#kind of i mean i'm mostly talking about the art book

[blackberry-sage-tea]

I see a lot of people discussing the Veilguard art book and lost potential in the finished game, but most of the time it's about the Joplin cut of the game and the dropped ideas from it. I didn't think that was necessarily fair, because while a lot of Veilguard's plot has remnants of the Joplin cut, it involved a lot of spitballing from years and years before the game's release.

The concept art in the Veilguard section of the book is closer to what the game was intended as a finished product, and there's a lot of interesting tidbits to take out of it as well. I'd like to highlight some things.

(please forgive the crappy quality of the pictures I've included here but if you want to see the art properly you should really buy the book because it's gorgeous)

(tagging this as "veilguard critical" because my primary interest is exploring ways in which the finished game falls short of its extremely cool concept art)

Armors

Almost all of the armors in the game are a direct one-to-one translation of armors designed in the concept art, but with a few key differences that result in them looking significantly more garish in practice (sometimes it's the brighter/more saturated colors, but mostly I think it's character models that have very different proportions than a lot of these were clearly designed around). I've included a couple--I think if you compare them you'll see what I mean.

Another thing worth mentioning is that a lot of these come with special helmets or masks that "complete" the look--in the case of the Veil Jumper heavy armor I've included below, it's kind of nonsensical without one because it's clearly meant to resemble some sort of bulky diving suit (I don't think it was conceived as a combat armor at all). The game doesn't (iirc) include the helmets with the armors or tell you which one matches which.

I think this is down to technical/time constraints. I don't know pretty much anything about the modeling for the game and how the character creator shaped its character design principles, so I won't say anything more than that, only that the concept art and the finished game seem to have differing ideas of how character silhouettes should look.

Also of note is that the design notes of the mercenary armor set describe it as "an easy disguise for Rook to use to blend in when traveling in northern Thedas". These are the armors used in Blood of Arlathan--and yes, the concept art features hoods, helmets, and masks to cover the face.

Environments

Most of the environments that show up in the game can be found as direct translations of concept art from this book (albeit brightened and more saturated in-game), but there are a lot of dropped concepts.

Rivain was supposed to have an extremely diverse culture with even some ethnicities players wouldn't even recognize as being from Thedas, and a note that the growing Qunari community in the country alarmed "both Tevinter and the Qunari Triumvirate" (fascinating idea, too bad no Rivaini city made it into the game). There are some city ideas in early concept art but most of it is coastlines.

Minrathous has TONS of concept art for parts of the city we are never able to go to, such as an undercity, high town, the dwarven embassy, the Colosseum, mansions, etc etc.

There's concept art for the Black City in the Fade, making me wonder if we were going to go there at some point in development.

There's concept art for an Antaam dreadnought, so we were probably going to go on one at some point.

Arlathan had a lot of planned environments for more ancient ruins, areas of the forest that were being warped by magic, more ominous trees, etc. Another instance where something was supposed to be a lot bigger than what we got. Some of the art that looks like it was almost fully modeled are some "altered gravity" environments like the sort we saw in Trespasser.

The Anderfels was originally going to be mostly the red, cold, cliff-ridden desert that it's been described as in previous games. Instead, Hossberg is a swamp (I see no concept art for it in the book?). I think we were also supposed to see way more active Warden architecture, like outposts and stockades.

Something that I don't think is ever brought up (and is obfuscated by the terminology the game uses) is that the Lighthouse is a stolen eluvian hub, and the buildings are all separate buildings that got caught in the magical radius when Solas stole it. The light at the top is meant to scare away dangerous things from the Fade. Solas apparently is supposed to have deliberately offered this place to you as sanctuary? I don't think any of these things show up in the game, though Rook mentions a non-existent conversation with Solas talking about the Lighthouse.

There's a bit where it shows Neve's room in the concept art and it's so disappointing to compare that to the finished game. She almost had a proper noir detective office, dark and with "single lightbulb" style lighting. In game it's a very warm, bright, cutesy little space. It's not the only place that does this, it just highlights my biggest issue with the game's approach to its environments. Many of the locations are the same but the atmosphere is significantly weakened by its lighting choices.

Enemies

I mostly want to use this space to talk about dropped enemy/creature types, since that was something I felt the game was lacking and made the worldbuilding feel much smaller than Inquisition.

The art book has a dropped concept they called the Scoundrels, which was a set of enemies using reused assets that would serve as recurring mini-bosses, it seems. I've provided an example of some of them, which involve pallet swapping and mix-and-matching existing art assets to prove the concept. You would have choices on how to deal with them once defeated (like kill/spare), like the Inquisition judgment scenes.

They experimented with different types of dragons, including one designed around a bear animation rig instead of your typical high dragon.

Rivain was going to have a whole host of sea monster enemy types to encounter, including a "mermaid", a giant lobster monster, and a "land shark"

The Necropolis looks like it could have had way more enemy types than what we got, with suggestions of more "mad science" Frankenstein-esque enemies, giant skeletons, etc, as things the Mourn Watch typically fights or has to calm down.

Arlathan was going to have more types of plant enemies, including Sylvans and Veil Jumpers who were "incorporated" into the forest Annihilation style.

Factions

The game's factions in the art book each come with little blurbs that outline the intention behind their conceptual designs (most of which were put in the game, as I talked about earlier with the armors). I found these interesting mostly because of the parts that don't seem to match the finished product of Veilguard.

The Antivan Crows were designed around being showy, wealthy, carnivale/acrobat assassins, essentially. There was meant to be a wide range of Crow "types" at play, with some more ominous and threatening and others more stylish ("the elegant to the scoundrels"). One thing I want to quote directly comes at the end of the blurb: "They may not be nice, and it is totally reasonable for a player to be opposed to working with assassins, but this specific group is not intended to be uniformly grim". While the idea that they're a beloved part of Antivan culture seems planned from the start, this concept is still a far cry from the uncritical support you and your allies are forced to express in-game, and the "family friendly mafia" feel that pervades most interactions with them.

The Shadow Dragons were designed around being underdog vigilante criminals against an impossibly powerful political machine. The book explicitly cites both "Batman the Animated Series"'s Gotham as well as "The Shadow" (the latter for the Viper specifically) as inspiration (despite this, the game has only 1 nighttime scene in Tevinter and that's at the opening), which would imply that they were meant to be seen as anti-heroes. The bit at the end of this blurb is also revealing: "To redeem the Tevinter they love, they might have to make deals with demons both literal and metaphorical". This, too, suggests there was supposed to be a conflict of having to take extreme and underhanded measures to achieve their noble ends. They don't do anything objectionable in game so the remnants of this idea in Neve's storyline just looks like oversensitive hand-wringing.

The Lords of Fortune are essentially the fun-loving adventure faction. The blurb suggests a group with less scruples than what we got in game (emphasizing the money incentive when recovering or preserving artifacts, for example), but on the whole the big issue with this one is that it seems like most of their content didn't make it in. Their armors are so gaudy because they like to wear the treasure they find, and they're often so scantily clad because they're proud of their bodies and like to show them off (which would have been clearer with more Fortune NPCs to interact with).

The Mourn Watch feels like the most accurately realized faction in this game, because aside from some tonal differences (which, again, feel very much like color and art style problems) they are pretty much exactly what the concept blurb describes. Masters of necromancy who guard against threats from beyond the Veil and within the necropolis, who specialize in anatomy and all things spooky.

The Veil Jumpers, I think, were supposed to have a heavier emphasis on the danger of exploring Arlathan forest. The blurb feels almost like something written for a recruitment poster--Are you a brave enough dude to join an expedition to reach the forbidden city??? Reaching Arlathan sounds like it would have been a harrowing ordeal (no one has even set eyes on it), Veil Jumpers would have had homes in campsites, aravels, and tree-houses, and the reasoning behind inviting non-Dalish into the faction (which is suggested to be a very recent development) would have been justified by the sheer danger present in every waking moment of being in the enormous, shifting, transformative Arlathan forest. Also, in the really early designs, some of them were shapeshifters.

The Grey Wardens are...well, they've already been designed in previous games so there isn't actually a lot to add here. Probably the biggest thing talked about in the notes that I'm disappointed by is that there was, originally, an intention to make the Northern wardens more distinct from the ones we already knew. There would be a lot of warden types where some were dark and hardened from what they'd experienced, where others were more the classic knight in shining armor. Some would have remnants of the cultures they came from (like an Orlesian warden in a fancy outfit wearing a mask, or a warden that looks kind of like a cowboy), others would fit the mold of a standard warden more strongly.

As a side note I want to say that I see a lot of concept art of the factions "in action"--it's clear they were thinking about ways in which they handled missions and engaged with the world. I am reasonably sure that the faction system as a whole was part of the multiplayer design philosophy that got dragged into the final singleplayer game--you're just supposed to pick a faction and can play missions for them with your friends. The story is bare-bones but it doesn't have to be elaborate because it's the gameplay experience that brings you back, not the story or characters. They just need to be cool enough to draw your attention.

The reason I bring this up is because in-game your main experience with these canonically awesome, badass faction members is them standing around doing nothing while you go out and do most of the hard work for them. Having a bunch of factions of adventurers shaping the world around them makes sense for a game where you are playing with others--not so much when you're in a single-player game that doesn't allow for extra NPCs to tag along.

I think it would also explain why some factions have less content than others--all of them were created under a different design philosophy than the one they were finished under (where the story relevant ones were prioritized over the ones that weren't).

Others

Other tidbits I wasn't sure where they fit in:

The notes on Venatori magisters indicates a "daytime" and "nighttime" appearance set. This, coupled with another note on the Rivaini coasts that mentions the environment changing with the tide, implies there may have been some kind of day and night mechanic in the works that got scrapped (similar to DA2).

Notes on Antaam and Venatori enemies suggests there were more support classes (ex, an Antaam war drummer).

There are several creature or outfit designs (such as the Crow head helmet) that are said to have been made as "Halloween" outfits--this seems to me like a remnant of when this was planned to be a live-service game, perhaps as part of holiday armor packs.

Assan's back legs were conceived as actually being part dog rather than part lion.

Emmrich becoming a lich looks like it might have been more explicitly motivated by his fear of dying (choosing to become undead for immortality) rather than his fear being the barrier between him and lichdom as the game has it (he frames it in-game as being more of some kind of protective duty).

