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cellarspider · 24 days ago

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Star Wars: The Old Republic and the virtues of hiding under a rock

After all the fun I had writing a deep dive on the delightfully unhinged decision-making process that gave everyone in the Sith Empire equal opportunity to shoot lightning out of their fingertips, I decided hey, why not do another post on Sith-side stuff? Why not focus on another aspect of how The Old Republic's backstory set up for the players to run around being special little guys?

Welcome to the Chiss Ascendancy, which really would rather not be here, thank you.

Spoilers for the Imperial Agent plotline, Act 2 of the Bounty Hunter plotline, Act 1 and 3 of the Jedi Knight plotline, and for the expansions up through the Traitor Among The Chiss flashpoint storyline, set just after the Knights of the Eternal Throne expansion. Also, spoilers for a 30 year old novel series, and bits of current canon. Assume all links to Wookieepedia may include unmarked spoilers for anything and everything under the sun.

Also, many, many side rambles in the picture descriptions. As soon as I realized they were a place I could hide secret bits of brain fluff, I could not be contained.

So, for a little out-of-setting backstory first: The Ascendancy is in SWTOR for one reason. If you're a Star Wars fan, you probably know his name by now. You might even be able to pronounce all of it: Grand Admiral Thrawn, known to his own people as Mitth'raw'nuruodo.

Thrawn was a breakout character from the early Star Wars tie-in Heir to the Empire trilogy by Timothy Zahn, which you can see reflected in the increasing amount of cover space he takes up on each re-release. Zahn may not have totally intended for Thrawn to be the character everybody latched onto so hard—I mean, it was originally the Heir to the Empire trilogy, but it's officially the Thrawn Trilogy now. Which makes it confusing, because Zahn has since written two other trilogies that actually star Thrawn as a main character rather than having him as the main antagonist.

Credit really has to go to Zahn for his work on those books, because despite his occasional insistence to the contrary, they revitalized Star Wars as a fandom. It had been seven years since Return of the Jedi came out, and there'd been nothing since then. George Lucas had been pretty burnt out after RoTJ, and the idea of a multimedia franchise wasn't all that common at the time. There'd been Marvel-produced comics, the West End Games RPG sourcebooks, a few tie-in novels, and a boatload of action figures, but all of those save for the West End Games books were produced to market the movies themselves, or directly profit off of their recent release.

All of these were of variable quality and "Star Wars-y" feel. The Marvel comics brought us such incredible things as a carnivorous green rabbit fighting alongside the main cast, and a couple wild comics by Alan Moore where Leia gets her heart turned to diamond by omnipotent Force spirits. The Splinter of the Mind's Eye novel was written while A New Hope was still in production before George Lucas had decided Luke and Leia were siblings, and you can really tell. Zahn, however, helped by the the West End Games books as a worldbuilding reference, did some stellar work integrating his writing into the Star Wars setting, while simultaneously shaping what fans would think of as a good Star Wars outing for years to come. Hell, some of his inventions made their way back into the movies: the name Coruscant is his. But Thrawn is what most people think of as his big contribution.

And it's for good reason! Thrawn is a memorable antagonist. He's smarter than the imperial officers depicted in the movies. He's able to outmaneuver the heroes on multiple occasions. He's got a unique gimmick that dovetails with the Imperial mindset—while the rest of the Empire utterly disdains foreign cultures, Thrawn takes an Orientalist interest in others' art, using it to build theories of a person or culture's psychology to use against them in war. In fact, as we will see repeated in SWTOR, his original role and his people are often used to represent a less obnoxious, more outwardly reasonable sort of imperial behavior.

He's also a cool-looking blue-skinned, red-eyed alien, later revealed to be from a culture of subterranean xenophobes with complex noble house dramas, among whom he's considered to be an outlier. Through all of this, he overshadowed other characters who may have been intended as the center of attention.

What's really funny is that the very next year, D&D would get Drizzt Do'Urden, a character who unexpectedly overshadowed the others in his series who'd been the intended center of attention, who was a cool-looking gray-skinned, red-eyed drow, from a culture of subterranean xenophobes with complex noble house dramas, among whom he's considered an outlier.

I don't know what precisely was in the zeitgeist in the early 90s, but apparently it was just a time for cool guys who grew up in caves.

It's probably similar fandom tendencies that have made both the Chiss and Drow big players in people's imaginations. Anecdotally, I'm one of those fans. You grow up liking elves, but you also became kind of a goth about it, maybe had a bit of an edgelord phase. You wanted cool elves. Possibly cool elves in space.

Apparently there was a critical mass of folks at Bioware who also were on board with cool elves in space, so they made their way into SWTOR, originally only playable for a couple of Sith-aligned classes. If you were to summarize their narrative role in a single sentence: they collectively act much as Thrawn did, providing a calmer, more collected, largely amoral presence that's peripheral to the overall setting narrative, but provides more substance to the villains.

If one were to take it less seriously, the Chiss end up as the serious side of an evil comedy duo. They are the deadpan comedic foil to the lightning-shooting madmen and their minions, the most obnoxiously british military to ever sail the stars.

So, let's dig into the Chiss a little. You kind of have to, given the "underground city" thing. Details around Chiss history and even biology have not remained fixed as canon has undergone its various convolutions, but it's generally theorized that they were the result of a genetically isolated human colony established on Csilla many thousands of years ago, which has since evolved into a near-human species, often with higher physical fitness than human average, but lower chance of spawning somebody with a Force-y destiny for whatever reason. When hyperspace travel became common, their region of space was discovered to be nigh-impenetrable due to a high concentration of wandering gravitational anomalies, which could turn your ship into an interesting collection of relativistic scrap metal.

This means that the "Unknown Regions" in the galactic west remained largely unexplored by the Galactic Republic, and local powers had to develop their own means of navigating the region. This suited the Chiss just fine, because they really, really don't like hanging out with other people.

The Chiss Ascendancy is a major power in the Unknown Regions, and it's highly isolationist, xenophobic, and authoritarian. A Secret Police force helps maintain internal adherence to the Chiss power structure. The average Chiss citizen in the Star Wars setting will never meet a non-Chiss in their entire life. That is, unless, they're stationed in the Chiss Expansionary Defense Force.

That's a hell of a name right there.

The CEDF takes an imperial pattern of national defense and turns it into doctrine: they never attack first. But if someone pokes the Ascendancy, the Defense Fleet will respond, and they'll make sure the poker can never poke again. But the Expansionary Fleet will scout out areas on their frontier, so, y'know, good luck to anybody who happens to be living there.

Within the Ascendancy, a rotating cast of Ruling Families run the government, noble houses that generally specialize in specific industries, space sectors, or resources. Most of the best positions go to those born into one of these houses, but a common Chiss can theoretically become a "merit adoptive", basically a probationary house member that can eventually become "trial-born" into the house proper, possibly achieving a status of "ranking distant". That is, unless you're found to be Force-sensitive, which during the SWTOR time period would either get you exiled, or you'd spend your life on Force-suppressing drugs.

This culture is, it should be noted again, not presented as nice or right by Timothy Zahn or SWTOR, though getting into the heads of Chiss characters can make it seem very sympathetic from their perspective.

Especially when SWTOR's backstory rolls around, and the Ascendancy had the misfortune of being "discovered" by the Sith Empire.

This led to a rather surprising pivot in Ascendancy policy: upon getting a whiff of what the Sith were about, their response was "Fantastic! Let's be friends," and swiftly negotiated a treaty to become a vassal state to the Empire, in exchange for the Empire leaving them the fuck alone.

Zahn's novels in the current Star Wars canon allude to this as a time that the movie-era Chiss are not exactly fans of, but it has an undeniable logic. The Sith are, frankly, out of their collective minds. They're also really focused on beating the snot out of the Jedi and the Republic, and they'll roll over anyone who gets in their way. Or might seem to be in their way. Or might, given the right paranoid squinting, one day maybe get in their way.

And given the Chiss and Sith tendencies toward similar, albeit factually incompatible politics around somebody being the most special thing in the universe, the two factions had enough in common to make the deal work. At least, up until the inevitable day when the Sith would presumably try and take a swat at the Chiss. This was a delaying tactic to defend the Ascendancy against an invasion from "Lesser Space", nothing more.

One might ask, if they're worried about the Sith, why not ally with the Republic? Well, there's two issues. One, the Republic doesn't have a damn clue where the Chiss are, and the Chiss want to keep it that way. The Empire has some clue where the Chiss are. That's more clues than the Chiss want anyone but themselves to have, really.

And furthermore, the Republic isn't really a better option from the Chiss perspective. It's an alien government, largely run by more of those weird Humans that are all over the Empire as well. Its history shows periods of aggressive colonization and expansion, and, the Sith would be very quick to tell anybody, the Republic sometimes decides to just completely obliterate their foes. Do the Chiss also do that? Yes, but they're Chiss, dammit, they're allowed.

So really, the ideal outcome for the Chiss would be that the Empire and the Republic beat each other senseless, with the Empire eventually imploding and the Republic never finding out where the Ascendancy is at all.

