#oops! all infodumps

[mbirnsings-71]

@pup-pee I know you have notifications on now but like hands you Magical girl Kyle!!!! He's done!! :D!!!

Magical Girl Guy can be found here!

(Transparent version under the cut because I like using that feature!!)

[sometimes-sleeby-octopus]

I have a new AU idea swimming around in my head where the Smiling Friends are all mages trying to save their town from a disaster event so I drew Mage Allan recently!!! :DD

Shout out to @universallydestinytaco for listening to my infodumping and giving great ideas and feedback on the AU!!! :D

Haven’t worked out all the details yet but here’s some (as in a lot of) info on the au:

1. It would be called the Fifteen Minutes AU since I got the idea listening to the song Fifteen Minutes by Mike Krol

2. Background: The main four would still work for Mr. Boss, but the company would be called The Smiling Sorcerers instead! Their goal is to help out around the town using their magic to make people smile!

3. Glep’s design would be very similar if not completely the same to the design in this post.

4. The main four and Mr. Boss would all have different ways of using magic/spell casting!

5. Mr Boss is a future seer and randomly gets premonitions of events shortly beforehand, usually within the same day, except in the case of really severe events like the disaster, in which he gets a couple days notice. He cannot predict everything that will happen and essentially gets a general summary.

6. Allan utilizes magic cards as both physical weapons/tools and to harness their magic. The fortune’s in the cards, so he has increased luck that he can choose to pass onto others through giving them a card. He pulls them out/summons them from the area by his heart, right underneath his bow. The drawbacks are that she can’t change the size of the cards, only combine them, and she can only use so many before running out of energy, so she has to use them wisely.

7. Glep utilizes mind magic to read others minds and even transmit thoughts to them. He can also increase the production of certain brain chemicals like adrenaline for himself without any side effects. His mind reading also works for premonitions (which makes him find out about the disaster event before the other four). The drawback is that he has to focus to clearly read someone’s thoughts and when he does so, any thoughts that someone has (intrusive, impulsive, random, untrue etc) can be read, so he has to read between the lines and ask the right questions to find out truth. He also cannot use his magic for attacks, but he can utilize it to increase his existing physical ability like in the case of using adrenaline.

8. Charlie uses his hands to cast spells that interact with the existing physical world, mainly through things like levitation and object manipulation. There is no weight limit or energy limitations for his powers, but one of the drawbacks is that the heavier the object, the more concentration it takes to levitate it. Another one of the drawbacks is that he cannot change the "core meaning" of an object (ex: he can't just instantly turn an orange into a potato, he would have to use different steps of manipulations and associations to make that happen, and it could take a while if he can’t think of a proper association).

9. Pim uses a wand to cast his light spells!! They function somewhat similarly to electricity with the different levels having different effects. The lower levels have healing properties and the higher levels are more chaotic and cause damage. They tend to use their powers more so for healing and dislike using them to cause harm, which exacerbates the drawback: The chaos of the higher levels can be difficult to control.

Lastly, here are rough sketches of Charlie and Pim’s outfits!!!

More on this later in another post assuming I don’t burn out haha :’)

TLDR: The Fifteen Minutes AU is an SF au where the main four + Mr Boss are mages working under the company The Smiling Sorcerers, which helps people using their different magical abilities. It was inspired by the song Fifteen Minutes by Mike Krol. Maybe more on the plot later! :3

[too-many-paper-cranes]

oh hey the video is public now so i can post on tumblr about this without sounding insane! anyway everyone should go watch me and a few other speedrunners hunt fire for sport (randomizer edition)

[fairlyqualityanon]

who're your pred/prey crushes ?

totally not collecting blorbos like trading cards shhh - 🪀

Oooooof.wav

There's a ton... I'll try to organize them. Let's start with ones I've written in some form or another.

Pred - TFA Starscream (so close with that guess lmao), anyway I've got this story I've been poking at since literally 2010 (@/wolvesinstarryskies is so supportive 💖 ) and it's gotten me through some really tough times, and yes there's a vore AU... also he's how I found out about vore to begin with (long story, it's over on my Tumblr RP blog)😳, really he's just a dick to his prey and will let them go after thoroughly messing with their head unless you can come up with some bribe worthy of Future Leader Of The Decepticons

Pred - Obey Me! Mammon, idk he threatens to eat the MC and I went "YES PLEASE", I have more fun flustering him when he's a pred than when he's prey 😼

Pred - Obey Me! Beel, it's literally canon and he's a precious boy and going hungry sucks and I'd be perfectly happy to help him not be starving 🥺 I don't care if he eats regular food at the same time as long as I'm safe

Prey - Obey Me! Lucifer (yes really), because that mans is going to take a break whether he wants to or not and I think Diavolo/Barbatos would see the humor in MC taking things into their own hands (my MC's strongest/most-expressed Sin is Pride plus she ain't afraid of this old man 😤)

Switch - Deltarune Spamton, I think he'd be easier to pay to be prey than pred, and I have a thing for robots meaning SNEO defaults to pred and I will immediately yeet myself into whatever fuel container said robopred uses no questions asked 😅

Newest obsession is Solo Leveling (IncredibleEdibleCalico actually did a piece ages back) and I only remembered after watching S1 of the anime and starting the manhwa. I mistakenly bought the books and comic (Vol 1-8) but regret neither purchase. Soooo good! 😍 Anyway here they are in super rough descending order of crush level.