Anyway, I think most people who have paid attention to the development of the game are aware of the idea that DA4 started as a single player game, got scrapped and remade as a live service multiplayer, and then that got scrapped and remade into the single player game that we have today. Now, I can't claim to be particularly knowledgeable on the subject, but the impression I am getting by reading the art book is that massive amounts of Veilguard's game design is still based around being a live service multiplayer.

I think the concept art of this game and its factions is so grandiose and dramatic compared to what we got because they would have originally had the time and funding to make those levels while people are paying for and playing the base game. The factions have very few developed NPCs and bare-bones storylines because the intention was originally for you and your friends and other players to be what the factions consisted of. The gameplay is an action RPG because tactical RPGs don't work well when you're playing something live with other people. The environmental design is mostly linear "dungeon" style levels with very few open hub levels because anything that leads to you wandering around ignoring your friends for story is not good for the multiplayer. You get no faction interactions because each one was its own self-contained part of the game players could pick from. Etc etc.

I think the process of making Veilguard was taking the story from Joplin (which has a chapter of the artbook that extensively details its story but suggests very little if any assets were made for the game) and the assets from Morrison (a game that has no chapter of its own in the book and no indication of what, if any, story it would have had) and stapling them together even though the two of them were not at all designed with the other in mind. They spent their development time making what they had as finished and unbuggy as possible, and then had to give up on the rest because they didn't have enough time.

I know this was kind of already obvious to anyone paying attention (I've certainly seen some people talk about it before) but I didn't feel like I really understood it before reading the art book. At the same time--Veilguard looks like it had a lot of cool concepts? Even assuming a lot of these are from Morrison, like, these factions could have all felt like they worked? They could have kept that grey morality feel (in fact it sounds like they planned to), the themes of comradery while fighting against what seem like insurmountable odds, the sense of adventure and danger. The art style includes ideas both wondrous and frightening, and it could have added a lot of richness to the setting if nothing else.

I felt this way reading the Inquisition artbook too but the foundations of the series still feel pretty sound, you can see a lot of love and work and creativity went into the designs for this.

I just don't feel like the finished game matched what I see here.

Would love to see the 80 pound version of this book, Matt Rhodes.

[awakenedevildays]

「bleachers and interruptions」 Art Donaldson x F!reader

You can find the other parts here!

━━━•❃°•°❀°•°❃•━━━

"For how long are you planning to stare at her, Donaldson?" Tashi approaches Art while he is busy looking at you in the stands, a book in your hand as you wait "for Tashi" to finish her training. 

"w-what?" he detaches his eyes from you and your friend wants to laugh at the deer-caught-in-headlights look on his face, a clean tennis shirt in his hands waiting to be worn.  

Tashi stands in front of him, the smirk on her face growing wider by the second, her hands on her hips "Donaldson, I can smell your desperation from miles away" he avoids her gaze and turns around to take off his shirt and put it in his tennis bag along his racket, but Tashi stands in front of him again "she told me about what happened at the beach" she adds and smirks, Art stops in his tracks at that 'fuck, she knows' he takes advantage of slipping on his unstained t-shirt to hide his red cheeks from your best friend. 

"Shouldn't you be worrying about you and Patrick, Tash?" his eyes look down to fix his shirt that looks so ruffled to him right now, "don't worry about me and Patrick, but I have to worry about you two idiots for obvious reasons" Art looks at her confused and waits for her to explain. 

Tashi moves her hand up to pat his shoulder, her smirk fading away and giving way to a small smile.

"She's a wonderful person you know? She deserves all the love in the world and I know you've got plenty to give... so don't keep her on the hook for too long" she takes her bag.

"What do you mean?" He frowns, keeping you on the hook? he tought you had changed your mind, considering you didn't approach him not even once after the night at the beach.

Tashi takes one glance at you, and then back to the blond in front of her.

"She's waiting for you to make a move, Art. She's really shy and not really good at these kind of things..." Tashi's gaze flickers at you again... "If she wasn't interested you think she would have come to watch you almost every training day?". 

He wants to laugh at that, 'she didn't look shy at the beach' he thinks but doesn't say it out loud "she comes here for me? I thought she's here to see you!" he exclaims.

Tashi can't stop the smile forming on her lips at his outburst, the disbelief in his voice clear as day.

"You can't be that naive, can you?" Tashi teases, her tone lighthearted now, having gone from teasing to trying to comfort him. "Sure, some days she might come here for me, but it's mostly for you, I can assure you, I'm just an added bonus" Tashi concludes and Art feels so stupid, he should've at least tried to talk to you. 

"oh..."

Tashi sees his expression change slightly, realization beginning to dawn on him, so she rests a reassuring hand on his shoulder, smiling at him knowingly "don't beat yourself up too much about it, Art. It's never too late to fix your mistake. Believe me, she's really into you... but Art, there are few people I care about more than I care about tennis, and Y/N is one of them, if you hurt her in any way-" Tashi pushes her index finger into his chest, her grin growing devious once again, "-I'll castrate you, then you definitely won't be able to charm her anymore with only your stupid blond curls, understood?" "yes m'am." he answers immediately.

Tashi laughs, finding his quick response both amusing and endearing, her hand moving to ruffle his blond hair. "That's more like it, Donaldson. Keep her safe and you won't have too worry about keeping your body intact. I'm sure you're more than capable of that"

Tashi goes to the changing rooms and Art turns around towards you again, only to see you already looking at him and he smiles widely, now that he knows you didn't change your mind about him, and that's surprising considering the story he told you, he feels like he can actually talk to you without blushing like the teenager he still is. 

You blush slightly as he looks at you, a shy smile tugging at the corner of your lips, your heart skips a beat when he flashes that winning smile of his. How he was able to be both endearing and incredibly handsome at the same time was beyond you, but the sight of his bright blue eyes and the way his blonde hair was swept to the side from the light wind was enough to make your breath hitch.

His hand goes up in greeting and you wave back, book now closed and he sign for you to stay there as he walks out of the tennis camp, his steps fast almost in a run and you laugh 'he is so cute' you think. A few minutes later he is next to you on the bleachers.

As he approaches, you can't help but look carefully at his face, a bead of sweat running down his temple form the training he just finished, you curse internally as you feel yourself growing a bit hotter when his arm flexes to let his tennis bag fall on the ground next to him.

Art sits down next to you, taking a moment to catch his breath before turning to you, a cheeky grin on his face.

"hey" 

"hi..." 

You both giggle for realizing how awkward this moment is.

Art runs his hand through his hair, trying to tame the damp strands and make himself look at least a little bit presentable. "Sorry for this" he pauses for a moment, a smirk coming to his lips, "although I think you kinda like it" you laugh 'fuck, he noticed'. 

"Oh shut up, I didn't come here for you" you lie, your cheeks slightly red in fear of being caught "oh, really? a little bird told me otherwise..." he suggests and you would really like the ground to open and swallow you, you bite your lips "I'm going to kill her" you mumble under your breath and Art laughs as he sits down next to you, his eyes twinkling with amusement.

He gazes intently at you, a slight smirk on his lips, "please don't, I wouldn't be here if it wasn't for her" you frown at his words and seeing your confused expression he keeps going. 

"I thought you weren't interested in me anymore, after that night" his smile is sheepish, "the next day, when you and Tashi came to watch the final between me and Patrick you didn't talk to me at all and... I don't know, I felt like I fucked up" his hand goes through his hair, a bit embarrassed to reveal his insecurities to you so soon and you want to slap yourself "Art... no you got it all wrong". 

Art blinks in confusion for a moment, his expression changing into a mixture of surprise and relief "so you weren't avoiding me?" he asks, turning his head to peer closely into your eyes, searching for any sign to confirm his words.

"No! well, yes... but it's not cause I wasn't interested in you, the total opposite actually, I'm really bad at these things I didn't know what to do or say" you admit and play around with the cover of the book still on your lap.

Art couldn't help but laugh a little bit at your confession, "If it's any consolation, I think you're doing just fine right now."

He pauses for a moment, reaching out to tuck a stray strand of hair behind your ear, his blue eyes shining with warmth.

"You could've just told me then, you know?" and he could have done that too. 

"I know... I'm sorry" you whine hiding your face in your hands and he rests his left hand on the back of your chair, his body facing you while he waits for you to look at him again "don't be, I could have tried harder too" he comforts you and you look at him again, a sweet smile on his face. 

You couldn't help but smile back at him, feeling the tension start to dissipate between you "guess we both messed up then" you laugh, shaking your head in disbelief at the realization of just how much time you wasted because of your mutual shyness.

"But we stil have time to solve this, if you want to, of course" you're nodding even before he can finish the sentence. 

Art can't contain his excitement as he sees you enthusiastically nodding your head. He lifts his hand and rests his palm on your cheek, his thumb gently caressing the soft skin "I take that as a yes, then?" he asks, a playful smile on his lips, the thumb on your cheek now tracing the outline of your lips.

"mh-mh" you say unconsciously your eyes locked in his. 

 Art continues tracing his thumb across your lips, his touch light and almost teasing, feeling your gaze on him, he lifts his eyes to look into yours, a cheeky smirk tugging at the corner of his mouth.

"You look so cute when you're all blushing and flustered" he whispers, leaning a bit closer to your face.

"You talk like you're not in the same position as I am" Art laughs softly, his breath mingling with yours, he leans in closer, the smile on his lips widening as he sees you start to fidget slightly.

"Not like it's a bad thing though, right?" he whispers, his hand moving from your cheek to gently grasp your chin, tilting your head up slightly.

"absolutely not" you whisper and just when your lips are about to touch a voice interrupts the moment "Hey! the camps are closing you have to get out" the coach calls out with a small smirk and Art turns around to look at him embarrassed, ears and cheeks red "sorry coach! we're leaving". 

The coach gives a knowing chuckle before heading out again, leaving you and Art to recover from the interruption.

You can't help but feel a twinge of frustration at the coach's interruption, ok, that was embarrassing you put your book back into your bag before sliding it on your shoulder. 

Art lets out a small sigh before reluctantly getting up from the bench helping you too by grabbing your hand "sorry about that, the coach has the worst timing" he wants to strangle him, really. 

