#story musings

[tfseeds]

Hello, I really like your art and I have a question. In your dungeon AU will the three characters find a way to break their curses?

Thank you

Hello!! Thank you so much for enjoying the development so far!

To answer your question, the theme of the 'story' of this AU revolves a lot around the character's sense of self, both with the trauma of losing their grasp on it as their bodies transform around them, and gaining self-acceptance with the support of their friends.

If there will be at any point where they are able to regain their human forms is unknown right now! Their initial changes are very slow, happening over the course of many encounters/weeks, and I do want to have plenty of time to explore both the mid forms as well as their fully changed bodies.

That's probably not as 'yes/no' as you were hoping for, but there's still a lot of development going on for this whole AU. XD Thank you for the question!!

[ae-fond-seeker]

"We will find our way, Venat."

She wasn't sure what would happen. Everything went by in a whirlwind, it seemed, but somehow the outcome was both unexpectedly sudden... and yet achingly familiar.

~ * ~

Or, once again SE has me beating up characters I care about for the sake of the plot. It's okay, I'm fine.

I will say, though, that I am glad it wasn't a "well, now I'm evil/your enemy, so you must destroy me" sort of deal.

We've known her presence has been waning for a long time--like, for most of the story, really--so the idea of her going out on her own terms, using the last vestiges of her power to be absolutely sure we are ready enough to pull through in the end.... yeah, I can be okay with that (though am definitely still processing the idea that she is in fact gone, and what that means in the grand scheme of things... and so is Li'daen)

[forestofdragons]

I lied. I am going to talk about the spoiler part.

So when watching she-ra I wondered what would happen if Adora had been correct in how the Horde was. Like what if there was one Horde that was just a normal kingdom with dark aesthetics. And another one that was the actual Evil Horde.

That’s basically what i’m going to do with my evil empire

It’ll start off similar to how it did in voltron. A group of planets discover magical mana stuff. Things happen. Magic Mecha are made, Evil Emperor rises, and a couple planets are destroyed.

But where it differs is that the Evil Emperor was taken down relatively early. He still ruled for a few hundred years but a resistance group was able to kill him much sooner then Zarcon was.

After that the system still faced consequences from his actions. Mana sickness spread after the Emperors death. During that time those still loyal to the Evil Emperor leave the galaxy to create the ‘true’ empire.

Eventually the man sickness disappeared as suddenly as it began and the Actual Empire re built and expanded in a less colonial way.

The Evil Empire put enough distance between them that most people don’t know about the Actual Empire. The two areas are also mostly unable to interact due to obstacles.

So when people see this species they’ll assume they’re apart of the Evil Empire.

Drakes make up the Evil Empire. While they are taller then most others, they average shorter then Dragons. They’re generally very lean and muscular. With dull scale colors and few extra features.

Dragons are the originals and retain the features that Drakes have lost over the years. Wider variety of colors, hair, wings, and other such things. They also have extra features due to the interbreeding with the other species in their empire.

[thebeckster]

The fun/challenging part of writing a Hobbit fic which includes The Ring without it being immediately clocked as what it is or simply thrown away, is trying to tread the line between staying true-ish to the book and hinting at its true nature.

Because in the book it's just this lovely magical trinket of great convenience but no consequence because the concept of The One Ring and Sauron did not exist at the time JRRT was writing The Hobbit. I know after the fact he went back and retconned the Riddles in the Dark chapter to match the story in LoTR, but he really didn't touch anything else to do with it elsewhere in the book. It remains a benign magical tool for Bilbo to use whenever with no ill effects or weirdness. (At least that we are told about by Bilbo. Who is writing the book)

And the movies leaned heavier on the sequel-prequel foreshadowing that there was something sinister about The Ring and its powers growing as Sauron's powers grew and he revealed himself and all that. Which again was not a thing in the book because the idea of Sauron didn't yet exist, but something audiences would have expected. And because they were trying to tone-match The Hobbit to LoTR and make a sequel-prequel, obviously the Ring couldn't just be ignored or treated like a toy.

And then there's me reading LoTR and getting a better picture of the Ring's powers as Tolkien wrote them (compared to the version we see in the movies) and just getting Ideas about the ways The Ring can change things for Bilbo in my fic.

And I'm trying to walk this line between knowing this is The One Ring and there is Something Wrong with it, but it's not yet at the height of powers it has in LoTR, when Sauron has had 70+ years to regain more power, and the ring is physically getting closer to Sauron and becoming more powerful. And also have it still be a mostly benign tool for Bilbo to use. Though not without side effects. But Bilbo can't Know that there is Something Wrong with the ring because otherwise it would not be brought back to the Shire to hide for 60 more years. So anything the Ring does has to be subtle enough.