As Star Wars will eventually bear out, that's what happened. The Sith Empire falls apart at some point past SWTOR's time period. And in fact, the Republic would eventually go on to implode twice before anyone in the wider galaxy remembered that Chiss existed, when that funny little guy named Thrawn showed up. So, the Chiss might be the only ones who technically achieved their goals with this whole fiasco. How did they pull that off? And how funny is it to watch someone turn imperial chauvinism on the Sith Empire? The answers are: improbably, and extremely.

Throughout the initial war between the Empire and the Republic, the Chiss served as an unseen aid to the Sith. They provided resources and covert services, but they were utterly unknown to the Republic. They were also making moves unbeknownst to the Empire—if they were going to be breaking their usual isolationism, well, why not take up some territory that nobody else wanted while nobody else was looking? And even when they did let the Empire know they were on a planet, they didn't actually tell them where, or how many. Because really, the Empire wasn't too jazzed about somewhere like Hoth. But the Chiss? With a frozen homeworld, their cities dug deep into the glaciers and bedrock? Perfect! Just like home, but with more wampas. They built a sizeable forward base there, and kept that to themselves for decades.

In fact, if confronted about the existence of the base by an Imperial agent, the man in charge of the base will respond "Our presence here is legal, based on all existing treaties. The fact that you never noticed us is immaterial."

Lol. lmao, even.

By the time we get to Hoth in SWTOR, that base is still secret, but there's a sizeable CEDF detachment that are embedded with the Imperial forces on Hoth. And it's a decent little slice of folks, at least within the EDF. You get a whole range of people, from utter jerks like Warden Khel who tries to detain precious Jawa angel Blizz, to well-liked and respected commanders like Captains Yunaali and Yudrass, the later of whom has to patiently deal with the dumbest white man in existence.

Yudrass is also interesting for a further reason: his voice actor Tony Armatrading was from a British Afro-Caribbean background, and his accent comes through in his performance. In the context where the Empire is firmly Evil Space Wizard Britain, the accents of the Chiss stand out. They're a much more heterogenous mix. Yudrass speaks fluent Basic, but some of the others don't. One speaks Huttese, because he was originally assigned to the Outer Rim and hasn't had the chance to pick up a further language since then. A few speak limited Basic, best illustrated by the guy who gives a delightfully unenthusiastic response to finding out a non-Chiss player character has survived an attack by Imperial traitors: "You're still alive. Huh."

Hoth is also a fantastic place for turning around the chauvinism back on the Imperials, if you're playing as a Chiss. You can summarily ignore human officers in favor of engaging with their Chiss subordinates. You can work to have Yudrass promoted, both because of his competence and because you transparently don't like the other guy's face. You can privilege information gathered by the CEDF, because obviously they don't deal in bad intel. If you're playing an Imperial Agent, you can end up siding with the Chiss so comprehensively that you become a merit-adoptive of a Ruling Family. You can even reveal that you were never earnestly working for the Empire at all.

On the other side of the war, It's unclear when the Republic learns about the Chiss. Probably at some point during the quagmire over Hoth, but they're never thought of as a major player. Nobody in the Republic off Hoth really mentions them. They're treated with extreme suspicion, with a couple lines that are pretty eyebrow-raising. A Chiss defector dies while trying to trade information for asylum, and a Republic major responds to the news with "It's just as well. I'm not sure the men really wanted a Chiss hanging around here." Yikes, my dude.

Still, with their presence revealed, the Chiss seem to have slowly started taking more active roles liaising with the Imperial military, working in Imperial space, or even joining Imperial organizations. This begins as projects by the Ruling Families and other prominent Houses, but individual Chiss also started taking swings at making it in Lesser Space. Some of them may have been average Chiss trying to get ahead outside of the traditional Ascendancy power structure, and some of them might never have fit in well back home in the first place.

This is, for the record, why Chiss are a playable option for the Bounty Hunter class. It's not often remarked on though, and Bounty Hunters don't get much Chiss-specific dialog options.

And it's not like bounty hunters or Chiss are exactly welcomed in Imperial space, though. After all, the Empire has their blood purity laws and all that, if you're a non-human or non-Pureblood, you're constantly subjected to microaggressions and, frankly, macroaggressions. Possibly even megaaggressions. They'd never let Chiss near positions of power, or access to their secrets.

People who've played already know where this is going. And any curious souls who read my last post may recall a really odd evil space wizard gimp who decided he did not give one single fuck about those blood purity laws.

Darth Jadus, blessed maniac that he is, opened Imperial Intelligence to alien recruitment with all the political grace he was known for, which was none, with a side order of self-aware cultic rambling: Everyone should have equal opportunity to access the misery that is the Empire, because the Dark Side likes it when you do that.

And in so doing, he created a very interesting proposition for motivated Chiss willing to take the risk, and an even more interesting proposition for the Ascendancy's Secret Police: they could now embed sleeper agents within an enemy security force by submitting job applications.

And this is why new players can chose to be Chiss when they play as Imperial Agents. You get a lot of Chiss-specific dialog as an Agent. The game supports player choices to explicitly say you reject the Ascendancy, or that you're secretly working for it. Or, hell, you could play a Chiss who says they're in it for themselves, and then secretly confides later that they're actually an Ascendancy spy!

I am so, so tempted to describe the Agent plot in its absolutely bonkers entirety, but let's stick to the Ascendancy view… for now, at any rate. I probably have another of these essays in me somewhere.

So! Sleeper agents. If the Empire won't ever fuck off by itself, then the Ascendancy wanted to make sure that they had options to give it a push. That would allow them to go back to their usual isolationism, if they still wanted it—You hear at least one Aristocra intimate that the Ascendancy might go all British Empire on the rest of the galaxy, if they see the opportunity. Some Chiss now rather like the idea of being the tiny little backwater kingdom that suddenly owns literally everything, as great powers around it weaken.

Complicating their ambitions, things did not turn out that way. Well, not the way they expected. The Ascendancy was out there playing spy chess, while the Emperor was gearing up to eat the entire chess tournament.

Honestly, there was no way the Ascendancy could've predicted the crazy shit that was going to go down in the Empire. Like, really, nobody saw that coming, not even in the Empire. Except for Darth Jadus, if you're weird enough to let him take a swing at running the entire government. Hell, if you're an Ascendancy sleeper agent, maybe he's precisely the sort of destabilizing force you want in the Empire.

So, when it turns out you accidentally allied yourself with an eldritch monster that wants to Pac-Man all life in the galaxy, what do you do? Well, fortunately for the Ascendancy, the Jedi took care of that one for them! Unfortunately, the Jedi didn't count on the MMO having expansions. Turns out, the Emperor was not entirely dead, just a little dead. And also he had a spare Empire hiding elsewhere, just in case the first one didn't work out.

No, I'm not joking, this really happened.

Meet the Eternal Empire, the Sith Emperor's side project where he put all its points toward a cultural victory and military automation, so when he lost control of that empire as well, his usurper was able to just kind of fling remote-controlled fleets at the rest of the galaxy.

With the Republic and Empire all war'd out, they were pretty emphatically steamrolled by the Eternal Fleet. And because the Emperor had known where the Ascendancy was, they were also in the line of fire.

And so the Ascendancy said "Wow! We hate it! Kindly take some planets and fuck off."

And it worked! They had to pay some exorbitant taxes to the Eternal Empire, but not as crippling as what the other powers suffered—because invading them hadn't been as expensive and they made early moves to placate this new empire and its alien human madness, they mostly flew under the radar, and weren't targeted for reprisals.

After that, there was a whole song-and-dance that included a suspiciously protagonist-shaped person uniting the rest of the galaxy against the Eternal Empire, overthrowing two or three usurpers who'd taken over (depending on whether you count the evil mastermind droid who was just kind of there to vibe), and killing the Emperor again for almost the last time, the galaxy could finally stop with that whole nonsense and come to a realization: Everyone was flat broke.

The concessions to the Eternal Empire had crippled the major powers. The Republic was reeling once again, and the Empire had lost most of its leadership and was currently in a very funny series of events that canonically end up with an 87 year old who loves shenanigans assuming the title of Emperor. the Hutt Cartel was probably still having its own problems because it was only a few years since their Supreme Mogul decided to become a raid boss and got killed, then the next one was a violent Hutt supremacist who threw a tantrum that ultimately dropped his own palace on him, and we have no clear successor after that.

The Ascendancy responded to Imperial inquiries with something along the lines of "Oh, yeah, sorry, we'd really like to help, but the Eternal Empire, wow! They really did a number on us. We can't spare any resources right now. We totally would if we could, though."

Literally no one believes them, but because no Imperial ships have ever landed on Csilla, nobody could call them on their bullshit.

And that's about where things stand! There was a kerfuffle where one of the Ruling Families put their drama on display to foreigners, which was a big faux pas. The result is a brief series of missions that actually take place on an Ascendancy world.

But otherwise, the Chiss have maintained their isolationism up to the present day of SWTOR's story. Are they right to do so? I mean, the game remains pretty consistent with the rest of Legends on the Ascendancy: they're a bunch of very pretty jerks who only look better in comparison to their competition, who are grand champions of jerkassitude, and because we're not in a position to see the Ascendancy inflict itself on other people. If they were a major power on the level of the Sith Empire, we'd probably see a lot more of their ugly side.