"Don't worry, he is right" you say and he starts to guide you towards the stairs to get out. 

Art feels his muscles relax as soon as the cool night breeze hits his skin, he's still hot and sweaty from the training, he glances at you "that was a good session, wasn't it? even with the interruption" he jokes as he looks around, noticing the sun slowly setting behind the trees, lighting the sky in a beautiful shade of pink and orange. 

"you did good, I really like to watch you ad Tashi play" you ignore his real intentions and decide to talk about the training itself, you really like to tease him. 

Art can't help but let out a small laugh at your response "so that is the only reason why you come to see our trainings? To watch me play?" he quips, his tone light and teasing as he nudges you slightly with his shoulder. 

"I already told you Donaldson, I come to see Tashi play, not for you" you taunt again and Art shakes his head in false disbelief, his tone still playful and light "right, how could I forget. Just for Tashi, of course".

He playfully rolls his eyes, his shoulder slightly touching yours as you walk next to him. 

"I'm sorry to tell you this, but you can't compete with her" and Art stops on his track a fake shocked expression on his face and you tug on his hand still connected to yours to walk through the campus and towards the dorms.

Art puts a hand over his heart and lets out a mock gasp. "How could you" he says before starting to follow you again, a cheeky smile on his lips as he glances in your direction.

As you both make your way towards the dorms, Art can't help but feel contentment at the sight of your hands connected together, swinging naturally alongside you while you walk. You two stay in comfortable silence until you are in front of your dorm room and your hand detaches from his to grab your key, Art stands behind you, hands in his shorts pockets as he waits for you to turn back to him.

You unlock the door, feeling a flutter of anticipation as you turn to face him again. Art is still standing close, his eyes fixed on you with a warm smile on his handsome features, he takes a step closer, now leaning against the wall next to your door.

The soft light from the hallway casts a gentle glow on him, his blond hair slightly disheveled and he looks so incredibly handsome that you find your breath hitching in your throat 

'what should I do now?' you ask yourself as you smile at him, but before you could open your mouth to speak, he does first "not that I don't like to meet you like this, but what would you think about a date? with me, of course" he mentally facepalms himself, 'was it really necessary to add that?' Art feels a faint blush color his cheeks as you laugh at his awkward addition.

He rubs the back of his neck, still smiling sheepishly "sorry, I just wanted to be clear about it, didn't want you to think I was planning a date between you and Tashi" he jokes as he lets out a small laugh of his own, the embarrassment fading away as he sees that you don't seem to mind his blunder.

"But yes, I would love to take you on a date" he says with a more confident tone, his eyes shimmering with excitement at the thought.

 "I would love to" Art is filled with contentment as he sees your excitement. He runs his hand through his hair a small smile forms on his lips as he gazes at you, his blue eyes shining with happiness.

"How about tomorrow night? There's this nice restaurant near that I've been wanting to try" he suggests, his voice filled with nerves but anticipation as well.

"Tomorrow is great" you step closer when you see Art bending towards you "good, I'll pick you up tomorrow night at seven" you nod. 

As you confirm the time for your date, he can't help but smile wider, the excitement coursing through his veins, he gazes into your eyes for a moment, savoring the anticipation building between you.

"I can't wait" he whispers, his voice filled with excitement and a hint of nerves, leaning closer and placing a soft kiss on your forehead "I'll see you tomorrow" "goodnight, Art". 

As you watch Art, his handsome features bathed in the soft light of the hallway, he smiles back at you, his eyes filled with warmth and affection. "Goodnight" he says softly, a small chuckle escaping his lips as he sees you close the door slower than necessary, as if you don't want the moment to end just yet.

"Sweet dreams" he whispers after you close the door, shoulders lighter now that he finally has a real chance with you and the smile on his face doesn't leave until he is asleep in his bed.

━━━•❃°•°❀°•°❃•━━━

Do not copy or repost.

[anniflamma]

This isn't a question, but rather a love letter to your art<3.

Thanks to you, I've started enjoying Greek mythology and the Bible again (I mean from a point of artistic, mythological, historical, and theological analysis; my status with any kind of religion is being agnostic XD).

And I already enjoyed Epic the Musical, but I really love the designs you make, how you empathize with the symbolism and lore of the Gods when designing them, and how you make Odysseus so human with his crude expressions that makes me empathize with him (And he's one of the characters I hated the most from Greek mythology lol)

And then there’s your art about the bible, I have to admit that I tend to avoid the biblical religion because of the weight it still has on our daily lives, the damage it has done from the past to this day, and how they deny it with current hypocrisy (I live in Spain, there the official religion is catholic), but your lgbt drawings have really encouraged me to open the bible and see it from an objective and neutral point of view, and just enjoy it as another book and not as something I’m forced to follow.

Also I didn’t know there was so much LGBT content in the bible XD Seriously, thank you so much, if you had a patreon, I would pay you for the amount of happiness and culture you have given me (^///^)

By the way, reading your posts I found out that you recently experienced an internet drama that has become so popular lately. I just wanted to tell you that I'm sorry that both you and that poor artist had to go through this, that human hypocrisy has no limits or shame, and that I agree with everything you say. Just because we like a character or an author doesn't mean we agree with their crimes or ideologies.

I hope you have a nice day<3

Hi! I’m sorry it took me a while to respond! I mean it, I’ve read this over and over, and it makes me so happy. I’ve been thinking about how to respond, but sometimes it's hard to get it out into words.

It makes me so happy that my biggest interests make others interested in it too. Heck, when people ask questions, I get all giddy!

Talking about biblical/christian saints, greek myths, history, different cultural views and changes was kind of the whole point of why I started this tumblr blog. I have so many drafts filled with random info about LGBTQ+ saints..... Now… I post mostly thirsty drawings of greek gods with hairy chests... T.T

And I sympathize a lot when it comes to religious trauma. I consider myself lucky in these matters, my mom is Catholic, and she has her views that I don’t agree with and hurtful. Yet she still supports me in her way and watching my bible retelling animatics, everytime I post a new bible animatic, she writes me: "What have you done to Daniel..."

I also have my hurts and anger towards hypocrisies too, and I guess this is my way of countering that?

LGBT content in the Bible is something that really fascinates me. I think it's important to keep in mind that people from about 2,500 years ago had very different views when it came to gender and sex compared to how we see it today. In a way, the Bible does have strict social gender expectations, and if you didn’t fit in, then you weren’t considered part of that gender. But at the same time, it acknowledges that your sex. I think it’s in the Talmud were it discusses the fact that, throughout the Bible, there were about eight genders:

Zachar: male.

Nekevah: female.

Androgynos: having both male and female characteristics.

Tumtum: lacking sexual characteristics.

Aylonit hamah: identified as female at birth but later naturally developed male characteristics.

Aylonit adam: identified as female at birth but later developed male characteristics through human intervention.

Saris hamah: identified as male at birth but later naturally developed female characteristics.

Saris adam: identified as male at birth but later developed female characteristics through human intervention.

Some scholars even believe that Abraham and Sarah were Tumtum. A Tumtum is not considered to be very distinct but rather flexible between male and female sex/gender—"sometimes he is a man, and sometimes he is a woman." The simple fact that God said Abraham had a womb and from it, he would have children. Some say that this is why he is a Tumtum, while some historical linguists argue that ancient Hebrew didn’t have the vocabulary for male genitalia yet. Both arguments are valid, and I like them both!

There’s tons of stuff I could bring up—Joseph with his princess dress, Naomi and Ruth, David and Jonathan, and the discussions around whether Daniel was a Saris Hamah or a Saris Adam. We know he was called a saris, but we’re just not sure which. And then there's Jael, whose story is filled with a lot of phallic symbolism, and even her name is very gender-neutral.

I think I’m going to end here. I could yap about these things forever! But thank you again taking your time writing to me and I hope you also have a nice day! <3

[shinesurge]

Webcomic rings run by people within the community are cool and you should support them

I've been loudly struggling a little bit with corporate webcomic Stuff lately so I want to mention something positive to balance it out: webrings run by small groups of creators earnestly trying to support each other are slowly making a comeback and I for one am delighted.

If you weren't around for them in the before times, webrings were just some folks who hang out a lot who feature each other on their websites. That's literally it lmao. There's generally no money involved and it only really functions the way it's supposed to if people have control over their own websites AND genuinely want to participate and get excited about other folks' work, which means the practice has pretty well fallen by the wayside over the years in webcomic culture given. Everything. In the rare event someone decides to do something like this it's usually in the form of a link list somewhere on their website; this doesn't usually indicate any sort of mutual support, it's just a list of what the creator is reading themselves.

A webring, though, is an official banner or hub that people gather under intentionally where each member is more or less on equal footing. It's essentially the concept of "a rising tide lifts all boats" put into practice, each creator brings their own audience to the table in a passive, opt-in sort of way that's different from working for a publisher since there isn't necessarily a Top Spot or a paycheck everyone's vying for, and individuals retain autonomy over both their own work and how (if) they promote each other. You're all at your own tables in an artist alley rather than fighting over the table in the front of the book store, essentially.

I have two rings and one collective for you today!

Webcomic Ring was brought to my attention AGES ago by Holly, one of the artists featured there, and I might have brought it up at some point but I'm doing it again lmao. This is exactly the kind of thing you ought to be looking for; a small group of enthusiastic folks having a good time making their weird little comics. You probably haven't heard of much in the catalog, that's PERFECT in the context of webcomics that's where the GOOD SHIT is. Finding something like this is A Gift go dig around in the longboxes for a while.

Then a few people have pointed me in the direction of the KNIFEBEETLE collective and that's neat too! Most of the comics there are already fairly well-known, but the vibes are excellent and I haven't seen a lot of talk about the collective /itself/ outside folks already in the know. I think it's important for this sort of thing to be more visible to folks who aren't terminally steeped in webcomic culture already so here I am telling you about it. You were probably reading several of these before I suggested it, but that's how a webring works! For it to do its job you should take those bigger creators' tacit recommendation of the less popular titles as a sign to go read something new and strange. Wild, I know these are practices held over from the old internet, but I think we should try and bring them back.

Lastly, I want to mention Spiderforest, which is a collective (slightly different from a webring) BUT still a very cool project readers starved for new stuff should pay attention to.

