is not focused on romantic relationships. it has them and i will do my absolute best to make them as good as they can be, but this is not a story focused on romance.

will change over time. this mean characters, locations, etc, can and will change. this is, above all, a wip. i do promise to do my best to minimize all this alterations so you won't feel like you've come back to a entirely different game every chapter.

has a nonbinary main character who realizes they are nonbinary during the story of the game. it's ves, who, like nima and kaisa, is bisexual and can be romanced by mcs of any gender.

has two main characters who are in the aro & ace spectrums: ves and kaisa. ves is asexual and sex-indifferent. kaisa is demisexual and sex-favorable. i haven't decided on their romantic orientation yet, but it will probably be either grayromantic or demiromantic.

will spend a lot of time on platonic love, especially on familial love (or lack thereof).

that's all i think? sorry for all the rambling but i needed to get this off my chest. i appreciate all interest shown so far for briarheart and will understand if the game turned out to not be what you thought and/or wanted it to be. it's not out yet, of course, but i don't think i did a good enough job of setting expectations in the intro post.

i hope you had a good day and see you guys soon!

(hopefully with the prologue/chapter 1 release!!)

[wildflowers-of-trolberg]

Unpopular opinion about Kaisa?

I had to think for a while on this one, and I think I've settled on something; I'm really glad the fandom was wrong about Kaisa. Sorry in advance, but this one's going to get a little personal.

For those that don't know what I'm talking about, back during Season 1, when all we had to go on was some very brief appearances that showed she was cool and mysterious, the Hilda fandom created a lot of headcanons about the Librarian; she was given the name Maven, and she was generally a secretly badass witch with a lot of power and a lot of mystery about her. She was always shipped with Johanna (like she still is XD) and she was often going to teach Hilda to be a witch too.

Now, I didn't hate this characterisation; fanon can do what it wants, genuinely, and I enjoyed seeing so many people excited about this. But Maven just didn't really interest me that much. I liked the idea of her taking a shine to Hilda, but apart from that she just wasn't my thing - I didn't see the appeal of Sketchbook, and if I'm really honest I still don't really.

But then The Witch came along, and suddenly we didn't have Maven anymore; we had Kaisa, a librarian who basically considers herself a failure as a witch, because she can't remember spells and she can't do strong magic, who hides behind that cool and mysterious front because deep down she's deeply insecure and suffers from anxiety over it. And my heart just broke watching her reunion with Tildy, because that's me.

I relate very deeply to Kaisa; I know that feeling of failure, that avoidance, how difficult it is to admit when you haven't met expecations and how useless it makes you feel. I love this show so, so much for portraying that, and I love Kaisa so much as a result.

She's still not my absolute favourite character, but she's close, and I have a strong personal connection with her; so I'm really happy that the fandom was wrong about her, just because her real self means so much to me.

(I will also add that I tend to read her as younger than a lot of the fandom? Not so much because she's short as because to me The Witch reads as her apprenticeship with Tildy not having been more than a few years ago; so I tend to peg her at mid-20s and I think she absolutely inherited the missing book issue from a previous keeper :))

[truffeart]

Hello! (I'd like to send this off anon but that's not a option atm, f) So I've been thinking abt LoL (in no small part to you, might I add) and considering getting deeper into it, then remembered that Star Guardian Mipha you made and then my mind went: Zeldas as K/DA. But which Zeldas? Thoughts????

Hands down Tetra as Akali. She knows how to rap for sure! For the others, I’m thinking Skyward Sword Zelda as Ahri, Hyrule Warrior as Evelynn, ALTTP Zelda as Kaisa and for good mesure, BOTW Zelda for Seraphine, since she’s ‘’the new star’’ this year. While on the subject of K/DA, True Damage?. For sure OoT or ALTTP Link would do Yassuo’s role, maybe Sidon as Ekko? Obviously WW Zelda for Akali and I’m thinking Hilda for Qiyana. Oh, and Riju as Senna, heck yeah! Thanks for the ask! <3