Sung Jinwoo - Pred, I don't know how to put it into words, he just oozes soft pred vibes where tf did he even get that rune stone??? 🤔 maybe he saves someone from a Dungeon and discovers vore is actually pretty neat, he's comically oblivious at times and cares for his minions as people ugh the glowy eye affect it makes me weak

Woo Jinchul - Switch, professional, dry sense of humor, looked Death in the eye and only flinched when he saw the Apocalypse ahead, incredibly smart and intuitive, he's my Guilty Pleasure on this list 👮‍♂️

Song Chi-Yul - Pred, I lied here's another Guilty Pleasure, I actually literally cried at the end of the manhwa, he's only a C-rank mage but teaches swordsmanship to S-ranks, tried to save Jinwoo and Joohee but was talked out of it and regrets it to this day, he is classy and I just want to spend time with him🫡

Baek Yoonho - Prey (yes really), idk something about him makes me want to aggressively demonstrate affection, don't ever tease him about it because despite being the weakest Korean S-rank Hunter HE IS STILL AN S RANK and will cut a bitch (he was ready to beat the crap out of Hwang Dongsoo for strangling his lower-ranked guildmate edit that guildmate isn't even a Hunter and that is not a Hunter you want on your bad side srsly just Do Not The Thing)😼

Choi Jong-In - Pred, he's canonically a bit of a shit-talker and gives me OM! Diavolo vibes and I love me some playful banter with preds what is it with me and people with a red theme?? 😧

Son Kihoon - Switch, he's a sweetheart and I want to snuggle him three different ways, he cares for his strike squad and was willing to set aside a chance for tremendous personal glory as well as sacrifice his whole team to keep a literal army of High Orcs from destroying a few cities 🫂

Go Gunhee - Pred, he's a total badass who gave his all to keep Hunters from basically forming a Might Makes Right society also I have a Thing for older men I am not ashamed to admit it, Song-san is up there for a reason, the man is a Gigachad who outright rigs Hunters Association assignments to keep the D- and E-ranks as safe as possible 🙇‍♀️

Yoo Jinho - Prey, because he's just a sof' boi and must be protected at all costs, maybe he'd find it interesting and like that he was sought out for him and not just because he's Ahjin Guild's vice/Jinwoo's friend 😋

I started Stardew Valley 7/14 so there's gonna be some of that eventually my askbox is open 📨 if anyone wants to gush over their own vore crushes.

Can't forget Horizon Zero Dawn! the events of the Gemini Quest are NOT canon I refuse don't even @ me I WILL die on that hill 🔪

Kotallo - Switch, he's definitely my favorite character and I just love him so dang much, he's a fearsome warrior even without that arm and a brilliant strategist and completely loyal to the good of the Tenakth tribe as a whole, having no other ambition save serving his Chief... but I also want him to sit and relax, maybe having a stomach all to himself will give him a new perspective or insight ⚔️

Milvund - Pred, I did his miniquest back when my computer couldn't run HFW for more than 5-10 minutes but he's so precious and I'm betting would be very hesitant yet also so caring just let me comfort him 😭

Racking my brain for any other major fandoms but I can't come up with any for the life of me so have a bonus Pred TFA Cliffjumper because I have an active thread with him. ... Maybe jjks? I'd have to twist canon in knots to make Sukuna a safe pred, and there's a couple others but I haven't even finished S2 of the anime and a bunch of them are minors soooo...

>>; So much time in TFA focused on That One Smug Bastard and now I'm like "how do with other 'Cons??"

[corneille-moisie]

i was tagged by @im-sometimes-sparkles to spell my url with song titles and did not want to reblog the long reblog chain (you can reblog this one or make your own, either's fine by me :) )

candis - sukekiyo

obscure - dir en grey (cw for gore and other gross stuff, just in case)

rink - blam honey

nas ne dagoniat - tatu (not gonna get us works too :D)

energize me - after forever

inner universe - hora

l'horloge - chanton l'amour

last hallucination - schwarz stein

even in death - evanescence

-

maze - velvet eden

ophelia - kaya

if i could turn back time - cher

senzafine - lacuna coil

iidk - vidoll

edema ruh - nightwish

im tagging @moonjaehwa, @ans-main, @technicontrastron, @kurumeki, @jade-curtiss because im curious but you're under no obligation to actually do it lol :3

eta : no need to link everything, im just extra like that ^^

and if you were not tagged and wanna do it, go ahead, do it !! (tag me though, i wanna see 👀 !!)