You've probably seen Spiderforest kicking around for a long time already; they're wonderful and have always been an overall positive force in the community in my experience. They really focus on building up a community, and especially welcoming newcomers and helping them get their feet under them. Full disclosure, I've been asked to apply by a few different folks over the years and the only reason I never did is I don't have the ability to participate in their forums and such as frequently as they want their creators to; it's a very good system (from my outside perspective) that might contribute to the community staying mostly healthy in ways that art communities usually don't and I appreciate it a lot!

ANYWAYS that's all I got for now, just trying to balance out some bad feelings I've been having by talking about some good stuff. Please go binge an archive this week.

[inkskinned]

something that stuck with me once, way back in middle school when i was still learning how to write - my teacher said "writing shock and tragedy is easy, it's humor that's the hardest."

i have been up and down the halls of academia. i have the fancy degree and the experience in publishing. i think i paved most of my own road with the little bricks of sorrow i had stored inside of me. i know i did it mostly with works that are blisteringly lonely. i know why we write like that. it's lifesaving.

but yeah, i mean. i also know how much people think that "sad" media is the same thing as "good" media. our human desire to connect is so hard-pressed that we immediately latch onto any broken themes. the bullied kids and the tales of inspiration. people keep saying things like "glass onion" and "everything everywhere" weren't actually good. because, you know, they're. happy. or happy-ish. happy enough. and we only value art if it's grimdark-adjacent.

do you know - people still consistently whine at me that my writing would be so good if i just capitalized things. i used to flinch. i get kind of a weird, vindictive little rush these days - i get to say thank you for the comment! i have chronic pain and this is how i conserve my hands so i can write more during the day :) grammar isn't real anyway! and now they're trapped in the room with me, you know? i get to pull out my map and show them how grammar is not the same thing as good writing.

writers have this thing. we scratch at our insides, constantly, prying our lives apart into splinters. prying the splinters apart into atoms. when we combust something into poetry, we control it. it cannot hurt us if it exists outside of us rather than burning a hole through the bottom of our lungs. it's not a wonder to me that so much of what i make comes out like a death gasp. i spent a long time at the bottom. i keep going back, too. when you're down there for so long, the only thing you can exhale is fumes.

but humor is hard. humor needs timing; which i can't promise in a paragraph. i can kind-of force it through careful spacing, but i have no idea how fast you're reading these things. humor needs a somewhat awareness of your audience, when really - anybody could be looking. humor needs us to understand what the joke is, why it's a joke, and to think - ha! that is funny. in tragedy, everyone understands the metaphor of a kicked puppy. in humor, you need to introduce them to the concept of a dog.

and forget about positivity. forget about anything not made for adults explicitly. every time i see a well-made children's media piece, i feel fucking horrible for the creators. most of the time, people see children's media as being sort of "not worth" applause, even though i'm pretty sure they have to work twice as hard. i have no idea how hard it must be to not be able to have your character just say. "well, fuck." something about a message of peace or friendship or caring - for some reason, that makes the media not for adults. like, okay. i'm pretty sure my father actually, out of all of us, could use a good book on how to control his temper and talk about his feelings.

but whatever. i write a short story about my ocd, and how it's fucking killing me. it gets an award. it gets published. i write a short story about my ocd, and how i'm overcoming it, and how my days are getting lighter and starting to flourish. i keep getting ghosted. no response. it just is lacking... something.

is this it, forever? you can be an artist, okay. but the trade off is that the things you make - if they're happy? if they're joyful? people will say it's stupid and pandering. you bite your nails off. you file your teeth. you hear something inside of you breaking.

the other day in a writing group, someone i'd thought of as a friend said: "you write so much better these days! i love what you make when you'd rather be dead."

[praetorqueenreyna]

I love reading about u talk about acotar, really intrigues me enough to consider reading the books, I'm also very interested in any and all fandom gossip, so please please please tell me what is the current situation? What is elaingate in reference to? 👀👀👀

WELL FIRSTABLE if you read the books, stop after the first one 😂 and THANK YOU FOR ASKING I will relay the tale of some of the most low-stakes fandom drama to ever exist that I accidentally started WHOOPSIE

On July 24, 2024, the blog for Elain Archeron Week posted the rules for the event. There were 4 rules, one of which was that they wouldn't allow ships with "known abusers" and listed Tamlin and Beron as examples (I assume you know who Tamlin is lmao, Beron is a kind of generic Mean Dad character). ACOTAR fandom is known for being puritanical and religiously devoted to canon, but this is a new development. Event week mods have ignored/not reblogged content they don't like that was submitted for their week, but this is the first one I've seen that outright BANNED anything.

There was already a little kickback that mostly has to do with the two competing ships for Elain, elriel and elucien. They both think the other is the DEVIL even though both ships are equally boring. Apparently, the Elain Week is run by elriels, and eluciens were already huffy about the wording of an ask wondering if elucien would be allowed in the event. This part of the story is boring and doesn't have anything to do with me, the star of the show, so I will move on.

Anyway! A few fandom friends sent me links and screenshots of all of this because it's objectively funny. I made a post talking about how funny it was, which brought attention to it on this side of the fandom. My mutuals (the most hilarious people on the planet) asked what was going on, and immediately joined in on the fun. Memes were created at an astronomical rate. Art, fic, and poems for every possible ship of those three characters were made. Amazingly enough, Tamlin/Beron has had a huge surge of content, as the two men named and specifically banned from the week. I started tagging the posts #elaingate, and apparently it caught on enough that the tag now has over 100 posts in it.

To clarify!! The issue has never been about the ships themselves. There are VERY few Tamlin/Elain shippers on tumblr, which I know because I have run multiple demographic surveys and crunched the numbers. And absolutely NOBODY was making Beron/Elain. You have to understand how bland this fandom is. They consider one of the most degenerate, disgusting ships to be the main male character and....his wife's sister. And it certainly isn't isolated to elain/elriel stans, they were just the unlucky bastards to finally verbalize these insidious issues with fandom, especially ACOTAR fandom. Mostly just that the fandom is EXTREMELY conservative, and also that people that like the Popular Thing always have to make themselves out to be the ultimate victims. It's also in poor taste for running an event week. Yes, event weeks are run by fans in their free time, but the idea is to inspire EVERYBODY to create for the thing that you're a fan of. If you're so precious that simple seeing a ship you don't like sends you to the fainting couch, an event week is probably not the thing for you.

I wrote a whole essay on modern ACOTAR fandom here then deleted it bc YOU DID NOT ASK. But anyway THAT IS ELAINGATE we are all being very silly.

[archipithecus]

Friends at the Table is a podcast focused on critical worldbuilding, smart characterization, fun interaction between good friends, and asking "what if X was Y? what if W could do Z?"

anyways here's a non-comprehensive selection of some times FatT asked good hypotheticals

(spoilers for Autumn in Heiron, Marielda, Winter in Heiron, COUNTER/Weight, Twilight Mirage, Sangfielle, and some Bluff City i think) (i know Spring, Partizan, and Palisade must also have good "what if X was Y?" but i'm still catching up) (this got way long so i'm putting it behind a readmore) (shoutout to Search at the Table at https://curiosity.cat-girl.gay/ for letting me do this) (also to Transcripts at the Table for writing this all down in the first place)

KEITH: What if I was a snow...hawk… ART: What if you're like, a Dr. Seuss animal? KEITH: Yeah! What if I was a star-bellied sneetch?

KEITH: (laughing) What if the bird was a can opener!

AUSTIN (as Zaktrak): It's like, what if a, what if a factory or train or a windmill could read a book?

AUSTIN (CONT.): And then he, he looks up, he actually has like a very… his build is kind of like, angular and… not thin in terms of like, weak? But he has a sort of… androgynous character about him, in terms of his like, what you would think of as like his body structure. And… very beautiful blue eyes. He’s sort of like, what if David Bowie was super black.

AUSTIN: And that's kind of like, the picture you get of her, is like, What if Fero was like, 30% less hyperactive? Still way more hyperactive than everybody else in-- the world? (laughter) but like, just a little more in tune, with the world.

AUSTIN: What if fire was matte?

ART: What if a—what if a 90s after school special needed some graffiti

AUSTIN: Yeah. He asks you, um... watching what unfolds, and there's, there's, it's--and this is the fuckin' nerdiest thing I'm ever gonna say; it's like what if A-ha's Take On Me was an AMV? Was an anime music video?

AUSTIN: Ali’s character, how did she describe her character, “what if Han Solo used to be Beyonce?”

AUSTIN: It’s like, what if the American government was just another American company?

AUSTIN: It’s like what if holograms did gifs, basically?

ART: You how like Han Solo’s always talking to the Millenium Falcon, but what if the Millenium Falcon-- AUSTIN: Could talk back? ART: Had a chance of, yeah, of deciding he was angry.

SYLVIA: For example. Like just p - yeah, what if they have psychic assassins there. Oh! What if this planet’s an alien? What if this planet is a psychic assassin? Which is a great sentence I just said.

AUSTIN: Yeah, I should note that this is also like "What if the Super Bowl was attended by high fashion models?", right?

AUSTIN: We don’t get a lot of elderly non-binary people. And so Saint Auger is like, what if someone you knew from Portland was 82?

AUSTIN: It’s almost like, what if a crown could be a dunce cap?

AUSTIN: It's like- what if there was a really enterprising twelve year old, who like, [laughs] made a physiology- uh, person- a physiology like, model, but with dirt and rocks and sticks. Also there's no face, the face is also just one of this solid black rock plates.

AUSTIN: And again, there’s just light streaming in through—I think this room is mostly, like, does not have a huge window, but it does have little eyelet windows at the top of the, towards the ceiling, that run horizontally along the room, and just like, bright—it’s almost like, what if colour could be shadow? Do you know what I mean? Like, what if instead of it being that a shadow crosses your face, it is this prismatic glow that moves across the group of you as this thing crawls around this space station.

AUSTIN: It’s like white and blue, there are stars, it- you know, I think that the- it’s, it looks like the way you might imagine like, what if the UN had spaceships?

AUSTIN: What if you mixed your- your selfhood, with the notion of wings. Or the notion of flight. Not just flying. That’s where we’re going.

AUSTIN: This giant battleship that’s like ‘what if a millipede instead of legs had guns and what if it was all around it’?