And what about playing the part of being one of these people? It's not good, certainly. Turnabout may feel like fair play, but it's not great at actually improving the situation overall.

…But it can be fun to indulge in a bit, in the fantasy of an MMO. Especially when the Empire is just so, so dunkable. It's like a less dangerous version of when the English cricket team of 1932-1933 decided it was entirely sporting to give Australians skull fractures, right up until the West Indies cricket team said "Now hear us out—what if we attacked you with the ball as well?"

And beyond that, this is the game where you can get the chance to shoot lightning at people while your eight foot tall cannibal thrall-maybe-turned-husband approves on the sidelines. If anything, the Ascendancy might suffer from being less goofy than that. But taken in full context of the MMO, they're often standing in as the reserved or reluctant bunch who got collectively dragged into this whole mess and are just trying to ride out the chaos with all clothes, dignity, and eyebrows intact. When subjected to the galaxy's shenanigans, the Ascendancy would rather take the advice of the skeleton meme:

And that can be deeply funny to play around with.

#swtor #swtor meta #star wars: the old republic #chiss #chiss ascendancy #I have had Blue by Eiffel 65 stuck in my head for most of the time I've been writing this #Finished this one hour before a two week marathon of Suff To Do so it might be a while before I do another one #But who knows!

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cementcornfield · 3 months ago

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hello! i am incredibly new here to the joe’marr community and am finding it kind of difficult? to navigate the tags and um blogs because wow there is a lot of stuff outside of joe’marr in particular? but i see you primarily show up as a content blog for bengals and joe’marr friendly! would you mind recommending some joe’marr blogs and ways to navigate the tag for the ship? and also maybe some favorite fics of yours if you have any!

but thank you really for all the content i have scrolled through your joe’marr tag pretty religiously this past few days and kind of bummed i didn’t start liking them when the season started! hopefully i can watch them next season!

Hello!! ahhh how exciting, welcome to the fandom <3 <3. i truly do love when i see people going through my tags, it’s like hello!! i see you!! i’m glad you are enjoying the same things i’m particularly unhinged about!

but i’m sure as you noticed, my blog is kind of a mess in terms of tagging 😔 whoops. i am just not organized at all, it’s a travesty. and i really try to avoid going into any of the big tags in the fandom (the joey b tag in particular is often a horrible place lmao.) so i’m afraid i can’t really help you tag-wise (i will say that you should make sure to search through both joe’marr and joemarr without the apostrophe, because people use both, and i think the apostrophe might actually mess things up on this broken-ass website lol).

but i can definitely recommend some blogs and some fic i enjoy!

blogs that approach joe’marr in a similar way to me:

chasedeys - now if you want organization, cleo is way more on top of things than me, and has some FANTASTIC long rambling thoughts on our boys <3

saviorified - combination of hockey and joe’marr/bengals stuff. kia's got great bits of analysis AND tremendous adorable fantastic art that you should definitely look through!

always-silly-season - my dear wonderful friend annie who is more of a bball poster this time of year BUT is also an OG joe'marr blog. unmatched takes (plus her bball ships are also compelling!!)

agender-adrastea - nik keeps a great archive of joe’marr stuff on their blog and is also one of my favorite fic authors in the fandom!

realtapiocafan - newer to the fandom but already knows everything to have ever happened in the lore lol. does a great job researching and presenting all of it for the fandom, an essential follow for the joe’marr lore enjoyer!

cazluvsu - a bills bro, but also a fellow joe’marr poster! including this video that i am Obsessed with (among other great stuff!)

k8023 - more of a general bengals blog who posts a lot of the latest news in the fandom as well as cute joe’marr posts!

chasing-clovers - always good for some good joe’marr analysis and moments!

chase2pole - has lots of good clips and other joe'marr content for our general fandom uses!

glittersgloom - actually more of a ravens fan (and has a lot of great info about that fandom and their different ship dynamics if you’re interested in exploring those! good stuff there honestly!) but has also lately been writing for joe’marr (again among many other great nfl ships!) and i really really love her writing :')

some fic to check out!

(it’s crazy how MUCH there is these days! i’ve said before but when i joined the fandom there were 2 (two!!) fics and now we’re at 83??? hell yeah!! i love all the fic authors for contributing truly i do, thank you!!)

keep them bright eyes focused on the coastline (waiting for you) - by the aforementioned glittersgloom, absolutely breathtaking MASTERPIECE of a joe’marr fic. and it’s 30k!!!

you look good in my shirt - a classic by nik, dealing with how they got to the point of joe wearing ja’marr’s jersey to the saints game

run pass option - a smutty lil one-shot that i feel like really nails their dynamic (set when joe hurt his calf 2 years ago)

so scarlet it was maroon - set after the afc championship loss :( :( sad but very sweet.

even when the sun don't shine - dives into the tension/angst at the start of this season with ja’marr’s contract but with a nice happy ending <3

I don't want you like a bestfriend - this one is just super fun and porny and a great time all around lol. features jealous joe and desperate ja'marr (and even a bit of treymarr lol) which i’m alllll about.

there’s lot more to check out, like i said, 83 fics! but these are just some that have stuck with me!!

#again welcome to the fandom!!! i'm always so happy to see it grow!!#this is definitely a slower time with the season being over. but it gives you an opportunity to catch up on everything!#(plus there are always some Crazy Offseason moments that we're bound to freak out about)#hope you stick with us until next season when things will take off again and also we'll go undefeated and win the super bowl :) :)#also god i'm so sorry if i forgot anyone there really are so many people in the fandom these days!!#which is wonderful!! everything i wanted!! but now i really don't know everyone anymore lol #so really i just kind of looked through my notes to see who i should bring up #which is also a strategy you guys can try if you're looking for more people to follow!#joe'marr #nfl rpf #rip nacs you would have loved to see the state of the fandom these days ❤️ ❤️#(but then you would also have hated to live through the jags season 💔💔)

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mumms-the-word · 1 year ago

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Illithid Souls

A Deep Dive Series

I've collected all my deep dives about illithid souls here for your convenience! These posts look into the question of if illithids have souls inside or outside of the BG3 game lore, with a more focused look in parts 2 and 3 at the cases of Tav/Durge, Orpheus, Karlach, and Gale.

Ultimately I came to my own conclusions, but I'm by no means trying to sell you on the idea that I'm the expert and can't be wrong. I wrote these mostly to gather lots of lore in one (or three) contained space(s) with both a textual and visual aspect, so that it makes lore-gathering/reading/viewing more fun.

As with all my deep dives, these posts are designed to equip you with some lore so you can build your own theories and ideas, but I do guide and organize my thoughts in ways that make sense to me, and present theories that I think are interesting or feasible. But lore is always a little hazy so I’m bound to be wrong or you’re bound to interpret things differently. Just have fun with the lore!

Without further ado~

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Illithid Souls - Part 1

What’s up with mind flayers and souls anyway?

This post begins by defining what D&D calls a soul, which is notoriously hard to define in any capacity both in or out of D&D lore. We look briefly at what happens when a soul dies normally, what Withers has to say about mind flayers and souls, and what D&D guidebooks like the Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide and Volo's Guide to Monsters have to say about the afterlife, souls, and mind flayers. Basically, this is your intro to D&D souls lore before we get to how the game follows or ignores that same lore.

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Illithid Souls - Part 2

The Case Studies: Tav/Durge and Orpheus

This post dives into some interesting context from the game for the Emperor, Tav/Durge, and Orpheus. Though I use Tav/Durge as the official case study here, looking at dialogue and reactions when Tav/Durge turns into a mind flayer, it's worth nothing that most Origin runs handle the mind flayer thing exactly the same way. This is where the D&D lore gets left behind a little bit and we get to really see how the game changes or adopts the concept of mind flayer souls. Read this one if you'd like a little more info about how your OC Tav/Durge might be affected by illithidness!

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Illithid Souls - Part 3

The Case Studies: Karlach and Gale

The final post looks specifically at in-game evidence or lore for Companion!Karlach that turns into a mind flayer, as well as what unique options an Origin run Gale gets if he decides to become a mind flayer at the end of the game. I ended up with a lot of questions while writing this post and I don't have answers for all of them, but it was fascinating to see some of the unique stuff you only see if you make Karlach a mind flayer, or are playing as Gale and decide to become illithid. Karlach provides some additional context to what it's like to be a special mind flayer in BG3, and Gale's Origin endings as a mind flayer are certainly unique and strange. Worth reading parts of if you're interested in either character!

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As with all deep dives and metas, this is all just for fun! Yes, I called days of research and writing and editing fun, because I'm a...well. A thorough bitch, as Swoop would say. But I couldn't fit everything that exists in these posts and I did make a couple of decisions to leave things out, like extended conversations with the Emperor and basically any mention of Omeluum (sorry Omeluum, love you buddy! you have a soul in my heart) because I just didn't know where to put those things in.

So basically, this is not the end-all, be-all of lore! I'm happy to answer questions in the replies or in asks as well, just know that everything will be couched as my opinion and that you are encouraged to interpret the lore in ways that suits your play styles, headcanons, or beliefs.

Just have fun with it!