[foxmulderautism]

my beautiful autistic mind is so picky and annoying sometimes because my biggest struggle with writing at the moment is the fact i dont like how the name bobby looks written out but i like how it sounds and also know that is his name it literally cannot be anything else. but every time i look at the letters i'm like.......

[cuteniarose]

can you plz infodump about your ocs?? so new people to your blog can understand them

Hey, anon? I hope you know that this ask is the best one I’ve gotten in all my 3 1/2 years on this hellsite, so thank you!! You really don’t need to know about my OCs to follow this blog cause a) I post once in a blue moon nowadays, and b) it’s rarely about my OCs, BUT SINCE YOU ASKED-

K, so, my main OCs are Suiren and Midori, sisters who just so happen to be Ghazan and Ming-Hua’s daughters. They were 7 and 4 respectively when their parents were imprisoned for trying to kidnap Korra, which led to them being placed in the ‘care’ of Ghazan’s older sister, Haya. What happens to them after that? Well, you’d have to be more specific, since I have about a trillion different AUs featuring them. The two most important ones (aka the ones written down) are:

1. Seeds of the Red Lotus. The very first fic I wrote about them, which I... haven’t updated in two years. It currently stands at 5 chapters BUT I am in the process of rewriting and continuing it. The basic concept is that the girls grow up in utter misery under Haya’s iron fist, and in a desperate attempt to get enough money to leave and live a happy, comfortable life somewhere else, Suiren becomes an assassin at the bright old age of 17. Fast forward 6 years, and Team Avatar, unable to take down the Earth Empire on their own, hire her to kill Kuvira

2. Under the Oak’s Shade. A rather self indulgent AU written as a form of catharsis and spiritual healing. Six months into living with Haya, the girls are taken in by Zhi, a cranky lesbian with a bad sense of direction/P’Li’s firebending teacher from the Red Lotus/my friend @katkastrofa‘s OC from her fic Lost and Found (which, unlike the multichaps I write, is complete and you should go read it immediately). Once I pull myself together to actually figure out how the next instalment in the series should go, this will, most likely, eventually become a Red Lotus Korra AU, which I’m definitely looking forward to writing.

Now that the basics are out of the way, let’s get to actual infodumping about my two precious cinnamon rolls. Most of this info is from SotRL-verse, as that is the main story I’ve got about them, so keep that in mind

-

Suiren:

23 years old as of 174 AG. Master waterbender and deadly assassin. Cold, calculating and precise in everything she does, leaving no room for error. Takes no shit from anyone, is fiercely defensive and independent, and is the last person to ever accept any help or charity. Confident in her abilities and borderline cocky at times, a lot of which is a front. Extremely short tempered, nihilistic, cynical and high strung, not willing to let anyone get close enough to her to see her hidden vulnerabilities

She wasn’t always like this. A long time ago, back before she lost her parents, she was much, much softer, kinder and more gentle. Her parents called her their little water lily, and the nickname suited her well. However, P’Li’s nickname for her was ‘my little firecracker’, so she very much still had quite a temper even back then. Overall, she was a happy little girl with bright eyes and a mischievous smile who was determined to excel in her waterbending lessons. She was Ming-Hua’s pride and joy. 16 years of taking the brunt of Haya’s anger to shield her sister, as well as destroying the part of herself that wouldn’t let her mindlessly do the bidding of whoever paid her, changed her, perhaps irreversibly.

Her old life still haunts her, though. Genetics played a cruel joke on her – the silky black hair reaching below her waist, the angular features, the prominent cheekbones, the (relatively) short height – it all serves to make her see her mother every single time she glances in the mirror. Being just like her mother was something she once aspired to, but now follows her like a curse. Even the things she got from her dad, dark skin and golden brown eyes, don’t help, and just make her look like Haya, especially when she’s angry

There is another side to her that no one but Midori gets to see. She may not be as soft as sixteen years ago, but she is still capable of love and gentleness. She loves her sister more than anything else in life, has already killed and would die for her. She is very protective of Midori (though often to a fault). She hugs her tight and kisses her forehead and cheeks, quietly sings her (their mother’s) lullabies as she calms her down from a nightmare, heals any and all her wounds, tells her stories of their parents, always puts her first no matter how pained and exhausted she herself is... In short, Suiren took on the role of a self sacrificing parent a long time ago and has played it well

Suiren is a distinguished lesbian but can’t keep a partner longer than a few weeks. Girls fawn all over her, but once they see past the pretty face and confident demeanour and notice everything wrong with her, they run (which only serves to make Suiren’s abandonment issues worse). She has taken to sticking to one night stands when she needs an outlet for her frustrations, convinced she will never have, and isn’t deserving of, a long lasting, loving relationship

She struggles severely with her mental health, constantly plagued by what she has done. She tries to limit her sleep to avoid nightmares that she knows will come and represses all emotions except for anger as that is the safest to latch onto and channel into killing. She is almost always on edge and feels pressure mounting with every single day. Very prone to overstimulation when it comes to noise, light and people. The only times she ever relaxes (or, at least, pretends to) is when she’s alone with Midori or with Lotus, her pet sabertooth moose lion.