AUSTIN: This thing is like the size of like a major city. This thing is like, what if Manhattan was a battleship. And instead of buildings it had guns. Except now they’re made of weird black glass.

AUSTIN: The first time he showed up I described him as what if Canderous Ordo decided to have a robot body one day? And slowly began to replace it.

AUSTIN: There’s a little— Yes, it’s like what if a cow— what if Christian Slater was playing a cowboy from New Jersey, and also was Canderous Ordo. And also he eats through his hands.

AUSTIN: There is just this like… I think it’s just metal unfolding across space. Like, at some point Volition just kind of spat out a, a, almost, it looks like a cloud of ink but instead of ink, it’s metal. And it’s just unfolding indefinitely in space like a huge— like what if Akira, what if at the end of Akira when Tetsuo turns into a weird flesh monster? It was that but various types of metal, just like bubbling all over the place throughout space, and I don’t know how you deal with that! But suddenly in the middle of the Mirage there is just this, this ink splatter, this, this gaseous, you know, spread of metal.

AUSTIN: And it’s like — again, it’s like a pistol — it’s like what if a pistol was also like a curved sword, like almost like a scimitar or something?

JANINE: What if we do a live show, but the only live show we ever do is at Bakucon?

ART: Um, let me tell you, this is a nice coat, you guys. Um, I think it’s sort of like what if… What if a leather duster jacket was like an ephemeral idea.

AUSTIN: It’s like … I think the way I described it was, what if there was a Companion Cube that could have its corners pulled apart and in the middle is a weird glowing sphere?

AUSTIN: He has this dope, like, “What if the Millenium Falcon was a deep V?” Instead of just that little bit at the top, it goes really deep down. Or like, “What if Pacman was really long?” You know what I mean?

AUSTIN: Okay. You find him like, rolled under the bottom of his, uhh, or like on a, it’s not rolled under, he’s on like a little, like cart that has a pneumatic lift, or it’s like, it’s like a, it’s like a robot that walks around. It has like- it’s like a Boston Dynamics- like what if a Boston Dynamics, like four-legged robot was also a thing you laid on top of? Like one of those carts that goes underneath a car, to repair it. You know what I’m talking about?

AUSTIN (as Morning’s Observation): [exhales thoughtfully] Like what if milk was a solid.

AUSTIN: But it still has that ribbony-quality? [chuckles] It still has the sound of fabric rubbing on fabric? But is definitely amplified a great deal, probably? And also, we know it’s sharp, so there’s probably some… sharpness to it? You know… there’s probably, like… what if a ribbon could be a sword you pull out of a sheath?

AUSTIN: And also, Saint Sommer is a big lion man. Saint Sommer is, like… Skein. And is a big… a big… like, a big lion man. Not like Lion-o from Thundercats. Like… what if Scar could… had a big human body? Was, like… What if Scar was cut?

KEITH: And it sort of like, snap! Like, that, it's like… when we were talking about what the sound it makes, I was picturing… what if folding a blanket sounded like sheet metal?

AUSTIN: Yeah, yeah. I don’t know I think it’s like, I think this is very much like, what if the Venom symbiote was made of thread, right?

AUSTIN: So maybe it's like a- like imagine, what if a mop could just mop by itself.

AUSTIN: I won’t talk more about that stuff, but you already saw the big picture of “what if Connecticut was a space ocean,” so, you have at least some context there.

AUSTIN: It’s huge. It’s the size of a continent, right? It’s “What if South America was a big circle?” It’s “What if Europe and Eurasia was a big circle?”, constantly cast on this planet. And, you know, from space it kind of looks—not flat necessarily, right, because it’s a curved planet, it’s a sphere, or spherical, but, you know, it’s flat.

AUSTIN: It’s like what if Texas stood up.

AUSTIN (as Morning’s Observation): “What if cars brought things to you instead of bringing you to things?”

AUSTIN: It’s just like a very bright, colorful—like, what if Steven Universe did the Sailors of the Ark? What if that team did it? It’s very good.

AUSTIN: It’s like what if it’s a can opener that does that. Like a living can opener like. Grrrngaaah! I’m going fucking open holes in things! Grrngaah!

AUSTIN: Imagine that they're almost- in my mind they're like what if a martini shaker was a piston.

AUSTIN: It's like what if you could package a sunset, y'know? Into like a cube

AUSTIN: I can't believe we started this recording by looking at pies [KEITH and DRE laugh] that make me hurt and ended with ‘what if all foods could be jelly juice?’.

AUSTIN: I saw a big buffalo picture and I was like what if that was a person, that looks cool.

ART: But what if some of these skeletons are like, sick of this shit?

AUSTIN: I think I pitched this show as like: what if Ghost in the Shell but-but magic and witches instead of cyborgs and stuff?

JACK: So, out come this nascent organization who we’re calling Shapeknights. Who are -- I think the easiest way to say it is “cowboys for trains?” They are, like -- what if instead of the cowboy riding alongside the train on his horse, he was corralling the train? Or he was trying to understand the train, or was trying to --

ALI: I think Marn, herself is a little bit more like—like what if a capybara was a siamese cat?

KEITH: Yeah. So, I wholeheartedly recommend this movie, but if not, if you don't know what I'm talking about with the goggles, at least look at that. ‘Cause it's a good image. It's sort of like, what if you had a jeweler's loupe that had a jeweler's loupe that had a jeweler's loupe?

ART: It’s like, what if the antagonist won the Mummy movie right, this is what happens-

KEITH: What if instead of one, big, beautiful hat I have two small, beautiful hats?

KEITH: Like what if they made headphones just for being cool at a party?

KEITH: What if you make pizza by opening the box? That it was an empty box until you opened it.

AUSTIN: What if insects were made of teeth?

JACK: She’s the fuckin’ person of the train. She’s like what if a train could output a person.

KEITH: What if the train was a nice train?

ART: What if a Madame Tussauds came to life?

AUSTIN: What if fire could be a ghost?

AUSTIN: Looking through this here, sounds like what you wrote here was “What if a dolphin was like a velociraptor?”

AUSTIN: They’re hitched. Yeah, they've been hitched. Three of them have been hitched. And I said horse, but I want you to imagine is what if…what if a shrimp were a horse?

JACK: You sort of just like rise up the slope. It's a bit like what if a train was an escalator.

AUSTIN: What if Beyonce was Poison Ivy?

AUSTIN: All my cards on the table, Millennium Black is like what if Blade stopped being a vampire hunter and started being a casino owner.

AUSTIN: He's sort of like what if Alex Jones wasn't terrible

[lylahammar]

(Feel the need to state this up front: I'm bisexual, afab, kinda cis but also kinda trans, nonbinary isn't the word I'd use for myself but... alas, it's the only one people recognize as a general consensus)

I've started to understand why the term sapphic is more appealing to some people, but it still really bothers me as a descriptor/category. When talking to a friend about it (she strongly prefers Sapphic as a term), I started to sus out why:

The vast majority of my initial exposure to the term was always attached to something... aesthetic? Stories or art or music, but of a specific *type*. To the point where it gained a hyperspecific meaning of a period or historical setting, "gay woman trapped in comphet marriage and needs to be saved by bold lesbian", young girls fooling around with girls with no need for commitment because everything is fleeting and nothing is permanent and choices dont matter... on their own, these are perfectly fine narrative choices and are fun to play in sometimes, but they sure start to just seem... repetitive and restrictive and borderline fetishizing. To me, it reads as a term specifying that the love women feel for other women is the only kind allowed, that it's true and pure in a way the love a woman feels for a man isnt, and that her true self can never be realized without admitting she was in love with women since the beginning and was always supposed to be. Achillean gives me the exact same vibe.

On the other hand, my friend feels the term is *less* specific, and to her it allows *more* room for people who don't identify strictly as feminine or as a lesbian, for her it just is a broad umbrella term that allows for any variation of girl-identifying-person who likes girl-identifying-people.

Ultimately, I don't think she's wrong, and I don't know that my interpretation is right. But I think I've been exposed to a.... imma call it a "hyper-aggressive romanticization" of a particular way of existing that just puts me on edge in a way that's hard to explain to people who don't feel the same way about it. I don't think there's anything wrong with romanticizing something like that it's just that... for me, who still identifies as a woman despite being om T, who is married to a cis woman, etc... it feels ironically exclusionary and fetishizing, and mostly feels fantastical and escapist, rather than grounded in anything real.

TL:DR, it feels like a book genre, not a usable term/identifier

Ohhhhh okay I see I wasn't sure if there was something actually problematic about the term that I wasn't aware of, that sounds like it's just a preference based off of the vibes of the way some people use it

honestly I prefer sapphic and achillean because the terms "wlw" and "mlm" are so clunky and hard to say and sound goofy in my brain lmao not to mention the fact that mlm has a separate negative meaning that gets mixed up a lot

and the term "lesbian" is very specific and doesn't apply to all women who are attracted to women

so like....... idk I guess it sucks that some people have given the term sapphic a bad association for some but I'm gonna keep usin it if that's the only reason why bc I don't really care about all that and if ppl know me then they'll be able to tell that I'm not being a weirdo about it lol

[alexanderwales]

How do you advertise your website for people to see it? Because I'm having trouble getting my stories out.

Oh boy am I the wrong guy to ask. Anything I say here is going to be "do as I say, not as I do".

The best way to get your stories out there is for someone to find them and love them and spread them to everyone else they know. If your stories are good, then this will keep happening, and you will accumulate a legion of followers who naturally want to share their experience with your stories, whether that's writing fanfic, making fan art, writing reviews, or having discussions.

The second best way is to have an algorithm pick them up. This also somewhat requires people to like the stories, but it's more passive, and you don't need someone literally going to a place they hang out and saying "hey, read this story". Not all websites have algorithms, but some of them do, and I used to post my stories on reddit, which is probably where a good initial chunk of my readers came from. Some websites where you post stories have algorithms of their own, but I mostly mean websites that are for other things. Being an active member of communities can help, but you have to actually want to be there, because people hate shilling by outsiders, at least in most place (it's a form of advertisement, which people also hate).

The third best way is advertisement. As stated, people hate it, but it can be effective, I guess. I don't know, I don't really do it. Find active discords for places where people read stories like yours, promote there while trying to obey the rules about self-promotion, this will probably be met with silence and someone will say "is it any good?" and maybe one of them will take the hit and read it to report back (and then hopefully it's good). This has mostly been my experience with people coming to my discord, I don't think I have ever done this myself.