#bg3 #baldur's gate 3 #bg3 meta #bg3 discourse #bg3 lore #bg3 deep dive #deep dive #mind flayer #illithid #gale dekarios #gale #karlach #the emperor #orpheus #bg3 orpheus #withers #jergal

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cartoonjessie · 28 days ago

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can you answer questions 1,6,13,35,36,37 ? I know it's a lot but I'm so curious 🤗

Certainly! I'll try to keep the answers brief-ish or else this is going to be a looooong post.

Do I daydream a lot before writing? A bit, yes. For my longer fics, certainly. But with shorter fics I sometimes just dive right in and see where inspiration takes me.

6. What's the last line I wrote? (FYI - not for Dance of the Demigods in case you were wondering)

Tamatoa laughed. “Well, to be honest, I’m not used to visiting the people of Motunui either, so the feeling’s mutual.” As he held out his pincer towards Moana, he indicated the portal with his head. “Shall we?”

13. Do I listen to music while I write and what have I been listening to most recently?

Yes, most of the times I do. I've got a playlist with instrumental Moana music which I use for The Dance of the Demigods, I've got a playlist for Planet Crafters already (link here) and the other day I was writing a lot of Tamatoa stuff and listening to the soundtrack for the Road to El Dorado. Somehow the songs about wealth and gold really worked for him.

35. What's your favourite fic you've posted?

These last 3 questions are really hard. It is a bit like choosing between your children. Out of my finished ones, let's go for Love is Just a Game, which was the first Hooked Wayfinder fic I finished. Because of that it holds a special place in my heart. I really do love me a modern AU.

36. What fic are you proudest of?

The Dance of the Demigods and its sequel which will be published straight after DotD is done. I have yet to write about 5 chapters (I estimate) for DotD and the end is really really difficult, I'm progressing slower than I'd like and am at a point where I'm like "wait don't forget about Matangi" XD I still need to put her in there somewhere and my initial plan for her is not working out well. Anyways, stopping myself there before I'm off on a 1000-word rant about it.

37. What fic has been the hardest for you to write?

The final chapters of Dance of the Demigod are really hard on me currently. But I think Our Future Together was probably harder since I abandoned it. I had an idea for it, but as I was headed towards it, some folks in comments expressed very strong dislike for that idea, which kind of knocked me off course. It killed the momentum I had with writing and then I just stopped writing it. Not proud of it and think I might return to the story one day... After Dance of the Demigods is done. Cause I do think it's got some really good angst. (Better angst than my other stories)

#hooked wayfinder #moana x maui #moaui

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dayntee · 23 days ago

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WIP ASK GAME

Ooh, this looked fun. Thanks for the tag, @opal-apparition. I don’t often talk about anything than Arlathan University, mostly because I hyperfocus like crazy and have a hard time with letting my ADHD get the best of me. 😆 But this was a fun exercise!

So, most of you probably know about my main longfic, That Year at Arlathan University. I just released the largest chapter I’ve ever written for it (at over 10k words, which is pretty unusual for me), so I’ve taken a short pause before I dive into the next one. It won’t be long, but I may miss a week of updating - my new job starts this week and I have no idea what to expect energy-wise when it comes to writing.

While I don’t have a snippet to share for it, I can say the outline to the “end” is finished, and while chapter count may fluctuate, I do know where it’s going now. We’ve officially entered the 3rd and final act of the story. Hang on to your butts.

I’m also working on three more Solavellan pieces (because I… usually get stuck on one ship for a long ass time). They are:

NAME WIP, but what I refer to as my “Bodice Ripper” novel. This is a retelling of Inquisition and Veilguard according to my personal canon runs, but also told from the perspective of a post Veilguard Bellara who’s not ready to let go of her adventures yet. To distract herself, she’s decided to write Lavellan and Solas’ histories so that they are properly preserved and carried on, and not lost as other Dalish tales were in the past. It’s also written rather saucily because I can’t help myself we all know Bellara is an unrepentant fanfiction writer at heart and she feels like the salaciousness will ensure the story doesn’t fade away. 😆 This was always planned to be the big one (150k+) before Arlathan U took over, so we’ll see how long it actually ends up.

NAME WIP, but currently earmarked as the “WoW AU.” The Inquisition is a World of Warcraft guild, told similarly to how the show The Guild was formatted, but following its own story and probably crammed full of WoW references. This idea is too fucking funny for me to not dig into as both a long time WoW and DA player, former Blizzard game master/employee, and someone whose really fallen in love with writing takes on Modern Era Solas. Outlining has started, I expect this to be a shorter multichapter endeavor (maybe 6-8 total).

A Moment in Mind - This is a Solavellan one-shot in Veilguard that asks the question “what if Lavellan tagged along for one of Rook’s conversations with Solas?” Probably part funny, part angsty/sad. I started this one ages ago before I had even finished Veilguard, but it got shelved when the Prof!AU took over my life. I do want to go back and knock this one out though.

I also have a few more smutty Pillars of Eternity pieces I want to go back and write for Watcher Idralia, because Aloth lives rent-free in my head, and I was too shy to write smut when I wrote most of my original pieces. I love a good couple who identify as switches, so those will likely be one-shot indulgences that get added to The Journey of Watcher Idralia at some point. They’re only base ideas right now, no outlines or rough drafts.

If I ever get out of Solavellan Hell, a few other fandoms I might write for (and have passing thoughts on) include:

Fields of Mistria (F!Farmer/Balor)

Baldur’s Gate 3 (F!Tav/Gale)

World of Warcraft (F!OC/Arator, which I’ve had text for since Legion.)

Honestly, if you have interests, questions, or thoughts, let me know! I love talking about all my silly OCs and ships, and it’d be nice to know if any of these ideas are particularly compelling to readers or other authors.

Tags to pass on: @cursedhaglette (because I love your stuff), @luzial (because I always need more of your writing, it’s a legit craving), and anyone from the Fen’Harem whose name I’m not connecting between Discord and Tumblr (some y’all be sneaky). Feel free to ignore if you’re busy! ❤️

Last thing - as a preview, here’s a raid composition list for the Inquisition/WoW!AU. I’ve already largely decided on class/race combinations, but what do you think they’d play?

(If you’re curious, I noted PvE and PvP for people who have a particular preference and rarely cross the line. Everyone else dips their toes in both.)

#solavellan #dragon age #dragon age the veilguard #dragon age inquisition #arlathan university #fanfiction #pillars of eternity #pillars of eternity deadfire #aloth/watcher #aloth corfiser #fields of mistria #fom balor #baldur’s gate 3 #gale x tav #gale dekarios #world of warcraft #WoW Arator #I always have more ideas than I can get to #but these are the ones that have some kind of shape and are likely to get written

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radi0gh4stxd · 4 months ago

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Au infodump post!!

I feel like I’ve wrote enough about this au to now, like, post about it?? I don’t know, but I think writing it out might help me to fill stuff in lol.

I don’t think this will be a long post, but I intend to yap a little so yeah-

Habromania Au!

Yes, I’ve finally got a name for it, but longer than I wanted it be called but eh, it’s whatever. Fun fact: the word means, ‘Delusions of Happiness’, and I think that fits the premise of my au as well as it can right now.

Now, onto the actual Au.

So, this au focuses a little more on my favourite little guy, Raffs!! He was given the short stick in the Og game, so I’d thought I’d let him shine a little in this au!

Don’t worry, Caz is still around and is just as important, but I’m not confident in my ability to write him yet, so for now, Raffs is our main guy!

Everything leading up to the drilling stays the same, except in this, Raffs isn’t the one going into the dive bell, it’s Brodie. Why?? Because one) I needed a reason for Raffs to not be infected and two) I wanted Brodie to be an infected in my au. So, basically Brodie decides that, to soothe the boys anxiety, to go first to just show him that all is fine, and that he’s safe.

And then the drill happens. And The Shape wakes up. This stays the same. Caz and Gregor still fall, except, I decide to be nice and decide that Gregor also gets to live, so Raffs and Douglas pull those two out, help them and that jazz. Douglas and Gregor stay with the diving bell, and Caz and Raffs go down and investigate, like in the game.

They find Gibbo, not infected, but rightfully scared. Finlay is also here, but she isn’t too well, instead of Gibbo getting the stuff in him, it’s her. But she swears she’s fine, that it didn’t hit her skin or whatever. So now, the group makes their way to accommodations, where Roy, Trots, Archie and possibly, again im making this up as I go, O’Connor are. They talk, discuss what the hell is happening and are later joined by Douglas and Gregor.

Archie is Very happy to see Gregor alive :)

Raff’s quick to ask where Brodie is, because you know, if they’re here, then where’s Brodie?? And the two explain that, well, Brodie went to look for him. But he wasn’t right, something was definitely wrong with him. But he was gone before they could ask anything.

So, now they have to go round the rig, searching for the others. And the shape stuff still happens, infected still try and fuck them over yadda yadda-

Now not everything written here is set in stone, but most is. This is me just kinda word vomiting and hoping it makes sense.

Now, the Shape and the infection and infected.

As already seen, some of the og infected aren’t infected here, while some who weren’t infected are. Thats only a few characters, most of the og infected are infected here too.