[clarabosswald]

hello! i have a hopefully quick question. I've never read His Dark Materials (but believe me i really want to, just haven't found the time yet), but i own the 2007 movie of it, and i loved it and watched it non-stop as a kid. I was wondering why it's thought of so negatively? I take no offence to people saying it was a bad adaptation because i didn't, and don't, know any better. But i was just wondering so i can appreciate what the new adaption is doing right! I hope you have a wonderful day!

yeah, i can see why plenty of people who’ve only watched the movie loved it - as a glimpse into the world pullman has created in the books, it works. there’s this band of characters, and the daemon concept which is of course captivating, and the armored bears and the north and oxford - visually, they’re all dazzling. but what always TRULY captivated me about the books is the deep undercurrents of ideas and philosophies about free will, and authority, and human consciousness, and tyranny, and innocence versus experience. and science - parallel universes and dark matter and even alien biology! those things are what truly drives the plot, the characters, the reasons behind what every different character does what they do. and without all of that... the movie is just a pretty, empty spectacle. and disappointing, because you’re aware - and you love - everything that could and should have been there.

additionally, because the movie had such time constraints, the characters never really felt like they do in the books - lyra, my all time favorite female character, doesn’t feel wild and fiercely emotional and rude and innocent... she’s just, kinda there to ask questions and get the plot going. marisa, like i wrote earlier, doesn’t really feel like the truly terrifying threat she is in the book. she isn’t as twisted and downright evil. daniel craig as asriel - i always found him incredibly wooden and unconvincing. which is Bad considering asriel is supposed to be this incredibly charismatic character. eva green as serafina - totally the wrong vibe. she isn’t supposed to have this melancholy and distance about her. she isn’t supposed to be so... goth. serafina is wild and free, but in a joyful way. she cherishes nature, the stars and the cold. she feels things strongly. also, the lack of her daemon kaisa, which is definitely a presence, especially in the first book, was a disappointment.

so what i appreciate and cherish about the tv adaptation is that they don’t shy away from the complex messages of the books like the movie did so harshly. it’s not here just to be a pretty spectacle, a christmas adventure with pretty talking animals. they take pride in exploring the ideas pullman established in the books, and that’s a thing to celebrate. they also have the time to properly explore the characters, let them breath and grow, have small character moments which were so vital to understanding them in the books. they’re even giving mrs coulter - such a fantastically complex character - extended backstory, with pullman’s blessing! that’s amazing.

i grew up with the books. many people say this about themselves, but this story really shaped me, it had a huge and lasting impact on how i view the world. so seeing it being given the respect it deserves in form of a lengthy high-quality adaptation makes me so profoundly happy.

[egopocalypse]

daggryet?

Kaisa, my beloved <3. They're genuinely one of the best analysists in this entire fandom. The time and dedication they put into the transcripts are so underrated and deserve so much more recognition than they receive. I always get so excited when we talk in DMs; I consider her to be one of the people I've grown closest to in this community. :]

[furashuban]

2, 3, 6, 11, 14, 18, 20 for the writer asks? :))

(This ended up being a tad longer than I thought so the other questions and answers are under 'Keep Reading' if that's alrighty :>)

2. Tell us about what you’re most looking forward to writing – in your current project, or a future project.

The majority of my WIPs at the moment are OCs/Arrowwood stuff, so right now I'm super excited to write Ramona as a character and showcasing her relationship with her mum Flannel :> not to mention all the mystical elements I've made up for my stories and some tooth-rotting fluff, which are things I'm writing into my next Hilda fic as well :D

3. What is that one scene that you’ve always wanted to write but can’t be arsed to write all of the set-up and context it would need? (consider this permission to write it and/or share it anyway)

Going back to OCs and Arrowwood, literally any scene where Ramona is singing. There's this one in particular where Ramona has to sing for a tone-deaf River Siren she met and wants to help (as 'River' Sirens are not hostile, but rather kindhearted creatures who use their singing to guide lost people in the wilderness), that way the Siren could try to take notes from Ramona on how to improve her vocals.

6. What character do you have the most fun writing?

Ohh definitely Johanna in all my fics she's featured in! She's just really somft and I get A LOT of serotonin and comfort when writing her just as much as when watching her in the show sfdsgsdfw.