To sum up: the poor girl is a vessel for my trauma and deserves a 30 hour nap, a hug, a warm blanket, the whole world and her parents back

-

Midori:

20 years old as of 174 AG. Earthbender, though not very good at it. She discovered her earthbending only a few months before losing her parents, and had no one to teach her since then. She is naturally kindhearted and hardworking, always trying to help out where she can and seem useful. Quiet and anxious, she prefers to stick to the background and draw as little attention to herself as possible (which is in fact a defence mechanism against Haya’s treatment of her but, y’know, let’s not get into that rn)

Sixteen years ago, Midori was a bright and happy little girl, wanting nothing more than for everyone around her to be happy as well. Always full of energy, she could talk and ramble for hours about anything that crossed her mind. Just as mischievous as her sister, she knew she was the baby of the family and could get away with anything, though to her credit, she didn’t abuse that much. Her parents called her their little Seedling, the youngest of them all so full of potential and eager to grow and make her parents proud. P’Li often called her a cuddlebug for her affectionate nature (am I stealing that from Kat’s fic bc it made me scream into my pillow for five minutes straight? Maybe. You can’t prove anything).

In present age, she’s a lot more similar to her childhood self than Suiren is. She doesn’t talk that much anymore, if at all, and her happiness is often clouded by the harsh world around her, but some of that cheerfulness still shines through, especially when she’s alone with Suiren or with Tenzin’s kids. The energy once used for rambling and chasing butterflies and racing with her sister is now almost always redirected into chores and housework, though if Suiren offered, she’d gladly race her again (and probably win tbh, her legs are longer and Renny prefers faster methods than running)

She doesn’t remember her parents well, and their faces have blurred beyond recognition in her mind. It’s why her appearance doesn’t affect her as much as Renny’s own does her. She’s not a carbon copy of either of her parents like Suiren is, she’s more of an even mix. She knows what Suiren had told her, that she has their mother’s eyes and their father’s nose, but can’t piece anything together in her head. She keeps her hair, as dark and silky as Suiren’s, though thicker, at shoulder length, a bit uneven in places as she cuts it herself. As a child, Ghazan would tie her hair into twin pigtails every morning and she never let anyone else do it. She hasn’t styled her hair in any way since she took those pigtails out before going to bed the night their parents left

A disaster bisexual, proven by the fact that out of all people in the world, she falls for Opal Beifong. You know, the step sister of the woman Midori’s sister has to kill (or die trying), and the daughter of the woman who killed Midori’s beloved auntie P’Li. Yeah, tough case. Anyway, turns out, there is a limited supply of Ghazan’s charm in his genetic code and it all got passed down to Renny, because ‘Dori herself turns into an awkward mess whenever the opportunity to flirt arises. It’s fine though, Opal still finds her adorable. Also she probably had a small crush on Bolin when they first met, but that was because he was one of the only people her age to be nice to her and she got over it quickly

Remember how I said she was quiet and anxious? Yeah, understatement of the century. Her anxiety follows her around throughout her day and is the driving force behind all of her decisions. Many things, from raised voices to passive aggressiveness to bad moods to unfinished housework, can trigger it. When it does, she clams up and curls in on herself, but tries her best to deescalate or rectify the situation. She’s also very sensitive to any kind of conflict, even when she’s not part of it. Midori also worries a lot for Suiren while she’s away on missions, as she knows she’ll completely fall apart if something were to happen to Renny. She has nightmares about it often, almost every night that Suiren is not there. Little does she know, Suiren has similar worries over losing her.

Another big thing is her major inferiority complex. She looks at her big sister and sees someone who has always been talented, powerful and capable. Someone who can do so many things without even breaking a sweat. Someone who has girls fawning all over her. And then ‘Dori looks at herself and sees none of those things. She doesn’t hate Suiren for it, not at all, but tiny inklings of disdain sometimes take form. She tries hard to ignore it, but often can do nothing but listen to those thoughts swirl around in her head.

In summary: An anxious mess of a girl who is in desperate need of a proper support system and someone (*cough* Opal *cough*) who could assure her that she is enough and that it doesn’t matter if she isn’t like her sister, she’s perfect just the way she is

-

If you want me to elaborate on any of this (and this goes for everyone, not just anon) my askbox is always open and my desire to infodump about my precious traumatised babies never wavers

[ravenouswreckage]

[creepyscritches]

I'm going to be interviewing for a position move I've been dying to get into since I started my career and I'm 🥺 my superiors almost tailored the position to me before ever talking to me abt if I was interested and I've had two different employees (one mine and one on our sister team) independently reach out to ask if I was going for the position--one of them even told her supervisor that she and the other hiring manager should pick me for the role 🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺 I love my job.....

