#in a way anyway

[deadberrry]

ranboos playing minecraft for the last time ever and he walked past a field of alliums and it got me thinking

last chance to draw this goober in minecraft! im pretty sure my last completed fanart of her is from 2022 lmao

[elavoria]

Writerly Thumbprint Challenge

Rules: look back on your work, both past and present, finished and unfinished. what are five (or more!) narrative elements, themes, topics or tropes that continuously pop up in your work?

I saw this going around and wanted to give it a try. The vast majority of my writing [300k+ across various wip longfics] isn’t published anywhere for public consumption so most of you are just going to have to take my word on this. ;p

1. Charismatic young woman convinces sad / broken / hardened / &c. older man that he’s worthy of love. I would joke that this is the only kind of romantic pairing that I’m capable of writing, but in truth it’s the only one I’m interested in writing. I live through my charismatic protagonists, and being able to give my fictional favorites the gentle love and care they deserve through them... ah. <3 The men tend to be quasi-villainous and far more powerful, and they become devoted to women who tend to be sweet and virtuous [though also flirtatious and seductive], which leads into...

2. Power dynamics and the balance of power. My characters tend to be navigating power structures that are balanced against them in some way, but occasionally they have to grapple with the responsibility of having power over others, particularly unwanted power or power they reluctantly have to exercise over a loved one. I love writing romantic relationships with power imbalances and exploring how the characters deal with those imbalances, and it can be especially fun if the balance in the relationship tips somehow.

3. Character-driven narratives with deep, meaningful connections. I love getting into characters’ heads perhaps more than anything else and spend a lot of time describing my characters’ thoughts and feelings and developing their relationships. There are a lot of introspective sequences, and lots of long conversations, frequently full of empathy and compassion but occasionally heated arguments as well. I pride myself on staying true to canon character voices and motivations, and while it’s perhaps easiest to understand my original characters, I love slicing canon characters open [so to speak] and seeing what I can find in their deep, dark depths. ;p

4. A sense of time and place; characters grounded in the environment. My foremost goal in writing is to take the reader on a journey through the story, and to that end I like to keep the characters always in touch with their surroundings. I don’t always describe those surroundings at length, but there are always just enough reminders of where they are and what they’re doing that the reader can feel like they’re there too, taking it all in.

As an example of 3 and 4, I just wrote a nearly 20k word sequence with the premise “Amaryllia has a very long talk with Samson while walking Skyhold’s walls”.

5. Secrecy and confidants. Less of a major theme, but my characters often have secrets and those they entrust those secrets to—whether it be secret relationships or hidden aspects of their identities that they share only with the most trusted of individuals.

Bonus: Armor stripteases. This one’s kind of a joke, but only kind of. If there isn’t a scene where someone’s armor is taken off piece by loving piece, did I even write it?

I have no idea who’s been tagged in this! It’s a fun exercise for any writer though. : )

[baronessblixen]

for me the best time machine will always be home/family movies. It’s so weird to watch them and realize how much has changed around us and to think that it was another time period and even another millennium and century in some of them

Oh yeah, I agree! They're so bittersweet, aren't they? I haven't watched any in ages cause most of the ones we have are on VHS and we don't have a player anymore.

The other day I saw an old picture I took and I have no idea what I was trying to capture but it was my parents' living room and like, it looked so different. Things like that can mean so much years and decades later.

[hiyari8]

yeah the 'copycat' stuff can get a bit annoying tho i think one of the original ones had a meaning behind it/part of a 'puzzle'/mini arg event to 'solve' or so lol

i can support doing it for some kind of event or a mystery to solve but when someone's gimmick as a producer is that their stuff is difficult to look up i'm just like,, oh alright then i will refrain from checking you out if you don't want me to lol

[match-your-steps]

tbh the memory I remember and cringe incredibly hard at most often is the improv portion of my 10th grade theatre audition. I can still feel the disappointed stares of everyone in the room

[parakeetpark]

It'll be weird when I replay Disco Elysium again now after a year because I've listened to Sea Power songs on a near daily basis for... nearly as long

[bookwyrminspiration]

I can behave normally around books

[nemesis-is-my-middle-name]

that article going around abt firefox's new ad program is annoying bc it's phrased as though "mozilla has finally TURNED on its people and is SELLING YOU OUT for cold hard cash!!" when. that's not what's happening. it is specifically being implemented to discourage tracking behavior, and literally all the data they are giving to advertisers is aggregate and anonymized, which is like, the opposite of what that post wants you to worry about, lol

[captainjonnitkessler]

>Join a union

>Hear people constantly complaining that the current union leadership is super corrupt, it's all just the same ten guys making all the decisions in secret and nobody else in the union ever gets to know what's going on

>Go to the monthly union meetings that are completely open to all 1200 union members

>The only attendees are the same ten guys every month, giving detailed reports about everything that's going on

[blabberoo]

;]

[unsung-idiot]

don't show him modern technology; it won't end well

bonus under the cut:

[mythtakens]

“these characters should be mentally healthy before they get together 😌” ummm no I actually think we should smash their mental illnesses together like clumps of play-doh and see what colors it makes

[elavoria]

20 Questions for Writers

Tagged by @sylvienerevarine and @dirty-bosmer, thank you!