11. What do you envy in other writers?

The skill to write exposition and what's going on in a character's mind during a scene, because my head is constantly too empty to build up a lot of emotion and suspense between dialogue and action the way I wished I could during a draft.

14. At what point in writing do you come up with a title?

Kinda hard to say but usually in the middle of writing a climax where I've progressed enough to pick either an element or piece of dialogue to turn into the title, but I always have a working title made up on-the-spot which is based on the general premise I have for the story (and a lot of times it will end up sticking as the official title :>)

18. Do any of your stories have alternative versions? (plotlines that you abandoned, AUs of your own work, different characterisations?) Tell us about them.

So, the reason "Visitations" hasn't been updated for a year now is because the final chapter was going to involve Kaisa moving in with Johanna and Hilda upon being offered to in the ending, but my feelings towards that scenario have kinda changed and I'm no longer on-board with the idea of Kaisa and Johanna living with each other, but would still love for them to end up together romantically. As of late, I've finally thought of a different and simpler resolution where they just start going out officially, and I hope to get it written once I've mustered enough energy to update the fic.

In my very last Steven Universe fic "New Leaf", Lapis would have adopted one (maybe two or so) of the lotus-flower aliens from the episode Why So Blue? in the second half of the fic, and the ending was gonna have her and Peridot welcoming their new child(ren) as a small step to moving forward in their new life at Little Homeworld whilst grieving that Pumpkin is now gone. I didn't pull through with it, though, since I was writing for a Christmas Gift Exchange and was running out of time to write everything, but I still considered this idea for a sequel fic which unfortunately never came to fruition but now I'm sitting here asking, should I actually try and write it finally?

Lastly, the only alternative version I can say for "As High As The Moon Above" is this AU where Johanna already knows about Kaisa training to become a witch and the fic's synopsis remains the same, except there's no longer an accidental magical-identity-reveal for Kaisa. (Also I implied the reason for the Trolberg library having a bunch of secret rooms that descend to the Witch's Tower is because child Kaisa's suspected there were, and actually came to be once she was now the librarian)

20. Tell us the meta about your writing that you really want to ramble to people about (symbolism you’ve included, character or relationship development that you love, hidden references, callbacks or clues for future scenes?)

Something I really love in my other Steven Universe fic "Reconciliation" is that Lapis reunites with Peridot before the Rupphire wedding, but both of them are too hurt to feel comfortable around each other, so eventually they spend some time opening up about what they went through during + long after their separation until things actually start feeling okay between the two of them. It would have been so easy for Bonnie-from-four-years-ago to just make Lapis and Peridot immediately happy to be together as though nothing had changed from Raising The Barn, but I'm proud of them for exploring their relationship and characterisation the way it was show.

In my Doctor Who flash-fic "Mood Stones", the crystals surrounding the TARDIS controls change from its usual orange-yellow hue to bright pink after Yaz comforts the Thirteenth Doctor. The show's current TARDIS interior has changed colour occasionally and depended on the mood of the Doctor scene, so for this fic, the reason the TARDIS crystals have turned pink is simply because The Doctor was feeling loved from the only companion she now has left.

[mentalillnessmouse]

Hi So just recently I began to realize that I've been binge eating for a little over two months or so. I didn't really realize at the time that I was binge eating so I'm a bit worried on how to get back on track. At first I would skip meals to make time for studying but now I'm on break I feel hungry and full at the same time. I feel guilty and "yucky" with the food I'm eating and sometimes I feel like it's coming back up my throat. Do you have any advice? Thank you very much.

ED TW

Hi,

You’ve taken a very important first step by recognizing that you’ve had a problem with binge eating and wanting a change. I have some advice for you as well as some resources that hopefully will be helpful.My first advice is to try and figure out why you’re binge eating. Is it a way to cope with your emotions (such as stress, boredom, sadness)? Is it because you’re not eating enough and feel hungry? Could there be some medical issue that needs to be addressed by a doctor? Figuring out what makes you binge eat helps with combating those urges and recognizing warning signs in advance.