[anarcho-masochist]

i just saw ur in the hospital i hope ur okay and im wishing u speedy recovery :(

Aw thanks, that's so sweet x

As fun as watching my blood get drawn 7x a day is (genuinely enjoy that part of being hospitalized. I have very pretty blood) I would also like to be back home and causing my usual mischief :)

[ratcandy]

after one million years I finally added my flight rising blog to my intro post . now everyone must go look at my dragons

[royalreef]

The distance to Miranda's leg down from her shoulder was, perhaps, a longer trip than would have been expected for literally anything else, and the journey was such a downward slope that Ava would have had to lean down to touch Miranda's leg proper, instead of just her back or the top of her hips or the sides of her body.

Her legs, too, were short. Perhaps comically short, considering her usual company, but unexpectedly short, a short that did not leave questions as to itself. They were the same length as her arms, after all, and those in comparison did not feel so terribly miniaturized. The distance between her shoulder and her hip exceeded the length of her arms, meaning Miranda would not be able to reach back to touch her legs without bending some other part of her body. So too, that meant it was a stretch just to reach back up, to find Miranda's hand.

As it was, the top of Miranda's hips would have sat just below a human's hips, and if she were to lean down, to touch her hands upon the ground like how her body seemed more and more likely to be intended for, then she would have been about thigh-high. With her legs sat under her body, as precariously as they were, it was quite a while to go to reach them.

Her legs, like her arms, were thick, stocky. Muscular in equal measure, coming off from her body like the hind legs of a crocodile, and made even thicker by the membrane that ran up the sides of her legs, likewise matching with her arms. They weren't plainly visible like her arms or her shoulders were, wearing an outfit that connected to her neck and stretched over her front, leaving much of her upper back exposed, but there was a distance of bare scales that could be seen below her pants legs. The membrane, the same as her arm, was thick, decorated at the edge with a strip of the same creamy yellow as her fins, with a parallel line on top of the leg itself. More than mere skin, it had to have perhaps fat or keratin inside of it, making it stiffer and thicker, so that the transition off of her muscular limbs wasn't so drastic.

It moved down, maybe connecting somewhere to her foot or to the side of her leg, impossible to tell over her shoes. On her hands, the matching membrane, turning the silhouette of her arm into a proper fin akin to that of a whale or a marine reptile, connected to her first and third digit, so, following the theme, it was likely to match. However, first Ava would have to get the shoes off of Miranda to see, and Miranda had not spoke of that permission being granted yet.

Her shoes were interesting, however. Much like the rest of her clothes, they were tailored and fashioned primarily for her body first, which belied certain underlying differences. Miranda's shoes were wide and multi-part, intended to be able to spread or to move in closer, even if the thicker material needed for this time of year meant limitations. They connected together into one surface, not suggesting how many digits she had, but it looked like she could move them, and perhaps even needed to spread them out for traction or balance. The shoe sat her ankles against the ground, so she was plantigrade, not digitigrade. There were pinched ends, points with textured rubber wrapped around them, where there were likely claws beneath, so those too were probably needed as a vital component of movement. There were four of these points spread evenly, so suggesting each digit had a matching claw, that would mean four digits per foot.

Miranda's hand suggested a little more to what her foot might have looked like. She had five digits there, standard, but two of those digits had been converted into opposable thumbs, the first digit and the fifth. That left three digits in the middle, the fingers which the membrane of her arms connected to, although they had no webbing between them. The thumbs, by contrast, seemed to almost tuck beneath the outline of her hand and the membrane-fins, making them hard to see from the outside, while the fingers sat closer together to each other in a singular shape. All suggested streamlining, but did not solve the mystery of her hands, and why Miranda had something so derived instead of a more typical fin like other aquatic organisms.

Each digit was short and thick, muscular in a way eerily reminiscent of a harpy eagle's. The expected tetrapod condition was present, with the expected number of bones to each finger, the last converted into a claw with a bony core and a keratin sheathe. This was where the comparison felt most apt. Each claw was massive, easily the length of someone else's finger, thick as a bear's and sweeping inwards with a wicked curve. Hooked, even. Each pointed inwards, towards the palm, so that if Miranda curled her hand into a fist, it would all fit together into a cage, trapping anything that happened to be too slow to escape. Even though Miranda held her hand loosely, idly letting Ava examine her without a large amount of fuss, the size and thickness of her hands suggested very few things could escape in time. Even worse to what happened to anything that could not. Miranda's claws, more uniquely, perhaps, looked a little overgrown, further past her quick than expected, but nothing unusual.

Furthermore came another point of comparison, though this one was a stranger one. There were pads on Miranda's palm and across the underside of all of her digits — one behind each of the five claws, one below that on the digits, one where each of the thumbs connected to her palm paralleling the other, and one in the middle of her hand below where the digits connected to her palm. They were large, squishy, like pressing down into a stress toy. It was even a little fun to do so, though the fatty pads represented their own mystery.