The infection is different in this au. It’s mostly mental, but physical traits still appear, but it mostly stays in its origin spot of infection, unless said person has more than origin spot of infection <3

Think of this like, a mashed up version of those mlp infected videos, the infection from hollow knight and the mold from resi 7. I’ve taken bits and pieces of what I like about them and just- threw them in a blender.

^^^

These are like, shoddy, sketched renditions of what I mean by the , ‘physical’ effects. The one on the left is Muir, and the one the right is Brodie. Not the best but I tried-

Now, I did change some things about the Shape for this au, and how it affects the crew, but I might, and by might I probably will, make a separate post for that.

As for now, that’s all I’ve got for this au. But yeah! Fun! If you have any questions about this au, I’ll try and answer them best I can, but I’ll warn you, I’m not to great at it. So if it comes off a bit awkward, that’s why<3

#still wakes the deep #Habromania au #such a weird name for an au I’ve just realised #raffs swtd #caz swtd #brodie swtd #finlay swtd #I’ll just tag these four for now #seeing as their the ‘important’ ones in my au for now

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crescencestudio · 2 years ago

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Devlog #35 | 09.26.23

Hi everyone!

Hope the beginning of Fall has been kind to you all <3 To be Frank, it has not been Kind to me LMFAO. But I'll get into that, so let's dive in yippee!

Before I do, someone liked this post recently, which was such a throwback. It was before the full demo was out and everything!! I was so young and full of life. I'm going to sprinkle some comparison shots of the new assets with the old ones to break up the text and also walk down memory lane with me! (Full GUI not shown as I'm still waiting on the assets)

Chapter Cards (Left: After | Right: Before)

The "Progress"

I'm going to structure this devlog a little differently from the usual template. The main reason being, for those of you who didn't see, I have not been feeling Myself recently.

This month I found myself all out of sorts. While I felt like I was making progress and doing so much everyday read: fighting for my life, when I looked back on things at the end of this month, I didn't feel like I really did much.

On a higher level, I finished fulfilling Kickstarter physical rewards, opened a Kofi shop of the remaining merch, edited Druk's route and continued writing Etza's route, updated assets and code for the updated demo, and then general commission stuff (BGs from Vui, soundtracks from Peter, etc.).

But overall, Alaris felt largely like it was kinda sitting at around the same spot as it did when I entered this month. Which made me a little sad! I had wanted to make So Much Progress on Alaris because next month I won't be able to work on it really. Then, I realized I haven't taken a break from game development since I started it two years ago HA!!!

The Real Progress

Development for me has been back-to-back. Chapter releases every 1-2 months during my first half year of development, Full Demo release shortly after, Kickstarter shortly after, Full Game Development shortly after. When I was feeling burnt out from Alaris, I made intertwine. Then I was Heavily Involved in the development of two games shortly after.

All of this on top of my IRL responsibilities, which include a job, PhD school, and well, functioning as a normal human occasionally.

And then here we are at the end of September 2023, and I'm wondering why even though I creatively want to work on Alaris, I find my brain literally just getting too tired to think.

Etza CG (Left: After | Right: Before)

I think ever since the Kickstarter, I've put a lot of pressure on myself to consistently put out LOTS of updates for each monthly devlog. I don't want people to think I'm not working on things or I'm not committed to delivering after giving me their hard earned money. But now, with two years under my belt, I'm realizing that is... HMM maybe too high of a standard to put on myself for my first game ever. There are many much more seasoned developers than me who don't put that pressure on themselves (which is Good and Healthy).

So this month, I debated scrounging around and gathering all my crumbs to give you all a devlog that you'll be satisfied with. But I decided ultimately that wouldn't be good for me and would honestly not be the most transparent way to present the current process of things.

And so. Here I am. Head in my Hands. Letting you all know that while I'm not "burnt out," I am.... only human LOL (one human at that). And so some months, like this one, will just not have much progress to report. Not because I'm not working on it or any other deeper reason. But because it's physically impossible and unreasonable for me to be continuously pushing out a steady stream of content.

In-Game Sprites & BGs (Left: After | Right: Before)

Next month, I'lll be taking a vacation. It's actually my first Big, Official one in a Long Time! I'm very excited for it. And while I did initially think about working on Alaris while I was traveling on trains or things like that, I decided to respect my own need to be a Human and just take a break for once in my life. I don't even want to say I Might work on things, because that sentiment alone will pressure me to make some progress. So yes. Next month, there will be no devlog or updates. But please rest assured, I am "working on Alaris" by letting myself just Exist and Rest Up!

Not an Alaris screenshot but it is market research that deserves to be included because I played House in Fata Morgana recently and it was Phenomenal!

Thank you all for understanding and your continued support. I'm extremely appreciative to have such a kind and patient community. Hope you all have a wonderful October filled with Fall Treats, and I'll see you in November! <3

#alaris #devlog

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darealsaltysam · 11 months ago

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hiya!! welcome to my blog!! im sam (she/her) and i like to write :3

since you're stopping by anyway, why not take a little look at my fics? i write on ao3 and have done work in many, many different fandoms! currently, you can find fics from the following;

ace attorney

fnaf

wynncraft

faith

the walking dead

star wars

paladins

marvel movies (mainly xmcu)

marvel comics

dsmp (mainly older, discontinued works)

below the cut i'm going to put more detailed descriptions of all of the fics i'm proudest of, so if any of the above fandoms interest you, take a little peek!!

as of 28/04/25, all my fics are archive-locked because of ai scraping. you will need an account to access them !!

ACE ATTORNEY

spiky twink rebooted

a very silly highschool au chatfic. crack with minimal angst here and there to carry some plot along, but it's very low-stakes. really just something i write for fun to wind down. perfect if ur looking for some good ol crack to turn your brain off to!

waiting for godot

a three-part fic exploring mia and diego's story in ace attorney - before, during, and after his coma. it goes into the background of their relationship and dives into godot's mentality after waking up and finding out about what happened to mia. angst with a somewhat bittersweet ending, canon compliant.

SOME OLDER FICS

Object Class: Fey - completed. an ace attorney scp au, very miego focused with some light background narumitsu. does not represent my current quality or style of writing, but i still enjoy the story a lot and am proud of the fic as a whole!

Time Paradox at The Turnabout - discontinued. a time travel fic of sorts. various different versions of various different characters travel to one time period, hijinks ensue. not that well-written and was never completed, but you might enjoy the concept!

the adventures of spiky twink and the burger queen - discontinued. older version of spiky twink rebooted - read that one instead!

spiky twink extras - discontinued. companion piece to the above. short stories within the universe, essentially!

FNAF

THE SCRIPTVERSE

the scriptverse is a trilogy of scripts + a prose prequel which seeks to retell fnaf lore completely. it sticks to canon in some parts but deviates in others, so it will surprise you even if you know the lore inside out! i made my own changes to the timeline, mixed and matched stuff from the movie, books and games... overall, just a big revamp of the whole thing, all told through movie scripts!

the series is made up of:

MR AFTON, a william-focused first part retelling the missing children incident

MR SCHMIDT [act 1], a michael-focused sequel retelling william's trial shortly after

MR SCHMIDT [act 2], a massive third part to the series which deals with the fallout of the murder and the trial, michael meeting jeremy, ghosts showing up in the pizzeria, and michael finding out he has a sister he didn't know about! crazy stuff!

mr emily & ms schmidt, a prose prequel to the series which focuses on how henry, william and his wife clara met

WYNNCRAFT

warm hands, cold hearts, gentle smiles (also holy shit is that bak'al over there?)

a fic which focuses on exploring the dynamics between the four twain brothers as kids + includes an appearance from wynncraft's favorite bitch boy. also, i made theorick less of a bitch by explaining WHY canon theo is such a bitch!

my legacy in death, your legacy in ice, our legacy in blood

a follow-up of sorts to the above fic, focusing on mael having to help nesaak post-theorick freezing it. the second half of the fic looks at the time mael spent training bob. all around lots of angst, some hurt/comfort in the second part, and a very, very bittersweet ending.

requiem

currently ongoing!!! an x reader fic that has you, the player, take on the role of the villain. you team up with bak'al to take revenge on someone who has wronged you. the fic, and even its description, contains BIG spoilers for wynncraft's late-game quests, most notably a journey further and a hunter's calling. it also explores some dark and uncomfortable themes, please refer to all relevant warnings!! read at your own risk!

OTHER FICS

closer, then you're close enough to lose - completed. a short, slykaar/bob one-shot based in an au i came up with together with @meefys !!

PALADINS

a city of self-fulfilling prophecies [paladins superhero au]

currently ongoing!!! a paladins superhero au that i've been putting together for years, and am now finally writing! most champions will be included as characters, with maeve, ying and lex as the three protagonists and corvus as the lead villain, alongside evie, cassie & kinessa, lian & rei, octavia and many others as major characters!

SOME OLDER FICS

the scholar loved the scion // and the scion loved the scholar, but not in the same way - completed. a short fic exploring a one-sided relationship between lian and rei. hurt, and no comfort!

FAITH

soul of christ (sanctify me)

a short fic which focuses on john and lisa's childhood, with a nice portion of catholic guilt and queer shame on the side (yes i projected onto john. no i am not sorry). very experimental but probably one of my personal fave works ever!!!