The fourth best way is engagement. Answer every comment on your story you see. Talk to every reader. I hate this, it gives me cringe feelings, so I don't do it, but I'm fairly sure it does actually give some results, mostly by giving people positive social feelings about you and your stories (?). I have almost never enjoyed hearing someone talk about their characters, so I don't talk about my characters, but I think there are people on TikTok or wherever who have gotten traction by being very social and intentionally namedropping their book.

So ... I don't know. Writing on the internet is hard. It sometimes feels like people only want to talk about the same six media franchises, or the new hotness. The approach that works best is to write as much as you can, as consistently as you can, with as high of a quality as you can, and then hope that if you put out a hundred tendrils, eventually you'll get a tug on one of them. The reading communities are kind of a mess, and there's way too much self promotion, a lot of it for stuff that isn't good.

I fear this isn't helpful, and I do not actually do these things, so take all this with a big grain of salt.

[pinkpastels113]

intro post

okay so i realized that i've never done one of these and i kinda want to!! esp for the new people following me and my side account @caitlynspistol, which i plan on keeping even if my fandoms and otp brain rots change

name: wenz (pronounced as when-zzz, or if you're anne, whence is fine too LMAO). it's not my real name but that's what i'm comfortable with on here!

pronouns: she/her.

nicknames: i respond to girl, girlie, dude, or any cute pet names hehe

age: 22

personality type: enfj (protagonist mbti personality). i also relate to harley quinn, lexie grey, annabeth chase, red of hearts, and chloe beale (besides the barging into other people's shower part). more of a golden retriever than a black cat, esp at work and around people i like and can be myself with, but can be a standoffish opinionated moody lil binch if im pissed or annoyed lmao

lgbtq?: yes. i think im labeling myself as bi but leaning towards wlw

country: usa (even tho i be so tired of it sometimes 💀)

comfort fandom: pitch perfect and bechloe! it's the fandom that i originally joined tumblr and got an ao3 account for, and the pairing that i feel the most comfortable and natural writing for

type of content creator: i'm more of a writer than an artist but i'm trying to explore more of my artsy side. i've loved drawing since i was 5. it's just difficult sometimes to motivate myself and practice my art when everyone else is so much better HAHA

i prefer to write drabbles and one-shots more than multi-chapter fics bc my attention span and motivation just. won't let me. but if enough people encourage me and ask for them-!! i also like to write aus? and fluff? and meet-cutes i think :)

current obsession/brain rots: glassheart from descendants the rise of red but im scared that caitvi will take over this spot when the new arcane season releases lmao

others: wenclair from wednesday, chaggie from hazbin hotel, harlivy from dc but mostly the tv show, damie from the haunting of bly manor, percabeth from percy jackson

guilty pleasures: nikkenzie (dork diaries), miraculous ladybug (ADFSJHDSLK MY SISTER GOT ME INTO THIS DON'T COME FOR ME-), sunset shimmer x twilight sparkle

comfort/fav shows: grey's anatomy and friends

comfort/fav movies: tangled, mulan, mean girls, just chick flicks in general ig, the pp franchise

music: i'm a swiftie so pop :) not the ones that are too techno but like soft? but also catchy. i also like throwback 2010s music bc those SLAP

hobbies besides being a part of the fandom: i like to play card games, read/discover contemporary romance books, paint, text or hang out with my friends, do puzzles, be a couch potato, play wild rift (league of legends on mobile), watch asmr videos on tiktok, and just explore the city ig

special tags?: "wenz can talk" for my posts that i just yap in, "w writes" for my writing, "w sketches" for my art

anything else to share: i love getting asks! like from ask meme games or just getting to know you questions, nothing too personal tho! i also welcome any kind of interaction that gets me to talk about my fandoms/brain rots/ships. pls don't be shy lmao: you can interact through tags in a reblog or through an anon ask if you don't know how ima react. worse case scenario i just won't reply? but i'm not gonna judge or bash on you or anything unless you come for me first 😭

[cottoncandy-cult]

Artistic Temptation

Ban x Reader

(Y/N) was in the kitchen with Ban as he prepared several orders, that night was a busy night at the boar's hat as they had once again moved to a new area. She wasn't a server but rather she did the dishes, needless to say she spent a lot of time with the silver haired man. But yet they rarely ever spoke, both usually engrossed in their work. Even outside of the kitchen, the only ones she actually spoke to were Meliodas and King. She and the other girls were just too different to actually hang out, she was a tomboy and a drinker who was just too quiet. When they weren't working, she was usually sitting in a back corner table and drinking while she worked on her art. She had a book that she drew in, having a photographic memory made things easier for her to fill the pages. She had even drawn the sins, not that she told any of them. Gowther knew but is that really a surprise? "Hey (Y/N), Elizabeth isn't feeling well. Can you take over for her?" The captain of the sins peeked his little blonde head in, giving her a smile that she just couldn't say no to. "Sure thing, be right out." She called to him with a soft smile, quickly trying to untie her apron.

At least until she realized she tied it weird and couldn't see what she was doing, blushing deeply she turned to Ban who was taking a short break. "Uh... Ban... Can you help me?" Her blush darkened as he looked up at him, that sexy smirk dancing across his face. "Sure, what do you need?" He spoke with a slight drawl, approaching her as she turned her back and looked over her shoulder. "Can you untie me; I can't see what I'm doing." Her cheeks were cherry red as he stepped up behind her, she could feel his warm hands brushing against her exposed skin thanks to her uniform. She tensed a little when feeling his hand brush against her butt, then she felt the apron come undone while he stepped back and chuckled. "There you go." She quickly removed her apron and tossed it over a nearby chair, mumbling a sweet but shy thank you before she rushed out without seeing the blush on thief's cheeks. He had touched her bum on purpose out of impulse, mostly because it just looked so soft, and he had to see for himself.

After they closed up (Y/N) was beat, her feet ached alongside her back as she took a seat at the now empty bar and laid her head down. Though she glanced up when hearing the stool to her right move and the sound of something being sat in front of her, when (E/c) eyes looked up all she initially saw was a mug of beer and when she glanced to the right, she spotted a grinning silver fox. "You look like you could use a drink." He shrugged his broad shoulders and leaned forward onto the bar before he began sipping his beer, she felt a smile creep across her face and slowly sat up beginning to drink the beer put in front of her. "Thanks... There's a reason I prefer the kitchen over working out here on the floor." She giggled and the angelic sound made him chuckle a bit, while nodding his head he spoke up. "I know what you mean, I don't care much for working with customers."

That night was 2 weeks ago, the two had spent all night drinking and talking about anything that came to mind. He actually helped pull her from her shell, something that made the others happy as well. Currently they had stopped in some kind of forest, taking a break from traveling and working. There was a town about 20 minutes away by foot and Elizabeth had gone with Meliodas into town to gather some supplies. It wasn't clear what the others were doing, but (Y/N) was settled under a tree and began drawing in her book. She had been drawing a picture of Ban, King had once told her of the days that he had his long hair, and it made her curious. She had never tried drawing anyone or anything without it being something from memory, at least not since she was a kid. She was just finishing up when a voice startled her, luckily it wasn't enough to make her mess up the image. "What're ya drawing?"

She easily recognized this cheeky tone as Ban's voice, making her blush darkly and quickly move to shut her book. "Nothing really... Just... Doodling..." Her voice was soft and shy as she suddenly felt like a bunny under his crimson gaze, Ban's smirk growing as he hopped on top of her. His fingers glided over her sides, her beautiful laughter escaping as she squirmed and tried to push him away with one arm while holding the book up with the other. Unfortunately for her she ended up tossing her sketch book to the side, though she was too busy trying to escape from his tickles to notice. That was when he had quickly jumped up, taking advantage of her panting tired out form, he quickly grabbed her sketch book. When she noticed she quickly tried to grab it, but he held it up, making her hop but even then, she still couldn't reach it.

"Come on (Y/N), let me have a look. You know I won't judge you." His smirk turned into a sweet smile, making her blush and step back. She looked away before nodding her head softly, making him pat her hair gently before he began looking over all of her drawings. His grin was growing, he was amazed at this secret talent of hers. He realized that despite all the talking they've done lately he knows nothing about her really, she was an enigma to him, and it was weirdly attractive to the albino male. "Wow... Why didn't you tell me you could do this?" His words came out soft but deep, making her cheeks a crimson color. "I feel like it might creep people out because I draw them..."

His chuckle made her heart flutter as he looked at her, his eyes seemed so soft and sweet. "I'm sure the others wouldn't care, especially with how awesome you've made us look... Your drawings are almost as beautiful as you..." His words caught her off guard, but before she could say anything he had planted his warm lips against hers. She was shocked at first, but quickly began to kiss back. Her arms wrapped around his neck, and his curled around her waist. It was pure bliss for her, being in his arms made her feel warm and safe. When the kiss broke, she gazed up at him with glossy (E/c) eyes, giving him a sweet smile. "Seems there's truly nothing you can't steal." Her voice was sweet, she took his hand and placed it over her heart. The silver haired man simply smiled and leaned his forehead on hers, slowly swaying with her in his arms. "I love you (Y/N)... No one will ever steal you from me..."

[gorgeouslypink]

I was watching Clueless for the billionth time and I was thinking about Cher's character arc and how she overcomes her biggest flaw, being clueless. I'm just going to give a quick summary for people who haven't watched before I start talking about loa/the void state.

So Cher is like the prettiest, richest girl in school that everyone loves and she knows this and she loves it. People (mostly Josh but probably other people too) have told her that she's clueless and vain, but she kind of just ignores them and continues living her best life.

That is until it literally blows up in her face.

So what does Cher do? Yes she's upset and distraught over it but then she picks herself up and decides she's going to change.

And then she actually sticks to that. She's seen volunteering and removing her judgemental biases towards people and just working to become a better person.

So why am I talking about this and how does this correlate to the void?