The back side of her hands was thickly plated with scales, looking the very most like armor, wrapping around the top of her hands like she was expecting someone to stab them. On her palms, the scales grew smaller, as expected. However, on the pads sitting on her palms, they grew in a strange pattern, which was especially odd, because her palms were the softest part of her so far. They were silky, soft to the touch, suggesting no obvious use and nothing that would make sense in tandem with the cage of her claws. These scales barely provided any texture, no great addition on top of the underlying skin, and the patterns that they grew in were peaked and pointed in zigzag patterns, not providing any more answers.

Miranda, less curious about her own body than Ava, leaned her head down and back to follow her, more interested in keeping watch over where she was touching. It meant her head bent more to the side, body slightly leaning forward and closer to the ground, her other arm lifting up and pressing closer to her chest, perhaps for balance.

If she was having any issue about having a harpy feel her up, then Miranda wasn't saying it, remaining with a strange, nearly befuddled little smile. Maybe she wasn't having issues, but it was odd. Especially now that she was patting her through her clothes, although Ava hadn't reached anywhere inappropriate, not yet. If anything, it was almost stranger for how much closer this resembled, to Miranda, her experience of knowing other merfolk and the way that they would touch her, pressing hands down against her body and holding her close, solely out of sheer friendliness.

"Yes — well, I do, less so of my people as a whole. Blue light, so you should be able to see, but it is not very strong compared to...." Miri dipped her head up and to the side in a sort of quick shrug, trying to gesture to the daylight itself. "Not as though it needs to be as strong, when it is easier to see down there."

Even just a single touch, gently running a talon across muscle and scale, told Ava volumes. Osteoderms, a powerful and streamlined form... it all made sense for a seagoing apex predator. It was interesting, how differently the two of them had evolved: Ava had become more humanoid than any other bird, while Miranda--part of a species that was popularized in myths as having a humanoid upper body--was anything but. She had a sudden desire to see Miranda in her own element, cutting through the water with ease and... snatching up fish, she supposed? Maybe that was just because she was hungry, though. Mmmm, fish...

She was getting ahead of herself, though. The harpy ran her hand down Miranda's leg, glancing up to meet her gaze briefly and make sure she wasn't overstepping any boundaries. She didn't want the merfolk to think she was just petting her like a giant cat or something.

"Interesting... that makes sense, though. Oh, do have any form of bioluminescence, too? Within the visible light spectrum, anyway." Ava's eyesight was good, but not so good that she could see into infrared or anything. "I imagine that would be very useful in the ocean depths."

Confident that she had no way of accidentally hurting the well-armored merfolk, Ava added a second hand to the exploration, gently patting Miranda's own clawed hand.

[physalian]

What No One Tells you about Writing #3

Opening this up to writing as a whole, because it turns out I have a lot more to say!

Part 1

Part 2

1. You don’t fall in love with your characters immediately

But when you do, it’s a hit of serotonin like no other. I’d been writing a tight cast of characters for my sci-fi series since 2016 and switched over in a bout of writer’s block this year to my new fantasy book. I made it about ⅓ through writing the book going through the motions, unable to visualize what these new characters look like, sound like, or would behave like without a ‘camera’ on them.

Then, all of a sudden, I opened my document to keep on chugging with the first draft, and it clicked. They were no longer faceless elements of my plot, they were my characters and I was excited to see what they could accomplish, rooting for them to succeed. Sometimes, it takes a while, but it does come.

2. Sometimes a smaller edit is better than a massive rewrite

Unless you’re changing the trajectory of your entire plot, or a character’s arc really is unrecoverable, sometimes even a single line of dialogue, a single paragraph of introspection, or a quick exchange between two characters can change everything. If something isn’t working, or your beta readers consistently aren’t jiving with a character you yourself love, try taking a step back, looking at who they are as a person, and boil down what your feedback is telling you and it might demand a simpler fix than you expect.

Tiny details inserted at the right moment can move mountains. Fan theories stand on the backs of these minutiae. One sentence can turn a platonic relationship romantic. One sentence can unravel a fair and just argument. One sentence can fill or open a massive plot hole.

3. Outline? What outline?

Not every book demands weeks upon weeks of prep and worldbuilding. I would argue that jumping right in with only a vague direction in mind gives you a massive advantage: You can’t infodump research you haven’t done. Exposition is forced to come as the plot demands it, because you haven’t designed it yet.

Not every story is simple and straightforward, but even penning the first draft with your vague plan, *then* going back and adding in deeper worldbuilding elements, more thematic details, richer character development, can get you over the writer’s block hurdle and make it far less intimidating to just shut up and write the book.

4. It’s okay to let your characters take the wheel

I’ve seen writing advice that chastises authors who let their characters run wild, off the plan the story has for them. Yeah, doing this can harm your pacing and muddy a strong and consistent arc, but refusing to leave the box of your outline greatly limits your creativity. I do this particularly when writing romantic relationships (and end up like Captain Crunch going Oops! All Gays!).