MARVEL (movies)

oh, i will ruin you (it's a habit, i can't help it)

a very short cherik one-shot, because they've infected my brain. it's just them flirting and making out tbh. nothing more nothing less. but i'm pretty proud of it!

again and again and again and again

a 5+1 exploring charles' post-first class depression era, from hank's perspective. lots of bitterness, lots of anger, lots of sad feels, and a bitter-sweet comfort ending.

and daddy made a soldier out of me

currently ongoing!!!! the first fic of two in a big xmen au i've been putting together for two months now!! the au itself involves a lot of concepts and combines them to form a more complex retelling of first class, the ten year gap, and dofp. the changes to the story include; - cherik as soulmates - erik raising wanda and pietro, then him and charles raising them together - after the beach, wanda leaves with erik, and pietro stays with charles - the twins grow up apart (and erik doesn't get arrested, so he actually gets to raise wanda) - dofp reunites the family forcefully - angst ensues! - also, a few other mcu characters have been added into the storyline as alternate no powers/human versions to themselves to help with plot stuff. this means the inclusion of wandavision!!

MARVEL (comics)

Cogito, Ergo Sum

my own take on the house of m storyline! mainly focused on stephen's perspective of things as he slowly unravels wanda's spell. a way more compassionate take on her side of things, with a sprinkle of ironstrange for the soul~

OTHER FICS

below you can find all my other fics - these i'm a little less confident in, because they're either older works or discontinued ones.

tommyinnit - dragonborn! - discontinued. dsmp skyrim au, sbi focused, secondary dream team focus. i really loved this fic and writing it but was forced to discontinue due to... stuff(tm). im still very passionate about the story and happy with what i wrote here, so i recommend it if you're into it.

The Between Dreams and Memories Series - discontinued. a complete retelling of the dsmp storyline. was planned to have 3 parts - same as above, forced to discontinue. contains 2 complete fics (part 1 and a spin off) and one unfinished fic (part 2 of the planned trilogy). one of the biggest fics on my account, a product of several years of work, and a very important work for me, even if its quality doesn't hold up. read if you wish!

a house full of serial killers VS the barbie movie starring margot robbie and ryan gosling - completed. a very very stupid creepypasta chatfic oneshot. i wrote it in one sitting because i was bored. it's nothing special, but it's pretty funny!

dance with the devil - completed. a very short dsmp oneshot, focusing specifically on c!niki and c!schlatt. im still pretty happy with how it turned out!

Deserve Better - completed. a pretty badly written who killed markiplier oneshot. darkstache focused. one of the first fics i ever posted!

laughter [anidala] - completed. a short star wars one-shot i wrote for my girlfriend, focusing on ani and padme!

mutual hatred builds character - completed. a short the walking dead one-shot, focused on maggie and negan. NOT SHIP! i just think they're a fun duo to study like bugs

#fanfic #fanfic writing #pinned post #fanfiction #new pinned! wahooo!!#it took. so long :')

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moonheavens · 4 months ago

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Fanfiction Author Interview Game

thank you for the tag my dear @littleoldrachel! it's always such a pleasure to engage in these kinds of fandom games and you're one of my fave people to nosily read answers from...

I only started writing in 2023 and my pace of writing new stuff is glacial so there won't be that much to share (I am one of those people with thousands of words in unfinished snippets in my google docs but very few of that actually makes it to AO3), but without further ado, let's go...

questions under the break <3

How many works do you have on AO3?

3 at the moment!

What's your total AO3 word count?

121,546 words

Your top 5 stories by kudos/likes:

I only have three, so I'll list them in that order:

in the centre of a circle my first long-form chaptered fic, and still the one I am most proud of. I truly, thoroughly enjoyed writing this and diving into Sirius's brain, and I think that really shines through.

tongue full of tomorrows my first-born! I wrote this quite quickly and feverishly and as a result it's pretty simplistic, but I still like it. it's a fluffy little thing I really enjoyed writing.

no thing defines a man like love that makes him soft it feels like I wrote this fic weeks ago, not almost half a year! I spent a lot of time trying to get this just right, but I'm really happy with how it came out. hurt/comfort is one of my favourite tropes and I had a blast taking a crack at it, extremely self-indulgently.

Do you respond to comments?

always, and embarrassingly quickly, too. it's so very special to receive a comment, whether it's a few words or a lengthy ramble, and I love engaging with people who liked what I wrote.

What's the fic you've written with the angstiest ending?

none of my fics really have super angsty endings, but I think no thing defines a man is the angstiest one because it's canon compliant. as in, the fic ends semi-happily, but there's still a war looming above their heads, you know?

What's the fic you've written with the happiest ending?

that would be in the centre of a circle! there's a big fat HEA tag on that fic, and I stuck to that promise—the boys are thriving (very gay and very in love).

Do you write crossovers?

assuming this means fics that straddle multiple fandoms? in which case, no

Have you ever received hate on a fic?

no, actually. or well, I haven't seen any of it. I've been lucky enough to only receive positive comments and feedback.

Do you write smut?

yep. there is some smut in in the centre of a circle, and I have some WIPs floating around my drive that have smut, including a WIP that is... excessively filthy (casanova Remus, if anyone remembers me yapping about that one). like, it's explicit explicit. if that ever sees the light of day I might need to scrub my digital footprint, honestly.

Have you ever had a fic stolen?

not as far as I know!

Have you ever had a fic translated?

nope.

Have you ever co-written a fic before?

officially, no. however, my bff/roommate and I have an abandoned WIP floating around the google drive (a 9-1-1 AU) that we co-wrote. we spent hours outlining it and assigning roles, re-watching the show, etc. it's only about 5 chapters before we abandoned it, but still! it was fun, and I'd be open to doing it again.

What's your all-time favorite ship?

Wolfstar, of course, and I have unfortunately fallen down the Jayvik (from Arcane) rabbit hole...

What's a WIP that you want to finish but don't think you ever will?

I don't have any WIPs running on AO3, if that's what the question is, but I have dozens on my drive. I think the 9-1-1 one will unfortunately stay there forever, simply because I don't think I'd want to write it without my friend (even though it was exciting). otherwise, I have made it a new year's resolution to actually try to finish and publish the two WIPs that have been hijacking my brain the most in 2025... so wish me luck!

What are your writing strengths?

see, now this is where you lose me. I've been a writer for as long as I can remember, and I have written fanfic for most of that time. despite that, I am an extremely self-deprecating writer and I suffer from a crippling case of perfectionism. is that silly? yes. do I love writing? yes. is being super critical of my work a blockade to doing what I love? also yes.

I love writing, but I struggle to see the forest for the trees, so to say, and pinpoint my own strengths. I get in my own way a lot. but, if I had to pick something, I think I'm good at writing emotions. but that would more so be because other people have told me so than because I actually believe it.

What are your writing weaknesses?

ah, so maybe I should have put the "my own worst enemy" spiel here, instead, haha. but yes. I have so many ideas, and I think in a general sense that my writing and ideas are pretty neat, it's just my own brain that sabotages me. one of my goals in 2025 is trying to actually finish something, instead of building a rolodex of random snippets and unfinished WIPs in my google drive. (as for actual writing, I think my weakness is over-describing things that could easily be said in one sentence instead of my five).

What are your thoughts on writing dialogue in other languages in a fic?

love it, why not. I haven't done it myself (yet) but I adore the welsh-speaking Remus and french-speaking Sirius headcanon and enjoy reading it in fics. I recently read a great fic in which Remus spoke swahili and afrikaans. as long as there's translations in the end notes, make them speak anything you want!

What's a fandom/ship you haven't written for yet but want to?

there's some Marauders ships (dorlene, mostly) that I would love to include in future works but I want to be able to do them justice, so I'd need to find the proper place in one of my fics for them to get the development and attention they deserve and not just be there in the background for the plot, if that makes sense.

What's your favorite fic you've written?

in the centre of a circle. she's my baby, and I love her. I spent so many hours in cafe's scattered across London outlining and writing, removing and adding and editing and just being stuck in Sirius's head, and I really love the way it came out. you can see the difference in writing quality between chapter 1 and 7 a little too clearly, but I had so much fun writing it regardless of that. the original idea was just a little brainwave of what if? and it went somewhere entirely different (Sirius took the wheel) and it was exhilarating to roll with it.

* * *

TAGS: honestly, I don't really know who's already done this or not so forgive me if you have. also, if you want to do this but haven't been tagged, feel free to use me as your tagger. tagging @magicbeings @pretentiouswreckingball @kaaaaaaarf @pain-in-the-riri @euripidestrousers <3

#ames rambles #tag game #wolfstar fanfiction #my writing

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allieebobo · 1 year ago

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Hello there! I hope you don't mind this, but from the moment I first opened up Merry Crisis, the whole medium of IF has occupied a not insignificant amount of my headspace, introducing me to something I could never have imagined before. If I may ask, what first got you set into IF, and if someone was considering trying to get into the medium, what would you tell them?

Ahh!!! You're already really set on the writing/craft part (I love the stuff on your blog!) So I'll dive right into IFs as a medium and how I feel it feels different from writing fiction + advice I guess? (Below the cut)

If you'd like me to point you to specific resources and sites to get started on the actual coding, let me know!