1. You need to change your mindset! I always think it's so funny when people don't want to work on/change their mindset and think their life is somehow going to magically change. Mindset is a big part of manifestation and even outside of loa, changing one's mindset is how people work towards solving problem. I can promise you, go look at almost every book, movie, etc where a character succeeds and they'll have undergone some mindset change. Forget fiction, look at any successful figure in real life and you'll see that they talk about either manifeststion or at the very least, the importance of mindset. Changing your mindset to align with your goals is so important and easy and I don't understand why loa girls of all people don't see that!

2. Persistence is so important! Cher had a pretty solid reputation in being popular and pretty, but that also applied for her reputation of being clueless and vain and that's not going to change overnight, both with her own mindset and people's perceptions. I'm sure Cher would have loved to just tap into the state of being kind and fair but she probably didn't read Edward Art, but does that mean she just gave up? No, she persisted everyday in trying to be kinder and fair and actively did things to push outside her noraml comfort zone and as her 3d changed, her 4d followed suit. The same thing applies to the void. Right now, you probably haven't entered the void, but that's okay. Spend everyday fixing your mindset so that you belive in the void and in your own power to enter it, do things to actively work towards it (refer to my SATS post or just any method that is compatible with you) , and just know that your 4d will follow suit soon. This is literally the law.

3. Don't go backwards. I think if most of us were in Cher's position, we would have probably just gotten over being sad and just went back to being a popular, pretty, clueless girl, but Cher acknowledges her fault and works to overcome it. The thing about the void is most people don't have a positive 3d to return to, but they still return to it instead of trying to overcome their faults, whether it be due to laziness or lack of motivation. Don't let that happen! Acknowledge your faults, make a plan to overcome it, and then overcome it. Stay strong and motivated and I know you will live your dream life soon.

Good luck everyone 💗

[kvalenagle]

Okay, I've been summoned to Tumblr by cute Satra and Lei fan art, so I should probably introduce myself and my books. Hello! I'm Vale, and I write creature fantasy as K. Vale Nagle. If you like interesting gryphons, you're in the right place: aquatic diving petrel/fishing cat gryphons, poisonous hooded pitohui/tiger gryphons, pretty gyrfalcon/snow leopard gryphons, intimidating Haast's eagle/saber-toothed tiger gryphons, soggy sandgrouse/sand cat gryphons, and a lot more. My series are epic fantasy using mostly real (though sometimes extinct) animals, free of humans but full of queer characters, intrigue, large battles, and ecological apocalypses. My cover art is by Jeff Brown, with interior graphite pieces by Brenda Lyons and gryphon chapter headers by Kittrel (whose chibi hearts you may have seen). I also have a short story collection (best read anytime after Starling, book three) with a beak-cute lesbian gryphon love story with terror birds, a Gryphon vs. Nature blizzard apocalypse tale, a Christmas-y story, and something pretty close to zombies. I've also written a full novel set in the world of Dire by John Bailey called Coldbright which can be found in the Tales of Feathers & Flames anthology. If you like GryphIns but you want something with more mystery, almost horror, as told through the eyes of a snarky little opinicus and his dire gryphon ex-boyfriend, it's a great read this time of year. I love and appreciate all the fan mail, fan fiction, fan letters, and people reaching out about this series. I'm a little slow replying, as I started writing the series right after getting diagnosed with a catastrophic autoimmune system. The treatments are pretty intense, and it's easiest for me to spend my time and energy writing. I used to have a few pen names across several genres, but for the most part, all of my energy goes into finishing up GryphIns. I'm married to dragon author Glenn Birmingham, so if you've seen us posting pictures of our cats and thought it's strange they share a name, they're the same cats. And that's about it. Just a queer author writing gryphony books when I'm not walking my cat. A few common answers to questions: Q: There are sometimes typos in social media, why is that? A: Catastrophic APS means I've had a stroke (and associated memory loss), so when a copy editor isn't coming up behind me, there'll be doubled words and typos from time-to-time. I used to worry about them, since they don't look good if you're an author! But I'd rather reply to fan letters and kind posts. I think if you've read my author notes at the back of my books, you know to expect a few doubled words here and there. Q: When you say a queer author, what do you mean? A: Since people ask about own voices and I have a lot of lgbtqia+ characters in my books, I'm pan, demi, trans, and genderfluid. I'm lucky enough to have a lot of queer friends and first readers who make sure I don't mess up any characters. Q: When's the next GryphIns novel coming out? A: Some years, I spend a lot of my time fighting health insurance battles, and it slows me down. Pridelord (#8) is currently in line edits. It's twice as long as Eyrie and three times as long as Coldbright, so it's a pretty big book! It shouldn't be too much longer. You'll know it's just about time because you'll hear James Scott Spaid talk about narrating the audiobook. Q: How many books will there be in GryphIns? A: I'm famous for underestimating how many books it takes to finish a series. My other pen names all wrote short stories and standalone novels, so my proposal for GryphIns originally had five books. Jeff Brown is wrapping up the cover for Saberbeak (#9) and Nighthaunt (#10). If I end up needing one more book to finish, though, don't be too surprised.

[sideprince]

It's good to know your strengths and weaknesses and drawing is definitely the latter for me, but I wanted to make some kind of "what might Eileen Prince have looked like" image so I used the portrait maker on azaleasdolls and came up with what her school photo might have looked like. I did a little bit of editing in procreate, mostly to her nose and eyebrows (it took ages and didn't come out quite how I wanted but just count yourself lucky I didn't try to draw this from scratch).

What I like about this is that, while in the text both Eileen and Severus are described as sallow and sour looking with heavy brows in a way that has negative connotations, these features are clearly not mutually exclusive with looking interesting or attractive. This image feels reasonably close to what's described in the books as far as I'm concerned, but if this was a real person I would be curious about them, not put off.

I feel like there's a problem in the Snapedom of confusing attractiveness with conventional beauty, so there's a lot of art that doesn't want to engage with the scrungly parts of Severus. His hair is stringy. His nose is hooked and large. He's thin. These may not be conventionally attractive features, but many people do find them attractive.

There are a lot of meta posts out there that talk about the racist elements of the gothic, romantic male character that Rowling put into Severus Snape. His skin may be sallow and pale, but his hooked nose is a semitic feature that signals otherness and the connotation is that this is villain-coded. Heavy brows, dark eyes, these are all semitic features that are put onto characters not meant to be liked in both gothic literature and the Harry Potter books. (And when I say "semitic"I mean "middle-eastern" ie. features often found on people of middle-eastern descent.) The sallow skin and thin figure imply poverty - even the Malfoys are described as pale, not sallow. Pale implies light skinned, while sallow implies sickly, unhealthy. It takes the romanticization out of the venerated pale skin of gothic literature's heroes and heroines.

Despite the amount of discussion on this that I've seen come and go on my dash, in posts with a lot of notes, I see so much Snape art that makes him look like a drawing on the cover of a romance novel. He's buff, he has a six pack, his nose is straight and sharp, his features are conventionally attractive in ways that go against the text. I'm not here to judge anyone who likes this (except the people relentlessly demanding images like this from AI bots and posting them ad nauseum, but that's because I'm judging them for using and posting AI generated images because it's theft). Fandom is about escapism, and if vanilla Snape is your kink, go forth and live it up. But maybe it's OK to ask yourself, why do I prefer this character when he looks like the idealized male instead of how he's written, if I love him so much? Maybe it's OK to use the safety of fandom to examine what might have been internalized that's biased and uncomfortable with The Other.

In a fandom centered around a character who was brave, heroic, brilliant, and above all, driven by love and loyalty to it, yet was presumed to be evil despite all his continuous efforts to save the hero - in other words, in a fandom centered around a character we understand had exceptional qualities yet was often villainized based on his appearance despite his actions, what is it that compels some fans to impose more conventional features onto Snape to consider him attractive? What does that say to all the other fans who don't have a Eurocentric, unattainably muscular and chiseled aesthetic, who have rallied around Snape because they find him loveable and see themselves in the character?

Again, I'm not judging. But I do think that if your preferred Snape is what I like to refer to as Fabio-Snape, it might be an interesting exercise to explore what you're drawn to and why.

[goodluckclove]

"literary junk food" reminder?

mm FUCK YOU'RE RIGHT.

Okay so like. I'm calmer now. I woke up, made a green tea, and had my daily Weekend Wife Look (That's when I look at my wife while they're still sleeping and think about how much I like my wife). But yes, I saw something on the internet that upset me yesterday and for some reason I've decided I need to talk about it.

Under the read more, though. I got. Rambly.

First off I should clarify a few things, as this is something I can see a certain type of person using as a way to dub me "anti-intellectual". I am not an anti-intellectual. I consider myself decently intelligent and above the norm in terms of the amount and variety of literature I've read. I won't call myself well-read because that's another label I do think is mostly bullshit. But I've read a lot of the "Smart Person" authors like Kafka and Vonnegut and Camus and Calvino. I tried reading James Joyce's Ulysses like three times and it sounds like something I'd love, but for some reason I can never get past the first 60 pages. I can enjoy shit like Naked Lunch and The Sound and the Fury fine but Joyce consistently exhausts me with his particular brand of Irish Incoherence.

What I mean to say is that I regularly enjoy the type of books - and culture as a whole, really - that on several occasions forced me into conversation with A Certain Type of Person. The kind of person who treats their tastes in art as a moral virtue. Who thinks the failings of society are at least partially due to the fact that not enough people have read and appreciated "The Classics". I actually was pushed towards dropping out of college by an interaction I had with a guy who was in the Master's program I was working towards. He saw I was reading J.D. Salinger's Franny and Zooey (I like it! I wish Salinger wrote more women) and took it as an opportunity to start raving about his opinions on Catcher in the Rye, a completely separate book I did not bring up at all.

People who do this make me unreasonably angry.

So the thing I saw was using "literary junk food" to talk about people who only read Young Adult fiction. I have so many issues with this that I don't know where to start. Because it plays into a bigger issue, I think. I see people on Youtube talk about the BookTok influencers who say they only read the dialogue in their books, or who complain about how a book has "so much text". They scoff at these people. Laugh at their inability to properly appreciate literature. These people are the problem.

And like. No? No. No, they're not. Some of them might be a reflection of a problem, sure. If a person of a certain age genuinely struggles with a dense book of a certain length, or if they only read books far below their age level, that could be an issue. But it's 100% not an issue with the reader. Much like how in the rising rates of younger people who struggle with fundamental reading skills, we shouldn't blame or make fun of the fucking kids, you weirdos. What? What are you doing? That's so weird. Stop it.