I tag @1helios1, @sheirukitriesfandom, and whoever wants to join. :3

Putting these under the cut~

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

10, and about half aren’t up to my current standards but I’m leaving them up for posterity.

2. What’s your total AO3 word count?

71,030, which does not remotely reflect how much I write. I wasn’t particularly inclined to answer these given the AO3 bias to the questions but then I was tagged twice so here we are.

I’m sitting on just about 401k words of unpublished fic. : )

3. What fandoms do you write for?

Dragon Age [all games], Pathfinder [mostly Wrath of the Righteous], and TES [Skyrim and Morrowind with a bit of Oblivion] are the biggest ones, but also Shadowrun, Mass Effect, Cyberpunk 2077, Fallout 4, Game of Thrones, Divinity: Original Sin II… if I get hooked into a story there is liable to be fic it seems.

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

I’m only giving you two—From Dreams to Deliverance [non-canon Nerevarine/Dagoth Ur] at 100, and The Adventures of Polyshep [post-canon Shep/Garrus/Tali OT3 + others having mostly fluffy fun] at 55.

5. Do you respond to comments?

Absolutely! And if we’re talking privately I WILL talk your ear off in response to any comments you make.

6. What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

I don’t go in for angsty endings but my Nerevarine’s fic will probably have a less happy / joyful / triumphant ending than the others, and my V’s ending will likewise be bittersweet.

7. What’s the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

Hmm… hard to say. Perhaps a tossup between the Dragon Age fic and the Pathfinder fic… Ama and Isanna both get everything they ever wanted and more.

8. Do you get hate on fics?

No, but it wouldn’t surprise me if Ama’s AU fics get hate in the future for mage/templar shipping…

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

Yes, generally things that are descriptive but not terribly explicit, and most sexual intimacy is a bit glossed over. I find I tend to write at least one descriptive sex scene per pairing and then gloss over the other instances—partly because it isn’t necessary to the story, partly because writing sex scenes takes so much more effort for me and I have no interest in coming up with endless variations on that theme.

10. Do you write crossovers? What’s the craziest one you’ve written?

I’ve written exactly one very whack crossover and have no intention of doing that again—Skyrim/Drowtales.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not to my knowledge.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

No, but I’d be honored if someone asked to translate something of mine.

13. Have you ever co-written a fic?

I co-wrote a bit of unpublished Skyrim fic with spouse long enough ago that neither of us would be proud of it anymore, with each of us taking different POV chapters for our vampires that were going through the Dawnguard questline together. More recently I’ve been borrowing one of his WotR ladies for my Pathfinder fic and having him supply her dialogue if that counts. Amusingly, both instances of our characters interacting in this way involve his judging mine for their romantic interests lol.

14. What’s your all-time favorite ship?

Hmm… I get so deeply attached to most of the ships I write. I will cheat and say Ama/everyone I ship her with. ; p

15. What’s a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

At this point I doubt my TES fics will ever get finished, but it would be nice if they did… Rya’s story was too grand for my capabilities at the time, and Rendrasa’s I simply lost motivation on and with her playthrough finished, well… hm.

16. What are your writing strengths?

Dialogue and characterization. Dialogue is my beloved and I’ve been told repeatedly that I capture canon characters well. Also romance, soft and tender things...

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

Too many filler words and phrases that get repetitive… but I like them. So.

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in a fic?

If it fits and is understandable, sure. I sprinkled some German into my Shadowrun fic, but it was mostly pet names and I translated everything in the notes. As a reader I don’t want to be left with questions as to what was said, or have to look things up separately.

19. First fandom you wrote for?

Good gods, probably H*rry P*tter ages and ages ago, before junior high, if I’m being honest, and not much of it. Not remotely interested in that fandom anymore. Then a tiny bit of Les Mis fic not too long after that. Terrible but at least some of the Les Mis concepts are… highly amusing, shall we say. Mermaid AU??? Younger self, what on earth…

20. Favorite fic you’ve written?

My Dragon Age longfic-in-progress, Knight’s Star. I love Ama sooo so so much and I think her extended conversation with Samson is one of the best things I have ever written. The Pathfinder fic is shaping up to be a close second though. Learning many things about myself with that one hehe such as how desperately I want a gnome boyfriend.

[kensatou]

i'll let phie-san say it:

[eosofspades]

i didn't have "i'm broken" teenage asexual angst i had "i'm literally being the only reasonable one about this concept and the rest of you are behaving like fucking freaks" perception issues

[iscariotapologist]

today in church one of the priests referred to trans people as "those who are growing into the gender they were called to be" and i'm kind of enjoying the idea of like....divinely ordained top surgery