Did I plan for these two to get together? No, it just happened organically as I wrote them talking, getting closer, getting to know each other better in the circumstances they find themselves in. Was this character meant to be gay? Well, he wasn’t meant to be straight, but you know what, he’d work really well with this other boy over here. None of that would have happened if I was bound and determined to follow my original plan, because my original plan didn’t account for how the story that I want to tell evolves. You aren’t clairvoyant—it’s okay if it didn’t end up where you thought it would.

5. Fight. Scenes. Suck.

Which is crazy because I love fantasy and sci-fi, the actiony-est genres. Some authors love battle scenes and fistfights. It comes naturally to them and I will forever be jealous. I hate fight scenes. I hate blocking and choreographing them. I hate how it doesn’t read like I’m watching a movie. I hate how it could take me hours to write a scene I can read in 5 minutes. I hate that there’s no way around it except to just not write them, or put in the elbow grease and practice.

Whatever your writing kryptonite is, don’t be too hard on yourself. It won’t ever replicate the movie in your head, but our audience isn’t privy to that movie and will be none the wiser of how this didn’t fit your expectations, because it’s probably awesome on its own. It could be a fight scene, sex scene, epic battle, cavalry charge, courtroom argument, car chase—whatever. Be patient, and kind to yourself and it will all come together.

6. Write the scenes you want to write first

And then be prepared to never use them. It can be mighty difficult working backwards from a climax and figuring out how to write the story around it, but if you’re sitting at your laptop staring at your cursor and watching it blink, stuck on a tedious moment that’s necessary but frustrating, go write something exciting. Even if that amazing scene ends up no longer working in the book your story becomes, you still get practice by writing it. Particularly if you hate beginnings or the pressure of a perfect first page is too high, you’re allowed to write any other moment in the book first.

And with that, be prepared to kill your darlings. Not your characters, I mean that one badass line of dialogue living rent free in your head. That epic monologue. That whump scenario for your favorite character. Sometimes it just doesn’t work out anymore, but even if it ends up in the trash, you can always salvage something from it, even if that’s only the knowledge of what not to do in the future.

7. “This is clearly an author insert.” … Yes. It is. Point?

No one likes Mary Sues, because a character who doesn’t struggle or learn to get everything they want in life is uncompelling. The most flagrant author inserts I see aren’t Mary Sues, they’re nerdy, awkward, boring white guys whose world changes to fit their perspective, instead of the other way around—they don’t have anything to say. I’m not the intended audience to relate to these characters and I accept that, but I don’t empathize with the so-called “strong female character” who also doesn’t have flaws or an arc either.

A good author insert? When the author gives their characters pieces of themselves. When the “author insert” struggles and learns and grows and it’s a therapeutic experience just writing these characters thrown into such horrible situations. They feel human when they’re given pieces of a human’s soul. They have real human flaws and idiosyncrasies. I don’t care if the author wrote themselves as the protagonist. I care that this protagonist is entertaining. So if you want to make yourself the hero of your book, go for it! But make sure you look in the mirror and write in your flaws, as much as your strengths.

[cravesunconditionallove]

On your recent post for Vivisections

Do you have any more advice or maybe a quick scene lay out on how you'd accurately describe and show it? I've not seen many people explain this before I'd love to know more!

Permission to infodump?? awesome :D

Because it's on topic here, there are a few blogs I think need a mention because they have AMAZING medical/torture writing advice (@scripttorture and @justkidneying )

You didn't ask whether the character lives or dies, I don't know which you want so here's info on both scenarios:

Dying:

First off, without anesthesia, the pain alone would likely lead to a thing called Neurogenic Shock, which will in turn cause a BP drop and organ failure among other things. Your character will likely be breathing quickly, appear pale, have a rapid pulse, and be confused if they are still conscious. And yelling in pain of course.

For death due to blood loss: it's hard *not* to hit a major blood vessel if you're flaying someone open neck to groin, and that will also lead to quick death without immediate treatment. Cautery (using electricity to burn an area, stopping bleeding) will work on smaller bleeding but major blood vessels not so much. Symptoms are similar to shock: clammy/pale skin, thready/weak/rapid pulse, loss of consciousness.

Other: you can also risk damaging organs (someone being vivisected probably isn't going to be staying very still, even restrained, and one slip of a scalpel and oops, that's the aorta...) A punctured lung could lead to pneumo/hemothorax (air/blood in the chest cavity (pleural space), where it shouldn't be) causing respiratory distress—and then shock, and without treatment—death. If the heart is damaged, death would be near instant. Other organs like the liver, kidneys, bowels, spleen etc are pretty big bleeders, so see my Blood Loss section.