Most people aren't born with an innate love of reading. There are so many factors that can make developing that kind of passion incredibly difficult. Maybe they didn't grow up in a house with books and they weren't read to as kids. Maybe they're dyslexic or something and the fonts of most paperbacks are legitimately difficult to read. Maybe they were never exposed to the kinds of genres and authors they'd really enjoy. Maybe they saw some stupid fucking argument on the internet (Audiobooks aren't real reading! YA and comics aren't real reading! Mmm paperbacks are soo much better than e-readers I just want to shove them in my mouth yummy yummy I am so cool and smart) and decided they'd rather stay away from all of that entirely.

"Oh," the strawman I invent for this hypothetical exclaims, "but the internet exists! You can just look up more appropriate books to read! There's no excuse!"

Hey, Scarecrow I Reanimated Through the Dark Magic of my Rage? Do me a favor and try what you just suggested. I Googled "books for people moving past YA" and found a few lists on the subject, and the books were mainly:

modern novels I haven't read and might be fine

way-old classics that seem thrown in so people would think there was "variety"

some wack shit i'm very confused why people would suggest to those branching out from YA (Dune? The Martian? That's crazy, right? That's crazy to me.)

I was overwhelmed. I imagine if someone was only exposed to YA and saw a bunch of lists like these they'd could easily be discouraged. That is, if they weren't already discouraged by the dipshits online implying they're wronging themselves by enjoying the books they enjoy.

The thing that pisses me off is that Those People who say that aren't entirely incorrect. If someone only consumes one type of art, they are denying themselves a bunch of styles and stories and perspectives that might profoundly change the way they look at the world and at themselves. This applies to the person who only reads dystopian trilogies and romantasy epics, and it also applies to the person who only reads fucking Tolstoy or whatever. It applies to me, as a majority of the fiction I read up until like five years ago was written by men during like the 40s-90's (I don't know why but that ended up being my Era of Choice).

Variety in art is cool and good. If someone feels like they don't have the option to explore different stories, that belief is the issue. The person is not the one at fault, even if their reasoning for not branching out is incorrect. Yes, there are more adult-orientated writers who aren't old white straight men. There are adult-orientated writers that might be more engaging then the ones from the 19th and early 20th century. Not every adult-orientated book is Ripe With Ideas and Philosophical Concepts. There are fiction books written for adults in mind that make their prose as accessible as their dialogue. There are nonfiction books, even, that are written by intelligent authorities with a genuine love for their subject that makes their writing super enjoyable to read and not at all like a textbook.

But also it's not a bad thing if your main genre is young adult fiction. My main genre is probably post-modernism. The only difference between us is that post-modernism sounds esoteric enough that a lot of people won't question it, where as a ton of people feel super comfortable assuming a YA book is lesser. These are usually the same people who assume young adults are inherently unable to grasp complex ideas.

I don't read a ton of YA. At the same time, I will never go as far as to claim the entire genre has nothing to offer adults, because that's an absolutely insane take. That's nonsense. I've read fucking picture books as an adult that touched my heart (Has anyone read The Dot by Peter H. Reynolds? Oh god I teared up.). Cynthia Voigt's book Homecoming was an early step in me realizing my mom was abusive. I'm pretty sure Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events played a huge part in my want to become a writer.

"But you moved on," the Scarecrow breathes, voice weakening as the dark magic seeps out from the thin veil of hay and burlap, "adults are supposed to move on and read Grown-Up books."

Yeah man, maybe. There's a lot of shit that adults should be able to do, and people are so satisfied with those milestones of Adult Development that they sometimes forget that age is not the only factor in those things happening. If other reading options aren't presented in a way that seems welcoming and engaging, what are they supposed to do? Just walk to a library and grab the most boring looking book because that might be their only frame of reference for a "grown-up" book? Slog through it like they're in high school again? All to feel worthy in the eyes of someone who publicly condescends what might be the only type of literature they've enjoyed and connected to so far?

Why? Why would they want do that?

Anyways I'm getting hungry and the scarecrow I enchanted has lost its sentience, so I'll cut it short. There are a lot of intellectual pursuits - brilliant artists in a variety of mediums - that I am consistently bummed out that people feel like they can't get into. But I also understand, because a lot of people who like Adult Books or Abstract Art or Improvisational Jazz or Experimental Theater tend to not like the art itself as much as they really enjoy being perceived as a person who likes those kinds of things. And ultimately that's - fine.

That's a fine way to live, Scarecrow Corpse. You're allowed to base a majority of your identity out of truly understanding Infinite Jest or Koyaanisqatsi or Derek Jarman's Blue. But like don't expect that to change or improve the lack of culture you claim to hate so much.

[wishhalcyon]

Do you want to read HALCYON?

do you like...FREE BOOK NO STRINGS ATTACHED?!!?!?!?

if so im posting it online! but its not going to be as cleanly edited as my other works.

i only have like, a few things id like to request, and its kind of on an honor system i'm not going to really get mad or upset if you don't do it, but its something really sweet you can do to help me as an author!

but first a description of the book!

book is: about a not nessisarily romantic but definitely bizzarely close feel free to read it however you want im not making anyone kiss project whatever you want onto them, story of a bunny girl superhero with a murder problem , and her wholesome supervillain bestie who wants nothing more than to save her, with fun themes such as found family , memory loss, and of course, miserable children, also the supervillain is a theater kid with a heart of gold and a cup of tea <3

a mix of silly and serious, I put a lot of my heart into it! And it would have been done sooner, but well i kind of got kidnapped so that kind of slowed down most of my writing and other projects for a bit there, it was only for an afternoon, no one got hurt, but it was kind of weird. it was a sort of well intentioned kidnapping though and the lady who did it is getting professional help now which is great, so im just happy she and everyone else is okay :)

I made this book wanting to make a fun world and characters and setting and stuff anyone could enjoy and find interesting, and I think the magic system in place in this lil superhero book (based somewhat on magical girl anime-) will be a fun setting for fanfics and fanart and stuff, and im SUPER excited to see if anyone makes ocs or anything for it because that'd be super cool and I love seeing other people be creative-

anyways onto the rules.

if you read it, please reblog where you found it and that i'm the author, and tell me what you thought!

im posting this online *because i want to interact with people and share what i made with others*, and celebrate other peoples craeativity too in line with that, I dont want to sue you for writing ANY fanfiction or fanart you write about my story, as long as none of you don't try to sue ME if i get inspired by them and or make fanart of them or things like that myself. I want to be an active participant in whatever fandom may or may not form around this, I want to have fun with you guys and enjoy my story WITH you guys. this means you also MAY have more control over how any future things with halcyon goes, and you may be able to help guide some decision making! But I still own halcyon it's not public domain- like i dont nessisarily expect or think i 'deserve' (though it would be so cool) a fandom like that over my book, but i think itd be neat and as someone who really heavily participates in fandom, I really want to be a part of it if i have my own. A lot of times I and other readers are VERY bothered that companies and authors dont litsen to their fans...but oftentimes they legally CANT or theyll get sued.

(Though I still get the final say in any decisions since...my book)

3. If you make anything related to it or post about it at all pretty please @ me, i WANNA SEE ALL OF IT please dont be shy, please ask questions, please say hi to me, Im posting this online because i wanna talk about my blorbos with you, @ing me is like, the reader tax- gimme your headcannons and weird cursed creations, idc if youre photoshopping Acianne into the backrooms ominously or posting about like, alternate universe where Ciero's a rabbit who's wildly daydreaming all of this up, or if youve decided to make thirst traps of hearts, go ahead, @ me, I wanna see it, if i suffer the cost so be it. Carve a watermelon to look like Cieros dad and throw it at the concrete, go splat. just go wild, have fun, just like, no hateful stuff and everyone be nice to each other.

4. im doing this partially with the thought that i could mostly make money off this via selling my own art of it and possibly a game based on halcyon...if so, then i may just post any future books online too, any thoughts guys? are these fair rules? any additions youd add? things like that? thoughts? I also have other books that I plan to publish more traditionally, This is kind of a test to see what works best really. I guess! If this takes off i might stick to free books only, if not, well publishing traditionally it is, whatever I need to do to get by you know? gotta make a living.

the biggest rule is just dont sue me please or pursue me legally im just trying to be a silly lil author who actually engages with their fandom and can get away with it i dont want to steal your stuff, i want to share headcannons with you guys and confirm or deny stuff and give you sneak peaks and PLEASE I JUST WANT TO READ FANFICTIONS WITHOUT BEING SUED IT WOULD MAKE ME SO HAPPY I LOVE FANFICTIONS LET ME FANDOM WITH YOU GUYS I DONT WANT TO BE SHADY PLEASE BY READING MY BOOK LETS JUST HAVE FUN PLEASE- CAN WE PRETTY PLEASE ???? FANFICTIONS ARE SUCH A VALUABLE AND EXCITING FORM OF LITERATURE- AND THEY MAKE ME SO HAPPY SO PRETTY PLEASE BE NICE THANKS

remember DONT RUIN IT FOR EVERYONE ELSE BY SUING ME FOR GIVING YOU SOMETHING TO ENJOY, if you want nice things, don't misuse the nice things!!!! okay? okay so everyone agrees to be nice?...okay then! enjoy!

Ciero/Darling says "Please enjoy chapter 1~"

PLEASE ENJOY CHAPTER ONE I PLAN TO POST THE OTHER CHAPTERS DONT WORRY IM NOT JUST DANGLING A WORM IM JUST TRYING TO EDIT IT AND THERES A LOT OF WORDS SO IT MAY TAKE A BIT OKAY- SO YOURE GETTING IT ONE CHAPTER AT A TIME

: ) enjoy! and tell me your thoughts please <3 all i ask in return for letting you have a free book is some validation and maybe sharing it iwth others if you want-

full book is about 49 almost 50k words :) so look forward to it! it's all written i'm just trying to clean them up with a rough edit through before posting them-

also sorry for emphasising dont sue me so much but im trying to cover myself as much as I can safely I REALLY love writing and my favorite part of it is engaging with my readers, but ive been scared of doing this for a while out of fear thanks to a lot of horror stories ive read online. so please dont be mean : (