Mostly I'm trying to figure out if it is within the Ring's powers at the time of the Hobbit to give Bilbo a temptation of power, like it does to Sam in RotK and he sees the greatest garden in all of the world that he could plant if only he would use the ring, only to be denied by Hobbit Practicality. Probably not as intense a vision, but if it gave her just a suggestion of an idea...

But also i have to wonder if the Ring would risk exposure in the presence of a Dragon. Who, if Smaug didn't take the ring for himself, could potentially destroy it. (Iirc dragon fire was able to destroy other rings of power). Maybe it would decide in that moment that the hobbit was the better choice of bearer and not offer the temptation at all.

But gosh the image i have in my head for the idea of temptation for Bilbo is so much fun! Very much along the lines of "use the ring and controll the dragon" sort of power trip.

[pahatarcarabosse]

Titanomachy opening narration with the Muse.

[hedgehogoftime]

Thinking about Paladins...

Thinking about Oath of Devotion Paladins, and how over time they seem less and less like flesh and more and more like stone, as solid as their oaths. How more and more it seems like a light shines from their eyes. How their movement slows as they get older, becoming more and more a thing of stone and light. How they become less a person and more an idea, a promise made flesh. When they die, they become a statue with burning light where their eyes once were. Many take their final rest upon seaside cliffs, acting as an eternal beacon to those in need.

Thinking about Oath of the Ancients Paladins, and how the grass they tread upon might grow a bit greener than it did before. How fruit tastes sweeter when they pluck it. How vegetables and grain grow from the blood and bodies of their slain foes. Life springing from bringers of death. How when they bleed, seeds and pollen might release from their wounds along with the blood. How their skin feels more like bark as they grow older. How their presence feels like peace, like rest. How when they die, the Oak Father takes this warrior into his embrace, and a fruit tree grow over their grave, so they might give once more in death as they did in life.

Thinking about Oath of Vengeance Paladins, and how their mere presence might inspire fear and truth. They barely need to ask questions, one look at those eyes, filled with wrathful calm in equal measure is enough to break almost any who look upon them. How their blood might literally boil when it is spilled, so true is their commitment. How they might weep when they are given the chance to at last be kind. How when they die there is nothing to bury, the fire in their souls fueled by their oath consumes their flesh at last, and then they are nothing but ash.

Thinking about Oathbreakers. How the sun is too bright, and it hurts their eyes. How the night is too dark, and always their vision is off. How their hands always find thorns or sharp edges. How every step they take might be an agony, a reminder of how they committed the truest and most fundamental treason of all. How the very air they breath seems to cut at their lungs as the world itself whispers "wrong thing. wrong thing. traitor" in their ears. Their blood never seeps into the ground, only evaporates. Their body does not even rot. The world itself rejects them.

Thinking about Paladins...

[longlivethewildernessyet]

C.S. Lewis: oh and yeah, the stars are actually people who are functionally immortal (unless bitten by a witch who's shapeshifted into a snake) and come down to earth for rest periods wherein they look like normal humans and eat fire-berries until they can go be stars again, but they can be banished too and become magicians—

me: hold on

C.S. Lewis: keep up, there are also sea people (not mermaids) who have entire civilisations underwater, with dark purple hair and ivory skin, and they ride giant seahorses, and are very aggressive—

me: wait a second

C.S. Lewis: aren't you listening, because there is also a world underneath Narnia with many different sections, including one where Father Time sleeps until the end of the world, and a world underneath that called Bism where gems live and can be juiced like fruit—

me: just hang on a minute

C.S. Lewis: so you don't want to hear about how a centaur feeds both stomachs?

[clambuoyance]

Extra doodles of my sillies….

Plays my interactive game here! https://www.glow.art/myphantommuse

[metamorphesque]

"Good morning, Jack. How was your night?", Vardges Petrosyan (translated by metamorphesque)

[incorrectsmashbrosquotes]

Idea for an animated kid's movie/comedy.

So there's this dinosaur park that's a thinly veiled Jurassic Park knock-off (call it Cretaceous Island), and it's a bit of a toy story situation, in that the dinosaurs can talk and communicate when the humans aren't looking, mostly at night.

The dinos don't really want to break out since they like their cushy zoo lives and five-star treatment from the staff, so they're willing to get oggled by a bunch of twelve year olds to keep the food coming.

Out main characters are a T-Rex, two raptor sisters, and a wise old triceratops. The raptors are bored with their lives and long for adventure, the triceratops is a wise-old mentor figure, and the T-Rex is lonely since the park won't engineer any other T-Rex's for safety reasons.

Through magical shenanigans they get sent back to the actual Cretaceous period.