Here's a short list: @manonamora-if has some great resources, brushmen on YouTube has some good choicescript tutorials, the choicescript website and twine cookbook have some pretty robust documentation on how to use the various scripts, and Emily short's blog has some more intellectual discussion of narrative.

SCOPE

I write pretty quickly but even then, I realized that the branching in IFs means that even short ideas become long and unwieldy pretty quickly. If I could go back and give myself advice, I'd be a lot more disciplined about starting small and contained.

2. BRANCHING

Branching (or having diff choices lead to diff scenes) is pretty much the heart of IF (vs. traditional fiction). Striking the right balance i.e. Providing enough branches for rich variation and the feeling of player agency while balancing against over-expanding the game beyond what's sustainable is super important!

Completely non-convergent branches are rare in IFs (i.e. writing essentially 2 different stories depending on a choice). Instead, two main ways to achieve branching are: (a) different scenes that eventually converge back into a main path, and (b) stat trackers that trigger different texts/scenes.

3. STATS

There are various ways to do stats: (a) numerical (if stat x > 10) (b) simple text (if stat x is "dislike") and (c) true/false (if stat x is true). I usually use numerical stats if more nuance is needed (e.g. for tennis skills), I also use it for relationship bars but am increasingly finding that it might be more elegant to use (b) to make the game remember significant moments and choices in relationships with characters.

(B) is my go-to for most other types of stats because of its versatility. (C) is for the simplest stats, and can sometimes be all you need (e.g. has MC kissed someone. Is MC selected to play singles etc.)

4. CODING

Whether to use choicescript or twine can be a big decision that determines how the IF eventually shapes up, because I think the first coding avenue you go down usually becomes a "first language" of sorts--what you tend to find most intuitive/familiar.

Personally I think choicescript is easier and faster to learn and lets you publish under the hosted games label (where there may be a ready made community/target audience). But twine allows for a LOT more functions, customization of the UI/look and feel of the game and also it's open source so you can self publish.

5. GAME VS STORY

I think ultimately depending on genre, IFs can feel very much like a game (e.g. the great tournament), with management of stats, success/fail checks, D&D-esque in nature, or like a story (e.g. branching is mainly in creating multiple layers of the overall narrative, there's more focus on dialogue and characters and development arcs etc.) Or it could be a balance of both.

#if #asks #interactive fiction #how to

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paintedbutton · 4 months ago

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2024 Recap Tag

@writernopal tagged me in this, and it came at just the right time since I didn't manage doing an actual reflection post before the end of the year (working between christmas and new years is always weird that way for me).

2024 Accomplishments

Let's start with the big one, obviously: I finished and shared Worthy of a King! I'm incredibly happy that I accomplished this. Sharing my boys with the world and having people love them as much as I do was absolutely something special. <3

Beside that, I wrote a silly little pirate story inspired by a silly little song just because I wanted to. That also feels like it matters a lot.

I managed to figure out the vague shape the Queen's Guard series is going to take. I always said it was gonna be somewhat like the Paladin books by T. Kingfisher - interconnected standalones. It's not quite that, obviously, but I'm looking forward to exploring this world more.

All in all I wrote about 82k words in 2024, and that's with about 4 months that I took as planned breaks in between. I feel pretty comfortable with that number.

I also had a pretty active year, non-writing wise. So many concerts, festivals, markets, etc. This isn't in any way writing related but I feel like every year I've been chipping a way at prioritising myself and the things that make me happy more. I finally managed to get rid of a pretty big burden in my work-life that's made me breathe a lot easier. (It probably says a lot that I haven't had a crying breakdown about work this year ... for the first time. In fact, the last time I broke down crying was when I thought they wouldn't let me give up the position they forced me into. Damn.)

2025 Writing Goals

Again, the big one: Shadow of a Queen is my one serious goal for 2025. I wrote the first draft of WoaK in six months in 2023 and then took a couple months break before starting on revising it, and that felt like a pretty good workflow for me, so the goal is pretty much the same: Write draft 1 until the summer (I am probably aiming for August, here, because June and July are already packed full with other activities). See where we go after.

(Re)establish a writing routine that works for me. With the break, I've kind of fallen out of it and I'm having a bit of a hard time getting started again right now. I know I'll get there, but kicking my own ass into gear is one of the first goals I'm gonna have to achieve this year.

Figure out a writing setup that is future proof. I'm a Word girlie. I've been a Word girlie my whole life, and while I've looked into dedicated novel writing programs before (it's kind of hard not to stub your foot on Scrivener at some point in any writing community you stumble into), I've never felt the need to dive deeper. But with AI growing ever more ubiquitous (and all the big companies pushing it lbr), I at least want to give my options another look. Maybe I'll stay a Word girlie, idk. I want it to be an informed decision if I do. Tentative searches so far have turned up a whole lot of browser based bullshit that I do not want, subscription services galore, and nothing that works as a program both on Windows and Android, which I would need because I write on my tablet on the go. Related to that, I might just look into getting a refurbished laptop or something. But we'll see. If you have any recommendations for me to look into, please do send them my way.

I want to be more active on Tumblr again, and on Writeblr specifically. I go through phases with social media where mindless consumption is all I can muster, and I fucking hate it. But I love sharing my stuff and reading other peoples' and doing tag games. Sometimes I just need to remind myself of that.

Not exactly writing related, and a little bit silly: One of my goals for the year is to dress more like a fantasy character. Simply because it makes me happy. And, honestly, I wouldn't mind closet cosplaying my own little guys to be a part of that goal. ;)

Tagging @winterandwords , @malimaywrite and @boundedsea if you all feel like doing it. No pressure though. :)

#writeblr #tag games #personal

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true-blue-sonic · 1 year ago

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Do we know if Silver is left or right handed?

This is a question that has been plaguing my mind for literally years now, haha. Time to find an actual answer! I'll dive into various evidences, from artworks, Sonic Channel, and the mainline games wherein he is featured most prominent (Sonic '06, Rivals 1 and 2, Generations, and Forces).

Artwork from games and Sonic Channel

For proof around which hand is Silver's dominant one in this section, I'm looking at hands he's doing actual actions with in the still image. So, just balling a fist or holding a hand out is not enough: he needs to do something with either. That gives me the following:

Right-handed proof:

Silver throws the ball and the wood, holds the knife, and telekinetically lifts the presents with his right hand. We do see him use his left hand in a way that implies he's stabilising the presents or lifting up the plate, though, and he holds out a gift as well with it. However, perhaps most importantly, he's got his list and a pen in his right hand in the picture where he's dressed up as a post deliverer. Though you can do things like eat with your non-dominant hand as well (that is why I did not include the picture of him holding the candy apple from Sonic Channel in this analysis), writing is something many people need to actively train their non-dominant hand for.

Left-handed proof:

Both of these examples have him actively use his PK with one hand, which (as we see in '06) is necessary to move things. Specifically, he's holding out his left hand in a "stop" motion in the second picture; in the Sonic Channel story, Sonic gets swooped right off his feet by Silver's powers, thus stopped in his motions. I therefore figure that is controlled most by his left hand.

Drawbacks of this method: this utilises artwork from multiple media, some of which might not be canon to the games (e.g. the Mario and Sonic series). Also, there are various actions you can do with both your hands with only little more stability in your dominant one, like eating and holding up something and stuff. We also do not know how Silver's PK works entirely, but more on that at the end.

Screenshots from the games:

Sonic 06:

Right-handed proof:

Silver freezes Sonic and the newly-born Iblis with his right hand, and he grasps the Chaos Emeralds with his right hand (almost) all times. Also in the gameplay itself, he uses his right hand for his powers and to press it on the PK marks on the ground and such.

Left-handed proof

Silver why did you grasp that Emerald with your left hand right after I wrote you always grabbed them with your RIGHT HAND SILVER-

Sonic Rivals 1 and 2:

These games are a bit difficult to get information out of, but Silver seems to use both hands for almost all things: e.g. when balancing on a beam he stretches out both hands for stabilisation, when launching himself off an obstacle he pushes himself with both hands, he uses both to push obstacles as well, he stretches them both out when activating his Psychic Control (and it seems he flings both hands forward afterwards, but it is difficult to see in all the glowing cyan sparkles and stuff), etc. He does however use only his left hand to hang onto a handle that hangs onto a thin rail:

However, I would not argue that that is something obligatory for your dominant hand, so these games do not really provide evidence towards either hand being his dominant one, I would say.

Sonic Generations:

Right-handed proof:

He grasps his head with his right hand and shakes it when he gets up from scraping over the asphalt for a hundred meters; I've never truly seen that before but aw <3 My own instinct here is that I use my dominant hand, at least!

When he makes the battering ram with the cars, he uses his right hand to "call" them up from the ground below and "push" them forward. When sending down the first object of the three he tries to crush Sonic with, he uses his right hand for it, and then both hand for the other two items.

Left-handed proof:

Silver lifts the car with his left hand, and to fling it he flings his left hand down. For the Psychic Knife, he balls his left hand and sends his left hand out to shoot it at Sonic.

Sonic Forces:

Also here not that much conclusive: he utilises his left and right hands alike for gestures (e.g. balling his fist), and when Sonic comes to his rescue before the first fight with Infinite, he uses his right hand to push himself up. He does seem to use his right hand more than his left, though, for example in the ending scene: he gestures with right extensively there.