Sepsis: If they don't die immediately, sepsis is a big risk, as even in sterile environments you can't completely prevent it. Sepsis is when an infection reaches the bloodstream and is very serious. I imagine whoever is vivisecting the character probably wouldn't care too much about using sterile technique, so you can bet on an infection happening. This can set in within hours or days. Symptoms include high fever, pain, confusion/delirium, sweaty/clammy skin, low blood pressure.

Now, if you want them to live?

Surviving:

If the vivisectionist wants their patient/victim to survive, they'd need a lot of materials. Like any major surgery you'd need blood products, fluids, antibiotics, ligatures, and a way to keep the pain (somewhat) under control. Alcohol has been used in the past for similar procedures, but you could also just opt for a dose of opioids.

Antibiotics are necessary, opening someone up like that is a MAJOR risk (see "Sepsis").

I imagine they'd also somewhat monitor the character's vitals. They'd also probably have a few assistants to help with similar smaller tasks like that—stopping bleeding or handing tools, etc.

Closing the wound: Stitching someone up from such an event would be a lot of work, as you have to close many skin layers (muscle, fat, and the surface skin) and bandage it.

If you don't want to stitch them up immediately, a wound vac (negative pressure wound therapy) would be a good option. Doctors use these in cases of things like compartment syndrome. It is used when you cannot close someone back up right away.

Bandages and proper wound care are also important, you'd need to change the bandages every few hours for the first few days as deep wounds tend to produce a lot of fluids (called "exudate.") Sometimes doctors place drains to help drain away this fluid faster.

All in all, Healing from this would take months, not to mention the psychological trauma from all of this.

The scene:

Writing these scenes is honestly so variable so here's a few thoughts of mine:

You could describe the environment: (cliche, but cold metal table? Harsh lighting? Straps? A table with sharp scary-looking objects on it? How about the scent of disinfectant (or its absence).

The initial sensation would be the biggest to focus on: does the vivisectionist take their time? (pressure before pain?) shock as nerves fire as they are severed (lightning sensation shooting upwards), and the body’s instinctive flinch or freeze. Initially screaming, swearing? Sweating, rapid breathing, muscle spasms, or even vomiting as the body tries to cope?

Smells: Metallic tang of a large amount of blood (I personally HATE this smell, it's like having a penny in your mouth, or if you've ever used a metal scrubber to clean a pan, it smells kind of like that.), burning flesh (if they use cauterization) etc

If the character is partially sedated for it, keep in mind they will still react to pain, albeit sluggishly.

I hope this helps!

[justporo]

Date night with Astarion and Tav

I just had an idea. Astarion and Tav go on a night out... But it's a game they play: make it as bougie and flamboyant as possible - without spending a single piece of gold.

You start by stealing each other outfits - or maybe convincing the store clerk that you paid for it already; maybe even returning it after date night to get "your" gold back

You go to one of those restaurants that only do reservations months in advance, convincing the waiter that "of course we have a reservation, do you not know who we are??", then striding in as if you owned the place after you've caused a colossal scene, all heads already turning to you

Ordering the most expensive bottle of wine off the menu and the most expensive dish (although of course Astarion doesn't take one bite) then putting it on the tab of someone whose name you just picked up somewhere or just making a one up on the spot that sounds so important and complicated that no one dares to deny you - or just pretending you don't speak the language and are foreign nobility

You'll have to make run though before you're being found out; surely you're not creating a distraction by knocking over this priceless vase, are you? Or by throwing Astarion's untouched steak to the spoilt lap dogs over at another table causing absolute chaos?

You run or sneak out of there: but not without stealing another bottle of that fine wine (or two)

Bonus points if Astarion has lightened someone's load of jewellery at some point and presents you with a nice gift while running off; "Now's not the time, Astarion!" "That's so bland of you, darling, there's always time for presents!"

Astarion taking you somewhere else after making it out of there "because the night is still young, my heart, we're both beautiful and not at all drunk yet"

He takes you to an art museum and without any real effort picks the lock and you stroll through the empty tall halls looking at the artworks while taking swigs of wine from the stolen bottle

Astarion cannot stop infodumping on you about the paintings and statues; you don't understand a single thing but think it's adorable and you do actually learn a lot

Since no one is there to stop you, you dodge under the ropes, look at the paintings up close, make a game of imitating the faces and postures until you both die laughing

Astarion making you stand on a pedestal where a statue is currently missing from display, then looking at you as if he was taking in an renowned artwork: "Ah yes, my favourite piece of art, so exquisite!"

In turn you make him pose next to one of those noble portrait paintings and call him "the most beautiful thing ever created"; he grins and makes a stupid joke but you're pretty sure you see the pointy tips of his ears turn a little pink

You end the night by climbing onto the roofs of the city somewhere, sit there with what's left of the stolen wine, maybe play a drinking game, sitting there in your fine stolen clothes and watch the night slowly become less dark while your hearts are filled with light

I -uh- *puts it on the pile of fics I have to write* *sighs* This was mean to become like a headcanon post - it became the outline of a fic somehow, oop