#so i *had* to fully flesh it out

[pseudobun]

[tomwambsgans]

the temptation to write a christmas romcom-esque tomgreg fic is calling me......

[im-smart-i-swear]

can you remember being born? were you born at all

[epickiya722]

I'm calling it and I hope I'm wrong about it.

If Gege drops a backstory for Sukuna, folks are still going to be like "well, it's not the backstory I want for him".

[protect-namine]

.

[ohsweetflips]

not to be meta abt my rook and how i went abt creating them but there is something abt starting them solely with the idea of "you will have no relation to my warden and inquisitor, who are family and had almost a real-life decade of my life dedicated to developing their world" that really gets me going. like. from the very beginning you are on the outskirts. in-game, you were needed as someone new, someone out of the loop, and so narratively, your history is inconsequential. in-game, your backstory is murky at best, and so narratively, you will be by yourself until you find the people you will later be defined by. there is no intricate red string of fate weaving you into decades of families and history; you are the one on the outside who must be brought in. you have no family and thus the family of heroes that came before you will be folklore. you must learn what was inherent to them - what made them. you are thrust into a world that has already been crafted before you, and your creator has leaned into you being no one before your existence.

anyways. feeling so normal abt rhodes aldwir rn.

[1driedpersimmon]

//Blood

First kill :)

[starlyte-writes]

Help I'm finally looking through all of my old phone notes and I had SO MANY good dsmp fic ideas like fully laid out WHY DID I NEVER WRITE THESE

[dreadful-luck]

GGS TEAM PAST!!!

[anadorablekiwi]

@silvercaptain24 @telemna-hyelle …so you know that modern hsr au i was playing around with? Also @onceuponaladye , im 90% sure this au wont have any spoilers or anything

The one i said i would never write because there’s too many different characters/mini plots to follow?

…

Well.

Enjoy?

“Oh, are you Bailu’s older brother? It’s a pleasure to meet you!” The woman smiled brightly. “Im her teacher, she has spoken highly of you!”

Dan Heng did his best to conceal his tension. “Yes. My name is Dan Heng, I’m a technology major at Xiangzhou University.”

The teacher poorly hid surprise. “Oh, you’re a college student then? It must be difficult balancing school, work, and taking care of little Bailu here.”

Bailu pouted at being called ‘little’ and stuck her tongue out at the lady.

Dan Heng forced a chuckle and smile. “Well, I’ve started focusing mostly on Work and Bailu right now. I only take a class or two each semester.”

While not technically a lie, he chose to leave out the fact that he had started college in general with just two online classes. This semester. And is only 17 years old.

Relief flashed across the teacher’s eyes. “Oh, that's good! Well, if you need anything, please don’t hesitate to ask me!”

“Thank you.”

Dan Heng led Bailu out of the school to where he had parked. He attempted light conversation for her sake, but he was still mildly panicked, and he knew Bailu could pick up on it.

Once they reached the privacy of their tiny apartment, Bailu finally broke the tension.

“I didn’t say anything that would make her worry, promise,” she offered in a small voice.

Dan Heng gave a slight smile and ruffled her hair. “I know, Bailu. Don’t worry. Its probably because I look young. Or, well, I look my age.”

He hung Bailu’s backpack on its hook by the door and headed towards the kitchen.

“Hopefully that should keep her off our backs. Want some ants on a log for your after school snack?”