In the final battle, he "initiates" with his right hand and turns his body right to get into position, but uses both hands to freeze the illusions in their tracks.

Final conclusions:

Based on the above information, I figure that Silver is right-handed when it comes to utilising his actual hand (e.g. for writing, cutting, and grabbing items physically), however he is ambidextrous when it comes to his powers. Though artwork and games consistently show him using his right hand for manipulation of objects with his actual hand, I would say there is appropriate proof even within the same game (e.g. Generations) wherein he uses either his left or right hand or both simultaneously for his psychic powers. This is also the case in '06: at times he uses both hands to lift things up, or send them flying. He does not seem to struggle with making things psychokinetically happen with either hand, and he appears to have an equal level of control over the objects in his psychic hold no matter which hand he uses to manipulate them.

Overall drawbacks of this research: My initial general mindset when gathering this evidence was that I assumed Silver utilises his PK with his dominant hand, the same way we would write or cut things in the real world. However, as far as I know this is never explicitly stated. It also does not match what I found in the end, namely that both hands seem to have an equal level of control within his psychokinesis. I also did not watch extensive playthroughs and such for this, so it is very well possible I missed things. Lastly, I think we need to keep in mind that this is probably not something Sega is actively keeping an eye on and enforcing, meaning there could be inconsistencies between games and other media.

If you've got more evidence or things that I missed, let me know!

Tl;dr: evidence from the games and artwork seem to suggest that Silver is right-handed when it comes to actions and gestures around his actual right hand, and ambidextrous when it comes to psychokinetically manipulating objects.

#silver the hedgehog #sonic 06 #sonic rivals #sonic rivals 2 #sonic generations #sonic forces #character analysis #I hope everything is clear! ^-^#long post

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youredreamingofroo · 1 year ago

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Long winded rant of me talking about NSB, doing a new series, storytelling and whatever else I talked about under the cut, feel free to read it's just me rambling, I don't really care if ppl read it or not it's VERY long 😭

I've been painfully itching to start a new series, I know I'm doing NSB rn, and I do plan to at least finish the normal NSB legacy (up to Gen 9), although I might finish or take a break at around Gen 5 or 6, just because I don't wanna lose motivation and also because it takes A LOT to make some of these posts (for example, the last NSB post... took a lot out of me), and I'm only on Gen 2, almost Gen 3 rn, and I was originally planning to do all 30 or 40 Gens in the updated ver of NSB, which def doesn't seem like it'll be happening right now, because at the current rate at which I post, and how fast things in my game move, Sims 6 will be out before I even finish Gen 30 😭😭

Anyways, I don't know what the series would be about, if I were to do a new series, it would definitely be a lot more story based, if not completely story based, I don't know if I'd do/include gameplay, but I really wanna dive into more storytelling and setting up scenes, I'm not a film or theatre kid by any means, and I really don't know much about writing and setting up scenes and stuff, to be honest, i don't even know how I storytell, I guess it's just regurgitated content molded to shape the statue of my story if that makes sense lmao, I guess it's also the art of using so many fucking metaphors and similes that doing something like comparing love to drowning in a cold ocean comes sorta easy to me? I'm not grammatically inclined and don't know a lot about punctuation, my teachers all kinda gave up on me in English class, so all of my writing is basically self taught, which I guess is the case for a lot of things I do- I feel like starting a new series would help me learn how to write better, even though it seems like a lot of ppl love my writing, I still feel like I could improve so much and do so much better. I already have a couple ideas in mind for a new series, I don't think I'll say much rn just in case I decide to make them a series, but as for right now, I've got plans for Gen 3 NSB (aka Calico), and if I were to start a new series, I would not stop playing NSB, but due to how I function and shit, I would have to put NSB on hiatus, I kind of have a hard time doing two stories at once, hence why Sharkie's story got put on hiatus, because it was too stressful for me to double up, especially with how often I post (at least 3 or 4 times a week), I would like to go back and play Sharkies story and share her story up to this point where I last played her, her story is a lot more gameplay centered (for example, I am more inclined to make a blender scene for NSB, then Sharkie, for Sharkie, I'd do stuff like go to the bar and see how it plays out and take screenshots and just edit those) which I like more, but that's not to say I don't enjoy NSB, because I equally LOVE storytelling as I do gameplay.

While writing this, I did think of something I could do, which would be posting NSB every other week (so one week I do Sharkie or some other series and then the next week I do NSB, then a diff series, so on so forth), the only problem is that usually when I get an idea, and I finish that idea, I like to post it asap, I'm not good at scheduling posts lmao, but it might be worth it if people want to see another series (that is if anyone is still reading up to this point lol), I'd like to channel my storytelling into a more story based save/story, but idk! I'm just kinda doing my thing rn and I'm at a point where i wanna do something different. I especially wanna start doing more in blender, it just takes fucking forever to do some of the stuff I wanna do, and some of it means learning new stuff which is thrice as hard and takes thrice as long compared to normal posing and stuff 😭

#yapping #this was intended to be only a paragraph long and turned into an essay id have to turn in for my wars class ☠️

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anakabura · 11 months ago

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Tips for when you're struggling to "just write"

I'm sure we've all heard the advice to "just write" at some point. And while it's totally correct, the actual act itself is usually the main battle. Obviously we're all different and how we work and stay motivated etc. will also be different, but here's some stuff you can try if you haven't already!

Change the medium You'd be surprised how much this can help sometimes. Whatever you primarily use to write your stories- whether it's paper or computer, try switching it up. I usually use my computer to put my stories down, so if I'm struggling I bust out a notebook and pen. If you can't do that, simply making a new document or using a different writing app/site can help too. Hell, cut out the writing aspect entirely and just record yourself talking! Oftentimes, the hangup is centered around trying to pick up where you left off, and the pressure of "carrying the vibe/momentum" of the most recent scene. A "blank slate" can help remove the pressure if you're not looking at your other scenes. This ties into my next tip.

New scene!!! Like I said- sometimes, part of the pressure behind writing is when you try to pick up where you left off. It isn't just daunting, it's impossible when you genuinely don't know where to go next. Personally, I often run into the problem of "now what?" I don't know how to create "connective tissue" scenes, or (as I said), keep the momentum as I finish a planned Important Scene. So picking a random point in the story- whether that's the next Important Scene or one I haven't even figured out a place for yet- and just writing from there can really help. And this point also ties into my next tip!

FUCK PROSE. Seriously. I get VERY hung up on words not Wording properly, and it drives me insane. Often, I get so hung up on HOW to say what I MEAN to say, that I'll never end up writing anything down- and then I end up forgetting what I was going to say at all. Bulleting out my lines can help, but it's often even harder to translate those bullets into actual dialogue for me, so I try not to do that. Instead, I actually write out the scenes- but I do it really, really directly and plainly. Obviously, if inspiration strikes on a line, that's fine, but the point is to have a scene written. I try to be as quick and direct as possible, like a report or stage directions. "Oh, but I used 'muttered' to describe dialogue 3 times!" Oh well. "But this is just a full page of dialogue and no action or movement!" Too bad. The point isn't the pretty prose. You can cry about that later, after you actually write it. That's what revisions are for. You know you're just gonna obsess over and rewrite your work anyway, no matter how much time you're gonna spend on it the first go around. Save that headache for future you. They were gonna have one anyway.

Get up and go! It might surprise you, but sometimes it's the scenery of real life that you need to worry about. Whether it's getting up and moving to a different chair in your room, or moving to an entirely new building, sometimes being somewhere else rattles something loose inside your brain. Especially if you tend to write in your room- I personally can't do homework in my room because of all the clutter, but also because my mind associates my room with relaxing. I sleep, play video games, and tinker with my pet projects in my room. So if I can't focus, I go to my dining or living room, or even my campus library. Something about being around other people makes it easier to hold myself accountable.

Set realistic goals. Sometimes part of the problem is that you can't seem to find time, or that even when you do find time, it's never enough to make significant progress in your story. I struggle to dive headfirst into a scene even when I'm bursting with ideas- I need to review the most recent scene before I can start generating words. But knowing how much progress- or lack thereof- that's been made on your story can sometimes make it really overwhelming to even approach it. But like any other task, it's easier when you break it down. If the most you can write on the average day is three sentences, aim to write three sentences a day. Even if you end up scrapping them later, WRITE THEM. At the very least, it'll help build the habit and make it easier for you to seek out time and write in the future.

Take a break. Sometimes you really, really just can't write. No one else can assess what you need better than yourself. If you feel like you need a break, take one. Whether that's reading someone else's story, or taking a walk, or taking a nap, or just staring at that one spot on your wall, just PUT THE DAMN STORY DOWN. This is probably one you've heard before, but I'm saying it anyway, because some of you aren't listening!!!!! PUT IT DOWN, BESTIE!!!

That's all I can think of at the moment. These are all things I try to do personally, and while I'm not some award-winning novelist, I'm definitely writing things and trying my best!!! So maybe this will help someone else who's also trying their best, and just hasn't come across one of these methods yet.

#writeblr #writer's block #writing advice #long post

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