Skipping meals is not good, even if it’s to make time for studying. I am not a medical professional, but I’ve been attending an ED support group (led by professionals) where we’ve talked a lot about binge eating. The way that it’s been described to me is this: When your body doesn’t get the nourishment it needs, at some point the part of your brain that handles basic things like hunger, thirst and sleep will overcome the conscious part that’s telling you not to eat - which may result in binge eating because all your thought processes are then centered on food and eating, because your body assumes it is starving. We cannot control this reaction because it’s biological.

Regularly skipping meals, restricting the amount of food you eat and/or binge eating can mess up a body’s response system to hunger and fullness. It can result in what you described - feeling hungry and full at the same time, or feeling hungry all the time, or not feeling hungry even when your body needs food.

So, the way to combat this is to eat at fixed, regular intervals. I know it’s hard. I struggle so much with this, but it really does help. It depends on culture, but in mine people are expected and recommended to eat at least five times a day - breakfast, lunch, snack, dinner, snack. For me, that feels like a lot. But it keeps the hunger at bay and ensures that you get enough nourishment so that urges to binge eat happen more rarely. Decide when you’re going to eat and then eat even if you don’t feel like it or are not hungry.

This is one of the most important treatments for disordered eating habits. Even studying is easier and more productive when your body has all the nourishment it needs and your brain is feeling refreshed and satisfied. If you have a hard time cooking or don’t have a lot of time, ready-made meals are okay too and you can choose something easy and quick for snacks.

Another thing I recommend that you think about is the guilt and “yuckiness” you’re feeling while eating. Again, do you know why you feel this way? Can you address the underlying feelings and problems in some other way? Food should be guilt free. You need it. It’s not bad for you. It won’t harm you. Even if you’re eating something that’s considered “unhealthy”, it’s important to eat.

I definitely recommend that you seek out professional help for this, anon. All those things I listed above can be really hard to do alone. I couldn’t do it without the professional and personal support network that I have. So please reach out for help, talk to a school counselor and/or a doctor and tell some trusted friends or family members about this.

Help Guide A site containing articles to help understand, help numbers,  “tool kits”, and self help.

Mental Support Community A forum to talk about eating disorders and how it affects your life.

Mental Help A site that has basic information, resources, articles, and a list of books that might be helpful.

The addiction help center has lots of resources that explains eating disorders, their treatment and much more.

Kati Morton, a therapist, makes weekly videos about various aspects of living with an eating disorder and coping strategies you can use.

Something Fishy is a website that provides information on eating disorders and places to find treatment, as well as forums for people with eating disorders and friends/family members.

Ways of coping with eating disordered behaviors

HelpGuide on eating disorder treatment and recovery

NEDA has a wonderful guide on body image, as well as many amazing links

A post on healthy eating

Take care,- Kaisa

[wildflowers-of-trolberg]

If you are still doing that headcanon thing, what headcanons do you have for Hilda?

Headcanon A: Familiar bonds are a unique type of magic, intertwined with but not directly connected to witchcraft; all that's required is a deep bond of trust, and a little bit of the right magic. This is all to say that Twig is absolutely Hilda's familiar, even though Hilda is already Frida's familiar.

Headcanon B: Hilda is actually known much wider than she realises; elves play poker with a lot of creatures, and trolls live across a very large area, so word has gone around. It's just kind-of a known thing in some parts of the valley that you can ask the blue-haired child for help and she will, but that she also tends to bring chaos in her wake.

Headcanon C: I've talked a lot about Hilda and her mum in season 2, so I won't just wheel that one out again. Instead I'll say this; while Hilda is braver than a lot of kids, she's not as immune to fear as she likes to act. A lot of her confidence comes from her knowing that most creatures can be reasoned with and aren't blindly evil, and she's also very good at burying her fears and acting like she's not scared.

She absolutely has trauma; she gets nightmares about the Time Worm, about losing her mum, about her mum not wanting her anymore, and about the whole changeling thing. Sometimes she has to rub her arms when she wakes up, just to make sure they haven't turned back to stony troll-flesh; she really wishes she could forget that feeling.

Headcanon D: I have one that I could put here that's salty and also spoilers but nah I'll go with something fun - Bellkeeper, Kaisa, Tildy, and to an extent Gerda all consider Hilda kinda their kid and try and look out for her. She has no idea she's acquired so many guardians XD

Send a character’s name to receive four different headcanons!!