Now these pampered genetically engineered dinos have to survive in the savage dinosaur era. To underscore the differences between them, the future dinos are animated as pretty standard cartoon dinosaurs, a la Land Before Time, while the dinosaurs from the past are animated to be as scientifically accurate as possible.

The dinos go through shenanigans, amke friends in the past, evade predators, and eventually make their way home through magic portal stuff, except for the T-Rex who elects to stay behind since he's fallen for a female T-Rex he met in the past. His friends are sad to leave him behind, but go to the present anyway.

Back in the present, the dinos think nothing has really changed, but they find that the exhibit in the visitor's center, previously a single roaring T-Rex skeleton, has been replaced with two T-Rex's, famous for being found fossilized together called "The Deadly Lovers", and its their friend and the mate he found in the past. It ends on the bittersweet note.

[dreamdripdistance]

delicate but vivid, the filament illuminates the world! ☆

[stories-of-the-nrm]

So I decided that the best way to introduce Tornado is to have Gordon make updates while Scott was under. To me it would be easier to mention Tornado in bits and pieces throughout my Time Doesn't Heal All Wounds series.

Since Scott won't be able to wake up until after his "insides" are properly functioning, he wouldn't be able to meet Tornado himself until many years later. There's a lot to write about with Gordon in the meantime since he has to watch Tornado get a brand new boiler with relatively no issue, while Scott is stuck in a state of near death for years.

If you're still out there looking for this story anon, my next installment for this series will introduce Tornado.

Have you ever considered a story where Gordon or maybe Scotsman meet the A1 Trust's Tornado?

I was aware of Tornado being built and think it's an interesting concept. The only thing I need to dig into is where Tornado being built and introduced to steam aligns with Scott's 12 year overhaul. If Tornado was introduced to steam while Scott would've been under, I can totally see him being confused on how there's a living Peppercorn.

Definitely a good story idea idea, but I'm not sure how long it would take to finish it. With the research involved and my other series needing to be updated, it could be a while before it's published. Still keep an eye out for it and thank you for the request!

[forestofdragons]

So I've decided to try and make a ""rip-off"" of the voltron reboot. It's not like an actual rip-off or even re-write. More like when you make a fan oc and they become a real oc?

Above are some studies of a couple sets in the show. Eventually I want to make the architecture more noticeably different. Potentially. Under those are some sketches of some alien designs. I want them to be space elves but not just elves?

As for the actual story and characters, a lot of what my brain is focusing on is extremely spoilerific. Because of course it is. (Actually it's based of a neat idea thing I had while watching the she-ra reboot so that show will also influence this.)

But I have a few things that aren't spoilers…

First is that I think I'll have the team start out as just Shiro and Allura, or Leader and Princess as I'll call them until I make actual names.

Leader will still have the backstory of getting captured by the Evil Empire. But it won't be quite the same. Not sure how yet.

Anyway, he'll be stuck on an Evil ship when a castle space ship is brought in. He gets aboard that, hijinks ensue. He and Princess met, he bonds with Magical Mech kept within and they escape.

After that they'll slowly amass the others as they find/bond with their Magical Mechs.

Haven't quite gotten inspiration for the others yet. Partly because I'm not sure of what species I want them to be yet. I'd like to have more then just humans but there is something about the members of a hero group being all this generally unknown species that's neat.

I do know I what to play with Lance's, or Dude, whole double lancer thing. And how he's a six wheel to the other's five man band. And I think I still want Pidge, Nerd, to be looking for their family.

Also debating how I want the role's of leader and the heart to go. Do Leader and Princess share equal halves of those rolls? Or have Leader actually be more the heart and the Princess does most of the leading?

But yeah that’s what I have so far.

[miss-tarja]

Silly thing I did jsksk. I still love him, your honor.

[crabsnpersimmons]

happy lunar new year! 恭喜發財!! 🧧💕✨

[shehungthemoon]

I've realized that truly the worst thing Stiller and Erickson could do would be to move on from Burt and Irving as a lost cause. I don't want a single stilted flashback to the s1 finale that ends with Irving telling the innies that "oh he was already happy, I have to find a way to move on" with some dejected pining throughout.

I want this tragedy to hurt unimaginably and I want Irving to fight to have it, I want grey morality and apostasy all because of true love, I want to see Burt's outtie put in the worst no-win situation, I want to see Irving revel in it while being in the worst pain of his life. I want them to address how Lumon's most devout servant helped spark a rebellion solely because he found a soulmate. And I want to see how Irving even moves forward when he loses it. (DOES he lose it? I don't know. I don't WANT to know for as long as possible.)

There is so much here and the worst thing imaginable would be for them to relegate it.