“Ooo! Yes please!!” Bailu replied enthusiastically.

~~~

[months later]

“Woo Hoo!! Summer Vacation!!!” Bailu cheered as she pushed past Dan Heng and ran inside. She quickly took off her backpack and shoes, initially tossing them aside. One look from Dan Heng later, they had been put into their proper places.

“Cracker and peanut butter sandwiches for snack today?” Dan Heng removed his own shoes and put them away.

“Oh yes please! And Juice?” Bailu looked up at him, eyes full of hope and pleading.

Dan Heng chuckled. “Sure. And juice.”

~

Dan Heng set a plate and cup down on the cardboard box they had converted into a table. “Snack’s ready!”

A muffled ‘yay!!’ Was heard from the other room, followed by rapid footsteps.

Just as Bailu sat down to eat, Dan Heng’s phone rang. He looked at the screen, and raised a puzzled eyebrow.

“Video call…?” He muttered.

Dan Heng answered the call. “Hi.”

Jing Yuan smiled back from the screen. “Hello there! And oh perfect, Bailu is with you, too!”

Bailu grinned and waved. “Hi mister Jing Yuan!!”

Jing Yuan chuckled. “Hello there, little Bailu. I was wondering if you two would like to stay with me for a couple weeks, kick off your summer vacation with a bit of fun? You can play with the animals on Boothill’s ranch, help out with the horses…”

“HORSES??” Bailu practically screamed. She turned to her brother with her very best puppy dog eyes. “Please??? Can we????”

Dan Heng sighed. Jing Yuan clearly did this on purpose. He would know Dan Heng would want to decline, but if asking over video call, he was almost guaranteed to be within Bailu’s hearing range when the question was offered.

Reluctantly, he answered, “…sure. Why not?”

“YES!!!” Bailu shouted/cheered. She began to talk quickly, rambling off things she was planning on doing and excitedly ran to the other room.

“Bailu! You need to finish your snack!” Dan Heng called out. He finally turned his attention back to Jing Yuan.

“Sorry about that. Sure, we accept your invitation. When exactly were you thinking?”

Jing Yuan flashed a bright smile. “Perfect! How about you drive up here tomorrow? Or whatever time works best for you two, of course.”

Bailu, having returned to finish her snack, replied with mouth full of crackers and peanut butter. “Yes! Tomorrow!!”

Dan Heng wanted to smack his head into the wall.

“…Sure, tomorrow works. Thank you for the invitation, Mr. Jing Yuan.”

“Of course! And how many times must I say, just Jing Yuan is fine. No need for formalities. Well, I shall see you two sometime tomorrow then!”

“Bye!! See you tomorrow!!!” Bailu called.

“Goodbye Bailu, Dan Heng. Have a good rest of your day.”

“Bye.”

Dan Heng ended the call and let out a sigh.

Bailu grinned innocently at him as she took a sip of juice.

Dan Heng had an odd feeling about this.

~~

[spiritsglade]

was thinking about how titans tower wasn't even a murder attempt canonically and tim was conscious and aware and able to stand up in the direct aftermath so even though jason was all 'let me show you what the joker did to me' he straight up didn't. lol.

but then it's like. this is the guy who was maximizing his capability for murder over the course of like a year max, if you're pushing the timeline. that's not a lot of time to grasp control over the various techniques. he's three years out from bruce's nonlethal training at this point. so far he's mostly been fighting (1) random goons (2) competent people he wants to kill and (3) batman. who's to say he remembers how to hold back and pull his punches. who's to say he doesn't accidentally kill tim because he wasn't careful enough controlling his strength.

[clegfly]

Hey, is Beyond Beyond still happening?

Oh yeah absolutely!!! It’s been on hiatus for a while but I’ve been cooking up stuff for it every now and then when I have time to write- but yeah I’ve been thinking very hard about it lately so this is good timing

[skunkes]

I'm v curious abt Talon's mesoamerican origins and evolution in general how does his accent sound when written out? after such a long life what is the strongest vestige of those times he has (aside from physical features and so on). I can't believe some rando bloodsucker colonized my boy

I have no idea what his accent wld sound like as the few videos i cld find of people speaking his original language, are, of course, mainly spanish speakers! And I can sometimes hear the difference in spanish as they switch between the 2 while being interviewed but i struggle to mentally transplant that as to how it'd sound in English ykwim 😭 there's also the fact that its the modern language spoken by them so it has evolved alongside and borrows from spanish anyway, by those who still speak it and speak both Today

Im actually still zeroing in on fleshing out more of that lore, since I can't find too much info on the specific culture i envision for him, it may really just have to be "fantasy culture INSPIRED by the people" instead, so i dont completely botch actual historical info 😮‍💨 either that or go very vague off of the info available

[wavebiders]

complaints like "my character wouldn't do this" about key elements of an optional narrative are always so weird to me like what do you mean not everyone treats their first playthrough of an RPG as a rough draft to use to figure out what kinda character would best suit their preferred storyline and love interest?

[navarice]

mxtx really writes the most violently disgusting body horror known in existence because some of her prime examples include the flesh-burrowing plants in svsss that literally climb into your bloodstream and take root to turn you into a literal conifer plant. like the blinding pain sq describes when he had to tear out the roots from his flesh almost made me black out and disassociate. and then in mdzs it was the descriptions of the endless corpses and gore. or in the xuanwu of slaughter and the soup of blood, flesh, guts, and stomach acid of the turtle that wwx had to crawl through. i hope the sects have very reliable doctors because just thinking about the diseases one can get from all that…yuck.

but nothing. absolutely NOTHING can compare to the events leading to the human faces disease in tgcf. first, the descriptions of the crushed child under his father's body when they fell from the wall…it was so casually described that I had to first let it sink in before the shock took over. then the actual disease. the unimaginable fear, raw disgust, and sheer horror of everything were so visceral that I couldn’t touch any dip or crevice in my body without wanting to rip it off. literal stuff of nightmares can’t compare to how i couldn’t look at a hole in the ground for too long because it made me think of the face chewing grass on that one man’s leg. and then…that’s not even the worst of it. if reading abt the disease made me want to rip off my skin, then reading the hundred swords part made me feel so hollow that i felt like I needed to squeeze my guts into my body so they don’t fall away. each word describing it was a piercing stab followed by an aching fire of wounds that will never heal.

it makes me really wonder how strong a person must be to endure all that and more because if only reading such things elicits this strong of a response, then what about living it?

[frostwork]

I think I might go Lucanis romance first play through but I need you all to know its more for me than my Rook because I’m not that far and also the situationship with Solas is way funnier